READING FOR JANUARY 26, 2026: ISAIAH 15, JOHN 17, PSALM 147:12-20 ISAIAH 15 Prophecy against Moab
Moab was the son of Lot (nephew of Abra- ham) and Lot’s daughter. His descendants eventually settled east of the Dead Sea. Many of the cities mentioned in this chapter were once conquered by Israel but had over time reverted back to Moab. Perhaps the most famous person of Moab was the great Ruth, ancestor of King David and Jesus. The chapter describes a time of great sadness in the future for the nation. It will come quick- ly, overnight for Ar and Kir. Those wailing at Dibon are worshipers at the temple of a false god. Perhaps this idolatry is partially respon- sible for these coming difficulties. We might recall Mt. Nebo as the site from where Moses viewed the promised land. Notice that the mourning customs included shaving one’s
head and beard, along with putting on sackcloth. It seems that mourning times have gotten progressively shorter and less visible in recent times. Perhaps that has to do with our more individualized approach to life in the USA. In Moab, they wailed with grief from their house- tops and in the public squares. Armed men are mentioned as being especially fearful. Perhaps their aggression against Israel, God’s people, was another reason for God’s punishment to Moab. In verse 5, the text seems to suggest that God disciplines them with a heavy heart—perhaps regretting that this action is necessary. If so, it resonates with Jesus’s words about Jerusalem: “When He approached Jerusalem, He saw the city and wept over it, 42 saying, “If you had known on this day, even you, the conditions for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes“ (Luke 19:41-42). God does not send judge folks for the enjoyment of it, as some have suggested: “[God is] not willing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance.” (2 Pet. 3:9). Yet, it is clear that this upcoming punishment is from the Lord (vs.9). Can we hold these truths in balance somehow?
JOHN 17 What a privilege we are given in this chapter, to see into the very heart of Jesus as he approaches his arrest and coming crucifixion. What did you notice as you read this chapter? If you were in Jesus’ sandals what would your focus be? Your prayer? Your tone of voice? N.T. Wright writes so beautifully (in “John for Everyone”, pp 64-71) about the prayers of Jesus for his followers that we’ll use his words for our reflections today: “In essence the prayer draws together everything that the gospel story has been about up to this point. READING FOR JANUARY 26, 2026 CONTINUED: JOHN 17, PSALM 147:12-20 In particular, the very fact of Jesus’ prayer is a living embodiment of that intimate union with the Father of
which we have heard so much. When you enter into this chapter and see what happens, you are being invited to come into the heart of that intimate relation between Jesus and the Father. . . That is what the prayer embodies and is also its central subject matter.
What Jesus now prays grows out of the fact that he is going away. He is entrusting the disciples to the Father he has known and loved throughout his own earthly life, the Father who, he knows, will care for them every bit as much as he has done himself. He is very much aware that the disciples are at risk. The world, which hates them as it hated him, will threaten and abuse them. They don’t belong to it, but they are about to be sent into it, and they need protecting. That’s what this prayer is about.
What they now need is to be kept from being pulled back into “the world” with all its wickedness and rebellion. During his ministry, teaching them and leading them, Jesus has looked after them like the shepherd with his sheep. . . Now, because he is coming to the Father, he is entrusting them to the Father who will continue the work of keeping them safe.
As we read verse 20, we realize that Jesus is talking about us! About you and me! “Those who believe in me through their word,” that is through the word of his followers. His followers announced the message around the world. Those who heard them passed it on. And on, and on, and on. The church is never more than one generation away from extinction; all it would take is for a single generation not to hand the word on. But it’s never happened. People have always told other people. . . It’s awesome, when you come to think about it.
What is Jesus praying for, as he thinks about you and me and all the other followers in this and every generation? He longed that we should all be one. United. This unity isn’t to be a formal arrangement. It isn’t just an outward thing. It is based on, and must mirror, nothing less than the unity between the Father and the Son, that unity that much of the book has been explaining and exploring. Just as the Father is in the Son, and the Son in the Father, so we too are to live within that unity. That can only mean that we ourselves must be united. And, in case we might miss the point, the result of this will be that the world will see, and know, that this kind of human community, united across all traditional barriers of race, custom, gender, or class, can only come from the action of the Creator God. “so that the world may believe. . .”
In addition, Jesus returns to an earlier theme. (see 12:26 and 14:3). His followers are to be “with him,” to see his glory. They are to know and experience the fact that the Father has exalted him as the sovereign of the world. They are to know that the love which the Creator God has given to him has installed him as the loving Lord of all. It is this Jesus, this man who prayed for you and me, this high priest who set himself apart for the Father’s glad service, whom we shall now watch as he goes forward to complete the work of love.
PSALM 147:12-20 We conclude this Psalm of praise by including blessings imparted particular- ly to God’s people Jerusalem/Zion, which likely could be thought as extending to all Christians today—to us. These include His protection, our children, peace, His provisions, His sovereignty, “silver-white winters that melt into spring,” and best of this list: His Word. LET’S PRAISE GOD FOR THE RICHES WE FIND EACH DAY IN HIS WORD. PRAISE THE LORD!
