Today, we come to the last two chapters of the book of Isaiah, but before we delve into these pictures of End Times events, I need to explain how Isaiah viewed the kingdom, and how it is different from how we view the kingdom from the book of Revelation.

First, let's consider the authorial intent of Isaiah 40-66. The intent has been to show how God comforts a hurting people, and how He moves them from their place brokenness into a place of healing and restoration. This process was embodied in Israel’s experience of coming out of an exile status, and the "Kingdom" is the pinnacle picture of her restoration. Isaiah ends on the picture of the Kingdom for this reason, and he writes his narrative in a chiasm to reinforce that theme of the Kingdom. For all intents and purposes, God's Highway Project ends at Isaiah 62, and the chapters and pictures that follow can be seen as mere reiterations of early themes with a few final twists and comments.

Isaiah did not look beyond the Kingdom. In his eyes, it would be righteous kingdom that would last forever and ever. The judgment scene that follows mirrors the warning of judgment declared in Isaiah 58-59, and the description of the new heavens and new earth are presented as the wholly righteous version of the kingdom in contrast to the wholly unrighteous version that came before. The new heavens and new earth aren’t separated out as a different kingdom experience, per se, but part of the rendering of that verdict and the closing argument for God sovereignty on trial in Chapters 40-48. In Isaiah’s eyes, the Righteous Kingdom is the final, never-ending kingdom.

To help you visualize this, I have added two charts below. The first is what Isaiah saw in the eschatological timeline; the second, what we see from later prophetic writings. You can see what was added and how it was relabeled. If you would like to download these charts, you can click this link: Isaiah-Revelation Charts

What Isaiah did not see was that the Kingdom would be a millennial kingdom—that it would have a 1,000-year limit. He did not see that Satan would be bound before that kingdom and released afterward to deceive the nations and spark yet another round of rebellion, war, and judgment, and from that second (final) purge of wickedness would come a new, unique kingdom in a flawless, Eden-like creation. Isaiah only ever saw one version of a battle, one version of a judgment scene, and one version of a kingdom, and yet the Holy Spirit so directed the details of these pictures as to provide for the separation of the Millennial Kingdom from the greater experience of the new heavens and new earth and in such a way as to avoid contradiction with future prophetic revelations. In order to make the Millennial Kingdom a distinct age, the LORD bookended it with battles and judgment scenes that are mirrors and mimics of one another, enough to make Isaiah think he was seeing only one mirrored in a chiastic structure when, in fact, he was seeing two separate instances. The Millennial Kingdom, as great as it is, must be separated from the picture of the new creation because it is not flawless. There is still sin and death in the Millennial Kingdom. Thus, it must be separated from the new heaven and new earth which is flawless, without sin or death. Isaiah did not see that difference from where he stood.

It is important to establish this understand before we get into Chapters 65-66 because we are going to see an intermixing of imagery. As we work through the final pictures, we will discuss whether we are seeing a picture of the Millennial Kingdom, the new heaven and earth, or perhaps an element common to both.

Isaiah 65:1-5  Address to the apostates
Chapter 65 opens with God’s address to the apostates among Israel. In verse 1, He makes a rather scathing comparison between the Gentiles, who had once been the high-water mark for heathen practices, and His own idolatrous people. The Gentiles had sought Him and He had answered them. They had not been a nation called by His name, but now they are. By contrast, His own people have been calling to Him and seeking Him with their penitential prayers, and yet He has not answered them because they are still sunk in idolatry and hypocrisy.

We talked about the hypocrisy issue back in Isaiah 58 when the LORD took them to task for inappropriate fasting. Fasting is a form of sacrificing, and there are appropriate and inappropriate forms of sacrifice. The fasting or sacrifice that God wants is for His people to give of their own abundance to the poor and needy of their community—to feed those who are hungry, clothe those who are naked, to shelter the poor, and minister to the imprisoned and oppressed. If they sacrifice those things for the least of these in the kingdom--if they do what provides healing and restoration for their brethren--then it is as if they have sacrificed to God. That is the appropriate sacrifice that is free from hypocrisy. God is using that standard of sacrifice as the contrast to what apostate Israel is doing now, which is a wholly inappropriate version of sacrifice, and not even made to God Himself.

God did not answer Israel back in Isaiah 58, even though they sought Him. He delayed His response to Israel and answered the Gentiles instead. But now, there will be no more delay. He will not be silent any longer but will answer His people.

Isaiah 65:6-12  The sheep and goats, righteous servants versus apostates
The overall address, again, is to the apostates, however, in the middle of it, the LORD identifies a remnant among them, a “cluster” who are righteous. These He claims as His servants, as opposed to the rest of the apostates who haven’t sought Him, who did not answer when He called, and did not hear when He spoke. This is what separates the sheep from the goats, so to speak—how they respond to the Shepherd and how they sacrificed themselves. The sheep are brought into the pastures of the kingdom. The goats are numbered for the sword and slaughter.

Isaiah 65:13-16  The recompense
The LORD now tells the apostates their fate with a series of “Behold” statements. Their fate is opposite that of His righteous servants.

• They shall be hungry while the righteous eat (v13)
• They shall be thirsty while the righteous drink (v13)
• They shall sorrow of heart while the righteous rejoice (v13-14)

The imagery suggests the picture of a banquet table at which the righteous sit while the wicked look on.

In verse 15, the LORD even renames the two groups. The servants will be given a new name while the name of the apostates becomes the new curse word and epithet (kind of like calling someone a Neanderthal or a Cretin as a comment on disgusting or base behavior. The apostates will become the new derogatory example.)

Verse 16 ends with the remark that the former things would not be remembered, which is picked up in verse 17.

Isaiah 65:17 The New Heaven and New Earth
The new heavens and new earth are the grand reversal from what had been before, namely a kingdom dominated by the wicked. The wicked receive their recompense as the kingdom is given over to the righteous servants of the LORD.

The reference to "former" things is an echo of the LORD's statements in the opening chapters of the Highway Project (Isaiah 40-48). Being able to tell of the former things and new things--to prophesy of things to come and bring them to fruition--was the supreme proof of His superiority and power above the idols. Here are a couple statements that show the mirroring of that theme:

Isaiah 41:21-24 NKJV – “‘Present your case,’ says the LORD. ‘Bring forth your strong reasons,’ says the King of Jacob. ‘Let them bring forth and show us what will happen; Let them show the former things, what they were, that we may consider them, and know the latter end of them; or declare to us things to come. Show the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that you are gods; Yes, do good or do evil, that we may be dismayed and see it together. Indeed you are nothing, and your work is nothing; he who chooses you is an abomination.’”

Isaiah 43:18-19 NKJV – “Do not remember the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing, Now it shall spring forth; Shall you not know it? . . .”

Creating a new heavens and new earth is the supreme act of sovereignty and power that reestablishes God as the Creator of all things, and this is His closing argument that puts His rivals under His feet.

Isaiah 65:18-25  Rejoicing in the New Jerusalem
The new Jerusalem is described as a place where there is no more weeping or tears (v19) and a long life (v20). Its citizens will enjoy the fruit of their labor that had once been taken from them by their oppressors (v21-23). There is perfect communion between God and His people (v24), and all creation will be at peace, no more hurting or destruction (v25). It is presented as a return to Eden, and yet, it is not without flaw. Death may be delayed in this kingdom, but it is not a kingdom without death, which means there is still sin present in this kingdom. Not all Bible translations include the word, sinner, in verse 20, but that is the meaning in the Hebrew—one who has missed the mark. These die an unnaturally early death as a consequence of their sin. The presence of sinners isn’t what you would expect in a picture describing the new heavens and new earth. What we understand from the book of Revelation is that once all are resurrected and judged prior to the new heavens and earth, there will be no more death, because even Death will be thrown into the Lake of Fire. Isaiah didn’t see that final picture of a kingdom without sin and death in it. He only saw the Millennial Kingdom.

Isaiah 66:1-5  Address to the contrite
In Chapter 66, the dialogue begins again as it did in Isaiah 65, only this time the LORD addresses the righteous first, and the wicked are a secondary comment.

Verse 1 opens with a comment on God's dwelling place. All heaven is His throne and the earth His footstool. All earthly things have been put beneath His feet, and yet He elevates the lowly—those who are poor and contrite and who tremble at His word (cf. Isaiah 57:15). He will address them personally in verse 5, but first He declares another action against the wicked—those who did not answer when He called and did not hear when He spoke. There is a repeating of phrase between 66:4 and 65:12. The LORD adds to His previous statement. Not only are the wicked numbered for the sword and slaughter, He now says that He will choose their delusions for them and bring fear on them. He will throw the stumbling blocks of blindness and fear in front of them, so that the wickedness of their hearts will be harden further.

In verse 5, God returns to His validation of those who tremble at His word. Their brethren taunt them: “Let the LORD be glorified, that we may see your joy,” even as they persecute them. That is like an abuser scoffing at a victim, saying, “Count it all joy when you fall into trials,” even as they are abusing her. It's like the men of Israel scoffing at Christ as He hangs on the cross, saying, "save Yourself! If You are the Son of God, come down from the cross!" There is a viciousness in it. It is a humiliation. God promises a reversal—the righteous victim will not be ashamed. And in a way, their humiliation is likened to the humiliation the Suffering Servant once endured. They have that shared experience between them.

Isaiah 66:6 The Final Battle
This is a very condensed picture of a battle. The word, voice (Hebrew: kole) is used three times: the sound (voice) of noise in the city, the voice in the Temple, the voice of the LORD who repays His enemies.

The sound (voice) of noise heard in Jerusalem is first. "Noise" is a tame translation. It describes a tumult, roar, or rushing sound; by implication, the noise of destruction and something being laid waste. We see the word crop up in a couple other places in Isaiah.


So, you get the picture. This is the battle scene in which an enemy multitude rushes upon the city of the Jerusalem and the LORD roars back at them from the Temple. This scene best fits the Gog and Magog Rebellion (cf. Revelation 20:9) which is described as a campaign against Jerusalem proper, and not Armageddon which was waged on the plains of Megiddo to the north. It is a different place, a different battle, and yet Isaiah does not give us any details to differentiate it from Armageddon. I will talk more about the Gog-Magog Rebellion in a moment, but let’s finish this passage first.

Isaiah 66:7-14  Rejoicing over Jerusalem
As in Isaiah 65:18-25, we have another, similar call to rejoice over Jerusalem as a nation is born. Israel, previously pictured as a barren and bereaved woman, bears children—and without the pain of laboring for it. This act is solely by the LORD's hand. Miraculously, she becomes a flourishing mother of many children overnight. In the previous chapter, the LORD Himself declared that He would rejoice in His people (65:19). Now, He commands everyone else to do the same. Rejoice is an imperative command. Those who rejoice with her share in her abundance, glory, peace, and comfort.

Verse 14 transitions back to the picture of judgment.

Isaiah 66:15-24 The final judgment of all flesh
In the previous chapter, the LORD declared the reward set aside for both sides, righteous and apostate. Now the judgment commences.

Verses 15-18a describe the nature of the LORD’s judgment. It is characterized by fire and sword. It is against His enemies, but the apostates are particularly singled out, as promised in the previous chapter.

In verse 18b, the LORD gathers the nations for a display of His glory. This Hebrew word for "gather" doesn’t just mean to collect or gather them, but to take them in hand. When the LORD takes the nations in hand like this, it is often to make war with them. So, this carries forward the sense of a battle playing out in conjunction with a final judgment.

In verse 19, the LORD says He will set “a sign” among the nations. What is the sign? We don’t know exactly. It is some signature act that is miraculous, perhaps disastrous, but whatever the display of sovereign power is, it will convince all flesh that He truly is LORD. The text intimates that there will be survivors from this who will carry the news to the nations, and notice which nations are named: Pul (aka Put or Libya, the coastlands of North Africa), Lud, Tubal, and Javan (nations to the north in Asia Minor and the coastlands of Greece) and Tarshish, which is an epithet for the merchant ships that plied the Mediterranean. Some distinctive disaster happens in the midst of this mercantile Mediterranean alliance. We see something like this foretold with the destruction of Babylon at the end of the Tribulation. She is described at mercantile power who sits on many waters and she is destroyed in a day.


This is an example of the kind of “sign” that the LORD might set among the nations. The sign is God singling out a particular faction of whom He then makes an example by pouring out His wrath on them to hallow His name. A similar sign was once made with Pharaoh in the Exodus. Another sign is accomplished with the Gog-Magog war in Ezekiel 38-39.

In verses 20-21, the nations bring back the exiles as they would an offering to the LORD. God reckons this offering as being of like kind to the offering that Israel herself brings Him. There is a mingling of righteous Gentiles and Jews in this imagery. Where it says, “And I will also take some of them as priests and Levites,” even Jewish scholars remark that there are two possible interpretations of this. Either the LORD is saying that He will take some from the nations and make them priests and Levites, or He will take some from the returning exiles and make them priests and Levites. I think both righteous factions are combined into a royal priesthood. (Either interpretation goes against Levitical law which limits the priesthood to the Aaronic line, but we must remember that the priesthood is democratized in Isaiah 61:6.)

We see this sweep of events that involve a final, epic battle. These details seem to point to a battle that happens before the kingdom because of these elements:
 

1. There are survivors who escape to the nations when this “sign” happens 
2. Israel’s exiles are then returned
3. A new priesthood of Gentiles and Jews is inaugurated to serve in the kingdom. 

This seems to be a pre-kingdom battle, and yet, as Isaiah sees it, this is talking about God’s final judgment on the eve of His creation of the new heavens and new earth. Remember, Isaiah only sees one of some event. This battle can describe the fall of Babylon on the eve of Armageddon, but it is also similar in character to the Gog-Magog Rebellion in Ezekiel 38-39. Ezekiel's vision is clearly a post-kingdom picture. He sees Gog arise in the days after Israel has been gather and restored to her land, when she living in perfect security and safety and in great prosperity. Her waste places are inhabited again, and she lives in unguarded villages without walls or gates or bars. That fits the picture of the Millennial Kingdom. The intention of Gog and the nations is to plunder her of her wealth because she seems an easy target. Gog’s allies include the names that Isaiah mentions: Tarshish, Pul (Libya/North Africa), Lud, Tubal, and Javan (Greece/Asia Minor). That being said, the Gog-Magog Rebellion lacks the other elements in the picture (escaped survivors and the return of the exiles) and yet it is most certainly a sign for the purpose of declaring God’s sovereign authority and glory. It is as if Isaiah only sees one picture instead of two and blends the details of before and after into one account. Read Ezekiel 38-39 and note the comparison.

Isaiah 66:22-24 The universal recognition of the LORD
We return now to the final statement about the new heavens and new earth, which shows the separation of all souls into two categories, but we should note very carefully how Isaiah separates them. Verse 23 defines the “all flesh” category. They are the ones who come to worship the LORD from New Moon to New Moon and Sabbath to Sabbath. Israel is included in the “all flesh” category. Those in the “all flesh” category look upon those in the other category described in verse 24. These are the ones who rejected the LORD and rebelled against Him. These go to the grave and are given over to an eternal destruction where their worm does not die nor their fire is not quenched. The idolatrous and rebellious side of Israel are counted among these as well.

This is no longer a matter of separating Israel from the nations. The LORD is dividing all flesh on the more universal grounds of believers and unbelievers, those who accept Him and those who reject Him, and evaluating them according to their works. "For I know their works and their thoughts," the LORD says in verse 18.

Isaiah sees all flesh are gathered before the LORD in the flesh. This is an important point that is reiterated in the book of Revelation. Revelation 20:11-15 says that after the Millennial Kingdom, all the dead rise and stand before the Great White Throne of Judgment in a resurrected body. These include those who were part of the first resurrection before the Kingdom and already have a resurrected body, the dead who are now raised and given a resurrected body, and all the mortals remaining in their bodies at the end of the Gog-Magog Rebellion. At this point all flesh have a body (whether a mortal body or a resurrected body) and all stand in that body before the LORD to be judged for their earthly works. Those who are not found in the Lamb’s Book of Life are cast into the lake of fire. The lake of fire fits Isaiah’s description of a place where the fire never ends. Those that are found written in the Lamb’s Book of Life go on to the eternal kingdom. They are the ones of whom Isaiah says, “‘All flesh shall come to worship before Me,’ says the LORD.” The end picture is of a kingdom of flawless righteousness. The book ends with the universal recognition of God as supreme, sovereign ruler over all His Creation.

It is important to understand that all flesh will be judged by their works, but none will be justified by them. Even we as believers cannot stand on our own works. Only those who are justified according Christ’s works and merit and have His blood covering their sins are the ones written into the Book of Life. It seems appropriate as we end this class today, on Palm Sunday, worshipping this picture of the King even as we prepare to celebrate His death and resurrection next week on Easter.

In Conclusion
As we navigate the layers of Isaiah's vision of the kingdom, it is easy to see why the latter prophecies and New Testament teachings are so vital in establishing the timeline and separating out the events. And yet, the New Testament is heavily dependent on the book of Isaiah for its foundation. Jesus' parable of the Wedding Feast in Matthew 22 dovetails with the picture of the LORD's servants feasting while the unrighteous look on in Isaiah 65. He even suggests the successive purges of those who are called and yet not chosen. His woes to the hypocritical Pharisees in Matthew 23 echo the LORD's harangue of apostate Israel here in Isaiah 65. The imagery of separating the "sheep" from the "goats" in Isaiah 65 is echoed in Jesus' Olivet Discourse (Matthew 25:31-46). List goes on.

But we should not forget that, overall, the authorial intent of Isaiah 40-66 is to present that highway-building process that carries a person from a place of brokenness and separation from God into this place of restoration and peace.

This is the end of God's Highway Project. Thank you for joining me for our study. I hope it has been helpful. Easter blessings!
Christy Voelkel

The theme of God's Highway Project reaches its completion point in Isaiah 62, but there are still four more chapters in Isaiah with two major pictures in them. One picture is the treading of the winepress in Isaiah 63-65a and the other is the new heaven and new earth in Isaiah 65b-66. Why not end with Chapter 62 at the high point of the theme? Why include these other pictures and how do they fit in with the theme? That is what we are going to answer. But before we begin, I just want to review what we have studied so far with a quick overview.

As I explained at the beginning of the study, Isaiah 40-66 is a subdivision of the book of Isaiah, and is broken into three parts:

We now move into the final pictures of the treading of the winepress in Isaiah 63-65:16 and the new heaven and new earth in Isaiah 65:17-66:24. The elements in these pictures that come after the kingdom will be echoes of the ones before the kingdom in Isaiah 57-59. The LORD will come and another span of judgment will ensue (4b). We will see another lengthy penitential prayer on Israel's part (3b) and God's response (2b). The final picture is the new heaven and new earth (1b). When you look at it on the chart below, you can see how the pictures mirror one another around the central focus of the Kingdom of Peace. Pictures 4a and 4b are parallels, as are 3a/3b, 2a/2b, and 1a/1b.

The Chiastic Structure
The pictures in Isaiah 63-66 mirror those in Isaiah 57-59 around the central picture of the kingdom (Isaiah 60-62). When we see this kind of mirroring in a narrative, we know we are dealing with a chiastic structure. A chiastic structure is a way of organizing information around a central point, such as the kingdom picture. The narrative pictures or statements (Isaiah 58-59) build up to the central point (Isaiah 60-62), and then, once the main picture is revealed, the opening pictures are readdressed one at a time in a mirrored fashion (4b-4a, 3b-3a, 2b-2a, 1b-1a). But the closing pictures aren’t exactly a rehash of the opening ones. There are some differences. The differences present either an expansion of the previous picture, a resolution, or a reversal of it, in light of the main point.

Today, we will flesh out the picture of treading the winepress (4b, 3b, 2b). As we work through these pictures, we will find that they have the same theme as their counterparts (4a, 3a,2a) but with some differences. We will examine the differences as we go.  
>> Download the pdf chart: Isaiah 63-66 Chart

Isaiah 63:1-6 (4b on the chart)
The chapter opens with a dialogue between the prophet and God. The prophet paints a picture, at once glorious and fearful, of God in His sovereign fury treading the winepress. The picture is much like the Redeemer coming in Isaiah 59. In Isaiah 59, it is the Redeemer who treads down all of Israel’s enemies, but now it is the LORD who treads down the winepress of "the peoples." So, when we compare the pictures, we should ask:
 
(Spoiler alert: As we get deeper into the chapter, we will find that the enemies being addressed this time are not the Gentile nations but God's own people who He counts as His enemies.)

Isaiah 63:7-14
The prophet pauses to speak a word of encouragement to Israel as the judgment commences, reminding them of their special relationship with God, but he also reminds Israel of her sin and disobedience and how they rebelled against the LORD and grieved His Holy Spirit. There is a mixing of the distant past with the more recent past and even the present, as if this judgment is on the imminent horizon.

Isaiah 63:15-19 (3b on the chart)
Again, Israel questions why God has restrained His hand as if He is not seeing her plight. It is almost as if she is back to where she was before the kingdom was realized. The adversaries have trodden down the sanctuary and now she is facing judgment for her own sin. So, the picture here in 3b is very similar to 3a, except for the somewhat shocking statement in 63:17:


Israel admits she has a hardened heart and is in a state of continuing sin, and she lays the charge on the LORD for having done this to her. To blame God for her own straying is an outrageous charge! This is the beginning of the penitential prayer for forgiveness and help that is very much like the one in Isaiah 59, but this statement strikes a shockingly different tone.

Israel's claim is outrageous in Isaiah's day, but it is not as outrageous as it seems from where we stand in the Church Age. The LORD has hardened Israel’s heart for a time and for a purpose, as Paul explains in Romans 9-11.
 
Isaiah 64:1-12 (3b continued)
This passage records Israel’s confession. She has continued in her ways and has sinned. She needs salvation and cleansing. God has hidden His face from her because of her iniquities. Again, this wording is similar to what was said in Isaiah 59 (3a):


Israel then pleads for mercy. God is the potter. She is merely clay in His hands. He was the one who made her. Will He restrain Himself from her and continue to afflict her? (Again, Paul's argument in Romans 9-11 follows this same vein, even using the potter and clay analogy.)

So, 3b is another penitential prayer that is very much like the one in 3a. In 3a, when Israel confesses, the Redeemer responds by coming to save her from her enemies.


Isaiah 65:1-16 (2b on the chart)
God begins His response with a scathing remark that He was sought by those who didn’t ask for Him and found by those who did not seek Him (meaning the Gentiles), and He answered them, “Here I am, Here I am!” That is a reversal from Isaiah 58 (2a) where Israel was the one who sought God and He did not answer her.

God then goes on to charge Israel with her continuing idolatry and her hypocrisy. Hypocrisy was the problem back in Isaiah 58 (2a), where Israel was making an outward show of humility but still oppressing her people behind the scenes. Here, her hypocrisy is still at work. Verse 5 records her own words, “Do not come near me, for I am holier than you!” Holier than who? She is wicked and idolatrous! Her self-righteousness and idolatry infuriate the LORD and He vows to measure her works against her as He wreaks judgment on her. Her penitential prayer falls on deaf ears this time. She is not saved from her enemies. She has become God's enemy, and He treats her as such. As Israel's judgment commences, there is a distinction made between a faithful remnant (the "cluster" in verses 8-10) and the hypocrites and idolators. Only the faithful remnant is saved from destruction.

Thus, the treading of the winepress in 4b is a judgment on God's enemies, and it has this in common with the picture in 4a, when the Redeemer comes to save Israel. The enemies in 4a are the Gentile nations. The enemy in 4b is Israel herself who is wicked and counted as God's enemy.

Chiastic Structure versus Linear Timeline
So, we have made all these parallels and comparisons in our chiastic structure, and they all revolve around the Kingdom of Peace, which is the apex picture in Part 3. It seems as if the Kingdom is the end picture in the timeline. All the pictures after it seem to loop back to the opening pictures in some way, so they don’t seem to be presenting new information—just some new twists. If we asked Isaiah, he might say that the restoration of Israel in her kingdom was end point, and the reason for arranging the information in this chiastic structure was to bolster that point. The kingdom of peace has been the goal from the start of this study on God's Highway Project. The road ends there.

But is the kingdom the end picture in the eschatological timeline, or are the pictures that come after it a continuation of that timeline?

From where Isaiah stands on the timeline, looking forward, the restoration of Israel in the kingdom is the end picture, but we, as Church-age believers, stand at a much farther point down the historical timeline from Isaiah and have the benefit of hindsight. We see how his prophecies worked out for Israel after the Babylonian captivity, and we also see what has yet to come to fruition. We also have additional prophecies recorded in the New Testament to use for comparison. So let's take a second look at the chart and consider it not from a chiastic structure this time but as a linear timeline.

Matching Isaiah 53-66 with the book of Revelation

Let's add some labels to these picture elements, and then ask some questions.




In the next blog, we will finish the timeline sequence with the new heaven and new earth in Isaiah 65-66.

The final verses in Isaiah 62:10-12 wrap up the vision of Israel and Jerusalem in their glorified state at the completion of God’s Highway Project. Let me refresh your memory of where this endeavor began in Isaiah 40:1-5:
Now, in Isaiah Isaiah 62:10-12, we see a repetition of these statements:


The theme “preparing the way” forms the bookends for this lengthy portion of Scripture that delves into the process of healing people—people who have struggled with sin that has brought antagonists and hard circumstances into their lives, who have suffered abuse or victimization (rightly or wrongly), and who need a way out of the crooked places in which they find themselves.

As we have worked our way through Chapters 40-62, we have seen how God modeled the healing and restoration process with His people. He “exalted the valleys”—those who have been trodden down with suffering and despair. He lifted them up with love, mercy, grace, and encouragement. He exhorted Israel to remember the greater purpose He had given her to help her combat and rise above her oppression.

He also brought down some mountains and hills in her life—walls that she had erected for her own protection but also her own comfort. He avenged Himself on the antagonists who once exalted themselves over her to vindicate and validate her, but He also dealt out some tough love to His own broken people with a frank examination of the sin that got them into exile. Love was tempered with rebuke, and He delayed restoration until she came out of her denial and self-pity; gave up her self-righteousness, her victimhood, and false humility; acknowledged her sin; and returned to Him.

He made the “crooked places” straight, first by making a way for her sin to be reconciled through the death of the Suffering Servant. He then went on to address her skewed sense of values, her expectations of the kingdom and abundant life, and what it means to be a people of light aligned with His thoughts and His ways.

He smoothed the rough places caused by stumbling stones that would prevent healing and restoration and keep her in oppression even after the antagonist was gone. These included reactions to oppressions such as fear, despair, self-pity, anger, silence, and shame. There were other points of stumbling that kept her from returning to God as well, things like her idolatry, her failure to acknowledge her sin, her desire for vengeance and to empower herself by her own means, and her desire for validation from wrong sources. Chief among her stumbling blocks was the Suffering Servant Himself, who died for her sin and offered her grace that she did not merit according to her works. He continues to be a stumbling stone for Israel even today.

This is how God comforts His people and brings the conflict in their lives to an end. In the vast timeline of Israel’s history, the process is still going on. For all intents and purposes, she is still in exile today. Her national restoration will continue to be delayed until such time as she acknowledges her brokenness before the LORD and accepts the grace of her Messiah who died for her sin. But this process isn’t limited to national Israel on the grand scale. The approach to healing and restoration is universal and can be applied in the lives of individuals even today. God and Christ and the Spirit all work together in this process to deal with each person’s individual situation, but they bring us into the process as we minister to one another, which is why we study Isaiah, to learn from God’s methods.

Preparing the way was the main goal of God’s Highway Project, but there was also a secondary theme that bookends these same passages and that is the theme of reward.
We see this repeated phrase in Isaiah 40 and 62:


This statement about the reward is the same statement Christ makes in Revelation 22:12.


We have only touched on this aspect of reward so far, but it is vital to the comfort and healing process, so let’s talk about this.

The Reward
Here in Isaiah, the reward is something that comes into view in the kingdom pictures. The reward, in essence, is a crown—the right to rule—and it is granted according to works. This reward was first given to Cyrus for his faithfulness in dealing with Babylonia and freeing Israel. The LORD promised him this:


As we know from history, Cyrus was given absolute rule over Babylonia’s territory and beyond in what became the Medo-Persian empire. That was his reward for his work.
The Servant Himself also pursued this reward. In Isaiah 49, He is given a messianic tasking similar Cyrus, but in the midst of it, He makes the curious statement:


Unlike Cyrus, the Servant’s task of saving Israel (and all the world) would require His death before He would receive His reward of a crown and kingdom. The reward of a crown is promised in Isaiah 49:


The reward for His work is further assured in Isaiah 53:


The Servant pursued this reward, gave His life for it, and He then shares that honor with the strong—those who endure as He did in pursuit of that kingdom and its goals. The sharing of the kingdom was mentioned again in Isaiah 55:3-5 where the right to rule is democratized as the king extends the status of royalty to the faithful of Israel. But who is counted among Israel in the aftermath of the Servant’s death? In Isaiah 56, God promised that the faithful among Gentiles will share in this reward, as well.

The reward, by Isaiah’s definition, is the right to rule, to be counted among royalty in the kingdom and enjoy the blessings and distinction accorded with royalty. We bring this definition of the reward into New Testament teachings on pursuing crowns. This reward isn’t just for Israel but for all the faithful who are called by Christ’s name and who pursue His kingdom even at the cost of their own life.

The reward of the crown fits into the greater framework of recompense which we talked about in Isaiah 59. Recompense—shalam, in Hebrew—carries with it the idea of being compensated for your works, good or evil. You reap what you sow, for better or worse. Recompense is a vital part of God’s Highway Project because it is needed to resolve the conflict between victims and oppressors and return a sense of wholeness to the victims materially, emotionally, and spiritually, so we cannot neglect the reward aspect of the process.

Recompense for works is judged on a scale of good to evil. The honor of a royal crown is the pinnacle reward for works on the good side—works that show a heart and mind aligned with God and His kingdom goals and actively pursuing and even sacrificing oneself toward that end. On the opposite end of the spectrum, are the works that go against those goals. The unrepentant evil of God’s enemies is recompensed with eternal separation from Him and His kingdom. This is the important thing to remember: All people, believers and unbelievers, are judged according to their works and are given some kind of recompense for them, as Jesus promised,


This isn’t just everyone in the kingdom, but all men across all ages. Everyone comes to this moment of standing before the King and having their lifetime achievements reviewed and rewarded, for better or worse. It is necessary to end all conflict and create health and wholeness.

In the New Testament, the doctrine of crowns builds on the foundation of the Old Testament. A crown is defined as a reward or inheritance that we as believers are called to pursue as part of our glorification. Some of the crowns mentioned are:

• The crown of rejoicing (1 Thessalonians 2:19)
• The crown of righteousness (2 Timothy 4:8)
• The crown of life (James 1:12)
• The crown of glory (1 Peter 5:4)

Paul counts his brethren in the faith as being his joy and crown, meaning his legacy (Philippians 4:1), and he describes the crown as being similar to a prize that competitors vie for, only of an imperishable quality rather than a perishable one (1 Corinthians 9:25).

