Yet It Was the LORD’s Will to Crush Him,
and Cause Him to Suffer
53: 10-12

Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush Him, and cause Him to suffer DIG: How is the Messiah’s life a guilt offering? How do you account for the paradox between the death of Jesus in 53:9 and His seeing the light of life in 53:11? 53:7, 10, and 12 use sacrificial imagery to speak of the Servant. How does that make His death more than a mere martyr’s death? How do you get into God’s family?

REFLECT: What is the doctrine of propitiation and what does it have to do with you? How are you justified before ADONAI? The identity of the Servant is no longer a mystery to the reader of this book. The only mystery is how the LORD could love us this much. How does that make you feel? How do you respond to such love? How do you get to heaven? Are you in the boat?

What we have in these verses is the theology of the Suffering Servant just before the Second Coming. What did the whole thing mean? We learn that His death was an offering for sin. Throughout 53:1-9 Jesus Christ seemed to be suffering at the hands of men, but now we learn that ADONAI was actually in control. We learn that it was the LORD’s will to crush Him and cause Him to suffer (53:10a). Why? It was His will to crush Him because through the suffering of the Servant, ADONAI made Messiah’s life a guilt offering (see my commentary on Exodus, to see link click Fd – The Guilt Offering), the most important offering of the Dispensation of the Torah. So Jesus died to become an offering for sin (53:10b).

And because He became a guilt offering by means of His death, there seems to be a contradiction in the minds of some. The Bible teaches us that He will see His offspring and prolong His days (53:10c). How can He see His seed if He dies? How can He prolong His days if He dies? The only way this is possible is by means of resurrection. His offspring are those who will benefit from His death by spiritual rebirth. If we believe in the substitutionary death of the Messiah for our sin, then we are born again spiritually through the Ruach ha-Kodesh. By that spiritual rebirth we become His offspring. And because He has been resurrected, and His days are prolonged, He sees His offspring. And the will of the LORD will prosper in His hand (53:10d). The Suffering Servant will not fail (49:1-4) because He accomplishes the very purpose that God the Father had intended despite opposition by Satan, the Jewish leaders, and the Roman leaders in the physical and spiritual realm. The result of His guilt offering is seen in the next verse.

After the suffering of His soul He will see the light of life and be satisfied; by His knowledge My righteous Servant will justify many, and He will bear their iniquities (53:11). Two important doctrines are seen here. First, is the doctrine of propitiation. After the suffering of His (Jesus’) soul (death), He (God the Father) will see the light of life (Yeshua’s resurrection) and be satisfied (53:11a). The doctrine of propitiation is the averting of the LORD’s wrath by means of the vicarious (substitutionary) and efficacious (producing the desired effect) sacrifice (death) of Jesus Christ (the atonement).

Propitiation is the death of Christ that satisfies every claim of God’s holiness and justice so that God is free to act on behalf of sinners. In Ephesians 2:8-9 Paul writes: For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – and not by works, so that no one can boast. Because if we could work our way to salvation, ADONAI knows that we would boast. No, it is faith in Jesus Christ that saves us from sin. Works that you do for God cannot save you from sin, because works do not, and cannot pay the penalty for sin. It is not what you do for the LORD that saves. It is what the LORD has done for you. Being a good, moral person cannot pay for sin. Going to church or messianic synagogue does not pay for sin. Only faith in Christ, who shed his blood and died on the cross, can pay for your sin. New Covenant faith consists of two elements. The first element of biblical faith is accepting something as true. In the case of Christ, it is believing (1) that Christ is the Son of God; (2) that Christ died for sin, and (3) that Christ arose from the dead. Do you believe these things are true? Good. The second element in biblical faith is for you to trust Messiah, depend on Messiah plus nothing for the forgiveness of your sins. Let me make this clear. We are saved by faith, that is, trusting Jesus Christ in His death on the cross to get us into heaven.

The atonement of Yeshua Messiah is a unique teaching when compared to other religions around the world. The LORD is Himself the atoner. Every other religion, without exception, teaches that salvation is by works.

ADONAI is going to be satisfied by the death of the Servant. The world says we are all born good and something terrible has to happen for us to end up bad. But the Bible says that we were born with a terminal disease called sin: For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23), and for us to end up righteous, something drastic (salvation) has to happen. As a result, we are all born into the family of Satan. There are only two families in the world, the family of God and the family of Satan. No one is born into the LORD’s family; everyone is adopted into it (see my commentary on The Life of Christ Bw – What God Does For Us at the Moment of Faith).

This is the last of five messages. But in the first message I talked about the lifeboat (see Iz – See, My Servant Will Act Wisely, He Will Be Lifted Up and Exalted). Well, biblical faith is getting in the lifeboat. Are you in yet? If so, that’s great. If not, would you like to accept Christ right now? If so, there is a prayer I would like you to repeat. But before you do I want you to remember that saying a prayer does not save you, trusting in Messiah does. Say these words: God, I admit that I have sinned. I believe Jesus Christ died for my sins, and I want to trust Him to save me right now. If you were to die right now, where would you go? That’s right, heaven. Why should God let you into heaven? That’s right, because Jesus died to pay for your sins.²²²

Jesus’ last words from the cross were: It is finished (John 19:30). That is the translation in Aramaic because that was the common language of His day. But the original Greek text reads, tetelestai, which means paid in full. This word is actually an accounting term. After the destruction of Herod’s Temple in AD 70, many Jews found their way to Alexandria, Egypt. There they had one of the greatest libraries of the ancient world by the second century. But by then, the international language was Greek. And while the Jews spoke Aramaic, they wrote in Greek, not Hebrew. Archaeologists have discovered an underground storage area there with thousands of clay accounting tablets. Across each one was written tetelestai. It is important for you to understand that your sins have been paid in full by the blood of Christ on the cross. All of your sin, past, present, and future. And as a result, you now possess eternal life (John 6:37-40; 10:27-30).

The second important doctrine is the doctrine of justification. The immediate result of salvation is justification. By His knowledge My righteous Servant will justify many (53:11b). To be justified in God’s sight means that we have a right standing before Him. It is an act where, negatively, He forgives your sins and, positively, He declares them righteous by imputing, or transferring, the obedience and righteousness of Messiah to you. With electronic banking today, if someone transferred a million dollars to your bank account, it would be imputed to your account. That’s what Christ does for us as He transfers His righteousness to our account at the moment of faith. We do not get to heaven on account of our own righteousness. Later, Isaiah will write that all our righteous acts are like filthy rags (64:6). We get to heaven on account of the righteousness of Christ. It is a one-time act of God at the moment of salvation. This is a pretty good trade, our sins for His righteousness.

And He will bear their iniquities (53:11c). How is mankind justified? By knowledge of the suffering Servant. There are two Hebrew words for knowledge. One is head knowledge, and one is experiential knowledge. The word here is experiential. By the experiential knowledge of the Servant will mankind by justified. When we believe that Yeshua is the Son of God who came to bear our iniquities (or sins), when we trust in what Jesus did in His suffering and death on our behalf, and then we can experientially know Him and are justified by His grace. And we are justified freely by His grace through redemption that came through Jesus Christ (Romans 3:24). And in Titus 3:7 Paul writes: So that having been justified by His grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. Therefore, justification is an utterly undeserved free gift of God’s grace. It is not by His mercy, but by His grace. Mercy is not getting something that you do deserve; but grace is getting something (like salvation and justification) that you do not deserve.

The doctrines of propitiation and justification are important for believers to understand because as soon as you are saved, Satan will try to convince you that you are not. But in reality, you are secure in Him (John 6:37-40, 10:27-30). If Messiah has fully satisfied all of God’s demands for justice at the cross, on what basis could He ever direct His wrath towards one who has placed faith in His Son? No! Sin, no matter how great, was fully paid for at the cross. When we understand this, it leads us to the conclusion that no sin will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:28-38).

The Bible teaches us that to all who received Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God – children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God (John 1:12-12). At that point his only hope is to make you an ineffective believer. Remember: The devil was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies (John 8:44). Stand firm and defeat him with Scripture like Jesus used when tempted by Satan after His baptism (Matthew 4:1-11; Mark 1:12-13; Luke 14:1-13).

Having willingly followed ADONAI’s plan, the Servant is rewarded. Therefore, I will give Him a portion among the great (53:12a). The word therefore is always significant. Always find out what the therefore is there for. Because of everything the Servant has done in 53:1-11, therefore, for that very reason, He will be given a portion among the great, or be greatly rewarded. Paul wrote in Philippians 2:9: Therefore, God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the name that is above every name.

In addition: He will divide the spoils with the strong (53:12b). When Christ returns during the messianic Kingdom, He will inherit and rule over the entire world. But does He rule alone? No, He co-reigns with Church Saints, the righteous of the TaNaKh, and Tribulation Saints. So with the strong and the great, He will divide the rulership of the messianic Kingdom, or co-reign with them because we are part of His seed we are heirs with Him of Kingdom promises, blessings, and authority.

What is the cause of the Servant’s exaltation? It is because He poured out His life unto death (53:12c). This is My blood of the Covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins (Matthew 26:28). The simple forcefulness of the statement seems designed to leave no doubt in your mind: it is the voluntary self-sacrifice of Jesus, whereby He was numbered with the transgressors (53:12d).

For He bore the sins of many, and made intercession for the transgressors (53:12e). Isaiah has spelled out on several occasions that the Servant of the LORD would suffer. The great burden of Chapter 53 has been to give us the reason why the Servant will suffer. Now Isaiah has finally given us the answer: He was going to suffer to pay for sin by way of substitution. And the concept of substitutionary sacrifice and death comes nine times in this section: (1) But He was pierced for our transgressions (53:5), (2) He was crushed for our sins (53:5), (3) The punishment that brought us peace was upon Him (53:5), (4) And by His wounds we are healed (53:5), (5) The LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all (53:6), (6) For He was cut off from the land of the living; for the crimes of My people, who deserved the punishment themselves (53:8 CJB), (7) God makes His life a guilt offering (53:10b), (8) He will bear their iniquities (53:11b), and (9) For He bore the sin of many (53:12e).

This great Chapter 53 of Isaiah gives a tremendously complete picture of what the death of Jesus Christ accomplished on the behalf of Isra’el (John 11:49-51), for the whole world (First John 2:2), and for you and me. His death satisfied God’s righteous demands for judgment against your sin and opened the way for you to come to the LORD in faith for salvation from your sins.²²³

He Was Oppressed and Afflicted,
Yet He Did Not Open His Mouth
53: 7-9

He was oppressed and afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth DIG: If all you knew about the Servant’s adult life were summed up in these verses, what would you assume must have happened to Him? How does this relate to the picture of the Servant in 53:6? Why was this needed? Why did He go silently like a meek little lamb? What will He be like when He returns (see Revelation 5:5)? Why?

REFLECT: When was the last time you gave yourself sacrificially to others? What was the result? How did it affect you? Can you “hold your tongue” if you feel like you are suffering an injustice? How would your situation be different than the one we see here? How is it the same? When you read these Scriptures, how does it affect you personally? How has the Word of God changed your life?

In 53:1-9 we finish up with Isra’el’s national prayer and confession at the end of the Great Tribulation (see the commentary on Revelation, to see link click Ev – The Basis for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ). The actual words of this prayer are found in four key passages of Scripture, first, in Psalm 79, secondly in Psalm 80, thirdly here, and lastly in Isaiah 63:7 to 64:12. All tenses are prophetic perfects, or future events looked upon as already taken place. This is the fourth of five messages in this section.

Jesus was determined to fulfill His ministry on earth. As a child, God the Father had raised God the Son morning by morning and instructed Him concerning His purpose in coming to this earth (50:4). As Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men (Luke 2:52) He became more and more determined. Yeshua was confident that He would not be disgraced because God the Father would come to His aid. And He was so sure of this that, He set His face like a flint to the cross to suffer because He knew that He would not be put to shame. The reason He offered His back to those who beat Him, the reason He offered His cheeks to those who pulled out His beard, the reason He did not hide His face from mocking and spitting was because He recognized that the Father was with Him (50:7-8).

Isaiah takes up the sheep metaphor from 53:4-6, and uses it to underline the point being made throughout this national confession: the contrast between a sinful people and an innocent Servant. When we are compared to sheep, their ability to get lost is emphasized: We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way (53:6). But when the Messiah is compared to sheep, their non-defensive, submissive nature is emphasized. Both He and we may be compared to sheep, but two very different pictures emerge. The negative characteristics are seen in us, while the positive ones are seen in Him. Being human, He shares our nature (without sinning), but in Him it is transformed.

But He was oppressed and afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth (53:7a). The construction of the sentence gives a sense of simultaneous action, He was oppressed as He humbled Himself. The word oppressed carries with it the idea of brutal physical punishment at the hand of others. ADONAI said: I have seen how My people are being oppressed in Egypt and heard their cry for release from their slave-masters, because I know their pain (Exodus 3:7; also see Isaiah 3:5 and 12, 58:3).

Yet, He did not open His mouth. Led like a Lamb, Seh Ha’Elohim, God’s Lamb (John 1:19, 29, 35) He went willingly to the slaughter (53:7b). Philip explained to an Ethiopian eunuch that the Lamb of Isaiah was not the prophet Isaiah, but was the Messiah (Acts 8:26-35). It was no accident that Isaiah used this metaphor because sheep were the primary animals of sacrifice. Seeing many sheep sheared for their wool or killed as sacrifices, the Jews were well aware of the submissive nature of sheep. Jesus did not try to stop those who opposed Him, but remained silent rather than defend Himself. Therefore, He was not a victim caught up in the circumstances of life, but a Person of dignity in even the most degrading of circumstances. One thinks of Jesus setting His face to go to Jerusalem where He understood the death that awaited Him (see Ir – Because the Sovereign LORD Helps Me, I Will Set My Face Like a Flint).

It is difficult to escape the conclusion that it is not accidental that sheep, the primary animals of sacrifice, are mentioned here. The lambs used for offerings in the Tabernacle and the Temple were without spot or blemish. They provided atonement for the sins of the people. Thank You, God, for sending Yeshua the Lamb, who took our sins on Himself so we could be forgiven.

And as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so He did not open His mouth (53:7c). All four Gospels point out that both at His religious and at His civil trial He suffered injustice in silence (Matthew 26:62-62 and 27:12-14; Mark 14:60-61 and 15:3-5; Luke 23:8-9 and John in 19:10). In addition to the fact that Jesus was sinless and had done nothing wrong, twenty-one laws of the Great Sanhedrin regarding trials were all broken when He was tried. They were so desperate to kill Him (Matthew 26:1-5; Mark 14:1-2; Luke 22:1-2; John 13:1) they would stop at nothing, even their own rules (see my commentary on The Life of Christ Lh – The Laws of the Great Sanhedrin Regarding Trials).

After two unjust trials, Jesus was sentenced to die (John 19:16). After forcible arrest and sentencing, He was taken away (53:8a CJB). While being scourged, He was temporarily in Pilate’s prison. After being scourged He went through the process of a trial. It was a judicial trial. After that He was taken away to be killed. Yet who of his generation protested (53:8b)? Christ’s generation had failed to recognize Him for who He was. But the faithful remnant at the end of the Tribulation is seen here as correcting that error.

For He was cut off from the land of the living (53:8c). The word speak, declare, or consider means thoughtful consideration to the fact that He was cut off from the land of the living. This means death. This term cut off is used extensively in the Torah. Over and over again violation of the Torah meant that you were cut off or killed. It is the same expression used here to mean that Jesus was to die a punitive sacrifice.

For the crimes of My people, who deserved the punishment themselves (53:8d CJB). Not that He was guilty of breaking the Torah, but for the transgression (or violation of specific law) of Isaiah’s people, Jesus was stricken. Now the wages of sin being death (Romans 6:23) is bad news, but there is good news.

But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). We were spiritually dead and unable to make the first move toward God because we inherited Adam’s sin nature that rebelled and separated us from Him. So God made the first move toward us by sending His one and only Son to die in our place for the payment for our sin. We stand before the Son of God, guilty of sin, and facing a death penalty. But Jesus, as judge (John 5:27), comes down from behind the seat of judgment, takes off His judicial robe and stands beside us. It is there that He says to us, “I will take your place. I will die for you.” And if you were the only person in the world, He still would have died for you. The penalty for sin is death, but Christ died and paid for sin so we do not have to go to hell.

Then the burial of the Servant is pictured. He was assigned a grave with the wicked and with the rich in His death (53:9a). The first two lines would be contradictory if we did not have New Covenant revelation. A person who died as a criminal by Jewish law could not be buried in the family plot. He had to be buried in a special criminal’s grave. Jesus died as a criminal and crucifixion was a criminal’s death. And since He died a criminal’s death, He was assigned a criminal’s grave. Although He was assigned a grave with the wicked, He will end up being buried in a rich man’s tomb (Matthew 27:57-60; Mark 15:42-46; Luke 23:50-54; and John 19:38-42). All these passages tell us that a rich man named Joseph of Arimathea requested His body and got it. So Jesus ended up being buried with the rich in His death, and not in a criminal’s grave to which He was assigned by the Jewish and Roman leaders of that day.

Though He had done no violence, nor was any deceit in His mouth (53:9b). But even though He had been treated as a common criminal He had done no violence. That means He was not guilty of any outward sin. In addition, nor was any deceit in His mouth. That means He had no inward sin. Isaiah says that God is going to twist history. The Suffering Servant was assigned a criminal’s grave, but He will be exalted by the Father.

Therefore, Isra’el’s national confession that Yeshua was indeed the Messiah is seen in the first nine verses of Chapter 53. The surviving remnant at the very end of the Great Tribulation will finally realize that Jesus was the Messiah and that He had died a substitutionary death on their behalf. There is only one thing that God will ask of them. And it is the same thing He asks of us – faith. Because without faith it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:1).

Yet We Considered Him Punished,
Stricken and Afflicted by God
53: 4-6

Yet we considered Him punished, stricken and afflicted by God DIG: Who is saying these words? When are they saying them? Why? What was the purpose of the Servant’s Suffering? What was the nature of His suffering? What are the three specific requirements of the bread to qualify for the Passover? How does each point to the Messiah? Why was His suffering and death necessary? How could a loving God send people to hell? What are the wages of sin? How does this motivate you to reach people you know are lost?

REFLECT: When was the last time someone paid the price for something that you did? After reflecting on it, how did it make you feel? Did it change you in any way? When reflecting on Christ’s paying the price for your sins, how does it make you feel? What do you think? Was it really necessary? Did it change you in any way? Can you ever “repay” Messiah for what He has done for you? What, then, is the appropriate response?

In 53:1-9 we see Isra’el’s national prayer and confession at the end of the Great Tribulation. (see the commentary on Revelation, to see link click Ev – The Basis for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ). At that time every Jew still alive will declare that although they didn’t realize it beforehand, they now recognize that Jesus bore the consequences of their sin. This is the third of five messages in this section.

The Cone of Isaiah (see Hl – The Cone of Isaiah) has now come to the point: In fact, it was our diseases He bore, our pains from which He suffered (53:4a CJB). As they make this confession Isra’el recognizes that Yeshua really is the Messiah and His suffering was on their behalf. In other words, His suffering was substitutionary. He bore upon Himself their diseases and their pains. The word bore is the Hebrew word na-sah that, in the book of Leviticus, always has the sense of offering a sacrifice. So the Jews will start to understand that when He was bearing their suffering, it was done in the sense of offering up a sacrifice.

Even though this is Isra’el’s national confession of their sin of rejecting the Messiah, He died for us all. For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16). What had Yeshua done to deserve such treatment? Look for a moment at the cross. God made Him an offering for sin. If you want to know how much the LORD hates sin, look to the cross. If you want to know if ADONAI will punish sin, look to Messiah, who bore the tortures of its penalty. How could we ever think that we could escape if we ignore such a great salvation (Hebrews 2:3a)? That cross became an altar where we see the Lamb of God taking away the sin of the world (John 1:29). He was dying for somebody else. He was dying for you and me.

Yet, we considered Him punished, stricken and afflicted by God (53:4b CJB). Stricken (nagua) is sometimes associated with the disease of leprosy (Leviticus 13:3, 9, 20; Second Kings 15:5), and is probably the basis that the Babylonian Talmud describes the Messiah as a leper (Sanhedrin 98a). But this is not always the case; in other places this term can illustrate any illness or disaster that takes place (Genesis 12:17; First Samuel 6:9). So at the end of the Great Tribulation, the Jews still alive had always believed that Jesus had been accursed for what He had done. But then, they will realize that it was they who deserved that fearful consequence.

To this very day Isra’el’s attitude has been yet we considered Him punished by God. When Jesus was suffering on the cross, as far as Isra’el was concerned, He deserved it. He was suffering for His own sins and received just punishment from ADONAI Himself. Another reference to Jesus in the Talmud is to call Him po-shea, the transgressor. As far as the Talmud is concerned, Jesus died because He was a transgressor. The word stricken is used for the most loathsome diseases (Genesis 12:17; Leviticus 13:3, 9, 20; 1 Samuel 6:9; 2 Kings 15:5). It always emphasizes being struck with the most shocking disease and is quoted in Matthew 8:17.

But, emphasizes the contrast between Jesus and us. He, and no other, was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our sins (53:5a). The pronoun He is emphatic, so as to bring the Servant sharply before us. The word pierced here means to be pierced through with a knife, sword, or spear. He was also crushed (especially through the scourging) for our sins. The fact that Yeshua was pierced was foreshadowed in the Feasts of Isra’el. At the Passover (Luke 22:14-20) the body of Christ is related to the unleavened bread. So when Jesus said: This is My body, He did not say it of wafers or other types of bread. He specifically said it of the Jewish unleavened bread.

There were three specific requirements of the bread to qualify for the Passover. The first requirement is that the bread had to be unleavened and leaven was the symbol for sin. Jesus had an unleavened body that was sinless. God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God (Second Corinthians 5:21). If Christ had committed only one sin, that would have disqualified Him from being the Passover sacrifice. But Yeshua was the only Jew who ever lived that kept the Torah perfectly and by His perfect keeping of the Torah He did have an unleavened body.

Secondly, the bread had to be striped. The body of Jesus was striped by means of the scourge (John 19:1). Isaiah 53:5 prophesied: by His stripes we are healed.

The third requirement is that it also had to be pierced. The body of Jesus was pierced at the crucifixion on two occasions, initially by the nails of His crucifixion (John 19:17-18) and then by the spear of a Roman soldier (John 19: 34 and 37). At the time of Israel’s national confession, Zechariah 12:10 prophesied that Messiah would say to the nation at the end of the Tribulation: They will look upon Me, the One they have pierced. Today if you go to the grocery store around the time of the Passover and you buy some unleavened bread, it will literally have stripes on it. And if you hold it up to a light, you can see through it because it is pierced. Therefore, His death was substitutionary.²¹⁸

The punishment that brought us peace was upon Him (53:5b). This kind of suffering was necessary to bring about spiritual peace for those who will believe. So the punishment that leads to peace was placed upon the Servant. Peace is defined as a condition of salvation brought about by healing. We were sick to death because of our sins; but He, the sinless one, took upon Himself a suffering unto death, which was, as it were, the concentration and essence of the woes that we deserved. This voluntary endurance, this substitution to the justice of the Holy One, in accordance with the counsels of divine love, became the source of our healing.²¹⁹

And by His wounds we are healed of our sins (53:5c). Messiah died for our spiritual healing, not our physical healing. Jesus did not bear our diseases by contracting them, but by exposing their root cause. When He saw the pain and suffering of sickness and death He understood that the root cause was sin. It was sin that He dealt with on the cross. He bore our sins in His body on the tree so that we might not die to sin and live for righteousness; by His wounds you have been healed (First Peter 2:24). Those who claim that believers should never be sick because there is healing in the atonement should also claim that believers should never die, because Yeshua also conquered death in the atonement. The central message of the Gospel is deliverance from sin. It is the good news about forgiveness, not health. Christ was made sin, not disease, and He died on the cross for our sin, not our sickness.²²⁰ In 53:4 we see His substitutionary suffering; in 55:5 we see His substitutionary death.

We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way. And this was no accident, the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all (53:6). The believing remnant will suddenly realize that they are guilty and that ADONAI made Messiah the object of His wrath in order to take away their guilt. Isaiah reinforces his point with a sheep metaphor that will be carried over into the next segment. Sheep are notoriously single-minded and at the same time unaware of their circumstances. Their minds are on the next clump of grass and not much else. Not only that, when frightened, they have a tendency to bolt off in any direction. As a result, they tend to get lost.²²¹ So, as far as Isra’el at the end of the Tribulation is concerned, they were the ones who had gone astray. Isaiah is speaking here through the inspiration of the Ruach, and says we all, meaning we Jews, have turned to our own way. The essence of sin is going one’s own way.

Their problem then is the same as our problem today. We have gone our own way, neglecting God’s Way (Acts 24:14). The Bible teaches us that there is a way that appears to be right, but in the end it leads to death (Proverbs 14:12). Although our Lord Yeshua said: I Am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me (John 14:6), each of us has turned to our own way.

