{"id":7219,"date":"2020-12-08T00:03:48","date_gmt":"2020-12-08T06:03:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nazareneblogs.org\/pastorscott\/?p=5370"},"modified":"2020-12-08T00:03:48","modified_gmt":"2020-12-08T06:03:48","slug":"devotional-on-isaiah-122","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/devotional-on-isaiah-122\/","title":{"rendered":"Devotional on Isaiah"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure style=\"width: 1280px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-bVc5ehr8RoQ\/X869s_8TVCI\/AAAAAAABHyE\/YYt3gG1zx3w_7ioz8H5QaHDZA_YqWHBZACPcBGAsYHg\/s1280\/lost-maples-st-pk-tx%2B11-27-2006%2B3-27-46%2BPM.JPG\" width=\"1280\" height=\"960\" class=\"size-large\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lost Maples State Park, TX &#8211; 2006<\/figcaption><\/figure><br \/>\nThis prescription works for both the farsighted and the nearsighted<br \/>\nIsaiah 25: And God will wipe the tears from every face.<br \/>\nIsaiah&#8217;s words contain a great deal of condemnation and his target is not only the enemies of Israel, but Israel, herself.  I get lost in it all and am not sure whether the prophet is talking to specific people at a specific moment in history or if he\u2019s slipped into &#8220;prophetic perfect tense&#8221; in which he speaks of the future as though it has already happened.  It may be that he\u2019s speaking on multiple levels of a near future and a distant future with the same words.  At times like this, I take the easy way out and focus on my devotional reading, asking, &#8220;What\u2019s this saying to me right now?&#8221;  As I read this part of Isaiah I can&#8217;t help but think of the book of Revelation which contains almost the exact same words.  In fact, I&#8217;m pretty sure the Revelator is reminded of these words even as he promises the glorious &#8220;no tears&#8221; day.  My conclusion is that whether we\u2019re thinking about the broken people of Isaiah&#8217;s day or persecuted Christians of John&#8217;s day or hurting people today that God&#8217;s message is one of comfort and hope.  Some of that hope is contemporary hope: what God is about to do.  At the same time some of that hope is out there in the uncertain future when the Lord wraps up history and brings a new reality into existence.  I\u2019m not sure about just who it is Isaiah is thinking about in this passage, but I do see here a wonderful theme of God&#8217;s mercy and grace.<br \/>\nTake Away: Yesterday, today, and forever the Lord remains merciful and gracious to his people.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This prescription works for both the farsighted and the nearsighted Isaiah 25: And God will wipe the tears from every face. Isaiah&#8217;s words contain a great deal of condemnation and his target is not only the enemies of Israel, but Israel, herself. I get lost in it all and am not sure whether the prophet [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1502,7],"tags":[131,190,518,564,713,871],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7219"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7219"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7219\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14946,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7219\/revisions\/14946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}