Preliminary Thoughts on Isaiah 2008 May 9^th for June 6^th

Our scheme of reading the Bible, straight through the Old and New Testaments, but alternating between the two, brings us now, finally, to the prophets. In the Old Testament there are five major prophets and a dozen minor ones. (“Major” and “minor” depends mostly on the size of their books, not on the scope of their influence.) They are in the Bible because they wrote down what they had to say, they didn’t just preach. Similarly, at the end of the New Testament we will soon be reaching the apocalyptic book of Revelation.

Like most Christian kids, and a lot of other people, come to think of it, I was fascinated with the prophetic books at first because I had the idea that they foretold the future. Being able to see the future, near or distant, has obvious advantages to those of us who live “causal” existences. (“Causal” is a mathematical term meaning, roughly, that the causing event has to precede the caused event in time. In lay terms, you can’t have certain information from or about the future.)

It doesn’t take long to get bogged down in the religious instruction and railing against sin poetry of the prophets or the psychedelic images in Revelation, however. If you are looking for a roadmap of some future, you may find things in there that hint at that, but if you’re like me, you will get bored and nod off pretty quickly.

These prophets are all people who we’ve met at other places in the Bible. Isaiah, for example, was called into service in the year that King Uzziah died. We met King Uzziah and talked about the events of his reign back in the histories of Kings and Chronicles. Isaiah himself may have even been mentioned. Well, Isaiah was the de-facto religious leader of the faithful in Israel in his day. He was (in my imagination) the scraggly, cranky old man with long beard and blazing eyes who lived out of town, sat there day in and day out writing the Bible, and came in once in a while to preach a withering sermon to the apostate.

At least that’s the mental image I have of prophets. Maybe I’m thinking of Ezekiel. (Maybe I’m thinking of some of dad’s old war buddies….)

This is all to say that, although I’ve read through the prophets at least once in my life as a Christian (I know this because at least once I’ve intentionally read through the entire Bible, when I was a teenager), I don’t remember much from the prophets and didn’t pick up much from them. Maybe I was too young. Maybe I wasn’t ready then as I am now, as was the case with Ecclesiastes. Sure, we will all recognize certain key, famous phrases. A few verses from Isaiah are quoted annually in the Christmas story, for example, and who can forget Jeremiah 29:11 (“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”) that we memorized at Family Camp, probably the year that I came home and started this series. (Jeremiah will be next after Isaiah.)

But, the Bible is a lot more than just those few verses that we hear and learn on special occasions like that. It is huge compared to a half dozen sentences that anyone would recognize and I can’t believe that the other material doesn’t also have value for us. Thus the reason for this series; thus the reason that today we start hearing from the prophets of old.

The first thing we will see is that Isaiah writes unusually long chapters.

Isaiah 1:1 – 9 2008 May 12^th for June 9^th

Isaiah was the son of Amoz and ministered during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah of Judah. This was shortly before Jerusalem was destroyed and the few survivors were taken into captivity in Babylon for seventy years. Isaiah was prophesying just before these events about what would happen.

The children that God had raised up are rebellious. An ox or donkey knows where to go and who their boss is but the people of Israel do not. They are sinful, guilty, “a brood of evildoers,” and corrupt. They have turned their backs on God.

Their rebellion has gone on so long that there is no more point in beating them. They have welts, wounds, and untreated sores from the top of their heads to the bottom of their feet. Their hearts are afflicted and still they’ve done nothing about it.

“Your country is desolate.” The cities were burned down, the fields stripped, the whole land wasted. Only a few were left. If God had not shown mercy and left those few survivors, Jerusalem would have been utterly destroyed like Sodom and Gomorrah.

Isaiah 1:10 – 20 2008 May 14^th for June 10^th

The prophet now addresses the people of Israel as if they were the residents of Sodom and Gomorrah.

God is tired of all their festivals and sacrifices, all the animals they bring in to the Temple and slaughter, all the “trampling of my courts.” They have all become a burden to the Lord and he hates them all. ‘Look!’ he says in effect, ‘Quit praying to me with blood on your hands. Go quit doing wrong first!’

“Take your evil deeds out of my sight!

Stop doing wrong, learn to do right!

Seek justice, encourage the oppressed.

Defend the cause of he fatherless, plead the case of the widow.”

This is what God wants people doing, not just rote religious observance.

Anyone who was ever around my dad will recognize this:

“Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord.

Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow;

Though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.

If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the best from the land;

but if you resist and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword.”

Isaiah 1:21 – 31 2008 May 15^th for June 11^th

Jerusalem, which was once faithful to God, has become a harlot, a murderer. The silver is now dross (the non-metallic fluff the floats out of metal ore when smelting). All the leaders do is go after bribes. They are thieves. They do not listen to the plight of the orphans or widows.

God will straighten all this out. “I will turn my hand against you; I will thoroughly purge away your dross and remove all your impurities.” We’ll go back to the way it was with the righteous judges of the old days and once again it will be the “City of Righteousness, the Faithful City.”

“Zion will be redeemed with justice, her penitent ones with righteousness.

But rebels and sinners will both be broken, and those who forsake the Lord will perish.”

All the sacred things that they used to love will make them ashamed. All the evil will burn up and no one will put the fire out.

Isaiah 2:1 – 11 2008 May 17^th for June 12^th

Isaiah saw a vision about Jerusalem and Judah. In this vision the mountain where God’s Temple sits is made chief among all mountains. People from all nations will come there for instruction on how to live in God’s ways.

“Come let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob.

He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths.

The law will go out from Zion, the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples.

They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.

Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.”

This is the age-old dream of world peace under one benevolent God where no people need to expend resources for defense against any other peoples.

But this is not the current reality. God has abandoned his people because “they are full of superstitions from the East; they practice divination like the Philistines and clasp hands with pagans.” The lands, treasures, horses, and chariots of those people seem to be boundless. The land is also full of idols. The people worship things they made with their own hands. They “will be brought low” and not forgiven as a result. God will show his splendor and be dreaded. People will hide in the rocks and in the ground. Arrogance and pride will be crushed and, “the Lord alone will be exalted in that day.”

Isaiah 2:12 – 22 2008 May 17^th for June 13^th

The terrible vision of Isaiah continues.

God will humble the proud, lofty, and exalted in his day. Everywhere they are found, on large ships, towering mountains, great ships, towers and walls, everywhere men are arrogant they will be “brought low.”

“[T]he Lord alone will be exalted in that day, and the idols will totally disappear.”

When God appears in his splendor men will flee to the caves and rocks. They will throw their idols away “to the rodents and bats,” even the ones made from silver and gold. People will flee to the caverns and crags in the mountains. God will rule the earth.

“Stop trusting in man, who has but a breath in his nostrils.

Of what account is he?”

This text refers to what was in Isaiah’s time the imminent conquest of Jerusalem and deportation of a remnant to Babylon. To Isaiah, what he saw in his visions was inevitable. Such terrors are also applied to other crises in history, the overthrow of Jerusalem after Christ in 70 A.D. in which the second Temple was destroyed, and also the “end times” in which we (and people for hundreds of years before us) tend to believe that we may live (they have lived). In all of these instances, most of the people are killed and a few are taken away to lives of despair and slavery.

It is true that our own times contain many signs of coming turmoil and loss of comfort and security. Many of us have known no other way of life than the one that may soon be lost. We are unprepared. This is not a time to cease preparations.

Isaiah 3:1 – 15 2008 May 20^th for June 16^th

God’s judgment on Jerusalem and Judah will look like this:

All of the food and water will run out. None of the leaders will be left, not the soldiers or their commanders, the craftsmen, prophets or judges, not even a soothsayer. None will be left to lead the people except boys. Neighbors will fight each other, as will the old and the young, the honorable and the “base.”

“A man will seize one of his brothers at his father’s home, and say,

‘You have a cloak, you be our leader; take charge of this heap of ruins!’

But in that day he will cry out, ‘I have no remedy.

I have no food or clothing in my house; do not make me the leader of the people.’”

But even a cloak, under these circumstances, would be a sign of wealth and status.

Jerusalem had defied God. They had paraded their sins like Sodom. Disaster, their payment for this, was imminent.

“Youths oppress my people; women rule over them.”

God enters into his judgment as a judge entering his courtroom. His case is against the leaders and elders who have ruined and plundered his vineyards, who have run poor people out of their houses.

“’What do you mean by crushing my people and grinding the faces of the poor?’

declares the Lord, the Lord Almighty.”

Isaiah 3:16 – 26 2008 May 21^st for June 17^th

“The Lord says, ‘The women of Zion are haughty,

walking along with outstretched necks, flirting with their eyes,

tripping along with mincing steps, with ornaments jingling on their ankles.’”

All of their jewelry will be torn away, their heads will be bald (as in mourning). All of the finery will become a stench, they will have sores and baldness rather than beauty. The women will all be destitute because the men will all fall in battle.

Isaiah 4:1 – 5:7 2008 May 21^st for June 18^th

Things will be so bad that seven women will propose to each remaining man. They will ask no support, they will offer to feed themselves. All they will want is a name to take away their shame.

But for those who survive, God will make Zion a refuge. He will cleanse it and wash away the filth with a “spirit of fire.” Those who remain will become holy. There will be a cloud of protection by day and a flaming fire by night. The city will be a refuge from the storm.

The Song of the Vineyard.

“I will sing for the one I love a song about his vineyard.”

The one I love built a vineyard on a fertile hillside, dug it out and cleared the rocks, planted choice vines, built a watchtower, and dug out a winepress. He waited for a good crop “but it yielded only bad fruit.”

So now, all you in Jerusalem, be the judge. What should the vineyard owner do? What more could he have done to make it a success? Now he will take away its protection. It will be destroyed. It will be trampled into a wasteland. The rain will not fall. Only briars will grow in it; there will be no cultivation.

“The vineyard of the Lord Almighty is the house of Israel,

and the men of Judah are the garden of his delight.

And he looked for justice, but saw bloodshed; for righteousness, but heard cries of distress.”

Isaiah 5:8 – 20 2008 May 22^nd for June 19^th

“Woe to you who add house to house and join field to field

till no space is left and you live alone in the land.”

God declared that the mansions would be empty. A huge vineyard would only yield a small amount of wine, a lot of seed only a small crop. The partiers and revelers, who drink all day and all night, who have music at their banquets but no regard for God or his work, they would bring exile on the people.

The noblemen would starve to death.

“Therefore the grave enlarges its appetite and opens its mouth without limit;

into it will descend their nobles and masses with all their brawlers and revelers.”

The arrogant will be humbled and “the Lord Almighty will be exalted by his justice, and the holy God will show himself holy by his righteousness.”

Pasture animals will graze throughout the city among the ruins of the big houses.

“Woe to those” who pursue deceit and wickedness, to those who hurry God.

“Woe to those who call evil good and good evil,

who put darkness for light and light for darkness,

who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.”

Isaiah 5:21 – 30 2008 May 24^th for June 20^th

Isaiah’s description of the coming judgment concludes.

Those who think themselves wise or clever are in trouble. Those who are champions at drinking or mixing drinks are in trouble. Those who take bribes and pervert justice against the innocent, they are in trouble. The fire will lick them up like dry grass.

God is angry with them all. His anger stands through their destruction and is expressed through the raiding enemies. They come from the ends of the earth at God’s call. None of them are tired; all of their weapons and equipment are working perfectly. Their arrows are sharp and their aim is true. They come down with a roar like a lion, with a rush like a whirlwind. They break over their conquest like waves of the sea. There is darkness and destruction everywhere. Even the clouds are dark.

Isaiah 6 2008 May 28^th for June 23^rd

Isaiah is called to his prophetic ministry.

“In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another:

“’Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty: the whole earth is full of his glory.’”

This famous and fantastical vision is the source of our hymn “Holy, Holy, Holy.”

The temple and everything in it was shaking and filled with smoke. Isaiah was afraid and said,

“’Woe to me! I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.’”

One of the seraphs flew over with a coal and touched it to his lips and declared him clean and guiltless.

“Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?’”

Isaiah answered that he would go.

God’s message for the people is puzzling:

“’Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’

Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes.

Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts,

And turn and be healed.”

