Today, since we are moving from bondage and captivity into a state in which we are a particular possession of God, our study indicates some attitudes and practices that God wants to be in us today as we serve Him.
"Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness, you who seek the LORD: look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were dug. Look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who bore you; for he was but one when I called him, that I might bless him and multiply him. For the LORD comforts Zion; he comforts all her waste places and makes her wilderness like Eden, her desert like the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the voice of song. "Give attention to me, my people, and give ear to me, my nation; for a law will go out from me, and I will set my justice for a light to the peoples.
Isaiah 51:1-4
We as the redeemed of the Lord are told to consider God's work in the lives of Abraham and Sarah. The God revealed in the Old Testament is the same as the God revealed in the New Testament. There is no disharmony and in fact the Old and New testaments magnify each other. If you have been ignoring the Old Testament in your private study time then make a place for it.
The remnant was small after the captivity. It was not a powerful people but God was able to bless. Those who came back from Babylon and rebuilt the temple were not great in number but consider their work. The temple they built was embellished by Herod the Great but, those who returned built the final temple, the temple used by the Lord of Glory on earth. To be able to build that temple was a blessing beyond what they knew at the time or imagined. We do not weigh actions and times the way God does and often show our ignorance when we talk about great and small things.
In these verses God tells us that He is the source of comfort, blessing, growth, joy, gladness, thanksgiving, and song. We are told to give attention to Him because we are His people and His nation. God promises that His law and justice will be a light to the peoples. Law and justice are the foundation of God's salvation.
My righteousness draws near, my salvation has gone out, and my arms will judge the peoples; the coastlands hope for me, and for my arm they wait. Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look at the earth beneath; for the heavens vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment, and they who dwell in it will die in like manner; but my salvation will be forever, and my righteousness will never be dismayed. "Listen to me, you who know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law; fear not the reproach of man, nor be dismayed at their revilings. For the moth will eat them up like a garment, and the worm will eat them like wool; but my righteousness will be forever, and my salvation to all generations."
Isaiah 51:5-8
People sometimes argue that the imputation of Christ's righteousness (also called a judicial or forensic judgment by God) is a fiction invented by the Apostle Paul. Well here it is with God in first person speaking it though Isaiah 700 years before Paul was born. Apart from the mercy of our God, the justice of God could only cause us to weap and give up all hope. But God puts salvation and judgment together. Believers are judged to be righteous because of the work of Christ. In that sense we are saved by works. Justice has been served by every blow and cut that Christ bore on our behalf. His righteousness has drawn near. We wait for the arm of His salvation and know that His salvation is forever. Men may reject this teaching and reproach and revile those who embrace it but those who reject it will disappear like moth eaten garments. Those who embrace the salvation of the Lord will be forever because they are born again of imperishable seed. There is an eschatological or end of time link in this verse that looks forward to the Great Judgment. We need to know righteousness and have God's law in our hearts to stand in that Judgment clothed in the righteousness of Christ.
John Bunyan wrote, "One day as I was passing into the field … this sentence fell upon my soul. Thy righteousness is in heaven. And methought, withal, I saw with the eyes of my soul Jesus Christ at God's right hand; there, I say, was my righteousness; so that wherever I was, or whatever I was doing, God could not say of me, he wants [=lacks] my righteousness, for that was just [in front of] him. I also saw, moreover, that it was not my good frame of heart that made my righteousness better, nor yet my bad frame that made my righteousness worse, for my righteousness was Jesus Christ himself, "The same yesterday, today, and forever." …
Now did my chains fall off my legs indeed. I was loosed from my afflictions and irons; my temptations also fled away; so that from that time those dreadful scriptures of God [e.g., Hebrews 12:16–17] left off to trouble me; now went I also home rejoicing for the grace and love of God." (John Bunyan, Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, Hertfordshire: Evangelical Press, 1978, orig. 1666, pp. 90–91).
Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD; awake, as in days of old, the generations of long ago. Was it not you who cut Rahab in pieces, who pierced the dragon? Was it not you who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep, who made the depths of the sea a way for the redeemed to pass over? And the ransomed of the LORD shall return and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
Isaiah 51:9-11
Here is an Old Testament verse that is essentially the last 2 verses of the New Testament in which John says, "He who testifies to these things says, "Surely I am coming soon." Amen. Come, Lord Jesus! The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen." (Revelation 22:20-21). God in His power will accomplish all that He has set out to do in redeeming a people.
"I, I am he who comforts you; who are you that you are afraid of man who dies, of the son of man who is made like grass, and have forgotten the LORD, your Maker, who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth, and you fear continually all the day because of the wrath of the oppressor, when he sets himself to destroy? And where is the wrath of the oppressor? He who is bowed down shall speedily be released; he shall not die and go down to the pit, neither shall his bread be lacking. I am the LORD your God, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar— the LORD of hosts is his name.
Isaiah 51:12-15
We need to hallow God's name and not the name of men. God alone is worthy of fear and awe. We need to be diligent to keep fear out of our hearts except with regard to God. This isn't just a mental exercise it is the only rational way to live if we know who God is.
And I have put my words in your mouth and covered you in the shadow of my hand, establishing the heavens and laying the foundations of the earth, and saying to Zion, 'You are my people.' " Wake yourself, wake yourself, stand up, O Jerusalem, you who have drunk from the hand of the LORD the cup of his wrath, who have drunk to the dregs the bowl, the cup of staggering. There is none to guide her among all the sons she has borne; there is none to take her by the hand among all the sons she has brought up. These two things have happened to you— who will console you? — devastation and destruction, famine and sword; who will comfort you? Your sons have fainted; they lie at the head of every street like an antelope in a net; they are full of the wrath of the LORD, the rebuke of your God.
Isaiah 51:16-20
This is Zion in the midst of rebuke and correction from God. They are lost except for God and there is no strength in Jerusalem to fight back. They are on the bottom. Remember that this captivity by Babylon would have destroyed them as a nation except for the power of God to keep a remnant.
Therefore hear this, you who are afflicted, who are drunk, but not with wine: Thus says your Lord, the LORD, your God who pleads the cause of his people: "Behold, I have taken from your hand the cup of staggering; the bowl of my wrath you shall drink no more; and I will put it into the hand of your tormentors, who have said to you, Bow down, that we may pass over'; and you have made your back like the ground and like the street for them to pass over."
Isaiah 51:21-23
God did judge Babylon with Persia and used Persia to send His redeemed back to Jerusalem for restoration. Even in our sin and rebellion, God pleaded our cause and showed us mercy and grace. God has poured out mercy and grace to such a degree in our lives that we begin to expect grace and mercy. Anytime you find yourself expecting grace apart from the revelation of the Gospel then stop and repent. If you ever find yourself thinking you deserve grace then confess to living with an oxymoron and repent on your knees with tears in your eyes.
Awake, awake, put on your strength, O Zion; put on your beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city; for there shall no more come into you the uncircumcised and the unclean. Shake yourself from the dust and arise; be seated, O Jerusalem; loose the bonds from your neck, O captive daughter of Zion. For thus says the LORD: "You were sold for nothing, and you shall be redeemed without money."
Isaiah 52:1-3
We see the Scripture move from a few verses earlier with the command to "wake yourself" to here where we have God's command to awake. The beautiful garments are commanded along with holiness and freedom from bondage. Zion is redeemed without money as you were redeemed without money. The cost of your sin is death. You can't just pay cash and have the problem go away because the wages of sin is death. Someone must die. Either you die eternally to pay the price or you accept the free gift of life purchased for you through the sacrifice of Christ. We'll see this message repeated over and over in these last chapters of Isaiah.
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