Ultimately, going at life apart from the Lord leads to futility. Isaiah wrote to his people:

We were with child, we writhed in labor, but we gave birth to wind. We have not brought salvation to the earth, and the people of the world have not come to life.

No one comes to true life under our own cleverness or power. But along with this warning, Isaiah laid out a path toward flourishing:

Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord, the Lord himself, is the Rock eternal…Yes, Lord, walking in the way of your laws, we wait for you; your name and renown are the desire of our hearts.

We leave a frivolous existence giving birth to wind and turn towards substance when we read and learn and apply the laws of the Lord. The direction of our devotion then leads us away from self and towards the Lord, the Rock eternal.

Isaiah 26 in reading the Bible in 2023

Photo by Javier Allegue Barros