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You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you Isa 26:3 |
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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. Tuesday, June 17, 2025
Today's Passage : Today's Passage:Israel after Solomon (28): Isaiah’s Prophecies of the Return to Jerusalem BibleVerse:Isaiah 40:1-11 "Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins. A voice cries: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.” " Message:
The prophecies in Isaiah are jumbled up. It skips from one time to another, one subject to another, without any warning. It does not have a nice, tidy section labeled “God Will Restore Jerusalem.” Prophecies of the Second Temple period — that is, prophecies that Jews would return to Jerusalem and build a second temple, in the period roughly 500 B.C. to 70 A.D. — are not Isaiah’s strong suit, anyway. The restoration prophesies are strongest in several minor prophets and the prophets of the Exile, Daniel and Ezekiel (see chart). But while he doesn’t emphasize Second Temple prophecies, Isaiah does have them.
One reason Isaiah’s restoration prophecies seem vague is that they are highly poetic. Not that this is unusual; we have seen plenty of metaphor in need of study to disentangle the simple meaning, Habakkuk and Hosea being prime examples. While many prophets speak in poetic imagery and symbolism, Isaiah did so exceedingly.
Further complicating matters, his greatest prophecies include prophecies of a messiah; scrolls predicting the return of Israel from Babylon are often mixed together with longer-term predictions of the final salvation, i.e. the first and even second coming of Christ, and can be read both ways.
Isaiah
Today’s selection is a perfect example. The second paragraph describes a highway being built in the wilderness. One might read that this is the highway upon which captive Hebrews travel back to Jerusalem, and in context, the reading is completely valid. Fifteen Psalms (Psalms 120-134, called “psalms of ascents” or “psalms of degrees”) were sung by Hebrews, looking up from a wilderness highway to see Jerusalem in the hills above. The image was fixed in Hebrew consciousness, and if we put ourselves in their place, this selection from Isaiah quite readily appears to refer to the return from Babylon.
But this prophecy of return from Babylon is also messianic. Having read the New Testament, when we read the lines, “A voice cries: ‘In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord,’” we immediately think of John the Baptist. The Scripture prophesies both of the return of Hebrews from captivity in Babylon, and the coming of Christ.
Isaiah’s aim is so Christological, in fact, that it is often hard to see a prophecy of the rebuilding of the Temple. But when one reads through Isaiah in its entirety, one understands clearly that the Jewish migration after the conquest of Jerusalem will end, and the Jews will return to their land.
Isaiah is a beautiful book, alternating predictions of woe and despair with passages filled with hope; and not simply hope, but God’s promise of forgiveness and eternal redemption. Handel chose passages from Isaiah for much of his great oratorio, The Messiah, for exactly this reason: the beauty and power of the imagery. (At least three sections of The Messiah were taken from today’s Scripture: “Comfort Ye”, “Every Valley” and “And the Glory of the Lord”.)
Meditation : Prayer : God of love, Father of all, the darkness that covered the earth has given way to the bright dawn of your Word made flesh. Make me and all who confess your holy name people of this light. Make me faithful to your Word that I may bring your life to the waiting world. Grant this through Christ our Lord.........Amen. |
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