You who are far away, hear what I have done; you who are near, acknowledge my power! – Isaiah 33:13

Today’s Scripture Reading (February 29, 2020): Isaiah 33

Have you ever noticed that the question that sometimes seems to loom large in our imaginations is ‘if I do this, then what will everyone think?” I once knew a pastor who refused to go to coffee with anyone because if he went for coffee with you, then he would have to go to coffee with everyone, and he just didn’t have the time or energy to do that. Early on in my ministry, I found out that my friend’s behavior was based on a lie. Not everyone wants to go for coffee with the pastor, so go and enjoy the ones who do and don’t worry about what everyone else might think. I also learned that some people needed contact more than others. And so it became imperative to try to meet with those who needed it. But sometimes, we need to understand that even though we can’t help everyone, we can try to help one.

But sometimes we do want to send a message. We want the world to know something. Often it is in a “don’t mess with me” sort of way. In ancient times, this concept was found in the horror stories about certain militaries that were on the march, and these armies struck fear into the hearts of the people, not because the nations had ever met them in battle, but rather because they had heard the tales.  And often, these stories were a mixture of truth and fiction. Military leaders knew that often the legend about an army was more important than the prowess of the military. And every age seems to have had a boogeyman hiding in its story. Once it was Egypt, during the days of Isaiah, it was the Assyrians. Later, and Isaiah seemed to recognize this, it would be the Babylonians, then the Medes and the Persians, followed by the Greeks under Alexander the Great, the Romans, and then, a little later, the nomadic Huns. All that was needed was for someone to mention that the Huns were coming, or that Attila the Hun was on the march, and fear would be driven deep inside the people waiting for their arrival. The modern boogeyman is the United States. (I know, you were thinking Russia, but the United States follows the pattern closer than the Russians do, although both Russia and China are fighting it out for second place.) The world’s population had heard the stories, and these military powers knew that the “what everyone thought” was a great weapon. Fear would immobilize the people long before the army actually showed up at the door.

Isaiah is writing about the Assyrian defeat at the hands of the Judeans. (By the way, it is a defeat that the Assyrians denied ever happened. It just didn’t fit into the story that they were trying to tell.) And Isaiah believed that when the time came, this was a story that needed to be told. But the story was not to be communicated about the mighty Judean warriors who stood up against, what was then, a superpower of the world. The tale that had to be shared was about what God had done. And so, those who were near, those who saw the events take place, needed to acknowledge the power of the God of Judah. And those who were far needed to be willing to hear the story of what God had done.

It is still the dividing line upon which we find ourselves. Those who are near, those who see what God still does in this world need to be willing to acknowledge the power of God. And those who are far need to be prepared to hear the story. But there were those in the days of Isaiah who watched everything play out and yet refused to acknowledge the power of God. And some who were far away, like the Assyrians, refused to listen to the story. And that was, and still is, up to them.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Isaiah 34

You women who are so complacent, rise up and listen to me; you daughters who feel secure, hear what I have to say! – Isaiah 32:9

Today’s Scripture Reading (February 28, 2020): Isaiah 32

The idea that women are property is an ancient one. In fact, even in the cultural West, which considers itself advanced, it is only slowly that that idea is changing. Women have only gained the right to vote in the past one hundred and fifty years. In the grand story of our existence, that is an extremely short time period. Equal pay for equal work is still a controversial concept in our culture. Oh, I know that most people will give the idea a verbal assent, but the reality is that if we believed in equal pay for equal work, then it would be a reality in our culture, and that does not seem to be the truth.

For most of history, women have been used as second class citizens. In many cultures, they are not seen as being worthy of being educated and have often been encouraged to remain at home to do the menial work that needs to be done there and leave the important things to the men. Maybe that is why the world is so messed up. It is not that women are actually smarter than men; this is not about role reversal, but simply that for most of history, over half of the population has been sidelined on important decisions for no other reason than their gender at birth. Over half the community has been told to stay at home and let the men think about the important things.

Isaiah once again has a message that is directed at the women. Life is about them too, and they need to rise up and be an influence in the culture. Isaiah believes that the women of Jerusalem are worthy of being addressed, and that they have something incredibly important to do. According to Isaiah, women can no longer be left on the sideline. The disaster that is coming will affect their world as much as will the world of the men.

And so Isaiah speaks directly to these women, especially women of leisure who have likely been sealed off from the reality of the outside world by their husbands. It is time for them to rise up, to worship, to mourn, and to have an influence on what is going on.

Because that is the real truth behind the role of women in our society, while this was likely not publicly acknowledged, women have always exercised an influence on our culture. It is just that their impact has been on the men in their lives. They may have led from the second chair, but make no mistake, they have led. And Isaiah knows that they must continue to lead.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Isaiah 33

Assyria will fall by no human sword; a sword, not of mortals, will devour them. They will flee before the sword and their young men will be put to forced labor. – Isaiah 31:8

Today’s Scripture Reading (February 27, 2020): Isaiah 31

In 1830, at the ruins of Nineveh, the Capital city of the Assyrian Empire under Sennacherib, a hexagonal tube was found, which has become known as “The Sennacherib Prism.” The prism recounts the efforts of the Assyrian Empire to defeat Judah in 701 B.C.E. It tells the story of Judah’s defeat. According to the Prism, Sennacherib routed the Judeans. He laid siege to forty-six of Judah’s cities, and one by one, the cites fell beneath his power and might. He even laid siege to the city of Jerusalem, trapping Hezekiah, the Judean King, “like a caged bird.” The Judean campaign was a huge success. Later, Sennacherib says that he was even able to send an envoy to demand tribute of Hezekiah, and Hezekiah willingly emptied his treasury and robbed the temple so that Judah would not have to stand against the Assyrians ever again.

Of course, Assyrian records tend to read a little like national propaganda. They tell a story that benefits them. The biblical story is a bit different from the one presented in Sennacherib’s Prism, but there are common points of agreement between the two stories. First, Sennacherib did lay siege to the cities of Judah, including Jerusalem. And, second, Hezekiah did pay a massive tribute to the Assyrians to stop the siege. But the timing of the tribute is a little different. According to 2 Kings, Hezekiah emptied the treasury before the siege of Jerusalem. Sennacherib took the money and laid siege to the capital city anyway.

