Category: “Listening to God” Devotional

Read chapter in full: biblegateway.com/passage/?version=ESV&search=Isaiah+023

 
Chapter 23 (ESV)

¹ The oracle concerning Tyre.

Wail, O ships of Tarshish,
for Tyre is laid waste, without house or harbor!
From the land of Cyprus
it is revealed to them.
² Be still, O inhabitants of the coast;
the merchants of Sidon, who cross the sea, have filled you.
³ And on many waters
your revenue was the grain of Shihor,
the harvest of the Nile;
you were the merchant of the nations.
⁴ Be ashamed, O Sidon, for the sea has spoken,
the stronghold of the sea, saying:
“I have neither labored nor given birth,
I have neither reared young men
nor brought up young women.”
⁵ When the report comes to Egypt,
they will be in anguish over the report about Tyre.
⁶ Cross over to Tarshish;
wail, O inhabitants of the coast!
⁷ Is this your exultant city
whose origin is from days of old,
whose feet carried her
to settle far away?
⁸ Who has purposed this
against Tyre, the bestower of crowns,
whose merchants were princes,
whose traders were the honored of the earth?
⁹ The Lord of hosts has purposed it,
to defile the pompous pride of all glory,
to dishonor all the honored of the earth.

 

REFLECTION:

1. Chapters 13-23 reflect upon the foolishness of Judah depending upon alliances with the other nations rather than upon God to protect her from Assyria.
2. Can you discern, from the past ten or so chapters of Scripture you’ve read, how Judas’s example reflects what your own life is ultimately loyal to? What are you using to fill the void that only God can truly satisfy?

 

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:

Spirit Of God – www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrUEWIov7uU

 

Read chapter in full: biblegateway.com/passage/?version=ESV&search=Isaiah+022

 
Chapter 22 (ESV)

⁸ He has taken away the covering of Judah.

In that day you looked to the weapons of the House of the Forest, ⁹ and you saw that the breaches of the city of David were many. You collected the waters of the lower pool, ¹⁰ and you counted the houses of Jerusalem, and you broke down the houses to fortify the wall. ¹¹ You made a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the old pool. But you did not look to him who did it, or see him who planned it long ago.

¹² In that day the Lord God of hosts
called for weeping and mourning,
for baldness and wearing sackcloth;
¹³ and behold, joy and gladness,
killing oxen and slaughtering sheep,
eating flesh and drinking wine.
“Let us eat and drink,
for tomorrow we die.”

 

REFLECTION:

1. Judah may have prepared its military defenses shortly before the Assyrian invasion after hearing the prophet’s warning (vv. 8b–11), but the people only made military preparations without placing their faith in God. Moreover, they adopted a ‘let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die’ attitude (vv. 12–13), and thus would inevitably bring upon themselves even greater punishment from God.
2. Isaiah was saddened by the frivolity of the people in Jerusalem. The people acted as if they did not need to repent and live according to God’s laws.
3. Sometimes we feel sad when we see people doing things they should not. What should our response be?  What does God want us to do?
4. Was there a time when you felt like crying even though everyone around you was partying? What was it and how did you respond?

 

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:

Find Us Faithful – youtu.be/MKT5BCmvmq0

 

Read chapter in full: biblegateway.com/passage/?version=ESV&search=Isaiah+021

 
Chapter 21 (ESV)

¹ The oracle concerning the wilderness of the sea.

As whirlwinds in the Negeb sweep on,
it comes from the wilderness,
from a terrible land.
² A stern vision is told to me;
the traitor betrays,
and the destroyer destroys.
Go up, O Elam;
lay siege, O Media;
all the sighing she has caused
I bring to an end.
³ Therefore my loins are filled with anguish;
pangs have seized me,
like the pangs of a woman in labor;
I am bowed down so that I cannot hear;
I am dismayed so that I cannot see.
⁴ My heart staggers; horror has appalled me;
the twilight I longed for
has been turned for me into trembling.
⁵ They prepare the table,
they spread the rugs,
they eat, they drink.
Arise, O princes;
oil the shield!
⁶ For thus the Lord said to me:
“Go, set a watchman;
let him announce what he sees.
⁷ When he sees riders, horsemen in pairs,
riders on donkeys, riders on camels,
let him listen diligently,
very diligently.”
⁸ Then he who saw cried out:
“Upon a watchtower I stand, O Lord,
continually by day,
and at my post I am stationed
whole nights.
⁹ And behold, here come riders,
horsemen in pairs!”
And he answered,
“Fallen, fallen is Babylon;
and all the carved images of her gods
he has shattered to the ground.”
¹⁰ O my threshed and winnowed one,
what I have heard from the Lord of hosts,
the God of Israel, I announce to you.

