Day 212 (Isaiah 59-63) - Year 4
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Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble and I'm your host for The Bible Recap. Most of what we've read in Isaiah has been God speaking or Isaiah speaking. But today we enter a section that seems like it's the response of the people, a confession recorded by Isaiah. Or maybe he's speaking on their behalf. Or maybe it's a mingling of both. They confess their sins to God and acknowledge that they felt the consequences of those sins.

Our sin has a way of making us feel distant from God. And to make matters worse, ultimately Israel knows they can't fix what's broken in themselves, and it devastates them. Have you ever felt this way? Do you ever wonder when you'll live up to your idealized version of yourself? The you that never gets angry in traffic, or yells at your kids, or says a mean word to your spouse, or struggles with addiction? Israel can relate.

Verses 12-13 say, But then verse 16 flips the script. God shows up and the verse says, In other words, God did for Israel what Israel couldn't do for themselves.

God himself, God the Son, fulfilled what he required but no one could live up to. This section at the end of chapter 59 can be kind of confusing in English, but the Hebrew I'm hacking my way through makes it a bit clearer. It appears to be a passage where God the Father is speaking to God the Son about God the Spirit and about the whole family of God.

I'll read the verse to you, but first I should mention that the reason a lot of commentators think this is because when God speaks to Israel, he uses the plural word for you, the you guys or y'all or all y'all of Hebrew. But here, he's using the singular form of the word you. Let me read it to you.

My spirit that is upon you and my words that I have put in your mouth shall not depart out of your mouth or out of the mouth of your offspring or out of the mouth of your children's offspring, says the Lord, from this time forth and forevermore.

And just to clarify, this isn't saying Jesus had literal offspring. This is a promise about everyone who comes into the family of God through his sacrifice, which is the only way to get into the family of God. So don't be thrown off by the reference to God the Son having offspring. It's kind of like how you might have spiritual children who aren't your biological children. God is promising here that he will continue what he has started. Israel's sin and rebellion haven't put a crimp in his plan.

And if you needed an encouraging pick-me-up in your day, chapter 60 through 62 probably put a little pep in your step. Chapter 60 is all about the future glory of Israel, when people from all nations will come to bless Zion and bless the Lord. This definitely points to a future fulfillment, but there are aspects of it that could also have the double meaning that simultaneously points to the Messiah as well.

For instance, chapter 60 verse 1 says, Your light has come, which is definitely a reference to Jesus. And then verse 3 says, Nations shall come to your light and kings to the brightness of your rising. Yes, that has future implications, but it also reminds me of the wise men who took a two-year road trip from distant lands to come see toddler Jesus and bring him presents, all because they saw a star rising in the east.

I realize I may have just ruined your nativity by spilling the beans that the wise men weren't there when Jesus was born. It took them a while. And there might not have been three of them. Who knows? Three gifts, maybe 40 wise men. Okay, back to Isaiah. The rest of the chapter paints Israel as a haven of peace and rest. God has granted them a beauty and majesty they didn't possess on their own as a part of his redemption plan.

And then God promises to improve on everything they'd hoped for. Gold instead of bronze, silver instead of iron. And most of all, the presence of God himself will be the light for the nation. He's done this before as the pillar of fire and pillar of cloud. But this time it will be so bright that we won't need the sun and moon anymore. And God says he'll do all this in its perfect time. It won't happen a moment too soon or too late. Chapter 61 is pretty special.

It's a prophecy of the Messiah, and it's the chapter Jesus reads from Scripture one day when he walks into the synagogue in his childhood hometown of Nazareth, unrolls a scroll, and starts teaching. He tells them that he is the fulfillment of this chapter. He's the one who will set the captives free and bind up the brokenhearted. You can read all about it in Luke 4, 18-30. The people marveled that their local guy could probably be the Messiah. They're like, hey, his parents are my neighbors. How cool is that?

They're all for it until he starts telling them that this good news isn't just for them. It's for the people they consider their enemies as well, the Syrians and the Sidonians. And then they hate him for it and actually try to kill him on the spot by throwing him off a cliff. People love to hear how God wants to bless them. But it's more challenging to hear that God might also want to bless the people we hate or the people who have hurt us. My God shot caught my eye in the themes from chapters 61 through 63.

Chapters 61 and 62 represent the year of the Lord's favor, but chapter 63 tells us all about the day of the Lord's wrath. We've talked about a lot of God's attributes in the past 212 days, and occasionally we've had the chance to see how some of them that seem contradictory actually fit together. But here we see things unpacked in a way that helps us measure them a bit more. Here's what I mean. Isaiah's specific terminology points out how God's goodness far outweighs his wrath.

Compare the day of his wrath to the year of his favor and redemption from 63.4. That's 365 times more favor than wrath. This reminds me of a verse we've encountered a lot of times this year. Exodus 34, 6-7.

In that passage, God is telling Moses his name by describing himself, and he says he keeps love for a thousand generations and only punishes to the third or fourth generation. So, by the math of these two sections of scripture, it looks like God is trying to show us that he's approximately 300 times more loving toward his people. To be fair, these may all just be generalities. It may not fit on a scale quite like that.

But I do think God is trying to communicate something to us here about who He is. I think He wants to point out that He's actually a benevolent God. Yes, sin has to be punished. He's here for it. But He's also winsome and desirable. He's worth loving and worshiping, and He's actually kind of awesome to be around. He's not a drag, and He's not looking to smite everyone who has a mean thought. He's already made a way to bridge that gap so we can just enjoy being in His presence.

After all, he's where the joy is. Did you know we have a printable version of our whole reading plan? Many of you use our plan on the Bible app, and a few of you use our daily posts on Instagram stories to keep up. But you can have your very own printout, or even just download the PDF if you don't have a printer. That way, if Instagram ever gets glitchy, you'll still know what chapters to read next.

Just go to thebiblerecap.com forward slash start and look for the printable plan in step two. The Bible Recap is brought to you by DGroup, discipleship and Bible study groups that meet in homes and churches around the world each week.