A Crown Of Glory (Isaiah 28:5)

 


Monday, December 23, 2024


Psalms 123; 130

Isaiah 28:1-13

Mark 13:14-37


A Crown Of Glory (Isaiah 28:5)


Gathering around the word of God, so very close as we are to gathering around the Word of God made flesh in a couple of days, we are now given a choice between two options. Two crowns are presented before us; we must make the choice of which we shall choose to wear.


Over the past month of Advent, we have searched for instruction on kingly virtues. In the first week, we looked for where virtue is to be found – virtue that is becoming of knights and dames of King Jesus. Then we searched for assurance that, having found instruction for virtue in the scriptures, those are the only instructions worth following. Last week we ended with encouragement that, should we follow the Lord’s instructions on kingly virtues, then he will lead us to success in this endeavour. Now, with only a couple of days to go before the arrival of our Lord at Christmas, we must make the decision: will we walk this path the Lord has laid before us?


So often in scripture the choice is presented as binary. The early church picked up on this, and is nicely summed up at the opening words of the Didache, the first instruction manual for Christians: “There are two ways, one of life and one of death; but a great difference between the two ways.” Today’s passage from Isaiah is one of many biblical examples. There are two crowns: the proud crown of the drunkards, or the glorious crown of the Lord of hosts.


Isaiah goes on to speak specifically of the Assyrians, whose army is at the border. If the people will not listen to Isaiah – precept upon precept, line upon line, here a little, there a little – then the Assyrians with their strange lips and foreign tongue will speak the word of the Lord to them. Later on in Assyrian history, they would indeed turn to the Lord: Assyrian Christendom is one of the leading lights of Christ in the world today.


The choice is laid out before us, both as a magnificent life-changing decision, and in our every day life. To wear the Lord Jesus as our crown leads to receiving the spirit of justice in our discernment, and strength in our fight against sin in our lives. Or, we can wear the proud crown of the drunkards, who reel as drunkards in their attempt at discernment, and are swallowed up by the attacks of the evil one.


As we make our final preparations to approach the baby in swaddling clothes in a few short days, what will your attitude to this baby be? Is this child just a particularly special baby? Or is it the Lord of Hosts, come to lead you into all wisdom and peace, the one to whom you will bend the knee both now and in every moment of life?


Lord Jesus, be a crown of glory for me in my life. May the diadem of your beauty glitter in everything I think, say and do.

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