Day 229: Isaiah 64, 65 and 66

We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand (Isaiah 64:8).

Submitting to the hands of the Potter is a matter of trust. The Bait of Satan author John Bevere writes: “When you know God would never do anything to harm . . . you, and whatever He does or does not do in your life is in your best interest, then you will give yourself freely to Him” [9]. Only then can we trust him to work out what’s best for us and in us.

The question is: Do we trust God? Do we believe he has our best interests at heart? If so, then we can give ourselves to our Potter, trusting that what he forms in us will be better than what we could form into ourselves left to our own devices.

In the course of Isaiah’s writings Jerusalem had been threatened by Assyria and delivered from that threat, but not delivered from destruction at the hands of Nebuchadnezzar a hundred years later. Exiled to Babylon, the people waited 70 years for their deliverance. Once that deliverance came and the population was restored to Jerusalem, Isaiah helped them move beyond the past as they looked once again to the future.

Let us be reminded one last time that Isaiah speaks to restoration beyond judgment. We can always trust God because not even failure… not even death is final.

TODAY’S MEDITATION

What is God doing in your life this week? How is he shaping you?

Day 228: Isaiah 61, 62 and 63

For as the soil makes the sprout come up and a garden causes seeds to grow, so the Sovereign Lord will make righteousness and praise spring up before all nations (Isaiah 61:11).

The prophet paints a beautiful picture of God’s redemptive plan for humanity. As natural as the growth of a new plant will be the growth of his kingdom (righteousness, peace and joy – Romans 14:17) overflowing the nations. And how will God’s righteousness spread to the nations? Through conquest? Through domination?

By preaching good news to the poor, by binding up the brokenhearted, by proclaiming freedom for the captives, by releasing those prisoners held in darkness, and by proclaiming the year of the Lord’s favor (61:1,2).

Just as holiness is part of God’s DNA, and our birthright as his children (Leviticus 19:2 – Be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy), so also the kingdom of God inches its way across the landscape and into the hearts of God’s children (Matthew 6:10 – Your kingdom come, your will be done).

And the best part is that God allows us to participate in his plan to bring righteousness and praise to the world (Acts 1:8 – …and you will be my witnesses). It’s more about who we are than it is about what we say. We are God’s workmanship (NIV 1984, Ephesians 2:10) through whom he chooses to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor (Isaiah 6:2).

TODAY’S MEDITATION

How can you participate in sharing the good news of his favor this week?
 

Day 227: Isaiah 58, 59 and 60

Is this the kind of fast I have chosen? (Isaiah 58:5).

The final eleven chapters of Isaiah bring us once again into a new setting and focus. Whereas chapters 1-39 dealt with the Assyrian threat (late eighth century BC), and chapters 40-55 were situated in Babylon awaiting God’s deliverance (ca. 540 BC), chapters 56-66 find the exiles back in Jerusalem, working out life in community (ca. 520 BC) [6].

In Mark 12:30-31, when Jesus was challenged as to the most important commandment, his familiar response was: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength [7] . . . [and] Love your neighbor as yourself [8].

Centuries before Jesus walked the dusty roads of Palestine, these commands were the sticking point between God and his people. The prophets repeatedly took Israel and Judah to task over precisely these issues: breaking the first commandment (loving someone or something more than God), and injustice toward weaker neighbors (loving self more than others).

Then the prophet outlines a proper fast: …to loose the chains of injustice . . . to set the oppressed free . . . to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter . . . [and] to clothe him (58:6,7).

It seems we still struggle with the same things.

TODAY’S MEDITATION

Reflect on how you can offer a fast that is pleasing to God?
 

Day 226: Isaiah 55, 56 and 57

Foreigners who have joined the Lord should not say, “The Lord will not accept me” (NCV, Isaiah 56:3).

When Jesus cleared the Temple of the money changers and Grade-A lamb salesmen (okay, the lambs were Grade-A, not the shysters selling them), he was thinking of today’s expanded passage. Is it not written: “My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations”? But you have made it “a den of robbers” (Mark 11:17) [4]. The Bazaar of Annas (the flea market of the moneychangers and those selling sacrificial animals at inflated prices) was in the Temple area set aside for foreigners. The Sadducees’ entrepreneurial scheming erected a barrier between God and the very people coming to worship him. It made Jesus angry for the alien and the poor to be exploited in the name of God.

