{"id":6644,"date":"2015-06-24T00:05:00","date_gmt":"2015-06-24T07:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/?p=6644"},"modified":"2015-06-23T12:54:25","modified_gmt":"2015-06-23T19:54:25","slug":"swift","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/2015\/06\/24\/swift\/","title":{"rendered":"Swift"},"content":{"rendered":"

Then the LORD said to me, \u201cTake for yourself a large tablet and write on it in ordinary letters: Swift is the booty, speedy is the prey. \u201cAnd I will take to Myself faithful witnesses for testimony, Uriah the priest and the son of Jeberechiah.\u201d So I approached the prophetess, and she conceived and gave birth to a son. Then the LORD said to me, \u201cName him Maher-shalal-hash-baz; for before the boy knows how to cry out \u2018My father\u2019 or \u2018My mother,\u2019 the wealth of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria will be carried away before the king of Assyria.\u201d (Isaiah 8:1-4)<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

When God solves a problem, it stays solved. Ahaz, the king of Judah in Jerusalem was facing serious problems. He was facing the combined armies of Damascus and Samaria and feared for his life and the life of his nation. But he resisted God\u2019s offers for help, preferring to scramble on his own. But God insisted on giving him a helping hand, anyway.<\/p>\n

The very odd name of Isaiah\u2019s son, Maher-shalal-hash-baz, means \u201cSwift is the booty, speedy is the prey.\u201d All names in Hebrew had obvious meanings to Hebrew speakers. But names usually were only one word, maybe two. The name for Isaiah\u2019s son was a full sentence. It was not an ordinary sort of name at all. God used the prophet\u2019s life as the illustrations within the book of his prophesy. Just as God had Isaiah run around naked for three years, just as he\u2019d had Isaiah bury and thus ruin a belt, so now the birth of his son also served God\u2019s purposes. God predicted that Damascus and Samaria would be defeated by Assyria before Isaiah\u2019s son was old enough to even say \u201cMy father\u201d or \u201cMy mother.\u201d Thus, within three years of God\u2019s words, they had both been defeated by Tiglath-Pileser, the king of Assyria. Ahaz\u2014and Jerusalem\u2014were safe.<\/p>\n

God loves us despite ourselves. He\u2019ll take care of us even if we resist him. He chases us with goodness and mercy all the days of our lives, determined to bless us whether we want it or not.<\/p>\n

Send to Kindle<\/span><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Then the LORD said to me, \u201cTake for yourself a large tablet and write on it in ordinary letters: Swift is the booty, speedy is the prey. \u201cAnd I will take to Myself faithful witnesses for testimony, Uriah the priest … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes"},"categories":[18,17,16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6644"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6644"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6644\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6645,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6644\/revisions\/6645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}