Readings:
Isaiah 24-26
Proverbs 14
Romans 5

Isaiah 24-26

Isaiah issues a few more prophecies. The first one seems like a prophetic image of the end of the world, or it could possibly be a poetic and hyperbolic image of the destruction of Jerusalem. Surely it’s residents would see their city being destroyed as the end of the world for them.

The prophecies of doom turn into one of redemption in chapter 25. Isaiah was based in Jerusalem, and his prophecy of “this mountain” means the mountains of Jerusalem in particular and sometimes mt Zion particularly. When he said that on this mountain, God will provide a feast for all people, we have to ask what he means by this. What I take this to mean is a foretelling of the last supper and the institution of the Eucharist. That happened on mt Zion and has become a feast for every nation around the world in the liturgy of the Eucharist.

Romans 5

Paul points out that we will still suffer through hard times and suffering but we should be honored to go through this as our Lord did. Jesus told us to to pick up our cross daily, and Paul expands on this to explain how suffering builds character and isn’t necessarily always a bad thing.

He also includes a reminder that there’s nothing we could’ve ever done to merit the gift we’ve received from the cross. Jesus dies for us prior to our justification, so it’s even more amazing than if he’d died for people who were already justified.

I’ve always really liked the way Paul goes back and forth from Adam to Jesus and compares the failings of one with the victory of the other. Every place that Adam failed Christ succeeded, and because of that he destroyed the shadow of death that hung over all nations like Isaiah said in the chapters we read from him today.

Tomorrow’s Readings:
Isaiah 27-28
Proverbs 15
Romans 6:1-14