Isaiah

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48 (2). "The Lord God, and His Spirit, hath sent me"

 

The scene changes. Once again, it is no longer Isaiah remonstrating with the irreligious and the falsely religious in his own generation. It is Jesus, in controversy with men who took pride in being "the house of Jacob, which are called by the name of Israel, and are come forth out of the bowels* of Judah" (v.1). The introduction of this key word (hinting at a virgin birth?) from the great promises made to Abraham and David (Gen. 15:4; 2 Sam. 7:14) seems right in view of the later unmistakable allusion (v.19) to the Messianic promise in Gen. 22:17.

 

But these men, who proudly assert their descent from Abraham's promised Seed (Jn. 8:33ff), "remembered** the Memorial Name, but not in truth or righteousness" (v.1). They "stayed themselves upon the God of Israel" (v.2), but it was a false confidence:

 

"Behold, thou art called a Jew, and restest in the law, and makest thy boast of God, and knowest his will, and approvest the things that are more excellent, being instructed out of the law; and art confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind..." (Rom. 2:17,18,19a).

 

As in Isaiah's day, these Jews worshipped idols of their own fashioning, (v.5), but their false religion was a perversion all the more subtle because it was the outward forms of their religion which they worshipped. Even Christ's disciples came near to being infected (Mk. 13:1). Today the idolatry is transferred to the political state of Israel which, in the face of unbelievable discouragement and difficulty, has been fashioned out of a desert of Arab animosity.

 

Fresh Acts of God

 

The Almighty, who in the past had foretold — and performed — mighty acts on Israel's behalf (v.3,5), now promised "new things, hidden things which thou hast not known" (v.6). This is the gospel to the Gentiles, which Paul called "the revelation of the mystery, kept secret since the world began" (Rom. 16:25), "the mystery which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things (in the New Creation) by Jesus Christ" (Eph. 3:9).

 

This purpose of God with the Gentiles transformed into Jews involved other sensational developments to be revealed in the Apocalypse; and accordingly the in­troduction of that prophecy quotes Isaiah 48:6 LXX: "the things which are about to come to pass" concerning Israel and the New Israel (Rev. 1:1,19).

 

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* Many commentators prefer this reading, with one letter different (in Hebrew) from the usual text.

** AV here disguises the close connection, so common in the O.T. between the name Jehovah and the word "remember" (Ex. 3:15).

[Resource Manager]

Messiah's Work

 

The prophecy swings from Israel to Israel's Messiah and to the New Israel, so that it is not easy to be sure what the intention is — perhaps so that all be shown as in­tegral parts of God's redeeming Purpose.

 

Examples of this are to be found in v.10,11: "I have chosen thee the firstborn of affliction (this is a valid re-pointing of the Hebrew text)...I will not give my glory to another" — yet God has given His Glory to Christ (Jn. 5:23), but Father and Son are so completely One that the words stand true nevertheless. Thus, the special divine name which guarantees this prophecy: "I am the first, I also am the last" (v.12), is rightly claimed in the Apocalypse by the Glorious Son also (Rev. 22:13).

 

A New Creation

 

And when Jesus prayed that his disciples might "behold my glory which thou hast given me...before the foundation of the world" (Jn. 17:24), the idiom once again was that of Isaiah: "My glory will I not give to another...Yea, mine hand hath laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand (uplifted in solemn oath, as in the promise to Abraham; Gen. 22:17) hath spanned the heavens" (v.13). Yet it was not the foundation of this universe of vast extent and glory that the prophet's words celebrated, but the wonder of the New Order in Christ. That word "spanned" was surely well-chosen, for it uses the idiom of New Birth — the child "of a span long" (e.g. Lam. 2:20). "When I call unto them, they stand together" — heaven and earth united (as in the song of the angels; Lk. 2:14) at the call of the gospel.

 

However fitting some of this language might be regarding the pious Hezekiah, there can be no manner of doubt that it really belongs to the Messiah — who else?: "The Lord hath loved him...I have spoken (about him); yea, I have called him: I have brought him forth, and he shall make his way prosperous" (v.14,15).

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Another Babylon

 

Because "the Lord hath loved him," "he will do his pleasure on 'Babylon'" (v.14). Here the Book of Revelation comes to the rescue of the bewildered man of faith by teaching him to see faithless persecuting Jerusalem as the counterpart to the 'Babylon' of Isaiah's day.* The call here to "go forth of Babylon, flee ye from the Chaldeans" (v.20), is taken up concerning the Babylon of the Apocalypse: "Come out of her my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins" (Rev. 18:4). There never were any of the Lord's people in the papacy — such a reference is utterly mean­ingless. The words are a command to separation from apostate Jerusalem and the elaborate system of justification-by-Judaism which it stood for. And since, in both 1st and 20th centuries, Jerusalem is doomed to destruction, a literal flight from the city is imperative also for all who belong to Christ: "Let them which are in the midst of her depart out" (Lk. 21:21).

 

 

At verse 16 there is clearly a change of speaker. As in Psalm 2 (at v. 7), the Messiah now "declares the decree" — "the Lord God and his Spirit hath sent me" (cp. 61:1; 11:2). If indeed there is any doubt, the words are given their proper reference in John's gospel: "He whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God; for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him" (3:34, and by all means compare 7:33,37-39). He is Immanuel, speaking of his own mission and work (as also in 49:1-6 and 50:4-9).

 

"I have not spoken in secret" were the very words of the very Christ when browbeaten by Annas (Jn. 18:20). All through his ministry he "spake openly to the (Jewish) world." All the nation had heard him.

 

Yet this appeal made by "the Lord, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel" evoked little response: "O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments! then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea" (v.18; cp. Dt. 32:29; Ps. 81:13). So Jesus wept over Jerusalem, and wept in vain. "How often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not!" (Lk. 13:34). "If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes" (19:42). Again, see "Rev." H.A.W. ch.34.

 

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* Again, see Rev., H.A.W, ch.34.

[Resource Manager]

Abrahamic Promises

 

But, for those who do "hearken", their righteousness is renewed for them again and again, like the ceaseless rollers of the ocean tides washing the beaches clean — it is a figure of the seed of Abraham, an echo of the promise God made to His faithful Friend: "Thy seed also had been as the sand, and the offspring of thy bowels as the grains thereof" (v.19; cp. Gen. 22:17). Here, evidently intent on supplying further interpretation, LXX has "dust of the ground", thus leading back to another Abrahamic promise: "I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth" (Gen. 13:16).

 

Another Exodus

 

The allusions (listed in the previous chapter) to God's deliverance of Israel from Egypt now find yet fuller meaning, and are to be taken up in the next prophecy: "With a voice of singing declare ye...say ye, The Lord hath redeemed his servant Jacob (the true Jacob, become Israel). And they thirsted not when he led them through the deserts: he caused the waters to flow out of the rock for them" (v.20,21; cp. 49:9-12).

 

In 1 Cor. 10:1-13 Paul quotes the same experiences, and interprets: "These things were types of us" (v.6,11). The meaning of Isaiah's prophecy has not worn thin.

 

"He clave the rock also, and the waters gushed out." When Jews celebrated that wilderness experience at the Feast of Tabernacles, Jesus appropriated it to himself: "If any man thirst, let him come unto me; and he that believeth on me, let him drink — as the scripture hath said, Out of him (Christ) shall flow rivers of living water. This spake he of the Spirit" (Jn. 7:37-39).

 

By contrast, "there is no peace unto the wicked" (v.22). Instead of "righteousness as the waves of the sea", there is only "mire and dirt" (57:20).

[Resource Manager]

49 (1). Failure and Success (v.1-7)

 

The blithe confidence of the modernists that Isaiah 40-66 is post-captivity does not falter when the exposition comes to the second section — ch. 49-57 — but indeed it ought. They are not blind to the difficulties — a Jerusalem which is already inhabited (52:1,2,8), enemies who oppress (49:26; there was a placid prosperous life in Babylon), a retreat of the enemy (49:17), a humbling of kings and peoples before the chosen of the Lord (49:7,23; 52:15,10), an expansion of Israel into Gentile territory (54:3), and yet alongside these phenomena some of Israel so apostate as to give themselves to idolatry in valleys and mountains (of which there are neither in Babylon's dead flat plain; and did not that captivity cure Israel of all idolatry? 57:3-7).

