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Lord's Prayer

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever.

Prayer for the Morning

Oh God, who has created all things, seen and unseen, this day is your creation and I give thanks to live in it. I pray that I will not shut you out of the day you have made, blinded by the petty concerns of life, but that I may be always open to your presence.

I open my body to you, for it is your breath that fills and warms the lifeless clay.

I open my eyes and ears to you, thankful for the light of your Word, which has brought me out of the shadow of ignorance.

I open my heart to you, aglow with thanks for your love, filling me with compassion, understanding, and peace.

I open my soul to you, grateful for your Spirit, who fills me with wisdom when I take a moment to listen.

All that I am, I open to you and I return to you, giving thanks every moment of my life for the blessings that fill this day. Through Christ I pray.

Prayer of Supplication

Bow down Your ear, O Lord, hear me, for I am poor and needy. Without you, I have nothing. I pray that this day I will have food, and shelter, and be free of pain and fear. If it is not your will for me to suffer, Lord, I pray that I will not. And above all, cleanse my soul of sin, that I might someday be free of all pain and evil; for, whatever I may bear in this life, I have faith and hope in the life to come, through your goodness and mercy. In Christ's name, I pray,

Meditation

[I open my body to God.]

Dedication

Holy God, I pray to be filled with your Holy Spirit for the rest of this day. Let me go forth, walking with your Spirit in my heart, that I may be filled with the joy and energy and praise for your entire creation, thankful in the many gifts you have given me, and showing forth your light in my every word and deed. This I pray in Christ's name,

Think of the day ahead in terms of God with you, and visualize health, strength, guidance, purity, calm confidence, and victory as the gifts of His presence.

Timing

Isaiah 40:1-11 (ESV)

Notes on the Scripture

Israel after Solomon (28): Isaiah’s Prophecies of the Return to Jerusalem

The prophecies in Isaiah are jumbled up. It skips from one time to another, one subject to another, without any warning. It does not have a nice, tidy section labeled “God Will Restore Jerusalem”. Prophecies of the Second Temple period are not Isaiah's strong suit, anyway. The restoration prophesies are strongest in several minor prophets and the prophets of the Exile, Daniel and Ezekiel (see chart). But Isaiah does have them.

One reason Isaiah's restoration prophecies seem vague is that they are highly poetic. Not that this is unusual; we have seen plenty of metaphor in need of study to disentangle the simple meaning, Habakkuk and Hosea being prime examples. While many prophets speak in poetic imagery and symbolism, Isaiah did so exceedingly.

Further complicating matters, his greatest prophecies include prophecies of a messiah; scrolls predicting the return of Israel from Babylon are often mixed together with longer-term predictions of the final salvation, i.e. the first and even second coming of Christ, and can be read both ways.

Today's selection is a perfect example. The second paragraph describes a highway being built in the wilderness. One might read that this is the highway upon which captive Hebrews travel back to Judah, and in context, the reading is completely valid. Fifteen Psalms (Psalms 120-134, called “psalms of ascents” or “psalms of degrees”) were sung by Hebrews, looking up from a wilderness highway to see Jerusalem in the hills above. The image was fixed in Hebrew consciousness,, and if we put ourselves in their place, this selection from Isaiah quite readily appears to refer to the return from Babylon.

But this prophecy of return from Babylon is also messianic. Having read the New Testament, when we read the lines, “A voice cries: ‘In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord,’” we immediately think of John the Baptist. The Scripture prophesies both of the return of Judah from captivity in Babylon, and the coming of Christ.

Isaiah's aim is so Christological, in fact, that it is often hard to see a prophecy of the rebuilding of the Temple. But when one reads through Isaiah in its entirety, one understands clearly that the Jewish migration after the conquest of Jerusalem will end, and the Jews will return to their land.

Isaiah is a beautiful book, alternating predictions of woe and despair with passages filled with hope; and not simply hope, but God's promise of forgiveness and redemption. Handel chose passages from Isaiah for much of his great oratorio, The Messiah, for exactly this reason: the beauty and promise of the imagery. (In fact, at least three sections of The Messiah were taken from today's Scripture: “Comfort Ye”, “Every Valley” and “And the Glory of the Lord”.)

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