 

REFLECTION:

1. This is a message of the destruction of Babylon. Prophet Isaiah saw the devastation of Babylon in a vision and was gripped with grief and pang.  Meanwhile, the Babylonians wined and dined, the destruction came upon them unexpectedly.   “My people who are crushed on the threshing floor”, this was referred to the Judeans who though having been under oppression from many fronts, still tried to plot schemes in allying with Babylon against Assyrians.  In fact, Babylon was doomed as well.
2. What is your “Babylon” – the arrangement to shelter you from the uncertainties of life? If you know that all your planning, and arrangements are temporal security that will be swept away, how do you feel?  What can you do to fill the insecurity that only God can fulfill?

 

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:

I will Trust My Saviour Jesus – youtu.be/E5S4OPzdM-g

 

Read chapter in full: biblegateway.com/passage/?version=ESV&search=Isaiah+020

 
Chapter 20 (ESV)

¹ In the year that the commander in chief, who was sent by Sargon the king of Assyria, came to Ashdod and fought against it and captured it— ² at that time the Lord spoke by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, “Go, and loose the sackcloth from your waist and take off your sandals from your feet,” and he did so, walking naked and barefoot.

³ Then the Lord said, “As my servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot for three years as a sign and a portent against Egypt and Cush, ⁴ so shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptian captives and the Cushite exiles, both the young and the old, naked and barefoot, with buttocks uncovered, the nakedness of Egypt. ⁵ Then they shall be dismayed and ashamed because of Cush their hope and of Egypt their boast. ⁶ And the inhabitants of this coastland will say in that day, ‘Behold, this is what has happened to those in whom we hoped and to whom we fled for help to be delivered from the king of Assyria! And we, how shall we escape?’”

 
REFLECTION:

1. Isaiah must have felt something of a fool in the eighth century BC, when he was told by God to wander the streets of Jerusalem stripped (to a loincloth) and barefoot for some three years. This relative of the royal family exposed himself to shame at God’s command, to serve as an object lesson.  Soon the sovereign God would execute judgment against Egypt and Cush (Ethiopia), and their people would suffer Isaiah’s fate.
2. God is unlikely to ask you or me to walk about in diapers or drag a cross. But there will be times when we feel a little embarrassed or foolish at the thought of doing something we feel convicted is God’s will.
3. At such times, what will be your response? Will you treasure your reputation, your image and acceptance of others more than pleasing God and following God’s will?

 

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:

Yet Not I But Through Christ In Me – youtu.be/zundjUFazfg

 

Read chapter in full: biblegateway.com/passage/?version=ESV&search=Isaiah+019

 
Chapter 19 (ESV)

¹⁶ In that day the Egyptians will be like women, and tremble with fear before the hand that the Lord of hosts shakes over them. ¹⁷ And the land of Judah will become a terror to the Egyptians. Everyone to whom it is mentioned will fear because of the purpose that the Lord of hosts has purposed against them.

¹⁸ In that day there will be five cities in the land of Egypt that speak the language of Canaan and swear allegiance to the Lord of hosts. One of these will be called the City of Destruction.

¹⁹ In that day there will be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to the Lord at its border. ²⁰ It will be a sign and a witness to the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt. When they cry to the Lord because of oppressors, he will send them a savior and defender, and deliver them. ²¹ And the Lord will make himself known to the Egyptians, and the Egyptians will know the Lord in that day and worship with sacrifice and offering, and they will make vows to the Lord and perform them. ²² And the Lord will strike Egypt, striking and healing, and they will return to the Lord, and he will listen to their pleas for mercy and heal them.

²³ In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and Assyria will come into Egypt, and Egypt into Assyria, and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians.

²⁴ In that day Israel will be the third with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, ²⁵ whom the Lord of hosts has blessed, saying, “Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel my inheritance.”

 

REFLECTION:

1. This passage includes the remarkable image of the Egyptians and Assyrians, bitter enemies of Israel, worshiping together. And each was referred to as “my people”, “my handwork”, and “my inheritance”.  This shows the vision of the Old Testament reaching well beyond ethnic parochialism to the world of the Gentiles who are also cared for by God.
2. It’s difficult to hate someone whom you pray with and for. In Chinese culture, we have an often derogatory way of thinking about and speaking of other ethnicities. They are also God’s creation and His beloved children. We need to begin by asking God for forgiveness and turning away from our sin. You may also consider attending a worship service of another denomination or tradition, one that seems very foreign to you. See what you learn about what you share and where you differ.

