This week we were back in action, continuing our journey through the book of Isaiah. As those of you who have done one of my studies before know, my Bible studies that are based on specific books of the Bible don’t just focus on that book. Rather, we explore Scripture from both the Old and New Testament to really get a grasp of God’s Word for us, and that’s exactly what we’ll be doing as we journey through Isaiah – chewing on this book as well as looking at other books of the Bible.
If you follow my blog each week, you know that on Thursdays I post the notes from my teaching so that those who are participating in the study can keep up and those that are unable to participate can have a sneak peek at what we’re studying. But even if you can’t join us in person, remember that you can always sign up to stream the study and watch it on your own schedule!
Today we looked at Isaiah 1-5 and our theme was “The Human Condition.” We did a little refresher of some history of Isaiah – it’s an amazing book! Here are some facts, for example —
- It is like a miniature Bible- there are 66 books of the Bible; Isaiah has 66 chapters
- The Bible divides between the Old and New Testaments, and Isaiah divides into two halves.
- The OT has 39 books, and the first division of Isaiah has 39 chapters.
- The NT has 27 books, and the second half of Isaiah has 27 chapters.
- The opening chapter of the second division of Isaiah, chapter 40, describes the ministry of John the Baptist, forerunner of the Messiah. In the New Testament, the first figure introduced is John the Baptist.
Aren’t these facts amazing? I hope they’ll peak your interest as we begin this study.
One of the key focus points of this lesson is “missing the mark.” The Greek word for sin is “hamartia” which translates “to miss the mark.” When we sin, we miss 
the mark of obtaining God’s best for our lives. In the study guide, I shared how my son loves to bow hunt for deer. In order to shoot the deer, he must line up the animal in the “sight” of the bow or else he will miss the target completely. When we do not keep God “in sight,” we fall prey to sin. We must align ourselves with God’s Word in order to stay on target and hit the mark and assure ourselves of being in God’s will.
I shared a clip from a great video from Billy Graham that touches on this and how it relates to our world today. We only watched a couple minutes of this talk but you can watch the full version of the video here or start the clip below right here on the blog —
God gives us good news – that He has forgiven and redeemed our sins. Ezekiel 36:24-26 points us to that. In this Scripture, we see that:
- God saw their hard hearts and He loved them anyway
- He saw their rebellion and He loved them anyway
- He saw their false worship and He pursued them anyway
- He saw their sin condition and sent His Son anyway
I hope this encourages you today! This book truly is a book of comfort and encouragement and I look forward to continuing this journey with you.
