April 22, 2025

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“Then all your people will be righteous; they will possess the land forever; they are the branch of My planting, the work of My hands, so that I may be glorified. The least of you will become a thousand, and the smallest a mighty nation. I AM the LORD; in its time I will accomplish it quickly.” (Isaiah 60.21-22)

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

“Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.” (I Corinthians 15.51-52) God will do it. God will bring about the change, literally, of a lifetime. It is a thing that only God can do. It is a thing that God will do. It is a surety because God has already done it that we might see it and believe it. It is what God has done that we might know it and receive it. But without God it is impossible. Remember the teaching of Jesus, “With people it is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” (Matthew 19.26) That teaching of Jesus comes after He gave the for bringing a sinner back into the community of faith through the process of confession and profession. There are things which we must do in order to be saved. There is one thing we cannot do to be saved. What we can do is believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God and accept Him as Lord and Savior of our lives. What we cannot do is, because it has already been done, is to die for the sins of others that they be forgiven. Of course, we can lay down our lives for the sake of another as Jesus taught us this is the true extent of loving one another. He said, “No greater love is there than this that one would lay down their life for the sake of another.” (John 15.13) When we do that, we are preserving the life of another. When Jesus did it on Golgotha, He did so to take our death. This we cannot do. Only the imperishable can put on the perishable. In Paul’s teaching to the faith in Christ community of Corinth, he said “I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit [that is, ‘put on’] the imperishable.” (1 Corinthians 15.50) Jesus died so that we may live, free from the burden of sin which is eternal death. We die for the sake of others, so that they may live to claim Jesus as Savior and know the volume of love which God has for them. This is the promised hope which God has created and offered to us.

In the days of Isaiah, this promise is revealed as a prophetic truth. It wasn’t merely about Jerusalem being rebuilt and Israel restored following the Babylonian Exile. We have the works of Ezra and Nehemiah as records of Cyrus, King of Persia and the Medes, releasing the captives and funding the rebuilding of Jerusalem. While the work was done, with some consternation of both the Hebrews and those enemies who did not wish to see the restoration, Israel remained under “house” rule of foreign nations culminating in that of the Roman Empire. Israel was not truly free and independent. We know the challenging reality of freedom for Israel in the Middle East even today. Though it is the sovereign State of Israel, her enemies continue to attack her in fear of her dominance and contentious presence. Is it because Israel is associated still with the One True God? Is it because of their lack of willingness to come under the full sovereignty of God and recognizing Jesus of Nazareth as the spiritual prophet, priest, shepherd and king of Israel and thus they have a “chink in their” armor? I have my opinions but no direct conversations with sources of spiritual and political leadership in Israel to discern the truth and reality of those surmises. What I do know is that they do not live under the New Covenant made in the blood of Jesus. They continue to abide in small or great part in accordance with some fealty to the Old Covenant made in the blood of Eden. Is it sufficient to manifest the umbrella of righteousness over them spiritually akin to their trust in the Iron Dome of their military defense from missile attacks? God has promised His protection of them but not at the expense of the salvation of the Jewish people through Jesus Christ, the Messiah, who was and is and is to come.

It is in these verses of Isaiah 60, and in particular verses 21-22, that I believe God was revealing the first coming of the Christ as the spiritual prophet and eternal sacrifice. The call of planting Israel in place is connected to the teaching of Jesus found in John’s gospel about being grafted into the true vine. (John 15.5ff) In verse 21, God declares “they are the branch of My planting.” That planting was most likely Adam and Eve and then a replanting in the days of Abraham. God grafts the people into His promise and covenant. The concept is not the sole propriety of Israel, however. The intent was to graft any and every person who would “call upon the name of the Lord.” Israel was to be “a light to the nations.” (Isaiah 42 and 49) Jesus declares that “I AM a light to the world.” (John 8.12) Throughout His ministry and then through the disciples/apostles following His resurrection and ascension, the gospel was ended to reach to the ends of the earth. This was a reach not just to the “lost” of Israel around the globe but to every tribe, tongue and nation. What is significant in all of this is the simple fact of “God’s doing.” God plants. God grafts. God favors. God establishes. God accomplishes. While believers must do their part in the whole of work, the authentic power of transformation comes from God and God alone. I dare say the failing of Israel and many churches exist in that point alone. It is, for them, about “what I have done” and “what about me.” The truth of existence is to bring and to give glory to God’s name. We are given the example of Jesus of Nazareth who is the Christ of God and Messiah of the people to disciple us in the paths we should go. We will not know authentic freedom until we do. That freedom comes from God alone who in Christ makes it possible for us to “do” the impossible.

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.