Today's Daily Lesson comes from Isaiah chapter 6 verses:

8 And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.” 9 And he said, “Go, and say to this people:
“‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand;
keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’
10 Make the heart of this people dull,
and their ears heavy,
and blind their eyes;
lest they see with their eyes,
and hear with their ears,
and understand with their hearts,
and turn and be healed.”
11 Then I said, “How long, O Lord?”
And he said:
“Until cities lie waste
without inhabitant,
and houses without people,
and the land is a desolate waste,
12 and the Lord removes people far away,
and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land.
13 And though a tenth remain in it,
it will be burned again,
like a terebinth or an oak,
whose stump remains
when it is felled.”

Isaiah is not the Prophet of Doom, but the news is bad -- very bad.  And it is going worse. It is going to get very, very bad. Cities will burn and be left desolate. The people will be torn from their land. Only the jackal will inhabit them. A nation, once mighty and prosperous will be brought to its knees by total war.

Isaiah does not wish to proclaim this calamity on his own people. He takes no delight in the prophecy. Yet the truth has been placed upon his lips with a hot, burning coal. He will tell the people the truth. They have brought it upon themselves -- down the wind and now shall reap the whirlwind. The consequences of their actions will bring calamity upon them and their children.

The pot shall be thrown down and be broken to pieces.

The great city of Jerusalem shall be burned like an old, dead tree -- burned all the way down to the stump.

The Stump of Jesse.

Let those with ears to hear let them hear.