Friday after Quasimodogeniti

Scripture: Isaiah 33:2-6 (NKJV)

33:2 O Lord, be gracious to us; We have waited for You. Be their arm every morning, our salvation also in the time of trouble.

3 At the noise of the tumult the people shall flee; When You lift Yourself up, the nations shall be scattered;

4 And Your plunder shall be gathered like the gathering of the caterpillar; As the running to and fro of locusts, He shall run upon them.

5 The Lord is exalted, for He dwells on high; He has filled Zion with justice and righteousness.

6 Wisdom and knowledge will be the stability of your times, and the strength of salvation; The fear of the Lord is His treasure.

Devotion

“O Lord, be gracious to us; we have waited for You. Be their arm every morning, our salvation also in the time of trouble.”

Judah had fallen into a horrific error. Call it “ex opere operato,” the doctrine that God’s saving gifts work “automatically” according to man’s sinful assumptions, rather than according to His Word and will. The sons of Judah seemed to believe that, because the ark of the covenant was in the temple in Jerusalem, God would never let Judah fall. Isaiah spends no small amount of effort to tell them that not only can they fall, but on account of their impenitence, they will fall.

When the calamity arrives, of course, it will befall all of Jerusalem, the repentant and the unrepentant alike. In such days the faithful wait. They implore the Lord to be gracious; they lean on Him for salvation in the time of trouble.

Might God judge our nation? Who can possibly imagine that the nation does not deserve it? And in the day of a national calamity, will we resent that we too must suffer? Will we cry out, “Oh God, that’s not fair!”? Be careful of that; what if He were “fair”? Wait for the Lord. He will be gracious to you. He will be your salvation in the time of trouble.

We pray: Oh Lord, we give You thanks that You have punished neither us, nor our nation as we deserve. When Your judgments do come, grant us grace to trust in the salvation You have given us in Christ Jesus, our crucified and risen Savior. Amen.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.