Let Them Make Peace With Me

NOTE: Pastor Nick stressed that this is a section of Isaiah that we especially need to approach with patient reflection. Pray before discussion that God would open your eyes to see where He would show you where you are finding your security outside of Him.

1. Again, Pastor Nick encouraged us to read this text as Isaiah saw it rather than how it may have initially made us feel. What feelings are brought up in you by texts like this? How might Isaiah have seen something different?

2. We looked at this text as God addressing the places that the people sought security. Where had they been looking for security outside of Him? Where have you been finding your security?

3. Pastor Nick drew connections between the prophecies in Isaiah 21-23 and both geographical areas and spiritual issues/realities. Babylon is called a “wilderness of the sea” — a place of great thirst. How is the sin that we cling to like a desert, leaving us to thirst?

4. As we think about Babylon as a desert of great thirst, we remember Jesus’ words that He is and provides Living Water. How is Jesus the greater solution to the real need for security behind our sin?

5. God’s words against Babylon and the others were spoken to Israel to lead them to mercy, peace, and security in God. Similarly, God’s judgments are spoken and carried out on our own sin to lead us to peace in Him. How does the cross illustrate this connection between justice and mercy? What does it look like to respond to God’s discipline in our lives with this in mind?

6. It’s sometimes easy to hear a sermon like this and apply it only to ourselves and our sins. How do these oracles, though, speak to the way we interact with those in our neighborhoods, families, and workplaces? How does our preaching of the Good News change with this in mind?