“I will beckon to the nations, I will lift up my banner to the peoples.” Isaiah 49:22
We see flags and banners everywhere. We fly the American flag as a sign of loyalty to our country. In many school gymnasiums, we see banners hanging from the ceiling recognizing past victories. Even our churches display banners. During war, flag-bearing soldiers often perished attempting to keep their country’s flag flying high. Those flags were important because they served as a rallying sign to the soldiers.
In Bible times people also used the banner as a rallying point. Once Moses stood atop a hill overlooking a battle. In his hand he held the rod used to part the Red Sea. Exodus 17:11 says, “As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning.” The lifted hands and rod of Moses served as a flag or banner. It was God who led them into battle. He was their banner, their focal point. Moses built an altar there, and he named it Jehovah Nissi, “the LORD is my Banner.”
Isaiah wrote that Jesus is our banner-bearer. In Isaiah 11:10 we read, “In that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations will rally to him.” We must realize that we do not fight our battles alone. We need to constantly look to the banner waving above us as a reminder that our battles are not in our hands but in the Lord’s. David said it so well in Psalm 60:4, “For those who fear you, you have raised a banner to be unfurled.”
From the book “Precious Words of the Bible” by Reynold R. Kremer