Moving along, we’re in Isaiah 22 which opens with a warning of impending judgment on Judah. Then this observation: God took away Judah’s protection, and Judah tried to fend for itself rather than look to God.

He has taken away the covering of Judah. In that day you looked to the weapons of the House of the Forest, and you saw that the breaches of the city of David were many. You collected the waters of the lower pool, and you counted the houses of Jerusalem, and you broke down the houses to fortify the wall. You made a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool.

But you did not look to him who did it, or see him who planned it long ago. (Isaiah 22.8 – 11, ESV)

“…the weapons of the House of the Forest…” refers to Solomon:

King Solomon made 200 large shields of beaten gold; 600 shekels of gold went into each shield. And he made 300 shields of beaten gold; three minas of gold went into each shield. And the king put them in the House of the Forest of Lebanon. (1 Kings 10.16, 17, ESV)

Then this condemnation I’ve not noticed before: God called for repentance, and the people threw a party:

In that day the Lord GOD of hosts called for weeping and mourning, for baldness and wearing sackcloth; and behold, joy and gladness, killing oxen and slaughtering sheep, eating flesh and drinking wine. “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”

The LORD of hosts has revealed himself in my ears: “Surely this iniquity will not be atoned for you until you die,” says the Lord GOD of hosts. (Isaiah 22.12 – 14, ESV)

King Belshazzar in Babylon while Daniel was there did the same thing…

King Belshazzar made a great feast for a thousand of his lords and drank wine in front of the thousand. Belshazzar, when he tasted the wine, commanded that the vessels of gold and of silver that Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken out of the temple in Jerusalem be brought, that the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines might drink from them. Then they brought in the golden vessels that had been taken out of the temple, the house of God in Jerusalem, and the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines drank from them. They drank wine and praised the gods of gold and silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone. (Daniel 5.1 – 4, ESV)

…and was judged in the same way:

But you have lifted up yourself against the Lord of heaven. And the vessels of his house have been brought in before you, and you and your lords, your wives, and your concubines have drunk wine from them. And you have praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood, and stone, which do not see or hear or know, but the God in whose hand is your breath, and whose are all your ways, you have not honored …MENE, God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end; TEKEL, you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting; PERES, your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians…That very night Belshazzar the Chaldean king was killed. (Daniel 5.23 – 30, ESV)

We’re going through the prophets this year in our Reading Plan, and some chapters are harder than others. Isaiah 21 is such a chapter. I’m sure we could glean something out of it if we spent enough time researching the geography. It does contain the famous line:

Fallen, fallen is Babylon. (Isaiah 21.9, ESV)

Reminds me of:

After this I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was made bright with his glory. And he called out with a mighty voice, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a dwelling place for demons, a haunt for every unclean spirit, a haunt for every unclean bird, a haunt for every unclean and detestable beast. (Revelation 18.1, 2, ESV)

But that’s all for me…let’s go back to John’s gospel for a different kind of sobering word:

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. (John 3.17, ESV)

This is Jesus talking. He came to save the world even though he knew the world would reject him then…and now:

And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. (John 3.19, 20, ESV)

It’s not just “Babylon” that will be judged.

I saw something striking in John 2 after Jesus cleanses the temple (John 2.13 – 16). He is challenged by the Jews and offers an enigmatic reply.

So the Jews said to him, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking about the temple of his body. (John 2.18 – 21, ESV)

But the next sentence is the kicker. This is John’s gospel. John, who walked with Jesus for three years. What does John say about himself and his fellow followers?

When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken. (John 2.22, ESV)

After the resurrection, the disciples believed. Think about that.

Rest assured, the greatest evidence of the resurrection of Jesus is that we have what we call the New Testament telling us about it. Without the resurrection, there wouldn’t have been anyone to write the New Testament!

As Jesus is calling his first disciples, as told in John 1, we have two instances of “come and see.”

The next day again John was standing with two of his disciples, and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them, “What are you seeking?” And they said to him, “Rabbi” (which means Teacher), “where are you staying?” He said to them, “Come and you will see.” So they came and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day, for it was about the tenth hour. (John 1.35 – 39, ESV)

The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” (John 1.43 – 46, ESV)

“Come and see” is the cure for doubt and prejudice (“Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”). I experienced an amusing example of this phenomenon a couple of weeks ago.

The Wall Street Journal published an intriguing article about a leading mathematician leaving academia to work for an Artificial Intelligence (AI) company with a goal of creating a machine that can do real mathematics (discovery and proof).

I sent a mathematician friend of mine a link to it. He responded: “Thank you, Bob. Have no WSJ.”

