"Trust in the LORD forever, For in GOD the LORD, we have an everlasting Rock." Isaiah 26:4 NAS

In the last devotional we focused on trusting in the Lord forever. This time lets take a different approach to this verse. Let's look at this verse from a standpoint of an Old Testament version of John 3:16. This could be an evangelical verse for sure. We come to the Lord Jesus with our wondering hearts and place our trust and faith in Him. Then we soon realize He is truly the God of the universe and the everlasting Rock. We surrender ourselves to His mercy and we lather ourselves in His grace as if it were bodywash liquid soap. In reality it is soulwash -spiritual cleanser, washing all the filthy grime of sin away.

The first stage here in our Old Testament version of John 3:16 is to "Trust in the LORD..." and we TRUST in Him forever. We trust Him for eternity with our lives and souls. The next part of this verse says, "For in God the LORD..." This is a very significant phrase: "God the LORD." In the New King James it says, "For in YAH, the LORD." In Hebrew it would be, "For in Yah Yahweh". The combination of these two words for God are also in Isaiah 12:2. It says, "Behold, God is my salvation, I will trust and not be afraid; For the Lord God is my strength and song, And He has become my salvation (Isa 12:2)."

So from this we can see that He is clearly the God of our salvation, but it is more than that. Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament says, "It is the proper name of God the Redeemer in the most emphatic form (1)." He is not only our salvation, but He is our total strength and joyful song. We can put our full trust in Him and not be afraid. Then as the verse before tells us that we will have His perfect peace (Is 26:3). We can trust and we no longer need to be afraid of His judgement over sin or of death. Yah Yahweh is our redeemer and besides Him there is no other.

We see this in Isaiah 44:6, "Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel And his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts: 'I am the first and I am the last, And there is no God besides Me (NAS)." Since God is our redeemer and our salvation He is also our "everlasting Rock." It says in Him "...we have an everlasting rock." We trust Jesus who is the everlasting Rock of our salvation. This is where we might get the term "Rock of ages." Yah Yahweh, God the redeemer was called the Chief cornerstone. Jesus is that Chief cornerstone (Acts 4:11, Eph 2:20-21).

The prophet Isaiah spoke this hundred's of years before Christ came into the world to redeem us and save us from all of our sins once and for all. In Isaiah 28:16 it says, "Therefore thus says the Lord GOD, "Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a tested stone, A costly cornerstone for the foundation, firmly placed. He who believes in it will not be disturbed." Here in this verse we see the same result we have in trusting in Him. He who believes will be steadfast of mind, have perfect peace and will not be disturbed. How wonderful it is to live in that strength and security isn't it?

We have an everlasting foundation on the rock of Christ Jesus. King David also wrote about this cornerstone hundreds of years before Christ. He spoke of how this stone would be rejected. In Psalm 118:22 it says, "The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief corner stone." God is called the "everlasting Rock" and this means several infinite attributes. We can see three of those attributes in Deuteronomy 32:4. It says, "The Rock! His work is perfect, For all His ways are just; A God of faithfulness and without injustice, Righteous and upright is He."

Three of His attributes as the "Rock" can be seen here. We see His work is perfect, He is complete Faithfulness and He is Righteous and upright. This means that all that He does is done with perfection. It means He is always faithful in everything, absolute faithfulness. It also means that He is Righteous and no injustice exists in Him. Otherwise He would not be God. All that He does is just, all the time. So the cost to send the cornerstone that would be rejected was the perfect price to meet the inequity that we all had in our own failing filthy rag righteousness.

Oh how costly it was for God the LORD to send His priceless Son for each and every one of us. Though it was costly for Him he made it amazingly inexpensive to come to Him. In fact the fee to cover His costs was an is wonderfully free. There is no cover charge to have a piece of this rock (Eph 2:8-9). It is breath taking to know how little we have to do to know the Son, to know this everlasting Rock, this cornerstone that was rejected yet victorious. How awesome it is to come to trust in Jesus Christ.

This kind of trust equals transformation. Be assured that since you have put your faith and trust in Jesus that He will transform you into a wonderful work of art. He already sees you as glorified (Rom 8:30). You are founded and grounded on the everlasting Rock!

In the Rock,
Adam

Notes:
[1] Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament: New Updated Edition, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1996 by Hendrickson Publishers, Inc.