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LEA Weekly Devotion

GROW! series

August 11, 2016

Read Is. 61:1–11

 

“They will be called Oaks of Righteousness, the Plantings of the Lord, so that he might display his glory. Like the ground that brings forth its crops and like a garden that makes the seed in it grow, so the Almighty Lord will make righteousness and praise spring up in front of all nations” (Is. 61:3b, 11 GW).

 

“From little acorns mighty oaks do grow” (American proverb)
“The Creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn” (Ralph Waldo Emerson).

 

It’s a metaphor, okay? Whatever you do, don’t leave this devotion in a place visible to parents or students. You’ll have to explain its metaphorical connection. Worse, they’ll see my name and complain to me.

You have a class full of acorns. You yourself were one once. Now you are one of those Oaks of Righteousness of which the prophet Isaiah speaks. You, a non-prophet, need to be a little more careful of how you speak. Just how did you get from little nut to stalwart tree?

You were planted and nourished. Perhaps many others were involved in your development—parents, teachers, pastors, siblings, true BFFs (think about that one!). But behind them all was the Holy Spirit. And behind the Holy Spirit is the single source of your righteousness, no less than Jesus Christ Himself, who lived away from home for 30-some years and was eventually buried only to spring forth forever. And now He shares His righteousness with us.

Think of your students as a bunch of nuts. While you may suspect a few are catalpa or flowering crab nuts, they are acorns, whom you will help to grow into Oaks of Righteousness. Christ earned the salvation, and the Holy Spirit delivers the faith, so your only responsibility is to teach God’s Word in purity and wrap everything you teach in a biblical worldview. Only?

Even that responsibility might be too much, so it’s good to remember this wonderful phenomenon: Many of your young oaks already possess the spiritual quality of the tree into which they are developing! The Spirit has already planted faith, already sufficient—frail or formidable as it may be—to be Oaks of Righteousness.

Yes, you still are of value to them. Your teaching and living nourishes them in faith. You have so much to share that can help them to grow. After all, you have a “few” more rings than they do.

 

Extra 15
(Add 15 minutes to your devotional time. Use these questions or activities to reflect more deeply on the scriptural or devotional content.)

  • Isaiah 61 appears in context of suffering exiles returning from Babylonian exile. How is it still relevant today?
  • How do you think and feel about being a righteous oak? What are the responsibilities? Risks? Fears? Blessings?
  • Isaiah 61:11 leaves you and your students with what reason for being Oaks of Righteousness? How can you “spring up in front of all nations”?

 

 

 

Written by Edward Grube, LL.D.

Director of Publications & Communications

© 2016 Lutheran Education Association

 

GOD’S WORD Translation (GW) Copyright © 1995 by God’s Word to the Nations. Used by permission of Baker Publishing Group

 

Read this devotion in PDF.