Hello, my ‘Walking with Jesus’ friends,
From the time we were children, most of us have loved parades, right? But as adults, we know parades, especially big ones, don’t just happen by accident. They are not spontaneous events. Parades with inflatable huge balloons and floats and marching bands and thousands of people require LOTS of planning and preparations.
While I’ve never been to the Rose Bowl Parade, I’ve heard that the design work for some of those magnificent floats begins years before and then flowers are ordered months before. Even the assembly of the floats requires hundreds of volunteers working several days till finally it’s sunrise in Pasadena, California on New Year’s Day, and the almost indescribably beautiful flower floats parade by for the world to watch in amazement!
Come with me, back in time to Jerusalem in the days of wicked king Manasseh when a courageous voice, the prophet Isaiah, was speaking God’s messages of hope.
Yesterday we looked at that very famous and significant statement in Isaiah 52:7 “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, ‘Your God reigns!” Zion, as you know my friends, is a specific part of the city of Jerusalem. Almost always in Scripture “Zion” refers to Jerusalem as the God chosen city where HIS will is to be accomplished, and the world is to recognize God’s Supremacy and God’s glory.
Yesterday we considered that Isaiah was predicting a future day when the unthinkable was being announced as great news to broken-down Jerusalem with only a few poor residents. What news? That the Jewish captives, which had been taken from Jerusalem by King Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian army, in three different invasions, (2 Chronicles 36) were being released and were beginning their return to rebuild their city Jerusalem and their Temple for God! (Ezra 1)
In ancient times most cities had walls around them to protect their citizens from attack. Watchmen stood on top of those walls, day and night, keeping an eye out for anyone approaching the city who was unknown. In Isaiah’s day Jerusalem had a city wall like that, but 100 years after Isaiah, as God predicted, Jerusalem’s walls were demolished as the city was conquered by the Babylonians. But still, even though only a few people remained after those invasions, some always kept watch, even standing on the highest parts of the broken-down walls, to warn of any unknown approaching people.
But these wall watchmen also shouted great news whenever people from that city, who had been away, were returning. That’s why Isaiah’s message of a future hope includes these words: “Listen! Your watchmen lift up their voices; together they shout for joy. When the LORD returns to Zion, they will see it with their own eyes. Burst into songs of joy together, you ruins of Jerusalem, for the LORD has comforted His people, He has redeemed Jerusalem….” (Is. 52:8.9)
For Jews there was never any better news than that the God of Israel was doing something spectacular for His people. In this case Isaiah was predicting the day broken-down Jerusalem watchmen would shout for joy because the first wave of freed, returning Jewish captives would be seen crossing the hilltops around Jerusalem and making their way home! That event, very much like God’s rescue of the Hebrew slaves in Egypt, was the tangible, visible evidence of God at work, rescuing His people!
The phrase “He has redeemed Jerusalem” would be understood by the Israelites as “God has RESCUED, DELIVERED Jerusalem” by His undeniable supreme power! That’s why Isaiah’s next phrase was so important: “The LORD will lay bare His holy arm in the sight of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God.” (Is. 52:10) There’s an important truth about God here my friends, that you and I need to grasp. Our great God often, at one and the same time, works in very specific, personal ways with one person or one situation, in one place, but at the same time whatever God is doing is intended for MANY people to see and be amazed by the one and only, Almighty God.
Sometimes God does things in one place that is actually intended for ALL people of the world to know about; thus, God is calling the entire world to recognize His unique Majesty and Supremacy. And more, God is not only calling the world of that day, that generation, but all humanity of all time to recognize God at work in events ONLY HE could accomplish.
This is what Isaiah is proclaiming here about the miraculous edict of king Cyrus to allow all Jewish captives, anywhere in the Persian kingdom, to be freed and return to their homeland and rebuild their city. It stands as a historical, undeniable event unparalleled in human history, as a work of God!
But what about the parade you might ask? Well, Isaiah died before it happened, but he predicted it with his further description: “Depart, depart, go out from there! Touch no unclean thing! Come out from it and be pure, you who carry the articles of the LORD’s house. But you will not leave in haste or go in flight; for the LORD will go before you, the God of Israel will be your rear guard.” (Is. 52:11,12)
Isaiah was predicting a future parade as thousands upon thousands of Jews who’d been dragged off, either from the northern kingdom by the Assyrians or the southern kingdom by the Babylonians, would ALL be given the opportunity to return home to Israel with the 538bc edict from emperor Cyrus!
It was not a one and done parade. Ezra 2:64-67 gives us an actual record of only ONE parade of nearly 50,000 people, yet there were many parades over the subsequent years. Do you see Isaiah’s warning that the Jews should not make any attempt to bring back into Jerusalem anything linked to the idolatry and witchcraft they saw wherever they lived in captivity? But rather, they would be privileged to actually carry back to Jerusalem (Ezra 1:7-11) some of the sacred artifacts which had been stolen out of the Temple of God in Jerusalem during several invasions! (2 Chronicles 36:7,10,18)
Finally, I wonder what you see in this statement from Isaiah: “But you will not leave in haste or go in flight; for the LORD will go before you, the God of Israel will be your rear guard.” (Is. 52:12) Of course Jews worldwide celebrate each year in the Passover festival that God miraculously rescued His people out of their Egyptian slavery, in the middle of the night, rushing quickly before Pharaoh changed his mind and pursued them! (Exodus 12:31-39)
But do you see here the contrast in Isaiah’s prediction of how God would deliver the Jewish captives in 538bc? As the priest Ezra records for us these parades of Jews leaving the Persian kingdom, returning to Jerusalem, took their time preparing, organizing, collecting their belongings and the precious articles to be returned to God’s Temple, as well as gifts given them by those sending them on their way! (Ezra 1:5,6) God Himself would accompany His people and their parades back to Jerusalem. They would travel unscathed, unthreatened by warriors or bandits or armies, for God was protecting His people and bringing them home!
Oh my, what a wonderful picture. May I ask, each time you and I step out from our houses heading somewhere, be it via automobile, horseback, on foot or donkey, bus, train or airplane, do we travel with a strong sense God is with you not only accompanying you and I but guiding us on our journey to a destination HE has directed us to, on a specific mission He has called us to? That’s how it should be for God’s people…whether we are traveling alone to the grocery store or as a couple or family to some significant event. God desires that His people travel under His guidance, His protection, His accompaniment and with His purpose! I urge us to hold on to this phrase each time we travel…“the LORD will go before you; the God of Israel will be your rear guard.”
Oh, it’s time to worship together again and I have found this wonderful song sung by Sovereign Grace…
Today’s Scripture: Is. 52:7-12.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
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Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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