Truth Encounter

Dave’s Devo: Birthing Only Wind Isaiah 26:12-19

On one of our trips to Montana where zero is the norm in winter, I forgot to drink enough. For two days I twisted and turned in pain, the closest I’ll ever get to the pain you mom’s experienced in childbirth, but all I generated was smelly gas.

Now before you get angry with me about bringing up such a stinking subject, the prophet Isaiah uses this very image to help us to realize that when it comes to dealing with our rebellion against God and the resulting curse of death, we can twist and turn in pain trying to deal with the crisis but check out all we can produce.

“O LORD, you will ordain peace for us, for even all of our actions you did for us.
O LORD our God, other masters have ruled over us but you alone, your name alone we keep in remembrance. They are dead. They will not live. They will not rise up from the realm of the spirits of the dead; for you have inspected them and based on your evaluation you destroyed them. You have blotted out any remembrance of them. But you have increased the nation, O LORD, you have increased the nation; you are glorified. You have extended all the borders of the land.
O LORD in distress they desired you. They whispered a prayer when your discipline was upon them. Like a pregnant woman about to give birth twists and turns in the spasms of labor and cries out. So were we faced with your discipline, O LORD. We were pregnant. We twisted and turned with labor pains, but we have given birth to wind. For the earth we have not delivered salvation. And those who dwell in the earth (our enemies) have not fallen. Yet your dead will live; your corpses will rise. They will awake and sing for joy—those dwelling in the dust. For your dew is the dew of light, and the earth will give birth to the dead.” Isaiah 26:12-19

Growing up with Jewish friends in New Jersey, their rabbis often stressed that Judaism dealt with this life and in their Scriptures, there was no promise of resurrected life after death. But remember the song of salvation that spoke about God removing the need for grave clothes, devouring death, and wiping the tears from our eyes (Isaiah 25:7-8)? Here Isaiah again declares that the LORD will give birth to life after death—the miracle that no human effort can ever achieve. This is the ultimate peace that God provides and his Messiah, Jesus, has already proved that God’s promise of resurrected life is true by raising his Son.

LORD, what a future lies ahead when in Jesus’ millennial rule you extend Israel’s borders and all peoples will be invited to enter through the open gates into Jerusalem. I praise you most of all that just as the moisture touches the ground and causes my beautiful tulips to burst forth and produce those gorgeous blooms there will come a day when we will awake from the dead and sing in bodies that will never decay.

Of course, Jesus teaches us to put family first, or does he? "Father Abraham Had Many Sons" today on

Truth Encounter with Dave Wyrtzen Combining pastoral ministry with college and seminary teaching, Dave Wyrtzen, through Truth Encounter, challenges you weekly to understand Gods redemptive story

Of course, Jesus teaches us to put family first or does he? "Father Abraham Had Many Sons" this week on www.truthencounter.com

Dave’s Devo: A Level, Smooth Path Isaiah 26:7-11

We’ve celebrated two of my kids’ fortieth and my seventieth birthdays hiking up three of the Adirondack Peaks –Algonquin, Haystack, and Noonmark. Algonquin was the hardest, especially because we wore our packs to the summit, but one thing was common to all three. After hours of ups and downs, jagged rocks, and narrow, obstacle-filled trails, it was a relief to finally be on smooth, level ground near the bottom.

In 8th century BC Israel Isaiah had to do a lot of hiking; check out how he contrasted a ragged, obstacle filled life-path with smooth, level living.

“The path of the righteous is level; you make smooth the track of the righteous.
Indeed, in the path of your judgments, O LORD, we wait expectantly for you; your Name and your remembrance –they’re the desire of our soul. My soul desires you in the night; indeed, my spirit deep within passionately seeks you early in the morning. For when your judgments are executed in the earth, the people of the world learn righteousness.
If favor is shown to the wicked, they still do not learn righteousness. Even in the land where right standards are supposed to be the rule, they continue to do wrong. They have no eye for the majesty of the LORD. O LORD, your hand is lifted high, but they do not see it. Let them see your zealous passion for your people and be put to shame. Let the fire of your fury against your enemies devour them.” Isaiah 26:7-11

Israel’s wisdom literature loved to picture life as walking down a path. Choose to get off God’s path by disobeying his instructions and there were deadly consequences. Stay on the path God illuminates for us and it’s straight and smooth. Isaiah exposes the hard truth that those who oppose God will not even turn away from their wickedness when God shows them grace, but we need to keep passionately focused on him because Isaiah is certain that the righteous fire of God’s judgment will devour all who oppose him in the climax of history.

