Isaiah could be called a tale of two cities. Yet both cities are Jerusalem. There’s an old Jerusalem – the Jerusalem in which Isaiah’s listeners live. They face a terrifying judgement that is first threatened by Assyria and then effected by Babylon. The city is sacked, the house of God (the temple) is destroyed, the […]
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Glen
Isaiah addresses the blindness of human unbelief. He proclaims the LORD’s word to a “people walking in darkness.” But while he insists that human wickedness is a disease, he never prescribes human religion as the cure. No, healing is found only in the Righteous King- He is the LORD of the temple vision, He is […]
It’s probably Paul’s quotation of Isaiah 64 that has become the best known version of this phrase: “As it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man…” (1 Corinthians 2:9) Such words can be the equivalent of the magician’s puff of smoke. When a bible teacher […]
It’s the sort of phrase your cheery postman might say on his rounds. “Must push on I’m afraid, no rest for the wicked eh?” We all titter politely and on with our day. Yet such levity is incongruous. This saying is the biblical equivalent of verses such as “these shall go away into everlasting punishment” […]
When we use this phrase it’s usually in the negative: “I’m afraid, we don’t see eye to eye on this issue.” Not seeing eye to eye is about disagreement and the very nature of the phrase communicates an inequality of stature, perhaps also of power. What would it take for two antagonists to start seeing […]
In the Bible, hearts can be failed, faint, glad, hard, willing, stirred, sorrowful, obstinate, lifted up, circumcised, wicked, grieved, hot, astonished, trembling, melted, inclined, merry, rejoicing, naughty, offended, dead, desirous, despising, lion-like, bowed, upright, understanding, large, turned away, turned back, sore troubled, tender, double, perfect, tried, prepared, free, united, proud, soft, walking, deceived, enticed, hypocritical, […]
When morning comes the phrase trips off our tongues. Yet we rarely think of its strangeness. To say “Rise and shine” is odd. We’re not simply exhorting the slumberer to notice the sun or respond to the sun. We’re telling them to be the sun – or at least, like the sun. The sun rises. […]
When someone is “led like a lamb to the slaughter” it’s not pretty. Perhaps a partner in the firm is about to be ousted for the sake of the company. As he blithely enters the boardroom he’s like a lamb to the slaughter. It’s a brutal verbal picture. An innocent lamb will follow a leader […]
28 Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding. 29 He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. 30 Even the […]
In common parlance, ideas “take root” or cultural movements “take root”. But in the bible it’s people who “take root.” In fact there is a whole theme of “uprooting” and “taking root” that bears examination. In Deuteronomy, Moses warned the people, even before they entered the promised land, that they faced exile for disobedience. And […]
