Isaiah 1:1-20: White as Snow

Presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, 12 Jan 2014 and Alberni Valley Ministries, 07 Sept 2025, by Captain (Major) Michael Ramsay.

This is the 2025 Version. The view the earlier version, click here: 

https://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2014/01/isaiah-11-20-white-as-snow.html

 

Isaiah Chapter 1 has often been compared to a courtroom scene as Isaiah uses much of the same language that one would hear in an ancient near east indictment. It is the first week of school. This passage can be compared to  a student coming before the principal in the days before they banned the strap[1] As a parent of three grown (or almost grown) children this reminds me of when your children are in trouble. The exasperated parent in the opening verses (1:2ff) calls out:

 

Hear me, you heavens! Listen, earth!

For the Lord has spoken:

“I reared children and brought them up,

but they have rebelled against me.

The ox knows its master,

the donkey its owner’s manger,

but [my daughter] Israel does not know,

my people [my children] do not understand.”

 

Mom or Dad continues,

Woe to the sinful nation [family],

a people whose guilt is great,

a brood of evildoers,

children given to corruption!

They have forsaken the Lord;

they have spurned the Holy One of Israel

and turned their backs on Him.

 

Now this is where it gets interesting. God is obviously being compared to a judge ordering corporal punishment or more likely - with this language of the family here - a parent who physically disciplines his children.[2] God is portrayed as one who has been provoked to this quite severely. Isaiah says, Verses 5-6:

Why should you be beaten anymore?

Why do you persist in rebellion?

Your whole head is injured,

your whole heart afflicted.

From the sole of your foot to the top of your head

there is no soundness—

only wounds and welts

and open sores,

not cleansed or bandaged

or soothed with olive oil.

 

And then Isaiah tells us what he means by this analogy of God having the transgressor beaten. He says:

 

Your country is desolate,

your cities burned with fire;

your fields are being stripped by foreigners

right before you,

laid waste as when overthrown by strangers.

Daughter Zion is left

like a shelter in a vineyard,

like a hut in a cucumber field,

like a city under siege.

Unless the Lord Almighty

had left us some survivors,

we would have become like Sodom,

we would have been like Gomorrah.

 

Let’s stop and think about this for a while because it raises a number of really serious questions:

 

1. Does God condone beating children or other offenders?
2. Does God beat us into submission through events in our life?
3. Is God picking on Israel? Does He pick on us?

There will be a fourth question that we will look at too:

4. Does God want more from us than just to worship Him?

 

We will come back to these questions but first let us look a little bit at the historical context of this text. Isaiah the prophet lived in the 8^th Century BCE. He lived 700 or so years before Christ. He and his wife were both prophets (8:1-4)[3] and he had a number of disciples who worked with him (8:16-22) and they probably carried on his prophetic work long after he had received his ‘Promotion to Glory’. Isaiah is mentioned elsewhere in the books of 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles in our Bibles (2 Kings 19:1-7, 14-37; 20:1-11; 2 Chronicles 26:22, 32:9-33). And Verse 1 of Chapter 1 of Isaiah tells us that the part of the book to which we are referring is ‘The vision concerning Judah and Jerusalem that Isaiah son of Amoz saw during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah’.

 

At this time in history the regional superpowers are Egypt to the southwest and Assyria to the northeast of Israel and Judah who are, with others, stuck right in the middle as they vie for military, political, and economic power in the area. Israel and Judah, as this prophecy is being spoken to them, are extremely vulnerable to attack. Israel will actually be wiped out by the Assyrians right around this time, in 722 BCE. This brings us back to Isaiah’s prophetic warning to the people of Israel and Judah.[4]

 

As we have said, Isaiah uses the language of a parent applying corporal punishment – spanking or more – to his children. From this language arises then our first three questions that we are looking at:

 

1. Does God condone beating children or other offenders?
2. Does God beat us into submission through events in our life?
3. Is God picking on Israel? Does He pick on us?

 

Does God here condone beating children or other offenders (like they cane people in Singapore, for example)? No, He doesn’t. But neither does He condemn it here either. God isn’t actually addressing the best way to discipline your children at all in this pericope; God, through Isaiah, is merely drawing an analogy that everyone listening to his prophecy at this time and place would understand. If this pericope were penned in our contemporary Canadian culture, Verses 5 and 6 probably could read:

 

O Canada, why should you be in timeout anymore?

Why do you persist in rebellion?

