Today, I am reading and commenting on Isaiah 32-35.

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Today’s passage begins with Isaiah telling us that a king will come and reign in righteousness.  He tells us that when that day comes the eyes of those who see will no longer be closed and the ears of those who hear will give attention.  This refers back to Isaiah 6 where God told the him to tell the people that they hear without understanding and see without perceiving, which is why they do not turn to God for healing.  Jesus told His disciples that He taught in parables as a reference to both that passage from Isaiah 6 and today’s passage.  Because they accepted the King to whom Isaiah refers in today’s passage their eyes were not closed and they gave attention to what they heard.  In chapter 6 Isaiah said that the people’s hearts were dull and did not understand.  Here he says that hasty hearts will understand and know.  My suspicion is that the Hebrew word translated as “dull” in chapter 6 and the Hebrew word translated here as “hasty” would have been understood by the original readers of this as antonyms, as opposites.  I think there is more to the connection between today’s passage and Jesus’ reference to chapter 6 (which then indirectly references this passage).  Here Isaiah says that “the tongue of the stammerers will hasten to speak distinctly.”  Jesus’ disciples were not men trained in oratory.  Yet they became public speakers who brought many to the Lord.  So, also, if we open our eyes to see what God is doing, and listen with our ears so that we understand what He is saying, we will find God putting words into our mouths and making us speak so that people will listen and hear what God has to say.

At the end of today’s passage it refers back to this same set of ideas from a different perspective.  Isaiah says that they shall see the glory of the Lord and then the eyes of the blind shall be opened and the ears of the deaf shall hear.  At the beginning of today’s passage it talked about how the fool will no longer be called noble and the scoundrel no longer honored.  I want to note that the Hebrew word translated as “fool” carries strong connotations of someone with no morals.  When Isaiah speaks of those who will see the glory of God he says that they will walk on a way which the unclean will not be able to trod, but that those who walk on it shall not go astray, not even if they are fools.  So, even those who lack morals shall be able to walk a just and clean life if they choose to follow the Way which Jesus has shown us.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Isaiah 29-31.

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I see several different themes in today’s passage.  I cannot think of how to tie them together.  So, I shall just write about the themes which stand out the most to me today.  The passage begins with a warning to those who fight against God and attack His people.  God tells them that they will think they are winning, but that their victory is nothing more than a dream, something which disappears when they awaken.  This prophecy is directed not so much at those who openly oppose God.  It is more so directed towards those who claim to be speaking on behalf of God while attempting to tear down those who strive to serve Him.  The prophet warns against those who claim to speak on God’s behalf but preach that which He does not say.  They say that they are seeking God and claim that they wish to bring honor to Him, but instead of listening to what He says they speak their own desires.  They claim that the Scripture is complex and difficult to understand, that the clear meaning of the words are not clear.  They think that by their words they can guide people away from God.  Yet God will act and do wonderful things.  He will bypass those who think they can act as gatekeepers to define what righteousness is.  God will draw people to Him despite what those who attempt to define righteousness in their own terms do and say.

The first part of this addresses those who present themselves as spiritual leaders, but obfuscate what God says.  Then the prophet turns to warn those who do not wish to hear what God has to say.  The prophet warns that if we silence those who tell us what God has to say, society will suddenly collapse.  He tells us that if we refuse to hear the warnings which God gives to His prophets, we will not recognize the warning signs that things are failing.  If we turn to God, listen to His word, and put our trust in Him, we will have strength to stand.  However, if we refuse to listen to God’s word and run before the disaster, the disaster will overtake us as we flee.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Isaiah 26-28.

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Near the beginning of today’s passage the writer says, “O Lord our God, other lords besides you have ruled over us, but your name alone we bring to remembrance. They are dead, they will not live;”  Is the writer here referring to other gods?  Or, is he just referring to human rulers who have ruled over us?  In either case, let us remember that whoever may rule over us, whoever ruled over us in the past, of them all, only God will not die.  If we have served other gods in the past, let us remember that God has wiped out all remembrance of them if we serve Christ.  Do not revive them in your mind.

There is a lot more in this passage, but near the end the writer says something which I didn’t get when I read it in the past.  Perhaps what I am seeing today is not the point, but I will say how I take it today.  The writer mentions the different ways that a farmer sows different crops: dill is scattered, wheat is put in rows, barley is put in its place, and emmer is used as a border around it.  Then he speaks about how the different crops are treated after they are harvested.  One does not treat dill the same way one treats wheat, and cumin is treated in yet another way.  The writer thus tells us that God does not treat everyone the same because we are all different.  One person faces harsh circumstances as God tries to draw them to Him.  Another person God deals with gently so that they might turn to Him.  Just as each crop is dealt with differently by the farmer when he harvests it, so each person is dealt with differently by God when He draws them to Himself.  And we, as His servants, must deal with each person as an individual.  There is no one size fits all in ministering to the lost whom God desires us to bring to Him.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Isaiah 22-25.

