Daily Devotions

Isaiah 40 - Comfort (part 1) Isaiah 40 is like a cool breeze at the end of a scorching day. The mood of its opening verses contrasts so starkly with the judgement and hardship of the preceding section that we feel like we have entered a different world. We have. Chapters 40-55 are addressed to the nation living in exile in a foreign land. The exile left very deep scars on the Israelite national spirit. Some of these scars are captured in Isaiah 40:27 where the call of the Israelites is recorded. As far as they are concerned, God is defeated or has at least forgotten them. They are suffering alone and God has disregarded their cause. In Isaiah 40, the prophet is told to proclaim that God is about to prepare a way out of exile. God himself will dramatically and publicly intervene in history and lead his people through the desert to Palestine. On being commanded to cry out (v. 6) the prophet sums up the depression of his people and yells back at God: A voice says, “Cry!” And I said, “Wh...

Isaiah 36-37 - Who's word is more powerful? So far in our study of Isaiah, we have been doing something that is increasingly rare in our society—reading poetry. Chapters 36-39 are very different. Although there is some poetry in this section, most of it is the dramatic history of a battle between two kings. (Much of the material contained in these chapters is identical to that found in 2 Kings 18-20.) The king of Judah at the time was Hezekiah. Hezekiah was of a different mind to his predecessor, Ahaz. Although willing to pay tribute to foreigners, he was not willing to sell his soul. He engaged in religious reforms and even tried to reconstruct a true Israel consisting of both northern and southern kingdoms.  However, this was a time when Assyrian domination was at its height. Sennacherib had taken over the Assyrian throne. He found himself faced with signs of rebellion in the West (Merodach-Baladan in Babylon) and in the South (Egypt). Against the advice of Isaiah, Hezekiah was...

Isaiah 11 - A New King To get a birds eye view, it's worth noting how the first 12 chapters of Isaiah fit together. Chapter 1 introduced the book by presenting the main themes and ideas that the rest of Isaiah would talk about in more detail. Israel had failed to live rightly before God, so God rejected Jerusalem, which was the symbol of his commitment to the nation Israel. However, some within Jerusalem would escape judgement because of their faithfulness to God. God was going to preserve a spiritual ‘remnant’. Chapters 2-5 explained the situation within Israel and the reasons for judgement. Chapter 6 presented God the king. The combination of Israel’s sinfulness and God’s kingship meant devastating judgement for rebellious Israel. But chapter 6 also held out hope. God promised that in spite of his judgement a stump would remain. The stump probably represents Isaiah and his band of followers—the true Israelites who still wanted to listen to God. Today’s chapter (Isaiah 11) is pa...

Isaiah 6 - The Vision and Mission of a Holy God Isaiah 6 is one of those chapters that you know must be very important, but seems too strange to really understand. Angels fly back and forth, or stand in significant postures; people kiss burning coals; trains fill temples. Sometimes it is our approach to the passage that causes our difficulties. If, instead of reacting to the unusual imagery, we focus on the story that is being told, the meaning of the passage becomes much clearer. Isaiah’s vision in chapter 6 comes at a crucial time in the history of the southern nation of Judah—the year in which King Uzziah dies. Uzziah (also known as Azariah) reigned during a time of relative peace and prosperity. It was a time of optimism and confidence. But the optimism was unwarranted. The end of the reign of Uzziah virtually coincided with the resurgence of an aggressive and militarily superior Assyria to the north. Uzziah’s reign was a mixture of the positive and negative. The writer of the bo...