Both accounts agree that all of the cities, save Jerusalem, fell because of the attack of Sennacherib. The story of Jerusalem differs a little.

The Bible says that Hezekiah realized that Sennacherib was coming, and he plugged up or diverted all of the freshwaters outside of the city. The plan was to ensure that the city had water, but that there would be none for the Assyrian Empire to drink during the siege. Sennacherib arrived and did exactly as he was expected to do; he laid siege to the city. And then the accounts divide. According to the Bible, Hezekiah was trapped “like a caged bird.” There was nothing that he could do. And every day, it was Isaiah who stood beside the king, encouraging Hezekiah to not reach out to Egypt and to understand that what was going to happen next was going to happen because of God, and not because of military strength. The Assyrian account agrees, even describing the flight of the mercenaries Hezekiah had hired to guard the city once the Assyrian siege began.

The “what happened next,” according to the Bible, was that 185,000 Assyrian soldiers died in one night. What happened is anyone’s guess. The Sennacherib Prism does not mention any deaths at Jerusalem, but that is not surprising. The annals of the Assyrian Empire tend to speak about those who died on the other side of the conflict and not the Assyrian soldiers who died in the battle. A likely source of the deaths reported in the Bible would be disease brought on by the mice and rats that were attracted to the camp and the garbage that it produced, or illness brought on by a lack of clean drinking water. Some have argued that Sennacherib’s ascension to the throne had not been smooth, and the siege of Jerusalem took place early in his reign (during the fourth year) and that maybe an internal Assyrian conflict had called Sennacherib and his troops home.

But the outcome in both reports is the same. According to the Bible, Sennacherib left, but not because of any “human sword.” According to “The Sennacherib Prism,” forty-five cities are declared to have been sieged and captured, but beside Jerusalem is just the word “sieged.” There is no mention of capture.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Isaiah 32

Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, who rely on horses, who trust in the multitude of their chariots and in the great strength of their horsemen, but do not look to the Holy One of Israel, or seek help from the LORD. – Isaiah 30:1

Today’s Scripture Reading (February 26, 2020): Isaiah 30

The United States maintains that it is the most powerful of nations. That belief is not based on the fact that they have the most soldiers because they don’t. It is based on the idea that they have the best, most technologically advanced, and most potent weapons. But there is also a problem with the assertion, one that has been played out repeatedly over the past decade. Small groups of armed radicals using guerilla tactics can cause significant pain to even the most powerful of countries. Warfare based on conflicting ideologies is becoming more and more commonplace in our world. And a group of religious fanatics fighting for their god is a significant foe, even to the most technologically advanced army in the world. Compound the motivation to fight for an ideology with the ability to fade into the background after an attack, and the result is a tactic that is beyond the smartest of weapons. It is what can sometimes make the most technologically inept countries a problem for one of the world’s superpower. And a dependency on weaponry can, sometimes, make those that wield them stupid.

Isaiah wants to confront Judean leadership with two national sins. The first was the trust that they placed in Egypt to help them. An alliance with Egypt against Assyria was a severe temptation for the nation. The Egyptians were seen as a military strength in the area, and Egypt was always willing to ally with their northern neighbor, especially when it came to an alliance against the other significant powers in the Middle East. In the minds of the Egyptians, Judah would serve well as a buffer between the Assyrians and the Babylonians, and Egypt.  But relying on Egypt was a step backward for Judah. Essentially, they would trade the possibility of one slave master, the Assyrians, for the definite presence of another, the Egyptians. And that was a trade the Isaiah did not want the leadership to make.

The second national sin of Israel lay in the way that they evaluated power. They saw horses and chariots as a strength. And there is no doubt that they were. Horses and chariots were much stronger than unmounted units. In the days of Isaiah, mounted units were advanced weaponry. Whether it was a reliance on the mounted units that Judah possessed, or on the mounted units that would come from Egypt, the nation saw horsemen and chariots as the defense that they needed against the Assyrian threat. But Isaiah’s warning to the leaders of the country was that advanced weaponry is good, but it is never enough. And in the case of a conflict with either Assyria or Babylon, a reliance on Egypt or advanced weaponry would fail.

What Judah needed, but had rejected, was God. Isaiah insists that God was the solution to the problem that neither weaponry nor alliances could solve. If only they would look to him for the answer to their military challenges.

Over a hundred years after this prophecy, and after the Babylonian exile and the assassination of Governor Gedaliah, who was killed for working with the Babylonians, Johanan led the remnant of Judeans to Egypt and a long sought-after safety. One person who was taken unwillingly to Egypt was the Prophet Jeremiah. It was in Egypt that the prophet would spend the rest of his life. And I wonder if part of Jeremiah’s reluctance to go to Egypt was that he knew well Isaiah’s writings and saw Egypt as the solution for those who refused to believe in God. He had preached a message of reliance on God throughout his tenure as a prophet, and there is no reason to believe that that teaching did not continue in Egypt. For the rest of his life, Jeremiah would try to get his people to return to God and home. He would pick up Isaiah’s crusade and teach them that God was the only answer to the problems that plagued them daily.  

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Isaiah 31

… as when a hungry person dreams of eating, but awakens hungry still; as when a thirsty person dreams of drinking, but awakens faint and thirsty still. So will it be with the hordes of all the nations that fight against Mount Zion. – Isaiah 29:8

Today’s Scripture Reading (February 25, 2020): Isaiah 29

I dream. Lately, my dreams have seemed to be on the increase. And often, my dreams reflect my current circumstances when I am awake, although translated into the world of my unconscious in a bizarre way. What I am unable to do is know that I am dreaming. Some people seem to understand that they are dreaming while still held within the dream, or at least be able to question whether or not they are awake while in the grip of a nightmare. It is the “pinch yourself so that you will know that it is real, or maybe wake up” syndrome. When I dream, questioning my conscious state doesn’t even occur to me. In fact, when I wake up, at least for a few minutes, I remember my dream as if it was established history, something that I did when I was younger. (Did I mention that? In my dreams I am usually younger.) There have been times that I have lived with a gnawing fear because of crimes that were only committed in my nightmares. But most of the time I wake up, and for a while, I am either depressed or happy because of the events that happened only in my dreams.

