Behold Your God

I love these words from Isaiah: “O Zion, that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain; O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God!” The verses in this chapter appear to be talking most directly about His Second Coming when “every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low” and “the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together” (Isaiah 40:4-5, 9) So I wonder if one fulfillment of the time when the cities of Judah are to hear the cry “Behold your God!” is that powerful moment when He shall come again to the Mount of Olives and present Himself there to the Jews: “Then shall the arm of the Lord fall upon the nations. And then shall the Lord set his foot upon this mount, and it shall cleave in twain, and the earth shall tremble, and reel to and fro, and the heavens also shall shake…. And then shall the Jews look upon me and say: What are these wounds in thine hands and in thy feet? Then shall they know that I am the Lord; for I will say unto them: These wounds are the wounds with which I was wounded in the house of my friends. I am he who was lifted up. I am Jesus that was crucified. I am the Son of God” (Doctrine and Covenants 45:51-52). In that day the “cities of Judah” will indeed “behold [their] God” as Isaiah prophesied and they shall know that Jesus was and is their Messiah. And we must all prepare for that day when at His coming we too will behold our God.

                One of the themes of this chapter in Isaiah is the power and strength of the Lord. Isaiah declared, “What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field: The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: because the spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it: surely the people is grass. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever” (v6-8). All things in mortality are ephemeral like grass, but God’s word (and Word) stands forever. In that day at His coming He will “come with strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him: behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him” (v10). His power is endless, for He has “measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance” (v12). Compared to Him “the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance…. All nations before him are as nothing; and they are counted to him less than nothing, and vanity” (v15, 17). Isaiah declared His exalted station over the earth: “It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in: That bringeth the princes to nothing; he maketh the judges of the earth as vanity” (v22-23). He is over all the earth and its inhabitants have the relative power of grasshoppers compared to Him. He declared, “To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power; not one faileth” (v25-26). There is none equal to Him on the earth—He created all things and only He is truly “strong in power.” But He can give us power as we trust in Him and His strength. I love this declaration of Isaiah to us: “Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding. He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength” (v28-29). He will never faint or get tired, and there is no end of His understanding. He will give us power and strength, and “they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint” (v31). Isaiah’s message in this chapter is that we can turn to the Lord for strength; He is omnipotent and will give us power to overcome all our challenges in this life if we will wait upon Him.