January 20 - Isaiah 14

Tim - your comment about the Yankees made me laugh. If that helps you understand, that's cool.

For the next couple of chapters we're going to see a bunch of oracles against the nations surrounding Israel. Enough bashing of Israel for now...

The main idea of these chapters is that pride will lead only to death. According to one scholar, Oswalt, there is no glory in death. As much honor you may have dying - death is still death. You're no different from the guy that died a cowardly death. And who is the one that cannot be conquered by death? You got it. God. (hopefully that's what you answered)

There is still much news about the Haiti earthquake. And one video that is getting a lot of bad comments is this guy named Pat Robertson on a Christian broadcasting channel said that this happened to Haiti because of their sins. To be on the nice side, saying something like that isn't nice. And it may be true and it may not be true because we don't know why God brings disaster upon a nation. But one thing we do have is that nations have been destroyed on account of their sin. These nations named here in this chapter have followed after other gods and have denied the power of the one Almighty God. They chose their god. They actually made it up. They made up what their god was going to be like and they followed it. It's like making up your own rules and making yourself a slave to them.

Today we have a different kinds of gods. No one wants to hear what Pat Robertson has to say about this disaster - especially because this involves God. They want to see the happy, good god that always brings good stuff and denies the truth about God (the fact that when we sin and leave his protection - we become vulnerable). We look up to the famous celebrities who are setting up telethons, working the phones and getting donations. We praise them for their good work. We look to President Obama to "save them" and he responds by saying that he won't "forsake" them. Our gods today - the ones we look to for hope or good news, the ones we aspire to be like, the ones we admire - are celebrities, the powerful, the political leaders, etc. In this time of disaster - maybe we should look to the word and recognize that we need to turn to God more than ever.

Look around you, disaster is everywhere - it may not be long until this disaster reaches us. Don't fear the disaster. Fear God and live. Repent and turn to God.