Month: September 2019

• 42. Foundation and Cornerstone

Isaiah 28:16 Therefore thus saith the Lord God, behold, I lay in Zion for a foundationa stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.

God promised the Church He would lay a foundation with a cornerstone, for believers to build upon and trust in. In the NT this promise is fulfilled for us in the person of Jesus Christ and the Apostles, according to 1 Peter. We, as believers in Christ, rest on this promise. If we did not have a solid rock foundation we would crumble in the first wind and wave and storm, but He has given us a sure foundation and a precious cornerstone. The Apostles and their sure word of the Gospel of Jesus, spelled out and written down in the New Testament, is the foundation. Jesus Christ is the cornerstone, which is the blueprint and guide to the building and every stone in it. Believers are the stones that are fitly joined together. Each stone is chiseled and shaped to be aligned with and shaped like the cornerstone.

This is what the Lord is doing in His infinite wisdom with the whole church of Jesus Christ on the earth. And He is also doing something with each of the individual believers: the Lord is setting us on the sure foundation every day. The foundation of our lives is the pure Gospel of grace, the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. When we stray away and into the muck of sin He brings us back through the Gospel and sets us on the solid rock. The loving Lord keeps us on the right path and on the solid foundation with His sure Word of Gospel.

The Lord is also working on us, chiseling, shaping, sanding and smoothing us to resemble the chief cornerstone so that we look something like Jesus. Christ is our example and we reflect Him to the world. But we must be aware that He is the one who makes us Christlike; we do not do it ourselves with our own will, reason, effort or strength. We cannot hound ourselves with the Law (do this, do that, be better, try harder); instead we focus on Jesus and concentrate on Him by going to church, reading the Word, staying connected in prayer, and hearing the Gospel. Then He goes to work gently molding us in His image. We do not try to copy or imitate Jesus; He does the work on His forgiven building stones. Live on the promise.

• 41. Slay the Dragon

Isaiah 27:1 In that day the Lord with his sore and great strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea.

In the Messianic Age Jesus with the Word will punish and slay the Devil. This is the interpretation of the symbols. This is the promise for us: we by faith in Jesus overcome the Evil One with the Word of the Gospel. “In that day” = the Messianic Age; “the Lord” = Jesus Christ; “sore and great strong sword” = the Gospel; “punish, slay” = overcome, defeat; “leviathan, serpent, dragon” = Satan, the devil, the Evil One.

The defeat of Satan was at the Cross and the Tomb. The overcoming happens every time we use the Gospel. The final slaying will occur at the Final Battle when the devil is thrown into the lake of fire. From God’s point of view in eternity all of these events, past, present, and future, happen at one time, all at once. Christ has done it once and for all. All Enemies are overcome once, and continuously, and finally. By faith we see the Victory in the past and the future and experience it in the present. It is the sore and great strong sword out of the mouth of Jesus that does it. In Revelation 19 and 20 we read of that final battle and eternal judgment. 

It happens in time, in our past history, in our present moment, and in our future; but in God’s eternity it is all at once; and it is sure and final even though we are bound by time and physical space in regard to what we can see and hear. Therefore, God in His grace has revealed to us in His Word of Gospel what really happens. Every time we read the Word and hear the Gospel this Great Event happens to us fresh and new. How can going to church be considered boring? In church, where the Gospel is preached and administered, this most exciting event recurs time and again: Sin, death, and Satan are utterly defeated and Jesus gains the victory for us, and we win. 

Sin, Death, and Satan are real; their reality is not diminished, but enhanced, by God’s use of the most terrifying mythological beasts imaginable: leviathan the sea monster, the piercing and crooked serpent, and the dragon. The greater reality is that Jesus punished and slew them with the Word of the Gospel.

•  40. Bodily Resurrection

Isaiah 26:19 Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead.

There will be a bodily resurrection of all people. And that’s a promise; “dead men shall live.” To dwell in dust is a body that has died; it becomes dust and ashes. Bodies that have died, and whatever happens to the body afterward, will awake and sing for they will arise. The earth (the land or the sea) will cast out the dead. Wherever or however human bodies have died, they will rise again in their human bodies. All human beings who have ever lived will rise again in new bodies (even those who have died before they were born). We believe in the resurrection of all flesh, for so God has promised.