How could a loving God send people to hell? That’s a commonly asked question. But the question itself reveals a couple of misconceptions. First, the LORD does not send people to hell. He merely honors their choice (Romans 1:21-25). Hell is the ultimate expression of ADONAI’s high regard for the dignity of mankind. He has never forced us to choose Him, even when it means that we would choose hell. Secondly, He doesn’t send people to hell. The word people is neutral, implying innocence. Nowhere in the Bible does it teach that innocent people are condemned to hell. Sinners are. The rebellious are. The self-centered are. So how could a loving God send people to hell? He doesn’t. He simply honors the choice of sinners (When Christ Comes, Max Lucado).

Therefore, Jesus took upon Himself the punishment and pain that we deserve to pay for our sins. These are our infirmities and our pains that He bore. But why was Christ’s death necessary? It was necessary because of our sin nature inherited from Adam (Genesis 3). Because ADONAI is a holy God, He cannot tolerate sin in His presence. Therefore, we are the LORD’s enemy and His only response can be wrath that brings death. The wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23a). The wages of work is money, but the wages of sin is death. In other words, what I earn – the penalty, the punishment of sin – is death. Death is separation. The Bible speaks of two kinds of death, that is two kinds of separation. The first death is separation of the body and the soul. If I were to die right now my body would fall to the floor, but my soul, the real me, would go somewhere else. But the Bible speaks of another death, one it calls the second death. This second death is separation of the soul from God. Now, the penalty of sin is death, spiritual death, and separation from the LORD. To put it simply – hell. All this is really bad news. But there is good news.

Who Has Believed Our Message?
53: 1-3

Who has believed our message DIG: What did Yeshua’s physical appearance look like? If you had grown up next door to the Servant, how would you describe His childhood to a newspaper reporter who interviewed you about Him? How does that contrast with the LORD’s perspective of Him?

REFLECT: Is there someone that you have witnessed to that does not believe the message of Christ? How does that make you feel? How do you think it makes God feel? Have you ever had a time when your family in some regard rejected you? How did that make you feel? How do you think it makes Jesus feel?

One of the three purposes of the Great Tribulation is to break the stubbornness of the Jewish nation (Dani’el 11-12; Ezeki’el 20:34-38). It is through the crucible that Israel will be brought to repentance. In 53:1-9 we see Isra’el’s prayer and national confession at the end of the Great Tribulation (see the commentary on Revelation, to see link click Ev – The Basis for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ). The actual words of this prayer are found in four key passages of Scripture, first, in Psalm 79, secondly in Psalm 80, thirdly here, and lastly in Isaiah 63:7 to 64:12. All tenses are prophetic perfects, or future events looked upon as already taken place. This is the second of five messages in this section.

Who has believed our message (Isaiah 53:1; John 12:37-38; Romans 10:16a)? Here we see Isra’el’s unbelief. The word message here merely means hearing. Or, who among us has believed what we have heard? Isra’el has heard the message of the Suffering Servant for centuries and centuries. Every time a Jew is witnessed to, he or she hears the message. But for most of them, they do not believe. That is the question that the faithful remnant at the end of the Great Tribulation is asking. The point of the first part of this verse is that the Jews had heard the message of the Suffering Servant but had not believed it.

To whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed (53:1b)? Now He is going to go into great detail about who this arm of the LORD is going to be. Four times earlier Isaiah talked about this arm resulting in salvation for those who trust in the arm. What is this arm all about? Now he tells us that arm of the LORD is not God the Father, but God the Son. The Suffering Servant, who by means of His humiliation and suffering, will bring about salvation for Israel. This is the sixth of nine references to the arm of the LORD (30:30 and 32, 40:10, 50:2, 51:5 and 9, 52:10, 59:1 and 16, 62:8, 63:5). It was as if Isaiah was saying, “Who could have believed that this arm was the LORD Himself, come to save” (52:10).

He grew up before Him like a tender shoot. The Hebrew word for tender shoot really means suckling. A suckling sucks nourishment and life from the plant and eventually kills it. The plant would not be able to produce its fruit. In your garden you would pull off these sucklings so that your plants could live. That is how Isra’el considered the Servant, simply as a suckling to be broken off and thrown away. And like a root out of dry ground (53:2). Looking back to 11:1 we read: A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. This emphasized the humanity of Christ because although He would be a descendant of David, in all His kingly splendor, the emphasis here is not on David but on the lowly shepherd Jesse. In Chapter 11 we are told that when the Messiah comes, the House of David will be reduced to nothing but a stump. That is also the point here; He had humble beginnings.

In addition, He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him, nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him (53:2c). He was not characterized by outward physical beauty, or attractiveness. There was nothing about His outward appearance that would draw men and women to Him. The human eye is greatly influenced by superficial splendor. He looked nothing like a great world leader should look like. As a result, eyes would flicker across a crowd and would not even see Him. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him because His splendor is not on the surface (see the commentary on The Life of Christ Gb – Jesus Took Peter, James and John Up a High Mountain Where He was Transfigured), and those who have no inclination to look beyond the surface will never see Him, much less pay any attention to Him.²¹⁷

We learn that He was despised and rejected by men (53:3a). This is a part of the humiliation of the Suffering Servant. Of the different Hebrew words for men, the word used here is men of rank, or leaders. Although large crowds did initially follow Jesus, the leaders of Isra’el despised Him. That becomes very evident in the gospels. It was the Great Sanhedrin, the equivalent of the religious Jewish Supreme Court (see the commentary on The Life of Christ Lg – The Great Sanhedrin) that led the nation to the rejection of His messiahship and ultimate crucifixion. Before the Second Coming, the Jewish leadership will need to admit their sin and the sin of the nation in rejecting the Messiah for Him to come back.

Messiah was Ish Makh’ovot, a man of pains, well acquainted with illnesses (53:3b CJB). In other words, He was a man familiar with pain and disease because in His ministry, that is what He went about healing, pain and disease. The rabbis taught that disease or birth defects were a result of sin. Therefore, if a person was born blind, for example, they believed that person sinned in the womb. They took extraordinary measures to avoid any contact with anyone whom they considered sinners. When walking in a crowd, the Pharisees and Sadducees would actually hold their flowing robes tightly around them so they wouldn’t even accidently touch a sinner passing by. When the Pharisees were investigating such a case (see Gl – The Three Messianic Miracles), even the apostles asked Yeshua, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind” (John 9:2)? And the Pharisees also concluded: You were steeped in sin at birth (John 9:34a). So, the poor, the lame, and the diseased were shunned by the Jewish society in general as being sinners. But those were the very ones Jesus healed (35:5-6).

As a result, He was like one from whom the Jewish people hid their faces (53:3c). In 53:2 we were told that people were not attracted to Him because of His appearance. Now we also learn that not only were Jewish people not drawn to Him, but also people actually hid their faces from Him. He did not fit the stereotype of one who could save Himself, let alone anyone else. They were repulsed by what He had to say when the light of His truth revealed the extent of their sin.

Therefore, as a result of exposing the sin of the Jewish people, He was despised, and we esteemed Him not (53:3d). Yochanan wrote: He was in the world, and though the world was made through Him, the world did not recognize Him. He came to that which was His own (the Jewish people), but His own did not receive Him (John 1:10-11). And in Jewish circles that is still true today. For the majority of Isra’el, they have not esteemed Him. Here are three examples.

First, Jewish believers call Jesus Yeshua; but Jewish unbelievers have a shortened form, Yeshu. And Yeshu stands for the three letters that make up a line in Hebrew that reads: May His name and memory be blotted out. In Isra’el, for the most part, you won’t hear Yeshua; you’ll hear Yeshu. We esteemed Him not.

Secondly, throughout the Talmud, He is referred to as ta-louie, the hanged one. He is also referred to in the Talmud as ben-ponteria. Ben means son of, and ponteira sounds like Pandora, which is where we get the phrase Pandora’s box. She opened it up and all the evils of the world came out of the box. And as far as the Jewish world is concerned in the Talmud, Jesus is ben pondera, He’s the one who released all the evils on the Jewish people. We esteemed Him not.

Thirdly, the Greek word for the Gospel is eu-engellion. However, in Jewish writings they have a play on words with it, they say a-bon-gellion. But a-bon-gellion does not mean the gospel; it means the roll of sin. In other words, the gospel is not the Good News, it is the roll, or rolls (the Hebrew scriptures are read in the Synagogues from a roll or a scroll) of sin. We esteemed Him not. So in every respect this verse holds true to the Jewish people of today. But remember this is Isra’el’s prayer and national confession at the end of the Great Tribulation. They will confess that we esteemed Him not as the armies of the antichrist encircle them at Petra (or Bozrah). The spiritual scales will fall from their eyes and they will see Jesus for who He really is (Zechariah 12:7 to 13:1; Revelation 1:12-16, 5:5). At that time they will confess that they esteemed Him not.

If I asked you if you were a sinner, what would you say? Romans 3:23 says: For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. That includes you and me, doesn’t it? Most people feel that being good gets you into heaven and being bad keeps you out. That simply is not true; we all have sinned. What would you say sin is? I think we can agree that we are both sinners; now lets define sin. Some have said, “I’m not perfect,” or “I have made some mistakes.” But what do you think the Bible means by sin? Well, the Bible says that everyone who sins breaks God’s law; in fact, sin is lawlessness (First John 3:4). Have you ever disobeyed your parents? Have you ever misused the name of God? Have you ever told a lie? This is what sin is. It’s breaking God’s law. And any time you break a law there is a penalty. If you run a stop sign, the penalty is a fine. If you rob a bank, the penalty is jail. What is the penalty for breaking God’s law? We will find out in the next file.

See, My Servant Will Act Wisely,
He Will Be Lifted Up and Exalted
52: 13-15

See, My Servant will act wisely, He will be lifted up and exalted DIG: This is the last of the four Servant Songs (see 42:1-7; 49:1-13; 50:4-9). To whom is this song intended? In what sense is this the Gospel. The songs in Chapters 42 and 49 indicated that the Servant would be a light to the Gentiles. How is that idea communicated in these opening lines?

REFLECT: What is your opinion of the TaNaKh prophecies fulfilled by Jesus? Could they have been written after they had already occurred? Do they make any difference in what you believe? Do they increase your faith? Are you in the wheelbarrow? Why or why not?

This is a far eschatological prophecy to Jews just before the Second Coming. The purpose of the Servant is stated simply and clearly: For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life (John 3:16). One of the ways that we believe in the Servant is through knowledge of prophecy. Prophecy is history written in advance, and the TaNaKh gave precise details about the Servant of the LORD. Among other things, it predicted that He would be supernaturally conceived (7:14), born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2), be Semitic in the line of Abraham and of David (Genesis 9:26, 22:18; Second Samuel 7:13), and be of the tribe of Judah (Genesis 49:10). In His death He would be executed by rulers (Psalm 2:1-2), forsaken by God (Psalm 22:1), betrayed by a friend for thirty pieces of silver (Psalm 41:9 and Zechariah 11:12), have His beard plucked out and be spit upon (50:6). In His resurrection He would rise in three days (Hosea 6:2), He would not experience decay of His flesh (Psalm 16:10), and would conquer death (25:8). All of these prophecies came true in the life of Yeshua. The probability of all of these prophecies being fulfilled while being given centuries in advance, leads us to the undeniable conclusion that Messiah was indeed sent from God the Father and He would accomplish His purpose. Our faith is based on the tangible evidence of the person and life of Christ; it is based on who He is and what He did (First Corinthians 15:3b-4).

In 52:13 Isaiah starts out with the word see. Whenever the prophets used that word it was always to call attention to a new context that is going to be more important than other writings within that chapter. Thus God, speaking through His prophet says: My Servant will act wisely. The Hebrew word could mean that, but I think a better translation would be My Servant will accomplish My purpose. Isaiah is not saying here that the Servant will be a wise man. But he is saying that the Servant will know and do the right things in order to accomplish the purpose for which He was called (42:1; 49:2-3; 50:7-9). Whatever the frustrations on His part (49:1-4), or the failure on the part of the nation of Isra’el to see Him for who He really was, the Servant will accomplish the Father’s purpose. This very same word is used in Jeremiah 23:5 where he writes: The days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will raise up to David a righteous Branch, a King who will accomplish My purpose (or reign wisely), and do what is just and right in the Land. Here Isaiah is picturing the Messiah sitting upon David’s throne and ruling over the Messianic Kingdom.

The next three phrases in 52:13 give us a summary of His activities during the messianic Kingdom. First: He will be raised up, referring to His resurrection. Secondly: He will be lifted up and this refers to His ascension that took place forty days after the resurrection (see my commentary on The Life of Christ, to see link click Mr – The Ascension of Jesus) Thirdly: He will be highly exalted or honored by being seated at the right hand of God the Father interceding for us day and night. But the Servant would not only be raised and lifted up and highly exalted, He would also be humiliated. We can see these two opposite extremes in these three verses without a break. Paul’s great hymn in Philippians 2:5-9 is almost certainly a reflection of this passage. So the exaltation of the Servant here is contrasted with the humiliation of the Servant in the very next verse.

The way Jesus looked on the cross will be in stark contrast with His appearance at the Second Coming. The nations, the many who were appalled at Him, will be speechless by what they see in Him, something they were not expecting. He will be so disfigured that He will not resemble a man. So as people looked upon the cross in the closing hours and minutes of His life, His form would be marred beyond human likeness (52:14). Evidently His beating was so severe, that after the resurrection, no one recognized Him at first. But even before the resurrection, by human standards Jesus was not attractive when He was on the earth (53:3).

Author Henri Nouwen tells the story of a family he knew in Paraguay. The father, a doctor, spoke out against the military regime there and its human rights abuses. Local police took their revenge on him by arresting his teenage son and torturing him to death. Enraged townsfolk wanted to turn the boy’s funeral into a huge protest march, but the doctor chose another means of protest. At the funeral, the father displayed his son’s body as he had found it in the jail – naked, scarred from electric shocks, cigarette burns, and beatings. All the villagers filed past the corpse, which lay not in a coffin but on the blood-soaked mattress from the prison. It was the strongest protest imaginable, for it put injustice on grotesque display. isn’t that what the Lord did at Calvary? The cross that held Jesus’ body, naked and marked with scars, exposed all the violence and injustice of this world. At once, the cross revealed what kind of world we have and what kind of God we have: a world of gross unfairness, a God of sacrificial love.

But when the nations see Him at His Second Coming, those who did not consider Him important will be absolutely astounded. They will see Him from a new perspective.²¹⁵ His eyes are like blazing fire, and on His head are many crowns. He has a name written on Him that no one knows but He Himself. He is dressed in a robe dripped in blood, and His name is the Word of God. Out of His mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of ADONAI, God of heaven’s angelic armies (CJB). On His robe and on His thigh He has this name written: KING of kings and LORD of Lords (Revelation 19:12-16).

In 52:15 the victory of the Servant will startle many nations. The word sprinkle, used by some translations, is not a good translation; a better word would be startle. The people, who were once astonished by His disfigurement, will now be startled at His exaltation. To go from the humiliation of the death of a common criminal to being exalted in all the earth and the heavens is indeed startling. The kings of the earth will shut their mouths because of Him out of respect. When you are talking and a man of greatness comes by, there is silence in the room out of respect. Why? For what they were not told, they will see. They will understand what they were not told about the inhuman treatment that the Messiah went through at His crucifixion. This verse is quoted in Romans 15:21: Those who were not told about Him will see, and those who have not heard will understand.

For the Servant, Yeshua, to accomplish His purpose, faith is needed. The writer to the Hebrews said: and without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him (Hebrews 11:6). Therefore, if there is anything that is clear in the Bible, it is that a person is saved by faith. However, if there is anything that is unclear today, it is the nature of faith. So it is vitally important that we understand faith. The Greek New Covenant word for faith most commonly used is pisteuo. It has a wide semantic range and can be translated faith, trust, or belief. This Greek word has two basic elements: mental assent and reliance. But these two elements also assume knowledge. Thus, faith consists of knowledge, mental assent, and reliance.

Faith, trust, and belief assumes knowledge, that is, recognition of some information. Before we can believe anything, we must know about it. If faith assumes the understanding of knowledge, what does a person need to know? The object of faith in the New Covenant is Yeshua Messiah. If you were to look up all the occurrences of believe and faith in the New Covenant to see what a person must know about Christ, you would discover that a person must believe four things: (1) that Messiah is God (John 20:31) and yet (2) a real man (First John 4:2); (3) that He is the one who died for sins (Romans 3:25) and (4) rose from the dead (Romans 10:9). Those last two facts are called the Gospel. So the object of faith is Jesus Christ, the God-man, who died and arose. It is not just any “Christ.” The object of faith must be Messiah who is revealed in the Bible.

The second element of faith is mental assent. The knowledge received about Messiah must now be accepted as true. The most basic meaning of pisteuo is to accept something as true. A person could have knowledge and not accept the information as true. In other words, he or she could not believe. However, if there is both knowledge and acceptance, there is belief. For salvation, a person must know that Jesus Christ, the God-man, died for sin and arose from the dead, and accept that as factual and true. Faith does not mean believing when there is no evidence; faith is believing the evidence. Faith is not built on ignorance, but on knowledge.

The third element is trust, belief, and faith. These words refer to resting in, relying on, or depending upon something or someone. Often the New Covenant emphasizes this and makes it even stronger by adding a preposition after believe. For example John 3:36 says: He who believes in the Son has everlasting life, and Acts 16:31 says: Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved. You may believe a bridge is safe, but you do not believe in the Biblical sense until you drive onto the bridge. You may believe an airplane can fly you from your hometown to England, but you do not believe in the New Covenant sense until you buckle up and the plane takes off. If your clothes were on fire, you may believe that jumping in the swimming pool will save you, but you are not saved until you jump in the pool. That’s what faith is like, acceptance plus reliance. Faith in and of itself does not save. Faith is not magic; there is no saving virtue in it. Faith is merely the means by which the benefits of Christ’s death are applied to you. The New Covenant does not teach that you are saved on account of faith, but rather, you are saved through faith. The saving power does not reside in the act of faith, nor in the nature of faith, but exclusively in the object of faith – Jesus Christ.

Imagine a ship filled with people crossing the Atlantic. In the middle of the ocean there is an explosion. The ship is severely damaged and slowly sinking. Most are dead, and the rest are rushing for the lifeboats. Now suppose one man doesn’t know about the lifeboat, so he does not get aboard. He doesn’t have knowledge, so he is not saved. Suppose another man knows about the lifeboat and believes it will save him, but he is grief-stricken over seeing his wife killed, so he chooses not to get aboard and dies with his wife. He has knowledge and mental assent, but he is not saved. Others believe the lifeboat will save them, and they get into the boat. They are saved by faith, that is, they have knowledge, mental assent, and trust. However, it is not their faith that saves them, no matter how much faith they have. It is the lifeboat. Therefore, saving faith trusts Christ, and Messiah saves.²¹⁶  You are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Messiah alone.

Around 1900, before the days of rock stars and sports heroes, some of the most famous people were known for daring feats, like climbing mountains, escaping from chains and vaults, and swinging on the flying trapeze. None was more famous than the great Charles Blondin of France, the greatest tightrope walker in the world. One time he walked the tight rope across Niagara Falls in Ontario, Canada. He would walk across with a balance bar, he would ride across on a unicycle, and sometimes, with someone with a lot of faith in him, he would carry a trusting soul across on his shoulders. One day he wheeled a woman across in a wheelbarrow. Everyone saw it and cheered. The woman put her life into Blondin’s hands. That is what faith is, putting our life in Christ’s hands. When Blondin got to the other side of Niagara Falls, he asked the crowd if they believed he could do it again and go back across. They said, “Yes, we believe you can do it.” At that he said, “Then get in the wheelbarrow.” That is faith. As far as Christ is concerned, are you in the wheelbarrow?

If you have accepted Yeshua Messiah by faith, see my commentary on The Life of Christ Bw – What God does for Us at the Moment of Faith.

This is the first of five messages in this section, My Servant will accomplish His purpose, where God contrasts the Servant’s lowly death on the cross with His being lifted up and given a name that is above every name (Philippians 2:8-9). But having mentioned His humiliation, Isaiah will now detail it in the next section.

The Death of the Suffering Servant
52:13 to 53:12

When you or I try to do something, whether it’s for the Kingdom of God or not, we are fortunate if we can accomplish just one thing! But when God does something, there is a kaleidoscope of benefits. The Scriptures we have before us are examples of this. When the inspired prophet penned these words, he was writing for multiple audiences. Obviously, every believer in every age benefits from the Gospel of Yeshua Messiah.

Viewed from the Servant’s sacrifice on the cross, the First Covenant looks forward and the New Covenant looks back. These scriptures do the same for two different generations of Jews. First, this was a near historical prophecy to the Jews of Jesus’ day. When Yeshua began His public ministry and performed many signs and wonders (to see link click Gl – The Three Messianic Miracles), the Jews of His day were compelled to make a decision about Him and His claims of messiahship. So, when Isaiah wrote about the Suffering Servant, it should have prepared the hearts and minds of faithful Jews looking forward to the cross. Secondly, this is a far eschatological prophecy pointing to just prior to the Second Coming. Isaiah’s message of the Servant should cause them to look back to the cross and believe that Yeshua really was the Messiah and cry out for Him to return and save them (see the commentary on Revelation Ev – The Basis for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ).

This is the climax of the entire book of Isaiah and the fourth of his four Servant Songs (42:1-17, 49:1-6, 50:4-9). Here the prophet tells us why the Servant of the LORD is suffering and how Isra’el will be redeemed. The reason I take so much time to explain the different interpretations is because salvation is lost without a proper understanding that it is Jesus’ death on the cross we are talking about. There have been many claims of Jewish messiahship down through the centuries. For example Menahem ben Judah (around 70 AD), Simon bar Kokhba (around 130 AD), Moses of Crete (about 440-470 AD), Sabbatai Zevi (1626-1676 AD), Abraham Miguel Cardoso (1630-1706 AD), and the more recent Menachem Mendel Schneerson (1902-1994 AD) have all claimed to be the promised Messiah. But all have violated what the prophet Zechariah had to say: Many Gentile nations will be joined with ADONAI in that day and will become My people. I will live among you and you will know that the LORD of heaven’s angelic armies (CJB) has sent Me to you (Zechariah 2:11b). No Gentiles followed any of these false messiahs.

Nevertheless, many Jewish commentators have come up with different interpretations to the identity of the Suffering Servant. Some say he is Moses, some say king Josiah, but most interpret the passage symbolically and say the Servant is Isra’el in exile. Others, like Jacob Joseph Mordecai try a more literal approach. His interpretation is very logical and makes perfect sense. He himself says that Scripture never bears any other than the simple and literal meaning. But without the mind of Christ (First Corinthians 2:16), it is clear that there is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end leads to death (Proverbs 14:1-13). Jacob Joseph Mordecai said that the Suffering Servant is King Hezekiah.²¹²

52:13a Behold my Servant shall prosper, as it is said in 2 Chronicles 32:30, And Hezekiah prospered in all his works, therefore, Hezekiah is rightly called God’s servant, for he not only turned himself, but also brought back Judah, and a great part of Isra’el as well, to the service of God – an achievement which none of his ancestors, in spite of all their excellent intentions, ever contemplated. For he put away the high places, and sent runners throughout all Isra’el and Judah with the letters from the king and his leaders, and spoke according to the commandment of the king: Children of Israel, return to ADONAI the God of Abraham (2 Chronicles 30:6). He restored the crown to its former state, entreating the favor of his princes and ministers, almost prostrating himself before them, while he said: Hear me, Levites! Now sanctify yourselves, sanctify the house of ADONAI the God of your fathers, and carry out the rubbish from the holy place (2 Chronicles 29:5).

52:13b He shall be exalted and extolled and be very high, for so it said in Second Chronicles 32:23: And many brought gifts to the Lord at Jerusalem, and presents to Hezekiah king of Judah, so that he was exalted in the sight of all nations thereafter.

52:14 Because of the dangerous illness that attacked him, his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man and his form marred beyond human likeness as he drew near to the gates of Death (Psalm 107:18).

52:15a Many kings and princes were amazed exceedingly at the miracle wrought for him, for not with sword or spear did ADONAI save His anointed from the hand of Sennacherib.

52:15b but greater far was the miracle which displayed itself in the world when the orbit of the sun turned backward before the eyes of all, and when Merodach-Baladan sent ambassadors to him to enquire about the portent which had occurred in the earth; this is what is meant by the words: What had not been told to them they have seen; for they perceived clearly that so highly favored was he in the eyes of the LORD, that the order of creation was altered for his benefit.

53:1 Who has believed our message? Feigning surprise, asks the prophet of his pious contemporaries; for good Hezekiah was a descendant of the wicked Ahaz, and upon Hezekiah was the arm of ADONAI revealed in the destruction of Sennacherib.

53:2 At the time when all were immersed in idolatrous worship, Hezekiah grew up before Him like a tender shoot, out of dry ground, in which was no religion or fear of God.