This brings to mind the hardening of the heart of Pharaoh.

Isaiah asked God how long. The answer was until everything was ruined, the city and its houses were empty, the fields ruined, the land forsaken, and everyone driven off. Even if a tenth remained, it would be “laid waste” too. Only a stump would be left, It would be like a terebinth or oak tree cut down.

Isaiah 7 2008 May 30^th for June 24^th

After Uzziah, Ahaz son of Jotham became king in Judah. Two lesser kings, Rezin of Aram and Remaliah of Israel, came in alliance to fight Jerusalem but lost. Nonetheless, due to this alliance, “the hearts of Ahaz and his people were shaken, as the trees of the forest are shaken by the wind.”

God sent Isaiah to meet Ahaz at a pool where the aqueduct entered the city. Perhaps the king was inspecting the water supply in expectation of a siege. Isaiah prophesied to Ahaz that the dreaded conquest would not occur. Ephraim (Israel) itself would fall and be scattered, but they would not overcome Judah. Those two kings were nothing by comparison.

God spoke to Ahaz and told him to ask God for a sign. Ahaz refused saying, “I will not put the Lord to the test.” This is a quote from the Law of Moses but apparently a perversion of its intent because at this point Isaiah lost patience, on God’s behalf, and chewed him out, giving one of the most famous prophecies ever, one that we read every Christmas:

“’Hear now, you house of David! Is it not enough to try the patience of men? Will you try the patience of my God also? Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign:’”

(This is where the Christmas reading starts.)

“’The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. He will eat curds and honey when he knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right. But before the boy knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, the land of the two kings you dread will be laid waste.’”

The age of choosing right from wrong is apparently around puberty, twelve or thirteen. The reference to eating curds (yogurt) apparently refers to depressed economic conditions.

“In that day the Lord will whistle for flies from the distant streams of Egypt and for bees from the land of Assyria. They will all come and settle in the steep ravines and in the crevices in the rocks, on all the thornbushes and at all the water holes.” God would use them to shave Judah’s head, beard, and pubic hair, all grave insults. Anyone who survived would eat curds from goats but vast fields and vineyards would revert to pasture or to the wild, growing only thorns and thistles.

Isaiah 8 2008 May 31^st for June 25^th

Isaiah and his wife (the “prophetess”) had a son. God said that before that child could even say “mother” or “father” Assyria would sweep down on them like a flood. Because Judah was not swayed by the gentle river of Shiloh, a vast enemy would come and devastate everything. It would be like watching an immense flood with muddy eddies and debris everywhere.

God instructed Isaiah not to do like the people of Judah did, not to be ensnared by the same false beliefs that they were or to do the actions that they did. They consulted mediums and idols who whispered or muttered. Rather, they should have consulted their God but did not, and as a result they would have no light, no vision, and no sustenance, only gloom and darkness.

Isaiah 9:1 – 7 2008 June 3^rd for 26^th

Yesterday ended in gloom; today the scene changes. There is “no more gloom for those who were in distress.”

“The people walking in darkness have seen a great light;

on those living in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned.”

The nation has grown. Joy has been restored. They harvest. They plunder. The enemy has been overcome and all of the instruments of battle will just be burned as fuel.

“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders.

And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end.”

From David’s throne he would establish justice and righteousness forever. God would do it himself in his zeal.

You will recognize this as more of the Christmas story, clearly a Messianic prophecy. Isaiah longed for the greatness of God though he lived in the time nearing the exile. He talked of each with equal fervor.

Isaiah 9:8 – 21 2008 June 3^rd for 27^th

First despair, then Messianic hope, and now, just as quickly, we turn back to despair.

God is angry. His hand is “upraised.” The enemies will fall on Israel without relief. The people in their pride are planning to rebuild, to put the walls back up, and to replant the vineyards but, “Arameans from the east and Philistines from the west have devoured Israel with open mouth.” And God’s hand is still upraised.

God will cut off both the head and the tail of the nation. The prominent men and elders are the head. The false prophets are the tail. All will be cut off. They have led the people astray. None are spared. All are to be pitied. And still God’s hand is upraised.

God’s wrath scorches the land. Wickedness will be burned up. “…the people will be fuel for the fire; no one will spare his brother.”

Everyone will be hungry. They will eat each other. They will eat their children. Ephraim and Manasseh will turn against each other and they both turn against Judah.

Isaiah 10:1 – 19 2008 June 4^th for 30^th

God is still angry; his hand is still upraised.

“Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees,

to deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people,

making widows their prey and robbing the fatherless.”

There will be justice. There will be no one to help. There will be no place for their wealth. Those who live will “cringe among the captives”.

God sends Assyria against Jerusalem. “[S]hall I not deal with Jerusalem and her images as I dealt with Samaria and her idols?” Even so, Assyria will then itself be punished.

The king of Assyria thinks that it is by his own wisdom and strength that this conquest has occurred. Can a hammer or a saw think that it could do anything apart from the hand of the carpenter? Assyria is merely the club in God’s hand to punish his own nation. God will send disease and death on the Assyrian conquerors until there are so few soldiers and resources left “that a child could write them down.”

Isaiah 10:20 – 34 2008 June 6^th for July 1^st

There will be a “remnant of Israel,” a few survivors. They will cease relying on Babylon and will return to allegiance in “the Mighty God.” Although there had been many in Israel, only a few would return following the total destruction of the land.

This remnant would no longer fear the Assyrians. God would turn his attention, his “wrath” to destroying them. God would break their yoke on his people and then would break them. The enemy would flea from the country, from Jerusalem, from Gibeah of Saul, and from other cities and landmarks that would have been familiar to the contemporary readers.

God would chop them down like great trees and chop them up as with an ax. It would be like clearing the forest of Lebanon.

Isaiah 11:1 – 9 2008 June 6^th for July 2^nd

Another famous Messianic and post-Messianic text:

“A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.

The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him – the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord –

and he will delight in the fear of the Lord.

“He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, or decide by what he hears with his ears;

but with righteousness he will judge the needy, with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth.

He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth; with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked.

Righteousness will be his belt; and faithfulness the sash around his waist.

“The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat,

the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them.

The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox.

The infant will play near the hole of the cobra, and the young child put his hand into the viper’s nest.

They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain,

For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.”

No hostility … everyone will be vegetarian, but there will be infants and small children.

Did you catch the Star Trek episode title here?

Isaiah 11:10 – 12:6 2008 June 9^th for July 3^rd

At that time, the people of God will rally to him; he will stretch out his hand to them. A banner will go up and the people will all come to it. The tribes of Israel, Ephraim and Judah, will not quarrel with each other anymore, they will move out and overcome their enemies. God will bring a scorching wind and dry up the Egyptian sea and the Euphrates. It will break into seven small streams so that men in sandals can cross over.

Chapter 12 is a Song of Praise.

“In that day you will say:

“I will praise you, O Lord, Although you were angry with me,

your anger has turned away and you have comforted me.

Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid.

The Lord, the Lord, is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation.

With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.

“In that day you will say:

“Give thanks to the Lord, call on his name; make known among the nations what he has done, and proclaim that his name is exalted.

Sing to the Lord, for he has done glorious things; let this be known to all the world.

Shout aloud and sing for joy, people of Zion, for great is the Holy One of Israel among you.”

Isaiah 13:1 – 13 2008 June 11^th for July 4^th

This is a vision, “an oracle” that Isaiah saw.

There is noise in the mountains, a great multitude on the march. God is massing great armies for war. They come from everywhere, from the ends of the earth. As a result, everyone loses heart. They go limp. They “writhe like a woman in labor.” They look at each other in fear.

“See, the day of the Lord is coming, -- a cruel day, with wrath and fierce anger --

to make the land desolate.”

The sun and moon would not shine, nor would the stars.

“I will punish the world for its evil, the wicked for their sins.

I will put an end to the arrogance of the haughty and will humble the pride of the ruthless.”

People would become scarcer than gold, the earth would shake and the day would burn with the wrath of God.

Isaiah 13:14 – 22 2008 June 14^th for July 7^th

The punishment of Babylon would be complete. No one would ever live there again. No one would even camp there or pasture flocks there again. Only wild animals would even go there. Jackals would howl in the houses.

During the conquest, everyone would flee to their own territories and homes. The ones who were caught in flight would be run through with the sword

“Their infants will be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses will be looted and their wives ravished.”

It is the Medes who would be stirred up against them. They have no love for gold or silver. They would kill everyone of any age without mercy. Young boys would be pierced by arrows and infants would be smashed.

Isaiah 14:1 – 11 2008 June 14^th for July 8^th

After Babylon was gone, God would have mercy on Israel and resettle them in their land. This is a new calling, a new choice on God’s behalf. Aliens would live among the Israelites and join with them. Their captors would be become their captives and there would be peace in the land.

Israel would taunt their enemy, Babylon, with slurs like this:

Peace has come, even the forests rejoice because the Babylonians are vanquished and no one is left to come cut the trees down.

“The grave below is all astir to meet you at your coming;

it rouses the spirits of the departed to greet you – all those who were leaders in the world;

it makes them rise from their thrones – all those who were kings over the nations.

They will all respond, they will say to you,

you also have become weak, as we are; you have become like us.

All your pomp has been brought down to the grave; along with the noise of your harps;

maggots are spread out beneath you and worms cover you.”

Isaiah 14:12 – 24 2008 June 14^th for July 9^th

Isaiah continues to gloat about the ultimate fate of Babylon.

They have fallen from heaven, from the highest heights to the grave. They thought they would ascend into heaven and make their throne there but they find themselves in the pit. Kings of other nations lie in state, but the king of Babylon finds himself rejected, not even receiving a proper burial.

People ponder this. Is this the king who wouldn’t let his captives go? Is this the king who would rule the whole earth?

His offspring, his sons are killed for his sins. They will not rise to inherit his kingdom. They will not cover the earth with their cities. God has cut them off from their land and from their future. Their country is a swamp, a wasteland.

“I will sweep her with the broom of destruction,’ declares the Lord Almighty.”

Isaiah 14:24 – 32 2008 June 14^th for July 10^th

God has decided that the Assyrians will be crushed, that they will be trampled down. The yoke that they held on Israel will be released. Once God decides to do something and raises his hand to do it, who can stop him?

As for the Philistines, they should not gloat just because their enemies the Assyrians are vanquished. God will punish them too. While the oppressed and the downtrodden are finding safety and comfort, the Philistines will “melt away.” The people of Zion will find refuge, but there will not even be stragglers among the Philistines.

Isaiah 15 2008 June 14^th for July 11^th

Isaiah now has an oracle for Moab: They will be destroyed in one night.

“Every head is shaved and every beard cut off.”

There would be wailing in the streets and wailing in the temples. It would be so loud that it would be heard as far away as neighboring towns. They would all wear sackcloth in private and in public.

The fugitives would lament their destruction on the road. Everything green would be gone; everything wet would be dried up. Pools of water that were left would be full of blood and lions would poach any survivors.

Reading this I am impressed with the extent to which everyone’s civilization, the joint works that groups depend on for survival and comfort, are wiped out by conquest. Civilization is quite fragile. The strong rule, it appears.

Isaiah 16 2008 June 16^th for July 14^th

The judgment spoken against Moab continues.

Tributes will be sent to the conquerors. “Like fluttering birds pushed from their nest, so are the women of Moab at the fords of the Arnon.”

There will be refugees, fugitives. The oppression from Moab will end. An heir of David will be on the throne in Jerusalem, “one who in judging seeks justice and speeds the cause of righteousness.”

Moab’s pride and conceit are renown, but their boasts are hollow. Now they wail and lament. There is no rejoicing in the harvest; the choice vines are trampled down. The land is drenched in tears. There is no joy and gladness. There is no activity at the winepresses. They pray at their shrines for nothing. They are worn out.

“But now the Lord says: ‘Within three years, as a servant bound by contract would count them, Moab’s splendor and all her many people will be despised, and her survivors will be very few and feeble.’”

Isaiah 17 2008 June 16^th for July 15^th

Now we have an oracle against Damascus.

Israel has been looted and plundered from Damascus. This is what Damascus will get.