Your whole day is spent in that timeout chair,

You are grounded for a week

From the time you get up in the morning until the time you go to bed

there is no TV, video games or friends—

only sitting in the timeout chair

not moving or talking

or doing anything but homework.

 

God is not addressing corporal punishment specifically here. He is talking about the importance of a parent disciplining his children. And we know that a loving parent does teach his children right from wrong. A loving parent does discipline her children. Proverbs 24:18, which my mother used to quote for me many time growing up, reads:

 

Whoever spares the rod hates their children,

but the one who loves their children is careful to discipline them.

[Spare the rod and spoil the child]

 

The parent who loves their children disciplines them. The one who hates them does not. This is what God is talking about in our text today. God says to the people of Israel and Judah: 'Look at all of these things that are happening to you now', Verse 7:

 

Your country is desolate,

your cities burned with fire;

your fields are being stripped by foreigners

right before you,

laid waste as when overthrown by strangers.

 

Take this as a warning, God says. Like a parent, He says, ‘now think about what you have done. This should be an opportunity for you, my children, to think about what you have done and make the necessary changes before it is too late and something really drastic happens.’

 

God isn’t beating His children into submission; God is disciplining them before they - through their actions - cause real problems for themselves. God is warning them and hopefully they will heed His instruction so that they will not force their own destruction upon themselves. What Israel and Judah are experiencing is a direct result of their blindly acting out on their own without taking care of their little brother or sister. God isn’t picking on Israel at all; as a matter of fact He is telling Israel to smarten up and to stop picking on her little sister or there will be real problems.

 

God doesn’t pick on us either in our lives. Many times, if the hardships in life that we are experiencing are the natural results of our own actions, then indeed we should take them as an opportunity to change before our own actions result in our own destruction. However, we must not forget that when in the New Testament Jesus’ own disciples make the theological error of the prosperity heresy, asking, John 9:2, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” When they say that sin is the reason the boy is blind; when they imply that anything and everything that we don’t enjoy in life is condemnation from God, Jesus rebukes them. John 9:3, “‘neither this man nor his parents sinned,’ said Jesus, ‘but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.’”

 

God doesn’t punish us ‘willy, nilly’. He isn’t a vengeful God like the mythological Zeus sitting on a cloud with a thunderbolt waiting to zap us whenever we do something wrong. Quite the opposite; in our pericope today, God is compared to a loving parent who needs to discipline His own children before they race off to their own destruction.

 

That brings us to Verses 11-17. My own children of course are very near perfect and almost never needed correction or discipline…but occasionally if Susan or I pulled one of them aside and have to discipline them, she may protest: What did I do? It was my sister that did that. I didn’t do anything wrong! It wasn’t my day to do the dishes or do some other chore that isn't done! It’s not my fault! She hit me first... She told me to do that… I didn’t do anything wrong! I was just nicely doing my chores, doing my homework, minding my own business when all of a sudden that favourite mug of yours just jumped off the cupboard and broke all by itself. I didn’t do anything wrong! It's not my fault! You're picking on me! It’s not fair!

 

Israel’s complains: ‘Why are you disciplining us? We didn’t do anything wrong: we always observe the Sabbaths and other occasions, we always come to the Temple, we always offer You sacrifices, we always pray; so why are you picking on us, God? It’s not fair. That brings us to our fourth question: does God ask more of us than just to worship Him? Do You, God, always appreciate our worship even? God’s reply, Verses 11-15:

 

“The multitude of your sacrifices—

what are they to me?” says the Lord.

“I have more than enough of burnt offerings,

of rams and the fat of fattened animals;

I have no pleasure

in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats.

When you come to appear before me,

who has asked this of you,

this trampling of my courts?

Stop bringing meaningless offerings!

Your incense is detestable to me.

New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations—

I cannot bear your worthless assemblies.

Your New Moon feasts and your appointed festivals

I hate with all my being.

They have become a burden to me;

I am weary of bearing them.

When you spread out your hands in prayer,

I hide my eyes from you;

even when you offer many prayers,

I am not listening.

Your hands are full of blood!

 

This is significant. The children of Israel are praying; they are going to church, going to the Temple; they are offering sacrifices; they are spending time with God; so, is praying, reading your Bible and worshipping in church? God says ‘no’. He wants you to love Him AND your brother.

