Complete Coverage (Isaiah 11:9)

 


Monday, December 16, 2024


Psalms 70; 75

Isaiah 10:33-11:9

Mark 9:2-32


Complete Coverage (Isaiah 11:9)


Building on what we have looked at over the past fortnight, we move to the next phase of our chivalric training: that God guarantees us success in developing a soul framed by kingly virtues. Remember, in the first week we discovered that for all the noise clamouring to get our attention, it is only the Lord who can truly teach us. Then in the next week we learnt to trust that his teaching is certain. Now, we get a word of assurance from the Lord: that our efforts will not be in vain, that if we follow him and him only, we will grow into virtuous knights and dames worthy of our King.


Today’s word from Isaiah is a prophecy of our King, and how he will come to us. In the midst of all the predictions of invasion and destruction, this image of a mighty tree being felled with an axe appears. The promise of God, made first at the fence-line of the Garden of Eden, that there will be one born of a woman to crush the head of the serpent, is at risk of being lost under the fury of the invading Assyrians. Yet, promises God, it is out of the wake of this destruction – the stump of the tree – from which the King of kings will arise.


To see hope in devastation is a type of virtue – the virtue of wisdom. This type of wisdom comes from seeing things spiritually, and is trained through prayer and study of the Bible. When all seems at its worst, then the vindication of the Lord will come. As bad as things get, they could always be worse – the Lord could not appear. And yet appear he does. As if to demonstrate his utmost glory, his absolute power, his overwhelming grace and mercy, it is when things are bleakest that he rides through to victory. “The one perfectly divine thing, the one glimpse of God’s paradise given on earth,” said Chesterton, “is to fight a losing battle – and not lose it.” And when this apparition of the victory of our King appears, as we overcome our internal battles against sin, “the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” His victory will be absolute, our virtue will be complete. Our success both comes from, and is guaranteed by God.


What losing battles are you fighting right now? From where are you looking for your victorious King to win the day for you? How do you find confidence that God wins in the end?


King Jesus, ride on to victory, both in my heart, and in your good creation.

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