Dreams can be like that, at least for me. They can change my mood, but ultimately they are without substance. As real as the dream might seem to be while we are held in its grip, the influence that they have on the waking world is minor. They exert their power only for a short time, until the moment when we realize that it was all just a dream.

So, Isaiah speaks about dreams. When someone goes to bed hungry, sometimes that hunger can be translated into the world of their dreams. And in their dreams, they can imagine that they are sitting at a banquet table, offering the person all of their favorite foods. And they can eat and eat at the table, but the food is without substance. When they wake up, they will still be hungry. Or maybe they go to bed thirsty and, in their dreams, they come upon a brook offering clean, clear, cold water. And they drink and drink from the stream, but when they wake up, they will still be thirsty.

Isaiah's allusion to the dream world seems to be speaking of the coming Assyrian conflict. On that day, the enemy will lay siege to Jerusalem or Mount Zion. The battle will be heavily weighted in favor of those who attack Jerusalem. They will have the military strength and desire to defeat the Judeans. There will be nothing that can stop them, except that God will stand on the other side. And with the presence of God standing on the side of Jerusalem, all of the military might that stands on the other side of Jerusalem’s walls are ultimately without substance, as if they are nothing more than the result of a dream. There is no reason that those who gather against Jerusalem should be defeated, and yet that will be their reality. Because in a fight against the presence of God, their conflict will only end in victory in their dreams.  

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Isaiah 30

For it is: Do this, do that, a rule for this, a rule for that; a little here, a little there. – Isaiah 28:10

Today’s Scripture Reading (February 24, 2020): Isaiah 28

It is an English nursery rhyme; “Cowzy tweet and sowzy tweet and liddle sharksy doister.” I have to admit that I have been on twitter for several years, and I have no idea what a cowzy or a sowzy tweet might be. If you’re struggling with the meaning of the rhyme, maybe this will help. It forms the basis for another, possibly more popular verse. “Mairzy doats and dozy doats and liddle lamzy divey. A kiddley divey too, wouldn’t you.” Of course, if you know the World War II-era song, you have within you the tools to find the answer to the puzzle “Mares eat oats and does eat oats, and little lambs eat ivy.” The second part of the riddle, not revealed in the song, is, “A kid’ll eat ivy too, wouldn’t you.” Applying the same system back on the first nursery rhyme and we get “Cows eat wheat and sows eat wheat and little sharks eat oyster.”  Or maybe it is meant to be about cowzy and sowzy tweets.

The human mind is a wonderful thing, but we don’t really like nonsense. We want to put meaning to everything. And it helps us remember things. It is actually easier to remember “mares eat oats and does eat oats” than it is to try to remember “mairzy doats and dozy doats” because the translation is made up of real words with real meaning. No one can define a “mairzy” for me because the word is made up, along with sowzy and cowzy. Our brains struggle to find meaning in everything.

Including the Bible. Consider this verse. Scholars struggle with its translation. Most translators give us something like what we have in the NIV; “For it is: Do this, do that, a rule for this, a rule for that; a little here, a little there.” The King James Version reveals for us; “For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little.” The meaning behind the words is that they are meant to reflect the sarcastic response of the national leaders to Isaiah’s commands and prophecies. They don’t want to hear from Isaiah, because then they will have to change their behavior if they begin to listen to him. It happens to most spiritual leaders. We can give you advice on how to move forward spiritually in your life, but that advice might mean that you need to do something differently. And so they complain that Isaiah is always picking at them, “do this and do that.” Nothing that they do seems to be enough. (I have to admit that there have been times when I have felt that way with some of the people in my life.) It makes sense.

But the nagging question of this verse is this; is it supposed to make sense. The literal translation of the words, in Hebrew this verse uses three words repeated for a total of ten words, revealing this; “Command command command command line line line line little little.” Out of that mess, we have created “Do this, do that, a rule for this, a rule for that; a little here, a little there” because of our drive to find meaning in Isaiah’s words. We want it to make sense. But is it really supposed to mean something? What if the verse was intended to be nonsense, reflecting the nonsense complaints of the Jewish leaders. And what if “Cowzy tweet” means just that, even though we have no idea what a cowzy might be.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Isaiah 29

In that day—“Sing about a fruitful vineyard …” – Isaiah 27:2

Today’s Scripture Reading (February 23, 2020): Isaiah 27

Have you ever played with dominoes? Not an actual game like “Chickenfoot,” but just setting them up in a chain and then knocking them down. As a kid, I could do that for hours. I loved to make little forks in the chain that would cause the falling dominoes to go out in two different directions. Or in circles. I was good at circles. Sometimes, if I did it just right, I could get them all to fall. But more often than not, I would make a mistake, and a whole section of my domino puzzle would stay standing after all of the rest had fallen. And then you would correct the error, and try it one more time.

There is a pessimism in the modern church that I believe is borne out of a belief that we are living in the last days. It is a song that cries out the woes of a world that is declining into its own, self-created oblivion. The dominoes are falling, and no one can stop them. I hear the plaintiff cry of the church. God does not make mistakes. And we point to the events of the day and declare that we can see the dominoes falling, and if one falls, they will all fall.

To be honest, the church’s mournful song that has always confused me. It is almost as if we don’t want Jesus to come back, and we think that if we can yell loud enough, we can stop the dominoes from falling. Maybe we can launch a campaign that will stop the anti-Christ from coming to power. Or perhaps we can prevent the Mark of the Beast from being placed on the population, whatever you might think that that might be. If we yell loud enough and get everyone to understand what is really happening, we can be the ones who will stop the dominoes from falling.

But I suspect that the truth will be something different. Every time I listen to an “end times” speaker, a voice inside of me says, “that is not the way that the world is going to end.” I suspect that when the anti-Christ rises to power, there will not be any Christians on television, warning us that this person is evil. The truth is that most of us will be ardent followers of this enemy of creation. And the Mark of the Beast won’t be something obvious, it will be innocuous, and it will sneak up on us.