But how does the awarding of a crown fit with our understanding of salvation, sanctification, and glorification? Is a crown equated with receiving salvation or does it represent a fuller honor granted apart from salvation? There is a tremendous amount of doctrinal division over these questions, so I am going to explain how we teach this here at FBC, which is also my personal belief.

When we talk about a crown, we are talking about the reward or inheritance that we will receive as part of our glorification after we have endured the sanctification process. The terms crown, reward, or inheritance are used somewhat interchangeably in the New Testament.

Crowns or rewards are not equated with salvation. Receiving a crown does not mean simply being awarded a place in the kingdom. Here at FBC, we teach that our salvation is based on faith in Christ alone by grace alone and not by works (Ephesians 2:8-9), and our place in the kingdom is granted and guaranteed at that moment of belief. It is not granted according to works. That is an important distinction to make, in Isaiah as well as in the New Testament. Our salvation cannot be lost by anything we do any more than it can be earned by anything we do, because we are justified by Christ’s merit, not our own. The only way we can lose our place in the kingdom is if He loses His place first—and that is not going to happen. So, we believe that our salvation—our citizenship in the kingdom—is secure.

The doctrine of crowns stems from the Scriptural teaching that we will be co-heirs with Christ as part of our glorification in the kingdom. This comes out of Isaiah 55:5 with the promise of the democratization of the kingship under the King. The Lord has promised to extend the glory of royalty to us if we endure even as Christ endured. Paul further develops this theme for us:



Notice that living with Him is separate from reigning with Him. The first is the act of belief and identification that gives us salvation and citizenship. The second is an act of endurance through trials that is rewarded with the crown and the right to reign. That is the difference between salvation and sanctification. Salvation happens at the moment of belief. Sanctification involves enduring over time.

Thus, there is an endurance test that must be passed to attain the crown, and that endurance test is what we encounter during the sanctification process.



Unlike salvation which is by grace, the reward is works-based. A crown can be earned, but it can also be lost in the course of the journey.



What does disqualified mean? That depends on what you believe about the permanence of your salvation.

• If you do not believe that your salvation is permanent and guaranteed, then you can interpret being disqualified to mean that you can lose your salvation and citizenry.
  
  
• But, if you do believe that salvation is permanent at the moment of belief, then being disqualified doesn’t mean that you have lost your citizenry. It only means you have lost the added glory of the right to royalty. The crown is viewed as an added glory that distinguishes those who have endured to greater or lesser extents.
  
  

Attaining the crown involves more than simply believing in Christ. It requires action over time. The crown isn’t just given automatically. You don’t just step into the position of authority without having learned the lesson of submitting to authority first—understanding what it is like to be subject to both kind and harsh masters. When God glorifies the victim of a harsh master by putting that master under their feet, it is tempting for the victim to rule as harshly and oppressively as they were once ruled. That is why it is important to sort out and establish the inner heart and understanding in alignment with God’s thoughts and ways before that crown can be awarded. There can be no oppression or injustice in the LORD’s kingdom.  Those who would rule must know how to discern and judge issues by right values, how to wield authority correctly, and how to be a leader and example, even in a limited, earthly capacity. Peter remarks on the need for leaders to lead like this:


This understanding of crowns builds off of the pictures in Isaiah. The crown is an extension of royalty given first to the Messiah and then from the Messiah to the people, and it becomes part of their persona as a royal priesthood. Determining the reward is part of the Servant’s tasking.

So, what is involved with the pursuit of a crown? There are right and wrong kings with whom to align when pursuing a crown, right and wrong crowns or rewards to pursue, right and wrong ways of pursuing a crown, and right and wrong reasons for doing so. I tackled this topic in my study of First Samuel, titled "Pursuing Crowns." I have put that study into book form and you can purchase a copy online. Here is the link: Pursuing Crowns

Isaiah 63-66
This is the wrap-up of God’s Highway Project, but there are still a number of chapters left in Isaiah. In the next blog, we will look at the chiastic structure of these chapters and then talk about the treading of the winepress in Isaiah 63-65:16.

We are continuing the discussion of Israel's glorification in Isaiah 60-62. In the last blog (Isaiah 60), we talked about Jerusalem's transformation from a city of darkness to light. Jerusalem is symbolic of corporate Israel, and the transformation is at the national level.

We pick up now in Isaiah 61 with an address from her King, the Servant, who speaks to His people on a more individual level concerning their restoration. Before we begin, let's review what we know of the Servant's work from what has been presented so far in Isaiah.

The Servant-King
The Servant was first introduced in Isaiah 42:1-7. God put His Spirit upon Him as He tasked Him with bringing justice and law to the Gentiles and establishing justice on the earth. It is a kingly task that connects Him with the king in Isaiah 9:6-7 where He establishes a kingdom of peace. There He is called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace. Here in Isaiah 42, He is simply the Servant. In addition to bringing justice, He is given the task of enlightening the people--being a light to the Gentiles, opening blind eyes, bringing prisoners out of prisons of darkness. He is the embodiment of light and enlightenment for the people, both Jew and Gentile.

In Isaiah 49:1-9, the Servant spoke for Himself of His own tasking. He was to be the salvation not just to Israel but to the ends of the earth. Again, He is cast in a kingly role, and called to restore the earth, to reestablish Israel, and bring light to the Gentiles and all people imprisoned in darkness.

Now, in Isaiah 61, He speaks again.

Isaiah 61
The phrasing of verses 1-4 is very much like Isaiah 49, but the focus changes a little. Again, the Spirit of the LORD is upon Him. He is anointed. The Hebrew word for anointed is mashakh, from where we get the word, mashiakh or messiah. This messianic anointing is usually given only to Israel's kings and priests, both of which roles He plays. But in this passage, His kingly administrative role is downplayed as He stretches out His hand to comfort His people. He preaches good tidings to the poor, heals the brokenhearted, opens prison doors, proclaims the year of the LORD's favor--and His vengeance, which is part of the comfort. Overall, His role is to comfort His own people Israel. There is no mention of Gentiles in the passage at all.

There is a mention of physical restoration in verse 4, but passage focuses more on the inner spiritual healing of people. In verses 5-6, we are given the comparison of "strangers" and "sons of foreigners" tending the flock and harvest while Israel is named the priests of the LORD. In the last blog, I pointed out the different classifications of Gentiles in the kingdom. The zur (stranger) and nekar (foreigners) were part of the goyim (Gentiles) but their distinction was more along the spiritual lines. They were alienated from a spiritual relationship with God because they served foreign gods. Isaiah uses them now to create this comparison with Israel, who is corporately referred to as priests of the LORD. Just as we saw the democratization of the kingship in Isaiah 55:5, we now see the democratization of the priesthood. Israel is not just royalty, but a royal priesthood.

Their shame is removed, and they receive not just honor, but double honor. In their land, they will possess not just a single portion from the LORD but a double portion. The double portion is something reserved for the firstborn sons in a family. They have a blessed status that puts them high above the Gentiles. (Note: I will remind you of what I wrote in the last blog concerning these Gentiles. These are not necessarily the redeemed in heart. We know from the book of Revelation that when the Servant-King returns in His second advent to set up His kingdom, there will be those of the Gentile nation who live through the Armageddon conflict occasioned by His coming. These will bow the knee and confess He is LORD, and be made to pay tribute to the King yearly. But at the end of His reign, a rebellion will rise from among them which the LORD will have to put down. While they may bow to the King here, these Gentiles who serve Israel are not necessarily redeemed in heart.)

In verse 10-11, the Servant adds His own rejoicing over His glorification from the LORD. That glorification is described in His being clothed as royalty but also as bridegroom. This imagery spills over into Isaiah 62, where His people are described in the same terms, as a royal bride.

Isaiah 62:1-9
We now zoom back out to the vision of Jerusalem at the national level. She is a city of light set on a high hill and a lamp set on a lampstand. She is a gem of royalty (62:2-3). She is the Bride whose shame over being forsaken and left desolate is now put away (62:4-5). She is restored to her relationship with her Husband as promised way back in Isaiah 54. After the delay caused by her continuing sin in chapters 57-59, the kingdom pictures of Isaiah 54-56 now burst to life again.

A roar goes out from the LORD, or the Servant, or perhaps both.


Just as the LORD does not keep silent, He calls His watchmen to not keep silent as well, but to give Him no rest.


We talked about the watchmen back in Isaiah 52. These were the ones who lifted their voice to proclaim the good news of salvation to Israel. Keeping silent was one of our stumbling blocks. Keeping silent--whether in terms of our witness to the world or about the sin within ourselves and outside in the world--runs contrary to the LORD's command. Healing and restoration cannot take place in silence. Part of building up the highway involves a commitment to speak the truth. I will remind you again of the questions for reflection that I asked before:

Questions for Reflection
We will finish the last verses in Isaiah 62 in the next blog, which will be our wrap up of God's Highway Project.

Isaiah 60-62 bring us to the culmination of our theme of God's Highway Project. Having resolved the spiritual conflict between Israel and God, the Servant now ends the physical conflict between Israel and her enemies as He brings her into her final comfort and glorification in the fully-realized kingdom of light. In these chapters, Isaiah details the promises given to Israel that are specific to her restoration first as a nation, and then as individuals.

The intent of Isaiah 60-62 is to show the reversal from Israel serving to Israel reigning and the Gentiles reigning to the Gentiles serving. There are only two classes of people presented in these chapters: Israel and the Gentiles. The "Gentiles" include the following:

• The goyim or nations. These represent the physical, non-Hebrew nations who have been Israel’s antagonists throughout Isaiah. They are Gentiles, physically speaking.
  
  
• The nekar, or sons of the foreigners. These are also Gentiles, but they are Gentiles spiritually speaking. They are alienated from a spiritual relationship with God and serve foreign gods. The focus is on their spiritual identification and not their association with a physical nation. Note: The sons of the foreigners were mentioned back in Isaiah 56. There was a subset of these Gentiles who joined themselves to the LORD to serve Him, and the LORD promised them that they would be accepted and honored in His kingdom. They are Gentiles physically and yet not Gentiles spiritually. In our passages today, the sons of the foreigner will be mentioned, but they will not be the redeemed Gentiles of Isaiah 56. They will be this heathen version.
  
  
• The zur, or stranger, who is someone who has “turned aside” or has “strange” or heathen ways. These also are Gentiles in a spiritual sense like the nekar.

These all become servants of Israel who now reigns over them. She is moving from darkness into light, from that which was inferior to that which is superior. This is the grand reversal of fortune and ultimate validation and vindication for her as a victim. This is her closure.

But what is it like, making that transformation from darkness into light? Is it only about the victim gaining ascendancy over her antagonist, or is there a deeper spiritual change that happens in the victim herself as she sheds that persona of darkness and becomes a reflection and instrument of God's light to a darkened world? That is were our application will be today.

In the previous chapter (Isaiah 59), Israel cried out from the darkness and, in response, the Redeemer came and dealt with her enemies. Isaiah 60 now opens with a call to her to arise and step into the light.

Isaiah 60
The chapter opens with a call for Israel to arise and shine. Her light has come. The address is actually to Zion, the City of the LORD (60:14), which personifies corporate Israel at a national level. Jerusalem, her reigning city, is now glorified above the Gentile nations. These nations are drawn to her light, and they bring gifts to her.

Verses 5-11 focus heavily on the wealth of the Gentiles pouring into the city. Certain tribes are singled out for honorable mention. Midian, Ephah, and Sheba bring gold and incense. Sheba is known for her frankincense. (We might add myrrh to the list.) Kedar and Nebaioth bring flocks and rams for offerings. Interestingly, all of these tribes spring from Abraham. Midian, Ephah, and Sheba were descendants of Abraham and Keturah who Abraham sent to the East to keep them from infringing on Isaac's inheritance (Genesis 25:1-6). Kedar and Nebaioth are descendants of Ishmael. So, this is the ingathering of blessing that originated from the promise to Abraham.

This picture of riches being brought to a king and kingdom is a type that we have seen before and we will see again. We have seen it before in the days of Solomon, when the Queen of Sheba brought him vast gifts of gold and spices in return for knowledge and enlightenment (1 Kings 10:1-13). We saw another fleeting instance of it when three wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, following the light, seeking the king, and bearing gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh (Matthew 2:9-11). All these fit the pattern.

Verses 9-16 focus on the rebuilding of the city, physically. Verse 9 mentions the coastlands and the ships of Tarshish. The ships of Tarshish were the one who sailed around the Mediterranean marketplaces, buying and selling luxury items. They were the merchants that Solomon engaged to bring the building materials for the Temple and palace. Here the sons of the foreigner build the walls and luxury materials from Lebanon beautify the sanctuary. The gates are open continually to receive these gifts. She is also built up in prestige. Any nation or kingdom that does not serve Israel will perish and suffer utter ruin. The aggressors who afflicted her will bow to her. Where she had once been forsaken and hated, she is now an eternal excellence and a joy of many generations.

Verses 17-18 now set up a series of contrasts between light and dark, superior to inferior, described this way:


The difference is like night and day, and Israel is called to live wholly in the light, as described in verses 19-22. The sun and moon offered fleeting light to a dark world, but the LORD Himself now becomes the everlasting light that lights her from within.

Light and Dark
We have the motif of light and dark in this passage.  When we talk about a people of light or a city of light, we envision them being filled with enlightenment (moral guidance, knowledge and instruction, truth), justice, love, compassion, unity, and peace. Jerusalem represents a kingdom that is rich materially and full of abundant life, but the kingdom’s true wealth and power lies in its enlightenment, justice, and peace. That is the same kingdom picture that we studied in Isaiah 54-55.

The light of the LORD contrasts to the darkness of the world. Darkness is figurative of misery, destruction, death, ignorance, sorrow, and wickedness.

The darkened world isn’t drawn to Jerusalem so much as they are drawn toward God’s light that shines through Jerusalem. Remember, this city isn't just a bunch of buildings but a body of people—living stones—who embody God’s light before the world. That is her role—to walk in light and to bring light to a darkened world. When she functions as this kind of intermediary, she reaps a blessing from that.

Israel, once victimized, is now overflowing with power, riches, and royal prestige, but how does she achieve this place of honor?

There are two different paths to take in search of this kind of wealth and power. One is a path of light, according to God's ways and His grace. Those who walk in the divine light of the LORD's presence enjoy the superior riches of peace, righteousness, truth, justice, and holiness in an eternal kingdom.

The other is the path of darkness, according to the world's way. The darkened world pursues its own inferior version of the power and wealth that God’s kingdom offers, and it pursues these along darkened paths—through wickedness, oppression, degradation of others, and by inciting divisions, hatred, and violence. What the world pursues is an inferior kind of wealth because it is fleshly and temporary. It is like bronze compared to gold or iron to silver when compared to the royalty and wealth enjoyed by those who walk in the light of God’s presence.


Again, there are two course to take. One is the world's way, that perpetuates darkness through counter-oppression and vengeance. The other way is God's way, through truth, justice, and enlightenment, as befitting a people who embody His light.

God’s people are called to walk in light and spread God’s light to the world. We are called to value and pursue the things that of eternal value. But we can walk in a way that brings darkness to the world instead of light.


God’s Highway Project: The Stumbling Block of Our Dark Side
Like Israel here in Isaiah, we, as believers in the Church Age, are called to remember the darkness from which our Savior saved us and how He brought us into His light. Like Jerusalem, we have God’s glory dwelling within us in the form of His indwelling Spirit. Jesus said,


When God’s light truly shines in a believer, that light touches lives and draws people to Him. But even as children of light, we still grapple with our dark side, and we will until such time as we enter fully into the glory of His kingdom. The sin nature that still dwells in our flesh is perhaps the biggest stumbling block that we must overcome because it wars continually with the Spirit who is also dwelling within us and wrecks our fellowship with each other. John teaches this in his first letter:


The bulk of the New Testament writings address this transformation of coming out of darkness and into light. There is too much to cover comprehensively, but we can look at a couple passages. We have been in Ephesians repeatedly these last few chapters, and Ephesians talk extensively about putting off the old man of darkness and putting on the new man. Paul also talks about it in Romans 13.


The picture continues into Chapters 61-62, which I will put into the next blog.

Recap
Last week we entered into Part 3 of God’s Highway Project. Part 2 focused on the Servant’s work to reconcile the spiritual conflict between Israel and God—at least from God’s end. He accomplished the pardon for sin with His death. Part 2 ended in Isaiah 57 with the picture of a kingdom of peace and a discussion of what makes for peace in the kingdom. That topic of making peace leads us into Part 3. God has made a way for Israel to escape the crooked place she is in, but the focus now shifts to Israel. The restoration project cannot commence until she does something on her part. God has made peace with her. Now she needs to make peace with Him.

Isaiah 58, which started Part 3, opened with God’s grievance with Israel over her continuing sin. Israel cried out that she has humbled herself, she is contrite, she is fasting and afflicting herself, and yet He is still angry with her.


Israel had been operating under the misconception that her redemption and restoration would happen automatically when the Kingdom was realized. She thought that her sins would be reckoned to her past and the LORD would now grant her grace simply on the merit of having endured the furnace of affliction in Babylon. This can be a misconception that many victims carry. Just because they have gone through an ordeal, they think they merit preferential treatment without their own sins being held account.

Israel got the idea that the LORD would simply overlook her sins on the merit of her suffering from the LORD’s promises in Isaiah 57.


These promises in Isaiah 57 ended on that vision of the kingdom, and yet we know from history that the kingdom was not realized immediately for Israel. It was not realized when they returned to the Land after the Babylonian captivity. Not all of the exiles returned to their inheritance in the land and much of the land remained desolate and unrestored. It was not realized after the Jesus’ death in Roman days, either. Even today, Israel’s kingdom has not been fully restored to her.

In Part 1 of this study, God proved that He is fully able to save His people. In Part 2, He provided a way for grace to be extended to them through the death of the Suffering Servant. Israel’s restoration hinged on that pinnacle act of the Servant’s death. Now, in Part 3, the kingdom that should have come about immediately after the Servant’s death appears to be delayed. Israel has fasted and prayed for restoration, but the LORD isn’t listening or acting.

He is delaying because Israel is still sinning, and He cannot let her sinful thinking and behavior come into His kingdom of peace until she has understood it, acknowledged it, and turned from it. Last week, He took her to task for inappropriate fasting, which opened the topic of all the other carnal cravings of which she still hadn’t let go. She was still grasping after earthly pleasures and hoarding these things. She was going through the motions of what she thought would be pleasing to God but completely missed the point.

Today, the prophet explains to Israel that it is not that God is unable to save her or that He does not hear. What is delaying the restoration project is her continued sin and lack of repentance. God isn’t just going to pretend that the past is over and grant her grace going forward because her inward motivations haven’t changed. She has made a show of contrition the way an alcoholic would, begging and pleading for forgiveness and grace, while still in bondage to the inner cravings of the flesh. Today will be a candid discussion of Israel’s need for spiritual rehab.

Isaiah 59 is divided into a three-part dialogue:

• The prophet’s rebuke of Israel
• Israel’s national confession
• Her final reconciliation when the Redeemer returns to Zion

I say “returns” to Zion because this is, as yet, a future event. While individual Jews have come to a personal acknowledgment of the Suffering Servant’s death on their behalf, the nation as a whole has not. Israel is still in exile today because of it. This passage is very much addressed to unrepentant, unrestored Israel today, and yet, even we as believers understand that repentance and confession are very much an ongoing part of our sanctification journey. These are not conditions for salvation, but outworking of it.

Isaiah 59:1-8 (The Rebuke)
These are the sins that have earned Israel this rebuke (v3-4):

• Israel has blood on her hands. She has not kept her hand from evil. She has not kept her lips from evil, either. She has spoken lies and perversities. Perversities describe doing someone an injustice in how you speak about them. You don’t speak about them justly or rightly. You skew your words to paint them in a false light for your own purpose.

• Israel has abandoned truth and, with it, justice. There is no justice without truth. She trusts in empty words and lies. What she conceives in her heart she then gives birth to in her actions. God gives a wincing analogy to hatching vipers’ eggs. When people consume the lies and puffed-up words, they die by them, and when those eggs are crushed and the deadly lies revealed, more viperous tongues break out.
  
  In the same way, she cloaks the truth with lies like a spider spinning a web of deceit. The word for garments here is the Hebrew word, beged. These are the underclothes worn beneath the outer wrapping—things that are worn close to the man and his heart. Thus, they describe the character or condition of the person who wears them. When a person is mourning, they tear their beged, that which is close to the heart, as a way of illustrating that their heart is rent. A priest changes into a new beged before he enters the LORD’s tabernacle to serve. Beged can be used as a disguise, particularly in war, and these garments are often taken among the spoils of war (things taken by force, treachery, or pillaging).

Israel begs to enter the kingdom of peace, and yet her thoughts and ways are in complete conflict with the way of peace and justice that makes for peace. They have made themselves crooked paths.

Isaiah 59:9-15 (The Confession)
Notice that the speaker changes. The rebuke was phrased in the third person (your iniquities, your sins, your hands, your feet). The confession is phrased in the first person and plural (we look, we grope, our sins, our transgressions). It also begins with the word, therefore, meaning it is in response to the verses before it. This is Israel’s response to the rebuke.


She agrees that she has so twisted and profaned the cause of justice that it is far from her now. Righteousness doesn’t reach her. When you are this far off the road, how do you get back?

Notice the light and dark theme. This theme carries into the next chapter where she comes into the light, but at this point, she is in darkness. She gropes like a blind person  for something solid to guide her and stumbles because she cannot see. She growls—the Hebrew word describes the noise of crying aloud in frustration or railing in an uproar. Imagine a trapped animal banging at its prison bars and roaring in desperation and despair. She mourns pitifully like a dove. She looks for someone to plead her case, but there is none. She is the victim of her own twisted justice system. Salvation (yeshua) is far from her.
She agrees that she has sinned, that the charges God brought against her are true. She lists them, beginning with her sins against the LORD Himself. She has rebelled and faithlessly denied Him and turned away from Him. To that she adds her sins against others—oppressing them and inciting revolt. Inciting revolt carries the sense of encouraging people to turn aside from legality and morality, or in the religious application, inciting apostasy. She conceives and utters lies and falsehoods. Notice, these are premeditated acts. She thought about them before she said them, and she said them deliberately, knowing they were wrong. Under the Old Covenant laws, there is no sacrifice prescribed for premeditated sin, only unintentional sin. These are grievous sins Israel is confessing, sins of worthy of death.

She then acknowledges the consequences of these sins. Her lies have circumvented the truth, which has fallen away, and there is no equity. Equity, in the Hebrew, doesn’t have anything to do with inclusiveness. It simply means a straight way—having uprightness or integrity.


Integrity is gone in Israel, and there is no straight way out of the mess into which her sins have gotten her. Where there is no integrity, truth fails. And when a person decides that they are going to turn around and start doing what is right, they become prey for wicked and victims of a broken justice system.

The lack of justice displeases the LORD. Displease is a pretty tame translation of the Hebrew. It means to be evil in His eye and put Him into a rage to the point where He begins to deliver some eye-for-an-eye, evil-for-evil justice. God is not evil, but He is not above bringing calamity on people in order to right things.

Isaiah 59:16-21 (The Redeemer’s Return)
The final part of the chapter gives us a picture of the Redeemer returning to Zion. The LORD saw that there was no intercessor. To intercede, in this case, means to go out to meet someone. We’ve all seen movies where a king and his army are approaching a city, and the king of the city sends out a greeting party to represent him and find out what the approaching king’s intentions are. The greeting party is the intercessor or go-between. The greeting party can go to that meeting with different goals or attitudes. They can go with goodwill and greet the approaching king with peace. They can go out with an attitude of supplication—an appeal for mercy and peace. Or they can meet the king with hostility and the intention to declare war. Thus, the nature of these intercessory encounters is either to strike a covenant of peace or to strike with the sword.

The Great King is coming, and He expects someone, a representative or envoy, to come out to meet Him but there are none. No one greets Him with welcome and goodwill. No one comes to beg his mercy out of a desire for peace. And so, He falls upon them with the sword. He sends His arm against them in hostility and vengeance.

We talked about the arm of the LORD back in Isaiah 52-53.


That was Isaiah 52. Isaiah 53 then followed with a picture of the Suffering Servant. The arm of the LORD, who was representative of the LORD’s strength, gave up His strength to become an offering for sin. He became Yeshua, the salvation, and died on the cross in order to make peace between the world and God. He was the intercessor who faced the sword of the King’s hostility in order to make peace between the parties in conflict. That was the first picture.

We now have a second picture of Him. This is the same arm of the LORD who brought salvation, but now He is in a different role. This time He comes to make war and take vengeance. He clothes Himself as a warrior. He comes to deliver a recompense or a reward.


This time it is not against Israel. Having ended the conflict between Israel and God, He comes now to end the conflict between Israel and her enemies. This accomplishes the last of God’s goals that He expressed in Isaiah 40—to end her warfare. This recompensing of her enemies is the final comfort.

The Recompense (Reward)
We have been talking about straightening out crooked places and crooked understandings  of how the LORD thinks and works, so let’s consider how the LORD deals out recompense or reward.


Reward and recompense are used somewhat interchangeably in Scripture. They are both about being awarded something as a consequence for our actions. A reward, to us, is a good thing, but in the Scripture it can be good or bad thing. It simply means that you receive what is due for your effort. You reap what you sow, figuratively speaking. For example:

• “. . . those who plow iniquity and sow trouble, reap the same.” (Job 4:8)
• “Those who sow in tears, shall reap joy.” (Psalm 126:5)
• “Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap in mercy . . .” (Hosea 10:12)
• “For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life.” (Galatians 6:8)

So we have this idea of compensation or reward that comes from works. It is works based. Good works can be repaid with a good reward, but good can also be repaid with evil, in which case, the evil is judged and recompense is made for it. Evil works can be repaid with evil or they can be repaid with good, that is, grace. Grace is a way of repaying evil with good—freely granting something that is not deserved or earned.

Here in Isaiah 59:18, God says of His adversaries and enemies, “According to their deeds, accordingly He will repay.” Tit for tat. He rewards them, but it isn’t a good reward. It is, however, a necessary act to bring peace to His repentant people. Notice that Israel's repentance as a nation happens first. This is part of her reward for her return to the LORD, that her enemies would be put beneath her.

The Hebrew word for recompense in verse 18 is shalam, which is the root verb from which we get the noun, shalom. Shalam is the act of making peace by making restitution or compensation. This word shows up throughout the books of the Law when it talks about things being stolen from a person or damages done to his property. There were rules under the Law as to how that loss was to be paid back, usually be replacing the item and adding an additional amount (like being reimbursed for the cost of a damaged car, with an additional award to compensate for pain and suffering). It is the understanding that there is more lost to the person than simply the physical thing. There is a cost to their peace that must be reconciled.

The Law was only concerned with compensation for physical things—bulls, fields, property, servants—but there are other things people can take from us that affect our well-being and peace. Someone who has been victimized or suffered loss needs closure in order to be whole and at peace again. It is more than just returning what was stolen. It’s about being given a recompense for the pain and suffering. Shalam is about getting closure, bringing some conflict to an end, both externally or internally, which was God’s goal at the onset of this highway project. The comfort that He offers is an end to the internal conflict between Himself and His people (pardon for iniquity) but also the end of the external conflict caused by His enemies against His people which also drove the internal conflict to an extent.

When the LORD shalams, takes recompense from His enemies, it is vengeance at its most brutal. He is impartial in His way of dealing. As it was for Israel, so it is for her enemies. Moses warned the children of Israel of this when they were getting ready to come into the Land

“Therefore know that the LORD your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments; and He repays [shalam] those who hate Him to their face, to destroy them. He will not be slack with him who hates Him; He will repay [shalam] him to his face. Therefore you shall keep the commandment, the statutes, and the judgments which I command you today, to observe them.” - Deuteronomy 7:9-11 NKJV

Having achieved peace, the LORD establishes a new covenant with a Spirit-filled presence within the nation of Israel. This is for the nation as a whole, not individuals, and it reflects a specific event on the historical timeline.

The Timeline
Keep in mind where we are in the unfolding pictures of the prophetic timeline. Israel has been through the Babylonian exile. God has promised her a Savior. That Savior first appeared as the Suffering Servant who died and then arose (Isaiah 53). He promised to share that kingdom with the strong, and we saw the picture of the kingdom laid out before us (Isaiah 54-56). The full realization of the kingdom should have happened immediately, but there was a delay of restoration for Israel because of her sin and lack of repentance. Then, there was the veiled picture of a rapture of the righteous who are spared from future calamity (Isaiah 57:1), and then the picture of a kingdom without righteousness (Isaiah 57:3-13). The prophet has stood in her streets, proclaiming her need for redemption, and now Israel has repented as a nation—at least the remnant who are preserved through that tribulation (Isaiah 58-59). In response, the Redeemer returns to Zion, specifically to those who have turned from their transgressions, to exact a shalam recompense from their enemies (Isaiah 59:16-21). He has already brought the conflict between God and His people to an end in the spiritual sense. Now He puts an end to the physical conflict between Israel and God’s enemies and restores Israel to a kingdom of peace. This goal of restoration is where God’s Highway Project has been leading. This is God’s idea of closure.

So, we have this final picture of the Arm of the LORD, the Messiah, conquering the LORD’s enemies.


Depending on which English translation you are using, you will get different renderings of verse 19. The actual words in the Hebrew go something like this:


The differences in the English translations stem from the use of the pronoun, "he." "He" will come. Who is he? Is "he" the enemy or the conqueror? Whoever "he" is, he comes with the force of a flood, like water being driven by wind. The driving aspect is what the Spirit of the LORD does. It blows on the water to drive it along, to impel it backward and cause it to flee. Thus, the KJV and NKJV translate this as the enemy coming in like a flood and the Spirit withstanding and pushing back against an them, that is, lifting a standard against them in battle. This Spirit is also the driving force behind the conqueror as He goes out to wreak vengeance against Israel's enemies. Thus, the rest of the English translations say "He," the conqueror, comes in like a flood. Regardless of the translation, there is a consistent picture being described, both here in Isaiah but also in the book of Revelation. The enemy does come in like a flood, and the Spirit-driven Conqueror drives them back in a flood. That is the intended picture here in Isaiah.

The Spirit is very much a part of the battle against the enemy as the arm of the LORD takes vengeance against the LORD’s enemies. The Spirit also remains after the battle (v21). The indwelling Spirit becomes part of the new covenant that the LORD makes with the faithful remnant of the nation of Israel when they come into the kingdom.

