Wednesday after Cantate
Scripture: Isaiah 65:8-16 (NKJV)
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 elect 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, and chose that in which I do not delight.”
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
Today’s reading is a continuation from God’s Word which we considered yesterday, and it is the Lord’s consolation to His remnant which witnessed the judgment of the Lord on the unbelieving. For the sake of the elect, there would be a limit to the destruction: “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.”
God’s mercy toward those who hear and believe by the working of the Holy Spirit is not an indication of God somehow wavering in His judgment on those who do not believe: “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. 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, and chose that in which I do not delight.”
The proclamation of such judgment is a strong statement of Law, so that those who hear would be called to repentance. And the consolations of the Gospel always abide for those who repent and believe in the Christ. The Lord’s promises remained steadfast and sure—promises to the house of David which were fulfilled in the Christ, Whose blood was shed, so that all who believe in Him would have the forgiveness of sins.
Prayer: O God, Who makes 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, our Lord, who livest and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end.
