Daily Lesson for July 10, 2020

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Isaiah chapter 12 verses 1 and 2:

You will say in that day:

I will give thanks to you, O Lord,

    for though you were angry with me,

your anger turned away,

    and you comforted me.

2

Surely God is my salvation;

    I will trust, and will not be afraid,

for the Lord God is my strength and my might;

    he has become my salvation.

There is an old saying that Optimism is what one starts out with at the break of a new day, but Hope is what you have left after the sun sets.

The Prophet Isaiah is not an optimist.  He prophesies that it's going to get tough.  Things are going to fall apart.  Businesses, families and whole tribes will be ruined.  And some -- a whole generation in fact -- will die in exile.  It's really going to be bad, he says.

But, still, he doesn't give up Hope. 

There is resilience in this people, he knows.  And there is an end to all things -- even suffering.  And when the furor ceases, and the calm returns, and the exile ends, the people shall find their comfort.

It's a long and wild ride we're on, friends.  We were too optimistic about its duration.  We thought the wave would come and go.  But it turns out we weren't willing and/or organized well enough to do the things we needed to do in order to make our exile a short one.  Our economic structure couldn't handle the shock of a two-month shutdown without crippling millions, so we have ended in exile.  It is a judgement, in that sense.

So, we now find ourselves in exile.  And it may be longer and harder than any of us thought. There may be more suffering than we would have imagined.

But the LORD says, "Comfort, comfort my people."

And the comfort is, at the end of the day the acknowledgment that we are already tired and weary and still have a long night to go.  And "though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, we will not fear". 

For the sun will rise again; and so will the people.

NOTE: We are reading the whole Bible through this year.  And what a year to be doing it.  Over the weekend we'll read Micah; 2 Chronicles 28; 2 Kings 16-17; and Isaiah 13-17.