Many churches throughout the world use a Bible reading schedule called a "lectionary." It's just a fancy word meaning "selected readings." Posts like this reflect on the readings for an upcoming Sunday or other Church holiday, as found in the three-year lectionary.
I saw a billboard a few years ago. It simply said, “Don’t make me come down there!” - God - big white letters on a black background. There was obviously something wrong with the campaign’s sentiment about God. It pictured God as an angry dad, upset about the way his children are misbehaving, but not willing to help them resolve anything. His whole attitude said the children needed to be quiet. If he had to come down there, he would thrash them into submission. There was no concept of God being the one who has reconciled the world to himself and who works peace among his people.
Our reading from Isaiah this week portrays God very differently. He is the one who is mighty enough that everyone should be paralyzed with fear when he is around. But he is the one who is called upon to come down and be involved in his world. Our world is in turmoil and disorder. Lord, won’t you come down and put it to rights? We realize that time will be the most frightening one we will ever endure. But your presence is what we need.
When we have tried to make reconciliation it has failed. We don’t know how to be reconciled to God. We normally don’t even know how to be reconciled with one another. We need the Lord of all to come down and work in our midst. Thanks be to God, in these last days, he has heard our prayer and answered it through Christ, God the Son. In him, all will be sustained and restored. This is God’s most gracious answer to our prayer.
If this brief meditation was helpful to you, I hope you will check out the other materials on our website at www.WittenbergCoMo.com and consider supporting us.