Monday after Cantate Sunday
Posted on May 8, 2023 by under
Scripture: Isaiah 14:1-3 (NKJV)
14:1 For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob, and will still choose Israel, and settle them in their own land. The strangers will be joined with them, and they will cling to the house of Jacob. 2 Then people will take them and bring them to their place, and the house of Israel will possess them for servants and maids in the land of the Lord; they will take them captive whose captives they were, and rule over their oppressors.
3 It shall come to pass in the day the Lord gives you rest from your sorrow, and from your fear and the hard bondage in which you were made to serve.
Devotion
Isaiah speaks of the restoration of God’s people because of the Messiah’s victory over their enemies. But he also speaks of more than just Israel and Jacob; he says that the strangers—Gentiles who had not been God’s people but had converted to the true faith—will be joined with and incorporated into this great nation. Through the Gospel, the Lord has united all true believers as one people who serve one another in love. This is the great Communion of Saints, made up of both Jew and Gentile, which has spread to all corners of the known world.
When Christ victoriously rose from the dead and ascended into heaven, St. Paul says, “He led captivity captive, and gave gifts to men” (Eph. 4:8). The Church, which had once been held captive by the devil, the world, and sinful flesh, has been delivered by Jesus’ redemption. Through the gift of the Holy Spirit and power of the Gospel, the Church now has power over its former captors. We are no longer slaves to sin, but servants of righteousness. We are no longer strangers and foreigners, but the people of God. We are no longer minions of the devil, but faithful subjects of Christ, our King. “Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 15:57).
Prayer: O God, Who makest the minds of the faithful to be of one will: Grant unto Thy people that they may love what Thou commandest, and desire what Thou dost promise; that, among the manifold changes of this world, our hearts may there be fixed where true joys are to be found; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
