Daily Devotional • December 4
A Reading from Isaiah 2:1-11
1 The word that Isaiah son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.
2 In days to come
the mountain of the Lord’s house
shall be established as the highest of the mountains
and shall be raised above the hills;
all the nations shall stream to it.
3 Many peoples shall come and say,
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
to the house of the God of Jacob,
that he may teach us his ways
and that we may walk in his paths.”
For out of Zion shall go forth instruction
and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
4 He shall judge between the nations
and shall arbitrate for many peoples;
they shall beat their swords into plowshares
and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation;
neither shall they learn war any more.
5 O house of Jacob,
come, let us walk
in the light of the Lord!
6 You have forsaken your people,
the house of Jacob,
for they are full of diviners from the East
and of soothsayers like the Philistines,
and they clasp hands with foreigners.
7 Their land is filled with silver and gold,
and there is no end to their treasures;
their land is filled with horses,
and there is no end to their chariots.
8 Their land is filled with idols;
they bow down to the work of their hands,
to what their own fingers have made.
9 And so people are humbled,
and everyone is brought low—
do not forgive them!
10 Enter into the rock,
and hide in the dust
from the terror of the Lord
and from the glory of his majesty.
11 The haughty eyes of people shall be brought low,
and the pride of everyone shall be humbled,
and the Lord alone will be exalted on that day.
Meditation
The wreckage of World War II left people jaded, their hopeful visions of innovation and progress shattered. Science, at once so promising, was used to efficiently decimate the Jews and then to create the atomic bomb. Technological advancement led to annihilation. This great failing, though not felt so acutely in our day, still affects us. Though many in society hold out the hope of progress apart from Christ, one need only watch the daily news to see the state of the world: the devaluing of human life, the bombings of innocent civilians. Sins that were once done only in secret are now broadcasted in the light of day. Is this progress?
Just as with the people in the early twentieth century, who could not have foreseen the devastations of the two world wars, the people to whom Isaiah writes could not have imagined the devastation of the Assyrians. Isaiah prophesies and forewarns God’s people about the coming destruction. But He also speaks of God’s restoration of all things, an eschatological vision which is further developed at the end of the Book of Revelation. Here, Isaiah speaks of a day when wars will cease to exist, when many peoples will flow to Jerusalem — to God himself — and will seek to know his ways.
To those who are disenchanted with the promises of human progress the vision of all nations beating their swords into plowshares and walking in the light of the Lord may seem too good to be true. We may ask: Are we really moving toward a time when all will “walk in his paths?” We praise God, for there is a truth which is truer than the news, who invites us today to “walk in the light of the Lord” with full assurance that he makes all things new!
Melissa Amber Patton is a Pittsburgh native, a writer, and an M.Div. student at Trinity Anglican Seminary. She is currently the music leader at Mosaic Anglican Church in Imperial, Pennsylvania and is pursuing ordination with the Anglican Diocese of Pittsburgh.
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Daily Devotional Cycle of Prayer
Today we pray for:
The Diocese of Kitgum – The Church of the Province of Uganda
St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, Dallas
