Tag: Isaiah

Links for today’s readings:

Aug 4  Read: Isaiah 64 Listen: (2:01) Read: Psalms 140-141 Listen: (2:44)

Reflection: Treasuring Our Temples

By John Tillman

Isaiah’s visions held up shocking images from a not too distant future.

The most shocking image to Isaiah’s readers would not be destruction, fire, and death sweeping Jerusalem. It would not even be the king’s sons led away naked, castrated, and in chains to be eunuchs. (Isaiah 39.7) The most shocking would be the one thing Judah thought God would never allow to fall, the Temple, being razed and burned with fire.

It is difficult to overstate how confident Judah was that God treasured the Temple and, for the sake of his name, would never allow it to be defiled or harmed. It was unthinkable that the Temple would fall. 

Yet, the Temple had already fallen. God had already allowed the Temple to be defiled. The kings and religious leaders of Judah had done it themselves. 

They partnered together against the widows and orphans. They collaborated together to oppress the foreigners. Yet they called themselves righteous. The worship they thought that God so prized had become annoying noise that God could not bear to hear and wished would stop, because there was no justice established when they stopped singing about justice.

Comfortable, powerful, western Christians can be guilty of similar thinking. We easily feel that we are so special, so holy, so entitled to our place atop the culture, that we cannot imagine we might ever fall. 

Surely God can’t be unsatisfied with our glorious worship and the music industry it spawned?

Surely God wouldn’t allow our sanctuaries to be attacked, our institutions to be sued, or our rights to be stripped away?

There is a telling line in Isaiah 64.11, “All that we treasure lies in ruins…”  God will ruin whatever we treasure more than him. 

Judah treasured the Temple’s importance but not its inhabitant. They treasured the regalia, not the relationship. Through the Babylonian destruction, God did not allow the Temple to be defiled. He took the first step to cleanse it. May we take warning.

Our first step must be to join Isaiah in confessing our part in collective, systemic sin, saying as he did, “I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips!” (Isaiah 6.5)

It is by our lament for our sin that we are given mercy, forgiveness, and the hope of reconciliation, restoration, and resurrection.

May he purify our lips and send us forth.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons

The Lord is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation. — Psalm 118.14

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

Read more: The Consequence of Carelessness

Israel’s tendency toward neglect would be a festering wound resulting in more errors and consequences.

Read more: Whose Table Are Your Feet Under?

In certain parts of the South…Having your feet under someone’s table represents presence and connection.

Links for today’s readings:

Jul 23  Read: Isaiah 52 Listen: (2:46) Read: Psalm 119.73-96 Listen: (15:14)

Scripture Focus: Isaiah 52.1-2

Reflection: Awake, Awake! Amaze, Amaze!

By John Tillman

“Amaze! Amaze!” entered the cultural zeitgeist from the film Hail Mary Project. Perhaps it will stick around. I hope it does.

In the film and book, a human scientist, named Grace, is on a desperate “Hail Mary” space mission to save Earth from a deadly disaster. At his destination, Grace meets a rock-like alien, sent from his planet to solve the same problem. They work out a rudimentary translation system to communicate, work together, and save both their planets.

Grace names the alien “Rocky,” for obvious reasons. Rocky’s limited number of words in the computer translation program don’t seem to include adjectival present participles, like “amazing.” This is why Rocky shouts the verb, “amaze” repeatedly at moments of joy and discovery. And honestly, isn’t “Amaze, amaze!” objectively better than “amazing”?

Like Rocky, biblical Hebrew repeats words for emphasis. Most English translations rephrase them. For example, in Isaiah 26.3, the literal translation would be “peace, peace,” but to capture the intended emphasis, most translations say “perfect peace.” But here, in Isaiah 51.9 and 17, and in 52.1, the literal translation of “Awake, awake” preserves the poetic emphasis of the original.

