Garments Of Salvation

I will greatly rejoice in the Lord; my soul shall exult in my God, for He has clothed me with the garments of salvation; He has covered me with the robe of righteousness. – Isaiah 61:10a  (ESV)

That robe of righteousness can perhaps be best understood as the robe of the Creator God of Israel’s covenant faithfulness.  God’s robe of righteousness---covenant faithfulness---is also called the garments of salvation.  What is salvation?  Salvation is redemption and deliverance from the curse of the divine image bearers rejection of God’s covenant and its associated sickness, disease, and death---that which took root in this world because of the rebellion against God that is known as the fall of man. 

In that fall, a creation that had been pronounced as good, in which sickness and disease had no place, indeed, in which it was not possible for man to die, became a damaged creation which bore thorns and thistles, and in which it was now not possible for man not to die, as his physical body would eventually be ravaged by the effects of age.  Isaiah writes that, as part of the fulfillment of God’s covenant, first made with Abraham, that God would clothe His covenant people with the garments of salvation, effectively, reversing the curse of the fall.  This reversal would extend to the whole of God’s creation as well.  That garment of salvation, and the reversal of that curse, is the evidence of God’s faithfulness to His covenant.  It is a robe that it is the evidence of His righteousness. 

Isaiah goes on to gloriously describe this putting on of garments, comparing it to the way that “a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels” (61:10b).  Is it not significant that talk of what God will do for His covenant people naturally leads to talk of the bridegroom and the bride?  It is in this light that we think of the fifth chapter of Ephesians and Paul writing “Husbands (bridegrooms), love your wives (brides), as Christ (bridegroom) loved the church (bride) and gave Himself up for her, that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the Word, so that He might present the church to Himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such think, that she might be holy and without blemish” (5:25-27).

Keeping ourselves in the New Testament, let us seek an even fuller understanding of our text, with its garments and robes.  Bearing in mind what has been said about the fall and its effect on man’s physical body, as well as its effect on a previously very good creation, we turn to the fifteenth chapter of Corinthians.  There, we are able to glimpse what the Apostle Paul might have had in mind as he considered Isaiah’s presentation of the garments of salvation and the robe of righteousness.  He writes, “Behold!  I tell you a mystery.  We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.  For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed” (15:51-52).  Now here’s the key: “For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality.  When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: ‘Death is swallowed up in victory.’ ‘O death, where is your victory?  O death, where is your sting?’” (15:53-55) 

Paul looks forward to a time when this body that is subject to the stinging and victorious march of the curse of death, will be changed.  Here, it can also be said that that to which he looked forward was also something of a reality when a man confesses Jesus as Lord.  That being understood, Paul looks forward to the time when what is perishable puts on imperishable, and what is mortal puts on immortality.  He looks forward to a time when man will be placed in a renewed creation that is good, and once again, he will find it possible not to die.  This is when it will be said that death has been defeated.  Neither Paul nor Isaiah expected death to be defeated simply because God’s covenant people have passed into some disembodied state sans body.  No, death will be defeated when the curse is reversed and God has put His world right.  This imperishable and immortal body is a garment of salvation, as it is not subject to the curse.  This imperishable and immortal body is the robe of the working out of God’s covenant faithfulness. 

In contemplation of God’s covenant faithfulness, and what it implies, Isaiah goes on to write, “For as the earth brings forth its sprouts, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to sprout up, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to sprout up before all nations” (61:11).  It is no accident that Isaiah brings in this talk of the earth and gardens sprouting.  He understands that when God’s consummates His covenant, that the curse will be lifted from all of creation, and all will be renewed.  We find Paul picking up on this theme in the eighth chapter of Romans, when he famously writes about “the creation” being “subject to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it” (8:20).  It was man that subjected creation to futility because of his rebellion against his Creator; but because God is faithful, “the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God” (8:21). 

For all of this, and quite rightly if we believe in Jesus’ Lordship and so find ourselves as a part of God’s covenant people in faith, we should “greatly rejoice in the Lord;” and our souls should, most assuredly, exult in our God.  We are “an offspring the Lord has blessed” (61:9b), and we praise Him for His unending faithfulness.  

