Preparing for Christmas Advent Devotional 14
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Isaiah 61

The Year of the Lord's Favor

61 The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,
because the Lord has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor;[a]
he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;[b]
2 to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor,
and the day of vengeance of our God;
to comfort all who mourn;
3 to grant to those who mourn in Zion—
to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness instead of mourning,
the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit;
that they may be called oaks of righteousness,
the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified.[c]
4 They shall build up the ancient ruins;
they shall raise up the former devastations;
they shall repair the ruined cities,
the devastations of many generations.

5 Strangers shall stand and tend your flocks;
foreigners shall be your plowmen and vinedressers;
6 but you shall be called the priests of the Lord;
they shall speak of you as the ministers of our God;
you shall eat the wealth of the nations,
and in their glory you shall boast.
7 Instead of your shame there shall be a double portion;
instead of dishonor they shall rejoice in their lot;
therefore in their land they shall possess a double portion;
they shall have everlasting joy.

8 For I the Lord love justice;
I hate robbery and wrong;[d]
I will faithfully give them their recompense,
and I will make an everlasting covenant with them.
9 Their offspring shall be known among the nations,
and their descendants in the midst of the peoples;
all who see them shall acknowledge them,
that they are an offspring the Lord has blessed.

10 I will greatly rejoice in the Lord;
my soul shall exult in my God,
for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation;
he has covered me with the robe of righteousness,
as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress,
and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
11 For as the earth brings forth its sprouts,
and as a garden causes what is sown in it to sprout up,
so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise
to sprout up before all the nations.

 

Great Hope for Needy People
Abby Swartzendruber

It is my prayer as we look at the first few verses of Isaiah 61, we will all be reminded not only of the goodness of Jesus but our need for Him. For He is the only hope for a world in desperate need of saving.

We read right away that the way God intends to go about saving us is by sending us His Son, Jesus. Jesus Himself quotes Isaiah 61 during His earthly ministry. After opening the scroll of Isaiah and reading this passage to those in the synagogue, He says “the scripture you just heard has been fulfilled this very day” (Luke 4:21). This may not be as big of a jaw dropping moment for us because we have read the New Testament. But think, the Messiah that all the Old Testament prophets talked about and the Jews kept waiting for is finally here!!

Why does this matter? Why do we need a Messiah? Why do we need someone to set us free, comfort us, and call us righteous? Why do we need someone to save and rescue us? The reality for each and every one of us is that we’ve fallen short of God’s glory. We are wickedly sinful and deserving of eternal punishment in Hell. And the bad news is we can do nothing to change that. That’s where our Messiah comes in. Jesus left His place at the right hand of God, lived a perfect life, died the death that our sins deserved, and defeated death all to provide a way for us to have eternal life. What a Savior! What good news!

Not only does Jesus’ life, death and resurrection bring us salvation, it gives us comfort. There is not a single one of us who has escaped the curse of sin on the world. While we all have sinned, we all have likely been sinned against and witnessed, in one way or another, the fallenness of our world. What comfort this good news brings to the brokenhearted. Jesus has provided a way for sinners to be saved and promised to enact justice on the unjust in the world. I lack the words to describe how sad our world is. It’s no wonder why we have so many who are brokenhearted, but we have hope that Jesus is coming back again to make all the wrongs right.

Jesus’ coming not only has provided us with Salvation and great hope, the good news has allowed us to be free from our bondage of sin. When you begin to see your sin the way God does, it is hard not to be overwhelmed with discouragement at the vastness of it. But God did not send His Son because we deserved it. He did it out of great love. Isaiah 61 tells us that Jesus wasn’t only sent to save us from our sin but to give us the power, by His Spirit, to be free from it! God did not go to these great lengths to save us from something that wasn’t a big deal or even neutral. Sin is deadly. Thank you, Jesus, for giving us the power to flee from something so destructive!

Christians, our Messiah has given us great hope. We do not need to sit in ashes, Jesus has given us a beautiful crown. We need not despair, Jesus had replaced it with gladness. We don’t need to have a faint spirit, Jesus has filled us with much praise. Let’s shout this together, “I am overwhelmed with joy in the LORD my God! For He had dressed me with the clothing of salvation and draped me in a robe of righteousness.” (Isaiah 61:10)

  1. Do you regularly consider your need for our Messiah? Do you view your sin as Jesus does? Have you thanked Him for saving you?
  2. Are there ways that you feel discouraged, broken, hopeless? Are you turning to our Messiah or the world to find hope?

 

Write a prayer of thanksgiving as you think about the great lengths Jesus went to in order to save you, comfort you, and give you an unwavering hope.

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