Lent 2025 Week 2 with Dr. Sandra Richter

Artwork for podcast She Reads Truth Podcast

Episode 268 • 10th March 2025 • She Reads Truth Podcast • She Reads Truth

Hello, and welcome to the She Reads Truth podcast. She Reads Truth creates beautiful,

accessible Bible reading plans and resources to help you get into God's Word every

day. Each week here on the podcast, we talk about what we're going to read together

as a community this week. I'm your host, Rachel Myers. And I'm your other host,

Amanda Bible Williams, and this is week two of our Lent series. We are reading the

book of Isaiah together in our series is entitled, "He Will Save Us." And we're

joined today by a return guest, Sandy Richter. Dr. Richter is the author of a book

called "The Epic of Eden," which you'll hear us talk some about. There's a new

edition of that coming soon that you'll want to keep an eye out for. But she is

an author, a professor, a speaker. Her particular gift and passion is bringing the

real people and real places of the Bible narrative to life. And she helped us do

that today for sure. Big time. Yes. I won't even attempt to list the number of

books that Sandy has written. She's casually, or also working on a commentary of

Deuteronomy in here. I mean, what does that even like? What is that even like? But

we will provide a list of her books, et cetera. All the incredible resources. All

the things, video resources, Bible studies on the show notes, which, by the way, if

you did not know, there is a link on our website on ShearishTruth .com. If you go

to ShearishTruth .com /podcast, that's where you will find every episode. You'll find

the notes for every episode, links for all of our guests, all of that stuff. And

may we ask a favor? As you're listening to this on your favorite podcast app, why

don't you just go ahead and hit the little five star. - Five of them, all five.

- All five, that is the way that you invite the rest of the world to come listen

with us. So we would love it if you would do that because the more the merrier,

there's room for all of you here. So here we go, episode two of Lent with our

good friend Sandy.

- I'm so happy that when you, Sandra, came on this morning, you immediately told us

we could call you Sandy because that's what your friends call you so thank you and

welcome Sandy Richter it feels like a real honor to know you and to be counted as

one of your friends and to get to sit down right now and talk about Isaiah. Yep

he's the guy. He's the guy. He is. He is. Sandy I have to tell you that because

you've been on the podcast before and we were reading numbers together, which is so

fun. So it's been about a year ago, almost. And between that recording and this

recording, I read Epic of Eden for the first time. Oh, my soul on paper.

Yeah, well, and I read it not alone. I read it in a cohort of 15 women who we

are in a master's program together in seminary. And we are taking every course

together. It's so fun and challenging and wonderful. But all of us read Epic of

Eden for the first time. I don't think anyone had read it yet. And it is so rich

and it actually took me a minute to connect the dots. I was like, wait, I know

the Richter.

And so now, like then, 'cause I believe a member of our staff had lined up the

podcast and of course we loved having you on, but this time I'm like, ooh, ooh,

ooh, ooh. Yeah, you're really busy and you talk to a lot of people and it's like,

oh wait, you're that person. Yes. That happens to me all the time. Yeah. Big Dot

connected for me this time. And so I've just so been looking forward and my whole

cohort says hello. Oh, okay. So which Seminary are you working with Denver Seminary?

Please greet your cohort for me. It's so exciting And it's 15 women that are all

women so it's a women's leadership cohort We are the inaugural group And so we

started fall of 23 and we're moving through I mean it feels really quick to me

I'll take a steady clip a steady clip. It'll take us about three years We're doing

an an MA in biblical and theological studies. - Wonderful. - So it's so fun. It's

really challenging to fit it in into the world. - In real life. - Into our worlds,

yes. - Right. - But it's super fun. And so, yeah, and here's what I love about

Epicaviden. It is, I mean, it's brilliant. Like there's so much scholarly work.

Like you can just, there's a lot in there, a lot of scholarly work, a lot of

research, but it is but it is so accessible and now you have to commit.

Like it's pretty dense, but it is absolutely accessible and the kind of mind blowing

moments are many. And I feel like we all just kind of finished that and went,

oh, I feel like I have a better glimpse and understanding into what God is doing,

like what redemption is. - Mm -hmm. - And...

But what are you talking about? Right. Okay. So the book, The Epic of Eden, A

Christian Entry into the Old Testament was the first popular book I wrote.

So prior to that, I'd been all immersed in the technical stuff you have to do to

get your union card, meaning your dissertation, your PhD, all that sort of thing.

