Today, I am reading and commenting on Isaiah 43-47.

I was reminded of the first episode of “The Chosen” when I read this part of the first verse of today’s passage:
“Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
    I have summoned you by name; you are mine.”
In that episode Mary Magdalene holds on to that verse in the face of her troubles and demon possession.  The high light of that episode comes when Mary is at the end of her rope and wants to die, Jesus calls to her by name.  I cannot convey just how powerful this verse affects me if you have not seen that episode.  God has redeemed us, and He calls us by name.  We just need to answer His call and turn to Him.  He will bring us from far away, even from the ends of the earth and blot out our sins.  He does this not because of anything we have done, not because we deserve it.  God will blot out our sins because it pleases Him to do so.  All of this God does for those who are called by His Name.  It does not matter how we identify ourselves as His, merely that we do so.  The prophet writes:
“Some will say, ‘I belong to the Lord’;
    others will call themselves by the name of Jacob;
still others will write on their hand, ‘The Lord’s,’
    and will take the name Israel.”
What matters is that we are His.  

The prophet also warns us against thinking ourselves to be the arbiter of what is right and true.  Whatever else we may think to worship, whatever else we might think to be the source of goodness is but a created thing.  Isaiah spells that out by giving the example of a carpenter who takes a tree, makes part of it an idol and burns the rest to cook his food.  He goes on to condemn Babylon for thinking that it was “the one” and that there were none beside it.  Only God can accurately say:
“I am the Lord, and there is no other;
    apart from me there is no God.”
If we are more than discarded potsherds on the floor of the potter’s workshop it is because God has made us into a vessel for which He has use.  If we refuse His purpose, we are worthless.  But, if you think you are worthless, remember that He has called you by name and you are His.

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

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

There are several parts of today’s passage which I thought about basing what I write on, but then I came to the end of the passage.  There Isaiah writes,
“Hear, you deaf;
    look, you blind, and see!
 Who is blind but my servant,
    and deaf like the messenger I send?
Who is blind like the one in covenant with me,
    blind like the servant of the Lord?
 You have seen many things, but you pay no attention;
    your ears are open, but you do not listen.”
I can think of several different ways in which that could be understood, but I think Isaiah was referring to the people of Israel when he wrote this.  Further, I think we should see it as directed at those of us who say we follow Christ.  God is calling us out, is calling me out.  We look at what has gone wrong in our society and turn to the government to fix it.  We claim to seek to serve God, yet we do not turn to Him.  God says through the prophet,
“I am the Lord; that is my name!
    I will not yield my glory to another
    or my praise to idols.”
So, let us stop thinking that the answer to what is wrong is for the government to fix it.  The answer to what is wrong is to turn to God and call on His name, to proclaim the One who came as a Covenant for the people and a Light for the Gentiles.  Let us pray to God and ask Him to transform our hearts, and through the transformation of hearts transform our society.

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 have never quite known how to word this thought, but I have long found it interesting that when the Assyrian field commander first tried suggested that Hezekiah and the leaders of Jerusalem should not rely on God to save Jerusalem from the Assyrians he mentioned that Hezekiah had destroyed all of the high places and altars where the people worshiped God (and idols, but he overlooked that) while demanding that the people only sacrifice to God at the temple in Jerusalem.  It was only after Hezekiah’s emissaries asked him to speak in Aramaic rather than Hebrew (Aramaic being the language the Assyrians spoke and Hebrew being the language which the people of Judah spoke) that the field commander said that the gods of no other country was able to save them from Assyria and that God would be no different.  The reason I have not written about this before is because I could not put into words why I thought it mattered.  Today I realized that when the field commander said that God would not be able to protect Jerusalem because the gods of no other people had been able to stop the Assyrians he did not say that was because the Assyrian gods were more powerful than those gods.  And when Sennacherib sent the letter to Hezekiah threatening Jerusalem, he also did not appeal to the might of the Assyrian gods.  Both Sennacherib and his field commander took credit for their successes against other nations and over the gods of those nations for themselves.  When I realized that I realized that they sound a lot like people today who argue against certain doctrines of Christian faith.  They often start out talking as if they have just a problem with that particular doctrine,  but they soon reveal that their real problem is with accepting that God has the power and authority to limit their behavior in any way.  Sennacherib and his field commander began by suggesting that they thought that God would not protect Jerusalem because Hezekiah had diminished His worship, but they quickly revealed that they rejected the idea that there was any power to which they needed to answer.  Do we truly acknowledge that we answer to God’s power?

