Tag: Isaiah

Scripture Focus: Isaiah 30.10-11
10 They say to the seers, 
“See no more visions!” 
and to the prophets, 
“Give us no more visions of what is right! 
Tell us pleasant things, 
prophesy illusions. 
11 Leave this way, 
get off this path, 
and stop confronting us 
with the Holy One of Israel!”

Reflection: Prophets in Our Path
By John Tillman

Isaiah describes a caravan in the Negev desert. They carry valuables and gifts of honor through dangerous territory, filled with lions and snakes. They are envoys from Judah sent down to Egypt to seek protection. 

It is an interesting reversal. Israel left Egypt, carrying away Egyptian gold and treasures as they were liberated from slavery. Now, here they are, crawling back through the desert to seek audience with their former abusers.

Why are they returning treasure and pledging fealty to their former captors? Why are they begging for “the shade” of Egypt when God promised they would sit under their own vine and fig tree? Why are they becoming like the grumbling Israelites in the desert who said, “Wouldn’t it be better to go back to Egypt?” (Numbers 14.3-4)

Then, like Balaam on the way to curse Israel, these envoys are confronted and warned. A prophet stands in their path with a message from God. But they brush off the warning and tell the prophet to get out of their way and stop confronting them.

These envoys wanted sweet verses from prophets. But prophecy is often ugly. They longed to hear comforting promises. But prophecy is often disturbing. They sought convenient confirmations of what they already believed. But prophecy often holds inconvenient truths.

How like these envoys are we? How easily do we seek bargains from worldly powers and shelter from our enslavers? How often do we seek prophets to confirm our decisions rather than confront us with truth? 

Let us repent:
When an inconvenient prophecy stops us in our tracks…
When an ugly truth comes to light…
When we are caught holding a check written to evil forces of this world, asking their protection… 

Don’t push past prophets in your path lest this verse be about you: “the Holy One of Israel, says: ‘In repentance and rest is your salvation…but you would have none of it.” (Isaiah 30.15)

Let us have the salvation that God longs to give us. Let us listen to prophets in our path.

“…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! 
People of Zion, who live in Jerusalem, you will weep no more. How gracious he will be when you cry for help! As soon as he hears, he will answer you. — (Isaiah 30.18-19)

Divine Hours Prayer: The Greeting
All your world praise you, O Lord, and your faithful servants bless you.
They make known the glory of your kingdom and speak of your power;
That the peoples may know of your power and the glorious splendor of your kingdom. — Psalm 145.10-12

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


​Today’s Readings
Isaiah 30 (Listen 5:52)
Acts 17 (Listen 5:28)

Read more about Today’s Roots, Tomorrow’s Fruit
Prophecies can tell of coming salvation or warn of coming disaster. There’s no question which we prefer to listen to.

Today’s Roots, Tomorrow’s Fruit

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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)

Read more about The Broken Power of Death
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.

The Broken Power of Death

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Scripture Focus: Isaiah 24.4-9, 21
4 The earth dries up and withers, the world languishes and withers, the heavens languish with the earth. 5 The earth is defiled by its people; they have disobeyed the laws, violated the statutes and broken the everlasting covenant. 6 Therefore a curse consumes the earth; its people must bear their guilt. Therefore earth’s inhabitants are burned up, and very few are left. 7 The new wine dries up and the vine withers; all the merrymakers groan. 8 The joyful timbrels are stilled, the noise of the revelers has stopped, the joyful harp is silent. 9 No longer do they drink wine with a song; the beer is bitter to its drinkers.

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

Reflection: Cursebreakers
By John Tillman

A curse consumes the Earth. This curse is related to other biblical curses. The first curse was “cursed is the ground because of you.” (Genesis 3.17; 4.10-11) Paul described the Earth groaning to be released from this curse that brings frustration, bondage, decay, and pain. (Romans 8.19-22) God enacts and announces these curses, yet holds humans responsible. Human actions trigger every curse.

Like other curses, Isaiah’s curse is the result of rebellion. In each case, humans have violated a covenant with God. Instead of filling the Earth with life, we have filled it with death. Instead of subduing and cultivating the Earth to bring blessing and benefit, we have abused and mismanaged the Earth. Instead of wisdom bringing harvests of joy, the Earth suffers foolishness that reaps the whirlwind.

Under God’s blessing the land should yield wine, milk, honey, and branches of vines and fig trees under which humanity can feel safe. (Micah 4.4; Jeremiah 32.22) Under our rebellion, the Earth is dried up, resources are wasted or consolidated, and people’s food, financial, and emotional security are threatened. We live fearful and frantic lives instead of resting in God’s peace.

