Daily Lesson for February 7, 2019

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Isaiah chapter 55 verses 10 through 12:

10 For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven,

   and do not return there until they have watered the earth,

making it bring forth and sprout,

   giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, 

11 so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;

   it shall not return to me empty,

but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,

   and succeed in the thing for which I sent it. 

12 For you shall go out in joy,

   and be led back in peace;

the mountains and the hills before you

   shall burst into song,

   and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.

Isaiah is speaking the word of God to a nation dejected and displaced. They are a weary and defeated people, a long way from home. They are a people just barely holding on where they are. But Isaiah promises that the LORD has spoken and they shall not forever live in exile; they shall come home again. For the LORD is already at work, in ways not yet visible.

“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there until they have watered the earth . . . so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty.”

Just as the rain and snow of heaven have gone forth and buried themselves in the soil of the earth in order to make ready the promised birth of the coming Spring, so too has God’s word of gone forth into the earth to make ready the promise of Israel’s deliverance. 

God’s work may be hidden now, buried in the earth, off the grid in some small Bible study, or training, or buried in the hidden, yet very necessary work of organizing and coalition building, or within the heart of just the person who will say just the right thing to set a prodigal son on the path home. This is where the work of God happens — somewhere around beyond notice, somewhere around Galilee. 

The rains have come and the snows fallen; they all do not return to the heavens. Some remains hidden in the earth.  Enough does. Enough to amaze us with wonder once again with the first sign of Spring.