This reading starts with this quote from the Message’s version of Isaiah 42:20-22:
You’ve seen a lot, but looked at nothing.
You’ve heard everything, but listened to nothing.
God intended, out of the goodness of his heart,
to be lavish in his revelation.
But this is a people battered and cowed,
shut up in attics and closets,
Victims licking their wounds,
feeling ignored, abandoned.
This says so much. As a church-planter, I am amazed at how often people choose to “lick their wounds” instead of receiving the revelation God’s pouring out on them.
I starting to learn that I can’t make them want healing. Starting to learn it…