Isaiah 37:3
“And they said unto him, Thus saith Hezekiah, This day is a day
of trouble, and of rebuke, and of blasphemy: for the children are come
to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth.”
Isaiah had a knack of turning bad circumstances around. He turned
his kingdom around to serving the LORD. He turned back the oppression of
the king of Assyria. He also turned sickness into health. Hezekiah
found that the secret to turning things around was to go to the One Who
could turn things around. It wasn't that he could turn them around, but
he knew the One Who could turn things around. Hezekiah knew that God was
the only one who could turn things around. Whenever life dealt him bad
circumstances, he quickly ran to God and asked for help. Four times
Hezekiah turned to God to turn circumstance around.
Proverbs 25:13
“As the cold of snow in the time of harvest, so is a faithful
messenger to them that send him: for he refresheth the soul of his
masters.”
How you clothe a person often determines what others think of them.
How you dress causes people to think of you differently. I could take
one person and clothe them in dirty, wrinkled and unkempt attire, and
many people will never notice them or even want to be around them. I
could take the same person and put a fashionable suit on them and give
them a sharp haircut, and that person will be recognized by many. It is
the same person with different clothing, but their adorning makes the
difference in how others recognize them.
Isaiah 17:9
“In that day shall his strong cities be as a forsaken bough,
and an uppermost branch, which they left because of the children of
Israel: and there shall be desolation.”
I was sitting on the plane next to a man who used to be a
professional bodybuilder, and we discussed how quickly a person loses
strength. As we both talked about how often we exercise, one thing that
we both concluded was how quickly you lose strength if you stop lifting
weights.
Isaiah 11:1
“And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots:”
There are many models of leadership that we have to follow, but as Christians, we must be sure that our model of leadership is one that the LORD would want us to copy.
Ecclesiastes 9:10
“Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.”
The verse above is the answer to verse 11 which says, “I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.” Solomon concluded that “time and chance”happen to those who do their best.
Song of Solomon 5:16
“His mouth is most sweet: yea, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem.”
This marriage relationship was divided into two relationships. This wife said that her husband was her “beloved,” but she also said that he was her “friend.”
Job 40:3-4
“Then Job answered the LORD, and said, Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth.”
Have you ever had a computer that seemed to get sluggish or freeze
up? The internet company I have used for several years initially gave me
a router when I signed up with their company. After using the router
for several months, my wife and I noticed the internet seemed to be
freezing up and was very sluggish as we tried to go to websites. I
called the customer service department to get a technician to help, and
every time they would come to a point where they would tell me to unplug
the router and try it again. By unplugging the router, it reset the
system and cleared the junk out of its memory so that it could run
properly.
Job 30:1
“But now they that are younger than I have me in derision, whose fathers I would have disdained to have set with the dogs of my flock.”
When studying the previous chapter with the verse above, it all comes together as to why Job disdained the youth. In the previous chapter, Job reminisced about how his life used to be.
Job 22:23
“If thou return to the Almighty, thou shalt be built up, thou shalt put away iniquity far from thy tabernacles.”
An authentic brand is always much different from the generic.
Job 11:2
“Should not the multitude of words be answered? and should a man full of talk be justified?”
In Zophar’s prosecution of Job’s character, he made a statement that should be adhered by every Christian. He says, “Should not the multitude of words be answered? and should a man full of talk be justified?” He
was saying that he couldn't help but speak because he felt the more
that Job talked, the more he condemned himself. Of course, Zophar was
looking at Job’s situation through his own skewed view, but the content
of what he said is true.