 

Many times in the Scriptures God tells us that He doesn’t want a proverbial Christmas card from us if we are going to refuse to be nice to our sister. He says, ‘don’t give me a hug if you are just going to turn around and bop your brother on the head’. He says, ‘I don’t want your praises if you are going to keep picking on your little brother and your little sister.’ He says, ‘You say you love Me but that is not true; if it were true that you love Me, you would be nice to my children; if it were true that you love Me, you would love your brother. If it is true that you love Me, stop picking on your sister![5] Verses 16 and 17:

 

Wash and make yourselves clean.

Take your evil deeds out of my sight;

stop doing wrong.

Learn to do right; seek justice.

Defend the oppressed.

Take up the cause of the fatherless;

plead the case of the widow.

 

This I think is very important for those of us who are here today. Jesus says, Matthew 22:37-38 “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment.” But He doesn't end there. Verses 39 and 40, Jesus says, “...‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

 

Jesus says, Matthew 5:23-24, “Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift.”

 

Jesus says, in the Lord’s Prayer, Matthew 6:12, ‘forgive us our sins, as we also have forgiven those who have sinned against us.’ And Jesus says, Matthew 6:14-15, “For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.”

 

Jesus says again, Matthew 25, just like in Isaiah 1, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did not do for me (v.41).’ So ‘…depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels (v. 45)’.  But “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world (v.34).’” For, ‘truly I tell you, whatever you did do for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did do for me (v.40).’”

 

This is very important for us in the churches: when we gossip about others, when we complain about others, when we won’t sit with others, when we won’t talk to others, when we won’t go to church or to a certain event because someone else is there; when we are mad with our brother; when we don’t forgive our Christian sisters, when we do this, God is as exasperated as any parent.

 

God just wants us to love one another like any parent just wants their kids to love each other. And of we do that – love god and love our brother and sister – He tells us that all our sins – whatever they are – will be forgiven. God always loves us and wants to forgive us and Isaiah 1:18-19a,

 

“Come now, let us settle the matter,”

says the Lord.

“Though your sins are like scarlet,

they shall be as white as snow;

though they are red as crimson,

they shall be like wool.

If you are willing and obedient...

 

Let us pray.

 

www.sheepspeak.com  

 

 

[1]Cf. Alec Motyer, J.: Isaiah: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 1999 (Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries 20), S. 50

[2] Cf. Gene M. Tucker, NIB VI: The Book of Isaiah 1-39, (Abingdon Press, Nashville, Tenn: 2001),53.

[3] But Cf. John H. Tullock and Mark MacEntire, The Old Testament Story, (Pearson Prentice Hall: Upper Saddle River, NJ: 2006) 214 where they argue that Isaiah 8:3 may not be designating his wife as a prophet but rather as the wife of a prophet.

[4] Cf. By Captain Michael Ramsay, Isaiah 1-39: 1^st Isaiah, Later the World. Presented to Swift Current Corps on January 10, 2010. Available on-line: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2010/01/isaiah-1-39-1st-isaiah-later-world.html

[5] Cf. Walter Brueggemann, ‘Isaiah 1-39,’ Westminster Bible Companion (Westminster John Knox Press: Louisville, Kentucky, 1998), 17-18

Exodus 12:24-28: Remember the Plan

Presented to Alberni Valley Ministries, 17 August 2025, Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, 06 July 2014 which was based on an earlier version presented 01 July 2012 by Major Michael Ramsay.

 

This is the 2025 Version, to see the 2014 Version click here: 

https://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2014/07/exodus-1224-28-remember-today.html

 

To see the 2012 version, click here:

 https://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2012/06/exodus-1224-28-remember.html 

 

Our team has been working away with the fires. The other week our team was in Qualicum feeding people. This week we were coordinating our fire response here – concerned about a possible evacuation and how to get all our people out. I spoke with the City, ACRD, media, and TSA EDS quite a bit – planning for possible evacuations, etc.  The TC called us on Friday morning, along with the DC and others to thank us for our work. With all the work with the fires the past weeks I was reminded of a fire story I heard a few years ago from a member of my Rotary Club in Swift Current Saskatchewan. Dave told us this story of a family vacation in Acapulco in 1968:

 

