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Scripture Reading: Isa. 59; Isa. 60; Isa. 42:6; 49:8; 54:10; Rev. 21:23
In the book of Isaiah, many precious things are hidden. Two of these things are the keeping of the Sabbath and fasting.
To keep the Sabbath is to be "fired" and replaced by Christ so that we may get into Him and rest in Him for eternity. Therefore, to keep the Sabbath means that we stop our work, that we cease from our intentions, and that we are fired and replaced. This is to be crucified with Christ with the result that it is no longer we who live, but Christ lives in us (Gal. 2:20).
In the early days I was taught that to fast is to restrict ourselves and our lusts. This teaching is not wrong, but it surely is not complete and it may lead to asceticism. The real meaning of fasting according to the Bible is to cease from the taste for anything other than Christ. When we fast in this way, we have an appetite only for Christ and we do not eat anything other than Christ.
Isaiah's aspiration is that we all would rest in Christ and taste Christ all the time. In the New Jerusalem for eternity, we will have a life of resting and fasting. Our unique food will be Christ, the embodiment of the Triune God, as the tree of life. Furthermore, having been fully fired, we will not work but will be at rest. This will be the situation of everyone in the New Jerusalem.
Up to chapter fifty-nine, the book of Isaiah consummates in the keeping of the Sabbath and fasting. Through all His processes, Christ as the embodiment of the Triune God has accomplished God's full redemption, and now He is applying His complete salvation to His believers. Although many Christians are preaching the gospel, few people receive this preaching. Because people are busy working and eating, few have any room in their heart, any capacity in their being, for Christ. Thus, they all need to rest, to keep the Sabbath; they also need to fast. By resting and fasting we can partake of all that the processed Christ has accomplished for us. In totality, what He is and has accomplished is just the divine water, which is the consummated Spirit as the consummation of the Triune God for us to drink and enjoy.
I can testify that before I was saved, I was a busy and ambitious young man. But when I heard the gospel and received the Lord Jesus, I immediately began to keep the Sabbath and to fast. Now, more than sixty years later, I still like to rest and to fast. I want to be "fired" again and replaced by Christ more and more, resting in Him and fasting from every taste other than Him. According to the divine revelation in the Scriptures, we all need to learn to keep the Sabbath and to fast.
Let us now go on to chapters fifty-nine and sixty, which reveal Christ, the Servant of Jehovah, as the Redeemer to save Jacob from their sins and iniquities and to become Israel's light and glory forever. Having redeemed us, Christ is now our Savior. On the negative side, He is saving us from our sins and iniquities; on the positive side, He is our light and glory.
Jehovah's hand is not so short that it cannot save, and His ear is not so heavy that it cannot hear (59:1). But Jacob's iniquities have become a separation between them and their God, and their sins have hidden His face from them so that He does not hear (v. 2).
Verses 3 through 8 speak of the sins and iniquities of Jacob. Iniquities are much more evil than sins.
Verses 9 through 15a describe the issue of Jacob's sins and iniquities.
For our sins and iniquities, we have the saving of Jehovah's arm (vv. 15b-19). Jehovah's arm is Christ as the Servant of Jehovah, who has the dynamic might of Jehovah.
Verse 20 says that a Redeemer will come to Zion and unto those who turn from transgression in Jacob. Then verse 21 continues, "As for Me, this is My covenant with them, says Jehovah: My Spirit which is upon you and My words which I have put in your mouth shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your seed, nor from the mouth of your seed's seed, says Jehovah, from now and forever." This covenant is Christ as the reality and surety of the covenant (42:6; 49:8; 54:10).
Our mouth is for three things: breathing, eating, and speaking. Among these three, the most crucial is speaking. We need to know what to speak, when to speak, where to speak, and to whom to speak.
We can control our breathing and our eating but not our speaking. It was by her speaking that Eve committed sin. If she had not spoken to the serpent but had turned to Adam, she would have overcome the serpent's temptation. However, she spoke to the serpent, and by her speaking she fell into sin. This illustrates the fact that speaking is a problem to us all. Our speaking may minister life to others, or it may minister death to others. Whether we build up others or damage them, whether we minister life or death, depends on how and what we speak. If the saints in the church life could be corrected in their speaking, every church would be revived.