Isaiah made it clear that the blessing of Abraham was not reserved for the Hebrews, but was for people of all nations. Here, he lets the foreign-born know that whether one is born a Jew or a Gentile has no bearing on being accepted by God; all are accepted the same. Foreigners are accepted the same as nationals. Outsiders are accepted the same as insiders. Damaged are accepted the same as whole.

We may be tempted to think there is some reason God would not accept us, but that is absolutely false. Neither do people have to be just like us in order to be accepted. As Bill Hybels says: You’ve never locked eyes with anyone who doesn’t matter to the Father [5].

TODAY’S MEDITATION

What does it mean that God accepts you for who you are? What are the implications posed by the fact that he accepts those you might deem unacceptable?

Day 225: Isaiah 52, 53 and 54

He was led like a lamb to the slaughter (Isaiah 53:7).

Did Isaiah prophesy that Jesus was the Suffering Servant? Some readers will say, Absolutely! How could anyone not see it? And others, No, that doesn’t fit with the general nature of prophecy; there must be another explanation!

The reason some scholars question the assumption that Isaiah had Jesus in mind is that most predictive prophecy regards the near future, not a future many generations removed from the original audience. We find what God is speaking to us by first determining what God was speaking to the original audience. Isaiah’s audience was concerned with one thing only: returning to Jerusalem. Where did Christ’s ministry and death enter into that story?

Yet let’s acknowledge: He was led like a lamb to the slaughter sure sounds like Jesus. As does, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? (Psalm 22:1). The answer might be hinted at in Matthew’s temptation narrative (4:1-11). Regarding his first temptation, Jesus answers straight from Deuteronomy 8:3. His final two responses are from 6:7 and 6:13. In his actions and words, Jesus shows that whereas Israel was God’s unfaithful son, he is the faithful Son.

Jesus identified with these Old Testament pictures. In the case of the Suffering Servant, Israel itself was probably the servant, albeit imperfect. Jesus took that role upon himself, becoming not only the perfect Son, but also the perfect Servant.

TODAY’S MEDITATION

Read through the Suffering Servant songs: Isaiah 42:1-9; 49:1-6; 50:4-9 and 52:13-53:12. Thank God that Jesus was the perfect servant.
 

Day 224: Isaiah 49, 50 and 51

I will not forget you. See, I have [carved] you on the palms of my hands (Isaiah 49:15,16).

In their Babylonian captivity, no doubt many Jews wondered if God had given up on them. Maybe some of them, in their despair, gave up on God. We read in Isaiah 49:14 – Zion said, “The Lord has forsaken me, the Lord has forgotten me.”

But God makes it clear such is not the case. Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget [as unlikely as that is], I will not forget you! See, I have [carved] you on the palms of my hands (49:15,16).

Remember Hagar, Sarah’s slave girl? Her Hebrew name meant forsaken. She undoubtedly felt forsaken, rejected, and unseen. Until she had an encounter with God, and gave him a new name: You are the God who sees me (Genesis 16:13).

God will not forsake us. God will not reject us. God will not overlook us. God will not forget us.

But God is forgetful about one thing.

I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more (Jeremiah 31:34).

God forgets your confessed sin, but he’ll never forget you!

TODAY’S MEDITATION

Do you ever feel forgotten by God? Consider that the only thing he forgets is your sin. Thank him for his selective forgetfulness.

Day 223: Isaiah 46, 47 and 48

If only you had paid attention to my commands, your peace would have been like a river, your well-being like the waves of the sea (Isaiah 48:18).

In these chapters the writer, speaking for Yahweh, makes it clear that Babylon was his tool, employed to discipline Judah, not to destroy it (47:6). Her harshness toward Judah will result in her own punishment. The virgin daughter of Babylon will live as a princess no longer (47:1).

Then God explains to those who will listen: I am the Lord your God, who teaches you what is best for you (48:17). He says that if Judah had listened in the first place, the discipline enacted upon it would not have been necessary. How many times have we said that to our kids? How many times have we heard that ourselves?

The fruit of discipline is obedience. The fruit of obedience is peace. Therefore, when God disciplines us, he really is doing it for our own good.

