Isaiah 50:4-6, “YHWH God has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary…He awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught…and I was not rebellious; I turned not backward. I gave my back to those who strike, […]
Isaiah 60:1, “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of YHWH has risen upon you. For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but YHWH will arise upon you, and His glory will be seen upon you.” First and foremost, these words are about Jesus Christ, who—as
Isaiah 11:1-2, 9, “There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse…And the Spirit of YHWH shall rest upon him…[and] the earth shall be full of the knowledge of YHWH as the waters cover the sea.” First, the chapter begins with an anticipation of the “shoot from the stump of Jesse,” the
Jeremiah 4:30, “O desolate one, what do you mean that you dress in scarlet, that you adorn yourself with ornaments of gold, that you enlarge your eyes with paint? In vain do you beautify yourself.” Isaiah 60:9, “…the Holy One of Israel…He has made you beautiful.” Like painting makeup on a corpse, any and
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Isaiah 57:15, “For thus says the One who is high and lifted up… ‘I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.’” The Hebrew translated “contrite” is דכא,
Today’s picture is a bit different than normal because it’s a collaboration that I did with a friend. Sean Eha is an excellent weaver of words and he writes poetry over at https://rebornbyfire.blogspot.com/ A few weeks ago Sean and I were talking about working on a poetry/art collab and we decided to base our
Isaiah 55:7, “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to YHWH, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.” Notice that it does not say, “let the wicked make amends for what he’s done,” or, “let the unrighteous
Is 55:10-11, “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout…so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty…” Rain that falls on the fields is never wasted…it
Isaiah 52:15, “Kings shall shut their mouths because of him, for that which has not been told them they see, and that which they have not heard they understand.” Isaiah anticipates a day when the kings of the nations will come to understand something that had previously been unknown to them and that—upon understanding it—they
Isaiah 50:10-11, “Let him who walks in darkness and has no light trust in the name of YHWH and rely on his God. Behold, all you who kindle a fire, who equip yourselves with burning torches! Walk by the light of your fire, and by the torches you have kindled!” Are we in darkness?
Isaiah 6:6, “…one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar.” Isaiah sees the Lord “high and lifted up” on the throne of His glory (6:1), and at this sight he—rightly—assumes that his life is forfeit…he is a sinful man
Isaiah 35:6, “…and the tongue of the mute shall sing for joy. For waters break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert.” The NT understands Isaiah 35:5-6a as referring to the ministry of Jesus (Matt.11:45, etc), but here in Isaiah 35, the miraculous healings that we know are achieved in Christ are
Isaiah 24:23, “Then the moon will be confounded and the sun ashamed, for YHWH of hosts reigns on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and His glory will be before His elders.” What does it mean for the moon to be confounded and the sun ashamed? I think we can take this in two ways.
Isaiah 16:10-11, “I have but an end to the shouting. Therefore my inner parts moan like a lyre for Moab, and my inmost self for Kir-hareseth.” Consider the complexity of what we might analogically call God’s “emotional life.” In perfect and holy freedom He acts only in accordance with His will and rejoices in
Isaiah 10:5, 15, “Woe to Assyria, the rod of my anger; the staff in their hands is my fury…As if a rod should wield him who lifts it, or as if a staff should lift him who is not wood.” In context, these verses present the invading Assyrian army as a tool of judgment
Isaiah 6:3, “And one called to another and said, ‘Holy, holy, holy is YHWH of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory!’” In Scripture, holiness is often associated with otherness and separateness (a holy vessel is separate from common vessels etc.), so we might assume that the perfect (threefold) holiness of YHWH
Isaiah 8:12-13, “Do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy, and do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread. But YHWH of hosts, Him you shall honor as holy. Let Him be your fear…” How we fear and what we fear reveals whose we are. When the wolves of an Assyrian
Isaiah 2:2, “It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of YHWH shall be established as the highest of the mountains…and the nations shall flow to it.” John 12:32, “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” Jesus is
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Isaiah 55:13, “Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle; and it shall make a name for YHWH, an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.” With the resurrection, the thorns of our curse which crowned the brow of our King sprout into
Isaiah 43:1, “I have called you by name, you are mine.” The Christian is not bound to God by their own piety or sincerity, they are bound to Him by His zealous possession of them. They are His….ransomed by the blood of His Son (1 Peter 1:19), hidden in the risen Jesus (Colossians 3:3), sealed
