Isaiah

Yesterday I finished reading through Isaiah (well, I had originally started with chapter 37 so really I read just under the last half of the book.) This morning I reread 37-66. So good! A couple of things I noticed as I read through such a huge chunk like that: 1) God is all about the Israelites telling other nations about Him. He loves Israel and they are His chosen people but it's all for the point of them being a light to other peoples. It is so obvious that that's what He's talking about. 2) God does choose! He speaks of the Israelites as His possession all over the place. Even that He overwhelms them with grace despite their bad behavior but because they are His. And at first I thought how mean of God to only choose some... but then you remember back to note #1 and realize that it's just His perfect plan. So cool. So beautiful.

A few of my favs:

"And I will lead the blind in a way that they do not know, in paths that they have not known I will guide them. I will turn the darkness before them into light, the rough places into level ground. These are the things I do, and I do not forsake them." (42:16 - emphasis added)

"...You are precious in my eyes, and honored, and I love you..." (43:4a)

"In the Lord all the offspring of Israel shall be justified and shall glory." (45:25)

"Listen to me, O house of Jacob, all the remnant of the house of Israel, who have been borne by me from before your birth, carried from the womb; even to your old age I am he, and to gray hairs I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save." (46:3-4 - emphasis added)

"And he said to me, 'You are my servant, Israel in whom I will be glorified.'" (49:3 - footnote says, "I will display my beauty." - emphasis added)

"I have seen his ways, but I will heal him..." (57:18a)

"Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you. And nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising. ...Then you shall see and be radiant; your heart shall thrill and exult..." (60:1-3, 5a - emphasis added - 5a footnote, "Your heart shall tremble and grow wide.")

"...and you shall be called Sought Out." (62:12c)

"In all their affliction he was afflicted..." (63:9a)

"For thus says the Lord: 'Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream; and you shall nurse, you shall be carried upon her hip, and bounced upon her knees. As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you; you shall be comforted in Jerusalem. You shall see, and your heart shall rejoice...'" (66:12-14a - emphasis added)

"For I know their works and their thoughts, and the time is coming to gather all nations and tongues. And they shall come and shall see my glory, and I will set a sign among them. And from them I will send survivors to the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, who draw the bow, to Tubal and Javan, to the coastlands afar off, that have not heard my fame or seen my glory. And they shall declare my glory among the nations. And they shall bring all your brothers from all the nations as an offering to the Lord, on horses and in chariots and in litters and on mules and on dromedaries, to my holy mountain Jerusalem, says the Lord, just as the Israelites bring their grain offering in a clean vessel to the house of the Lord. And some of them also I will take for priests and for Levites, says the Lord. ...all flesh shall come to worship before me, declares the Lord." (66:18-21, 23b - emphasis added)