Home thoughts from abroad.wordpress.com

For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent,
    for Jerusalem’s sake I will not remain quiet,
till her vindication shines out like the dawn,
    her salvation like a blazing torch.
² The nations will see your vindication,
    and all kings your glory;
you will be called by a new name
    that the mouth of the Lord will bestow.
³ You will be a crown of splendor in the Lord’s hand,
    a royal diadem in the hand of your God.
⁴ No longer will they call you Deserted,
    or name your land Desolate.
But you will be called Hephzibah,
    and your land Beulah;
for the Lord will take delight in you,
    and your land will be married.
⁵ As a young man marries a young woman,
    so will your Builder marry you;
as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride,
    so will your God rejoice over you.

⁶ I have posted watchmen on your walls, Jerusalem;
    they will never be silent day or night.
You who call on the Lord,
    give yourselves no rest,
⁷ and give him no rest till he establishes Jerusalem
    and makes her the praise of the earth.

In chapter 61 the coming salvation is proclaimed, in 62 it is prayed for (verses 1,6,7). Surely, if the gospel is to prevail on earth, both prayer and proclamation need to walk hand in hand? It seems to me that God has ‘married’ them, and what He has ‘joined together’ we must ‘not separate’. The verses in this chapter underline the necessity of persevering prayer (see also Luke 11:1-13; 18:1-8).

” How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” (Romans 10:14,15)

”As for other matters, brothers and sisters, pray for us that the message of the Lord may spread rapidly and be honoured, just as it was with you.” (2 Thess.3:1).

‘The very invitation to us to pray implies that there are blessings waiting for us at the mercy-seat: “let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace.” ‘ (C.H.Spurgeon).

I delight greatly in the Lord;
    my soul rejoices in my God.
For he has clothed me with garments of salvation
    and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness,
as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest,
    and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
¹¹ For as the soil makes the sprout come up
    and a garden causes seeds to grow,
so the Sovereign Lord will make righteousness
    and praise spring up before all nations.

The salvation the Messiah will bring in, about which we have been reading in this chapter, is God’s work. Barry Webb points out that on the most natural reading of this text, it is Isaiah himself who is speaking: ‘He has been given a righteousness that is not his own, and he is assured that the same LORD who has set him right will one day set the whole world right.’ ‘Isaiah’, p.237. Webb also writes about how praise and thanksgiving are the most natural response to grace, ‘especially grace that has been personally received and experienced. But often,’ he says, ‘it takes a particularly inspired or gifted individual to give them voice for others. John Newton’s famous hymn ‘Amazing Grace’ and Wesley’s ‘And Can it be’ are classic examples. Both are intensely personal, but give such powerful expression to what we have all experienced in one way or another that they are our songs too. The same applies here.’ (p.236).

Isaiah speaks for every one who experiences God’s salvation.

“For I, the Lord, love justice;
    I hate robbery and wrongdoing.
In my faithfulness I will reward my people
    and make an everlasting covenant with them.
⁹ Their descendants will be known among the nations
    and their offspring among the peoples.
All who see them will acknowledge
    that they are a people the Lord has blessed.”

This is the part of chapter 61 where God speaks.

Note:

• there are things God ‘loves’ and things He ‘hates’;
• when the Lord ‘rewards’ His people, it is primarily about His ”faithfulness”, not theirs;
• how these words have been fulfilled in the people of Israel, as they have been dispersed across the globe. It is evident that ”they are a people the LORD has blessed” , even in the violent opposition that has been stirred up against them. It is largely irrational, and makes no sense, apart from seeing it as demonic hatred against a people so deeply and historically related to God;
• how these words are ultimately fulfilled in the church: ‘God will entail a blessing upon their posterity after them (v. 9): Their seed (the children of those persons themselves that are now the blessed of the Lord, or their successors in profession, the church’s seed) shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation, Ps 22 30. 1. They shall signalize themselves and make their neighbours to take notice of them: They shall be known among the Gentiles, shall distinguish themselves by the gravity, seriousness, humility, and cheerfulness of their conversation, especially by that brotherly love by which all men shall know them to be Christ’s disciples. And, they thus distinguishing themselves, God shall dignify them, by making them the blessings of their age and instruments of his glory, and by giving them remarkable tokens of his favour, which shall make them eminent and gain them respect from all about them. Let the children of godly parents love in such a manner that they may be known to be such, that all who observe them may see in them the fruits of a good education, and an answer to the prayers that were put up for them; and then they may expect that God will make them known, by the fulfilling of that promise to them, that the generation of the upright shall be blessed. 2. God shall have the glory of this, for every one shall attribute it to the blessing of God; all that see them shall see so much of the grace of God in them, and his favour towards them, that they shall acknowledge them to be the seed which the Lord has blessed and doth bless, for it includes both. See what it is to be blessed of God. Whatever good appears in any it must be taken notice of as the fruit of God’s blessing and he must be glorified in it.’ Matthew Henry.

They will rebuild the ancient ruins,
    repairing cities destroyed long ago.
They will revive them,
    though they have been deserted for many generations.
⁵ Foreigners will be your servants.
    They will feed your flocks
and plow your fields
    and tend your vineyards.
⁶ You will be called priests of the Lord,
    ministers of our God.
You will feed on the treasures of the nations
    and boast in their riches.
⁷ Instead of shame and dishonor,
    you will enjoy a double share of honor.
You will possess a double portion of prosperity in your land,
    and everlasting joy will be yours. (New Living Translation).

What a turnaround!

‘The land of Judah was in ruins after the Babylonian captivity, but God would help the people repair and rebuild. The whole nation would become priests of the Lord (1 Pet.2:5,9) and servants of God.’ Warren Wiersbe: ‘With the Word’, p.490.

Barry Webb comments: ‘This is grace at work, and the grace of God is a most powerful agent of change…The double portion of blessing in this passage answers to the double portion of hard service in 40:2, and it is the ministry of the Servant which is the bridge between the two. Grace rests on atonement as its foundation. It is free, but not cheap.’ Isaiah,p.236.

Thank God for His amazing grace by which the church is built, Gentiles are admitted with full rights of citizenship alongside Jews (Eph. 2:11-22), and we are all the recipients of abundant blessing, as we live under the reign of the Servant-Messiah.

to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour
    and the day of vengeance of our God,

The gospel, it has been said, is ‘bad news before it is good news.’

In his commentary on Isaiah, Barry Webb points out that the full treatment of ”the day of vengeance” is held over until chapter 63:1-6. Chapter 61 concentrates on the time of ”favour”, and most of all on the Person who brings it in. It is also worthy of note that when Jesus quoted from Isaiah 61 in the synagogue at Nazareth, He concluded His words with ”to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.” This was not because He didn’t believe in judgment. He spoke about it frequently in other parts of the gospels. But I believe it was because He knew that ”the day” of judgment lay in the future.

However, a balanced communication of the gospel will include both the good news of grace, and the bad news of judgment. If we try to remove the subject of God’s wrath from Scripture, we will disembowel it. I read one author who suggested that maybe our loss of confidence in the good news is linked to a lack of conviction about the bad news. But the Bible shows that there is a heaven to gain and a Hell to shun. Human distaste for the idea does not render it false.

I was in a church recently where the preacher emphasised that nothing can separate a believer from God’s love. ‘But’, he added, ‘to be separated from God is another matter altogether, and it is a terrible thing.’

They will be called oaks of righteousness,
    a planting of the Lord
    for the display of his splendour.