What happens to the resurrected body afterward is another story. In their resurrected bodies each and every person will stand before the Great White Throne Judgment and receive reward or punishment according to whether each has believed the Gospel or not. Then those believers, whose names are written in the Book of Life, will go on in the eternal life they have been given and enter into the joy of the Lord forever. That also is a promise, a fundamental promise for believers.

This resurrection of the body promise is a great comfort to mortals who live under the shadow of death. The first resurrection (Christ’s) is the absolute defeat of the last enemy, death. Believers in Christ are the partakers of Christ’s resurrection by faith. This promise has nothing to do with an ethereal or ghostlike afterlife where the soul floats with angels and clouds. The resurrection promise is material, substantial, solid, physical, and visible, just as real as the solid body of Jesus. This is where our hope stands, on the solid rock of the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ.

During this life we all get sick, injured, weak, weary, tired, and worn out. All the little deaths lead to, and are a part of, our final temporal death. Death separates the body from life and from loved ones. The Resurrection unites soul and body and reunifies loved ones. While we live we know that my dead body shall arise, and so we wait in faith. When we die the body rests where it is laid and the soul is with the Lord, and so we wait. 

• 39. Everlasting Strength

Isaiah 26:4 Trust ye in the Lord for ever: for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength.

It is possible and it is desirable to trust in the Lord forever, because the Lord is eternal; and the Lord is strength. Trust is rewarded because of whom the trust is placed in. The promise is that the Lord will be for us eternal strength. We have the promise that the Lord is strong for us; that strength has eternal dimensions; that strength has permanent consequences.

Because of the promise of the Lord being our strength we are able to be strong in the face of all trials and temptations. We are weak, but He is strong; we are mortal, but He is eternal. God can do what we cannot do. God does everything right all the time, while we often err and get things wrong. However, we can count of the Lord to make right what we got wrong; to strengthen us in our weakness, to carry out His will in the face of our own opposition.

Because God’s strength is strong and it is eternal we can trust in the Lord forever and for everything. Nothing escapes His notice, and nothing is beyond His ability to handle. This kind of trust enables us to live at peace and security: we can trust Him to hear our prayers and meet our needs according to His good and gracious will. He is strong to save; He is strong to hear; He is strong to answer; He is strong to care. Our trust will never be misplaced or disappointed; the Lord will do and can do what He promises. And no matter what happens in our life He knows about it and He is in charge of it. Our strength is in the Lord. In Him we cannot fail.

• 38. Perfect Peace

Isaiah 26:3 Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.

This is a conditional promise of perfect peace: if your mind is stayed on God, then He will keep you in perfect peace. Peace, perfect peace, comes to those who trust in the Lord. When we fear, love, and trust in God above all things we will be in peace. This we innately know to be true. We have learned that keeping the First Commandment perfectly results in very likely keeping all the Commandments. Keeping all the commandments brings many blessings and wonderful consequences. One of those blessings is peace. We would be at peace with God, with others in our life, and within our own heart. This kind of peace would probably be so strong that it would be palpable. God’s peace can be a powerful feeling that we may experience but can’t really explain. However, whether we feel it or not, the peace of God is still real and deep and permanent.

The problem is that sinners cannot actually trust in God above all things. We believe in God; we even believe God; we also trust in God for forgiveness and salvation; but our faith is mixed: we mix faith in God with faith in self, other people, and other things; we have “other gods.” Sinners cannot believe purely or have an unmixed trust in God alone. If we could completely love the Lord with all our heart and soul and mind and strength then we would love our neighbor as ourselves and obey all the commands of God perfectly. But we are unable to keep God first and only in our hearts and minds. Who actually does the will of God all the time?

Only Jesus Christ came to do the will of the Father and actually do it perfectly. He did it even when it meant suffering and death. And the Good News is that He did the will of God for us, in our place, and then offered His innocent life unto unjust death for our sake. Therefore, by our faith in Christ we have “trusted in the Lord,” since He did it for us. So we may claim this conditional promise as our own for Jesus kept the condition. By the work of the Holy Spirit through the Gospel we “trust in Him.” The Spirit brings us to faith in Christ, and that is enough for perfect peace. But still, to the degree that our “mind is stayed” on the Lord is the degree of peace. The more we are in the Word and hear the Gospel the more peace God will keep us in.