53:3 As, from his birth upwards, Hezekiah rejected the deeds of his fathers, and the shameful customs of his age, the people abominated him, and held aloof from him, and hence he was despised and rejected by men, his father in particular hating him even to the day of his death, for he made him pass through the fire of Molech (Second Kings 16:3 and Sanhedrin, fol. 69), though he was delivered miraculously by God. Still, however, the few righteous who were to be found at that time felt a longing and desire for him saying: O that the shoot were to come up from the stump of Jesse (Isaiah 11:1) and that the Spirit of knowledge and fear of ADONAI were resting on him (Isaiah 11:2),” and this is the meaning of the words: He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him (Isaiah 53:2), yet we desired him. When, after his father’s death, he ascended to the throne, his servants were so much dissatisfied that, with Shebna at their head, they rebelled against him, and sought to submit themselves to the wicked Pekah, son of Remaliah, king of Isra’el, as Isaiah narrates in 53:6 and when they saw him afflicted with severe illness, their hatred carried itself still further, and they poured contempt upon their prince, judging maliciously that his sufferings were because he had despised their own wicked faith, and that the graven images of their gods would hide their faces from him.

53:4 They did so even more when they saw that his affliction prevented him from maintaining the style and manners of a court (Sanhedrin, fol. 94), for he would eat only a pound of meat a day: since, then, he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, with a whole heart, just as his father David had done (Second Chronicles 29:2), and removed all defilement from the sanctuary (Second Chronicles 29:5) and restored all Isra’el to the true faith, the sufferings which he endured must have been for the sake of his generation; almost, indeed, had the Almighty determined to quench the coal that was left, and to give Jerusalem to the hand of Sennacherib, and only in consequence of Hezekiah was the redemption of their soul achieved, and deliverance wrought for them by his transcendent merits, so far surpassing the sufferings which he bare.

53:5-6 After this, however, all perceived that he was pierced for their transgressions, and crushed for their iniquities, in order to make atonement for them unto God; for the attribute of judgment, displaying itself before them, laid on him the iniquity of them all, as the text says, for the transgressions of My people (Isaiah 53:8), even the wounds which should have fallen upon them.

53:7 When his sickness was at its worst, he acknowledged the justice of God’s judgment upon him, but like a mute man who did not open his mouth, he expected from hour to hour the moment of his death, as he declared himself in his writing (Isaiah 38:9): I said in the cutting off of my days, let me go through the gates of death, etc, and accepted his afflictions as sent upon him in love, without murmuring, or complaining of the shortness of his days.

53:8 When, however, he heard the prophet Isaiah’s command: Put your house in order, because you are going to die; you will not recover (Isaiah 38:1), he entreated God to grant him a longer life in order that he might be enabled to serve Him; by oppression and judgment he would have been taken away in the prime of his life and when his reign had but lately commenced: now, if his death had occurred before he had time to restore the faith of his people to its pristine integrity, who would have told of his generation?

53:9 It would have been rather a generation departing in darkness until it was all consumed without having seen the mighty acts of ADONAI, wrought by him on behalf of himself after him, but would have been buried with his wicked father – as the text states: He was assigned a grave with the wicked, implying that it was so determined – in spite of the innocence of his hands, and the fact that he had done no violence.

53:10 Yet, it was ADONAI’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and to put the guilt of his generation on his soul; accordingly, after his prayer, when God had heard his prayers and seen his tears, the promise is given that He will see his offspring and prolong his days; thus the Almighty added to his life fifteen years, and let him “see seed”, for previously he had no children.

53:12 Therefore, I will give him a portion among the great and he will divide the spoils, or the spoils of Sennacherib, because he bore the iniquities of the age, and was counted as a transgressor, and above all interceded for the remnant that were still left (who were the transgressors), as it is said in Second Kings 19:15: And Hezekiah prayed to the Lord, “ADONAI, God of Isra’el, enthroned between the cherubim, you alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth,” and in Second Chronicles 32:20, “King Hezekiah and the prophet Isaiah son of Amos cried out in prayer to heaven.” This, then, is the meaning of made intercession for the transgressors, in order that the City might not fall into the hands of the King of Assyria. And so, when all Judah and Jerusalem and the remnant of Isra’el returned to the services of ADONAI, and the sanctuary was restored to its original purity, and the priests to their ministrations, and the Levites to their pulpits (all which Ahaz had neglected), and when they beheld the miracles, then all his servants began to love and honor him; and when he died, he was not assigned a grave with the wicked, as had been determined, and as nearly took place, but he ended his life honorably and Hezekiah rested with his fathers and was buried on the hill where the tombs of David’s descendants are. All Judah and the people of Jerusalem honored him when he died (Second Chronicles 32:33).

Such is the interpretation, which I have been able to give of these verses. And if my view is not in accordance with the mind of the prophet, I pray the Almighty to grant me a reward for what I have done! May the ADONAI lighten mine eyes in His Torah! And may the purpose of mine heart be well pleasing to Him! This is one rabbinic interpretation of Chapter 53, that the suffering servant was Hezekiah. But there is another even more accepted interpretation that Isra’el herself is the Servant of ADONAI.

Rabbi Isaac Orobio de Castro, around the time of the Spanish Inquisition in 1492, interpreted Chapter 53 as referring to Isra’el. The victims of the Inquisition “were mostly Jews who had been ‘converted’ to Catholicism under duress from King Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, and who were now accused of ‘Judaizing.’ Isabella decreed that all Jews must either accept baptism or leave Spain. Most refused to be baptized, even though it meant exile and the loss of most of their possessions. It seems that approximately 200,000 Spaniards of the Jewish faith were thus condemned to exile – which many times led to death, capture by pirates, and other such misfortunes.”²¹³ About 30,000 were killed in the 350 years of the Spanish Inquisition.

Down through Jewish history this is the most common interpretation of Chapter 53. (It would be helpful to understand in interpreting Rabbi de Castro’s writings, that many times he substitutes Jacob, or Isra’el, for the personal pronouns he or his). In his writings entitled The Clear Fountain, he states that Isaiah has also prophesied in the Fifty-Third Chapter about the opinions of the Christians (Edom), the oppressors of Isra’el. They falsely apply the prophecy beginning Who has believed our message? to the martyrdom of Jesus, but it really refers to Isra’el, stricken by all nations, past and present, from the Babylonians, Persians, Greeks and Romans, which later became the Christians. This is to be seen clearly from the Fifty-Second Chapter, which is connected with the following one. The error of the Christian doctrine is the consequences of their taking the expression my servant (52:13), as a real singular, whereas it is a collective singular, referring to Jacob and Isra’el. God said by the mouth of His prophet Moses that he would bring the curses which Isra’el suffered in the land of their enemies and haters on the Christians when Isra’el turns back from his (Isra’el’s) wicked ways (Deuteronomy 30:1-3). Isaiah prophesies the same (51:22-23), and promises redemption to the humiliated people, saying: Behold, My servant Jacob and My people Isra’el, who laid down his (Jacob’s) body as a pavement for the passers by, he will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted. The prophet means to indicate by these three degrees of exaltation that the height of the trodden Isra’el will be greater than its abasement was low in the past and present days, for God shall have taken away from them the cup of the dregs and of His fury, and put it into the hands of His oppressors (51:22-23). And the nations will see such a wonderful redemption of a people so abased; the prophet says: as there were many who were appalled at him (14a). It may be seen how this designation my servant is a collective singular, because it says: For what they were not told, they will see, and what they have not heard, they will understand (52:15b), they in the plural refers to Isra’el.

53:1 Then, astonished, they (the Gentiles) will say: Who has believed our message? which we have heard from the (twelve) men (the apostles) believing in our peace, or our Messiah, the messenger of God to the nations. Persuaded by the twelve men (the apostles), we Edomites (here he is equating Christians to the Edomites who were constantly trying to destroy the Jews) want to destroy Isra’el and the Torah, but now to whom has the arm of ADONAI been revealed?

53:2 The Christian expositors apply the contents of this verse to Jesus, who was conceived without intercourse with man. This idea, however (as we shall prove by the help of God), is an astonishing blasphemy. Dani’el 12:10 says: Many will be purified, made spotless and refined, but the wicked will continue to be wicked. None of the wicked will understand, but those who are wise will understand. The prophet Isaiah speaks here also of Isra’el abased, humiliated, avoided, martyred, and spoiled by all nations, growing up before the providence of God like a branch and a root out of a dry land in consequence of their sins (Jeremiah 17:5-8). The prophet uses the expression roots in a dry land to explain the present exile and humiliation of His people. In the future, when God shall pour out waters upon these roots in dry ground and His blessing upon His children, then for what they were not told, they will see, and what they have not heard, they will understand. Who has then believed our message and to whom has the arm of ADONAI been revealed (Isaiah 52:15b to 53:1)? Dispersed Isra’el is called roots in a dry land as compared with other nations who have a king and possess a country. Micah also compares the providence of God to grass and drops falling upon it in time of drought (Micah 5:7), by which providence Isra’el was preserved among all other nations more wondrously than in Egypt. Where are now the Assyrians, the Babylonians, and the Persians, with their different religions? They were mixed up in the time of drought with other nations, and disappeared. Jeremiah 30:11 and Hosea 2:3 and 3:4, all allude to the above-mentioned period of drought. Isaiah continues: He has no form, for he (Jacob) grows in the present exile as a root in a dry land.

53:3 Despised and rejected by men, as was always the case with scattered Isra’el. As hiding their faces from the despised one. And we esteemed Jacob not, the nations will say. Who would have believed that the arm of ADONAI would reveal itself to a nation despised and rejected of men? which covered its face, from which everybody kept aloof, as from a wounded man, and which is familiar with suffering, in other words, with being despised and humiliated by all nations, past and present. The fame of this wonderful redemption will even reach Cush (43:1-3).

53:4 The sufferings which we ought to have born, as evildoers are described by our teachers (Obadiah 1-2), Isra’el bore, which is even the case in our days. When Isra’el suffers humiliation, death, and destruction for supporting the holy law, the Gentile nations support blasphemies. Yet, we considered Jacob stricken by God, smitten by Him and afflicted. This the Gentile nations repeat even in our own days, saying that Isra’el is smitten by God because they put to death their God and Messiah and did not believe in Him, but finally they will say: Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of ADONAI been revealed? This same was the case in Egypt, when the magicians said: This is the finger of God (Exodus 8:19), while later they were obliged to confess that God was fighting for Isra’el.

53:5 We were mistaken in believing that God disciplined Jacob for his sins, since in reality it was our sins, which caused his humiliation. Those who hold to this view believe that Isra’el spiritually heals herself by the suffering she endures. Isra’el does not need a Savior because she saves herself. Indeed in his interpretations de Castro replaces Jesus with Isra’el. And they said Jesus was blasphemous. In fact, the cup of trembling and of fury, which was destined for him according to the word of God, was put into our hands (51:22). The punishment that we deserved for the Messiah to come (they don’t believe the Messiah has yet come, so when the antichrist comes, they will believe it is he whom they have waited for so long), who is called our peace (9:6), and at whose coming universal peace ought to have been established, came upon Isra’el. He is saying that if Jesus had really been the Messiah, universal peace would have been established. By his stripes we are healed. In other words, Jacob (the Jews) was (have been) healed by the stripes that he received from us (the Jews). Thus the prophet says further on in Isaiah 53:10: Yet, it was ADONAI’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer. Even if we were to concede what the Christians say, and interpret this verse: By the Messiah’s stripes we were healed, then the Gentile nations would have to admit in amazement that when Isra’el drinks from the cup of trembling and fury, Jacob is healed. For the rod and the staff with which God chastises His people are necessary during the time of their chastising (10:6-7). In fact, Israel suffers oppression from the Christians who are healed by those very sufferings. The prophet explains this fact in 10:12, where Assyria represents Israel’s enemy, and reference to his allusion is made in Psalm 91:1,12 and 14.

53:6 We all like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way. At the beginning there were Arians and Catholics, now there are Calvinists and Lutherans, so that everybody turns to his own way (Jeremiah 49:7). Then the nations, amazed at such a great salvation, will exclaim: ADONAI has laid on Jacob the iniquity of us all. Isaiah alludes to those sects, saying: Through the wrath of the Lord of hosts is the land darkened (9:19). In other words, the prophet calls these different sects darkness. For it is in darkness that everyone has turned to his own way, and the same is true when people are blind in understanding.

53:7 He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter. (de Castro writes in 1492 that) This is the case now with the Spanish Inquisition, when Isra’el is brought to the funeral pile, and if they try to speak, a gag is put on their tongue.

53:8 By oppression and judgment he is taken away. And who can speak of his descendants? Oppression is employed by the prophets in a good and bad sense. In a good sense of the last days of the Passover (Amos 5:22), and in a bad sense of mourning (Joel 1:13). Here we take it in the latter sense; in other words, the nations, amazed at the great redemption, will say: Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of ADONAI been revealed? that Isra’el will be brought by us in chariots to the house of God, and taken away from their state of depression and the judgment, which God had pronounced against them in the day of His wrath (Isaiah 17:7; Zechariah 8:22; Isaiah 49:7 and Jeremiah 16:19). Thus the prophet continues his generation. In the former redemptions Isra’el was counted by tribes and families, but in the present redemption God alone will be able to count and distinguish the families. In other words, God will not choose His priests and Levites from the other nations, but He will distinguish and choose them from Isra’el alone. He was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was stricken. In other words, for the transgression of the fathers the children suffer at the present time (Lamentations 5:7). To him is a collective singular, referring to Isra’el, and not to the Messiah of the nations.

53:9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked. God chose Isra’el, who died for the Torah and the holy name of God, and who are rich, in other words, who possess many virtues, but they make their grave among the wicked (Dani’el 11:32-34), because they are buried among the Gentile nations. And all that, says the prophet, because he had not acted falsely in regard to the commandments of God, for which Isra’el always was and is now reprimanded, and there was no deceit in their mouth. They (the Jews) always considered Jesus as someone who mislead Isra’el and consequently subject to capital punishment, according to Deuteronomy 13:7-10, which says: If your very own brother, or your son or daughter, or the wife you love, or your closest friend secretly misleads you, saying, “Let us go and worship other gods” (gods that neither you nor your fathers have known, gods of the people around you, whether near or far, from one end of the land to the other), do not yield to him or listen to him. Show him not pity. Do not spare him or shield him. You must certainly put him to death. Stone him to death, because he tried to turn you away from ADONAI your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. Then all Israel will hear and be afraid, and no one among you will do such an evil thing again. The nations, on seeing the redemption of those (Jews) whom they (the Gentiles) called heretics and evildoers, but who are rich in great virtues, will exclaim: Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?

53:10 If, preserved in the Torah of God, Jacob (the Jews) accepts patiently the chastisement as a correction for his (their) sins, he (they) will see his (their) offspring and prolong his (their) days.

53:11 After the suffering of his soul, Jacob (the Jews) will say to himself (themselves), drink the cup of trembling, bow down that they (the Gentiles) may walk over you (51:22-23). By his knowledge will my righteous servant Isra’el justify many, on seeing the great redemption of the Gentile world the justified ones (the Gentiles) will confess, surely Jacob (the Jews) has (have) borne the griefs which we (the Gentiles) deserved (Jeremiah 16:19-20). The sages teach that these passages prove clearly that Isra’el will be justified by their martyrdom, but not by that of the predicted Messiah.

53:12 Therefore, I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong. King David instituted a Torah (First Samuel 30:24), to which the spoil was equally divided amongst those who were the victors and those who guarded the town. The prophet says accordingly that those who fight for the Torah of God and die for it have the same part of the reward as those whose souls fight against the body for the sake of the Torah. Therefore, God will divide the spoil with many and the strong who guarded the city, or the Torah of God; for the martyred people (the Jews) poured out his (their) life unto death and was (were) numbered with the transgressors (the Gentiles).

And it wasn’t like the Rabbis were ignorant of Christian theology. They knew exactly what they were rejecting. Another Rabbi writes: Christianity has formed out of the Fifty-Third Chapter of Isaiah its principal argument for providing the truth of the gospel history; for as this contains nothing more than the life, passion, and death of Him whom they adore as very God and Messiah, and they find the same portrayed in this chapter in such vivid colors that its expositors call it the passion chapter, and Isaiah, the evangelical prophet, they make use of it as a convenient proof that Isaiah predicted by divine inspiration all that is related in the gospel, and that the Messiah was to die and suffer for the sins of mankind; that in this the redemption God had promised the people of Isra’el so many ages before would consist; that this people will acknowledge this truth in the latter days, and being converted to the Christian faith will confess how unjustly it punished and put to death the Messiah innocent of all sin, and that Isra’el will wonder at the glorious end of Him whom it had before executed on the charge of high treason against God (in other words, Christians saying that this is what the Jews will ultimately believe) . . In order to be able to apply the Fifty-Third Chapter of Isaiah to the King Messiah, as the Christian church pretends, it was obliged to suppose that the innocent had to die for the redemption of souls, on which supposition the whole Christian doctrine rests. How is it possible to apply this to a man whom the (Gentile) nations adore as God-man and the Son of God, who consequently lives and rules with God! What an unintelligible story this is!²¹⁴

How to Interpret Isaiah 53

If you trace the Servant motif beginning with Chapter 49 you can see why Isaiah 53 cannot refer to Isra’el. It can only refer to the Messiah, Jesus Christ. Because once Isaiah established who the Servant is in Chapter 49, he consistently maintains the same motif through Chapter 53.

A. In the general context there are the three other Servant passages:

The first Servant passage is 42:1-4 in which it spells out the mission of the Servant and the ministry He was to perform at His First Coming.

The second Servant passage is 49:1-13 in which there are three main points, first, in 49:1-4 the Servant of ADONAI is accomplishing His mission with great difficulty because He was being rejected by Isra’el. Secondly, in 49:5-7 we learn that because of Israel’s rejection of the Servant, He will become a light for the Gentiles and many of the Gentiles would come to Him. Thirdly, in 49:8-13, ultimately all Isra’el will come to a saving knowledge of the Servant and that is when the final regathering and restoration is going to take place.

The third Servant passage is 50:49 where it deals with the sufferings of the Servant of ADONAI. It describes the sufferings He will endure, but does not say anything about His death.

But now we come to 52:13 to 53:12, which is the fourth Servant passage, and the most strategic of the four Servant passages. There are two main points, why and how the Servant suffers.

B. The immediate context is in 51:5:

There we read: My righteousness draws near speedily, salvation is on the way, and My arm will bring justice to the nations. Righteousness and salvation is going to be brought forth from ADONAI. But the means by which salvation will come to men is by the arm. And in this arm the Gentiles will trust.

Awake, awake! Clothe yourself with strength, O arm of ADONAI; awake as in days gone by, as in generations of old (51:9). The point here being that it is the arm of the LORD that will redeem. ADONAI and the arm of ADONAI are two distinctive elements. It is going to be the arm of ADONAI that will bring about the redemption.

ADONAI will lay bare His holy arm in the sight of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God (52:10). Again notice the relationship between His holy arm and salvation. When all the nations look at God’s arm, what do they see? They see salvation (Yeshua); they see Jesus (Yeshua). This concept of the arm of ADONAI will be extensively developed in Chapter 53. In verse 1 we read: Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of ADONAI been revealed? And the rest of the chapter will be used to develop this theme.

One more thing in the immediate context is 52:3: For this is what ADONAI says: You were sold for nothing, and without money you will be redeemed. Yet, in Chapter 52 Isaiah says nothing about how Isra’el would be redeemed. He only speaks about how they would not be redeemed. But how would they be redeemed? That is the purpose of 52:13 to 53:12.

C. The prophetic setting of this chapter is a prophecy about the crucifixion and resurrection.

Both elements will be present. But the actual prophetic setting should be viewed as in the closing days of the Great Tribulation because this section is the national confession of Isra’el, just prior to the Second Coming of the Messiah. At the Messiah’s First Coming, prior to His departure, He said: You will not see me again until you say, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.” So here in Isaiah, we are told the words that all Israel (Romans 11:26) will use in her national confession (Zechariah 12:10 to 13:1), which in turn will bring about the Second Coming.

D. Does this chapter refer to an individual, the Messiah, or does it refer to the nation of Isra’el?

This is the major point of conflict in this chapter. The rabbinical interpretation today has this chapter referring to suffering Isra’el in the Gentile world. How can we prove that this cannot be so? How can we prove that this has to be an individual Personality? First, it is important to know that all ancient rabbis up until 1050 AD took the position that this is speaking of the Messiah. This is without exception. It was not until Rabbi Rashi, one of the most famous rabbis in the Jewish world, proposed the theory that Chapter 53 was referring to suffering Isra’el, that the idea was even considered. He was opposed in his day by the majority of the rabbis who said Rashi was deviating from the truth because he was going contrary to the teachings of the rabbis for the past ten or eleven centuries. But as time went on, the popularity of Rashi’s viewpoint began to take hold in Jewish theological circles. Even today Rashi serves, more or less, as a Jewish Pope to Orthodox Judaism. If someone wants to get a final word in a theological debate they go to Rashi. They will say, “Rashi says this,” or “Rashi says that.” As a result, Orthodox Judaism holds his view today. But originally, his was not the Jewish interpretation. The traditional Jewish viewpoint is that the passage is Messianic, not national.

A second way that Chapter 53 does not refer to the nation of Isra’el is by the use of distinctive pronouns. There is a contrast made between we, us, our and he, him, his. Who is the we, us, our? If Isra’el is the Suffering Servant then the we, and the us, and the our have to be the Gentile nations. The problem with that view is that this is Isaiah speaking. He was a Jew and his audience was all Jewish. He was not speaking to Gentiles here. So Isaiah, when identifying himself with his own people, uses the pronouns we, us and our. Those pronouns refer to Isra’el. But the pronouns He, His and Him has to be someone distinct from Isaiah and from Isra’el, and that only leaves us with the Messiah.

A third evidence is that throughout this chapter the Suffering Servant is viewed as an individual personality. A nation cannot go through the experiences that are attributed to the Suffering Servant. An entire nation cannot be put into a prison. An entire nation cannot be put to death. An entire nation cannot be put on trial. Only individuals go through those processes.

A fourth evidence, and one of the most compelling evidences, occurs in 53:7. While the Servant is suffering, His suffering is voluntary, willing, and silent. Isra’el has suffered. That is very true. But Isra’el has never suffered voluntarily, or willingly, or in silence. Look at the Jewish Defense League; they are anything but silent sufferers. One thing Isra’el is not famous for is suffering silently.

A fifth evidence is that in this chapter the Servant is suffering vicariously, by way of substitution, on behalf of others. And while Isra’el has suffered, the prophets have made it clear that Isra’el will suffer, but for her own sins. Not for the sins of the Gentiles. The Suffering Servant in this chapter is clearly declared to be an innocent sufferer, not guilty of any sin whatsoever.

A sixth evidence is that justification results because of the sufferings of the Servant in 53:10-12. Isra’el has suffered for over two millennia now and no one has been justified yet. No Gentile nation has been justified, or become righteous as a result of Isra’el’s suffering.

A seventh evidence is in 53:8-12. The Suffering Servant clearly dies. But while millions of Jews have died, Isra’el as a nation and as a people have always survived. And the Jewish people, with numerous attempts to do so, have never been destroyed.

An eighth evidence is the fact that this interpretation violates Zechariah 2:11b where we read that many Gentile nations will be joined with the Messiah. In that way ADONAI declares that that would be the super signal to let us know that the LORD of heaven’s angelic armies (CJB) had sent Him to us.

Finally, the Servant is resurrected. After He dies He is brought back to life. Isra’el never died to begin with, so there was no resurrection.

Therefore, the Suffering Servant in Isaiah 53 cannot refer to the nation of Isra’el, it can only refer to One Person, the Messiah, Yeshua Messiah. There are five basic sections to this prophecy, and the first line of each section gives us the theme of that section.

How Beautiful on the Mountains
are the Feet of Those who Bring Good News
52: 7-12

How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news DIG: What generation is this prophesy directed to? What is its purpose? Who are they afraid of? Why? What two messages could the watchman bring? How sure was Isaiah of this prophesy? How do we know? What anthropomorphism does Isaiah use to describe God’s power? How is this departure similar or dissimilar to the exodus?

REFLECT: What does Paul say about beautiful feet in Romans 10:14-15? How do you best share your faith: (a) As an example to others? (b) Friendship evangelism? (c) Openly and boldly? (d) Silent witness? When is it helpful for an unbeliever to be confronted with a picture of how he or she appears to God? When might this be harmful? What can you learn about sharing the gospel from these verses? If you were put on trial for being a believer, would there be enough evidence to convict?

These verses continue the far eschatological prophecy to the believing remnant at the end of the Great Tribulation, in anticipation of the Good News. In his commentary on Isaiah, J. Vernon McGee comments on Jerusalem today. “One of the things you will not see about present-day Jerusalem is the lack of songs of joy. Around the Mosque of Omar (which stands on the Temple site) everything is in a minor key. If you go to the wailing wall, wailing is what you hear, and the Jews are knocking their heads against it. But the Millennium will be joyful– they will burst into songs of joy and they will sing together. It will be such a joyous time!”

