Daily Manna · Day 169 · June 18
No Weapon Shall Prosper
“No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, saith the LORD.”
Picture a blacksmith's shop: a fire, a bellows, and a man leaning on his hammer in the smoke.
That picture is in the verse just before today's, and almost nobody reads it: "Behold, I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work; and I have created the waster to destroy." Before God promises anything about the blade, He claims the blacksmith. He made the man at the forge, and He made the one who wrecks things. Nothing in that shop is outside His making.
That changes what the promise means: "No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper." The weapons still get made, and the forge does not go cold. Tongues still "rise against thee in judgment," and God never says they will go quiet. What He says is that the weapon will not do what it was made to do. Then read the last part, because it puts a fence around the promise: "This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, saith the LORD." A heritage is something you inherit as part of a family, and this one belongs to those who serve the Lord. The righteousness, being shown to be in the right, comes from Him, not from your defence of yourself.
Maybe someone has spoken against you, and you have been writing your reply in your head for days. Do not send it. Go and serve somebody today, quietly, somewhere the person who talked about you will never hear of it. Clearing your name is God's work. Isaiah tells you where your vindication comes from, and God has never asked for your help with it.
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year two reading for day 169 is Stand Upon Thy Feet (Ezekiel 2:1).