Month: February 2020

174. Delight and Married

Isaiah 62:4 Thou shalt no more be termed Forsaken; neither shall thy land any more be termed Desolate: but thou shalt be called Hephzibah, and they land Beulah: for the Lord delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married.

Hephzibah = “My delight is in her.”  Beulah = “Married.” God promises that He will delight in us; He smiles upon us; He rejoices over us; He exults over us. The “her” that the Lord delights in is the Church, the people of God, the family of God, the Bride of Christ, that is, all believers in Christ as a group and each individual believer in it. The land that shall be married to Christ is the Church, the Kingdom of God, the people of God gathered in union with Jesus Christ. 

The people whom God created and redeemed make God happy. When the Lord looks upon us with fatherly love and motherly care it makes Him happy, for He sees reflected His own goodness and mercy. And it is beautiful. The Lord delights in the choices we make, the words we speak, the things we do, and the thoughts we dwell on. These are all good as God sees us; this makes Him happy. Now He also sees the sin in us: it is ugly to Him; it repulses Him; He hates it; and it makes Him sad. He is grieved over our sins. So he does something about it: he gave His Son to take it away. The blood of Christ cleanses us from every sin, so that the Holy Spirit living in us mixed with our human spirit is able to give joy to the Lord. The Lord is interested in us and watches us to see how we react to adversity, how we choose our words and actions, and how we think about our relations with others and with the world. And “there is more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents.” We repent of sin and believe the Gospel and that puts a smile on God’s face. And it is a blessing for us when God is smiling on us and rejoicing over us. Our faith makes the Lord so happy He wants to join in marital union with us.

Sin causes separation, forsakenness, and desolation. And there may be no greater fear in the human heart than being Forsaken and Desolate. We know that the strongest fear children have is the fear of abandonment. Death of a parent, divorce of parents, abuse from father or mother, and neglect from Mom and Dad is terribly devastating. This primal fear, caused by sin, is even worse than fear of torture, pain and death. For this reason the Lord joins Himself to us, delights in us, and takes us as His beautiful bride. And we are eternally united to God and securely taken care of. 

Note that God is delighted in you, the person, your faith, and your relationship with Him. He loves your good works, but it is not your works that delight the Lord so much as your faith in Him (which produces the good works). Make God happy: believe His promises.

173. Crown and Diadem

Isaiah 62:3 Thou shalt also be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God.

A crown and a diadem is the same thing: it is the symbol of authority. A king has absolute authority; whatever he says goes. He word is law, making law and enforcing it. A king’s crown makes him the lawmaker, judge, jury, and executioner. The subjects of the king want to get on his good side. His word can mean life or death for any subject under his control.

God, of course, is the only King, and there can be no other. And all authority in heaven and earth has been given to Jesus. This is good news because this king wearing the crown is wise and good, gracious and kind, always knowing the right thing to do and doing it. Therefore, all men would be wise to submit themselves to this king. We know He is good and will do the right thing for us because He has already given His life for us and given us eternal life. The Cross exhibits His Love; the Empty Tomb shows us His Life. The Gospel tells me I am glad to let Jesus be my King and let Him take over my life.

But there is further Good News in this promise: He gives the crown to us and makes us kings. The Lord shares His authority with us. Just like Jesus shares his life, so He shares His glory and authority. The Holy Spirit exercises this awesome authority in our lives. He grants forgiveness of sins; He gives eternal life; He leads and guides us in the right way; He develops and grows the fruit of the Spirit; He gives gifts to all, and finally, the Holy Spirit makes us kings with the right to rule over Sin, Death, and the Devil. We have the authority to pray in the name of Jesus to thwart the will of the Devil, the World and our own Flesh, and further the will of God in our lives (“Thy will be done…”).

This crown that we have been promised may be a very underutilized promise. We tend not to use it as often as we could. How much do we really pray for God‘S Name, God’s Kingdom, and God’s Will to be hallowed among us, to come to us, and to be done in our lives? We may indeed pray the Lord’s Prayer often, but do we use the crown to specifically overcome the Enemy and make our lives better? It is amazing that the Lord would entrust His authority to us, and make us a crown and diadem in His hand. Thank God for such authority over Evil.

