“Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.” Ephesians 5:14
Dear Ones:
There are three calls to “awaken” in the 51st and 52 chapters of Isaiah. The first has to do with praying for God to do so. (51:9) What does this mean? Is God ever asleep? No, for Scripture tells us: “Behold, He that keeps Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.” (Ps. 121:4) If this is the case, then why does Isaiah write: “Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord; awake, as in the ancient days, in the generations of old.” (51:9) God does not “awake” from an passive understanding of all that transpires on this earth, and consequently in our lives. However, to call upon Him to awaken, is to seek Him to move, to work, to initiate a new beginning. The testimony of Scripture concerning this Creator and Redeemer that we profess as being our own, is that there is NO time, no moment or circumstance, when He is not able and willing to DO GOOD, and to show forth His glory, for the true blessing of His creation. He “awakes” to reveal Himself as the only true God, the God of all circumstance, ever-present, and willing to help, intervene, and to save. The prayer of Isaiah is directed at the great Initiator to act, and work. Isaiah knows that this is essential, as Christ is the “Beginning” of all true, good, and wholesome activity and work. If man will be truly blessed by God, the Christ must initiate, intervene, thus, the prayer for Him to awake.
The second “call” that we discover in the book of Isaiah is found in the same chapter: “Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem, which has drunk at the hand of the Lord the cup of His fury.” (v. 17) Why does God tell Jerusalem to do this? It is because the time has come for her to realize that God’s dealings with her have changed. For some time, because of her rejection of God, turning from following Him, God’s judgments came upon her. The time has come for those judgments to cease. A new beginning has come where she is to “put off” the past, with the remembrance of her failures and God’s corrective measures, to embrace all that God would have her to see and know. This “cup of God’s fury, and trembling,” is to be no more, with the promise: “You shall no more drink it again: but I will put it into the hand of them that afflict thee.” (v.23) The call to Jerusalem is to awake out of her stupor of drunkenness and affliction, to a different reality, one where the attitude of God towards her has totally changed.
The Third “call” is a most beautiful one, as it is an appeal for Jerusalem, or Zion, to live in the reality of the blessing of God. God tells her: “Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city.” The call is for Jerusalem to rise from her crushing weakness, and pitiful existence, to embrace God’s strength. Not only this, but she is to “put on” all that is beautiful in the eyes of God, the fullness of His blessing and power. He tells her to “shake thyself from the dust.” She is to leave that which is behind in her past, for it has no more place in and upon her, in the sight of God. She is called upon to realize that it is not a question of money by which she has been bought and blessed, but by the “arm of the Lord,” in His mercy and grace, which He is revealing “…in the eyes of all the nations.” Not only Jerusalem will see in that day “the salvation of the Lord,” and the fact that He alone is the true God, but she will know that God is GOOD, gracious, the One who has brought again Zion to that place of fellowship and blessing with the Majesty on High.
Dear Father, Thou who art the God of new beginnings, strengthen us to awaken out of our slumber of lifelessness to Thy light and life. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Love, Dad