⁴ From of old no one has heard
or perceived by the ear,
no eye has seen a God besides you,
who acts for those who wait for him.
⁵ You meet him who joyfully works righteousness,
those who remember you in your ways.
Behold, you were angry, and we sinned;
in our sins we have been a long time, and shall we be saved?
⁶ We have all become like one who is unclean,
and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.
We all fade like a leaf,
and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.
⁷ There is no one who calls upon your name,
who rouses himself to take hold of you;
for you have hidden your face from us,
and have made us melt in the hand of our iniquities.
⁸ But now, O Lord, you are our Father;
we are the clay, and you are our potter;
we are all the work of your hand.
⁹ Be not so terribly angry, O Lord,
and remember not iniquity forever.
Behold, please look, we are all your people.

1) What does verse 4 tell us about how the God of Israel is different from other gods?
In Isaiah’s day, the nations all around Israel worshipped many false gods. These gods were thanked for good things and blamed for bad things, but in reality, they had no power to do anything—good or bad. And these false gods certainly couldn’t come to the aid of their people. The true God of Israel was (and is) completely different from any other god—not only does He have the power to act, but He cares about His people and has the will to help them, more than they could know or imagine.

2) What does verse 5 tell us about the kind of heart God desires from his servants?
This verse says that God meets the person who does righteous works joyfully. He is not looking for people who serve Him out of heartless duty or obligation. He wants His servants to remember Him—to have hearts that love Him and act righteously out of that love. This verse also points to how God can only have a relationship with those who are righteous. The following verses remind us again that we are sin-filled beings and asks, “how can we be saved?” Without Christ’s sacrifice, sin separates us permanently from a relationship with the righteous God.

3) What do verses 6 and 7 tell us about our condition before God?
Isaiah prophesied to the Nation of Israel, God’s chosen people, who time and time again had fallen back into sin and failed to remember God’s goodness toward them. These verses talk about how everyone has sinned and turned away from God, and even their righteous deeds are polluted with sin. This applies to the ancient Israelites, and to us in our present day (Romans 3:23).

4) What do verses 8 and 9 tell us about God’s heart toward his people?
Isaiah lived during the time of the kings of Israel, most of whom didn’t serve God, and it was a time where Israel was experiencing judgment for their unrighteousness. Although this judgment was deserved, Isaiah was asking for mercy toward the people God had created and chosen. Isaiah uses the metaphor of a potter to show that the Israelites are God’s creation, the work of His hands, and to ask God to remember them. God is so faithful to the ones He has created and called.

1) What does verse 4 tell us about how the God of Israel is different from other gods?
Idolatry looks different today than it did in Isaiah’s day, but it is still very present. We no longer carve our gods from wood or stone, but we constantly seek to serve things that have no power to really help us with what we truly need. What is your idol of choice right now? Are you looking to money/relationships/status/etc. to alleviate your suffering or bring you happiness? Confess the sin of idolatry and turn back to the one true God who is the only one who can help you with what you really need. Ultimately, our biggest idol is self-sufficiency and pride as we believe that we are able to save ourselves for eternity or somehow earn righteous ranking with the Holy God of the universe. Here, Isaiah urges us to remember that the incredible God acts righteously for those who hide themselves in Him.

2) What does verse 5 tell us about the kind of heart God desires from his servants?
Like the elder brother in the story of the prodigal son, our faithful service to God can actually lack a heart of affection for the Father. We can get so caught up in duty and good works that we forget the One for whom we are working! Women, let’s pray for joyful hearts that serve God out of gladness—and let’s love the Father for who He is. His salvation frees us to live and love boldly. If loving others is burdensome, we have forgotten how deeply we have been loved. We need to remember the depths of our sin and how utterly impossible it is to be righteous without Christ.

3) What do verses 6 and 7 tell us about our condition before God?
Apart from Christ, we are lost in our sin, and even our good works are tainted. Verse 7 is especially descriptive as it says, “there is no one…who rouses himself to take hold of You”. We are totally and entirely incapable of attaining even a drop of righteousness. But praise God that He has not left us in this hopeless condition! He offers us salvation, the help of the Holy Spirit, and a promised inheritance to come. If you have not yet accepted this free gift from God, surrender to Him today!

4) What do verses 8 and 9 tell us about God’s heart toward his people?
God is our Creator, He knit us together in our mothers’ wombs (Psalm 139:13), and we are his workmanship (Ephesians 2:10). It breaks His heart to see His creation acting against Him. Although He is just and has wrath toward sin, He is eager to restore us to all we were originally designed to be. Will you let Him re-make you, sister in Christ? Will you yield control to His leading and allow yourself to be conformed to His likeness?

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We love getting help while we study and www.studylight.org is one of many excellent resources.  Just type in the verse you’re looking at and Boom! It’s right in front of you in English and Hebrew (Old Testament) or Greek (New Testament), which are the original languages the Bible was written in.

Want to know more about a specific word in a verse? Click on “Strong’s Interlinear Bible” then click the word you’d like to study. Find super awesome stuff like “origin”, “definition”, and even all the different ways that single word has been translated into English! If you want to be geeky, you can even click the word and hear its original pronunciation – That Is Awesome!

Want to get more background on a word or phrasing or passage? Click “Study Tools”, then pick a few commentaries to read their scholarly approach, keeping in mind that just because a commentary says it, doesn’t mean it’s true. (just like the internet :-))

Finding the original meaning is a huge deal when we study Scripture and can make all the difference in our understanding as we apply God’s truths to our everyday lives.

In our modern-day relationships, we want people to understand our original intention as we communicate; how much more so between God and humanity?!

Here’s a little bit more on why we take Digging Deeper so seriously.

Embracing God’s fullness in our lives is rooted in scripture and memorizing His word is vital to our continued growth and depth with Jesus.
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