172. A New Name

Isaiah 62:2 And the Gentiles shall see thy righteousness, and all kings thy glory: and thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the Lord shall name.

God promises us a new name. A name is the identity of a person and a person’s name is important to the individual. My name makes me distinctive, unique, and distinguishes me from everyone else. That God will give us a new name means that each individual is someone special to Him. Indeed, the Lord regards me as someone special, something I always wanted to be. I want to be famous, well known, and highly regarded by other people. I want to “make a name for myself.” I need to be recognized, receive attention, and singled out as someone who is noticed. I cannot be a cipher, someone whose life doesn’t matter to anyone.

But it is much more important to be noticed, distinguished, will known, highly regarded, remembered, and something special to God. That is what the new name given by the Lord Himself does for me. We know that God loves me, that He has gone to great lengths to make me His own, that I am a pearl of great price and a special treasure to God, but that He cares enough about just me to give me His own new name to mark me out a one on whom He has set His pleasure and favor and blessing is even more special.

The Lord has put His name upon me, and I bear that name with pride and glory. But His name is upon every one of billions of believers. That He would single me out from all of God’s people with my own new name given by the Lord Himself makes personal the love of God toward me. In Revelation 3:12 Jesus gives me 1) the name of my God, 2) the name of the city of my God, and 3) my own new name. This third promise is new, unique, and personal for me. I will bear that name forever in His city, His kingdom, and His Church.

God gave a new name to Jacob and to Simon, each name symbolizing something particular in relation to the calling He has placed on them. The new name says something about me, what God has created me to become and given me a destiny to fulfill. In Christ, I cannot consider myself to be worthless and insignificant. I have a new name that defines who I am in God’s loving sight.

171. Righteousness and Salvation

Isaiah 62:1 For Zion’s sake will I not hold my peace and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth.

Zion and Jerusalem = the Church, the people of God, the group of believers in Jesus Christ. For the sake of creating a people for Himself, a people who will love God and believe Him, the Lord will not rest until He gets what He wants. The Church, people like you and me, is what God wants, and He will make it happen. When the Son of God enters human history, dies for sin, and rises for life, and when this Gospel is preached and the Spirit creates faith in those who hear it, then the Lord can rest. And what a rest that will be.

The promise is that righteousness will be brightness and salvation will be a lamp. This promise is for the church and for each individual in it. We are bright lights in a dark world. If we could see the aura surrounding Christians we would see a dazzling brightness and a shining lamp. “Let your light so shine.” We do know how bright and beautiful righteousness is, and we don’t know how salvation looks like a brilliant lighthouse beacon penetrating the darkness. But it is because we do not see it that the Lord must tell us and unveil the spiritual world for us in His Word. The promise is real, true and undeniable: the Church is the bright light reflecting God’s glory and brilliant love.

The Transfiguration has opened up the curtain a little bit so that a few witnesses were able to get a glimpse. God showed His brilliance to Moses, though it was just His backside passing by. Ezekiel and Isaiah saw the Lord. The Lord peeled back the veil in the Book of Revelation to show John the beauty and brightness of Jesus, heaven, righteousness and salvation. Through these few examples we have enough witnesses to show what is really going on behind the veil. 

The Lord promises us that One day we shall enter in behind the veil and experience by sight the grand and glorious presence and love of God. By faith we enter in daily and are blinded by the light of God’s righteousness and salvation. And it is a free gift, earned and distributed by Jesus.

170. Righteousness and Praise

Isaiah 61:11 For as the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden causeth the things that are sown in it to spring forth; so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations.

The metaphor of vegetative growth is used by the Holy Spirit to reveal what happens spiritually to the believer in Jesus Christ. The Lord God promises to cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations. This promise is for us through Christ. The Gospel is sown in the heart and it will grow in an honest and good heart to produce up to a 100 times the original seed. This kind of growth is promised for every person in whom the Spirit has created faith in Christ. We who are baptized and believe will grow spiritually. The flowery growth looks like righteousness and praise. The people of earth will see the flower of righteousness and praise.

