Streams: Meditations on Isaiah

By Edward Vinson

This is a celebration of anointed poetic meditations on the timely yet ancient book of Isaiah.
At the site of his tomb near Israel's border with Lebanon there is a plaque honoring Isaiah
as the Bible's "greatest prophet" because even in times of trouble he carried the yoke of
God's Covenant with "the greatest of joy".

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Nov 30, 2015
• ISBN: 9781514424667

Book preview

"Blue Moon

- I see you standing alone -"

part1-bluemoon.JPG

Oh Sinful Nation

-Isaiah 1-

The vision came, made plain again

of sin gone rampant at the core

of His, the apple of His eye.

Beneath the shadow of the tree, the Great Menorah,

bronze and branching, wisdom planted in the park

that overlooked the government, and sees

the apple, cut in half, was dark

for it was rotten at the core.

Behold, He said

as he looked on Jerusalem

beneath the weight of all its sin,

his mother looking down on him,

I make all things as new again

as He went, to the tree, to die

and there became a curse for us

to be His blessing on the earth.

How far and wide His reach extends

from arms extended on the cross

our names engraved upon His palms.

"I have not yet forgotten you;

you, by I AM, are not forsaken,"

says the Lord.

"Make plain the vision;

run with it.

Lift up your voice;

do not hold back.

Go, put the trumpet, to your lips

and call My people to return:

Repent, the Kingdom is at hand.

And I, again, am coming, soon.

I wait upon My Father’s voice

to loose the pent up flood I Am

and, by the Spirit, flood the world,

with all-consuming fire I Am,

My tongue, a sword,

shall cleave the hardest heart

with Love.

You shall be changed

from faith to faith, glory to glory,

says your King:

when I appear, made manifest

within your midst

to be established on My hill

your name shall be

"THE LORD IS THERE"

and all shall know me, least to greatest,

in your midst

the the Revealing

comes to pass."

Selah. Amen.

As it is written, it will be.

"Be warned ye rulers of the earth, ye kings,

for all have sinned and fallen short:

it is not just Jerusalem;

it is not just small Israel;

it is not just My own lost sheep

upon whom you have focused hate

professing wisdom

while as fools

you touch the apple of My eye:

You touch My firstborn son and wife,

the wife of youth that I still love.

Shall you not know My focused Light

as tongues of fire

descend upon your heads and roar.

As you have done

so shall it be done unto you.

Consider well

the outcome

of the path

you take;

there is a way that, seeming good,

leads only into hell and death,

into the grave you dig for Mine.

Vengeance is Mine; I will repay;

continue in My Kindness:

Love.

I plead with you

to kiss the Son, to kiss My son,

lest you, in your ways, be consumed

and, in an instant, are no more.

Do not call Counsel, Blasphemy.

O sinful nation,

one among a fallen world,

give ear to hear and do My Word.

Thus says the LORD,

the God of all flesh,

coming soon.

I plead with you

through those I send."

Selah. Amen.

"Blessed are you

who seeing,

have believed

on Christ,

on the Messiah of the Jews;

blessed even more

are those

who do not see

and yet in the same Way

do so:

the same, is Jesus:

Jesus the same,

shall be their portion

day-by-day

in My response, the Father says,

to prayers of faith,

the Substance you desire of Me

and that which I desire of you.

Will I find faith

when I return?

Go meditate

Isaiah’s book

and find it blossoming

with Truth.

You are My witness:

Testify."

God help me, yes I will, my Lord.

The vision, plainer, breaking, is

as it was in the days of old,

ancient of days,

always, the same:

"Seek Life; why die?

Seek Me and live.

The choice before you

stands as real

as anything that you have seen.

Yet it is hidden to the world,

and to those blind to ‘Kingdom comes’

which comes unseen

in you who say not, We will not!

when I have said, Lift up your eyes…

The vision is concerning Mine,

concerning My Jerusalem

that the desire of nations, come

with Peace that is not of the world.

My Peace I give you,"

says the Lord.

Hear, O heavens! Listen, earth!

The LORD has spoken long ago.

With heart Isaiah saw and heard;

and some do now

to hear and do

what Jesus, the Messiah, says.

