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

Isaiah warns us against paying lip service to obeying God while seeking loopholes in His commands.  All too often we think that if we obey the letter of God’s law we need not obey its spirit.   What we fail to understand is that the letter of God’s law is merely a human construction, which, at its best, is an attempt to help us understand how to do that which God desires of us.  We pretend to ourselves that God cannot see our intention to circumvent His desires.  We think that we know better than God what will bring us the greatest joy, forgetting that He made us and thus knows things about us that we will never comprehend, and other things about us that we can only begin to comprehend after we have chosen to do as He directs.  Isaiah warns us against making plans and forming alliances without looking to God for guidance and seeking His aid.  Isaiah warns us of those who will try to silence those whom God sends to speak His words to them, and he warns us not to be like them.

Those who reject God’s message end up relying on oppression and deceit.  Throughout this passage I keep seeing Isaiah talk about those who do things I see being done in our society today.  Isaiah speaks of the day when the deaf will hear and the blind will see, when the humble will rejoice in the Lord and the ruthless will disappear.  God will bring His judgement on those who use false testimony to make people out to be guilty.  We must strive to be among the humble who rejoice in the Lord, but be careful that we are not just saying the words without meaning them in our hearts.

“Because you have rejected this message,
    relied on oppression
    and depended on deceit,

Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help,…,
but do not look to the Holy One of Israel,
    or seek help from the Lord.

In a very short time, will not Lebanon be turned into a fertile field
    and the fertile field seem like a forest?
¹⁸ In that day the deaf will hear the words of the scroll,
    and out of gloom and darkness
    the eyes of the blind will see.
¹⁹ Once more the humble will rejoice in the Lord;
    the needy will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.
²⁰ The ruthless will vanish,
    the mockers will disappear,
    and all who have an eye for evil will be cut down—
²¹ those who with a word make someone out to be guilty,
    who ensnare the defender in court
    and with false testimony deprive the innocent of justice.

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.

I knew from my first reading of this passage today what I wanted to touch on as I wrote this, but I was not quite sure how to put it together.  Isaiah tells us that all people learn righteousness when God’s judgement comes, but the wicked do not learn righteousness when He shows them grace.  They continue to do evil, failing to see God’s hand of judgement raised to strike.  Those who recognize that their only accomplishments were gifts from God turn to Him and weakly whisper a prayer.  Salvation does not come to the earth through our efforts.  Unfortunately, we live in a time when people think, just as they did in the days of Isaiah, that God’s rules are “do this, don’t do that” rather than recognize His call for us to use our judgement in how to love others.

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.

Isaiah prophesies the fall of Jerusalem to start today’s passage.  He may be referring to the actual fall, or perhaps to a more figurative one before that.   In either case, he calls the people out for making preparations against that attack without calling on God.  However, not only did they fail to regard God in their preparations for the coming disaster, they ignored the warning God gave them.  Knowing that disaster was coming the people feasted and partied, rather than approaching God with fasting and mourning.  As a result, God determined that the earth would be laid waste.  Except that is not quite right.  Isaiah tells us that the people brought about that destruction by defiling the earth.  Destruction happens because we fail to listen to God’s laws and commands.   Yet Isaiah tells us that, even in the face of this destruction, God will be a refuge for those who recognize that they are poor and needy.  He has a feast made ready for all peoples to partake and is prepared to wipe away the tears from everyone.  All we need to do is trust in Him and declare Him our God.

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.

When I read today’s passage I decided that I wanted to write about chapter 17 verses 7-8 and verses 10-11.  However, I have struggled with how to connect verses seven and eight with verses ten and eleven.  In verses seven and eight, Isaiah says that in the day when only a remnant of the people will remain that the people will look to God.  Then in verses ten and eleven he says that, because we have forgotten God, our attempts to cultivate crops will fail.  I finally realized that verses ten and eleven tells us how the circumstances which led to seven and eight came to be.  When we forget God, things go very bad.  So bad that eventually those that remain finally turn to God for deliverance.  Then we have verses twelve through fourteen which tell us that if we turn to God before things go bad, terror will surround us at nightfall, but by the morning it will be gone.  For those who serve the Lord, we may feel like we are surrounded by troubles which cannot be overcome, but, if we continue to trust in God, those troubles will vanish with a new dawn.

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.

