Pastor Arnold McCarver
"Don't Forget The Pit"
Cornerstone Baptist Church
Rock Hill, South Carolina, USA
From
Isaiah Chapter 51
51:1 Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the
LORD: look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit
whence ye are digged.
51:2 Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you: for I
called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him.
51:3 For the LORD shall comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste
places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like
the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness shall be found therein,
thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.
51:4 Hearken unto me, my people; and give ear unto me, O my nation: for
a law shall proceed from me, and I will make my judgment to rest for a
light of the people.
51:5 My righteousness is near; my salvation is gone forth, and mine arms
shall judge the people; the isles shall wait upon me, and on mine arm
shall they trust.
51:6 Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath:
for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax
old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like
manner: but my salvation shall be for ever, and my righteousness shall
not be abolished.
51:7 Hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose
heart is my law; fear ye not the reproach of men, neither be ye afraid
of their revilings.
51:8 For the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm shall
eat them like wool: but my righteousness shall be for ever, and my
salvation from generation to generation.
51:9 Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD; awake, as in the
ancient days, in the generations of old. Art thou not it that hath cut
Rahab, and wounded the dragon?
51:10 Art thou not it which hath dried the sea, the waters of the great
deep; that hath made the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to
pass over?
51:11 Therefore the redeemed of the LORD shall return, and come with
singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their head: they
shall obtain gladness and joy; and sorrow and mourning shall flee away.
51:12 I, even I, am he that comforteth you: who art thou, that thou
shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die, and of the son of man which
shall be made as grass;
51:13 And forgettest the LORD thy maker, that hath stretched forth the
heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth; and hast feared
continually every day because of the fury of the oppressor, as if he
were ready to destroy? and where is the fury of the oppressor?
51:14 The captive exile hasteneth that he may be loosed, and that he
should not die in the pit, nor that his bread should fail.
51:15 But I am the LORD thy God, that divided the sea, whose waves
roared: The LORD of hosts is his name.
51:16 And I have put my words in thy mouth, and I have covered thee in
the shadow of mine hand, that I may plant the heavens, and lay the
foundations of the earth, and say unto Zion, Thou art my people.
51:17 Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem, which hast drunk at the hand
of the LORD the cup of his fury; thou hast drunken the dregs of the cup
of trembling, and wrung them out.
51:18 There is none to guide her among all the sons whom she hath
brought forth; neither is there any that taketh her by the hand of all
the sons that she hath brought up.
51:19 These two things are come unto thee; who shall be sorry for thee?
desolation, and destruction, and the famine, and the sword: by whom
shall I comfort thee?
51:20 Thy sons have fainted, they lie at the head of all the streets, as
a wild bull in a net: they are full of the fury of the LORD, the rebuke
of thy God.
51:21 Therefore hear now this, thou afflicted, and drunken, but not with
wine:
51:22 Thus saith thy Lord the LORD, and thy God that pleadeth the cause
of his people, Behold, I have taken out of thine hand the cup of
trembling, even the dregs of the cup of my fury; thou shalt no more
drink it again:
51:23 But I will put it into the hand of them that afflict thee; which
have said to thy soul, Bow down, that we may go over: and thou hast laid
thy body as the ground, and as the street, to them that went over.
