THE LORD'S PORTION IS HIS PEOPLE

"FOR THE LORD'S PORTION IS HIS PEOPLE; JACOB IS THE LOT OF HIS INHERITANCE."  DEUTERONOMY 32:9

STEPHEN RICHIE

Isaiah lived in a difficult time in Israelite history.  The captivity by Babylon was upon a great portion of these people.  Isaiah was called by The LORD to minister and prophesied to them.  In Chapter 51 we read that Isaiah begins to encourage his people and reminds them where they came from. (Isaiah 51:1)

Abraham's legacy continued to inspire Isaiah to help his people in these the darkest days of Hebrew history.  Isaiah encouraged all the people of Zion and urged them to be optimistic as they endured their tests and trials.  They were The LORD's people and surely He would not let these  things  defeat them.  Optimism, that is, a knowing faith that the days would become better, was an encouragement they surely needed.

There was not much happiness in Zion. (Isaiah 51:3)  Isaiah encouraged them to look to the law for comfort.  The Ten commandments of Moses' day was a light to the nations, the tribes of Israel.  It was their only law.  Isaiah encouraged them not to look at the heavens or the earth for help for the heavens and earth would indeed pass away as God had said.  He reminded them that God had also said that The LORD's salvation would be forever! (Isaiah 51:6)  "Do not be afraid of the times" Isaiah reminded them.  This reminder also is for us also.  Righteousness will last forever as will salvation. (Isaiah 51:7) 

Isaiah encouraged them to be diligent to watch and pray for theirs was the heritage that would surely not fail them since they were the people that God had brought through the Red Sea. (Isaiah 51:10)  They were reminded that they had been promised by God that they would also last forever and that The LORD would secure them in that they were His eternal chosen people. 

Jeremiah was another prophet that gave prophecy to those of Israel.  By God's words to him, he forecast doom upon those that captured the Hebrew nation.  In Jeremiah chapter 23 we see that The LORD would make the way of the false prophets slippery and they would fall for worshiping the false idols of Baal. (verse 12)  He also noted that they were living lascivious lives and not being of a righteous heart.  Their strength was in themselves and not of The LORD  Their false prophesying had caused the people of Israel to fall. (verse 13) 

Jeremiah also told the false prophets that God was going to feed them with wormwood. (verse 15)  This we see again mentioned in Revelation in the opening of the seventh seal (Revelation 8:11) where the LORD's angel brings down a star named Wormwood upon the earth and makes the waters on earth bitter.  Jeremiah was truly prophesying that these false prophets' days would be filled with bitterness and death because of the false preaching they had spoken to the Hebrew nation.

"The ransomed of The LORD will return with gladness and singing and there will be no more sorrow and sighing." (Isaiah 51:11)  This was indeed strong encouragement for a people that had been divided so severely by Babylonian occupation.  Isaiah again encouraged the people by telling them that their oppressors were but grass and would fall away. (Isaiah 51:12)  Have you ever seen grass after it has been cut?  At first it is green and then a day or so later it becomes yellow and light.  The wind then takes it up and scatters it.  This is followed with decay and the dust goes back into the earth.  The rise and fall of grass is the same fate these false prophets would succumb to according to the prophet Isaiah.  They too, would die and be placed back into the ground.  Where did Isaiah get all this encouragement and optimism to share with the Hebrew nation?  Where was his information and inspiration coming from? (Isaiah 61:1)

We see here in this verse in Isaiah 61 that his "commission" came from The LORD.  He was called and ordained by God Himself to preach good tidings to the meek.  Those that were kind-hearted and endeavored to do as The LORD told them (following the Ten Commandments) were the meek.  God through Isaiah encouraged those that were broken-hearted and promised to free the captives by opening their prisons.  God through Isaiah was foretelling in this chapter of the future coming of the Messiah.....JESUS!!!

