Seek and read from the book of the Lord.
– Isaiah 34:16
That’s just the first part of this verse. But that’s where I want to stop and lead us to pray according to just this command from Isaiah 34:16. “Seek and read from the Book of the Lord.” As context for this verse, the whole chapter starts in verse one. “Draw near O nations to hear and give attention. O peoples, let the earth hear and all that fills it, the world and all that comes from it.” It’s a call.
Isaiah 34:16 calls us to engage with God’s Word.
This whole chapter is a call for the nations, for all the peoples of the world to hear. To hear what? Verse 16, “Seek and read from the Book of the Lord. Hear the Word of God.” And so think about this in your own life. May your priority each day be to seek and read from the Book of the Lord. When you wake up in the morning… Just as Psalm 1 says, and Joshua 1 says… Meditate on God’s Word, on God’s Book in the Bible, day and night, morning and evening.
“Seek and read from the Book of the Lord.” You and I need God’s Word every day for wisdom, strength, rest, peace, guidance, hope, and perspective. We need God’s Word for life. So seek and read from the Book of the Lord every day. Hide it in your heart. Memorize God’s Word. Meditate on God’s Word. Study it, seek it, and read from the Book of the Lord. Then share it with others so that they can hear it. That’s the whole context of Isaiah 34. People need to hear the Word of God. People around you today need to hear the Word of God for life, strength, hope, guidance, and perspective for their lives.
Isaiah 34:16 challenges us to engage others with God’s Word.
And so let’s be vessels, instruments to share God’s Word with others… To encourage others with God’s Word. So look for opportunities today with other followers of Jesus just to encourage them with God’s Word. And then with people who don’t know Jesus, to share God’s Word with them. And for us to pray that all the nations and all the peoples would hear the Book of the Lord. They would hear the Word of God that tells about the coming judgment for sin and salvation for sinners.
Oh God, we pray based on Isaiah 34:16, that we would be people who morning and evening seek and read from your Book, from your Word. God, we pray that you would help us to grow more and more every day, and our desire for your Word and our understanding of your Word and our experience of your Word, that we could seek it and read it, hear it, and meditate on it, and hide it in our hearts and memorize it and obey it. Lord, we pray that you would make us more and more a people of your Book and God that you would make our mouths, our lives vessels, instruments for the spread of your Word to others.
This verse reminds us to share God’s Word with the lost.
God, we pray You help us to encourage others with your Word today. And God, we pray that you help us to share your Word with people who don’t know it today. Help us to be bold and humbly spreading your Word. And God, we pray that all the nations, that all the peoples would hear it. We pray for all those who are working on Bible translation to make your Book available to all the peoples of the world. God, we pray for all that’s happening in the illumiNations movement and all these Bible translation organizations and brothers and sisters from around the world working together to get your Word into every language. God, may it be so. Make us the instrument, the generation that makes the Bible known to every people group in the world for the first time.
God, we realize we have an opportunity to do that. God help us to be faithful to do that today in our day, to make the Book of the Lord available, accessible to people in their language, among all the peoples and all the nations.
Prayer for the Wala People
We pray specifically for the Wala people of Ghana who have never heard your Word. God, we pray for the spread of your Word to them, to the Wala and to all people groups like them. I pray all this according to your Word in Isaiah 34:16, which we love, to seek and read. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.
David Platt serves as a Lead Pastor for McLean Bible Church. He is also the Founder of Radical, an organization that makes Jesus known among the nations.
David received his B.A. from the University of Georgia and M.Div., Th.M., and Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Some of his published works include Radical, Radical Together, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Don’t Hold Back, and How to Read the Bible.
He lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area with his wife and children.
