MESSAGES OF HOPE

Salvation Is Just Around the Corner

1–3  56 God’s Message:

“Guard my common good:

Do what’s right and do it in the right way,

For salvation is just around the corner,

my setting-things-right is about to go into action.

How blessed are you who enter into these things,

you men and women who embrace them,

Who keep Sabbath and don’t defile it,

who watch your step and don’t do anything evil!

Make sure no outsider who now follows God

ever has occasion to say, ‘God put me in second-class.

I don’t really belong.’

And make sure no physically mutilated person

is ever made to think, ‘I’m damaged goods.

I don’t really belong.’ ”

4–5  For God says:

“To the mutilated who keep my Sabbaths

and choose what delights me

and keep a firm grip on my covenant,

I’ll provide them an honored place

in my family and within my city,

even more honored than that of sons and daughters.

I’ll confer permanent honors on them

that will never be revoked.

6–8  “And as for the outsiders who now follow me,

working for me, loving my name,

and wanting to be my servants—

All who keep Sabbath and don’t defile it,

holding fast to my covenant—

I’ll bring them to my holy mountain

and give them joy in my house of prayer.

They’ll be welcome to worship the same as the ‘insiders,’

to bring burnt offerings and sacrifices to my altar.

Oh yes, my house of worship

will be known as a house of prayer for all people.”

The Decree of the Master, God himself,

who gathers in the exiles of Israel:

“I will gather others also,

gather them in with those already gathered.”

9–12  A call to the savage beasts: Come on the run.

Come, devour, beast barbarians!

For Israel’s watchmen are blind, the whole lot of them.

They have no idea what’s going on.

They’re dogs without sense enough to bark,

lazy dogs, dreaming in the sun—

But hungry dogs, they do know how to eat,

voracious dogs, with never enough.

And these are Israel’s shepherds!

They know nothing, understand nothing.

They all look after themselves,

grabbing whatever’s not nailed down.

“Come,” they say, “let’s have a party.

Let’s go out and get drunk!”

And tomorrow, more of the same:

“Let’s live it up!”

Never Tired of Trying New Religions

1–2  57 Meanwhile, right-living people die

and no one gives them a thought.

God-fearing people are carted off

and no one even notices.

The right-living people are out of their misery,

they’re finally at rest.

They lived well and with dignity

and now they’re finally at peace.

3–10  “But you, children of a witch, come here!

Sons of a slut, daughters of a whore.

What business do you have taunting,

sneering, and sticking out your tongue?

Do you have any idea what wretches you’ve turned out to be?

A race of rebels, a generation of liars.

You satisfy your lust any place you find some shade

and fornicate at whim.

You kill your children at any convenient spot—

any cave or crevasse will do.

You take stones from the creek

and set up your sex-and-religion shrines.

You’ve chosen your fate.

Your worship will be your doom.

You’ve climbed a high mountain

to practice your foul sex-and-death religion.

Behind closed doors

you assemble your precious gods and goddesses.

Deserting me, you’ve gone all out, stripped down

and made your bed your place of worship.

You’ve climbed into bed with the ‘sacred’ whores

and loved every minute of it,

adoring every curve of their naked bodies.

You anoint your king-god with ointments

and lavish perfumes on yourselves.

You send scouts to search out the latest in religion,

send them all the way to hell and back.

You wear yourselves out trying the new and the different,

and never see what a waste it all is.

You’ve always found strength for the latest fad,

never got tired of trying new religions.

11–13  “Who talked you into the pursuit of this nonsense,

leaving me high and dry,

forgetting you ever knew me?

Because I don’t yell and make a scene

do you think I don’t exist?

I’ll go over, detail by detail, all your ‘righteous’ attempts at religion,

and expose the absurdity of it all.

Go ahead, cry for help to your collection of no-gods:

A good wind will blow them away.

They’re smoke, nothing but smoke.

“But anyone who runs to me for help

will inherit the land,

will end up owning my holy mountain!”

14  Someone says: “Build, build! Make a road!

Clear the way, remove the rocks

from the road my people will travel.”

15–21  A Message from the high and towering God,

who lives in Eternity,

whose name is Holy:

“I live in the high and holy places,

but also with the low-spirited, the spirit-crushed,

And what I do is put new spirit in them,

get them up and on their feet again.

For I’m not going to haul people into court endlessly,

I’m not going to be angry forever.

Otherwise, people would lose heart.

These souls I created would tire out and give up.

I was angry, good and angry, because of Israel’s sins.

I struck him hard and turned away in anger,

while he kept at his stubborn, willful ways.

