Feeble Hands, Knees, and Hearts

  • June 3, 2020
  • /
  • Park Forum

We are happy to welcome ministry-focused college and seminary students from around the country to write in June of 2020 for The Park Forum. Each of them is pursuing a career in ministry and received free coaching on their writing as a part of the program. For more information about the program and a profile of each of our student writers, visit our Student Writers Month page.

Today’s student writer is Sylvester Ngonga, a student at Logsdon Seminary, transferring to Gardner Webb University this summer.

Scripture Focus: Isaiah 35.3-4
Strengthen the feeble hands and make steady the knees that give way. Say to those with fearful hearts, “Be strong, do not fear; your God will come, he will come with vengeance, with divine retribution he will come to save you.

From John: Sylvester’s 1st draft deadline was only 15 days ago. From that time to this, the crisis dominating our attention has shifted. Murder, protests, riots, and brutality, exacerbated by a failure of leadership now dominate our newsfeeds and headlines. But Sylvester’s words are all the more applicable to our current crisis and the scourge of disease still simmers underneath the more violent dangers many now face. God has indeed exposed our feeble hands, feeble knees, and feeble hearts. May God have mercy on us.

Reflection: Feeble Hands, Knees, and Hearts
By Sylvester Ngonga

The preceding chapter, Isaiah 34, describes the judgments against the nations whereas this chapter anticipates the recovery of Jerusalem and the glad return of the exiles from deportation. In these two verses feebleness is conspicuous:

Feebleness of hands: inadequacy of strength, declined productivity
Feebleness of knees: inefficiency of movement, weakened mobility
Feebleness of hearts: inconstancy of hope, heightened anxiety

These lamentations of feebleness characterized the general experiences amongst the people (Lamentations 1) following Jerusalem’s destruction and subsequent deportation into exile (Jeremiah 27.20).

Not unlike their experience, the Covid-19 pandemic has brought the world to its knees. Many people have died. Curtailed physical interactions have led to millions of job losses and closure of learning institutions, and even shutting of church doors. In these surreal conditions, there are trepidations and desperate lamentations of shakiness experienced all over the world in feebleness of hands, knees, and hearts.

The world is desperate for a silver lining beyond this pandemic but Christ gives us something much better: An assurance that is more than a bright outlook, an everlasting future without feebleness of hands, knees, and hearts.

The prophet Isaiah looked beyond the enormous trepidations of people in misery following God’s judgment and saw the return and restoration of a nation. It would no longer be time for lamenting the feebleness of hands, knees and, hearts but strengthening, firming, and cheering up!

In the prevailing global tension, we need the solid hope of our Lord to see beyond this hopeless feebleness. The focus should be beyond simply getting past our present challenges. The anticipation of the hope of glory is not vanity but assured confidence that God will come and save in his own time. Because Jesus lives, we can face the future with confidence and hope (Romans 8.11).

The writer of Hebrews (Hebrews 12:12) references this text of Isaiah in encouraging believers to strengthen their feeble arms and weak knees and to gracefully endure hardships. 

Reflection for the month: Psalms 18:28 You, Lord, keep my lamp burning; my God turns my darkness into light.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Call to Prayer
Bless our God, you peoples; make the voice of his praise to be heard;
Who holds our soul in life, and will not allow our feet to slip. — Psalm 66.7-8

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle

Today’s Readings
Isaiah 35 (Listen – 1:43) 
Revelation 5 (Listen – 2:39)

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In their world, there is no prosperity. In their world, there is little security. In their world, they experience only danger and disappointment.

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Sacrifices that Don’t Please

  • June 2, 2020
  • /
  • Park Forum

We are happy to welcome ministry-focused college and seminary students from around the country to write in June of 2020 for The Park Forum. Each of them is pursuing a career in ministry and received free coaching on their writing as a part of the program. For more information about the program and a profile of each of our student writers, visit our Student Writers Month page.

