The Book Of Isaiah. Day 128, A New Covenant For The People, Part Four

The Lord has been promising not only to bring the people back from captivity in Babylon but also to make a new covenant with them. 

This next segment was partially fulfilled by the return to the land and the rebuilding of it. They will be helped by Gentiles, for several leaders of the Medo-Persian Empire will give them aid. But there is a bigger picture here in that many Gentiles will believe in Christ, who is of Israel, and the Gentiles of Christ's church will be a friend to the people of Israel. 

"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.'" (Isaiah 49:22) This verse symbolizes the way "the nations" (Gentiles) will aid Israel. Another occasion which may be in view here was when Israel was recognized as a sovereign nation again in 1948 by nations that were not Jewish.

"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. Can plunder be taken from warriors, or captives from the fierce?" (Isaiah 49:23-24) It is generally understood by Christian scholars that the phrase "lick the dust at your feet" is poetic language signifying that some of the leaders of nations and their people will give honor to Israel and will worship the God of Israel. Several Gentile leaders in the early church age and on up until now have been sympathetic to Israel. In the book of Revelation we are told that Israel was helped by others to flee from the wrath of the Antichrist. We are also told in the book of Revelation that there will be a great turning to Christ among the people of Israel. 

I think that the licking of the dust at their feet may also depict the way the Lord will judge the enemies of Israel. They will be forced to bow on their knees and acknowledge that God is Lord and acknowledge how much the Lord has loved His people. The Lord asked how plunder can be taken from warriors and captives from the fierce; it is because He is on their side that they will be rescued. "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." (Isaiah 49:25) 

"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 Savior, your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob." (Isaiah 49:26) The phrase "eat their own flesh" may have to do with enemy nations that fall apart from the inside---nations with a lot of division that makes them easy prey for invaders or for economic, political, and military collapse. What we can take away from this is that the Lord knows His own, the Lord watches over them, the Lord sees every wrong done to them, and the Lord avenges those wrongs.

The Book Of Isaiah. Day 127, A New Covenant For The People, Part Three

As we closed yesterday's study we found the people saying the Lord had forgotten them. While in Babylonian captivity, many may have wondered if the Lord had abandoned them, but they had the great promises of the book of Isaiah in which the Lord promised a return to the land.

In response to their fear of being forgotten, the Lord says: "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!" (Isaiah 49:15) 

It is not a common thing for a mother to have no compassion for her infant. The only reason we hear about such cases is because they are relatively rare compared to the millions of women who love and protect their infants. The Lord says something like, "I can no more forget about you than a mother can forget about the child she birthed. But even if a woman should reject her child, I can never forget you. I am not a human with human failings."

"See, I have engraved you on the palms of My hands; your walls are ever before Me. Your children hasten back, and those who laid you waste depart from you. 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." (Isaiah 49:16-18) 

Just as a person would see many times a day something they had engraved on their hands, the Lord continually sees these people. The "walls" are a reference to the walls of Jerusalem---the city that will be rebuilt after the time of captivity is over. The reference to their children being like ornaments likely has to do with how they will increase in number during the captivity. In the book of Jeremiah the Lord instructs them to continue getting married and having children so they will multiply and not decrease in number. (Jeremiah 29:6-7) You may recall how they greatly increased in number while in Egypt; they are to do the same in Babylon. They are not to give in to despair and think, "What's the point of marrying and having a family? We are doomed to die in Babylon. We will never see our land again."

"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. 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.' 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?'" (Isaiah 49:19-21) The way the Lord prospers them in captivity will seem too good to be true. They will be amazed at how the Lord brings this about. More people will return to the land than were taken from it.

When we are feeling discouraged or anxious it can be easy for us to think this is our permanent state. But the Lord has a way of using even those things to prosper us. He has a way of not only bringing us out of our tough seasons but also of making us better off than we were before.

