SURELY GOD IS MY SALVATION

Isaiah 12:1-6 / Keywords 12:2

Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The LORD, the LORD, is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation."

12:1 In that day you will say:

“I will praise you, Lord.

    Although you were angry with me,

your anger has turned away

    and you have comforted me.

2 Surely God is my salvation;

    I will trust and not be afraid.

The Lord, the Lord himself, is my strength and my defense[a];

    he has become my salvation.”

3 With joy you will draw water

    from the wells of salvation.

4 In that day you will say:

“Give praise to the Lord, proclaim his name;

    make known among the nations what he has done,

    and proclaim that his name is exalted.

5 Sing to the Lord, for he has done glorious things;

    let this be known to all the world.

6 Shout aloud and sing for joy, people of Zion,

    for great is the Holy One of Israel among you.”

Footnotes

a. Isaiah 12:2 Or song

 

1. The wells of salvation (1-3)

The day of the Lord is the day of salvation. In that day people will praise the Lord. In that day the people who were so severely judged in their sins will be comforted by the Lord himself. In that day the wells of salvation will overflow with everlasting joy for God’s people. Isaiah wrote to the people of Israel when they were undergoing unspeakable misery because of their sins. They had no joy or salvation to hope for in the world; at the same time they had much to fear. But in the day of the Lord they can say, “Surely God is my salvation” (2).

 

2. Let this be known to all the world (4-6)

God was doing more than just making his name known among Israel. He was using Israel to display his glory to all nations. God wants his salvation to be known in all the world. His salvation makes us priests to all nations. He makes us new creations—those who proclaim his greatness to all nations.

 

Prayer Lord, thank you for your overflowing salvation. Bless me that the news of your greatness may overflow from my lips.

One Word Proclaim God’s salvation

 

THE ROOT OF JESSE

Isaiah 11:1-16 / Keywords 11:10

In that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations will rally to him, and his place of rest will be glorious.

 10:1 A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse;

    from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.

2 The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him—

    the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding,

    the Spirit of counsel and of might,

    the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the Lord—

3 and he will delight in the fear of the Lord.

He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes,

    or decide by what he hears with his ears;

4 but with righteousness he will judge the needy,

    with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth.

He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth;

    with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked.

5 Righteousness will be his belt

    and faithfulness the sash around his waist.

6 The wolf will live with the lamb,

    the leopard will lie down with the goat,

the calf and the lion and the yearling[a] together;

    and a little child will lead them.

7 The cow will feed with the bear,

    their young will lie down together,

    and the lion will eat straw like the ox.

8 The infant will play near the cobra’s den,

    and the young child will put its hand into the viper’s nest.

9 They will neither harm nor destroy

    on all my holy mountain,

for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord

    as the waters cover the sea.

10 In that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations will rally to him, and his resting place will be glorious. 11 In that day the Lord will reach out his hand a second time to reclaim the surviving remnant of his people from Assyria, from Lower Egypt, from Upper Egypt, from Cush,[b] from Elam, from Babylonia,[c] from Hamath and from the islands of the Mediterranean.

12 He will raise a banner for the nations

    and gather the exiles of Israel;

he will assemble the scattered people of Judah

    from the four quarters of the earth.

13 Ephraim’s jealousy will vanish,

    and Judah’s enemies[d] will be destroyed;

Ephraim will not be jealous of Judah,

    nor Judah hostile toward Ephraim.

14 They will swoop down on the slopes of Philistia to the west;

    together they will plunder the people to the east.

They will subdue Edom and Moab,

    and the Ammonites will be subject to them.

15 The Lord will dry up

    the gulf of the Egyptian sea;

with a scorching wind he will sweep his hand

    over the Euphrates River.

He will break it up into seven streams

    so that anyone can cross over in sandals.

16 There will be a highway for the remnant of his people

    that is left from Assyria,

as there was for Israel

    when they came up from Egypt.

