Isaiah 7 Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

(Has God spoken to you lately if not click to listen to God's teaching?)

Max Lucado Daily: A Firsthand Experience

Certain things no one can do for you! And one of those is spending time alone with God.  Listening to God is a firsthand experience.  He wants to spend time with you.  And with a little training, your time with God can be the highlight of your day.

 A friend of mine married an opera soprano.  She loves concerts. He leans more toward Monday Night Football and country music. He also loves his wife, so on occasion he attends an opera. The two sit side by side listening to the same music, with two completely different responses. He sleeps and she weeps. I believe the difference is more than taste. It’s training.  She has spent hours learning to appreciate the art of music.  He has spent none. But he’s trying. With time he is learning to listen and appreciate the music.  And, in time, we’ll learn to listen to God and truly appreciate it.  But it takes time.

From Just Like Jesus

Isaiah 7

The Sign of Immanuel

7 When Ahaz son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, was king of Judah, King Rezin of Aram and Pekah son of Remaliah king of Israel marched up to fight against Jerusalem, but they could not overpower it.

2 Now the house of David was told, “Aram has allied itself with[a] Ephraim”; so the hearts of Ahaz and his people were shaken, as the trees of the forest are shaken by the wind.

3 Then the Lord said to Isaiah, “Go out, you and your son Shear-Jashub,[b] to meet Ahaz at the end of the aqueduct of the Upper Pool, on the road to the Launderer’s Field. 4 Say to him, ‘Be careful, keep calm and don’t be afraid. Do not lose heart because of these two smoldering stubs of firewood—because of the fierce anger of Rezin and Aram and of the son of Remaliah. 5 Aram, Ephraim and Remaliah’s son have plotted your ruin, saying, 6 “Let us invade Judah; let us tear it apart and divide it among ourselves, and make the son of Tabeel king over it.” 7 Yet this is what the Sovereign Lord says:

“‘It will not take place,
    it will not happen,
8 for the head of Aram is Damascus,
    and the head of Damascus is only Rezin.
Within sixty-five years
    Ephraim will be too shattered to be a people.
9 The head of Ephraim is Samaria,
    and the head of Samaria is only Remaliah’s son.
If you do not stand firm in your faith,
    you will not stand at all.’”
10 Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz, 11 “Ask the Lord your God for a sign, whether in the deepest depths or in the highest heights.”

12 But Ahaz said, “I will not ask; I will not put the Lord to the test.”

13 Then Isaiah said, “Hear now, you house of David! Is it not enough to try the patience of humans? Will you try the patience of my God also? 14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you[c] a sign: The virgin[d] will conceive and give birth to a son, and[e] will call him Immanuel.[f] 15 He will be eating curds and honey when he knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, 16 for before the boy knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, the land of the two kings you dread will be laid waste. 17 The Lord will bring on you and on your people and on the house of your father a time unlike any since Ephraim broke away from Judah—he will bring the king of Assyria.”

Assyria, the Lord’s Instrument

18 In that day the Lord will whistle for flies from the Nile delta in Egypt and for bees from the land of Assyria. 19 They will all come and settle in the steep ravines and in the crevices in the rocks, on all the thornbushes and at all the water holes. 20 In that day the Lord will use a razor hired from beyond the Euphrates River—the king of Assyria—to shave your head and private parts, and to cut off your beard also. 21 In that day, a person will keep alive a young cow and two goats. 22 And because of the abundance of the milk they give, there will be curds to eat. All who remain in the land will eat curds and honey. 23 In that day, in every place where there were a thousand vines worth a thousand silver shekels,[g] there will be only briers and thorns. 24 Hunters will go there with bow and arrow, for the land will be covered with briers and thorns. 25 As for all the hills once cultivated by the hoe, you will no longer go there for fear of the briers and thorns; they will become places where cattle are turned loose and where sheep run.


Our Daily Bread reading and devotion


Read: Genesis 29:16-30

 Now Laban had two daughters; the name of the older was Leah, and the name of the younger was Rachel. 17 Leah had weak[a] eyes, but Rachel had a lovely figure and was beautiful. 18 Jacob was in love with Rachel and said, “I’ll work for you seven years in return for your younger daughter Rachel.”

19 Laban said, “It’s better that I give her to you than to some other man. Stay here with me.” 20 So Jacob served seven years to get Rachel, but they seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for her.

21 Then Jacob said to Laban, “Give me my wife. My time is completed, and I want to make love to her.”

22 So Laban brought together all the people of the place and gave a feast. 23 But when evening came, he took his daughter Leah and brought her to Jacob, and Jacob made love to her. 24 And Laban gave his servant Zilpah to his daughter as her attendant.

25 When morning came, there was Leah! So Jacob said to Laban, “What is this you have done to me? I served you for Rachel, didn’t I? Why have you deceived me?”

26 Laban replied, “It is not our custom here to give the younger daughter in marriage before the older one. 27 Finish this daughter’s bridal week; then we will give you the younger one also, in return for another seven years of work.”

28 And Jacob did so. He finished the week with Leah, and then Laban gave him his daughter Rachel to be his wife. 29 Laban gave his servant Bilhah to his daughter Rachel as her attendant. 30 Jacob made love to Rachel also, and his love for Rachel was greater than his love for Leah. And he worked for Laban another seven years.

Second Best?

