Week 32 - beginning of Isaiah - Boxset Binge the Bible

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Bern Leckie and Owen Lynch share thoughts and feelings about the first 27 chapters of the book of Isaiah.

Can we imagine the horror and trauma of national exile? How would we feel and what would we do to try and feel better about ourselves and our future if it happened to us?

From a distance, we could look at Isaiah’s words of God’s judgement and correction to Israel as a history lesson we can easily grasp, but if that’s all we do, could we miss the point? And could we put ourselves in danger of repeating their mistakes?

According to Isaiah, God’s main desire was for social justice, and religious rules and practices were becoming part of the problem, not the solution. When we think and pray about how the world could or should be better, do we share God’s values as revealed here?

The vision God gave Isaiah for the better future he would bring about was promised to be surprising and new. Could listening and letting it reshape our vision also surprise us today, even if we’ve heard it before?

In next part of our boxset, we continue with Isaiah’s developing message as a new way of life is promised to emerge where life looked impossible chapters 28 to 49. Listen along at your own pace at severnvineyard.org/bible.