No other but God
Day 333, Thursday, July 10
Isaiah Chapters 46 – 47
As in Tuesday’s reading, today’s passage is about the uselessness of idols, comparing their lifelessness to the living God.
In 46:9-10 we read, I am God, and thre is no other; I am God, and there is none like me. I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come.”
From the beginning God has made clear who he is, and that he intends to communicate that to the people he has created.
Admittedly, his foretelling of what is to come is often less explicit than we would like it to be, but the general outlines are there.
Continuing to the end of verse 10, God says, “My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.”
That, perhaps, is the great message of the prophets: what God intends to do, he will do, in spite of all the obstacles and detours along the way.
And, lest we mistake his confidence for some arbitrary or selfish goal, he tells us in verse 13 exactly what he plans to accomplish: “I am bringing my righteousness near, it is not far away; and my salvation will not be delayed. I will grant salvation to Zion, my splendor to Israel.”

-Rev. Mark Fleming

Thursday meditation

Job 4:12-21
“A word was secretly brought to me, my ears caught a whisper of it.
Amid disquieting dreams in the night, when deep sleep falls on people, fear and trembling seized me and made all my bones shake.
A spirit glided past my face, and the hair on my body stood on end. It stopped, but I could not tell what it was.
A form stood before my eyes, and I heard a hushed voice: ‘Can a mortal be more righteous than God? Can even a strong man be more pure than his Maker?
If God places no trust in his servants, if he charges his angels with error, how much more those who live in houses of clay, whose foundations are in the dust, who are crushed more readily than a moth!
Between dawn and dusk they are broken to pieces; unnoticed, they perish forever.
Are not the cords of their tent pulled up, so that they die without wisdom?’

Prayer focus
Lord, bring your righteousness to your people, as you have promised from the beginning.