#DailyDevotion Jesus The LORD God, The Mighty One Is Returning
Isaiah 40:9-11Get up on a high mountain, Zion, to tell the good news! Call with a loud voice, Jerusalem, to tell the good news! Raise your voice without fear, tell the cities of Judah: “Here is your God!” See the Lord GOD coming as a Mighty One to rule with His strong arm. See the reward He has with Him, and what He has won goes ahead of Him. Like a shepherd He takes care of His flock; He gathers the lambs in His arms and carries them at His bosom. He gently helps the mother sheep.
Even as Israel is being carted away by the Assyrians and the Assyrians have Jerusalem surrounded making waste of all the land, the LORD tells Isaiah to get up on a high mountain and proclaim the good news! Now John the Baptist would be the greater fulfillment and the apostles and the Church complete the fulfillment. We all raise our voices without fear telling the cities of Judah, “See the Lord GOD coming as a Mighty One to rule with His strong arm.” They did not recognize it at first. They thought they were witnessing the actions of a weak man hanging there, condemned to death on the cross. The reality was and is, Jesus is the LORD God, the Mighty One who ruled over sin and death by stretching out his arms there upon the cross.
However, Jesus has ascended to the right hand of God, as David prophesied in Psalm 110, “The LORD says to my Lord, ‘St at My right until I make Your enemies Your footstool.’” Jesus told the Sanhedrin they would see this. The Apostles witnessed it as Jesus ascended into heaven. He is seated at the right hand of God the Father, interceding for all his saints. We will see him return in glory as it is written in Rev. 19, “11Then I saw heaven opened, and there was a white horse, and its Rider is called Faithful and True. He is righteous when He judges and goes to battle…13He wears a garment dipped in blood and is called the Word of God…15A sharp sword comes out of His mouth to strike down the nations, and He will rule them with an iron rod and will tread the winepress of the fierce anger of Almighty God. 160n His garment and on His thigh He has a name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS!”
The reward he has is with him, that is, the new heavens and new earth. Eternal life he has to give to all who put their trust in him. His reward is his righteousness, his glory and his holiness which he gives as a gift to all who believe in him even in his name. His reward goes ahead of him, those who died in the faith who are raised from the dead to meet him in the air and all of us who are still living, are changed to be like him and are gathered to him in the sky as he takes his iron rod and executes justice upon the earth, upon all who rejected the message of salvation proclaimed to them, upon everyone who loved darkness rather than the light.
Like a shepherd Jesus cares for his people. He is the good shepherd of Ezekiel and the LORD’s shepherd David of Ezekiel. Even in this life he is shepherding up, finding the lost, carrying us upon his shoulders into his sheepfold, the kingdom of heaven. It may not always seem like it as we struggle in this life but we are like those sheep bleating and struggling against their shepherd who is trying to free us from being stuck in the crags of the rocks. It is unpleasant for the moment, but once we are free we can rest comfortably in his bosom. When the wolves came for us, he laid down his life so we might have eternal life.
Heavenly Father, you sent your son Jesus Christ, the LORD our God, the Mighty One to save us by his death and to usher us into his kingdom with his might. Grant us faith to believe this and to rest in his bosom all our days. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.