Isaiah 32:20: “Blessed are you who sow beside all waters, / Who send out freely the feet of the ox and the donkey.”

August 26th, 2024 by Pastor Ed in devotional

This verse sounds very much like it could be from Jesus’ “Sermon on the Mount” (or The Beatitudes) found in the Gospel of Matthew 5–7, where He described how man could be truly happy. Here the Holy Spirit was speaking through Isaiah and said, O how happy are those who faithfully endure the coming period of hardship. At the time this promise was made, the ground was too dry to farm, but God was promising that one day they would again be on well-watered ground and able to produce a plentiful harvest. If we will faithfully continue to trust and wait on God, remaining patient and faithful in our service to Him, we will eventually be blessed for it.

Someone used an old story of cowboys in California to illustrate that perseverance is a one-step-at-a-time process. Early one morning a couple of cowboys went out to bring in a wild steer from the mountains. A 3-year-old steer that’s been running loose in the timber is a tough customer to handle. But these cowboys had a plan. They took a single shaggy, gray donkey with them. Once they got the steer, they put a rope on him and then tied him neck and neck, right up close, to the donkey, and let them go. At first, the donkey had a bad time. The steer threw him all over the place, banging him against trees, rocks, and bushes. Time after time, they both went down. But there was one great difference between the donkey and the steer. The donkey wanted to go home, and no matter how often the steer threw him, the donkey would get back on his feet and take another step toward the corral. This went on and on. After about a week, the donkey showed up at the corral with the tamest, sorriest-looking steer you ever saw in tow! We need to be just like that donkey, no matter how many times we’re thrown, no matter how many times we stumble, we need to get back up and take another step toward heaven. And then, someday soon, we will make it there; and we will at last see Him and be like Him.

“LORD, hold us on Your path for us this day, we ask in Jesus’ name.”