But reality is I'd come out of ministry. So my heart was always in the church and

what I saw over and over and over again at every level that I had taught the

Bible is that people didn't know how to put the big picture together. They didn't

know how the Old Testament went with their New Testament. They didn't know that the

story runs from Eden to the New Jerusalem and that it's all one story.

And so over and over again, folks would start their Bible reading in the New

Testament. And they'd struggled to figure out what the backstory was. I joke with my

undergrads that it's like picking up Harry Potter in book five. Yeah. Yeah.

Who is this serious black fellow? Why are people afraid of him? Why was he sent

into exile? Who's the kid with the lightning bolt on his head, you know, all that

sort of thing. So the goal of the book was to put people's Bibles together.

I use the metaphor of a messy closet. I think your audience will like that. You

know, that space in your house where you cram all the stuff, you don't know what

to do it, right? Okay, yeah. To quote my friend Lynn Koic, I don't have to make a

decision. I have a basement, (laughing) - Oh, is that true?

- So I think about this like a messy closet, that people have a lifetime of

acquisitions regarding the Old Testament, but it's all a jumbled up mess. And they

don't know what to do with it. So in the book, what I do is I promise that I

will pull out all the stuff in your closet. We're gonna spread it out on the

floor. I'm gonna put it in order. I'm gonna throw out things you don't need. I'm

gonna add some things you do need. And I am gonna give you a new closet.

And that new closet is the infrastructure that is actually built into the Bible.

A lot of folks think about the Bible as kind of a stenographer's approach to

listening to a court case. And that's not the situation at at all. What we have

are generations of theologians who are attempting to explain God to us.

So, I lift the infrastructure of covenant, which is built into the Bible, and put

the Bible in order of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David,

and Jesus. And With those six covenantal administrations,

we have not only the historical structure of the Bible, but the theological structure

of the Bible. And I have done that structure, believe it or not,

with everyone from St. Pat's Anglican's toddler church,

three -year -olds, to postdocs at the London School of Theology. And what I have

found is for everyone, it is that big picture that is failing.

And then the other thing that is failing is this business of getting our characters

off the flinograph out of the ivory tower and pulling them down into real space and

time. So those are my ambitions in the book. And, you know, I preach periodically

because I can't help myself, and I'm so grateful to hear Amanda,

what you said about accessible because, and that's what I hear over and over again

too. Good. So that's the book I'm working on a second edition on. It's 15 years

old, so it's way, way time to do the second edition. I just haven't had space in

my world. That's exciting. No, I'm so grateful that Star Wars came out again, or I

would have lost all my pop culture references. - Oh, your reference is so, yeah.

- Perfect, honestly. - It totally worked. I didn't even realize that it was 15 years

old as I was reading it, so. - Good, good. - Okay, well, we're reading Isaiah, and

last week our friend, Christina McClellan was on, and we talked about, she's

wonderful, and she did the same thing when we said your name. She also She also

whooped but we talked about why we're reading Isaiah for Lent and sort of what

Isaiah's call was and I think what I would love to start this week and have you

help us do is exactly what you just said to pull Isaiah down to the ground boots

on the ground but not just Isaiah all of these nations you know this week we are

reading about Babylon, just nation after nation, city, like, yeah,

yes, Philistia, Moab and all of these. And so, you know,

for the average reader of, you know, which we're kind of in there, like we've been

reading our Bibles for a while and studying our Bibles for a while, but I can't

read these and tell you exactly like, okay, where are they in relation to Israel?

Which ones are actually like part of, like, you know, when are we actually talking

to Israel? When are we talking to surrounding nations? So yeah, help us understand

that historical time space context. Well, and honestly, when you guys sent me the

list of what we're doing, I was like, bold, bold choice. Okay. Because as I'm sure

Christy told you, Isaiah himself, If we were to meet him today, he would probably

have two PhDs, a German Habitatzion, and be almost inaccessible to the average

person. I mean, he is a man who spent his life speaking to kings.

He's probably a member of the royal household. He has a ridiculous education. When

you read him in Hebrew, you're looking up every third word because you don't know

what it means. The guy's like way up here, yeah? - Okay. - So that's to start with

and then-- - That's so helpful to know. I act like I'm like, oh yeah, I did not

know that. - I didn't either. - That's very helpful context. - No, he's almost out of

reach. And then we have 66 chapters, come on.

