The Battle is the Lord's

“All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, each one to his own way; and Jehovah has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:6)

Chapter 53 of Isaiah is about the Messiah. If the Pharisees and Sadducees would have read the prophets, they would have recognized Jesus as the Messiah. But their focus and concentration of acceptable reading was only the Torah. And so, they missed their Messiah and misled their people. The practice of only reading the Torah still holds for the Jews. They only read the Torah. And unless one is a studying for their Bar Mitzvah or Bat Mitzvah, the Torah is only read on the Sabbath for Shabbat services, a portion each week and on Jewish holidays. The prophets are not read nor remembered.

Isaiah writes that we’ve all gone astray. He was talking to the people of Israel. They had departed from God Who had done wonderous things in them and for them. They abandoned Him for gods of wood and stone. But it also speaks of us who with our lips have pledged our love and obedience to Him, only to choose comfort over sacrifice, glamour over the riches of Jesus for eternity and our own way instead of His way. Every time we’ve chosen TV over time in His presence, we have chosen our own way. Every time we have followed the world, we have chosen the way of the world over the straight and narrow way of the Lord. Every time we have chosen to stay in bed instead of honoring the Lord by going to church, we have chosen our comfort over gathering with the church (meaning the children of God) to build that altar of the sacrifice of praise to our Lord. “Do not love the world, nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him, because all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.” (1John 2:15-16) We have abandoned Jesus, His Way and His love for our way and our love of the things of this world. We have sinned against the Lord God on High.

But His love and mercy haven’t abandoned us. The Father sent Jesus Who never sinned, and has given our sins to Him. Jesus has taken them as His own and accepted the punishment for them so that we wouldn’t be punished for them. “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 6:23) Sin is punishable by death. But Jesus took our death so that we could live eternally with Him. “He Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that dying to sins, we might live to righteousness; ...” (1Peter 2:24) In other words, sin is dead to us. We no longer have any connection to it. What a great work of God! What a great Lord to take my place and to die in my stead! We are free of sin! We are free to live righteously. We can live holy lives!

“For Christ also once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, indeed being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the Spirit;” (1Peter 3:18) Much was accomplished on the cross. Peter emphasizes this: “being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the Spirit...” This is talking of Jesus. His body was put to death but was made alive in the Spirit because He was obedient. “And being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Therefore, God has highly exalted Him...” (Philippians 2:8-9) And just like Jesus was made alive, we are born-again, alive to God, alive to righteousness and alive eternally. (John 3:3-7; 1Peter 3:18; John 3:16) We no longer are in bondage to sin. Our spirits have the nature of God. We can choose righteousness.

A man I was talking to couldn’t understand how that happens. It’s really very simple. When Jesus went to the cross, our old sinful man was crucified. “But I wasn’t even born then,” you may say. God’s kingdom is not like this natural realm. God sees the end from the beginning. When Christ died, the old sinful man of all those past, present and future were there, crucified and died, even those who have refused, refuse Him now and will refuse Him in the future. “And He is the propitiation concerning our sins, and not concerning ours only, but also concerning the sins of all the world.” (1John 2:2) All sin has been accounted for and paid for. There is now no hinderance of sin to have eternal life. But, and this is a big stipulation, each one of us must believe and receive this great and marvelous gift of God. Like Paul and Silas told the Philippian jailer, “...Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved, and your household.” (Acts 16:31) There must be repentance (a turning away in our hearts) of sin. The Holy Spirit does the supernatural work of birthing us as a new creation. “So that if anyone is in Christ, that one is a new creature; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” (2Corinthians 5:17) And the Holy Spirit indwells and will never leave us. Jesus prayed, “And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, so that He may be with you forever, the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive because it does not see Him nor know Him. But you know Him, for He dwells with you and shall be in you.” (John 14:16-17)

Our growth in grace and understanding, becoming mature in Christ, comes from the Holy Spirit working in us through the Word of God. “... desire the sincere milk of the Word, as newborn babes, so that you may grow by it;” (1Peter 2:2) Paul prayed this when hearing about the faith of  the Colossians, “For this cause we also, since the day we heard, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that you might be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, that you might walk worthy of the Lord to all pleasing, being fruitful in every work and increasing in the knowledge of God...” (Colossians 1:9-10) After we understand the basic Truths of the “milk of Word”, then the Holy Spirit will take us in a process of the meat of the Word as our faith is tested and tried in various trials and tribulations.

It’s very important to understand that these trials and tribulations do not come from God. They come from the enemy. But the Holy Spirit takes us to them and through them, just like He took Jesus to be tempted. “Then Jesus was led by the Spirit up into the wilderness, to be tempted by the Devil.” (Matthew 4:1; Luke 4:1) God did not tempt Jesus. The devil did. But Jesus was led to it by the Holy Spirit. And so we will go through various situations that will test our faith. Our words and actions will demonstrate if we really believe God and His Word.

What is the devil’s role in this? He wants to prove God wrong. He wants us to agree with Him and not God. His whole desire is to be God. And He wants to destroy us. So, this is something to think about in those times. And sometimes all we can do is go to Jesus with our armor on, believe God’s Word and surrender to Him. “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the world's rulers, of the darkness of this age, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Therefore, take to yourselves the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.” (Ephesians 6:12-13) Then like Daniel we can say, “... For the battle is the Lord's...” (1Samuel 17:47)

In summary, we have all abandoned Jesus. We have all rejected Him and chosen our own way, chosen the flesh in what feels good to us and have loved the world. If we are born again and the Holy Spirit reveals our sin, we can repent and confess our sin. The Holy Spirit will work to remove that sin from us. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1John 1:9) As for the rest, the Lord is waiting for the full number of the Gentiles to come to Him. “For I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, lest you should be wise within yourselves; that blindness in part has happened to Israel, until the fullness of the nations has comes in.” (Romans 11:25)

Let us pray:

Father God, yes Lord, thank You for revealing sin in my flesh. Forgive me my Lord and renew my soul to fully follow after You, to abandon my way, my comfort and ease and to abandon the love of the world. You are better than the world and better than the flesh. You way is better. I thank You Lord that You have not abandoned me to leave me to my sin, but have revealed it to heal me, to nourish my spirit and grow me in grace and in the understanding of You, Who You are and who I am in You so that You can be glorified in all things. I love You Lord. Help me to abandon everything, all my wants, all my dreams, all my visions and goals to You. You have something much better than I can ever imagine. Thank You Lord. In the Name of Jesus I pray, amen.