David Spares Saul (part 1 of 2)

During the period of time that can be looked upon as David’s pre-rule exile, and in the record of some of the stories related to that time of David’s life, we find David, and others associated with David, functioning in the role of deliverer.  So in the midst of exile, as David is being pursued by an enemy (Saul), and as he awaits the exodus into his God’s ultimate plan for his life, he embodies that which he is supposed to be for his people.  The first time we see this is in the twenty-fourth chapter of 1^st Samuel, when David is given an opportunity to kill his enemy, Saul. 

Saul, while pursuing David so as to kill him, ventured into a cave “to relieve himself” (24:3) in the area in which David was said to have been hiding.  “Now David and his men were sitting in the recesses of the cave” (24:3b).  David’s men’s thought that this was quite the fortuitous turn of events, saying “This is the day about which the Lord said to you, ‘I will give your enemy into your hand, and you can do to him whatever seems appropriate to you’.” (24:4a)  They seem to be insistent that David’s moment of exodus---his deliverance from his oppressive and subjugating enemy---had finally arrived, and that this was the Lord’s handiwork.  How does David respond?  He “got up and quietly cut off an edge of Saul’s robe. 

Though this seems rather benign, we read that “Afterward David’s conscience bothered him because he had cut off an edge of Saul’s robe” (24:5a), as he still looked to and recognized Saul as the Lord’s chosen king for Israel (24:6).  There is a Moses-like quality, in a sense, that is on display here by David.  How so?  Well, when Moses went before Pharaoh in order to secure the release of Israel from Egypt, he went with the powerful backing of Israel’s God.  Moses knew that he had been appointed as Israel’s leader and deliverer, just as David was well aware, in that moment with Saul in the cave, that he had been appointed as leader in Israel.  However, with that knowledge, Moses did not strike hard against Pharaoh.  Rather, as the plagues of Egypt would begin, we see Moses figuratively cutting off a corner of Pharaoh’s robe.  As we look back on those events, we can say that the first of the plagues could be understood as a small sampling of God’s power, and that they were to be used as an inducement for Pharaoh to bring his oppression and subjugation of God’s anointed (Israel) to an end. 

After David spared Saul in the cave, David raises his voice and asks Saul why he believes those that tell him that “David is seeking to do you harm” (24:9b).  He goes on to say, “Today your own eyes see how the Lord delivered you---this very day---into my hands in the cave” (24:10a).  After the first of the plagues in Egypt, Moses could easily have communicated such a sentiment to Pharaoh.  In speaking of the way that the Lord delivered Saul into his hands, David alludes to the blessings of Deuteronomy---of being set over their enemies---that were to be enjoyed by the anointed of the Lord (Israel as a whole and him personally).  David continues and says, “Some told me to kill you, but I had pity on you” (24:10b), which is another quasi-Mosaic quality, in that God threatened to kill the Israelites in the wilderness on more than one occasion, but Moses, with pity, interceded on behalf of the people, relying on God’s righteousness (covenant faithfulness) to carry the day. 

That reliance upon God’s righteousness is reflected in what followed David’s statement concerning his pity, when he said, “I will not extend my hand against my lord, for he is the Lord’s chosen one” (24:10c).  Moses could easily have seized on the words of the Lord and had a great nation made from him, just as David could have seized on the opportunity to kill Saul and take the kingdom for himself, but both refrained from doing so, offering reminders of the Lord’s choosing and faithfulness to His chosen and to His purposes. 

David says, “Look, my father, and see the edge of your robe in my hand!  When I cut off the edge of your robe, I didn’t kill you” (24:11a).  David is effectively telling Saul, “I have delivered you!  The power to send you into exile was in my hand, and in that, my exodus was at hand.  I was being rescued from your subjugation, but I rescued you.”  David’s mercy, in this instance, extended to the one that was his enemy, as he left himself in exile, much like God would do for His people as mentioned by the Apostle Paul in the fifth chapter of Romans, in that “God demonstrates His own love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us…while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son” (5:8,10a). 

Yes, Jesus, the anointed one, went into exile (albeit a temporary exile, just as David’s exile was ultimately a temporary exile), so as to foster reconciliation, on behalf of those that were enemies of God.  In that light, what was Saul’s response to David?  It was a response of reconciliation, though unfortunately fleeting, as he says “You are more innocent than I, for you have treated me well, even though I have tried to harm you!” (24:17)  Is that not the response of all of mankind to its Creator, as through its first and continued rebellion from God’s great purpose for the beings created to reflect His image into this creation, mankind says to God, “You have treated me well, even though I have tried to harm you”?