God’s Highway Project
So, we have the culmination of the God’s Highway Project. The next few chapter will present pictures of glorified Israel in the fully realized kingdom. But let’s talk a little about the battle mentioned here. There will be a final, literal battle that is waged at the end of Israel’s historical timeline, and yet there is spiritual warfare going on even during the sanctification part of the journey. Even though we as believers have an indwelling Spirit, we still grapple with the darkness that is part of our human experience, and it is in that battle that confession becomes a way of defeating an enemy.

This description of the Savior arming Himself for battle is echoed in Ephesians 6, where we as His followers are exhorted to put on similar armor. Read Ephesians 6:10-20.


The prophet’s warning to Israel to repent is much like the prophetic warning to repent given to the churches in the book of Revelation. Read Revelation 2-3.

In Isaiah 56-57, God began a discourse on covenant and community. The peace of the kingdom community is grounded in justice and righteousness, and the community as a whole needs to align itself with God’s version of these. This requires an understanding of Him, His values, His ways, and His way of thinking, which are not the ways and thinking of men. So, a transformation process has to take place in the hearts and thoughts and subsequent actions of those who would enter the kingdom.

In Isaiah 56, the LORD laid out the basic requirements for citizens coming into the kingdom—keep justice, do righteousness, keep from profaning the Sabbath, and keep from doing evil (56:1-2). Isaiah 57 then presented us with a comparison of the righteous and wicked, which was actually a prophetic picture of the rapture and the Tribulation age. The rapture was envisioned in verse 1:


Verses 3-13 then presented a picture of a world without the righteous. It is a world of idolators. It is a world where lusts run rampant, where there is jeering at truth and justice, and no fear of God. That aptly describes the world in the Tribulation age.

God promised at the end of the chapter that there would be redemption for the backsliders, and that He would make His dwelling place with the humble and contrite of heart.


From that statement, it would seem that Israel’s redemption happens automatically, that the sins would be reckoned to her past and the LORD would treat her with grace after her punishment in Babylon was over. There doesn’t seem to be anything that Israel actually has to do to be healed. God just heals her, as if she deserves grace solely on the merit of having endured that time of punishment. This notion is going to be challenged today.

God has promised to make His dwelling with those of contrite heart. Today, in chapter 58, we will see a people contrite of heart—they are fasting and crying out to the LORD—and yet the LORD is still angry with them and brings a charge against those who have seemingly humbled themselves outwardly and yet there has been no transformation of heart. We are returning to a discussion of justice, righteousness, and keeping the Sabbath today as the LORD takes Israel to task over the act of fasting.

Before we start, let’s gather what we know, or think, about the practice of fasting.

So, we have this understanding of fasting. It is abstinence from food for a period of time while you are seeking the LORD’s will in some matter. The experience of physical hunger is meant to express in a limited, earthly way, the experience of spiritual hunger for the LORD, and believers practice fasting, to greater or lesser extents, as a way of drawing closer to the LORD.

Isaiah 58:1-4
God tells the prophet to lift his voice and trumpet Israel’s transgressions and sin without sparing. You can feel the sarcasm in the LORD’s words. By appearance, Israel is doing all the right things—seeking the LORD, seeking His justice. They want to know His ways and be near to Him, as if they were a righteous nation that had not abandoned His commandments. As if. In other words, they aren’t that nation. They have convinced themselves that they are such, and yet, in God’s estimation, they are not. Either they are only putting on the appearance of such, or perhaps, they are doing it in a way that defeats the purpose because they haven’t yet grasped the LORD’s way of seeing things. A transformation is needed.

Notice that He mentions being righteous, keeping the ordinances, and keeping justice. These were all the things that the LORD told them to do to prepare for the coming kingdom back in Isaiah 56, and He said, blessed is the man who does these things. It is good to seek that blessing, but there are right and wrong ways of pursuing it and right and wrong reasons for pursuing it. By all appearances, Israel seems to be doing the right thing, but the heart that is motivating her actions is not aligned with God’s goals and values. And so, she misses the mark, and her actions are reckoned as sin. God brings these charges against her:

• “. . . in the day of your fast you find pleasure, and exploit all your laborers.” (v3)
  Israel makes a show of wailing and fasting and afflicting her soul, begging to be delivered from her affliction, and yet, at the same time, she is exploiting and afflicting her own laborers. She makes a show of giving up something, but all the while she is still profiting. She really hasn’t given up anything. And she, who has been forced to serve under Babylonia’s abusive hand, should have more of a conscience toward not oppressing her own servants. It’s the Golden Rule, isn’t it. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. (Read Matthew 7:7-12.) Do you ask, seek, and knock at the LORD’s door, looking for relief, and yet don’t listen to those who are begging for relief from you? That’s a problem.

• “Indeed you fast for strife and debate, and to strike with the fist of wickedness.” (v4)
  Israel seeks divine intervention in her quarrels with her brethren. She points the finger, shakes the fist, and stirs up strife, then fasts in a grand show of being victimized. She puts on the pitiful face and begs the LORD to take her side and grant her justice in her case. 

• “You will not fast as you do this day, to make your voice heard on high.” (v4) 
  This is the irony. Israel abases and afflicts herself as a way of lifting herself up and making her voice heard on high. She is trumpeting her victimhood. We talked about the stumbling block of self-pity several lessons ago. A victim can ask the LORD to lift them up and act on their behalf. That is one way of finding relief. Or they can turn, instead, to other people and demand that those people lift them up, and they do this by putting on a pitiful face. When I put on the pitiful face, it is a cue to the people around me that I need lifting up. But that pitiful face is for the people’s sake, not God’s. God doesn’t need the pitiful face as a cue. He already sees, He hears, He knows my situation, and He doesn’t need goading to act. This is why Jesus said,

This is Israel’s grievance in verse 3. She has wept and fasted and afflicted herself, and God has not noticed. Isn’t that irksome, when someone doesn’t take notice?


Isaiah 58:5-7
God responds to Israel’s complaint by challenging her over the way she is going about fasting and the reason for it. There are right and wrong ways and reasons to do this.

She wants relief from her oppression, but also to know His ways and His laws—His ordinance of justice—and be near Him. She is preparing herself for the kingdom, as instructed, by humbling herself in a contrite manner. She is fasting because, in her mind, the act itself pleases the LORD. A day of fasting is deemed an acceptable day of the LORD, a day in which He delights and approves and shows favor.

The LORD asks, Do you really think I delight in seeing My people afflicted and bowed down, especially in the day of their redemption and salvation?

Israel missed the mark in her understanding of peace and what makes for peace. He doesn’t want this kind of posturing in His citizens. She is a royal citizen of the kingdom, and yet she is still in the posture and mentality of a Babylonian slave. And she is under the erroneous thinking that a show of contrition equate to making peace with God. But the outward show is not what makes peace with God. What makes peace with God is the change in the heart and thinking, and that has yet to be demonstrated.
Think of fasting as letting go of something in a way that achieves God’s goals of peace and rest.

• "Loosen the bonds of wickedness" . . . This hearkens back to the last chapter, which ended with this statement, “There is no peace for the wicked.” (Isaiah 57:21) Wickedness is what is keeping God’s people from entering into peace and rest. Sin is a bondage. It causes wars and strife within the community that should be free of that bondage. The wars and strife come from grasping after fleeting, earthly things that we crave but are actually just lusts of that old nature. How do we respond when we feel we have been wronged? Do we point the finger at each other? Do we go to the LORD seeking divine intervention and ask for a verdict that will grant our desires? What if we just let go of those desires? Wouldn’t that also achieve peace?

• Undo the heavy burden, let the oppressed go free, break the yoke . . . If you are going to deny yourself, then truly do it. Let go of your pleasures and your profit. Let the workers go home and enjoy a day of rest.
  
  
• Share your bread with the hungry, open your house to the poor, clothe the naked . . . Don't just give up food. Put it in someone else’s mouth. Put your roof over someone else’s head. Put your clothes on a person who has none. Don’t hoard these things to yourself. Let them go. These last commands should be familiar to us because Jesus used them to describe how the He will judge the righteous when He comes in His glory to establish His kingdom. (Read Matthew 25:31-46.)

This is fasting that is acceptable to the LORD. It is not about abasing or afflicting yourself, but letting go of self and doing what pleases the LORD and pursues His goals of peace and rest—and not just for you but for the community as a whole.

Isaiah 58:8-12
Godly “fasting” creates a people of light (v8-10). This is not a foreign theme for us. The New Testament speaks of our commissioning in this. Some New Testament passages that build on this chapter in Isaiah are Acts 13:44-49, Ephesians 5:8-14, 1 John 1:5-7, and 1 John 2:9-11.

Those who let go of their flesh-bound cravings, their grasping and hoarding of earthly things, are the ones who understand the LORD and truly enter into the task of building a highway for return to the LORD and laying the foundation for the kingdom. The LORD even gives them new names (v12). He calls them Repairers of the Breach, and Restorers of Streets to Dwell In.

Isaiah 58:13-14
We began with a discussion of keeping justice and righteousness, and turning one’s hand from evil. It now concludes with a comment on the Sabbath. Sabbath embodies the experience of rest and peace in the kingdom. We can look at keeping the Sabbath the same we look at fasting, as merely giving up something for a period of time and go about it with a sober face. But the LORD sees it from a higher plane.


For Reflection:

We are going to talk about what it means to be a citizen of a kingdom. Our current culture has skewed the concept of what it means to be a citizen, so let’s define this using our own country's definition as an example.


I looked up the answers to the questions on various government websites and found these answers. A citizen is one who is legally recognized as a subject of a kingdom, state, or city, who enjoys the rights, privileges, and protections of that community. In turn, a citizen must align themselves with the laws and values that govern that community and agree to live by them and uphold them, e.g., participating in civic and military duty. There are some additional requirements for a person wanting to naturalize as a U.S. citizen. They have to be of good moral character, that is, they are not engaged in criminal activity or have a criminal record. They must pass a test to see if they understand the language, know how the government and justice systems work, and what their civic responsibilities are.

As it is in our own country, so it is in God’s kingdom. Those who enter must understand and be aligned with its laws and values to enjoy the blessings of abundant life in that kingdom.

Isaiah 56:1-2
God prompts Israel to prepare herself for His salvation and His righteousness to come. This kingdom will be a kingdom of peace, and that peace will depend on a justice system that rules righteously, without bias, and according to the truth which stems from God's Word and His law. As incoming citizens Israel is called to ready herself for the new administration and its values--keep justice, do what is right and keep your hand from evil, and keep from profaning the Sabbath. (That last requirement is a little specific. We will talk about it in a minute.) Obedience to these laws will make peace in the kingdom.

The word “keep” is repeated three times. The act of “keeping” something can mean to observe the practice of it, to celebrate it, such as keeping the Law or the Sabbath. It can also mean to have charge of it, to keep watch over it, protect it, and preserve it. Thus, “keeping” something involves being a watchman or a shepherd.

Keeping the Sabbath is hotly contested in Christian circles. Some say it is still a requirement for believers in this age; some say it is not, that it was part of the Old Covenant and not the New Covenant. Those who keep the Sabbath keep it in varying ways and to varying degrees. They may take rest for themselves, but continue to demand work of others. (Do we go out to eat on Sundays?) To understand why keeping the Sabbath is included here, we should clarify what kingdom we are talking about and how it relates to the Sabbath.

At the beginning of this study, I pointed out that prophets like Isaiah never saw the valleys between peaks of time. The Church Age is the valley between the Suffering Servant’s death in Isaiah 53, and the kingdom pictures in Isaiah 54-66. The kingdom picture in Isaiah is not a picture of the Church Age. It is a picture of the fully-realized Millennial Kingdom. It is a spiritual kingdom with a physical presence on earth for that period of time.

The Old Covenant governed Israel’s community up to Christ’s first advent. It was the ruling authority in Isaiah’s day. It was the ruling authority after the Babylonian exile ended and Israel went back to her Land to rebuild her nation. It was the ruling authority until the day Christ died on the cross and the New Covenant was established. The Old Covenant governed the civic, judicial, and religious practices that made peace for the community in their relationship with each other and with God. It embodied God’s definitions of justice, righteousness, and holiness. That was its intent—to create a kingdom of peace.

Covenant creates community. That Old Covenant is what defined Israel as a community and separated her from all the other nations around her. The problem is that the future kingdom of peace would be a universal kingdom for all nations. In Isaiah 44-45, God told Israel that He is a universal God who intends to offer a universal salvation to all men. The Servant is sent as a light not just to Israel but the Gentiles who would embrace His justice and laws. This is the picture that has been painted in Isaiah—this universal kingdom.

Covenant creates community, and the community is gaining Gentile members who were not previously governed by that Old Covenant. So, this creates a dilemma. Either the whole Gentile world must be brought under the Old Covenant Law that defined Israel’s community, or a new covenant must be established that removes the need for separation of Jew from Gentile and rules both as one. God opted for the second. With His death on the cross, Christ fulfilled the righteous requirements of the Law and paid the penalty for breaking that Law. The kingdom community no longer had to be divided down physical lines of flesh and blood and according to works (Jew vs. Gentile). It was now divided down spiritual lines based on faith alone according grace (believer vs. unbeliever). Thus, the kingdom opened up to include all men, because the separation that the Old Covenant commandments demanded was removed, as it says,
  
Christ is the New Covenant that governs this new expanded community, but again, we run into a dilemma because those Old Covenant laws embodied the basic tenets for a peaceful kingdom. The Law's purpose was to govern a community according to God’s values of holiness, righteousness, and justice, and those values haven’t changed. They still define the character of a kingdom of peace, whether in time past, or in the kingdom future. The kingdom's character hasn’t changed. What makes for peace in the kingdom hasn’t changed. This is why, when Isaiah presents these citizenship requirements for the Millennial kingdom, they fall in line with the Mosaic Laws.

The Millennial kingdom will be a kingdom of peace ruled by what God says makes for peace in a community, but this is not a peace that Israel (or we as Church Age believers) can fully realize while in exile. Israel was at the mercy of the Babylonians who were antagonists to God’s values and peace, and when you are a slave to a master who does not keep the Sabbath, then you don’t keep the Sabbath. So, while she is in exile, Israel really can’t keep the laws of peace except in a very limited way. Even so, she was called to do as much as she could within the strictures of Babylonian rule as a watchman, to keep the spirit and knowledge of the coming kingdom of peace alive until the day when the kingdom changed hands.

Isaiah envisioned the kingdom changing hands. He went from one peak to the next, but he didn’t see the long stretch of valley that separated those two peaks which is called the Church Age. The Church Age would be another age of exile for Israel because they didn’t accept their Messiah-King when He came the first time. The Church Age is its own unique community, governed by the New Covenant (which is really the Old Covenant way of peace fulfilled by Christ) and yet in a time of exile. Our righteousness is through Christ, and yet we keep a lot of the Old Covenant precepts in spirit because they are the way of peace. But we have limitations as to how far we can govern our community along these lines because this is an exile period. Covenant defines community, and in times of exile, we are subject to the laws of the lands in which we currently live, and we are networked to those communities for our livelihood. Like Israel, we do as much as we can while living under the authority of masters and governors and national laws that are antagonistic to God’s values of justice, righteousness, and holiness, even if it is just in the way we govern ourselves as small bodies of believers. We do this as watchmen, to keep the spirit and knowledge of God's way of peace alive until the day that the kingdom changes hands.

The Church Age is not the kingdom. It is an exile age. The Millennial Kingdom is coming, and when it is established, its governance will fall in line with God's laws for justice, righteousness, and holiness, of which the Old Testament laws bore witness. Here in Isaiah 56, the LORD lays down these requirements for citizenship in the kingdom, including keeping the Sabbath.

Keeping the Sabbath
We need to stop thinking of Sabbath-keeping as merely obeying an Old Testament law, and start thinking of how the Sabbath fits into the understanding of peace and what makes for peace.


The Sabbath reflects the rest that Israel would have in the kingdom--a rest she had not known as a slave in exile. The Sabbath was instituted when the Israelites came out of Egypt and is associated with being freed from bondage. Thus, keeping the Sabbath was meant to memorialize that release from servitude. In the Old Testament practice of the Sabbath, Israel was not to carry any burdens, do any customary work from which wages or profit were taken, or demand work of anyone else. Servants were allowed to sit down for day, and everyone enjoyed free provision and refreshment from the LORD's hand. The penalty for not keeping the Sabbath was death, according to the Law. (This penalty is a good example of why we do not keep the Old Covenant Laws. If we were to keep justice in this way, then we would be convicted of murder under the laws of our land. We are not under the Old Covenant in the Church Age.)

Thus, the keeping the Sabbath was meant to keep alive the picture of a future time of rest, a release from bondage (physical and spiritual), a release from work, and the experience of grace--an abundance of provision that is grant as a free gift and not by the work of man's hands. The grace aspect should not be overlooked because the physical experience translates into a spiritual truth. Those who would be citizens of God's kingdom will not come into that kingdom based on the merit of their works but by grace. When works enter into that Sabbath/kingdom picture, they profane it.

If the conditions laid out in verses 1-2 are the requirements for those who would be citizens in the kingdom, then citizenship is clearly not based on having blood ties to Israel. It is based on being aligned with spiritual character of the kingdom and that can apply to a person of any nation. God sets these requirements for this very purpose, that He might open the kingdom to more than just Israel. God wants citizens to be identified by the spirit and not the flesh.

Isaiah 56:3-8
Israel has been told to bring herself in line with the LORD's justice and righteousness, and immediately, a cry goes up from two classes of people who feel marginalized and cut off from the kingdom and its blessing. They are the son of the foreigner who has joined himself to the LORD and the eunuchs. The LORD addresses the eunuch’s first.






Having answered the eunuchs, the LORD then answers the Gentiles who have joined themselves to the LORD, but still believe they have been separated from His people.


Yes, so long as they were not Canaanites, they could convert by placing themselves under the Old Covenant laws. Some were brought into Israel when they were bought as servants. These had to be brought under the Old Covenant, which means they had to be circumcised. Otherwise, they could not partake of the Passover (Exodus 12:43) or be allowed to present offerings. But they were always treated as second-class citizens and servants among those of native blood. This is true even today. The nation of Israel currently living in the Land maintains the Old Covenant laws, including keeping the Sabbath, and yet they get around the prohibition against work on the Sabbath by giving tasks to a foreigner in their community—an Arab, or Palestinian, or Syrian. Thus, while Israel gets to rest, the sons of the foreigners do not (even though they may be part of the community of believers).

The LORD assures the sons of the foreigners that heart-driven service to the LORD and keeping the Sabbath qualifies them for full inclusion in the kingdom, including the right to that day of grace and rest afforded by His Sabbath. Being able to fully enter into that Sabbath changes their status. The stigma will be removed and they will enjoy full rights within the assembly. The LORD wants His house to be a house of prayer—a place for praise and intercession and supplication—for all people.

This is God’s DEI policy in regard to foreigners and eunuchs, people who Israel herself marginalizes and oppresses, and it challenges Israel’s thinking in regard to citizenship in the kingdom.


Isaiah 56:11-12
The chapter opened with the picture of law-abiding people who felt cut off from the kingdom and its abundant life but, in fact, were not because they kept the LORD's justice and laws. Now we are given a contrasting picture. The LORD addresses those who have long been considered keepers of His justice and laws—the watchmen and shepherds—but are, in fact, lawless and enjoying abundant life in kingdoms of their own making. There is a scathing rebuke in how He describes them. They are dumb dogs, greedy dogs. A watchman should watch for danger, but these watchmen are blind. They don’t see danger. They are even ignorant of the danger. They don’t say anything to warn or protect the people. They are lazy and love to sleep. They are also greedy. They seek an abundant life that doesn’t come from keeping the LORD’s ways, but look to their own way for gain and pleasure. In the same way, the shepherds have pastured themselves on their sheep. They have carved out their own little kingdoms and have achieved a version of abundant life, but in the most disgusting fashion and in a way that brings them into bondage.

These are the ones against whom the LORD sends the beasts of the field and the forest—the Gentile nations. He says, come and devour them. They have no place in my kingdom of peace.

In Mark 11:15-18, Jesus quotes Isaiah 56:7 about the LORD’s house being called a house of prayer.


The next blog is a continuation of this theme.

Isaiah 56 sets up a comparison between the law-abiding and the lawless. Isaiah 57 carries on in the same thread with a comparison between the righteous who find peace and the wicked idolators who don’t.

Isaiah 57:1-2
The opening verse presents us with a picture of righteous people perishing and merciful people being taken away, but no one considers why.


Even though the righteous perish at the hand of the wicked, the LORD blesses them for having walked in their uprightness. They enter into rest and peace. That particular word for rest carries the sense of sitting down, like a servant on the Sabbath, or like Israel when Joshua gives her an inheritance—a sitting-down place—in her own land. The righteous will experience rest in a bed of the LORD’s making.

Verse 1 has another thought in it, however. When it says ". . . no one considers
that the righteous is taken away [spared] from evil," it is conveys the idea of the righteous being withdrawn from the community to be spared the evil or calamity to come--perhaps judgment against the wicked.


The rapture, prior to the days of the Tribulation. So, what does a community without the merciful and upright (believers) look like? That is the picture in verses 3-13.
While the righteous experience rest in a bed of the LORD’s making, the wicked idolators go about making their own bed.

Isaiah 57:3-13
The LORD describes their idolatrous actions in wincing detail, much like we saw in earlier chapters. They pursue their own lusts with the things they idolize, and He ends with a final warning. Only those that trust in Him will inherit the land and possess it.


Isaiah 57:14-21
We now return to the theme of God's Highway Project with which we began in Isaiah 40. The command to “prepare the way” is repeated. At the end of the Tribulation period, the Messiah-King will come. Prepare the way for the king! Finish the highway! Remove the stumbling stones! This is not a literal highway, of course, but a spiritual highway to the King and way of return for His people.


It is God Himself who creates the fruit of the lips--the heartening, comforting words that speak peace and healing to those who are near and those who are far.


The chapter began with a statement about the righteous who enter into rest and peace. It ends with a contrasting statement about the wicked. “There is no peace,” says my God, “for the wicked.” (v21). These will not enter the kingdom, because it is a kingdom of peace. There is no place for them there.

This same statement about there being no peace for the wicked was made at the end of Isaiah 48 which marked the end of Part 1 and led into Part 2 of God’s Highway Project. We have now finished Part 2 on this same statement and theme of what makes for peace. Think back over the pictures we have studied in Part 2 (Chapters 49-57).

For Reflection:
As we go into our week, consider in your own life what makes for peace.


 

The main goal of God's Highway Project is to return His people to Him. Accomplishing that requires a change of heart, but also a change in thinking and acting. In this phase of God’s Highway Project, God begins to straighten out the crooked places by challenging His people to consider His vision of ideal life and how to achieve it. What kind of salvation did they really need to release them from bondage? What kind of kingdom are they looking for in the future? Are their values based on the physical things that the world values or the eternal things that God values? What does God value? How does He see these things? Much of what is keeping them in oppression is a skewed view of what they should be pursuing, and He needs to bring those expectations back into alignment with His vision. Before we get into our verses for today, let me just ask you . . .


Isaiah 54:11-17
Notice how God describes Israel in verse 11. She is still afflicted and storm-tossed. After all of God’s promises, even the death of the Servant that released her from her spiritual bondage, she is still not comforted. I can appreciate her struggle, though. Even though we have the comfort of knowing Christ died for our sins and reconciled us with God, that does not mean our lives are free of antagonists and trials. We can still feel afflicted, tossed with tempest, and lacking in comfort during times of trial. It is part of the sanctification process. Part of the problem early on in the journey has to do with adjusting to a new vision of the future and learning how to take comfort from it.

God presents Israel with this picture of a glorious future kingdom that is coming. It is like something out of a storybook, a gorgeous city laid with colorful gems and precious stones. It is a kingdom that the world, and even Satan himself, would envy because it is rich the way the world reckons riches.


First, there are children, lots of children just as the LORD promised the barren woman earlier in our chapter, and these children will be taught by the LORD. The Hebrew word for children is used twice in verse 13, and it can refer to children as being literal progeny but also builders (of a house or kingdom) and disciples (those who are taught and understand). These are all "children," and all applications of this word fit the context here. The kingdom will be rebuilt and re-peopled by those with an understanding of the LORD. Imagine that for a moment. Why would being taught by the LORD top the list?


Peace, and not just peace but great peace. Is peace something that this world values? It pays lip service to it, certainly, but how many wars and protests are waged in the name of peace? And peace for whom and according to whose values?

Righteousness—that is a justice term. Justice is foundational to the peaceful running of a kingdom. Think of our own culture. How has a lack of godly teaching affected our justice system? What happens to a justice system when the citizens ignore godly teaching and use the system to pursue wealth and build their own little kingdoms? We get oppression. The Hebrew word for oppression in verse 14 specifically includes a sense of fraud and deceitful dealings—things that are opposite of truth. What would it be like to live in a kingdom where truth reigns and there aren’t scammers or hackers or fraud or identity theft or any of the abuses that we fear in our current culture? What if all that was gone? Wouldn’t that be heaven?


Oppression and fear are pushed back as God brings Israel into a wide, save space, but there are still antagonists in this place (v15). This may be referring to the experience that Israel had when she returned to Jerusalem after her release from Babylonian exile. The books of Ezra and Nehemiah describe how the returnees were beset by antagonists as they struggled to rebuild Jerusalem and the Temple. But there is a difference about these antagonists. Unlike Babylonia, these antagonist will not overcome her. God was the one who sent Babylonia after Israel in the beginning, and there was nothing she could do to prevent it or save herself. Her time in the furnace of affliction had been decreed by the LORD. But these new antagonists are not divinely commissioned. She will still face combatants and revilers, but their power over her is broken. She can overcome them. This new position of power and authority is the heritage of the servants of God, but it is a power and authority that is granted by Him and sourced in Him. One of the first promises God made back in Isaiah 40 was that He would empower the weak if they would wait on Him and He makes good on that promise in this future kingdom.

There is a reason why these particular promises and conditions are presented after the picture of the Suffering Servant’s death in Isaiah 53. All of this comfort springs from that source. Now that the penalty for sin is removed, whatever power these antagonist had over God’s children to hurt or condemn them is now broken, and this is a promise that extends to all God’s people, even us. As Paul says in Romans 8:1, “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus . . .” The penalty has been paid. The wrath is appeased. Now every tongue that rises against us in judgment will be condemned because our righteousness is in Christ. That is as much our right and heritage as servants of God as it is for Israel, and a very great comfort.

We have talked about the building and fabric of the kingdom. It is rich, but its riches are 1) in its people who understand God and embrace His values and 2) in its character of peace, truth, and righteousness. Now let’s look at life in the kingdom. Again, this is going to challenge Israel’s understanding of what is valuable.

Isaiah 55:1-3a
This kingdom offers a rich abundance of good living—water, wine, and milk. There is an everlasting fountain of these. Water is needful for sustaining life, particularly in desert places. Wine and milk are perhaps luxuries. But they are all things that the world values and on which it places a high price (similar to the costly gems of the previous verses). And yet, these things can be had for nothing in God’s kingdom. They are not considered valuable as the world values them. The LORD’s words challenge Israel to redefine her values. Why waste good money for what is not bread?


Bread represents food that sustains the body in our earthly life. It is needful, but it is a transient thing. A person buys it and eats it. It passes through their body with only fleeting benefit and comfort, and even though they eat it, they are hungry again afterwards. And so they go to work to earn money to buy more bread. Thus, their life becomes consumed with the pursuit of consumable things. Isn’t that an irony?

Let's compare the bread to the costly stones in Isaiah 54. The world sees only the precious gems that are of worldly value, but God sees those gems as people—living stones that are of eternal value. The wealth of His kingdom is embodied in His people, not material things.

Similarly, bread is of value in the world’s eyes because it sustains life, but it has little lasting benefit. To enjoy a lasting abundance of it becomes a pursuit that can consume a person. But this picture that God is painting for Israel is not of a fleeting, earthly kingdom but an eternal, spiritual one. The nature of this heavenly kingdom is different from the earthly one; therefore, what nourishes and gives life to it is also of a different nature. What sustains life in an eternal, spiritual kingdom? The Word of God. Israel needs to transform her thinking over what will give her an eternal kind of nourishment and what she needs to feed--body or soul.

"Listen to Me . . . Incline your ear . . . Hear and your soul shall live." (v2-3a) 
The abundance of the kingdom is not achieved in the pursuit of what satisfies the body, but what satisfies the soul, and the nourishment is received not by the mouth but by the ear. Hear, and you shall have all that is needful for living. But it is not enough to listen. We have to consider the source that is speaking to us. The world promotes the pursuit of the kind of wealth and abundance that God’s kingdom offers, but it does so by its own wisdom and its own definition. It craves the riches and abundance of God’s kingdom but will try to achieve them by deceit, fraud, fear, and oppression. Even in our Christian circles today, we find prosperity cults who twist the definition of abundant living into a worldly pursuit of wealth. Believers can stumble back into bondage when they do not have a clear picture of the kingdom, its abundance, and how that abundance is achieved.

Isaiah 55:3b-5
In almost the same breath, verse 3 segues from talking about being fed by the LORD (being taught by the LORD) to the practical application of running a kingdom. In verse 4, there is the mention of the covenant that was made with David--the promise of an eternal kingship. The covenant with David will come to fruition in this kingdom when the Messianic Davidic King takes the eternal throne--the same Messiah-king who was the Suffering Servant in Isaiah 53. Like His forefather, David, that Servant will divide His spoil with the strong, and surely, David himself is among those. I believe the LORD promises David not just an eternal kingship through his progeny, but also a personal place in the administration of that future kingdom under that Son. Christ will be King of all, and David will be a leader (prince) and commander of the people. But notice that this covenant isn't just made with David. The covenant is extended to "you." "I will make an everlasting covenant with you . . . you shall call a nation . . . nations who do not know you shall run to you . . . for He has glorified you." 


God has been speaking to the nation of Israel throughout this chapter. When her remnant comes into the kingdom, He will extend the same everlasting covenant of kingship--the sure mercies of David--to them as part of their glorification. Thus, the kingship is being democratized—ruling power is being extended to the people. Christ will be King over all. David will be given a high level of rulership in the kingdom under Christ. Beneath him are the people who are not just subjects but co-rulers. "You" will command and direct kingdoms, and "you" will know the abundance that is usually reserved for those of royal status.

Summary: 1 Peter 1:22-2:10
I want to pause here and do a quick summary of this picture being laid out for us, because this promise of abundant life and even rulership is not just for Israel. It is for us as well. It is for everyone who has identified with the death of the suffering Servant in Isaiah 53 and has endured suffering even as He endured suffering in pursuit of God’s righteousness and His kingdom.

In his first letter, Peter explains how we fit into this picture of a kingdom built of living stones. He begins by talking about the salvation and heavenly inheritance of which the prophets prophesied (1 Peter 1:3-12). He then talks about the transformation that comes out of that salvation. We now have new life and are nourished by the enduring word of God. He quotes Isaiah 40 to make his comparison between the fleetingness of corruptible life versus the incorruptible life we have through the Word (1 Peter 1:22-2:3). And then he speaks about us being the living stones in a spiritual house.