Dave and his wife were on holiday in Mexico. They check into their hotel. They are near the ground floor and there are these little lizards - Geckos or something else – climbing all up the walls; so they speak to the hotel and ask to be moved as far away from the lizards as they can, up to the top floor. They do move up to the top floor. This turns out to be a mistake. In the middle of the night, they are woken up as people are running through the halls screaming. Some girls from Quebec tell them what was happening: the hotel is on fire. The stairs, they are concrete for the top few floors and then wood beneath and the wooden stairs are ablaze. The girls from Quebec jump over the railing from the 10th storey or more up and plunge all the way down. Dave and his wife and his two sons, aged six and nine, are trapped. Without thinking they run to the elevator but the door closes with people inside it just before they get there. Actually I think Dave may have even gotten his hand in the closing door but they don’t catch the elevator, which is good because we know what happens to people in elevators in a fire. Dave and his family are trapped. They try to tie sheets together to scale down the outside of the building but as Dave is heading over a balcony, it is good that he has an arm linked through the railing because someone unties the sheets. He then climbs down the side of the balcony and swings onto the balcony below. His wife then drops one of his children for him to catch and then the other and then she scales down as far as she can, then falls and Dave catches her legs and pulls her in. They do this until the third story or so of the building when they run out of balconies. Dave then throws one child down onto a straw thatched roof, hoping that will break his fall. He sees the boy fall through the roof and run away; so he throws the other son down who makes a new hole as he crashes through the thatched roof. He runs to safety. His wife jumps next and Dave is able to scale a palm tree to the bottom. They are injured but they survive. It was quite a tale to hear. They survived by the grace of God but others on their floor who leapt over the railing or who took the elevator did not.

 

What had happened was, apparently there was a dispute between two ownership groups – one local and one foreign – the foreign group was residing in the hotel on that day and some local people had attacked the hotel with Molotov cocktails – hoping to collect insurance, I believe.

 

It was quite something to hear. There is more to his story too. One of his sons had a piece of the thatched roof he fell through stuck into his foot. The other had a twig protruding from his neck with blood spurting out. They were okay though. There was another miracle in this story. Dave and his wife recognize this as a miraculous salvation. When Dave and his wife were climbing down the balconies to escape the flames, they left somewhere her straw purse with their passports, money, plane tickets, and the like. The next day Dave went back and began looking in this burned-out hotel building for this straw purse. God saved it for them. It was on a balcony on a burned-out floor but this straw purse with its contents was still there. God protected it and God protected them. God was there for them in the midst of this ordeal.

 

It is the same with the Hebrews in our text today and with us. This week we have been planning for if we have to evacuate (due to the fire) the people who sleep at the TSA shelter and eat at the Bread of Life Centre. There are a lot of moving parts to consider in evacuating our 70 to 90 regular diners plus sleepers. Even mores so, can you imagine what it is like for Moses and Aaron as they plan to evacuate up to a million people from Egypt?!  And we have the fires to consider but they had a number of plagues (like covid maybe) only they just kept coming and each one was more awe-inspiring than the previous one.[1]

1.     The Nile turning to blood (7:14–25)

2.     Plague of frogs (7:25–8:11)

3.     Plague of lice or gnats (8:12–15) [2]

4.     Plague of flies or wild animals (8:20–32)

5.     Plague of pestilence (9:1–7)

6.     Plague of boils (9:8–12)

7.     Plague of hail (9:13-35)

8.     Plague of locusts (10:1–20)

9.     Plague of darkness (10:21–29)

I still remember vividly the closest thing to a plague of darkness I ever experienced: when we lived in Swift Current. I still recall that darkness that swept over a corner of the city: at noon it was all of a sudden as dark as night. I have not seen anything like that before. It was an ominous and fear-provoking as the blackness approached – you could see it coming toward you and you could see blue skies fleeing from its presence. We went to pick up Rebecca for lunch from school (she was in grade 3 or 4. I think). There was a tornado warning. The school had announced that the children were not to go outside. Some students, of course, were pressed up against the windows to see what was happening, others were in tears hiding safely under their desks. Today many in our community are concerned about the fires. The feelings of fear and awe, of terror and wonder, that people were having today and on that day are probably a reflection of the intensity of the emotions that would be swirling around the Hebrews like a funnel cloud as they experience the power of God through the first nine plagues and as they prepare for the final plague, the tenth plague: The Angel of Death (11:1–12:36).

 

It is in the context of them huddled in their houses preparing for Death’s arrival that our pericope is found. In the opening 13 verses of this chapter, God tells Moses and Aaron exactly what is about to happen. Just like a Forest fire evacuation alert or order: ‘Get ready’, God warns them, ‘the Angel of Death is coming’.

