Isaiah 51:1-11 The Pursuit of Righteousness
Recap
Today, I want to start with a quick recap of the progress we have been making in getting a person past the stumbling block of despair, which began in Chapter 49 with Israel’s cry that the LORD had forsaken and forgotten her.
The first and greatest reason for despair, and one which the Servant Himself addressed in His own personal experience, is when a person is facing death, whether from persecution or sickness or the consequences of a sinful lifestyle. The Servant identifies deeply with those facing a dark future because He, too, faced it. He grappled with the feeling that His life had been pointless and purposeless—nothing but a vapor—and the only thing that gave Him comfort was that vision of a future. It is a bit of a twist, isn’t it, combatting despair over death with a hope for the future? But that is exactly where Christ, the Servant, cast His mind. He chose to believe that the LORD would not forsake Him through the ordeal, that there was a purpose in it even if He Himself couldn’t see it, and that there would be a reward for Him in eternity when it was over. This kind of comfort can only be had by faith—faith in the LORD’s promises and trust that He will be good to His word. Faith can be the hardest thing to ask of a despairing person because it demands that they let go of their earthly life—life which is already lost to them—and embrace a life of which they have heard but not seen.
So, there is that grand, eternal perspective around which we must wrap our mind if we are going to overcome despair, but in the meantime, we are not without some earthly comfort. Having gone through that ordeal and realized the reward, the Servant was then able to come alongside Israel who is suffering in like manner and give her wise counsel and comfort. That is what we talked about last week in Chapter 50—the intercessory comfort of one who has been there who can minister to us in the moment. That was part of the purpose for the LORD putting Him through that ordeal, so that He could identify with despairing people and be equipped as a comforter. The Servant stepped into that frustrated conversation between God and His people and spoke to Israel about how He had suffered as she had, how He had responded to His abusers, and how the LORD had upheld His just cause. If God had done that for Him, God would do that for her. At the end of Chapter 50, despairing Israel was given a choice whether or not to accept the counsel and comfort that the Servant offers. There are those who choose to push Him away and seek comfort and guidance by their own failing efforts, and they are dismissed to meet their end in torment.
Today, in Chapter 51, the Servant turns His focus to instructing and strengthening those who fearfully pursue the LORD and His righteousness but struggle with facing persecution from a furious, oppressive world. Again, the speaker in this chapter is “Me,” the Servant. Christ is speaking—pleading, really—with Israel to listen to Him. The command is repeated three times: “Listen to Me, listen to Me, listen to Me!”
Isaiah 51:1-3
With the first “listen to Me,” the Servant appeals to those who "follow” after righteousness. In other words, they run after it in order to attain it. They are looking for something, and He tells them where to look.
To what event might this be referring? It might be referring to their genesis. God took Adam from the clay and formed him. The rock and the pit both refer to places that have been hewn out of rock—wells, pits, or cisterns. When these places have lost their usefulness, they are turned into prisons or sepulchers for the dead. It might refer to being taken from other instances of imprisonment, or even from the grave. Have they been brought out of the grave yet? No, but that event is on the horizon. (The verb used here is in the perfect tense, which means it has been completed, or so assured that it is counted as complete.) We know from where we stand in history that the Servant Himself would go through that particular experience of being brought out of a hole in the rock--His resurrection after His crucifixion.
Perhaps the blessing is a return to life in a restored Eden, as mentioned in verse 3. Those who seek after righteousness are then pointed toward a second example.
Notice that this example is not focused on Israel’s genesis as a nation--her coming-out-of-Egypt experience--as it was in Chapters 40-48. The Servant is speaking to individuals about their individual faith, and the genesis of that faith was in Abraham and Sarah.
Abraham is the rock of their beginning. He was called out of an idolatrous country, and he went where the LORD sent him by faith, even though he didn't know where it would lead him in life. The LORD also promised him a blessing of children, and he believed that, too, though it seemed impossible because Sarah was barren. (Barrenness will be addressed again in future chapters, so we will keep Sarah in mind.) The LORD counted that simple act of belief on Abraham’s part as righteousness and blessed him for it. Here in Isaiah, the Servant points to Abraham and Sarah as the models of righteousness that is based on faith and faith alone. Faith is what Israel is lacking and why she is overcome by despair.