Isaiah prophesies of these last days. And he says, “In that day – Sing about a fruitful vineyard.” If you are a believer that we are living in the last days, then the time has come to sing a song of joy, and not weep or campaign against the move of God. Sing because of all the fruit that God has joyfully given to those who follow him. Don’t cry for the barren trees, because there is nothing that you can do about them. And amid your song of joy, the dominoes might fall. And when that happens, you will forget about everything that you once thought was important, and your joy will increase.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Isaiah 28

In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah: We have a strong city; God makes salvation its walls and ramparts. – Isaiah 26:1

Today’s Scripture Reading (February 22, 2020): Isaiah 26

The words were written by one of my favorite lyricists, Bernie Taupin. The song was sung by “Starship,” and it was entitled “We Built this City.” It became a hit in 1985. The song is essentially an argument between singers Mickey Thomas, Grace Slick, and what is presumably a music industry representative. Thomas and Slick want to remind the corporate music executives who marketed their songs that, while they might be worried about the money that the industry brings in, the heart of the industry lies with the ones who want to dance and with the music that the industry creates. Sometimes it is easy to lose sight of the heart of any industry. And without the musicians, the music industry dies.  

The song itself makes allusions to a few cities that were built on “Rock and Roll.” The spoken word interludes placed inside the song mentions “the city by the bay” (San Francisco), “the city that rocks” (Cleveland), and “the city that never sleeps” (New York). Some radio stations had fun inserting their own call signs and descriptions of their city into the song, reminding their listeners that they, too, were the city that was built on Rock and Roll.

The song itself, featuring a catchy tune but often confused or mispronounced lyrics (someone needs to get Bernie Taupin in a room and ask him “what exactly were the lyrics that you wrote for the song?”) has landed “We Built this City” on many “worst song ever” lists. And yet, the son is also still loved by many fans and those who want to remember the heart of Rock and Roll.

Historically, we have tried to make earth cities the “strong city” that Isaiah speaks of in this prophecy. For many, in the early days of the church, that “strong city” was Rome of the Roman Empire, but when Rome and the Empire fell in the fifth century, many blamed the fall of Rome on the new religion the Empire had embraced over the past century, Christianity. To try to explain what had happened, St Augustine wrote “The City of God.” In his book, he tried to explain the fall of the empire, and differentiate between the city of man, represented by Rome, and the City of God, which was a city in the coming Kingdom of God. Augustine pointed out that the fall of Rome was tragic, but that it was man’s city that had fallen and not God’s city.

And God’s city is all about salvation. It is a concept with which we struggle. The Christian image that keeps coming back to me is that of Ron Reagan (the son of President Reagan) identifying himself in his atheist advertisements. Reagan closes off the ad by saying, “I’m Ron Reagan, a lifelong atheist, not afraid of going to hell.” Every time I see the television spot, I cringe. How did we get so tied up with hell? I believe that hell exists, but it is not our central theme. We are about salvation, not condemnation. If we were doing our jobs, Ron Reagan would have to say, “I’m Ron Reagan, a lifelong atheist, willing to let hungry children starve.” Or maybe “I’m Ron Reagan, a lifelong atheist, unwilling to lift a hand to help the sick.” Because that is who we are. We are all about salvation. We are the ones who stand up for the weak; we are the ones who fight for justice for those who are abused. We are the ones who love the untouchables. Hell? It’s there, but way down in the list. We are the citizens of the city of God, and that is all about salvation, and not condemnation. And we built this city on saving those in need.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Isaiah 27          

On this mountain he will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations; he will swallow up death forever. – Isaiah 25:7-8a

Today’s Scripture Reading (February 21, 2020): Isaiah 25

Sigmund Freud argued that “finally there is the painful riddle of death, for which no remedy at all has yet been found, nor probably ever will be.” The mystery of deaths has plagued thinkers since the beginning of thought. What happens after death? Is there anything else? If energy cannot be destroyed, what happens to the energy that is inside us? Does our energy just disappear into some kind of cosmic collective of souls? Are we reincarnated into some other person or animal? Does heaven exist? And if it does, is there a corresponding hell? Are our long-lost loved ones looking down on us from some kind of heavenly viewing stand?

There are as many ideas about these things as there are people. As a child, preachers used to make heaven seem like an endless church service, and, if I am honest, to my young ears that sounded a lot more like hell than heaven. In heaven, they probably included all one hundred and sixteen verses of “Just as I Am,” a song that we seemed to sing forever.

Right now, there are a few people in my life who are walking down the hallway of their final days on this planet. And just thinking that soon I will either be presiding over or attending their funerals is a somber thought. It is not that I do not believe that there is something that will come after, but I also know that their absence will create a void here, in my world and in my life. And while they might be at peace, selfishly, we bear the pain of their absence.

Isaiah doesn’t talk about heaven. He does not speak about what comes after this life has ended. His focus isn’t on ceasing to be here so that we can be there. His focus is on death. On that day, when God comes to reign, he will remove the veil that covers us. He will destroy the mystery that has plagued us and “swallow up death forever.” It isn’t that Freud is wrong, as much as many Christians seem to want to argue that he is. There is no doubt that death is a painful riddle that can overwhelm us. It is also true that no remedy has been found, and no answer to the puzzle will one day present itself, at least, not an answer that comes from us. There can be no answer to the riddle of death, except that God will one day remove it.

Paul picks up this thought of Isaiah in his first letter to the Church at Corinth. 

Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” 

“Where, O death, is your victory?
    Where, O death, is your sting” (1 Corinthians 15:51-55) 

Where indeed. Because once the painful riddle has been removed, we no longer need to find the answer.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Isaiah 26          

… it will be the same for priest as for people, for the master as for his servant, for the mistress as for her servant, for seller as for buyer, for borrower as for lender, for debtor as for creditor. – Isaiah 24:2

Today’s Scripture Reading (February 20, 2020): Isaiah 24

On the morning of January 23, 1556, an earthquake hit the Shaanxi area of China. The quake destroyed an 840-kilometer (or 520 miles) stretch of land. Complicating the problem was that millions of people lived, at the time, in silty soil caves that had been deposited on the plateau over the ages. These caves, known as the Loess caves and the dwellings were known as yaodongs, housed most of the people in the area. The earthquake collapsed many of the caves and caused landslides, which destroyed even more. One Chinese study of the earthquake described the effects of the Shaanxi earthquake this way:

In the winter of 1556, an earthquake catastrophe occurred in the Shaanxi and Shanxi Provinces. In our Hua County, various misfortunes took place. Mountains and rivers changed places and roads were destroyed. In some places, the ground suddenly rose up and formed new hills, or it sank abruptly and became new valleys. In other areas, a stream burst out in an instant, or the ground broke and new gullies appeared. Huts, official houses, temples and city walls collapsed all of a sudden.

It didn’t matter who you were; the Shaanxi Earthquake changed your life if you lived anyplace near the area.

Disasters tend to be the great levelers of our experiences. It doesn’t matter who you are when disaster strikes; you stand among the hurting. Disaster results in the banker and debtor standing side by side, and yet no one can tell the difference. It destroys the barriers that are often built to keep us apart in our society. Disaster does not ask how much money we have, or what kind of education we might have achieved, before it strikes. It just strikes and leaves us in its destructive wake.

Isaiah prophesies of the devastation that will happen at the end of time. We don’t know how the disaster will come. It might be a natural disaster. It could be a disaster that we will bring on ourselves or even something supernatural that happens to destroy the planet. But Isaiah insists that it will destroy the earth. And on that day, none of our achievements or differences will matter. The most expensive palace will offer no more protection than a Loess cave. And we will be swept away.

John picks up the theme of the removal of social distinctions in the last days again in his Revelation.

Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and everyone else, both slave and free, hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. They called to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can withstand it” (Revelation 6:15-17)?

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Isaiah 25

When word comes to Egypt, they will be in anguish at the report from Tyre. – Isaiah 23:5

Today’s Scripture Reading (February 19, 2020): Isaiah 23

In the thirteenth century, Saint Thomas Aquinas laid out the conditions under which a war could be considered to be just. First, it must be instigated by a proper authority. Rebellion against the king or the duly elected government is never just. If a war is just, some recognized authority must be at the helm. Of course, Augustine leaves open the question of what might constitute a “proper authority.” For instance, during the American Civil War, did President Jefferson Davis and his government constitute a proper authority to command the Confederate States to move against Abraham Lincoln and the duly recognized and elected government of the United States. Your answer to the question likely depends on where you live, and the side of the racial divide on which you find yourself. And that is always a problem with the idea of a “just war.”

Aquinas’s second condition for a “just war” was that it needed to serve a just purpose. A purpose argued to be “in the nation’s interest” is not just. Neither is a war that is used as an example of a nation’s power. Bullies are never just, no matter where you might find them. The United States move against Iraq in Kuwait in the 1990s was in support of a just cause if the concern was for the Kuwaiti people and their freedom. It was not just if the United States was more concerned about obtaining Kuwaiti oil, which was in their self-interest.

Aquinas’s third condition was the central motive of a “just war” must be peace, even in the midst of violence. War must never carry us to the place where we are unable to choose peace because of the anger the fighting has birthed inside of us. When that happens, the war ceases to be just, if it ever was.

Given these conditions, there might not have ever been a just war fought on the planet. And part of the problem is the second condition. As nations, we just don’t seem to get involved unless it is in “our nation’s interest.” How many times have you heard politicians argue that national soldiers must be sent to fight a war in some remote place because, if it is not, that war might come home to our cities? The nation’s self-interest is one of the common reasons we give for going to war. And “what does that conflict have to do with me,” which is a selfish response, is the question that voters invariably ask. The United States, in both the First and Second World Wars, was quite happy to sit on the sideline until it became apparent that to continue to do so would hurt American interests. Only then did they enter the war. But that self-interest meant that either war was not just, at least not for the United States.

Isaiah comments that when the defeat of Tyre reaches Egypt, the Egyptians will be deeply troubled. But don’t think that their worry will be because of the Egyptians deep love of foreigners or the people of Tyre, a city up the Mediterranean coast in modern-day Lebanon. The problem for the Egyptians is that if Tyre can be defeated, then the battle will soon come home to their shores, and they too will be defeated. If a nation was strong enough to consider and be victorious against Tyre, then they were strong enough to launch an attack and be successful in the Nile Valley. Egypt’s anguish was only due to enlightened self-interest, and not because of any concern about right and wrong.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Isaiah 24

All your leaders have fled together; they have been captured without using the bow. All you who were caught were taken prisoner together, having fled while the enemy was still far away. – Isaiah 22:3

Today’s Scripture Reading (February 18, 2020): Isaiah 22

In 587 B.C.E., Nebuchadnezzar laid siege to Jerusalem. Depending on the account, the attack on the city lasted between eighteen and thirty months. Finally, Nebuchadnezzar broke through the walls of the city ending the siege. As the Babylonians entered the city, King Zedekiah attempted to escape with some of his followers, but they were caught on the plains of Jericho and recaptured. Zedekiah was then forced to watch as the Babylonians killed his sons, and then the King was blinded and taken captive. The King was never allowed to be a free man again. He died as a prisoner of the Babylonians. The last thing that he would see with his eyes was the death of his sons.

After the fall of the city, the Babylonian general Nebuzaraddan was dispatched to finish the job of dismantling the city. Jerusalem was leveled, including the beloved Temple of Solomon, and anything valuable was removed and taken back to Babylon. Most of the people were also removed from the land and taken to Babylon, but a lucky few remained to toil on the now vacant farms. Gedediah was made governor over the remnant left in Judah, and a few of the people who had run at the onset of the siege returned to the nation to live and work once more. But after only two months, Gedediah was assassinated, and everyone left in the land escaped to the relative safety of Egypt.

In our romantic view of sieges, often, we envision a lengthy battle as those within the walls fight against those on the outside, but that does not seem to have happened here. There does not seem to be any kind of a fight by the inhabitants of the city against the Babylonian onslaught. Those outside the city when the siege began ran, even though no one was following them. Those inside the city either died of famine or disease or were taken captive when the walls of the city finally came down.

