OUR FATHER WHO RESTORES THE BRIDE OF CHRIST FROM RUIN

The book of Isaiah chapter 49 verse 13 says this;

Shout for joy, you heavens; rejoice, you earth; burst into song, you mountains!

For the Lord comforts his people and will have compassion on his afflicted ones.

This verse prescribes the appropriate response to the compassion that the Lord has on His people who have been oppressed and harassed.

As the Lord restores His people, those in heaven should shout for joy and those on earth should revel in gladness and the spiritual kingdoms should burst into song.

In this moment, Zion, the people in the kingdom of God said this in verse 14;

But Zion said, “The Lord has forsaken me, the Lord has forgotten me.”

Zion had not yet realised that the time of her turmoil had come to an end.

She had been devastated by the destruction of brought against her and her territories by her enemies and was still reeling from the attacks.

However, the Lord had intervened to drive away her foes and return her people back into her fold and she was not set up to handle the huge revival that occured as verse 19 says;

“Though you were ruined and made desolate and your land laid waste, now you will be too small for your people, and those who devoured you will be far away.

The bride of Christ is stunned to find that even when she was in shambles from the onslaught of her enemies, people were still being saved and being added to her numbers such that as verse 21 says;

Then you will say in your heart, ‘Who bore me these?

I was bereaved and barren; I was exiled and rejected. Who brought these up?

I was left all alone, but these—where have they come from?’”

Amen.

4

OUR FATHER WHO WILL HAVE COMPASSION ON HIS PEOPLE

The book of Isaiah chapter 14 verses 1 - 2 says this;

The Lord will have compassion on Jacob; once again he will choose Israel and will settle them in their own land. Foreigners will join them and unite with the descendants of Jacob.

Nations will take them and bring them to their own place. And Israel will take possession of the nations and make them male and female servants in the Lord’s land.

They will make captives of their captors and rule over their oppressors.

This passage speaks of the great reversal of circumstance that will occur to the Lord's people when He sees them in their distress and has compassion on them. 

The Lord, in mercy for His people, chooses them for Himself anew and restores them to their own land.

Here, a great prophecy is revealed that declares that the foreigners ( or gentiles ) will join the descendants of Israel and become one with them.

In this united bond, the people of God will gain ownership over all the nations and put all the people of the  world into their employ. And those who held God's people in captivity, will themselves be ruled over and held in captivity 

Amen.

7

OUR FATHER WHO SAVES HIS PEOPLE FRON OPPRESSION

The book of Isaiah chapter 14 verse 3 says this;

On the day the Lord gives you relief from your suffering and turmoil and from the harsh labor forced on you,

This verse, the Lord God, in the context of Him having compassion on His people, brings their days of captivity to completion and rescues  them out of the harsh conditions they had been subjected to under the power of the king of Babylon. 

The king of Babylon ( standing in for the anti-Christ ) is defeated by the Lord and dark reign of terror is terminated.

The continuation of the passage in verse 4 then prophecies what the response of those emmancipated will  be;

you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon: How the oppressor has come to an end! How his fury has ended!

The people of God will rejoice over the end of the regime of the adversary and the deposing of the king of Babylon.

Amen.

14

OUR FATHER WHO PLANNED TO SAVE THE GENTILES ALL ALONG

The book of Isaiah chapter 49 verse 5 says this;

And now the Lord says—he who formed me in the womb to be his servant to bring Jacob back to him and gather Israel to himself, for I am honored in the eyes of the Lord and my God has been my strength—

This incredible verse captures the Lord Jesus about to speak of something that His Father said to Him. He prefaces what His Father said by summarizing the context in which the Father said these things to His Son.

He lists the items that reveal His own status prior to His Father speaking;

• His father formed Him in the womb
• His Father made Him a servant
• His role was to return Jacob to the Father
• He was to gather Israel to the Father

Jesus said that He was assigned these tasks because He was honored before the Lord and that in undertaking these tasks, God had given Him the strength to do so.

