Listen, O isles, unto me; and hearken, ye peoples from afar. Jehovah hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name.
A new speaker steps forward here. He does not address Israel first, but the distant coastlands and peoples far off. Two questions follow. Who is this Servant, named by God before His birth? And why does He call the far edges of the world, and not Israel?
Chapter 49 does not continue the argument of the chapters before it. Those chapters dealt with Babylon and with idols. Here the subject changes. One writer marks the exact span of the new division.
A new division of Isaiah opens here. It is no longer about Babylon and idolatry, or about a destruction seen as the overthrow of idol worship in the earth. Here it is the far deeper question of Christ Himself and His rejection by the Jews. We find that this portion runs from Isaiah 49:1 to the end of Isaiah 57... They were wicked in both ways. They were wicked in going after the false gods of the Gentiles, and more wicked still in rejecting their divine Messiah.
At first the words sound like the nation describing its own calling. The next verses give the speaker away.
Of whom is it written: "The LORD called me from the womb; from the body of my mother He named my name, … and said to me, You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified"? This, one would say, must be the nation. But at once we hear a voice that is not the nation's: "I have labored in vain; I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity; yet surely my right is with the LORD, and my recompense with my God."
Israel held the title of servant. The title now passes.
Such was the purpose of God about Israel; but, Israel failing, Christ becomes the true Israel. It is the transition from the people to the Messiah in Whom alone it could be.
The verse says two things about the time before this Servant was born. God called Him, and God spoke His name. One writer points to where the Gospels record that second detail.
In the first four verses we hear the voice of Christ through the Spirit of prophecy. The Lord calls upon the Isles of the Gentiles, and the nations from afar, to listen to His words. All are to know that Jehovah has "called" Him, and that His Name was announced before His birth. These words came true in the Gospel of Matthew. There the angel says to Joseph about Mary that "she will bear a son, and you shall call His name JESUS." All the nations are to know that JESUS, the Servant of Jehovah, is the Saviour of the world.
The audience is the surprise. A Jewish reader expects a message about his own nation. The first line gives him something far wider.
So as we start Isaiah 49, and pass into the central section, we hear His voice at once in the spirit of prophecy, calling us to listen to Him. The Gospel of John presents Him to us as "the Word," the One in whom the whole mind of God is expressed. At the transfiguration the voice out of the cloud said, "Listen to Him." So we are not surprised that in prophecy He should say, "Listen … to Me." What might surprise us, and might well surprise an attentive Jewish reader, is that He should address His call to the "isles," and to "peoples from afar." The word, we understand, is in the plural. It means the distant nations, and not the people of Israel. But so it was. So the start of this new section shows that what He has to say, and what He will do, will be for the benefit of all men and not only for the people of Israel.
This opening line begins a story that runs to the end of the chapter. Jerusalem is listening in.
In this beautiful song of the prophet, we hear Messiah telling His own history, from the very womb of the Virgin to the throne of the kingdom. But Zion, as if she had been listening, complains like one forgotten. She does not find her own place in this history. Messiah answers this fear and this complaint with good and comforting words. This I may therefore call "Jesus and Jerusalem."
The road from the womb to the throne runs through death.
In this great passage we also learn that the final blessing comes only through the Servant of Jehovah becoming obedient to death. The atoning sufferings must come before the displayed glory.
- Servant named. God called Him before birth and named Him beforehand. The angel then told Joseph to call the child Jesus.
- Servant substituted. Israel held the title of servant and failed. Christ becomes the true Israel, and the prophecy moves from the people to the Messiah.
- Servant heard. His first word is a call to the distant coastlands and far peoples, not to Israel — a signal that what He does is for all men.
- Servant rejected. From this chapter to the end of chapter 57 the theme is Christ Himself and His rejection. That guilt runs deeper than Israel's earlier turning to idols.
- Servant glorified. Glory comes only after obedience to death: the atoning sufferings first, the displayed glory after.
And he hath made my mouth like a sharp sword, he hath concealed me under the shadow of his hand, and he hath made me a polished shaft in his quiver hath he hidden me.
Isaiah 49 opens with a servant telling how God prepared him: a mouth like a sharp sword, and an arrow kept hidden in a quiver. The question behind the whole chapter is who this Servant is — the nation of Israel, or the Messiah who takes Israel's place.
This verse stands at the start of a new division in the book. The subject has changed.
A new division of Isaiah opens here. It is no longer Babylon and idolatry... Here it is the far deeper question of Christ Himself and His rejection by the Jews... They were wicked in both ways: wicked in going after the false gods of other nations, and wicked yet more in rejecting their divine Messiah.
The same writer reads the two halves of the verse as preparation and protection. He also sees the servant's name pass from the nation to one Man. (The writers quoted here use an older translation, which reads "polished shaft" where the ESV has "polished arrow.")
There was a great providential preparation... "in the shadow of his hand he has hidden me, and made me a polished shaft; in his quiver he has hidden me." So there was protection too... Such was the purpose of God about Israel; but, Israel failing, Christ becomes the true Israel. It is the transition from the people to the Messiah in Whom alone it could be.
Both weapons stand for speech. One writer shows what each meant in the life of Jesus.
As Man, in the service of God in this world, the Lord in spirit can say, "And He has made my mouth like a sharp sword" (verse 2). His word reached into the innermost corners of heart and conscience while He was speaking on earth. It brought divine blessing to many, and stirred up the opposition of those who were against God and His Son. He also said, "in the shadow of His hand He has hidden me," for He was always conscious of God's protection while men under Satan's influence bitterly attacked Him. He was also "a polished shaft," whose word reached not only those where He was, but reached into the distance, even to us in this day. It was a weapon that brought down the power of the enemy — a secret weapon, hidden in God's armoury, which He brought out to defeat the enemy at the time He had appointed.
That same word also cuts the hearer.
The One who is the Saviour will also convict us of our sins, and so show our need of the Saviour. His word will be like a sharp sword and a polished shaft. It pierces the conscience and reveals the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
The verse hides Him twice over: first in the hand, then in the quiver. One writer finds an order there, and a pattern for anyone God will use.
In Isaiah 49 He says, "In the shadow of His hand He has hidden me, and made me a polished shaft; in His quiver He has hidden me." We must be in the "hand" — the place of shaping — before we are in the quiver, ready to be used. Then He comes out brightly polished, we might say, and says, "I delight to do your will, O my God." That is the flexibility of a servant, and we see it in Christ, who adapted Himself to every service on earth.
An arrow in a quiver has not been shot yet. So the picture looks ahead to the day He appears.
His words will cut like a sword and pierce like an arrow when He comes out from the Divine quiver. He will appear as the true Servant of God and the true Israel — that is, "Prince of God." As the earlier chapters have shown, God had called the nation Israel to serve Him, but it had failed completely. This true Israel is called from the womb and made a "polished shaft" to fly straight to the mark as directed. Of Him, Jehovah says, "I will be glorified."
The shadow of God's hand covers more than the Servant.
The believer's place of safety is no longer a sheepfold on earth, as in former days. It is the hand of the Good Shepherd. There, in the shadow of His hand (compare Isaiah 49:2; Isaiah 51:16) they are securely hidden from every enemy. That hand of unbeatable might... will surround the frail and feeble sheep and protect them from every attack of the enemy.
- Turn. The verse opens a section about Christ Himself and His rejection by His own people, not about idols and Babylon.
- Transfer. Israel was called to be God's servant and failed; the titles and the task pass to the Messiah, the true Israel.
- Formed. Hidden in the hand first, in the quiver second: shaping comes before service.
- Fired. The sword is His speech and the arrow His word. It cut consciences then, reaches us now, and will strike in the open when He comes out of the quiver.
- Sheltered. The shadow that covered the Servant now covers the sheep — the hand that hid Him is the hand that holds them.
And he said unto me, Thou art my servant, Israel, in whom I will glorify myself.
In verse 3 God gives His Servant a nation's name, "Israel," and says He will be glorified in Him. Commentators see a turning point here: the nation called to serve God had failed, and both the service and the glory now pass to one Person.
One writer explains what the name means, and what follows if the Servant is read as the nation and not as Christ.
It is to Him, to this same Servant, God says in verse 3, "You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified." This is the only place in our section where God calls His Servant "Israel." The name, as we know, means "Prince of God." A believing heart sees Christ in this verse. But the rationalistic critics would shut Him out, despite the verses before and after. They would make the Servant the nation of Israel here, and all through. If that were true, then it is the nation in verse 5 that restores Jacob, and in Isaiah 53 makes atonement.
The Hebrew wording itself is disputed. One writer weighs it, then names the question that really matters.
The question is this: can asher-b'ka (word for word, "whom in you") be translated "you in whom"? … I am not sure we are justified in adding "you are he" before "in whom." What matters is the question of who "My servant" is here — Israel, or Christ the blessed Lord? This is plainly the transition point between Israel and the Lord as Servant; verse 4 makes it clear.
One writer traces this move through three names Israel once carried.
When Jehovah said "You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified" (Isa. 49:3), He was speaking to Messiah. In Him God took up the history of Israel afresh for His own glory. Whether seen as God's son (Ex. 4:22-23), as God's vine (Isa. 5), or God's servant (Isa. 49), the history of Israel begins anew in Messiah. He brings God pleasure and glory in the very things where Israel brought God sorrow and dishonoured His Name.
Another writer applies the sword and the hidden arrow of verse 2 to this same Servant.
His words will cut like a sword and pierce like an arrow when He comes out from the divine quiver. He will appear as the true Servant of God and the true Israel, that is, "Prince of God." The earlier chapters have shown that God called the national Israel to serve Him, and that it failed completely. God declares that He called this true Israel from the womb and made Him a "polished shaft" to fly straight as directed. Of Him Jehovah says, "I will be glorified." We can now say that God has been glorified in Him, and that He will yet be glorified in Him in a supreme and public way.
The next verse sounds like failure. One writer sets that beside the glory God gave Him.
Look again at the servant "in whom I will be glorified" in Isaiah 49. As far as Jacob and Israel are concerned, He seems to have spent His strength for nothing and in vain. But "though Israel is not gathered, yet I shall be glorious in the eyes of Jehovah." And so He is. For "God has highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow… and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."
One writer puts God's glory and our salvation in order, and names the mistake of turning that round.
Our hearts would gladly treat what puts away our sins as the highest view of the cross. This is a mistake. God's glory is the first thing; our salvation is the second. To maintain God's glory was the chief, the dearest object of the heart of Christ. He pursued this object from first to last, with unwavering purpose and unflinching faithfulness.
The Servant bearing Israel's name does not cancel what God promised the nation.
Jehovah had said to them, "You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified." In fulfilment of this, they will yet become "a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord." Then "righteousness and praise" will "spring forth before all the nations." This will not come from keeping the law, but from being clothed with Jehovah's robe of righteousness. That which has failed under the law is yet to be accomplished in grace.
- Named — God gives His Servant the nation's name, "Israel," which means "Prince of God." This section names Him so only here.
- Transferred — Israel failed as son, vine and servant. The history begins again in Messiah, who brings God pleasure where the nation brought Him dishonour.
- Debated — the Hebrew line is hard. One writer will not force it, and lets verse 4 settle who the Servant is.
- Glorified — the Servant's work looked spent for nothing. Yet God has highly exalted Him, and the glory promised here will yet be public.
- Restored — God's glory comes first and our salvation second. The nation itself will still become a crown of glory — by grace, not by law.
-- And I said, I have laboured in vain, I have spent my strength for nought and in vain; nevertheless my judgment is with Jehovah, and my work with my God.
In Isaiah 49 a Servant speaks about His own work, and by verse 4 He says it has all come to nothing. That raises two questions: who is speaking, and how can a mission from God end in emptiness?
Who is speaking here? The nation that carried the servant's name had proved unfaithful.
Isaiah 49 presses the heavier and more serious charge. The prophet shows us the deep guilt of the returned remnant, who rejected their own true Messiah. Both Testaments share the same principle: the faithful One takes the place of the unfaithful "servant." Messiah the True Vine replaces Israel the empty vine. Messiah takes up Israel's place as Jehovah's servant, the One in whom God will be glorified. But because His people reject Him, He speaks the words of verse 4.
His labour was real and His strength really was spent. Anyone watching the end of His path would have called it failure.
How often in this fallen world have the servants of God had to taste the bitterness of defeat and apparent failure. It seems to have been the rule rather than the exception. Our Lord Himself is the supreme example. He came, as the Apostle Paul states, "A Minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made to the fathers" (Rom. 15:8). But "the circumcision" rejected Him, and from that standpoint His mission ended in failure.
The ESV puts Paul's words this way: "Christ became a servant to the circumcised" — that is, a servant to the Jewish people.
One writer sums it up: "At the end of His path what was there to show for all His labours? He was left alone, betrayed by one of His disciples, denied by another, abandoned by everyone, and crucified as a criminal" (An Outline of Sound Words).
The second half of the verse is not resignation.
But to all this the perfect Servant answered, "Yet surely My judgment is with the Lord, and My work with My God." In Isaiah 53 we read, "He was taken from prison and from judgment." Acts 8 gives this as, "In His humiliation His judgment was taken away." In condemning Him, men broke every principle of right judgment. But He was content to keep silence before His judges and to move His judgment to the highest Court in the universe. He knew that His vindication in the presence of Jehovah was sure.
These lines follow an older translation. The ESV reads, "yet surely my right is with the LORD, and my recompense with my God."
A servant can care about results without living on them.
The Lord's food as a Servant was to do the work given Him, whatever the results might be. Was He unmoved by results? Far from it. What true servant should be? Compare these words of the Lord in Isaiah with His words in John. He was not indifferent to the results of His ministry in Israel. Yet the success of His labours was not what fed His soul.
The rejection did not shrink the mission; it opened it out.
Christ was set before the people, and they utterly rejected Him. That proved that unbelieving Israel would not be gathered. God foreknew the failure of Messiah's mission, and Isaiah 49:4 and the verses that follow acknowledge it fully. But Jehovah's answer opens up His counsels and purposes. They are being fully carried out in this acceptable time, as He calls out people from among Jews and Gentiles into the church. This remarkable prophecy shows us the exact order of events recorded in the New Testament. First, Christ's mission to Israel fails for a time. Then a suffering and rejected Messiah is received and glorified in heaven, and made God's salvation to the ends of the earth.
The comfort of this verse reaches anyone whose service looks wrecked.
Every servant of the Lord who is in earnest knows well the discouragement of the apparent wreck of what he is doing. The lowly and the humble are especially prone to this discouragement, but the proud and self-satisfied know nothing of it. Yet God does not want us to be discouraged, even though all appears to be in vain... Ours to do His bidding, His to give success or failure, but even the failure is no failure; it is part of the ways of God to bring about His purpose.
- Servant — The nation failed in the servant's place. Messiah takes it and speaks here as the faithful One.
- Spent — His labour and strength ended in visible defeat: alone, betrayed, denied, crucified.
- Surrendered — He does not defend Himself. He moves His case to God's court, where His vindication is sure.
- Sustained — He felt the empty result, yet the success of His work was never what fed His soul.
- Spread — The apparent failure is the turning point. Rejected in Israel, He becomes God's salvation to the ends of the earth. So no faithful worker's labour is finally wasted.
And now, saith Jehovah, that formed me from the womb to be his servant, that I should bring Jacob again to him; (though Israel be not gathered, yet shall I be glorified in the eyes of Jehovah, and my God shall be my strength;)
Isaiah 49 opens with a Servant who speaks in the first person. God set Him apart before birth and sent Him to gather Jacob. Verse 5 is the turning point. His mission to Israel seems to fail, yet God honours Him and becomes His strength.
Earlier in the chapter God calls His servant "Israel." Commentators say the key is the shift from the nation to one Person.
The chapter opens with a call to the islands to listen... "And He said to me, You are my servant Israel, in whom I will glorify myself" (vv. 1-3). Such was the purpose of God about Israel; but, Israel failing, Christ becomes the true Israel. It is the transition from the people to the Messiah in whom alone it could be.
The same writer adds that this first failure is not the end of God's purpose. It leads to something larger.
Christ substitutes Himself for Israel. They had held the name and the responsibility of the servant; Christ becomes the true and righteous servant of God, when the other proved false... God's purposes seem to fail at first because of man's wickedness. That failure only settles them more firmly, and gives them a more glorious form and display in the end.
The Servant's confidence rests on who formed Him, and on where His strength comes from.
He knew that He had been formed from the womb to be the LORD's servant. God was His strength for His service. And even if Israel was not gathered, yet He Himself should be glorious in the eyes of the LORD.
The ESV reads "that Israel might be gathered to him." Older versions read "though Israel be not gathered." The old manuscripts and translations are split.
Isaiah 49:5 — the text of the Authorised Version gives one reading, "be not gathered"; the margin has the other, "gathered to him." The Vulgate here supports the Authorised Version. Some manuscripts, with the Septuagint, the Targum, and Aquila, read as the margin, without the negative.
The writers here follow the older reading. They tie it to what happened when Christ came.
Christ was presented to the people, and they utterly rejected Him. That proved that unbelieving Israel would not be gathered — "How often would I have gathered your children together… and you would not!" (Matt. 23:37). God foreknew the failure of Messiah's mission... This remarkable prophecy shows us the exact order of events recorded in the New Testament. First comes the temporary failure of Christ's mission to Israel. Then a suffering and rejected Messiah is received and glorified in heaven, and made to be God's salvation to the ends of the earth.
God's verdict on the Servant is the opposite of man's.
God completely cancels man's thought and judgment. The humbled Man — the discredited Prophet of Nazareth — walked His way to Calvary among the jeering crowd, abandoned by His disciples and mocked by men. Yet He was glorious in the eyes of the LORD. He was about to lay the foundation for the structure of glory yet to come.
God has not kept that honour hidden.
Yet the Servant glorified God, and became obedient to death, even the death of the cross. God has highly exalted Him and given Him a name which is above every name. The heavens have been opened, so that by faith we may look up and see Jesus crowned with glory.
God's reply widens the Servant's work far beyond Israel.
At His first coming, the mission of the Lord seemed to fail. The tribes of Jacob were not restored, and the preserved of Israel were not brought back to blessing. Yet He knew that, even if His work looked like failure, He was "glorious in the eyes of the Lord." He had completed the work God gave Him to do. Israel will indeed be gathered again when the Lord comes back. Meanwhile there is a still greater work, for God says to Him, "I will also give You for a light to the Gentiles, that You may be My salvation to the end of the earth."
- Formed — God shaped the Servant from the womb for one task: to bring Jacob back to Him. Israel had held that title and failed. Christ takes the place and fills it.
- Refused — His own people turned Him away. Kelly finds the whole order of events here: a rejected Messiah, glorified in heaven, then salvation to the ends of the earth.
- Honoured — God cancels man's judgment on Him. The discredited Prophet walking to Calvary was, at that very moment, glorious in the eyes of the LORD.
- Strengthened — He does not draw on results for confidence, but on God: "my God has become my strength."
- Widened — The refusal did not shrink His mission. It enlarged it. God gives Him as a light to the Gentiles, His salvation to the end of the earth.
-- and he saith, It is a small thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel; I have even given thee for a light of the nations, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth.
God speaks these words to His Servant. The Servant has just said His work seemed to come to nothing, and God's answer is not a smaller mission but a far larger one — which raises the question of who this Servant is, and what becomes of Israel once the nations come into view.
Israel had held the place of God's servant and had failed in it. Here the One speaking is the Messiah, standing where Israel stood.
"And I said (says Christ), I have laboured in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing." Christ substitutes Himself for Israel. They had been the servant in name and in responsibility. Christ becomes the true and righteous servant of God, when the other proved false.
The same writer finds this exchange all through the Bible, Old and New.
It is a striking instance of a principle common to the New Testament as well as the Old, the replacement of the faithless "servant" by the faithful One, of Israel the empty vine by Messiah the True Vine.
The phrase does not make Israel's restoration small in itself. God measures it against something wider.
God proclaims Him here as Israel's Restorer. Important as that is, God says it is a small thing in comparison. This one nation is not the only one that will come directly under Him. All the nations shall have Him as their Light. So, right to the ends of the earth, our Lord Jesus Christ shall be God's Salvation.
The mission grows at the very point where Israel refuses Him.
Israel rejected the Messiah. Yet He would not only be "glorious in the eyes of the Lord"; He would also secure blessing for a far greater company than Israel, and His God would be His strength in reaching this great end.
The direction of the mission changes. The light now goes out to the Gentiles — the nations outside Israel — and writers say this turn shapes the present day.
The original thought was to gather Israel, but Israel would not be gathered. Then, says God, That is too small a thing; I will save the nations also. But Christ is first given as a light to the Gentiles. It is going out rather than gathering in. At any rate, that is the turn the passage takes now, under the gospel. While Israel is not yet gathered, Christ becomes a light to the Gentiles.
The second half of the verse does not cancel the first. Writers keep both, and set them in order.
God's Servant came to do a work for Israel, and God would carry it out in His own good time. Israel would be regathered for the millennial day, the tribes of Jacob raised up, and the preserved of Israel restored. But something would also be done among the Gentiles, both in the day in which we live and in the millennium.
The two titles God gives here — light, and salvation — are the very words an old man used when the infant Jesus was brought into the temple in Jerusalem.
Here we see Him as The Servant; the Light, and the Salvation of God. What a wonderful Saviour! Mary took Him to the temple. There a man named Simeon, one of the faithful few left in Israel and "a servant" of the Lord's, rejoiced to see in Him God's "Salvation" and "the glory of His people Israel." He also saw in Him "a Light for revelation of the Gentiles," that they, brought out of their darkness and ignorance, might be revealed in God's marvellous light.
When the Jews would not hear him, Paul quoted this verse and called it a command. God spoke the words to Christ, yet Paul takes them as spoken to himself.
What had this to do with Paul and Barnabas? Everything. Without question the prophet has Christ in view, and some might want to limit the words to Christ alone. The Holy Spirit does not, and so He extends their reach to Paul and Barnabas… Christian faith takes for itself what God said to Him.
Why did Paul see it when others did not? One writer gives a simple reason.
The Jews would not listen to Paul and Barnabas, so they think of the word of the Lord… I doubt anyone else would have seen that but Paul. The reason was simply this: his heart was with the Lord.
- Servant — Israel failed in the role. Christ steps into it as the true and righteous Servant, the True Vine in place of the empty vine.
- Small — Raising up Jacob is called a small thing, not because it is minor. God answers rejection by widening the work, not shrinking it.
- Light — God gives the rejected One as light to the nations. Simeon used that very title over Him in the temple.
- Salvation — The reach runs "to the end of the earth." The mission turns from gathering Israel in to going out, and that is the work of today.
- Command — Paul read a prophecy about Christ as an order for himself and turned to the Gentiles. What God says of Christ, faith takes for those who belong to Him.
Thus saith Jehovah, the Redeemer of Israel, his Holy One, to him whom man despiseth, to him whom the nation abhorreth, to the servant of rulers Kings shall see and arise, princes, and they shall worship, because of Jehovah who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel, who hath chosen thee.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
Thus saith Jehovah In a time of acceptance have I answered thee, and in the day of salvation have I helped thee; and I will preserve thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, to establish the land, to cause to inherit the desolate heritages;
Isaiah 49 sets before us a Servant whom His own nation rejects. Verse 8 is Jehovah's reply to Him: acceptance, help, and a covenant that reaches far beyond the nation that refused Him.
The "you" of this verse is not the prophet and not the nation. It is the Servant whom men despise. The promise given to Him assumes a scene of total ruin.
It is clear that Christ is now viewed here as a rejected person, the cross being the great expression of that rejection. It is evident that this supposes all to be in ruin, but that the Lord Jesus is the destined repairer of the breaches.
Before there could be an acceptable time, there was an hour when the answer did not come.
There was a moment when He was not only despised and rejected by men, but forsaken by God. In that moment He could not say, "As for me, my prayer is to you, O Lord, in an acceptable time" (Psalm 69:13). His words were, "I cry, but you do not hear." He had to pass through this moment of unspeakable sorrow, and He passed through it in atonement for our sins... He who was crucified in weakness was raised by the power of God. So Jehovah can now say to Him in resurrection, "In an acceptable time have I heard you, and in a day of salvation have I helped you."
Older translations read "heard" where the ESV has "answered," and the writers quoted here follow them. Both words point to one event, and that event starts a whole era.
The humbled Servant whom men would not hear has been heard by Him, helped and lifted up... The significance of this may have been lost on Old Testament readers, but the Apostle Paul seized upon it in 2 Corinthians 6:2. The rejection of the Messiah, foretold in verse 7, would result in His death. He would be "heard" and "helped" by resurrection from the dead, and this was to inaugurate the "acceptable time" and the "day of salvation."
Paul takes up the first half of this verse in 2 Corinthians 6:2 and adds one word: now. That word marks off the time we are living in.
The words of the eighth verse are quoted here: "I have heard you in a time accepted and in the day of salvation I have helped you." They are addressed to Christ, whom Israel rejected. God raised Him from the dead, and though Israel is not gathered, He becomes the power of salvation for the Gentiles. This is the meaning of "behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation." "Now" means this present age, when God offers salvation to the Gentiles.
Old Testament readers could not have guessed how far these words would reach.
Old Testament saints read of Messiah being heard in an accepted time and helped in a day of salvation. Who among them could have known that there would be a people accepted in His acceptance, saved in His own salvation out of death and judgment, and able to say that by His resurrection they were risen with Him? Jehovah said "I have heard you in a time of acceptance" to Christ personally. The Spirit of God has made known to us that we, through grace, are now included in that "you."
One writer notes how rarely Scripture gives Christ the title used here.
Only once more is our Lord Jesus Christ called the Covenant. It is here, in Isaiah 49:8. Only through Him can this be brought about.
That title also settles the ground of Israel's blessing.
The once-rejected Messiah is to be "a covenant of the people," for they will not enter into blessing on the basis of the covenant of law. He, and He only, will bring to pass the blessing on earth so glowingly described in these verses.
The closing clauses look past our own time to a coming age, when a restored nation lives in a restored land.
The day will come when the nation of Israel will be restored and brought into millennial blessing. Jehovah was glorified by His Servant Jesus. He accepted His work, heard His cry, helped Him, and preserved Him. Through Him, and all that He has done, Jehovah will fulfil His promises to His earthly people. He will establish the land, and at last the nation will inherit the land that for so long has been desolate.
- Cry — There was an hour when the Servant cried and no answer came. That hour was the atonement, and He passed through it first.
- Answer — "Heard" and "helped" are resurrection words. God's answer to the rejected Christ was to raise Him.
- Now — His resurrection opened the accepted time we live in. Salvation now goes out to the nations, while Israel is not yet gathered.
- Accepted — Jehovah spoke those words to Christ personally. They now cover a people accepted in His acceptance, saved in His salvation, risen with Him.
- Covenant — Christ Himself is called the Covenant. Through Him God establishes the desolate land, and the nation at last inherits it.
saying to the prisoners, Go forth; to them that are in darkness, Shew yourselves. They shall feed in the ways, and their pasture shall be on all bare hills.
This verse is one line in a longer message God speaks to His Servant, and it is a command of release. Two questions decide how we read it — who are these prisoners, and when does the word go out?
The command is not the prophet's own. God gives it to His Servant, and the setting is a scene of total ruin. (The writers quote older translations, which read "Go forth" and "Show yourselves" where the ESV has "Come out" and "Appear".)
"I will preserve you and give you for a covenant of the people (that is, of Israel) … saying to the prisoners, Go forth" (vv. 8-9). This assumes everything is in ruin, but that the Lord Jesus is the appointed repairer of the breaches.
Some read this release of prisoners as a rescue of the dead from hell. One writer rejects that, and points to the verse's own setting: the earth and its ruined lands.
This is Jehovah's prophetic word to the Messiah, and it applies expressly to the earth and not to hell at all: "I will also give you for a light to the Gentiles, … to establish the earth, to cause to inherit the desolate heritages; that you may say to the prisoners, Go forth." Familiar passages use similar language, and nobody would dream of carrying it further. Anyone who applies this to hell must assume it. Will they say why?
If the prisoners are Israel, no human effort can arrange their freedom. The One who speaks sets the time.
Men may try to restore the land to the Jew, and bring the Jews back to the land. But their efforts, even if they seem successful for a time, will only bring the Jew back for the judgment of the great tribulation. To come back for blessing they must wait until Christ gives the word. In His time He will say to the prisoners, "Go forth". And to those in darkness, "Show yourselves". Today the Jew may be a captive, often hiding from the pitiless persecution of ruthless enemies. But when Christ says "Go forth" and "Show yourselves" no power will withstand His words.
This verse names prison and darkness. The next verse adds hunger and thirst. Each meets its exact opposite.
Prisons, and darkness, and hunger, and thirst, will yield up their captives and their victims at the gracious command of our Lord Jesus Christ; so that they may enjoy liberty, and light, and plenty. He will Himself guide them (vv. 9-10).
The second half of the verse turns from prison to pasture. It also settles where the freed come from.
"They shall feed in the ways, and their pastures shall be on all bare heights… Behold, these shall come from afar; and behold, these from the north and from the west; and these from the land of Sinim" (vv. 9-12). This predicts the return of Israel from all parts of the earth. But it is a return after they were scattered there. So they come not only from the north and south, but even from the land of Sinim — that is, from China. From there they emerge at last and gather in Palestine.
These captives have a name elsewhere in Scripture, and a scene in heaven matches their relief.
In verses 8-10 God gives Him as a covenant to the people, that is, Israel. He comes to bring in the blessing on earth, to set free captive Israel — "Prisoners of hope," Zechariah 9:11-12 — and to open the prison doors to those who are bound. So the true Shepherd of Israel feeds His now gathered flock, which would hunger and thirst no more. How similar is the language of Revelation 7:16-17, which the elder in heaven uses about those who had come out of the great tribulation.
- Ruin — the verse assumes everything lies in ruin: wasted lands, prisoners, people in the dark.
- Repairer — God gives His Servant as a covenant, and He is the appointed repairer of the breaches.
- Release — these prisoners are captives on the earth, not souls after death. His word ends both prison and darkness.
- Reach — release runs from every direction, from the north, the west, and lands as far off as China.
- Rest — the freed become a flock, fed along the ways and on bare heights, never hungry or thirsty again.
They shall not hunger nor thirst, neither shall the heat nor sun smite them; for he that hath mercy on them will lead them, and by the springs of water will he guide them.
Isaiah 49 describes the work of God's Servant. His own nation rejects Him, yet God gives Him to bring a scattered people home. Verse 10 pictures that homecoming, and it raises three questions: who are these people, when does this happen, and what makes it certain?
Verse 10 sits in a chapter about Christ. Israel's refusal of Him looks like failure. Instead God widens the promise to the nations, and then returns to Israel:
The original thought was to gather Israel, but Israel would not be gathered. Then, says God, That is too small a thing; I will save the nations also. But Christ is first given as a light to the Gentiles… "This is what Jehovah, the Redeemer of Israel, his Holy One, says to Him whom the soul despises, to Him whom the nation hates." Clearly Christ is now seen as a rejected person, and the cross is the great expression of that rejection. "I will preserve you and give you for a covenant of the people (that is, of Israel), to establish the land." All this supposes that everything is in ruin, but that the Lord Jesus is the destined repairer of the breaches.
The freedom from hunger, thirst and heat belongs to a journey home. One writer separates that homecoming from every human plan to resettle a people:
Men may seek to restore the land to the Jew, and bring the Jews back to the land. Their efforts may seem to succeed for a time. But they will only bring the Jew back for the judgment of the great tribulation. To come back for blessing they must wait until Christ gives the word… No longer will they hunger and thirst nor suffer the heat of a pitiless world. For the One who has mercy on them will Himself go before them. He will restore His wandering sheep, lead them by springs of water, and guide them over mountains and along His highways. They will be led back from every part of the earth.
The verse gives the reason for this care: the One leading them has mercy on them. One writer underlines that word:
At last the comfort announced in the opening verse of Isaiah 40 will have reached "His people." Those who for so long had been "His afflicted" will find mercy. MERCY, notice; not merit, as the end of Romans 11 shows so clearly.
The picture sounds like paradise, so many readers take it for heaven. One writer points to what the rest of the chapter says:
This passage is not a prophecy about heaven, but about restored Israel; for it goes on to declare, "I will feed them that oppress you with their own flesh," and concludes by saying that "all flesh shall know that I, Jehovah, am your Saviour, and your Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob." (v. 26.)
The promise is spoken to Israel. Yet one writer notes that the same prophecy reaches further:
And though these blessings are promised to Israel, the same prophecy shows us also a Gentile remnant, who share, at least in part, the same portion.
Revelation uses the same words of a crowd drawn out of every nation, and another writer takes both companies to be in view:
In the first part of Revelation 7 we have seen that in the time of these judgments God will have a saved remnant from Israel and the Gentiles. In the closing verses one of the elders in heaven answers the question of who this company is and where they come from. It would seem that these verses apply to both classes, for in Isaiah 49:10 exactly similar language is used to describe the blessing of restored Israel.
One writer gives the passage two applications, one future and one present:
This beautiful passage… will come literally true during the millennium, for all who are faithful to "the King of glory." (Compare Isa. 49 with Rev. 7.) But it is also true now, in a spiritual sense, of every sheep and lamb in the highly favoured flock of Christ. But do you know this truth, O my soul, for yourself — is it your own experience? Only the word of God can make it known, and only faith can enjoy it in the heart.
- Mercy begins it. The One who leads them leads in mercy. The blessing comes to those who "find mercy… not merit."
- Mercy is carried by a Servant. His own nation rejected Him, yet God gives Him as a covenant, and He becomes "the destined repairer of the breaches."
- Mercy sets the timing. No human effort brings the people home for blessing; they "must wait until Christ gives the word."
- Mercy reaches wide. Revelation uses the same words of a saved company from every nation, so both Israel and the Gentiles seem to be in view.
- Mercy lands on earth. This is "not a prophecy about heaven, but about restored Israel" — yet its comfort is true now, by faith, for every sheep of Christ.
And I will make all my mountains a way, and my highways shall be raised up.
Isaiah 49 answers the Servant's apparent failure. Here God promises a road home for a scattered people. The mountains that would block their return become the route. So who builds this road, who walks it, and when?
This promise sits inside a larger commission. God hands the rejected Messiah the ruined land and its scattered people to restore.
"I will preserve you and give you for a covenant of the people (that is, of Israel), to establish the land (or, earth), to cause to inherit the desolate heritages; saying to the prisoners, Go forth, to those in darkness, Show yourselves" (vv. 7-9). Clearly this supposes everything is in ruin, but also that the Lord Jesus is the destined repairer of the breaches.
The chapter names God's servant as Israel, yet the Servant speaks as a Person distinct from the nation. One writer explains it:
If we may dare to say it, Christ takes the place of Israel as the true servant of God. As He said, "I am the true vine." This creates an apparent difficulty, but it gives the true sense of chapter 49.
The next verse names where the travellers come from. That shows how far these highways reach.
"And I will make all my mountains a way, and my highways shall be exalted. Behold, these shall come from afar; and behold, these from the north and from the west; and these from the land of Sinim" (vv. 9-12). This predicts the return of Israel from all parts of the earth. It is a return after they have been scattered there. So they come out not only from the north and south, but even from the land of Sinim — that is, China — and gather at last in Palestine.
(This is an older rendering; the ESV reads "I will make all my mountains a road, and my highways shall be raised up.")
People can try to bring the Jews back to their land by their own effort. One writer warns that such efforts run ahead of God's timing.
Men may seek to restore the land to the Jew, and bring the Jews back to the land. But their efforts, even if they seem to succeed for a time, will only bring the Jew back for the judgment of the great tribulation. To come back for blessing they must wait until Christ gives the word... The One who has mercy on them will Himself go before them. He will restore His wandering sheep, lead them by springs of water, and guide them over mountains and along His highways.
The verses around this one describe the travellers as prisoners and as people hiding in dark places. Their condition settles what they can claim when they arrive.
Some will be prisoners, some hiding in dark places; coming over the mountains from distant spots in north and west, and even from "the land of Sinim," which some identify with China. At last the comfort announced in the opening verse of Isaiah 40 will have reached "His people." Those who for so long had been "His afflicted" will find mercy. MERCY, notice; not merit — as the end of Romans 11 shows so clearly.
One writer sets the same care beside the Lamb's care for His flock in Revelation. He finds in it both a promise for the millennium and a truth for today.
"They will hunger no more, nor thirst any more; the sun will not strike them, nor any heat. For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will feed them and lead them to living fountains of water; and God will wipe away all tears from their eyes." This beautiful passage ... will be literally true during the millennium of all who are faithful to "the King of glory." But it is also true now, in a spiritual sense, of every sheep and lamb in the highly favoured flock of Christ.
(An older rendering of Revelation 7.)
The next verse calls creation to sing. One writer ties that shout to God's old pledge to Israel about land and liberty.
But what when the great Jubilee surpasses this generous pledge beyond all comparison! Then... "Shout, you heavens; and be joyful, you earth; and break forth, you mountains, into singing; for Jehovah comforts his people, and will have mercy on his afflicted ones" (Isa. 49:12-13). No loss of liberty or land any more.
- Builder. The road is not a human project — the rejected Servant is the appointed repairer of the ruin, and He makes the way.
- Word. The road opens when Christ says "Go forth." Efforts that run ahead of Him bring tribulation, not blessing.
- Reach. Its highways stretch to the far ends of the earth — north, west, and Sinim — so God can gather every exile, however distant.
- Basis. Those who travel it are prisoners and afflicted ones met by mercy, not by merit.
- End. It leads to a Jubilee greater than the old one, where liberty and land are never lost again.
Behold, these shall come from afar; and behold, these from the north and from the west; and these from the land of Sinim.
This verse ends a picture of Israel coming home from every corner of the earth. It names one place so remote that readers still argue over where it was, and it raises a bigger question: who brings them back?
Two kinds of return are possible, one writer says, and only one of them ends in blessing.
Men may seek to restore the land to the Jew, and bring the Jews back to the land. Their efforts may seem to succeed for a time. But they will only bring the Jew back for the judgment of the great tribulation. To come back for blessing they must wait until Christ gives the word. In His time He will say to the prisoners, "Go forth". And to those in darkness, "Show yourselves". Today the Jew may be a captive, often hiding from the pitiless persecution of ruthless enemies. But when Christ says "Go forth" and "Show yourselves" no power will withstand His words. From every quarter of the earth they will be led back.
Older translations read "the land of Sinim" where the ESV has "the land of Syene." Most writers here read it as China. One traces the name through the scholars who studied it.
This predicts the return of Israel from all parts of the earth. But it is a return after they have been scattered there. So in the end they come out and gather in Palestine not only from the north and south, but even from the land of Sinim — that is, from China… Gesenius had too much sense to miss that a distant people at the south or east edge of the world was meant. Even Knobel and Hitzig point to China, whose Rabbinical name is Tsin.
The writers do not all agree. One reference work lists the options and shows why China fits the verse.
A remote place from which some will be brought when in a future day God is blessing Israel. The Septuagint, an early Greek translation, has "the land of the Persians." The land of the Sinae, who settled in Western China, has been suggested: this would not clash with "north" and "west," which are also mentioned in the same passage.
A few verses earlier the Lord tells His Servant that He answered Him at an accepted time. One writer says the homecoming here hangs on that answer. The same promise held something no Old Testament reader could see.
Jesus is preserved, treasured up in the heavens now, awaiting the moment of the ingathering of Israel… Old Testament saints read that the Messiah Himself was heard in an accepted time and helped in a day of salvation. They dimly saw that Israel's coming out from the north and west, and from the land of Sinim, depended on it. But which of them could have known that there would be a people accepted in His acceptance? A people saved in His own salvation out of death and judgment? A people able to say that by His resurrection they were risen with Him?
Isaiah 40 opens with a promise of comfort. One writer says these travellers are where that promise lands.
Some will be prisoners, some hiding in dark places; coming over the mountains from distant spots in north and west, and even from "the land of Sinim," which some identify with China. At last the comfort, announced in the opening verse of Isaiah 40, will have reached "His people," and those who for so long had been "His afflicted," will find mercy. MERCY, notice — not merit, as the end of Romans 11 shows so clearly.
One writer reads this verse against Israel's jubilee law.
Israel alone had God's guarantee every fifty years. But what happens when that generous promise is far surpassed in the great Jubilee!… No loss of liberty or land any more; "for as the new heavens and the new earth that I make shall remain before me, says the Lord, so shall your offspring and your name remain."
The next verse calls on heaven and earth to sing. One writer lists what has to happen first.
At last the Servant will finish the will of the Lord. The nation will be restored, the Gentiles will come into blessing, and kings and princes will bow and worship at His feet. Then the heavens and the earth will join to sing His praise. The wide creation will break out in singing, and all will own that the Lord has done it all.
- Cause. Everything rests on the Servant, heard "in an accepted time" — on what He accomplished, not on political effort.
- Command. The journey starts when Christ says "Go forth" and "Show yourselves." No power will withstand His words.
- Compass. North, west, far away, and Sinim — most read it as China, some as Persia. No distance is too far for His word.
- Character. Those who arrive come as prisoners and afflicted ones, and what meets them is mercy, not merit.
- Chorus. The homecoming ends in a jubilee: no more loss of land or liberty. Heaven and earth sing that the Lord has done it all.
Shout, ye heavens; and be joyful, thou earth; and break forth into singing, ye mountains for Jehovah hath comforted his people, and will have mercy upon his afflicted ones.
Isaiah 49 has just described the Servant of the Lord. His own nation rejected Him, and His work looked wasted. Yet God gave Him as a light to the nations and as the one who brings scattered Israel home. Verse 13 is the song that answers all of that. Why does it call heaven, earth and mountains to join in, when the comfort is for one afflicted people?
Israel had been God's servant, and Israel had failed. The chapter puts a true Servant in that place. The song comes only when His work is finished.
Israel failed as God's servant, so God set Israel aside and put Christ forward as the true servant. Yet Christ says, "I have laboured in vain," because Israel rejected Him. God's answer comes in verse 5 and the verses after it. It was too small a thing for Him only to raise up the tribes of Israel; God would lift Him high and give Him as a light to the nations. In verse 8, God gives Him as a covenant to the people, to deliver them at the end.
Hamilton Smith reads verse 13 as the last step in a sequence running through the chapter. He also names who gets the credit.
Seventh, the Servant will finish the will of Jehovah at last. God will restore the nation. He will bring the nations into blessing. Kings and princes will bow and worship at His feet. Then at last the heavens and the earth will join to sing His praise. The whole creation will burst into song, and all will admit that the Lord has done it all.
The people comforted here are the ones named just before: prisoners and people in dark places, coming home from far away. How God treats them matters as much as who they are.
Verse 13, though, seems to point mainly, perhaps only, to an afflicted remnant of Israel. Some will be prisoners. Some will be hiding in dark places. They come over the mountains from far-off places in the north and the west, and even from "the land of Sinim," which some take to be China. At last the comfort announced in the opening verse of Isaiah 40 will have reached "His people." Those who had been "His afflicted" for so long will find mercy. Mercy, notice — not merit.
The very next verse has Zion saying she has been forsaken and forgotten. So this comfort is not general encouragement. It answers one despair, and it answers with a love stronger than the closest human bond.
No wonder the call goes out for the heavens to shout and the mountains to sing. Comfort has come to God's people through Israel's Restorer. Zion thought she had been abandoned for good. A woman may forget her own baby, against all nature; but Jehovah does not forget His own people. He comforts Zion. He consoles her, and He quickly increases the number of her children.
Earlier in the chapter the call went out to the distant coastlands. Here the audience widens past anything human.
No wonder the call to rejoice goes out not only to the islands, but to heaven and earth… These are the last days. Jehovah is looking back over His goodness and calling the whole universe to be joyful.
This song fits a wider pattern. Writers tie creation's joy to one coming event, and the prophets and the apostle name that event in different ways.
The apostle hangs all this joy of creation on "the revealing of the sons of God" (Rom. 8). The prophets hang it on the redemption of Israel (Isa. 44:23; Isa. 49:13; Isa. 55:12). The testimonies differ because apostles and prophets had different ministries. In one place the Psalmist joins the two in a few words, touching the note where their harmonies meet — "when the Lord builds up Zion, He appears in His glory." (Ps. 102:16)
That is why the call reaches the mountains. Creation has been waiting, and its release comes at the same moment.
There has already been a creation song. The earth came fresh from the hands of God, and "the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy" (Job 38:7). Then sin spoiled that beautiful creation. Singing gave way to weeping, and songs to groans. In the thousand-year day to come, God will make the earth new. Creation's groan will fall silent, and heaven and earth will join in a new song.
- Cause. The song rests on the Servant. Israel rejected Him, and He said He had laboured in vain. God then gave Him as a light to the nations and a covenant to the people.
- Gift. The afflicted receive mercy, not merit. The comfort promised in Isaiah 40 reaches prisoners and exiles gathered from as far away as the land of Sinim.
- Answer. Zion said she was forsaken and forgotten. A mother may forget her child; God does not forget His people.
- Reach. The call widens from the far-off coastlands to heaven, earth and mountains. The whole universe joins in one nation's relief.
- Result. Creation's groan falls silent. The prophets tie that release to the redemption of Israel; the apostle ties it to the revealing of God's sons. One day, one song.
But Zion said, Jehovah hath forsaken me, and the Lord hath forgotten me.
Isaiah 49 has just announced mercy reaching out to distant nations, and at that very moment the city at the centre of God's promises says God has dropped her. Her words are a complaint, not a fact, and the rest of the chapter is God's reply.
One writer reads the chapter as a scene with two speakers, and names it after both.
In this beautiful passage of the prophet, we hear Messiah telling His own history, from the womb of the Virgin to the throne of the kingdom. But Zion, as though she had been listening, complains as one forgotten. She cannot find her own place in this history. Messiah answers this fear and this complaint with good words and comforting words. So I may call this "Jesus and Jerusalem."
One writer measures Zion's bond with God against the strongest human tie he can name.
And it will be unexpected mercy, as the following verses show. Zion stands for the godly seed who will receive the mercy. Pushed to the limit, they will be tempted to think their God has forsaken and forgotten them. But He has not. Among human beings there is no stronger tie than a mother's love. Yet under extreme pressure even that tie may break. The godly in Israel have a tie with the LORD that will never break.
Centuries have passed, and Zion still waits. One writer traces the delay to a greater sin than any before it — the crucifixion of the Messiah.
Many scriptures show the intensity of the LORD's feelings for this beloved city. That same unchanging affection for Zion speaks again through Zechariah and — if we may put it this way — stirs up the LORD to step in for her deliverance and restoration. She may still have to wait. Centuries may roll by, because of her yet greater sin in the crucifixion of the Messiah. But the eyes and heart of the LORD will rest on her continually.
God does not deny how things look to Zion. He answers with something stronger than appearances.
And although Israel now seems to be cast off and rejected, the Word of God tells us it will not always be so… And listen to these words spoken to Israel in reply to her complaint. It looks like that just now, but is it truly so? Listen: "Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of My hands; your walls are continually before Me."
Part of Zion's fear is that blessing for distant peoples has replaced her. One writer answers it from the way Christ treated those closest to Him.
His grace towards the Gentile does not blunt His heart in the least to the claims of natural relationship… This is the very pattern by which He was to deal, and will deal, with Israel. Zion may say of the Lord who laboured in vain, whom the nation abhorred, "The LORD has forsaken me; my Lord has forgotten me." Not so.
God spoke Isaiah's promise to Israel first. One writer says believers may take its comfort too, and that the New Testament makes it firmer still.
Cast down we may be, and often are, and it is good for us too, for "God comforts the downcast" (2 Cor. 7:6) — but cast off, never. God cannot deny Himself… These words are meant in the first place for Israel, but we may take them for ourselves. But the New Testament makes the assurance more assured, for there we are in our own sphere, and we read, "He has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you."
- Complaint. Zion hears the Messiah's story and decides she has no place in it. The verse records her fear, not God's verdict.
- Pressure. The words belong to people pushed to the limit, who read their situation as proof that God has left them.
- Delay. Centuries of silence follow the rejection of the Messiah. His eyes and heart still rest on her.
- Answer. God does not argue with how it looks. He points to a love stronger than a mother's, and to Zion engraved on His own hands.
- Reach. Mercy going out to the nations never displaced Zion, and the same faithfulness holds for anyone who feels forgotten.
Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Even these forget, but I will not forget thee.
Zion — God's chosen city — has just cried out that the LORD has forsaken and forgotten her. This verse is His reply, and it points to the closest bond people know: a mother and her nursing baby.
The verse answers a specific complaint. One commentator puts it beside the cry that provoked it, and follows the answer to its end.
"But Zion said, Jehovah has forsaken me, and the Lord has forgotten me." But Jehovah answers Zion's reproach. He says, "Can a woman forget her nursing child…? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you." The enemies of Israel disappear. Israel comes forward, long forgotten in appearance, but now to be established for ever.
God compares Himself to a mother with her baby. The comparison carries an admission inside it: even that tie can break.
Zion stands for the godly seed who will receive the mercy. In their worst hour they will be tempted to think their God has forsaken and forgotten them. But He has not. Among mankind there is no stronger tie than a mother's love. Yet under extreme pressure even that tie may break. The godly in Israel have a tie with Jehovah that will never break.
Another writer follows the promise on to what God then does for Zion:
Zion thought she was forsaken altogether. A woman may, unnaturally, forget the child of her womb; but Jehovah does not forget His own people. He comforts Zion; He consoles her, and rapidly increases her children.
This promise has waited a long time. One writer gives the reason for the delay, and what stays fixed through it:
Zion said, "The LORD has forsaken me, and my Lord has forgotten me"… "Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you"… This same unchanging love for Zion speaks again through Zechariah. If the words may be used with reverence, it stirs Jehovah up to step in and deliver and restore her. She may still have to wait. Centuries may pass, because of her even greater sin in crucifying the Messiah. But the eyes and heart of Jehovah will rest on her without a break.
God says this to people who forget Him. One writer sets Peter's collapse beside the promise:
Peter was full of self-confidence, yet he truly loved his Master. He vowed that he would face prison and death for his beloved Lord. Yet at the voice of a servant girl he denied his Master with oaths and cursing! Peter sinned, but his faith did not fail… "My people have forgotten Me days without number." Jer. 2:32. "Yet I will not forget you." Isa. 49:15.
The promise rests on something fixed: God has engraved Zion on His hands. One writer applies those hands to Christians now.
Only the nail-pierced hands can carry us through the wilderness to the rest of God that lies ahead of us. Those hands were pierced for everlasting service… He said to Israel, "Can a woman forget her nursing child…? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of My hands." Yes, beloved Christians, and we too are engraved on the palms of His hands. Those hands hold us in everlasting safety. They are lifted up in intercession for us and in blessing over us — the nail-pierced hands.
Commentators differ on how far the promise stretches. Some hold it to Zion and her future restoration. Others, like Mawson, take the same assurance for believers today.
- Complaint. Zion says she is forsaken and forgotten. The verse is God's answer to her, not a general saying about love.
- Comparison. God sets His faithfulness beside the strongest human tie there is. Even a mother's love can break under pressure. His cannot.
- Contrast. A mother forgetting her child would be unnatural, and God never forgets His own. His people forgot Him "days without number," and He still says He will not forget them.
- Continuation. The waiting is long, and the crucifixion of the Messiah made it longer. Yet His eyes and heart rest on Zion, and she will be established for ever.
- Certainty. The proof is not a feeling but an engraving on His hands. Writers see those hands now as the nail-pierced hands, lifted in intercession.
Lo, I have graven thee upon the palms of [my] hands; thy walls are continually before me.
Zion has just said out loud what suffering people always say: God has walked away and lost track of me. God's reply is not an argument. He points to an engraved hand and to ruined walls He still keeps in view.
God is answering a city that looked abandoned for centuries:
The rest of the chapter speaks of the Lord's faithfulness and love for His earthly people. That love is seen in the restoration of Zion, the city of God's sovereign choice. For long centuries she seemed "forsaken" and "forgotten," yet the Lord loves her with a compassion greater than a mother's love for a child. Her walls are continually before the Lord. The day is coming when her children will hurry back and every destroyer will leave the city.
The verse just before compares God's love to a mother's love for her child.
Zion here stands for the godly people who will receive the mercy. In their extreme trouble they will be tempted to think their God has forsaken and forgotten them — but He has not. Among mankind there is no stronger tie than a mother's love. Yet under extreme pressure even that tie may break. The godly in Israel have a tie with the Lord that will never break. While they are set aside as a nation, God has wider purposes of blessing that reach the most distant peoples. Yet He keeps perfect faithfulness to all His promises.
Engraving is stonework. The same craft cut the names of Israel's tribes into the jewels the high priest wore on his chest and shoulders.
The precious stones were engraved too, both on the shoulder plates and on the breastplate. God said of Zion, "Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of My hands." Engraving means something no one can erase or rub out — it lasts. These engraved stones are a moving picture. They show the deep and lasting place believers have in the heart of Christ.
The second half of the verse turns to Zion's walls. One writer asks what a wall stands for:
The first thought of a wall is separation from the evil outside, but there may be another thought, and that thought is ownership. The thought of ownership is also seen in Isaiah 49:16… God's people belong to the Lord. He owns what is His, and the words "your walls are continually before Me" stress it.
Writers link the palms in this verse to the hands nailed to the cross. Those hands still serve.
God has committed us to His hands. Because we are His children, He could not have committed us into any other hands. It would not have been enough to put us into the hands of Gabriel or Michael. Only the nail-pierced hands, bored for everlasting service, can carry us through the wilderness to the rest of God that lies ahead… In the same way we too are engraved on the palms of His hands. Those hands hold us in everlasting safety. He lifts them up in intercession for us and in blessing over us — the nail-pierced hands.
The engraved hand leads to a change on the ground:
The enemies of Israel disappear, and Israel comes forward. She seemed forgotten for a long time. Now God will establish her forever.
One writer applies these words to any believer who fears God has written them off:
Cast down we may be, and often are, and it is good for us too, for "God… comforts the downcast" (2 Corinthians 7:6) — but cast off, never. God cannot deny Himself. He cannot be false to His word. There are wonderful words in the Old Testament that assure us of this. They were meant in the first place for Israel, but we may take them for ourselves: "Can a woman forget her nursing child?… Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands." But the New Testament makes the assurance even surer. There we are in our own sphere, and we read, "I will never leave you nor forsake you."
- Complaint. Zion says she is forsaken and forgotten; this verse is God's direct reply to that feeling, not a rebuke of it.
- Compared. A mother's love is the strongest human tie, yet it can break under pressure — the tie God has with His people never will.
- Carved. "Engraved" is stonecutter's language, like the tribal names cut into the high priest's jewels. Nothing can rub it out.
- Claimed. The walls kept continually before Him mark ownership — the city, and the people it stands for, belong to God.
- Carried. Writers see the palms as the nail-pierced hands. Those hands hold believers safe and rise in intercession and blessing.
Thy sons shall make haste; thy destroyers and they that laid thee waste shall go forth from thee.
Zion has just cried out that God has dropped her and forgotten her, and this verse is His reply: the wreckers leave the city while her children stream back in. Who are these returning ones, and when does a ruined city ever see such a reversal?
A note on wording: where the ESV says "your builders," the writers quoted below follow an older reading, "your children."
This promise sits at a turning point. Isaiah 49 opens a new dispute between God and His people, and the subject has changed.
Isaiah 49 begins the second charge — the rejection of Christ, not idolatry — and it runs to the end of chapter 57. (Compare the end of Isaiah 48.) Israel, having rejected the Messiah, this is said to be of little value. God sets Him as a light to the Gentiles, and Zion is to be re-established.
So God promises this restoration to a people at their worst point, not their best.
Verse 17 is the second half of an answer. Zion complains; God replies first with a mother's love, then with this picture of traffic reversing at the city gates.
But Zion said, "The LORD has forsaken me; my Lord has forgotten me." Jehovah answers her reproach. He says, "Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of My hands; your walls are continually before Me. Your children shall make haste; your destroyers and those who laid you waste shall go out from you" (vv. 14-17). The enemies of Israel disappear, and Israel comes forward — long forgotten in appearance, but now to be established forever.
Two crowds move in opposite directions in a single sentence.
The verse is not a prediction about Zion's strength. It rests on an affection that centuries of ruin have not cooled, and it is still waiting to be filled out.
The rest of the chapter speaks of Jehovah's faithfulness and love for His earthly people. That love shows itself in the restoration of Zion, the city of God's sovereign choice (Ps. 78:68). For long centuries she seemed "forsaken" and "forgotten," yet the city is loved with a compassion greater than a mother's love for her child. Her walls are continually before the Lord, and the day is coming when her children will hurry back and all her destroyers go out from the city.
The chapter's earlier verses explain why God can speak this way at all. One writer also warns against reading the promise as a picture of the Church.
Turn now to Isaiah 49. Israel failed as God's servant and is set aside. God presents Christ as the true Servant. Yet He says, "I have labored in vain," for we know that Israel rejected Him... In verse 8 God gives Him as a covenant to the people, to deliver them in the end... The idea of applying this to the Church is almost too far-fetched to be worth a comment. When does the Church ever say, "The LORD has forsaken me; my Lord has forgotten me" — and that at the very time when the blessing is complete?
Jerusalem has been rebuilt before, and each time few people lived in it. Those past recoveries fall short of what this verse promises.
How different it will be in the coming day of Jerusalem's glory. Then the city will still be "large and great," but the people will no longer be few. In that day the land will be too narrow for the number of people living in it, and of the city they will say, "The place is too narrow for me; make room for me to dwell in" (Isaiah 49:14-21). This reminds us that reformation, restoration and revival, however bright and blessed, fall far short of the glory that is to come. There had been reformation in the days of the kings. There had been restoration in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah, and those restored people had enjoyed their revivals. But whether reformation, restoration or revival, it was always a time of outward weakness.
- Charge — Isaiah 49 opens God's second dispute with His people. The issue is now the rejected Messiah, not idolatry.
- Complaint — Zion cries that God has forsaken and forgotten her. He answers with love stronger than a mother's.
- Exchange — One sentence moves two crowds: the destroyers walk out, the children hurry in. Israel's enemies disappear and Israel comes forward.
- Ground — The comfort rests on the true Servant. His labour looked wasted, yet God gives Him as a covenant to deliver the people in the end.
- Reach — Every past rebuilding was small and weak. The promise here is a city too full to hold its own people, and it is still ahead.
Lift up thine eyes round about and behold they all gather themselves together, they come to thee. As I live, saith Jehovah, thou shalt indeed clothe thee with them all as with an ornament, and bind them on as a bride doth.
Isaiah 49 turns from the charge of idolatry to the rejection of the Messiah, and then to a city that says God has forgotten her. Verse 18 is His reply: lift your eyes and look at the crowd coming home.
The section this verse belongs to opens a new accusation against the nation, and a new answer from God.
Isaiah 49 begins the second charge, the rejection of Christ, not idolatry, and it goes on to the end of chapter 57. (Compare the end of Isaiah 48.) Israel has rejected the Messiah, and so Israel is said to be of little value. God sets Him as a light to the Gentiles, and Zion is to be re-established.
Zion has just said that God has forgotten her. He answers with something she can see.
Zion thought she was forsaken altogether. A woman may forget the child of her womb, unnatural as that is; but Jehovah does not forget His own people. He comforts Zion and consoles her. He quickly increases her children, saying to her, "Lift up your eyes around and see; they all gather, they come to you" (v. 18).
Writers see this crowd as the scattered tribes coming home to those already in the land.
What a home-coming it will be after long centuries of wandering and desolation! What joy to God, and what blessing for the people of His choice! And what a meeting of the tribes after dreary ages of separation and estrangement! Isaiah 49:18-23 describes their meeting in vivid detail. To those already in the land — the two tribes — the Lord says: "Lift up your eyes around and see; they all gather, they come to you." Those already there will wear the returning tribes like a garment, and the land will be too narrow because of the number of people in it.
Her beauty is a gift. The One who gives it makes her His bride and His queen.
And she shall be the bride of the Lord of the earth, and the queen in the day of His power. He will clothe her with ornaments fitting a bride and queen, rejoice over her, and give His name to her. He will have her so honoured and cherished by the whole world that He treats contempt for her as an insult to Himself.
God swears by His own life: "As I live." So when is a promise like that kept?
Such is the future that Jehovah guarantees to Israel after the rejection of the Messiah. So the return from captivity in Babylon cannot exhaust this chapter. It clearly speaks of the far more complete gathering at the end of this age. This opens the new subject: Christ rejected by His people, and His people gathered in after God has made Him a light to the end of the earth.
Kelly also notes what happens to those who ruined her.
The enemies of Israel disappear. Israel comes forward — forgotten for a long time, so it seemed — but now to be established for ever. So their God calls upon them to see a wondrous sight.
The verses that follow say the land will be too small for its people. Smith sets that fullness against every partial recovery God's people have known.
How different will it be in the coming day of Jerusalem's glory. Then indeed the city will still be "large and great," but no longer will the people be few... This reminds us, as another writer has said, that reformation, restoration and revival, however bright and blessed, fall far short of the glory that is to come. There was reformation in the days of the kings. There was restoration in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah, and those restored people enjoyed their revivals. But reformation, restoration or revival always came in circumstances of outward weakness.
- Rejection. The chapter charges the nation with rejecting the Messiah. God's answer is that Zion will be re-established.
- Sight. To a city saying she is forgotten, God does not argue — He tells her to lift her eyes and watch her children arrive.
- Reunion. Writers read "all these" as the scattered tribes coming home to those already in the land, after long ages apart.
- Ornament. Her returning children are her jewels. The Lord puts that honour on her, and makes the whole world respect it.
- Fullness. God seals the promise with His own oath. It reaches past any earlier homecoming to a crowded land — not the "few" of every reformation and revival until then.
For [in] thy waste and thy desolate places, and thy destroyed land, thou shalt even now be too straitened by reason of the inhabitants, and they that swallowed thee up shall be far away.
The verse looks at ruined ground and promises a crowd too big for it. That raises two questions: where will such a crowd come from, and when has anything like this ever happened?
