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Morning Devotion for the Season of Epiphany
January 13, 2025
Reading: Isaiah 43:1-7
Thus says the Lord,
he who created you, O Jacob,
he who formed you, O Israel:
Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by name, you are mine.
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you.
When you walk through fire you shall not be burned,
and the flame shall not consume you.
For I am the Lord your God,
the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.
The voice of the Lord is a powerful voice;
the voice of the Lord is a voice of splendor.
The voice of the Lord breaks the cedar trees;
the Lord breaks the cedars of Lebanon.
He makes Lebanon skip like a calf,
and Mount Hermon like a young wild ox.
The voice of the Lord splits the flames of fire;
the voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness;
the Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh.
The voice of the Lord makes the oak trees writhe
and strips the forests bare.
And in the temple of the Lord
all are crying, "Glory!"
The Lord sits enthroned above the flood;
the Lord sits enthroned as King for evermore.
The Lord shall give strength to his people;
the Lord shall give his people the blessing of peace.
Meditation by Glenn Beamer
The beginning of the reading from Isaiah can bring us comfort – the security to know that God, who created Jacob and formed Israel, has called us by name and has redeemed us as his own. But then the reading becomes a dicey. Isaiah tells us that the God who redeems us is a powerful God who “split the flames of fire,” and “shakes the wilderness.” While we are situated among these floods and fires, God is enthroned above to give strength to his people and the blessing of peace.
For myself, I’ve resolved the tension between the God who names us and the God who is enthroned on high, by coming to understand that in naming us, as he named Jacob, God is not then casting us into a tumultuous, unpredictable and sometimes nasty world. Rather he is providing us with the cloak of his Peace to go forward into the tumultuous world. Isaiah makes clear that God has great power, and he has an even greater connectedness and care that enables us to move into the world as his disciples on earth.
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