Today in God's Word—September 2023
East Tallassee Church of Christ
September 19, Isaiah 12
"Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid; for the LORD GOD is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation." - Isaiah 12:2
I like quotations. A good quote is a succinct summary of a concept or a memorable expression of an idea. In the days before computers and the internet put all kinds of information at our fingertips, it was sometimes a challenge to track down the source of a quote. Writers and speakers searched through books of quotations to find the original author and maybe the context of a quote they wanted to use in their own work. A good concordance was an essential tool in a preacher's library to find other Bible verses that contained the words in question. Now it's not so hard to find the original source and situation of the quotation. Search engines mine vast stores of data and return the results of our query almost immediately. It’s easy to find other references to a word or phrase in the Bible.
Isaiah 12 is a thanksgiving song. It's not as well known as some other passages about thanksgiving, but it is rich in the grace of gratitude. In Isaiah 11, Isaiah described how Messiah would gather Gentiles into his kingdom, as well as dispersed Jews. He referred to the Exodus when God brought Israel out of Egypt to illustrate how Messiah would bring Israelites who were scattered among the nations back to him. So it's not surprising to find the words of Moses from Exodus 15 after God had saved Moses from the pursuing Egyptians at the Red Sea.
In the days of Isaiah, Israel was on the verge of disaster. He knew God was going to bring Assyria against Israel. The Assyrians would destroy the northern kingdom of Israel and relocate the survivors to other lands. That distressing circumstance might have been why Isaiah wrote the same words David used in Psalm 118 to describe what he learned about
God in one of David's many seasons of distress.
Some people believe the phrase "In that day" at the beginning of Chapter 12 refers to God's miraculous deliverance of Jerusalem from the Assyrians. But I think Isaiah was applying Moses' and David's words to the time when Messiah would come and establish that kingdom he had just described. When the Old Testament prophets used phrases like "in that day" or "in the last days," they usually referred to the times of the new covenant God would make with his people in Christ. The joyful thanksgiving Isaiah described is an expression of the humble gratitude of the redeemed in Christ for their salvation and new life in him.
The redeemed Jew or Gentile will give thanks to God because the Lord turned his anger away and comforted him. The reconciled man or woman will celebrate his new trust and joy in the Lord with a joyful song. The redeemed ones are not ashamed to tell others about their blessings and the Lord's work for them. They proclaim the great things God has done and praise him for his presence among them.
If you and I ever struggle with what to say about our thanksgiving to God, this short chapter reminds us of our blessings and gives us a model vocabulary to express our thanks. Are you grateful for the strength God gives you to work, serve him and overcome temptation? Are you grateful for the song of joy he put in your heart for your redemption in Christ? And are we truly thankful for the salvation we have through Jesus, his great sacrifice for us and his abiding presence with us? As a redeemed child of God in Christ, I should be the most grateful man on earth for my strength, my song and my salvation. How about you?
Copyright © 2023 by Michael B. McElroy. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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