“See, Damascus will no longer be a city but will become a heap of ruins.” The outlying towns will similarly be destroyed. There will be no more fortifications in Ephraim.

The glory and fatness of the people of Jacob will wither into leanness. Some gleanings will remain, “as when an olive tree is beaten, / leaving two or three olives in the topmost branches, four or five on the fruitful boughs.”

Israel will turn to its God and understand that the Asherah poles and other idols they have made with their hands are useless. Although the finest imported plants are cultivated, the pain and disease at the time of harvest will make it all as nothing.

The nations roar like the seas, like great waters but God rebukes them and they flee like chaff on the wind.

“In the evening, sudden terror! Before the morning, they are gone!”

That’s what happens to the looters from Damascus.

Isaiah 18 2008 June 17^th for July 16^th

Isaiah now gives a prophecy against Cush.

The Cushites are described like this:

“…a people tall and smooth-skinned, … a people feared far and wide,

an aggressive nation of strange speech, whose land is divided by rivers.”

They send envoys over the sea on papyrus boats, Cush, the land of “whirring wings.”

Woe to them! God would remain quiet at first and watch from his “dwelling place, / like shimmering heat in the sunshine, like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.”

But before the harvest comes, God would “cut off the shoots with pruning knives” and take away their spreading branches. Wild animals and birds of prey would feed on the remains all summer.

“At that time gifts will be brought to the Lord Almighty.” The gifts would be brought to God’s place, Mount Zion.

Isaiah 19:1 – 15 2008 June 17^th for July 17^th

Now the oracle turns his attention to Egypt.

God comes swiftly. The Egyptians are defenseless; their hearts melt; there is nothing they can do. They will fight against each other, brothers, neighbors, cities, and kingdoms. Their plans will come to nothing. They will consult idols and the spirits of the dead. God will allow a cruel master to rule over them.

The river will dry up; the canals will stink; the riverbed will be parched. The rushes and reeds will wither. Those who fish and those who work in flax will have nothing to do; they will groan and lament.

“The officials of Zoan are nothing but fools; the wise counselors of Pharaoh give senseless advice.

How can you say to Pharaoh, ‘I am one of the wise men, a disciple of the ancient kings’?”

They have all led Egypt astray. No one knows what God is going to do.

“The Lord has poured into them a spirit of dizziness;

they make Egypt stagger in all that she does, as a drunkard staggers around in his vomit.

“There is nothing Egypt can do – head or tail, palm branch or reed.”

Isaiah 19:16 – 20:6 2008 June 18^th for July 18^th

This oracle against Egypt concludes.

The Egyptians would become converts to the faith of the Israelites. Five Egyptian cities would swear allegiance to God and speak the language of Canaan. There would be a road between Assyria and Egypt on which both Assyrians and Egyptians would travel back and forth. All would worship together. God would bless them all” “Blessed be Egypt my people, Assyria my handiwork, and Israel my inheritance.”

And now we come to a prophecy against both Egypt and Cush that I quote verbatim to retain effect:

“In the year that the supreme commander, sent by Sargon king of Assyria, came to Ashdod and attacked and captured it – at that time the Lord spoke through Isaiah son of Amoz. He said to him, ‘Take off the sackcloth from your body and the sandals from your feet.’ And he did so, going around stripped and barefoot.

“Then the Lord said, ‘Just as my servant Isaiah has gone stripped and barefoot for three years, as a sign and portent against Egypt and Cush, so the king of Assyria will lead away stripped and barefoot the Egyptian captives and Cushite exiles, young and old, with buttocks bared – to Egypt’s shame. Those who trusted in Cush and boasted in Egypt will be afraid and put to shame. In that day the people who live on this coast will say, “See what has happened to those we relied on, those we fled to for help and deliverance from the king of Assyria! How then can we escape?”’”

Isaiah 21:1 – 8 2008 June 28^th for July 21^st

This is “An oracle concerning the Desert by the Sea.” (The footnote says that this means Babylon.)

“Like whirlwinds sweeping through the southland, an invader comes from the desert, from a land of terror.”

There is looting and betrayal. Cities are laid siege and attacked. The pain and bewilderment are intense.

“My heart falters, fear makes me tremble;

the twilight I longed for has become a horror to me.”

They set up camp with tables and rugs, food and drink. Very fancy.

God commanded, “Go, post a lookout and have him report what he sees.”

The lookout is to watch for chariots, horses, riders on donkeys and camels.

“And the lookout shouted, ‘Day after day, my lord, I stand on the watchtower; every night I stay at my post.’”

Isaiah 21:9 – 17 2008 June 28^th for July 22^nd

A messenger in a chariot returned with news from Babylon. It had been shattered. Babylon had fallen. All of the idols lay smashed on the ground. The people were crushed on the threshing floors. This was the word from God.

Now a prophecy against Edom.

“Someone calls to me from Sier, ‘Watchman, what is left of the night? Watchman, what is left of the night?’

The watchman replies, ‘Morning is coming, but also the night.

If you would ask, then ask; and come back yet again.’”

The meaning of this oracle “concerning Dumah” is unclear, but in Hebrew, ‘dumah’ means “silence” and is a play on words with “Edom.”

Now a prophecy against Arabia.

“You caravans of Dedanites, who camp in the thickets of Arabia, bring water for the thirsty;

you who live in Tema, bring food for the fugitives.

They flee from the sword, from the drawn sword,

From the bent bow and from the heat of battle.

“This is what the Lord says to me: ‘Within one year, as a servant bound by contract would count it, all the pomp of Kedar will come to an end. The survivors of the bowmen, the warriors of Kedar, will be few. The Lord, the God of Israel, has spoken.’”

The message of this oracle is also unclear but it refers to a people, Dedanites, who were caravan merchants and had the habit of hiding their caravans in the thickets. The Dedanites were attacked by both Assyrians and Babylonians.

Isaiah 22:1 – 11 2008 June 28^th for July 23^rd

Judah, in particular Jerusalem, would come under attack. The town would be full of commotion. Everyone would be up on their roofs to see what was happening. Many of the leaders would flee even before the enemy arrived. Many groups would be caught without a fight.

The surrounding valleys would be full of chariots and horsemen. God would bring forth a day of trampling, tumult, and terror. The walls would be battered down.

“And you looked in that day to the weapons in the Palace of the Forest;

you saw that the City of David had many breaches in its defenses;

you stored up water in the Lower Pool,

You counted the buildings in Jerusalem and tore down houses to strengthen the wall.

You built a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the Old Pool,

But you did not look to the One who made it, or have regard for the One who planned it long ago.”

They were so desperate that they tore down their houses to firm up the walls!

Isaiah 22:12 – 25 2008 June 28^th for July 24^th

“The Lord, the Lord Almighty, called you on that day

to weep and to wail, to tear out your hair and put on sackcloth.

But see, there is joy and revelry, slaughtering of cattle and killing of sheep, eating of meat and drinking of wine!

‘Let us eat and drink,’ you say, ‘for tomorrow we die!’

God is very angry at this famous saying and attitude. He will not forgive this to those people’s dying day. God sent his steward to Shebna, who was in charge of the palace, and asked him why he thought he could cut out his own grave there in the rock of the palace. He would be thrown out into the country to die! This was a disgrace to the king’s house!

Shebna would be replaced by Eliakim, son of Hilkiah, at God’s command. He would have all the authority and power of the office. “I will drive him like a peg into a firm place; he will be a seat of honor for the house of his father. All the glory of his family will hang on him; he will be a seat of honor for the house of his father.”

But…

“’In that day,’ declares the Lord Almighty, ‘the peg driven into the firm place will give way; it will be sheared off and will fall, and the load hanging on it will be cut down.’ The Lord has spoken.”

Isaiah 23:1 – 9 2008 June 30^th for July 25^th

Now, an oracle about Tyre.

Tyre was a city of ships, seafarers and trade. They shipped grain, the harvest of the Nile among the nations. Now it is all destroyed. There is no harbor or house in the former city. Egypt would anguish at this news. Sidon, the “fortress of the sea,” would be ashamed.

The people of Tarshish will wail. Who has done this? Who has destroyed this old land of revelry, princes, and renown traders?

“The Lord Almighty planned it, to bring low the pride of all glory and to humble all who are renowned on the earth.”

Isaiah 23:10 – 18 2008 June 30^th for July 28^th

The oracle about Tyre continues.

The Lord stretches out his hand and makes all the kingdoms along the sea tremble. Tarshish no longer has a harbor, no way to ship its harvest. The fortress of Phoenicia is destroyed. Sidon is crushed. There is no rest in Cyprus. The land of Babylon is of no account. The Assyrians have made everything a wasteland. They used siege towers, destroyed fortresses and ruined everything.

Tyre will be forgotten for “the span of a king’s life,” that is, seventy years. At the end of this, “it will happen to Tyre as in the song of the prostitute:

“’Take up a harp, walk through the city, O prostitute forgotten;

play the harp well, sing many a song, so that you will be remembered.’”

It is unclear to me what this is talking about, either with respect to Tyre or to prostitutes.

At the end of the seventy years, God will deal with Tyre and restore it as the prostitute in the song is restored, but its profit will go to people of God, the abundant food and fine clothes will go to them.

Isaiah 24:1 – 13 2008 July 3^rd for 29^th

This is an oracle of devastation for the entire earth.

“See, the Lord is going to lay waste the earth and devastate it;

he will ruin its face and scatter its inhabitants –

it will be the same for priest as for people, for master as for servant, for mistress as for maid, for seller as for buyer, for borrower as for lender, for debtor as for creditor.

The earth will be completely laid waste and totally plundered.

“The Lord has spoken this word.

“The earth dries up and withers, the world languishes and withers, the exalted of the earth languish.

The earth is defiled by its people; they have disobeyed the laws,

violated the statutes and broken the everlasting covenant,

Therefore a curse consumes the earth; its people must bear their guilt,

Therefore earth’s inhabitants are burned up, and very few are left.

The new wine dries up and the vine withers; all the merrymakers groan.

The gaiety of the tambourines is stilled, the noise of the revelers has stopped, the joyful harp is silent.

No longer do they drink wine with a song; the beer is bitter to its drinkers.

The ruined city lies desolate; the entrance to every house is barred.

“In the streets they cry out for wine; all joy turns to gloom, all gaiety is banished from the earth.

The city is left in ruins, its gate is battered to pieces.

So will it be on the earth and among the nations,

As when an olive tree is beaten, or as when gleanings are left after the grape harvest.”

Isaiah 24:14 – 23 2008 July 3^rd for 30^th

The devastation of the earth continues with praises to God.

“They raise their voices, they shout for joy; from the west they acclaim the Lord’s majesty.

Therefore in the east give glory to the Lord; exalt the name of the Lord, the God of Israel, in the islands of the sea.

From the ends of the earth we hear singing: ‘Glory to the Righteous One.’”

And then, again, it turns ugly.

“But I said, ‘I waste away, I waste away! Woe to Me!

The treacherous betray! With treachery the treacherous betray!

Terror and pit and snare await you, O people of the earth.

Whoever flees the sound of terror will fall into a pit;

Whoever climbs out of the pit will be caught in a snare.

“The floodgates of the heavens are opened, the foundations of the earth shake.

The earth is broken up, the earth is split asunder, the earth is thoroughly shaken.

The earth reels like a drunkard, it sways like a hut in the wind;

So heavy upon it is the guilt of its rebellion that it falls – never to rise again.

“In that day the Lord will punish the powers in the heavens above and the kings on the earth below.

They will be herded together like prisoners bound in a dungeon;

They will be shut up in prison and be punished after many days.

The moon will be abashed, the sun ashamed; for the Lord Almighty will reign

On Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and before its elders, gloriously.”

Isaiah 25 2008 July 5^th for 31^st

God is praised and exalted. He planned marvelous things far in the past and did them. He makes fortified cities and towns into rubble. They are not rebuilt. Strong and even ruthless people honor God. He is a refuge for the weak and needy. He shelters from storms or desert heat. God will prepare a banquet for his people on his mountain. He will wipe away their tears and remove their disgrace. He swallows his enemies up in death forever.

“’Surely this is our God; we trusted in him, and he saved us.

This is the Lord, we trusted in him; let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation.’

