Church: Reformed Baptist Church of Franconia | Text: Isaiah 49 | Date: September 15, 2024 | Speaker: Fred Zaspel

Isaiah 49: The Servant of the Lord, a Light to the Nations

Isaiah chapter 49. Continuing our studies on Messianic prophecy in the Old Testament, we’ve worked our way from Genesis 1 to Genesis 3 to later in Genesis, the book of Numbers; we saw some in Samuel, saw the big one in 2 Samuel, chapter 7. We’ve seen many along the way. More recently, we’ve been in the prophecy of Isaiah, and we’ve tried to look at the big ones. We’ve skipped many of them because Isaiah has so much to say about this figure that we’re now looking at called the servant of the Lord. He crops up a lot in the later sections of Isaiah, but by name in a few passages, and so those are the ones we’re focusing on. We looked at Isaiah 42 through 53, and then also Isaiah 61, which I would like to count as another servant song.

But we have these passages in the latter part of Isaiah that focus on this figure, this person who’s called the servant of the Lord, or his servant, or the Lord speaking, “my servant.” And we saw that he is the one who’s commissioned by God and called by God to carry out his purpose in history. Fascinating passages. We began with a brief overview of Isaiah 42 to 61, and we saw what a dominant role they play in the New Testament in their understanding of Jesus, and Jesus himself identifying himself with the servant of the Lord. And I suggested that, as some have said, that in those early days of the Christian church, if they had had our “ology” words, they probably would not have spoken of Christology, but they would have spoken of Servantology, because this had such a dominant influence on their understanding of Jesus in the early church.

So we saw chapter 42 then, last time, and we saw the Lord calling the servant to bring justice to the nations. And now we come to Isaiah chapter 49. We have the second of the servant songs. I won’t be able to finish it this evening. There’s just too much here. So we’ll finish that next time, and then we’ll go to chapter 50, and then chapter 52 and 53, and then eventually chapter 61 as well. But chapter 49, Isaiah 49:1–13, the servant of the Lord, a light to the nations:

“Listen to me, O coastlands, and give attention, you peoples from afar. The Lord called me from the womb. From the body of my mother he named my name. He made my mouth like a sharp sword. In the shadow of his hand he hid me. He made me a polished arrow. In his quiver he hid me away. And he said to me, ‘You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified.’ But I said, ‘I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity. Yet surely my right is with the Lord, and my recompense with my God.’ And now the Lord says, he who formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob back to him, and that Israel might be gathered to him, for I am honored in the eyes of the Lord, and my God has become my strength. He says, ‘It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel. I will make you as a light for the nations that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.’ Thus says the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel and His Holy One, to one deeply despised, abhorred by the nation, the servant of rulers, ‘Kings shall see and arise, princes, and they shall prostrate themselves, because the Lord, who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.’ Thus says the Lord. ‘In a time of favor, I have answered you. In a day of salvation, I have helped you. I will keep you and give you as a covenant to the people, to establish the land, to apportion the desolate heritages, saying to the prisoners, “come out.” Those who are in darkness, “appear.” They shall feed along the ways. On all bare heights shall be their pasture. They shall not hunger or thirst, neither scorching wind nor sun shall strike them, for he who has pity on them will lead them, and by springs of water will guide them. I will make all my mountains a road, and my highways shall be raised up. Behold, these shall come from afar. Behold, these from the north and from the west and these from the land of Syene, sing for joy, O heavens, and exult, O earth. Break forth, O mountains, into singing, for the Lord has comforted his people and will have compassion on his afflicted.'”

Let’s bow for prayer. Our Lord, as we come to study your word, as always, we recognize that we are in need of your Spirit to open our minds and our hearts, to give us understanding, and to give us an appreciation for what we find here. We pray that you’ll direct our minds to Christ, and we pray that through it you will enliven our faith in him. We pray in his name, amen.