The Book Of Isaiah. Day 126, A New Covenant For The People, Part Two

In our current chapter the Lord has been speaking about the Messiah. He has referred to Him as the "Servant" of God and as a new "Covenant" for the people. This next section speaks not only of the captives' return from Babylon but of the return of many from all over the world during the eternal kingdom of the Messiah.

"They will feed beside the roads and find pasture on every barren hill. 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 streams of water. I will turn all My mountains into roads, and my highways will be raised up. See, they will come from afar---some from the north, some from the west, some from the region of Aswan." (Isaiah 49:9b-12) 

Throughout the ages since the northern kingdom of Israel was conquered by Assyria and since the southern kingdom of Judah was conquered by Babylon, descendants of Jacob have returned to the nation. But not all of them have returned; in our day there are Jewish people living in various places around the world. In the book of Revelation we will see them returning joyfully to the land in numbers such as never before, an event which is often referred to as "the ingathering" by Christian scholars. The imagery in the verses above reminds us of how the Good Shepherd leads the sheep to green pastures and still waters. (Psalm 23) It is intended to depict the way the Lord will remove every obstacle from their path (turning mountains into roads).

This is to be a joyful occasion and a cause for celebration. "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." (Isaiah 49:13) When Isaiah's people from the land of Judah are captive in Babylon, such a time of celebration will be difficult for them to imagine. During the eras when the Jewish people have been persecuted by various enemies, such a thing was probably difficult to imagine. That is why we find them saying this: "But Zion said, 'The Lord has forsaken me, the Lord has forgotten me." (Isaiah 49:13)

Have you ever felt that way? During times of intense hardship, have you ever felt like the Lord didn't see your troubles or hear your cries for help? When we are overcome with sadness or fear, it can be difficult for us to feel the presence of the Lord. I know I have certainly felt that way when in deep distress. That is why it's so important for us to remember that we are not to live by our feelings but by what the word of God says. The word of God promises He will never leave us or forsake us. (Hebrews 13:5) The word of God tells us that He is close to the brokenhearted and rescues those who are crushed in spirit. (Psalm 34:18) The word of God tells us that His ears are always open to the prayers of His children. (1 Peter 3:12) 

The Book Of Isaiah. Day 125, A New Covenant For The People, Part One

We are still in Chapter 49 which most Christian scholars interpret as being about the Messiah. Earlier in the chapter we found Him referred to as the "Servant" of God. Today we find Him referred to as the "Covenant". 

The Lord gave the first covenant to the people through Moses. The second covenant is given through Jesus Christ. We must read this passage with the understanding that it is God the Father speaking to God the Son. "This is what the Lord says: 'In the time of My favor 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, to say to the captives, 'Come out!,' and to those in darkness, 'Be free!'" (Isaiah 49:8-9) 

God the Father sent the Son at the "acceptable time" (as it is rendered in the KJV) at the time of His "favor", meaning at the right time. We may not know all the reasons why God chose that particular time for the advent of Christ but we can rest assured that it was the best possible time in all of history for it to happen. As the Apostle Paul said in Galatians 4:4: "When the set time had come, God sent His Son." The time for the advent of Christ was set before the Lord created the first human being. The plan for every single thing the Lord would ever do for mankind was in place long before He ever scooped up dust in His hands and created the first person and breathed the breath of life into him.

The Father promises the Son that He will hear His prayers. In the gospels there are a number of times where we are told that Jesus prayed before performing a miracle. I wouldn't be surprised that He prayed before every miracle but that sometimes He prayed silently in His mind and other times it was out loud, leading the gospel writers to record the instances when He prayed out loud. Jesus prayed out loud while standing before the tomb of Lazarus, saying, "Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. I know that You always hear Me." (John 11:41-42a) 

The Father heard the Son in prayers such as these but He also heard His prayers for His followers and for Himself, for God kept them all safe during the years of Jesus' ministry. Several times Jesus' enemies plotted against Him, trying to seize Him or stone Him to death, and the Father helped Him and the disciples to escape all these attacks. No one could do anything to Jesus before the time determined by the Father and no one could put Him to death except by the method determined by the Father. 

