The Favorable Time

“So says Jehovah, in a favorable time I replied to You, and in a day of salvation I have helped You; and I will preserve You, and give You for a covenant of the people, to establish the earth, to cause them to inherit the wasted inheritances;” (Isaiah 49:8).

In a favorable time, a time appointed and approved of the Father and a time that is acceptable to the Father, He replied to Jesus. This verse is about Jesus. It is the time of salvation mentioned in the New Testament. “(For He says, "In an acceptable time I heard you, and in a day of salvation, I helped you;" Behold, now is the accepted time. Behold, now is the day of salvation.) (2Corinthians 6:2) And that day is today. We are in the dispensation of Today, a dispensation of salvation, a time of God’s mercy and grace. “But exhort one another daily, while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.” (Hebrews 3:13) It’s the time of salvation. It’s the time to hear and heed the voice of the Lord. “Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, "Today if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness, when your fathers tempted Me, proved Me, and saw My works forty years. (Hebrews 3:7-9)

Luke in Acts wrote the words of Peter at Pentecost of the prophecy of David concerning Jesus. “Men, Israelites, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by powerful works, and wonders and miracles, which God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves also know, this One given to you by the before-determined counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken and by lawless hands, crucifying Him, you put Him to death; whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be held by it. For David speaks concerning Him, "I foresaw the Lord always before me, because He is at my right hand, that I should not be moved. Therefore my heart rejoiced and my tongue was glad; and also My flesh shall rest in hope, because You will not leave My soul in Hades, nor will You allow Your holy One to see corruption. You revealed to Me the ways of life. You will fill Me with joy with Your countenance." (Acts 2:22-28) The Father fulfilled His promise to Jesus not to leave Him in death, to help Him, preserve Him and make Him the covenant that was needed to redeem mankind.

Because of the sacrifice of Jesus, Isaiah’s prophecy says that Jesus caused mankind to inherit the wasted inheritances, all the destructions made in the earth. Isaiah is speaking about the ruins of the inherited lands and riches of the Lord that were trampled and stolen. But there are even much more inheritances that were stolen from man when man sinned and was expulsed from God’s favor and grace. These inheritances are for those who now come to the Lord through Jesus, Lord and Savior. This is every spiritual blessing. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ;” (Ephesians 1:3). It is holiness and acceptance by the righteousness of Jesus before God. “...according as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love,” (Ephesians 1:4). We are predestined to be His adopted children. “...having predestined us to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will,” (Ephesians 1:5). And because we are children of God, we inherit as children do of their Father. “And if we are children, then we are heirs; heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ; so that if we suffer with Him, we may also be glorified together. (Romans 8:17) He has made us accepted in the “One,” the Beloved. “... to the praise of the glory of His grace, in which He has made us accepted in the One having been loved.” (Ephesians 1:6) All this through the birth in the spirit, not of this world but by the Holy Spirit of God, with God’s nature and filled with His glory, eternally and forever. “...having been born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, through the living Word of God, and abiding forever.” (1Peter 1:23)

Even before Jesus came to fulfill God’s Promise to man to redeem him, God had promised Jesus that He would be the covenant man needed to be redeemed, but that He would not leave Him in death. God had His appointed time for salvation, for redemption. This time is an era or dispensation of His mercy and grace made possible with the sacrifice of Jesus. It’s the redemption and fulfillment of every promise God made to man. In this fulfillment is the inheritance we are to receive. It was to be the inheritance of man since the creation of the world, but because of sin we lost it. But now it’s available to those who become children of God through Jesus Christ the Lord and Savior of man and the Lamb of God Who is worthy before the Father.