Zion is Jerusalem, spoken of here as a mother who has lost her children. She had long seemed forgotten. This verse marks the turn.
The enemies of Israel disappear, and Israel comes forward, long forgotten apparently, but now to be established for ever. So their God calls upon them to see a wondrous sight.
Notice which ground fills up. Not new territory, but the ruined places themselves.
Zion will be exalted as the nation of Israel gathers to the city. The long waste and desolate places will prove too narrow because of the crowd of inhabitants. Astonishment will follow, as the long hidden ones of Israel come to light.
Where do all these people come from? Commentators point to the ten tribes of Israel, scattered so long ago that no one can now tell who they are.
It is the harvest of joy for the chosen but guilty people, after the long sowing in tears. And now there seems to be no room to house all the children… It is the joining together of the dispersed of all Israel, those who had been forgotten. At the present time the Jews are the only ones clearly known to be of Israel; but those so long hidden are the ten tribes. The Jews will have the certainty that they are Israel and yet not known to them. They had been in the dark for ages.
So the land fills up, and the nations take notice. The honour they pay has a stated reason.
In the days of her sinful desolation all her children were lost. Now they appear in such numbers that the land cannot hold them. The nations — even their kings and queens — will honour them, and that because of the glory and power of their God.
Did the return from Babylon fulfil this? Writers set beside it Zechariah's vision of Jerusalem: a city measured out to grow, with no walls, and the spoilers themselves spoiled. The history since, they say, does not match.
Jerusalem will be measured out with a view to growing and filling with people, like towns without walls — without limits. The Lord will be a wall of fire around it, and will be the glory in its midst; compare Isaiah 49:19-20. After the glory of the Lord has been shown on the earth, He will send to the nations and make a spoil of those who have spoiled Israel, whom He values as the apple of His eye… It is clear that nothing answering to this has taken place since the captivity.
In Nehemiah's day the rebuilt city was wide and large, but the people in it were few. This verse promises the opposite.
How different it will be in the coming day of Jerusalem's glory. Then the city will still be "wide and large," but the people will no longer be few… This reminds us that reformation, restoration and revivals, however bright and blessed, fall far short of the glory that is to come. There had been reformation in the days of the kings. There had been restoration in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah, and these restored saints had enjoyed their revivals. But whether reformation, restoration or revival, it was always in a setting of outward weakness. It is no different today.
- Forgotten — Zion had long seemed forgotten. God answers with a picture of a land too crowded to hold her children.
- Reversed — the destroyers leave and Israel comes forward. The ruined ground itself grows too small for the crowd.
- Hidden — the crowd includes Israel's long-lost tribes. Even their own people no longer know them, after ages in the dark.
- Honoured — kings and queens will honour them. The reason is the glory and power of their God.
- Ahead — nothing since the captivity matches this. Every reformation, restoration and revival has come in weakness, and points on to a glory still ahead.
The children of thy bereavement shall yet say in thine ears, The place is too narrow for me make room for me, that I may dwell.
Zion has said that the Lord forgot her. Isaiah 49 is God's answer, and this verse is that answer at its sharpest: her lost children come back in such numbers that she runs out of room. Who are these children? When does this happen? Has any return in history matched it yet?
God does not answer her complaint with an argument. He answers with a mother's love for her baby, and with walls He keeps in front of Him.
"But Zion said, Jehovah has forsaken me, and the Lord has forgotten me." But Jehovah answers her reproach. He says, "Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yes, they may forget, yet I will not forget you. Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of My hands: your walls are continually before Me. Your children shall make haste; your destroyers and those who made you waste shall go out from you" (vv. 14–17). The enemies of Israel disappear. Israel comes forward — forgotten for so long, it seemed — but now to be established forever.
The children who speak here belong to a mother who had lost her family. Kelly reads their arrival as a homecoming of Israelites long out of sight.
It is the harvest of joy for the chosen but guilty people, after the long sowing in tears. And now there seems to be no room to put all the children… This is the gathering together of the scattered of all Israel, the ones who had been forgotten. At the present time the Jews are the only ones clearly known to be of Israel; but those so long hidden are the ten tribes.
The crowding shows up in the land itself. Even the ruined places will not hold the crowd that comes home.
(Vv. 18–21). Zion will be exalted as the nation of Israel gathers to the city. The long waste and desolate places will prove too narrow because of the crowd of people living there. There will be astonishment when the long hidden ones of Israel are brought to light.
Zechariah saw the same picture: a city with no walls and no limits. One writer sets the two passages side by side.
Jerusalem is to be measured so that it may be enlarged and lived in like towns without walls — without limits. Jehovah will be a wall of fire around it, and will be the glory in the middle of it. Compare Isa. 49:19-20… Jehovah will dwell among His people, and many nations will be joined to the Lord: Jerusalem will be His earthly centre… It is perfectly clear that nothing matching this has taken place since the captivity.
The same truth appears from the other side. A city can be large and great and still hold only a few people.
How different it will be in the coming day of Jerusalem's glory. Then indeed the city will still be "large and great," but the people will no longer be few. In that day the Land will be too narrow because of the number of people in it. Of the city they will say, "The place is too narrow for me; make room for me to dwell in" (Isa. 49:14-21). This reminds us… that reformation, restoration and revivals, however bright and blessed, fall far short of the glory that is to come.
Commentators differ over whether the verse describes something already happening. Kelly quotes Calvin on this verse, and then answers him.
Calvin says that Zion here, as in other passages, means captives and exiles… He adds that Paul rightly concludes from Isa. 49:20 (the passage cited in Rom. 11), "that it is impossible that there shall not be some remnant that come to Christ." This is quite a misconception. The apostle had already shown that a remnant comes to Christ now, but he contrasts that present remnant with the day when "a nation" shall be brought in at once, and all Israel shall be saved.
- Room lost. Zion speaks as a mother who has lost her children. She says God has forsaken and forgotten her. This verse is His reply.
- Room remembered. Her walls are engraved on God's hands. A mother may forget her nursing child; He will not.
- Room refilled. The children who come back are the scattered of all Israel. They include the ten tribes, hidden from view for so long, and they come until there is nowhere left to put them.
- Room outgrown. Even the waste and desolate places prove too narrow. The city spreads out like a town with no walls and no limits.
- Room still to come. Nothing since the captivity has matched this. Reformation, restoration and revival all fall short of the day when the cry is for more space.
And thou shalt say in thy heart, Who hath borne me these, seeing I had lost my children and was desolate, an exile, and driven about? and who hath brought up these? behold, I was left alone; these, where were they?
Zion had said that the Lord forgot her. God answers by pointing to a crowd of children she cannot account for, and this verse is her stunned reply.
Zion's losses run back over centuries. One writer pictures the home-coming that ends them.
What a home-coming it will be after long centuries of wandering and desolation! What joy to God, and what blessing for the people of His choice! And what a meeting of the tribes after dreary ages of separation and estrangement! … No wonder they ask. For centuries Zion has been bereaved of her children. The land has long kept her Sabbaths. But when Jehovah's time comes, how marvellous and glorious the change!
The words "who has brought up these?" point to a family raised somewhere out of her sight. Commentators connect this with the tribes carried away long before and never traced since.
It is the harvest of joy for the chosen but guilty people, after the long sowing in tears. And now there seems to be no room to put all the children. … It is the joining together of the scattered of all Israel, those who had been forgotten. At the present time the Jews are the only ones clearly known to be of Israel; but those so long hidden are the ten tribes. The Jews will be sure that these are Israel, even though they had not known them. They had been in the dark for ages.
The same writer answers those who ask where the lost tribes could be now.
No one knows clearly or certainly where the ten tribes are; neither does it seem anyone's business to search beforehand. We may leave them in the obscurity that God has put them in. We know, if we believe His word, that as surely as He has preserved the scattered remnant of the two tribes, so will He bring out of their hiding-place the descendants of the ten. … God will fulfil every letter of the promises. Scripture cannot be broken.
One account ties the question to a reunion of the two parts of the nation.
From Isaiah 49:18-23 we learn that the Jews (that is, the two tribes) will again recognise Israel (the ten tribes), saying, "Who has borne me these … from where have these come?" In that day God will put it into the heart of the nations to bring these lost ones back to their land. There they will be made ready to receive their Messiah — at least the godly ones among them. … Sceptics may say, How can this be, since they have disappeared among the other nations? But we know that God has His eye upon them.
She asks "in your heart" because the mercy takes her by surprise.
And it will be unexpected mercy, as the following verses show. Zion stands for the godly seed who will receive the mercy. In their distress they will be tempted to think that their God has forsaken and forgotten them. But He has not. Among mankind there is no stronger tie than a mother's love. Yet under extreme pressure even that tie may break. The godly in Israel have a tie with Jehovah that will never break.
One writer hears another voice in these words besides Zion's.
No doubt the words used in verses 20 and 21 will have their fulfilment when Israel is back in the land. But we can also see a contrast here. The Lord was lonely when all His followers deserted Him. In the coming day of glory He will say: "Who has borne Me these? … Behold, I was left alone; from where have these come?" As we read at the end of Isaiah 53: "Out of the anguish of His soul He shall see and be satisfied."
Nothing in history has yet matched this scene.
This reminds us that reformation, and restoration, and revivals, however bright and blessed, fall far short of the glory that is to come. There had been reformation in the days of the kings. There had been restoration in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah, and these restored saints had enjoyed their revivals. But whether reformation, restoration or revival, it was always in circumstances of outward weakness. Nor is it otherwise today.
- Loss. Zion speaks as a woman left alone. Centuries of emptiness stand behind her question.
- Hidden. The children she cannot place include tribes no one has traced for ages. God has kept His eye on them.
- Unexpected. The mercy arrives without warning, resting on a tie that, unlike even a mother's love, never breaks.
- Carried. She does not gather them; God moves the nations to bring her sons and daughters home to her.
- Satisfied. One writer hears the same question on the lips of the Lord, once left alone and at last satisfied. Every past revival still falls short of that day.
Thus saith the Lord Jehovah Behold, I will lift up my hand to the nations, and set up my banner to the peoples; and they shall bring thy sons in [their] bosom, and thy daughters shall be carried upon the shoulder.
Zion has just asked in wonder where her crowd of children came from, since she sat alone and childless. God's answer is this verse: He raises a signal among the nations, and they carry her sons and daughters home — but who are these children, and why do the nations carry them?
Zion looks at herself for an explanation. The answer lies in what the Lord does.
Their astonishment is answered when they see this: Israel's recovery comes from the Lord lifting up His hand to the Gentiles and setting up a standard for His people. Then the long hidden ones will come to light. They will flock to the standard of the Lord, and the great ones of the earth will help to restore them.
Another writer names the long hidden ones: the ten tribes.
This is the joining together of the scattered of all Israel, those who had been forgotten. Today the Jews are the only ones clearly known to be of Israel. Those hidden so long are the ten tribes. The Jews will be certain that they are Israel, even though they were not known to them. They had been in the dark for ages. But now Jehovah makes His will known to the nations of the earth.
One writer follows the banner through Isaiah. In some places it gathers the peoples; in one place it stands against an enemy.
The first mention of it is in Isaiah 5:26: "He will lift up a Banner to the nations." The last mention is in Isaiah 62:10: "Lift up a Banner for the peoples." That one has in view the salvation and blessing of the city. So it is in Isaiah 49:22. God sets up His Banner to the peoples, and they bring the sons and daughters of Israel to Jerusalem. The next to last mention, though, shows an attacking enemy: "When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord will lift up a Banner against Him" (Isa. 59:19).
The shoulder has a settled meaning in Scripture, and it fills out the picture here.
Scripture often speaks of the shoulder as the place of strength, the place where a person carries burdens. The high priest wore the names of the twelve tribes on his shoulders, as in a place of safety... When God blesses Israel in their land, the Gentiles will carry Israel's scattered daughters on their shoulders. That is, they will give them substantial help.
This scene belongs to a coming order, not to the present one.
In the kingdom of Christ, the Gentiles are to be subject to Israel. They are to hold a lower place. This matters. Under the present arrangement the great truth is that "in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, Barbarian nor Scythian, slave nor free." It will not be like that in the kingdom of Christ. The Old Testament foretells it in passages such as Isaiah 49:22-26 and Isaiah 60:3-16.
The same writer sets this verse at a later stage of the return. It is not the first arrivals, but a search for those still left among the nations.
But it seems that besides all this, messengers will be sent out from the place where the Lord has appeared in glory and destroyed the enemies of His people. They will bring back any Israelites still found among the nations... Isaiah 60:4-9, Isaiah 52:10-12, and Isaiah 49:22-23 seem to refer to this part of the subject.
This chapter opens with the Servant rejected by Israel. God's answer sends His salvation further, to the ends of the earth.
Then Christ, by this same prophetic Spirit, says, "I have laboured in vain." For we know that Israel rejected Him. Verse 5 gives the answer. He will be glorious. It would be a small thing to restore the remnant of Israel. He will be the salvation of Jehovah to the ends of the earth... But to fulfil God's purposes, the verses that follow carry us on to the millennium.
- Signal. God lifts His hand to the nations and sets up a standard. They move because He signals.
- Standard. The banner gathers the peoples here. Elsewhere in Isaiah it stands against an enemy who comes in like a flood.
- Carried. The shoulder is the place of strength and safety. To carry Israel's children there is to give them substantial help.
- Found. The long hidden ones come to light. They are the ten tribes, in the dark for ages.
- Reversed. In the kingdom of Christ the nations take the lower place and serve Israel. This comes through the Servant, who is salvation to the ends of the earth.
And kings shall be thy nursing-fathers, and their princesses thy nursing-mothers they shall bow down to thee with the face toward the earth, and lick up the dust of thy feet. And thou shalt know that I [am] Jehovah; for they shall not be ashamed who wait on me.
Zion, the city of God's own choice, had just said that the Lord had forgotten her. This verse is His answer, and it raises three questions: who are these kings, when does this come, and what does the last line mean for anyone waiting on God today?
The rest of the chapter answers a people who thought God had left them for centuries.
The remaining verses of the chapter speak of the faithfulness and love of Jehovah for His earthly people. They show it in the restoration of Zion, the city of God's sovereign choice. For long centuries she seemed "forsaken" and "forgotten," yet He loves her with a compassion greater than a mother's love for a child. Her walls are continually before the Lord, and the day is coming when her children will hurry back and all her destroyers go out from the city.
The word behind "foster fathers" carries more than affection. Moses used the same word for his own work with Israel in the desert.
"Nurse" or "foster-parent" is used in the general sense of one who is "instructor" and "protector." Moses, speaking to Jehovah, uses it to describe his office of leadership of Israel in the wilderness (Num. 11:12). See also Isa. 49:23.
Some read this as fulfilled when the exiles came back from Babylon. One writer argues the scale is far bigger.
Such is the future that Jehovah guarantees to Israel after the rejection of the Messiah. It is impossible to exhaust this chapter in the return from the Babylonian captivity. It speaks beyond doubt of the far more complete ingathering at the end of this age… But when Zion might have thought herself entirely forgotten, Jehovah turns His hand toward these little ones and puts down the nations of the earth. Either their kings and queens become the servants of Israel, or He makes an example of them in divine judgement.
The verse ends with knowledge. Two groups reach it by two different roads.
The great ones of the earth will help in their restoration, while those who have opposed God's ancient people will lick the dust at their feet. Then it will be known that Israel's God is Jehovah – the unchanging and eternal God.
The prophet has already foretold that Israel will know the Lord God is Jehovah through their restoration and blessing (verse 23). Now we learn that the nations – all flesh – will know by judgment that Jehovah is the Saviour of Israel, their Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob.
Many have claimed this promise for the church, with rulers as her patrons. Commentators warn that the Christian hope is of a different kind.
The Christian promises do not lend themselves at all to human feeling or worldly ambition. We can understand how a Jew might take a worldly delight in looking forward to the day when, as Isaiah predicted, kings will be Zion's foster fathers and Gentile princesses her nursing mothers.
But "spiritualizing" the prophecies in fact makes the Church worldly. The promises are not made spiritual at all. No one turns the earthly into the heavenly; people simply apply earthly promises, as earthly, to a heavenly people. What else can that do but make the people earthly?
The last line reaches beyond Israel to anyone in trouble. But it carries a condition.
"Those who wait for Me shall not be put to shame." … But we must remember how much those three words carry: "wait for Me." The waiting must be real. It will not do to say we are waiting on God while our eye glances sideways at some human prop or creature confidence. We must be shut in to God alone.
Two prisoners illustrate the difference between waiting on a man and waiting on God.
Joseph asked the chief butler to remember him at his promotion, and the butler forgot him. He put his confidence, for the moment, in man, and he was disappointed. The dying criminal, on the other hand, prayed in his distress, but in faith: "Jesus, remember me when You come into Your kingdom." He received the immediate answer, "Truly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise." His confidence was also in a Man. But that Man was the Messiah, David's Son and David's Lord, so he was not put to shame.
- Forgotten — Zion thought God had left her. His love outlasted centuries of silence.
- Fostered — A foster father is a guardian and teacher. Kings will protect the people they once opposed.
- Future — This is too large for the return from Babylon. It points to a final ingathering, when rulers either serve Israel or face judgment.
- Known — Israel learns who the Lord is by restoration. The nations learn it by judgment.
- Waiting — No one who waits on God is put to shame. But the waiting must be on God alone, not on God plus a human prop.
Shall the prey be taken from the mighty? and shall he that is rightfully captive be delivered?
Isaiah has been promising rescue to a people held down by stronger enemies. This verse raises the obvious doubt: can anyone pull plunder out of a strong man's grip, and can a captive held by right ever go free?
(The ESV says "the captives of a tyrant." The older translation quoted below says "the lawful captive" — a captive held by right.)
The question is not a taunt. It is how things look when you weigh the oppressor's strength against Israel's weakness.
But Israel's foes are mighty. To human reason alone it may seem impossible that the poor, downtrodden Jew will ever be freed from the oppressor. Jehovah answers their fears with this promise: "The captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered." And God will deal with those who have oppressed His people.
The word "lawful" is the hard part. The captivity was not bad luck. The people had earned it, and that is why release looks impossible.
That intervention will mean the deliverance of all those who fear His Name. Many of them will be in a captivity brought on them by their nation's sins. Isaiah asks this question, and in the next verse he answers it... He will take possession of them by taking captive those who held them in captivity.
Israel did once come home from exile in Babylon. One writer argues that this promise reaches much further.
"For thus says Jehovah, Even the captive of the mighty shall be taken away... and I will contend with him who contends with you, and I will save your children... and all flesh shall know that I, Jehovah, am your Saviour and your Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob" (vv. 24-26)... So, applied that way, this chapter cannot be exhausted by the return from captivity in Babylon. Without doubt it speaks of the far more complete gathering in at the end of this age.
God does not simply overpower the claim against His people. He satisfies it, and then the rescue becomes public.
It will all be done in righteousness as well as in grace: "the prey is taken from the mighty, and the lawful captive delivered" (v. 24). Then everyone sees His salvation. "And all flesh shall know that I, the Lord, am your Saviour and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob" (v. 26).
Other writers apply the question to the gospel. There the strong one holding the prey is Satan, and the rescue had a cost.
Christ is our only hope. He is stronger than the strong, and has overcome the enemy... But how was this deliverance brought about? How was the victory won? By death. Through death the Saviour brought to nothing the one who had the power of death (Heb. 2:14)... By submitting to death for one brief moment He has broken the power of Satan for ever. Like David with Goliath, He has cut off the enemy's head with his own weapon.
Applied to one person, "lawful" becomes an accusation you cannot answer:
Your sins had made you a lawful captive. For your sins you deserved the just judgment of God. You could be saved only when that judgment was satisfied and Satan's power was broken.
What Isaiah could only ask, the gospel now answers each time someone believes.
"Shall the prey be taken from the mighty and the lawful captives delivered?" was asked long ago. We have the answer to that question today. The gospel about God's Son has delivering power. Every soul saved is a fresh piece of ground torn out of Satan's rule — a fresh piece of ground added to the Lord's kingdom.
- Lawful — sin earned the captivity. That is what makes the question look unanswerable to human reason.
- Answered — Isaiah does not leave the question hanging. The very next verse promises that the captives of the mighty will be taken away.
- Righteous — God frees the prisoner in righteousness as well as grace. He never sets His own justice aside.
- Costly — the victory came by death; the Saviour broke the enemy's power by submitting to it.
- Public — the outcome reaches beyond Israel. All flesh will know the Lord as Saviour and Redeemer, and every soul saved today is ground won back.
For thus saith Jehovah Even the captive of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered; and I will strive with him that striveth with thee, and I will save thy children.
Zion has just heard that God cannot forget her, yet one doubt remains: her captor looks far too strong to rob. Verse 25 is God's reply — a rescue for Israel, and for every sinner Satan holds.
Verse 24 asks whether prey can ever be taken from a strong captor. God's reply settles the fear and tells the nations who He is.
Israel's foes are mighty. To human reason it may seem impossible that the poor, beaten-down Jew will ever be freed from the oppressor. Jehovah answers their fears with this promise: "Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken, and the prey of the tyrant be rescued." What is more, God will deal with those who have oppressed His people… By this judgment the nations — all flesh — will know that Jehovah is the Saviour of Israel, their Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob.
Some read the chapter as fulfilled when the exiles came home from Babylon. Commentators here argue the promise is far too large for that, and that it reaches Zion's little ones too.
God's severe vengeance on the enemies of Israel has come. This is the future that Jehovah guarantees to Israel after the rejection of the Messiah. So this chapter cannot be used up by the return from the captivity in Babylon. Without doubt it speaks of the far fuller gathering in at the end of this age… When Zion might have thought herself completely forgotten, Jehovah turns His hand toward these little ones and puts down the nations of the earth.
God does not send help from a distance. He takes the quarrel as His own. Writers place the rescue at the moment Israel looks most lost, and they name the One who steps in.
When this great mercy reaches Israel, their plight will be very great. We can gather that from verse 24, and the opening verses of Zechariah 14 confirm it. Just when they seem to be the helpless captives of their foes, Jehovah will step in and deliver them. The New Testament makes it very clear who this Jehovah is. According to Zechariah 14:3 He goes out to fight against those nations, and He is none other than our blessed Lord Jesus Christ. By His hands "the captives of the mighty shall be taken, and the prey of the tyrant be rescued."
Older translations call them lawful captives in verse 24. The word matters. The captor's hold was not just brute force; it had a legal claim behind it. So the rescue cannot be a raid. It must satisfy justice.
He will do it all in righteousness as well as in grace — "the prey is taken from the mighty, and the lawful captive delivered" (v. 24). Then everyone sees His salvation.
One writer imagines the devil making that claim out loud, and shows what silences it.
Suppose the devil had stood up and challenged God's right to bless us. Suppose he had said: "They are my lawful captives, slaves to sin and under the condemnation of death, and Your enemies. You cannot bless them righteously, and You must condemn them if You are still to be the just Ruler of the Universe." God's answer is that in the Beloved they have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace. That is conclusive and final… The blood of the Beloved answers every claim.
A rescue like this needs someone stronger than the captor. Commentators press the question Isaiah leaves open: how is the prey taken?
Christ is our only hope. He is stronger than the strong, and He has overcome the enemy… But how did that deliverance happen? How was the victory won? By death. Through death the Saviour brought to nothing the one who held the power of death (Hebrews 2:14). Isaiah 53:12 puts it this way: God will divide Him a portion with the great, and He will divide the spoil with the strong, because He poured out His soul to death. By submitting to death for one brief moment He has broken the power of Satan for ever. Like David with Goliath, He has cut off the enemy's head with his own weapon.
God has answered the question. Now it becomes an errand to carry.
Long ago this question was asked: "Shall the prey be taken from the mighty and the lawful captives delivered?" We have the answer to that question today. The gospel about God's Son has delivering power. Every soul saved is a fresh bit of territory pulled out of Satan's rule — a fresh bit of territory added to the Lord's kingdom.
- Question. Human reason says no one escapes a captor that strong. This verse overturns that despair.
- Claim. The captives are called lawful. The captor had a legal hold, so the rescue must be righteous as well as gracious.
- Cost. The blood of Christ answers that claim. The Stronger One broke the captor's power by going into death Himself.
- Contender. God does not send aid from a distance. He fights the battle Himself, and writers name that Deliverer as Christ.
- Reach. The promise reaches past Babylon to Israel's final gathering and her children — and today to every soul won back from Satan.
And I will feed them that oppress thee with their own flesh; and they shall be drunken with their own blood, as with new wine. And all flesh shall know that I, Jehovah, [am] thy Saviour and thy Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.
Isaiah 49 ends with Zion doubting that anyone could ever pull her out of the grip of the strong. God answers that He will take back the captives and turn the oppressors on themselves. The last line gives the reason for the rescue: the whole world will learn who Israel's Saviour is. The commentators below call Him Jehovah, the name the ESV prints as "the LORD".
Verse 24 asks whether anyone can take prey from the mighty. One writer treats the closing verses as God's answer to that fear. He also marks a difference between what verse 23 promises and what verse 26 promises.
But Israel's foes are mighty. To human reason it may seem impossible that the poor, crushed Jew will ever be freed from the oppressor. Jehovah answers their fears with this promise: the captives of the mighty will be taken away, and the prey of the terrible will be rescued. What is more, God will deal with those who have oppressed His people. The prophet has already said that Israel will know the Lord God is Jehovah through their restoration and blessing (verse 23). Now we learn that the nations — all flesh — will know through judgment that Jehovah is the Saviour of Israel, their Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob.
Another writer places the rescue at Israel's lowest point and names the One who carries it out.
Just when they seem to be the helpless captives of their foes, Jehovah will step in with a mighty act to rescue them. The New Testament makes it very clear who this Jehovah is. According to Zechariah 14:3 He will go out and fight against those nations, and He is none other than our blessed Lord Jesus Christ. By His hands the captives of the mighty will be taken away, and the prey of the terrible will be rescued.
One writer ties this vengeance to Israel's rejection of the Messiah, and says the return from Babylon is too small to fulfil it.
The well-deserved vengeance of God on the enemies of Israel has come. This is the future Jehovah guarantees to Israel after they reject the Messiah. So this chapter cannot be used up by the return from the Babylonian captivity. It speaks beyond doubt of the far fuller gathering in at the end of this age.
One writer notes which of Israel's two names the closing title is attached to, and what this future rescue rests on.
This will be a work of redemption by power. But, as we know, its righteous basis will be the redemption by blood carried out at His first coming. At the present time the poor Jew still rejects the righteous basis while hoping for national deliverance. It will be different when their Redeemer does appear in power. He will then be shown as the "Mighty One" of poor crooked "Jacob," and not just as the Mighty One of Israel.
Another writer traces the same title through Isaiah, and describes the state Israel was in when God came to them.
There was no man to lift them up. They had sinned, they had fallen, and to all appearance there was no way back. But the Lord their God came to where they were. He worked in grace, and wisdom, and righteousness, and He says, "all flesh shall know that I am the LORD your Savior, and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob" (Isa. 49:26). This divine title occurs only three times in the Old Testament, and all three times in Isaiah (Isa. 1:24; 49:26; and 60:16).
One writer sets this line beside similar statements in Isaiah and asks who Jesus must be.
Many Old Testament passages spoken to Israel tie their salvation to God stepping in Himself for them. They prove that He alone could save them… "all flesh shall know that I am the LORD your Savior, and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob" (49:26)… The name Jesus carries divine glory with it. It means Jehovah the Saviour. These great texts make it clear that none but God could be the Saviour… but of Jesus the angel said, "He will save His people from their sins." Then who else could He be but God?
One writer makes the reach of that final clause the mark of the age to come.
The change will bring in an age completely different in character from the present one. Right now God is gathering out from the nations a people for heavenly blessing. The mark of that coming age will be a worldwide knowledge of Jehovah in His relation to Israel. Jer. 31:34; Zech. 14:9. "All flesh shall know that I am the LORD your Savior, and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob." Isa. 49:26. The Lord Himself will reign over the earth in righteousness.
- Fear. Zion says no one can take prey from the strong. Human reason has no answer; God does.
- Fight. The Deliverer is Jehovah Himself. Commentators identify Him with the Lord Jesus, who goes out to fight the nations.
- Fall. The oppressors turn on themselves. Commentators read this as vengeance still to come, too large for the return from Babylon.
- Name. He is the Mighty One of Jacob, the crooked name. This rescue by power rests on redemption by blood already accomplished.
- Fame. The point of it all is knowledge: Israel knows through blessing, the nations through judgment, until all flesh knows.
Thus saith Jehovah Where is the bill of your mother's divorce, whom I have put away? or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, through your iniquities have ye sold yourselves, and for your transgressions is your mother put away.
Isaiah 50 turns from promise back to Israel's present state, and God opens with two questions: where is the divorce paper, and who is the creditor? Neither one exists, and that answer puts the blame back on the people.
The verse uses two scenes from ordinary life. A husband dismisses his wife with legal papers. A father in debt sells his children to a creditor. God asks Israel to produce either document. One writer reads the questions against the background of exile and a ruined homeland:
The chapter opens with Jehovah reminding Israel of this. They are scattered and held captive by other nations, and their land lies empty. Yet none of that means Jehovah has treated them lightly. He is not like a heartless man putting away his wife, or a pagan father selling his child to pay his debts. It is through no lack of love on Jehovah's part that they have been set aside. Their own sins have separated them from Jehovah and brought them into captivity.
God does not only deny the two pictures as facts. His character rules them out. A husband who divorces acts out of displeasure. A father who sells his children acts out of his own need. Neither motive fits God:
This was no mean-hearted man taking wretched pleasure in sending away a wife who displeased him. This was no selfish parent meeting his own needs at his children's expense.
Another writer answers the creditor question with a single stroke — God has no debts to settle:
"Where is the bill of your mother's divorcement, whom I have put away? or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you?" No — the Lord is not so poor: "Behold, for your iniquities have you sold yourselves; and for your transgressions is your mother put away."
One writer links the missing paper to Paul's answer about whether God has cast His people away:
This prophetic strain now ceases, for in Isaiah 50:1 we return to the existing state of the people, estranged from their God. This was not from God's side but from theirs. If He had issued a bill of divorce against them, it would have been permanent. They would have been rejected (Rom. 11:1) — and to that Paul answers, "By no means!" The fact was that they had sold themselves into disaster by their many transgressions.
Commentators differ on how far to press the picture. Others say a real divorce did take place, though the people brought it on themselves. Israel "had the place of nearness to Jehovah" pictured by the marriage bond. She was unfaithful, "and in consequence she was divorced, becoming a widow and desolate under the righteous dealing of God" (William Kelly).
One writer traces the distance back to a promise Israel broke:
The people had not continued in the "all things" of the law. They had not reflected the "light," as they had bound themselves to do, and they were therefore removed from the divine presence... "What communion has light with darkness?" we may ask again. Iniquity and transgressions must estrange from God. If Israel walk in the darkness of corrupted nature, they must walk outside the presence of God.
Older translations read the second half of the verse as "you have sold yourselves." One writer follows that idea of selling oneself through the rest of the Bible:
In Romans 7:14 the "wretched man" cries out, "I am of the flesh, sold under sin." The Greek word used here for "sold" is piprasko. When it describes a person, it means "to sell into slavery." In the Greek Old Testament it pictures selling oneself to sin: of Ahab in 1 Kings 21:20, 25; in 2 Kings 17:17; see also Isaiah 50:1 and 52:3. So Paul may have had these in mind
after_note: DELETE when he cried in desperation, "I am sold under sin." But this is not the experience of the apostle Paul only. It is the condition of us all, though we may discover it only when the light of the Gospel shines upon our fallen state.
Later, once the covenant bond is renewed, the Lord looks back on Jerusalem's past in a surprising way:
When the Lord has brought her to Himself in the bonds of the covenant, He does not refer to her former state as one of divorcement, but rather of widowhood. That is, He does not call to mind the shame, but rather the sorrow, of her former condition. Though it may be divorcement and shame (Isa. 50:1), yet the Lord will not remember it as such... Does it not sweetly and movingly tell us that with our God there is forgetting as well as forgiving?... We see this in Isaiah 54. There the Lord, re-married to Jerusalem, looks back in pity on her widowhood, and not in anger on her divorce.
- No paper. God asks for the divorce certificate and the creditor's name. Neither exists. He never dismissed His people, and He never owed anyone a debt.
- No poverty. He is not a husband acting on displeasure or a father selling children to cover his own need.
- No excuse. The sale was their own: they sold themselves, and their sins made the distance between them and God.
- No exception. The same word for being sold under sin describes every one of us, until the light of the gospel shows it.
- No permanence. No bill was ever issued, so the setting aside is not final. In the end God remembers the sorrow of it, not the shame.
Wherefore did I come, and there was no man? I called, and there was none to answer? Is my hand at all shortened that I cannot redeem, or have I no power to deliver? behold, at my rebuke I dry up the sea, I make rivers a wilderness; their fish stink because there is no water, and die for thirst.
Isaiah 50 opens with God answering a charge He was never guilty of. Israel thought He had thrown them away. He answers that they sold themselves. Then verse 2 presses harder. When He came, why was no one there? Had His hand grown too short to save?
The verse opens with a question that looks back one line. Verse 1 asks Israel to produce their mother's divorce certificate, or to name the creditor God sold them to. There is neither.
This was no harsh man taking a miserable pleasure in sending away a wife who displeased him. This was no selfish parent meeting his own needs at his children's expense. And the proof of their rebellion appears in verses 2 and 3... No one heeded His coming or answered His call, though ever since the days of Pharaoh He had already proved what He was for His people.
The proof of the break is not God's coldness. It is the silence that met Him when He came.
The One asking "was there no man?" is the same One who dries up the sea.
Here is Jehovah Himself, come to them as a Saviour, but there is no response. They do not recognise Him. They do not credit Him with power to redeem. And we know well when this happened. One came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. The power of God was in His hand, and He used it for them without holding back. Still they would not believe that He had come to them in grace.
So the coming and the calling of this verse point to the days of Jesus. The question is not decoration. It names a real arrival that met a real refusal.
The empty answer did not catch Him off guard. He knew what He would find before He came.
He came knowing the full state of man as he was: sin ripe and complete in him, wholly evil and wretched. The fall had worked itself out in him, with all its effects here, and that is where it had left him. Then, right in the middle of all this, He took man's nature — without sin, but exposed to all the suffering. And He says, in perfect grace, "Here I am among you."
Why ask such a question at all? Look first at what man had already proved about himself.
It had been well proved that man had no power to deliver himself. Every try he made, even with God's help, only tightened the chains that bound him. Each one made his miserable and ruined condition plainer still... He could do nothing for himself, and his neighbour could not give him the slightest help.
So the shortage was never in God's hand. Man could not save himself, and would not believe the One who could.
The proof God offers is drawn from creation itself — water and sky obey Him. But the writers notice something startling in that comparison.
See how, in the words of the prophet, He questions Himself about this great work. He asks Himself, "Is my hand shortened, that it cannot redeem?"... All of this He could do without any "strong crying and tears" on His part, without any agony and bloody sweat. He had only to speak, and it was done.
Drying up a sea costs Him a word. Redeeming costs Him agony and tears.
The chapter sets the two side by side, and that is what separates it from Isaiah 53.
This fiftieth chapter shows the Lord suffering at the hands of men. That makes it very different from Isaiah 53, which speaks of His atoning sufferings from the hand of God. In this chapter we see Him as the One who in wonderful love "came" and "called" to His unfaithful people, but no one answered His call. He was the Controller of all creation, yet they scorned Him and put Him to shame.
The verse asks two things: can He redeem, and has He power to deliver? The answer lies in who it was that came.
But who was it that came? He who had power to redeem and to deliver, who had all nature at His command as its Creator and Lord.
- Cause — The separation was never God's doing. Israel sold themselves; the silence that met His coming is the evidence.
- Coming — The One who came was Jehovah Himself, arriving as Saviour among His own, and they did not know Him.
- Knowledge — He came with full knowledge of what man had become, and said in grace, "Here I am among you."
- Capacity — The shortened hand is a fiction. Man proved he could not save himself; God's power was never the problem.
- Cost — Drying up seas takes only a word. Redemption took strong crying and tears. That is why this chapter shows the Controller of creation scorned by the people He came to save.
I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering.
Isaiah 50 opens with God answering an accusation. Israel acted as if He had divorced their mother and sold them off. Their own sins did it. Verse 3 closes His reply with a third display of raw power over creation. Yet the same voice, a few lines later, offers His back to those who beat Him.
The chapter is God's reply to a people who acted as though He could not help. One writer treats verses 2 and 3 as the evidence against them. The proof is what God had done for Israel ever since the days of Pharaoh.
"Look, you sold yourselves for your own sins, and your mother was sent away for your own wrongdoing" (v. 1). And the proof of their rebellion appears in verses 2, 3. "Why did I come, and there was no man? I called, and there was none to answer? Is my hand at all shortened, that I cannot redeem? or have I no power to deliver? behold, at my rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness: their fish stink, because there is no water, and die for thirst. I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering." His coming, His call was unheeded, though He had already, since the days of Pharaoh, proved what He was on behalf of His people.
Sackcloth was coarse dark cloth worn in mourning. Scripture later uses the same image of a blackened sun. One commentator reads it as the collapse of the highest authority on earth, and points back to this verse.
"The sun became black as sackcloth of hair." The sun symbolises the supreme governing authority (Gen. 37:9; Rev. 12:1). "Black as sackcloth of hair" means the darkening power of Satan. It points to the supreme authority of earth — on which all depended — in a state of complete collapse (Isa. 50:3; Ezek. 7:18). The darkening of the heavenly bodies is a terrible disaster in the physical world, and so the figure is apt here.
Verse 3 sounds like the Creator. A few lines later the same speaker is struck and spat on. One writer asks who could say both.
Who could say this but a Divine Being: "I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering"? And who but that same Being, now become man, could say this? He was a man of perfect lowliness, dependence and obedience: "The Lord God has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious; I did not turn back. I gave my back to those who struck me, and my cheeks to those who pulled out the hair. I did not hide my face from shame and spitting." These are the words of the only perfect man who ever lived, the Lord Jesus.
The verse answers a question about power to redeem. Yet drying seas and blackening heavens turn out to be the cheap works.
It cost Him everything to do this work, and no one but Himself could have undertaken it. He is the One who made the worlds, but the making of the worlds was a small affair compared with the work of redemption... All this could be done without any "strong crying and tears" (Heb. 5:7) on His part, without any agony and bloody sweat (Luke 22:44). He had only to speak, and it was done (Gen. 1).
Verse 3 and verse 4 sit side by side. The One who blackens the heavens has an ear that wakes each morning to listen.
It is He who speaks like this through the prophet. In the grace of His humiliation He unites things that seem to contradict each other: the power and wisdom of an almighty Saviour, and the lowly obedience of His creature man... That is one side. Now hear how the same voice continues: "The Lord Jehovah has given me the tongue of one who is taught, so that I know how to speak a timely word to the one who is weary. He wakens morning by morning; He wakens my ear to hear as a learner."
This chapter puts a Deliverer and a victim on the same page.
It was easy enough to recognise the voice of Israel's Deliverer and God in the words, "I clothe the heavens with blackness and I make sackcloth their covering. At my rebuke I dry up the sea." But who is it that says, "I gave my back to those who struck me, and my cheek to those who pulled out the hair. I did not hide my face from shame and spitting" (Isa. 50)? Of course, we find the key to the riddle in the New Testament: we know and believe that it is Christ and Him crucified.
- The charge — Israel acted as though God's hand was too short to save; verse 3 is part of His answer.
- The proof — He points to what He can do to sea, river and sky: power over creation was never lacking.
- The Speaker — The voice that blackens the heavens is the voice that a few lines later is struck and spat on.
- The cost — Darkening the sky took only a word. Redemption cost Him everything: strong crying, tears and agony.
- The contrast — Almighty power and a listening, obedient ear meet in one Person. That is the riddle the New Testament solves in Christ.
The Lord Jehovah hath given me the tongue of the instructed, that I should know how to succour by a word him that is weary. He wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the instructed.
In Isaiah 50 the Speaker is Jehovah, who declares His almighty power in creation. Then verse 4 shows Him as a learner whose ear God wakens each morning. Who is this Servant, and why does such power need a trained tongue?
One Hebrew root stands behind both mentions of teaching in the verse. Older translations render it "the learned" where the ESV has "those who are taught":
The Hebrew word in this passage means, in its different forms, "to train," "to teach," or "to learn." Once you remember that, you can see at once that the word "learned" in the last clause of our verse would be better rendered "learner," or, as many prefer, "disciples." This change brings out even more clearly the wonderful place of subjection and humility our blessed Lord took here as a servant. In verse 1 He speaks as Jehovah. In verses 2 and 3 He declares His almighty power in creation and redemption. Then, in verse 4, He lets us see Him down here in all His lowly grace as the teacher of His people — and as such wholly dependent on God for the words He received and passed on.
Reason cannot fit the two halves of the chapter together:
It is the Almighty who has come in a servant's form. It is He who is strangely taking the place of obedience. He is acquiring the tongue of the learned for the ministry of grace to individual need, if the nation as a whole rejects Him. For this He becomes Himself a learner, and is wakened morning by morning to "hear" as such. Yet it is the One who dries up the sea and makes the rivers a wilderness. Who can put these things together? For the satisfaction of the intellect, no one can.
The One who dries up the sea also stoops to one exhausted person:
And yet He is the One qualified to do a service as small as dropping a word of comfort into the ear of the weary. What vast extremes there are in His service!
He did not learn this art in heaven. It cost Him dearly:
He who had until then commanded, who "spoke, and it came to be," now learns obedience in suffering. Each of the four God-given accounts of His perfect life makes this known to us. It was in this school that He learned the rare and precious art of sympathy and of speaking a word to the weary — the school of weariness and weeping, of hunger and poverty, of contact with every form of human misery and grief, and of the visible effects of sin. He did not learn it in the untroubled dignities of heaven. His sympathy is the result of dearly-bought experience, and is therefore always effective.
One writer sets this verse beside the Gospel record of Jesus rising long before daylight to pray:
He had been occupied early and late with the sorrows of others. Yet here we find Him well ahead of the dawn, while it was still dark, to have communion with His Father. And what were the communications between such a Father and such a Son? The Old Testament tells us: "He wakens morning by morning, He wakens My ear to hear as the instructed." The New Testament tells us how He went a great while before day into a desert place, and there He prayed. And He withdrew to be with God — He Himself the Lord God — before starting the day's work. We fail far more in this inward closeness with our Father. Can we wonder, then, that we fail so much in outward labour? Be assured, only there will you find the secret of holy strength and endurance in service.
The timing is part of the gift, not an accident of it:
He speaks His word to the weary, we read, "in season." That is, He knows the exact moment when to whisper into the wearied ear, and just when to support the breaking heart.
In the verse the ear comes before the tongue:
A man who is always doing will be apt to do too much. Such a person needs to ponder the deeply practical words of the perfect Servant: "He wakens morning by morning, He wakens My ear to hear as the learned." This is an indispensable part of the servant's business. The servant must often stand in his master's presence to know what he has to do.
Where the listening is skipped, the speaking does damage rather than good:
If we do not gain something of the "ear of the learned" on the mountain tops, we shall never gain the "tongue of the learned" in the Valley of the Shadow of Death, even though we may speak with the tongues of men and of angels. We shall only tire people with unsuitable words, instead of speaking words in season to the weary.
- Ear first. The ear feeds the tongue. The servant "must often stand in his master's presence" to know what to do.
- Ear opened. In verses 2–3 He declares almighty power. In verse 4 He takes the learner's place: "the Almighty who has come in a servant's form."
- Ear schooled. He learned this art in "weariness and weeping, hunger and poverty." His sympathy comes from "dearly-bought experience."
- Tongue timed. He speaks the word "in season" — He knows "the exact moment when to whisper into the wearied ear."
- Tongue reaching. The One who dries up the sea does the small service of comforting one tired heart: "What vast extremes there are in His service!"
The Lord Jehovah hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious; I turned not away back.
The Servant of the Lord speaks these words. Commentators read them as the voice of Christ, describing His own life of listening obedience. The verse turns on two things: an ear that God opens, and a will that neither resists nor retreats.
The chapter does not start with a servant. It starts with the One who covers the sky with darkness. Only then does it show Him as a dependent man.
He was a Divine Person, the One who had all power in His hand, indeed "upholding all things by the word of His power." Here we hear Him say, "I clothe the heavens with blackness and make sackcloth their covering" (Isa. 50:3). There we get His deity brought out, while the next verse presents Him as a dependent man.
Scripture uses more than one word for the servant's ear: one is bored through, one is dug open, and here God opens it. One writer sets this verse between the other two — not at His birth, not at His death, but on the road in between.
The "boring" of the ear found its answer when the Lord willingly went into death. In that death He took the need and interests of Master, wife, and children as His own. The "digging" of the ear did not come after He became a servant; it came so that He might become one. So God formed Him to be a servant and fitted a body for Him. In that body, though He was a Son, He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. Isaiah looks at a time in between. He is not speaking of His birth, and not of His death, but of His path in life. There the opened ear marks lowly, intelligent attention to His Father's will. In fallen man, the closed ear means disobedience or indifference to what God says.
Commentators differ on how closely to link this verse with Psalm 40:6 and Exodus 21:6. In Exodus a servant chose to stay with his master for life. Some read the three as one unfolding story:
He undertook the service freely, and God prepared a body for Him. "He wakens My ear to hear" as the learned, "the Lord God has opened My ear" — that is, to learn down here. God formed the place of service and prepared a body, and Christ says, "Behold, I have come to do your will, O God." … Then God opened His ears morning by morning. At the last, according to Exodus 21:6, He had completed His full service. He loved the One whose due service He had performed, His wife, His children. So in death He became a servant for ever.
Others keep the passages apart while agreeing on their common subject:
The reference is not to Exodus 21:6, and not to Isaiah 50:5. Psalm 40:6 stands apart from both, though all three have Messiah at their centre.
The second half of the verse sounds negative. It describes a positive choice. He would not step off the road when He saw where it led.
It was in this way that He walked the path of obedience. Creation's Controller became the obedient Servant! But unfaltering obedience in the middle of disobedience meant suffering. God gave Him instruction for the path. God had uncovered His ear (v. 5). Unlike the "rebellious son," He obeyed. He did not turn backward to escape the sorrows and the shame involved. He took the path appointed. He walked every step to the glory of God. He never had to take back a word. He never had to retrace a step.
What Isaiah wrote can be watched happening on the night Jesus was arrested. He knew exactly what was coming, and moved toward it.
A mere man, with the slightest knowledge of what was coming, would surely have turned back. Of a divine Person alone can we say, in an absolute sense, that He knew all things. And only of a perfect Man who knew all things can we say that He "went forth." He submits to man, but in obedience to the Father. He was "not rebellious," and He did not turn backward (Isa. 50:5).
This obedience is not just something to admire. It is the way into rest for us too.
It is the rest we enter into by submission and obedience to the Father's will. For what was the yoke of Jesus that He tells us to take upon us? It was what we have just seen in Him — that perfect obedience which submitted itself in everything to the Father's will. The words of Isaiah 50:3-6 put it before us in a wonderful way. He who was Jehovah (v. 3) has taken in grace the path of the learner.
- Voice — The One who darkens the heavens is the same One whose ear God opens morning by morning. Deity and dependence stand side by side here.
- Ear — The opened ear is not His birth and not His death. It marks His daily life: lowly, intelligent attention to His Father's will, the opposite of fallen man's closed ear.
- Will — He chose this obedience; no one forced it. Unlike the rebellious son, He did not turn back to escape the shame the path involved.
- Cost — Steady obedience among disobedient people meant suffering. He walked the appointed path anyway, and never had to take back a word or retrace a step.
- Yoke — His obedience becomes our rest: He walked the learner's path first, and now calls us to take the same yoke.
I gave my back to smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair; I hid not my face from shame and spitting.
Isaiah 50 records the words of a Servant who tells us in advance what men will do to His back, His cheeks and His face — and who says that He handed them over. The verse raises the question every reader of the passion accounts must face: was Jesus overpowered by His enemies, or did He give Himself to them?
The verb belongs to Him, not to His attackers. He allowed the blows before a single hand fell.
"I gave my back to the smiters." They could not touch Him until He permitted them. He was going to have the joy of carrying out the perfect will of God; to say, "I have finished the work You gave Me to do."
The same willingness appears in how He went to His arrest. Others would have fought for Him; He walked toward them.
Mistaken zeal may lead a disciple to draw his sword to defend His Master from the violence of men. But of the Lord we read, "Jesus … knowing all things that should come upon Him, went forth" to meet His enemies.
Centuries later, two different groups of men did exactly this to Jesus. (Older translations read "plucked off the hair" here; the ESV reads "pull out the beard.")
In Isaiah's great prophecy we find the words of the suffering Servant Himself: "I gave My back to those who strike, and My cheeks to those who pull out the beard" (Isaiah 50:6). These words came true in the fullest measure. The Jews struck the Lord Jesus with the palms of their hands, and the Gentiles scourged Him (Matthew 26:67; Matthew 27:24).
The verse follows straight after the opened ear of verse 5. One writer draws a line from that obedience to this treatment, and from the treatment to what it showed about men.
But obedience — above all public service — in a world like this could only mean continual suffering for such a One as He. It was suffering we can hardly imagine. So the outcome follows at once: "I gave my back to those who strike … I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting" (v. 6). How solemn the thought, and what a picture of God in the presence of man! His humiliation should have made Him infinitely more precious, for it was the incomparable proof of His love. Instead it gave men the opening they wanted, under Satan's leading, to insult Him to the utmost. And He did not insult them back.
Men aimed to shame Him. Watch what came out instead — in His words, and in His face.
Men were blind to the glory of His Person. Despite His works and words of power, they seized on His humiliation as a reason for rejecting His claims and heaping insults on Him. They struck Him, they plucked the hair from His cheeks, and spat in His face. The insults of men only brought out the perfection of Jesus. He met it all in the spirit of perfect submission. No rebellious word escaped His lips, no angry look clouded the face that man spat upon.
Verses 7 to 9 answer verse 6. He had help within reach, and He looked to God to clear His name — a verdict one writer says is later applied to believers too.
Though He is despised and rejected by men, and though He submits to all the insults heaped on Him, it was not that He had no resource. He can say, "The Lord God will help me." Men may insult Him, but they will not put Him to shame. So Peter can say of the Lord, as He met the insults of men, that "He committed Himself to Him who judges justly." … We know that the resurrection was God's answer to all the charges men brought against Him, and to all the shame they heaped on Him. These words are applied here to the Lord. In the New Testament the Spirit, through the Apostle Paul, applies them to those for whom Christ died (Romans 8:33-34).
This scene shows more than what happened to Jesus. It shows what to do when the same treatment comes.
In all these wonderful scenes we see three things: the heart of the Saviour revealed, the hearts of sinners exposed, and the perfect pattern for believers. The Apostle Peter can see in all these sufferings at the hands of men that the Lord was leaving us an example so that we would "follow His steps". What steps they are! To do good, suffer for it, and take it patiently (1 Peter 2:20-21).
- Given, not taken. The back, the cheeks, the face — He handed each one over; His enemies could not touch Him until He permitted it.
- Given because obedient. The opened ear of verse 5 leads straight to the blows of verse 6. Obedience in this world could only mean constant suffering for Him.
- Given and fulfilled. Centuries later it happened word for word — the Jews struck Him, the Gentiles scourged Him.
- Given, and God answered. He looked to God for help instead of striking back, and the resurrection was God's verdict on every charge and every insult.
- Given as a pattern. The same scene reveals the Saviour's heart and exposes the sinner's heart. It also shows believers the steps to follow: do good, suffer for it, take it patiently.
But the Lord Jehovah will help me therefore shall I not be confounded; therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed.
In Isaiah 50 the Lord's Servant speaks, and He has just described the beating and the spitting He accepted. Verse 7 is the turn: in the middle of that shame He says God helps Him, so nothing can break Him — but who is this speaker, and what makes a face like flint different from stubbornness?
Who is speaking? One writer holds that the obedient man here is Himself God. (Where the ESV has "the Lord GOD," older translations print "the Lord Jehovah.")
The Lord Jehovah had chosen to become a man on earth, and to walk here in obedience, owning God. Christianity alone fully explains this, for Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were all truly and equally Jehovah. And He who came in this way to do the will of God as man here below was, as we know, the Son. Being Himself God and Jehovah, He could look up and say, "The Lord Jehovah has opened My ear."
Why flint, and not some other stone?
challamish means "hard rock." God brought water out of it (Deuteronomy 8:15; Psalm 114:8). Christ, because of those who opposed Him, set His face like a flint, and He knew He would not be ashamed (Isaiah 50:7).
Notice the order in the verse: the help comes before the flint.
He was in the place of man, but He fully relied on divine help (verses 7 and 9). Even so, the path involved not only the shame, the beating and the spitting we have spoken of, but death itself. With His heart full of love and His face firm like a flint He pressed forward with holy resolve, and He was slain.
So the firmness is not self-will.
He set His holy face to do the will of God, even though that will meant for Him the deep, unspeakable sorrows of the cross. He set His face like a flint, and He knew He would not be ashamed. Obedience and God's vindication go together. The two were united in Jesus. He obeyed and never swerved. He left His cause and His vindication with the One who judges righteously.
One writer sets this verse beside the day Jesus turned toward Jerusalem.
"When the days drew near for Him to be taken up, He set His face to go to Jerusalem." In Isaiah, "I set My face as a flint." He was carrying out His Father's will here, as in all His course. Redemption had to come through the cross. He "learned obedience through what He suffered." It was the same obedience as at the beginning... more painful, and of course He felt the difference. Still He goes on in the same blessed spirit and earnestness.
He said it before the shame came. The answer came at the tomb.
But God has taken Him out of death, He has raised Him from among the dead! What a victory! What a vindication of the perfect life of Jesus! What a justification! "Blessed Saviour," our hearts say, "You are worthy!" The glory of the Father raised Him from the dead. The Father was the first visitor to His tomb — before the disciples, before Mary, even before the angels. His satisfaction in Him was so complete!
Paul does not leave these words with Christ alone.
Many have pointed this out before. The apostle Paul quotes this passage in Romans 8:33, and applies to the Christian what the Spirit here says of Christ. It would be childish to deny that it applies to the Lord because of this. It is hardly less childish to miss the precious hint that the same Spirit now applies to us what He then spoke in God's vindication of the rejected Christ. This is the Christian's blessed, present privilege — being joined to Christ risen, after God undertakes to glorify the One whom the Jews and Gentiles cast out.
That share has a cost. A face like flint is not popular company.
When the Lord set His face like a flint to go to Jerusalem, the Samaritans would not receive Him. The disciples wanted to call down fire on them. If you set your face like a flint to go to Jerusalem, those who are half-hearted will not receive you. "The Lord is at hand."
- Help — the verse begins with God's help, not with human grit; the flint face rests on "the Lord GOD helps me."
- Flint — the word means the hardest rock. It pictures a face that opposition cannot turn, set toward the will of God.
- Obedience — the road to Jerusalem drew out the same obedience as at the start. It was more painful, yet carried on with the same steady earnestness.
- Vindication — He left His cause with the One who judges righteously. God answered by raising Him, so obedience and vindication belong together.
- Ours — Paul lends His words to believers in Romans 8:33. The same confidence is ours now, and so is the same cold welcome from the half-hearted.
He is near that justifieth me who will contend with me? let us stand together; who is mine adverse party? let him draw near unto me.
In Isaiah 50 God's Servant is speaking, fresh from being beaten, insulted and spat on. He does not defend Himself; He calls for a trial, sure that the God who vindicates Him stands close by.
The speaker here is both the suffering Servant and Israel's own God. That is why the outcome is never in doubt:
Isaiah introduces God's elect Servant, put in the place of Israel who had rejected Him. He is just as truly the obedient and suffering One as He is the Jehovah God of Israel who made heaven and earth. So whatever insults He endured, the outcome is certain, and all the way through He counts on full vindication.
If God is near to vindicate, when did He act?
If Christ is not raised, where is His justification? Men treated Him as someone unfit for decent society, unfit even to live in this world. They treated Him with every indignity. Is He left without any justification at all? No, certainly not! Man crucified Him, but God raised Him. His resurrection is His justification, because by it God has declared that man's treatment and judgment of Him was wrong. In Isaiah 50 the Spirit of Christ speaks through the prophet. They strike Him; they pull the hair from His cheeks; they heap shame on Him; they spit in His face. Then He says, "He is near that justifies Me"! So He was, and God raised Him from among the dead. He is declared to be the Just One, the Holy One — yes, the Son of God by resurrection.
Because the vindicator was near, the Servant never lifted a hand for Himself.
One most precious feature of our Lord's obedience to His Father's will was His complete committal of Himself to the Father. No thought of self-vindication entered His mind. "He is near that justifies me" was always the spirit in which He moved on toward the cross. When one of His disciples drew a sword to defend Him in the garden, He said to him, "Put your sword back into its place… Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?"
So what became of those who did contend with Him?
So Jehovah challenges His foes and sees their ruin sealed in their momentary triumph over Him whom, if man killed, God raised again from the dead. Notice what has often been pointed out: the apostle Paul quotes this passage in Romans 8:33 and applies to the Christian what the Spirit here says of Christ… The same Spirit now applies to us what He spoke then in God's vindication of Christ rejected.
The words belong to Christ first. Then faith takes them up:
The speaker is Christ Himself. He put Himself in the believer's place to bear his sins and endure their judgment. Now He stands right outside it all and asks: can anything once laid to His account still be found against Him? God has justified the absolute perfection of His work by raising Him from the dead. So who can condemn Christ?… Faith can take up the very words of Christ — indeed, the Holy Spirit makes them our own. If no one can bring a single charge against Christ, no one can bring one against us.
God's nearness still holds for the believer others misjudge today, though the clearing of his name may take time.
In Isaiah 50 the prophet speaks of the Lord, "He is near that justifies Me."… He will always justify what is right, even if we have to wait some time for Him to do so.
- Near — The Servant speaks these words while being struck and spat on. He does not answer His accusers, because the One who vindicates Him is standing close.
- Raised — God's verdict came as resurrection. Man judged Him a criminal; God reversed the sentence by raising Him from among the dead.
- Silent — He never defended Himself. When a disciple drew a sword in the garden, He told him to put it away.
- Shared — Paul lifts this courtroom challenge in Romans 8 and gives it to believers. No charge can stick to Christ, so no charge can stick to those who are in Him.
- Waiting — The same nearness holds for the believer misjudged today. God will vindicate what is right, even if He takes His time.
Behold, the Lord Jehovah will help me; who is he that shall condemn me? Behold, they all shall grow old as a garment; the moth shall eat them up.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
Who is among you that feareth Jehovah, that hearkeneth to the voice of his servant? he that walketh in darkness, and hath no light, -- let him confide in the name of Jehovah, and stay himself upon his God.
Near the end of a chapter about the LORD's Servant comes a question and an instruction. The question marks out a small group inside the nation, and the instruction is for anyone walking a road with no light on it.
The verse does not address the nation as a whole. It picks out the few who respond to the Servant.
Now we learn something more. Though the nation rejects Christ, among them there will be a godly remnant. They will fear God and listen to the voice of His Servant, Jesus. We know from the Gospel story how the Lord's presence among Israel brought this remnant to light. He could say of them, "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them and they follow Me" (John 10:27). They find themselves in a nation sunk in deep darkness. But the Lord could say, "I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness" (John 12:46).
The word "darkness" does not carry the same sense in Isaiah as it does in the New Testament letters.
Now the prophet spoke, not of the Christian, but of the future godly remnant. He set them in contrast with the mass who turn away and perish, described in verse 11. It should be obvious that the Jewish prophet and the Christian apostle do not use "darkness" and "light" in the same sense.
The distinction is not about behaviour but about position. A believer today may fail to act on the light, yet still stands in it. The person in Isaiah waits for a light that has not yet dawned.
Christians may not always act according to the light, but they walk in the light, as He is in the light. Our Lord says, "Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." The remnant of that day will trust in the name of Jehovah and rely on their God. But it will be in a different way.
The instruction goes to people who have nothing else left to lean on.
They, in contrast, walk in darkness and lack light. Their call is to trust in Jehovah and rely on their God, when there is nothing else to lean on. These have no light yet. They walk in darkness, yet trust in hope, and they will find a glorious deliverance when He appears.
That trust is not an empty gesture in the dark.
They will be walking in darkness while they hear the word. There is no praise and no freedom in that state... They are told to trust. There is something for faith to take hold of, a rope to cling to in the waters. They hold it until they come to know the full redemption that has been accomplished.
The opening chapters of Luke show real people doing what this verse says, waiting in the dark for a promised sunrise.
There were those who feared the Lord, and yet they walked in relative darkness... But while they still lived in darkness, waiting for the light, they were to trust in the name of Jehovah. That is how He had revealed Himself to them. They were to rely on His faithfulness. This they did, as the opening chapters of Luke's Gospel show. Jesus was "the sunrise... from on high" who came "to give light to those who sit in darkness" (Luke 1:78-79).
The verse looks forward to a specific group. Writers have also applied its counsel to any believer whose way looks dark among God's own people.
But what are the people of the Lord to do? Let them wait upon the Lord, and wait according to the teaching of His Spirit... And if the way seems dark among them, let them remember the word of Isaiah.
God never leaves Himself without a few who listen, and He never leaves them without Himself.
In every age, however great the corruption, God preserves a remnant who fear the Lord and obey His voice... and amid the growing darkness we still have the Lord as our unfailing resource. However dark the day, however great our weakness, we can "be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus" (2 Tim. 2:1).
- Voice — the verse begins with hearing. Fear of the LORD shows itself in obeying the Servant's voice, and that marks out the few from the many.
- Darkness — here it means having no light for the path. Isaiah's darkness and the darkness of the New Testament letters are not the same thing.
- Rope — in that darkness there is nothing else to lean on. Faith gets a rope to grip until full redemption is known.
- Waiting — Luke's opening chapters show real people living this out, trusting God's faithfulness before the sunrise came.
