Reading for July 16th

Read Isaiah 59.9-21. In verses 9-15a: The lack of an effective administration of justice allowed violence and corruption to flourish. Those who had won power under foreign masters were now unwilling to relinquish control and to empower a new order of religious leaders. It was not until the work of Ezra and Nehemiah, in the middle of the fifth century BCE, that the situation began to be put right. In verses 15b-21: Without protection that God alone can bring, the helplessness described so vividly in vv. 10-11 must continue. The assurance in v. 21 that God's word will prove effective indicates that chs. 56-59, at one time, formed a separate collection to which this section was a conclusion. Comments or Questions..