21st December
Read Psalm 140
If you don’t have a bible at home you can find the readings on a website such as www.biblegateway.com or an app such as YouVersion
This Psalm of David is a prayer for protection against evildoers, those who devise evil plans in their hearts (v2). The sad truth is that there are those who do just that, yet the Psalm also speaks of those who seek the Lord being protected because He is their Sovereign Lord, their strong deliverer (v7). We will always be surrounded by enemies of the body and soul but they will not be victorious because God “upholds the cause of the needy” (v12)
As you read the Bible Stop; Read; Ponder; and Pray.
Monday Isaiah 25:1-12
Chapter 25 begins with praise that things that have worked out have been planned by God, it has been him who has made the foreigners cities and towns heaps of ruins and made strong peoples honour him (v2,3). By v6 we find the Lord Almighty preparing a banquet for all people on the “Mountain of the Lord” which refers to Jerusalem in the first place but more generally the place or residence in heaven of God most High. The shroud of death and blindness looks forward to the Messianic period of Jesus who “swallows up death” for ever.
When that time comes people will say “surely this is our God, we trusted in him and he saved us ((v9) referring to all those who put their trust in the Lord but others, those who are of Moab, those whose heart is like that of the Moabite enemies of Israel will find their pride and cleverness brought to nought.(v12)
Tuesday Isaiah 26:1-21
This chapter needs to be read more than once and its verses pondered over. It is headed a Song of Praise but it is much more. It speaks of the strong city that God makes – his place of dwelling together with his people – but it speaks of the destruction and death of the cities of those who resist him (v5,6) . It speaks of the righteous yearning for the Lord and speaks the people of the world learning righteousness when God’s judgement falls yet when his grace is shown to the wicked they don’t learn righteousness.(v9,10). “Even in a land of uprightness they go on doing evil” and do not regard the majesty of the Lord” (v10)
It shows that although it is right and good to seek good order in a society, yet there are wicked people who will not abide by that but will continue to manifest evil. There will never be a perfect society this side of heaven and the conclusion of all things but we must continue to pray for righteousness within the situations that we live in.
Wednesday Isaiah 27:1-13
The start of this chapter speaks of the slaying of Leviathan, the monster of the sea. To understand this we need to find out about this ‘monster’ that is spoken of and to that we have to go to the primal forces of chaos and evil that ancient civilisations spoke of. Water – as in the opening of the creation story in Genesis or in the Noah’s flood – is seen as uncontrolled chaos, uncontrolled that is apart from the power of God. The Leviathan’s of the world are the swelling monsters of evil that come up from the deep (in Isaiah’s time we could see Assyria or Babylon) but God slays the evil monsters that do and will arise in the world.
A future view is spoken of by the prophet from v2 when he speaks of God’s people as a fruitful vineyard which he watches over and predicts that in days to come Israel will take root and fill all the world with fruit (v6) but that is a log way off and after a great time of discipline by the Lord. It all points to latter days when Israel will be brought back to obedience to God and become the people to whom others will fly. A day which we yet wait for.
Thursday Isaiah 28:1-29
Ephraim is one of the names of the Northern Israelite Kingdom and Isaiah challenges it for its drunkenness – ‘a city laid low by wine’ (v1). Their wreath, their crown, was their drunkenness but in the future the Lord Almighty will be their glorious crown (v5).
The priest and prophets, staggering in their drunkenness as they render decisions (v7) mock Isaiah’s teaching with ‘ who is he trying to teach’ (v9) and what he says is just repetitious rule upon rule, do this, do that (v10) which just seem incoherent babble to them. God says that because they won’t hear his words he will send strangers with foreign languages. The contemporary reference would be to the Assyrians who would come but there is a New Testament reference to this with the gift of tongues.
Judgement is God’s ‘strange work’ (v21 but it will be done and the people and their leaders are told to stop mocking or their chains will become heavier. The Lord has told of the destruction decreed against the whole land. When nations refuse to heed God’s word to them their situation will get progressively worse, this is the message not only for Judah but for all the nations of the world.
Friday Isaiah 29: 1-24
Isaiah speak of Jerusalem as Ariel which means “Lion of God” which seems like an indication of power yet in v2 he says she will be like an altar hearth which sounds like Ariel and implies that Jerusalem will be like the ashes of an altar. She will mourn and wail as her enemies under God’s command surround her. The people are spoken of as being blind, not seeing what has happened to them as God’s judgement (v10) this vision of Isaiah being like a book that can’t be read.
They still use the words of their religion as though being near God but in fact they are far from him and they are like the clay telling the potter how to make them into something worthwhile. However others (Lebanon) will see and hear God’s word and as they hear so the people of Israel (Jacob) will become ashamed of their past and will stand in awe again of God. The prophecies view this judgement turning around to redemption and salvation for the people of Israel.
Saturday Isaiah 30:1-17
Around 730 BC King Hezekiah was under the cosh of the Assyrians and he sought help from Egypt (2 Kings 18) against the counsel of Isaiah which is seen here in Chapter 30. The people wanted to manage their own security rather than trust in the Lord and what they wanted to hear from the prophets and seers were pleasant things not warnings of judgement to come – “stop confronting us with the Holy One of Israel” they said (v11) What will happen is that their sin will be like a bulging wall that would crack and fall on top of them. These prophecies are not just for ancient Israel but are for us to hear as well. The words of God come to us as well as them where in v15 we hear, “In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and strength is your strength”