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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.
He made my mouth like a sharpened
sword, in the shadow of his hand He hid Me; He made Me into a polished arrow
and concealed Me in His quiver.
He said to me, “You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will display My splendor.”
Isaiah
49:2-3
This ends today’s
reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
As chapter 49 of Isaiah opens, we
hear the words of the coming Messiah, our Savior Jesus, as He proclaims His
impending arrival into creation as God’s special servant who was called to save
all mankind before He was even conceived in Mary’s womb. In yesterday’s
devotion, Called From Birth, we learned that God has a special purpose for all
of us and has had so before we were formed. Once we reach an age where we can
serve Him, we are to seek out His plans for us and then carry out those plans
in obedience to His will.
Of course, when we think of Jesus,
we can find a perfect example of one who carried out this call flawlessly. From
even His early years, Jesus was about His Father’s business, even telling His
parents as much after they had lost track of Him in His early years, finding
Him in the temple (Luke 2:49 NKJV). As He grew older, He healed and taught and
provided for the needs of anyone He encountered, especially anyone who was
considered by the culture of the time as “the least of these”, those exiled
from normal life and pushed out to the fringes of society. And when the
religiously arrogant leaders of the day shunned the sinner, as if they were any
less so, Jesus was the One who spent time with them for they were the ones in
dire need of saving. Perhaps we would be well served to remember this as we
deal with people in the present day.
So God gifted His Son with an
amazing purpose and called Him before He was formed in the womb. He also gave
Jesus, His perfect servant, other gifts as well, gifts we find nestled in
verses 2 through 7 as we continue looking at Isaiah, chapter 49. Today, we’ll
look at the first set of gifts found in verses 2 and 3:
He made my mouth like a sharpened sword, in the shadow of his hand He
hid Me; He made Me into a polished arrow and concealed Me in His quiver.
He said to me, “You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will display My splendor.”
Did you pick out the wonderful
things that God gave to His blessed Son?
They included:
1. Speech as a weapon.
He made my mouth like a sharpened sword; He made Me into a polished
arrow and concealed Me in His quiver.
Has your heart ever been pierced by
the words of Christ?
I know mine has. And as we look at
the words Jesus spoke, how many times did He use the word of God from the Old
Testament scriptures? Over and over again. Why? I think the writer of Hebrews
summed it up nicely:
For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged
sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges
the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Hebrews 4:12
Need an example of how Jesus used
His speech as a weapon. Look at Matthew, Chapter 4 as Jesus wards off the
tempting attacks of Satan. He did it using the word of God, showing us how to do
it too when we carry the sword of the Lord which is the word of God, a part of
the full armor we are to don daily (Ephesians 6:17).
2. His hand of protection.
In the shadow of his hand He hid Me
Jesus certainly had no shortage of
enemies in His lifetime. Plenty of people hated Him, some of which enough to
want Him dead but that was not going to happen before God’s appointed place and
time. Until then, God protected His Son, placing His covering over Him as Jesus
carried out His plan.
Maybe one of the things we take for
granted most as we serve God daily is that He protects us as well. The world we
live in is certainly full of many dangers and perhaps we’ll never know just how
often we were kept from harm by God until that day when we go to be with Him
forever and all things are made known to us. Until then, I know I take great
comfort in knowing He is watching over me as I follow Him and live this thing
called life.
3. His splendor.
He said to me, “You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will display My
splendor.”
What happens when God’s splendor is
displayed through someone?
Well, brilliance, glory, grandeur, majesty,
and magnificence to name a few and I think we can all agree that in looking at
the life of Jesus across the ages, these words can all be used to describe Him.
When you looked at the Son, you were looking at the Father. We can only hope
that the same can be said for us as we serve God ourselves, that somehow people
will get a glimpse of His splendor through our work in and through Him.
A word that pierces and penetrates.
Protection. Splendor.
These are the first three gifts we
find given to Jesus, the perfect Servant, by God who made Him and ordained Him to
carry out His salvation plan for all creation. As we’ll see tomorrow, there’s
far more than this when it comes to the way that Jesus was blessed by His
Father. Can’t wait to share then.
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
