Sunday, January 28, 2018

5th after epiphany year b - isaiah

Isaiah 40:21-31
21Have you not known?
     Have you not heard?
          Has it not been told you from the beginning?
               Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? 
22It is God
     who sits above the circle of the earth,
          and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers;
     who stretches out the heavens like a curtain,
          and spreads them like a tent to live in; 
     23who brings the princes to naught,
          and makes the rulers of the earth as nothing. 
24Scarcely are they planted,
     scarcely sown,
          scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth,
               when God blows upon them,
                    and they wither,
                    and the tempest carries them off like stubble. 
25To whom then will you compare me,
     or who is my equal?
          says the Holy One. 
26Lift up your eyes on high and see:
     Who created these?
          The one who brings out their host and numbers them,
               calling them all by name;
               because God is great in strength,
                    mighty in power,
                         not one is missing.

27Why do you say, O Jacob,
     and speak, O Israel,
          “My way is hidden from the Sovereign,
          and my right is disregarded by my God”? 
28Have you not known?
     Have you not heard?
The Sovereign is the everlasting God,
     the Creator of the ends of the earth.
The Sovereign does not faint or grow weary;
     God’s understanding is unsearchable. 
     29The Sovereign gives power to the faint,
          and strengthens the powerless. 
30Even youths will faint and be weary,
     and the young will fall exhausted; 
          31but those who wait for the Sovereign shall renew their strength,
               they shall mount up with wings like eagles,
               they shall run and not be weary,
                    they shall walk and not faint.

Queeries for the text:
How many different ways can Isaiah say, "Hello??? Have you been living under rocks?!"
Has Isaiah seen A Bug's Life?
Not one of whom/what are missing?
Is there any point at all in trying to hide anything from God?
Is it that we won't get weary, or that we will get weak and then God will renew us?
How can we not be weary with the world we live in?

What are your queeries?




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