Month: February 2020

194. Peace like a River

Isaiah 66:12 For thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the Gentiles like a flowing stream: then shall ye suck, ye shall be borne upon her sides, and be dandled upon her knees.

The Lord promises to the Church, and the believers in it, that He will extend peace to her like a river and glory like a flowing stream. He promises that the Church will suck nourishment and refreshment and health from the life-giving milk of Mother Church. Like a tenderly cared-for baby the believers would be carried by the Church and dandled upon her knees. What God promises us is tender loving care, loving nourishment for life, safety and protection under His care.

The peace is the peace of God that He shares with us. This peace is pictured as a person basking along the banks of a peacefully flowing river, a bucolic scene that conjures feelings of security and relaxation. In God’s loving hands we are so cared for that peace flows over us and through us. This peace with God is the peace of God that passes understanding. “Since we have been justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Peace is negatively described as the absence of war, strife, fighting, anger, upset, turmoil, frustration, chaos, and a life out of order. Peace is positively described as the presence of safety, security, satisfaction, being at ease, comforted, contented, and everything is right and good. By faith in Christ we are always and continually at peace, and sometimes peace is an actual feeling. But we have peace all the time whether we feel it or not. Peace always returns after strife, turmoil and chaos. And in both good times and in bad times the peace of God will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. We have ups and downs, but peace undergirds us always. Then One Day peace will rule absolutely everything forever, and it will be a strong feeling, like a peacefully flowing stream that floods the soul. This is a promise we enjoy now by faith and we will enjoy later by sight.

193. Satisfied and Delighted

Isaiah 66:11 That ye may suck, and be satisfied with breasts of her consolations; that ye may milk out, and be delighted with the abundance of her glory.

God promises that we shall be satisfied and delighted with the nourishment and refreshment that He gives. God nourishes and provides and feeds us through the Gospel of Jesus Christ while the Holy Spirit gives life. 

We suck milk from the breasts of consolations. The milk of God’s Word is enough to keep us alive and healthy, and the comforts of the Word satisfy us when we hear it and believe it. We go to church to suck the milk of God’s Word. We “milk out.” We may and should grow up further and eventually we be fed with solid food. Solid food is for the mature, but we may still milk out on the breasts of her consolation, for we are continually in need of comforts in a cruel world.

The “her” in this promise is the Church, through which the Holy Spirit preaches the Word and administers the Sacraments. Whenever and wherever believers gather in Jesus’ name He is with us to nourish, comfort, and refresh with the Word. And more than being merely satisfied we are also delighted with the abundance of the glory of the Church. The Glory of the Lord is present on earth in the Church where the Word feeds believers. Every Sunday, and hopefully daily, we are filled with more and more joy caused by the abundance of glory. The glory that we are exposed to when we receive and believe the Gospel of forgiveness and life is more abundant than we minimally need. It brings joy to the world and joy to the heart. 

The promise is that what God gives on account of Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit using the Word of Gospel is always enough: it satisfies and delights. Even if we receive only the breast milk of the Word it is enough. We go on to solid food, but we never outgrow the need for the milk of comfort from the Church through the Word of Gospel proclaimed.

192. Not hurt nor Destroy

Isaiah 65:25 The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock: and dust shall be the serpent’s meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the Lord.

The wolf, the lion and the serpent are deservedly scary creatures for many human beings on earth. We naturally fear their threatening dangers because they are capable of hurting and destroying defenseless sheep and weak people. All three animals are used in Scripture as metaphors for the Devil, and Satan, the great dragon. The physical image is used to picture spiritual truth. We should rightly be afraid of the destroying power of the devil, like a wolf that snatches and scatters, like a lion that prowls around and devours, and like a serpent that tempts and deceives. The devil’s purpose is to steal, kill, and destroy.

But here we have a prophecy that the wolf and the lion and the serpent shall be overcome and tamed, meaning that the devil is overcome and tamed. The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ overcame and rendered him harmless. Therefore, we may properly fear some wild and fierce animals, but, with Jesus, we will not fear the threats and scares of Satan. He cannot hurt nor destroy.

Jesus overcame the devil first in the wilderness Temptation, and then Mark says, “He was with the wild beasts.” Then He crushed the serpent’s head at the Cross. Then He violently overthrew Satan and all His powers in the Resurrection. Finally, He will at the End of Time Judgment Day hurl the devil into the eternal lake of fire. Meantime, while we wait for that final overthrow we have the sure word and promise of God.

