Daily Devotional

A Ministry of the Kerwin Baptist Church

August 22, 2018

by Pastor Hawtree

I AM PERSUADED THAT HE IS ABLE:

TO BE TRUSTWORTHY (part 2)

Isaiah 31:1 Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help; and stay on horses, and trust in chariots, because they are many; and in horsemen, because they are very strong; but they look not unto the Holy One of Israel, neither seek the LORD! ………
3 Now the Egyptians are men, and not God; and their horses flesh, and not spirit. When the LORD shall stretch out his hand, both he that helpeth shall fall, and he that is holpen shall fall down, and they all shall fail together.

“Woe to them that…. stay on horses and trust in chariots because they are many”
Because we are human and flawed, we tend to focus on the things that we can see. We trust it because we can see it. We follow it because we can feel it. The principle here is the danger of the tendency to trust in the horses and chariots because they were visible. It was easy to trust them because there were a bunch of them around. That was Egypt’s problem. They had the horses and chariots, but they did not have God. Egypt had the numbers, but Israel had the Lord. The chariots and horses were visible, but the power of God was invisible. You and I need to be careful that we do not base decisions on what is popular, or on how many people are doing it. Verse one says, “they are many”. It is what everyone else was trusting in. It is what everyone else thought was trustworthy. We cannot base our life on what is visible, and we cannot make our decisions based on what is popular.

“That trust…. in horsemen, because they are strong”
Leave it to “man” to claim to be strong. We think we are something. We rebel against God, fight against God, and even boast against God. How many have chosen to follow a man, instead of following the Lord. Teenagers will sometimes turn against ever bit of God’s Word that they have been taught, just because they want to follow a person. Church people are changing their Bible, their worship, and their doctrine because they are trusting and following men. What fool could possibly think that men are strong when compared to God? Well Egypt sure thought so, and we later find out that even some of Israel did to.

Verse three brings this into perspective also. “Now…their horses’ flesh, and not spirit”. We tend to follow men when we are being led by our flesh. But we trust in the Lord, when we are living in the Spirit. When we follow men, it always produces a fleshly product. But we are to be “Spiritual”, not “fleshly”. Have you been following, reading, watching, listening, and thinking “flesh” driven things? Remember:

* Galatians 6:8 For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.