Isaiah 51:17-23 – 7/31/2026
Rouse yourself, rouse yourself! Stand up, O Jerusalem, you who have drunk at the hand of the Lord the cup of his wrath, who have drunk to the dregs the cup of staggering
Isaiah 51:17 (NRSVue)
Today’s reading from Isaiah is about the wrath of God poured out on the people. This led me to thinking about the origin of suffering. There are four possible sources for any instance of suffering. There is the possibility that this verse references, that suffering comes from God as punishment or as a result of God’s anger and wrath. If God is not the cause of suffering, then it is either self-inflicted or inflected by something from the outside. If it is inflicted from the outside, the suffering is either caused by the unfolding of natural processes or as a result of an autonomous being’s—a human being’s—free choice.
Thus we can categorize all suffering as caused by one of four possible sources:
1. God’s wrath.
2. Self-harm or mistakes – self-inflicted
3. The choices of others – either malicious or negligent
4. The unfolding of natural processes
This raises the question of the nature of the interrelationship between these four types of suffering. Does God allow and sometimes prevent suffering from natural processes? Does harming others always incur God’s wrath? These questions get at the heart of what is meant by the sovereignty of God and the nature of providence and whether providence exists or not.
Revised Common Lectionary Readings for 7/31/2026:
Isaiah 51:17-23
Romans 9:6-13
Psalm 145:8-9, 14-21
Reflections of a Dionysian Lutheran, comments on the daily readings of the Revised Common Lectionary by Justin Marquis
Dionysus on a Bike 
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