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.

Daily Lesson for July 14, 2020

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Isaiah chapter 22 verses 12 through 14:

12 In that day the Lord God of hosts

    called to weeping and mourning,

    to baldness and putting on sackcloth;

13 but instead there was joy and festivity,

    killing oxen and slaughtering sheep,

    eating meat and drinking wine.

“Let us eat and drink,

    for tomorrow we die.”

14 The Lord of hosts has revealed himself in my ears:

Surely this iniquity will not be forgiven you until you die,

    says the Lord God of hosts.

This morning Paul Krugman has a column titled: "America Drank Away Its Children's Future".  It's basically an indictment of the way many of our states, including Texas so quickly re-opened their economies even while COVID-19 was anything but under control, and its devastating effect on this upcoming school year.  Krugman basically says we opened bars to the detriment of schools, and thus "drank away" the school year. 

Krugman thinks the only real way out of this is a return to the almost-total shutdown of the economy we endured this past Spring; with the proviso that this time we stick to it longer and come out of it slower.

I'm afraid he's right.  It's harsh and sobering news and it frustrates and angers us all; but the truth is we are in danger of losing the economy by trying to save it, and we've jeopardized our future -- the future of our children and our country -- by trying to save the present.

I think we are going to have to let go of the present.  It's past now anyways.  COVID-19 will change us both dramatically and also inexorably.  What that looks like we don't know yet.  That is a part of what is so frightening and maddening about it.  But it is true.  And it is also true that we are now in a grieving process -- the first stage, which is usually denial.  But we will have to come to a point of some acceptance.  This is where we are now. 

So where is the hope?  The hope is in these words:  "The ones who lose their lives shall find them." "The old shall pass away"; but take heart, "the new shall come". 

And the Future which is now past, will be surprised by the Advent that is still yet to come.

At least that's the promise of the Prophet Isaiah anyhow.

And I still believe it. 

NOTE: We are reading the Bible all the way through this year.  What a year.  Tomorrow's Lesson will come from Isaiah chapters 23-27.

Daily Lesson for July 13, 2020

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Isaiah chapter 14 verses 1 through 10:

But the Lord will have compassion on Jacob and will again choose Israel, and will set them in their own land; and aliens will join them and attach themselves to the house of Jacob. 2 And the nations will take them and bring them to their place, and the house of Israel will possess the nations[a] as male and female slaves in the Lord’s land; they will take captive those who were their captors, and rule over those who oppressed them.

Downfall of the King of Babylon

3 When the Lord has given you rest from your pain and turmoil and the hard service with which you were made to serve, 4 you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon:

How the oppressor has ceased!

    How his insolence has ceased!

5

The Lord has broken the staff of the wicked,

    the scepter of rulers,

6

that struck down the peoples in wrath

    with unceasing blows,

that ruled the nations in anger

    with unrelenting persecution.

7

The whole earth is at rest and quiet;

    they break forth into singing.

8

The cypresses exult over you,

    the cedars of Lebanon, saying,

“Since you were laid low,

    no one comes to cut us down.”

9

Sheol beneath is stirred up

    to meet you when you come;

it rouses the shades to greet you,

    all who were leaders of the earth;

it raises from their thrones

    all who were kings of the nations.

10

All of them will speak

    and say to you:

“You too have become as weak as we!

    You have become like us!”

As we are reading the whole Bible through this year, we come now to the time of Exile -- the season of Israel's time away from their homeland, held captive in Babylon.

We understand Babylon now much more so than we did a year ago.  We have a greater understanding of what it means to live exiled from our former lives.

This morning's Lesson from the prophet Isaiah speaks of a promise of return.  The people will be set free; and the king of Babylon, who exiled them there with his mighty scepter and army, will find himself cast into the place of Sheol, where he is as powerless as all the other former kings of the earth.

It is good news to the captives.

And yet, my heart still sits uneasy.  For the return from the Exile prophesied tells also of yet more captives now.  The captors become the captive; and the Babylonian enslavers become the Jewish slaves.

And so the twist of fate goes on.  Empires rise and fall. Kings mount their royal thrones and ride them like war horses, only to be knocked off again by another, bolder and better armed ruler.

And so all the children of the earth await the coming of yet another

and more just ruler whom Isaiah speaks of when he says:

"And the government will be upon his shoulder, and his name is called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."

NOTE: We are indeed reading the Bible all the way through this year.  Tomorrow's Lesson will come from Isaiah chapters 18-22.

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.

Daily Lesson for July 9, 2020

Today's Daily Lesson comes from Amos chapter 7 verses 14 through 16a:

14 Then Amos answered Amaziah, “I am no prophet, nor a prophet’s son; but I am a herdsman, and a dresser of sycamore trees, 15 and the Lord took me from following the flock, and the Lord said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.’

16

“Now therefore hear the word of the Lord. . . ."

Amos was not of the school of prophets.  He had no formal lineage or training which would have licensed him as one of the company of prophets.  He was a farmer and herdsman.

But he was called to speak.  And his license to do so came, not from some prophetic guild, but by the very call of God.  So, Amos affirms his own authority to speak the word in the face of the authority of the priest Amaziah.

Amaziah does not recognize this authority.  He challenges Amos' right to speak in the House of Israel.  So Amos prophecies against Amaziah, telling him what is to befall his nation and his family.  All of which is to come to pass.

Just because we don't like what somebody is saying doesn't make it untrue. For the Temple priests like to tell the King what he wants to hear.  And when a real prophet stands up to speak anything other than the party line they call into question his license to preach

Or, as they said about Jesus when the carpenter did the same as the herdsman:

"How does this man know anything, without having been taught?"

But the proof of the pudding was in the eating.

NOTE: We are reading the whole Bible this year.  Tomorrow's Lesson will come form 2 Chronicles 27 and Isaiah 9-12.