God is on the move! While in exile, the Israelites wondered if God had abandoned them. But Isaiah proclaimed the promise – God is gearing up for a big move. God is preparing to defeat their captors and deliver them (again!) to their homes, their families, and their faith.
The obvious response is joy – song that can be heard from the desert to the mountains to the seas. Song that the sea itself roars with elation – give glory to the Lord!
Perhaps you are in a state of exile yourself. If so, hear the promise that God is gearing up for a big move. Isolation and desperation will not last forever. Cling to the hope that God’s promise brings.
Perhaps you are in a state of restoration. Sing from the mountaintops! Spread your joy so that the whole world – from your family to your sphere of influence to your Instagram – sings with you.
Isaiah 42:10-20
Sing to the Lord a new song, his praise from the end of the earth! Let the sea roar and all that fills it, the coastlands and their inhabitants. Let the desert and its towns lift up their voice, the villages that Kedar inhabits; let the inhabitants of Sela sing for joy, let them shout from the tops of the mountains. Let them give glory to the Lord, and declare his praise in the coastlands.
The Lord goes forth like a soldier, like a warrior he stirs up his fury; he cries out, he shouts aloud, he shows himself mighty against his foes. For a long time I have held my peace, I have kept still and restrained myself; now I will cry out like a woman in labor, I will gasp and pant. I will lay waste mountains and hills, and dry up all their herbage; I will turn the rivers into islands, and dry up the pools. I will lead the blind by a road they do not know, by paths they have not known I will guide them. I will turn the darkness before them into light, the rough places into level ground. These are the things I will do, and I will not forsake them. They shall be turned back and utterly put to shame— those who trust in carved images, who say to cast images, “You are our gods.”
Listen, you that are deaf; and you that are blind, look up and see! Who is blind but my servant, or deaf like my messenger whom I send? Who is blind like my dedicated one, or blind like the servant of the Lord? He sees many things, but does not observe them; his ears are open, but he does not hear.