Year 9, Day 31: Isaiah 47

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Isaiah 47 gives us words against Babylon.  I’ve personally always thought that the study of Assyria and Babylon in the Old Testament is underdone.  We can learn so much from God’s relationship and use of Babylon, especially with respect to God’s understanding of righteousness.

We know that both Babylon and Assyria were brought onto the scene when the Hebrew people became rebellious and turned to foreign idols.  God called them out of their land to conquer the Hebrew people.  He wanted to show the Hebrew people that their foreign gods cannot save them.  He wanted to show them that they could not save themselves.  He wanted to show them their need for Him and His redemption.

However, look at what the Lord says about them.  He says the same thing about Babylon as He said about Assyria.  Although they were called to be implements of judgment, the were merciless.  They were ruthless.  They were cruel.  They took pleasure in beating other people down.

God may have wanted to judge His own people, but there isn’t a need to do the job without mercy.  God’s point is clear here.  Someone has to be judge, jury, and executioner.  But we don’t have to relish the task.  We don’t have to enjoy watching other people go down.  We certainly don’t have to enjoy benefiting at their expense.  We don’t need to look for ways to take advantage of other people’s circumstances.

The Assyrians and the Babylonians did more than what was called for.  They took God’s calling and turned it into their own scheme for glory.  They abused God’s provision.  Therefore, God gives us chapters like this where he speaks about punishing them in turn.  When we take God’s call and turn it into our advantage, we invite God’s judgment onto us as well.  That’s a fairly significant lesson to learn.

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Year 9, Day 30: Isaiah 46

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Isaiah 46 is a hidden gem of a chapter.  At first, it seems like a simple chapter against Babylon.  It seems like a small chapter bemoaning the Babylonian love for their false gods and their inability to know God.  There’s more to this chapter, however.

This is a chapter where God is fighting for His people.  He knows that the Hebrew people are captive and in a foreign land.  They are presented with all kinds of different thinking.  They are tempted into false worship.  They are tempted to think that God has abandoned them.  In this chapter, God presents a case against all of these things.

The neat part about this chapter, though, is how God goes about the task.  God doesn’t use His power to force the people to obey.  God doesn’t snap His fingers and make the people obey.  God doesn’t remove their free will.  He doesn’t even impinge upon their free will.  God doesn’t use His incredible power against His people.

What God does is to appeal to their rational nature.  He argues His case.  He gives reasons why they should worship Him. He reminds them of how He carries them through life.  He talks about what He can do for them in their times of need.  He appeals to them rather than forces them.

I think this is one of the most profound attributes of God that many people in the world get wrong.  People think of God’s omnipotence, but they don’t often credit God with how often He doesn’t use His omnipotence and instead allows people to have free will.  People attribute all kinds of things to His power without also crediting Him with the times that He lets us be ourselves.  God doesn’t want to force us into relationship, He wants us to choose it for himself.

I love this aspect of God and to be honest I believe that I could benefit from emulating it more.  In many places in my life I have power over others.  Life is best lived, however, when instead of using my power over others I mentor and teach people into good decisions instead of force them into the right way.  God understands this, I should employ this tactic as much as possible, too.

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Year 9, Day 29: Isaiah 45

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Chapter 45 begins with a look at the Lord’s anointed.  There is something interesting about the Lord’s anointed, though.  The name given is Cyrus.  Cyrus is a Persian king.  The Lord’s anointed – His messiah, quite literally translated – is a Persian king.

It’s important to remember that much like the word “antichrist,” the word for anointed and messiah are used generically and specifically.  Anyone who does the will of the Lord is anointed.  Anyone who allows the Spirit of the Lord to be within Him is His anointed.  That doesn’t make a person the Anointed or the Messiah.  God’s Anointed, God’s Messiah, is the one who will save humanity once and for all.  That would be Jesus.  Don’t confuse the issue here.  There are many people whom God anoints; there is one Anointed.

A powerful subtheme comes through this point about Cyrus.  Cyrus is anointed by God and he is a Persian king.  Once more God demonstrates that he is the God of all people.  He is the God of the Gentiles as well as the God of the Hebrew people.  God will call and use a Persian king.  He will continue to call and use Gentiles after Christ’s work on the cross as well.

God continues this theme in the second half of the chapter.  He speaks to the nations and reminds them that He has always been there speaking truth.  He wants them to realize that He has been with them, too.

This is an important point to consider.  God acknowledges that they have truth in their communities.  Their wise people have found some wisdom.  The problem isn’t that they are ignorant of the truth, the problem is that they are attributing the truth to the wrong thing.  They think their wisdom is coming from other human beings or false idols of their own making.  They are missing the source of all truth.