 

Even the efforts of Cheyne and others to evade these difficulties by shifting the date of this part of the prophecy yet further (B.C. 432!) does little to help.

 

But the biggest problem of all goes quite untouched — the question of how to assign real meaning to all the superb details of such magnificent prophecies as Isaiah 49 and the ensuing chapters. The modern commentaries wallow in vagueness. The expositors expose no worthwhile meaning. All is cottonwool.

 

But as soon as the real Isaiah is given the credit for penning these masterpieces, the prophecy needs no illumination, for the light shines out of it clear and bright. This is Messianic prophecy of the highest order, based (like the preceding section) on the character and experiences of good king Hezekiah and the sensational events of his reign. The first task, then, once again, is to examine how the prophet made graphic use of the events of his own day.

 

It becomes immediately obvious, in ch. 49, that by "Israel" Isaiah means sometimes the nation (as in v.5,6: "Though Israel be not gathered...the tribes of Jacob, the preserved of Israel"), and sometimes the nation's leader and represen­tative — "He said unto me, thou art my servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified" (v.3; note v.1,2). Here, then, is confirmation of the distinction between Israel and "Israel" which has had to be insisted on already in the exposition of ch. 40-48.

 

Immanuel

 

Every phrase at the beginning of ch. 49 requires reference to an individual. The Lord called Hezekiah from the womb (7:14); from the bowels of his mother (whom that earlier prophecy also specifically addressed). He made mention of his name Immanuel, and the Land of Israel was called "Immanuel's Land" (8:8). Hezekiah's mouth was made a sharp sword, he fervently exhorted the Levites to sanctify themselves and to cleanse the house of the Lord. That remarkable passage: "according to the commandment of the king in words of the Lord" (2 Chr. 29:15) might merely mean that Hezekiah quoted existing scripture as the authority for his imperative; but another possible meaning is that the king himself was divinely in­spired as a prophet. He seems to have implied the same remarkable truth in the words: "Therefore we will sing my songs...all the days of our life in the house of the Lord" (38:20) — inspired psalms by Hezekiah (e.g. 102) are plainly traceable in various parts of the Psalter. *

 

Moreover, he was hidden in the shadow of God's hand (the Hebrew phrase is reminiscent of "the shadow of death"; Ps. 23:4) when he was bidden by Isaiah: "set thine house in order: for thou shalt die, and not live" (38:1). Yet he came out of this grim experience "a cleansed (not, polished) shaft" — cleansed, that is, from the vile disease afflicting him.**

 

From this point, as though for special emphasis, the prophecy is constantly re­introduced with: "And he said...Thus saith the Lord..." etc. (v.3,5,6,7,8). Yet there is no disconnection, but a very marked continuity.

 

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* The remarkable phenomenon — that certain of these Messianic prophecies are couched in the first person (49:1-6; 50:4; 55:1-3) — might even suggest that Isaiah is incorporating prophecies spoken by Hezekiah himself.

 

** With a slight change in pointing: "he appointed me a cleansing affliction" — a truly remarkable reading, implying that his suffering was on behalf of his people (see ch. 53, where this is asserted twelve times).

[Resource Manager]

Tribulation and Triumph

 

"Thou art my servant, O Israel (as in 41:9,10; 42:1), in whom I will be glorified" (v.3). This came impressively to pass in the recovery of Hezekiah, in the destruction of the Assyrian army, and in the marked Gentile respect which was now accorded to Hezekiah and the temple in Jerusalem as a result of these sensational events (v.7,23; 60:3-5; 2 Chr. 32:23).

 

But in the valley of the shadow Hezekiah was brought very low indeed: "I have laboured in vain, I have spent my strength for nought and in vain" (v.4; cp. 40:27). There were discouragements in plenty. Many scorned Hezekiah's call for national repentance (2 Chr. 30:3,6,9,10); many of those who responded failed to stay the course (hence such passages as 56:10-12; 57:20; 59:1-8; 65:1-7). And, when faced with the Assyrian threat, the king's exhortation to faith in Jehovah (2 Chr. 32:6-8) was disregarded in favour of a futile alliance with Egypt (30:1-5; 19:11-15).

 

Yet Hezekiah's faith, a dim flickering light, did not go out: "yet surely my judgment is with the Lord, and my work (i.e. recompense; as in. 40:10) with my God" (v.4).

 

The Gentiles

 

For this he was promised a yet greater exaltation — not only the high esteem of his God, but also the respect and honour of Gentile nations round about: "Though Israel be not gathered, yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of the Lord...I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles" (v.5,6).

 

One remarkable, indeed almost inevitable, outcome of the overthrow of Sennacherib's army at Jerusalem was that nations far and near, who had trembled helplessly before the growing power of this ruthless empire-builder, now realised that the God whom Hezekiah worshipped was to be feared and honoured more than the Assyrian wolf-pack. So, "many brought gifts unto the Lord to Jerusalem, and precious things to Hezekiah king of Judah: so that He was magnified in the sight of all nations from thenceforth" (2 Chr. 32:23).

 

Thus the man "whom man despiseth, whom the nation (of Israel) abhorreth" (v.7), because he was a stricken unclean leper, became a most desirable political friend: "Kings shall see and rise, princes also shall worship, because of the Lord that is faithful (in keeping His promises of protection and guidance), even the Holy One of Israel" (v.7). This impression made upon awe-struck Gentiles is a recurring theme in Isaiah's prophecies (49:22,23; 52:15; 60:3-11;14-16) and some of the psalms of this period (87:4; 102:15). It deserves to be. A more splendid climax to the reign of such a good man as Hezekiah it would be hard to envisage: "Listen, O isles, and hearken, ye people from far" (v.1).

[Resource Manager]

49 (2). The Return of the Captives (v.8-26)

 

No writer of the Old Testament goes in for recapitulation more than Isaiah. The themes which excite him, and the haunting phrases in which he teaches them, recur over and over again. Here is the real unity of his book. The language positively requires that the same basic exposition be offered from start to finish. The prophecy is all about Israel and "Israel", the Lord's suffering Servant — not a complacent Jewish people in comfortable galuth in Babylon, but a people shattered by invasion and unexpectedly saved out of their calamity; not some unknown sufferer who im­pressed another unknown writer with his saintly character, but stricken king Hezekiah whose faith never let go; thus he not only saved his people but also in­advertently set before them an altogether remarkable and exact picture of the Messiah. Indeed, it is a not unworthy speculation that just as David knew himself to be a prophet prophesying by the pattern of his own life the great work of the Messiah, so also Hezekiah.

 

An outstanding example of Isaiah's blessed repetitiousness is provided by the similarities between chapters 49 and 42. Whatever ch.42 is about, ch.49 must be about the same thing.

		42	49
1.	My Servant	1	3
2.	The isles	4	1
3.	Keep thee.	6	8
4.	For a covenant of the people	6	8
5.	For a light of the Gentiles	6	6
6.	The prisoners	7	9
7.	Them that sit in darkness	7	9
8.	A Song	10	13

 

The details fit Hezekiah

 

All through this part of the prophecy the Hezekiah reference runs with remarkable ease.

 

It was "in an acceptable time" that the prayer of the king was heard, and deliverance given, for this Hebrew word is very commonly associated with the worship and feasts of the Lord (e.g. 58:5 — the Day of Atonement; 60:7,10 — the Feast of Tabernacles; 61:2 — the Year of Jubilee). The allusions earlier in Isaiah (31:5; 30:29; 26:20; 33:20) encourage the idea that it was at Passover time when Sennacherib's army was destroyed outside Jerusalem (cp. the first Passover). In such a "day of salvation" God "heard" and "helped" and "preserved" Hezekiah, not only in saving his people but also by bringing back the king himself from the gates of the grave.

