Road construction stinks. I refuse to believe that Europe has cobblestone roads hundreds of years old, and our highways crumble after 5 years. To me, it’s an avoidable situation. The only reason I tolerate it is because I know that the roads don’t last and that they would be dangerous if not rebuilt. I only wish that they were engineered better. Today’s verse is about rebuilding, only this engineer is THE Engineer, the Master Builder—only, God isn’t as much after buildings as He is after us. He promises to strengthen us and renew us in the midst of all the storms and crumbled concrete of life.

In this entry from June 17, 2023, God reminds us that we are never crumbled, even when it feels like it, and that we never have to rebuild alone.

“👟 RSD 1145 ✅ Today’s Verse: “Afflicted city, lashed by storms and not comforted, I will rebuild you with stones of turquoise, your foundations with lapis lazuli.” — Isaiah 54:11

I read this, first, in the KJV translation: “O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted, behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colours, and lay thy foundations with sapphires.” The New KJV (and quite a few others) begin with, “O afflicted one.” God talks about renewing Jerusalem, but it’s this whole Jerusalem package, like renewing everything, even the people who are in distress. Seeing the KJV first helped me see the personification that it was a city, but like the WHOLE city, like the people in the city. God has a way of saying a whole lot in a few words with tangible examples that are easy(ier) to understand. I looked up the word “city”—yes, we all know what a city is, but I wanted to make sure I was getting as much of the right idea as I could. So, onto Google. The definition of city in its informal usage is, “a place or situation characterized by a specified attribute.” And, because the Oxford was right there, I looked to its origin (like those smart kids on the National Spelling Bee, only my spelling is atrocious…I needed the predictive text to get “atrocious”). Anyway, I liked this find: it comes from the Latin, “civis” which means…wait for it…citizen. Citizen, as in a person. And, here we are on what we can take from rebuilding some ruins with some picturesque (and expensive!) materials.

A city with just a bunch of buildings would turn out like the Detroit Lions Stadium (it’s creepy…Google it…or try abandoned malls 😱); it’s the people that make (or is it makes? possibly who? sorry, English people) a city a city. Keep in mind, KJV (the older translation uses “one”), probably closer to the mark without all of the Latin. Afflicted is another way of saying “distressed,” and we all still use “storms” to represent misfortune, uncertainty, generally bummer things, and another word for lash is “strike.” So, God here is talking to distressed people who are stricken with uncertainty and “not comforted.” Sound familiar? He’s giving promise and hope to Jerusalem here, but, in 2023, He’s giving promise and hope to us as well. The “not comforted”? God knows that sometimes we feel alone and forgotten about when things aren’t great, but He tells us here (and a lot of other places) that this isn’t the case. God’s a “big picture” guy, and He’s present in every moment. And, He’s big on making everything ok—maybe not right this second, but it will be. God promises that.

The rebuilding (renewing) with the beautiful (and shiny!) precious stones? Sounds like a rockin’ good time—y’all know I had to 😉. Well, two things I took from it. One, precious stones (really even today) are the richest of the riches, so whatever you’re building with a collection of these things would be beyond priceless, worth more than anything else in the world. Two, I looked up symbolism for these stones (because they’ve probably meant that to a lot of people for a long time, and the people who were hearing this message probably had heard of these stones in that context), and here it is: peace, protection, and wisdom. But, reason #1 is more than enough to bring home the point, don’t you think?

It’s not just about a city, y’all—God rebuilds; God strengthens. God promises to renew us, and you know He knows we’re going to be “afflicted” by more than one “tempest.” God will renew us (continually as we go through and grow through whatever) and rebuild us with immeasurable riches (shiny in a different way…things like situations, perspective) and relay our foundations with ineffable value (shiny in a different way…like love, goodness, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, self control, peace, patience, and joy)….light from within, the light from God, shiny in a different way.”