Daily Devotional • December 10
A Reading from Isaiah 5:13-17, 24-25
13 Therefore my people go into exile for lack of knowledge;
their nobles are dying of hunger,
and their multitude is parched with thirst.
14 Therefore Sheol has enlarged its appetite
and opened its mouth beyond measure;
the nobility of Jerusalem and her multitude go down,
her throng and all who exult in her.
15 People are bowed down, everyone is brought low,
and the eyes of the haughty are humbled.
16 But the Lord of hosts is exalted by justice,
and the Holy God shows himself holy by righteousness.
17 Then the lambs shall graze as in their pasture;
fatted calves and kids shall feed among the ruins.
24 Therefore, as the tongue of fire devours the stubble
and as dry grass sinks down in the flame,
so their root will become rotten,
and their blossom go up like dust,
for they have rejected the instruction of the Lord of hosts
and have despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.
25 Therefore the anger of the Lord was kindled against his people,
and he stretched out his hand against them and struck them;
the mountains quaked,
and their corpses were like refuse
in the streets.
For all this his anger has not turned away,
and his hand is stretched out still.
Meditation
In my home growing up, anger was a match dropped on dry kindling previously soaked in kerosene, and though I moved out in 2007, passages like Isaiah 5 still threaten to shake up that learned sense of unsafety.
In experience, I have known the tender love of the God of Psalm 23 who “leads me beside still waters” and walks through my darkest valleys protecting me. This seemingly-other god of Isaiah 5:25 with unquenchable anger “kindled against His people” who “stretched out his hand against them and struck them,” leaving “their corpses … like refuse in the streets” seems so utterly irreconcilable to the gracious, loving Father I know.
When I read passages like this, I find myself at a crossroads. I can turn back, slam my eyes shut, and believe in a “nice” God who would never show anger, or I can stay still, holding my breath — so as not to draw attention — and believe in a God who is erratic and lashes out in anger unpredictably. Perhaps those options feel the most natural to me, but through much healing, I have learned that there is a third way. I can breathe deep and lean in to God’s perfect love which casts out fear. By the grace of our good Father, the Holy Spirit bids me come face-to-face with the One True Living God, in the person of Jesus who is so persistent in his pursuit of justice that he was tortured and died in our place.
In Isaiah 5:16-17, the image of justice is pastoral. Our God is a protective shepherd. If I look long and hard enough I see that the God of Psalm 23 is the God of Isaiah 5 is the God of John 10. The Lord is our shepherd, and we are safe.
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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 Koforidua – The Church of the Province of West Africa
Christ the King Episcopal Church, Santa Rosa Beach, Florida
