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54 (1). Comfort for the Forsaken

 

The prophecy of the Suffering Servant has given firm assurance of ultimate triumph and blessing: "He shall see his seed" (53:10). Now this seed is mentioned more pointedly.

 

As with other prophecies in this sequence, the primary reference is once again to Hezekiah, whose name comes in the Hebrew text (v.2: strengthen); so also does the name of his wife Hephzibah (v.12, where Hebrew for 'pleasant stones' is very close to being 'sons of Hephzibah'); and the word "forget" (v.4) may be an allusion to Manasseh, their son.

 

But the prophecy speaks of two women, one of whom has children whilst at first the other has none but instead has to endure for a while what is virtual widowhood (v. 1-8).

 

Hephzibah's changed fortune

 

It is important to recognize in the allegory which Isaiah now takes delight in that only one woman is being described, and not two. The experiences of both Hephzibah, Hezekiah's queen, and also of the nation require this reading — and so also does Isaiah's text, for otherwise apart from a bald mention of "the married wife" he does not have a word to say about her.

 

Let these eloquent verses (v. 1-9) be read as relating to the same woman throughout, and immediately there is relevance not only to the wife of king Hezekiah but also to his nation — and also as a parable of redemption in Christ all goes smoothly.

 

It may be taken as certain that Hezekiah married well before he reached the age of 39, the time of his grievous sickness. Yet up to that time the marriage was not blessed with children. The king's affliction readily explains that. But evidently in those last fifteen years of happiness the royal family burgeoned. Whereas in the early days Hephzibah had been a "married wife" expectant of children and yet doomed through long years of disappointment to be "thou that didst not bear...thou that didst not travail with child," after the king's recovery there was a dramatic change to happy fruitfulness. In his marriage Hezekiah observed the principle of the year of Jubilee, and then Manasseh was born two years after his recovery.*

 


* lt may be that 26:17,18 is relevant to the queen's earlier discouraging experience.

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Allegory of the nation

 

The language of the prophecy (v. 1-9) fits these circumstances excellently, and also the experience of the nation. The Assyrian invasion not only reduced the Land to barren desolation but also great numbers of the people were either slain or carried off to a seemingly hopeless captivity. Yet at the very time when the king recovered there came a marvellous renewed spontaneous fertility of the country­side in the year of jubilee and also the utterly unexpected* return of the captives. No wonder the language is so joyous: "Sing, O barren...break forth into singing, and cry aloud." Also, the refugees who had fled panic-stricken in all directions to neighbouring countries came streaming home in eager gladness. What nation ever had such an astonishing reversal of fortunes as this?

 

It is evident that this allegory of the nation's experience is what dominates the prophet's message here.

 

"Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations" (note the plural there)..."Thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles (the eager friendship of neighbouring peoples has already been commented on), and shall make the desolate cities to be inhabited (busy re-building after the grim war-time devastation);...Thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth (the spiritual decadence of the previous reign), and shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood any more (the utter helplessness and deprivation brought by the Assyrian 'flood')...Thy maker is thine husband (God reconciled with His people through the merits of their king)...The God of the whole Land shall he be called (thanks to Hezekiah's reforming zeal and the extension of his authority to cover both Northern and Southern kingdoms)."

 

More than this, Philistines, Edomites and Moabites were gathered into Hezekiah's kingdom after the defeat of Sennacherib (this is implied in Is. 63:1-4; 11:14). Thus "thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles" had another dramatic and almost immediate fulfil­ment. The political resurgence of the kingdom was like a resurrection from the dead (Ezekiel's figure for a later and even greater experience).

 

After the pattern of the royal family the nation had been 'as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit...a wife of youth refused'. Yet only "for a small moment have I for­saken thee: but with great mercies will I gather thee" (that word 'gather' emphasizes reference to the people as well as the wife). "In a little wrath (the six months of Assyrian horror) I hid my face from thee for a moment, but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer."

 

"For this is as the waters of Noah unto me." The Assyrian invasion had been like a mighty flood of Euphratean waters (8:7,8; 17:12). Jerusalem had proved to be the only ark of safety (1:7,8). All else was swept away. The faithful who went to Jerusalem to keep Passover found their faith rewarded (like Noah and his family) with happiness in a cleansed rejuvenated Land.

 

"Tossed with tempest", truly, and yet renewed in splendour through the massive plunder taken from the Assyrian and the gifts and tribute which poured in from many a marvelling Gentile nation. At this time the temple of Solomon became more splendid than ever. "Sapphires, agates, carbuncles" and all kinds of wealth were among the gifts honouring the God of Israel.

 


* Except by the prophet!

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"Taught of the Lord"

 

"In righteousness shalt thou (Jerusalem) be established," There is here a double allusion to Jachin, one of the twin brazen pillars of the temple (1 Kgs. 7:21) and to the everlasting covenant made by God with David and his seed (2 Sam. 7:12,15) — "neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed" (v.10).

 

Hezekiah wanted all his people to be instructed in the ways of God. "I will lay thy foundations with sapphires" (v.11) sounds in Hebrew very much like: "in the Books" — "all thy children shall be taught of the Lord, and great shall be the peace of thy children" (v.13).

 

On an earlier occasion the king had spoken "to the heart of all the Levites that taught the good knowledge of the Lord" (2 Chr. 30:22) encouraging them in such good work. So it may be taken as fairly certain that after his recovery, this fine move­ment picked up from where it had left off.

 

Safe from harm

 

There had been "oppression...fear...terror." But now "it shall not come near thee." With the devastation of the Assyrian army, God gave the plainest possible proof that "whosoever shall gather together against thee shall fall for thy sake" (v.15). One man carried the nation!

 

"The mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee" (v.10) — the words are almost the same as in a psalm which celebrates the violent overthrow of the might of Sennacherib (Ps. 46:2,5-11).

 

If indeed weapons were fashioned against Israel — 'the smith blowing the coals in the fire, and bringing forth an instrument for his work' it was only because Jehovah had "created the waster to destroy" (v.16; 10:5). Nevertheless "no (Assyrian) weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue (such as Rabshakeh's) that shall rise against thee in judgement, thou shalt condemn" (v.17). Experience proved the words startlingly true — as long as the people leaned on the Lord their God.

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54 (2). "Widowhood" ended (v.1-8)

 

Back in the time of Abraham there had been the problem of the two wives. Hagar — in status, concubine and slave — 'had the husband' and bore a son Ishmael. Sarah, the true wife, had no child until faith brought God's graciousness into her life. Then Isaac was born, a child of promise, and Hagar and her son were sent away.

 

Isaiah recognized that the situation in his royal master's life bore a close resemblance to that of Abraham's, and he read it as a parable of God's great purpose with Israel and the Gentiles. Hephzibah, in her desolation and the hap­piness of her later married life embodied both sides of the Abraham-Sarah allegory. And the nation in its wretchedness and startling restoration also anticipated the Hagar-Sarah allegory. "Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear." In his very first sentence on this theme there is a play on the name of Sarah. Too many literary devices of this kind crop up in the Hebrew of Isaiah for this to be accidental. And certainly Paul read his text of Isaiah in this way (doubtless with the help of Is. 51:2,3). For in Gal. 4:21-27 he proceeded to expound the complicated allegory of two women, two sons, two mountains, two cities — all of them with reference to two communities: the natural and the spiritual Israel.

 

The two mountains are Sinai, where the Law of Moses was given (a mountain in Arabia, Ishmaelite territory), and Zion where Christ died and the gospel was preached.

 

The two cities are the Jerusalem of the temple, wedded to the Law and destined to be destroyed, and the heavenly Jerusalem which will one day become "reality" as the capital of the whole world.

 

Mother and City

 

This figurative use of "Zion" and her "children" is almost commonplace in Isaiah. For example:

 

"Thine eyes shall see Jerusalem a quiet habitation, a tabernacle that shall not be taken down; not one of the stakes thereof shall ever be removed, neither shall any of the cords thereof be broken" (33:20).

 

Instead: "Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations: spare not; lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes" (54:2)*

 

The first of these two passages goes on to use the figure of a ship out of control (33:23), whilst the second speaks of Zion as "afflicted, tossed with tempest" in a storm like "the waters of Noah" (54:9-11).

 

Zion, the holy city as the "mother" of God's family (49:14,15; 51:3; 60:10,7; 62:4,6; 66:7-14) is a theme traceable right through Scripture, literally from beginning to end.

