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The Scriptorium

So Much for the Smooth Way

God calls us to obedience, not convenience.

The Day of Salvation: Isaiah 25-35 (4)

Pray Psalm 146.1, 2.
Praise the LORD!
Praise the LORD, O my soul!
While I live I will praise the LORD;
I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.

Read Isaiah 30, 31.

Reflect.
1. When challenges confront you, or when difficulties arise or dangers threaten, where do you first turn? Where did the people of Judah and Jerusalem turn when they observed the rising threat of Assyria?

2. God promised a coming day of restoration for His people. How much did that promise encompass? How were they to prepare for this day? 

Meditate.
In Isaiah’s day, Assyria was the bully casting his covetous eye on Jerusalem. He was big and bad, as the people of the northern kingdom had learned during the early days of Isaiah’s ministry. And he would come to the very gates of Jerusalem, making frightening demands and offering empty promises to a faithless people.

The temptation for the shepherds of Jerusalem was to seek out a bigger bully to rescue them. Egypt would do (30.1-7; 31.1-3), or so they believed.

But God would have none of it. He had sent prophets to His people, telling them what they needed to do to avert disaster, but they refused to hear them (30.10; 31.6). They wanted a “smooth” path, not one that required them to learn God’s Law and obey it. By seeking alternatives to their dilemma, other than what God revealed through His prophets, the people “despised” the Word of God and trusted in the arm of flesh, which could never deliver them (30.12-14). They preferred to rest in the strength of Egypt rather than in the promises of God, and that would be their undoing, not under the tyranny of Assyria, which God would judge (30.27-33; 31.7-9), but under that of Babylon.

And yet, God continued to promise His people a day of rest and restoration (30.18-26; 31.4, 5), in which they would prosper and flourish in all His promises, and be strengthened against all their enemies by the deliverance of God.

Prepare.
1. Meditate on Isaiah 30.18-26 and 31.4, 5. How great was the promised salvation and restoration of God? How should this lead us to think about our great salvation (Heb. 2.3)?

2. Are you ever tempted to trust in things or people, rather than in the promises of God’s Word? How can we keep God’s Word in focus when difficulties and trials arise, so that we do not “despise” it like the people of Jerusalem did? 

3. How can believers encourage and help one another not to despise the Word of the Lord, but to trust and rest in it? What are the great challenges facing us in this endeavor?

He has seen us sinning and has borne with it. He who forbade us to sin before we did it does not stop waiting to pardon us even after we have sinned. The one we have rejected is calling us. Gregory the Great (540-604 AD), Forty Gospel Homilies 34

Let me not despise Your Word, O my God, but help me always to…

Pray Psalm 146.

What challenges are you facing today? What opportunities for being a witness to Jesus might present themselves? Seek the Lord and trust only in Him, that He may give you eyes to see and boldness to live for Him.

Sing to the Lord.
Psalm 146 (Hallelujah! What a Savior: Man of Sorrows)
Praise the Lord, my soul, give praise! While I live, His Name I’ll raise, 
and exalt Him all my days – God forever reigns in Zion!

Trust we not in prince or man – no salvation’s in their hand. 
Death shall take them, breath and plans – God forever reigns in Zion!

Blessed are they whose hope resides in the Lord, Christ at His side. 
By Him heav’n and earth abide – God forever reigns in Zion!

He is faithful evermore; He gives justice to the poor, 
Feeds the hungry from His store – God forever reigns in Zion!

Jesus sets the pris’ner free, heals blind eyes that they may see, 
lifts those burdened painfully – God forever reigns in Zion!

He the righteous loves the best; wand’rers in His grace are blessed;
Needy ones in Him find rest – God forever reigns in Zion!

But the wicked who defame His eternal blessèd Name, 
Them He brings to ruin and shame – God forever reigns in Zion!

T. M. Moore

Where do the prophets fit with the rest of Scripture? How can I be a better student of God’s Word? Our course, Introduction to Biblical Theology, can help you gain a better approach to and understanding of the Scriptures. Watch this brief preview video, then register at The Ailbe Seminary and enroll in this free online course.

Forward today’s lesson to some friends, and challenge them to study with you through this series on Isaiah. Each week’s lessons will be available as a free PDF download at the end of the week. Get a copy for yourself and send the link for the download to your friends. Plan to meet weekly to study Isaiah’s important message.


If you value Scriptorium as a free resource for your walk with the Lord, please consider supporting our work with your gifts and offerings. You can contribute to The Fellowship by clicking the Contribute button  at the website or by sending your gift to The Fellowship of Ailbe, 19 Tyler Drive, Essex Junction, VT 05452.

Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. All psalms for singing adapted from The Ailbe Psalter. All quotations from Church Fathers from Ancient Christian Commentary Series, General Editor Thomas C. Oden (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2006).All psalms for singing are from The Ailbe Psalter (available by clicking here).

T.M. Moore

T. M. Moore is principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He and his wife, Susie, make their home in the Champlain Valley of Vermont.
Books by T. M. Moore

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