Tag: Isaiah

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No Such Thing as God Forsaken

Scripture Focus: Isaiah 17.10-11
10 You have forgotten God your Savior; 
you have not remembered the Rock, your fortress. 
Therefore, though you set out the finest plants 
and plant imported vines, 
11 though on the day you set them out, you make them grow, 
and on the morning when you plant them, you bring them to bud, 
yet the harvest will be as nothing 
in the day of disease and incurable pain. 

Reflection: No Such Thing as God Forsaken
By John Tillman

Isaiah has condemnation to go around. 

No matter how evil the surrounding cities have been, however, Isaiah always circles back to remind Judah and Israel that they have been unfaithful and that judgment is coming. “You have forgotten God, your savior…” (Isaiah 17.10)

It can be dangerous and prideful to read biblical prophecies as if we are the righteous prophet. This may apply to a narrow group of people and circumstances but, more often than not, we will find greater insights in prophetic texts by assuming that we are the ones being spoken to, corrected, and condemned as unrighteous. This assumption reaps great rewards in helping us understand why God is angry, what he requires of us, and how we must return to him.

People love to point out sin in others, elbowing them in the ribs and saying, “the preacher is talking about you.” However, confronting our neighbor with a jab in the ribs (or a stinging Facebook comment) is an immature reaction to God’s truth. The mature disciple does not use scripture primarily to poke one’s neighbor’s ribs but to prick one’s own heart.

Like Isaiah’s audience, we may be tempted to shout  “amens” when our “enemies” are condemned. However, maturity is shown when we agree with God not about others’ sins but about our own. We prove ourselves to be Christ’s disciples when we celebrate the salvation of our enemies, as the Damascus Christian community celebrated the conversion of Paul, who became God’s chosen instrument to take the gospel to the nations, including the condemned city-state of Damascus. 

“There is no such thing as a God forsaken town.” — Carolyn Arends 

Paul saw Damascus as a city containing his enemies and the Christian community thought similarly of Paul. Paul was blinded so that both groups could learn to see differently. May our eyes be similarly blinded and our vision similarly improved.

It may be a long road and a long exile between condemnation and redemption. May we not lose hope in our God or hope for our cities. Let us not forget our God, our savior, our rock, our fortress. May we resist the urge to apply judgmental texts to others before we have humbly examined our own hearts. May we never celebrate the destruction or condemnation of others. May we celebrate instead the redemption of sinners and the welcoming of outcasts into God’s family.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Greeting
I love you, O Lord my strength, O Lord my stronghold, my crag, and my haven. — Psalm 18.1

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

Today’s Readings
Isaiah 17-18 (Listen – 3:44)
1 Peter 5 (Listen – 2:11)

Read more about How Not to Read Scripture
The Bible is God’s Word—his perfect revelation, but it is not a transcript of God’s unambiguous commands. The Bible is a work of art, not a manual.

How Not to Read Scripture

Read more about How to Read Prophetic Judgment
The best way to read prophecy is to imagine yourself not as the speaker, but as the spoken to.

How to Read Prophetic Judgment :: Readers’ Choice


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Different Kind of Exile

Scripture Focus: 
1 Peter 2.15-17
For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish people. Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as God’s slaves. Show proper respect to everyone, love the family of believers, fear God, honor the emperor.

From John: This repost from 2018 cannot be more applicable. Too many of us are ignorantly using our “freedom” to cover up our evil selfish desires in the midst of this COVID-19 response.

Reflection: Different Kind of Exile
By John Tillman

In 1 Peter 2, we see that the scattered exiles from Jerusalem must live in submission to masters, whether harsh or kind. Their lives—their good deeds—are literally the arguments they are to defend themselves with.

In Isaiah, we see a different message to the soon to be exiled. It is a taunt for their enemies to be used in the distant future after the current hearers are long dead and a future generation is restored.

But as Christians go into exile in the rising anti-Christian culture, we don’t seem to be willing to serve our oppressors in love. We want to taunt them now, not later.

As the exiled people of God, Peter tells us to silence the ignorant not by shouting them down, but through service, respect, love, and honor.

Peter encourages his exiles not to allow the oppression and suffering they are going through to be something that crushes their faith. Instead they are to allow the weight of their suffering to press them deeper into the footprints of Jesus Christ who has walked the path of suffering before us.

Living as outcasts in society has nearly always brought healing to the church through suffering. The historical church that suffers, tightens its grasp of the gospel as it loses worldly influence and power. The church that suffers scatters, spreading the gospel to new areas and communicating it in new ways. The church that is oppressed, attacked, sidelined, and shunned, is shunted back onto the narrow path of obedience to Christ.