This is a really unwieldy DLD collection. We think about a man who preached for 45

years. So if you take your average pastor, someone who actually survived the ministry

for 45 years, first of all, let's send him all sorts of gift certificates and a

vacation in Tahiti, right? 45 years, 52 Sundays. Yeah,

52 Sundays a year. It's a Wednesday nights, the high holidays, Sunday nights,

if you're in the 80s, if you're of that tradition, Wednesday nights, if you're of

that tradition, that's right. That is thousands of sermons, thousands and thousands.

And now we're going to distill it down to 66, which some of your readers might not

know that books of the prophets are not books about the prophets.

these are not biographies. They're sermon collections. So you're gonna get very little

biographical material and like the epistles, you're only gonna get half the

conversation, which is another big surprise. Like, okay, I know that Paul is yelling

at the church in Corinth, but I don't know what the church in Corinth did wrong,

right? - Did they respond? What did that letter look like? Yeah, right. But so

Isaiah is doing the same thing. These oracles extend over a lifetime of ministry.

And then the other thing that really surprises people, they are not placed in

chronological order. They're placed in theological order. So you could have an oracle

that he preached at the very end of his life slapped up at the front of the book.

And your collection that we're looking at right now is an example of that because

we've got oracles against Babylon and oracles against Assyria in the same collection.

And Assyria is going to dominate the world from, oh, really about 1 ,000 to 612.

And then Babylon is going to pick it up in about 612 and dominate to about 540.

So they are not superpowers at the same time.

They're rivals. They will always be rivals. But one will dominate during a certain

period and one will dominate another. And yet this collection starts with two oracles

against Babylon. There will be an oracle or two against Assyria and then it will

close with oracles against Egypt. So if you're mapping the ancient Near East,

those are the three big superpowers, but they don't necessarily all rule at the same

time. So as we look at this, we're looking for theological order. I mean,

I want geographical order and Amanda back to the question. Would that be, yeah. That

would help, yeah. And I mean, I honestly see some geographical order, but John

Oswald says no, and he's Isaiah Man, so who am I? Okay. All right. All right.

Who am I? I can accept that. Yeah. We didn't say what geographical order. Yeah.

Yeah. Could be drawing a smiley face. You don't know. Yes. Yeah. But this

collection, this 13 through 23, in my substratta of the book,

I call it the Oracles oracles against the nations. So if I were showing you a

chart, I would look at this collection right here. And then it's book ended with 28

through 34 as oracles or a series of woes against Israel.

So the oracles against the nation, now we have the book end, the woes against

Israel and sandwiched in between, might be the hardest stuff in the book,

which is called The Little Apocalypse, 24 through 27.

And you can hear apocalyptic in that word, which is,

it's all going to burn. So, as we look at this structure, I honestly see the

rhetorical structure of Romans one through three, the Gentiles have all sinned and

they are looking at the penalty of hell and death. - Yeah. - The Jews have all

sinned and they are looking at the penalty of hell and death, but God,

but God. - Oh, wow. - That's what I see in this session. - I'm just taking notes.

- Oh, thank you.

- If you see, if you're curious why I'm I'm silent. I'm just, I know what you are

saying, Alana. Scrawly. Yeah, but you're using your really cool glasses to do it. So

that's, that helps at all. It just looks more studious. Okay,

that helps. It helps immensely. It does. And it really, our view that we're getting

in this entire book of Isaiah is it is, for all practical purposes,

if I were Isaiah, this would feel global to me, right? Like this would feel like

the whole world is accountable for sin. Yes. Okay.

And I think also what's happening is that kind of two things at play, both the

Lord is using the nations to sort of implement his judgment on Israel and the the

Lord is judging the nations. - Yes, and I just got to jump in there. When it comes

to the prophets, that's one of the things that always just makes me chuckle a

little bit. And again, I think about a local pastor, I think about moms,

right? How many times are we just ready to, we're just ready,

my gosh, to tear the limbs off our own children? We're just Like if you do that

again, I don't know what I'm gonna do. I'm absolutely gonna lose it. Yeah, what's

it? When will your frontal lobe develop? Yes. Yes. I am going to last night I am

sending you to your room right now because I want you to survive to see your

adulthood This is not about you anymore. This is about me in your room before I

hurt you, right? So that passion emerges in our parenting. But if anyone lays a

hand on my kids, I will break their legs. Yeah. And that's what I see in the

prophets over and over again, because they love so fiercely.