Just as the LORD exhorted the barren woman to embrace the promise and not to be ashamed of the reproach and rejection she might suffer for her hope—the hope that the death of the Suffering Servant obtained for her, Peter exhorts us not to regard the world’s rejection but embrace our new identity and calling.

The children of the barren woman are the builders of the kingdom who have been taught by the LORD. Hearing and obeying the Word is the basis for our inclusion in the kingdom. People who see only a kingdom built of costly gems but without an understanding of God’s word and the saving knowledge of Christ’s death stumble over the foundational cornerstone that is Christ Himself. He will become a stumbling block to them because of their resistance to godly teaching.

The sure mercies of David are now extended to a people who had not obtained mercy before, and a new class distinction described as a royal priesthood emerges in this coming kingdom. (Just as the kingship is democratized here in Isaiah 55, we will see the priesthood democratized as well in Isaiah 61:6.) Peter gets this understanding from the kingdom pictures in Isaiah, and he applies these pictures to us as believers in this age--an understanding he will also get from Isaiah which we will discuss in next week's blog.

Back to Isaiah . . .
The LORD seeks to comfort Israel with this picture of the kingdom and all its benefits--its material richness, its peace, its righteousness that brings safety and security, its abundance, and all the benefits of royalty. The question remains: How do you enter this kingdom?

Isaiah 55:6-13
We are moving away from a simple, passive belief in God that was demanded in Chapters 40-53, and into an actual practice of faith that will be the theme going forward. The way out of the crooked place has been made by the Suffering Servant. God has laid the kingdom before Israel and is pushing her forward. A response is now demanded of her if she wishes to enter into this abundant life. "Seek the LORD . . . Call upon Him . . . Let the wicked forsake His ways . . . the unrighteous man his thoughts."

Seeking the LORD is a new kind of pursuit and very different from the old earthly pursuit of consumable things like wealth and bread. What are you seeking? An understanding of Him, how He sees things, and how He works. Where do you seek Him? In His Word.
 
Calling upon Him is a step of faith. It means you believe He has the power to deliver and comfort you, and that He will answer your call.
 
Returning to Him involves forsaking old ways and old ways of thinking and turning back to God's ways and thoughts. It requires letting go of the earthly perspective and pursuits and pursuing life on an eternal, heavenly plane. The LORD offers abundant mercy and forgiveness to those who return to Him. This is the ultimate goal in God's Highway Project.
 
In verses 10-11, the LORD draws a parallel between an earthly experience of rain coming down from heaven to replenish the earth and the heavenly act of sending forth His Word to accomplish its task. Neither effort returns void and without fruit. Those who hear and receive this life-giving word will enter into abundant life. The chapter ends with the promise of a restored Eden, where the brier and thorns associated with the curse of sin are replaced with beautiful, aromatic trees and the sweet smell of eternal peace.

God’s Highway Project: Straightening the Crooked Places
This vision of the kingdom seems like a very glowy, almost storybook future that God is presenting Israel, but it is a distant future. This heavenly kingdom hasn’t yet been established, even in our day. It is a comfort to those who are suffering, particularly under severe affliction to the point of death. And yet, we must be careful when presenting this kind of comfort to a beleaguered sufferer or even an unbeliever in this age because this is not a picture for this age. Setting false expectations of the Christian life can send a person back into bondage again, and we need to be realistic when we talk about having abundant life in this age.

Last week, we studied the death of the Suffering Servant, which was the prophetic vision of Jesus’ death on the cross. That sacrificial death achieved the pardon for sin that ended the spiritual conflict between God and His people and paved the way for Israel’s return to Him. Ending the spiritual conflict was one of the two main objectives in the Highway Project. But there is still more work to do. Even as God begins to elevate Israel toward her future glorification, there are still some walls that need to be broken down and stumbling blocks to overcome as Israel begins the process of realigning her thoughts and ways with God’s thoughts and ways. She needs to let go of earthly values and pursuits and set her sights on heavenly ones.

Isaiah now embarks on the new theme of abundant life in the coming kingdom. It hinges on the death of the Suffering Servant in Chapter 53 and will span Chapters 54-57. The theme opens with a discussion of Israel’s fruitless past. Before she can enter into the abundant life God has in store for her, she must overcome the stumbling block of shame over her past. It is hard enough to face conviction for our sins under neutral circumstances. When a victim has suffered injustice and humiliation at the hands of an abuser or oppressor, facing conviction for her own sin can be an overwhelming obstacle, and that is the obstacle that Israel now faces—at least as many as are willing to look on their Savior and accept His death as the payment for that sin.

Just as God addressed Israel’s fear of the oppressor’s fury in Isaiah 51, He now addresses her fear of shame and humiliation at the hands of her oppressors. God once asked, what is the oppressor’s fury compared to Mine? Our relationship is the one that must be reconciled if you want to escape the oppression. It’s a matter of maintaining perspective and discerning what was really causing the problem. Here in Isaiah 54, He deals with her shame in the same way. It’s a matter of keeping God and the world in their right places. There is beneficial shame that stems from God’s conviction of her, and there is destructive shame that stems from the world’s conviction of her. Once her shame before God is dealt with, the human oppressor will lose his power over her. Forgiveness from sin is an empowering experience. It is a way of breaking the power of oppression.

Isaiah 54:1-10
The chapter begins with joyous imperative commands: “Sing! . . . Break forth!” Why?
“For more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married woman” (Isaiah 54:1). The LORD is speaking to Israel, but notice how He describes her. He calls her barren.


Barrenness equates to fruitlessness in the human experience. Barrenness is an outworking of disobedience, as prescribed in the Mosaic Law. The LORD promised Israel abundant life so long as she obeyed His commandments, and the fruit of the womb was part of that covenant blessing (Deuteronomy 7:14) but if she disobeyed, He promised He would curse her with fruitlessness of field and womb. A woman suffering from barrenness was looked upon as cursed, and, therefore, was shamed and shunned by her peers. A good example of this is Samuel’s mother, Hannah, who was barren and wept because of the continual taunting and harassment she received from her sister-wife, Peninnah (1 Samuel 1:1-7). According to the Law, barrenness and exile were the curses for disobedience. When Israel broke that covenant relationship between them, God took from her the abundance that would have come from that relationship and sent her into exile and oppression, just as He had warned her that He would in that Law.

In the Hebrew, the word for desolate invokes the essence of silence—silence in a land or a life that has been laid to waste. The desolate are the ones who have been shamed into silence. We previously talked about being forced into silence in the face of anger. Silence is also a reaction to shame. And yet, it is the silent who are now called to sing. The fruitfulness of the one who was barren will now eclipse the fruitfulness of the one who had many children by a husband.

But now the LORD commands her: “Enlarge the place of your tent! . . . Do not spare! . . . Lengthen your cords! . . . Strengthen your stakes!” There is a glorious sense of anticipation. The barren woman will soon have children—so many that she will need a bigger tent.


The death of the Suffering Servant in the previous chapter. Repentance and return on Israel’s part are necessary, but the payment for her sins still had to be made. The Servant’s death lifted the curse caused by her disobedience and satisfied the Law so that she could enter into that blessing of abundance and new life again. The lesson of grace is embodied in the figure of the barren woman. All barren women in Scripture had to endure that condition for a time to show that the problem could not be lifted by human effort or will. They had to come to the end of their own resources before they could experience abundant life gifted by God’s grace and grace alone. And so the picture of the barren woman becomes an illustration of salvation by grace, according to the promise.

The LORD has extended grace to Israel, just as He promised. She has been redeemed without money (Isaiah 52:3), and not just redeemed but promised an explosion of abundant life.

Q:   Is the LORD promising Israel children of a physical nature or of a spiritual nature?
Q:   Let’s take me as a model of the barren wife. After 25 years of marriage, I have never been able to have children, though not for lack of trying. I am a barren woman, now past my child-bearing years. Is a woman like myself barred from this promise of abundant life for lack of physical children?
Q:  This is the beginning of the kingdom pictures in Isaiah, but what kind of kingdom is coming into view—an earthly kingdom, a spiritual kingdom, or both?

The immediate focus for Israel will be on the return of a future generation of physical children—a remnant that the LORD preserves throughout the exile—and theirs will be the task of rebuilding the earthly Jerusalem after the Babylonian exile. There is a near fulfillment of this in a very physical sense. And yet, there is another Jerusalem on the horizon—a heavenly Jerusalem filled with spiritual children who are born of a spiritual Husband and by grace. The woman who is redeemed by the grace of a heavenly Husband from a past life of fruitless living will enjoy an abundant life that far eclipses any fruitfulness experienced by the woman with an earthly husband.

This is a comfort to me personally. I am grateful that the LORD’s promise of abundant life is not defined by the number of earthly children I have. I would never experience abundant life if abundant life was defined purely by earthly possessions like children, who are a fleeting comfort at best. But I, too, can be fruitful in a more enduring way and have children of a different nature, and I will see the fruit of that when I enter the kingdom, if I persist in faith. And I am content with that, although, sadly, I have met many women in life who are not. There are many women in life whose value and sense of personal worth is often wrapped up in their role as mothers, and I have had good Christian women harangue me for not adopting or at least fostering children. One woman wept in despair when yet another attempt at in-vitro fertilization failed. She and her husband had sunk thousands of dollars into fertility clinics to no avail. Their pursuit of children was almost an obsession with these women, and they could not understand why I wouldn’t go to the ends of the earth to have them. Nothing much has changed in past 5,000 years.

What none of them understood is that the LORD does not withhold abundant life from the barren woman. I have had a greater freedom to pursue the tasks that the LORD has given me--tasks that I might not have done if I had been constrained by children--and have experienced abundant life in my own way. It all boils down to how you define abundant life, and realigning our understanding on this is the next stage of God’s Highway Project. He has made a way out of a crooked place with the death of the Suffering Servant, but now there has to be some realigning of perspective and values on the part of His people in the wake of that.

Verse 4 begins with the imperative command. “Do not fear, for you will not be ashamed, neither be disgraced” (v4). The barren woman enlarging her tent with this kind of anticipation is like Noah building the Ark. The world will view the effort with amusement, derision, taunting, and scoffing. They shame her for her hope as well as her cursed condition. Thus, shame becomes something she fears and a stumbling block she must overcome before He can restore her. Here, God uses a number of Hebrew words to describe the experience of shame:

• Ashamed, Hebrew: boosh meaning simply to be ashamed.
• Disgraced, Hebrew: kalam meaning to wound or hurt, to insult, shame, humiliate, make blush. A person can deal out that disgrace or be the recipient of it—to be ashamed, be put to shame, be reproached or humiliated.
• Shame, Hebrew: khapher meaning to blush or be ashamed in the sense of being detected by someone digging away at you or prying into your life. Thus, there is a fear of one’s shame being discovered and brought to light.
• Shame, Hebrew: bosheth. This is a noun variation of the adjective, boosh) meaning a shameful thing (like an idol). Thus, “the shame of your youth” translates into a past lived in pursuit of shameless, fruitless things (like idols).
• Reproach, Hebrew: kherpa meaning to taunt, carp at, reproach, defy, jeopardize. It comes from the root word, kharaph, which literally means to be “pulled off” in the sense of being exposed as if by stripping. It can mean to scorn in the sense of count one’s life as of little worth.

The LORD describes all the kinds of shame that can be felt and then applies them to women in various life experiences: the youth, the widow, the forsaken woman, and a youthful wife who has been refused. All of these women share the experience of “barrenness” or unfruitfulness that results in shame. The text pairs the youth and widow together first (v4).

• The youth. “Youth,” in the Hebrew, describes a kind of juvenile vigor. The youth has a fruitful life ahead of her, and yet there is an experience of shame in it. What kind of shame is associated with one’s youth? Perhaps it is in the things she pursued. Perhaps she put her energy into running after trivial things that have no lasting value or, worse, a life of dissipation that got her off the path and into sin. Looking back, the fruitlessness of her early life can be a source of regret and shame.
  
  
• The widow. The widow is at the opposite end of the spectrum from the youth. Her fruitful days are past. In Old Testament times, widows suffered a lack of support after the death of their husband and lived on the margins of society as charity cases. They were often victims of neglect and denied justice in court. The widow is the one who suffers the kherpa—the taunting, the stripping of her value, the exposure and neglect. Her life is of little value in the world’s eyes.

The LORD then addresses women who have experienced shame and a loss of fruitfulness because of a broken relationship with their husband: the forsaken woman and the youthful wife who has been forgotten. Remember Israel’s cry in Isaiah 49:14,  "The LORD has forsaken me, and my Lord has forgotten me." She has cast herself in this role.

• The forsaken woman is like the widow in verse 4. “Forsaken” describes a woman who has been “loosed” from a husband or left behind when a husband deserts her. There is a shame associated with that abandonment and loss of fruitfulness.
  
  
• The youthful wife is like the youth. She has all the promise of fruitfulness in her, but that fruitfulness is denied to her by a husband who has developed an aversion to her and refuses to have relations with her.

In verses 2-3, God commanded the barren woman to enlarge her tents in hope. In verse 4, He command her not to be afraid of being humiliated for speaking out and stepping out in faith. Why? Because He is her Husband (v5), and He is calling to her.


He is a merciful Husband. He put her away for a little while, until the shame of her unfaithfulness is felt strongly enough to bring about her repentance and return to Him, but He promises that He will gather her again with “great mercies” (v7). His words describes a deep, deep compassion for her, like the compassion a mother has for the child she carries in her womb. He says He will have mercy on her and show her an everlasting kindness. Do you feel the tenderness in the LORD’s words? Don’t we ache for tenderness from our husbands when we have been at odds with one another?

Israel is the youth who pursued her lusts. She is the widow who has reaped a bitter end. She is the woman who grieves over being abandoned for her unfaithfulness and suffers a fruitless life as a result, but now God holds out His arms to her. God models mercy for us in the way He handles Israel. The promises He makes to her—a literal release from Babylonian exile and restoration to her land and inheritance—are made specifically to her in the immediate context, but His character is universal, and His extends this same grace and mercy to all people. We see a reflection of Israel in our own experiences.

Q:   How does He help us forget the shame of our youth?
Q:   For those of you who are widows, how has God been a husband to you?

Some women among us may actually have experienced the pain of being abandoned by a husband or suffer from one who is physically or emotionally distant. It is devastating when it happens with a physical husband. Imagine what it would be like if it happened with our spiritual Husband as well. Fortunately, we have a merciful God who promises He will not abandon us, even when our earthly husbands do.

Isaiah 54:9-10
In verses 9-10, God gives Israel a comparison to help illustrate His mercy. He says that Israel’s exile is like the “waters of Noah”, that is, the Flood. That was another instance of His outpouring of fury on sinful and idolatrous people, and yet He preserved a remnant who would enter into abundant life in a new world.


God promised not to be angry and punishing to His people forever. He didn’t let His anger and judgment rule His relationship with them permanently. His mercy and kindness toward them will always be there, and He desires peace with them.

The Stumbling Block of Shame
We have all experienced shame in life. It’s a universal human experience.


By definition, shame is something that is felt when a person’s conscience convicts them for having violated a set of rules, values, or even social norms. Shame is, therefore, closely tied to values, validation, and personal worth. Shame can motivate us to change our behavior to get acceptance and validation.


There is a healthy shame that convicts us of sin—violating God’s righteous rules and values—and that shame is necessary to motivate us to repent and return to God. This is the kind of shame being addressed in this passage. God is able to remove Israel’s shame by providing a substitutionary sacrifice for her sin through the Servant’s death. The Servant identified with that shame. He took it from her and bore it Himself, then took it to the grave with Him. That pivotal act was meant, above all, to remove guilt and shame, and not just for Israel, but for us. Because of our identification with Christ and acceptance of His sacrifice for our sins, we now have that same covenant of peace with God the Father and there should be no reason to stand before God our Husband, naked and ashamed. It remains for us to experience an abundant life with the King in His coming kingdom.


Shame enters only when we let go of that identity with Him—when we don't cling to that cross and God’s grace. That is when we stumble back into shame, and with it, fear and despair over not being loved by God. God’s grace and forgiveness were meant to empower us and protect us from the world’s condemnation, and when we let go of those and seek validation for our works instead, we open ourselves to the world’s condemnation because the world has its own skewed values and social norms. The world does not understand grace, and it will never, ever grant us grace.

Shaming and humiliation has become a severe problem in our modern culture. It is a bullying tactic used by people who seek to dominate and force compliance with their skewed ideals. It is also used for amusement. God forgives and forgets, but the world never forgives, and social media never forgets. Every mistake and ill-spoken word can be captured and broadcasted before the world in the blink of an eye. And that is just the stupid stuff we do. What happens when they catch us taking a stand for our faith? It’s brutal. And the world loves it. They support it and encourage it. But it destroys a person’s worth, and those feelings of inferiority and guilt can still linger long after the oppressor is gone or another video has gone viral.

Shaming and humiliation have also become methods of punishment that God never, ever intended to be used. When He laid out the rules for punishing someone, it was to be done in a way that was just and brought about repentance, but did not rob a person of personal worth or value in the eyes of society. There was a set punishment for a set crime, the person knew what that punishment would be before they sinned, and when the punishment was delivered, that was the end of it (Deuteronomy 25:3). There was a distinction made between a controlled punishment and a beating. A controlled punishment was meant to bring repentance so a person could be restored to fellowship. A beating was forbidden because it was humiliating and destructive and prevented a person from returning to fellowship with others afterward.

But our culture has skewed God’s values on this. Here is an example that I have seen play out over my own lifetime. I grew up in the generation that believed in corporal punishment and spanked children, and, granted, there were abuses of that form of punishment. But when society saw a child being physically beaten, instead of realigning with God’s values and punishing the individual abuser as God would, it banned all forms of physical punishment and substituted verbal punishment instead. You talk to the child. You reason with the child. My generation soon discovered that was not effective very often, and so parents began to resort to verbal shaming that was just as humiliating as a physical beating. Again, God forgives and forgets, but people don’t. This has been the work of several generations, but we now have a generation of children who have perfected the art of verbal abuse and humiliation, and we have given them social media as a platform on which to practice it. And for the record, the world’s solution hasn’t stopped the physical abuse at all. In fact, it is more rampant than ever. Substituting physical punishment with verbal punishment only amplified the problem.


With more shaming. Any criticism that might be considered to undermine a person’s worth, even when it is good, healthy counsel given in the person’s best interests, is labeled as shaming and the alleged shamer then gets shamed in return. Here is an example:


The military retiree is not some 6th grader running around the school yard taunting her son. He speaks the truth learned from a negative life experience, and out of concern for his nephew, he desires to warn the young man from pursuing a path down which he himself struggled. And yet he is shamed for giving healthy criticism that would lead to his nephew’s future health and well-being, and the shaming is done by the very woman who should be equally concerned but isn’t. This is the culture in which we live now, where children are taught not to listen to good counsel and healthy criticism that would benefit them, and this is what is being promoted in our public schools.


The world shames us when we run counter to its values, but even more so when we step out in our faith as a witness for Christ. The world loves nothing more than to dig up our past failings and throw them in our faces, and when we offer faith-based comfort, it blows back at us with a vengeance. The fear of being shamed or humiliated can impact our witness for Christ, but we are warned against being sway by this. We are called to take up the cross with Christ. Jesus said,



Questions for Reflection:
Perhaps the solution to shaming begins with us. Here are some questions for self-reflection:
Shame is a stumbling block because it prevents healing and restoration to fellowship. Do not put this stumbling block in your brother's or sister's path.

We have dealt with the past. Now on to the abundant future.

Is there comfort in sacrifice? No, of course not, and yet, maybe. It depends on what sacrifice is being demanded, how the person making the sacrifice views it, and what benefit they hope to achieve by it. Parents make sacrifices for their children all the time. Sometimes children make sacrifices for their parents. Husbands and wives make sacrifices for one another. A person might sacrifice time and resources for a good friend or a good cause. Making that sacrifice declares the value a person places on that relationship or greater cause.
The sacrifice might only be a sacrifice of time or resources, but it might be something as serious as giving up one’s life. A first responder risks death to save someone. Soldiers give their lives for their country. Paul remarks,


Again, making a sacrifice declares the value a person places on that relationship or greater cause. But is there comfort in the sacrifice?

Think of a sacrifice you personally have made and what it cost you.
God engages us as His co-laborers in this Highway Project in comforting and restoring hurting and struggling people, and that task often demands a sacrifice on our part.


Now let’s change the perspective a little. So far, the Servant has been the one entering into another person’s suffering. What if He was the one suffering and asking you to identify with and share in His suffering?


I think there can be if we consider how it deepens our relationship with Him and bears witness of the value we place on Him.

Overview
Last week we talked about the comfort of the good news in Isaiah 52. Redemption has been purchased freely by grace. Even as God declared the greatness of His reputation and intent to reestablish His glory, He humbled Himself as a Servant to redeem His people. He extended His holy arm—His Son, His King, and the symbol of His strength—to bring them salvation, but as we will see today that glorious Arm will, in turn, render His strength as He sacrifices Himself to save not just Israel but the world. The extreme act of humility and self-sacrifice seems completely contradictory to the goal of glorification, and yet it is through the Servant’s sacrifice that God’s glory is reestablished.

We pick up now with the final verses of Isaiah 52 that present a picture of the coming king. Just as the first messianic deliverer, Cyrus, was given a grand introduction in Chapter 44, followed by the details of his tasking and reward in Chapter 45, the Servant is now given a grand introduction in Chapter 52, followed by the details of His tasking and reward in Chapter 53. But again, the picture is equally glorious and terrible to behold.

I don’t often start off with a New Testament verse, but today I want to start with a verse from John 12, where Jesus is teaching the people about how both He and the Father will be glorified through His death on the cross. The apostle John references and quotes the Isaiah verses that we are studying today as he relates Jesus’ teaching, and he concludes his report with this statement:


Even as we read about the death of the Suffering Servant-King today, we are going to be presented with an understanding of glory as seen from God’s eyes that will put suffering into perspective. After we go through the Isaiah passage, we will look at John 12 again.

Isaiah 52:13-15
After the grand chorus of the good news, proclaiming peace, salvation, and comfort to God's people, Isaiah 52 ends with the heralding God’s Servant, the coming king. There is a three-fold description of His glory in verse 13. In the NKJV, it says He will be exalted, extolled, and very high. Other versions might say raised, lifted up, and highly exalted. The words seem redundant, which is why we often pass over them so quickly, but we should look at the meanings of the three Hebrew words behind the translation because there is more to the picture.

• to lift up (one’s head, face, eyes, voice, soul, etc.) 
• to lift up for the purpose of taking something away, like a heavy load. 
• to bear up or carry—figuratively, to endure or suffer something in order to relieve another. Depending on how it is used, it can describe you lifting a burden from someone else, or it can mean that you yourself are the thing being lifted up and taken away. Thus, this word has some somber undertones in regard to suffering or even being taken away in death.

Order is important in the Old Testament. Note the progression of these words:

• It begins with rûm, being exalted, like a king at his triumphal entry.
• Then, nasa—being lifted up, being made to endure suffering by bearing another’s burden until finally being taken away altogether. That is the full picture of nasa brought together in one moment.
• And then gabah, soaring up majestically to be exalted and glorified.

The triumphal entry isn’t hard to grasp, nor is the kingly glorification in the end, but the middle experience described by "nasa" is a little complex and that is what gets unpacked in Isaiah 53.
 
Remember, God’s Highway Project has required both processes of lifting up and tearing down to accomplish God’s goals of peace and pardon for sin. Here we have the description of a lifting-up action—something being made high and exalted—and yet there is a balancing act of tearing-down in the midst of it.

But this is the nature of highways. Sometimes you have to turn right before you can go left, and sometimes you have to go south for a ways before you can go north. Have you ever come out of a driveway wanting to turn left onto a highway, but you couldn’t because there is a barrier blocking the turn? So, what do you do? You turn right and travel for a ways until you can make a U-turn. And then you go left and proceed in the direction that you really wanted to go. It feels like you lost ground unnecessarily, but in the end, you get where you want to go and where you are meant to be. Highways in life are like this.

The Servant is going to be glorified in the end, but He is going to have to south for a bit before He goes north. He had to be torn down before He can be lifted up, but for a purpose.

"Man . . . Son of Man . . ."
In verse 14, it says that the Servant’s appearance will be exceedingly marred more than any man or more than the sons of men. That comparative phrase, “man . . . son of man,” is a formulaic statement that we see often in the Old Testament (Numbers 23:19; Job 25:6, 35: 8; Psalm 8:4, 80:17, 144:3, 146:3, Isaiah 56:2). Man and son identify with each other not by blood relationship but because of their shared character, condition, or experience. This is why Ezekiel is called “son of man” repeatedly, because the LORD tasked him with identifying the people’s condition, often by pantomiming it. It is also why Jesus is called the Son of God or Son of Man in the gospels. He uses that “Son of” title to express His identification with character or condition of God the Father, but also, at times, with the people. The use of this formulaic statement clues us to the fact that there is a kind of identification going on—the Servant is identifying with the condition of the people.


Verse 15 says He will sprinkle (some translations say "startle") many nations. Sprinkling and startling are two very different actions in our English understanding, but not in the Hebrew. The Hebrew word simply means “to leap.” Leaping can describe water or blood leaping from its source in a spurting, sprinkling, or spattering manner, or it can describe a startled or springing up action.

Isaiah presents this glorious and yet horrifying picture of the coming king, and what is Israel’s response?

Isaiah 53:1-4
Israel once wailed “Awake, awake, o arm of the LORD!” (Isaiah 51:9). The prophet now replies, the Arm of the LORD is revealed! You have heard the good news! Why won’t you believe it?


This is not how she wanted to be delivered. This Servant doesn't fit her mental picture of the hoped-for Messiah. He should be more like Cyrus. He should conquer the oppressor, put Israel’s enemies under His feet, and reign on the throne. Cyrus set the bar pretty high for a Messiah-King. This is not her idea of comfort, either. This isn’t good news. Sometimes, God’s idea of comfort seems alien to us, and it challenges us to consider how we define comfort.


The Servant’s identification with Israel’s condition is what equips Him to offer comfort, and the wincing description here in Isaiah 53 is as much a description of her as it is of Him. In her bondage, Israel has no beauty. She is not desired. She is despised and rejected, acquainted with sorrow and grief. The Hebrew word for grief actually means sickness or affliction. The Servant is the very reflection of her, and she hides her face from that reflection (v3). He identifies with her, but she does not want to identify with Him. She considers her own plight to have been caused by the Babylonians, but this man—this man has been stricken by God (v4). That, too, is a denial. God told Israel back in Isaiah 42 that He Himself was the one who gave her over to the Babylonians on account of her sin (Isaiah 42:23-25).

When we don’t like what we see in the mirror, we turn from our reflection, don’t we? We have previously talked about why a person would refuse comfort, and one reason was because they don’t want to acknowledge their own condition and it becomes a stumbling block. This is why, when a victim is faced with the reflection of themselves in their comforter, they will want to deny the association. They will stab a finger at the comforter and say something like, “I am nothing like you! You deserved what you got. I did not!” They won’t want to hear it and will scorn the comfort. That is what Israel did to her Comforter. Thus, He became a stumbling block for her. Instead of accepting the redemption He offered her freely by grace, she turned back to trying to redeem herself by her own effort. She could not accept the gift, not from His hands.

Isaiah 53:5-10
The prophet forces Israel to identify with the Servant as the trespass offering for her sin. He endured this for her. He bore the affliction silently. Note: the Servant, who has been speaking for Himself in previous passages, goes notably silent in this chapter. The only speakers are the prophet in verses 1-10, and the LORD Himself in verses 11-12. The Servant’s silence is deafening.

There is a particular word that we should savor in verse 5. It is the word in the NKJV is “wounded;” other translations say “pierced.” In the Hebrew, it is the word, ḥalal (pronounces ha-layl with a phlegmy “h”).

• In a physical sense, it means to be pierced, as with a sword or spear, so as to inflict a mortal wound and cause death. This kind of piercing also describes a woman being raped—when a man enters into a place where he had no right to go and defiles her, and that defilement begins to consume her mentally, emotionally, and even spiritually.
  
  
• In a spiritual sense, it means to be defiled or profaned. Just as corruption enters an open wound so that the man becomes sick and dies, so spiritual defilement enters a man and pollutes him and he dies.
  
  
• The entering-in of corruption or defilement all begins with that initial way being opened. Thus, ḥalal is also translated as “to begin” to do something. Something begins, and that beginning opens a way for a train of events to unfold that lead to death, separation, or defilement, but out of that experience comes a new beginning (Genesis 4:26, 6:1, 9:20, 10:8, 11:6, 41:54). Example: The Flood was the end result of a train of events that began with a ḥalal-ing moment in Genesis 6:1-2:
  
  

Here in Isaiah 53, the Servant was ḥalal-ed for our transgressions. He was pierced physically. He was profaned spiritually. The piercing and defilement led to His death but also bought our redemption and put an end to the curse. Verses 8-10 details the Servant’s death. There is no doubt that this is a death, and the LORD’s hand was in it. The LORD was the one who gave Him the cup of fury to drink and He drank it to the dregs. But then, in verse 10, there a reversal, mid-verse. The Servant, who was dead, has somehow prolonged His days. He will see prosperity and a return for His labor. Thus, that death was not an end but a new beginning. His resurrection initiated a new life under a new covenant. It was a ḥalal-ing in the fullest expression of that word.

Isaiah 53:11-12
The speaker shifts in verses 11-12. A third-party had been speaking of the LORD and the Servant, but now the LORD Himself speaks. “I will divide Him a portion with the great . . .” This is the LORD Himself rewarding the Servant.

This is the reward on which the Servant had set His sights when it seemed his effort was in vain (Isaiah 49:4). Having come through the ordeal, the Servant now sees the result of His labor and is satisfied, meaning He feels fulfilled and overflowing, like a cup that runs over with fine wine.

The LORD grants the Servant a portion with the great, and the Servant, in turn, shares His spoil with “the strong,” much like His ancestor David used to do with his mighty men. Who are "the strong"? What defines a “mighty man,” or woman for that matter?
It depends on whose definition and values you use.

By the world’s definition, the strong are the biggest bullies on the block. They are the most popular candidate who receives the most number of voters at a polling booth or the influencer with largest number of supporters for their social cause. But as imposing as it might appear, that kind of strength has no eternal power. The strongest nation can be broken in one day. The LORD proved that with Babylon. The strongest athlete can be broken with one injury. The strongest support can evaporate overnight when popularity shifts. The strongest anything that is of this world can be reduced to nothing if God merely blows on it.

Those who are strong by the world's standard are not the ones with whom the Servant shares His spoil. The strong, by the Servant’s definition, are those who look beyond the fleetingness of the earthly riches and sacrifice all in pursuit of the heavenly kingdom, just as He did. They identify with Him as disciples and follow in His footsteps.


