epcblog

Devotional thoughts (Monday through Thursday mornings) from the pastor of Exeter Presbyterian Church in Exeter, NH // Sunday Worship 10:30am // 73 Winter Street

Friday, October 19, 2007

Isaiah 27

In the third chapter of the Bible a talking serpent suddenly begins to converse with a woman. The world has never been the same since Eve took advice from an animal and considered that creature more trustworthy than God. Sin entered the world through one man, as Adam listened to his wife, who had been deceived by the serpent. This was no ordinary serpent. This talking beast was under the domination of Satan, a fallen angel, who has been a liar from the beginning. At the center of Genesis 3, God announces that someone called “the seed of the woman” will crush the head of the serpent. No sooner has the serpent had his first victory when God announces the defeat of this overwhelming adversary. But when will it happen? Eve perhaps thought that the victory of God would come through a descendant in just a few generations. Who could have expected that it would be thousands of years, after the coming of millions of descendants of Eve, when the one seed of the woman would come?

In Isaiah 27 the announcement of the punishment of the old serpent is given once again, many years after the events of Genesis 3, but still hundreds of years before the birth of Jesus Christ. The Lord has a great and strong sword that he will use against the serpent. He will slay that dragon, and protect his kingdom, that pleasant vineyard of his own planting. Israel will be more than Israel in that day of the Lord’s deliverance. Jacob will take root, like a tree planted by the waterside, and Israel will fill the whole world with fruit.

That is a wonderful vision. 700 years after Isaiah, the Messiah was born in Bethlehem. He faced the unbelief of neighbor and the betrayal of a friend, and even the death of the cross. The church, led now by a resurrected Lord, and empowered by the Spirit of God, would move forward through much suffering for at least the next 2000 years. As with Old Testament Israel, the church faces the discipline of God. But one day, just as the angelic serpent of old will be crushed, the enemies of the church will also face the judge of the earth.

The people of God are identified now because they burn their idols. All men tend toward idolatry. Few will burn their idols. Some resolve to change. Few burn their idols. There is a spiritual battle today as the church is called to be true to the word of God in the day of temptation. The serpent has been dealt a death blow through the cross of Christ, where the seed of the woman was bruised. Still that dragon lies and lures men into his snare of temptation. Still many will prefer what their eyes can see, and they will listen to the suggestions of Satan and reject the purity of the word of God. But some will make the fundamental change of allegiance and turn away from the pit of destruction in favor of the kingdom of light.

The guilt of God’s elect Jacob has been atoned for. This happened when the one seed of the woman was bruised as had been prophesied from the beginning. This descendant of Eve was to deliver a head wound to the dragon, but the victorious warrior king, the seed of the woman, would be bitten on the heel. Do you understand the image. The warrior king tramples the dragon with his foot, but that old beast can bite.

This was the cross of Christ, which though it was accomplished 2000 years ago, yet still we can say that the church lives in the day of the cross, and we still face the dragon’s teeth as we are called to crush Satan under our feet. As the Lord warned, the true followers of Christ will yet have a cross to bear. One day all of this will be done. The day of humiliation will be completely over, and the victory of God will come in its fullness. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has the future firmly in His hand, and who will bring us home in a day of perfect victory, the day when He comes with his angels, who will separate the wheat of the church from the weeds of the world.

posted by Pastor Magee @ 7:00 AM

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