 

Thanks also to Hezekiah the people's covenant with their God was renewed — "I will give thee for a covenant of the people"; and with the hateful Assyrians chased away, the land was re-settled and the desolate heritages, brought to ruin by the invasion, were re-inherited (v.8).

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The return of the captives

 

This dramatic change of fortune was accentuated by the return from captivity of the hundreds of thousands of prisoners whom the Assyrians had deported. The theme is developed with both zest and wonderment:

 

"That thou mayest say to the prisoners (assurim — a delightful play on asshurim!), Go forth; to them that are in darkness, Shew* yourselves" (v.9).

 

There follows a sustained picture of God's care for these stricken people coming back home. The language is deliberately chosen to remind the reader of an Israel redeemed from Egypt and now provided for and guided by Jehovah in the wilderness:

 

"They shall feed in the ways (cp. 40:11)...they shall not hunger nor thirst; neither shall the heat nor sun smite them** (Israel were sheltered by the canopy of the pillar of cloud; Ps. 105:39): for he that hath mercy on them shall lead them (Ps. 23:2), even by the springs of water shall he guide them" (v.9,10; see again 48:20,21).

 

Jubilee blessing

 

As a sign that it was God — and not coincidence or fluke — that was on his side, Hezekiah had been promised the extraordinary fruitfulness of a year of Jubilee (2 Kgs. 19:29,30). The unusually good rains by which God encouraged the natural uncultivated fertility of the ground would ensure for the returning captives an easy journey, untroubled by hunger or thirst.

 

So they came home in their thousands, not only those who had been dragged away to slavery but also others who had fled in all directions from the terror of the hard remorseless invader:

 

"And I will make all my mountains a way, and my highways shall be exalted (40:4; 35:8). Behold, these shall come from far; and lo, these from the north and from the west; and these from the land of Sinim" (v.11,12).

 

A good deal of exegetical imagination has been lavished unnecessarily on that last expression. Not China (this is pure fantasy!), but the wildernesses of Sin where Israel wandered (Ex. 16:1; Num. 33:11,15; and perhaps 10:17) — the earlier allusions to Israel's forty years in Sinai (v.10; 48:21) point to this conclusion; so also does Ps. 107:3, another psalm of the same period (for Sinim, this has 'the south').

 

Well might there be a spontaneous outbreak of gladness:

 

"Sing, O heavens; and be joyful, O earth...for the Lord hath comforted his people (and redeemed Jerusalem; 52:9), and will have mercy upon his afflicted" (v. 13).

 

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* A word of double meaning — it means also "go into captivity"! But there is no doubt which idea is the right one here.

** Ps. 121:6, a psalm based on Jacob's return from bondage in Syria, and now with special reference to the Hezekiah deliverance mentioned here.

[Resource Manager]

Not forsaken but blessed

 

There comes in here a flash-back to the days of black despair when it seemed that all was lost (33:7; 37:1-3):

 

"But Zion said, Jehovah hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me" (v.14). But how could He forsake or forget? was not "Jehovah" His memorial*? was not His Covenant Name inseparably linked with unbreakable promises? And was not Israel God's firstborn (Ex. 4:22)? "Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee" (v.15).

 

Zion was, and is, "graven on the palms of my hands" (v. 16). The slave carried the mark of his master tattooed on his hand (hence Rev. 13:16; Ex. 13:9; Is. 44:5RVm); but here Almighty God proclaimed Himself the slave of Israel, giving attention to their every need.

 

Thanks, then, to drastic divine action at a critical time, "thy children (those carried captive) shall make haste from thy destroyers (contrast 5:26), and they that made thee waste shall go forth of thee (in precipitate retreat)" (v.17).

 

The lovely metaphor is now developed of a poor widow, bereft of her children, who suddenly finds herself the mother of a large eager family. Where have they come from? "Who hath begotten me these?" Here now back in Israel is such a burgeoning family, lively, busy, all hard at work settling into a home which promises to be too small for them (v.18-21).

 

Nor need she feel this large family an embarrassment or liability, for the youngest children of all — those who would normally need a lot of looking after — already have their own unique nursemaids; Gentile princesses suckle the tiny ones, and the kings of all the nations round about take turns at baby-minding (v.22,23).

 

Such is Zion's incredible blessing. Yesterday — piteous, frail, helpless, miserable. And now all is changed. There is prosperity, confidence, and a happiness long unknown. This is what God has done for His people. Bringing home the captives He adds to them many a Gentile well-wisher who wants to belong to such a secure and favoured family. "God is in you of a truth," they say.

 

But then, very suddenly, the figure changes to stark reality.

 

What is the hope of coaxing a brutal brigand to disgorge his plunder and hand over those whom he has led away to oppression? None at all, except that tyrant suddenly find himself in the masterful grip of an enemy mightier than he (v.24,25).

 

Then what is the simple logic of the situation when an Assyrian king, as hard and imperious and powerful a ruffian as the world has ever known, quietly surrenders the booty of a vast victorious campaign? Who is it who is so much more mighty than he, that such a swaggering bully should "come quietly"? Who is this King of Glory!

 

Now these callous monsters, who have shed blood in rivers, who drowned all neighbouring peoples in misery, shall know the meaning of blood shedding. This time it shall be their own misery (v.26).

 

And outside the walls of Jerusalem, it was.

 

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* See the concordance for an astonishing number of links between this Name of God and the words "memorial, remember, remembrance, forget."

[Resource Manager]

49 (3). Labour in Vain? (v.1-7)

 

As long as the spotlight continues to play on Hezekiah, the task of exposition is less than half done. The real purpose of the prophecy was not to glorify a man who, for all his fine qualities, had palpable weaknesses, but to illuminate and acclaim the work of One born to be Redeemer of both Israel and Gentiles.

 

There can be little doubt that, just as David wrote of his own experiences and yet knew himself at the same time an inspired prophet of the Lord proclaiming Messiah to his people (Acts 2:30,31), so also Isaiah saw the lesser figure of Hezekiah casting grand Messianic shadows across the centuries.

 

Virgin Birth

 

Here, then, first of all and appropriately, is the declaration of the virgin birth of the Lord Jesus: "The Lord hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name" (v.1).

 

This splendid and necessary truth had already been repeatedly insisted on by Isaiah in this part of his prophecy (41:9; 43:1; 44:2,24; 45:4; 46:3), but nowhere as clearly as this. Of course, all these magnificent passages look back to Isaiah's earlier explicit prophecy concerning a royal Immanuel, born of a virgin (7:14).*

 

"The Lord...hath made mention of my name." Here the father names the child. And so also when Jesus was promised to the virgin Mary: "Behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus...the Son of the Highest" (Lk. 1:31,32).

 

The prophecy of a preaching mission, ending in suffering — "my mouth like a sharp sword**; in the shadow of his hand hath he hid me" (v.2) — is matched by the details of a later prophecy: "I have put my words in thy mouth (cp. 48:16), and I have covered thee in the shadow of my hand" (51:16), this experience being necessary if God's New Creation is to come into being: "— that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and say unto Zion, Thou art my people" (51:16).

 

The Saviour's resurrection was to provide a dramatic vindication; "He hath made me a cleansed shaft; in his quiver hath he hid me" (v.2; Col. 3:3) — this last phrase foretells the ascension.

 

To this is added an assurance of yet greater achievement: "Thou art my Servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified" (v.3) — glory to God in the highest when Christ has brought peace on earth.

 

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* O.T. prophecy concerning the Virgin Birth is more copious than is usually imagined. The following passages deserve study: Ps. 22:9,10; 71:6; 89:26,27; 110:1,3LXX (Mt. 22:44); 132:11; Gen. 3:15; Mic. 5:2; 2 Sam. 7:14; Gen. 49:25; Jer. 31:22; Pr. 30:19; and the type of the birth of Isaac.

