Welcome to this daily PBJ devotional. Read Deuteronomy 22 and Isaiah 49 today. This devotional is about Isaiah 49 verses 1-4, but I'll read all of Isaiah 49 as usual. Listen to me, O islands! Pay attention, O distant peoples! The Lord called me from the womb. From the body of my mother he named me. He made my mouth like a sharp sword. He hid me in the shadow of his hand. He made me like a polished arrow. He hid me in his quiver. He said to me, You are my servant Israel, in whom I will display my glory. But I said, I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength in futility and vanity. Yet my vindication is with the Lord, and my reward is with my God. And now, says the Lord, who formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob back to him, that Israel might be gathered to him. For I am honored in the sight of the Lord, and my God is my strength. He says, Is it not enough for you to be my servant, to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the protected ones of Israel? I will also make you a light for the nations, to bring my salvation to the ends of the earth. Thus says the Lord, the Redeemer and Holy One of Israel, to him who was despised and abhorred by the nation, to the servant of rulers, kings will see you and rise, and princes will bow down, because of the Lord who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel who has chosen you. This is what the Lord says, To say to the prisoners, come out, and to those in darkness, show yourselves, they will feed along the pathways, and find pasture on every barren hill. They will not hunger or thirst, nor will scorching heat or sun beat down on them. For he who has compassion on them will guide them, and lead them beside springs of water. I will turn all my mountains into roads, and my highways will be raised up. Behold, they will come from far away, from the north and from the west, and from the land of Aswan. Shout for joy, O heavens! Rejoice, O earth! Break forth in song, O mountains! For the Lord has comforted His people, and He will have compassion on His afflicted ones. But Zion said, the Lord has forsaken me, the Lord has forgotten me. Can a woman forget her nursing child, or lack compassion for the son of her womb? Even if she could forget, I will not forget you. Behold, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands. Your walls are ever before me. Your builders hasten back. Your destroyers and wreckers depart from you. Lift up your eyes and look around. They all gather together. They come to you. As surely as I live, declares the Lord, you will wear them all as jewelry and put them on like a bride. For your ruined and desolate places, and your ravaged land, Will now indeed be too small for your people, And those who devoured you will be far away. Yet the children of your bereavement will say in your hearing, This place is too small for us, make room for us to live here. Then you will say in your heart, Who has begotten these for me? I was bereaved and barren, I was exiled and rejected. So who has reared them? Look, I was left all alone. So where did they come from? This is what the Lord God says. Behold, I will lift up my hand to the nations, and raise my banner to the peoples. They will bring your sons in their arms, and carry your daughters on their shoulders. Kings will be your foster fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers. They will bow to you face down, and lick the dust at your feet. Then you will know that I am the Lord. Those who hope in me will never be put to shame. Can the plunder be snatched from the mighty, or the captives of a tyrant be delivered? Indeed, this is what the Lord says, Even the captives of the mighty will be taken away, and the plunder of the tyrant will be retrieved. I will contend with those who contend with you, and I will save your children. I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh. They will be drunk on their own blood as with wine. Then all mankind will know that I, the Lord, am your Savior and Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob. This is God's Word. And again, this devotional is about Isaiah 49, verses 1 through 4. And I'll just reread those verses at this time. Listen to me, O islands! Pay attention, O distant peoples! The Lord called me from the womb, from the body of my mother he named me. He made my mouth like a sharp sword. He hid me in the shadow of his hand. He made me like a polished arrow. He hid me in his quiver. He said to me, You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will display my glory. But I said, I have labored in vain. I have spent my strength in futility and vanity. Yet my vindication is with the Lord, and my reward is with my God. In the third line of verse one, we read these words, before I was born, the Lord called me. That's how the NIV puts it. And the word I in that line would lead us to believe that this is Isaiah's speech to the world. Verse one talks about the island, which again means distant nations, which is supposed to encompass the entire world. However, scholars who have spent a lot more time than I have studying Isaiah key in on the words, you are my servant Israel, and identify the speaker in this prophecy not as Isaiah himself, but as the servant, in other words, as the Messiah, in whom all of Israel is identified. So, if that's correct, Jesus is the speaker in this passage, not Isaiah. You can also see verse 5 for another indication of that. Notice what he said, however, in verse 4. He said, But I said, I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing at all. Again, from the NIV. The night of Jesus' crucifixion must have felt like that. After being followed by thousands, Jesus was betrayed by one of his closest twelve followers and abandoned by the other eleven after he was arrested. The next day he would cry out in anguish, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Although as God the Son, Jesus knew that his labor was not in vain. As a man, he must have felt a profound sense of failure and frustration. Verse 4a and b captures that feeling. Although God the Father had just said in verse 3 that Jesus was his servant in whom I will display my splendor, again from the NIV, The man Jesus must have felt like a failure. And so we have the words of verse 4 to convey that. But verse 4 continued with two more lines. Yet what is due me is in the Lord's hands, and my reward is with my God. Again, those are the words of the NIV. After being betrayed and abandoned, crucified, pronounced dead, and buried, Jesus rose from the dead and received his reward in the form of millions of people who have trusted him for salvation in the days after his resurrection. Every one of us who serves the Lord, including Isaiah, has probably felt like Jesus did, as described in verse 4. We feel that our witness and our work for Christ has been ineffective and that no lasting, eternal value will remain from what we've done for God. It is important to remember, in these moments, the truth of verse 4, C and D. We only see a small part of the picture of what our lives mean and our work accomplishes. God, on the other hand, sees it all. If we are faithful in serving the Lord, there will be an eternal reward that comes from it. God is using you. He's using your words that witness for Him, your life that gives credibility to your witness, and any other way in which you are serving the Lord. So don't give up or give in when you feel discouraged. Believe that God is working through you and that you will be rewarded with meaningful, eternal results. I hope that encourages you today. I'll see you next time. May God bless you. Hope you have a great day today.