He goes on to say, “Even today I don’t think God likes to see [believers] walking around with long faces, complaining and criticizing. He wants us to have joy. The apostle John wrote, We write this to make our joy complete (First John 1:40). The Millennium will be a time when God answers the prayer that our Lord taught His disciples: Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven (6:10). The tears and the sorrow will be gone; no longer will there be weeping on the earth. Instead there will be joy, and they will know that the Messianic Kingdom has come.”

A Day is coming when Isra’el will be redeemed, but not with money (to see link click Eu – The Rapture and the Great Tribulation for the different names of the Great Tribulation). Isaiah hasn’t said who will redeem her yet; that will come in Chapter 53. How will Isra’el know about this redemption? Someone will proclaim the Good News. They were to stand firm in the face of possible destruction by the antichrist. Would Satan crush them (see the commentary on Revelation Ds – The Woman and the Dragon), or would ADONAI fulfill His promises of deliverance? Suddenly, on a symbolic distant hill, a runner is seen. What is the news? As he comes nearer and nearer it can be seen that he is waving a victory palm like that used in building booths during the feast (Zechariah 14:16-19). ADONAI has won. Let the singing begin!

How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news (52:7a). Specifically, this will be the good news of God’s salvation. What beautiful feet! The word those in the Hebrew, literally mean the one. It should not suggest a group of runners, but a lone representative runner who comes with a radiant face and a spring in his step because he arrives with good news. That figurative runner will proclaim peace, he will bring good tidings, and he will also proclaim salvation (52:7b)! How is that salvation provided? We are told in the next chapter.

Peace, or shalom, with God signals the end of His wrath because Isra’el’s warfare had been completed (49:1 to 57:21). Paul would later take this verse and use it when describing the armor of God, saying: Stand firm with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace (Ephesians 6:14-15). What gospel, what good news is being delivered? It is specifically the Good News of God’s salvation.

Who says to Zion, “Your God reigns” (Isaiah 52:7c; Psalms 93:1, 97:1, 99:1)! What does His reign lead to? It is a condition where everything is in its proper relation to each other. There is peace. There is freedom from sin. In short, the Messianic Kingdom was at hand. Proclaiming the good news with simultaneous peace, goodness and salvation. There is a two-fold response.

The first response is by the watchman. This is poetry, and therefore figurative speech and imagery are seen here. Although the term watchman is elsewhere applied to the prophets (Isaiah 56:10; Jeremiah 6:17; Ezekiel 3:17, 33:2 and 7), here it is merely part of Isaiah’s figure of speech (Isaiah 21:11-12; Second Samuel 18:24). The first person to see any running figure, and deduce his message correctly, was normally the watchman. Both the symbolic watchman and the symbolic runner shout for joy as they see the evidence of ADONAI’s coming to Zion in victory. The people of the City hear the clamor of their voices and say to each other: Listen! The two of them are lifting up their voices; together they shout for joy (52:8a). Isaiah envisions a Day when faith will pass into sight and when the LORD returns to Zion, they will see it with their own eyes, literally eye to eye (52:8b). This does not imply being “in agreement,” but with total clarity.

The second response is seen in the ruins of Jerusalem. Once again, the figurative runner, as if anticipating a great revival says: Burst into songs of joy together, you ruins of Jerusalem. Thus, the ruins of Jerusalem are now called upon to join the watchman, and the running messenger and shout for joy (52:9a). Are the ruins of Jerusalem physical or spiritual? Probably both. On the one hand, a horrific battle had just taken place between the antichrist, his armies and the Jews in Jerusalem (Zechariah 14:2 and 16a), but we also know that there will be tremendous changes in the Land during the Messianic Kingdom (35:1-4). On the other hand, the antichrist will have set up his image in the Tribulation Temple to be worshiped by the whole world (see my commentary on Revelation Dr – The Abomination That Causes Desolation). But during the millennium Yeshua Messiah will rule and reign from the Most Holy Place in the Millennial Temple (see Db – The Nine Missing Articles from Messiah’s Coming Temple). So whether physical or spiritual, the ruins of Jerusalem will have plenty of reasons to shout for joy and burst into songs of joy.

For the LORD has comforted His people (40:1, 49:13, 51:3 and 12), He has redeemed Jerusalem (52:9b). The two verbs, comforted and redeemed are both prophetic perfects. These verbs show a past completed action pictured as if it had already happened. They are at the heart of Isaiah’s message, they speak of restored fellowship, deliverance from bondage, encouragement from despair, strength in weakness, and forgiveness of sin. When will all Jerusalem be redeemed? When all Israel is saved (Romans 11:26a) at the end of the Great Tribulation when the Jewish leadership recognizes who He is and pleads for Him to return as the Messiah (see my commentary on Revelation Ev – The Basis for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ).

As John Calvin comments, all this rejoicing is in anticipation. The evidence points to the victory of ADONAI. The signs show that he has defeated the enemy and is coming to set them free. But as of this moment, He is not yet here. Nevertheless, the people are called to participate in the hymn of thanksgiving and praise. Why? This is the faith and belief about which the prophet has been speaking throughout the book, and especially in this section. To give thanks in advance is the highest form of faith. The person praising God for what he or she does not possess is the person who truly believes in the promises of the LORD.²¹¹

ADONAI will lay bare His holy arm (the expression, roll up our sleeves and get to work would be an equivalent term today) in the sight of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God (52:10). This verse precludes this section being a description of the return from the Babylonian Captivity. When we take an objective look at history, it is obvious that all the ends of the earth did not see the salvation of ADONAI at that time. However, right before the Second Coming the Servant is pictured here as being ready for action, His sleeves are rolled up and the nations will see Him soon. There is a great deal of anticipation in this verse. Now it is about to be realized! Look, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and all the peoples of the earth will mourn because of Him. So shall it be! Amen (Revelation 1:7, and 5:5 and 19:11-21; Titus 2:13).

These are critical concepts to understand. What two things are connected here? God’s holy arm and salvation. When God bares His holy arm (Isaiah uses an anthropomorphism so that we can see this concept more clearly), the earth sees salvation. And what is the Hebrew word for salvation? Yeshua; Jesus. There is constant interplay between God’s arm and salvation. Isaiah introduced this concept earlier: My righteousness draws near speedily, My salvation is on the way, and My arm will bring justice to the nations. The islands will look to Me and wait in hope for My arm. But My salvation will last forever, My righteousness will never fail (51:5 and 6b). This is the fifth of nine references to the arm of the LORD in Isaiah (30:30 and 32, 40:10, 50:2, 51:5 and 9, 53:1, 59:1 and 16, 62:8, 63:5).

After Isra’el’s national salvation and redemption, comes her final restoration. But there is a seventy-five-day interval following the last day of the Great Tribulation and the start of the Messianic Kingdom. Several things will take place at that time (see the commentary on Revelation Ey – The Seventy-Five Day Interval), and afterwards there will be a call for all of Zion to depart from wherever they are in the world in purity and holiness: Depart, depart, go out from there! They are to touch no unclean thing. Come out from it and be pure, you who carry the vessels of the LORD (52:11).

The root of depart, swr, has the meaning of turning aside, or taking away, and is used in connection with the absolute separation from evil (Jeremiah 4:4; 2 Chronicles 32:12; Isaiah 36:7; Ezekiel 11:19). Something has happened to change them from defiled to clean. The central issue here is not physical bondage, but the bondage of evil with its corruption and defilement. If the return from the Babylonian Captivity were in view here, only the Levites would be permitted to carry those implements. But here all of Zion participates. They are all to purify themselves on the way to Jerusalem so that they may carry the vessels of the LORD. Because we know that the vessels commonly associated with the Tabernacle in the desert, or Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem, will not be present in the Messianic Temple (see Db – The Nine Missing Article’s in Messiah’s Coming Temple), apparently other vessels will be needed for a purpose we do not know at this time. But what ever they are, they must be very important because those who carry them back to the Land need to be pure.

Then a distinction is made between the future final restoration, when Israel departs from all the nations of the earth back to the Land (see De – God Is My Salvation, I Will Trust and Not Be Afraid), and the exodus from Egypt. Whenever Isaiah, or any other Hebrew prophet begins to talk about the deliverance, it is the Exodus to which their minds turn sooner or later, and that is the case here. Back in 51:9-10 God was reminded by the prayer concerning His miracles of the exodus. Now God returns to the Exodus motif and draws a distinction between the Exodus and the final restoration.

First, there are two dissimilarities. God says that at that future time the Jews will not leave in haste or go in flight (52:12a). In the Exodus, however, the Jews did leave in haste. They were told to eat the Passover with their cloak tucked into their belts, their sandals on their feet, and their staff in their hands. They were to eat in haste (Exodus 12:11). Secondly, Jews had to flee as a result of persecution from Egypt, but unlike the former deliverance, this one will not be in the middle of the night, scurrying away from potential pursuers. They will not have to flee persecution from anyone in the final restoration.

However, there are two similarities. In the Exodus, God was present, both before and behind His people (Exodus 13:21; 14:19-20; Isaiah 42:16; 49:10 and 58:8). In front, He will lead, and behind, He will gather up the stragglers and be sure that they do not fall prey into the hands of their pursuers. So it will be in the future final restoration. For the LORD will go before you, and the God of Isra’el will be your rear guard (52:12b). Therefore, there were two dissimilarities with the Exodus and two similarities with the Exodus.

When Ahaz was king of Judah, the Assyrian threat to God’s people was very real. The reality of an attack and the fear that it brought was also very real. Therefore, ADONAI sent Isaiah to meet him and relay this message: Be careful, keep calm and don’t be afraid (7:4). Little did Ahaz know that the supposed attack would never take place (see Gw – Then the Angel of the LORD Put To Death a Hundred and Eighty Five Thousand Men in the Assyrian Camp). Isaiah prophesied the same message to the persecuted believing remnant at the end of the Great Tribulation. Because the Jews will be just as terrified of the antichrist as Ahaz was terrified of the Assyrians, He reminds them, “Don’t be afraid.” Little will they know that their utter destruction would never take place (see Kh – The Eight Stage Campaign of Armageddon). Because ADONAI will be with them and protect them, they need not fear. Is it any less true for us today?

My People Will Know My Name
52: 1-6

Awake, awake, O Zion, put on your garments of splendor DIG: What is the context of these verses? Why did Zion need to be aroused? When will Jerusalem be pure and undefiled? When will the uncircumcised and defiled never enter Jerusalem again? When is the only time that Yerushalayim can be clothed with strength? When will she put on her holy garments of splendor? What are the promises given to Isra’el here? When will she truly know the name of the LORD?

REFLECT: What spiritual awakening have you had lately? In what sense are you clothed with the strength of the LORD today? As a believer, do you wear a robe of righteousness (61:10)? How are you freed from the chains of sin? What does it mean to have an uncircumcised heart (Rom 2:28-29a)? What is the root problem of an uncircumcised heart? Is your heart, circumcised or uncircumcised? What can you do about that?

Chapter 52 is a far eschatological prophecy to the believing remnant living at the end of the Great Tribulation. The context drives our interpretation. We see that the uncircumcised and the defiled will never enter her again (51:1). When will Isra’el be pure and undefiled? It certainly did not happen when she returned from the Babylonian Captivity, nor did it happen when Isra’el rejected Messiah on the grounds of demon possession (see my commentary on The Life of Christ, to see link click Ek – It is only by Beelzebub, the Prince of Demons, that This Fellow Drives Out Demons). And it definitely is not true today as Isra’el is a secular nation. No, Jerusalem will be trampled on by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled (see the commentary on Revelation An – The Times of the Gentiles). The times of Gentile domination over Jerusalem actually began when the Babylonians took the City and nation into captivity in 586 BC. Jerusalem will again fall under Gentile domination in the Great Tribulation (Zechariah 14:1-2).²⁰⁹ Therefore, the faithful remnant will be comforted when they look to their ultimate deliverance in the messianic Kingdom.

The context of these verses reveals the death of the Servant on the cross, and as a result, Isra’el’s national confession at the end of the Great Tribulation (53:1-9). Consequently, we need to consider the question, “When will all the ends of the earth see the salvation of our God” (52:10)? This can only be at the Second Coming. The call will go out to the believing remnant to awake and use His strength for their deliverance. Five actions are required of her as she awakens from her spiritual sleep.

First, Awake, awake, O Zion, clothe yourself with strength (52:1a). Jerusalem needed to awake not only because the antichrist and the armies of the world were destroying them, but they needed to be encouraged with the reality that very soon they would be freshly clothed with strength and new garments of splendor. We can be confident of our interpretation because this command would not have been very encouraging to the exiles returning from the Babylonian Captivity. The reality of it could never happen in their lifetime. However, that the believing remnant of the end times will be desperate for this message.

Secondly, Put on your (holy NKJ) garments of splendor (52:1b). Isra’el was pictured sitting in sackcloth and ashes in a state of mourning. The ideal of a priestly people had never been realized (Exodus 33:26; Numbers 8:5-22), but, on awakening she found her priestly garments of splendor laid out for her (Exodus 28:2). Isaiah calls Jerusalem the holy city. The requirements of God’s holiness were met in 51:17-23; now the divine holiness of ADONAI is shared with His people. We learn more about these holy garments of splendor later in the book when reading about the restoration of Isra’el. There she says: I delight greatly in the LORD; my soul rejoices in my God. For He has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness (61:10a). These holy garments could only be put on a holy people, and that can only happen after Israel’s national confession of sin (53:1-9), her regeneration and entrance into the millennial Kingdom (Revelation 20:1-6).

Thirdly, Isaiah says to shake off your dust (52:2a). This means to stop mourning. Dust on one’s head was a sign of mourning (Job 2:12). The mourner is exhorted to rise from the dust and take a higher position; not to sit down again in the dust. The language seems to embrace the idea of a throne, or a high seat. The mourning was to be changed to rejoicing.²¹⁰

Fourthly, rise up and sit enthroned (52:2b). Instead of being called to sit down in the dust as Babylon had (47:1), the Daughter of Zion will be called to rise from it. The Targum reading, “sit on a throne of glory,” probably catches the essence of what is intended. Babylon will have to go down from the throne to sit in the dust, but Jerusalem will rise from the dust to sit on the throne.

And fifthly, Isra’el will need to free herself from the chains on her neck, O captive Daughter of Zion (52:2c). Although Zion’s deliverance is entirely the work of ADONAI and not her own, she is not merely an observer. Those whom the LORD calls must exercise their own will and effort in response to what God has already done on their behalf, as this verse makes plain. Jerusalem is not merely lifted from the dust, but is called to get herself up and shake the dust off. In addition, she must free herself from the chains on her neck. We cannot break the chains that bind us, only ADONAI can do that. But after the chains are broken, we must remove them, and only we can do that. This is the crucial moment in any recovery; the moment when we stop seeing ourselves as a captive, that is, a victim, a helpless molecule traveling down the river of life, and begin to realize that the LORD has placed an opportunity before us that we may take hold of, if we dare.

As far as Jerusalem is concerned, today the Arab is there. Many of the sacred spots are covered with churches – Russian Orthodox, Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Lutheran, and the Church of all nations – they are all over the place! But Yerushalayim needs to be freed from religion, and released from her own sin. For twenty-five hundred years Jerusalem has been trampled on by the Gentiles, but a Day is coming when the chains on her neck will be removed. It will come during the Millennial Kingdom (Revelation 20:1-6).

The result will be that the uncircumcised and defiled will not enter Jerusalem again (52:1c). Uncleanness will finally be a matter of the spirit, not the flesh. Israel’s problem was much more than the persecution in the second half of the Great Tribulation; that was a result. The root problem was sin, or having an uncircumcised heart. This is what the arm of the LORD would deliver them from. No, if they were going to be a holy people living in the holy City, something must happen to cure them of their rebellion and uncleanness (Rev 21:27).

As important as circumcision was to the Jews, Paul reminds us that it was only an outward symbol. It was a constant reminder of their sinfulness and obligation to obey the Torah (Galatians 5:3). The prophets had made it clear that mere physical circumcision had no spiritual power or benefit (Jeremiah 9:25-26); disobedient circumcised Jews were under the same judgment as uncircumcised Gentiles (Romans 2:26-27).

Paul said that the real Jew is not merely Jewish outwardly; true circumcision is not only external and physical. On the contrary, the real Jew is one inwardly and; true circumcision is of the heart, by the Spirit of God, not some written code (Romans 2:28-29a). Only those Jews and Gentiles with circumcised hearts by the Ruach ha-Kodesh would be allowed to enter Zion during the messianic Kingdom. This could only happen with the redemption of Isra’el (see the commentary on Exodus Bz – Redemption).

As stated above, this is a far eschatological prophecy to the last Jewish generation before the coming of Yeshua Messiah and points to their ultimate redemption. For this is what the LORD says: You were sold for nothing, and without money you will be redeemed (52:3). Earlier ADONAI said that she was sold, but not for money. Where is your mother’s certificate of divorce with which I sent her away? Or to which of My creditors did I sell you? Because of your sins you were sold; because of your transgressions your mother was sent away (50:1). Isra’el had been complaining that God had divorced her and sold her into slavery. But God said that was not true. If there was a divorce during the last days, produce a certificate of divorce. There wasn’t any. Furthermore, according to the Torah, if a man got into debt he could sell his sons into slavery to pay it off. But to whom was God indebted? No one. God owed no one money. Because of your sins you were sold. That was the background here. Isra’el was sold for nothing and God gained nothing financially. In the same way, it will be without money that Isra’el will be redeemed (35:9b-10). He does not say how she will be redeemed (That will be his theme in the next chapter. It will be by the death of the Suffering Servant).

Then God briefly reviews the history of the nation in slavery. For this is what Adonai ELOHIM says: Long ago My people went down to Egypt to live there as aliens and more recently (in Isaiah’s lifetime) Assyria had conquered the northern Kingdom of Isra’el and oppressed them (52:4 CJB). The point is clear that if in the beginning of her history God delivered the Israelites from Egypt when they had gone there of their own free will, how much more likely will He be to deliver them from the antichrist when they were being taken against their own will.

Two things move ADONAI: the misery of His people and the honor of His name. “And now what do I do in this situation?” declares the LORD. For My people have been taken away by force and without cause, and those who rule them mock” (52:5a). What hurts them hurts Him. Now an even greater power, the antichrist and the forces of the Adversary, rule over and mock her. And all day long My name is constantly blasphemed (52:5b). It will seem to the watching world that Isra’el’s belief in ADONAI was a rip-off. Either He wasn’t even real or He had been forced by superior gods to surrender His people. This is the same point Ezeki’el makes in 36:19-20; God’s reputation, His name, would be blasphemed because of His clear inability to protect His own. The seriousness of the contempt is emphasized by its continual nature: all day long. But the allegations will be false. ADONAI had not failed His people and their pain was not the result of His inability to deliver them. Hence the opening question of this verse: And now what do I do in this situation? The LORD’s response is expressed in two statements of consequence, both prefaced with the word therefore.

Therefore, My people will know My name (52:6a). Like the exodus, ADONAI will show His power in the face of His enemy; then, with Pharaoh, in the Great Tribulation, with the antichrist. He will do so in a way that the truth of His character and His nature cannot be missed. Although Ezeki’el is more specific about what the LORD will do to honor His name, the point is exactly the same (Ezek 36:21-32). The evidence will need to be displayed in the life of Isra’el. This was not true on her return from the Babylonian Captivity, nor is it true now. Today Isra’el is a secular society and the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is not generally reflected in the lifestyle of her people. Those who love Yeshua Messiah are the exception, rather than the rule. But during the Messianic Kingdom, His people will know His name.

Therefore, on that Day they will know that I, the one speaking – here I Am (52:6b CJB). The repetition of therefore expresses emotional intensity. At the exodus, ADONAI set up Moses as a mediator to speak for Him, but in this coming Day He Himself will speak for Himself. This world has rejected Jesus Christ. It doesn’t know Him. But one day He will say to this Christ-rejecting world, Here I Am, and it will be too late for the multitudes that have rejected Him (see the commentary on Revelation By – The Rapture of the Church). They will have to go through the wrath of the Great Tribulation.

Awake, Awake! Rise Up, O Jerusalem,
You Who Have Drunk the Cup of His Wrath
51: 17-23

Awake, Awake! Rise up, O Jerusalem, you who have drunk the cup of His wrath DIG: How do we know the context of this section is the Great Tribulation and not the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC by the Babylonians? Why must the Jews go through the Great Tribulation? What is the LORD’s ultimate purpose for them? What double calamities will Zion suffer? How will they be refined and tested? Why? When will Jerusalem drink the cup of God’s wrath for the last time? Why?

REFLECT: The world rulers in the end times will only see themselves as working to build up their own power, yet unwittingly, they will actually be accomplishing ADONAI’s plan to reach all types of people. Knowing how protective God feels about Isra’el, how does this make you feel about how He views you? When was the last time you felt God’s protection? Do you believe the LORD has plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future? How do you feel about YHVH punishing those who are oppressing His children? Why doesn’t He allow everyone into heaven with His children? How far would you go to protect your children? Why are these eternal consequences necessary from God’s point of view?

This is a far eschatological prophecy to Jews living in Jerusalem during the Great Tribulation. Just like the Northern Alliance’s invasion of Isra’el before the Great Tribulation (see the commentary on Revelation, to see link click Bi – Set Your Face Against Gog, of the land of Magog, the Chief Prince of Rosh, Meshech and Tubal), ADONAI will seduce the antichrist and the armies of the world to Jerusalem to destroy them. The unholy trinity of Satan, the antichrist and the false prophet, hate the Jews, and their hate will ultimately be their undoing. The LORD affirms: I will gather all the Gentile nations to Jerusalem to fight against it (Zechariah 14:2a and 16a).

Yerushalayim will become the religious capital of the antichrist during the Great Tribulation. He will set up an image of himself in the Most Holy Place of the Tribulation Temple to be worshiped by the world (see my commentary on Revelation Dn – All the Inhabitants of the Earth will Worship the Beast). If found, the Jews will be persecuted and executed in Jerusalem. But with the help of the pro-Jewish sheep Gentiles (see my commentary on Revelation Fc – The Sheep and the Goats) an underground resistance will evidently be formed. Apparently this will be enough of a problem for the antichrist that he will proceed south from the Valley of Jezreel with his armies to obliterate them. The Jews will vigorously defend Zion, but inevitably they will be brutalized by the invading armies (Zechariah 14:2a). Half of Jerusalem will go into exile, but the rest of the people will probably be imprisoned, but will not be taken from the City (Zechariah 14:2b).

One of the three purposes of the Great Tribulation is to break the spiritual stubbornness of the Jewish people. The LORD, through His prophet, tells us: I will bring them into the fire; I will refine them like silver and test them like gold (Zechariah 13:9a). The persecution they will endure at that time will force them to choose between the counterfeit antichrist, or the Messiah. The unsaved Jews will call upon ADONAI to awake and deliver them from their physical plight; but at that time their spiritual needs will be even greater than their physical needs. God will tell them that it is not He that needs to be awakened. They are the ones who need to be awakened from their helpless condition and receive the promise that her warfare had been completed (40:2). Awake, awake! Rise up, O Jerusalem, you who have drunk from the hand of the LORD the cup of His wrath (51:17a). The defeat of the antichrist and his armies are in the background providing the imagery, but they are never mentioned explicitly.

You who have rained to its dregs the goblet that makes men stagger (51:17b). Zion is to be reminded that her judgment is a result of the Servant of the LORD in Chapters 49 and 50. The reason that Isra’el (pictured as Jerusalem) was lying helpless before the armies of the antichrist, was because of her sin. It was not God who needed to be awakened to action, but Isra’el who needed to be aroused to faith. Isaiah uses a reflexive verb here that actually means wake yourself, as God calls upon Isra’el to pay attention to her own condition of drunken stupor. If she lies sprawled out drunk on the ground now, it is not a result of her enemies. It is a result of the justice of God Himself. Thus, because her enemies did not put her there, they could not prevent her from getting up. When God’s wrath is put upon Jerusalem there will be four results in 51:18-20.

First, there will be depopulation. Of all the sons she bore there was none to guide her; of all the sons she reared there was none to take her by the hand (51:18). We have a picture of a drunken old woman whose children are either dead or so helpless that there is no one left to help her. In the whole Land, declares the LORD, two-thirds will be struck down and perish; yet one-third will be left in it (Zechariah 13:8). She is virtually helpless. Yet, God calls on her to stand. Since no one else can pick her up and lead her to salvation, then God will redeem her (Isaiah 40:11, 49:10; Psalm 23:2).

Secondly, there will be ruin and destruction for the City. The destruction will be so terrible that Jerusalem will experience double calamities, both spiritual and physical. A counterfeit Temple (see the commentary on Revelation Bx – The Tribulation Temple) will be sitting in Zion with an image of the antichrist in the Most Holy Place being worshiped by people around the world, and as noted above: The City will be captured, the houses ransacked, and the women raped. Half of Jerusalem will go into exile, but the rest of the people will probably be imprisoned, but will not be taken from the City (Zech 14:2). These double calamities have come upon you – who can comfort you – ruin and destruction, famine and sword – who can console you (51:19)?

