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.