Readings:
Isaiah 19-21
Proverbs 11
Romans 3

Isaiah 19-21

Todays reading starts out with an oracle against Egypt. God tells them how they will be brought low and that their princes and pharaoh will be made to look like fools. He also says an altar will be raised to the Lord in the land of Egypt.

This seems to have been partially fulfilled in the 500s BC when a small Jewish colony began in southern Egypt and was eventually reinforced by exiles fleeing the destruction of Judah by the Babylonians. According to several ancient sources, they also built a temple there and offered sacrifices to God. This temple, on an island in the Nile called Elephantine, was destroyed in 410 BC.

I say partially fulfilled because it mentions Egypt and Assyria joining together to worship God. That a highway would run through Egypt, to Jerusalem, to Assyria and they’d all worship together. I feel like this is prophetically speaking about the early church, when Alexandria, Jerusalem and Antioch were the three largest and most important cities that the Gospel had spread to.

There’s more oracles against several other near and distant neighbors of Israel and Judah, but the overarching point is that nobody escapes judgment and even things that seem forever and eternal are not. Kingdoms, nations, empires, royal households, everything on earth will eventually crumble and die, but God’s word, his promises, and his love, they are eternal. Isaiah is been given these prophecies for the people to see how frail the entire world around them was, and to turn back to the one who is not frail or fading away,

Romans 3

Paul asks a rhetorical question about Jews and gentiles, and if there’s no benefit to being a Jew if circumcision of the flesh counts for nothing. And he reminds his readers that the Jews are in first position as of now for the proclamation of the Gospel, because they have the benefit of centuries of monotheism and access to the scriptures, for a gentile pagan it’s a bigger hill to climb because they lack those things.

But he pivots and asks if the Jews are better off (meaning morally and righteousness) and this is an emphatic “no”. It’s actually a black mark against them that they have the law and prophets and still behave as the gentiles do, so technically the gentiles would be more righteous because they’re not as culpable for their failings. Paul points out that nobody is righteous in and of themselves, that we are all sinners, and we all need a savior.

Paul stresses that nobody will be justified by works of the law, this means we can’t gain salvation for ourselves. It’s only through grace, working through faith, that we can be saved.

Tomorrow’s Readings:
Isaiah 22
Proverbs 12
Romans 4:1-12