BEULAH LAND
BEULAH LAND
(Isaiah 62)
Pastor Carolyn Sissom
Sunday, December 30, 2012, the Year of Our Lord
I have a sermon being birthed in my Spirit on the “New Heavens and the New Earth” of Isaiah 65: 17-25 in co-ordination with my next Bible teaching in Revelation 21.
Tonight as I was seeking the Lord in preparation for that “message”, The Holy Spirit led me back to Isaiah 61 reminding me that in 2012, He had our church fellowship proclaim and re-affirm the perpetual and eternal Jubilee of Jesus Christ. Our Lord Jesus quoted Isaiah 61: 1-2b and introduced His ministry of Jubilee. He proclaimed “The acceptable year of the Lord and the opening of the day of grace.
Isaiah 60-66 prophetically reveals this New Day and the progression from the time of Jesus’ earthly ministry to the fullness of time of the New Heavens and the New Earth, and can be overviewed as follows:
- 60---the new Light – “Arise and shine for your light has come….”
- 61---the new Priesthood---”You shall be named priests of the Lord…”
- 62---the new Husband---“As the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you”.
- 63---the new Mercy---“according to His mercies and according to the multitude of His loving kindness”.
- 64---the new Prayer---“we beseech You; we are all Your people.”
- 65---the New Heavens and the New Earth---“Behold I create new heavens and a new earth…”
- 66---the New City (Jerusalem). “My Holy Mountain Jerusalem…”
Isaiah 60 describes the ideal Zion:
- The glory of the Lord upon Zion.
- Zion’s wealth and influence.
- Zion’s reconstruction and position.
- Zion’s honor and prosperity.
- Zion’s crowning glories.
Zion, generally speaking is the church. Specifically, Zion is the overcomer in the Church. Zion is the man child out of the woman and is also seen in the 144,000 of Rev. 14: 1-8; Zion is the Judah and the Joseph Company; the army of Joel 2; and the Priesthood of Ezekiel 44. Zion is a governmental company of full-grown sons who have been apprehended into the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Those in Zion are under the full and complete Lordship of Jesus Christ.
Zion is where the throne of God is eternally established and sure against all attacks known (Psa. 2:6; 87:5).
Zion is the place where God’s most glorious praise is known, because there the fullness of salvation is known in the lives of the redeemed (Psa. 9:14).
Zion is the source of continual salvation. Those who discover Zion know the fullness of salvation, and yet learn day by day more of an increasing fullness (Psa. 14:7; Rom. 11:26).
Zion is the Joy of the whole earth, experienced already by man, anticipated by others, travailed after by all. This joy of the Lord is our strength (Psa. 48:2).
Zion is the source of strength and support for the people of God, especially in the day of trouble (Psa. 20:2; 48:12).
Zion is the place of rejoicing in the judgments of God, for in Zion men come to know a true perspective of God’s judgment and righteousness (Ps. 48:11; 97:8; Isa. 33:5).
Zion is the perfection of beauty, out from which the light of God shines (Psa. 50:2).
Zion is the place where the praise to the Lord is perfected; a praise which arises out of a perfect rest in the Lord, so much so that silent expectation becomes praise in Zion. In Zion is the realm of perfection (Psa. 65:1).
Zion is loved much by the Lord and therefore glorified much by Him (Psa. 87: 2-3).
In Isaiah 62, we see Jesus Christ, as the Servant of the Lord and His persistence in accomplishing Jehovah’s gracious purpose toward Zion to a place of preeminence among the nations to the delight of the Lord, who works all things after the counsel of His own will.
Chapter 62 which is the primary subject of this message reveals the new husband and deals with relationships.
Here we see intercession for the complete salvation of Zion, (the nation of Israel as well as Spiritual Israel) and further predictions of Zion’s Glory.
Zion is known, nor traced out with a boundary. Zion is experienced. Zion is a place of being in God. Zion is the Most Holy Place of the Tabernacle of Moses with all its truths. Zion is becoming a present reality. Zion is spreading without observation throughout the earth, yet is being readied to ruler over all. Zion is the government of God in the earth! Zion is a kingdom people!
Isa. 62: 1-3: “For Zion’s sake I will not hold My peace, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burns. The Gentiles shall see your righteousness, and all kings your glory; and you shall be called by a new name, which the mouth of the Lord shall name. You shall also be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God.”
These verses reveal the relentless ongoing of the purposes of God to build and reveal a people in His own nature, image and likeness. God will come to rest in a permanent habitation of living stones. Jesus Christ is the bright burning lamp that has come forth as the glory and the righteousness of the Father. He came to inaugurate a new name, which is a new nature and authority, even His own!