 

When the Lord God took a rib from the side of Adam He built it into a woman (Gen. 2:22mg). In Ephesians Paul moves easily from the idea of the family of God being a holy temple (2:21) to that of human marriage being an even more apt figure of Christ and the redeemed (5:27).

 

No wonder, then, that in his Galatian polemic against the legalists, the apostle is ready enough to confuse his illustration about two families with another about two cities. In his thinking (as in Isaiah's) they are the same fundamental idea.

 

And so to Revelation, where another apostle hears proclaimed the manifestation of "the bride, the Lamb's wife." But when he looks, he sees "that great city, the holy Jerusalem" (21:9,10).

 


* Are these two passages by the same Isaiah? Or is the second deliberately quoting the first from a thousand miles away and 150 years later? Which is the more likely explanation?

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Why "tabernacle"?

 

But if the family of God is also the City of God, why the emphasis here on "tabernacle...tent...cords...stakes", which all suggest impermanence? In this respect there is marked contrast with the "wall great and high", the solid foundations and massive gates, of John's New Jerusalem. And with good reason, for Isaiah speaks of the era of the gospel when the Word of Life is calling Gentile outsiders into God's family. At such a time, not only must the first-blessed people of Israel be prepared to lengthen cords and strengthen stakes, they must also be prepared to strike camp and move away from an earthly Jerusalem. Did the brethren in first century Jewry see the implications of this Scripture, one wonders? The need for an Epistle to the Hebrews suggests a strong reluctance to grow into these ideas.

 

Also, in the light of Isaiah's continuing message — "all thy children taught of the Lord" (v. 13) — it seems right to look for further symbolic meaning, for the "words of the wise are as goads*, and as nails fastened..." (Eccl. 12:11). Then what are the "cords" and "stakes" in this tabernacle of the Lord? It is noteworthy that "the place (maqom) of thy tent" implies a Sanctuary. Jacob was promised at Bethel that he should "break forth" (Gen. 28:14mg) to the west, east, north, south. Now Isaiah renews the promise: "Thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left (i.e. both south and north)." Very significantly, LXX uses a word which implies the extension of protection.

 

Thus the seed of Israel can inherit the Gentiles, instead of holding aloof from them (cp. 55:5; 61:9; 65:1), and by this very means will find unexpected benefit: "Jerusalem inhabited...the cities of Judah built...the decayed places raised up..." (44:26).

 

Modernist difficulties

 

It is difficult to know what the modernists, with their Babylonian Captivity theory, make of this repeated confidence in an accession of strength from the Gentiles, for nothing of the kind happened in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah. And the phrase: "for a small moment have I forsaken thee" (v.7) seems a strange way of describing a captivity of seventy years (besides the twenty-two years of apostasy and chaos before that). With reference to the time of Hezekiah there is no problem; and in the present application the words describe Israel's final time of trouble (cp. 26:20 s.w.).

 

Restoration

 

The assurance (v. 4) of recovery and rehabilitation could hardly be more emphatic.

  1. Thou shalt not be ashamed.
  2. Neither shalt thou be confounded.
  3. Thou shalt not be put to shame.
  4. Thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth.
  5. Thou shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood any more.

Applied to Gentiles now received into a status of high privilege before God, these words look back to the shameful days of earlier ignorance and idolatry. But in­asmuch as Jews have become Gentiles, divorced through unbelief from their spiritual inheritance, at a time when Gentiles have become Jews, these striking repetitious assurances are to be read also with reference to Israel at the time, yet future, when repentance and the coming Messiah bring their woeful history to a happy climax when Jews and Gentiles are one Israel of God.

 

Then "thy Maker will be thy Husband" (v.5). These words are actually intensive plurals, suggesting: "Thy Mighty Maker shall be thy glorious husband" — "as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee" (62:5). He is "thy Redeemer (the near kinsman who rescues from bondage), the Holy One of Israel", and now, in the fullest sense of the term, "the God of the whole earth" (v.5). The allusion here to the divine vision given to Isaiah in the temple is not to be missed: "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the fulness of the whole earth is his glory" (6:3mg). The fulness of the Gentiles has come in, Israel is repentant and received back by her God who is now in truth the Lord of hosts. In His house there is now nought but holiness.

 


* Probably: "sharp stakes" — "goads" spoils the parallelism.

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54 (3). "The Waters of Noah" (v.9-17)

 

When Noah looked out from the ark over the wild waste of waters, it must have seemed to him — according to all normal judgement, at least — that here was a final end to life in the fair world he had known all these years.

 

So also was the prospect of hopelessness when Hezekiah saw his little kingdom swamped by the surge of savage Assyrian invasion. After such a disaster how could the great Promise of God to the house of David ever come to fulfilment?

 

And so also will be the even more bleak outlook in the days not far ahead when the valiant but God-less state of Israel is swept away by a raging tide of hate and devastation. There is yet to come a time when, instead of displaying an un­quenchable sanguine spirit, they will say: "Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost" (Ez. 37:11).

 

At such a time, for the faithful in Israel this will be like the Deluge over again — their "waters of Noah" being a cleansing experience bringing salvation at a time when those whom God does not want are swept away (cp. 2 Pet. 3:5-10)*

 

God's Covenant Removed?

 

Here, then, is the emphatic assurance of the God of Israel that His covenant of peace will not be removed. Mountains may depart, and hills be removed, swamped by a deluge of unique proportions, "but my kindness (the same word as in 2 Sam. 7:15; Ps. 89:28,33) shall not depart from thee" (v.10).

 

Superficial appearances have all been to the contrary. For long centuries it has seemed that Israel are a cast-off and spiritually derelict people — the covenant of God's peace is removed. Yet, in truth, not so at any time — for those with the faith to join ransomed Gentiles in the New Covenant which God never ceases to offer in Christ. For such, "the sure mercies of David" (55:3) are sure. "I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good" (Jer. 32:40).

 

Ark and Temple

 

This ship of salvation — "afflicted, tossed with tempest (cp. 33:23), and not comforted" (a play on the name of Noah!) — all at once transforms into a Temple** of wondrous beauty, more fit to give men access to heaven than any tower of Babel: "Behold, I will lay thy foundations with sapphires*** ...windows of agates...gates of carbuncles...borders of pleasant stones...and great shall be the peace of thy children" (v.11-13).

 

The word "windows" here is very unusual. It is, literally, "suns". Perhaps there is here a combination of intensive plural with metonymy, thus providing a highly poetic allusion to the great east gate through which the morning sun (and the returning Glory of the Lord) shone into the Temple area. But lest there be any temptation to see this glorified Temple of the Lord as a mere erection of stone and fine material, the word for "lay" is one which always describes the relaxation of living creatures!

 

Another Temple allusion comes in the next verse: "In righteousness shalt thou be established" (v.14). This is the name of one of the two majestic brazen pillars (Jachin) at the entrance to the sanctuary. Indeed, it is not out of the question that the word "suns", just mentioned, is also intended to refer to these two pillars.

 

Again, with double meaning: "thy children (or: thy builders) shall be taught of the Lord, and great shall be the peace of thy children (the Salem of thy builders)" (v. 13). It is only through divine instruction that any Temple can be built. Moses was shown the Tabernacle "pattern" in the mount (Ex. 25:40; cp. "in the Books" v.11), and Bezaleel and Aholiab were endowed with special wisdom and skill for their work (Ex. 31:3). David likewise had a revelation of the details of the new Temple (1 Chr. 28:19), and appealed to the nation for a fitting endowment of precious commodities (29:5). Ezekiel and John each had an angelic mentor for a like purpose (Ez. 40:3,4; Rev. 21:9,10).

 


* ln a similar context Is. 24:18 also uses the language of Noah's Flood (Gen. 7:11).

** Perhaps the idea is this — that as the ark was the only means of salvation in Noah's day, so in Hezekiah's time the Temple in Jerusalem and so also the New Temple of which Christ is the foundation.

*** Hebrew here is almost: "in the Books".

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Gospel allusions

 

It would be strange, then, if the yet more important Temple of God, made up of redeemed sinners were not described in the NT. in similar terms and in similar fashion.

 

That little ship on Galilee, "tossed with tempest" through the night after the feeding of the five thousand was actually the Lord's ark of safety in a time of serious crisis*. Yet its occupants were "not comforted", for they too found their Leader's attitude difficult to stomach; to them also his words were a "hard saying." They failed to realise that that small fishing vessel had been their ark of safety saving them from being swept away by the flood of nationalistic excitement which that day's miracle had let loose.

