III. THE GLAD TIDINGS—"HERE IS YOUR GOD!"
Isaiah 40:9 declares the glad tidings—"Here is your God!" This is Jehovah’s appearing. Jehovah is here, and He is your God. This is the glad tidings. If you have God, you have everything. If you have God, every problem will be solved, every lack will be supplied, and every shortage will be filled. This short word—"Here is your God!"—is the glad tidings. We should pray adequately to be filled with God, to receive the infilling of the Holy Spirit. Then when we come to the meeting, in a sense, we may not need to speak that much. Instead we can all declare, "Here is our God!" This is the second aspect of the glad tidings.
IV. THE LORD JEHOVAH COMING
The third aspect of the glad tidings is the Lord Jehovah coming. He comes as a mighty One to rule and to recompense (Isa. 40:10). He is the Ruler who comes as a mighty One to rule over us. He is also the Judge. He will either reward us or punish us. This is His recompense, which is His judgment. Jesus came as the Savior, but in the four Gospels we also see Him as the Judge. In Matthew 5 the Lord spoke nine blessings for the kingdom people, but in Matthew 23 He spoke an eightfold woe to the scribes and Pharisees. He declared again and again, "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites." This is His judging. With Him is a reward on the positive side and a punishment, which is a recompense on the negative side. He will judge us.
As the mighty One, the ruling and judging One, He comes to be a Shepherd (Isa. 40:11; Matt. 9:36; John 10:2-4, 11, 14). In a shepherd’s care for his flock, he rules over the sheep to correct them. His ruling and correcting is his shepherding. In the past, we may have been wild persons who would not listen to the gospel or to the word of God. But in His ruling, Jesus did something to regulate us. His regulating is His shepherding. Many of us were saved because of Jesus’ regulating. His regulating shepherds us to bring us into the flock, to get us on the right way, and to adjust us to the proper pace. He is adjusting us not to go too fast or too slow, but to take the pace of the flock. Today He is still shepherding us by adjusting us. He directs us, stops us, and urges us on.
As the Shepherd, He also feeds His flock, gathers the lambs in His arm, carries them in His bosom, and leads those who are nursing the young. Among us some are lambs and some are those who are nursing the young. Jesus, our Shepherd, takes care of His entire flock. This is surely a part of the glad tidings.
(Life-Study of Isaiah, Chapter 44, by Witness Lee)
