Wednesday after Cantate

Scripture: Isaiah 65:8-16 (NKJV)

65:8 Thus says the Lord: “As the new wine is found in the cluster, and one says, ‘Do not destroy it, for a blessing is in it,’ so will I do for My servants’ sake, that I may not destroy them all.

9 I will bring forth descendants from Jacob, and from Judah an heir of My mountains; My select shall inherit it, and My servants shall dwell there.

10 Sharon shall be a fold of flocks, and the Valley of Achor a place for herds to lie down, for My people who have sought Me.

11 “But you are those who forsake the Lord, who forget My holy mountain, who prepare a table for Gad, and who furnish a drink offering for Meni.

12 Therefore I will number you for the sword, and you shall all bow down to the slaughter; Because, when I called, you did not answer; When I spoke, you did not hear, but did evil before My eyes,

13 Therefore thus says the Lord God: “Behold, My servants shall eat, but you shall be hungry; Behold, My servants shall drink, but you shall be thirsty; Behold, My servants shall rejoice, but you shall be ashamed;

14 Behold, My servants shall sing for joy of heart, but you shall cry for sorrow of heart, and wail for grief of spirit.

15 You shall leave your name as a curse to My chosen; For the Lord God will slay you, and call His servants by another name;

16 So that he who blesses himself in the earth shall bless himself in the God of truth; And he who swears in the earth shall swear by the God of truth; Because the former troubles are forgotten, and because they are hidden from My eyes.”

Devotion

God’s promises have eternal implications. If they didn’t, many of His statements in Scripture would have little importance. Things constantly change and move in this world, and ideas about earthly inheritances and dwelling places are small in the bigger picture of millennia gone by and possible generations to come.

The blessings we experience in time now are indeed a good thing. But they are small, and often passing. The most prosperous people in history suffered unpleasant things, and the most pitiful people have known joys. But the greater truth is that our Lord uses all these things to teach us about eternal blessings.

We are unable to see all things from an omniscient, eternal perspective. But God is able, and so He uses our temporal experiences to teach us about eternal blessings. His promises of joy and prosperity give us a glimpse into the profound joys of the life of the world to come, where sin and suffering will be gone. And His promises of punishment and weeping are a serious warning that teaches man to repent now while he has the blessing of the Lord’s patience, before the time comes when one must face judgment for rejecting His grace. These are the same ideas that we hear when His Word is faithfully preached concerning repentance and forgiveness in our Lord Jesus Christ!

We pray: 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. Amen.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.