Thirdly, they will be like antelope caught in a net. Left to her own devices, she was totally helpless and Isaiah uses several images to give us a snapshot of her situation: Your sons have fainted; they lie at the head of every street, like antelope caught in a net (51:20a). God says: I will gather all the nations to Jerusalem to fight against it; the city will be captured, the houses ransacked, and the women raped (Zechariah 14:2a). Why did this happen? The prophet wants to make it perfectly clear it was not by chance or the superior force of the enemy. It was their rejection of Messiah that will cause all of their suffering.

Fourthly, they will be filled with the wrath of ADONAI. They are filled with the wrath of the LORD and the rebuke of your God (51:20b). They will have drunk from His cup of wrath and have fallen senseless. Not just God, but their God who will send His rebuke upon His people. This is the same rebuke that dried up the Red Sea (50:2). One of the purposes of the Great Tribulation is to break the resistance of the Jews to the gospel. The more stubborn the child, the more severe the discipline. It is no wonder that the LORD had to go to such drastic means to let them get to the end of their pride and self-reliance. But ADONAI will also use the punishment of Jerusalem to gather in her enemies (Zechariah 14:2a). But the Day of wrath (Zephaniah 1:15) is coming when God will take this cup of wrath from the hands of Isra’el and it will be given to her enemies to drink (see Kh – The Eight Stage Campaign of Armageddon).

The context will not allow this to be a near historical prophecy of the return from the Babylonian Captivity. In fact, the return described in Ezra and Nehemiah are exactly opposite of what is described here. First, there was no depopulation because Jerusalem had been virtually deserted. When 49,897 exiles returned under Zerubbabel, the population increased (Ezra 2; Nehemiah 7:4-73, 11:1 to 12:26). Secondly, the Temple was not was not destroyed, but rebuilt (Ezra 5:1 to 6:22). Thirdly, the exiles were not caught like antelope in a net and God did not gather all the nations of the world to fight against Jerusalem because the wall of Yerushalayim was dedicated (Nehemiah 12:27-47). Fourthly, they were not filled with the wrath of the LORD because they were blessed (see the commentary on Ezra-Nehemiah Cr – Nehemiah’s Final Reforms). No, this is a far eschatological prophecy to the unbelieving Jews during the Great Tribulation.

Therefore, hear this, you afflicted one, made drunk, but not with wine (51:21). It is hard to imagine a clearer, near historical example of God causing Israel’s enemies to drink the cup they had once forced on Isra’el than that of Nazi Germany. From the Night of the Broken Glass in the early 1930s, when the windows of Jewish-owned stores were smashed and the goods looted, through the terrible destruction of the Warsaw ghetto, through the degradation and terror of the death camps, Germany made His people drink a cup of almost unimaginable horror.

Who now speaks to this drunk and afflicted one? Is it their judge, or their nemesis? No, it is their Comforter (40:1). If He was separated from her (50:1-3), it will not be forever because He is still her husband (Isaiah 54:5; Jeremiah 3:14; Hosea 2:16-19). It is the LORD of heaven’s angelic armies who defends her, and He intends to defend her from every charge brought against her (1:17, 38:8, 41:11 and 50:8). Jeremiah would say it this way: For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future (Jeremiah 29:11). What God wants for them, and for all believers, is not to drink from the cup of wrath, but to drink from the river of life (see my commentary on Revelation Fw – Then the Angel Showed Me the River of the Water of Life, Clear as Crystal).

This is what your Lord ADONAI says, your God, who defends His people, saying: See, I have taken out of your hand the cup that made you stagger; from that cup, the goblet of My wrath, you will never drink again (51:22). The poor drunkard will wake up to a wonderful realization. The cup has been taken out of the hand that held it so justifiably. Wrath will be deserved, wrath will be handed out, but then, the wrath will be gone – and gone forever. The context of this verse cannot be the destruction of Zion in 586 BC by the Babylonians and the subsequent exile to Babylon because God says very plainly here: You will never drink from that cup of wrath again. And, of course, in 70 AD Jerusalem was leveled by Titus the Roman general and about a million Jews were killed, many by crucifixion. So the context here must be Jerusalem in the Great Tribulation, for indeed, after the Second Coming, Yerushalayim and God’s people would never drink from that cup again.

In the near historical sense, it is clear that God, who defends His people, held the German people accountable for the Holocaust in World War II. The goblet of His wrath had been taken from the hands of the helpless Jews and put into the hands of their tormentors, the all-conquering Nazis. The end came when the Red Army raped its way into Berlin. That was the final straw of degradation and humiliation. If Germany was permitted by God to do what it did, it was not able to escape His justice in the end.²⁰⁸

As Yeshua said: I tell you my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more. But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear Him who, after the killing of the body, has the power to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear Him (Luke 12:4-5). The ultimate judgment for all those who have rejected Christ will be at the conclusion of the thousand-year messianic Kingdom. At that time the spiritually dead, great and small, will stand before the throne. The books will be opened and each person will be judged according to what they have done. If anyone’s name is not found written in the book of life, they will be thrown into the lake of fire (see my commentary on Revelation Fo – The Great White Throne Judgment). The enemies of God, whether in a near historical or a far eschatological sense, will not escape His judgment.

The judgment, again pictured as a cup to be drunk, would then be given to her tormentors who had walked over murdered Jewish bodies in Jerusalem. But I will put it into the hands of your tormentors, who said to you, “Fall prostrate that we may walk over you. And you made your back like the ground, like a street to be walked over” (51:23). In this way the justice of God will be proved. If He uses wicked people to discipline His own, it does not mean that the wicked will escape judgment (Habakkuk 2:4-20).

However, Isaiah would say to the antichrist and all the world who opposed the Jews during the Great Tribulation. They will be the ones who will drink the cup of God’s wrath, not the Jews, because God says that cup of wrath against Isra’el is full. God has dealt with Isra’el to the full and she will learn from God’s judgments. The one-third of the Jews left at the end of the Great Tribulation will be the believing remnant. They will call on My name and I will answer them; I will say, “They are My people,” and they will say, “ADONAI is our God” (Zechariah 13:9b). At that time, the cup of wrath will be taken from her hand. And to whom will it be given? God says: I will put it into the hands of your tormentors. Israel’s suffering will pass over to the antichrist, the armies and nations of the world. In relationship to Isra’el, we must always remember what God says concerning her: I will bless those who bless you and whoever curses you I will curse; and the peoples on earth will be blessed through you (Genesis 12:3).

Awake! Awake! Clothe Yourself,
with Strength, O Arm of the LORD
51: 9-16

Awake! Awake! Clothe yourself with strength, O arm of the LORD DIG: Who is speaking here? For what nation was Rahab a nickname (30:7)? To what event is the speaker referring? What does the speaker mean by calling upon the LORD to “do it again?” What effect would recalling this event have upon the believing remnant during the Great Tribulation? What words or pictures are used to describe what the persecution of the antichrist felt like to those people who loved God? How would you sum up ADONAI’s message to these people? What would that message do for you when you are persecuted today?

REFLECT: When feeling persecuted, what event in your personal history can you look back upon and call on to believe that ADONAI is really there with you in the midst of the trial? What promises of the LORD encourage you to keep on following Him even when things seem impossible? Why do they mean so much to you? How hard is it for you to live out the reality of your faith when being confronted with fear? If the disciples could be afraid (Mark 4:35-41), and if Peter could say that he didn’t know Jesus (Matthew 26:69-75), what does that say about us? What do you say to that part of you that is afraid in the face of persecution? What is your answer to, “Who is YHVH?”

Chapter 51 is a far eschatological prophecy and a message of comfort to the believing remnant during the Great Tribulation. Zion, or Jerusalem, will be under extreme persecution from the antichrist and the armies of the world (Zechariah 14:2). At that time, they will be encouraged to clothe themselves with strength and call on Jesus Christ, or the arm of the LORD (51:9a). No matter what age we live in, believers need to cling to ADONAI. The Psalmist reminds us of this important lesson when he says: My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever (Psalm 73:26).

The doctrine of progressive revelation applies here to this concept of the arm of the LORD. This is the idea that later revelation builds upon earlier revelation. The new revelation is complementary and supplementary to past revelation, not contradictory. Note the way in which Jesus elevated the teachings of the Torah by extending, expanding, and internalizing them. He frequently prefaced His teaching with the expression: You have heard it said . . . but I say to you. In a similar fashion, the author of Hebrews points out that God, who in the past spoke to our forefathers through the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, who reflects the glory of God and bears the very stamp of His nature (Heb 1:1-3).²⁰³ Progressive revelation, then, takes place in Isaiah, just as it has taken place in the sixty-six books of the Bible. This is especially true of the Suffering Servant. Like all progressive revelation it develops from vagueness to clarity, from shadow to reality.

Another important example of progressive revelation is the arm of the LORD. It is referred to nine times in Isaiah, but the concept develops gradually. At first it is merely a phrase, but in the end the identity of the arm of the LORD is unmistakable and moving. First, he introduces it in 30:30 and 32, secondly and thirdly, he mentions it again in 40:10 and 50:2. Then fourthly, for the first time Isaiah ties the concept of the arm of the LORD to salvation (51:5 and 9). From this point forward all the references to the arm of the LORD and salvation will either be coupled together directly or in context. Fifthly, in 52:10 Isaiah declares that the LORD will bare His holy arm in the sight of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God.

Sixthly, Isaiah goes into great detail about who this arm of the LORD is going to be (53:1). For those who trusted in the LORD, five times earlier Isaiah had talked about this arm resulting in salvation. Whom should the Israelites believe in? Isaiah reveals that the arm of the LORD is none other than the Messiah, who by means of His humiliation and suffering would bring about salvation for Isra’el (Romans 11:25-26). So how will these people gain salvation that will result in righteousness? By faith in Yeshua Messiah alone.

The seventh time we see the arm of the LORD, ADONAI will hear His holy ones (Zechariah 14:5) confessing their sins (see the commentary on Revelation, to see link click Ev – The Basis for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ). At the end of the Great Tribulation they will have become a prey to the antichrist; however, God will see that they are defenseless against Him. And as a result, He will not abandon them. So God’s own arm will bring salvation and righteousness to the believing remnant (59:1 and 16). God says to believers of every age: I will never leave you; never will I abandon you (Hebrews 13:5b).

The eighth time Isaiah uses this concept we see that He has set angels, or watchmen on the walls of Jerusalem to remind Him constantly of His promises to the City; for He has sworn that she will never again be plundered by enemies, but will enjoy the fruits of her labor in security and peace. The LORD has sworn this by His right hand and by His mighty arm (62:8). The antichrist will not succeed. Zion will be God’s holy City.

The ninth time we see the arm of the LORD is at the Second Coming (63:5). Isaiah reemphasizes that Messiah will fight alone. There is no one else in the world that can save Isra’el from the invading armies, and the antichrist himself will be the first casualty of the battle (Second Thessalonians 2:8). God’s own arm will work salvation for the Jews, and His own wrath will sustain Him during this campaign (see Kh – The Eight Stage Campaign of Armageddon). Therefore, we can see that through progressive revelation, Isaiah, under the inspiration and direction of the Spirit of God, has taken the concept of the arm of the LORD from vagueness to clarity, from shadow to reality.

The context of these last six descriptions of the arm of the LORD is built around the cry of the Jews during the Great Tribulation. Just as the hand symbolizes personal activity (Exodus 13:14; Ezra 7:28; Isaiah 25:10; Ezeki’el 3:14), so the arm symbolizes personal strength in action. Not even the greatest of the righteous of the TaNaKh are described as the LORD’s arm. Rather, the arm went with Moses (63:12) and strengthened David (Psalm 89:20-21). The metaphor calls upon the LORD Himself to act.²⁰⁴

Therefore, Isaiah responds and tells them: Awake, awake! Clothe yourself with strength and call on the arm of the LORD (51:9a), which Isaiah 53 will clearly confirm as the Messiah Himself. The doubling of awake is for emotional intensity of the appeal. In the midst of their persecution, Jesus Christ will show the believing remnant during the Great Tribulation that on the basis of the miracles He had performed in the past, they could trust Him in the present, saying: Awake, as in days gone by, as in generations of old. What were those past miracles?²⁰⁵

First, He had cut Rahab to pieces (51:9b). The name Rahab is a poetical name of Egypt (Isaiah 30:7; Ps 87:4). So here Isaiah is referring to the miracles of the exodus (see the commentary on Exodus Bj – The Ten Plagues of Egypt). And how were the miracles of the exodus performed? From one Person, over and over again, who is given a special title throughout Exodus. He first appeared at the burning bush (see the commentary on Exodus Aq – Flames of Fire from within a Burning Bush). His title is the Angel of the LORD (Ex 3:2), who is the Second Person of the Trinity. He is the same Person referred to here as the arm of the LORD.

Secondly, He had pierced the monster through (51:9c-10). In reference to Egypt, the monster was pharaoh (Ezeki’el 29:3; 32:2). When did God pierce pharaoh? When He killed his firstborn son with the tenth plague (see the commentary on Exodus By – At Midnight the LORD Struck Down all the Firstborn in Egypt). Evil is not some ancient chaos monster, it was pharaoh who tried to threaten the redemptive plan of God. So the drying up of the Sea of Reeds (see the commentary on Exodus Ce – Salvation at the Red Sea), was also a miracle when ADONAI made the waters of the great deep dry up, and made a road in the depths of the Sea of Reeds so that the redeemed might cross over and escape the Egyptians (51:10).

The ransomed Israelites of ADONAI will return to Jerusalem victorious. They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them and sorrow and sighing will flee away (51:11). We have seen this response earlier, virtually word-for-word (see Gm – The Highway of Holiness Will Be There). The ransomed Israelites will wear everlasting joy on their heads like a wreath of flowers worn for celebration during the feasts. Therefore, it will be during the messianic Kingdom, when sin and sorrow will be defeated forever, fleeing away from their mighty Conqueror. Finally, after a long struggle, gladness and joy will be theirs forever more.

The Comforter of Isra’el is the Creator of the universe. Therefore, Isra’el need have no fear of her puny mortal oppressors.They needed to remember and believe the words of King David: The LORD is my Shepherd, I shall not be in want. He makes me lie down in green pastures, He leads me beside quiet waters, He restores my soul. He guides me in righteousness for His name sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life, and I will live in the house of the LORD forever (Psalm 23). ADONAI, in a three-part answer, promises that He will act on behalf of His people during the Great Tribulation as He had acted in the past. These are also lessons for us to remember.

First, is the pointlessness of living in fear in light of God’s power. Even with the armies of the antichrist at the gate, ADONAI says, It is I, even I am He who comforts you. Who are you that you need to fear mortal man (51:12a)? There are three different Hebrew words for man. One word means mankind, like Adam. The second Hebrew word is the word ish (pronounced eesh). This word simply means man in contrast to woman; male in contrast to female. But the word used here is the Hebrew word enosh that pictures man in his feebleness or frailty. So Isaiah is emphasizing man’s weakness here. In light of ADONAI’s tremendous power, why should the believers have any fear when the sons of man are but grass (51:12b)? It was God who made the heavens and the earth so why should they fear man who will wither away like grass? The LORD, who raises storms alike in the world of nature and history, is able to quiet them, thus His children have no need to fear.²⁰⁶

Secondly, is the problem of forgetting their Maker. That you forget the LORD your Maker, who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth, that you live in constant terror every day because of the wrath of the oppressor, who is bent on destruction? For where is the wrath of the oppressor (51:13)? To live in constant fear of humans is to have effectively forgotten God. I know that is easy to say, but it is true nonetheless. It is not that God has forgotten His people (49:14); it is that they had forgotten Him! This was the problem of Ahaz (7:1-17), it was the problem of the exiles, and it can be a problem for us today if we let it. If God is indeed our Maker, then we need not fear anyone. None of this is to deny the horror of oppression. This is not an exercise in self-delusion. Rather it is a call to focus on the spiritual reality. If the oppressor fills my horizon, then I have only one option: be ruled by fear and hatred. But if we can see the big picture of the Gospel, then where is the anger of the oppressor? If we know that it is God who holds our ultimate destiny, then the oppressor no longer holds power over us. Yes, oppressors may hurt us, even kill us, but they do not have the power to make us follow them. God is the ruler over all.²⁰⁷ This is not easy, but it is possible.

This could not be a description of the Jews living during the Babylonian Captivity. Once there, they settled in and would live in peace and prosperity (Jeremiah 29:4-11). They did not live in constant terror every day because of the wrath of the oppressor, who is bent on destruction. In fact, when it was time to leave with the decree of Cyrus (see Ia – The Deliverance by Cyrus the Great), most stayed in Babylon. No, the Jews who will live in constant terror every day will be those living during the Great Tribulation. They will fear the wrath of the oppressor (Daniel 8:19), the antichrist.

Thirdly, is the promise of the restoration. The cowering prisoners will soon be set free; they will not die in their dungeon, nor will they lack bread (51:14). God will not allow His oppressed people to perish. There will always be a believing remnant, and as a result, there would be another exodus as they return to Jerusalem from all over the world (Isaiah 60:4; 62:10; Jeremiah 23:3 and 8, 30:1-3; Ezekiel 36:24-28). That was the basis of the prayer in 51:9-11. On the basis of what He was able to accomplish for Isra’el in the past (51:11), He is asked to perform future miracles to fulfill prophecy. And in 51:14 ADONAI makes the promise that He would fulfill that prayer. Why will His people not be wiped out by the antichrist? Because of who God is in 51:15 and what He is already doing in 51:16. Here Isaiah asks the people of his own day, the Jews at the end of the Great Tribulation, and of us today the question of the ages first framed by Pharaoh: Who is the LORD, that I should obey Him (Exodus 5:2)? How we answer that question will determine where we spend eternity.

For I am ADONAI your God, who churns up the sea so that its waves roar – the LORD of heaven’s angelic armies is His name (51:15). The sentence starts with the waw conjunctive, the all-purpose connector of the Hebrew language. Here it expresses the idea that the prisoners will soon be set free because ADONAI is in control of human affairs. If the God of Israel is ADONAI, the great I am, then everything must be viewed from that perspective. The whole earth is the LORD’s (6:3), and He moves history toward His intended conclusion.

Then at the end of His answer about how He will act on their behalf, ADONAI declares: I have put My words in your mouth and covered you with the shadow of My hand – I who set the heavens in place, who laid the foundations of the earth, says to Zion, “You are My people” (51:16). Although it is true that God has made the world, yet, that world is still filled with oppressors. Yes, it is true that ADONAI chose the people of Israel for Himself, but through their sin, those people had come to be called a godless nation, a people who angered Him (10:6). In view of these facts is He really the LORD? Yes, for the universe is to be remade (65:17), and the people of whom it was said not My people shall be called My people (Hosea 2:23; Isaiah 65:19). How will this happen? It is to happen through the arm of the LORD, His Servant the Messiah. The believing remnant will need to cling to Jesus Christ as they walk through the valley of the shadow of death. Is it not the same for us today in this evil world?

What, then, shall we say in the midst of our own persecution? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? Since He did not spare even His own Son but gave Him up for us all, won’t He also give us everything else? Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen as His own? No one – for God Himself has given us a right standing with Himself. Who then will condemn us? No one – for Messiah Yeshua died for us and was raised to life for us, and He is sitting in the place of honor at God the Father’s right hand, interceding for us. We have an advocate who pleads our case. He is Jesus Christ, the one who is truly righteous (Romans 8:31-34 and First Peter 2:1 NLT).

Look to the Rock from which You Were Cut,
and to the Quarry from which You Were Hewn
51: 1-8

Look to the Rock from which you were cut, and to the quarry from which you were hewn DIG: Chapters 51:1 to 52:12 are an extended poem, summing up ADONAI’s intent for the believing remnant. How is their current situation like that of Abraham and Sarah? Since Abraham was so old and his wife, Sarah, was barren, why would God use this example for the righteous of the TaNaKh? If the previous verses were meant to give hope to the faithful remnant, what would these verses do for them? What does this indicate about the LORD’s purpose in restoring Zion? Compare 51:6 with Genesis 15:5. How does the heavenly vision of the faithful remnant compare with that of Abraham? What does this stress about God?

REFLECT: When have ADONAI’s promises seemed to you like mere words? At those times, what forces seem to be stronger to you than the LORD? When you feel like that, how might the faith of Abraham, who waited 25 years to see one child born, encourage you? If you were being persecuted to the point of death, what would it mean to you to realize that God’s promises are more enduring than the stars or the earth around you? How might meditating upon the lesson of the stars give you a new perspective on the problems that face you today? Do you believe that the salvation granted by the Servant will last forever and never fail? What is the basis for your belief? How do you hide ADONAI in your heart? How are you at odds with this fallen world? Has it cost you anything? Do you have a light touch on the things of this world? How so? Is there anything you need to let go of? Does the Lord mean what He says?

Chapter 51 is a far eschatological prophecy and a message of comfort to a generation that had not even been born yet. It was a message of comfort (40:1-11) to the last Jewish generation before the Messiah returns at the end of the Great Tribulation (to see link click Kg – The Second Coming of Jesus Christ to Bozrah). They were being persecuted, hunted down and killed like animals by the antichrist and the armies of the world; therefore, the LORD gives His chosen people three messages of comfort because her sin had been pardoned. First, He asks them to look at their glorious past in order to learn lessons for the future (51:1-3). Secondly, there is the comfort of God’s salvation (51:4-6), and thirdly, there is comfort from knowing that their enemies will perish (51:7-8).

The first message of comfort comes from Israel’s origin (51:1-3). Just as God had blessed one man, Abraham, by making him the ancestor of numberless descendants (Genesis 13:16), He would also bless Abraham’s offspring who were being persecuted and slaughtered by the antichrist.¹⁹⁹ Those whose hearts are hardened toward God will not particularly be disturbed by His apparent failure to keep His promises, if they were even aware of them at all. But the believing remnant will be discouraged. They will be decimated, scattered, and desperately trying to avoid death at the hands of the antichrist and his henchmen. However, those who would listen to the voice of the Servant would learn and receive encouragement from what had happened in the past.

Listen to Me, you who pursue righteousness and who seek the LORD (51:1a). This call, listen to Me, is clearly to the faithful remnant. Only those who pursue righteousness and seek the LORD are faithful. During the Great Tribulation, in the midst of their turmoil and pain, God asks the holy ones (Job 5:1; Deuteronomy 33:2-3; Psalms 16:3 and 34:9; Zechariah 14:5) to think about the background of their nation.

Figuratively speaking, Isaiah asks the believing remnant to look to the rock from which they were cut and to the quarry from which they were hewn (51:1b). The rock was Abraham and the quarry was Sarah, “founders” of the nation. What is the point He is making? How big was the Jewish nation in the days of Abraham? The entire Jewish race was literally in Abraham. There was only one Jew and his wife. Yet, out of that one Jewish couple came a nation. And certainly the faithful remnant was greater than one Jew. And if God can make a great nation out of one Jew, He could certainly make even greater things out of a small faithful remnant.

Look to Abraham, your father, and to Sarah, who gave you birth (51:2a). When God told them to look, He used the same verb that He used in Genesis 15:5 to command Abraham to look up at the heavens and count the stars. So just as Abraham was called on there to look and believe for a numberless offspring to come from the barren womb of Sarah, Isra’el is here called to look at the faithfulness of ADONAI in the past and to believe in, to trust in, to have faith in God, that He would yet again keep His promises to a barren Zion with children from around the world. Here again, the path to righteousness with God is through belief, truth, and faith in the promises of the LORD (Genesis 15:6).²⁰⁰ Would they believe that? Do you believe that?

When I called him, he was but one, and I blessed him and made him many (51:2b). Here God used three Hebrew words (phrases in English) concerning Abraham. God says I called him, I blessed him and then the main point, I made him many. This was the comfort. God says, when I do the calling, then I do the blessing. And when I do the blessing, then it multiplies. When Abraham was but one, I called him, I blessed him, and I made him many. That is, He gave the patriarch many descendants as He had promised (Genesis 12:2, 15:5, 17:6, 22:17). For many years Abraham and Sarah had no children, but they believed God’s promise (Genesis 15:6). The same will be true of the faithful remnant, the Hebrew believers of every age. Although small in numbers, God does the calling, God does the blessing and eventually, God will multiply them. Though they had not yet seen the fulfillment of God’s promises about Isra’el living at peace in the Land (Genesis 15:18-21), they have His sure word that the Messianic Kingdom would be established upon the earth.

The LORD will surely comfort Zion and will look with compassion on all her ruins. Comfort for the past should provide comfort for the future. Just as God had prospered Abraham even though his nephew Lot had selfishly chosen the well-watered plain of the Jordan, which was like Eden, the garden of the LORD (Genesis 13:10-11), so also God would now bring the believing remnant back to the Land and make her deserts like Eden, and her wastelands like the garden of the LORD. The result will be joy and gladness, thanksgiving and the sound of singing (51:3).²⁰¹ Therefore, the first message of comfort comes from Isra’el’s origin.