The Servant has been the one coming to us and identifying with us in our suffering, but now He invites us to come to Him and identify with Him in His suffering as a way of testing our strength. To those who bear the burden and endure as He did, He divides the spoil, but what is the spoil?


It is. We will come back to a discussion of the reward when we get to the kingdom picture in Isaiah 55, and I will show you how this picture in Isaiah lines up with New Testament teaching on crowns.

The Servant’s glorification had come full circle. The rûm glorification played out at His triumphal entry. The lifting-up act described in the word, nasa, has now played out. The Servant was lifted up as an offering and made to bear the burden of the people’s sin. As He was taken away, He took that guilt and judgment with Him. And now, He is gabah-ed. He is lifted up again, this time with all the dignity and honor of an eternal king. This is the understanding of how His glorification would be accomplished that Jesus tried in vain to explain to the people who were hailing him king at His triumphal entry.

John 12:23-41
The Messianic King has just made His triumphal entry into Jerusalem (John 12:12-16). The people expect Him to be the conquering Messiah-King who will overthrow Rome and make Israel great again. But instead, He stands up before them and begins to talk to those with whom He would share His glory about being lifted up in death to the glory of God the Father—the same very picture of rûm, nasa, and gabah described in Isaiah 52 and 53.

Keep in mind, the Hebrew words in Isaiah are a little difficult to understand because the common language of Israel is no longer Hebrew but Greek, and the Greek translation of the word, nasa, doesn’t capture the full depth of its meaning. In the Greek, it just comes across as being exalted and honored like a king, but it loses the sense of being made to endure a burden and be taken away. So, there is a language difficulty. To recapture that sense of the Hebrew word, Jesus clarifies it by adding a phrase in verse 32, saying that He will be lifted up “from the earth.” In other words, He isn’t just lifted up like a king being paid homage. He will be literally lifted up and taken away from earth, out of this world. He is going to heaven, which means He is going to die. But how can that be? (Sometimes you have go south, before you can go north.)

Jesus has been referring to Himself as the Son of God/Son of Man throughout His ministry. He employs the formulaic as a way of expressing His identification with God, but also with the people. The people question Him about it here, in verse 34.


The Son of Man is obviously the King who has just come into His eternal kingdom, but He is not identifying with that glorified condition or experience. Quite the opposite. This is a problem because the people of Israel expect to share in the spoil from His glorification as a king, not in this appalling picture of suffering and death. And so they question Him sharply. Who is this Son of Man? Explain the analogy to us.

Jesus doesn’t explain it. Instead, He answers with His own twist on that formulaic (John 12:35-36). Instead of using the “man . . . sons of man” analogy, He substitutes “light . . .  sons of light”. Again, He is playing off the imagery of the Servant pictured in Isaiah, who is described as the one who would bring light to the world. That should have connected the dots for them, but it doesn’t shed light on things at all. The apostle John sums up this exchange with the quotes from Isaiah 53:1 and Isaiah 6:10, remarking on Israel’s blindness and the reason for it, then sums it all up by saying, “These things Isaiah said when he saw His [Christ’s] glory and spoke of Him.” 

Back in Isaiah 52:5-6, God swore that He would put an end to His name being blasphemed continually, and that in that day, His people would know that He was the one who said, “Hinneni. Here I am, your Servant.”  He said He would lay bare His holy arm and all the world would see His salvation. But this isn’t the way that anyone imagined He would take back His glory.

But this piercing, this death, was the only means of creating a way out of a crooked place.

God’s Highway Project: The Way Out of a Crooked Place
The Servant’s sacrifice is the turning point in God’s Highway Project. Isaiah 53 marks the exact center in the span of Chapters 40-66, and presents the apex act of salvation that will end the conflict on the spiritual plane and set straight the path that will lead to the final end of all conflict. Just dealing with the physical oppressor hadn’t lifted the oppression. Cyrus’ efforts had proved that. Israel needed healing from the inside out, because it was the internal, spiritual problem that had gotten her into her destructive, conflicted lifestyles. Once the internal, spiritual healing was accomplished and her values set right, then the external oppression would end and she would not return to it.

There are aspects of the healing and restoration process that could not be addressed until this barrier was overcome, notably the stumbling block of shame which we will discuss next week. From this point on, we will begin to see pictures of a glorious coming kingdom, an abundant new life, and a perpetual covenant of peace, and not just for Israel. The Suffering Servant will be universal Savior, and He will offer a place in that kingdom to those who believe in Him and accept that sacrifice for their sins—even those who Israel would not consider kingdom-worthy. Israel’s skewed sense of values and ideas of right worship are more stumbling blocks that God will have to correct before He can bring her fully into that kingdom. These are all the topics of futures chapters.

We have become so skeptical in life. We get bombarded daily by ad campaigns, advice columnists, and health gurus telling us that they have the “miracle” solution to our ills and problems, and for the most part we tune them out. They sound too good to be true, anyway. So, we turn the channel, ignore the flashing ads on websites, and throw the mailers in the trash. But what if, in the middle of all the messages we are ignoring, there really was a solution that would bring world peace? God’s message has to compete with the deafening roar of the world around us, and too often His good news falls on deaf ears. But He keeps saying it and saying it, hoping that it will one day sink in.

Isaiah 52 is a continuation of the conversation begun in Chapter 51, where Israel stubbornly implored the Arm of God to “awake, awake!”—to get up and do something on her behalf. God immediately parroted those goading words back to her, telling her she is the one who needs rouse herself and get moving. He has taken the cup from her and given it to another. This is good news! She has no reason for despair.

Isaiah 52:1-3
The chapter begins with an imperative exhortation to “Awake, awake!” This is a parroting what Israel said earlier in Isaiah 51:9, where she stubbornly implored the Arm of God to “Awake, awake!” on her behalf, ransom her, and lead her out of exile. In response, God tells her, awake yourself and stand up! The judgment is over. I’ve taken the cup of My fury away, and I am giving it to your oppressors (51:17-23). He now repeats the exhortation, “Awake, awake,” a second time as He calls to Jerusalem in Chapter 52. This message picks up where the last left off on the theme of vengeance. It is not obvious at first because we are only given a picture of Jerusalem here in Isaiah 52, but this passage is the counterpart to the picture of Babylon in Isaiah 47. Jerusalem, the reigning city of Israel, and Babylon, the reigning city of Babylonia, are both addressed as royal daughters and given a series of parallel imperative commands. Compare the imperative commands in each passage.


Babylon has been dethroned, and Jerusalem reigns in her place. Jerusalem is presented as a beautiful bride, strong, and purified. She has been redeemed, and now she rises from the dust, unfettered, to resume her throne like a queen.


We read in Ezra and Nehemiah that Jerusalem was in shambles when the exiles returned, and it took the work of several generations to restore her to even a semblance of her former glory. Even today, she is overrun and embattled with oppressors. Isaiah's words imply that this picture of Jerusalem in her restored glory will be accomplished imminently, and yet, from where we stand today in the historical timeline, it remains, as yet, unfulfilled. But it is coming (Revelation 21).

You would have thought that a queen’s ransom would have been paid for Israel's release, and yet, the LORD says in verse 3 that since she sold herself for nothing, her redemption will be purchased without money. This is an echo of something the LORD said back in Chapter 50, where we find the same phrase “you have sold yourselves.”


Israel has sold herself into bondage in pursuit of her sin and lusts—and for nothing. God adds that comment now, and we should pay attention to that phrase. “For nothing” is the English translation of the Hebrew word, ḥinnam, and while it is an accurate translation, it doesn’t fully express the meaning of that word. Ḥinnam means “freely, gratuitously, for nothing, without cause,” but it comes from a word family that focuses on the characteristic of grace—something that is given freely. Here is the word family:

• (adverb) ḥinnam “freely, for nothing, without cause”
• (verb) ḥanan, “to be gracious, merciful, to show favor”
• (noun) ḥen, “grace or favor,” in appearance or manner, like a graceful woman or wise man’s words, or “graciousness and favor” that is granted as a sign of acceptance (by men or by God) e.g. “But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.” (Genesis 6:8 NKJV)

The LORD uses the word, ḥinnam, to evoke a picture that is negative on one side, but positive on the other. In the negative, Israel is like a beautiful, graceful woman who, gratuitously and of her own free will, gave her favors away to those would abuse her, and it was for no reason and for nothing in return. He emphasizes the “nothingness” in her actions, but even more so, the freeness of her actions. Israel was given freedom of choice as to where she chose to grant her favors, and she exercised that freedom in pursuit of her sinful desires, and we can see from her model just how destructive that choice became for both mother and children.

But then God turns the tables on her situation, and He, too, makes a choice of His own free will. He redeems her as freely as she once sold herself. He chooses to be gracious to her, to extend His favor to her, and grant her new life again. Not because she merits it. Not because she can pay for it. Simply because He freely chooses to do it, by His grace. This is the superiority of God. He takes Israel’s own negative, self-destructive choices and balances the scales with His own positive, healing action. Thus, He cancels the debt, through grace. The granting of grace is the first piece of good news for Israel--and for us.

It is a poignant comment on our own society that we should have learned nothing from Israel's model. Freedom of choice has become the rallying cry for those who wish to abort a child in their womb, a child who--with some exceptions--is the consequence of sin and pursuit of carnal desires, whether on the part of a woman who gives her favors gratuitously, or on the part of her abuser, who slakes his own desires on her. So many children have died for the sake of their mother's or father's freedom of choice, even as Israel's children did, and the women who have exercised their freedom by aborting a child find themselves sold into the mental and emotional bondage of guilt, grief, anger, fear, shame, and regret. All of these are well-documented, post-abortion reactions. They are all stumbling blocks that prevent healing and restoration.



Isaiah 52:4-6
In verses 4-6, we see another twist in the redemption plan. The picture begins with a build-up of God’s reputation. Israel's past oppressions are remembered: the oppression of Egypt, then Assyria (remember, Assyria took the northern tribes captive but was then overtaken by the Babylonians). While exile is a necessary evil to turn God's people back to Him, it causes the Gentile nations to scoff at Israel for having been driven from her land, as if the God she served was too weak to prevent it or even redeem her. Therefore, when God brings her out of the nations, He does it not for her sake but His own, to reestablish His own reputation in the eyes of those nations and also in the eyes of His own people. (Ezekiel 36:17-32 explains this more fully.) Then, comes the twist in verse 6:


Pay attention to that little phrase, “Hear I am!” which, in the Hebrew, is the phrase, “hinneni.” This phrase is similar to “Behold, your God!” (Hinne Elohekem) in Isaiah 40:9, but it is opposite in tone. It is usually the response of one of lesser status to one of greater status, for instance:

• When a man responds to God's calling, such as Abraham saying, "Here I am!" (Genesis 22:1)
• When a son responds to a father, such as Samuel to Eli (1 Samuel 3)
• When a servant responds to a master 

On a rare occasion, a father will answer a beloved son with hinneni (Genesis 22:7, 27:18), but only here in Isaiah does God use these words. Even as God presents Himself in the greatness of His glory and declares that He is taking back His reputation, He humbles Himself with this simple Hebrew phrase, "Here I am," to His people. He allows Himself to be summoned like a servant by His own servants. It is a complete reversal of roles and a shocking contradiction.


So, this is the good news as it is unfolding. Grace is being extended. God Himself, taking the form of a Servant, will accomplish it, for His own glory.

Isaiah 52:7
Again, these verses are a reiteration of commands given back in Isaiah 40:9. Tell them the good news! Proclaim peace! Proclaim salvation! Bring glad tidings! There is a difference, though. In Isaiah 40:9, Zion and Jerusalem were the ones being commanded to get up to the mountains and proclaim. Here, it is opposite. Zion has to be told, instead of being the one doing the telling. God calls the watchmen to not stay silent (another theme from the last chapter).


We should note the word used for salvation in verse 7. The particular Hebrew word for salvation here is yeshua. Yeshua is the common word from which the proper name, Yeshua, springs. When that name gets translated into the Greek, it becomes Iesous or Jesus.


Paul quotes this verse in his letter to the Romans.


Even if the gospel messengers are doing their job, God’s message of good news does no good when it falls on deaf ears. Isaiah has been belaboring the fact that despite God's every effort, Israel has been unresponsive to Him. She refuses to believe Him and be comforted. Even the Servant bemoaned the fact that His labor had been in vain (Isaiah 49:4).


Even to this day, Israel still resists the good news, which is why God's Highway Project is still ongoing, and the Gentile believers have a roll to play in that process, if only in provoking Israel to grapple with her understanding of grace.  

Isaiah 52:8-10
We have talked about the "Sing!" passages in previous chapters. The "sing" commands are always in conjunction with proclamations of coming deliverers.

There is a particular statement about the LORD "baring His arm [Heb: zeroah]" in this one. Let’s talk about this piece of imagery because it is significant.

The word, zeroah, in general, refers to an arm as symbolic of strength. A literal arm becomes figurative of the strength of a man or the strength of a nation. A nation’s strength is in its king, its political might, and its military forces. But the strength of the zeroah is ultimately something controlled, granted, or taken away by the LORD Himself, either to an individual or a nation (Genesis 49:24, Judges 15:14, 1 Samuel 2:31, Ezekiel 30:24-25).The strength of the zeroah isn't just in physical might. In stark contrast to this strong imagery, the zeroah takes a very singular form as the shoulder of the sacrificed bull or ram, the boiled meat given to the Levites as their portion (Deuteronomy 18:3). This is where there is a twist. However strong a bull’s or ram’s arm may be, that strength is something that it renders to the LORD at its death when it becomes a sacrifice for sin. Thus, that which was physically strong becomes weak, but in that mortal weakness, it takes on a different kind of strength—a spiritual strength that has the power to redeem. And so, this portion of the sacrificial offering with its symbolic strength is given to the priests as part of their portion. It becomes associated not just with kingly power but priestly, intercessory power.

Thus, two contrasting images are embodied in one word. One is the greatest expression of physical strength that can be granted only by the hand of the LORD. The other is the greatest expression of spiritual strength and redemptive power, expressed in the rendering up of strength and assuming utter physical weakness. This is the understanding of the zeroah in general. Now let's look at the Arm of the LORD specifically.

The LORD promised Israel when He was preparing to bring them out of Egypt at the Passover, that He would deliver them from bondage and redeem them with His outstretched arm in a mighty display of strength (Exodus 6:6). But now the picture of the Arm of the LORD begins to take a more distinctive shape in Isaiah prophecies. It is addressed directly as if it were human (Isaiah 51:9). Works are attributed to it, particularly the work of deliverance, judgment, and kingly governance (Isaiah 30:30, 40:10, 52:10). The Arm is not just mighty but holy. It has a spiritual character.

Thus, two contrasting qualities are embodied in that arm—physical strength, but at the same time, spiritual strength manifested through physical weakness. The dual nature is like all-powerful God humbling Himself to become a sacrificial servant. He is both God and servant, strong and weak. And He tells his people, hinneni. Here I am! See the salvation—the Yeshua—of your God!Isaiah 52:11-12
The chapter began with “Awake, awake!” followed by a litany of imperative commands. Now God says, “Depart, depart!” and gives another litany of commands to the newly purified people: “Go out . . . do not touch . . . go out . . . be clean.” Jerusalem is purified. Those who bear the LORD’s vessels are clean, and they proceed out of exile with stateliness and security, almost as if escorting a king.
Paul sees an application for us. He quotes this verse in Isaiah when he speaks to the Corinthian church about being holy (I have underlined the quote from Isaiah):



When God's Presence lived in a physical Tabernacle/Temple, Israel was called to separate herself from the world around her to create a physical barrier between God's holiness and the world's uncleanness. As a nation, she was the "body" that housed the dwelling place of God. Now, we, as individual believers, have a "body" that houses an indwelling Holy Spirit.


Looking Forward
This is the grand lead-in to the reveal of the Suffering Servant in Isaiah 53, which is the pinnacle act of salvation in God's Highway Project. It is presented rather obliquely, but all the elements are there. The call to an awakening, which is likened to a resurrection. The gift of grace. The glory of God humbled to the form of a servant. The strength of His arm on display for all the world to see. The good news of salvation--of Yeshua--that releases God's people from bondage and cleanses them. Sing, for the king is coming! We will pick up next week with the glory of the Arm of the LORD on display.

Earlier in this chapter, the Servant gave some instructions to the righteous—those who were still seeking God and kept His law in their hearts, but struggled with facing their hostile and abusive world. He told them to remember the rock from which they had been hewn and the pit from which they had been dug. Remember their ancestor, Abraham, that great model of righteousness and faith, and the covenantal promise that flowed from Abraham through a lineage of sons that would one day result in a messianic king who would establish a kingdom of righteousness and peace. The discussion ended with the comparison between big things and little things, eternal things and fleeting things. If Israel is going to combat her despair, she needs faith, but she also needs to maintain perspective.

In verse 7, Israel was given the command, “Do not fear the reproach of men, nor be afraid of their insults,” and we talked about the general conflict we face when our understanding of godly righteousness runs up against the world’s idea of righteousness. Today, things are going to heat up. Israel is suffering a lot more than verbal abuse over ideology. We see that she is actually facing abusive fury, even physical abuse. We pick up now in verse 9 with Israel’s response to the command not to fear.

Isaiah 51:9-11 (Israel’s response)
Have you ever been struggling, really, really struggling, with some issue in your life that is causing you no end of grief, but when you try to voice your struggle to a friend (a fellow believer), they just pat you on the shoulder and give you some infuriatingly simplistic answer like “Don’t worry, it will be alright. You just have to have faith.” It’s so simplistic that it seems almost dismissive.


Clearly they are not comprehending the depth of the problem that is making our lives a struggle every single day with no relief in sight. So, we maybe we vent a little. Maybe we voice our lament. Someone needs to do something at this point because we are at our limit.   
I think we can appreciate Israel’s words here, and yet we cannot overlook all that we know about the conversation that she has had with God to date. This isn’t the first time He has told her not to fear. That command resounded through Chapters 40-48 where He laid out His plan to deliver her from Babylonia. He is more than able to do it. His plan to send Cyrus to take her out of her abuser’s hands is already in works, and He has told her about the humiliation he intends for Lady Babylon. All this has already been discussed even as she voices this lament, and it is a lament.

When we read this in our English translations, we might take Israel’s tone as more of an exhortation to God to act, but Jewish scholars remark^[1] that these verses have the character of a lament in that they speak of God's heroic victories in the past as a way of goading Him into action, if only for the sake of His own reputation. Israel reminds Him of the things of which He is capable, and implores Him with an almost beseeching wail to awake—to rouse Himself. Get up! Do something! As if He hasn’t done anything. There is a disconnect here. Is God not awake to her plight? Has He done nothing so far to comfort her?


Again, we have this lingering issue of Israel's failure to internalize the hope God and His Servant are offering her.

Isaiah 51:12-16 (God's reply)
The Servant's patience is phenomenal. He ignores the emotion-laden goading and answers her cry with a question that should provoke rational reflection. Building off the comparisons of eternal and fleeting things that He had previously presented in verses 6-8, He asks, "Why are you afraid of a man who will die like the grass? Have you forgotten who I am?" In other words, let’s put this in perspective. You are like grass, but so is your oppressor. This abusive, overbearing person in your life might seem so strong and hold such power over you, but they are just as fragile as you in My hand, and they are going die the same as you. They are nothing. They are grass.

Before we come down too hard on Israel, we should acknowledge that she is still in the power of her abuser at this point and what God/the Servant is asking her to do is a very hard thing. She isn’t just afraid of the reproaches and insults of men in verse 7. She is facing the fury of the oppressor who is seeking to destroy her in verse 13. The phrasing in the Hebrew conveys the idea that while the oppressor maybe be bent on her destruction, he may not actually have the wherewithal to accomplish it. There is only a perception of power. Nevertheless, the actual experience is a very intimidating kind of fury that she is facing. The Hebrew word for “fury” means rage, anger, indignation, even poison.


Note: The Hebrew word for captive exile means bent, stooped or "tipped over." Jeremiah uses this term figuratively to describe a man as a vessel used by seasonal wine-workers who tip the vessel over, pour it out, and leave it empty and broken. These oppressors are transient—they come and go in a season—and yet this is the state in which they leave the vessel. That describes the exile here. She has been put into the hands of rough handlers who didn’t care about her well-being or whether they broke her, but used her as it suited their purpose.

Depending on which English translation you are using, verse 14 will be rendered either:

or,
In the KJV and NKJV translations, it is the captive who acts hastily to appease the oppressor. In the NASB and other versions, it is God who acts hastily to set the captive free. The different translations are not in conflict with one another. Both are true, and both have merit, considering the context. God promises Israel that He will act hastily on her behalf, but I think it is also accurate to say that the behavior of a fearful person is often marked by haste. Fear can rob a person of a sound mind, and when facing the abusive fury of an oppressor, the victim moves hastily and makes decisions hastily, often out of self-preservation. They may think that by pleasing or appeasing the oppressor they might escape that fury, so they quickly bow and bear the burden for fear that they will be denied necessary things like food and shelter. They fear being caught in “the pit.” This is a different kind of pit than the one mentioned in verse 1. This pit is more like a snare by which something marked for destruction is trapped (like pit used for catching wild beasts). You walk on eggshells around angry, abusive people, fearing a trap—fearing how the abuser will react to something you say or do because, once snared, you are at their mercy, and there is little to stop them from just leaving you in the pit to die a slow death.  

The LORD describes how the oppressor bends the exile to a fleeting purpose, but then makes another comparison with the purpose that He Himself has given Israel (51:16). He has put His words in her mouth that He wants her to speak. That phrase, "put My words in your mouth," is a phrase that crops up a number of times in Scripture (e.g. Deuteronomy 18:18, Jeremiah 1:9-10, Isaiah 59:21). The prophets had a commission to be a watchmen and witnesses, but it is a commission in which all of Israel shares. It is also a commission with which we are tasked (Romans 10:8-9).



Isaiah 51:17-23
His anger is the reason she is suffering at Babylonia’s hands. He belabors the condition she is in. She has drunk the cup of His fury—she is reeling from it like a drunk person. Her sons are without strength to save her. Her own actions have brought ruin and destruction, famine and sword upon. God goads her just as she goaded Him. Who will be sorry for you? By whom will I comfort you? What do you expect Me to do about it?

But then He puts it in perspective for her. It isn’t the human oppressor’s fury from which she has to fear. It’s His. But, because it is His fury, it will end when He decides it will end. The power is in His hand to control what happens to her. And He tells her now that He is ending it (51:22-23).

In verse 17, God declares that Israel’s ordeal is over. She has drunk the cup of trembling and now it will pass to her oppressors. He picks up the same thought again in verses 21-23, but in between (51:18-20), He brings up a picture of the sons who have suffered on account of her sin. Out of all the sons she has borne, none of them was able to save her. They have fallen under the oppressor’s snares and made to endure the full fury of an angry God.
While He will, in the end, deliver Israel from a physical oppressor and avenge her, the sin factor has not been overlooked. There was a sacrifice that had to be made to appease angry God.


I can't help reading these verses through Jesus' eyes. He would have identified deeply with Israel's sons here in Isaiah 51. When God presented Him with that cup of fury, He knew how it would play out. He understood the sacrifice He was being asked to make and the reason for it, and while He prayed in agony that the cup might be taken from Him, He knew it would not. He was the sacrifice to appease an angry God. But when He had drunk that cup to its dregs, He believed He would awake and arise, and then the cup would pass to His oppressors.


One son of Israel did what the rest could not do, but then He was not just a son of Israel but also the son of God. The Son's death atoned permanently for sin so that God’s wrath would not have to fall on His people again as it had in the past.

The Stumbling Block of God's Fury
God, in His righteousness, models the destructive power of anger here in Isaiah 51. We see the effects of it as the wrath pours out on Israel. But God’s anger is a righteous anger, and it is tempered with love and mercy. He offers the promise of a coming salvation that would take the cup of wrath from everyone, and it is meant as a comfort. But we know that Israel, as a nation, refused this comfort when it was realized.

I think we can, depending on the perspective of God fury with which we have been raised. I have talked in previous chapters about reasons why a person might refuse to be comforted, and a fear of God Himself might be part of the reason a believer might shrink from His comfort. We all shrink from the hand of our comforter when our comforter is also an oppressive presence in our life.

This chapter has been speaking to the righteous, those who know God’s law and diligently seek it, and yet they are plagued by a fear of reproach that stems from man and not from God. Sadly, this can be a scenario that believers face today. Faithful, conscientious believers who have been brought up in oppressive church environments that beat them over the head with fire-and-brimstone messages of God's judgment can be plagued by a fear of God's continuing fury and how to appease that fury. Even though these believers know that the penalty has been paid for their sin, guilt and fear of losing their salvation grips them, and they get no comfort from God's grace.



God balances the picture of Himself as being a God of power and of love, of righteousness and of mercy. The understanding of His righteous fury is needed to keep the issue in perspective and induce repentance, but He does not leave His people with that one-sided view of Himself, because it will create despair. We should not leave our struggling person with that one-sided view, either.

The Stumbling Blocks of Anger and Silence
God has made the comparison between the oppressor’s fury and His own.


God’s anger is a righteous anger, and it is tempered with love and mercy. Human anger—not so much. We are not as holy, righteous, or just as God is, and when we strike out in anger, even what we consider righteous anger (anger that life isn’t the way it ought to be), it is often destructive because it is self-serving at heart and not tempered with love. We are warned in James 1:19-20, “So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath; for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God.” (NKJV)


Silence plays out in a desire to hunker down into defensive positions, hide behind barriers and walls, and withdraw into places where the enemy cannot get to us. But silence and withdrawal are equally destructive. They cut us off from the fellowship that would strengthen us. They also derail our calling to be witnesses and watchmen for the faith. We can let angry people silence us when we should speak the truth to a fallen world because we fear their persecution. We can also let angry victims silence us when we try to comfort them or address the sin in their life that is keeping them in oppression.

Anger and silence are empowering. They are tools that oppressors use to control their victims, but they are also tools that victims use to empower themselves and guard themselves against their oppressors.

Outbursts of anger can be fueled by a desire for justice, validation, vindication, and vengeance. Withdrawing into silence can also be a way that anger manifests itself. Giving someone the silent treatment is actually an act of aggression. Silence is a way of communicating our rejection of a person and bolstering our sense of self-righteousness. When the silent do speak out, it can be with explosive and destructive anger. Thus, silence is entwined with anger.

In the end, neither of these achieve God’s goals of ending conflict and reconciling people, and they can become stumbling blocks that can keep us from moving forward mentally, emotionally, and spiritually even after the source of oppression is lifted.

This chapter has been about maintaining perspective, and the more our culture loses its perspective of God’s righteousness, His fury, and His mercy, the more we see outbursts of anger, withdrawal into unhealthy isolation, and subsequent oppression. When we see outbreaks of violence like shootings in schools, for instance, we often discover after the fact that the shooter was a very isolated person, and that isolation warped their perspective of themselves, what they perceived was the problem with their world, their sense of justice and values. The problem of isolation has been exacerbated by our absorption with technology. The more we withdraw into our on-line worlds, the more isolated we become, the more warped our perspective of the real world becomes, and when that isolation reaches a breaking point, it often erupts in frustration and anger.

If we are going to survive times of oppression and help others who are also struggling, we cannot stumble by responding to antagonists with angry words or actions which only fuel hate and strife. Neither can we withdraw into our own sense of self-righteousness or let angry people drive us into silence. Witnesses are not called to be silent but speak the truth of what they see and know of God’s fury and His grace.

Judge yourself . . .
In regard to silence:

• Witnesses are called to speak the truth of what they see and know. Why is speaking the truth necessary when removing stumbling blocks from a struggling person’s path?
• Have you remained silent at a time when you should have spoken the truth? Why?
• Is there something about which you should speak up now?

In regard to anger:

• Is there anger in your life that you are holding onto? Why?
• Does your anger take the form of remaining silent?
• When you have spoken the truth, have you done it without using destructive or angry words?
• Has anger undermined your effort to communicate God’s love and mercy to people?
• God has expressed His goals to end fighting and pardon sin. Does acting or speaking in anger achieve these goals?

[1] The opinion of the Jewish scholars mentioned in the Isaiah 51:9-11 section was taken from the side notes accompanying the text in my Tanakh Study Bible. Here is the citation for it: Adele Berlin and Marc Zvi Brettler, editors; Michael Fishbane, consulting editor. The Jewish Study Bible: Jewish Publication Society Tanakh Translation. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2004, pg 888.

Recap
Today, I want to start with a quick recap of the progress we have been making in getting a person past the stumbling block of despair, which began in Chapter 49 with Israel’s cry that the LORD had forsaken and forgotten her.

The first and greatest reason for despair, and one which the Servant Himself addressed in His own personal experience, is when a person is facing death, whether from persecution or sickness or the consequences of a sinful lifestyle. The Servant identifies deeply with those facing a dark future because He, too, faced it. He grappled with the feeling that His life had been pointless and purposeless—nothing but a vapor—and the only thing that gave Him comfort was that vision of a future. It is a bit of a twist, isn’t it, combatting despair over death with a hope for the future? But that is exactly where Christ, the Servant, cast His mind. He chose to believe that the LORD would not forsake Him through the ordeal, that there was a purpose in it even if He Himself couldn’t see it, and that there would be a reward for Him in eternity when it was over. This kind of comfort can only be had by faith—faith in the LORD’s promises and trust that He will be good to His word. Faith can be the hardest thing to ask of a despairing person because it demands that they let go of their earthly life—life which is already lost to them—and embrace a life of which they have heard but not seen.

So, there is that grand, eternal perspective around which we must wrap our mind if we are going to overcome despair, but in the meantime, we are not without some earthly comfort. Having gone through that ordeal and realized the reward, the Servant was then able to come alongside Israel who is suffering in like manner and give her wise counsel and comfort. That is what we talked about last week in Chapter 50—the intercessory comfort of one who has been there who can minister to us in the moment. That was part of the purpose for the LORD putting Him through that ordeal, so that He could identify with despairing people and be equipped as a comforter. The Servant stepped into that frustrated conversation between God and His people and spoke to Israel about how He had suffered as she had, how He had responded to His abusers, and how the LORD had upheld His just cause. If God had done that for Him, God would do that for her. At the end of Chapter 50, despairing Israel was given a choice whether or not to accept the counsel and comfort that the Servant offers. There are those who choose to push Him away and seek comfort and guidance by their own failing efforts, and they are dismissed to meet their end in torment.

Today, in Chapter 51, the Servant turns His focus to instructing and strengthening those who fearfully pursue the LORD and His righteousness but struggle with facing persecution from a furious, oppressive world. Again, the speaker in this chapter is “Me,” the Servant. Christ is speaking—pleading, really—with Israel to listen to Him. The command is repeated three times: “Listen to Me, listen to Me, listen to Me!”

Isaiah 51:1-3
With the first “listen to Me,” the Servant appeals to those who "follow” after righteousness. In other words, they run after it in order to attain it. They are looking for something, and He tells them where to look.


