Slices
Prepare
What are you afraid of – to the point that it affects your behaviour? Losing something or someone? What other people think of you?
Bible passage
11 This is what the Lord says to me with his strong hand upon me, warning me not to follow the way of this people:
12 ‘Do not call conspiracy
everything this people calls a conspiracy;
do not fear what they fear,
and do not dread it.
13 The Lord Almighty is the one you are to regard as holy,
he is the one you are to fear,
he is the one you are to dread.
14 He will be a holy place;
for both Israel and Judah he will be
a stone that causes people to stumble
and a rock that makes them fall.
And for the people of Jerusalem he will be
a trap and a snare.
15 Many of them will stumble;
they will fall and be broken,
they will be snared and captured.’
16 Bind up this testimony of warning
and seal up God’s instruction among my disciples.
17 I will wait for the Lord,
who is hiding his face from the descendants of Jacob.
I will put my trust in him.
18 Here am I, and the children the Lord has given me. We are signs and symbols in Israel from the Lord Almighty, who dwells on Mount Zion.
Explore
The prophets had a tough time. Often God called them to tell his people things they didn’t want to hear, at the most difficult times for God’s people. But I think the hardest thing – for them, and for us today – is living among people with different values, different goals, facing and travelling in a different direction. It’s hard because humans are made for relationships, so we don’t like to stand out as different.
That’s why God needed to warn Isaiah (v 11). The people were anxious and afraid, with good reason given the looming threat from Assyria. It would be natural for Isaiah to let his focus slip, to start sharing the people’s ways and anxieties and fears (v 12). How do you think you would react, faced with the same pressures as Isaiah?
The tragedy of the next verses is that God is exactly what his people wanted: a place of strength and holiness (v 13). But they have rejected him, so for them his might is not a rock of protection but a stone of stumbling (vs 14,15). How does Isaiah respond to God’s warning (vs 16,17)?
Respond
Spend some time thinking not about the situation faced by the people, but about the danger Isaiah was in: giving in to the ungodly ways of the people around him. Do you need to heed the warning he was given by God?
Bible in a year
Read the Bible in a year: 2 Corinthians 6; Revelation 17
Pray for Scripture Union
Give thanks for the progress over the last few months as our Digital and Development Hub teams have worked together to create a new resources area on the website. Pray that, as hoped, it will open up the Revealing Jesus framework in fresh new ways, showcasing the resources that are available.