** "The Word of God (Jesus) is quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword" (Heb. 4:12). Two-edged" is, literally, two-mouthed; now see Mt. 25:21,26,32-34,41.

[Resource Manager]

Gethsemane

 

But the servant saves only through suffering. And why should he suffer if it prove to be all to no purpose? "But I said, I have laboured in vain, I have spent my strength for nought (tohu; Gen. 1:2), and in vain (here is the name Abel!)" (v.4). This was Christ's plea in Gethsemane: "If it be possible, let this cup pass from me" (cp. also Ps. 116:10,11). Not that he was unwilling to endure death as a sacrifice; but if Israel were hostile or indifferent, and his own disciples undiscerning, where was the point of it? What could his death achieve?

 

"Yet surely my judgment is with the Lord, and my work (or recompense for a task fulfilled) is with my God" (v.4). The prayer of the Man in Gethsemane evidently oscillated between one extreme and another — faith that all must work out well, and acute discouragement that toil and suffering seemed alike pointless. ("Gospels", ch. 212).

 

"In vain!" this poignant expression (kenos, in LXX) is echoed by Paul in one of his masterly passages about the suffering and glory of Christ: "he emptied himself, taking the form of a servant" (Phil. 2:7) — the context borrows not only the word "servant" from Is. 49:1-4, but also other key words: "name, glory, salvation (Jesus)."

 

However, in Gethsemane near-defeat was turned into victory: "there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him" (Lk. 22:43). Gabriel, the Strong one of God, rallied the failing forces of him who was El Gibbor (Is. 9:6) with the wonderful words written centuries before for Messiah's aid and benefit.

 

"And now, saith the Lord that formed* me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob again to him, Though Israel be not gathered** (Mt. 23:37), yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of the Lord, and my God shall be my strength" (v.5).

 

The Gentiles

 

"Glorious...God glorified" — these alluring words, later linked by Isaiah with a redeemed people and a redeemed land (60:21; 61:3; contrast 52:5), become the key to an understanding of important NT. passages, especially in John's gospel.

 

An outstanding instance is the occasion when Greeks — Gentiles! — pleaded to be brought to Jesus. The Lord's thankful response was: "The hour is come that the Son of man should be glorified" (Jn. 12:20,23). From this point the words "glory, glorify" dominate the chapter (v.28,41,43), with the sad inescapable theme that in contrast with Gentile eagerness, there was indifference or unbelief in Israel — the very picture presented by Isaiah 49:

 

"Though Israel be not gathered...I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth" (v.5,6). No wonder this prophecy begins with the ringing cry: "Listen, O isles...and hearken, ye people from far."

 

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* Gen. 2:7,8 — once again, the New Creation; cp. Is. 45:18,7.

** Heb: Joseph-ed the one who became a servant, a slave, to gather his people to safety.

[Resource Manager]

Peter in the Temple

 

It is not inappropriate here to draw attention to the similarities between this prophecy and Peter's speech in Jerusalem after the healing of the lame man.

	Isaiah 49		Acts 3
3.	My Servant, in whom I will be glorified.	13.	The God of our fathers hath
			glorified his servant Jesus.
5.	My God shall be my strength.	16.	His name...hath made this man
			strong.
6.	To raise up the tribes of Jacob.	7.	He raised him up.
8.	For a covenant of the people.	25.	Children of the covenant.
6.	My salvation unto the ends of the	25.	All kindreds of the earth
	earth.		blessed.
9, 10, 13	Pastures... springs of water etc.	19.	Seasons of refreshing from the
			presence of the Lord.
18.	All these gather themselves together,	11.	All the people ran together unto
	and come to thee.		them.

 

[Resource Manager]

That the first of these correspondences was intended is past dispute. If the rest are valid, then the third item invited the Jews of Jerusalem to see themselves as like a lame man in God's sight, unfit to go into the temple, and needing the healing of Christ. If the crowd saw the point of Peter's allusions to Isaiah 49, then they would surely draw the conclusion that, should Israel not suffer themselves to be "gathered" into the name of Jesus, the great salvation would go to the Gentiles. It was a neat way of proclaiming to unwilling Jews the importance of this big new gospel development, now impending.

 

The promise: "I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles," found its fulfilment in the work of the apostles. Necessarily so, for in his earthly ministry the Lord was "not sent, but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel."

 

Accordingly Paul and Barnabas did not hesitate to appropriate this prophecy of Messiah as though it were written about themselves: "Seeing ye put the word of God from you...lo, we turn to the Gentiles. For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light to the Gentiles...And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad (see 49:13), and glorified the word of God" (Acts 13:46-48).

 

It is now easier to appreciate better the boldness of Paul in his unabashed use of Isaiah 49, so certainly true of Messiah, with regard to himself. Besides the instance just cited there are also these additional examples:

 

1. "God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me..." (Gal. 1:15; this is v. 1).
    
   
2. "that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain" (Phil. 2:16; this is 49:4, which has already been alluded to in 2:7).
    
   
3. In 2 Cor. 6:2, immediately after that ominous phrase: "in vain", Is. 49:8a is quoted verbatim with reference to Paul's preaching in Corinth: "I have heard thee (the Messiah) in a time accepted..."

 

The assurance of response to the gospel in unexpected ways is now repeated: "Kings shall see and arise, princes also shall worship" (v.7). These words should have been true of Pilate, Herod, Annas and Caiaphas, but they were not. But the apostles bore witness "before kings and governors" (Lk. 21:12). The real fulfilment, however, will be in the days of Messiah's glory. Then "kings (who have hitherto scorned him) shall shut their mouths at him (in awe)" (52:15).

 

They will be the more thunderstruck because they are called upon to submit to one 'whom man (now) despiseth, whom the nation abhorreth" (v.7; cp. 52:14). But then, what a contrast with the rejected Jesus!

[Resource Manager]

49 (4). Zion's New Family (v.8-26)

 

If it was in a time of acceptable sacrifice that the God of Israel came to the rescue of king Hezekiah, how much more was this true regarding Jesus!

 

That seeming dereliction on the cross was no dereliction: "In an acceptable time have I heard thee, and in a day of salvation have I helped thee." It was a Passover providing a greater deliverance than that from Egypt (see v.9,10).

 

Here, too, the sacrificial blood of a new and better covenant — the new knowledge of the Lord and forgiveness of sins; the new covenant which meant the shedding of blood "for many, for the remission of sins" (Mt. 26:28). "A day of salvation," truly! What greater?

 

How the contradiction in this prophecy must have bewildered its pious readers, until the fulfilment came! "To preserve thee...for a covenant of the people." But a covenant victim dies, or there is no covenant. This promise to "preserve" made no sense at all until the morning of the Lord's resurrection — except perhaps for one or two readers of unusual spiritual insight.

 

"To establish (or, confirm) the Land, to cause to inherit the desolate heritages" — this is Exodus language once again. This Servant of the Lord is not only a new

 

Moses saying to the prisoners, "Go forth" (v.9), he is a new Joshua also.* The Exodus figure intensifies, now describing Messiah as the Shepherd of God's

 

New Israel leading them in the way from bondage to inheritance: "They shall feed in the ways, and their pastures shall be on all bare heights (where no pasture is to be expected). They shall not hunger nor thirst, neither shall the heat nor sun smite them: for...by springs of water shall he guide them" (v.9,10). Here, in concise pregnant sentences, is allusion to the manna and the smitten rock, to the sheltering canopy of the cloud of Glory, and to wells of water springing up into everlasting life when they reach their Land of Promise.

 

A New Pilgrim Israel

 

With more pointed emphasis on the Lamb as Shepherd, the Apocalypse applies all of this to the great multitude who are the spiritual Israel, worshipping the God of the living creatures in a heavenly sanctuary, and making steady pilgrimage to mount Zion where God wipes away all tears from their eyes (Rev. 7:16,17; 14:1). In the promised inheritance there is to be "a fountain of water of life" and indeed "a pure river of water of life" (Rev. 21:6; 22:1).

