What A Grace To Be Included!

 

Isa 6:11 Then I said, "Lord, how long?" And He answered: "Until the cities are laid waste and without inhabitant, The houses are without a man, The land is utterly desolate,  12 The LORD has removed men far away, And the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land. 13 But yet a tenth will be in it, And will return and be for consuming, As a terebinth tree or as an oak, Whose stump remains when it is cut down. So the holy seed shall be its stump."

Isaiah has the message and now he wants to know how long he should preach it. And the answer is until God’s judgment is complete. In the short run, this means until the Babylonians have completely uprooted the southern kingdom from their homeland.

Even the 10% left behind will be for the consuming judgment of God and all that will be left of God’s chosen people will be a stump. But that stump is all God needs to restore and raise up the new spiritual Israel! Jesus will come up out of stump of Jesse as we read in Isa 11:-5, “There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse, And a Branch shall grow out of his roots. 2 The Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon Him, The Spirit of wisdom and understanding, The Spirit of counsel and might, The Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD. 3 His delight is in the fear of the LORD, And He shall not judge by the sight of His eyes, Nor decide by the hearing of His ears; 4 But with righteousness He shall judge the poor, And decide with equity for the meek of the earth; He shall strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, And with the breath of His lips He shall slay the wicked. 5 Righteousness shall be the belt of His loins, And faithfulness the belt of His waist.”

Yes, this is Jesus, and He will forever stand as a banner, lifted high on a cross outside Jerusalem, drawing all men unto Him. (Joh 12:32 "And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself."

Isaiah continues in verse 10, “And in that day there shall be a Root of Jesse, Who shall stand as a banner to the people; For the Gentiles shall seek Him, And His resting place shall be glorious." 11 It shall come to pass in that day That the Lord shall set His hand again the second time To recover the remnant of His people who are left, From Assyria and Egypt, From Pathros and Cush, From Elam and Shinar, From Hamath and the islands of the sea. 12 He will set up a banner for the nations, And will assemble the outcasts of Israel, And gather together the dispersed of Judah From the four corners of the earth.

What a grace to be included in this holy recovery operation. Our part is similar to that of Isaiah in that we too have  a message to proclaim until the Lord’s final Judgment.

Mt 28:19 "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 "teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Amen.