Day 212: Isaiah 13, 14 and 15

How you have fallen from heaven, O 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 did not yet exist 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.

As you look ahead to the coming weeks, what threat feels overwhelming?

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 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 Aragon whose family owns a Napa Valley vineyard and winery. Though drawn to the strong family ties demonstrated by the Aragons, Sutton is rejected as not good enough for his daughter by Victoria's domineering father. 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.

This messianic prophecy includes the phrase stump of Jesse (NIV), 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 Aragon 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.

Have you ever thought your life was over, only to see a new branch sprout from the stump?

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 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, the southern kingdom became a vassal nation subject to its protector Assyria.

In Proverbs 24:20 (NIV) we read: If you falter in times 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.

Have you ever gone through hard times where you were sustained by faith you didn't even know you had?

Day 209: Isaiah 4, 5 and 6

Judge between me and my vineyard. (Isaiah 5:3)

In yesterday's reading, Isaiah contrasts Judah, who doesn't have the sense to know it owes its sustenance to God, with a donkey who at least knows it can trust its master for food and water. In chapter five, the writer describes Judah using the metaphor of a well tended vineyard that nonetheless refuses to produce grapes.

The prophet speaks in the name of God the consequence for the vineyard's failure: I will take away its hedge, and it will be destroyed; I will break down its wall, and it will be trampled (5:5).

The Book of Isaiah is full of judgment and consequence, but one of the keys to understanding Isaiah is to look beyond the judgment. God certainly does. According to Walter Brueggemann: The harsh judgments announced by the prophet are roughly matched by the promises . . . that after the judgment of YHWH upon the city, there will be renewal and restoration. That renewal and restoration does not in any way soften or diminish the judgment to come, but asserts that judgment is not the ultimate prophetic word to YHWH's city. [1]

If you've ever suffered the consequences of bad decisions and thought, That's it; life as I know it is over; then you need to hear the message of Isaiah. There are definitely consequences to our bad choices, but there is also hope that transcends those consequences.

What consequences have you suffered and then lived to tell about?

[1] Walter Brueggemann. An Introduction to the Old Testament (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2003), 161.

Day 208: Isaiah 1, 2 and 3

The ox knows his master, the donkey his owner's manger, but Israel does not know. (Isaiah 1:3)

In the Hebrew Bible the book of Isaiah follows right after Kings. Both concern themselves with the final days of Jerusalem. [1] There was a repeating history in Israel and Judah of unfaithfulness to Yahweh - specifically breaking the first commandment: You shall have no other gods before me (Exodus 20:3).

Isaiah's first 12 chapters seem to focus on the prophet's interaction with Ahaz, king from approximately 735 to 715 BC. Read about Ahaz in 2 Kings 16 and 2 Chronicles 28. During the reign of Ahaz, Judah was the whipping boy of Aram, Israel and Edom. Rather than cry out to God for help, Ahaz used the treasures of the temple and bribed the king of Assyria to rescue him. At that time Ahaz began worshiping Assyria's gods, adding them to his stable of gods from other nations.

Ahaz replicated Assyria's altar for burnt offerings and placed it in Jerusalem's temple. The bronze altar built by Solomon many generations earlier was moved aside - out of the way - and used for fortune telling. Isaiah puts it plain: Even dumb farmyard animals are smart enough to know where their food comes from, but not Israel. Ahaz doesn't even know which side his bread is buttered on.

Have you ever been tempted to throw aside your faith in God? How'd that work out for you?

[1] Thoughts informed by Walter Brueggemann, An Introduction to the Old Testament (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2003).

Day 207: Song of Songs 5, 6, 7 and 8

What shall we do for our sister for the day she is spoken for? (Song of Songs 8:8)

Here the writer explores the role of family in helping develop healthy sexual attitudes and boundaries. Keeping in mind Shulamith's repeating charge: Do not awaken love until the time is right (2:7), we have a foundation from which to interpret 8:8-12.

The speaker has changed. Now we have the older siblings of a young woman asking how they can protect their little sister: If she is a wall, we will build towers of silver on her. If she is a door, we will enclose her with panels of cedar (v. 9). The poetically blunt message here is that walls keep people out and doors let people in. If our sister has good judgment and maintains healthy boundaries with boys, then we will reward her with praise. But if she is promiscuous and acts more like a door than a wall, then we will be her wall. We will protect her until such a time as she is able to make better choices.

The message of verses 11 and 12 is clear. Solomon owns many vineyards and they are his; he can buy or sell as he pleases. Shulamith uses poetic language to say she has a vineyard as well. Regardless of Solomon's wealth and power, she alone is steward over her own sexuality.

How can you help the children and teenagers in your life develop healthy sexual boundaries?

Day 206: Song of Songs 1, 2, 3 and 4

Promise me, O women of Jerusalem . . . not to awaken love until the time is right. (NLT, Song of Songs 3:5)

This is a repeating charge in Song of Songs. Don't awaken love until the time is right. It can be found in chapters 2, 3 and 8. There has been a whole range of opinion regarding the love affair chronicled here. Is it a story of the relationship between God and Israel? Christ and the church? Two young lovers? A king and his bride? Over the years majority opinion has shifted between these options?

In the 1970s, Joseph Dillow wrote a great book called Solomon on Sex - The Biblical Guide to Married Love. He focuses on this repeating verse as the key to unlocking this work of Old Testament wisdom literature. [1]

God intended sex to be enjoyed within the bonds of marriage. Solomon's bride charges the women of Jerusalem with that very truth. Nowhere is the sexual relationship as delightfully expounded as in this biblical text, and nowhere can that relationship be expressed as beautifully as within the freedom of marriage.

How cool is that?

[1] Joseph C. Dillow. Solomon on Sex (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1977).