“LORD, You establish peace for us; All we have accomplished You have done for us.”
“LORD, You will ordain peace for us; for You also have worked all our works in us.”
(Isaiah 26:12 MKJV)
At first reading of this two versions of Isaiah 26:12, I immediately interpret them differently.
When I read the NIV version I immediately think of a child doing something like building a model or arranging a doll house. The father’s told is to encourage the child while putting little touches here and there, unknown to the child, to make it work correctly or look realistic, even to just make the dolls stand up without falling over. The child says, “Look what I’ve done!” In reality it was the father’s doing. Eventually, as the child grows, he/she realizes the Father’s work in the projects. This father and child working together is one I want to keep in my mind when something I do, I do well. I want to remember that it is the Father’s work accomplished through me.
Now when I read the MKJV at first glance, I read that the work is a work done in me, rather than something done through me. As I ponder this a moment, it flies in the face of many “step” plans and self-help teachings that seem to emphasis all that I can do to change myself. Self. I am reminded that changing ourselves may be overemphasized in our current culture. Are we not called to die to self?
In a closer look at the operative word in this scripture–WORK–I can look at its definition from Strong’s:
מעשׂה
ma‛ăśeh mah-as-eh’
From an action (good or bad); generally a transaction; abstractly activity; by implication a product (specifically a poem) or (generally) property: – act, art, + bakemeat, business, deed, do (-ing), labour, thing made, ware of making, occupation, thing offered, operation, possession, X well, ([handy-, needle-, net-]) work, (-ing, -manship), wrought.
When Webster’s Dictionary is consulted, the number three definition is fascinating: “To be in action or motion; as the working of the heart.” The working of the heart! Interesting!
I apply this scripture to me in both ways: G-d’s works in me are His accomplishments; righteous works through me are also His accomplishments. It’s a bit freeing, too, that it’s the LORD that is responsible for making things perfect on my inside and outside of me. Sure, I still feel a responsibility to make some attempt at working out things inside me but the end result is this: it is Y’shuaJesus who will wash me through and through and accomplish things through me too.
Thank You, LORD. Thank You for Your Work in and through us. Let us meditate upon Your scripture Word that it might work its way into and through our lives, that our hearts would glow and our minds ignite. Bless us this day in our walk with You. In the Name of Y’shuaJesus. AMEN.
Lord Bless, Keep, Shine. . .
JonahzSong 