Comfort from God’s Salvation (51:4-6). A second call comes to the believing remnant. Here the address is made even more personal than in 51:1. Who are these people who are desperately seeking ADONAI? They are His people, His nation. The Servant says: Listen to Me, My people; hear Me, My nation (51:4a). No matter what happened in the distant past, no matter how far they had missed the mark, no matter how much they had sinned, if they were truly seeking the LORD, He calls them His own. All His promises are theirs. Therefore, we know God is not talking to the whole nation but only the faithful remnant.

My [just rulings] will go out from Me; My justice will become a light to the nations (51:4b). What rulings is He dealing with here? They are not the Torah, these are the just rulings that Isaiah mentioned at the beginning of his book. There, Isaiah first announced that the Messianic Kingdom would draw all the Gentile nations to it. But notice what is drawing them, “In the last days, the mountain of the LORD’s Temple will be established as chief among the mountains; it will be raised above the hills, and all nations will stream to it. Many peoples will come and say: Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us His ways, so that we may walk in His paths. His just rulings will go out from Zion, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem” (Isaiah 2:2-3). These rulings Isaiah is dealing with are not the Torah because it was never given to the Gentiles to begin with. He is dealing with the just rulings of the Messianic Age that will be applied to the Gentile nations of the Kingdom, and from these just rulings He will establish His justice, which will become a light to the Gentile nations.

As a result, the context here will not allow this to be a message to the exiles returning to Jerusalem from the Babylonian Captivity. God’s justice did not become a light to the Gentile nations around the world at that time. That will not happen until His millennial reign. In fact, later in 70 AD the Romans destroyed Jerusalem, killing over a million Jews and sending the rest into the Diaspora for twenty centuries (see my commentary on The Life of Christ Mt – The Destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple on Tisha B’Av in 70 AD).

The Suffering Servant says: My righteousness draws near speedily, My salvation is on the way, or gone forth (51:5a). All this is said to be imminent. On the way is a prophetic perfect, meaning that the prophet sees the reality of what ADONAI is going to do so clearly that in his mind it is already done. As the Jews were being tracked down and hunted by the antichrist and the armies of the world, without realizing it, their salvation was speedily near. As the noose was tightened around their collective necks in Jerusalem and Bozrah, the spiritual scales would fall from their eyes and they would recognize Yeshua was the Messiah and cry out for Him to return (see the commentary on Revelation Ev – The Basis for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ), and the LORD would battle with the antichrist and the armies of the world (see Kh – The Eight Stage Campaign of Armageddon).

Righteousness is the result of salvation. When we receive Messiah as our Lord and Savior, we are transferred from the family of the Adversary to the family of God by virtue of having salvation. The result of having salvation is being declared righteous. That’s what justification means, to be declared righteous (see the commentary on The Life of Christ Bw – What God Does For Us at the Moment of Faith). All the righteousness of Jesus Christ is imputed, or credited to our account, and then we are declared righteous (Romans 1:17; Second Corinthians 5:21). In other words, we do not get to heaven by our own righteousness, but by the righteousness of Messiah. Righteousness is a result of salvation, and that salvation will go out to all the Gentile nations during the Millennial Kingdom (Revelation 20:1-6).

He says: My arm will bring justice to the nations. The islands (the ends of the earth) will look to Me and wait in hope for My arm (51:5b). Here we have the fourth of nine references to the arm of the LORD (30:30 and 32, 40:10, 50:2, 51:5 and 9, 52:10, 53:1, 59:1 and 16, 62:8 and 63:5). How could someone hope or trust in an arm? At this point Isaiah is introducing a theme that will be developed beautifully in Chapter 53. There will be interplay between the arm of God and the giving of salvation. In 53:2, Isaiah says: He grew up. The pronoun He refers to the Messiah who is about to die for Isra’el’s sins. Therefore, the arm in 51:5b refers to Messiah, the Servant of the LORD.

My righteousness (which is a result of salvation) draws near speedily, My salvation is on the way (the Hebrew word for salvation is Yeshua), or My Yeshua is on the way; and My arm (God’s judgment) will bring justice to the Gentiles nations. The islands (the ends of the earth) will look to Me and wait in hope for My arm. But My salvation will last forever, My righteousness will never fail (51:6b). Having spelled out that salvation will come by means of the arm of the Servant of God in 51:5, in 51:6 Isaiah points out that the salvation granted by the Servant will last eternally. Once we are saved, does eternal mean eternal? Yeshua says to us today: My sheep listen to My voice: I know them, and they follow Me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of My Father’s hand. I and the Father are one (John 10:27-30).

Some questions need to be asked about eternal salvation. Would Yeshua use the word eternal if our salvation were temporary? We are a gift from the Father to God the Son (also see John 6:37-40, 17:2, 6, 9 and 24). Would Jesus ever refuse a gift from the Father? Would Messiah ever allow that precious gift to be lost? If believers could lose their salvation, the Father would have to take back those whom He gave to the Son as a gift. Why would ADONAI ever present someone as a gift to the Son if He knew they were going to lose their salvation? If we could lose our salvation, could we be re-saved? Why doesn’t the Bible ever mention being re-saved? Is salvation that will last forever to be considered cheap grace? Read Chapter 53 and decide for yourself (see the commentary on The Life of Christ Ms – The Eternal Security of the Believer).

Lift up your eyes to the heavens, look at the earth beneath; the heavens will vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment and its inhabitants die like flies (51:6a). But, in stark contrast to the transitory nature of the heavens and the earth, His salvation will last forever. Therefore, the doctrine of the security of the believer is not merely a New Covenant doctrine: it is already found here in the TaNaKh. Divine instruction, justice, and salvation will be a light to the world. The nations will seek guidance from God and the righteous will be assured of His everlasting salvation and favor.

The first comfort was for the faithful remnant to look back on Isra’el’s history because God can do great things through small numbers of people. Secondly, they should rejoice and be happy over their salvation, which will be extended to the Gentiles and will be eternal. Thirdly, we see in the next two verses, comfort against Isra’el’s enemies.

Comfort Against Enemies (51:7-8). Hear Me, you who know what is right, you people who have My Torah in your hearts (51:7a). The eternal salvation and favor promised should provide the faithful with moral courage and strength to withstand the momentary taunts and abuse of the ungodly. Once again there is a message of comfort to the faithful remnant. We know it was addressed to the faithful remnant because of two phrases: you who know what is right, and you people who have My Torah in your hearts (Psalm 119:11). Notice that both of these statements point to inward conviction and not external practice. The Torah does not save us, nor does external religiosity. Some people put on a good show, but are far from the LORD. Will spending time sitting in your messianic congregation or church make you a believer? Will spending time sitting in your garage make you a car? No! One can keep the Torah externally and be lost. But what we believe saves us. The heart is a symbol in many societies for the seat of our emotions. Jesus says: Love the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength (Mark 12:30). Thus, knowing from 51:6b, that God’s salvation will last forever, and that His righteousness will never fail, we should take courage and not be terrified. Anyone who fears God and listens to His Servant will certainly find themselves at odds with the fallen world.

The point here is this, do not fear the criticism of men, or be terrified of their insults (51:7b). Why? For the moth will eat them up like a garment; the worm will devour them like wool. But My righteousness will last forever, My salvation through all generations (51:8). In the same way, God says your enemies will perish like a moth-eaten garment. But the salvation and righteousness that they now possess, through the arm of the LORD, will last forever. Is that Good News or what?

The cries of the oppressed for justice and deliverance have hardly ever been heard so loudly as in the twentieth century. The brutality of oppressors was not new, but science and industry gave them an ability to extend and multiply their oppressive force in previously unheard-of ways. As a result, we have the terrors of Auschwitz and the “killing fields” of Cambodia. In situations such as these, the cry comes again: Awake, awake! Clothe yourself with strength, O arm of the LORD (51:9). And again: How long, O Lord? Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood (Revelation 6:10)? Why does God not act on behalf of His people, or if they are not His people in particular, at least on behalf of the helpless and downtrodden, whom the Bible declares have a special place in His heart?

If there were an easy answer to this question, it would have been given long ago, and there would be no more books on the problem of evil. But, as in the book of Job, the Bible does not answer the question. But it does offer an alternative. We can serve the God of the universe who loves justice and will ultimately balance the books. The only other option is to have a world in which we and our abilities are supposedly supreme. A wise person will certainly choose to serve the LORD, as Job did, for to choose that path is not to answer the problem of evil in the world, but to render it sheer nonsense. If ADONAI is good and just, then we have hope that oppression can be, and will be, overcome.²⁰² In short, we must have faith (Hebrews 11:1). Then along with Job we can say: I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end He will stand upon the earth. And after my body has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God (Job 19:25)!

Everlasting Salvation for Isra’el
51:1 to 52:12

In the second half of his book, Isaiah’s main thrust is to write words of comfort to the nation of Isra’el. The first 39 chapters have been chapters of judgment against Isra’el, with the final threat in Chapter 39 being that although ADONAI would save Judah from the Assyrians, He would send her into the Babylonian captivity. But now her sin had been pardoned, therefore, the content and the tone of the message changes; it is one of comfort rather than judgment. The key phrase here is: Awake, Awake! This doubling is used by Isaiah to emphasize something very urgent and important. This is seen in Ch 51:9 and 17, and Ch 52:1. Three times we see this expression because that is the theme of this section.

We also see an extension of the Cone of Isaiah (to see link click  Hl – The Cone of Isaiah), which is divided into three parts. The base of the cone is comprised of the nation of Isra’el, and out of the nation comes a believing remnant, which is the middle section of the cone in view here. Then in Chapter 53, out of this believing remnant, the point of the cone, or the Messiah, is seen.

Chapters 51 and 52 describe a far eschatological prophecy of comfort (40:1-11) to a generation that had not even been born yet. There are prophecies to the Land (51:3), unbelieving Jews, the believing remnant and to Jerusalem herself (52:1) that preclude a picture of a return from the Babylonian Captivity. Hence, the context of these chapters demand that they are a message to the last Jewish generation before the Messiah returns at the end of the Great Tribulation, where ADONAI will lay bare His holy arm, Yeshua Messiah, in the sight of all nations, and all the ends of the earth will see Him (52:10).

Because the Sovereign LORD Helps Me,
I Will Set My Face Like a Flint
50: 1-11

Because the sovereign LORD helps me, I will set My face like a flint DIG: What is the LORD emphasizing with the rhetorical questions here? This is the third of four Servant Songs. How would you describe the Servant’s mission? His relationship to God? How does this differ from the nation of Isra’el (see 48:8)? What new element about the Servant, not found in the previous two songs, is added in 50:6-9? Consider the response of the people to Isaiah in 28:9-10 and 30:9-11. What might cause the Servant to be mistreated like this? What gives the Servant confidence and hope in spite of such ill-treatment? What might the prophet mean by those in the dark? What are they to do? How might God’s example encourage them?

REFLECT: How would you describe your current relationship with God: (a) Not Looking? (b) Casual date? (c) Going steady? (d) Engaged? (e) Married? (f) Happily-Married? (g) Separated? (h) Divorced? (i) Restraining Order? Why? What would it mean for you to start your day by listening to ADONAI? How might you do so? Recently, has the voice of Jesus been one that sustains you when weary? Or one that cuts like a sharpened sword (49:2)? Why? When was the last time you were walking in the darkness? Did that experience strengthen your relationship with God or cause you to doubt? Who would benefit from your doubting? Who would benefit from your trust, faith, and belief in the LORD?

The context of these verses is the crucifixion of Yeshua Messiah, the Servant of the LORD, on the cross. Adonai ELOHIM has opened My ear, and I neither rebelled nor turned away. I offered My back to those who struck Me, My cheeks to those who plucked out My beard; I did not hide My face from insult and spitting. For Adonai ELOHIM will help. That is why no insult can wound Me. That is why I have set My face like a flint, knowing I will not be put to shame (50:5-7 CJB). The means by which Isra’el’s sin will be pardoned is by the death of the Suffering Servant. As a result, Isaiah is pointing to the final salvation and restoration of Isra’el at the very end of the Great Tribulation.

ADONAI was ready to help His people, but they refused to repent. They have always had trouble trusting the LORD. When Pharaoh’s army had them pinned in after leaving Egypt, they complained. They didn’t believe that God had led them out of Egypt. They said to Moses, “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? Didn’t we say to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians?’ It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert (Exodus 14:11-12)!” They also complained during the Babylonian captivity, where they looked upon themselves as a displaced people.¹⁹⁴ And they will also grumble at the end of the Great Tribulation when the armies of the world close in on them. They will use the same old tired line and say: ADONAI has abandoned us; Adonai has forgotten us (49:14 CJB).

Isra’el’s sin and the Servant’s obedience: So here, God asks them some rhetorical questions that provide evidence of His faithfulness. It is as if ADONAI is asking the Jews in the last days as He had in the days of Jeremiah, “Where is your mother’s certificate of divorce with which I sent her away?” The answer is there wasn’t any. Why? Because the LORD was faithful to that generation just as He will be faithful to the last generation before He returns. In addition, He will ask: Or to which of My creditors did I sell you (50:1a)? The Jews are seen as complaining that God had arbitrarily divorced them and sold them into slavery because under the Torah if a man got himself into debt and could not pay it, he could sell his own children into slavery and buy them back in the Year of Jubilee.¹⁹⁵ God did not sell His children into slavery and in addition, God has no creditors. The problem is not divorce or being in debt, the problem is sin. It was because of your sins you were sold; because of your transgressions your mother was sent away into the Babylonian captivity (50:1b).

But more importantly, for this last generation before He returns, it will be as if the LORD is saying, “It is because of your sins that this is happening to you. Will you never believe in Me? I was not too weak to save you from Pharaoh and from Babylon and I am not too weak to save you now! My power is overwhelming.” When I came, why was there no one else to help you? No, instead of trying to fix the blame on God, the people should be committing themselves to the power and grace of their Creator and Redeemer in 50:2-3.

When the LORD issued a call for salvation, no one responded. Humans are incapable of gaining salvation by themselves, that was why ADONAI sent His Son the Suffering Servant (John 3:16). When I called, why was there no one to answer? Was there a problem with God’s ability to save? He asks rhetorically: Was My arm too short to ransom you? Do I lack the strength to rescue you (50:2a)? As the arm is an emblem of power, the shortness of the arm signifies diminished power, and length of the arm an increase. This is the third of nine occurrences of the arm of the LORD (30:30 and 32, 40:10, 51:5 and 9, 52:10, 53:1, 59:1 and 16, 62:8, 63:5). ADONAI’s power to deliver His people from their bondage of sin is expressed through the common ancient idiom of the arm. The LORD will rain blows on their ancient enemy and force them to give His people up. God’s arm is not too short, or weak, for the task. But what will His arm look like? Its appearance, just as in 9:6-7, will be surprising (52:14 to 53:3). Instead of power to smash the enemy, it will have the power to absorb the worst the enemy has to offer, and yet give back love.¹⁹⁶ No, God lacks neither the desire nor the ability to deliver His people from sin. The only issue is whether they will repent and answer Him in faith when He calls.

The evidence that ADONAI’s arm is not to short is seen in His control over nature. The allusions to the exodus cannot be missed (50:2b-3): By a mere rebuke I dry up the Sea of Reeds (see the commentary on Exodus, to see link click Ci – The Waters Were Divided and the Israelites Went Through the Sea on Dry Land), and I turn rivers into a desert; their fish rot for lack of water and die of thirst (see the commentary on Exodus Bk – Strike the Water of the Nile and It Will Be Turned into Blood). I clothe the sky with darkness and make sackcloth its covering (see the commentary on Exodus Bs – Moses Stretched Out His Hand Toward the Sky and Total Darkness Covered All Egypt For Three Days). All these seem to be drawn from that experience. When all was said and done neither the strength of the sea, nor the power of the sky could resist Him. It does not matter how much water is in the ocean, or how bright the sun is in the heavens; the LORD can dry up the one and darken the other. No one should doubt His ability to save the apple of His eye (Deut 32:10b)!

Despite God’s promises of redemption (49:1-13), Isra’el believed she was rejected (49:14 and 24). But ADONAI insists that is not the case because He can and will deliver her (49:15-50:3). In these verses the Servant speaks. He doesn’t tell us why He is suffering here, but later we learn that it was to ensure that her sin had been pardoned. This would ultimately point to the fact that the Suffering Servant of Isaiah would be Jesus Christ and His atoning death on the cross would forgive the sin of the people. This is the third of Isaiah’s four Servant Songs (42:1-17, 49:1-6, and 52:13 to 53:12).

When Messiah, the Son of God, was born, there is ample biblical evidence that the man Yeshua was a fully human person, not lacking any of the essential elements of humanity that are found in each of us. He was truly human in both the physical and psychological sense. Intellectually, He had remarkable knowledge, yet this knowledge was not without limits. Yeshua frequently asked questions, and the impression given by the gospels is that He asked because He did not know. It is difficult to account for the fact that Jesus’ knowledge was extraordinary in some things, but definitely limited in others. But the point in these verses is that He had to undergo a learning process like everyone else. In His humanity Yeshua had to learn certain things. When He is twelve years old He was found by His parents in the Temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. The Bible tells us that they were amazed at His understanding and His answers (see the commentary on The Life of Christ Ba – The Boy Jesus at the Temple). But how did He gain His knowledge? We are not told anywhere in the New Covenant how Messiah learned what He knew in His humanity. Luke simply summarizes that Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men (Luke 2:52). But how did He learn it? Isaiah tells us.

The Servant of ADONAI: Adonai ELOHIM has given Me the ability to speak as a man well taught, so that I, with My words, know how to sustain the weary (50:4a CJB). God the Son was discipled by God the Father. Early in the morning, morning by morning, He wakens My ear to listen like one being taught (50:4b). The phrase like one being taught in Hebrew is not a verb, it is a noun, meaning a disciple. So what it is really saying is: He wakens My ear to listen like a disciple. Just like we need to be discipled, God the Father would arouse God the Son in His humanity, take Him out somewhere and disciple Him. And one of the things He learned was to know the word that sustains the weary; or to minister with meaningful words. This is the same mission that was spelled out in Chapter 49 of Isaiah. Later Jesus would say: Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light (Matthew 11:28-30).

But that is not all He was trained for. Next we learn that Yeshua was trained for the rebuke, but that He would endure. We are told the Servant did not react against mistreatment: God opened His ears so that when He was abused and mistreated at His trial and crucifixion He never rebelled. And I have not been rebellious; I have not drawn back (50:5). There was no animosity or anger on His part. Neither did He draw back because morning by morning God the Father trained Messiah for the suffering task to which He was called.

Then His suffering is described: First, I offered My back to those who beat Me. At no point did Jesus try to retreat, or cower away from the blows. He offered His back to the forty lashes that was given to Him before His crucifixion.

Secondly, He offered His cheeks to those who pulled out His beard. This is the equivalent to what we term “pulling the hair out by the roots.” It was sometimes a self-inflicted suffering as a token of mourning (Ezra 9:3), sometimes an act of wanton persecution as shown here, and sometimes punishment, as represented in the text. It is said the ancient Athenians punished adulterers by tearing the hair from the scalp and then covering the head with hot ashes.¹⁹⁷ To understand what is happening here we need to look at the TaNaKh and its concept regarding beards. They were a meaningful symbol throughout. Therefore, pulling out someone’s beard was a sign of utter contempt (Ezra 9:3; Nehemiah 13:25). That is why the LORD forbid Jews from shaving their beards.

Thirdly, Yeshua says: I did not hide My face from mocking and spitting (50:6). As Roman guards began to spit on Christ, He never lifted up His hands, or ducked His face to protect Himself from this mocking. The fulfillment of this is found in four passages, Matthew 26:67, 27:26 and 30; Mark 14:65 and John 18:22. But while on the one hand men despised the Servant, God the Father aided Him. Messiah willingly subjected Himself to these things because He knew that ADONAI would come to His aide. And because of this, Christ set His face like a flint to the task to which He was called, specifically, the task to suffer and die for the sins of the world. And He was so sure of this, He set His face like a flint (also see the commentary on The Life of Christ Gk – As the Time Approached, Jesus Resolutely Set Out for Jerusalem) to the cross to suffer because Jesus knew He would not be put to shame (50:7).

As a result, the Servant was vindicated. He who vindicates Me is near. Who then will bring charges against Me? Let us face each other! Who is My accuser? Let him confront Me (50:8)! But there is only silence because there is no one who can take this Servant to trial. It is only the Father who will vindicate Him. This vindication comes by means of the resurrection. Regarding His Son, who as to His human nature was a descendant of David, and who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by His resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 1:3 and 4). Now Messiah always was the Son of God, but the justification or the proof of His Sonship with God the Father came by means of the resurrection. He did not become the Son of God by the resurrection; He was proved who He claimed to be by the resurrection. Beyond all question, the mystery of godliness is great: He appeared in a body, was vindicated by the Ruach ha-Kodesh, was seen by angels, was preached among the nations, was believed on in the world, and was taken up in glory (First Timothy 3:16). Notice He was vindicated by the Ruach ha-Kodesh, being taken up in glory, after the resurrection. In fact, the resurrection proves the deity of the Son.

The Servant was not condemned. Once again there is recognition of God the Father’s aid. Look, if Adonai ELOHIM helps Me, who will dare condemn Me? And for those who would dare to contend with the Son, here, they are all falling apart like old, moth-eaten clothes (50:9). They will die away like an old piece of cloth. The Servant is eternal and will live forever because of the resurrection that justified His claim. But, for those who dispute His claims, they will fade away with age because they do not have the Spirit to teach and guide them. It is interesting to note that some of the sages teach that the Suffering Servant is Isaiah himself. But others regard him as the personification of the saintly minority or Isra’el, the faithful remnant.

The Message to Believers and Unbelievers Alike: Let him who walks in the dark, who has no light, trust in the name of the LORD and rely on His God (50:10b). Throughout Chapters 49 and 50, primarily the Servant, but to some extent, God the Father has been speaking. But now Isaiah speaks and asks: Who among you fears the LORD and obeys the word of His Servant (50:10a)? The prophet encourages his people who were wondering whether their dark situation was evidence that God had forgotten them. Isaiah’s answer is to have faith in the word of His Servant. No matter how gloomy things get, if we trust and obey, the LORD will be with us. Therefore, to trust and obey ADONAI would seem to imply being in the light. On reflection, however, that is not necessarily the case. Those who follow the Servant may indeed walk with Him into the darkness of trouble or distress. But this does not imply that we should forego our reliance on Him. Through the ages, believers have equated ADONAI’s blessing with comfort and a sense of well being. But that is not the way of the Servant. Therefore, the challenge is again and again, do not lose your confidence in the LORD. Put your hope, your trust, and your belief in Him.¹⁹⁸

However, for those who insist on walking by their own light, they will suffer the fate of those who reject Yeshua Messiah. But now, all you who light fires and provide yourselves with flaming torches, go, walk in the light of your fires and of the torches you have set ablaze. The final verse is an ominous warning: This is what you shall receive from My hand: You will lie down in torment (50:11). This is a Jewish expression meaning: You will lie down in sh’ol. In the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, the rich man died and was buried. In hell, where he was in torment . . . he begged father Abraham to send Lazarus to his father’s house for he had five brothers. He wanted Lazarus to warn them, so that they will not come to that place of torment (Luke 16:23 and 27-28). Therefore, unbelievers who self-righteously light their torches to illumine their own paths (that will supposedly lead them to safety), will only receive judgment (see the commentary on Revelation Fp – The Lake of Fire is the Second Death).

For believers, no matter how dark it gets, we are to rely upon ADONAI. Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight (Proverbs 3:5-6).

The Gentiles and the Return of Isra’el
49: 22-26

The Gentiles and the return of Isra’el DIG: These verses present a military image where the conquered bring their spoil and bow down before the victor. How does that fit in with the LORD’s work in the world (also see 45:22-23)? What is the ultimate purpose of it all (also see 49:23b and 26b)? What response is God looking for in Isra’el? What does ADONAI Nissi mean to the Gentile nations? To the Jews?

REFLECT: Is the freeing of the Jews by ADONAI at all like what Jesus has done for you? How so? When have you had to wait on the LORD for something you desperately needed? Did you wait? Or did you take matters into your own hands? Was God late in answering your prayers? How does 49:25 illuminate Jesus’ comment about binding the strong man (Matthew 12:29)? How have you been retrieved from the fierce? What is one thing that convinces you that the LORD, and not some other god or force, is indeed the one you can trust? When is the last time you admitted God into the equation of your life? Did you trust God with His answer?

These verses provide the answer to the question: Who brought these up? in 49:21. God says that He is the One who has brought these Jewish descendants back to her. He is Adonai ELOHIM (49:22a CJB). If He decrees it, it will happen. He is the One who controls history.

