Comfort my people.
Isaiah is given the new task of comforting rather than pronouncing
condemnation on the people. Isaiah is
told that Israel has received double punishment double for her iniquity but
that she has been pardoned. That seems
like either a paradox or one of us doesn't understand forgiveness. How can one be punished doubly but also
receive pardon? Those two things aren't
necessarily the same. Forgiveness is
also forgetting. Sin has consequences,
if it doesn't then we lose sight of its gravity. When God forgives there is restoration in the
offing. Does He have to forgive sins in
the covenant or is it His nature to forgive those with whom He is in
covenant? The old covenant bound Him to
forgive sins for which repentance and sacrifice were made but what of those
sins for which neither repentance nor sacrifice was found? Here, the Lord is forgiving in mercy not on
account of sacrifice and announcing that He is coming to His people. They can now receive Him as those who have
received His mercy and grace, the forgiveness of sin. They are prepared and they are to prepare.
John knew his role and embraced it. His job was not to be the light but to point
to the light. As soon as he saw the sign
promised, the dove remaining on one at baptism, he began to point to Jesus, his
cousin. What did he mean when he
referred to Jesus as the Lamb of God, the one who takes away the sin of the
world? Did he have any idea about the
cross? The lamb that takes away sin must
be slain. John's testimony was powerful
and profound. His role was to be the
voice crying in the wilderness and he chose that as his place of dwelling in
fulfillment of the prophetic word. His
own disciples seem to be the first followers of Jesus, it wasn't his job to
collect people, but to attach them to the one of whom he prophesied. We have the same task.
John's prophecy began with a word concerning the one to come
and ended with the prophecy that He had indeed come. The writer of Hebrews says that Jesus is the
exact imprint of the nature of God, if you want to know God, look to
Jesus. He is the radiance of God's
glory. Can you distinguish between the
radiance and the glory? He is the
shining forth of God into the world, the light, and we see in Revelation that
He is the lamp through which the glory of God gives light to the heavenly
Jerusalem. He stands above all else, all
that has ever been, all that ever will be.
Do we understand this about Jesus and do we appreciate the divine
condescension and humility in taking on flesh and becoming like us in order to
save us?
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