Isaiah 60:13 – Salvation to the North
Today we look to the north, salvation to the north. We see the glory of Lebanon spoken of here, and it’s a particular sort of glory. It is the glory of its beautiful, and mighty, and well perfumed forests. What is significant in the heart and in the thought of the Israelite, when he thinks of the direction of the north? He might well think of these beautiful, awesome forests. But that would not be all. There was awe with the thoughts of the nations who had come down from the north. From the north had come raiding bands, sometimes of those who would pillage and destroy, who would rape the women, who would kidnap the children and leave the husbands and fathers dead with only a reek of smoke. Syrians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Greeks, and Romans all came from the north. Yet it is from the north, from Lebanon, that glory would come.
What’s the significance of these trees? Time and again, the people of God are signified by trees (Psalm 1, 92; Romans 11). Trees are also pictures of covenant, such as in the garden of Eden with the tree of knowledge of good and evil and tree of life, blessings or cursings for keeping the covenant of works. There are a variety of trees listed here. They’re perhaps significant of different callings and gifts in the membership of the body of Christ. Just as one kind of tree varies in shape, varies in bark, varies in leaf and in fruit, so do the people of God with their different gifts, their different providential upbringings, their different abilities and temperaments, all used together in the New Testament Temple of God of which they are a part. Each of you, as these trees, have your own beauty. Each of you has your own excellence. Each of you has your own usefulness for the people of God, the church of Jesus Christ. And when you are gone, we are the poorer, and when you come, we are enriched.
He says right here why it is that He brings these trees, the glory of Lebanon, the glory from the north, to His house. They are here for beauty, for delight, for pleasure. Whose pleasure? God’s! Imagine this: Peoples from the north, the marauders, the murderers, the wicked ones, the heathen, who knew not God, who were separated from Him because of their sin, are brought by Him and changed into those who are beautiful, changed into those who are received with delight by the God of all the earth. This great and glorious God has this Temple as His footstool. He makes you people of God, as the trees of this forest, to dwell together in holiness and in unity and in beauty together!
Question
- What do the trees symbolise?
Prayer Points
- Give thanks for your brothers and sisters in Christ.
- Use prayer points from your congregation.
- Pray for family matters.