This evening’s 101 Bible Study, meeting in the Astoria area, looks at Isaiah 30 and 31 for the answer. Call 971/238-6101 for details.

“God’s purpose is to show mercy, to be gracious; but until the judgment is past, He will not do this. He longs, however, to be gracious, and earnestly awaits the time when He may. Akin to this thought is the description of the Lord as longsuffering…. Whereas He waits to exhibit mercy, He also pronounces a blessing upon those who wait for the Lord, and He will close the verse with a state­ment concerning those who do abide in Him.” (E. J. Young, The Book of Isaiah, Vol. 2, pages 353–354).

“This passage refers to God in the fol­lowing manner: ‘descending,’ appar­ently from his heavenly temple, which is pointed to further by observing that it is located far away (‘a remote place’ and ‘the mountain of the Lord’); in ad­dition, God appears in ‘dense . . . smoke . . . his tongue like a consum­ing fire,’ and his breath [rûah̩ = Spirit] like an overflowing torrent . . . in the flame of a consuming fire’; and ‘the Lord will cause his voice of authority to be heard.’” (G. K. Beale, A New Testament Biblical The­ology, p. 599).

The next 101 Bible Study, meeting Friday, June 21, at 6:30 p.m. in the Astoria area, focuses on Isaiah 40. You are invited! Call 971/238-6101 for location.

Why is Job an intercessor?Job knew what it was to suffer, to be abandoned, to have what seemed proof that the Lord was furiously angry with him. His very suffering had equipped him to intercede for his friends–just as some of your suffering and trials may make you a far more effective pray-er for those around you.
But ultimately Job also is a sinner and cannot provide perfect intercession. Only the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ, can properly intercede for you. The reason that Job could pray for his friends was that the Spirit of the Christ was in him.
The suffering of the Son of Man equipped him to be your perfect intercessor. There is no aspect of trial in your life which he has not probed to the depths in his own experience. There is no cup of suffering held out to you of which he has not first tasted the dregs.

“The human aspect of Christ’s work, so far as it is foreshown in the book of Job, is chiefly set forth by Job himself, in his own person, as the type of the man of sorrows, forsaken and persecuted by his friends, and abandoned apparently by God, and yet for whom the cross was the passage way to the crown, and suffering to a glorious reward, and the fruit of the travail of whose soul abounded to the blessing of others, as Job’s intercession brought healing to his three friends, and he has been a helper to the distressed from his own day to this.” (William Henry Green, The Argument of the Book of Job Unfolded, p. 216. Pub. 1874.)

The Sunday afternoon Bible Study at Trinity Presbyterian Church looks at Job 42, Job’s intercession for his friends.

“Against the background of the na­tion’s vain and misplaced confidence in false security Isaiah utters one of the greatest Messianic prophecies in his entire work. This prophecy in some respects calls to mind the situation present in chapter seven. As the un­believing Ahaz had rejected the sign proffered of the Lord, and consequent­ly the Lord Himself had given a a sign, so here, the Lord again takes action, setting in contrast to the weak founda­tions upon which Judah trusted, the true and tried Stone which alone is a foundation upon which one may rest.” (E. J. Young, The Book of Isaiah, Vol. 2, p. 284).

“Tongues are a sign against unbelievers. This can be seen… in the use of Isaiah 28:11ff. To support the char­acter of tongues as a sign…. Paul pointedly excludes a positive or evangelizing use for tongues. Prophecy, not tongues, attacts unbelievers to the gospel and serves to win them for Christ.” (Richard B. Gaffin, Jr., Perspec­tives on Pentecost, p. 104 [on Paul’s use of Isaiah 28 in 1 Corinthians 14]).

The next 101 Bible Study, meeting Friday, June 21, at 6:30 p.m. in the Astoria area, focuses on Isaiah 40. You are invited! Call 971/238-6101 for location.

Isaiah 25 describes a magnificent banquet which the LORD of hosts prepares. The guests are “all people.” The menu is the finest of food. The location is “on this mountain,” a reference to Zion, where the temple stood. Every sacrificial offering, every fellowship meal there, anticipated the great banquet at the end of the age, the marriage feast of the Lamb.

Appropriately, in that context Isaiah looks to the day when the sovereign Lord will swallow up death itself.

He points you to the time when death will be swallowed up in victory (1 Corinthians 15:54) and God will wipe away every tear (Revelation 7:17; 21:4).

“When God establishes His kingdom and reign from Zion, all the world will be blessed. What the world will receive from Him is not the paltry, disappointing philoso­phy of men, but the precious truth of the everlasting gospel. To a world covered with the darkness of sin, there will break forth the rays of true light, for in His light the world will see light. What he offers will truly sat­isfy, bless, and enrich mankind.” (E. J. Young, The Book of Isaiah, Vol. 2, p. 193).

The next 101 Bible Study, meeting Friday, June 21, at 6:30 p.m. in the Astoria area, focuses on Isaiah 40. You are invited! Call 971/238-6101 for location.