At LAST

“Though you were once despised and hated,
    with no one traveling through you,
I will make you beautiful forever,
    a joy to all generations.
¹⁶ Powerful kings and mighty nations
    will satisfy your every need,
as though you were a child
    nursing at the breast of a queen.
You will know at last that I, the Lord,
    am your Savior and your Redeemer,
    the Mighty One of Israel.    Isaiah 59:15-16

The view of a future glorious Jerusalem is depicted with great hope.  The transformation will be felt world-wide as nations focus their attention on Zion and her inhabitants. 

The final backdrop that catches the full transformation of its inhabitants is captured in the phrase “you will know at last…”  All of the expressions of transformation are future oriented.  Their present experience, at the time that Isaiah is writing this, is living in exile at the hand of their captors.  They have little hope if they look at their present circumstances in which they are the tail and not the head.

So, transformation is rooted in personal grasp of knowledge.  Not a greater grasp of factual information, but personal firsthand experiential knowledge. The changes in Jerusalem are an out flow of the character of God, Himself.

“At last” they will know their Savior.  “At last”, they will know personally the one who Redeems them.  “At last”, they will experience a rescuer who all will know as the Mighty One of Israel.

God at His core is a Savior and Redeemer.  Jesus life, death, and resurrection accomplished Salvation for all that belief.  Saved from the grips of sin and the fear of death.  Saved to walk and live in a new and meaningful life.  With the cross, His blood purchased, redeemed, men and women and children.  The purchase was solely on perception that God found value in us.  A worth that we did not earn.  We can shout that we are redeemed, we don’t deserve it, but yet we are blessed.

There are many that hear this message that listen as the nation of Israel heard it for the first time.  In the future, they might be able to experience the joy that is expressed.  But, because of Jesus, we can know Him as Redeemer and Savior know.  Do you know him, “at last”?