“Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?” Then I said, “Here am I. Send me!””

‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭6‬:‭8‬ ‭NASB1995‬‬

After Isaiah is cleansed by the burning coal on his lips, He hears God speak a question! Does the God of the Universe, who knows all that will come to pass, really need to ask a question or should He just direct Isaiah to be the one that is sent? Also, the question starts in the first person and ends with “who will go for us?”

There are some interesting elements in that voice and question of the Lord.

1. God actually speaks words that can be heard to His prophets directly.

2. He wants volunteers. He knows that Isaiah is there in the vision, but yet He gives Isaiah the opportunity to volunteer to do this task as His prophet by asking the question and not just directing him. He wants righteous people to speak for Him, not angels. Isaiah enthusiastically volunteers! He doesn’t hesitate but accepts the commission the Lord is giving him.

3. God knows that Isaiah will be His voice to the people, so in my humble opinion the question is entirely rhetorical and is a way of the Lord communicating with the trembling prophet (wouldn’t you be trembling?).

4. There are many Biblical scholars who believe the use of the plural reference is a reference to the Trinity. God would likely not consult with seraphim and other heavenly beings, but the perfect Trinity itself would be represented by Isaiah. This makes sense as we start seeing some prophecies about the Messiah coming soon.

Enduring Word commentary has this to say about this verse:

a. Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us? God looked for someone to send. He wanted someone to go.

• i. How strange it is for God to ask a question at all! What does God wonder about? What questions would He have? What does God not know? But God was asking for a person because God wants to reach the world, and He wants to reach it through willing people. It isn’t that God doesn’t know who these people are. It is that God is waiting for ready hearts to reveal themselves.

• ii. How strange it is that this God of majesty, sovereignty, and power asks for volunteers! He could easily create robots to do His work or command angels to carry out His will. But God wants willing, surrendered servants. Have you been waiting for God to force you to serve Him? He looks for volunteers.

b. Whom shall I send: This means that the missionary, the Christian worker, the witness of Jesus Christ, is sent. This is a divine commission. Who will go for Us means that the missionary, the Christian worker, the witness of Jesus Christ, has decided to go. God’s divine will to send and the human will to go are in perfect cooperation.

• i. Here we see another subtle reference to the Trinity. Who is sending? I or Us? It seems to be the same Person speaking in both the singular and the plural. It is the same Person! “The change of the number, I and us, is very remarkable; and both being meant of one and the same Lord, do sufficiently intimate a plurality of the persons in the Godhead.” (Poole)

c. Here am I! Send me: Isaiah emphatically answered God’s call. He did not hesitate. Isaiah wanted to be the answer to God’s question.

• i. What created this kind of heart in Isaiah? First, he had a heart that had been in the presence of God. He had a heart that knew its own sinfulness. He had a heart that knew the need among the people, the need for God’s word. He had a heart that had been touched by God’s cleansing fire. And he had a heart that heard God’s heart to reach the nations.

d. Send me: This meant Isaiah was submitted to the LORD in all his service. He didn’t even say, “Here I am, I will go.” Isaiah would not go at all unless he knew he was sent by the LORD. Many are quick to say, “Here I am, I will go” but never wait for the LORD to send them.

An interesting point is made in this commentary that we sometimes think we know what God wants us to do and we jump ahead of the game instead of waiting for Him to send us. Isaiah did not say he would go, but that he wanted to be sent and understood that obedience is part of that mission.

It’s important to review the chronology of events: first, Isaiah saw the heavenly throne and seraphim, then he confessed his miserable sinfulness, then he was cleansed by the burning coal and forgiven, then he was able to hear the voice of the Lord calling him to service. J. Vernon McGee touches on this in commentary quoted in Precept Austin:

It is interesting that up to this time Isaiah had never heard the call of God. I think many Christians have never felt like they were called to do anything for God because they have never been cleansed. They have not seen this great need as Christians. God is not going to use a dirty vessel, I can assure you of that. It is true that God does bless His Word even when it is given out by those who are playing around with sin, but in time God judges them severely. I don't dare mention any names, but I have known certain ministers who for awhile enjoyed the blessing of God. Then they got into sin, and it wasn't long until the judgment of God fell upon them.

My next devotional examines Isaiah 6:9-10 - A difficult mission for Isaiah.

Heaven on Wheels Daily Prayer:

Dear Lord - Here I am! Send me! Amen.

Citations and Credits:

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. www.Lockman.org.

Precept Austin was accessed on 09/13/2026 to review commentary for Isaiah 6:8.

Commentary from Enduring Word is used with written permission and without any alteration. ©1996-present The Enduring Word Bible Commentary by David Guzik – enduringword.com. At the link referenced, the bibliography used by David Guzik can be accessed.

Image generated by ChatGPT (OpenAI) using the DALL·E model.

The Epistle of James was written to address a large audience of Jews who had either begun following the teachings of Christ, had fully embraced the precepts of Christianity, or who were curious about whether or not Jesus had truly been the Messiah. It’s a short epistle with only five chapters, and chapter four covers three overriding topics — friendship with the world, judging a brother, and a warning against boasting.

Today’s verse comes from that second topic — judging a brother. James begins with the statement “There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy”. This is a reminder that God — and ONLY God — has the supreme authority to command, define what is righteous, and to hand down the final judgment. While humans can administer justice, they do not have God’s absolute authority over conscience, behavior, and eventual destiny.

God’s role as the ultimate lawgiver was defined early on in the Bible, when He gave His law to the people through Moses, revealed His holy character, and set out His will for His people. Need a refresher? Take a look at Exodus 20, where God sets out the Ten Commandments and discourages idolatry. Barb hasn’t gotten to Isaiah 33 in her ongoing examination of his prophecies, which is where the prophet proclaims in verse 22:

God is the lawgiver, judge, and King. He is also “the one who is able to save and destroy.”‭‭ The judgment of the Lord isn’t just a hypothetical, and it comes in power. Those who turn to Him in faith are blessed with salvation, and He condemns those who rebel against His laws and are unrepentant in their sin. Jesus warned us that the Father has final authority over body and soul, and He should be feared above any human:

Sin is serious business — God’s ability to judge and destroy is evidence of that. On the other hand, He provides salvation to believers who confess and repent of their sin, displaying the mercy accomplished through the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ. In the end, God alone is the only judge (see Revelation 20:11-15 for the sobering details).

The verse ends with the words “But you—who are you to judge your neighbor?” We simply do not have the authority to do so, yet as sinners lacking in humility, we think we can. We judge our neighbors when we criticize their driving ability, their apparent lack of common sense, their political, religous, or social leanings, or just don’t “like the way they look”. David Guzik of Enduring Word cited two commentators on the topic of assuming God’s role and judging others:

This one short verse is an excellent reminder to humbly accept others as they are, and to let God alone be the judge of what is right or wrong. If only we could all live this lesson each and every day…

Heaven On Wheels Daily Prayer:

Heavenly Father, Thank You for Your wisdom and for reminding me that You alone are the true judge. Help me to cultivate humility and to focus on my own actions rather than judging others. Teach me to remember that only You have the authority to save or condemn, and direct my behavior away from judgment and toward reflecting Your love and grace. AMEN

Scripture quotations taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica US, Inc.®. Used by permission.

Commentary quotations from Enduring Word are used with the written permission of the author and reproduced here in their original format. © 1996-present The Enduring Word Bible Commentary by David Guzik – enduringword.com

BibleHub was accessed on September 12, 2026 for commentary on James 4:12

Burdick, Donald W. “James: The Expositor’s Bible Commentary” Volume 12 (Hebrews-Revelation) (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 1981)

Poole, Matthew “A Commentary on the Holy Bible” Volume 3 (Matthew-Revelation) (London: Banner of Truth Trust, 1969)

“Then I said,

“Woe is me, for I am ruined!

Because I am a man of unclean lips,

And I live among a people of unclean lips;

For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.”

Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal in his hand, which he had taken from the altar with tongs. He touched my mouth with it and said, “Behold, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away and your sin is forgiven.””

‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭6‬:‭5‬-‭7‬ ‭NASB1995‬‬

I am often bemused (or disturbed) by people who claim that when they die and supposedly reach heaven, they are going to stand there and waggle a finger and give God an earful of complaints about the injustices and inequities that happened in their lives. I think their real reaction would be more like Isaiah’s, in that they would now realize how much of a miserable sinner they are when faced with a terrifying Holy God. Or perhaps they will react like Peter did, when he realized who Jesus was (my emphasis added):

“Now it happened that while the crowd was pressing around Him and listening to the word of God, He was standing by the lake of Gennesaret; and He saw two boats lying at the edge of the lake; but the fishermen had gotten out of them and were washing their nets. And He got into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, and asked him to put out a little way from the land. And He sat down and began teaching the people from the boat. When He had finished speaking, He said to Simon, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” Simon answered and said, “Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing, but I will do as You say and let down the nets.” When they had done this, they enclosed a great quantity of fish, and their nets began to break; so they signaled to their partners in the other boat for them to come and help them. And they came and filled both of the boats, so that they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw that, he fell down at Jesus’ feet, saying, “Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man!” For amazement had seized him and all his companions because of the catch of fish which they had taken; and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not fear, from now on you will be catching men.””

‭‭Luke‬ ‭5‬:‭1‬-‭10‬ ‭NASB1995‬‬

We are like rats scuttling around in the darkness, then the pure light of righteousness shines on us and we either freeze in place or scatter into the shadows. That light shows us as we really are. J. Vernon McGee has this to say about Isaiah (and others) and their reactions to a Holy God, as quoted in Precept Austin:

Isaiah was God’s man before he had this experience, but it still had a tremendous effect on him. The reaction of Isaiah to such a vision is revolutionary. He sees himself as he really is in the presence of God -- undone. It reveals to him his condition. When he had seen God, he could see himself. The problem with many of us today is that we don’t walk in the light of the Word of God. If we did, we would see ourselves. That is what John is talking about in the first chapter of his first epistle: “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth [keeps on cleansing] us from all sin” (1Jn 1:7). If we walk in the light of His Word, we are going to see exactly what Isaiah saw -- that we are undone and men of unclean lips. You have never really seen the Lord, my friend, if you feel that you are worthy or merit something or have some claim upon God.

Job had an experience similar to Isaiah’s, and his reaction was, “I abhor myself.” Job was a self-righteous man. He could maintain his integrity in the presence of his friends who were attempting to tear him to bits. They told him that he was a rotten sinner, but he looked them straight in the eye and said, “As far as I know, I am a righteous man.” From his viewpoint he was right, and he won the match against them. But he was not perfect. When Job came into the presence of God, he no longer wanted to talk about maintaining his righteousness. When Job really saw who he was, he said,

“I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes” (Job 42:5, 6).

If you walk in the light of the Word of God, you will see yourself, and you will know that even as a child of God you need the blood of Jesus Christ to cleanse you from all sin.

You will find that other men had the same reaction when they came into the presence of God. John, on the Isle of Patmos, wrote, “And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead … “ (Rev 1:17-note). When Daniel saw the Lord, he said, “Therefore I was left alone, and saw this great vision, and there remained no strength in me: for my comeliness was turned in me into corruption, and I retained no strength” (Da 10:8-note). That was also the experience of Saul of Tarsus, who became Paul the apostle. After Paul met the Lord, he no longer saw himself as a self-righteous Pharisee, but as a lost sinner in need of salvation. He then could say, “But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ” (Php 3:7-note). He saw his need of Jesus Christ.

Isaiah hears the beautiful singing of the seraphim and immediately realizes that he is ruined (using the words “woe is me”) because his lips are unclean and he lives with a people that have unclean lips. I recently cited part of this passage from Matthew but am repeating it again, because it reinforces the idea that our lips and mouths are sources of great sin:

“You hypocrites, rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you:

‘This people honors Me with their lips,

But their heart is far away from Me.

But in vain do they worship Me,

Teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.’ ”

After Jesus called the crowd to Him, He said to them, “Hear and understand. It is not what enters into the mouth that defiles the man, but what proceeds out of the mouth, this defiles the man.” Then the disciples *came and *said to Him, “Do You know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this statement?” But He answered and said, “Every plant which My heavenly Father did not plant shall be uprooted. Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind. And if a blind man guides a blind man, both will fall into a pit.”

Peter said to Him, “Explain the parable to us.” Jesus said, “Are you still lacking in understanding also? Do you not understand that everything that goes into the mouth passes into the stomach, and is eliminated? But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders. These are the things which defile the man; but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile the man.””

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭15‬:‭7‬-‭20‬ ‭NASB1995‬‬

I am convicted of my sin every time I read this passage. I still use swear words and occasionally take the name of the Lord in vain (I’m getting better - these are long-ingrained habits). I still prevaricate and slander others and lie with false flatteries and have evil thoughts. What goes into our sewers is much less filthy that what we humans bring out of our hearts and through our mouths.

The seraphim gathers a burning coal from the altar and brings it to Isaiah, touching it to Isaiah’s lips, telling Isaiah that his iniquity has been removed and his sin is forgiven. That sounds pretty painful and I’m so glad that my sins are forgiven by the atonement of our Lord Jesus on the cross.

This commentary from Enduring Word is quite good:

a. Woe is me, for I am undone: What made Isaiah feel like he was coming apart? Two things. First, the sight and sound of the seraphim. Second, the vision of the Lord GOD.

• i. When Isaiah saw the angels, in all their holy humility, obedience, and praise to God, he realized not only that he was unlike the Lord GOD, he was also unlike the angels. They could cry out Holy, holy, holy and praise God so beautifully, but he could not because he was a man of unclean lips. “I am a man of unclean lips; I cannot say, Holy, holy, holy! which the seraphs exclaim. They are holy; I am not so: they see God and live; I have seen him, and must die, because I am unholy.” (Clarke)

• ii. When Isaiah saw the LORD, he knew what kind of man he was. As poorly as he compared to the seraphim, that was nothing in relation to how he compared to the LORD. This vision (or actual experience) of the throne of God did not immediately make Isaiah feel good. The more clearly he saw the LORD, the more clearly he saw how bad his state was.

• iii. Isaiah’s deep sense of depravity is consistent with the experience of other godly men in the presence of the LORD. Job (Job 42:5-6), Daniel (Daniel 10:15-17), Peter (Luke 5:8) and John (Revelation 1:17) each had similar experiences.

• iv. I am undone is not a bad place to be. “God will never do anything with us till he has first of all undone us.” (Spurgeon)

b. Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: Isaiah saw his sinfulness, and the sinfulness of his people, mainly in terms of sinful speech.

• i. By nature, our lips are full of flattery and false intent: With flattering lips and a double heart they speak (Psalm 12:2). By nature, our lips lie and are proud: Let the lying lips be put to silence, which speak insolent things proudly and contemptuously against the righteous (Psalm 31:18). By nature, our lips deceive: Keep your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking deceit (Psalm 34:13). By nature, our lips are violent: Swords are in their lips (Psalm 59:7). By nature, our lips bring death to others: The poison of asps is under their lips (Psalm 140:3).

• ii. Isaiah did not think for a moment that this was his only sin, but he saw that this was an example of the great and incurable disease of sin in him and his people.

c. For my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts: Isaiah was a righteous, godly man by all outward appearance. Yet when he saw the enthroned King, the LORD of hosts, he saw how sinful he was in comparison.

• i. Isaiah’s life may have been as brilliant as a diamond. But when you lay a diamond against a perfectly black background and have the right light upon it, you can see every flaw and imperfection – flaws that were invisible before. Even so, when Isaiah’s righteous life lay against the background of God’s perfection, it looked different.

