Yesterday we heard a second word picture of Jerusalem as a cooking pot. This was not good news. Then Ezekiel received word that his treasure— his wife, would die. And he was commanded not to mourn as a sign of what would happen in Jerusalem. Then there were messages of punishment for the nations of Ammon, Moab, Edom, and Philistia.
In yesterday’s reading, God gave Isaiah the name of his son, which pictures the conquest of Judah by the Assyrian army. Then there was a wonderful and often quoted part that includes about Jesus as the stumbling stone:
12 “Don’t call everything a conspiracy, like they do,
and don’t live in dread of what frightens them.
13 Make the LORD of Heaven’s Armies holy in your life.
He is the one you should fear.
He is the one who should make you tremble.
14 He will keep you safe.
But to Israel and Judah
he will be a stone that makes people stumble,
a rock that makes them fall.
And for the people of Jerusalem
he will be a trap and a snare.
15 Many will stumble and fall,
never to rise again.
They will be snared and captured.”
In yesterday’s chapter, I added a bit to show the meaning of the Greek in verse 9. This was how we translated it in Indonesian, and it helps to understand the concept of a ‘place of rest’.
9 So there is a special rest [— a spiritual rest that can be compared to ceasing work on the Sabbath day,] still waiting for the people of God. 10 For all who have entered into God’s rest have rested from their labors, just as God did after creating the world. 11So let us do our best to enter that rest. But if we disobey God, as the people of Israel did, we will fall.
Then the same chapter contains the wonderful verse about God’s word being living and active, and the encouragement to come boldly with our prayers before the throne of God.
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