“My holy mountain” refers to the Paradise of God, the dwelling place of God and all believers in heaven, the kingdom of God. Presently the “holy mountain” is the Church on earth. And the holy mountain is the presence of God on the earth and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. In that place, in the Church and in the heart, Satan will not hurt nor destroy. If and when you sense the attacks of Satan, then take hold of this promise and pray, “Deliver us from evil.” One little word can fell him, and he can harm us none; he’s judged, the deed is done.

191. God will Answer

Isaiah 65:24 And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear.

The Lord God is so anxious to hear and answer our prayers and waiting for us to pray that He even answers before we call and hears before we speak. In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus says: “Your Father knows what you need before you ask him [Matthew 6:8].” This is certainly a motivation to pray, not a deterrent, for the Lord so much wants to answer prayer he is just waiting for us to ask. And then for greater encouragement Jesus gives us the Lord’s Prayer and says, “Pray then like this.”

The promise that the Lord will answer and will hear is a promise that encourages us to engage with God in an intimate relationship of Father and Child. Even before we call He will answer. This promise reveals to us that God Himself, the Holy Spirit living within, prompts us to pray what He wants prayed so that He can develop an even closer relationship with us. When God gives us the prayers to pray then we know it is God’s will, and if we know that our prayer is according to His will He hears us, as promised in I John 5:15.

How do we know what God’s will is and what he wants us to pray? We know His words and hear His voice when we read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest the Word of God. God reveals His will in the Word and the more we read and hear it the better we know the mind of Christ. We also know that we can pray the thoughts and intents of the Lord’s Prayer since Jesus told us to “pray like this.” It teaches us to pray for more of God and less of me in my life, and for forgiveness, provision, and protection. We can be sure that this is God’s will. 

The Lord will lead us to ask for good things and for the Holy Spirit, and then we can be sure He hears and answers, according to His promise. And there are many times the Lord answers before we pray, at least, He has answered in His determination and purpose; then He prompts us to pray and waits for our prayer. It is as if God says, “Well, you finally asked for what I wanted to give you.”

Remember God’s promises: “Ask and it will be given;” “You have not because you ask not.” Imagine the Lord just sitting next to you anxiously waiting for you to call and speak. He can hardly wait, for He loves you so much.

190. Build, Inhabit, Plant, Eat

Isaiah 65:21 And they shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them.

The promise of a Promised Land echoes the promises to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Moses. There is a Land still coming for believers, where everyone in the land of milk and honey will live under their own vine and fig tree. It is luxuriant ease that seems to be at the heart of the promises of Land for God’s people. This promise was fulfilled in the coming of the Messiah, who ushered in and guaranteed such an inheritance for His own. 

Fertility and abundance is symbolized in the life of Jesus when He turned the water into wine, fed the 5000, healed diseases, cast out demons, and stilled the storm. However, in the New Testament the transference from physical luxury to spiritual luxury must be realized and understood. It is hard for earthly humans to understand spiritual abundance and to see what it means. The wealth and easy living included in the forgiveness of sins, eternal life and salvation is not readily seen; but we can quickly understand physical wealth and creature comforts. Therefore, the Lord uses the physical and earthly experiences to explain the spiritual and heavenly.

The promise of building houses and living at peace in them has seemed like an impossible dream for most people in the history of the world. The promise of planting one’s own vineyards and eating the fruit of them in peace is still a dream for many people of the world. The picture depicted is one of peace and prosperity and also of safety and security. This is the dream of “land” for most people. But the reality of most of history’s people has been war, famine, pestilence, marauding, plundering, stealing, and violence. Most people have lived in fear of these evils coming upon them. And all these people wonder why it has to be this way, and they innately know that life could be better.

Now Jesus makes that hope and dream a fulfilled reality. Faith in Jesus transfers the dream of physical ease into the reality of spiritual wellbeing. This kind of life is ours in the heart by faith right now, and in the resurrection it will become a physical reality by sight and experience. Go ahead, dream of that better life, but remember that such a life is already yours now in Christ. The kingdom of God is within you, and it is richer than your dreams.

189. Present Age Not Remembered

Isaiah 65:17 For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.

The former shall not be remembered. Former what? The old heaven and earth in we now live, as opposed to the new heavens and a new earth. We know this is coming after Jesus returns and after Judgment Day. We look forward to what lies ahead and we can’t wait for the New Creation, for which we have already been given a new life in Christ.