 

Now I have been in a lot of conversations this week with The Salvation Army, the city, ESS. And just like we have emergency disaster plans that we are to follow here in Alberni and in The Salvation Army when disaster strikes, God in our text is giving Moses and Aaron their instructions as to how to save themselves and their families when the Angel of Death strikes at Goshen, in Egypt. I don’t know if anyone here has ever huddled in a storm cellar or has been forced to take shelter or head beneath deck on a boat being tossed about in a storm, but I imagine that it is the same feeling. The people take all the right steps and now they are just waiting hoping and praying for Death to pass.

 

Today, with the fires raging near town, each one of us is supposed to have a ‘go bag’ ready as the fire might be coming. There are things we need: passports, documents, pictures, water… make sure your car has gas and if you don’t have a car that you have another way out of town! I have binders full of the city’s and the Army’s plans of what we need to follow in the event of a disaster: flood, fire, road closure, … God in Exodus gives Moses and Aaron a disaster preparedness plan (including the go bag directions) for the impending strike by the Angel of Death. It looks like this. Picture with me - you and your family – you have received your disaster preparedness plan from your leaders. Disaster is going to strike, you are fearful (even more than now with the fire near) and you are in awe as you await the Angel of Death who you know is coming to claim many on this very night. On this very evening as Death is approaching; this is the plan:

·       You are to take a lamb or a kid to share as a meal with everyone in your household. If there aren’t enough of you in a household to eat a whole lamb, you must share it with your closest neighbour (12:3-4);

·       The animal must be 1 year-old and without defect (v.5);

·       You have already been taking care of the animals for 14 days in preparation for this day – now everyone in town is to go and slaughter the lamb at twilight (v.6);

·       You will then – this is important – take some of the blood and put it on the sides and the tops of the doorframes of the houses where you will eat the lambs (v.7);

·       Then you will eat the meat roasted over a fire with bitter herbs and bread without yeast and you must eat it all. You may not leave any of it until morning! If there are leftovers, you must burn them (vv. 8-10);

·       When you are eating this meal, you are to eat it with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on, and your staff in your hand (v. 11). In our language today: you are to have your coats, hats and shoes on and your car keys in your hand. You are to be ready to go. You are to eat it in haste because it is the LORD’s Passover.

 

God tells Moses and Aaron that as the people follow this plan they will survive the impending strike by the Angel of Death. Then God tells them, ‘You must never forget this night. You must remember how I saved you.’ I imagine this evening must be as clear to those who experienced it as the images were to Dave and his wife of that night climbing down the side of the building – and Dave’s wife, she’s afraid of heights. I imagine that every time they think about this night, they remember every feeling that was racing through their heart and mind and I imagine that they’ll never forget it.

 

I remember when I was in Nipawin, SK and a building exploded right behind The Salvation Army downtown. My office shook. It felt like a truck had struck it. With others, I headed outside to see what had happened, I saw injured or dead or dying people lying on the ground as the flames began to engulf the downtown. My children and everyone around on that day have stories surrounding those moments. We all here today remember Covid! I imagine each of us have had times like these that will never leave our minds.

 

The thing with these events as real as they are to us, they are not as real to people who don’t actually experience them and as time passes people tend to forget the important lessons that come from them. I had the honour of speaking at a 70^th anniversary of D-Day memorial. For hundreds and thousands of soldiers present on June 6, 1944, as long as they lived, this is a day they never forgot; but if I were to guess I would say that less people across this whole country officially commemorated the anniversary than lost their lives on that one day. Remembrance Day and the Legion remind us of the horrors of war, lest we forget. It is no coincidence that as more and more of our veterans pass away, that there are more wars in our world than before – and wars the involve the Superpowers too. People forget and then another generation experiences the same horrors.

 

As the Hebrew families of our text are sitting in their houses awaiting the impending calamity, God tells Moses that they are never to forget this day.[3] They are to remember it forever. They are to tell their children and their children’s children. This should a permanent feature in their school curriculum, so to speak. It should be like our annual Remembrance Day ceremonies and there are some elements that must be observed. As far as the Passover remembrance ceremonies, they are to incorporate some of their Emergency Disaster Preparedness Plan into a ceremonial dinner, and they are not have any yeast in the house for seven days prior and they are to eat only unleavened flat breads. Then God tells them, Exodus 12:24-27:

“Obey these instructions as a lasting ordinance for you and your descendants. When you enter the land that the Lord will give you as he promised, observe this ceremony. And when your children ask you, ‘What does this ceremony mean to you?’ then tell them, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the Lord, who passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when he struck down the Egyptians.’” Then the people bowed down and worshiped.