“They will see your good works and give glory to your Father.” This witness to the glory of God is what God expects His people to give by the life they live. We do not always see the results of the effect our Christian lives have on the lives of others, but we are to believe that each Christian life has a positive effect on the world around us; we are the salt of the earth and the light of the world. Our job is to hear the Gospel and focus on the love of Christ; the Word and the Spirit’s job is to produce the growth, the fruit, and the blossoming flower of a beautiful life reflecting the love of God for all people.

We believers do and say righteous things, giving thanks to God for all things. The world around us responds by living better lives and giving God glory. As branches, we do not try to produce fruit; we simply abide in the Vine: then growth happens and fruit grows naturally. The fruit and the growth is the fruit of the spirit, not the works of the flesh. In other words, it is not our effort that makes good works; it is he moving of the Spirit that causes righteousness to spring forth. If someone says, “He/she is a good person,” we reject that and say, “Only God is good.” God gets the credit and the praise for anything good that a “righteous” believer does. That is a wonderful promise.

169. Clothes of Beauty

Isaiah 61:10 I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels.

I will greatly rejoice and my soul will be joyful in God, because He promises me a wonderful, new, beautiful wardrobe. The clothing is a metaphor for something real; it Mis not a fantasy or a dream: it is salvation and righteousness in reality. The garments of salvation must be beautiful, for it covers the ugly nakedness of sin. We don’t always realize how beautiful salvation is because we don’t always see or even accept the terrible filthiness of sin. Satan, the world and our flesh make ugly sin appear attractive and alluring. It isn’t at all, but the human heart is deceitful above all things and so we don’t see how repulsive it is. If we don’t really see the ugliness of sin we cannot really see how beautiful salvation from sin is. If we could see, the contrast would be stunning. The transformation these garments generate is far more remarkable than any Cinderella story that one can fantasize.

And the Lord has promised a covering with a robe of righteousness. The beauty of holiness is awesome; the ugliness of sin is terribly frightening. If we could only see! The man who came to the wedding feast in the parable could not see how out of place and ugly his own clothes actually were in a group where everyone is clothed in beautiful wedding garments. No one will be out of place at the Marriage Feast of the Lamb in His Kingdom, because all participants will be wearing the “robe of righteousness,” white robes washed sparklingly clean in the blood of the lamb. If only we could see! If we could only see the beauty of holiness and the white robe of righteousness as it looked in the Transfiguration of Jesus, we would abhor sin and never want to think, do, or say anything sinful ever again. And we will love holiness. And this will actually be the case in the eternal heaven and new earth.

Until then, during this age, it is the garment of salvation and the robe of righteousness that God sees in us, and on us. He sees us as a beautiful bride adorned and decked out with ornaments and jewels. And, praise God, when we look at ourselves through faith in Christ we see what God sees. By faith we can see what we look like both with and without the Robe. Thank God we have this promise

168. Blessed Seed

Isaiah 61:9 And their seed shall be known among the Gentiles, and their offspring among the people: all that see them shall acknowledge them, that they are the seed which he Lord hath blessed.

Jesus the Messiah is the seed, which the Lord has blessed. He is the Seed of the woman promised to Adam and Eve, who would crush the head of the serpent, the devil. He is the Seed of Abraham, through whom blessing would come to the nations. All people who believe in this promised Savior are the seed, who are saved and blessed by faith in the promised Seed. Believers identify with the Christ by faith, and they are the seed. The promise is for us: The Lord has blessed us.

The seed that is known among the Gentiles and who are known by all are the people of God are all believers. The seed are both Jews and Gentiles who are made one people through faith in Christ, the Offspring of the Promise. The believers are blessed beyond measure, and once blessed by the Lord they are blessed forever. Ephesians 1:3: “God…has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.” The spiritual blessings, which we do not see, result in earthly and temporal blessings, which we do see. We may or may not be blessed with material things, for sometimes material things turn out not to be blessings at all. 

We, as the meek, “inherit the earth.” Believers actually enjoy the earthly blessings of the earth because they have peace and joy in the heart, and they receive the daily bread that God provides with thanksgiving. The unbelieving, sinful, nature of forgiven believers does not actually see, appreciate or even enjoy the earthly blessings provided by a gracious Creator. But the renewed, spiritual believing person is blessed spiritually in countless ways, love, peace, joy, etc. This man enjoys the earth. The God of peace equips us with everything good. This new man arises daily and lives in newness of life. It is this life that goes on and lives forever after we shake off this mortal coil. The promise: You are a seed; and seed is blessed.

