August 11 - Isaiah 60:10-14

August 11 – Isaiah 60:10-14

“Foreigners will rebuild your walls, and their kings will serve you. Though in anger I struck you, in favor I will show you compassion. Your gates will always stand open, they will never be shut, day or night, so that men may bring you the wealth of the nations— their kings led in triumphal procession. For the nation or kingdom that will not serve you will perish; it will be utterly ruined.

“The glory of Lebanon will come to you, the pine, the fir and the cypress together, to adorn the place of my sanctuary; and I will glorify the place of my feet. The sons of your oppressors will come bowing before you; all who despise you will bow down at your feet and will call you the City of the LORD, Zion of the Holy One of Israel.

The Israelites would always remember that it was Cyrus, the Persian king who gave them money and allowed them to return to rebuild Jerusalem, but one of the commentaries I read pointed out that God’s church was built by foreigners throughout the following centuries.  It became the task of the Gentiles (we are the Gentiles) to enlarge God’s territory and help it spread through the entire world, pressing in to locations that may never have known His Word.

With the spread of Christianity, the gates to the Kingdom were thrown wide open for anyone to come in, never again to shut away the world from the presence of God.

Read those words in the first paragraph again.  Now, read these words from Revelation 21:24-27.

The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it. Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

In 1 Kings 5, we read that Lebanon supplied the wood for King Solomon’s temple and the Lord promises that this extravagance would again one day outfit His sanctuary.

The Lord’s anger had rested upon His children.  He promises them a future, albeit quite a distant future of peace in His New Jerusalem.