(REFLECTIONS ON Psalm 109:1-31) 22 For I am afflicted and needy, and my heart is wounded within me. 23 I am passing like a shadow when it lengthens; I am shaken off like the locust. 24 My knees are weak from fasting, and my flesh has grown lean, without fatness. 25 I also have become a […]
31 December 2017 – 6 January 2018. Isaiah 64 (click to read). When Isaiah looked at the world around him, he wasn’t happy. On all sides, there were disasters, suffering, and evil. Empires were going to war, the strong ruled, the weak were oppressed, and even the Israelites – who were supposed to be good, and […]
17–23 December 2017. Isaiah 57 (click to read). In Isaiah 57 we find another example of God’s fierce criticism of Israel and all the evil they had been doing. Straightaway in verse 3 we get a sense of how deeply hurt God is by Israel’s behaviour, as he accuses them of being “witches’ children”, and […]
10–16 December 2017. Isaiah 48 (click to read). Reading through the book of Isaiah, we’ve gotten used to hearing lots of prophecies of judgement against the countries surrounding Israel. But that doesn’t mean that Israel itself was innocent and holy. Quite the opposite. Many of Isaiah’s harshest words were saved for Israel, because the Israelites […]
3–9 December 2017. Isaiah 41 (click to read). When the ancient Israelites looked at the world, they had a lot of reasons to be afraid. The Babylonians were always attacking and fighting for power, and there was little that tiny Israel could do. The strong and powerful did what they wanted, and there was simply […]
26 November – 2 December 2017. Isaiah 34 (click to read). During the history of the church, some people have looked at all the problems and disasters going on in the world, at all the pain and suffering, and have thought that God must have left us. “Maybe God was here when he created this […]
19–25 November 2017. Isaiah 27 (click to read). One of the hardest things in life is to let go of the people we love and watch them leave us. Children grow up, and then leave home to go study far away. Families separate to search for work in different cities. Friends leave us as their […]
12–18 November 2017. Isaiah 19 (click to read). Egypt was one of the great superpowers of the ancient world. For centuries they dominated the region around the Middle East and Northern Africa. And even when Egypt’s strength started to weaken and Assyria and Babylon began to rise to power, the Egyptian rulers still kept influencing […]
5–11 November 2017. Isaiah 12 (click to read). In Isaiah 12, the writer shares with us two wonderful hymns of thanksgiving and praise, giving thanks to God and celebrating his great love and compassion. In Isaiah’s day the Israelites had suffered so much. They were attacked by foreign countries, and they watched their cities be […]
29 October – 4 November 2017. Isaiah 5 (click to read). It’s a good feeling to make plans. We sit down and think of the future, think of the great things we want to do, the places we want to visit, the things we want to achieve. It makes us excited, and it fills us […]