Old Testament: Isa 22.15–19

To read the Bible in a year, read Isaiah 22–23 on October 1, In the year of our Lord Christ 2024

By Don Ruhl 

Why do the violent live in violent neighborhoods and die violent deaths? They sow violence and they reap violence. Isaiah 22.15–19 provides an example of that. The Lord told Isaiah to speak to a certain steward and question him, 

“What have you here, and whom have you here, 
That you have hewn a sepulcher here, 
As he who hews himself a sepulcher on high, 
Who carves a tomb for himself in a rock?” 

– Isaiah 22.16 

Shebna, the steward, imagined a beautiful tomb for himself as though he was a king. However, Isaiah prophesied that the Lord would throw him away violently, tossing him like a ball into a foreign land where he would die (verses 17–19). 

What do you sow in life? You can expect to receive the same in return.

Questions: 

• Have you used violence to get what you want? 
• Have you reaped violence yet for the violence that you sowed? 

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Don preaches with the Savage Street Church of Christ in Grants Pass, Oregon. 

Listen to his sermons here: GrantsPassChurchOfChrist.com