Isaiah 51:7-9

The Voice

⁷    Listen to Me, you who already live out what is true and right,
        who treasure My instruction within your hearts:
    Don’t be afraid of people’s scorn.
        Don’t let their dismissive criticism, bitter anger, or hatred get you down.
⁸    For they’ll come to nothing; they’ll be eaten up as a moth eats a shirt;
        they’ll be consumed as a worm feeds on wool.
    But My justice will endure. I will extend My saving action to every generation.

This sounds too good to be true. God’s people fear He is asleep, so they attempt to rouse Him to action. They remind Him—and themselves—of when God rescued His people long ago and defeated Egypt. Rahab, a monster of mythic character, is linked to Egypt, a nation of legendary power and cruelty. The prophet assures his discouraged audience that God will come through again for His people. It will be for them like it was when God rescued the Hebrew slaves. The exiled people of God will be freed from Babylon, and God will smooth out and level off the perilous desert highway that leads from Mesopotamia to the promised land.

⁹Get up, power of God! Rise up and strengthen Yourself, arm of God.
Get up and do like in the olden days, when You saved Your special people—
Like when You cut Rahab, that dragon-monster of chaos, in two.

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