Isaiah 33

Two passages caught my eye as I read in Isaiah 33 this morning. The first was in v.6, which reads: "and he [the LORD] will be the stability of your times, abundance of salvation, wisdom and knowledge; the fear of the LORD is Zion's treasure." In these tumultuous times, as in Isaiah's, God is our only stability. On a personal level, it says in Hebrews 6:19 that our hope in Christ is "a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul". On a national level, as it was for Judah in Isaiah's day, true stability can only come when "the fear of the LORD is Zion's (or America's) treasure". I don't know that national revival of that scope will ever happen for America. But, whether or not it happens, God's people will find their treasure in Him.
The second verse that stuck out to me was v.15:
"He who walks righteously and speaks uprightly,
who despises the gain of oppressions,
who shakes his hands, lest they hold a bribe,
who stops his ears fro hearing of bloodshed
and shuts his eyes from looking on evil,"
This is speaking of the one who can dwell with the consuming fire (v.14, speaking of God in His holiness). This speaks of a personal holiness that has definite implications in our choices of movies and TV shows to watch and video games to play. Instead of trying to stay away from graphic descriptions/portrayals of violence and moral perversion, we see how much we can get away with. The interpretation here is a bit complicated in that the very next chapter (ch 34) is a very bloody one. However, we can't put the immoral violence of Hollywood on a par with God's description of His judgment of evil doers.
There is a lot more that could be said about both these verses, but these are some initial thoughts and about all I have time for right now.