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For I know the plans I have for you,declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Jer 29:11 |
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| Archived Manna: | |
Dear
Friend,
If you do not already have a habit of gathering daily manna the first thing in the morning (we can look at the example given to us in Exodus 16 and find the pattern for make it a habit. Establish your life and your schedule to allow you the necessary time to do your daily collection first thing every morning to give you the strength to make it through the day. And remember that today’s manna will not be sufficient for tomorrow; tomorrow’s manna must be collected tomorrow morning. Sunday, September 8, 2019
Today's Passage : Today's Passage:A Light to the Nations Bible Verse :Isaiah 42:1-9 "Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations. He will not cry or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street; a bruised reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice. He will not grow faint or be crushed until he has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands wait for his teaching. Thus says God, the Lord, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people upon it and spirit to those who walk in it: I am the Lord, I have called you in righteousness, I have taken you by the hand and kept you; I have given you as a covenant to the people, a light to the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness. I am the Lord, that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to idols. See, the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare; before they spring forth, I tell you of them. " Message:
Isaiah here gives a great poetic tribute to Christ. His words are equally applicable to the Hebrews and to Christ’s disciples. If we read the passage with the thought that he is talking about Christ, Israel, Paul, and/or ourselves, we can see a universality and a timelessness to his words.
lighthouse, light unto the nations
The third paragraph is something that has confounded people for thousands of years. Many Hebrews expected that their Messiah would come with a sword; the appearance and divinity of Jesus was a shock to them. He preached a doctrine of peace and humility. He did not raise armies to conquer by force; instead, he submitted to force and, even in death, conquered the world by truth and goodness.
The battle continues to rage in our lifetime, as it has since Christ’s ascension. We are torn between two mighty forces. One is the law of nature, the survival of the fittest. It teaches us to build weapons, fight and kill if necessary, to promote ourselves and make our abilities and accomplishments as public as possible. Few people are humble on television. The world preaches its doctrine in the language of anger and pride.
The other is the law of God, the survival of the meek, whom Jesus promised would inherit the earth. Insofar as we are to imitate Christ, it tells us not to “cry or lift up [our] voice, or make it heard in the street.” We should be so gentle that we would not even break the most fragile thing possible, which Isaiah calls “a bruised reed.”
Isaiah by Lorenzo Monaco
Isaiah
There have been people with the strength of faith to practice this doctrine in life. Quakers would die before they would go to war, even refusing to defend themselves. But very few can live lives of pacifism. People don’t want to die; they don’t want to be conquered by other nations; they don’t want to be walked over during their lives by people of less ability and fewer scruples. So they form political parties to try to take over the civil government. They march in the streets, yelling and screaming. At the very worst, they pick up arms and kill people who disagree with them, even other Christians, and seize the civil government by force of arms.
We must do the best we can with this. If we ever begin to feel self-righteous, like we are paragons of Christian virtue, we must ask ourselves if we have followed this, the hardest of all the Bible’s teachings.
When others assault us, physically or verbally, do we turn the other cheek? When someone sues us for our shirt, do we give him our cloak as well? Or do we hire a lawyer to defend our property? If we don't like a “leader of your people,” do we speak evil of him or her? (See Acts 23:1-5.) We all sin and fall short of the glory of God; but we can at least be truthful with ourselves about where we have fallen short and confess our sins, rather than pretending they don’t exist.
There are a lot of other ideas in the passage, but we are out of room. 1) God is God, and will not share His glory; 2) The use of light as a metaphor for God’s word, with associated metaphors such as allowing the blind to see (as everyone is blind in the dark). 3) Humanity exists in a dungeon until freed by a covenant with God. 4) God’s light will shine upon the “nations,” i.e., the entire world.
Meditation : Prayer : Lord, support me all the day long of this troublous life, until the shadows lengthen and the evening comes, and the busy world is hushed, and the fever of life is over and my work is done. Then, of Thy mercy, grant me a safe lodging, and a holy rest and a peace at last through Jesus Christ, our Lord.........Amen |
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