Jeremiah 1

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Isaiah wrote about the Suffering Servant. Jeremiah modeled that Servant in the tribulations that he faced throughout his ministry. He was chosen by God for this task from before his birth. A descendant of “one of the priests,” Jeremiah served as a prophet during the days of the last kings of Judah and into the captivity of Jerusalem about which Isaiah had warned.

Jeremiah was conscious of his call by God as a young man, yet God consecrated him for service long before that moment, “in the womb.” He was to be not only a prophet for his own people, but God sent him as a prophet to the nations as well.

This famous prophet was reluctant to take on the charge God gave him. Like Moses before him, he keenly felt his inadequacy. He was a young man, and he considered his speaking skills as severely lacking. There are other gifts that are more essential than oratorical flare for an ambassador of the Lord to do his job well. One of the most important of these is courage. God promised that He would supply all that was necessary.

Jeremiah was a human being. He certainly was a sinner. How could a mere man speak for God? How could he stand up to powerful kings and speak a message of judgment that they did not want to hear? How could he convict others of sin when he himself was lacking sinless perfection? The Almighty touched the prophet’s mouth as a symbol of His perfect provision.

The Lord gave Jeremiah two visions at the inception of his many years of service. The first contained a play on words in the Hebrew language since the words for “almond” and “watching” sound very similar. Jeremiah saw an almond branch. What was the point of this vision? God was “watching” over His Word “to perform it.”

Not all of God’s promises for Israel were happy. The second vision of Jeremiah was a boiling pot coming from the north. God would send His judgment upon Jerusalem and Judah in the form of an invasion from a far-off land. The Lord's people had made offerings to other gods. They had forsaken their God. Jeremiah needed to go where God would send him and to say everything that God told him to say. He would face great opposition, but God would be with him. Those who would stand against Jeremiah would not prevail over him.

When Jesus asked His disciples who people thought He was, one of the answers that they gave was Jeremiah. Jesus came with a difficult message from God, and He had a courage that was astounding. Not only was God with Him, He was God with us. He did more than announce trouble coming from the north. He took the burning cauldron of God’s just wrath against sin and faced the agony of the cross for our deliverance. No mere prophet could ever have accomplished this.

Jesus spoke a sure Word, but He Himself came as the Word of God made flesh. On this solid rock we stand, despite any opposition arrayed against us. God is with us forever, and He will deliver us from every danger.

Prayer from A Book of Prayers

Lord God, You sent Your prophets with Your Word to speak to Your people. You care for us, for You knit us together in the womb, and have accomplished great things for us at a very high cost to our Redeemer. You have put Your words in the mouths of prophets for our sake. You watch over Your Word to perform it. You have spoken words of disaster in warning, words of judgment against our evil, and words of comfort for the day of deliverance. You have been with Your holy prophet Jesus, for the fulfillment of every prophetic word.

Isaiah 66

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The time has come to bring the message of this marvelous book to an end. To do this well we must give careful consideration to the One who is really speaking in Isaiah. A prophet is nothing at all unless he is an authoritative spokesman for God. We want to hear the Speaker behind the messenger, the true and living God. Heaven is His throne. Earth is His footstool. He does not need us to make Him a house. He is the Creator.

If we understand who is speaking to us, then there is only one thing to do: We should humble ourselves before Him immediately, willingly and honestly confessing our sins and fully turning away from them. “This is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at My Word.”

God could never be satisfied with mere ceremonial righteousness. A nation cannot appease God with the blood of an ox, the sacrifice of a lamb, a grain offering, and some incense. Israel needed at least one person who answered every time that God called. God's people always needed a substitute who accomplished what the Lord required. We have that Man in Jesus of Nazareth.

As we have seen in earlier chapters, there is a judgment coming. A kingdom will be born finally and decisively in the return of the Lord. “Jerusalem” will not only live, but she will have many, many “children.” Perfect peace and glory will be hers like an overflowing stream.

The wicked will not win in the end. Those who do not obey the gospel, and who have persecuted the church of the Lord will face the wrath of the Almighty. But the righteous in Christ will be joyful servants of our Master and Friend.

We must not forget what the true Servant of the Lord has done for us. Do not reject this One great Servant of the Lord. Do not imagine that a ceremonial gift will pay Him off. It was His blood that accomplished our ransom. It is our privilege to hear the call of the Savior who died for us. It is our delight to give our lives in the service of His glorious kingdom.

Prayer from A Book of Prayers

O Lord, it is amazing that You would care for us. Your Son came in humility and trembled at Your Word. His perfect heart of worship moved toward You continually in sincere devotion and obedience. This He did for our sake. We shall not be put to shame. We look for the sound in the heavens of Your Son’s return in glory. Bring forth Your holy nation. May Your Kingdom come, O God. We rejoice with the Jerusalem that is above. Bring peace to her like a river. Bring joy that we have almost forgotten in the day of trouble. Show forth Your mercy to us. Grant to us a taste of Your perfect peace even today. You know the works and thoughts of Christ which have been credited to our account. Use us today to declare Your glory among the nations. Draw all Your people to Your holy mountain, that we might gather together in Your house in the new heavens and the new earth. We worship You, O sovereign Lord. 

