This week we are focusing on Isaiah 56:1-57:21. The following are some study suggestions to help you get started.
LIMITED TIME:
- Read through Isaiah 56:1-57:21.
- Meditate on and/or journal the answers to the following questions.
- What does this passage teach me about God and His character?
- How does this aspect of God’s character change my view of myself?
- What should I do in response?
MORE TIME:
- Jesus died for the sins of not only Israel, put also for the ‘foreigner’ and ‘eunuch’ as well. Read Isaiah 56.
- What message does God have for the foreigner and eunuch (vv.1-8)?
- What does God have to say to the ‘dogs’ and ‘shepherds’ (vv.9-12)? (see also Ezekiel 34; John 10:1-18; Matt 7:15)
- Read Isaiah 57.
- What do you observe about the righteous and the wicked? How are they described? What do they fear? What is their destiny?
- Who is this ‘One who is high and lifted up (v.14)? (see also John 12:20-33)
- Meditate on verses 17-19. They are full of God’s grace! Hoe do these verses give you hope?
GOING DEEPER (optional): For further teaching and application, do one or more of the following:
- Read chapter 41, “Revival and the Heart of the Contrite (56:1-57:21)” in Isaiah: God Saves Sinners or listen to Ray Ortlund’s sermon series on line. (Most of the sermons correspond to the chapters in his book.)
- Listen to the sermon(s) from Pastor Liam Goligher’s sermon series on Isaiah that go along with this week’s reading.
“He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”
~ Romans 10-13 ~