How Great Is Our God

For Zion's sake I will not hold My peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until her righteousness goes forth as brightness, and her salvation as a lamp that burns…I have set watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem; they shall never hold their peace day or night. You who make mention of the LORD, do not keep silent, and give Him no rest till He establishes and till He makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth…Go through, go through the gates! Prepare the way for the people; build up, build up the highway! Take out the stones, lift up a banner for the peoples! Indeed the LORD has proclaimed to the end of the world: “Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Surely your salvation is coming; behold, His reward is with Him, and His work before Him.’”  (Isaiah 62:1, 6, 7, 10, 11).

Who are these watchmen? The prophet Jeremiah picks up this same theme.

“For there shall be a day when the watchmen will cry on Mount Ephraim, ‘Arise, and let us go up to Zion, to the LORD our God.’ ” For thus says the LORD: “Sing with gladness for Jacob, and shout among the chief of the nations; proclaim, give praise, and say, ‘O LORD, save Your people, the remnant of Israel!’ ” Jeremiah 31:6, 7).

In the Hebrew (verse 5 in the original text), the word for watchmen is notzrim—which today is translated into English as “Christians”! Now Jeremiah could not have known anything about Christians. Only centuries later in Antioch were believers first called Christians. Yet God had Jeremiah put that particular word, notzrim, in his text.

For God knew that one day, there would be a multitude of people all around the world who would be born from above—people who would love Him, seek Him, desire to understand and obey His word, and praise Him. And He knew that many of them would be Gentiles who would love Israel and the Jewish people. Together, Jewish and Gentile notzrim orshomrim (the word for “watchmen” used in Isaiah 62:6) would stand in the gap for Israel and warn them of any approaching danger. They would station themselves upon the walls of Jerusalem and in prayer watch over them and seek their good and protection from their enemies. In standing with Israel, these notzrim/shomrim would intercede for their return to their Biblical, God-given homeland and for their national salvation.

The Scriptures are very clear that these watchmen are to pray in this manner and to “take out the stones” (Isaiah 62:10) of hindrance. In Jeremiah 31:7, the Lord even tells them specifically what to pray: “O LORD, save Your people, the remnant of Israel!” And God answers!

For thepeople of Israel are returning and will continue to return to their Land and to their God: “Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the ends of the earth, among them the blind and the lame, the woman with child and the one who labors with child, together; a great throng shall return there. They shall come with weeping, and with supplications I will lead them” (Jeremiah 31:8, 9a).