The Servant Himself Is Speaking

All right, here in Isaiah 49, the servant himself is speaking. The only other time we have the servant himself speaking—he’s generally spoken about—but the only time we have him speaking himself is here in Isaiah 49, and then again in Isaiah 61, which we will see later in the series. So verses 1 to 6, the servant himself is speaking. And then in verses 7 through 13, God speaks, and he’s addressing the servant. And we’ll look through it that way. I don’t think we’ll get much past verse 6 this evening.

But in verses 1 to 12 now, the servant himself is speaking, and he calls the nations to receive him. He has been sent on a mission, and he speaks to the nations to receive him. Verses 1 and 2—again, this is the servant speaking: “Listen to me, O coastlands, and give attention, you peoples from afar. The Lord called me from the womb, from the body of my mother he named my name. He made my mouth like a sharp sword, on the shadow of his hand he hid me. He made me a polished arrow, in his quiver he hid me away.”

And then, verses 3 to 6, the servant now is still speaking, but the focus now is what the Lord, Yahweh, has said to him. So he’s citing words that were given to him previously. Verse 3: “He said to me, ‘You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified.'” Verse 6: “‘It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel. I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.'”

So we have the servant himself speaking, and he seems to come out of nowhere. Actually, he has spoken earlier, and if you look back, either earlier on the same page of your Bible or back on the previous page, chapter 48, we’ll see that the servant had already spoken before. In chapter 48, the Lord himself is speaking, but in verse 16, we have an interjection from the servant. Isaiah 48:16: “Draw near to me, hear this. From the beginning I have not spoken in secret, from the time it came to be I have been there, and now the Lord God has sent me and his Spirit.” Now, this must be the servant who is speaking, because he’s sent from the Lord. It’s not the Lord himself speaking, but the servant who is speaking and says he was sent by the Lord. And his words then resume in chapter 49 and verse 1.

And in chapter 48, verse 16, he tells us he is endowed with God’s Spirit. Now, we found that about God’s servant, the servant of the Lord, back in chapter 42. In that song of the servant, also it was said that he would be endowed with God’s Spirit. He says that again. We’ll find that again in chapter 61. Again, when the servant speaks, he says, “The Lord’s Spirit is upon me, and he’s anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor,” and so on.

So in chapter 48, the Lord himself is speaking, and he’s announcing his purpose. Remember the setting here. This is Isaiah’s prophecy to Israel. They have not yet been carried off into captivity, but he’s announced that that would happen. That’s the end of chapter 39. But beginning with chapter 40, we have this what’s called the “Book of Comfort,” and he announces that when you are in captivity, God will come to your rescue and he will bring you back. So that’s the setting of things here. And he’s announcing his purpose, and he even in these chapters, as I mentioned before, chapters 44 and 45, he names their deliverer, who will be Cyrus, who comes, and he makes reference to him again in verse 14 of chapter 48 as well. Not by name, but he’s the one in view here.

But then we come to verse 16 of chapter 48, and we have not the Lord God speaking and not Cyrus speaking, but someone else: “The Lord God has sent me and his spirit.” He’s endowed with God’s Spirit, so in some sense he’s distinct from the Lord God and distinct from the Spirit. He is sent by the Lord. And yet—and this is very… it’s curious—at the same time, although he is sent by the Lord, he speaks of himself in terms of deity. Look at verse 18 again—well, that’s not the prophet. Verse 12 of chapter 48, God himself is speaking; that is, he’s the eternal one. Now, verse 16 echoes that: “From the time it came to be, I have been there.” So he describes himself in terms of deity. He’s eternal. He’s been there since the beginning. And yet, verse 16 also affirms that he was sent by the Lord God.

So in some sense, he’s to be identified with the Lord. And in another sense, he’s sent by the Lord. So here we have—I don’t know of any other way you can put all of that together except to say we have here an Old Testament reference to the doctrine of the Trinity. Some Old Testament witness to it. I don’t know of any other way to put these details together. We all know, of course, that the doctrine of the Trinity becomes very clear in the New Testament—crystal clear—and looking back at the Old Testament, through our New Testament lenses at least, we can see it there as well. But there are passages like this in the Old Testament that had to be somewhat enigmatic for the monotheistic Jews. God is one, there is only one God, and yet we have spoken of three different persons here. We have the Lord, who sent his servant, who is eternal, and his Spirit, who is eternal. How do you put all of that together?

