Category: “Listening to God” Devotional

Read chapter in full: biblegateway.com/passage/?version=ESV&search=Isaiah+027

 
Chapter 27 (ESV)

¹ In that day the Lord with his hard and great and strong sword will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the twisting serpent, and he will slay the dragon that is in the sea.

² In that day,
“A pleasant vineyard, sing of it!
³     I, the Lord, am its keeper;
every moment I water it.
Lest anyone punish it,
I keep it night and day;
⁴     I have no wrath.
Would that I had thorns and briers to battle!
I would march against them,
I would burn them up together.
⁵ Or let them lay hold of my protection,
let them make peace with me,
let them make peace with me.”

 

REFLECTION:

1. Read the passage slowly and with imagination. Picture everything vividly, as if you were a child reading a story with beautiful, lifelike illustrations.
2. What do you notice about the way God interacts with “Leviathan the serpent”? With “the vine”?  What is He like?  Now put yourself in the scene.  What part do you play?  How do you feel?
3. Picture God turning to you and inviting you to talk with Him about what you are feeling and thinking. Does He ever seem angry to you, or uncaring?  What’s it like for you to hear Him say otherwise?  Share with Him your thoughts and feelings and allow the conversation to unfold.

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:

Who Am I – youtu.be/3rT8Re1EIQc

 

Read chapter in full: biblegateway.com/passage/?version=ESV&search=Isaiah+026

 
Chapter 26 (ESV)

¹⁶ O Lord, in distress they sought you;
they poured out a whispered prayer
when your discipline was upon them.
¹⁷ Like a pregnant woman
who writhes and cries out in her pangs
when she is near to giving birth,
so were we because of you, O Lord;
¹⁸  we were pregnant, we writhed,
but we have given birth to wind.
We have accomplished no deliverance in the earth,
and the inhabitants of the world have not fallen.
¹⁹ Your dead shall live; their bodies shall rise.
You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy!
For your dew is a dew of light,
and the earth will give birth to the dead.

 

REFLECTION:

1. Read slowly this short passage a few times.
2. The prayer described in these verses is one of pain, the desperate prayer of last resort offered when things have gotten so bad God is the only one left to turn to.
3. Were there times in your life when you found yourself offering this prayer?
4. Reflect on the role of God in your life’s sufferings. Converse with God and listen to his response.

 

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:

When I Cry – youtu.be/m153dXFIHV4

 

Read chapter in full: biblegateway.com/passage/?version=ESV&search=Isaiah+025

 
Chapter 25 (ESV)

¹ O Lord, you are my God;
I will exalt you; I will praise your name,
for you have done wonderful things,
plans formed of old, faithful and sure.
² For you have made the city a heap,
the fortified city a ruin;
the foreigners’ palace is a city no more;
it will never be rebuilt.
³ Therefore strong peoples will glorify you;
cities of ruthless nations will fear you.
⁴ For you have been a stronghold to the poor,
a stronghold to the needy in his distress,
a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat;
for the breath of the ruthless is like a storm against a wall,
⁵  like heat in a dry place.
You subdue the noise of the foreigners;
as heat by the shade of a cloud,
so the song of the ruthless is put down.

⁶ On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples
a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine,
of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined.
⁷ And he will swallow up on this mountain
the covering that is cast over all peoples,
the veil that is spread over all nations.
⁸  He will swallow up death forever;
and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces,
and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth,
for the Lord has spoken.
⁹ It will be said on that day,
“Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us.
This is the Lord; we have waited for him;
let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”
¹⁰ For the hand of the Lord will rest on this mountain,
and Moab shall be trampled down in his place,
as straw is trampled down in a dunghill.
¹¹ And he will spread out his hands in the midst of it
as a swimmer spreads his hands out to swim,
but the Lord will lay low his pompous pride together with the skill of his hands.
¹² And the high fortifications of his walls he will bring down,
lay low, and cast to the ground, to the dust.

 

REFLECTION:

1. This simple song expresses the hope of oppressed, exploited and downtrodden people. Here we read of Israel’s joy at the downfall of God’s enemies, the end of death itself and God’s final victory.
2. Recall an experience you have had in driving rain, a snowstorm or some other tough situations in which you knew that God was present with you.
3. Pray or write your own song of praise to God for the “wonderful things” he has planned (v. 1) for your life.

 

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:

Still – youtu.be/z3wwWFsSlNQ

 

Read chapter in full: biblegateway.com/passage/?version=ESV&search=Isaiah+024

 
Chapter 24 (ESV)

⁴ The earth mourns and withers;
the world languishes and withers;
the highest people of the earth languish.
⁵ The earth lies defiled
under its inhabitants;
for they have transgressed the laws,
violated the statutes,
broken the everlasting covenant.
⁶ Therefore a curse devours the earth,
and its inhabitants suffer for their guilt;
therefore the inhabitants of the earth are scorched,
and few men are left.
⁷ The wine mourns,
the vine languishes,
all the merry-hearted sigh.
⁸ The mirth of the tambourines is stilled,
the noise of the jubilant has ceased,
the mirth of the lyre is stilled.
⁹ No more do they drink wine with singing;
strong drink is bitter to those who drink it.
¹⁰ The wasted city is broken down;
every house is shut up so that none can enter.
¹¹ There is an outcry in the streets for lack of wine;
all joy has grown dark;
the gladness of the earth is banished.
¹² Desolation is left in the city;
the gates are battered into ruins.
¹³ For thus it shall be in the midst of the earth
among the nations,
as when an olive tree is beaten,
as at the gleaning when the grape harvest is done.

 

REFLECTION:

1. Isaiah announced that the whole world will be punished. No class of people will escape, for earth’s inhabitants have “broken the everlasting covenant”.  These verses presuppose a close connection between the earth itself, the land and its inhabitants.
2. What problems or crises are we facing on the physical world today?
3. As a Christian, a child of God, what do you believe is your responsibility to the earth? Ask God to teach you about your responsibility in caring for His creation.  In your cell group, bring this up and see if you can decide on one specific way to encourage one another to do in caring for the earth.

 

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:

Steward Of His Creation – youtu.be/Os7X0N2iOHU

 

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