Behold Your God!

Isaiah 40:9. O Zion, that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain; O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength; lift [it] up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God!

10 Behold, the Lord GOD will come with strong [hand], and his arm shall rule for him: behold, his reward [is] with him, and his work before him.

11 He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry [them] in his bosom, [and] shall gently lead those that are with young.

What a beautiful portion of scripture! Isaiah, under the anointing of the Holy Ghost, foretold the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Writing about seven hundred years before Christ, Isaiah gives instruction to Zion to proclaim with strength that the Lord God has come to visit them. Surely in this last and evil day the church must lift up it’s voice without fear and proclaim that God has come and made a way of salvation to all who will believe and receive Him. While pointing to the Lord Jesus Christ we must say to the evil cities of this nation, "Behold your God."

Our God did come with a strong hand. He did come as a tender shepherd. I feel that He bore me up in His arms as a tender lamb, and has gently led me along the paths of my life. The Lord God came to the cities of Judah, but they did not know the day of their visitation. Although He walked on the water and calmed the wind, He was not accepted. He came to His own and His own received Him not. Some of us who were not of His original sheepfold have been priviledged to hear the gospel and to believe and receive it. What an honor that He gave us power to become the sons of God, simply because we have believed on His Name.

Jesus ate with the outcast and spoke words of life to those trapped in the clutches of sin. He allowed the women taken in the act of adultery to have a new start. He walked past a despised tax collector and said," Follow Me," and Matthew immediately left all to do so. He was criticised for eating with Matthew’s friends who consisted of fellows publicans and prostitutes. Jesus let it be known that He was on a mission to save sinners rather than the righteous. Can we not look at this scene and thankfully and tearfully say, "Behold our God!"

One day a frail sickly women determined that she had to press through the crowd and touch the hem of the Master’s garment. She had tried everything else and nothing worked. She did what we must also do. She pressed in and touched the Master. We must press through doubt and fear. We must get past our rhetoric and dead works and touch the Lord God who is walking among us.

Some soldiers were sent to arrest Him and came back empty handed. When questioned, they could only reply, "Never a man spake like this man."

Jesus met a women at a well in Samaria. This women was not one of the respectable ladies of the city. She was in fact the talk of the town. In her conversation she revealed some knowledge of scripture and a hunger for God. The Samatitans had only the five books of Moses and yet she knew of Messiah coming. At the climax of her conversation with Jesus she ran back to the city and cried out, "Come and see a man who told me all things I ever did, Is not this the Christ?" Is He not Shiloh whom our father Jacob talked of? Is He not a prophet like unto Moses? Is He not the Lord God among us? Can we not say to all who will hear, "Behold your God?"

The women’s theology was flawed, but she had an encounter with Almighty God. She didn’t know where to worship, but her life was forever changed.

There was another man with imperfect knowledge who was touched by the Master. This man had been blind and Jesus healed him. He was questioned concerning whether or not Jesus was a sinner. He could only speak from his experience. He could not tell what he didn’t know. His reply shut the mouths of the antagonists: "Once I was blind but now I see."

I don’t have to be the proverbial rocket scientist to know that I have been touched by the living God. I may not be able to explain the theory of relativity but I can tell of my encounter with the Mighty God. He did for me what He did for the prodigal son. He put a ring on my finger and shoes on my feet. He killed the fatted calf on my behalf and made me His heir.