There's A Better Day Coming!

Isaiah 33:17-24

Isaiah 33 begins with Sennacherib and the Assyrian invaders, who were bent upon the destruction of Judah. But Isaiah did not confine his thoughts or his words to the troubles of the present time. The prophet of God had learned to look upon the church's troubles as preludes to its triumphs. So, while the chapter begins with the troubles God's people had to endure for a season, it ends with the triumph and glory promised for eternity. Troubled, afflicted believer, learn to look beyond your present circumstance to eternity and the glory that awaits you. Your present troubles are preludes to your everlasting triumph in Christ. There's a better day coming! And in that day...

You shall see Christ as he is! "Thine eyes shall see the King in his beauty" (v. 17). You will see God in human flesh upon his throne. Then, as never before, you will see who he is, what he has done and why he has done it. Seeing him, you shall be fully satisfied.

You will see the land that now appears to be so far off. Your eyes "shall behold the land that is very far off" (v. 17). The land of promise, the land of bliss, the land of righteousness, the land of heavenly glory, you will see. You will see all the glory of Immanuel's land, and possess it!

You will meditate upon your earthly troubles and view them with delight, exalting in triumph over all your present enemies (vv. 18-19). Heaven will be all the more glorious because of the deliverances of grace as they are seen from the other side!

God's church will be as secure as it is glorious (vv. 20-23). The city of God shall be "a quiet habitation." No danger shall alarm her. No enemy shall enter her walls. Our glorious Lord shall be to us a place of broad, spacious, refreshing rivers! The Lord who is our Judge, our Lawgiver and our King, "He will save us!"

Sorrow shall be no more! In that day, when your eyes behold your King in the land of everlasting bliss, there will be no more sickness, no more sorrow, no more death, because there will be no more sin (v. 24). Our sins are so fully forgiven that we shall suffer no harm, no loss, no sorrow because of them in eternity!

Don Fortner