May 1, 2025

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“On your walls, O Jerusalem, I have posted watchmen; they will never be silent day or night. You who call on the LORD shall take no rest for yourselves, nor give Him any rest until He establishes Jerusalem and makes her the praise of the earth.” (Isaiah 62.6-7)

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

Throughout this last section, which some scholars call “Third Isaiah,” we have heard the declarations of God which were given to Isaiah to speak. These words were those of admonition, fierce conversations and prophetic promise. Isaiah was able to speak these words because of his encounter by faith with the God of Israel’s redemption. That happened “in the year King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of His robe filled the temple.” This was not Ezekiel’s theophany with “a wheel set within a wheel” and eyes all around. Nonetheless, it was a vision of God’s presence distinguishable from anything anyone had had thus far. In the presence of the “high and lifted up God,” Isaiah was humbled to virtual silence. He declared his unworthiness as “a man of unclean lips who dwelt in the midst of a people of unclean lips.” This confession illustrated the unworthiness which Isaiah knew had created trouble for Israel. Such trouble arose because Israel was no longer a people of the Word who word could be trusted. Isaiah, especially in his time of grief for the death of his king, found himself at a loss for words. As prophet and priest, Isaiah, and those like him, was supposed to lead and direct the nation from king to infant in praising God, pursuing righteousness and to be a witness of faith to the world. We do know how powerful grief is to cause us to be silent, still and quiet. We each have experienced it in our own lives. The question may be, in that in experience, have we experienced the restoration of our voice with the word of God to no longer be silent, still and quiet. This was the legacy of Isaiah. God intervened in Isaiah’s grief and sorrow with a fierce conversation of His own. Appointed angels ministered to Isaiah’s “voice” by purging His lips with hot coals from altar where the incense was burned. God declared, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt has been taken away and your sin atoned for.” (Isaiah 6.7) I do not want us to miss this powerful declaration. It was a foreshadowing of a time which would happen in Isaiah’s ministry and long after.

The purging by fire consumed the temple. It would be rebuilt at the end of the exile under the direction of Cyrus, King of Persia. He gave order and resource for the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the Temple which we read about in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. There is a prophecy concerning it in Ezekiel as the Spirit of the Lord was seen leaving the temple to reside on the nearby mountain. The removal of this spiritual covering left Jerusalem and the Temple vulnerable to the attacks of the enemy. We would remember how King Saul, because he consorted with witches and mediums as his spiritual advisors, also lost the covering of God’s spiritual blessing. It went to reside upon a “nearby mountain” whose name was David. We can go back further to the days of Moses who contended with God too much and was not allowed to enter the Promised Land. The spiritual blessing of leadership fell upon another “nearby mountain” named Joshua who had kept the faith in spite of the words of “unclean lips,” the other ten spies who believed more in the might of giants than of God. Ezekiel prophesied that the Spirit of God would return and the Temple be rebuilt as a testimony to the world of God’s desire. The purging of “the body,” symbolized by the Temple and the lips of Isaiah, should have fueled the fire of believing in the promise of God once again. This was the charge given to Isaiah. He was faithful to that charge thus being filled by the Holy Spirit, the baptism of fire. Now in chapter 62, we hear the voice of speak in light of the truths which God had prospered in his ministry. The time of restoration was proclaimed as the “bridegroom” would come to claim his bride. Their union was a source of spiritual prosperity as the priest and the ministers would unite in one blessed community out of which would come generations of those in whom the word of God, the law of the Lord, would reside. The fruit of the union would be the righteousness of God. Hopefully you see and hear the far-reaching connection to the Day of Pentecost when the Spirit of God moved out of the Temple (on the day of Jesus’ crucifixion) and off of the priesthood of “particular” believers, the priest and those loyal to him, and returned to rest upon the disciples and followers of Jesus who then became the “priests and ministers” of the Church. The teaching of Jesus, a literal warning, “Tear down this temple [body] and I [AM] will rebuild it in three days” (John 2.19) was evidenced on the Day of First Fruits with the discovery of His resurrection. The transition of spiritual authority was evidenced on the Day of Pentecost fifty days later when the Holy Spirit came down upon the heads of the disciples as “tongues of fire.” (Acts 2.1-2) It was then and there that the saving word of God was declared “…to the whole world” as Jews from all nations had come to make sacrifice for the year and harvest ahead. It was a time of the gathering.

In Isaiah 62.6-7, we hear Isaiah’s voice speaking. The man whom we first knew as “a man of unclean lips who dwells among a people of unclean lips,” is now a man of clean lips who dwells among a people of clean lips. He appoints fellow believers, priests, to take station on the walls as “watchmen.” It is a call to prayer over and for Jerusalem and the Temple. They are to maintain their vigil in prayer and praise until God restores them and makes her the praise of all the earth. They are to petition God and people to come together believing that in things God is true to His promise. He, the Messiah, is the groom and she is the bride. The word of truth, priest and prophet, unties with the word of compassion, ministers and teachers, and their offspring shall bear the witness of wisdom. What role does the Father have in all of this? He is the coordinator of all things and works them together for good. God continues to work in such a way today moving His people from unclean lips to those purged from sin and urged in grace to declare “the word of God” and “the law of the Lord.” What is that Law and Word? It is “love.” There is no doubt and should be no compromise in this reality. It is God’s love which is passionate about the welfare of His creation. His desire is for the people to come to Him and pray with “psalms, hymns, spiritual songs.” (Ephesians 5.19)

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 in whose name we pray. AMEN.