Isaiah 15:1–2: “The burden against Moab. / Because in the night Ar of Moab is laid waste / And destroyed, / Because in the night Kir of Moab is laid waste / And destroyed, / He has gone up to the temple and Dibon, / To the high places to weep. / Moab will wail over Nebo and over Medeba; / On all their heads will be baldness, / And every beard cut off.”

August 9th, 2024 by Pastor Ed in devotional

In these verses, Isaiah prophesied against the Gentile nations surrounding Israel, but they remained hardhearted and stubborn. Moab continued to ignore God’s gracious call to repentance and salvation. The Moabites were Lot’s descendants, the nephew of Abraham, so they and the Jews were family. However, the Moabites had treated the Jews very harshly in the past, and God was warning them again that He was about to bring judgment upon them through Assyria, a pagan nation that was slowly but surely becoming a world power.

God still graciously warns all people that judgment is coming. He calls all people to surrender to Him and allow Him to rule their lives. Jesus said it this way in Luke 20:18: “Whoever falls on that stone will be broken; but on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder.” There are only 2 things that can be done with this “stone,” or rock, which represents Jesus: 1) you can chose to fall on the stone, or 2) it will fall on you. If a person falls on the stone, they will be broken (in humility, over their sin), and they will receive the gift of forgiveness and salvation. However, if they reject the stone’s right to rule over them, someday the stone will fall on them in judgment.

Author Max Lucado put it in a simple and clear way. He had an aquarium full of various kinds of fish. One day he noticed that one of the fish was injured. It was acting sickly, so he went to the vet and the doctor prescribed some medicine to be applied to the fish’s wound. It seemed an easy fix, but every time he reached into the tank, the fish would flee in terror. Even though the fish was seriously injured, it still had the power to escape his grasp and the healing his hand offered. He said, “If only I could become a fish and communicate my intentions.” God is still reaching out to the world, but most flee from Him.

“LORD, we ask You to give us the word of life for others this day, in Jesus’ name.”