Reading
SAA Notes
The Christian religion is for every nation. God calls all the nations to pay attention to Him. Christ is our peace. We neglect Him to the fraying of peace in our lives. Chapter 35 is the chapter Jesus looked to, to answer John the Baptist’s query: “Are you the ‘Christ’?”
SJA Notes
* Dear Heavenly Father, please show us today from Your word what You want for us to know.
“For the LORD is enraged against all the nations, and furious against all their host;”
This is a hard word from Isaiah, a truth-telling that we might be tempted to stop our ears at hearing.
If God is good and loving, what is this talk of rage and fury?
Reading through Isaiah so far, and through every part of God’s word, we do have a clear reality.
God is righteous, He cannot abide sin.
And a second,
We humanity are unrighteous, on our own we choose sin and reject our Creator. And we cannot work any salvation for ourselves. At all.
The Lord has a terrible anger for sin.
And you know what?
We see this most of all on a hill near Jerusalem, over two thousand years ago, where criminals were hung on the cross for the crime they were convicted of.
We see this most of all in the RIGHTEOUS ONE, the TRUE MAN, the person of GOD THE SON. Jesus.
He was the son of Joseph, a carpenter by trade.
He was without sin. A lamb without blemish.
And He gave Himself up for us, a sacrifice for the entirety of God’s people from Adam all the way through to that day He returns.
We see it in the wrath of a righteous and just God being poured out on Jesus, God the Son, at the cross.
Jesus took God’s wrath for the sin of His people so that we could be free. Free from the consequences of that sin, free from the just punishment for our sin.
Free!
* God Above,
Please sink us in self today and rise us in Thee.
Point us to You, and please help us to point those around us toward You.
Amen.