Jesus also prayed for you and for me. On the night before the crucifixion He prayed first for those who knew Him in the flesh and believed in Him and then He said, "My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in Me through their message." (John 17:20) 

We never saw Jesus in the flesh. We never witnessed any of the miracles. We never heard any of His sermons. But based on the accounts of the gospel writers, we believe. I think perhaps there is an extra special blessing for those who have believed in Jesus without ever having seen Him. It takes an extra measure of faith to believe in that which we have not seen; therefore, there may be an extra measure of blessing. The disciple Thomas had trouble believing Jesus had risen from the dead because he had not been with the other disciples when the risen Christ appeared to them. He stated that he could not believe unless he saw the proof. Then, when Jesus appeared again while Thomas was present, Thomas believed. Jesus said to him in John 20:29."Because you have seen Me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."

The Book Of Isaiah. Day 124, Another Messianic Prophecy, Part Two

Yesterday we began Chapter 49, the first portion of which involves a prophecy that most Christian scholars believe is a prophecy regarding the Messiah. We pick up there at verse 3.

It is the Lord speaking to the one He calls His "servant". "He said to Me, 'You are My servant, Israel, in whom I will display My splendor.' But I said, 'I have labored in vain; I have spent My strength for nothing at all. Yet what is due Me is in the Lord's hand, and My reward is with My God.'" (Isaiah 49:3-4) If this is God the Father speaking to God the Son, why does He call Him "Israel"? The various commentaries I consulted had this to say: the Lord did display His splendor in Israel, for Christ was from Israel. The Lord called Israel to be His servant, though many rebelled against Him, and the true Servant (Christ) came from Israel to draw not only Jews but also Gentiles to Himself. 

We have begun a section of Isaiah in which very soon we will find a description of what happens to this Servant; what happens to Him in Chapter 53 is a description of the arrest, the trial, the beating, the crucifixion, the death, and the resurrection of Christ. In the section above we find Him saying, "I have spent My strength for nothing," because He was largely rejected by His own people. But at the same time He comforts Himself in the knowledge that He has done what the Father asked Him to do and will be rewarded by God. As the Lord Himself will say in Chapter 53, "I will give Him a portion among the great, and He will divide the spoils with the strong, because He poured out His life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors." (Isaiah 53:12) The Apostle Paul says something similar about Christ, saying that because He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to death, "Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the name that is above every name". (Philippians 2:9)

This next segment refers to how the Gentiles will turn to Christ and how that many Jews (more than ever before) will eventually turn to Him as well. "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 honored in the eyes of the Lord and My God has been My strength---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.'" (Isaiah 49:5-6) In Luke 2:32, when Mary and Joseph bring the baby Jesus to present Him to the Lord at the temple, an old man named Simeon recognized Him as the Messiah and blessed Him, saying He would be "a light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of Thy people Israel." 

"This is what the Lord says---the Redeemer and the Holy One of Israel---to Him who was abhorred and despised 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.'" (Isaiah 49:7) The One who was formerly despised by so many will be King of kings and Lord of lords. He will reign eternally over the earth.

The Book Of Isaiah. Day 123, Another Messianic Prophecy, Part One

The beginning of Chapter 49 contains what many mainstream Christian scholars believe is a prophecy regarding the Messiah and about the Jews and Gentiles who will believe in Him.

"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. 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." (Isaiah 49:1-2)

The reference to islands and distant lands is a reference to the way so many people in the Gentile nations will come to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Regarding Jesus' name having been spoken before He was born, in the book of Matthew, after Joseph was told that Mary was pregnant, he decided to dissolve the betrothal contract with her privately. He did not at first believe that she had not been unfaithful to him but at the same time he did not want to shame her publicly by announcing his grounds for breaking off the engagement. But an angel of the Lord came to him and said, "Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give Him the name Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins." (Matthew 1:20-21) The name "Jesus" is a form of "Joshua" which means, "The Lord saves."