"My sheep still hear and know My voice

and will not follow other songs

that other shepherds sing of paths

that are not Mine.

I Am, your Jesus, from of old,

ancient of days, from the beginning

sacrificed.

I have not changed.

My Love is steadfast, slow to anger,

patient and long-suffering.

But some do otherwise than, Come

when I still call;

and some with, We will not!,

refuse

for I reared children, brought them up

but they rebel against My hand, My arm, My word,

against I AM.

Both ox and donkey

know their Master,

but men of Israel do not.

My people do not understand,

increasingly are clothed in black

and know not of My sacrifice, My Son,

that they might be My sons

and daughters

in the land I choose.

Again I choose Jerusalem,

again.

Ah, sinful nation, loaded down

with guilt enough

to shorten and to end your lives,

a brood of evildoers, found

to be as children, gone

into corruption, lost;

they have forsaken I Am LORD

and spurned the Holy One, My Word

and turned their backs

on He Who I have sent to them.

This has not ended

in your Peace

or in My Peace

not of the world.

Why would you, still, now, suffer wounds,

take stripes, be beaten, any more

when He went to the stake for you

and by His wounds

you have been healed

with it is finished

on the tree?

You yet persist in unbelief

and shun the work I set for man

as My mark at the heart of life;

you yet persist

in witchcraft

of rebellion’s sin.

Why would you do this

to yourselves, and to your loss -

your whole head injured,

heart afflicted

dark and rotten at the core

of you, the apple of My eye?

From head to foot

there is no soundness – PEACE – in you,

only the wounds, only the welts

only the open sores that weep

not cleansed or bandaged, soothed

with Oil

of Mine the Glad Joy offered you,

or Water turned to Wine

by Christ?

How do your neighbors see you now?

Does their desire

declare you desolate, and gone,

your cities burned

and fields laid waste

and overthrown

by those who, at your borders, growl

and roar like waves

of seas in storm.

What have you done

with, Peace! Be still!?

What have you done with Word I sent

to heal the land?

You mourn like doves,

you seek the Scriptures

yet turn not, will not return

to Who I Am in Word I send,

in My long arm

revealed

in Peace.

I Am your Peace,

My Peace I give you,

wholeness in My sacrifice

for I provide Myself, the Ram,

when I provide My Son, the Lamb,

the Son of David

on the tree

and by My Spirit

bid Him, Live!

and by My Spirit

call you

to Come forth!,

to Me."

Thus says the LORD

Who opens up our graves

and speaks

and bids us

pass on

all He says.

‘My daughter, Zion, small, a remnant

now is left

a shelter

in My vineyard, found:

I AM, your Shield, and great Reward.

In her, in Him,

in Him, in her

awakened Love

gives birth to Hope,

the Hope that Changes Everything.

Her waters break

in songs that flood my heart

with fire:

Empassioned, full of zeal, I come

on wings mount up

to gain the walls,

unto a city under seige.

A battle rages over you.

Unless I come, perform My Words

of speaking Life,

none would be left.

Life from the dead would not be found

and you would be

like Sodom and Gomorrah, found

a wasteland, uninhabited.

As for the blood of bulls and goats,

of cattle and of sheep and rams -

what are they now, to Me, the LORD,

when I have sacrificed Messiah:

Bound upon a tree, He was,

the Word I sent and spent on you

upon Moriah’s brow, the Hill

where Isaac lay, was bound,

and by My Hand

went free indeed…

when I, myself, provided you with Who I Am

made flesh within the Son I sent,

unique among the sons of men,

the Seed of woman,

born of a virgin, overshadowed,

by I AM, the Spirit, hovering

of old,

the Lamb long slain

before the world’s foundation was,

before your father Abraham.

"I will provide Myself, a ram;

the broken Bread of Heaven, heals,

the Afikomen, hidden, found,

the hidden Matza in the sleeve.

Thus is My arm, revealed, raised up,

the Temple raised up in three days.

Beware suppression of the Truth.

Beware the way, that seeming good

is not the Way I sent to you

wherein I still provide I AM

in Tongues of Fire upon your head

to make you My Light, says the Lord,

to all the world.

Come follow Me;

I see you lead yourselves astray

with your traditions, built on sand.