Isaiah 65

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God was pleased to use a remnant from Israel as the beginning of His church, later adding in the elect from Gentile lands and forming them into one family. When He began building His church, He brought in a “nation” that was not previously called by His name.

The Lord's experience with the people of Israel and Judah was heartbreaking. The details of their rebellion fill the pages of the Old Testament prophets and the accounts of Biblical history. Here in Isaiah 65 they are presented as participants in pagan rituals. God says that He will repay their “iniquities” and the sins of their fathers. The anger of the Almighty did not spring up in a day. He had been patient, and proceeded with warning after warning. One day the end would come.

The Lord is explicit here that this would not be such a completely new start so as to exclude all who were once in the Old Covenant community. He would not destroy all of the descendants of Jacob. He would have a chosen group of servants who would have a very important role in the future.

Think of how wonderfully this prophecy was fulfilled. First and foremost, Jesus was Jewish. All of the apostles were also Jews. In particular, the Apostle Paul was an accomplished Pharisee. His achievements as a part of the chosen people were once his pride, but now his boast was only in Christ.

Most of the Israelites would not be included in the group called “my servants.” God's chosen ones would eat, drink, rejoice, and sing for joy, but many others would be hungry, thirsty, wailing, and ashamed. So many of the Old Covenant people would face the judgment of God, while the remnant that remained would be the beginning of a resurrection kingdom. This combined group of Jews and Gentiles would be given a new name, and the former troubles of the old age would be forgotten.

A perfect fulfillment of the Lord's promises is described in Isaiah 65 that takes us past the centuries of church history. With His death and resurrection, Jesus has started something that will not fail. There will be a new heaven and a new earth. God will create a joyous New Jerusalem, and there will be no weeping in that city. The Lord who saved us with His blood is the God who will answer us before we even call. The wolf and the lamb will graze together, and the lion and the ox will safely feed with one another.

The New Jerusalem will be a land beyond the sting of death and the grave. To gain entrance, we needed a man who had victory over the penalty that we deserved. Jesus defeated the curse by taking it upon His own body. This great man of the Old Covenant people became the cornerstone of the New Covenant church.

Prayer from A Book of Prayers

Great God, Your patience is beyond our understanding. We know that You will repay iniquity. Our hope is in Christ and the cross, since Your justice has come upon Him there for us. Thank you for Your unchanging love for Your elect children. We will not forsake You. We will answer when You call and turn away from those things in which You do not delight. Feed us this day. Grant to us refreshing waters from above. Bless us, we pray. Call us by the name of Your Son. O God of Truth, make us glad in You today. May Your Jerusalem above be a cause of rejoicing forever. Bring about the fulfillment of all Your holy purposes. Give us hope for this eternal city as we face the sufferings of this world of death. Answer us in peace. We come to You in faith.

Isaiah 64

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In the midst of glorious promises regarding the culmination of all of God's plans, the closing chapters of Isaiah also record the pleas of His people in the days of the prophet and beyond. Although Isaiah ministered prior to the destruction of the temple by the Babylonians, he wrote of the desperation that would come with that future event. They would cry out to God, “Oh that You would rend the heavens and come down.”

The people of the Almighty would want their Lord to be near to them and to rout their enemies, but would they be able to survive if God came in person? They feared that He would judge them as well. God could be safely close to the worshiper who “joyfully works righteousness.” Yet they remembered that they had been in their sins “a long time.” Isaiah honestly admitted their inadequate efforts to cover over their evil deeds with holy ceremonies, knowing that “all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.”

Israel's experience in the days of Isaiah and in the generations to come would often be less obedient and less reassuring than they might have desired. They would call out to God, but also acknowledge that He had hidden His face from them. He had delivered them into “the hand” of their own “iniquities.”

What could they do? They could call out to God with words that Jesus would teach His disciples to pray: “Our Father.” They could ask Him to remember that He was the Potter, and that they were the clay, “the work of Your hand.” They could plead with Him to forget their sins. Why? “We are Your people.”

The destruction of the temple in Jerusalem would surely come. “Our holy and beautiful house, where our fathers praised You, has been burned by fire.” Israel worshiped the Lord in a building that could be destroyed by their enemies. The Lord who hears His children in their desperate pleas had a plan to build another sanctuary in the New Covenant era. This holy place where He would be present with His people would not be made with impressive stones and precious metals. God would send His Son to be the Cornerstone of a resurrection temple that would never be destroyed.

God has truly become our Father through the work of His beloved Son. He remembers His promises and He fulfills all His plans. In every age, if we are paying attention at all, we feel the tension between the Lord's moral perfection and the pollution of our sins. Our Savior has provided a life for us beyond our shame. Christ's death has brought us eternal life. His resurrection temple will never be destroyed.

