Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“On that day every place where there used to be a thousand vines, worth a thousand shekels of silver, will become briers and thorns.”
NL Daily Devotion for Friday, December 28, 2018
by Dr. Kimberly Leetch, Clergy Stuff
God was angry. Isaiah’s prophecy included vivid imagery, all of which referred to the impending exile by Assyria. It would be more dire than the defeat of Egypt (flies) and Assyria (bees). It would “shave” the land bare like the hired assassins of King Ahaz. People would be left with very few animals to tend. They would be stuck eating nothing but the delicacies they consumed greedily (also milk would be rich due to the small number of cattle grazing on a lot of land). In short, Israel was about to be decimated.
But Immanuel will come and will redeem a weary and broken people. We have just enjoyed (survived) another Christmas. Before we settle in for a long, tedious, post-holiday winter, let’s spend a few minutes fully immersed in the joy of Immanuel whose love broke through darkness.
Narrative Lectionary Daily Reading:
Isaiah 7:18-25
On that day the Lord will whistle for the fly that is at the sources of the streams of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria. And they will all come and settle in the steep ravines, and in the clefts of the rocks, and on all the thorn bushes, and on all the pastures. On that day the Lord will shave with a razor hired beyond the River—with the king of Assyria—the head and the hair of the feet, and it will take off the beard as well. On that day one will keep alive a young cow and two sheep, and will eat curds because of the abundance of milk that they give; for everyone that is left in the land shall eat curds and honey. On that day every place where there used to be a thousand vines, worth a thousand shekels of silver, will become briers and thorns. With bow and arrows one will go there, for all the land will be briers and thorns; and as for all the hills that used to be hoed with a hoe, you will not go there for fear of briers and thorns; but they will become a place where cattle are let loose and where sheep tread.
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