LORD, help me to keep trusting from the core of my being in you and learning daily and obeying your life-preserving instructions. Help me keep my eyes on your majesty, confident that you will come through for those who faithfully believe in your Son and daily walk the straight, just path you are laying out for each of us.

Dave’s Devo: Tied To The Rock Isaiah 26:1-6

I was speaking at the Berean Church’s National Convention in Cheyenne, Wyoming. One afternoon there was time for a break. “Hey Dave, we’re heading west to Vedauwoo. Want to do some rock climbing?” Gigantic towers of Sherman granite make this one of the premier climbing areas in the U.S. and when Dan, John, and I arrived we went around the back side of the cliffs, hiked to the top using an accessible trail and found a strong secure outcropping.

After anchoring our ropes around this strong outcropping at the top, we took turns repelling down about 75 feet or so, then, securing the clip in the harness, we’d take a shot at climbing the cracks back up the face. If you slipped and fell, the belayers at the top who were tending the rope pulled it tight, and instead of plunging to the rocks below, you only fell five feet or so. Our safety totally depended on the fact that the anchor stone at the top held firm.

Today, Isaiah gives us the lyrics to the song Judeans, God’s people, will sing at the end of time when the LORD has taken down all their enemies who taunted them. It’s their song of salvation.

“In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah :
We have a strong city; God sets in place salvation as its inner and outer fortification walls.
Open the gates so that the righteous nation may enter, the nation that keeps faithfulness (to God and his covenant). You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is steadfast because he trusts in you.
Trust in the LORD forever for the LORD is the LORD—he is the eternal Rock for he has brought low those who live high in the lofty city. He brings it down; He brings it down to the ground. He strikes it down to the dust. The foot tramples it down—the feet of the abused poor, the footsteps of the needy.” Isaiah 26:1-6

We all get to choose who we will tie our safety ropes to. In this present world, empires in government, business, and religion are built on pride, strength, wealth, and influence. But before choosing this pragmatic, “real-world” fortress of security, take a hard look at what the LORD does to those who arrogantly boast about their pride of life. If you’re high and mighty and believe you can free climb depending totally on your own skills and ignoring the unjust treatment of the humble and poor, note who gets trampled in the end.

If we’re in a position of influence and power today, then Isaiah warns us ‘character does matter.’ Pride, reveling in our prestigious homes and perks of wealth, and trampling over those who need fairness, justice, and support climbs high for a time, but falls to disaster in the end.

In 2024 a 21-year-old climber fell at Vedouwoo and was pronounced dead on the scene. In 2025 an 23-year-old died after falling to the end of a rope while attempting to free a stuck bag.

LORD, help us to allow Jesus to be the security rope that keep us safe as we climb the cliffs of life. I’m especially thankful when you feel you’re free falling in the unexpected crises that Jesus is always there to be the belayer that keeps us safe.

Of course, Jesus teaches us to put family first or does he? Listen today on

Truth Encounter with Dave Wyrtzen Combining pastoral ministry with college and seminary teaching, Dave Wyrtzen, through Truth Encounter, challenges you weekly to understand Gods redemptive story

Help me to keep praying when I’m blind-sided by friendly fire

Dave’s Devo: Manure Pond Swimming Isaiah 25:9-12

My youth pastor reached out to his waiter in a restaurant and shared Jesus. The next Sunday, Antonio visited our church and soon understood and responded to the Gospel. Near the end of the summer, it was time for him to go home to Mexico, but he had one request, ‘Pastor Dave, before I go home I want to be baptized.’

Our church was meeting in a Day Care, therefore, no baptistry. So, Antonio and I waded out into one of Al Baucum’s cattle tanks on his ranch. When we got deep enough in the murky water, I immersed him friends cheering. What a thrill to witness Antonio publicly declaring his faith. We took care while climbing out of the water not to step in manure.

That tank wasn’t your crystal-clear mountain lake, but it was not nearly as dirty and smelly as some of the drainage puddles that form after a good rain as water runs off manure piles. I’m just thankful that Antonio and I didn’t have to wade out and swim in the kind of manure pond Isaiah pictures as he describes the future of Israel’s enemies

“It will be said in that day, ‘Take a look! This is our God; we have waited for him, hoping that he might deliver us. This is the LORD, we have waited for him, let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation. For the hand of the LORD will rest on this mountain and Moab will be trampled as straw is trampled in the water of a manure pile.
He (Moab) will spread out his hands in the middle of it, like a swimmer extends his hands to swim, but the LORD will bring down his pride. His cunning hands will not allow him to escape. The high and impregnable fortifications of your walls—the LORD will bring them down, lay them low, and throw them down to the ground, to dust.” Isaiah 25:9-12

Earlier Isaiah did show his compassion toward Moabite refugees fleeing from the advancing Assyrian army that ransacked Israel but then also in Transjordan, including the land of Moab. In yesterday’s Devo we realized that Isaiah was looking far beyond his own time to an ultimate future, a time when death would be destroyed and tears wiped from his people’s eyes.

