The Lord Be With You Today!
Isaiah 64:6
All of us have become like one who is unclean,
and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags;
(In stark realization of the consequences of her rebellious ways,
suffering Babylonian exile and the Lord's displeasure at her sin,
Israel understands she has become both morally and ceremonially unclean,
reprehensible as she stands before the Lord in her disobedience.
The Israelite people realize that any goodness of theirs is a sham,
as unclean as the soiled and putrid menstrual cloths
after having been used by women during their period.
The real and holy righteousness of God
is so far beyond any so-called righteousness of ours
that His holiness dwells in another and completely separate realm,
completely different and beyond any comparison to our attempts at goodness.)
we all shrivel up like a leaf,
and like the wind our sins sweep us away.
(Like Israel in Isaiah's day, we, too, may be experiencing
the awful consequences of choices we have made,
choices that have led us into disobedience,
choices that seemed harmless and irreproachable at the beginning,
choices that we had no idea at the outset would lead us
to the depths of separation from the ways of the Lord,
choices that eventually led us into our own exile
from the "home-land" of intimate relationship with our God.
Unchecked and unconfessed sin
always sweeps us away into terrible consequences.
It always takes us farther than we ever intended to go.
The Good News today is that, even in the midst of our devastation and need,
the Lord extends His Hand of mercy and love to us,
to reclaim us, to restore us, to lift us out of the paths which we had chosen,
and to place us again in His ways of righteousness.)
May the Lord richly bless you this day!
In Christ's love,
Blessings!
Sally
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