Author: Erin Newton

Scripture Focus: Isaiah 39:8
8 “The word of the Lord you have spoken is good,” Hezekiah replied. For he thought, “There will be peace and security in my lifetime.”

Reflection: Ozymandias & Hezekiah
By Erin Newton

In the poem “Ozymandias” by Percy Bysshe Shelley, a traveler comes upon an ancient statue’s remains that were just two stumps of legs that stood upon an inscription: My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings; Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair! The sad fate of the statue closes the poem: Nothing beside remains. Round the decay / Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare / The lone and level sands stretch far away.”

This poem echoes the prophetic oracle spoken to Hezekiah. The king of Israel, puffed up by his own accomplishments, took the Babylonian envoy on a tour of his grandiosity. He showed them his storehouses of gold, silver, oil, and spices. These things heralded his life of luxury. Hezekiah also showed off his armory, his storehouse of weapons. This revealed his power and might.

While parading his wealth and power, the text says that Hezekiah did this gladly. He was proud of what he had. He was proud of the level of luxury he had secured for himself. He was proud of the level of might he had obtained. Did he not just recover from an illness of insanity? Did we not just read about the oppression of the poor, hungry, and vulnerable?

Despite the reality of his own mortality and the suffering of the people, Hezekiah was still sick—sick with pride. Look on my works and despair!

Isaiah rebuked the king and foretold of destruction. Like the statue in the desert, everything he 
boasted in would be gone. All of his spices, gold, and silver would be carried away to the same place the envoy came from. In his pride and arrogance, he had tried to impress the same people who would later imprison his community.

Hezekiah’s reply can be read in one of two ways: he either accepted the divine fate of his people with some sort of faith-bound resolve or he remained focused on himself, pleased that at least the destruction would come after him.

Perhaps I am too pessimistic, but I think Hezekiah was still exhibiting self-absorption. His joy was bound up in his wealth and power. He gleefully exalted himself by exhibiting what he had. In the end, his concern was always for himself.

How we view our responsibility for the world that remains after us tells more about our character than what fills our storehouses. 

Divine Hours Prayer: The Greeting
What terror you inspire! Who can stand before you when you are angry? — Psalm 76.7

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle.

​Today’s Readings
Isaiah 39 (Listen 1:35)
Acts 26 (Listen 5:17)

Read more about Open Letter to Students of the Bible
Festus believed Paul was crazy…Paul, however, was no fool, no lunatic. Paul had great learning but a greater ministry.

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Read more about A Sin We Are Proud Of
Our culture has a hard time seeing what Hezekiah did wrong…Storing up for ourselves is prudence…our own peace and prosperity is honorable.

A Sin We Are Proud Of

Scripture Focus: Isaiah 32:5–7
5 No longer will the fool be called noble
     nor the scoundrel be highly respected.
 6 For fools speak folly,
     their hearts are bent on evil:
 They practice ungodliness
     and spread error concerning the Lord;
 the hungry they leave empty
     and from the thirsty they withhold water.
 7 Scoundrels use wicked methods,
     they make up evil schemes
 to destroy the poor with lies,
     even when the plea of the needy is just.

Reflection: Dethrone the Fool
By Erin Newton

One of the loneliest places in Christianity is when you see people for who they truly are—behind the façade of popularity, past the echoes of flattering lies—but no one else does. I remember the moment the image of a particular religious leader changed in my mind from a respected mentor to the lying deceiver he is. Since that realization I have been aghast at those who cannot see what I see. He is a scoundrel still highly respected, a fool called noble.

This chapter in Isaiah is a glimmer of hope. Wicked leaders who oppress the poor, the needy, and the vulnerable will be unmasked. The community will label fools and scoundrels as they truly are, not as they wish to see them.

Spotting a fool seems like an easy task. I think we assume fools are blatantly foolish—maybe the daredevil who skydives without a parachute or the person who jumps into shark-infested waters. We sometimes equate foolishness with people who engage in risky behaviors. In some ways, their foolishness harms mostly themselves with only occasional outward consequences. Isaiah sees foolishness as a poison that infects the community.

Fools speak folly. But not just words that sound ridiculous, fools speak words that spread error. Their words are convincing enough that people latch on to the disguised foolishness and then repeat the words themselves. What do we call ourselves when we continue to spread the rhetoric a fool is peddling? We risk being fools ourselves.

These foolish words that spread error promote the neglect of the hungry and the thirsty. Foolish words harm the vulnerable. Fools care nothing for anyone but themselves. Scoundrels are just another version of a fool who actively plans to oppress others. These types of people are not just ridiculous, silly, ignorant, or stupid. They know exactly what they are doing; it is planned, and it is intentional.  