 

But then, following Isaiah, Jesus turned from the figure of an ark to that of a Temple. Next day in the synagogue at Capernaum, when challenged to show himself as great as Moses, Jesus set himself far higher by claiming to be the fulfil­ment of Isaiah's expectation that "all thy children shall be taught of the LORD" (Jn. 6:45). Truly, as Isaiah says, foundations must be laid "in the Books", but the Temple itself requires fellowship with and instruction from One who is The LORD, far higher than any angelic mentor of Moses or David or Ezekiel or John.

 

"Every man therefore that hath heard and hath learned of the Father (in the Books) cometh unto me...(dwelleth in me, and I in him)" (Jn. 6:45,56). Jesus was continuing the allusion he had made to Is. 54: "Behold the strangers (proselytes) shall come unto thee through Me (the Father), and shall dwell with thee" (v. 15 LXX)**

 

 

It was soon after this that Jesus, heartened by Peter's loyal confession of faith foretold the founding of his Ecclesia on "this Rock" — "I will lay thy foundations in the Books...and all thy children shall be taught of the Lord".

 

But the swing of Peter's pendulum had him making false use of Isaiah 54. When seeking to discourage his Master's "defeatism", his "Be it far from thee, Lord" — literally: "Mercy to thyself, O Lord" — he was actually quoting verbatim: "The mercy that is with me shall not forsake thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be at all removed; for He (God) saith, Be merciful to thyself, O Lord" (v.10 LXX). This was doubtless Peter's response from Isaiah 54 to his Master's detailed warning of impending sufferings based on Isaiah 53.

 

In another very different context, and without a sign of direct quotation there is a somewhat unexpected coincidence of ideas in John 14:26,27.



Isaiah 54


John 14

13.

All thy children shall be taught of

26.

The Comforter...he shall teach


the Lord.


you all things.


Great shall be the peace of thy

27.

My peace I give unto you.


children.



14.

Thou shalt not fear.


Let not your heart be troubled,




neither let it be afraid.

 

This is all in harmony with the use Jesus had made of this prophecy earlier.

 

The Problem of Evil

 

Finally, there is Isaiah's solution of the problem of suffering, in expansion of the principle already enunciated: "I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things" (45:7).

 

The craftsman who with forced draught brings his fire to white heat so that he may the more skilfully fashion a weapon of war has been given that skill by God who made him. And the savage brute who goes into action against the people of God, yes, God made him too, and gave him his frightening physique for the fight! God is in control of all these things.

 

But the obverse side of the coin is this — "No weapon formed against thee (the Servant of the Lord) shall prosper." Suffering, maybe; but ultimately the justice of an all-wise, all-powerful God will assuredly set the balance right. "This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord."

 

The world has not yet seen this even-handedness in operation either in the ex­perience of Christ or his disciples. But one day there will be no room for doubt. "Their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord."

 


* See: "A Crisis in the Ministry of Jesus", ch.94 in "Gospels", H.A.W.

** AV is quite different here.

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55 (1). "Ho, every one that thirsteth!" (v.1-5)

 

Isaiah 55 probably has fewer evident contacts with the crucial times of Hezekiah than almost any other chapter in this part of the prophecy. And yet even here the relevance of the message to those days is readily traceable.

 

Hezekiah and his times

 

Even the opening allusion to thirst probably springs from the siege conditions which Jerusalem had to endure, and to the waters of Siloam brought into the city by Hezekiah's tunnel and without which there could have been no surviving (for Zion means "a dry place").

 

The "sure mercies of David," with reference to God's "everlasting covenant" (v.3) that "David shall not want a man to sit on his throne," had become the sheet-anchor of Hezekiah's faith both against the threats of Sennacherib and against his own sickness and present childlessness.

 

The glorifying of Hezekiah (v.5d) with utterly unexpected victory meant that "a Gentile nation (Heb: goi) that thou knewest not" now realised the greatness of the Holy One of Israel (Heb: am) "that knew not thee" (because of its faithlessness*) and was transformed in its attitude.

 

There is reference to the glad and equally unexpected return of the captives whom Sennacherib had marched away: "Ye shall go out (cp. 42:7; 49:9; 52:11,12) with joy, and be led forth with peace" (v.12). And the charm and blessedness of a Year of Jubilee of unimagined fruitfulness smoothed away all the anxieties of God's stricken land — rain and snow from heaven such as had rarely been known, causing the earth to bring forth and bud without the labour of cult­ivation, and providing food for the hungry inhabitants and seed for the next sowing (v.10). The entire countryside put on a warm smile of welcome as the people, now freed from fear, streamed back to their farms. Expecting to find their ground overrun with noxious weeds, they marvelled instead at the blessed God-given fecundity that was everywhere: "instead of the thorn the fir tree, and instead of the briar the myrtle tree...all the trees of the field shall clap their hands." It was a sure sign — the very sign promised (37:30) — that no adversity could cut off. It was sure as God Himself (v.12,13) — nothing but gladness everywhere.

 

A Sign of Greater things

 

Yet how insistent the prophet is that merely to see this wondrous turn of fortune as a token that God was with them (even if they were humble enough to recognize that it was all for the sake of their pious king!) was to miss the main lesson which shouted to them from this unique experience: "It shall be to the Lord...for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off" (v.13) — "I have given him (king Hezekiah) for a witness to the people" (v.4). In other words, those who revelled in the present goodness of God must see it all as foreshadowing a yet greater redemption which Jehovah promised to provide. Hezekiah, good man that he was, was only a Messiah in miniature. One day, Immanuel himself!

 

With what appropriateness, then, is it possible to trace in the opening verses of this prophecy a remarkable insistence on the basic principles of the gospel of salvation. Even when set down as a bare catalogue they are impressive.

 


* The LXX phrase here is beautifully turned to hint at this.

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Basic Gospel Truth

  1. The message is for those who thirst and know they have no other means of satisfying that thirst (v.1).
  2. It is an offer open to "every one" (v.1). Gentiles are included along with the chosen people (v.5)
  3. There is no price to be paid. The price has been paid already (v.1).
  4. indeed, a necessary condition is that a man recognizes that he hasn't the wherewithal to pay — "he that hath no money" (v.1).
  5. In fact, the only payment to be made is a ready acceptance of blessing freely given: "Come ye" (v.1). A man must "hearken...and eat" (v.2)— that is all.
  6. The basics of subsistence are offered — bread and water*. But these miraculously transform into the wine and fatness of the Messianic feast (v.1; Is. 25:6).
  7. These blessings are not to be gained by one's own efforts — "spending money...and labour" (v.2)
  8. Indeed works of personal righteousness buy that which is "not bread".
  9. A man must pin his faith in "the sure mercies of David" (v.3) — the ancient promise of 2 Sam. 7 now made into a New Covenant "for the remission of sins" — mercies! (cp. the parallelism in v.7cd). "I will make with you..." are the very words of Jesus (apart from a suitable change of tense) at the Last Supper: "I appoint unto you a kingdom" (Lk. 22:29) — the kingdom of his father David.
  10. "Hear, and your soul shall live" (v.3) fairly plainly implies that except you hear, your soul shall die. But now there is "the blood of the everlasting covenant" (v.3; Heb. 13:20).

These items constitute the bare bones of the first three verses. There are plenty of other ideas to be explored here.

 

Jesus used this prophecy

 

The opening interjection presents a difficulty, for in all its 48 occurrences except perhaps three (and those doubtful: 18:1; Zech. 2:6,7), its meaning is very plain: "Woe". Then is the intention to emphasize the woe of those who thirst but do not "come to the waters"? What a contrast with the Lord's "Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness" (Mt. 5:6).

 

The triple "Come ye" (v.1) is matched by a like insistence in the NT. After the feeding of the 5000, Jesus bade the multitude that they be "all taught of God" (Jn. 6:45, quoting Is. 54:13). He went on: "Every man therefore that hath heard (55:2,3) and learned of the Father, cometh unto me" (Jn. 6:45) — it is as though his thought ran on into Isaiah 55. Similarly, his assurance that "if any man eat of this bread he shall live for ever" (Jn. 6:51) says the same as Isaiah's "eat that which is good...hear, and your soul shall live" (v.2,3).**

 

There can be little doubt that at his next visit to Jerusalem, the Lord's Feast of Tabernacles appeal in the temple court was designed to send men back to Isaiah 55 and 43. It was the great day of the feast, when the impressive water-pouring ceremony was discontinued. That day Jesus staged a great open-air meeting in the temple court. He "stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me (this is Is. 55:1, without question); and he that believeth on me, let him drink — as the Scripture hath said (about the smitten rock which the water-pouring ceremony commemorated), Out of his belly (i.e. from the Messiah) shall flow rivers of living water" (Jn. 7:37,38; 19:34).