I had sent him the “Gift article” link. Doesn’t matter that he’s not a subscriber. So I resent him the same link and said, “This link should get you the article whether you are a subscriber or not. Try it:”

I confirmed that I sent him the same link in both messages. In other words, he didn’t try the link the first time!

As with the Moylan Arrow, a “gift article” link that someone doesn’t believe in enough to click on, won’t get him to the article.

Also, he didn’t really believe the article was about real mathematics. Apparently he hadn’t heard of Ken Ono, the subject of the article. But he did know Ken Ribet, quoted in the article:

“He’s a larger-than-life figure in mathematics,” said Ken Ribet [about Ken Ono], a former president of the American Mathematical Society.

My friend wrote:

I would have thought it was a typical journalistic bubble around math, but Ken Ribet is a true and fine mathematician, who contributed to Fermat’s Last Theorem proof. I attended his talk at CC.

Finally, my friend wrote: Thanks for the article,

“Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?” “Come and see.”

We’re in the middle of Isaiah’s judgments against the nations:

• Babylon (Isaiah 14.3 – 23, 21.1 – 17)
• Assyria (Isaiah 14.24 – 27)
• Philistia (14.28 – 32)
• Moab (Isaiah 15.1 – 16.13)
• Damascus (17.1 – 14)
• Cush (Isaiah 18.1 – 7, 20.1 – 6)
• Egypt (Isaiah 19.1 – 15, 20.1 – 6)
• Jerusalem (Isaiah 22.1 – 25)
• Tyre and Sidon (Isaiah 23.1 – 18)
• “The earth” (Isaiah 24.1 – 23)

Isaiah 19.1 – 15 is judgment on Egypt, followed by a graphic prediction of that judgment in Isaiah 20:

Then the LORD said, “As my servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot for three years as a sign and a portent against Egypt and Cush, so shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptian captives and the Cushite exiles, both the young and the old, naked and barefoot, with buttocks uncovered, the nakedness of Egypt. (Isaiah 20.3, 4, ESV)

But in between is this startling prediction:

In that day there will be an altar to the LORD in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to the LORD at its border. It will be a sign and a witness to the LORD of hosts in the land of Egypt. When they cry to the LORD because of oppressors, he will send them a savior and defender, and deliver them. And the LORD will make himself known to the Egyptians, and the Egyptians will know the LORD in that day and worship with sacrifice and offering, and they will make vows to the LORD and perform them. And the LORD will strike Egypt, striking and healing, and they will return to the LORD, and he will listen to their pleas for mercy and heal them.

In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and Assyria will come into Egypt, and Egypt into Assyria, and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians. In that day Israel will be the third with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, whom the LORD of hosts has blessed, saying, “Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel my inheritance.” (Isaiah 19.19 – 25, ESV)

When? “In that day.” What day? Some think the Millennium suggested by Revelation 20.1 – 4 . Or the new earth of Revelation 21.1 – 4. Or some time before? We really don’t know the when.

But we do know the how: “The LORD will make himself known to the Egyptians…and they will return to the LORD…”

What’s the lesson? Maybe we need to learn that there are no permanent categories. Any person or nation can turn to the LORD. For that matter, any person or nation can turn away from the LORD as the US appears to be doing now.

Saul of Tarsus is a positive example:

And I was still unknown in person to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. They only were hearing it said, “He who used to persecute us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.” And they glorified God because of me. (Galatians 1.22 – 24, ESV)

Demas, a negative example:

For Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica… (1 Timothy 4.10, ESV)

And at the end?

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” (Revelation 7.9, 10, ESV)

Our reading plan has us going through judgments on various nations:

• Babylon (Isaiah 13 and 14)
• Moab (Isaiah 15 and 16)
• Damascus (Isaiah 17)
• “Cush” (Isaiah 18)

Where is Cush? My online ESV bible’s note says that it’s “the region of the Upper Nile, south of Egypt, corresponding roughly to modern Ethiopia.” On this map, it appears that such a region would more closely correspond to modern Sudan, not Ethiopia. The yellow arrow points to the extreme southern tip of modern Israel, a town called Eilat. I’ve been there.

In Eilat live the most marvelous people, John and Judy Pex, who run a hostel. Some day I’ll tell you more about them, but today, let’s focus on Isaiah 18:

Ah, land of whirring wings that is beyond the rivers of Cush, which sends ambassadors by the sea, in vessels of papyrus on the waters! Go, you swift messengers, to a nation tall and smooth, to a people feared near and far, a nation mighty and conquering, whose land the rivers divide. (Isaiah 18.1, 2, ESV)

Judy has written a book A People Tall and Smooth. Here is the book’s summary on Amazon – it’s about Isaiah 18!