The best way to describe this that I know is the way B.B. Warfield described it. He said in the Old Testament, we have the doctrine of the Trinity. All of the furniture is there, but it’s like it’s in a dark room. You have passages like this which, before the full revelation of the Trinity, just seem head-scratching. How do you put all of that together? But once you have the full revelation of the Trinity and the coming of Christ, well, then you look back on that, and you say, “Oh, yes, of course, I see that.” And I think that’s the case here.

So he’s spoken already in chapter 48, verse 16. Now we come to chapter 49, and he’s speaking again, and he demands to be heard. He’s not just another prophet. He is one who in some way is to be identified with the Lord, and yet is sent by the Lord. And he says, “Listen to me, O coastlands, give attention, you peoples from afar. The Lord called me from the womb, from the body of my mother he named my name.”

All right, verse 1. He’s called and he’s named from the womb. That’s not an entirely unique expression in the Old Testament or in the New. Calling from the womb—we find that with Jeremiah; we find it with the Apostle Paul in the New Testament, in Galatians, that God called him from the womb. The idea of that is that he was called to a specific task. The idea is one of—say it this way—predestination. He was predestined to this. God had settled this while he was in his mother’s womb. This isn’t something that developed and something that happened, but God had plans. And even while he was still in his mother’s womb, this plan was set in place. In verse 5, “You formed me in the womb of my mother to be his servant.” There may be some hint here of the virgin birth as well. I’m not certain of that, but it certainly fits with what we see earlier in chapter 7.

But he says, “…from the body of my mother he named my name.” All right, he was born of a woman. Born like any of the rest of us. Born of a woman. And this is significant here in two ways. Number one, of course, he’s genuine humanity. The humanity of the servant. He’s truly one from within Israel. We’ve seen that in a number of the Messianic prophecies along the way, and we’ll see then already that this one who was identified with the Lord, and yet he comes born from a woman, we see again the two natures of Messiah. We see that in several of the Old Testament prophecies.

So it’s significant in two ways. Number one, it highlights his genuine humanity. But then also, it ties him to a stream of Messianic prophecy that we’ve already seen. Back in Isaiah 7:14, “The virgin shall conceive and bear a son.” In Isaiah chapter 9, we have this child who is born. Back, if you would like to go back further, Psalm 22, we have this same kind of language. Psalm 22:9 says, “Yet you are he who took me from the womb.” And then, of course, it harks finally all the way back to Genesis 3:15, the promise of the woman’s seed who would come to defeat the tempter.

The statement, though, is a little bit more specific than that. “So while I was in my mother’s womb, he gave me my name.” As you might know, that finds its answer in the New Testament in Luke chapter 1, verses 26 and following. In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you.” But she was greatly troubled at the saying and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.” So while he was still in her womb, he was named. Now Jesus, as you know, the Greek name for the Old Testament Joshua, which means “the Lord saves.” So Jesus is “the Lord saves,” and he was given that name while he was still in the womb of his mother. Now the point of all of that is to say that the servant is God’s chosen instrument. He is “the Lord saves.” He’s the Lord’s instrument through whom he will carry out his purpose in history.

God’s Offensive Weapon

In fact, what we find in these verses is that he is God’s offensive weapon. His offensive weapon. Look at verses 2 and 3: “He made my mouth like a sharp sword. In the shadow of his hand, he hid me. He made me a polished arrow. In his quiver, he hid me away. And he said to me, ‘You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified.'”

So he’s a sword. He is like a polished arrow. It speaks of struggle and warfare, opposition, and his overcoming it. In God’s hands, he will succeed. In him, God will be glorified. Against all of the enemies, against all of the opposition that comes, he will be God’s polished arrow and his sharp sword, and he will glorify God in the success of the mission that he gives him.

