The Voice of the Prophet, Day 31 No defense needed. Read Isaiah chapter 31. As Isaiah continues to prophesy judgment, we learn more about who God is. Isaiah gives an analogy that God is like a lion. But, not just any lion. In verse 4, we see that the lion is roaring in its power, and even though all of the armies and all of the people coming together against the lion, it does absolutely no good. The lion is victorious. We can trust that God will be victorious in every battle. We do not have to try to defend God. We do not have to try to fight a…

The Voice of the Prophet, Day 30 “Lie to me.” Read Isaiah chapter 30. When we read these verses, we see that the people really just wanted to be lied to. They didn’t like the truth, so they decided that they would prefer to be lied to. Instead of understanding their sin and dealing with it, they would rather just be told that everything is OK. They just wanted to be lied to. What do we want? Are we willing to confront the honest truth, even when it’s hard and uncomfortable? Or, do we want lies, and just want to hear things that make us feel good? We need to…

The Voice of the Prophet, Day 29 The Hypocrite. Read Isaiah chapter 29. As God continues sharing about judgment of the people, we read this verse. The people are telling God that they love him, but in actuality, their hearts don’t demonstrate that. Often, people who are frustrated with churches and church people accuse them of being hypocrites. A hypocrite is someone who says one thing and yet, does something else. In a lot of cases, there’s truth to the accusation in churches. The Christian life is about denying yourself and living for Christ. We can all admit that some days we do that better than others. Some days we…

The Voice of the Prophet, Day 28 The wreath. Read Isaiah chapter 28. Wreaths are very common this time of year. Often we think of a wreath as something that we hang on a door or a wall as a decoration. For the people in this day and time, the wreath was the winner’s crown. It was a garland decoration given to someone to award them for winning the prize. This chapter talks about how the people had created their own wreath that they were giving as a prize. But, it wasn’t actually very prizeworthy. Instead, people were foregoing receiving God as the prize and instead seeking after this pale…

The Voice of the Prophet, Day 27 God the Gardner. Read Isaiah chapter 27. Isaiah is sharing about who God is in this chapter. God shares that he is the one who tends the garden. He keeps the vineyard. So much care and compassion goes into tending plants. God is so faithful and so loving and kind that he gives them exactly what they need. In this example, he’s caring for the people of Israel. Even when we don’t understand it, and even when we disagree with how he cares for us, we can trust that his care is the best for us. There are many days when I want…

The Voice of the Prophet, Day 26 Peace in God. Read Isaiah chapter 26. This chapter of praise to God is a beautiful expression of what it means to wait and trust in God. Our mindset is so crucially important. What we have our minds set on and what we think about will dictate much of what we experience on a day to day basis. God wants us to realize that setting our mind on him and trusting in him is going to keep us on the right path. If we will keep our minds steadfastly fixed on him, we can experience tremendous peace. What is our mind fixed on…

The Voice of the Prophet, Day 25 God acts. Read Isaiah chapter 25. Reading through Isaiah chapter 25 is a beautiful reminder of all that the Lord is going to be doing. We know that God is in control of everything. We know that God is overall things. There will come a point in time when God will act on the authority that he has. It can be easy for us to not think about God in the position of power that he truly has. But God is, in fact, the one who is in control over everything. He will choose to act. We will see his glory displayed in…

The Voice of the Prophet, Day 24 Everyone is equally sinful. Read Isaiah chapter 24. Judgment is coming for the entire Earth. As Isaiah continues sharing the message that God has given him, we see that God is pronouncing judgment for everyone. Everyone is equally sinful when compared to a holy God. There is no one who can claim to be better than someone else. As God lists out all the different groups of people in verse 2, we see that no one will be able to escape the judgment. Sometimes we tend to think that we’re better than someone else. Maybe we think we haven’t sinned as much as…

The Voice of the Prophet, Day 23 Humility. Read Isaiah chapter 23. It’s interesting. We’re all for humility when we’re talking about other people. We see others and think about how they need to be brought down a peg or two, or learn some humility. But, we never really want to attribute that need to ourselves. However, we can be tremendously prideful. As God is continuing to share judgment of the people surrounding Isaiah, He explains that he will be humbling some of these people. They will learn what humility is, and they will be held accountable for their pride. If God were to evaluate our lives today, what level…

The Voice of the Prophet, Day 22 You’re fired. Read Isaiah chapter 22. While the show The Apprentice with Donald Trump may have made that phrase trendy, it has been a concept for a long time. Here we see God getting to the place that he is choosing to fire someone in authority in Jerusalem. As God is going through and pronouncing judgment over all the various areas, he comes to Jerusalem and begins to pronounce his judgment. Interestingly, God focuses on a specific person, by name, and explains that person has fallen short on his responsibilities. As a result, God was going to remove him and put another more…