God sees the blood, and He shall save His people.– (Isaiah 49:1-7)Our Lord Jesus Christ warred against discouragement as He saw Israel rejecting Him… and especially as He came under the sufferings of the cross. Job speaks as a type of Christ when he says, "God hath delivered me to the ungodly, and turned me over into the hands of the wicked. I was at ease, but he hath broken me asunder: he hath also taken me by my neck, and shaken me to pieces, and set me for his mark (Job 16:11-12)."
When our Lord Jesus Christ was made to be sin, He endured greater sufferings than eternity can explain. He fully and completely rendered His soul to the wrath of God. He is called the Burnt Offering, "an offering made by fire, of a sweet savor unto the Lord (Lev 1:9)". Yet, He did not suffer to merely bare sins; He suffered to put sins away. Yes, He gave Himself as the Sinners Substitute unto the very hatred and vindictive punishment of Almighty God; but yes, He gave Himself to accomplish a victory… to put sins away… and to make sure that His chosen people could never again come under condemnation.
Therefore, He cries out to us through Job and says, "O earth, cover not thou my blood… (vs18)." Nothing that human beings can ever do can, in any way, defile the accomplishment that He accomplished at the cross. No amount of blasphemy; no amount of falling away. You and I can be absolutely certain of this: if a sinner perishes or falls out of the way, then it is because Christ Jesus did not die for him– (I John 2:19) "They went out from us, but they were not of us: for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us." Not one of His elect shall fail to be saved, and not one of His saved shall fall away.
Why so? Because it is not about man; it is about how God sees the blood, and the fact that He is satisfied. Under great temptation to disbelieve God because of the agony of rejection, Christ speaks, "Then I said, I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for naught, and in vain …" –yet, He quickly adds, "…yet surely my judgment is with the Lord, and my work with my God (Is 49:4)." He knew that His blood would not be covered; His ultimate sufferings would never be in vain; and in spite of the fact that many perish, the elect of God shall see– by Holy Spirit revelation–that God is perfectly satisfied, on their behalf, for what Christ has done. Therefore, our Lord continues His prayer with absolute confidence saying, "And now, saith the Lord that formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob again to him, Though Israel be not gathered, yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of the Lord, and my God shall be my strength (vs5).
It does not matter that national Israel rejected Him; God the Father is gathering an innumerable multitude of the Gentile people– "And he said, It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth (Is 49:6)." God shall forever honor His Son. And, He tells us these things, so that we may be comforted.
My brethren, don't stray away from the message of Christ's precious blood because YOU SEE so little happening. Do not take away the food of the gospel because ungodly men, ordained to the destruction, turn the grace of our God into a license for sin (Jude 1:1-4). Instead, ever more contend for the absolute freeness of God's salvation, and declare Jesus Christ-crucified all sufficient for godliness (Ezra 7:12-28). God promised that His Son would be a light unto the Gentiles; and through beholding the Light, the elect shall bow to Christ from the heart. A new people shall come and take the place of those who have rejected Him, which is an encouragement for renewed zeal in evangelism. Take the gospel to new people, where they are (Luke 14:15-24).
Finally, God promises us that even though our Lord and Savior is visibly rejected by the lost and religious:
1. "Kings shall see and arise" (Is 49:7). Proud obstinate sinners shall come to realize that they've got no hope but Jesus Christ, and seeing His glory in the gospel, they shall say, "I will arise and go to Jesus!" (Read II Kings 7:3-5).
2. "Princes also shall worship (vs7)". They shall worship Him because of His faithfulness, as demonstrated to them through the finished work of the cross. They shall worship Him for His holiness–for the fact that God Almighty has made a way to reconcile chosen sinners unto Himself by the means of death, whereby we are risen again in full justification and made worthy to partake of His holiness. And, in God's kingdom, there will be no argument. Everyone shall know that Jesus Christ is the Head of His church and has all preeminence in the Scriptures, our conduct, and everything involved in gospel worship (Col 1:18-19). Isaiah 49:7 says, "because of the Lord that is faithful, and the Holy One of Israel, and he shall choose Thee."
Heshimu Colar, Pastor
The Gospel Church of San Jose, Calif.
3800 Blackford Ave
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