Come, follow as I carry you

across the threshold of the Rock

to be a living sacrifice.

You still propose burnt offerings,

more blood of bulls and goats and lambs

in which I no more pleasure find.

Come meet with Me; you be My house!

Come seek My face, My arm, My hand.

Be an extension of My voice.

Be part and parcel of My word.

Bring Me yourselves, wholeheartedly.

Stop bringing things found meaningless;

their incense is detestable.

It makes Me sick

of more of what you offer up.

Offer yourselves.

Give Me your heart

to be a sacrifice of love.

Come be My House of Prayer for all,

for all the nations

that shall come.

You be that which My heart desires.

I’m sick of New Moon festivals -

the same old burdens I have borne.

I hate your feasts

where your conceptions

leave Me out, rejected and despised,

divorced.

Do not continue in your ways

in which My ways and thoughts

dissolve

in springs that rise

to quickly disappear in sands

with My face hidden

from your hands,

where prayers, though many, are not heard.

Cup Me within your hands and drink.

See the reflections of I AM.

Your ways have stained your hands with blood.

Wash in the streams that make Me glad.

Stop doing wrong;

learn to do good,

to hear and do

the Justice that My eyes desire.

Encourage the oppressed

with love;

defend the fatherless from loss

and plead the widow’s case with faith,

the Substance, I Am, in your midst.

In you, I would be manifest.

Come now and let us reason, child,

together, here;

don’t put it off – for time is shorter

than you know

and longer

than you yet have dreamed.

Eternity is spent

somewhere;

with Me is better, than without.

Come, seek My face, My touch,

My arm

to taste and see

all that I Am, have been, for you.

And all that I can be

in Love

that turns your sins,

though scarlet,

white as snow;

though crimson,

they shall be like wool.

You are My sheep

and I can set you free indeed

from all you might consider ‘dung’

that easily besets the soul,

the mire that weighs the wandering soul

that finds itself

lost and alone

and weary past all weariness.

I Am, the Shepherd of your soul,

gives voice to ways that are not yours,

to thoughts that you have not conceived.

Come, follow Me

into the Light I Am in you.

But if you won’t

your own blood

will be on your hands

and that of those you lead astray:

for nothing your shall lose your life

instead of finding all I Am.

Be willing and obedient,

a living sacrifice, alive,

eating the best from all the land

with healing in the Bread you serve.

Be not devoured

by the sword -

do not say, We will not! again.

Outside the Door

disaster waits

for which there is no cure at all.

Come now, and let Me rescue you.

See how the city, faithful once,

becomes a harlot, far from Me;

she once was full of righteousness;

the sound of Joy was in her streets.

She was the city of My Peace.

But now here streets are full of lies:

they murder Truth:

they make no room,

remove allowance

for My thoughts

that are not yourselves

and My ways that you leave behind,

enticed away

from Love that’s True.

You go a way, that seemeth right

but leads to hell, death and the grave:

you choose Me not

and I must choose you again,

O My Jerusalem of gold.

Your silver has become mere dross.

Your finest wine, with water turns,

diluted, with no song to share.

Your rulers, rebels, friends of thieves,

they all love bribes, chase after whores,

abandon their own flesh and blood

and do not plead the widow’s case.

By this, and more, I am disturbed,

observing loss.

Yet I will get relief from grief

to great to bear

and comfort those who are oppressed.

Though I have been long-suffering,

My enemies will taste My tongue

with is a sword:

against you, I will turn My hand,

to purge, removing all your chaff:

count it but dung,

this stench of what you rebels do.

My oar will sweep My threshing floor

until My harvest is but wheat.

I will restore

My judges

as in days of old,

the counselors you would not have,

the shepherds you have spurned as those

beneath the stations that you hold

of Mine, the cross, My shepherds bear.

I will restore

for I will search for you Myself,

and I will find you, says the LORD.

And send you shepherds of My heart,

after My heart,

to feed you with the finest fare.

Thus you shall taste and see I AM.

And afterward, you shall be called

the city of My righteousness,

the city, faithful, to the Lord.

