#DailyDevotion God has made Jesus our ‘safe base’ which we gather around.
December 26th
Read Is 49:22–26;50:4—51:8, 12–16
Isa 49:22-23 Thus says the Lord GOD: “Behold, I will lift up my hand to the nations, and raise my signal to the peoples; and they shall bring your sons in their arms, and your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders. (23) Kings shall be your foster fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers. With their faces to the ground they shall bow down to you, and lick the dust of your feet. Then you will know that I am the LORD; those who wait for me shall not be put to shame.” 50:4 The Lord GOD has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary. Morning by morning he awakens; he awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught. (5) The Lord GOD has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious; I turned not backward. (6) I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard; I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting. (7) But the Lord GOD helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame. (8) He who vindicates me is near. Who will contend with me? Let us stand up together. Who is my adversary? Let him come near to me. 51:12“I, I am he who comforts you; who are you that you are afraid of man who dies, of the son of man who is made like grass, (13) and have forgotten the LORD, your Maker, who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth, and you fear continually all the day because of the wrath of the oppressor, when he sets himself to destroy? And where is the wrath of the oppressor?
In Is. 49:22 the Lord God promises to lift up his hand to the nations and raise a signal to the peoples. In 50:4-8 the Lord describes his hand and signal. It is the Lord Jesus Christ whose ear is opened and was not rebellious. It is Jesus who turns his back to those who strike and his cheeks to those who pull the bear. It is Christ who does not hide his face from disgrace and spitting. Why and how? The Lord God, his Father and our Father sustains him. The Father vindicates him. There is none who can contend with our Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus does this out of love for the Father and out of his great love for you. Jesus is the hand of God who gathers us to the Father. Jesus crucified is the signal which gathers the nations. What glorious promises he gives to those who place their trust in him. Kings and queens shall be our foster fathers and nursing mothers. Who is that other than God our Father and the Church through whose womb we are born as Christians?
So as the Lord Jesus Christ’ holy people we are comforted in knowing the Father’s true attitude toward us which is love, mercy, forgiveness, gentleness and kindness. So we do not need to fear any man. Man dies and tomorrow is forgotten. Do not forget you have a Father in heaven who cares for you and who does not forget you. You are the apple of his eye on account of Jesus. What can man do to you? Indeed what can even the spirits do to you if the almighty God and Lord is your Father and the Lord Jesus Christ is your brother. The world can only bring harm to you for a short term. But the blessings of the Father are forever. So fear and trust in God, the living God, alone and his Christ, Jesus.
Lord God, Heavenly Father, grant us the revelation of your son Jesus Christ, that we may see him as your hand and signal to gather around and be received as your children whom you have gathered from the four corners of the earth and remain faithful to you unto death. Amen.