Isaiah 48
The Lord warns his people
‘I already spoke about things that would happen at a future time.
A long time ago I told you what would happen.
Then I suddenly did my work,
and I caused those things to happen!
You refuse to obey me.
You do not want to change the way that you live.
Your neck is like iron and it will not bend!
Your head is as hard as
Before they happened, I told you about them.
Then you could not say, “My
Yes, my wooden
decided that these things would happen.”
and now you have seen it happen.
Agree that what I say is true!
Now I will tell you about new things that will happen.
They are secret things that you do not yet know about.
I am causing them to happen now.
You did not hear about them before today.
So you cannot say, “Yes, I already knew about them.”
You know nothing about them.
From long ago you refused to listen to me.
I know that you are never honest.
Since you first became a
you have refused to obey me.
I will keep my
I will not destroy you now,
so that people will
But I have not done it in the way that people make
Instead, I have sent pain and trouble to you.
That is how I make you pure.
That is why I do it!
I will not let people
I will not let anyone else share my
I called you to belong to me, you Israelite people.
I am the only One.
I am the first, and I am also the last.
With my right hand, I hung up the sky like a curtain.
When I call to the stars,
they all appear in their places.
Not one of your
what will happen now.
I, the Lord, have chosen a friend to attack
He will do what I want.
He will have the power to
I have called him to do this work.
I have shown him what he must do,
and he will do it!
From the beginning, I have not spoken secretly.
When these things happen, I will already be there.’
Now the
‘I am the Lord your God.
I teach you what will be good for you.
I lead you along a good path in life.
Then you would have had
like a river that runs quietly.
You would have been safe and well,
like the strong
as much as the sand on the shore of the sea.
I would not need to destroy them.
Their family name would continue for ever.’
No longer
Shout the news with
Tell everyone about it, all over the world.
Tell them that the Lord has
his servants, the Israelites.
they did not become
He broke open a rock for them,
so that water poured out.
They could drink as much as they needed.