A Word in Season: The King in His Beauty (Isaiah 33:17)

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Jerusalem had come to deep distress, Sennacherib had sent his mighty hordes against the city, and the

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Rabshakeh had declared to Hezekiah and his officials that the most gross and terrible judgments were about to fall upon the nation, and Hezekiah had torn his robes and gone about in sackcloth and ashes, mourning because of the news that he had heard.

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The people were cooped up in the city, they had no freedom to go anywhere or do anything.

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What prospects then did they have? What anticipation could they enjoy of better days?

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Isaiah tells them in the 33rd chapter of his prophecy when he says in verse 17,

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Your eyes will see the king in his beauty, they will see the land that is very far off.

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He is reminding them or assuring them that though the present days are dark and difficult, yet nevertheless they will see

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Hezekiah again clothed in his royal robes, sitting in state, and enjoying the fruits of his office and displaying the majesty that belongs to him.

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They will no longer be cooped up but will enjoy a measure of liberty to travel to the places of the land which they wish to go to.

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Now, the language that is used here lifts us up toward a far greater king.

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The Lord Jesus Christ in his glory and beauty are far more splendid than anything we have seen in Hezekiah or any other earthly monarch.

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We know our Lord Jesus in the days of his humiliation, but we need to understand too the days of his exaltation and the glory, the beauty, that truly belongs to him.

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These are the things that make him delightful and desirable in our eyes.

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It's not simply a display of power. There is a beauty. There is something to be adored, not just awed by.

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There is an appetite to see and to know this great king. We see the king and his beauty perhaps for the first time when we come to him as sin -wrecked and hell -deserving sinners, when we see the excellence of his finished work, when we understand that he who died but rose again is an entire savior for us.

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We see the beauty of our king when we consider that having risen from the dead and ascended into the heavens to sit at the right hand of the majesty on high, he is there now interceding for us.

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Our priest king is beautiful in our eyes because he pleads always with God on our behalf and draws from the heart of our loving

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Father in heaven all those particular mercies and blessings upon which we depend.

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We see his beauty in his government of his church, in the laws that he gives, in the gifts that he provides, in the care that he takes as the shepherd of his sheep, never leaving us nor forsaking us, demonstrating strength in love, all the gentleness and the tenderness and the kindness of his reign.

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We will see his beauty as our days pass and our experience of his care increases, and perhaps especially as we come toward the end of our pilgrimage, the realities of a king who has entirely saved us and has conquered us, not just sin, but conquered death, conquered hell, so that we may close our eyes without any fear of what lies ahead.

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And there will come a day when all his people will see the king in his beauty, and when every eye shall see him.

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No longer will they know him according to the flesh, the days of his pilgrimage upon earth, but they shall see the beauty, the glory, the majesty of the king of kings and the lord of lords.

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And then we shall know him, we shall see him as he is, we shall be like him, we shall have something of that same beauty upon us in a measure which at the moment we cannot begin to understand.

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Are you then looking for the king in his beauty? Do you see him now in measure?

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Do you see him now in degree? Do you understand the delightful person and the wonder and the glory and the majesty and the loveliness of your king and your saviour, your lord and your god?

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Are you continually looking for him? Are you longing to see him when he comes again?