To what event might this be referring? It might be referring to their genesis. God took Adam from the clay and formed him. The rock and the pit both refer to places that have been hewn out of rock—wells, pits, or cisterns. When these places have lost their usefulness, they are turned into prisons or sepulchers for the dead. It might refer to being taken from other instances of imprisonment, or even from the grave. Have they been brought out of the grave yet? No, but that event is on the horizon. (The verb used here is in the perfect tense, which means it has been completed, or so assured that it is counted as complete.) We know from where we stand in history that the Servant Himself would go through that particular experience of being brought out of a hole in the rock--His resurrection after His crucifixion.


Perhaps the blessing is a return to life in a restored Eden, as mentioned in verse 3. Those who seek after righteousness are then pointed toward a second example.


Notice that this example is not focused on Israel’s genesis as a nation--her coming-out-of-Egypt experience--as it was in Chapters 40-48. The Servant is speaking to individuals about their individual faith, and the genesis of that faith was in Abraham and Sarah.


Abraham is the rock of their beginning. He was called out of an idolatrous country, and he went where the LORD sent him by faith, even though he didn't know where it would lead him in life. The LORD also promised him a blessing of children, and he believed that, too, though it seemed impossible because Sarah was barren. (Barrenness will be addressed again in future chapters, so we will keep Sarah in mind.) The LORD counted that simple act of belief on Abraham’s part as righteousness and blessed him for it. Here in Isaiah, the Servant points to Abraham and Sarah as the models of righteousness that is based on faith and faith alone. Faith is what Israel is lacking and why she is overcome by despair.
 
Is this promise of blessing only for Israel who is descended from Abraham by blood, or is there an application for us as well? Paul tells us that all who are of the faith of Abraham share in his blessing:


Is there comfort in that? Yes, if you have faith in that covenant. Keep in mind that this exhortation in Isaiah is being given to a people who may die in exile, and yet they are still called to live by faith and with hope, the same as their ancestors did. The writer of the book of Hebrews exhorts us in the same way with the great "by faith" passages, pointing out:


The Servant speaks specifically to Israel, but universally to all who pursue righteousness, in saying that their only hope is by faith and faith alone in the promises of God. We know that regardless of whether we are of the blood of Abraham or not, we are children of Abraham if we pursue righteousness with the faith of Abraham and trust in the promise of God that was realized in Isaac, Jacob, and finally, the Servant, Jesus Christ. (Romans 9:6-9)

The Servant then casts a vision of a future blessing that is promised for the pursuit of righteousness: a return to Eden (v3). In this heavenly future, God promises a complete reversal of conditions: the wilderness into which sin sent them will again become a garden in which there will be joy and gladness and thanksgiving. But to receive this future blessing, they must persevere in righteous according to the righteousness of Abraham. Faith is the condition around which Israel's restoration pivots.

Side note: Just as Abraham died without seeing the fulfillment of the promise in his life, so many of Israel died in exile, even those who held the faith and pursued righteousness. Sometimes, we don't escape from our crooked places in our earthly experience, either, so that is not necessarily the expectation being expressed here. We can fix our sights wrongly on getting back to life the way it had been—returning to the country we left (remember, Abraham came from a wicked and idolatrous country). As the writer of Hebrews pointed out, you can go back to the old worldly life any time you want (Hebrews 11:15), but we should have a higher pursuit in mind. God calls us to cast our expectations toward a heavenly kingdom instead of an earthly one, toward Eden and not Ur.

Isaiah 51:4-5
The second “listen to Me” is addressed to the nation. The Servant reminds them of His tasking. He is the righteous Servant-King who is coming to save His people and establish His law and justice as a light for all people. He speaks in the first person—“My justice,” “My righteousness,” “My salvation.” The law will proceed from “Me.” The coastlands will wait upon “Me,” and “on My arm they will trust.”

In the previous chapter, the Servant came alongside Israel and offered her one kind of comfort—the comfort of shared suffering. Now, He offers the comfort of anticipation—the assured hope of vindication and restoration. Prince of Peace will come and will establish of a new world order under His law that will bring peace to the world.


When we take a righteous stance, especially one for our faith, we need the assurance that there is a greater authority backing us and will stand with us when we face our contenders. In the previous chapter, the Servant looked to the LORD for His justification.


Having been justified, the Servant now justifies those who pursue His righteousness. He gives them the same assurance of justification.

Isaiah 51:6-8
The final "listen to Me" addresses to those who know righteousness and keep the Law in their hearts. Even though they have that understanding, they still fear the reproach and insults of the oppressor. The command not to fear in verse 7 is the main exhortation, but it is sandwiched between verses 6 and 8, which set up a comparison between fleeting things and enduring things. (This is the same theme with which we began in Isaiah 40:6-8.)

In both verses, the eternal element is His righteousness and salvation. It is everlasting, from generation to generation, never to be abolished. Now look at the progression of the fleeting things. In verse 6, God begins with the command “lift up your eyes” and look at the great things—the heavens and earth. How will they end? The heavens will go up in smoke. The earth will grow old like a garment. He then includes all those who dwell in the earth. They will die in like manner. In verse 8, the Servant switches to pictures of lesser things—garments and wool. These get eaten up by even littler things—moths and worms. The world and the people in it are like this garment. They get eaten up by little things and will end as useless, moth-eaten rags.


The world’s reproaches and insults seem like big things when, in fact, they are little things—at least, in God's eyes. They come from a world that is itself a little thing consumed by little things. Doesn’t this just describe us today? We live in a world consumed by little things, although, in the world's eyes, they are big things, and when we fail to exalt them as the world exalts them, we get some severe backlash. Bullying, shaming, and humiliation--these are all common experiences in our current culture, and they are used as ways of making us conform to and support the world's values. For us, as believers, it becomes an effort in maintaining perspective. Regardless of whether it is a big thing or little thing, it is a fleeting thing without eternal value and it should be treated as such.

Facing Fury in the Pursuit of Righteousness
In verses 1-8, the Servant addresses those who know what is right in God’s eyes, they pursue that righteousness, but they fall victim to the insults and reproaches of the world in which they live because the world’s idea of righteousness is very different from God's. So, the heart of the conflict really lies in the definition of righteousness.


In a broad sense, it means that something is as it ought to be in regard to being acceptable, but acceptable to whom? The first thing that must be defined is who is the approving authority—who decides what is acceptable. Who provides the wisdom, guidance, validation, and vindication: God, the world, or perhaps a certain faction within the world? (The world itself isn’t a united entity.)

Understanding righteousness as a society is vital because it defines what is right, just, or ethical in regard to human behavior, justice, and government, and it drives social norms. Thus, there needs to be a guiding rule or foundation for that righteousness. Here in Isaiah, Israel is encouraged to look to the Law (Hebrew: torah) for that guiding source. This Law will form the backbone to the coming Prince's government (51:4).
 
We have a certain set of laws that govern us nationally, but those can be redefined or neglected altogether depending upon the rulings of the justice system. Moral relativism tells us that the rules are what we make them—which is fine if you are the last person on earth or living by yourself on a deserted island. It is not so fine when your idea of how life ought to be clashes with an opposing idea held by your neighbor next door. And how much worse when it clashes with God’s ideals? God sees life very differently and has a very different opinion of how life ought to be.

Recent generation have seen the rise of a victim-based “righteousness." The world promotes a sense of righteousness for being part of what it considers "just" causes, and, interestingly, one of those causes is pursuing an Eden of its own making. A return to Eden is an outworking of God’s righteousness, but the world is trying to accomplish the same thing according to its own righteousness while shutting God out of the garden. That isn’t how life in Eden should be.


Pretty much the same goals, but the world goes about attaining them the wrong way. Moral relativism ensures there will never be an end to conflict. It is impossible to live at peace in a society where everyone is living by their own definition of what is right. The world may pay lip service to wanting world peace, so long as it doesn't have to let go of its own sense of righteousness and align itself with God’s values and teachings to achieve it.

God's Highway Project: Tackling Despair, Part 3
Even strong believers can still grapple with despair. Knowing this from His own experience, the Servant—that Wonderful Counselor—delivers His strategy to strengthen the righteous who are struggling to stand against an angry world and need help in maintaining perspective. Realigning His people to His perspective and His definition of righteousness is the third step in God's Highway Project, the straightening of crooked things.

The basic strategy is:

1. Remember the unshakable foundation of your faith—the pit from which you were taken and the faith of righteous Abraham. Righteousness is accounted to person according to faith and faith alone in God (and Christ, the Servant) and being willing to rest in His promises and go where He leads, not where the world leads. Blessing, comfort, and peace will only come if you cling to that faith, regardless of what the world says.
   
   
2. Remember that the righteous King is coming. He will justify you when He comes to re-establish the law and judge the world in true righteousness and justice. He will put an end to the reproach and insults that the unrighteous world heaps on those who have kept His law in their hearts and vindicate them.
   
   
3. Keep the world in perspective. The world seems indomitable, but it is a little thing eaten up by little things. It holds out a counterfeit version of God’s blessings—support, comfort, empowerment, peace, and a return to Eden—in return for conforming to its idea of the way life ought to be, but it will never be able to deliver on any of those. Its reproaches are as fleeting as its promises. Do not let the fear of fleeting things consume you.

 
Maintaining perspective is the key. The righteous are called to discern what are truly the big things and little things in life and resist being eaten up or eroded by the little things. They are called to consider what is of eternal value versus what is fleeting. We should know what makes for true peace and pursue what is eternal, regardless of the shame and reproaches we get for doing so. There is a blessing that awaits those who persevere in the face of persecution.

The Servant-King who gives instruction to the righteous for maintaining perspective here in Isaiah also gave similar instruction to His disciples in His Sermon on the Mount. Read Matthew 5:3-12 and 6:25-34.

Next week we will finish the chapter, starting with Israel's response to the Servant's call to faith and hope.

Recap
Last week we were in Isaiah 49, and we saw Israel voice her despair, that the she had been forsaken by the LORD and forgotten. This has been her mantra from the beginning and God will continue to grapple with her over this. He began by giving her three verbal reassurances: He has not forgotten her personally, or her children, or her oppressors. We talked about the fine line between despair and self-pity. A person might despair so long as there is no hope, but once hope is given, there should be no cause for despair. We talked about some reasons why a despairing person might refuse comfort when hope was given. One reason was because sin was the cause of their oppression, and they refused to change their ways, preferring, instead, to sink into self-pity as a way of comforting themselves. (Self-pity is a false comfort.) The other reason was because they didn't feel that the comforter was qualified to give comfort because they hadn't "been there." They didn't know what it was like to struggle this way. They couldn’t identify.

Today, in Isaiah 50, God and the Servant together will address both of these reasons. They are systematically tearing down Israel’s reasons for despair. God is also going to return to the doubt Israel expressed in the previous chapter over His ability to redeem her. There, she made this statement:


God answered the first part of that statement in the last chapter. Babylonia might be mighty, but He is stronger. Strength is not the issue. Today, He is going to pick up on the second half of that question in the opening verses of Isaiah 50.

Isaiah 50:1-3
The chapter opens with God's frustrated reply. Where are the divorce papers? To whom have I sold you? Both questions have to do with transactions made according to the Law that make a person's return difficult, if not impossible. One is divorce, and the other is being sold to creditors as a slave. Both are very poignant experiences of being forsaken, and in a very binding way, yet the LORD points out that these reasons for despair are groundless in Israel’s case.

First, the LORD brings up the issue of their mother's divorce. According to Deuteronomy 24:1-4, if a man divorces a wife and she marries another, she can never return to the first husband. The LORD had brought a charge against Israel, that she had been unfaithful and married herself to other husbands (idols), and that is why He sent her away into exile. But He points out that no divorce papers were ever filed. There is no reason on His end for her not to return to Him.

The LORD then brings up the issue of being sold to creditors. This is in response to the doubt Israel had previously expressed in Isaiah 49:24, when she questioned if the captives of "the righteous" could be delivered. "The righteous" does not mean the godly. Babylonia is anything but godly. This kind of "righteousness" is in the legal sense of having a right or just claim to something or someone under the law. When a woman is sold away to creditors to pay a debt, her children are sold into slavery with her and must be purchased back at a price. This might describe Israel's condition, but the LORD declares that He did not sell her to Babylonia in such a way that Babylonia has any justifiable claim to her and her children. In fact, He did not sell her away at all. She did this to herself. She was the one who ran away from Him and pursued her pleasures by serving idols. And yes, He was angry, but the relationship is far from over. He still loves her. He sees that she is suffering horrifically as the result of her unfaithfulness, and He is moved to pity for her. He is willing to redeem the relationship, but when He tries to comfort her and bring her back to Him, she refuses to respond when He reaches out to her. He asks two more questions,


Divorce is something that has touched almost all of our lives, and whether we have gone through it ourselves or witnessed the struggle of a relative or friend, we might understand the wife's withdrawal from the husband here, even though she was at fault (as in Israel's case).


Being forsaken engages feelings of abandonment. Some of us might have experienced abandonment personally or have grappled with another person or a child suffering from it. This is often the experience of adopted and foster children. My own mother struggled with this all her life. Abandonment strikes at the very heart of a person’s perception of self-worth and can twist their view of themselves. The abandonment may not have been the person’s fault, but all the stumbling blocks of fear, despair, shame, anger, and withdrawal can get wrapped up into that skewed perception of themselves to the point where they refuse comfort, even from a loving family.


On the other hand, the child might follow the prodigal son’s model, which is what Israel is modeling. They might have chosen to cut themselves off from the parents to pursue their own desires, and when their circumstances become desperate, they might still refuse to come home, even though grace is extended.


Perhaps she will listen to another person who has suffered the way she is suffering. This is where the role of an intercessor becomes vital. Now, the Servant inserts Himself into this frustrated dialogue between God and His people to intercede as much on God’s behalf as Israel’s.

Isaiah 50:4-9
The speaker speaks of Himself only as "Me” but we know that "Me" is Christ speaking. He explains how He Himself has suffered like Israel has suffered and is qualified to comfort her because He has been there. He begins with a statement about His qualifications. He has been given the tongue of the learned (50:4), meaning He can speak from experience, and for the purpose of comforting someone "in due season." I like that phrase, "due season." It means an appropriate moment somewhere down the road. You may not know at the time of your personal trial how exactly the LORD is going to use that experience, so you just have to bank that lesson in your "experience" bank. But that means you have to be looking for the lesson in that experience, even as you go through it.

As the Servant points out, you have to use your ears first. Before you speak to someone else's experience, you have to listen to what God is teaching you in your own experience. Unlike Israel, the Servant does not turn a deaf ear to what God is teaching Him but listens wisely when God sends Him into a trial. And He goes willingly into that trial, without being rebellious and turning away from the hard thing God is requiring Him (50:5).

Verse 6 details the abuse He received, which was not unlike the abuse Israel suffered--being beaten, hair pulled out, shamed, and spit upon. His words on the cross are even an echo of hers (“My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” Matthew 27:46), but He submitted to that ordeal because He knew God had a reason for sending Him into this trial. There was a purpose for it, and God would help Him. Therefore, He determined to go through it and learn what the LORD’s purpose was. The shame and disgrace that the world heaped on Him didn't matter because He would not stand ashamed before God. Is there comfort in knowing that there is only one Person in the universe to whom you have to look for your worth and validation and the Servant has already paved the way for His approval?

Verses 7-9 are bookended by that conviction, “Surely the LORD God will help me!” The Servant’s response to His abusers is defiant. Who will condemn Him if God doesn’t? The world? What is the world but moth-eaten garment? The world is worthless. It’s opinion is worthless.

So, the Servant comes alongside Israel, He identifies with her, and then gives her some instruction on how to overcome the mental battle of despair and fear of abandonment. Just because Israel is going through a trial does not mean that God has forsaken her. It means He has a lesson for her that she needs to learn! When the world heaps abuse on her, God sees the abuse. He will deal with those who contend with her. If God stood by the Servant, will God not stand by His children as well? This is the faith challenge that the Servant is modeling for Israel. These are His words that Israel needs to internalize for herself:



The Servant’s words are really an argument for personal worth—how the Servant sees His own worth and on what that worth is based. Self-worth is something with which an abandoned person grapples. That abandonment makes them feel like they are unworthy and undesirable, but that is the world’s evaluation of them. It is a lie that they come to believe. Getting them to divorce themselves from the world’s evaluation of them and convincing them of their worth in God’s eyes is the greatest part of the battle.

God could not convince Israel that she was not forsaken, but an intercessor might because He has been there. Perhaps we have been there. If we have, the Servant's words might serve as a model for comforting our own struggling person.


This passage puts to rest the second reason for Israel to refuse comfort. She cannot say that her Comforter doesn’t know what it is like. He is her Counselor, but will she listen to Him?

Isaiah 50:10-11
A third-party observer now issues a challenge. There is a choice to be made. Who fears God and will obey the words of the Servant and who wants to seek comfort their own way?
The Servant has been tasked with shedding light on Israel’s darkness. He has been sent into this horrific trial specifically to identify with her and offer her comfort. He is qualified to give her that comfort. He has modeled how to deal with despair and respond to oppressors. The observer says, Let the despairing person follow the Servant's example in trusting the LORD.

Having described those who walk by the Servant’s light, the narrator then addresses people who seek a light and comfort of their own making—they kindle their own fire and encircle themselves with sparks.

How much comfort does a kindled fire give? A little.
How much light does a spark offer to guide a person through the darkness? Even less.

This analogy takes us back to the opening theme in Isaiah 40:6-8. God's instruction began with the statement that all flesh is like the grass, but the Word of the LORD endures forever. He set up a comparison between the sufficiency of God and His provision to that which is fleeting, unsustainable, and dies quickly—like a spark. God says to Israel, I have reassured you and given you light and comfort through an intercessor who identifies with you personally. He has been through the trials Himself, and He can speak words of wisdom to your situation. But if you refuse His help, this is what you get: fear, despair, and torment.

God's Highway Project: Tackling Despair, Part 2
God began addressing Israel's despair in Isaiah 49 with promises, but promises only take us so far. Sometimes we need an actual, tangible comforter who can speak to our struggles from first-hand experience. But we are faced with the same decision of where to seek comfort and instruction: from the words of our Savior and the people He has uniquely equipped to help us, or from our own self-pitying effort to find our own way to cope?

The role of the intercessor is highlighted in this passage. While we understand “Me” is Christ in the big picture, when we read this in the first person, it is hard not to envision “Me” as ourselves in this role. God sends me into trials for the purpose of helping others in those same trials. So how do we model Christ in this passage? Change the “Me” to “I” in the following questions.

Isaiah 49:14
For the first time, Israel enters openly into conversation with God. While all creation sings, she laments.

Before we move into a discussion of Israel’s response, let me just ask:


Yes, He did, while He was hanging on the cross. “And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?’ that is, ‘My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?’” (Matthew 27:46 NKJV)

The Suffering Servant identifies very deeply with Israel’s experience. In His mortal flesh, He, too, experienced the outpouring of God’s wrath and the feeling of despair when the Father turned His face away from Him.


No. It is okay to cry out to the LORD when you are under severe circumstances, but it should not be something that shakes your faith to the point where you seek comfort apart from God.

Here in Isaiah, Israel is not at the extremity that Christ was on that cross. Yes, she is oppressed and in distress, but God has spoken comfort her. He has promised that her oppression will end shortly and commanded her to sing for joy.


Part of the reason is that she has come to a place of weariness. Weariness can be a stumbling block in a good way because it prevents a person from continuing forward under their own power and prompts them to turn back to God (or at least, it should). So long as there is hope for the future, despair should not grip Israel, which is why, for the last eight chapters, God has been trying to instill hope in her. He has put the full force of His Godhead on display. He is omnipotent. He has the power over creation, kings, and idols. He knows all things past, present, future, seen, and hidden. He orchestrates all events and is ever-present in Israel's affairs. He loves her. He has claimed her and redeemed her. His word endures forever, and with it, His covenant promises to His people. Though she is hard-pressed, she should not despair.

I think there are a few other reasons a despairing person might refuse comfort, in general.
One reason is because they don't want to acknowledge that sin has caused their oppression and change their ways, which is the case with Israel. As God pointed out back in Isaiah 42:22-28, the Babylonians aren't the source of her problems. Her relationship with Him is. Her current exile was caused by her own sin because she would not walk in His ways, was disobedient to His Law, and pursued idolatry instead. It does not occur to her to reflect on her own behavior or even the true source of her torment, and as a result of her stubborn refusal to acknowledge her own sin, she will not be comforted by Him. It is a stumbling block.

When hope and assurances are offered and still rejected, then the issue is no longer despair but self-pity. They comfort themselves by saying, “My suffering is other people’s fault, not mine.” They play the blame game. We will talk about this more in a few minutes.
Another reason the person might refuse comfort is if the comforter hasn’t “been there,” that the comforter lacks an identification with their suffering. We can sympathize deeply with a person going through a particular trial, but our attempt to comfort can fall flat if the person doesn’t feel that we identify with their particular circumstances. The sufferer might think that only a person who has lost a child to cancer can truly identify with another parent who has lost a child to cancer and offer an effective comfort. The identification aspect is necessary to give effective comfort.

So, Israel’s cry reveals that she has run up against a stumbling block that is keeping her from being comforted. How does the LORD address this? He begins by offering three verbal reassurances.

Isaiah 49:15-16 
First, He addresses Israel in her immediate circumstances and draws a parallel between Himself and her. He appeals to her as a parent to a child, an experience with which she herself can identify. Have you forgotten your own children already? Why would I forget Mine?

God reminds Israel that while people may forget her, He will not. The truth is that people do forget. We get prayer lists all the time, and while we may remember to pray for the needs in the moment, how often do we continue to pray for an extended length of time, even for years until the issue is resolved? People may sympathize deeply but fleetingly. God doesn't. And this promise is not just for Israel but for all who are called by God's name. When we, as believers, see our world beginning to crumble around us and feel powerless to do anything, He reassures us that this is not the end. We are not forgotten. If He brings calamity on us, it is only for a time and for a purpose.

Isaiah 49:17-21
His second reassurance is to cast a vision of a better future. Israel may be in captivity—may even die in captivity—but He guarantees her while she may lose a legacy of children in this generation, a remnant will be preserved.


Greater persecutions were in store for Israel's children than what she herself was experiencing when Isaiah delivered this message. The same is true for us. Will our children remain faithful when the persecution begins in earnest? Will they resist the world's bombardment or walk away from the faith and be lost to us? These are genuine concerns, and they can bring us to despair when we realize how little power we really have to protect or even prepare our children for what lies ahead. But God promised Israel a return of future generations to a renewed land. Many would be lost, but a remnant would return and flourish in the coming kingdom.

A new kingdom is coming for us as well. The Millennial Kingdom is both a physical kingdom and a spiritual kingdom, and the future generations in it—our future generations— will be of both a physical and spiritual nature. While we cannot foresee how the thread of our family lines or faith will continue, many may be brought into that kingdom on account of us. We, too, may exclaim, “Whose children are these? Where did they come from?”

Isaiah 49:22-26 
God's third reassurance is a promise to remember Israel's oppressors. As He brings back her children, He causes her oppressors to bow to her, even as He did with the Servant in 49:7. The oppressors are mighty, but He is mightier, and He will take back what is His.

This reassurance is interrupted by a question—a doubt—on Israel’s part. “Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the captives of the righteous be delivered?” (49:24)


The LORD immediately quells this doubt with a very strong statement that she doesn’t need to worry about her oppressor. It is true that no one can enter the strong man’s house and plunder his goods unless the strong man is first bound, but God is stronger and that is exactly what He intends to do. He will contend with those who contend with her. He will feed them their own flesh and give them their own blood to drink, and all flesh will know that He is her Savior.

The False Comfort of Self-pity
Despair can be a stumbling block that keeps a person from being comforted, but it is a necessary thing to bring a person to the end of their own effort in empowering themself and prompt a return to God. God lets Israel wear herself out until she has come to this stumbling block. But despair only exists so long as there is no hope, but once hope is given, there should be no reason for despair. Thus, God begins to exhort her with reason after reason to hope.

Even so, Israel stubbornly resists. She throw up illogical arguments. She perseveres in doubt and despair even after all God’s reassurances and demonstrations of His power and sovereignty over her circumstances. In doing so, she treads a line between despair and self-pity. Self-pity offers a twisted kind of comfort and empowerment, and can become a stronghold that a person builds around themselves that the LORD must then tear down. Let's talk about self-pity.


At heart, self-pity is self-focused, self-promoting, and self-indulgent. It demands that others continually lift up and support the victim to that point that the effort becomes oppressive to the comforter. There is a twisted form of power in self-pity because it has a perceived "just claim" backing it (I have been wronged! I have been hurt!) and it can sway people's sympathies toward supporting its cause—for a while. It is kind like a fire, though. It seeks out the audience who will feed it and takes every opportunity to complain and point the finger because it is easier to turn the blame on others and make it someone else's problem to fix rather than acknowledge a personal failing. Thus, self-pity makes a person willfully blind and unwilling to deal with their own sin, as Israel models for us. They don't want to take responsibility for their actions or change their ways, and so they choose to remain in their oppressed state, even when justice is rendered over their "just claim" (in Israel's case, God humiliated Babylon to avenge her, back in Isaiah 47). If left unaddressed, self-pity can develop into a stronghold, a permanent mentality.


When God addresses Israel's despair, He changes His tone from rebuke to exhortation.
Self-reflection:
We are not immune from despair or the temptation to seek the false comfort of self-pity. The Servant provided a model for combatting despair that we ourselves need to model for others.


I have talked about the motif of reversals that runs through Isaiah's text—exalted things brought low, low things lifted up, mourning turned to joy, deserts to gardens, etc. Coming out of oppression requires a reversal of actions or attitudes that then brings about a reversal of condition. So . . .


Becoming others-focused. One of the comforts that God offered the Servant was that the trial that He was enduring would benefit the people in the future. A blessing would flow to others from that sacrifice.


Even as He confronts the need for repentance, God recognizes the need for a comforter to identify with a victim's struggle. Keep in mind, this not a simple process. God's strategy for overcoming despair and self-pity will actually encompass the next several chapters.

As we move into Part 2 of God's Highway Project (Isaiah 49-57), there is a distinct change in the narrative tone. All mention of Cyrus and Babylon, the former things and new things, are now gone. Instead, there is a new voice that speaks--the voice of the Servant whose work becomes the focal point for Part 2. Through the Servant, God begins to address Israel intimately, as a bridegroom dealing with a wayward bride. Rebuke is softened into exhortation as He extends grace and peace to her, and He lays before her the vision of a glorious kingdom and a reward for the faithful who persevere--all of which is bound up in the saving work of the Servant.

There is a new set of stumbling blocks to overcome in their relationship, the first of which is despair. Despair is something that the Servant Himself suffers, and in the opening verses of Isaiah 49, He models a particular strategy for combatting it.

Isaiah 49:1-4
The chapter opens with an address from the Servant. You might think that the Servant is the personification of the nation of Israel because verse 3 says, "And He said to me, 'You are My servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified.'" (Isaiah 49:3 NKJV) But this is not the nation of Israel speaking, which will become evident in verse 5. The Servant who is speaking is from Israel and He represents Israel, but He is His own person.

The Servant opens with a proclamation to the coastlands, introducing Himself. This may seem a little odd. Why wouldn't He address Israel first? There is a reason for it. The author is structuring this opening passage of Part 2 in a particular way so that it creates a parallel picture with the opening passage in Part 1 (Isaiah 41). Both Isaiah 41 and 49 open with an address to the coastlands, followed by the introduction of a deliverer.

Back in Isaiah 41, we discussed who the “coastlands” were. The coastlands represented the outermost reaches of the Babylonian empire in those days, and generally referred to the Gentile nations. Isaiah 41 then went on to talk about the coming deliverer, Cyrus. Look at the forceful, exultant tone that the LORD takes in announcing this king:


Now look at how the Servant similarly describes Himself in Isaiah 49.


Like Cyrus in Part 1, the Servant now takes center stage as the conquering king. He is glorious. He is confident and full of purpose as He embraces His mission. But then He follows it in verse 4 with an oddly despairing comment:


Despite the gloriousness of His mission, the Servant suddenly sinks into doubt and despair.
He says, “I have labored in vain,” meaning without purpose, and again, “I have spent my strength in vain,” meaning His effort has been like a vapor or breath--futile and fleeting.

Before we talk about the reason for the Servant's despair, let me just ask you . . .
 
We might say that about our past lives before we became Christians, when we pursued the things of the world and the flesh. We might even say that of our current lives. (Have any of you ever raised children? Ever feel like you are wasting your breath?) We can identify with the Servant in this.

Sometimes when we are engaged in pursuits that don’t reap a reward that we think they should, it is good to begin with a reflection on the nature of our pursuit. Back in Isaiah 40, the LORD presented us with the contrast between what is fleeting and what is eternal. Anything that is sourced in God and His word is eternal in nature and reaps an eternal form of comfort. Anything sourced in the flesh is fleeting and futile and offers little comfort.
If we are feeling a sense of fruitless, it might mean that we are pursuing the wrong thing, and that can be a reason to despair. But, like the Servant, we might be pursuing the right thing—some godly tasking—and still despair because we feel like our effort has been pointless. Have you ever had this experience? Maybe it was in the raising of the aforementioned children, who became rebellious and left the faith that you so diligently tried to instill in them. Maybe you despaired of reaching someone with the message of God's grace. Maybe you witnessed to them for years but to no avail. Despair happens, even when we are engaged in godly pursuits.


It is not hard to imagine Christ expressing these very sentiments as He wept in the Garden of Gethsemane the night before His crucifixion. He had been sent to comfort His people, but all His words, all His healing works had seemed to do such little good. Everyone would desert Him in this hour of trial. Not even His own disciples offered Him any comfort. What had He accomplished in this life?


No, of course not. He was the conquering king, even as He hung on that cross. Is that what a conquering king was supposed to do? Where was His sword? Where was His army? Why didn't He conquer and claim His kingdom? There is the desire to compare Him with Cyrus, and in this He seems to fail. This is the opening challenge to Israel's thinking: how do you define a conquering King?

While Cyrus and the Servant both share that messianic role as conquering kings who release Israel from bondage physically, but this Servant does what Cyrus did not. He releases His people from spiritual bondage first. That death on the cross is where the narrative is heading a few chapters from now.

The Servant is a conquering king. The first battle in which He engages in His first advent is effort to pardon Israel's sin and release her from that bondage. On the eve of that battle, facing rejection from His own people and even death as a result of their treachery, it is not hard to imagine Him in despair, thinking His earthly effort to have been as fleeting as vapor and without purpose. The second battle that He undertakes in His second advent will be as conquering king who saves His people from their physical bondage, and that effort will have no call for despair. Having conquered in the spiritual battle, success in the physical battle is assured.