 

One reason that the people were to remember this was so that they would not forget what the Lord had done for them in the past and another reason is to wait for a future deliverance. As this ceremony developed over the generations, it came to incorporate an act of ceremonially ‘looking for Elijah’. This is because tradition later stated that Elijah must return before the Messiah is to come.

 

Now Elijah did return and the Messiah did come and when he did Jesus the Messiah celebrated this very important Passover remembrance with his disciples and he uttered the very important words, “Do this in remembrance of me.” This is, I think, a big reason why God wanted the Passover ceremony etched so deeply in the minds of humanity for so long because just as when the Egyptians lost their firstborn sons, God saved His people through the blood of the Passover lamb; so when God gave up His firstborn son –Jesus Christ – He saved us; His people, all His people, He saves us all through the Blood of the Lamb.[4]

 

This is the most important event in the whole history of the world: The death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. God, through the giving of His only begotten Son has made it – just like with Exodus and the Angel of Death – so that none of us need to perish but all of us can have salvation in Christ Jesus our Lord. This is important to remember.

 

This is why we come to church, this is why we go to Bible studies, this is why we pray, and this is why we read our Bibles; this is why we have our Mercy Seat, and this is why every year we celebrate Good Friday and Easter. That is why we are here today: because just as God offered salvation to all His children from the Angel of Death and the plagues; so too He offers salvation to all of us from Sin and Death and relief in everything that is plaguing us. As that is the case, it is my hope and my prayer that if any of us have not yet implemented our eternal disaster preparedness plan, that we would delay no longer and that we would all experience that salvation both today and forever more.

Let us pray.

www.sheepspeak.com

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[1] Cf. Walter C. Kaiser Jr., The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:Exodus/Exposition of Exodus/I. Divine Redemption (1:1-18:27)/E. The Passover (12:1-28)/1. Preparations for the Passover (12:1-13), Book Version: 4.0.2. for more detailed list.

[2] R. Alan Cole, Exodus: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1973 (Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries 2), S. 113: In the evening: literally ‘between the two evenings’. Jewish scholars are not agreed as to the exact meaning. The phrase is also used of the time for the regular evening sacrifice (Exod. 29:39) and of the time for lighting the lamps in the meeting-tent (Exod. 30:8). The orthodox piety of Pharisaic Judaism understood the meaning as being between the time in the afternoon when the heat of the sun lessens (say 3 or 4 p.m.) and sunset. Other groups preferred the time between sunset and dark, or other similar explanations.

[3] Thomas W. Mann, “Passover: The Time of Our Lives.” Interpretation 50, no. 3 (July 1, 1996): 240-250. ATLASerials, Religion Collection, EBSCOhost (accessed June 28, 2012), 241-242: The Passover narrative is arguably the most important section of the entire book because it is primarily here that the experience of exodus is communicated not simply as a moment in historical time (in the past) but as a perennially recurring moment in the present life of those for whom the story is sacred.

[4] Norman Theiss, "The Passover Feast of the New Covenant." Interpretation 48, no. 1 (January 1, 1994): 17-35. ATLASerials, Religion Collection, EBSCOhost (accessed June 28, 2012), 17: In the eyes of the first three evangelists and Paul, Jesus construed his last supper with the twelve disciples as the fulfillment of God's plan to inaugurate a new Passover meal. In this new meal, Jesus interpreted his death as a new Exodus in which the new people of God were liberated from all that enslaves them and freed to serve God in holy living.

2 Corinthians 9: 12-15: Thanks be to God!

Presented to TSA Alberni Valley Ministries, 10 August 2025. (Also presented to each the Nipawin and Tisdale Corps 12 October 2008 and Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army 28 April 2013) by Major Michael Ramsay

 

This is the 2025 Alberni Valley version.

 

To view the 2008 / 2013 version, click here: https://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2008/10/2-corinthians-912-15-thanks-be-to-god.html

 

Bette, Travis and others have been helping this week with the Wesley Ridge / Cameron Lake Fire Evacuation Services in Parksville and Qualicum. They left here Sunday after church and have been there most days this week. They have served between 70 and 150 meals for each meal, serving 1 to 2 meals each day. Since I have been in town Alberni Valley Emergency Disaster Services has supported emergencies here (fires, road closures, pandemic, etc.) and in Kamloops and Smithers / Prince George. EDS is something that I have been involved in quite a bit in my time in The Salvation Army. This week I ran across some of my notes from my first international deployment to help with Emergency Disaster Services.

