Resting in Our Royal Beauty

Introduction

Isaiah 61:10–62:12 ESV

10 I will greatly rejoice in the Lord; my soul shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. 11 For as the earth brings forth its sprouts, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to sprout up, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to sprout up before all the nations. 1 For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not be quiet, until her righteousness goes forth as brightness, and her salvation as a burning torch. 2 The nations shall see your righteousness, and all the kings your glory, and you shall be called by a new name that the mouth of the Lord will give. 3 You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God. 4 You shall no more be termed Forsaken, and your land shall no more be termed Desolate, but you shall be called My Delight Is in Her, and your land Married; for the Lord delights in you, and your land shall be married. 5 For as a young man marries a young woman, so shall your sons marry you, and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you. 6 On your walls, O Jerusalem, I have set watchmen; all the day and all the night they shall never be silent. You who put the Lord in remembrance, take no rest, 7 and give him no rest until he establishes Jerusalem and makes it a praise in the earth. 8 The Lord has sworn by his right hand and by his mighty arm: “I will not again give your grain to be food for your enemies, and foreigners shall not drink your wine for which you have labored; 9 but those who garner it shall eat it and praise the Lord, and those who gather it shall drink it in the courts of my sanctuary.” 10 Go through, go through the gates; prepare the way for the people; build up, build up the highway; clear it of stones; lift up a signal over the peoples. 11 Behold, the Lord has proclaimed to the end of the earth: Say to the daughter of Zion, “Behold, your salvation comes; behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him.” 12 And they shall be called The Holy People, The Redeemed of the Lord; and you shall be called Sought Out, A City Not Forsaken.

Earlier this year there was a scandal in Saudi Arabia. They’ve been in the news of late for something horrific, but this event was a lighter note. Back in January, a dozen camels were disqualified from the camel beauty contest. Why were they disqualified, you ask? They were disqualified for receiving Botox injections to make them more attractive.

Saudi media reported that a veterinarian was caught performing plastic surgery on the camels a few days before the pageant. In addition to the injections, the clinic was surgically reducing the size of the camel’s ears to make them appear more delicate.

“They use Botox for the lips, the nose, the upper lips, the lower lips and even the jaw..It makes the head more inflated so when the camel comes it’s like, ‘Oh look at how big that head is. It has big lips, a big nose.’”

Listen, real money is at stake. More than $31.8 million in prizes are awarded for the pageants. They even provide a diagram titled Standards of Camel Beauty.

lips, the nose, the upper lips, the lower lips and even the jaw,” Ali Al Mazrouei, a regular at such festivals and the son of a prominent Emirati breeder, told the newspaper. "It makes the head more inflated so when the camel comes it’s like, 'Oh look at how big that head is. It has big lips, a big nose.' "

Real money is at stake: About $57 million is awarded to winners of the contests and camel races, The National reports, with more than $31.8 million in prizes for just the pageants.

You and I are unlikely to ever come across a camel beauty pageant in America, but we do know what it’s like to commodify beauty, to parade people across a stage and make value judgements about their physical appearance. We can commodify beauty and exploit it for gain because a fundamental feature of beauty is pleasure. Simply put, beauty delights. Although we twist that pleasure into exploitation, it’s still the case that pleasure and beauty are intimately connected.

I almost titled this message, “There’s Something to Shout About!” There’s so much joy and rejoicing in this passage that it might make Presbyterians uncomfortable. This text is a praise break. And the something to shout about is that in spite of our mess, in spite of the way we don’t trust one another, in spite of the fact that we’re not magnificently merciful, that we don’t excellently extend mercy, or we’re not lavish with our love; in spite of the fact that the people of God are sometimes ugly toward one another and our neighbors, God himself promises that he will make us beautiful.

They even provide a diagram titled Standards of Camel Beauty. It is sadly unspecific about what makes for handsome nostrils and withers, though it does mention a "leathery mouth."