They are all in Israel's face. But the folks who actually wind up being the

instrument of judgment, Give me a second, because I'm coming after you.

- I'm coming after you, yeah. - I see this all the time in the prophets, and Isaiah

is doing it for sure. - Yeah, yeah. - Oh, that's a really interesting parallel. That

connects, that makes sense. Well, here we are in Isaiah chapter 13, and truly this

reading, y 'all listening, this reading this week is one pronouncement against a

nation after another. I mean, just truly one after another. And like Sandy said,

like, not really necessarily chronological order. Again, like, not really geographical

order. But we are, one of the reasons we're reading this, and there are many, but

it is one baseline reason is the exercise of knowing what scripture says. Yes.

Baseline. Yeah. No. So we've kind of all talked about what Isaiah says, but We are

this week going to go through the exercise of reading these pronouncements against

Babylon. Because to simply hear the three of us gals talking about this and be

like, "Okay, so I understand what this week is about. Thank you for summarizing. Now

I'm checked. That's good." But when you actually read these and read these

pronouncements, you're going to, A, you're going to know what scripture says and not

just hear about what scripture says. And there is a difference, but two, and this

is something, Sandy, I imagine you would probably co -sign, but Christy last week was

just like, Hey, read this, knowing that there was an initial audience, initial

setting, and then go for a walk and talk to the Lord about, Hey, like you

pronounce judgment against these people for these things, whittling idols out of wood.

I'm not currently and idols out of wood, but Lord, what am I doing? What is like

that that you can like root out in me? Like we talk about that we're reading the

book of Isaiah for Lent. And so layering that in and just going like the action of

Lent and that like walking toward the cross, walking toward a resurrection, these

pronouncements, these oracles are worth reading the words of them. And so that's just

my little underline encouragement aside to our listeners, please don't choose the

route of hearing about the scripture and not reading the words of scripture. Don't

outsource your Bible reading, Tess. Amen. Amen. Yeah. One thing, when you all invited

me and you invited for this passage and sent your incredibly beautiful book,

here's my shout -out for a moment. I publish stuff all the time. This book is

beautiful and the beauty makes me want to engage it which is kind of brilliant on

your part so such kudos and the cover the cover which he will save us I want to

encourage your readers as well that as they slog through these oracles of judgment

And it's like, you know, I'm just getting, I'm getting hit from all sides as I'm

reading these things. And I'm so grateful I'm not Babylon or Edom or Tyre,

right? I want to also set this chunk of oracles in the context of the larger book.

And speaking back to your study, which is the first half of the book, which runs

from chapter one to chapter 39,

is almost all about judgment. It's almost all about,

this is what I say in my classes, Israel as she was. The second half of the book

is almost all about Israel as she will be. And so this first half of the book is

just blow after blow of you cannot save yourself.

A catalog of crimes, a catalog of weaknesses. We have, A has the faithless king,

then we have Hezekiah, we're thinking, oh, Hezekiah's gonna do it, oh, crash and

burn. He doesn't do it either. Okay, so we close down this first half and we are

tempted to be hopeless. But the second half of the book introduces the new servant

who replaces the old servant that would be Israel. And the new servant steps in and

redeems all of this. So with the pattern that you guys are doing, what is lent

about helping us recognize the weight of our crimes. That's what your section is

doing. And it's heavy. It's heavy, it's heavy. If your people need a little bit of

relief, they might want to flip over to chapter 35, you know, and this is a first

announcement of this is not the end of the story. So I just wanted to sort of

throw that in there. That's good. That's a good thing. That is good. It is good.

You know, the title of the series, "Being He Will Save Us." I love that as well.

And something that I don't know if I just didn't know about Isaiah or I'd

forgotten, but a note in the beginning of the book in kind of the introductory

material notes that the word salvation appears almost 30 times in the book of

Isaiah, but only about 10 times in all of the other prophetic books combined.

So That's intentional. That's not, you know, that's not accidental. So I love that.

And that Isaiah's name means, yeah, we say this. Yeah. Yeah.

We should all do the Hebrew together. I want to hear you say it. I want to hear

you say it. It's so funny because these names have become so beautiful to us in

English. And then we hear them in Hebrew and we're like, Oh, yes, she Yahoo. Yes,

she Yahoo. Yes, she Yahoo. But here's the other thing that only appears in the book

of - Isaiah, the Holy One of Israel. - Really? - That tagline,

well, it starts here at least. - Yeah. - That tagline for who Yahweh is.

