Every lectionary text contains much more than we can note in these postings, or in any sermon we could preach from it. From this text, we’ll note briefly the geography of Isaiah’s “coastlands” and “peoples from far away” (v 1), then consider three issues, the first at some length, the second and third only briefly. Other than their Philistine and Phoenician neighbors, the nearest “foreign” coastlands/isles to Israel lay west and northwest–Cyprus, the astounding irregularities of the north...

Anyone church-savvy enough to think the lectionary important is likely also to recognize the difference in Old Testament texts...

Isaiah 7:14 rightly is regarded as the center of today’s Old Testament reading, but often for the wrong reason. For centuries, the Church...