Does this really mean we will have no memory of this whole lifetime of history on this earth? How can this be? In what way is this true? We don’t really know for sure, but we can guess that we have no memory of sin, evil, and all the bad things that have happened to us during our lifetime. It seems, though, that we will have a strong memory of the good things God has done for us and even through us. We will certainly remember the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and so we we shall remember all that God has done throughout history, for we will praise Him forever for who He is and for what He has done. But all sin and guilt will surely be gone forever and we will never be reminded of our sins ever again. Repentance will not be necessary, for we will have no sin to be repented of. In the new heaven and new earth we will know only God and good. We will never again know good and evil (which came from that forbidden tree).

When we think more deeply about what life will be like in eternity we can only speculate, but we do have hints. And when we think about it, of course there would be no remembrance of former things, the temporal things, the transitory things, the things that are presently seen by sight, or any of the bad things that bring sadness. The only things we have are eternal things. The only memory we will have is of God and all the good things He has done for us. This kind of memory will be a strong motivation for us to never sin again, for we shall only enjoy the good God and His great blessings. All of this is a part of “his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire [2 Peter 1:4].“

By faith we forget what lies behind and strain forward to what lies ahead. This thought and this hope and this faith enter into our hearts today every time we hear the Gospel afresh. Eternal life is in the heart and no one can take it away. Imagine what life will be when we no longer remember the former things. Take hold of this promise, and, while you wait in faith, forget what God forgets and remember what God remembers.

188. Former Troubles Forgotten

Isaiah 65:16 That he who blesseth himself in the earth shall bless himself in the God of truth; and he that sweareth in the earth shall swear by the God of truth; because the former troubles are forgotten, and because they are hid from mine eyes.

The promise given to Abraham was that through him all the nations of the earth would bless themselves. This means all people would be blessed through the promise to Abraham, which was that a Messiah, a Savior, would come through his descendants. In Christ the world’s people would be blessed (bless themselves) through the same faith as Abraham’s. Those believers could swear by the God of truth.

We can bless ourselves in the God of truth and swear by the God of truth because He promises to forget our former troubles. The Lord hid our troubles from His own eyes because of the blood of Christ. The death of Christ covers our sins, forgiving and forgetting them, and the subsequent troubles caused by sin and its curse. God Himself hid our former troubles from His eyes. He puts our sins behind Him, walks away from them, never sees them, and He never brings them up again.

God’s forgetting of our sins and troubles is a significantly important truth in regard to our faith and life and our relationship with God. Humans have a hard time forgetting what they forgive, but God does not have a hard time forgetting. The emotions caused by hurt and pain may linger with us for a while, even sometimes for a very long time. God is also hurt and angry over sin and what it does to the people He created and loved, but the active love of God is more powerful than the wrath of God. When God gave us Jesus He gave us Himself. When God sees love working out in human history to save and forgive us He overwhelmingly loves. He loves us in Christ, and that love overcomes His just wrath. The result is that God forgets. “Love is strong as death; love is the very flame of the Lord [Song of Solomon 8:6}.” Nothing in heaven or earth or under the earth will overcome the strong love of God. Promise!

187. Seed Inherits the Mountain

Isaiah 65:9 And I will bring forth a seed out of Jacob, and out of Judah an inheritor of my mountains: and mine elect shall inherit it, and my servants shall dwell there.

Jesus the Christ is the seed out of Jacob and the inheritor out of Judah. And all the elect (believers in Christ) will inherit it, and all believers will dwell there (in God’s holy mountain). God’s mountains are the kingdom of God, the Paradise of Eden, the dwelling place of God, the eternal heaven of God. The elect and the servants are the believers in Christ, the invisible Church. The seed out of Jacob is the Seed of the Woman who will be born out of Jacob’s line and become the Savior of the world. The inheritor out of Judah is the Descendant of Judah who will be the king and inheritor of the Paradise of God. The seed and inheritor is Jesus.

All people who believe in Jesus Christ are a part of the seed with Jesus. All believers share the inheritance Jesus earned for us; we are inheritors with Jesus of the Kingdom of God. “The kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe the Gospel.” Jesus announced the fulfillment of this prophecy; He made the promise come true for those who believe and follow Him.