- Isaiah 43, right? - Well, it's scattered all throughout. Okay, I'm hearing it in

Isaiah 43, but I'm sure it's scattered. That's cool. - The Holy One of Israel. And

when you see in my mind's eye, Isaiah preaching, and he has so many hard things to

say. Yeah. But he is constantly referring to our God as the Holy One of Israel.

A, he's holy. So yeah, be ye holy as I am holy. Like this is,

this is our God. But he's the Holy One of Israel. He belongs.

Yeah. And he belongs to Israel. And as we approach him, what else can we see but

our crimes? What else can we see but our brokenness? - Hmm. - Yeah. - Hmm.

- You want to get to the actual scripture, I know you do. - All right, let's do.

- Let's do. - We do love the actual scripture. I mean, here's the thing, when we

read today, we will likely be reading a pronouncement of judgment. Like that is what

we're going to be reading. And like you said, Sandy, there is the like, I want to

skip ahead to the good part. But fortunately, Kayla on our team for this book was

responsible for sort of curating the additional readings as going deeper passages. And

she very generously kind of included these little like hopeful moments like you kind

of how you said like, you know, this is is Israel as they have been, what Israel

as it will be. I loved that, by the way. But even as we go through, you know, on

day nine we have from Hebrews one, it's just I'm grateful for the little breaths of

air at the end of even every day's reading. If there were any doubt that we needed

to be born again, if there were any doubt that we needed to be resurrected into

his identity instead of our own. I would say your section of reading this week kind

of eradicates any doubt. - That's good. - Yeah. - Yeah, that's how it felt to me as

I was reading, as like, oh, this is how bad it really is. And we talked a little

bit last week about how, you know, that first of all, that God doesn't leave us,

that that is, you know, going into those valleys and the darkness like that is, he

does not abandon us, but also just that knowing that these dark parts in scripture

indicate that he sees and knows the pain and oppression and destruction that is

present on the earth. And so I have to keep reminding myself of that because there

is some really difficult passages, and then you read chapter 13 is just a rough go,

right? And then you turn the page to chapter 14 and the first verse is,

"For the Lord will have compassion on Jacob and will choose Israel again." And I

mean, isn't that the Old Testament in a nutshell is just that the Lord chooses

Israel again and again and again and again, and reiterates, hey,

I've still chosen you. I haven't changed my mind. - Even as we go forward into

chapter 17, where we have the pronouncement against Damascus, then against Israel

itself, I'll read some from verse 11, "On that day you plant, you will help them

grow. In the morning you will help your seed to sprout, but harvest will vanish. On

the day of disease and incurable pain." Like This is what like you heard me start

to read that and assume that the harvest was coming Yeah, but no, no, no, but the

harvest will vanish Yeah, and then it goes from there into verse 12 this judgment

against the nations Ah, the roar of many peoples they roar like the roaring of the

seas the raging of the nations They rage like the rumble of rushing water the

nations rage like the rumble of a huge torrent He rebukes them and they flee far

away, driven before the wind, like chaff of the hills and like tumbleweeds before a

gale. In the evening, sudden terror. Before morning, it is gone. This is the fate

of those who plunder us and the lot of those who ravage us. It's just

heartbreakingly plain. And then we'll say like,

you know, the very next chapter is 18 and in verse four, it says, "For the Lord

said to me, I will quietly look out for my place, like shimmering heat in the

sunshine, like a rain cloud in the harvest heat. And reading that, like that quietly

looking out, it's just like the Lord kind of patiently observing the rebellion of

the nations. He's just, he's watching it kind of like you, you likened it to a

parent, you know? Yeah. Just, I'm going to, right now I'm watching. We can't make

good choices for them. I'm watching. Yeah, so we and if you take that back those

images that you're highlighting back to chapter one Which remember these oracles are

not in chronological order. They're in theological So isaias starts the whole book

with what I would call a covenant lawsuit And this is a real form Meaning it's a

literary form among the prophets Where The prophet is taking the role of prosecuting

attorney and he's prosecuting on behalf of his client Yahweh and the accused is

Israel. In that lawsuit he uses that image of a parent to child and the business

about I have disciplined you from every possible angle to the point where I'm

bordering on abuse and I still can't get you to hear me.

