Philip Dampier's Blog

Isaiah 57:21 “’There is no peace,’ says my God, ‘for the wicked.’” Does this seem backward to you? Doesn’t it appear that the righteous are the ones persecuted and tormented? When you look around the world, do you see the wicked in turmoil, or is it the good people who…

Isaiah 55:11 “…so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.” If there were any doubt in our minds about this verse,…

Isaiah 55:8, 9 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Through the words of the prophet, God explains…

Isaiah 53:7 “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.” Isaiah continues his song or psalm with a view of…

Isaiah 53:6 “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” Isaiah is on a roll, the words pouring forth like the outburst of a song. He is caught up in the vision…

Isaiah 53:5 “But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.” The information about the messiah continues. His role as savior is paramount in the story of redemption and reconciliation.…

Isaiah 53:3 “He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and as one from who men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.” It is hard to read the tragedy of the gospels. The story of a hero is…

Isaiah 53:2 “For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.” The ‘he’ referred to in this verse is the servant…

Isaiah 45:7 “I form light and create darkness; I make well-being and create calamity; I am the LORD, who does all these things.” With a broad look at commentaries on this verse, one may well come away confused. Even when we put the verse in the context of an argument…

Isaiah 43:11 “I, I am the LORD, and besides me there is no savior.” No human can save themselves from the wrath of God, and therefore no human can save someone else from that wrath. The penalty of sin is death and eternal death. On the human level, neither of…