Verse 3 of chapter 61 offers a commission for all ministers of God's eternal gospel...."To give them beauty for ashes and the oil of joy".  The Israelites too were to receive a garment of praise and be loosed of the garment of heaviness.  They were to become righteous again in The LORD's sight so that The LORD might be glorified. (Isaiah 61:6,7)  Isaiah's optimism and prophesying continued as he told them that they, the downcast, would be the rulers over the gentiles and that they would be given double with their joy everlasting.  This was LIVING HOPE in the coming Messiah....JESUS!!!  As we see  here in the prophecy of Isaiah, the Word for The LORD to them was always positive and they were assured by God that those that were against them (the gentiles) would serve them and that they, the Hebrew children, would receive a double portion from The LORD. (Isaiah 61:6-7)

Lift up YOUR hand!  Are you a Christian?  If you are you will indeed live forever!  The LORD kills, wounds, and then heals. (Deuteronomy 32:39)  SALVATION!!!  If you are a Christian you will NEVER be taken from His hand!  HALLELUJAH!!  PRAISE TO THE LORD OF HOSTS!  These were the promises made to the Hebrew people before they entered Canaan.  God through Moses gave them their destiny and as we see later in Isaiah and Jeremiah these promises are reiterated by God some 650 years later!!  The LORD KEEPS His promises... but to Him, The LORD God Almighty, those promises are called a COVENANT.  He does NOT go back on these promises as we see later.  The promises made by God to the Israelites of Isaiah's and Jeremiah's time have been fulfilled in the history of the Jewish people and will continue to be fulfilled up to, and including, the millennial reign of Jesus Christ on earth as KING of kings and LORD of lords. (Revelation 20:1-15)

Good kings in Jewish history came and went.  Bad kings in their history came and left sooner "as the grass" discussed here earlier.  Where are you?  What is your spiritual condition?  DECIDE where you are TODAY.  Are you one of The LORD's portion?  Are you washed and healed by the Blood of The Lamb of God....JESUS?  That uneasy feeling in your chest is The LORD calling you to be His Own....HIS portion.  This may be all new to you today, but the covenant that God made with His people four thousand years ago is still as true today as it was in 650 B.C......in Isaiah's day.

Do you believe in God's history?  Do you frown on and possibly doubt the DOCUMENTED events presented here?  These were ALL documented.  Nebuchadnezzar was the captor that these men spoke of in their prophecies.  Isaiah, Jeremiah, Moses and others were all prophets and preachers of the good news that God, in those days, had for His people.  HE IS STILL THE SAME TODAY.  GOD HAS NOT CHANGED!

Politics change with the wind.  God's people were gleaned and dispersed all over the world after King Nebuchadnezzar's rule.......yet they are STILL God's chosen people.  Did you know that there were many Jewish individuals that helped finance the Revolutionary War that gave us this great country that you live in today....this America?  Many Jewish people are the ones that work in New York and Tel Aviv and still support their people in Israel with the blessing of mammon (money) from God.  Read about them in the newspaper of September 11, 2001.  The Israelites....the Jewish....were the targets of that terrible day when the twin towers in New York fell.  It was just another attack upon the chosen people of God!!

"Study to show thyself approved."  The jealousy of the Jewish people that was prevalent in 1450 B.C. and 650 B.C. is still rampant today but The LORD Jesus and His Father...Holy God....ARE STILL IN CONTROL through The Holy Spirit.  God's covenant with the Hebrew nation is STILL the truth that they live by today.  They are NOT in competition with any people!  Their covenant is ALIVE AND WELL in a Holy God!

Why are you so afraid of admitting that the truth that these three prophets proclaimed is real?  Is it because you are not included in these promises?  Take comfort, Beloved, because these prophets are also of YOUR heritage if you will but believe in The LORD Jesus Christ and be eternally saved by Him.  Jesus is the same today as He will be the same when all of these false prophets of today are cut down like grass and thrown into the ground.  Jesus may not be seen now in His flesh but HE IS THE SON OF GOD!  Theirs is a false covenant and will only last as long as they live and as long as there those who are foolish enough to believe in them and their heretical and blasphemous prophecies.  They are truly the grass of this day.