Here in this far eschatological prophecy Isaiah declares that righteous, or sheep Gentiles (see the commentary on Revelation, to see link click Fc – The Sheep and the Goats), will aide in the return of Jacob to the Land during the Great Tribulation. See, I will beckon the Gentiles, I will lift up My banner to the Gentile peoples; they will bring your sons in their arms and carry your daughters on their shoulders (49:22b). Earlier, ADONAI called the nations to come and plunder Isra’el and Judah, and He would do so by lifting up His banner (30:17). But here, ADONAI Nissi, ADONAI is my banner, says that He will lift up His banner, so that all the Gentile nations near and far will see and understand that they need to aid in the return of Isra’el. These righteous Gentiles will protect the Jews as they return and will be in subjection to Isra’el during the thousand-year reign of Messiah (see the commentary on Revelation Fi – The Government of the Messianic Kingdom).

Isra’el had suffered much at the hands of the Gentile nations, but in the final analysis, it will not be the Gentile nations who hold Israel’s destiny in their hands. It was, and is, and will be, ADONAI. He will make sure that the high and mighty of the earth bring the children of the LORD home.

Therefore, it is ironic that the Gentile nations, before whom she had once groveled in an effort to gain support, and who had mockingly turned against her, humiliating her for her false trust, will come crawling to her feet, bringing with them her children from around the world (also see 11:11-12, 66:20). Kings will be your foster fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers. They will bow down before you with their faces to the ground, begging for mercy for the wrongs that had been done. They will lick the dust at your feet (49:23a). We must remember that this is figurative language. What at first glance seems to be subservience is, in reality, spiritual indebtedness. The point here is that God’s people should never fear the power of Adonai ELOHIM (CJB), because He is the author of history.

What will Zion learn from what God is going to do for her? Then she will know ADONAI, and realize the value of waiting on His timing (49:23b NKJ). When we wait on the LORD, we need to understand that He will probably act on His own timetable. But He will act! When we take matters into our own hands, we only end up with wood, hay, or straw on the Day of Judgment (First Corinthians 3:12-15). As a result, to wait for God’s timing is to demonstrate faith, because without faith it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6). God says to the Ahaz in all of us: Don’t be afraid (because when we wait we are afraid that things are not going to turn out the way we want). God is saying, “Will you believe that I am with you, and let Me do it My way (7:1-14)? When we allow God to work, and only act when He says to act, we will not be disappointed (49:23c). For those who wait on the LORD (NKJ) with hopeful expectancy will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint (40:31). Because of humanness, this concept of waiting is easy to say, but hard to do.

God will fight for the liberation of Isra’el against the all-powerful nations who want to destroy her during the Great Tribulation. ADONAI knew that those Jews sitting in Bozrah (see Kg – The Second Coming of Jesus Christ to Bozrah) would have a hard time believing this promise because of their lack of faith. He could hear them saying to God, “Look, the antichrist and his armies rule the world. No one would even dare challenge them. We know that You have limitless power, but let’s talk reality here. How can we defeat all the armies of the world? What is going to change?” For those in “the real world” this is a roundabout way of saying that the LORD’s power has no effect on our regular day-to-day life as we experience it. This, of course, directly contradicts the classic definition of faith in the book of Hebrews. Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see (Hebrews 11:1). If the Jews would admit God into the equation (as Isaiah had tried to get Ahaz to do in 7:4-14), everything could be changed. They will be returned to the Land and the antichrist and his armies will be defeated at the end of the Great Tribulation; the Servant will defeat sin and bring Isra’el and the world back to ADONAI.

Today, many believers are afraid to hope for something, or say they have faith in the LORD to accomplish certain things in their lives for fear of disappointment. They are saying that God’s power has no effect on their regular day-to-day life as they experience it. Bur they are afraid to admit God into the equation of their lives because they don’t want to be disappointed, or even worse, be accused of lack of faith or sin in their lives by those like Job’s three “friends,” Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar! How do we respond? Can the LORD move mountains? Yes, but only if He chooses to do so. We cannot play God and order Him around. Because God stands outside of time, He knows what will be in our best interests. What we must actually believe is that when He says, “No,” it is for our benefit. We must really have faith that He loves us, even in the midst of a trial.

Calling Zion’s children home involved, first, breaking the powers that holds them. As a result, God asks rhetorically: Can plunder be taken from warriors, or captives rescued from the fierce (49:24)? Then ADONAI answers positively and Isaiah uses one of his many Hebrew wordplays to say, “The taken thing will be taken from them.” 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 (49:25). No, from a human standpoint Isra’el will not be able to defeat the antichrist and the armies of the world. But that will not mean that her deliverance cannot occur. In the strongest possible figurative language’ the LORD makes the point that those who plundered His people will themselves be plundered.

In graphic imagery, ADONAI makes the point that those who had once figuratively feasted on the blood and flesh of those whom they had conquered will then turn on themselves. I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh; they will be drunk on their own blood, as with wine (49:26a). In no sense is God commanding cannibalism. He is simply illustrating the fact that those who violate His people will themselves be violated.

Millions and millions of Gentiles will survive the Great Tribulation and will enter into the thousand-year reign of Yeshua Messiah (Revelation 20:1-6). They will have one hundred years to either decide to believe in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior or die (see Kq – The Wolf and the Lamb Will Eat Together, and the Lion Will Eat Straw Like the Ox). During that time all mankind will recognize who the LORD really is: Isra’el’s Savior, their Redeemer, and the Mighty One of Jacob (49:26b). Therefore, God’s eternal power and divine nature will be clearly seen, so they will be without excuse (Romans 1:20b).

This concludes Chapter 49 and the mission of the Servant. His ultimate purpose is to bring salvation to Jews and Gentiles, and to bring about the final restoration of the Jewish nation.

Zion Not Rejected
49: 14-21

Zion not rejected DIG: What are Isra’el’s doubts in 7:14 and 24? How does this passage answer them? Having children was important, both as a sign of ADONAI’s blessing and for provision for the future. What then does it mean that the people feel like a barren and widowed woman? What images does God use to respond to that feeling?

REFLECT: How do you react when you feel like the LORD has forgotten about you? Do you believe your feelings? Can they mislead you? Or do you rely on God’s word? Who could gain from having you feel this way? What can you do about it? When in your life have you felt barren and bereaved, and unexpectedly received a gift from God, and said in your heart, “Where did that come from?”

These verses contain Zion’s complaint, or her assertion, that ADONAI had forgotten and rejected her, saying: But Zion, or the people of Jerusalem, said . . . the opening word, but, argues that this thought is a continuation of the previous section (to see link click In – He Has Made My Mouth like a Sharpened Sword). In response to the promises of the restoration of Isra’el from Messiah’s perspective in 49 1-13, it is as though Zion was saying, “All that is really nice, but that has nothing to do with me because God has given up on me.” ADONAI has abandoned me; Adonai has forgotten me” (49:14 CJB).

Zion, pictured as a rejected and abandoned wife, is emphasized going forward (51:11, 16, 18-20, 52:1, 54:1-8 and 66:7-14). This foreshadows the expanded focus of Chapters 49-55. Although the metaphors of exile and captivity are still used, God no longer addresses the exiles in Babylon; however, the relationship of the nation to ADONAI, and the implications of that relationship, is emphasized.

Then God responds in a very beautiful and moving way, saying, “No, no! You have not been forgotten. Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has born? Though she may forget, I will not forget you (49:15)! You are included in My plan of redemption. In fact, it is through you that it will be realized.” It is very seldom that mothers can forget or abandon their children. Yet as rare as this happens, from ADONAI’s perspective He will never forget Jerusalem no matter how bad it seems to look. His love is even greater than a mother’s love. Much the same point is made in Psalm 27:10, where we read: Though my father and mother forsake me, the LORD will receive me. Why can’t God forget Jerusalem? He tells us in the next verse.

Sometimes we face struggles in life, and we are tempted to think that God has forgotten us. We may even believe that He no longer loves us. But the LORD’s love for us is as wide as the open arms of Messiah on the cross. And the tender compassion of ADONAI is more dependable and more lasting than the love of a nursing mother for her child. Be comforted: For the LORD is good and His love endures forever; His faithfulness continues through all generations (Psalm 100:5).

Then God uses a second image to assure Zion that He has not forgotten her: See, I have engraved you on the palms of My hands (49:16a). This is opposite of the normal practice. Instead of the master’s name being written on the servant’s hands, the servant’s name is written on the Master’s hands. This is a figurative way of expressing that the LORD will never forget Zion. The City is represented as graven on His hands, so that its walls are perpetually in His sight, and thus the people of God, who are figured by the City, are kept in everlasting remembrance. A similar form of speech is frequently used in India to express one’s destiny. It is common to say, in reference to men or things, “They are written on the palms of his hands.” Remembrance of an absent one is expressed by a figure of speech used in this verse: “Ah, my friend, you have long since forgotten Me!” But have I forgotten you? Never!¹⁹²

Quite a thought isn’t it? Your name written on God’s hands. Your name on the LORD’s lips. Maybe you’ve seen your name in some special places. On an award or diploma . . . But to think that your name is on the LORD’s hands and on His lips . . . could it be? Or perhaps you have never seen your name honored. And you can’t remember when you heard it spoken with kindness. If so, it may be more difficult for you to believe that ADONAI even knows your name. But He does. Written on His hand. Spoken by His mouth. Whispered by His lips. Your name (from When God Whispers Your Name, Nashville: W Publishing Group, 1994).

He cannot forget Jerusalem because every time ADONAI lifts up His hands He sees the name Zion. In addition, He says your walls are ever before Me (49:16b). He explains this phrase later in Isaiah when He says the walls of Jerusalem are continually before Him. How are the walls of Jerusalem continually before God? He says: I have posted watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem; they will never be silent day or night. You who call on the LORD, give Him no rest until He establishes Jerusalem and makes her the praise of the earth (62:6). There are angels standing around the walls of Jerusalem to this day. They have only one ministry; they are God’s reminder that He has made a promise that Jerusalem will be the praise of the earth, so that God will fulfill that promise. As a result, when God says your walls are ever before Me this is what He means. God has not forgotten Zion, and the proof that God has not forgotten her is three-fold. First, Zion is written on the palms of God’s hands.

Secondly, Your sons hasten back, and those who laid you waste depart from you (49:17). In this far eschatological prophecy the enemies of Zion, the antichrist and his armies, will disappear when the Sons of Zion ultimately return.

Thirdly, Zion was encouraged to lift up her downcast eyes and look around; all her sons will gather and come to her (49:18a). One of the reasons we know this is a far eschatological prophecy rather than a near historical one, is that not all of the Jews came back to Zion after the Babylonian captivity. In fact, most did not. Consequently, for all her sons and daughters to be gathered to her, it has to be during the Millennial Kingdom (the context is important, so see Iq – The Gentiles and the Return of Isra’el). Surrounded by her children, she asks, “How can this be?” God has sworn it on His own life, “As surely as I live, declares the LORD, you will wear them all as ornaments; you will put them on, like a bride” (48:18b). During the Great Tribulation, the wretched old woman who had seemingly lost everything will suddenly have children all around her, wearing them like many ornaments. Zion will be clothed with Jews returning from all over the world. When they get there, what will happen? That’s what Isaiah describes next.

Zion will be restored. Here, then, is further evidence of her final restoration and that her sin had been pardoned. Though you were ruined and made desolate and your Land laid waste, Isra’el will be too small for your people, and those who devoured you will be far away (49:19). The Land laid waste refers to the places that will be devastated within the Land of Isra’el during the Great Tribulation. It is as if ADONAI were saying, “The antichrist and those who tried to destroy you will all be gone, and in their place will be so many Jews that the Land seems to be overflowing.” Although Zion will be threatened with total destruction by the antichrist and his worldwide army (see Kh – The Eight Stage Campaign of Armageddon), she will survive.

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” (49:20). So many Jews will return to Zion from all over the world, that Isra’el will be teeming with them. Babylon was not her final destiny. When reading Isaiah’s prophecy and looking into the far eschatological future the Babylonian captives would be encouraged by the abundance of their future.

Here we hear Zion thinking out loud, like an old woman’s astonishment over having children around her again when those she had borne were dead. As though she was too old to have any more children. And it is as if she is saying, “Where did these come from? 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” (49:21). I thought I was left alone. I thought I would have no more Jewish children to live within me. But look, they have started to come back.” One can imagine Naomi holding the grandson she thought she would never see saying something similar (Ruth 4:13-17). Are these children a result of something she has done? No, they are the gift of God. She did not bear them, nor did she rear them, so where did they come from? It could only come from the fruitfulness and the grace of God. This theme runs straight through the Bible, from Sarah onward.

In ourselves we are barren and bereaved, no more able to bring abundant life or eternal life onto this planet than we are able to give ourselves physical life. If abundant, eternal life is to be ours, it will be the gift of God, and we will look on in amazement, saying, “Where did that come from.” For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do (Ephesians 2:8-10).¹⁹³

Zion Consoled
49: 14-26

In the first half of the chapter we saw the final return of the Jews to Zion, or Jerusalem, from the Messiah’s perspective. Now, in these verses we see the Servant’s message of final salvation and restoration of all Isra’el, even as the armies of the antichrist are bearing down on them. Even though these events are in the far eschatological future, Isaiah, as a prophet, was writing about them during his day. Zion is not just the city of that name, it is its people. Zion is not simply their home; it is their name, their identity. If Zion is ruined, so are they. If Zion weeps, so do they. And they will never be fully themselves again until Zion is restored to its former glory. It is hard for us to appreciate such a complete identification of a people and their city. There is nothing quite like it in our own experience. No earthly city has the same significance for us that Zion had, and have, for the people of the LORD.¹⁸⁹ In the second half of the chapter we see the final restoration of Isra’el from her perspective. She is being consoled by the fact that the promises of 49:13 also include her, and that she is not forgotten.

The recurring theme in this passage is God’s attempt to overcome unwillingness on Israel’s part to believe what ADONAI says. This is particularly evident in the contrast between 49:13 and 14. God has promised comfort and compassion, but the people say that is not true because ADONAI had forgotten them. ADONAI promises that one day in the far eschatological future, when the Servant sets up His Messianic Kingdom, they will be in the Land and restored in glory. But it was not easy to wait on the LORD to fulfill His promises, especially with the armies of the world bearing down on them. This was especially true in regard to the promises of the Suffering Servant, who would defeat the power of sin and bring the Kingdom of God to the earth. It took about seventy years from the time the first captives were taken in 605 BC until the first return in 538 BC, but it took hundreds of years for the Servant to come. It has been more than two thousand years since Isaiah wrote his book, and still we wait for the Messiah to return. The LORD’s timing is not our timing. Down through time, from Abraham’s day to Isaiah’s day, to today, there have been believers who never saw the promises of God fulfilled. They died before Jesus was born, or before He returns in glory. So, they waited in faith. And when Yeshua was born there were people like Anna and Simeon who were ready to recognize Him (see my commentary on The Life of Christ, to see link click Au – Jesus Presented at the Temple). They were at the end of a long line of believers who had waited confidently, and in the end, their faith was not disappointed (49:23). If you wait in faith for Him you will not be disappointed, for ADONAI is a God of justice. Blessed are all those who wait for Him (30:18b)!¹⁹⁰

Part of the reason that some of the Jews had lost hope was that they could not really believe in the LORD’s love for them. No doubt there were a number of different types of thinking in that group. First, some frankly thought that God had treated them unfairly. After all, the people of Judah weren’t that bad, and there were people around them who were at least as bad, maybe worse (Hab 1). Also, if their parents had been so bad, as bad as the prophets insisted they had been, then ADONAI should have punished them and not their “innocent” children. So, this group would say, “If God loves us so much, we shouldn’t be in this mess at all.”

Others admitted that God had treated them fairly. This generation was just as unfaithful as the preceding ones had been, and the LORD had given them exactly what was coming to them. Being as bad as they were and having failed God so miserably, they could not imagine that God could ever love a people such as them.

Finally, there were those who said, in effect, “So what!” These people looked at their circumstances and concluded that the situation was hopeless. Whether they had gotten into this mess fairly or unfairly was beside the point. The point was that there was no way out. Thus, the LORD could say He loved them all He wanted, but it simply would do no good.

Those same groups of people exist today. You may know some of them. To those who believe they have been treated unfairly, God calls them to trust Him and rely on Him in the midst of their pain. Undoubtedly there will be individual Jews who truly do not deserve to be killed by the antichrist. Just like there are those today who do not deserve to be born into an abusive family, be poor or without an absent father. These individual Jews might be people of faith who are living in obedience to the LORD, yet this terrible thing will happen to them. This would be the case with Dani’el, his three friends, and Ezeki’el. But the question in that circumstance is not, “Why?” and hold ADONAI hostage for an answer. Rather, it is, “What now?” and look to God for the strength and wisdom to go on. For them, the LORD’s declaration of love will be their lifeblood as they seek to cope with the unfairness of life. The fact is that we are part of a much larger picture than our own actions, and if circumstances do not turn out as we might wish, that is no indication that ADONAI does not love us or care for us.

The second group longs for God’s love and forgiveness but simply believes that the LORD cannot forgive them for what they have done. This is sometimes a reverse form of pride: “What I have done is too much for the LORD.” But more often, it is an inability to forgive oneself: “God can’t love me; I am just so worthless. Nothing I say or do is worth anything.” They think to themselves, if I am this disappointed in myself, think how infinitely more disappointed ADONAI is. Sometimes God is disappointed with us, but that does not change the fact that He loves us unconditionally. In the humiliation of admitting that ours is not the worst sin in the world and that our disappointment in ourselves is not the issue, there is a possibility of realizing that the LORD wants to forgive us if we will only let Him. In receiving that forgiveness, there is finally the possibility of forgiving ourselves.

The situation of the third group is much like that of the second group. If God’s love is to be experienced, it must be surrendered to. The pride that says, “My situation is hopeless,” is the one that refuses to believe ADONAI is greater than anything this world can throw our way. What God asks for is the opportunity to try. He asks us to test Him in faith, not doubt, and to allow Him to show us the love He has for us and to demonstrate that love can conquer any obstacle it meets. His arm is not too short to ransom us, nor does He lack the strength to rescue us (50:2).

To all of these, the LORD says the same things as He said 2,700 years ago; He can no more forget us than a mother can forget her nursing baby (49:15). And we have even more evidence of that truth than Isaiah did, for when He speaks of the names of the faithful being engraved on the palms of My hands (49:16), we think of the nail scars in the hands of His Son. When He has done that for you, how could He forget you?¹⁹¹

He Made My Mouth like a Sharpened Sword
49: 1-13

He made my mouth like a sharpened sword DIG: How is the Servant’s mouth like a sharpened sword? How does that contrast with the Servant’s type of speech in 42:2? Why does God the Father say Isra’el here, when He is referring to the Messiah? How do we know that He is really talking about the Messiah here and not the nation of Isra’el (49:5)? How was the Servant received by the nation of Isra’el in 49:4 and 7? How does this reflect the experience of Isaiah (30:9-11)? In His discouragement, what promises does the Servant receive from God? How is this related to the prophecy of 11:10? What does this imply about the identity of the Servant? What will happen for the exiles in the day of salvation? How will the nations learn of the LORD’s covenant promises (45:1, 22-24)? How does Isra’el reflect the mission of the Servant (42:6)?

REFLECT: Does it help you or stumble you to see the humanness of Christ? Was Yeshua fifty percent man and fifty percent God, or one hundred percent man and one hundred percent God? What difference does that make? What examples can you think of in Jesus’ life when His speech was gentle (42:2)? When was it cutting like a sword? Why the difference? When is it best to speak gently with people? To be strong and cutting? When was the last time the LORD displayed His splendor through you? Emotionally and spiritually, what does it mean to be a forsaken captive? What can cause you to feel that way? Right now, do you feel more like that or like a person coming home to a long-awaited reunion? Why?

If the Servant of Isaiah is the God of history and can control human events, why are His desires frustrated by Jacob, His people? Put another way, could the LORD have forced Jacob to do His will? Yes, He could have. But the reason He did not force them and is frustrated by their, and the world’s, lack of faith in Him is that He gave us free will. We would not be who we are if we did not have free will. If we are truly human, we must have the ability to choose, and do things, which are even contrary to Ha’Shem’s desire. Apparently God felt that, for reasons which were evident to Him, but which we can only partly understand, it was better to make human beings than androids. And evil was a necessary addition of  ADONAI’s good plan to make us fully human.¹⁸⁵ Far too many times, people blame Him for their misery instead of recognizing it is the Adversary and their own sin nature that is the root of their problems. How could a loving God . . . you fill in the blank.

Therefore, the fact that the Jews chose to reject Yeshua does not mean that Messiah failed in His ministry. It is specifically because He is the God of history and can control human events that all Isra’el will be saved (Rom 11:16). At the very end of the Great Tribulation, all the believing remnant living at that time in Bozrah will be saved (Zech 12:10-14 to 13:1 and 9). But before that time, two-thirds of the Jews will reject Him and perish (Zech 13:8). That is not what He would want, but because He gave us free will, He will allow men and women to make that choice. Some would view that as failure. But in the end, ADONAI will have His way.

This is the second of Isaiah’s four Servant Songs (also see 42:1-17, 50:4-9, and 52:13 to 53:12). The sages teach that this is Isaiah speaking (representing the ideal Isra’el). The Servant is speaking in these verses. First, He calls out to the Gentile nations to listen to Him, saying: Listen to Me, you islands; hear this, you distant nations. Before I was born the LORD called Me (49:1a). The words hear this should take us back to 48:16 where the transition from Cyrus to the Messiah took place. Now that same Person speaking in 48:16 is the One speaking in Chapter 49 as He calls attention to the world to listen to the Servant. He says that before He was born ADONAI called Him. He was elected for the task to which He was given. The expression before I was born is one of election for a specific purpose. We find the same language in Jeremiah 1:5. And just as God separated Jeremiah from the womb to be a prophet of Israel’s condemnation, the prophet to announce the Babylonian judgment, in the same way the Servant was elected to bring redemption to them.

Also, from My birth He has made mention of My name (49:1b). We have already seen this to be true in 7:14 when we had the first prediction of the virgin birth of King Messiah. The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call Him Immanuel. Chapter 49:1 is a reiteration of the truth of 7:14. The fulfillment will come in Mathew 1:21 and Luke 1:31. Throughout messianic prophecy we often have mention of the mother. Here it is implied when the Servant says: From My birth He has made mention of My name (49:1c).

But there is not a single messianic prophecy in the TaNaKh that mentions the father of the Messiah because of the virgin birth. He had no human father. We see this in the two genealogies in the gospels. Matthew’s genealogy traces the birth of Christ from Joseph’s perspective. The purpose of Matthew’s genealogy is to show that if Jesus really was Joseph’s son, He could not be King. But Luke’s genealogy tells us about the birth of Christ from Mary’s perspective. Luke shows why Yeshua could be King. Jesus was from the House of David, but apart from Jeconiah (see the commentary on The Life of Christ, to see link click Ai – The Genealogies of Joseph and Mary).

Next, we have the Servant’s position. First, the Servant Himself says: He made My mouth like a sharpened sword (49:2a). This expression means that He will have the ability to pronounce judgment. He will be decisive and be able to get down to the very root of the problem and pronounce it. A good example of this is found in the gospels (see my commentary on The Life of Christ Jd – Seven Woes on the Torah-Teachers and the Pharisees). There, Jesus denounces the Torah-Teachers and the Pharisees, for specific sins, especially the sin of leading the nation astray. Paul would later take Isaiah’s sharpened sword motif and use it when describing the armor of God in Ephesians 6. When Paul said: the sword of the Spirit (Ephesians 6:17), he was not describing a Roman soldier, but was either directly quoting or paraphrasing the TaNaKh. His point is that we should resist the Adversary as Messiah did in the wilderness, with Scripture.

Secondly, the Servant states His position: in the shadow of His hand He hid Me (49:2b). This implies protection. Not only will the Messiah be given the ability to be incisive and pronounce judgment at the root of the problem, but He will also have the special protection of God the Father.

Thirdly, the Servant will be like a polished arrow, concealed in His quiver (49:2c). This implies that He will always be available to be immediately used for anything that God the Father might call Him to do. Hence, this is Messiah’s relationship with ADONAI.

ADONAI says of the Messiah: You are My Servant, Isra’el, in whom I will display My splendor (49:3). Why does He say Isra’el here, when He is referring to the Messiah? We know this because of the context. If a rabbi disputed that this is a messianic prophecy, he would argue that it doesn’t say “the Messiah,” it says “Isra’el.” But the Servant is distinguished from Isra’el in the very same context. Look at 49:5a: And now the LORD says – He who formed Me in the womb to be His Servant, to bring Jacob back to Him and bring Isra’el to Him. And also look at 49:6a: It is too small a thing for You to be My Servant, to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Isra’el I have kept. Context. Obviously the Servant in this message is not the nation of Isra’el but the Messiah, because this Person fulfills what Isra’el should have done and He will be used to restore Isra’el. And since the Servant is distinguished from Isra’el in 49:5 and 6, then 49:3 is not dealing with the nation of Isra’el. Therefore, what does God the Father mean when He says You are My Servant, Isra’el, in whom I will display My splendor (49:3)?

