2 Chronicles 27; Isaiah 9-12

I got chills as I read through these chapters of Isaiah today.  Isaiah looked into the future, and the Lord told him about Jesus…many things about him.

With my homeschooling quest for knowledge and understanding, I especially perked up at these verses:

The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him—
the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and of power,
the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD –

³ and he will delight in the fear of the LORD.
He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes,
or decide by what he hears with his ears;

⁴ but with righteousness he will judge the needy,
with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth.

And these:

The cow will feed with the bear,
their young will lie down together,
and the lion will eat straw like the ox.

⁸ The infant will play near the hole of the cobra,
and the young child put his hand into the viper’s nest.

⁹ They will neither harm nor destroy
on all my holy mountain,
for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD
as the waters cover the sea.

So…”the knowledge of the LORD” is something beautiful that will one day be attained.  Whatever that knowledge is, it will usher in peace like we’ve never known it before.  I am guessing that means that we will also have internal peace…because we are part of the earth!

I take hope from those verses.  Hope that one day I will experience true inner peace with no more anxiety.

Do you ever think about Jesus’ reign?  According to what I’ve just read, Jesus is reigning NOW.  Not in some time in the future, but at this very moment:

or to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor, ^[b] Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

⁷ Of the increase of his government and peace
there will be no end.
He will reign on David’s throne
and over his kingdom,
establishing and upholding it
with justice and righteousness
from that time on and forever.
The zeal of the LORD Almighty
will accomplish this.

I get hung up sometimes looking at the evil in the world.  What is so unique about Jesus’ kingdom is that He reigns over the spiritual realm…and he reigns in the hearts of those who trust him.  Notice the word “peace” in verse 7 (from chapter 9)?  This means that the peace he brings can be had now.  There is no end to it.

Now if I can just figure out how to retrain my thoughts so that I dwell on those promises instead of on the voice in my head that beats me down.

I pray that the Prince of Peace will indeed be Lord of my life…that the “one day” I experience inner peace will be today.  Because his government is on the increase in me!