Who among you is a fool? Who is telling you lies to keep food out of hungry mouths? Who is utilizing methods that oppress the poor? Maybe it’s time to stop participating in their spread of error. Discard complacency—take away the respect from the scoundrel and stop calling fools “noble.”

The fruit of that righteousness will be peace; its effect will be quietness and confidence forever. My people will live in peaceful dwelling places, in secure homes, in undisturbed places of rest. (Isaiah 32.17–18).

Divine Hours Prayer: The Morning Psalm
Seven times a day do I praise you, because of your righteous judgments.
Great peace have they who love your law: for them there is not stumbling block. — Psalm 119.165

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle.


​Today’s Readings
Isaiah 32 (Listen 2:46)
Acts 19 (Listen 5:47)

Read more about Answering Fools
Answer a fool. Don’t answer a fool. This famous mirrored pair of proverbs is almost a metaphor for the entire collection.

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Listen to Pause to Read episode, RSVP to Wisdom or Folly
Two hostesses beckon. Which banquet will you enter? Who gets your RSVP?

https://spotifyanchor-web.app.link/e/0Th1DEiRQKb

Scripture Focus: Isaiah 25.4-5
4 You have been a refuge for the poor,
     a refuge for the needy in their distress,
 a shelter from the storm
     and a shade from the heat.
 For the breath of the ruthless
     is like a storm driving against a wall
 5     and like the heat of the desert.
 You silence the uproar of foreigners;
     as heat is reduced by the shadow of a cloud,
     so the song of the ruthless is stilled.

Reflection: Clouds for Scorching Days
By Erin Newton

Summers in Texas are like sticking your face in an oven. July and August are our prime summer heat waves where the sun immediately bakes your skin.

Years ago, I spent a few weeks in Venezuela during a particularly warm summer. The heat radiated in the cloudless sky. I remember praying, “Dear God, send a cloud.” Intense heat can bring out the simplest of prayers.

Isaiah compares the suffering of the poor and needy to those who suffer under the scorching heat of the sun or the abrasive torrents of a storm. The “ruthless” beat against them like “a storm driving against a wall.”

It is a picture of oppression that is inescapable, too powerful to overcome, sapping all energy and life. People fight against the winds of the storm to no avail. It pushes them back against a wall. I imagine scenes of people desperately clinging to branches as the wind threatens to carry them away. I imagine scenes of sojourners in the desert, lips cracked and yearning for a drop of water. Isaiah shows the poor and needy in the deepest pit of their despair.

But God is their refuge. He is the “shelter from the storm” and the “shade from the heat.” Notice the rescue from God is not plucking them from this earth. They are not removed from living in the world. They are not suddenly transported to a paradise where nothing bad happens. They continue living in a world where oppression, persecution, and suffering threaten their existence.  
God provides a respite for their suffering. Within the dome of scorching heat—God sends a cloud. Under the deafening roar of the storm—God blunts the shrill winds.

Why do you think God does not eliminate the threat completely? I wish he would. I have been in the storm, and I have endured the blaze of suffering. Trials of great intensity wear down our energy physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Under the clamor of life’s storms, we barely utter a prayer, “Dear God, help me.”

God sends us clouds and calms the winds. He is our refuge in life—but refuges are just temporary inns for respite. I want a permanent abode, far away.

“He will swallow up death forever. The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces.”

Clouds and calm do we have now. Tearless eyes and eternal life shall we gain in Him.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons
Protect my life and deliver me; let me not be put to shame, for I have trusted in you. — Psalm 25.19

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle.


​Today’s Readings
Isaiah 25 (Listen 1:59)
Acts 12 (Listen 3:49)

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Death is not the worst thing that can happen to us and it does not have the final word in our lives but that does not mean we should not grieve it.

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Supporting our Work

Scripture Focus: Isaiah 16:6-7, 11
6 We have heard of Moab’s pride—
    how great is her arrogance!—
of her conceit, her pride and her insolence;
    but her boasts are empty.
7 Therefore the Moabites wail,
    they wail together for Moab.
Lament and grieve
    for the raisin cakes of Kir Hareseth.

11 My heart laments for Moab like a harp,
    my inmost being for Kir Hareseth.

Reflection: Grief for the Guilty
By Erin Newton

God created the world with great potential. All things were declared “good,” but people were called to cultivate the land and bring about its fullness. Moab was once a picturesque land of green vineyards, refreshing waters, and bountiful harvests.

It all came to an end. Vines were trampled. Water dried up. The destruction of cities and devastation of their resources was likely due to the invasion of the Assyrians. When Isaiah described the wailing of the people, he reflected on the loss of these signs of blessed abundance.