Prayer from A Book of Prayers

Come down now, O God. We need You here today. There is much to be done, but there are enemies within and without the gates who are against Your Kingdom. We are fading away in our distress. We need to be a strong tree of righteousness in Your Son. You are the Father, even our Father. You are the Potter. Shape us to be vessels of Your mercy for Your own good pleasure.

Isaiah 63

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The Lord speaks through Isaiah at the beginning of Chapter 63 and then answers the question He just asked: “Who is this who comes from Edom, in crimsoned garments from Bozrah, he who is splendid in his apparel, marching in the greatness of his strength? 'It is I, speaking in righteousness, mighty to save.'” The Lord is presented as returning from battle against Edom, the descendants of Jacob’s brother Esau, and the enemy of Israel.

“Why is your apparel red?” God's garments were stained with the blood of enemies. His mission was required by His holy “vengeance.” The Lord had undertaken a work of powerful “redemption” for a desperate people.

Isaiah uses this striking image of God Himself returning from warfare with the world's “lifeblood spattered on My garments” in order to further prepare Israel for a future Redeemer who would do battle to deliver His people from the grips of sin.

“I will recount the steadfast love of the Lord.” The only blood that was shed on Christ's great day of battle was His own. Yet by His death and resurrection He accomplished the greatest victory in the history of the world. Speaking of the Lord's people and the salvation that came from the Son of God, Isaiah writes, “In all their affliction He was afflicted.... In His love and in His pity He redeemed them.”

Isaiah wrote of Israel's response to this powerful love of God with words that convict the covenant people of God in every age. “But they rebelled and grieved His Holy Spirit.”

The Lord disciplines those He loves, leading them to His grace. He does this out of love for us, but also for the honor of His own “glorious Name.”

In every generation the Lord's people continually need His help. We call upon Him with the same ancient cry of His children: “You, O Lord, are our Father, our Redeemer from of old is Your Name.” We may not understand His mysterious works of providence in our lives, but we learn to yield to Him. What other choice do we have? He is God, and His ways are best. Jesus is the One who shed His own blood to save us from eternal destruction. He loves us enough to fight for us, and He will be our God forever.

Prayer from A Book of Prayers

God of Vengeance and Justice, You will come to judge, but for our sake You have been willing to sully Your garments with Your own precious blood. You protect us from all our enemies. You have been good to us in the abundance of Your steadfast love. You have saved us through the Messenger of Your presence. You have disciplined us in Your love and righteousness, but You have turned again toward us with a powerful salvation. You have made for Yourself a glorious Name throughout the whole earth. Father, never abandon us. Do not harden our hearts, but change us and overrule our foolishness.

Isaiah 62

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God will not keep silent. He is going to speak about His love. His speech will make His Jerusalem lovely with holiness and salvation. She was once “Forsaken” and “Desolate,” but now her shame has been removed by her loving Husband. She now has the Hebrew name “Hephzibah,” for “the Lord delights in her.”

How could sinners be in an assembly that has such a happy name? Only through the merit and mediation of the Son of God Himself. We may have an impulse rising up within us that we want to have a beauty that is based on our own achievements with no reference to the work of a perfect substitute on our behalf. If we were to face the gaze of God without the covering of Christ's goodness we would be condemned. With the perfection of Christ as our recommendation we are forever “Hephzibah.”

God has appointed us as watchmen and we are to watch for His coming. He invites us to pray to Him about His promises. We are told to put the Lord “in remembrance” and to give Him “no rest.” If we will approach Him with this fervor, our faith will grow.

The Lord Himself has come in the person of Jesus Christ and has already accomplished our complete redemption. He has worked signs of divine power and demonstrated mercy to the poor and the outcast. His words ring true in our hearts because of the further gift of the Holy Spirit. All of these great accomplishments of God have given us more assurance that the promises of God are true.

We have salvation, yet like Israel of old, it is obvious that everything is not yet complete. We need Jesus to come and to claim His bride.

As watchmen we not only speak to the Lord; we also move the people of God toward the obedience of faith. If we believe that the Lord hears and answers prayer, then we move out in the confidence that He will completely accomplish His holy will. We say to the Lord’s church, “Behold, your salvation comes.” We remind ourselves that we are a holy people, set apart from what is common as the special possession of God. We are the redeemed of the Lord, no longer wandering away from the watchful protection of our beloved Husband. We are a “city not forsaken.”

We must believe these promises today and always. Let us watch and wait for the Lord, working as those who know that the Master can return at any hour.

Prayer from A Book of Prayers

In You, O God, we live and move and have our being. We have heard that we are a crown on Your head, and Your delight. What a blessed condition, that our God should rejoice over us! We thank You, O Lord. For You will establish Your Jerusalem above, and we shall praise You in the courts of Your sanctuary. We who were once not Your people have now been called the daughter of Zion, a city not forsaken.