Posts with the category “christy-voelkel”

In Isaiah 53, the sin-bearing Servant steps up to do His part of God's Highway Project. How do we take comfort in His sacrifice? How do we share in it?  Read More

We have become so skeptical in life. We get bombarded daily by ad campaigns, advice columnists, and health gurus telling us that they have the “miracle” solution to our ills and problems, and for the most part we tune them out. They sound too good to be true, anyway. So, we turn the channel, ignore the flashing ads on websites, and throw the mailers in the trash. But what if, in the middle of all ...  Read More

Have you ever faced a furious person who is raging with an almost poisonous anger or indignation? It's pretty scary. Scary enough to make you want to do anything to appease them. What happens when the furious person is God?  Read More

Even strong believers can still grapple with despair. Knowing this from His own experience, the Servant delivers His strategy to strengthen the righteous who are struggling to stand against an angry world and maintain perspective.  Read More

God can move heaven and earth, but He can't seem to reach the heart of His despairing people to comfort them. Who will intercede? Perhaps she will listen to the wisdom of one who has struggled as she has.  Read More

Despair is a stumbling block that serves the purpose of bringing a person to the end of a reliance on themself and prompting a return to God. Hope comforts despair, but what happens when a person refuses God's comfort and chooses instead the comfort of self-pity?   Read More

As we move into Part 2 of God's Highway Project (Isaiah 49-57), we find the second stumbling block in the recovery process--despair. The Servant Himself suffers from it but He finds comfort by focusing on the future reward, which becomes a model for us to consider.   Read More

If you only study one chapter of Scripture at a time, you lose as sense of the continuity of the whole, as well as the themes and motifs that span multiple chapters. Let's take a holistic look at the chapters we have covered so far in our study of God’s Highway Project.  Read More

Israel's season in the furnace of affliction draws a response of lament and rejoicing--lament over the blessing of peace that had been lost, but rejoicing for the hope of peace to come. What brings peace to a community or nation? It's not an easy solution.  Read More

Chapter 48 opens with a stinging rebuke to Israel for not having given God glory for the work He has done in their lives, and He sends her into a furnace of affliction. Even so, there is hope for her peace and restoration as the Servant now re-enters the scene.  Read More

Isaiah 46 opens with a third rebuke of Israel's idolatry. So far, God has made a case for the futility and the foolishness of idolatry. Now He makes a case for the burden of idolatry. What does it take for us to lay down the heavy burdens we carry?  Read More

The beginning of Isaiah 45 focused on the commissioning of a messiah, Cyrus of Persia, in Israel's relatively near future. As the chapter wraps up, the picture of the near messianic figure begins to morph into a more distant picture of a Messiah with a greater tasking as the LORD's salvation plan now expands to include not just Israel but all the world.  Read More

The LORD's commissioning of Cyrus, King of Persia, is the high point of the chiastic structure of Chapters 41-48 in which the LORD builds a case for His power. On the surface, Isaiah 45 seems to focus on the figure of Cyrus, but Cyrus is only a tool and a small part of the much bigger picture. The overarching theme is that God is the only Savior, and not just of Israel but the whole earth.  Read More