Isaiah 61:10 I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels.
I know you must have heard the expression, “The clothes make the man.” Dress for success also comes to mind. Nothing covers a less than perfect body better than a really great tailor. Seamstress for you ladies, I must not leave you out on this issue. Not all of us have perfect bodies. Those that do have a tendency to show that as much as possible. The rest of us try to hide as best we can our imperfections.
The garments of salvation, the robe of righteousness, they are not exactly well tailored clothes, but in a spiritual sense that is exactly right. Our imperfections are hidden from all. Now comes the interesting part, if we are to carry out this spiritual example to any spiritual result that we can use in our daily lives.
The hands and the face are not covered by a suit, a robe, a dress. Those things are where we are exposed. Hands signify works according to Ecclesiastes 2:11. According to Proverbs 27:19 a man’s face is a reflection of his heart, his countenance exposed. Take into consideration that spiritually speaking these two areas are exposed what has God provided to His children that will in any way reflect our true countenance, in light of our relationship with Jesus Christ.
I would guess that obedience of faith would account for the works, the hands. The face might be a little more difficult to cover since we are all different and no one “looks” like me.
Romans 14:14 I know, and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing unclean of itself: but to him that esteemeth any thing to be unclean, to him it is unclean.
Our conscience is tailored according to God’s will.
Years ago, my wife and I were privileged to work in Corrie ten Boom’s ministry. Anneke took care of her correspondence, travel arrangements, etc. I helped where I could. One of our favorite memories of Corrie embraces a piece of embroidery.
During Corrie’s presentations to audiences, she would often hold the back side of a piece of embroidery (pictured), with hundreds of tangled threads hanging from it. Many wondered if she was holding up the wrong side by mistake. As she held up the messy side of the embroidery she would ask…
“Does God always grant us what we ask for in prayer? Not always. Sometimes He says, ‘No.’ That is because God knows what we do not know. God knows all. Look at this piece of embroidery. The wrong side is chaos. But look at the beautiful picture on the other side – the right side.”
Triumphantly she flipped the cloth over and revealed an elaborately embroidered crown – symbolizing our crown of eternal life. The crown was intricately stitched, and had threads of many colors, including gold, silver and pearls.
“We see now the wrong side, God sees His side all the time. One day we shall see the embroidery from His side, and thank Him for every answered and unanswered prayer.”
God clothes us in His righteousness, since we’ve none of ourselves, yet he still permits us free will, our hands to do His work, and our eyes which reveal the soul.