Tuesday of Lent 2

Tuesday of Lent 2, February 27 2018                  Isaiah 1:2-4, 16-20

Israel is summoned to stand trial. God calls heaven and earth a witnesses. He commands creation to testify. It witnesses the critical events. They were children not just because of creation but because Go redeemed them from Egypt. By rejecting God’s ways despite His blessing these disobedient children must face the consequences of their actions.

In this account the animals are intelligent enough to recognize that their owner provides for them, but God’s people lacked this basic wisdom. Says Luther, “They think they know everything and the prophet calls their wisdom and knowledge sheer stupidity and ignorance.” (AE:16:9) 1

Sinful parents bear sinful children. The children repeat the same sinful corruption that plagued their parents. This is the sin we have inherited from our parents all the way back to our first father and mother Adam and Eve. But for us comes a second Adam, Jesus Christ who will bear our sin and pronounce to us His absolution as He bears our guilt and shame. 

Hymn: Alas! And Did My Savior Bleed (Lutheran Service Book 437:1)

Alas! And did my Savior bleed,
And did my sov-reign die?
Would He devote that sacred head
For such a worm as I?

O God, You willed to redeem us from all iniquity by Your Son: Deliver us when we are tempted to regard sin without abhorrence, and let the virtue of his passion come between us and our mortal enemy; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives, and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen  2

1.  Lutheran Study Bible © 2009 Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis

2.  Collect for Thursday of Lent 2,  http://www.liturgies.net/Lent/LentenCollects.htm