Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples.
Isaiah has just warned that the Lord Himself would become a stone that Israel trips over. At that very point God does not take His word off the earth — He ties it up and seals it inside a small circle called "my disciples."
The command to bind and seal follows the stumbling described just before. Older translations read "law" where the ESV has "teaching."
The remnant is separated, the testimony bound up and sealed (v. 16). The Eternal came Himself in the person of Jesus. He is the confidence, the sanctuary of those who believe; He is a rock that the unbelieving trip over. So a closer relationship follows: "Seal the law among my disciples."
The words are personal. Someone claims this small company as His own. Commentators read the speaker as Immanuel Himself.
Immanuel came. He is the sanctuary of those who had waited for Him. He is the true centre, and His people gather around Him. Here, for the first time, He Himself speaks, and calls them "my disciples." He names them so in connection with "the testimony." He states that the truth of that day — the law as well as the testimony — is handed to the remnant, now His disciples, and kept there. It was so also in the day of David's rejection. In the cave of Adullam everyone in distress, everyone in debt and everyone discontented gathered to him, and he became their captain. The prophet Gad was there too, and soon after Abiathar the priest was driven to the same company. That company now had every form of God's testimony in it: the king, the prophet, and the priest.
For a Jewish hearer the title itself was startling. Belonging had always run through family descent from Abraham. Now it runs through the word.
Isaiah 8 gives us part of the trial of Israel; and there we read of the word being sealed up among His (Immanuel's) disciples. The term "disciples" is a new name, and it marks a relationship new to the Jewish mind as a line of blessing. The old line of blessing for them was family descent from Abraham. The new one was, "You have His word."
In the Gospels this took visible shape. The Lord turned from the nation to the group around Him.
All who were separated in heart from the widespread hypocrisy and wickedness of the times, and who longed for Jehovah to keep His promises, were in spirit the remnant of that day… The Saviour in His grace identified Himself with them. The unbelief of the nation forced Him to disown all His natural ties to them. He then stretched out His hands towards His disciples and said, "Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother." (Matt. 12:49-50.) Right after that, He fulfils to His disciples a quotation from Isaiah 8:16-17.
The New Testament ties Christ and this remnant together using the next verse of this passage.
A feeble few cling to His testimony, and He owns them as His disciples, while Jehovah hid His face from the people as a whole. They become a separate remnant when the mass stumble, fall, and are broken, snared and taken. So in Heb. 2:12-13 the Holy Spirit does not hesitate to cite v. 18 with other scriptures (Ps. 16; Ps. 22), to prove the sanctified and the Sanctifier "all of one." For indeed He is not ashamed to call them brothers.
Sealing keeps something safe. God left His word in the hands of the few who valued it.
God's testimony is what sets out His mind and will for His people, what the saints of God can turn to at all times for light and guidance for their path. There was a remnant of Israel who valued God's word when the mass turned away from Jehovah into idolatry and rebellion, and among them the testimony of God was bound up, and kept for His pleasure.
Sealed does not mean shelved. God keeps His word safe through the day of refusal, and opens it again in a day of mercy.
How can anyone miss so plain a key? The light of God is with Christ's disciples, while the Jews have stumbled at the stumbling-stone and Jehovah hides His face from the house of Jacob. Yet the Jews will still understand these signs and wonders when they bow their stiff neck to their rejected Messiah.
- Stumbling — The nation rejects the Lord. He becomes a sanctuary to some and a stone the rest trip over, and God binds the testimony up in the small company that clings to Him.
- Naming — Here Immanuel first calls a people "my disciples." The truth of that day is handed to them and kept there, as king, prophet and priest once gathered to rejected David at Adullam.
- New line — Belonging no longer runs through descent from Abraham. It runs through holding His word.
- Keeping — A sealed testimony is a guarded one. The few who valued God's mind and will kept it safe while the mass turned away.
- Opening — Christ owns these disciples as one with Himself, the sanctified with the Sanctifier. Israel will yet understand the sealed word when they bow to their rejected Messiah.
