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In Christ, Mark
In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
Listen! Your watchmen lift up their
voices; together they shout for joy. When the Lord returns to Zion, they will
see it with their own eyes.
Burst into songs of joy together, you ruins of Jerusalem, for the Lord has comforted His people, He has redeemed Jerusalem.
The Lord will lay bare His holy arm in the sight of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God.
Isaiah
52:8-10
This ends today’s
reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
There’s nothing like being in the
presence of God.
I’m not saying this just because it’s
Sunday and I’m recently home from worship. I firmly believe that every day is a
day of celebration, a day we should never take for granted because we have a Creator
God who is always with us and for us, a God who never ceases to want to be in
fellowship with His children. This truth should consistently and persistently bring
us to a place where we rejoice and lift our voices to Him in praise and
adoration.
This is what we should do, but are
we?
Maybe we could learn a lot from the
Israelites of more than 2,000 years ago. They chose to take the Lord for
granted in their lives and even decided to push Him off onto the fringes so
they could pursue their own desires, an action that included worshiping of
idols and false gods. God was there for convenience and they would call on Him
when they wanted to in accordance with their will.
Sound familiar? Aren’t we doing the
same thing today, pushing the Lord aside to chase after the enticements of this
world that meet our desires, no matter if they contradict the desires of the
Lord?
The Lord wouldn’t have it way with
the Israelites and He won’t have it with us either. Trust and believe in that.
In the case of the people of
Israel, God set His judgment against them for their disrespectful, disobedient
actions, sending them into seventy years of captivity and exile at the hands of
the Babylonians. They wouldn’t spend a day less, even if they cried out to God
for relief and release. If they wanted to live as if the Lord wasn’t a priority
then they could expect the same from Him. In fact, some likened the Babylonian
bondage period as one where God chose to be absent from His people. They would
call out to Him but He was not to be found.
Perhaps this is how God chose to
lead them into the kind of proper appreciation He deserved. It’s true you know:
you really don’t come to a full appreciation for someone or something until you
don’t have it anymore. What the Israelites went through was tough but it was
for their own good because God never brings us into something without trying to
teach us something or help us grow stronger in our faith unto Him. The
Israelites renewed interest in God’s word as evidenced through the words found
in Ezra and Nehemiah, showed that they had learned their lesson and wanted to
make the Lord their number one priority again, rejoicing in Him and raising
their voices in admiration. Our scriptures from Isaiah 52, foretell what would
come:
Listen! Your watchmen lift up their voices; together they shout for
joy. When the Lord returns to Zion, they will see it with their own eyes.
Burst into songs of joy together, you ruins of Jerusalem, for the Lord has comforted His people, He has redeemed Jerusalem.
The Lord will lay bare His holy arm in the sight of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God. Isaiah 52:8-10
Watchmen would stand on top of the
city’s walls and be on the lookout for anything coming to the city. In the case
of the Lord, these watchmen would see Him with their own eyes. First, He would
redeem Israel from their bondage and restore them back to Jerusalem to rebuild
it. Then He would once again be in their midst, not distant and disengaged as
during the exile. This would lead the once ruined Jerusalem to burst into songs
of joy for they were once again in the Lord’s favor, comforted by His
redemption and restored protection as His holy arm was laid bare in sight of
all the nations, a warning to not even think about attacking Israel because He
was with them. Anyone seeing what was happening in Israel would know that the salvation
of God was real and in play.
Friends, we would be well served to
learn a lesson from the Israelites and not even think about behaving in a way
that would bring God’s judgment upon us. For even though the people of Israel
were eventually restored, they paid a great cost in getting to that point. Let’s
save ourselves that kind of trouble and just be in a spirit where we are
constantly rejoicing and singing praises to a Lord who comforts us, protects
us, and saves us, not only from our enemies but more importantly from our sins,
now and forever.
Amen.
In
Christ,
Mark
PS: Please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com
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