“The hand of the Lord will rest on this mountain; but Moab will be trampled under him as straw is trampled down in the manure.

They will spread out their hands in it, as a swimmer spreads out his hands to swim.

God will bring down their pride despite the cleverness of their hands.

He will bring down your high fortified walls and lay them low;

he will bring them down to the ground to the very dust.”

Isaiah 26:12 – 21 2008 July 7^th for August 11^th

God made peace for us. Other lords had ruled over us, “but your name alone do we honor.” Those other lords are dead. They are gone. God punished and destroyed them; even their memory is gone now.

The nation is enlarged, however, and has gained glory. Its borders are enlarged.

“Lord, they came to you in their distress; when you disciplined them, they could barely whisper a prayer.

As a woman with child and about to give birth writhes and cries out in her pain, so were we in your presence, O Lord.

We were with child, we writhed in pain, but we gave birth to wind.

We have not brought salvation to the earth; we have not given birth to people of the world.

“But our dead will live; their bodies will rise.

You who dwell in the dust, wake up and shout for joy.

Your dew is like the dew of the morning; the earth will give birth to her dead.”

Go hide in your room until God’s wrath has passed. He is going to punish everyone in the world for their sins.

Here, Isaiah has talked about life after death. This is the first specific mention of this I remember seeing in the Old Testament. Does this refer to personal life after personal death or national life after national death?

Isaiah 27 2008 July 9^th for August 12^th

God punishes with his sword. He slays the serpent. He slays Leviathan.

He guards the fruitful vineyard and waters it. He is not angry. If there were thorns and briers he would confront them and take them on as in battle until they sued for peace.

At that time, Israel would take root and blossom. The world would enjoy her fruit. God had paid back in kind for those who had struck, injured, or killed her. Israel was confronted by warfare and exile. The altars of stone and Asherah poles were like chalk; they were pulverized, crushed. The fortified city was empty. Animals grazed in it. Women used the branches stripped from trees for firewood.

In the day of the Lord, throughout the boundaries of Israel, God would be there. Those in exile would return and worship him in his designated place.

Isaiah 28:1 – 10 2008 July 14^th for August 13^th

Woe to the capital of Ephraim, the northern kingdom. The pride of the city would be reduced to drunkenness. God would forcefully destroy and overthrow those drunkards. It would be like a hailstorm in a fertile valley.

God would then be the wreath, the ruler. In that day the rulers would stagger from drink and the prophets stumble while seeing visions. “All the tables are covered with vomit and there is not a spot without filth.”

Who is it being trained here? Children just weaned? “Do and do, do and do, / rule on rule, rule on rule; / a little here, a little there—“ (This problematic translation appears to mimic writing lessons of school children.)

The image “all the tables are covered with vomit” is vivid and even entertaining. This prophet had been there.

Isaiah 28:11 – 19 2008 July 14^th for August 14^th

God would speak to this people in a strange language. He had said that this was his resting place but they wouldn’t have it so God would say, “Do and do, do and do, / rule on rule, rule on rule; / a little here, a little there –“ (as yesterday... This problematic translation appears to mimic writing lessons of school children.)

They would fall back and be injured and captured. Those scoffers would hear God’s word. They had boasted that they had made a deal with death so that the scourge would not touch them on its way by. In so doing they had taken refuge in lies and rested in falsehood.

God would lay a cornerstone in Zion. Righteousness and justice would be the standards. The lies and falsehoods would be gone and the deal with death cancelled. When the scourge came through, they would all be wiped out. Those who understood this would be terrified.

Isaiah 28:20 – 29 2008 July 18^th for August 15^th

“The bed is too short to stretch out on, the blanket too narrow to wrap around you.

The Lord will rise up as he did at Mt. Perazim, he will rouse himself as in the Valley of Gibeon –

to do his work, his strange work, and perform his task, his alien task.”

So stop mocking or it will get worse. The whole land will be destroyed.

When a farmer works, does he continually plant or plow or harvest or thresh? Does he treat one plant like another? No, he treats everything in its own way with the right amount and type of attention at the right time in the right order. This is from God. The horses don’t thresh the wheat although they power the machine. The farmer is the thresher. He understands what is being done. This is like God.

“All this also comes from the Lord Almighty, wonderful to counsel and magnificent in wisdom.”

Isaiah 29:1 – 12 2008 July 18^th for August 18^th

Although Jerusalem keeps having its festivals year to year, God will besiege it. There will be mourning.

“Brought low, you will speak from the ground; your speech will mumble out of the dust.

Your voice will come ghostlike from the earth; out of the dust your speech will whisper.”

It will happen in an instant. The enemies will be as numerous as dust. It will be like a bad dream, “as when a hungry man dreams that he is eating, but he awakens, and his hunger remains; / As when a thirsty man dreams that he is drinking, but he awakens faint, with his thirst unquenched.”

You will be stunned and stagger around as if drunk, but it is not from wine or beer:

“The Lord has brought over you a deep sleep; He has sealed your eyes (the prophets): he has covered your heads (the seers).”

(The parentheses are in the translation! Does he mean that through the prophets God has made them blind?)

To the people, the whole vision is like a sealed scroll. If you hand it to someone to read he will say he can’t read it because it is sealed. If you hand it to someone to read who can’t read, he will say he can’t because he can’t read.

Isaiah 29:13 – 24 2008 July 19^th for August 19^th

God says that the people pay only pay lip service to him “but their hearts are far from me.” Wisdom and intelligence will perish but God will do wonders to convince them again that he is a different kind of being from people. The pot has nothing to say to the potter. The pot cannot question or challenge the potter or say that he doesn’t exist or wasn’t made by him.

Shortly, Lebanon will be turned into a field. What was a field will seem like a forest. The blind will see and the deaf will hear the prophecy from the scroll. “The ruthless will vanish, the mockers will disappear, and all who have an eye for evil will be cut down –“, such as those who give false testimony resulting in the conviction of the innocent.

God says to “the house of Jacob:” They will not be ashamed anymore. They will look at their children and “keep my name holy.”

“Those who are wayward in spirit will gain understanding; those who complain will accept instruction.”

Isaiah 30:1 – 11 2008 July 19^th for August 20^th

Israel has been stubborn, obstinate, in sending envoys to Egypt asking for protection, bringing Egyptian officials into their cities for this purpose without being led by the Spirit of God. This useless alliance will not be an advantage; it will be a disgrace.

Egypt is unprofitable. God calls it “Rahab the Do-Nothing.” Caravans bring riches across the desert to this useless nation.

Write it on a scroll. These children are rebellious, “unwilling to listen to the Lord’s instruction.” They tell the seers and prophets quit seeing visions and delivering prophesies. Just tell us what we want to hear, they say. Make fantasies. Tell us only pleasant things!

“Leave this way, get off this path,

and stop confronting us with the Holy One of Israel!”

Isaiah felt rejected in his duties.

Isaiah 30:12 – 26 2008 July 22^nd for August 21^st

“Because you have rejected this message, relied on oppression and depended on deceit,

this sin will become for you like a high wall, cracked and bulging, that collapses suddenly, in an instant.

It will break in pieces like pottery, shattered so mercilessly

that among its pieces not a fragment will be found for taking coals from a hearth or scooping water out of a cistern.”

God says that salvation comes from repentance and quiet rest, not from planning. Plans to flee on horses are silly. The pursuers will be on faster horses. It will be a route.

God wants to help; he is waiting. As soon as he hears the cry for help, he will act. There will be food and water. There will be teaching. “Then you will defile your idols overlaid with silver and your images covered with gold; you will throw them away like a menstrual cloth and say to them, ‘Away with you!’”

There will also be rain for crops and grass for cattle. The streams will flow with water everywhere and the sun will be seven times as bright as usual.

Isaiah 30:27 – 33 2008 July 22^nd for August 22^nd

Isaiah sees God fighting for his people in metaphors of nature.

“See, the Name of the Lord comes from afar, with burning anger and dense clouds of smoke;

his lips are full of wrath; and his tongue is a consuming fire.

His breath is like a rushing torrent, rising up to the neck.

He shakes the nations in the sieve of destruction; he places in the jaws of the peoples a bit that leads them astray.

And you will sing as one the night you celebrate a holy festival;

Your hearts will rejoice as when people go up with flutes

To the mountain of the Lord, to the Rock of Israel.

The Lord will cause men to hear his majestic voice and will make them see his arm coming down

with raging anger and consuming fire, with cloudburst, thunderstorm and hail.

The voice of the Lord will shatter Assyria; with his scepter he will strike them down.

Every stroke the Lord lays on them with his punishing rod

Will be to the music of tambourines and harps, as he fights them in battle with the blows of his arm.

Topheth has long been prepared; it has been made ready for the king.

Its fire pit has been made deep and wide, with an abundance of fire and wood;

The breath of the Lord, like a stream of burning sulfur, sets it ablaze.”

Isaiah 31 2008 July 25^th for August 25^th

It is worthless to rely on Egypt, the superpower, or on horses or chariots for help while not relying on God. God is spirit while all those other helpers are flesh. In spirit, God can cause all of them to stumble and perish together.

God is like a great lion over his prey. It doesn’t matter how many shepherds you call out to shout and raise a fuss, he doesn’t care and he doesn’t budge. If you want deliverance, if you want to be rescued, go with God, not against him.

Israel, return to God, abandon those idols of gold and silver!

Assyria will fall. Their strongholds will fall. Their commanders will panic. The only hope for anyone is in God.

Isaiah 32 2008 July 25^th for August 26^th

God will reign in righteousness and will make things right. There will be water and shelter and shadow in the desert. People will no longer be blind and deaf or stammering. They will understand clearly. The fool will no longer be considered noble or the scoundrel respected. Ungodliness, evil, and error will not be rewarded.

“The scoundrel’s methods are wicked, he makes up evil schemes

to destroy the poor with lies, even when the plea of the needy is just.”

But nobility and noble plans are just.

Now the prophet turns to the complacent “women of Jerusalem.”

You may feel secure now but in a little over a year you will tremble, the harvest will fail, you will be mourning in sackcloth for all the “houses of merriment and for this city of revelry.” The city will be deserted and defenseless.

The righteous, on the other hand, will live in peace. Their plants will grow and they will be secure in their homes even though destruction rains down around them.

“…how blessed you will be, sowing your seed by every stream, and letting your cattle and donkeys range free.”

These are images of agrarian security.

Isaiah 33:1 – 12 2008 July 26^th for August 27^th

“Woe to you, O destroyer, you who have not been destroyed!

Woe to you, O traitor, you who have not been betrayed!

When you stop destroying, you will be destroyed;

when you stop betraying, you will be betrayed.

“O Lord, be gracious to us; we long for you.

Be our strength every morning, our salvation in time of distress.

At the thunder of your voice, the peoples flee; when you rise up, the nations scatter.

Your plunder, O nations, is harvested as by young locusts; like a swarm of locusts men pounce on it.

“The Lord is exalted, for he dwells on high; he will fill Zion with justice and righteousness.

He will be the sure foundation for your times, a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge; the fear of the Lord is the key to this treasure.

“Look, their brave men cry aloud in the streets; the envoys of peace weep bitterly.

The highways are deserted, no travelers are on the roads.

The treaty is broken, its witnesses are despised, no one is respected.

The land mourns and wastes away, Lebanon is ashamed and withers;

Sharon is like the Arabah, and Bashan and Carmel drop their leaves.

“’Now will I arise,’ says the Lord, ‘Now will I be exalted; now will I be lifted up.

You conceive chaff, you give birth to straw; your breath is a fire that consumes you.

The peoples will be burned as if to lime; like cut thornbushes they will be set ablaze.’”

Isaiah 33:13 – 24 2008 July 26^th for August 28^th

“You who are far away, hear what I have done; you who are near, acknowledge my power!

The sinners in Zion are terrified; trembling grips the godless;

Who of us can dwell with the consuming fire? Who of us can dwell with everlasting burning?

He who walks righteously and speaks what is right,

who rejects gain from extortion and keeps his hand from accepting bribes,

who stops his ears against plots of murder and shuts his eyes against contemplating evil –

this is the man who will dwell on the heights, whose refuge will be the mountain fortress.

