09/02/2023 – Day 132 – “The Bisorah” / “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, for the Lord has anointed Me to proclaim the Bisorah, the Gospel, the good news.” (Isaiah 61:1)
Again, for the devotional, each day presents a dialogue between a mentor (teacher) and a student. Let’s get started:
“It was a particularly windy day and even more where we stood on the top of the desert mountain.”
“What does th the word Gospel mean? he asked.
“An account of Messiah’s life,” I replied.
“It means good news. It’s the good news of Messiah’s redemption, the forgiveness of our sins on the cross, the overcoming of death in the resurrection, salvation, eternal life. Now there in the Bible does the word Gospel first appear?”
“In the New Testament?”
“No. It appears first in the Hebrew Scriptures.”
“How? As what?”
“As the word Bisorah. Bishorah is the word from which the Gospel of the New Testatent comes. In fact, Messiah began His ministry by quoting a Hebrew verse in which that word appears: ‘The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, for the Lord has anointed Me to proclaim the Bisorah, the Gospel, the good news.’ (Isaiah 61:1) And there’s more it it. Bisorah comes from the root word ‘basar’. Basar means cheerful or joyful. So the effect of the Bisorah, the Gospel, has be be joy. Its nature is to make one’s life joyful. To know that you’re saved from judgment and been given heaven as well is more that enough to give you joy every day of your life.”
“But there have to be believers who don’t live with joy.”
“Then, they’re not receiving the Bisorah, not as it is. Do you know what else Bisorah means? It’s a word that describes you right now.”
“What do you mean?”
“The wind has caused your cheeks to become rosy. The word Bisorah, the Gospel, means rosy.”
“Rosy?”
“Yes, for the effect of the Gospel is to make the one who receives it rosy, as is filled with life. And do you know what else Bisorah means? Fresh. For the Gospel, the good news of salvation, is always new, always fresh. It never gets old. And if one is not living in the freshness of life, then one is not receiving the Bisorah, or has stopped receiving it. Since the Bisorah is always fresh, it must always be freshly received… as if for the first time. And those who receive it in this way, their lives become new, revived, and refreshed. For the Gospel is the Bisorah, and the Bisorah never ages, never gets old, and can never be anything else… but new, fresh, and enough to make your life rosy-cheeked.”
“The mission: Receive the Bisorah, the good news, as if for the first time. And by that power walk afresh in the newness of life.
Proverbs 25:25; Isaiah 52:7; 61:1
The Nissan Gospel Mystery“
Soli Deo Gloria!