Be silent before me, you islands! Let the nations renew their strength! Let them come forward and speak; let us meet together at the place of judgment. – Isaiah 41:1

Today's Scripture Reading (July 24, 2020): Isaiah 41

I have had the opportunity to sit in a courtroom with friends, and they are strange places. It is interesting to watch the lawyers bow toward the bench as a sign of respect as they both enter and exit the courtroom. The courtroom, especially ones that have several items on the docket, is organized with an order all of its own. You may have your case coming before the judge at the 2:15 sitting of the court, but all that means is that the case will be handled sometime after 2:15, but before the close of day. And the courtroom is a place of silence. In a couple of the court sittings I have attended, the matter that I had come to observe was late in the session. And what that means is that you have a few hours left to you just sitting in the room, allowing you to offend the judge if you are not careful – or if you are not quiet. In one case, I sometimes wondered if that is what had happened. The ruling of the judge seemed strange when compared with some of the other matters that he had overseen. But I wonder if something had happened in the intervening hours that had offended him, and he was waiting to pounce.

Isaiah speaks here to the islands. It is a word that the prophet uses to describe the distant lands. As far as Isaiah knew, he lived on the only mainland in the world. All else existed as islands made up of coastline and little else. And the command the Isaiah issues to the Islands is that they should be quiet. The reason for the silence is that they are being ushered into a place of judgment, the courtroom of God.

But there also seems to be little malice in the statement. The distant lands are not coming before a God who is uninterested in them, or who is just waiting to throw the book at the offenders. Judgment is not always a bad thing. Sometimes the judge sees the efforts being made on the part of the accused, and is willing to meet them partway. Sometimes the judge is ready to throw away the accusations, even if the accused is guilty. But always, respecting the system works on behalf of the accused.

So, this is Isaiah's advice to the far-off lands. Sit quietly, renew your strength, come before God with respect, and maybe his grace and mercy will fall on you. And his grace and mercy is not something of which any of us can benefit too much. We all stand in quietly in need of the grace that flows from the Throne of God.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Isaiah 42