Regarding His mouth being a sharpened sword, it is because He speaks the word of God. "For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart." (Hebrews 4:12) The word of the Lord reveals to us our sinful state and our need for a Savior. It leads us to repentance if we will let it. But the same word will judge those who hear it and do not allow it to change their hearts. When the Lord Jesus appeared to the Apostle John and gave him the message of the book of Revelation, John described his appearance in symbolic terms, and he described a sharp double-edged sword coming out of His mouth. (Revelation 1:16) This represents the word of God, with which He will judge the enemies of God and of God's people. Later John was given a vision of the Lord striking these enemies down with the sword of His mouth. (Revelation 19:15)

In regard to Him being a polished arrow concealed in the quiver of God, this may be a reference to the years between the birth of Christ and the beginning of His public ministry. We know very little about those years, for the Scriptures only relay a few details about His infancy and one story about Him at the age of twelve. Or this could be a reference to the way that Old Testament people did not know when or how the Redeemer was going to come. The Apostle Paul referred to what became the gospel message as "the mystery that was kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to God's people." (Colossians 1:26)

The Lord never concealed the fact that the Redeemer was coming but people didn't know when He would come or how He would become the Redeemer or who He would be. In that sense some of the details of His advent were "hidden" and were "a mystery". 

We are blessed to be living in an era after the advent of Christ. We are living in the church age and we have the New Testament that tells us about the things Jesus said and did. This is no longer a mystery but has now been revealed. Because Christ is "the exact representation" of God's being, we can look to Him and see the love that God the Father feels for us. We can see God's character. We know the simple method by which we can be saved: by placing our trust in the Son of God. 

The Book Of Isaiah. Day 212, Peace Like A River

Chapter 48 ends with the Lord telling the people they would have had nothing but peace if they had obeyed Him. It also ends with Him telling the people that, although they will be taken captive by the Babylonians, they will be set free.

When we closed our last study session He made reference to Cyrus the Great again (but not by name this time) and foretold the fall of the Neo-Babylonian Empire and the release of the captive people of Judah. This is what He says next: "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.'" (Isaiah 48:17) 

The Lord provided them with the commandments and laws to direct their lives. Although no one is perfect and no one could keep His righteous statutes perfectly, His statutes for living demonstrated His holy character. They knew He did not bless willful sin. They knew they were not to participate in idolatry and in immoral living.

Before the Lord brought them into the promised land, He described the blessings they would receive if they were faithful to Him and He described the bad circumstances that would fall upon them if they were unfaithful. He promised that no enemy could ever stand against them if they would stay true to Him. But by the time Judah falls to the Babylonians, idolatry will be rampant, so He says, "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. 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." (Isaiah 48:18-19) Blessings would have overflowed, generation after generation, and no one would have invaded them or conquered them or taken any of them to foreign lands.

But their enemy Babylon will itself be conquered in time. When we arrive at the book of Jeremiah we will find him saying, upon inspiration of the Lord, that the captivity will last 70 years. When the people are given permission to leave and return to their own land, they must leave at once. "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.'" (Isaiah 48:20) Not everyone will leave Babylon when they are set free. We will talk more about this when we get to the book of Esther.

The Lord reminds them how He cared for them in the wilderness on the way to the promised land. He was trustworthy then and He still is. He will not break His promise to restore them to the land. "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." (Isaiah 48:21)

When the edict is issued that they are to go free, they must not remain in Babylon. That culture was wicked. The empire that overtook them---the Medo-Persian Empire---was also idolatrous. The people were not to assimilate into other cultures but were to be a separate people. Assimilating will only lead to sin. "'There is no peace,' says the Lord, 'for the wicked.'" (Isaiah 48:22) As I said earlier, they did not all obey the Lord's command to depart from Babylon hastily. This will almost lead to their extinction there when we arrive at the book of Esther. Disobedience always leads away from peace.