Reading for April 3rd

 Read Isaiah 28.7-13. In 28.7-13: God cannot be mocked with impunity. It is unclear whether this oracle is addressed to the revelers in vv. 1-4, or whether it is a rebuke to a group of Jerusalem's leaders (compare v. 14). The signs or excess are evident (v. 8) when they turn to mock the prophet and, by implication God (vv. 9-10). These leaders accuse the prophet of treating them like little children (v. 10). Instead God will teach them a lesson in the language of foreign invaders (v. 11). By rejecting and mocking the prophet's warnings (v. 12), and choosing rebellion against Assyria, they were playing with their own lives and those of the people and would pay the price (v. 13). Comments or Questions..

Reading for April 2nd

 The Lord is a refuge and protection.

In 28.1-29: The four units of this chapter (1-6; 7-13; 14-22, 23-29) condemn the foolishness of the leaders of both Ephraim (Israel) and Judah, who show by their drunken and mocking behavior that they neither understand their problems nor are able to remedy them. In contrast, Isaiah sets out the simple and direct message: "One who trusts will not panic" (v. 16).

Read Isaiah 28.1-6. In 28.1-6: The folly of Ephraim's leaders. It is surprising that the opening prophecy focuses on Ephraim, rather than Judah, which Isaiah usually addressed. Yet Ephraim suffered first and more severely, from the deportations of Assria. Judah should learn the necessary lesson: As a sudden rainstorm (v. 2) ruins the festival of those leaders who had already eaten and drunk too much so would God's judgment wreck the complacent peace of the kingdom (compare 9.8-10.4). A brief word of hope and relief (vv. 5-6) shows that God's judgmental ways has a way of escape for a penitent remnant. Comments or Questions..

Reading for April 1st

 Read Isaiah 27.1-13. In 27.1-13: The new song of the vineyard. In verse 1: The assurance that the Lord will punish Leviathan reflects the ancient belief that the earth was created after a great battle between the creator God and a monster symbolizing chaos. In the Babylonian creation epic, the monster is called Tiamat, but other versions us the name Rahab (compare Isa 51.9). The power of God to impose order is needed not simply in the primary act of creation but in every natural disaster or historical catastrophe, when God's rule needs to be reestablished. In verse 2: A pleasant vineyard, sing about it! Reference to the vineyard parable of Isa 5.1-7 shows that the new song marks the end of the period in which the former vineyard (Israel) was reduced to a wasteland. In verse 4: The thorns and briers will at last be removed (see 7.23-25; 9.18; 10.17) In verses 7-11: The restoration has not yet taken place, and the field of Jacob still lie desolate and forsaken (v. 10). The people without understanding (v. 11) are those who hold back God's saving work. In verses 12-13: The promise of return to their homeland for the scattered survivors remains central to the hope for the future in Isaiah. Here and in 11.12-16 (compare 19.23-23), this return is the prelude to the restoration of Israel to its former glory, the completion of God's saving purpose. Comments or Questions..

Reading for March 31st

 Read Isaiah 26.1-21. In 26.1-21: praise to the God of justice. The hymn of the praise to God for the justice of the divine judgments upon the earth in vv.1-15 indicates that chs. 24-27, and probably the entire scroll of Isaiah, were designed to be read, and prayerfully responded to, in acts of worship. The message of God was a call to penitence and faith, so that unresolved questions and doubts could be answered by trust, as in v.3: Those of steadfast mind keep you in peace-in peace because they trust in you. It is necessary to accept the purpose of God and to await salvation without fully understanding the violent wrongs of human history. This trust is expressed in the remarkable outburst of vv. 16-19: When the promises of God appear so far from fulfillment, a new vision breaks in, a vision of life beyond the grave and of life renewed for those long dead. The only other passage in the Hebrew Scriptures that compares with this visionary insight into the world beyond the grave in Dan 12.2. The prophet is attempting to reconcile the righteousness of God with the problems of suffering and conflict. Comments or Questions..

Reading for March 30th

 Read Isaiah 25.1-12. In 25.1-12: The banquet of the Lord of hosts. The great festival to be celebrated in Jerusalem on the holy mountain gives pictorial expression to the praise of God (vv. 1-5). Even in the most violent trouble, God is a refuge to the needy in their distress (v. 4). The prophetic vision, however, recognizes that there are wrongs and sufferings on earth that cannot be put right by stilling the blast of the ruthless. The ultimate resolution of injustice can come only when God overcomes the power of death itself (v. 7: compare 26.19). In verses 10-12: The humiliation of Moab. This appears to belong with the other warnings in chs. 15-16. Comments or Questions..

Reading for March 29th

The terror of the day of the Lord and the ensuing reign of blessedness.

In 24.1-27.13: Chapters 24-27 contain no clear indications of their time of origin and therefore are difficult to relate to known events. They contrast a time of fearful judgment upon the city of chaos (24.10) with a new era of blessedness, a spectacular feast on the mountain of God (25.6-10). These chapters may have been a separate prophetic book, but clear references to earlier themes and pronouncements, most notably the "New Song of the Vineyard" (27.2-6; compare 5.1-7), make it more likely that they are a sequel to the prophecies against foreign cities and nations in ch. 13-23. The great empires will be over taken by a fearful day of God's judgment, followed by a time of peace and justice. The evocative word pictures of doom and disaster, intermixed with hymns of praise and promises of a new age of great peace and blessedness, lift human history into the realm of a great spiritual "super-history" in which evil is overthrown and the faithful are vindicated. 

Read Isaiah 24.1- 23. In 24.1-23: The day of terror for the city of chaos. This remarkable picture of a tortured and pain-wracked earth view the sufferings of its inhabitants (vv.17-20) as a consequence of the curse-ridden state of the earth itself (v. 6). The very order of the world, disturbed and in turmoil, can only be put right by divine punishment of the evil in anew era of divine rule (vv. 22-23). Despair for the earth combines with trust that untimely God will prevail, which explains the praise of God in vv. 14-16. Judgment, as proof of divine justice, is itself a necessary part of God's created order. The city of chaos (v. 10) is a symbolic city, like Bunyan's Vanity Fair in Pilgrim Progress. Even though the host of heaven rebels against God (v. 21), this prophet believes God will prevail. Comments or Questions..

Reading for March 28th

 Read Isaiah 23.1-18. In 23.1-18: A prophecy concerning Tyre. In verses 1-12: The Phoenician cities of Tyre and Sidon were famous in antiquity as as the seafaring and mercantile trading centers of  the Mediterranean world. The pride of Tyre was its fine buildings, wealth, and honor. In 701 BCE, the Assyrian ruler Sennacherib laid siege to the Phoenician cities forcing Luuli, king of Sidon, to flee to the island of Cyrus (v. 12). In verses 13-18: A brief editorial note (v. 13) points out that Babylon (from 604 BCE) had replaced the threat from Assyria (compare the book of Nahum, which celebrates the fall of Nineveh in 612 BCE). This succession of Mesopotamian oppressors led the later compilers to supplement earlier prophecies to provide a fuller picture of God's purpose. Tyre, like an aging prostitute (v. 16), will shamelessly pursue wealth (a refence to the rich merchants for which Tyre was known). In contrast, the final note (v. 18) recognizes that wealth, rightly earned, can be used in the service of God. Comments or Questions..