The Christian’s Maximum Dignity

Awake, awake, O Zion, clothe yourself with strength. Put on your garments of splendor, O Jerusalem, the holy city. . . . Shake off your dust; rise up, sit enthroned, O Jerusalem. Free yourself from the chains on your neck, O captive Daughter of Zion.

Isaiah 52:1-2

Have you ever felt that you amount to nothing? Have you ever felt that you are worthless, being stepped on, treated as a worm, mocked, and made fun of? That is how the people of God felt when they were exiled to Babylon. Their captors ordered them, “Fall prostrate that we may walk all over you!” and we are told they made their backs like the ground, like a street to be walked over (Isaiah 51:23).

In Isaiah 52, we find Zion thrown down to the dust. She is in exile, captive to uncircumcised, defiled Babylonians who humiliated and tormented her. The question is, will Zion, the holy city of God, ever be restored to her God-ordained splendor and maximum self-esteem?

This passage teaches us three things: First, the Lord wants his people to do something about this situation of humiliation; second, we are capable of doing something because the Lord himself has already acted; third, in view of this, the Lord has a message he wants us to proclaim.

God Never Sleeps

In Isaiah 51:9, Zion implored the Lord to awaken from his sleep and come to the aid of his chosen people. But the truth is, the Sovereign Lord does not sleep or become weary and forget the saving responsibilities he took upon himself.

In Isaiah 40:27-31 God declares:

“Why do you say, O Jacob, and complain, O Israel, ‘My way is hidden from the Lord; my cause is disregarded by my God’? Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”

Or again in Isaiah 49:14-16 God says,

“But Zion said, ‘The Lord has forsaken me, the Lord has forgotten me.’ Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are ever before me.”

Our Lord does not need to be awakened. He is not like Baal, whose prophets Elijah mocked, saying, “He may be in deep sleep. Shout louder! Wake him up!” No, it is not our Lord who is asleep, but Zion, the people of God. It is they who need to be aroused. They are in a deep slumber, unaware of a new situation, a new reality, that was brought about by the Lord while they slept. We are told in this chapter that God has comforted his people and redeemed them, as promised long ago. God has waged war and defeated Zion’s enemies, accomplishing everlasting freedom and salvation for her.

We can illustrate the situation from Acts 12, where Peter experienced deliverance from an angel of the Lord:

“The night before Herod was to bring him to trial, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries stood guard at the entrance. Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him up. ‘Quick, get up!’ he said, and the chains fell off Peter’s wrists. Then the angel said to him, ‘Put on your clothes and sandals.’ And Peter did so. ‘Wrap your cloak around you and follow me,’ the angel told him. Peter followed him out of the prison, but he had no idea that what the angel was doing was really happening; he thought he was seeing a vision. They passed the first and second guards and came to the iron gate leading to the city. It opened for them by itself, and they went through it. When they had walked the length of one street, suddenly the angel left him. Then Peter came to himself and said, ‘Now I know without a doubt that the Lord sent his angel and rescued me from Herod’s clutches and from everything the Jewish people were anticipating'”(Acts 12:6-11).

No, the Lord is not asleep. He is at work. He has acted in behalf of Zion, in behalf of all believers, and laid bare his holy arm to save his people. Therefore, listen to the Lord’s imperatives and obey them. Why are you lying in the dust? You have been set free! Your tormentors have been defeated; the tyrants are gone. Your chains have been broken and the prison doors thrown wide open. Enjoy freedom! Enjoy dignity and maximum self-esteem! Wake up to a new dawn and a new reality, for the King has come and the kingdom of God is here.

Zion’s Responsibility: Do Something!

We cannot enjoy our salvation without faith in God’s word and obedience to it: we must do something. The first two verses of Isaiah 52 contain eight imperatives, commands to Zion from her Sovereign Lord, delineating our human responsibility:

– Awake, Awake!

The first two imperatives are: “Awake, awake!” The repetition signifies intensity. We must wake up immediately and shake off our slumber, wash our faces, open our eyes and look around. Our tormentors are gone; there is a new government and a new King, who is a friend of ours. He is our Savior, our Kinsman/Redeemer.

We must stop thinking the old way: “I am a slave, a captive. I must lie down and let my tormentors walk all over me. I am just a nobody, a worm. I am still under the wrath of God. I must drink the cup of his wrath and perish forever.”

Elect people of God, look in your hand. The cup of wrath has been taken away from you, and you shall never drink from it again. You have been spared from everlasting death. So God is telling us, “Awake, awake!”