 

September 2008, Hurricane Ike struck Galveston Island. More than 1 million people were evacuated from that part of Texas and more than 72 people were found dead as a result of the storm and the flooding. I was part of the first deployment of relief workers. Bodies were still being found when I left. After I left new problems developed in the way of mould and mildew. I heard from the crews that replaced us that the smell was almost overwhelming as soon as they stepped on the Island. People also began to notice the divide between the rich and the poor: which neighbourhoods were getting their garbage picked up and who was having their power restored, etc…

 

Homes were destroyed. Businesses were destroyed. When we were there, the sewers, the water, and the phones were not working. People were housed in shelters both on and away from Galveston Island. Many still had no place to go. Power remained out for a long time afterwards in some of the parts where we were posted. The power outage means that even for families that did not lose their stoves and refrigerators – and most did. There were many refrigerators destroyed and lying on the side of the road for pick up – they were unable to keep or cook any food. They didn’t have food and they didn’t have water.

 

Food and water: this is a big part of what The Salvation Army does. We had around 30 food trucks (CRUs) from which we helped to serve around 75 000 hot meals every day and give the people water and ice. Ice was very important. It was around 90⁰ F during our time there. And the food: many people told me that without The Salvation Army they wouldn’t have eaten at all. They wouldn’t have survived. We thank the Lord for the service that the volunteers were providing to God and this community. We prayed for them that as they continued to serve down there even after we left, the Lord continued to bless greatly the volunteers and the populace alike.

 

2 Corinthians 9:12-15: This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of God’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, men will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else. And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you. Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!

 

I would like to share with you some of the testimonies and miracles that we have to be thankful for from our time on Galveston Island almost 2 decades ago.

 

I was part of the mobile Emotional and Spiritual Care team for most of my time down there. For my first four or five days I served on a canteen as an ESC Officers. I thank the Lord for all that he did through our crew. There were four of us on our canteen: myself Wilfred, John, and Jose.

 

John left his family back in Illinois to join us. Someone close to him was once an executive director of some firm but over the past few years he had been struggling with addiction. While he was away, she slipped. His children are grown and at least one of them has moved home again with his own young family. There were numerous struggles on the home front as those close to him struggled. When John heard some of the stories about the problems at home he was grieved but He prayed and experienced the Lord’s grace. He shared the testimony that his grown son called ‘daddy’ for the first time on the phone. The Lord protected John’s family. He blessed me and so many people on Galveston Island through him. Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!

 

Jose was also on our canteen. He came from Virginia, but he was born in Mexico. When he first came to the US, he spoke no English: now he is bilingual, speaking both English and Spanish. This was a real blessing because in this part of Texas there are many people who don’t speak any English at all and they were hit very hard by Ike. In the first few days he translated prayers for me into Spanish. By the time I left, he was leading prayers for people in need. Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!

 

There are many stories from our time down there. I can’t possibly share them all with you today. We don’t have enough time. I want to share a couple of very significant stories however.

 

I heard more than one account of a contemporary miracle paralleling that of the fish and the loaves. Our canteens were instructed to make sure that they gave away all of their food before they came in for the night. They did not want food returned when people were going without. One canteen had some food left. It was getting late so they were seeking out someone to give their last container of food to. They prayed. One person then saw a line of about 12-18 tired and hungry looking construction workers so they headed over to offer them food. They were really appreciative.

 

As they were feeding these men, a number of school busses filled with people pulled up. It is my understanding that they served over 800 meals at that location – no one went away hungry. Feeling blessed by what the Lord had done they started to clean up. (Now there was a non-believer, a Red Cross worker on their canteen with them today). Someone picked up the container from which they fed the 800 meals and read from the side of it, ‘serves 90 meals’. The Lord fed more than eight times that number and no one went hungry. The Red Cross worker who was helping them on the truck that day began to cry. He said that he had never believed in God – until now. Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!

 

This same canteen was used by the Lord to lead many more people in prayer to Christ. There were also some very exciting open airs that led to many more accepting Jesus’ gift of eternal life. There were many miracles in the midst of suffering. Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!