And I will wait for Jehovah, who hideth his face from the house of Jacob; and I will look for him.
Isaiah speaks these words while the nation is stumbling over the very One who should have been its refuge. Two questions decide the meaning here: who is speaking, and how long does the hiding last?
The "I" who waits is not only the prophet. Commentators say Christ Himself is the speaker.
The verses that follow unfold the state of things at the time Isaiah speaks. Remember again that Christ Himself is the speaker. The Letter to the Hebrews quotes parts of these two verses to show the Lord's complete identification as Man with His people, with the true remnant gathered out of the Jewish nation (Hebrews 2:13). Here is the wonderful fact. The One who was in perfect dependence as Man toward God, and so waiting on the LORD, and despised and rejected by men, was at the same time no less a person than the Immanuel of Isaiah's prophecy. And in this path of rejection He was experiencing some of the sufferings that must come before His glories.
The hiding answers what came just before. The same LORD had become a stone His own people tripped over.
"Many would stumble and fall and be broken." The builders would reject that chief corner stone, but "whoever believes in him will not be put to shame"... And the Lord would hide His face from the house of Jacob. "Bind up the testimony; seal the teaching among my disciples"; they would learn to wait for Him while He hid His face, and to look for Him. He really has hidden His face from that once-loved house, the house of Jacob — still loved for their fathers' sakes, for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.
In the old Greek translation of the Old Testament, the phrase comes out as trust.
In Isaiah 8:17, the Greek version (the Septuagint) reads, "I will put My trust in Him." Taking His place as Man, the Lord identified Himself with His own in the only proper life for a man to live — the life of dependence on God.
The prophet here is a picture of Christ, and he speaks in no calm setting. An invading army is flooding the land.
In the eighth chapter of Isaiah the prophet is a picture of Christ, standing in the middle of ruin... The land of Israel had turned away from God, and the enemy was about to sweep over the whole of Immanuel's land like a flood. Faith can look the ruin calmly in the face. As the enemy comes in like an "overwhelming flood," faith says, "I will trust in the Lord," and expects the Spirit of the Lord to raise a banner against him. So with our Lord Jesus, who was always the perfect Man of faith on earth.
The waiting One is not alone. A small group of disciples shares His place.
Meanwhile only a remnant of them is in relationship with Him, and they are more favoured than ever in spiritual things. The testimony is bound up and the law, or teaching, sealed among His disciples, to whom He is a sanctuary, while He hides His face from the house of Jacob in general... Meanwhile this is exactly the place of the One who became man: to trust in the LORD. It is also the place of those the LORD gave Him from among the Jews — and in principle the same is true of all Christians. He was as truly man as He was the LORD. The dependent Man was the LORD God of Israel, the sanctuary of the remnant when the nation stumbled at the Stumbling-stone.
Waiting is not idle. Dennett draws out what such a company is for.
It must always be so. Those who keep separate from evil, and who share God's mind about His Christ and about the state of things around them, will be the keepers of the testimony for the times they live in. The reason is that Christ Himself is with them.
The hidden face marks a stage, not a final verdict. It has a place in God's larger plan.
Then it is said, "For to us a child is born," and He sits on the throne of David to give peace on the earth. All this comes after the time He had been waiting. His waiting was a result of His rejection, while God was hiding His face from the house of Jacob, as He is doing now. But that is not for ever. I point to it so that our souls may grasp the ways of God — the framework of His plan: Christ comes, is rejected, and is caught up to God... Meanwhile the times of the Gentiles are running on.
- Cause. God hides His face because the nation stumbled over the stone the builders rejected.
- Voice. The One who waits is Christ Himself, the dependent Man, quoted in Hebrews 2:13.
- Manner. Faith looks the ruin calmly in the face and says "I will trust in the Lord" while the flood is still rising.
- Company. The waiting Christ gathers a remnant, and they keep the sealed testimony for their day.
