THE
PLANTING OF THE LORD
To console those who mourn in Zion,
To give them beauty for ashes,
The oil of joy for mourning,
The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness;
That they may be called trees of righteousness,
The planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.”{Isaiah 61:3}
To give them beauty for ashes,
The oil of joy for mourning,
The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness;
That they may be called trees of righteousness,
The planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.”{Isaiah 61:3}
The bible states in Isaiah 61 that the reason why
the Spirit of the Lord God was upon Jesus Christ was so that He can console
those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy instead
of mourning and the garment of praise in place of the spirit of heaviness. But
most importantly to give them a new name called “trees of righteousness” a name
that they could never earn by themselves through the ages past from the time of
Adam to the present age. Worthy of note is the fact that these trees of
righteousness will be the planting of the Lord Himself and only when He has
planted these trees that He will be glorified. These trees will not plant themselves
but God Himself will plant them.
If Christ was anointed for this purpose that
means that prior to this time, righteousness was lacking, there were no trees
of righteousness and that was because God had not planted any. This does not
deny the fact that men throughout the past ages have tried to be trees of
righteousness by their own efforts. They taught they could become trees of
righteousness by keeping God’s rules and regulations and by practising all
forms of religious rituals. This was what they said about themselves:
25 And it shall be our righteousness, if we observe to do all
these commandments before the Lord our God, as he hath commanded us.
{Deuteronomy 6:25}
They thought if they could keep all of God’s
commandments, then it would be accounted unto them as righteousness. Little did
they know that no man can keep all of God’s commandments. If only they knew
that breaking just one precept would be regarded by God as breaking all the
laws, they would never have made that statement. They have tried to plant
righteousness by themselves but God never regarded them as trees of
righteousness instead He saw all they did as filthy rags. This is how Isaiah
described it:
6 But we are all as
an unclean thing, and all our righteousness are as filthy rags; and we all do
fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.
7 And there is none
that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee: for
thou hast hid thy face from us, and hast consumed us, because of our
iniquities. {Isaiah 64:6-7}
You will notice the same word
“our righteousness” in the two texts above, one in Deuteronomy and the other in
Isaiah. It is their righteousness, not God’s righteousness. It is what they
could achieve by themselves not what God helped them achieve and the surprising
part is that they were the only ones who saw this righteousness. God never
regarded it and He certainly did not take glory in it. They could only boast
and take the glory for themselves because it was their works but it was as
filthy rags before God. Such self- righteousness makes one feel good about
himself but the truth is that it fades as a leaf. It is not long-lasting
because you soon realize that you fall into sin again and are alienated from
God. He hides his face from us and consumes us in His anger. Only the
righteousness planted by God will last. Until we become God’s righteousness
trees, planted by God Himself, we would keep facing God’s wrath when we fall
short in our self-righteousness. I know you’ve been rising and falling in your
righteousness. You feel good today and tomorrow when you sin you feel
unrighteous again. You feel accepted one minute and the next minute you feel
condemned. The day you were able to pray for hours you feel qualified and the
day you couldn’t you disqualified yourself. Your righteousness is as unstable
as water and so your confidence appears and disappears. This is all because you
have not been planted by God. You are trying to plant yourself but you have no
deep enough root to stand on your own. The wind of weaknesses, temptations and
sin comes and blows you away. You are standing on a faulty foundation “our
righteousness” and it is easily destroyed. What will you do when your
foundation is destroyed? We must trust in the Lord to plant us as righteousness
trees. We must have confidence in Him and not lean on our own abilities. When
trials and temptations come to try our righteousness, will we stand or fall?
Will our foundations be strong enough to sustain us? When enemy arrows are
targeted at us, will our breast plate be that of our righteousness or God’s
righteousness? When the storms and tribulations of life tries to uproot us, do
we have roots strong enough to keep us in position?
I trust in the Lord for
safety.
How foolish of you to say to me,
“Fly away like a bird to the mountains,[b]
2 because the wicked have drawn their bows and aimed their arrows
to shoot from the shadows at good people.
3 There is nothing a good person can do
when everything falls apart.”{Psalms 11:1-3 GNT}
How foolish of you to say to me,
“Fly away like a bird to the mountains,[b]
2 because the wicked have drawn their bows and aimed their arrows
to shoot from the shadows at good people.
