Seek and read from the book of the LORD: Not one of these shall be missing; none shall be without her mate. For the mouth of the LORD has commanded, and his Spirit has gathered them. -- Isaiah 34:16
The context of Isaiah 34 appears to be the certainty of God’s
wrath falling upon the descendants of Esau in retaliation for Edom’s animosity
and frequent treachery toward their Semite cousins in Israel. Judgment will fall and the land of Edom will
be turned over to the various wild beasts and birds for there will be no human
inhabitants to trouble or disturb those creatures.
Looking at verse 16 from this perspective, we see that the
Spirit of God will gather all those creatures to overrun and inhabit the
desolated territory. There are numerous
prophecies alluding to this so a person can go through the Scriptures and see
that each creature listed will indeed be present with its mate, ready to
multiply in the absence of human dwellers.
Or, consider the birds and beasts as manifestations of the prophetic
word. We can find these words in the “book
of the LORD”. None of God’s words will
fall to the ground to be lost or fail.
Each word He has spoken will have its “mate” – its fulfillment. The Holy Spirit works to gather those words
into the Holy Scripture – so that we may trust it to be truly the word of
God. But He also works to bring about
the complement, to cause the word to come to pass.
If an owl or a hawk, a porcupine or a hyena is used by the
Spirit to fulfill and complete the word of God, are we thinking too highly of
ourselves and those around us if we think that He is working in us to build the
kingdom, to accomplish His will and to live out His truth in this world? The Word is alive in His people.
An owl, being a creature of instinct, will tend to follow
the opening that is before it apart from hesitation caused by caution. We, as creatures of intellect, imagination,
and will, made in the image and likeness of God, may choose to rebel against
the Spirit’s urgings. Kind of a sad
thought, isn’t it? I suspect there are
many, unaware of the Spirit’s work among them, thinking to do their own will, who
end up furthering the purposes of a God they disdain. Origen says that Christ was put on the Cross
by God, by man, and by the devil, but the intentions were vastly
different.
Whether we are aware of it or not, the Lord has called to us
and spoken to us about our destiny, in Scripture, in circumstances, and from
the lips of those around us. If we are
willing to follow Him, not one of those words will be missing from our lives
and each will be present with its fulfillment.