It seems to be our nature to challenge the limits. As long as we think we can get away with it, we’ll try. But just like we can’t play with fire very long without getting burned, we cannot go on living in disobedience without paying the consequences.

Better to live according to God’s plan and know peace than to struggle against what we perceive as restraints, but are really boundaries for our protection.

TODAY’S MEDITATION

Where in your life do you need peace? Is it perhaps time to admit that God really does know best?
 

Day 222: Isaiah 43, 44 and 45

Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! (Isaiah 43:18,19).

We’ve detailed Judah’s defeat by Nebuchadnezzar. Over 60 years has passed since the first exiles were marched from Jerusalem to Babylon, and over 40 years since the city was overrun – its walls and temple razed.

A generation has been born with no memory of Zion. Parents try to tell their children that being a displaced people is not normal.

There are whispers of a new military power, rumors that Babylon’s place in the world might be temporary. And then the prophet breathes words of hope: I am doing a new thing! Walter Brueggemann credits fellow Old Testament scholar Brevard Childs as saying the new thing is restoration which takes the place of the old thing – destruction and exile [3].

After the passage of time, things and events that bulldozed through our existence can stake out their own claim in our lives as normal. Perhaps this is a God-given defense mechanism, designed to keep us from being tyrannized by the past. But placing those things on the back burner doesn’t mean they don’t still negatively affect us.

God doesn’t want us dominated by the hurts of the past. At the same time, He doesn’t want us to label them as normal. He wants to do a completely new thing, and take us into the freedom of his restoration.

TODAY’S MEDITATION

Have you learned to live with chains from which God wants to set you free? What are they, and what are you and God going to do about it?
 

Day 221: Isaiah 40, 41 and 42

Proclaim to [Jerusalem] that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for (Isaiah 40:2).

The wild ride from chapter 36 to 40 is enough to give the most hardened biblical scholar whiplash. In chapter 36 the biggest threat the people of Judah can imagine is their inevitable defeat at the hands of the Assyrians. Chapter 37 tells of Assyria’s withdrawal and Judah’s deliverance. In chapter 38, Hezekiah gets deathly ill. Although Isaiah warns him the end is near, the king won’t take death for an answer. He prays for healing and is given fifteen more years. Chapter 39 brings a harbinger of things to come. An envoy from Babylon arrives in Jerusalem ostensibly to wish the king continued health. The chapter ends with Isaiah scolding Hezekiah for his naïvete regarding Babylon’s intentions.

Between the end of chapter 39 and the beginning of chapter 40 lies an extended silence. Hezekiah is long dead along with seven kings after him. Jerusalem has been destroyed and its people exiled to Babylon.

After 150 years, a new voice writing in the name of Isaiah begins his message: Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. . . . her hard service has been completed, . . . her sin has been paid for (40:1,2). Whiplash.

As Walter Brueggemann puts Isaiah’s message: “Inescapable judgment reliably followed by generous restoration” [2]. Defeat isn’t final. Even when things look hopeless, there’s still reason to hope.

TODAY’S MEDITATION

And what are you hoping for?
 

Day 220: Isaiah 37, 38 and 39

Hezekiah received the [field commander’s] letter from the messengers and read it. Then he went up to the temple . . . and spread it out before the Lord (Isaiah 37:14).

Chapters 36-38 contain three communications from the Assyrian field commander meant to demoralize and destabilize the people of Jerusalem. The Assyrian military certainly has the track record to back up his taunts, but he has never before encountered Yahweh. We could say he doesn’t know who he’s up against.

On what are you basing this confidence of yours? (36:4). Have the gods of any nations ever delivered their lands from the hand of the king of Assyria? (36:18). Surely you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the countries, destroying them completely. And will you be delivered? (37:11).

And how did Hezekiah respond to these threats? He went up to the temple . . . and spread it out before the Lord.

We also have an enemy set on destroying us. He will use any means available to annihilate our faith and replace it with fear. He wants to demoralize us and destabilize our defenses even though he’s still on the other side of the brick wall huffing and puffing like the big bad wolf.

Let’s take a lesson from Hezekiah. Now is not the time to panic. Now is the time to spread it out before the Lord.

TODAY’S MEDITATION

Are you sure you want to raise a white flag when our God is coming to the rescue? This might be a good time to pray through 2 Chronicles 20:15-17.