And all of this was the fulfillment of a prophecy that Isaiah had written down well over a hundred years earlier. Jerusalem had died with a whimper, and the city of David was left to be returned to nature.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Isaiah 23

And the lookout shouted, “Day after day, my lord, I stand on the watchtower; every night I stay at my post. – Isaiah 21:8

Today’s Scripture Reading (February 17, 2020): Isaiah 21

History seems to come in cycles. We are cautioned that we need to learn from the past, but we seldom seem to have the will to complete that task. And in a world that covets its free speech, the task becomes even more daunting. Free speech ensures everyone has the right to say what it is that is on their mind. But a quick survey of our social media pages proves that not everything is worth mentioning.

So, in early February 2020, when the German province of Thuringia elected a state premier with far-right leanings, we began to hear cries coming from the watchtower. It was the first time since the disaster of the Second World War that a German state had elected their prime representative with the help of the far-right voters, and the action crossed a cultural prohibition in a country that is still haunted by a Nazi-dominated past. Some saw it as the beginning of something even more terrible, noting that it was Thuringia who had first elected a Nazi minister to the country’s parliament. And the cry “never again” was raised once more in the German countryside.

But there is a bigger problem than just the one in Germany. Right-leaning politics, of which I admit I am a part, has moved further and further to the extreme right all over the world. We raise the cry that we have to defend ourselves from the progressive left, that these far-right leaders are the standard-bearers for a movement of which we are a part. But we miss the warning of history. For a moment, we leave our watchtowers, and we believe that we can control the far-right, hedge them in, and in the process, save ourselves from the sins of the left. But the reality is that we can’t do that. And the dangers of the far-right are equal to, and actually, I believe, more significant, than those that come from the left. If left unchecked, the far-right will bring with it disaster once more.

Isaiah begins to paint a picture for his readers. And it starts with the lonely lookout on a watchtower. Day after day, the lookout persistently maintains his presence at his post. And day after day, and night after night, there is nothing to report. It would have been easy for the lookout to decide that his presence wasn’t needed, that occupying the watchtower was a waste of time. Still, the lookout stays at his post, watching for something. And life passes by his perch.

But one day, all of the watching pays off. The event that the lookout probably didn’t even know he was looking for happens. Babylon has fallen, and the lookout gets to share the news that would have gone unshared if he had left his post on the watchtower.

Now it is our turn. The blood of World War II cries out to us, “never again.” But the problem is not just in Thuringia. It is in us; it is present in our reactions and allowances. It is time to man the watchtower and cry out against the danger, and for the good news that we see all around us. Because the seeds that grew into two World Wars is still hiding in our hearts, waiting for us to leave our watchtowers, and to forget the blood shed through our needless conflicts. The seeds are waiting for us to forget “never again.”   

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Isaiah 22

In the year that the supreme commander, sent by Sargon king of Assyria, came to Ashdod and attacked and captured it— - Isaiah 20:1

Today’s Scripture Reading (February 16, 2020): Isaiah 19 & 20

It is a lie that we tell ourselves sometimes. The falsehood is that the only way that we can learn something is by experiencing it. The concept is that the only way to discover what hot means is to touch the hot burner. The problem with the lie is twofold. First, there are too many lessons to learn all of them experientially. We have to be able to learn in other ways. And second, some lessons are simply too dangerous to learn by experience. We could learn in that way, but the lesson would radically alter or destroy our existence.

The truth is that often when we pull out the lie, the reality is that we want to do something that someone else warns us could be bad for us. We want to go to the party, we want to experiment with something, we want to do something dangerous, and someone is warning us that we could get hurt. And so we tell ourselves the lie; the only way that we can learn anything is to experience it. In our imagination, we declare that we might get injured, but we will definitely have fun in the process; and the only way that we can learn anything is by experiencing it.

Isaiah solidly anchors this part of his prophecy in history. In the year that Sargon, the king of Assyria, sent his supreme commander to Ashdod, and he attacked and captured the city. We know the year that that happened. It was in 711 B.C.E. By this point, the Northern Kingdom of Israel was gone, and it had been for almost a decade. Ashdod was a Philistine city, and Judah had no sympathy for the Philistines who had been nothing but trouble for Judah.

But the fall of Ashdod was also a warning and a lesson to be learned. It increased the pressure on Judah to ally with someone. There was no way that Judah could go it alone against the Assyrian monster. The problem was that allies didn’t seem to matter to the Assyrians. Israel and Syria had been allies, and now both were defeated. But their defeat could have been because their conflict with Judah had weakened them. Now that Ashdod was gone, and Judah felt the Assyrian pressure growing closer.

The only constant at this point was Isaiah’s insistence the Judah needed to stand alone. The temptation to run to Egypt and the Kingdom of Kush was strong, especially now that Ashdod had fallen. But Isaiah wanted Judah to learn the lesson of the nations around them. Allying with others did not necessarily save you, and that was a lesson that Judah didn’t need to experience to learn. At this point, salvation was up to God. The nation needed to turn to him and not to Egypt.

Eventually, even Egypt and Kush would also fall. But Judah would stand if they trusted in their God.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Isaiah 21

… which sends envoys by sea in papyrus boats over the water. Go, swift messengers, to a people tall and smooth-skinned, to a people feared far and wide, an aggressive nation of strange speech, whose land is divided by rivers. – Isaiah 18:2

Today’s Scripture Reading (February 15, 2020): Isaiah 18

It really wasn’t that long ago that Africa remained unexplored. Before the European scramble to colonize Africa in the late 19^th Century, as many as 10,000 different political systems were operating, and fighting, on the continent. Some were simple nomadic family units, others were well run kingdoms, but in either case, it was these leaders who ruled Africa. And many of these states, great or small, did not welcome outsiders. Maybe the popular picture of the slave trade in Africa is of white slave traders going to Africa and trapping the unsuspecting Africans and forcing them onto ships to be taken, in the early days, to the Arab states, but later to Europe and the New World. But that is not really the way it worked. White people did not venture very far into the African continent to get their slaves. The slaves were often caught by other Africans and brought to coastal cities where they could be sold to the White slaver. When slavery was finally abolished in Europe and the New World, it demanded a severe change in economics for the African nations involved in the slave trade. But Africa, itself, remained a mystery. It was a violent place where few non-Africans ever ventured. History books are filled with stories of travelers killed in Africa by the African warriors. Central Africa was a mysterious place, a land inhabited by monsters and creatures of our dreams, and warriors able to fall on the unsuspecting traveler at a moment’s notice.

