Isaiah 59 speaks of the
condition of the world
And the rebellious church today:
Surely the arm of
the Lord is not too short to save,
Nor his ear too dull to hear.
But
your iniquities have separated you from your God;
Your
sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.
For your hands are
stained with blood,your fingers with guilt.
Your lips have
spoken lies, and your tongue mutters wicked things.
No one calls for
justice; no one pleads his case with integrity.
They rely on empty
arguments and speak lies;
They conceive
trouble and give birth to evil.
They hatch the eggs
of vipers and spin a spiders web.
Whoever eats their
eggs will die,
And when one is
broken, and adder is hatched.
Their cobwebs are
useless for clothing;
They
cannot cover themselves with what they make.
Their deeds are evil
deeds, and acts of violence are in their hands.
Their feet rush into
sin; they are swift to shed innocent blood.
Their thoughts are
evil thoughts; ruin and destruction mark their ways.
The way of peace
they do not know; there is no justice in their paths.
They have turned
them into crooked roads;
No one who walks in
them will know peace.
So
justice is far from us, and righteousness does not reach us.
We look for light,
but all is darkness;
Like the blind we
grope along the wall,
Feeling our way like
men without eyes.
At midday we stumble
as if it were twilight;
Among the strong, we
are like the dead.
We all growl like
bears; we moan mournfully like doves.
We look for justice,
but find none;
For deliverance, but
it is far away.
For
our offenses are many in Your sight, and our sins testify against us.
Our offenses are
ever with us and we acknowledge our iniquities:
Rebellion and
treachery against the Lord,
Turning our backs on
our God,
Fomenting oppression
and revolt,
Uttering lies our
hearts have conceived.
So
justice and righteousness stands at a distance;
Truth has stumbled
in the streets, honesty cannot enter.
Truth is nowhere to
be found, and whoever shuns evil becomes a prey.
The
Lord looked and was displeased that there was no justice.
He saw that there
was no one,
He was appalled that
there was no one to intercede;
So his own arm
worked salvation for him,
And his own
righteousness sustained him.
He put on
righteousness as His breastplate,
And the helmet of
salvation on His head;
He put on garments
of vengeance and wrapped Himself in zeal as in a cloak.
According to what
they have done,
So
will He repay wrath to His enemies and retribution to His foes;
He will repay the
islands their due.
From the west, men
will fear the name of the Lord,
And from the rising
of the sun, they will revere His glory.
For
he will come like a pent-up flood
That the breath of
the Lord drives along.
'The Redeemer will
come to Zion,
To those in Jacob
who repent of their sins,' declares the Lord.
'As
for me, this is My covenant with them,' says the Lord.
'My
Spirit, who is on you, and My words that I have put in your mouth
Will
not depart from your mouth, or from the mouths of your children,
Or
from the mouths of their descendants from this time on and forever,'
Says
the Lord. (Isaiah 59 NIV)
In spite of the
condition of the world and the rebellious Church today,
Zion, the Bride of
Christ remains true to God,
And God will redeem
Zion, the Israel of God, the Bride of Christ;
Those
who have repented of their sins.
God made a covenant
with Zion;
His Spirit is on them
and He has put His words in their mouth
And those words will
never depart from them,
Their children and
their descendants, forever.
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