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.

In today’s passage Isaiah begins by saying that a day will come when a king will reign in righteousness.  On that day, the eyes of those willing to see will be opened and the ears of those willing to listen will be unplugged.  I believe that this is a direct counter to Isaiah 6:9-10.  Those to whom Isaiah is referring to will begin to understand, turn to God, and be healed.  No longer will fools and scoundrels be honored and held up as examples to be emulated.  Instead those who noble deeds will be considered noble.  That day had not yet come when Isaiah prophesied.  In the meantime he told the people that the harvest would fail and the cities be abandoned.  This would go on and get worse until God’s Spirit was poured upon us, and then God’s justice would inhabit the land.  While in the simple form this was fulfilled with Jesus’ coming and the Spirit descending on Jesus’ disciples at Pentecost, there is an element of this prophecy which repeats.  Today, we see fools and scoundrels being honored and those who are able are leaving our cities.  This will continue until we open our eyes and clear our ears and turn to God.  Then He will pour out His Spirit upon us and heal us.  Let us pray to God for Him to pour out His Spirit all around 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 29-31.

The thing that came to me to think about was when the prophet writes:
“These people come near to me with their mouth
    and honor me with their lips,
    but their hearts are far from me.”
We often read this and the passage in Mark where Jesus quotes and think that they apply to others.  But we really need to examine our own lives to think about where maybe this applies to us.  Is my heart really close to God?  Or are my words of faith just words that are not reflected in my actions?  Is our worship based on human rules, or do we truly base it on God’s rules?  All too often we treat God as if we were the potter and He the clay, rather than as things really are.  God is our Creator.  He formed us just as a potter forms clay into whatever type of vessel he chooses.   He made us just the way He intended us to be.  If we wish to experience the joy which He also intends for us, we must learn to accept what He made us, and the tasks for which He made us.  We do not get to choose what God looks like, or what He commands.    All too often we are like obstinate children, making our plans without consulting God.   Instead of creating plans to deal with our struggles, let us call out to God for help.  Then He will come to us and be a voice in our ears telling us, “This is the way; walk in it.”  Let us reject the idols we have made and instead worship the One who made 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 26-28.

As I read this passage I was struck by this set of verses:
“When your judgments come upon the earth,
    the people of the world learn righteousness.
 But when grace is shown to the wicked,
    they do not learn righteousness;
even in a land of uprightness they go on doing evil
    and do not regard the majesty of the Lord.
 Lord, your hand is lifted high,
    but they do not see it.
Let them see your zeal for your people and be put to shame;
    let the fire reserved for your enemies consume them.”
Yet I could not see what to write about it.  Until I started trying to think about what the prophet means in chapter 28 were he says (paraphrased): “Is his message for children? It’s ‘Do this, do that, a rule for this and a rule for that.”  Then he says (again paraphrased), “They would not listen, so the word of the Lord will become, do this, do that, a rule for this and a rule for that.”  All of which is followed by the prophet saying that the leaders have  made a deal with death, using lies and falsehoods to protect themselves.  God replies to that deal by saying He has laid a cornerstone against which we are to measure our actions.  The loopholes we think we have found in His commands are not there.  We should measure our actions against that cornerstone, not by a slavish following of rules.  So, let us learn righteousness as God sheds His grace upon 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.

The passage starts off with Isaiah condemning those who take all the right steps to prepare for disaster: they put together a go-bag.  They pile up sand bags to hold back the flood waters.   They plywood up their windows against high winds, or mobs.  They arm themselves in order to defend against aggressors.  They have stored up preserved foods and other necessities against shortages.   They have taken all of the steps one should take to deal with natural or man-caused disasters, except for the most important one.  They have not turned to God in prayer.  They have prepared in all of the ways they can imagine, and then they feast in the face of the disaster they foresee.  However, God had called them to prayer and fasting.  We have been called to prayer.  Are we praying?  If you look at the world and see disaster coming, God has called you to prayer and fasting.  Are we listening to God’s call?  Are we doing what He asks of us?

Every year I try to avoid writing about the above again, but in the end I feel called to repeat that message, at least as much because I feel called to pray more as for any other reason.  However, this year I see a bit more in today’s passage.  God is calling us to warn the world around us of His coming judgement.  He is calling us to turn to Him and to call others to do likewise, but before we attempt to call others, He is calling us to pray.  If we turn to Him in prayer now, we will lift our voices in joy and praise the Lord when others see only disaster.