God has put both His Spirit and His word into our mouth. His Spirit is for us to breathe, and His word is for our nourishment and also for our speaking. Today the Christian life is just to practice the breathing of the Spirit and the eating and speaking of the word. For this reason, we emphasize, encourage, promote, and advocate the matter of prophesying, that is, speaking for God, speaking God forth, and speaking God in His word into others for the building up of the Body of Christ.
Both breathing and eating are for dispensing. The more we breathe and eat, the more the elements of life are dispensed into us. Since we have God's Spirit and God's word, all day long we can be under God's dispensing if we breathe the Spirit and are nourished with the word.
God dispenses Himself into our spiritual being through His Spirit, who is the very breath of God. The Spirit is the breath of God for our breathing. The more we breathe the Spirit, the more we are under the divine dispensing. The first two lines of a hymn by A.B. Simpson on the Spirit as the breath say, "O Lord, breathe Thy Spirit on me, / Teach me how to breathe Thee in" (Hymns, #255). The chorus says, "I am breathing out my sorrow, / Breathing out my sin; / I am breathing, breathing, breathing, / All Thy fulness in." Instead of being limited in our breathing, we need to exercise spiritual deep breathing. The more deeply we breathe the Spirit, the healthier we will be in our spiritual life.
The word God has given to us for our nourishment is Christ as God's embodiment. The Triune God is embodied in Christ, Christ is embodied in the word, the word is realized as the Spirit, and the Spirit is the consummation of the Triune God. By such a cycle the Triune God dispenses Himself into us. Day by day we should deal with the word and the Spirit. As long as we have a proper dealing with the word and the Spirit, we are one with the Triune God, one with the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.
Today we have Christ as the Redeemer to save us from our sins, iniquities, and transgressions. On the positive side, we have Christ also as the word and as the all-inclusive, life-giving Spirit. He is the Spirit for our breathing and the word for our feeding. As we breathe the Spirit and feed on the word, we are under God's dispensing.
Christ as the Servant of Jehovah is the glory of Jehovah arising upon Israel (60:1-3).
The nations will all gather together to Israel with Israel's captives and with the nations' wealth (vv. 4-9). This refers to the time of Israel's restoration. When Christ comes back as the saving Redeemer, Israel as God's elect and as the center of the world's population will be restored in every respect. At that time, all the Gentile nations will be for Israel. Not only Israel's captives but also the wealth of the nations will be gathered to Israel.
Verse 8 says, "Who are these who fly like a cloud, / And like the doves to their dovecote?" This may be a prophecy that many of Israel's captives will return to Israel by airplane.
The nations will build Israel's walls and will minister to her with their wealth and glory (vv. 10-14). The word glory in verse 13 refers to the products of the nations (Gen. 31:1, 16; Esth. 1:4). The nations will minister to Israel with their wealth and with their best products.
Verses 15 through 18 reveal that in her restoration Israel will be made an eternal excellency and a joy for generations. Israel will be the excellency of the human race.
In the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:23) Israel will enjoy Jehovah in Christ, the Servant of Jehovah, as the eternal light (Isa. 60:19-22). Verses 19 through 21 say, "You will no longer have the sun for your light by day, / Nor for brightness will the moon give you light; / But Jehovah will be an eternal light to you, / And your God your beauty. / Your sun will no longer go down, / Nor will your moon withdraw; / For Jehovah will be an eternal light to you, / And the days of your mourning will be ended. / Then all of your people will be righteous; / They will possess the land forever, / The branch of My planting, / The works of My hands, / That I may be beautified." Israel will have something brighter than the sun and the moon, for they will have Jehovah as an eternal light to them.
Verse 21 says that God will be beautified in Israel. Many translations say glorified, but beautified is a more accurate rendering of the Hebrew word. Restored Israel will be God's beautification. In the restoration Israel will be glorified and beautified and thus become God's beautification. God will be beautified by the restored and beautified Israel.
In chapters fifty-nine and sixty, Christ is unveiled as our Redeemer. Having passed through incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection, He is now the saving One, saving His people from their sins and iniquities and becoming their light and glory. By putting Himself into us as the Spirit and the word, He becomes our beauty, brightness, and splendor. By means of the life-giving Spirit and the word, which is the embodiment of Christ, we receive the divine dispensing. The more He dispenses Himself into us as life and everything to us, the more we become bright, beautiful, and glorious. This is Christ becoming our light and glory. Eventually, we will become God's glory and beauty. He becomes our beauty so that we may become His beauty. In this way God and His chosen people are glorified and beautified in mutuality.