• 37. Rejoice in Salvation

Isaiah 25:9 And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God, we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the Lord,; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation.

In the prophets, the term “in that day” always refers to the Messianic Age, the time after Jesus has come to the earth and He did what He did. When Jesus came, we said, “This is our God…this is the Lord.” This was the message of the New Testament: the God we were waiting for has come, and He is Jesus of Nazareth. The OT believers said about the Messiah, “He will save us.” The NT believers said about the Messiah, “He is God, and He saved us.

The believers before Christ waited for Him. In the Bible “wait” means to wait in faith, to know with certainty that the wait will be worth it, and to know for sure that the hope will be fulfilled. God said it, and I believe it. Now I just wait in confidence. For the NT believers the wait is for the Second Coming of the Messiah. He said He was coming again, and just as surely as He came the first time, so surely will He come the second time. We wait in faith. Waiting is eager anticipation of something we know is coming. We wait in faith and patience. The longer it takes the more certainly we believe it. We do not become weary, but faith grows stronger as time goes by.

In that day (this day, today) we are glad and rejoice in His salvation. When we hear the Good News of Jesus and understand the meaning of God’s Word we are glad and rejoice. Joy fills our hearts and we are lifted up. The Messiah has given us His salvation. It is His because He did all the work and all the earning; we did nothing but receive the gracious gift. And there is no greater joy. We are blessed to live “in that day” when the joy of salvation is always present and available. When we sin and fail the Lord comes to restore the joy of salvation. Joy replaces the sadness of guilt. Hope replaces despair. Love replaces boredom. Life replaces death. Therefore, we rejoice in His salvation. And we wait in faith.

• 36. Death is Swallowed Up

Isaiah 25:7, 8 And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the vail that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord God will wipe away the tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the Lord hath spoken it.

Death is swallowed up in victory. Death is no longer a death, but now it is victory. Death has become the victory over death by the Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Death is defeated; death is smashed; death is destroyed; death is swallowed up; death is no more; death is gone forever. This promise is fulfilled in Christ. Paul confirms this promise in the great resurrection chapter of I Corinthians 15. This promise is for us who have a part in the first resurrection, the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. The promise will be fully realized in our own death and resurrection. And then the Lord God will personally wipe the tears from off all faces. This is certain, for the Lord has spoken it; and what God speaks is truth.

Death is a covering and a veil clouding the life of all people, since all people have been born in sin and the wages of sin is death. Just to have someone come and destroy death forever is great enough, but that He will replace death with victory is even greater. Life becomes what the Lord always intended it to be: eternal. We live in the ecstasy of victory every day because of this promise. Death and all of its little deaths (physical and emotional sufferings) has been overcome and driven out for all those who have received by faith the forgiveness of sins.

“In this mountain” means the Church on earth, which is heaven on earth, the place where the Lord makes Himself known through the Gospel. God has established a place into which we may enter to find sanctuary from the pervading influence of Death with its ever-present fears and worries. In this place we hear the Gospel that gives life. “Deliver us from evil” = “remove the veil of death and take us from this vale of tears to yourself in heaven.”

•  35. Luxurious Feast

Isaiah 25:6 And in this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined.

God promises a feast for believers when we shall all meet together for a glorious banquet; it is called the Marriage Feast of the Lamb in His Kingdom. Feasts and banquets are a common feature in Scripture at which good times are provided by the host. All of these banquets are a foreshadowing of that great marriage Feast. By this promise God gives His saved children something to look forward to. All believers are invited to this Feast both as attendees and also as the Bride for whom the feast is prepared. It is meant to give us good hope and pleasant feelings, the pleasant feelings of victory and celebration and the pure joy of being in the palpable presence of the Lord. This Marriage Feast actually goes on forever without end. It a symbol of one the most joyous events we experience on earth.