Peter’s words about living in a pagan society have always been applicable, but they seem especially appropriate to our times. Most people who don’t accept Christianity aren’t concerned with our theology. They are concerned by our actions.

They need to see the argument of our actions line up with our words, and they need to see the integrity with which we suffer.

In this world, we are cast out. In the renewed world we will be brought in. May that day come soon. And may we bring many following behind us.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons
Righteousness shall go before him, and peace shall be a pathway for his feet. — Psalm 85.13

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

Today’s Readings
Isaiah 14 (Listen – 5:04) 
1 Peter 2 (Listen – 3:48)

This Weekend’s Readings
Isaiah 15 (Listen – 1:34), 1 Peter 3 (Listen – 3:30)
Isaiah 16 (Listen – 2:32), 1 Peter 4 (Listen – 2:50)

Read more about The Mingled Prayers of Exiles
We abandon hope in princes, kings, or human power, taking refuge only in you, Lord. (Psalm 118.1-9)

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Read more about In Denial in Exile
The elders of Israel…were continually in denial about their judgment and exile.

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Praise from a Stump :: A Guided Prayer

Scripture Focus: Isaiah 12.1-3
1 In that day you will say: 
         “I will praise you, LORD. 
         Although you were angry with me, 
         your anger has turned away 
         and you have comforted me. 
      2 Surely God is my salvation; 
         I will trust and not be afraid. 
         The LORD, the LORD himself, is my strength and my defense; 
         he has become my salvation.” 
      3 With joy you will draw water 
         from the wells of salvation. 

Reflection: Praise from a Stump :: A Guided Prayer
By John Tillman

Israel is compared to trees many times in scripture including grapevines, fig trees, and olive trees. Isaiah’s image of the stump goes along with his image of the unfruitful vineyard. It is a purposely destroyed tree. It is not just trimmed or pruned but ground down to a stump. 

In Isaiah chapter 11, we see this shamed, humbled tree being miraculously restored. Instead of being uprooted and completely destroyed, the “shoot from the stump of Jesse” is supernaturally blessed to grow and become fruitful in ways the tree never had been before.

Prophecies are often multi-layered and this one is no different. The shoot has often been compared to Jesus himself. Layered over that meaning, it also represents the nation of Israel as a whole, the church which is Christ’s body, and it pre-envisions the tree of healing that will grow in the city of God.

We, in Christ, can see ourselves in both the unworthy and shamed stump, and in the new supernatural growth of the remnant. Pray this prayer, based partially on Isaiah 12, that offers praise from the remnant to God our salvation who forgives and blesses us to reach the nations.

The Praise of the Remnant
How can we stand on the Day of the Lord?
Our lips are unclean, our hearts are hard.
The weak and outcast suffer from our indifference.
Blood sinks into the ground from our injustices.
We are a ground down, burning stump of a fruitless tree!

In ashes, we repent.
Burning our idols of self-reliance
In sorrow, we lament.
Trusting your promise and your character
In humility, we place our face 
in the dust to which we will return.
Our longing, Lord, is to see your face.

We will praise you, Lord.
Although you are angry with us,
Turn your anger away
Comfort us and be our salvation.

You, our strength and our defense.
You, our source and our supply
You, our bread of life
You, our living water from the rock

Only you redeem and save, punish and forgive.
Only you make a highway through our desert
Leading your children and the nations to your presence.

We shout aloud praises to you!
We proclaim to the nations your greatness!
We praise your name and your righteousness!

Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence
Gladden the soul of your servant, for to you, O Lord, I lift up my soul. — Psalm 86.4

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

Today’s Readings
Isaiah 11-12 (Listen – 3:39) 
James 5 (Listen 3:01)

Read more about Family Tree
We can be grafted into the family tree of Christ and bear the same fruit that he wants to bring about in our lives.

Family Tree

Read more about Figs Out of Season
Through the power of the Holy Spirit’s work in our lives we are able to produce fruit in supernatural abundance and beyond our natural abilities.

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Much Demanded

Scripture Focus: Isaiah 9.14-16
14 So the Lord will cut off from Israel both head and tail,
    both palm branch and reed in a single day;
15 the elders and dignitaries are the head,
    the prophets who teach lies are the tail.
16 Those who guide this people mislead them,
    and those who are guided are led astray.

James 3.1
Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. 

Reflection: Much Demanded
By John Tillman

There is an often repeated biblical principle—the more you are given, the more will be expected of you. 

We see its implications in Isaiah’s prophecy against the leaders. (Isaiah 9.14-16) James echoes it in his warning to “teachers.” (James 3.1) Christ worded it, “From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.” (Luke 12.48)

Part of God’s righteousness, his justice, is not holding those with little accountable for their poverty. Whether a poverty of finances, of knowledge, of access, or of power, God judges those with little lightly and those with much heavily.

