Isaiah 42:21-25, Israel’s Disobedience

Tuesday, December 18, 2018
12:00 PM 1:00 PM 12:00 13:00

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Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today

“So he poured upon him the heat of his anger and the fury of war; it set him on fire all around, but he did not understand; it burned him, but he did not take it to heart.”

— Isaiah 42:25

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NL Daily Devotion for Tuesday, December 18, 2018

by Dr. Kimberly Leetch, Clergy Stuff

Will they never learn? Isaiah called out Israel for her disobedience; he also called out Jacob for his inability to learn from his mistakes.

Many times in my life I’ve found myself saying (after a particularly ugly fail) that I won’t make the same mistake twice. The problem is, I often do anyway. It’s not that I don’t learn from my mistakes. It’s more that I’m a creature of habit, and the mistakes I make all have nuances that make it all too easy to repeat the mistakes — same dumb decisions, different details.

But when I do make the same mistake twice, I don’t make it in the same way. Because I do learn. Every time I do the same dumb thing, I learn a little bit more, and eventually I may cease to make that same mistake. What I’ve learned is that it’s ok to make dumb mistakes. It’s even ok to make them again. It’s part of the human condition. It’s the reason the baby Jesus is well on his way — to forgive and to redeem.

Narrative Lectionary Daily Reading:

Isaiah 42:21-25

The Lord was pleased, for the sake of his righteousness, to magnify his teaching and make it glorious. But this is a people robbed and plundered, all of them are trapped in holes and hidden in prisons; they have become a prey with no one to rescue, a spoil with no one to say, “Restore!” Who among you will give heed to this, who will attend and listen for the time to come? Who gave up Jacob to the spoiler, and Israel to the robbers? Was it not the Lord, against whom we have sinned, in whose ways they would not walk, and whose law they would not obey? So he poured upon him the heat of his anger and the fury of war; it set him on fire all around, but he did not understand; it burned him, but he did not take it to heart.