Wed.’s Devo - A Call to Repentance

Read: Isaiah 1:1-2:22; 2 Corinthians 10:1-18; Psalm 52:1-9; Proverbs 22:26-27 Isaiah prophesied through the reign of four kings of Judah. The first king was Uzziah who started out as a good king but over the years his pride got in his way. He thought he could enter the temple and offer incense on the altar like the priests. The power of God struck him with leprosy which he had till he died. Uzziah’s son, Jotham was a good king who trusted in God but the people in the kingdom were corrupt. Jotham’s son Ahaz became king and he didn’t follow the Lord but sacrificed to idols and God handed Judah over to the Syrians who took many of them captive, and to the king of Israel who killed 120,000 of them. Hezekiah inherited Ahaz’s mess and did what was right in God’s eyes. He restored worship in Jerusalem and drained the swamp. Isaiah begins his book during Uzziah’s reign. His cry was against the people. They had forgotten who their father was. They had turned from God thus inviting punishment. They were reaping the results of their sowing. Their country lay in ruins and their towns were burned. Foreigners plundered their fields and destroyed everything they saw. Their capital, Jerusalem stood abandoned. God was no longer impressed at their acts of religion; in fact he hated them because they were not done with pure hearts. He told them what they needed to do: seek justice, help the oppressed, defend the cause of orphans and fight for the rights of widow. Our loving, forgiving and merciful God called them to the negotiating table and wanted to reason with them. He told them that even though their sins are many, he could make them white as snow. All they needed to do was to repent. Then he would bless them and give them what they needed. He would defend them and the oppressed, remove their sins, give them good judges and wise counselors like they used to have. This couldn’t describe America and what is happening right now any clearer. In chapter 2, Isaiah saw the last days concerning Israel and Judah. The Lord’s house will be the most important place on the earth and people from all over the world will stream to worship there. They will long to be taught God’s ways. There will be no more wars and God will have the final say. It will be a day of reckoning for the wicked and they will be punished. Everything that man made out of his pride and arrogance will be brought down and only the Lord will be exalted. The wicked will try to escape in fear but there will be no where to hide. In Corinthians, Paul teaches them that our weapons are not carnal and physical weapons the world uses. Our weapons are mighty and they bring down strongholds and principalities. They demolish human reasoning that doesn’t line up with God’s thoughts and desires. Those who don’t repent will be punished. Apparently Paul was being accused of writing too much about our authority in Christ but he defended his teaching in sayin that he didn’t teach this to boast but to build them up. They said that Paul was bold in his letters but when he comes, he won’t be so bold. Paul assured them that he would be just as bold in his preaching as in his letters. Paul told them stories of his life and what God was doing to encourage them to do the same. Lord, may our lives encourage others to be bold. We pray for our nation that we would stop playing church and start being the church. We pray for a cleansing of our government and a return to truth and justice for all.