– Put On, Put On

The next two imperatives are “clothe yourself with strength” and “put on your garments of splendor.” The double emphasis of these imperatives mean we are to respond seriously and immediately. We were slaves-naked, and suffering the indignities of slavery. But while we slept in the dust of the ground in our nakedness, God himself provided garments for us of beauty, holiness, and great splendor. We are no longer slaves; we are the bride, the queen, and must dress and behave appropriately. Therefore, we are to put on these garments of dignity and strength freely provided by our beloved Redeemer.

Recall the story of the returning prodigal son. He was half-naked, fully famished, and exhausted. He wanted only to be treated as a servant, but his father received as a son, saying, “Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him.” God is giving such dignity to us. We are not servants; we are sons of the heavenly Father.

In the Old Testament, the high priest wore garments of splendor, as we read in God’s direction to Moses: “Make sacred garments for your brother Aaron, to give him dignity and honor” (Exodus 28:2). Even so, the elect people of God are given garments of strength and glory, signifying that the people of Zion are given the status of a royal priest. This was God’s original plan for his people, as we read in Exodus 19: “You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites” (vv. 4-6). Thus, 1 Peter 2:9 tells us, “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”

In Ephesians 5:25-27, Paul speaks about what the Lord is doing for his church: “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.”

We are a holy people, a separate people, citizens of God’s holy city in which the redeemed shall not mix with the uncircumcised and defiled. So we read in Isaiah 52:1, “Awake, awake, O Zion, clothe yourself with strength. Put on your garments of splendor, O Jerusalem, the holy city. The uncircumcised and defiled will not enter you again.”

If we are people of Zion, born of God, we will have nothing to do with uncleanness, nothing to do with the uncircumcised, nothing to do with the ways of the world. We will follow the command of verse 11: “Depart, depart, go out from there! Touch no unclean thing!” and Paul’s admonishment in Romans 12:2: “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”

Isaiah 61:10 says, “I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.” Therefore, people of God, put on these garments given to you by God! We are the children of God and the bride of Christ. We are God’s priests.

– Shake Off

The fifth imperative is “Shake off your dust.” Dust on our heads symbolizes our state of defeat and despair. A horrible calamity came upon us, so we tore our clothes, put dust on our heads, and sat in dust and ashes. But now our situation has been changed; we are no longer people of dust. Rise up, people of God! Shake off all that dust of worry, anxiety, fear, uncleanness, self-pity and doubt! Wake up to your new reality and new situation, for you are loved by God and redeemed by him.

The Philippian jailer asked, “What must I do to be saved?” The answer came, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved.” This is a divine command to all of us; it is our responsibility. We have a choice: Either we can continue to lie down in the dust and be trampled over, or we can rise up, shake off the dust, put on garments of power and live as a princess, a son, a priest, a king.

The Sovereign Lord is speaking to us: “Shake off your dust! Believe and be saved!” He has accomplished our salvation. He has changed our situation. He has rearranged our reality.

– Rise Up

The sixth imperative is “Rise up!” This brings to mind the story in John 5 of the man who was crippled for thirty-eight years. He wanted to get into the pool to be healed when it was stirred, but whenever he tried, someone else got into the pool first. But then Jesus came, the one who rearranges reality. As he walked about, he saw this miserable wretch and asked, “Do you want to be healed?” Then Jesus told him, “Rise up! Pick up your mat and walk,” and he did.

In Acts 3 we find another miserable wretch-a man lame from birth who begged at the temple gate. One day Peter and John came along, and the man asked them for a little money. Peter told him, “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” The beggar got up and went away, walking and leaping and praising God. It was a new reality. The kingdom of God had come.

– Sit Enthroned

Verse 2 continues with a seventh imperative: “sit enthroned.” Zion was sitting in dust and ashes. God told her to rise up, and now he commands her now to sit on a throne. This is prophesied in Psalm 113:7-8: “He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap; he seats them with princes, with the princes of their people.”

This is speaking about you, brother, sister, teenager, old person. If you are sitting in your confusion, bewilderment, unhappiness, misery and low self-esteem, I hope that after hearing this you will also rise up and begin to walk and leap and praise our God.

