GOD’S WORD FOR APRIL 14
GOD’S WORD FOR APRIL 14 ~ ~ Isaiah 44:2 ~ ~ “This is what the Lord says, He who made you and formed you from the womb, who will help you: ‘Do not fear, Jacob My servant, and Jeshurun, whom I have chosen.”
God many times called His entire chosen nation by the name of Jacob, or Israel, but only four times He used the name Jeshurun.
In the verse above, both of God’s names for the nation of Israel are used…Jesurun is an honored name for the chosen people whose root means straight or right. In contrast, the root for Jacob is over-reacher or deceiver. Obviously He wanted to show a contrast in how He sees His chosen race due to their actions at different times.
The chosen people wavered in their relationship with God. They would stray in worshiping idols, (Jacob) then when He chastised them, they would repent and stay with Him for a while. (Jeshurun) Then the situation would digress again, and the cycle went on.
By using the two contrasting names, He is showing that His love never diminishes, even when He needs to chastise them…..even when they reject Him and worship other gods, and then repent of it.
The Bible relates Israel with individual believers. The covenant He made with them applies to the true Church, and individual believers, and so with commands. We, too, waver, just as each Israelite, and as that nation as a whole. Thus, the promises He made to Israel can generally be applied to our own lives, if we are true believers.
This shows that He isn’t expecting perfection from any of us. He takes us as we are, brings us to the cross, face to face with Jesus, to accept HIS perfection in place of our own. He expects us to stop trying to do what we will never be able to do on our own, in an effort to impress Him. Instead, He wants us to live as obediently as we can, in His strength, out of gratitude for what He has done, with our eyes on Him and not on ourselves.
I believe there is a message here that encompasses the entire Salvation message.
He mentions Jacob first, as His servant, focusing on imperfect mankind, all of us, who have and will continue to sin. But He also equates that with the other rarely used name, Jeshurun, which they and we, become after we chose Him and are made a new creation———with a new name of righteousness, not earned by ourselves, but imputed to us because of the sacrifice of Jesus.
He goes on to promise that the Holy Spirit will witness to the offspring of those who cling to the Lord and tells them not to fear, (water as from rain is many times a symbol of the Holy Spirit on our dry souls) ………….. “For I will pour water on the thirsty land and streams on the dry ground;
I will pour out My Spirit on your offspring, and My blessing on your descendants;
And they will spring up among the grass like poplars by streams of water.’”
This is describing (through the connection of the Chosen People) salvation, when He gives us the Holy Spirit to guide us and show us how His Word applies to us. With the Holy Spirit’s intercession, peace, and guidance, our lives will spring up like a flourishing garden. The Spirit also brings our dead spirits to life as a result of the sacrifice of Jesus when we accept it.
Then He goes into a little more detail about those generations, which is the generations after His sacrifice at Calvary. This shows that the promises of Israel since that time are imputed to any one who relies totally upon Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross to pay for our sins. Whether one of the original chosen race, or not, we all have only one way to be saved, and that is through Jesus Christ alone, not church rituals, but simple reliance upon Him to take our many sins from us and give us His righteousness.
This is how He says it:
5. “One shall say, I am the Lord’s; and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob; and another shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord, and surname himself by the name of Israel.
6 Thus saith the Lord the King of Israel, and his redeemer the Lord of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God.
7 And who, as I, shall call, and shall declare it, and set it in order for me, since I appointed the ancient people? and the things that are coming, and shall come, let them shew unto them.
8 Fear not, neither be afraid: have not I told you from that time, and have declared it? you are even my witnesses. Is there a God beside me? No there is no God; I know not any.
It’s all from God. Any righteousness is from Him, because “in me dwells no good thing.”
Romans 7:18 ~ ~ “ For I know that good does not dwell in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not.”
James 1:17 ~ ~ “Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.”
That’s why in verses 5-8 above, He is assuring us that not only does His love endure through everything (if we’re saved) but there will never ever be a shortage of power on His end to take care of us, save us, and be with us every minute of every day forever.
Live in the Light of Our Lord 