…

And he touched my mouth with it, and said:

“Behold, this has touched your lips;
Your iniquity is taken away,
And your sin purged.”

a. And he touched my mouth with it: This must have been painful; a burning hot coal applied to the lips, one of the more sensitive areas of the body. Yet, nothing is written that Isaiah reacted in pain. Either there was no pain, because of a special blessing by God, or the pain did not matter because of the majesty of the surroundings and the goodness of the cleansing.

• i. Isaiah knew he did not serve the LORD like these seraphim, the burning ones. So God said, “I will light a fire in you, also!” That is why a burning coal was used to purify Isaiah. “Jehovah, who is a consuming fire, can only fitly be served by those who are on fire, whether they be angels or men.” (Spurgeon)

• ii. Isaiah cried out, Woe is me, for I am undone! (Isaiah 6:5) We might think that a burning coal to the lips would be more painful than a vision of the holy God. But for Isaiah, it was more disturbing to see the holiness of God, and to see his lack of holiness, than it was to have a burning coal applied to his lips.

b. Your iniquity is taken away, and your sin purged: Isaiah’s sin had to be burned away; the fire of judgment was applied to his place of sin.

• i. This was obviously a spiritual transaction. If one has a sinful mouth, it will do nothing to place a burning hot coal on their lips. That will not take away or purge their sin.

• ii. Yet, the same principle works on our behalf in regard to Jesus’ work on Calvary. Our sin was placed upon Him, and He was burned with the fire of God’s judgment. Yet because He was holy and righteous Himself, the fire of God’s judgment did not harm Him; it only burned away the sin, our sin.

• iii. Once Isaiah had met with the LORD, been convicted of his sin, and cleansed from its guilt, then he was ready to serve God. “The effect of that live coal will be to fire the lip with heavenly flame. ‘Oh,’ says one man, ‘a flaming coal will burn the lip so that the man cannot speak at all.’ That is just how God works with us; it is by consuming the fleshly power that he inspires the heavenly might. Oh let the lip be burnt, let the fleshly power of eloquence be destroyed, but oh for that live coal to make the tongue eloquent with heaven’s flame; the true divine power which urged the Apostles forward, and made them conquerors of the whole world.” (Spurgeon)

We are undone by the presence of God. It is not an experience that makes Isaiah, a God-fearing and righteous man, feel good or at peace. We as believers in Christ can be eternally grateful that we will not be subjected to the Great White Throne judgment of those who do not believe (Revelation 20:11-15). No one will be stomping their feet and yelling at a perfect God, but they will have the deep and woeful understanding at last that they are bound for eternal and painful separation from that God. And hell will not be a party of unrepentant sinners high-fiving each other. Is this fair? God’s judgment and righteousness are always perfect and fair. It is up to us to catch the fire and go out into the world to preach Christ’s salvation to as many as possible before that judgment arrives.

My next devotional examines Isaiah 6:8 - Isaiah says “send me”.

Heaven on Wheels Daily Prayer:

Dear Lord - When I shine a light on myself from Your Word, I know that I am a dreadful sinner. I cannot express enough gratitude to You for Your salvation of miserable sinners. Please help me to bring Your message to many! Amen.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. www.Lockman.org.

Precept Austin was accessed on 09/11/2026 to review commentary for Isaiah 6:5-7.

Commentary from Enduring Word is used with written permission and without any alteration. ©1996-present The Enduring Word Bible Commentary by David Guzik – enduringword.com. At the link referenced, the bibliography used by David Guzik can be accessed.

Image generated by ChatGPT (OpenAI) using the DALL·E model.

We could certainly all use some wisdom, and today’s verse is from Solomon’s collected wise sayings, Proverbs.

Read More Of The Wisdom of Proverbs

What makes a nation great? Since the terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C. 25 years ago today, Americans may have asked that question. There are some that don’t find this nation to be exalted, although we have unparalleled economic prosperity. We have a strong military that is ranked at the top of all nations on earth, yet our status among nations is sub-par to Canada and Switzerland according to a 2025 poll of citizens of G-7 nations.

From a human perspective, things like the cultural influence of a nation or the victories of its athletes may make a country seem exalted. The United States has a huge cultural impact on the rest of the world through music, movies, fashion, technology and lifestyle, and in the 2024 Summer Olympic Games, the country’s athletes picked up a whopping 126 medals, 35 more than the next highest ranked country, China.

All of these things may seem to be important, but do they exalt a nation? The ancient Hebrew word translated here as exalt is רוּם (rûm), defined as “to be set on high”. In God’s eye, the only way a nation is truly set on high is through righteousness. That’s where America fails as a nation. The Bible Says had this observation:

How can a nation be truly exalted by God? Not through what we consider patriotism, nor through a powerful military, economic strength, or cultural influence. A nation that is filled with citizens who repent of their sin, then receive and pursue God’s righteousness in their lives will be exalted by God.

Bible Hub comments that:

Solomon follows his statement that “righteousness exalts a nation” by stating a truth: “sin condemns any people.” No society, regardless of its status amongst the nations, can escape the disgrace and breakdown brought on by widespread sin and wickedness. Sin is like corrosion on metal, eating away at a solid structure until it is weakened to the point of failure.

Once again from The Bible Says:

We can see the effect of unbridled sin on how it corrupts justice, with some women in the United States applauding a woman who admits to having murdered her three children. Sin and the embrace of sin destroys trust in everything; the justice system, government, law enforcement, churches, even brands — former shining athletic shoe brand Nike has seen its stock price fall almost 80% and has been removed from the Standard & Poor’s 100 list. Why? Many pundits point to the company’s embrace of “wokeness” as the cause — it just didn’t resonate well with much of its market.

Sin invites the judgment of God. Think of the Old Testament accounts of the fall of Samaria and Jerusalem; God’s chosen people, those He made a covenant with, were judged and punished when they became violent, unfaithful, and worshipped idols. Sodom and Gomorrah are examples of how God rained down ruin on two cities that thrived on wickedness.

Enduring Word provides this quote from English theologian Charles Bridges:

No nation, no ethnicity, no culture can survive the repercussions of rejecting God’s commands. All of earth’s people need the mercy and cleansing found in Jesus Christ.

Heaven On Wheels Daily Prayer:

Heavenly Father, we come before You recognizing that righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people. We ask for Your guidance to seek righteousness in our lives and in our nation. May we commit to praying for our leaders and our nation, strive to be examples of righteousness in our communities, and encourage others to seek Your face and turn towards You. AMEN.

Scripture quotations taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica US, Inc.®. Used by permission.

Commentary from The Bible Says © 2026 The Bible Says, All Rights Reserved

Commentary quotations from Enduring Word are used with the written permission of the author and reproduced here in their original format. © 1996-present The Enduring Word Bible Commentary by David Guzik – enduringword.com

BibleHub was accessed on September 10, 2026 for commentary on Proverbs 14:34

“In the year of King Uzziah’s death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple. Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called out to another and said,

“Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of hosts,

The whole earth is full of His glory.”

And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke.”

‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭6‬:‭1‬-‭4‬ ‭NASB1995‬‬

At the end of my last devotional, I said that I would do verses 1 & 2 in this devotional, but then I felt like verses 3 & 4 also belonged in the devotional once I started researching it.

Isaiah 6 starts with an amazing vision. Isaiah, in the year of King Uzziah’s death, sees the Lord sitting on a throne with the train of His robe filling the temple. The Lord is surrounded by seraphim, singing “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of hosts”. I think the AI image at the top is rather good and includes Isaiah in terror on the floor of the heavenly temple.

Biblical scholars are divided about this vision. Some believe that this was the inaugural vision for the prophecies of Isaiah (which means the first five chapters are out of sequence), while others feel that the first five chapters were an earlier vision and this is a new commission. Whatever the case, this fixes this event on a timeline in history. Here’s a timeline from Precept Austin showing the events (this timeline supports the opinion that this is the first vision for Isaiah):

790 - Uzziah (790-739BC) becomes king of Judah, reigns 52 years

759 - Jotham becomes king of Judah assuming reign when Uzziah becomes leprous

742 - Micah begins his prophetic ministry (cp ministry to Hezekiah Jer 26:18, 19, Mic 3:12)

739 - Isaiah begins prophetic ministry in year King Uzziah died (Isa 6:1f)

731 - Ahaz becomes king of Judah (2Ki 15:38, 16:1, 2Chr 28:1)

726 - Hezekiah becomes 12th king of Judah (2Ki 16:20, 18:1,2) and one of 3 best (2Ki 18:5)

722 - Shalmaneser (2Ki 17:3, 18:9) dies while besieging Samaria, Sargon seizes crown

722 - Sargon of Assyria (Sargon) (Is 20:1) conquers Samaria (2Ki 17:6, 18:9, 10, 11, 12)

701 - Sennacherib (son of Sargon) of Assyria lays siege to Jerusalem

695 - Manasseh becomes king of Judah (2Ki 21:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)

627 - Jeremiah begins prophetic ministry

586 - Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon conquers Judah

(Source: The Ryrie Study Bible: New American Standard Translation: 1995. Moody Publishers) Note that most of these dates are approximations and not indisputable facts. They are listed to help give the reader have a general idea of the relationship of historical events in Isaiah’s time.

The best commentary that I found on these first four verses is in Enduring Word so let’s take a look at that:

a. In the year that King Uzziah died: King Uzziah of Judah had a long and distinguished reign, described in 2 Chronicles 26 and in 2 Kings 15:1-7 (Uzziah is called Azariah in 2 Kings 15).

• i. Uzziah began his reign when he was only 16 years old, and he reigned 52 years. Overall, he was a good king, and 2 Kings 15:3 says, he did what was right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his father Amaziah had done. 2 Chronicles 26:5says, He sought God in the days of Zechariah, who had understanding in the visions of God; and as long as he sought the LORD, God made him prosper.

• ii. Uzziah also led Israel in military victories over the Philistines and other neighboring nations, and he was a strong king. Uzziah was an energetic builder, planner, and general. 2 Chronicles 26:8 says of Uzziah, His fame spread as far as the entrance of Egypt, for he became exceedingly strong.

• iii. But Uzziah’s life ended tragically. 2 Chronicles 26:16 says, but when he was strong his heart was lifted up, to his destruction, for he transgressed against the LORD his God by entering the temple of the LORD to burn incense on the altar of incense. In response, God struck Uzziah with leprosy, and he was an isolated leper until his death.

• iv. So, to say in the year King Uzziah died is to say a lot. It is to say, “In the year a great and wise king died.” But it is also to say, “In the year a great and wise king who had a tragic end died.” Isaiah had great reason to be discouraged and disillusioned at the death of King Uzziah, because a great king had passed away, and because his life ended tragically. Where was the LORD in all this?

b. I saw the LORD sitting on a throne: Where was the LORD in all this? The LORD was sitting on a throne! God was still enthroned in heaven and was still in charge of all creation.

• i. There is a throne in heaven, and the LORD God sits upon it as the sovereign ruler of the universe! This is the central fact of heaven; that there is an occupied throne in heaven. God does not sit on a chair in heaven. Anyone might sit on a chair. But sovereign kings sit on thrones. Judges sit on thrones. Those with proper authority and sovereignty sit on thrones.

• ii. Isaiah was not alone in seeing God’s throne. Almost everyone in the Bible who had a vision of heaven, was taken to heaven, or wrote about heaven spoke of God’s throne.

  • ·The prophet Michaiah saw God’s throne (1 Kings 22:19).

  • ·Job saw God’s throne (Job 26:9).

  • ·David saw God’s throne (Psalm 9:4 and 9:7, 11:4)

  • ·The Sons of Korah saw God’s throne (Psalm 45:6, 47:8).

  • ·Ethan the Ezrahite saw God’s throne (Psalm 89:14).

  • ·Jeremiah saw God’s throne (Lamentations 5:19)

  • Ezekiel saw God’s throne (Ezekiel 1:26, 10:1).

  • Daniel saw God’s throne (Daniel 7:9).

  • The Apostle John saw God’s throne (Revelation 4:1-11). In fact, the book of Revelation may as well be called “the book of God’s throne,” because God’s throne is specifically mentioned more than 35 times in that book.

• iii. The core belief of atheism or materialism is that there is no throne; there is no seat of authority or power all the universe must answer to. The core belief of humanism is that there is a throne – but man sits upon it. But the Bible makes it clear that there is a throne in heaven, and no fallen man sits on the throne, but the Lord GOD is enthroned in heaven.

• iv. Isaiah may have been depressed or discouraged because a great leader of Judah was no longer on the throne. God in heaven now shows Isaiah, “Don’t worry about it, Isaiah. Uzziah may not be on his throne, but I am on My throne.”

c. High and lifted up: The throne was exalted and majestic. The throne set its Occupant in a superior position.

d. The train of His robe filled the temple: Kings of that time would wear robes with long trains because they were difficult to maneuver and work in. Wearing a long train meant, “I am important enough that I don’t have to work. I am a person of honor and dignity. Others must serve me and wait upon me.” Essentially, the same is said when a bride wears a dress with a long train today.

• i. God is so honored, so important, so dignified, that the train of His robe filled the temple. That’s a long train.

e. Above it stood seraphim: Surrounding the throne of God are angels known here as seraphim. In many other passages, these angels are known as cherubim (Psalm 80:1; Isaiah 37:16; Ezekiel 10:3) or as the living creatures of Revelation 4:6-11. This is the only chapter in the Bible where these creatures are named seraphim.

• i. Some deny that cherubim and seraphim refer to the same beings. But the name seraphim means, “burning ones.” Ezekiel 1:13 describes cherubim (see also Ezekiel 10:15) this way: their appearance was like burning coals of fire, like the appearance of torches going back and forth among the living creatures. The fire was bright, and out of the fire went lightning. That certainly seems to describe burning ones.

f. Each one had six wings: In Revelation 4:8, the Apostle John also mentions their six wings. They need the six wings, so each can cover his face (to show they are too lowly to look upon the LORD), so each can cover his feet (to hide this “humble” area of the body, so nothing even possibly deficient is seen in the LORD’s presence), and so each can fly.

• i. The LORD said to Moses, “You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live” (Exodus 33:20). Apparently, the same is true even for angels, so the seraphim cover their faces.

• ii. “The two wings with which the angels fly mean nothing else than their ready and cheerful performance of the commandments of God…. The two wings with which they cover their face show plainly enough that even angels cannot endure God’s brightness, and that they are dazzled by it in the same manner as when we attempt to gaze upon the radiance of the sun.” (Calvin)

• iii. “For the seraph remembers that even though sinless he is yet a creature, and therefore he conceals himself in token of his nothingness and unworthiness in the presence of the thrice Holy One.” (Spurgeon)

g. Each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew: The seraphim used four of their wings to express their humility and used two of their wings to express their willingness and ability to serve God. This is the proper balance.

• i. “Thus they have four wings for adoration and two for active energy; four to conceal themselves, and two with which to occupy themselves in service; and we may learn from them that we shall serve God best when we are most deeply reverend and humbled in his presence. Veneration must be in larger proportion than vigor, adoration must exceed activity. As Mary at Jesus’ feet was preferred to Martha and her much serving, so must sacred reverence take the first place, and energetic service follow in due course.” (Spurgeon)

…

a. One cried to another and said: The seraphim are not even directly addressing the LORD God here. They are proclaiming His glorious nature and character to one another, in the presence of the LORD.

b. Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts: Why do they repeat “holy” three times? Wasn’t it enough to simply say that the LORD was “holy” once? It wasn’t enough. They say it three times because there are Three Persons in the One God.

