A free printable Bible study for your group.

Want everyone to read Isaiah 48 during the week, answer privately, and see every answer appear together when you meet? That's Favor. Start your free week or see the Isaiah 48 Bible study.

Bible study · Isaiah 48:1-22

Isaiah 48: Listen to me, O Jacob

Read Isaiah 48:1-22 before you meet.

In a few lines

Isaiah has the Hebrew verb for profit eight times. Six of the other seven have a word for not with it (30:5-6, 44:9-10, 57:12), and one is only "as if you might profit" (47:12). Only 48:17 has neither: the LORD "teaches you to profit" (48:17).

The verse to carry

“The LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, says: “I am the LORD your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you by the way that you should go.”

Isaiah 48:17

To talk about

  1. 1. The LORD declared the former things from of old, lest his people say an idol had done them (48:5), and the new things only now, lest they say, "Behold, I knew them" (48:7). What do you think the difference is between those two things he didn't want his people to say?

  2. 2. The LORD holds back his anger "For my name’s sake" and "for my praise" (48:9), right after he says Israel "dealt very treacherously" (48:8). What difference does it make to you that the reasons he gives are his own name and praise?

  3. 3. "Oh that you had listened to my commandments! Then your peace would have been like a river" (48:18). What do you think listening to the LORD looks like in an ordinary week?

Prayer requests