Day 1 · Sin Separates Us from God
Isaiah 59:1–17
1Surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save, nor His ear too dull to hear. 2But your iniquities have built barriers between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He does not hear. 3For your hands are stained with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, and your tongue mutters injustice. 4No one calls for justice; no one pleads his case honestly. They rely on empty pleas; they tell lies; they conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity. 5They hatch the eggs of vipers and weave a spider’s web. Whoever eats their eggs will die; crack one open, and a viper is hatched. 6Their cobwebs cannot be made into clothing, and they cannot cover themselves with their works. Their deeds are sinful deeds, and acts of violence are in their hands. 7Their feet run to evil; they are swift to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are sinful thoughts; ruin and destruction lie in their wake. 8The way of peace they have not known, and there is no justice in their tracks. They have turned them into crooked paths; no one who treads on them will know peace. 9Therefore justice is far from us, and righteousness does not reach us. We hope for light, but there is darkness; for brightness, but we walk in gloom. 10Like the blind, we feel our way along the wall, groping like those without eyes. We stumble at midday as in the twilight; among the vigorous we are like the dead. 11We all growl like bears and moan like doves. We hope for justice, but find none, for salvation, but it is far from us. 12For our transgressions are multiplied before You, and our sins testify against us. Our transgressions are indeed with us, and we know our iniquities: 13rebelling and denying the LORD, turning away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering lies from the heart. 14So justice is turned away, and righteousness stands at a distance. For truth has stumbled in the public square, and honesty cannot enter. 15Truth is missing, and whoever turns from evil becomes prey. The LORD looked and was displeased that there was no justice. 16He saw that there was no man; He was amazed that there was no one to intercede. So His own arm brought salvation, and His own righteousness sustained Him. 17He put on righteousness like a breastplate, and the helmet of salvation on His head; He put on garments of vengeance and wrapped Himself in a cloak of zeal.
Berean Standard Bible
Observe
In verses 15–16, when the LORD saw that there was no justice and no human intercessor, how did He respond?
Apply
When you notice spiritual darkness or injustice in the world around you this week, how can you turn to the Lord as your defender?
In the app, each day also opens the words in the original language, what the passage meant to its first readers, pastors teaching it, a place to write, and a time to pray.