Isaiah 26:1-21.  I know it’s Tuesday and this is Sunday’s post.  I’m sorry for my slackness.  Sunday is a particularly hard day because I have Sunday Scripture Celebration (Sunday School) to prepare for and teach.  And to make matters worse this week I posted Saturday’s post Sunday morning.  So I got behind.  An interesting think happened last week with respect to this blog.  I had a customer who is a long time church-goer.  They also owned a business for, from before I was born.  I do construction and the old-school idea is that you need to be on a job working by or before 7 AM.  After I was married, my dad (who was also a contractor) used to call me at 5:30 AM and greet me with, “Good Afternoon!  You still asleep?”  To which I could honestly answer, “No.”, since his phone call had woken me up.  So this other old timer who I am working for right now, who sold material to contractors, kind of expects me at his job early, which hasn’t really happened.  I explained to him I was not still in bed each morning but that I was doing this Bible reading blog for my students.  On a good morning I am up at 4:30 reading and studying an writing and it takes usually a couple of hours maybe 2 ½ to do that.  But not all morning go that way.  I was up working till 3:30 AM yesterday morning.  Got back up at 7:30 and worked until I had a doctor’s appointment (which got me off the hook for an early arrival) after which I went to the job.  So I’m behind.  But here is the interesting thing that happened last week, this customer, this long time church attender, asked me why I have to do this each day.   On top of that someone asked me on Sunday morning why I do it on Sunday, after all we all do go to church don’t we?  Let me tell you what I told your parents in the parents meeting.  I have been married 29 years end of this month and I have talked to Cookie every single day since maybe a year before we were married.  Sometimes we were in different cities, for work or visiting family or on a Mexico trip or whatever, but we have talked every day.  Now you can have a relationship with someone with out talking to them every single day but the more regular the communication the better the relationship can be.  And it’s not like talking makes us friends we talk because we are: Friends, confidants, advisors, and more.  I tell her that she’s my “person”.  If you are a believer you are God’s person and he is your God.  He wants you to read the communication he has given you and you should want his advise, consolation, encouragement and what ever else you can get from the Bible regularly.  Yes we have to study to “get” it sometimes or even most of the time but these posts are about a relationship with God they are not meant to be “God School”, and they are not meant to be “God extra credit” either.  It’’s all supposed to be about a relationship, you and your God talking each day, or as often as you can.  So sorry for missing a couple of days and I hope this thing helps you in your relationship with God.

So back to Isaiah.  Chapter 12 ended the previous section of the book with a response to the message.  God is holy and pure and will deal with pride.  And the response was thankfulness (Isaiah 12:1).  So for all those people who want to know why God lets bad things happen to good people (or to anybody at all) the answer is, “It’s coming.” (The Day of the LORD)  And for that we can be thankful.  This next section has been filled with predictions of specific little mini “days of the LORD”, times when God will deal with specific nations and people and their rebellion and pride.  Now we are back to a section of thanks.  Chapter 25 had two songs of praise (honoring God for who he is and what he is doing) and joy or happiness.  Sandwiched in between the two songs was a picture of a time when God will be king on the Earth.  This is a time when evil will have been dealt with and life will be good.  Chapter 26 continues the party.  The chapter begins with another song.  Verses 1-6 are a song about the security of being in God’s kingdom.  He is like an everlasting rock.  I have been doing a lot of digging the last couple of weeks.  Right now I have a trench down the middle of a narrow side yard on one side is the pile of dirt that I am trying to keep out of the ditch.  Some of it is on the other side too along with the edge of the building floor that sticks out about 8 inches.  When I have to go back and forth down the side of the building I try to walk on that little 8 inch strip up against the side of the building.  I’m looking for solid footing so I do not knock dirt in my hole or slip and twist an ankle (which I did once last week).  Jesus is that secure place for us now and will be in the future when he comes back to earth to be king on the earth.

Sometimes scholars think that you need to look just at the meaning of when a verse was written with out looking at stuff we know that was future when it was written.  I think it is important to understand what the original readers would have gotten out of a writing but we should not ignore god when he gives us more information.  In Isaiah 17:10 Isaiah told the people that they had forgotten God who is their rock and place of security.  A few verses earlier he identified the LORD, Yahweh, as their God.  In John 8:58 Jesus clearly claims that name for himself, he is Ego Eimi, the Greek equivalent of Yahweh.

Later on in Isaiah there is a verses that is very similar to verse 7 in this chapter.  In today’s verses 7 we see God giving us a smooth path to walk on in the later verse someone is supposed to make a smooth path for God.  In John 1:23 John the Baptizer (not the same John who wrote John) quotes that later verses (Isaiah 40:3-4).  He tells us that he is the guy making the path level for someone coming after him, the LORD, Yahweh.  Later in John 1 John (the Baptizer) makes it clear that it was Jesus he was preparing the way for.

The second part of today’s reading is a time of sadness.  Verses 7-18 are a lament (that means sorrow or sadness).  After seeing the goodness that heaven on earth will be Isaiah is sad about how things were in his time and had been.  In verses 7-9 Isaiah hopes for God to bring the kingdom.  He wants God to come.  Why?  In verses 11-12 God had helped the Israelites and the people were seeing God but ignoring him, in verse 13 the Israelites had worshipped other gods, in verse 14 Isaiah is upset that some died without turning to God and were now forever lost to that coming kingdom.  In verses 15-18 the nations had a hint of God and were actually praying to him sometimes but they did not know Him.  Israel was supposed to help the nations know Him but they didn’t do it, they were like a woman who thought she was pregnant and giving birth but in the end only a big fart came out.  Israel had failed.

But God will not fail.  People will live, death will be conquered (v. 19).  Verses 20-21 are not an excuse to hide out and not help others see God.  Remember that is what he was sad about with the pregnant woman idea.  Prophets often had a problem with time in their visions.  Some times the visions were very specific about times and places and people and events.  But sometimes they were not as specific.  And sometimes a prediction had an immediate fulfillment and also a future one (Like the child and son in chapters 9 and 7).  I think these last two verses are Isaiah looking down the tunnel of history and seeing that final “Day of the LORD” when the Israelites will be in the thick of the battle against evil.  It will be a time when true believers from Isaiah’s people should be careful.  Of course when God is the one punishing evil the only place of refuge will be Him, no room or door will protect in those days.  Lord than you for being a rock.  Thank you for also making smooth paths for us to come to you on.  Help us come to you each day and find solid ground to stand on.  Help me be a productive person who gives birth to many children for you.  Not my children but yours.  Help me show you to my world.  Help me help them see the real God whom they have only heard rumors of.  What they worship in ignorance (or not at all) help me clearly show to them (Acts 17:23).  Help me make followers of you through my words and life.