“I will greatly rejoice in the Lord; my soul shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.” (Isaiah 61:10)
The Bible often describes the Lord’s relationship to His people as a marriage. Marriage meant much more in the Scripture than it means in our culture with its penchant for divorce. It denoted an unbreakable covenant. So when the Lord speaks of marriage with His people He means that the covenant He makes is solid and irrevocable because it is based on the Lord’s faithfulness and promise. Marriage also means that the Lord loves His people and desires to bless them in every way.
Isaiah was overcome with great emotion as he contemplated this marriage covenant as well as the glories of the coming kingdom of God. He is filled with an intense longing and ardent desire to see it come to pass as quickly as possible. And his desire is that the people of God share this same ardent longing.
We too look forward to the same hope that Isaiah speaks of for we, the people of God share in that unbreakable covenant. Although we are closer to the fulfillment of all things than Isaiah or the Jews were, we too look forward to it with eager expectation and perhaps a bit of impatience. The world we live in is filled with violence, cruelty and oppression so that we long earnestly and pray with great intensity and fervor for the Lord to come and fulfill His promises to us. But we must wait. As we wait we pray with boldness that the Lord come quickly. And as we wait we serve as watchmen. We look to see the kingdom coming and warn others of its approach.