Isaiah 48
During this prophecy, it is sometimes difficult to distinguish between what Isaiah is saying, and what the Lord is saying through Isaiah as his mouthpiece. For example, verses 1-2 seem to be Isaiah, verses 3 onwards are the Lord. But chapter 49 is more difficult!
As God’s trusted servant, Isaiah only spoke as God instructed him, so the words themselves are more important than trying to decide who actually spoke them.
1 ‘Listen to this, you descendants of Jacob, you who are called by the name of Israel and come from the line of Judah,
you who take oaths in the name of the Lord and invoke the God of Israel – but not in truth or righteousness –
2 you who call yourselves citizens of the holy city and claim to rely on the God of Israel – the Lord Almighty is his name:
God is not deceived – he knows those who truly love and serve him, and he also knows those who simply follow practices and rituals thinking that their heritage is good enough. Similar to those who might say ‘I like to go to church because my parents were Christians’.
3 I foretold the former things long ago, my mouth announced them and I made them known; then suddenly I acted, and they came to pass.
4 For I knew how stubborn you were; your neck muscles were iron, your forehead was bronze.
5 Therefore I told you these things long ago; before they happened I announced them to you so that you could not say, “My images brought them about; my wooden image and metal god ordained them.”
6 You have heard these things; look at them all. Will you not admit them?
God says think back in your history. Think of the times when my prophets foretold things which have happened in your lifetimes. Don’t be so stiff-necked and thick! I warned you first so you couldn’t say it was your idols that did it.
‘From now on I will tell you of new things, of hidden things unknown to you.
7 They are created now, and not long ago; you have not heard of them before today. So you cannot say, “Yes, I knew of them.”
8 You have neither heard nor understood; from of old your ears have not been open.
Well do I know how treacherous you are; you were called a rebel from birth.
Here God says I’m telling you now of things I’m going to do in one hundred and fifty years time so there will be no escaping the fact that I, God almighty, will do it. But you haven’t listened before – I know your nature – you always struggle to be obedient.
Israel was the name given to Jacob (who’s name meant ‘deceiver’) when he had wrestled with God all night. ‘Israel’ means ‘he struggles with God’.
9 For my own name’s sake I delay my wrath; for the sake of my praise I hold it back from you, so as not to destroy you completely.
10 See, I have refined you, though not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.
11 For my own sake, for my own sake, I do this. How can I let myself be defamed? I will not yield my glory to another.
Now God warns them: just because disaster hasn’t come upon you yet is no reason to imagine it won’t happen. He allowed the Egyptians to raid them in the time of King Rehoboam, and others to attack in the time of King Jehoram. Once again recently they had been ‘tested in the furnace of affliction’ when King Jehoash of Israel had been allowed to fight against Judah, plundering the Temple treasury.
But they have simply not accepted that it was the Lord’s doing, and assumed that it was their ‘other gods’ who had saved them from total destruction.
This has been Israel’s problem – worshipping other gods and giving them the glory due to God. But is that our problem too? Every time we say ‘isn’t nature wonderful’ we give praise to the created, rather than the Creator. And these days when natural disasters occur we blame ‘climate change’ rather than admit they could be warnings from the God who made the climate.
12 ‘Listen to me, Jacob, Israel, whom I have called:
I am he; I am the first and I am the last.
13 My own hand laid the foundations of the earth, and my right hand spread out the heavens; when I summon them, they all stand up together.
Why do some Christians today find the first few chapters of Genesis difficult?
They find secular science easier to believe than having to accept that if God is truly almighty, he could have made the universe exactly as it was recorded.
14 ‘Come together, all of you, and listen: which of the idols has foretold these things?
The Lord’s chosen ally will carry out his purpose against Babylon; his arm will be against the Babylonians
15 I, even I, have spoken; yes, I have called him.
I will bring him, and he will succeed in his mission.
16 ‘Come near me and listen to this:
‘From the first announcement I have not spoken in secret; at the time it happens, I am there.’
Back in Isaiah 39:5-7 Isaiah had prophesied the eventual exile of the people of Judah under the Babylonians. Here God speaks of their return from captivity under Cyrus. Look at the ‘I’s in verse 15. And the ‘I AM’ in verse 16. Again the reminder in verse 14: which of the idols has foretold these things?
And now the Sovereign Lord has sent me, endowed with his Spirit.
17 This is what the Lord says – your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:
‘I am the Lord your God, who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the way you should go.
18 If only you had paid attention to my commands, your peace would have been like a river, your well-being like the waves of the sea.
19 Your descendants would have been like the sand, your children like its numberless grains;
their name would never be blotted out nor destroyed from before me.’
Here it seems to be Isaiah speaking – briefly! Before allowing the Lord’s words to speak through him again, reminding the people of God’s covenant promises to the Patriarchs – if only the people had been obedient . . .
20 Leave Babylon, flee from the Babylonians!
Announce this with shouts of joy and proclaim it. Send it out to the ends of the earth; say, ‘The Lord has redeemed his servant Jacob.’
21 They did not thirst when he led them through the deserts; he made water flow for them from the rock; he split the rock and water gushed out.
Look! This might be your last chance. When you return from Babylon – that ancient symbol of everything evil – there will be shouts of joy because it will be like another Exodus. I will again provide for you like I did in the desert. But I have to warn you,
22 ‘There is no peace,’ says the Lord, ‘for the wicked.’
Here the Lord is reminding them of the two choices he gave them in Deuteronomy 11:26-28
26 See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse – 27 the blessing if you obey the commands of the Lord your God that I am giving you today; 28 the curse if you disobey the commands of the Lord your God and turn from the way that I command you today by following other gods, which you have not known.
Isaiah 49
This forms the start of a new section in Isaiah, but it can also be confusing.
