ONE CLEAR THING

Hearing Isaiah When My Ears Were Opened

Looking for larger truths in ancient words

Whenever I think of Isaiah 5:8–9 I think of Hungry Hippos. Illustration by the author.

One Clear Thing is my Sunday reflection on what religion means to me. Today I am writing about the lessons I think we need to learn from Isaiah. I will dive deeper in coming weeks. You can read this on my Substack if you don’t have a Medium membership.

I do not believe my religion is “the correct one,” I don’t believe we need to believe in the same things to learn from each other. I will not stand for anyone saying anything against atheists.

No worries if you don’t want to hear my thought on “Sky Daddy,” but I do welcome conversation. (God is not a man…)

We need to return to Isaiah, once the most popular of books in the Torah and revered as the Fifth Gospel for its prophecy of the birth, life, and death of Jesus.

Your rulers are rebels, partners with thieves; they all love bribes and chase after gifts. They do not defend the cause of the fatherless; the widow’s case does not come before them. — Isaiah 1:23, NIV

Isaiah tells us how those in power should treat their subjects, how we should treat each other. These directions include not accepting planes for our future private use and not removing school lunches or Medicaid, unless I…