Isaiah 2 - Seeing reality There is nothing like trying on a new pair of glasses. It’s almost like being in a dream and then suddenly waking up. Everything is sharp, vivid, real. All the fuzziness disappears and reality slaps you in the face. In Isaiah 2, the prophet Isaiah plays the part of the optician. He gets us to examine the sins of Israel and then he shoves newly adjusted spectacles onto our noses. The reality and source of Israel’s sin lies exposed in a way it never was before. There are a number of words and phrases in verses 6-8 and 13-14 that need explanation because they are symbolic. Once we know the meaning of these symbols, the passage becomes clearer. a. Fortune-tellers (v. 6) and magic were strictly forbidden in Israel. The nations used these practices in an attempt to gain control of their destinies and to manipulate their gods. Israel was called upon to trust God and not to attempt to manipulate him or put him to the test. b. Strike hands with the children of for...

Isaiah 1 - Two cities In chapter 1, Isaiah takes us inside the walls of Jerusalem. As soon as we are inside it becomes quite obvious that the dream is not the same as the reality. In reality, Jerusalem is a place where: · people don’t know God (Isa 1:2-3) · covenants/contracts are broken (Isa 1:4-9) · people refuse to be God’s people (Isa 1:10-12) · twisted and perverted worship is carried out (Isa 1:11-14) · wickedness, injustice and disobedience flourish (Isa 1:15-17, 21-23). In short, Babel has invaded Jerusalem, and human-centredness has pushed God out of his own city. This is the situation addressed by Isaiah. He belongs to a community who rightly claim to be God’s chosen people, and yet they are a people of “unclean lips” (Isa 6:5). They are a rebellious city. How can the Holy One of Israel dwell in the midst of a city like this? He cannot. Isaiah goes on to tell us about the fate of Jerusalem. The city must be purified, and those who continue to resist...

Isaiah - An introduction Isaiah is a very big book. It’s the kind of book that makes you feel uncomfortable just looking at it. Wouldn’t it be good to get ‘the big picture’ of what it’s all about before we start reading? One of the great things about Isaiah is that the first chapter introduces many of the big themes of the book. Reading Isaiah 1 is the best way to get into Isaiah. So without any further ado, let’s dive straight in and have a look at it. People tell the story of the Bible in lots of different ways. Some focus on the history of the Jewish nation; others talk about the theme of salvation; yet others speak about God’s promises to his people. Each of these ways of talking about the Bible is helpful and true. One way to tell the story of the Bible is as ‘a tale of two cities’ (to borrow the title of Charles Dickens’ famous novel). The story of these two cities is the story of God dealing with his world and his people. Babel is the first city of any size mentioned in ...

Titus 2 - The path to Godliness Yesterday we began to look at the content of a Christian lifestyle. We saw that Paul wanted Titus to instruct the people to live godly lives in accordance “with sound doctrine” (Titus 2:1). Today we’ll continue to think about that content by looking further at chapter 3. This is fairly straightforward material, but it requires us to think seriously about our lives. In Titus 2:1-10, we saw Paul’s ‘household code’ for the different social groupings in the Cretan church. In chapter 3, he talks about their behaviour as citizens and as members of the congregation. Titus 3 is a deceptively simple chapter. It is not hard to understand what Paul is asking people to do. Submitting to authorities, being gentle and patient and avoiding foolish arguments are all relatively straightforward commands. It is tempting to whip through these chapters without doing the hard work of allowing them to challenge our lives. In some ways this is the hardest chapter of Titus, be...

Titus 2:1-15 - A changed lifestyle With the sort of painful clarity that only advertising can achieve, the billboard said it all: “This month in Magazine X, the complete guide to success in career, health, sex, finance, beauty, travel and much, much more”. We can only wonder what the “much, much more” included. Certainly, it is hard to think of a more apt summary of all that our society wants—‘lifestyle’ is everything. We don’t just want to exist—to be born, consume and die—we want the ‘good life’ (whatever that is). Our whole social structure is based on this constant desire for a higher or better standard of living. Governments rise and fall on their ability to deliver it; we work all our lives in order to attain it (if not for ourselves, then at least ‘for the kids’); and businessmen and advertisers grow fat by persuading us that their particular products are an essential part of attaining the perfect ‘lifestyle’. This desirable lifestyle is defined for us in all kinds of ways. We...