Jeweled Foundation Layers of the Holy City Wallby CBPepper
54:12Isaiah 54:12
And I will make thy windows of agates, and thy gates of carbuncles, and all thy borders of pleasant stones.
God Himself adorns His afflicted, tempest-tossed, uncomforted people — Zion, the holy city Jerusalem, the restored church — with precious stones, making windows of agates and gates of carbuncles and all borders of pleasant stones. The work portrays with great beauty and care the beauty and glory and preciousness of their restored dwelling. That adornment belongs to laying stones with fair colors and foundations with sapphires, and to establishing in righteousness with all children taught of the Lord and great peace for children, far from oppression, fear and terror. With it comes the fall of all who gather against her, the failure of every weapon formed against her, and the condemnation of every tongue rising against her in judgment as the heritage of the servants of the Lord whose righteousness is of Him. The call preceding this restoration bids Zion awake, put on strength and beautiful garments, arise from the dust and loose the bands of captivity so the uncircumcised and unclean enter no more, and its fulfillment is future glory as the church clad in Christ's righteousness enters her final conflict. God is doing this beautifying and establishing work for His people in these last days, with His salvation seen in a remarkable manner and continuing to be seen.
The chapter belongs with Isaiah 52 and Isaiah 53 as prophecies regarding Christ's work, is part of the Isaiah 54:11-14 promise of precious stones, righteousness, divine teaching and security, and stands with Isaiah 55 and Isaiah 58 to show the precious and extended work of God's people in the last days of earth's history. The spiritual work shown will go forward in the world just as soon as God's people meet the conditions by laboring together with Him, with every soul becoming a missionary to those around them and wrenching souls from Satan's grasp instead of hovering around the church doing nothing. That required work to be saved and to labor together with God is to lift up Christ before the world, not to sit in churches Sabbath after Sabbath listening to preaching while ministers hover about repeating the same truths, but to work intelligently for friends and neighbors by visiting families, creating an interest in the truth for this time, planting the Word of God in many hearts, dealing out the bread of life to hungering souls, and helping others take hold upon eternal realities.
The verse is Jesus' own word to those in great burden of soul for God's people when many who profess to serve Him dishonor His name and the end is near with a great work to be accomplished. It speaks especially in anguish and sleepless oppression over the peril of His people at the great center of the work, bidding the chapter be read for comfort in that distress and promising to take the burden, bidding them lay it upon Him for He will be the burden-bearer. The prophecy is to be studied as a help and blessing especially now when the liberty of the church is endangered, calling for true missionary work in public ministry and house-to-house labor with wholehearted work, watchfulness, separation from selfishness, unity, and the revealed power of the arm of the Lord seen in the life of Christ.
God Himself adorns His afflicted, tempest-tossed, uncomforted people — Zion, the holy city Jerusalem, the restored church — with precious stones, making windows of agates and gates of carbuncles and all borders of pleasant stones. The work portrays with great beauty and care the beauty and glory and preciousness of their restored dwelling. That adornment belongs to laying stones with fair colors and foundations with sapphires, and to establishing in righteousness with all children taught of the Lord and great peace for children, far from oppression, fear and terror. With it comes the fall of all who gather against her, the failure of every weapon formed against her, and the condemnation of every tongue rising against her in judgment as the heritage of the servants of the Lord whose righteousness is of Him. The call preceding this restoration bids Zion awake, put on strength and beautiful garments, arise from the dust and loose the bands of captivity so the uncircumcised and unclean enter no more, and its fulfillment is future glory as the church clad in Christ's righteousness enters her final conflict. God is doing this beautifying and establishing work for His people in these last days, with His salvation seen in a remarkable manner and continuing to be seen.
The chapter belongs with Isaiah 52 and Isaiah 53 as prophecies regarding Christ's work, is part of the Isaiah 54:11-14 promise of precious stones, righteousness, divine teaching and security, and stands with Isaiah 55 and Isaiah 58 to show the precious and extended work of God's people in the last days of earth's history. The spiritual work shown will go forward in the world just as soon as God's people meet the conditions by laboring together with Him, with every soul becoming a missionary to those around them and wrenching souls from Satan's grasp instead of hovering around the church doing nothing. That required work to be saved and to labor together with God is to lift up Christ before the world, not to sit in churches Sabbath after Sabbath listening to preaching while ministers hover about repeating the same truths, but to work intelligently for friends and neighbors by visiting families, creating an interest in the truth for this time, planting the Word of God in many hearts, dealing out the bread of life to hungering souls, and helping others take hold upon eternal realities.
The verse is Jesus' own word to those in great burden of soul for God's people when many who profess to serve Him dishonor His name and the end is near with a great work to be accomplished. It speaks especially in anguish and sleepless oppression over the peril of His people at the great center of the work, bidding the chapter be read for comfort in that distress and promising to take the burden, bidding them lay it upon Him for He will be the burden-bearer. The prophecy is to be studied as a help and blessing especially now when the liberty of the church is endangered, calling for true missionary work in public ministry and house-to-house labor with wholehearted work, watchfulness, separation from selfishness, unity, and the revealed power of the arm of the Lord seen in the life of Christ.