Everlasting joy is on the way; Just hang on to the Lord!
That, in a nutshell, is the message of Isaiah 35. And that’s the message we need more than anything.
This week starts with the report of a dear church member who has gone on to be with the Lord. I’m grieving with the family, but I’m looking forward to a day when all the suffering and death I see is reversed, when, in the words of Isaiah 35:10 we “shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.”
I’m so thankful the Lord is aware of our suffering, our losses, our lost state, and that He didn’t remain distant but came to us. Isaiah the prophet looked forward to the time when God would come. “Behold, your God will come with vengeance” he said, “then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy” (4-5).
We have a sure and certain promise that joy is on the way. The Lord guarantees it. We just need to hold on and trust Him, no matter what.
Do you see in those descriptions of verse 5 the work of Jesus Christ? In His first advent He healed the blind, deaf, lame and mute. He prioritized that work out of compassion for those in any form of bondage, and He did it so we would know that God had come to dwell among us.
But Jesus has not yet done everything in Isaiah 35, and in that we learn that His second advent will deliver even greater work as He brings to us everlasting joy.
I can’t predict what will happen between today until the second coming of our Lord. It’s a guarantee from Jesus and Paul that perilous times will come that will shake our faith. But when Jesus comes again, we will live in His country, safe, full of wonder, filled with love, and bursting with everlasting joy.
Meditate on what you will experience when the Lord Jesus comes again in His second advent. You can catch a whiff of the joy of eternity wafting back to refresh you even now.
Everlasting joy is on the way; Just hang on to the Lord!
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