• i. Calvin didn’t think that this was the best verse to prove the Trinity, but he still saw the truth of the Trinity here. “The ancients quoted this passage when they wished to prove that there are three persons in one essence of the Godhead…. I have no doubt that the angels here describe One God in Three Persons.”

c. Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts: Why do they repeat “holy” three times? Wasn’t it enough to simply say that the LORD was “holy” once? It wasn’t enough. In the Hebrew language, intensity is communicated by repetition. To say the LORD is holy says something. To say the LORD is holy, holy, says far more. To say, holy, holy, holy is the LORD is to declare His holiness in the highest possible degree.

• i. What does it mean that God is holy, and holy in the highest possible sense? Holiness, at its root, has the idea of apartness. It describes someone, or something, which is set apart from other people or things. An object can be holy if it is set apart for sacred service. A person is holy if they are set apart for God’s will and purpose.

• ii. What is the LORD set apart from? He is set apart from creation, in that the Lord GOD is not a creature, and He exists outside of all creation. If all creation were to dissolve, the Lord GOD would remain. He is set apart from humanity, in that His “nature” or “essence” is Divine, not human. God is not a super-man or the ultimate man. God is not merely smarter than any man, stronger than any man, older than any man, or better than any man. You can’t measure God on man’s chart at all. He is Divine, and we are human.

• iii. Yet, because we are made in the image of God (Genesis 1:26-27), humanity is compatible with Divinity. They are different, but they do not automatically oppose each other. This is how Jesus, the Second Person of the Trinity, could add humanity to His deity when He became a man. Unfallen humanity is not deity, but it is compatible with it.

• iv. God’s holiness is a part of everything He is and does. God’s power is a holy power. God’s love is a holy love. God’s wisdom is a holy wisdom. Holiness is not an aspect of God’s personality; it is one characteristic of His entire Being.

d. The whole earth is full of His glory: The seraphim surrounding the throne of God could see this probably more clearly than Isaiah could. We are often blind to the obvious glory of God all around us.

e. The posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out: The seraphim are majestic beings, and their voice carries weight. When they speak, the doorposts of God’s throne room shake! The idea may be that Isaiah was watching from the doorway, and when the seraphim cried out, he could feel the doorposts shake.

• i. Yet these high, majestic beings – perhaps the highest beings in all of God’s creation – have one occupation. Their existence is given over to the praise and worship and honor of the LORD God who is enthroned in heaven. What could we possibly do that is a higher calling than that?

• ii. They sang so powerfully the doorposts were shaken! Shouldn’t we sing with the same passion, the same heart, the same intensity? Do those angels have more to thank and praise God for than we do?

f. The house was filled with smoke: This smoke reminds us of the pillar of cloud that represented the presence of God (Exodus 13:21-22), the smoke on Mount Sinai (Exodus 19:18), and the cloud of God’s Shekinah glory that filled the temple (1 Kings 8:10-12). A cloud of glory often marks the presence of the LORD.

There’s a lot to unpack in this commentary, so let’s find a few takeaways:

1. Isaiah was probably discouraged at the death of Uzziah, who was a king who tried to do the right things and yet suffered a terrible illness and death.

2. Isaiah sees the Lord God sitting on His throne as a response to the circumstances of Judah and Jerusalem and the death of Uzziah. He is always there, on the throne as the sovereign ruler of the universe.

3. There are many visions of God in His throne in the Bible. I found it fascinating that God’s throne is truly the centerpiece of Revelation!

4. Atheism rejects the idea of God’s throne (and God’s existence). I rejected the idea, too, when I was wandering in the wilderness, but have returned to be in the same abject and lowly position as Isaiah! We can’t even begin to fathom what God is like, other than we know some of His characteristics from His Son Jesus (grace, mercy, love, authority, holiness).

5. No one can see God’s face, including His highest servants the seraphim (the explanation of the seraphim in this commentary is quite good). Think about it - they spend eternity singing God’s praises. Most of us balk at more than four worship songs on a given Sunday.

6. Holy, Holy, Holy may be a pointer at the Trinity, One God in Three!

7. Holiness means that God is set apart and is not a creature, but is the creator and is outside the universe. If everything disappeared at this instant God would remain.

8. We lowly humans are made in His image, however, which means humanity is compatible with His Divinity. Jesus proved compatibility through His humanity. This is a wonderful, wonderful thing to know!

The intellectual challenge of Christianity should make every believer tremble! We are not moronic followers of some invisible sky God, but are the beloved children of a being so all-powerful that He could make the universe disappear, yet He can count the hairs on our heads and is our salvation.

All I can say about my faith is best summed up by C. S. Lewis:

Amen, C. S! The more I dig into scriptures the more I realize that we are not meant to be comfortable or happy, but to be in awe and full of joy, like the seraphim.

My next devotional examines Isaiah 6:5-7 - Isaiah’s unclean lips.

Heaven on Wheels Daily Prayer:

Dear Lord - I thank you for the excellent commentary from Enduring Word for this passage today. The mysteries abound in Your glory! Amen.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. www.Lockman.org.

Precept Austin was accessed on 09/09/2026 to review commentary for Isaiah 6:1-4.

Commentary from Enduring Word is used with written permission and without any alteration. ©1996-present The Enduring Word Bible Commentary by David Guzik – enduringword.com. At the link referenced, the bibliography used by David Guzik can be accessed.

Image generated by ChatGPT (OpenAI) using the DALL·E model.

While Barb makes her way through the prophecies of Isaiah, God has pointed me to another of the major prophets — Jeremiah. This prophet began his ministry in 626 BC, and continued his work until about 587 BC. The peoples of Israel and Judah are in exile in Babylon as Jeremiah transcribes the words of God speaking through him, and these verses would have been seen as comforting to those in exile.

Time for a geography lesson! As you can see in the map below (from the Holman Bible Atlas via the Bible Book Club Podcast), Israel was the northern kingdom, while Judah was to the south. It was centered politically around Jerusalem, in an area that is quite hilly and that had many fortresses at the time.

These verses of hope begin with the words (from Jeremiah 31:23) :

‭‭God, speaking through Jeremiah, is emphasizing that the spiritual foundation of the nation — Jerusalem, in Judah — would be restored, and His presence would bless the people. To those in exile, these would certainly be comforting words, as the captivity in Babylon would not be the end. The Lord had plans to restore His people and revitalize the cities that were in ruins.

It’s a vision of God’s ability to heal — He is not only going to make good on repairing the physical destruction of the nation, but return the people to spiritual health. This is still true in our New Testament times, with Jesus offering healing of broken lives as seen in John 10:10:

God’s plan is to rebuild cities and lives, blessing the people in response to their honest repentance and trust in His grace and mercy. In verse 24, God continues with the good news:

It’s a prophecy of everyday life returning to Judah, with no threats from foreign armies and no internal bickering in the nation. When the people of Judah are released from their captivity and return to their homeland, God will bless them with security in the farm fields and on the hillsides with the flocks, as well as in cities that are safe and prosperous. Having this peace and stability is a sign that the Lord is planning to keep His people safe in the future, free from oppression from outsiders or the need to unwillingly travel to foreign lands. They’ll be able to both live and worship in unity.

When I read these verses from Jeremiah, I was reminded of Europe in the years after World War II. Many cities were devastated, and millions of people had experienced exile, war, and were scattered over the continent far from their homelands. Like the people of Judah, many Europeans had weary hearts after the years of conflict. Yet believers could take heart in God’s promise as found in the last verse — “I will refresh the weary and satisfy the faint.”

Even in the devastation of a war-torn continent and for those who had been unwillingly exiled from their homes, God’s promise is to do much more than just let His people survive — He pledges to fill their deepest spiritual needs. By refreshing the weary, we see God’s compassion at work. In New Testament times, this promise is fulfilled by Jesus, who said “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).

‭‭For all who suffer — whether we look to the past to the remnant of Judah, to the recent past in the millions who barely survived World War II, or to those at present who live under oppressive regimes — God’s Word as capture for eternity by the prophet Jeremiah is a promise that suffering will pass, replaced with fulfillment of physical and spiritual needs through His grace and mercy.

Jeremiah’s prophecy is filled with hope of hearts replenished by the One God who always sustains His people.

Heaven On Wheels Daily Prayer:

Heavenly Father, I thank You for Your promises of restoration and joy. I acknowledge that I often feel weary of this sinful world and the burdens it presents, but trust that You will refresh my spirit and fill my heart with Your peace. AMEN.

Scripture quotations taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica US, Inc.®. Used by permission.

Commentary from The Bible Says © 2026 The Bible Says, All Rights Reserved (https://thebiblesays.com)

Commentary quotations from Enduring Word are used with the written permission of the author and reproduced here in their original format. © 1996-present The Enduring Word Bible Commentary by David Guzik – enduringword.com

“Therefore, as a tongue of fire consumes stubble

And dry grass collapses into the flame,

So their root will become like rot and their blossom blow away as dust;

For they have rejected the law of the Lord of hosts

And despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.

On this account the anger of the Lord has burned against His people,

And He has stretched out His hand against them and struck them down.

And the mountains quaked, and their corpses lay like refuse in the middle of the streets.

For all this His anger is not spent,

But His hand is still stretched out.

He will also lift up a standard to the distant nation,

And will whistle for it from the ends of the earth;

And behold, it will come with speed swiftly.

No one in it is weary or stumbles,

None slumbers or sleeps;

Nor is the belt at its waist undone,

Nor its sandal strap broken.

Its arrows are sharp and all its bows are bent;

The hoofs of its horses seem like flint and its chariot wheels like a whirlwind.

Its roaring is like a lioness, and it roars like young lions;

It growls as it seizes the prey

And carries it off with no one to deliver it.

And it will growl over it in that day like the roaring of the sea.

If one looks to the land, behold, there is darkness and distress;

Even the light is darkened by its clouds.”

‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭5‬:‭24‬-‭30‬ ‭NASB1995‬‬

The final passage of Isaiah 5 describes the anger of the Lord against the people who have rejected the law of the Lord and despised His Word. It’s a frightening scene, first filled with fire and earthquakes, then an advancing army that roars like lions and carries off the self-absorbed people of Judah and Jerusalem from their lands, leaving devastation and darkness behind.

Who is this advancing army? The prophet Jeremiah, who succeeded Isaiah as a prophet near the end of the kings of Judah about 60 years later had this to say:

““Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘Because you have not obeyed My words, behold, I will send and take all the families of the north,’ declares the Lord, ‘and I will send to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, My servant, and will bring them against this land and against its inhabitants and against all these nations round about; and I will utterly destroy them and make them a horror and a hissing, and an everlasting desolation. Moreover, I will take from them the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones and the light of the lamp. This whole land will be a desolation and a horror, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years.”

‭‭Jeremiah‬ ‭25‬:‭8‬-‭11‬ ‭NASB1995‬‬

Many years previously, Moses had this to say in Deuteronomy to the people of Israel, when describing what would happen because of their disobedience:

““Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joy and a glad heart, for the abundance of all things; therefore you shall serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you, in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in the lack of all things; and He will put an iron yoke on your neck until He has destroyed you.

“The Lord will bring a nation against you from afar, from the end of the earth, as the eagle swoops down, a nation whose language you shall not understand, a nation of fierce countenance who will have no respect for the old, nor show favor to the young. Moreover, it shall eat the offspring of your herd and the produce of your ground until you are destroyed, who also leaves you no grain, new wine, or oil, nor the increase of your herd or the young of your flock until they have caused you to perish. It shall besiege you in all your towns until your high and fortified walls in which you trusted come down throughout your land, and it shall besiege you in all your towns throughout your land which the Lord your God has given you.”

‭‭Deuteronomy‬ ‭28‬:‭47‬-‭52‬ ‭NASB1995‬‬

This prophecy can be answered in the dispersal of the tribes in the north (Israel) by the armies of Assyria, followed by the destruction of Judah and Jerusalem by the armies of Babylonia. Here is what Enduring Word has to say about today’s passage in Isaiah:

a. As the fire devours the stubble, and the flame consumes the chaff: Stubble and chaff are both very flammable. God is warning of sudden, complete, and severe judgment.

b. Because they have rejected the law of the LORD of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel: Every one of Judah’s sins could be traced back to a time of rejecting and despising what God says. Man’s opinion was far more important to them than God’s word.

c. He will lift up a banner to the nations from afar, and will whistle to them from the end of the earth: God will call foreign nations to come and invade Judah, making them instruments of His judgment upon them.

d. They shall come with speed, swiftly…. No one will be weary or stumble among them…Nor will the belt on their loins be loosed…Whose arrows are sharp, and all their bows bent: The armies God would call against Judah would be all business. They would be totally focused, prepared, and readied – while the strong men of Judah would use their strength for drinking contests! This would be a great mismatch, and a soft, drunk, and flabby Judah would certainly fall against such dedicated enemies.

• i. If we will not be strong for our own sakes, or even for the sake of the LORD, should we not at least be strong for the sake of our enemies? If they are strong and focused against us, should we not be strong in the LORD, and focused on the LORD, to overcome such strong enemies?

e. Behold, darkness and sorrow; and the light is darkened by the clouds: This is a distressing place. Why would the LORD put Judah in such a place? Because He loves them. These words were harsh but merciful; yet these words were a slap in the face to prevent total and eternal destruction. The only question is, “Will we listen to God’s warning?”

• i. “God’s woes are better than the devil’s welcomes.” (Spurgeon)

Are we listening to God’s warnings? Here’s a pithy quote from C.S. Lewis:

Why is it SO difficult to obey the Word of God and trust in Him? Jesus said during His time on Earth that He fulfilled the law and then made it “simple” for His followers:

“But when the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered themselves together. One of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And He said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.””

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭22‬:‭34‬-‭40‬ ‭NASB1995‬‬

Believers, including me, have often looked at these words and felt like they were an impossibility. I admit that I deeply, deeply love Jesus but I also love other things - my hubby, my late parents, the pets we have had, traveling, a good meal, peace and quiet, time with cherished friends, beautiful scenes in nature. So I am in disobedience to the greatest commandment because I am not giving ALL of that love! And I find myself in absolute despair over loving my “neighbor” as myself, when I see how foolish and evil human beings can be (a bit judgmental, right?). Well, I am not alone in this despair. Read what Paul says in Romans 7:

“For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good. So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.

I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.”

‭‭Romans‬ ‭7‬:‭14‬-‭25‬ ‭NASB1995‬‬

Paul is reminding us in this passage that the conflict between our two natures speaks to our woeful attempts to gain God’s favor and grace by trying to do all of the work ourselves. The gift of grace is given first, as noted in Romans 5:

“For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only this, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.”

‭‭Romans‬ ‭5‬:‭6‬-‭11‬ ‭NASB1995‬‬

Darkness and despair are not victorious! We will, until the day of our death, be dealing with two conflicting natures, but the law of the Spirit in those who believe is winning the battle.

My next devotional examines Isaiah 6:1-2 - King Uzziah dies but the Lord God is on His throne.

Heaven on Wheels Daily Prayer

Dear Lord - I was reminded again today in my study of this passage in Isaiah that Your gift of grace through Jesus Christ is the greatest gift that could ever be given to the world of sinners! Help me in my battle against my sinful nature and to move more and more to my inner self of the Spirit! Amen.

Citations and Credits:

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. www.Lockman.org.

Precept Austin was accessed on 09/07/2026 to review commentary for Isaiah 5:24-30.

Commentary from Enduring Word is used with written permission and without any alteration. ©1996-present The Enduring Word Bible Commentary by David Guzik – enduringword.com. At the link referenced, the bibliography used by David Guzik can be accessed.

