THE LORD SPOKE (September 25)

Daily Reflections from Scripture:

Isaiah 17-20

There’s power in a metaphor. Isaiah was a master of metaphors, employing them constantly to drive home his meaning and fix their message in our minds by means of a mental image.

This chapter is directed against the Arameans of Damascus, some of Israel’s chief opponents and oppressors. These people frequently resisted God’s revealed will, specifically in their opposition to His chosen people. There are more than a dozen metaphors in this chapter to illustrate God’s judgment upon them (e.g. a reaper gathering the standing grain, places abandoned to thickets and undergrowth, a raging sea, chaff driven before the wind, tumbleweed before a gale) but take a look at just two of them more closely and consider how they might apply to you today.

Like “when an olive tree is beaten, leaving two or three olives” (Is. 17:6)

This may sound odd to you but it is still one common way to harvest olives in the Middle East today. Rather than picking the olives individually, long flailing sticks are used to beat the branches of the olive trees and knock out all the olives. In the process leaves and whole branches are sent flying, leaving a near-naked and rather ragged tree with little fruit still on it. The ground beneath is strewn with leaves and branches mixed with the olives. It’s a brutal process for harvesting and for pruning at the same time.

So too does God reap and sometimes cut us back so that the next harvest will be better. It can be a painful process but the intention is positive and we are left better able to produce the fruit He desires next time.

Like when you “set out the finest plants...[to] make them grow...yet the harvest will be as nothing” (Is. 17:6)

Haven’t you experienced this before? You buy the best seed or starts, nurse the baby plants along until it’s time to get them into the ground, feed them faithfully, rejoice in the new growth and the tiny fruit that begins to appear. Then, come fall, you can’t wait to enjoy the results and you find that it is shriveled, or rotten in the middle, or the bugs got it first. What a disappointment when you can’t obtain the results of your labor.

So too does God have the right to expect good fruit and is disappointed when we yield no harvest. Keep in mind that the context of Isaiah is God’s judgment upon wicked nations surrounding Israel. However, there is a message here for us too. When we shrivel on the vine and produce only stunted fruit, He is displeased and may judge us. More often, He chides us and woos us back. Don’t ever let yourself become hardened to His chiding. Be sensitive to His voice in Scripture and to the still, small voice of the Holy Spirit. Produce a harvest that brings joy to the Lord.


Psalm 17-18

It’s not the only time to do so, but it’s a good time! David said, “in my distress, I called to the Lord” (Ps. 18:6). There are many, more positive, times that we should cry out to the Lord, but He is there to help us in our time of need. He delights to be our refuge and our stronghold. There’s nothing wrong with calling out to Him when we need help.

How wonderful it is when we see Him “part the heavens and come down” (Ps. 18:9). Sometimes (due to our own sin and hardness), the heavens seem like brass. But when we cry out to Him, He “reaches down from on high and takes hold” of us (Ps. 18:16). In our moments of extremity and desperation, He brings peace and comfort. He brings us out of the valleys to a bright and “spacious place” (Ps. 18:19) and He “turns our darkness into light” (Ps. 18:28).

Even more! David’s testimony is that God helps us to gain the victory over every foe, to slay our giants, and to rise above the evil all around us (Ps. 18:37-45). He’s even concerned that we have a level path “so that our ankles do not turn” (Ps. 18:36).

I will call upon the Lord.
Who is worthy to be praised.
So, shall I be saved from mine enemies.

The Lord liveth, and blessed be the Rock,
And let the God of my salvation be exalted!
The Lord liveth, and blessed be the Rock,
And let the God of my salvation be exalted!

Jesus Christ has died for me.
And He took away my sins.
Now I’ll live with Him eternally.

The Lord liveth, and blessed be the Rock,
And let the God of my salvation be exalted!
The Lord liveth, and blessed be the Rock,
And let the God of my salvation be exalted!

I will call upon the Lord.