Tuesday after Septuagesima Sunday
Posted on February 7, 2023 by under
Scripture: Isaiah 5:1-7 (NKJV)
5:1 Now let me sing to my Well-beloved A song of my Beloved regarding His vineyard:
My Well-beloved has a vineyard on a very fruitful hill.
2 He dug it up and cleared out its stones, and planted it with the choicest vine. He built a tower in its midst, and also made a winepress in it; So He expected it to bring forth good grapes, but it brought forth wild grapes.
3 “And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, Judge, please, between Me and My vineyard.
4 “What more could have been done to My vineyard that I have not done in it? Why then, when I expected it to bring forth good grapes, did it bring forth wild grapes?
5 “And now, please let Me tell you what I will do to My vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it shall be burned; And break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down.
6 “I will lay it waste; It shall not be pruned or dug, but there shall come up briers and thorns. I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain on it.”
7 For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are His pleasant plant. He looked for justice, but behold, oppression; For righteousness, but behold, a cry for help.
Devotion
In yesterday’s reading we heard about Joshua leading God’s people into the promised land. God had “dug” them out from under Egyptian slavery and “planted” them in the land He had promised. He had conquered their enemies in order to keep His people from pagan idolatry. Yet, after all God had done for His people, all too many turned away from Him and sought other gods. Instead of goodness and mercy, God finds injustice, so He allows His people to be taken captive by pagans.
All of this happened to God’s people as the nation of Israel. Allowing them to be taken captive was God’s effort to move them to repent and to seek Him, the only source of goodness to be found in this world. What we as individual Christians need to understand is that God allows certain circumstances in life to take us captive. As your pastor prays in the General Prayer, “All who are in trouble, want, sickness, anguish of labor, peril of death, or any other adversity… that they may receive and acknowledge their afflictions as manifestation of Thy fatherly will.” His “fatherly will” is to bring you to repentance and to trust in Him for the forgiveness of your sins for Jesus’ sake.
As the General Prayer implores of God, “…remember not the sins of our youth nor our many transgressions”; God directs our eyes away from our sin, and onto our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Prayer: O Lord, we beseech Thee favorably to hear the prayers of Thy people: that we, who are justly punished for our offenses, may be mercifully delivered by Thy goodness, for the glory of Thy Name; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
