A LISTENING LIFESTYLE
Opening Prayer
Father in Heaven, thank you for the grace and mercy you offer me, for the gift of faith. Holy Spirit, please speak to me through the Word today; strengthen and increase the faith I have been given.
Read ISAIAH 30:19–33
For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.
19 People of Zion, who live in Jerusalem, you will weep no more. How gracious he will be when you cry for help! As soon as he hears, he will answer you. 20 Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers will be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them. 21 Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.” 22 Then you will desecrate your idols overlaid with silver and your images covered with gold; you will throw them away like a menstrual cloth and say to them, “Away with you!”
23 He will also send you rain for the seed you sow in the ground, and the food that comes from the land will be rich and plentiful. In that day your cattle will graze in broad meadows. 24 The oxen and donkeys that work the soil will eat fodder and mash, spread out with fork and shovel. 25 In the day of great slaughter, when the towers fall, streams of water will flow on every high mountain and every lofty hill. 26 The moon will shine like the sun, and the sunlight will be seven times brighter, like the light of seven full days, when the Lord binds up the bruises of his people and heals the wounds he inflicted.
27 See, the Name of the Lord comes from afar,
with burning anger and dense clouds of smoke;
his lips are full of wrath,
and his tongue is a consuming fire.
28 His breath is like a rushing torrent,
rising up to the neck.
He shakes the nations in the sieve of destruction;
he places in the jaws of the peoples
a bit that leads them astray.
29 And you will sing
as on the night you celebrate a holy festival;
your hearts will rejoice
as when people playing pipes go up
to the mountain of the Lord,
to the Rock of Israel.
30 The Lord will cause people to hear his majestic voice
and will make them see his arm coming down
with raging anger and consuming fire,
with cloudburst, thunderstorm and hail.
31 The voice of the Lord will shatter Assyria;
with his rod he will strike them down.
32 Every stroke the Lord lays on them
with his punishing club
will be to the music of timbrels and harps,
as he fights them in battle with the blows of his arm.
33 Topheth has long been prepared;
it has been made ready for the king.
Its fire pit has been made deep and wide,
with an abundance of fire and wood;
the breath of the Lord,
like a stream of burning sulfur,
sets it ablaze.
New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
‘Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says.’1 Ask the Holy Spirit to help you hear from God today.
In the first half of chapter 30, Isaiah prophesied a message of judgment. As we saw yesterday, Israel had trusted Egypt to save it from danger and God didn’t approve. Now, in the second half, Isaiah takes a U-turn back to hope: God intends to pummel Assyria with ‘his punishing club’ (v. 32). It’s a violent image, but it shows how determined God is to bring justice on earth. ‘Amen,’ the people of Jerusalem would have shouted, ‘it’s about time!’ The most powerful force in this chapter, however, is not a weapon: it’s the voice of God (v. 30)2 and he uses it to bring both judgment and hope.
The truth is, forming an alliance with Egypt was not Israel’s main mistake: that was the consequence. God says Israel’s sin was an unwillingness to ‘listen to the Lord’s instruction’ (v. 9), a habit that exasperated God.3 Today, Christians don’t often consciously, intentionally decide to commit sin. What’s more typical is we gradually, unintentionally stop listening; the gadgets of our digital age can distract us from an attentive life of listening to the Spirit.
What makes the end of the chapter so hopeful is that Isaiah envisions a day when the people will relearn the basic discipline of hearing and obeying God’s voice (v. 21), the consequences of which are spiritual renewal (v. 22) and temporal blessing (vv. 23–26). And yes, it will also be his instrument for destroying evil and restoring justice (vv. 30–33). What God wants his people to understand is that hearing and obeying his voice is not just a technique that helps us come out on top in life. Maintaining a listening lifestyle is the main priority in a living relationship with God.
Apply
Do you think Christians should pray for God to wield his punishing club? Are there reservations?
Closing prayer
Thank you, Father, for your loving patience shown over and over again, not just in the Bible, but in my own life. Help me to better exercise more compassion and grace as I relate to those I love.
1 Rev 2:29 2 Ps 29 3 Ps 81
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