6 January 2011

Psalm 46, 97; Isa. 52:7-10; Rev. 21:22-27; Matt. 12:14-21

There weren’t many beautiful feet in Isaiah or Jesus’ worlds. There would have been nothing lovely about feet that had to walk constantly in dirt and dust in crudish sandals and yet Isaiah proclaims that even the feet of the one who proclaims the Gospel of the Lord are beautiful. Could the people of God known greater joy than to have seen the Lord return to establish the kingdom in Jerusalem, taking again this city for His own? Well, yes, if it wasn’t according to their plan and He didn’t meet their desires for Him. Not much has changed, we have an idea about what He ought to do for us and often we miss opportunities for joy and delight because He doesn’t do according to our will. I love to read this passage but it also convicts me because I know I don’t fully live into this vision.

The one of whom Isaiah prophesied is rejected by the people who should have known Him most clearly. They knew the Word, they were the evangelicals of the Jewish world, and they hated Him. He did as Isaiah said He would, He didn’t draw attention to Himself by shouting in the streets, He was tender with bruised and battered people, and He did bring hope even to Gentiles who sought Him out. He did not do what they had hoped or desired, establish a civil kingdom. The kingdom He came to establish was not what they desired, and He did not exalt them. Their kingdoms were coming into question through His ministry and teaching and they could not bear this threat. Where is Jesus threatening to undo your world?

This is the vision that should compel us to seek after Him with all our hearts. This is the vision we should have every time we pray the words of the prayer He taught the disciples, “Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” We should grieve for the state of the world He created, marred and broken by sin. We should grieve for the state of our own lives, marred and broken by sin. We should long for the fulfillment of this promise knowing that it is only by His grace that we who are unclean are allowed to participate in and hope for the coming of the kingdom. We need to have our eyes opened and our lives transformed to long for this kingdom and to see it established in our lives now.

Come, behold the works of the LORD,
how he has brought desolations on the earth.
He makes wars cease to the end of the earth;
he breaks the bow and shatters the spear;
he burns the chariots with fire.
"Be still, and know that I am God.
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth!"