The Living Bible (236 page)

Isaiah
61

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the suffering and afflicted. He has sent me to comfort the brokenhearted, to announce liberty to captives, and to open the eyes of the blind.
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 He has sent me to tell those who mourn that the time of God’s favor to them has come, and the day of his wrath to their enemies.
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 To all who mourn in Israel he will give: beauty for ashes; joy instead of mourning; praise instead of heaviness. For God has planted them like strong and graceful oaks for his own glory.

    
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 And they shall rebuild the ancient ruins, repairing cities long ago destroyed, reviving them though they have lain there many generations.
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 Foreigners shall be your servants; they shall feed your flocks and plow your fields and tend your vineyards.
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 You shall be called priests of the Lord, ministers of our God. You shall be fed with the treasures of the nations and shall glory in their riches.
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 Instead of shame and dishonor, you shall have a double portion of prosperity and everlasting joy.

    
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 For I, the Lord, love justice; I hate robbery and wrong. I will faithfully reward my people for their suffering and make an everlasting covenant with them.
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 Their descendants shall be known and honored among the nations; all shall realize that they are a people God has blessed.

    
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 Let me tell you how happy God has made me! For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and draped about me the robe of righteousness. I am like a bridegroom in his wedding suit or a bride with her jewels.
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 The Lord will show the nations of the world his justice; all will praise him. His righteousness shall be like a budding tree, or like a garden in early spring, full of young plants springing up everywhere.

Isaiah
62

Because I love Zion, because my heart yearns for Jerusalem, I will not cease to pray for her or to cry out to God on her behalf until she shines forth in his righteousness and is glorious in his salvation.
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 The nations shall see your righteousness. Kings shall be blinded by your glory; and God will confer on you a new name.
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 He will hold you aloft in his hands for all to see—a splendid crown for the King of kings.
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 Never again shall you be called “The God-forsaken Land” or the “Land That God Forgot.” Your new name will be “The Land of God’s Delight” and “The Bride,” for the Lord delights in you and will claim you as his own.
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 Your children will care for you, O Jerusalem, with joy like that of a young man who marries a virgin; and God will rejoice over you as a bridegroom with his bride.

    
^6-7
 O Jerusalem, I have set intercessors
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on your walls who shall cry to God all day and all night for the fulfillment of his promises. Take no rest, all you who pray, and give God no rest until he establishes Jerusalem and makes her respected and admired throughout the earth.
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 The Lord has sworn to Jerusalem with all his integrity: “I will never again give you to your enemies; never again shall foreign soldiers come and take away your grain and wine.
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 You raised it; you shall keep it, praising God. Within the Temple courts you yourselves shall drink the wine you pressed.”

    
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 Go out! Go out! Prepare the roadway for my people to return! Build the roads, pull out the boulders, raise the flag of Israel.

    
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 See, the Lord has sent his messengers to every land and said, “Tell my people, I, the Lord your God, am coming to save you and will bring you many gifts.”
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 And they shall be called “The Holy People” and “The Lord’s Redeemed,” and Jerusalem shall be called “The Land of Desire” and “The City God Has Blessed.”

Isaiah
63

Who is this who comes from Edom, from the city of Bozrah, with his magnificent garments of crimson? Who is this in royal robes, marching in the greatness of his strength?

    
“It is I, the Lord, announcing your salvation; I, the Lord, the one who is mighty to save!”

    
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 “Why are your clothes so red, as from treading out the grapes?”

    
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 “I have trodden the winepress alone. No one was there to help me. In my wrath I have trodden my enemies like grapes. In my fury I trampled my foes. It is their blood you see upon my clothes.
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 For the time has come for me to avenge my people, to redeem them from the hands of their oppressors.
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 I looked but no one came to help them; I was amazed and appalled. So I executed vengeance alone; unaided, I meted out judgment.
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 I crushed the heathen nations in my anger and made them stagger and fall to the ground.”

    
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 I will tell of the loving-kindnesses of God. I will praise him for all he has done; I will rejoice in his great goodness to Israel, which he has granted in accordance with his mercy and love.
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 He said, “They are my very own; surely they will not be false again.” And he became their Savior.
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 In all their affliction he was afflicted, and he personally saved them.
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In his love and pity he redeemed them and lifted them up and carried them through all the years.

    
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 But they rebelled against him and grieved his Holy Spirit. That is why he became their enemy and personally fought against them.
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 Then they remembered those days of old when Moses, God’s servant, led his people out of Egypt, and they cried out, “Where is the One who brought Israel through the sea, with Moses as their shepherd? Where is the God who sent his Holy Spirit to be among his people?
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 Where is he whose mighty power divided the sea before them when Moses lifted up his hand, and established his reputation forever?
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 Who led them through the bottom of the sea? Like fine stallions racing through the desert, they never stumbled.
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 Like cattle grazing in the valleys, so the Spirit of the Lord gave them rest. Thus he gave himself a magnificent reputation.”

    
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 O Lord, look down from heaven and see us from your holy, glorious home; where is the love for us you used to show—your power, your mercy, and your compassion? Where are they now?
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 Surely you are still our Father! Even if Abraham and Jacob would disown us, still you would be our Father, our Redeemer from ages past.
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 O Lord, why have you hardened our hearts and made us sin and turn against you? Return and help us, for we who belong to you need you so.
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 How briefly we possessed Jerusalem! And now our enemies have destroyed her.
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 O God, why do you treat us as though we weren’t your people, as though we were a heathen nation that never called you “Lord”?

Isaiah
64

Oh, that you would burst forth from the skies and come down! How the mountains would quake in your presence!
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 The consuming fire of your glory would burn down the forests and boil the oceans dry. The nations would tremble before you; then your enemies would learn the reason for your fame!
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 So it was before when you came down, for you did awesome things beyond our highest expectations, and how the mountains quaked!
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 For since the world began no one has seen or heard of such a God as ours, who works for those who wait for him!
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 You welcome those who cheerfully do good, who follow godly ways.

    
But we are not godly; we are constant sinners and have been all our lives. Therefore your wrath is heavy on us. How can such as we be saved?
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 We are all infected and impure with sin. When we put on our prized robes of righteousness, we find they are but filthy rags.
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Like autumn leaves we fade, wither, and fall. And our sins, like the wind, sweep us away.
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 Yet no one calls upon your name or pleads with you for mercy. Therefore, you have turned away from us and turned us over to our sins.

    
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 And yet, O Lord, you are our Father. We are the clay and you are the Potter. We are all formed by your hand.
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 Oh, be not so angry with us, Lord, nor forever remember our sins. Oh, look and see that we are all your people.

    
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 Your holy cities are destroyed; Jerusalem is a desolate wilderness.
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 Our holy, beautiful Temple where our fathers praised you is burned down, and all the things of beauty are destroyed.
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 After all of this, must you still refuse to help us, Lord? Will you stand silent and still punish us?