Photo © 2026, Steven Sande

At some point in the distant past, the Psalms were organized into five books. Psalm 42 is the first to be found in Book Two, and the psalms in this book are somewhat different than those in Book One (Psalms 1 - 41). How are they different? King David is the named author of 37 of the 41 psalms in Book One (the other four have no named author and it is assumed that David wrote those as well). In Book Two, other psalmists begin to appear: Solomon (David’s son), Asaph, the sons of Korah (musical Levites). David still claims authorship of 18 of the 31 psalms in Book Two (Psalms 42 - 72).

Click Here To Study More Psalms

There’s an even more significant change in Book Two, and that is what is used as God’s Hebrew name. In Book One, He is commonly referred to by the name Jehovah (Yahweh, YHWH), while in Book Two His name is predominantly cited as Elohim. What’s the difference? Devotional website Word Embassy provided this short explanation:

Psalm 42 is one of those written by the sons of Korah — think of them as the “worship team” of the temple in the days of David, although they most certainly didn’t rely on amplified instruments. They sang the Psalms, accompanied by musical instruments of the time — harps and lyres (more like a guitar than a harp, complete with a thick sound box and a cutout sound hole), cymbals, trumpets, flutes and tambourines. The sons of Korah are described as being exuberant in their music-making.

Just a thought here… I know there are many Christians who find modern worship music to be repetitive. One person we know jokingly refers to them as “7-11 songs”, meaning seven words repeated 11 times (they’re usually not that bad). If you’re one of these people, consider that the Psalms were the worship songs of their time, and Psalm 136 repeats one stanza — “His love endures forever” — 26 times! Psalms 118 is another song that uses repetition to a great extent. My point? Repetition in worship songs is nothing new.

Let’s look at today’s Psalm phrase by phrase. It begins with “By day the LORD directs his love.” As I mentioned earlier in today’s devotional, the covenant name of God — Jehovah, Yahweh, YHWH — is rarely used in Book Two of Psalms. This verse is one of the exceptions, using יְהֹוָה (yᵊhōvâ, Jehovah). This is the name of God who issued His commandments to His people, and here He is directing His love to His people.

In one of his commentaries listed on Enduring Word, Charles Spurgeon cited another commentator as saying:

Jehovah is commanding or directing His love to His people, and He does so “By day” and “at night.” God is good to His people both day and night, and there is something especially comforting about the words “at night his song is with me.” It’s as if God is calming the psalmist with a song in the dark, frightening hours of the night, a very pleasant and reassuring thought.

That song is “a prayer to the God of my life.” The psalmist is acknowledging the Lord as “the God of my life,” the source of life and provider of all sustenance. He’s reminding believers that we depend on God for all of our needs, both spiritual and physical.

The Bible Says has this to say about the last half of this beautiful Psalm:

Day or night, God directs His love and blessing upon His people, a reassuring presence in our lives.

Heaven On Wheels Daily Prayer:

Heavenly Father, thank You for Your constant love during all of my days. At night, if I should be filled with fear and uncertainty, may Your song fill my heart as a calming reminder that You are always present as I seek You. AMEN.

Scripture quotations taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica US, Inc.®. Used by permission.

Commentary quotations from Enduring Word are used with the written permission of the author and reproduced here in their original format. © 1996-present The Enduring Word Bible Commentary by David Guzik – enduringword.com

Commentary from The Bible Says © 2026 The Bible Says, All Rights Reserved

BibleHub was accessed on September 6, 2026 for commentary on Psalm 42:8

“Woe to those who are heroes in drinking wine

And valiant men in mixing strong drink,

Who justify the wicked for a bribe,

And take away the rights of the ones who are in the right!”

‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭5‬:‭22‬-‭23‬ ‭NASB1995‬‬

At first glance in this last woe in chapter 5 Isaiah seems to be condemning again those who indulge in wine and strong drink, similarly to Isaiah 5:11. But there is a distinction: This intoxicated state leads to injustice, where a person in authority (like a judge) justifies the wicked for a bribe and takes away the rights of the ones are in the right. The AI image at the top has this scenario neatly pegged.

Here is what Pulpit Commentary says about this passage from the Bible Hub:

Verse 22. - Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine. The sixth woe seems at first sight a repetition of the second. But there is this difference, that the drinkers in the present verse do not succumb to their liquor, or remain at the banquet all day, but proceed to the business of their lives, attend courts and judge causes, but with brain obfuscated and moral vision bedimmed, so that they are easily induced to pervert justice on receipt of a bribe. The sixth woe may be considered to be pronounced rather upon their corruption than upon their drinking, and so to be really quite distinct from the second (comp. Proverbs 31:4, 5). Isaiah 5:22.

This woe is directed at the corruption of those in charge of dispensing justice in Judah and Jerusalem. Verse 23 is really the key to the sins that Isaiah is observing. That corruption is made even more despicable by the inebriation of the judge. Here are some other scriptural passages about bribes and the perversion of justice:

““You shall not pervert the justice due to your needy brother in his dispute. Keep far from a false charge, and do not kill the innocent or the righteous, for I will not acquit the guilty.

“You shall not take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the clear-sighted and subverts the cause of the just.”

‭‭Exodus‬ ‭23‬:‭6‬-‭8‬ ‭NASB1995‬‬

“These also are sayings of the wise.

To show partiality in judgment is not good.

He who says to the wicked, “You are righteous,”

Peoples will curse him, nations will abhor him;

But to those who rebuke the wicked will be delight,

And a good blessing will come upon them.”

‭‭Proverbs‬ ‭24‬:‭23‬-‭25‬ ‭NASB1995‬‬

“You shall not distort justice; you shall not be partial, and you shall not take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and perverts the words of the righteous.”

‭‭Deuteronomy‬ ‭16‬:‭19‬ ‭NASB1995‬‬

“Now then let the fear of the Lord be upon you; be very careful what you do, for the Lord our God will have no part in unrighteousness or partiality or the taking of a bribe.””

‭‭2 Chronicles‬ ‭19‬:‭7‬ ‭NASB1995‬‬

That last passage, from 2 Chronicles 19, is describing the reforms to the justice system that were undertaken by Jehoshaphat, one of the kings of Judah who tried to bring the people back to God.

Our nation has been riveted by the trial of a mother in Massachusetts who methodically murdered her three children after ensuring her husband would not get home to stop her, then tried to kill herself and then researched ways to offer up a plea of insanity due to her supposed mental state. I referred to this trial in the earlier devotional about Isaiah 5:20 (“woe to those who call evil good”). The trial ended in a mistrial on Friday (9/4) because one juror held out against the pressure to declare this person not guilty by reason of insanity (or even just not guilty, period). That juror has been shockingly and publicly vilified by the defense attorney, likely putting the juror’s life at risk because his name will certainly be leaked out (there were three male jurors on the panel). The defense attorney also made this statement after the mistrial was declared:

I confess that I felt nauseous after reading this. People in this country are used to flamboyant and deceitful attorneys, especially after such infamous miscarriages of justice as the O.J. Simpson case; apparently this guy is quite famous for helping get insanity pleas, even in cases where that is a true miscarriage of justice. Regardless of any empathy you may feel for the defendant’s “mental state”, she murdered her three children in cold blood. Her paralysis is of her own doing. She is not a wonderful individual. According to trial testimony, the first thing she asked for after waking up in the hospital after jumping from a second-story at her home was for someone to get her a lawyer. She didn’t ask about her children. She’s not off the hook yet, but the prosecution will have an impossible task to take this to trial again.

Speaking of the prosecution, the District Attorney for this case had this encounter with the media on Friday (his name is removed and replaced with blank because I don’t want my comments to become a pro-murderer cesspool from AI searches):

As he answered questions from reporters after the mistrial was declared, blank was asked by a journalist about what he would “say to those people who felt that the whole prosecution was insensitive,” per footage of the exchange posted on social media.

“Was what?” Blank asked in disbelief. “Insensitive? Insensitive is killing three children. Insensitive is ignoring those facts,” he retorted.

But justice has been perverted and distorted because the true judge and jury were millions of (mostly) women who bought into social media conspiracies about this case and brought pressure to bear (almost like a type of bribery). Strong wine was probably not involved, but excessive doom scrolling (another addiction) was indeed a factor. These women have given millions to funds supporting the mother. The children don’t matter because so many in our culture have decided that children are a burden and not a joy or gift from God. How many more children will be destroyed by their mothers in solidarity? What’s really pathetic is that half of this nation is cheering for the wicked being called righteous, in direct contradiction to Proverbs 24:23-25.

All right, enough pontificating, Barb - let’s summarize the six woes of Isaiah again:

1. Isaiah 5:8-10 - Greed/covetousness

2. Isaiah 5:11-17 - Drunkenness

3. Isaiah 5:18-19 - Bondage/addiction to sin

4. Isaiah 5:20 - Redefining evil as good, darkness as light, bitterness as sweet

5. Isaiah 5:21 - Intellectual pride

6. Isaiah 5:22 - Corruption and justifying the wicked

My next devotional examines the remaining passage in Isaiah 5: Verses 24-30 - God’s anger and judgment is coming.

Heaven on Wheels Daily Prayer

Dear Lord - Please help our nation learn what is considered true and proper justice in Your eyes. I pray for the departed souls of C, D and C. Amen.

Citations and Credits:

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. www.Lockman.org.

Precept Austin was accessed on 09/05/2026 to review commentary for Isaiah 5:22-23.

Commentary from Enduring Word is used with written permission and without any alteration. ©1996-present The Enduring Word Bible Commentary by David Guzik – enduringword.com. At the link referenced, the bibliography used by David Guzik can be accessed.

Biblehub was accessed on 09/05/2026 to review commentary for Isaiah 5:22-23.

Image generated by ChatGPT (OpenAI) using the DALL·E model.

It always makes me happy when I get to write a devotional about repentance, since it seems that many (most?) churches are afraid to use that word in sermons. Barb wrote a series of devotionals on the Acts of the Apostles back in 2024, but we usually look at verses differently, so I don’t feel like I’m repeating anything here. You can read the introduction to Barb’s series using this link.

Repent, in the original Koine Greek that Acts was written in, is μετανοέω (metanoeō). Blue Letter Bible lists one of the definitions as “to change one's mind for better, heartily to amend with abhorrence of one's past sins,” and features a quote from F.F. Bruce that explains:

Repentance is hard. Very hard. Think of your life as a Christian so far. Have you ever confessed a sin to the Lord, offering to “never do it again,” and then fell off the proverbial wagon the very next day, repeating that sin again… and again?

The key phrase in the quote from F.F. Bruce is “turning with contrition from sin to God.” As Christians, we don’t just mindlessly sin (or at least we shouldn’t!). We are convicted of sin by the indwelling Holy Spirit, and as believers, we should feel remorse for sinning. If you sin — and we all do to some degree — and don’t feel even a twinge of guilt or a desire to stop repeating that sin in the future, then perhaps it’s time to do some prayerful soul-searching about whether you truly are a believer.

I found an article on GotQuestions.org providing some meaningful answers to the question “If I am saved and all my sins are forgiven, why not continue to sin?” From that article:

and

and one more paragraph…

That’s a bit of a long introduction to this speech by the apostle Peter to a group of onlookers in Jerusalem who had just witnessed him performing the miracle of healing a lame man, but I think it’s necessary to understand both the concept and reality of repentance before understanding this verse. Peter is calling upon the people of Jerusalem to give up their unbelief and return to God through Jesus, the Messiah whom they had rejected and given up to crucifixion. The AI image at the top of this devotional shows one man in the crowd who appears to be taking Peter’s message of repentance and turning to God seriously.

Through his call for repentance, Peter is asking for the crowd to consider doing three things — confessing their sins, changing their hearts (realizing that their actions were wrong), and turning away from rebelling against God and towards obeying Him.

When they repent, the crowd can expect their sins to be “wiped out” (ἐξαλείφω, exaleiphō; erased, obliterated) since God grants complete forgiveness through the atoning death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Peter promises not only that their sins will be expunged from the eternal record through repentance and turning to God, but “that times of refreshing may come from the Lord.” I found this a bit confusing, so I turned to Precept Austin for some commentary. It turns out that the term has an eschatological (end times) background.

Biblical scholar John Phillips, in his book Exploring Acts, looked at the phrase this way:

Got that? Repentance brings spiritual renewal and refreshment from the Lord. That’s not just a future promise in our eternal life, but a present reality. We experience this refreshing through the presence of the Lord, via the Holy Spirit. That’s why it’s important to seek the Spirit always, and be filled with It.

Repentance isn’t a once and done occurrence. It’s a continual conscious mental behavioral attitude transformation (wow, that’s a mouthful!). As Christians, we have been called to live in a condition of ongoing repentance and renewal.

Heaven On Wheels Daily Prayer:

Father in Heaven, I come before you today with a repentant heart, seeking your forgiveness for my sins. Help me to turn to you so that my sins may be wiped out and I may experience times of refreshing from your presence. AMEN.

Scripture quotations taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica US, Inc.®. Used by permission.

BibleHub was accessed on September 4, 2026 for commentary on Acts 3:19

Precept Austin was accessed on September 4, 2026 for commentary on Acts 3:19

“Acts 3 (NIV) - Repent, then, and turn to.” Blue Letter Bible. Web. 3 Sep, 2026.

F. F. Bruce. The Acts of the Apostles [Greek Text Commentary], London: Tyndale, 1952, p. 97.

“If I am saved and all my sins are forgiven, why not continue to sin?” GotQuestions.org https://www.gotquestions.org/forgiven-why-not-sin.html

“Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes

And clever in their own sight!”

‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭5‬:‭21‬ ‭NASB1995‬‬

The fifth woe in Isaiah 5 is directed at those who take great pride in their own wisdom and cleverness. The image created by ChatGPT sets an interesting scene:

Here’s the concept for today’s image: A wealthy, finely dressed Judean official sits prominently in a courtyard surrounded by scrolls, confidently lecturing several people gathered around him. His posture and expression show unmistakable self-satisfaction. But behind him, two older, genuinely wise men exchange concerned glances, recognizing the folly in what he is saying. The official is completely oblivious.

The Bible is full of wonderful scripture about the dangers of being too full of yourself and smugly strutting your alleged expertise, wisdom, opinions, and wit across the world’s stage to lord it over others. Here are a few verses:

“An idiot will become intelligent

When the foal of a wild donkey is born a man.”

‭‭Job‬ ‭11‬:‭12‬ ‭NASB1995‬‬

“Do not be wise in your own eyes;

Fear the Lord and turn away from evil.

It will be healing to your body

And refreshment to your bones.”

‭‭Proverbs‬ ‭3‬:‭7‬-‭8‬ ‭NASB1995‬‬

“Do you see a man wise in his own eyes?

There is more hope for a fool than for him.”

‭‭Proverbs‬ ‭26‬:‭12‬ ‭NASB1995‬‬

“Be of the same mind toward one another; do not be haughty in mind, but associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation.”

‭‭Romans‬ ‭12‬:‭16‬ ‭NASB1995‬‬

“Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you thinks that he is wise in this age, he must become foolish, so that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness before God. For it is written, “He is the one who catches the wise in their craftiness”; and again, “The Lord knows the reasonings of the wise, that they are useless.””

‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭3‬:‭18‬-‭20‬ ‭NASB1995‬‬

I love that last one from 1 Corinthians: The Lord knows the reasonings of the wise, that they are useless”. The wisdom of this world is indeed foolishness before God.

