BULLETIN ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY NINE
THE WORD OF GOD REVERED
AND REALISED
Isaiah 49 - The Composite of 16 Steps Revealed Beforehand
Many of them even now in process, or already made
Like a Great Guide to the Stars, A Star Guide for the Things to Come
Three are three major themes which move and merge throughout
this Chapter, to which correspond three major headings
The Messiah and His Double Destiny - Temporary and Eternal (mdd)
The Salvation - for one as for many and (sam)
Israel a) Restoration by Divine Redeemer (redir) and
b) Anguish, Travail and Triumph in the Lord (att)
1. The Majesty of the Messiah 49:1-2
2. The Authentic Israel (Prince of God) 49:2
3. The Double Destiny of the Messiah 49:3-4
4. The Double Task Given the Messiah 49:5-6, not only in
Restoration for Israel the Nation,
according to Covenant, but far more broadly dispersed than that is His salvation
- for it is not only for those chosen in Israel, but even for the Gentiles, and
in this Capacity the Messiah is to become the Divine salvation to the ends of
the earth! 49:6
5. There is a Prelude and a Consummation. At first, Christ, the Messiah, is to be downgraded by many, and in fact while many will despise Him (cf. Isaiah 53:3), and He will even be abhorred by Israel itself, yet the time will come when Kings will Awake to His Majesty, and Bow to Him, acknowledging the Messiah, while Princes Worship Him - the Saviour for one as for any. 49:7
6. When the Set Time Comes (Psalm 102): in God Himself, the Messiah will become in His own Person the New Covenant, rescuing Many, and cause a stricken Israel to be restored to her "desolate heritages", for in departing from the Messiah, she had for a time lost her place (cf. Micah 5:1-3, Leviticus 26). The Church, for its part, is not desolate places but redeemed persons, so it is easy to distinguish them. 49:8
7. The Messianic Light however is for one as for all, and How Deeply He will Minister to All who Come to Him; and with Israel the Dispersed Nation, there will be restoration from every direction to aid her way back to what she lost, and even more, to Him whom at last she has found (cf. Zechariah 12), as also to her desolate inheritances where she has been sitting " in darkness", the result of not having trusted in the Messiah, but abhorring Him (cf. Micah 5:1-3). 49:6-9
8. Indeed, those now in view, emphatically Israel, those who had been dispersed and dismissed those called "His afflicted" and shown sitting "in darkness", now have a Regal Restoration in mercy. The land itself responds to their transforming care, another item famously and notably fulfilled, and many nations learn from its agricultural techniques even now. 49:7-9
9. Thus the Old Covenant is by no means Annulled, but Fulfilled in Both Promises (cf. Matthew 5:17-20), and Includes the Physical restoration of National, Geographic Israel (cf. Genesis 17:7-8, 12:1-2) for a New Task, as in Isaiah 66:19-21. Back to "the land of their destruction," "His Afflicted" are now in reverse mode from their wanderings in both departments, national and personal! Isaiah 49:9-12
10. . When the Set Time comes (cf. Psalm 102:13-18), His Inimitable Faithfulness and Lavish Love will rebound in Effusive Praise of Relish and Delayed Recognition, hitting like a bullet. 49:13
11. Accordingly, the text proceeds to describe the jaded disposition of Israel the nation, feeling both forgotten and forsaken (a quick sketch of that people). Yet the Messiah's Testimony of His Demonstrated Love for them is to be Written on His very Hands (cf. Psalm 22), and accordingly He will both comfort and show mercy to His afflicted people. 49:14-16
It is worth noting that the whole story of a people,' Israel',
may in part find use as an allegory for becoming a Christian or its
correlatives, for in both the substance and topic are of judgment and mercy.
