Isa 52:1

Isa 52:1  Awake, awake, put on your strength, O Zion; put on your beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city; for there shall no more come into you the uncircumcised and the unclean. In Isaiah 52, God calls on Zion to wake up from its drunken stupor. Years of miseries in captivity have caused them to lose hope. What have they become? “Thy sons have fainted, they lie at the head of all the streets, as a wild bull in a net” (Isaiah 51:20). They had become weak. They were lying on every street corner, like animals caught in a net. God calls them to wake up: “Awake, awake, put on your strength, O Zion; put on your beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city” (v.1).  They are to wake up from their sluggishness and strengthen their faith.                                                                                                                  God calls on Israel to awake and do two things: “…put on your strength, O Zion; put on your beautiful garments” (v.1). Put on your strength - They had become weak through discouragement. They needed to put on their strength; they needed revile their spirit. The writer of Hebrews, writing to the Christians who are under persecutions, exhorts them: “Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees” (Hebrews 12:12). He was asking them not to be discouraged but to soldier on. Put on your beautiful garments - Israel is commanded to put on beautiful garments. The beautiful garments can mean two things: 1. Salvation. All the time in captivity, they were in mourning; they had put on sackcloth. God said it’s time to put off the mourning garment and put on beautiful garments because very soon, they will be hearing the good news of their return to their homeland: “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation” (v.7). In Matthew 22:1-14, Jesus tells a parable of a king who made a wedding feast. In ancient times, it was customary to present the guests at marriages with garments wherein they were to appear. The king carefully examined his guests and saw one came without his wedding garment. Probably, he considered his own garment good enough, and refused the covering offered by the king. He was thrown into a place of utter darkness. God wants to clothe us with the garment of salvation. No man can enter the wedding feast of the Lamb who is not clothed with the garment of salvation. The garment of salvation is a beautiful garment: “I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels” (Isaiah 61:10). 2. Righteousness. Sin is represented as a filthy garment (Zechariah 3:3). Revelation 19:8 says: “The fine linen is the righteousness of saints.” Isaiah 61:10 says God will cover His people with a robe of righteousness. We are called to live righteous lives (1 Peter 2:9). Paul exhorts: “Awake to righteousness, and sin not” (1 Corinthians 15:34). We are to add to our faith virtue (2 Peter 1:5). Virtue should be the Christian’s garment: “For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness” (1 Thessalonians 4:7). May we remain strong in the face of afflictions. And may we always be clothed with the beautiful garments of salvation and righteousness.