LHC Midday Word: The Book of ISAIAH

Oh, that you would rend the heavens

and come down,

that the mountains would tremble before you!

As when fire sets twigs ablaze

and causes water to boil,

come down to make your name known

to your enemies

and cause the nations

to quake before you!

For when you did awesome things

that we did not expect,

you came down,

and the mountains trembled before you.

Since ancient times no one has heard,

no ear has perceived,

no eye has seen any God besides you,

who acts on behalf of those who wait for him.

You come to the help of those

who gladly do right,

who remember your ways.

But when we continued to sin against them,

you were angry.

How then can we be saved?

All of us have become like one who is unclean,

and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags;

we all shrivel up like a leaf,

and like the wind our sins sweep us away.

No one calls on your name

or strives to lay hold of you;

for you have hidden your face from us

and have given us over to our sins.

Yet you, Lord, are our Father.

We are the clay, you are the potter;

we are all the work of your hand.

Do not be angry beyond measure, Lord;

do not remember our sins for ever.

Oh, look upon us we pray,

for we are all your people.

Your sacred cities have become a wasteland;

even Zion is a wasteland,

Jerusalem a desolation.

Our holy and glorious temple,

where our ancestors praised you,

has been burned with fire,

and all that we treasured lies in ruins.

After all this, Lord, will you hold yourself back?

Will you keep silent and punish us beyond measure?

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Word by Word Meditations

by Fred Ursell

Isaiah 64: “rags” (v.6)

Do you consider yourself a good person? Our instinct shies away from acknowledging some uncomfortable truth, but “all of us have become … unclean, and all our righteous acts [i.e. all the good things we do] are like filthy rags” (v.6). Have a think about it:

[A] are you really an exception to “all of us”?

[B] without even looking at any bad traits, is your best behaviour on a par with nice clothes, or with “rags” – and “filthy” ones at that?

So do you see you need a major makeover in your personality from your Maker?

He can make it happen! Apply today!

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READINGS

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The Book of ISAIAH- Chapter 64

- Read by David Suchet -