Daily Devotions
Isaiah
"Let us walk in the light of the LORD"
Text: Isaiah 2:5
A WORD OF EXHORTATION
Isaiah sought to encourage the “house of Jacob”. Judah was no better than the Northern kingdom. It was terribly corrupted and sinful.
“O house of Jacob, come and let us walk
In the light of the LORD.
For You have forsaken Your people, the house of Jacob,
Because they are filled with eastern ways;
They are soothsayers like the Philistines,
And they are pleased with the children of foreigners.”
Isaiah 2:5-6
1. “O house of Jacob”
a) Judah was addressed in this way for a purpose.
b) It was just like Jacob of old before he came to faith in God.
i) Judah was wicked.
ii) It wilfully chose sinful ways.
2. Walking in the light of the LORD.
a) The light of the LORD had been given.
i) Light may be found in the word of the LORD.
ii) Light was given through the messages of the prophets of God.
b) The appropriate response:
i) It would be to walk in the light of the LORD.
ii) This was the word of exhortation that Isaiah gave to the house of Jacob.
3. Pondering the action of the LORD.
a) God had forsaken His people.
b) The house of Jacob was estranged from the LORD.
4. The reasons for this estrangement from the LORD.
a) Judah was “filled with Eastern ways”.
i) This is a reference to false religious teachings.
ii) Israel had been warned not to learn the idolatrous ways of its neighbours
(Deuteronomy 18:9).
iii) But Israel did not heed the LORD and over time the people were filled
with all kinds of wrong religious thoughts.
b) The people had become soothsayers like the Philistines.
i) Israel had rejected the light of the LORD.
ii) The people became superstitious and fearful.
iii) Soothsayers may be compared to fortune tellers.
c) They intermarried with foreigners.
i) The children of Israel married those who did not share their faith.
ii) These were called “foreigners”.
iii) They did not care about what the LORD had said about
not marrying those outside their faith (Deuteronomy 7:3-4).