Zion, with Justice, I redeem,

her penitent, with Righteousness,

not that of men, but that of G*D,

‘the real thing’,

the Substance of your unseen Hope,

the long, tall drink of My New Wine,

My Spirit, poured out, on all flesh.

Rebels and sinners, both, shall break,

crushed by the Stone

and broken by the Rock I AM;

come fall on Me:

find Mercy on the Mercy Seat

before the I AM falls on you.

Come rend your heart:

a new heart is My gift to you.

You must be born again, of Me,

and from above

and by My Spirit, says your God.

I listen to the sorrowful,

the conscience-stricken broken heart,

each contrite spirit that I find.

I do not count such pain as loss.

Through what you suffer, wealth will come:

My Spirit I will give to you,

and My Heart

to make all things new.

Eternal Life if Mine to give.

Freely receive, then be a light

to all the world.

But steadfast sinners,

rebels to the end, will not.

They say that, We will not! to Me

and it will be

to their own downfall

says I AM

for both shall break, crushed by the Stone

and broken by the Rock I send.

What will they be?

Forsaken, perishing in want, with fading leaves,

and roots that wither up and die,

uprooted from the Land of Hope.

Their sacred groves

will be their shame

from chasing after foreign gods.

Foreign delights

will dig their graves.

Their mighty men, a tender box,

their works, the sparks

that set a fire

no one can quench.

They burn together in a pile, a heap,

a mountain soon to be removed,

replaced with Mine:

the Mountain of My Presence comes.

The Rock not hewn by human hands

becomes the Mountain of I AM,

My Presence that shall fill the earth,

My Spirit poured out on all flesh.

The great wave of My Presence

grows;

My Kingdom comes and swells

in you.

This from the Mystery

you have known

because I draw you

says the Lord.’

Footnote to meditation on Isaiah 1: titled, What a Way which came at the same time as writing about the coal off the altar found in this first chapter of Isaiah. What a Way comes from reading Ps. 118:1-4. ‘What a way’ is part of the idiomatic phrase, What a way to go! Go being what God commands that we do in His Name and for His Name’s sake. It also may refer to the idiom, ‘out of here!’ as in I am out of here! as in ‘out of myself’, out of my skin to be clothed in Christ; or, losing the life that I have known and lived, to gain and know the New Life offered us in God, in Christ.

What A Way

-Ps.118:1-4-

What a way to start the day:

His Love endures forever!

What a ‘way to go’, today:

His Love endures forever!

What a Promise, over us:

His Love endures forever!

What a Word, upon a tongue,

that, by a coal, tastes Mercy:

His Love endures forever!

And, what is love?

That He loves us

before we ever seek Him;

and that He gave Himself, His Son,

while we were still, yet sinners,

while we, condemned, were guilty.

And what is love?

That, in our place, He perished.

And what is love?

That then, Your Spirit, raised Him.

What a way to face the world:

His Love endures forever!

What a Word upon a tongue

that, by a coal, tastes Mercy!

Every day we get what’s called

a more sure Word, prophetic:

We open up The Book and read,

and then, before long, live it:

His Love endures forever!

His point is made

within us.

Peace That Abides

-Isaiah 2-

I sit and still myself

to hear

the Peace that now abides

in you,

for He is ours

and we are His.

I stand, a messenger of Hope.

"My own shall come

from nations

to Jerusalem.

Let us go up,

is on their hearts.

My own shall form

from hearts of flesh

My living stones

upon My hill,

the Mountain of My Presence

there,

the pulse of music

to My ears."

Isaiah saw it from afar

and now those days

are coming true;

it comes to pass,

established, high

above the hills.

All nations stream,

go up, come up

and in their hearts

the ancient Word, alive,

draws them

to sing the Songs of Quickening.

Come now, and let us all go up

unto the Mountain of the LORD,

the Holy Hill,

into the temple of His house,

the Mystery of the Christ Who comes,

the God of Jacob, Who abides

in Mystery

as the Christ in you;

and He will teach us of His ways

and we shall walk and follow Him

and Word, from Zion, shall go forth.

And, out of Zion

shall go forth

the Word of YAHVEH

from the city of the King,

the city where He IS the same

from long before we kissed her gates

into forevermore, GOD’s Gift made flesh,

the I AM THAT I AM, revealed,

the arm, the Branch,

the Seed, the Root, the Shoot, the Star

that out of Jacob Is our Peace.

