Day 8: Healing
“Then your light will break out like the dawn, And your recovery will speedily spring forth; And your righteousness will go before you; The glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.”
Verse eight states “your recovery will speedily spring forth.” The NIV says, “your healing will quickly appear.” I wonder if recovery and healing linger unfulfilled because we are bound to looking at the cycle of our problems alone. I wonder if a new day is long coming because we are too focused inwardly and rarely sow the seeds of hope into others who have none.
“It is God who measures out the length of the bandage, pours healing oils upon it and wraps our pain with his healing touch.”
The Hebrew word here for healing refers to a long bandage surgeon use to wrap a wound. The word hearkens back to Isaiah’s earlier words that identify the pain of Israel’s past rebellions, “Why should you be beaten anymore? Why do you persist in rebellion? Your whole head is injured, your whole heart afflicted. From the sole of your foot to the top of your head there is no soundness—only wounds and welts and open sores, not cleansed or bandaged or soothed with olive oil” Isaiah 1:5, 6.
Isaiah’s words here are incredibly profound. He doesn’t hesitate to dig deep; to draw out what we must be honest about. Isaiah includes the entirety of whom we are–from our mind and how we think, to our heart and how we feel. He says there is no “soundness only wounds and welts and open sores, not cleansed or bandaged or soothed with olive oil.”
But Isaiah doesn’t leave us in our pain… In fact, it is God’s will that your woundedness be healed. It is God who measures out the length of the bandage, pours healing oils upon it and wraps our pain with his healing touch.
By faith believe your mind and afflicted heart are being healed! A soundness of life is returning. The healing you believed would take forever is beginning to happen. As you walk through this fast, believe this is God’s promise through Isaiah. Pursue the challenges of verses six through seven and begin to claim verse eight!