Isaiah 24 – 27: Elusive Antagonists
Tuesday, September 30, 2025
Written on February 25 and posted today as a Favorite . . .
Scripture persistently warns us about how to live, whom to follow, and what traps lie ahead to ensnare us. All we have to do is to pay a bit of attention.
Each of us has our personal impediments to the progress of the soul. All of us must come face to face with ourselves and the lives we have lived. Our antagonists are sometimes in our faces, but more frequently they slip in among our friends and loved ones to betray us in our inmost heart. Those who oppose us openly are easily identifiable; the more dangerous enemies, Isaiah warns, are those who come in the guise of goodness – and for this reason the Lord turns the world upside down – to see who shakes out, and who has learned the skills needed by the faithful.
If we have fed the hungry, clothed the naked, given shelter to the homeless and taken in the lost, we have been putting ourselves through our lessons well.
If we have mourned the dead, tended to the sick, ministered to the imprisoned and entered into the vineyard to do God’s work, we have becomes accustomed to living in mercy and compassion.
If we have witnessed to evil, rebuked our companions, atoned for our sins and made changes in our lives, we know how to live in God’s vineyard. And we will put our heads down, go indoors, and await the passing of the dreadful singing of the harvesting sword.
We ought not fear the obstacles we constantly stumble against for they are lesson plans that refine us. If we have answered God’s call and accepted our work as remnant toiling in God’s vineyard, then we need not fear the coming of the day as we see it here, for with God all things are possible. God will turn all that is evil to an end that is goodness, and we will know peace out of chaos, justice out of ruin, humility out of pride, love out of envy, and joy out of sorrow. Our elusive antagonists who have hounded our heels and sent chills of fear through our bones will have honed our skills at kingdom building and as remnant, and we will find to our amazement, that we will have readied ourselves for the work of God’s eternal city.
A re-post from September 5, 2011.
Images from: https://929chapters.com/2010/03/18/1-kings-21-%E2%80%9Cnaboths-vineyard%E2%80%9D/ and http://escapedlds.blogspot.com/2011/05/if-jesus-did-bleed-in-gethsemane.html
The Noontimes 