January 25: TRUE PREPARATION MODE
Go through, Go through the gates! Prepare the way for the people; Build up, Build up the highway! Take out the stones, Lift up a banner for the peoples! Isaiah 62:10
Isaiah’s unwavering desire is to confirm a determination among the people of God to realize all of His promises. The imagery and words given to the prophet depict various facets of the LORD’s gracious and merciful character of love. Also, His righteous anger is revealed against those things which His people allow into their lives that hinder their understanding of Him. With skewed understanding, their witness of Him to others in the world is weakened and/or rendered ineffective. Such can serve to diminish altogether a correct perception of the true God.
The Messiah’s mission to the lost world is designed to become the mission of His disciples. The written imperatives in today’s verse bring to our ears the outcry of our heavenly Father to His Son: Go through, Go through the gates! Prepare the way for the people… This same command came to John the Baptist in his role as forerunner to the coming King. Jesus forwards the unchanging mission plan to His followers (compare to Matthew 28:19 and Acts 1:8).
Most of the “gates” that are opened to us for kingdom service are humble and lowly. But for the one who loves the Lord supremely, the most mundane act of service becomes a “bright and shining” moment—a secret one—just between you and Him! Jesus died for us, but He isn’t necessarily asking each of us to die for Him, though we should be ready to, rather than disobey His Word. He did say: “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends… I have called you friends” (John 15:13,15). Before our Lord went to the cross, He laid down his life day-by-day. Every ounce of energy was spent to meet the needs of people, whether face-to-face or in prayer. His relationship with His Father was His unending source of determination and power; that is, spiritual fortitude.
In our witness for the Lord, we often do not know what “potholes” or “boulders” in someone’s journey are keeping them from seeing Him. But He certainly knows, and He will faithfully guide each of His “forerunners” on where to Build up, Build up in order to counteract a pit that the devil has dug. Or the calling may be to remove stones meant to trip someone up, or that constitute the enemy’s embankment (see Luke 19:43). The banner that we are to lift up is the same banner that reveals what manner of persons His disciples are to become: it is the Word of the LORD. With the Holy Spirit’s prompting and faithful writers like Isaiah, we have this Word in writing. Beloved, our love for one another within the faith is a powerful manifestation of a smooth and level highway toward heaven, that others may be attracted to the God of heaven!
By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. 1 John 3:16
Fortifications: John 13:34-35; 15:12; Romans 12:10; 1 Corinthians 16:14; Philippians 2:3; Hebrews 13:1; 1 Peter 4:8; 1 John 3:11; 4:7,11,21