- Deliverance — in every age the Lord is the unfailing resource of those who keep listening. For the waiting remnant, glorious deliverance comes when He appears.
Behold, all ye that kindle a fire, that compass yourselves about with sparks walk in the light of your fire, and among the sparks [that] ye have kindled. This shall ye have of my hand ye shall lie down in sorrow.
Isaiah 50 closes by dividing its hearers in two. Some fear the Lord and walk on without light. Others refuse to wait and make a light of their own. The last verse is God's word to that second group. It asks where a person turns when the dark closes in.
One writer reads this verse as the portion of the Jews who had turned away from God. From it he draws a rule that holds for every sinner:
As for the mass of the Jews who had turned away, their portion follows. It is always vain for a sinful man to trust his own devices or the remedies of men to better his condition before God, or to enjoy lasting comfort. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is the Father of mercies and the God of all encouragement. But in the day that is at hand God will expose the folly and the madness of unbelief. Judgment will show what it is to trust in self, and not in Him to whom God directs those who hear His word.
Older translations, which the writers quoted here follow, read "sparks that you have kindled" where the ESV has burning torches, and "lie down in sorrow" for the last line. One writer explains what the picture means, and shows it did not stop with Isaiah's day:
But there were many in those days that did not fear the Lord nor obey the voice of His Servant when He came in grace, and there are today a multitude who are of the same mind. They kindle a fire of their own to light up the darkness, and in the light of it and of its sparks they go on their way. This is figurative language; but how vivid and striking it is!
God's light is there for all, and men still refuse it. One writer traces the refusal to what each light does to a man's view of himself:
It is not that there is no light; there is, and in abundance. There has always been enough light for the salvation of the creature. God has never, at any time or in any place, left Himself without witness. But man prefers the sparks of his own kindling. They are the result of his own discoveries, so they feed his miserable pride of heart. The light given by his Maker does the opposite. It brings his own utter moral depravity into view and humbles him as nothing else can. So that light becomes the object of his deadliest hatred.
Commentators apply Isaiah's warning to teaching that claims to be light. One writer ties it to fellowship with God in 1 John:
However, even in Isaiah's day some preferred to "kindle a fire." They walked in the light of that fire and of the sparks they had kindled. It was just like this in John's day, and still is today. Far too many false teachers prefer the sparks of their own kindling to the light of God's revelation. So they and their followers are in darkness, despite all their claims, and they have no fellowship with Him.
Another writer aims the same warning at two opposite groups. Both love what their own minds produce:
Look at the last verse. There are men who make sparks. They love the product of their own intellects. Let them "walk in the light" of such; but what shall the end be? They "shall lie down in pain." This is a solemn warning to ritualists and rationalists alike. It is for all who do not walk "in the light as God is in the light" (1 John 1:7). That walk is the normal place God has revealed for true believers.
The fire gives heat for a moment. The verse traces what follows to God's own hand. One writer pictures the death of a man who lived by his own fire:
When the soul is once lost, what is left? Sinners warm their frail bodies of clay at a fire of their own kindling for a day or two. That fire chokes them with its smoke more than it warms them. At last they lie down in sorrow, and everlasting shame covers them.… They go to bed, when they die, without a candle.… And this is as poorly made a bed as anyone could wish; for no one can sleep soundly or rest sweetly with sorrow for a pillow.
- Kindle. Refusing God's light does not leave a person passive; he lights a fire of his own to see by, and then walks in it.
- Pride. A man prefers his own sparks because he discovered them, and they flatter him. God's light exposes what he really is.
- Reach. The same fire burns in the pulpit. Commentators apply Isaiah's words to false teachers who swap God's revelation for their own, and to ritualists and rationalists alike.
- Hand. The end is no accident. The verse says the sorrow comes from God's own hand, on the day He exposes the madness of unbelief.
- Bed. The fire warms for a day or two. Then comes a bed with sorrow for a pillow. That is what trusting yourself finally buys.
Hearken unto me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek Jehovah look unto the rock [whence] ye were hewn, and to the hole of the pit [whence] ye were digged.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bore you; for I called him when he was alone, and blessed him, and multiplied him.
God speaks here to a small, discouraged group, and He tells them to look back at one man and one woman. The question is what "he was but one when I called him" is meant to prove to a shrinking people.
Isaiah speaks to people who feel their own weakness.
Those who "follow after righteousness" and "seek the LORD" are urged to "listen" to the Lord's word of comfort. They may find themselves in great weakness and few in numbers, but let them remember their father Abraham. God called him when he was alone; and yet He blessed and increased him.
They may be a tiny group while the nation around them has gone the other way.
Such will be few indeed at first. They may feel themselves alone, the mass of Israel being apostate like the Gentiles. But they are urged to look to Abraham and Sarah.
"He was but one" does not mean he travelled by himself. Others went with him, but the call landed on him alone.
Abram stood entirely apart, and it was the sovereign call of God that made him so. Terah counted for nothing in this, and neither did Lot, though he had the name of a "righteous man" in his day. But Abram was called "alone," whoever might go with him, or share more or less in the blessing that was his rich portion.
Nothing in Abraham's background made him the obvious choice.
Of grace: the people of Ur in Chaldea, including Abraham's own family, were idolaters (Joshua 24:1-2). Abraham was no better than others in himself. But God decided to call him and to bless him. Why him? Because God in His sovereignty decided to do so. This makes the call even more wonderful, because it makes clear that it was purely of grace.
If God started the whole nation with one man, no remnant is too small for Him.
A passage constantly misapplied. God is saying there, Abraham was alone and I called him. Israel, to whom God spoke this, was then only a little remnant — Do not let that make you uneasy, I called Abraham alone. Their being few was of no consequence — God could bless them alone as well as Abraham.
Isaiah reached for this same fact when the nation was sinking.
Long centuries later, this was the prophet Isaiah's resource. God pressed it on his heart when Israel was sinking into a very low condition, with a prophecy of still greater ruin at hand. How does he seek to comfort the people? With this: God called Abraham alone. He falls back on what was the key principle of God's dealing at that very time. It was as good as saying, "Let things be as they may, count on the Lord. It is impossible to be lower than the point at which Israel began; for when God called and blessed at the first, it was Abraham alone."
"Increased him" is the answer to the smallness. The one who was told to count the stars had no child at all when the promise came.
God called one solitary man out from among the nations. He was childless and alone, and God told him to look toward heaven and count the stars, if he could. His descendants would be like that. A separated people, living alone, may seem for a time to be "a little flock." Yet when God fully accomplishes His purpose, countless multitudes will fill both the heavens and the earth.
People once said something very similar about Abraham, and it counted as unbelief. What makes the difference is who says it, and in what state.
Notice the same principle here and in other passages. The same thought is evidence of unbelief or of faith, depending on whether the flesh proposes it or the Lord does. And the opposite principle becomes evidence of unbelief when the moral circumstances change. So here: "Abraham was one, and we are many, the land is given us for an inheritance." Spoken in a condition of sin and rebellion, that was unbelief and wickedness. In Isaiah 51:2 the same fact stands as the warrant and assurance of faith. They are called to lean on that warrant — Abraham was only one, and yet God blessed him and multiplied him. Oh, for faith!
- Alone — the call fell on Abraham only; Terah and Lot travelled with him, but they were not the point of it.
- Grace — his family in Ur were idolaters, so the call rested on God's decision and not on anything better in the man.
- Blessed — God told the childless man to count the stars. The blessing came before the family did.
- Multiplied — a nation grew from one man. So a remnant that feels like nothing is not too small for the same God.
- Warrant — lean on this and it is faith. The same words, used by a rebellious people to excuse themselves, were unbelief and wickedness.
For Jehovah shall comfort Zion, he shall comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of Jehovah gladness and joy shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of song.
Isaiah 51 opens with God speaking to people who feel too small and too ruined to matter. Verse 3 answers that fear with a promise about Zion's waste places. It holds out not repair but reversal: ruins turned into Eden, silence turned into song. Who receives that promise, and when?
The verse sits between two chapters about the suffering Messiah. One writer maps the ground between them.
In Isaiah 50 we have seen the divine Messiah in the depths of humiliation. Yet the LORD was helping and justifying Him. In Isaiah 53 we shall see Him "pierced for our transgressions; crushed for our iniquities," when the LORD "laid on him the iniquity of us all." These are the everlasting foundations of blessing for Israel, or for anyone. Between them the Holy Spirit gives us awakening appeals of the greatest force, interest, and beauty. These appeals form one complete whole of seven parts. They trace the stages of the godly Jewish remnant, from deep distress and darkness with no light, while they fear the LORD and obey the voice of His Servant. Step by step they move on, until they stand in the full glory God promised them.
That placement decides how we read the promise. The same writer denies that it describes Israel's return from Babylon.
It is not under the heading of Babylon, but of a rejected Messiah… Isaiah 48 closed the old part of the subject. Isaiah 49 opened the new complaint and ground of judgement God lays against His people. It is not the idolatry that the captivity in Babylon judged, but the refusal of Christ. That refusal is the ground of their dispersion and distresses under Rome, the fourth Gentile empire.
Verse 3 begins with "For" — it is the reason attached to the call in verses 1-2 to look back at Abraham and Sarah. That backward look is often turned into something it is not.
We get the word, "Look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the hole of the pit from which you were dug. Look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who bore you; for I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him" (Isaiah 51:1) — a passage constantly misapplied. God is saying there, Abraham was alone and I called him. Israel, to whom God spoke this, was then only a little remnant — Do not let that make you uneasy, I called Abraham alone. Their being few was of no consequence — God could bless them alone as well as Abraham.
The closing words of the verse are the answer God gives to that smallness.
"Listen to me!" Small in numbers though you are, a remnant seeking righteousness, be encouraged. Remember that Abraham was only one individual when I called him alone. I blessed him and increased him, and so will I bless you. "Joy and gladness, thanksgiving and the voice of song" shall be yours (Isaiah 51:1-3).
The verse names two conditions at once — Zion in ruins, and Zion like a garden. One reading holds them together, and adds where the joy comes from.
They may find themselves in great weakness and few in numbers, but let them remember their father Abraham. God called him when he was alone; nevertheless He blessed and increased him. Zion may be forsaken, and become a wilderness and a desert, but the LORD will yet make "her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the LORD." God will turn the present sorrows of the godly into joy and gladness. Those who sow in tears shall reap in joy (Psalm 126:5).
Faith is therefore not asked to settle for less than before, but for more:
Then faith must count on no less but more open blessing, after all their sorrow now at its worst.
The comparison to Eden is taken as a real change in the ground itself, and the fruitfulness is read as a sign of something deeper.
Every blessing is poured down upon the earth, and the earth responds in the full yield of her fruits. Israel will have fullness of blessing… And these natural blessings are the evidence of their moral condition. All will be taught of God, from the least of them to the greatest of them. As rebellion and iniquity had marked them before, so in that day holiness will raise them above all nations.
The phrase "the garden of the LORD" points to whose garden it is, and why He wants one.
In another sense, the whole earth is the garden of the Lord, and during the millennial age it will no doubt blossom as the rose, and be a scene where the Lord God can walk and enjoy communion with His beloved people.
- Cause. The verse begins with "For." Zion's comfort rests on God's record with Abraham: He called him when he was alone, then blessed him and increased him.
- Comfort. Being few "was of no consequence." God called Abraham alone, so a small remnant has no reason to be uneasy.
- Contrast. The same Zion is both waste places and Eden. At the worst of the sorrow, faith counts on blessing that is more visible, not less.
- Creation. The garden points to a real earth restored, when Christ reigns. Its fruitfulness is the evidence of a people God Himself teaches.
- Chorus. The promise ends in sound: joy, gladness, thanksgiving and song. It is a garden where God walks with the people He has comforted.
Listen unto me, my people; and give ear unto me, my nation for a law shall proceed from me, and I will establish my judgment for a light of the peoples.
Isaiah 51 is a chain of calls to a small, faithful group in Israel, and in verse 4 God names them as His own nation. The promise tied to that name reaches far past Israel: His justice is to be light for the nations, and the question is when that light comes, and how.
Commentators read verses 4–6 as the middle call in a set of three. Each call lifts the hearers a step higher.
Isaiah 51 to 52:12 apply the truth to the people of God, or at least to the godly remnant of the future. They are seen strictly as prophecy sees them. There is first a triple call: "Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness" (verses 1-3); "Give attention (or attend) to me, my people" (verses 4-6); and "Listen to me, you who know righteousness" (verses 7-8). These calls show spiritual progress.
Some readers take "my people" and "my nation" as a turn toward the Gentile world. Kelly rejects that. He says the Jews are the very people who needed to hear this.
Bishop Lowth is completely wrong to think that here God speaks not to the Jews but to the Gentiles, "as in all reason it ought to be"! It was all the more needed as a comfort for the Jews, because they have so long been called Lo-ammi (compare Hosea 1—2). "The peoples" are marked off as a separate group. He will establish His judgment as their light, and His arms will judge them. Meanwhile His righteousness and salvation, made good for ever, will be Israel's portion.
Lo-ammi is the name God gave Israel in Hosea: "not my people." Kelly also points to the word for the call itself. Here it is not the general "hearken" of verses 1 and 7, but a different word — one that "implies attention."
The title "my nation" promises growth, not present size. A handful becomes a people under God's rule, and the nations in darkness are not left out.
Again the remnant are called to "hearken" to Jehovah. Now Jehovah speaks of them as "My nation". In the day of Israel's rejection of Christ, the remnant were only a feeble few. Abraham, their father, was alone in the same way when God called him. In the day to come they will swell into a nation that God owns under His righteous rule. In the day of their blessing the Gentiles who have lived in darkness will come into the light and salvation of God. They will trust in His arm.
A law going out from God to the nations sounds like missionary preaching. Writers who handle the same promise earlier in Isaiah say the way it comes rules that out.
Some might think the law's going out of Zion might be by the gospel. But the gospel does not come by executing judgment on the nations, as it does here. God will deal with the nations by public judgment and righteousness on earth. The passage speaks of the Lord, not of the church, and it is obvious this has never yet happened. People have dreamed these things for Christianity; but it is the judgment of God that is to bring all this about.
The closing word of the verse is plural — not one people, but many. And the whole thing turns on a person.
Verses 4 and 5 show what will happen when the movement comes from God and they are obedient to His law and ordering. Then He will show His salvation, based on righteousness. There will be blessing for those whom He acknowledges as "My people" and "My nation." But there will also be blessing for "the peoples" — the word at the end of verse 4 and the middle of verse 5 is plural. In that day the distant isles will come under divine rule. The secret of it all is this: "on My ARM they will trust." Isaiah 40:10 first showed us that ARM. It is a title of our Lord Jesus in the power and glory of His second coming.
- Called. Verse 4 opens the second of three appeals. The calls climb: those who follow righteousness, then "my people," then those who know righteousness.
- Named. The comfort lies in the naming. God calls a people long named Lo-ammi His own nation. Commentators insist He speaks to Israel here, not to the Gentiles.
- Enlarged. The few become a nation. Abraham was one man when God called him. In the same way the feeble remnant will swell into a people God owns under His righteous rule.
- Ruled. The law going out from God is not the spread of the gospel. It is public judgment and righteousness on earth, and the Lord Himself carries it out. Writers note it has never yet happened.
- Lit. The light falls on many peoples, out to the distant isles. That light is God's own judgment, and trust rests on the Arm of the Lord — a title for Jesus in the power of His second coming.
My righteousness is near, my salvation is gone forth, and mine arms shall judge the peoples the isles shall wait for me, and in mine arm shall they trust.
This verse sits in the middle call of Isaiah 51, spoken to a small and discouraged remnant. It answers their fear with two words: near, and gone out. But what does God mean by "My righteousness"? And why do far-off coastlands put their hope in His arm?
Kelly sets out the appeals that shape the chapter, and who they address.
Isaiah 51 to 52:12 apply the truth to the people of God, or at least to the godly remnant of the future, seen strictly in their prophetic sense. First comes a triple call: "Listen to me, you who follow righteousness" (vv. 1-3), "Pay attention to me, my people" (vv. 4-6), and "Listen to me, you who know righteousness" (vv. 7-8). These three calls show spiritual progress.
The verse speaks of peoples and distant coastlands. So some have read it as a message to the Gentile world. Kelly rejects that, and points to a name God had given Israel: Lo-ammi, "not My people."
Bishop Lowth was completely wrong to think that here God speaks not to the Jews but to the Gentiles, "as in all reason it ought to be"! The Jews needed this comfort all the more, because God had called them Lo-ammi for so long. God marks off "the peoples" as a distinct group. His judgment will be set up as a light for them, and His arms will judge them. Meanwhile His righteousness and salvation, made good for ever, will be Israel's portion.
Darby draws the sense of the word from how Isaiah uses it.
Here, and in several other passages, "righteousness" carries a sense that explains and clears up its use in the New Testament. Gesenius even translates it here and elsewhere as "deliverance, salvation." God's power steps in here, in keeping with His own character and in grace towards His people, and so it must deliver them. "Who raised up righteousness from the east?" God acts to vindicate His own character and power against evil. It is God's righteousness. Take Cyrus as a first fulfilment: God must vindicate His title against the pride of the nations, against idols and false gods. It is His righteousness, but by it His people are delivered in grace. So, "My righteousness draws near, my salvation has gone out."
The blessing does not stop at Israel's borders. Hole notes a detail in the wording, then names the arm.
Verses 4 and 5 show what will come to pass when the movement proceeds from God and they are obedient to His law and ordering. Then His salvation, based on righteousness, will be shown. There will be blessing, not only for those whom He acknowledges as "My people" and "My nation," but also for "the peoples" — the word at the end of verse 4 and in the middle of verse 5 is plural. In that day God will bring the distant isles under His rule. The secret of it all is this: "for my arm they wait," or, in older translations, "on Mine ARM shall they trust." That ARM was introduced to us in Isaiah 40:10, and is a title of our Lord Jesus in the power and glory of His second coming.
The same arm that judges is the one the coastlands lean on. The Old Testament uses this picture again and again, and its reach here is wide.
The arm is the part of the body able to lift burdens and defend the person; it pictures the power and strength of God on behalf of His saints. The arm of Jehovah is often spoken of in the Old Testament. It redeemed, Ex. 6:6; it gathers His own, Isa. 40:11; and it rules for Him, Isa. 40:10, as in the kingdom. It is a holy arm, Isa. 52:10; Ps. 98:1; and it is a glorious arm, Isa. 63:12. Even the isles of the Gentiles are to trust in it — that is, sinners everywhere in creation. Isa. 51:5.
Isaiah says God's righteousness will be revealed. The New Testament uses that same language for the gospel. One writer marks both the link and the difference.
Speaking through Isaiah about the salvation of Israel still to come, the Lord says His righteousness will be revealed (Isa. 41:10; Isa. 46:13; Isa. 51:5-6, 8; Isa. 56:1)… But that coming salvation of Israel is still very different from the gospel salvation we are dealing with here. Then righteousness will show itself in judgment on the enemies of His earthly people. In the salvation we have here, righteousness also acts in judgment, yet you see only contrast — this is that "strange work" to which the Cross bears witness. Here is a judgment upon sin which is the salvation of sinners!
- Near — God speaks this promise to a small, weak remnant He calls "My people." It is comfort for people long told they were not His.
- Righteousness — God acting in keeping with His own character against evil. He vindicates Himself, and in grace that same act delivers His people.
- Arm — the strength that redeems, gathers and rules. Hole calls it a title of the Lord Jesus in the power and glory of His second coming.
- Isles — the arm that judges the peoples is the arm distant coastlands lean on. Sinners everywhere are to trust it.
- Two salvations — Israel's coming deliverance is righteousness judging her enemies. The gospel is judgment on sin that becomes the salvation of sinners.
Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look on the earth beneath for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall grow old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner; but my salvation shall be for ever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished.
God tells His people to look up at the sky and down at the ground. Both look permanent. Both wear out like old clothing. Against them He sets the one thing that will not wear out: His own salvation.
Isaiah 51 holds a series of appeals. This one is for a people God calls His own. One writer reads verses 4 to 6 as a promise to a small, weak group that will become a nation, with sky and land as witnesses.
Once again the faithful few are called to listen to the Lord. Now He speaks of them as "My nation". When Israel rejected Christ, they were only a feeble few, just as Abraham, their father, was alone when God called him. In the day to come they will grow into a nation that God owns under His righteous rule. On the day of their blessing, the nations that have lived in darkness will come into God's light and salvation, and they will trust in His arm. The heavens and the earth are a witness that God's salvation, founded on His righteousness, lasts forever.
Some say these words speak to the nations, not to the Jews. One commentator calls that a total mistake, and marks out two groups with two different portions.
Bishop Lowth makes a total mistake when he thinks these words are spoken not to the Jews but to the nations, "as in all reason it ought to be"! They were needed all the more as a comfort for the Jews... "The peoples" are kept separate. God's judgement would be set up as a light for them, and His arms would judge them, while His righteousness and salvation, made good forever, would be Israel's portion.
The verse names three things that go: sky, earth, and the people living on it. The verses that follow then tell God's people not to fear what men say.
What a wonderful day that will be! Verse 6 says that nothing in heaven or on earth is stable. Physical things and men themselves pass away, but the salvation God will bring about in righteousness will last. Verses 7 and 8 call us to listen to God's word. We who "know righteousness" cannot help rejoicing that only what is established in righteousness will remain, and everything else will be worm-eaten and destroyed. Sure of this, no believer needs to fear the insults and abuse of men.
The One who made the universe will also put it away. He folds it up like a garment when it has done its work.
First He is the Creator of all things, and He lives in eternity. Then, when the vast creation — of which we see only a small part — has served its purpose, He will fold it up. (Ps. 102:25-27; Isa. 51:6.) The material universe is a platform on which the will of God is carried out. When His marvellous handiwork has finished its task, He folds it up, and changes it as a man changes his clothes.
Scripture speaks of a shaking of the heavens, and also of their removal. One writer treats these as two different events.
Scripture as a whole testifies to a shaking of the heavens that comes before the removal of the heavens, and is quite distinct from it. I think all agree on this. The shaking leads in to Jesus' return to Israel; the removal comes just before God becomes all in all.
The same writer sorts the prophecies into those two groups, and puts this verse with the removal.
Isaiah 51:6, 65:17, and Isaiah 66:22 seem connected with the removal spoken of by Peter.
Isaiah ties God's salvation to His righteousness. Commentators note that Israel's coming salvation and gospel salvation are not the same, though God acts in righteousness in both.
For the salvation of Israel that is still to come, the Lord speaks through Isaiah of His righteousness as something to be revealed (Isa. 41:10; Isa. 46:13; Isa. 51:5-6, 8; Isa. 56:1)... But the salvation of Israel in the day to come is still very different from the gospel salvation we are dealing with here. Then righteousness will be shown in judgment on the enemies of His earthly people. In the salvation we have here, righteousness does act in judgment, yet we see only contrast in this truly "strange work" to which the Cross bears witness. Here is a judgment on sin that is the salvation of sinners!
- Look up. God points to the things that look most permanent — sky, earth, people — and says that "nothing in heaven or on earth is stable."
- Folded, not failed. Creation is not collapsing by accident. The Creator folds it up like a used garment once it "has served its purpose."
- Witness. The passing sky and earth witness to the opposite fact: God's salvation, "founded on His righteousness," lasts forever.
- Reach. God speaks the promise to a feeble few who will become a nation, and "the nations that have lived in darkness will come into God's light and salvation."
- Result. Only "what is established in righteousness will remain," so those who know that righteousness need not "fear the insults and abuse of men."
Hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law; fear not the reproach of men, and be not afraid of their revilings.
This verse is the third of three calls to "listen" in Isaiah 51. It speaks to a small group who face insults for their loyalty to God. Two questions sit at its centre. Who are these people with God's law in their heart? And why should the scorn of others frighten them?
The three appeals in this chapter are not repetition. Each one meets the same people at a later stage. This one names them by what they now have.
In chapter 51:1, they follow after righteousness. And they know righteousness — they have the law in their heart. Yet the comfort of Zion has not yet come, nor has His arm put on strength. But it does; and the redeemed of the Lord return to Zion with singing. The whole chapter traces, step by step, how the Lord appeals to the righteous remnant. It then shows their deliverance by Him, in the most remarkable way.
One writer reads these appeals as a single whole, set after the rejection of Christ and not in the return from exile.
These appeals form one whole of seven distinct parts. They trace the godly Jewish remnant from deep distress, advancing step by step until they stand in the full glory promised them. Isaiah 48 closed the old part of the subject. Isaiah 49 opened the new complaint, the new ground of judgement God lays against His people. It is not the idolatry judged by the captivity in Babylon, but the refusal of Christ. That refusal is the ground of their scattering and distress under Rome, the fourth Gentile empire. So the Lord divorced Israel. But a remnant, poor in spirit, obey by grace the voice of His humbled Servant.
What does it mean to have God's law in the heart? Writers tie it to a promise for a coming day.
A happy day is not far off. In that day the Lord will establish His new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. He will write His law in their very hearts. This means new birth; then the will of God will be their real delight.
God had written this law once before, on stone.
The writing of the old covenant on the tables of stone was a witness against Israel. It showed how far short they came of God's demands. But the law written on the hearts of Israel, and in their minds, will show what Israel are for God. God and His word will be cherished in the hearts of His earthly people in the millennial day, and the will of God will govern their thoughts.
The reason for courage lies in what happens to the mockers.
The third call is to hear, as those who know righteousness and have the Lord's law in their hearts. Why should such people fear the reproach and revilings of men? The moth and the worm, little and feeble as they are, will devour those men.
Set against that decay is something that does not wear out.
Physical things and men themselves pass away. But the salvation which God will bring about in righteousness will last. God calls us to listen to His word in verses 7 and 8. We who "know righteousness" cannot but rejoice: only what stands in righteousness will remain, and all else will be worm-eaten and destroyed.
The pattern is not locked to one century. Wherever people obey God while others abandon Him, the same treatment follows.
Now the light of that glory makes them strong enough to face "the reproach of men" and the "revilings". This will always be the portion of those who, in a day of ruin, fear the Lord, obey His voice and "follow after righteousness." So those in our day who obey the word and separate themselves from the corruptions of Christendom will meet with reproach. To them the word is, "Therefore let us go to Him outside the camp and bear the reproach He endured."
"Fear not" is not an isolated word here. It sounds again and again through the closing chapters of Isaiah.
Fear not, my love will comfort you, I will help you, I will strengthen you. Have I not redeemed you? Am I not with you? Fear neither shame, nor insult, nor reproach. You are mine, and I have received you in grace. The entire latter portion of Isaiah has this consoling word from God as a refrain.
- Called. Three appeals in one chapter move the same people forward. First they follow after righteousness. Then they know it.
- Changed. They know righteousness because God writes His law inside them — a new heart, not a stricter code.
- Confronted. Righteousness inside draws reproach outside. That is the settled portion of the faithful in a day of ruin.
- Comforted. The insults come from people the moth and the worm will eat. The smallest creatures outlast the loudest critics.
- Crowned. Only what stands in righteousness lasts. God's salvation will remain when the scorn has rotted away.
For the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like wool; but my righteousness shall be for ever, and my salvation from generation to generation.
The verse closes the third of three appeals in Isaiah 51, spoken to a small and mocked group of God's people. The contrast is simple: what looks strong is already rotting, and what looks weak rests on what God says will never end.
Isaiah 51 opens with three calls, and each one takes the hearers further in.
Isaiah 51 to 52:12 apply the truth to the people of God, or at least to the godly remnant of the future, viewed strictly in their prophetic setting. There is first a triple call: "Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness" (verses 1-3), "Give attention to me, my people" (verses 4-6), and "Listen to me, you who know righteousness" (verses 7-8). These calls show spiritual progress.
The hearers are not the whole nation but a faithful few, the remnant. Isaiah has already marked them out by their fear of God and their obedience.
Here the remnant comes into view (chapter 49:6). But after the rejection of Christ (chapter 50), their character in the last days comes out clearly (chapter 50:10): "they fear the Lord, and obey the voice of His servant." In chapter 51:1, they follow after righteousness; and they know righteousness — have the law in their heart.
The picture comes from clothing kept in storage. Everything turns on what a moth feeds on.
This is the clothes-moth, whose destructive damage is well known. In the East people kept garments in large quantities, as property and as gifts. Moths do not attack clothing in use; they lay their eggs in what is stored away, and there the young find their food. From this comes the lesson: lay up treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust can corrupt or destroy.
The force of the image lies in the mismatch between the destroyer and the destroyed.
Why should those who know righteousness and have the Lord's law in their hearts fear the reproach and revilings of men whom the moth and the worm, little and feeble as they are, will devour?
Verse 6 has already said that heaven and earth wear out. That sets up the one thing that does not.
What a wonderful day that will be; for nothing either in heaven or on earth is stable, as verse 6 declares. Physical things pass away, and so do people. But the salvation God will bring about in righteousness will last. God calls us to listen to His word in verses 7 and 8. We who "know righteousness" cannot help rejoicing that only what stands on righteousness will remain, and all else will be worm-eaten and destroyed.
The phrase does not stay with the prophets. It becomes the language of the gospel, where this righteousness belongs to God and not to man.
In the very writings which confessed their ruin, the prophets spoke of Jehovah bringing near His righteousness... So, in the types of the law, the whole sacrificial system sets forth a righteousness of God outside man, yet most truly for him, which finds its only adequate meaning in the mighty work and death of Jesus. The law and the prophets were only witnesses. They testified that this divine righteousness had not yet come, but was coming. Now it has come and is made known.
What steadied the remnant then also meets people who face mockery for obeying God now.
For the third time God calls the godly remnant to listen. The vision of the coming glory has comforted them in their loneliness and weakness. Now that glory strengthens them to face "the reproach of man" and the "revilings" that will always be the portion of those who, in a day of ruin, fear the Lord, obey His voice and "pursue righteousness." So those in our day who obey the word and separate themselves from the corruptions of Christendom will meet with reproach. The word to them is, "Therefore let us go to Him outside the camp and bear the reproach He endured." Yet the godly, in any day of ruin, need not fear the reproaches and revilings of those of whom God says they will pass away like a moth-eaten garment.
- Called — This is the third call in the chapter. Each one draws the hearers closer: those who pursue righteousness, then God's people, then those who know righteousness.
- Marked — Two things mark these hearers: they fear the Lord and obey His servant's voice, and His law is in their heart.
- Eaten — The picture is stored clothing, not clothing in use. Moths feed on what people store away, and the mockers are what the moth will eat.
- Outlasted — Nothing in heaven or earth is stable. Only what rests on righteousness remains; everything else ends worm-eaten.
- Unafraid — That righteousness is God's own. The sacrifices pictured it, and the death of Jesus gave it its full meaning, so reproach loses its power over anyone who knows it.
Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of Jehovah; awake, as in the days of old, [as in] the generations of passed ages. Is it not thou that hath hewn Rahab in pieces, [and] pierced the monster?
In Isaiah 51 God calls out three times to a small band of the faithful. They answer by calling on Him to act. Verse 9 is the first of those answers — a plea that God's own arm would wake up and repeat what it did at the Red Sea.
Verse 9 opens the second set of three calls in the chapter.
Isaiah 51 to 52:12 apply the truth to the people of God, or at least to the godly remnant of the future, viewed strictly as prophecy. There is first a triple call: "Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness" (vv. 1-3), "Listen to me, my people" (vv. 4-6), and "Listen to me, you who know righteousness" (vv. 7-8). These show spiritual progress. Then follow three calls. First, "Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD" (vv. 9-16), a call for God to step in. Next, "Rouse yourself, rouse yourself, stand up, O Jerusalem" (vv. 17-23), an address to the city of God's choice. Then a final "Awake, awake, put on your strength, O Zion" (Isaiah 52:1).
In the Bible an arm pictures power in action. In Isaiah that picture narrows down to one Person.
It is the Lord Jehovah who is coming with might; but it is "His Arm" who will rule for Him. As we go through these later chapters of Isaiah we shall find the Lord Jesus presented as the Arm of Jehovah some ten or twelve times. In this character He is the One who carries out in power all the will and purpose of Jehovah. He is also presented as the "Servant," who is to carry out the yet more wonderful work of sin-bearing and suffering. The passages that speak of Him as the Servant view Him in His first coming in grace. The passages that present Him as the "Arm" carry our thoughts on to His second coming in glory.
"Rahab" here is not a person. It is a nickname.
A poetic name, meaning 'insolence,' given to Egypt. Psalm 87:4; Psalm 89:10; Isaiah 51:9.
So the cry looks back to the escape from Egypt — Egypt broken, the sea opened. The same power has a greater deliverance still ahead.
It was He who cut Rahab in pieces and dried up the sea, when God brought the people out of the land where they were slaves, with Moses leading them. When He puts on strength and acts in the future day, there will be a far greater deliverance. The ransomed of the Lord will return to Zion with singing. Their joy will be everlasting, not brief and fading like every joyful deliverance so far in this sinful world.
Notice the argument in the verse: it is made of questions about the past, aimed at a need in the present.
Similarly the Spirit now answers, as it were, in the remnant. First, they call for the power of Jehovah to assert itself against their mighty foes, as of old against proud Egypt.
When the Arm of the LORD did appear, He came in a form nobody watching the Red Sea would have expected.
The arm of the Lord showed such glorious power at the Red Sea that even the doubters in Israel's ranks must have been convinced. But now, where do we see the arm of the Lord? Not in the thunder, the lightning, the earthquake or the fire, not in the mighty wind that divided the sea, but in a Baby in the manger at Bethlehem. A weak Baby, who seemed completely dependent on His mother for food! Could that lowly Baby be the arm of the Lord? Yes, He was — but to whom was He revealed? God had to reveal Him before anyone could know Him, and only faith could receive that revelation. And not many received it.
The three "awake" calls of these chapters are linked. The first one has to be answered before the others can happen.
The first call to awake goes to the "Arm of the Lord" (verse 9), for everything depends on Him. When the hour strikes for Him to awake and put on strength, Jerusalem will awake too, as verse 17 shows, and again in the first verse of Isaiah 52. That awakening will not be merely political or national. It will involve a deep spiritual work.
The same cry fits believers who feel their own weakness today.
When we feel our present low state and our weakness, and call to mind former days, we cry, "O LORD, will You not revive us again as in the early days?"
- Cry — Verse 9 is the first of three "awake" calls answering three "listen to Me" appeals; it is a plea for God to intervene.
- Arm — The Arm of the LORD is the One who carries out God's purpose in power. Isaiah's "Servant" passages look to Christ's coming in grace. His "Arm" passages look to His coming in glory.
- Rahab — The name means insolence, a nickname for Egypt; the cry recalls Egypt broken and the sea dried up.
- Revealed — That same Arm appeared as a baby at Bethlehem, and only faith recognised Him.
- Result — When the Arm awakes, Jerusalem awakes too, in a deep spiritual work. The ransomed return to Zion with joy that never fades.
Is it not thou that dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep; that made the depths of the sea a way for the redeemed to pass over?
The verse is not God speaking but His people speaking to Him. They look back at what God's own arm did at the Red Sea, and they ask Him to act like that again.
The question is put to someone: "Was it not you...?" The one addressed is named in the previous verse as the arm of the LORD, and commentators identify Him with the One who will appear in power at His return.
These verses have opened up before our minds a glorious and desirable prospect. It will only come true when the Lord Jesus comes again. So we get the call of verse 9: "Awake, awake, put on strength, O Arm of the Lord." ... The Lord Jesus has always been the One who carries out God's purposes. He acted in the mighty scenes of creation. It was He who cut Rahab in pieces — a name meaning "Arrogance," given to Egypt in contempt. And it was He who dried up the sea, when God brought the people out of the land where they were slaves, with Moses leading them.
The same arm that split an ocean came into the world in total weakness.
"The Arm of the Lord" is a divine title. Chapter 51 of this prophecy calls on the Arm of the Lord to awake and deliver the people, as in the ancient days... At the Red Sea the Arm of the Lord showed such glorious power that even the doubters in Israel's army must have believed. But now, where do we see the Arm of the Lord? Not in the thunder, the lightning, the earthquake or the fire, not in the mighty wind that divided the sea, but in a Baby in the manger at Bethlehem.
Because God once broke Egypt — called Rahab here — the faithful can ask Him to break the enemies pressing them now.
The Spirit now answers, so to speak, in the faithful few who are left. First, they call for the power of Jehovah to assert itself against their mighty foes, as of old against proud Egypt.
The same prayer belongs to readers now, in changed words.
We today may call on the Arm of the Lord to awake. Only the language we use is, "Even so, Come, Lord Jesus."
"The waters of the great deep" and "the depths of the sea" are places of death, and the wonder is that they became the pathway. Christ opened that way by going into it Himself.
He divided the sea, whose waves roared, and made the depths of it a way for the ransomed to pass over. He divided it by passing through it, while all its fury fell on Him. Now, risen from the dead, He can celebrate His great triumph, surrounded by those He has set free.
(Note: where these writers say "the ransomed," the ESV says "the redeemed.")
This memory is not nostalgia. God gives it to people who have nothing left, so they can measure their weakness against His unchanged strength.
They could not have been poorer than they were. But when they felt that poverty and cried to the Lord in their distress, He met them — and He met them as the God of deliverances. He carried their thoughts back to what He had done for them in the past: He had dried the waters of the great deep, and made the depths a way for His ransomed to pass over... He wanted them to know that He was just the same God as He had ever been. They had changed, but He remained the everlasting God, whose strength cannot fade or falter.
The next verse draws the conclusion. With the past act settled and the promise heard, the people can state the outcome as fact.
The faithful few have listened to the LORD's promise of future blessing, and they are sure of God's power in the past. So they can say with confidence, "The redeemed of the LORD shall return, and come with singing to Zion." And when they return, "everlasting joy shall be on their head: they shall obtain gladness and joy; and sorrow and mourning shall flee away."
- Arm — The verse speaks to the arm of the LORD: the Lord Jesus, who carries out God's purposes, in creation and at the Red Sea.
- Argument — Its form is a question, not a doubt: what that arm did to Egypt once is the ground for asking it to act again.
- Depths — The sea of death became the road. Christ opened it by passing through it Himself, and its fury fell on Him.
- Weakness — The memory is aimed at people with nothing left; they have changed, but He has not.
- Singing — The end of the argument is verse 11: the redeemed return to Zion, and sorrow and mourning flee away.
So the ransomed of Jehovah shall return, and come to Zion with singing; and everlasting joy shall be upon their heads they shall obtain gladness and joy; sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
In Isaiah 51 God speaks comfort to a small, discouraged group of His people, and they call back to Him, "Awake, awake." In verse 11 their faith stops pleading and starts predicting. Who are the ransomed? Why does their road end at Zion, the hill of Jerusalem? And why is the joy everlasting, when every earlier rescue faded?
The verse is not a fresh promise dropped into the chapter. It is the answer of the remnant — the faithful few left among God's people. They echo what He has already said and what He has already done.
(V. 11). The remnant have listened to the LORD's promise of future blessing. They have the assurance of God's power in the past. So they can say with confidence, "the ransomed of the LORD shall return and come to Zion with singing."
Just before this, the people call on God's "arm" to wake up and act as it did long ago. Their rescue out of Egypt becomes the sample of a larger rescue still to come.
So comes the call of verse 9: "Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD." ... It was He who cut Rahab in pieces. Rahab means "Arrogance," a name given to Egypt as an insult. He dried up the sea when God brought the people out of slavery under Moses. When He puts on strength and acts in the future day, the deliverance will be far greater. The ransomed of the Lord will return to Zion with singing. Their joy will be everlasting, not brief and fleeting like every joyful deliverance so far in this sinful world. We today may call on the arm of the Lord to awake. Only the words we use are, "Come, Lord Jesus."
The word "ransomed" means a price was paid. Redemption has two sides here. The rescue still ahead rests on blood already shed.
This will be a work of redemption by power. But, as we know, its righteous basis will be the redemption by blood accomplished at His first coming. Today the Jewish people still reject that righteous basis, while they hope for national deliverance. It will be different when their Redeemer does appear in power.
The language is so glowing that some read it as poetry about inward change only. William Kelly presses for something more solid. He is describing the millennium — the thousand-year reign of Christ on earth.
It is the day when the wilderness will rejoice and blossom like the garden of Eden. It is the day when the ransomed of the Lord will come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy on their heads, and all sorrow and sighing will flee away. ... Many have been inclined to take the prophetic accounts of the millennium as figures of speech. But they must allow that these figures may be fulfilled far more fully than they suppose. In other words, I take the glowing Old Testament accounts of the millennium as pictures of real and abundant blessings on earth.
Right after verse 11, God answers the fear behind that cry. His answer compares two sizes.
(Vv. 12–16). In response to this appeal, Jehovah comforts the remnant, and urges them not to fear man or "the fury of the oppressor". Man is only like grass that perishes; Jehovah who comforts them is the Maker of the heavens and the earth. So He will set His captive exiles free and feed His starving people. He can protect them, plant them in the land, and say of them, "You are my people."
The same closing line ends Isaiah 35, and one writer uses it to measure our own grief. He quotes 1 Peter 5:10, which the ESV renders "after you have suffered a little while." Suffering is real, but it is measured. The joy is not.
Sufferings are short. "After you have suffered a while" (1 Peter 5:10) — the Greek word means "a little." Our sufferings may be lasting, not everlasting. ... "Sorrow and sighing shall flee away" (Isa. 35:10). It is only a little while, and the saints will have their release; they will weep no more, suffer no more.
- Listen first. Faith speaks second. The remnant hear God's promise and remember His power. Only then do they say what will happen.
- Past power. The arm that cut Egypt's arrogance in pieces and dried the sea is the arm called to awake again. The Red Sea was only a sample.
- Paid price. The rescue ahead is redemption by power. It rests on redemption by blood, already accomplished at Christ's first coming.
- Real place. The songs on Zion mean real, abundant blessing on earth, not only a picture of inward change.
- Lasting joy. Every past rescue gave joy that faded. Here sorrow has a limit, sighing flees for good, and the joy never ends.
I, [even] I, am he that comforteth you who art thou, that thou fearest a man that shall die, and the son of man that shall become as grass;
Isaiah 51 opens with the people crying out for God's arm to wake up and act, as it once did at the Red Sea. Verse 12 is His answer. Instead of a display of power, He names Himself as the One who comforts, and sets that against the frail man they fear.
The verse answers the plea of verses 9 and 10. There God's people point back to the rescue from Egypt and ask God to act again.
First, they call for the power of Jehovah to assert itself against their mighty foes, as of old against proud Egypt (vv. 9, 10). They predict their deliverance in verse 11, and Jehovah's reply to their trembling hearts comes in verses 12-16, in words as moving as they are majestic.
The doubled "I, I am he" presses God's own identity on them.
The verse sets two figures side by side. One is a man who dies, a "son of man" who is like grass. The other is the Maker of the heavens and the earth. Fear is what happens when we stop measuring the two.
Their tendency was, as ours is today, to keep their eyes on man and to fear him as they watch all his evil ways and activities. But men die, and the One who comforts His people is the Maker of the heavens and the earth. When God acts, where will the fury of the oppressor be? God meant these striking verses to put heart into His people in all ages. They have done so in the past, and no doubt they are doing so today, especially where believers face "the fury of the oppressor."
The question "who are you?" is sharper than it first sounds. God is not only correcting a wrong view of the enemy. He shows what fear does to the person who fears: the next line says he has forgotten the God who made everything.
In the things of God, natural courage will fail. Only His divine power and grace can hold up the soul and keep it from fear... Isaiah 51:12, 13 shows something striking. Fear, no less than the other evils we have noted, is the product of mere pride, little as we might think it so. It asks: "Who are you that you are afraid of man who dies, of the son of man who is made like grass, and have forgotten the LORD, your Maker, who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth?"
So fear of man is not only weakness. At root it is pride.
Other Scriptures name the same danger. Fear of people is not harmless. It traps you.
"The fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the LORD is safe" (Proverbs 29:25). The fear of man is born of unbelief. The Christian who fears man shows clearly that he is not looking to the Lord, but to man. The fear of man surely brings a snare, it leads to pleasing men and praising men.
So the cure is a matter of where the eyes rest. One writer turns God's question back on the reader:
To the winds and waves, or to Him who walks in majesty upon the swelling tide? To the scattered flock, or to the Shepherd of the sheep? To the saints, or to the Saviour?... Is God or is man the commanding object of your vision?
"I am he who comforts you" is not a passing kindness. It describes who God is.
God is, in a special way, the Comforter of His people (Isa. 51:12)... to say that God comforts us in all our troubles is only another way of saying that He comforts in a manner worthy of Himself... The number and variety of our troubles are simply the appointed means of showing more fully the endless comforts of His love.
Commentators also read this promise as still ahead. God will yet comfort Zion, after a time of deep mourning for the faithful among the Jewish people (Arend Remmers).
- Comforter — they cry for raw power. God answers by naming Himself, twice over, as the One who comforts. Comfort comes before rescue.
- Compared — the man you dread dies and is like grass; the One comforting you stretched out the heavens. Fear is a failure to measure.
- Forgotten — to fear man is to forget your Maker. Commentators trace that fear to pride and unbelief, not weakness alone.
- Snared — fear of man traps you into pleasing men. Trust is the way out, and it changes where you look.
- Certain — this comfort is God's settled character, and a promise still ahead. God will yet comfort Zion, and the fury of the oppressor will be gone.
and forgettest Jehovah thy Maker, who hath stretched out the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth; and thou art afraid continually all the day because of the fury of the oppressor, when he prepareth to destroy? And where is the fury of the oppressor?
These words are God's reply to frightened people. They are afraid of a man who will die. The verse names the cause of that fear: they have forgotten the One who made the sky above them and the ground under their feet.
Verses 12 to 16 are God's answer to a cry for His power to act. It runs from comfort to protection.
In response to this appeal, the Lord comforts the remnant, and urges them not to fear man or "the fury of the oppressor." Man is only like grass that perishes. The Lord who comforts them is the Maker of the heavens and the earth. So He will set His captive exiles free and feed His starving people. He can still the waves that roar. He can make His people a testimony by putting His words into their mouths. He can protect His people, plant them in the land, and say of them, "You are my people."
The people had cried out for God's arm to wake up, as if He had gone to sleep. The charge comes back the other way round.
It was the Eternal One who comforted them. They had forgotten Him. Had He gone to sleep and forgotten? He never slumbers or sleeps, and His power is right there. Now that Zion is awake to know it, He calls on Zion to awake, for all was mercy now. Verse 12 is the Lord's answer. He asks how Israel could be afraid of a man, when He comforted her. He had pleaded her cause.
The verse describes dread that runs "continually all the day" at an enemy who is getting ready to destroy. Then it asks where that fury is.
They tended, as we tend today, to keep their eyes on man and to fear, as they watched all his evil tendencies and activities. But men die, and the One who comforts His people is the Maker of heaven and earth. When God acts, where will the fury of the oppressor be? These striking verses are meant to put heart into the people of God in every age.
Fear looks like weakness, not pride. One writer starts from Peter's failure and reads these verses as exposing something else underneath.
What powerful enemy so weakened Peter, this eager, loving follower of the Lord Jesus? Simply "the fear of man." In the things of God, natural courage will fail. Only God's divine power and grace can sustain us and keep us from fear. "When I am afraid, I put my trust in you" (Ps. 56:3). "I will trust, and will not be afraid" (Isa. 12:2). Most strikingly, Isaiah 51:12-13 shows where fear comes from. It is the product of mere pride, no less than the other evils we have noted, little as we might think so. Yet divine grace did, and does, wonderfully restore.
Another writer puts the same fear down to a different root:
The fear of man is born of unbelief. The Christian who fears man shows clearly that he is not looking to the Lord, but to man. The fear of man certainly brings a snare; it leads to pleasing men and praising men.
The two acts named in this verse return three verses later, and the change between them is the point.
In verse 13 we have the heavens and the earth created, but in verse 16 we have them filled. The One who created them is the One who will fill them.
The verse's charge is forgetting God. One writer turns that into a question for today.
My soul, where are you directing your gaze today? To the hills, or higher? To the winds and waves, or to Him who walks in majesty on the swelling tide? To the scattered flock, or to the Shepherd of the sheep? Which of the two? Is God or man the commanding object of your vision?
- Forgetting — The verse names the cause of fear as memory failure. The people cried out as though God had fallen asleep; in fact they were the ones who had forgotten Him.
- Maker — What they forgot is the biggest fact there is. The One who comforts them stretched out the heavens and laid the earth's foundations.
- Man — In His place they saw a man who dies, and grass that withers. Commentators trace fear of him to pride, and to unbelief that looks at people instead of the Lord.
- Fury — The oppressor's rage feels endless, "all the day." But when God acts, where is that fury?
- Filled — The heavens and earth He made in verse 13, He fills in verse 16. The Creator finishes what He started, and His people are part of it.
He that is bowed down shall speedily be loosed, and he shall not die in the pit, nor shall his bread fail.
These words are God's answer to people who lived in daily dread of their oppressor — a prisoner bent low under his chains, promised release before he dies. Who is this prisoner, when is he set free, and what does the promise of unfailing bread add to it?
In this chapter the people cry out to God for power, and God answers. One writer places our verse inside the answer, not inside the plea.
In verse 11 they predict their deliverance. The LORD's reply to their trembling hearts comes in verses 12–16. It is as full of deep feeling as it is of grandeur.
The verse makes three promises. The chains come off. The prisoner does not die in the pit. The bread does not run out. One writer sets the freedom and the food side by side, and shows what they rest on.
In response to this appeal, the LORD comforts the remnant, and urges them not to fear man or "the fury of the oppressor". Man is only like grass that perishes; the LORD who comforts them is the Maker of the heavens and the earth. So He will set His captive exiles free, and He will feed His starving people.
Note the order. God frees the captive because of who God is, not because the captive's case looks hopeful.
Fear of the oppressor is the fear this verse answers, and it answers with a timetable: release comes soon. One writer turns that promise on the fears of readers today.
In verse 12 and onwards there is another call to the godly. Their tendency was, as ours is today, to keep their eyes on man and to fear as they watch all his evil tendencies and activities. But men die, and the One who comforts His people is the Maker of heaven and earth. When God acts, where will the fury of the oppressor be? These striking verses are meant to put heart into the saints of God in all ages. They have done so in the past, and no doubt they are doing so today, especially where believers face "the fury of the oppressor."
Here commentators differ. Some tie the passage to Israel's past history; others to the time when Christ first came. Kelly rejects both. He reads it of a future remnant of Israel, whom God will lift out of their degradation into blessing.
No wonder interpreters are so divided. These appeals and answers grow more earnest, and some apply them to the past history of the Jews, others to the time of the first coming. Neither view matches the language of the Holy Spirit. He looks forward to the gradual progress of the LORD's dealings with the future remnant. He looks to His work in their souls as they rise from their degradation or grasp their calling.
The promise does not stop at an open prison door. The God who feeds the starving goes on to call them His own, and one writer carries that word across to believers under pressure now.
He can protect His people. He can plant them in the land and say of them, "You are my people." The same is true of the overcomer in this day of ruin — the one who keeps His word and does not deny His name. In the day of glory the Lord can say of him, "I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God … and my own new name" (Rev. 3:12).
- Fear: the trouble here is fear of a man who dies — while the God who comforts is the Maker of heaven and earth. Measure the two rightly and the fear shrinks.
- Answer: verse 14 is not the captive's prayer but God's reply, spoken into trembling hearts as part of His answer in verses 12–16.
- Freedom: the chains come off soon. The captive does not die in the pit, and God's timing, not the oppressor's, sets how long the holding lasts.
- Bread: release comes with supply. God feeds the starving, so freedom does not end in a second, slower death.
- Owned: the deliverance ends with God saying "You are my people." The same voice promises the overcomer today a new name.
And I am Jehovah thy God, who raiseth the sea, so that its waves roar Jehovah of hosts is his name.
God speaks here in the middle of a message meant to steady a frightened people. He answers their fear with His own name and His mastery of the sea. The question is simple. The One who stirs the ocean calls Himself the LORD of hosts, and He calls Himself their God. So what is left for them to fear?
The words belong to a reply. Earlier in the chapter the people begged God to act as He acted against Egypt long ago. This verse is part of His answer.
In the same way the Spirit now answers, as it were, in the remnant. First they call for the power of Jehovah to assert itself against their mighty foes, as it did long ago against proud Egypt… They foretell their deliverance in verse 11. Jehovah's reply to their trembling hearts comes in verses 12-16. His words are as full of feeling as of grandeur.
The sea is not only water. Commentators read the roaring waves as a picture of the nations in uproar. The verse shows who stands above that uproar.
God is far above the actions and agitations of men. The nations are like the sea with its roaring waves, but He divides them at His pleasure.
The title at the end of the verse is not decoration. It is a name loaded with power, and Isaiah uses it again and again.
It occurs over 300 times in the Old Testament… Isaiah alone uses this beautiful title 60 times. It carries the thought of mighty, irresistible power and resource in the hands of the Lord.
Two things about the name fit this verse. It first appears when God's people were at their lowest. And the "hosts" it names include the forces of nature — the roaring sea among them.
We do not meet with this name until 1 Samuel 1:3. It came in with prophetic testimony. Faith took hold of Jehovah's glory at a time when Israel had corrupted itself and was weak and low. Scripture shows that there is a mighty heavenly host, with rulers and powers in the unseen world. God is the God of them all, as well as God of all the elements of nature, which He has often used to punish His enemies.
Israel went back to one event in every trouble. What God did at the Red Sea became the measure of what He could still do.
If they asked how God had acted for them most openly, they would think at once of the power that brought them out of the land of Egypt. This was always their comfort in the middle of disasters and troubles. The God who divided the Red Sea and brought them across the Jordan was equal to any difficulty that might ever attack them again.
That memory was never the ceiling. The same writer says Israel also lives "in the anticipation of a still greater display that will outshine whatever was seen of old." The Red Sea was a sample, not the whole.
The God who holds the sea also holds the sky. One writer points there when people treat God's promises to Israel as only a picture.
Those who spiritualise everything that has to do with Israel would do well to look up at those heavens. Let them realise this: just as surely as the sun and moon will last, so surely will Israel remain a nation before God.
- The name is the answer. God does not argue His people out of fear. He gives them His name, and that name carries "mighty, irresistible power and resource."
- The name arrives in weakness. "LORD of hosts" first appears when Israel had corrupted itself and was in a weak and low state — it is a title for bad days, not good ones.
- The hosts include the sea. God rules the unseen powers and the elements of nature alike. He has often used those elements to punish His enemies, so the roaring waves are a tool in His hand, not a threat outside His control.
- The sea means the nations. God stands far above the agitations of men; the nations rage like waves, and He divides them at His pleasure.
- The proof is history, the promise is bigger. The God who divided the Red Sea "was equal to any difficulty that might ever attack them again" — and a greater display is still to come.
And I have put my words in thy mouth, and covered thee with the shadow of my hand, to plant the heavens, and to lay the foundations of the earth, and to say unto Zion, Thou art my people.
Isaiah 51 ends a long word of comfort to people who are afraid of men, and verse 16 answers with words in a mouth and a hand held over a head. Two questions follow: who is covered here, and how can God plant heavens He already made?
The verses just before it are a plea. God's people call on His power to wake up and act as it once did, and this verse belongs to His reply.
"Awake, awake!" The remnant now cry to the arm of the Lord: put on strength and make a way for us as You did long ago. "I, I am He who comforts you," Jehovah replies. I will plant the very heavens, as well as "lay the foundations of the earth"; that is why I have preserved you with and in Christ; "you are My people" (vv. 9-16).
Commentators differ here. Vine reads the preserving as God's care for His people. Others take the "you" of this verse as the Arm of the Lord Himself, the One introduced earlier in the chapter.
God is far above the actions and agitations of men. The nations are like the sea with its roaring waves, but He divides them at His pleasure. In verse 16 the One addressed is the Arm of the Lord. He is the One who speaks on God's behalf, with the divine word in His mouth. He is also the One who acts beneath the divine hand. The verse then gives the result of that speaking and acting.
The same picture appears earlier in Isaiah, and it reaches to the safety of the believer now.
For the believer, the place of safety is no longer pictured by a sheep pen on earth, as in former days. It is pictured by the hand of the Good Shepherd. There, in the shadow of His hand (compare Isa. 49:2; Isa. 51:16), they are securely hidden from every foe. That hand of unbeatable might will surround the frail and feeble sheep and protect them from every attack of the enemy. It is the hand that redeemed the ancient people from the iron slavery of Egypt, kept and defended them through the desert, and brought them into the promised land flowing with milk and honey.
Three results follow the covering. Older translations read "to plant the heavens" where the ESV has "establishing the heavens." The first result is startling, because God made the heavens long ago. So "plant" must mean something other than create.
The reference here is not to creation, for that was mentioned in verse 13, but, as we believe, to what God is doing today. The Lord Jesus Himself said, "Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be rooted up" (Matt. 15:13), showing that to plant is a figure of speech for establishing in a place of blessing. By the gospel today men are being called out from the nations for His name, and theirs is a "heavenly calling" (Heb. 3:1). The coming age will display that the heavens have been planted by the grace of God in this age.
Earlier in the chapter the same heavens and earth are already in view.
In verse 13 we have the heavens and the earth created, but in verse 16 we have them filled. The One who created them is the One who will fill them. He will plant the heavens with the church and lay the foundations of the earth with Israel. One is the heavenly company, the other the earthly.
The second result is not about rock and soil either. It is about a world put right.
Secondly, the foundations of the earth will be well and truly laid. Again, this is not the material creation. It is the laying of moral foundations in righteousness. At present "all the foundations of the earth are shaken" (Ps. 82:5). Through the centuries men have tried in vain to establish a righteous order of things, and the best of them have failed completely. They could no more do it than they could reach up to plant the heavens.
The third result concerns a people God does not own at present.
There is a third thing that is to happen: Zion is to be formally acknowledged as God's special people. The prophet Hosea lived about the time of Isaiah. Through him God said, "you are not my people, and I am not your God" (1:9). So up to this present moment they are disowned, though not set aside for ever. The day will come when they will be owned and blessed.
- Cry. The verse answers people begging God's arm to wake and act, and His reply is that He comforts them Himself.
- Cover. Shelter comes before any work: the shadow of His hand. That same hand brought a people out of slavery and still guards the weakest sheep.
- Plant. To plant the heavens is not to make them but to fill them. It means setting people in a place of blessing, and God is doing it now as He calls men out of the nations.
- Found. To lay the earth's foundations is moral, not material. It is righteousness men have failed to build for centuries, and God will fill that earth with Israel as He fills the heavens with the church.
- Own. The last result is a word, not a work: God says to Zion what He once refused to say. Disowned now, they are not set aside for ever.
Arouse thyself, arouse thyself, stand up, Jerusalem, which hast drunk at the hand of Jehovah the cup of his fury. Thou hast drunk, hast drained out the goblet-cup of bewilderment
Isaiah has just called on God's arm to wake up and act. Now he turns to the city itself — Jerusalem, staggering like a woman who has drained a cup from God's own hand.
Repeated calls shape this chapter, and their order matters. One commentator maps them:
Isaiah 51 to 52:12 apply the truth to the people of God, or at least to the godly remnant of the future, seen in their strict prophetic bearing. There is first a triple call. "Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness" (verses 1-3); "Give attention to me, my people" (verses 4-6); "Listen to me, you who know righteousness" (verses 7-8). These calls show spiritual progress. Then follow three more calls. First, "Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD" (verses 9-16) — a call for divine intervention. Next, "Wake yourself, wake yourself, stand up, O Jerusalem" (verses 17-23) — an address to the city of God's choice. Then a final "Awake, awake, put on your strength, O Zion" (Isaiah 52:1).
In these prophecies, waking pictures a change of condition, not a rising from the grave:
The Old Testament constantly uses the figure of "awaking" in a moral sense (see Isaiah 51:17; Isaiah 52:1, and so on). The New Testament uses it in a most striking way too. Writing to the Ephesians, the apostle says, "Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you" (Ephesians 5:14). No one could doubt the figurative sense in this passage.
Yet this is more than a change in national fortune. Its timing depends on the arm of the Lord waking first:
The first call to awake is addressed to the "Arm of the Lord" (verse 9), for everything depends on Him. When the hour strikes for Him to awake and put on strength, Jerusalem will awake as well. Verse 17 indicates this, and so does the first verse of Isaiah 52. That awakening will not be merely political or national. It will involve a deep spiritual work, as chapter 52 makes plain. It will come only when Jerusalem has suffered God's chastening government to the full. She will have drunk to the dregs the cup of His fury and of their trembling.
The names given to this cup across Scripture all point at one thing, and it has an opposite:
The wine cup, the cup of trembling, the cup of His fury, the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath, are various titles of the same cup, which is the emblem of divine judgments, like the bowls of Revelation 16. The cup of salvation, on the other hand, expresses the joy of the kingdom.
Note where the cup comes from — not from enemies, but from the Lord's hand.
Commentators name who calls Jerusalem to wake, and tie her suffering to her own history:
Having the LORD's promise to restore Zion, the godly remnant appeal to Jerusalem to awake from her long slumber. The city had indeed suffered for her sins, and above all for her rejection of Christ, and so drunk of the cup of the fury of the LORD. With no one among her own children to guide her, her position for generations has been one of desolation, destruction, famine and the sword.
The picture does not end with a staggering city. What God gave, God takes back — and passes on:
The Spirit of God summons Jerusalem to arise and stand up. The description is vivid: she reels under Jehovah's judgment, with not one of her sons to guide or help her. Then He takes the cup from her hand — not here to drink it Himself, but to put it into the hands of their oppressors.
The same cup appears at the cross, in another's hand:
The Prince of Life took the cup of wrath — the cup of trembling — from Jehovah's righteous hand, and drained it to the dregs. He did it so that He might put into the hands of His people the cup of salvation, the cup of God's indescribable love. Then they might drink and forget their poverty, and remember their misery no more.
- The cup — "cup of trembling," "cup of His fury," and similar names all describe one thing: God's judgment. Its opposite is the cup of salvation.
- The hand — Jerusalem's suffering came from the hand of the Lord, not just from her enemies. Commentators trace it to her sins, and above all to her rejection of Christ.
