Day 207, or July 26. There is no alternative. Our thoughts today are rooted in Isaiah chapter
45 verse 6. So that from the rising of the sun to the place of its setting, people may
know there is none besides me. I am the LORD and there is no other.
The big picture surrounding this verse. Isaiah underlines the certainty that God's judgment
is coming to the most powerful empire of its day, Babylonia. Not only that, but we have
a reminder that God is so much more powerful than any human empire that Isaiah goes on
to repeat God's intention to use Cyrus, who is yet to be born. He repeats it just in case
this amazing claim was missed the first time. God even uses unborn unbelievers.
And now today's action step. Do you get confused when you have to choose? It's so much easier
when there is only one, isn't it? Well, God knows us so well that He gives us only one
viable alternative when it comes to God worship. In several verses in our chapters today, Isaiah
reminds us what God first said in Exodus chapter 20. The essence of the first two commandments
is this, I am the LORD your God. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not
make for yourself an image. In other words, we are not to worship anything else that we
perceive as a god or that we make ourselves. I hear you protest. I don't think I do. Actually,
many of Isaiah's hearers would have said the same. They were wrong, and so are we, if we
think we can keep the first two of the ten commandments by our own willpower. I don't
know about you, but I need all the help I can get if I am to get anywhere near achieving
this. Throughout today, whenever you use your two hands to type or text or work in your
home or workplace, why not thank God for His first two commandments that confirm only that
He deserves such worship? Like Peter put it in John chapter 6 verse 68, Lord, to whom
would we go? You have the words that give eternal life. It really is no contest.