Delight Greatly In The Lord

You and I know that for many, Christmas comes and goes. It is past. It is over with. Some are so happy to have it boxed up and put away they aren’t really anxious for it to come around next year because of the world in which we live. It’s a world darkened by sin. It’s a world darkened with all sorts of wickedness. You and I, then, who are clothed with the robe of Christ’s righteousness, do make a difference. Our clothing is not just righteousness, but the gifts God has given us. The next verse explains this. "Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience"(COLOSSIANS 3:12). Those words sound the opposite of the world today, don’t they? We don’t hear too much about patience or kindness, humility or gentleness. The world doesn’t operate that way. We live in this world. The Lord reminds us as we reflect on our own lives; we see how much God has loved us. He has clothed us with righteousness. He’s forgiven all of our sins. It’s all the more important for us then, to display those traits of Christian clothing—of humility, kindness, gentleness and patience, especially to the people around us who aren’t used to seeing those things but who need to see them.

It is one way that we are like Isaiah then that we ‘delight greatly in the Lord; that our soul rejoices in God’s salvation.’ We’re clothed in garments of salvation and as believers

II. We are able to share this crown of glory

Chapter 61 ends, chapter 62 begins. It’s an arbitrary division put in the Bible so that when we’re going through verses and chapters we can find them easily. The feeling of rejoicing, the feeling of the joy of Isaiah carries from one chapter to the next. He says: 621 For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, for Jerusalem’s sake I will not remain quiet. For the sake of the church (Zion) he cannot keep silent; for the sake of the holy city of Jerusalem, he can’t remain quiet. What needs to take place? “till her righteousness shines out like the dawn, her salvation like a blazing torch.” He says, ‘Yes, I have come to the knowledge of God’s judgement, but also God’s good news of salvation which has come to the ends of the earth.’ He says he’s not going to hide them, but he wants them to shine out like the morning sun; he wants them to shine in the night like a blazing torch that cannot be hidden. Isaiah says to make that happen, he’s going to rejoice greatly in the word and delight greatly in the Lord’s salvation.

He tells then what is going to happen…that this righteousness, this salvation is not just for the children of Israel, but also for all nations. He says: 2The nations will see your righteousness, and all kings your glory. When you look at the history of the children of Israel after reading the Old Testament, we find that the people who were around the children of Israel realized yes, the Lord God was with them. There were many times when Israel who was a much smaller nation, defeated great armies because the Lord was with them. Time after time, the kings had to say, yes, the Lord God is the true God, because he protected the children of Israel.