Isaiah 12

I was discussing life with a friend the other day who is a believer in God, and yet who has faced some serious challenges in her young life. She said to me, “When does the enjoy part start?” We know that our purpose in life is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever, but our enjoyment of the Lord and His many gifts is clouded by the miseries that seem to be inseparable from our current lives. Will it always be this way? When does the enjoy part start?

Despite the fact that our afflictions feel genuinely weighty to us, there is no doubt that there are times when followers of the Lord have faced far worse troubles. The Huegenots in France were Protestant believers in prior centuries when Roman Catholicism was the law of the land in that country. There were times and places when people were all expected to give a coin in honor of Mary at public street-corners with special shrines installed for the purpose. Government monitors were charged with identifying violators who refused to give what was considered due veneration to the mother of the Lord. What happened to those who did not go along with this system? They were put to death.

Not only have others in church history faced horrors such as these, God’s Old Testament people faced dramatic expressions of the Lord’s anger against them for their sin. The time of the Old Testament was coming to a close, and the enemies of God’s nation were going to bring much sorrow into many lives. How can we weigh when trial against another? It is impossible to compare grief between two suffering people. What may seem like a small thing to one person may be an insurmountable obstacle to another. We stand in need of God’s grace for the challenge He has for us today, and others have found His grace sufficient in the past for the special obstacles that they were called to face.

While the level of trials may seem to differ, the person that we ultimately turn to for help is always the same. We give thanks to You, O Lord our God! Our delight in Him is not to be based on whether or not we are feeling the discipline of His hand at this moment. The prophet acknowledges the confession of the faithful. God was angry with Israel, but His intention was to do those things that would be consistent with their eternal well-being.

The Lord God is our strength and so we look to Him in every need as our provision and our Help. The Lord is also our song. We hold Him to be the only right recipient of our worship. The Lord God is our comfort. Even when we feel the pain of troubles, He is with us as our friend and strong companion. The Lord is our salvation. His promise is for today, and even more for tomorrow.

This was true when the Lord delivered the Israelites out of the hands of the Egyptians in the days of Moses. The horse and the rider he threw into the sea, and Israel went through on dry ground. The Lord was also the salvation of His people in the days of the judges and David, and then later in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah as some were restored to the land after a time of exile. How much more is Jesus Christ our salvation since He has taken away all that stood in the way of our complete eternal fellowship with God!

Of course we should sing praises to such a Savior! God is great in our midst. All of His ways are glorious, and His greatness should be known. It is a privilege to proclaim it in the public worship of the church. Even now we can take a healthy portion from the waters of salvation. But when does the greatest enjoy part start? We recognize that in this world we will have tribulation, but we are made to have a greater measure of happiness because we believe that our Savior has overcome the world.

A better day is yet to come. In that day, Immanuel will not be a longed-for future Messiah, or even a baby in a manger whose birth is announced by a choir of angels. In that day the Lord will be forever glorious. The Lord will not be angry with us ever again. How can this be? The Lamb of God has turned away the eternal wrath of God that was against His people. We have a good taste of the enjoy part even now, but in that day when the Lord brings all His purposes to a glorious conclusion, there will be no remaining doubt that the enjoy part has begun.