Walk Free.
Awake, awake, put on your strength, O Zion; put on your beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city; for there shall no more come into you the uncircumcised and the unclean. 2 Shake yourself from the dust and arise; be seated, O Jerusalem; loose the bonds from your neck, O captive daughter of Zion. - Isaiah 52:1-2 (ESV)
“Awake, awake, put on your strength.” We must awaken our hearts and put on our strength. Where is our strength truly found? In The Lord. The Lord is our strength. Psalms 18:1 “I love you, my Lord, you are my strength.” It is important that we put on that strength. This is both a daily process and a single occurrence. Upon salvation we are no longer trying by our own strength but rather the Lord becomes our strength.
“Shake yourself from the dust and arise.” This imagery is being used to paint a picture of salvation. The Lord speaks here of the coming salvation - that being as we see now; Christ. We can have right theology of salvation and never truly experience salvation. Christ arose. Just as Christ shook the grave, by His blood and the Holy Spirit, we must shake off the dust of shame and quilt. By the cross we are saved. We must no longer sit in the dust of our past.
“Be seated” By the cross and the Holy Spirit we must sit ourselves at the table of The Lord. Psalms 23 says “you prepare a table for me.” We need to sit ourselves in the presence of the Lord.
“Loose the bonds from your neck.” Sin so tightly grips our necks to the point we can’t breathe or move. When chains shackle our ankles we can still move, reach, stretch, attempt escape. But when chained by your neck, there is no hope. All movement restricted and any chance of freedom, gone. By the cross we are freed from our bondage. It is by God’s sovereignty that we are saved. Yet Isaiah writes “loose the bonds.” that is because many of us still wear our chains as a necklace.
In Christ, you have been freed from your past life, the past sin, the past shame, the past guilt. We are made a new creation in Christ, the old is gone and the new has come. Put on the Lord as your strength, shake off the dust of shame and guilt, sit yourself at the table of the Lord’s presence, and leave your old chains behind. You are free. Walk in that freedom.
