It’s still raining – and I am still reading in Isaiah…

There’s nothing like coming home, especially when it’s rainy chilly-ish and you just finished extensive driving around for errands then come home to a warm blanket out of the dryer, and a cat who puts themselves directly on your feet, and a warm snack, and 4th quarter football on TV which shows back to back clutch last 2 minutes of multiple games THEN another game in overtime (wow efficient TV)…  Home is comfort to the max – not much better feeling than this – EXCEPT oh yeah, when God’s going to call us home forever, won’t that be the day, yeah can’t really beat that… Not just home old but HOME NEW!

Sunday into Monday the modern-day Jewish community members will usher in Yom Kippur, it is a holy time of atonement, with fasting, prayers, and asking for forgiveness, and a time to look forward with intentions for the year ahead. Moses was given instructions for the people on how to live – what to celebrate – and why they were to atone. They remember these feast days recorded in Leviticus.

Isaiah, in chapter 27, speaks both of contemporary times when God is going to take down Israel’s enemies and talks of a later time in the Israelites life of recovery. Yes, a nation which wandered, regained traction, wandered, went wrong – later to be scooped up by God for recovery…  Well – a BIG recovery will be the New Jerusalem for our Messiah King to be worshiped forever as Savior to us and to rule over us with love and mercy. This New Jerusalem is the ULTIMATE deliverance of Israel.

So yes – let us atone and be thankful that God delivers us ultimately and today – let us remember that with God, Home IS where we should be. (still raining? no worries, God is still reigning.)

Amen

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Isaiah 27

In that day, the Lord will punish with his sword – his fierce, great and powerful sword – Leviathan the gliding serpent, Leviathan the coiling serpent; he will slay the monster of the sea. In that day – “Sing about a fruitful vineyard: I, the Lord, watch over it; I water it continually. I guard it day and night so that no one may harm it. I am not angry. If only there were briers and thorns confronting me! I would march against them in battle; I would set them all on fire. Or else let them come to me for refuge; let them make peace with me, yes, let them make peace with me.”

In days to come Jacob will take root, Israel will bud and blossom and fill all the world with fruit.

Has the Lord struck her as he struck down those who struck her? Has she been killed as those were killed who killed her? By warfare and exile you contend with her – with his fierce blast he drives her out, as on a day the east wind blows. By this, then, will Jacob’s guilt be atoned for, and this will be the full fruit of the removal of his sin: When he makes all the altar stones to be like limestone crushed to pieces, no Asherah poles or incense altars will be left  standing. The fortified city stands desolate, an abandoned settlement, forsaken like the wilderness; there the calves graze, there they lie down; they strip its branches bare. When its twigs are dry, they are broken off and women come and make fires with them. For this is a people without understanding; so their Maker has no compassion on them, and their Creator shows them no favor.

In that day the Lord will thresh from the flowing Euphrates to the Wadi of Egypt, and you, Israel, will be gathered up one by one. And in that day a great trumpet will sound. Those who were perishing in Assyria and those who were exiled in Egypt will come and worship the Lord on the holy mountain in Jerusalem.