Have you ever been searching for something in a dim room and you just can’t find it? Then you turn on the overhead light and boom, it appears. It’s not that the item wasn’t there before, but it’s that you added light so that you could see and find it.
Last week as I was rounding out some Advent reading, the light turned on for me.
I had been reading through the prophetic scripture of Isaiah 9:6-7, written hundreds of years before Jesus’ birth, meditating on the beautiful names given to Jesus by God through Isaiah, Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, when it happened.
The light turned on. Illumination of the scripture by the Holy Spirit.
Verse 7 – “…The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this.”
These words had been there the hundreds of times I had read this scripture before, and I knew it already but it hit me afresh.
It was the zeal of the LORD that would accomplish everything that was spoken by the prophet, Isaiah.
When we think about the word zeal, we tend to think about someone having gusto or excitement for something, maybe a particular cause, but when zeal is used in the context of God, it goes way deeper than just gusto for a cause.
Zeal of God means His passionate commitment and intense devotion to His people. It means deep, unending, relentless love that goes beyond anything that we can imagine here on earth. The zeal of the Lord is outside of our comprehension.
When God created humankind, He knew that we would screw up and allow sin to enter the cosmos. But God, in His zeal for us, did not just leave us stuck in sin and condemnation for eternity, instead, he made a way for reconciliation between us and Him through Jesus, his perfect son.
Jesus, who being in very nature God, left his throne on high to take on human flesh, the very nature of a servant, so that we, me and you, could be saved from our sins and experience life – real, abundant, eternal life – in him.
We didn’t do anything to accomplish this, it was God’s zeal for us.
His zeal for you.
– – – – – – – – – –
Have you ever contemplated God’s zeal for you? Linger on this thought for a bit. He knows everything about you – things that no one else knows, things that even you can’t put words to, things that you wish you could undo – and He decided that you were worth it. You were worth sending His Son to live on earth. You were worth Jesus being publicly scorned and mocked. You were worth Jesus humbling himself, being obedient to death – even death on the cross.
You were worth it.
God’s zeal for you accomplished His great plan of salvation.
God is zealous for you. He is passionately committed to you. He is intensely devoted to you. His love for you is deep, unending and unrelenting.
Savor that truth and may your worship of the Lord Almighty abound.
– – – – – – – – – –
For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the greatness of his government and peace
there will be no end.
He will reign on David’s throne
and over his kingdom,
establishing and upholding it
with justice and righteousness
from that time on and forever.
The zeal of the Lord Almighty
will accomplish this.
Isaiah 9:6-7
Thanks for this …zeal of the Lord…Great to meditate on after the commercial abundance of Christmas…
Dear Meredith,
It is good to see another one of your writings- you have a gift.
What resonated to me in today’s writing is He is passionate,outside of our comprehension and we didn’t do anything to accomplish His zeal for us.
My love always and forever,
Dad
I read recently a writing that said you are so important to God that he is in constant battle with Satan for us. Wow! I really think we underestimate our value to God. He wants us. He continues to give us opportunities to come to Him. He forgives our sins. If we took the perspective that when we look in the mirror, we are seeing Jesus maybe we would finally understand our worth to Him.
Just my thoughts. Good to see your writing.