OUR DAILY BREAD READING (Published Daily by Our Daily Bread Ministries)
READ: Isaiah 64 (Focus vs. 1–8)
MEMORY VERSE
“All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags.” Isaiah 64:6
BACKGROUND
Recently, my wife and I were cleaning our house before having guests over. I noticed some dark stains on our white kitchen tile floor—the kind that required getting on my knees to scrub.
But I soon had a sinking realization: the more I scrubbed, the more I noticed other stains. Each stain I eliminated only made the others that much more obvious.
Our kitchen floor suddenly seemed impossibly dirty. And with each moment, I realized, No matter how hard I work, I can never get this floor completely clean.
Scripture says something similar about self-cleansing—our best efforts at dealing with sin on our own always fall short.
Seeming to despair of God’s people, the Israelites, ever experiencing God’s salvation (Isaiah 64:5), the prophet Isaiah wrote, “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags” (v. 6).
But Isaiah knew there is always hope through God’s goodness. So he prayed, “You, Lord, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter” (v. 8). He knew that God alone can cleanse what we cannot, until the deepest stains are “white as snow” (1:18).
We can’t scrub away the smudges and smears of sin on our souls. Thankfully, we can receive salvation in the One whose sacrifice allows us to be cleansed completely (1 John 1:7).
By: Adam Holz
INSIGHT
The potter-clay motif is an image used by the prophet Isaiah to depict the strained relationship God had with His people. This metaphor points to a sovereign Creator and submissive creature relationship.
As clay, we’re the intricate work of the Father’s hand (Isaiah 64:8). Choosing to go our own way, we reject God’s authority over our lives and “turn things upside down, as if the potter were thought to be like the clay!” (29:16).
It’s like the pot telling the potter what to do. Isaiah warned, “Woe to those who quarrel with their Maker” (45:9). As our Maker, He has every right to do what He pleases (vv. 10–12).
Some sixty years after these words from Isaiah were written, the prophet Jeremiah went to a potter’s house to give God’s people this same message: “Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, Israel” (Jeremiah 18:6).
By: K. T. Sim
APPLICATION
Why is it hard to accept God’s forgiveness? Why do you think you’re tempted to try to deal with sin on your own?
PR’s PASTOR RICHARD) TAKE
“He does not punish us for all our sins; he does not deal harshly with us, as we deserve. For his unfailing love toward those who fear him is as great as the height of the heavens above the earth. He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west.” Psalm 103: 10-12 nlt
PR’s RE-EMPHASIS (From Post)
“…our best efforts at dealing with sin on our own always fall short.”
PRAYER
“Father, help me to rest in Your forgiveness instead of trying to earn what You’ve already freely given.”
TODAY’s HYMN/WORSHIP/PRAISE/GOSPEL SONG
“THERE IS A FOUNTAN FILLED…”
There is a fountain filled with blood
Drawn from Immanuel’s veins;
And sinners, plunged beneath that flood,
Lose all their guilty stains:
Lose all their guilty stains,
Lose all their guilty stains;
And sinners, plunged beneath that flood,
Lose all their guilty stains.
The dying thief rejoiced to see
That fountain in his day;
And there may I, though vile as he,
Wash all my sins away:
Wash all my sins away,
Wash all my sins away;
And there may I, though vile as he,
Wash all my sins away.
Dear dying Lamb, Thy precious blood
Shall never lose its pow’r,
Till all the ransomed Church of God
Be saved, to sin no more:
Be saved, to sin no more,
Be saved, to sin no more;
Till all the ransomed Church of God
Be saved to sin no more.
E’er since by faith I saw the stream
Thy flowing wounds supply,
Redeeming love has been my theme,
And shall be till I die:
And shall be till I die,
And shall be till I die;
Redeeming love has been my theme,
And shall be till I die.
When this poor lisping,
Stamm’ring tongue
Lies silent in the grave,
Then in a nobler, sweeter song
I’ll sing Thy pow’r to save:
I’ll sing Thy pow’r to save,
I’ll sing Thy pow’r to save;
Then in a nobler, sweeter song
I’ll sing Thy pow’r to save.
READING THROUGH THE BIBLE DAILY IN 2023
Leviticus 21-22
Matthew 28