"God Wins!" May 26 Readings: Isaiah 60-66

Reading the Bible Chronologically in 2024

This year, instead of reading from Genesis to Revelation, we will read the Bible as the story flows, as it happened and was written. There are several plans out there and I have worked to combine them into a plan that lets the Bible tell its own story "as it happened." Remember, the Bible is inspired, but not in the order the books appear in our Bibles.  The Old Testament is approximately 3/4 of the Bible, but we will give more emphasis to the New Testament, spending half the year in the Old Testament and half in the New. 

Bible Readings: Isaiah 60-66

Background:  

Isaiah ends in a note of glory and victory, as the millennial reign of Christ is examined and the ultimate victory of God is exalted.

Daily Devotional: God Wins!

History is a tragic story. God created this world as a paradise. It was filled with beauty and natural wonders we cannot even imagine. It was a place of true joy and pleasure, meant for a man and woman to enjoy each other and to raise a family in peace. And best of all, God was there. He walked and talked with Adam and Eve in the Garden. That was the world as God intended.

But we came along and messed everything up. The first human pair rejected the God who made them and who placed them in a beautiful world. They chose the path of darkness instead of light, of destruction rather than glory.

We rejected God, but he did not reject us. He could have destroyed this world or he perhaps just turned us over to our own devices, to suffer the consequences of our sin. But that is not what God did. He went to work to reverse the curse of sin and restore the beauty of his creation.

That is what the millennium is, when Christ rules this world bodily for a thousand years. It is described in Isaiah 65.

“For behold, I create new heavens

    and a new earth,

and the former things shall not be remembered

    or come into mind.

But be glad and rejoice forever

    in that which I create;

for behold, I create Jerusalem to be a joy,

    and her people to be a gladness." Isaiah 65:17-18

After he comes again in glory, Jesus will renew this world. The times of sin and suffering will be forgotten as God creates a new world for his people to enjoy. 

As sin's curse is done away with, long life returns.

No more shall there be in it

    an infant who lives but a few days,

    or an old man who does not fill out his days,

for the young man shall die a hundred years old,

    and the sinner a hundred years old shall be accursed. 65:20

Labor will no longer be cursed as it was after the fall, but life will be blessed by God in every way. 

They shall not labor in vain

    or bear children for calamity,

for they shall be the offspring of the blessed of the Lord,

    and their descendants with them. 65:23

Nature will be restored. Natural disasters and dangers will be done away with. 

The wolf and the lamb shall graze together;

    the lion shall eat straw like the ox,  65:25

Herbivorous lions? Things will be very different. Wolves and lambs feeding together, safely!

The most important and wonderful aspect of this millennial reign is that God's nearness and intimacy will be restored. The wall of separation between God and man erected by our sin will have been torn down. 

Before they call I will answer;

    while they are yet speaking I will hear. 65:24

The millennium is God's victory in world history. His original design, his glorious intent for this world, for nature, and for humanity will be restored. We may have messed up the world that God created, but his power is so great he can recreate it. What we break, he fixes. That is how amazing our God is. 

Our God is greater than our sin. In the grand scheme of world history,

God wins.

Father, I rejoice that no matter how bad things get today, I can be confident in your ultimate victory over sin - mine and this world's. 

 

Consider God's Word:

If you are bogged down in difficulties in life, stressed out by evil, or overwhelmed in any way, remember that God wins, and rest in that hope.