LHC Midday Word: The Book of ISAIAH

Everlasting salvation for Zion

‘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.

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.

‘Listen to me, my people;

hear me, my nation:

instruction will go out from me;

my justice will become a light to the nations.

My righteousness draws near speedily,

my salvation is on the way,

and my arm will bring justice to the nations.

The islands will look to me

and wait in hope for my arm.

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 for ever,

my righteousness will never fail.

‘Hear me, you who know what is right,

you people who have taken my instruction to heart:

do not fear the reproach of mere mortals

or be terrified by their insults.

For the moth will eat them up like a garment;

the worm will devour them like wool.

But my righteousness will last for ever,

my salvation through all generations.’

Awake, awake, arm of the Lord,

clothe yourself with strength!

Awake, as in days gone by,

as in generations of old.

Was it not you who cut Rahab to pieces,

who pierced that monster through?

Was it not you who dried up the sea,

the waters of the great deep,

who made a road in the depths of the sea

so that the redeemed might cross over?

Those the Lord has rescued will return.

They will enter Zion with singing;

everlasting joy will crown their heads.

Gladness and joy will overtake them,

and sorrow and sighing will flee away.

‘I, even I, am he who comforts you.

Who are you that you fear mere mortals,

human beings who are but grass,

that you forget the Lord your Maker,

who stretches out the heavens

and who lays the foundations of the earth,

that you live in constant terror every day

because of the wrath of the oppressor,

who is bent on destruction?

For where is the wrath of the oppressor?

The cowering prisoners will soon be set free;

they will not die in their dungeon,

nor will they lack bread.

For I am the Lord your God,

who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar –

the Lord Almighty is his name.

I have put my words in your mouth

and covered you with the shadow of my hand –

I who set the heavens in place,

who laid the foundations of the earth,

and who say to Zion, “You are my people.”’

The cup of the Lord’s wrath

Awake, awake!

Rise up, Jerusalem,

you who have drunk from the hand of the Lord

the cup of his wrath,

you who have drained to its dregs

the goblet that makes people stagger.

Among all the children she bore

there was none to guide her;

among all the children she brought up

there was none to take her by the hand.

These double calamities have come upon you –

who can comfort you? –

ruin and destruction, famine and sword –

who can console you?

Your children have fainted;

they lie at every street corner,

like antelope caught in a net.

They are filled with the wrath of the Lord,

with the rebuke of your God.

Therefore hear this, you afflicted one,

made drunk, but not with wine.

This is what your Sovereign Lord says,

your God, who defends his people:

‘See, I have taken out of your hand

the cup that made you stagger;

from that cup, the goblet of my wrath,

you will never drink again.

I will put it into the hands of your tormentors,

who said to you,

“Fall prostrate that we may walk on you.”

And you made your back like the ground,

like a street to be walked on.’

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Word by Word Meditations

by Fred Ursell

Isaiah 51: “vanish” (v.6)

Our human perspective thinks things last forever, even man-made objects like castles and palaces, not just mountains and oceans. Seasons come and go, decades slip by. But Isaiah sees a grim future “the heavens will vanish like smoke, the earth … wear out like a garment” (v.6). Not for millions of years, you feel, life isn’t a disaster movie. Yet alarms ring on climate change and irreversible damage to our planet. Politics are precarious, ghastly weapons exist. This prophecy is plausible now. Will it all vanish? If so, are you “saved”? (Acts 16 v.30).

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The Book of ISAIAH- Chapter 51

- Read by David Suchet -