Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for the Bible recap.

Today we finished our 22nd book of the Bible.

I know that's only a third of the way through the number of books in the Bible.

There are 66, but as far as word count is concerned, we're well over halfway through our

trip through Scripture together.

Okay, let's wrap up Isaiah.

In chapter 64, we encounter a section that I've misunderstood for most of my life.

It's in verse 6, and it says, we have all become like one who is unclean, and all our

righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.

For years, I thought this meant that all my God honoring works were still tainted by my

flesh and displeasing to him.

By the way, that phrase polluted garment is actually the Hebrew phrase used in ancient

times to refer to a woman's menstrual rag.

So that's a pretty intense comparison, if that's what all our righteous deeds are like.

That's not just humbling, that's actually demotivating.

But that's exactly why context and culture are important to remember, because they help

us understand something in this verse that might not be immediately obvious.

In ancient Israel, people who were unclean, like this first mentions, couldn't enter

the temple without first being purified.

And when women were having their period, they weren't allowed in the temple either.

It sounds harsh, like rejection, but I once heard a female Bible teacher describe it

as merciful.

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