I've raised you, I've nurtured you but you are stubborn like a donkey,

you are dumb like an ox and whereas my ox and my donkey know where to find food

you know when I show up at sunrise with cord of grain to dump into their food

trough they're rattling the food trough waiting, you don't even know that you're

getting your grain from me. And that lawsuit is coming all the way through this

section of scripture in 13 through 23. And as we said, the lawsuit is directed to

the nations, but the lawsuit is directed at Israel as well. It's interesting to

think of it as a lawsuit because that actually helps me understand the lack of

chronology. Because if you were presenting a case, like there would be elements of

chronological order. But also, you would just have all these pieces of evidence that

you would present it in the way that's the most effective, not necessarily like,

well, then this happened, then this happened, you know, like, it's interesting to

think about it as like different pieces of evidence or part of the same case. Yeah.

And this larger section, so the oracles against the nations that were in this week,

which is all of these nations that I'm happy to help your audience figure out where

they are, but of course, the names sound foreign. Then this little apocalypse, which

is all about the day of Yahweh, and then the series of woes against Israel,

okay, the believers have failed as well. So these themselves are sandwiched between

the story of Ahaz, which is chronological, and the story of Hezekiah, which is

chronological. Okay. So the structuring is actually super complex,

but it's all on purpose to again communicate this idea that I can look under every

rock in every tree, I can look northwest, east and south, and all I see is sin

and rebellion and the brokenness of ineffective discipline.

What am I going to do? What am I going to do with you?

Yeah. So, I know there's so much scripture here that we can dig into, but what I

wonder is, how do we read,

you know, we're talking a lot about where this is in space, time history, which is,

is really important. And, you know, Isaiah is just saying like, Hey, there's judgment

that you brought on yourselves that is already happening. You can see by the

conditions that you're in and how destructive everything is. And then also, there is

judgment that is coming. We know that like exile is coming and you know, they'll be

conquered and driven out to exile And so we've got that like sort of picture of

that's what's happening And so I'm thinking of our readers during Lent and we're

reading this chapter by chapter You know just trying to to hear the warning to hear

the heart of the father God to hear The invitation because there is the invitation

in here to return, to turn. We don't have to do what we see Israel doing over and

over and over again in Isaiah and I'm wondering if the three of us can talk for a

few minutes about how we as we're reading through this can find ourselves in here

because a lot of this imagery is foreign and is really severe and more severe than

we are seeing probably like in our own hearts and lives. However, it's sin and we

know sin. We've done that, like, you know, that's a real reality in our lives.

What'd you say to that? Like, how do we connect that? - Well, I would say that, I

mean, as we try to categorize the sins that are named in these lower calls, one

that comes through all the time is arrogance, right? This arrogance of the nations

who think they don't need Yahweh, who think they have a better plan than Yahweh,

and who think, and this would be the nations, that because they have succeeded

economically better than Israel might have succeeded Economically that they are

therefore better than Israel and therefore their gods are better than Israel. I bet

we could tag into that a good bit Yeah, I think so. Yeah And then I think another

crime that gets named all the time here is this business of worshiping other gods

following after Elohim Acharim, that's the phrase that starts in Deuteronomy and gets

repeated over and over and over again. - You mentioned the arrogance. That was

something that I noticed in chapter 22, just like that pride, you know, the Lord is

saying, you counted the houses of Jerusalem so that you could tear them down to

fortify the wall. You made a reservoir between the walls for the water for the

ancient pool, but you didn't look to the one who made it or consider the one who

created it long ago. And then it gets into this thing where it says, On that day,

the Lord God of armies called for weeping, for wailing, for shaving heads, and for

the wearing of sat cloth. But look, joy and gladness, butchering of cattle,

slaughtering of sheep and goats, eating of me and drinking of wine, quote, let's eat

and drink for tomorrow we die. The Lord of armies has directly revealed to me,

this iniquity will not be wiped out for you people as long as you live. That's the

pride. It's the like actually we love our sin. Let's throw a parade, right? Yeah,

and the other thing that's really hard about this chapter is Isaiah is talking about

Hezekiah in this chapter. Okay. Hezekiah who rebuilt the wall it's Hezekiah who dug

the reservoir and Hezekiah is our hero in the book of Isaiah, right?

He did really good things. He save the nation. And yet, even our heroes can't save

us. You know, even our heroes are vulnerable to these crimes.

