It's a Promise.
- 2 days ago
- 4 min read
Updated: 18 hours ago
"Instead of your shame
you will receive a double portion,
and instead of disgrace
you will rejoice in your inheritance.
And so you will inherit a double portion in your land,
and everlasting joy will be yours." Isaiah 61:7
Read Isaiah 61. Read the whole thing. In fact, don't merely read it, meditate on it and recognise it for what it is... a prophecy and a promise to all Israel. It starts in verse 1 with, "The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because...." and the Lord Jesus quoted it in Luke 4:18.
This scripture is vital because, in Luke 4:21, Jesus declared, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing,” thereby connecting it to the Spirit by which He functioned.
It is the purpose of the Holy Spirit for the Messiah's dispensation. While Jesus' quotation stopped at verse 3, the Lord would have us know that the whole chapter has dual implications, one for natural Israel and the other for the Spiritual Israel; the Kingdom Jesus instituted at his first coming.
We who belong to YHWH through the Messiah belong to this new spiritual kingdom that functions by the Spirit of the Messiah.
Therefore we can individually say of ourselves;
The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me,
because the Lord has anointed me... to do all in Isaiah 61:1-3a. Verses 3b - 11 prophesy and proclaim the result of the activities in the preceding verses. One of those results is our opening scripture:
"Instead of your shame
you will receive a double portion,
and instead of disgrace
you will rejoice in your inheritance.
And so you will inherit a double portion in your land,
and everlasting joy will be yours.
Like the following verses, it is a promise—a relevant anchor for our souls.
The bible is full of such scriptures. Verses which are written about us and our time. Verses by which we can wage a good warfare of resilience and faith in the midst of all adversity. Notice the certainty of the promise '...you will...' (bold typography mine). YHWH communicates this promise without ambiguity. It is, just with the same certainty, that God describes His promise to Abraham:
"... God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath. God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope set before us may be greatly encouraged. We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, where our forerunner, Jesus, has entered on our behalf. He has become a high priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek." Hebrews 6:17-20
Take heart. Whether it be a vindictive lawsuit, a malicious rumour, a slow turn, an unclear path or an error of seemingly gargantuan implications, IF the spirit of the Lord is the one directing your paths, actions and intentions, no matter what it looks like, HIS promise stands: "Instead of your shame
you will receive a double portion,
and instead of disgrace
you will rejoice in your inheritance.
And so you will inherit a double portion in your land,
and everlasting joy will be yours"
This is the faith life. It is the pilgrim's walk. It is the way of the ancients. As Paul teaches, "Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for." Hebrews 11:1-2.
Ours is a long line of ancestors whose testimony of victory was not so much in their physical accomplishments (though notable), but in their spiritual tenacity and fortitude. They 'hoped against hope', and this unyielding trust was accounted to them as righteousness. It is a tenacity emanating from a way of reasoning different from the rest of the world.
Paul explains their mindset in Hebrews 11:13-16: "All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them."
This part of believing 'in spite of' whatever life or time on earth is, is the Faith handed to us. It is faith that believes not because of the physical evidence, but merely because 'it is written'... it is what God has said and promised. It is a faith anchored on a heavenly insight. Their faith, i.e., trust in God's integrity, was all the evidence they needed for their hope to persist till the end of their lifetime on earth.
What has God said for our time? For your time on earth?
For this season? For your role in His plans for the earth?
What has God said? THAT is all the evidence you and I need to keep going in the path He charted for us.
Why? Because THAT type of Hope does not bring shame. It is a hope anchored on the integrity of the Spirit of the Messiah within us. Therefore, whether in this life and/or in the next, instead of disgrace you will rejoice in your inheritance.
Amen.
"And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us." Romans 5:5
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