How Beautiful the Feet of Those Who Bring Good News

 Read Isaiah 52

Let’s wrap up this year with Isaiah.

How beautiful  the mountains

    are the feet of those who bring good news,

who proclaim peace,

    who bring good tidings,

    who proclaim salvation,

who say to Zion,

    “Your God reigns!”

 Listen! Your watchmen lift up their voices;

    together they shout for joy.

When the Lord returns to Zion,

    they will see it with their own eyes.

 Burst into songs of joy together,

    you ruins of Jerusalem,

for the Lord has comforted his people,

    he has redeemed Jerusalem.

 The Lord will lay bare his holy arm

    in the sight of all the nations,

and all the ends of the earth will see

    the salvation of our God.

The prophets warned God’s people that they were moving farther and farther away from God. The leaders and the people had been warned, and the judgment that would come mainly from the hands of the Babylonians was surely justly deserved.

But in this time of justly deserved woe, Isaiah prophesies a time when the Lord will be in Jerusalem, and the entire world will see God's salvation. This is what we will call the Second Coming.

The prophet said that hope was on the way. You deserved the punishment you received, but this is not the end of the story. God will reign in Jerusalem, and you will be there to worship him.

Jerusalem was in shambles. It was devastated, yet the prophet offered hope. God is not done with you. He has good plans for you, hope, and a future if we venture into Jeremiah for the moment

In this time of political and social distress, come words of hope.

How beautiful on the mountains

    are the feet of those who bring good news,

who proclaim peace,

    who bring good tidings,

    who proclaim salvation,

who say to Zion,

    “Your God reigns!”

We know that our God reigns. We know we have hope and a future. We know, because at some point in our lives, our family or a loved one or a complete stranger shared the good news with us. We may have been blessed to have been brought up in the way we should go.

Some were not. Talking to a stranger about Jesus may be the greatest accomplishment of your life. You may do some really magnificent things in your life, but sharing the gospel with someone who is lost will be among the greatest of them.

So Isaiah has us looking ahead to the second coming of Christ. What a glorious day it will be.

But we must also consider this day and that we may bring glory to God in this day by sharing the good news with another person—perhaps someone who has never heard it, or perhaps they have heard it a hundred times but they just needed to hear it from you.

How sweet are the feet of those who bring good news?

As we wrap up our Christmas celebrations and look forward to the New Year, consider these thoughts.

Be the feet of one who brings good news.

Be the one to bring good tidings.

Be the one to proclaim salvation.

Amen.