ISSL Reflections May 9, 2021, Isaiah 29:13-24 Post 2

This link will take you to our Scripture focus for the week-
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah+29%3A13-24&version=NRSV

IV.
I have often become frustrated with Scripture passages like this one and like I see so often in the Psalms.

There is some part of me that wants the Prophet (or Psalmist) to stay on point.

That is I want one theme, one point, one consistent word from the speaker.

I don’t want this going back and forth between accusation and promise, words of judgement, if you will, and words of promise for some future time.

I can’t say I fully know why I feel that way, except maybe it makes things “easier” for me to understand.

Or, at least it used to.

V.
Maybe there is another reason.

I closed the last post by asking “After you have rested in the Prophet’s words, what do you find draws you the most? His words of accusation or words of promise?”

Have you ever known folk who love to hear the words of judgement? It seems to me they delight in that kind of tone. Kinda like, “God’s coming to get you and give you a whipping! Get ready for it!”

Those folk seem more (or mostly, or entirely) drawn to the words of accusation and judgement.

Others are drawn to the words of promise and hope and perhaps would prefer not to hear of problems and failures at all.

VI.
What do you want to hear today from the Prophet? What do you need to hear today from the Prophet?

I’m coming to the opinion I need to hear from a Prophet who can speak realistically of both problems that surround us (some of which we might personally have created), and speak of the reality of the kind of hope that is part of the core of the Kingdom of God Jesus spoke of and drew pictures of for us.

What pictures is the Prophet Isaiah drawing for us? Pictures of his time and maybe ever pictures of our day and age.

charles
{ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est}


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