Today's text from the ESV Study Bible: Isaiah 28-30.
As painful as it is to watch this period of history, this chronological journey through the Bible is really helping me to gain a better perspective on how all of this ties together.
Ah, Ariel, Ariel,
the city where David encamped!
(Isaiah 29:1)
As I was reading the 29th chapter of Isaiah this morning, I remembered that this scene will play out again many centuries later with Messiah lamenting of Jerusalem.
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not! 38 See, your house is left to you desolate. 39 For I tell you, you will not see me again, until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’” (Matthew 23:37-39)
In both of these occasions, God brought destruction to Israel.
Although this judgment seems harsh to the unlearned, our current journey through these many prophets gives us a better understanding of God's heart.
It is very difficult to understand the weeping of God's heart here, and in Hosea for example, and to fit that together with the mighty roaring lion that will soon destroy Jerusalem, and has already destroyed Samaria.
I suppose we better learn that God hates sin, yet loves the sinner. Shortly, in coming chapters of Isaiah, God is going to make it clear that we must choose: judgment or salvation.
Ah, here's the rub isn't it. Our fallen nature abhors being told what to do.
We will be the captains of our soul.
However, the One who created us has a differing reality, and it is good for us to spend time contemplating these things.