Is this promise of blessing only for Israel who is descended from Abraham by blood, or is there an application for us as well? Paul tells us that all who are of the faith of Abraham share in his blessing:
Is there comfort in that? Yes, if you have faith in that covenant. Keep in mind that this exhortation in Isaiah is being given to a people who may die in exile, and yet they are still called to live by faith and with hope, the same as their ancestors did. The writer of the book of Hebrews exhorts us in the same way with the great "by faith" passages, pointing out:
The Servant speaks specifically to Israel, but universally to all who pursue righteousness, in saying that their only hope is by faith and faith alone in the promises of God. We know that regardless of whether we are of the blood of Abraham or not, we are children of Abraham if we pursue righteousness with the faith of Abraham and trust in the promise of God that was realized in Isaac, Jacob, and finally, the Servant, Jesus Christ. (Romans 9:6-9)
The Servant then casts a vision of a future blessing that is promised for the pursuit of righteousness: a return to Eden (v3). In this heavenly future, God promises a complete reversal of conditions: the wilderness into which sin sent them will again become a garden in which there will be joy and gladness and thanksgiving. But to receive this future blessing, they must persevere in righteous according to the righteousness of Abraham. Faith is the condition around which Israel's restoration pivots.
Side note: Just as Abraham died without seeing the fulfillment of the promise in his life, so many of Israel died in exile, even those who held the faith and pursued righteousness. Sometimes, we don't escape from our crooked places in our earthly experience, either, so that is not necessarily the expectation being expressed here. We can fix our sights wrongly on getting back to life the way it had been—returning to the country we left (remember, Abraham came from a wicked and idolatrous country). As the writer of Hebrews pointed out, you can go back to the old worldly life any time you want (Hebrews 11:15), but we should have a higher pursuit in mind. God calls us to cast our expectations toward a heavenly kingdom instead of an earthly one, toward Eden and not Ur.
Isaiah 51:4-5
The second “listen to Me” is addressed to the nation. The Servant reminds them of His tasking. He is the righteous Servant-King who is coming to save His people and establish His law and justice as a light for all people. He speaks in the first person—“My justice,” “My righteousness,” “My salvation.” The law will proceed from “Me.” The coastlands will wait upon “Me,” and “on My arm they will trust.”
In the previous chapter, the Servant came alongside Israel and offered her one kind of comfort—the comfort of shared suffering. Now, He offers the comfort of anticipation—the assured hope of vindication and restoration. Prince of Peace will come and will establish of a new world order under His law that will bring peace to the world.
When we take a righteous stance, especially one for our faith, we need the assurance that there is a greater authority backing us and will stand with us when we face our contenders. In the previous chapter, the Servant looked to the LORD for His justification.
Having been justified, the Servant now justifies those who pursue His righteousness. He gives them the same assurance of justification.
Isaiah 51:6-8
The final "listen to Me" addresses to those who know righteousness and keep the Law in their hearts. Even though they have that understanding, they still fear the reproach and insults of the oppressor. The command not to fear in verse 7 is the main exhortation, but it is sandwiched between verses 6 and 8, which set up a comparison between fleeting things and enduring things. (This is the same theme with which we began in Isaiah 40:6-8.)
In both verses, the eternal element is His righteousness and salvation. It is everlasting, from generation to generation, never to be abolished. Now look at the progression of the fleeting things. In verse 6, God begins with the command “lift up your eyes” and look at the great things—the heavens and earth. How will they end? The heavens will go up in smoke. The earth will grow old like a garment. He then includes all those who dwell in the earth. They will die in like manner. In verse 8, the Servant switches to pictures of lesser things—garments and wool. These get eaten up by even littler things—moths and worms. The world and the people in it are like this garment. They get eaten up by little things and will end as useless, moth-eaten rags.
The world’s reproaches and insults seem like big things when, in fact, they are little things—at least, in God's eyes. They come from a world that is itself a little thing consumed by little things. Doesn’t this just describe us today? We live in a world consumed by little things, although, in the world's eyes, they are big things, and when we fail to exalt them as the world exalts them, we get some severe backlash. Bullying, shaming, and humiliation--these are all common experiences in our current culture, and they are used as ways of making us conform to and support the world's values. For us, as believers, it becomes an effort in maintaining perspective. Regardless of whether it is a big thing or little thing, it is a fleeting thing without eternal value and it should be treated as such.