It is a tragic scene that began in Isaiah 15:3, “In the streets they wear sackcloth; on the roofs and in the public squares they all wail, prostrate with weeping.” The men cried out. Fugitives wept. Their lamentation echoed to the borders.

Somewhere amid this tragedy, there was a glimpse of hope in the house of David. But something happened, the verse turns to a reminder of the pride and arrogance of Moab. It reads as if help had been offered through the God of Judah but hastily rejected. Despite their turmoil, Moab would not turn to the God who saves. “When Moab appears at her high place, she only wears herself out; when she goes to her shrine to pray, it is to no avail” (v. 12).

We might read this and perform a simple mathematical equation: A + B = C. They could have found hope in Judah but rejected God, so their destruction is just. While we proclaim God to be perfectly just, does our compassion and mercy end there?

What struck me about this chapter was the pivot in verse 11—the wailing now comes from the speaker. (Who is the me? Commentaries vary between saying it is the Lord who grieves, and others say it is the prophet. It’s safe to say that either voice conveys the godly characteristic of divine mercy.)

Mercy and justice can burn equally in one’s heart. You can look at tragedies and see ways in which people suffer from self-inflicted wounds through arrogance, pride, self-reliance, and the rejection of God. You can look and still your heart rends in grief. The deep bowels of your soul can cry out in lament. Why? Because we see the goodness God created in each person, we see the potential for blessed abundance, and yet through rejection of God’s gift of hope—all is destroyed.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Greeting
In you, O Lord, have I taken refuge; let me never be put to shame; deliver me in your righteousness. — Psalm 31.1

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle.

​Today’s Readings
Isaiah 16 (Listen 2:32)
Acts 5 (Listen 6:49)

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Like Isaiah’s audience, we may be tempted to shout  “amens” when our “enemies” are condemned.

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Some may think it strange to pray for one who seems irredeemable; one who rejects any criticism and leans on pride. But this is just the kind of person David prays for.

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Scripture Focus: Isaiah 8:12, 19-20
12 “Do not call conspiracy
    everything this people calls a conspiracy;
do not fear what they fear,
    and do not dread it.
19 When someone tells you to consult mediums and spiritists, who whisper and mutter, should not a people inquire of their God? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living? 20 Consult God’s instruction and the testimony of warning. If anyone does not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn. 

Reflection: Conspiracy Theology
By Erin Newton

“Trust no one” is the mantra for our day. We have seen the news turn from a daily source of information to headlines judged for signs of misinformation. As a kid, I was thrilled to hear the screeching tones of AOL dial-up internet. Search engines meant access to facts. Now, we question who is behind each website and even squint to count the number of fingers on a possible AI-generated image.

Who can we trust? Where can we go for answers?

The dawn of social media and artificial intelligence did not create a novel threat—it merely reshaped the old struggle to gauge the trustworthiness of our sources.

For Isaiah, the call to avoid untrustworthy sources meant telling the people to avoid “mediums” and “spiritists”—not our modern warning to avoid “that random post by the username GodLovesOnlyMe38128” or the person behind the pulpit who seems to be selling something. Both the ancient medium and the modern internet troll rely on spewing words that stir up our fear.

The warnings in Isaiah are eerily relevant. God told the prophet to distinguish the work of his hand from purported conspiracy, a word that has been tossed around more frequently today. Conspiracy drives fear and feeds a sense of dread. Conspiracy is easier to manage than divine judgment because people are responsible for conspiracies and can be controlled—or so Isaiah’s community thought.

The conspiracy here is unnamed but could be anything such as political upheavals among the divided kingdom or foreign affairs with the Assyrians or Babylonians. We know that religious practices were corrupted, and the prophets were apt to call them out. Jeremiah was accused of conspiracy when he dared to call out the sin of religious leaders. Whatever crisis plagued the people, they were quick to label it a conspiracy rather than divine judgment.

God rebukes foolishness that confuses divine justice with mortal conspiracy. Such foolishness is like consulting a corpse for advice. If you want answers, don’t go to the cemetery. If you need guidance, don’t consult those who use spirituality for a fee.

The place to find trustworthy answers is with God himself. We have his word, passed down through centuries—studied and analyzed more than any piece of writing on this earth. We have access to his Spirit, who dwells within us—the Word itself abides with us. Consult these things, not the voices that bank on your anxiety.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons
Happy are those who act with justice and always do right! — Psalm 106.3

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle.

​Today’s Readings
Isaiah  8-9.7 (Listen 3:26)
Psalm 104 (Listen 3:37)

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