Choose Joyনমুনা

DAY 23 – JOY IN THE DAY

Reflection: Isaiah wrote his prophecies about 800 years before Jesus, and yet his words are already strongly influenced by his vision of the Messiah. No wonder the book has sometimes been called the ‘5th gospel’.

In our verses today, Isaiah is telling us what we will say ‘in that day’. That day being, the one described in Chapter 11, when a ‘Branch’ from the ‘stump of Jesse' (the line of David) comes in the Spirit as a banner for the nations. Yes, he’s talking about Jesus.

How amazing to realise that we are privileged to live in ‘that day’ when Isaiah sees God – through his chosen one – ‘reach out his hand’ (Isaiah 11:11 NIV) to claim back a people for himself.

Now, we can easily lose our way and become convinced that the day in which we live is something other than what God calls it. It may feel to us like a day of confusion, a day of deception, a day of sorrow, a day of destruction. We may have no hope for this day at all.

Which is why we are reminded that the Lord himself is our strength and defense. He has become our salvation from all those ‘other days’ that want to steal our joy. And we are not to be passive about this good news, but use what strength we have to ‘draw water from the wells of salvation’. And as we do, joy will rise, a joy that gives birth to praise.

Choose joy: Isaiah says ‘God is my salvation.' This is an objective truth, but it may not be a present reality. Which is why we are to allow him to ‘become my salvation’ and then draw and drink joyfully from the ‘wells of salvation’.