Have you ever worked for someone or with someone who was so insufferably arrogant and always “right” about everything that it would drive you crazy? I must confess I was pretty pompous and “clever” back in my career days and would argue facts until I lost friends, but I couldn’t hold a candle to some of the leaders we had to contend with. I grew fond of managers who were able to remain humble and sympathetic to those in the trenches doing the hard work and also give those workers some credit.

In my studies about World War II I am always fascinated to see how some leaders in that great conflict were more admired than others. In retrospect, Dwight Eisenhower was viewed as a very humble man (and he was a believer) who cared deeply about the responsibilities of his tasks as Supreme Commander Allied Expeditionary Forces (SHAEF). The quote above, with a photo taken when he chose to visit the paratroopers of the 101st Airborne just before D-Day, shows that Eisenhower always recognized the deep respons that comes from sending men to their deaths. Other leaders that modeled this modest and calm approach to their commands included US General Omar Bradley, British Field Marshall Sir Harold Alexander (Churchill’s favorite general), and US Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz.

Of course one could argue that the low-key modesty and team leadership style of Eisenhower, for example, fell victim to the pomposity of a man like British General Sir Bernard Law Montgomery, who talked SHAEF into the debacle known as Operation Market Garden in September, 1944; Monty also later took “credit” for saving everybody during the Battle of the Bulge. Although the reputation of Monty has been repaired to some degree after the fact by a few historians, he was a man who always seemed “wise in his own eyes”. I’m not sure how much of the splendid film “Patton” exaggerates the figure of General George S. Patton, but history will tell you that in spite of his lack of humility, Patton was in most respects a great military leader, but he may have succumbed to the battle of the wits with Montgomery in Sicily and wanted to outflank him just because of his own ego; Steve’s uncle died in the ensuing battles in the race between Palermo and Messina. And I’m not touching the third rail of General MacArthur…

We live in an age where everyone who has a computer or smartphone can instantly become an armchair “expert” on any topic. People become “wise in their own eyes” and refuse to ever, ever acknowledge that they might be wrong. The deep cesspools of ludicrous conspiracy theories about everything under the sun are created by fools who are “just asking questions” and then more fools who blindly follow them. Go to the comments section on any random topic and the keyboard warriors are usually present (seriously, the topic doesn’t matter). Then go to the comments in an article about Christian beliefs and the fools who are “wise in their own eyes” are marching in like an army and slapping themselves on the back for putting those dumb Christianists in their place with witty bon mots such as “say hi to the invisible sky god” and “I believe in the Flying Spaghetti Monster, it’s just as irrational”.

This arrogance isn’t limited to atheist trolls. I saw a cartoon recently on Facebook that was shared by somebody in all seriousness. I didn’t grab it (and now I can’t find it) but I can describe it as a drawing of a lone figure facing a huge crowd of people. The lone figure says that he is a Lutheran and everyone else of other Protestant faiths are wrong and are not saved (he didn’t even include Catholics or Orthodox in the mix). I encountered this pedantry in a group that I joined a few years ago that exposes some of the wrong beliefs of the ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church of America). I noted in that site that we had left the ELCA and started going to services at a non-denominational church; I was told in no uncertain terms by several members of the group that my salvation was at risk if I didn’t move to another denomination that was Lutheran, like the Missouri Synod. Do you think this “wisdom in their own eyes” might be responsible for my favorite spaghetti chart from truthforsaints.com?

Isaiah recognized this arrogance in the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem. What is interesting about these “woe” statements is that they are coming to us in shorter and faster phrases, so the receivers of those statements have to be thinking about the judgment that will come. My next devotional examines the last “woe” statement from Isaiah 5:22-23 - Woe to the valiant men who are drinking strong drink and taking bribes.

Heaven on Wheels Daily Prayer:

Dear Lord - Please help me to be humble and know that any wisdom that means anything comes from You. Amen.

Citations and Credits:

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. www.Lockman.org.

Precept Austin was accessed on 09/02/2026 to review commentary for Isaiah 5:21.

Commentary from Enduring Word is used with written permission and without any alteration. ©1996-present The Enduring Word Bible Commentary by David Guzik – enduringword.com. At the link referenced, the bibliography used by David Guzik can be accessed. Commentary was accessed but not used for this devotional.

Image generated by ChatGPT (OpenAI) using the DALL·E model.

This verse from the Gospel of John comes from the parting words of Jesus to His disciples at the Last Supper. If there is one word that perfectly describes the intent of this verse, it is obedience. This is one case where I think I prefer the wording in the NASB95 translation of the Bible:

The differences? The use of the word “abide” rather than “remain,” and using “commandments” rather than “commands.” Time for a little word study! The original Koine Greek word translated as abide is μένω (menō), defined on Blue Letter Bible as:

1. to remain, abide

   1. in reference to place

      1. to sojourn, tarry

      2. not to depart

         1. to continue to be present

         2. to be held, kept, continually

   2. in reference to time

      1. to continue to be, not to perish, to last, endure

         1. of persons, to survive, live

   3. in reference to state or condition

      1. to remain as one, not to become another or different

2. to wait for, await one

and the other key word here is ἐντολή (entolē), defined as:

1. an order, command, charge, precept, injunction

   1. that which is prescribed to one by reason of his office

2. a commandment

   1. a prescribed rule in accordance with which a thing is done

      1. a precept relating to lineage, of the Mosaic precept concerning the priesthood

      2. ethically used of the commandments in the Mosaic law or Jewish tradition

With those definitions in mind, what is Jesus is saying to His disciples? By reading the Bible, we know that keeping commandments is a sign of love and loyalty to God. In the Old Testament context the disciples were immersed in, obedience to God’s commandments — the Law given to the Israelites through Moses — was the key to a righteous life

In the New Testament context, following the two greatest commandments as stated by Jesus is a demonstration of the faith and love of the disciples for their rabbi. Those two commandments are:

and

Jesus told His followers that by following those two rather simple commandments, they will abide in His love. Obedience to His commandments isn’t just ticking checkboxes on a legalistic, ritualistic list; it’s a heartfelt response to the grace and love received from God.

Abiding in the love of Jesus is conditional: we must show obedience to His commandments. From our word study earlier, μένω (menõ) doesn’t simply mean remaining in a condition momentarily, it’s a continuous and ongoing relationship with Jesus. Bible Hub has good explanation of this: “This abiding relationship is characterized by intimacy and mutual indwelling, which is central to the believer’s spiritual life.”

Jesus goes on in the second part of this verse to teach His disciples one last lesson by example. He Himself fulfilled His Father’s will perfectly throughout His earthly ministry. He obeyed in every trial He suffered through, He fulfilled the Law, and He accepted the cross to achieve the saving purpose of the Father’s plan. By submitting to the cross as He would shortly do, He provided the template for the life His followers should follow, and was the source of the righteousness that they would never be able to gain by themselves.

Jesus demonstrated His abiding and eternal relationship with His Father through His willing obedience to do the Father’s will, even to the point of death. As believers, we can partake of that divine love by abiding in Christ, who secured our eternal place in God’s family through His obedience, sacrifice, and resurrection.

Heaven On Wheels Daily Prayer:

Father in Heaven, help me to always obey Your commands so I may abide in Your love just as Jesus obeyed Your commands and remains eternally in Your love. Transform my heart and mind to reflect this obedience, and deepen my relationship with You. AMEN.

Scripture quotations taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica US, Inc.®. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org.

“John 15 (NASB95) - If you keep My commandments,.” Blue Letter Bible. Web. 2 Sep, 2026.

BibleHub was accessed on September 2, 2026 for commentary on John 15:10

“Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil;

Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness;

Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!”

‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭5‬:‭20‬ ‭NASB1995‬‬

Well, here we are at probably the most memorable “woe” that Isaiah brings forth. I thought the image that ChatGPT created was intriguing - here is the explanation:

The Upside-Down Marketplace

This would combine all three comparisons in one coherent scene.

In an ancient marketplace, a respected merchant or civic leader is presenting rotten fruit as something valuable, while a crowd eagerly admires it. Nearby, baskets of beautiful fresh fruit are being discarded.

A servant pours clean honey or sweet wine onto the ground while carefully preserving a bitter, foul-looking drink in an ornate vessel.

And all this occurs beneath a covered arcade where the crowd has chosen to remain in deep shadow even though brilliant sunlight fills the open street just a few steps away.

Why it works: We could visually incorporate evil/good, darkness/light, and bitter/sweet without making the image feel like three separate illustrations pasted together.

Where do I start? I’ve seen this verse coming in the headlights ever since I began studying Isaiah (and Isaiah 5, in particular). I could write a lengthy polemic about the moral relativism that is strangling our modern culture. I could write a plea for the many mainstream churches who now gleefully call evil good and good evil and court those who wish to remain in the darkness. I could go get a soapbox and stand at a public corner and rant about sin and corruption while getting pelted with rotten fruit and hearing foul language.

Perhaps a few Bible verses from over the millennia will help us see that this is not a new problem:

“Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. The Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.

The Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them.” But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.

These are the records of the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time; Noah walked with God. Noah became the father of three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

Now the earth was corrupt in the sight of God, and the earth was filled with violence. God looked on the earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth. Then God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh has come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence because of them; and behold, I am about to destroy them with the earth.”

‭‭Genesis‬ ‭6‬:‭5‬-‭13‬ ‭NASB1995‬‬

“In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”

‭‭Judges‬ ‭21‬:‭25‬ ‭NASB1995‬‬

“After Jesus called the crowd to Him, He said to them, “Hear and understand. It is not what enters into the mouth that defiles the man, but what proceeds out of the mouth, this defiles the man.”

Then the disciples *came and *said to Him, “Do You know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this statement?” But He answered and said, “Every plant which My heavenly Father did not plant shall be uprooted. Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind. And if a blind man guides a blind man, both will fall into a pit.”

Peter said to Him, “Explain the parable to us.” Jesus said, “Are you still lacking in understanding also? Do you not understand that everything that goes into the mouth passes into the stomach, and is eliminated? But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders. These are the things which defile the man; but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile the man.””

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭15‬:‭10‬-‭20‬ ‭NASB1995‬‬

“But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these. For among them are those who enter into households and captivate weak women weighed down with sins, led on by various impulses, always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.”

‭‭2 Timothy‬ ‭3‬:‭1‬-‭7‬ ‭NASB1995‬‬

I haven’t studied 2 Timothy in-depth yet, but these famous verses show that the evil impulses are perpetual and Paul is, indeed, a prophetic voice. Interestingly, one usually only sees 2 Timothy 3:1-5 quoted, but I added the next two verses to this excerpt because they hit me like a brick. I am a woman, defined by God and my DNA, but I have observed, especially since coming back to faith, that the some of the worst perpetrators of “calling evil good and good evil” are influential women in politics and entertainment, women who have become ordained ministers in mainstream churches like the ELCA, and those blighted souls who are caught up in social media cesspools like Tik Tok. I can say from personal experience that the siren call of feminism is a path into lonely darkness and bitterness (thanks to the Lord for bringing me back into the light).

The current case being tried in Massachusetts with the woman who methodically planned and executed the cold-blooded murder of her three children, even timing the errands that she sent her husband on so she could commit these acts and then tried to kill herself before he returned, is a classic case of how many women are never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. She (I won’t include her name) is pleading “post-partum psychosis” as the reason for this evil act. Instead of condemning her for the murder of the children, her sycophants are pouring money into funding, rallying in the streets with “heart” signs, and posting strange videos of themselves screaming in front of their own children and littering social media with allegations that the father committed the murders, even though she has confessed. “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil” indeed.

Isaiah’s terms can also be applied to the many candidates for public office who are promising to defund the police, empty the prisons, and open the borders to anyone who wants to cross. These promises are guaranteed to result in a very uncivil society where hardened criminals and terrorists rule the day and the night. There is a term for this type of thinking - it’s called suicidal empathy, defined as a misplaced compassion that fails to use reason and see the long-term consequences of a policy. It is having excessive empathy for someone who would destroy you in a heartbeat.

I think it is worthwhile to share some of the absolutely superb commentary from Enduring Word on this passage in 2 Timothy; David Guzik does a fine job relating these words to the present day (his examples are perhaps a bit dated, so there is even more to point at in 2026):

a. Men will be lovers of themselves: This is certainly characteristic of our present age, when men and women are encouraged to love themselves. People are told to love themselves unconditionally and that such self-love is the foundation for a healthy human personality.

• i. We don’t need to be encouraged to love ourselves; we naturally have such a love. Neither should we be taught to hate ourselves, but as Paul said in Romans 12:3: For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. We must see ourselves as we really are – both the bad of what we are in the flesh and the glory of what we are in Jesus Christ.

• ii. This love of self is the foundation for all the depravity that follows in Paul’s description: “But readers should note that lovers of themselves, which comes first, can be regarded as the source from which all the others that follow spring.” (Calvin)

• iii. “It is no accident that the first of these qualities will be a life that is centred in self. The adjective used is philautos, which means self-loving. Love of self is the basic sin, from with all others flow. The moment a man makes his own will the centre of life, divine and human relationships are destroyed, obedience to God and charity to men both become impossible. The essence of Christianity is not the enthronement but the obliteration of self.” (Barclay)

• iv. “‘Lovers of self’ aptly heads the list since it is the essence of all sin and the root from which all the other characteristics spring. The word is literally ‘self-lovers’ and points to the fact that the center of gravity of the natural man is self rather than God.” (Hiebert)

b. Men will be… lovers of money: The love of money is nothing new, but today people have the ability to pursue our love of money like never before.

• i. In recent years newspapers featured a story about a woman named Brenda Blackman, who enjoyed some measure of success teaching a course titled How to Marry Money. The course attempts to show men and women how to marry rich, and costs $39 per person. In the course Blackman offered helpful hints, such as how to search through your prospective mate’s checkbooks to study their deposits and then assess their income levels. She built her student’s confidence by leading them in a chant several times through the lecture: “I want to be rich! I deserve to be rich! I am rich! I was born to be rich!” In one class, Blackman was asked by a woman if it was all right to settle for a man whose income was about $100,000 a year. “No way,” she replied. What if he was perfect in every other way? “If he was in his peak earning years and he was maxed out at $100,000 – forget it,” Blackman advised. When someone asked her about the place of love in such relationships, Blackman said that finding a mate with that much money is the hard part; learning to love that person is easy by comparison. “How could you not love someone who is doing all these wonderful things for you?” she said. Blackman was single as she taught these courses.

c. Men will be… boasters, proud, blasphemers: Boasting, pride, and blasphemy are nothing new; but today, they seem far more prominent than ever.

• i. Boasting, pride, and blasphemy each act as if I am the most important person. Each of them say, “You don’t matter and God does not matter. All that matters is me.”

• ii. Today boasting, pride, and blasphemy are apparent everywhere, especially among the celebrities that our cultures idolizes. Many people today become wealthy by calculated boasting, pride, and blasphemy.

d. Men will be… disobedient to parents: Since the mid 1960s there has been a frightening breakdown in the authority once assumed by a child towards their parents.

• i. Several years ago a judge in Orlando Florida ruled that an 11-year-old boy had the right to seek a “divorce” from his parents so that he could be adopted by a foster family. But though there are few legal divorces from parents by children, it is far more common that young people simply disregard their parents.

