Sunday, December 1, 2013
Beauty For Ashes
When Jesus was offered the scrolls for the weekly reading in the temple, He read from Isaiah.
Luke 4:16 And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read.
17 And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written,
18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,
19 To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.
In looking into the Hebrew for the “acceptable year of the Lord” we find some interesting meaning to this phrase. The word acceptable here means delight, good or favorable. It is a positive thing. The word year means a cycle of time. This phrase then means to announce the beginning of the good cycle of God our Lord, not just a single year. After handing them back the scroll, Yeshua (Jesus) had this to say.
Luke 4:20 And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him.
21 And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.
He proclaimed that that scripture was fulfilled when they heard Him read it. That means that the new cycle of God’s deliverance began at that moment. The tradition was to read certain scripture portions each week. Most often these were chanted or sung. So we see that the fulfillment of the good cycle beginning took place when He read the scripture. Jesus later told us that he needed to leave so the Comforter could come to us. If we read further in Isaiah, we can see what that meant. Jesus (Yeshua) stopped reading about half way through Isaiah 61:2. The rest of this verse and then all of verse three create a great picture of hope for believers.
Isaiah 61:2 To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn;
3 To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified.
We are in the time where we are to cast of lamenting and morning. Jesus (Yeshua) ushered in a new cycle, and we are the participants in that cycle today. The rest of this chapter tells of what will happen, how we move forward, and of God’s blessing on us all as we partake of this cycle. God is truly on our side and has provided for us a means of comfort.
Prayer
Father, we praise You for the age of goodness that we are in and thank You for being our King. We ask today Father that You rise up in judgment, and bring righteousness to the earth. You have sent Your Comforter. Use us in our prayers and praise to bring deliverance to Your creation. In Yeshua’s (Jesus’) name.