Read carefully, you might hear yourself singing
Years ago I enjoyed the television show, “Storage Wars”. If you are unfamiliar with the show, people would bid on unclaimed storage units (and all of the contents that these unclaimed units held). Normally these storage units were unclaimed for a reason—they didn’t have anything of particular value in them. But there would be times where unexpected treasures would be uncovered in these long-forgotten storage units and the participants on the show would find that a storage unit they spent $200 to purchase actually contained $30,000 worth of goods.
You might be tempted to view parts of the Old Testament like an unclaimed storage unit. It’s full of stuff that was surely useful at one time and for a specific audience, but you just don’t think it has much significance for you today. It’s detached from your problems and circumstances, and it was written long before Jesus came. If this is you (full disclosure: It has been me before), then I urge you to understand that there are beautiful treasures waiting to be unearthed all over the unclaimed storage units of the Old Testament.
You will praise
For example, dear Christian, may I offer you a bit of encouragement for the next time you are worn down by life’s circumstances, unexpected bad news, or your own relentless sin that you cannot seem to shake?
Wait, never mind! I’m not going to give you encouragement. I have an even better idea! What if we journeyed to the possibly overlooked and easily missed Isaiah 12 and you heard encouragement from someone else? I want you to read Isaiah 12 closely and hear encouragement from yourself. Did you know that your words, your voice, your heart is recorded in the Bible? Read Isaiah 12 and listen to the things that you will be saying in the presence of the Lord. Listen to what your heart will be rejoicing in and the praise that you will be offering to God!
You will praise God for His mercy shown to you in the face of your sin against Him:
1 You will say in that day:
“I will give thanks to you, O Lord,
for though you were angry with me,
your anger turned away,
that you might comfort me.
You will praise God that He can be trusted, that He is your strength, and He alone is your salvation:
2 “Behold, God is my salvation;
I will trust, and will not be afraid;
for the Lord God is my strength and my song,
and He has become my salvation.”
You will praise God because the excellencies of His nature are so great, His redeeming grace is so wonderful, and His goodness is so vast that you will desire for people from all over the world to come to Him in faith:
3 With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. 4 And you will say in that day:
“Give thanks to the Lord,
call upon his name,
make known His deeds among the peoples,
proclaim that His name is exalted.
And you will sing of all that He has gloriously accomplished. For He will be in our presence to be beheld and enjoyed forever:
5 “Sing praises to the Lord, for He has done gloriously;
let this be made known in all the earth.
6 Shout, and sing for joy, O inhabitant of Zion,
for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.”
Isn’t this wonderful!?! This will be the cry of your heart, dear Christian! Oh, read carefully throughout your Bible and you will uncover tremendous wonders of the glorious riches of God. These will be unexpected gifts to your heart. They will be a drink of cold water on a hot day. They may appear to be storage units full of relics of days gone past, but they are treasures meant to nourish our hearts in the faith today!
And do you know why this is wonderful for you today? This is wonderful because you can be absolutely sure that God is bringing you on a journey of His faithfulness to that day Isaiah 12 speaks of. Whatever you are experiencing today, He will bring you to that day!
Read how you will praise
Maybe you have a very hard time praising Him today. For whatever reason, you want to open your mouth, but the words of praise just won’t come out. The first step for you may not be to praise right now, but read what you will be praising Him for when the darkness has lifted and the great Holy One of Israel dwells in your midst. If you can’t praise today, take the step of reading how you will praise in that day.
There are incredible jewels to be uncovered in our Old Testament. Those jewels point us to our God and help us to know Him all the more wonderfully and see Him all the more powerfully. Don’t take my word for it though. Look at Isaiah 12. Listen to yourself.
Stephen McDonald is the pastor of First Baptist Church of Scituate, MA.