Why are we sitting in the dust? Because of our own sin. But praise be to God, he came from heaven to lift us from our ash heap. Once we were nothing-worthless and lying in the dust for others to walk over. But our situation was changed by the supernatural miracle of the incarnation, and we are living in a new reality. We rose up, shook off the dust and cleansed ourselves. We have put on power garments of strength and dignity freely given to us. We did not work for these things; we just woke up and saw them already given; salvation is given to us by grace. Now we are commanded to sit down on the throne God has provided for us.

– Free Yourself

The eighth imperative is “Free yourself from the chains on your neck, O captive Daughter of Zion.” Before, we could not have done this. But our Redeemer has come and broken the chains around our necks, and now we can free ourselves. Brothers and sisters, we are set free by Jesus Christ from every chain, every bondage, every slavery that binds us. When we put our hands to the chains on our necks, they will come off, because they are broken. But it is our responsibility to take them off.

Some people think, “God will save me automatically and I do not have to do anything.” Such thinking is not biblical. God is not going to believe for us or repent for us. We must believe. We must repent. We must rise up and walk, and we must take the chains off our necks. And once we do this, our chains will come off. The Bible says, “Resist the devil and he shall flee from you.” That is an amazing statement. The devil is super-human, possessing great powers. Yet we can resist him and he will flee.

If the Son sets us free, we are free indeed! This is the greatest freedom we can experience. No longer slaves in Egypt, Assyria or Babylon, no longer slaves to Satan and sin, we belong to God. We are the beloved of the Lord, and he is setting us free today to serve him alone and to enjoy everlasting fellowship with him, a fellowship from which neither death nor life nor anything else in all creation is able to separate us. So take those chains from your neck and throw them away. You shall never wear them again.

Where does our freedom come from? Who has broken our chains and brought these beautiful garments and this royal throne for us? The incarnate Jesus Christ brought about this great miracle. Yes, we are worthless nothings, born slaves who do not deserve any of these things. But God loves Zion, and it is his will that we be royal priests before him. The King of kings came down for this very purpose. He sits enthroned in heaven, and Paul says we are seated with him to enjoy this new dignity and salvation forever.

Isaiah 61:3 tells us Jesus was sent “to bestow on [Zion] a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.” If you are sitting in despair and mourning and ashes, you are commanded to make an exchange: instead of ashes, a crown of beauty; instead of mourning, the oil of gladness; instead of despair, the garment of praise-all freely given by our Redeemer.

The Lord Has Done Something

We are able to do these things because the Lord has already done something in our behalf. Why did he do this? Some explanation is found in verses 4, 5 and 6. First, we find this phrase, “my people,” which is used several times. We are a people loved by God from all eternity, a people whom God has chosen in Jesus Christ before the creation of the world. Once we understand that, we will jump for joy. God himself says of us, “You are my people.”

A second reason is found in verse 4: “You were sold for nothing.” In other words, our Master did not get any money, which means we still belong to him and he will redeem us. You see, he never sold us or divorced us. In spite of our exile, sin, and trouble, we still belong to him, and he is going to help us. His covenant is still in force.

Another reason is given in the last line of verse 4: “Lately Assyria has oppressed them.” Our God does not like Assyria oppressing his people. When we are oppressed, he feels our pain and says, “I am going to deal with Assyria.” In verse 5 we are told that the people of God were mocked. Again, God will not put up with anybody mocking his people. He blesses those who bless us, but he curses those who curse us.

But the most important reason is found in the last part of verse 5: “And all day long my name is constantly blasphemed.” God does not like his name being maligned, because it affects his glory. When God’s enemies see his people in exile, being punished and defeated, they draw the conclusion that Israel’s God is incompetent-he promised to save her, but he could not do it. That is blasphemy, and God will not put up with it. So, in spite of our sin, he will rise up and defend his own glory by saving us.

Isaiah proclaims this salvation in verse 8: “Listen! Your watchmen lift up their voices; together they shout for joy. When the Lord returns to Zion. . . .” The Lord will return to Zion for one purpose: to accomplish our redemption by defending his people and defeating his enemies.

How God will accomplish this is not explained here: the prophet will speak about it in Isaiah 53. But it is already a reality. So in verse 9 we read, “Burst into songs of joy together, you ruins of Jerusalem. . . .” What is the reason for singing? “The Lord has comforted his people, he has redeemed Jerusalem.” The Lord promised to do something, and he has done it. “God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind” (Numbers 23:19).

We Are to Proclaim the Good News

Finally, in view of what the Lord has done and what he has made us able to do, we are to proclaim something, which is implied in verse 7: “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!'”

