April 27, 2022: Day 90 – Isaiah 33-35 and Matthew 5-7

As we continue our journey through Isaiah we find ourselves pretty much in the middle of the prophet’s message.  Chapter 33 is a cry for help from the author for God to intervene as his people find themselves in a position where deliverance can only come from the Lord.  Jerusalem continues to be the center of deliverance and the Lord is portrayed as one coming to provide that deliverance.  Chapter 34 speaks of judgment that the Lord will bring because “he is angry with all nations.”  

We then suffer a bit of Scripture whiplash as chapter 35 speaks for the joy of the redeemed as they make their way out of bondage and into freedom back into their homes and territories from which they had been taken.  If you look at vs.8 we see a highway that is built so that the redeemed can make their way back to Jerusalem and enter Zion with singing and that eventually: “sorry and sighing will flee away.”

When we transition to Matthew we find Jesus go up a mountainside as he gives the people who are gathered the sermon on the mount.  It is impossible to read the sermon on the mount and not be convicted in some way.  We have taken these teachings and watered them down substantially.  We don’t really preach and teach and live according to loving our enemies.  We have caveats if it is in the best interest geopolitically then we don’t really have to apply it.  If we can as individuals, great, but as a nation state surely Jesus wasn’t intending us to lay down in front of an aggressor.  I’m not sure why we would make that distinction when it is clear that Jesus never makes that distinction.

He clearly speaks about prayer and how to do it and the formulaic nature of prayer in the Lord’s prayer which he gave to us as well.  We are told that if we judge others then we will be judged in the same way.  It is not a ban on judging, but rather a realization that if and when we make judgment calls then we ought to be ready to be judged in the same way that we are judging others.  That is very different from saying “don’t judge.”  

It is from the sermon on the mount where we ought to get our ethics and our way of living.  We really don’t have to make too much up in order to understand how Jesus wants us to live.