I love the fact that Isaiah informs us that other cultures do have truth within them.  So often, it is all-to-easy to think of truth as something “we have” and therefore “others don’t.”  That simply isn’t the perspective of God here.  The nations have access to truth just like the Hebrew people do.  The issue isn’t that they don’t know truth, the issue is that they’ve missed the genuine source of the truth.

I have that same problem from time to time.  I occasionally think I’m wise when I should be giving the glory to God.  I occasionally think other people are wise when I should be giving the glory to God.  I occasionally judge other people foolish instead of looking for where they might have access to truth.  I have much to learn from Isaiah’s perspective.

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Year 9, Day 28: Isaiah 44

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This chapter gives us a very honest look at humanity.  I love the middle section that talks about a human being who plants a tree.  The worldly rain waters it.  Humans tend it.  Eventually human beings cut it down.  Part of it they cut up to throw in a fire and bake bread.  The other part they cut and shape into a god.  They then bow down and worship it, thinking it has some special power.

This is a hysterical thought!  If the wood had special powers, why would it let itself get chopped down, cut up, and burned?  In converse, it the wood that was burned had no special power, why do people think that the wood that wasn’t burned has any different power?

This sounds very common sense.  However, we are all guilty of the same thinking.  How many of us worship the very money that we slave over to earn!  How many of us worship the cars and clothing that we spend our own money to possess?  How many of us worship our own children, kids that we brought into existence?  The truth is that human beings excel at worship that which we make ourselves.  We love to worship the fruit of our efforts.  We should be worshipping a God who can create out of nothing; we end up worshipping a god of our own creation.

As I said yesterday, the neat part about this is that God knows this. He gets us, even though we sin.  He provides redemption for us.  It’s not like our sinfulness catches Him off-guard.  He redeems even as He plans to judge our sins.  He can judge us because He also knows our redemption.

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Year 9, Day 27: Isaiah 43

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Isaiah 43 helps us start to make the transition between the Assyrian and the Babylonians.  God defeated the Assyrians and sent them packing, but that wasn’t enough.  The Hebrew people of Judah repented for a little while but then went back to their old ways.  That’s the trouble with humanity.  We repent, we try, but we don’t live sin-free.  We don’t have it within ourselves to be free from sin.

This is why we need a savior.  This is why we need a redeemer.  We need God.  We need Hm because we cannot do it ourselves.  Only God can take us and promise a future when we’ll be able to live the right way.  Only in God do we have that hope.  We can live in this world on our own without Him, but we’ll never get it right forever.  We’ll always make mistakes.  We will always need a God with is other to make us right.

This is why God looks to His people and tells them to fear not.  Yes, God knows they have made mistakes.  God knows that they have gone to their own devices and abandoned His statutes.  He knows this; we cannot hide it from Him.  That being said, that is why He brought Assyria!  That is why He will bring Babylon.  The people are in need of judgment, but not abandonment!  The point of judgment isn’t punishment, it it repentance and redemption!

I love the exchange between god and His people that begins in verse 8. “Bring out the people who have eyes but do not see.”  That is so true for all of us.  We can try the best that we can, but who among us can actually know the future?  We can make the best choices, but they will always be in the moment and not with the full wisdom of God.  Even our choices made with the best of intentions don’t always work.  We have eyes, but we sure can’t see like God can see.

We does He redeem us?  Yes, because we need Him.  That isn’t why He redeems us, though.  He tells us why He redeems us.  He redeems us for His sake.  He redeems us because He is righteous.  He redeems us because He sees that we are in need and He gives us His aid.  He redeems us because it is who he is.  He redeems us because He is God and capable of doing it.

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Year 9, Day 26: Isaiah 42

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While reading Isaiah 42, it sometimes feels backwards.  After all, Isaiah 42 starts with a hopeful look towards the Lords anointed.  Then it speaks to reasons to praise the Lord.  Finally, it turns to a rebellious Hebrew people who refuse to listen to Him.  Wouldn’t it make more sense to speak about the rebellion, turn to hope, and then praise God?

Remember the point of the prophets, especially the major prophets and especially the early prophets.  The prophet’s were the people of God through whom the Lord spoke when He needed to get the attention of the people and draw them into repentance.  Specifically with Isaiah, this prophet gets to look at the fall of Israel, deal with that event, warn about the near fall of Jerusalem, and then begin to pick up those pieces.  Isaiah was a prophet leading up to the exile of the northern kingdom and show serious concern about the exile of the southern kingdom.