Notice in this wonderful text:

• Planting: No-one makes themselves into a Christian. Conversion – with all that it entails – is a work of God (and for the glory of God, as we will see). It can never be a ground of boasting (Eph.2:8-10);
• Standing: ‘Righteous’ people (those made right with God, and therefore endeavouring to live right by His power) become strong, sturdy, immoveable by the grace of God. They are ”strong in the Lord and in his mighty power” (Eph.6:10). They are called, and enabled, to ”stand” (Eph.6:11,13,14);
• Exhibiting: Believers are ”…God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Eph.2:10). They display His ”splendour” – not their own. As people respond in repentance and faith to the ”good news”, they become these saved, healed, delivered, freed, sighted, comforted, beautiful, joyful, praising people (look back through the preceding verses): God’s own work for God’s own glory. Beautiful ”oaks” pointing upward to their great Creator.

PRAYER: In my life, Lord, be glorified

The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me,
    because the Lord has anointed me
    to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
    to proclaim freedom for the captives
    and release from darkness for the prisoners,
² to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor
    and the day of vengeance of our God,
to comfort all who mourn,
³     and provide for those who grieve in Zion—
to bestow on them a crown of beauty
    instead of ashes,
the oil of joy
    instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise
    instead of a spirit of despair.

We saw yesterday that there is good news in the gospel for the broken-hearted.

Primarily, this is for those whose hearts break over their sin: the genuinely repentant.

But I don’t think it can be limited to this. Once we are right with God, we find in Jesus a balm for all our sadness. What He does for us is summed up in the thrice repeated: ”instead of”. He replaces the negative with something positive; gives the better instead of the lesser.

When I was a small boy I had a highly prized colouring book. One day, when my dad had to go away for a short time with his job, he asked me to give it to him, so he could let my sister have it. There was no way this was going to happen! After a short period of trying to persuade and cajole, he gave up, and produced from behind his back a bigger and better colouring book, and gave it to my little sibling!! I could have had the superior ‘instead of’ my inferior possession, had I known better. But, alas, I had made my choice.

The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me,
    because the Lord has anointed me
    to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
    to proclaim freedom for the captives
    and release from darkness for the prisoners,
² to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor
    and the day of vengeance of our God,
to comfort all who mourn,
³     and provide for those who grieve in Zion

The gospel is good news for the hurting. There is provision for those in pain. This is one of the ‘tangible results’ of Spirit-empowered gospel preaching. Hearts can be healed. God’s own comfort and peace are very real gifts, freely imparted to all who trust in Christ. Of course, the cause of the heartache isn’t necessarily removed. It may well remain. But God can so work in the human heart that life is seen and felt differently.

I think it is not known for certain who said: ‘Be kind, because everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle’ (or words to that effect), but I’m sure it is true. As we see hurting people in our communities, let’s not distance ourselves from them, but move toward them with the ”good news” entrusted to us, believing that God will ”provide for those who grieve in Zion”.

It needs to affirmed however, that our greatest cause of pain is our sin, and the greatest comfort is to find forgiveness in Jesus.

”Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” (Matt.5:4).

The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me,
    because the Lord has anointed me
    to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
    to proclaim freedom for the captives
    and release from darkness for the prisoners…

The last line above can read: ”and release from darkness for the blind”.

Whichever way we may take it, it all points to this truth: the preaching of the the gospel, the ”good news” about Jesus, in the power of the Holy Spirit, has tangible results. It is not only the proclamation of Word, but also ”a demonstration of the Spirit’s power…” (1 Cor.2:4).

”For we know, brothers and sisters loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not simply with words but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and deep conviction.” (1 Thess.1:4,5a).

As I was prayerfully reflecting on this, I noticed a biography of Spurgeon by Arnold Dallimore, sitting on a bookshelf. It’s years since I read it, but I felt impelled to pick it up. Opening it at random, this is what I saw. It concerns days of revival in London when the church grew significantly:

‘The new members were very largely people who did not come from other churches. The vast majority were men and women who had never been in the habit of attending church, but they came, especially to the Music Hall, heard the gospel, and were converted. Many of these represented marvellous transformations – drunkards, harlots and thieves with lives changed and homes made new – men and women who once did not know God, but now were happily living for the Lord and serving Him.’ (pp.86,87).

That causes my heart to burn and cry out, ‘Lord, do it again.’

The preaching of the gospel, in the power of the Spirit, brings tangible results.