Illustrated with photos and a map, here are the very real stories of how and why five refugees escaped from genocide in southern Sudan and Darfur, made their way through Egypt and smuggled into Israel, the only country their Islamic government prohibited them from entering. In desperation they fled across the border anyway, with nothing but the clothes on their backs. No food. No money. No papers. No possessions. Just thankful to be alive.

When hundreds of these tall, dark Africans showed up in the popular beach town of Eilat, at the southern tip of Israel, and a group of them entered the Shelter Hostel run by John and Judy Pex, curiosities were piqued. As the Pexes learned the almost-unbelievable stories of mostly-Christian Sudanese refugees, Judy began to interview and write the stories. She shares the first-hand accounts of Gabriel, Muna Maria, Yien and Rose from South Sudan, as well as Muna from Darfur. Chapter subtitles such as, “Bullets like Rain,” “God Knows our Suffering,” “No One Will Know When We Kill You,” Tea and Torture in Khartoum,” and “A Miraculous Reunion” express the extremes of these true stories, which represent many thousands of others. Many are still happening.

And why were they overjoyed to be in Israel? The Sudanese refugees in Israel believe that a prophecy in Isaiah chapter 18 speaks of them: “At that time gifts will be brought to the Lord Almighty (to Mount Zion) from a people tall and smooth-skinned.” – Amazon description of A People Tall and Smooth by Judy Pex

Here’s the text from Isaiah:

At that time tribute will be brought to the LORD of hosts from a people tall and smooth, from a people feared near and far, a nation mighty and conquering, whose land the rivers divide, to Mount Zion, the place of the name of the LORD of hosts. (Isaiah 18.7, ESV)

Years ago when I traveled for business, when I got my rental car, I tried to make a note where the gas tank opening was: right side? left side? I wanted to pull in to the gas station properly.

Did you know that since the early nineties ALL cars’ dashboard fuel gauges have an arrow pointing to the side where the gas cap is?

I’m sure I didn’t know that until well into the 2000s. Here’s the short version of what happened, told by Elliot Eisenberg on January 16, 2026:

The Friday File: Cars have a small arrow on the dashboard telling drivers which side of the car the gas tank is on. That’s the Moylan Arrow, named after Ford engineer Jim Moylan, who died last month at 80. He pitched his idea in 4/86. In 11/86 he was told it was great, and the first Arrow appeared in model year 1989. 2.5 years from idea to implementation. 

Moylan came up with the idea after being caught in the rain pulling up to the wrong side of a gas pump in a Ford company car. You can read the whole story here.

Here’s his original memo:

Here’s the challenge: how many people know that the arrow is there? Did YOU know it was there? I wrote to Dr. Eisenberg asking how many people knew and what were we doing about that? He responded:

Well I am doing my part.  And a number of folks have said their car does not have The Arrow. I said look again and lo and behold it is there.  You are so right.  So many have no idea it is there. – Elliot Eisenberg

So here we have a marvelous feature that a great many people don’t know about. And a feature we don’t know about is a non-feature.

The Gospel is GOOD NEWS…but only if someone knows about it.

How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” (Romans 10.14 – 15, ESV)

The Denver Broncos NFL team went much farther this year than anyone expected, and they finally lost, one game short of the Super Bowl: the New England Patriots won last Sunday’s AFC Championship, played in Denver, 10 – 7.

Broncos were in that game only because they pulled out yet another come from behind win the week before, defeating the Buffalo Bills 33 – 30 in overtime.

Denver needed an otherworldly interception in overtime, a clutch drive late in the fourth quarter that was capped by a 26-yard touchdown pass from [quarterback Bo] Nix to Marvin Mims, Jr. and a 75-yard march in OT to advance. – ESPN, January 17, 2026

In 2007, Nassim Taleb wrote The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable. It’s an intriguing book about “black swans,” defined as

…a highly improbable event with three principal characteristics: It is unpredictable; it carries a massive impact; and, after the fact, we concoct an explanation that makes it appear less random, and more predictable, than it was.

I don’t know if Denver’s loss to New England can be characterized as a black swan event or not, but there were two unexpected contributing factors.

First, Denver quarterback Bo Nix broke his ankle in the win against Buffalo. He stayed on the field and finished the game, even did a post-game TV interview. It was shocking to all of us when we got the news about an hour after the game.

I was encouraged (a little) with Coach Sean Payton’s assessment of backup quarterback Jarrett Stidham. Coach didn’t say, “He’ll be ready.” He said, “Stidham IS ready.”

And Denver looked pretty good for much of the first half. Stidham threw a 52-yard pass, followed by an 8-yard touchdown pass, and Denver was up 7 – 0. Defense was holding New England. Two errors, however, one by the coach in not taking a field goal, and the quarterback not taking a sack resulting in a New England touchdown. Half-time score: 7 – 7.

