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Daily Devotion: Isaiah 52:1-2

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Isaiah 52:1-2      "Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city: for henceforth there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean.  (2)  Shake thyself from the dust; arise, and sit down, O Jerusalem: loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion."

I remember the days of Momma saying, "Boys, it's time to get up and get ready for school."  "Awake, awake; put on...." The time for sleeping is over and it's time to get on with the business of a new day.  In today's passage, Isaiah is prophesying about a time that would come 70 years after they had been taken into captivity. God had told them about the time when they would be carried away and now He is speaking to them of the hope (blessed assurance) of a better day to come when they would be released. It would be time for them to take off the garments of captivity and put on the garments of the Lord. "Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city." It's time to wake up and get up. It's time to put on your best garments. It's time to wear boldly the garments of praise and honor unto the Lord. Put on the beauty of the Lord! He has given us the best robe, His robe of righteousness that we are to wear.

Yes, I say we because we also can find ourselves wearing the dust of the world. We can find ourselves in a place where we are in captivity to our own devices. Paul said to us in the book of Romans, "And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed." (Romans 13:11) It is time to "awake out of sleep" and "put on strength." It's time to "put on thy beautiful garments."  It is time to "Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy." (Psalm 107:2) I believe we are in a time just now when we can be great witnesses to God's grace in our lives. Let us awake from our sleep, put on the strength of the Lord, and wear the beautiful garments of salvation.

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