• ii. In the 1990s, a 13-year-old Los Angeles area graffiti vandal was quoted in the Los Angeles Times: “It’s like a family to belong to a crew. They watch your back, you watch theirs. You kick it everyday with them… You get friendship, love, supplies, everything.” He also says: “I’ll tag anything… Now I don’t care. Well, sort of. I wouldn’t like no one to write on my stuff. I do it to get known, to get up, regardless if people feel that I’m causing damage to property. I’d say the damage I’ve done is quite a bit. During the day I carry a screwdriver or a knife for protection. But at night I carry a gun. I have three guns. I hide them. My mom took a .38 from me. I’m getting it back.” When asked about once when he got caught, he said: “My parents sort of talked to me about it. Of course they told me, ‘Don’t do it again.’ But I’m not gonna listen, and they don’t have to know about it.”

e. Men will be… unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving: Ever since Adam, humankind has been marked by these things to one degree or another. Here, Paul said these things will be especially prevalent in the last days.

• i. Unloving (translated without natural affection in the KJV) literally means, “without family love.” Paul said that the end times would be marked by an attitude of growing disregard of normal family love and obligation.

f. Men will be… slanderers: Men have always told hurtful lies about other men; but today, in media and in politics, slander has been elevated to both big business and big money.

• i. In politics, candidates routinely and knowingly distort their opponent’s positions, just to make their competition look bad – and they don’t feel bad at all about the lying if it helps them get elected. In media, editors and news directors serve as prosecutor, judge, jury, and executioner to innocents who are wrongly suspected – and usually refuse to apologize when they are proven to be wrong.

g. Men will be… without self control: The story of no self-control can be written across almost everything today – sex, drugs, alcohol, food, work. Whatever we do, we often do it out of control.

• i. In the 1990s the Los Angeles Times published an article about Michelle, who was a successful writer and editor. She feared the day her husband might discover her secret stash of credit cards, her secret post office box or the other tricks she used to hide how much money she spent shopping for herself. “I make as much money as my husband… If I want a $500 suit from Ann Taylor, I deserve it and don’t want to be hassled about it. So the easiest thing to do is lie,” she explained. Last year, when her husband forced her to destroy one of her credit cards, Michelle went out and got a new one without telling him. “I do live in fear. If he discovers this new VISA, he’ll kill me.” A school teacher explained more: “Men just don’t understand that shopping is our drug of choice,” she joked, even while admitting that some months her salary goes exclusively to paying the minimum balance on her credit cards. “Walking through the door of South Coast Plaza is like walking though the gates of heaven. God made car trunks for women to hide shopping bags in.” A young professional named Mary explained: “Shopping is my recreation. It’s my way of pampering myself. When you walk into [a mall] and you see all the stores, it’s like something takes over and you get caught up in it.”

h. Men will be… brutal: Cruelty and brutality are nothing new in the world; but Paul wrote by inspiration of the Holy Spirit that the last days would be marked by a particular brutality.

• i. A newspaper article in the 1990s described how an Oxnard man was accused of murdering his roommate after the two disagreed over the brand of beer the man had brought home. The accused man brought home Natural Light, and the murdered man wanted him to bring home Michelob. As he poured the Natural Light down the kitchen sink, he was stabbed to death.

• ii. We like to think of ourselves as more advanced than previous generations; but surely more people have been murdered in our century than ever before; these are violent, brutal times.

• i. Men will be… despisers of good: There just seem to be too many examples of this in modern society to pick out examples. For one example, there was a time when most people thought letting people live was good and killing them was generally a bad thing. Today, we live in a culture when the simple good of life is now despised and attacked, through abortion, through the glorifying of violence and murder, and through euthanasia.

• i. On March 6, 1996, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals declared the United States Constitution gives every American the right to kill someone else. Essentially, the court said that if you think someone might want to die – even if they have never said so – you can kill them and no law can stop you. You can kill someone if you are a doctor, a nurse, a pharmacist, a family member, or a “significant other” to a person you think wants to die. From the Judge’s ruling: “When patients are no longer able to pursue liberty or happiness and do not wish to pursue life,” they can be killed. The Federal Judge directly tied his decision to the right to abortion on demand. The reasoning seems to be that if the state must allow us to kill humans in the womb, it must also allow them to kill them later.

j. Men will be… traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God: These characteristics are all about one thing: Self. Men are traitors because of self, they are headstrong because of self, they are haughty because of self, and they are lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God because of self.

k. Having a form of godliness but denying its power: In our self-obsessed world, people feel very free to have a “salad bar” religion – they pick and choose what they want. They feel free to be very “spiritual,” but sense no obligation to be Biblical.

• i. In the late 1990s it was reported that the Reverend John Canning delivered the eulogy after Leo and Hazel Gleese were slain, telling mourners that he had been so close to the couple that he could call them Mom and Dad. On Friday, six weeks later, Canning was led off to jail in handcuffs, charged with beating and strangling the 90-year-old couple. Police say the Gleeses were killed in their home January 2 after they discovered Canning had abused the power of attorney they gave him and was stealing their savings. “It’s the most despicable thing I’ve ever heard of,” said Phil Ramer, a Florida Department of Law Enforcement agent. “Of all people in the world you should be able to trust, it’s your pastor. They couldn’t do it in this case, and he wound up killing them.” The pastor was a suspect from the start because he waited a day to report he found the couple dead in their home. “When it takes somebody a day to report two dead bodies, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to say who the suspect is,” Ramer said. The minister passed the time before reporting the deaths by spending a day at the beach and dining out with friends.

• ii. A 63-year-old married woman wrote to Dear Abby to justify her adultery. She writes: “He’s also married. We meet once a week at a motel for three hours of heaven. My husband knows nothing about this, and neither does my lover’s wife. Sex with my husband is even better now, and it’s not as though I am denying my husband anything. I teach a class at church every week, but for some reason, I feel no guilt.”

• iii. When we talk about the power of godliness, we often mean it in the sense of “power to give me what I want.” But this is exactly opposite of what Paul meant here. The power of godliness that men will despise in the last days is the power it should have to guide their lives; power in the sense of rightful authority – and many, many, today deny that God has the power to tell them what to do through His Word.

There’s a lot to unpack in this commentary. Since this devotional is already approaching the length of a short novel, I’ll leave it to the reader to read through those examples again.

My next devotional examines Isaiah 5:21 - Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes.

Heaven on Wheels Daily Prayer:

Dear Lord - Thank You for pointing me to scripture that shows how humans have not changed at all since the Creation. I pray for those who call good evil and evil good and want to reside in darkness and bitterness. Amen.

Citations and Credits:

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. www.Lockman.org.

Precept Austin was accessed on 08/31/2026 to review commentary for Isaiah 5:20.

Commentary from Enduring Word is used with written permission and without any alteration. ©1996-present The Enduring Word Bible Commentary by David Guzik – enduringword.com. At the link referenced, the bibliography used by David Guzik can be accessed. This includes the commentary from 2 Timothy.

Image generated by ChatGPT (OpenAI) using the DALL·E model.

These words of Jesus were spoken to His disciples, while a large “crowd of many thousands” that was so out of control that “they were trampling on one another” gathered nearby (Luke 12:1). He’s warning the disciples to not be hypocrites like the Pharisees, the religious leaders of the time who made public displays of their “righteousness” while not doing what God was demanding of them.

His warning “What you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight” explains that although the Pharisees are making a good show of how holy and righteous they are, their secret discussions and hidden bad conduct are fully known before the omniscient God. He’s exposing just how hypocritical the Pharisees are, and teaching His disciples to live without that sort of deception since God sees the true motivation behind every action and judges accordingly.

In His perfect justice, God will eventually reveal those concealed matters one way or another. We see this repeated in 1 Corinthians 4:5:

‭‭‬‬The Pharisees met in groups in secluded and private meeting rooms, and counseled each other in other non-public places, plotting for higher positions in the hierarchy and seeking to punish those who upset their authority or didn’t follow their complex (and unnecessary) religious rules to the letter. Jesus points out in the next part of the verse — “what you have whispered in the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the roofs.” — that even the most secret meeting place is wide open to the presence of God.

Trying to hide sin, cover up hostility, or pretending to believe while remaining distant from God does not work — He knows what is in our hearts and minds. Hebrews 4:13 describes this well:

‭‭In Biblical times, the flat roofs of buildings in towns and cities were visible places where announcements could be made and heard. This would have been familiar to the disciples, and the words of Jesus show that the hypocrisy and hidden evils of the Pharisees will eventually be exposed to the world.

Trying to keep sinful and hypocritical actions hidden from God never works, but the opposite is also true — faithfulness does not need to be publicly displayed to gain God’s approval. Christians should strive to live transparently, speak truth fearlessly, and trust the Lord to both reveal and reward what is done in His name.

Heaven On Wheels Daily Prayer:

Father in Heaven, Help me to always speak with integrity and truth, even in the private places where I remain unseen. May the words that I speak be pure and honorable, always bringing glory to Your name. Grant me courage to stand up for what is right in Your eyes, even when that may be difficult and unpopular. Forgive me for my past words spoken in secret that were not pleasing to You, and train my tongue to speak words that reflect Your love and grace. AMEN.

Scripture quotations taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica US, Inc.®. Used by permission.

BibleHub was accessed on August 31, 2026 for commentary on Luke 12:3

“Woe to those who drag iniquity with the cords of falsehood,

And sin as if with cart ropes;

Who say, “Let Him make speed, let Him hasten His work, that we may see it;

And let the purpose of the Holy One of Israel draw near

And come to pass, that we may know it!””

‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭5‬:‭18‬-‭19‬ ‭NASB1995‬‬

The third woe from Isaiah 5 is a bit of a head-scratcher upon a first reading (or even after reading it several times). I did a “Bible in One Year” plan for many years that would have included Isaiah and I do not remember the “woes” in this chapter, except perhaps the one that will be in my next devotional (woe to those who call evil good…). But I love digging deeper into scripture now and finding an explanation not just for readers but also for me, the ultimate Biblical amateur.

First, there is this interesting insight from an AI tool, ChatGPT (the tool created the image at the top):

The image brings Isaiah’s metaphor to life by showing men literally dragging a heavy cart of sin behind them, bound to it by thick ropes. The load of wealth, wine, and idols represents the wrongdoing they have accumulated and chosen to carry rather than abandon.

The richly dressed man defiantly gesturing toward the heavens reflects verse 19, where the people mock God and challenge Him to hurry up and act. Meanwhile, the gathering storm clouds suggest that the judgment they arrogantly dismiss is already approaching.

Isaiah is telling the people of Judah and Jerusalem (and us, even if we consider ourselves believers) that we are so invested in our sins that we drag them around behind us, even though they are a burden on our bodies, minds and souls. And not only do we drag our sins around, we even turn to God and mock Him, demanding that He hasten His works so that “we can see it and we can know it”.

Do those words remind you of a NT passage?

“The Pharisees and Sadducees came up, and testing Jesus, they asked Him to show them a sign from heaven. But He replied to them, “When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.’ And in the morning, ‘There will be a storm today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ Do you know how to discern the appearance of the sky, but cannot discern the signs of the times? An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign; and a sign will not be given it, except the sign of Jonah.” And He left them and went away.”

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭16‬:‭1‬-‭4‬ ‭NASB1995‬‬

At this point in the Gospel of Matthew, the Pharisees and Sadducees had seen or heard of many miracles that Jesus had performed; in fact, in the chapter before this one, the second miraculous feeding occurred with 4,000 in attendance. But they were wicked and stubborn, being adulterous to the tenets of their faith. So what is the sign of Jonah? Gotquestions.org answers this question quite effectively:

The “sign of Jonah” is a reference to Jesus Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection (see Matthew 12:40; cf. Jonah 1:17). The religious leaders already had more than enough proof of Jesus Christ’s identity. They knew the messianic prophecies Christ was fulfilling. They had seen with their own eyes His miracles of healing and exorcisms. What more could He do if these signs weren’t indisputable evidence enough? Nothing, concluded Jesus. The fact that they continued seeking a sign demonstrated the hardness of their unbelieving hearts. The only definitive sign they might accept to validate Christ’s authority would be His triumph over death on the cross (Romans 6:9; 2 Timothy 1:10). The Pharisees probably did not comprehend what Jesus meant just then, but they might have remembered and understood His words after the resurrection.

Scripture teaches that it’s wise to test the legitimacy of a person who claims to be God’s prophet (1 John 4:1). Jesus wasn’t saying that it is evil or wrong to seek for a sign. God gave signs to Moses (Exodus 4:1–9) and Gideon (Judges 6:11–22) to validate His Word. He urged King Ahaz, “Ask the Lord your God for a sign, whether in the deepest depths or in the highest heights” (Isaiah 7:11; see also Isaiah 7:10–25). Miraculous signs are sometimes the catalyst to spark a person’s faith and trust in Jesus (see John 2:23; 11:45). God gives signs to help those struggling to believe (John 4:43–54).

The purpose of a divine sign is always to lead people to respond to God’s message in faith. The scribes and Pharisees asked for a sign to trick Jesus and ultimately destroy Him. For this reason, Jesus said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign.” He perceived the rebellion and unbelief in their hearts. Moreover, Jesus recognized these men as spokespersons for an entire generation of unfaithful, unbelieving people.

Refusing to let go of our sins even in the face of our salvation is driven by stubbornness and pride and the fact that we lie to ourselves (“the cords of falsehood”) and say that these are not really sins. The people in Isaiah’s time had heard about the probability of exile and punishment for their ways but they are throwing that back at God, telling Him to prove it by doing it now. Precept Austin quotes Raymond Ortlund with a pithy statement:

Picture people, not horses, harnessed to a heavy wagon, pulling it along, straining with all their might. Isaiah understands the burden that sin is. But we do it to ourselves! Why? Because sin is deceitful. The prophet says, "Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of falsehood." That's how it happens. Sin lies to us. It's not as though sin fulfills its promises to make life better. It's a drag. So why don't we throw off the harnesses and run free? Because we are deceived—doubly so, for even as we cling to our favorite sins, so heavy but so dear to us, we also wonder, "I'm so bored. I'm so disappointed. Why isn't God more real to me? And look at the condition of this whole wretched world. Where is God?" That is what Isaiah discerns in the human heart, according to Isa 5:19—a mind that blames God, defies God, taunts God. - Preaching the Word – Isaiah: God Saves Sinners. (Isaiah - God Saves Sinners Preaching the Word) (Color and bolding added by Precept Austin).

Are you still dragging a heavy cart behind you loaded with sins that you can’t let go? I know that my cart looks a lot like the one in this picture. I still have these sins that I confess every time I pray. I am forgiven, but the burden still remains:

• Envy

• Pride

• Gluttony

• Greed

• Wrath

• Lust

• Sloth

• Anxiety

• Focused on worldly distractions/pleasures

• Hatred

• Impatience

• Lying

• Stealing from God

• Hard-heartedness

• Selfishness

• Ingratitude

• Doubt

• Resentment

It’s a lifelong battle but little by little these things are pushed aside by the Holy Spirit and replaced with the fruit of His love and grace. Sometimes the cart is nearly empty, other times it fills up in an instant! One thing that we can never allow ourselves to do is to huffily demand that God hurry up in His promises and shake a finger at Him in frustration. We are being refined, not coddled.

My next devotional examines Isaiah 5:20 - Woe to those who call evil good.

Heaven on Wheels Daily Prayer:

Dear Lord - I pray these sinful states to You regularly and ask You for a removal of this vicious burden that I have placed on myself. Thank You for the progress that has been made! Amen.

Citations and Credits:

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. www.Lockman.org.

Precept Austin was accessed on 08/30/2026 to review commentary for Isaiah 5:18-19.

Gotquestions.org was accessed on 08/30/2026 to answer this question: Why does Jesus say that “an evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign” (Matthew 12:39)? © COPYRIGHT 2002-2026 GOT QUESTIONS MINISTRIES. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Commentary from Enduring Word is used with written permission and without any alteration. ©1996-present The Enduring Word Bible Commentary by David Guzik – enduringword.com. At the link referenced, the bibliography used by David Guzik can be accessed.