So is He with us as He said.

And He shall judge,

rebuking many in His Love:

many shall cease

from making war,

from feeding on their plans ‘for blood’:

many shall study war no more…

and so, find Peace.

O house of Jacob,

come ye, now:

awaken love

and walk now in the Light of Him,

forsaking all else, cleave to Life.

Your Maker is your husbandman.

‘Enter the Rock, the cleft within the Mountain’s side,

the Stone not cut by human hands,

the Presence that shall fill the earth

to cover it

as waters cover all the seas.

Present yourself as dust to Dust

that He may come and Breathe on you.

Humble yourself

as chosen ones,

bow down in reverential fear

and leave all arrogance behind:

count it but dung,

compared to fellowship with Him.

For in that Day,

the LORD alone, THE LORD IS THERE

within the midst of you shall be

exalted as the Lord of hosts,

least to the greatest, shall know Him.

Host Him that Day:

Fall on the Rock once struck for you;

be broken there

and weep as for a firstborn son,

an only fully unique Son

lest He come down and fall on you

and you be crushed

beneath the Weight of Glory, God’s.

The loftiness of man shall fall,

the haughtiness of men, brought low.

The fear of God shall be abroad,

the Weight of Glory, shaking, to the heart

each soul,

His Spirit poured out, on all flesh.

He shall arise to shake the earth

and be left standing, all alone,

for every other word shall fail

and every idol, utterly.

Cease then from Man,

for what is he accounted of?

Unless the Lord

speaks tenderly

to comfort and to heal our wounds,

forgiving all our many sins,

then what are we?

Ashes to ashes, dust to dust?

Where are we then?

He rises on the wings of dawn,

His mercies new as each day comes.

HE sent HIS Son, provides Himself, the Sacrifice

to save His people

from themselves,

to save all peoples

from their sins

and that our Joy

be mutual.

Many will hear.

Many have heard

and come to Christ

and found His Joy

to be our strength.

Selah. Amen.

Isaiah 3, a meditation

-On Judgments-

See now, take note;

be heedful of the ancient Words

of what shall ‘come around’, return,

and circle back

fulfilling prophecy of old

to light upon Jerusalem,

to change the center of the world,

prepare the way and clear the path

for His, Messiah’s, sure return

to be all He desires, with us

when she, the center, then shall be

THE LORD IS THERE.

All our supplies

of food and water,

warriors, hers,

and judges, prophets, counselors,

soothsayers, elders,

craftsmen, skilled

in making and repairing things

and all those now enchanting us -

all will be gone.

A bad time comes,

the best amid the worst of days

of great oppression

in the land,

a great contention everywhere

to be in charge

of what remains

appearing as a heap of ruins.

Without Him, where have our plans led?

Potential leaders, say the same:

"I have no remedy for this;

the cloak of my fails:

I can do nothing without Christ,

Messiah, the Anointed One

within me, in you, doing Good.

Alone, I can do nothing, friends;

do not make me your leader here,

established in a heap of ruins

for this requires

more than I am

or have to give."

He stands before me,

risen, seeing, hands outstretched,

our names engraved upon His palms;

and on His tongue, the ancient Words,

My Peace I give you, says the Lord.

But few have taken it to heart.

And few have found His Peace, their own.

Their words and deeds – against the Lord -

that call the Truth a blasphemy

will come upon their own heads, fall

and make her stagger

where she stands.

Judah will fall

defying He-Who-Is-our-Peace,

the Presence glorious to see.

Their faces look and testify

against themselves

with, We will not!

that echoes in the ears of God:

spoken to Him Who is our Peace.

Their own words bring their own downfall.

They bring disaster on themselves.**

How many are the days that stand

as days, of Visitation, missed?

But, tell the righteous, sharing this:

to cast their cares upon the Lord

because He says, I care for you.

And then it shall go well with them,

be well with them,

end well with them

with Peace that shall abide through time:

Peace that abides though trouble comes.

He is our Peace.

Then shall they laugh, rejoicing, shall enjoy

real Rest, the Sabbath Rest found every day,

the