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)

While I try not to repeat blog titles, I see that this one comes up from time to time, most recently back in September. Maybe because it’s one of the central themes of scripture.

We close out Isaiah 14 with God’s declaration against Assyria:

The LORD of hosts has sworn: “As I have planned, so shall it be, and as I have purposed, so shall it stand, that I will break the Assyrian in my land, and on my mountains trample him underfoot; and his yoke shall depart from them, and his burden from their shoulder.” (Isaiah 14.24, 25, ESV)

How can God issue all these judgments against the nations? (See the list in yesterday’s blog). It’s easy:

This is the purpose that is purposed concerning the whole earth, and this is the hand that is stretched out over all the nations. For the LORD of hosts has purposed, and who will annul it? His hand is stretched out, and who will turn it back? (Isaiah 14.24 – 27, ESV)

This is one of the fun things about reading the prophets. In the midst of complex affairs of the ancient world, you never know when a timeless truth will pop out.

Isaiah 14 begins with a promise that Israel will return from their Babylonian captivity:

For the LORD will have compassion on Jacob and will again choose Israel, and will set them in their own land, and sojourners will join them and will attach themselves to the house of Jacob. And the peoples will take them and bring them to their place, and the house of Israel will possess them in the LORD’s land as male and female slaves. They will take captive those who were their captors, and rule over those who oppressed them. (Isaiah 14.1, 2, ESV)

There follows a series of judgments on 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)

In the middle, there’s a section of blessing on Egypt and Assyria(?!) (Isaiah 19.19 – 25). We’ll talk about that next week.

Isaiah 14 also contains another double-meaning paragraph, a peek into the distant past, and a warning against pride. For context, Isaiah is talking about the demise of the king of Babylon:

All of them will answer and say to you: ‘You too have become as weak as we! You have become like us!’ Your pomp is brought down to Sheol, the sound of your harps; maggots are laid as a bed beneath you, and worms are your covers. (Isaiah 14.10, 11, ESV).

Then this:

“How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low! You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’ But you are brought down to Sheol, to the far reaches of the pit. (Isaiah 14.12 – 15, ESV)

The five “I will” of “Day Star” = “Lucifer” in some translations:

You said in your heart,

• I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God
• I will set my throne on high;
• I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north;
• I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;
• I will make myself like the Most High

Navigator Skip Gray used to say that Jesus died so that we could become like God. What was Satan’s problem? Pride.

Pastor and Seminary Professor David Wyrtzen wrote on January 15:

The Jewish prophet Isaiah uses the fall of an arrogant ancient ruler in Babylon to give us a glimpse of an angel who believed he was like the “morning star, the son of the dawn” (Isaiah 14:13-15). This angel pridefully declared himself divine, claimed the right to God’s throne, and became the ultimate antagonist in God’s Story from Genesis to Revelation. In Genesis 3 he is simply the “serpent.” In Job 1 he is Satan, the “adversary,” and in the Gospel of John, Jesus exposes him as a liar and murderer from the beginning (John 8:44).

Later this year, we’ll see a similar passage in Ezekiel. Here’s a sample:

Your heart was proud because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor… (Ezekiel 28.17, ESV)

An antidote to pride is daily time in the Word:

And when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself in a book a copy of this law, approved by the Levitical priests. And it shall be with him, and he shall read in it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the LORD his God by keeping all the words of this law and these statutes, and doing them, that his heart may not be lifted up above his brothers… (Deuteronomy 17.18 – 20, ESV)

Through the Word, we are reminded that God is in charge. Stay tuned.

Recalling Isaiah’s job (according to Albert Nock in his essay) to encourage the remnant, Isaiah 13 seems to be doing that. Babylon is nasty and will deport Judah to Babylon. But Babylon will get theirs in the end:

The oracle concerning Babylon which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw. On a bare hill raise a signal; cry aloud to them; wave the hand for them to enter the gates of the nobles. I myself have commanded my consecrated ones, and have summoned my mighty men to execute my anger, my proudly exulting ones…Behold, I am stirring up the Medes against them, who have no regard for silver and do not delight in gold. Their bows will slaughter the young men; they will have no mercy on the fruit of the womb; their eyes will not pity children. And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the splendor and pomp of the Chaldeans, will be like Sodom and Gomorrah when God overthrew them. (Isaiah 13.1 – 3, 17 – 19, ESV)

“Behold, I am stirring up the Medes against them…” Daniel records Babylon’s demise:

That very night Belshazzar the Chaldean king was killed. And Darius the Mede received the kingdom, being about sixty-two years old. (Daniel 5.30, ESV)

Kings and kingdoms are temporary. Especially those who persecute God’s people.

And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever. (Daniel 2.44, ESV)

Rise, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the child’s life are dead. (Matthew 2.20, ESV)