The first “awake, awake,” is a cry to God, to arise and save Israel as in former times. The second cry is to Jerusalem, drunk and collapsed from God’s cup of judgment. The third is to Zion and encourages her to rise up from her suffering and enslavement to be what God calls her to be. On her own, she fell into shame and defilement. But God offers salvation. In his power, she need not stay down. She can awake.

She is captive but can break the chain from her neck. She is disheveled but can clean herself off. She is naked but can clothe herself in royal garments. She is powerless but can sit on the throne God provides.

This message is also for us. God says to us, “Awake, awake!” The grace of Jesus saves us from deadly disaster. We can be set free, washed clean, clothed in righteousness, and commissioned to his purpose. (John 8.36; Titus 3.5; Gal 3.27; Acts 1.8)

Salvation comes to us in a moment, but awaking to its full meaning is a process we participate in. How awake are you? If you are awake, are you rising up? Are you liberated? Cleansed? Empowered? God says to us, “Awake! Awake!.” Say back to him, “Amaze! Amaze!”

Divine Hours Prayer: The Morning Psalm

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

Read more: The Stretching Arm of Salvation

Self-help righteousness has been tried. It failed. We cannot reach salvation. Salvation reaches for us

Read more: The Arm of Flesh versus the Prince of Peace

We may often find ourselves opposed by those who use interpretations of scripture against us. 

Links for today’s readings:

Jul 22  Read: Isaiah 51 Listen: (4:35) Read: Psalm 119.49-72 Listen: (15:14)

Scripture Focus: Isaiah 51:21-23

21 Therefore hear this, you afflicted one,
    made drunk, but not with wine.
22 This is what your Sovereign Lord says,
    your God, who defends his people:
“See, I have taken out of your hand
    the cup that made you stagger;
from that cup, the goblet of my wrath,
    you will never drink again.
23 I will put it into the hands of your tormentors,
    who said to you,
    ‘Fall prostrate that we may walk on you.’
And you made your back like the ground,
    like a street to be walked on.”

Reflection: Pushovers

By Erin Newton

Songwriters, like poets, have the ability to capture human emotions and bring them to life in new and memorable ways. As heartbreak and being wronged are common mortal ailments, songs that express pain or outrage are some of the greatest bops of all time.

Take for example, the formerly viral song by Gotye, “Somebody That I Used to Know,” the artist belts out:

Now and then I think of all the times you screwed me over
But had me believing it was always something that I’d done
Now you’re just somebody that I used to know

Or take the classic by Nancy Sinatra, “These Boots Are Made for Walking,” when she learns of the infidelity of her lover, she taunts:

These boots are made for walkin’
And that’s just what they’ll do
One of these days these boots are gonna walk all over you

The raw emotions portrayed are those of pain and anger. But they’re often the emotions of someone who has already processed the pain, gained a sense of self and regained power to some extent. They find a way out of that former abuse or neglect and they stride out the door to freedom. 

Israel had gotten into bed with other lovers, so to speak. The prophet Hosea gives a vivid picture of how the nation traded loyalty to God for the pleasures of another kingdom. In Isaiah 51, the chapter ends with a stark picture of Israel’s situation. She lay on the ground as her tormentors walked right over her.

In much of the Old Testament, God’s people (collectively and individually) have gotten themselves into such predicaments. But despite their shortcomings, God sees how they’ve been a pushover, weak, and powerless.

We have a term for an easy victory—a walkover. We refer to people who are easily pushed into doing things they might not really want to do—they are walked all over by the aggressor. 

But God has compassion. God promises to reverse the situation, granting power to the powerless and bringing down the haughty. There is a sort of hope in Isaiah that God’s people would gain strength of character and boldness in piety, so much so that they will shake off the shackles of their tormentors. 

Do you find yourself walked over by a friend, family member, abusive partner, or members of an organization? God, the slayer of dragons, will hear you and restore your dignity.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence

You are my helper and deliverer; O Lord, do not tarry. — Psalm 70.6

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

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