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.

There are three things which the prophet says at various points which spoke to me today.  They are not really connected the way I am going to put them together, but I think what I am going to write is part of what God has to say to us.  Isaiah told us that a day of the Lord is coming when those who rage against God will face destruction, a day when all of us will face terror.  That day will come because we have forgotten God, we have put our trust in things and people other than God.  Those who survive that day will be those who look to God, those who remember their Maker.  However, since all of us have sinned, there is terror waiting for us on that day.  The prophet tells us that such terror will be short-lived for those who put their faith in God.  In the evening, there will be sudden terror, but by morning its sources will be gone as if they never existed.  So, a terrible day is coming, if we put our trust in the Lord we need not fear that day (or any other day).

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.

The other day I wrote about how Isaiah prophesied that we should not be anxious for the coming of the day of the Lord.  Today he reiterates that point by reminding us that the day of the Lord will be a day of destruction, a day filled with God’s wrath and anger.  On that day God will punish the wicked for their sins…and all of us are wicked.  We may be forgiven, but we were wicked when God redeemed us.  When I read this, I always think about the fact that when Isaiah prophesied Babylon was a vassal state of the Assyrian Empire; Babylon was not yet a power in its own right.  At the end of Isaiah’s life, while Hezekiah was king, the Babylonian envoys who visited Hezekiah were the envoys of the Assyrian governor (not the right word) of Babylon.  Yet, Isaiah prophesies the fall of Babylon from great heights.  So, Isaiah is prophesying that Babylon would soon be a great empire, but would not remain one for long.  Interestingly, Isaiah here refers to parts of Babylon becoming swampland.  The “swampland” reference suggests to me a connection with the area south of the city of Babylon, which is in modern Iraq, and is swampland.  Yet, a little later, while speaking of the fall of Babylon Isaiah writes that the Assyrian in the Lord’s land will be crushed.  What makes that noteworthy is the fact that the Babylonian Empire which sacked Jerusalem and took its people into exile was ruled by Assyrians who overthrew the Assyrian Empire.  So, we have Isaiah, prophesying before the rise of the Babylonian Empire (or, as it is known to historians, the neo-Babylonian Empire) that it would be viewed as the Super Power of its day, yet it would fall at God’s command.

Another thing I find interesting is that Isaiah says:
“See, I will stir up against them the Medes,
    who do not care for silver
    and have no delight in gold.”
So, Isaiah prophesied that it would be the Medes who brought down the Babylonian Empire before the Babylonian Empire was a thing.  What struck me more is the way in which he refers to the Medes as not caring for silver, nor having a delight in gold.  What makes that interesting to me is that growing up I learned that the Medes had an Empire which allied with the Persians to overthrow the Babylonians.  The idea of an empire of the Medes was based on the writings of Herodotus, who described an empire of the Medes.  However, modern archaeologists have been unable to find evidence of a empire of the Medes.  Based on the evidence they have found they have concluded that the Medes never built an empire.  Rather they had a confederation of semi-nomadic tribes which dominated a portion of what is now Iran and Iraq, but never truly ruled over it.  The recent conclusions which they have reached reflect a society which would have been viewed by someone like Isaiah as having no care for silver or gold.  All of which makes me marvel at God revealing the rise of Babylon, and its fall to the Medes to Isaiah, who lived before Babylon began its rise. 

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.

Isaiah prophesies the coming Messiah in a prophecy which can be seen as applying to Jesus, who started His ministry in Galilee.  Now there is nothing noteworthy in me taking note of that, Matthew makes that connection for us.  What I find interesting is that Isaiah continues from that Messianic prophecy to warning those who do not turn to God when things go wrong.  Isaiah warns those who suffer setbacks because of their sin who think they will just recover and go on to bigger and better things without turning to God.  As I read this today, I am struck that Isaiah’s prophecy here seems directed at those who see the changes going on right now as evidence that they have been vindicated and do not need to change their ways.  Isaiah warns that those who do not call people to return to God, or, perhaps turn to him in the first place, are misleading them, while those who follow such leaders are willfully being led astray.  If you are not following a leader who is calling you to change, to follow God more faithfully, you have chosen to be misled.  Each of us needs to examine ourselves and decide if we are turning to God to listen to what He wants of us.

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