 


* A re-pointing and re-translation is necessary here: "Come ye to the wafers...break (bread) and eat...buy wine and fatness.."

** lt is also worth considering whether "hearken diligently unto me...hear, and your soul shall live" (v.2,3) is to be equated with "He that believeth on me hath everlasting life" (Jn. 6:47)

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Since, as John comments (v.39), these enigmatic words foretold an out-pouring of the Spirit when Jesus was "glorified" (this is Isaiah 55:5), it may be taken as certain that another Isaiah passage should come in here: "I will pour waters upon him that is thirsty...I will pour my spirit upon thy seed..." (44:3).

 

But Isaiah 55 was the Lord's main text, especially its exhortation to "seek the Lord, while he may be found" (v.6). This word "seek" runs right through John's narrative of what happened that day (Jn. 7:11,18 twice, 19,20,25,30,34,36). Several of these places are doubtless allusions to Malachi's familiar word: "The Lord whom ye seek (sarcasm!) shall suddenly come to his temple" (Mal. 3:1; note Jn. 7:11,14,27,33). But in at least one place Jesus steered attention back to Isaiah 55:6: "Ye shall seek me, and shall not find me" (v.34). Very evidently this is: "Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near."

 

And it may be that his allusion was recognized by his adversaries, for their response was: "Will he go unto the dispersed among the Gentiles, and teach the Gentiles?" (Jn. 7:35) — which echoes Isaiah: "Thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest not" (55:5). And the continuing puzzlement of these critics — "What manner of saying is this that he said...?" (Jn. 7:36) — splendidly illustrates the truth: "My thoughts are not your thoughts...as the heavens are higher than the earth..." (55:8,9)*

 

A remarkable corollary of this use of the prophecy is that in his preaching Jesus had no qualms about applying to himself a scripture which is explicitly about Jehovah** A good theology gives a welcome to this use of the Divine name with reference to the Son of God.

 

The intense earnestness of the appeal to "hearken diligently unto me...incline your ear, and come" (v.2,3) contrasts strangely with the ruthlessness of Isaiah's earlier words: "Make their ears heavy...lest they hear with their ears...and convert, and be healed" (6:10).

 

But the reference of the words is different. Israel found itself shut out from the grace of God because it wanted that door shut (Jn. 12:37-41). But the New Israel, eager to "see Jesus" (12:21), are given all encouragement.

 

The Great Promise to David

 

For these there is a New Covenant, better than Sinai's, and embracing the promises made to Abraham (54:1-6) and to David (55:3). The time came when the old covenant was "ready to vanish away." The new is "an everlasting covenant, even the sure mercies of David" (v.3).

 

This mention of the great promise made to David is the very hub of this prophecy. All the key words look back to 2 Samuel 7 and Psalm 89. "My mercy shall not depart from him...thy kingdom shall be established (made sure) for ever (2 Sam. 7:15,16)...ruler (leader) over my people (v.8)...made thee a great name (v.9)...for thy word's sake (v.21)." All these expressions are echoed in Isaiah 55. And Psalm 89's constant harping on "mercy and faithfulness (s.w. sure)" is tremendously emphatic (v.1,2,5,8,14,24,28,33,37,49), as also are its other even more pointed quotations from 2 Sam. 7 (see v.3,4,20,21,24-37). It is easy to see why David's Messianic promise should be called "sure mercies”.

 

Here (as in the parallelism of verse 7) "mercy" means forgiveness***; and since God has confirmed the promise with an oath (Ps. 110:4), then in all human history there is nothing more certain. "Two immutable things"; (Heb. 6:13-20).

 

It makes an interesting enquiry why Paul, in his preaching at Antioch, should use this scripture about "the sure mercies of David" as a prophetic evidence that God "raised up Jesus from the dead, now no more to return to corruption" (Acts 13:34). The connection, most probably, is via the repeated phrase: "for ever", in the promise of 2 Samuel 7:13,16. Except there be an eternal king, exalted above all the weaknesses of mortality, how could these words ever have meaning? And "sure mercies" prepared the way splendidly for Paul's climax: "Through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins" (v.38).

 


* ls it also worth mentioning that booths of fir (cypress) and myrtle (55:13) would be specially in evidence at this Feast of Tabernacles.

** Cp. Is. 45:23,24, me, him = Phil. 2:11; Is. 8:13 = 1 Pet. 3:15; Joel 2:32 = Acts 2:21,36; Zech. 12:10; Jer. 23:6; Heb. 1:4,6,8; and many more.

*** This is normal O.T. usage (e.g. Ex.34:7; Num. 14:18; Ps. 25:7; and many more). It would seem logical, therefore, to find this idea in the promise of 2 Sam. But where? — in v.14, which could possibly be read with reference to the sacrifice of Christ ("stripes"; s.w. Is. 53:5), although Ps. 89:32 suggests differently?

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Two Speakers

 

Before going further it is useful to sort out the speakers in this prophecy. In this the pronouns and the NT. allusions are big helps:

 

v.1-3 Messiah's appeal.

v.4 God proclaims him to the nation.

v.5 God now speaks directly to Messiah.

v.6-13 Messiah's appeal is renewed.

A Faithful Witness

 

"Behold, I (Jehovah) have given (or appointed) him a witness to the people" (v.4). In his "good confession" before Pilate, the Lord Jesus built on these words. "Art thou a king then?" asked Pilate, torn between personal inclination and duty to Caesar. To this enquiry, he received a plain "Yes" — "Thou sayest I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the (Jewish) world (during the past 31/2 years' ministry) — not to be a king but — that I should bear witness to this truth (that I am God's appointed Messiah)". Pilate recognized that "truth" was now being used as a technical term outside his ken. "What is (this) 'truth'?" he kept on asking, and doubtless got an explanation which satisfied him that there was no present threat to Caesar's authority. "Truth", like "mercy", is constantly associated with God's covenants of promise*.

 

Again making use of Isaiah, the Lord Jesus repeated the claim:



Revelation 1:5


Isaiah 55:3,4

1.

The faithful witness

1.

Sure (faithful) mercies...




A witness to the people.

2.

The first begotten from the dead.

2.

An everlasting covenant.

3.

The prince of the kings of the earth.

3.

A prince (LXX s.w.) and




commander to the Gentiles.

 

Here the sequence is chronological. First came the Lord's witness concerning his own status and destiny; then, his death as a covenant victim and his resurrection; and in due time, when he comes in Shekinah clouds (Rev. 1:7), his royal dignity.

 

Gentiles

 

If chronological sequence is still insisted on, then the Almighty's promise that the Messiah shall call and shall be sought by the Gentiles (Heb. goi) must refer to the diffusion of his influence and authority from Jerusalem when he sits on "the throne of his father David" (Lk. 1:32).

 

The great promise in 2 Samuel 7 has no mention of Gentiles, but this is more than made up for by the next chapter which details in impressive fashion the extension of David's dominion over one Gentile people after another. Thus Messiah's kingdom was foreshadowed.

 

David knew that his experience was to be interpreted in this way, and being a prophet (Acts 2:30) he wrote about the Messiah by writing about himself. "Thou hast made me the head of the Gentiles: a people whom I have not known shall serve me. As soon as they hear of me, they shall obey me" (Ps. 18:43,44).

 

Then, and not till then, shall "many run** to and fro, and knowledge (of God) be in­creased" (Dan. 12:4).

 


* Examples: Gen. 32:10; Ps. 132:11; Mic. 7:20; Is. 16:5 etc. etc.

** Cp the use of this idiom in Jer. 23:21; Hab. 2:2; Ez. 14,21; 2 Thess. 3:1; Am. 8:12; 1 Kgs. 18:46; Ps. 147:15; Gal. 2:2.

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55 (2). "Seek ye the Lord" (v.6 -13)

 

The welcoming call: "Ho, everyone that thirsteth..." (v.1) is now repeated in more specific fashion: "Seek ye the Lord while he may be found." The plain implication behind these words is that such opportunity is not prolonged indefinitely, neither for the world blithely turning its back on God, nor for the individual who halts between two opinions. If a man would find God, he must bestir himself to seek. And when the truth of God's salvation is seen for what it is, personal decision becomes another 'must'. The switherer does not command God's admiration. When certain half-disciples said: "Lord, suffer me first to...Lord, I will follow thee; but let me first..." (Lk. 9:59-62), Jesus had blunt things to say about "looking back"; he knew that such men need a good shove in the right direction: "Go thou, and preach the kingdom of God."