The Kingdom of Kush existed on the North East corner of this mysterious continent, just south of Egypt. In the late 8^th century B.C.E., Kush made inroads within Egypt, capturing the southern portions of the country. Why this happened is a subject of argument, but Isaiah might throw some light on the subject. Much of what Isaiah writes about at this point in time concerns the Assyrian Empire. The attention of the world was focused on what the Assyrians might do next. And concern about the Assyrians had even reached down into Africa. Egypt and Kush had made a pact against Assyrian aggression moving onto the continent. But, when the moment of the Assyrian attack came, they wanted a buffer zone on the other side of the Red Sea.

Enter Judah. Isaiah comments that Kush had sent “envoys by sea in papyrus boats over the water.” Just as Syria and Israel had wanted Judah to join their alliance against the Assyrians, so the Kingdom of Kush and the Egyptians wanted to entice Judah to align with them. The hope was likely that the African nations could attempt to make their stand against Assyria in Judah rather than in Africa.

Isaiah recognized the fearsome ability of the Kushite warrior, who was greatly feared, but the answer is still going to be no. Judah would rely on God, and not on an alliance with another nation, in its defense from the Assyrians. And so Kush turned to its northern neighbor and tried to find a buffer zone there, away from the home of the tall and smooth-skinned people.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Isaiah 19 & 20

In that day the glory of Jacob will fade; the fat of his body will waste away. – Isaiah 17:4

Today’s Scripture Reading (February 14, 2020): Isaiah 17

To truly understand the Middle East, we have to understand the Syrian dream for a “Greater Syria.” At a minimum, Greater Syria is described as encompassing Syria, Lebanon, and the northern portion of modern-day Israel. At maximum, Greater Syria extends from the border of Iran and Iraq, through the fertile crescent and down to the traditional boundary between Israel and Egypt. And it is this Syrian dream that makes the controversial Golan Heights so important. The Golan Heights are a strategic high place looking down on Galilee in Israel. During the Six-Day War in 1967, Syria used the Golan heights to invade Israel to capture land thought to belong to the dream of Greater Syria. Miraculously, Israel beat back the invasion and occupied the Golan Heights. Today, Israel maintains that the Golan Heights are critical to Israeli security. And they are probably not wrong as long as the Syrian dream of a Greater Syria exists, and that dream is unlikely to die anytime soon.

In the days of Isaiah, the Northern Kingdom of Israel had allied itself with Syria against the Southern Kingdom of Judah. Isaiah was not amused. Syria was moving to take control of the land that now belongs in the current dream of Greater Syria. And so, as Isaiah prophecies against Damascus (Syria), he includes Ephraim (The Kingdom of Israel) in his condemnation. He predicts that what is unique about Israel is going to disappear as they ally themselves with foreign powers who want nothing more than to take from Israel without giving anything back. And so, Isaiah says that the glory of Jacob will fade and that the body of Jacob will waste away. All that ancient Syria wanted from Israel was to steal away what made Israel special in the first place.

The reality of the situation for Isaiah’s Ephraim was that by allying with Syria, the Kingdom of Israel became a threat to Judah, but more importantly, it became a threat to the burgeoning Assyrian Empire. The Assyrian Empire preferred to control nations without taking them over, at least in the beginning, but the alliance between Damascus and Ephraim demanded a response. The Assyrians decided that they had to move against the Damascus – Ephraim alliance before it grew any stronger.

During the Assyrian response, Ephraim disappeared. More literally, they became watered down as the Assyrians moved other people into Samaria. As a result of intermarriage, the Northern Tribes of Israel stepped off of the pages of history. And Isaiah’s prophecy came true. The glory of Jacob had faded, and the fat of his body had wasted away.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Isaiah 18

But now the LORD says: “Within three years, as a servant bound by contract would count them, Moab’s splendor and all her many people will be despised, and her survivors will be very few and feeble.” – Isaiah 16:14

Today’s Scripture Reading (February 13, 2020): Isaiah 15 & 16

For a while, during my late teen years, I worked at a department store as a night porter. The job was essentially a cross between a janitor and a security guard. We cleaned, and we made our rounds. Often the nights were long, and there was little to do. The cleaning job was usually completed in the first portion of the shift. The rest of the night was spent walking the aisles and checking doors, and there was also a lot of card playing. My shift started at 11:00 p.m. and ended at 7:00 am. There was no leeway in those times. I had to be at work at 11:00 to enter the building, and I had to leave at precisely 7:00 in the morning. I remember those mornings. There were usually four or five of us working the shift, and just before 7:00, we would gather at the front door of the store. At precisely 7:00, my boss would phone security to tell them that we were leaving the building. After the 7:00 hour, the day staff would begin to trickle in, but our shift was done, and we were gone.

We really don’t know what happened to Moab “within three years.” Part of the problem is that we do not know when the prophecy was written. The concluding paragraph appears to have been added at a later date, after the main part of the prophecy in Isaiah 15 and 16 was written. Something happened, and Isaiah or one of his disciples added the words, “But now the Lord says.” Something had changed.

The other part of the problem is that there is a scarcity of information about Moab herself. And the reality is that the area was called Moab long after the original inhabitants were gone. But a line had been drawn, and that line was three years down the road.

The hope of this prophecy is that word of doom would reach the Moabites and that there would be course change. If that happened, then there was a way back from the disaster that was approaching. But this prophecy was also a note of justice directed toward the people of Israel. God may judge them for their sin, but they were not alone. He also lays judgment on the rest of the nations of the world. Sin carries a cost, and it does not matter who you are, at some point, the price has to be paid.