When I looked again and saw what he was doing,

I decided to heal him, lead him, and comfort him,

creating a new language of praise for the mourners.

Peace to the far-off, peace to the near-at-hand,” says God—

“and yes, I will heal them.

But the wicked are storm-battered seas

that can’t quiet down.

The waves stir up garbage and mud.

There’s no peace,” God says, “for the wicked.”

Your Prayers Won’t Get Off the Ground

1–3  58 “Shout! A full-throated shout!

Hold nothing back—a trumpet-blast shout!

Tell my people what’s wrong with their lives,

face my family Jacob with their sins!

They’re busy, busy, busy at worship,

and love studying all about me.

To all appearances they’re a nation of right-living people—

law-abiding, God-honoring.

They ask me, ‘What’s the right thing to do?’

and love having me on their side.

But they also complain,

‘Why do we fast and you don’t look our way?

Why do we humble ourselves and you don’t even notice?’

3–5  “Well, here’s why:

“The bottom line on your ‘fast days’ is profit.

You drive your employees much too hard.

You fast, but at the same time you bicker and fight.

You fast, but you swing a mean fist.

The kind of fasting you do

won’t get your prayers off the ground.

Do you think this is the kind of fast day I’m after:

a day to show off humility?

To put on a pious long face

and parade around solemnly in black?

Do you call that fasting,

a fast day that I, God, would like?

6–9  “This is the kind of fast day I’m after:

to break the chains of injustice,

get rid of exploitation in the workplace,

free the oppressed,

cancel debts.

What I’m interested in seeing you do is:

sharing your food with the hungry,

inviting the homeless poor into your homes,

putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad,

being available to your own families.

Do this and the lights will turn on,

and your lives will turn around at once.

Your righteousness will pave your way.

The God of glory will secure your passage.

Then when you pray, God will answer.

You’ll call out for help and I’ll say, ‘Here I am.’

A Full Life in the Emptiest of Places

9–12  “If you get rid of unfair practices,

quit blaming victims,

quit gossiping about other people’s sins,

If you are generous with the hungry

and start giving yourselves to the down-and-out,

Your lives will begin to glow in the darkness,

your shadowed lives will be bathed in sunlight.

I will always show you where to go.

I’ll give you a full life in the emptiest of places—

firm muscles, strong bones.

You’ll be like a well-watered garden,

a gurgling spring that never runs dry.

You’ll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew,

rebuild the foundations from out of your past.

You’ll be known as those who can fix anything,

restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate,

make the community livable again.

13–14  “If you watch your step on the Sabbath

and don’t use my holy day for personal advantage,

If you treat the Sabbath as a day of joy,

God’s holy day as a celebration,

If you honor it by refusing ‘business as usual,’

making money, running here and there—

Then you’ll be free to enjoy God!

Oh, I’ll make you ride high and soar above it all.

I’ll make you feast on the inheritance of your ancestor Jacob.”

Yes! God says so!

We Long for Light but Sink into Darkness

1–8  59 Look! Listen!

God’s arm is not amputated—he can still save.

God’s ears are not stopped up—he can still hear.

There’s nothing wrong with God; the wrong is in you.

Your wrongheaded lives caused the split between you and God.

Your sins got between you so that he doesn’t hear.

Your hands are drenched in blood,

your fingers dripping with guilt,

Your lips smeared with lies,

your tongue swollen from muttering obscenities.

No one speaks up for the right,

no one deals fairly.

They trust in illusion, they tell lies,

they get pregnant with mischief and have sin-babies.

They hatch snake eggs and weave spider webs.

Eat an egg and die; break an egg and get a snake!

The spider webs are no good for shirts or shawls.

No one can wear these weavings!

They weave wickedness,

they hatch violence.

They compete in the race to do evil

and run to be the first to murder.

They plan and plot evil, think and breathe evil,

and leave a trail of wrecked lives behind them.

They know nothing about peace

and less than nothing about justice.

They make tortuously twisted roads.

No peace for the wretch who walks down those roads!

9–11  Which means that we’re a far cry from fair dealing,

and we’re not even close to right living.

We long for light but sink into darkness,

long for brightness but stumble through the night.

Like the blind, we inch along a wall,

groping eyeless in the dark.

We shuffle our way in broad daylight,

like the dead, but somehow walking.

We’re no better off than bears, groaning,

and no worse off than doves, moaning.

We look for justice—not a sign of it;

for salvation—not so much as a hint.

12–15  Our wrongdoings pile up before you, God,

our sins stand up and accuse us.

Our wrongdoings stare us down;

we know in detail what we’ve done:

Mocking and denying God,

not following our God,

Spreading false rumors, inciting sedition,

pregnant with lies, muttering malice.

