DAY 294

A FLOW OF FAITHFULNESS

Isaiah 59, 60 & 61 and 2 Thessalonians 3

“But the Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one.”

So we read in the closing chapter of the Second Letter to the Thessalonians.

God is faithful; faithful to His people, faithful to His world, and faithful to His plan of redemption. In chapters 59, 60 and 61 we see the flow of faithfulness.

Chapter 59 demonstrates God’s faithfulness to his people. It doesn’t start that way—it ends that way. It starts describing a pretty bad situation. In verses 1-2 it says God’s hand is long enough to act and His ear completely capable of hearing—but He is not apparently hearing His people, nor is He acting. Why? Isaiah says because their sin.

When we hear the word “sin” it is easy to confuse a situation. We all sin. We do! If our sinning causes God to “not act or hear” then you and I are in trouble. Take a closer look however at the chapter and what you will see is “unrepentant sin.” People are sinning and acting as if is it OK…”their feet run to evil, and they are swift to shed innocent blood.”

If we learn anything from this chapter we must learn of the need for repentance. In the last chapter we read how God dwells in a “contrite heart.” Repentance can be a hard thing for us – saying “I am wrong, and am doing the wrong thing, and furthermore I will repent—turnaround—and no longer do it” is hard. God know this fact, he made us. It is why I like that in my tradition we get on our knees and pray a “confession of sin.” Our body position helps us: we kneel, get quiet, think about what we have done and not done, and ask God to forgive us. It is as if we “stop time” so that we can “get real with God.” When we do God is swift to act.

That is what we see in the balance of the chapter: God’s faithfulness to His people—the people who repent. In verses 9-15a we read a communal lament. They are weeping over their sin. In the second half of verse 15 (15b) through 16 we note “the Lord looked and saw.” God abhors people pretending to be “religious” that is why He was “not acting.” When people were honest, He was quick to move. In fact in verse 17 He girds himself for battle on their behalf and in verse 20 God proclaims that the Redeemer will come. God is faithful to His people when they are honest with Him. Today, if you went to church, I pray you were honest with Him. I you have already gone, or did not go, be honest with Him right now.

The second point (and I will be briefer) is that God is faithful to the world. In chapter 60 it is easy to read that all the things foretold are about building up a place, Jerusalem, by the returning exiles. I do not think this is what Isaiah is talking about. The text says the “whole earth is covered in darkness.” The Lord rises over its center, Jerusalem, and the light pierces the darkness. Nations and kings shall come to Him and no one can hide from His justice. I could go on, but I think the beauty and expanse of this text makes the point.

Finally today we come to chapter 61—a person proclaims that the Spirit of the Lord is upon him. Who is the person? It is both the Servant and the Messiah. The Servant we were told would have the Spirit upon him (chapter 42) and so too the Messiah (chapter 11). In Isaiah, we come to realize that the Messiah and the Suffering Servant is the same person—we believe that person is Jesus of Nazareth who is the very Son of God. Jesus stood up in his synagogue, unrolled the scroll of Isaiah, read this text, and said, “Today this text has been fulfilled in your presence.”

What is even more powerful is what this Suffering Servant Messiah will do—he will usher in the year of Jubilee. You have read about this in Leviticus (yup Leviticus – you gotta love how this stuff fits together). In Leviticus after 50 years, the Year of Jubilee was to be celebrated which meant all debts cancelled and all prisoners set free. (I wrote about this on Day 50). Isaiah’s text is grand, it has been taking us up and down, back and forth, and here we come to the one of the high points—and in it we see that God is faithful to us, to His world, and to His plan of Jubilee.

And of course here is the point, God does this by going to the Cross, our debts are cancelled are we are set free by the Blood of Jesus Christ.