Roger Baldwin, the founder of the A.C.L.U., and the organization that he created will not last.  His is a false doctrine that only promotes the false prophets of this day.  At first, Baldwin's cause was noble.  He helped men that were losing their jobs because Senator Joseph McCarthy was forcing them out due to lies told about their political affiliations.  Baldwin's movement grew but today it is only a false doctrine that prevents many from worshiping God as they are led to do.  Unfortunately, the U.S. congressmen and the U.S.  Supreme Court justices that are foolish enough to support this doctrine will not last!!  They only follow the filthy lucre they are given to support the A.C.L.U. position.  It will not last.  They have been paid to allow the vices of this world to be tolerated by government.

God's truth, the Ten Commandments, will last FOREVER.  GOD will last FOREVER!  He demonstrated it to us two thousand years ago when He died a criminal's death and then rose out of the tomb and presented Himself alive to His disciples.  He ascended into Heaven after forty days to sit at the right hand of God! (Hebrews 1:3)  His salvation and His righteousness will last FOREVER! (Isaiah 61:3)  Put off your garments of heaviness and accept the beauty of The LORD Jesus Christ today.  False doctrines will not last and THEY WILL PASS AWAY.  ALL OF THE SUPPORTERS OF THE FALSE PROPHETS OF TODAY AS WELL AS THOSE WHO SUPPORT THE A..C.L.U. AND ALL OF THEIR FALSE DOCTRINES WILL FADE AND BE CUT DOWN AS GRASS JUST AS GOD HAS SAID IN HIS WORD!

Are you ready to live forever as God's saved child or are you going to accept the scourge of spiritual wormwood in your own life here on earth?  It surely will come. The bitter waters of disappointment, hurts, and despair WILL come to you if you continue to live without Jesus as your LORD and eternal Savior.  ALL that you hold dear today will become bitter and many will meet certain death. You likely are living this out right this very moment here on earth.  It is necessary to mention  that of those who are left behind at the Rapture, many will likely endure the falling of the star Wormword also.  Read about it for yourself in Revelation chapter 8.  It is NOT something you want to endure.....nor are the other plagues and woes foretold in Revelation something you want to endure.  It will be the time in history when God pours out His wrath upon this evil world.   

Jesus made a promise while He was here on this earth some two thousand years ago.  He promised us that all that will believe on the LORD Jesus Christ will surely be saved!  You will not be saved for only the life cycle of a blade of grass but you shall be saved FOR ALL OF ETERNITY!  Jesus' salvation will last FOREVER!  Jesus' righteousness will last FOREVER!  Your salvation and righteousness will last FOREVER!  BELIEVE ON THE LORD JESUS AND BE SAVED TODAY!  LIVE FOR JESUS!  You can become like The Holy LORD Jesus Christ and become righteous.  FOLLOW HIS TRUTH....THE TEN COMMANDMENTS.  Become set apart from this old and dying world for it too will burn up some day as foretold in God's infallible and eternal Word.  BELIEVE ON THE LORD JESUS CHRIST!! (Deuteronomy 33:3)

COME TODAY AND RECEIVE THE SAVING WORDS OF SALVATION....THE LORD JESUS CHRIST.  There is a place waiting for you at His feet today just as was in 1450 B.C.  My friend, Jesus is REAL and His truth WILL last FOREVER.  Jesus made the covenant in 1450 B.C. and it is still as alive today as it was then.  Fresh as a newly cut flower is His covenant.  His is the ONLY freshness that is free of decay.  It is as new as a newborn baby's cry.  JESUS IS THE ONE AND ONLY TRUTH THAT YOU WILL EVER NEED.  BELIEVE IN HIM.  BELIEVE ON THE LORD JESUS CHRIST.  He will serve truth to you also it you choose to sit at His feet. (Deuteronomy 33:29)   BE YE HAPPY WITH THE LORD.  BE SAVED!  BELIEVE IN JESUS!

Father God, we come to you today and pray that many will realize that this world is passing away that You are  the ONLY hope they have of eternal life.  Not only assurance now, but also a life eternal with You in Heaven.  Call them out so they may become Your portion also.  In Your Son Jesus' Name I pray.  Amen!!

10/05/06