Daily Devotions
Isaiah
"Your sons have fainted"
Text: Isaiah 51:20
THE WEAKENED STATE OF JERUSALEM
Jerusalem enjoyed power and wealth in the ancient past. The capital was vibrant and full of life. The current state was a pale shadow of the past glory.
“These two things have come to you;
Who will be sorry for you?—
Desolation and destruction, famine and sword—
By whom will I comfort you?
Your sons have fainted,
They lie at the head of all the streets,
Like an antelope in a net;
They are full of the fury of the LORD,
The rebuke of your God.”
Isaiah 51:19-20
1. The two series of things that had occurred:
a) Desolation and Destruction.
b) Famine and Sword.
2. Two questions raised.
a) Who would be sorry for Jerusalem?
b) Whom could the LORD send to comfort the people?
3. An appraisal of the sons of Jerusalem.
a) The sons had fainted.
b) They had fallen down at the head of all the streets.
c) They were compared to ensnared antelopes.
4. Why had this happened?
a) They had experienced the fury of the LORD.
b) They were suffering the rebuke of God.
c) The sins of their fathers had affected the next generation!
5. A reminder of the Word given to Moses.
“Now the LORD descended in the cloud and stood with him there,
and proclaimed the name of the LORD.
And the LORD passed before him and proclaimed, ‘The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.'”
Exodus 34:5-7
a) There is mercy with the LORD to all who are repentant.
b) There will be judgment on all who choose the path of iniquity.