Isaiah is a challenging read because you have to be constantly switching timelines as you read history, present day narrative, and prophecy all within chapters and verses of each other. As a prophet, Isaiah would be forthtelling (being God's mouthpiece to present situations) and also foretelling (being God's channel to reveal future events). In addition, Isaiah would also remind Israel concerning their on-going covenantal relationship with Yahweh. No wonder, in his vision of God's holiness. Isaiah experienced a cleansing of his lips (Isa 6:7) so that he is dedicated as God's spokesperson. As you read through the closing sections of Isaiah this week from chapters 45-66, don't read it with the frame of mind thinking - "how does this apply to me?" Rather, read with the main goal of observing the hand of Yahweh at work in the history of Israel, and also the world. Once we observe history flowing in the direction of God's sovereignty and His glory, we will ...

Every culture has its own version of "home-coming", a getting together of the family where we rekindle a sense of belonging - a celebration of being together, sharing a common identity, hope and vision. Every people group or nation has an identity that is attached to a physical location, a piece of land - while, we are created in the image of God, we are also wired for communal identity. To be driven away from the land of your identity rips at the very core of your being, the ultimate punishment for a nation. As we have read through Kings and now with Isaiah offering a deep dive into the closing years of Judah, we witness the disintegration of a nation - what is to become of the Abrahamic covenant with the promise that "in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed?"  As you go through Isaiah 18-44, you see the intermingling of pain and promises. The pain of judgment on Jerusalem intertwined with promises of restoration for Zion, the new Jerusalem. On top of...

According to a New York Times book review article dated July 6, 2003 titled What Every Person Should Know About War  - "What is a war? War is defined as an active conflict that has claimed more than 1,000 lives. Has the world ever been at peace? Of the past 3,400 years, humans have been entirely at peace for 268 of them, or just 8 percent of recorded history." That means 92% of the time, we human beings have been at war with each other, one way or another! In this week's reading of 2 Kings 18 to Isaiah 17, we have the closing of chapters of Kings followed by the opening chapters of Isaiah - both marked with episodes of war presently and prophetically. In reading through these chapters, the cry of my heart is, "When will all this end?", "When will we ever have lasting peace?" The latter half of Isaiah offers leading clues. Connecting the dots In the original Jewish ordering of Old Testament books, Kings is categorized under "Former Prophets" t...

Power is intoxicating. Once you have had a taste of what it feels like to be in control, you would do whatever it takes to hold on to it, even if it means getting rid of anything or anyone who stands in your way, no sacrifice is too great if it guarantees your position of privilege. The narrative of 1 and 2 Kings if read purely from a historical perspective would cause a heart-ache because of the numerous rise and fall of royalties with twist and turns that can almost tie your guts up in a knot! So, right off the bat, the perspective you must have in reading 1 and 2 Kings is to focus on the theological explanations for those events - in other words, look for what God is doing, not just what man is up to.  Throughout 1 and 2 Kings, "evil" appears 50x, but the word "right" shows up only 22x - that gives you the rough proportion of the moral drama that is happening in the rule of the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah. The theological question...

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way..." - this first paragraph from Charles Dickens'  A Tale of Two Cities aptly sums up the the beginning of the end of the kingdoms in Israel. What a glorious beginning, what a tragic ending!  Yet, the meta-narrative from God's covenantal perspective still marches on through all the leadership messiness of 2 Samuel and 1 Kings. If you read 2 Samuel 19 to 1 Kings 16 without the bookends of Genesis and Revelation, it is a going to be depressing read indeed. However, do not discount your feelings of despair and discouragement when you read through these passages ...