Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Isaiah 11:3a,6

Just a simple message today. Isaiah 11 is a prophecy of the millennial kingdom after Jesus’ second coming. This is the chapter where you get the verses like

The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, The leopard shall like down with the young goat, The calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.’ (Isaiah 11:6)

And also God says (in keeping with the theme of the book thus far) that the remnant of Israel at that time, dispersed in ‘Assyria’ (the whole world really, by that time) would be restored to the land of Israel. The verse that hit me though is one that describes the Messiah who will reign personally in that kingdom. It says a few things about Him, but it says:

His delight is in the fear of the LORD’ (Isaiah 11:3a).

I just wondered how much our delight is in the fear of the LORD? It is one thing to fear the LORD. That is logical. He is holy and just and we are sinners. What is there not to fear? But it is another to delight in it. We can delight, and should delight, in the fear of the LORD, because we are saved from the penalty of sin. I once heard Alan Stanley preach on the fear of God and he said having a fear of God in the right sense is like seeing a thunderstorm but being sheltered from it. In that case, we can delight in the thunderstorm because it works its awesome power but we are safe! In the same way then, should we not delight in the fear of our God? Fearing God means reverence, respect, obedience and humility. We should delight in such things. It should make us very very happy to do those things, because we are sheltered from His judging power by Jesus’ blood.

Today, have joy in the knowledge that everything you do is for the glorification and reverence of God.

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