Tues.’s Devo - The Highway of Holiness

Read: Isaiah 33:10-36:22; Galatians 5:13-26; Psalm 64:1-10; Provers 23:23 God declares that he is standing up to declare his authority over the Assyrians. He says that the Assyrians will amount to nothing but Judah’s own breath will turn to fire and consume them. They cowered in fear and shook in terror asking who could survive all this. God’s response was those who were honest and fair and refused to profit by fraud; those who refused to do evil or to shun the enticement to do wrong. These are the ones who will not only survive but be fed during famine and saved during war. They will live to look back at the fall of the ones who everyone feared so greatly. They will live to see Jerusalem in peace enjoying the worship of their God. They are the ones who put their trust in the Lord. Isaiah is given a word against Edom. It will be burned to the ground never to rise again. The judgment on Edom would never end and its land will lie deserted and become a place for the wild animals and plants to live and thrive. Then one day, God will make a highway through its land and the highway will be called the Highway of Holiness. Only the Lord’s righteous people will walk on it. They will use it to return to Jerusalem with joy and singing. God was talking both literally and spiritually. Spiritually this road would be salvation. It would come through Jesus and he would lead his people down this road back to God. Everything Isaiah said happened. Assyria attacked Jerusalem and used intimidation and fear to shake the people into submission. They told the people that they were sent by the Lord to destroy them and that God would not help them. They spoke against Hezekiah saying that he could not save them either - they had no hope. Hezekiah’s leaders came to Hezekiah in despair and told him what the Assyrian army had said. In Galatians, Paul explained that grace and freedom was not given so we would have a pardon for sinning. It came to enable us not to sin. The way not to sin is to serve others in love and let the Holy Spirit be your guide. The Spirit of God is in opposition to our sinful nature. The sinful nature produces a list of selfish desires but the Spirit produces the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. As God’s children we have to nail our passions and desires to the cross and crucify them there. Then we let the Holy Spirit of God lead us his way down his Highway to Holiness. Lord, may we listen to your Spirit instead of our own desires. May we walk in sacrificial love.