Isaiah 26
Never, never, never, never stop trusting.
Because:
The strength of Jehovah will never falter, never fail, never end…
And it’s yours.
Your darkest hour can also be your finest…
Isaiah 26:4
Isaiah 22
No one knows the real power of an open door, until they’ve known the pain of captivity.
You and I have a great deal to be thankful for…
This morning as I ponder the power of the One with the key to David’s house, I can’t help but think about some of the greatest open doors in history–
Like the door to Peter’s prison, opened at midnight.
Or the doors an earthquake opened, the night a jailor’s family was saved in Philippi.
Or the door to Bedford Jail that opened only after the world had been given the gift of Pilgrims Progress.
Or the doors of Dachau, with its nearly 40,000 prisoners.
Or the famous gates of Auschwitz, opened 65 years and 5 months ago, this very day…
But as ignominious those prisons, as weighty those doors, and as laureled the liberators that finally moved them off into history, there remain strongholds yet greater…
Prison camps no less destructive, gates no less formidable.
They are otherwise known as selfish hearts…
But glory be to the Father… If we recognize our captivity, we can also know the power of the open door.
“So He shall open, and no one shall shut…” Isaiah 22:22
Their defenses were impregnable… Or at least, they thought so.
After all, no army, no siege, and no machine of war had yet brought the empire to it’s knees. Tonight they set a watchman to satisfy protocol, and then the party started.
But that very night their souls were required of them…
And it is not because the watchman was asleep. It is because he was facing the wrong direction.
It was not the unnumbered force without that vanquished them, it was a little glass of champagne within.
A goblet destroyed the empire.
Then Lord Jesus, let the watchman on the wall of my heart watch first for what weakens from within, and then for what threatens from without.
Isaiah 20
This life is full of mountains to climb… Mountains which are supposed to make you braver, taller, stronger.
Now the path of the Just goes straight up and over. And if you climb that way very long you will certainly encounter other pilgrims with bleeding feet and throbbing hearts… But they are making progress.
Alternatively, you can follow the nicely laminated road map published by your enemies… Or sell your liberty for a gondola or subway ticket.
But before you do that, read Isaiah 20.
I read it this morning, and found out that the best of human solutions always come to the same end–
Uttermost Shame
Until His opinion is all that matters, we’re in danger of self-destruction…
Isaiah 18
The gardens and vineyards of the kingdom we’re passing through may look promising indeed…
But let us never be distracted or delayed from our journey by the bounty supposedly coming tomorrow.
Another Greater has promised that these vines will never yield. He will personally see to it they don’t. (v.5-6)
And just as surely, the promised pleasures of sin and sinners will never really be. Oh, they will throw all sorts of parties, but they are all empty…
After all, how can the masters of darkness render any joy to anyone when they are strangers to happiness themselves?
Isaiah 17
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