In this light, Isaiah does want to give hope.  Even in the midst of sinfulness, God looks for a time when the sinfulness will be overcome and repentance will happen.  He longs for a time when the people will be ready for a good leader – ready to be led the right way.  He waits for the time that the people will desire to be led by someone who will not grow weary in doing what is right.  People often talk about how the world needs good leadership, and it does.  We often forget that good leadership can only exist when there are people who are willing to embrace it and promote it.

This brings us to the praise of God.  He is the one who brings peace to us.  He is the one who makes all things new.  He is the one who is worthy of our praise.  He is the one who fights for us.  He is the one who brings light into the darkness.  We should indeed praise Him!

After these great passages of hope, why then would Isaiah turn to the rebellion of the people?  Why would Isaiah end here after such a great start?  The answer is simple.  The earlier sections are a look into the future.  The job of the prophets is to remind us of the present reality.  There is hope coming.  There is hope in the future.  But the reality is that the Hebrew people were in rebellion.  They were headed down a bad path.  They needed to be held accountable and shown their sin.  They need to be brought to a place where they can compare what could be or what will be with what actually is.  That is why Isaiah ends with the rebellion of the people.

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Year 9, Day 25: Isaiah 41

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I really enjoy the opening half of this chapter.  The Lord wants His people to fear not.  He wants them to anticipate comfort.  He wants them to know that He is still there for them, even in the midst of their judgment and trial.

It is comforting to know that the same God who judges us an restore us.  He who makes the populated places into a wilderness can take the wilderness and make it populated.  He can turn the fertile places into parched land and back again.  He can shut up the rivers and open them up again.

I don’t know a single person who is able to judge righteously.  We all have sin and a most imperfect amount of power!  We are all limited.  Not so with God!  God can judge us perfectly, knowing our sin.  He also can judge us perfectly, knowing the grace that He longs to impart upon us.  He is the one who can send us into exile as well as bring us back out.

In this context, God then addresses false idols.  He asks them who can predict the future or even bring something into existence.  The reality is that the things we lift as gods in our life are unable to do what He does.  They might appease us for a while and bring a certain limited amount of pleasure into our life.  But they cannot truly create.  They cannot truly save.  They cannot continually speak truth into our lives.  Only the God who is perfectly capable to judge and restore can do these things.

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Year 9, Day 24: Isaiah 40

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Isaiah 40 begins with a voice of hope.  In fact, it is such a voice of hope that the passage is quoted into the New Testament and used in reference to the coming of God’s Messiah.  The amount of hope meant to be contained in this chapter is similar to the amount of hope that God desires to come to us through His Son.  Prepare the way of the Lord!

Remember what Isaiah has been talking about.  The people of Israel went into exile under Assyria.  Much of Judah was conquered by Assyria as well.  Only the people in Jerusalem were spared from the Assyrian judgment.  In the past two chapters, Isaiah has looked forward to the return from exile.  Into this context we hear Isaiah proclaim that we are to prepare the way of the Lord!

The reason that the Hebrew people went into exile was because they abandoned the ways of the Lord.  Therefore, the people returning from exile will return after repentance have occurred and the ways of the Lord have been embraced.  Forgiveness and restoration naturally follow genuine repentance.  When we prepare the ways of the Lord – when we genuinely repent and follow Him – we fid ourselves back under the protection, guidance, and provision of the Lord.  When we prepare the ways of the Lord, we are in the relationship that He intended to have with us.

This is why this chapter speaks so loudly into the story of John the Baptizer and the coming of Jesus.  John is calling people into repentance.  John is asking people to change their ways and return to the Lord.  John knows that the path to peace and hope begins with our repentance and embracing God’s wisdom.

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Year 9, Day 23: Isaiah 39

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There are 2 really neat thoughts that come through in this passage.  The first one is comes through Hezekiah’s desire to show the envoys of Babylon all that he has.  Isn’t the pride of humanity really foolish?  Hezekiah has just come through the siege of Assyria.  He thought his life was over.  As soon as it is over, some people come from Babylon under the guise of wishing him well.  Hezekiah takes them in and shows them all the splendor of Jerusalem.  It never crosses Hezekiah’s mind to think that maybe these Babylonians were coming in to see if it is worth bringing forth a siege of their own!

Of course, I’m not one who is in a place to judge.  After all, how often do I do something cool or unique and I want to show other people?  I don’t think that they might steal the idea and take the fame and glory for themselves.  I don’t think that they might use it to their own glory.  No, I simply want other people to be impressed with me (there’s the pride part) and I get so caught up in the vain pursuit of pride that I don’t really think.  That just about sums up Hezekiah’s action in this passage – and I’m no different.

