Isaiah 12:1
And in that day thou shalt say, O LORD, I will praise thee: though thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortedst me. (KJV)
~~~oOo~~~
This last week, and for the next five weeks, I have been participating in a group at the "Do Not Depart" blog that proposes to memorize scripture from the Bible as a way to help us to ponder over and think about the things of God more in our daily lives. The verse above (Isaiah 12:1) was the verse we worked on last week.
For whatever reason, I have always preferred the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible over the more modern translations. The language kind of reminds me of Shakespeare or poetry. Sometimes, this makes it a little more difficult to understand, but there are ways to find out. I was planning on asking other members of the group, but then I read a different translation this morning, and now I think I have a better understanding of this verse.
It seems Isaiah has been talking of the coming forth of the Messiah and how God will gather Israel in that day. That would tend to make people happy (you'd think). So on the day the Messiah appears and God begins to gather together the children of Israel, people will give thanks to God.
The arrival of the Messiah in the Judeo-Christian tradition is pretty much one of the best things that could happen - ever. The darkness, or time of trial would be over and a new day would dawn. It would be like someone who was angry with us (for cause) had forgiven us and the relationship could then continue as it had before.
When someone does something nice for us (like shares a blog post, babysits on a moment's notice, etc.) it is 'de rigeur' to thank them, at least with words, if not some more concrete gesture. How much more would we want to thank God for His blessings? (Please translate my expression of my Christian tradition into your own belief system.)
~~~oOo~~~
Do you get the same or a different idea about the meaning of the above verse?
No matter your spiritual tradition, I invite you to participate in the comments/discussion, with the provisos that none of us belittle another's beliefs and do not express a hateful attitude. Thank you.