Verse 2, he’s a sharp sword. There’s probably a couple of different significances of this in its fulfillment in the New Testament, probably corresponding to the first and the second advent of Christ. On the one hand, we have Jesus’ teaching and his preaching spoken of as a sword sometimes; Hebrews chapter 4 and verse 12. So Jesus spoke sometimes some sharp words to the Pharisees, sometimes as in a spiritual way, as Hebrews 4:12 says, cutting and dividing us and sorting out the spiritual issues in us, like he himself claimed in John 6, “The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life.” Or like the words that he spoke to the woman at the well, bringing her to life. So I think that’s probably some of the significance of it.

But finally, at least, it has its significance in the judgments associated with his return. When he says here that he’s God’s polished arrow, and he’s like a sharp sword in whom God will be glorified, that is an echo of what we saw in Isaiah chapter 11. Remember, we saw there that God promises there will come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit, and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked. That’s echoed in 2 Thessalonians 2, when we find the Apostle Paul saying that the Lord Jesus will come and he will kill with his mouth, with the breath of his mouth, that lawless one, the Antichrist. We find the same thing in Revelation 19, when we have here an apocalyptic imagery, the Lord Jesus returning on a white horse in glory, and it says a sword is coming out of his mouth—which I love to tell you every time I get there, that means it won’t be much of a fight. He speaks, and his enemies fall. Probably all of that is an echo of Psalm 45 that we saw. You remember that was a Messianic psalm, a royal psalm, where it says of the king, “Your arrows are sharp in the heart of the king’s enemies.” So here we have the Messiah spoken of in terms of his coming as God’s offensive weapon against the enemies, and he will prevail against them. That’s a note that we’ve seen in so many of the prophecies going way back.

Now, verse 3, the servant is addressed here as Israel: “You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified.” Now, it’s clear from verse 9 that Israel as a nation is not in view. This is an individual from within the nation. Where verse 9 tells us, “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel.” So this servant is one who’s bringing back the nation. He is not himself the nation. He’s one individual from within the nation to bring them back.

So the question then comes up, why is he addressed as Israel? Why does God call him Israel? We saw in our first time looking at these servant songs, that at least nine times in these servant songs, the Lord’s servant is Israel, the nation. The nation is addressed as God’s servant, at least nine times in these chapters. If you’d like, look back at chapter 41, verses 8 to 10, we find it there: “But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the offspring of Abraham, my friend, you whom I took from the end of the earth and called from its farthest corners, saying to you, ‘You are my servant. I have chosen you and not cast you off. Fear not, for I am with you. Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. I will help you. I will uphold you with my right hand.'”

So this is speaking then of God’s servant, Israel, the nation, called to accomplish God’s tasks. Then verse 15 of chapter 41, “Behold, I make of you a threshing sledge, new, sharp, and having teeth; you shall thresh the mountains and crush them, and you shall make the hills like chaff.” So again, Israel is to be the instrument in God’s hands that he uses in fulfilling his purposes. If you’d like another, look at chapter 53, verse 10. He states a specific task: “You are my witnesses,” declares the Lord, “and my servant whom I have chosen.” Chapter 43, verse 12. Again, “You are my witnesses.” So Israel was to be a witness to the nations. She was to be a nation by whom the light of God’s revelation was to be given to the world.

And of course, it was massive failure. She didn’t live up to her task. We get to chapter 49 now, and he says to this individual servant from within Israel, “You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified.” So it seems to be a not-so-veiled rebuke to the nation of Israel. God, in fact, was not glorified by the nation of Israel in her behavior. In chapter 41, Israel is God’s servant to accomplish the task. Her failure was the whole reason for her exile. And so we find in chapter 42, Israel is described as a bruised reed, a faintly burning wick. Verse 7 of chapter 42, she’s blind. Those who sit in darkness, they’re prisoners. Later in chapter 42, Israel are prisoners, their desolate heritages. Later in chapter 42, Israel is blind and deaf. We get to chapter 53, Israel will be the transgressors for whom the servant offers himself as a guilt offering. That’s Israel the nation.

