BibleProject | One Story That Leads to JesusSample

After a wild ride featuring angel tongs, cud-chewing wolves, plastered priests, a naked prophet, and more than one earth-shattering apocalypse, you’ve reached the final section of Isaiah. The author arranged chapters 56-66 in a symmetrical pattern that brings together the book’s main themes.

At the center of Isaiah’s conclusion are three beautiful poems about the Spirit-empowered servant announcing the arrival of Yahweh’s Kingdom (chs. 60-62). Such good news reaffirms all the promises of hope from earlier in the book. You’ll read the first of these poems today in Isaiah 60.

Kings from every corner of the world stream toward the new Jerusalem. Behind them, loaded caravans creak under the weight of gold, their gleaming gifts bound for Yahweh’s temple. Ahead of them, the new Jerusalem glows with Yahweh’s glory, his presence brighter than the sun.

Surrounding these poems about the Kingdom are two long prayers of repentance (chs. 59 and 63-64). Yahweh’s servants confess Israel’s sin and grieve over all the evil they see in the world around them.

The humble prayer of the servants stands in sharp contrast to the oblivious self-righteousness of the wicked. These Israelites fast in sackcloth and ashes, but their display of humility is nothing more than a self-centered charade. Their brutal treatment of the vulnerable shows they are not interested in listening to Yahweh, no matter how piously they pray or how scrupulously they Sabbath.

Yahweh pleads with them: Return to me—not with empty words, but with compassionate hearts.

Reflection Questions

• Review the laws about Sabbath rest in Leviticus 25. What do these rules reveal about the kind of rest Yahweh wants for his people? How does this help you understand the problem with Israel’s religious behavior in Isaiah 58?
• Compare Isaiah’s prophecy about the ships of Tarshish in Isaiah 23 to the fate of these ships in today’s reading. What does this tell you about God’s plan for the nations beyond Israel’s borders?