God Intervenes to Establish His Honor

“‘Now therefore what have I here,’ declares the Lord, ‘seeing that my people are taken away for nothing? Their rulers wail,’ declares the Lord, ‘and continually all the day my name is despised. Therefore my people shall know my name. Therefore in that day they shall know that it is I who speak: here am I. How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, Your God reigns.” -Isaiah 52:5-7 (ESV)

     Isaiah in his prophecy wrote at a time when chaos and conquest of the land by foreign, pagan powers was foreseen and was occurring. His writing establishes the sovereignty of God and pleads for true believers to return to God as the One in charge.

     We in America are in a period of unrest and agitation as we seek to choose the next president of our country. Our own rebellion as a nation reminds us of conditions of disbelief and departure from the statutes of God that Isaiah warned about in his time. He prophesied from about 740 B. C., beginning, as we are told in Isaiah 6:1 “in the year that King Uzziah died.” He recorded the death of Sennacherib (37:38) dated at 681 B. C. This 60-year period in Israel’s history carries a strong central theme espoused by the God-inspired prophet who declares unequivocally that God is the glorious central figure who is Sovereign of the whole world (13:1). Regardless of what man does to thwart God, He is supreme. His cleansing touch atones for sin, seen in the vision of the coal from the altar touching the lips of the prophet with the declaration, “your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for” (Isaiah 6:7b). But as Isaiah, who was willing to accept God’s cleansing and become the spokesman for God for which he was called and set apart, we in our troubled day must experience, too, a turning to God.

     Note in Isaiah 52:6 what God requires of us: “my people shall know My Name.”

Oh, that God’s people would commit themselves anew to walk in the light of the Lord: “Come, now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool. If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be eaten by the sword; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.” (Isaiah 1:18-20). These are very plain words from the Lord through the prophet Isaiah. History has proven them true through centuries of kingdoms that have risen and fallen. Is not this a clarion call to us today? Return, return to the Lord. Recognize Him as Sovereign and Lord. - Ethelene Dyer Jones 11.06.2016