“‘You are my witnesses,’ declares the LORD, ‘and my servant whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me no god was formed, nor will there be one after me. I, even I, am the LORD, and apart from me there is no savior. I have revealed and saved and proclaimed — I, and not some foreign god among you. You are my witnesses,’ declares the LORD, ‘that I am God.'” (Isaiah 43:10-12 NIV)
Isaiah was prophesying to both the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah that they would be taken into captivity. They would be living among people with other gods. They were to live in their world but not be part of it as we are also taught to live. God through Isaiah was trying to get the truth into the minds of these people that He is the only true God. He is their Redeemer. He has always been and always shall be. He was trying to get this into their thick heads before they went into exile where they would be tempted to follow the other gods.
There are some people that think that God has left them when they go through trials and hardships. They start grumbling and complaining to God and anyone else who will listen. God was telling these people that He would not forget them so they need to remember this and continue to have faith in Him when their hard times come. We need to remember that God is in control whether it looks like it or not.
God told them that they were going to be witnesses. They were to tell the foreigners who the true God is. Today we Christians need to be witnesses to each other. Instead of grumbling and griping we need to testify to each other as to whom the Lord truly is and what He is doing in our lives. We need to give testimonies as to the goodness of the Lord. We need to do this in our churches and other Christian groups. This helps build each other’s faith up. We also need to do this when talking with friends. How easy it is to talk about anything else but God and His Son Jesus Christ.
We also are commanded to be witnesses to others of what Jesus Christ has done for them. Again, it is too easy to talk about sports or the weather but leave the most important subject behind. That subject is that Jesus Christ died for them and wants to have a relationship with them.
God through Isaiah told the people that they would be His servants. The Hebrew word for servant also means “worshipper” so when you are working, you are worshipping. We Christians need to be servants of each other. We need to help our fellow Christians whenever they have needs that we can help with.
These needs can be physical but they can also be mental and spiritual. We also need to let others serve us. We don’t need to be too proud to let someone help us. One way that may help others to be willing to listen to us when we witness to them is to serve them in some way. It is hard to think about spiritual things when you are hungry. We need to feed the hungry physically but then feed them spiritually. We need to clothe the naked physically but also need to help them to find Jesus so that they can be clothed spiritually in garments of righteousness.
We need to give the thirsty water to drink but we also need to give them the Living Water.
May we all be witnessing, worshipping workers wherever we walk.
By Dean W. Masters
Owner of the Master’s List.