Tag: Isaiah

Digging in Deeper: Isaiah 29:13-14

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“And the Lord said: ‘Because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men, therefore, behold, I will again to wonderful things with this people, with wonder upon wonder; and the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the discernment of their discerning men shall be hidden.'”  (ESV – Read the chapter)

Throughout the book of Isaiah (and really throughout all the prophets), there are three sins that are consistently held up as triggers for the judgment from the Lord the people were facing.  The first is injustice.  God is just.  Justice and righteousness are fundamental parts of His character.  He is passionately concerned about what is right.  When we violate that by doing what’s wrong (taking advantage of the poor and weak, for example), judgment will ensue. Read the rest…

Morning Musings: Isaiah 26:3

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“You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.”  (ESV – Read the chapter)

What a powerful exclamation!  Many people go through this life on a quest for peace.  They search and seek for rest in the midst of the craziness of life.  They journey to all kinds of different places to find it.  They take up with a variety of practices.  Anyone who promises peace has their attention. Read the rest…

Digging in Deeper: Isaiah 14:3-4

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“When the Lord has given you rest from your pain and turmoil and the hard service with which you were made to serve, you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon: ‘How the oppressor has ceased, the insolent fury ceased!'”  (ESV – Read the chapter)

At first blush here, it feels a little odd that God would call Israel to taunt Babylon when they are brought low in judgment from the Lord.  Isn’t that just cruel?  Why kick someone when they are down?  This Old Testament god here must be the vengeful, gleeful-in-wrath god we’ve always heard about from our critics. Read the rest…

Morning Musings: Isaiah 1:16-17

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“Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.”  (ESV – Read the chapter)

This is a powerful call to righteousness and justice in its own right, but its context makes it even more powerful.  Take a minute to read again what comes just before this.  God essentially tells the people to stop worshiping Him.  Well, not exactly that, but close enough as far as they were concerned.

For the people of Israel, the worship of God was found in the rituals.  Having rituals be a part of our worship isn’t a bad thing.  In fact, where those rituals help focus our hearts and minds on the God to whom we are directing our attention they can be a very good thing.  But, it is easy to begin thinking that the rituals are valuable in and of themselves.  As a point of fact, they’re not. Read the rest…