This should be sobering to us who are greatly privileged.

We live in an age of unprecedented availability of knowledge. We are more accountable to God for what we say and teach than ever before. We have an unprecedented ability to access the Bible at any time and on any device imaginable. We are more accountable to God for our ignorance of his scriptures than ever before. We have an unprecedented ability to reach around the world (or across the street) to know and befriend people of all races, backgrounds, and beliefs. We are more accountable to God for holding on to racial prejudice, divisions, and resentments than ever before. We are living in the most prosperous time in history with financial resources available to the majority of people that were unimaginable in prior ages of history. We are more accountable to God for abandoning and abusing those in poverty than ever before.

It is to our shame with such wealth that there are starving children.
It is to our shame with such connectedness that we cause divisiveness.
It is to our shame with such availability of the Bible that we do not avail ourselves of reading it.
It is to our shame with such access to expert knowledge that we scrape the basements of the Internet to find conspiracies that we like better than the facts. (Isaiah 8.12-13)

May we confess and repent, before God comes to settle accounts with us.

Much has been given to us. May we praise God in thankfulness for it.
Much has been given to us. May we serve our neighbor in humbleness with it.
Much has been given to us. May we challenge every form of oppression with it.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Greeting
O God, you have taught me since I was young, and to this day I tell of your wonderful works. — Psalm 71.17

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

Today’s Readings
Isaiah 9:8-10:4 (Listen – 3:36) 
James 3 (Listen 2:38)

Read more about Confession as a Crucible
The crucible of COVID-19 is revealing in our society and ourselves the ugliest most sinful parts of our nature.

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We give our lives and bodies as Mary did to be used by you to bring down rulers from their thrones, lift up the humble, and fill the hungry with good things.

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Hope Amidst Destruction

Scripture Focus: Isaiah 4.2-3, 5-6
2 In that day the Branch of the LORD will be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land will be the pride and glory of the survivors in Israel. 3 Those who are left in Zion, who remain in Jerusalem, will be called holy…5 Then the LORD will create over all of Mount Zion and over those who assemble there a cloud of smoke by day and a glow of flaming fire by night; over everything the glory will be a canopy. 6 It will be a shelter and shade from the heat of the day, and a refuge and hiding place from the storm and rain. 

Reflection: Hope Amidst Destruction
By John Tillman

Even among the destruction of what is coming to Judah in Isaiah’s prophecies, there is hope. God promises to place his glory over the remnant, like a tent or shelter.

The image Isaiah paints in verse five, a “cloud of smoke by day and a glow of flaming fire by night” has a double meaning. It realistically depicts the smoke that would be seen when the city was burned, and the glow of the fires that would smolder for weeks after the destruction of the Temple and the city by the Babylonian army. But it also is an image of God’s presence, his glory returning. It is a reference to the form of God’s presence with the Israelites on their sojourn in the desert after being freed from oppression in Egypt.

The people will be on the move again, this time moving into exile and suffering instead of away from it. But God will still go with them. The people will be enslaved again with a yoke of bondage. But they will be bonded to God and learn to live as exiles, serving God in spite of, rather than at the direction of a king. They will be purified by fire. This time, not the fire of a desert wilderness, but one of exile and cultural isolation. 

They will be the bush in the wilderness—burning but not consumed.
They will be the rock in the desert—hard and hot, yet bursting with cooling springs of living water at God’s command. They will be God’s homeless sojourners again—learning that anywhere is home when they can serve God there. They will be a tree chopped down and burned, from which a tiny green shoot springs up.

For God’s people amidst destruction there is always hope. Amidst collapsing kingdoms there are always a core of survivors. Amidst crumbling moral foundations and corrupt spiritual leadership the Lord always reserves a remnant. 

May we be among them. The hopeful. The faithful. The remnant. 
May we be a spring, a shoot, a branch reaching up through destruction to the sky.
May we be those who hope not in princes but in our God.
Those who will stand when ten thousand fall at their side. 
Those who will not flinch at the terror that stalks at night. 
May we be lanterns of light, shining in a darkened land.
May God purify us and spread his glory over us.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Small Verse
The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light; on those who live in a land of deep shadow a light has shone. — Isaiah 9.1

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

Today’s Readings
Isaiah 3-4 (Listen – 4:34) 
Hebrews 11 (Listen 6:22)

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The very thing the disciples despaired at, became the source of hope amidst any despair—the cross.

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The king we hope for brings the glory of Heaven to earth in our hearts and expresses his love through our lives.

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