Daily Bible Reading Plans to help you read and understand God’s Word

Scripture Reading: Isaiah 24:1-23, Isaiah 25:1-12, Psalm 30:1-12

You know that feeling when you are listening to someone share their suffering, but in some strange way, you’re positively affected by hearing it? Maybe you feel comforted by similar experiences, more seen in your own story, or less alone. That “I’m not the only one feeling this” feeling.

I’ve been walking through a season where I feel the weight of the curse of this world. My body has been weak, my feelings have been hurt, and some of my hopes have been dashed. Sometimes, it is easy to feel like I’m standing right in the middle of the picture of judgment in Isaiah 24. Some words and concepts from that chapter that stood out to me: stripped, plundered, mourning, withering, polluted, and cursed. Have you ever felt like that? 

Have your “joyful tambourines” ceased (Isaiah 24:8)? Has “all joy [grown] dark” (v.11)? 

I’ve suffered seasons like this before, seasons where life feels too painful, the curse weighs too heavy, and happiness is hard to come by. It happens. This world is not for the faint of heart, nor is it for those who only read chapter 24. 

Thank Jesus for the next chapter. In Isaiah 25, we move past the calamity and are reminded of our salvation. Yes, the earth groans. Yes, God will judge. But He also loves. He loves us—me, you, the people of judgment. We are full of weakness while He is full of compassion, and He has already finished the work to save us and clean us and make us new. He’s already done what it takes to undo all those words in Isaiah 24. Yes, we were stripped, but He has clothed us in “a robe of righteousness” (Isaiah 61:10). Yes, we mourn in this world, but blessed we are, for we will be comforted (Matthew 5:4). For the Christian, the truth is it is impossible to crush the hope of God’s children forever because we actually have forever. The drying of tears is always ahead. In these times, I’ve often found myself in Psalm 30, remembering that weeping may stay overnight (or over many nights) but there is joy in the morning (Psalm 30:5). 

Maybe today, you feel like I feel—a little less flourishing and a little more withering. Let’s keep walking and keep reading, remember Isaiah 25:8 as it says, “When he has swallowed up death once and for all, the Lord GOD will wipe away the tears from every face and remove his people’s disgrace from the whole earth, for the LORD has spoken.”

How beautiful.

No matter what you’re doing or feeling or suffering with today, remember that the God who is worthy to judge us has come to hold us and help us and save us. 

Written by Scarlet Hiltibidal