- The dregs — she drinks it to the bottom, with no child of hers able to guide or steady her. The discipline runs its full course before relief comes.
- The waking — "awake" here is moral, not resurrection. Jerusalem wakes only after the arm of the Lord wakes first, in a work that is spiritual, not just political.
- The exchange — God lifts the cup from her hand and puts it into the hands of her oppressors. At the cross Christ drained that same cup of trembling to hand His people the cup of salvation instead.
-- there is none to guide her among all the children that she hath brought forth; neither is there any to take her by the hand of all the children that she hath brought up.
Jerusalem staggers through her streets after drinking the cup of God's fury. Not one of the children she raised comes to take her arm — so who will steady her?
Verse 18 sits inside a call for Jerusalem to wake up and stand. One writer sets out the whole scene:
Next, the Spirit of God summons Jerusalem to arise and stand up. The description is vivid. She reels under the Lord's judgment without one of her sons to guide or help. Then He takes the cup from her hand — not here to drink it Himself, but to put it into the hands of their oppressors.
Her staggering is not from drink. One writer traces it to God's disciplinary dealings, and to the famine behind them:
So first of all, in the closing verses of Isaiah 51, we get an account of what these disciplinary dealings have done. Then comes the declaration that God will reverse the process, and punish those who inflicted judgment upon Israel. Their enemies' sword will have afflicted them, but so will famine, which comes from the hand of God. Under the affliction the passage pictures them as "drunk," but it adds, "not with wine."
Every family helper is closed off — the sons she bore, the sons she brought up. One writer links that emptiness to the moment God acts alone:
Here we are given a beautiful picture of Israel as they will be. When the Lord sees that there is no man, and wonders that there is no intercessor, then His own arm will bring salvation. Of all the sons that Zion has brought forth, none will guide her or take her by the hand; the nearest kinsman will fail in that day; counsel will have perished from the wise, and understanding from the prudent; in vain will salvation be looked for to the hills and to the multitudes of mountains.
The emptiness clears the stage: the only arm left is God's own.
One writer reads this helplessness as a state lasting generations, and names its cause:
The city had indeed suffered for her sins, and above all for her rejection of Christ. So she drank the cup of the fury of the LORD. With no one among her own children to guide her, her position for generations has been one of desolation, destruction, famine and the sword. Now the prophet looks on to the day when her sorrows will be over. God will take the cup of judgment from her lips and give it to those who have afflicted her and trampled her underfoot.
Commentators differ on where to place these verses in history, and one writer says so openly while giving his own reason for looking forward:
No wonder interpreters are much divided. Some apply these appeals and answers, rising in earnestness, to the past history of the Jews; others to the time of Christ's first coming. Neither fits the language of the Holy Spirit. He looks forward to the gradual progress of the Lord's dealings with the future remnant, and to His work in their souls as they rise from their degradation or grasp their calling.
The words of this verse also fit any moment when God's people find no leader at all. One writer answers that fear from the leaders God raised up in Israel's past:
To the eye of unbelief it looks as if there is no one left to guide them, no one to take them by the hand. Their condition looks hopeless, because the enemy has come in like a flood. At that very point the Spirit of the Lord sends out a chosen instrument to raise a banner against the advancing power of the enemy. Gideon, Jephthah, Samuel and David, and many more, are examples of this principle. It gives encouragement and hope to believers in every age who are cast down and despondent because of the corruption around them.
- Cup — her staggering is judgment, not wine. God's own disciplinary hand is behind it, with sword and famine.
- Emptiness — not one of the sons she bore or raised can take her hand. Every human helper is gone.
- Arm — when there is no man and no intercessor, God's own arm brings salvation; the emptiness is what makes room for Him.
- Reversal — the same hand that gave her the cup takes it from her lips and hands it to her oppressors.
- Hope — "none to guide" is the eye of unbelief speaking. At that very point God sends out a chosen instrument.
These two [things] are come unto thee; who will bemoan thee? -- desolation and destruction, and famine and sword how shall I comfort thee?
Isaiah 51 pictures Jerusalem staggering like someone who has drained a cup to the bottom — the cup of God's fury against her own sin. Into that scene the prophet drops two questions no one on earth can answer: who will grieve with her, and who can comfort her?
The verse sits inside a sequence of calls to wake up. Who is called first settles everything that follows.
The first call to wake up goes to the "Arm of the Lord" (verse 9), because everything depends on Him. When the hour strikes for Him to wake and put on strength, Jerusalem will wake too, as verse 17 shows, and the first verse of Isaiah 52 as well. That awakening will not be merely political or national. It will involve a deep spiritual work, as chapter 52 makes plain. And it will come only when Jerusalem has suffered the full weight of God's correcting government, having drained to the last drop the cup of His fury and of their trembling.
Sword and famine reach the city from two different hands. One writer separates them: enemies wield the sword, and famine comes from God Himself.
So first, in the closing verses of Isaiah 51, we get an account of the effect of these disciplinary dealings. Then comes the declaration of how God will reverse the process and punish those who inflicted judgment on Israel. But they will have suffered not only the sword of their enemies; there will also be famine, which comes from the hand of God. Under the affliction they are described as "drunk," and then comes the qualification, "not with wine."
The desolation is not random misfortune. It has a moral cause, and behind it lies a long history in which the city had no one of her own to lead her.
The city had indeed suffered for her sins, and above all for her rejection of Christ, and so had drunk the cup of the fury of the LORD. With no one among her own children to guide her, her position for generations has been one of desolation, destruction, famine and the sword.
"Who will comfort you?" is a real question, and the honest answer is nobody. One writer names the helpers Zion might look to and finds each one empty. That emptiness is where God's own work begins.
When the Lord sees that there is no man, when He wonders that there is no one to intercede, then His own arm will bring salvation. Of all the sons Zion has brought into the world, not one will guide her or take her by the hand. Her nearest relative will fail her in that day. The wise will have no counsel left, and the discerning no understanding. People will look to the hills and to the crowd of mountains for salvation, and look in vain.
The prophet does not leave the question hanging. Within a few verses God moves the cup from her hand into another's.
The call now reaches their true capital — Jerusalem. She had drunk deeply of the cup of confusion. Desolation and destruction, poverty and terrible distress had been hers. Now consolation and comfort will cheer her heart. The cup of confusion is taken out of her hand and given to her enemies, with fury added (vv. 17–23).
Commentators differ on when this scene belongs. One writer rules out both of the usual answers.
No wonder interpreters are so divided. They apply these appeals and answers, which grow more earnest as they go, either to the past history of the Jews or to the time of Christ's first coming. Neither fits the language of the Holy Spirit at all. He is looking forward to the gradual progress of Jehovah's dealings with the future remnant, and to His work in their souls as they rise out of their degradation or grasp their calling.
- Cause — The desolation is discipline, not accident. The city suffered for her sins, and above all for her rejection of Christ.
- Cup — Two blows fall from two hands: the sword of human enemies, and famine from God. She is "drunk, but not with wine."
- Comfortless — The question has no human answer. Of all the sons Zion raised, not one can guide her or take her hand; even her nearest relative fails.
- Comforter — Because there is no man, God's own arm brings salvation. The awakening of Jerusalem waits on the awakening of the Arm of the Lord.
- Change — The cup is not refilled but handed on. God takes it from her hand, gives it to those who trampled her, and puts comfort in its place.
Thy children have fainted, they lie at the head of all the streets, as an oryx in a net they are full of the fury of Jehovah, the rebuke of thy God.
Isaiah 51:20 sits inside a call to a city that has drained God's cup of fury. It shows what that cup has done to her people. Two questions follow: whose hand poured it, and does this misery ever end?
This verse sits inside a call for Jerusalem to wake up and stand, though she has no strength left. One writer traces the scene and shows where the cup ends up.
The Spirit of God next calls Jerusalem to arise and stand up. He gives a vivid description of her reeling under Jehovah's judgment, with not one of her sons to guide or help her. He describes too how He takes the cup out of her hand — not here to drink it Himself, but to put it into the hands of their oppressors.
Her sons lie trapped like a caught animal. Older translations call it "a wild bull," while the ESV reads "antelope." One reference work traces the Hebrew word behind it.
For "wild bull" in Isaiah 51:20 the word is to; and "wild ox" in Deuteronomy 14:5 is teo. Both of these are thought to refer to some large antelope, which could be caught in a strong net.
Why did this fall on the city? One commentator points back to what she had done, and to how long the result has lasted.
The city had indeed suffered for her sins, and above all for her rejection of Christ, and so had drunk of the cup of the fury of the LORD. With no one among her own children to guide, her position for generations has been one of desolation, destruction, the famine and the sword.
The wrath filling her sons is the LORD's own. So the awakening this chapter calls for waits on Him.
The awakening will not be political or national only. It will involve a deep spiritual work... And it will come only when Jerusalem has suffered to the full the chastising government of God, having drunk to the dregs the cup of His fury and of their trembling.
The same writer looks at what afflicted them, and at how the prophet pictures them under it.
They will have suffered not only the sword of their enemies but also famine, which comes from the hand of God. Under the affliction the prophet calls them "drunken," but adds, "not with wine."
One writer points to something the prophecy itself settles.
Whatever the time when this prophecy is fulfilled, the prophecy itself clearly indicates a set limit beyond which Jerusalem's desolations will not continue. A moment is coming when it can be said "that her warfare is accomplished," and her iniquity forgiven.
In this chapter God hands the cup on to Jerusalem's oppressors. One writer follows the same cup to the cross.
The Prince of Life took the cup of wrath — the cup of trembling — from Jehovah's righteous hand, and drained it to the dregs. He did it so that He might put into the hands of His people the cup of salvation, the cup of God's indescribable love, that they might drink and forget their poverty, and remember their misery no more.
Commentators differ over the period in view. One writer weighs the two usual answers and rejects both.
It is no wonder that interpreters are much divided. Some apply these appeals and answers of increasing earnestness to the past history of the Jews; others apply them to the time of the first coming. Neither fits the language of the Holy Spirit at all. He really looks forward to the gradual progress of Jehovah's dealings with the future remnant, and to His work in their souls as they rise from their degradation.
- The cup — her sons lie in the streets under the LORD's wrath. This suffering comes from God's chastening hand, not just from enemy armies.
- The cause — the city drank this cup for her sins, and above all for her rejection of Christ.
- The net — the word older translations render "wild bull" points to a large antelope, which a strong net could catch.
- The limit — the prophecy itself fixes a boundary. Her desolations end when her warfare is finished and her iniquity forgiven.
- The exchange — here the cup passes to her oppressors. At the cross the Prince of Life drained it, so He could hand His people the cup of salvation instead.
Therefore hear now this, thou afflicted, and drunken, but not with wine
Jerusalem is at her lowest point here — staggering, but not from drink. The word "therefore" marks a turn, and raises two questions: why God brought her to this, and who it is that now speaks.
The passage moves from a summons, to a picture of collapse, to a reversal. Watch what God does with the cup once He lifts it from her:
Next, the Spirit of God summons Jerusalem to arise and stand up. The description is vivid: she reels under Jehovah's judgement, with not one of her sons to guide or help her. Then He takes the cup out of her hand — not here to drink it Himself, but to put it into the hands of their oppressors.
The staggering is real, but wine is not the cause. The troubles behind it are solid, and one of them comes straight from God's hand:
There will have been not only the sword of their enemies afflicting them but also famine, which comes from the hand of God. Under the affliction the prophet calls them "drunken," but adds, "not with wine." When the Arm of the Lord awakes on their behalf, the hour of their deliverance will strike, and He will take the "cup of trembling" out of their hands and put it into the hands of their oppressors.
She is afflicted, but she is not innocent. There is a reason she drank, and a point where the drinking stops:
The city had indeed suffered for her sins, and above all for her rejection of Christ, and so drank the cup of the fury of the LORD. With no one among her own children to guide her, she has lived for generations in desolation, destruction, famine and sword. Now the prophet looks on to the day when her sorrows will be over. Then the cup of judgment will pass from her lips to those who have afflicted her and trampled her underfoot.
She had no son left to steady her. But the God who calls her to stand had already taken up her case:
He calls on Jerusalem to stand up on this ground: when she had no sons able to comfort her, He had pleaded her cause.
The cup goes by several names, and it has an opposite. That opposite, not this cup, is what belongs to the Messiah now:
The wine cup, the cup of trembling, the cup of His fury, the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath — these are various titles of the same cup. That cup is the emblem of divine judgments, like the bowls of Revelation 16. The cup of salvation, on the other hand, expresses the joy of the kingdom… The cup of anger is for their hand, the cup of salvation for His. He did once take the cup of sorrows, the cup of Gethsemane, for us poor sinners. But what remains for Him now is the cup of praise, the joy of the kingdom, while the powers of the earth that have turned away from God wring out the dregs of the cup of fury.
The call to "awake" is more than a change of fortune, and it has a fixed time:
The awakening that comes will not be only political or national. It will involve a deep spiritual work, as chapter 52 makes plain. It will come only when Jerusalem has suffered to the full the chastising government of God, having drunk the cup of His fury and of their trembling down to the dregs.
- Cup given. Jerusalem staggers from famine, sword and God's own discipline — she is "drunk, but not with wine."
- Cup drained. Her suffering had a cause in her own sins, and a limit: she drinks to the dregs, and then no further.
- Cause pleaded. With no son left to steady her, her God Himself takes up her case — He speaks as her advocate, not only as her judge.
- Cup transferred. He does not drink this cup Himself here; He lifts it from her hand and places it in the hand of those who trod her down.
- City raised. The awakening that follows is not political only; it is a deep spiritual work inside the people.
thus saith thy Lord, Jehovah, and thy God, who pleadeth the cause of his people, Behold, I take out of thy hand the cup of bewilderment, the goblet-cup of my fury; thou shalt no more drink it again
Jerusalem lies stunned in the dust. She has drunk a cup from God's own hand, and not one of her sons can lift her up. Then the God who gave her that cup speaks — now as the One who pleads the cause of His people — and He takes it away.
The cup has several names in Scripture. Older Bibles call it the "cup of trembling"; the ESV calls it the "cup of staggering."
The wine cup, the cup of trembling, the cup of His fury, the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath — these are various titles of the same cup. That cup is the symbol of divine judgments, like the bowls of Revelation 16. The cup of salvation, on the other hand, expresses the joy of the kingdom.
Why did she have to drink at all? Commentators trace her long ruin to real guilt, not to bad luck.
The city had indeed suffered for her sins, and above all for her rejection of Christ. So she drank of the cup of the fury of the LORD. No one among her own children was left to guide her. For generations her position has been one of desolation, destruction, famine and the sword. Now the prophet looks on to the day when her sorrows will be over. Then the cup of judgment will be taken from her lips. It will become the portion of those who have afflicted her and trodden her under foot.
The hand that held out the cup now takes it back. And the cup does not simply vanish — it changes hands.
Next, the Spirit of God calls Jerusalem to arise and stand up. He gives a vivid description of her reeling under Jehovah's judgment, with not one of her sons to guide or help. He describes too how He takes the cup out of her hand — not here to drink it Himself, but to put it into the hands of their oppressors.
The promise is not that the suffering was light, but that it had an end fixed by God. Writing on Lamentations, one commentator puts the two halves together — the full draining and the final "never again."
The cup of God's wrath will pass on to Edom, who was rejoicing in the ruin of the city of Jehovah. As to Zion, she has doubtless drunk this cup to the dregs; but if she has done so, it was in order that she might drink of it no more. The punishment of her iniquity is accomplished.
One writer gathered passages like this one to show that Israel's ruin has a set end.
Many of these passages, like those already considered, predict the transfer of these calamities to their enemies… Whatever period the fulfilment of this prophecy may belong to, the prophecy itself clearly shows that there is a defined limit beyond which Jerusalem's desolations are not to continue.
Commentators see the same picture at the cross. There the cup changed hands again.
The Prince of Life took the cup of wrath — the cup of trembling — from Jehovah's righteous hand, and drained it to the dregs. He did this so that He might put into the hands of His people the cup of salvation, the cup of God's indescribable love. They could then drink, and forget their poverty, and remember their misery no more.
Commentators differ over the timing. Some tie the words to Jerusalem's past sufferings. Some tie them to the first coming of Christ. Others look to a remnant still ahead.
It is no wonder that interpreters are much divided. Some apply these appeals and answers of increasing earnestness to the past history of the Jews; others apply them to the time of Christ's first coming. Neither view matches the language of the Holy Spirit at all. He is in fact looking forward to the gradual progress of Jehovah's dealings with the future remnant, and to His work in their souls as they rise from their degradation or grasp their calling.
- Cup — staggering, fury, wrath — many names for one cup, the picture of God's judgment. Its opposite is the cup of salvation, the joy of His kingdom.
- Cause — Jerusalem drank for her sins, and above all for her rejection of Christ. Desolation, famine and sword were the contents of the cup.
- Limit — she drained it to the dregs so that she would never drink it again. God fixed a limit to her desolations.
- Transfer — God does not empty the cup here. He moves it from the afflicted city to the hands of those who afflicted her.
- Exchange — at the cross Christ drained the cup of wrath, and put the cup of salvation into His people's hands instead.
and I will put it into the hand of them that afflict thee; who have said to thy soul, Bow down, that we may go over; and thou hast laid thy body as the ground, and as the street to them that went over.
Isaiah 51 ends with Jerusalem staggering like a drunk woman, drained by a cup God Himself gave her. In the last verse He hands that cup to the tormentors who walked over her back, which raises two questions: who set the limit to her suffering, and on what ground can the God who poured the cup take it away?
The chapter has already called on the arm of the Lord to wake up. Then the summons turns around and lands on Zion.
The Spirit turns to Zion. "Awake! awake!" had been said to the arm of the Lord; now the same call is made to Zion herself, crushed and trampled underfoot by strangers. It is as if to say that Zion was the one who needed to wake up, not the Lord, for the salvation was already there. The cup will now be given to those who afflicted her.
The same cup appears under several names, and it has an opposite.
The wine cup, the cup of trembling, the cup of His fury, the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath — these are all names for the same cup. That cup is the symbol of God's judgments, like the bowls of Revelation 16. The cup of salvation, on the other hand, stands for the joy of the kingdom.
Her enemies trampled her, but the cup came from a higher hand. The same hand lifts it away.
Next, the Spirit of God calls Jerusalem to get up and stand. There is a vivid picture of her staggering under the Lord's judgment, with not one of her sons to guide or help her. Then He takes the cup out of her hand — not here to drink it Himself, but to put it into the hands of their oppressors.
God turns her treatment back on those who dealt it out. And more than the sword had struck her.
So first, in the closing verses of Isaiah 51, we are told what these disciplinary dealings did to Israel. Then comes the declaration that God will reverse the process and punish those who inflicted judgment on Israel. But they will have suffered not only the sword of their enemies; there is also famine, which comes from the hand of God. Under the affliction they are pictured as drunk, but the words are added, "not with wine."
This verse sits among many Old Testament promises that limit Israel's troubles and turn them back on her enemies.
Let me set before my readers many passages from the Old Testament which plainly declare that God has put limits on how long Israel's troubles will last. Many of them, like those already considered, predict that these troubles will be passed on to Israel's enemies… These are only a few out of many passages that testify to two points. First, Israel's overthrow and rejection are limited in how long they last. Second, when Israel stops suffering the blows of God's wrath, those blows will fall on the very people who have been the rod in His hand to discipline His people Israel.
Once the cup leaves her hand, the city that staggered becomes the thing that makes others stagger.
God will take the cup of trembling out of Jerusalem's hands and place it in the hands of those who afflict her (Isaiah 51:22-23). She herself will become a cup of trembling to all the nations around her (Zechariah 12). The destruction of His people's enemies will make His fame known, and the glory of the God of Israel, to the nations that are spared. They will then bow before the royal rule of His Christ.
Why does the wrath end at all? One writer traces the answer to Christ.
The wrath will not stay on them, because Christ has drunk the true cup of it. But they must come to understand that wrath as people under the law, because they had been under the law.
- The cup is God's. The wine cup, the cup of trembling and the cup of His fury are names for one thing: the symbol of God's judgments. Its opposite is the cup of salvation.
- The cup was handed to her. Her enemies trampled her, but the Lord gave her the drink. So the Lord is the one who can take it out of her hand.
- The cup changes hands. God reverses the process and punishes those who inflicted judgment on Israel. The city that staggered becomes a cup of trembling to the nations around her.
- The cup has an end. God has set a limit beyond which Jerusalem's ruin will not continue. Her troubles then fall on the oppressors who were the rod in His hand.
- The cup was drained by Another. The wrath does not come back on her, because Christ drank the true cup of it. And the city, not the Lord, is the one told to wake up — the salvation was already there.
Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, Jerusalem, the holy city for henceforth there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean.
After long chapters of comfort, God calls a city that lies in the dust under His judgment to wake up. Two questions follow: who needs to wake, and what are the "beautiful garments" a ruined city must put on?
This verse does not stand alone. It closes a run of appeals, and each one speaks to a different hearer. One writer traces the order.
Isaiah 51–52:12 apply the truth to the people of God, or at least to the godly remnant of the future, taken strictly as prophecy. First comes a triple call. "Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness" (vv. 1–3). "Give attention to me, my people" (vv. 4–6). "Listen to me, you who know righteousness" (vv. 7–8). These calls show spiritual progress. Then follow three more calls. First, "Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD" (vv. 9–16), a call for God Himself to step in. Next comes "Rouse yourself, rouse yourself, stand up, O Jerusalem" (vv. 17–23), spoken to the city of God's choice. Then comes a final "Awake, awake, put on your strength, O Zion."
The same call had just gone up to God's own arm. Now it comes back the other way. One writer draws out the reversal.
He who neither slumbers nor sleeps has His power right there. Zion has now been awakened to know it, and He calls on Zion to awake, for all was mercy now. She is to awake and clothe herself with beauty and glory, as Babylon had to come down and strip off her false glory... It was not for Jerusalem to cry out something that would wake the Lord. It was for her to awake.
This waking is not a national recovery of confidence. It comes only after God's discipline has done its full work.
The awakening that comes will not be only political or national. It will involve a deep spiritual work, as chapter 52 makes plain. It will only come when Jerusalem has suffered God's chastening rule to the full. She will have drunk to the last drop the cup of His fury and of their trembling.
God tells Zion to dress herself, yet she owns nothing fit to wear. One writer compares the moment to Ruth, the widow who laid aside her mourning clothes to present herself as a bride to Boaz.
So too the remnant will lay aside their hopelessness. Washed by the Spirit and the Word, they will dress themselves in a beauty that is not their own. They will claim in faith the One whose mercy they have tasted. They will have learned of Him who gives "a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit."
Calling Jerusalem "the holy city" is a promise, not a description of what she has been. The verse also promises that nothing unclean will come into her again. One writer traces that promise back to a price.
The language here is a picture, but its meaning is clear. At last holiness will mark the city, and everything that defiles will be outside. It will be like a resurrection from the dust of death, and a release from the bands of captivity. They had sold themselves by their idolatry and sin, and gained nothing by it. Now they are to know redemption. It will not come by a money payment, as it did in the days of slavery. The price of their redemption is unfolded when we come to Isaiah 53.
Readers often take "Zion" as another name for the church. One writer rules that out.
In these prophecies of Israel's coming exaltation, Zion stands for the seat of the Messiah's royal power on earth... In Scripture Zion never means the church. It always means blessing on earth, and it belongs above all to Israel, since the final blessing of the nations will come through Israel. Still, Christians now enter into its spiritual meaning, since they live under the reign of grace here on earth.
That spiritual meaning is where the verse touches a believer today. One writer hears the same call and answer whenever God's people feel their own weakness.
So we feel our present low state and our weakness. We call to mind former days, and we cry, "O LORD, will You not revive us again as in the early days?" God's reply comes back: "Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you."
- Sequence — Three calls run in order: to God's arm, to Jerusalem, then to Zion. God's arm moves first, and the rest follows.
- Reversal — God never slept. Zion did. She does not have to wake Him. He wakes her, and everything now is mercy.
- Cost — God calls her out of captivity, but no money buys her freedom. Isaiah 53 names the price.
- Clothing — The garments are real beauty, but never her own. She wears what He gives her: praise instead of a faint spirit.
- Reach — In Scripture Zion means blessing on earth through Israel, not the church. Yet the call to wake still reaches every sleeping believer.
Shake thyself from the dust; arise, sit down, Jerusalem loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, captive daughter of Zion.
The prophet turns from Egypt and Assyria to the city itself, and tells a beaten people sitting in the dust to get up and untie their own ropes. That last command raises the hard question the commentators take up: how can a captive free herself?
The call to wake up sounds more than once in these chapters, and it does not always address the same one.
Isaiah 51 and 52, to the end of verse 12, apply to the remnant of Israel… With the remnant encouraged, the Spirit turns to Zion. The same cry, "Awake! awake!", first went up to the arm of Jehovah; now it goes to Zion herself.
One writer reads the dust as death and the bonds as slavery, then asks how the captives got there and what their release will cost.
The language is figurative but quite clear in its meaning. At last holiness will mark the city and everything that defiles will be outside. It will be like a resurrection from the dust of death, and a release from the bonds of captivity. They had sold themselves by their idolatry and sin, and gained nothing by it. Now they are to know redemption, but not by a money payment, the way slaves were bought in those days. Isaiah 53 unfolds the price of their redemption.
Scripture had described Israel's neck long before this verse spoke of loosing it. One writer sets the old condition beside the new.
We read of Israel as a stubborn, stiff-necked people — as having the yoke of their sin wrapped around the neck — and as walking shamelessly with necks stretched out. Such pictures show a sad moral condition. But now, through the Lord's grace, the change is complete — the triumphs of His love are perfect. Grace breaks the yoke of transgression off the neck of the daughter of Zion. Instead of being stubborn as iron, that neck is graceful, beautiful and noble, like the tower of David.
This release is final. One writer points out what becomes of the old oppressors.
The days of Egypt and of Assyria should never return: no more would the oppressor be known. Jehovah's people shall know His name — Himself as revealed in it. He is as unchangeable in His mercy to them as in His own being.
A restoration did come. One writer held it up against this verse and found the promise still outstanding.
What a witness of degradation! What a sign indeed, that the restoration was not glory! Jerusalem is still trodden down; the times of the Gentiles are still unfulfilled. Surely the daughter of Zion has not arisen. She has not shaken herself from the dust, or put on her strength and her beautiful garments.
The command sounds like self-rescue. One writer answers with the picture of a widow preparing herself for a wedding.
Ruth is now to lay aside the clothes of her widowhood, washing and anointing herself, and so present herself as a bride to Boaz. In the same way the remnant will lay aside their hopelessness. Washed by the Spirit and the Word, they will clothe themselves in a beauty not their own, claiming in faith Him whose mercy they have tasted.
Many readers want to apply the verse to themselves. One reference work explains the title used in the verse and how far the promise reaches.
The favoured people of God are often called daughters of Zion. The prophets address Israel this way again and again — either to blame them for their waywardness and punish them, or to cheer them with the prospect of future prosperity. In these prophecies of their coming exaltation, Zion stands as the seat of the Messiah's royal power on earth. In Scripture Zion never means the church. It always signifies blessing on earth, and it is connected above all with Israel, in the day when the ultimate blessing of the nations will come through Israel. Still, Christians now enter into its spiritual meaning, since they live under the reign of grace here on earth.
- Sold — Israel sold herself by idolatry and sin, and gained nothing. The dust and the bonds show what that sale produced.
- Redeemed — no money buys this release, the way money bought slaves in those days. Isaiah 53 unfolds the price.
- Raised — the call pictures a resurrection from the dust of death and a release from captivity. Everything that defiles stays outside the city.
- Loosed — grace breaks the yoke of transgression off a neck that was once stiff. Egypt and Assyria never return to bind it again.
- Awaiting — the restored city never matched this description. The daughter of Zion has not yet arisen, so the call still looks ahead to Messiah's reign on earth.
For thus saith Jehovah Ye have sold yourselves for nought, and ye shall be redeemed without money.
Isaiah 52 calls a captive city to wake up, stand, and shake off the dust — and verse 3 explains why she can. The verse sets two "nothings" side by side. Israel gained nothing by going into slavery, and God will charge nothing to bring her out.
The ESV says "You were sold for nothing." Older translations read, "You have sold yourselves for nothing," and several writers below use that older wording. Either way, the captivity was no accident from outside. Israel handed herself over, and got nothing for it.
It will be like a resurrection from the dust of death, and a release from the chains of captivity. They had sold themselves by their idolatry and sin, and gained nothing by it. Now they are to know redemption, but not by a money payment, as was customary in the days of slavery. The price of their redemption is unfolded when we come to Isaiah 53.
Two chapters earlier God asks the same question from His side. He never sold them to settle a debt of His own, because He owed nothing to anyone.
"Thus says the LORD: Where is your mother's certificate of divorce, with which I sent her away? Or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities you have sold yourselves, and for your transgressions your mother was sent away" (Isaiah 50:1). This was no hard-hearted man, taking a miserable pleasure in sending away a wife who displeased him. This was no selfish parent, meeting his own needs at his children's expense.
The Greek word for "sold" links Isaiah to Paul — and it puts every reader in the picture.
In Romans 7:14 the "wretched man" cries out, "I am of the flesh, sold under sin." The Greek word used here for "sold" is piprasko, and when used with a person it means "to sell into slavery." In the Greek Old Testament it is used figuratively of selling oneself to sin. See Ahab in 1 Kings 21:20, 25; also 2 Kings 17:17, Isaiah 50:1 and 52:3. So Paul may have had these in mind when he cried in desperation, "I am sold under sin." But this is not only the apostle Paul's experience. It is the condition of us all, though we may only discover it when the light of the gospel shines on our fallen state.
Israel's law held two kinds of release. A close relative could buy a person back. The Jubilee set people free with no price at all.
These two ordinances seem to set out the mystery I am speaking of — redemption by money and redemption by power. The kinsman might redeem with money. The Jubilee would redeem without money, by its own right, by that force or authority given to it by Him who was the God of Israel and the Lord of the land.
"Without money" does not mean without cost. The next chapter shows what took the place of silver.
It is perhaps to this scripture that Peter referred when he wrote, "You were ransomed... not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot" (1 Peter 1:18-19). Isaiah 52 speaks of our being "redeemed without money." Isaiah 53 speaks of the One who "had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth." Yet He went "like a lamb that is led to the slaughter" for our redemption.
This promise still waits for Israel. The heart changes first, and the land follows.
When God sets His hand to this great work, He will bring about a change of heart in His elect ones, and they will recognise their Kinsman-Redeemer. He will own them again when their national pride has given place to brokenness of spirit and humble repentance for their own sinfulness and the blindness of their fathers. Though they have sold themselves for nothing, they shall be redeemed without money, and the land that is Immanuel's shall be given to them by His own decree. Then they will lift up their heads and boast, not in the wisdom of their intellectual leaders, or the riches of their financiers, or the might of any power that has favoured them. They will glory in this, that they understand and know Me.
- Sold — the chains were self-made. They sold themselves through idolatry and sin, and gained nothing by the trade.
- Nothing — God names no creditor. Nobody can demand a payment back, and the whole loss was theirs.
- Slavery — Isaiah's word for "sold" stands behind Paul's "sold under sin." The gospel shows it is everyone's condition.
- Redeemed — release comes the way the Jubilee came. The Lord of the land frees by His own authority, not by a price.
- Without money — free to us, never cheap. Isaiah 53 names the cost: the precious blood of Christ, not silver or gold.
For thus saith the Lord Jehovah My people went down at the first into Egypt to sojourn there, and Assyria oppressed them without cause;
God answers a captive Jerusalem with her own history: Egypt at the start of the nation's story, then an Assyrian oppressor long after. The verse opens with "For", so both belong to the rescue He has just promised.
The verse names Egypt first and Assyria after. One writer reads the two as one long story, not two separate events:
Isaiah 52:4 views Assyria as an oppressor. What began in Egypt, with the king who did not know Joseph, the Assyrian carried on. It is worth noting that nearly all the Scriptures on this subject speak of the king of Assyria, or of the Assyrian. The ruler of Assyria is God's instrument of judgment, and he is the one who will be broken and destroyed.
These two words carry the weight of the verse. Whatever charge God had against His people, the oppressor had no excuse — and what he did shaped what God does next:
If God had a controversy with His people, that was no excuse for the Assyrian. He oppressed them without cause (52:4). He took them "away for nothing." He made them howl while he ruled over them, and so he blasphemed the Name of the Lord (verse 5). Because of this, and apart from His own purpose concerning His people Israel, God will send salvation to Israel. He will bring gladness to Jerusalem and Zion (verses 6-10).
These two names also point forward. One writer links them to two powers named in a later prophecy:
In verse 4, Egypt and Assyria are mentioned. In Daniel 11, these appear as "the king of the south" and "the king of the north." At the present time these two powers are coming into prominence. God takes note of them, and He will redeem Israel from them; but only when the prediction of verse 6 comes to pass.
The promise behind this verse is that a people sold for nothing will be bought back without money. One writer shows where that free release comes from:
These striking chapters are full of promises of a coming redemption by the avenging might of God. Yet in the middle of them we get a most remarkable prediction. It concerns the far deeper matter of redemption through the death of Christ. We read, "You were sold for nothing, and you shall be redeemed without money" (Isa. 52:3). Then comes the heart-moving chapter that pictures the blessed Servant of Jehovah as the suffering, dying One. Jehovah Himself makes His soul an offering for sin.
Both oppressions belong to the past. What comes after them is more than quiet:
The days of Egypt and of Assyria should never return: the oppressor should be known no more. Jehovah's people shall know His name — that is, they shall know Him as His name reveals Him. He is as unchangeable in His mercy to them as in His own being.
The story does not end with the oppressors broken. The same two nations named in this verse have a future beyond judgment:
Assyria and Egypt are the two nations that have had most to do with Israel. Both will come under the hand of God in judgment. Yet in the end He will bring them into blessing. Isaiah 19:23-25 teaches this plainly.
- First Egypt. The verse starts where the nation's suffering started — a stay in Egypt under a king who did not know Joseph.
- Then Assyria. The same oppression continued under Assyria. God used that ruler as His instrument of judgment, and he in turn will be broken.
- For nothing. Any quarrel God had with His people gave the oppressor no excuse. His cruelty brought blasphemy on God's name, and that is why salvation comes.
- Without money. A people sold for nothing are bought back without money. The price appears in the next chapter, in the Servant who dies.
- Never again. Egypt and Assyria will oppress no more. God's people will know His name, and even those two nations end in blessing.
and now, what have I here, saith Jehovah, that my people hath been taken away for nought? They that rule over them make them to howl, saith Jehovah; and continually all the day is my name scorned.
God speaks here as one who has been robbed. Foreign powers took His people for nothing, their rulers make them cry out, and men mock His name all day long. Two questions follow. Who is to blame for the dishonour done to God's name? And what will He do about it?
God had a quarrel with His people. But the nation that oppressed them could not use that as cover:
If God had a controversy with His people, that was no excuse for the Assyrian. He had no right to oppress them without cause (52:4), to take them away for nothing, or to make them cry out while ruling over them, and so blaspheme the Name of the Lord (verse 5). Because of this, and apart from His own purpose for His people Israel, God will send salvation to Israel. He will bring gladness to Jerusalem and Zion (verses 6–10).
The verse before names Egypt and Assyria, the two powers that held the nation down. Isaiah looks ahead to a day when neither of them is a threat.
Deliverance is promised. In view of it, the godly remnant appeal to Zion for the third time to "awake." She is to come out in all her glory, and shine in the beauty of holiness. No more will the unclean nations besiege the city. Never again will Egypt or Assyria — the southern and northern nations — oppress the city without cause. Never again will they make God's people cry out in misery and blaspheme God's Name.
The blasphemy has two sources, and the second is the more painful. Paul reaches for this verse when he strips away Jewish confidence in Romans 2, and one commentator draws out how the prophet's words cut both ways:
Who, then, dishonoured God more strikingly? Was it not written even more strongly still in their own prophets? What did Isaiah say (Isa. 52:5)? And what did Ezekiel say (Ezek. 36:20-23)? No doubt their foreign lords made them cry out. But was it not true that Israel profaned Jehovah's holy name among the nations wherever they went?
Once Paul lifts the sentence out of Isaiah, it stops being ancient history. It becomes a test that any religious people can fail, including those who carry the name of Christ.
The Apostle sums up the result in one solemn statement. The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through the religious man. The Apostle is speaking of the Jew; but what he says is equally true of the professing Christian. Mostly it is the corruptions and the degraded practices of professing Christendom that have made unbelievers blaspheme. Men would not have become Christians simply because Christians were consistent in practice. But if Christians were true in practice to what they profess, men would have no occasion to blaspheme God.
Verse 5 ends in dishonour; verse 6 begins with "therefore." The remedy for a slandered name is that the name will finally be known by the very people through whom it was slandered.
The days of Egypt and of Assyria will never return: the oppressor will be known no more. Jehovah's people will know His name — that is, they will know Himself as the name reveals Him. He is as unchangeable in His mercy to them as He is in His own being.
That knowing is personal. The name they come to know belongs to the One they once refused. Here the writer quotes verse 6 from an older translation:
Isaiah predicts what will happen at His second coming. Israel will discover that the rejected and despised One is Jehovah. "Therefore My people shall know My Name, therefore they shall know that I am He" (52:6). The words "I am He" (Ani Hu) are a divine Name. Our Lord used it when He said "I am" to the woman at the well, and again to the group in the garden of Gethsemane.
- The wrong. The Assyrian oppressed Israel without cause. God's discipline of His people gave the oppressor no excuse.
- The dishonour. The oppressors did more than crush the people. Their rule left God's Name mocked all day long.
- The indictment. Paul turns this verse on Israel itself. Foreign lords made them cry out — but Israel profaned that holy Name among the nations wherever they went.
- The mirror. The charge follows religious profession wherever it goes. If those who profess Christ lived what they claim, no one would have cause to mock God's name.
- The answer. God's reply to a slandered Name is to make it known. The oppressor disappears, and the people learn that the One they rejected says "I am He."
Therefore my people shall know my name; therefore [they shall know] in that day that I [am] HE, that saith, Here am I.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that announceth glad tidings, that publisheth peace; that announceth glad tidings of good, that publisheth salvation, that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!
Isaiah 52 speaks to a ruined Jerusalem. Verse 7 pictures a messenger on the hills bringing news to that city, and it raises two questions: whose feet are these, and has the announcement already come?
The verse answers a call given earlier in Isaiah. It also changes the job of the watchmen on Jerusalem's walls.
Beautiful then in their eyes, as in His, are the feet of him who brings good news and publishes peace. Earlier (Isaiah 40:9) the cities of Judah were told, "Behold your God!" Now Zion hears, "Your God reigns!" The watchmen lift up their voice and sing instead of warning. The ruins of Jerusalem, forsaken so long, sing together with joy they cannot hold back.
One test settles the question: did history ever match the promise?
These words came in connection with Babylon's overthrow, but their wider application and meaning is future. The overthrow of Babylon and Nineveh did not result in the glorious things spoken of by Isaiah and Nahum. At that time the ends of the earth did not see the salvation of God. Jerusalem was not redeemed, and God was not enthroned as King in Zion. It is all yet to come. When that day comes, the messengers will go out from Jerusalem and declare the good news to the nations of the world. The good news of the kingdom will be announced far and wide at the start of the thousand-year reign. Then the lasting, abundant peace will come, so that all the nations see the salvation of the God of Israel.
One word shifts when Paul takes the verse up in Romans.
Though Romans 10:15 speaks of "the feet of THEM," Isaiah 52:7, which Paul is quoting there, speaks of "the feet of HIM."
That one Messenger has already walked the earth.
Isaiah 52:7 had a fulfilment when our Lord stepped into public service, at about thirty years of age. In the Gospels we see how beautiful His feet were as He walked the land of Israel preaching the gospel of the kingdom. Did He not say in the synagogue at Nazareth, "Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing" (Luke 4:21)? And what Scripture was this? Just what Isaiah had prophesied seven centuries before.
Between the singing of chapter 52 and the singing of chapter 54 stands Isaiah 53. Its placement explains the joy.
Note carefully that between these two chapters we have perhaps the best-known chapter in the Old Testament — Isaiah 53. The position of this chapter between Isaiah 52 and 54 gives the key to all the rejoicing of God's people.
When Paul quotes this verse in Romans, he stops before the last clause.
The apostle does not quote the last clause of the verse: "who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, 'Your God reigns.'" For in truth, taking prophecy in its plain sense, the very opposite has been seen from that day to this. Days of vengeance were near for that Christ-rejecting generation, not days of salvation for the holy city. And Jerusalem is still trampled down by the nations until the times of the nations are fulfilled. But the joyful news must surely come, for the mouth of Jehovah has spoken it. No dust on their feet can make them anything but beautiful, because of the good news they carry.
Paul's plural draws ordinary messengers in. The beauty is not their own.
We see beauty in its perfection in Christ as He publishes peace (Isaiah 52:7; Nahum 1:15). We see that same beauty, in measure, in the movements of believers who are sent by the Lord and who love to preach the gospel of peace in a world disturbed by sin (Romans 10).
What believers announce now runs ahead of Israel's coming day, and it carries its own motive.
The apostle shows that in this, as in so many other things, the gospel gives us now, in advance, what repentant and restored Israel will receive from God in the coming day. And grace, as we know it in Christ, gives the deepest motives for spreading the good news earnestly.
- Ruin. The message comes to a Jerusalem in ruins, forsaken for so long. Good news is beautiful because the case was desperate.
- Message. The news is peace, good, salvation and a King. "Behold your God" becomes "Your God reigns," and the watchmen stop warning and start singing.
- Messenger. Isaiah says "the feet of him" — one Messenger. Writers identify Him with Christ, who read Isaiah aloud at Nazareth and said it was fulfilled that day.
- Cost. Isaiah 53 stands between the two songs of joy, and its place there is the key to all the rejoicing of God's people.
- Reach. Paul stops his quotation before "Your God reigns" and leaves that clause for a day still ahead. He applies the rest in the plural, so the beauty now belongs to everyone sent to publish peace.
-- The voice of thy watchmen, they lift up the voice, they sing aloud together; for they shall see eye to eye, when Jehovah shall bring again Zion.
In Isaiah 52 a runner reaches the mountains with news that God reigns. The city's lookouts hear it. It raises three questions: why the watchmen sing instead of warning, what "eye to eye" means, and when this song happens.
A watchman's voice normally warns of danger. Here it does something else.
Watchmen usually lift up the voice to warn. Now it will be to sing. There will be no disharmony, for they will agree in what they see. And indeed the joyful song will be everywhere. It will break out even in the "waste places of Jerusalem." It will be a song based on the redemption the Lord has accomplished for them.
The message to Zion has moved on from the one given earlier in the book.
Earlier (Isaiah 40:9) the word to the cities of Judah was, "Behold your God." Now Zion hears, "Your God reigns!" The watchmen lift up their voice. They sing; they do not warn. The wastes of Jerusalem, forsaken so long, sing together in joy they cannot hold back.
They sing together because they see eye to eye. Agreement follows sight, and what they see is the Lord returning to Zion.
The good news will sound out far and wide. The word about Zion will be, "Your God reigns." Then at last the nation will be restored. Israel and Judah will sing together, for they shall see eye to eye. But all this blessing will be wholly the work of the LORD, for it will be "when the LORD shall bring again Zion."
Commentators agree that this has not happened yet. One of them also gives the reason.
No — the watchmen of Jerusalem cannot yet raise their voice or sing together. Jerusalem is still in the hands of the cruel enemy, and the hearts of the Jews are still under a tyrant more deadly still. But they shall see eye to eye when Jehovah restores Zion. After ages of ruin, the waste places of Jerusalem will burst out and sing together. … Zion remains in the hands of the stranger because Zion's sons did not receive their divine King. They killed Him on the cross by the hands of lawless outsiders whom they could sway to join them in that fatal deed. Out of that deed God has caused the richest mercy to shine for both, if they will only heed His message.
The New Testament handles this passage in a striking way. Paul takes up verse 7 in Romans 10, but he stops before the words about Zion.
Look also at Romans 10:15. It quotes Isaiah 52: "As it is written, 'How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!'" Now, why does the Apostle stop there in the middle of the sentence and leave out what follows? The reason is clear. The next words are, "who says to Zion, 'Your God reigns.'" They cannot be fulfilled yet. They wait for the Lord Jesus to take His rightful place as Son of David and to reign in glory before His elders as King of Israel.
This verse also speaks to believers now. It names the one condition under which people sing as one.
We can sing together only in His presence, with every heart taken up with Himself. That is what the prophet says: "With the voice together shall they sing; for they shall see eye to eye." Only when every eye rests on Him shall we see eye to eye. Away from His presence we are easily offended because of Christ, and offended with one another. Offended saints will soon part company and become scattered sheep.
Another writer sees the same failure in the world today. Men "do not see eye to eye" because ambition, selfishness and greed set them against each other. Real unity comes only when grace enters the human heart (A. J. Pollock).
The watchmen are not the last to hear. The joy keeps travelling outward.
His Israel on the earth shall see "eye to eye." The light and the joy of Zion's salvation will travel with holy speed. It will pass from the messengers on the mountains to the watchmen of the city, from them to the people, and from the people to the nations.
- Sight first. They sing together because they see together. Unity here is a result, never the starting point.
- One object. What they see is the Lord returning to Zion — every eye on the same Person is what makes one voice possible.
- His work. The whole scene waits on the LORD returning to Zion. The restoration is His doing, not the watchmen's.
- Not yet. Zion's sons rejected their King, so the song still waits. Paul quotes verse 7 and stops short of the reign in Zion.
- Then outward. From messengers to watchmen, to the people, to the nations — the song that starts with a few messengers ends among the nations.
Break forth, sing aloud together, waste places of Jerusalem; for Jehovah comforteth his people, he hath redeemed Jerusalem.
Isaiah tells ruins to sing, and gives the reason in the past tense, as work God has already done. So when does this song start, why is the rubble addressed, and what could make a wrecked city sing?
Commentators tie this call to a deliverance that history has not yet matched. The fall of Babylon did not deliver what this verse and the ones around it describe.
Isaiah spoke this in connection with Babylon's overthrow, but its wider application and meaning is future. The overthrow of Babylon and Nineveh did not result in the glorious things spoken of by Isaiah and Nahum. At that time the ends of the earth did not see the salvation of God. Jerusalem was not redeemed. God was not enthroned as King in Zion. It is all yet to come.
One writer draws a line from this song to the one thing that could ever unite people now.
It is true that this verse is in a Jewish setting, and it will not be fulfilled to the letter until our Lord comes to reign on the earth. But the passage applies to the present time in a striking way. The great trouble in the world today is that men do not see eye to eye. Ambition, selfishness, greed, lust, cause men to fall out about everything... But when men receive the proclamation of our Lord, they will see eye to eye. That will be a testimony to the only truly uniting bond men can ever know: the grace of God entering the human heart.
The verse before speaks of watchmen, whose job was to shout warnings.
So in their eyes, as in His, the feet of the one who brings good news and announces peace are beautiful. Earlier, in Isaiah 40:9, the cities of Judah heard, "Behold your God." Now Zion hears, "Your God reigns!" The watchmen lift up their voice, singing instead of warning. The very wastes of Jerusalem, forsaken for so long, sing together with joy they cannot hold back.
"The LORD has comforted his people" answers a long complaint from Jerusalem's own book of laments.
The history of God's earthly people shows plainly what a bleak and comfortless state they came into by turning their backs on God. "How lonely sits the city, that was full of people! ... she has none to comfort her" (Lamentations 1:1-2). To this day they are still stripped bare and without comfort. But Isaiah, Zechariah and other Scriptures show that God has good and comforting words in view for them. When their "day of salvation" (Isaiah 49) has come, brought by the "beautiful ... feet of Him ... that announces salvation" (Isaiah 52), they will "break forth into joy", singing "the Lord has comforted His people, He has redeemed Jerusalem."
"He has redeemed Jerusalem" is one of a long chain of promises about Israel's future deliverance. All of them, one writer notes, trace back to a single price.
Redemption is used very often in the Psalms and the Prophets for the future deliverance of Israel for His kingdom on earth. See Ps. 103:4, Isa. 43:1, Isa. 48:20 and Isa. 52:9, among others. All of it rests on His blood-shedding. The return from Babylon was an outward sample and pledge.
Isaiah 53 sits between this call to sing and the next one, in Isaiah 54. One writer treats that placement as the key.
Turn to Isaiah 52:7-10 and Isaiah 54:1-10 and you will find a good deal about singing. Between these two chapters stands probably the best-known chapter in the Old Testament — Isaiah 53. The position of that chapter, between Isaiah 52 and 54, gives the key to all the rejoicing of God's people.
The same order shows up all through Scripture.
It is remarkable how, all through Scripture, singing is the response to redemption... the first actual record of singing is in Exodus 15, after God redeemed Israel out of Egypt. Then in Psalm 22, which prophesies the death of Christ for our redemption, the first result mentioned is a song... Again, just after the verses we are looking at, we get the wonderful prophecy of the death of Christ in Isaiah 53; and the very first word of Isaiah 54 is, "Sing."
Notice who the song is about, and who can share its theme now.
We learn that when the restored nation finally breaks into singing, the great theme of their song will be the LORD and what He has done... And even now, if each of us were looking to Christ, would we not see eye to eye and be of the same mind as the Lord! (Phil. 4:2). Seeing eye to eye, we will break into singing, and He will be the great theme of our song.
- Redemption first. In Scripture, song follows rescue: Exodus 15, Psalm 22, and the "Sing" that opens Isaiah 54, right after Isaiah 53 foretells the death of Christ.
- Comfort next. The city that once had no one to comfort her is the city told to sing; the comfort is God's own answer to her lament.
- Ruins sing. The watchmen stop warning and start singing, and even the long-forsaken wastes join in.
- The reach widens. Babylon's fall never delivered this. It is still ahead: Jerusalem redeemed, God reigning in Zion, and the ends of the earth seeing His salvation.
- The theme is Him. The song's subject is the Lord and what He has done — and those who look to Christ can see eye to eye and sing that theme now.
Jehovah hath made bare his holy arm in the sight of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
-- Depart, depart, go out from thence, touch not what is unclean; go out of the midst of her, be ye clean, that bear the vessels of Jehovah.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
For ye shall not go out with haste, nor go by flight; for Jehovah will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your rear-guard.
This verse ends a long stretch of Isaiah with a marching order, and its pace is the surprise: no rush, no panic, no running. The second half of the line says why — God at the front of the column, and the same God at the back.
This is not a stray promise. One commentator maps the whole run of appeals leading up to it, and puts these last two verses at the summit.
In Isaiah 50 we have seen the divine Messiah in the depths of humiliation, but the Lord Jehovah helping and justifying Him. In Isaiah 53 (which really begins at Isaiah 52:13) we shall see Him "pierced for our transgressions; crushed for our iniquities"... Between these everlasting foundations of blessing for Israel (or for anyone), the Holy Spirit gives us stirring appeals. They have the greatest force, interest, and beauty. It is a complete whole, made up of seven distinct parts (Isaiah 51:1-3; 4-6; 7, 8; then, 9-16; 17-23; Isaiah 52:1-10; last of all, 11, 12). These parts trace the stages of the godly Jewish remnant, from their deep distress... advancing step by step until they stand in the full glory that was promised them.
Another writer reads the twice-repeated "Depart" as the final call — a call away from something, and also toward Someone.
"DEPART, DEPART!" This is the final call. Holy separation is to mark those who are called to such high honour. It is separation not only from what is "unclean," but separation to the Lord Himself.
Israel's first departure from Egypt was a scramble — haste and flight. One writer sets the two exits side by side.
That is what they did in Exodus 12. They were like a lot of timid frightened creatures, flying from an angry foe. Being "thrust out of Egypt" (Ex. 12:39), they went out in haste, and word reached the king of Egypt "that the people fled" (Ex. 14:5). They were not marching out at a calm, dignified pace. They went out for what I may call dear life. They fled for refuge, fearing the pursuing foe. One day it will not be in haste. By then they will have learned that the question is not between themselves and Pharaoh. It is between God and Pharaoh, as to whom they belong.
The last two lines of the verse cover both directions: the road ahead and whatever follows behind.
Finally, in view of this great deliverance, Jehovah's people are called to separate from the unclean of the nations. Those who carry the vessels of the LORD must be clean. Their deliverance from the nations will be no hasty flight, for the LORD will surround their going. He will go before to lead the way.
Verse 12 gives the reason attached to a command in verse 11 about being clean. One commentator points out that the text never names the place they leave, so more than one empire is in view.
Last of all, the passage closes with a firm call: act in keeping with the holiness of Jehovah and of His sanctuary. "Depart, depart, go out from there, touch no unclean thing; go out of the midst of her; be clean, you that bear the vessels of Jehovah" (v. 11). The text does not name Babylon: a larger sphere is meant. This going out will not be, like the old one, in haste or in anxiety, however they were guided and delivered then.
The New Testament takes up that same call and presses it on Christians.
Believers are marked by righteousness and light. They are under the leadership of Christ, and they form the temple of God. So they are under a binding obligation to come out from the world and to be separate from evil. The Apostle presses this call home by pointing back to Isaiah 52:11.
Commentators do not tie the verse to one historical return. One writer reads it beside a group of psalms about a journey home, and traces the pattern forward.
The coming out from Babylon is celebrated in advance by prophets, in very lofty language (Isaiah 48:20; Isaiah 52:11-12)... So the return at that time was a type: the pledge of Israel's return from another dispersion, the one they are in now. These Psalms may answer to the words of the remnant of the last days, as they pass through the stages of their trials, until they come into the rest of the kingdom. And in the right conditions they may also, in spirit, be the words of any believer journeying on through the present world to the glory and presence of the Lord — a traveller with Jesus.
- Called — the verse closes a series of stirring appeals. They lift a small, distressed remnant step by step into promised glory.
- Calm — the first exodus was a panicked flight from Pharaoh. This one is unhurried, because the question is no longer between Israel and Pharaoh, but between God and Pharaoh.
- Covered — God takes both ends of the march. He leads the way in front and closes the line behind.
- Clean — the escort comes with a command: those who carry what belongs to the Lord must be clean. Commentators press the same call on believers today, as separation from evil.
- Certain — the return from Babylon was only a pledge of a larger one. The same pattern fits any believer travelling through this world toward the Lord's presence.
Behold, my servant shall deal prudently; he shall be exalted and be lifted up, and be very high.
This verse opens the prophecy of the Servant of the Lord that we know as Isaiah 53, and it opens with a call to look. God names where His Servant ends up before He says a word about the wounds, the burial, or the sin-bearing — so who is this Servant, and how can such shame lead to such height?
A note on wording: some quotes below use an older translation: "deal prudently… exalted and extolled, and be very high." The ESV reads "act wisely… high and lifted up, and shall be exalted."
This verse is not the tail of chapter 52. It is the opening line of the passage everyone knows as Isaiah 53 — and, as one writer traces it, the exact centre of the whole closing section of Isaiah.
Isaiah's last twenty-seven chapters fall into three groups of nine. The centre section is chapters 49-57, and the centre chapter of that centre section is Isaiah 53, which really begins with Isaiah 52:13. So the prophecy of the One who is Jehovah's Servant, who goes even into death for the transgressions of God's people and comes forth in resurrection, lies at the heart of everything.
"My servant shall act wisely" describes a whole life, not one clever decision. A writer ties that wisdom to the exaltation that follows.
God's Servant showed God's wisdom by acting wisely in this world, and so He was "exalted and extolled" and made very high. In life and death He proved to be the wisdom of God. He glorified God on the earth and finished the work God gave Him to do. Then God set Him at His own right hand in heaven, "far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named…" (Ephesians 1:20-21).
The order is deliberate. God states the outcome before He describes the road, and the road runs through suffering.
Verse 13 really begins the subject of Isaiah 53. The wisdom and prudence of Jehovah's Servant, treading His way to glory through scenes of suffering service, so as to bring blessing for others, is before the mind of the Spirit. We see the "sufferings of Christ and the glory to follow."
Set beside the next verse, this one reads like a contradiction. The same person is both the highest and the most disfigured, and His exaltation after the cross explains it.
Isaiah 52:13 shows Messiah as God's Servant, "exalted and extolled" and very high. Yet the next verse presents Him with His appearance "so marred, beyond human semblance, and His form beyond that of the children of mankind." The exaltation of Jesus after His work on earth and on the cross gives the key to the puzzle.
Why did the road to this height have to run through death? One writer draws out the rule behind it.
This was the rule of Messiah's glory, as He said, "unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit." All Scripture teaches the same: glory now must take a resurrection form, just as life must do. The life and the inheritance of those whom Jesus represented, and for whom He gave Himself up, had both been forfeited. Death and the curse had come upon them. So Jesus, to regain both, had to pass through death. He could win a condition of life, a kingdom and glory for Himself and His saints only by destroying, through death, the one who had the power of death.
Some have read "my servant" as Israel. One writer answers from the details of the prophecy itself.
Many who profess to believe try to make the nation the prudent servant here, so as to shut out our Lord Jesus Christ. Was it a nation or an individual who had "His grave" appointed with the wicked? Could it be said of the nation suffering for its own sins, "for the transgression of My people was He stricken"? No; none but our blessed Saviour ever answered, or could answer, to this prophecy, spoken over seven centuries before He came.
Older Jewish teachers read it the same way, and the language of this very verse survives in synagogue prayer.
The earlier Jewish interpreters did not dispute that this passage speaks of the Messiah… Even now the prayers used in synagogues everywhere bear the clearest witness to the same truth. For instance, at the Passover they pray in these words: "Hasten and cause the shadows to flee away. Let him be exalted and extolled and be high, who is now despised. Let him deal prudently and reprove and sprinkle many nations."
The exaltation is already real — He is seated at God's right hand — yet commentators note that the public display promised here still waits.
None ever went so low as this suffering Servant of God, when He atoned for our sins; none can ever go so high; He is Head over all things.
It looks on to the day of the world-kingdom of the Lord and of His Christ. Then He will come out before every eye as the Lord of lords and King of kings, sharing with others the fruits of His victory… The day is hurrying on when the fullness will have come in, and so Israel shall be saved. Only then will this vision (Isaiah 52:13 — 53:12) be fulfilled as a whole.
- Behold — God points to His Servant. This line opens the prophecy we call Isaiah 53, the passage at the centre of Isaiah's closing chapters.
- Wisely — In life and in death, the Servant's path showed God's wisdom. That is what "acting wisely" means here.
- Low — Verse 13 and verse 14 clash on purpose. The height belongs to the same disfigured Man, and the cross joins the two.
- High — No one ever went so low; no one can go so high. He now sits at God's right hand, above every name that can be named.
- Not yet — He is exalted now, but the day when every eye sees Him as Lord of lords and King of kings, and Israel is saved, still lies ahead.
As many were astonished at thee -- his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the children of men
The prophet turns from Israel's coming rescue to one figure whose face is ruined past recognition. Who is this Servant, what marred Him, and why does the verse point past the ruin to glory?
Who is this Servant? One writer traces how the passage has been read, and finds that only one reading holds.
The older Jewish interpreters did not dispute that this passage applies to the Messiah… Even now, in the prayers used in synagogues everywhere, there is the clearest witness to the same truth… Later writers dread the way their fathers applied this prophecy to the Messiah. So they have invented two ways of escape: they apply it either to some notable man like Josiah or Jeremiah, or to the Jewish people, who are called "My servant" elsewhere in the prophecy. But it is no use. This section is so exactly and exclusively applicable to our Lord that these efforts only prove the will of unbelief and its failure… This Servant of Jehovah has been humbled among men, but God has vindicated Him — and indeed He Himself is God.
The reaction here is not what it first sounds like. It is closer to recoil than to praise.
Here the exalted Messiah of Israel is before us. He was once covered with shame. He was bent down to a humiliation that no other man has ever known, before or since. So many were struck dumb with astonishment, or rather perhaps with disgust — "shocked" at Him. They had looked for a Messiah who was altogether different. His lowly appearance and the surroundings of His life and work disappointed them at first. Then His meek acceptance of insult and suffering drew out all their malice and dislike.
One writer looks at the men who carried out the crucifixion.
This is especially striking in the case of the Roman soldiers — men who did not even know the Scriptures existed… Many things they did fulfilled the Word. For instance, His face was to be "marred more than any man," according to Isaiah 52:14, and the crown of thorns and the beatings fulfilled this.
Where older wording says "marred more than any man," the ESV reads "marred, beyond human semblance." The verse also reaches past His face to His whole "form."
His sufferings were so real and so intense that they visibly marred His whole form, as well as His face. Jehovah's Servant acted with perfect wisdom and care. Yet deep and painful sorrows were His. Shame, beatings and untold suffering came upon Him before His exaltation.
Commentators differ on the cause. Another writer traces the marring to what Christ carried inwardly.
The mind of the Spirit of God was filled with the spiritual anguish that would be His, "a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief" (Isaiah 53:3) — a spiritual anguish that marred His very features.
Was this marring God's hand on Him for our sins, or man's hand? A writer answering that question draws a line that is easy to blur.
This very moving verse refers to the treatment our Lord received at the hands of sinful men. In itself, it has no part in the work of redemption… The Lord's treatment at the hands of sinful men, and His bearing our sins under the hand of a holy and righteous God, are almost inseparably brought together in these verses. Both happened at the same time… Yet we must be clear that not one thing men did to Him had any part in the work of redemption. Men took Him and treated Him just as these verses foretold. It was then that God entered into the question of our guilt.
The verse opens with "as," and that word is still waiting for its answer.
The general sense of these three verses that close Isaiah 52 is perfectly clear. This meek and lowly Servant of Jehovah went down to unheard-of depths of humiliation. He is going to come out in a power and splendour that will astonish all mankind. His exaltation in the heights will match the depths into which He went. Now, who believes that?
- Servant. The One whose face is ruined is a Person, not the nation. The passage fits Christ and no one else.
- Shocked. The astonishment here is closer to recoil than wonder. His lowliness disappointed them, and His meekness under insult turned that into hatred.