3 There is nothing a good person can do
when everything falls apart.”{Psalms 11:1-3 GNT}
We must trust in God to plant us and give us a
solid foundation. We should not have confidence in the flesh. To have
confidence in the flesh is to trust in circumcision and the keeping of the
Jewish laws for righteousness. It is to boast of all that we have achieved by
ourselves thinking that we would be righteous by those things. Apostle Paul
called that kind of self-righteousness “Garbage”. He said it must be thrown
away and exchanged for a more valuable kind of righteousness that depends on
trust and faith in God. A righteousness that has nothing to do with keeping of
rules but that is planted by God Himself.
In conclusion, my friends, be joyful in your union with the
Lord. I don't mind repeating what I have written before, and you will be safer
if I do so. 2 Watch out for those who do evil things, those
dogs, those who insist on cutting the body. 3 It is we, not they, who have received the true
circumcision, for we worship God by means of his Spirit and rejoice in our life
in union with Christ Jesus. We do not put any trust in external ceremonies. 4 I could, of course, put my trust in such things.
If any of you think you can trust in external ceremonies, I have even more
reason to feel that way. 5 I was circumcised when I was a week old. I am an
Israelite by birth, of the tribe of Benjamin, a pure-blooded Hebrew. As far as
keeping the Jewish Law is concerned, I was a Pharisee, 6 and I was so zealous that I persecuted the
church. As far as a person can be righteous by obeying the commands of the Law,
I was without fault. 7 But all those things that I might count as profit
I now reckon as loss for Christ's sake. 8 Not only those things; I reckon everything as
complete loss for the sake of what is so much more valuable, the knowledge of
Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have thrown everything away; I consider it
all as mere garbage, so that I may gain Christ 9 and be completely united with him. I no longer
have a righteousness of my own, the kind that is gained by obeying the Law. I
now have the righteousness that is given through faith in Christ, the
righteousness that comes from God and is based on faith. 10 All I want is to know Christ and to experience
the power of his resurrection, to share in his sufferings and become like him
in his death, 11 in the hope that I myself will be raised from
death to life.{Philippians 3:1-10 GNT}
You see my dear
friends, all your works of righteousness is as garbage in God’s eyes. You can
boast all you want but God is not glorified. You may appear before men to be
perfect but not before God. If it doesn’t come from God, then it can never make
you perfect. All the religious activities that makes you feel good and
righteous are all a show of confidence in the flesh. Everything you’ve ever
taken credit for is garbage before God. The credentials of self- righteousness
that many are bragging about is trash in God’s eyes. May I announce to you that
any righteousness that is not the planting of God is a petty kind of
righteousness. It is an inferior brand.
There is a more robust kind of righteousness that comes only by trusting
in God. It is the righteousness that only God can give even in the midst of
your faults and weaknesses. I love the
way verse 9 of Philippians chapter 3 is rendered in the message bible:
I didn’t want some petty, inferior brand of righteousness
that comes from keeping a list of rules when I could get the robust kind that
comes from trusting Christ—God’s righteousness.{Phil.3:9 MSG}
It is this original robust kind of righteousness
that is the planting of God. No man can take glory for this kind of
righteousness. It is not a product of our works, therefore no man can boast
about it. We cannot earn it by keeping the commandments neither can we lose it
by breaking them. It is freely a gift from God and only He can take the glory
for it. If the glory goes to Him alone for this righteousness then we are truly
the planting of the Lord, His oak trees of righteousness.
To console those who mourn in Zion,
To give them beauty for ashes,
The oil of joy for mourning,
The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness;
That they may be called trees of righteousness,
The planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.”{Isaiah 61:3}
To give them beauty for ashes,
The oil of joy for mourning,
The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness;
That they may be called trees of righteousness,
The planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.”{Isaiah 61:3}
Did you notice
from the verse above, that when He has planted the trees of righteousness, He
will be glorified? This means that any righteousness that doesn’t give the
glory to God is self-righteousness. If we take glory for it based on our
credentials and abilities, then it is not God’s righteousness. It is the
filthy, garbage, petty, inferior brand of righteousness. You will need to drop
that your seemingly impressive credential, fleshly pedigree trophies, along
with everything you can take credit for and throw them into the trash so that
you can lean on God alone who is able to plant you as His tree of
righteousness. Then you shall have beauty in place of ashes, the oil of joy
instead of mourning and the garment of praise will replace the spirit of
heaviness. The righteous can therefore now shout for joy. I have decided to
trust in God alone because He has planted me as a tree of righteousness.
I am a tree of righteousness
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