The spirit of the sovereign lord is upon me

 This week's verses are Isaiah 61:1-4:

The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon me,
because the Lord has chosen me.
He has commissioned me to encourage the poor,
to help the brokenhearted,
to decree the release of captives,
and the freeing of prisoners,
to announce the year when the Lord will show his favor,
the day when our God will seek vengeance,
to console all who mourn,
to strengthen those who mourn in Zion,
by giving them a turban, instead of ashes,
oil symbolizing joy, instead of mourning,
a garment symbolizing praise, instead of discouragement.
They will be called oaks of righteousness,
trees planted by the Lord to reveal his splendor.
They will rebuild the perpetual ruins
and restore the places that were desolate;
they will reestablish the ruined cities,
the places that have been desolate since ancient times.

In a Bible study I go to, we were asked this week to meditate on these verses. So I figure, I may as well kill two birds with one stone and have you guys meditate on them too!

The prophet Isaiah is talking here about the rejuvenation of Israel. Instead of being oppressed and displaced under Babylonian occupation, they will be transformed and reestablished, even as far as affecting the world around them. God's greatness and mercy are confirmed by what he says.

Isaiah talks about "the Spirit of the Sovereign Lord." God is sovereign, meaning he is not subject to another authority. In fact, he is the only sovereign being in the universe. Everyone else has to live under the authority of at least one other being, often several. Think about how many other people we have to submit to over the course of our lives: Parents, teachers, police officers, government officials, business owners, several layers of bosses, customs officials, regulatory officials, even each other as peers. God has none of that. God only has to worry about God.

Isaiah says that God has chosen him and commissioned him. So when God chooses Isaiah, it's not because he is forced to, or because Isaiah has somehow put enough prayer hours in that he deserves it. God is completely sovereign. He does what he likes. So when he chooses Isaiah, it's a kind of act of grace. Instead of being yet another nobody, Isaiah now has an important role to play, which gets him remembered for as long as Bibles will be published.

Isaiah's commission is to encourage the poor, help the brokenhearted, decree the release of captives, to strengthen people who are mourning, and announce the year when God will show his favor. In other words, he gets to proclaim good news and help people. That's much better than the usual "prophet" routine of putting on a cheap suit, heading down to the nearest college campus, and yelling "Fornicators!" all day until your megaphone runs out of battery or the police come. 

The way Isaiah does this isn't by some combination of resumé bullet points and first class soft skills. He's not putting his hand on people's shoulders and saying, "there there now, everything will be OK. Think positive thoughts." He didn't stay up the night before, flipping through his Bible to find some nice verses to write in a card for all of these homeless, traumatized, trafficked persons.

Instead, Isaiah delivers the message God has given him to deliver. It's the good news that help is on the way. And it's not just the usual vague "things will get better" platitudes, but a point by point list of things that God will restore back to their former state or even improve. God will even improve them as people, calling them "oaks of righteousness!"

When you read the Bible, do you see the good news? If someone like Isaiah came up to you and told you how God was going to help you, would you hear the good news? And if God came to you and he wanted you to tell others about what his plans were for them, would you accept the commission, as Isaiah did, and be his spokesman? You might, if you knew how important good news can be.

For me, the last bit about rebuilding lost cities and restoring desolate places is a great description of what the word of God accomplishes in us when we are open to hearing it. I still remember my first encounter with reading the Bible, long before I was a Christian, when I went from being angry and discouraged and exiled, much like Isaiah's people, to being totally restored. Minutes after I started reading, I was at peace, hopeful, and convicted of my mistakes. I had read a lot of books, but I never had that happen from reading a book of any kind before.

So that's something to consider, if your life isn't perfect right now. That book can kind of serve as your personal Isaiah, setting things back into order in your soul, and turning you into an oak of righteousness instead of just a bunch of splinters. And if you don't know where to start, try Isaiah 61, and imagine you're hearing it for the first time. You don't have to be defeated and abused to appreciate good news.