- Marred. The crown of thorns and the beatings fulfilled these words. Commentators differ over how much of the marring came from blows and how much from inward anguish.
- Two hands. Men marred Him and God dealt with sin at the same hour, but nothing men did was part of redemption — that was God's own act.
- Matched. The "as" of verse 14 has an answer: the depth of His humiliation is the measure of the height of His coming exaltation.
-- so shall he astonish many nations; kings shall shut their mouths at him for what had not been told them shall they see, and what they had not heard shall they consider.
Isaiah's picture of the Servant turns in a single breath. A face too disfigured to look at gives way to kings struck dumb before Him. Three questions follow. What does it mean that He "sprinkles" nations? Why are the kings silent? And who is this Servant?
The glory announced here grows out of the suffering just described. One writer ties it to Philippians 2: the way down became the way up.
Here Jehovah looks at Jesus' smitten form and sets it before us in a way that moves the heart. He celebrates the glory to which all this humiliation and suffering were to lead Him. It is written of Him: "he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name." For this was the rule of Messiah's glory, as He said, "Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit."
Translators have long disagreed over this verb.
This phrase has tormented the critics. Some of the old versions took the word as expressing amazement. The idea is people starting from their seats when they suddenly see some great person they never expected. But "sprinkling" is the literal meaning, however we apply it. On the common view, the very humiliation He endured for the gracious work of redemption answers the surprise many felt long ago at the cleansing of many nations still to come.
Another writer keeps "sprinkle" and reads it alongside Ezekiel.
Some translate "astonish" instead of "sprinkle." But if we keep the word "sprinkle," we should connect it with the same word in Ezekiel 36:25. There it clearly has the force of an act of blessing toward Israel.
The silence of kings is a reversal, and the reversal is exact.
A like astonishment will come to many nations when the kings of the earth are silent in His presence (verse 15). In the day of Christ's glory they will realise that the One they see so glorious is none other than He whom men crucified and killed. On earth, the Servant of God was silent before the great of the earth. He was silent before the high priest, before Pilate and before Herod. In the coming day, the great of the earth, the kings, will be silent before Him, the King of kings and the Lord of lords.
Some have read "my servant" here as Israel, or as a prophet or king of Isaiah's own day.
What could fit this prophecy less than the facts of Josiah, Jeremiah, or the Jewish people? Neither the king nor the prophet had a destiny you could fairly set into this remarkable contrast. First comes deep shame, then wide and lofty glory before subject nations and kings. It is true, as we have often noticed in this prophet, that "my servant" sometimes applies to Israel. But the context always gives clear marks that make the decision easy. Chapter 53 settles it. There the distinction is plain between the Individual in question and the people who did not value Him. For He bore their griefs and carried their sorrows.
Paul quotes the last line of this verse in Romans 15:21. He preached where Christ's name was unknown. How far does that borrowing reach?
This therefore cannot apply at the present time, except in a general way. The apostle only uses the principle of the closing words of verse 15 for his own going out with the gospel. He went where no one had gone before, where no sound of Christ may yet have reached (Romans 15:21). But he in no way treats this as the fulfilment of that oracle.
The gospel does not replace that coming display.
Romans 15:21 quotes Isaiah 52:15. Its prime application is the glory of Christ shown to the nations when He comes in power and majesty. But the gospel brings home to the souls of men an anticipation of that glory, a sight of it by faith before it is revealed. This is what moved the apostle's heart so deeply. He grasped the Word of God by faith, and that faith longed to see the same faith awakened in souls who had heard nothing of Christ before.
- Marred, then magnified. The disfigurement of verse 14 and the exaltation of verse 15 belong together. The grain of wheat falls before it bears fruit.
- Sprinkled, not scattered. Commentators differ: the verb may mean "sprinkle" or "startle." Where "sprinkle" stands, it points to blessing and cleansing that reaches beyond Israel to many nations.
- Silenced, not silent. He said nothing before the high priest, Pilate and Herod; kings will one day have nothing to say before Him.
- A Person, not a people. Josiah, Jeremiah and the nation all fail the test of this contrast. Chapter 53 separates the sufferer from the people He suffered for.
- Seen, not merely told. The full sight belongs to His coming in glory. Meanwhile the gospel carries an advance view of it to those who have never heard.
Who hath believed our report? and to whom hath the arm of Jehovah been revealed?
Isaiah 53 opens not with the Servant's wounds but with a question about unbelief. A report has gone out and almost nobody has taken it in — so to whom has God shown His power?
(Where the commentators say "report," the ESV renders the phrase "what he has heard from us.")
This report is a specific one. Isaiah had just spoken of the Servant's coming majesty.
Isaiah says, "Who has believed our report?" His report was of the majesty of Christ: "He shall be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted." Chapter 53 explains why it was not believed. The lowly way in which He came stumbled that proud nation. But the suffering had to come before the glory.
The "our" and the "we" of this chapter belong to a people who once shared in the refusal and later came to see it.
Here we have the confession and wondering complaint over the unbelief of men — indeed, over their own unbelief. Israel is now broken down under a sense of sin. They admit that it was not only outsiders who paid little attention to the report of the Messiah. They themselves had also been hard and rebellious against Him.
Isaiah had already called out to "the arm of the LORD" in an earlier chapter. One writer sets that cry beside this verse.
The prophet is here quoting his own words in Isaiah 51:9: "Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD... Was it not you who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep, who made the depths of the sea a way for the redeemed to pass over?" Who could think that under the lowly form of the Nazarene was in truth the One who had made the very greatest display of the LORD's might found in the ancient records?
The nation did not refuse the message for lack of evidence. Isaiah had already foreseen that refusal.
Israel was without excuse, for the Son of God had done many miracles, signs that made crystal clear the source of His testimony and who He was... The prophet foresaw, by the Spirit, that the nation would refuse the Lord's testimony, and that only a remnant would accept it. Christ is "The Arm of the Lord." His divine power worked the great signs: opening the eyes of the man born blind, and raising Lazarus from death and decay. Yet no one knew Him, except those whose eyes God in grace had opened.
The same power did not stop at the miracles:
As the Arm of the Lord, the Son of God worked the wondrous works of power recorded by John, and very many more. But by that same power He also entered into death. There He overcame all His foes and won the salvation now announced to the ends of the earth.
One writer draws two things from this verse: how faith begins, and how far God's message travels.
So Isaiah declares in Isaiah 53:1: "Who has believed our report?" So faith comes by this report; that is, the testimony heard — and that by God's word. But were the Gentiles not the object of God's testimony? God's testimony was meant for the Gentiles. It is gone out into all the world.
The verse is a complaint, but it leaves room for the few. One writer points to a woman who did believe what she heard about Jesus.
The report of what the Prophet of Nazareth said and did had spread through Galilee. But it had little effect on most of the people... But this woman had believed the report, for we read that "she had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind Him in the crowd and touched His garment." And having believed the report, the strength of the arm of the LORD for healing was revealed to her and in her.
- Report — The message tells of a Servant high and lifted up. The lowly way He came is what made a proud nation refuse Him.
- Refusal — The nation did not lack signs. Isaiah foresaw the refusal, and only a remnant would receive the testimony.
- Revealed — The "arm of the LORD" once dried up the sea for the redeemed. That same power was hidden in the lowly Nazarene, and later entered death itself to secure salvation.
- Repentance — Those who once shared the unbelief come to confess it as their own. The "we" of this chapter is a broken people, not an accusing prophet.
- Reach — Faith comes by hearing the report. That testimony has gone out into all the world, so the question is still open to every hearer.
For he shall grow up before him as a tender sapling, and as a root out of dry ground he hath no form nor lordliness, and when we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
Isaiah 53 opens with a confession. Its second verse sets two views of the same Man side by side: what God saw growing before Him, and what the nation saw and turned away from. Everything that follows in the chapter grows out of that gap.
The picture starts with a royal line cut down to a stump, and one small shoot watched over by God Himself.
"As a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground" (v. 2), He was to grow up before God. The royal tree of David had been brought low. All hope seemed to be gone, but "a tender plant," a small shoot, shows itself. It is destined to bear all the royal glory. It grows up before God. He watches over it; protecting and caring for it. Before Him "it grows." Luke 2 fulfils that prophecy, where we read: "And the child grew and became strong… and the favor of God was upon him… And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature."
A plant that thrives in dry ground must draw its life from somewhere else.
Verse 2 presents Him to us in two ways. First, as He was in the eyes of God. Mankind in general, and Israel in particular, had proved themselves to be "dry ground," producing nothing good. Yet out of this ground sprang up this "tender plant," which drew its life and nourishment from elsewhere. The Lord Jesus did spring out of Israel, through the Virgin Mary His mother. But the excellence of His holy Manhood came not from her; it came from the work of the Holy Spirit of God.
Where He stood, there was nothing to feed Him.
Israel was the dry ground. There was no sustenance for our Lord there. All His support was drawn from above.
The words describe an absence — not of worth, but of the kind of appearance that impresses people.
But second, He is presented as He was in the eyes of men. He had "no form or majesty," nor the kind of beauty that men admire and desire. A proud, commanding man with an impressive look would have caught the public's fancy. Instead He was "a Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief," as verse 3 says. Being who He was, He could be nothing else as He entered and walked through a ruined creation, with all its degradation and sorrow.
He entered the ruin at its lowest point, and rose from there with nothing borrowed from the world.
So the Lord took His place in the ruin of the people and of their royal house… Because of the sins of the people, He accepted the lowliest position: Nazareth, under the rule of the last heathen empire. From there He came out, with no advantage of place, power, wealth, or human learning, to glorify His Father by the way He lived… Man despised Him. But how God delighted in Him — His fellow, humbling Himself for His Father's glory from first to last here below, as God said from heaven again and again! In Him was His own best pleasure. How immeasurably above coming in power and pomp!
The verse changes speaker halfway through, and the pronouns are the key to it.
Note the difference between "Him" and "we." "Him" — Jehovah Himself; "we" — the Jewish nation.
The same gap showed up in the men who should have known best.
What must man be to be at such variance with God! Beautiful in the eyes of Jehovah; no beauty in the eyes of men. Jehovah's delight; men's hatred. Surely this might be true of the rabble, you say, but not of the educated and religious! No. It was the very leaders of the nation — their high priests and rulers — who filled the air with their fierce cry, "Crucify Him! crucify Him."
Isaiah puts these words in the mouths of people who later change their minds. What offended them was not His teaching or His works, but His lowliness.
First, they own that in the day of His humiliation they had despised and rejected their Messiah. They see now that under the eye of God He was altogether lovely — a tender plant. Man may wonder at His words of wisdom and His mighty works. But they despised and rejected Him because of His lowly grace. They esteemed Him of no importance, for they say, "Is not this the carpenter's son?"
The same lowliness that repelled the proud drew everyone who knew their need.
What set Him at a moral distance from all the hypocrisy and religion of the natural man was no barrier to anyone who felt their need. Such need always found a tender welcome in Him. The outcast, the wretched and the lost came freely to Him.
The shoot is not left small. Writers trace it forward to the day it is seen for what it is.
What is so striking is that Isaiah 53:2 points us to this One (who shall be seen in His triumph and glory soon), in His lowliness and loveliness here, in His humiliation, "as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground."
- Soil — Israel and mankind had proved to be dry ground, producing nothing good. Whatever grew there had to draw its life from elsewhere.
- Shoot — the fallen royal line put out one tender plant. It grew up under God's own eye and care, fulfilled in the child who grew at Nazareth.
- Sight — "Him" is Jehovah, "we" is the nation; the same Man was God's delight and man's hatred.
- Scorn — what men wanted was imposing appearance and pomp. What offended them was His lowly grace, summed up in "Is not this the carpenter's son?"
- Splendour — lowliness is not the end. That tender plant will bear all the royal glory, and needy people found their welcome in Him long before the world did.
He is despised and left alone of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief, and like one from whom [men] hide their faces; -- despised, and we esteemed him not.
This verse sits in the middle of a confession — the words of people who once saw nothing in Christ worth wanting, and who now admit it. It raises two questions: why did men turn away from Him, and why was sorrow the settled mark of a perfect life?
Commentators read this chapter as a confession Israel makes after God delivers them, not during Christ's lifetime. The order matters: they see Him first, then they repent.
The full repentance of Israel comes after their deliverance. That is, their discipline ends first. Then Christ appears in glory as their deliverer, and this produces the deep sense of their sin in having rejected Him... After verse 1 the Spirit speaks by the mouth of the escaped remnant of Israel. They confess their sin in having despised Him... Verse 1 shows that they had rejected the testimony of Christ, which was addressed to faith. They believe when they see Him.
Notice the pronoun. The speakers do not blame the generation that crucified Him.
The prophet is led to predict the rejection of Christ. His words express what a godly remnant of Israel will feel in the last days... They take the sin of their forefathers as their own. They will confess, not that the forefathers did it, but that we did it. This will be a genuine repentance.
Men despised Him because nothing in Him fed their taste. The problem was not in Him but in the ones looking.
He is shown here as men saw Him. He had "no form or majesty," and none of the beauty that men admire and want. A proud, commanding man with an impressive appearance would have caught the popular taste. Instead He was "a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief"... Men did not understand this. They could not feel how low they had sunk themselves. So they despised and rejected Him.
One writer traces this sorrow to something most people have tasted at some point.
It was His rejection and reproach that made the blessed Son of God "a Man of sorrows" here. Israel would not have Him. He knew He was not wanted. We have all been, at some time or other in our lives, in places where we knew we were not wanted. And it is one of the keenest of all sorrows. The Lord Jesus felt this sorrow everywhere. In some places people did not even care to take Him in. "Foxes have holes," He said on one occasion, "and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head."... He went about doing good, and never spoke an unkind word.
There is a second source of sorrow, deeper than being unwanted. It comes from what He was in Himself.
He felt the degraded state of man, so He could not be anything other than "a man of sorrows"; yes, the "Grief-Acquainted One." His own perfect holiness made Him feel how terrible sin is, as no fallen man could feel it. But the nation treated Him as someone to avoid, "as one from whom men hide their faces." They despised Him; they esteemed Him not.
One writer reads "grief" here as sickness, and points to what happened when He healed.
The account of His taking the weaknesses and carrying the diseases means more than one thing. The Lord did take these things away from the sufferers. He also took them upon Himself. That is how He became a "man of sorrows and acquainted with grief [sickness]".
The confession does not stop at regret. In the verses that follow, the same speakers see why He suffered.
By faith they now see why He was the Man of sorrows. He was bearing their griefs and carrying their sorrows. And if, on the cross, He was stricken, smitten, and afflicted, it was for their sins that He was wounded and bruised, so that through His atoning sufferings they might have peace and healing.
- Spoken, not merely predicted. The verse is a confession God writes in advance for people who will one day say it themselves — and say "we did it," not "they did it."
- Despised for the wrong reason. Men wanted an impressive figure. His lowliness gave their taste nothing to admire, so they looked away.
- Sorrow from two sides. Nobody wanted Him. And His holiness made Him feel the ruin of sin as no fallen person can.
- Grief He absorbed. He did not only take sickness and sorrow away from people. He took it onto Himself. That is how He became "acquainted" with it.
- The same face, seen again. One day they will look at Him and understand. The sorrows they despised, He was carrying for them.
Surely *he* hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; and we, we did regard him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
Isaiah 53 reads like a confession. A people look back at Someone they once wrote off, and at last see what was happening. Verse 4 sets two things side by side: a burden He truly carried, and a verdict about Him that was wrong.
Two Hebrew words tie this verse back to the "man of sorrows" in verse 3. Matthew shows what they point to.
The "Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief" is the same as "surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows." The Hebrew words are kho-li (grief) and mak'o-voth (sorrows). Matthew shows us that this applies to His healing their diseases and sicknesses. The Lord that healed them entered, as Man, into all the sorrows of which they had to be healed.
Scripture itself quotes this verse in one place: Matthew 8:17. Commentators say that one use settles the question.
It is well known how good and learned men have worked in vain over Isa. 53:4. They have not paid attention to the Holy Spirit's use of it in Matt. 8:17. There it is applied to the grace with which He used His power to remove infirmities and sicknesses in His ministry among the Jews… If any inspired writer had applied Isa. 53:4 to the atonement anywhere, that would settle it. It is only applied to Christ's ministry or at least miracles. When His dying for our sins is meant, the Spirit in 1 Peter 2:24, Heb. 9:28, refers to Isa. 53:11-12.
The verse says He bore and carried. Commentators ask what those words add to an act of power.
In what sense did Jesus, our Lord, take their infirmities, and bear their sicknesses? I believe it is this. He never used the power that was in Him to deal with sickness or infirmity as a mere act of power. In deep compassionate feeling He entered into the whole reality of the case. He healed, and He bore its burden on His heart before God as truly as He took it away from men.
More was happening in Him than the miracle showed.
He felt their miseries and bondage. In His tender heart He carried their burdens. He was afflicted among them because they were afflicted. Power went out of Him to heal them, and the loads He lifted from them weighed down His spirit. He felt these things in His spirit, for disease could not seize or defile His sinless, holy body.
Some read verse 4 as proof that the atonement covers bodily healing. Commentators reject that.
When He used His power in love and sympathy, Christ never healed an ill without bearing it on His spirit. But this is not atonement… bearing on the heart in sympathy is quite another thing from atonement. To apply the principle of atonement here is simply nonsense. Was Christ sick in our place when He made atonement on the cross? He did suffer wrath and bore our sin so as to come under it. But in these healings He was exercising power.
There is also a simpler reason the theory is unnecessary.
The atonement for sickness that people speak of could not be needed. If sin is atoned for, mercy can come in anywhere to relieve and heal the body: that which meets the cause can of course meet its effects also.
The second half of the verse is the confession of a mistake. They saw His suffering and drew the opposite conclusion from the truth.
The passage in Isaiah clearly does not refer to the atoning and substitutionary sufferings of Christ, as the verses right after it do (Isa. 53:5-6). It refers to the effects of His service among men. The Jews, blinded by unbelief, treated those effects as a visitation from God. So they said, "He is mad"; "this man is not of God"; "He has a demon" — counting Him a Gehazi, a Uzziah, "stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted."
Gehazi and Uzziah were men struck with disease as a judgment from God.
Their mistake was not that God's hand was on Him. It was about why.
They had thought that God's hand was out against Him, as if He Himself were under God's displeasure. But the stroke was upon Him "for the transgression of my people."
The "we" of this verse is a people who once judged Him and now judge themselves. That confession is not theirs alone.
This is the language of the godly remnant when they look on Him whom they pierced, and the believer today believes the same truth… How very plain and how very sure is the word of God, God be praised for it!
- Borne — "griefs" and "sorrows" cover sickness and burdens. Matthew 8:17 is the only inspired use of this verse, and it points to His healing ministry.
- Felt — He never healed by bare power. He carried each case on His heart before God as He lifted it off the sufferer.
- Distinguished — bearing in sympathy (v. 4) is not bearing sin under wrath (v. 5 on). Healing was never atonement.
- Misjudged — they saw His sorrow and concluded God was against Him. They put Him with men struck by God.
- Confessed — the "we" is a people who reverse their own verdict. A believer today makes the same confession.
But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed.
Isaiah 53 is a confession, and the speakers keep saying "we" and "our" — and this verse is where they stop guessing about the sufferer and name what His suffering did. The questions it raises are simple and huge: who is saying "we," what wounds are these, and what is the healing?
One writer counts up the verses, then draws out what that means for each of us:
Here is a remarkable fact: as printed in our English Bibles, verse 5 is the central verse of this chapter, which really begins with verse 13 of Isaiah 52. It is therefore the central verse of the central chapter of the central section of this latter part of Isaiah. And without doubt it predicts truth that is central both to our soul's salvation and to our soul's experience. The transgressions, the iniquities were mine, each of us has to say, but the wounding, the bruising were not mine but His. The peace, the healing are mine, but the chastisement, the stripes that bought them, were not mine but His. In all this He was my Substitute.
The confession belongs first to a people who once judged Him wrongly and later admit the truth:
It is not the Gentiles, the non-Jewish nations, but the Jews who say, "Who would have believed our report? … He carried our pains, while we thought God had struck Him down and punished Him. Yet He was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and His wounds brought us healing." It is Israel who speak this way, when they repent and confess their past unbelief. They had thought He was hateful to God, when in truth He was making atonement for their transgressions.
Others can say the same words too, but the writers set one condition:
In these verses, we must remember, the "we" and the "us" are those who believe, whether ourselves today or the godly remnant of Israel in a coming day. And those who believe are those who have first confessed that they are sinners.
The verse before speaks of griefs and sorrows carried. This one speaks of something more, and one writer marks the shift:
In sympathy He bore our griefs: in atonement He bore the punishment due to our sins. Blessed Saviour! "Upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace." There was no other way. But thanks be to God, we can now say, "with His wounds we are healed." The wounds were His; the healing is ours.
Wounds, bruises and stripes sound like the work of soldiers and mobs. One writer rules that out:
The wounds, the bruises and the stripes that bring blessing did not come from human hands. They tell us what our sins deserved. They tell us what He bore for us at the hand of a righteous and holy God, when He carried our sins.
Some soften the word translated "chastisement" into suffering without penalty. One writer answers by pressing the word itself:
Some argue that "while it is true that Jesus is our substitute, He is our substitute only in suffering, not in punishment. Sin was not punished on the cross. The cross was a scene of wonderful mercy and love, not of wrath and penalty." Yet Scripture still says, "Upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace." One scholar, Delitzsch, says of that word, "We have translated the Hebrew word 'musar' as 'punishment,' and the language had no other word for this idea."
Peace, then, is not something we produce or grow into. It comes from a cause outside ourselves:
If the chastisement that brought us peace was upon Him, then He took our place in drinking that dreadful cup. He was our (believers') representative there. God dealt with Him this way because our sins were laid on Him. That is why peace comes to us. It is not because we became righteous in ourselves. Our peace is the result of His chastisement.
Some read the healing as a promise that our bodies will be cured. The writers disagree, and point to a different healing:
This is not bodily healing. It is healing from the deadly disease of sin. The stripes are the stripes of God's judgment, poured out on Him at the cross.
Another writer answers this more plainly:
Some claim that Christ died for our bodily ills as well, and that the stripes laid on Him were for the healing of our bodies. This is a most dangerous twisting of the truth. Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, but nowhere is it written that He died for our bodily diseases.
- Ours. The transgressions and iniquities in this verse belong to us, not to Him.
- His. The wounding, the bruising, the chastisement and the stripes are all His — the exchange runs one way.
- God's. Those stripes came not from human hands but from a righteous God dealing with sins laid on Him.
- Peace. Our peace is the effect of His chastisement, not the effect of any change in us.
- Healing. The healing is healing from the disease of sin. Only those who first confess they are sinners can claim it.
All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way; and Jehovah hath laid upon him the iniquity of us all.
Isaiah 53:6 stands at the centre of the chapter's confession: a scattered flock, each animal on its own path, and one Man carrying what they all deserved. Commentators press three questions here — what our straying was, who the "we" and "us all" are, and whose hand did the laying.
The verse describes our sin twice over, and one writer reads each clause as a separate charge.
What words are like God's words? Here in two short sentences God describes our character and our condemnation. Like sheep we have strayed, and in our straying we have shown the folly of our sin. "We have turned every one to his own way," and by that we have declared the wilfulness, the wickedness of our sin. After we had declared so definitely and deliberately what we are, what could fall on us but the just condemnation of God? But God has undertaken for us, and whether it be the folly or the wilfulness of our sin — all our iniquity He laid on our Surety. It is the saved remnant of Israel that is speaking these wonderful words, but every believer may use them.
One writer defines sin by that phrase, "his own way."
Sin is lawlessness; doing our own will regardless of God's will, and going our own way independently of Him.
The verse includes everyone, yet no two paths are the same.
The mouth is all the more free and full to admit its wicked folly: "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way." There was no exception. All had strayed, yet each in his own evil way. Yet in the face of all these wrongs, and out of His own spontaneous and all-conquering goodness, Jehovah made the iniquity of us all fall on Him.
The pronouns matter. One writer asks who the "we" and the "us" are. His answer decides how far substitution reaches.
In this great verse two things strike us. First, it is "all we" and "us all." Who are the "we" and the "us"? The people of God who confess their sins and believe in the Substitute. Exactly so. The propitiatory work of Christ opens the door in righteousness to whoever will. But its substitutionary effect reaches believers only.
The verb belongs to God, not to us. One writer sets this beside Aaron, who once confessed the people's sins over a goat.
Further, it is the Lord Himself who laid our sins on the Substitute. Aaron no doubt confessed and laid on the head of the goat all that he knew and remembered of the people's transgressions. But how could he confess them all? A well-known hymn may say, "I lay my sins on Jesus," but we may well be thankful that it is not left to us to do it. God Himself has done it by one act, and so done it perfectly.
The verse is repeatedly used as the clearest proof text for one Person standing in the place of another.
Substitution is as certain a truth as Scripture can give us — that is, one person standing in another's place, bearing his sins in His own body on the tree, bruised for them instead of the guilty, who is healed by the other taking the stripes.
The moment matters. Some hold that Christ carried our sins all through His life. One writer answers them from this verse.
If He had been bearing our sins all His life, He must all His life have been abandoned by God. God cannot look on sin with the least allowance. But no: Isaiah 53:6 shows that Jehovah laid our iniquity on His Anointed when He hung on the tree.
If God laid the sins, the believer's peace does not rest on his own grip.
If anything could have made this doubtful, it was our sins. But they were laid — yes, He laid on Christ (Isaiah 53:6) the iniquity of us all. Christ bore our sins in His own body on the tree. Where are they now? When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. Not one sin did God leave on the believer; not one did Christ carry into heaven.
The sheep image runs on into rescue. The flock's danger was not only the enemies outside.
They had inward faults as well as outward foes. They had all gone astray. Everyone had turned to his own way. And on the One then speaking to them Jehovah would lay the iniquities of them all. He is the Shepherd, and the sword of divine judgment would soon strike Him for the sake of the flock. He guarantees salvation to anyone who seeks it from Him.
- Straying — the first clause names our folly, the second our wilfulness. All went astray, yet each chose his own route.
- Confession — the "we" here are people who have admitted they are sinners. The door stands open to whoever will, but Christ bears the sins of believers only.
- Laying — God Himself, not the sinner, placed the iniquity on the Substitute. Aaron could never name every sin, so God did it for us, and did it perfectly.
- Timing — God laid the load on Him at the cross. He did not carry it through His life; the bruising and the forsaking belong to that hour.
- Result — God left no sin on the believer, and Christ carried none into heaven. The stricken Shepherd now guarantees salvation to anyone who comes to Him.
He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, but he opened not his mouth; he was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and was as a sheep dumb before her shearers, and he opened not his mouth.
Isaiah wrote long before Jesus stood on trial. He describes a sufferer who says nothing while men crush Him. Two questions follow: why did He not speak, and what do the lamb and the sheep tell us about His death?
The natural reaction to injustice is to answer back. One writer also separates the two animal pictures in the verse:
Verse 7 stresses His silence before His accusers. When men are oppressed and afflicted unjustly, protest is natural and usual. His silence went against all experience, and the Gospels note it — Matthew 27:11-14; Mark 15:3-4; Luke 23:9; John 19:9. A sheep really is silent before the shearers. Anyone can see that today by watching shearers at work. But He was not like a sheep being sheared. He was like a lamb led to the slaughter. He was indeed "the Lamb of God," as John the Baptist announced, yet no word of protest escaped His lips.
The earlier verses of the chapter are a confession. From verse 7 the speaker changes:
We have listened to the confession of the godly remnant. Now we hear the voice of Jehovah as He confirms their confession and bears witness to the excellencies of Christ. The remnant have already confessed that He was stricken and afflicted. Now Jehovah bears witness to His perfection: when He was afflicted and oppressed "He opened not His mouth", and "like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth". Men may oppress and afflict, but if He was stricken it was not for any wrongdoing on His part. He submitted to every indignity from man to carry out the will of God in bearing the transgression of God's people.
Silence can mean a person has no power to answer. Here it meant the opposite:
Not a word did He utter. Why was this? Answer me that. Those small creatures of His own hand insulted their Creator. He could have thrown them out of existence with a single word. Why then did He keep silence? … The love of His heart for sinners brought Him to this.
Behind the quietness lay a settled purpose, and the offering He brought was Himself:
Christ also drew near to God, but in the perfect offering of Himself, not by the offering of another. Nothing is more moving, or more worthy of deep attention, than the way Jesus freely presents Himself. He does it so that God may be fully glorified in Him. He was silent in His sufferings, and that silence came from a deep and perfect determination to give Himself up, in obedience, to this glory.
Israel knew about sacrificial lambs. Hardly anyone expected the lamb to be a man standing in front of them:
Isaiah (53:7) had written of One who is "like a lamb that is led to the slaughter." John spoke of a man present before him, and called Him the "Lamb of God." All Jews knew about sacrificial lambs. But few, if any, understood then that a man would be the sacrifice, though Psalm 40 and Isaiah 53 had predicted it. And this One, the Lamb of God, would do what no other sacrifice had attempted or could achieve. He would take away the sin of the world.
His silence was not a blanket rule. There was one thing He would always speak for:
In the perfection of His way, He knows when to speak and when to keep silence. He will speak for the truth, but when it is a question of meeting personal malice against Himself, He is silent. It is good for us to profit by His perfect example, and to follow in the steps of the One who did not revile in return when others reviled Him. There is a time when silence has a far greater effect on the conscience than any word anyone can speak. Yet such silence is completely foreign to our fallen nature.
Peter later echoes the prophet's words line by line:
The prophet foretells that under insults "He opened not His mouth." The apostle can say He was One who, "when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten." Jehovah says through the prophet, "For the transgression of my people was He stricken." The apostle says, "He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree" (1 Peter 2:21–25).
- Oppressed — men crushed Him unjustly. The Gospels record the trials where this came true.
- Silent — protest would have been natural. His silence went against all human experience.
- Willing — He could have destroyed His accusers with a word. His quietness came from a settled determination to give Himself up in obedience.
- Lamb — Isaiah foretold a sacrifice who was a person. That Lamb would do what no animal offering could: take away sin.
- Followed — Peter echoes these words for believers: when reviled, He did not revile back.
He was taken from oppression and from judgment; and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living; for the transgression of my people was he stricken.
The verse moves from the courtroom that condemned Him to God's own reason for His death. Two questions sit inside it: what does "his generation" mean, and why was a righteous man cut off at all?
The first phrase looks at what men did to Him. One writer follows the clause into the Greek version an Ethiopian traveller was reading in Acts 8, and calls in a legal expert.
Then further, "by oppression and judgment he was taken away," for it is still what men did to Him that is before us in these verses. If we turn to Acts 8:26-40, we find that the Ethiopian had reached this exact point in his reading of Isaiah when Philip stopped him in his chariot. He was no doubt reading from the Greek version, which renders it, "in His humiliation His judgment was taken away." And so it was. The trial of our Lord ended in His condemnation and crucifixion. It was the most shocking miscarriage of justice the world has ever seen. A legal expert has surveyed the evidence of the Gospels. He stated that every step His accusers and judges took, Jews and Gentiles alike, was irregular and unjust.
The phrase "my people" is the clue to who is speaking here. So does the way the verse justifies the One men condemned.
Two clear considerations support reading these verses as the words of Jehovah. First, the words "stricken for the transgression of My people" are literal evidence that they are. Second, this passage justifies the Messiah, and that is moral evidence of the same. Judgment, and the justification that follows it, belongs here to God and not to the saints.
Commentators differ on this question. One reading takes "generation" as the crowd of that day, and hears the prophet gasping at their guilt.
Differing interpretations of this clause are by no means lacking. But the earlier words may point to the wicked mockery of our Lord's trial before the Roman governor: "his judgment was taken away." If so, the prophet is overwhelmed by the nation's wickedness in bringing about the rejection and death of Jehovah's Righteous Servant. He is led to cry out, "Who shall declare such a generation as could be so guilty" — "for he was cut off out of the land of the living"!
The other reading takes "generation" as descendants. Then the question is a lament: the family line ends before it begins.
In the fifty-third of Isaiah, the rich seed-field of New Testament truth, we find first of all the Messiah come and cut off, with no descendants. So blessing seems to fail completely: cut off Himself, He has none who spring from Him — none who carry on His name and character.
The last line of the verse gives the reason behind His death.
When we reach verse 10 of our chapter we find the answer Jehovah gives to this question. It is a very different one. He was cut off and stricken not for Himself, but for the transgression of those whom Jehovah calls "My people."
Some have argued the blows fell on Israel rather than on Him. The wording rules that out, and the chapter piles up phrase after phrase to say so.
What does it mean that He was pierced for our transgressions? Crushed for our iniquities? That the punishment which brought us peace was on Him? What does it mean that Jehovah laid on Him the iniquity of us all? "Stricken for the transgression of My people" — the stroke fell on Him, not on Israel, as the Jews say. Still more decisive: "it was the will of Jehovah to crush Him."
The question does not stay unanswered. His death gave Him the family He seemed to have lost.
Not until resurrection could He see His seed. His own words say why: "unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit" (John 12). It was after death and in resurrection that He said to Mary, "Go to My brothers and say to them … My Father and your Father, My God and your God." These were His seed, His generation. And the multitudes who "believe in Him through their word" (John 17) are the answer to the prophet's lament, "Who shall declare His generation, for He was cut off out of the land of the living?"
This is the exact place in Isaiah where one traveller's search ended.
These verses emphasise the unrighteous and perverted judgment passed on the Lord Jesus, and the way in which He received everything from God — not protesting His innocence or arguing against the sentence, but quietly submitting to the injustice, knowing there was a deeper purpose in view. Beginning at that same scripture Philip preached Jesus to the Ethiopian. It was effective and he received Christ.
- Oppression. His trial was not justice but its opposite — every step against Him irregular and unjust.
- Voice. The words are God's own: He speaks of "My people," and He justifies the Servant men condemned.
- Substitution. The stroke fell on Him, not for Himself, but for the transgression of those God calls "My people."
- Generation. Commentators differ: either the guilty crowd no one could describe, or the descendants a man cut off can never have.
- Seed. Verse 10 answers verse 8: through death He gains the family He seemed to lose.
And [men] appointed his grave with the wicked, but he was with the rich in his death, because he had done no violence, neither was there guile in his mouth.
Isaiah's prophecy has just described a servant put to death. This verse turns to His body, and it holds two opposite fates together: a criminal's grave and a rich man's tomb. So who decided where He was buried?
Much of the meaning turns on translation. Older English Bibles read as if the servant made His own grave. Writers say this hides the point. Someone else assigned Him that grave.
It is unfortunate that the King James Version gives us such a poor translation of this verse. Translated literally, it reads: "And men appointed His grave with the wicked, but He was with the rich in His death, because He had done no violence, and there was no deceit in His mouth." The King James wording, "He made His grave with the wicked," is wrong. The enemy wanted to throw His body where the bodies of the wicked were thrown. The power of God made that impossible.
One small detail of wording carries weight.
As is well known, "the wicked" is plural, while "rich" is singular. So the simple facts are the best comment on the prediction. Man proposed, but God disposed. He alone could set it out long before, and He did. In their own thinking, men assigned Him a grave with the wicked. In fact, by God's purpose, He was with a rich man in His death.
Hatred does not stop at death.
The Jews had certainly planned to put the blessed holy body of the Son of God into the common pit, along with the bodies of the two criminals who died beside Him. Satan's malice went beyond the betrayal by a close friend. It also wanted His body thrown into that pit after His death. God's answer to this insult to His Son was already on record.
One man fulfilled this line of prophecy. He appears in the story once and then disappears: Joseph of Arimathea.
And so it came to pass. He was crucified between two wicked men, though one of them was wonderfully saved before he died. If men had had their way, they would have flung His sacred body into a common grave with the bodies of the thieves. Joseph of Arimathea stepped in and stopped it, and His body lay in the new tomb that belonged to Joseph. God always has the needed man for His work. Joseph was born into the world to fulfil that one line of Scripture!
Notice when Joseph acted.
The death of Christ produced what His life had never produced. Joseph comes out boldly. He claims the body of Jesus, receives it, and buries it in his own new tomb.
The verse gives a reason for this honoured burial. The reason is His own character.
God made sure that this Perfect One "was with the rich in His death," because He was sinless. "Violence" and "deceit," the two things that mark sin, were both completely absent from Him. Violence marks those who are strong, and deceit those who are weak. But He "had done no violence, and there was no deceit in His mouth." Jehovah points to Him—the Perfect One.
So the burial is God's own verdict on a life that men had dismissed.
Verse 9 shows, by His burial in the rich man's tomb, that God has fixed a limit to the wicked activity of sinful men... God makes sure to show how He values the moral beauty of that life. Men may say, "there is no beauty that we should desire Him." The charm and moral perfection of that blessed Man were unattractive to those who did not believe. Yet there was supreme beauty there. Like the Passover lamb, the Saviour had passed the inspection of God's holy eyes — kept from the tenth day to the fourteenth and proved to be without blemish or spot.
One more detail carries weight. No one had ever lain in that tomb before.
It was new in the sense that the grave had never before received a sinless occupant. The grave and the dead have always belonged together, for God had said, "you are dust, and to dust you shall return." But the body of Jesus did not belong to the grave. For the first time in human history the grave had received a body that could not decay, because it was a sinless one. Yet His burial was as real as His death, and here is the gospel: "Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures ... that he was buried."
- Appointed — men planned a grave for Him among criminals. The verse records their plan, not His choice.
- Overruled — God set a limit to their malice, so that the plural "wicked" gave way to a single "rich man."
- Provided — Joseph of Arimathea had stayed silent. God kept him in reserve to fulfil one line of prophecy.
- Because — the honour had a reason. Violence and deceit, the two marks of sin, were absent from Him.
- Undefiled — a tomb that had never held a body received one that could not decay. That burial is part of the gospel itself.
Yet it pleased Jehovah to bruise him; he hath subjected [him] to suffering. When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see a seed, he shall prolong [his] days, and the pleasure of Jehovah shall prosper in his hand.
Isaiah 53 has already traced the Servant's suffering to human hands. Now the prophet points to a deeper cause: the crushing came from the LORD Himself. Two questions follow. How can God take pleasure in crushing a sinless Man? And what does that crushing gain?
Behind everything people did to Jesus stands another hand. One writer sets the two side by side: what the crowd did openly, and what God did unseen.
We have seen the activity of the world, and especially of the Jews, in crucifying Him. High and low, religious and profane, all played their part. One apostle even denied Him, while another betrayed Him to the murderous priests and elders. But Jehovah laid on Him the iniquity of us all. Jehovah bruised Him and put Him to grief. Jehovah made His soul an offering for sin. This was Godward, so it was invisible to human eyes. God alone could rightly bear witness, through whomever He chose, of the eternal redemption obtained there, which left divine love free to act even in a lost and ungodly world.
That fact is more than awful. It is the strongest proof that God is for us.
He not merely gave Him but bruised Him, and that for us. That spotless, holy, perfect One was the only perfect Man that ever walked this earth. He always did the things that pleased His Father. His whole life, from the manger to the cross, was one continual sweet fragrance rising to the throne and to the heart of God. This blessed One was delivered by the determined plan and foreknowledge of God. He was nailed to the cursed tree, and there endured the righteous wrath of a sin-hating God. And all this because God was for us — even us.
Older translations read "it pleased the LORD to bruise him." One writer finds the answer to that wording in the second half of the verse.
What this all really involved must always lie beyond the reach of our human minds, even though grace has renewed them. And that "it pleased the Lord" to do this may seem to us an astounding statement. Yet the explanation lies in the second half of the verse: the results that would follow were of such surpassing worth and wonder. A parallel thought about the Lord Jesus Himself seems to lie in the words, "who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross" (Heb. 12:2).
The ESV's "offering for guilt" is the trespass offering, which older translations call an offering for sin.
The trespass offering differs from the sin offering in that it has in view God's government, whereas the sin offering refers to God's holy nature, and so to His necessary dealing with sin in judgement. The Lord is also the true trespass offering, as seen in Isaiah 53:10-12 and Psalm 69. He restores more to God than the wrong done to Him by man's sin, and the effects of the trespass offering will appear in the kingdom.
Everything death normally destroys, this death produces.
Death, which for us would cut off all hope of offspring, would end our days and ruin all our prospects, becomes for the Lord the way by which He secures offspring, the way by which He enters an endless risen life beyond the power of death, and above all the way by which the pleasure of the LORD can prosper.
But who are these offspring?
Isaiah the prophet was given a glimpse of the Servant of Jehovah, who should die and rise again; and he predicted, "he shall see his offspring" (Isa. 53:10). He shall see those who take their spiritual origin from Himself.
A man who has just been described as cut off cannot lengthen his days unless he rises.
Isaiah 53 certainly implied the resurrection, for when he prophetically outlines the rejection and death of the Messiah he goes on to say, "He shall see his offspring, he shall prolong his days, and the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand" (Isa. 53:10) — and that could only be accomplished by resurrection.
Why does the verse end with "in his hand"? One writer answers by running through human history.
From the beginning of the world's history God has had His pleasure, but it has not prospered in the hands of men... In Noah God established government to restrain the evil of the world; but at once God's pleasure is set aside, for the one who was set to govern others failed to govern himself. God gave the law to regulate man's conduct... but at once man breaks it with the golden calf... God sends prophets to recall the people to Himself, and they stone the prophets... At last God sends His Son, and the kings of the earth and the rulers of the Jews take counsel together against the LORD and His anointed. They nail the Messiah to the cross.
- God's hand. People crushed Him, but the prophet traces that crushing back to Jehovah Himself — a work done Godward, invisible to human eyes.
- God's offering. His soul became the trespass offering — the sacrifice that repays more than the damage done, so that God gains more than sin ever cost Him.
- God's offspring. The death that would end anyone else's line gives Him offspring: all who take their spiritual origin from Him.
- God's lengthened days. He prolongs His days by rising — an endless life beyond the power of death.
- God's pleasure. What never prospered in the hands of men — in Noah's, in Israel's, in the kings' — now prospers in the hand of the risen Servant.
He shall see of [the fruit of] the travail of his soul, [and] shall be satisfied by his knowledge shall my righteous servant instruct many in righteousness; and *he* shall bear their iniquities.
This verse closes the great prophecy of the suffering Servant. It turns from His death to what that death produces. Two questions run through it. What could satisfy One who suffered so? And what does He do for the "many"?
Where the ESV reads "the anguish of his soul," older versions read "the travail of his soul" — the word for birth pangs. The writers quoted here use that older wording. One links the Lord's picture of childbirth in John 16 to this verse:
Childbirth serves as an illustration. It sets out both joy coming after sorrow and new life springing up. Their sorrow was only a reflection of His sorrow. His was so deep, and of such a kind, that Isaiah 53:11 calls it "the travail of His soul." The previous verse predicts, "He shall see his offspring," plainly in resurrection and in glory. They could not share His atoning sufferings.
The wonder is not that He is satisfied, but that anything could satisfy Him.
The risen Servant will fulfil all the pleasure of the LORD. He Himself will also be satisfied as He sees the full result, the fruit of "the travail of His soul." We are little creatures of small capacity, so very little will satisfy us. His capacity is infinite; yet the fruit of His soul's travail will be so immeasurable as to satisfy Him.
That satisfaction is still future. It waits on what His people become:
So the Lord Himself will then "see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied." When? Not now, but when He has them all with Himself and like Himself in glory.
Here the LORD Himself speaks, and the company in view reaches wider than Israel:
Again we hear the LORD speaking. He confirms the word of the remnant, and bears witness to His righteous Servant. The remnant had said, "He shall see his offspring." Now the LORD says, "He shall see of the fruit of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied." These words take in the redeemed of Israel, and also that great host who will be with Him and like Him in heavenly glory... So this is the pleasure of the LORD: a vast host of redeemed, made like Christ, as the fruit of His work, and for the joy of His heart.
The ESV reads "make many to be accounted righteous," where older versions read "justify many." Commentators differ over this clause. One argues that the Hebrew verb here also carries the sense of teaching:
Christ does not justify us by His knowledge. The Hebrew word has two meanings. It is to justify. It is also to "instruct in righteousness." But the word goes further than teaching, since He might instruct and they not learn. Here the meaning is that they really do learn. To read it as "justify by knowledge" is very forced.
Others keep the older rendering, and point to how the verb works elsewhere:
I cannot agree with the writer in changing "shall justify" to "instructing in righteousness." The word translated "justify" appears in that exact form of the verb only in Exodus 23:7: "I will not acquit the wicked." That is, God will not make or pronounce a wicked man a just man.
The title itself marks a completed work, and what follows in the book confirms it:
This is the last time Isaiah calls Christ the "Servant" (Isaiah 53:11). Afterwards we read of "servants." His atoning work is now seen as complete, and so others are justified... No one could be righteous before God apart from atonement. "Servants" comes next in Isaiah 54:17: "This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD and their vindication from me." That vindication is not from the law, nor from their own works, but from God.
The last clause gives the reason. It tells us how He justifies the many:
If this righteous One does justify them, how is it done? The Holy Spirit tells us: by "bearing their iniquities." Impossible! says some theorist; that may bring pardon, but not justification. Scripture says the opposite: both come by the same means — the death and blood-shedding of Christ.
And the effect for those who are His:
Not a cloud shall exist between God and His own. God has dealt with everything that stood between them, fully and righteously, to His own satisfaction.
- Travail — His sorrow was so deep that only the word for birth pangs would carry it. His people saw a reflection of it, but never shared the atoning suffering itself.
- Fruit — the travail brings offspring: a vast host of redeemed, made like Him, for the joy of His heart.
- Satisfaction — His capacity is infinite, and the fruit of His work is large enough to fill it.
- Timing — that moment is not now; it comes when His own are with Him and like Him in glory.
- Ground — read the clause as "justify many" or as "instruct many in righteousness," the reason is the same. He bore their iniquities, so no cloud remains between God and His own.
Therefore will I assign him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong because he hath poured out his soul unto death, and was reckoned with the transgressors; and he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
Isaiah 53 closes with God Himself speaking. He announces the reward that follows the suffering He has just described. The verse looks back to a death among criminals and forward to a share in the spoil, and the word "therefore" ties the two together. (Where the ESV reads "a portion with the many," the older translation quoted below reads "with the great.")
One writer treats this opening word as the hinge of the whole chapter.
Note the first word — "Therefore." Jehovah speaks. He declares that because of what Jesus accomplished in the day of His humiliation, He will receive a great portion in the day of glory... This last verse declares that His sufferings do not contradict His exaltation in any way. They are the secure basis on which His eternal fame and splendour will rest.
The Servant has not yet received this portion. One writer warns against reading the first clause as already fulfilled in the gospel.
The last verse creates no real difficulty, except for those who tie the first clause to the gospel. It looks on to the day of the world-kingdom of the Lord and of His Christ. Then He will come out before every eye as the Lord of lords and King of kings, sharing with others the fruits of His victory... The day is hurrying on when the full number has come in; and so Israel shall be saved. Then this vision (Isaiah 52:13 — 53:12) will be fulfilled, and not as a whole till then.
He does not keep the spoil to Himself. One writer asks who shares it.
He was alone in the awful sufferings of the cross. He will not be alone in the glory that repays them. He will have companions then. God says, "I will divide Him a portion with the great" — a grand expression of His complete satisfaction with the finished work of Christ. The Saviour, in the unselfish activity of His love, "shall divide the spoil with the strong." This proves that the cross has not used up His love. Who are the great and the strong in that day of Christ's coming glory? Those who have borne reproach for His Name in the world which crucified Him. Those who share rejection with Him here shall share glory with Him there.
Men killed Him and God gave Him up. One writer counts a third actor in His death.
So in this great passage we see the death of Christ in three ways. First, as brought about by the wickedness of men. Second, as the act of God, who delivered Him up and put Him to grief. Third, as the act of Christ Himself, who, in obedience to the will of God, "poured out His soul to death."
Men fulfilled this line of the verse without knowing what they were doing.
The Lord is spared no insult or humiliation. They crucify Him at the place of a skull, and the soldiers gamble for His clothes. They mock the nation with the written charge against Him, "THE KING OF THE JEWS," and at the same time they crucify Him between two thieves. Without knowing it they were fulfilling Scripture, which said, "He was numbered with the transgressors."
The verse says He bore the sin of many, not of all. One writer says that word is a careful choice.
But when I come to sin-bearing, the language is always different. He bore our sins; He bore the sins of many. Scripture avoids the word "all," and avoids it with care... You will never find in Scripture that Christ bore the sins of all. If He had, those sins could never be mentioned again, and men could not be judged according to their works.
The verse ends with intercession. One writer links it to the prayer Jesus made while men were crucifying Him, and to the shelter that prayer opened.
The first words we hear Him say are, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:34)... The Lord uses this to treat them as ignorant, and so as men guilty of manslaughter instead of murder. In other words, through this prayer He was opening the city of refuge to them (Numbers 35). Only on this basis could they be brought into fellowship with God.
God names four grounds — the poured-out soul, the criminal's place, the sin borne, the intercession. One writer weighs each in turn.
The first speaks of the deep sorrow of His heart. The second speaks of the shame of the cross. The third speaks of the judgment He bore for our sins. The last speaks of the intercession through which God could treat Israel's sin as a sin of ignorance, and not as a deliberate sin for which there was no sacrifice... In the coming day all will see Him, not with the "transgressors" men counted Him among, but with the "many sons" He has brought to glory, "the great" and "the strong."
- Therefore — His sufferings do not cancel His glory. They are the ground it rests on.
- Poured out — His death was the act of wicked men, the act of God, and His own act in obedience.
- Numbered — soldiers fulfilled his words without knowing it, by crucifying two thieves beside Christ.
- Many — Scripture never says He bore the sins of all; the word "many" is chosen with care.
- Interceded — His prayer from the cross opened a refuge to His killers. The shame of the cross gets its public answer when He appears with the great and the strong.
Exult, thou barren, that didst not bear; break forth into singing, and shout for joy, thou that didst not travail with child for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith Jehovah.
The verse opens with a command to sing. It is given to the one person least able to sing: a woman with no children and no husband. It comes straight after Isaiah 53. Commentators point to that placement to explain the call to joy.
One writer points to the singing on both sides of Isaiah 53:
If you turn to Isaiah 52:7-10 and Isaiah 54:1-10 you will find a good deal about singing. Note that between these two chapters we have perhaps the best-known chapter in the Old Testament — Isaiah 53. The place of this chapter, between Isaiah 52 and 54, gives the key to all the rejoicing of God's people.
So the fruit promised here comes from outside the woman herself:
That verse shows that Israel, in the time when she was deserted, would be more fruitful than she had ever been in the days when God owned her as in relationship with Him. And that verse follows straight on from the glorious truth foretold in Isaiah 53. The fruit was to come from the coming of the suffering Messiah, not from law keeping.
One commentator traces the broken marriage behind the word "desolate":
The barren one here is not Sarah. It is Israel, as the context shows — the one "without a husband." Israel did have a husband. God took Israel as His wife when He entered into the covenant relationship with her (Jeremiah 2). But she became unfaithful, and God had to send her away, as we read in Isaiah and other Scriptures. So she became desolate, without a husband, and she had no children — "you who have not been in labor." But then, what does Paul say? "The children of the desolate one will be more than those of the one who has a husband." Here we see that in the future Israel will come back to God, and then she will see what happened in the meantime: in the two thousand years when God set her aside as a nation, He has brought in this harvest from the Gentiles.
Grace then credits those empty years to her account:
Jerusalem is seen here as barren and desolate, after rejecting Him who came to be her husband. But now, through the grace that has made Jehovah her righteousness, God calls her to make the place of her tent larger and to stretch out the curtains of her home. That grace counts everyone gathered during her desolation as her children.
Some read the promise as the earthly city restored. One writer argues the opposite:
The reference is clearly to the heavenly Jerusalem and not to the earthly one… In the coming day when God's reign is shown over the earth, the prophecy will come true. God will count those who believe now as Jerusalem's children, along with the people born in that day. So it will be proved twice over that the desolate woman has more children than the married wife. What fruit of the best days — say under David or Solomon — could compare with the gathering in of Christian believers since the Jews lost their place as the recognised witness and wife of Jehovah?
Paul quotes this verse in Galatians 4:27. One writer traces the larger family back to Jerusalem itself:
Jerusalem on earth, and her children, boasted in the law. Through the law they had fallen into bondage, and by breaking the law they had become desolate. Still, Paul quotes the prophet Isaiah to show that, during the time of her desolation, there will be more children than when God owned the city as His centre on earth. Is it not this? The very city that proved man's guilt became the place from which the gospel of God's grace went out to all the world. The Lord told the apostles "that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem" (Luke 24:47).
Beyond the prophecy, the image itself teaches something about every person:
The barren woman is in Scripture the type of nature's ruined and helpless condition. There is no ability to do anything for God — no power to bring forth any fruit to Him; all is death and barrenness. Such is the real condition of every child of Adam.
So the only answer left to her is praise:
This is a true picture of grace. The law knew nothing of praise. Hagar's son was born in the natural way. Sarah's child was the child of God's grace and power… When the barren woman bears children, she can only break out in praise.
- Cause — The song of chapter 54 rests on the suffering of chapter 53. That place in the middle is the key to all the rejoicing.
- Condition — The barren woman pictures a helpless state, with no power to bear fruit for God. That is the real condition of every child of Adam.
- Gift — The fruit comes from the coming of the suffering Messiah, not from law keeping.
- Reach — From the city that proved man's guilt, the gospel went out to the whole world.
- Result — Grace counts everyone gathered during those empty years as her children. The deserted wife ends with the larger family.
Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thy habitations spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes.
This call comes right after the chapter about the suffering Servant. God speaks it to a woman with no children. He tells her to build for a family she cannot see. Who are those children, and why can she build with such confidence?
The order to enlarge is an outcome, not a starting point. It rests on what the chapter before described, and this chapter opens not with "enlarge" but with "sing."
Isaiah 54 goes on to unfold what the sufferings of her Messiah bring to Israel, and the first word is "Sing." … That people was barren and unfruitful under the law, while on that basis they were outwardly married to the LORD. They will be not only joyful but greatly multiplied and blessed.
Three pictures fill out the command: widen the cloth, run the ropes further out, make the pegs firm. How firm the pegs are depends on what they go into.
Graphic figures of speech set this out. Her tent is to be enlarged, her cords lengthened, her stakes strengthened. How well stakes hold depends a great deal on the soil they are driven into. When Israel drove her stakes into the law, they gave way almost at once. Driven into the grace of God, which will find its expression in the atoning death of their Messiah, they will be made strong for ever.
Verse 2 does not stand alone. The next verse gives the reason, and it sets the size: a family that spreads out on both sides and takes in nations.
"… for you shall break forth on the right hand and on the left; and your seed shall possess nations, and make desolate cities to be inhabited" (v. 3). A suited seed must fill the land, the earth; for the LORD shall be king over all the earth. … Yes, the LORD is pleased to be the husband of Zion. This is no longer a mere witness and display of man's responsibility under law. It works by the power of grace, when boasting is no more in the flesh but in the LORD.
So who fills the enlarged tent? Some of them are born while the mother is still desolate.
The truth is that Israel in the coming day will be astonished to learn what God has been doing during their long term of widowhood. They will find that countless children have been born to Abraham — true children of promise. These are reckoned, in a spiritual way, as Jerusalem's offspring. We do well to remember that the gospel started from Jerusalem and all its first preachers were of Jewish stock. While Israel is estranged God is busy, and many are being brought in to taste the sweetness of His grace.
One writer holds both horizons together: Israel's future blessing and the Church's present share in it.
The complete fulfillment of that chapter will be when Israel is brought into blessing in the Millennium, but this does not hinder the application, at least a partial fulfillment, to the Church's entrance by faith into this grace in which we stand.
A tent that keeps stretching outward has no defences of its own. Another prophet pictures the same city without walls. His next verse names what guards it.
Jerusalem will be lived in like towns without walls. Its people will increase and break out on every side, past every limit that could hold them. … Isaiah, dwelling on the same period, says, "Enlarge the place of your tent … lengthen your cords, and strengthen your stakes" (Isaiah 54:2-3). But the secret of it all is found in the next verse. The LORD Himself will be a wall of fire around her — a sure protection from her enemies. He will also be the glory within her. It is always so. The LORD's presence has always been the source of all blessing for His people on earth. In the same way, the Lord's presence is now among those gathered to His name.
- Cause. The order to enlarge follows chapter 53. The barren woman grows because her Messiah suffered, and her first response is song.
- Soil. Stakes hold only as well as the ground they go into. Driven into law they gave way at once. Driven into grace they stand for ever.
- Reach. The next verse sets the size: breaking out on both sides, taking in nations, refilling ruined cities.
- Surprise. The children arrive while she is still desolate. Israel will be astonished one day at the family God gathered while she was a widow.
- Shelter. A tent that never stops widening needs no wall of its own. The LORD Himself is the wall of fire around it and the glory inside it.
For thou shalt spread abroad on the right hand and on the left; and thy seed shall possess nations, and they shall make desolate cities to be inhabited.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
Fear not, for thou shalt not be ashamed; neither be thou confounded, for thou shalt not be put to shame for thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth, and shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood any more.
God speaks here to a city pictured as a wife: unfaithful, then set aside and left a widow. He tells her to stop being afraid, because two whole seasons of disgrace will drop out of her memory. Two questions follow. How can shame that real be forgotten, and who receives this promise?
The chapter does not begin from nothing. It follows the account of Christ's sufferings, and the commentary reads the whole picture through the image of marriage.
In chapter 53 we hear the Spirit of God foretelling the sufferings of Christ and the glories that will follow. In chapter 54 we learn what follows the exaltation of Christ: a future restoration of the Jewish nation. In days past that nation had enjoyed a place of nearness to the LORD, pictured under the figure of the marriage-tie. Sadly, they had been unfaithful to the LORD, broken His law, turned to idols, and rejected their Messiah. So Jerusalem and her cities had become desolate. The nation was like an unfaithful wife who has been refused: the LORD had forsaken them in His anger and hidden His face from them.
"Youth" points back to the nation's beginnings. One writer ties Isaiah's phrase to the day Israel entered Canaan, when God rolled away the reproach of Egypt.
All is left behind — "the reproach of Egypt," as it says here, "the shame of their youth," as Isaiah says. All is cancelled. "Today," says the LORD to Joshua, after the people were circumcised, "I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you." He was beginning again with His people.
The second disgrace gets the gentler name. Isaiah elsewhere speaks of divorce, but here God says widowhood.
When the Lord has brought her to Himself in the bonds of the covenant, He does not refer to her former state as one of divorce, but as one of widowhood. That is, He calls to mind the sorrow of her former condition, not the shame. It may be divorce and shame (Isa. 50:1), yet the Lord will not remember it as such… Does this not tell us tenderly that with our God there is forgetting as well as forgiving? He takes away the sting of painful memories, and He covers a multitude of sins.
Fear ends because of who steps in, not because of what she has done.
The LORD stoops to be the husband of Zion. This is no longer a mere test and display of man's responsibility under law. It works in the power of grace, when boasting is no more in the flesh but in the LORD.
One writer sets the two chapters side by side, and reads Israel's long widowhood through Naomi and Ruth:
Compare Isaiah 53 with Isaiah 54. The prophecy first foretells how the remnant of Israel will confess their terrible guilt in rejecting their Messiah. Chapter 54 then follows at once, announcing that the LORD receives the nation into His close favour. For a long stretch of centuries Israel had languished in the widowed state of Naomi and Ruth. But now marriage with the LORD, her Redeemer, would take the place of this mourning and loss.
Commentators hold that the promise fits Israel. Reading it as a promise to the church breaks the sense. One writer presses the point with a question:
This promise is exquisite when addressed to Israel, but false and absurd if applied to the Church: "You will forget the shame of your youth, and the reproach of your widowhood you will remember no more. For your Maker is your husband… For a brief moment I deserted you" — for what "brief moment" has Christ deserted the Church?
Others note that the principle reaches further than the earthly city. The same promises belong in principle to "the heavenly Jerusalem's children" (H. J. Vine).
- Guilt first. Chapter 53 records the confession of guilt for rejecting the Messiah. Chapter 54 announces the welcome back.
- Grace, not law. God becomes husband to Zion in the power of grace. Boasting is in Him, not in the flesh. That is why fear is ruled out.
- Forgetting, not just forgiving. He names her past as widowhood rather than divorce: sorrow remembered, shame refused.
- Cancelled at the root. The "shame of your youth" is the old reproach of Egypt, rolled away when God began again with His people.
- Israel first. The promise fits a nation abandoned for a moment. Its principle then reaches the heavenly city's children.
For thy Maker is thy husband Jehovah of hosts is his name, and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel the God of the whole earth shall he be called.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
For Jehovah hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, and as a wife of youth, that hath been refused, saith thy God.
Isaiah 54 turns from the suffering Servant of chapter 53 to a woman set aside — abandoned, heartbroken, refused. The striking word is called: God does not just watch her grief, He speaks to her in it.
The picture works because a real bond stood behind it. Commentators point out that Israel lived near to God in a relationship Scripture calls a marriage. So her unfaithfulness was a wife's sin, not a stranger's.
It is undeniable that the Jews, or Zion if you will, had the place of nearness to Jehovah pictured by the marriage-tie. She had been faithless and gone after many lovers — even the idols of the nations. As a result God divorced her, and she became a widow, desolate under His righteous dealing. Adultery was her sin, rather than fornication.
("Jehovah" in these quotations is the name the ESV prints as "the LORD.")
"Deserted" is not only a feeling. Writers describe the widow picture as a lost standing: she no longer belongs to one who owns, protects and provides.
In the prophecies the Holy Spirit uses the figure of widowhood — the loss of divine ownership, protection, and supporting care — to describe the religious and moral destitution of the people of Israel. It came from their public association with the false gods of the nations. So, through one of the earliest of the prophets, Jehovah renounced all relationship with His people because of their unfaithfulness to Him. He said, "She is not My wife, and I am not her Husband" (Hosea 2:2).
The chapter's place matters. The call comes straight after the account of Christ's sufferings. That order explains how God can address a refused wife at all.
