THE LORD SPOKE (October 1)

Daily Reflections from Scripture:

Isaiah 35-37

He came with tens of thousands of arrows, all ready to be notched and shot. The shields were all polished and the shovels ready to throw up the sieve ramps. The return trip was already planned to be one long victory march. But God had other plans and promised, through Isaiah, that Sennacherib would not shoot one of his arrows.

Instead, he had to write 185,000 death notices to the mothers and widows. Lord Byron got it right back in 1815, when he penned:

The Destruction of Sennacherib

The Assyrian came down like a wolf on the fold,
And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold;
And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea,
When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee.

Like the leaves of the forest when summer is green,
That host with their banners at sunset was seen:
Like the leaves of the forest when autumn hath blown,
That host on the morrow lay withered and strown.

For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast,
And breathed in the face of the foe as he passed;
And the eyes of the sleepers waxed deadly and chill,
And their hearts but once heaved, and forever grew still!

And there lay the steed with his nostril all wide,
But through it there rolled not the breath of his pride;
And the foam of his gasping lay white on the turf,
And cold as the spray of the rock-beating surf.

And there lay the rider distorted and pale,
With the dew on his brow, and the rust on his mail:
And the tents were all silent - the banners alone,
The lances unlifted - the trumpet unblown.

And the widows of Ashur are loud in their wail,
And the idols are broke in the temple of Baal;
And the might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword,
Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord!

One glance from the Lord. That’s all it took! Sennacherib’s mighty army became food for the worms. Jerusalem was delivered without an arrow being shot. Now, some 2700 years later, who’s ever heard of Assyria, much less the gods of Assyria. Sennacherib himself was cut down by his own sons and the mighty Assyrian empire is only a distant, dusty memory. Yet the Jewish people are still in Jerusalem and God is still the one calling the shots.


Psalms 29-30

Have you wandered in the forest glades and heard the voice of the Lord in the thunder of a water fall? Has He shown you His glory in lofty mountain grandeur? Have you listened to His sweet song as sung by the sparrows? Psalm 29 is the expression of God’s greatness from a man who knew Him in nature and in his heart.

David ascribed to the Lord all the glory due Him in this psalm. Worship was the instant and very natural result. The Lord is King forever. His throne is majestic. His splendor overpowers us and we should “Glory!”

O Lord my God, When I in awesome wonder,
Consider all the worlds Thy Hands have made;
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder,
Thy power throughout the universe displayed.

Then sings my soul, My Savior God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art.
Then sings my soul, My Savior God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art!

When through the woods, and forest glades I wander,
And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees.
When I look down, from lofty mountain grandeur
And see the brook, and feel the gentle breeze.

And when I think, that God, His Son not sparing;
Sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in;
That on the Cross, my burden gladly bearing,
He bled and died to take away my sin.

When Christ shall come, with shout of acclamation,
And take me home, what joy shall fill my heart.
Then I shall bow, in humble adoration,
And then proclaim: "My God, how great Thou art!"