You Turn Things Upside Down!
The Bible Turned Upside Down The text for today is our Old Testament lesson, Isaiah 29: 11-19, which has already been read. Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God the Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Like the plot of a good action thriller it goes down to the wire. At the last minute God mercifully intervenes to deliver Jerusalem from the Assyrian horde poised at the city gate. But something is wrong. The people do not see beyond the immediate threat they have just avoided. They fail to recognize the hand of the Lord or their sin and idolatry that brought them so close to utter ruin. God’s deliverance does nothing to turn them to repentance and the promises of the Messiah. And so the deliverance will only buy them a few more years until the Babylonians come and destroy Jerusalem and the temple. Now that’s judgment! But Isaiah reveals another aspect of God’s judgment: He will give the people of Jerusalem what they w...