Footnotes

a. Isaiah 11:6 Hebrew; Septuagint lion will feed

b. Isaiah 11:11 That is, the upper Nile region

c. Isaiah 11:11 Hebrew Shinar

d. Isaiah 11:13 Or hostility

1. A shoot will come up (1-9)

Isaiah looked forward to the day when the Messiah would come. He would have the Spirit of the Lord and delight in the fear of the Lord. He would judge with God’s righteousness. Through him the power of sin is vanquished, and all of God’s creation is reconciled to him and to each other in perfect peace. Jesus would be the shoot that springs from the stump of Jesse. By his death he would atone for sin completely. By his resurrection he would declare victory over the power of sin and death. Through Jesus the glory of God is brightly revealed, and the earth that has dwelled in the darkness of sin will be full of the knowledge of the Lord.

 

2. A banner for the nations (10-16)

The Root of Jesse is the banner that people from all nations will rally to. The Lord will gather his people from the ends of the earth to live and reign with him in his kingdom. The Lord provides a highway for his people to come to him. Through Jesus the nations have hope in the kingdom of God.

 

Prayer Lord, thank you. Thank you for providing a way for a hopeless sinner to have hope in the kingdom of God.

One Word Jesus is my hope

A REMNANT WILL RETURN

Isaiah 10:5-34 / Keywords 10:21

A remnant will return, a remnant of Jacob will return to the Mighty God.

10:5 “Woe to the Assyrian, the rod of my anger,

    in whose hand is the club of my wrath!

6 I send him against a godless nation,

    I dispatch him against a people who anger me,

to seize loot and snatch plunder,

    and to trample them down like mud in the streets.

7 But this is not what he intends,

    this is not what he has in mind;

his purpose is to destroy,

    to put an end to many nations.

8 ‘Are not my commanders all kings?’ he says.

9     ‘Has not Kalno fared like Carchemish?

Is not Hamath like Arpad,

    and Samaria like Damascus?

10 As my hand seized the kingdoms of the idols,

    kingdoms whose images excelled those of Jerusalem and Samaria—

11 shall I not deal with Jerusalem and her images

    as I dealt with Samaria and her idols?’”

12 When the Lord has finished all his work against Mount Zion and Jerusalem, he will say, “I will punish the king of Assyria for the willful pride of his heart and the haughty look in his eyes. 13 For he says:

“‘By the strength of my hand I have done this,

    and by my wisdom, because I have understanding.

I removed the boundaries of nations,

    I plundered their treasures;

    like a mighty one I subdued[a] their kings.

14 As one reaches into a nest,

    so my hand reached for the wealth of the nations;

as people gather abandoned eggs,

    so I gathered all the countries;

not one flapped a wing,

    or opened its mouth to chirp.’”

15 Does the ax raise itself above the person who swings it,

    or the saw boast against the one who uses it?

As if a rod were to wield the person who lifts it up,

    or a club brandish the one who is not wood!

16 Therefore, the Lord, the Lord Almighty,

    will send a wasting disease upon his sturdy warriors;

under his pomp a fire will be kindled

    like a blazing flame.

17 The Light of Israel will become a fire,

    their Holy One a flame;

in a single day it will burn and consume

    his thorns and his briers.

18 The splendor of his forests and fertile fields

    it will completely destroy,

    as when a sick person wastes away.

19 And the remaining trees of his forests will be so few

    that a child could write them down.

The Remnant of Israel

20 In that day the remnant of Israel,

    the survivors of Jacob,

will no longer rely on him

    who struck them down

but will truly rely on the Lord,

    the Holy One of Israel.

21 A remnant will return,[b] a remnant of Jacob

    will return to the Mighty God.

22 Though your people be like the sand by the sea, Israel,

    only a remnant will return.

Destruction has been decreed,

    overwhelming and righteous.

23 The Lord, the Lord Almighty, will carry out

    the destruction decreed upon the whole land.