 

But did Isaiah need to speak with such urgency? Did not his own words say the opposite?: "They seek me daily, and delight to know my ways" (58:2). But, alas, one does not have to read much further to recognize that these words are stiff with scorn and sarcasm, such as the contemporaries of Jesus needed in later days. And the present generation also? In the religious life this is one of the greatest perils — going through the motions, and kidding oneself that God has been both sought and found.

 

"But if from thence (dispersion, captivity), thou shalt seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul" (Dt. 4:29). But even when He is near, He must be sought, says Isaiah. "What nation...hath God so nigh unto them, as the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon him for?" (4:7; Isaiah alludes to this).

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Paul used Isaiah in Athens

 

But these Scriptures, primarily for Israel's benefit, were capable of being turned to account when taking God's appeal to unenlightened Gentiles. It has often been said that on Mars Hill Paul tried to turn the gospel into philosophy in order to impress the philosophers, and failed for that reason. A careful comparison of Acts 17 and Isaiah 55 soon establishes that then, as on all other occasions, Paul was building on Holy Scripture.



Acts 17


Isaiah 55

23.

The unknown God.

5.

Nations that knew thee not.



8.

My thoughts are not your thoughts.

27.

That they should seek the Lord.

6.

Seek ye the Lord.

27.

If haply they might feel after Him,

6.

While He may be found.


and find Him.



27.

Though he be not far from every

6.

While He is near.


one of us.



30.

God now commandeth

7.

Let the wicked forsake his way.


all men everywhere to repent.



24.

Lord of heaven and earth.

9.

As the heavens are higher than




the earth.

31.

He will judge the world in

4.

I have given (appointed) him


righteousness by that man whom


for...a leader and commander of


He hath ordained.


the people.
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Here the undeniable link between verse 6 and Acts 17:27 ensures that the other parallels are not forced or imagined. But on that great occasion Paul also made impressive use of Isaiah 45:



Acts 17


Isaiah 45

23.

The unknown God.

15.

Thou art a God that hidest thyself.

23.

Him declare I.

6.

hat they may know from the rising of




the sun, and from the west.

24.

Lord of heaven and earth.

12.

I have made the earth...my hands




have stretched out the heavens.

25.

As though he needed anything.

13.

Not for price nor for reward.

26.

Made of one all nations.

14.

Egypt...Ethiopia...Sabeans.

26.

Times before appointed.

21.

Who hath declared this from




ancient time?

26.

The bounds of their habitation.

18.

He formed it to be inhabited.

27.

Seek after the Lord.

19.

I said not...Seek ye me in vain.

28.

His offspring.

11.

Ask me...concerning my sons, and




concerning the work of my hands...

29.

The Godhead not like unto silver

20.

They have no knowledge that set up


or gold — and:


their graven image.

30.

This ignorance.



31.

Judge the world in righteousness.

23.

The Word is gone out of my mouth




in righteousness.

18, 21

Philosophy.

9, 10

Philosophy condemned.

 

Paul was quick to see that the message of Isaiah to an Israel much infected with the paganism of their neighbours would not be without its relevance to an Athens full of altars and temples.

 

Therefore "let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord," especially since there is also the emphatic promise that "the Redeemer shall come to Zion and unto them that turn from trans­gression in Jacob" (59:20).

 

But such a repentance will never get off the ground unless it begin in the right place — with a man's "thoughts", literally: "weavings", that pattern of subtle com­plexity which a man spins in his own mind. In their place, let there be the holy pattern as of the cherubim of glory woven into the fabric of the curtain in the Holy of Holies. But that was the workmanship of one "in whom the Spirit of God was." Without this aid, there is failure from the start, for "My thoughts are not your thoughts. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My thoughts higher than your thoughts."

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Psalms and Ecclesiastes

 

Here Isaiah was quoting from one of his favourite psalms of David (103:11; note there also v.5,12,15,16). And the equation of the two shows that he contemplates God's "thoughts" which mean forgiveness for men: "so great is his mercy towards them that fear him" — "he will have mercy upon him...he will abundantly pardon" (55:7).

 

The theme modifies easily, almost imperceptibly, from God's "thoughts" and God's "mercy" to His Word sent forth to make men aware of an undeserved loving­kindness and to condition them for receiving it. For a thirsty country like Palestine, the figure could not be more lovely: "as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth...so shall my word be" (v.10,11).

 

But of course Isaiah had read his Ecclesiastes. He knew that the rain and the snow do return into the sky to fall yet again with renewed beneficence: "All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again" (Ecc. 1:7).

 

So Isaiah's meaning must be: "returneth not thither until its work is done." Indeed, this is implicit in what follows: "it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please." God's rain "watereth the earth," even though there are only "the thorn" and "the briar" (v.13) to be seen as a result. He sends His rain on the just and on the unjust. His Word goes forth and there is no failure — it accomplishes that which God has delight in; but the impatient watchman of the Lord may often go long disappointed, because of his impatience.

 

Just as most of God's good rain seems to go to waste, so also it may often appear to be with His Word. But not so, for, whatever else, it supplies "seed to the sower, and bread to the eater." Paul picked up these words with reference to the generosity of Gentile believers in sending cash to Judaea to help their hard-pressed brethren there (2 Cor. 9:10 RV). But it is not easy to see just how he intended this pithy saying to be read.

 

Perhaps he meant: The Word of God has so worked in you Corinthians that it has moved you to superb generosity to your Jewish brethren, and thus you have pro­vided me, Paul the sower, with yet more seed, for when I quote your fine example it will stir others to like activity; this will be in addition to there being "bread for food (to the eater)", a most practical help and solace to poverty-stricken brethren in the Holy Land.

 

It has already been surmised that Isaiah knew his Ecclesiastes. Confirmation for this comes from a comparison with Ecc. 11:1-6. The verbal links seem undeniable — there is a mention of rain, sowing seed, reaping, bread, "the works of God who doeth all", and "thou knowest not (55:8) whether shall prosper (55:11)." And, like Isaiah's message here, the Ecclesiastes passage seems to make most sense when read as a figurative homily about how, when, and where to proclaim God's Word.

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God's good rain

 

The figure goes much further back to the prophecy of Moses who described his own inspired utterance thus: "My doctrine shall drop as the rain...as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass" (Dt. 32:2). But the idea is at its best in Isaiah: "Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness: let the earth open*, and let them bring forth salvation, and let righteousness spring up together; I the Lord have created it...the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, that unto Me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear" (45:8,23). What a contrast with the message of Jeremiah when God's patience with Israel had given out: "Is not my word like as a fire...and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?" (23:29). Different times and different people call for different methods.

 

Sooner or later the heavenly "rain" really accomplishes that for which it is sent, so that mountains and hills rejoice, and all the trees — fir and myrtle instead of thorn and briar — join in the glad response to God; "and he (the promised leader and commander: v.4) shall be to the Lord for a Name" — for a final fulfilment of all that the Name Jehovah has intended and foretold.

 

Joy and Fruitfulness

 

When young king Joash, who had been kept for years in the secrecy of the sanctuary of the Lord, was brought out to the people, all the people clapped their hands and shouted: "God save the king." Then what response when the Messiah comes forth from the Presence of God and is presented to his people in Jerusalem? — the trees of the field, nurtured to full growth by his "rain", will clap their hands.

 

The thorns which the curse in Eden made inevitable (Gen. 3:18) are gone, for the curse itself is taken away. The curse of rank unproductive wildness denounced upon Israel — "all the land shall become briars and thorns" (Is. 7:24) — will be supplanted by the balmy fruitfulness of a Year of Jubilee. And the people who are "briars and thorns" — "the sons of Belial who cannot be taken with (any human) hand" (2 Sam. 23:6) and also those who "crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh" (Heb. 6:6) — will be "rejected and nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned" (Heb. 6:8).

 

But Isaiah does not dwell on that, for he has so many good things to say. It may even be his intention to declare a miraculous transformation of species from briars and thorns to graceful fir and myrtle. After all, is not that what the gracious rain of God's Word is intended to do?

 

All this blessedness centres in the Messiah himself. He who was "cut off out of the land of the living" (53:8; Dan. 9:26) is now "an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off," one who imparts a like blessing to those who deem themselves without fruitfulness, "a dry tree" — "I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off" (56:3,5) — LXX: "it shall not fail."

 

 


* Double meaning — the lush Spring growth, and the resurrection of Jesus in the Spring of the year (note 40:8: "the Word of your God shall rise up.")