February 14, 2013 — by Cindy Hess Kasper

While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. —Romans 5:8

Leah must have laid awake all night thinking of the moment when her new husband would awaken. She knew that it was not her face he expected to see, but Rachel’s. Jacob had been a victim of deception, and when he realized that a “bait and switch” had occurred, he quickly made a new deal with Laban to claim the woman he had been promised (Gen. 29:25-27).

Have you ever felt insignificant or second-best? Leah felt that way. It’s seen in the names she chose for her first three sons (vv.31-35). Reuben means “See, a Son”; Simeon means “Heard”; and Levi means “Attached.” Their names were all plays on words that indicated the lack of love she felt from Jacob. With each son’s birth, she desperately hoped she would move up in Jacob’s affections and earn his love. But slowly Leah’s attitude changed, and she named her fourth son Judah, which means “Praise” (v.35). Though she felt unloved by her husband, perhaps she now realized she was greatly loved by God.

We can never “earn” God’s love, because it’s not dependent on what we do. In truth, the Bible tells us that “while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8). In God’s eyes, we are worth the best that heaven could offer—the gift of His precious Son.

Love sent the Savior to die in my stead.
Why should He love me so?
Meekly to Calvary’s cross He was led.
Why should He love me so? —Harkness
Nothing speaks more clearly of God’s love than the cross.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
February 14, 2013

The Discipline of Hearing

Whatever I tell you in the dark, speak in the light; and what you hear in the ear, preach on the housetops —Matthew 10:27

Sometimes God puts us through the experience and discipline of darkness to teach us to hear and obey Him. Song birds are taught to sing in the dark, and God puts us into “the shadow of His hand” until we learn to hear Him (Isaiah 49:2). “Whatever I tell you in the dark. . .”— pay attention when God puts you into darkness, and keep your mouth closed while you are there. Are you in the dark right now in your circumstances, or in your life with God? If so, then remain quiet. If you open your mouth in the dark, you will speak while in the wrong mood— darkness is the time to listen. Don’t talk to other people about it; don’t read books to find out the reason for the darkness; just listen and obey. If you talk to other people, you cannot hear what God is saying. When you are in the dark, listen, and God will give you a very precious message for someone else once you are back in the light.

After every time of darkness, we should experience a mixture of delight and humiliation. If there is only delight, I question whether we have really heard God at all. We should experience delight for having heard God speak, but mostly humiliation for having taken so long to hear Him! Then we will exclaim, “How slow I have been to listen and understand what God has been telling me!” And yet God has been saying it for days and even weeks. But once you hear Him, He gives you the gift of humiliation, which brings a softness of heart— a gift that will always cause you to listen to God now.


A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft

The Antidote For Loneliness - #6809

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Surprise! I used to be in a quartet. Oh I did! Listen, don't laugh out loud. Yes, when I was in college, for a little while I sang in a gospel quartet. I did not sing any solos. No, no solos for me. Now, musically, I'm okay in a group. Solo - not so much. You know, in a way, we're all like that.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I'm going to have A Word With You today about "The Antidote For Loneliness."

Now, our word for today from the Word of God takes us back to the book of Genesis, to the very beginning to Adam; a fellow with a great home-the Garden of Eden. Couldn't beat that! A great job-he's got all the benefits you could possibly have. He's got closeness to God. But in Genesis 2:18, "The Lord God said, 'It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.'" Then the account goes on to talk about the creation of Eve for Adam from Adam's own rib.

It's interesting that God looks at a man who seems to have an ideal environment and everything going for him and says, "It is not good for you to be alone." See, we're built from our very creation, to live in partnership with someone we love - no solos. Now, being married doesn't necessarily mean you're not alone. Maybe you know someone who hurried. Not being married; that's not the worst loneliness of all. It's being married to the wrong person.

Maybe you haven't been protecting your time with the person you're married to, and so, tragically, you are married but both of you feel alone because everything else has crowded each other out. You've got to get back together again.

I said being married doesn't mean you're not alone, but being single doesn't mean you are alone. Paul, for example, was very single, very busy, never married. And yet he had a network of people who supported him his whole life. His letters are filled with references to those many people who were ministry partners, people who helped him, encouraged him, lifted him up. He told us that the mother of Rufus was "someone who has been a mother to me too" in Romans 16. He said Timothy was his son in the gospel.

He said to Timothy, "Recalling your tears, I long to go see you so that I may be filled with joy." And then he had a friend, Onesiphorus, who according to 2 Timothy 1, refreshed him. And to the believers in Rome, he said, "By God's will I may come to you with joy and together with you be refreshed."

Paul was a tower of spiritual strength and emotional strength. If any Christian could have gone it alone - could have been a soloist - he was the man. And yet he nurtured and needed peer partnership. He had spiritual brothers, and mothers, and friends, and refreshers; a network of people. Now, you can't expect if you're single for any one best friend to be like a marriage partner to you and meet all those emotional needs. And you'll smother a person if you try to get one person to be that.

But you can build, like Paul did, a network of caring people and you're part of God's network for them. It's a two-way street. You need to invest in those friendships; take time with them; build yourself a rich life while you're single. You've got to be a good one before you can be a good two anyway. Don't just sit there and wait for Prince Charming or Cinderella to come along. Build life partnerships now. Guard quality time with them as a married couple must do.

Being single doesn't mean being alone if you'll invest in those life partnerships and not just sit there saying, "Oh, when am I going to be married?" Take encouragement from this, that the God who made you need people - will give you the people you need.