Every time I open the book of Isaiah, it reveals to me the Son of God: His compassion, His longsuffering, His forgiveness extended to the House of Israel. It lifts me to higher ground whenever I ingest any prophecy, any witness, any wisdom from the pen of a prophet who appealed to Israel’s sense of ethnicity and origin of its’ power, namely, the God Jehovah.
The scripture that caught my attention recently is this one where Jehovah tells ancient Israel that if only they had hearkened to His commandments, then their peace would have been as a river, and their righteousness as the waves of the sea (Isaiah 48:18). I understood the peace being as a river which is calm and serene but I had to think about the righteousness being as the waves of the sea. I live in Australia and enjoy frequent trips to the beach where I have observed the waves of the sea. As I reflected on this, I understood why the Lord used this metaphor. The waves of the sea run into each other…and they cover the earth as they roll over it. I then read chapter 49 and could see the Lord’s wisdom in using this metaphor as He proclaimed the House of Israel to be His servant in whom He will be glorified (v 3).
My heart literally burned as I read the Lord say that not only will He make us mighty in restoring the preserved Israel but that He will also make us a light to the Gentiles, that we may be the means of salvation to the ends of the earth (Isaiah 49:6). In other words, we will be as the waves of the sea as our righteousness spreads over the earth and touches the souls of scattered Israel and Gentiles alike. We will roll forth to the ends of the earth glorifying Jehovah’s name and bringing salvation to the living and the dead (v 9a). We, the modern Israel will do this, because ‘Jacob is the lot of His inheritance’ (Deuteronomy 32:9) and Ephraim is His firstborn (Jeremiah 31:9). This is what ancient Israel missed out on being as they joined the idolatrous nations surrounding them instead. But this now is our privilege and if we walk up to it, ‘the Gentiles shall see our righteousness’, and we shall be ‘a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of our God’ (Isaiah 62:2,3).
Thy love burns within us ever so bright
We bear Thy holy name
And proclaim Thy salvation
To the ends of the earth.
We are the servant in Thy might,
We are Israel, children of light.
No comments:
Post a Comment