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56 (1). Eunuchs and Strangers (v.1-8)

 

The eloquent appeal: "Seek ye the Lord" (55:6), is now renewed, but this time in terms more comprehensive than men of Israel would have thought possible. Now a gracious acceptance is offered not only to those Gentiles who chose to be lifelong "hewers of wood and drawers of water" in the sanctuary of the Lord, but also to those whom the explicit precept of the law totally disqualified from access to God. Indeed, the net is now cast even wider than that. "Mine house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples" (v.7).

 

And the terms upon which all such shall now reckon as God's true people are these: "Keep ye judgment and do justice...Blessed is the man that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it, and keepeth his hand from doing any evil...they that choose the things that please me, and take hold of my covenant..." (v.1,2,4).

 

Contemporary

 

In Isaiah's own day, all this meant the renewal, with increased impetus, of the great reformation king Hezekiah had set in train. Those in the nation who scorned his earnest appeal for a return to godliness (2 Chr. 30:10) had thus qualified for the status of eunuchs and outsiders. But instead — so well did Hezekiah understand through his prophet the principles of the gospel — even those who hitherto were kept at arm's length now found themselves received with all the graciousnesss of God.

 

Amongst these was "the son of the stranger, that had joined (Levi-ed) himself to the Lord" (v.3). From the days of Baal-peor and the Gibeonites (Num. 31:47; Josh. 9:27) Gentiles coming under the domination of Israel had been dedicated to the service of the House of the Lord, taking on the more menial tasks and leaving Levites free for higher service. Originally the idea had been that in such an environ­ment their debased idolatrous notions would atrophy and become harmless. More than this, such Gentiles would have unique opportunities to know the glory of the God of Israel and to learn His Law. Thus it came about that many of these Nethinim (men given or appointed to God's service) became more zealous to serve the Lord than the Israelites who should have been their mentors. The list of these Nethinim who gladly left the comforts of life in Babylon in order to rough it re-establishing the worship of Jehovah in Jerusalem, is most impressive (Ezra 2:43-58).

 

There are indications that in Hezekiah's time the temple staff of such Nethinim was augmented by the capture of Assyrian and Egyptian* prisoners, and also by the gifts of slaves which neighbouring countries sent to Hezekiah after the Assyrian overthrow (14:1,2,3; 45:14; 18:7; 2 Chr. 32:23; Ps. 76:11)**

 

It was probably to this deliverance and its ensuing blessings that Isaiah alluded: "My salvation is near to come, and my righteousness to be revealed...The Lord which gathereth the outcasts of Israel saith, Yet will I gather others to him..." (v.1,8).

 

The multitude of Jewish captives Sennacherib had sent off to Babylon soon came back again, and besides them were these others, Gentiles, now dedicated to the work of God.

 

Once again the modernist interpretation staggers badly, for in the time of Cyrus (a) there was no temple — for some years it was only in prospect; (b) in the days of Ezra there was no special salvation of God "near to come;" (c.) the Lord did not "gather others to him" — the period of Ezra and Nehemiah was marked by rigorous exclusiveness.

 

On the other hand, it is easy to see how the burning zeal of Hezekiah, which had already thrust aside punctilios of legalism at the time of his great Passover***, would readily find room in the service of Jehovah for strangers and eunuchs.

 

The deliberate joining together of the names of Hephzibah and Hezekiah in this context ("choose the things that please me, and that take hold of my covenant"; v.4) might suggest that the king's wife was a Gentile, and hence the happy emphasis here on "strangers" and "all peoples"; cp. Ps. 45:10,12.

 

 


* Already taken by the Assyrians at El-tekeh and captured from them by the men of Israel.

** Hebraists will see point in "joined" (v.3,6) being in Niphal.

*** A four-fold infringement of what the Law commanded (see 2 Chr. 29:34; 30:15,17,18-20,23) was more than covered by the intercession of this large-hearted king.

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Jesus and Paul interpret

 

However, fascinating though it may be to work out the relevance of these prophetic words to those ancient days, the fuller and more worthwhile exposition turns from Hezekiah to Christ. There is the Lord's own authority for this — and also Paul's.

 

"My salvation is near to come, and my righteousness to be revealed" (v.1). There can be little doubt that Paul had his eye on these words when he wrote about the gospel as "the power of God unto salvation...for therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek" (Rom. 1:16,17).

 

But in that case where is Isaiah's equivalent to "from faith to faith," i.e. on the basis of faith (and not works) to the man who shows faith? The next verse continues: "Blessed is the man...that layeth hold on it (my covenant; v.6); that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it" (v.2). The sabbath declared a man's faith in God as the Creator (Ex. 20:11) and Redeemer (Dt. 5:15) and Sanctifier (Ex. 31:13). And God's covenant means believing the Promises to the fathers, they enshrine His "salvation" which was "near to come" when Jesus went out proclaiming that "the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Mt. 3:2; 4:17; Lk. 10:11).

 

The Nethinim commended by Isaiah and drawn to the Lord did the most menial tasks in His House — "Blessed is the man that doeth this" (v.2). And at the Last Supper, Jesus became a "drawer of water" for the washing of his disciples' feet*, concluding that acted parable with Isaiah's words: "If ye know (discern) these things, blessed are ye if ye do them" (Jn. 13:17).

 

The Ethiopian Eunuch

 

But in the hearts of strangers and eunuchs were misgivings that they would find themselves excluded from divine privilege. Did not the Law of Moses shut them out of Israel? (Dt. 23:3)? Eunuchs were given no hope whatever of acceptance. Here was the point of the Ethiopian eunuch's appeal to Philip: "See, water! does anything hinder me to be baptized (as my disability has hindered my offering of sacrifice in the temple)?" (Acts 8:36). But now, no hindrance, for the gospel is "on the basis of faith only, to the man who manifests faith." So, making his confession: "I believe...", he was baptized and went thence on his way reading on in his copy of Isaiah about eunuchs accepted in the sanctuary of the Lord, and...rejoicing — as Isaiah had foretold: "I will make them joyful in my (spiritual) house of prayer" (v.7). What a contrast with the disappointments experienced in Jerusalem's temple of burnt offer­ings and sacrifices!

 

This is what the gospel can do for any man estranged from God, no matter how he may lament: "Behold, I am a dry tree" (v.3). With new life in Christ, God "has made the dry tree to flourish" (Ez. 17:24) and to be "like a green olive tree in the house of God" (Ps. 52:8). And at the same time unfruitful Israel has dried up from the roots (Mk. 11:20: note v.17).

 

But "eunuchs" — the spiritually deprived, who all in vain seem to hunger and thirst for righteousness — these who "take hold of my covenant; even to them will I give** a hand (Heb.) (i.e. a monument, like that of childless Absalom; 2 Sam. 18:18 s.w.) and a name better than that of sons and daughters...an everlasting name that shall not be cut off" (v.5). Here was an implicit promise of resurrection.

 


* And this in a context often reminiscent of the consecration of the priests (Lev. 8); consider details in Jn. 13:3,4,7,8,9,10. See “Gospels”, ch. 185.

** "Give" alludes to their name Nethinim, "those given or appointed to temple service".

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Strangers made nigh

 

Likewise "the sons of the stranger*" "called uncircumcision...aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise...are made nigh by the blood of Christ", writes Paul (Eph. 2:11-13), who goes on immediately to tell how such "strangers and foreigners" may joyfully serve the God of Israel in a new kind of temple.

 

They do this by "choosing the things that please me" (v.4). But inasmuch as "it pleased the Lord to bruise him", His Suffering Servant (53:10), they "are made nigh by the blood of Christ." Nor is Jeremiah at variance with his fellow-prophet when he exhorts: "Let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth for in these things I delight (s.w.)" (9:24), for these gracious works of God involve forgiveness of sins and the new life in Christ. The message is the same.

 

Symbolism in Christ's ministry

 

All this Jesus foreshadowed in his ministry when he cleared out of the temple all the crude abuses the rulers had encouraged. More than this, "he cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple." But the only people who bought in that sacred place were the pious worshippers, purchasing animals for sacrifice. These too come under the ban of the Man of Nazareth. Now, in the last week of his ministry, he was declaring an end to animal sacrifices!

 

But "the blind and the lame (typical of spiritually stricken Gentiles) came to him in the temple, and he healed them" (Mt. 21:14). Never was acted parable more eloquent.

 

But Jesus put even more point to it with his quote from Isaiah: "Mine house shall be Called an house of prayer for all the peoples" (v.7).

