Key events in today’s reading:

• God expresses anger with Judah (Isaiah 1)
• The Day of the Lord (Isaiah 2:6-22)
• Isaiah’s Commission (Isaiah 6:1-13)
• To Us a Child is Born (Isaiah 9:1-7)
• The Branch of Jesse (Isaiah 11)

Verse that stood out: The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned – Isaiah 9:2

Isaiah is a pendulum of messages. One moment doom and gloom, the next, the promise of a deliverer. Darkness is coming. Then a light will dawn. So quickly does the tone bounce from one to the other it’s difficult to keep track with what’s going on.

Following the plot of Isaiah is hampered by the fact that the prophet sometimes bounces back and forth between the present, the near future, and the far future without clearly indicating where we are in the story. Our own reading is affected by the fact that we tend to pull out texts that we associate with the New Testament and leave the rest. 

Nevertheless, a few things did stick out in this reading.

First, Isaiah’s call is chapter 6 is not to mission, as we so often interpret that passage, so much as it is to go and deliver a message of doom. How difficult and dangerous it must have been to tell the leadership of his day that God was against them.

Second, the prophecies of Christ jump off the page. That’s probably because we’ve read these verses more than any of the others in this book. I do notice that the prophecies we associate with Christ are fully immersed in passages about other things. It’s worth exploring in a later post how the early church came to see Jesus in the pages of Isaiah.

Third, one of the main points of Isaiah is Yahweh’s sovereignty. I was struck by chapter 10 and the prophet’s assertion that while Assyria may think that she is in charge, but she’s not. God is always in control. This is an encouraging reminder in our chaotic political season. No matter who is elected president in a few weeks. God remains on his throne.

For tomorrow:

• Cover to cover: Isaiah 13:5 – 28:13
• Key Passage: Isaiah 25:1-9
• Verse of the Day: Isaiah 25:9