How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger who announces peace, who brings good news, who announces salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.” Listen! Your sentinels lift up their voices, together they sing for joy; for in plain sight they see the return of the LORD to Zion.
Isaiah 52:7-8
Would you like some good news today? Some honest good news? People talk a lot these days about “news fatigue” and “headline stress disorder”. They are worn out by “breaking news updates” and endless “late breaking news” piling onto their feelings of helplessness and hopelessness.
Not wanting to overpromise and underperform, I do want to pass on to you good news! It is the most wonderful news you will ever hear! It is the Good News in today’s prophecy by Isaiah, and the Good News announced by the New Testament and apostles.
In today’s scripture the prophet Isaiah foresees the distant future in which a messenger is running from Babylon to Jerusalem. He races over mountains to announce the victory of God freeing His people from the Babylonian Captivity. Isaiah can see and can hear watchmen, or sentinels, on Jerusalem’s walls bursting into joy as they hear the messenger’s Good News: “Your God reigns.” The sentinels cannot contain their joy, so that even before the messenger arrives, they begin to spread the news to the ends of the earth (See Isaiah 52:10).
Significant for us today is how the apostle Paul picks up on Isaiah’s prophecy and applies it to anyone who tells the Good News of Jesus: “As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news” (Romans 10:15). It is the clear, unmistakable teaching of Scripture that we are entrusted with the Good News of God’s victory. “Your God reigns.” It is a cosmic victory over all sin, evil powers, forces of darkness, and death. It is a joyous message, a message of peace, salvation, and good news, as “in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us” (2 Corinthians 5:19)
It is ironic that both the prophet Isaiah and apostle Paul note how “beautiful are the feet” of those who announce God’s good news. When you think of beautiful body parts, do you think of feet? I don’t! Psychologists even talk about people having “podophobia” and not wanting people to see or touch their feet. And feet that have come from running dry, dusty mountain trails are not anything I would want to see or wash! Nor would I think to call them “beautiful”. But both Isaiah and Paul know the real meaning of how “beautiful” are the “feet” of anyone announcing God’s victory over sin and death! For a nation weary from all the bad news, and anxious about where the world is going, we actually get to break the Good News! We get to tell of God’s salvation God reigns!
A fellow traveler,
Tim
