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He made my mouth like a sharpened sword…

Here is Jesus’ prophetic ministry.
 

In the first chapter of the last book of the Bible (‘Revelation’) the apostle John records a vision he was given of Jesus. Verse 16 includes these words: ”…and coming out of his mouth was a sharp, double-edged sword” (see also Hos.6:5; Ephesians 6:17).

A Christ-like ministry will, at times, have a sharpness to it. When Peter preached on the day of Pentecost, the people who heard him ”were cut to the heart” (Acts 2:37). Who do you think was ‘preaching’ through him?

I regularly pray for a prophetic cutting edge in my ministry. Only God can give this. Note: ”He made my mouth…” It’s not what we can make of ourselves, but what the Lord makes of us that counts:

“Follow me, and I will make you…” (Matt.4:19).

Before I was born the Lord called me;
    from my mother’s womb he has spoken my name.

From our vantage point in time, our distance in history, we have come to believe that ‘the Servant Songs’ are about Jesus. He came in fulfilment of these words. So it seems relevant that His birth should be mentioned. However, there is no indication here of there being anything remarkable about it. The point made is about His calling, somewhat reminiscent of Jeremiah’s:

The word of the Lord came to me, saying,

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
    before you were born I set you apart;
    I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.” (Jeremiah 1:4,5).

We see repeatedly in the gospels that Jesus did not come in His own Name; He did not act on His own initiative. His delight was to do the Father’s will:

”Then I said, ‘Here I am – it is written about me in the scroll – I have come to do your will, my God.’ ” Hebrews 10:7.

‘If we are truly devoted to doing God’s will, pain and pleasure won’t make any difference to us.’ Brother Lawrence.

PRAYER: Help me, Heavenly Father, to seek only your will and not my own.’

Listen to me, you islands;
    hear this, you distant nations:

At the outset of another passage introducing ‘the Servant of the Lord’, we have yet again a sense of a global outreach. God’s Word and Work are not just for Israel, but for the whole world. (See also 42:1-4).

”For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” John 3:16.

As the Samaritan people said to the woman, who had been so impacted by her encounter with Jesus:

”We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Saviour of the world” John 4:42.

Jesus Himself, marvelling over the faith of the Gentile Centurion, said:

”…many will come from the east and the west, and take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven” Matthew 8:11.

Barry Webb notes that the first essential for the Jews being addressed here ‘is to be reminded that there is a whole world out there waiting to hear the truth about God. Healing begins when we stop focusing on ourselves and our arguments with God and start looking outward to the world that he loves and that needs to know about him (6b).’ (‘Isaiah’, p.193).

PRAYER: Lord, please rescue me from parochialism. Help me to live on a world map.

Leave Babylon,
    flee from the Babylonians!

The great, mighty, fearful empire of Babylon was going to fall – and it did.

As we have seen before, in the Bible this once great kingdom also stands as a symbol, an emblem, of the current world system, organised without reference to God. It is going to come down one of these days. It is rotten to the core. As we have seen previously, the downfall is described (and exulted over!) in Revelation chapters 17-19. In the middle of these chapters we hear again the urgent call to leave:

”Come out of her, my people,’ so that you will not share in her sins, so that you will not receive any of her plagues…” (Rev.18:4a).

Once we sense the taint of ‘Babylon’ on anything, along with it we will hear the call to ‘leave.’

If God is calling you to leave anything behind, don’t hesitate to respond promptly.

I think about John’s words:

 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. ¹⁶ For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. ¹⁷ The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever. (1 John 2:15-17).