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.

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

I want to start off today by repeating that three of the four kings who reigned while Isaiah prophesied were listed elsewhere as kings who did what was right in the eyes of God.  In today’s passage Isaiah condemns those who buy up property so as to live remote from their neighbors.  That seems to be a condemnation aimed at others, but he goes on from there to write that those of high rank will die of hunger and the common people will be parched with thirst.  That suggests that his “woe” applies to more than just the people with three or more mansions, perhaps it even applies to me, who has a house in the suburbs.  Then we come to the one we should all be worried about: woe to those who are anxious for God’s day of judgement to arrive.  Isaiah transitions from that to condemning those who call evil good and good evil, as if he is linking them together.  He goes on to warn against thinking that we are wise, or clever.  Let us seek justice for the innocent.  Let us strive to recognize our sins and repent of them.

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.

Last year when I wrote about this passage I noted that three of the four kings under whom Isaiah prophesied are recorded as “doing what was right in the eyes of God.”  Nevertheless, Isaiah prophesied woe against a sinful nation.  In particular, Isaiah prophesies against people who were making offerings to the Lord, people who claimed to be doing as God commanded.  Isaiah condemned their offerings and their righteous assemblies, even though they followed the letter of God’s law in doing these things.  Often when I read the prophecies of the Old Testament prophets I see them condemning a society which sacrifices its children, practices sexual promiscuity, and rejects God.  In today’s passage, Isaiah was condemning those who thought they were serving God.  He warns that we have brought disaster upon ourselves by parading our sins for all to see.  Isaiah tells us to seek justice, defend the oppressed, take up the cause of the fatherless, and plead the case of the widow.  First, I want to point out that many of those protesting in the streets today fail to fulfill what Isaiah commands because they put themselves in the place of those for whom Isaiah says we should advocate (this isn’t about advocating for yourself).  Second, when Isaiah says to defend the oppressed, he is not referring to some anonymous group.  No, he means defend specific people who are oppressed, people who you know by name.  You cannot address any of these issues in general, you must find specific cases and do what is in your power to make them right.  That means giving food to a hungry person, paying the heating bill for someone who might otherwise be cold.   Or, to put this another way: if you don’t feel called out by this passage, you are one of the people Isaiah is condemning (if you DO feel called out by this passage, you may be one of the people whom Isaiah is condemning but you are on track to receive the forgiveness he promises that God has for those who turn 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 64-66.

Since I am going to be on vacation from July 31-August 9 I have already written my blog posts for these days and scheduled them to be posted.  However, I may not be able to post a link to them on FaceBook, Gab.com, or MeWe.com during every day (or any day) during this time period.  So, please continue to visit my site to read my daily devotional.

Yet another day where I am not quite sure what I am going to write.  So, I will just start writing the thoughts which I have and see where that leads me.  Isaiah asks how can we be saved when all of us are unclean and our righteous acts are filthy rags.   God answers Isaiah’s question by telling us that He revealed Himself to those who did not ask for Him and was found by those who did not seek Him.  But God also condemns those who hold themselves better than others while wallowing in sin.  Of those he says:

“I called but you did not answer,
    I spoke but you did not listen.
You did evil in my sight
    and chose what displeases me.”

Instead let us humbly throw ourselves upon God’s mercy, for He tells us:

“These are the ones I look on with favor:
    those who are humble and contrite in spirit,
    and who tremble at my word.”

I recognize that I am not worthy of God’s forgiveness, but He extends it to me anyway.  And, if He is willing to forgive me, surely He will forgive you.  Please understand, we should all take that attitude.  All anyone must do is recognize their own sinfulness and turn to God, asking Him to transform them into His likeness.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on Isaiah 60-63.

Since I am going to be on vacation from July 31-August 9 I have already written my blog posts for these days and scheduled them to be posted.  However, I may not be able to post a link to them on FaceBook, Gab.com, or MeWe.com during every day (or any day) during this time period.  So, please continue to visit my site to read my daily devotional.

According to the Gospel of Luke when Jesus began His ministry in Nazareth, He read from Isaiah 61 and said that it was fulfilled in their hearing.  He stopped with the phrase, “to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”  However, rabbinic tradition was (and I believe still is) that to quote the beginning of a prophecy is to call out the entire passage.  Which is interesting because the sentence Jesus ended with concludes with “and the day of vengeance of our God.”  Now most of chapter 61 continues speaking about things related to the “year of the Lord’s favor”, and I believe that Jesus’ ministry was (and is) about God’s love and forgiveness.  However, I also believe that God’s vengeance against those who will not turn from evil, as described in chapter 63, goes along with His renewed offer of forgiveness.  Whenever I read this I am reminded of the song, “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” (also known as “Mine Eyes Have Seen The Glory”).  While some have said that the song glorifies the war making of the Union Army during the Civil War, I have always thought of the death and suffering experienced on both sides as examples of God “trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored.”  The terrible suffering of the Civil War came about because of the grave sin of the way slavery was practiced in this country (I believe that many other countries are still suffering from the ways in which they practiced slavery).  I fear that a new day of such suffering will come upon this country when God pours out His wrath over the innocent blood which is shed in our abortion mills.  Let us fast and pray that God transform our society before that day comes.
I want to note that the passage tells us that it is but a day of God’s wrath with a year of His favor.

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