The Book of Isaiah

Today I read Isaiah 61-66. Isaiah has always been one of my favorite books. I can't really describe why that is, but whenever I get the urge to just flip open the Word and read something quick, I always go to Isaiah. Isaiah seems to have it all; hardships, triumphs, truths. It is a prophetic book as well, so it is also fun to search through the New Testament and look for where parts of Isaiah are repeated and have come true. For instance in Isaiah 65:17, it says "Behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind." If you look in Revelation chapter 21, verse 1, John is describing what he saw, what was revealed to him and it says, "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away...."


So today, I read Isaiah 61-66. I encourage you to read all of the chapters, but here are some verses and passages from those chapters.

"The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is one me,
 because the Lord has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners..."
-- Isaiah 61:1
 
"I delight greatly in the Lord;
my soul rejoices in my God.
For He has clothed me with garments
of salvation
and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness,
as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest,
and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels."
-- Isaiah 61:10

"For Zion's sake I will not keep silent,
for Jerusalem's sake I will not
remain quiet,
till her righteousness shines out like the dawn,
her salvation like a blazing torch.
The nations will see your righteousness,
and all the kings your glory;
you will be called by a new name
that the mouth of the Lord will bestow.
You will be a crown of splendor in the Lord's hand,
a royal diadem in the hand of your God."
-- Isaiah 62:1-3

"Why, O Lord, do you make us wander
from your ways
and harden our hearts so we do not
revere you?
Return for the sake of your servants,
the tribes that are your inheritance.
For a little while your people possessed
your holy place,
but now our enemies have trampled
down your sanctuary.
We are yours from of old;
but you have not ruled over them,
they have not been called by your name."
-- Isaiah 63:17-19

"Oh, that you would rend the
heavens and come down,
that the mountains would tremble
before you!"
-- Isaiah 64:1

"Yet, O Lord, you are our Father.
We are the clay, you are the potter;
we are all the work of your hand.
Do not be angry beyond measure,
O Lord;
do not remember our sins forever.
Oh, look upon us, we pray,
for we are all your people."
-- Isaiah 64:8-9

"Behold, I will create
new heaves and a new earth.
The former things will not be remembered,
nor will they come to mind.
But be glad and rejoice forever
in what I will create,
for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight
and its people a joy.
I will rejoice over Jerusalem
and take delight in my people;
the sound of weeping and of crying
will be heard in it no more.

Never again will there be in it
an infant who lives but a few days,
or an old man who does not live out
his years;
he who dies at a hundred
will be thought a mere youth;
he who fails to reach a hundred
will be considered accursed.
They will build houses and dwell in them;
they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
No longer will they build houses and
others live in them,
or plant and others eat.
For as the days of a tree,
so will be the days of my people;
my chosen ones will long enjoy
the works of their hands.
They will not toil in vain
or bear children doomed to misfortune;
for they will be a people blessed by the Lord,
they and their descendants with them.
Before they call I will answer;
while they are still speaking I will hear.
The wolf and the lamb will feed together,
and the lion will eat straw like the ox,
but dust will be the serpent's food.
They will neither harm nor destroy
on all my holy mountain, says the Lord."
-- Isaiah 65:17-25

"This is the one I esteem:
he who is humble and contrite in spirit,
and trembles at my word."
-- Isaiah 66:2

"I will extend peace to her like a river,
and the wealth of nations like a
flooding stream..."
-- Isaiah 66:12

"'As the new heavens and the new earth
that I make will endure before me,'declares
the Lord, 'so will your name and descendants
endure. From one New Moon to another
and from one Sabbath to another, all
mankind will come and bow down before
me,' says the Lord."
-- Isaiah 66:22-23