Facing Fury in the Pursuit of Righteousness
In verses 1-8, the Servant addresses those who know what is right in God’s eyes, they pursue that righteousness, but they fall victim to the insults and reproaches of the world in which they live because the world’s idea of righteousness is very different from God's. So, the heart of the conflict really lies in the definition of righteousness.
In a broad sense, it means that something is as it ought to be in regard to being acceptable, but acceptable to whom? The first thing that must be defined is who is the approving authority—who decides what is acceptable. Who provides the wisdom, guidance, validation, and vindication: God, the world, or perhaps a certain faction within the world? (The world itself isn’t a united entity.)
Understanding righteousness as a society is vital because it defines what is right, just, or ethical in regard to human behavior, justice, and government, and it drives social norms. Thus, there needs to be a guiding rule or foundation for that righteousness. Here in Isaiah, Israel is encouraged to look to the Law (Hebrew: torah) for that guiding source. This Law will form the backbone to the coming Prince's government (51:4).
We have a certain set of laws that govern us nationally, but those can be redefined or neglected altogether depending upon the rulings of the justice system. Moral relativism tells us that the rules are what we make them—which is fine if you are the last person on earth or living by yourself on a deserted island. It is not so fine when your idea of how life ought to be clashes with an opposing idea held by your neighbor next door. And how much worse when it clashes with God’s ideals? God sees life very differently and has a very different opinion of how life ought to be.
Recent generation have seen the rise of a victim-based “righteousness." The world promotes a sense of righteousness for being part of what it considers "just" causes, and, interestingly, one of those causes is pursuing an Eden of its own making. A return to Eden is an outworking of God’s righteousness, but the world is trying to accomplish the same thing according to its own righteousness while shutting God out of the garden. That isn’t how life in Eden should be.
Pretty much the same goals, but the world goes about attaining them the wrong way. Moral relativism ensures there will never be an end to conflict. It is impossible to live at peace in a society where everyone is living by their own definition of what is right. The world may pay lip service to wanting world peace, so long as it doesn't have to let go of its own sense of righteousness and align itself with God’s values and teachings to achieve it.
God's Highway Project: Tackling Despair, Part 3
Even strong believers can still grapple with despair. Knowing this from His own experience, the Servant—that Wonderful Counselor—delivers His strategy to strengthen the righteous who are struggling to stand against an angry world and need help in maintaining perspective. Realigning His people to His perspective and His definition of righteousness is the third step in God's Highway Project, the straightening of crooked things.
The basic strategy is:
Maintaining perspective is the key. The righteous are called to discern what are truly the big things and little things in life and resist being eaten up or eroded by the little things. They are called to consider what is of eternal value versus what is fleeting. We should know what makes for true peace and pursue what is eternal, regardless of the shame and reproaches we get for doing so. There is a blessing that awaits those who persevere in the face of persecution.
The Servant-King who gives instruction to the righteous for maintaining perspective here in Isaiah also gave similar instruction to His disciples in His Sermon on the Mount. Read Matthew 5:3-12 and 6:25-34.
Next week we will finish the chapter, starting with Israel's response to the Servant's call to faith and hope.
Today, I want to start with a quick recap of the progress we have been making in getting a person past the stumbling block of despair, which began in Chapter 49 with Israel’s cry that the LORD had forsaken and forgotten her.
The first and greatest reason for despair, and one which the Servant Himself addressed in His own personal experience, is when a person is facing death, whether from persecution or sickness or the consequences of a sinful lifestyle. The Servant identifies deeply with those facing a dark future because He, too, faced it. He grappled with the feeling that His life had been pointless and purposeless—nothing but a vapor—and the only thing that gave Him comfort was that vision of a future. It is a bit of a twist, isn’t it, combatting despair over death with a hope for the future? But that is exactly where Christ, the Servant, cast His mind. He chose to believe that the LORD would not forsake Him through the ordeal, that there was a purpose in it even if He Himself couldn’t see it, and that there would be a reward for Him in eternity when it was over. This kind of comfort can only be had by faith—faith in the LORD’s promises and trust that He will be good to His word. Faith can be the hardest thing to ask of a despairing person because it demands that they let go of their earthly life—life which is already lost to them—and embrace a life of which they have heard but not seen.