The second lesson in this passage shows Hezekiah’s focus.  He hears Isaiah’s critique of his actions and tells him that the day is coming when the army of Babylon will conquer Jerusalem and plunder all that it has.  Look at his response.  He says that it is a good word from God.  Don’t get me wrong, all words from God are good.  But look at his motivation.  He is fine with the judgment because there will be peace in his day.  In other words, he doesn’t really care what happens to Jerusalem after he dies, what’s it to him – even if it does mean that his own offspring will suffer?

I find this to be a horribly narrow and narcissistic attitude.  Yet, it is rather popular among human beings.  Why should I care if it doesn’t affect me?  Why should I care if I don’t get hurt by it?  Why should I care unless I have skin in the game?  These are essentially the same thoughts as Hezekiah offers up.

The reality is that human beings talk a great talk.  We talk about social justice, peace, and equality.  Yet, the truth is that what we really want is social justice for me, peace for me, and equality for me.  Most of us can’t be raised up to be bothers about social justice of other people.  After all, how many people around the world can’t find food to eat?  How many people around the world can’t find quality water to drink?  How many people send their nights in place that is neither safe nor warm?  Yet how often do we do anything about it (myself included)?  We talk a great game, but most of us feel like Hezekiah on most days.  If it doesn’t affect me, why should I care?

I thank God that He is not like most of us.

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Year 9, Day 22: Isaiah 38

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The flight of the Assyrians before God is one of my favorite single acts of the Old Testament.  Here we have a massive army with all the human power it wants.  They have the advantage of time and with an elongated siege can starve the Hebrew people out if they want.  There is no reason that the Assyrians should have lost.

There is no earthly reason, that is.  God sends a plague among the Assyrians and decimates their camp.  The Assyrians turn tale and return home in defeat.  It is a great victory for God, done simply because Hezekiah and the Hebrew leadership repents before their God.  It is proof that in the right circumstances, the most powerful position a human can bring is on their knees.

As a part of God bringing punishment upon the Hebrew people, Hezekiah is himself is told that he will die.  Once more we see the power of repentance.  He repents and God decides to spare his life.  He is granted 15 more years of life.

Repentance, though, doesn’t have changing God’s mind at its core.  Repentance is not a way for us to secretly manipulate God’s action.  Listen to Hezekiah’s account.  Hezekiah says, “It was for my welfare that I had great bitterness.”  Repentance is for us, not for God.

God wants to bless His people.  He longs to be in meaningful relationship with them.  He brings judgment because we are in error and are choosing not to self-correct.  Even in the judgment, though, God would prefer to be in positive relationship with us!  Therefore, when we repent we are not changing God, we are changing ourselves so that we can experience God’s blessing instead of His wrath.  It is not God who changes, it is us.  Because we change, we alter the tactics that God must use in His relationship with us.

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Year 9, Day 21: Isaiah 37

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It is amazing what a little repentance can do.  Hezekiah sees the Assyrian army take up positions against his city and knows that there is no way out except to come before God and beg.  Hezekiah does just that.  He goes before the Lord and pleads.  He confesses his faith in the Lord and asks Him to intervene.

The Lord listens.  He responds.  He slaughters almost 200,000 Assyrians overnight and sends the Assyrians back to their home with their tails tucked between their legs.  The defeat is so bad that Sennacherib’s own sons come in and kill him.

Look at the difference between humble repentance and self-indulgent pride.  Hezekiah comes before the Lord humbly and the Lord listens and saves Jerusalem.  Sennacherib grows more and more self-indulgent in the pride he has over his growing power and the Lord shows him His wrath.  The difference between humbleness and pride cannot be any greater than we see here in this passage.

The Lord doesn’t need obsequious behavior.  He doesn’t need spineless pathetic people.  That isn’t the point of being humble.  Humble people know from where their power comes and acknowledge it.  The Lord desires that we come forth boldly into His plan, giving Him the glory and the honor for what He has done.  When we make a mistake, He simply asks us to repent of the mistake, owning it and changing so that the mistake doesn’t happen again.  That’s what Hezekiah does here in this chapter.

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Year 9, Day 20: Isaiah 36

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Isaiah 36 reveals the dangerous pride that easily overcomes God’s servants.  This chapter is all about the coming of the Assyrians.  At God’s request, remember, the Assyrians came out of their land and descended like a plague upon the Promised Land.  Syria fell.  Israel fell.  The countries east of the Jordan fell.  Now Assyria comes to Jerusalem to see if Judah will fall.  Do not forget that all of this was at the will of the Lord!

The problem, though, is that Assyria becomes arrogant.  They forget their place.  They forget why they are here as well as who enabled them to be here!  They forget everything that is important as they become drunk on their own importance.  They become intoxicated with their own power and their own strength.  Humbleness is replaced with arrogance.

