January 31 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading

Isaiah 52:

¹Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city: for henceforth there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean.
²Shake thyself from the dust; arise, and sit down, O Jerusalem: loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion.
³For thus saith the LORD, Ye have sold yourselves for nought; and ye shall be redeemed without money.
⁴For thus saith the Lord GOD, My people went down aforetime into Egypt to sojourn there; and the Assyrian oppressed them without cause.
⁵Now therefore, what have I here, saith the LORD, that my people is taken away for nought? they that rule over them make them to howl, saith the LORD; and my name continually every day is blasphemed.
⁶Therefore my people shall know my name: therefore they shall know in that day that I am he that doth speak: behold, it is I.
⁷How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!
⁸Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they sing: for they shall see eye to eye, when the LORD shall bring again Zion.
⁹Break forth into joy, sing together, ye waste places of Jerusalem: for the LORD hath comforted his people, he hath redeemed Jerusalem.
¹⁰The LORD hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.
¹¹Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence, touch no unclean thing; go ye out of the midst of her; be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the LORD.
¹²For ye shall not go out with haste, nor go by flight: for the LORD will go before you; and the God of Israel will be your reward.
¹³Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high.
¹⁴As many were astonied [astonished] at thee; his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men:
¹⁵So shall he sprinkle many nations; the kings shall shut their mouths at him: for that which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they consider.

Devotional

There has always been great danger that the children of God would be enticed by the allurements of the world. Satan, that old serpent, is always intent upon deceiving people and leading them astray. It seems that in our time especially the church people conform to the ways of the world. And what is worse, the seriousness of this conformity is not recognized. The real danger is that people will lose their own souls, and their children and children's children will not learn to know the true God.

The Lord always warned his people against idolatry. "Ye shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the people which are around about you .... Thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations." And when his people had forsaken him, and were associating with his enemies, the Lord urged them to come out from there; yes, He commanded them to flee from them to save their souls. "Go ye forth from Babylon, flee ye from the Chaldeans." "Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and deliver every man his soul. Be not cut off in her iniquity." "Deliver thyself, O Zion, that dwellest with the daughter of Babylon." The apostle Paul gives the same admonition, and surely his admonition applies to us: "Come ye out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing." John heard a voice from heaven saying, "Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues." To those who obey, God has given a very precious promise, "I will be their God, and they shall be my people .... I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty."

Prayer

O Lord, have mercy on Thy children. Bring back those who have gone astray. May Thy people worship Thee, the only true God, in spirit and in truth, and may they by their godly walk win others to Christ. Thus may Thy kingdom come, Thy grace be magnified, and Thy name glorified. Amen.

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Scripture in Devotional: Deut. 6:14; 18:9; Isa. 48:20; Jer. 5:6; Zech. 2:7; 2 Cor. 6:14-18; Rev. 18:4; 2 Cor. 6:16-18.

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