But from where He stands, as a mortal man looking toward that cross on the eve of that great spiritual battle, His future is bleak, and it doesn't seem like it will accomplish anything.


The hope of the eternal reward He will receive from the LORD and the knowledge that He had done what was asked of Him. It didn't matter that a majority of His people still rejected the comfort He offered them or the salvation He purchased for them (many of them chose not to return from Babylon in Cyrus' day, either). As we have seen and will continue to see with Israel, victims in oppression will often reject a comforter's efforts for various reasons.
But that is not a reflection on the comforter. What the Servant gained in terms of earthly success did not matter, only that He completed His task to the LORD's satisfaction, and His focus remained fixed on that eternal reward. Though He was hard-pressed and perplexed, He did not despair.

Isaiah 49:5-13
The LORD now responds to the Servant with three proclamations (“The LORD says”). In the first, He expands the Servant's tasking (49:5-6). In the second, He promises the reward of rulership to the Servant (49:7). In the third, He describes the blessing that will flow to the people as a result of the Servant's work (49:8-12).

The Servant's tasking will not be to save Israel alone, but to save the whole world, to the ends of the earth (49:5-6). Thus, the Servant becomes a universal Savior. The author is making another parallel, this time with God’s statements in Isaiah 44-45. In Isaiah 44:22-28, God presents Himself as the redeemer of Israel as a nation, but then He expands the scope of that salvation and offers it to all the earth through Israel (Isaiah 45:22-23). Just as God is a universal God offering salvation to all, so the Servant is a universal Savior (but then He is also God).

This expanded tasking is followed by a promise of rulership (49:7). The LORD increases the glory and reputation of the Servant by causing kings and princes bow to the Servant they once despised. We talked about victims' needs for validation, vindication, and vengeance in Part 1, and this is what the LORD grants the Servant when He gives Him that crown. The very people who spat on Him will grovel at His feet.

The LORD then explains the blessing that flows from the Servant's work (49:8-12). The LORD’s words here echo what was previously said in Isaiah 42:1-9. The Servant will be a covenant to the people. He will restore not just Israel's heritage but the whole earth. The prisoners will be set free of bondage and brought into the light. They will not hunger or thirst or suffer exposure. God's Highway Project will be accomplished.

In summary, this is the comfort the LORD offers the Servant to help Him overcome His despair: 1) the promise of the reward of a crown and 2) the knowledge that the LORD will use that experience to make a difference in the lives of the people.


This section describing the Servant is capped off with the command to sing. Sing, for the LORD has comforted His people! And what is Israel's response in the very next verse (49:14)? Despair.


The Stumbling Block of Despair
Despair is the first stumbling block to be addressed in Part 2, so it is appropriate that our Wonderful Counselor leads us with His own example and way of combatting it. He keeps His eyes focused on that future reward of a crown and on the blessing that will flow to others as a result.

What makes that a difficult strategy for us to follow when we find ourselves going through a fiery trial or a rough patch in life? Perhaps I should ask:


This is where different doctrinal stances begin to sway things. Here is a quick list of the perspectives I have heard.

• Some say we are in pursuit of a crown, and that crown is not salvation. 
• Others will say, we are in pursuit of a crown, but the crown is salvation.
• Others will say that pursuing a reward is too mercenary. We should not be concerned with being rewarded for living a Christian life. (I have heard this myself.)
• Others will say there is no reward at all.

I myself am in the first camp. Yes, we are in pursuit of a crown and the crown is not salvation. It is something added on top of salvation because it is reckoned to our account differently. Ephesians 2:8-9 tells us,


Salvation is by grace alone, by faith alone in Christ alone, and not by works. If anything more than simple belief is involved, then it is no longer grace. There is a reason why Israel is cast in a passive stance in this part of Isaiah where salvation is being discussed. She can do nothing to save herself from her bondage but believe in the coming Savior and accept that sacrifice for her release.

Salvation aside, there is the promise of our works being judged for a reward. We see this promised in Isaiah and also in the book of Revelation:



Unlike salvation, the reward is reckoned according to works. As it has been defined so far in Isaiah, the reward is the promise of a crown and the status of royalty. It was granted to Cyrus first for accomplishing his tasking. It is the reward on which the Servant fixes His hope and it will be granted to Him when He completes His tasking. The Servant will then extend that right to the faithful as we will see in Isaiah 53 and 55. These pictures in Isaiah accord with the New Testament teachings about crowns that are awarded for enduring and persevering through trials, even unto death.

That reward of a crown is meant to be a comfort. It is a vital part of the program when overcoming despair because of the hope it represents.


The reward is meant as a comfort, but this is where the problem lies for me. When I am struggling in this life, in my immediate circumstances, that reward of a crown in future kingdom can seem so far down the road as to be discouraging rather than comforting.


The answer to that is yes, there are, and we will be delving into those in the coming chapters. The Servant will be part of that comforting process, but He won’t be able to offer comfort without first enduring the trial Himself, and the only way He was able to endure the His own trial was by keeping that reward in view.

If you only look at one chapter of Scripture at a time in isolation, you lose as sense of the continuity of the whole, as well as the themes and motifs that span multiple chapters. Today, I want to do a quick overall review of the structure and themes of Isaiah 40-66, then take a holistic look at Part 1 in our study of God’s Highway Project.

Structure and Themes of Isaiah 40-66
Chapters 40-66 envision Israel at the end of the Babylonian captivity as the LORD prepares to bring her out of that oppression. These chapters are focused on hope and the promise of a coming salvation. God organizes His effort into three parts, each with a specific set of themes:

• Part 1 (Isaiah 40-48): Theme of His power and justice (Israel in a passive role)
• Part 2 (Isaiah 49-57): Theme of His love and peace (Israel in a passive role)
• Part 3 (Isaiah 58-66): Theme of return and glorification (Israel in an active role)

Isaiah 40 opens with the command to comfort God’s people, which is the overarching purpose of the instruction in these chapters. This comfort is accomplished by a two-fold experience of salvation:

• Salvation in a physical form (her warfare is ended)—deliverance from enemies and an end to physical conflict
• Salvation in a spiritual form (her iniquities are pardoned)—deliverance from sin and an end to spiritual conflict between Israel and God.

The opening command to comfort is followed by a second command to “prepare the way” (Isaiah 40:3). “Preparing the way” is a command that is repeated in Chapters 40 and 62, and it becomes the encompassing theme for these collective chapters. This theme is reinforced by a third appearance of the same command in Chapter 57.

Isaiah 40:4 lays out the four-step process that brings about the reversal of conditions for God’s oppressed people. The process is likened to building a highway. There is groundwork and a foundation that has to be established first, and then the path is laid and refined. God’s Highway Project involves:

• Lifting up valleys—Encouraging, consoling, exhorting, interceding
• Bringing down mountains—Challenging false sources of power and comfort and exalted attitudes such as self-righteousness and a victim mentality
• Straightening crooked places—In the Hebrew, “crooked” describes ways of life have become twisted or perverted, deceitful, sly, or fraudulent. It is a way of life where reasoning and values are skewed. Think of a crooked place like a maze. Each turn a person takes or decision they make that isn’t aligned with God’s truth and commandments leads them deeper into sin. Sinful pursuits lead to compromised lifestyles, bad coping habits, and skewed perceptions and/or values, and ultimately end in confusion, disillusionment, and despair.
• Smoothing rough places—The refining process. You may have established the road, but there can still be a lot of stumbling stones and residual mess to clean up.

Each of these steps describe a reversal of condition, and the reversals illustrate the concept of shuv, which is the Hebrew word for repentance or return. Shuv describes the act of going in one direction, then reversing course and going back the way from which you came. The reversal brings a radical change of condition. Israel’s oppression was caused by her falling away from the relationship with the LORD. The only way to end the oppression is by returning to the LORD. The author reinforces that key theme of return by the heavy use of reversals throughout the narrative (mourning to gladness, leanness to plenty, barrenness to fruitfulness).

The additional command to remove the stumbling stones is added to the process in Isaiah 57:14 and 62:10. A stumbling stone can be any obstacle that prevents healing, reconciliation, or restoration of relationships, or an agent that turns people away from God into sin. It can also keep a person from being able to accept comfort when it is offered.

Review of Part 1 (Isaiah 40-48)
Isaiah 40 opens with the command to comfort God’s people, which leads to the first foundational question: Where do you seek comfort? You won’t be comforted if you seek comfort from the wrong source. Isaiah 40:6-8 sets up the initial comparison between two sources of comfort:

• Through the world (all flesh)
• Through God and His Word

All flesh encompasses not just humanity but all created things, including those made by human hands (like idols). All flesh is like the grass. It is mortal, fleeting, and futile. Ultimately, its fate is in the hand of the Creator. God blow on it as He wills, and it withers and fades. Created things may seem to offer comfort, but the comfort is short-lived. Three, appropriately brief verses describe the fleetingness of "all flesh." The rest of the chapter goes on to present the eternality and superiority of God. He is all powerful. He is all-knowing. He holds power over all the affairs of His creation and gives power to whom He chooses. “To whom will you liken Me?” He asks.

So, this is the foundational understanding that must be laid: Where is comfort found? In what is fleeting or what is eternal?

The second, foundational understanding is in regard to God’s sovereignty, power, and ability to save His people. Israel has turned to other, idolatrous sources of power and empowerment in her search for comfort and salvation. The theme of Chapters 41-48  focuses heavily on the themes of sovereignty, power, and justice.

God in His sovereignty and power. This picture opens in Isaiah 40 with the command, “Behold, your God!” and continues to build through Chapter 48.

• He is the incomparable God in His omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence. In Isaiah 40, He is superior in His power and far-sightedness to His human rivals (nations and kings) and spiritual rivals (man-made idols). In Isaiah 44, He is the transcendent, ever-present God in Israel’s affairs In Isaiah 45, He is the universal God who extends salvation to all the world through Israel.
• He is the Creator. His claim to creatorship is the crux of the argument for His ability to save His people. Any power sourced in the flesh or created things has no ability to deliver because all are subject to the Creator’s will. It is the Creator, not the created, who holds the power and grants power as He sees fit.
• He is Israel’s Creator, specifically. He states repeatedly that He has created her, He has formed her (Isaiah 43:1, 44:2, 22, 24). She is His servant and, as such, He has a special claim to her. He is her Redeemer (Isaiah 41:14, 43:1, 14; 44:6, 22, 23, 24; 47:4; 48:17, 20) and Savior (43:3, 11-12; 45:15, 17, 21-22).
• He is the First and the Last (Isaiah 41:4, 44:6, 48:12). As Creator from the beginning, He is able to point to the former things that He has brought to pass, and now He is equally able to proclaim new things which He will bring to pass in the future—things which idols cannot do. Being able to predict the future is the supreme test of power and Godship.

God in His justice. In Isaiah 40:27, Israel raises a grievance against God for being an unresponsive judge who has overlooked His people’s plight. In response to this grievance, the LORD calls both the victim and the oppressor to His courtroom for examination and questioning, and He is impartial to both sides. He makes His case to Israel that she is the one being unresponsive to Him. While He sees her plight and will save her for His own name’s sake, she is not without reproach or above the Law. He is an impartial judge of both the oppressor and victim. His rebuttal to Israel's grievance is a balance of consolation and rebuke.

Consolations:

• He consoles her with assurances of who she is to Him. She is His servant, He has chosen her, He loves her (43:1-7).
• She doesn’t have to fear because He will be with her, He will help and strengthen her (“Fear not”—Isaiah 41:10, 13-14, 43:1, 5; 44:2, 8).
• He will bring her out of exile and bless her (Isaiah 41:17-20, 42:14-17, 43:14-21, 44:1-5).
• He will avenge her against Babylon (Isaiah 41:11-16; 47:1-15)
• He calls her to remember and bear witness of the former things that He has done and to wait for the “new thing” He is proposing to do (Isaiah 41:22-29, 42:9, 43:9-21, 46:9-13). He does these things as proof to her of His ability to redeem her, that she might see, know, understand, and believe that He is who He says He is (Isaiah 41:20, 43:10).
  
  

• For her idolatry. Idolatry is futile. Idols cannot point to what they have done in the past or what they will do in the future (Isaiah 41:5-7, 27-29). Idolatry is foolish and burdensome (Isaiah 44:9-20, 46:1-7). It takes more effort to serve idols than it does to serve God, and there is no profit or salvation after all the effort. Placing her faith in idols is causing her fear. 
• For her unresponsiveness to Him. She is as blind as the Gentiles (42:21-25; 43:8).
• For her disobedience to His commandments. If she had heeded the commandments, she would have known peace, but she forsook the blessing and the LORD gave her to the curse and the enemy just as He swore to do back in Deuteronomy (Isaiah 43:22-28, 48:17-22).
• For her failing as His witness (Isaiah 48:1-11). He did the former things and declares the new things because of her treachery.

Agents of Justice
There are three agents who mete out God’s justice: Babylonia, Cyrus, and the Servant.

• Babylonia. Babylonia was the original agent of divine justice against the unfaithful southern kingdom of Judah, just as Assyria was to the unfaithful northern kingdom of Israel. God reminds His people that their sins were the reason Babylonia was given rule over them (Isaiah 41:23-25). But Babylonia was too brutal and incurred God’s wrath (Isaiah 47:6). He raises up Cyrus to subdue Babylonia and avenge Israel.
  
  
• Cyrus. Cyrus is the central figure for Part 1. As God begins to build a case for His power and Godship, He harps on the evidence of the former things that He has done for Israel and the “new” thing that He will do in her future. Cyrus is the “new” thing—an unprecedented “messiah” or deliverer. He has a distinction as being the only Gentile to be given the title of messiah or “anointed one.” This raises an objection from Israel who is expecting a Davidic king to be their Messiah, which I think is why God uses Cyrus specifically. A Gentile deliverer is unexpected. Israel can’t dismiss him by saying that they saw him coming (Isaiah 48:6-8).
  
  Cyrus is commissioned in Chapter 45, where he is tasked with facilitating God’s vengeance on Babylonia and initiating Israel’s exodus back to the Land of Israel. We know from history that Cyrus does not bring the lasting kingdom of peace that God has promised nor does he provide the spiritual reconciliation between God and His people. He only facilitates the first step in the highway-building project, that is, physically releasing and separating the victim from the abuser.
  
  Chapters 41-48 focus on Cyrus, the exodus from Babylonia, and God’s command to remember the former and new things. After Chapter 48, these are not mentioned again. This stage of the process is counted as complete.
  
  
• The Servant. The Servant is the third and final agent of justice. He is introduced in Part 1 but becomes the central figure for Part 2, continuing into Part 3. Like Cyrus, the Servant is a man and a king. The description of His tasking connects Him to the Prince of Peace in Isaiah 9. He is also Mighty God (Isaiah 9, Isaiah 48). Unlike Cyrus who is merely introduced but never speaks, the Servant (“Me”) speaks about Himself and His work beginning in Isaiah 48. He goes uncharacteristically silent in Isaiah 53 as His signature role in the Highway Project plays out.
  
  In Part 1, the Servant is tasked with establishing justice on the earth, opening blind eyes, and freeing the captives (Isaiah 42). Freeing the captives seems redundant. If Cyrus sets the captives free, why would the LORD call a second messiah to do the same thing? What is not evident in Isaiah, but what we know from where we stand in history, is that there will come a day in the future when Israel again finds herself in exile again and must be delivered. The Messiah who delivers her in that day will not be a Gentile king but a Messianic Davidic king. Thus, the Servant and Cyrus have the same “messianic” tasking but appear in that capacity at two separate points in time. This kind of physical deliverance from oppressors comes to define Israel’s expectation of a messiah figure.
  
  Unlike Cyrus, the Servant will provide justice in both the physical and spiritual realms. He will sacrifice Himself to pay the penalty of the Law for Israel’s sin in the next stage of the process. In the final stage, He will deliver Israel physically again and bring about the lasting kingdom of peace. But it goes in that order. Israel missed Him in His first advent because they were expecting a conquering king like Cyrus. Instead, they got a sacrificial lamb.

So, we have our overall theme of comforting people and preparing a way for their return to God which is the only way that their oppression will be lifted. God presented the initial challenge of where to seek comfort and empowerment, then proceeded to lay down some foundational groundwork in regard to who He is—His sovereignty, His power, and His ability to save His people. He answers their cry for justice by raising up Cyrus and the Servant.

So how do we apply what God is modeling in these chapters in regard to comforting people who are oppressed, abused, or struggling on a rough road in life?

Progress on God’s Highway Project, Part 1 (Isaiah 40-48)

The overall application of Isaiah 40-66 is to understand:

• How God prepares His people spiritually, mentally, and emotionally for the oppression and exile looming on their horizon. That can apply to us as we wrestle with an eroding culture and its skewed values, knowing that the End Times are coming.
• What strategies God uses in bringing people out of a current experience of oppression, and in what capacity we ourselves are called to model or participate in the process.
• What specific issues arise during the experience of oppression. These include the reactions to abuse, oppression, or other victimization and become stumbling blocks to being comforted, healed, and restored in relationships with others and with God. They can also become a secondary form of oppression that remains and continues even after the oppressive circumstances have been lifted.

Israel is our specific case study. She is the worst case scenario in that she has sinned and is suffering exile and oppression as a consequence. Not all struggling people model Israel. There are those who have been victimized or become caught in a crooked place not of their making. Their own sin may not have been the cause of their troubles, but sin can manifest itself in how they react to their circumstances. Thus, sin must still be addressed.

God does a lot of heavy groundwork in these opening chapters. The first thing of which He reminds us is that we are flesh. We are like the grass—mortal, fleeting, insufficient and relatively powerless in comparison to God.


Let’s walk through the highway-building steps:

Lifting Up and Tearing Down
The steps of taking down mountains and lifting up valleys are seen in the alternating pattern of strong rebuke and consolation. God doesn’t offer one without the other. We talked about why a balance of that is needed (as a rule).

In the course of ministering to or counseling an oppressed or suffering person, we might need to address the sin in that person’s life that is causing their brokenness. But if we follow God’s model, the tearing-down must be paired with a lifting-up. Paul himself had to correct the Corinthian church over this after they came down on a man so hard that he was on the verge of despair (2 Corinthians 2:3-11). We see the same pattern modeled in Revelation 2-3. In His address to the churches, Christ uses a balance of rebuke and consolation, except for the persecuted church of Smyrna to whom He gives consolation only.

Straightening Crooked Places
This step of the process involves straightening out attitudes and behaviors that have become “crooked” (twisted or perverted, deceitful or sly). Crookedness can also manifest itself in being puffed up and self-righteous—a distorted perspective. These are all things that empower oppression, and it takes some breaking to straighten them out.

Cyrus is God’s tool for making the first stab at this task, namely dealing with the oppressor, Babylonia. He uses Cyrus to physically remove suffering Israel from her oppressor’s control. This is often a necessary first step—to take a victim out of harm’s way. But just taking the victim out of oppressive circumstances does not mean that the problems in her life are solved or that she is in any way healed and restored physically, mentally, emotionally, or spiritually. It also doesn’t address Israel’s own crookedness which got her into this place.

The oppressor isn’t the only problem, although the victim would like to think they are, and part of straightening crooked places requires an impartial assessment of both parties and not overlooking the sin in the victim’s life as well. That oppressive experience—that season in the furnace of affliction—may have had a purpose in correcting crookedness. It did for Israel.

Smoothing Rough Places: Identifying Stumbling Stones
Some examples of stumbling stones in our chapters are:

• Truths about our condition that we don’t want to acknowledge. God opened Isaiah 40 with the statement that all flesh is like grass. There can be an unwillingness to acknowledge our own powerlessness, limitations, weaknesses, or sin, which then becomes a stumbling block to healing or being comforted. Christ is described in Isaiah as a stumbling block to those who refuse to believe in Him (1 Peter 2:4-10, Isaiah 28:16, Isaiah 8:14).
• Tangible things like idols (literal stones) or other physical sources of false comfort or salvation. Idolatry is definitely a stumbling stone over which God and Israel battle. When comforting a struggling person, you might find that there are temporal things or even people to which they are clinging that are keeping them in their oppressive circumstances.
• Emotional reactions to the abuse or oppression that add to and/or perpetuate oppression and can linger even after the actual oppressor is out of the picture. Fear was the major stumbling stone in Part 1 and is linked to the themes of power and justice. The desire for validation, vindication, and vengeance are other sub-topics under this theme. These, too, can become stumbling stones if not pursued correctly.
  
  

Removing the Stumbling Stone of Fear
Fear is the first and perhaps the greatest stumbling block that God addresses because it carries a power that rivals His own and can spawn other kinds of stumbling. There are nine imperative commands not to fear, seven of which fall in Chapters 41-44.

• Fear stems from a feeling of powerlessness. That powerlessness can spur the desire to take back the power by human means instead of relying on God’s power.
• Fear drives decision-making in a way that can override sound reasoning. For this reason, it is often a tactic that oppressors use to overpower and control us. A fearful person might seek relief from oppression in the wrong way, or they may refuse to leave an abuser for fear of being on their own. Fear can keep a person from speaking the truth (bearing witness) or doing something they know they should do. It can also make them do something they know they shouldn’t do.
• Fear is emotion-based.
• Fear can be guilt-based. It can take a person into a dark place and imprisoned them there. They might remain in the dark for fear of sin being brought to light. Thus, fear is tied to the stumbling block of shame, which God will deal with in Part 2.
• Fear is often a red-flag that something is wrong in the power dynamic—that power has been given to something that doesn’t or shouldn’t have power over us. When this happens, fear results (Isaiah 41).

God counters Israel’s fear with the tangible evidence of His power and assurance of His love, and He calls her to use a sound mind instead of her emotions. He urges her to consider His past faithfulness and deliverance that she might to see, hear, know, understand, and believe, and then to bear witness of that belief. Our witness of God’s deliverance and comfort is vital because it becomes a way of comforting other struggling people. God’s strategy for combatting fear is summarized in 2 Timothy 1:7, which was our key verse.


When we internalize an understanding of God’s power and presence in our circumstances, the fear becomes manageable (also see 2 Corinthians 4:7-10).

We all struggle with fear. Oppressed or abused people struggle with fear more than most. That fear and the doubt it causes can be contagious if we aren’t well-grounded in God’s power and love. So, how well-grounded are you?

It has been two weeks now since the 2024 presidential election, and the results have been uplifting and full of hope for some but horrifying for others. The social outcry and general backlash has begun, and I find myself aching for an end to the barrage of angry words and protests. And I ponder what it would take to bring us national peace. How do we achieve national peace in our country today? How would we even define peace? Is it something we even want anymore? These are the thoughts that came to me as I delved into the final verses in Isaiah 48.

Isaiah 48 concludes Part 1 of God’s Highway Project that has focused on the theme of God’s power and sovereignty over His people. God has been building His argument for His ability to deliver Israel, and now He wraps up His case with some very strong closing statements that mingle lament for what has been lost and rejoicing over release and national peace to come.

In the chiastic structure, we have these opening and closing arguments:
There are a number of sub-points under the opening argument that are repeated in the closing argument but they are presented in a different order to set us up for Part 2 of God’s Highway Project. Let’s work through the verses in Isaiah 48 and note their parallels in Isaiah 41-42, and then discuss the new theme of peace that will carry forward into Part 2.

Isaiah 48:12-16 NKJV
The content of these verses is a repetition of much of what we have heard before, but the challenge is to identify who is speaking. There are three people mentioned in verse 16: The Lord GOD, the Spirit, and "Me." "Me" is not the prophet Isaiah. He is a new voice in the narrative, or at least He seems to be. But who is "Me" and how long has He been speaking? Working back through verses 12-15, we see that they are narrated in the first person point-of-view ("I" and "Me"). How many of these earlier statements is "Me" claiming as His own?


All of the statements in these verses are nothing more than what has been said before. The only thing different is the change of speaker. Where God was speaking, now "Me" is speaking. So, we now have this curious mingling of two voices, the LORD God and "Me," which seem to speak as one at times and yet are separate. This is the glorious power of God, that with a simple, understated comment inserted into a final argument, He can upend everything you thought you knew about Him.

King, Servant, Man, God
Remember, Isaiah 48 has been tracking with Isaiah 41-42. Back in Isaiah 41-42, the LORD declared that He would raise up a Servant, invest Him with the Spirit, and give Him the task of reestablishing the Law and justice in the earth. That Servant would embody the covenant between God and His people. He would be a light to the Gentiles and would release prisoners from prison. When we compare the parallels between Isaiah 41-42 and Isaiah 48, we find that this Servant is the counterpart to “Me.” Cyrus' work is done. God and His Spirit have now sent the Servant, "Me." The Servant eclipses the previous messiah, Cyrus, in both His person and tasking and will be the apex figure highlighted in Part 2 of God's Highway Project (Isaiah 49-57).

Thus, a picture of "Me" begins to take on flesh. He is one with the Godhead, but He is also cast in the form of an earthly man. He is the Servant, but His task of establishing justice and peace on the earth also links Him to the king described in Isaiah 9:


Thus, "Me" is king and servant, man and God. When we come to the New Testament, we are given this same composite view in the Gospels. Matthew presents Him as the king; Mark, the Servant. Luke presents Him as a man; John, as God. In the book of Revelation, Christ identifies Himself with many phrases from Isaiah for the specific purpose of driving us back to the Old Testament picture.

So, "Me" is the Servant who is also the Prince of Peace, and He will be the apex character around which Part 2 will focus.
 
In the final verses of Isaiah 48, the LORD Himself is speaking again through a third person which might be the prophet Isaiah (or it might be "Me"), and He ends with a comment on the blessing of peace.

Isaiah 48:17-22
The theme of peace and what makes for peace, and it is similar to the theme of fear in Isaiah 41-42.

In Isaiah 41 and 42, God belabored the futility of idolatry and set up the comparison between the idolatrous nations who feared because they relied on their idols and Israel who did not fear--or at least, faithful Israel did not fear. Those of Israel who persisted in idolatry still had much to fear. He ended Isaiah 42 with a blistering rebuke to Israel for her blindness and disobedience in not keeping His commandments.

Now, in Isaiah 48:17-22, God makes a similar comparison between those who have peace and those who don't. Peace reflects an absence of fear. But Israel has yet to experience peace. The rebuke in Isaiah 42 becomes a lament in Isaiah 48 over what has not been accomplished and why. "Oh, that you had heeded My commandments!" the LORD cries. Obeying the commandments would have spared Israel this ordeal and brought her a blessing, but the blessing has been lost. But now the ordeal is ended. Redemption has been made, and the LORD issues the command, "Go forth from Babylon!" with a voice of singing. Thus, the lament is turned to rejoicing, and sorrow to gladness. This reversal of condition is a theme in Isaiah's narrative style.

Verse 20 is full of imperative commands. Go! Flee! Declare! Proclaim! Utter to the ends of the earth! God has redeemed Israel! All the verbs are in perfect tense indicating that they have been completed. Even though they are literally in the future, they are as good as accomplished.

Isaiah 48 ends with a final comment that there is no peace for the wicked, which closes the thought begun in verse 18. Peace, or shalom, is the reward for obedience.

Isaiah 48:22 is important to note because it is a marker verse. It marks the end of Part 1 of Isaiah’s consolations, which focuses on God’s power and sovereignty, and provides a transition to the theme of peace which will be the focus of Part 2 (Isaiah 49-57). This same verse is repeated in Isaiah 57:21 and marks the end of Part 2 as well. Thus, Part 2 opens and closes with this theme of peace and what makes for peace.

Before I go on to a discussion of peace, I just want to point out a final parallel to this lament in Isaiah 48:18, this time in the book of Luke. In Luke 19:42-44, Jesus raised a similar lament over Jerusalem for her blindness and disobedience:


The Blessing of Peace
A blessing of peace now comes out of this experience in the furnace of affliction. Peace is a new theme going forward, but what makes for peace?


The Hebrew word for peace is shalom, and it means completeness, soundness, health and welfare. It includes the experiences of safety, prosperity, tranquility, and contentment, and a reconciliation of relationships between people, but also a harmony with God.


According to God’s words here in Isaiah, Israel would have peace in obeying His commandments. This implies that the nation needs to be re-established under the Laws that would bring not just social justice but a means of spiritual redemption as well. Cyrus was unable to achieve either of these with lasting effect. Even though he released Israel from her physical oppression and let her go home, it did not bring her peace as a nation.

Peace is not an easy thing to achieve. So far, the LORD has addressed the initial question of where to seek power and empowerment, and the stumbling block of fear, along with some side issues such as the need for validation and vindication. This was the broad foundation that He had to lay before He could get into the deeper issues of despair, shame, anger, and silent withdrawal. All of these are reactions to feeling powerless, and major stumbling blocks that prevent a person from experiencing comfort and ultimately peace. The blessing of peace, for an individual but also for a nation, is the goal of Phase 2 of God's Highway Project, which we will begin when we return from Christmas break. Happy holidays!

The furnace of affliction is a phrase that God uses to describe Israel’s experience in exile. Those are very evocative words. When you think of a person caught in a furnace of affliction, what are they going through? Do you feel like you have ever spent a season in the furnace of affliction? I know I have, but perhaps not for the same reasons as Israel.

In the wake of His humiliation of Babylon in Isaiah 47, God turns a blistering rebuke on Israel. Just because He has avenged her doesn’t mean that she is above reproach in His eyes. Back in Isaiah 43, He had charged her with bearing witness of His might works. Now He rebukes her for having failed in that calling. We see again the impartiality of His judgment of both the Gentiles and Jews.

In the chiastic structure of Isaiah 41-48, these opening and closing arguments are paired:

Opening Argument: Isaiah 43:9-13  God calls Israel to be His witness.
Closing Argument: Isaiah 48:1-11  God rebukes Israel for her failure to be His witness.

Isaiah 48:1-11 NKJV
God opens with a sarcastic description of the people of Judah. Judah is Israel's counterpart to Babylon of Babylonia, being preeminent among the tribes and associated with the capital city, Jerusalem. So, between Isaiah 47 and 48, we have this comparison of two haughty, entitled "daughters." She rests on her reputation and entitlement. She swears by the name of the LORD and bandies His name about--but not in truth or righteousness. She professes one thing, but that profession does follow into action. She says she trusts in the LORD, but there is little evidence of that. She has stubbornly persisted in her idolatry and is no better than Babylon in that sense.

God brings this charge against His own people, that they have not borne witness of Him or given Him glory for His mighty works among them. For the last eight chapters, God has been harping on the fact that He has declared the former things and brought them to pass, and now has pronounced new things which He will bring to pass as a witness to the world of His Godship and that He is who He says He is. But now He reveals another reason for making these predictions, and it is to safeguard His glory against His own people's treachery. God declares that He did the former things before there were any gods in Israel, so that she could not say that her idols ordained these events (48:5). Now He is declaring the new things, so that she can't dismiss Him by saying that these things are nothing new, that she already knew they would happen (48:7). These things aren't just the natural working out of cause and effect. This isn't a case of what goes around comes around or karma or fate or however you wish to dismiss it. This is God doing something deliberately and with forethought.

