Author: PGC Administrator

Read chapter in full: biblegateway.com/passage/?version=ESV&search=Isaiah+053

 
Chapter 53 (ESV)

⁴ Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.
⁵ But he was pierced for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his wounds we are healed.
⁶ All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.

⁷ He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
so he opened not his mouth.
⁸ By oppression and judgment he was taken away;
and as for his generation, who considered
that he was cut off out of the land of the living,
stricken for the transgression of my people?

 

REFLECTION:

1. Read the passage aloud slowly, knowing that this “suffering servant” passage is a prophecy about Jesus. If possible, read the whole chapter as well.
2. Read this passage. See the servant of God, so battered and disfigured he hardly seems human anymore. Live with him as he is despised and rejected by men. Watch him take up our iniquities and be pierced for our transgressions. See the blood flow as his life is crushed from him, as from a sin offering. And realize that he chose this fate, that by his wounds we might be healed.
3. Silence – Read/Listen – Meditate – Pray – Contemplate
4. Respond to God about the words that touched you most. Talk also to God about how Jesus can make you righteous.
5. Move through your day with this idea: Jesus “died without a thought for his own welfare”. If he died that way, how much more must he have lived that way? Try living that selflessly a few minutes at a time.

 

PRAYER:

Stay with God for a little longer.  Continue to converse with God and listen to what He wants to tell you.  Then write down any thought and/or prayer in your spiritual journal.

 

HYMN:

Worthy Is The Lamb – youtu.be/eMsihDoX3uM

 

Read chapter in full: biblegateway.com/passage/?version=ESV&search=Isaiah+052

 
Chapter 52 (ESV)

⁷ How beautiful upon the mountains
are the feet of him who brings good news,
who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness,
who publishes salvation,
who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.”
⁸ The voice of your watchmen—they lift up their voice;
together they sing for joy;
for eye to eye they see
the return of the Lord to Zion.
⁹ Break forth together into singing,
you waste places of Jerusalem,
for the Lord has comforted his people;
he has redeemed Jerusalem.
¹⁰ The Lord has bared his holy arm
before the eyes of all the nations,
and all the ends of the earth shall see
the salvation of our God.

¹¹ Depart, depart, go out from there;
touch no unclean thing;
go out from the midst of her; purify yourselves,
you who bear the vessels of the Lord.
¹² For you shall not go out in haste,
and you shall not go in flight,
for the Lord will go before you,
and the God of Israel will be your rear guard.

 

REFLECTION:

1. Silence – Read/Listen – Meditate – Pray – Contemplate
2. What is the word or phrase that touches you today as you read and meditate on this passage? What is your emotion as you read this word or phrase? How is that related to your current situation? What does God tell you to do?
3. This passage lively describes the joyful news of victory that Jehovah God has won over Babylon. God’s people “burst into songs of joy together,… for the Lord has comforted His people, He has redeemed Jerusalem”(v9).
4. When have you tasted real joy and peace in witnessing? How could you experience more of the “good tiding” of the gospel this week? Pray and ask God to bring a few faces of friends or family members that don’t believe in Jesus and that you can begin praying for them daily.

 

PRAYER:

Stay with God for a little longer.  Continue to converse with God and listen to what He wants to tell you.  Then write down any thought and/or prayer in your spiritual journal.

 

HYMN:

Let Your Glory Fall – youtu.be/UnnHSxW3N0w

 

Read chapter in full: biblegateway.com/passage/?version=ESV&search=Isaiah+051

 
Chapter 51 (ESV)

⁴ “Give attention to me, my people,
and give ear to me, my nation;
for a law will go out from me,
and I will set my justice for a light to the peoples.
⁵ My righteousness draws near,
my salvation has gone out,
and my arms will judge the peoples;
the coastlands hope for me,
and for my arm they wait.
⁶ Lift up your eyes to the heavens,
and look at the earth beneath;
for the heavens vanish like smoke,
the earth will wear out like a garment,
and they who dwell in it will die in like manner;
but my salvation will be forever,
and my righteousness will never be dismayed.

⁷ “Listen to me, you who know righteousness,
the people in whose heart is my law;
fear not the reproach of man,
nor be dismayed at their revilings.
⁸ For the moth will eat them up like a garment,
and the worm will eat them like wool,
but my righteousness will be forever,
and my salvation to all generations.”

⁹ Awake, awake, put on strength,
O arm of the Lord;
awake, as in days of old,
the generations of long ago.
Was it not you who cut Rahab in pieces,
who pierced the dragon?
¹⁰ Was it not you who dried up the sea,
the waters of the great deep,
who made the depths of the sea a way
for the redeemed to pass over?
¹¹ And the ransomed of the Lord shall return
and come to Zion with singing;
everlasting joy shall be upon their heads;
they shall obtain gladness and joy,
and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

 

REFLECTION:

1. Silence – Read/Listen – Meditate – Pray – Contemplate
2. What is the word or phrase that touches you today as you read and meditate on this passage? What is your emotion as you read this word or phrase? How is that related to your current situation? What does God tell you to do?
3. If you were an exile, what would it mean to you to realize that God’s promises are more enduring than the stars or the earth around you (v6)? How might meditating upon the lesson of the stars, creation of God, give you a new perspective on the problems that you face today?
4. Speak to God about your new perspective as well as your problems.

 

PRAYER:

Stay with God for a little longer.  Continue to converse with God and listen to what He wants to tell you.  Then write down any thought and/or prayer in your spiritual journal.

 

HYMN:

You Are Faithful – youtu.be/eQ51OC1oYpQ

 

Read chapter in full: biblegateway.com/passage/?version=ESV&search=Isaiah+050

 
Chapter 50 (ESV)

⁴ The Lord God has given me
the tongue of those who are taught,
that I may know how to sustain with a word
him who is weary.
Morning by morning he awakens;
he awakens my ear
to hear as those who are taught.
⁵ The Lord God has opened my ear,
and I was not rebellious;
I turned not backward.
⁶ I gave my back to those who strike,
and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard;
I hid not my face
from disgrace and spitting.

⁷ But the Lord God helps me;
therefore I have not been disgraced;
therefore I have set my face like a flint,
and I know that I shall not be put to shame.
⁸ He who vindicates me is near.
Who will contend with me?
Let us stand up together.
Who is my adversary?
Let him come near to me.
⁹ Behold, the Lord God helps me;
who will declare me guilty?
Behold, all of them will wear out like a garment;
the moth will eat them up.

 

REFLECTION:

1. This is another song concerning the servant who is summoned, empowered, and helped by God to do His work in the world.
2. Silence – Read/Listen – Meditate – Pray – Contemplate
3. What is the word or phrase that touches you today as you read and meditate on this passage? What is your emotion as you read this word or phrase?
4. What would it mean for you to start your day by listening to God? How would you do so? How has this pointed to your attitude of love and obedience to God?

 

PRAYER:

Stay with God for a little longer.  Continue to converse with God and listen to what He wants to tell you.  Then write down any thought and/or prayer in your spiritual journal.

 

HYMN:

God With Us – youtu.be/udJjT-LMnIs