Hear the words of the servant of the Assyrian king as he speaks.  Can it really be that he insinuates the Lord cannot save Judah when he speaks in Isaiah 36:15 as well as in Isaiah 36:18-20?  Look at the pride and arrogance that comes.  Look at how the servant Assyria, called out of their place by God, has forgotten their place!

This is what is bred by success.  Success done wrong breeds pride.  Success done wrong counters humility.  Success done wrong leads us to the antithesis of God.  Success done wrong pulls us away from God and our understanding of our place within His plan.  The Assyrians fall not because they were conquerors but because they became arrogant and forgot their place.

They challenge God, and God proves them wrong.  Isaiah says it again and again.  The judge will become the judged.  The conqueror will become the conquered.  Their pride will be their downfall.  They forgot their place in God’s plan and fell because of it.

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Year 9, Day 19: Isaiah 35

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As bleak as Isaiah 34 is, Isaiah 35 is filled with hope. In this chapter we have creation celebrating.  Happiness abounds.  Order is reset.  Life seems to go on as it was meant to be.

This is the way of all good love stories.  Every Hallmark movie ever made follows this plotline: Boy meets girl, relationship happens, there is a crisis point, busting through the crisis reveals a greater relationship, the movie ends happily.  For the record, every Disney movie typically has the same sequence: Main character is living normally, along comes something of interest (usually a person of the opposite gender, a crisis threatens the main character’s normal life, bursting through the crisis reveal a new and improved life.  It is the way that stories are told.  Human beings learn best by bursting through moments of crisis.

The Bible is no different.  God knows this about us, He created us!  Isaiah is giving the Hebrew the full picture, because they are in the middle of the story and cannot see it completely.  They entered a relationship with God.  For a while, life was great.  Then the Hebrew people fell away from God and the crisis of the Assyrians (and later, Babylonians) would come.  The part that they can’t see is after the Assyrians and Babylonians come there will be restoration and an even better relationship with God.

This is true on a much bigger scale for all of us.  God gives us His relationship with the Hebrew people as an example for us to learn from.  We will all go through life, reaching several crisis points along the way.  We will have social crises, emotional crises, physical crises, spiritual crises.  When we overcome these crises, though, we will find a new and deeper life waiting for us on the other side.

What is neat about this chapter of Isaiah is His desire to not only teach us this pattern but to also include creation.  Isaiah ties the world around the people into the story.  The world around the Hebrew people will rejoice and celebrate when the crisis is past.  So does the world around us celebrate when our crisis is past.  As poets and storytellers often reveal to us, once we find a new and deeper existence, the colors are always brighter, the sounds are always clearer, and world is just a better place.  Human beings encounter crises all the time; we are better for them once we are able to proper get through them and learn what it is that God would have us learn.

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Year 9, Day 18: Isaiah 34

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Isaiah 34 is a rather bleak chapter.  We hear about judgment.  We hear about violence.  Perhaps most disturbingly, the violence is being done by the Lord’s own hand.  The Lord has had enough, and judgment comes against the nations.

Why is the Lord angry?  Judging from the imagery in this psalm, we can say that the Lord is angry with how human beings are violent towards one another.  We dominate over one another.  We do not support each other.  We take advantage of one another.

Because of this, the Lord comes in judgment.  His sword is sated in blood.  It comes from the heavens to strike against the earth.  People will be struck so hard that wild animals will come and dwell in the places of civilization.  Thorns, nettles, and thistles grow in the places where civilization once existed.  In other words, judgment will be thorough.

How do we avoid this fate?  Seek and read the word of the Lord.  Familiarize ourselves with them.  He has commanded, we should know what He desires.  He has spoken, we should listen and obey.  God’s judgment comes, the best way to avoid it is to not put ourselves in harms way in the first place.

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Year 9, Day 17: Isaiah 33

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Isaiah addresses several groups of people in this passage.  First comes the words for the destroyer.  These words most likely apply to Assyria.  They are the ones that God has called out of their place to bring His people into judgment.  God wans them that when they are done destroying they will be destroyed.  God called them for the purposes of being the consequence for the insolence of the Hebrew people, but the Assyrians took the power God gave to them and abused it.

The second group of people receive the majority of words.  These are the faithful remnant.  Even as the Assyrians come towards Jerusalem, there are a group of people who continue to have faith.  There are those who see the Lord as their salvation.  He is their arm, they wait for Him.  They know that He scatters the nations.  They believe that in Him is an abundance of salvation.