It is clear that God is angry with His people. He has made them glorious for His own glory, but they have become complacent and dismissive of Him and His work. They give His glory to idols or take credit themselves, and He cannot bear it.

God brings judgment on Babylon and Israel alike. When we look at Babylon’s end in the previous chapter (Isaiah 47), we see that Babylon wears herself out appealing to her astrologers and stargazers, and in the end, the pieces of wood that she called her gods are nothing more than tinder for a fire, and not even a comforting one. Babylon is given over to her destruction for her idolatry, and nothing saves her. But God deals differently with Israel.
He sends her into a "furnace of affliction" (48:10) and lets her wear herself out crying to idols, but she doesn't suffer a complete destruction. Instead, it becomes a refining process.


In verse 11, the LORD repeats the phrase “Lema’ani, lema’ani”—for My own sake, for My own sake—twice for emphasis. He has invested Himself in His people, and He is as tied to them as they are to Him. But Israel needs to understand that He alone is sovereign over their lives, and that what He gives, He can take away. Even so, He will give again to those who are faithful to Him as they endure the furnace of affliction. Once that furnace has done its refining work, the faithful remnant of Judah will return to claim their inheritance in the land of Israel.

We, as Church age believers, are now named among God’s people. We claim to rely on the LORD, just as Israel did, and we, also, can be made to endure a season in the furnace of affliction.


Can we become complacent and dismissive of His work in our lives? Can we fail to be a faithful witness for Him? Yes, we can. When life is manageable, we can live day to day with nothing really good or bad happening and never once bear witness of our glorious God to the world. If we only give Him glory when we have reached the ends of our own resources, are we surprised when He makes our lives an ongoing trial by fire? It is to His glory that we go through these trials and accept the LORD's refining of us.

Is vengeance comforting? That is an uncomfortable question to answer. Our righteous Christian side will say no, absolutely not, but our carnal side might beg to differ. But if there is no comfort in it, then why to so many people seek it? Because it is empowering. But which is more empowering and ultimately satisfying: when we take that vengeance for ourselves, or let God avenge us?

In previous chapters, God has promised Israel that He will deliver her from exile, but it is not enough that He simply takes her out of Babylon's hands. Here in Isaiah 47, He grants her the vindication of witnessing His humiliation of the seemingly invincible oppressor who has tormented her. Babylon is personified as a haughty young woman of tremendous wealth and prestige who suddenly experiences a horrific reversal of fortune and loses everything at the hand of an angry God.

Isaiah 47 is the outworking of the vengeance promised back in Isaiah 43:14-15 and this chapter is paired with that passage in the chiastic structure of Isaiah 41-48. A pdf version of the chiastic chart can be downloaded here: The Chiastic Structure of Isaiah 41-48

Isaiah 47:1-7
The rebuke begins in verses 1-2 with a series of imperative commands to Babylon. "Come down and sit in the dust . . . Sit on the ground . . . Take the millstone and grind . . . Remove your veil . . . Take off the skirt . . . Uncover the thigh . . . Pass through the rivers." His words are brutal and debasing as He drags the "tender and delicate" tyrant off her throne. She was anything but tender and delicate to His people, so He strips away that veil of hypocrisy and uncovers her to her shame.

"Sit in silence . . . Go into darkness." In her hubris, Babylon has called herself the Lady of Kingdoms (47:5), but the LORD reminds her of how she came to that exalted place.


God gave Israel to Babylon for a time because He was angry with Israel and needed to deal with His people, but Babylon was only ever His tool. After witnessing the destructive fury that the LORD meted out to His wayward people, one would think that Babylon might have taken a lesson from that and been more circumspect in handling Israel, but she wasn't. She took her role as God's agent too far and was merciless to His precious people, and it is for her hubris and lack of mercy that Babylon now suffers punishment.

Even as we examine Israel in our case study, we should not neglect the lesson of Babylon. At times, we unknowingly become God's tool for dealing with another person, for better or worse, and how we acquit ourselves in our part of that process will be judged.


There are rewards for the works we do in life, good and bad, and we should not labor under the assumption that the reward God determines for our works is necessarily a good and pleasant thing. Job reminds us that “those who plow iniquity and sow trouble will reap the same.” (Job 4:8 NKJV)

David writes, “Therefore the LORD has recompensed me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands in His sight. With the merciful You will show Yourself merciful; with a blameless man You will show Yourself blameless; with the pure You will show Yourself pure; and with the devious You will show Yourself shrewd. For You will save the humble people, but will bring down haughty looks.” (Psalm 18:24-27 NKJV)

Jesus reminds us, "For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you." (Matthew 7:2 NKJV)

It is wise to take a lesson from Babylon when we are tempted to lift ourselves up above others and boast in our own security in God's favor. Though our salvation may be secure in Christ because of God's grace, there is still warning that our works will be evaluated in the end, and the added reward or "crowns" that our earthly works merit, may be lost to us.

Isaiah 47:7-11
God then sentences Babylon. He begins by revealing the lies that she has told herself (47:7, 8, 10). She thinks she is secure in her position, but she is not. She thinks she is untouchable and invincible, but she is not. She thinks that she will endure and her legacy will live on, but it won't. God says death and grief--loss of children and widowhood--will come upon her in one day, and then He tells her why.

• She has relied on her "sorceries" and "enchantments," a power based in occult sources which will prove to be only illusions.
• She has trusted in her wickedness, and said to herself, "no one sees me."
• Her worldly wisdom and knowledge have warped her.
• She has become haughty and entitled.

God says evil will come upon Babylon in one day and from an unknown source (47:11). We know from the book of Daniel that Babylon was taken in one night, the very night when Belshazzar saw the writing on the wall which Daniel translated for him. That night, the kingdom fell into the hands of Medo-Persia (Daniel 5). God is good to His word.

Isaiah 47:12-15
The passage ends with the LORD's scoffing challenge to Lady Babylon to consult her famed soothsayers and magicians, who will not be able to deliver her. They shall be as stubble for the raging inferno of God's anger, and all of her merchants and traffickers will abandon her.

There is a mixing of near and distant prophecies in this passage. The end of Babylon in this era will resemble the fall of a future Babylon in the End Times, as recorded in Revelation 18:





Israel's lack of participation here is a sharp contrast to the statement God made in Isaiah 41:15-16, where He promised her that she herself will take part in tearing down "the mountains and hills"--the exalted ones who have oppressed her--as part of His vindication.


Even so, Israel has no part in the LORD's vengeance against Babylon in this chapter. God takes vengeance on His people's behalf, while Israel stand by as a witness. In fact, as He has told her in the past, vengeance is His and His alone (Deuteronomy 32:35). So, how do we reconcile these two statements?


God's Highway Project: The Comfort of Vengeance
We have been talking about the four steps in God's Highway Project. Step 1 was lifting up those in the valleys. Step 2 was bringing the mountains and hills low. Taking vengeance is a way of lifting one person up by taking another down, and it is often done under the guise of justice. But it is not justice.


They differ in their motives. Justice settles conflicts with equity to both sides. A law is made. A punishment is set. When a person transgresses that law, they know exactly what the punishment will be and they accept the punishment for it. But once fair retribution is made, that is the end of the matter. Both sides walk away from each other as equals once again. Justice is meant to accomplish God’s main objectives: To end the fighting and reconcile the sin.


Man’s vengeance has a different motive. Vengeance is a way of glorifying oneself by inflicting punishment or retribution for an injury or wrong—particularly an injury to one’s reputation. It’s an act of domination in taking back what is due to you, plus a little more for good measure and to ram home the message of who is greater. It isn’t about reestablishing equality. It is about self-glorification, and it moves beyond just punishment into the humiliation of a person. That humiliation will create a stumbling block.

There is serious comfort in vengeance, and the world whole-heartedly endorses that means of empowerment. Today, we live in a culture that has become hypersensitive to victims of social injustice, and we see the threshing sledges with their sharp, raking teeth at work across all venues of social media--and not just from actual victims but from those who identify with them and support them. These sharp teeth thresh their antagonists into physical, mental, emotional, even spiritual ruin. And people "like" it.


Vengeance is God's right alone, because He can do it thoroughly, justly, and with the beneficial outcome of ending the fight instead of prolonging it.

How Israel understands her role in regard to taking vengeance is supremely important because, as we will see in later chapters, there is a new kingdom coming, and God's people--these victimized people--will be ruling in it. That means they will have power and authority over people who were once their oppressors.





Paul reminds us of the LORD's command not to avenge ourselves:

Overview: Chiastic Structure of Isaiah 41-48
A study of the prophetic books like Isaiah can become a little tedious at times because it seems like so much of the narrative is redundant. The same phrase or themes are repeated often, and they are easy to dismiss because we wonder what is the point. There actually is a point, but you won’t see it unless you understand how the narrative is structured. In the case of Isaiah 41-48, the narrative is arranged in a chiasm or chiastic structure.

A chiasm is a literary structure used to build a complex argument toward a particular point. The author will introduce a series of opening statements or themes until he reaches that point, and then begins to work his way back through his earlier points with closing arguments. This is why there seems to be a lot of redundancy in the text, because the same arguments are revisited, but we can’t just skip over the closing arguments altogether because the LORD has some additional points to make.

Isaiah 41-48 focuses on the theme of God’s power. The first four chapters contain the opening arguments, and the apex of that argument is the commissioning of Cyrus in Isaiah 45a. Isaiah 45b-48 give us the closing arguments. I have outlined the statements below so that you can see how the themes mirror each other across that apex statement (1a-1b, 2a-2b, 3a-3b, etc.)

1a: Isaiah 41:1-42:25  Redemption promised
2a: Isaiah 43:1-13  Israel called as God’s faithful witness
3a: Isaiah 43:14-15  The judgment of Babylon promised
4a: Isaiah 43:16-21  Do not remember the former things; God does a new thing
5a: Isaiah 43:22-44:22  The burden of serving God; the effort of making idols
6a: Isaiah 44:24-44:28  The transcendent God of Israel (national salvation)
7: Isaiah 45:1-17 The commissioning of Cyrus
6b: Isaiah 45:18-25 The universal God of the world (universal salvation)
5b: Isaiah 46:1-8 The burden of serving idols
4b: Isaiah 46:9-13  Remember the former things
3b: Isaiah 47:1-15  The judgment of Babylon rendered
2b: Isaiah 48:1-11  Israel rebuked as a treacherous witness
1b: Isaiah 48:17-22  Redemption accomplished

In the last blog, I worked through points 8a and 8b which opened with a picture of God as a transcendent God to Israel and offers her national salvation (Isaiah 44:24-28) but then expanded to a picture of the same God who now offers universal salvation to the entire world, even as He saves Israel specifically (Isaiah 45:18-25). So, the closing argument expanded the scope of the opening argument.

Now, in Isaiah 46, God returns to a previous argument on the burdensome effort of serving idols versus serving Himself (7a). Back in Isaiah 43, God took Israel to task for being weary of serving Him with sacrifices when in fact He was the one being wearied by her sin. He then went on to point out the extreme amounts of time and effort she put into fashioning her idols. In reality, she didn’t mind putting some effort toward her own salvation. She just didn’t want to do it His way. He also pointed out that His way came with a blessing, but what profit did she gain from her idolatry? None. So, her complaint as well as her actions were utterly foolish and self-defeating.

Now He returns to this theme with another rebuke for Israel over her idolatry and points to the Babylonian deities, Bel and Nebo, as perfect examples of just how burdensome idolatry can become.

Isaiah 46:1-8
Bel and Nebo were the supreme gods of Babylon and symbols of the nation's pride in their power and wisdom. Their idols were lavishly bedecked with gold and silver and paraded through the cities of Babylonia on celebration days. And yet, for all their pride and pomp, these Babylonian gods are humbled and made to stoop and bow when God gives them into the hand of Cyrus.

God points to the weary beasts (animal and human) staggering under the heavy load of the Babylonian's pride. Those idols had no power. They could not create themselves. They had to be carried everywhere, and wherever they were set down, there they stayed. They only created more of a burden on the people instead of relieving it. The irony of the people's plight is that they would have had some relief if they had simply put down that idol and walked away. But they don't. They blindly put their shoulder to the task of carrying their "saviors" and groan like weary beasts.

"To whom will you liken Me?" God asks. Unlike Bel and Nebo, He is a God who carries His people. In fact, He considers it His duty as Israel's Creator to bear the burden of His creation and not just for a season but continuously, from the birth to old age, and He is more than willing to deliver them from those who would lay such a burden on them. (I think this is part of the reason why He forbade the people from making any image of Him. He did not want to be perceived as a god who had to be carried about. That is belittling to Him.) How comforting would it be to be carried instead of having to bear that burden? Is there even a comparison?

The main point in this contrast is that when a person turns from a dependence on God’s strength and power, they must then shoulder that heavy burden themselves or place it on another person to bear, and that burden often adds to the burden of the oppressive circumstances or makes things worse. Israel once turned away from God, claiming that the sacrificial service He demanded for her redemption was too wearying and burdensome. Instead, she now sacrifices her own well-being by carrying these burdensome idols that cannot save her. The irony is rich.


Those idols were symbolic of Babylonia's pride and offered the illusion of power and empowerment. Maybe she doesn’t want His help because she thinks she can handle it herself. Maybe she has believed the lie that she can empower herself. Maybe there is a fear of letting go of the tangible illusion to cling to an intangible God. Maybe there is shame or despair or self-pity driving her (these are all stumbling blocks, by the way). In our culture, we may not carry physical idols, but we still idolize and cling to people or things that offer the illusion of comfort, power or self-empowerment, often because they validate us as victims.

God commands Israel to listen to Him in verse 3 and then to remember in verse 8. Remember this comparison, you transgressors. There is sin at the heart of Israel's refusal to lay down her burdens and rely on God.

Isaiah 46:9-13
This next set of verses now opens with the repeated command to remember (46:9) and ends with the repeated command to listen (46:12). The repeated commands and the reversal of their order signals a chiastic structure. God is making a closing argument to the issue of idolatry.

"Remember the former things of old . . ." (46:9). Remember when I brought you out of Egypt, and I went head to head with Pharoah's gods. Remember how Pharoah's wise men and sorcerers where able to mimic Moses and Aaron in turning water to blood and bringing frogs out of the Nile? Those magicians only added to the people's plight but could not relieve it. I, as the one true God, was able to deliver you when they could not. It is no different now. I am God and there is no other. He repeats that twice for emphasis, then goes on to speak of future things. These Babylonian gods are no different from Egypt's gods. I have already determined their end and have set the wheels in motion to accomplish it by sending Cyrus (46:11).

"Listen to Me, you stubborn hearted . . ." (46:12) There is a stubbornness in Israel's refusal to acknowledge what God has done for her in the past and His ability to relieve her burden even now. God now revisits this issue of carrying burdens, only He puts a twist on it. Not only will He carry Israel through this trial, He will bring the salvation to her. Notice the interplay of "near" and "far" in the final verses.


Israel is far from God spiritually and far from her Land physically. He is the one who closes the gap between Himself and her by providing a solution to the spiritual distance, even as He delivers her back to her land physically, and He promises that this salvation is not far off. It will not delay.

The Comfort of Laying Down Burdens
In the final verses, God belabors Israel’s stubbornness. Before He can begin to offer healing and help, His people need to acknowledge that they need His help and desire it. She needs to be willing to lay down that burden, but requires some humility on her part.

We have been approaching this study from the aspect of helping a struggling person in oppressive circumstances, and it is not hard to recognize that this is really the first step in the process. Part of what is keeping them in their oppression is their pride, their belief in their own empowerment, and their stubborn insistence on shouldering the burden themselves. You really can’t do anything until they acknowledge that they need help, and this usually doesn’t happen they have exhausted all other avenues of support, relief, and comfort. And God lets them go through that breaking-down process. In truth, He cannot intervene until they have bowed to this reality because the glory for that intervention needs to be all His. He does not share His glory.

In Matthew 11:20-24, Jesus delivers a similar rebuke to the stubbornly impenitent cities of Chorazin and Bethsaida who did not repent when they saw the mighty works that were done in them (kind of like God rebuking Israel for not having remembered the former things). Jesus then holds out the invitation:



When Israel leaves her Babylonian exile, idolatry is one thing to which she does not return once she is back in her land. She no longer has the burden of carrying idols, and yet the service she renders to God becomes burdensome once again, thanks to the Pharisees and Sadducees who bring her back into a form of bondage with their “traditions.” In Mark 7:9-13, Jesus rebukes these leaders for laying the burden of their man-made traditions on the people and thus making the word of God of no effect. In Matthew 23, He rebukes them for their hypocrisy in imposing burdensome practices on the people that they themselves do not practice and pronounces woes on them. Jesus warns about idolizing such men, currying their favor, or even following their example.

That was Jesus' day, and it spoke to the specific burden being levied by an oppressive and prideful authority in conflict with God. Jesus offered them that comfort of having that burden lifted when they acknowledged Him as Lord and master.







Those are some examples which fall into the specific context of Jesus' words in Matthew 11, but how do we apply that offer of rest and a lightening of our burden to our daily walk?


Bearing One Another's Burdens
Step one is the struggler being willing to lay down the burden and begin to work through the process of healing. Step two involves the transfer of that burden to another who can carry it, namely God, but also to us as His human agents. He tasks us with part of His Highway Project by asking us to bear one another’s burdens. Paul speaks of this particularly in regards to helping a person who is struggling with sin (as Israel is here in Isaiah).

In the last blog, we covered the beginning of Isaiah 45, which focused on the commissioning of a messiah, Cyrus of Persia, in Israel's relatively near future. As the chapter wraps up, the picture of a near-future messianic figure begins to morph into a more distant-future Messiah with a greater tasking as the LORD's salvation plan now expands to include not just Israel but all the world.

Isaiah 45:18-25
We left off with Isaiah 45:15-17, proclaiming a resounding praise for Israel's Savior King. There is no other Savior besides God because there is no other god besides God. Those who trust in idols will be ashamed and disgraced.
 
As we move into this last set of verses, we find a series of statements that parallel Isaiah 44:24-28, where the LORD presented Himself as an all-powerful, all-seeing, ever-present God to the nation of Israel. He began by describing who He was in the past (Isaiah 44:24) as the Creator of all the world and Israel, specifically. He reiterates that now in Isaiah 45:18, leaving out His relationship with Israel specifically. He is God of all creation.

He then goes on to speak to Israel in her present day (Isaiah's day) similar to what He said in Isaiah 44:25-26. He makes the comparison between Himself and the idolators who cannot save. He does not speak in secret like the diviners and soothsayers who turn to dark places for wisdom. He is speaking plainly. He speaks righteously, in the sense of laying a straight path which is just (morally or legally right)—what is so or ought to be so. Following that path leads the experience of being justified or set free. God also speaks what is right (a different word in the Hebrew), referring to uprightness (vertically) or straightness (horizontally) in the sense of smoothness or levelness. Figuratively, it speaks of judging with equity and impartiality, making sure the scale is balanced when meting out justice. When the scales are balanced, there is peace. He is making crooked paths straight and rough places smooth.

Having presented Himself as God past and present, He then presents Himself as God of the future, but there is a difference here between Isaiah 44:26-28 and Isaiah 45:22-25. In Isaiah 44, Cyrus is the deliverer on the near-horizon and the salvation he brings is for the nation of Israel specifically. But now that Cyrus has been commissioned, the LORD reveals a greater salvation plan with this shocking statement:


The salvation He now offers isn't just national salvation for Israel, although the nation corporately will be justified in the end (45:25). This salvation is a universal offering of salvation to all the earth, Jews and Gentiles. He is not just the God of Israel but the God of all creation, although He works through Israel to accomplish that salvation. But it is not a salvation that Cyrus will facilitate. Just because this salvation picture comes after Cyrus does not mean it is speaking of Cyrus as the ultimate messiah. Cyrus' work is limited to the near-future release of Israel and only in the physical sense. This later passage is casting the vision now to a more distant future and the next coming deliverer--the suffering Servant who is God Himself. We see the same phrasing from Isaiah 45:23 in Philippians 2, where Paul says,


Cyrus the messiah may do this in a limited sense by conquering Babylon, but Christ the Messiah will bring all the world into subjection when He returns as the future Messiah to set up His kingdom.

God's Highway Project: The Stumbling Block of Conscience
It is the LORD's desire to end conflict and establish peace, not just in the world but between the world and Himself. This is why He extends salvation to all. But when He does this--when He brings the Gentiles into the congregational body with the Jews--a new spate of fighting breaks out, this time within the church itself. It is for this reason that Paul quotes Isaiah 45:23 in Romans 14:11 when He is dealing with the church of Rome.


Paul addressed the Jews and Gentiles in the Roman church who were fighting each other because they had conflicting consciences over lifestyle choices. The Gentiles argued that they had been set free from the bondage of the Law and had complete liberty to do what they wanted, particularly in regards to what they ate or what days they observed as holy; the Jews argued for restraint by observing the letter of the Law. But both sides went too far in their stances. The Gentiles wanted a complete lack of restraint and the Jews, too much restraint.


Paul rebukes both sides, saying,


Not only does Paul quote Isaiah 45:23, he brings the context of Isaiah 45 into the argument. Earlier in Isaiah 45, Israel raises an objection to God's use of a Gentile king, Cyrus, who He calls His "anointed" (mashiach or messiah). That title was only ever reserved for Israel's priests and kings. No Gentile was worthy of that title. God levels a scathing rebuke at her in response, saying in essence, who are you to judge Me and My decisions. If I say this Gentile is righteous, then in My eyes he is righteous. This is the exact point that Paul now makes in Romans and he speaks equally to both camps. Who are you to judge God's determination of who is righteous? That is for God to decide.


So, we are back to the task of removing stumbling blocks of oppression, the only difference being that this time the oppression is something the church has created within itself (not unlike the oppression of the Pharisees and Sadducees in Jesus' day). Sadly, some of the worst oppression can be found within the church body, and that is to our shame.

God desires peace and fellowship among those who He has set free, but liberty can be a heady thing and it can renew a self-serving attitude of power and entitlement that impedes fellowship. By the same token, enforcing a life of severe restraint under rules concerned only with the fleeting side of life creates a sense of moral superiority, and those rules become the means by which we take one another's measure. This also wrecks fellowship. A balance must be struck over how much liberty to allow and how much restraint to demand, and that balance is struck in living a life foremost in conscience to God, to whom we must give account, but also by examining our motives for demanding more liberty or restraint. 
Our churches today may or may not suffer division over Jewish versus Gentile consciences the way that the Roman church did, but we are certainly a culture of diverse lifestyle choices, and consciences over those choices can cause conflict among our members. Part of God's Highway Project is to remove stumbling blocks, and Paul has identified this kind of conflict over conscience as a stumbling block.

Ultimately, we, like Cyrus and even Israel, have a purpose to spread God's fame throughout the world. Whatever we do, we cannot in any way lower God's reputation in the world's eyes, or undermine His role as Creator and King. Throughout Isaiah 45, God's Creatorship has been emphasized over and over again, and this is one aspect of His Godship that is hotly contested by the inclusivity agenda. For a man or woman to suddenly decide that they don't like the gender with which they were born is a direct affront to the God who made them. There are certain lifestyles with which the LORD takes issue because they corrupt the order and purpose which He designed mankind. As much as our heart aches over these people who are often dear to us as family or friends, there is a level of inclusivity that we cannot, in good conscience to God, accommodate or validate because of the damage it does to His reputation in the eyes of the world. In as much as we can, we live at peace with all men, but there is a line we cannot cross. In that, Isaiah and Paul are in accord.
 

The LORD's commissioning of Cyrus, King of Persia, is the high point of the chiastic structure of Chapters 41-48 in which the LORD builds a case for His power. On the surface, Isaiah 45 seems to focus on the figure of Cyrus, but Cyrus is only a tool and a small part of the much bigger picture. The overarching theme is that God is the only Savior, and not just of Israel but the whole earth.

Isaiah 45:1-8
In the opening verses, we see God addressing Cyrus personally. Notice that there are no imperative commands to Israel in this section. The deliverance that God grants Israel through Cyrus is by grace and grace alone.

In the opening verse, God calls Cyrus "His anointed one," which is the Hebrew word, mashiach or messiah. The title of "anointed one" is reserved for Israel's high priests and kings, those who are the designated "deliverers" for God’s people. Remember, we talked about the concept of salvation or deliverance in Isaiah 40. There is a physical side to it (the physical fight is ended) and a spiritual side to it (the iniquity is pardoned). The tasking of all “anointed ones” or “messiah” figures is to set people free—to end the fighting on one or both fronts. God's anointed kings set His people free physically when they set up their kingdoms. God's anointed priests set the people spiritually free in regard to pardoning sin.
But Cyrus is a Gentile king, and he is the only Gentile ever given the title, "anointed," in Scripture. This is an unprecedented statement here in Isaiah 45:1. The LORD's use of that word challenges Israel's understanding of what role a messiah figure plays in the grand plan.

Cyrus, as a messiah figure, is commissioned with two tasks: 1) releasing Israel from the hands of oppressive Babylon, and 2) spreading God's fame. He will subdue the nations, break the power of their kings, and liberate the captives. To this end, God gives Cyrus a meteoric success that is beyond explanation, which accomplishes the second objective: that both Cyrus and Israel would know that God is who He says He is (Isaiah 45:3-4). Cyrus' success is definitely not because of Cyrus' own prowess. The LORD makes it very clear that He goes before Cyrus to clear the way for His people. Cyrus is merely His human agent.

Ezra records Cyrus' decree that liberates Israel, and we see in Cyrus' words a repeating of the tasking that the LORD gives him here in Isaiah.


And so, Cyrus makes this grand proclamation extolling the LORD, and yet the LORD remarks repeatedly that Cyrus has not known Him (Isaiah 45:4-5). Why would the LORD say that? We know from historical accounts that Cyrus is pantheistic. He acknowledges and tolerates all the gods of the people he conquers, so he has no problem acknowledging the God of Israel or even decreeing a temple be built for Him, but that doesn't mean that he has a personal relationship with Israel's God. That does not matter in God's eyes, though. If His own people will not give Him glory, He will use someone like Cyrus to spread His fame. Cyrus is just a tool for accomplishing the tasks.

In verses 7-8, God returns to speaking of Himself as the Creator. He creates light and peace. He also creates darkness and calamity. "Calamity" in the Hebrew is the word, ra, which can be translated as evil, distress, misery, or injury.


There are a number of answers to that, but let’s just consider Israel’s case and how she came to be a captive in Babylonia. When God's people became hopelessly corrupt and violent, He raised up even more brutal Babylonia to deal with them (Habakkuk 1). That was God creating calamity. Habakkuk saw that vision of Babylonia overtaking Israel just as Isaiah sees the vision of Persia overtaking Babylon, and Habakkuk was so appalled that he questioned God:


In other words, how can You even look at those lawless Babylonians, let alone use them against righteous Israel? See, there it is. That sense of self-righteousness that says, we may be bad, but they are worse. They are the ones who need the law thrown at them, not us. God has to tear down that notion of self-righteous entitlement, and for Israel, it took a nation bigger and more wicked carrying her off into exile before she submitted to the LORD's sovereignty.

But now that the end of the Babylonian exile is in sight, God uses Cyrus to create some more calamity. When He sets out to free His people and reestablish them in their kingdom, entire nations have to rise and fall in the process. For individual citizens living through their nation's demise, life is appalling and brutal, and the righteous suffer with the wicked.

There is a lot of calamity on our horizon as well. The book of Revelation tells us so. We here at FBC believe that the events foretold in this book are literal events, that there will be a time of horrific upheaval on a world-wide scale as a one-world government is established before Christ comes to establish His own kingdom. But the LORD has a purpose in letting the calamity run its course, and in the end, He will bring a kingdom of righteousness and peace out of it.

Our own country will have to fall to that world-kingdom before Christ's kingdom of justice and peace can be born. I think we are entering into the throes of that upheaval now. There will be a disruption of all the supports that give us a sense of security and well-being—economic support, medical support, food and housing needs, justice and policing needs.



Isaiah 45:9-14  
In verse 9, the LORD abruptly switches the focus of His address. He is no longer talking to Cyrus, but to a third party who has apparently raised an objection to His commissioning of Cyrus. We assume that the audience is Israel but why would Israel have a problem of God raising up a deliverer for them? Isaiah doesn't record the complaint outright, but we can infer from God's response that they don't like His plan or His choice of messiah.

God's rebuke is rather blistering. He reminds Israel that He is the Creator who creates light and darkness, peace and calamity. This is a position that He has been maintaining for several chapters now. Just as He has created Israel, He will create a deliverer for Israel. He will use what ever human agent that He chooses and will direct his ways. Who is she to strive with Him over this? Verse 11 loses some of the sarcasm in the NKJV. The NIV catches the gist of the words better:


In verse 13, the LORD says that Cyrus will let the exiles go free “without price or reward,” meaning Cyrus would not exact a price from Israel to buy her way out of bondage. The salvation and redemption she is being granted is free and by the grace of the LORD. That is not to say that Cyrus will not get a reward, but his reward comes from the LORD.
The LORD switches back to speaking to Cyrus in verse 14 where says that all the exalted kings would come and bow to him, but more than that, these kings would confess that Cyrus' success was from the LORD Himself. This is part of his purpose: to spread God’s fame. Cyrus himself would know that God was the God of Israel and that Israel would know God was God over her. Now even the Gentile nations bow to that understanding?

Isaiah 45:15-17 NKJV
Note the structure of these passages. The first time the LORD spoke to Cyrus (45:1-8), it drew a complaint from Israel (45:9-13). Now He speaks to Cyrus again (45:14), and there is another response (45:15-17). This time it is from a righteous third party who praises God as Israel’s Savior on one hand and rebukes idolators on the other hand. The thrust of his message emphasizes that the LORD will bring about an everlasting salvation for Israel, and she need not be ashamed or disgraced to call Him LORD. But the praise for God's everlasting salvation raises a question.


We know from history that Cyrus is not. He conquered Babylonia and sent Israel back to her land with everything she needed to begin again, but his own empire didn't last, nor did Israel remain free of physical bondage from later Gentile nations. In 70 A.D., the Romans expelled Israel from her land again, and she has yet to fully regain sovereignty over the land that God promised her. And we know that she will not fully come into her kingdom again until the Messiah (the messianic Davidic king) comes. So, Cyrus is a messiah, and yet not the Messiah. He shares the same title and has some tasking in common with the Messiah to come, and he even drives Israel's expectations of what a messianic figure should look like.


In Chapter 45, the LORD begins to build this picture of a messiah with Cyrus, but His plan isn't just to save Israel but to save the world through Israel's Messiah. Starting here in 45:17, the near picture of national deliverance through a messiah king begins to telescope out to a distant picture of universal deliverance through a greater Messianic King, which I will discuss in the next blog.