24 Therefore this is what the Lord, the Lord Almighty, says:

“My people who live in Zion,

    do not be afraid of the Assyrians,

who beat you with a rod

    and lift up a club against you, as Egypt did.

25 Very soon my anger against you will end

    and my wrath will be directed to their destruction.”

26 The Lord Almighty will lash them with a whip,

    as when he struck down Midian at the rock of Oreb;

and he will raise his staff over the waters,

    as he did in Egypt.

27 In that day their burden will be lifted from your shoulders,

    their yoke from your neck;

the yoke will be broken

    because you have grown so fat.[c]

28 They enter Aiath;

    they pass through Migron;

    they store supplies at Mikmash.

29 They go over the pass, and say,

    “We will camp overnight at Geba.”

Ramah trembles;

    Gibeah of Saul flees.

30 Cry out, Daughter Gallim!

    Listen, Laishah!

    Poor Anathoth!

31 Madmenah is in flight;

    the people of Gebim take cover.

32 This day they will halt at Nob;

    they will shake their fist

at the mount of Daughter Zion,

    at the hill of Jerusalem.

33 See, the Lord, the Lord Almighty,

    will lop off the boughs with great power.

The lofty trees will be felled,

    the tall ones will be brought low.

34 He will cut down the forest thickets with an ax;

    Lebanon will fall before the Mighty One.

Footnotes

a. Isaiah 10:13 Or treasures; / I subdued the mighty,

b. Isaiah 10:21 Hebrew shear-jashub (see 7:3 and note); also in verse 22

c. Isaiah 10:27 Hebrew; Septuagint broken / from your shoulders

 

1. The Light of Israel (5-19)

God would use Assyria as the rod of his anger, but their intent was only to seize and destroy other nations. Once the Lord finished the work for which he raised Assyria up, he would deal with their sin. They were an ax in the hand of the Lord, but the Lord is the one who wielded the ax. He would judge the sin of Assyria and glorify his name as the Light of Israel and the Holy One.

 

2. A remnant will return to the Mighty God (20-34)

When God judged the sins of his people, he did it with hope. Amid the judgment of the Lord against sin is the seed of hope that the remnant will return to the Mighty God. The remnant are those who do not surrender to fear of Assyria, but instead fear the Lord and put their trust in him. The remnant are those who wait on the Lord on the day of his judgment with hope that the Lord will raise them up. The Lord works in history through the holy remnant: those who rely on the Lord who judges and who saves.

 

Prayer Lord, teach me to rely on you in all things. Help me to live with repentance and with hope in you, and be one of your remnant people.

One Word Live as one of God’s remnant

THE PEOPLE HAVE NOT RETURNED TO HIM

Isaiah 9:8-10:4 / Keywords 9:13

But the people have not returned to him who struck them, nor have they sought the LORD Almighty.

9:8 The Lord has sent a message against Jacob;

    it will fall on Israel.

9 All the people will know it—

    Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria—

who say with pride

    and arrogance of heart,

10 “The bricks have fallen down,

    but we will rebuild with dressed stone;

the fig trees have been felled,

    but we will replace them with cedars.”

11 But the Lord has strengthened Rezin’s foes against them

    and has spurred their enemies on.

12 Arameans from the east and Philistines from the west

    have devoured Israel with open mouth.

Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away,

    his hand is still upraised.

13 But the people have not returned to him who struck them,

    nor have they sought the Lord Almighty.

14 So the Lord will cut off from Israel both head and tail,

    both palm branch and reed in a single day;

15 the elders and dignitaries are the head,

    the prophets who teach lies are the tail.

16 Those who guide this people mislead them,

    and those who are guided are led astray.

17 Therefore the Lord will take no pleasure in the young men,

    nor will he pity the fatherless and widows,

for everyone is ungodly and wicked,

    every mouth speaks folly.

Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away,

    his hand is still upraised.

18 Surely wickedness burns like a fire;

    it consumes briers and thorns,

it sets the forest thickets ablaze,

    so that it rolls upward in a column of smoke.

