TUESDAY October 22nd
Luke 4:18-19
‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.’
These words that Jesus read from the prophet Isaiah are to be found in Isaiah 61:1-2 and I quote them here ‘The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favour’.
Now Luke tells us that Jesus rolled up the scroll at this point and gave it back to the attendant, but in Isaiah the paragraph continues with the following, ‘and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; to grant to those who mourn in Zion—to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he may be glorified’. Now this is just up to the end of verse 3 and it continues with more in the rest of the chapter.
Why did Jesus’ stop reading where he did and why didn’t he continue to read ‘and the day of vengeance of our God’. The answer is that at that time, Jesus had only come to fulfil the section that he had read out, he had not at that time come to execute God’s vengeance on the earth, he had come to demonstrate God’s love, God’s mercy and God’s grace, he had come to bring the opportunity for repentance, for salvation and for healing, he had come to be the Saviour of the world.
Now if the prophecy of Isaiah is to be fulfilled through Jesus, then it means that there is yet more to be fulfilled, and that which Jesus left out on that occasion in the synagogue in Nazareth will yet be fulfilled as he comes again the second time, not to be a sacrifice for sins, but to bring about that which will usher in the vengeance of God upon the nations and the peoples who have failed to respond and believe for salvation. And if you read the remaining verses in Isaiah 61 you will see that God still has a plan to be accomplished among the nation of Israel.
The times we are living in could be considered as frightening times if we see it simply through the eyes of the unbelieving world, but as we see them through the eyes of biblical prophecy, they are exciting times as that which was prophesied many hundreds, even thousands of years ago is being fulfilled literally before our eyes as we watch the news channels each day.
The day of God’s vengeance is near, we need to ensure that each one of us has made ourselves right with God, through the offer of salvation that Jesus has and only Jesus has made possible for us. Believe on him, trust him, for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through the Lord Jesus Christ.