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Words of Comfort to Jerusalem
Isaiah 51.1-6
Good News Translation (GNT)
1 The Lord says, "Listen to me, you that want to be saved,
you that come to me for help. Think of the rock from
which you came, the quarry from which you were cut.
2 Think of your ancestor, Abraham, and of Sarah, from
whom you are descended. When I called Abraham, he
was childless but I blessed him and gave him children;
I made his descendants numerous.
3 "I will show compassion to Jerusalem, to all who live in
her ruins. Though her land is a desert, I will make it a
garden, like the garden I planted in Eden. Joy and
gladness will be there,and songs of praise and thanks
to me.
4 "Listen to me, my people, listen to what I say: I give my
teaching to the nations; my laws will bring them light.
5 I will come quickly and save them; the time of my victory
is near. I myself will rule over the nations. Distant lands
wait for me to come; they wait with hope for me to
save them.
6 Look up at the heavens; look at the earth! The heavens
will disappear like smoke; the earth will wear out like
old clothing, and all its people will die like flies.
But the deliverance I bring will last forever; my victory
will be final.
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'A great big God!'.
Commentary taken from 'word-on-the-web'
supplied by Scripture Union
How do we know what God is like?
In part, by looking back at his great acts, and seeing that he is the same God today as he was then.
This must have been particularly important for people reading this second part of Isaiah while languishing in exile and longing for God to act again in power to bring them back to their homeland.
They are to look back in order to look forwards, to see the kind of God, who brought the nation to birth in the first place, in order to give them hope for a new birth as a people.
What does looking back tell us?
That God takes a lone man and turns him into a great nation, and takes a barren woman and makes her the mother of many. This is a God who makes the desert bloom, (Isaiah 35:1-10) who makes desolate places become like a well-watered garden.
In view of God's power, even the most lasting of things, the heavens and the earth, seem passing and ephemeral. In view of God's plans to save his people, even the most daunting of enemies will pass away and be forgotten.
The pattern in the Old Testament is the pattern we find in Jesus.
This is a God who takes the rejection of the anointed one, the Messiah, by his people and turns it into the ultimate act of redemption.
He takes the final point of failure by his people, and out of it gives his people a new power of obedience.
Even as they fail to recognise his hand at work, he fulfils all his ancient promises - not only to his people themselves, but to all the nations of the world, as his grace overflows to them in ways they could not have imagined.
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