 

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 Of All Nations – youtu.be/PjAhC6EGMFE

 

Read chapter in full: biblegateway.com/passage/?version=ESV&search=Isaiah+018

 
Chapter 18 (ESV)

¹ Ah, land of whirring wings
that is beyond the rivers of Cush,
² which sends ambassadors by the sea,
in vessels of papyrus on the waters!
Go, you swift messengers,
to a nation tall and smooth,
to a people feared near and far,
a nation mighty and conquering,
whose land the rivers divide.

³ All you inhabitants of the world,
you who dwell on the earth,
when a signal is raised on the mountains, look!
When a trumpet is blown, hear!
⁴ For thus the Lord said to me:
“I will quietly look from my dwelling
like clear heat in sunshine,
like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.”
⁵ For before the harvest, when the blossom is over,
and the flower becomes a ripening grape,
he cuts off the shoots with pruning hooks,
and the spreading branches he lops off and clears away.
⁶ They shall all of them be left
to the birds of prey of the mountains
and to the beasts of the earth.
And the birds of prey will summer on them,
and all the beasts of the earth will winter on them.

⁷ At that time tribute will be brought to the Lord of hosts

from a people tall and smooth,
from a people feared near and far,
a nation mighty and conquering,
whose land the rivers divide,

to Mount Zion, the place of the name of the Lord of hosts.

 

REFLECTION:

1. During 715 BC, envoys of Cush (Ethiopia) tried to persuade Jerusalem to align with them against Assyria. Isaiah fiercely opposed it and proclaimed to the messengers that God is in control of history.  When time comes, God will intervene directly and cause Assyrian to crumble so that Cush will know God.
2. Sometimes we are eager to do something on our own, regardless of what others think or feel. We may not even consider how our actions would appear to God.  God sees and knows us.  He is aware of our actions, but he remains quiet and still.  Why do you think God allows us to pursue our plans?

 

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:

In Control – youtu.be/YVS6hTRgOOI

 

Read chapter in full: biblegateway.com/passage/?version=ESV&search=Isaiah+017

 

Chapter 17 (ESV)

⁴ And in that day the glory of Jacob will be brought low,
and the fat of his flesh will grow lean.
⁵ And it shall be as when the reaper gathers standing grain
and his arm harvests the ears,
and as when one gleans the ears of grain
in the Valley of Rephaim.
⁶ Gleanings will be left in it,
as when an olive tree is beaten—
two or three berries
in the top of the highest bough,
four or five
on the branches of a fruit tree,
declares the Lord God of Israel.

⁷ In that day man will look to his Maker, and his eyes will look on the Holy One of Israel. ⁸ He will not look to the altars, the work of his hands, and he will not look on what his own fingers have made, either the Asherim or the altars of incense.

⁹ In that day their strong cities will be like the deserted places of the wooded heights and the hilltops, which they deserted because of the children of Israel, and there will be desolation.

¹⁰ For you have forgotten the God of your salvation
and have not remembered the Rock of your refuge;
therefore, though you plant pleasant plants
and sow the vine-branch of a stranger,
¹¹ though you make them grow on the day that you plant them,
and make them blossom in the morning that you sow,
yet the harvest will flee away
in a day of grief and incurable pain.

 

REFLECTION:

1. The coalition of Syria and Israel, formed to resist Assyria, was doomed to fail. Damascus, the capital of Syria, would fall, leaving Israel exposed to the brutal invader.  Stripped of national pride and glory, destitute, and starving, “Men will look to their Maker and turn their eyes to the Holy One of Israel” (v.7).
2. What we are likely to see as a disaster can often be used by God for some greater good. Is this your experience?  Recall the incident and how God brought the great good out of your disaster.

 

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:

Blessings – youtu.be/Cd6J6Wgnv4M

 

Read chapter in full: biblegateway.com/passage/?version=ESV&search=Isaiah+016

 

Chapter 16 (ESV)

¹ Send the lamb to the ruler of the land,
from Sela, by way of the desert,
to the mount of the daughter of Zion.
² Like fleeing birds,
like a scattered nest,
so are the daughters of Moab
at the fords of the Arnon.

³ “Give counsel;
grant justice;
make your shade like night
at the height of noon;
shelter the outcasts;
do not reveal the fugitive;
⁴ let the outcasts of Moab
sojourn among you;
be a shelter to them
from the destroyer.
When the oppressor is no more,
and destruction has ceased,
and he who tramples underfoot has vanished from the land,
⁵ then a throne will be established in steadfast love,
and on it will sit in faithfulness
in the tent of David
one who judges and seeks justice
and is swift to do righteousness.”