These are the faithful remnant.  They believe when others feel hope failing.  They turn to the Lord when others turn to human sources of strength.  They stay loyal when others grasp at straws.  They continue to place their hearts on the things of God while others give birth to chaff and stubble.  They fear the Lord, and this becomes the treasure of the Lord.

The third group of people are spoken of near the end.  When the Lord rises up to save His people, we are told that those who are saved will no longer see the insolent people.  The people who have an obscure speech will be gone.  The people who stammer and cannot be understood will be gone.

These words indicate a people who do not live in truth. They do not speak the truth.  They do not use words that inspire truth in others.  They do not have the ability to speak words that last and have a deeper meaning.  They are not God’s people; they are people who pursue their own desires, their own thoughts, and their own ways.

The point at the end is that they are gone.  They are put away from God and God’s people.  They are dismissed from God’s eternal presence.

In the end, we see a people beloved by God juxtaposed between two examples of people who are dismissed by God.  In the one case we have people who are empowered by God and abuse the power for their own selfish gain.  In the other case we have people who deny God’s truth and instead utter their own folly.  The ones that God treasure wait for Him, stay loyal to Him, and have the ways of the Lord near to their hearts.

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Year 9, Day 16: Isaiah 32

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I find the opening verses of Isaiah 32 extraordinarily interesting in today’s political climate.  In the United States, we have a government shutdown while politicians that few people really trust squabble over immigration, health care, taxes, national debt, and other various topics.  In England, their government continues to wrestle with Brexit.  Debates rage.  Hostilities boil over.  Agenda lines are drawn in the sand.

All the while, the people are forgotten.  It used to be that elected officials were expected to represent the wishes of their constituents.  It used to be that government agencies were supposedly about protecting the interests of the people.  Now our leaders fight amongst themselves, viciously scrapping for any power they can get their hands upon.

In this cultural milieu, we hear the opening to Isaiah 32.  A king will reign in righteousness.  He will be like a shelter from the wind.  He will be like a stream in a dry place.  He will be alike a great shade in a weary land.  It almost sounds like the leaders in the day about which Isaiah writes will be refreshing!

Isn’t this a novel idea?  Imagine a place where one’s leaders can be trusted.  Honestly, imagine a place where one’s leaders can even be understood!  Imagine a time when decisions that are made are done with righteousness and fairness in mind.  Imagine a time when instead of skepticism and fear we view our leaders through eyes of faith and anticipation!

This is the hope that we have in the Lord.  I truly long for the day when I will have absolute trust in those who are set over me to lead me.  I can’t wait for the day when I meet a leader and genuinely believe that they care about me and not either what I can do for them or how their power can benefit themselves.  How refreshing that day will be when the Lord rules over us directly.

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Year 9, Day 15: Isaiah 31

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Once more we hear the proverbial warning to not go to Egypt for help.  The undercurrent is still there.  Egypt is mankind.  They are not God.  Their help is temporal.  Their help will eventually fail.

There is more to it than this, though.  Remember that Egypt was the oppressor.  Egypt is the nation out of which God rescued His people.  Egypt was the people against whom the Hebrews originally cried!  When the Hebrew people beg for help from Egypt, they are turning back to their old oppressors instead of turning to God!  When the Hebrew people turn to Egypt and ask for military aid, they are choosing to seek salvation from the oppressor and not from the true life-giver.

The Lord is quite offended by this prospect.  When the Lord strikes out against His people with the Assyrians, the Egyptians will get caught up in the judgment.  God will need to put the Egyptians in their place so that the Hebrew people will understand that their salvation comes solely from God and not anyone else.

What is the lesson in this?  When we need help, turn to God.  God may use other people to help us, and that’s okay.  But we should always make sure that we understand that our help is coming from God and He deserves the credit.  When we need salvation – temporal or eternal – it comes from God.

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Year 9, Day 14: Isaiah 30

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Here lies another chapter of judgment.  That’s a promise, not a threat.  There is much to learn from chapters of judgment.  It is said that the human brain learns 8 times more when recovering from a mistake than when experiencing victory.  That means that this chapter should contain some great lessons for us!

First of all, God speaks to the Hebrew leaders again.  He knows that they plan to seek help from Egypt.  He knows that they are inherently saying that they feel God is powerless to save them.  He knows the insult they pour out when they search for salvation in things other than Him.  The same applies to us as well.  When we turn to salvation from sources other than God – our bank accounts, our possessions, other people, etc – we send a clear message to God about our belief in His ability to save us.

