Chapter 28
We are invited to consider God’s judgment upon Ephraim (Samaria), which was destroyed and whose people were sent into exile in Assyria. The judgment, however, also extends to the southern kingdom of Judah. God is compared with a farmer, who in fact knows what he is doing (28:23-29).
Don’t we often shortchange God in this respect? Rather than asking God to change this or that, what might it mean to be attentive to what God is doing and saying in the present moment? Here I think of Moses, who fled to the wilderness and married the daughter of the priest of Midian. I have to imagine that during this time God was quietly preparing him for the Exodus sojourn, long before the theopany in the burning bush (cf. Exodus 2-3).
Chapter 29
One theme in Isaiah seems to be God’s disdain for inauthentic worship (29:13). By “inauthentic,” I mean worship that is divorced from amendment of life and true repentance. Authentice worship is worship in both Temple and daily life.
There is a share reorientation here. We are invited to remember just who is the potter and who is the clay (29:16).
In words that echo the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:1-12ff) and other parts of Jesus’ healing ministry in the gospels, we are given a vision of a world utterly transformed by the LORD’s presence.
Prayer: LORD God of heaven and earth, we confess that we often honor you with our lips while our hearts are far from you. Shape us into your new creation, that our worship may be on our lips, in our hearts, and in our lives. May we reflect your glory in all that we do; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.