Truly, O people in Zion, inhabitants of Jerusalem, you shall weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry; when he hears it, he will answer you. Though the Lord may give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide himself any more, but your eyes shall see your Teacher. And when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left, your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.” (Isaiah 30:19-21)

Isaiah is filled with many warnings to the leaders of Israel that their injustice, their greed, their pursuit of alliances with foreign kings to secure their power would lead to disaster.  Isaiah warned that the judgement of God would fall on them. 

We might express that a little differently.  We would probably say that there is a law of consequences that cannot be avoided.  The result is the same.  Abuse of the powerless and living only for immediate advantage leads to a supper of the “bread of adversity and the water of affliction.”

But the good news is that even when our world falls apart because we have spent our strength and our love on lesser things, that is not the end of the story.

Sometimes the disasters we make are gracious in themselves; they cause us to open our eyes and make an honest assessment of how we got in the mess in the first place. 

When we are finally able to attend to more than our own selfish ambitions and greed, we are able to see that our Teacher has not abandoned us.  Once we are ready to hear, the Teacher will tell us, “This is the way; walk in it.”

The Teacher shows us the path to a place where we need weep no more.

Prayer:  Gracious Teacher, I’ve learned plenty from not listening to you.  Now I’m ready to dry my eyes and follow the paths you choose for me.  Amen.