Evangelical Lutheran Diocese of North America

Friday after the Twenty-Fifth Sunday after Trinity Sunday

Posted on November 11, 2016 by Pastor Dulas under Devotions
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Scripture: Isaiah 33:17-24 (NKJV)

17 Your eyes will see the King in His beauty; They will see the land that is very far off.

18 Your heart will meditate on terror: “Where is the scribe? Where is he who weighs? Where is he who counts the towers?”

19 You will not see a fierce people, a people of obscure speech, beyond perception, of a stammering tongue that you cannot understand.

20 Look upon Zion, the city of our appointed feasts; Your eyes will see Jerusalem, a quiet home, a tabernacle that will not be taken down; Not one of its stakes will ever be removed, nor will any of its cords be broken.

21 But there the majestic LORD will be for us a place of broad rivers and streams, in which no galley with oars will sail, nor majestic ships pass by

22 (For the LORD is our Judge, the LORD is our Lawgiver, the LORD is our King; He will save us);

23 Your tackle is loosed, they could not strengthen their mast, they could not spread the sail. Then the prey of great plunder is divided; The lame take the prey.

24 And the inhabitant will not say, “I am sick”; The people who dwell in it will be forgiven their iniquity.

Devotion

The readings from this week have all pointed us to our home in Heaven. They point to the End of Days when our Lord will come again in power and majesty and take us to our eternal home in Heaven.

Our eyes will see “the King in His beauty…the land that is very far off.” We will see our Lord Jesus Christ sitting on His throne when He comes to judge both the quick and the dead. We will see Heaven and look upon “Zion, the city of our appointed feasts.” We will see the New Jerusalem—Heaven—as a tabernacle; a temple that will not be taken down.

Our Lord will be “a place of broad rivers,” that is, He will be the River of Life; the River of Life that was poured upon our heads in the waters of Holy Baptism. The river that washed away our sins and caused us to be clothed with the righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ. In those waters He saved us from sin, death, and the devil. And He preserved us in the ark of the Church, through the preaching of the Gospel, and the giving to us of His Body and Blood to eat and drink in bread and wine. He forgave us our trespasses as we confessed them in Holy Absolution, and He caused us through faith to gather together in His Name, even if that gathering was only two or three people. In these things He preserves us until we reach our eternal home in Heaven.

We pray: Almighty God, we beseech Thee, show Thy mercy unto Thy humble servants, that we who put no trust in our own merits may not be dealt with after the severity of Thy judgment, but according to Thy mercy; through Christ, our Lord. Amen.

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