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  • Writer's picturePastor Jim

Clothes Make the Man?

Daily Reading // Isaiah 37:1-20


READY // SILENCIO

Take a moment to quiet your mind and prepare your heart for your time with the Lord.


READ // LECTIO

Read the passage above up to three times aloud. Allow yourself to feel the words as they are read.


REFLECT // MEDITATIO

Now direct your focus on the words, phrases concepts or sentences that got your attention. What is God speaking to you today through His word?

Isaiah 37:1 And so it was, when King Hezekiah heard it, that he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the LORD.

King Hezekiah exchanges his royal robes for sackcloth. Anyone who saw him did not see the well-tailored, expensive cloth signaling his high position. They saw instead the roughest, plainest and ugliest cloth around. It wasn’t even considered to be suitable for clothing. It was used to make sacks.

Wearing sackcloth signaled humility. It was often associated with mourning or desperation. It was also worn by the poorest of the poor.

This verse got me thinking about why we wear clothes. In the garden of Eden, because Adam and Eve had eaten the fruit of knowledge of good and evil, they were ashamed that they were naked. So God made them clothing.

Sackcloth shows us there’s more to it than that. Sackcloth, or any cloth, could do the job. We’re doing more than covering our nakedness. We’re also showing style, showing financial status and in some cases showing our position. When Hezekiah put on sackcloth he signaled none of those things could save him from his circumstance. In fact, sometimes they get in the way. Those things can produce pride, superiority and self-reliance. Prayer recognizes the insufficiency of self and the desperate need for God‘s outside help.

I‘m not suggesting we all wear only sackcloth. I’m suggesting it might be healthy to ask myself whether or not my self-reliance gets in the way of my prayer life. Fashion, style, position or any other flourish is not worth creating distance between me and my heavenly Father.

It is far better to clothe myself in humility.


RESPOND // ORATIO

Pray in response to what the Lord has spoken to you.


Father, You have made me with expression and personality. That is a gift from You. I pray the gift You gave me never becomes a point of pride or a barrier to You and Your perfect will for my life. Amen.


Tomorrow’s reading -> Isaiah 37:21-38

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