My Servant

I read this today with tears. Here is what our faith in Christ should really be about. Please read this slowly enough that the words can soak into your soul. May God bring us back to this bedrock, both personally and corporately.  SDG

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Behold, my servant shall act wisely;
he shall be high and lifted up,
and shall be exalted.
As many were astonished at you—
his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance,
and his form beyond that of the children of mankind—
so shall he sprinkle many nations;
kings shall shut their mouths because of him;
for that which has not been told them they see,
and that which they have not heard they understand.

Who has believed what he has heard from us?
And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
For he grew up before him like a young plant,
and like a root out of dry ground;
he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,
and no beauty that we should desire him.
He was despised and rejected by men;
a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;
and as one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.
But he was wounded for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his stripes we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
so he opened not his mouth.
By oppression and judgment he was taken away;
and as for his generation, who considered
that he was cut off out of the land of the living,
stricken for the transgression of my people?
And they made his grave with the wicked
and with a rich man in his death,
although he had done no violence,
and there was no deceit in his mouth.

Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him;
he has put him to grief;
when his soul makes an offering for guilt,
he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;
the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.
Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied;
by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,
make many to be accounted righteous,
and he shall bear their iniquities.
Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many,
and he shall divide the spoil with the strong,
because he poured out his soul to death
and was numbered with the transgressors;
yet he bore the sin of many,
and makes intercession for the transgressors.

He will wipe away every tear

He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. - Rev 21:4

Without a doubt, there will be many amazing, indescribable moments in heaven. Worshiping purely before the throne. Gazing with inexpressible gratitude upon Jesus' pierced hands and feet and side. Walking the streets of gold with long separated loved ones. And so many more.

But I wonder, what will it be like to have God our Father wipe away every tear from our eyes?

Tears of sorrow? Gone.

Tears of regret? Gone.

Tears of pain? Gone.

Tears of loss? Gone.

The striking thing is that these tears of our won't simply dry up. They won't just vanish by a command of an almighty sovereign Lord. No He will personally blot them up. He will come to each of us and dry them Himself. He can do this because Jesus has absorbed the penalty for the sin those tears represent. And Jesus' victory over sin and death and the grave has reversed the very cause of our tears.

Remember this, whatever tears you may shed today, God will wipe them from your eyes one day. The journey from here to there may be difficult and there may be many more tears along the way. But the day is coming (soon, I pray) when the God who wept with us will come to you personally and remove the last effect of a sinful, dying world.

And then our joyful, tearless, life begins!

To God Alone be the Glory