We are standing at a time in history of great persecution and rejection of the nation of Israel as well as the Church. Israel is surrounded by armies who want to destroy the Zionist. Christians are being imprisoned and killed for their faith in many nations of the world. Even in the United States which was founded by Christians for the purpose of freedom of worship, we are being persecuted and demeaned for our faith. Hobby Lobby was this week denied religious freedom by the Supreme Court.
The scope of chapter 62 is comfort and reassurance to God’s people of the Divine favor toward the afflicted people of God.
62:6-7: “I have set watchmen upon your walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day nor night; you that make mention of the Lord, keep not silence, and give Him no rest, till He establish, and till He make Jerusalem a praise in the earth.”
As we finish the year 2012 and begin 2013, the circumstances of the earth are such that war is raging around Jerusalem as we hear and see the Psalm 83 confederacy of nations rage against Jerusalem and the battle to divide Jerusalem intensifies.
Psalm 83: 1-4: “Keep not Your silence, O God; hold not Your peace, and be not still, O God. For, lo, Your enemies make a tumult; and they that hate You have lifted up the head. They have taken crafty counsel against Your people, and consulted against Your hidden ones. They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; and the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.”
The Lord Himself is speaking in Isa. 62. He is speaking as the Spirit of Prophecy within His prophets (Rev. 19:10). The Lord says that He resolves that He will not keep silent nor rest until Jerusalem is exalted among the nations. Her vindication will go forth as brightness and her salvation as a burning torch.
This promise is dualistic and applies to Christians as well as the nation of Israel. Heb. 12: 22-23: “You have come to mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect.”
In Isa. 62: 2-5, the city, which can speak of the Church, or the Bride of Christ is given a new name- “Beulah” = “married”.
62:4-5: “You shall no more be termed Forsaken; neither shall your land any more be termed Desolate; but you shall be called Hephzibah, and your land Beulah; for the Lord delights in you, and your land shall be married. For as a young man marries a virgin, so shall your sons marry you; and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.”
As the Bride of Christ, the people of God have been given a new name, “Rev. 21:9b: “Come here, I will show you the bride, the lamb’s wife, and he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God. Having the glory of God; and her light was like to a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal.” God is the fountain of honor and from him the church’s honor comes. The beloved community is portrayed as both bride and city. Jesus honors her as His Bride. There is no greater honor considering the forlorn condition she had been in.
The phrase, “your sons shall marry you”, means her sons will be in the church and delight in Zion. They will follow after the Lord.
In verses 6-12, we see the Lord’s love for Zion, the city not forsaken. He will intercede for her individually and corporately, protect her from all enemies, deliver her from all confusion, and be her exceeding great reward.
62: 8-12: “The Lord has sworn by His right hand, and by the arm of His strength, surely I will no more give your corn to meat for your enemies; and the sons of the stranger shall not drink your wine, for which you have labored. But they that have gathered it shall eat it, and praise the Lord; and they that have brought it together shall drink it in the courts of My holiness. Go through, go through the gates; prepare you the way of the people; cast up, cast up the highway; gather out the stones; lift up a standard for the people. Behold, the Lord has proclaimed to the end of the world. Say you to the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold your salvation comes; behold His reward is with him, and His work before Him’. They shall call them, the holy people. The redeemed of the Lord; and you shall be called, Sought out, a city not forsaken.”
The Lord declares and swears by His right hand and the arm of His strength to not hold his peace or to rest until the people of God fulfill his ideal, so that Jehovah is vindicated among the nations. There is no uncertainty in his heart, for he declares his conviction that the people shall yet be called Hephzibah rather than forsaken, and their land Beulah rather than Desolate.
As with all of prophetic literature, there are several layers of truth found in this chapter. All are worthy and appropriate:
- Literal---The natural relationship of husband and wife, a description of wedded and marital love.
- Dispensational---The relationship of God being married to Israel in the Old Testament (Hos. 2: 19-20).
- Devotional---The relationship of Jesus Christ as Husband and Lord to the individual believer.
- Allegorical---The relationship between Jesus Christ and His Church universal.
Isaiah 63 reveals New Mercies for this New Day. It is His vengeance tempered by His Mercy. I will continue in Isaiah 63 this evening at 6:00 p.m.
Pastor Carolyn Sissom
Eastgate Ministries, Inc.
Scripture from K.J.V. – I entered into the labors of F. F. Bruce International Bible Commentary, Isaiah by: David F. Payne and Principles of Present Truth on Isaiah by: Kelly Varner. Comments and conclusions are my own and not meant to reflect the views of those who I entered into their labors.