And so, whereas when we get to the section on Hezekiah in Isaiah,

which is chapters 36 through 39, and Hezekiah's courage and his willingness to listen

to the prophet will be celebrated, even he can't save us. Which is a really hard

message. Can I just have a black and white hero, please? You know, can't this just

be Aragorn, you know, who never fails me? Can't this be that person who I can

admire at all costs? And the answer is no. And this is why the second half of the

book where the servant Israel is reborn in that type man,

the servant, who is so mysterious, by the way, they didn't figure it. The Jews and

all the intertestmental literature, no one could figure out who the servant was.

Brevard Childs, yeah, Brevard Childs, he's the patriarch of the Yale school, really

big name. He makes the statement that unlike everything else in this book.

That the prophet himself does not know who the servant is, but he knows that this

material is divine and must be recorded. And when we get in the story,

the Lenten story, it is only after the crucifixion and resurrection that the writers

in the New Testament start applying the servant language to Jesus. They didn't get

it. And the idea that one servant has to die in their sin so that another servant

can be resurrected. How can an entire nation die for its crimes and yet live?

How can one man be both a nation and an individual? How can an old servant be

replaced by a new servant? How can that happen? And of course, it can't happen,

according to any of the structures that our old covenant readers are reading.

It's this mystery that our prophet can see and can't fully understand.

And I know that's not our collection, but our collection just leaves us dead in the

water. Yeah, unless we're looking forward to Easter. Yeah. And it makes it all the

more like staggering than it already is to think about Jesus standing up in the

synagogue and reading from the school of Isaiah and saying, like, this is fulfilled

in my reading. - Yeah. - Yeah. - Yeah, I'm standing in front of you and this is

being fulfilled. And it also makes sense, Rachel, why they start trying to stone

him. - They didn't love it. - They didn't love it. - No, they didn't love it. - That

was not like a, oh, amazing, like it was not tenderly received. underly received.

- This is not the warm fuzzy moment in my small group Bible study. - No one

Instagram that, like, what a special one. - You know, it's interesting in that, a

theory will be destroyed, in that chapter 14, there's this line in 26 that says,

"This is the plan prepared for the whole earth." And this is the hand stretched out

against all the nations. The Lord of armies himself has planned it. Therefore, who

can stand in its way? It is his hand that is outstretched. So who can turn it

back like it's that like irresistible judgment like this is happening the judgment of

the Lord is happening and there is also in Isaiah he gets to it he gets to the

hope but like the judgment comes for us all and unless we are covered by the blood

of Christ the servant amen it comes for us all yeah and the arrogance again

circling back to that That these mighty empires and they are mighty empires.

There's no question. They are at the top of their game They think they can defend

themselves. Yes, they think they can defend themselves They thought they had hope

they don't need this. Oh, they don't need they were there. Yeah. Yes I mean you

look in like this was back when we were reading and for Thursday's reading of this

week But in chapter 20 verse 5 Those who made Kush their hope and Egypt their

boast will be dismayed and ashamed. Like there's just so many examples of that back

in 19 verse one, Egypt's worthless idols will tremble before him and Egypt will lose

heart. Like they've placed their hope somewhere, but they have willingly placed it in

places that are not Yahweh and in people, you know, in people that will fail and

and idols that will physically crumble. I mean, it goes back to that, what you were

reading, Rachel, in chapter 22 of that the Lord's calling for repentance and mourning

for their sin, but what they do is a party instead. And they're like, woohoo,

it reminds me of golden calf times and Exodus where they,

you know, Moses is on the mountain and is like, "What is that? What do we hear?

We hear their party." Yeah. We hear a party. Yeah. Yeah. They're partying around

their idol. Yeah. Yeah. And the idol in particular,

not all of these idols, but Baal, of course, is a leading character for the nations

that immediately surround Israel. So Damascus, Moab, Edom, even even Philistia are

gonna have some incarnation of Baal and the whole business that they're bringing

their gifts to these temples they're bringing wine and sacrificial animals and grain

as gifts to this deity and over and over again you're gonna hear Yahweh saying wait

I gave you that stuff yeah and now you're giving it to my rival I'm mad.

Yeah. I'm watching. I don't like what I'm seeing. Yeah. Yeah. And in fact, the only

place where the day of the Lord shows up in your collection is at the very

beginning, which is a program. So we're looking at 13 verses 6 and following,

whale, whale, for the day of the Lord is near. It will come in destruction from

the Almighty. Therefore everyone's hands will become weak and every man will lose

heart. They will be horrified pain and agony will seize them They will be an

anguished like a woman in labor. They will look at each other their faces flushed

with fear Look the day of the Lord is coming Cruel with fury and burning anger to

make the earth a desolation and to destroy its sinners - Yeah,

and so there is, when the three of us hear the day of the Lord,

there is both a like holy fear and a flutter of hope.