There are two ways we can look at it. First, the Servant could be the ideal Israelite. He will accomplish, as an individual Jew, what all Isra’el failed to do. In that sense He would be the true Isra’el. In other words, He will accomplish the calling of Isra’el. Secondly, Isra’el means a prince with God and who could be more of a prince with God than the Messiah? So, in 49:3 we are dealing with the ideal Israelite, and He is the true representative of the name because Messiah will indeed be a Prince with God. And ADONAI will be glorified in this Servant. Now where do we have a reference to this very prophecy? In John 17:1-5, God the Father is glorified in His Son. And here is the basis in the TaNaKh for that statement.

Then we come to the point where the Servant actually voices His frustration. If the Servant described in this passage is more than human, He is not less than human. Frustration and a feeling of futility, all too familiar to everyone who inhabits flesh, are part of the burden He came to bear.¹⁸⁶ The Servant is to be God’s special instrument, to accomplish what all Israel failed to do. Notice, however, how He voices His frustration. He says: But I have labored to no purpose; I have spent My strength in vain and for nothing (49:4a). The phrase no purpose means emptiness. The phrase in vain here means vapor. The word nothing is the same word used in Genesis 1:2 meaning formless. In essence what He is saying here is, “My work will be like a vapor that will vanish into thin air.” Now when do you suppose He felt this way? At what stage do you think He might have prayed this type of prayer? It was probably in His agony of Gethsemane (Mt 26:36; Mk 14:32; Lk 22:39).

The Servant saw little evidence of change in the Jews. No fruit was visible because only a handful of men and women believed in Him. It seemed like the whole nation was rejecting Him and He would not accomplish what He set out to do (John 1:11). In fact, today Muslims use this verse to supposedly prove that Muhammad is the one true prophet because they say that Jesus admits here that He had failed in His mission. Is that true? No, this merely shows Jesus’ human nature. In His First Coming, He came as the Lamb of God to be slain for the sins of the world (John 1:29). But in His Second Coming, He will come like the Lion of the tribe of Judah and rule the entire world from Jerusalem (Revelation 5:5).

But we can see the Servant’s faith when He says yet. This is the participle that means nevertheless, or but surely. Yet, what is due to Me is in the LORD’s hand, and My reward is with My God (49:4b). Too often we miss the two-sidedness of what is being said here. On the one hand, we often believe that if we really trusted in God, we would never have feelings of futility. But trust ultimately has to do with the final outcome, and of this the Servant is fully confident.¹⁸⁷ It is ADONAI (not the world or even the Servant), who will make the final judgment concerning His ministry. In other words, the LORD knows the situation and would reward Him in due time. Consequently, while 49:1-4 seems to be a prayer of frustration and discouragement, they actually display great faith. We see God’s answer in the next two verses.

Then the LORD answers the Servant’s prayer. He reiterates the Servant’s original commission. He who formed Me in the womb (once again a reference to the mother) to be His Servant (49:5a). There is a two-fold path to the Servant’s original calling. First, to bring Jacob back to Him (49:5b). There is a sense of conversion or redemption here. One aspect of the Servant’s ministry is to bring salvation to Isra’el. Second, gather Isra’el to Himself (49:5c). This speaks to the restoration of Isra’el. The Servant, then, had a two-fold commission, the redemption and the restoration of Isra’el. And He states the reason: For I am honored in the eyes of the LORD, and My God has been my strength (49:5d). Therefore, the Messiah’s commission is to restore the tribes of Jacob and Isra’el to ADONAI.

But in addition to His original commission, He adds something else: It is too small a thing for you to be My Servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Isra’el I have kept (49:6a). The Father says to the Son, “I know it seems like no one is following You. And although it seems like Isra’el will not be saved, nor restored, quite the contrary, the day is coming when Isra’el will be saved and restored, but it is too simple a thing for Me to use You to save only Isra’el; I am going to use You in a greater way. You will not only bring salvation to the Jews, You will also bring salvation to the Gentiles.” He states: I will also make You a light for the Gentiles (49:6b). This is the background to the statement by Jesus: I am the light of the world (John 8:12). Not merely the light of Isra’el, I am the light for Jews and Gentiles alike. So, the Servant receives an additional commission to bring My salvation (My Yeshua) to the ends of the earth (49:6c).

This statement in 49:6 is also the background to Romans 11, which is an expansion of this one verse, that God has a plan for Isra’el. She rejects the Messiah, but Isra’el’s rejection temporarily opens up the gate of salvation for Gentiles. Look at Romans 11:1-10, Paul tells us how the nation of Isra’el rejected Messiah, although Jews individually are accepting Him. But then in Romans 11-12, Paul describes the ingrafted branches of the Gentiles. Again, I ask: Did they (Isra’el) stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Not at all! Rather, because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious. But if their transgression means riches for the world, and their loss means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their fullness bring! What Romans 11 is doing is expanding the theology of Isaiah 49:6. In summary, the Messiah comes with the purpose of restoring Isra’el, she rejects Him, and the Servant is frustrated, but ADONAI says do not worry, the rejection is temporary. It is through the rejection of Isra’el that you will be a light to the Gentiles, and once the Gentiles are saved, all Isra’el will be saved (Romans 11:26).

This is what the LORD says – the Redeemer and Holy One of Isra’el (49:7a). This is a summary of the entire ministry of Christ, including both His First and Second Comings. Then we are told about His rejection. He was despised by the Gentiles and abhorred by the nation of Isra’el (49:7b). The Creator of the world becomes the Servant of rulers of the world. He also had to give to Cesar the things that were Cesar’s during His lifetime (20:20-25). There will be a time coming, however, when this despised and abhorred Kosher King will rise up and be exalted. Kings will see Him and rise up in due respect. Princes will see and bow down, because He is the LORD, who is faithful, the Holy One of Isra’el. He will be the One who has been chosen by God (49:7c).

Therefore, 49:7 is an answer to the Servant’s frustration in 49:4, where it seemed that He had been rejected. Here God the Father says that the temporary rejection by the nation will give way to exaltation. A similar statement is made twice in Chapter 53. First, He says: See, My Servant will act wisely; He will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted (53:13). Then, He declares: So, will He sprinkle many nations, and kings will shut their mouths because of Him. For what they were not told, they will see, and what they have not heard, they will understand (53:15).

Walk Through the Bible teaches that there is a big idea for each book of the Bible. For the book of Isaiah, the big idea is groan to glory. The groan is the temporary near historical rejection of ADONAI and the Babylonian exile; but the glory is the permanent far eschatological acceptance of Yeshua as the Messiah and His reign in the Messianic Kingdom. Because they do not see the Messiah in any of these verses, the sages teach that Isra’el is in view here. From her lowest depths of degradation Isra’el will rise to the loftiest heights of respect and honor.

This section ends with the restoration of the Servant (49:8-13). Remember that His original commission was to restore the people of Isra’el (49:5-6). Nevertheless, when He came then, she rejected Him and the restoration could not be completed at that time. But God said this was part of His program to bring salvation to the Gentiles. However, once the LORD’s mission among the Gentiles is completed by the Servant, then the restoration of Isra’el will be accomplished.

Isaiah, speaking with the voice of ADONAI, declares that the Servant’s task is to make it possible for the believing remnant around the world to return to Him. In the time of My favor I will answer You, and in the day of salvation I will help You. The phrase, in the time of favor, reflects the idea of the Year of Jubilee (Leviticus 25:8-54), when the captives were set free, and inheritance were restored to the rightful tenants under ADONAI’s ownership (also see 62:2). The word answer here has the sense of responding with support, as the parallel word help demonstrates. 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 (49:8). When the time for Isra’el’s restoration comes, Messiah’s prayer for her restoration will be answered. Then God the Father says that He will make the Servant to be a covenant for the people. It is by means of the New Covenant that Isra’el’s salvation comes, because the New Covenant is dealing with the national salvation of Isra’el (see the commentary on Jeremiah Eo – The Days are Coming, declares the LORD, When I Will Make a New Covenant with the House Judah and the House of Isra’el).

There will be a removal of all obstacles for the return of the believing remnant to the Land. He lists four things here. First, He proclaims that the captives will be free. To say to the captives, “Come out,” and to those in darkness, “Be free” (49:9). That this will be done through the Servant is clear from 61:1-4, where the agent of ADONAI, not ADONAI Himself, takes action. That passage reminds us while physical imagery is being used in both 49:9 and 61:1-4, it is imagery of being held captive to spiritual blindness, ruin, loss and bondage. The Adversary has blinded the spiritual eyes of unbelievers (Second Corinthians 4:4). But the Servant’s ministry will not be to merely set them free from bondage and sin, but to lead them all the way back to God’s presence.

Secondly, as the exodus from Egypt led to a journey under God’s care (see the commentary on Exodus Cr – I Will Rain Down Manna from Heaven for You), so in this journey of the heart back to ADONAI there will be ample provision. They will neither hunger nor thirst because spiritual food and water will be provided to them (49:10a).

Thirdly, they will be protected from the elements because neither the desert heat, nor the sun will beat upon them. He who has compassion on them will guide them and lead them beside springs of water (49:10b). The journey will be under divine protection. The LORD will take the Israelites to His heart and under His care. The language is a combination of Psalm 23 and the Exodus. God will guide and protect them, as the pillar of cloud and fire did (see the commentary on Exodus Cg – After Leaving Succoth they Camped at Etham). Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil (Psalm 23:1-4). He will also lead them to springs of water, as in the wilderness (see the commentary on Exodus Cu – Strike the Rock and Water Will Come Out).

Fourthly, highways will be provided by God to return to the Land. Nothing will be allowed to stand in the way of the worldwide assembly. I will turn all My mountains into roads, and My highways will be raised up (49:11). The main thoroughfare back will be the Highway of Holiness (see Gm – The Highway of Holiness Will Be There), but there will be other raised highways as well. Evidently the purpose of these supporting raised highways will be to transport Jews to the main Highway on their way to Zion. Nothing can stop them.

See, they will come from afar – some from the north, some from the west, some from the region of Aswan (49:12). God will bring the holy ones (Deut 33:2-3; Job 5:1; Psalms 16:3 and 34:9; Zech 14:5) to Himself. This return and restoration is not merely one from Babylon by a handful of Judean exiles; this gathering will be worldwide. Some will come from Aswan, which is a town in southern Egypt. Ezeki’el 29:10 uses the phrase from Migdol to Aswan, which probably indicated all Egypt, just as from Dan to Beersheba meant all of Isra’el.

From here to the end of the book, the sages substitute the nation of Isra’el for the Messiah in their teaching. They picture this section of the book as returning from the Babylonian captivity, not the final restoration of Isra’el. Therefore, the sages teach that God’s acceptance of the prayers of the exiles, their redemption from the captivity, and their safe and pleasant return to the homeland is in view here.

God’s purposes in the earth center on the nation of Isra’el. When she is back in the Land, both the heavens and the earth can rejoice. ADONAI will do it all, the only thing they will have to do is sing! Shout for joy, O heavens; rejoice, O earth; burst into song, O mountains! For the LORD comforts His people and will have compassion on His afflicted ones (49:13). It is not surprising that the possibility of universal redemption should issue in a call to praise here. This is a pattern that we see in Isaiah. In each case we see the work of God in salvation from sin, which is the motivating factor for universal praise. And every time, nature, the nature that was initially called to hear God’s case against His people (1:2), is for the salvation that will come to the human race (Romans 8:19-22). For its own redemption is intimately connected with ours. This idea of cosmic redemption occurs in 65:17, where the conclusion of the book describes new heavens and a new earth.¹⁸⁸

The Mission of the Servant of the LORD
49: 1-26

If you trace the Servant motif beginning from Chapter 49 you will see it can only refer to the Messiah and not to Isra’el. Because once Isaiah establishes who the Servant is here in Chapter 49, he consistently maintains the same motif through Chapter 53. This is critical in the interpretation of Isaiah 53. This chapter is perfectly divided into two thirteen verse segments. Verses 1 through 13 show us the restoration of Isra’el from the Messiah’s perspective, and verses 14 through 26 reveal the Servant’s final salvation and restoration of Isra’el.

That Her Sin Had Been Pardoned
49:1 to 57:21

Chapter 40, verses 1 through 11 are the prologue, where Isaiah sets the stage for the seventh and final segment of his book. He said: Comfort, comfort My people, says your God. This segment is comforting because it describes the final redemption and restoration of Isra’el. And in Chapter 40 verse 2 he gave us an outline for a three-fold message in the rest of the book. The first was that her warfare had been completed from Chapters 40 to 48. With this chapter we are starting the second of the three-fold message, which is, that her sin had been pardoned in Chapters 49 to 57. Here Isaiah is no longer dealing with near historical prophecy primarily (except for a brief segment from 56:9 to 57:21), but far eschatological prophecy. Cyrus will not be mentioned again. Now Isaiah is dealing with the final salvation and restoration of Isra’el; in the course of which, he is going to give us the key means by which the sin will be pardoned and that is by the death of the Suffering Servant, especially in Isaiah 49, 50 and 53. Here he deals primarily, but not exclusively, with the Suffering Servant, through whom Isra’el’s sin will be pardoned.

Listen to Me, O Jacob,
Isra’el Whom I Have Called,
the Sovereign LORD Has Sent Me with His Spirit
48: 12-22

Listen to Me, O Jacob, Isra’el whom I have called, the sovereign LORD has sent Me with His Spirit DIG: Who are the two people God has specifically called in 48:12 and in 48:14b-15? What has each been given to do? What message has YHVH been communicating to the exiles? In what way is Cyrus the LORD’s chosen ally? What has their history of rebellion and ignoring Ha’Shem cost the people? Chapters 40-48 reach their climax here. If you were reading these words to the people, would you sob with tears of joy? Shout in victory? Or whisper? Why? What about ADONAI will this deliverance communicate to all the nations? What was motivating God’s compassion in these chapters? How does His compassion toward the Church made up of Jews and Gentiles differ from this?

REFLECT? In what way is Cyrus’ deliverance of the Jews from Babylon like the deliverance from sin that Messiah has won for His people? How did you first respond to the news that you were free from the enslavement of sin (Romans 8:1-3)? Has there been disobedience in your life that has cost you? How so? Do you feel like you have been forgiven? What have you learned from all of this? Have you ever been at odds with the Lord and felt like there was no peace for you? What did you do? What is the answer? What did you feel like, what did you act like when that time in your life had ended? From the time Isra’el returned to the land, idolatry has never been an issue with them again. Has the issue that resulted in no peace in your life resurfaced? What did you learn from it? What are you still in the process of learning?

This section opens with a call to listen, but then follows a description of a nation that, in fact, had not heard. In a sense, therefore, it is a reprise of 48:1 and signals the beginning of the second half of the poem. ADONAI had declared to them what would happen in the future, but they had credited the fulfilled prophecies to idols. Now God was telling His people the good news of their return from exile. Once again they are called to listen. Not only to listen but to believe and act, even though their deliverance would come through the pagan emperor Cyrus. The inspired prophet offers five reasons why the Israelites should listen:

First, He is the God of eternity. Listen to Me, O Jacob, Isra’el, whom I have called; I Am He; I am He, I am the first and the last (Isa 48:12; Rev 1:17, 2:8, 22:13). This verse, along with the following, is a summary of ADONAI’s claim to be able to deliver the Israelites from Babylon, and to be able to use whoever He wanted to make it happen. The LORD had called Isra’el because she was part of a larger plan that included the coming Messiah and the redemption of the world. She was not subject to the whims of some god of wood or stone. He was the only God. The phrase: I Am He is Isaiah’s equivalent of God’s declaration: I Am Who I Am (Exodus 3:14). It is the claim of the LORD of heaven’s armies, and He can use someone like Cyrus because nothing is outside His control. He had no limitations. Should Jacob and Isra’el not listen to Him? Shouldn’t we?

Secondly, He is the God of creation. Moreover, 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 (48:13). Moreover shows how ADONAI’s creation flows from His being. The entire universe is the servant of God, and when He commands, the entire universe responds. The idea is described beautifully by the Psalmist: Your faithfulness continues through all generations; You established the earth, and it endures. Your rulings endure to this day, for all things serve You (Ps 119:90-91). The earth and the heavens are used as polar opposites to express the whole: God created the earth and everything below, the heavens and everything in between. His right hand spread out the heavens. Everything in the universe, including the stars (see the commentary on Genesis, to see link click Lw – The Witness of the Stars), appear and disappear at His command.

Thirdly, He is the God of human affairs. The focus moves from creation to history. ADONAI said: 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 (49:14a). When God’s people would read this prophecy about 200 years from then, it would reassure them that this really was His plan. Yes, Cyrus was a pagan king. Yes, they had misgivings (45:9-10, 46:8 and 12). But ADONAI was, and is, the God of human affairs. They needed to trust Him. God Himself was behind it, and as such, they must be for it. Cyrus was, after all, His chosen ally.

When ADONAI says: I, even I, have spoken: yes, I have called him. The emphasis in the Hebrew is cannot be missed. Literally, I, I, I have spoken; moreover, I have called him. When God spoke through His prophet saying, “I will bring him and he will succeed in his mission, and his arm will be against the Babylonians,” He was talking about Cyrus (48:14b-15). The phrase his arm here symbolizes the strength and power of Cyrus and his army. God was declaring to the disbelieving people of Isra’el in the strongest possible terms that the mission of Cyrus will only succeed as a result of God working in human history. These two verses summarize everything said about Cyrus in Chapters 40 to 47. God said five things: Cyrus will capture Babylon, it was the LORD who called and brought him, ADONAI will help him succeed in his mission, and all of this brings out the truthfulness of God’s claims.

Fourth, He is the God of prophecy. This verse sums up the appeal of the four previous verses. Once again the call to hear is repeated. ADONAI commanded, Come near Me and listen, “From the first announcement I have not spoken in secret; at the time it happens, I Am there” (48:16a). From the beginning, God has not spoken in secret (45:19). His promises have not been mystical or mysterious. His words to Abraham, and before him, to Adam and Eve, were in plain language. As a result, the truth of His promises is easily verified. This also means that the LORD has been intimately involved in the affairs of humanity. He has made Himself accessible as He revealed His will and made it happen.

This is the basis of the incarnation. When Yeshua Messiah became flesh and tabernacled among us (John 1:14a), it was not some new manner of revelation; it was the logical result of all that God had been doing in and through Isra’el up to that point. They needed to listen up because two things should have been abundantly clear: ADONAI could be understood and what He said was going to happen. This is no less of a lesson for us today, is it not?

Fifthly, he is also the God of the Trinity. And now Adonai ELOHIM has sent Me with His Spirit (48:16b). This is the second, and by far the clearest, of four examples of the Trinity in the TaNaKh. We see the Trinity in 42:1, here, in 61:1 and 63:7-14. And now Adonai ELOHIM (God the Father) has sent Me (God the Son), with His Spirit (God the Ruach ha-Kodesh). Once again there are only three Persons that are ever called God in the TaNaKh. The context began in 48:12 where One Person was speaking. The personal pronoun I has been used from 48:12 where He says I am the God of eternity, the God of creation, the God of human affairs, and the God of prophecy. This divine personality, the Me of 48:16b, is God the Son. At this point the Second Person is being introduced because the main topic of the second section of the rest of the book, that her sin has been pardoned in Chapters 49 to 57, will no longer be Cyrus but Messiah the Servant. However, the rabbis teach that to believe in the Trinity is blasphemy and they bend over backwards to prove it is not so. Therefore, we see a transition from Cyrus in Chapter 48 to the Messiah in Chapter 49.

These verses serve as a conclusion, summarizing Chapter 48. They remind the reader of what might have been if Isra’el had listened and obeyed God (48:17-19). How bright and prosperous would her condition have been if she had followed the guidance of the LORD, her helpful teacher and trustworthy guide. The political solution of returning home from Babylon did not recover the peace that might have been. It was the sin of disobedience that needed to be dealt with, and until that wickedness had been confronted, their peace would remain an illusion.

Therefore, there was a call to obedience. The LORD is our Redeemer, our Next-of-Kin, the Holy One of Isra’el. He is the One who teaches Isra’el to do what is best for them and teaches them the way they should go (48:17). God did not reveal Himself to them in order to dominate them, nor for them to master Him. Rather, He has shown Himself to have a relationship with us. However, Isra’el’s rejection and disobedience produced four results.

First, if only she had paid attention to the LORD’s mitzvoth, or commands, her peace would have been like a river (48:18a). Their Redeemer had constantly been teaching and guiding Isra’el by means of the Torah, but she didn’t listen. This prepared them to hear again the wonderful promise of redemption. Her future obedience would then promise peace (9:6, 26:3, and 12, 32:17) like a river. And that river would be a constant flooding stream, not a seasonal trickle. This is what God says: I will extend peace to her like a river, and the wealth of nations like a flooding stream; you will nurse and be carried on her arm and dandled on her knees. As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you; and you will be comforted over Jerusalem (see Kv – I Will Extend Peace to Her Like a River, and the Wealth of the Nations Like a Flooding Stream).

Secondly, if only she had paid attention to ADONAI their righteousness would have been like the waves of the sea (48:18b). Righteousness is seen to be the characteristic of the reign of God and waves often picture overwhelming power (Psalm 42:7, 65:7, 107:25). Those who stand on the beach are surely impressed by the constant march of waves onto the shore. There is no stopping them. The implication is that if she would trust in the LORD her righteousness would give her overwhelming power once again.

Thirdly, if only she had paid attention to God, her descendants would have been like the sand, her children like its numberless grains (48:19a). But because she did not, there would be no increase in Jewish population. To this day, Jews only number about fifteen million. Jews have been around long enough to number in the hundreds of millions. But the Jewish population has been kept small because of constant disobedience. However, her name would never be cut off nor destroyed from before ADONAI (48:19b), because she is, and will always be, His Covenant people and as the writer to the Hebrews would later write: Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you (Hebrews 13:5b).

The fourth result was the Babylonian captivity itself. Four results, because of Isra’el’s refusal to obey. No peace, no righteousness, no increase in population, only captivity.

Even though they had not done so in the past, the Israelites were challenged to start believing in ADONAI and return home to Judah (48:20-21). But the captivity was over with. Remember, that Chapter 48 is written for the Jewish generation at the end of the captivity. And fulfilled prophecy carries with it specific obligations. What prophecies were fulfilled? Namely two. First, Cyrus has taken over the Babylonian empire and second, Cyrus has issued a decree for the Jews to leave Babylon and return to the Land. But this was a daunting task. By the end of the sixth century BC it was little more than a forsaken ruin, its walls broken down, its temple destroyed, and most of its citizens in exile. But for all that, it would continue to be the place God had chosen as the center of His Kingdom on earth. It would once again be the holy city, not just in the sense that no evil will be found in it (1:21-26; 52:1), but that God Himself would return to it and rule from it (2:1-4).¹⁸⁴

With Cyrus’ edict (Second Chronicles 36:22-23; Ezra 1:1-4), the Jews were urged to leave Babylon and return home. Isaiah said: Leave Babylon, flee from the Babylonians! They were to leave Babylon with shouts of joy (in other words not turning back) and to declare to the whole Gentile world that the LORD had redeemed His servant Jacob (48:20). Because being redeemed, was like being bought out of slavery. This would remind the exiles of the exodus from Egypt.

After the Egyptian Exodus God provided water in the deserts from the rock (see my commentary on Exodus Cu – Strike the Rock and Water Will Come Out of It): 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 (48:21). Here too, it is implied that ADONAI would miraculously provide for them in their second Exodus.

This section ends with this warning: There is no peace, says the LORD, for the wicked (48:22). To understand what this is referring to, go back to 48:18 where it reads: If only you had paid attention to My commands, your peace would have been like a river. But because Isra’el disobeyed the earlier prophecies, there was no peace like a river. However, for those Jews who do return in 48:21 will receive peace like a river on their journey home. But for those who stayed behind in Babylon, those who reject the obligation of fulfilled prophecy, there will be no peace. We know that this was true from historical records. The Jews who remained in Babylon had continuous strife as anti-Semitism there grew.

This verse ends the first of the three-fold message in the second half of the book of Isaiah, that her warfare had been completed. It was completed with the Babylonian captivity (see the commentary on Jeremiah Gu – Seventy Years of Imperial Babylonian Rule). Now Babylon will be conquered and the Jews will be permitted to go back. Thus, the basic content of Chapters 40 to 48 has been completed. God has showing His absolute superiority over the idols by doing something never before done in human history: causing a conquered people, His people, to return from exile to their native land (41:1 to 44:22). He will do this by destroying proud Babylon through Cyrus. Not surprisingly then, the primary person Isaiah talked about in this section was Cyrus. But not exclusively, he has mentioned Messiah twice. Each of these three-fold messages ends with this phrase: there is no peace for the wicked. We will see it again at the end of Chapter 57.