Evangelical Lutheran Diocese of North America

Saturday after the Twenty-Sixth Sunday after Trinity Sunday

Posted on November 19, 2016 by Pastor Dulas under Devotions
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Scripture: Isaiah 62:1-12 (NKJV)

1 For Zion’s sake I will not hold My peace, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until her righteousness goes forth as brightness, and her salvation as a lamp that burns.

2 The Gentiles shall see your righteousness, and all kings your glory. You shall be called by a new name, which the mouth of the LORD will name.

3 You shall also be a crown of glory in the hand of the LORD, and a royal diadem In the hand of your God.

4 You shall no longer be termed Forsaken, nor shall your land any more be termed Desolate; But you shall be called Hephzibah, and your land Beulah; For the LORD delights in you, and your land shall be married.

5 For as a young man marries a virgin, so shall your sons marry you; And as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.

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

In Hebrews 11 we are shown how the “ancients” were saved through faith in the promise of the coming Savior. With the calling of Abraham, God begins His plan to create His holy Christian Church. God told Abraham, “I will make you into a great nation…” (Gen. 12:2). Abraham understood and “…he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God” (Heb. 11:10). This plan had not been derailed when the descendants of Abraham spent 400 years of slavery in Egypt. God had not forgotten. His plan was to bring them out through the Red Sea and plant them in the land of Canaan. In Isaiah, when God’s people are going into exile away from the Promised Land and being dispersed throughout the world, God had not forgotten. Isaiah (62:1) assures them that God will not delay this plan even a little. God will not rest, until it comes to completion, “until He makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth” (62:7).

God’s plan to create a holy Christian Church, is moving forward. God’s proclamation of the law to show us our sin and create repentance is not a setback, but according to His plan. Through the law, God breaks our pride so that we will receive His victory in Jesus Christ. Broken by the law, we rejoice in the good news, “Surely your salvation is coming; Behold, His reward is with Him, and His work before Him” (62:11). He prepares us for the proclamation of the gospel, so that we believe and rejoice in God’s work for us through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

We pray: God of our salvation, through repentance and faith make us Your people and be our God. Amen.

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