Awake, awake, O Zion, clothe yourself with strength. Put on your garments of splendor, O Jerusalem, the holy city. The uncircumcised and defiled will not enter you again. Shake off your dust; rise up, sit enthroned, O Jerusalem. Free yourself from the chains on your neck, O captive Daughter of Zion. For this is what the LORD says: “You were sold for nothing, and without money you will be redeemed.” … Therefore my people will know my name; therefore in that day they will know that it is I who foretold it. Yes, it is I.”
Isaiah 52:1-3,6
Just Wait
Daily Devotion – November 17, 2018
Devotion based on Isaiah 52:1-3,6
See series: Devotions
How many times have you had to say “Just Wait” in the last week? When kids get a little antsy about what they want from a parent, when co-workers are a little overbearing about a favor that they need, yes even when a spouse makes the same request one too many times, the response comes out so easily: “Just Wait!”
God told his people “Just Wait!” In fact that could be a theme of the whole Old Testament, “Just Wait!” God promised Adam and Eve that he would make one of their offspring the Savior, and then he told them to wait! God told Abraham he would give him a son and then made him wait for 25 years for Isaac to be born.
Isaiah wrote to people who were waiting. If they listened to Isaiah’s message, they were waiting for judgment. Like a mother that tells a disobedient child, “Just wait until your father gets home!” that was Isaiah’s message to his people. “You’ve been impatient; you’ve turned to other gods; you’ve rejected the true God. Now you just wait!”
And we’ve been there, too. We want God’s promises fulfilled today! We want health restored, relationships reconciled, comfort granted. We want what we want and we want it now! And when God doesn’t grant it, when he tells us “Just wait,” we grow angry with God and turn elsewhere, to other gods really, for comfort and happiness and hope.
For that, we deserve the judgment that Israel received. We deserve worse than captivity at the hands of a foreign army, we deserve eternal slavery in hell.
But wait! Isaiah’s “Just Wait!” message was not only about judgment, it was about forgiveness as well. God said, “You were sold for nothing, and without money you will be redeemed.” God would bring his people back from slavery and restore them to the land that he gave them. Without money God has redeemed us as well. It cost far more than money, but God paid it nonetheless. In love he gave us his Son. Jesus offered his body and his blood as our redemption price. On the cross he won us back from our impatience, our lack of trust, and all our sins. As he walked from the tomb, he destroyed death’s power and bought us the promise of our own resurrection. The promise of peace that Isaiah gave is ours now in part through Jesus, and it will be ours in full when we become Saints Triumphant in heaven everlasting.
Now we live here on earth, and though it might be hard, we can “Just Wait” for his return. And while we wait and watch, we can serve him and others with our lives. We can tell others that Jesus has come and that he will come again. We can tell the world what we know to be true, that Jesus and his heaven are worth the wait!
Prayer:
Strengthen me, Lord Jesus, while I wait for you to return. Make me to be strong in your Word and to trust in your promises. Help me to wait on your timing for the things in this world and for you to extend to me the riches of your glory. Amen.
This devotion was selected from the Daily Devotion archive.
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