Isaiah
62 – 66
As we finish out Isaiah we get a glimpse of hope, but at the
same time one has to wonder if this is a promise already met or if this is
still in our future? Verse 62:1 opens the reading with hope Jerusalem will be
restored:
I will not keep
quiet for Zion’s sake;
I
will not remain silent
Until Jerusalem’s justice shines like the light of a new day
and
her liberation blazes like a torch in the dead of night.
I look at verses like this and 62:8 only to wonder if these
events happened and Israel blew it again. In reading it sounds like after the
“end times” when the earth will be restored to its intended glory which have
not happened yet. At the same time knowing how man messes things up I wonder if
we are on the restored earth and just blew it again. Sure God is all powerful,
but Adam was as close to God as one can get and he blew it, so why not a
redeemed man who came in flawed?
Chapter 63 starts God vengeance on Israel’s enemies and that
goes for a few chapters. Into verse 65:9 we see Jacob’s people regaining their
lands:
But I will bring
up children from Jacob’s line to inherit this land.
To Jacob’s son Judah I will give My mountains.
These,
My chosen ones, will inherit it;
these, My servants, will live there and call it home.
He is promising, but has not delivered and it verses 66:7
& 8 we see it will not be easy:
Have you ever heard of a woman who gave birth before she went into
labor?
Have you ever seen a woman who delivered a son without feeling a
thing?
Do
you think it’s possible for the land to go through labor in an instant,
or to bear a nation, to be new and strong, in a single day?
Nevertheless,
Zion suffered only a moment
before she gave birth to her children!
This is what many know as “Jacob’s Trouble”
or the tribulation before the lands are restored. I often wonder where the
Gentiles who believe in Christ will go during this time. Some believe in the
rapture while others believe that is a metaphor for the ones who die. In the
end we will find out, until then I am not going to worry too much about it
since it’s nothing I can control anyway!!
Th��_U��