Today's
devotional from Day 35 of the "40 Day Devotional for Who's Your One" cites Romans 10:15, which is a reference from Isaiah 52:7.
Why
mountains?
The
messengers traversed rugged and sometimes uncharted paths to bring news of the
battles from distant lands. The application is that we must tread upon
difficult and different territories when bringing the gospel of heaven to the
people.
Why
feet?
Nothing
bore the brunt of the messengers as much as the feet. Dusty, dry, scraped and
weathered feet which ached from the miles but ushered by the urgency of the
message. What would otherwise seem repulsive and odorous by the world became
beautiful because of the message which was carried.
Good
news must not be limited in our knowing, but must be evidenced in our SHOWING
and proclaimed in our GOING. Our feet become beautiful not in their appearance
but in the message they are bringing.
Knees
calloused by prayers, hearts burdened with love, minds saturated in Scriptures,
and lives redeemed by Christ, must find feet to show and go before they are to
become beautiful.
Why
good news and glad tidings?
Some
messengers brought sad, devastating news of lost battles, ravaged villages, and
deaths of loved ones. But when messengers brought good news of victories,
deliverances, and soon returns of warriors. The glad, good tidings had to be
repeated twice (“good news” and “glad tidings” are the same word) in Isaiah
52:7. It is recited again in the text of one of the first sermons of Jesus,
found in Isaiah 61:1, where good tidings are brought to the impoverished, where
healing is brought to the hurting, liberty is proclaimed to the captives, and
release is provided to the bound and imprisoned.
“Glad
tidings” are found in the gentle message of Gabriel to a startled young virgin
in Luke 1:19. They are loudly heralded by angels filled with great joy to
frightened shepherds on the Bethlehem hillside. And they are joyously
proclaimed by a once blasphemer and persecutor of the church, once he realized
that the heresy he prosecuted was actually a promise made to his forefathers
being fulfilled in his own lifetime.
What
should be our response?
Our
feet need to be battered before they become beautiful. Our paths should scale
mountains of obstacles to proclaim the good news. Our message should be lived
before spoken, walked before talked, but ultimately brought to all that …
- When disease seems to be rampant, “Our God reigns!”
- When politicians are liars, “Our God reigns!”
- When loneliness closes in all around us, “Our God reigns!”
- When our battles look like beatings, “Our God reigns!”
- When the masses in the dark valleys below us look above for something good and glad, we must loudly shout and proudly proclaim…
