Welcome to the Pauline Family's "Year of the Bible"! I'm reading the Bible clear through this year, and I invite you to read along with me. But first, let us pray:
Everlasting Father,
All time belongs to you, and all the ages. In signs, in songs, in words of promise, you reassured your chosen ones, “I am with you; fear not.” You taught them through the prophets to trust that your saving deeds were not limited to the past.
When Jesus came, he fulfilled “all that was written in the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms.”
The Church has found him everywhere in these same holy books.
Help me to find Jesus in my reading today, to listen to him, and to follow him with all my heart.
Amen.
Today's chapters are Isaiah 4-6.
Chapter 4 has to be read in the context of Chapter 3's judgment on Jerusalem for its injustice to the poor. Once the merciless have been purged from the city, it will be reconsecrated: It will again be holy, sanctified. Just as during the Exodus, the presence of God will be manifest among the people (in the overshadowing cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night). But Chapter 5, the famous "Vineyard Song," warns the people to take the Word of the Lord seriously! Jesus will tell his own vineyard parable, drawing very directly on Isaiah's parable of judgment (see Mt 20:1-16).
Chapter 6 may contain much that is very familiar to you already. Here it is in its original context. Try to put yourself in the little circle of Isaiah's disciples, hearing of this heavenly vision for the first time. What does it tell you about God? What does the Holy Lord God of Hosts say to you today? What do you feel the need to be purified of before you can really say, "Here I am, send me!"?
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