So, there is that grand, eternal perspective around which we must wrap our mind if we are going to overcome despair, but in the meantime, we are not without some earthly comfort. Having gone through that ordeal and realized the reward, the Servant was then able to come alongside Israel who is suffering in like manner and give her wise counsel and comfort. That is what we talked about last week in Chapter 50—the intercessory comfort of one who has been there who can minister to us in the moment. That was part of the purpose for the LORD putting Him through that ordeal, so that He could identify with despairing people and be equipped as a comforter. The Servant stepped into that frustrated conversation between God and His people and spoke to Israel about how He had suffered as she had, how He had responded to His abusers, and how the LORD had upheld His just cause. If God had done that for Him, God would do that for her. At the end of Chapter 50, despairing Israel was given a choice whether or not to accept the counsel and comfort that the Servant offers. There are those who choose to push Him away and seek comfort and guidance by their own failing efforts, and they are dismissed to meet their end in torment.
Today, in Chapter 51, the Servant turns His focus to instructing and strengthening those who fearfully pursue the LORD and His righteousness but struggle with facing persecution from a furious, oppressive world. Again, the speaker in this chapter is “Me,” the Servant. Christ is speaking—pleading, really—with Israel to listen to Him. The command is repeated three times: “Listen to Me, listen to Me, listen to Me!”
Isaiah 51:1-3
With the first “listen to Me,” the Servant appeals to those who "follow” after righteousness. In other words, they run after it in order to attain it. They are looking for something, and He tells them where to look.
“Look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the hole of the pit from which you were dug” (Isaiah 51:1 NKJV).
To what event might this be referring? It might be referring to their genesis. God took Adam from the clay and formed him. The rock and the pit both refer to places that have been hewn out of rock—wells, pits, or cisterns. When these places have lost their usefulness, they are turned into prisons or sepulchers for the dead. It might refer to being taken from other instances of imprisonment, or even from the grave. Have they been brought out of the grave yet? No, but that event is on the horizon. (The verb used here is in the perfect tense, which means it has been completed, or so assured that it is counted as complete.) We know from where we stand in history that the Servant Himself would go through that particular experience of being brought out of a hole in the rock--His resurrection after His crucifixion.
Q: Why is it important for those who pursue righteousness to look to the Servant’s model and remember the pit from which we are dug?
Q: What blessing is gained from it?
Perhaps the blessing is a return to life in a restored Eden, as mentioned in verse 3. Those who seek after righteousness are then pointed toward a second example.
"Look to Abraham your father, and to Sarah who bore you; for I called him alone, and blessed him and increased him." - Isaiah 51:2 NKJV
Notice that this example is not focused on Israel’s genesis as a nation--her coming-out-of-Egypt experience--as it was in Chapters 40-48. The Servant is speaking to individuals about their individual faith, and the genesis of that faith was in Abraham and Sarah.
Q: The Servant is addressing those who follow after righteousness. On what was Abraham’s righteousness based? (Read Genesis 15:6.)
Abraham is the rock of their beginning. He was called out of an idolatrous country, and he went where the LORD sent him by faith, even though he didn't know where it would lead him in life. The LORD also promised him a blessing of children, and he believed that, too, though it seemed impossible because Sarah was barren. (Barrenness will be addressed again in future chapters, so we will keep Sarah in mind.) The LORD counted that simple act of belief on Abraham’s part as righteousness and blessed him for it. Here in Isaiah, the Servant points to Abraham and Sarah as the models of righteousness that is based on faith and faith alone. Faith is what Israel is lacking and why she is overcome by despair.
Is this promise of blessing only for Israel who is descended from Abraham by blood, or is there an application for us as well? Paul tells us that all who are of the faith of Abraham share in his blessing:
"So also Abraham 'believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.' Understand, then, that those who have faith are children of Abraham. Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: 'All nations will be blessed through you.' So those who rely on faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith." (Galatians 3:6-9 NIV)
Is there comfort in that? Yes, if you have faith in that covenant. Keep in mind that this exhortation in Isaiah is being given to a people who may die in exile, and yet they are still called to live by faith and with hope, the same as their ancestors did. The writer of the book of Hebrews exhorts us in the same way with the great "by faith" passages, pointing out:
"All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country--a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them." (Hebrews 11:13-16 NIV)
The Servant speaks specifically to Israel, but universally to all who pursue righteousness, in saying that their only hope is by faith and faith alone in the promises of God. We know that regardless of whether we are of the blood of Abraham or not, we are children of Abraham if we pursue righteousness with the faith of Abraham and trust in the promise of God that was realized in Isaac, Jacob, and finally, the Servant, Jesus Christ. (Romans 9:6-9)
The Servant then casts a vision of a future blessing that is promised for the pursuit of righteousness: a return to Eden (v3). In this heavenly future, God promises a complete reversal of conditions: the wilderness into which sin sent them will again become a garden in which there will be joy and gladness and thanksgiving. But to receive this future blessing, they must persevere in righteous according to the righteousness of Abraham. Faith is the condition around which Israel's restoration pivots.
