“Hephzibah”

Isaiah 62:3-4

            The One speaking in these verses is the Lord Jesus Christ, our God and Savior. He gives this name, “Hephzibah,” to his church and to every believer in his church. The name means, “My delight is in her.” Christ delighted in his elect from everlasting as the objects of his love (Prov. 8:31). He delighted in us at Calvary, when he endured the painful, shameful, ignominious death of the cross for us as our Substitute (Heb. 12:2). He delights in us now as the objects and beneficiaries of his gracious operations, washed in his blood, robed in his righteousness, and adorned with the beauty of his Spirit (Ezek. 16:8-14). He delights in our company (Song of Sol. 7:6), to see our faces, and hear our voices! And he will delight in us hereafter, when he presents us to himself a glorious church, without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing (Rev. 21:2-3); Eph. 5:27). The words, “so shall thy sons marry thee,” might be better translated, “so shall thy Restorer marry thee.” The sense of the text is this - Christ, our Restorer, our Redeemer and Savior, is married to us. He delights in us and rejoices in us as a young man who marries a virgin delights in and rejoices over her. Here are five things about saved sinners in which Christ our God delights. He delights in his election of us (Deut. 10:15). Election is a blessed gospel doctrine in which God’s saints delight. And our election by God delights him. His grace is immutable. He delights in his election of us as fully now as he did when he first chose us! Our Lord delights in the godly fear and hope we have in him (Psa. 147:10-11). The fear we have for him is a fear which he has given. It is reverence for and trust in him. And the hope he has given us is “a good hope through grace” of life everlasting in Christ. Our Savior delights in the way of his saints (Psa. 37:23). He delights in our way, because our way is the way he has ordained, and he orders our steps in it. He delights in our way, because he sees the whole thing. If only we could see our way as he sees it, we would delight in it as he does. It is the way by which he brings us to himself! God delights in the character of his people too. Grace changes people in their very character. All who are in Christ are new creatures in Christ. Part of that new creation is the holy character that is formed in one who is born again. God delights in honesty, uprightness, and truth (Prov. 11:1; 20; 12:22); and he makes his people honest, upright, and truthful. “The upright in heart” are people made upright by God. They praise him in their character. They protect the name of others (Prov. 11:13). They are faithful even to their own hurt (Prov. 11:17). They are gracious, virtuous, and honorable (Prov. 11:16). And they are merciful (Prov. 11:17). Moreover, God delights in the prayers of his saints (Prov. 15:8). All true prayer comes from God, goes to God, bows to the will of God, glorifies God, and delights God (Heb. 4:16). As God our Savior delights in us, let us delight in him. As he loves us, let us love him. As he is faithful to us, let us be faithful to him.

 

Don Fortner