Life Scripture – Isaiah 58 – satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
Many years ago, when in Europe searching for my purpose in life, it became apparent that God was not leading me to stay … which meant coming back to Australia… which I didn’t want to do 
. I didn’t know what I was supposed to do here, had no idea where He was leading
Isa 58:1-14
(1) Cry aloud, do not spare, lift up your voice like a ram’s horn, and show My people their rebellion, and the house of Jacob their sins.
(2) Yet they seek Me daily, and delight to know My ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and one who did not forget the ordinance of their God. They ask of Me the ordinances of justice; they take delight in drawing near to God.
(3) They say, Why have we fasted, and You do not see? Why have we afflicted our soul, and You take no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast you find pleasure, and crush all your laborers.
(4) Behold, you fast for strife and debate, and to strike with the fist of wickedness; you shall not fast as you do today, to make your voice to be heard on high.
(5) Is it such a fast that I have chosen? A day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head like a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Will you call this a fast and a day pleasing to Jehovah?
(6) Is not this the fast that I have chosen? To loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed ones go free, and that you break every yoke?
(7) Is it not to break your bread to the hungry, and that you should bring home the wandering poor? When will you see the naked and cover him; and you will not hide yourself from your own flesh?
(8) Then shall your light break out as the dawn, and your health shall spring out quickly; and your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of Jehovah shall gather you.
(9) Then you shall call, and Jehovah shall answer; you shall cry, and He shall say, Here I am. If you take the yoke away from among you, the pointing of the finger, and speaking vanity;
(10) and if you draw out your soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall your light rise in darkness, and your darkness shall be as the noonday.
(11) And Jehovah shall always guide you and satisfy your soul in dry places, and make your bones fat; and you shall be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water whose waters fail not.
(12) And those who come of you shall build the old ruins; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; and you shall be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in.
(13) If you turn your foot because of the Sabbath, from doing what you please on My holy days, and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of Jehovah, honorable; and shall honor Him, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words,
(14) then you shall delight yourself in Jehovah; and I will cause you to ride on the high places of the earth, and feed yourself with the inheritance of Jacob your father. For the mouth of Jehovah has spoken.
For those who don’t know, Australians often refer to our vast, dry continent as “The Sunburnt Land” or “Sunburnt Country”. Among other sources, it is used in a song written by Geoff Bullock.
Australian Outback
GREAT SOUTHLAND
Chorus:
This is the Great South-land
of the Holy Spirit.
A land of red dust plains
and summer rains,
To this sunburnt land we will see a flood,
And to this Great South-land
His Spirit comes.
So at that time, reading from the NIV, all I saw was v11:
“The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.”
Desert Stream
Verse 11 was a promise to me, that even though I had NO idea what I would do in Australia, God was still with me and would sustain me.
Isaiah 58 continues to be revealed to me – but I will add more another time 