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}

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}

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}

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.