Isaiah 16 ~ stilled

- click link Audio, Isaiah 16 ~ New International Version

Isaiah 16 (New International Version)

¹ Send lambs as tribute
to the ruler of the land,
from Sela, across the desert,
to the mount of the Daughter of Zion.

² Like fluttering birds
pushed from the nest,
so are the women of Moab
at the fords of the Arnon.

³ "Give us counsel,
render a decision.
Make your shadow like night—
at high noon.
Hide the fugitives,
do not betray the refugees.

⁴ Let the Moabite fugitives stay with you;
be their shelter from the destroyer."
The oppressor will come to an end,
and destruction will cease;
the aggressor will vanish from the land.

⁵ In love a throne will be established;
in faithfulness a man will sit on it—
one from the house of David—
one who in judging seeks justice
and speeds the cause of righteousness.

⁶ We have heard of Moab's pride—
her overweening pride and conceit,
her pride and her insolence—
but her boasts are empty.

⁷ Therefore the Moabites wail,
they wail together for Moab.
Lament and grieve
for the men of Kir Hareseth.

⁸ The fields of Heshbon wither,
the vines of Sibmah also.
The rulers of the nations
have trampled down the choicest vines,
which once reached Jazer
and spread toward the desert.
Their shoots spread out
and went as far as the sea.

⁹ So I weep, as Jazer weeps,
for the vines of Sibmah.
O Heshbon, O Elealeh,
I drench you with tears!
The shouts of joy over your ripened fruit
and over your harvests have been stilled.

¹⁰ Joy and gladness are taken away from the orchards;
no one sings or shouts in the vineyards;
no one treads out wine at the presses,
for I have put an end to the shouting.

¹¹ My heart laments for Moab like a harp,
my inmost being for Kir Hareseth.

¹² When Moab appears at her high place,
she only wears herself out;
when she goes to her shrine to pray,
it is to no avail.

¹³ This is the word the LORD has already spoken concerning Moab. ¹⁴ But now the LORD says: "Within three years, as a servant bound by contract would count them, Moab's splendor and all her many people will be despised, and her survivors will be very few and feeble."

Moab the word means "from the father". Moab is the child, conceived by incest, after Lot's daughters lost their fiancés and mother. The daughters made Lot drink wine & took advantage of his drunkenness.

The Bible has many layers, more in Isaiah. There is the prophecy of the future annihilation of Moab (during the Persian Empire). Moab was used to punish Israel when they fell into sin, but Moab was not included in the blessings. There is the urge to refrain from sin and the pride in that sin - make straight the paths of the Lord. There is an appeal to be kind to the foreigner and the weak. Jesus must have thought of this passage.

Jesus was always willing to heal, to love, to listen, until Jesus spoke to the foreign woman and compared her to a dog begging for scraps from the table of the children (Israel). Jesus plainly said it would not be right to help her.

Mark 7:25-30
In fact, as soon as she heard about him, a woman whose little daughter was possessed by an evil spirit came and fell at his feet. The woman was a Greek, born in Syrian Phoenicia. She begged Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter.

"First let the children eat all they want," he told her, "for it is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to their dogs."

"Yes, Lord," she replied, "but even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs."

Then he told her, "For such a reply, you may go; the demon has left your daughter."

She went home and found her child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.

Jesus is kind when we approach Him with repentant hearts.

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