Justice is beaten back,

Righteousness is banished to the sidelines,

Truth staggers down the street,

Honesty is nowhere to be found,

Good is missing in action.

Anyone renouncing evil is beaten and robbed.

15–19  God looked and saw evil looming on the horizon—

so much evil and no sign of Justice.

He couldn’t believe what he saw:

not a soul around to correct this awful situation.

So he did it himself, took on the work of Salvation,

fueled by his own Righteousness.

He dressed in Righteousness, put it on like a suit of armor,

with Salvation on his head like a helmet,

Put on Judgment like an overcoat,

and threw a cloak of Passion across his shoulders.

He’ll make everyone pay for what they’ve done:

fury for his foes, just deserts for his enemies.

Even the far-off islands will get paid off in full.

In the west they’ll fear the name of God,

in the east they’ll fear the glory of God,

For he’ll arrive like a river in flood stage,

whipped to a torrent by the wind of God.

20  “I’ll arrive in Zion as Redeemer,

to those in Jacob who leave their sins.”

God’s Decree.

21  “As for me,” God says, “this is my covenant with them: My Spirit that I’ve placed upon you and the words that I’ve given you to speak, they’re not going to leave your mouths nor the mouths of your children nor the mouths of your grandchildren. You will keep repeating these words and won’t ever stop.” God’s orders.

People Returning for the Reunion

1–7  60 “Get out of bed, Jerusalem!

Wake up. Put your face in the sunlight.

God’s bright glory has risen for you.

The whole earth is wrapped in darkness,

all people sunk in deep darkness,

But God rises on you,

his sunrise glory breaks over you.

Nations will come to your light,

kings to your sunburst brightness.

Look up! Look around!

Watch as they gather, watch as they approach you:

Your sons coming from great distances,

your daughters carried by their nannies.

When you see them coming you’ll smile—big smiles!

Your heart will swell and, yes, burst!

All those people returning by sea for the reunion,

a rich harvest of exiles gathered in from the nations!

And then streams of camel caravans as far as the eye can see,

young camels of nomads in Midian and Ephah,

Pouring in from the south from Sheba,

loaded with gold and frankincense,

preaching the praises of God.

And yes, a great roundup

of flocks from the nomads in Kedar and Nebaioth,

Welcome gifts for worship at my altar

as I bathe my glorious Temple in splendor.

What’s That We See in the Distance?

8–22  “What’s that we see in the distance,

a cloud on the horizon, like doves darkening the sky?

It’s ships from the distant islands,

the famous Tarshish ships

Returning your children from faraway places,

loaded with riches, with silver and gold,

And backed by the name of your God, The Holy of Israel,

showering you with splendor.

Foreigners will rebuild your walls,

and their kings assist you in the conduct of worship.

When I was angry I hit you hard.

It’s my desire now to be tender.

Your Jerusalem gates will always be open

—open house day and night!—

Receiving deliveries of wealth from all nations,

and their kings, the delivery boys!

Any nation or kingdom that doesn’t deliver will perish;

those nations will be totally wasted.

The rich woods of Lebanon will be delivered

—all that cypress and oak and pine—

To give a splendid elegance to my Sanctuary,

as I make my footstool glorious.

The descendants of your oppressor

will come bowing and scraping to you.

All who looked down at you in contempt

will lick your boots.

They’ll confer a title on you: City of God,

Zion of The Holy of Israel.

Not long ago you were despised refuse—

out-of-the-way, unvisited, ignored.

But now I’ve put you on your feet,

towering and grand forever, a joy to look at!

When you suck the milk of nations

and the breasts of royalty,

You’ll know that I, God, am your Savior,

your Redeemer, Champion of Jacob.

I’ll give you only the best—no more hand-me-downs!

Gold instead of bronze, silver instead of iron,

bronze instead of wood, iron instead of stones.

I’ll install Peace to run your country,

make Righteousness your boss.

There’ll be no more stories of crime in your land,

no more robberies, no more vandalism.

You’ll name your main street Salvation Way,

and install Praise Park at the center of town.

You’ll have no more need of the sun by day

nor the brightness of the moon at night.

God will be your eternal light,

your God will bathe you in splendor.

Your sun will never go down,

your moon will never fade.

I will be your eternal light.

Your days of grieving are over.

All your people will live right and well,

in permanent possession of the land.

They’re the green shoot that I planted,

planted with my own hands to display my glory.

The runt will become a great tribe,

the weakling become a strong nation.

I am God.

At the right time I’ll make it happen.”