Day 219: Isaiah 34, 35 and 36

Those the Lord has rescued will return. They will enter Zion with singing (Isaiah 35:10).

Chapters 34 and 35 are seemingly out of place in this portion of Isaiah. Most of Isaiah 1-39 deals with the challenges of the eighth century BC, whereas these chapters anticipate the return from exile almost 200 years later. While the original portions of the book are credited to Isaiah ben Amoz (the same Isaiah who had the incredible vision in chapter 6), other portions are often attributed to followers of Isaiah who wrote in his name centuries later. This was not an unusual (or unethical) practice in ancient times.

The question for us, since we were not around to read the original warnings of Isaiah ben Amoz, or to have a conversation with those who may have subsequently written in his name is: What does the finished form of these writings say to us? After all, we benefit from the complete Isaiah as part of our biblical canon. We must read the book in its entirety, rather than get too caught up in the individual details. Let’s not miss the forest for the trees.

We have received an Isaiah in which the writers look beyond the troubles of 701 BC (the Assyrian siege) and 586 BC (destruction by Nebuchadnezzar) to the eventual and inevitable fall of Babylon. Remember, Isaiah always looks beyond judgment to restoration.

If there’s trouble on your horizon, anticipate God’s grace not far behind!

TODAY’S MEDITATION

What are you afraid of? Imagine God coming to your rescue.
 

Day 218: Isaiah 31, 32 and 33

The fruit of righteousness will be peace (NIV 1984, Isaiah 32:17).

Isaiah writes of a coming turmoil, a frenzied panic from which no man or earthly power can save Judah. While the women of Jerusalem are complacent in their denial of what’s coming, the writer says that in less than a year their misplaced confidence will be shattered. Where is peace?

In chapter 33 the question is asked: Who of us can dwell with the consuming fire? Who of us can dwell with everlasting burning? (v. 14). This is not talking about the fires of hell, but the presence of God. Note the answer: Those who walk righteously and speak what is right (v. 15).

This passage brings to mind Psalm 15: Lord, who may dwell in your sanctuary? Who may live on your holy hill? He whose walk is blameless and who does what is righteous (NIV 1984, vv.1,2).

These passages tell us the way to peace is through right living. Too often we bring trouble on ourselves, and then pray for peace as if it were an entitlement. We think it will come without any change in how we live. But peace is the fruit of a disciplined life. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it (Hebrews 12:11).

TODAY’S MEDITATION

If in your heart of hearts you are experiencing more turmoil than peace, what are you going to do about it?
 

Day 217: Isaiah 28, 29 and 30

You turn things upside down, as if the potter were thought to be like the clay (Isaiah 29:16).

Though we have affirmed earlier writings in Isaiah were addressed to Judah during the reign of Ahaz, the current chapters are more likely targeted to his son Hezekiah. Israel was on the verge of falling to Assyria, even though their drunken revelry makes it appear they were not aware their flower was fading (28:1-4). Despite their differences, the population of Judah would be shaken to the core to see its sister kingdom Israel destroyed and its people exiled to the far reaches of the empire, never to return.

Chapter 29 advises that Jerusalem is not immune to the troubles which have besieged Samaria (Israel’s capital). But chapter 30 also cautions that running to Egypt for protection is not the answer.

Isaiah acknowledges that his prophetic message is not getting through. Their spiritual blindness and deafness have infected every area of their lives including their worship. These people . . . honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me (29:13).

In today’s focus verse, the prophet warns that just because they are blind doesn’t mean they should assume God is blind too. They make the mistake of thinking God is created in their image. Who’s the potter? And who’s the clay?

It’s one thing to confess God with our lips; quite another to confess him with our lives.

TODAY’S MEDITATION

Have can you make sure you’re not recreating God in your own image?
 

Day 216: Isaiah 25, 26 and 27

On this mountain [the Lord Almighty] will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations; he will swallow up death forever (Isaiah 25:7,8).

Israel’s enemies referred to in Isaiah’s writings are Assyria, Babylon, and the smaller surrounding kingdoms as referenced in the oracles against the nations (chapters 13-23). In chapters 24-27 Yahweh takes on an even more powerful foe: death, the enemy of all peoples.

