Salvation is a Joyful Thing

To be saved is to experience the joy of the Lord. He brings you back from the captive places of this world that either other people or your own lusts (and mostly both at the same time) bring you into. The Bible is a record of God repeatedly restoring His people from exile. They were saved from Egypt in Abraham and Isaac, they were saved from Egypt through Moses. They are saved from Assyria and will be brought back from Babylon. And every time, their salvation produces JOY. 

Isaiah 52:7–8 (ESV) How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.” 8 The voice of your watchmen—they lift up their voice; together they sing for joy; for eye to eye they see the return of the LORD to Zion.

The prophet calls on God's people to sing! To recognize the glory of salvation in that even the ugly parts of the messenger of salvation are beautiful! God reigns and His people rejoice. They rejoice for He has not abandoned them or left them to wallow in the misery of their captivity. Sin may get you stuck, but God gets you out!

Isaiah 52:9–10 (ESV) Break forth together into singing, you waste places of Jerusalem, for the LORD has comforted his people; he has redeemed Jerusalem. 10 The LORD has bared his holy arm before the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.

How is Israel saved? By the ARM (power) of God! Note that the point of salvation is a testimony to the nations. Just as their deliverance from Egypt told the nations of God's power and robbed them of their spirit, so their deliverance from Babylon will once again declare the glory of God to the nations. Today, there is one ancient people who still live in the same land, speak the same language, study the same book and worship the same God for 3500 years. They are the people chosen of God - the ones He sent His Son to save. 

Isaiah 52:11–12 (ESV) Depart, depart, go out from there; touch no unclean thing; go out from the midst of her; purify yourselves, you who bear the vessels of the LORD. 12 For you shall not go out in haste, and you shall not go in flight, for the LORD will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your rear guard.

Salvation is exodus. We leave the unclean things of this world. We do not flee but walk straight after the Lord who guides us and guards us on the way. But Isaiah declares the means by which God's saves in this chapter as clearly as a New Testament passage would. 

Isaiah 52:13–15 (ESV) Behold, my servant shall act wisely; he shall be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted. 14 As many were astonished at you— his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the children of mankind— 15 so shall he sprinkle many nations. Kings shall shut their mouths because of him, for that which has not been told them they see, and that which they have not heard they understand.

We approach now the most sacred of prophecies regarding the Lord. Jesus is the marred man who serves God by delivering His people. His body is marred and yet He sprinkles the nations in His blood, purifying the unclean and opening the eyes of those formerly strange to the message of the Lord. 

I am one of those washed in the blood. My salvation is a joyful thing because I know I could not have accomplished it, I do not deserve it and God personally guarantees it.