ENCOUNTER: ISAIAH 40:1-31
🌑 NEW MOON: Slowly sit with the passage - START HERE
Moon & Marginalia carries one passage across a lunar month — Encounter at the new moon, then Widen, Deepen, and Embody as it waxes and wanes. The whole Isaiah 40 cycle is free, start to finish. If you want to keep going beyond this cycle, you can upgrade to a paid subscription and get the next cycle and the archives (started August 2026).
OVERVIEW
Full Text
40:1-31
Big Idea
The God above all others is making a way home and will sustain them on the journey.
Smaller Bites
V 1-11 // God is making a way out of Exile
V 12-17 // The nations cannot compare
V 18-20 // Other gods do not compare
V 21-25 // Rulers do not compare
V 26-31 // Human strength does not compare
Church of St. Brendan the Navigator, Bantry, County Cork, Ireland
Detail of third window of the south wall with stained glass depicting Isaiah 40:11 He gathers the lambs in his arms. Created by Watson & Co, Youghal, in 1906.
Photo: Andreas F. Borchert, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE, via Wikimedia Commons
ENCOUNTER
Take your time to encounter Scripture this week. You can complete this cycle of reading the text all in one day, across the week, or over and over. Remember, it’s not about going fast or checking it off your list. It’s about sitting in it for a while.
We will:
commit - decide what you what want for this time in Scripture or with God
ponder — dig a little deeper on your own into a couple of phrases
make — create something inspired by the passage and your feelings
Use the following prompts to see what Scripture has for you today (and what you’re bringing along for the journey).
Commit
The New Moon is about intention. So take a moment to set an intention for this month. Here are some prompts to get your reflection started. Then if you’d like, you can share it in the comments (or keep it for yourself).
What question do you want to bring with you to the text this month?
What are you willing to keep showing up for even if nothing happens?
Listen
Take time to read through in an unfamiliar version. These are two of my favorites.
Ponder
Pick a couple of words, phrases, or concepts to read more about. Pick no more than 3. This is about going deeper, not wider. Here are some helpful places.
The NET Bible – it has notes that help dive into the language and some (more conservative) commentary available
STEP Bible - has an interactive, interlinear lexicon so you can look up and understand Hebrew words, and you can look at how multiple Bible translations render it. I’ve pulled up the ESV and NIV for you.
Respond
Now you can pray in response to the passage. This does not need to be tidy. You can ask questions that come up, frustrations, as well as aha moments and gratitudes. It doesn’t have to be “happy” to be helpful. You may even want to simply read and pray the words that stand out to you in a more modern translation.
Or you can use these prayers based on the text — there’s a frustrated version and a hopeful one.
Frustrated Version
God who speaks tenderly,
we have been shouted at in your name.
We come with the complaint intact:
that you have not seen our trouble,
that you have ignored what was done to us.
You do not correct us for saying it.
You answer with comfort.
So fill in what was hollowed out.
Level what was piled against us.
Make the road straight through this place,
because we do not have the strength to build it ourselves.
We are grass. We know.
Let that be mercy and not threat.
And when we are weary,
do not ask us to soar.
Carry us close, the way you carry the lambs.
Lead us gently, the way you lead
the ones still feeding their young.
Amen.
Hopeful Version
God of the coming word,
you told them their sad days were gone
before there was any sign of it.
We are still watching the road.
But we have heard the voice in the wilderness
and we believe there is a way through,
even where we cannot see the ground.
The grass withers. The flowers fade.
Kingdoms hardly take root before the wind takes them.
Let us hold what is passing loosely,
and what is lasting with both hands.
Give us the strength you give the powerless.
Not the strength that never tires,
but the kind that rises after.
You who call each star by name
and do not lose one of them:
you have not lost us.
Amen.
Rest
Now that you have some other versions under your belt, here is the NIV. Use this or one of the other versions and choose ONE phrase, word, or idea. Then set a timer for 1-5 minutes and simply sit with that one thing. That’s all. Just let it soak in.
Make
What did you feel or imagine while sitting with this passage? Take some time now to create. It can look however you’d like, such as a …
poem
paraphrase
drawing or painting
Dance
Song
Baked good
Collage
Fiber art
Candle or essential oil mix
Unique herbal tea
Woodworking item
Origami figure
Something else
Think about how you felt, what else makes you feel that way, and how this creative moment can help you process that further. (And be sure to tell us what you create or show it to us in the comments.)
Moon & Marginalia carries one passage across a lunar month — Encounter at the new moon, then Widen, Deepen, and Embody as it waxes and wanes. The whole Isaiah 40 cycle is free, start to finish. If you want to keep going beyond this cycle, you can upgrade to a paid subscription and get the next cycle and the archives (started August 2026).