Growing with God: A daily devotional with Tonia Slimm.
Isaiah 47:11 (NIV)
“Disaster will come upon you, and you will not know how to conjure it away. A calamity will fall upon you that you cannot ward off with a ransom; a catastrophe you cannot foresee will suddenly come upon you.”
Isaiah 47:11 (MSG)
“Ruin descends—you can’t charm it away. Disaster strikes—you can’t cast it off with spells. Catastrophe, sudden and total—and you’re totally at sea, totally bewildered!”
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“Therefore disaster will come on you; you will not know how to make it disappear [with your magic]. And disaster will fall on you for which you cannot atone [with all your offerings to your gods]; and destruction about which you do not know will come on you suddenly.” -AMPLIFIED
“Every choice you make has an end result.” ~Zig Ziglar
In yesterday’s text we saw God pointing out the fact that Babylon was confident and smug in her wickedness. She “thought” what she was doing was hidden from God, or He did not care, but she was wrong. She had perverted what God had intended for her, and she began thinking that she was untouchable by anyone, including God. God brings this charge against Babylon:
“You felt so smug and secure in your wickedness. You thought, ‘No one sees me.’
Your idea of ‘wisdom’ and self-professed ‘knowledge’ has led you astray, saying in your heart,
‘I am! There is none like me!’” -Isaiah 47:10 (The Passion Translation)
We find God’s denunciation against Babylon continuing in today’s text, where He cautions her to prepare herself, for retribution is coming. “An avalanche of evil will come upon you that no magic spell will be able to avert.” -(TPT)
“Evil will break upon you full force. You won’t be able to hold it off or charm it away. Disaster will fall and, even with all your wealth, you won’t stand a chance. There’s no way to know what is coming; all of a sudden, it will ruin all that you have and all that you are.” -(VOICE)
Remember yesterday’s text told us that Babylon was trusting in her wickedness, she was counting on her sorcery and magic to save her. But this time she will be greatly surprised, it will not. God tells her that disaster will come upon her so quickly that she will not even realize it is even coming until it is too late. She will have no chance to prepare herself, no opportunity to advert it.
If she thinks that she will be able to ransom herself from her captors, that will not work. Earlier in the book of Isaiah we learned that the Medes and the Persians would not accept any settlement except surrender. This meant that they would not accept liberation money.
“Behold! I am stirring up the Medes against them,
who neither value silver nor delight in gold.” -Isaiah 13:17 (The Passion Translation)
And if Babylon thinks that she can atone for her sins with her gods, she can forget about that too, that won’t work either.
“That is why disaster shall overtake you suddenly—so suddenly that you won’t know where it comes from. And there will be no atonement then to cleanse away your sins.” -(TLB)
In Daniel 5 we have a record of how this disaster came to pass, that night when Belshazzar was holding a great drunken state party. As he and his guests were drinking wine from the very cups that were stolen from the Temple of Jehovah, toasting their gods for their great conquests, the Hand of God came down from Heaven and wrote on the wall, “MENE, MENE; TEKEL; PARSIN“. It’s meaning? Mene: God has numbered the days of your reign and brought it to an end. Tekel: You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting. Peres: Your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians. In the final two verses of Daniel 5 we are given this account:
“That very night, under the cloak of darkness, Belshazzar, the Chaldean king of Babylonia, was killed. Then Darius the Mede, in his 62nd year, gained control of the kingdom.” -Daniel 5:30-31 (VOICE)
What God has decreed will happen, will happen; count on it. We know this because God always keeps His Word. We also know this because of something that God told Israel through His prophet Jeremiah:
“This is why I, the Eternal, declare that I will bring disaster upon these rebellious people. And they will not escape what awaits them. They will beg for My help, but I won’t listen to them.” -Jeremiah 11:11 (VOICE)
The Apostle Paul reminds us that the wages of sin will be death. But God has offered us another way, His gift to us comes through His Son, Jesus, the Messiah of the World.
“The payoff for a life of sin is death, but God is offering us a free gift—eternal life through our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One, the Liberating King.” -Romans 6:23 (VOICE)
Solomon reminds us that we all have a choice, and what we choose comes with a repercussion. He taught his son this, and we would do well to heed his advice:
“Take your stand with God’s loyal community and live,
or chase after phantoms of evil and die.” -Proverbs 11:19 (MSG)
“It is not enough to ask yourself, “Does God’s Word permit me to use these good things of the world?” You must also inquire, “Will it serve the glory of God?” and, “Will it edify my fellow Christians?” ~ Walter J. Chantry
My friend, how we choose to live this life matters. Babylon choose to disregard Jehovah. Her choice was to pursue earthly pleasures and gratifications. In the end, her choice led to dire consequences, and there was nothing that she could do to change the outcome. Each of us has a choice, will we accept God’s gift, and live in obedience to Him, which leads to life? Or will we insist on our own way, gratifying the flesh, which leads to death. The choice is yours.
“God doesn’t want people to do what they think is best: he wants them to do what he knows is best, and no amount of reasoning and intellectualizing will discover that. ~Henry T. Blackaby
My Prayer:
Adonai–Tzva’ot, God Almighty, I have chosen to accept your gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ your Son, and the Messiah to the world. I am asking for your guidance and wisdom to help me walk through this life making choices that are pleasing and glorifying to you. I realize that there is a price to pay for sin, hence why I need your help in making good choices, righteous choices. Please, Lord, give me your wisdom. Help me to walk in obedience to you and help me to know your perfect will in my life. Thank you, Lord.
Growing with God 