I.
Notice how this selection from the Prophet Isaiah ends,

Thus says the Lord,
       your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:
I am the Lord your God,
       who teaches you how to succeed,
       who leads you in the way you should go.

As you read this passage, what kind of people does “the Holy One of Israel” redeem?

II.
Isaiah 48:3–8a, 17 (New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition)

The former things I declared long ago;
       they went out from my mouth, and I made them known;
       then suddenly I did them, and they came to pass.
Because I know that you are obstinate,
       and your neck is an iron sinew
       and your forehead brass,
I declared them to you from long ago,
       before they came to pass I announced them to you,
so that you would not say, “My idol did them;
       my carved image and my cast image commanded them.”

You have heard; now see all this;
       and will you not declare it?
From this time forward I tell you new things,
       hidden things that you have not known.
They are created now, not long ago;
       before today you have never heard of them,
       so that you could not say, “I already knew them.”
You have never heard; you have never known;
       from of old your ear has not been opened.
For I knew that you would act very treacherously
       and that from birth you were called a rebel.

Thus says the Lord,
       your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:
I am the Lord your God,
       who teaches you how to succeed,
       who leads you in the way you should go.

III.
How are the people The Lord redeems described?

Do they seem to you like people who deserve redemption?

What might we think they deserve?

charles
{ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est}