The Joy of Glory

Isaiah 1:21-23 
How the faithful city
has become a whore,
she who was full of justice!
Righteousness lodged in her,
but now murderers.
Your silver has become dross,
your best wine mixed with water.
Your princes are rebels
and companions of thieves.
Everyone loves a bribe
and runs after gifts.
They do not bring justice to the fatherless,
and the widow’s cause does not come to them.

Reflection
Well this is a pretty picture… isn’t it?

It’s funny to me how passages such as Isaiah 1:21-23 can be so shocking to people, as if something like this should not even be in the Bible. I mean… isn’t the Bible just a collection of encouraging sayings that make good inspirational posters, magnets, or mugs?

Hardly.

Scripture is brutally honesty, and when the Holy Spirit spoke through the prophet Isaiah, his words were like a mirror so that the people of God saw themselves as they really were… and the picture was anything but pretty.

A whore. He called them a whore.

The Lord’s relationship with his people was often described as being like a marriage. He was the groom and the people were his bride. Thus, anytime they forsook him for other gods, their behavior was nothing less than adultery toward God which led to abuse toward others.

They had been a community of justice, but now they were murders, rebels, and thieves. They now loved bribes and gain at the expense of the fatherless and the widow… the helpless and marginalized in society.

All of this came as a result and stood as evidence of their adultery against the Lord.

As a community, our treatment of one another is evidence of the current state of our relationship with the Lord. Love for the Lord leads to love of others (John 14:15 +15:12), but adultery against the Lord leads to abuse of others.

What does your treatment of your bothers and sisters in Christ say about your relationship with Christ today?

*All previous devotionals may be found at www.thejoyofglory.com
*The complete SVCC Lenten reading guide is available here.

Word-Centered Community
2 Timothy 3:13-4:5 (click here)
On Sundays during Lent, there will not be an email devotional because I actually preach on the passage for that day. If you would like to listen to today’s sermon, you can find it on iTunes by searching for “Shades Valley Community Church” or simply click here.

Psalm 133
Behold, how good and pleasant it is
when brothers dwell in unity!
It is like the precious oil on the head,
running down on the beard,
on the beard of Aaron,
running down on the collar of his robes!
It is like the dew of Hermon,
which falls on the mountains of Zion!
For there the LORD has commanded the blessing,
life forevermore.

Reflection
Your feet hurt.

It seems like you’ve been walking forever. How much further could it possibly be? Sure, there is a feast at the end, but the trip itself seems longer than you remember.

Then… all around you… your relatives and neighbors began to sing. You have all been journeying together and now, as their voices begin to rise, you feel the call to join in the song and sing together as you go up to the holy city… to Jerusalem. And so, you sing…

“Behold how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity!”

Psalm 133 is a song of ascent. It’s one of many songs that would be sung as pilgrims traveled “up” or “ascended” to Jerusalem for one of their annual feasts. And, this particular song not only encourages travelers toward solidarity in their journey, but points to one of the essential purposes of their gathering.

These feasts unified the people! Unity is an amazing blessing in community! Like the oil poured on Aaron’s head so long ago when he was ordained as the first high priest of Israel. That oil symbolized the blessing of the Lord being poured out! Or, we might say it is like the due poured out upon the side of the great Mount Hermon… dew which brings and sustains life where it otherwise would not grow. The dew is a life-giving blessing!

This is what unity is to community! It is a life-giving blessing! It is good and pleasant when it is poured out upon a people… but it goes even further than that!

The oil poured upon Aaron’s head ran down his beard to his robes. The dew from Mount Hermon runs down to water the mountains of Zion… and unity in community overflows as a blessing to the watching world!

As the people of God gathered together in Jerusalem, united in their worship, their unity was to serve as a witness to the world of the one true God! They did not seek unity just for themselves, but for the blessing of all!

The communities of our world know very little of what true unity looks like… so when the people of God gather in unity, they become a light that shines bright into the darkness of the world.

As the church, we are united to one another in Christ… and oh how good and pleasant it is when we sacrifice ourselves for one another that we might dwell in unity as a cruciform community! Such unified love overflows and runs down to the world like the blood of Christ from the cross. The world gets a glimpse at what the love of Jesus looks like.

This is my prayer for us today… it was and is the prayer of Jesus himself for us his people… John 17:20-21, “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, THAT THEY MAY ALL BE ONE, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, SO THAT the world may believe that you have sent me.”
 

*All previous devotionals may be found at www.thejoyofglory.com
*The complete SVCC Lenten reading guide is available here.