 

REFLECTION:

1. Isaiah stressed that the Messiah as the only real hope for Israel. In what way is the reign of Jesus Christ the only real hope for people suffering in the world today?  How does His rule serve as a model for how believers ought to respond now towards the poor, the homeless, and the hungry?
2. Refugees from destruction and violence must often seek safety away from their homelands. Do you know of refugees in your city?  How could you help them in a new land?  How can you offer them shelter?  Can people be refugees from things other than war?  Decide what you can do as a family, as a cell group, or any other group of people, to help a refugee family.  Make plans for doing what you decide.

 

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:

Humble King – youtu.be/YV_3l6Ng5lA

 

Read chapter in full: biblegateway.com/passage/?version=ESV&search=Isaiah+015
 

Chapter 15 (ESV)

¹ An oracle concerning Moab.

Because Ar of Moab is laid waste in a night,
Moab is undone;
because Kir of Moab is laid waste in a night,
Moab is undone.
² He has gone up to the temple, and to Dibon,
to the high places to weep;
over Nebo and over Medeba
Moab wails.
On every head is baldness;
every beard is shorn;
³ in the streets they wear sackcloth;
on the housetops and in the squares
everyone wails and melts in tears.
⁴ Heshbon and Elealeh cry out;
their voice is heard as far as Jahaz;
therefore the armed men of Moab cry aloud;
his soul trembles.
⁵ My heart cries out for Moab;
her fugitives flee to Zoar,
to Eglath-shelishiyah.
For at the ascent of Luhith
they go up weeping;
on the road to Horonaim
they raise a cry of destruction;
⁶ the waters of Nimrim
are a desolation;
the grass is withered, the vegetation fails,
the greenery is no more.
⁷ Therefore the abundance they have gained
and what they have laid up
they carry away
over the Brook of the Willows.
⁸ For a cry has gone
around the land of Moab;
her wailing reaches to Eglaim;
her wailing reaches to Beer-elim.
⁹ For the waters of Dibon are full of blood;
for I will bring upon Dibon even more,
a lion for those of Moab who escape,
for the remnant of the land.

 

REFLECTION:

1. Moab is a country that has been a perpetual enemy of Israel since the days of the Exodus. Yet, all of sudden, they were faced with devastation.  All the major cities became ruin, there were weeping all over the place.  Even when they fled to foreign lands, their enemies still pursued them.
2. Think of the political chaos and war in the world. Identify one country that you have known or read about.  When you hear the oppression and suffering people of that country/area experience due to these situations, what do you feel?  How do you think God responds to such misery?
3. Pray for people in that country/area. Ask for God’s deliverance that people will live in freedom and peace; and have opportunities to hear the good news of Messiah 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:

Way Maker – youtu.be/SE_M9noEhNE

 

Read chapter in full: biblegateway.com/passage/?version=ESV&search=Isaiah+014

 
Chapter 14 (ESV)

³ When the Lord has given you rest from your pain and turmoil and the hard service with which you were made to serve, ⁴ you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon:

“How the oppressor has ceased,
the insolent fury ceased!
⁵ The Lord has broken the staff of the wicked,
the scepter of rulers,
⁶ that struck the peoples in wrath
with unceasing blows,
that ruled the nations in anger
with unrelenting persecution.
⁷ The whole earth is at rest and quiet;
they break forth into singing.
⁸ The cypresses rejoice at you,
the cedars of Lebanon, saying,
‘Since you were laid low,
no woodcutter comes up against us.’
⁹ Sheol beneath is stirred up
to meet you when you come;
it rouses the shades to greet you,
all who were leaders of the earth;
it raises from their thrones
all who were kings of the nations.
¹⁰ All of them will answer
and say to you:
‘You too have become as weak as we!
You have become like us!’
¹¹ Your pomp is brought down to Sheol,
the sound of your harps;
maggots are laid as a bed beneath you,
and worms are your covers.

¹² “How you are fallen from heaven,
O Day Star, son of Dawn!
How you are cut down to the ground,
you who laid the nations low!

 

REFLECTION:

1. This is a taunt song which celebrates the overthrow of the ruler of Babylon who personifies the pride that marked the nation as a whole.
2. The words “suffering”, “turmoil”and “the harsh labour” are used to describe the cruel oppression by the Babylonian king; and “at rest” and “at peace” describe the state of the people after the death of the tyrant.
3. Is there anybody who may think that you are a “tyrant” who always gives people hard time by causing “suffering, turmoil and harsh labor”? If you are taken from your position, will that make others feel “at rest”, “at peace”?  Why?
4. Talk with God of this revelation and ask help for you to change.

 

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:

Humble Heart – youtu.be/E6P858RiYiA