Daily Lesson for February 13, 2019

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Isaiah chapter 59 verses 20 and 21:

20 And he will come to Zion as Redeemer,

   to those in Jacob who turn from transgression, says the Lord. 

21And as for me, this is my covenant with them, says the Lord: my spirit that is upon you, and my words that I have put in your mouth, shall not depart out of your mouth, or out of the mouths of your children, or out of the mouths of your children’s children, says the Lord, from now on and for ever.

I was talking the other day with a friend about the crisis the American church is now in, and how few young people are coming to church or entering the ministry, and how many churches and even seminaries are closing, and I wondered if we might not be in a time of judgment. With all the glut and abuse that has been revealed about the church — Catholic and Protestant, perhaps this is a time of judgment, and of pruning, of exile. 

The Prophet Isaiah lived in a time of exile, a time when his nation suffered the consequences of its sins. It was 60 years in Babylon — a whole generation.

Yet even while still in captivity, the Prophet speaks in today’s Lesson of God’s everlasting promise to God’s people:

“And as for me, this is my covenant with them,” says the Lord: “my spirit that is upon you, and my words that I have put in your mouth, shall not depart out of your mouth, or out of the mouths of your children, or out of the mouths of your children’s children,” says the Lord, “from now on and for ever.”

The time we live in is kind of exile. It is not just that people suddenly got less interested in religion.  It is not just that young people started deciding Ministry doesn’t make enough money. The deeper truth is that we live in a time of judgment — a time which forces us to reflect and be humbled and change.

And it is here that the words of promise come. “The Word shall not depart,” neither from our lips, nor our children’s, nor our children’s children. For God is still alive, and still redeeming, and so the hope of Israel still remains.