Welcome to today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread. I'm Kirsten Holmberg, and I titled

Our Reading, Beautiful Feet. John Nash was awarded the Nobel Prize for Economics in 1994,

recognizing his pioneering work in mathematics. His equations

have since been used by businesses around the world in understanding the dynamics of competition

and rivalry. A book and full-length movie have documented his life and refer to him as having

a beautiful mind.

Not because his brain had any particular aesthetic appeal, but because of what it did.

The Old Testament prophet Isaiah uses the word beautiful to describe feet, not because of any

visible physical attribute, but because he saw beauty in what they did.

How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, he wrote in Isaiah 52,

verse 7. After 70 years of captivity in Babylon, resulting from their unfaithfulness to God,

messengers arrived with encouraging words that God's people would soon be returning home because the Lord has redeemed

Jerusalem. The good news wasn't attributed to the military might of the Israelites or any other

human effort. Rather, it was the work of God's holy arm on

their behalf. The same is true today as we have victory over our spiritual enemy through

Christ's sacrifice for us. In response, we become the messengers of good news, proclaiming

peace, good tidings, and salvation

to those around us. And we do so with beautiful feet.

Today's Our Daily Bread Devotional Scripture reading is from Isaiah, chapter 52, verses 7 through 10.

How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, your God reigns.

Listen, your watchmen lift up their voices. Together, they shout for joy.

When the Lord returns to Zion, they will see it with their own eyes.

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