You must be in fellowship prior to your Bible study, so that the spiritual information you receive can become a source, of blessing to your soul and produce spiritual growth.
17 And the
residue [sha'ar] of the number [micpar] of
archers [qesheth], the mighty men [gibbowr] of the children [ben] of
Kedar [Qedar], shall be diminished [ma`at]: for the LORD [Yahovah] God
['elohiym] of Israel [Yisra'el] hath spoken [dabar] it. KJV-Interlinear
17 and the remainder of the number of bowmen, the mighty men of the
sons of Kedar, will be few; for the Lord God of Israel has spoken." NASB
As we have already seen, the people of Kedar, is a reference to a nomadic people of ambiguous residence, of general character, and a very vague description. And yet here they consider themselves to have archers, mighty men, and so forth. This is from their own eyes of course.
An arrogant people always thinks highly of themselves, over-rating themselves.
And what is to become of them?
In that future and final generation, in those final days of history, days meaning the last months or years in the Tribulation, they will be diminished, eradicated, destroyed, gone as though they were never there.
Arrogance over rates itself, believing it is the best of the best, the can’t be without it, the top shelf, the indestructible.
And just as easily as these words were committed to print through Isaiah, so those people will be easily destroyed.
Arrogance has no muscle, no strength, no fighting power, no staying power. It will drift away in a light breeze, with little effort.
And this is what the word for diminished, means. They will fade just as the morning fog fades, almost without notice, until it is already gone of course. And then, they will be no more.
And, so Isaiah ends this chapter, with one final thought.
God has spoken, and therefore it will be.
Nothing in history, nothing in this world, can change what is to come. Nothing can alter what is to come. Nothing can stop what is to come. And the sad thing is, that all of these future events will be brought on by man himself, despite all of these warnings.
History is humanity running toward a cliff.
And God says you are running toward a cliff, and man keeps running toward the cliff.
And God says there is a cliff ahead, and man keeps running toward the cliff.
And God says that cliff will be your destruction, stop, turn toward me and have a better life, and man keeps running toward the cliff.
And finally at the end of the run, there is the cliff and man sees the cliff and runs right off of it.
And as for your life, there are ample warnings regarding you and your life.
You have an opportunity that nearly everyone in the world ignores. You have an opportunity to be numbered within the greatest and yet smallest group in all of human history. The minority of minorities, namely spiritually mature believers in Christ.
After coming into this world as an incomplete infant, your life's process for completion begins with your physical growth, your mental growth, which entails your temporal side of life, and then your spiritual side beginning with salvation, and continuing with your daily growth through a daily study, for learning, understanding, production, and finally wisdom and faith. Faith being the muscle of your spiritual life.
But faith comes not from blind hope or wishes or fancy religious words, it comes from the substance, the nuts and bolts, the adult food of meat and potatoes of Bible doctrine, learned and assimilated into your soul.
This process builds up a spiritual structure in your soul. That soul structure often times is referred to as your temple, your fortress, your palace. And then that structure is enhanced and improved with the finishing work of your usage of Bible doctrine which you have learned and know.
Your ultimate completion, will come at the Judgment Seat of Christ, wherein we will find ourselves standing before Christ, after our resurrection, and there receive our evaluation and reward, based on our spiritual growth and production from this life.
Spiritual maturity qualifies for phenomenal reward.
Little or no growth, which comes with little or no interest, or failure to follow Gods process, means little or no reward.
And since we are talking about eternity, then any reward gained is a huge infinite gain, and any reward lost is a huge infinite loss.
And then finally, all of this will be totally complete when the new universe is created and life continues on forever.
So, there is a lot at stake.
Your eternity is based totally on your attitude toward Bible doctrine.
Disregard it or think little of it or try to do things your own way, and you will end up with nothing, as blessings go.
But, knowing all of this, and looking around at the many examples of the good and bad things in life, then would you rather be a peon in heaven, or a multi-gazillionaire?
Before you were born into this world, you had no say as to your circumstances or the life set before you.
But now, in your spiritual life, you have every opportunity to define, lay legitimate claim to, and take possession of, and greatest and most phenomenal life for yourself for all of eternity. And, you have Gods promise and guarantee.
Will you waste that opportunity?
God has spoken with regard to this prophecy and it will come to pass.
God has spoken to us all with regard to our opportunity, or its loss. What or when will you take it all seriously?
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