OT: Isaiah 52:1-10

Old Testament Reading: 

Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city: for henceforth there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean.   Shake thyself from the dust; arise, and sit down, O Jerusalem: loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion.   For thus saith the LORD, Ye have sold yourselves for nought; and ye shall be redeemed without money.   For thus saith the Lord GOD, My people went down aforetime into Egypt to sojourn there; and the Assyrian oppressed them without cause.   Now therefore, what have I here, saith the LORD, that my people is taken away for nought? they that rule over them make them to howl, saith the LORD; and my name continually every day is blasphemed.   Therefore my people shall know my name: therefore they shall know in that day that I am he that doth speak: behold, it is I.   How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!   Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they sing: for they shall see eye to eye, when the LORD shall bring again Zion.   Break forth into joy, sing together, ye waste places of Jerusalem: for the LORD hath comforted his people, he hath redeemed Jerusalem.   The LORD hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.

Old Testament Commentary:

The Lord had allowed the Assyrians to take the people of Jerusalem captive for their sins.  Their captivity was their punishment for worshiping idols instead of the true God (and this same end may soon befall our idolatrous USA for their abortion, same-sex marriage, birth control, gambling, and unbelief concerning Christ).  In this text however, we see God giving hope to people in captivity, though the heathen oppress them:  Shake thyself from the dust….loose thyself form the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion.    In the physical sense this earthly captivity would end, but in the spiritual sense Christ the Messiah was still coming.  His New Testament Church would be glorious in the Advent of Christ.  Christ in His own person would be the Gospel, come to save, and wherever His feet went, such would bring the Gospel of Peace, forgiveness of sins.  They would see Him "eye to eye".  Near the end consider the phrase "The LORD hath made bare His Holy Arm in the eyes of all the nations".  As a man may lift his shirt sleep to reveal the strength and power of his arm, so God's strength and power over sin, death, and the devil, is revealed for all to see by His Holy Arm, Christ crucified yet risen.  When His Church, you the believer, preach and teach the Gospel (or show such by Word and deed), the Spirit of Christ reveals His forgiveness to the weak sinner who mourns their sins.  "All the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God."