ISAIAH

Chapter 3

God is “emptying” His city, the country in which His people are living,
of the basic necessities and all that they have depended on.
Children, those without knowledge and wisdom, will be in charge.
Confusion and chaos will at the controls.
This is what the people have “earned” through their rebelliousness.
Their defiance, their refusal to acknowledge me,
their choice to be self-directing and meet their needs in ways
that were in opposition to God's directives
has brought them into court.
God is judge and judges first those in positions of authority.
Their lack of God-directed leadership
has allowed His people to wander further and further from Him and His ways.
His people are as prostitutes,
attiring themselves with the things the world has offered as desirable,
seeking to draw others into relationship
devoid of any true value and with only transitory commitment.
Consequences will be visited upon her.

But, those who have sought to worship God and follow His ways
He reassures of His ongoing blessing.


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ISAIAH

Chapter 4

War will claim many men.
Women will seek to identify themselves through relationship,
while still remaining independent.
God's people, those who have survived, will be cleansed.
God will make His presence known among them,
be their light in the darkness,
shelter them from the heat of the day,
and be their refuge in the storms.

Twila Charles Leichty
03-25-09

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ISAIAH

Chapter 5

God prepared a vineyard.
The soil was cleared of stones and cultivated.
It was planted with the choicest vines.
A watchtower was erected and a winepress was hewn out of stone.
He anticipated a crop of good grapes,
but, alas! he was “rewarded” with bad fruit.
He had done all He could have done.

So, He tore down the hedge that kept out those who take without the right to do so.
The garden became a wasteland.
The vines were not pruned; briers and thorns took over.
And there was a drought.

What He wanted and what He got were two different things:
instead of justice, there was war,
instead of righteousness, the distress of evil.

The accumulation of material wealth,
the indulgence of self and disregard for the needs of others,
leads to ruin.
His people, forgetting the One who had created them
and provided them with instructions on living
(that would yield good fruit),
chose to find a way of their own.

Their waywardness was destined to take them into exile.
By choosing not to follow Jehovah,
they were choosing to follow the god of their own making,
one that would lead them further and further away from the blessings
He wanted to bestow upon them.
They were choosing their thinking and logic,
their preferences and feelings as guides in behavior.
Their judgments were producing the odor of decay
and the stench reached God's nostrils!

The judgment of God was visited on His people.
Their self-indulgence, disobedient and rebellious ways,
tore down the walls of God's protection
and provided their enemies easy access.
Their ways led them into captivity.
The light that God had given was but dimly seen;
They were captives by their own choosing.

Twila Charles Leichty
3-25-09