Everyone on Earth suffers these curses, but, according to Isaiah, God holds two groups to a greater level of accountability: the powers in the heavens and the kings on the Earth. (Isaiah 24.21)

We know that, ultimately, Christ is the curse breaker. His fulfillment of the covenant and death for our rebellions secures God’s blessings for us and cancels every curse. But in the meantime shall we carry on in sinful, harmful management of Earth’s resources? By no means. (Romans 6.1-2) Would we go on in greed, or lust, or lying, or violence so that “grace can abound?” Of course not. Why then would we continue in practices that harm the Earth?

Some practices that “harm the Earth” can be debated and some may change with scientific advances or discoveries. However, in our hearts, let us desire cultivation rather than destruction and let the science catch up to us.

God let us groan with the Earth and work towards easing the curse’s burden.
Help us cultivate cleaner water, air, and land.
Help us cultivate food security and safety and ecosystems that are healthy and thriving.
Let us reduce waste and improve efficiency.
Cursed is the ground because of us.
Reversed is the curse because of Christ.
God, make us cursebreakers.


Divine Hours Prayer: The Small Verse
The Lord is my shepherd and nothing is wanting to me. In green pastures he has settled me. — The Short Breviary

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


​Today’s Readings
Isaiah 24 (Listen 3:11)
Acts 11 (Listen 3:52)

Read more about The Curse Reversed
Even as he speaks the curse of Eden, God purposes and promises to break it. Scripture describes a God constantly working to reverse the curse

The Curse Reversed :: Epiphany

Read more about Reversible Blessings and Curses
The curse of Eden is written to be reversed. Within its words, a hero is promised who will break it. Jesus is that hero.

Reversible Blessings and Curses

Scripture Focus: Isaiah 23.8-9
8 Who planned this against Tyre, 
the bestower of crowns, 
whose merchants are princes, 
whose traders are renowned in the earth? 
9 The Lord Almighty planned it, 
to bring down her pride in all her splendor 
and to humble all who are renowned on the earth.

From John: Today we return to this post about “kingmakers” from 2022. There are always “kingmakers” around trying to convince us to build the kingdom of one or another of various kings or groups. We must be wary of listening to or acting as kingmakers unless the king is Jesus and the kingdom is not of this world.

Reflection: Kingmakers Unmade
By John Tillman

Until Alexander the Great built a land bridge to destroy the city 300 years before Christ, Tyre had been an island beloved by kings. It made its fortune and gained power by trade across the sea in many luxurious items.

Tyre was a city-state that, historically, was friendly to Israel. Tyre’s king, sent gifts to David and his son sent gifts to Solomon. Tyre remained on friendly economic terms with Israel. Historians partly credit the vast power, influence, and wealth of Tyre to its strategic location and its partnership with the most powerful kings Israel would ever have.

Isaiah called Tyre “bestower of crowns” and they were connected through trade to royalty across the Mediterranean and throughout the region. “Tyrian purple” was traded with Egypt and Israel and the color remained a mark of royalty and wealth through the New Testament and the Roman Empire.

The term “kingmaker” refers to those who through wealth, power, guile, or all three elevate someone of their choosing to a position of power. You probably know the names of some modern kingmakers. They don’t usually want to be the king. That’s too much work. They just want to pick a king of their liking. Their wealth and influence afford them the opportunity to shape the world.

This is not necessarily bad. It is part of the Edenic command to “subdue” the earth and create growth, blessing, and abundance. Originally this meant agriculture, but economic growth is just agriculture of a different kind. Historically, however, the wealthy and influential tend to end up like Tyre.

Jesus wasn’t joking when he said how hard it was for the wealthy to enter the kingdom of God. Wealth has unique and difficult dangers that can poison us. Long before the rich young ruler sadly walked away from Jesus, Tyre was given as an example to the world that God would end the pride of those who elevated themselves.

Tyre is a universal warning to all people but even more so to those of us blessed with even moderate wealth. Theoretically, wealth is a neutral tool—neither evil nor good. But in practice, as we shape our world with this tool, it is exceedingly rare that it does not also shape us. 

We should take care that our hearts are shaped by Jesus’ warning and that we use our resources to shape a world that testifies to his kingship.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Morning Psalm
The Lord is King; let the earth rejoice; let the multitude of the isles be glad.
Clouds and darkness are round about him, righteousness and justice are the foundations of his throne.
A fire goes before him and burns up his enemies on every side. His lightnings light up the world; the mountains melt like wax at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth. 
The heavens declare his righteousness, and all the peoples see his glory. — Psalm 97.1-6

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


​Today’s Readings
Isaiah 23 (Listen 2:5)
Acts 10 (Listen 5:49)

Read more about Urgent Desire for More
The wealthy young man wasn’t ready to give up earning and he didn’t yet trust what he would stand to inherit.

Urgent Desire for More

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