Your dead will live; their bodies will rise. You who dwell in the dust, wake up and shout for joy. Your dew is like the dew of the morning; the earth will give birth to her dead (26:19). Not likely the work of the eighth century BC Isaiah ben Amoz, these are considered to be the latest additions to the book of Isaiah [1]. They mark an evolution of thought regarding life after death, and the resurrection of those who belong to God.

We read in the earlier writings of David: I am set apart with the dead, like the slain who lie in the grave, whom you remember no more, who are cut off from your care (Psalm 88:5).

Consider the words of Jesus: I am the resurrection and the life (John 11:25). And finally Paul: Where, O death, is your victory? (1 Corinthians 15:55).

The message to Israel (and us too) could be: If even death cannot stand against our God, then is there any enemy he cannot defeat?

Death isn’t final.

TODAY’S MEDITATION

What does that mean to you? If death cannot stand against our God, which of your enemies can?

Day 215: Isaiah 22, 23 and 24

The song of the prostitute: Take up a harp, walk through the city, you forgotten prostitute; play the harp well, sing many a song, so that you will be remembered (Isaiah 23:15,16).

In this final installment of Isaiah’s oracles against the nations, the focus turns to Phoenicia, home of two of the Mediterranean’s greatest seaports, Tyre and Sidon. Phoenicia was best known for its trade with other nations: its sailing ships traveled around the Mediterranean, visiting seaports from Egypt to Spain. Rather than compete for military control of the region, Phoenicia was content to sit back and take profits wherever it could.

In that respect, Isaiah refers to Tyre and Sidon as prostitutes, plying their wares, luring in business. But Phoenicia’s political neutrality would not protect its economic ventures forever. Isaiah forecasts the coastal nation’s defeat at the hands of Assyria, for the Assyrian Empire wanted control over those port cities and their corresponding trade routes with other nations.

But there would come a time, after Assyria’s strength ran its course, that Tyre and Sidon would once again be back in business, like old prostitutes singing their seductive songs trying to entice back customers from yesterday.

Isaiah teaches us that the strongest economy will never be strong enough to serve as a foundation on which to build. Only faith in God stands the test of time and trouble.

TODAY’S MEDITATION

How can you make sure you’re building your future on the strongest foundation?

Day 214: Isaiah 19, 20 and 21

When they cry out to the Lord because of their oppressors, he will send them a savior and defender, and he will rescue them (Isaiah 19:20).

These are not unfamiliar words in the Old Testament. Anyone who’s been reading along recognizes the well worn theme of Israel’s rebellion and restoration. In Deuteronomy 30 we read: When all these blessings and curses . . . come on you and . . . you and your children return to the Lord your God . . . then the Lord your God will restore your fortunes and have compassion on you and gather you again from all the nations where he scattered you (vv. 1-3).

In 2 Chronicles 7:14, God’s words to Solomon are recorded: If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

So these words of mercy for a people gone astray should not be surprising to us. What might catch us off guard, though, is that these words were not spoken over Israel; they were not spoken over Judah; they are God’s promise to Egypt, and a reminder to us that even though God is our God, we do not have exclusive rights to him. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you (Genesis 12:3).

TODAY’S MEDITATION

How do you feel when God sheds his grace on those outside your circle? Ask God how you can make these more than words: “Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God” (Romans 15:7).

Day 213: Isaiah 16, 17 and 18

My heart cries for Moab (NCV, Isaiah 16:11).

The people of Moab, a perennial thorn in Judah’s side, were getting their comeuppance. Their earlier pride seemed foolish in light of their present troubles. God’s response to their misfortune is surprising. Isaiah writes that God cries for them, and with them too (v. 9).

Here Moab is receiving the consequences for their choices, and yet God has compassion on them. How can God allow discipline into people’s lives and, at the same time, cry for what they are enduring? Does he also cry for us when our disobedience comes back to us in suffering?

Moab was an enemy of God’s people, yet rather than rejoice over its downfall, God’s heart was filled with the kind of heartache reserved for loving parents of wayward children. Let’s learn a lesson from these words. We shouldn’t gloat when someone who has chosen to be our enemy tastes the bitterness of defeat. God cries for them.

Paul reminds us: If someone does wrong to you, do not pay him back by doing wrong to him (NCV, Romans 12:17), and, Do not let evil defeat you, but defeat evil by doing good (NCV, 12:21). And did not Jesus say much the same thing? They are blessed who show mercy to others, for God will show mercy to them (NCV, Matthew 5:7), and, Love your enemies. Pray for those who hurt you (NCV, 5:44).

