I've enjoyed walking with Isaiah over these last two months - I hope you have been blessed by the Word ministry too! To appreciate these final six verses, containing two songs, we have to remember two previous songs.
Back in Isaiah 5 we heard Isaiah's broken-hearted song of unrequited love: God has loved His people but they have spurned Him and instead have cheated on Him with other gods. Then in Isaiah 6 we hear the song of the angelic choirs in heaven singing God's praises "Holy, holy, holy" - but Isaiah was a man of unclean lips, a representative of a nation with unclean hearts, who dare not join in with the song lest he pollute it. Isaiah and Judah/Israel cannot sing the song of heaven.
However, after that we heard many prophecies about the coming of the Messiah, Immanuel - later Isaiah will tell us about the Servant who will make atonement for our sins.
Because of the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ (who is truly 'God with us' and 'The LORD our Salvation'), Isaiah 12 finishes with the song of the redeemed of Israel and the song of the redeemed of the nations.
It is wonderful to know today that we can join with the choirs of the redeemed in heaven, making these words our anthem: "Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb... Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honour and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen!" (Revelation 7:10-12)
Back in Isaiah 5 we heard Isaiah's broken-hearted song of unrequited love: God has loved His people but they have spurned Him and instead have cheated on Him with other gods. Then in Isaiah 6 we hear the song of the angelic choirs in heaven singing God's praises "Holy, holy, holy" - but Isaiah was a man of unclean lips, a representative of a nation with unclean hearts, who dare not join in with the song lest he pollute it. Isaiah and Judah/Israel cannot sing the song of heaven.
However, after that we heard many prophecies about the coming of the Messiah, Immanuel - later Isaiah will tell us about the Servant who will make atonement for our sins.
Because of the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ (who is truly 'God with us' and 'The LORD our Salvation'), Isaiah 12 finishes with the song of the redeemed of Israel and the song of the redeemed of the nations.
It is wonderful to know today that we can join with the choirs of the redeemed in heaven, making these words our anthem: "Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb... Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honour and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen!" (Revelation 7:10-12)
Pray Today:
- Give thanks for God's "never stopping, never giving up, unbreaking, always and forever love" that has pursued us in-spite of our sins and secures our identity now and future forever.
- As we leave Isaiah behind and resume Colossians, pray for God to continue powerfully speaking into our lives through His Word.
- Pray for the newly arriving students and our returning students at the start of a new academic year and a new year of gospel ministry.
