Heir raising

The LORD says to his people, ‘When the time comes to save you, I will show you favour and answer your cries for help. I will guard and protect you and through you make a covenant with all peoples. I will let you settle once again in your land that is now laid waste.’ (verse 8)

Read Isaiah 49:1-12

Do you realise that you belong to a dispossessed nobility? Somehow, partly because of the greed of others, partly because of your own stupidity and arrogance, you lost your birthright. As a close relative of the king you had everything, but now you are in slavery and exile. But you need to know that God is already at work to restore what is rightfully yours. He has sent a representative to rouse you and lead you back to your home and your rightful inheritance.

This was the message God gave the Israelites in the bonds of their Babylonian captivity. He sent them Isaiah.

This was the message God gave the world in the bonds of slavery to rebellion and evil. He sent them Jesus.

This is the message God gives to you in the bonds of your slavery to your own selfish desires and the misery of sin. He sends you Jesus too. Through Jesus’ suffering and death he has reconciled the people of the world to himself.

Lord, I hear clearly your message of how you want to restore my lost inheritance. Help me find again my promised place in your kingdom. Amen.

by Richard Hauser, in ‘Assurance for each Day’ (LCA, Openbook, 2004)

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