 

The one who promises such blessings calls forth his "prisoners" not only out of the clutches of master Sin, but also out of "the pit wherein is no water," the dungeon of Death: "Lazarus, come forth!"

 

There is a superb double meaning (besides that already suggested in ch. 28) in this part of the prophecy. First, the call of the Gentiles to share Israel's finest bless­ings. And then, the restoration of God's ancient people as He brings them home, not as political Zionists but as a nation realising at last its true destiny through faith in the promised Messiah. The two themes are inextricable. The mind has to be careful­ly attuned to heaven's counterpoint.

 

The redeemed of Jehovah come "from far...from the north and from the west...from the land of Sinim" (v. 12). Jesus took up the idea. He too foretold that when many in Israel thrust the gospel from them, "they (Gentiles) shall come from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God" (Lk. 13:28,29).

 

Yet, one day, Israel too with a changed heart will come from the four points of the compass to inherit by Messiah's gift what they have vainly tried to guarantee by their own effort and cleverness.

 

Then, such a song will be sung as mount Zion has never heard, for it will celebrate God's consolation and comfort for his afflicted people (v. 13).

 

This, too, is echoed in the Apocalypse: "Rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them," for "now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ...they overcame by the blood of the Lamb" (Rev. 12:10-12).

 

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* A remarkably similar combination of ideas is traceable in Zech. 9:9-11: Peace to the Gentiles, inheritance for Israel, the blood of the covenant bringing forth prisoners. Perhaps even more remarkably, Heb. 13:20 combines Zechariah's "blood of the covenant" with Isaiah's "God of peace" and "Shepherd of the sheep."

[Resource Manager]

"The Consolation of Israel"

 

The message itself, apart from its fulfilment, was an inexpressible comfort to God's faithful, men like the aged Simeon, even when their only sight of Messiah was a tiny baby. The gospel story of that fine old man steers the mind back to Isaiah 49 over and over again:

	Isaiah 49		Luke 2
13.	Comforted his people	25.	The consolation of Israel
1.	Called me from the womb	23.	Every male that openeth the
			womb...holy to the Lord.
6.	A light to the Gentiles	31.	A light to lighten the Gentiles.
22.	Can a woman forget her sucking
	child...the son of her womb?
23.	They shall not be ashamed that wait	25.	waiting for the consolation of
	for me		Israel.
6.	A day of salvation	30.	Thy salvation.
7.	Princes shall worship, kings shall	34.	The fall and rising up of many in
	see and arise.		Israel.

 

However, the gospel going forth to eager Gentiles, at a time, too, when Israel's land was made desolate, provoked many misgivings in Israel:

 

"Jehovah hath forsaken me, and the Lord hath forgotten me" (v. 14).

 

Was it true? Is it? "Hath God cast away his people? God forbid!...God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew" (Rom. 11:1,2). No woman can be in­different to the baby at her breast (v.15). No more can Jehovah turn away from His people, for Zion is engraven on the palms of His hands*. And if — Paul's argument in Romans 11 — seven thousand faithful could save the nation from ruin in Elijah's time, so also in the day when Elijah comes again (Mal. 4).

 

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* Contrast the Ten Commandments "engraven in stones" (2 Cor. 3:7) which could be smashed.

[Resource Manager]

A New Family

 

At that time "thy children shall make haste" to come again to the Land, and also (in a higher sense) to return unto the Lord, whilst those who lay Zion waste for the last time (Zech. 14:2) "shall go forth of thee."

 

So dramatic will be the transfiguration from desolation to joyous prosperity that Zion will scarcely find room for all her new-found children. Just as the boundaries of Jerusalem had perforce to be extended (by a theological fiction of the rabbis) because it was physically impossible to contain the great crowds of Passover worshippers within the city walls, so now the city of God's holiness must spread itself to take in and transform the "waste and desolate places" (v. 19).

 

At this point there comes in the moving figure of Zion as a mother who has somehow been deprived of all her children, but who suddenly finds herself blessed and cheered more than she or any other would have deemed possible. The black outlook of loneliness and misery is suddenly transformed into the happiness and irrepressible energy of a multitude of healthy children:

 

"All these gather themselves together and come to thee (contrast v.5 and also Mt. 23:37)...The children which thou shalt have...shall say again in thine ears, The place* is too strait for me...Then shalt thou say, Who hath begotten me these, seeing I have lost my children, and am desolate" (v. 18,20,21).

 

This is surely the re-gathering of Israel, not only physically back to the Land, but also spiritually back to their God. Zion will recognize her children by their likeness to their Father! And not only sons but also daughters (v.22), for in Christ Jesus "there is neither male nor female" (Gal. 3:28).

 

In this century the political return of Jews to Israel has been made in the face of concerted obstruction from Gentile nations acting in a grossly inhuman fashion out of blatant self-interest. But the days come — so Isaiah foretells — when those who exercise political power will gladly dedicate their resources and "their best endeavours" (the Balfour Declaration, sadly falsified hitherto) in aiding stricken Israel back to their true inheritance.

 

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* Since this word so frequently signifies a "sanctuary, holy place, or temple," there is perhaps here a hint of the inadequacy of the temple and its Judaistic service.

[Resource Manager]

Waiting for the Lord

 

But the fulfilment of this exalted Messianic purpose calls for patience, for the mills of God grind slowly. "They shall not be ashamed that wait for me" (v.23).

 

Here is one of the really grand words of Isaiah's prophecy. There are indeed times when a man must be up and doing in the service of his Lord. There are others when his best — and hardest — duty is simply to wait: "Stand still, and see the salva­tion of God." "Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him." This is one of Isaiah's best themes. He persists in it.

1. "Yea, in the way of thy judgments, O Lord, have we waited for thee; the desire of our soul is to thy name, and to the remembrance of thee" (26:8).
   
2. "The Lord is a God of judgment: blessed are all they that wait for him" (30:18).
   
3. "O Lord, be gracious unto us; we have waited for thee: be thou...our salvation also in the time of trouble" (33:2).
   
4. "Men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him" (64:4).
   
5. "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles..." (40:31).
   
6. "And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the Lord; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation" (25:9).
   

Thus Isaiah anticipates Paul's grand gospel of salvation by faith, for this is what "wait" implies. Indeed, Isaiah himself so interprets it:

 

"They shall not be ashamed that wait for me" (49:23) — with this compare: "He that believeth shall not make haste (shall not be ashamed; Rom. 10:11)" (28:16).

 

It is a gospel easy to enunciate, but perplexingly difficult to live out in practice, keeping "the word of my patience" (Rev. 3:10).

 

Power against the Enemy

 

There is reinforcement for faith by a simple but telling argument, which the Lord Jesus seized on to refute the reputed denigration of his enemies: "Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captive be delivered?" (v.24). Is it possible to snatch a victim from the jaws of a lion?

 

Answer: Yes! but only if the invincible beast be slain, only if the mighty Adversary be vanquished.

 

So when, with curling lip, they sneered: "He casteth out devils by the prince of the devils", that is, here is a man in league with the powers of evil, he rounded on them with an appeal not only to the quality of his miracles but also to the logic of such achievements: "How can one enter into a strong man's house, and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man? and then he will spoil his house" (Mt. 12:29) — as who should say: If by my miracles I snatch my men away from the power of Sin and its ruthless consequences, then am I Sin's friend or his mortal enemy?

 

Here were Jesus and Isaiah in alliance against the powers of evil.

 

The outcome of the contest was also foretold by them both:

 

"I will feed them that oppress thee with their own flesh; and they shall be drunken with their own blood, as with sweet wine: and all flesh shall know that I the Lord am thy Saviour* and thy Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob" (v.26).

 

The figure could hardly be more gruesome. Whatever else, it portends self-destruction — the final demonstration by Sin of its own sinfulness: "Thou hast given them blood to drink" (Rev. 16:6) from "the great winepress of the wrath of God" (14:19). The self-punishment of the world will be the final masochism (Ez. 38:21; Hag. 2:22; Zech. 14:13; Joel 3:11,12), as in the day of Midian (Jud. 7:22; Is. 9:4).

