God informs His people that He is coming to them in mercy. His salvation is about to come and His righteousness is going to be revealed. And when He comes to us in mercy "we must go to meet Him in a way of duty." Saving mercy is never a license to sin and the imparting of righteousness does not free us to rebel. God has expectationa of His people and some of those expectationa are spelled out in verses 1-2 of Isaiah 56.
Three duties are brought to our attention. Matthew Henry lists them as follows:
2) We are to "religiously observe the sabbath day. We are not just if we rob God of His time." Blessed is the man who...keeps from profaning the Sabbath.
3) We are to "have nothing to do with sin. Blessed is the man who keeps his hand from doing evil, any evil to his neighbor, in body, goods, or good name - or, more generally, anything that is displeasing to God and hurtful to his own soul."
Henry writes further that "the best evidence of our having kept the sabbath well will be to keep a good conscience all the week. It will appear that we have been in the mount with God if our faces shine in a holy conversation before men."
Have you been visited with the salvation of God and the righteousness of Christ? If so are you serious about the duty that has been entrusted to you. Are you just? Do you love the Lord's Day - not simply the Lord's hour? Do you hate sin? May the mercy that has saved us be the mercy that accompanies us in our daily walking. And may it be said of us that we are blessed people whose lives have clearly been conquered by the salvation and righteousness of God and who are humbly walking in the duty that He has ordained.
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