Discipleship

Scripture Reading:
Isaiah 40:21-31

February 1, 2021

Have you not known? Have you not heard?
   Has it not been told you from the beginning?
   Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?
It is he who sits above the circle of the earth,
   and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers;
who stretches out the heavens like a curtain,
   and spreads them like a tent to live in;
who brings princes to naught,
   and makes the rulers of the earth as nothing.

Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown,
   scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth,
when he blows upon them, and they wither,
   and the tempest carries them off like stubble. –Isaiah 40:21-24

Israel’s big problem seems to have been that they got so caught up in worshipping gods made in to meet their desires that they reduced the Omnipotent God to a lower state. In this poem, Isaiah reminds the people that God is God and that there is no other even close competition. I am sure this issue has been with people from the beginning and that it rises and falls in degrees of influence over time. Just before the Exile, the replacement of the Omnipotent God with lesser gods was out of control. Sound familiar?

We find ourselves in a similar situation. While we may not worship images made of stone or metal, lust after power and greed abounds in our society. Our challenge as Christ-followers is to cleanse ourselves of such transference of faith, reconnect to the God who is manifested in love, and go into the world to help others find the God who is love who created us and loves us completely. As we follow our diverse gods, we become more and more separated from heal love that binds us together. Heal our divisions; make us one.

Prayer: Creator God, forgive us for being tempted by the ways of the world that have no substance and can be carried off like stubble. Rekindle our love relationship with you and reunited us in your love with one another. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.