April 16, 2025

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“‘The Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who turn from transgression,’ declares the LORD. ‘As for Me, this is My covenant with them,’ says the LORD. ‘My Spirit will not depart from you, and My words that I have put in your mouth will not depart from your mouth or from the mouths of your children and grandchildren, from now on and forevermore,’ says the LORD.” (Isaiah 59.20-21)

TODAY’S REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD TO US:

This is the promise for which all believers in God, Yahweh Elohim, hold on to: “The Redeemer will come to Zion.” Again, I will iterate that just days ago we remembered the first day of Passover Week on which Jesus rode into Jerusalem. He rode amid the cheers, jeers and fears that this was the long-expected Messiah who would take Israel by storm from her oppressors. The crowds sensing an insurrection against Rome envisioned how it must have been when David and his armies rode out against the Philistines, the Hittites, the Jebusites, the Hivites and the Perrizites with an undaunted faith in God that would bring victory, prominence, peace and prosperity to Israel and then rode back in as the conquering heroes. What a day, and days, of rejoicing that must have been; days long since passed. Yes, there was rejoicing on those days as the leaders and loved ones taken into Babylonian Captivity returned. Along with them came the promise of rebuilding the temple and the walls of Jerusalem. The hope of a glorious future rose faintly in the east, the direction from which the sun rose and the captives returned, parenthetically. The hope expressed in the words given to the prophet Ezekiel were embraced. Those words spoke of when the “the glory of the Lord, the Shekinah” would leave it place on the Mount of Olives and return to Mount Zion. Generation after generation only experienced the “allowed and tolerated” practices of faith which brought no real satisfaction or promise to the people. This faith for five hundred years was a matter of “going through the motions.” It was not the sense of David’s “Shepherd Psalm” as the days when he spoke of dwelling in the house of the Lord forever. The people labored longing for the true king of Israel and praying that “living by the Law” would sustain them.

It was that very thought which God addressed in the verses preceding those of today. God declared with the words of His own mouth, “His own righteousness would sustain Him.” God was not like His people who drew sustenance from the ways of the world, the fruit of the earth and the particulars of their religion. The ways of the world were evil. The fruit of the earth was sparse. The particulars of their religion transformed daily by those who interpreted position for holy confirmation. God was in the world but not of it. God gave fruitfulness to the earth but did not partake of it. God promoted righteousness as the true religion of the faithful bound in the covenant of authentic love. He did not desire their sacrifices, their ritual practices pursued by empty hearts and minds and spirits nor their misplaced hopes for a king like other kings. He would not be a God who interacted with the people on their terms. He was not a God who would be commanded. In truth, God did not desire for His people to simply be compliant and live in a “12 Step Program.” [By that I mean the 2 Great Commands + 10) Those commands were the descriptors of what happens when a people put their faith in God and trust Him only. Faith, hope and trust were the toiling in the field out of which the fruit of authentic love would rise up. In that love, they would be devoted, committed and faithful to God and to one another. Their desire for such righteousness would become a witness to the nations. Such desire to walk in the way of the Lord would become a light to the world drawing all others to desire the same for themselves from the God they didn’t know but were not coming to know and experience. It would not come via works righteousness. That way of living is unsustainable. It would always require more and more and accomplish less and less. This is not what sustained God. Only true righteousness would do. Out of that righteousness came the fulfillment of the promise made by God Himself: a Redeemer would enter into Jerusalem.

And who would recognize Him? Those who repented of their sins, turned away from their transgressions and who pursued righteousness. The word of God to Israel through Isaiah had not changed. It was the very essence of the word declared by Solomon in the consecration of the Temple first constructed in Jerusalem. That declaration said, “If My people, who are called by My Name, will humble themselves, repent of their sins and commit themselves to not follow the ways of the world; then I will hear their prayers and answer them and heal their land.” (2 Chronicles 7.14) It was always within the power of God to do this. It was always His desire to do this. It was not always the desire of the people for it to be done by God. Their desire for their will to succeed over, against and apart from a right relationship with God hindered their efforts, wounded their lives and polluted the ground upon which they lived. They kept God beyond an arm’s length so they could say “God is afar off from us.” Except God was everpresent just as David had sung, “There is nowhere where God is not.” How long? God’s patience for His people to come to Him was growing short. He was making a way for unity and community. God was intervening. He broke through like the sun in the midst of a storm and the light of His Word would shine. “The Redeemer will come!”

TODAY’S PRAYER IN RESPONSE TO GOD’S WORD:

Father, in these days we are finding the need to believe even more than ever before. We all have known trouble, some in greater ways than others, but You are offering us the assurance that we will not be consumed by it forever. Regardless of the “time” we are in and the “time” we have been given, we ask for Your Holy Spirit which Jesus asked You to share with us, to lead and guide and direct us in the paths we should go. Teach us what we still need to learn. Empower us to put that learning into action. Bless our actions not as a works righteousness which we know is folly but righteous works which declare Your glory and further witness the truth that can set all who believe free from death. So may we live by the name of Jesus our Christ. AMEN.