Today, I am reading and commenting on  Isaiah 39-42.

In chapter 40 Isaiah writes of a voice calling out a message.  John the Baptist understood the voice to be in the wilderness calling out.  The translators of the NIV understood the voice to be telling us to prepare the way in the wilderness.  I like John the Baptist’s take a little better.  In any case, I think the passage is referring to our hearts, because that was what John the Baptist was doing when he said he was the voice: he was calling for people to make a way in their hearts for God.  I suspect that Isaiah actually meant to skirt the line between speaking about a voice calling out for a path to be made in the world for the coming of God’s Messiah and calling out for us to clear out the obstacles in ourselves to doing God’s will.  I don’t believe that God expects us to clear the path, to lower mountains and fill in valleys (either in the real world, or in ourselves).  No, He wants us to begin the task and He will finish it.  We need to be willing to destroy the obstacles in our lives to doing God’s will and we need to try doing so, but when it happens, let us give credit to God.

When I started this entry I intended to write something about lifting up our voices, without fear, to declare to people, “Here is your God.” I was about to skip over that, but I want to expand on it a bit.  First, that is good news, which will cause people to rejoice when they understand it.  Second, who is this God whose presence we declare, to whom or what can He be compared?  Well, He created all that we can see.  Think about the recent pictures released from the James Webb Telescope.  All that those pictures display was brought into being by God.  As carefully arranged as the Universe is, God consulted no one in its design and no one taught Him the engineering to make it work.  And, He does not grow tired.  Instead He gives strength to the weary.  Even the greatest athlete runs down, no matter how much work they put into enhancing their endurance.  But, if we put our trust in God, He will renew our strength.  Which brings me back to making a path in our hearts for God.  Clearing out the sins and distractions which obstruct God entering into our lives is exhausting, but if we keep calling out to God, He will give us the strength to continue.  When you grow tired of doing God’s will, cry out to Him and He will cause you to soar once more.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Isaiah 36-38.

I always love reading the story of Sennacherib’s threat to Jerusalem.  It is really a great story about God’s power, and how He treats those who arrogantly challenge Him.  However, there is one aspect of this story that I have rarely seen touched upon.  Initially the message which Sennacherib’s field commander delivered to Hezekiah’s representatives claimed that the Assyrian king was acting on following God’s command to invade Judah in response to Hezekiah taking down the high places where people had worshiped God.  And while this message was ostensibly being delivered to King Hezekiah, the passage makes clear that it was delivered so that the general populace of Jerusalem would hear and understand what was being said.  However, the Assyrian representative was unable to maintain the ruse for long.  When Hezekiah’s emissaries pushed back a little, the Assyrian revealed what they really thought about God, that He was of no consequence.

All of that leads me to something we see time and again: people who hold God in contempt will couch their arguments as being about following God’s will, but when given a little room to run with their arguments will quickly reveal their disdain for God and for those who put their trust in Him.  Let us not be misled by those who attempt to undermine our faith by appealing to our faith.

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

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

Isaiah prophesies that a king will rule with righteousness and the rulers under Him will rule with justice.  What struck me was that Isaiah said that on that day the message he had been given when he was called would be undone.  When Isaiah was called he was told to tell the people, “Be ever hearing, but never understanding. Be ever seeing, but never perceiving.”  When the righteous King comes the eyes of those who see will perceive, and the ears of those who hear will listen.  So, now we live in a day where if we look for God, we will perceive His will.  If we listen to His word, we will understand what He wants from us.  God has revealed Himself through Jesus and opened the way to understanding to those who desire it.

Later in this passage Isaiah tells us that when that King comes, people will be terrified of His presence.  They will ask who can survive in His presence.  Isaiah answers that those who fear the Lord and walk in righteousness will dwell in the presence of God and experience joy from it.  The arrogant will be no more, those who speak in ways which make their meaning obscure will vanish.  While those who speak right and reject extortion and bribes will thrive.

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.

I tried many different ways to reword this as a way to start writing about what this passage says to me today, but I kept coming back to thinking about this and whether the prophet was speaking about me:

These people come near to me with their mouth
    and honor me with their lips,
    but their hearts are far from me.
Their worship of me
    is based on merely human rules they have been taught.

I do not think he was, but we need to think about this and whether it applies to us.  Then we need to look at those to whom we listen and think about whether it applies to them.  This is why it is important to read the Scripture again and again for ourselves.  Otherwise it is nothing but words sealed in a scroll.

Indeed a little bit further on Isaiah goes on to tell us of whom he speaks.  He is talking about those who do what they know to be wrong while speaking words of righteousness, people who claim to care about others while secretly making plans to take advantage of them.  They loudly proclaim themselves faithful servants of the Lord while doing just the opposite.  They carry out plans which run contrary to what God has said should be.  They accuse those who speak God’s word of hatred and violence merely for proclaiming God’s word.  If we find ourselves one of such people, God is gracious, we need only cry out for His help and He will answer us.  We will hear a voice in our ears telling us the path He chooses for us.  Those are the directions we should follow.  That still, small voice saying, “This is the way; walk in it.”  Those who neither look to, nor seek help from, God will see their plans fail and experience eternal regret.