“In this mountain” symbolizes the Presence of God, the Church, and heaven on earth. Every Sunday we are invited to the feast where the Gospel is administered in Word and Sacraments. Communion has been called “a foretaste of the feast to come.” In the Divine Service the Lord is a gracious host serving a sumptuous feast of forgiveness, life, and salvation. The spiritual feast is more needed, more satisfying, more filling, more refreshing than any physical banquet on earth. It may not look like anything great or even taste like anything really delicious, but it is to the eyes of faith and for the souls of the believers. The Lord uses material substances, like fat things full of marrow and wines on the lees well refined, to help us understand the true spiritual greatness of the Feast.

The Feast is yet in our future, but it is also in our present when heaven comes to earth, when God enters the heart, when the Gospel is heard and believed. Oh, if could only see what is really happening to us when we are baptized, when we partake of the Lord’s Supper, when sins are forgiven, and when the Gospel is preached. Picture a Feast of Fat Things, a Feast of Wines.

• 34. Sin Purged

Isaiah 22:14 And it was revealed in mine ears by the Lord of hosts, Surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you till ye die, saith the Lord God of hosts.

Why does sin remain with us and continue in us until we die? We don’t really know a satisfactory answer to this question, but we do know that when we die sin will be finally purged. It takes death to fully and finally purge sin from our presence, and then we will live without the presence of sin as we live in God’s glorious presence forever. If we live without sin then we will also live without the consequences of sin; and the consequences of sin are many. We live with the suffering, pain, trouble, anxiety, etc., etc., as long as we are alive on earth. We long for that day when the Lord God Himself wipes all tears away personally.

The promise of living free from the presence and power of sin is held before us all through our lives. We have already received the promise of forgiveness of sin, and the penalty of sin has been forever removed (death is no more); in place of the penalty of sin comes the righteousness of God and life eternal. We are already in possession of forgiveness and life even before we die. And in addition, we have the sure promise of complete freedom from the presence and power of sin ever again; but we have to wait until we die to receive that. This is the “purging.” Inherent in this promise is that there will be no purgatory to endure before entering heaven. The cleansing has already taken place by death, the death of the Son of God. The purging by the Blood will take final effect by death, our own death. It is when we die that “we will be changed.” The resurrection of the body changes us into a new body that is absolutely without sin forever. 

We are still left with the question: Why doesn’t the Lord just take us to heaven as soon as we are saved? God has his reasons, but He has left us with this promise: Your sin will be purged from you when you die.

• 33 Babylon is Fallen

Isaiah 21:9 And, behold, here cometh a chariot of men, with a couple of horsemen. And he answered and said, Babylon is fallen, is fallen; and all the graven images of her gods he hath broken unto the ground.

Babylon is fallen, is fallen! This doesn’t sound like a promise. It is a prophecy, fulfilled in the vision of John in the Book of Revelation. God promises in this prophecy that Babylon will fall. Babylon is a metaphor for “the world” in Revelation and in the Bible generally. The faithful believer is warned to “come out of Babylon,” that is, come out of the world, even though you must remain in the world. But you must not be a part of the world’s temptations and the ways of worldly thinking. Jesus calls us to separation from our connections to the world’s way of life. He says it is possible to be in the world without being of the world.

One reason for separation from the world is that the world has the sentence of death upon it. It will end; it will be destroyed; it will fall. Anyone connected to the world will fall with it when everything evil will be confined to the lake of fire eternally. Since this promise will come true get out of the world now before the judgment.The world is under the control of the prince of the power of the air, and those who follow his lies and temptations will fall in condemnation with him. 

Jesus has rescued us from the world and it ways and from its sentence of death. Babylon has caused exceedingly much trouble and pain; therefore, the promise that it will fall is good news for us. We have been brought into a wonderful new kingdom of grace, living peacefully and prosperously under a new King of kings. This is the promise for those who repent and believe the Gospel: they have entered the Kingdom of God and escaped the kingdoms of the world. Babylon has long been used by Sin, Death and Satan to wreak havoc on God’s created beings. The Beast rules Babylon with the intent of destroying all people. But the Lord promises deliverance from that evil kingdom and given us the kingdom of God, which rules in our hearts and lives today and forever.

When the world seems to have its way we take hold of this promise: the world will fall and we shall reign with Christ. The truth of this promise is fulfilled daily when we turn away from the world and repent and then turn to Christ and believe the Gospel.