 

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* Here are the names of both Isaiah and Jesus

[Resource Manager]

50. "Not rebellious"

 

The last section of Isaiah's prophecy ended with a picture of Israel the prey of the terrible, and yet delivered.

 

Now, with a change of figure, there comes the enquiry: "Why have such unhappy experiences come about? Israel is lonely and helpless as a divorced woman so that Zion says: "The Lord hath forsaken me, my Lord hath forgotten me" (49:14; cp. 54:1,6). But why? for there is no bill of divorcement. Her sons are in bondage; yet they have not been sold off for the discharge of debt. God is not so hard up.

 

Then why should such calamities come upon them, as they did, almost literally, in Hezekiah's time, and again repeatedly in later ages?

 

To this there is one blunt simple answer: "Behold, for your iniquities have ye sold yourselves, and for your transgressions is your mother put away" (v.1). "Ye have sold yourselves for nought" (52:3).

 

This was a deliberate choice on the part of a wayward people. But in later days Paul pushed this language to an extreme application when, longing with heart and soul to be freed from the power of sin, he lamented: "But I am carnal, sold under sin...what I would, that do I not, but what I hate, that do I" (Rom. 7:14,15).

 

There is only one answer to this problem of slavery — one who is a near-kinsman and who has the resources to redeem the helpless out of their bondage.

 

Such a Redeemer is at hand: "Is my hand shortened at all, that it cannot redeem? or have I no power to deliver?" (v.2). The expostulation was justified in Hezekiah's day. It was equally true, in a more fundamental sense, in the time of Paul: "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body* of this death? I thank God (that He will) through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Rom. 7:24,25).

 

A New Exodus

 

It is a deliverance comparable to, but greater than, that which God brought to Israel through Moses. Accordingly, the language of the prophecy is that of Israel in Egypt and wilderness:

1. "At my rebuke I dry up the sea."**
   
2. "The rivers a wilderness; their fish stinketh" — waters turned to blood.
   
3. "I clothe the heavens with blackness" — the plague of darkness.
   
4. All the phraseology of bondage and redemption fits Israel in Egypt (e.g. Ex. 3:7-9).
   
5. "My hand shortened?" These were the very words of Moses when the people murmured about lack of food (Num. 11:23).
   
6. A new Moses, but without his reluctance, is called for (v.4,5).***
   
7. The inadequacy of the old life — "they shall wax old as a garment" (v.9) — gives place to divine provision: "Thy raiment waxed not old upon thee" (Dt. 8:4).
   

There was literally a new Exodus from Assyrian bondage in Isaiah's day (see the commentary on ch. 49). And there will be another new Exodus when at last Israel is re-gathered under the hand of the Lord from all their final dispersion. But even now this great deliverance is possible for any man of faith. Anyone who believes in the power of Christ is forthwith delivered from Egypt and set on the pilgrim road to a Land of Promise.

 

Yet, in another way, God has to expostulate: "Wherefore, when I came, was there no man?" A great freedom is offered, and there are no takers! "When I called, none did answer; when I spake, they did not hear" (66:4; cp. Pr. 1:24,28).

 

The words are not strictly true but only generally, for in the time of the Assyrian tyranny there was a faithful remnant who continued to share the inspired faith of Hezekiah. (And even though the Lord Jesus remonstrated: "I am come in my Father's name, and ye receive me not" (Jn. 5:43), he too had his small following who hung on regardless. But regarding the nation as a whole, the words were a tragically accurate diagnosis).

 

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* A double-meaning word here in Greek: "out of (being) a slave of this death".

** Contrast the futile boast of Sennacherib: 37:13.

*** The critics are emphatic that there is an abrupt break or discontinuity in the prophecy at the end of v.3. This shows how mistaken they are.

[Resource Manager]

Current Fulfilment

 

At this point it is worthwhile to pursue the reference of this prophecy to Isaiah's own time.

 

Who is this new Moses who is "given (by God) the tongue of them that are taught", who, unrebellious, gives his ear morning by morning to the divine message (v.4,5)? This is either Isaiah himself, with the inspired Word of God, or Hezekiah whose zeal for God was so outstanding. The allusion in verse 10 to "the servant of the Lord" decides in favour of the latter, for in all other places the prototype of the Lord's Suffering Servant is Hezekiah. This fact, already evident enough, is put past all argument when the details of chapter 53 come under consideration.

 

The words just quoted from verses 4,5 seem to imply more than a personal zeal for the Word of God, for here is not only a hearkening to the message from God but also the communication of it. A personal inspiration seems to be implied (cp. Zech. 4:1) such as that which was doubtless in operation in Hezekiah's song of thanks­giving (Is. 38) and in such psalms as 102 which surely came from his pen.

 

But was it true of this worthy man that he "gave his back to the smiters, and his cheeks to them that plucked off the hair"? Did he really endure "shame and spitting"?

 

Literally, no! But such a prospect, and worse, was his when he made an irate enemy of the Assyrian king. In all human history there has never been such fiendish cruelty as the Assyrians meted out to their captives, and — humanly speaking — there was nothing that could save Hezekiah from the worst treatment Sennacherib could think of. Yet this man of faith did not flinch. He had committed his cause to the God of Israel, and he would not "turn away back".

 

More than this, he became the spiritual backbone of many of his fellows: "Who is among you that feareth the Lord? let him heed the voice of his servant: he that walketh in darkness, and hath no light, let him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God" (v. 10).

 

By contrast, "all ye (Assyrians) that kindle a fire, that gird (my city) about with firebrands*: walk ye in the light of your fire, and in the sparks that ye have kindled (this said sardonically!). This shall ye have of mine hand; ye shall lie down in sorrow" (v.11). When the destroying angel of the Lord went forth (37:36), those words had grim fulfilment.

 

Correlation such as this between the prophecy and the dramatic events of the time may be instructive and even exciting, but to stop there is to miss the main intention of the message, for its true focus is Christ and the deliverance which God has wrought for his sake.

 

Messiah's obedience

 

He, as no other, was given "the tongue of those that learn (cp. 49:2), that he should know how to speak in season a word to him that is weary**” (v.4). And what a word it was! "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Mt. 11:28).

 

"Morning by morning" God wakened His Son (see, for example Mk. 1:35). The word Jesus spoke was not only the fruit of a matchless acquaintance with the Scriptures written about him but also of personal communion with the Father. ***

 

"The Lord God hath opened mine ear" to be his servant (Ex. 21:5,6; Ps. 40:6-8) — after the pattern of His servant Samuel (1 Sam. 9:15) and His servant David (2 Sam. 7:27) — and he was not rebellious.

 

"Not as I will, but as Thou wilt," he humbly prayed (Mt. 26:39). "As the Father gave me commandment even so do I" (Jn. 14:31). "He took on him the form of a servant...he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even to the death of the cross" (Phil. 2:7,8). "Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body (a slave) hast thou prepared me" (Heb. 10:5). "Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience" (Heb. 5:8).

 

A precious catena of testimonies, truly!

 

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* It was Passover time (31:5; 30:29), and the nights cold (cp. Jn. 18:18,25), and Assyrian camp fires ringed the city, both for comfort and bravado.

** Translation is defeated here, "weary" (ayaph) is twisted into "speak in season" (ya'aph, which literally means twist'). This is just one example of the kind of verbal trick that is common in Isaiah's Hebrew. In this way he implies many a secondary meaning. Here he as good as says that this is his method.

*** Cp. Jn. 7:16; 8:16,17; 12:49; 14:24; 17:3.

[Resource Manager]

Messiah's suffering

 

What a contrast with Israel, the people who, though having ears, were deaf (43:8); "they rebelled, and vexed his Holy Spirit" (63:10). Like a "stubborn and rebellious son" (Dt. 21:20), they deserved the hardest discipline, and yet found it laid instead on One who was all meekness and obedience (21.22,23).

