Readings:
Isaiah 13-14
Proverbs 9
Romans 1

Isaiah 13-14

Here we see an oracle of a future judgment on Babylon. Just like the Assyrians were not good people, and in fact were some of the most cruel in the ancient near East, but were nevertheless used as an instrument of God’s wrath on Israel, so too the Babylonians. They’re not much better than the Assyrians, and their day of judgement will come too. For them, they will be destroyed by the Medes, a group of Persian people from the northeast of the Babylonian empire. They actually teamed up with Babylon in 612 BC to destroy Nineveh and the Assyrian empire, and they’ll eventually do the same to their erstwhile allies.

Once again, despite all this calamity that is coming, God will not completely forsake his people. These judgments are coming and they were foretold as a punishment if the people didn’t keep their end of the covenant. They were promised peace and prosperity in a land of milk and honey, and only had to remain faithful to God and his laws. But they’ve broken them from the start, and brought these self inflicted judgments down on their own heads, but God will still redeem and save them after their chastisement.

Romans 1

Today we begin one of the most doctrinally important books of the New Testament. This letter from Saint Paul is a means of introducing himself to a small but established church in the capital of the empire that he wants to soon visit and teach in. He’s most likely writing in the year AD 58 before heading back to Jerusalem with the funds he’s gathered as a relief trip due to famine in Judaea and Samaria.

The Gospels introduced us to the life, death, resurrection and teachings of Jesus. Now Saint Paul, in one of his longest letters, will go over some very important topics for the understanding of salvation, justification and grace. Very important topics and he covers them in great detail.

Paul opens up with a beautiful blessing and greeting. He uses a phrase, “the obedience of faith,” in this greeting, and he also uses it again in the last few sentences of this letter. It serves as two bookends for this epistle and for most of Paul’s work. To Paul, having faith wasn’t just knowing intellectually that something was true or that the testimony you’re hearing is accurate. To him, having faith meant an active faith, an allegiance, an “obedience” in faith. We weren’t called to just believe what we read in the Bible, or hear from the altar, we’re called to hear and then put that into action. To faithfully execute the commands we’ve been given.

Paul tells the Romans that he has a great desire to come to them, so that he can expand and strengthen their church but also to launch other expeditions to the ends of the empire.

Paul then condemns the wickedness that has taken hold around the world. He condemns a whole bevy of sinful behavior but also takes a moment to condemn the unnatural homosexual acts that both men and women commit with each other. And that through repeatedly engaging in these acts they’ve darkened their minds and numbed themselves to the realities of sin.

Paul says that the existence of God can be known from the evidence found in nature. We can know God exists without divine revelation, and that’s why around the world people have myths and stories of the creator. People since the dawn of time have known he exists, but his nature and being were only revealed to a few in the past and now to everyone through Jesus Christ. But people have rejected the creator and instead worship things in creation.

All these charges sound very similar to what we read from the prophets concerning israel. Sin has been a struggle since the fall, but through the Graces our Lord gives us we can overcome these sins.

Tomorrow’s Readings:
Isaiah 15-18
Proverbs 10
Romans 2