This indicates that here “Moab” is not just the land across the Jordan from Jerusalem but represents the final ruthless nations who will fight against God and his people. In this ultimate battle the Messiah will trample down all those who oppose him, like dirty hay stomped down in muck. Those who oppose him will try to swim away, but it will be like trying to escape while bogged down in a manure pond.

God’s people are invited to take a look at this ludicrous attempt of their enemies to escape God’s just judgment against them and burst into songs of praise. Finally, God’s enemies are destroyed and all who remain bow before the divine King who rules from Jerusalem.

Today this King tells us to turn the other cheek and to pray for our enemies. Don’t ever take this to mean that Jesus’ enemies get away with their ruthless cruelty and injustice. They might think their cunning can enable them to swim away. They’re wrong. Take a look at Revelation 19, 20. Our job today is to get as many people as we can to turn to Jesus’ living water before they get totally bogged down in the crap that will ensnare them forever.

LORD, help me to remember this picture of what happens in the end to all those who continue to arrogantly oppose you. Thanks that I my confidence that you will reign on earth in the end is based on your reliable faithfulness. And again I pray that you will turn many enemies like Saul in the first century to the kind of devotion that the Apostle Paul lived after seeing the light.

Dave’s Devo: Death’s Shroud Isaiah 25:1-8

“Dave, I need your help. Could you come down to the funeral home? I’ve done all I can especially in the facial area to the make the body presentable, but this was a bad crash. I’d like your input before I have the family come for the viewing.”

The horrible wreck happened at the worst time, during the Christmas/New Year break near the DFW airport, and the deadly result of the crash left a young widow and her little girls devastated. When I entered the embalming area, my mortician friend asked if I was ready and then pulled back the sheet. The powerful sledgehammer of death never loses its strength. I still cringe remembering such a blow to this young family.

Will there ever be a time when morticians will not pull back the sheet because the shroud of death is gone forever?

“O LORD, you are my God! I will raise you high: I will praise your name!
For you work wonders, plans made long before, plans that are substantive and dependable. For you have made the city a heap, the fortified city a ruin.
The foreigner’s impregnable town and castle is a city no longer; it will never be rebuilt. Therefore even powerful people will have to treat you with importance.
The city of the nations that struck terror will have to fear you. For you have been a stronghold to the poor, a stronghold for the needy in pressured times, a shelter from the driving rains and a shade from the heat; for the terrifying breath of the ruthless is like tempest ponding against a wall, like heat in a drought. The roar of the invading foreigners you subdued. The war song of the ruthless will be put down, silenced.
On this mountain the LORD of Armies will make for all the people a banquet of rich food, of aged fine wine, refined and purified. And he will swallow up on this mountain the facial covering laid over the face of all the people, the shroud spread over all the nations. He, the LORD, will swallow up death forever; and the Master, the LORD will wipe the tears away from all the faces. He will remove the taunts of his people’s enemies from all the earth. Count on it because the LORD has spoken.” Isaiah 25:1-8

Isaiah’ prophetic vision looks into the future. He sees a time when powerful, ruthless generals will no longer be able to crush people and cities, when the weak and vulnerable won’t be devastated by partial judges where justice is dispensed based on the money you can pay.

In Jerusalem, God’s Holy Mountain, now the capital of his kingdom, the Sovereign Almighty I AM will take away that shroud that none of us is strong enough to remove. Death will be eternally destroyed.

When Mary and I enjoy rich prime rib with precious friends, I know that it is only a taste of the banquets my Heavenly Father will forever invite us to enjoy because of Jesus.

LORD, continue to be a husband and father to that family who faced such devastating loss so many years ago. Thanks that the Apostle John tells us even more about your heavenly city that comes down to a new earth, a place where you will tenderly wipe the tears from our eyes and banish death forever. The shroud will be gone and laid aside just as your Son laid aside the covering over his face when he rose.

Of course, Jesus teaches us to put family first or does he? "Father Abraham Had Many Sons" this week on

Truth Encounter with Dave Wyrtzen Combining pastoral ministry with college and seminary teaching, Dave Wyrtzen, through Truth Encounter, challenges you weekly to understand Gods redemptive story

Who actually created families and what does he reveal about what their purpose should be? "The Tale Of Two Sons" today on www.truthencounter.com.