Many women love clothes and possess an innate sense of style that helps them to skillfully combine pieces of clothing into spectacular outfits and wardrobes. I am not one of those women. I am most comfortable in a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt which takes zero skill or styling ability to combine. Clothes for me are a constant source of stress and unease. Never knowing what to wear. Always wondering if I am overdressed or underdressed.
But thankfully, Scripture tells me that God has taken care of my Spiritual wardrobe. I don’t need to work to craft it or pull it together. He has already designed and created it. Jesus came to pay for it and the Holy Spirit assists us in being continually clothed in His garments.
Beginning back in April at The Well gathering and then over the last few blog posts, we have centered ourselves in God’s restoration, rebuilding and renewal of individuals and communities. Isaiah 61, prophetically promises that one day the Kingdom of God will become reality. As we come to the end of Isaiah 61, we read in verse 10:
I will rejoice greatly in the Lord, my soul will be joyful in my God; for He has clothed me with garments of salvation, He has wrapped me with a robe of righteousness, as a groom puts on a turban, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
Here Isaiah draws us in as his words paint a picture in our mind and cause an emotional stir within us. Visualizing a royal gathering or fancy wedding is easy in our modern times. There are countless movies and photographs capturing the lives of glamorous people, adorned in beautiful clothing and dazzling jewels. But Isaiah isn’t thanking God for physical clothing, beauty or jewels. He is joyful and rejoicing “in the Lord” himself. He knows what it means to have his soul satisfied and to be at peace with God. He is ”clothed” and “wrapped” completely in God’s righteousness and salvation. There is no better place to be. Everything else in our lives pales in comparison. When our souls are completely satisfied in God, we will no longer have to strive and strain. We can find rest in God.
But before we can rest in Him, we must first know that we are in need of Him.
As we go back to the very beginning, we see that when Eve and Adam ate from the forbidden fruit, their eyes were opened and they saw their nakedness. In Genesis 3:7, the couple covered themselves with sewn together fig leaves when they realized they were naked. But in Genesis 3:21, God made garments of skin and clothed them. To be covered seems temporary and incomplete while being clothed seems to carry more permanence and completeness. All through Scripture, being naked and being clothed are used metaphorically. In a metaphorical sense, being clothed by God meant a constant and continual connection to the presence of God, similar to how your clothing is in continual contact with your body while you are wearing it. In contrast, being naked represents a broken connection in the relationship with God and His presence is taken off of you.
In Isaiah 64:6, we find these words from the people to God: “We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.” These polluted garments are not made with sinful, disobedient living but here it is “our most righteous deeds” that create worthless garments. God has gifted salvation to us but so often our thinking becomes twisted and we believe His garment of Salvation is too costly. Instead we begin to believe we can weave our own clothing by the works we do and the good deeds we accomplish.
In Matthew 22, Jesus tells a parable about a wedding guest that shows up to the banquet without wearing wedding clothes. When asked why he isn’t wearing the right clothing, the man remains speechless. The king has the man bound up and thrown into utter darkness. To be honest, this parable has often perplexed me. The king had asked many people to come but they all rejected his invitations so his staff were then instructed to go out and invite any and all that would come and fill the wedding hall. So I could not understand why he would have punished the man for not being dressed correctly. But in studying the Isaiah passages on garments, I learned a key connection that I had previously missed. In ancient times, the king would have provided a robe or a wedding garment for each of the guests. The man had rejected the gift of the garment and instead entered the hall in his own clothes. He believed the “polluted garments” of his own righteousness were good enough to earn him admittance but they were not.
In the story of the prodigal son, Jesus paints a different picture which also involves a robe. Here the son has come home repentant and the father places his robe upon the son. The son no longer had a robe of his own. He had thrown away his rags and ran home to his father.
And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. (Luke 15:20-22)
In the Old Testament, the prophet Zechariah is having a vision that is like a courtroom drama:
Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him. And the Lord said to Satan, “The Lord rebuke you, O Satan! The Lord Who has chosen Jerusalem rebukes you! Is not this a brand plucked from the fire?” Now Joshua was standing before the angel, clothed with filthy garments. And the angel said to those who were standing before him, “Remove the filthy garments from him.” And to him he said, “Behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you, and I will clothe you with pure vestments.” And I said, “Let them put a clean turban on his head.” So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him with garments. (Zechariah 3:3-5)
In the same way, God accepts each of us with no regard for what sins we have committed in the past or how dirty our rags are. But we have to be willing to remove those rags and accept His glorious garments instead. His glory, grace and mercy have woven a robe of righteousness that is freely offered to all of us. When we put on His robe, we are putting on the garment of salvation, the robe of righteousness that wraps our hearts, our minds and our souls. We are clothed and our soul is at rest. In that we can greatly rejoice!