Isaiah — What’s The Blog?
I'm writing this post as a sort of preview/explanation/warning of another 66 (give or take) posts to come.
Right now, I'm working my way through the Old Testament book of Isaiah. It's the second longest book in the Bible, just behind the massive poetry anthology that is "Psalms", and it's apparently written by a Jewish prophet of the same name. I've read it before, but I must admit that my last time through, all I could focus on were the dates and which nation was being wiped out an such; the historical details. This time through, I'm really just praying to see the capital "t" Truth in each section. So far, so good. It is SUCH a rich and complex book...I'm not even half way through and I've been reading it since December! I felt like going back to it around Christmas time, since I'd dare say it's the most oft quoted piece of prophetic writing about Jesus, which interests me very much as a follower. I was delighted to find that, not only were there many pointers to His arrival, but many more pointers to what He'd stand for. Isaiah's book is chock full of teachings on social justice, but there's also a real focus on both judgment and mercy, creating a nice tension that is perfect for provoking thought. Thoughts have been provoked, and so I've decided to make an entry on each chapter as I go along.
This is more or less an exercise in writing for me, which naturally arose out of what I was doing already. To be clear, I'm by no means deluded enough to think of this as "devotional material", neither is it intended to be add-on to the white-noise of Biblical commentary. I'm not equipped enough for either of those ventures. I'm simply letting the sparse readership in on the thoughts that God allowed me while looking into His Word a little bit. If it makes you think, let me know. If it doesn't, don't bother (direct all religious complaints to www.thechurchofgoogle.org).
For ease of use, these posts will be formatted with the section to be discussed quoted at the top, followed by the thought posted below. Unless otherwise noted, all quotes will be from The Message. If you don't have a copy of the Bible, or would like to cross-reference a few versions, I recommend www.biblegateway.com, which is a cool and easy to use site that has the entire Bible in many different formats. Some passages in Isaiah (to be honest), I had a hard time gleaning anything from besides "Bad things will happen if you're bad", but other chapters produced pages worth of stuff. For brevity's sake, I'll try to stick with one idea per chapter. If you find that idea interesting, and if you like the verse(s) quoted, I suggest you take a few minutes and read the chapter through; context is king, and I'm bound to dethrone it once or twice. To find these posts, cruise over to www.marcjolicoeur.com/thoughts, where I'll be posting not only these Isaiah entries (which will all be marked with the tag "Isaiah"), but other things I'm working on, as well.
Thanks for sticking around thus far and I hope this practice run for me will seem beneficial for you.
A Plus Tard,
Marc