Isaiah 51:1
“Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the LORD: look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged.”
King James Version (KJV)
Read this verse in context with translation switching:
Read Full Chapter →When God's people feel small and few, He tells them to remember the rock they were cut from.
Context
Spoken to a discouraged remnant in Isaiah's book of comfort. The next verse names the rock and the quarry: 'Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you' (Isaiah 51:2). God is telling a small, weary people to remember where they came from, an old couple with no children who became a multitude.
What Does Isaiah 51:1 Mean?
God speaks to those who 'follow after righteousness' and 'seek the LORD,' people who are trying, and probably tired. He tells them to look down at their own foundation: 'the rock whence ye are hewn,' 'the pit whence ye are digged.' It is a stonecutter's picture, every block carrying the marks of the quarry it came from. The next verse tells them the quarry is Abraham and Sarah, two people far too old to have a single child, from whom God brought a whole nation. The point is tender: God built something vast out of almost nothing before, and He has not changed.
The deepest rock any of us is cut from is God Himself, again and again called 'the Rock' in Scripture. The early Christians saw that Rock as Christ, the steady foundation under everything (1 Corinthians 10:4). When we feel too small or too few to matter, this verse turns us to remember the One who made us and the long story of what He has done from unlikely beginnings. Our origin is in His faithfulness.
In the Original Language
tsur (צוּר), 'rock' -- a solid cliff or boulder; throughout Scripture a favorite name for God as our firm foundation.
Application
When we feel insignificant or outnumbered, God invites us to look back at the rock we were cut from, the long record of His faithfulness from the smallest of beginnings. The same God who made a nation from one aging couple is our foundation still, and in Christ that Rock holds firm. Our smallness has never been a problem for Him.