His bread will be supplied, and water will not fail him.

“Your eyes will see the king in his beauty and view a land that stretches afar.

In your thoughts you will ponder the former terror; ‘Where is that chief officer? Where is the one who took the revenue? Where is the officer in charge of the towers?’

You will see those arrogant people no more, those people of an obscure speech, with their strange, incomprehensible tongue.

“Look upon Zion, the city of our festivals; your eyes will see Jerusalem, a peaceful abode, a tent that will not be moved;

its stakes will never be pulled up, nor any of its ropes broken.

There the Lord will be our Mighty one. It will be like a place of broad rivers and streams.

No galley with oars will ride them, no mighty ship will sail them.

For the Lord is our judge; the Lord is our lawgiver,

The Lord is our king; it is he who will save us.

“Your rigging hangs loose: The mast is not held secure, the sail is not spread.

Then an abundance of spoils will be divided and even the lame will carry off plunder.

No one living in Zion will say, ‘I am ill’; and the sins of those who dwell there will be forgiven.”

Isaiah 34 2008 August 10^th for 29^th

“Come near, you nations, and listen; pay attention, you peoples.” Let everybody hear this. God is mad with all the nations and his wrath is going to destroy them all totally. All will be slaughtered. There will be a stench. Mountains will be soaked with blood.

“All the stars of the heavens will be dissolved and the sky rolled up like a scroll;”

(Apocalyptic readers of the prophecies see this as a description of nuclear warfare.)

“The sword of the Lord is bathed in blood, it is covered with fat –

the blood of lambs and goats, fat from the kidneys of rams.”

God has sacrificed everything everywhere. This is his day of vengeance. “Edom’s streams will be turned into pitch, her dust into burning sulfur; her land will become blazing pitch!”

The land will burn until nothing is left and it will stay that way for generations. The wild desert creatures will take over, the birds and goats, jackals and hyenas. The owls will nest. “…there also the falcons will gather, each with its mate.”

But there will be nothing left for the nobles to call a kingdom.

Check out God’s word on this. He decreed that these wild animals would possess the land “from generation to generation.”

Isaiah 35 2008 August 10^th for September 1^st

A song we sing in church, “He Will Come and Save You” is based on this chapter.

The desert will bloom and shout for joy, “they will see the glory of the Lord, the splendor of our God.”

Those who are weak will become strong; those who are afraid will be strong and not fear.

“… your God will come, he will come with vengeance;

With divine retribution he will come to save you.”

The blind will see, the deaf will hear, the lame will leap about, the mute will shout for joy. Water will flow in the wilderness, streams in the desert.

“The burning sand will become a pool, the thirsty ground bubbling springs.

In the haunts where jackals once lay, grass and reeds and papyrus will grow.”

There will be a highway there, a holy highway. No fools or wicked will go there nor will any ferocious beast. Only those who are ransomed by God will use it and they will sing in gladness as they go.

Isaiah 36 2008 August 11^th for September 2^nd

The text now turns to a prosaic description of a siege of Jerusalem during the reign of Hezekiah, about 701 B.C. We have already seen this story in the books of Kings and Chronicles.

The Assyrian commander pulled up his army outside the walls of Jerusalem and addressed the officials who came out along with those manning the walls in their native Hebrew. He described to them the siege that would follow, one in which the famine inside would be so great that they would eat their own filth and drink their own urine. When the officials asked the commander to speak Aramaic, he refused. He said he was talking to all the people, not just the king and the officials.

Suspecting an alliance between Hezekiah and Egypt the commander made light of them. He said they were like a stick that when you leaned on it you would injure yourself as if leaning on a reed with a sharp end. On the other hand, if they agreed to be ruled from Assyria, wealth was promised. They would supply 2000 chariots if the Israelites could provide riders for them and, when they were relocated later, they would be placed on lands like their own that were fertile with vineyards.

The commander accused Hezekiah of destroying the temples of God and claimed that he had been sent by God himself to perform this conquest. Hezekiah had not, however, destroyed the temple of God, only the high places of other gods that God had told him to destroy. Hezekiah had also made considerable preparations for this rebellion, by adding walls, diverting a stream through the city and providing containers for water. Having been a vassal to the prior ruler of Assyria, Sargon II, he hoped now to regain independence for Israel.

Hezekiah had commanded the men on the walls to remain silent, which they did, although everyone was afraid.

“Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary, and Joah son of Asaph the recorder went to Hezekiah, with their clothes torn, and told him what the field commander had said.”

Isaiah 37:1 – 20 2008 August 11^th for September 3^rd

Hezekiah and his delegation took the threats of the Assyrian commander to Isaiah at the Temple. Hezekiah also tore his clothes and was in fear.

Sennacherib, the Assyrian king, on reports of these troop movements sent a message to Hezekiah that ended, “Surely you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the countries, destroying them completely. And will you be delivered? Did the gods of the nations that were destroyed by my forefathers deliver them – the gods of Gozan, Haran, Rezeph and the people of Eden who were in Tel Assar? Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, or of Hena or Ivvah?”

Nonetheless, Isaiah sent word for Hezekiah not to be afraid. These commanders had blasphemed (that is, lied about) God. God would take care of this. On a report of military action elsewhere, the siege of Jerusalem would end and ultimately Sennacherib would be assassinated.

Hezekiah then went up to the Temple and prayed:

“O Lord Almighty, God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. Give ear, O Lord, and hear; open your eyes, O Lord, and see, listen to all the words Sennacherib has sent to insult the living God.

“It is true, O Lord, that the Assyrian kings have laid waste all these peoples and their lands. They have thrown their gods into the fire and destroyed them, for they were not gods but only wood and stone fashioned by human hands. Now, O Lord our God, deliver us from his hand, so that all kingdoms on earth may know that you alone, O Lord, are God.”

Isaiah 37:21 – 38 2008 August 15^th for September 4^th

Hezekiah having prayed to God in anguish about the siege of Assyria, Isaiah sent a message with God’s response.

“The Virgin Daughter of Zion despises and mocks you.

The Daughter of Jerusalem tosses her head as you flee.

Who is it you have insulted and blasphemed? Against whom have you raised your voice

and lifted your eyes in pride? Against the Holy One of Israel!”

Your messengers bragged of your military strength and heaped insults on God. God, however, does what he wants. He cuts down the biggest trees in the forest. He dries up streams with his feet. God long ago ordained that cities would be turned into piles of stone and their people would become powerless.

God knows everything they have done and everything they have said.

“Because you rage against me and because your insolence has reached my ears.

I will put my hook in your nose and my bit in your mouth,

And I will make you return by the way you came.”

God then gives a sign to Hezekiah. This year and next year they would eat whatever volunteered in the field, “But in the third year sow and reap, plant vineyards and eat their fruit.” The remnant would enjoy this. God in his zeal would do this.

As for the siege by Assyria:

“He will not enter this city or shoot an arrow here.

He will not come before it with shield or build a siege ramp against it.

By the way that he came he will return; he will not enter the city.

“declares the Lord.”

For his own sake and for David’s, God defended the city. He struck down 185,000 of the Assyrians and they retreated to Ninevah.

“One day, while he was worshipping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer cut him down with the sword, and they escaped to the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son succeeded him as king.”

And, so Jerusalem was saved, and Jerusalem’s enemy was destroyed.

Isaiah 38:1 – 14 2008 August 15^thfor September 5^th

Hezekiah became very ill and Isaiah came to him with this message:

“This is what the Lord says: Put your house in order, because you are going to die; you will not recover.”

Hezekiah “turned his face to the wall” and pleaded, weeping bitterly for his life.

Isaiah came back with another message:

“Then the word of the Lord came to Isaiah: ‘Go and tell Hezekiah, “This is what the Lord, the God of your father David, says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will add fifteen years to your life. And I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria. I will defend this city.

‘”This is the Lord’s sign to you that the Lord will do what he has promised: I will make the shadow cast by the sun go back the ten steps it has gone down on the stairway of Ahaz.”’ So the sunlight went back the ten steps it had gone down.”

Sometimes this event is discussed by pseudo-scientists under a headline like “scientists can’t find the missing ten minutes” or some such. Then the story goes on to say how they found it in the Bible. I don’t follow these stories or know anything about their legitimacy, but I do know that the rotation of the earth is not known well enough in a deterministic sense that a discovery of such a timing anomaly that long ago could receive wide scientific acceptance.

Hezekiah then wrote a letter prayer of thanks and praise:

“I said, ‘In the prime of my life must I go through the gates of death and be robbed of the rest of my years?
I said, ‘ I will not again see the Lord, the Lord, in the land of the living;

no longer will I look on mankind, or be with those who now dwell in this world.

Like a shepherd’s tent my house has been pulled down and taken from me.

Like a weaver I have rolled up my life, and he has cut me off from the loom; day and night you made an end of me.

I waited patiently till dawn, but like a lion he broke all my bones; day and night you made an end of me.

I cried like a swift or thrush, I moaned like a mourning dove.

My eyes grew weak as I looked to the heavens. I am troubled; O Lord, come to my aid!”

Isaiah 38:15 – 22 2008 August 29^th for September 8^th

Hezekiah’s prayer of thanksgiving concludes:

“But what can I say? He has spoken to me, and he himself has done this.

I will walk humbly all my years because of this anguish of my soul.

Lord, by such things men live; and my spirit finds life in them too,

You restored me to health and let me live.

Surely it was for my benefit that I suffered such anguish.

In your love you kept me from the pit of destruction;

you have put all my sins behind your back.

For the grave cannot praise you, death cannot sing your praise;

those who go down to the pit cannot hope for your faithfulness.

The living, the living – they praise you, as I am doing today;

fathers tell their children about your faithfulness.”

(No concept of an afterlife here.)

“The Lord will save me, and we will sing with stringed instruments

all the days of our lives in the temple of the Lord.

“Isaiah had said, ‘Prepare a poultice of figs and apply it to the boil, and he will recover.’ Hezekiah had asked, ‘What will be the sign that I will go up to the temple of the Lord?’”

Any answer has not been given here. Perhaps the question is recorded by the prophet as further commentary on the character of the king.

Isaiah 39 2008 August 29^th for September 9^th

A king named Marodach-Baladan, a son of the king of Babylon, heard of Hezekiah’s illness and recovery. He sent gifts and envoys to Hezekiah in celebration and congratulation. Hezekiah received them gladly and toured the envoys around the palace and storehouses of the kingdom, showing them everything of value.

The following exchange between Isaiah and Hezekiah ensued:

“Then Isaiah the prophet went to King Hezekiah and asked, ‘What did those men say, and where did they come from?’

“’From a distant land,’ Hezekiah replied. ‘They came to me from Babylon.’

“The prophet asked, ‘What did they see in your palace?’

“’They saw everything in my palace,’ Hezekiah said, ‘There is nothing among my treasures that I did not show them.’

“Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, ‘Hear the word of the Lord Almighty: The time will surely come when everything in your palace, and all that your fathers have stored up until this day, will be carried off to Babylon. Nothing will be left, says the Lord. And some of your descendants, your own flesh and blood who will be born to you, will be taken away, and they will become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.’”

(That hurts.)

“’The word of the Lord you have spoken is good,’ Hezekiah replied. For he thought, ‘There will be peace and security in my lifetime.’”

Hezekiah was honest, if self centered.

This is yet another episode where the prophet, who had the word of God, and the king, who had the reigns of power, were in conflict. Hezekiah had done a foolish thing by showing these foreigners all of the wealth of his nation, and Isaiah called him on it.

The only case I can recall where the same man had the word of God and the civil leadership was Moses. In all other cases, we see episode after episode of the prophet, who had the truth but no civil responsibility in confrontation with the ruler, who had the responsibility but only his own judgment, and the sparse, usually condemnatory pronouncements of the prophet to go on. Sometimes the rulers ignored or even battled the prophet. Sometimes they accepted and heard him, but the problems in this de-facto two-branch system of government as formulated here are obvious.

Isaiah 40:1 – 17 2008 August 29^th for September 10^th

God says to comfort Israel and speak tenderly to them. Their sin has been paid for, twice over. Now God will be a shepherd and treat his people gently, like lambs. He will straighten out the rough places and provide light for revelation.