It is also interesting how Isaiah describes the coming deadline. It is “three years, as a servant bound by contract would count them.” The meaning of the phrase here is that it is exactly three years. The Bible often counts time a little differently from the way that we count time. Three years could mean less than two years because the portion of the first and last year count as one year each. For instance, was Jesus in the tomb for three days? The Bible says so, but by modern timekeeping, it was less than two days. Jesus died at three in the afternoon. The day ended at six, only three hours later. So, the maximum Jesus was in the tomb on Friday was three hours. He spent Saturday in its entirety in the grave, and then from six Saturday evening, until at the latest six Sunday morning, or twelve hours. The Bible says three days, but the absolute maximum amount of time that Jesus could have spent in the grave was one day and fifteen hours.

Three years, as a servant bound by contract would count them, means precisely three years. Because the master would make sure that it was not a day less, and the worker would make sure that it was not a day more. When 7:00 comes, it is time to go home.  

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Isaiah 17

Prepare a place to slaughter his children for the sins of their ancestors; they are not to rise to inherit the land and cover the earth with their cities. – Isaiah 14:21

Today’s Scripture Reading (February 12, 2020): Isaiah 14

Biblically, Nebuchadnezzar II is a complex character. We actually seem to have two Nebuchadnezzars presented for us to consider within the biblical story. The first is the one who Jeremiah calls “The Destroyer of Nations” (Jeremiah 4:7). This Nebuchadnezzar is the one who destroyed Judah and the surrounding area. He was a dynasty maker, a powerful king who uprooted the Assyrians and the Egyptians who went before him to take control of the Near East. He is a man who stalks you in your nightmares. At the mention of his name, young children run and hide. And it is this description of Nebuchadnezzar that dominates the biblical narrative.

We find the second Nebuchadnezzar only in the writing of Daniel. Daniel’s Nebuchadnezzar is a much more sympathetic individual and one who converts to Judaism before his death. Scholars argue about which is the true Nebuchadnezzar, and usually side with Jeremiah’s “Destroyer of Nations.” These scholars generally regard the first few chapters of the Book of Daniel as “historical fiction.” But both Nebuchadnezzars may be historical; just a powerful king viewed from different perspectives. Most of the Bible sees Nebuchadnezzar from a distance, and therefore only knows him from his Empire building actions. He is “The Destroyer of Nations,” as he takes everything he sees for himself. It is only Daniel that gets to see the king from a more personal perspective.

Prophecy is hard, but it would appear, if Nebuchadnezzar is the king that Isaiah speaks about in this prophecy, that Isaiah sees Nebuchadnezzar as “The Destroyer of Nations.” We don’t know that it is Nebuchadnezzar that Isaiah is prophesying about here, but the facts fit. Nebuchadnezzar left his kingdom to his son, Amel-Marduk. Amel-Marduk means “Man or Servant of Marduk,” a nod to the most powerful of Babylonian gods, Marduk. Amel- Marduk was not a good king, and he was assassinated by Neriglissar, the husband of Amel-Marduk’s sister. Neriglissar reigned four years before his own death. Neriglisser was succeeded by his son, Labashi-Marduk, or “May I not come to shame, O Marduk.” Labashi-Marduk would have been the grandchild of Nebuchadnezzar. He was a child when he ascended the throne of Babylon, and he was never given a chance to grow up. Labashi-Marduk was murdered after reigning as king for only nine months by Nabonidus, who ruled in his place, ending the reign of the family of Nebuchadnezzar II, and seemingly fulfilling Isaiah’s prophecy. The children of Nebuchadnezzar II never rose to the power of their father and grandfather. Instead, Nebuchadnezzar’s children were slaughtered, and they built no cities.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Isaiah 15 & 16

Sing to the LORD, for he has done glorious things; let this be known to all the world. – Isaiah 12:4

Today’s Scripture Reading (February 11, 2020): Isaiah 12 & 13

It is called “The World Series.” The modern version of the game has been played in the fall of the year since 1903. The only exceptions were the 1904 boycott (the game would have been played between the New York Giants and the Boston Americans, but was boycotted because the Giant’s owner considered the American League to be inferior) and the 1994 World Series which was canceled because of a player’s strike. And yet many have questioned the name of the contest. “The World Series” is a North American baseball championship. For most of its history, it has been strictly a game of the United States. And only one team that exists outside of the States that competes for “The World Series” crown is the Toronto Blue Jays of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Toronto has played in “The World Series” only twice, winning both times, taking the title north of the border to Canada. Admittedly, the best players in the world come to play in the United States and Toronto. But with the uptick in interest overseas, the idea that the winners of the North American Baseball Championships are World Champions is one that may be increasingly questioned. Hockey went through a similar phase and received a rude awakening in 1972 when Russia (then the Soviet Union) proved equally as capable of playing the game as the best of the Canadian Champions, who up until that point had considered themselves the best in the World. The winner of the North American Baseball Championship remains the Champions of the World only because they do not play anyone else in the world.

(I should note here that the title of the North American Baseball Championship, it has been argued, was actually named after the newspaper, “The New York World.” But that idea is hotly debated, and there is no proof that it is true. “The New York World” ceased publication on February 27, 1931.)

Judaism was always intended to be a World Religion. From the very beginning, God’s purpose was that his people would go out and bless the world. Israel was designed to be “God with skin on.” They were to be the hands and feet of God in the world. The problem was that this God of the world was often seen as a local deity to a small and insignificant nation. And saying that the local deity of this small nation had some kind of world intention was intensely questioned. Even the kings of Judah and Israel often seemed to lose faith in the God of their fathers in favor of the gods of other, more powerful nations. From the very beginning, Israel rejected the idea that they were different, a country God wanted to use to bless the world, and instead chased after the idea of being like the rest of the world.

As Christians, we often fall into a similar trap. We transform the Creator of the World into our provincial God of Christian, and maybe Jews. The World may ridicule us and say that our belief makes no sense, but that is okay. We are here to be a blessing even to those who would torment us and to love those who hate us. And the message that we send forth is a simple one. This is who God is: A God who wants the best for the world. And so we sing of this God and tell the world of the glorious things that he has done.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Isaiah 14