Today, I am reading and commenting on  Isaiah 57-59.

I think I understand what the prophet wrote here, but I am not sure I can put it into words.  Today’s passage begins with the prophet writing that sometimes the righteous die young so as to be spared from suffering, or perhaps from falling into wickedness.  Then the prophet accuses those to whom he is primarily writing of seeking some other. any other, god to the true God.  They indulged their lust and sacrificed their children, exhausting themselves in pursuit of an alternative to doing God’s will, seeking a righteousness not of God’s making.  But, the prophet tells us, that seeking will be, and is, in vain.  When trouble inevitably comes the replacements we have for God will fail us.  Only those who take refuge in God will be saved from those troubles.  And yet, even that will not be of our own doing.  God will punish the wicked, which is all of us, as the prophet wrote previously (“All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”).  But God will heal us and give us peace.  Unfortunately, some will reject His healing because they are unwilling to humbly accept His deliverance, they are unwilling to admit that they sinned.

And this brings me to where it gets tricky and easy to get mislead.  The prophet actually condemns two types of people: those who reject God outright, and those who seek God on their own terms.   In chapter 57, he wrote of those who rejected God outright.  In chapter 58, he turns his attention to those who seek to clothe their own desires and wishes in God’s righteousness.  If you are reading this, I doubt you fall into the first group, but all of us must be wary of finding ourselves in the latter.  It is all too easy to take the path of visible righteousness, while profiting from injustice and wrong.  We see those reveling in sin and point our fingers at them, crying “Sinner”, without acknowledging our own sin.  The prophet makes clear what God asks of us; feed the hungry, clothe the naked, give shelter to the homeless.  Let us seek to do these things and we need not fear the coming turmoil.

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