 

We met families who lost everything: their homes, their businesses, their possessions. I met one man who cried as he watched the machines scoop up all his destroyed possessions that he had to throw out. He praised the Lord that he just lost his things but it still hurt to see all the tokens of his memories scooped up into the back of a dump truck.

 

Parts of the city of Galveston were under more than 10 feet of water. I spoke with one Lady who lost everything on the first floor of her house but praised the Lord because all her children’s things were unharmed on the second floor – so at least they were comforted and had something to do while their parents worked to clean up the mess and fix the house.

 

Many people relayed how they had lost all their possessions but praised God that they had escaped with their lives. This is really quite something because in 1900, a similar hurricane hit this same Island and claimed 8000 lives. Many people praised the Lord for the contemporary early warning systems. Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift! There was plenty of warning. No one needed to die. Everyone was saved who chose to leave the Island. Some, however, rejected their salvation.

 

There is a story of one 19- or 20-year-old who stood on the waterfront, intentionally defying the storm. He was swept away to his death. I met a man who lost his home and his business and praised the Lord for his insurance, but he wondered why his brother chose to stay behind and die. How does he deal with the fact that his brother rejected salvation?

 

This is really the same for us today here. We thank God for His indescribable gift! We praise Him that the early warning for the end of times hurricane was sounded 2 millennia ago. We praise the Lord, that he gave his life so that everyone can be saved - but the sad thing is that some will reject this salvation.

 

Jesus died on the cross and rose again so that we need not perish in that eschatological hurricane. The sad thing is that some refuse to call on the Name of the Lord. Some live their whole lives without the knowledge and comfort of God. Some ignore the early warning system. Some defy God. Some refuse to be saved. Some friends and family are like that man’s brother. Some friends and family are like that 19- or 20-year-old – just awaiting death. It is sad. It is tragic. Some suffer all the things that we all suffer and more and don’t experience the peace of God that can sustain us all.

 

But there is good news. It is my understanding that though 75 may have lost their lives needlessly, over 200 have been saved eternally through this event. I have heard story upon story of people who have heeded the early warning system, who have accepted Christ and who have been saved. Praise the Lord. Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!

 

I want to share the story of Scott and the story of Paul. Scott was a canteen worker from central Texas who had accepted the Lord not too long before coming to Galveston and Paul is a twelve-year-old boy.

 

Scott was working on of one of our canteens.  Paul lives in an apartment with 10 other people and is familiar with the neighbourhood activities of gangs and drugs.  This boy saw our canteen near his home and wanted to help.  He approached Scott and volunteered to help.  Scott welcomed him with open arms and very quickly made an impression on Paul - he kept coming back. Scott even gave him T-shirt and hat.  The look on Paul’s face was worth a million dollars or more.

 

The evening before Scott was to return home from his deployment, I had the opportunity to give him his exit interview. During this interview we began speaking about Paul, whom I had met a couple of days previous. Scott told me that he had prayed with Paul on a number of occasions and that Paul was asking about Jesus. I asked if Paul had asked the Lord into his heart. Scott said ‘not yet’ and asked me to help him do that.

 

The next day, Sunday, Scott, Paul, and a number of other volunteers working on the canteen eagerly awaited our arrival – Paul was ready to ask the Lord into his heart.  We arrived and I encouraged Scott to lead Paul in the ‘sinners’ prayer’.  After a simple confession of sin and profession of faith, Paul was welcomed into the family of God.  We then sang a verse of Amazing Grace and Scott presented Paul with a Bible.

 

While we were celebrating Paul’s proclamation of salvation, two apparent ‘good-ole boys’ rolled up in a pick-up truck with their radio blaring Hank William’s “I Saw the Light.”  They were angels. They were messengers of God who had come to celebrate with us, then they were gone.

 

In the midst of all the turmoil and all the suffering God was there. In the midst of all our troubles and all our sufferings, God is here. He offers this same salvation to us here on Vancouver Island today that he offered to them on Galveston Island in Texas in 2008.

 

So today we all here have the same choice that faced the people of Galveston Island. We can either defy the storm and perish like the nineteen-year-old boy or we can heed the warning; we can see the light, choose to be saved, turn our eyes upon Jesus, experience everyday of our life with him, and celebrate with the Angles sent from God in Heaven. We can all experience the comfort of Christ for now and forever through whatever storms come our way. Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!

 

Let us Pray.

 

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