April 14, 2011

Isaiah 11-12
“All Things Bright and Beautiful, the Lord God Made them All” Perhaps you have sung the song before. On the one hand, I appreciate its sentiment. Although we live in a cursed world, it is still very beautiful indeed. It is so beautiful in fact that we usually don’t want to leave it. We cling to it. It feels like home. On the other hand, This world is full of dark and troublesome things. Indeed we do live in a sin cursed world. There are arachnids, insects and snakes whose bite can cause serious damage and even death. We are all aware of animals of prey which we don’t want to meet alone in the wild, such as lions and tigers and bears (oh my). Then there are a host of plants as well that can be dangerous to our existence if not producing annoying allergies. And then there are weather patterns that we cannot control that produce drought, flood, tornados, hurricanes etc. Add to these earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions. It does not seem that our Creator created a very safe world for us. We must keep in mind that we do live in a cursed creation. It is cursed because of our sin! In the words of Ken Ham could you imagine a song entitled, “All Things Bright and Beautiful, the Lord God Cursed them All?” How do these things reveal the glory of our Lord Jesus?
It is for the redemption of that cursed world that the Lord Jesus came. Today’s passage gives us a glimpse of how He shall change it when He returns to rule as the promised Messiah. He will take this mess and restore it to its original glorious state. Can you imagine a child playing with a cobra? Can you imagine the Palestinian and the Israeli living in peaceful coexistence? Can you imagine a calf and a lion lying down together to eat grass? Our Lord Jesus will do that. In the meantime He desires that we permit Him to uproot the sin in our own lives that he might reign supreme in our hearts. He desires the death of ourselves that He might live in us. He does it as we trust Him. Now that is glory! Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john