Isaiah 30:19-26
19 People of Zion, who live in Jerusalem, you will weep no more. How gracious he will be when you cry for help! As soon as he hears, he will answer you. 20 Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers will be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them. 21 Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.” 22 Then you will desecrate your idols overlaid with silver and your images covered with gold; you will throw them away like a menstrual cloth and say to them, “Away with you!”
23 He will also send you rain for the seed you sow in the ground, and the food that comes from the land will be rich and plentiful. In that day your cattle will graze in broad meadows. 24 The oxen and donkeys that work the soil will eat fodder and mash, spread out with fork and shovel. 25 In the day of great slaughter, when the towers fall, streams of water will flow on every high mountain and every lofty hill. 26 The moon will shine like the sun, and the sunlight will be seven times brighter, like the light of seven full days, when the Lord binds up the bruises of his people and heals the wounds he inflicted.
DEVOTIONAL
In this season, Isaiah reminds us of the coming Messiah and what that Messiah will do with and for the people of Zion. This includes us today. Even though there has been adversity and wounds of affliction in their lives, Isaiah encourages the people with the images of what is to come and how they will be taken care of while Messiah is here on earth and beyond.
The most promising is, as the Lord binds up his bruised people, “the moon will shine like the sun, and the sunlight will be seven times brighter.” This is encouragement for the dark and weary days they have been working through. The same with us. The Lord binds us up and even heals the wounds that he has afflicted on us to catch our attention.
Our response then should be the same as when David concludes his prayer in Psalm 72:
“Praise be to the Lord God, the God of Israel, who alone does marvelous deeds. Praise be to his glorious name forever; may the whole earth be filled with his glory.”
Today, as you look back at your afflictions and wounds from life, can you focus on the positive light God has brought to you and your life? It may be small things, but as you stay close to him daily, you will begin to see the light he is bringing into your life.
Author: Mickey Cox
Other Scriptures for today:
- Psalm 72:1-7
- Acts 13:16-25
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