Daily Devotions
Isaiah
"Your waste and desolate places"
Text: Isaiah 49:19
THE DESOLATION OF ISRAEL
After the war with the Babylonians, Israel was devastated. The people were exiled. The land was in a sorry state! But the LORD promised to restore all that Israel had lost!
“For your waste and desolate places,
And the land of your destruction,
Will even now be too small for the inhabitants;
And those who swallowed you up will be far away.
The children you will have,
After you have lost the others,
Will say again in your ears,
‘The place is too small for me;
Give me a place where I may dwell.’
Then you will say in your heart,
‘Who has begotten these for me,
Since I have lost my children and am desolate,
A captive, and wandering to and fro?
And who has brought these up?
There I was, left alone;
But these, where were they?'”
Isaiah 49:19-21
1. Reference to the land of Israel.
a) It became waste land.
b) It was a land that was devastated by war and years of neglect.
c) It became desolate and called “land of destruction”.
2. The LORD’s amazing promise.
a) The Exiles would return to Israel.
b) They would prosper and do well.
c) The land they have (Judah) would prove too small.
d) The enemies who had swallowed them up would be far away.
3. The Children that would arise:
a) They would declare to their parents:
“The place is too small for me;
Give me a place where I may dwell”
b) These children would be the generation that would replace
the former generation that was lost through war.
4. Confused thoughts:
a) The Returnees would appear to be confused.
b) They had returned because of Cyrus, kind of the Medo-Persian empire.
c) They had done well in restoring the country.
d) They would have good and strong families again.
5. Old Memories.
a) They would be difficult to erase.
b) Many remembered the great suffering:
i) Loss of children.
ii) Being in captivity.
iii) Years of wandering.
iv) The lonely years.
c) The new generation of the Returnees.
i) They formed the new Israel.
ii) They had risen up to rebuild their nations.
iii) The progress had been good but confusing to the older ones.