Did you hear what the prophet says in v. 2, “You’re going to be called by a new name that the LORD will give you.” That name is going to be, v. 4, “My Delight is In Her.” Isaiah says, “For the LORD delights in you.” You see, this beauty won’t be exploitative. This beauty won’t be about commodifying our looks for unjust gain. No, it’s going to be for a praise and a glory in the earth. And as we press against the darkness; as we press against the darkness that’s in our world, the darkness that’s still trying to come against our own hearts; as we strive by the grace of God against the things that prevent our own branch of Zion from growing in beauty, we rest!

We can shout for joy because we can rest, sisters and brothers, we can rest in the Lord’s promise to beautify his people. We have no power to stop the beautification process because it’s not based on us. It’s based on God’s promise. The Appointed Time. The Anointed One. The Amazing Rest.

The Appointed Time

By the appointed time, I mean the time, the moment in time when the promise was made. You see, we get clued in on that in the poem. We already saw that the Lord promises to give them a new name. Well, you only get a new name if it’s meant to replace an old name. You don’t need a new name if the old name is working out well for you. (African name…)

What’s the name that needs replacing? v. 4,

You’ll no longer be named ‘Abandoned,’

Your land won’t be named ‘Desolate’ any more.

There’s debate over whether this prophecy came to the people during their exile in Babylon, or during the post-exilic period when they’d returned to the land. We can debate all we want, but it doesn’t really matter! The land ain’t what it used to be. The glory days of David and Solomon are long in the past. Even if they’re back in the land it still feels Desolate.

How are you to believe the promise at a time when your experience tells you that things are frail, fragile, and seem to be hanging on by a thread? How do you not scoff at the notion of a promise of lavish abundance at a time when the former glory is just a distant memory?

The answer for them back them is the same as it is for us right now. It must be by faith. This isn’t news, but the Lord always calls his people to apprehend his promises primarily by faith and not by sight. To put it another way, family, we always live as those who are waiting.

I love the stanza in the poem “If” by Rudyard Kipling where he writes,

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting

Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies

Or being hated, don’t give way to hating

Can we wait, holding to the promise, and not be tired by waiting? Can you wait and not be tired by waiting as the denomination still wrestles with issues of race, and class and culture? Can you sing the words of that old Spiritual by James Cleveland,

“I don’t feel no ways tired. I’ve come to far from where I started from. Nobody told me the road would be easy. I don’t believe he’s brought me this far to leave me.”

Do you have room in your heart to sing that refrain? Because the time of the promise always calls for an exercise of faith in the face of life. But listen, Alec Motyer strikes a chord in his commentary on Isaiah when he says,

The time of promise calls for an exercise of faith in the face of life. Not life as it rushes to meet us with all its traps and snares, but life as we have helped to shape it by our wrong choices, faithlessness, and sin.

You hear what he’s saying? Sometimes the exercise of faith in the face of life isn’t required because you’re enduring persecution. No. Sometimes it’s necessary because you’re living out the results of your own wrong choices, faithlessness, and sin. Why is it that their old name was “Abandoned,” “Forsaken?” It’s not because they were being persecuted by the Babylonians. It’s because that’s the name they earned as a result of the sinful choices they made.

Now we know that in Christ we will never be forsaken. That’s not a name that will ever belong to his Church. But the sobering truth is that we always have to be honest in and open to how our sin has helped to shape our current reality. We have to be honest and ask the Lord to reveal to us where explicit or implicit sin has played a role in our life as a majority mono-ethnic denomination. We can’t be afraid of that exploration. We have to be honest and ask the Lord to reveal to us the ways in which sin had played a role in the way many women experience the PCA.

I preached at church recently, and a young African American woman approached me during the fellowship time after service. She said to me, “I’ve read through the Women in the Ministry of the Church Study Committee Report for the second time and taken more notes.” Then she asked me, “Will the PCA ever be a place where I will feel empowered as a woman?”

What could I say? I could say something like, “Why are you seeking to feel empowered? Are you trying to usurp the authority structure that God has ordained in the church?” No. The right response is to ask the Lord to reveal to us the ways in which our sinfulness have helped to shape life in our denomination such that this sister’s experience is that there isn’t room in our church for her gifts to flourish.

The time of promise calls for an exercise of faith in the face of life; an exercise of faith that calls us to an examination of the ways in which our sin has helped to shape the current reality.