 

Gentiles called

 

This last phrase is the normal expression, exceedingly common right through the OT., for the tribes of Israel. So primarily these words express the great ambition of godly Hezekiah to weld the northern and southern kingdoms into a spiritual unity.

 

But evidently the Septuagint translators looked hard at the context, especially verse 6, and decided that the scope of the prophecy was far wider than that. Accordingly they used the expression which usually served to designate Gentile nations; and it was in this form that Jesus quoted it. Did he mean to imply that Jews would become Gentiles, and pious Gentiles Jews? There are many hints in this part of the gospels that in the last few weeks of his ministry the Lord found a good deal of solace from the bitter disappointment of Israel's indifference, by contemplating the day when his gospel would call multitudes of Gentiles to worship in the new temple of the Lord.

 

"Other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and they shall become one flock, one shepherd" (Jn. 10:16 RV). Even the prophet Caiaphas declared "that Jesus should die for the nation (the Gentile word again!)...but that also he should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad" (Jn. 11:51,52).

 

"From the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same (from far east to far west) my name shall be great among the Gentiles" (Mal. 1:11). "The Lord God which gathereth the outcasts of Israel saith, Yet will I gather others to him, beside those that are gathered unto him" (v.8). The words seem to hold a wondrous promise of yet more ingathering — at some future time, more Jews and yet more Gentiles. Lord, speed the day!

 


* The New Testament uses this LXX word only once—of the Samaritan leper (Lk. 17:18), a man doubly excluded from fellowship.

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56 (2). Watchmen, Shepherds, Dogs (v.9-12)

 

There are few more dramatic changes in Isaiah's prophecy than that which takes place at 56:9. Theme and tone are all at once drastically different. The prophet switches from his warm encouraging apostrophe welcoming outsiders to the House of the Lord, and with eloquent sadness and anger he exposes the apostate spirit which, in spite of all his hard work and the inspiring lead given by Hezekiah, still characterized most of his nation.

 

Late Isaiah?

 

Again the modernists, with their theories about a Captivity "Isaiah", or a post-Captivity "Isaiah", find themselves with their backs to the wall, only to suffer summary execution!

Without labouring the issue, the following points may be made briefly:

  1. There is here a picture of utter corruption of priests and prophets (56:9-12) which has nothing to match it in the time of Cyrus or the years following.
     
  2. The vivid withering censure of wholesale indulgence in the old Canaanitish cults (57:1-13), with their encouragement of wholesale sexual promiscuity, can be made to refer to no period after the time of Zedekiah. As a description of the hangover from the evil days of Ahaz, every detail fits. The pointed allusion to Moloch-worship (king, Melech=Moloch; 57:9; 2 Kgs. 16:3) demands a pre-Captivity reference.
     
  3. Jeremiah 12:9 is an unmistakable quotation from Isaiah 56:9. (The quotes from Isaiah in Jer. 10,11 forbid a reversal of the argument!) The words were again splendidly appropriate in his day, but not later.
     
  4. Who is "the righteous man" (57:1) who is perishing as this prophecy is written? Here the modernist gropes helplessly and unhelpfully. But reference to Hezekiah fits the context perfectly.

Isaiah's own time

 

This approach is valid for the entire section (56:9 - 57:13). The call to beasts of the field to devour is a fitting figure for God's use of heathen nations as His instruments of judgment against His people (cp. 5:29; 7:18; 31:4). It was the fulfil­ment of a curse God had threatened: "I will send wild beasts among you" (Lev. 26:22).

 

The watchmen — blind, ignorant, dumb, slumbering, drunken (v.9-12) — are the religious leaders who found it pleasanter to go with the tide of apostasy rather than to seek dutifully to arrest it.

 

So, because of this, there was Assyrian "evil to come" (57:1), and it looked as though nothing could save the righteous king who, bearing the iniquity of his people, was incurable and perishing — a broken-hearted man who had done his best and apparently failed. The natural perversity of the people asserted itself, and instead of a Day of Atonement or a Feast of the Lord there was an orgy of pagan debauchery. As in the later days of Josiah, reformation had gone only skin-deep. The basic character of the nation was not changed by having a king who found his chiefest joy in an unquenchable devotion to the praise of Jehovah.

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N.T. Allusions

 

But it is when, with the help of the NT., one turns to the corrupt days of the first century A.D. (and the twentieth) that the vigour of this prophecy makes its impression.

 

As decay made its mark in the life of the early church, these words of Isaiah took on a new and solemn meaning. Foreseeing this, indeed knowing the evil to be already at work, Paul warned the "watchmen" against the inroads of "grievous wolves not sparing the flock" (Acts 20:29-31). Those who should be shepherds (ro'im; v.11) or seers (ra'im) turned out to be ra'im, bad men! "They all look to their own way" — here are the familiar words: "We have turned every one to his own way" (53:6 s.w.).

 

The greed and money-making of the temple (Mk. 11:15) came into the ecclesia also: "every one for his gain," in the spirit of "the hireling whose own the sheep are not" (Jn. 10:13).

 

In both his epistles Peter seems to imply the special relevance of this Isaiah passage. He warned Gentile converts against the pernicious allurements of the old life "when you walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine...and abominable idolatries" (1 Pet. 4:3). Instead of these, "watch unto prayer" (v.7). Instead of "turn­ing every one to his own way," let there be a "returning to the shepherd and watch­dog of your souls" (2:25). The phrases do not quote Isaiah, but are very like his language.

 

And Jude, so ready to follow Peter's lead, makes pungent double allusion to Isaiah:



Isaiah 56


Jude

10.

sleeping, lying down.

8.

Dreamers, defiling the flesh*.

11.

Greedy dogs which can never

12.

RV: Shepherds that without fear


have enough; these are


feed themselves.


shepherds...


 

The warning given by the Lord Jesus himself of coming evils was necessary then and again in the end of this age. "Eating and drinking with the drunken" was his parabolic phrase (Mt.24:49) — in Isaiah: "Come ye, I will fetch wine, and we will fill ourselves with strong drink; and tomorrow shall be as this day" (v.12). What is this but Peter's warning about men who blithely assume that "all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation" (2 Pet. 3:4).

 

So, just as in so many other places the messages of the prophets find their most striking fulfilments in the end of the Jewish age and the coming of the Lord, so also the Scripture warns against spiritual decay, cynicism, and self-indulgence among God's people. Then, it warned in vain. Does it sound forth today just as ineffectually?

 

 


* The correspondence here with Isaiah (LXX) is much closer than might appear. The leading words are identical; and Jude's "defiling the flesh" interprets the other phrase admirably.

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57 (1). "Their whorish idolatry" (v.1-13a)

 

The heading of this chapter is not taken from the text of Isaiah 57 but from the standard summary at the head of the AV text (some of these are quite masterly). This paragraph of the prophecy is so obviously about Israel's "whorish idolatry" as to make it one of the most straightforward Isaiah wrote. And yet, by a strange paradox, it is also one of the most difficult, for it abounds in obscure phraseology, double meanings and euphemisms. It seems very likely that Isaiah was harnessing the slang of his time to the invective of the Word of the Lord, employing phrases which were luminous in his day but which, like the fashionable jargon of two centuries ago, have now lost their shine. The commentators, usually preferring a few slick emendations rather than making confession that they are groping in the dark, here seem more ready than usual to admit defeat.

 

Once again the modernists are "up against it" in more ways than one, for verses 3-9 so obviously have no relevance to the end of the Babylonian captivity, or later, that they see their cherished Second (and Third) Isaiah dogma in rough water. Wade, for instance, admits that "the nature of the charge made seems incompatible with an exilic date", and yet somehow manages to have a post-exilic prophet writing as though with the standpoint of a contemporary of Isaiah. Such artificiality!

 

The opening verses, with their strange oscillation between singular and plural, are somewhat mystifying until the aba,aba formation is recognized. The "righteous man" who is perishing is king Hezekiah, who was told: "set thine house in order: for thou shalt die, and not live" (38:1). He is being "taken away because of* wickedness," the sin of the nation; the Lord laid upon him "the iniquity of us all" (as in 53:6). Yet here there is also a prophecy of recovery: "he shall enter into peace...walking in his uprightness" (v.2).

 

At that very time there was anguish of soul among Hezekiah's contemporaries, besieged by the Assyrians in Jerusalem: "The sinners in Zion are afraid...who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire (of the Glory of the Lord)...He that walketh righteously and speaketh uprightly, (cp. Ps. 15:2)...Thine eyes shall see the king in his beauty" (33:14,15,17).