It is then in verse 6 that the Lord Jesus reveals the astonishing thing that His Father said to Him;

he says: “It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept.

I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.”

This statement by the Father increased the revealed scope of the Lord Jesus' mission to include the gathering of the elect from among all the gentiles on the earth.

Amen.

3

OUR FATHER WHO GUIDES US RIGHTLY EVEN WHEN IT IS COUNTER-INTUITIVE

The book of Luke chapter 5 verses 5 - 7 says this;

Simon answered, “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets.”

When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. 

So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink.

The Lord Jesus had borrowed a boat  belonging to Simon Peter so that he could  teach the crowd who were standing on the shore while standing on the boat.

When the teaching was done, the Lord told  Simon to sail into deep water and let down the nets for a catch.

Here we join the excerpt where Simon said that they had been working all night but had caught no fish but because it was the Lord asking, he would make another attempt.

When they did this, the nets filled to their  breaking point with fish and they needed help to haul the catch to shore and even with help, the boats were sinking under the load.

The Lord will give us a counter-intuitive instruction and in following that instruction, things will drastically change.

Amen.

30

OUR FATHER PROVIDES A BEAUTIFUL BRIDE FOR HIS SON

The book of Ecclesiates Songs of Solomon chapter 14 1 verses 4 - 5 says this;

She: Take me away with you—let us hurry! Let the king bring me into his chambers.

Friends:  We rejoice and delight in you; we will praise your love more than wine.

She:  How right they are to adore you!

Dark am I, yet lovely, daughters of Jerusalem, dark like the tents of Kedar, like the tent curtains of Solomon.

This passage is an excerpt from a conversation between a beautiful bride and her groom who is the king.

The bride looks forward to when the king will sweep her away to His chambers which is an intimate and private space to share between the couple.

A group of friends ( daughters of Jerusalem who are the bride's helpers ) of the couple intone that they will delight in the love the king has for His bride and that they will effusively speak of them as their marriage begins.

The bride acknowledges the stature of her wonderful bridegroom the King and that He is indeed awesome but she declares of herself that she is dark and she is lovely and exotic in appearance. She compares her coloring to the tents of the Bedouins  ( amplified version ) of Kedar.

Whereas the rendition of this narrative is from a close, personal  and intimate point of view, Psalm chapter 45 foretells of the same event but from a public and spectacular vantage point with all the pomp and circumstance of a royal wedding.

As the procession of the royal houses, companions of the princess and other guests move towards the palace of the king, the Holy Spirit whispers an instruction to the bride (whom He has brought from a distant land) the words of Psalm 45 verses 10 and 11;

Hear, O daughter, consider and incline your ear [to my instruction]: Forget your people and your father’s house;

Then the King will desire your beauty; Because He is your Lord, bow down and honor Him.

The counsel given to the bride of Christ is to forget the things of this world from where she came and  humbly and fully give herself to her groom.

This pivotal event marks the beginning of the going forth of Christ and His bride into the eternal future ordained by the Father.

Amen.

4

OUR FATHER WHO GAVE US HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS BY OUR FAITH IN CHRIST

The book of Ephesians Phillipians chapter 9 3 verse 4 - 5 says this;

though I myself have reasons for such confidence.

If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more:  circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; 

In this passage, the Apostle Paul, informs the reader that if putting confidence in the flesh were worth anything, he would be the one to so because in that respect, he was completely in step with the requirements of the law from his childhood until the time attained the status of pharisee among the Hebrews.

Yet, as he described in verse 7 - 9, the Apostle Paul counted all this attainment as rubbish because it was absolutely valueless compared to the knowledge of Christ;

But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things.

 I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ  and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. 

Any of our own actions that we think accrue to righteousness are indeed filthy rags for in Christ, the only righteousness we have is the righteousness that comes from God by the faith we have in Christ.

Amen.