The Royal One

We’re free to press into that examination because of the Anointed One, the person who makes the promise. I love this passage! I love it, in part, because of how intimate it is. Do you hear the words of v. 10, “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, My soul will rejoice in my God.” Ch. 62:1, “For the sake of Zion I will not be silent. And for the sake of Jerusalem I will not keep quiet.” V. 6, “Upon your walls, O Jerusalem, I will appoint watchmen.” At first blush it seems as though it’s only the prophet Isaiah speaking out, but this is the declaration of the Anointed One. This is the declaration of the same one who spoke in and said,

We’re free to do that in the time of promise because of the person of promise. I love this passage! I love it, in part, because of how intimate it is. Do you hear the words of v. 10, “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, My soul will rejoice in my God.” Ch. 62:1, “For the sake of Zion I will not be silent. And for the sake of Jerusalem I will not keep quiet.” V. 6, “Upon your walls, O Jerusalem, I will appoint watchmen.” At first blush it seems as though it’s only the prophet Isaiah speaking out, but this is the declaration of the Anointed One. This is the declaration of the same one who spoke in and said,

Isaiah 61:1–3 ESV

1 The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; 2 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; 3 to grant to those who mourn in Zion— to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified.

ISA61.1

There is a dual intimacy here. There is an intimacy between the the Anointed One, and the Father. And there’s an intimacy between the Anointed One and the people of promise.

There’s something to shout about because the Savior shouts with joy! When Jesus chose as the text for his first sermon he wasn’t just declaring himself to be the Anointed One of that passage, he was laying claim to being the Anointed One of this whole section of Isaiah. Jesus is the only preacher in history who has the goods to preach a sermon about himself.

And what does the Anointed One say here?

“I will greatly rejoice in the Lord! My soul will rejoice in my God!”

What’s the reason for all this joy? It’s because his God has dressed him in salvation’s garments. He’s wrapped him in the cloak of righteousness.

Here’s the first aspect of intimacy in this imagery. Back in the declaration was

ISA59.14

Isaiah 59:14 ESV

14 Justice is turned back, and righteousness stands far away; for truth has stumbled in the public squares, and uprightness cannot enter.

Isaiah says in 59:15 that the Lord saw it and it displeased him that there was no justice. So he needed to take care of the problem himself. So the prophet says the Lord’s own arm brought him salvation, and his righteousness upheld him. He put on righteousness as a breastplate and the helmet of salvation on his head (). Now in our text we find out that the Lord accomplishes this by transferring that clothing to the Anointed One. This is the beautiful picture of the intimacy between the Father and the Son in the work of salvation.

The Anointed One doesn’t need to wear salvation’s garments and the cloak of righteousness for his own sake. He doesn’t need saving. He wears it for the sake of those who need salvation! And putting these clothes on makes him shout for joy!

My grandmother left Wilmington, NC for Harlem, USA in 1947 as a part of the Great American Migration of African Americans out of the southern states trying to make a better life for their families. One by one each of her six children made it up to NYC. My mother came up in 1952. So I was surrounded by a large family during my childhood years, aunts, uncles, cousins. And holidays were always loud and boisterous as family and friends congregated at my house. When Easter rolled around we knew at least two things. There was some kind of play on Broadway that my Grandmother was going to get us tickets to go see. And we knew that the boys were getting new suits and the girls were going to get new dresses. We would be decked out for Easter. I had more joy about my new suit than I did about the resurrection.

We can relate to that. You know how getting new clothes makes you feel good. It lifts your spirits. Well the Anointed One is shouting for joy over his clothes! But his joy is because his clothes are for us! He’s wearing salvation’s garments for you and me! This text gives us insight into what the writer says in ,

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which clings so closely. And let us run with endurance the race that is set before us looking to Jesus the founder and perfecter of our faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross despising the shame.

My old pastor used say to us, “How we gonna lose with the stuff we use!” We can rest because Jesus’ joy is that the Father has dressed him in the garments of salvation and righteousness for us.