Side note: Just as Abraham died without seeing the fulfillment of the promise in his life, so many of Israel died in exile, even those who held the faith and pursued righteousness. Sometimes, we don't escape from our crooked places in our earthly experience, either, so that is not necessarily the expectation being expressed here. We can fix our sights wrongly on getting back to life the way it had been—returning to the country we left (remember, Abraham came from a wicked and idolatrous country). As the writer of Hebrews pointed out, you can go back to the old worldly life any time you want (Hebrews 11:15), but we should have a higher pursuit in mind. God calls us to cast our expectations toward a heavenly kingdom instead of an earthly one, toward Eden and not Ur.
Isaiah 51:4-5
The second “listen to Me” is addressed to the nation. The Servant reminds them of His tasking. He is the righteous Servant-King who is coming to save His people and establish His law and justice as a light for all people. He speaks in the first person—“My justice,” “My righteousness,” “My salvation.” The law will proceed from “Me.” The coastlands will wait upon “Me,” and “on My arm they will trust.”
In the previous chapter, the Servant came alongside Israel and offered her one kind of comfort—the comfort of shared suffering. Now, He offers the comfort of anticipation—the assured hope of vindication and restoration. Prince of Peace will come and will establish of a new world order under His law that will bring peace to the world.
Q: Why would those who seek after righteousness need this kind of reassurance?
When we take a righteous stance, especially one for our faith, we need the assurance that there is a greater authority backing us and will stand with us when we face our contenders. In the previous chapter, the Servant looked to the LORD for His justification.
“For the Lord GOD will help Me; therefore I will not be disgraced; therefore I have set My face like a flint, and I know that I will not be ashamed. He is near who justifies Me; Who will contend with Me? Let us stand together. Who is My adversary? Let him come near Me.” - Isaiah 50:7-8 NKJV
Having been justified, the Servant now justifies those who pursue His righteousness. He gives them the same assurance of justification.
Isaiah 51:6-8
The final "listen to Me" addresses to those who know righteousness and keep the Law in their hearts. Even though they have that understanding, they still fear the reproach and insults of the oppressor. The command not to fear in verse 7 is the main exhortation, but it is sandwiched between verses 6 and 8, which set up a comparison between fleeting things and enduring things. (This is the same theme with which we began in Isaiah 40:6-8.)
In both verses, the eternal element is His righteousness and salvation. It is everlasting, from generation to generation, never to be abolished. Now look at the progression of the fleeting things. In verse 6, God begins with the command “lift up your eyes” and look at the great things—the heavens and earth. How will they end? The heavens will go up in smoke. The earth will grow old like a garment. He then includes all those who dwell in the earth. They will die in like manner. In verse 8, the Servant switches to pictures of lesser things—garments and wool. These get eaten up by even littler things—moths and worms. The world and the people in it are like this garment. They get eaten up by little things and will end as useless, moth-eaten rags.
Q: In the middle of these big and little comparisons, the LORD places the reproaches and insults of men (v7). Are these big things or little things?
The world’s reproaches and insults seem like big things when, in fact, they are little things—at least, in God's eyes. They come from a world that is itself a little thing consumed by little things. Doesn’t this just describe us today? We live in a world consumed by little things, although, in the world's eyes, they are big things, and when we fail to exalt them as the world exalts them, we get some severe backlash. Bullying, shaming, and humiliation--these are all common experiences in our current culture, and they are used as ways of making us conform to and support the world's values. For us, as believers, it becomes an effort in maintaining perspective. Regardless of whether it is a big thing or little thing, it is a fleeting thing without eternal value and it should be treated as such.
