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.