It goes even further than that. I said that there was a dual intimacy with the person of promise. His intimacy is not just with his God, it’s with his people. So he says in v. 1, “For the sake of Zion I will not be silent. For the sake of Jerusalem I will not keep quiet. Until her righteousness goes forth like a bright light, and her salvation burns like a torch!”

Run-DMC made a song about people who talk too much, “25 hours eight days a week, thirteen months out the year is when you speak. You talk too much. You talk too much, homeboy you never shut up.”

The Anointed One is saying, “I refuse to shut up. 25 hours, 8 days a week, 13 months out of the year I’m gonna keep on speaking. I will not close my mouth until Zion’s righteousness is as bright as the Sun!”

Who’s the Anointed One talking to? He’s talking to his God! I’m not going to give him any rest until this picture of beauty and glory is fully painted. Why can we rest? Because the Savior says that he won’t rest until the work is done. Indeed, he invites the watchmen in v. 7 to give the Lord no rest until this work is done.

Can we sit in this for just a second this morning? Can we embrace the celebration and the joy of this passage this morning, especially if you’re feeling exhaustion; whether you are wearied by your labors in your local church, waiting to see hearts change, waiting to see the development of that cross-cultural love for your neighbors that Russ preached about on Tuesday? If you’re wearied by the rhetoric and talking past one another online as folks write and sign statements against social justice, then other folks have to write against the statement against social justice; can you hear the Anointed One telling you to rest in joy over the fact that he’s working; that he has the Father’s ear, and that he will not close his mouth until righteousness and justice shine brightly throughout the earth? Can you have a joy in your heart and rest in your soul that he’s got it?

The Amazing Rest

We can rest because this is all about what God is doing and will do. We’ve heard it over and over again the past two days. We cannot in our own strength bring about the beauty that we want to see. Did we in our own strength confide our striving would be losing. Were not the right man on our side. The man of God’s own choosing.

And look at the picture of beauty that’s painted for us in this passage. I quoted from chapter 61 earlier where the Anointed One said he would give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning. The imagery of beauty is changed here in 62.3, “You will be a beautiful crown in the hand of the Lord, a royal diadem in the hand of your God.”

You’re not going to wear a beautiful crown, you’re going to be a beautiful crown. You won’t be wearing a royal diadem, you’ll be a royal diadem. The Anointed One wears the garments of righteousness and salvation with joy because he can see the end. He can see the fulness of time and the royal beauty of his people. This is the vision of the full number of the redeemed shining together in radiant regal beauty. This is what John pick up on in when his ears were opened to hear what he says seemed to be the voice of great multitude, like the roar of many waters. The worshipping multitude are crying out,

Revelation 19:6–8 ESV

6 Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out, “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. 7 Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; 8 it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure”— for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.

And again, when he tells us in 21:9-11

Revelation 21:9–11 ESV

9 Then came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues and spoke to me, saying, “Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.” 10 And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, 11 having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal.

The royal beauty of the people of God that is pictured for in and carried through in Revelation is a balm for our soul. When we’re in the middle of the mess, when we are struggling in the church and in our communities can we have the kind of vision that looks at image bearers and sees the end? Sees the reunion and reunification of humanity brought together in the royal beauty that the Anointed One promises?

As we work for beauty in our churches can we find amazing rest in this vision of what the Lord promises to do? The Anointed One doesn’t simply say you will be a beautiful crown. You will be a royal diadem. He says you’ll be a beautiful crown in the hand of the LORD! You’ll be a royal diadem in the hand of your God. The beauty will never fade, the brilliance will never dull because the Lord doesn’t only make us beautiful, he’ll keep us beautiful, he’ll uphold us in beauty.

The Prophecy of Isaiah The Commitment of the Anointed One and the Oath of the Lord

To be in his hand is to be kept, guarded and upheld; to be a crown is to be that which expresses kingliness—not the exercise of royal power (the wearing of a crown) but the possession of royal worth and dignity. The Lord’s people will be the sign that he is King.

Where are you finding rest as you labor with your own imperfections and the imperfections of the people you serve? During the ugly times can you rest in this vision of beauty that the Lord will bring about?

Let me say this last thing about this royal beauty that has blessed me. I said earlier that