Today’s student writer is Grace Sosa, a student at Logsdon Seminary.

Scripture Focus: Isaiah 34:5-7
5 When my sword has drunk its fill in the heavens,
    lo, it will descend upon Edom,
    upon the people I have doomed to judgment.
6 The Lord has a sword; it is sated with blood,
    it is gorged with fat,
    with the blood of lambs and goats,
    with the fat of the kidneys of rams.
For the Lord has a sacrifice in Bozrah,
    a great slaughter in the land of Edom.
7 Wild oxen shall fall with them,
    and young steers with the mighty bulls.
Their land shall be soaked with blood,
    and their soil made rich with fat.

From John: Today begins our first ever Student Writers Month. You won’t hear from me (except possibly in little intros like this) until July. It is a crazy and strange time in our world right now but I am thrilled with the providence of God, both for the quality of these writers you will hear from and the timing of this month-long experiment. In a panicked and fearful time, I can’t think of anyone better for us to listen to than the future ministers of tomorrow’s Church. May we listen well.

Reflection: Sacrifices that Don’t Please
By Grace Sosa

Isaiah 34 is not likely anyone’s favorite passage of scripture. Mountains soak with blood, soil turns to sulfur, and goat-demons call to each other. This passage is a prophecy of God’s judgment against Edom.

The Edomites had been an antithesis to the Israelites since Jacob and Esau. Even before the two were born, God told Rebekah, “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples born of you shall be divided” (Gen. 25:23).

From Jacob’s line came the Israelites, and from Esau’s line came the Edomites. The Edomites denied Israel passage through their land during the Exodus (Numbers 20:14-29), and Edom gave rise to some of Israel’s greatest enemies, including the Amalekites and Agagites.

When the Israelites heard this prophecy against their enemy, they most likely rejoiced. Many years of injustices were about to be avenged.

Yet, this passage closely mirrors Isaiah 1, hearkening back to God’s judgment on Israel. In Isaiah 1, God tells the Israelites that their sacrifices will not please him unless they“seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow” (v. 17). It is not only Israel’s enemies who have been unjust but the Israelites themselves.

The prophets remind the Israelites that even though they are God’s chosen people, they are not exempt from doing what is right. In Amos 5:21-24, the prophet said God would not accept Israel’s offerings or songs unless they “let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream!” Jeremiah 22:3 reminds the people to enact justice for the foreigner, orphan, and widow. Maybe Isaiah’s contrast is not between an evil nation and the righteous nation of Israel. Maybe his contrast is between all nations and a completely holy God.

Might Christians today think we are pleasing God through our religious practices when we are also doing the same things we judge our “enemies” for doing? Do we welcome refugees or judge them for coming into our country? Do we seek racial justice or do we settle for being “not racist?” Do we judge our political opponents for their cutting words but then fill our social media accounts with similar language?

Let us not celebrate when bad things happen to those whom we deem evil, knowing that we have all fallen short of God’s glory. It is only through the mercy God shows again and again that we are forgiven.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Morning Psalm
Open for me the gates of righteousness; I will enter them; I will offer thanks to the Lord… — Psalm 119.19

Today’s Readings
Isaiah 34 (Listen – 2:59) 
Revelation 4 (Listen – 2:09)

Read more about Pleasing Sacrifices
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Peter’s Unfinished Work

  • June 1, 2020
  • /
  • John Tillman

Scripture Focus: Revelation 3.1-3
1 I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. 2 Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of my God. 3 Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; hold it fast, and repent.

Isaiah 33.14-15
14 Who of us can dwell with the consuming fire? 
Who of us can dwell with everlasting burning?” 
15 Those who walk righteously 
and speak what is right…

Reflection: Peter’s Unfinished Work
By John Tillman

We have both grieved and celebrated over this past weekend. 

