Latest / A Chapter a Day Bible Reading / August 10 - Isaiah 20

Transcript

August 10 - Isaiah 20 · A Chapter a Day Bible Reading

• 0:11
  Hello friends. It is Sean here, and it is a
• 0:15
  Thursday, and I hope you are doing just fine because today,
• 0:22
  today's reading is, well, it's rather brief and it's it kind of
• 0:28
  belies a whole lot of other stuff that's been going on at
• 0:31
  the time of writing. So yesterday you might remember
• 0:34
  that we read about God's judgment on Egypt.
• 0:38
  This is important for the people of Israel to hear because, well,
• 0:42
  sometimes they might have been tempted when the growing powers
• 0:46
  on one side of them are becoming increasingly threatening and
• 0:49
  scary. They might think we're just this
• 0:51
  tiny little nation in the middle of all of these superpowers.
• 0:55
  Let's pick one of the superpowers and align with them.
• 0:58
  Let's make a treaty with them so that when we are treated with
• 1:02
  this big superpower they'll come and help defend us.
• 1:05
  And God is trying to get through to his people.
• 1:08
  You don't need treaties with non God fearing nations to be safe
• 1:14
  because I will keep you safe. And so yesterday, God was
• 1:18
  explaining to them that he was not happy with Egypt.
• 1:21
  So that as they think about what do we do about the threat of the
• 1:26
  Assyrian empire to the north, well, God doesn't want them to
• 1:31
  go looking to the South for solutions.
• 1:33
  He wants them to get down on their knees and realize that the
• 1:37
  God of the universe, the God of the Assyrians and the Egyptians,
• 1:41
  is on their side. And that is what we're going to
• 1:43
  hear today in this remarkably short chapter.
• 1:47
  So let us read it together as the geopolitical intrigue
• 1:52
  spreads out before us in Isaiah Chapter 20,
• 2:07
  in the year when King Sargon of Assyria sent his commander in
• 2:11
  chief to capture the Philistine city of Ashdod, the Lord told
• 2:15
  Isaiah, son of Amos. Take off the burlap you have
• 2:20
  been wearing and remove your sandals.
• 2:23
  Isaiah did as he was told and walked around naked and
• 2:27
  barefoot. Then the Lord said, My servant
• 2:32
  Isaiah has been walking around naked and barefoot for the last
• 2:36
  three years. This is a sign, a symbol, of the
• 2:40
  terrible troubles I will bring upon Egypt and Ethiopia.
• 2:45
  For the king of Assyria will take away the Egyptians and
• 2:48
  Ethiopians as prisoners. He will make them walk naked and
• 2:52
  barefoot, both young and old, their buttocks beared to the
• 2:58
  shame of Egypt. And then the Philistines will be
• 3:02
  thrown into panic, for they counted on the power of Ethiopia
• 3:06
  and boasted of their allies in Egypt.
• 3:09
  They will say, If this can happen to Egypt, what chance do
• 3:13
  we have? We were counting on Egypt to
• 3:16
  protect us from the king of Assyria.
• 3:28
  Thank you for this invitation. It might sound like a time and a
• 3:33
  space far away from our lives, but your message is clear that
• 3:38
  when there is overwhelming odds against us, you are there for
• 3:44
  us. As we hear so often in the
• 3:47
  Psalms, when things look catastrophically bad, the
• 3:50
  Psalmist turns to you, and here we see Isaiah calling his people
• 3:56
  back. Hopefully we don't need to walk
• 3:58
  around naked for three years to make the point, Lord, but the
• 4:02
  point is clear. You want to be the one that we
• 4:06
  turn to. You care for us, you love us,
• 4:09
  and you have the solution to so much of what we struggle with.
• 4:15
  So as we struggle with self doubt, as we struggle with
• 4:19
  loneliness, as we struggle with a lack of meaning or purpose in
• 4:25
  our lives, as we stare into the deep existential challenges that
• 4:29
  we face, draw our eyes onto you, Jesus, and the love that you
• 4:37
  have for us and the purpose that you offer us and the mission
• 4:40
  that you invite us into, so that in you we can truly find life in
• 4:47
  all of its fullness, both now and in eternity, with you.
• 4:53
  We just thank you for being the solution to every problem and
• 4:58
  challenge that this life in the next throws at us.
• 5:02
  We are so grateful for you. It's in Jesus name that we pray.
• 5:08
  Amen.