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.”
A forge, a bellows, a man leaning on a hammer in the smoke.
That picture is in the verse immediately before yours 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. God claims the blacksmith before he promises anything about the blade. He made the man at the forge. He made the one who wrecks things. Nothing in that shop is outside his making.
Which changes what the promise is. No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper. The weapons still get formed; the forge is not going cold. Tongues still rise in judgment; he never claims they will fall silent. He says the blade will not accomplish what it was made to accomplish. And read the last clause, because it fences the promise in. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, saith the LORD. A heritage is inherited, not picked up by whoever likes the sound of it, and the righteousness in question is his, not your defence of yourself.
You have been drafting the reply since Thursday. Do not send it. Go and serve somebody today instead, quietly, somewhere the person who talked about you would never hear of it. Your vindication is not on your list of jobs. Isaiah says where it comes from, and he has never once 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).