167. Everlasting Covenant

Isaiah 62:8 For I the Lord love judgment, I hate robbery for burnt offering; and I will direct their work in truth, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them.

God promises an everlasting covenant with us. God made covenants with Abraham, Moses, and David, but the eternal covenant for all people was fulfilled and completed for all time and eternity through Jesus Christ. A covenant is a promise on the part of one or both parties to do something or be something for the other side. The eternal covenant established by Jesus is a one-sided covenant with those who believe in Christ. The Lord binds Himself to be something and do something for us, whether we keep our part of the covenant or not. The covenant is sealed by the shed blood of Christ and guaranteed in His resurrection. There is no reciprocal agreement on our part to make the covenant valid. We cannot break the covenant and God will not, ever.

The Lord God is true and faithful to His covenant promise, all and only on account of the work of Christ. The only thing left for us to do is believe God. And even this faith is a gift from God by the Holy Spirit through the Gospel. The benefits of the covenant are numerous, among which are the forgiveness of sins, eternal life and eternal salvation. What also comes through this covenant is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, the fruit of the Spirit, the various gifts of the Spirit, and all the blessings and promise of God listed in His Word.

A basic refrain of the covenant is worded like this: “I will be your God and you will be my people.” This covenant is so binding and sure and solid that it will last forever. Nothing and no one can prevent or hinder or break the covenant promise. We have the blessing and privilege of learning all about what this covenant means to us on a daily basis. It is all written down for our learning in the Old and New Testaments, which includes thousands of covenant promises for us to take hold of, believe and enjoy.

The Lord makes and renews this covenant in our Baptism and coming to faith; this baptismal covenant is renewed daily when we drown the old man and crucify the flesh and rise again by faith unto newness of life. The Lord renews this covenant in the Lord’s Supper when He says: “This is the blood is the new covenant shed for you.” God is gracious to make the invisible visible and tangible (we taste, touch, see, and smell bread and wine, and we hear the words). The Lord renews the covenant every time we open the Scriptures to read or go to God to hear the Gospel.

166. Everlasting Joy

Isaiah 61:7 For your shame ye shall have double; and for confusion they shall rejoice in their portion: therefore in their land they shall possess the double: everlasting joy shall be unto them.

Better days are coming: double portions of rejoicing. Joy replaces shame and confusion; indeed, joy replaces everything negative about life on earth. This makes sense because sin in removed forever, forgiven and taken away, never to inflict pain, sadness, suffering and troubles on believers. We can’t quite imagine life with unmixed and unlimited joy. Pure and boundless joy is unimaginable for we never experience it quite that way. There will be no snake in paradise, no sin crouching at the door, no thorns and thistles in the garden, and no more death, weakness, sickness, or handicap. That kind of joy will have to wait until the Second Coming of Christ and the ushering In of the new heaven and new earth.

And we cannot comprehend everlasting joy, joy that never ends, boundless joy that goes on forever. Everything in life has a season. Every joyful event ends. The party is over. It’s always back to the grind again. Sadness also comes to an end and joy returns. Day follows night. “Joy comes in the morning.” But just as generally as sadness passes and joy returns, so joyous times end and sadness returns. However, the endless joy of the Lord just goes on and on and the down times never come back in again. The Feast goes on and on without getting fat, drunk, bloated, hung over, bored, tired, or exhausted. This everlasting joy never diminishes either; it is always fullness of joy, always perfectly satisfying. There will never be hunger or thirst, poverty or want, boredom or stress. 

The eternal joy that will be ours forever in heaven, however, is also promised to us here on earth in the midst of pain and suffering, sadness and depression. We may reach out and take hold of the joy of the Lord and enter heaven on earth: when we repent and believe the Gospel everlasting joy fills the heart. The joy of the Lord is our present strength, and the anticipatory joy of heaven lifts the spirit to the heavenly joy. When the enemies are gone only the Lord and the joy of the Lord is left. Everlasting joy shall be unto them.