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.

Well, let’s see if I can write this so that it comes together the way I understand it in my head.  Isaiah writes that we should trust in the Lord forever because God is the eternal Rock.  Which reminds me of a conversation I had recently.  A friend of mine described a boulder he has in his lawn.  That boulder is there because when his house was built, the builders excavated it from where they put the foundation.  Ordinarily, the builders would have broken up a rock found like this, but this particular rock was extraordinarily hard so they chose not to make that effort.  The prophet was thinking of rocks like that one when he wrote this, rocks so hard that no one could break them up.  In this world, all rocks can be broken if we are willing to put in the effort and have the correct tools.  But not the eternal Rock which is God.  After telling us that we can rely on the eternal, unbreakable Rock which is God, Isaiah gives us another metaphor.  If we walk in God’s commands our path will be level and smooth.  Here I am reminded of the comparison between urban bicycle paths and mountain hiking trails.  Hiking trails are typically neither smooth nor level, with rocks that must be navigated around and rough patches, perhaps even fallen branches which must be climbed over.  Whereas, urban bicycle paths are typically smooth asphalt or cement following level ground.  These two aspects of relying on God, His unbreakable reliability and the ease of living according to His will, led the prophet to desire God.  If we truly understand what the prophet says here, we will likewise yearn for God and His righteousness such that we will agree that all we have accomplished was done by God for us.

So, that did not go quite where I thought it would.  Let’s see if I can wrestle it around to the rest of what I want to write about today.

If you are reading this, I imagine that, like me, you desire to put your trust in the Eternal Rock and walk the smooth paths of righteousness.  Yet, for all of my desire to do God’s will, one look at society around us and we realize that we have failed to bring God’s salvation to the earth, we have failed to bring people to the life offered by God.  And the prophet uses yet another metaphor, that of a fruitful vineyard, but one overrun with briers and thorns.  God will bring His fire against those briers and thorns, burning them up…unless they come to Him for refuge and make peace with Him.  Oh, let us make peace with Him so that we may offer that peace to those around us, those who think they have found a refuge in lies.  They claim they are doing what is right because they follow the rules to the letter, but not the spirit (let alone The Spirit).  In fact, they make new rules to follow…don’t use certain words because evil people used those words, don’t do certain things because evil people did those things.  They replace the rules which God put in place with these new rules and say that thus they can avoid sinning.  But God says that He will sweep away their refuge of lies.  God has built a refuge with the straight lines of justice and righteousness.  Let us shelter there and call those currently sheltering in the lies of this world to join 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 22-25.

In today’s prophecy, Isaiah condemned those who saw the coming disaster, but did not turn to the Lord in response.  He condemns those who did what they could by gathering resources and building defenses, but who did not cry out to God for aid, who never even thought about God in the face of the coming disaster.  Isaiah goes on to condemn those who, instead of weeping and wailing in remorse over the coming disaster which was coming because of their sins, chose to party and live it up one last time before the end.  Those who. instead of turning from their wickedness in the face of disaster, decided to double down on the wickedness they had practiced up to that point.  Isaiah goes on to give an example of a government official who saw what was coming and decided to build a monument to be his grave rather than using his position to offset the misery some were already feeling.  From there Isaiah proceeds to describe the coming devastation God is bringing on the world and upon those who refuse to turn from their sins to Him.  In that description Isaiah warns that both the rich and powerful, the poor and needy, and the common person will all face the same fates.  The rich will not escape the suffering because of their riches.  The politically connected will not be able to use their connections to escape the coming disaster.   And yet, Isaiah also promises that God will provide for those who turn to Him in sorrow.

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.

I am not quite sure how this fits together as the prophet wrote it, but I am going to write about it as it struck me today,  While prophesying the fall of Damascus, Isaiah also prophesies that the people of Israel will become relatively few in number.  He uses the metaphor of the few olives which the harvesters leave on the tree as too much work to retrieve.  Isaiah writes that this will happen because the people have forgotten their savior, God.  He tells us that as a result of forgetting God we will plant the finest plants and care for them until they start to bear fruit, but, in the end, we will harvest nothing.  This is where I start to wonder if I am following the prophet’s thinking or not.  He goes on to write that nations will rage, and people will roar against God, and those faithful to God. Those raging and roaring will strike terror in the hearts of many, but suddenly they will be gone.  As I read this, those who remain faithful will be as the gleanings after the harvest.  The wicked will terrorize them for a short moment as night falls, but then, with the dawning of a new day, those who terrorized them will be gone as if they had never been.  The result will be that people from many lands, people who had no knowledge of God, or, perhaps were His enemies, will come to worship and serve Him.

You have forgotten God your Savior;

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.

