Monday
Isaiah 51.1-2 “Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness and who seek the Lord:
Look to the rock from which you were cut and to the quarry from which you were hewn; look to Abraham, your father, and to Sarah, who gave you birth. When I called him he was only one man, and I blessed him and made him many.”
Time and time again Isaiah tells his people to listen, just listen. Shut up for a minute and listen! Instead of complaining about how things are now, think back, remember what God has already done, who God has shown himself to be. When God makes a promise God keeps it, and he has promised blessing, righteousness and shalom.
Tuesday
Isaiah 51.1-2 “Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness and who seek the Lord:
Look to the rock from which you were cut and to the quarry from which you were hewn; look to Abraham, your father, and to Sarah, who gave you birth. When I called him he was only one man, and I blessed him and made him many.”
Same verses as yesterday, but listen – again! Those who live in Aberdeen know about granite, and the huge historic quarry at Rubislaw which provided rock for use all over the world. Isaiah is telling his people, and us, we are cut from ancient granite! The Psalmist knew about God the Rock, and the rock solid dependability of God and his promises. Listen…look…and trust. God’s love endures forever; likewise his promises.
Wednesday
Isaiah 51.3 “The Lord will surely comfort Zion and will look with compassion on all her ruins; he will make her deserts like Eden, her wastelands like the garden of the Lord.
Joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the sound of singing.”
Comfort is Isaiah’s speciality. His is the audible reassuring voice of God to people who are struggling with faith, life, and with themselves. God looks with compassion on us at those times when we are familiar with ruin, loss, and the sadness that comes from being and feeling alone. The Psalmist also trusted God in the dark, “Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy cometh in the morning.” Listen. Those promises again! Gladness, thanksgiving and singing are not extinct – they will come again.
Thursday
Isaiah 51.4 “Listen to me, my people, hear me my nation: The law will go out from me, my justice will become a light to the nations.”
Listen. Pay attention. Get it into your head. In a broken and dangerous world, God’s justice will become a light to the nations. These are words spoken in a time of empires, and the seeming unbreakable strangle-hold of political power over people’s lives. Comfort is more than emotional support; it is promised help from a credible Helper. However dark our world is growing, (and there are deep shadows across many places), God’s laws of righteousness and justice are not so easily ignored. Faith and hope are rooted in the truth of who God is, Sovereign, Creator, and Redeemer.
Friday
Isaiah 58.5. “My righteousness draws near speedily, my salvation is on the way. And my arm will bring justice to the nations.”
Reassurance has to be more than promises that keep receding into a distant future. Isaiah was aware of God moving in the contemporary history of his people. Looking on our own fractured and fractious world, his words come down the centuries to us as a reminder that for people of faith, God is here, now, and active. Justice includes peace, compassion, the harmony of peoples, that catch-all word of God’s peaceful benediction, shalom. Pray for it. Work for it. The Lord says, “My salvation is on the way.”
Saturday
Isaiah 51.5b “The islands will look to me and wait in hope for my arm.”
For a land loving people like Israel, the islands were far away. But not so far that God is out of sight or out of mind. The furthest reaches of God’s creation look and wait in hope. So should we. Hope is a deeply human longing for the coming of that which is on the side of life. Such hopeful waiting gives energy and purpose to the life we live. We are living through a time of hope recession, a growing sense of anxiety is felt about the way the world is. Isaiah’s words are to people feeling exactly the same.
Sunday
Isaiah 51.6 “Lift up your eyes to the heavens, look at the earth beneath; the heavens will vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment and its inhabitants die like flies. But my salvation will last forever, my righteousness will never fail.”
Isaiah often contrasts the shortness of human life with the enduring and steadfast love of God. Life is transient, passes quickly, and is gone; God is eternal, the sustaining Creator, and the One whose salvation lasts forever. And it is this God who calls us to hope and trust in his promises because, his “righteousness will never fail.”
A Prayer for the Week: Eternal God, we look to you, the Rock from which we were hewn. In a changing and worrying world, lift up our hearts to the One who is the renewable energy of hope, hold us firmly as we trust in your promises, and raise our eyes to see that, beyond our limited horizons, your righteousness draws near speedily and your salvation in on the way. In the name of Christ the Redeemer, Amen
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