- End. The hiding is real and long, but not final — after the waiting comes the child born and the throne of David.
Behold, I and the children that Jehovah hath given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel, from Jehovah of hosts, who dwelleth in mount Zion.
Isaiah stands in a doomed nation holding two sons by the hand, and says that he and they are a walking message from God. Hebrews later puts the same sentence on the lips of Christ. That raises the question the verse turns on: who is the "I," and who are the children?
The children are signs because their names are signs. Each boy's name carried a headline about Israel's future:
Isaiah ("the salvation of the Lord") is in the Sanctuary mount with his children, Shear-jashub ("the remnant shall return") and Maher-shalal-hash-baz ("swift for spoil, hasty for prey"). It is as if he stands before God, holding each boy by the hand, and speaks words of deep meaning: "Behold, I and the children whom the LORD has given me!" Now notice what he says next about himself and his children—they are for "signs and wonders!"
One name promised return, the other promised plunder. The family itself was the sermon.
The verse reaches beyond Isaiah's own household. Christ takes the same place, among the same small group who still trusted God:
The Saviour identifies Himself with the remnant in this strange state of things. He trusts Jehovah perfectly, even when He seems forsaken, and He enters fully into the sorrowful position where the true remnant are found. This creates confidence in their hearts, and produces a seed of trusting ones — "the children whom the Lord has given Me" — who are a sign from Jehovah that Israel will be blessed in the end.
The wording is careful, and it stops short of the words we might expect:
The next citations (from Isaiah 8:17-18) connect the godly in Israel with Christ, the great prophet, as He walks His path of reliance on God, away from all the unbelieving alliances of men. They are not called His brethren, because they were not yet marked out that way. They are not called His children exactly either, but the children whom God gave Him. This is the righteous remnant joined to the Messiah and set apart in heart from the mass of the people.
This little group forms while the nation as a whole stumbles:
And in the middle of it all you see a feeble few holding fast to His testimony, owned as His disciples, while Jehovah hid His face from the people as a whole. They become a separate remnant, when the mass stumble, fall, and are broken, snared and taken. So, in Heb. 2:12-13, the Holy Spirit does not hesitate to quote verse 18 along with other Scriptures (Ps. 16; Ps. 22), to prove that the sanctified and the Sanctifier are "all of one."
Being a sign is not a comfortable position. But the weakness of this small group is not a defeat:
There is always a remnant that believes, and from this they gather present cheer in the middle of sorrow. In truth, to feel and confess your weakness, and so to be thrown on "Jehovah of hosts Himself," is to be master of the situation — whatever it looks like to the eyes and reasoning of men.
One question remains: how far does this reach?
Hebrews 2:13 applies Isaiah 8:18 to the saints God is calling now. They are the children God has given to Christ… The "we" in this letter is not in doubt. It does not mean Hebrews only. It means those who bore Christ's name, sanctified by His blood, and given free entry to the holiest place of all — the children given to Him. Does anyone imagine that this relationship belongs only to Christian Jews?… It is the shared but high privilege of every Christian.
Christ will say these words once more, and next time in open triumph:
Believers are children. They belong to Him, and they are signs and witnesses both to unbelieving Israel and to the world… And one day, the day of His glory, He will declare in triumph: "Behold, I and the children whom God has given Me." Then He will be glorified and admired in all who believed (2 Thess. 1:10), and the redeemed will be signs and wonders in an even more blessed way.
- Signs — Isaiah's two sons bore names that spelled out Israel's future: "the remnant shall return" and "swift for spoil, hasty for prey."
- Speaker — Hebrews quotes verse 18 as Christ's own words, to prove that the Sanctifier and the sanctified are "all of one."
- Given — they are not called His brethren yet, nor exactly His children. They are the children God gave Him, set apart from the mass of the people.
- Strength — the group looks helpless. To feel your weakness and lean on the LORD of hosts Himself is to be master of the situation.
- Glory — this privilege belongs to every Christian now, and Christ will say the sentence again in triumph on the day of His glory.