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.