 

For all his burning enthusiasm, Hezekiah had not been able to carry more than a fraction of the nation with him: "The godly man is perished out of the land: and there is none upright among men" (Mic. 7:2).

 


* Cp. the Hebrew in Dt. 28:20; Jer. 4:2; 7:12; Hos. 10:15. Yet 2 Kgs 22:20 seems to imply that the prophetess Huldah, faced with double meaning in this passage, read it the other way.

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Israel at its worst

 

So, in high indignation, Isaiah turns on those who took the name of Jehovah on their lips but yet gave themselves to evil, indulging in the worst excesses of the native Canaanite religions which had lingered on through many generations because the austere precepts of Deuteronomy (e.g. 20:16-18) had gone neglected.

 

There is no more excoriating exposure of evil to be found in this long prophecy than the explosion in these ten verses. The gist of their meaning is not to be missed by the most inexperienced reader. But the precise point of some phrases eludes the insight of scores of commentators.

 

The opening words set the tone: "ye sons of the sorceress, seed of the adulterer* and the whore" (v.3). The references to sorcery and whoredom may be intended to recall Jezebel, priestess of the Phoenician Baal, who died enquiring scornfully: "Is it peace?" The prophet's answer here is: "There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked" (v.21).

 

The mention of "a wide mouth" and "drawing out the tongue" may be a further allusion to this evil woman who spoke against Jehovah and His prophet with an almost admirable self-confidence. But more likely it is a caustic euphemism for the vile practices** now pictured in Isaiah's cartoon, for that scornful enquiry: "Against whom (al-mi) do you sport, or indulge yourselves?" seems to call for answer with almah, a virgin!

 

Double meanings of this sort come thick and fast in this purple passage***. The prophets of God knew how to use this weapon in savage satire long before low-grade BBC comedians turned it into cheap jokes to get a crude belly laugh from lascivious audiences. But these "children of transgression (i.e. born wicked), seed of falsehood (the serpent's own progeny)" (v,4) deserved all the bitter attacks and withering exposures Isaiah could make.

 

There was no sexual indulgence or perversion which these people of Israel had not taken over from Canaanites and Phoenicians. Macalister's excavations at Gezer opened the eyes of the archaeologists to the corruption which went by the name of religion there. And children were slain in sacrifice (v.5) — the "family planning" and abortion of those days! — and were passed through the fire to "horrid Moloch" the king (v.9)****

 

The indulgence to which this people gave themselves seemed without limit — under "holy" trees (v.5), in the clefts of the rocks (v.5), in high places on the hill tops (v.7), as well as behind closed doors (v.8), which according to Jewish custom should have carried reminders of consecration to the Lord (Dt. 6:9).

 

Doors which at Passover should have been marked with a special "remem­brance" of the Lord and His great deliverance had become instead a cover for that which was shameful *****.

 


* Cp. Mt. 16:4; "an evil and adulterous generation." There is a good deal in Isaiah 57 appropriate to the events of this chapter.

** "Israel in the Wilderness" H.A.W. p. 165.

*** There are more examples in v.5,6a,8bde,9.

**** It is even possible that Hezekiah only came to the throne because his older brothers died in this way! (2 Kgs 16:3)

***** The Hebrew word for "remembrance" (v.8) also means "male".

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No dependence on the Lord

 

There was also political as well as moral apostasy. The exhortations of Hezekiah and his prophets to lean on the God of their fathers in the time of the Assyrian threat went unheeded. Instead, "thou didst send thy messengers afar off (into Egypt, for instance; 30:1-5; 31:1), and didst debase thyself even unto hell...yet thou saidst not, There is no hope (there)" (v.9,10). Yet it was tacitly assumed that there was no hope in God: "Thus saith the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, In returning (to Me) and rest (in Me) shall ye be saved; in (this) quietness and confidence shall be your strength: and ye would not. But ye said, No; for we will flee upon horses..." (30:15,16).

 

The leaders of Israel, fearing the enemy and not the Lord their God, went in for diplomatic lying (v.11), instead of remembering with faith God's ancient deliverances of His people.*

 

So Isaiah turned on them with heavy sarcasm: "I will declare thy 'righteousness' and thy 'works'; for they shall not profit thee** " (v.12). Such a contrast with the "righteousness" (salvation) which God offered, and by and by provided! (56:1; 51:5; 46:13). "When thou criest, let those whom thou hast gathered together (false gods and human allies) deliver thee" (v. 13).

 

But instead "the wind shall carry them away," leaving those who put their faith in Jehovah safe and assured — "they shall inherit my holy mountain."

 

Now, for the time being, Isaiah has done with correction and scolding, and he turns with relief to the encouragement of God's faithful remnant. But in duty he must return to this unsavoury task. Whilst his people are as they are, he must, though it be against all personal inclination.

 

It looks as though the prophet Daniel, a great student of the earlier books of his Bible, chose to explain Nebuchadnezzar's dream in Isaiah's language, when he told how "the wind carried them away", leaving the stone to become a great mountain, a holy mountain (cp. Dan. 2:35 with Is. 57:13 and 41:15,16).

 


* "Remembered me not" could read "remembered not my sign", with allusion to the Lord's Memorial Name, which guaranteed Israel's continuance for ever.

** 1 Cor. 13:3 is the nearest that Paul ever came to quoting this fine passage against justification by works. Why didn't he make more use of it against the Judaists, one wonders?

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57 (2). "A contrite and humble spirit" (v.13b-21)

 

Even though the tone of this paragraph is in such sharp contrast with what has preceded it, and even though the rabbis chose to begin here the synagogue Haphtarah for the Day of Atonement, there can be no doubt that this section does run on from the first half of the chapter.

 

There is the same repetition of singulars and plurals as in verses 1,2, alluding to Hezekiah and his faithful remnant:

 

13. He that putteth his trust in me

14. My people.

15. Him that is of a humble and contrite spirit.

15. The humble (pl.)...the contrite ones.

16. Thy spirit.

16. the souls which I have made.

18. Comforts unto him.

18. and to his mourners.

Hezekiah and his faithful remnant

 

The Hezekiah reference in these verses goes easily enough. He was the leader who "put his trust in me." The God-given reward for this faith was that he did "possess the land" overrun by invincible Assyrians, and he did "inherit God's holy mountain" through a miraculous healing which enabled him on the third day to "go up unto the house of the Lord" (2 Kgs. 20:5).

 

Thus "the heart of the contrite ones" — those who responded to the appeal to "prepare the way (back to God), and to take up the stumblingblock out of the way" — was revived.

 

Nevertheless, immediately after this surge of faith and zeal for Jehovah there came an estrangement, for Hezekiah, dazzled by the allurements of an influential political alliance and egged on by his less godly advisors, signed a treaty of friend­ship and mutual aid with the men sent by the wily king of Babylon.

 

Hezekiah should have known better. "For the iniquity of his covetousness (the "present" sent by Merodach-baladan, and the allurement of political advantage), God was wroth" (v.17). So all the time that negotiations were in progress, Isaiah kept away from court: "I hid me" (v.17; 39:3). But as soon as the men of Babylon were on their way home, then came blunt denunciation from both Isaiah and Micah — and immediate repentance and collapse of spirit on the part of the king. Hezekiah "feared the Lord, and besought the Lord, and the Lord repented him of the evil which he had pronounced against him" (Jer. 26:19).

 

Because of this repentance, because the king "went on, turning back (to God) in the way of his heart" (v.17), the Lord "restored comforts" to him and to the people who likewise mourned their lapse (v.18; 2 Chr. 32:26): "Peace, peace (with God), to him that is far off, and to him that is near...and I will heal him" (v.19). But for the ambitious Merodach-baladan, restless and turbulent as the troubled sea, no peace!

 

In the light of this contemporary reference of the prophet's words it is easy to understand why Isaiah should hark back to the early impressive vision he had had of the glory of the Lord:



Isaiah 57


Isaiah 6

15.

The high and lofty* One,

1.

The Lord, high and lifted up* (s.w.)


Whose name is Holy

3.

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.

17.

I hid me.

2.

With twain (of his wings) he covered




his face.

15.

I dwell with him that is of a con­trite

5.

Woe is me...because I am a man


and humble spirit —


of unclean lips.

15.

to revive the heart of the contrite

7.

Thine iniquity is taken away, and


ones.


thy sin is purged.

 

The experience of Isaiah as prophetic representative of his nation had been repeated by Hezekiah as their royal representative.

 


* This Hebrew Niphal must imply: lifted up on the wings of the cherubim (and what they symbolize).

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