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Isaiah spoke of all of the preparations the people of Jerusalem made to defend against the siege they saw coming.  Then he condemns them for having the foresight to make these preparations but not once turning to God.  He tells them that God had called them to weep and mourn, but instead of doing so they had chosen to feast and party.  I take this to heart to some degree.  I am facing a serious problem that will take God’s intervention.  Have I failed to sufficiently mourn my circumstances?  Have I failed to follow God’s desire that I weep for my state?  I have prayed to God about my circumstances, but should I have done more?  I will strive to turn further towards God and reduce the time I spend on distractions.

In today’s passage, Isaiah prophesies that Tyre will be laid ruin for seventy years.  I am not sure why I never noticed it before, but I noticed that there are multiple prophecies which speak of something going on for seventy years.  I know that in the Book of Jeremiah, Jeremiah prophesied that the Babylonian Exile would last for seventy years.  Throughout the Bible the number seventy is used to indicate that something is complete.  So, Isaiah’s prophecy here that Tyre would remain desolate for seventy years was not meant as a literal seventy years but rather as an indication that it would remain desolate until its time of desolation was complete.  I am not going to do more to interpret this prophecy, because I am not sure that is the point we should take from them.  Instead I just want to bring up the point that when the number seventy appears in the Bible the indication of completeness or fullness carries more significance than the actual number.  A couple of examples of this: In Genesis we are told that the number of Jacob’s family who settled in Egypt was seventy.  This does not mean that the count was seventy (although it may have been), rather it indicates that it was an entire, a complete, people who settled in Egypt for a time.  When Jesus sent out seventy disciples it represented the complete number of the nations of the earth.  In this case, I do believe it was actually seventy whom Jesus sent out, but I think He chose that number for its symbolism.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Isaiah 17-21.

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Isaiah continues his prophecies concerning the downfall of nations of the world.  I was really struggling with what to write about this when I noticed that in the first of the prophecies in today’s passage he prophesies the fall of both Syria and Israel (the Northern Kingdom) together.  It reads as if they are a single nation.  Interestingly, he says that Jacob will be brought low, but a small number will remain.  In this prophecy he seems to use “Jacob” to refer to just the Northern Kingdom.  He speaks about how the remnant will look to God and not to the idols they had been worshiping.  We see that fulfilled during both King Hezekiah’s and King Josiah’s reign when they restored worship of God throughout all of the land which had been controlled by the Israelites.

I want to address an idea of which many Christians speak.  Christians often refer to the “Ten Lost Tribes of Israel”.  When they do so, they are referring to the ten tribes which we perceive as rebelling against Rehoboam.  People think that they disappeared from history when Assyria conquered the Northern Kingdom and took many of its people into captivity.  However, the biblical record indicates that many them had migrated from the Northern Kingdom to the Kingdom of Judah when Jeroboam implemented his religious practices.  Additionally, many of them responded to King Hezekiah’s religious reforms and many more responded to King Josiah’s religious reforms a few generations later.  So, we see that a significant number of the northern tribes were part of the Kingdom of Judah when Nebuchadnezzar took them into Exile.  The Ten Tribes were never lost.  Isaiah’s prophecy here speaks of this fact.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Isaiah 13-16.

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I’m not sure if I have a spiritual lesson from today’s passage, but I have some thoughts about the history that relates to it.  So, for a long time I wondered why the writer wrote about the fall of the Babylonian Empire and then about the fall of the Assyrian Empire which preceded the Babylonian Empire.  Or so I thought.  Over the last few years I have learned that the Babylonian Empire which is spoken about in biblical prophecy was a continuation of the Assyrian Empire where the capital of the Empire moved from Nineveh to Babylon.  A simple overview is that a member of the royal house of Assyria had been appointed governor of Babylon under the authority of the king of Assyria.  After the death of one of the kings of Assyria, the throne of Assyria became disputed, weakening the power of eventual successor.  The Assyrian governor of Babylon rebelled against the king, defeated him and began to rule over the Assyrian Empire from Babylon.  For various reasons the King of Babylon had to reconquer many of the subordinate lands, leading to the Bible generally presenting this as a new Empire.  Nevertheless this Babylonian Empire was really a continuation of the Assyrian Empire in much the same way that the Byzantine Empire was a continuation of the Roman Empire.  Which brings me back to today’s passage.  When Isaiah speaks of God breaking Assyria after he speaks of the fall of Babylon, he is doing so because Assyria did not completely fall until Babylon fell.