It speaks of ‘the Servant’, and that could possibly be Isaiah himself, but more likely it is referring to Israel, but then at the same time it is also speaking of Jesus the Redeemer.
It speaks of the restoration, not only of his chosen people Israel, but also those he has chosen to be grafted in from the Gentiles too.
1 Listen to me, you islands; hear this, you distant nations:
before I was born the Lord called me; from my mother’s womb he has spoken my name.
2 He made my mouth like a sharpened sword, in the shadow of his hand he hid me;
he made me into a polished arrow and concealed me in his quiver.
3 He said to me, ‘You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will display my splendour.’
4 But I said, ‘I have laboured in vain; I have spent my strength for nothing at all.
Yet what is due to me is in the Lord’s hand, and my reward is with my God.’
Here it could appear to be Jesus speaking, chosen and set apart for the work only he could do. Yet it seemed that many would turn against him.
Look at John 12:37-41
37 Even after Jesus had performed so many signs in their presence, they still would not believe in him. 38 This was to fulfil the word of Isaiah the prophet:
‘Lord, who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?’ [Isaiah 53:1]
39 For this reason they could not believe, because, as Isaiah says elsewhere:
40 ‘He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, so they can neither see with their eyes, nor understand with their hearts, nor turn – and I would heal them.’ [Isaiah 6:10]
41 Isaiah said this because he saw Jesus’ glory and spoke about him.
But in verse 4 in our study, Jesus is happy that even though there seems to have been little response to his message, he knows that there are greater rewards still to come.
5 And now the Lord says – he who formed me in the womb to be his servant
to bring Jacob back to him and gather Israel to himself,
for I am honoured in the eyes of the Lord and my God has been my strength –
6 he says: ‘It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept.
I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.’
Now God reveals his greater plan. It was only a small part of his work to redeem those in Israel who will accept him, but now this is extended to the Gentiles too. His salvation will be made available to those in the whole earth who will trust and follow him.
7 This is what the Lord says – the Redeemer and Holy One of Israel –
to him who was despised and abhorred by the nation, to the servant of rulers:
‘Kings will see you and stand up, princes will see and bow down,
because of the Lord, who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.’
‘Despised and rejected’ (Isaiah 53:3) yet now even Kings and Princes will gladly accept Jesus as lord and master of their lives.
8 This is what the Lord says:
‘In the time of my favour I will answer you, and in the day of salvation I will help you;
I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people, to restore the land and to reassign its desolate inheritances,
9 to say to the captives, “Come out,” and to those in darkness, “Be free!”
‘They will feed beside the roads and find pasture on every barren hill.
10 They will neither hunger nor thirst, nor will the desert heat or the sun beat down on them. He who has compassion on them will guide them and lead them beside springs of water.
11 I will turn all my mountains into roads, and my highways will be raised up.
12 See, they will come from afar – some from the north, some from the west, some from the region of Aswan.’
13 Shout for joy, you heavens; rejoice, you earth; burst into song, you mountains!
For the Lord comforts his people and will have compassion on his afflicted ones.
Finally, when Jesus comes again, ‘in the day of salvation’ it will be a time of rejoicing as believers are gathered from the four corners of the world and they finally enter his rest.
14 But Zion said, ‘The Lord has forsaken me, the Lord has forgotten me.’
When Judah too is finally taken into exile it would appear that the Lord had turned his back on his people, and had forgotten them completely. So he replies to Zion:
15 ‘Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne?
Though she may forget, I will not forget you!
16 See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are ever before me.
Still replying to Zion, the Lord says how can I forget you? Yes your children have sinned, and yes your children have been punished. But they are still my children who I love. Look beyond the here and now, look into the future when there will be a new heaven and a new earth. And a new Jerusalem.
17 Your children hasten back, and those who laid you waste depart from you.
18 Lift up your eyes and look around; all your children gather and come to you.
As surely as I live,’ declares the Lord, ‘you will wear them all as ornaments; you will put them on, like a bride.
19 ‘Though you were ruined and made desolate and your land laid waste, now you will be too small for your people, and those who devoured you will be far away.
If you are still remembering the old Jerusalem, it won’t be big enough to contain the people who return, and the new ‘children’ who have been adopted.
20 The children born during your bereavement will yet say in your hearing,
“This place is too small for us; give us more space to live in.”
21 Then you will say in your heart, “Who bore me these?
I was bereaved and barren; I was exiled and rejected. Who brought these up?
I was left all alone, but these – where have they come from?”‘
As a Gentile myself, one from ‘the islands’ (verse 1), I am so glad that I too am a child of God, adopted into his family. Accepted by the redeeming blood of Jesus. And there will be vast numbers of us. No wonder that the original ‘inhabitants of Zion’ ask ‘where have they come from?’
22 This is what the Sovereign Lord says:
‘See, I will beckon to the nations, I will lift up my banner to the peoples;
they will bring your sons in their arms and carry your daughters on their hips.
23 Kings will be your foster fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers.
They will bow down before you with their faces to the ground; they will lick the dust at your feet.
Then you will know that I am the Lord; those who hope in me will not be disappointed.’
I’m not sure about licking the dust, but we will actually all be equal!
24 Can plunder be taken from warriors, or captives be rescued from the fierce?
25 But this is what the Lord says:
‘Yes, captives will be taken from warriors, and plunder retrieved from the fierce;
I will contend with those who contend with you, and your children I will save.
26 I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh; they will be drunk on their own blood, as with wine.
Then all mankind will know that I, the Lord, am your Saviour, your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.’
Coming back down to earth with a jolt, those facing the immediate threat of a Babylonian captivity need the reassurance that those who were their enemies will face the consequences of their actions.
The Lord, the mighty one of Jacob is Saviour and Redeemer on so many different levels, but at the same time he is also the Judge.