19 By the wrath of the Lord Almighty

    the land will be scorched

and the people will be fuel for the fire;

    they will not spare one another.

20 On the right they will devour,

    but still be hungry;

on the left they will eat,

    but not be satisfied.

Each will feed on the flesh of their own offspring[b]:

21     Manasseh will feed on Ephraim, and Ephraim on Manasseh;

    together they will turn against Judah.

Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away,

    his hand is still upraised.

10:1 Woe to those who make unjust laws,

    to those who issue oppressive decrees,

2 to deprive the poor of their rights

    and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people,

making widows their prey

    and robbing the fatherless.

3 What will you do on the day of reckoning,

    when disaster comes from afar?

To whom will you run for help?

    Where will you leave your riches?

4 Nothing will remain but to cringe among the captives

    or fall among the slain.

Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away,

    his hand is still upraised.

Footnotes

b. Isaiah 9:20 Or arm

1. His anger is not turned away (9:8-21)

When God judged his people Israel, he meant for them to repent their sins and return to him. Instead they confidently said, "We'll build back better houses and plant better trees." They became proud and arrogant in their hearts, but did nothing about the sin in them that aroused the anger of the Lord. When the people did not return to the Lord, his anger was not turned away from them. They remained apart from the Lord and became the objects of his wrath and judgment.

 

2. To whom will you run for help? (10:1-4)

God pronounced judgment on the leaders in Israel who made laws that were opposite of God’s law. God’s law is full of mercy and justice for all people. It is meant to return people to God, who promised atonement for their sins. When God’s people abuse his justice and mercy, where can they go for help?

 

Prayer Lord, heal my heart from pride and arrogance. You are the one who can atone for sin. Teach me to return to you with a repentant heart and hope.

One Word Return to the Lord

 

TO US A CHILD IS BORN

Isaiah 9:1-7 / Keywords 9:6

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

 9:1 [a]Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress. In the past he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the future he will honor Galilee of the nations, by the Way of the Sea, beyond the Jordan—

2 The people walking in darkness

    have seen a great light;

on those living in the land of deep darkness

    a light has dawned.

3 You have enlarged the nation

    and increased their joy;

they rejoice before you

    as people rejoice at the harvest,

as warriors rejoice

    when dividing the plunder.

4 For as in the day of Midian’s defeat,

    you have shattered

the yoke that burdens them,

    the bar across their shoulders,

    the rod of their oppressor.

5 Every warrior’s boot used in battle

    and every garment rolled in blood

will be destined for burning,

    will be fuel for the fire.

6 For to us a child is born,

    to us a son is given,

    and the government will be on his shoulders.

And he will be called

    Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,

    Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

7 Of the greatness of his government and peace

    there will be no end.

He will reign on David’s throne

    and over his kingdom,

establishing and upholding it

    with justice and righteousness

    from that time on and forever.

The zeal of the Lord Almighty

    will accomplish this.

Footnotes

a. Isaiah 9:1 In Hebrew texts 9:1 is numbered 8:23, and 9:2-21 is numbered 9:1-20.

1. A great light (1-5)

There seemed to be nothing but distress and gloom in Israel, but Isaiah saw with the eyes of a prophet. He saw the great light of the Lord. He was the one who had been protecting his people, enlarging them, the source of all their providence and joy. Most of all, Isaiah saw the Lord who had been bearing the tremendous burdens of his people. In fact the Lord would shatter the burden of their oppressors and the burden of the power of sin by himself. He indeed is the great light for those who trust in him.

 

2. Prince of Peace (6-7)

The Lord would crush the power of sin through a child, a son. God sent Jesus to be born to us, to be our Immanuel. Jesus became our Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father and Prince of Peace by bearing sin on himself. In this way he became our ruler in place of sin, and his rule is eternal.

 

Prayer Lord, thank you for bearing the burden of sin. Help me to be ruled by Jesus, not by sin. Help me to welcome Jesus as my Prince of Peace.

One Word Jesus is the Prince of Peace