Isaiah Chapter 51

In Isa. 50 we have seen the divine Messiah in the depths of humiliation, but the Lord Jehovah helping and justifying Him. In Isa. 53 (which really begins at Isaiah 52:13) we shall see Him "wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities," when Jehovah "laid on him the iniquity of us all." (Cp. Ps. 22. and Ps. 69) Between these everlasting foundations of blessing for Israel (or for any), the Holy Spirit gives us awakening appeals of the utmost force, interest, and beauty. It is a complete whole, consisting of seven distinct parts (Isaiah 51:1-8; then, 9-16; 17-23; Isaiah 52:1-10; lastly, 11, 12), which trace the gradations of the godly Jewish remnant from their deep distress, fearing Jehovah and obeying the voice of His Servant, though in darkness as yet and having no light, but gradually advancing till they stand in the full glory that was promised them.

The first remark to be made is one of no small importance as affecting the interpretation or rather application of this prophetic strain. It is not under the head of Babylon, but of a rejected Messiah. And in fact the attempt to apply to their state after the return from Babylon either the calls of righteousness to them, or the answers of the Spirit in them, and the final word as of a priest to Jehovah abandoning their old seats of impurity, is not worth a refutation — hardly a notice. Isa. 48 closed the old part of the subject. Isa. 49 opened the new complaint and ground of judgement God lays against His people — not the idolatry judged by the captivity in Babylon, but the refusal of Christ, the ground of their dispersion and distresses under Rome, the fourth Gentile empire. Therefore was Israel divorced from Jehovah; but a remnant, poor in spirit, by grace obey the voice of His humbled Servant. Their moral restoration and final triumph are here brought before us in as orderly a way as is compatible with the sublimest of prophets.

The first appeal to hear is to them as following after righteousness and seeking Jehovah. Such will be few indeed at first. They may feel themselves alone, the mass of Israel being apostate like the Gentiles. But they are exhorted to look to Abraham and Sarah. "Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek Jehovah: look unto the rock [whence] ye were hewn and to the hole of the pit [whence] ye were digged. Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah [that] bare you: for when he was alone I called him, and blessed him, and made him many" (vv 1, 2). Then faith must count on no less but more manifest blessing, after all their sorrow now at its worst. "For Jehovah will comfort Zion; he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of Jehovah: joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving and the voice of melody" (v. 3).

The next goes farther and calls them Jehovah's people and His nation. "Listen unto me, O my people; and give ear unto me, O my nation: for a law shall go forth from me, and I will make my judgement to rest for a light of the peoples. My righteousness [is] near, my salvation is gone forth, and mine arms shall judge the peoples: the isles shall wait for me, and on mine arm shall they trust. Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath: for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner; but my salvation shall be for ever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished" (vv. 4-6). "Listen," etc. (the word being a different one from the more general term in verses 1, 7, and implies attention). It is a total mistake in Bishop Lowth to think the address in this case is made not to the Jews but to the Gentiles, "as in all reason it ought to be"! It was the more required as a comfort for the Jews, because they have been so long called Lo-ammi. (Compare Hosea 1 - 2) "The peoples" are distinguished, for whose light His judgement should be established, as His arms should judge them, while His righteousness and salvation made good for ever should be the portion of Israel.

The third calls them to hear, as knowing righteousness and having Jehovah's law in their hearts. Why should such fear the reproach and revilings of men whom the moth and the worm, little and feeble as they are, should devour? "Hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart [is] my law; fear ye not the reproach of men, neither be ye dismayed at their revilings. For the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like wool: but my righteousness shall be for ever, and my salvation unto all generations" (vv. 7, 8).

Similarly the Spirit now answers, as it were, in the remnant. First, they call for the power of Jehovah to assert itself against their mighty foes, as of old against proud Egypt. "Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of Jehovah; awake, as in the ancient days, the generations of old. [Art] thou not he that cut Rahab in pieces, [and] wounded the monster? [Art] thou not he who dried the sea, the waters of the great deep; that made the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass over?" (vv. 9, 10). They predict their deliverance in verse 11, and Jehovah's reply to their trembling hearts in terms as full of pathos as of grandeur in verses 12-16. "And the ransomed of Jehovah shall return and come to Zion with singing; and everlasting joy [shall be] upon their heads: they shall obtain gladness and joy; sorrow and sighing shall flee away. I, I, [am] he that comforteth you: who [art] thou, that thou art afraid of weak man [that] shall die, and of the son of man [that] shall be made [as] grass; and thou hast forgotten Jehovah thy Maker, who stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth; and thou fearest continually all the day because of the fury of the oppressor, when he maketh ready to destroy? And where [is] the fury of the oppressor? The captive exile shall speedily be loosed, and he shall not die [and go down] into the pit, neither shall his bread fail. And I [am] Jehovah thy God, which stirreth up the sea, that the waves thereof roar: Jehovah of hosts [is] his name. And I have put my words in thy mouth, and have covered thee with the shadow of my hand, to plant the heavens, and to lay the foundations of the earth, and to say unto Zion, Thou [art] my people" (vv. 11-16).

Next, the Spirit of God summons Jerusalem to arise and stand up, with a most vivid description of her reeling under Jehovah's judgement without one of her sons to guide or help, and of His taking the cup from her hand, not here to drink it Himself, but to put it into the hands of their oppressors. "Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem, which hast drunk at the hand of Jehovah the cup of his fury; thou hast drunk — hast drained out the bowl of the cup of staggering. [There is] none to guide her among all the sons [whom] she hath brought forth; neither [is there any] that taketh her by the hand of all the sons [that] she hath brought up. These two [things] are befallen thee; who will bemoan thee? desolation and destruction, and famine and sword; how shall I comfort thee? Thy sons have fainted, they lie at the top of all the streets, as an antelope (or, oryx) in a net; they are full of the fury of Jehovah, the rebuke of thy God. Therefore hear now this, thou afflicted and drunken, but not with wine: thus saith thy Lord Jehovah, and thy God [that] pleadeth the cause of his people, Behold, I have taken out of thy hand the cup of staggering, the bowl of the cup of my fury; thou shalt no more drink it again: and I will put it into the hand of them that afflict thee. who have said to thy soul, Bow down, that we may go over: and thou hast laid thy back as the ground, and as the street, to them that went over" (vv. 17-23). It is no wonder that interpreters should be much divided who apply these appeals and answers of increasing earnestness, either to the past history of the Jews or to the time of the first advent. Neither at all corresponds to the language of the Holy Spirit, Who really looks forward to the gradual progress of Jehovah's dealings with the future remnant and His working in their souls as they rise from their degradation or apprehend their calling.