Now I come to the second interesting historical fact contained in today’s passage.  In his prophecy concerning Philistia, Isaiah tells them not to rejoice at the fall of Assyria because “from the serpent’s root will come forth an adder…”   This seems to me to be a reference to what I mentioned in the previous paragraph: Babylon was a successor state of, or continuation of, Assyria.  Babylon destroyed Philistia, and removed Philistia from history a few years before sacking Jerusalem and taking the people of Judah into Exile.  After its conquest, Philistia and the Philistines disappeared from history, but, just as Isaiah prophesied here, Israel and the Israelites remained and was rebuilt.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Isaiah 9-12.

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When I read in the beginning of today’s passage that the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light I imagine a place which is dark like a cave* and suddenly a bright light springs forth from a man (I admit I am influenced in forming that image by the Christian interpretation applying this passage to Jesus) illuminating a large area where many people had been stumbling around.  *By the way, if you have never been in a cave with no lights, it is an amazing experience.  I imagine those whose only experience of light was of candlelight, torchlight, or firelight suddenly seeing the sun.  I think that is a great metaphor for when one first experiences a relationship with Jesus.

I realized as I move forward to my next thought on today’s passage that my thoughts about it are somewhat scattered.  Isaiah goes on to speak of those who plan to rebuild better after their neglect has led to the collapse of what those before them had built without ever once turning to God.  They do not even recognize that the buildings collapsed through their neglect of God’s commands.  They do not ask God for guidance on how to rebuild.  Instead, they fight one another for power, as the land falls apart around them.  They take advantage of those too weak to protect themselves and deny justice to those who cannot give them advantage.  If they do not turn to the Lord, the wealth and power they thought would protect them will be completely lost to them.  Once God has struck them down, He will raise up the One who will judge with righteousness, who will lead the predator to give up predation and live at peace with the prey.  All shall have knowledge of the Lord and serve Him.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Isaiah 5-8.

I have a Youtube video of me reading the Scripture passage and my comments. Please check it out and let me know your thoughts.

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I have been reading the daily passage out loud for Youtube for a few months now, and doing so has really made the passages have more meaning for me.  Today even more so than previously.  Let’s see how well I can transfer that to words.

The vineyard at the beginning of the passage is clearly a metaphor about the kingdom of Judah, but I think it applies to every country which is part of Western Civilization.  God set them up and gave them all that they need to prosper, but all too often they fail to deliver justice.  Instead, the powerful, whom God gave position so that they could shepherd His people (and all people are His people in this case), took advantage of those weaker than themselves.  They used the power which God had given them to take advantage of others and to oppress those others.  They used the wealth which God gave them to throw parties and indulge themselves with never a thought to doing God’s will and serving others.  In response to their unwillingness to use what God has given them to serve others, God will destroy the productivity of the land.  They will experience the suffering which they inflicted upon others.

In chapter seven, God sent Isaiah to prophecy to King Ahaz.  Interestingly, King Ahaz was the one of the kings during whose reign Isaiah prophesied who was said to do evil in the sight of the Lord.  After I wrote that I realized that the last of what I want to write about is not part of that prophecy, but rather comes as part of Isaiah’s prophecy about the fall of the Northern Kingdom.  I want to call attention to what he wrote in chapter eight, verse twelve and thirteen.  There he said, “Do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy, and do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread.  But the Lord of hosts, him you shall honor as holy. Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.”  We must be careful and not let the concerns of the world around us shape our thoughts.  Let us not fear the conspiracies which those around us fear.  There may be conspiracies by powerful people to do terrible things, but those people do not have the power which people perceive them to have.  We should not fear what those who do not put their trust in God fear, because our God is greater than those fears.  Our God is greater than those conspirators.  If we truly understand God’s power and thus fear Him as we should, we will fear nothing  and no one else, because none of those can do anything which goes against God commands.  They may use their power to bring harm to us, the things of the world may destroy that which we possess, but if we truly fear God they will be unable to touch that which we hold dear.   

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Isaiah 1-4.

I have a Youtube video of me reading the Scripture passage and my comments. Please check it out and let me know your thoughts.

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Isaiah preaches that the people of Judah were unfaithful to God.  His entire ministry was calling the people back to God.  Yet, right here at the beginning he records the kings who reigned during his ministry.  Elsewhere, the Bible records three of the four as righteous kings.  Until a few years ago, I had always understood that the people of Judah descended into wickedness because they had wicked kings.  I have come to realize that is the opposite of what the Bible teaches.  Judah had wicked kings because the people of Judah pursued wickedness.  The prophecies of Isaiah illustrate this.

Here in the beginning of his writing Isaiah addresses his prophecies to those who present themselves as righteous.  He speaks out against those who use religious rituals to obtain forgiveness for sins they intend to commit again tomorrow.  Burnt offerings will not cover over evil deeds.  Giving to charities which help the poor does not offset oppressing them in your day-to-day business.  God despises those who go to worship services yet mistreat others during the rest of their time.  Yet despite this, God promises that He will wash us clean of our sins if we willingly turn to Him and seek to obey all of His commands.  God will teach us His ways if we turn to Him and walk in His ways.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.