Today's Reading:O.T. - Isaiah 61 - 63
N.T. - Luke 4
Focus Verses: Isaiah 61:1-3
1 The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, 2 to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, 3 and provide for those who grieve in Zion—to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendor.
Insight:
What does the favor of God look and sound like? Healing for the brokenhearted. Freedom for captives. Light instead of darkness. Comfort for those who mourn. Beauty where there was once only ashes. Gladness replacing sorrow. Praise overcoming despair.
Isaiah spoke these words for the first time nearly seven hundred years before the time of Christ. Those were bleak and difficult years for the nation of Israel, marked by destruction, exile, captivity, poverty and political struggles. Through it all, the people held on to Isaiah's beautiful words of hope and promise for Zion. After half a millennium of hoping, the prophecy must have seemed more like a dream than a promise. Jesus began his ministry by quoting this passage in the synagogue of the town where he grew up. He declared himself to be the one who would fulfill the prophecy and bring good news.
Response and Action:
I will look to Jesus in order to experience the favor of God. Healing, forgiveness, hope, beauty, joy, and stability are found in him. As I follow Jesus, I will participate in his mission of favor and his message of hope. I will commit myself to becoming a channel of blessing and a messenger of freedom.
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace: where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is discord, union; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light. Grant that I might not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. For it is in giving we receive; it is pardoning we receive pardon; it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.
Proverbs: 29:7
"The righteous care about justice for the poor, but the wicked have no such concern."
Resources:
Ambassadors of Hope: How Christians Can Respond to the World's Toughest Problems
by Robert A. Seiple
