Sunrise over a broad river flowing full and calm through green land, reeds and still water in the foreground, mist lifting.

Comfort My people

Isaiah 48

What would your life look like if you had listened sooner?

22 verses≈ 5 minBSB

Images are artistic interpretations.

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Where we are

1–5Zion on trialJudah’s sin, the mountain raised, the vineyard’s song
6Holy, holy, holyIsaiah’s call, in the year King Uzziah died (about 740 BC)
7–12ImmanuelAhaz’s fear, the sign, the Child, the shoot of Jesse
13–23The nations judgedBabylon to Tyre: the LORD is Judge of all the earth
24–27The whole earthThe earth laid waste, and death swallowed up
28–35Woe and a KingEgypt’s help or the LORD’s, and the King in His beauty
36–39Hezekiah’s crisisSennacherib, 701 BC: the prayer, the sickness, the envoys
40–48Comfort My peopleTo the exiles ahead: Cyrus, the idols, the ServantChapter 48
49–55The Servant and ZionPierced for our transgressions; Zion restored
56–66New heavens and earthA house of prayer, the Anointed One, all things new

Israel’s Stubbornness

God

“Listen to this, O house of Jacob,

you who are called by the name of Israel,

who have descended from the line of Judah,

who swear by the name of the LORD,

who invoke the God of Israel—

but not in truth or righteousness—

who indeed call yourselves after the holy city

and lean on the God of Israel;

the LORD of Hosts is His name.

Tap to go deeper: meaning, history and related Scripture

God

I foretold the former things long ago;

they came out of My mouth and I proclaimed them.

Suddenly I acted, and they came to pass.

God

A plowing ox in a stony hill field standing with its neck braced and head lowered against the yoke rope, refusing to move, the wooden plow tilted behind it.

For I knew that you are stubborn;

your neck is iron and your forehead is bronze.

God

Therefore I declared it to you long ago;

I announced it before it came to pass,

so that you could not claim, ‘My idol has done this;

my carved image and molten god has ordained it.’

God

You have heard these things; look at them all.

Will you not acknowledge them?

God

You have never heard; you have never understood;

for a long time your ears have not been open.

For I knew how deceitful you are;

you have been called a rebel from birth.

God

For the sake of My name I will delay My wrath;

for the sake of My praise I will restrain it,

so that you will not be cut off.

God

A goldsmith’s small clay crucible glowing white-hot in a little charcoal furnace, molten gold shining inside.

See, I have refined you, but not as silver;

I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.

God

For My own sake, My very own sake, I will act;

for how can I let Myself be defamed?

I will not yield My glory to another.

Question

Quick question

Israel has been stubborn from birth (48:4, 8). Yet the LORD holds back His wrath. Read verses 9 to 11.

Why does the LORD hold back His wrath from stubborn Israel?

Deliverance Promised to Israel

God

Listen to Me, O Jacob,

and Israel, whom I have called:

I am He; I am the first,

and I am the last.

Surely My own hand founded the earth,

and My right hand spread out the heavens;

when I summon them,

they stand up together.

God

Dawn on the plain before Babylon’s flat-topped walls: an army camp of plain tents, horses tethered, campfire smoke, soldiers small and far off, no fighting.

Come together, all of you, and listen:

Which of the idols has foretold these things?

The LORD’s chosen ally will carry out His desire against Babylon,

and His arm will be against the Chaldeans.

I, even I, have spoken;

yes, I have called him.

I have brought him,

and he will succeed in his mission.

God

Come near to Me and listen to this:

From the beginning I have not spoken in secret;

from the time it happened, I was there.”

The Servant

And now the Lord GOD has sent me,

accompanied by His Spirit.

God

Thus says the LORD your Redeemer,

the Holy One of Israel:

“I am the LORD your God,

who teaches you for your benefit,

who directs you in the way you should go.

Isaiah 48:17

God

Long rolling waves coming in one after another onto a wide sandy shore in morning light, the sea calm and endless beyond.

If only you had paid attention to My commandments,

your peace would have been like a river,

and your righteousness like waves of the sea.

God

God

Your descendants would have been as countless as the sand,

and your offspring as numerous as its grains;

their name would never be cut off

or eliminated from My presence.”

Isaiah

Dawn at Babylon’s great gate of blue glazed brick: Judean families seen from behind, walking out with bundles, jars, small children and a few laden donkeys onto the road west.

Leave Babylon!

Flee from the Chaldeans!

Declare it with a shout of joy,

proclaim it,

let it go out to the ends of the earth, saying,

“The LORD has redeemed His servant Jacob!”

0:12

Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain

Isaiah

Isaiah

They did not thirst when He led them through the deserts;

He made water flow for them from the rock;

He split the rock, and water gushed out.

God

“There is no peace,” says the LORD,

“for the wicked.”

Pray

LORD my Redeemer, You teach me for my good and direct me in the way I should go. Open my ears to listen now, not later. Refine me in the furnace rather than cut me off, and lead me out of whatever Babylon still holds my heart. Amen.

Comfort My people (40–48)

Whiteboard

The LORD alone foretold Babylon’s fall and Cyrus’s rise, and He did it so His people would go home knowing He is God.

You’ve experienced

Isaiah 48

0 of 66 chapters read

A verse to carry with you

Thus says the LORD your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “I am the LORD your God, who teaches you for your benefit, who directs you in the way you should go.

Isaiah 48:17

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