Bind Up The Testimony (Isaiah 8:16)

 


Wednesday, December 11, 2024


Psalms 95; 96

Isaiah 8:5-9:1

Mark 7:24-37


Bind Up The Testimony (Isaiah 8:16)


The wider theme for us this Advent is Kingly Virtues – that is, we are searching the prophet Isaiah for instruction on how we are to live in such a way as befitting our King, the Lord Jesus. For this, our second week, we are learning to trust the Lord’s instructions on how to live. Today’s passage from Isaiah is teaching us the great responsibility that comes with having those instructions on how to live.


Bind up the testimony; seal the teaching among the disciples! A great light has been given to us, in the words of the Bible, explained to us by Holy Spirit. This is no light thing we hold. Isaiah is speaking here in the context of the fact he is prophesying the coming invasion of the Assyrians, and he is to make sure the written record is kept safe so that it can be proved to have been true.


For us today, seeking instruction from the Lord on how to live virtuous lives, we are to keep these instructions safe and secure as well. When the time comes and we are faced with a difficult decision, when we are to choose either the difficult option to live virtuously, or the easy option to fall into sin, the virtuous option can seem unprofitable. But choose we must, and our King commands us to choose the wisdom of virtue.


This choice can often lead us into immediate difficulty. It can seem like it was not such a big deal to cave, to have just this one time chosen the easy option. Yet if we stick through it, and stay close to the Lord and his ways, we will come out the other side vindicated by his truth. Bind up the testimony; seal the teaching among the disciples! And when the new day dawns, Christ Jesus himself will vindicate our virtuous choice.


When was the last time you had to make a difficult but virtuous decision? How will you seal the words of God in the Bible in your heart, so that when the next difficult choice comes along, you will act according to Jesus’ commands?


Jesus, my Lord and my King, you have given me all things necessary for my salvation in the words of the Bible. Seal these words in my heart, so that I may always follow you, no matter the cost.

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