Their speech and their deeds are against Yaweh, defying the eyes of his glory. The look on their faces testifies against them, and they declare their sin like Sodom. They do not hide it. Woe to their soul, for they have dealt out evil on themselves.
– Isaiah 3:8–9
What a picture like does this not just describe our world today, the culture and country in which I live, in which we speak in ways and do things that are completely against God and his word. The phrase here, defying the eyes of his glory. And we declare our sin like it’s good. We celebrate that, which goes directly against God’s word. Lord, we don’t try to hide from it. We openly celebrate it.
The Bible says, woe to their soul for they have dealt out evil on themselves. Doesn’t Isaiah 3:8–9 just lead us to cry out for mercy, but not just for the people around us and the culture or country in which we live, but in each of our lives. How are you and I prone to defy the eyes of God’s glory.
Isaiah 3:8–9 Reminds Us of Our Need for God’s Mercy
How are we attempted to think, and to desire, and to speak, and to act in ways, either in private or in public that defy the eyes of the glory of the God who sees everything. Oh God, we all need your mercy. We pray and we plead for your mercy in our lives. In each one of our lives, God, we pray you’d help us to be quick to confess sins, quick to confess any way that we defy the eyes of your glory, that we disobey your word. God, we pray for softness of heart and quickness of conviction in our lives, in our families, churches. God, we pray for a spirit of contrition, and humility, and confession, and repentance that we might turn from evil, that we might turn from disobedience, that our speech and our deeds would be glorifying to you.
And God, at the same time, we pray for your mercy on people around us. God have a mercy. And help us, help us to faithfully share the good news of your grace and your mercy with people around us. God help us not to be silent in whatever culture or country we find ourselves in right now. God help us to speak your word about your truth, about what is sin and about your salvation, about your grace. We pray for that right around us. God, we pray for this kind of mercy to spread around the world among all the people of the world. We pray today, specifically for the Tajik people in Afghanistan, 10 and a half million of them, 0.01% are fathers of Jesus. Most in that 10 and a half million have little to no knowledge of the gospel and your salvation.
This Verse Leads Us to Pray for the Salvation of Tajik People
God, we pray for the salvation of Tajik people. Please God, please, please, please. May they experience salvation from the woe that is coming upon them without Christ. God may they experience salvation from the woe and condemnation that is coming upon them without Christ. May they know your love, may they receive it, may they hear it. God, we pray, send out workers, raise up your church, bless the work we’re doing radical, urgent and others are doing so many different ways for the spread of the gospel among the Tajik people, we pray.
We are so thankful for your salvation. We have all sin and false short of your glory. We’ve all defied the eyes of your glory. We praise you for your grace, Lord Jesus and dying on the cross for our sin. And we praise you, Lord Jesus. And we pray you’d help us to proclaim you, right around us today and to people groups around the world, including the Tajik, cause your salvation to spread to them, we pray in Jesus name, amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