 

Willing to suffer, all undeserving, Jesus "gave his back to the smiters (Mt. 26:67; 27:26), and his cheeks (to the smiters also; Mic. 5:1; Jn. 18:22) and to them that plucked off the hair (here is a sordid addition to the compression of the concise gospel narrative): he did not hide his face from shame and spitting (Lk. 18:32; Mt. 27:30)" (v.6).

 

With the certain prospect of this suffering before him, Jesus nevertheless "set his face to go to Jerusalem" (Lk. 9:51). The words frame almost exactly the grim dourness of Isaiah's phrase (LXX): "therefore have I set my face like a flint — and I know that I shall not be ashamed" (v.7). The mind goes ranging back to the flinty rock which poured forth water of life for God's redeemed bondslaves (Dt. 8:15).

 

Vindicated

 

But all at once the figure changes to that well-tried favourite in this part of Isaiah — the court of law*. A quick succession of legal terms protest the faultless life of this servant of the Lord:

 

"He is near that justifieth me, who will contend with me? let us stand up together: who is mine adversary? let him come near to me...Who is he that shall condemn me**?" (v.8,9).

 

This is where Paul learned his own superb rhetoric on the same theme: "If God be for us, who can be against us?... Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? Shall God who justifieth? Who is he that condemneth? Shall Christ...who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us?" (Rom. 8:31-34). In such a court of law no pleading disciple need be nervous, for God is both judge (v.8a) and counsel for the defence (v.9a).

 

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* 41:1,21-29; 43:8-13,26; 44:7; 45:20-25; 50:8.

** Peter echoes the LXX phrase here: 1 Pet. 3:13.

[Resource Manager]

Self-Righteousness Self-Condemned

 

But for those who despise such graciousness and rest their case for self-vindication on a catalogue of good works, there is only brusque condemnation: "Lo, they all shall wax old as a garment; the moth shall eat them up" (v.9b; cp. 59:6a).

 

Jews proud of their Judaism wrote Jesus off: he suffers, they argued (v.6); therefore he is rejected of God (53:4b). Therefore their dereliction shall furnish the demonstration of their own worthlessness. These who "walk in the light of their own fire...shall lie down in sorrow" (v.11).

 

So it was with the entire Mosaic system: "That which decayeth and waxeth old is (now) ready to vanish away." Hebrews 8:13 uses the very words of Isaiah. "The heavens (of Judaism) did vanish away like smoke, and the earth waxed old like a garment...the moth shall eat them up like a garment" (51:6,8; cp. Ps. 102:26).

 

But what of the man "that feareth the Lord"? "Let him hearken to the voice of his Servant! He that walketh in darkness and hath no light* (the disciple that is mystified and bewildered by present evil circumstances), let him trust (have faith) in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God" (v. 10). And he will not trust in vain! The political and personal experiences of Hezekiah proved this conclusively to his generation. The resurrection of the Lord has furnished even more decisive demonstration that dependance on the Name of Jehovah — He who was, and is, and shall be — will always carry a man through.

 

But when a disciple joins an over-confident Peter in the kindling of a fire and tries to walk in the light of that fire (Lk. 22:55), he lies down in sorrow, as Peter did to the most miserable sleepless weekend that ever a man spent. "This shall ye have at mine hand."

 

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* This remarkable word always signifies the Shekinah Glory Of God.

[Resource Manager]

51 (1). "Hearken unto me" (v.1-8)

 

"Who is among you that feareth the Lord? let him hearken unto the voice of His Servant" (50:10). That exhortation was now reinforced with a three fold "Hearken unto me" (51:1,4,7).

 

On the face of it the call might seem to have been addressed by the Servant of the Lord, Hezekiah, to the faithful among the nation — those who had responded with real self-dedication to the king's call back to God. In spite of the enthusiasm with which Hezekiah's reformation is described in 2 Chronicles 29-31, the sad truth remains that most of the nation was either unaffected by this new surge of righteousness or was content to be borne with the tide, "going through the motions" of godliness (52:5; 55:2; 56:10-12; 57:1-11 etc.). Indeed, it seems like­ly that "ye that follow after righteousness, that seek the Lord" are this very section of the nation, apostrophized in irony.

 

Whilst it is difficult to be sure, this was apparently how Paul read the words for he gave them unambiguous application to a similar class in his day — "Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness. Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the Law. For they stumbled at that stumblingstone" (Rom. 9:31,32).

 

Interesting contemporary allusions

 

There is, maybe, a certain ambiguity also about the figure of speech now introduced. In AV Abraham and Sarah were represented as "the rock (whence) ye were hewn" and "the hole of the pit (whence) ye were digged" — in other words, emulate the fine faith and example of those splendid characters. But the verbs can be read differently. W.A. Wordsworth insists on this, and traces in the context several subtle references to the waters of the Siloam tunnel — "the rock ye hewed, the hole of the pit ye digged." Indeed, he goes further than that and suggests that the excavators, working from opposite ends, called their respective halves of the project "Abraham" and "Sarah". An interesting but quite unverifiable speculation! If correct, the prophet meant that the beleaguered city was to rest secure not in their own efforts but through faith in God like that of their forebears — "the waters of Shiloah that go softly" (8:6).*

 

It is Jehovah, and He only, who can "comfort Zion, comfort all her waste places." Jehovah only can "make the wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord" (v.3). This duly came about in the unmatched blessings of the Year of Jubilee which God promised to the faithful king (2 Kgs. 19:29-31). A country re­duced to the depths of despair and given over to seemingly irreparable devastation, was filled with "joy and gladness, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody."

 

Well might the people of Jerusalem be bidden: "Fear ye not the reproach of men (the scorn and invective of Rabshakeh!), neither be ye afraid of their reviling" (v.7), for those who spoke so boastfully against Hezekiah and his God would find themselves engulfed in a God-sent cataclysm: "The heavens shall vanish away like smoke**, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die like a louse" (v.6; 40:22).

 

The effect of this mighty deliverance on surrounding Gentile nations would be sensational: "The isles shall wait upon me, and on mine arm shall they trust" (v.5).

 

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* The allusion to Sarah could be one of Isaiah's double-entendres: "a prince (Hezekiah) that is in travail for you" (cp. 53:11).

** Such phrases as this make Velikovsky's hypothesis of cosmic upheaval in the time of Hezekiah more plausible.

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Messiah's Salvation

 

And now the exposition begins afresh, focussed this time on Christ. The Servant of the Lord has a right to bid men: "Hearken unto me", for God opened his ear, and he was not rebellious (50:5). He calls alike to those in earnest and to those whose lives are a religious sham: "Ye that seek the Lord — hearken unto me!" He is not the Suffering Servant now (as in 50:6,7), but is the One through whom God offers salvation.

 

But this salvation is for those who seek God's kingdom and God's righteousness, not their own. "I said not unto the seed of Jacob, Seek ye me in vain (no speaking in pretence, nor seeking in pretence): I the Lord speak righteousness" (45:19). It is the generation of them that seek God's face which receives the blessing of righteousness from the God of their salvation (Ps. 24:5,6).

 

Here there comes in another fascinating double meaning. All true men of the true Israel thankfully acknowledge their personal justification by faith, after the pattern of the faith of Abraham, the rock whence they have been hewn; they look unto Sarah the hole of the pit whence they have been dug. "If ye be Abraham's seed (by faith), then are ye Christ's and heirs of the Promise"* (Gal. 3:29).

 

But the words may mean: "Look unto the rock which ye hewed, and to the hole of the pit which ye digged." This is precisely what Joseph of Arimathea and his fellow-believers did on the third day after Christ was buried! All his life Joseph had pursued the acquisition of a righteousness of his own. Then the amazing happenings of the day of crucifixion stood his long-held convictions on their head, and he became the disciple of a corpse. His own new tomb, in which he himself has now lain for nine­teen centuries, became for him the symbol of a conquest over death lasting far more than nineteen centuries. God has shown that He is able out of those stones to raise up a Son unto Abraham (Mt. 3:9).