God instructs the prophet to “cry out” some facts:

All men, even at the utmost of their glory, are like grass, here today and gone tomorrow. God’s word, by contrast, is eternal. This is good news. That God cares for us like a tender shepherd despite all his strength and greatness is also good news.

Nothing in the creation amounts to much up against God. He can measure the oceans in the hollow of his hand. All of the nations are little more than dust on his scales, not even measurable. The forests of Lebanon aren’t even kindling for his fire and all the animals in them insufficient for offerings to him. The nations are less than nothing to him.

Isaiah 40:18 – 31 2008 August 29^th for September 11^th

Who can God be compared to? An idol? People just make those out of gold or other metals. The poor folks use wood. They get a piece of wood they hope won’t rot and hire a craftsman to make it into a god that they hope won’t fall over, and then they worship it.

God, by contrast, spreads the heavens as his own tent. He considers all the people and all the nations as grasshoppers. The greatest princes of this world are nothing to him. At his breath they soon wither and die and return to dust.

God created the stars in the heavens. He knows each one by name. He created everything to the ends of the earth. He never gets tired. He has understanding beyond anyone’s grasp. Even young folks get tired and stumble but God gives strength to the tired and weary.

“… but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.

They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”

(This famous verse was one of dad’s favorites. We hope and believe that this is now true for him.)

Isaiah 41:1 – 16 2008 August 30^th for September 12^th

We are now into a long epic poem on the subject of God, the helper of Israel. It appears that it will continue for several days.

Let the nations come meet at the place of judgment. Let the islands be silent. Those who have conquered and subdued? God has been with the first and last of them. He goes places where none have been before. His weapons devour the earth. They make dust and chaff of everything.

In the islands (where they apparently worship idols) they have been in fear of this. The idol makers encourage each other and they nail their gods down securely so they won’t fall over. The real God, however, chose Israel through Abraham and his descendants and took them to the ends of the earth and back.

“So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God.

I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”

No one can oppose you when I am with you. I will make you into a fine, sharp instrument of threshing and a gale will blow the chaff away.

Isaiah 41:17 – 29 2008 August 30^th for September 15^th

“The poor and needy search for water, but there is none; their tongues are parched with thirst.

But I the Lord will answer them; I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them.”

Rivers will flow everywhere, even where it is barren now. There will be pools and springs in the desert. There will be trees where there is now nothing but wasteland. God does this. God creates!

Bring your idols to the trial and make your case, God says through his prophet. Have them tell us something about the past so we will know from experience that they know something. Have them predict the future so we can test them. They do nothing because they are nothing. They “are utterly worthless, he who chooses [them] is detestable.”

God has brought someone from the north so powerful that he treads on rulers like a potter treads out clay. No one predicted this. No one expected it. There is no one to give counsel or advice. “See, they are all false! Their deeds amount to nothing; their images are but wind and confusion.”

Isaiah 42:1 – 17 2008 September 1^st for 16^th

God introduces his servant:

“I will put my Spirit on him and he will bring justice to the nations.

He will not shout or cry out, or raise his voice in the streets.

A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.”

He will bring justice to the earth.

The God who created everything in all its vastness says that he will take our hand and make us into a covenant people, “and a light for the Gentiles, / to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.”

“I am the Lord; that is my name.” He will not share his glory or praise. He will announce these things.

Sing a new song to God. Go everywhere with it, to the mountains, to the islands. Raise this song like a new battle cry of a mighty man.

“For a long time I have kept silent, I have been quiet and held myself back.

But now, like a woman in childbirth, I cry out, I gasp and pant.”

God will dry up everything and lay it waste and take the blind to unfamiliar places, turning their darkness into light. He will do this for those who stick with him, but those who follow lifeless idols will be toast.

Isaiah 42:18 – 25 2008 September 1^st for 17^th

Israel has been blind and deaf. They have been deaf to the message from God.

“You have seen many things, but have paid no attention; your ears are open, but you hear nothing.”

Because God is righteous, he had these people plundered and looted. It was God they had sinned against. “So he poured out on them his burning anger, the violence of war.”

“It enveloped them in flames, yet they did not understand; it consumed them, but they did not take it to heart.”

Isaiah 43:1 – 13 2008 September 2^nd for 18^th

Israel belongs to God; he redeemed them.

“When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;

and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you.

When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.”

God is the Holy One of Israel. He is the Savior, the only Savior. He uses other nations as ransom for his Israel, those who are precious to him. Don’t be afraid, all of Israel. The sons and daughters, those who he created, the blind and the deaf, bring them all together from everywhere and assemble them to hear the proclamations about Israel’s history with God and how he was always there and how the prophecies were always right. Know and believe.

“Before me no god was formed, nor will there be one after me.” There is no other. No one can save you from God. “When I act, who can reverse it?”

Isaiah 43:14 – 28 2008 September 2^nd for 19^th

Because God is Redeemer of Israel, he will bring all the Babylonians and fugitives in the very ships that they took.

“This is what the Lord says – he who made a way through the sea, a path through the mighty waters,

who drew out the chariots and horses, the army and reinforcements together,

and they lay there, never to rise again, extinguished, snuffed out like a wick:”

[remember Moses vs. Pharaoh?]

“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.

See, I am doing a new thing!”

Wild animals in the desert honor God but Israel has not bothered to bring sacrifices. Although God did not burden them with demands for offerings, they brought nothing voluntarily.

“But you have burdened me with your sins and wearied me with your offenses.

“I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more.”

Remember the past.

“Your first father sinned; your spokesmen rebelled against me.

So I will disgrace the dignitaries of your temple, and I will consign Jacob to destruction and Israel to scorn.”

Isaiah 44:1 – 11 2008 September 4^th for 22^nd

“But now listen, O Jacob, my servant, Israel, whom I have chosen.”

God formed Israel from the womb, that is, from before the beginning. He made something out of nothing. He put water on dry ground and plants sprang up and claimed to belong to God.

God says, “I am the first and I am the last; apart from me there is no God.” Anyone who thinks he is a god let him speak up. Let him relate what happened to the ancient people. Let him foretell the future. We will test his challenge by these things. God can do this. “No, there is no other Rock; I know not one.”

Idols and those who make them are nothing. Craftsmen are nothing but men. They are ignorant and this ignorance is shameful.

Isaiah 44:12 – 23 2008 September 4^th for 23^rd

The craftsman takes a tool and warms it in the fire and uses it to fashion something from metal. A carpenter measures and marks some wood and chips away at it. Then he gets hungry and thirsty and takes a break.

He takes half of his wood and starts a fire. He cooks his meal on the fire and eats until he is satisfied. Then he turns back to the other half of his wood and continues to make an idol out of it and when he is done bows down and worships it.

Isaiah thinks this is stupid, to burn up some of the wood for cooking and heating, then to worship the other half. People who do this are blind and dumb. And they are stupid because they don’t even see how ridiculous it is what they are doing.

It is not like that with God. The man does not make God; God makes the man. He will also forgive the man and sweep away his offenses. “Return to me for I have redeemed you.”

“Sing for joy, O heavens, for the Lord has done this; shout aloud, O earth beneath.

Burst into song, you mountains, you forests and all your trees,

For the Lord has redeemed Jacob, he displays his glory in Israel.”

Isaiah 44:24 – 28 2008 September 6^th for 24^th

It is God who built Jerusalem and God says that it will be inhabited. It is God who made everything including heaven and earth. This is the God:

“who foils the signs of false prophets and makes fools of diviners,

who overthrows the learning of the wise and turns it into nonsense,

who carries out the words of his servants and fulfills the predictions of his messengers,

who says of Jerusalem, ‘It shall be inhabited,’ of the towns of Judah, ‘They shall be built,’ and of their ruins, ‘I will restore them,’

who says to the watery deep, ‘Be dry, and I will dry up your streams,’

who says of Cyrus, ‘He is my shepherd and will accomplish all that I please; he will say of Jerusalem, “Let it be rebuilt,” and of the temple, “Let its foundations be laid.”’”

Isaiah 45:1 – 13 2008 September 6^th for 25^th

“This is what the Lord says to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I take hold of

to subdue nations before him and to strip kings of their armor,

to open doors before him so that gates will not be shut:”

(Calling Cyrus the anointed must have been a shock to the faithful reader.)

God prepares the way for Cyrus. For the sake of Israel, God gives Cyrus wealth, honor, and power. Even though Cyrus does not acknowledge God, the only God, the one who created everything beginning with light and darkness all the way down to prosperity and disaster, the God who runs the weather, for Israel’s sake, this God, nonetheless, strengthens Cyrus.

(Notice how remarkable this is!)

Does the created question the creator? Does a pot ask the potter what he is doing, or does the child ask his parent what they are up to? Similarly, God is not questioned about his people Israel, not by anyone. In the same way that God put the stars in the sky, he has established Cyrus so that Cyrus can and will command that Jerusalem be rebuilt, but not for a reward or payment but because God declared it.

Isaiah 45:14 – 25 2008 September 10^th for 26^th

Isaiah continues with his theme that there are no other Gods, that God is the only one who lives and knows both past and future, that God is the only one who created everything or anything, that God is the hope of Israel and that those conquered by Israel are conquered by God and will recognize his supremacy and uniqueness.

“Truly you are a God who hides himself, O God and Savior of Israel.”

All the idol makers and worshippers will go down together. What they do is stupid and ignorant.

“Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other.

By myself I have sworn, my mouth has uttered in all integrity a word that will not be revoked;

Before me every knee will bow, by me every tongue will swear.”

Isaiah 46 2008 September 10^th for 29^th

Isaiah once again makes fun of the idol gods that other nations worship. He describes these idols as being “bowed down” in the form of being carried, horizontal, into captivity by their conquerors, the Israelites.

“Some pour out gold from their bags and weigh out silver on the scales;

they hire a goldsmith to make it into a god, and they bow down and worship it.

They lift it to their shoulders and carry it; they set it up in its place, and there it stands. From that spot it cannot move.”

God is the one who sustains and rescues from youth to old age. By contrast, cry out in distress to a man-made god and it will do nothing. It does not hear, it cannot respond, it is not alive.

Not only does God know the past and the future from the beginning to the end, he also carries out his will, he does what he wants and is good to his word through all of time.

The stubborn should listen up. God’s salvation will not be delayed.

Isaiah 47:1 – 7 2008 September 12^th for 30^th

Now the day of reckoning has arrived for the Babylonians. God had gotten angry with his people and given them into Babylonian hands and as a result they had thought they were strong and that Babylon would be queen forever. “But you did not consider these things or reflect on what might happen.”

Indeed, now that Israel’s punishment was over, Babylon would be put in the dust. No more would she be a delicate creature. She would have to work, grinding flower at the millstone and having to pull up her dress to wade through streams, shamefully exposing herself.

“Our Redeemer – the Lord Almighty is his name – is the Holy One of Israel.”

Isaiah 47:8 – 15 2008 September 12^th for October 1^st

“Now then, listen, you wanton creature, lounging in your security

and saying to yourself, ‘I am, and there is none besides me.

I will never be a widow or suffer the loss of children.’”

You will be a widow and lose children in a calamity that will happen in one day. It will come unexpectedly and none of your magic or conjuring will be able to stop it. You will not be able to buy it off either.

All those magicians and sorcerers you have depended on and dealt with since childhood will not be able to help you. They won’t even be able to help themselves. They won’t be able to save themselves from the fire nor will they be able to provide a fire to keep you or themselves warm.

“Each of them goes on in his error; there is not one that can save you.”

… You will not be able to buy it off either….

Isaiah 48:1 – 11 2008 September 15^th for October 2^nd

Listen Israel, you guys who swear by my name “but not in truth or righteousness,” I announced long ago what would happen, then when I was ready I made it happen. This is so that you would not say, “My idols did them; my wooden image and metal god ordained them.” I announced these things before those lifeless things were even created. Admit it!

Now I will tell you some more things, even though you are stubborn, “the sinews of your neck were iron, your forehead was bronze.”

You have never heard these new things before. I “delayed my wrath” for the sake of my own name, because you are my people, but enough is enough and when I was ready I acted.

