Isaiah 45-48 Either/Or

August 7th, Isaiah 45-48

       Our stories have a flow. There is a context of the previous that informs and gives structure to the present and certainly has bearing and sway on the future. Missing a couple of days blogging as we were on a camping trip has me wondering how much to look through the missed chapters would give a little context for today's word.
       Prophets have a big challenge. Convince a nation they are wrong, that their trouble comes from disobedience, that God cares, that they should change, that they don't need to fear change, which leads to some convincing happening in the chapter's today.
       "I call you by name, though you do not know me. I am the Lord and their is no other, besides me there is no God. I equip you though you do not know me." Some great promises in those words. God does much for us even though we are far from him sometmes.
       I always enjoy God's comparison of himself and idols. "Who is my equal?" I think saying things out loud and then listening to your self is a good way to tell if you've lost it. I pray to a hunk of metal that has ear but can't hear. I rescue it because it can't rescue me, I carry it around like my 6-month old because it has no ability to do anything by itself...it is my god.
       In the end God wants to be head over us and bless us. 49:17 " I am the Lord your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you in the way you should go. Oh that you had paid attention to my commandments! Then your peace would have been like a river, your righteousness like the wave of the sea; your offspring would have been like sand, your descendants like it's grains; There name would have never been cut-off or destroyed from before me." 
       A warning from the past, how the past determined their current state and their current state will determine their future. It's the same for us...what will our tomorrow hold...well...some(not all) actually depends on us!