August 2, 2022

During this week between the Old and New Testaments, we are pausing in our Quest Bible Reading Plan to reflect on the Four Hundred Years of Silence between the end of Malachi’s prophecies and the beginning of John the Baptist’s ministry.  We invite you to take time to reflect on these passages that speak to God’s voice in the midst of silence.

Surely he took up our pain
  and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
  stricken by him, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions,
  he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
  and by his wounds we are healed.
We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
  each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
  the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed and afflicted,
 yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
  and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
  so he did not open his mouth.
By oppression and judgment he was taken away.
  Yet who of his generation protested?
For he was cut off from the land of the living;
  for the transgression of my people he was punished.
He was assigned a grave with the wicked,
  and with the rich in his death,
though he had done no violence,
  nor was any deceit in  his mouth.
 
Isaiah 53:4-9