“How can I let myself be defamed? I will not yield my glory to another.”

Isaiah 48:12 – 22 2008 September 15^th for October 3^rd

God says, “There is no peace for the wicked.”

He speaks to Israel:

“I am he: I am the first and I am the last.

My own hands laid the foundations of the earth, and my right hand spread out the heavens;

when I summon them they all stand up together.”

No idol did this. God did.

“Come near me and listen to this:”

I (God) have not had secrets but have taught you what is best. If only you had listened and done accordingly you would have had peace and righteousness and would never been moved or destroyed. Your descendants would be numberless like grains of sand.

Even so, you are leaving Babylon. Announce this and celebrate it! Proclaim, “The Lord has redeemed his servant Jacob.” When God led his people through the desert he made water gush out of rocks for them.

Isaiah 49:1 – 8 2008 September 18^th for October 6^th

Everyone in the world hear this: God called Israel before they existed.

“He made my mouth like a sharpened sword, in the shadow of his hand he hid me;

he made me into a polished arrow and concealed me in his quiver.”

Although God called “me” (Israel) “I” was depressed, thinking that my work had been for nothing. But God, the one who made “me” in the womb, called, equipped, and restored me, said:

“This is what the Lord says – the Redeemer and Holy One of Israel –

to him who was despised and abhorred by the nation, to the servant of rulers:

‘Kings will see you and rise up, princes will see and bow down,

because of the Lord, who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.’”

Isaiah 49:9 – 21 2008 September 18^th for October 7^th

During the time when God favors his people Israel he will restore their land and free the captives. They will not hunger or thirst, even in the heat of the desert. The roads in the mountains will be easy and will be located by springs of water. The Israelites will come from all over and rejoice.

“But Zion said, ‘the Lord has forsaken me, the Lord has forgotten me.’

Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne?

Though she may forget, I will not forget you!”

(We see here a metaphor for God in the feminine, and even more so.)

God will treat his people as a bride with all the trappings of a wedding celebration.

(And a metaphor of God in the masculine.)

Although they had been ruined and laid waste before, the land will now be too small for the people. Children were born during the desolation, during the bereavement. Where did they come from?

Isaiah 49:22 – 26 2008 September 18^th for October 8^th

“This is what the Sovereign Lord says:

“’See, I will beckon to the Gentiles, I will lift up my banner to the peoples;

they will bring your sons in their arms and carry your daughters on their shoulders.

Kings will be your foster fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers.

They will bow down before you with their faces to the ground; they will lick the dust at your feet.

Then you will know that I am the Lord; those who hope in me will not be disappointed.’

Can plunder be taken from warriors, or captives rescued from the fierce?

“But this is what the Lord says:

“’Yes, captives will be taken from warriors, and plunder retrieved from the fierce;

I will contend with those who contend with you, and your children I will save.

I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh; they will be drunk on their own blood, as with wine,

Then all mankind will know that I, the Lord, am your Savior, your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.’”

This reads like the “stick it to them” chapter. Rulers act as common servants, or lower. The fiercest warriors are overcome. This is the cry desperation of a subjugated people.

Isaiah 50 2008 September 20^th for October 9^th

God says, “When I came, why was there no one? When I called, why was there no one to answer!” Could I not save the people? Did I lack strength? “By a mere rebuke I dry up the sea. I turn rivers into a desert; / their fish rot for lack of water and die of thirst.” God makes the sky dark.

The prophet speaks: God has instructed him. He wakes him every morning and opens his ears. He has not rebelled. He did not hide from mocking and abuse, from beatings or assault. “Because the Sovereign Lord helps me, I will not be disgraced. / Therefore have I set my face like flint, and I know I will not be put to shame.”

When God is near to vindicate him, who can bring charges? Bring it on! “They will all wear out like a garment; the moths will eat them up.”

Trust God, and if you walk in the dark, “trust in the name of the Lord and rely on [your] God.” As for those of you who light fires, go ahead, walk in their light. “This is what you shall receive from my hand: You will lie down in torment.”

Isaiah 51:1 – 16 2008 September 20^th for October 10^th

If you pursue righteousness and seek God, look to him and to Abraham and Sarah. God took Abraham and made him into a nation. He makes the wastelands and the deserts like Eden. “Joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the sound of singing.”

God’s justice will go out to the nations. All will look to God. The earth and its inhabitants are nothing compared to him. Don’t be afraid of mere men, they are like grass. They are like garments that are eaten up by moths.

Didn’t God dry up the sea and save the people by bringing them through it? Didn’t he conquer the great sea monster? Fear God. He made the heavens and the earth – he doesn’t merely walk on the earth and look at the heavens. He churns the sea but he protects his people.

“For where is the wrath of the oppressor? The cowering prisoners will soon be set free;

they will not die in their dungeon, nor will they lack bread.”

Isaiah 51:17 – 23 2008 September 20^th for October 13^th

“Awake, awake! Rise up, O Jerusalem,

you who have drunk from the hand of the Lord the cup of his wrath,

you who have drained to its dregs the goblet that makes men stagger.”

Calamities have come on you – double calamities. No one can comfort you. No one can lead you. Your children have fainted; they lie in the streets. “They are filled with the wrath of the Lord and the rebuke of your God.”

But God defends his people. He takes the “goblet of wrath” out of their hands and gives it to their tormentors, those who said, “’Fall prostrate that we may walk over you.’ / And you made your back like the ground, like a street to be walked over.”

Indeed, there is apparently long history of cruel torment in the Middle East.

Isaiah 52 2008 September 23^rd for October 14^th

Good morning Israel! Realize that you are free! The uncircumcised will not trample your city again! “You were sold for nothing, and without money you will be redeemed.”

From ancient oppressor Egypt to modern oppressor Syria, the people were mocked and God’s name was blasphemed all day long, but that’s over.

“How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news,

who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation,

who say to Zion, ‘Your God reigns!’”

The watchmen shout for joy together. All the people sing. Everyone to the ends of the earth will see how strong God is. God goes before Israel and he is also their rear guard.

(The following is Messianic.)

“See, my servant will act wisely; he will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted.

Just as there were many who were appalled at him – his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man and his form marred beyond human likeness –

so will he sprinkle many nations, and kings will shut their mouths because of him.

For what they were not told, they will see, and what they have not heard they will understand.”

Isaiah 53 2008 September 23^rd for October 15^th

The Messianic passage continues. This is all familiar in my tradition.

“Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground.

He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.

He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.

Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

“Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows,

yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted.

But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities;

The punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.

We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way;

And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

“He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth;

he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.

By oppression and judgment he was taken away. And who can speak of his descendants?

For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was stricken.

He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death,

though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.

“Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the Lord makes his life a guilt offering,

he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.

After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light of life and be satisfied;

by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities.

Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong,

because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors.

For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.”

Isaiah 54 2008 September 23^rd for October 16^th

In this chapter, the metaphor of God to Israel is that of a barren, or worse, divorced woman. In that culture the only contribution a woman could make was through her husband, through the bearing of children, so divorce and barrenness were the worst things that could happen.

“Sing, O barren woman, you who never bore a child;

burst into song, shout for joy, you who were never in labor;

because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband.”

Make your tent bigger, spread out in all directions. You will not be shamed; you will forget the shame of the past. God is your husband and he has called you back from the desert. The abandonment is over. The anger is over. It is like the days of Noah when God swore he would never again drown everyone and everything on the earth. Similarly, God now swears that he will not be angry again. The covenant will not be removed. You will be adorned in luxury and your children will live in peace.

“In righteousness you will be established:

Tyranny will be far from you; you will have nothing to fear.

Terror will be far removed; it will not come near you.

If anyone does attack you, it will not be my doing; whoever attacks you will surrender to you.”

God created the blacksmith who fashions the tools and weapons. No one will be able to overcome you.

Isaiah 55 2008 September 24^th for October 17^th

Again, every verse in this chapter is familiar, including one that is among my favorites.

“Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters;

and you who have no money, come, buy and eat!

Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.

Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy?

Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.

Give ear and come to me; hear me, that your soul may live.

I will make an everlasting covenant with you, my faithful love promised to David.

See, I have made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander of the peoples.

Surely you will summon nations you know not, and nations that do not know you will hasten to you,

because of the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, for he has endowed you with splendor.

“Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near.

Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts.

Let him turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon.

[And this next sentence is one of my favorites:]

“’For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,

As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

As the rain and the snow come down from heaven,

And do not return to it without watering the earth

And making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,

[And this next was one of dad’s favorites.]

So is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty,

but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace;

The mountains and hills will burst into song before you,

And all the trees of the field will clap their hands.

Instead of the thornbush will grow the pine tree, and instead of briers the myrtle will grow.

This will be for the Lord’s renown, for an everlasting sign, which will not be destroyed.”

Isaiah 56 2008 September 24^th for October 20^th

God says: “Maintain justice and do what is right.” This is a blessing. Do not desecrate the Sabbath.

This applies to foreigners and eunuchs. (Although these people were lower in class in the theocracy due to Mosaic prohibitions against certain religious jobs and observance, God now says that their behavior of obedience is more important than their physical or racial status.)

“To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, who chooses what pleases me and hold fast to my covenant –

to them I will give within my temple and its walls a memorial and a name better than sons and daughters;”

(Children were considered to be the most important legacy in that they were in a sense a connection to eternity.)

The foreigners who bind themselves to God will find joy in his house of prayer. Their offerings will be accepted; “for my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations.”

(This was quoted by Jesus.)

Now the verse turns to an accusation against wickedness.

“Come, all you beasts of the field, come and devour, all you beasts of the forest!” The watchmen and shepherds are worthless. They are all saying, “Come, let me get wine! Let us drink our fill of beer! / And tomorrow will be like today, or even far better.”

This does seem foolish.

Isaiah 57:1 – 13 2008 September 24^th for October 21^st

The accusation against the wicked continues and turns graphic. The sexual imagery refers to idolatry, spiritual adultery, and also to practices within idol worship.

“The righteous perish, and no one ponders it in his heart;

devout men are taken away, and no one understands

that the righteous are taken away to be spared from evil.

Those who walk uprightly enter into peace; they find rest as they lie in death.

But you – come here, you sons of a sorceress, you offspring of adulterers and prostitutes!

Whom are you mocking? At whom do you sneer and stick out your tongue?

Are you not a brood of rebels, the offspring of liars?

You burn with lust among the oaks and under every spreading tree;

you sacrifice your children in the ravines and under the overhanging crags.

The idols among the smooth stones of the ravines are your portion; they, they are your lot.

Yes, to them you have poured out drink offerings and offered grain offerings. In the light of these things, should I relent?

You have made your bed on a high and lofty hill; there you went up to offer your sacrifices.

Behind your doors and your doorposts you have put your pagan symbols.

Forsaking me, you uncovered your bed, you climbed into it and opened it wide;

You made a pact with those whose beds you love, and you looked on their nakedness.

You went to Molech with olive oil and increased your perfumes.

You sent your ambassadors far way; you descended to the grave itself!

You were wearied by all your ways, but you would not say, ‘It is hopeless.’

You found renewal of your strength, and so you did not faint.

“Whom have you so dreaded and feared that you have been false to me,

and have neither remembered me nor pondered this in your hearts?

Is it not because I have long been silent that you do not fear me?

I will expose your righteousness and your works, and they will not benefit you.

When you cry out for help, let your collection of idols save you!

The wind will carry all of them off, a mere breath will blow them away.

But the man who makes me his refuge will inherit the land and possess my holy mountain.”

Isaiah 57:14 – 21 2008 September 25^th for October 22^nd

The way of the people will be cleared. God lives in a high place, “but also [lives] with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit.” God revives the dispirited. He created man but will not be angry with him forever. He was enraged at some of the things man did and punished him, but now he comforts and heals.

“’Peace, peace, to those far and near,’ says the Lord, ‘And I will heal them.’

But the wicked are like the tossing sea, which cannot rest, whose waves cast up mire and mud.

’There is no peace,’ says my God, ‘for the wicked.’”

(I think this is otherwise translated in the familiar phrase, “… no rest for the wicked.”

