Devotional 12-3-19

Isaiah 1:1-10  

Isaiah, son  of the prophet Amoz, means “salvation of the Lord”.   For years, commencing with the death of King Uzziah, through the tenure of three successive kings, Isaiah delivered his vivid messages of the demise and ultimate destruction of the two Hebrew tribes of  Judah and Jerusalem.

As the political actions of kings grew less and less just, Isaiah’s words from God became an unwelcome voice.   At the end of his life we see Isaiah banished from access to power, unwelcome in the King’s court.  He is then hunted so he can be silenced; persecuted and killed like an enemy of the state.  There had come a time when righteous truth would no longer be heard by unrighteous men.

My granddad, a World War I veteran, had a reputation for being fair-minded and wise.  But his patience and tolerance for ignorance or “wrong- headed thinking” was short.  In times when he was truly vexed, he would head for the barn to talk to the animals- cows, pigs, donkeys, horses- he wasn’t partial.  He could be heard in loud discourse about some subject or other that seemed quite clear from his wisdom and experience. He would end his talk by saying that even donkeys know where to come for food!  So desensitized and selfish was the person he encountered, the person couldn’t even act in his own best self-interest.

If you’re a fan of the “Terminator” movie series, you know that a man in the future sends someone back into the past to make sure that his future mother and hence, he, himself, is saved from death.  Why?  Because the future man will save the human race and human civilization from machines that dominate all aspects of human life.  Artificial intelligence ruled the nations, without valuing human values.  God played no part of their lives.

It is not hard to imagine Isaiah’s prophecy to Judah and Jerusalem.  He had been having the same waking dream or vision for about 60 years.  He began in the year that King Uzziah died, persisting through King Jothom, King Ahaz and King Hezekiah.  King Jotham and Hezekiah were good kings, but intervening was King Ahaz, recorded as being both profane and wicked.  During the reign of Ahaz, the Jewish religion was almost destroyed, synagogues shuttered; and alters to false gods erected in every corner of Jerusalem.  Isaiah was forced to flee for his life, was eventually captured and put to death.  Even the wisdom of one sent by God was silenced, as idolatry and corruption became the new normal.  They were quick to say “Why do we need God?  What’s in it for us to serve Him?”

Into this brokenness and despair, God sent his representative to warn the rulers to change their ways, not just once, but numerous times.  Thankfully, God does not give up on His people, even though many have turned away from him.  God still acts to assure His people that there is a way to salvation.  We are thankful that God saved a remnant of people to tell of God’s goodness so that we, too might have a chance for salvation.

Dorothy Turner-Lacy