Late dusk over a Judean valley: a stony path running down into shadow toward a hill town’s dark roofs with no lamp lit, and one pale thin line of light on the far eastern rim.

New heavens and earth

Isaiah 59

Have you ever felt your prayers hit a ceiling?

21 verses≈ 4 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 Servant
49–55The Servant and ZionPierced for our transgressions; Zion restored
56–66New heavens and earthA house of prayer, the Anointed One, all things newChapter 59

Sin Separates Us from God

Isaiah

Surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save,

nor His ear too dull to hear.

Isaiah 59:1

Tap to go deeper: meaning, history and related Scripture

Isaiah

Midday in a narrow stone lane of a Judean hill town: the lane blocked by a rough new wall of unmortared fieldstones built right across it, sunlight showing only over its top.

But your iniquities have built barriers

between you and your God,

and your sins have hidden His face from you,

so that He does not hear.

Isaiah

For your hands are stained with blood,

and your fingers with iniquity;

your lips have spoken lies,

and your tongue mutters injustice.

Isaiah

No one calls for justice;

no one pleads his case honestly.

They rely on empty pleas; they tell lies;

they conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity.

Isaiah

Isaiah

They hatch the eggs of vipers

and weave a spider’s web.

Whoever eats their eggs will die;

crack one open, and a viper is hatched.

Their cobwebs cannot be made into clothing,

and they cannot cover themselves with their works.

Their deeds are sinful deeds,

and acts of violence are in their hands.

Isaiah

Their feet run to evil;

they are swift to shed innocent blood.

Their thoughts are sinful thoughts;

ruin and destruction lie in their wake.

The way of peace they have not known,

and there is no justice in their tracks.

They have turned them into crooked paths;

no one who treads on them will know peace.

Question

Quick question

Paul quotes verses 7–8 in his letter to the Romans, in a chain of Old Testament lines.

Paul quotes 59:7–8 in Romans 3. What is he showing?

Isaiah

Harsh white noon in a narrow stone lane: a man seen from behind, head down, one hand trailing along the wall as if feeling his way in the dark, his shadow short beneath him.

Therefore justice is far from us,

and righteousness does not reach us.

We hope for light, but there is darkness;

for brightness, but we walk in gloom.

Like the blind, we feel our way along the wall,

groping like those without eyes.

We stumble at midday as in the twilight;

among the vigorous we are like the dead.

We all growl like bears

and moan like doves.

We hope for justice, but find none,

for salvation, but it is far from us.

0:28

Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain

Isaiah

For our transgressions are multiplied before You,

and our sins testify against us.

Our transgressions are indeed with us,

and we know our iniquities:

rebelling and denying the LORD,

turning away from our God,

speaking oppression and revolt,

conceiving and uttering lies from the heart.

Isaiah

Noon in a town gateway: the stone bench where the elders judge stands empty, a hand-held beam balance lying tipped on the paving, one stone weight rolled into the dust, the gate open on an empty road.

So justice is turned away,

and righteousness stands at a distance.

For truth has stumbled in the public square,

and honesty cannot enter.

Truth is missing,

and whoever turns from evil becomes prey.

Isaiah

The LORD looked and was displeased

that there was no justice.

Isaiah

Isaiah

He put on righteousness like a breastplate,

and the helmet of salvation on His head;

He put on garments of vengeance

and wrapped Himself in a cloak of zeal.

Not too short to save

Whiteboard

The wall is ours; the arm that breaks through it is His.

The Covenant of the Redeemer

Isaiah

So He will repay according to their deeds:

fury to His enemies,

retribution to His foes,

and recompense to the islands.

Isaiah

Sunrise over a dry stony wadi in the Judean hills: a flash flood of brown water racing between its banks under a hard wind, spray and bent tamarisks lit gold.

So shall they fear the name of the LORD

where the sun sets,

and His glory where it rises.

For He will come like a raging flood,

driven by the breath of the LORD.

God

God

“As for Me, this is My covenant with them,” says the LORD. “My Spirit will not depart from you, and My words that I have put in your mouth will not depart from your mouth or from the mouths of your children and grandchildren, from now on and forevermore,” says the LORD.

Pray

LORD, Your arm is not too short to save, and my sins have built the wall. I confess them; I know my iniquities. Redeemer, come to me as I turn, and keep Your Spirit and Your word in my mouth and my children’s. Amen.

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Isaiah 59

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A verse to carry with you

Surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save, nor His ear too dull to hear.

Isaiah 59:1

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