“ The nations shall see your righteousness,
and all the kings your glory,
and you shall be called by a new name
that the mouth of the Lord will give.
3 You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord,
and a royal diadem in the hand of your God.“ (Isaiah 62:2-3)
The Bible often describes the Lord’s relationship to His people as a marriage. Marriage meant much more in the Scripture than it means in our culture with its penchant for divorce. The Lord spoke of it as an unbreakable covenant. This covenant is solid and irrevocable because it is based on the Lord’s faithfulness and promise, not human sinfulness, or unfaithfulness. So when Isaiah spoke of this covenant, he was overcome with great emotion. He felt great joy as he contemplated this covenant as well as the glories of the coming kingdom of God. He was filled with an intense longing and ardent desire to see it come to pass as quickly as possible. And his desire was that the people of God share this same ardent longing.
We too look forward to the same hope that Isaiah speaks of for we, the people of God share in that unbreakable covenant. Although we are closer to the fulfillment of all things than Isaiah or the Jews were, we too look forward to it with eager expectation and perhaps a great deal of impatience, more so now perhaps because we have endured much tribulation this year from COVID, its accompanying political and social unrest as well as the increasing persecution we Christians endure at the hands of a media and culture that denies and ridicules our Christian faith. The world we live in is filled with violence, cruelty, and oppression so that we long earnestly and pray with great intensity and fervor for the Lord to come and fulfill His promises to us. But we must wait. As we wait we pray with boldness that the Lord come quickly. And as we wait we serve as watchmen. We look to see the kingdom coming and warn others of its approach.