Week 17 Isaiah
“Though the Lord is very great and lives in heaven, he will make Jerusalem his home of justice and righteousness. In that day he will be your sure foundation, providing a rich store of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge” – those are Isaiah’s words and then he says that residents of Zion are people:
Who are honest and fair
Who reject making a profit by fraud
Who stay far away from bribes
Who refuse to listen to those who plot murder
Who shut their eyes to all enticements to do wrong.
These people sound like contestants for the Citizen of the Year Award – honest upstanding law-abiding people.
But there’s a key difference between garden-variety good citizens in – let’s say – Medicine Hat and good citizens in Zion. Isaiah says that Zion’s a place of good citizens and it’s also: a place of worship and celebration…(where) the Lord is our judge, our lawgiver, and our king.
So Isaiah distinguishes between normal Good Citizens and Zion-quality Good Citizens. The first are good citizens who are good citizens because (a) being a good citizen is good, and (b) being a good citizen is preferable to being a bad citizen. The second are good citizens who are good citizens because (a) being a good citizen is good, (b) being a good citizen is preferable to being a bad citizen, and (c) the Lord is their judge, their lawgiver, and their king.
Almost the same but different.
Note: quotes from Isaiah 33:5-6, 15 & 20-22 (NLT).