As seed and inheritors of the Kingdom, we look forward to the full unveiling of the Kingdom of Glory into which we shall enter after the Judgment Day at the second coming of Jesus. But not only is the Kingdom a sure future; it is also a reality in the present. During this present Age the kingdom comes to us all the time. Jesus taught us to pray: “Thy kingdom come.” We enter into the kingdom every time we hear and believe the Gospel proclamation, receive Absolution, and partake Holy Communion. We may not see it or feel it, but we believe it because God says so. The Word of God shows us those wonderful, eternal, spiritual truths that we cannot see. The spiritual world is more real (if that is a word) than the physical world we do see. “The things that are unseen are eternal.”

Not only will we dwell there by sight on That Day.  We dwell there now by faith. We take that promise by faith and we enjoy the presence of God wherever we are. We repent and believe the Gospel to enter into that invisible dwelling place of God.

186. Destroy not, Bless

Isaiah 65:8 Thus saith the Lord, As the new wine is found in the cluster, and one saith Destroy it not; for a blessing is in it: so will I do for my servants’ sake, that I may not destroy them all.

“Whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.” The believers in Christ will not perish, or be destroyed, but they will have eternal life, a blessing. So God promises and so He fulfills: Jesus is the blessing, and Jesus prevents destruction. The Enemy seeks to destroy, but Jesus destroys the works of the devil. Perishing is the result of sin, but Jesus died to forgive sin and take it away. Therefore, because of Christ the promise is sure: a blessing is in it. The blessing in the cluster of grapes is Christ Himself, the life of God, which is eternal. This eternal life is the blessing. Jesus is the new wine that is in the cluster of grapes. Thus it cannot be destroyed, but what is in it is a blessing. This is what God will do for us.

The Lord has no pleasure in the death of the wicked, the unbeliever, but the punishment of death is necessary and required by the Law, for the sake of justice; but if something good can be found in us then we shall not be destroyed. The sin and death that is in us will be destroyed, like the trampling of the grapes. This trampling releases the juice, which becomes the new wine. The new wine is Jesus and His life. God promises us this new life. We need to believe this promise, for we do not easily see the new life that arises daily in the baptized and resurrected soul. So we need to hear the word of gospel in order to see the truth.

Something good is in us, but be careful; for the goodness in us is Jesus. There is nothing good in us (“call no man good”). Anything good in us is God, not us. It is a false statement to say the saying: “There is a little good in the worst of us, and little bad in the best of us.” Not true: there is nothing good in any of us, but only bad in all of us. But by faith in Christ God places goodness in us, His goodness, His life. Now there is something worth saving: it is God in us. This life of God that lives in our spirit is the “blessing that is in it.” And God says, “So will I do for my servants.”

Take this promise to heart. You have God’s life in you. You have a blessing in you. We can by faith be a blessing and give life to others by bearing fruit. We bear fruit by abiding in the Vine. We are not destroyed; we live.

185. Not Remember Sin

Isaiah 64:9 Be not wroth very sore, O Lord, neither remember iniquity for ever: behold, see, we beseech thee, we are all thy people.

Both Isaiah and Jeremiah give us God’s promise: “I will remember your sins no more.” Because we are God’s people we are holy and sinless; as His people the Lord does not remember our sin any more and He will not ever again forever. It is hard to imagine that God cannot do something, since He can do all things. The truth is, God could remember our sins if He wanted to. He chose not to. Why? Because of His total, unconditional and eternal love He chooses not to remember our sin.

However, we sinners, who don’t believe God so perfectly, do remember our sins. We may even remind God of many of the past sins for which we feel the guiltiest. And the devil helps us remember; he reminds us over and over of all the sins we have committed and omitted. The devil wants us to experience guilt and shame without letup; and he wants to drive us to despair, so that maybe we give up and take our own life. So we must say to Satan: “God does not remember; so be gone!” If God does not remember, who do I think I am that I remember?

Remembering is an art. It takes wisdom and discipline to remember the good things and forget the bad things. Ask the Lord for such wisdom. God forgot all the sins; God remembers the blood of Christ. This is our daily job: remembering and forgetting: we may daily forget our sins and failures and remember God’s forgiveness and love. We remember our Baptism by drowning the old man in repentance and rising to new life by faith. In Holy Communion we “Do this in remembrance of me.” Again, we prepare for Communion by sincere repentance and faith. We remind ourselves again and again of the forgiveness of sins and the life and love of God daily when we receive Jesus Christ and His Gospel message. With Paul we do what he does in Philippians 3:13-14: “ But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

Take hold of this promise and ask God for the wisdom to know what to forget and what to remember. Remember what God remembers and forget what God forgets.