New England opened with a long drive resulting in a field goal, and that was it. The second black swan came in the third quarter in the form of snow. Denver was NOT in the path of Winter Storm Fern that wreaked havoc across the country. Sunday was supposed to be merely cold with a slight chance of flurries. Well, we got about two inches of “flurries” and players could hardly stand up on the slippery field in the fourth quarter. Kickers missed field goals, and the Broncos had one barely tipped. That’s the ball outside the left post.

So in sports, just as in life, we have to expect, and deal with, the unexpected. Just because I’ve never seen a black swan doesn’t mean they don’t exist. (They live in Australia.)

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. …Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” (James 4.13 – 15, ESV)

And for those of us Denver fans, the last stanza of “Casey at the Bat” seems appropriate:

Oh, somewhere in this favoured land the sun is shining bright,

The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light;

And somewhere men are laughing, and somewhere children shout,

But there is no joy in Mudville—mighty Casey has struck out.

I’ve written before about friends who serve as missionaries in a large west-African country. Their stories are always reminders about how relatively easy life is here in the US. The other day this was part of their report:

Our microwave stopped working last month, but a local guy was able to repair it for less than $20. The oven is still on the fritz after losing a battle with nearly 400V that came through the socket sometime in 2023 and it now only has two modes: off or 500+°, so slow-cooking the Christmas ham was out of the question. The clothes dryer gave up the ghost, but at least it’s dry season and we can hang things up on the line outside. We really hope it can be repaired, since it’s an old Maytag that was brought over on a shipping container by a former missionary in years gone by and we cannot find a tumble dryer in the appliance store here.

…and then three homes started having issues with electricity. One evening after the kids were in bed and I was planning to sit down to a movie with a friend, I was instead running back and forth between houses trying to figure out what was going on, sort out the two power lines we have coming into the compound, each with three phases that were all having wildly different voltages that was causing each electrical panel to freak out… all for different reasons. Trying to reassure a compound full of multicultural guests, exhausted from taking care of littles all day, and the electrician who wired up this whole compound not answering his phone, I was just about burst into tears when another missionary drove up and volunteered to help. It took nearly three days, several visits from two electricians, calling the local power supply company, rewiring electrical panels, repairing stabilizers, changing out components, and digging, cementing, and wiring a new electrical pole, but we got it all sorted out and everyone now has somewhat consistent power at somewhat normal voltages that won’t fry electronics or kitchen appliances.

Wow. And my “major” problem is I’m having trouble keeping my printers connected to the network. And here’s another lesson. Yesterday we learned “no electricians, no AI.” Guess what? No electricians, no missionary work. All kinds of work is important.

And give thanks for your home’s steady power running quietly in the background 24/7.

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. (1 Thessalonians 5.16 – 18, ESV)

Can you send forth lightnings, that they may go and say to you, “Here we are”? Who has put wisdom in the inward parts or given understanding to the mind? (Job 38.35, 36, ESV)

I write frequently about the value of all kinds of work. For example, about the millions of workers required to get bananas from Brazil to your grocery store. I value all kinds of work and workers from the guy who picks up my garbage to the marvelously skilled handyman (one guy!) who fixed the seemingly myriad things wrong with the house that I sold last fall.

I’ve always maintained that ALL work is important. Decades ago, I was a graduate teaching assistant at Clemson University, and an “older” student (about 33!) was trying to become an electrical engineer, but I couldn’t get him through Algebra. If I had, I can’t imagine the difficulties he would have had with Calculus. When I told him he had failed Algebra, I tried to encourage him with the honor of working as an electrician. “We will always need electricians. I hope you have a long and successful career.”

Now that sentiment is coming to the forefront. We’re always reading about how Artificial Intelligence (AI) is going to change our lives and change our world. But, guess what? No electricians, no AI! Here’s a short piece, shared on LinkedIn by Argenis Bauza on January 16, 2026:

We Can’t Build AI Because We Fired All the Plumbers

Silicon Valley has identified a pressing issue: you can’t download an electrician. A recent Wired article sheds light on the urgent math behind this situation:

• The U.S. needs 550,000 skilled workers by 2032.
• Current shortage: over 10,000 workers.
• Data centers are projected to consume 8% of U.S. electricity by 2030.
• We are unable to build fast enough to meet these demands.

We have convinced an entire generation that working with their hands is beneath them, leading to situations where we are paying a lot of money for someone to install pipes. The AI revolution is currently on hold because we need professionals to fix the plumbing.

As with every revolution, some professions will see increases or decreases in demand. However, those that are increasing are not solely the high-tech roles.

Read the full story here: https://lnkd.in/erjAyGEJ

The Apostle Paul knew the value of doing good work:

And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him…Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ. (Colossians 3.17, 23, 24, ESV)