WHEN JUDGMENT BECOMES REAL SINNERS' SALVATION

(A series in the book of Isaiah: Chapter 4)

Isaiah chapter 4 surprised me a lot. At first, it is just like a continuation of the evil destruction that awaits Jerusalem and its people especially the picture of women. It sounds like a very sad story ending that awaits God’s people many years later.

What would you feel when someone would tell you that you would never be successful? What would you feel when someone tells you that you are doomed and your life amounts to a slave in the future? I believe, just like what would I feel, you would also feel horrible and hopeless. Yes, this is no joke what the people of God will go through. What the people’s stubbornness and hardheadedness have put themselves into is a no brainer. They have put themselves voluntarily in the pit of destruction and this is very obvious.

Have you seen this kind of person? Have you seen this trend among friends you have or even with yourself? The trend that people could not see anything good that will come out from your situation because you have just been messing up your life. The trend that even yourself has lost hold on hope for yourself because of the fact you become so numb, you know people are right in all their advice but you just don’t have the power to say no and to lose your grip to a sin or a bad habit.

The scenario I have just said is somewhat far to what the people of God have been into. The people of God have lost their trust in goodness. They have lost their hold on any goodness. There is just real and serious evil that is happening inside their hearts. They lost their love for God and chose to cling unto the gods who never hear them.

If your worse situation or your friend’s situation, or your neighbor’s situation is far more the nature of wickedness the people of God were into, then what makes you or your neighbor or your friends be in a hopeless situation. If the people who are worse than them are given the surprise of hope then I bet you, me, our friends, and neighbors will have hope too.

Yes, a surprise of hope. It was a full package hope for the people of God. Isaiah 4:2-6

Is. 4:2 ¶ In that day the branch of the LORD shall be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land shall be the pride and honor of the survivors of Israel.

Is. 4:3 And he who is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy, everyone who has been recorded for life in Jerusalem,

Is. 4:4 when the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and cleansed the bloodstains of Jerusalem from its midst by a spirit of judgment and by a spirit of burning.

Is. 4:5 Then the LORD will create over the whole site of Mount Zion and over her assemblies a cloud by day, and smoke and the shining of a flaming fire by night; for over all the glory there will be a canopy.

Is. 4:6 There will be a booth for shade by day from the heat, and for a refuge and a shelter from the storm and rain

These verses are just so packed of surprises for God’s people. The verses just incredibly declare that someday after the trying times—slavery, oppression, and confusion—the branch of the Lord will be with them. There is salvation, there is deliverance, and there is restoration of God’s people. They will pass through the time of turmoil of their devising and be given the newness of life. It is the kind of life where all the bitter fate will not exist and darkness will never rule over them. A new people of God will be born again, there is a rebirth for God’s people. The judgment of God will take away the governing power of sin in their lives. Just like how the people of God were delivered and protected through the pillar of cloud and fire in the wilderness, it will be the same work of God in protecting and delivering His people in the last days.

The work of deliverance, salvation, and cleansing is attributed to Jesus Christ. Yes, friends, Jesus Christ is the promised Deliverer, Savior, and Redeemer of God’s people. In Jesus, our judgment is secure because He did not come to condemn but rather to save, to give salvation not to the righteous, not to the almost perfect individuals, but the real sinners. God’s promise of salvation is for the real sinners. Those people never wanted God yet God untiringly and unceasingly is holding on to His promise.

Friends, Isaiah’s general theme of judgment and hope is evident in every chapter. In chapter 4, we see that God’s promises of salvation and hope are not only for those who are making and keeping up with life, but they are also for those who are getting the perfection and righteousness. This is what has surprised me that God’s promises are also and much more for those who are giving up on God and more to those who have given up on God already. Isaiah spills the language of judgment in defense even to those who hated God.

Wow! Unbelievable but true. God’s love extends even to those who disobey, disrespects, and blasphemes His name. They are His children and His promises are also for them. The riches of heaven are also available for those who hate God and if they only receive Him, He will take them as God’s children. God’s promise is not contractual, it is covenantal. God works with his promises not with our performance. It is not only when you are doing good, but it is also even when you are failing and not mounting to something. In this chapter, it is when God’s judgment becomes salvation for sinners like you and me.