 

The Father of the faithful and the wife who bare him the promised seed were both quickened by God "I called him when he was but one, and blessed him**, and made him many***" (v.2).

Like father like Son! Here is clear implication that the Servant of the Lord would likewise be quickened and made into a multitude.

 

In this context, and in this interpretation, the promise of comfort for Zion calls for a spiritual application. Paul recognized in this passage the equation of Sarah with Zion and of both with the New Israel in Christ. Two women, Hagar and Sarah — two mountains, Sinai and Zion — two covenants, bondage and promise (Gal. 4:22-31).

 

For this Zion, the Lord's faithful ones, there is assured comfort (as in 40:1; 52:9), and for the "waste places"**** of spiritual deprivation which they now deplore, this drought is to become "like Eden," this desolation "like the garden of the Lord" in which One Man will be fruitful and multiply, the one becoming many.

 

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* The words are just as true this way round.

** Or: met him (with reference to Gen. 14:14,19).

*** The one and the many is an inescapable theme in connection with Abraham (Ez, 33:24; Gal. 3:29,27; Heb. 11:12). Both "many" and also "Comfort" (v.3) make a play on the name of Abraham.

**** 'Zion' means 'dry', and 'waste' (44:26; 52:9; 58:1 2; 61:4; Ez. 36:10,35) means 'dried up'. So God gives water out of the rock; v.1; 2 Chr. 32:30; Ex. 17:6.

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At this point the Servant of the Lord turns in appeal to "my people" Israel, with words of warning that the Mosaic order in which they take such pride is to pass away, and themselves too, as God's elect, whilst Gentiles come to put their trust in the God of Israel (v.4-6):

 

"Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath: for the heavens shall vanish away (Heb. 8:13) like smoke*, and the earth shall wax old like a garment" (v.6). It is the idiom of the passing of an old out-moded order (cp. Ps. 102:26, interpreted, with reference to the Mosaic System, in Heb. 1:12).**

 

In its place there is the regeneration Messiah brings — in token of which, there follow three quick allusions to the servant prophecy of 42:1-7: "a law shall go forth from me...judgment...for a light of the peoples...my righteousness...the isles shall wait for me."

 

The Messianic phrases pile up: "On mine Arm shall they trust." This is the "salvation-righteousness ***" which Messiah brings, never to be abolished like the old "heavens and earth" — it is justification by faith (trust), the kind of righteousness which God esteems above all other. Men best learn this righteousness by leaning on the Arm of the Lord.

 

But now a difficulty: "Mine arms shall judge the people" (v.5). How can this plural refer to Messiah? Since Isaiah nowhere else uses such a plural in a Messianic context, there is every likelihood that this exception is to be read as an intensive plural: "my mighty arm".

 

Third Appeal

 

The third imperative or appeal: "Hearken", is a call to the Lord's faithful, "ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law" (v. 7). In this they are imitators of Him who calls them: "I delight to do thy will, O my God; yea, thy law is within my heart" (Ps. 40:8). Thus they share the blessings of the New Covenant: "I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts" (Jer. 31:33) — thus they "know the Lord" (v.34) and "know (his) righteousness."

 

For such, inevitably, there is "the reproach of men". The context shows that this reviling comes from entrenched obstinate Judaism: "the moth shall eat them up like a garment" — it is the very phrase used in the previous verse to picture the decay of the "heavens and earth" now vanishing away.

 

James neatly combined an allusion to the Sermon on the Mount with a glance at this passage (LXX) when he trounced his Sadducee contemporaries: "Go to now, ye rich men...Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten" (5:1,2).****

 

An incomparably better garment is that which Christ provides: "As many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ" (Gal. 3:27). Thus those who "know (his) righteousness" share his righteousness. It is their salvation: "The gospel of Christ...is the power of God unto salvation to every one that has faith...For therein is the righteousness of God (that which God provides) revealed on the basis of faith (and not works) to the man who has faith".

 

This equation of God's righteousness with God's salvation, precious to Isaiah because it spelled his own name, was precious also to Paul, and valuable in his unceasing witness against Judaist reliance on self-achievement.

 

To this day the lesson is hard to learn. Well-intentioned human nature is always set on knowing its own righteousness rather than that which is the gift of God. Yet that is the only true salvation.

 

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* Literally: "salted with smoke", an allusion perhaps to the salted sacrifice of burnt offering being utterly consumed.

** The same idea comes in v. 16; 50:3,9; 54:10; 65:17; 34:4,5(8); Mt. 24:35.

*** Five times in v. 1-8.

**** This section — James 5:1-6 — cannot possibly apply to early Christian believers. Read it as part of the funeral oration at the burial of Stephen; Acts 8:2. (For further detail, see "Five Apostolic Epistles", H.A.W.)

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51 (2). "Awake, Awake" (v.9 — 52:12)

 

After that triple imperative: "Hearken", there comes a ringing threefold summons: "Awake, awake (51:9,17; 52:1). The second and third of these are addressed to Jerusalem, the first to "the Arm of the Lord" in Jerusalem. Since, in so many places, the Arm of the Lord is the Messiah and his prototype Hezekiah, this is how the title must be read here.

 

Deliverance in Hezekiah's day

 

In those hard testing times, Hezekiah's faith in Jehovah was the only bulwark left to the beleaguered city. And even he quailed at the barrage of propaganda unleash­ed by the renegade Rabshakeh: "My Name continually every day is blasphemed" (52:5), so that men "feared continually every day because of the oppressor ready to destroy" (51:13).

 

So the prophetic expostulation became necessary: "Who art thou that thou shouldest be afraid of a man (Sennacherib) that shall die?" (51:12). And so it came to pass that Sennacherib died, under the shadow of the god he worshipped, and by the hand of the son of man he had begotten (37:38).

 

"The cup of fury, the cup of trembling, which thou (Jerusalem) hast drunk at the hand of the Lord...thou shalt no more drink it again. But I will put it into the hand of them that afflict thee" (51:17,22,23). The death-warrant of Nineveh was signed by a prophet of the Lord.

 

But before deliverance came, "Jerusalem drank at the hand of the Lord the cup of his fury...the dregs of the cup of trembling...desolation, and destruction, and the famine, and the sword." At that time, "there was none to guide her among all her sons whom she had brought forth, neither any that took her (hezekiah-ed her) by the hand" — for one simple reason, that the only man capable of giving a sound lead to the nation in such a terrifying crisis was laid aside with an incurable disease (38:1). "These two things" — invasion and the king's dire disease — "are befallen thee (together; cp. 38:5,6); who shall be sorry for thee?" (51:17-19).

 

"None to guide her"? No man!But the God of Israel would not lightly let go His holy city: "The Lord saved Hezekiah...from the hand of Sennacherib the king of Assyria, and from the hand of all other, and guided (s.w.) them on every side" (2 Chr. 32:22).

 

Hezekiah himself was restored: "I have put my words in thy mouth (inspiration; 50:16), and I have covered thee in the shadow of mine hand (49:2)". The nation was given a fresh start: "that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth" (v. 16).

 

Zion shall "put on strength", and Jerusalem shall don the "beautiful garments" of "the holy city", for "henceforth there shall no more come into thee the uncircum­cised and the unclean" (52:1). Back in the days of Tiglath-pileser III, weak decadent Ahaz had bought peace of a sort at the cost of humiliation: "Ahaz took away a portion of the house of the Lord...and gave it unto the king of Assyria: but it helped him not" (2 Chr. 28:21). That infamous craven policy of accepting an Assyrian gar­rison into mount Zion, into the temple area itself, had been the greatest shame of all*. Henceforth it must never happen again.

 

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* Other Scriptures bearing on this: Mic. 5:5; 2 Kgs. 16:8,18; Ps. 74:3-8; Is. 63:18; 64:11; 11:9a; 26:2.