Pentecost Sunday closes the season of Easter. As one season ends, Pentecost marks the beginning of a new one. Pentecost is the end of Jesus powerfully leading his disciples and the beginning of Jesus empowering his church to lead. Pentecost is the end of the season of training and the beginning of the season of work. 

As evidenced by both the murder of George Floyd and some of the broken and tragic responses to it, the church has much work left to do. Surely Christ’s words to the church at Sardis apply to us today, “I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of my God.”

We have written consistently (because God’s Word speaks of it consistently) about the centrality to the gospel of destroying racism. There does not exist a gospel that ignores racism. Any “gospel” that does not confront racism is not the gospel. Pentecost testifies strongly to this as the Holy Spirit moved Peter to preach that what people were witnessing was the promised outpouring of God’s Spirit on “all flesh.” (Acts 2.17; Joel 2.28)

Peter went on to struggle throughout his ministry to overcome the racism that he was raised in. May we take up Peter’s unfinished work. Overcoming racism cannot be done by one sermon, one vision, one visit, one protest, or one condemnation. Opposing both individual and systemic racism is a lifetime of work that the Church cannot give up on. 

Ending racism was a Christian idea from the beginning and we are possessed of the only ideology that can do it—the gospel. When pastors and ministers address racial issues, they are not abandoning the gospel, they are speaking from its heart.

Pray this prayer this week, based on parts of Isaiah 33, asking that we may be the kind of people who work the justice of the Kingdom of God into our lives and communities.

Prayer for Justice
We long to dwell with you, Lord, our consuming fire.
Burn away our sinfulness and selfishness without which racism cannot stand.
Help us to be those who walk righteously 
and speak what is right.
Help us to reject gain from extortion and oppression 
Let us not passively participate in murder.
Let us not shut our eyes to deny evil, but shut our hearts to joining in it.
Let us be instruments of your peace.

*We forgo the Divine Hours prayers today replacing them with the above and focusing our prayers on ones for justice and peace, which must come before reconciliation and revival which we also pray for..

Today’s Readings
Isaiah 33 (Listen – 3:45) 
Revelation 3 (Listen – 3:53)

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How to Read Prophetic Judgment

  • May 29, 2020
  • /
  • John Tillman

Scripture Focus: Jude 5
Though you already know all this, I want to remind you that the Lord at one time delivered his people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not believe.

From John: We have referred to this post from 2018 frequently enough on our journey through the prophets this year that it seems fitting to repeat it here. It is never a good idea to dodge the convicting message of a prophet by imagining oneself as the prophet rather than the target of prophecy. May we be more prone to repentance than deflection of blame.

Reflection: How to Read Prophetic Judgment
By John Tillman

There are many passages in the prophecies of the Old and New Testaments that are meant to comfort us. But the more typical function of prophecy is to cause us discomfort.

Examples of both comforting and afflicting passages occur in our readings today—both in Jude and in Isaiah.

Comforting:
Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you;
therefore he will rise up to show you compassion.
For the Lord is a God of justice.
Blessed are all who wait for him! — Isaiah 30.18

But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life. — Jude 20-21

Afflicting:
“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. — Isaiah 30.12-13

Yet these people slander whatever they do not understand, and the very things they do understand by instinct—as irrational animals do—will destroy them. Woe to them! They have taken the way of Cain; they have rushed for profit into Balaam’s error; they have been destroyed in Korah’s rebellion. — Jude 10-11

When we read prophecy in the Old or New Testament, we often try to identify ourselves with one of the groups mentioned. Are we the prophet? Are we the Israelites? Are we Balaam? Are we the Gentile nations?

This can be an interesting intellectual exercise but is often a waste of time. One reason is it is unhelpful is that when we do this we take it easy on ourselves.

We tend to identify ourselves as the Israelites when prophets are saying comforting things to Israel, but when the prophet is condemning Israel, we imagine ourselves as the righteous prophet and our evil government or evil culture as the target.