The Sovereign Lord has come. He waged battle against all the enemies of Zion and won the battle decisively, once for all. And so imagine a man, running from this battlefield. He runs through the hills near Jerusalem with great speed, arrives at the walls of the city, and shouts out to the watchmen on the wall: “Good news! All is well! Peace! Salvation! Our God reigns!”

Our God came, he fought, he won, he reigns, and now we have peace, security, and prosperity. No uncircumcised or defiled will ever again enter our city to torment us. Our Lord reigns forever and ever.

Let us look at some examples in the Bible of how runners brought their news from the battlefield. Second Samuel 18 recounts the victorious battle against David’s rebellious son, Absalom. In verse 19 we read, “Now Ahimaaz son of Zadok said, ‘Let me run and take the news to the king that the Lord has delivered him from the hand of his enemies.'” Verse 24 continues, “While David was sitting between the inner and outer gates, the watchman went up to the roof of the gateway by the wall. As he looked out, he saw a man running alone. The watchman called out to the king and reported it. The king said, ‘If he is alone, he must have good news.’ And the man came closer and closer.” Here the battle was waged and won, and a runner is running with the news.

The runner in 1 Samuel 4 delivered bad news. The Israelites had gone to war with the Philistines, and Eli’s two sons were there, bringing the ark with them into battle. They thought it was going to bring them victory, but the battle went the wrong way and ended in disaster for the people of Israel. Beginning in verse 12 we read, “That same day a Benjamite ran from the battle line and went to Shiloh, his clothes torn and dust on his head. When he arrived, there was Eli sitting on his chair by the side of the road, watching, because his heart feared for the ark of God. . . The man hurried over to Eli, who was ninety-eight years old and whose eyes were set so that he could not see. He told Eli, ‘I have just come from the battle line; I fled from it this very day.’ Eli asked, ‘What happened, my son?'” Here is the sad message: “‘Israel fled before the Philistines, and the army has suffered heavy losses. Also your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, are dead, and the ark of God has been captured.'” Upon hearing the news, Eli fell backward, broke his neck and died, and his daughter-in-law died in childbirth.

But there is one battle that went the right way-the one waged by the incarnate Son of God. An angelic messenger was sent to proclaim the news: “And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord'” (Luke 2:8). This was good news of great joy!

Now let me present to you the preeminent preacher, the greatest runner ever to bring good news: Jesus Christ. In Luke 4:16-19 we read, “He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read. The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: ‘The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.'”

In Romans 10:15 Paul sees himself and all believers as runners who bring good news. So he says, “And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!'” This is speaking not only about pastors, but about anybody who is shares the gospel. There is no greater news than this, and we must respect anyone who declares it. How beautiful are those who bring good news! No wonder Jesus said, “Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19-20).

The runner is shouting to the watchman, “Peace! All is well! Victory! Salvation!” And the watchman, in turn, shouts to the anxious people of the city, “Peace! Good news! Salvation! Our God reigns!” What is the appropriate response to this good news from the battlefield of Calvary?

It is recorded in Isaiah 52:9. If you are saved-if you awoke, shook off the dust, took off the chains, put on the garments, and sat on the throne; if you believed in Jesus Christ on the basis of this good news-then this is the only possible response to that good news: “Burst into songs and shout for joy!”

Isaiah 49:13 says, “Shout for joy, O heavens; rejoice, O earth; burst into song, O mountains!” What is the reason? “For the Lord comforts his people.” How can we sit back and be unemotional and unfeeling? Something has happened! God in Christ has come down into our ash heap, taken us up, and seated us with him in heavenly places. Therefore, let us shout, let us sing, let us praise! Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name!

Chapter 54 begins, “Sing, O barren woman, you who never bore a child; burst into song, shout for joy, you who were never in labor.” There is a new dawn, a new reality, a new situation. Everything is changing. Chains are broken, prison doors are thrown wide open, and we have been set free.

So I say to you: Wake up! Wake up! Break off the chains from around your neck. Rise up and shake off your dust. Put on the garments of strength and splendor given to you by Christ. Sit enthroned. You are royalty, a holy priesthood, and you have given maximum dignity. Do not sit any longer in the dust and mourn. We were once dead, objects of God’s just wrath. But because of his great, electing love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive in Christ. He raised us with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms.

What must we do in light of this great salvation? Shout for joy! Burst forth into song! Proclaim this salvation to the whole world: Our God reigns! Amen.