Letters to the Family of God
by Joe Franzone | April 19, 2024 | Pastor's Blog
April 19, 2024
On this mountain, the Lord Almighty will prepare
a feast of rich food for all peoples (nations),
a banquet of aged wine—
the best of meats and the finest of wines.
On this mountain, he will destroy
the shroud that enfolds all peoples,
the sheet that covers all nations;
he will swallow up death forever.
The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears,
from all faces;
he will remove his people’s disgrace
from all the earth.
The Lord has spoken.
In that day, they will say,
“Surely this is our God;
we trusted in him, and he saved us.
This is the Lord, we trusted in him;
let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation.”
The hand of the Lord will rest on this mountain;
but Moab will be trampled in their land
as straw is trampled down in the manure.
Dear Friends,
Pride is a killer. Make no mistake. It is the very opposite of the way of faith. The inevitability of pride is that pride says 'no' when a solution by faith is offered; when a heavenly feast is prepared, pride rejects it.
I have been crawling through the Book of Isaiah in my studies. It’s a hard book for me. It’s the kind of book the reader needs other books to understand it fully.
In Isaiah 14 and 25:6-10, God declares that Davidic promises were not exclusivist but universal. In other words, if any other people, outside of God’s chosen people, Israel, would believe in Him and cry out to Him, they would be helped. However, the nation of Moab, absorbed in pride, would not.
An Extremely Brief Storyline
Assyria is on the march. Her power is growing—Moab is in her sights. The Moabites were a pagan nation. They did not worship or serve YHWH. Yet, He had helped them at various times. (See Deuteronomy 2:9-11; Ruth, who was a Moabite, chapters 1-4)
God was offering help again. However, Moab's response: Why should a country with a massive army like ours need any help? Since pride is unwilling to share, pride cannot receive assistance. Weakness is an offense to pride. Moab, in time, paid the price.
But now the Lord says: “Within three years, as a servant bound by contract would count them, Moab’s splendor and all her many people will be despised, and her survivors will be very few and feeble.
Help For Us
Pride comes in many forms. We all deal with it on some level. Pride, as a vice, is the ultimate expression of salvation by works. Pride is practical atheism. Pride goes it alone so the hero can be ourselves.
Dear reader, God never wants us to go 'it' alone. There is never a scenario in the scriptures where God says, "Okay, now I've taught you well; this time, you are on your own," or a time when we say to God, "I got this."
God says, what is your problem? Give it to me. What is your need? I will meet it. What is your burden? Lay it on my shoulders. This is God's way. He bears it all, pays it all, and does it all. He is the doer; we are the recipients. Whatever our circumstances (a powerful enemy at the city's gates or our everyday needs, problems, weaknesses, fears, and hopes), we can confidently expect to be protected, provided for, led, and secure. No other eye but the eyes of faith will see the blossoming of God's promises, but the blossom will still be there. The God of all grace will make it so.
With all my love in the Lord Jesus Christ,
Pastor Joe