In chapter 53 we hear the Spirit of God foretelling the sufferings of Christ and the glories that will follow. In chapter 54 we learn that, after the exaltation of Christ, there will be a future restoration of the Jewish nation. In days past it had enjoyed a place of nearness to Jehovah. Sadly, they had been unfaithful to Him, broken His law, turned to idols, and rejected their Messiah. So Jerusalem and her cities had become desolate. Jehovah had forsaken the nation in His wrath and hidden His face from them, as from an unfaithful wife who has been refused.
God could name her by her record. Instead He reaches back to the start of the relationship.
Israel was married to Jehovah, as the prophets remind the people (Isa. 54; Jer. 3). Yet His grace may one day deal with Israel not as a guilty widow but as a woman forsaken and a wife of youth.
One writer traces the way God speaks to a people whose past was against them.
Nothing can be more moving than the many ways in which He seeks to win their hearts for Himself. In them He expresses the place they have in His heart, and His unchangeable faithfulness to promise and purpose for them, however sad their course has been. He can even recall the love of their betrothal, "when you went after Me in the wilderness" (Jer. 2), and plead with them to return to Him.
Commentators leave these words with Israel. The verses that follow settle it: a forsaking that lasts only a moment fits Israel's history, but not the church.
It is not true that God has forsaken the church even for a small moment. Nor does He hide His face from the Christian for an instant in a little wrath. Such and so great is the power of redemption. Of the Jew this is exactly the present fact. And just as surely He will yet gather His ancient people in His mercy for ever.
The refusal has a time limit. The chapter moves from a rejected wife to a comforted one, with children gathered while she was desolate.
Jerusalem is looked at as barren and desolate, after having rejected Him who came to be her husband. But now grace has made Jehovah her righteousness. She is called to enlarge the place of her tent, and to spread out the curtains of her dwelling. That grace indeed counts all who were gathered during her desolation as her children. For a little while God has treated her as a rejected wife, but has now comforted her with everlasting mercies.
- Married. The grief here rests on a bond. Israel stood near to God in what Scripture pictures as a marriage, so her turn to idols is adultery, not a stranger's sin.
- Refused. In the prophets, widowhood means a lost owner, protector and provider. That was Israel's destitution after she joined herself to the gods of the nations.
- Called. The call comes after chapter 53. Christ's sufferings and exaltation open the way back for a nation that rejected its Messiah.
- Renamed. Grace names her not as a guilty widow but as a woman forsaken and a wife of youth. It reaches past her record to the love of her first days.
- Comforted. The forsaking lasts a small moment; the mercies are everlasting. Commentators keep this promise with Israel, since God has never forsaken the church for a moment.
For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee.
God speaks here to Zion as a husband speaks to a wife He had set aside. He weighs a short absence against a vast return. Two questions press: who is He speaking to, and how can centuries count as a brief moment?
Many read this chapter as a promise to the church. One commentator says the words cannot carry that meaning.
Only when this chapter is read of Israel does it flow in its own proper channel. Excluding Israel from the blessing to come, and handing the chapter over to the church as its intended scope, produces nothing but violence and confusion. It is not true that God has forsaken the church even for a small moment. He does not hide His face from the Christian for an instant in a little wrath. That is how great the power of redemption is. For the Jew, it is exactly what is true right now: and just as surely He will yet gather His ancient people in His mercy for ever.
The same writer asks which people this pattern of favour, loss and return can fit.
One people once stood in full favour and close relationship to the LORD. They forfeited it for a time. At last they are restored, more than ever and for ever. There is only one such people: it is impossible that God should fail to have mercy on Israel.
The forsaking has already run far longer than any human lifetime, yet God calls it small. The writers quoted here use an older translation. It reads "a small moment" and "great mercies" where the ESV has "a brief moment" and "great compassion."
How striking are the contrasts in verses 7-10. This time in which Israel is "Lo-ammi," covering more than two thousand years, may seem long to them, but it is "a small moment" to Him. When at last they are re-gathered it will be with "great mercies," given righteously, since God's humbled Servant had borne their iniquities. Put the stress also on the word "mercies," for no thought of merit will enter into their blessing. The Jew lies under wrath as a nation. Yet seen in the light of the coming mercy, it is "a little wrath," and the kindness shown to them in mercy will be "everlasting."
This forsaking is told in the language of marriage. It follows a refusal on her side, not His.
Jerusalem is seen as barren and desolate, because she rejected Him who came to be her husband. But now grace has made the LORD her righteousness, and she is called to enlarge the place of her tent and spread out the curtains of her dwelling. That same grace counts as her children all who were gathered while she lay desolate. For a little while God has treated her as a rejected wife, but has now comforted her with everlasting mercies.
This promise comes straight after Isaiah 53, the chapter about the suffering Servant. One writer traces the singing that follows back to the cross.
After the cross, the singing. What singing there will be on the earth when at last "they look on Him whom they have pierced." Israel will one day know the full meaning of Isaiah 53. When He is owned at last, infinite grace will give them the glories and blessings of restoration. Enlargement and faithfulness will be the results. The shame of Israel's youth and long widowhood is ended. The forsaking is ended. Everlasting kindness will be their happy portion. The fear and sorrow of Israel are ended because "He poured out His soul to death."
One writer follows this mercy out to its furthest reach.
"With everlasting kindness I will have mercy on you," says the LORD your Redeemer. Then Zion's children shall be many. Her seed shall inherit the nations, and the Redeemer of Israel shall be called the God of the whole earth. The same mercy will embrace the Gentiles. For it is written, "In you shall all the nations be blessed"; and again, "Rejoice, O Gentiles, with His people."
- The moment — More than two thousand years feel long to Israel, but God calls the whole span small.
- The mercies — She is gathered by mercy, not merit; no thought of what she earned enters into the blessing.
- The marriage — She rejected the One who came to be her husband, and He takes her back as a wife once refused.
- The ground — The forsaking can end because the Servant of Isaiah 53 poured out His soul to death. After the cross, the singing.
- The reach — The mercy that gathers Zion does not stop with her. Her Redeemer is called the God of the whole earth, and the nations rejoice with His people.
In the outpouring of wrath have I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting loving-kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith Jehovah, thy Redeemer.
One verse, two measures: anger that lasts a moment, and love that never ends. Who is God speaking to here, and what makes such a promise safe to build a nation's future on?
(Some writers quote an older Bible. Their "everlasting kindness" is the ESV's "everlasting love.")
Chapter 53 sets out the sufferings of the Messiah. Chapter 54 follows straight on, and one writer traces its blessing back to that source:
Isaiah 54 goes on to unfold what the sufferings of her Messiah will produce for Israel. The first word is "Sing." The margin of Psalm 65:1 reads, "Praise is silent for You, O God, in Zion." That is how it stands today. But a time is coming when Israel — the true Israel of God — will break out into singing. It will be one of the fruits springing from Christ's sacrificial death. That people was barren and unfruitful under the law, while outwardly married to the LORD on that basis. They will be not only joyful but multiplied and blessed in abundance.
The hidden face fits the picture running through this chapter: a marriage, a wife left desolate, and comfort at last:
Isaiah 54 gives the result of these events for Jerusalem in those days. The prophet looks at Jerusalem as barren and desolate, after she rejected the One who came to be her husband. But now grace has made the LORD to be her righteousness, and she is called to enlarge the place of her tent… For a little while God has treated her as a rejected wife. Now He has comforted her with everlasting mercies.
Some readers hand this chapter to the church. One writer says the wording will not allow it. God has never hidden His face from a Christian, not even for an instant:
Read this way, and only this way, our chapter runs in its own proper channel. Shut Israel out of the future, hand the chapter over to the church as its intended scope, and you produce nothing but violence and confusion. God has not forsaken the church even for a small moment. He does not hide His face in a little wrath from the Christian for an instant. Such and so great is the power of redemption. Of the Jew as such it is exactly the present fact. And just as surely will He yet gather His ancient people in His mercy for ever.
The anger is measured in a moment. The kindness is measured against the mountains:
If God had forsaken the nation in His wrath, it will be with "great mercies" and "everlasting kindness" that He regathers them. And when He restores them it will be for everlasting blessing… The mountains that look so immovable may depart, and the hills be removed, but the kindness of God will not depart from the nation.
The verse ends with a title: "your Redeemer." One writer shows what that title has already meant for Israel:
God redeemed the nation of Israel out of Egypt both by buying them back and by power. As their Goel, their kinsman-redeemer, the LORD brought them out of slavery with His "outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment." Centuries later, Assyria and then Chaldea carried the nation off into captivity. Again and again the LORD sent them promises of deliverance by redemption. He called Himself "the LORD, your Redeemer (Goel)," and added other titles such as "the Holy One of Israel." In these and other prophecies, the LORD reminds His earthly people that He alone holds the right of their redemption.
The prophet backs the promise with the flood. What God said would come, came:
He is unfolding the certain and glorious future of Israel. God has rejected that nation at this moment because of their refusal of their Messiah, whose murder is a national sin. The prophet describes in the most beautiful way how they are going to be brought into wonderful blessing later on. It will come as a result of the God-glorifying path of Christ, set out in his fifty-third chapter… That is to say, God bears witness through this prophet's pen. Just as "the waters of Noah" had most certainly rolled over the world of the ungodly, so they could count on it that what He promised Israel would yet surely happen.
- Cause. Chapter 54's blessing flows out of chapter 53. The Messiah's sufferings are why a barren, silent people will sing.
- Moment. The anger was real, and it hid God's face — but the verse measures it in a moment.
- Everlasting. The kindness has no end date. Mountains may go before it goes, and when God restores His people it is for ever.
- Redeemer. God signs the promise as Goel, the kinsman-redeemer who alone holds the right to buy His people back — and who bought them out of Egypt once already.
- Certainty. The flood came just as God said it would, and so will this blessing. And the promise is Israel's: God has never hidden His face from the church, not even for a moment.
For this is [as] the waters of Noah unto me, since I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth so have I sworn that I will no more be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my loving-kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall my covenant of peace be removed, saith Jehovah, that hath mercy on thee.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
[Thou] afflicted, tossed with tempest, not comforted! Behold, I will set thy stones in antimony, and lay thy foundations with sapphires;
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
and I will make thy battlements of rubies, and thy gates of carbuncles, and all thy borders of precious stones.
This promise is spoken to a city that is battered and without comfort. God answers her not with pity but with jewels, which raises three questions: what the stones mean, who the city is, and whose beauty this is.
One writer describes the state Jerusalem is in when this promise comes.
Isaiah 54 gives the result of these events for Jerusalem in those days. Jerusalem is seen as barren and desolate, after rejecting Him who came to be her husband. But now, through the grace that has made the LORD her righteousness, she is told to enlarge the place of her tent and spread out the curtains of her home... For a little while God has treated her as a rejected wife, but has now comforted her with everlasting mercies.
The jewels of this verse are part of that comfort. They are how the mercy shows itself.
So the prophecy is not only of everlasting mercy restoring the ancient people. Along with it come images of beauty and glory with which the LORD will adorn them. Truth will be theirs, for they will all be taught by the LORD. They will enjoy peace too, great peace. Established in righteousness, they will be far from oppression and fear.
Translators have questioned the older English "windows of agates."
The passage in Isa. 54:12, "I will make your windows of agates" is better translated, "I will make your battlements, or pinnacles, of rubies."
The Hebrew word itself points to a stone that sparkles, and windows in that world were not glazed.
The Hebrew word comes from a root meaning "to strike fire," so it means a sparkling gem, a ruby — "a shining, sparkling precious stone, probably a carbuncle, so called from its red sparkling colour." Some have thought this meant the agate was transparent, and that the windows were glazed with agates. But windows were not glazed then. Others translate the word "minarets, pinnacles, battlements," and instead of "agates" many prefer rubies.
The gates too are fiery. A carbuncle is "a stone of a fiery sparkling nature" (Morrish Bible Dictionary).
Notice the repeated "I will make." The city produces none of this.
They are a glory that can be put on. The high priest carried the names engraved on the stones. But there was nothing inherent in them, no bond of union between God and them... It is glory, not a sharing in the divine nature.
The heavenly city of Revelation also has jewelled gates. One writer compares the two:
When the Lord sets up the earthly capital city in the magnificence of the millennium, He says to her: I will make your gates of carbuncles (Isa. 54:12). The fiery-red splendour of these gates on earth is quite unlike the soft, shimmering beauty and purity of the pearl gates of the heavenly city... This keeps the heavenly character of the church, a people not of this world, clearly before us.
Another writer reads these stones as a clue to the jewelled wall of the city in Revelation:
Perhaps in Isaiah 54 we have a pointer to the meaning of the stones... Israel in the millennium is going to be marked by this beauty. So the wall in Revelation 21 seems to have more of a Jewish character than to be a picture of the church.
This promise has been used to defend lavish church buildings. Kelly quotes one writer's reply:
Dr. Newman quotes this passage from Isaiah 54 as a prophecy and authorisation of the lavish splendour of the Church of Rome. This is clearly to use the passage in the way of application. Protestants will say that it is a wrong use of it... But what disagreement can there be about the primary sense of the passage? Who can deny that the prophet's words apply first of all to the restored Zion, however we may apply them afterwards?
Vine takes the same promise and turns it toward God's people:
This promise of jewels is the beauty and perfection of Christ, which is put upon us.
- Storm — God treated this city as a rejected wife for a little while. Now He comforts her with everlasting mercies.
- Stones — "Windows of agates" is better read as battlements or pinnacles of rubies. The carbuncle gates are a stone of fiery, sparkling colour.
- Given — Every part begins with "I will make." Precious stones picture a glory put on, not a nature owned.
- Earthly — The fiery gates here are not the pearl gates of the heavenly city. Scripture keeps the two apart.
- Applied — The words apply first to restored Zion. Used rightly, they picture the beauty of Christ put on His people.
And all thy children [shall be] taught of Jehovah, and great shall be the peace of thy children.
Isaiah 54 speaks to Jerusalem as a wife once set aside and now taken back. Verse 13 names two gifts for her restored family: teaching from God, and great peace.
Commentators read the chapter as Jerusalem's reversal, after she had rejected the One who came to her:
Isaiah 54 gives the result of these events to Jerusalem in those days. Jerusalem is seen as barren and desolate, after rejecting Him who came to be her husband. But now grace has made Jehovah her righteousness. So she is called to enlarge the place of her tent and to spread out the curtains of her home. That grace counts all those gathered during her desolation as her children… For a little while God has treated her as a rejected wife, but has now comforted her with everlasting mercies.
Verse 13 stands out from the promises just before it:
The closing verses of this chapter show some of the blessings that will belong to Israel when the covenant is established. Verses 11 and 12 may speak of material favours, but verse 13 shows spiritual blessing. All the true children of Israel will be taught by God, and His teaching truly works. Their peace will be great, because it rests on righteousness, as the next verse shows.
How far does "all" reach? Writers tie the promise to the new covenant:
There is much ground for believing that all who survive of Israel at the start of the Millennium will be saved, and that the whole nation will be saved throughout the thousand years… The new covenant is to be made with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. In that covenant God undertakes to put His law inside them and to write it on their hearts: "And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' for they shall all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more."
One writer draws out who guarantees a result that wide:
So it will be when the new covenant is established with both the houses of Israel… There will then be no question of teaching, each his fellow-citizen, and each his brother… That the result covers everyone shows that God is the One who ensures it. Under human teaching, however good, we see every level of ability, and at best knowledge far from perfect.
Jesus took up this line in John 6, in connection with the Father drawing people to Him. How does the Father draw?
The way the Father draws is by divine teaching, according to the word, "They will all be taught by God". The Father enlightens the soul. He convicts it of its need of Christ on the one hand, and reveals the glory of Christ on the other. So the soul is driven by need and drawn by grace to Christ.
He treated a promise about Israel's future as already at work:
The Lord found in Isaiah 54:13 a forecast of this inward work of the Father. Israel's children will be redeemed and restored when the age to come dawns. He knew that what He is going to do in them, He was doing then, and He is still doing today.
Commentators differ on how far "all" reaches today. One writes that "the word 'all' cannot be applied today as in the millennium" (L. M. Grant).
The New Testament applies this teaching in two directions:
In the New Testament the Holy Spirit takes these truths, which belong first to Jerusalem and her children in the coming day, and applies them to us now. In 1 Thessalonians 4:9 we read, "you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another." John 6:45 quotes the promise too. In John, the teaching of God turns the soul to our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. In Thessalonians it instructs those who have come to Him to love one another.
One word in the verse can be read two ways:
The Hebrew language was originally written without vowel points… It is questioned whether in Isaiah 54:13 it should be read 'your children' or 'your builders' — a question the vowel points would have decided.
- Wife. The verse speaks to a city treated as a rejected wife, then comforted with everlasting mercies. The children are grace's gift to the desolate.
- Taught. God's teaching works, and it reaches every one of them. No one will need to say to his neighbour, "Know the LORD."
- Drawn. Jesus applied the line to the Father's drawing. The Father shows the soul its need and Christ's glory, so need drives and grace draws.
- Now. What God will do for Israel's children in the age to come, He was doing then and does still. He also teaches believers to love one another.
- Peace. The peace is great because it rests on righteousness, as the next verse shows.
In righteousness shalt thou be established thou shalt be far from oppression, for thou shalt not fear; and from terror, for it shall not come near thee.
Isaiah 54 promises restoration to a nation that has been barren, and verse 14 names the ground it all stands on. Two questions follow: whose righteousness is this, and when does the freedom from fear arrive?
The promise does not begin at chapter 54. Commentators tie the restoration to the suffering Servant described just before it.
We start with a prediction of the coming exaltation of the once humbled Servant of Jehovah. Then we consider Him in His rejection, when His soul became an offering for sin. His shame and suffering did not destroy every prospect of His glory. They are the secure foundation on which His glory will rest forever... Then in Isaiah 54 we read of the restoration and blessing of Israel that follows. That nation, barren until now, will burst into song.
The previous verse promises great peace to the city's children. That peace is not left hanging; the next line supplies what it stands on.
God will teach all the true children of Israel — and His teaching works. Their peace will be great, because it rests on righteousness, as the next verse shows.
"In righteousness you shall be established" — but whose righteousness? The chapter answers three verses later, where God calls it His own.
The next mention of "servants" comes in Isaiah 54:17: "This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord; and their righteousness is from Me." It is not from the law, nor from their own works, but from God.
Another writer names what that righteousness secures:
When Israel stands in righteousness worked out by God, neither weapon nor word will prevail against them. Notice how strongly this passage stresses righteousness — righteousness the suffering Servant of Isaiah 53 worked out on their behalf. It reminds one of the way righteousness stands at the very front of gospel testimony, as we see in Romans 1:17.
One writer puts the whole promise for the restored nation in plain terms.
The LORD will teach the nation, and great will be their peace, for God will establish them in righteousness. No one will oppress them any longer, and they will not live in fear and terror.
Yet the verse removes fear, not enemies.
Truth will be theirs, for Jehovah will teach them all. They will enjoy peace too — great peace. Established in righteousness, they will be far from oppression and fear, though not free from hostile intention. We know this from Ezekiel 38 — 39 at the beginning of the thousand-year reign, and from Revelation 20:7-9 at its end.
Some read the chapter as fulfilled when the exiles came home from Babylon. One writer rejects that, though he allows the principle a wider use.
Isaiah 54 looks on to that day. It was in no way applicable to the remnant that returned from Babylon. The principle does apply, and is applied, to the grace of God. Through faith in Christ, the gospel brings in so many unexpected children of Abraham (Galatians 4). But the direct and complete fulfilment can only come as a whole, when Israel's sorrows end. Then God will gather them and establish them in righteousness, as far from oppression as from fear... It cannot be until Christ comes again.
Writers differ on how far the verse stretches. Kelly holds to the first meaning. Vine points to the New Testament, which takes this language and applies it to believers now.
We need not be anxious about our spiritual growth and prosperity as we remain in Christ. Scripture says, "All your children shall be taught by the Lord; and great shall be the peace of your children. In righteousness you shall be established... you shall not fear." In the New Testament we see again how the Holy Spirit takes these truths and applies them to us now. They belong first to Jerusalem and her children in the coming day.
The same righteousness answers every accusation:
Christ is made to us righteousness as well as redemption from God, so that we can now boast in the Lord (1 Corinthians 1:30). Who can condemn Him? Who can condemn those whose righteousness He is?
- Cause — the Servant's suffering in Isaiah 53 is the secure foundation. Chapter 54's song of restoration grows out of it.
- Gift — "in righteousness" does not mean their own record. God says of them, "their righteousness is from Me" — not from the law, not from their works.
- Peace — verse 13 promises great peace and verse 14 gives its ground. Peace rests on righteousness, never the other way round.
- Reach — hostile intent remains, but oppression, fear and terror go. The verse promises safety in the middle of hostility, not the absence of it.
- Result — commentators differ on scope. Full fulfilment waits for Christ's return and Israel's restoration. Yet the New Testament already applies these words to believers, whose righteousness is Christ Himself.
Behold, they shall surely gather together, [but] not by me whosoever gathereth together against thee shall fall because of thee.
Isaiah 54 promises a restored nation, settled in righteousness and free from fear, right after the chapter about the suffering Servant. Verse 15 admits that enemies will still gather — and it says who is not behind them, and how it ends for them.
The verses just before describe a people taught by God and established in righteousness. Verse 15 tests whether that peace can hold. Where the ESV reads "stirs up strife," older translations read "they shall surely gather together against you," and the writers below use that older wording. One writer traces this security back to the work of the suffering Servant.
Adversaries there will be, and they will gather together to disturb the peace, if that were possible. In the past God did use enemies to discipline His people. But in the day now in view their gathering will be "not by Me," and it will only bring about their own overthrow. When Israel stands in righteousness worked out by God, neither weapon nor word shall prevail against them. It is remarkable how much weight righteousness carries here — righteousness worked on their behalf by the suffering Servant of Isaiah 53.
Those two words mark a change in how God governs. He once used enemies to discipline His people. Here their gathering carries no authority from Him, and His rule runs the other way:
Some may gather together against the nation. But under the government of God, He will no longer let them triumph over His people. Instead, their opposition to God's people will bring about their own downfall. God has prepared instruments to deal in judgment with those who oppose them.
The promise is not that no one will ever plot again. One writer notes that such gatherings still appear in Scripture after Israel is restored:
So the prophecy is not only about everlasting mercy restoring the ancient people. Along with it come images of beauty and glory with which Jehovah will adorn them. Truth will be theirs, for they will all be taught by Jehovah. Peace too, great peace, will be theirs. Established in righteousness, they will be far from oppression and fear — though not from hostile intention. We know this from Ezekiel 38 — 39 at the beginning of the millennium, and from Revelation 20:7-9 at its end.
The attacker does not just fail. He falls because of the very people he targeted. One writer points to a moment in Israel's past when a raised sceptre decided the whole matter:
The nation was already saved. The sceptre had decided everything in favour of the Jews. Their enemies were left in confusion, however high and mighty, however many and however subtle they may be. God had taken the matter into His own hand. And if He is for us, who can be against us?
One writer applies the same principle to Gog, whose armies will come against God's chosen:
Jehovah will make of Gog and his multitudes a permanent warning to the nations of the earth not to meddle with His chosen. No people who have ill-treated Israel have ever prospered. This matches the word exactly: "No weapon formed against you shall prosper" (Isaiah 54:17). … Israel will not need to fight: Jehovah will fight for them, and, as on the shores of the Red Sea, they have only to stand still and see His salvation.
One writer shows how the New Testament takes up this promise:
We see again, in the New Testament, how the Holy Spirit takes these truths, which belong first to Jerusalem and her children in the coming day, and applies them to us now. … All the children of the free city are taught by God, in a true, spiritual sense. And to them it is said, "Whoever gathers together against you shall fall because of you."
That confidence is not built on ignoring opposition, but on the nearness of God:
We have little awareness of the evil forces at work against those who belong to our Lord Jesus Christ. We do not need to seek a greater awareness of them either. We are to be simple as to evil, and wise about what is good. God is nearer to us than every foe, closer, greater and wiser than all.
- Cause — the peace of this chapter rests on righteousness worked out by the suffering Servant of Isaiah 53. That is why no weapon and no word can prevail.
- Change — God once used enemies to discipline His people. Here the gathering is "not by Me," so it carries no authority from Him.
- Confidence — righteousness brings freedom from fear, but not freedom from enemies. Hostile plans still form, at the start of the millennium and at its close.
- Collapse — the attacker's own opposition destroys him. God has already prepared the instruments of judgment, and His people need only stand still and see His salvation.
- Carry-over — the New Testament applies these promises to believers now. Their safety lies in a God nearer to them than any enemy.
Behold, it is I who have created the smith that bloweth in the fire of coal, and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work; and I have created the destroyer to ravage.
Isaiah 54 ends with a promise that no weapon aimed at God's people will succeed. This verse gives the reason: God made the blacksmith who forges the weapon, and He made the destroyer who uses it.
The safety promised in this chapter rests on what the previous chapter describes.
In chapter 53 we hear the Spirit of God foretelling the sufferings of Christ and the glories that will follow. In chapter 54 we learn that, after the exaltation of Christ, the Jewish nation will be restored. In the days that are past, that nation had enjoyed a place of nearness to the LORD, pictured by the figure of marriage.
The men who forge and wield weapons are not free agents. God has His own instruments ready.
There may be those who will gather together against the nation. But in the government of God He will no longer let them triumph over His people. On the contrary, their opposition to God's people will bring about their own downfall. God has prepared instruments to deal in judgment with those who oppose them.
God's control over the destroyer is not only future. It has already happened once, with the empire that struck Israel.
God uses the pride and iniquity of the wicked to discipline His people. Afterwards He destroys the instrument. The Assyrian, God's rod to strike Israel, glorifies himself against God, who breaks the rod.
The previous verse says such a gathering does not come from God. That marks the change. Hostility still exists, but it is no longer God's discipline.
There will be adversaries, and they will gather to disturb the peace, if that were possible. In the past God did use adversaries to discipline His people. But in the day now in view their gathering will be "not by Me," and it will only lead to their own overthrow. When Israel stands in a righteousness that God has worked, no weapon and no word will win against them.
The next verse calls the protected people "the servants of the LORD." One writer shows where that title comes from.
This is the last time Isaiah calls Christ the "Servant" (Isa. 53:11); after that we read of "servants." It is because His atoning work is looked upon as complete, so others are justified. The next mention of "servants" is in Isaiah 54:17: "This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD; and their righteousness is of Me." That righteousness is not of the law, nor of their own works, but of God.
(The ESV reads "their vindication from me" here. The wording quoted above comes from an older translation, which reads "righteousness.")
The promise was made first to Israel. But one writer applies the same ground to those who belong to Christ now, because their righteousness is also given to them.
We have little idea of the evil forces at work against those who belong to our Lord Jesus Christ. Nor do we need to seek a greater idea of them. We are to be simple as to evil, and wise concerning what is good. God is nearer to us than every foe, more close, and greater and wiser than all. He blessedly assures our hearts that "no weapon that is fashioned against you shall succeed." Christ is made to us righteousness as well as redemption from God, so that we can now boast in the Lord. Who can condemn Him? Who can condemn those whose righteousness He is?
- Created — God made the smith who forges the weapon and the destroyer who uses it. Neither is a power on its own.
- Commissioned — God has used enemies to discipline His people, then broken them. The rod never outlives its purpose.
- Cancelled — enemies still gather, but no longer at God's command. The hostility is real; the licence for it is gone.
- Covered — their safety rests on righteousness that God gives, not on their own works or the law. It flows from the Servant's finished work.
- Confidence — verse 17 calls this a heritage, not an achievement. The same ground lets a believer face unseen enemies without fear.
No weapon that is prepared against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that riseth against thee in judgment, thou shalt condemn. This is the inheritance of the servants of Jehovah; and their righteousness is of me, saith Jehovah.
Isaiah 54 is a song about a city once abandoned and now safe, and its last verse makes two promises: no weapon will work, and no accusation will stand. The question the verse forces is why — and the answer comes at the very end, in the words "their vindication from me."
The promise comes at the end of chapters that name a real city and a real people. One writer follows those chapters in order and keeps the promise tied to Israel's twelve tribes:
Isaiah 54:17 refers to all twelve tribes of Israel. Ten of the tribes broke away from the other two, but God will join them together again as one people in a future day, and these glowing prophecies are about them. Read Isaiah 52, and you will find Zion and Jerusalem addressed all through the chapter. Isaiah 53 describes the death of their Messiah in vivid detail, and prophesies its glorious results. Chapter 54 then bursts into loud, triumphant joy as the prophet sees the wonderful place Israel — all twelve tribes — will have when the Messiah reigns in power and glory.
Another writer warns that turning these prophecies into picture-language ruins Christian faith and practice:
Look at the terrible damage done on both sides by everyone who turns these prophecies into picture-language. It is a popular habit in every kind of church, and it is hard to say who is most at fault. This path ruins the faith and the practice that mark out Christianity.
The verse does not say weapons stop being made. It says they stop working — and the attack falls back on the attacker.
Some will still gather together against the nation. But God rules, and He will no longer let them win over His people. Instead, their opposition to God's people will bring about their own downfall, because God has prepared the means to judge those who oppose Him.
So safety here is not the absence of enemies. It is protection while enemies still exist:
Truth will be theirs, for the Lord Himself will teach them all. They will enjoy peace too, great peace. Standing firm in righteousness, they will be far from oppression and fear — though not far from those who still wish them harm.
Both halves of the promise rest on the closing line. One writer ties that righteousness back to the suffering described one chapter earlier:
When Israel stands in righteousness worked out by God, neither weapon nor word shall prevail against them. It is remarkable how much weight righteousness carries here. The suffering Servant of Isaiah 53 worked it out on their behalf.
The word changes between chapter 53 and this verse, and the change matters. One Servant does the work; because it is finished, many servants are justified. The writer uses an older translation here, which ends the verse "their righteousness is of Me" where the ESV has "their vindication from me."
This is the last time Isaiah calls Christ the "Servant" (Isa. 53:11). After that we read of "servants." The reason is that His atoning work is now seen as finished, so others are justified… The next mention of "servants" comes in Isaiah 54:17: "This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord; and their righteousness is of Me." That righteousness does not come from the law, or from their own works, but from God.
If the righteousness belongs to another, then any charge brought must be answered by that other. The same writer draws the line straight through to believers today:
God has made Christ our righteousness, and our redemption too, so that we can now boast in the Lord (1 Cor. 1:30). Who can condemn Him? Who can condemn those whose righteousness He is?… They once looked for righteousness and never found it. Now, through redemption, they know it, and they boast in Christ who is our righteousness. Ours now, and theirs then, when they shall turn to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Commentators differ on how far the verse reaches to Christians today. One urges caution, holding the two things close without merging them:
We must connect these passages with the ones that call their righteousness the Lord's own (Isa. 45:24; Isa. 54:17). The two are not the same thing, though they fit well together… Israel's salvation in the coming day is still very different from the gospel salvation we are dealing with here. In that day God will display righteousness by judging the enemies of His people on earth.
- Given, not earned. The verse ends by naming the source: righteousness that comes from God, "not of the law, nor of their own works."
- Given through One. The suffering Servant of Isaiah 53 worked that righteousness out for them. That is why the chapter goes on to speak of "servants," plural.
- Given, so untouchable. Weapons and words fail for the same reason: God supplies the righteousness, so there is nothing left to condemn.
- Given, not to a quiet world. Enemies still gather; the promise is not that hostility ends, but that it collapses on the ones who bring it.
- Given first to Israel. The promise is made to a real, restored people. One writer says the same righteousness is already "ours now." Another stresses how different that future day is from gospel salvation.
Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters; and he that hath no money, come ye, buy, and eat yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price!
Isaiah 55 opens with a public cry, the kind a street trader uses to stop passers-by — except that here nothing is for sale. Three questions press on the reader: who may come, what is on offer, and how anyone with no money can buy.
Isaiah 55 does not stand alone. It is the third step in a sequence.
Isaiah 53 predicts the atoning work of Christ; Isaiah 54, the resulting blessing of Israel; Isaiah 55, grace flowing out to the Gentiles.
The word "everyone" is not decoration. Once God shows mercy to Israel, nothing holds that mercy back from anyone else.
If God, in the restoration of Israel, acts "with great mercies" as foretold in the previous chapter (verse 7), what is to hinder the same grace flowing out to a needy and sinful world? So in chapter 55 we have the invitation of free grace proclaimed to "everyone" — Jew and Gentile alike.
Many readers stumble here, wondering whether their longing is deep enough to count. That worry misreads the invitation.
Thirst is a craving that only the right drink can satisfy. The thirst of an anxious soul is really for God and His Christ, though the person could probably not put it in those words. The point is not the measure of your anxiety, but the fact of your being "thirsty" or willing at all. If so, hear the word of the Lord: "To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment… Let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price" (Rev. 21:6; 22:17). What lovely words! "I will give… without payment." That is God's side. "Let him take… without price." That is your side. God gives; all you have to do is take what He gives.
Two reasons stand behind "without money" — one on God's side, one on ours. Both rule out payment.
Man is needy, and admits it, yet imagines he must bring God something in return before he can get what he needs. If you, my reader, belong to this mistaken group, may God open your eyes to see His way of salvation. His grace provides it, not your works of any kind. There are two good reasons for this. First, God is too rich to sell salvation; and second, man is too poor to buy it. So you must get it as a gift, if you are to get it at all.
If nothing is paid, the command to buy seems strange. It is chosen for what buying implies about the buyer.
Why "buy"? Because it assumes a person is in earnest. When someone goes into a shop to "buy" something, his very presence there shows he really wanted it. Otherwise he would not have taken the trouble to walk in. Buying implies direct dealing between two parties. This is exactly what God wants. He wishes you brought into His own presence in real desire to have salvation — the water of life — Christ. You come. What then? You find it is all a gift.
"Without price" does not mean the blessing was cheap. It means the bill went elsewhere.
If someone owns his poverty as a bankrupt sinner, and comes to Christ in true soul thirst and need, he finds he can buy divine righteousness without money or price. The reason is that the Saviour paid the great price of it in full at Calvary.
The verse names wine and milk. Each meets a different need in the soul.
In Scripture wine speaks of joy and gladness. Here God invites the poor to buy the wine that makes glad the heart of God and man. But how can we buy if we have no money? All that God asks from us is faith in Himself, and in His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Coming to Him in faith we receive the blessings of the gospel. One of them is "joy in the Holy Spirit." Another divine blessing is "milk," which nourishes us, sustains us and helps us grow in the things of God — "the pure spiritual milk" (1 Peter 2:2).
The invitation does not stop at the gifts.
Three times over in Isaiah 55:1 the cry is to "come" for the blessings of God. But in verse 3 the Lord says, "Incline your ear, and come to me." It is good to come for blessing that God has provided. How very wonderful that we can come to the Lord Himself, the source of all the blessing. Coming to Him, having heard His voice, we receive life, for He says, "Come to me… that your soul may live."
- Cost paid. The invitation follows Isaiah 53: the Saviour paid the whole price at Calvary, so the counter charges you nothing.
- Price removed. God is too rich to sell salvation and man too poor to buy it, so it can only come as a gift.
- Thirst owned. Thirst is the whole qualification — not how strong your longing is, only that you want it.
- Doors opened. "Everyone" carries the offer past Israel to a needy world, Jew and Gentile alike.
- Life given. Water, wine and milk answer thirst, joy and growth — but the last "come" points past the gifts to the Giver, so that your soul may live.
Wherefore do ye spend money for [that which is] not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? Hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye [that which is] good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.
God interrupts the free invitation of the previous verse with a question. Before He offers His food, He asks them to look at what they are already buying — and at what it gives them back.
Verse 1 speaks to the person with no money at all. Verse 2 turns to a different listener: the one who has money and buys what is worthless. One writer draws out what "bread" stands for here:
There were not only the poor who had no money. God offered them His blessings. There were also the rich, who had money and spent it on what was not bread. In Scripture, bread is what is needed to keep life going. And the usual bent of the rich is to seek things that destroy the soul instead of things that feed it.
The second half of the question is about effort, not only cash. The work itself does not satisfy. One writer explains why:
As long as anyone's heart seeks rest, satisfaction, or happiness in this world, it will find only disappointment... The heart of man is too large for this world to fill. Its capacities are too vast for everything under the heavens to satisfy... But suppose a man reached every object he desired and held it all — what would he gain? Only a deeper sense that all is empty. Earthly good has no power to fill the aching emptiness inside. Every worldly pleasure, amusement and indulgence leaves the soul more thirsty than ever.
If nothing bought will satisfy, what is the craving for? One writer names what the thirsty soul is after, even when it cannot put that into words:
The thirsty are invited. And are you not among that number? You certainly are, if you have not yet found Jesus. Our verses say that "your labor," whatever it is, "does not satisfy." Thirst is a craving that only the right drink can satisfy. Now the thirst of an anxious soul is really for God and His Christ, though very likely it could not put it in so many words.
The verse is not only about pleasure and profit. People can spend money and effort on religious things that still leave the soul unfed:
Don't many of the religious books of today bear clear marks of a famine of the word of God? After reading pages of them we have sometimes said, "There is no ministry of Christ here. Where is food for souls?" ... We say it to warn Christian writers and readers. They should not waste their time, energy and money on what neither honours the Lord nor feeds souls.
The remedy God gives is to listen closely and eat what is good. One writer sets what that "good" is against the kind of blessing Israel might have expected:
What better could be known than "life" above the life of nature, received through faith in the divine Word — with Jehovah's favour enjoyed as well? This was not blessing in the city and in the field, or in the cattle and in the flock, in the basket and in the kneading bowl. It was not even being made the head rather than the tail. Old Testament believers knew this blessing and had it by grace, though far from the fullness we now have through and in Christ.
The good food comes with a condition — hearing:
Only those who listen closely to the Lord know what is good for the soul. Only those who hear His word will delight their souls in His rich provision.
"Eat what is good" raises a question: where is that food found? The answer is not a thing but a Person:
But where, you may ask again, are we to find the needed and suited portion for the soul? Let the Spirit of Truth answer... Christ Himself is the life and food of the soul. "I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst" (John 6:35). Here, and here alone, the soul of man will find eternal rest. He is the only perfect and permanent good of the soul... Christ not only fills, but overflows the soul that is occupied with Him alone.
- Diagnosis — "Bread" is what keeps life going. The verse finds people paying good money for what cannot keep a soul alive.
- Evidence — The heart is too large for the world to fill, so every pleasure leaves it thirstier than before.
- Meaning — The thirst itself points somewhere. It is really a thirst for God and His Christ.
- Warning — Religious activity can be "not bread" too, if there is no ministry of Christ in it and souls go unfed.
- Cure — Listen closely and eat what is good: life and God's favour, found in Christ Himself. He does not just fill the soul; He overflows it.
Incline your ear, and come unto me; hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, the sure mercies of David.
God speaks here to a people with nothing to offer, and instead of demanding payment He asks only for an open ear. It ties three things together: hearing that leads to life, a covenant that never expires, and a promise once made to David. The writers here find all three settled in a risen Christ.
The chapter has already called people to come for water, wine and milk. Verse 3 changes the destination — the invitation is no longer to a supply, but to a Person.
Three times over in Isaiah 55:1 the cry is to "come" for the blessings of God. But in verse 3 the Lord says, "Incline your ear, and come to me." It is good to come for blessing that God has provided. How wonderful that we can come to the Lord Himself, the source of all the blessing. Coming to Him, having heard His voice, we receive life, for He says, "Come… that your soul may live."
Listening is not a small first step before the real work begins. It is how the life comes.
The wisdom commended here does not come by the sight of the eyes, or by the activity of the mind, or even by training the affections. "Hear, that your soul may live," said Isaiah; and so the Apostle, "Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God."
Older translations end the verse with the words "the sure mercies of David," and the writers quoted here use that wording. The phrase points back to a promise God had already sworn to David.
What are the sure mercies of David? Perhaps Psalm 89:3-4 provides the answer. God is speaking: "I have made a covenant with my chosen one; I have sworn to David my servant: 'I will establish your offspring forever, and build your throne for all generations.'" God's promise to David was that his line would continue and his rule in His Name would also continue… When God sought to impress His people with the offer of stable and satisfying blessing, He reminds them of His covenant with David — a covenant He will never take back.
One writer traces the word sure straight back to the resurrection.
We must have Christ's resurrection even to get the earthly blessings of Israel. That is why, in Acts 13, Paul says that God raised Christ "up from the dead, no more to return to corruption"… Israel could not have them without death and resurrection. So the sure mercies of David are proof of resurrection. Until then, nothing was sure. If they trusted in a living man, all failed.
Israel had ruined every claim on God's kindness. One writer asks how blessing could still come.
If Israel had crucified the very One who was to bring them blessing, and if they had broken the covenant that promised them blessing, how could God still bless them? This could only become true out of pure grace and mercy… This verse links the sure mercies of David with the new covenant (Jer. 31:31). That covenant is pure grace: God takes all the obligations, and Israel receives all the blessing. Only one foundation can carry it: the shedding of the blood of Christ (Matt. 26:28; see also Isa. 54:10).
The invitation was never for Israel alone. One writer points to two men in Acts who lived it out.
Isaiah 55 opens with a call to "everyone who thirsts," so we move past the borders of Israel to blessings that will reach the Gentiles through the work of the Servant who has died. We see this in Acts 8 and 10. The Ethiopian's thirst led him to travel a long way to Jerusalem, seeking after God. The thirst of Cornelius led him to prayer and giving to the poor. In both cases they were looking for water to quench their thirst, and they got more — even "wine and milk without money and without price." They got it by inclining their ear and coming to the Source Himself. They heard and their souls lived, just as the prophet said in these verses. So even Gentiles are to enjoy the blessings of "the everlasting covenant."
What David received as a promise, Christ has now secured as a fact.
The covenant is "an everlasting covenant." He is "WITNESS," "PRINCE," and "COMMANDER," so nothing can fail. The sure mercies were promised. Now they are secured, and those who turn to Him have them in Christ… These sure mercies speak of abundant pardon and full blessing.
- Hear — the verse asks for an ear, not a payment; life comes by listening, because faith comes by hearing.
- Come — the invitation is not just to the blessings but to the Giver Himself. Coming to Him is where the soul begins to live.
- Sure — the mercies are sure because they rest on a risen Christ. Trust in a man who could still die secured nothing.
- Everlasting — this covenant is pure grace. God carries every obligation, and it rests on the blood of Christ, not on Israel's record.
- Held — what God promised to David, Christ has secured; everyone who turns to Him now has it.
Behold, I have given him [for] a witness to the peoples, a prince and commander to the peoples.
The invitation of this chapter costs nothing. But it rests on a Person. God breaks off His call to come and live, and points to someone He has given. Verse 4 names Him three ways: witness, leader, commander. Who is this "him," and who is He given to?
The chapter speaks to Israel, yet its language keeps widening. One writer reads verses 1 to 4 together and finds the identity of this person plain.
Clearly this points to some outstanding One, and no believer need hesitate about who He is. It is the Lord Jesus in royal relation to Israel (v. 3), and along with that a witness and commander to the peoples of the earth (v. 4).
How far does this gift reach? One writer answers from a detail of translation, then says what each title does.
Gentiles are definitely in view also in verse 4, since the word "people," which occurs twice, should be in the plural. God's Holy Servant, risen from the dead, is given as "a Witness to the peoples, a Leader and Commander to the peoples." As the Witness He makes God known to men. As the Leader and Commander He brings men into subjection to God.
The first title has no partners. He holds a place as witness that nobody else can share.
As the Witness to the peoples He stands absolutely alone. He only is the Declarer of God, being the only begotten Son, who abides "in the bosom of the Father" (John 1:18). He is "the faithful Witness," and again, "the faithful and true Witness" (Rev. 1:5; Rev. 3:14). So in Him we really know God as He is. We need to keep reminding ourselves of this, since people in the world always tend to judge God by what they find in the world. So they utterly misjudge Him, and frame their complaints against Him.
The second and third titles work differently from the first. Neither one stands on its own. Each assumes people on the receiving end.
If He stands alone as Witness, we can see a contrast when we consider Him as Leader and Commander. Here others are necessarily in view — those whom He leads and commands. As Leader He goes before us, marks out the path and shows the way. As Commander He issues directions and instructs us in all that is the will of God. We need both: we find both in Him, for God has made that same Jesus, whom men crucified, "both Lord and Christ." As Lord He stands on God's behalf, directing and teaching, which answers to "Commander." As Christ He takes His place as the risen and anointed Head of all redeemed creation, and Head of His church in particular. That unfolds more fully what "Leader" sets out.
Verse 3 promises an everlasting covenant and the sure mercies of David. Why can those promises never fail? One writer points to the death and resurrection of Christ.
All, therefore, is stable, sure and safe in the hand of Him who died and rose again. "The pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand." He is the great Shepherd of the sheep, brought back from among the dead "in the power of the blood of the everlasting covenant." The covenant is "an everlasting covenant." And He is "WITNESS," "PRINCE," and "COMMANDER," so nothing can fail. God promised the sure mercies; Christ has now secured them; and those who turn to Him hold them in Christ.
One writer sets the verse against the long, dark history of Israel and the day that will end it.
Dark has been the history of that people ever since, in spite of repeated revivals and restorations, and dark it will continue to be until the glorious day shall come when (as we read in Isaiah 55:4), "I have given Him … for a leader and commander to the people."
Yet not all of this waits for that day. The writer quoted earlier turns the verse on the reader now.
The same thing is true in principle today, as men and women from a thousand different peoples hear the Gospel and find in Jesus the One whom God has made both Lord and Christ. Let each reader challenge his or her heart. Have I received His witness in full? Is He truly Leader and Commander in my life?
- Given — God's answer to the invitation of verses 1–3 is not a plan but a Person: "Behold, I made him a witness to the peoples." Older translations read, "I have given him."
- Witness — He alone declares God, for He is God's only begotten Son — God's unique Son. So we learn what God is like from Him, not from the world around us.
- Leader — He goes before, marks out the path and shows the way; the title assumes followers.
- Commander — He gives the directions and teaches the will of God. God has made that same Jesus, whom men crucified, both Lord and Christ.
- Peoples — the word is plural. The gift reaches past Israel to the nations — in full in the coming day, and already in principle wherever people believe the good news.
Behold, thou shalt call a nation thou knowest not, and a nation [that] knew not thee shall run unto thee, because of Jehovah thy God, and the Holy One of Israel; for he hath glorified thee.
Isaiah 55 opens with a call to everyone who is thirsty. By the fifth verse that call has reached past Israel's borders, out to nations that have never heard of the speaker. Two questions decide how the verse reads. Who is the "you" who will call a nation he does not know? And why do strangers run to him?
One writer traces a movement across four chapters, ending in a house open to all peoples:
The great Messianic prophecy in the later part of Isaiah is a case in point. Isaiah 53 predicts the atoning work of Christ. Isaiah 54 predicts the blessing of Israel that follows. Isaiah 55 predicts grace flowing out to the Gentiles. Isaiah 56 predicts the house of the Lord established as the centre where all who fear His Name will be gathered — His house "a house of prayer for all peoples."
Up to this point the chapter speaks to people. In verse 5 the address changes:
Verse 1 gives a call to all who thirst. Verse 2 presents an argument meant to enforce the call. Verse 3 gives an invitation to life and mercy. Verses 4 and 5 make very definite announcements. Only the announcement of verse 4 speaks to men. In verse 5 we find the Lord's announcement to His Servant risen from the dead. It states in different words what Isaiah 49:6 had already said. This has definite application to the present age, when God is visiting the nations and taking out of them a people for His Name. In our verse it is tied to His present glory. Many from among the nations are running to Him today, while He is glorified on high.
Commentators differ. Another writer keeps verse 5 among the national promises made to Israel:
Israel will one day break into singing, because they will believe in the One they once despised. Meanwhile the invitation to a free and full salvation goes out to everyone. But the national promises to Israel are in evidence in verses 3-5. And when Israel is redeemed, the invitation to salvation will go out as never before. Now individuals are saved. Then nations will be brought into the kingdom.
Verse 3 promised God's "steadfast, sure love for David." The New Testament ties that promise to Christ raised from the dead:
His resurrection secures everything God promised to Israel. It is also the occasion for the outflow of the grace that calls, and will yet call, Gentiles into a share of God's blessing and of the knowledge of Himself. Before death and resurrection He was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Yet He could never deny His deeper glory, or His grace to the faith that saw either.
The verse gives its own reason for the running: God has glorified the one they run to. One writer finds the same thought in words Jesus spoke about His own death:
His own words when on earth were, "And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to Myself" (John 12:32). This is a clearer statement of the fact stated in verse 5 of Isaiah 55. We Gentiles, who were "alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise," have been called by Him, and are a kind of firstfruits of the nations that shall run to Him.
Verses 3, 4 and 5 form one chain. Each stage carries grace further out:
Having appealed to Israel and the nations, God now addresses Christ. He announces that there will be an answer to His proclamation of grace. That answer will gather the nations to the One whom God has glorified. So we have a threefold witness to the grace of God. Christ risen secures grace to Israel. Grace is proclaimed through Christ to the nations. Grace draws the nations to Christ glorified.
What happens today does not use up the promise. The whole promise is not still future either:
In the coming day there will of course be a complete fulfilment of Isaiah 55. It will come in the millennial blessing of the Gentile nations along with Israel. Yet there is a present-day fulfilment of this chapter. Verse 5, for instance, foreshadows the announcement the Lord made in Matthew 21:43. So also "my steadfast, sure love for David" (verse 3) is quoted by Paul in Acts 13:34 as referring to Christ risen from the dead. Such mercies are now available to all who believe, whether Jew or Gentile.
- Foundation. Christ risen from the dead secures the promises to Israel. His resurrection also opens the door for Gentiles. Before He died and rose, He was sent only to Israel's lost sheep.
- Announcement. Verse 4 speaks to men. Verse 5 is God's word to His risen Servant: He will call a nation He does not know.
- Magnet. The reason is "for he has glorified you." Nations run toward the One God has honoured, not toward anything in themselves.
- Reach. God has already called Gentiles who were once outside the covenants. They are a first instalment of the nations that will run to Him.
- Timing. People are being saved one by one now. Whole nations will come into the kingdom later. Commentators differ over whether verse 5 speaks to Christ or to Israel.
Seek ye Jehovah while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near.
Isaiah 55 opens with an invitation to everyone who is thirsty: come and buy, without money. Verse 6 makes that invitation urgent, because the little word "while" puts a limit on it.
One writer notes how wide the language of this chapter is:
The call is to Israel, but the language is so wide that it reaches the other nations too. ... Crucified and risen, Christ is the one who attracts all people without distinction. And the spirit of this wide grace runs right through this chapter.
Another writer draws the appeal straight out of that grace:
There is grace for all. So the appeal comes: seek the Lord in a day of grace – "while He may be found" – and call "upon Him while He is near."
One writer calls verse 6 a word of advice and verse 7 a word of assurance. The "while" marks off a season, not a permanent state:
Verse 6 gives what we may call a word of advice, and verse 7 follows with a word of assurance. There is a time when God is near and may be found in grace, and a time when He withdraws from the scene to act in judgment. These words are often spoken when the gospel is preached, for the day of salvation is NOW.
Another writer grounds the same command in what people are, and adds a warning:
People are lost sinners. By their love of sin they have strayed from their Maker into hopeless darkness. So they are always under responsibility to return to God, who has a righteous claim on the love and obedience of all His creatures. "Seek the LORD while He may be found," is His command to those who have wandered. His patience with sinners will not last for ever. One day people may want to "find" Him, and will discover that He is no longer "near."
The next verse spells out what the search means. It is a break with your own plan for getting blessing:
Men may have their "way," and their "thoughts," as to the way of obtaining blessing. But the wicked man is urged to "forsake his way" and "his thoughts," and return to the LORD to receive abundance of blessing on the ground of grace.
One writer ties that break to repentance, and explains why faith is not named here:
Giving up one's own thoughts and way is exactly what genuine repentance involves. Faith is needed too, of course. But when Isaiah wrote, Christ, the great Object of faith, was still only predicted and not yet revealed. So faith is not brought to the front in the Old Testament as it is in the New.
One writer hears both halves of the verse in the New Testament, and looks back on his own conversion:
The appeal in verse 6 carries our minds back to the time when we first sought the Lord. "Seek the LORD while He may be found" would remind us of the words in 2 Corinthians 6:2, "Behold, now is the favorable time." And "call upon Him while He is near" would remind us of Romans 10:13, "For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." We sought Him and we found Him. We called on Him and He heard our cry. The result is that we have received abundant pardon through the mercy of God.
One writer sets the two possible outcomes side by side:
There is a time coming when men will seek God but He will not be found. Today is the acceptable time when, on the ground of Christ's work, He may be found. But grace rejected will lead to judgment, when God will no longer be found by men, but men will be found out by God.
- Grace first. The call to seek rests on free grace. Crucified and risen, Christ attracts all people without distinction, so no one is shut out of the search.
- Now, not later. God is near today and can be found in grace. A time comes when He withdraws to judge, and His patience with sinners will not last for ever.
- Seek truly. Seeking means leaving your own way and your own thoughts behind. You return to the LORD and receive blessing on the ground of grace.
- Found or found out. Grace received brings abundant pardon. Grace rejected ends the search: God will no longer be found by men, and men will be found out by God.
Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return unto Jehovah, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
God tells the guilty man to drop two things: the road he walks and the thinking behind it. Then He promises mercy — and the questions are how far that pardon goes, and how a righteous God can offer it at all.
The verse names two things: a man's way and his thoughts. Both can be his own ideas about how to gain blessing.
Since there is grace for all, the appeal goes out to men to seek the Lord in a day of grace — "while He may be found" — and to call "upon Him while He is near." Men may have their own "way" and their own "thoughts" about how to gain blessing. But the call to the wicked man is to "forsake his way" and "his thoughts," and to return to the LORD and receive abundance of blessing on the ground of grace.
The phrase is not new in Isaiah. The prophet had already said that each of us has turned "to his own way" (Isaiah 53:6) — the very thing this verse tells the sinner to leave.
In line with the appeal in verse 7, we did forsake our way — the prophet in Isaiah 53 calls it our "own way" — and we did judge our unrighteous thoughts. We did this when we turned in true repentance towards God and in faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ. As a result we know that our sins are forgiven, and we are sure we are in right relations with God.
A man can stop sinning for a while without ever leaving his sin. Circumstances change, opportunity dries up, strength fails — and nothing has been forsaken.
To forsake sin is to leave it without any thought of returning to it again. It would be strange to find a drunkard so constant in that sin that you never once found him sober; and yet a drunkard he is, just as much as when he is drunk. Not everyone has left his trade whom we see now and then in his holiday clothes. A man forsakes his sin when he throws it from him and bolts the door on it, meaning never to open to it again… Forsake all or none; keep back one lust and you lose your soul.
The verse never uses the word repentance, yet that is what it describes. So why does it say nothing about faith?
The assurance is that if any, however wicked they may be, turn to the Lord in repentance, there is mercy for him. The forsaking of one's thoughts and way is just what genuine repentance involves. Faith, we know, is needed too. But when Isaiah wrote, Christ, the great Object of faith, had been predicted and not yet revealed. So the Old Testament does not bring faith to the front as the New does.
The verse promises more than mercy. The Hebrew behind its last words is stronger than a single act of forgiving.
But it is true at all times that the soul returning in repentance finds mercy. The offer here is not only of mercy but of pardon in abundant measure. As the margin note tells us, the Hebrew says that He will "multiply to pardon." Such is the freeness and the fullness of the divine mercy to the truly repentant.
The law that Israel lived under had no clause for this. Sincere sorrow did not cancel a penalty; a righteous law could not let it.
But God's sovereign grace shines out when He speaks to the individual instead of the nation. Here is mercy for the wrongdoer — mercy the law could not hold out, and indeed ought not, or it would stop being a righteous law. But grace is higher than law. Grace tells the law to stand aside until the great propitiation is set forth, which will proclaim and establish the law's unbending righteousness. And God, shall we say, does not wait for that supreme moment to declare His mercy. He proclaims aloud, "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts…"
The propitiation is the sacrifice that would satisfy that righteousness, and God announced His mercy before it came. The same writer adds that the blessings of this chapter also look ahead to the day when Israel turns to the Lord and the veil is taken away.
Nineveh was the violent capital of Assyria. When Jonah preached there, the whole city turned to God.
So whether it is an individual, a city, or a nation, if there is a true turning to God, as there was in Nineveh, it is impossible that God should do anything other than have mercy and "abundantly pardon." Otherwise He would not be true to His character.
- Forsake — the way is the life a man leads, the thoughts are his own ideas about how to gain blessing; God asks him to let both go.
- Return — leaving sin is only half of it; the sinner turns to the Lord Himself, and that turning is what genuine repentance means.
- Pardon — not one pardon but pardon multiplied; the Hebrew says God will "multiply to pardon," and the mercy is free and full.
- Beyond law — the law could not offer mercy to the guilty and stay righteous; grace is higher, so God announced pardon before the propitiation came.
- Proved — Nineveh turned, and God pardoned. Where the turning is real, mercy follows, or God would be untrue to Himself.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith Jehovah.
God says this to people He has just invited back. He tells the wicked man to leave his way, and He promises to pardon in abundance. Why so generous? Not because of anything in the sinner, but because God's mind stands so far above ours.
The verse begins with "For," tying it back to the offer of mercy in the line before. One commentator hears God answering the mind that wants to earn its blessing:
God's thoughts and God's ways are far above man's legal thoughts and ways, even as the heavens are higher than the earth.
Left to ourselves we would keep the offer small and repay only those who have been good to us. The verse denies that instinct.
How far above and beyond the thoughts in the narrow heart of man, who would limit God's grace to a select few! We would show favour to those who have shown favour to us. But "God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." It was "while we were enemies we were reconciled to God." Surely we have reason to say, "His thoughts are not as our thoughts, neither are His ways as our ways."
The gap is not that God knows more facts than we do. The two minds have different centres. And God had His thoughts long before human failure gave Him anything to react to.
Nothing suggests that existing circumstances forced God to bring in His own thoughts. On the contrary, all that we refer to was in the mind of God before the failing ways of man were ever seen… This must always be so. Man's thoughts circle around himself, while God's thoughts centre in Christ, the Son closest to His heart. From the earliest days God spoke against the thoughts of man, that they were "only evil continually"; while we read that God's thoughts towards us are abundant and wonderful… but they have been expressed in a blessed Man.
Isaiah has just described a servant who suffers, is rejected, and dies. The verse explains why such a plan sounds strange to us.
This whole magnificent prophecy speaks of the death and resurrection of Christ, and of the glorious results that flow from it. All of it stands completely against human thoughts and ways. Christ, when He came, had nothing about Him that appealed to human thoughts and ways. The opening verses of chapter 53 say so. What was true in Him is just as true of all God's ways, and of the thoughts He expresses in those ways.
Naaman shows the clash most clearly. He was an army commander with leprosy. He expected a ceremony, and the prophet sent word to wash in the river Jordan seven times.
As he turned away in rage, he said, "Behold, I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call upon the name of the LORD his God, and wave his hand over the place and cure the leper." We all have our own ideas as to how God should work. But He has said, "My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways." How blessed to come to the end of ourselves, and give up "I thought" once and for ever! The soul only then begins to truly learn.
The same principle governs whom God picks up. Take Saul, who approved of Stephen's death:
Man would never have chosen him to be the most self-denying, hard-working, and effective worker the Lord ever raised up in the gospel… But how often it is so in the ways of sovereign grace! It is ordered this way so that no human being might boast in the presence of God; but let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.
Verse 7 asks the unrighteous man to drop his thoughts. Something must take their place.
Then He brings in the word of God as corrective, and as that which replaces these thoughts of man. "For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth… so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth." The word of God is given instead of the thoughts of men.
- Because — the verse gives a reason, not a rebuke. God pardons in abundance because His thoughts are not the small, earn-and-repay thoughts of men.
- Centre — the two minds differ at the root. Man's thoughts circle himself; God's circle Christ, and they did so before human failure appeared.
- Cross — a rejected, dying Servant proves it. Nothing in Christ's coming appealed to human taste, and God's ways match His Son.
- Surrender — Naaman's "I thought" is the real obstacle. Give it up for good, and the soul begins to learn.
- Replacement — God's word takes the place of our thoughts. It comes down from heaven like rain.
For [as] the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
God says this to people He has just invited to come, to seek Him while He may be found, and to return for pardon. The word "for" ties the height of heaven above earth to that offer. Does the verse humble us, comfort us, or both?
The height of God's ways is not an abstract fact here. It is the reason attached to the promise of pardon in the verse before. One summary of the chapter puts the links in order:
Isaiah 55 is the call to repentance, but it is an invitation in grace. In principle, whoever thirsts can come… Pardon is abundant, for God's thoughts are above ours, and His word never fails to produce its results.
The gap has a cause. God's thinking has a different centre from ours.
This must always be so. Man's thoughts centre on himself, while the thoughts of God centre on Christ, the Son of His bosom… From the earliest days God spoke against the thoughts of man, saying they were "only evil continually" (Genesis 6:5). But God's thoughts towards us are abundant and wonderful (Psalm 40:5)… "Your thoughts are very deep" (Psalm 92:5). They are eternal in their conception, and their full display will take an eternal day. Yet God has expressed them in a blessed Man.
People come to this chapter with fixed ideas about how to earn forgiveness. Those ideas are exactly what this verse measures:
God's thoughts and God's ways are far above man's legal thoughts and ways, even as the heavens are higher than the earth. God's blessing, like the rain, comes down from heaven; as with the rain, so with His word, it accomplishes the end for which it is sent.
That gap changes what a guilty person can say to God.
…the very greatness of the sin is urged as the reason for pardon from Him whose thoughts are not ours, any more than our ways are His. He can well afford it, because of the cross that gives the believer boldness. Man's sin is too great for anyone but the God who saves through Christ dead and risen.
The same principle shows in the people God calls to serve Him.
Man would not have chosen the one who became the most self-denying, hard-working, and effective workman the Lord ever raised up in the gospel… But how often it is so in the ways of sovereign grace! "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD" (Isaiah 55:8). God orders it this way so that no flesh should boast before Him.