This brings us to Isaiah 30:18. This verse is my new favorite verse for the day.  “Therefore, the Lord waits to be gracious to you.”  It is natural to hear that as a verse of hope, but I believe it is a threat.  The question is, why would God wait to be gracious?  Cannot God be gracious now?  Of course He can!  The reason God waits to be gracious is because the people aren’t ready.  The rebellion of the people is causing God to wait!  God will wait to be gracious until the people are ready to receive His grace.  There is a big lesson here, too.  God is more than capable of being gracious.  However, He is also more than capable of keeping His graciousness from being wasted on people unwilling to receive it.  It’s important to keep ourselves in a position of being ready to receive His grace instead of convincing Him to wait to be gracious to us.

We then come to the end.  There is promise of redemption.  There is promise of a return to provision and life.  There is a promise for the freedom from oppression.  That time comes into being when we are willing to cast aside our idols and wish them to begone.  Then the Lord will hear us.  Then He will answer us.  Then He will teach us His ways.  Then we will walk in His ways.

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Year 9, Day 13: Isaiah 29

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This chapter gives us a basic outline of the history of Jerusalem from the siege of Assyria to the siege of Babylon.  Assyria will come onto the scene and conquer Israel.  They will march all the way down to Jerusalem.  They will conquer the countryside.  They will lay siege to the city.  Just when all hope is lost, a plague will overtake them and they will turn tail and head back to Assyria, ashamed.  The whole situation will bring about the death of the king of Assyria as his sons use the defeat to question his right to rule.

The sad thing is that such obvious evidence of God’s hand at work will be missed by the Hebrew people of Jerusalem.  As this chapter is Isaiah claims, the blind will continue to be blind!  Even when the spirit of the Lord is poured out before them, the people will not recognize Him at work.  They will remain too focused on their own desires and enjoying their sudden release from certain death to recognize god’s hand at work in their life.

The Hebrew people are honoring God with their lips, but their hearts are not near to God.  They are saying the right words, but they don’t really mean them.  They are going through the motions, but they aren’t actually practicing the ways of the Lord.

This leads us to a great conclusion.  The meek will obtain the joy of the Lord.  If the leadership will ignore the hand of God at work, the Lord will save those who will take the time to notice.  The Lord will lift up those who honor Him.  He will sanctify them.  There will be a remnant that returns focused on relationship with their God.

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Year 9, Day 12: Isaiah 28

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Isaiah 28 begins another section of judgment.  These verses are primarily directed at the leadership of the Hebrew people.  It isn’t fair to place the entirety of blame for each individual’s sin upon the shoulders of the leaders.  We are all accountable for our own sinful rebellion.  It is fair to place the blame of the culture and its ethic upon its leaders.

This is the point of the Lord’s reprimand.  The leaders of the Hebrew people have been granted much power and position.  They have been blessed.  Yet they have no wisdom and will not listen to it.  Their judgment is like a drunkard, unable to think rationally.  They are interested in fulfilling their own desires, not handing out true justice.

God expects those in leadership to encounter a little blessing.  After all, leading people is hard work, there is need for some compensation.  However, the Lord expects such a leader to embrace a greater burden for those they are leading in exchange for the blessing.  Leadership is not meant to be a route to extravagant life at the expense of others.  Neither is leadership meant to be a route to wealthy living while neglecting others.  Leaders are meant to lead for the sake of others.

This is why we come across the idea of justice in the prophets.  The Hebrew culture had become much like every other human culture in the world.  Instead of the leadership of the culture looking after the people and guiding them towards God, the leaders used their power and position to accomplish their own desires, often at the expense of others.

There is a serious lesson to learn for leaders.  No leader is perfect, of course.  All leaders will make mistakes simply because no person can accurately know the future.  But leaders must try their best.  They must lead with what’s good for the people – not necessarily the popular opinion.  They must lead with truth and justice, not an eye for their own selfish leisure.

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Year 9, Day 11: Isaiah 27

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Isaiah 27 is a great chapter of hope and truth.  It starts with a wonderful image of the vineyard.  Here is a vineyard that is loved and cherished.  It is protected.  Barriers are erected to keep it safe.  This is a different perspective on the same vineyard that earlier in Isaiah is left abandoned and allowed to become overrun.  Now the vineyard is guarded and beloved.

This should prompt a question.  Why does the Lord’s opinion of this vineyard change?  Does the vineyard suddenly become better?  Does the Lord Himself change?  What’s the impetus for the perspective difference?

The end of Isaiah clues us in to what has happened.  The rebellious vineyard is dealt with.  Through exile, the vineyard was tempered and humbled.  God removed His favor and stopped His compassion to demonstrate to the rebellious people what life was like without Him.

When God removes His love, grace, and mercy life is difficult.  It is a humbling experience.  It changes us.  That’s the key.  When we come upon consequences, we are changed.  Our perspective grows.  We appreciate things we didn’t appreciate before.

