Saturday after the Twelfth Sunday after Trinity Sunday
Posted on September 10, 2022 by under
Scripture: Isaiah 62:6-12 (NKJV)
62:6 I have set watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem; They shall never hold their peace day or night. You who make mention of the Lord, do not keep silent,
7 and give Him no rest till He establishes and till He makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth.
8 The Lord has sworn by His right hand and by the arm of His strength:
“Surely I will no longer give your grain as food for your enemies; And the sons of the foreigner shall not drink your new wine, for which you have labored.
9 “But those who have gathered it shall eat it, and praise the Lord; Those who have brought it together shall drink it in My holy courts.”
10 Go through, go through the gates! Prepare the way for the people; Build up, build up the highway! Take out the stones, lift up a banner for the peoples!
11 Indeed the Lord has proclaimed to the end of the world:
“Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Surely your salvation is coming; Behold, His reward is with Him, and His work before Him.’”
12 And they shall call them The Holy People, the Redeemed of the Lord; And you shall be called Sought Out, a City Not Forsaken.
Devotion
It seems impossible to read these words and not think of God’s work of establishing the office of the Ministry and placing ministers into it to preach His Word and administer His sacraments, for the edification of His Church.
Surely, God could have proclaimed His Word through angels, but for reasons He alone knows, He called men to do it. The men who occupy His ministry on earth are mere men, with special education and training, but men nonetheless. They are sinful men, but men who are saved by the grace of God, and whose sins are covered by the precious blood of Jesus.
The work of such a watchman is hard–it requires long hours, considerable patience, and much labor that is done out of the public view, for which there is no real hope of earthly gain or reward. And indeed, it would be foolish to undertake such an office for hope of worldly reputation or benefit.
But let us thank God, that He has provided such men for us. Let us pray that He keeps them faithful to Himself. And those of us that serve as such watchmen, let us pray that we not be carried away or distracted by worldly considerations or distractions, but ever to hold fast to our Lord and the full counsel of God.
Prayer: Almighty and Merciful God, of Whose only gift it cometh that Thy faithful people do unto Thee true and laudable service: Grant, we beseech Thee, that we may so faithfully serve Thee in this life, that we fail not finally to attain Thy heavenly promises; 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.