The test of this verse comes when God's method offends us. A leper named Naaman had already decided how his cure should look:
He turned away in rage. Then he said, "Behold, I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call upon the name of the LORD his God… and cure the leper." We all have our own ideas about how God should work. But He has said, "My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways" (Isaiah 55:8). How blessed to come to the end of ourselves, and give up "I thought" once and for ever! The soul only then begins to truly learn.
If His thoughts are that far above us, how do they ever reach us? The chapter answers in the next verse.
In verse 10 God likens His word to both rain and snow. They both come down from heaven. We do not have to reach up for them. They are beyond our reach, but God sends them down… The earth depends on the rain and the snow, and we depend in the same way on the ministry of the word of God.
The word does more than come down. It takes the place of something already there:
Then He brings in the word of God as the corrective — as what takes the place of these thoughts of man.
- Because — the verse gives a reason, not a riddle. Pardon is abundant because His thoughts run higher than ours.
- Centre — our thoughts circle back to self. His thoughts centre on Christ, and that explains the distance.
- Reversal — we treat the size of our sin as a barrier to mercy. It becomes the plea for mercy, because only God can deal with sin that great.
- Surrender — Naaman's "I thought" is the sentence this verse ends. Real learning starts where our own method dies.
- Rain — what is too high for us to climb to comes down. God sends His word like rain and snow, and it does the work He sends it to do.
For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater
Isaiah has just told Israel that God's thoughts and ways rise far above their own. Now he points to something everyone has seen — rain and snow falling on dry ground — to show where fruit comes from and what God's word does when He sends it out.
The verse opens with "For", tying it to the two verses before it. God has just declared how far His thoughts stand above ours. One writer traces man's thoughts back to Genesis, then shows what God puts in their place.
We hear it in Genesis 6 from the mouth of God Himself. Let us notice it well: "every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." Man did not change after the judgment of the flood, as the ages went by… Then He brings in the word of God to correct them, and to replace these thoughts of man… The word of God is given instead of the thoughts of men.
Nothing in the verse climbs. It all comes down. One writer draws out why God names two kinds of water, not one.
In verse 10 God likens His word to both rain and snow. They both come down from heaven; we do not have to reach up for them, they are beyond our reach, but God graciously sends them down… Neither the rain nor the snow gives life, but they seem to be needed to stimulate it. How quickly parched pasture bursts into life after a refreshing shower! So it is with us. We need both the snow and the rain. The snow kills many harmful weeds, and it tempers the earth itself. How many weeds there are in our sinful hearts which need constantly to come under the death-dealing power of the Word.
The same writer adds that God prepares the soil first: "God first puts into the earth all the elements needed to produce the fruit, then He waters it again and again." Born of God, we can bear fruit — but we depend on the ministry of the word as a field depends on rain.
The verse names three results, and each has its own use.
We see in verse 10 the threefold product of the watering: bud, seed, and bread. The bud suggests the evidence of life. It shows in our walk and ways, in a life producing the features of Christ. The seed points to provision for sowing; that is, truth in our hearts that we can sow. We sow it by preaching the gospel, teaching the young, or giving a word of ministry to the saints. Last comes bread, which suggests the Word of God nourishing our souls.
The rain is only half the comparison. The verse that follows applies it to God's word, and one writer shows what that word does when it lands.
Rain comes down from heaven and brings life and fertility to nature, making man's labour fruitful for his good. The word of God works the same way, but on a spiritual level. Received into the heart, it bears fruit in life and blessing. More than that, it is full of power. It never fails in the effect that God intends, whether in grace or in judgment. We see this in the Lord Jesus Himself. No word of His ever fell fruitless to the ground, for He was the Living Word.
This promise shaped how Christ Himself worked. One writer describes His sowing among Israel.
Israel had been found barren and unfruitful. So the Lord came bringing what would produce fruit, and He scattered this good seed widely, on good and bad soils alike. He had come to serve. As the Perfect Servant, He left the results of His work with the One who sent Him, resting on the LORD's promise about His word of grace… Strong in this assurance, the Prophet of God sowed His seed in the morning, and in the evening did not hold back His hand.
God gives seed to the sower, not only bread to the eater. One writer draws out what that says about God's character.
This is an assurance. The God who richly provides for us loves to give us both the means and the opportunities to bless others. He delights to own and reward these fruits of righteousness. They are really the work of His grace, yet He treats them as if they were ours, and not His work through us.
- Downward — Rain and snow are beyond our reach; God sends them. The word is not something we climb to, but something He gives instead of our own thoughts.
- Twofold — We need both: rain to refresh, snow to kill weeds and temper the soil. Refreshment and the death-dealing power of the Word both do their work in us.
- Threefold — The watering gives bud, seed and bread: a life that shows Christ, truth to sow in others, food for our own souls.
- Unfailing — The word never fails the effect God intends, in grace or in judgment. Christ showed it: no word of His ever fell to the ground without fruit.
- Therefore sow — The sower can leave the results with the One who sent him. The God who supplies the seed also supplies fresh chances to bless others.
so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth it shall not return unto me void, but it shall do that which I please, and it shall accomplish that for which I send it.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace; the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
God has just said that His word will not come back empty. Verse 12 is the "for" that follows: it names the harvest that word produces, and it raises the question of when that harvest arrives.
The verse does not stand alone; it names the crop that grows from the seed described in verses 10 and 11. One writer gathers the whole result of that sowing into a single line.
His sowing of the good seed of His word of grace will bring forth a harvest of "joy" and "peace." It will hush creation's groan, secure blessing for man, and secure the everlasting glory of the name of the LORD.
Many read this as a promise about Israel's return from exile in Babylon. One commentator warns that tying such language to that homecoming makes Scripture look like it exaggerates.
To apply such glowing language and such glorious hopes for Israel, the peoples, and the earth to the return from the exile in Babylon — still more, to restrict them to it — must always have been an extreme assumption. It clearly tends to bring on Scripture the charge of exaggeration. Today, more than ever, men claiming to be critics would reduce it to a promise that the exiles' journey home should be pleasant and comfortable!
A second reading takes the verse as a picture of gospel work today. One writer allows that use, and still keeps something in reserve.
Apply the grace of the chapter as far as can truly be done to the need and comfort of souls now by the gospel. There still remains the clear indication of "the times of refreshing" kept for Him who died and rose, when He comes from heaven to reign over the earth.
Another writer finds the same two reaches in the chapter. Its earlier lines are already applied to today in the New Testament.
In the coming day, of course, Isaiah 55 will have its full and final fulfilment, in the millennial blessing of the Gentile nations together with Israel. Yet there is a present-day fulfilment of this chapter... So Paul also quotes "the sure mercies of David" (v. 3) in Acts 13:34 as referring to Christ risen from the dead. Such mercies are now available to all who believe, whether Jew or Gentile.
The mountains and trees are not scenery. One writer ties their joy to a release that reaches wider than Israel.
Creation too will rejoice when the millennial day is reached. God's unfailing word guarantees it here. Turn to a Scripture such as Romans 8, and we are told how creation will be delivered from the bondage produced by the sin of man, and brought into the liberty of the glory of the sons of God. There we are carried beyond what will be true for Israel, into the largeness of the thoughts of God for the whole creation.
Isaiah and Paul hang this joy on two different events. One writer explains why the two do not compete.
But notice this: the apostle hangs all this joy of creation on "the revealing of the sons of God" (Rom. 8), while the prophets hang it on the redemption of Israel (Isa. 44:23; 49:13; 55:12). These distinct testimonies match the different ministries of apostles and prophets.
Read as a picture of daily life, each image in the verse finds a counterpart.
We have the assurance that if we are receiving and responding to His word we shall be marked by joy and peace... Mountains and hills stand as pictures of governing powers. They have in view the authorities we are told to submit to... The trees of the field have in view people of high standing, or perhaps those we serve. Why not serve them with such Christian devotion and honesty that they clap their hands, as it were, in approval of us?
Even a singing creation is not the highest point that Scripture reaches.
The saints will shine in heavenly glory, and quietness and assurance will fill the world for ever. The freed earth will be so fruitful that the prophet does not exaggerate when he says, "the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands" (Isa. 55:12). We might well imagine that this is the climax. But it is not so... Christ is the Heir of all things. His glory is the supreme consideration.
- Word first. Joy and peace are the crop of the seed sown in verses 10–11. God's word does not return empty.
- People next. God leads His people out in joy and peace, and that mark is meant to show in how believers live and serve now.
- Creation after. The singing hills answer the groan of Romans 8. Prophets tie that release to Israel's redemption; Paul ties it to the revealing of God's sons.
- Scale matters. The words are too large for a comfortable trip home from exile, and too large for present gospel work alone.
- Christ above all. A rejoicing earth is glorious, but the summit is the glory of Christ, the Heir of all things.
Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress, and instead of the nettle shall come up the myrtle; and it shall be to Jehovah for a name, for an everlasting sign [that] shall not be cut off.
Isaiah 55 closes with the ground itself changed: the weeds of a cursed earth give way to trees, and God gains a lasting memorial. The verse raises three questions — when does this happen, on what basis, and why can this sign never be cut off?
The thorn and the brier are not random weeds. God named them when He cursed the ground after Adam sinned. This verse cancels that sentence.
The creation was made subject to futility. It did not choose this; it came about because of man when he fell. It groans and suffers pain, waiting for that day of its deliverance. It will be set free from its bondage to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. We read in Genesis 3, "Cursed is the ground because of you… thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you." But of the day when it is made new we read, "instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree."
Note that older translations read "fir tree" where the ESV has "cypress."
The reversal has a cause, and the cause is a Person. Two chapters earlier the same book describes a Servant wounded and cut off. He is the root of this new growth.
Why all this life out of death? How does it come about? Because of that other "Plant," the "tender Plant." He had no majesty in their eyes, for He was among them in lowliness. They saw no beauty that they should desire Him (Isa. 53:2). He was wounded for their transgressions, He was bruised for their iniquities. Through His stripes they will get healing. He was "cut off out of the land of the living" (Isa. 53:8).
One was cut off so that the sign would never be cut off.
The verse names replacements, not just removals. Each tree carries its own character.
The useless, harmful marks of sin will begin to disappear. In their place we will see what the fir trees and the myrtles show. Thorns and briers came in as a result of sin, but the fir tree speaks of strength and the myrtle of sweetness. Why irritate the people around us? We can benefit them instead, when the features and fragrance of Christ mark us.
The last line turns the scenery into a monument. The changed earth makes a name for God, and the sign is called everlasting.
All this is unmovable and eternal because of Him and His work. The covenant is "an everlasting covenant"; and He is "WITNESS," "PRINCE," and "COMMANDER," so that nothing can fail. God promised the sure mercies; Christ has secured them. Those who turn to Him hold them in Christ. So joy and singing, peace and prosperity are to mark such people… God's stamp of firmness, stability, and eternity seals the sure mercies of David, secure in Christ. It is an everlasting sign; an everlasting covenant; sure mercies speaking of abundant pardon and full blessing.
Some read this as poetic language for exiles returning from Babylon. Kelly rejects that as far too small for the words used.
Apply the grace of this chapter as far as it can truly be applied to the need and comfort of souls now by the gospel. There still remains the clear indication of "the times of refreshing" kept for Him who died and rose, when He comes from heaven to reign over the earth. To apply such glowing language and such glorious hopes for Israel, the peoples, and the earth to the return from exile in Babylon was always an extreme assumption. To limit them to it is worse still. It clearly tends to bring on Scripture the charge of exaggeration. Yet more than ever in our day men who claim to be critics reduce it to a promise that the exiles would have a pleasant and comfortable journey home!
Commentators differ on how far the verse reaches readers today. Kelly keeps it for the coming reign of Christ over the earth. Davison draws a lesson for believers now.
- Curse. God named thorn and brier when He cursed the ground in Genesis 3. This verse undoes that exact sentence.
- Cross. The change is possible because One was "cut off out of the land of the living." The tender Plant of Isaiah 53 is the root of this life out of death.
- Character. The thorn is not simply removed. Strength and sweetness take its place — the fir and the myrtle, the features and fragrance of Christ.
- Credit. The restored earth makes a name for God, and nothing can fail, because all of it rests on Christ and His work.
- Constancy. The sign is everlasting and can never be cut off. The same firmness seals the everlasting covenant and the sure mercies of David.
Thus saith Jehovah Keep ye judgment and do righteousness; for my salvation is near to come, and my righteousness to be revealed.
Isaiah 56 opens with a command and a reason, and the reason is the surprise: God tells His people how to live because of what He is about to do. The verse sits between the invitation of the previous chapter and the wide blessing that follows, and it answers one question: how should people who have received grace live?
The call comes to people who have already answered an earlier call. One writer ties this verse back to the invitation of the chapter before, and points to the faithful remnant — the few in Israel who responded.
In the chapter before, we heard grace call every needy soul to seek the Lord while He may be found, with the promise of blessing to all who answer that call. In the opening verses of this chapter, the godly remnant in Israel have answered that call, and they are urged to walk in a way that matches the grace that has blessed them. Let such people act righteously, keeping in view God's salvation for the nation of Israel that is "near to come," and the righteousness of God in judgment on the wicked, which is about to be revealed.
The distinction shapes how we read the verse. This is not a call to unbelievers, and the reason attached to the command is not the law of Moses. (The writers quote an older translation of verse 1: "My salvation is near to come, and My righteousness to be revealed." The ESV reads, "for soon my salvation will come, and my righteousness be revealed.")
The chapter opens not with a call to sinners, as such, to repent and believe the gospel. It opens with a call to the people of God to keep judgment and do justice. And the reason given is in no way the law given by Moses. It is this: "My salvation is near to come, and My righteousness to be revealed."
A moral demand right after such wide promises is no accident. Grace itself is what rules out careless living.
Isaiah 56 and 57 are made up of moral warnings, and they press all the harder because of the grace that goes out so deeply and so far and wide. Evil offends grace more than it offends law, which openly condemns it. God guards His grace with care against the charges that fallen nature would throw at it... Jehovah's salvation and righteousness turn out to be the opposite of a licence to sin, whatever human nature might wish and think.
The demand itself exposes the condition of the people who first heard it.
He spoke in the name of the Lord. His call for fairness and justice shows that these excellent things were not being practised among the people. His salvation and righteousness were "near to come," though not fully revealed until after Christ came. When we open the letter to the Romans, we meet both salvation and righteousness in verses 16 and 17 of the first chapter. The death and resurrection of Christ show both in full — not as enemies of each other, but in the fullest agreement and harmony.
For the prophet, salvation and righteousness were still ahead. One writer marks how the tense changes once Christ has come.
God's righteousness is no longer near to come, and His salvation is no longer waiting to be revealed (Isaiah 56:1). His righteousness has come, and His salvation is revealed. This assumes that the Lord Himself has come, that His work for our sins is done, and that a wholly new state of things has begun.
Yet the waiting was never empty. Faith held on to something that had no visible foundation anywhere on earth.
Before the flood and after the law, Jehovah was looking ahead to His Christ. In an evil day He spoke through His prophet of His salvation to come, and of His righteousness to be revealed (Isaiah 56:1). No one could see it anywhere on earth, but faith always waited for it. There was no ground for it in man, not even in a true saint of God... Every saint leaned entirely on the One who was coming.
The same call then reaches the people least likely to expect it.
It is a great blessing to see in this fifty-sixth chapter that even the son of the foreigner and the despised are encouraged to take hold of the covenant of the Lord. Moral qualities are looked for in those who are to share the glory to come. This matters so much that even those whom Israel would count as outsiders, if they are marked by these things and "take hold" of the covenant and "join themselves to the Lord," will have an everlasting name and be made joyful in His house of prayer. Those who form His house now should never forget the words, "My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples" (v. 7).
- Near — the command rests on what God is about to do, not on what people can earn.
- Answered — those addressed have already answered the call of grace, and now they must walk in step with it.
- Guarded — coming salvation is no permit for evil; sin offends grace even more than it offends law.
- Revealed — what the prophet could only wait for has come: the death and resurrection of Christ, where salvation and righteousness fully agree.
- Wide — the same call reaches the foreigner and the despised, and ends in a house of prayer for all peoples.
Blessed is the man that doeth this, and the son of man that holdeth fast to it; that keepeth the sabbath from profaning it, and keepeth his hand from doing any evil.
Isaiah 56 opens with a call to keep justice and do right, and then blesses the man who lives that way and guards the Sabbath. Why single out the Sabbath as the test, and how far does the blessing reach?
Verse 1 sets up the blessing in verse 2. It does not speak to the world at large.
The chapter opens not with a call to sinners, as such, to repent and believe the gospel, but with a call to the people of God to keep judgement and do justice. The reason given is in no way the law given through Moses. It is this: "My salvation is near to come, and My righteousness to be revealed." When the apostle unfolds the good news, he says that God's righteousness is being revealed in the gospel, and shown apart from law.
Those addressed have already answered God's invitation in the previous chapter.
Encouragement for the godly. In the previous chapter we heard the call of grace to every needy soul: seek the Lord while He may be found. God promises blessing to all who respond to that call. In the opening verses of this chapter, the godly remnant in Israel have already responded. They are urged to walk in a way that matches the grace that has blessed them.
Grace can look like permission to sin. It is not, and the Sabbath makes a sharper test than an obvious moral wrong.
Isaiah 56 and 57 are moral warnings. They weigh all the more because grace goes out so deeply and yet so far and wide. To grace, evil is more offensive than it is to law, which is its open condemnation. God carefully guards His grace from the charges that fallen nature would bring against it... The Lord's salvation and righteousness turn out to be the opposite of a licence to sin, as human nature might wish and think. The Sabbath was, and will be, an even truer test. It rests on God's authority alone, not on conscience. Conscience by itself condemns corruption or violence, even apart from God's commandment.
Anyone can see that stealing is wrong. Keeping a day set apart to God shows something else.
In various other scriptures we find the Sabbath singled out and given special prominence as a precious link between Jehovah and Israel, a seal of His covenant with them, and a powerful test of their devotedness to Him. Everyone could recognise the moral wrong of theft and murder; only those who loved Jehovah and His word would love and honour His Sabbath.
Commentators differ on the timing. Some hold that the Sabbath fixes this passage in Israel's future: "the mention of the sabbath clearly shows that... the prophecy has in view the blessing of the Jewish nation in latter days" (Hamilton Smith). Others read it as a duty binding in Isaiah's own day, since "the sabbath was the sign of God's covenant with Israel, therefore it must be observed faithfully" (F. B. Hole).
Kelly quotes an older translation, which calls the person blessed "weak man." The verses that follow show how far the blessing reaches.
"Blessed is weak man who does this, and the son of man who holds fast by it" (v. 2). The following verse (3) is even more explicit: the most distant, "the son of the stranger," and the most desperate, "the eunuch," were not beyond the reach of God's merciful and mighty blessing.
One such man later walked through that open door.
The door was open to any, no matter where they came from, who really feared the Lord and sought Him and His covenant among His people... So our passage gives the eunuch special mention. In Acts 8 we have the story of the Ethiopian eunuch, one of the "sons of the stranger" who were seeking to "join themselves to the Lord, to serve Him, and to love the name of the Lord." What the prophet promised to such men came true for him in an even fuller measure. God did not give him a place "in My holy mountain," but rather "called… into the grace of Christ" (Gal. 1:6).
- Coming. The blessing rests on a promise still ahead: God's salvation is near to come and His righteousness about to be revealed.
- Called. The words are not aimed at sinners in general. They speak to people who have already answered grace, and who must now walk in step with it.
- Clean. Grace never excuses sin. Evil offends grace even more than it offends law, and God guards His grace against that charge.
- Chosen. The Sabbath tests the heart because it rests on God's authority alone. Anyone condemns theft; only a lover of God honours His day.
- Comprehensive. The blessing reaches the most distant and the most desperate: the foreigner and the eunuch. Acts 8 shows one such man receiving even more than the prophet promised.
And let not the son of the alien, that hath joined himself to Jehovah, speak saying, Jehovah hath entirely separated me from his people; neither let the eunuch say, Behold, I am a dry tree;
Two people had reason to think God's promises were not for them. The foreigner had no birthright in Israel. The eunuch had no children to carry his name. God's first word to both is not an argument. He simply forbids each man to say the hopeless thing about himself.
The verse names two extreme cases. The rest of the chapter keeps coming back to them:
Verse 3 is even plainer: the most distant, "the son of the stranger," and the most desperate, "the eunuch," were not beyond the reach of God's merciful and mighty blessing. The verses that follow say this again about both groups in the strongest words. They close by making the Lord's mind clear for everyone to read: His "house should be called a house of prayer for all peoples."
The eunuch's fear had law behind it. The law shut such a man out of Israel's assembly. One writer sees this in the Ethiopian official of Acts 8, a man of high rank with a heart for God:
He was also an outcast in religion, despite his high position and his heart for God. As a eunuch (if we are to take that literally, as I do not doubt) he could not come into the congregation of the Lord (Deuteronomy 23:1); whatever precious assurances there might be for him of future blessing (Isaiah 56:3-5).
What was once impossible for such a man became fact in his case:
though as a eunuch he could never of old have been admitted into the congregation of the Lord (Deuteronomy 23:1), he could be, and was, admitted into the assembly of God and of Christ.
The verse never asks the foreigner for a family tree. It marks him out by one thing: he has joined himself to the LORD. The whole chapter turns on that:
Isaiah 56 shows the moral character needed to enjoy the blessing. That blessing no longer follows the narrow legal principles of former days. His house will in fact be a house of prayer for all whose hearts are truly turned to the God of Israel, and they will be joyful in it.
The verses that follow answer both complaints. The ground of the answer is grace:
These verses speak especially about the stranger and the hopeless man — the eunuch. They clearly show that the earthly blessings of God's salvation will not be limited to the godly remnant of Israel. Such people need not see themselves as shut out from blessing, saying, "The LORD has utterly separated me from His people." Among the nations there may be those who fear the LORD, who keep His sabbaths, who choose the things that please the LORD, and who take hold of the promise of blessing on the ground of grace. They too will have a portion in God's house, and will come into the everlasting blessing and joy of God's earthly people.
The eunuch loses a family name; God gives him one that outlasts families. One writer sees the promise covering both men. Each is called to take hold of the covenant. Each receives "an everlasting name" and a welcome in the house of prayer for all the peoples (H. J. Vine).
Centuries later Jesus stood in the temple and quoted this passage back to the nation that had ignored it:
Even under the law God's thought was, "My house shall be called a house of prayer for all people." The Lord quoted this very scripture on His last visit to the temple, just before He suffered. With sorrow He had to add, "but you have made it a den of thieves" (Matthew 21:13).
Commentators differ over timing. Some look ahead to the blessing of God's earthly people. One writer points to the Ethiopian and sees the promise kept in a fuller way than its words:
In Acts 8 we have the story of the Ethiopian eunuch, who was indeed one of the "sons of the stranger," people seeking to "join themselves to the Lord, to serve Him, and to love the name of the Lord." God made good to him what the prophet promised to such people, and in a more abundant measure. He was not given a place "in My holy mountain"; instead he was "called … into the grace of Christ" (Galatians 1:6).
- Shut out. The verse names the most distant man and the most desperate one. Neither is beyond the reach of God's mercy.
- Silenced. The eunuch's fear had real law behind it: he could not enter the congregation. God does not deny his history; He forbids him to make it the last word.
- Joined. What counts is not ancestry but a heart turned to the God of Israel. The narrow legal principles of former days no longer set the limit.
- Named. Those who take hold of the covenant on the ground of grace get a portion in God's house. God gives them an everlasting name.
- Gathered. God always meant His house to be a house of prayer for all peoples. Israel buried that purpose. Jesus said it again in the temple. The Ethiopian received even more than the prophet promised.
for thus saith Jehovah Unto the eunuchs that keep my sabbaths, and choose the things that please me, and hold fast to my covenant,
God speaks here to a man who had written himself off: a eunuch could father no children, and Israel's law kept him out of the assembly of the LORD. Yet God addresses him directly, and ties a promise to three conditions.
The verse sits in a passage that names the two people least likely to expect anything from God:
The following verse (3) is even more direct. The most distant is "the son of the stranger." The most desperate is "the eunuch." Neither was beyond the reach of God's merciful and mighty blessing. The verses that follow repeat this about both groups in the most forceful language. They end by expressing the LORD's mind, to be known and read by everyone: His "house should be called a house of prayer for all peoples."
The promise is startling because a written command stood against it. Centuries later an Ethiopian official travelling home from Jerusalem lived in exactly that gap:
A man of Ethiopia had been to Jerusalem to worship, and was returning by that desert road. He was also a religious outcast, despite his high position and his heart for God. As a eunuch (if we are to take that literally, as I do not doubt) he could not come into the congregation of the LORD (Deut. 23:1) — whatever precious assurances there might be for him of future blessing (Isa. 56:3-5).
"My sabbaths" is not a random requirement. It was the mark of the arrangement God had made with Israel:
The sabbath was the sign of God's covenant with Israel, so Israel had to keep it faithfully.
That sign still has a future:
Christianity has brought in better and higher things, and the first day, the resurrection day, is the witness of them. But for the earth and God's people on earth, the sabbath will be honoured even more in the future glories of the kingdom.
The three conditions could be read as a checklist of religious duties. One writer argues they cannot be, because of what choosing implies about the person doing it:
Read Isaiah 56, which promises Jewish blessings, and yet only says "my salvation is near to come." God says of these people that they choose the things that please Him and take hold of His covenant. They join themselves to the LORD to serve Him, to love the name of the LORD, to be His servants. Will anyone say that God is here describing unconverted people?
The eunuch and the foreigner had no natural claim. What is offered them is offered on a different footing altogether:
These verses speak especially of the stranger and the hopeless — the eunuch. They show that God will not limit the earthly blessings of His salvation to the godly remnant of Israel. Such people need not think of themselves as shut out from blessing, saying, "The LORD has utterly separated me from his people." For there may be people among the nations who fear the LORD, keeping His sabbaths and choosing the things that please the LORD, and taking up the promise of blessing on the ground of grace. They too will have a portion in God's house.
Where does this promise land in time? One writer answers on two levels:
The first eight verses of this chapter stand by themselves. Strangers to the commonwealth of Israel, and eunuchs, are gathered in. It is the result of the gracious invitation of the previous chapter. That invitation in turn comes from the work of the Servant of the LORD and His suffering in the place of others. While these verses look forward to the kingdom, we have in them a hint of what God does now in gathering strangers.
One writer points to a man for whom this promise came true, and more:
In Acts 8 we read of the Ethiopian eunuch, who was indeed one of the foreigners seeking to join himself to the LORD. What the prophet promised to such people came true for him in a fuller measure. He was not given a place "in My holy mountain," but was "called … into the grace of Christ" (Gal. 1:6).
- Excluded. The law barred the eunuch from the congregation of the LORD (Deut. 23:1) — the promise here speaks straight into that closed door.
- Invited. God names the most distant and the most desperate on purpose. No one is beyond the reach of His blessing.
- Marked. "My sabbaths" is the sign of God's covenant with Israel, so Israel had to keep it faithfully — and the day will be honoured even more in the kingdom.
- Willing. Choosing what pleases God is not the language of unconverted people. It describes a heart already turned to Him.
- Welcomed. Such people receive a portion in God's house on the ground of grace. The promise looks to the kingdom, and hints at what God does now in gathering strangers.
even unto them will I give in my house and within my walls a place and a name better than of sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off.
God speaks here to a man who thought his story was over. His family line would end with him, so he expected no share in the future of God's people. God's answer is a monument inside His own house, and a name that outlives anything children could have carried on.
The chapter names the two people an Israelite would have written off. One writer puts them side by side.
God's merciful and mighty blessing could reach even the most distant, "the son of the stranger," and the most desperate, "the eunuch."
The eunuch's despair was not imagined. One writer describes such a man: high in position, with a heart for God, and still shut out.
Besides that, he was an outcast in religion, despite a high position and his heart for God. As a eunuch — and I have no doubt we should take that literally — he could not come into the congregation of the Lord (Deuteronomy 23:1). That stood, whatever precious assurances of future blessing there might be for him (Isaiah 56:3-5).
God's gift here is a name. In Israel a name carried weight we can easily miss.
In Israel, to be childless was a disgrace. People took the blotting out of a man's name — the dying out of his family — as a special mark of God's displeasure.
That is the wound this verse touches. Sons and daughters would have kept his name alive. God gives the name Himself, and gives better, because this one cannot be cut off.
God does not hand this name out at random. He looks for something in the people who receive it.
God looks for moral qualifications in those who are to share the glory to come. Even those whom Israel would consider outsiders will have an everlasting name, and He will make them joyful in His house of prayer — if they "take hold" of the covenant and "join themselves to the Lord."
The gift has an address: "in my house and within my walls." The man the law kept outside now has a place in the building itself. And he is not there alone.
These verses speak especially of the stranger and the hopeless — the eunuch. They show that the earthly blessings of God's salvation will not be limited to the godly remnant of Israel. Such people need not see themselves as shut out from blessing, as if the LORD had utterly separated them from His people. If there are those among the nations who fear the LORD — keeping His sabbaths, choosing the things that please the LORD, and taking the promise of blessing on the ground of grace — they too will have a portion in God's house. They will come into the everlasting blessing and joy of God's earthly people. For God's house will be called "a house of prayer for all nations."
Commentators differ on the timing. Some point to blessing still to come for God's earthly people. Another points to Acts 8, where an official from Ethiopia met this promise in person.
The eunuch also gets special mention in our passage. In Acts 8 we have the story of the Ethiopian eunuch, who was indeed one of the "sons of the stranger"… God made good to him what the prophet promised to such people here, and in fuller measure. He did not give him a place "in My holy mountain," but "called… into the grace of Christ" (Galatians 1:6).
In his case the reversal was complete.
In the old days, as a eunuch, he could never have entered the congregation of the Lord (Deuteronomy 23:1). Yet he could enter the assembly of God and of Christ — and he did.
- Shut out. The law barred the eunuch from the congregation, and he knew it. God's promise goes to the very man who thought he had no claim.
- Held fast. God promises the name to those who keep His sabbaths, choose what pleases Him, and take hold of His covenant — whatever their background.
- Named. In Israel, a family name wiped out looked like God's displeasure. God gives what children were meant to secure, and calls it better.
- Housed. The gift sits inside His house and walls. He calls that house a house of prayer for all nations. The outsider gets a place there, not just a pardon.
- Not cut off. Sons and daughters can fail; this name cannot. The Ethiopian official shows it in action. The old order shut him out; grace brought him in.
Also the sons of the alien, that join themselves to Jehovah, to minister unto him and to love the name of Jehovah, to be his servants, every one that keepeth the sabbath from profaning it, and holdeth fast to my covenant;
God speaks this promise over people who had every reason to think themselves shut out — foreigners with no natural claim on Israel's God. What does it mean to join yourself to the LORD? Why is the sabbath named here? And when does this promise come true?
The chapter deliberately widens the circle. It names two cases: the foreigner and the eunuch. Birth shut out the first; his body shut out the second. God's salvation reaches past Israel's own descendants.
These verses that specially speak of the stranger and the hopeless – the eunuch – clearly show that the earthly blessings of God's salvation will not be confined to the godly remnant of Israel. Such people need not think of themselves as shut out from blessing, saying, "The LORD has completely separated me from His people." Suppose there are people among the nations who fear the LORD, who keep His sabbaths, who choose the things that please the LORD, and who make use of the promise of blessing given on the ground of grace. They too will have a portion in God's house.
The phrases in this verse are not empty religious form. One writer reads them as marks of a real change of heart, and presses the point with a question.
Read Isaiah 56, where God promises Jewish blessings, and yet it only says "my salvation is near to come." God says of these people that they choose the things that please Him, that they take hold of His covenant, that they join themselves to the Lord to serve Him, to love the name of the Lord, and to be His servants. Will anyone say that God is here describing unconverted people?
What qualifies these people is not ancestry. It is character, and their own grip on what God has promised.
It is a wonderful thing to see in this fifty-sixth chapter that even the foreigner's son and the despised are encouraged to lay hold of the covenant of the Lord. God looks for moral qualifications in those who are to share the glory to come… So even those whom Israel would count as outsiders will have an everlasting name, and He will make them joyful in His house of prayer, if they are marked by these things and "take hold" of the covenant and "join themselves to the Lord."
Why does the sabbath keep coming up here? Because of what it stood for.
The sabbath was the sign of God's covenant with Israel, so it had to be kept faithfully.
The verse leads on to the promise of God's house as a house of prayer for all nations. One writer ties that opening to the last days and to the cross.
Isaiah 56 clearly goes beyond promise to Israel. It moves on to the last days. It secures the blessing for the Remnant, and then passes that blessing on to the Gentile. His house shall be "a house of prayer for all nations" — that is, for those who have taken hold of Jehovah's covenant… It goes on, no doubt, to the new state of things, but its foundation was laid in the Cross.
Commentators differ on how much of this is happening now. Another writer keeps the fulfilment future, though its principles already work in the gospel:
We do not deny that Isaiah 55 gives broad moral principles of grace on God's part, and that Isaiah 56 shows that grace flowing out to the Gentiles. Both are realised now in the gospel and the church, even more fully than anything set out here… So, if this is right, there is nothing to move the fulfilment of this blessed fruit of the cross away from the future, however wide the words may be.
The Ethiopian court official of Acts 8 was both a foreigner and a eunuch. He fits Isaiah's description — and he received more than the prophet promised.
Our passage mentions the eunuch in particular, and Acts 8 tells the story of the Ethiopian eunuch. He was indeed one of the "sons of the stranger" who were seeking to "join themselves to the Lord, to serve Him, and to love the name of the Lord." What the prophet promised to such people was made good to him in a fuller measure. He was not given a place "in My holy mountain," but was "called … into the grace of Christ." (Gal. 1:6).
- Joined — The outsider acts first: he joins himself to the LORD and takes hold of the covenant. Birth shuts nobody out.
- Loving — The service here springs from love for God's name. Commentators read these marks as the signs of a converted heart, not empty form.
- Marked — The sabbath is the sign of God's covenant with Israel. The stranger who keeps it shares Israel's blessing.
- Gathered — Next comes a place in God's house, a house of prayer for all nations. Its foundation was laid at the cross, and its full display is still ahead.
- Enlarged — The Ethiopian official of Acts 8 fits Isaiah's description. He received more than the prophet promised: not a place on the holy mountain, but a call into the grace of Christ.
even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt-offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon mine altar for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all the peoples.
Isaiah 56 speaks to people who had every reason to feel shut out of Israel: foreigners, and eunuchs who could leave no children behind. God promises them a place in His own house — and He gives that house a name that reaches far past Israel.
One writer reads verses 3–8 as God's answer to people who assumed blessing could never reach them.
These verses speak in particular of the stranger and the hopeless — the eunuch. They clearly show that the earthly blessings of God's salvation will not be limited to the godly remnant of Israel. Such people need not see themselves as shut out from blessing, saying, "The LORD has utterly separated me from His people." Suppose there are people among the nations who fear the LORD. They keep His sabbaths and choose the things that please Him. They take up the promise of blessing on the ground of grace. Then they too will have a portion in God's house, and come into the everlasting blessing and joy of God's earthly people.
Another writer traces the promise to a man who was both foreigner and eunuch: the Ethiopian of Acts 8.
This passage, verses 3–8, is one to note carefully. The door was open to anyone, no matter where they came from, who truly feared the Lord and sought Him and His covenant among His people... Our passage mentions the eunuch in particular. In Acts 8 we have the story of the Ethiopian eunuch. He was indeed one of the "sons of the stranger" who were seeking to "join themselves to the Lord, to serve Him, and to love the name of the Lord." The prophet's promise to such people came true for him in fuller measure still. He was not given a place "in My holy mountain," but was "called… into the grace of Christ."
The stranger does not just get through the door. What he brings counts like anyone else's.
Since it is all grace here, there is one law and one way for all. The stranger may share in this happy delight of drawing near to the Lord. Isaiah says this about the sons of the stranger in the purpose and grace of God: "their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on My altar."
An open door does not erase every difference. One writer describes a coming age with Jerusalem at the centre and worship reaching far beyond it.
Jerusalem will be the great centre of earthly worship for everyone. Besides that, this passage speaks of literal offerings coming from the nations everywhere... Both belong to the future age, and to that alone. Israel will form the inner circle for the earth. But that does not shut out true and acceptable worship among the nations everywhere; "for My name," He says, "shall be great among the nations, says Jehovah of hosts."
Jesus quoted this verse when He cleared the temple. One writer compares that day with an earlier cleansing.
It was His house, and He claimed His right to cleanse it. He quoted Isaiah 56:7, and He described its condition in the words of Jeremiah 7:11: "My house shall be a house of prayer; but you have made it a den of thieves." He had cleansed it once before, at the start of His ministry (John 2:14–16). That first time He acted as Son, and called the house His Father's: "Do not make My Father's house a house of trade." Now, as Jehovah Himself, He cleansed it: "My house," He said.
The scene Isaiah paints is still future. Even so, one writer draws a line to today: who prays now, and who will pray then.
There is only one house of God on earth, and it is a house of prayer for all men. It is made up of all believers in the Lord Jesus Christ... The difference about the house of God now is that we pray for all. In the future day all nations will be able to pray there themselves. We now pray for the kings and rulers of the nations (1 Tim. 2:1).
- The house — God claims a home on earth and names it Himself. He calls it a house of prayer, and the name settles what belongs there.
- The far-off — God names the foreigner and the eunuch first. The two who seemed shut out are the two He calls in.
- The altar — the welcome goes past the door. God accepts the stranger's offerings on the same footing of grace as anyone's.
- All peoples — in the age to come, Jerusalem stands at the centre and worship rises among the nations everywhere.
- The theft — Christ found the house turned into a den of thieves and cleansed it as its Owner. His people take up its true work now, praying for all.
The Lord Jehovah, who gathereth the outcasts of Israel, saith Yet will I gather [others] to him, with those of his that are gathered.
This verse closes a section of promise. God names Himself by what He keeps doing: He gathers Israel's outcasts. Then He pledges to gather more. So who are these "others", when does He gather them, and what draws them all to one place?
The verses just before this promise name two kinds of people who had every reason to feel shut out: the foreigner, and the eunuch — a man who could have no children. Neither one is beyond God's reach:
Verse 3 speaks even more plainly. The most distant, "the son of the stranger," and the most desperate, "the eunuch," were not beyond the reach of God's merciful and mighty blessing. The later verses say this again about both groups in the strongest language. They end with Jehovah's own mind, open for everyone to know and read: His "house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples."
The verse sets two gatherings side by side, and the order matters:
The first eight verses of this chapter stand by themselves. God gathers in eunuchs, and strangers who had no part in Israel. This comes from the gracious invitation of the previous chapter. That invitation, in turn, comes from the work of the Servant of Jehovah and His suffering in the place of others. These verses look forward to the kingdom, yet they also hint at what God does now in gathering strangers. The gathering of the others in verse eight can only take place when the outcasts of Israel are brought in.
Israel failed badly before this promise could be kept. The failure did not cancel it:
Even under the law the divine thought was, "My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples." The Lord quoted this very scripture on His last visit to the temple, just before He suffered. And He had to add, with sorrow, "but you make it a den of robbers" (Matt. 21:13). Such was the terrible state the Jews had sunk into… Yet the gracious promise of verse 8 stands. God will yet gather a remnant of His people, who are outcasts among men, and when He does so, He will gather others, who up to now have been strangers. Today God is especially focused on the strangers, visiting "the Gentiles, to take from them a people for His name" (Acts 15:14).
Gathering means there is somewhere to gather to. The promise names a place, and a standing shared by everyone who arrives there:
God would have a house on earth, an earthly sanctuary, but it would be open to all. It would not be limited to Israel. In that future day Israel would have a higher standing than the one they held as Abraham's natural descendants. Others would share that standing with them, even people who were by birth sons of the stranger. Joined to the Lord, these would be brought to His holy mountain, and made joyful in His house of prayer.
Another writer names the ground on which the outsider comes in — grace, not birth:
These verses show clearly that the earthly blessings of God's salvation will not be limited to the godly remnant of Israel. People like the stranger and the eunuch need not see themselves as shut out, as if the LORD had completely separated them from His people. If there are people among the nations who fear the LORD — keeping His sabbaths, choosing what pleases the LORD, and taking hold of the promise of blessing on the ground of grace — they too will have a portion in God's house… Not only will the outcasts of Israel be brought back to their land, but others from among the Gentiles will be gathered to God's earthly centre of blessing.
Right after this promise the tone of the chapter changes sharply. The two parts are not in conflict:
At first sight the second part (Isaiah 56:9 to 57:21) looks like a startling contrast. But it clearly flows from the same principle as the first. Grace goes out so freely to the most miserable, yet of all things it is the least tolerant of evil. It always deals most carefully and jealously with those who are near enough to carry all the more responsibility to reflect Jehovah clearly.
- Gatherer. God names Himself by what He keeps doing: He gathers Israel's outcasts. That same character backs the added promise.
- Reach. It stretches to the most distant, the foreigner, and to the most hopeless, the eunuch. Neither is beyond God's mercy.
- Order. Israel's outcasts come first, and the gathering of the "others" waits on that. Even now, though, God is taking a people for His name from the nations.
- Centre. God gathers them to a place: a house on earth, called a house of prayer for all peoples. Strangers share the standing of the people they join.
- Holiness. The same grace that reaches the furthest is the least tolerant of evil, and it deals most carefully with those nearest to God.
All ye beasts of the field, come to devour, all ye beasts in the forest.
Isaiah has just opened the door of blessing wide to anyone who takes hold of God's covenant. Then, without warning, the prophecy calls the wild animals in to feed. God Himself gives that invitation, and the rest of the chapter explains why the flock stands unguarded.
The abrupt change of tone is not a change of subject. One writer treats the second half of the chapter as flowing from the very same principle as the first.
At first sight the second part (Isaiah 56:9 to Isaiah 57:21) stands out in startling contrast. But it flows, without doubt, from the same principle as the first. Grace goes out to the most miserable; yet of all things that same grace is the least willing to put up with evil. It deals most carefully and most jealously with those who are near enough to God to carry all the more responsibility to reflect Him brightly.
The nearer a person stands to God, the more is expected of the way he represents Him.
The animals summoned here are not real predators. Commentators read them as the Gentile powers — the nations outside Israel. One writer sets them beside the visions of Daniel, where empires appear as beasts.
These warnings open with a solemn picture of the Gentile world. The prophecy of Daniel pictures the great Gentile empires as beasts that act without any fear of God. This prophecy shows the same empires preying on the nation of Israel. How solemn it is to see this scripture fulfilled today, when so-called Christian nations seek the destruction of the Jew without mercy.
What looks like plain cruelty from below is a settled reckoning from above. God calls the nations in as His own answer to a case already proved against His people.
The nation's guilt stands proved, and so the beasts (the Gentile empires) are summoned to avenge God's quarrel against it. (Isaiah 56:9 – 57:13.)
The verses that follow give the reason the beasts can come at all. The men set to watch could not see. The men set to warn made no sound.
Having spoken God's promise, the prophet turned at once to condemn the state of the people, above all those who held the place of watchmen and shepherds. The watchmen were blind and silent. The shepherds were greedy for their own gain and not for the good of the sheep. So the beasts of the field would break through and devour. This warns of oppressing nations about to attack them from outside, while the men who should have warned and defended them were like drunkards, full of false optimism.
The danger came from outside. The reason it got in was inside.
The failure was not only laziness. When these shepherds did wake up, they woke for their own comfort and profit. That emptiness opened the way to something worse in the next chapter.
The Gentile oppressors are first invited to lay waste (v. 9). Those who ought to have watched and tended the beautiful flock of Jehovah did more than sleep. They woke only to their own greed for gain and their love of present ease. They cared as little about God as about His people (vv. 10-12)... Such corruption left the people and their leaders open to something worse still, as we shall see in the chapter that follows. Nothing sinks lower than this, and idolatry leads the way.
The fall goes one step at a time: first sleep, then self-interest, then idolatry — and below that there is nothing lower.
Set beside the opening of the chapter, the contrast is sharp. God welcomes anyone who takes hold of His covenant. He does not welcome the official who holds a post but has no faith.
But meanwhile the responsible watchmen were blind and silent. They slept and lay down like selfish, greedy dogs that love to doze and are too lazy even to bark. Such men have neither the faith nor the moral qualities of those who "take hold" of the covenant. As the next chapter shows, despite their official position, they have no part or share in the blessings of the covenant of the Lord.
Title is not the same as trust. God's blessing follows those who take hold of His covenant, whoever they are.
- Grace — The same grace that reaches the most miserable is the least willing to put up with evil. It searches those closest to God the hardest.
- Responsibility — Nearness raises the standard. God set watchmen and shepherds to see, to warn and to feed, and He judged them by that trust.
- Failure — They were blind, silent, sleepy and greedy. They woke only for their own ease and gain, and cared as little for God as for His people.
- Consequence — With the guard down, God summoned the beasts — the Gentile empires — to break in and devour, and so avenge His quarrel with the nation.
- Contrast — God brings in anyone who takes hold of His covenant. The leader who holds only a position has no part in the blessing at all.
His watchmen are all of them blind, they are without knowledge; they are all dumb dogs that cannot bark, dreaming, lying down, loving to slumber
Earlier in Isaiah 56, God promises to bring foreigners and eunuchs — the people furthest outside Israel's life — into His house. Then the same chapter turns on the men who were meant to guard that house, and finds them blind, silent, and asleep.
The chapter breaks in two at verse 9. The promise stops and the charges begin. One writer traces both halves to a single principle.
The second part (from Isaiah 56:9 to Isaiah 57:21) looks at first like a startling contrast. But it flows, without doubt, from the same principle as the first. The grace which goes out so actively to the most miserable is of all things the most intolerant of evil. It always deals most carefully and jealously with those who are near enough to be all the more responsible to reflect Jehovah brightly.
The verse piles up pictures, and each one names a separate failure. One commentator takes them in order — the eyes, the voice, the posture — and shows how they build.
Their leaders are "blind" to their own condition, and "ignorant" of the grace of God. Like "dumb dogs, they cannot bark," and so are unable to warn others. Like sleeping dogs they love to slumber, and so seek their present ease. Like greedy dogs, they seek their own gain. They live only for the present and have no thought for the future.
(Where the older translation says "dumb dogs," the ESV reads "silent dogs.")
Verse 10 charges the watchmen. The next verse charges the shepherds. Their failures are not the same: a watchman who will not bark leaves the camp unwarned, while a shepherd chasing profit leaves the flock unfed.
The prophet now turned suddenly to condemn the state of the people, above all those who held the place of watchmen and shepherds. The watchmen were both blind and silent. The shepherds were greedy for their own gain, and cared nothing for the welfare of the sheep. As a result the beasts of the field would break through and devour. This warned of oppressing nations about to attack them from outside. Meanwhile those who should have warned and defended them were like drunkards, filled with false optimism.
The silence of verse 10 does not stand alone. In verse 9 God calls wild animals to come and eat. Those animals stand for something else.
Once the nation's guilt has been proven, the beasts — the Gentile empires — are summoned to avenge God's quarrel against it.
Earlier in the chapter, God promises blessing to everyone who takes hold of His covenant. These watchmen held a post instead, and one writer weighs what a post is worth.
Such men have neither the faith nor the moral qualities of those who "take hold" of the covenant. As the next chapter shows, their official position gives them no part or share in the blessings of the covenant of the Lord.
Sleep is not the whole story. These men do wake up, and what they wake for is worse than the sleep. One writer traces the same mindset far beyond Isaiah's time, into a later group inside Israel.
Those who should have watched and tended the beautiful flock of Jehovah did more than sleep. They woke up to their own greed for gain and their love of present comfort. They cared as little about God as they did about His people (verses 10-12). It is a vivid picture of living for self and for the things that can be seen. That same spirit later marked the Sadducees, who denied the resurrection, and denied angels and spirits as well… And this terribly evil state is here said to have stood out among the watchmen and shepherds of the chosen people. As the next chapter shows, such corruption left the people and their leaders open to something worse still, and nothing sinks lower than this — idolatry leading the way.
- Grace watches. One chapter opens God's house to the outsider and exposes His own watchmen. Being near God raises responsibility; it never lowers it.
- Blind first. The failure starts in the eyes. Leaders are blind to their own state and ignorant of God's grace. Then voiceless, then asleep, then greedy.
- Silence costs. A dog that will not bark leaves everyone unwarned. God has already called the beasts — the Gentile powers — to devour.
- Position saves no one. These men held the office but not the covenant. Their title gave them no share in the blessing promised earlier in the chapter.
- Sleep ends worse. They wake up — not to duty, but to profit and comfort. Living for self opens the door to the idolatry of the next chapter, and nothing sinks lower.
and the dogs are greedy, they know not to be satisfied, and these are shepherds that know not how to discern they all turn to their own way, every one for his gain, even to the last of them
Isaiah 56 opens God's house to the foreigner and the outcast. Then it turns to the men whose job was to guard that house, and finds them asleep, blind and feeding themselves. Our verse names what drove them, and it leaves no one out: an appetite nothing could satisfy.
The chapter's two halves feel like different sermons, yet one principle runs through both. Kindness toward the outsider and severity toward the careless leader come from the same heart.
The second part (from Isaiah 56:9 to 57:21) looks at first like a startling contrast. But without doubt it flows from the same principle as the first. The grace that reaches out so actively to the most miserable is, of all things, the most intolerant of evil. It deals most carefully and jealously with those who are near enough to carry all the more responsibility to reflect the Lord brightly.
A watchdog is meant to see, to bark and to stay awake. These leaders do none of it. Hunger has taken the place of duty.
Their leaders are "blind" to their own condition, and ignorant of the grace of God. Like dogs that cannot bark, they are unable to warn others. Like sleeping dogs they love to slumber, and so seek their present ease. Like greedy dogs, they seek their own gain. They live only for the present and have no thought for the future.
Sleep alone would be bad enough. What makes the charge worse is what these men woke up for.
Those who should have watched and cared for the beautiful flock of the Lord did not only sleep. They woke up to their own greed for gain and their love of present ease. They were as indifferent about God as about His people.
Verse 9 has already called the wild beasts to come and eat. The failure of the shepherds is not a private fault; it leaves the whole nation exposed on every side.
The watchmen were both blind and silent; the shepherds were greedy for their own gain and not for the welfare of the sheep. As a result the beasts of the field would break through and devour. This was a warning of oppressing nations about to attack them from outside. Meanwhile those who should warn and defend were like drunkards, filled with false optimism.
Kelly traces where such greed ends.
Such corruption left the people and their leaders open to something worse still, as the chapter that follows will show. Nothing lies lower than this — idolatry leading the way.
Earlier in the chapter, God promises blessing to anyone who takes hold of His covenant, even the foreigner and the outcast. These watchmen held the office and had no share.
Such men have neither the faith nor the moral qualities of those who "take hold" of the covenant. As the next chapter shows, despite their official position, they have no part or share in the blessings of the covenant of the Lord.
The words "each to his own gain" reach past Isaiah's day. Writers apply them to the everyday chase after our own advantage.
Another form of seeking our own is chasing some worldly advantage, ignoring right and wrong in the way we make money, or being keen to save it. All this becomes much worse, terribly worse, if hypocrisy comes in to help our selfishness… Isaiah 56:11 describes this way of living with force: "They have all turned to their own way, each to his own gain."
Hamilton Smith carries the same warning over to Christian leaders.
What the leaders in Israel did, leaders in the Christian assembly could also do, if not for the grace of God. In later years, the apostle Paul warns us against men with corrupt minds coming into the Christian circle who treat godliness as a way of making money (1 Timothy 6:5). The apostle Peter also urges leaders to beware of feeding the flock of God for dishonest gain (1 Peter 5:2)… So we learn that the sinful nature never changes.
- Grace first. The same chapter that welcomes the outcast is hardest on the men closest to God. Grace toward the miserable is the most intolerant of evil in those meant to reflect Him.
- Blind, silent, greedy. They cannot see their own condition, cannot warn anyone, love their ease — and the one thing they wake for is gain.
- Appetite replaces understanding. These are shepherds who fed themselves and left the flock unfed, as indifferent to God as to His people.
- The flock pays. With no watchman barking, the beasts break in. The greed that started it opens the door to idolatry, and nothing lies lower than that.
- Office is not enough. Position did not save them. Whatever their office, they had no share in the covenant blessing promised to anyone who takes hold of it. The same appetite still tests leaders today.
Come, [say they,] I will fetch wine, and we will fill ourselves with strong drink; and to-morrow shall be as this day, [and] much more abundant.
Isaiah 56 opens with God promising foreigners and outcasts a place at His house. It then turns to the men who should have guarded His people, and verse 12 is the last line of that charge: the leaders themselves, inviting each other to a drink.
The invitation comes from Israel's watchmen and shepherds. They had a job — to keep watch over God's flock. One writer describes what they did with it instead, and where it led:
Those who should have watched over and cared for the beautiful flock of the Lord did not only sleep. They woke up to their own greed for gain and their love of present ease. They were as indifferent to God as they were to His people… Such corruption left the people and their leaders open to something even worse, as the next chapter shows — idolatry leading the way, and nothing goes lower.
The words are a plan for the evening and nothing more. One writer lists what they reveal about the men who spoke them:
Like sleeping dogs they love to slumber, and so they look for their present ease. Like greedy dogs, they seek their own gain. They live only for the present and have no thought for the future… They are blind to their sin and ignorant of the grace of God. They are given over to present ease and money-making. They have no thought of coming judgment, and are indifferent to the needs of His people.
Verse 9 has already called the wild beasts to come and devour. So the men in verse 12 drink with the enemy at the gate:
The beasts of the field would break through and devour. This was a warning of oppressing nations about to attack them from outside. Meanwhile those who should have warned and defended were like drunkards, filled with false optimism.
Isaiah uses drunkenness as a picture more than as a charge. Writing on the same picture earlier in the book, one writer explains that it means more than literal drinking:
Drunkenness here does not mean only literal drinking. It stands for the state they were in: worked up, dazed and senseless. They gave themselves up to their own pleasure and self-indulgence, to the shame of the true God.
That widens the warning. Ordinary things can numb a person in the same way:
It is the business of each one of us to know what acts on him as "wine and strong drink." What is it that produces excitement, that blunts his spiritual perception or dims his priestly vision? It may be an auction room, a cattle show, a newspaper. It may be the smallest thing. But whatever it is, if it tends to excite, it will disqualify us for priestly service. And if we are disqualified as priests, we are unfit for everything.
The boast in the second half of the verse is that nothing will change. Tomorrow will run on the same lines, only better. One writer sets out what is wrong with that assumption:
"Come now, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit' — yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring." He does not forbid all thought about tomorrow. He condemns the spirit of those who plan without God and forget how uncertain everything here is: "What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes." He is condemning the spirit of self-confidence, which boasts of what it can do without God.
The chapter's warmth and its severity come from the same source:
The grace that goes out so actively to the most miserable is of all things the least tolerant of evil. It deals most carefully and jealously with those who are near to Him. They are the ones who are all the more responsible to reflect the Lord brightly.
- Who speaks. The toast belongs to the watchmen and shepherds. They woke from their sleep only for their own gain and ease, indifferent to God and to His people alike.
- What deadens. "Wine and strong drink" pictures a dazed state given over to self-indulgence. Anything that excites and blunts spiritual sight does the same work, however harmless it looks.
- What blinds. Deadened men turn cheerful at the wrong moment. The beasts are already called in verse 9, and the appointed defenders are the last to notice.
- What presumes. "Tomorrow will be like this day" is planning without God. It is the self-confidence that forgets life is a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.
- Why it stings. Grace that reaches the outcast is the least tolerant of evil. It is most searching with those nearest to God, because they are the ones meant to reflect Him.
The righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart; and merciful men are taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away from before the evil.
The chapter opens on a death no one notices: a righteous man dies, and the nation goes on as before. Isaiah reads that indifference as a warning sign, and the death itself as mercy.
The nation noticed nothing. One commentator points out that God did not sleep, and that the deaths no one noticed were His own doing:
On the other hand, the Shepherd of Israel neither slumbered nor slept. If the righteous man perished and no one took it to heart, it was still His hand taking the righteous away from the evil to come.
Long life was a promise for obedience, so an early death needed explaining:
Judah's growing turn away from God meant that a long life on earth was no longer something to want, though normally long life was a special promise for those who obeyed the law. Now the prophet says that the righteous man perishes and no one lays it to heart, and that merciful (or godly) men are taken away, with no one considering that the righteous is taken away from before the evil.
"Merciful men" carries the sense of godly men. The righteous is taken away from before the evil — moved out of its path before it arrives.
Seen from the outside, an early death can look like God's displeasure. The prophet says the opposite is true, and a later king proved it:
The time had come when God would remove the righteous and the merciful from among them. It might look as though these people were under His judgment. In fact it was better for them to be taken away by death than to live and share the judgment that would fall. A striking example came later, when God took away God-fearing Josiah so that his eyes would not see the disasters that were coming.
Josiah was a king of Judah. His death spared him the sight of what came after.
One writer gathers the examples that make the pattern unmistakable:
Still, if the godly are taken away it is a solemn sign that judgment is about to fall, for "the righteous man is taken away from calamity." It has always been so in the history of the world. As one writer said: "When Lots are taken out of Sodom, it points to a coming shower of wrath. Methuselah was taken away a year before the flood. We may conclude that when Noahs are brought into their arks, it is a sign of a coming flood, and that God gathers His harvest before the world's storm, and calls His workers home before the dark night comes on."
Lot was the man led out of Sodom before God destroyed it. Methuselah died shortly before the flood.
Some treat death as simple extinction. One writer holds the prophet's promise up against that idea:
Now I ask: does this encouraging revelation, "he shall enter into peace," mean that he will be extinct? No. It is not as clear as the New Testament; of course it is not. How could it be as clear as when Christ had lived through death, and risen out of it? But while the general subject is the government of this present world, as it always was among the Jews, it comforts the righteous with the thought that in dying he would enter into peace.
One writer traces the same pattern past Isaiah's day, from the flood to a promise still ahead:
He could not stay in Israel. God would take him out of the scene of judgment to have him with Himself. He was righteous. In the same way, before the flood God gathered up the righteous people of Noah's day. In the same way He will gather up the saints at the approaching day of the Lord's coming: "I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world, to try those who dwell on the earth" (Rev. 3:10).
- Taken. The righteous man does not just die. God's hand removes him — "it was still His hand taking the righteous away from the evil to come."
- Spared. The removal looks like judgment but is shelter. God took Josiah away "so that his eyes would not see the disasters that were coming."
- Signalled. Each such departure is a notice to those left: "if the godly are taken away it is a solemn sign that judgment is about to fall."
- Ignored. The tragedy of the verse is not the death but the deafness — no one lays it to heart, no one considers.
- At peace. For the one taken, the end is not extinction but rest: the prophet "comforts the righteous with the thought that in dying he would enter into peace."
He entereth into peace they rest in their beds, [each one] that hath walked in his uprightness.
In verse 1 the righteous die and no one takes it to heart. This verse answers that scene. What the nation shrugged off is, for the one taken, an entrance into peace and rest.
The verse follows a warning. Judah's condition had grown so corrupt that living on was no longer the blessing it once was.
The growing apostasy of Judah made it no longer a desirable thing to live long on the earth, though normally it was a special promise for those obedient to the law.
So the death of a godly person here is not a sign of God's displeasure, even though it can look that way.
The time had come when God would remove the righteous and the merciful from among them. It might look as though these people were under His judgment. In fact it was better for them to be removed by death than to live and share the judgment that would fall. A striking example came later. God-fearing Josiah was taken away so that his eyes would not see the disasters coming. It could then be said of him that "he enters into peace."
Their removal is mercy to them. To everyone left behind it is a warning, and the pattern runs right through Scripture's history.
If the godly are taken away, it is a solemn sign that judgment is about to fall, for "the righteous is taken away from the evil to come." It has always been so in the history of the world. As one has said: "When Lots are taken out of Sodom, it foreshadows a shower of wrath. Methuselah was taken away a year before the flood. So when Noahs are taken into their arks, we may conclude that a flood is coming. God gathers His harvest before the world's storm, and calls home workers before the dark night comes on."
One writer traces the same pattern forward to the saints who await the Lord's coming.
In the same way, the righteous of Noah's day were gathered up before the flood. In the same way the saints will be gathered up as the day of the Lord's coming draws near: "I also will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world, to try those who dwell on the earth" (Revelation 3:10).
The phrase has been used to argue that death simply ends a person's existence. One writer pressed hard against that reading.
He has done with the trouble of this world, and in that sense he is at rest. But is that all the prophet tells us? … Now I ask: does this encouraging revelation, "he enters into peace," mean he will be extinct? No. It is not as clear as the New Testament, of course. How could it be as clear as when Christ had lived through death and risen out of it? The general subject here is God's government of this present world, as it always was among the Jews. Even so, it comforts the righteous with the thought that in dying he would enter into peace.
Another put the same objection more bluntly: if peace means nothing at all, then words have stopped meaning anything.
If being nothing at all counts as "rest," then it may count as "peace" too. But some people cannot give up the language of Scripture as meaningless, or call bitter sweet and darkness light. They will not be able to accept such a conclusion. You might as well say that the "second death" itself is everlasting peace.
Isaiah sets two destinies side by side. This verse belongs to those who walked in uprightness, and Luke 16 confirms the difference.
Isaiah had contrasted what happens to the righteous dead with what happens to the ungodly dead. The first group, he wrote, rest in their beds who walk in their uprightness (Isaiah 57:2). For the second group, the wicked, there is no peace, as he has said twice over (Isaiah 48:22; 57:21). In Luke 16 the rich man speaks after death, without his body, and in the most awful way confirms what the prophet said… Physical death, it is plain, is not the end of human existence. It is not the end of the creature's consciousness either.
The last clause identifies who lies down in that rest. One rendering makes the past tense visible: it describes a life already lived.
He enters into peace: they rest in their beds, each that has walked in his uprightness.
- Unnoticed — the righteous die and no one takes it to heart. The world misses what the funeral means.
