A Word in Season: The Unresting Christ (Isaiah 62:1)

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Who speaks in Isaiah 62? Who says, for Zion's sake

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I will not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest until her righteousness goes forth as brightness and her salvation as a lamp that burns?

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It is the servant of God. It is that one upon whom the Spirit of God rests for service and for blessing, the one who labours for the glory of God, the one who labours for the good of all

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God's people. It is, ultimately, our Saviour Jesus Christ.

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It is God's Messiah, that one anointed in order to accomplish all His purposes.

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And here we are given a window into His ceaseless ministry on our behalf.

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There's something bewildering about thinking what this might have meant before the Incarnation, when the

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Son of God, the Eternal Son, is perpetually an advocate for His people, the

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Spirit celebrating and endorsing His desires, and the loving

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Father ready to receive what He has said so that there is relationship between the persons of the

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Godhead who are united in love and purpose. But it becomes even more clear when we think of Christ as incarnate, the

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Son of God taking on flesh and blood, the Son of God suffering and dying and rising again from the dead, ascending into heaven, and now seated at the right hand of God.

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Perhaps it's this that Isaiah is ultimately looking forward to. For Zion's sake

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I will not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest.

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We are so often and so easily discouraged in our prayers. We end up holding our peace.

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Perhaps we don't believe that God's promises are true regarding His hearing of prayer, and we quickly rest.

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We become battered down. We don't necessarily see what we want, or at least when we want it.

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Perhaps there are other things that press in upon us. We become distracted. We sometimes lose sight of our priorities in prayer.

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But here is God's servant. Here is our Savior. For Zion's sake

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I will not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest.

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Here is the one who ever lives to make intercession for us and for the sake of His beloved people.

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In Isaiah's language it is the bringing in of the Gentiles. For us we perhaps will see more broadly that spiritual

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Jerusalem, that Mount Zion which is above and which is established by grace in the hearts of His people here on earth.

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And it is for God's elect then, God's chosen ones, those upon whom the

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Lord has set His love, that the Son of God earnestly and unceasingly intercedes.

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And He does so with the highest of aims for her and with the sweetest of blessings in His heart until her righteousness goes forth as brightness and her salvation as a lamp that burns.

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The Lord God has upon His heart the Lord Christ, that great high priest who bears the names of His servants upon His breast.

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He is pleading for our righteousness to go forth as brightness and our salvation as a lamp that burns, that God would be magnified among us, that the honour of the

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Lord would be seen in us, that the glory of God would be reflected by us, that the salvation of the

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Lord would be burning brightly among us and from us, that the

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Gentiles should see our righteousness and all kings our glory. These are things that Christ prays for us even now.

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The realities for which He pleads are begun among God's people here upon earth, but they must be consummated in the glory to come.

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Christ will not hold His peace until all His purposes for His people have been gloriously accomplished.

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Christ will not rest until Jerusalem is made a praise to Him, until all

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His people are gathered in, until every one of His chosen ones for whom He died has been brought together, until everybody is with Him and before Him, safe and secure, not just in terms of the salvation that is set upon them, but in terms of their full and final experience of it.

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Yes, the work of redemption has been done, but Christ is unresting in His pursuit of His people.

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He will not hold His peace and He will not rest, but keep pleading for His Zion until her righteousness goes forth as brightness and her salvation as a lamp that burns.