In the previous portions of this chapter we saw that the people were perverting justice, that they didn't have compassion on the needy, that they were trusting in idols, that they were living lives of excess as if life would always continue the same way, and that they were only calling upon the Lord when troubles came---and even then they weren't confessing and repenting of sins. No one stood up for what was right, other than the prophets, and we know that they were scorned. The Lord speaks of this situation below.
"The Lord looked and was displeased that there was no justice. He saw that there was no one, He was appalled that there was no one to intervene; so His own arm achieved salvation for Him, and His own righteousness sustained Him." (Isaiah 59:15b-16) He has sent prophet after prophet to the nation, urging the people to repent. But we know from our study of the kings that the spiritual condition of a majority of the people continued to grow worse. Adversity is going to do what words did not do. In captivity in foreign lands, a number of the people will be sorry for having lost the way and they will turn back to the Lord.
Human armies will bring about the adversity but this is by the will of God. "He put on righteousness as His breastplate, and the helmet of salvation on His head; He put on the garments of vengeance and wrapped Himself in zeal as in a cloak." (Isaiah 59:17) Here we see Him dressing for battle, for the battle is actually His, no matter what nation comes against the people. If it were not His will, no nation on earth could defeat them. He promised them that very thing before He ever brought them into the land, saying that their security depended on their faithfulness. But He also said that unfaithfulness would bring disaster and that He would remove them from the land.
"According to what they have done, so He will repay wrath to His enemies and retribution to His foes; He will repay the islands their due. From the west, people will fear the name of the Lord, and from the rising of the sun, they will revere His glory. For He will come like a pent-up flood that the breath of the Lord drives along." (Isaiah 59:18-19) Who are the enemies and foes of the Lord? Those who reject Him. His enemies and foes are also those who persecute people faithful to Him. In these two verses I believe He is speaking not only of disciplining Isaiah's people who have forsaken Him (by allowing Assyria to conquer Israel and by allowing Babylon to conquer Judah) but also He is speaking of the judgment that will fall upon the heathen nations. In time, as He has promised earlier in our study of Isaiah and other prophetic books, He will deal with those who invaded the nation and carried people to foreign lands. The captives will be set free and many will go back to the Promised Land.
An even bigger picture of deliverance is found in today's passage. The Lord will allow the people to return to their land and the Redeemer will come from these people and from their land. The Lord says: "'The Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who repent of their sins,' declares the Lord. 'As for Me, this is my covenant with them,' says the Lord. 'My Spirit, who is on you, will not depart from you, and My words that I have put in your mouth will always be on your lips, on the lips of your children and on the lips of their descendants---from this time on and forever,' says the Lord." (Isaiah 59:20-21)
The Messiah could not come "to Zion" unless the people are allowed to return to Zion, for the Lord has already made it clear in the Bible that the Messiah will come from the lineage of King David and that He will be born in Bethlehem in Judah. Therefore, the people know that the promise to return to the land is true, for none of the promises following that one can come true unless they are in their land. But it's important to note that the Lord is not promising salvation for all but salvation for those "who repent", as He states in the concluding verses. The entire human race is not saved simply because the Redeemer was born, only those who repent of their sins and place their faith in the Redeemer.
This salvation is offered to the descendants of Jacob and to the descendants of pagan idolaters. That is why the Lord said in today's passage that people from the east to the west (in other words, all over the map) would revere and glorify His name. We are blessed to be living in the church age, to be living after the advent of the Messiah, so we can believe on Him. My ancestors were Gentiles, no doubt bowing to all sorts of heathen idols and living in all sorts of abominable depravity, but I have found redemption through the Lord Jesus Christ. Everyone can! He makes His invitation for redemption to every person on the face of the earth. We could not save ourselves, so the Lord accomplished a method of salvation for us through His own righteousness.
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