- Removed — what looks like judgment is mercy. God took Josiah by death so that he would not live to see the disasters coming.
- Warning — when God calls His people home, the storm is near. Lot, Methuselah and Noah all left before the wrath came.
- Peace — "he enters into peace" cannot mean he stops existing, or the words lose all sense. In dying, the righteous man enters rest.
- Divided — rest in their beds belongs to those who walk in uprightness. Twice Isaiah says there is no peace for the wicked, and Luke 16 confirms it.
But draw near hither, ye sons of the sorceress, the seed of the adulterer and the harlot.
Isaiah 57 opens with the righteous dying while nobody notices. Then God turns and speaks to the crowd left behind. The names He gives them are a statement of descent, not insults thrown in temper. And the summons that carries them is an invitation to come closer.
The chapter moves in two steps. First God takes the godly away. Then He exposes everyone else. One writer traces that movement.
Isaiah 57 goes on to what seems like forgetfulness on God's part in the last days. The righteous perishes, but this does not wake up the careless — they mock at the righteous and carry on with their idols. Their wickedness is then rehearsed... He had struck them, but now He would heal; yet "for the wicked" there would be "no peace."
The verse begins with a call to come close. That is striking, given the names attached to it. One writer takes the invitation as a warning sent ahead of judgment, and the names as a statement of whose children these people are.
Judgment is coming on the nation. So God invites the Jews to "draw near" and heed His warnings. It is always God's way to warn men before He acts in judgment... They rejected Christ, and so proved themselves to be the sons of the sorceress. They are the offspring of those in league with the devil, just as the Lord can say, "You are of your father the devil" (John 8:44). They are the seed of those who have been unfaithful to the Lord.
Israel stood in a marriage bond with God. So turning to idols was not just a religious mistake. It was unfaithfulness to a husband.
Adultery here means idolatry — "they have committed adultery with their idols" (Ezekiel 23:37). It is the special sin charged against Israel of old, who was the married wife of the Lord (Jeremiah 3:14; Isaiah 54:1). For this she was divorced. But in the purpose and grace of the Lord, Israel will be restored to her former blessed relationship. She will never lose it again, as long as sun and moon last.
"Sorceress" points to a sin Israel seemed to have left behind. After the exile in Babylon, the nation lost its appetite for idols. Yet the prophet here names idolatry among them again. One writer reads that as still waiting for its full fulfilment.
Strange to say, idolatry will reappear among the Jews at the end of the age, as the prophet here hints. This contrasts with the time just before the return from Babylon, and since then. The Lord warns of the same thing in Matthew 12:43-45. The captivity led to the unclean spirit going out of his house, and to the empty, swept and garnished state that has marked "that generation" ever since. But because they rejected the true Christ, in the last days they will receive the Antichrist (see also John 5:43). Then the unclean spirit returns with seven other spirits more wicked than himself. They enter in and live there, and the last state of that man is worse than the first.
Commentators differ on how far forward the verse looks. Another writer ties it to the prophet's own day, under Hezekiah, a king who feared the Lord. Yet a good king, he warns, does not mean a good people.
The evil state of things that existed among the people is exposed again, beginning at verse 3. Even in Hezekiah's day the state of things was like this. Read the account of his reign in both Kings and Chronicles, and we might imagine that most of the nation followed their king in the fear of the Lord. But in fact they did not. Idolatrous evils still largely marked the people. Down to the end of verse 14 the prophet denounces these idolatrous practices and the moral filth that went with them. He plainly foretells that even when disaster came on them from outside, nothing they worshipped would be able to save them. Their works, and what they counted as their "righteousness," would do them no good. The whole spirit that drove them was wrong.
- Sequence — God takes the godly away first. Only then does He turn and speak to the crowd that carried on without them.
- Summons — "Draw near" comes before the sentence. Warning always precedes God's judgment.
- Parentage — The names are a family tree, not name-calling: those who reject Christ show whose children they are — "You are of your father the devil."
- Adultery — Idol language is marriage language. Israel was the wife; idols made her unfaithful. Yet that same bond is the ground of her promised restoration.
- Relapse — The unclean spirit driven out returns with seven worse. A swept and tidy nation can end worse than it began, and no idol it trusts can save it.
Against whom do ye sport yourselves? Against whom do ye make a wide mouth, [and] draw out the tongue? Are ye not children of transgression, a seed of falsehood,
This question comes right after a scene where the righteous die and no one is moved. God now turns from the silence of the careless to their noise, and asks them to name the target of their mockery.
One writer traces the flow of the whole chapter in a few lines:
Isaiah 57 goes on to what seems forgetfulness, on God's part, in the latter days. The righteous perishes, but this does not awaken the careless — they mock at the righteous, going on with their idols. Their wickedness is then rehearsed. The LORD defies their confidences, and declares that those who trust in Him shall possess the Land. He had smitten, but now would heal; but "for the wicked" there would be "no peace."
God calls the guilty to come close before He questions them. The names He uses point to their real parentage:
Judgments are coming on the nation. So God invites the Jews to "draw near" and take His warnings to heart. It is always God's way to warn men before He acts in judgment. When Christ came among them, the nation was no longer marked by idolatry, as it was in the days of the kings. But they rejected Christ. So the Lord warns them that the unclean spirit of idolatry will come back among them in a worse form than in the old days. Their last state will be worse than their first (Luke 11:24–26). The prophet looks on to these solemn days. He sees that by rejecting Christ they proved themselves to be the sons of the sorceress. They are the offspring of those in league with the devil, just as the Lord can say, "You are of your father the devil" (John 8:44). They are the seed of those who have been unfaithful to the LORD.
The two questions have an answer. Scripture records who felt that wide mouth and that tongue:
The LORD asks such people two searching questions: "Whom are you mocking? Against whom do you open your mouth wide and stick out your tongue?" We hear the Lord's own answer in Psalm 35: "In my adversity they rejoiced… with hypocritical mockers… they gnashed at me with their teeth"… "they opened their mouth wide against me." They reject Christ and His word, so they believe a lie. Instead of forming part of His seed (Isa. 53:10), they become "a seed of falsehood."
Note the wordplay. Isaiah 53 promises the suffering Servant offspring; those who mock Him end up the offspring of a lie instead. (Older translations read "a seed of falsehood" where the ESV has "the offspring of deceit.")
A mouth that mocks Christ will still open to someone else. Refusing Him leaves room for another:
This will be the climax of Israel's heartless desertion of the LORD, and rejection of the Messiah. They did not receive Him who came in His Father's name. They will receive another who is to come in his own name. The spirit of this has often been seen already, no doubt. But it waits for its full and final expression in the Antichrist of the last days… Unbelief accepts what is false and evil just as blindly as it ignores the truth and hates righteousness and grace.
To be called "children of transgression" is to be shut out by God's own law. Yet that is just the kind of material His grace takes up:
It was through Pharez, son of Tamar, that the promised blessing had to come. God led His line of promise through the low things of the world, and took up those that man would spurn. This was to magnify His grace and exalt His name… They had joined themselves to idols. They were then in the same moral condition as Pharez, children of transgressions, as the prophet said long after (Isa. 57:4). Their own rules shut them out, for God had said by Moses, "A bastard shall not enter into the congregation of the LORD" (Deut. 23:2). But in a world of sin, where even saints fail, there can be no other ground, save judgment, than absolute grace, and then sovereign grace. It forms and carries out its own purposes, and chooses its own way. So it comes to pass that, if the beginning is Pharez, the end is David.
- Warned first. God calls the guilty to "draw near" before He acts — the question in verse 4 is mercy in the form of an interrogation.
- Named truly. "Sons of the sorceress" and "children of transgression" are not insults about manners. They name the family the mockers belong to.
- Aimed at Christ. The wide mouth and the tongue struck Christ in the end. Psalm 35 records how He heard the mockers.
- Emptied, then filled. Refusing the One who came in His Father's name leaves room for another. Unbelief takes in what is false just as blindly as it shuts out what is true.
- Grace or nothing. Their own law shuts out "children of transgression." Absolute grace is the only door left open — and it runs from Pharez to David.
inflaming yourselves with idols under every green tree, slaying the children in the valleys under the clefts of the rocks?
Isaiah charges God's own people with a religion of lust and child sacrifice, held under shady trees and down in the valleys. Commentators ask two things: what was actually happening, and when — Israel's past, or days still ahead?
The verse opens a run of charges against Israel's worship. One writer reads verses 5 to 9 as the fruit of a people who have accepted what is false.
The result of believing a lie is seen in the gross idolatry and superstition into which the nation will fall. They inflame themselves with idols, offer up their children, and worship stones. Will such offerings be any comfort to the LORD?
Slaughtering children was not a figure of speech. Writers link it to Molech, an idol whose worshippers burned their children. One passes on an old description of the image, and of the religious zeal that covered the act.
To quote from Fausset's Encyclopedia, "Kimshi describes Moloch as a hollow brass figure in human form with an ox's head, and hands stretched out to receive. When it had been heated through, the priests put the baby into its hands. Drums beat to drown out the infant's cries, so that the parents would not relent." It seems hard to understand how religious zeal could justify such wickedness, yet such is the seduction of satanic power.
Idols were not the whole story. One reference work traces idolatry back to Satan and lists this verse among the proofs.
The secret of all the abominations in idolatry is that Satan is the great mover of it. Israel was told that they were no longer to offer sacrifices to demons (Lev. 17:7). They "sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons" (Ps. 106:37). They made their children pass through the fire to Molech (2 Kings 23:10; Ezek. 23:37, 39); "slaying the children in the valleys under the clefts of the rocks" (Isa. 57:5).
The phrase points to worship spread across the whole land, under any shady tree. One commentator, writing on the same phrase in Jeremiah, describes how far the rot had spread and what it left God to do.
"High places" for idol worship had dotted the whole land. In the shade of every green tree the people practised the detestable rites of the nations. These rites were unholy and unclean, in spirit and in fact. They deserved the name the prophets so often gave them: harlotry. What could God do with such a nation but put them away?
Another writer, commenting on Hosea, names what ties loose living to false worship.
So moral laxity and indulgence play into the hands of idolatry, as Satan takes advantage of the passions to hold men in his religious net. So we see how well the language of moral uncleanness suits the heart's going after false gods.
Some had argued that chapter 57 describes Jews living in exile in Babylon. One writer, quoting an older translation, tests that claim against the scenery of the verse.
In verse 5 it says, "Inflaming yourselves under every green tree." It is hard to suppose that the hanging gardens made for Nebuchadnezzar's queen were the haunt of the "Babylonian Jews." But further, we have "slaying the children in the valleys under the clefts of the rocks."
Some commentators read the chapter as still future. On that reading, the idols of verse 5 belong to days ahead, not only to Israel's past.
Idolatry, strange to say, will reappear among the Jews at the end of the age, as the prophet here hints… The captivity drove the unclean spirit out of his house. It left the empty, swept and tidy state that has marked "that generation" ever since. But rejecting the true Christ will end, in the last days, in receiving the Antichrist (see also John 5:43). Then the unclean spirit returns with seven other spirits more wicked than himself… Never has the unclean spirit of idolatry returned to the Jew, still less with the full power of Satan in Antichrist.
- Lie first. The fall starts with believing what is false. It grows into gross idolatry, child sacrifice and stone-worship.
- Lust next. Worship "under every green tree" ran on indulgence. The prophets call it harlotry, for Satan uses the passions as his net.
- Blood after. The children killed in the valleys went to Molech, and the parents called it religious zeal.
- Demons behind. Satan moves the whole thing. Israel's sacrifices went to demons, not to lifeless idols only.
- Return ahead. Commentators read the chapter as future as well as past. The unclean spirit that left comes back with seven worse, and the nation welcomes the Antichrist.
Among the smooth [stones] of the torrent is thy portion; they, they are thy lot even to them hast thou poured out a drink-offering, thou hast offered an oblation. Shall I be comforted myself as to these things?
Isaiah 57 opens with the righteous dying while careless people look on. One writer traces the movement of the chapter in a few lines:
Isaiah 57 goes on to what seems forgetfulness, on God's part, in the latter days. The righteous perishes, but this does not awaken the careless — they mock at the righteous, going on with their idols. Their wickedness is then recounted. Jehovah challenges the things they trust in, and declares that those who trust in Him will have the Land.
Verse 6 sits inside that account of their wickedness. The charges around it are pressed in pictures of uncleanness:
Next the prophet uses one picture of uncleanness after another to accuse the Jews who had turned to idols.
The smooth stones lying in the dry streambed are not decoration. They are the share the people have chosen. The verse ends with God's question about it; older translations read it as "Shall I be comforted?" One writer asks it again:
You can see the result of believing a lie in the gross idolatry and superstition the nation will fall into. They burn with lust among their idols, offer up their children, and worship stones. Will such offerings be any comfort to the LORD? On the high hills, and behind the doors of the temple, they set up their idols, and they turn to these instead of to Jehovah.
The verse is not only about crude superstition. God's own appointed offerings — the drink offering and the grain offering — are aimed at stones. That is the insult, and you feel its weight only when you know what those offerings meant:
They burnt incense, he tells us, and poured out drink-offerings to the queen of heaven, and to the false gods. Incense spoke of the merits of Christ. The drink offering spoke of the joy found in the life and death of the Lord Jesus. Yet by the incense they burned to idols, and by the wine they poured out, the people claimed by their action that they had found such merits in false gods. They claimed to have found joy in a rite that was the worship of demons, little as they knew it (1 Corinthians 10:20). What an insult to God, and to Him whom the sacrifice represented, for Israel to give drink offerings to idols! We grasp how evil such a practice was only when we learn what the offering, as God appointed it, really expressed.
This was not a one-off. The same act runs through Israel's history, and one writer gathers the references and names the cost:
All the other direct references to the drink offering in the prophets, except one, and Psalm 16:4 as well, refer to idolatrous practices tied to this offering. Isaiah 57:6, Jeremiah 7:18, 19:13, 32:39, 44:17-19, 25 and Ezekiel 20:28 all point to the same thing. Israel and Judah poured out drink offerings to the gods of the nations. This provoked Jehovah to judge His disobedient people… Every blessing that God has ever given to man, man has corrupted. This is true of the drink offering also.
What follows in the chapter answers God's question. The people kept their idols even under Hezekiah, a king who feared the Lord, and the portion they chose proved worthless when trouble came:
Even in Hezekiah's day things stood like this. From the account of his reign in Kings and Chronicles we might imagine that most of the nation followed their king in the fear of the Lord, but they did not, and idolatrous evils still marked the people. Down to the end of verse 14, the passage condemns these idolatrous practices and the moral filth that went with them. It plainly foretells that even when disaster came on them from outside, nothing they worshipped could deliver them. Their works, and what they counted as their "righteousness", would do them no good. The whole spirit that drove them was wrong.
The same test falls on anyone who brings an offering to God today. Everything depends on where it is aimed:
We must make sure that all our worship — and indeed all our thoughts, our words and our actions — is directed to giving joy to God. Anything else that aims at pleasing ourselves is like offering drink offerings to false gods. Such things are an abomination to God. Let us take care that all our offerings to God are in a right spirit and according to truth.
- Portion. What you pour your offerings toward is what you have chosen as your share. Here it was smooth stones, and God calls them their lot.
- Corruption. The drink offering was God's own gift, expressing joy in the life and death of the Lord Jesus; man took that gift and aimed it at idols.
- Insult. The rite belonged to Christ. Offered to idols, it was the worship of demons, though they never knew it, and an insult to God and to the One the sacrifice pictured.
- Emptiness. When disaster came, nothing they worshipped could save them. Their works and their supposed righteousness did them no good.
- Test. Every offering still points somewhere. Worship aimed at pleasing ourselves, instead of giving joy to God, takes the same road.
Upon a lofty and high mountain hast thou set thy bed even thither didst thou go up to offer sacrifice.
Isaiah 57:7 pictures a people climbing a hill and setting up a bed there. That is the language of a marriage betrayed, used here for religion gone wrong. The charge is one link in a long chain of accusations in this chapter. It raises two questions. Why is idolatry named in such shocking terms? And why the high ground?
The prophets speak of Israel's bond to God as a marriage. So when she turns to other gods, God calls it adultery.
Adultery, or idolatry, is the special sin charged against Israel of old. Israel was the married wife of Jehovah (Jeremiah 3:14; Isaiah 54:1), and "with their idols they have committed adultery" (Ezekiel 23:37). For this she was divorced. But in His purpose and grace, Jehovah will restore Israel to her former blessed relation. She will never lose it again, as long as sun and moon endure.
So the bed on the mountain is a marriage bed set up for someone else.
"High places" were the usual sites of Israel's false worship. The appeal of height was part of the deception.
Departure from God took its outward form in Israel by making for themselves "high places." It was only a heathen habit. It plays on the imagination with a worship that has no heart. Men still try to satisfy themselves in the same way — with music, architecture, drapery, and that most typical "dim religious light." In it they worship a God who is Light itself, and in whom there is no darkness at all. Such things work on nature and produce a feeling. Many take that feeling for the reality it lacks. So on the mountain tops a man could imagine himself nearer to God than in the valleys. It is just here that man so often makes the fatal mistake. He puts what is natural in the place of what is spiritual, and so deceives himself.
The second half of the verse says they went up there to sacrifice. Their offerings were real ones, and the list of them is horrifying.
The result of believing a lie appears in the gross idolatry and superstition into which the nation will fall. They inflame themselves with idols, offer up their children, and worship stones. Will such offerings be any comfort to the LORD? On the high hills, and behind the doors of the temple, they set up their idols, and turn to them rather than to Jehovah.
The same writer says where this ends. The nation turns at last to a false king. He is the one the Lord meant when He told the Jews, "I have come in my Father's name, and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him" (John 5:43).
Commentators read this chapter as more than a record of past sin.
Idolatry, strange to say, will reappear among the Jews at the end of the age. The prophet suggests it here. This is unlike the time just before the return from Babylon, and unlike the time since. The Lord warns of the same thing in Matthew 12:43–45. The captivity drove the unclean spirit out of his house. It left the empty, swept and garnished state that has marked "that generation" ever since. But the rejection of the true Christ will result, in the last days, in the reception of the Antichrist (see also John 5:43). Never yet has the unclean spirit of idolatry returned to the Jew, still less with the full power of Satan in Antichrist. But it will, at the close of the age, as surely as the Lord spoke.
An empty house does not stay empty.
The high place began as something people defended. That is what makes it worth watching in ourselves.
Jehoshaphat had not done away with the high places, but Jehoram added to them. He led the people of Jerusalem into harlotry — that is, idolatry by means of the high places. At first they claimed to have the high places for the worship of God. But this very soon developed into the worship of idols. The same danger is ours. In our outward worship of God we want high recognition from men. That desire will very easily become idolatry in practice. God will be displaced and Satan's counterfeit will take God's place.
- Bond — Israel was the married wife of God. So God charges her turning to idols as adultery, and speaks of a bed, not just an altar.
- Height — the mountain top gave a feeling of nearness to God without the reality. Mood stood in for a heart that was somewhere else.
- Offering — they really did sacrifice on that hill. God asks whether such offerings could be any comfort to Him.
- Drift — what starts as worship of God on a high place ends as worship of an idol. The desire for recognition from men puts a counterfeit in God's place.
- Return — the unclean spirit that left an empty, swept house comes back. Rejecting the true Christ ends in receiving one who comes in his own name.
Behind the doors also and the posts hast thou set up thy remembrance for apart from me, thou hast uncovered thyself, and art gone up; thou hast enlarged thy bed, and hast made agreement with them; thou lovedst their bed, thou sawest their nakedness.
In Isaiah 57 God charges Israel with idol worship, and He calls it unfaithfulness in marriage. Verse 8 raises three questions: what the memorial behind the door was, who she made her covenant with, and whether the charge ended in Isaiah's day.
Why does the verse speak of a bed and lovers? The answer lies in the relationship God had with the nation.
Israel of old was the married wife of Jehovah (Jeremiah 3:14; Isaiah 54:1). So the special sin charged against her is adultery, that is, idolatry — "with their idols they have committed adultery" (Ezekiel 23:37). For this she was divorced. But in the purpose and grace of Jehovah, He will restore Israel to her former blessed relationship. She will never forfeit it again, as long as sun and moon endure.
The verse puts the token in a strange place. It is not on an open altar but behind the door and the doorpost. And the drift does not stop with idols.
The result of believing a lie is seen in the gross idolatry and superstition into which the nation will fall. They inflame themselves with idols, offer up their children, and worship stones. Will such offerings be any comfort to the LORD? On the high hills, and behind the doors of the temple, they set up their idols, and they turn to these instead of to the LORD. Above all, they will turn to the false king — to Antichrist... Daniel describes this wicked king as doing his own will, exalting himself above every god, and speaking against the God of gods (Daniel 11:36-40). In turning to this king the nation will debase itself to hell.
She makes a covenant with them. The chapters just before use that same word for something very different.
In Isaiah 54 it is the covenant of His peace. In Isaiah 55 it is an everlasting covenant. In Isaiah 56 it is the LORD's covenant. But in solemn contrast, in Isaiah 57:8-9, the last chapter of our section, we read of some who make a hopeless and wicked covenant with the followers of Antichrist.
Did the charge end with Isaiah's generation? One writer says it did not.
This evil will certainly burst out again and test the future godly remnant of Jews, when the church is no longer here. It will appear not merely among the nations, but in Jerusalem and the temple itself (compare Isaiah 57:4-9; Daniel 11:36-39; Daniel 12:11; Matthew 12:43-45; Matthew 24:15; 2 Thessalonians 2).
A godly king on the throne did not mean a godly people at home.
The evil state of things among the people is exposed again, beginning at verse 3. Even in Hezekiah's day things were like this. Reading the account of his reign in both Kings and Chronicles, we might imagine that most of the nation followed their king in the fear of the Lord. They clearly did not. Idolatrous evils still marked most of the people... And it is plainly foretold: even when disaster came on them from outside, nothing they honoured could deliver them.
The shrine in the verse is hidden behind a door. One writer turns that image on the reader.
You keep some part of it shut up from Him. You do not want the light of God's presence to enter that dark chamber of your heart, because it is a secret idol-shrine... And remember, an "idol" is anything you prefer to Christ and allow to slip in between Him and the soul. It is a vain attempt to hide one corner of your heart from God's searching light while keeping the other part lit up. The darkness will soon spread from that dark idol closet over the whole heart, and, sadly, over the conscience too... Throw open your whole heart to Him, and no part of your heart and body, which is "the temple of God," will be dark any longer.
- Marriage — Israel was the married wife of Jehovah. So her idolatry is adultery, and the reason she was divorced.
- Memorial — The token hides behind the door. Idols also stand on the high hills and at the temple, so devotion is split between two addresses.
- Covenant — The chapters just before hold out the covenant of peace, the everlasting covenant, the LORD's covenant. Here she makes her own instead.
- King — The drift ends at a person. The covenant is with the followers of the false king, and turning to him debases the nation to hell.
- Heart — The hidden shrine is the point of application. An idol is anything you prefer to Christ. You cannot keep one corner of the heart back from God's light.
And thou wentest to the king with ointment, and didst multiply thy perfumes, and didst send thy messengers afar off, and didst debase thyself unto Sheol.
In Isaiah 57 God charges His people with idolatry. Verse 9 is where the charge hits bottom: they perfume themselves to win over a king, and sink to the grave doing it.
Verse 9 closes a run of accusations that begins several verses earlier. One writer traces the movement from open idolatry to its final object:
(Verses 5–9). You can see the result of believing a lie in the gross idolatry and superstition the nation will fall into. They inflame themselves with idols, offer up their children, and worship stones. Will such offerings be any comfort to the LORD? On the high hills, and behind the doors of the temple, they set up their idols, and they turn to them rather than to Jehovah. Above all, they will turn to the false king — to Antichrist. This, surely, is the one the Lord meant when He said to the Jews, "I have come in my Father's name, and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him" (John 5:43). Daniel describes this wicked king as doing whatever he wants, exalting himself above every god, and speaking against the God of gods (Dan. 11:36–40). In turning to this king the nation will debase itself to hell.
The verse names no king and explains nothing. Commentators treat that silence as deliberate. They also set this king apart from the Assyrian, the invader in nearby chapters:
This makes it plain that "the king" is a special enemy of God. He does not attack the Jews from outside, as the Assyrian does. He sets himself up inside, as king over the people of God. There was no need to say which king. The idea was familiar to Israel, so the Holy Spirit could bring him in without a word of introduction. They knew there was a terrible king to come — the last great enemy of God and of the Jews in the land.
Bringing oil and perfume to this king is worse than the idols already named. One writer calls it the last step in a long desertion:
This will be the climax of Israel's heartless desertion of Jehovah, and of their rejection of the Messiah. They did not receive Him who came in His Father's name; they will receive another who is to come in his own name. The spirit of this has often been seen already, no doubt; but it awaits its full and final expression in the Antichrist of the last days.
Commentators read the messengers as diplomacy. The nation is trying to buy safety from a threat closing in:
How useless it will be for the apostate part of the Jewish nation in that day to ally themselves with this deceitful enemy of Christ! It is, in truth, to debase themselves even to hell. And yet this is just what the scornful men who will then rule in Jerusalem will do. They want to shield themselves, if they can, from the overflowing scourge God will bring on them — the Assyrian. So we find in Isaiah 28:15, "Because you have said, 'We have made a covenant with death, and with Sheol we have an agreement, when the overwhelming whip passes through it will not come to us.'" What a vain delusion, to think they can escape God's chastening this way!
The last clause names the cost. Another passage in Isaiah names the king's own end:
To have anything to do with him was to debase oneself to hell. No wonder that Tophet was prepared for "the king also."
One writer links the oil to incense offered to an image, and to the pull of a leader claiming to be the promised Messiah:
This may refer to the incense offered to the idol, "the image of the beast" of Revelation 13, for which the king will be responsible. No doubt, when that day comes, Antichrist's claim to be the long-awaited Messiah will have worked on many. They will ignore the Lord's words, "If anyone says to you, 'Look, here is the Christ!' or 'There he is!' do not believe it" (Matt. 24:23), and many will go to the king with ointments.
The chapter does not end with everyone swept away. It divides those who go to the king from the one who trusts God:
Here the Jews keep on in wickedness and go from bad to worse, so only destruction awaits them. Only the one who put his trust in Jehovah would inherit the land — for there is always a remnant.
- Descent. The charge climbs from idols on the hills, to idols behind the temple doors, to "above all" a false king.
- Desertion. They refused the One who came in His Father's name, and will welcome one who comes in his own name.
- Reach. Envoys go "far off" to buy safety from a coming scourge — an alliance Isaiah 28 calls a covenant with death.
- Depth. Dealing with this king means debasing yourself to hell — and Tophet is prepared for the king too.
- Exception. The same chapter gives the land to the one who trusts God — there is always a remnant.
Thou wast wearied by the multitude of thy ways; [but] thou saidst not, It is of no avail. Thou didst find a quickening of thy strength; therefore thou wast not sick [of it].
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And of whom hast thou been afraid or feared, that thou hast lied, and hast not remembered me, nor taken it to heart? Have not I even of long time held my peace, and thou fearest me not?
Isaiah 57 describes a nation that has drifted from God and now looks elsewhere for safety. In this verse God asks who frightened them into lying and forgetting Him, and why His long silence left them unafraid of Him.
Two verses earlier the chapter names who Israel turned to: "the king." Commentators identify him with a figure of the last days.
This will be the climax of Israel's heartless desertion of Jehovah, and rejection of the Messiah. They did not receive Him who came in His Father's name; they will receive another who is to come in his own name. This spirit has often shown itself, no doubt. But it awaits its full and final expression in the Antichrist of the last days. He is "the king," brought in here as abruptly (and so all the more strikingly) as he is in Daniel 11:36-40.
Jesus described the same exchange in His own words, and one writer connects the two directly.
Above all, they will turn to the false king — to Antichrist. This, surely, is the one the Lord referred to when He said to the Jews, "I have come in my Father's name, and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him" (John 5:43).
The verse links fear with lying. One writer traces the same link back to Sarah, and names the cure.
In Genesis 18:15 we find Sarah telling a direct lie through fear. How often this happens, when we have done or said something we are ashamed of. It may be a right thing, and so we are ashamed of Christ; or it may be a wrong thing, and we are ashamed of being found out. Either way, a lie slips from our lips before we are aware of it. The radical cure for this is not to do what we are ashamed of; or, if the thing is right, not to be ashamed of what we do. If, however, we have slipped into a sin, let us not add another to it. Just as the lie is about to leave our lips, let the thought, GOD HEARS ME, stop it at once.
The lie and the forgetting have one root: looking elsewhere for help.
Worn out by the number of their ways, the nation will say there is no hope. So they will turn to the false king to find a passing burst of strength. In turning to the false king they forget Jehovah, their true resource in time of trouble. Their complete lack of fear of God shows that nothing has touched their heart and nothing has reached their conscience. They may boast in their own righteousness and words, but these will not profit them.
God points to His own long silence: it left them with no fear of Him. Commentators explain who misreads such patience, and why.
All this goes on under the eye of God, and He does not step in. So the patience of His government comes to be misread as indifference. Sadly, the wicked are not the only ones who misread it. It also causes the deepest distress to the righteous, who suffer under it. But the wicked readily believe it is indifference. Wickedness believes in wickedness, just as naturally as goodness believes in goodness.
One writer names the root of the fear of other people, and where it leads.
The fear of man is born of unbelief. The Christian who fears man shows clearly that he is not looking to the Lord, but to man. The fear of man surely brings a snare; it leads to pleasing men and praising men. A person seeks the honour that comes from man, not the honour that comes from God only. So he fears man — his approval or his disapproval.
Only one thing displaces it, and it is not willpower.
The fear of man is cast out by a greater fear, the fear of God. Nothing but the fear of God can cast out the fear of man. We will stand in awe of the people around us if the fear of God does not control us.
The rebuke is not the last word. The chapter sets a second group against the nation — those who trusted Jehovah.
The nation may cry out in distress, only to find that a breath of wind carries away those they have trusted. In contrast stand the godly remnant, who put their trust in Jehovah. They will possess the Land. God will prepare the road for their return to His earthly centre and take every stumbling block out of their path.
- Fear misplaced. Fear of someone other than God stands behind the whole verse. Israel turns to "the king" — the Antichrist — after refusing the Messiah.
- Fear lies. Fear produces a lie before we notice it. One thought stops it: God hears me.
- Fear forgets. Forgetting God is not absent-mindedness. It shows a heart nothing has touched and a conscience nothing has reached.
- Fear misreads. God's long silence is patience. Wickedness reads it as indifference, and so feels safe.
- Fear cures fear. Only the fear of God drives out the fear of man. Those who trust Him keep the Land, while everything else is blown away by a breath of wind.
I will declare thy righteousness, and thy works; and they shall not profit thee.
God speaks here to people who had drifted into idolatry and turned to a coming false king for help. Now He answers the case they still made for themselves: He will publish their righteousness Himself, and it will ruin them.
Verses 10–12 show a worn-out nation. They looked everywhere for strength except to God, and they still had a boast left.
Worn out by all their wandering, the nation will say there is no hope. So it will turn to the false king to find a brief lift of its strength. In turning to the false king they forget the LORD, their true resource in time of trouble. Their lack of all fear of God shows that their heart is untouched and their conscience unreached. They may boast in their own righteousness and words, but these will not profit them.
God had said nothing for a long time. Silence like that is easy to misread.
Yet, because God kept silence, and bore long in patience, men thought that all was well, and that God, like themselves, was satisfied with outward religious observances. When, however, God speaks, He raises the question of man's unrighteousness. "These things you have done." Man's religion is one of outward forms with nothing to disturb the conscience. God, beginning with the conscience, raises the question, "What have you done?"
God offers to do the very thing self-righteous people want: put their record on public display. The offer destroys them. To clear yourself is to pass a verdict on God.
It is of the greatest moral importance to see this. Whenever we justify ourselves, we condemn God. But when we condemn ourselves, we justify God… The greatest folly that anyone can be guilty of is to justify himself, since God must then charge him with sin. But the truest wisdom is to condemn oneself utterly; for in that case God becomes the Justifier.
"They will not profit you" is the language of accounts. The works may be real. Others may admire them. You can even give them a new name. But God sets the value.
That is God's estimate of your acts of righteousness. You may give them another name, and proudly speak of them as good works, but God is the Judge in this matter. You have to stand before His court. Let God be true, and every man a liar.
So what is left when a man has nothing to say for himself? That silence is where the gospel begins.
But he stands in the court of God's righteousness. There he is shown in his true character, and he has nothing to say. Every mouth is stopped, and the whole world is held accountable to God. A silent, guilty world — a world that stands convicted of sin, without a word to say — what then? God speaks. He says, I will proclaim My righteousness. If there is no righteousness in you, and you are convinced of that, now listen to My righteousness. In the gospel of Christ we have that righteousness brought out.
The verse is not God's last word here. The rest of the chapter answers their false confidence with a promise, and then with healing.
Isaiah 57 goes on to what seems forgetfulness on God's part in the latter days. The righteous perishes, but this does not awaken the careless — they mock at the righteous, going on with their idols. The chapter then lists their wickedness. The LORD challenges the things they trust in, and says that those who trust in Him will possess the Land. He had struck them, but now would heal; but "for the wicked" there would be "no peace."
- Silence — they read God's long patience as approval. A conscience that is never disturbed grows sure of a record it never checked.
- Boast — they turned from God to idols and to a false king, yet they still pointed to their own righteousness. The boast outlived everything else.
- Exposure — God offers to declare that righteousness Himself, and the offer is fatal. To clear yourself is to condemn God.
- Bankruptcy — you may call your works good, but God sets the value in His own court, and there they do not pay.
- Substitution — when a man has nothing left to say, God speaks. He proclaims His own righteousness in the gospel, and those who trust Him possess the Land.
When thou criest, let them that are gathered by thee deliver thee! But a wind shall carry them all away, a breath shall take them; but he that putteth his trust in me shall inherit the land, and possess my holy mountain.
This verse ends a long charge against Israel with one line of hope. It asks what your confidence is made of, and whether it will stand when the wind blows.
One writer walks through the chapter and shows where this verse sits in it:
Isaiah 57 goes on to what seems like forgetfulness on God's part in the last days. The righteous perishes, but this does not wake the careless — they mock at the righteous and carry on with their idols. Their wickedness is then rehearsed. Jehovah defies their confidences, and declares that those who trust in Him shall possess the Land. He had struck them, but now He would heal; yet "for the wicked" there would be "no peace."
The helpers this verse mocks were not gathered at random. A worn-out people chose them, as the verses just before show:
(Verses 10–12). Worn out by the multitude of their ways, the nation will say there is no hope, and so turn to the false king to find a passing revival of their strength. In turning to the false king they forget Jehovah, their true resource in time of trouble. Their complete lack of the fear of God shows that their heart is untouched and their conscience unreached. They may boast in their own righteousness and words, but these will not profit them.
Another writer names this king and shows how the wind answers the deal made with him:
Others will give themselves up to detestable idolatry, for Antichrist will then be in power at Jerusalem. They will make a covenant (or "an agreement") (v. 8). "To the king (Antichrist), with ointment" and perfumes they draw near; and they debase themselves "to hell" (v. 9). But the stormy wind when it rages will "carry them all off, a breath will take them away" (v. 13).
The promise narrows to one description: the person who takes refuge in God. Trust is the only thing that marks him out, and someone always has it:
As the Jews are shown persisting in wickedness and going from bad to worse, only destruction awaits them; he alone should inherit the land who put his trust in Jehovah; for there is always a remnant.
The two things promised are not vague comforts. Both had long been in other hands, so the promise takes back what was lost:
So, in the middle of this distressing description of coming wickedness and misery, Jehovah sets the one who trusts in Him against the hopeless destruction of the apostate — the trusting one is destined to possess the land (so long the prey of one invading stranger after another) and to inherit His holy mountain (to this day the boasted spoil of the Gentile unbeliever).
From here the tone changes. The same God who scatters false helpers stoops to people who have nothing left:
This warning word closes with a striking contrast between the guilty nation and the godly remnant. The nation may cry out in distress only to find that those they have trusted in will be carried away by a breath of wind. In contrast we are reminded of the godly remnant who put their trust in Jehovah. They will possess the Land, a way will be made for their return to God's earthly centre, and every stumbling-block will be taken out of their path. The One who inhabits eternity can stoop to revive a contrite and humble soul of earth… The result will be that, after judgment has done its work, God will lead the godly back into their Land, bless them with comforts, and bring peace, not only to the godly remnant — those who are "near" — but to the Gentile who is "afar off". But the wicked are like the troubled sea when it cannot rest. For such, there is "no peace."
- Confidence — worn out, the nation said there was no hope. It turned to a false king instead of God. Its boasting could not profit it.
- Collapse — what they gathered is so light that a breath of wind removes it. God challenges every confidence that is not Himself.
- Contrast — against that ruin stands one man, marked out only by trust. However corrupt the crowd, such a remnant always exists.
- Claim — he receives the land that invaders held one after another, and the holy mountain others still claim. The promise reverses history.
- Consequence — the God who scatters false helpers stoops to revive the contrite. He clears the road home and speaks peace to near and far. For the wicked there is none.
And it shall be said, Cast up, cast up, prepare the way, take up the stumbling-blocks out of the way of my people.
This chapter warns a nation drifting into idolatry. Then the tone shifts: a voice calls out to clear a road. Who is the road for, what is blocking it, and who does the clearing?
The call to build a road comes right after a promise. Commentators read it as the answer to that promise: a way home for the few who trusted God.
This warning closes with a sharp contrast between the guilty nation and the godly remnant. The nation may cry out in distress, only to find that those it trusted will be blown away by a breath of wind. The godly remnant, by contrast, put their trust in the Lord. They will hold the Land, the way back to God's centre on earth will be opened, and every stumbling block will be taken out of their path.
The word behind "obstruction" is concrete. It names an object left lying where someone walks.
The Hebrew word is mikshol, the Greek proskomma. It means anything put in another person's way that he might trip over and fall. The law forbade it, and such things were to be cleared out of Israel's way. Lev. 19:14; Isa. 57:14. Their own sin, however, became a stumbling block to them. Ezek. 7:19; Ezek. 14:3-7. In the church, each person should take care to do nothing that might make another stumble. Rom. 14:13; 1 Cor. 8:9.
For the nation, the great obstacle was Christ Himself. He stood among them in lowliness, and the block goes only when their pride goes.
The Lord of hosts was among the nation even then, just as Isaiah had said, as a sanctuary for those who would come to Him. But He was there also as "a stone of offense and a rock of stumbling to both houses of Israel, a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem." … In the day of His glory Messiah will be "marvellous" in the eyes of His people, though in His humiliation they saw no beauty in Him that they should desire Him. They will be a humble people then. The stumbling block will be removed. They will find that the High and Lofty One who inhabits eternity also dwells with the person of a humble and contrite spirit (Isa. 57:14-15).
Once the blocks are gone, the next verse names the One who comes down to the humble.
So let every stumbling block be removed now! "This is what the High and Lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy, says: I dwell in the high and lofty place, and also with him who is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite" (v. 15). The high, the holy, the eternal God who dwells on high now stoops to live down here in the depths as well, with the humble and contrite, to give them a revival.
Vine adds where that reviving comes from:
Recovery is His own work. We depend on Him alone for it. We may want it and pray for it, but He Himself is the great Recoverer.
The same call comes again later in Isaiah. One writer ties it to preparation that is spiritual, not physical.
They are to build up the road ahead of the advancing King. This, of course, is spiritual preparation, and in Isaiah it is tied to the removal of stumbling blocks (Isa. 57:14; Isa. 62:10). The spirit of praise is the spirit of power.
The law also said a boundary stone must stay where it is. Mackintosh puts the two commands side by side.
The old landmarks were not to be moved, but the stumbling blocks were to be picked up. The inheritance of God's people was to stand whole and unchanged, while every stumbling block was carefully cleared out of their path. Such was the grace and care of God for His people!
He then turns it on himself. A true teaching moved out of its place becomes a block in your own path:
My only claim to salvation is that I am a poor, guilty sinner who deserves hell. If I wait for any other claim, I am taking a most valuable landmark out of its proper place and putting it in my own way as a stumbling block.
- Road — the call is to build a way home; those who trusted God, not their allies, walk it back to His centre.
- Obstruction — a stumbling block is anything left where a person walks; the law banned it, and believers owe each other the same care.
- Stone — Israel's great obstacle was Christ in lowliness. When they turn humble, the block is gone.
- Stoop — the road is cleared so the High and Lofty One can dwell with the contrite; recovery is His own work, not ours.
- Guard — keep the landmarks, clear the path. Even a true teaching put in the wrong place becomes a stone that trips a soul.
For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, and whose name is Holy I dwell in the high and holy [place], and with him that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.
God introduces Himself here by His highest titles, then gives a second address where He can be found. The One who inhabits eternity also lives with the crushed and lowly — and this verse says what He does there and why.
The verse opens with three things God says about Himself.
The LORD presents Himself in a light designed to produce the right spirit in those who approach Him. He is high and elevated in the depths of space, far above this little world. He inhabits eternity, not restricted by the times and seasons that confine us. His name is "Holy." Are we aware of this? If so, we will at once be contrite about the past, and humble in the present. And it is the heart and spirit of the humble and contrite that God revives, so that they may dwell in His presence in the high and holy place.
The verse names two dwelling places. Both suit the same God.
What is clear here is that God's dwelling is in harmony with His own nature. He is high and holy, and He dwells in the high and holy place. But He dwells also with him "that is of a contrite and humble spirit," for He finds there what is suited to Himself. The highest place in heaven is honoured by the presence of Him who yet stoops to make the lowly heart His throne. … The highest heavens cannot contain God. Yet we may have Him as our Guest — but only by getting down ourselves into the lowest and lowliest place. So if we have never met Him, it is because we have never got down as low as that level of self-judgment where He is found in grace. … How good it is to be humble before Him like this — lowly enough for the lofty One to dwell with us, contrite (or rubbed down) enough for the Holy One to revive us!
The two words are not the same. One deals with the past, the other with our relation to God. Together they remove the distance on our side.
God removed this infinite distance on His part, through the Cross. On our part, contrition and humility remove it. Contrition shows self-judgment about the past. Humility shows a right and proper sense of one's relation to God.
The same writer adds why God is able to live in such a heart:
When repentance is present in the soul… God is able to dwell in that soul. The contrite and humble spirit is fitting in character to be God's dwelling place. And we know, further, that in this present age He dwells by His Holy Spirit.
Repentance is a duty for man. But there is a higher way to see it.
It is one thing to see that repentance is binding on man. It is another and much higher thing to see that it is welcome to God… A broken heart, a contrite spirit, a repentant mind, gives joy to God.
Reviving is recovery. It is not something a person can do for himself.
Recovery is His own work. We depend on Him alone for this. We may desire it, and pray for it, but He Himself is the great Recoverer. "None can recover his own soul" (Ps. 22:29, in an older translation). We are therefore to turn to Him, and to none other.
Another writer points to the usual means He uses:
The means God uses to revive us is usually His Word: "I will never forget your precepts, for by them you have given me life" (Ps. 119:93). This personal encouragement in fellowship with God then stirs a wider desire in our hearts: that God would revive His whole people.
This promise has a setting. It is spoken to the small faithful group left in Israel, and it reaches beyond them.
Gracious is the promise to the feeble remnant, those who are contrite and humble… God promises peace to him that is far off (Gentiles) and to him that is near (Israel). It will be fully realized in the kingdom.
- Height — He inhabits eternity, unbound by the times and seasons that limit us, and His name is Holy.
- Harmony — He does not lower His nature to dwell with the lowly. He finds in a contrite spirit something suited to Himself.
- Humbling — Contrition judges the past; humility takes its true place before God. The Cross removed the infinite distance on God's side; these remove it on ours.
- Happiness — A broken heart is more than man's duty. It gives joy to God.
- Healing — Reviving is His work alone. He usually does it through His Word, and one revived soul begins to long for all His people to be revived.
For I will not contend for ever, neither will I be always wroth; for the spirit would fail before me, and the souls [which] I have made.
Isaiah 57 has just exposed Israel's idolatry and announced judgment, and now the tone turns. Why does God limit His own anger, what does "the breath of life that I made" mean, and does this verse say anything about final judgment?
The reason for the limit is not Israel's improvement but human weakness.
In this verse, God stoops to remember human frailty. He reflects that if He does not hold back His hand from judgment, man's spirit would fail before Him, and the souls that He had made. God's compassion shows here in a most moving way.
The phrase points back to God as Maker. What He formed, He knows the strength of — and one writer draws from this a rule for how correction should be carried out among God's people.
It is often forgotten that discipline has its limits quite independently of the state of heart or conscience of the one dealt with. In its carrying out it should bear the stamp of the God of all grace who chastises "for our profit" (Heb. 12:10). He remembers how easily "the souls which He has made" (Isa. 57:16) may faint before Him.
Some argue from this verse that no punishment can be final, since God will not be angry forever. Commentators answer that the subject here is living people on earth, not what lies beyond death.
As to Isaiah 57:16, it is equally plain that the Lord is speaking of men on the earth. If He contended with them continually — did not cease and spare them — they would perish as living men. The stumbling blocks were to be taken out of the way of His people. The high and holy One would revive the hearts of the humble, and the heart of the contrite. This is because He would not strive forever, nor be always angry. "For the iniquity of his covetousness I was angry, and I struck him… I have seen his ways, but I will heal him." Now what has all this to do with hell? Just nothing at all. Let me advise the simple reader: when someone quotes a verse, always read the context before accepting a new doctrine.
This limit belongs to God's dealings with Israel as a nation. And stopping is not all He does. He goes on to heal.
The following verses go on to speak of God's governmental dealings with the people. He had to deal in wrath with them because of their sin and rebellion, but He would not contend with them as a nation forever. The moment would come when He would heal and bless, and establish peace, both for those far off and for those near. "Far off" may refer to the sons of Israel, who would be scattered, as distinct from those in the land. But it is also true if we take it as referring to Gentiles, who were "far off," in the sense of Ephesians 2:13. In either case the peace has to be "created" by God, and is not something produced by men. Isaiah 53 has told us how the peace is created.
Jesus spoke of days so severe that nobody would survive them unless God cut them short. That is the restraint this verse describes.
"And if those days had not been cut short, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short" (Matt. 24:22). Yes, the LORD will heal, lead, and comfort. He creates thankful praise. Peace is His word, peace to him that is far off and to him that is near; but as for the wicked, like the troubled sea that casts up mire and dirt, "There is no peace, says my God, to the wicked."
Another writer sets out three ways God acts toward sin.
He does not shut His eyes to his sin, but He adds, "I will heal him." Marvellous grace! So we see God's three ways of acting. First, seeing sin, angry, and judging the sinner. Second, seeing sin and angry, but hiding Himself. Third, seeing sin, and healing the sinner, leading him also, and restoring comforts to him.
- Wrath. God's anger against Israel was real and deserved. He was angry at their covetousness and struck them. This verse does not soften that.
- Limit. He will not contend forever. The restraint comes from His side, not from any change in them.
- Reason. He remembers human frailty. If He never stopped, the spirit of the very people He made would fail before Him.
- Healing. Restraint is only the start. He heals, leads and comforts — and the peace that follows must be created by God, not produced by us.
- Warning. The chapter that limits God's anger also closes with a warning: there is no peace for the wicked.
For the iniquity of his covetousness was I wroth, and smote him; I hid me, and was wroth, and he went on backslidingly in the way of his heart.
God names the reason for His blow here: greed. Yet the man He struck kept going his own way, which leaves one question — what can change a heart that punishment could not bend?
The chapter opens on days when God seems to have forgotten. One writer traces its movement, and shows that the striking is not God's last word.
Isaiah 57 goes on to what seems forgetfulness on God's part in the latter days. The righteous perishes, but this does not wake up the careless — they mock at the righteous, going on with their idols. Their wickedness is then set out. The Lord challenges the things they trust in, and declares that those who trust in Him will possess the Land. He had struck them, but now would heal; but "for the wicked" there would be "no peace."
Older translations call this sin covetousness — greed. From the inside it looks small and respectable.
Covetousness involves no dishonesty. It is not even hard or sharp dealing. It is nothing more than the desire for more. That desire is the driving force behind modern effort. Everyone, from the workman to the millionaire, is urged to better himself. So the creature becomes the object, not God, and that is why covetousness is called idolatry. It is man looking down, not up in dependence on God.
The verse names two different actions of God, and both met the same response. One writer separates them, and points to a third way God acts.
He had been justly angry for the iniquity of their covetousness, and had struck them. Again He had been angry, and had hidden Himself, and they had gone on in waywardness of heart. So He had seen Israel's sin, and struck him for it. Again He had seen it, and had held back from striking. But He still had to be angry; for Israel had only taken advantage of His hiding Himself, and their waywardness went unchecked. Yet again God will act, and in a new way. "I have seen his ways, and will heal him." He does not shut His eyes to his sin, but He adds, "I will heal him." Marvellous grace! So we see God's three ways of acting. (1) Seeing sin, angry, and judging the sinner. (2) Seeing sin and angry, but hiding Himself. (3) Seeing sin, and healing the sinner; leading him also, and restoring comforts to him. The first is seen in the world before the flood, and in the judgment of the flood. The second, in the law. The third, in the gospel of our salvation.
The blow did not restore the man. One writer explains why.
How little we still understand that righteous dealing on its own — as fully righteous as it may be — will not restore souls. Judgment may be measured and true, yet it will not touch, soften and subdue such hearts so that they take instruction. The facts themselves show that these hearts are not in their true place with God. Man is not all conscience. Reach the conscience while the heart stays away, and it will do what it did with the first sinner — drive him among the trees of the garden to escape the unwelcome voice.
Some have quoted these verses to prove a point about hell. One writer answers that use.
It is plain that the Lord is speaking of men on the earth. If He contended with them continually — did not stop and spare them — they would perish as living men. The stumbling-blocks were to be taken out of the way of His people... "For the iniquity of his covetousness I was angry and struck him... I have seen his ways and will heal him." Now what has all this to do with hell? Just nothing at all. Let me advise the simple reader, when a quotation is made, always to read the context before he accepts a new doctrine.
- Seen. God names the exact cause of His anger. The same eye that saw the sin later says, "I have seen his ways, but I will heal him."
- Struck. The sin He names is greed — the desire for more. It looks like ordinary ambition. It is idolatry, because the creature becomes the object instead of God.
- Hidden. God's second action was to hide His face rather than strike. It worked no better. The man took advantage of the silence and kept his own course.
- Unmoved. Righteous dealing on its own restores no one. Reach the conscience while the heart stays away, and a person runs and hides, as the first sinner did in the garden.
- Healed. God's third way changes the story. He sees the sin, and still heals, leads, and restores comfort. Read in context, this is God's dealing with living people on earth, not a statement about hell.
I have seen his ways, and will heal him; and I will lead him, and will restore comforts unto him and to those of his that mourn.
Just before this, God spoke of His anger at Israel's greed. He struck them, He hid Himself, and they went on in their own stubborn way. Then the verse turns. The same eyes that saw the sin now promise healing, leading, and comfort. What moves God from striking to restoring?
God had already judged Israel, and then hidden Himself. This verse shows a third way of acting:
He had been justly angry over their greedy sin, and had struck them. Again He had been angry, and had hidden Himself, and they had gone on stubbornly. So He had seen Israel's sin and struck him for it. Again He had seen it and had held back from striking. But He still had to be angry, for Israel had only taken advantage of His hiding Himself, and their stubbornness went unchecked. Yet once more God will act, and in a new way. "I have seen his ways, but I will heal him." He does not shut His eyes to the sin, but He adds, "I will heal him." Marvellous grace! So we see God's three ways of acting. (1) Seeing sin, angry, and judging the sinner. (2) Seeing sin and angry, but hiding Himself. (3) Seeing sin, and healing the sinner; leading him also, and restoring comforts to him. The first is seen in principle in the world before the flood and the judgment of the flood. The second, in the law. The third, in the gospel of our salvation.
The same writer then makes it personal, and names what this healing rests on:
The One who knows, as no one else does, the sin of my greed and the stubbornness of my heart, is the One who says, "I will lead him and restore comfort to him." Adorable, matchless grace! And all of it rests, we need hardly say, on the blood of Christ.
Earlier the chapter says where this God chooses to live:
He is high and holy, and He dwells in the high and holy place. But He dwells also with the one "that is of a contrite and humble spirit," for He finds there what suits Himself. His presence gives the highest place in heaven its dignity, and He still stoops to make the lowly heart His throne… The God whom the highest heavens cannot contain is the God we may have as our Guest. But we get Him only by going down ourselves into the lowest and lowliest place. So if we have never met Him, it is because we have never gone down that low — to the self-judgment where we find Him in grace.
One writer places the promise in Israel's future, after judgment:
The One who inhabits eternity can stoop to revive a contrite and humble soul of earth… The result will be this. After judgment has done its work, God will lead the godly back into their Land and bless them with comforts. He will bring peace not only to the godly remnant – those who are "near" – but to the Gentile who is "afar off". But the wicked are like the troubled sea when it cannot rest. For such, there is "no peace."
The comfort goes to "his mourners". The chapter's closing words draw a line:
The promise to the feeble remnant is full of grace — to those who are contrite and humble… "But the wicked are like the tossing sea; for it cannot be quiet, and its waters toss up mire and dirt. There is no peace, says my God, for the wicked." … Comfort and peace for all, except for the wicked. It is a complete answer to a false teaching common today: that God will save all Israel, including the wicked dead, and give them a share in the Kingdom of Peace.
The One who promises to heal was Himself wounded:
And so the voice of the smitten Sufferer comes to us, "I am the LORD, your healer" (Ex. 15:26). He who was wounded for our transgressions "binds up the brokenness of His people, and heals the wounds inflicted by His blow" (Isa. 30:26; Isa. 57:17-18).
- Seen. God does not close His eyes to the sin before promising the cure; He sees the ways, and heals anyway.
- Healed. Judging, then hiding, then healing — the third way is the way of the gospel, and it is the way God acts now.
- Led. Healing is not the end. God leads Israel back to their Land once judgment has done its work.
- Comforted. God restores comfort to "his mourners" — the contrite and humble, the very people the high and holy One lives with.
- Except. Peace reaches far and near. But not all: the wicked are the restless sea, and for them the chapter ends with no peace.
I create the fruit of the lips peace, peace to him [that is] afar off, and to him [that is] nigh, saith Jehovah; and I will heal him.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
But the wicked are like the troubled sea, which cannot rest, and whose waters cast up mire and dirt.
Isaiah closes this chapter with a picture: a sea that never settles, always churning up whatever lies at the bottom. It stands against the peace God had just promised. So who gets that peace, and why do some never find it?
The verse begins with "but," and that word marks off two groups. Just before it, God speaks peace to those far off and those near. Commentators point out that God Himself creates that peace.
He had to deal in wrath with them because of their sin and rebellion. But He would not keep striving against them as a nation forever. The moment would come when He would heal and bless, and establish peace, both for those far off and for those near… But the peace has to be "created" by God. It is not something men produce. Isaiah 53 has told us how the peace is created.
So the wicked are not just people who missed peace. They stand outside a peace only God can make.
The image is exact. The mud comes up for a reason.
The wicked are like the tossing sea; for it cannot be quiet, and its waters toss up mire and dirt. The mire and dirt come from the sea chafing against its limits. In the same way, the "mind of the flesh" is "not subject to the law of God, and indeed it cannot be." (Rom. 8:7.)
There is also a force acting on the water from outside it.
The peace is only for those who are brought into right relations with God. It is not for the wicked who, far from Him, are as restless as the sea. The winds keep the sea always churning. Satan, who is "the prince of the power of the air," keeps the wicked in a state like the sea. All their visible actions are like "mire and dirt."
Why does a person keep churning? One writer traces it to a conscience that is working but unwelcome.
A person who is not born again does not have a new divine nature; only those who are born of God have it. But that person still has a conscience. He knows in his conscience that he should love, respect and obey his Creator. He dislikes that thought, because he wants his own way and wants to be master of his own destiny. So he refuses to think about God.
Another writer calls the same restlessness lawlessness. It shows in what people do and in what they think.
This section closes with God's declaration about the lawless among His own people: there is no peace for them. Lawlessness in way and in word; lawlessness in doing and in thinking; lawlessness in working and in writing… Sin is lawlessness. Restlessness and vileness mark it, and it leaves God out. The lawless do not know Him.
In other places, Scripture uses the sea as a picture of whole peoples. Writers connect this verse to that picture.
The sea sets forth a state of rebellion against constituted authority; of peoples in a condition of unrest… The ever-restless sea (Isa. 57:20; Dan. 7:2-3; Rev. 13:1; Rev. 18:21) is here the chosen figure to denote the peoples of the earth in dire anarchy, owing to the want of a strong controlling power or firm hand.
Read that way, the verse describes more than individual unease. It describes a world that will not settle. One writer points at the daily news, where "mire and dirt" fill the pages (W. W. Fereday).
Isaiah said this to God's own people. That is the sting in it. Religious standing gives no cover.
Let the Jew take heed. The wicked of that people will certainly not escape. No nation then was so favoured, so none was more responsible. They failed completely, so who was more guilty? The Christian world is favoured far more than the Jew was. So of all people it is by far the most guilty. Jesus Christ crucified stands openly before its eyes.
The picture is not a dead end. The same sea-and-water language points to its own cure.
The souls of men are restless. Sin has made them so, for "the wicked are like the tossing sea; for it cannot be quiet." But the Good Shepherd calls His sheep out of their restless wandering, their unsatisfied and self-willed straying. He brings them to rest at His feet. He leads them beside the waters of quietness.
- Cause. The sea churns because it fights its own boundary. The wicked are restless because the mind of the flesh will not submit to God's law.
- Contrast. God creates peace; men do not produce it. So the "but" in this verse divides those He has brought near from those still far off.
- Content. "Mire and dirt" is no accident. It is what a life in constant agitation throws up.
- Crowds. The same picture covers whole peoples in unrest and rebellion, not just individual souls.
- Cure. Religious privilege lets no one off. Only the Shepherd brings the restless to still waters.
There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.
Two verses earlier, God promises peace to those far off and near. Then the door shuts on one group. Why does that peace never reach the wicked?
This sentence is not a one-off. It ends a section, and the sections are built around a centre.
The 27 chapters are divided into three groups of nine, each ending with a solemn statement that there is no peace for the wicked. (See Isaiah 48:22; Isaiah 57:21; Isaiah 66:24.) The centre section of the three is therefore chapters 49-57; and the centre chapter of that centre section is Isaiah 53... So the prophecy of the One who is the LORD's Servant lies at the heart of everything. He goes even into death for the transgressions of God's people, and He comes out in resurrection.
The same refrain closes Isaiah 48:22, but with a different name for God. One writer ties that change of name to a change in the sin.
A new division of Isaiah opens here. It is no longer Babylon and idolatry... Here it is the far deeper question of Christ Himself and His rejection by the Jews. This portion runs from Isaiah 49:1 to the end of Isaiah 57. The earlier section ended, "There is no peace," says the LORD, "for the wicked." This one ends, "There is no peace," says my God, "for the wicked." "The LORD" stands in contrast with idols. "My God" connects with the still deeper wickedness of the people in refusing "the true God and eternal life," even the Lord Jesus, their anointed King. They were wicked in both respects: wicked in going after false gods of the Gentiles; wicked yet more in rejecting their divine Messiah.
Verse 20 explains the sentence in verse 21. The restlessness is not an extra punishment. It is the condition itself, and a power outside keeps it moving.
The peace is only for those who are brought into right relations with God. It is not for the wicked who, far from Him, are as restless as the sea. The winds keep the sea in perpetual agitation. Satan, who is "the prince of the power of the air," keeps the wicked in a condition similar to the sea, and all their visible actions are like "mire and dirt."
Another writer asks where the mire comes from. The water throws it up where it hits its limits.
"The wicked are like the tossing sea, for it cannot be quiet, and its waters toss up mire and dirt." This is the effect of chafing against its bounds. In the same way, "the mind that is set on the flesh... does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot" (Romans 8:7).
So this "no" is not random. It comes from what God is like.
Notice that purity comes first on the list, before peace even. If we think about it we shall at once realize that this must be so, since all is of God. He never compromises with evil, and so there can be no peace except in purity. Again and again this was the burden of the prophets. See for instance, Jeremiah 6:14; Ezekiel 13:10, 16.
The same rule exposes those who promise peace when God has not given it.
There are plenty of those who prophesy smooth things. In Jeremiah's day some said "Peace, peace" while the LORD's sword hung over the land, and we have similar false prophets among us at the present time. If we believe them, the upheavals going on in every sphere are the birth pangs of a new and better day... All who speak like this are deceivers of men's souls.
Verse 21 stands next to the promise of verse 19. So where does that promised peace come from?
The moment would come when He would heal and bless, and establish peace, both for those far off and for those near... But in either case the peace has to be "created" by God, and is not something produced by men. Isaiah 53 has told us how the peace is created.
Isaiah spoke of that peace as future. Another writer describes what changed when it arrived.
We had nothing to do with it once, for "the way of peace they have not known" (Romans 3:17), nor was that surprising when we were in unbelief, for "There is no peace," says my God, "for the wicked." But since God has sent the word, "preaching good news of peace through Jesus Christ, He is Lord of all" (Acts 10:36)... we know, "even at such a time" when all is confusion, uncertainty and unrest, that we are entitled to it. Why? "For He made peace through the blood of His cross."
- Cause. Peace is missing because God is missing. The wicked are restless like a sea that cannot settle, and their actions throw up mire and dirt.
- Order. God never compromises with evil, so purity comes before peace. Peace promised without purity is the false prophet's cry.
- Depth. The refrain changes names. "The LORD" closes the section on idolatry. "My God" closes the section on rejecting the Messiah — the deeper sin.
- Gift. God alone can create the peace of verse 19. Isaiah 53 shows the cost: the Servant goes into death and comes out in resurrection.
- Reach. God now sends the word that preaches this peace, made through the blood of His cross. Those who once had nothing to do with peace can now claim it.