Slices
Prepare
Pray: ‘Almighty God … we have sinned against you and against our neighbour in thought and word and deed, through negligence, through weakness, through our own deliberate fault. We are truly sorry and repent of all our sins …’*
Bible passage
Song of praise to the Lord
10 Sing to the Lord a new song,
his praise from the ends of the earth,
you who go down to the sea, and all that is in it,
you islands, and all who live in them.
11 Let the wilderness and its towns raise their voices;
let the settlements where Kedar lives rejoice.
Let the people of Sela sing for joy;
let them shout from the mountaintops.
12 Let them give glory to the Lord
and proclaim his praise in the islands.
13 The Lord will march out like a champion,
like a warrior he will stir up his zeal;
with a shout he will raise the battle cry
and will triumph over his enemies.
14 ‘For a long time I have kept silent,
I have been quiet and held myself back.
But now, like a woman in childbirth,
I cry out, I gasp and pant.
15 I will lay waste the mountains and hills
and dry up all their vegetation;
I will turn rivers into islands
and dry up the pools.
16 I will lead the blind by ways they have not known,
along unfamiliar paths I will guide them;
I will turn the darkness into light before them
and make the rough places smooth.
These are the things I will do;
I will not forsake them.
17 But those who trust in idols,
who say to images, “You are our gods,”
will be turned back in utter shame.
Israel blind and deaf
18 ‘Hear, you deaf;
look, you blind, and see!
19 Who is blind but my servant,
and deaf like the messenger I send?
Who is blind like the one in covenant with me,
blind like the servant of the Lord?
20 You have seen many things, but you pay no attention;
your ears are open, but you do not listen.’
21 It pleased the Lord
for the sake of his righteousness
to make his law great and glorious.
22 But this is a people plundered and looted,
all of them trapped in pits
or hidden away in prisons.
They have become plunder,
with no one to rescue them;
they have been made loot,
with no one to say, ‘Send them back.’
23 Which of you will listen to this
or pay close attention in time to come?
24 Who handed Jacob over to become loot,
and Israel to the plunderers?
Was it not the Lord,
against whom we have sinned?
For they would not follow his ways;
they did not obey his law.
25 So he poured out on them his burning anger,
the violence of war.
It enveloped them in flames, yet they did not understand;
it consumed them, but they did not take it to heart.
Explore
God sending a Saviour gives us cause to praise (vs 10–13), but this passage – a dialogue between Isaiah and God himself – has some hard truths. There will be judgement on God’s land and people, which will bring darkness and pain, like a woman in childbirth (vs 14–16). Those who trust in idols (v 17) and do not follow God’s ways (v 24) will experience God’s anger and wrath. In this passage, the ‘servant’ referred to in verse 19 is not the servant of earlier in chapter 42, but is the people of Israel, who are blind and disobedient.
Passages like these can be difficult for us to read, but when we look at the world around us there’s no doubt that it’s not a world that gives God the glory (v 12). We see intuitively that judgement is needed to proclaim God as ‘great and glorious’ (v 21).
The challenge for us is: will we pay attention to God’s word? Will we listen to Jesus his servant (v 20)?
Respond
Pray for those you know who aren’t saved by Jesus.
Bible in a year
Read the Bible in a year: 1 Kings 14,15; 1 Corinthians 15
Pray for Scripture Union
Give praise for Helen Hazlewood, the new worker for Mission Partner C4E on the North Wales coast. Working with Pray for Schools Cymru, she is aiming to make every school a prayed for school and working towards establishing face-to-face work with the 95 in schools.
