Old Sandals

The Lord has made bare His holy arm In the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God….Behold, my servant shall deal prudently. He shall be exalted and extolled and be very high. Just as many were astonished at you, so his visage was marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men.  So shall he sprinkle many nations. Kings shall shut their mouths at him, for what had not been told them they shall see, and what they had not heard they shall consider.

I used to quote often the tenth verse of Isaiah 52 (the first verse referenced above).  But as I read it now, I realize that it was on the cross that the Lord bared his holy arm in the sight of all the nations.  His humiliation, his suffering was His glory, and our salvation.

Stand up, O Jerusalem, you who have drunk at the hand of the Lord the cup of His fury. You have drunk the dregs of the cup of trembling, and drained it out….Thus says your Lord, the Lord and your God, who pleads the cause of his people: “See, I have taken out of your hand the cup of trembling, the dregs of the cup of my fury; you shall no longer drink it.”

The LORD is a righteous judge, the Judge of all the earth.  But He is surely not like King Nebuchadnezzar of old, who stood by his great furnace, continually stoking it in order to burn up those who refused to obey him.

And yet, the Scripture speaks of the fury of the Lord’s wrath, and the unquenchable fire of his judgement.  How are we to understand it?

For the Lord God will help me; therefore I will not be disgraced. Therefore I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I will not be ashamed. He is near who justifies me; who will contend with me?…Who is my adversary? Let him come near me. Surely the Lord God will help me; who is he who will condemn me? Indeed they will all grow old like a garment. The moth will eat them up.

The New Testament records that Jesus set his face like a flint to go to Jerusalem.  Jesus Christ indeed fulfils the law and prophets.

And now the Lord says, Who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant, to bring Jacob back to Him, so that Israel is gathered to Him. For I shall be glorious in the eyes of the Lord, and My God shall be My strength. Indeed He says, ‘It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also give You as a light to the Gentiles, that You should be My salvation to the ends of the earth.’

These verses are clearly a reference to Christ, the Servant of God, who is himself God.  As St. Bonaventure said, “Christ is the lamp that illumines the whole of Scripture”.

For My own sake, for My own sake, I will do it; for how should My name be profaned? And I will not give My glory to another.

The Lord God knew from eternity how things would go.  He knew that Adam & Eve, though made in His image and likeness, and given the high privilege of communing with the Lord God of creation, would turn away in disobedience.  He knew what a fateful decision that would prove to be.  He knew what He would do about it all.  He knew from eternity.  It did not take Him by surprise.  He knew that He would eventually become a man Himself, to redeem the world, to conquer sin and death, by offering Himself as the sacrifice. The Lamb was slain from the foundation of the world.  He knew that although He would be patient with Adam’s descendants, and longsuffering, that many would reject Him, choosing to follow instead gods of their own making.  But He also knew that many would turn to Him, drawn by the work of the Holy Spirit in their hearts.  “For whom He foreknew…”

What about you, reader.  What about you?

I was angry with My people; I have profaned My inheritance, and given them into your hand. You showed them no mercy.

Even though the LORD Almighty used Babylon to judge His people, that pagan nation was called to account for how it treated them.  The LORD is Judge of all the earth.

Even to  your  old age, I  am  He, and  even  to gray hairs I will carry  you!  I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry, and will deliver  you.  To whom will you liken Me, and make  Me  equal and compare Me, that we should be alike?

They lavish gold out of the bag, and weigh silver on the scales; they hire a goldsmith, and he makes it a god. They prostrate themselves, yes, they worship. They bear it on the shoulder, they carry it and set it in its place, and it stands. Fom its place it shall not move. Though  one  cries out to it, yet it cannot answer nor save him out of his trouble.

For I  am  God, and  there is  no other;  I am  God, and  there is  none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times  things  that are not  yet  done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure.

“All may change, but Jesus—never!  Glory to His name.”

I am the Lord, and there is no other; there is no God besides Me….that they may know from the rising of the sun to its setting that there is none besides Me. I am the Lord, and there is no other; I form the light and create darkness, I make peace and create calamity; I, the Lord, do all these things.

Life is not about what you are into.  Life is about the Lord.  He is our life.  Now and forever.  Be moderate in your enthusiasm for earthly things, whatever they are, but go wild about the Lord.

Thus saith the Lord the King of Israel, and his redeemer the Lord of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God….Fear ye not, neither be afraid….Is there a God beside me? Yea, there is no God; I know not any.

There is no other God but Yahweh.  Think of it! The infinite, eternal God of the universe has a name, is a person.  A Person. It is at times too much to take in.

When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. For I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour.

If “something lives in every hue that Christless eyes have never seen”, then all of life is an opportunity to demonstrate his love, his compassion, his righteousness—by his grace, through the Holy Spirit.  Certainly not on our own.