Today’s passage starts with a prophecy against Babylon, a nation which was just rising to some level of power while Isaiah prophesied.  Early in this prophecy Isaiah tells his reader to wail because the day of the Lord is near.  As Christians we often want to rejoice that the day of the Lord will soon come, but Isaiah tells us to dread that day because there will be so much suffering.  Interestingly, Isaiah says that, on that day, God will make people scarcer than pure gold (NOTE: I do not believe that Isaiah is speaking a single 24 hour period, but rather an unspecified period of time which could be months or years long).  I find that interesting because I have recently been reading articles about things said by members of the World Economic Forum, a group of wealthy elites from around the world, where they spoke of changing the world to have less than a billion people (currently there are over 7 billion people in the world).  Isaiah’s prophecy here could be taken as predicting that such a population will result from “the day of the Lord”.  Isaiah writes that no one will enjoy the process of getting to that state.  In fact, he wrote earlier in this Book that we should dread that day.  Here, as he discusses the arrival of the day of the Lord, he writes that God will punish the world for its evil and the wicked for their sins.  So, those seeking to bring about the day when “people are scarcer than pure gold,’ should worry about the suffering they themselves may suffer getting there.  I want to make the point that those in positions of power who seek to create a utopian world either fail to recognize the suffering necessary to create the world they envision, or they think they will be exempt from that suffering.  In either case they are fools, but in the latter case they are badly mistaken.  Further, as Isaiah tells us, the world they desire will not be the utopia they imagine.  Isaiah, and all of the Old Testament prophets who speak on the issue, tells us that the only way to utopia is for mankind to follow God’s commands.

I want to make one final point.  What I have written above is depressing because it says that we will all suffer in the coming day of the Lord.  However, in this passage Isaiah writes that God will have compassion on Jacob (the people of Israel) and those who unite with them.  Elsewhere, Isaiah offers comfort to those who seek to honor and obey God.   So, on the one hand, God has promised deliverance to the faithful on His Day, but we should still dread that day because of the suffering which many will suffer.  We should examine our lives to see that we live righteously so as to be eligible for God’s offered relief, and dread the suffering which those we care about may experience because they have failed to do likewise (and the suffering we may experience if we fail to do so).

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.

Where to begin today? Well at the beginning I guess. Isaiah begins by telling the lands of northern Israel that the time will come when they will see a great light.  After this message of hope (which I will come back to in a moment), he prophesied that God will soon bring about the complete destruction of Israel (in this case Isaiah appears to be referring exclusively to the Northern Kingdom).  I have never done a detailed analysis of the fall of the Kingdoms of Israel, but I have a vague feeling that perhaps, for all intents and purposes, the area referred to at the beginning of this passage had already fallen, even though a king still ruled in Samaria.  In any case, I think this prophecy really has a lot to say to everyone in every time.  It contains a message of hope.  While we may be walking in a time of darkness, God’s light will break through.  In fact, it has broken through, if we but look for it.  And where should we look for it?  Isaiah answers that question as well. “For to us a child is born,…” Now, as we look at that, first we must recognize that Jesus’ birth fulfilled it.  But, even Jesus’ birth reveals something we do not often look at.  He was not born as a man of power in a palace.  He was born as a baby in a manger. And Jesus did not gain His victory by winning a great battle.  He gained victory by dying on the cross.  So, where do we look for God’s light in this world?  Not to great and mighty deeds as human perception usually understands them.  No, we need to look to the weak and the powerless.  We must look to the homeless man who gives the $10 he managed to gather through begging and other endeavors over the course of a day to the rich man who was just pickpocketed so he can catch a cab to see his sick mother in the hospital (I am not sure this has ever happened, but I do remember story somewhat similar that I cannot find at the moment).  Let us not look to the great and mighty for salvation.  Instead, let us channel God’s love as the weak and powerless.

Then we come to Isaiah’s prophecy about the fall of Israel, the Northern Kingdom.  He begins that prophecy by condemning those who acknowledge the troubles they have faced by saying that they will build back better, they will replace the fallen bricks with dressed stone, the fruit trees with cedars.  All of this without addressing the reason the brick buildings fell or the fruit trees were cut down.  The bad things had happened because those who were appointed to guide the people misled them, and the people followed them even though they knew they were being misled.  Then the Isaiah says something which is a foundational point about what God repeatedly tries to tell us: wickedness burns like a fire.  The destruction we experience does not result from God’s judgement of our wicked actions.  It results directly from our wicked actions.  Yes, God punishes us for our sins, but that is to turn us from our sins.  When God punishes us for our sins it is like a father who spanks his young son to stop him from doing something which might result in his death.  If the child continued and died, the death would not be punishment from his father, it would result from the child’s action.  The same is true of us when we do wicked things.  God may discipline us, but if we ignore His discipline and continue to sin we will experience a much greater hardship as a result of our actions.

There was more from this passage which I felt I should write about, but I am going to stop there.

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