In the end, it doesn’t matter that much if we understand who is analogous to the nation of Israel or who is analogous to the nation of Babylon. It matters far more to understand why God is angry, what he requires of us, and what he wants to do through us if we return to him.

Prophecy can spur us on to love and good deeds, to mark a clear path of repentance and clarify the consequences of disobedience. But we blunt the point of prophecy’s spurs when we avoid the probability that we are the ones a prophecy is about. We miss the point of prophecy entirely when we weaponize it to attack others.

The best way to read prophecy is to imagine yourself not as the speaker, but as the spoken to. Judgment-filled prophecy is one case in scripture where it is safer to assume it’s about you than others. Once you do this, you can take whatever steps of grace-filled repentance the Holy Spirit directs you to.

Following this approach, we will be far more uncomfortable reading prophecy, but our discomfort will lead to a more richly flourishing faith.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons
Everyone will stand in awe and declare God’s deeds, they will recognize his works. — Psalm 64.9

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime by Phyllis Tickle

Today’s Readings
Isaiah 30 (Listen – 5:52)
Jude (Listen – 4:12)

This Weekend’s Readings
Isaiah 31 (Listen – 1:49) Revelation 1 (Listen – 3:43)
Isaiah 32 (Listen – 2:46) Revelation 2 (Listen – 4:59)

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The Two Ariels

  • May 28, 2020
  • /
  • John Tillman

Scripture Focus: Isaiah 29.18
In that day the deaf will hear the words of the scroll,
    and out of gloom and darkness
    the eyes of the blind will see.

Reflection: The Two Ariels
By John Tillman

The term for Jerusalem that Isaiah uses, “Ariel,” holds a dual meaning. In one sense it means, “Lion of God,” and implies a mighty hero or an undefeatable warrior. But it can also mean “Hearth of God,” which refers to the altar in the Temple where animals are slain and the blood flowed down as a symbolic propitiation for the nation’s sins. The two Ariels can represent different possibilities for God’s people.

The city’s loss is lamentable precisely because it was preventable. Their words and voices were quick to honor God. They attended festivals. They gathered at the appropriate times on the calendar. They brought the appropriate sacrifices to the Temple. However, prophets, priests, and people had gradually and steadily turned away from God’s simple requirements of the heart—do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly.

“Judicial hardening” refers to the way God acts in response to our rejection of him and his messages. When we stop listening, he allows us to choose deafness. When we stop seeking, he allows us to be blinded. When we keep muting God on the radio, eventually he destroys the transmitter. When we throw away his newspaper without reading it, God cancels our subscription.

However, even those blinded and deafened are not left without hope. Isaiah declares that a day is coming when even the deaf will hear, and the blind will see. May we pray, opening our hearts, opening our eyes, opening our ears. A broken and contrite heart, he will not despise.

A Prayer for Ariel (based on Isaiah 29)
Lord, we have come near to you only with words.
We have honored you in syllables and slandered you with our sins.

We are not the “Lion of God,” a mighty warrior for justice.
We are only a bloody hearth where our sins soak the earth and testify against us.

Our worship is only rules.
Our sacrifice is only tokens.
Our intelligence is of no account.
Our riches are filth.
We are a rebellious pile of broken pottery
That refused the shaping of your hand.
Forge us, Lord.
Remake us, Lord.
Turn us upside down.
Leave no stone-cold heart unturned and unwarmed by your love.
Let us, the blind, see. That the wayward will gain understanding.
Let us, the deafened, hear. That we who complain will accept instruction.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence
In your great mercy, O God, answer me with your unfailing help. — Psalm 69.15

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime by Phyllis Tickle

Today’s Readings
Isaiah 29 (Listen – 3:55)
3 John 1 (Listen – 1:51)

Read more about A Worn Out Welcome
When we go into the house of the Lord, is God glad we have come? How can we tell if we have worn out our welcome in God’s house? 

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There is no level of spiritual achievement or growth at which one is not susceptible to hardening of the heart and the spirit.

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