Many churches throughout the world use a Bible reading schedule called a "lectionary." It's just a fancy word meaning "selected readings." Posts like this reflect on the readings for an upcoming Sunday or other Church holiday, as found in the three-year lectionary.
God’s work in Isaiah 62 is to proclaim the righteousness and salvation of His people. In this way He makes it known to all. Does this seem at all backwards to you? Most Christians in North America have been taught that it is our job to tell about God’s righteousness and salvation. We have been taught that in corporate worship it’s all about what we bring to God in our enthusiasm, dedication, and spirituality. We have been fed this idea that we have something worthy to bring to God so He can have the glory that He seems to need. It’s almost as though we think God is a big ego baby who we need to please. That’s not a biblical view of God and man. In fact, it’s much more similar to the view we’d find in the paganism of the ancient Greeks and Romans, as well as in many of the other folk religions of the world.
It’s time to refocus ourselves. God is the one in Isaiah 62:1 who will not be quiet. He is the one who wants to fan the righteousness of his people into bright flame, so that, in verse two, the other nations and kings will see the righteousness and glory of God’s people. They receive a new name, stated in verse four, and translated “My Delight Is in Her (ESV). Yes, God’s people are named those in whom God delights. Far from our earning any sort of merit, God has given us all the value that we will ever have, all the value that we will ever need. He has done this by calling his people by a new name, by making them his own people, and rejoicing over them.
In our worship, trying to work up the kind of enthusiasm that our world wants us to have will only result in despair or arrogance. We are pleased with ourselves because we are so very spiritual or we are badly disappointed in ourselves because we are so unspiritual. That’s a path that leads only to harm. Instead, let’s recognize the biblical pattern. God, the true God of all, the creator and sustainer of the entire universe, has called his people out from their desolation and has made them a crown of beauty. He intends all nations to notice them and to give Him glory. It’s all about God, not about us.
If this brief meditation was helpful to you, I hope you will check out the other materials on our website at www.WittenbergCoMo.com and consider supporting us.