epcblog

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

Wednesday, December 05, 2007

Isaiah 56

We don’t leave foxes to be the guardians of henhouses, and yet sometimes those who style themselves as the protectors of God’s people act in ways they show that they are dangerous wolves who would devour the sheep. We are studiously warned concerning this scandal in both the Old and New Testaments, and we need to be on our guard for those who would destroy the church. Yet our sure hope is that we have a Good Shepherd in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was willing to lay down His life for His sheep.

There are times when loving and diligent under-shepherds may seem as rare as hen’s teeth, as the expression goes. God’s message to His people in that deplorable condition is that they must not give up. Surely God’s rescue will come quickly. In the meantime, those who would truly follow the Lord need to keep their minds aware of the demands of righteousness, and keep their hearts pure from entangling distractions that would move them from the pathway of obedience to the Law of the Lord. His salvation will surely come soon.

Concerning the hopes of God’s Old Testament people, the Lord’s intentions for the rescue of His elect would even lead to hope for the foreigner and the eunuch, two groups that did not have the full privileges of others in Israel. We read of those who would have faced some measure of exclusion now diligently following the requirement of the Lord’s statutes. Could it be that these outcasts according to certain Old Testament ceremonial provisions would actually be a part of the house of God, with an everlasting name that would not be cut off? Once again the prophet speaks of New Covenant hopes using the idiom of the day of Old Covenant practice that was current in his time. Somehow there will be a new temple of God that will truly be a house of prayer for all the nations. The temple in Jerusalem was supposed to be a living display of this far-reaching promise of God, but only a greater temple than one built by human hands could ever have accomplished such a wonderful dream.

Of course, not everyone thought that the idea of international inclusion was a good thing at all. God will win the day over those among His people who begin to see their righteousness in ceremonies that should have testified to their great need for perfect obedience, of which they were completely lacking. Others who had no ceremonial righteousness would yet be the merciful recipients of God’s decree to gather both the outcasts of Israel and others beyond Israel that will somehow come to Him.

This blessed plan so wonderfully announced even in the Old Testament was not part of the practical theology of the established shepherds of Israel. Like the prophet Jonah, they did not want to see the fullness of the Lord’s mercy if it meant that those from the nations that were enemies would actually have a way to be at peace with God and to receive His greatest blessings. Yet these shepherds were without real understanding of the plan of God. They knew their own appetites and furthered their own private interests, but they did not lift a finger for the weak and the confused. They expected great things for themselves with days ending with plenty of wine and strong drink, but they completely missed the true Shepherd of Israel when He came to give His life for the weak, and even for the foreigner and the eunuch.

This Shepherd was a true watchman, with an eye for the elect, even for a Samaritan woman with some significant lifestyle issues. He came with great healing power for those in desperate need, but His greatest act of mercy came at the cost of His own life. Who was it that sought His death, when there was no charge that could reasonably have been laid against Him? It was these same wicked shepherds of Israel, whose fathers killed the prophets, and who sought to put an end to the greatest Shepherd of the sheep. They imagined that through His death, the story of mercy for Ethiopian eunuchs would rest in the grave with Him. But when His now immortal body was raised incorruptible the hope of the hopeless was secured.

It is this same Jesus Christ that we flee to every day. It is Him that we preach and teach. He is coming again soon, and He will not disappoint the expectations of His faithful followers. Though even to this day, the church may be filled with shepherds who do more to block the way to everlasting life than they do to show the only gate to heaven, the Lord Jesus still has His ways of calling the weak to persevere in hope until the end. By His Word and Spirit we must keep justice and do righteousness however formidable the opposition may seem, for soon our salvation will come.

posted by Pastor Magee @ 7:00 AM

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