Image generated by ChatGPT (OpenAI) using the DALL·E model.

Today we have a short devotional for a short verse. Oddly enough, it comes from the longest chapter of the longest book of the Bible — Psalm 119. This acrostic psalm consists of 176 verses. Think of it this way; if I were to write a Heaven On Wheels devotional for each verse in this chapter, it would take me nearly a year to complete a pass through this treasure of wisdom!

Remember, we have a lot of devotionals here that study many of the psalms. Click the button below to see a list of psalms to dive into:

Study More Psalms

Verse 165 comes in a stanza that is primarily a quiet meditation to the Lord. In keeping with the design of Psalm 119, this verse is part of the stanza that begins with the Hebrew letter ש (shin, u). American theologian and minister James Montgomery Boice said this about the ש stanza (cited in Enduring Word):

Verse 165 begins with the one Hebrew word almost everyone knows: שָׁלוֹם (šālôm, shalom), primarily translated as peace. Boice commented that “Shalom is a large, embracing word for the good that comes to the one God favors.” The psalmist had a great love for God’s law, and that love brought tangible benefits to his life. Here he says that it brought him “great peace,” and it’s apparent that following God’s will has also blessed him with a very stable life — “nothing can make them stumble.”

18th century churchman and writer George Horne, cited on Enduring Word, notes that:

Boice goes on to say that: “This verse does not promise peace to those who perfectly keep God’s Law, for who can keep it? It promises peace to those who ‘love’ God’s Law.” Fortunately for believers, Christ fulfilled the Law and enables His people to walk in the righteousness God requires of us.

Let’s look at this from another perspective: God grants peace and well-being to all those who delight in His will as revealed through His Word. The foundation of God’s peace is fellowship with the Lord, and it builds from that foundation through obedience to His commandments.

A special congratulations to my friend Mike Reid on his decision to be baptized again today as an adult—a beautiful public expression of his faith and renewed commitment to follow Christ. May this moment mark the beginning of an even deeper walk with the Lord and a joyful new chapter in his journey of faith.

Heaven On Wheels Daily Prayer:

Father in Heaven, thank You for the gift of Your Word, which gives me peace and keeps me from stumbling. I pray that You help me to keep my love for You and Your Law in my mind, heart, and soul at all times. In Jesus’ name I pray, AMEN.

Scripture quotations taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica US, Inc.®. Used by permission.

Commentary quotations from Enduring Word are used with the written permission of the author and reproduced here in their original format. © 1996-present The Enduring Word Bible Commentary by David Guzik – enduringword.com

Boice, James Montgomery “Psalms: An Expostional Commentary” Volume 3 (Psalms 107-150) (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Books, 1998)

Horne, George “Commentary on the Psalms” (Audubon, New Jersey: Old Paths Publications, 1997 of a 1771 edition)

“Woe to those who rise early in the morning that they may pursue strong drink,

Who stay up late in the evening that wine may inflame them!

Their banquets are accompanied by lyre and harp, by tambourine and flute, and by wine;

But they do not pay attention to the deeds of the Lord,

Nor do they consider the work of His hands.

Therefore My people go into exile for their lack of knowledge;

And their honorable men are famished,

And their multitude is parched with thirst.

Therefore Sheol has enlarged its throat and opened its mouth without measure;

And Jerusalem’s splendor, her multitude, her din of revelry and the jubilant within her, descend into it.

So the common man will be humbled and the man of importance abased,

The eyes of the proud also will be abased.

But the Lord of hosts will be exalted in judgment,

And the holy God will show Himself holy in righteousness.

Then the lambs will graze as in their pasture,

And strangers will eat in the waste places of the wealthy.”

‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭5‬:‭11‬-‭17‬ ‭NASB1995‬‬

The second woe admonition by Isaiah is a longer passage. This woe addresses those who seek strong drink all day and seek pleasure and partying instead acknowledging the deeds and works of the Lord. They lack knowledge and will be exiled, even swallowed up into Sheol (more on that term later). The AI image at the top contains the key elements from the passage, including the strangers eating in the waste places of the wealthy and the lambs grazing in the pasture. Interestingly, ChatGPT did not provide any commentary to go along with the image. Although this is addressing the people of Judah and Jerusalem, the message is timeless.

Here are the remarkable insights for Isaiah 5:11-17 from Charles Spurgeon from Spurgeongems.org:

Verses 11-12: The covetous man was intoxicated with greed. Here is a man intoxicated with strong drink. It is never too early, it is never too late, for men to drink who once are carried away with this passion. They rise up early, they continue until night, and then, when they are inflamed with lust, all sorts of evil pleasures are sought after, and Satan leads them captive at his will. Woe unto such!

Now, it was because there were covetous men who were idolaters, because there were luxuriously living men who were drunkards, who had crept into Jerusalem and lived there, and spread evils among the people—it was for this that God declared that He would lay His vineyard waste. Are there none such in the church of God today? Ah, me! I fear there are professors who do not let it be known openly, but who in secret follow after these things.

Verses 13-14: What a wonderful description that is of the church of God when it goes wrong, when there is evil in it. Then evil multiplies itself greatly in the earth, and hell has to be made bigger, as it were. As one old preacher said, “They go to hell in droves.” There is none to stay them. When the church itself goes wrong, then the world is like that herd of swine that ran violently down a steep place to perish in the waters. Down, down they go! Oh, dreadful sight! Oh, terrible doom that falls upon the ungodly! Would God the church were well awake to see the danger of mankind, and that she so lived that God could bless her to the salvation of men.

Verses 15-16: For whoever may stain himself with sin, God will not. We may think lightly of sin, but He never does. We may be so foolish as to tolerate iniquity in ourselves and wink at it in others, but God will not do so. Even when sin was laid on Christ He smote Him to the death. Though He was not guilty of any sin, yet when our sin lay there, God turned away His face from His Son, and He died, and if He spared not sin in His Son, think you He will spare it in us? Ah, no! He is a just God, and He will clear His hands of any complicity with iniquity. The sixteenth verse is the song of Hannah, that greatest of ancient poetesses. It is the song of Mary, who copied it from Hannah, “He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree. He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich he hath sent empty away.”

Verse 17: It is ever so. There is always room for the tender, and the gentle, and the weak, when God smites the haughty and the strong.

Jesus was sinless, but because He took on the sins of the world on the cross, God turned from Him as He suffered and died. God hates sin!

Sheol is defined by the Blue Letter Bible lexicon as follows:

Sheol comes from the Hebrew feminine noun שְׁאוֹל shᵉʼôwl, sheh-ole'; or שְׁאֹל shᵉʼôl; from H7592; hades or the world of the dead (as if a subterranean retreat), including its accessories and inmates:—grave, hell, pit.

The Biblical usages of Sheol include;

1. sheol, underworld, grave, hell, pit

   1. the underworld

   2. Sheol - the OT designation for the abode of the dead

      1. place of no return

      2. without praise of God

      3. wicked sent there for punishment

      4. righteous not abandoned to it

      5. of the place of exile (fig)

      6. of extreme degradation in sin

Enduring Word has a succinct commentary on this passage:

a. Woe to those who rise early in the morning, that they may follow intoxicating drink: The picture is of those who “work hard” to party and endlessly celebrate. Their lives are filled with substance abuse and music – but they do not regard the work of the LORD, nor consider the operation of His hands.

• i. What is wrong with the party life and the addiction to entertainment? Simply put, God is forgotten. Though men may claim to remember Him in some way, they do not regard the work of the LORD, nor consider the operation of His hands. Anyone who really does regard the work of the LORD, and really does consider the operation of His hands, will live as if God is real and as if there is much more to life than partying and entertainment.

b. Therefore My people have gone into captivity: Those who forget about God because of their partying and entertainment will be judged by a captivity that will end the laughs (he who is jubilant, shall descend into it), exalt the LORD (the LORD of hosts shall be exalted in judgment), and reward the meek (the lambs shall feed in their pasture).

So what’s wrong with drinking and having fun? I enjoy a glass of wine and I like relaxation and fun with friends or being on a leisure vacation. But it’s true - you do forget about God while taking advantage of our very luxurious time in history and the pursuit of pleasures. Our whole society is tailored to entertainment that often comes with strong drink and substance abuse. Here are some examples and things to think about and how these become the ultimate distraction from the Lord God of Hosts:

1. Sporting events - Baseball, football (and soccer), basketball, hockey, even kid’s tournaments are excuses to bring or buy a bunch of drinks for the adults. People even plan their time before the game to get there early for tailgate parties.

2. Concerts and music events - I don’t think I’ve ever attended a popular music concert that wasn’t in a cloud of smoke from certain “substances”. Oh, and the beer sales are pretty good, too.

3. TV and video games - Sitting in front of the TV mindlessly watching stuff or spending hours with games - a beer or wine is always better!

4. Vacations - there are many cruises these days, for example, that are merely excuses for endless partying and they offer low fares. Apparently, the “drinks included” package on Carnival Cruise Lines sets a daily limit of 15 drinks. Depending on your body composition, that quantity of alcohol could be fatal! No wonder there are viral videos of people fighting on cruises or passed out in hallways. We have been on 41 cruises and have rarely experienced a cruise that is merely an excuse for wild partying on the pool deck. And we never stop writing our devotionals, even when on a cruise vacation, so that helps to keep the Lord front and center.

5. Bar hopping and socializing in bars - Apparently, Generation “Z” isn’t as interested in strong alcoholic drinks, replacing those with strong and expensive coffees. But even movie theaters these days have bar service!

The biggest threat to our relationship with God with all of these distractions is that we lack knowledge of Him. It’s easier to defer the prayer, the Bible reading, and the attendance at church when there are games to go to, parties to attend, and another week in the Caribbean coming up! Here is a comparable passage in Hosea:

“Listen to the word of the Lord, O sons of Israel,

For the Lord has a case against the inhabitants of the land,

Because there is no faithfulness or kindness

Or knowledge of God in the land.

There is swearing, deception, murder, stealing and adultery.

They employ violence, so that bloodshed follows bloodshed.

Therefore the land mourns,

And everyone who lives in it languishes

Along with the beasts of the field and the birds of the sky,

And also the fish of the sea disappear.

Yet let no one find fault, and let none offer reproof;

For your people are like those who contend with the priest.

So you will stumble by day,

And the prophet also will stumble with you by night;

And I will destroy your mother.

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.

Because you have rejected knowledge,

I also will reject you from being My priest.

Since you have forgotten the law of your God,

I also will forget your children.

The more they multiplied, the more they sinned against Me;

I will change their glory into shame.

They feed on the sin of My people

And direct their desire toward their iniquity.

And it will be, like people, like priest;

So I will punish them for their ways

And repay them for their deeds.

They will eat, but not have enough;

They will play the harlot, but not increase,

Because they have stopped giving heed to the Lord.

Harlotry, wine and new wine take away the understanding.”

‭‭Hosea‬ ‭4‬:‭1‬-‭11‬ ‭NASB1995‬‬

Being a believer in God, the Father Almighty and His Son Jesus and the Holy Spirit is a serious business. We should never let our thoughts stray far afield from Him, even if we might enjoy some of the pleasures of this world and His creation but rather fold those things into a daily habit of thanksgiving and gratitude. I’ve also discovered, doing these more in-depth Bible devotional studies, that God uses different prophets and different situations to bring the same message to our plugged-up ears and unseeing eyes and distracted hearts.

Here is superb commentary from Enduring Word on the passage from Hosea 4:

b. There is no truth or mercy or knowledge of God in the land: Each of these three points is connected. When people forsake the knowledge of God, soon truth and mercy are both gone. Truth must be rooted in something more than personal opinion, and mercy means going beyond self-interest.

• i. True wisdom and understanding always begin with the knowledge of God. Proverbs 9:10 says, The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.

• ii. Or knowledge of God in the land: Alexander Pope, a famous writer, once wrote: “Know then thyself, presume not God to scan; the proper study of mankind is man.” But an even more famous writer, Charles Spurgeon, responded to Pope’s statement: “It has been said by someone that ‘the proper study of mankind is man.’ I will not oppose the idea, but I believe it is equally true that the proper study of God’s elect is God; the proper study of a Christian is the Godhead. The highest science, the loftiest speculation, the mightiest philosophy which can ever engage the attention of a child of God, is the name, the nature, the person, the work, the doings, and the existence of the great God whom he calls his Father.”

c. They break all restraint: It all connects back to leaving the knowledge of God. Soon, truth and mercy are things of the past, and people no longer practice restraint. When man will not or cannot restrain himself, bloodshed and destruction follow.

• i. Our modern age is completely set against the idea of restraint. You see it in advertising slogans of decades past:

  • · “To know no boundaries.”

  • · “No rules, just right.”

  • · “Just do it.”

  • · “Break all the rules.”

  • · “Peel off inhibitions. Find your own road.”

  • · “Living without boundaries.”

• ii. The message is the same: You make your own rules. You answer to no one. You are the one that matters. Your universe revolves around you. You should only restrain yourself if you want to.

• iii. The ultimate result is bloodshed after bloodshed. In the ancient Hebrew, this is literally “bloody deed touches bloody deed.” “Apparently violent crimes had become so common that one seemed immediately to follow another, as if touching it.” (Wood)

d. Everyone who dwells there will waste away: This is the tragic fruit of forsaking the knowledge of God, truth, mercy, and restraint. Satan sings sweetly to us, making us think or hope that casting these things away is a doorway to freedom – but it is only a path to destruction.

• i. “Paul probably had Hosea’s chapter in mind as he penned his own indictment of the gentile nations (cf. Hosea 4:6 with Romans 1:24, 26, 28; Hosea 4:7 with Romans 1:23; Hosea 4:11 with Romans 1:21, 22).” (Boice)

…

d. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: When God’s people are destroyed and waste away, it isn’t because God has lost either His love or strength. It’s because His people lack…knowledge.

• i. It isn’t that God says His people are completely ignorant. They have some knowledge, but not enough. They may have just enough to make them think they know it all.

• ii. What kind of knowledge did they lack? In the context, the first answer must be they lack the knowledge of God (Hosea 4:1). They know God some – perhaps a little – but not enough. Perhaps they felt they knew God well enough already.

• iii. The second kind of knowledge they lack is the knowledge of God’s Word (you have forgotten the law of your God). They know the Word of God some – perhaps a little – but not enough. Perhaps they felt they knew God’s Word well enough already.

• iv. It should not surprise us that there is a connection between knowing God and knowing His Word. Some people think that Bible knowledge is boring and brainy and not necessary for a real walk with God. But God and His Word are vitally connected. Psalm 138:2 says, You have magnified Your word above all Your name. When God sought for a term to express His nature, He calls Himself “The Word” (John 1:1).

• v. When we know God for who He really is, it affects our conduct. “Where there is no knowledge of God, no conviction of his omnipresence and omniscience, private offenses, such as stealing, adulteries, and so forth, will prevail.” (Clarke)

Really good stuff! Our modern age has the siren songs that try to lead us away from the knowledge of God by telling us there are no rules or constraints, just fun and things to buy, with you as the center of the universe. When you know God for who He really is, it affects our conduct and we realize that He is the center of all and we live to please Him.

My next devotional examines the third woe in Isaiah 5:18-19 - Woe to those who drag iniquity with falsehoods.

Heaven on Wheels Daily Prayer:

Dear Lord - Please help me to focus on You every day, through prayer, Bible study and a growing understanding of Your mercy, justice, holiness and righteousness. Amen

Citations and Credits:

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. www.Lockman.org.