Facing Fury in the Pursuit of Righteousness
In verses 1-8, the Servant addresses those who know what is right in God’s eyes, they pursue that righteousness, but they fall victim to the insults and reproaches of the world in which they live because the world’s idea of righteousness is very different from God's. So, the heart of the conflict really lies in the definition of righteousness.
Q: What is righteousness?
In a broad sense, it means that something is as it ought to be in regard to being acceptable, but acceptable to whom? The first thing that must be defined is who is the approving authority—who decides what is acceptable. Who provides the wisdom, guidance, validation, and vindication: God, the world, or perhaps a certain faction within the world? (The world itself isn’t a united entity.)
Understanding righteousness as a society is vital because it defines what is right, just, or ethical in regard to human behavior, justice, and government, and it drives social norms. Thus, there needs to be a guiding rule or foundation for that righteousness. Here in Isaiah, Israel is encouraged to look to the Law (Hebrew: torah) for that guiding source. This Law will form the backbone to the coming Prince's government (51:4).
Q: On what does the world base its righteousness (its idea of the way life ought to be)?
We have a certain set of laws that govern us nationally, but those can be redefined or neglected altogether depending upon the rulings of the justice system. Moral relativism tells us that the rules are what we make them—which is fine if you are the last person on earth or living by yourself on a deserted island. It is not so fine when your idea of how life ought to be clashes with an opposing idea held by your neighbor next door. And how much worse when it clashes with God’s ideals? God sees life very differently and has a very different opinion of how life ought to be.
Recent generation have seen the rise of a victim-based “righteousness." The world promotes a sense of righteousness for being part of what it considers "just" causes, and, interestingly, one of those causes is pursuing an Eden of its own making. A return to Eden is an outworking of God’s righteousness, but the world is trying to accomplish the same thing according to its own righteousness while shutting God out of the garden. That isn’t how life in Eden should be.
Q: God’s goal is world peace—an end to all conflict—and a future in a restored Eden. What goals and future does our culture pursue?
Pretty much the same goals, but the world goes about attaining them the wrong way. Moral relativism ensures there will never be an end to conflict. It is impossible to live at peace in a society where everyone is living by their own definition of what is right. The world may pay lip service to wanting world peace, so long as it doesn't have to let go of its own sense of righteousness and align itself with God’s values and teachings to achieve it.
God's Highway Project: Tackling Despair, Part 3
Even strong believers can still grapple with despair. Knowing this from His own experience, the Servant—that Wonderful Counselor—delivers His strategy to strengthen the righteous who are struggling to stand against an angry world and need help in maintaining perspective. Realigning His people to His perspective and His definition of righteousness is the third step in God's Highway Project, the straightening of crooked things.
The basic strategy is:
- Remember the unshakable foundation of your faith—the pit from which you were taken and the faith of righteous Abraham. Righteousness is accounted to person according to faith and faith alone in God (and Christ, the Servant) and being willing to rest in His promises and go where He leads, not where the world leads. Blessing, comfort, and peace will only come if you cling to that faith, regardless of what the world says.
- Remember that the righteous King is coming. He will justify you when He comes to re-establish the law and judge the world in true righteousness and justice. He will put an end to the reproach and insults that the unrighteous world heaps on those who have kept His law in their hearts and vindicate them.
- Keep the world in perspective. The world seems indomitable, but it is a little thing eaten up by little things. It holds out a counterfeit version of God’s blessings—support, comfort, empowerment, peace, and a return to Eden—in return for conforming to its idea of the way life ought to be, but it will never be able to deliver on any of those. Its reproaches are as fleeting as its promises. Do not let the fear of fleeting things consume you.
Maintaining perspective is the key. The righteous are called to discern what are truly the big things and little things in life and resist being eaten up or eroded by the little things. They are called to consider what is of eternal value versus what is fleeting. We should know what makes for true peace and pursue what is eternal, regardless of the shame and reproaches we get for doing so. There is a blessing that awaits those who persevere in the face of persecution.
The Servant-King who gives instruction to the righteous for maintaining perspective here in Isaiah also gave similar instruction to His disciples in His Sermon on the Mount. Read Matthew 5:3-12 and 6:25-34.
Next week we will finish the chapter, starting with Israel's response to the Servant's call to faith and hope.
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