December 5: SONG OF PRAISE FOR COMFORT
Behold, God is my salvation. I will trust and not be afraid; ‘For YAH, the LORD, is my strength and my song; He also has become my salvation.’ Isaiah 12:2
Chapter 12 of Isaiah, a joyful song of God’s mercy and comfort consists of only six verses. Isaiah sounds like a psalmist and has a grasp the invisible miracle taking place between the heavenly realm and the earthly one. Not only does the Lord bestow salvation, He is salvation. Not only does He want to be with us, He wants to live in us! Not only did He bear our sins on the cross, but He became sin for us (2 Corinthians 5:21). Not only does He make peace, but He also is our peace (Ephesians 2:14). All of these things are too wonderful and miraculous for us to fully comprehend. By faith, we are to take hold of and dwell upon them.
“Christ was the one who consented to meet the conditions necessary for man’s salvation. No angel, no man, was sufficient for the great work to be wrought. The Son of man alone must be lifted up; for only an infinite nature could undertake the redemptive process. Christ consented to connect Himself with the disloyal and the sinful, to partake of the nature of man, to give His own blood, and to make his soul an offering for sin. In the counsels of heaven, the guilt of man was measured, the wrath for sin was estimated, and yet Christ announced His decision that He would take upon Himself the responsibility of meeting the conditions whereby hope should be extended to a fallen race.” The Signs of the Times (March 5,1896) by Ellen G. White
There is indescribable comfort in knowing of such a God and Savior. Prophecies in the written word about the comings (plural) of Christ are to be treasured and valued, as worthy of great study. Before Christ came the first time, it was incumbent upon those entrusted with the oracles of God to distinguish between these two advents. Instead, they chose the descriptions of His coming that they liked (like a lion, referring to the second coming) and ignored the prophecies that they disliked (His coming like a lamb, complete with His humiliating and ignominious death).
The fact that the first coming of Jesus was largely missed and/or rejected by His own people is a clue that believers today have a great need to understand the nature of His second coming in order to be ready. Satan has produced numerous counterfeit views of this event for the purpose of deception so that people will be unprepared for His coming. These false ideas are perpetuated within the spiritual system of Babylon which has spread throughout the world. Our loving Lord is at work to call people out of this system (see Revelation 18:4). The next chapter of Isaiah portrays the LORD’s destruction of this malignant entity. Now that is something to sing about!
Sing to the LORD, For He has done excellent things; This is known in all the earth. Cry out and shout, O inhabitant of Zion, For great is the Holy One of Israel in your midst! Isaiah 12:5-6