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Daily Reading: December 15th

#DailyDevotion Who or What is Your Rock You Daily Depend Upon?

December 15th

Read Is 30:27—31:9

Isa 30:29 You shall have a song as in the night when a holy feast is kept, and gladness of heart, as when one sets out to the sound of the flute to go to the mountain of the LORD, to the Rock of Israel. ..31:1 Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help and rely on horses, who trust in chariots because they are many and in horsemen because they are very strong, but do not look to the Holy One of Israel or consult the LORD! (2) And yet he is wise and brings disaster; he does not call back his words, but will arise against the house of the evildoers and against the helpers of those who work iniquity….8 “And the Assyrian shall fall by a sword, not of man; and a sword, not of man, shall devour him; and he shall flee from the sword, and his young men shall be put to forced labor. (9) His rock shall pass away in terror, and his officers desert the standard in panic,” declares the LORD, whose fire is in Zion, and whose furnace is in Jerusalem.

Israel and Judah is to have only One Rock. That Rock is the Lord. At this time, Judah in particular is looking to Egypt as a rock to deliver them from the Assyrians. But the Lord had told the people of Israel not to make treaties with the nations but to rely upon Him alone. God’s holy people were not to put their trust in princes or horses, they were not to look to mediums or sorcerers for help. They were to look to the Lord of Hosts from deliverance from all her enemies. They were to look the Lord for wisdom and for consultation. But they did not.

Instead they formed all sorts of alliances and looked to other gods and spiritualist for help in their troubles. God lets them know, these will not help them. Ultimately, for the sake of His name, the Lord delivers the people of Judah and Jerusalem from the hand of the Assyrians though they do not put their trust in Him. He still has plans for Judah. Our promised messiah, Jesus Christ, is to come from them. So he destroys the rock which they looked to for help. Egypt flees back to her country. Even the Assyrians after the destruction of the ten northern tribes fell by the sword as the Lord had foretold.

The question then for us today, who or what is our Rock? Who do we consult in times of trouble? Do we look to the government (princes), the military (horses and chariots), wealth, drugs, sex, rock and roll, alcohol, credit, or any other created thing? These will all fail us. They will turn on us and take control of us. Such reliances turn us into addicts of one sort of another.

Yet when we turn to the Lord our God and the Holy One of Israel, Jesus Christ, we will find our peace. Jesus Christ alone is to be our Rock in all our circumstances of life. He will give us joy in our sorrow. He promises ultimate deliverance from all our enemies. He shall guide us in all our ways so that we may sing and have gladness of heart. True we may still have to deal with all the effects of having turned away from him, but he gives us what we need to deal with it. He clears a path to restoration. Jesus grants us wisdom and intercedes for us. The problems of this world will not carry us away for he grants us strength to just stand and bear with the world on the day of trouble. On Christ the solid Rock we stand, all other ground is sinking sand.

O Lord Jesus Christ, our Rock and our Redeemer, grant us such faith in you that we turn away from relying on any created thing or person, that on the day of trouble our afflictions shall not sweep us away but instead stand solidly upon your promises. Amen.

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Rev. Guillaume J. S. Williams, Sr.

The Reverend Guillaume Williams is the Pastor of Hope Lutheran Chapel of Osage Beach, Missouri. His pastoral ministry with Hope began in 2005 where he preaches the Christ crucified.

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