Evangelical Lutheran Diocese of North America

Wednesday after Whitsunday

Posted on June 12, 2019 by Pastor Dulas under Devotions
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Scripture: Isaiah 45:18-21 (NKJV)


45:18 For thus says the Lord, Who created the heavens, Who is God, Who formed the earth and made it, Who has established it, Who did not create it in vain, Who formed it to be inhabited: “I am the Lord, and there is no other.


19 I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth; I did not say to the seed of Jacob, ‘Seek Me in vain’; I, the Lord, speak righteousness, I declare things that are right.


20 “Assemble yourselves and come; Draw near together, you who have escaped from the nations. They have no knowledge, who carry the wood of their carved image, and pray to a god that cannot save.


21 Tell and bring forth your case; Yes, let them take counsel together. Who has declared this from ancient time? Who has told it from that time? Have not I, the Lord? And there is no other God besides Me, a just God and a Savior; There is none besides Me.


Devotion


Nothing that the Lord does fails. At the time of the Babylonian captivity, doubtless the Israelites wondered why they had ever come out of Egypt a thousand years earlier. Did God destroy Pharaoh and the nations of Canaan for them, just so they could be slaughtered by the Babylonians? Against these fears, God reminds them, “[I] did not create in vain,” and, “I did not say to the seed of Jacob, ‘Seek Me in vain.’” When Judah went into captivity, it was not the end. God called them to trust in Him, even in the midst of disaster, and He would deliver them from evil.


Terrible disasters befall all men on account of Adam’s fall into sin. Some of them cause us to doubt whether our life is worth living. One man digs himself deep into debt for his education, only to find himself unemployed. Another man sees all his children die early and knows that he is the last of his family name. Sin causes us to doubt God’s goodness and to despair.


In Christ, God gives us the hope of the Resurrection and the Life of the world to come. All who believe in Him will rise from the dead in glory, when the Christ returns, and will live forever with Him in eternal peace and joy. “Look to Me, and be saved, all you ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other” (v. 22).


We pray: O God, who didst teach the hearts of Thy faithful people by sending to them the light of Thy Holy Spirit, grant us by the same Spirit to have a right judgment in all things and evermore to rejoice in His holy comfort; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Amen.


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

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