Isaiah 44:1-11 (NIV)

Read by: Brennan Takayama

As parents it’s necessary to discipline our children. I don’t know many parents who actually enjoy this part of raising kids, but we all have to do it. And we all have to learn when… and how. What’s worth a punishment? And what kind of punishment will actually work to help your child learn? If out kids are fighting over a toy, we’ve learned to just put the toy away for a while. If they are being mean to each other—saying things to hurt each other, or physically hurting each other, they get a time out. But at the end of the time out, after they’ve worked out their feelings, at the end of whatever strife is going on, we always talk. We always affirm our love for them and try to call them into a different way of behaving, a different way of thinking. Our older daughter usually has a hard time forgiving herself. She hates messing up. The younger one has a harder time convincing herself that listening to Mom and Dad is worthwhile. She prefers to do things her own way.

We find a similar pattern in Isaiah. God’s children mess up… really bad. And they get kind of a cosmic time out… Exile . But after it’s over, the LORD wants to give them another chance, to remind them of how much he loves them and how faithful he has been, and to remind them who he is.  He is the only real God, and he longs for them to bear his name.

----------REFLECT----------

1. What word or phrase stood out to you in the passage?

2. Idols in the ancient world were not merely statues. They represented other gods and people would worship them… giving the fruit of their labor and their lives over in service of these idols hoping that they would provide peace, prosperity, and power. We may not make sacrifices to statues, but we have idols in our world, they ask for our time and money and allegiance in return for power, comfort, and security… What idols are you tempted to worship?

3. When we worship an idol, it marks us. We become like what we worship. But no matter what we’ve done in our lives, what idols we’ve bowed down to, or how many times, the Creator who formed us in our mother’s wombs sees us, loves us, and longs for us to bear his name. What might you need to lay down today in order to pick up the name of God?

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Bible Project: Isaiah 40-66 >>

Bible Project Blog: Isaiah and the Suffering Servant King >>

InterVarsity Press Selections: Isaiah >>

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