What’s all the excitement about? Tone it down! Mountains and heavens shouting? Earth rejoicing? It’s enough to wonder just what on earth is going on! There’s some good news for the afflicted! Isaiah 49:13
[00:00:00] Welcome back to Daily Bible Verses with a Twist where I take a singular Bible verse that I found in a box of daily promises and I put it into context. Who was being spoken to? Who was speaking? Were there any conditions attached, it was a promise? And what was the declaration all about? So, today we’re going to start with Isaiah 49:13, read from the New International Version which is the version that this box of promises uses. “The Lord comforts his people and will have compassion on his afflicted ones.”
Now I’m going to read from the New American Standard Bible, the one that I’m using for this particular series and so we are to go to Verse 13, Chapter 49 Isaiah. “Shout for joy, oh heavens and rejoice oh Earth! Break forth into joyful shouting, oh mountains! For the Lord has comforted his people and will have compassion on his afflicted.
Why are the heavens shouting? Why is the earth rejoicing? And why are the mountains shouting? “For the Lord has comforted his people and will have compassion on his afflicted.” Now just who are the afflicted?
I decided to go up like I’ve been doing. Starting at verse nine in Chapter 49 and I’ll read through to about the end of verse ten. Here are who the afflicted are. “Say to those who are bound go forth. To those who are in darkness, show yourself. Along the roads, they shall feed and their pasture will be on bare heights. They will not hunger or thirst neither will the scorching heat or sun strike them down. For he who has compassion on them will lead them.”
Those who are afflicted in this particular passage are those who are bound and those who are in darkness. So, if you are bound, if you are oppressed, if you are persecuted, if you feel that you are silenced in sharing your heart and sharing your faith with others, Have faith. God has compassion for you and He is comforting you.
If you are in the darkness God is saying, “Show yourself.” If you would rather stay in the shadows because it’s safer in the shadows, people aren’t going to bug you in the shadows. Come forward, come in to the light. Because neither the scorching heat or the sun is going to strike you down. You’re going to find food up in the higher places where you think nothing could possibly grow. There is food up there for you, so don’t be afraid to climb up.
“For he who has compassion on them will lead them and will guide them to springs of water.”
That’s why the heavens are shouting, that’s why the Earth is rejoicing, and that’s why the mountains are breaking into joyful shouts. Because they know that God is on the move.
©2024 Katherine Walden
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