Why spend money on what is not bread,
    and your labor on what does not satisfy?
Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,
    and you will delight in the richest of fare.
Give ear and come to me;
    listen, that you may live.
I will make an everlasting covenant with you,
    my faithful love promised to David. – Isaiah 55:2-3

One of the many benefits, the perks, of teaching is the learning that goes along with the process. I learn when I consider exactly what I intend to teach, I learn as I research the subject, I learn in the preparation, I learn during the delivery and I learn most of all in the give and take, the interaction, the dialog while teaching is taking place.

This is especially true when teaching a mature, intelligent, spiritually intuitive group of folk such as the Tuesday morning men’s Bible study here at Howard Memorial Presbyterian Church.

Today we read and discussed Isaiah chapter 55. It is the latest stop on our journey through the scriptures.

To date (if you are interested in following our journey) we have looked at the following:

• The story of humankind’s broken relationship with God (Adam and Eve)
• Abraham and God’s covenant
• Moses and how he needed other people to help hold his arms up
• The story of Caleb, who “thought differently”
• The Numbers Benediction
• The Great Shema in Deuteronomy
• Joshua’s commitment “as for me and my house…”
• The time of the Judges and the cycle of disobedience and renewal
• Ruth, looking at how God works when people do what is right…
• Nehemiah and the post-exile time of restoration
• Samuel and the move from Judges to Kings
• David “a man after God’s own heart.”
• Wisdom literature: Psalms, then Proverbs, then Ecclesiastes where “God has set eternity in the hearts of people”
• Then, today, moving into the prophets with Isaiah….

So what is “blog-worthy” about this morning’s conversation?

Well, first it was so good, after four weeks, to get back together with these good men and to set our trajectory into 2025 together. It is encouraging and inspirational just to be there.

Then one particular phrase from my notes about prophesy: what it is and why it is important. The phrase is my response to the idea that prophesy is about predicting the future.

“The point of prophesy is not do predict,” I said, “but to direct.” Or, put another way, “prophesy is not so much predictive as directive.”

In other words, “Prophesy invites us into action; it is not about fatalism or inevitability but about walking with God.”

God has chosen – God is choosing – us to be partners in God’s initiatives of grace, mercy, light, love, encouragement, redemption, justice, healing, goodness and so much more. Prophesy declares, “This is God’s way; walk in it.”

There is not better intention at the beginning of 2025 than that of accepting God’s invitation. And then, as Isaiah 55 declares in verse 12, “You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands!”

Go out in joy and be led forth in peace! – DEREK