TODAY’S MEDITATION

Is there any better test of love than to do good to those who do evil to us? Ask God how you could show his love to someone who’s made your life difficult.

Day 212: Isaiah 13, 14 and 15

How you have fallen from heaven, morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations! (Isaiah 14:12).

A popular though possibly misguided usage of this verse is as evidence that Satan began his career as an angel who, because of his prideful challenge to God’s sovereignty, was thrown out of heaven. Jesus may have alluded to the writings of Isaiah when he said, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven (Luke 10:18); language which should probably be taken more figuratively than literally. Both the king of Babylon (though Babylon was barely getting started at the time of Isaiah ben Amoz) and Satan ruled powerful empires and were seemingly invincible.

Yet Isaiah says the ruler of Babylon, domineering as he may be, is subject to the power of God. In fact, chapters 13-23 are Isaiah’s oracles against the nations (which have parallels in Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Amos, Zephaniah and Zechariah), which testify that all nations and powers are subject to Yahweh, as is Satan and his kingdom.

If we don’t see it now, one day we will: Is this the man who shook the earth and made kingdoms tremble? (v. 16) No matter what the threat, one day we will look back and say, I was afraid of that? God really is faithful.

Enemies only look invincible when we look ahead, not when we look back.

TODAY’S MEDITATION

As you look ahead to the coming weeks, what threat feels overwhelming? Thank God that one day you’ll be looking back on all of this.

Day 211: Isaiah 10, 11 and 12

A new branch will grow from the stump of a tree (NCV, Isaiah 11:1).

In the 1995 20^th Century Fox movie A Walk in the Clouds, Keanu Reeves stars as orphan turned WWII hero Paul Sutton. Upon returning stateside, he falls in love with Victoria Aragón whose family owns a Napa Valley vineyard and winery. Though drawn to the strong family ties demonstrated by the Aragóns, Sutton is rejected by Victoria’s domineering father as not good enough for his daughter. During an argument between the two, the older man throws a lantern, igniting the tinder dry grape vines, engulfing the vineyard in flames.

Then Paul realizes the parent vine (brought from Spain), though burned, did not take the brunt of the fire. He cuts into the root to discover there is still life in the heart of the vine. Though it will take time and hard work, the family’s fortunes are restored, and Paul is welcomed into the family.

In the NIV, Isaiah’s messianic prophecy includes the phrase stump of Jesse, which indicates that Christ will come from the line of King David. But David’s line has been all but destroyed, like the parent vine from the Aragón vineyard. However, no matter how dead things may look, there is life under the surface.

Even when it seems too late, that we’ve been abandoned, that the tree is dead, God may just be up to something.

TODAY’S MEDITATION

Do you need to see a new branch sprout from the stump of your life? What might that look like?

Day 210: Isaiah 7, 8 and 9

If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all (Isaiah 7:9).

During the reign of Judah’s King Jotham (Ahaz’s father), Assyria was a rising power. The kings of Israel and Aram tried to recruit Jotham to conspire with them against Assyria, but he refused. Upon Jotham’s death, the anger of Israel and Aram was poured out against Judah and its new king Ahaz. Seizing the opportunity, Edom also attacked from the southeast and the Philistines from the southwest. Judah was an island in a hostile sea, surrounded by enemies. Ahaz saw no escape other than appealing to Assyria for protection.

Isaiah implored Ahaz to put his faith in Yahweh, not Assyria’s Tiglath-pileser. The prophet made it clear that peaceful conditions don’t require faith – faith isn’t faith until it is tested. But Ahaz buckled, sending a large payment to Assyria. The empire smashed the coalition, all but destroying Israel, and though Judah survived, she became a vassal nation subject to its protector Assyria.

In Proverbs 24:10 we read: If you falter in a time of trouble, how small is your strength. Or as the Message puts it: If you fall to pieces in a crisis, there wasn’t much to you in the first place. Remember the lesson from Isaiah: Faith isn’t faith until it’s tested.

You might be surprised what you and God can handle.

TODAY’S MEDITATION

Have you ever gone through hard times, sustained by faith you didn’t even know you had? That faith is still available for you now. Ask.