But Israel the servant, this individual from within the nation, embodies within himself all that the nation should have been and was called to do, and he is the one by whom God will accomplish his purpose. He’ll raise him up from within Israel, and he is one who is truly deserving of the name, “my servant.” And so in a sense, he is the true Israel. Israel had failed the nation, but now this servant from within Israel that has been raised up—by his work, the Lord will be glorified. So we have—and we’ll see more of this next time—in Isaiah we have something of a narrowing significance to this term, Israel. It’s the nation, the 12 tribes. Because of her disobedience, there will be judgment, and there’ll be a remnant that’s preserved, so it’s narrowed to a remnant. And then from that remnant, there’s this one individual, and that is God’s servant. Through him, his purposes will be accomplished.

Outstanding Success of This Servant Will Be Surprising

Now, one important contribution of Isaiah 49 is the outstanding success. The outstanding success of this servant will be, in some sense, surprising. The outstanding success of this servant will be surprising. So, for example, he is, verse 2, a sharp sword, a polished arrow. He’s God’s offensive weapon. But it would not seem so at first. Look at verse 2 again: “In the shadow of his hand he hid me, a polished arrow hidden away in his quiver.” So there’s something subtle, something even surprising about his success. It’s not like a conquering general who comes in a grand display of military power. There’s something surprising about it, at least at first. It’s quiet, it’s unobtrusive. Remember we saw that in chapter 42, he won’t cry aloud in the streets and force his way through.

In fact, if you look at verse 4, on the way to his success, he will meet with seeming disappointment. Verse 4: “But I said, ‘I have labored in vain, I’ve spent my strength for nothing and vanity.'” And then verse 7, for a time at least it will seem that the cause is lost. He will be one deeply despised, abhorred by the nation. So verse 4, he is saying at the beginning of the verse, “I’ve labored in vain, I’ve spent my strength for nothing.” There’s seeming disappointment. But the rest of that verse, the servant has not lost faith; he continues, “Yet surely my right is with the Lord and my recompense with my God.” So he’s saying that though it yet might appear—it doesn’t appear that my work will be establishing justice throughout the nations, it doesn’t seem that it will succeed—for a time it will seem that it’s failing. God will ensure that I finish and accomplish my task. But along the way, there will be seeming loss.

There’s something enigmatic about this prophecy then. He’s God’s sharp sword, he’s his polished arrow, and yet, verse 7, the nation despises him. We often find this in the prophecies of the Old Testament. There’s some mystery to it. Some of the prophecies seem even incongruent, if not impossible. Verse 2, his mouth is like a sharp sword. He’s God’s polished arrow. Verse 3, he’s the one in whom God will be glorified. Verse 6, he’ll raise up the tribes of Jacob and bring back the preserved of Israel. He’ll be a light to the nations. Verse 6, to bring God’s salvation to the ends of the earth. And yet, verse 7, he’s one deeply despised, abhorred by the nation. And verse 4, he seems at some point to have labored in vain and spent his strength for nothing.

Well, at this point in redemptive history, you know how to sort all that out. You can make short use of that. And of course, we are coming to Isaiah chapter 53, where we will learn that the success of this servant will actually be by means of his rejection by the people. And this plays into a big theme that we find in the New Testament as well, and that of Jesus overcoming and accomplishing God’s salvation through weakness. And so we have that great irony of Jesus reigning from the cross—in the moment of his utter defeat, humiliated and put to death, succeeding in accomplishing God’s redemptive plan, and reigning from the cross. We have this weakness theme then in the New Testament that comes from all of this.

But still, despite the seeming defeat, there will come a time when his success will become very obvious to all. Everyone will see, in fact, that he is God’s sharp sword, his polished arrow, and he will defeat God’s enemies. Verse 3: “You are my servant in whom I will be glorified.” Or as we find in Isaiah 53 in verse 10, “The will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.” This one who suffers shame and death at the hands of his enemies, this one who is despised and rejected, he is the one who through all of that will make the purpose of God prosper and succeed. And so he remains confident. Verse 4, the end of the verse.