- Yes. - Of like, rescue me, come and rescue me. - Yes. - Right? - Yeah.

- Literally, I have in front of me right now on page 55, day eight, Romans chapter

11, and I am gonna read it starting in verse 30 because I think we're right there

right now. It's a good benediction for a conversation, yeah. As you once disobeyed

God, but now have received mercy through their disobedience. So they too have

disobeyed, resulting in mercy to you, so that they may also now receive mercy, for

God has imprisoned all in disobedience so that he may have mercy on all. What is

that? And then the hymn of praise, oh, the depth of riches and the wisdom and the

knowledge of God, how unsearchable his judgments, how untraceable his ways, for who

has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor, and who has ever

given to God that he should be repaid? For from him, and through him, and to him

are all things. To him be the glory forever. Amen.

That's kind of way you have to end the reading of Isaiah oracles. Yeah, at least

this chunk, for sure. At least this chunk, we're about to get into the apocalyptic

section, it sounds like. Yeah, and you will have lots. Come back next week. You

will have lots of day of the Lord, but you'll also have a hymn of praise tucked

in the middle. You know, Rachel, listening to you read Romans 11, I am more

convinced than ever that Paul might actually be using this section of Isaiah to come

up with this argument, that the oracles against the nations, they have all sinned.

A series of woes against Israel, the believers have all sinned. And the only answer

is for the God of Eden to reconquer Adam's world.

Yeah. - He certainly would have known the passages. - Yeah, he have. Yeah. And Paul's

pretty smart too. I'm looking at my diagram I have up on my other screen. Yeah.

Thank you for that. Yeah. Well, thank you, Sandy. You're just a delight to read

scripture with. Thank you. I would like to just slide. A delight to do about

anything with. I've really enjoyed this. Thank you. I would like to just write all

of my Old Testament questions on little pieces of paper and slide them across the

table to you one at a time. I continue to study scripture, but I know you also

are a fellow student. And so I really, I love that about your posture toward

scripture. So thank you. - I'm grateful for the discipline of being asked to go

through and reread these things and to sit with them. And yeah, like, 'cause you

both have said, we tend to talk about this stuff. do we, you know, do we actually

read it? So, thank you for asking me to pause in my life schedule and reread

chapters 13 through 23. That's right. I mean, that's, I was saying that to my

husband, Ryan, this morning, like we were having coffee and he was, I don't know,

he was working on something and I had Isaiah open and I was a little bit

complaining I'm like, I have to read like 10 chapters in a minute.

- I think this is done before. - I have to get this done and not the, I get to

like, as my job, I get to sit in the Word and I'm so grateful.

I really just stopped mid -sentence and I was like, what am I saying? I'm like,

Ryan, what am I saying? Like I, this is such a privilege that I get to read

Isaiah and I have this, like what a gift and Get to talk with Christy and Sandy

and I get to learn anyway, so it's just you're right like it's It's a get -to.

It's so fun. So thanks for including me in your gift So I will be blessed the

rest of the day. Yeah. Well friends listening I'm sure you two are also thankful

not you two like it's only two of you you also

Thankful for this hour - It's at least both of our moms. - At least both of our

moms aren't listening. - You're sure of that. - At all times. - For two or more.

- At all times.

- I am trying to think of things I need to remind y 'all listening of. One thing,

you know, we're in Lent right now, which leads into Holy Week and comes out at

Easter. And then as women in the Word of God every day, we're always reading

something. So when we finish on Easter Sunday, we will be opening another book on

the Monday following on what's the date, Amanda? April 21st. April 21st,

we'll be reading The Attributes of God, which is so neat to come out of Isaiah,

come out of Holy Week, come out of Lent and just go, "Okay, what are the

attributes of this God that we have been studying? Let's look at it from this

angle. What is God like?" Anyway, so excited about that. You guys who are

subscribers, don't worry a bit. Your books are on the way. And if you are not a

subscriber, Come one or order a book at shop she reads truth calm because that'll

be a great one You're gonna want those visuals in front of you of all of the

things and it's a beautiful book We have a really fun line up and really the last

piece of housekeeping is sandy. Yes until next week What do we tell our friends?

Keep opening your Bible

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