I find it interesting that Isaiah, who lived and prophesied before Babylon had risen to be enough of a power to be perceived as a threat to Assyrian dominance, prophesied the downfall of Babylon.  To me, this feels like someone prophesying the fall of the Soviet Union (the Bolsheviks) before the outbreak of World War I.  I wrote about that in order to focus my mind on this passage.  Isaiah warns against the pride of nations and rulers.  Isaiah said that the rulers of Babylon would elevate themselves, in their own minds, to divine status, that everyone had heard of Moab’s pride, and that the Philistines would rejoice at the fall of their oppressors as if they had accomplished it themselves.  But God has other plans and things will happen as God has planned it.  Isaiah tells us that God says:

Surely, as I have planned, so it will be,
and as I have purposed, so it will happen.

We can put our trust in this: what God has planned will happen.

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.

Today’s passage goes back and forth between prophecies about God’s Chosen and God’s judgement against the wicked.  This passage begins with a passage which the Church has seen as a prophecy of Jesus’ starting His ministry in Galilee.  Isaiah says that in the future God will honor Galilee, that people walking darkness have seen a great light.  He goes on to write that a light has dawned on those living in a land of deep darkness.  He goes on to describe how the Messiah, Jesus Christ, will enlarge the nation, the people of God, and shatter the yoke which burdens them.  Today, I feel this is talking about how, through Jesus, God has called many people, including Gentiles, to Him and removed the burden of sin from them.  Isaiah then tells us that this salvation will be accomplished by the zeal of the Lord.  I want to emphasize that.  We often think of someone who has zeal for the Lord, but we rarely think about God having zeal.  God loves people with zeal, and accomplishes His purposes with that zeal.  All too often, whether we knowingly serve our own purposes, or think we are serving God’s, we tell ourselves that we have accomplished something by our strength and understanding.  We proudly say that we will rebuild that which God has destroyed.  Let us humbly remember to rely on the Lord.  Only if we put our trust in Him, and in His zeal, will we not be afraid.

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.

Usually when I read today’s passage I write about Isaiah’s calling because it is very powerful.  And, of course, there is the prophecy about the virgin birth here as well.  However, today I am drawn to some other things which Isaiah says in this passage.  At one point Isaiah warns those who call for God to hurry and hasten His work so that they may see it.  From the context he appears to be referencing those who do so sarcastically, those who are denying God.  However, I think Isaiah’s prophecy here should give us pause when we desire God to bring about His judgement soon.  Now to look at the context a little more.  Isaiah goes on from there to warn of those (and to warn them) who say that evil is good and good is evil.  We think we understand what he means there (and I believe we are mostly correct), but we tend to think what he writes after that is just an expansion on it.  However, I think the next two comparisons are worth some thought.  Isaiah warns against swapping light for darkness and swapping bitter for sweet (and vice versa in both cases).  So, it seems to me that he is warning those who hide or obscure that which should be seen and shine a light or draw attention to that which should be left unseen.  Or to put it another way, those who draw attention to something unimportant so that people will not pay attention to important matters.  All of this can be summed up by this warning

Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes
and clever in their own sight.

All of those who do the things which Isaiah warns against in his list of woes are guilty of thinking that they are wiser and/or more clever than everyone else.  They have forgotten, or never understood, that fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.  Finally, I want to leave you with this from chapter 8 verse 12:

“Do not call conspiracy
    everything this people calls a conspiracy;
do not fear what they fear,
    and do not dread it.

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.

For the last few years when I come to this passage I note that, of the four kings who reigned while Isaiah prophesied, three were described as doing what was right in the eyes of the Lord.  Nevertheless, Isaiah prophesied God’s coming judgement upon the people of Judah for their sins.  Isaiah told them that God was tired of their sacrifices and holy assemblies because they did not do what was right.  Yes, Isaiah does condemn their rulers, but only after first saying that they themselves were wicked and did not do what was right.  Isaiah speaks to a people who live in a land filled with wealth and power, that is also filled with idolatry.  All too often, we blame the problems around us on those in government, and think that the solution to them is to get the right people to run things.  Isaiah tells us that we need to work on fixing the problems we see, and if we do, God will put the right people in charge.  Of course, if we do that we risk God making us the people in charge.  And most of us know that being the right person in charge is a lot of work, because the right person knows that godly leadership means seeking what is best for those you are leading, at your own expense.  So, let us defend the oppressed, take up the cause of the fatherless, and plead the case of the widow!  However, do not make the mistake of doing this generically.  Find an oppressed person and defend them, or take up the cause of a fatherless person, or plead the case of a widow.  Doing what is right is hard work, but God will bless us if we do it.

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