Breakfast Club Devotion #26 - Isaiah 61: Bible Time Machine

Have you ever considered if you had the opportunity to go back in time and witness any single event in history, what event would you choose? Of the many times and places in history that I would like to be a “fly on the wall,” the one I would choose is Jesus first public ministry in his childhood home of Nazareth. As Jesus the young rabbi stood up to read in the synagogue, the book of Isaiah was handed to him. “And he opened the book and found the place where it was written : ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are downtrodden, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.’” (Luke 4:18-19) Jesus quoted from Isaiah 61:1-2a. Then he closed the book and sat down, and everyone in the synagogue looked at him. He further explained, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” In other words, for those in attendance, Jesus had just read the prophet’s words about the future messiah, and announced to the people that he was the fulfillment of those words. While his announcement was remarkable, equally remarkable was the content. Jesus essentially stated that a primary focus of his ministry is to bring good news to the poor, the captives, the blind, and downtrodden, and to proclaim a time of God’s favor, a phrase that many interpreters take to be a reference to the Levitical Year of Jubilee. Clearly these statements have multiple layers of literal and spiritual meaning, for multiple stages of historical fulfillment. But at the very least we can conclude that Jesus is concerned about the groups mentioned, and the literal and figurative, spiritual, emotional, social, or other forms of poverty, blindness, captivity and down-trodden-ness. Many times it is not clear to us what God would have us do with our time on this earth. But this passage - similar to Matthew 5:3-11 or Matthew 25:35-36 or Matthew 28:19-20 or John 15:12-13 or others - is a case in which the directive is clear and unavoidable – take God’s good news to those who are downtrodden.

BC Devotion #25 Isaiah 60: Your Light Has Come

In ministry to the downtrodden, there is a tendency to notice biblical passages which speak of a glorious future, a time of relief from present troubles, hope for a better day. Isaiah 60 conveys such a hope .. “Arise shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.” Later in the chapter we find a collection of phrases that portray a contrast between a painful past and a joyous future. “Whereas you have been forsaken and hated … I will make you an everlasting pride, a joy from generation to generation. Instead of bronze, I will bring gold, instead of iron I will bring silver… Your sun will set no more, neither will your moon wane; for you will have the Lord for an everlasting light, and the days of your mourning will be finished.”

In the middle of this chapter is a hidden gem, like many other treasures I have found in this study of Isaiah. “I will make peace your administrators, and righteousness your overseers. Violence will not be heard again in your land, nor devastation or destruction within your borders; but you will call your walls salvation, and your gates praise.” From my perspective, living out a vocation under God’s calling as a jail administrator, these words are particularly inspiring, as I walk among gates and walls working to foster peace and righteousness in a subculture often characterized by violence and devastation.

I have found that a message of hope and promise is comforting, inspiring, and motivating. The Lord desires to speak into the life of every person, and the words of Isaiah give people hope that their time will come. The chapter closes … “I, the Lord will hasten it in its time.”