Give Him No Rest

These verses from Isaiah show that God desires and commands our bold intercession. I feel so convicted this morning of my not measuring up to this- individually and corporately:

I have posted watchmen on your walls, Jerusalem;

they will never be silent day or night.

You who call on the LORD,

give yourselves no rest, 

and give him no rest till he establishes Jerusalem

and makes her the praise of the earth.

Isaiah 62.6-7

This reminds me of Jesus' story of the persistent widow in Luke 18.1-8 and Paul's command in 1 Thessalonians 5.17 to pray without ceasing (see here for Piper's explanation of how we can pray continually) and that part of the Lord's prayer where we pray let your kingdom come (Matt 6.10).

These verses from Isaiah also make me think of other great men of prayer whose example we must follow. Take Moses:

So he said he would destroy them-

had not Moses, his chosen one,

stood in the breach before him.

Psalm 106.23

and Phinehas:

But Phinehas stood up and intervened

and the plague was checked.

Psalm 106.30

This is quite the opposite to those devastating words in Ezekiel,

And I sought for a man among them

who should build up the wall

and stand in the breach before me for the land,

that I should not destroy it,

but I found none.

Ezekiel 22.30

Lord, please change me and make me like Moses, Phinehas, the watchmen in Jerusalem and that persistent widow.