Precept Austin was accessed on 08/28/2026 to review commentary for Isaiah 5:11-17.

Commentary from Enduring Word is used with written permission and without any alteration. ©1996-present The Enduring Word Bible Commentary by David Guzik – enduringword.com. At the link referenced, the bibliography used by David Guzik can be accessed. This includes the commentary from Hosea.

Image generated by ChatGPT (OpenAI) using the DALL·E model.

These are the words of Jesus as recorded by the Apostle John in the last book of the Bible, Revelation. Jesus is speaking through John to the church in Laodicea. Wikipedia tells us that:

Laodicea was quite near Colossae, and the church here was probably connected with the Colossian church. The Apostle Paul mentions Laodicea four times in his epistle to the Colossians, indicating a close relationship between the two churches.

I’ve mentioned before that there are no coincidences; God is at the controls of all that happens. That’s why it’s not a coincidence that Barb’s devotional on the Book of Isaiah from August 25 included this very verse amongst others from Revelation. The Lord has an amazing way of showing us how Scripture is all tied together.

What’s the context of this comment from Jesus? He has just chastised them as being “lukewarm—neither hot nor cold” in their faith, something that can be truthfully said about the vast majority of churchgoing Christians today! They may occupy a pew every Sunday, attend a Bible study class, and give to the church regularly, but do not live the rest of their lives following the two most important commandments of the New Testament:

Jesus rebukes them. The Laodiceans are fairly well-to-do, and feel that they don’t need anything… even spiritually. They may be wealthy in the material sense, but they are dirt poor spiritually. Jesus advises them to depend on Him instead, with the end result of satisfying what they really need. The Bible Says has an excellent commentary on this verse:

Jesus definitely had not lost His love for the Laodicean church. His great love for them was shown by His rebuke. Scottish theologian William Barclay said it best when he said “It is, in fact, God’s final punishment to leave a man alone.”1 If the Lord didn’t love them, He would have turned His back completely on them.

Usually when Jesus speaks of His love for His people, the word used is the Greek ἀγάπη (agapē) denoting His sacrificial love for mankind. Here in Revelation 3:19, Jesus uses the word φιλέω (phileō). What’s the difference? Phileō love is the love of a friend for another, so here Jesus is stating that even though He’s rebuking and disciplining the Laodiceans, He still has a deep love for them as a friend. Spurgeon focused on this different word, saying: “The word here used for ‘love’ is a very choice one; it is one which signifies an intense personal affection.”2

The Friend of the Laodiceans now asks them to make a decision. From Enduring Word:

It’s interesting to see what ChatGPT said about the devotional image that it created at my request:

No matter how badly we stray, God always lovingly convicts believers of their sin through the Holy Spirit and offers the gift of repentance and transformation.

Heaven On Wheels Daily Prayer:

Heavenly Father, I thank You for loving me enough to correct me. Help me to always be earnest in my faith and to turn away from my sins. Guide my heart to remain focused on You and Your will for my life. AMEN.

Scripture quotations taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica US, Inc.®. Used by permission.

Commentary quotations from Enduring Word are used with the written permission of the author and reproduced here in their original format. © 1996-present The Enduring Word Bible Commentary by David Guzik – enduringword.com

Commentary from The Bible Says © 2026 The Bible Says, All Rights Reserved

“Woe to those who add house to house and join field to field,

Until there is no more room,

So that you have to live alone in the midst of the land!

In my ears the Lord of hosts has sworn, “Surely, many houses shall become desolate,

Even great and fine ones, without occupants.

For ten acres of vineyard will yield only one bath of wine,

And a homer of seed will yield but an ephah of grain.””

‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭5‬:‭8‬-‭10‬ ‭NASB1995‬‬

This is the first of six woes that Isaiah identifies in Isaiah 5 as the reasons for God turning His back on the people of Jerusalem and Judah and allowing the vineyard to become fallow. The word woe comes from a Hebrew interjection as noted in the Strong’s definition from the Blue Letter Bible lexicon:

הוֹי hôwy, hoh'ee; a prolonged form of H1930 (akin to H188); oh!:—ah, alas, ho, O, woe.

ChatGPT had this to say about the image at the top that it created:

A wealthy Judean landowner stands on the terrace of a large, impressive stone house overlooking an enormous estate. Below him, laborers are moving boundary stones or building another wall outward, visibly absorbing a small neighboring farm. Off to one side, a poor family is leaving their modest home carrying a few possessions, displaced by the expanding estate. Farther across the landscape are several other substantial houses and fields belonging to the wealthy owner—but strangely few ordinary homes remain.

The landowner doesn’t need to look cartoonishly evil. In fact, I’d make him look satisfied and prosperous, perhaps quietly surveying everything he has accumulated. That makes the image more disturbing because he sees his expansion as success, while Isaiah sees injustice.

Isaiah has noted that many of the wealthier families in Judah and Jerusalem have started acquiring land or even usurping it from others to have more substantial houses and fields that they own. They displace poorer families that have been on the property to do this. According to Leviticus 25, the land belongs to God and the rules are set for property management according to the year of the Jubilee (every 50 years):

“‘The land, moreover, shall not be sold permanently, for the land is Mine; for you are but aliens and sojourners with Me. Thus for every piece of your property, you are to provide for the redemption of the land.

‘If a fellow countryman of yours becomes so poor he has to sell part of his property, then his nearest kinsman is to come and buy back what his relative has sold. Or in case a man has no kinsman, but so recovers his means as to find sufficient for its redemption, then he shall calculate the years since its sale and refund the balance to the man to whom he sold it, and so return to his property. But if he has not found sufficient means to get it back for himself, then what he has sold shall remain in the hands of its purchaser until the year of jubilee; but at the jubilee it shall revert, that he may return to his property.”

‭‭Leviticus‬ ‭25‬:‭23‬-‭28‬ ‭NASB1995‬‬

The “house-to-house” and “field-to-field” building frenzy that results in no more room and pushes out the poorer families in all likelihood violates the laws that were laid down in Leviticus and Isaiah has observed this. Because they have done this, the houses will become desolate and the land will not yield fruit and grain.

There is a cautionary tale from this Biblical woe for us in the 21st century. Although I am a strong supporter of free markets and would not like someone or some group (like an overbearing government) to intervene or destroy those free markets or propose onerous taxes or even worse penalties to confiscate wealth, you do have to wonder about places like the one in the photo. A beautiful and opulent mansion like this is either admired or envied by those who view it (not by me, because I don’t have the stamina to wander around such a modern castle, so I prefer a much smaller domicile, although it’s true that someone else would do the cleaning and cooking). Who can use all of those rooms??

The sin of covetousness is never satisfied. You might currently have a house with a decent number of rooms, but then you start to long for the larger palace with many more rooms, elaborate kitchens, servants and special rooms with limited purposes, like an indoor swimming pool and gymnasium and movie theater and multi-car garage. You might have many wives like David had, but you spot a beautiful woman bathing and decide that you must have her, too (and you plot to kill her husband). There are many more examples that I could explore. Sinful humans are never content with what they have, much less show any gratitude.

There’s an interesting perspective on this that is explored in an absolutely wonderful book by C.S. Lewis called the “The Great Divorce” (highly recommended). This book has a unique look at the realms of heaven and hell. There is a bus stop in the gloomy city of hell (the city, looking like a drab English market town, is rapidly descending into permanent nighttime). The bus takes people to view heaven and their loved ones that are there.

One of the denizens of hell is Napoleon Bonaparte. He has built a huge mansion light years away from many of the occupants and is all alone. Here is an excerpt from the book talking about the older occupants (from https://theallfreenovel.com/14215/2/the_great_divorce):

‘Would they get to the bus stop in time, if they ever set out?’

‘Well—theoretically. But it’d be a distance of light-years. And they wouldn’t want to by now: not those old chaps like Tamberlaine and Genghis Khan, or Julius Caesar, or Henry the Fifth.’

‘Wouldn’t want to?’

‘That’s right. The nearest of those old ones is Napoleon. We know that because two chaps made the journey to see him. They’d started long before I came, of course, but I was there when they came back. About fifteen thousand years of our time it took them. We’ve picked out the house by now. Just a little pin prick of light and nothing else near it for millions of miles.’

‘But they got there?’

‘That’s right. He’d built himself a huge house all in the Empire style—rows of windows flaming with light, though it only shows as a pin prick from where I live.’

‘Did they see Napoleon?’

‘That’s right. They went up and looked through one of the windows. Napoleon was there all right.’

‘What was he doing?’

‘Walking up and down—up and down all the time—left-right, left-right—never stopping for a moment. The two chaps watched him for about a year and he never rested. And muttering to himself all the time. “It was Soult’s fault. It was Ney’s fault. It was Josephine’s fault. It was the fault of the Russians. It was the fault of the English.” Like that all the time. Never stopped for a moment. A little, fat man and he looked kind of tired. But he didn’t seem able to stop it.’

I hope this makes some sense to the reader. C.S. Lewis uses Napoleon as an example of someone who once “had it all” in this life (including a vast Empire, a stunning Empress wife, a large military force and riches beyond compare) but he decided he wanted more, so he set out to conquer Russia, too, and launched an invasion. He lost everything in this last venture and the final blow came at the battle of Waterloo; he was exiled permanently to a remote island until he died.

Note that in this imagined afterlife from Lewis, Napoleon has built a massive empire-style mansion that is brightly lit (like our mansion in the photo) but he can only be seen by those who have traveled a very long distance. They then view him for a year pacing and muttering, casting blame for his defeats. His “house-to-house” and “field-to-field” strategies in his mortal life have left him unable to even rest for a second for all eternity. He is exiled and all alone. This hearkens back to the admonition by Isaiah that the wealthy and greedy landowner lives alone in the midst of the land. He might be counting his coins, but he is like Napoleon, exiled in his mortal life and in his eternal damnation.

One other observation could be made about how “field-to-field” development seems to be problematic. We have done a lot of traveling through many towns and small (and large) cities in the US, sometimes taking routes that avoid freeways and meander through the neighborhoods. Other than downtown areas that may preserve some places of historical interest or nurture a few unique shops and restaurants, most of these places would look just like the photo at the top. There are chain restaurants and fast food joints and strip malls and chain motels and gas stations, then the same things start up again a few blocks later. Yes, these things are convenient, but they are also monotonous.

You can drive through the environs and suburbs of almost any populated place in America and see empty strip malls right next to new ones being built (why couldn’t the empty one be renovated?). Occasionally you glimpse some houses and schools and parks, but those are usually concealed behind the commercial developments. A visitor from outside the US would have a hard time telling you if he is in Anaheim or Tucson or Aurora or Fort Worth or Nashville or Cocoa Beach (you do get a glimpse of ocean in that last one). I can understand the business needs behind these developments, but that doesn’t make it more loveable or lovely to look at. And Isaiah’s proclamation is probably true - there is less yield from ten Walgreen’s clustered within five miles of each other than one store that can serve a much broader customer base, even if you have to travel for five minutes longer to get there. There are some glimmers of hope in more recent urban and suburban designs that have pedestrian malls, unique shops and restaurants, and community gathering places.

Ok, enough pontificating. I’ll leave you with the commentary from Enduring Word:

a. Woe to those who join house to house: The picture is of greedy real estate buying and development.

• i. “For it cannot be condemned as a thing in itself wrong, if a man add field to field and house to house; but he looked at the disposition of mind, which cannot at all be satisfied, when it is once inflamed by the desire of gain. Accordingly, he describes the feelings of those who never have enough, and whom no wealth can satisfy.” (Calvin)

• ii. “Covetous persons are of the dragon’s temper, who, they say, is so thirsty, that no water can quench his thirst. Covetousness is a dry drunkenness, saith one, an insatiable dropsy, and like hell itself.” (Trapp)

b. Many houses shall be desolate, great and beautiful ones, without inhabitant: In judgment, their real estate deals will not be successful, and they will have many vacant and unsold houses.

• i. “When men are covetous after the things of this world, God has a way of making them to be filled with disappointment and with bitterness.” (Spurgeon)

My next devotional examines Isaiah 5:11-17 - Woe to those who “party endlessly”.

Heaven on Wheels Daily Prayer:

Dear Lord - Help me to be grateful, always, for what I have and not covet what I don’t have. I thank You for how You have provided for us! Amen.

Citations and Credits:

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. www.Lockman.org.

Precept Austin was accessed on 08/26/2026 to review commentary for Isaiah 5:8-10.

Commentary from Enduring Word is used with written permission and without any alteration. ©1996-present The Enduring Word Bible Commentary by David Guzik – enduringword.com. At the link referenced, the bibliography used by David Guzik can be accessed.

Image generated by ChatGPT (OpenAI) using the DALL·E model.

With yet another Gospel verse focusing on generosity and giving, it’s obvious that God wants me and all of our readers to think about how they are serving His church.

In this verse from the Gospel of Luke we hear that John is answering a question. This isn’t the apostle John; rather, it’s John the Baptist and son of Zechariah who is in the midst of his ministry of “preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. (Luke 3:3).

John has just referred to those in the crowds seeking to be baptized as a “brood of vipers” (Luke 3:7), admonishes them to repent, and tells them to quit patting themselves on the back for being “children of Abraham” (Luke 3:8) — i.e., Jewish — and thus the chosen people of God. John is trying to impress on them that their alleged faith means nothing if they continue to sin.

The Bible Says explains:

After hearing this rather distressing message from the baptizer that being Jewish isn’t a ticket to heaven, the crowd demands an answer: “What should we do then?” (Luke 3:10). John begins listing what they should do, beginning with today’s verse — “Anyone who has two shirts should share with the one who has none, and anyone who has food should do the same.”

In this verse and the three that follow, John sets out the simple answer to the crowd in general, and then specifically to tax collectors and soldiers — basically, put love into practice.

Enduring Word’s David Guzik made the following comments on John’s demands:

John was preaching what Jesus would teach in the near future — it’s basically what we know today as the “golden rule”:

As I was studying commentary on this verse, I found the following writing from The Bible Says to be very instructive, particularly in these times when some are thinking that socialism and communism are “a good idea”:

Good commentary!

John was the forerunner for Jesus, who would teach the generations to come of the need for generosity of heart. I think God’s reason in having me write so many of these devotionals recently that focus on generosity and giving is that He wants for us to do some self-examination…

Are we generous with what we have, sharing it with others joyfully? Or are we always grabbing for more money and possessions, then holding onto them as if those material things are all that matters?

Do we enjoy giving to others, especially those in need? Do we give regularly to the Lord, and do we do that sacrificially — meaning that the giving comes first and foremost? Would you rather give a windfall to the Lord instead of treating yourself to some new “toys”? If you call yourself a Christian but don’t give regularly to the Lord or serve His people with your time, treasure, and talent, then perhaps you might want to seriously think about what it means to be a Christian!

Christians who are truly living their faith like to give to the church and to others, as the Spirit of Christ lives in them. Jesus gave himself for us in the ultimate sacrifice, and reminds us in Acts 20:35 that “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”

Heaven On Wheels Daily Prayer:

Father in heaven, we thank You for every blessing You have placed in our hands. Teach us to see the needs of Your church and of others with compassionate hearts, knowing that generosity is one way to make our faith visible in this world. We trust You as our Provider, and may we always use Your gifts to us to bless others. AMEN.

Scripture quotations taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica US, Inc.®. Used by permission.

Commentary from The Bible Says © 2026 The Bible Says, All Rights Reserved

Commentary quotations from Enduring Word are used with the written permission of the author and reproduced here in their original format. © 1996-present The Enduring Word Bible Commentary by David Guzik – enduringword.com