Isaiah 58 2008 September 25^th for October 23^rd

Declare it far and wide that the people are in rebellion. They seek God and ask for his decisions but don’t follow his commands. They fast to get God’s attention and he does nothing for them.

“Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers.

Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife, and in striking each other with wicked fists.”

Acting like that will not get you noticed by God, not in a positive way anyhow.

What God prefers for fasting is to unburden those who are treated unjustly, to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked. Do this and God will notice and answer. Further:

“If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk,

and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,

then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday.”

You will have prosperity and abundance. Keep the Sabbath and call it delightful and honor it and God will honor you and you will find joy and feasting in your inheritance.

Isaiah 59:1 – 11 2008 September 26^th for October 24^th

It is not that God is unable or not strong enough to save, it is that the people are hidden from God by their sins and iniquities. They have blood on their hands and guilt on their fingers. They speak only lies and wicked things. No one calls for justice or mercy.

“They hatch the eggs of vipers and spin a spider’s web.

Whoever eats their eggs will die, and when one is broken, an adder is hatched.”

Their clothes are as useless as cobwebs, their acts are of violence, their thoughts are evil, they do destruction, and their paths are crooked. No one is peaceful.

As a result, we are far from justice and righteousness. Although we look for light, we are in darkness. We stumble around as in twilight, as if we were dead. We growl and moan. There is no justice. Deliverance is far away.

Isaiah 59:12 – 20 2008 September 26^th for October 27^th

We have so many offenses that God hides us from himself, offenses such as rebellion and treachery and turning away from God, fomenting oppression and revolt, and uttering lies. It is no wonder that justice and righteousness are standing far back.

“…truth has stumbled in the streets, honesty cannot enter.”

Indeed, “Truth is nowhere to be found and whoever shuns evil becomes a prey.”

God is not pleased with this. He is not happy that none of the people rise to his standard, that no one put themselves on the line for righteousness or godliness. God will take care of this.

“From the west, men will fear the name of the Lord, and from the rising of the sun, they will revere his glory.

For he will come like a pent-up flood that the breath of the Lord drives along.

“The Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who repent of their sins.”

But, God’s covenant remains the same and God’s words will remain with his children now and forever.

Isaiah 60:1 – 12 2008 September 30^th for October 28^th

In this verse, Israel is triumphant. While darkness covers the rest of the earth, the light shines on Israel. The splendor of God is over them. Kings and nations will come to the light and bring their wealth. The people will be carried around. “Then you will look and be radiant, your heart will throb and swell with joy;”

Herds and flocks of animals will come; riches will come; ships will bring silver and gold. The city walls will be rebuilt by foreign labor. Security will be so great that it will never be necessary to shut the gates. “For the nation or kingdom that will not serve you will perish; it will be utterly ruined.”

Isaiah 60:13 – 22 2008 October 1^st for 29^th

The glory of Israel’s triumph continues. Rulers will be their servants and in construction they will use gold instead of bronze, silver instead of iron, bronze instead of wood, and iron instead of stone. They will be governed by peace and will no longer need the sun for light since God himself will be their light, always and forever.

This place, where God puts his feet, will be glorified. The people will all be righteous and there will be no sorrow.

“The least of you will become a thousand, the smallest a mighty nation.

I am the Lord; in its time I will do this swiftly.”

Isaiah 61 2008 October 4^th for 30^th

“The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.

He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners,

to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God,

to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion---

to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes,

the oil of gladness instead of mourning,

and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.

They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor.”

The people will rebuild the old ruins and aliens will be their servants while they serve as priests to God. They will receive double good instead of shame.

“For I, the Lord love justice; I hate robbery and iniquity.

In my faithfulness I will reward them and make an everlasting covenant with them.

Their descendants will be known among the nations and their offspring among the peoples.

All who see them will acknowledge that they are a people the Lord has blessed.

“I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God.

For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness,

as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.

For as the soil makes the sprout come up and a garden causes seeds to grow,

so the Sovereign Lord will make righteousness and praise spring up before all nations.”

Isaiah 62 2008 October 4^th for 31^st

Israel will have a new name. She used to be called Desolate and Deserted, but now they will be called by names of celebration and rejoicing, like at a wedding.

The watchmen will never be silent. They will call on the Lord day and night. God has sworn by himself that enemies and foreigners will never again possess this land and its produce. The highway will be built up and the hazards and roadblocks removed.

“The Lord has made proclamation to the ends of the earth:

‘Say to the Daughter of Zion “See, your Savior comes!”’”

Now their name will be Sought After, not Deserted.

Isaiah 63 2008 October 8^th for November 3^rd

God tramples nations in anger like a man tramples grapes in a winepress making wine. He comes out with what looks like blood all over his clothes.

“I trampled the nations in my anger; in my wrath I made them drunk and poured their blood on the ground.”

But God is kind to his people and does many good things for Israel. When they were distressed, he was distressed but he showed mercy and when they rebelled he was grieved.

The people recall the old days when God led Moses who led the people, His flock, through the desert. He performed miracles in front of them.

“Why, O Lord, do you make us wander from your ways and harden our hearts so we do not revere you?

Return for the sake of your servants, the tribes that are your inheritance.”

Return to us. Enemies control the city, your sanctuary.

“We are yours from of old; but you have not ruled over them, they have not been called by your name.”

Isaiah 64 2008 October 8^th for November 4^th

Where are you God? Make thunder in the mountains and come down in power! Burn up those twigs in the fire that boils the water. Make the nations quake at your presence. Do awesome things like you did throughout history.

We have all become unclean, like filth, like shriveled leaves, “for you have hidden your face from us and made us waste away because of our sins.”

You are still our God and Father. You made us. “Do not be angry beyond measure, O Lord; do not remember our sins forever.” Look at your city, it is burned and trampled, “all that we treasure lies in ruins.

“After this, O Lord, will you hold yourself back? Will you keep silent and punish us beyond measure?”

Isaiah 65:1 – 12 2008 October 8^th for November 5^th

God came and made himself known to a people who didn’t ask to know him, to people who weren’t expecting it. He said, “Here I am, here I am.” (This has to be a play on words for God’s name, “I am.”)

The people are ornery and provocative. They burn sacrifices in their back gardens and sit among the graves. They eat pig and keep their distance from God.

“Such people are smoke in my nostrils, a fire that keeps burning all day.”

God will pay back for the people’s sins and their father’s sins.

But, God will not destroy them all. Just like grapes that have some fruit left in them and are saved, so God saves some of the people. Some of them are good. They will inherit the land, the mountains, valleys, and pastures. The people who seek God will find rest for their herds. But those who forsake God are destined for slaughter.

Isaiah 65:13 – 25 2008 October 10^th for November 6^th

God says this: God’s servants will eat and drink and sing and rejoice but those who have sinned will not. They will be in anguish and will be considered cursed.

The conclusion of this chapter describes the New Heavens and the New Earth. We use some of this in our funeral services, the image being that the New places are in a life after our death here and in a place apart from here. It doesn’t read exactly like that to me, though. It reads more like the idealized city in the here and now. Verbatim:

“Behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth.

The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind.

But be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create,

for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight and its people a joy.

I will rejoice over Jerusalem and take delight in my people:

the sound of weeping and of crying will be heard in it no more.

“Never again will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not live out his years;

he who dies at a hundred will be thought a mere youth;

he who fails to reach a hundred will be considered accursed.

They will build houses and dwell in them; they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit.

No longer will they build houses and others live in them, or plant and others eat.

For as the days of a tree, so will be the days of my people;

my chosen ones will long enjoy the works of their hands.

They will not toil in vain or bear children doomed to misfortune;

for they will be a people blessed by the Lord, they and their descendants with them.

Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear.

The wolf and the lamb will feed together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox, but dust will be the serpent’s food.

They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain.”

(The “wolfe and lamb” verse (or one very like it) was the text of a Star Trek episode that KXTX, the Christian Broadcasting Network affiliate in Dallas, would not air, due, apparently, to theological differences between CBN and Gene Roddenberry. I can only imagine.)

Isaiah 66:1 – 11 2008 October 10^th for November 7^th

God makes a statement contrasting himself with competing “gods,” who are figments of people’s imaginations:

“Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool.

Where is the house you will build for me? Where will my resting place be?

Has not my hand made all these things, and so they came into being?”

Then he moves into his acceptance of people. It is not because of the show they put on when they make the prescribed sacrifices; it is because of the condition of their heart. God, after all is Spirit, that is, of the heart or inner being, rather than being physical, impressed by physical show:

“This is the one I esteem; he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word.

But whoever sacrifices a bull is like one who kills a man,

and whoever offers a lamb, like one who breaks a dog’s neck;

Whoever makes a grain offering is like one who presents pig’s blood,

and whoever burns memorial incense, like one who worships an idol.”

They delight in abomination but God will treat them harshly. When they call, he will not listen. Rather, they should find joy by glorifying God.

“Hear that uproar from the city, hear that noise from the temple!

It is the sound of the Lord repaying his enemies all they deserve.”

People in this culture would have been accustomed to the sounds of battle and slaughter.

A woman gives birth before even going into labor. Who ever heard of such a thing? Similarly, can a nation be born in a day? But, when God did it, yes it was! He brought them to birth and did not prevent it. And he sustained them as in this feminine image:

“For you will nurse and be satisfied at her comforting breasts;

you will drink deeply and delight in her overflowing abundance.”

Isaiah 66:12 – 24 2008 October 10^th for November 10^th

The image of God being maternal to Jerusalem continues. Life will be like a river and wealth flowing in will be like a stream. The people will be nursed and coddled and played with like a mother and her young child.

“When you see this, your heart will rejoice and you will flourish like grass;

the hand of the Lord will be made known to his servants, but his fury will be shown to his foes.”

God comes with fire, in a chariot of fire, to judge all mankind. He will punish those who eat detestable things and worship in gardens (rather than in the Temple, the prescribed place). They will come to an end as he shows his glory and power to all nations everywhere. Isaiah lists out every nation he has ever heard of in this declaration including details about what they are known for (archery, sea going, horses, etc.).

The book closes with the following paragraph that captures in itself the rewards for those who belong to God and the punishments for those who rebel:

“’As the new heavens and the new earth that I make will endure before me,’ declares the Lord, ‘so will your name and descendants endure. From one New Moon to another and from one Sabbath to another, all mankind will come and bow down before me,’ says the Lord, ‘and they will go out and look upon the dead bodies of those who rebelled against me; their worm will not die, nor will their fire be quenched, and they will be loathsome to all mankind.’”

Concluding Thoughts on Isaiah 2008 October 10^th for November 11^th

Having now read through all the writings of the prophet Isaiah, this is my impression: There are two sorts of texts, the withering, graphic denunciations of any idol worship or other rebellion against the only true God, and the lofty, graphic portrayals of the prosperity and richness of those for whom the great and majestic God, creator and sustainer of the universe and the earth, and each of us, is Lord. Switches between the two happen sometimes in the middle of a sentence but Isaiah, on the whole, seems, to write down about equal amounts of both blistering condemnation and elevating blessing.

It is hard for the reader of today to tell, but it all appears to be “prophetic” in the sense of saying, “Here is what will happen,” either after you rebel or after you do as God commands. At the same time, the graphic writing is such that it is hard to imagine that Isaiah didn’t see, either physically or in visions, the things he described. Things like conquered people being used as living pavement or children thriving under the care and feeding of a loving and devoted (that is, God-like) mother.

We have in fact seen many passages that are often quoted from the Bible, at Christmas and at weddings and funerals and even in Star Trek. As we expected, the book is enormous compared to these snippets that have found their way into culture. People who don’t focus on faith cannot grasp the depth of the material (nor can some of those of us who do), but there are key passages that can do miracles for a person who never even heard of God before. This is one miracle of God’s Word. It has value far above that of just any word.

As I have said before, my strength is in interpreting narrative, that is, history. As a result, it is more of a chore for me to go through the Psalms and now the prophets. There is no narrative arc to speak of. It is mostly poetry, perhaps music. Perhaps part of the prophet’s role in the society for which this was written was to inspire, both positively and negatively, as movies, or music do for us today. Would I rather hear a story or a song? Well both, in their own time and place.

© 2008 Courtney B. Duncan