Quotes about Isaiah

"Authority rests upon his shoulders" (Isa. 9:6).

The prophet Jeremiah said that 'from the least to the greatest, all are greedy for gain,'18 and the prophet Isaiah said, 'all of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags.'19 Our good deeds are stained with self-interest and our demands for justice are mixed with lust for vengeance. Ironically, it's the best people who most readily recognize and admit their own shortcomings and sin.

As science turns toward the realm of the Spirit to understand the physical universe, Space, Matter, Time are more prone to induce reverence than arrogance among scientists, who are sounding more like Isaiah in the temple than Isaac Newton under the apple tree.

Here is what Isaiah says: Verily thou art a God who hides thyself, O God of Israel, the Savior (45:15). God is still active, still living, still in charge, still the subject of the verb: God hides himself.' God is active even when hidden, even when seemingly absent.

Have you ever thought about Jesus' physical appearance? If you think about the paintings, he was a relatively handsome Dutchman. But if you think about a prophetic description, "he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him" (Isaiah 53:2). To put it diplomatically, he didn't look like much, and sleepless nights filled with prayer vigils probably didn't help.

Isaiah himself was only more aware of his shame as it stood in contrast to the perfection and purity of the Lord. It brought him to despair at his predicament. But despair is not a bad thing when it compels us to trust in or be associated with God himself.

Religion is best when it points beyond itself, like Isaiah or John the Baptist. It is worst when it gives you just enough of the forms to inoculate you against the substance, when it substitutes rituals for reality, the container for the contents, the wineskins for the ecstatic wine.

The mind should be kept peaceful. As the prophet Isaiah tells us, when the mind is stayed on the right things, it will be at rest.

My righteousness (my rightness, my justice, and my right relationship with God) shall go before me [conducting me to peace and prosperity], and the glory of the Lord shall be my rear guard. —ISAIAH 58:8

The claim is the very antithesis of Ezra, who is busy excluding, separating, and driving out those who are carriers of abomination. Ezra has given voice to an exclusivism that closely echoes the old practice of Pharaoh. The good news is that this posture did not contain all of emerging Judaism. The poet of Isaiah 56 asserts otherwise!

Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee. ISAIAH 26:3 CHAPTER 1 Bird-in-Hand, Pennsylvania

Pride comes when we distance ourselves from God's Word, God's presence, and God's will.