This is why the Isaiah tells of a time that He will love the vineyard.  The people will change.  They will repent.  They will be shown the error of their ways and they will return to the Lord.  The Lord forgives and changes His position towards the vineyard.

What does it take on our part to be shown the favor of the Lord?  We simply need to be humble.  We need to be willing to repent and acknowledge our sins.  God doesn’t need our perfection; God desires our humbleness.

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Year 9, Day 10: Isaiah 26

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Isaiah 26:16-21 contains a very interesting comparison.  Isaiah speaks of humanity in comparison to a pregnant woman.  I specifically love the saying that we give birth to the wind.  Human beings are always full of great ideas.  We think we have the answer.  We are convinced we have the next great thing.  When in reality everything we do or make is limited in scope.  It might be great for a while, but it will eventually fade, fall out of favor, or otherwise pass by.  We give birth to the wind.  Nothing we do stands the test of time.  I’m beginning to sound like the author of Ecclesiastes.

This is followed by a greater confession.  We have accomplished no deliverance in the earth.  We cannot save ourselves, much less anyone else.  What can we as human beings do that has eternal power?

Then, there is the comparison to God and His eternal.  His dead will live.  Talk about eternal!  God’s dead will live.  Those who die in relationship to God will defeat death and live with Him forever!  He is our savior.  He is our deliverer. 

What does it mean to be righteous?  How can we be like Isaiah and be able to sing the praises of God in the midst of coming judgment and turmoil?  We remember our place.  We confess our limitations.  We understand that God’s dead will live and we seek to find our place in Him.

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Year 9, Day 9: Isaiah 25

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Isaiah 25 brings about the proper conclusion from the chapter of judgment that appears in Isaiah 24.  This chapter is about grace and mercy.  God will prepare a feast for all peoples.  He will destroy death forever.  He will wipe way the tears of people.  He will demonstrate His compassion to the world.

There are many interesting things about this chapter.  First of all, notice that the promise is for all people.  It is not just a promise for the Hebrews.  God will create a feast for all people.  He will wipe away the tears for all people.  God’s love is broad enough to cover anyone who would come to Him.

The second thing that comes about in this passage is the richness of the Lord’s splendor.  The Lord will have aged wine.  In other words, “the good stuff.”  He will have food full of marrow, meaning it will be rich and deep in flavor.  The extravagance of the Lord’s provision will not be in question.

Furthermore, look at what is said about God.  “This is our God; we have waited for Him, that He might save us.”  We wait upon the Lord.  Relationship with God is not about instant gratification.  Yes, there is salvation.  There absolutely is answer to prayer.  Yet we often wait for the Lord’s timing.  He knows what is best for us and when it is best.  Especially concerning the end when death is swallowed up forever, we will have to wait for the Lord – many of us will even wait through death!

In the end, we return to the judgment that God is binging upon the Promised Land in Isaiah’s day.  Why can Isaiah look upon this judgment and say the things that He has said thus far?  Isaiah can do this because his perspective is right.  When God brings judgment, Isaiah is looking to the end when death will be swallowed up and all people will be invited to dwell with Him.  Isaiah is focused on the eternal, not the present.  In order to understand God and His righteousness, especially in the midst of judgment and darkness, we need to have an eye on the eternal and God’s invitation to us.  It is what brings Isaiah through the judgment of His day.

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Year 9, Day 8: Isaiah 24

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Isaiah’s apocalypse is a fun to chapter to read, isn’t it?  Isaiah reminds us that the Lord will empty the earth.  The Lord will bring judgment upon the whole place.  The rich, the poor, the servant, the master.  All will fall under judgment regardless of one’s station in life.

The odd part of this chapter is the verses in the middle that speak about rejoicing.  Isaiah 24:14-16 tells us about rejoicing.  There are people who will be singing songs of praise as judgment is brought to the earth.  As the Lord is pouring out judgment, there will be songs praising God’s majesty.

Whenever I read that portion of scripture, it always feels out of place.  After all, what kind of people will celebrate at the judgment of the earth?  What kind of being will see fit to rejoice as the world is thrown into mourning?

The answer is simple: the faithful.  There are those who claim to know God but who cannot tolerate His judgment.  There are also people who long for God’s judgment but struggle when God gives us grace.  What God is looking for are a people who long for God’s grace, love, and mercy but who also understand the depravity of humankind and how much we deserve judgment.

The truth is that the faithful person is the one who sees God as righteous.  In His moments of grace, He is righteous.  In His moments of love, He is righteous.  In His moments of judgment, where He is ripping apart the foundations of the earth, He is righteous.  The faithful can sing praises to God even in the darkest moments of existence.

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