Daily Lesson for July 15, 2020

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Isaiah Chapter 24 verses 1-4;:

Now the Lord is about to lay waste the earth and make it desolate,

    and he will twist its surface and scatter its inhabitants.

2

And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest;

    as with the slave, so with his master;

    as with the maid, so with her mistress;

as with the buyer, so with the seller;

    as with the lender, so with the borrower;

    as with the creditor, so with the debtor.

3

The earth shall be utterly laid waste and utterly despoiled;

    for the Lord has spoken this word.

4

The earth dries up and withers,

    the world languishes and withers;

    the heavens languish together with the earth.

And chapter 26 verses 1 through 6:

On that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah:

We have a strong city;

    he sets up victory

    like walls and bulwarks.

2

Open the gates,

    so that the righteous nation that keeps faith

    may enter in.

3

Those of steadfast mind you keep in peace—

    in peace because they trust in you.

4

Trust in the Lord forever,

    for in the Lord God

    you have an everlasting rock.

5

For he has brought low

    the inhabitants of the height;

    the lofty city he lays low.

He lays it low to the ground,

    casts it to the dust.

6

The foot tramples it,

    the feet of the poor,

    the steps of the needy.

Isaiah speaks his word of Judgment.  A scourge shall fall upon the earth.  It shall affect all people.  No class or citizen is immune.  Trades stops.  The buyer and the seller go broke.  The creditor and the debtor are swallowed up in forces beyond their control -- the fate of the rich and the poor tied together.  So the lofty city is laid low; and the whole earth reels from the horror.

But, Isaiah says, they who trust in the LORD have and "everlasting rock" -- the one solid piece of ground people can stand on.

This is a word for our time.  What has befallen us now has disproportionately affected poor people.  But now the middle-class (if there is one) is beginning to feel the pinch, and even the sting.  Wall Street is still doing well while Main Street is shuttered.  But Wall Street is not immune to COVID-19.  The whole earth is bound together.  And we are beginning to see how leaving one part of the body unprotected and exposed can end up harming the whole body.

Isaiah says its a judgment.  It's a judgment upon the way the city is organized.  It is a judgment against the ways the people have separated and divided themselves one from another.

Isaiah says the people must get ready.  It's not just going to come and go.   They have to see how this is all going to effect them for the long haul -- for the rest of their lives.

The whole earth is reeling.  There is no settled ground.  The foundations of this world shake.

But the rock of the LORD remains.  The rock of the LORD is steady. 

"And though the earth gives way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea," they who build their lives and rebuild their communities on the firm foundation of the LORD shall not be afraid, but shall endure.

NOTE: We are reading the whole Bible through this year.  Tomorrow's Lesson will come from 2 Kings 18; 2 Chronicles 29-31; and Psalm 48.