Verses 5 and 6, then, we have the basis of the servant’s confidence, and that is God’s promise. He relays here now what God has said to him. Verse 5: “And now the Lord says, He who formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob back to him, and that Israel might be gathered to him. For I am honored in the eyes of the Lord, and God has become my strength.” Verse 6, the great task to which he’s called: “He says, ‘It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel. I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.'”

Now there’s some hyperbole here, because in fact, to bring back Jacob is a pretty heavy thing. There’s nothing light about that task at all. But God is speaking of the great purpose that he has for the servant, and in comparison, bringing back Jacob will seem like a very small thing. He will bring God’s salvation to the nations and to the ends of the earth. So it’s a rhetorical way then of drawing attention to the even greater task to which God has called his servant. This work that God has called the servant to do is not for Israel only. It’s for the world.

Well, we come to the New Testament then. We’ll see some reflections on this. Luke chapter 2, verses 29 and following. You remember the familiar scene? Our Lord as a boy is brought to the temple, and he’s met with the old man Simeon. He says, “Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace according to your word. For my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for the revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.” That is a reference back here to Isaiah 49.

Well, that theme, of course, is picked up in the New Testament. Pastor Boyd spoke of it this morning from John chapter 12, one of my favorite passages in that regard, where the Lord Jesus, in this exact kind of setting as we saw this morning—Greeks want to see Jesus, and we have that perfect example of how not to do evangelism. “I want to see Jesus.” “Wait, no, don’t.” A Greek wanting to see Jesus—that’s just… “Wait here, I’m gonna go talk to Jesus.” It’s just not good evangelism at all. He goes and sees Jesus and tells him, “There’s a Greek out here that wants to see you, a Gentile man.” Jesus responds with those words, “If I be lifted up, I will draw all peoples to myself.” This thing is not just for Israel. This thing is for the world.

We find that fulfilled finally in Revelation chapter 5. You remember that wonderful scene with the Almighty on his throne in his great majesty and unapproachable glory. All of heaven is in anxiety. Who is worthy to carry out his purposes of salvation and judgment? Who can take that scroll? Finally this lion, this lamb, comes and he’s worthy and he takes the scroll from the sovereign’s hand. And heaven breaks out into a song, Revelation 5:9: “They sang a new song saying, ‘Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals for you were slain. And by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.'”

Well, that is the Lord’s response to the servant. Yes, you will meet with resistance. Yes, there will be opposition. Yes, you will be abhorred and despised by the nation. But you are the one in whom I will be glorified. And it’s too light a thing to do this just for Israel. Through you I’ll bring salvation to the entire world.

One thing that strikes me as we go through these prophecies is how but God could make prophecies centuries, centuries in advance? And not only in some fascinating ways like 150 years earlier naming Cyrus as the deliverer who will come and things like that—a fascinating thing—but more fascinating than that, and more complex than that, he makes these prophecies that seem so enigmatic, and so complex, and full of illusions that you think, how can all of this come together? And yet when it comes together, you have all of these prophecies—you have some that are complex here, and you have complex prophecies here, and some of them seem incongruent, and some of them even seem self-contradictory—and it’s not just this prophecy here, and then another, and then another, and how this one is fulfilled there, and this one’s fulfilled there, and this one’s… But all of these prophecies together, complex as they are, so easily converge on a single fulfillment in the person and work of the Lord Jesus. Who but God could do that?

And here’s one of the passages that is like that. We look at this and we read it. Imagine reading this ahead of time, before the fact. How do you make sense of this? He’s despised, rejected by the nation, he seems to have failed, and yet he’s going to bring God’s salvation to the ends of the earth. How will that happen? Well, we find that it happens through a crucified and risen and ascended Savior who is at work today fulfilling exactly that commission, and it will be brought to its full climax finally in his return. And he will then be seen to be God’s sharp sword and polished arrow, and all of his enemies will fall. Amen.

Let’s stand and be dismissed in prayer.