Unlike many, however, Israel first STARTED in the Lord, and having left Him in
the tragic, dramatic and predicted act of crucifixion, in His profound mercy,
are here predicted to return to land and Lord alike (Jeremiah 31:10,28-31,
33:7-15). 'Israel', then, in itself may in part, be adapted to convey a
stimulating allegory, but does not then accord with what is written in history
itself, with its diverse historical characteristics that diverge fundamentally
from such use. Slack interpretation may often do so, despite contradictory
contextual elements. Yet you may take a leading feature of a concept and apply
its name to something else, so long as you make it clear in the context that
this is what you are doing; but you cannot rupture the context and rightly
pretend you are interpreting it!
12. Back with the Book, we find that with the Set Time also comes a Splendour
of Blessings, for instead of acting as captors and persecutors, the habitual
enemies will be humiliated in their ignorance and chronic bullying. Indeed
(as in Micah 7), those who "laid you waste" will become for Israel in
their new place like an adornment, their divinely chosen fate speaking indeed a
message to those who would strip God of His plan, purpose, methods and
principles, though He first show much patience (cf. Ezekiel 38-39). 49:17-18
In other words, rampant enemies will suffer, just as before they afflicted, this development vindicating the predicted place in the Covenant of Israel, made as in Genesis, and this is a testimony of His utter faithfulness (cf. Jeremiah 36:22), for His name is indeed glorious (cf. Isaiah 51:21-23). Thus, despite Israel's incredible seeming lapse when the Lord first came, it was a predicted one (Isaiah 53), and both parts of the Covenant are in prodigious purity and mercy, fulfilled (cf. Matthew 5:17-20).
13. In the Time of His Coming, the Messiah's return, the Land will Bloom and the People Multiply so that Israel will be Astonished at her thronging masses, after such vast Slaughter and Predicted Losses (49:20-21), as she endured in her time apart from the Lord. That was something of which she had profoundly been warned, not only in detailed prophecy, but in the Law of Leviticus (26). In radical change, she will come in crowded need to look for more space, . with astonished eyes. Indeed, not only is predicted the sudden crowding of the vast returnee multitude, but also the sudden restoration as a nation of Israel corporately as in Isaiah 66:6-10.
May 14, 1948, this was the one day, the fulfiment day of the latter prophecy, an event almost as stunning in history as in prophecy, but with the same precision in both! As usual, God speaks what He will do, then history happens; and it is not merely a happenstance that they are the same! 49:17-18
14. This is now a a five-fold triumph of the Lord: showing His faithfulness to His word (Psalm 138:2), to Israel, as to the reality of love despite costliness, and His impact on the world through a profoundly focussed city, Jerusalem, as seen in Zechariah 12:4 and the ironically emphatic naming of Jerusalem as if to Primary School children in 12:6. This city, its restoration to Israel such a signal of the near return of Christ (Luke 21:24-31) as He Himself declared, has obeyed the divine predictions like a star. The Gospel is already long attained; its application effectually to Israel awaits (Isaiah 49:6, 42:6, Jeremiah 31:18ff.).
As for the kingdom of heaven, it has no shortage of space (cf. Luke 14:22), but with Israel it is different for these are by no means the same kingdoms! A captive and a wanderer had this people been in the spiritual darkness. The Church however was given Christ's signature freedom and, walking in the light, remains fixed in its transforming faith in Christ. When the nation however returns, its fast growing population is so amazing that it finds the land limiting! 49:21
No longer is Israel driven in the dark, consumed with foes, as she wandered to many nations; but now back in her own land, she will reflect on her new 'children' there, saying poignantly, "There was I, left alone; but these, where were they!" Indeed back, they are part of the nation which crucified Christ, told "show yourselves" that at last they might be reconciled to God. 49:9,19-21
15. God will Disperse and Overthrow the Enemies of Israel and instruct the nations 49:18,26
He Himself will make a great point, indeed lift up a standard, declaring for the return of Israel to its land, and kings will bow before the hand of the Lord. As the day of the Messiah comes, kings will be delighted to assist and princes will worship Him who calls. The habitual enemies, chronic assailants of Israel will be humiliated and dispossessed, however unlikely it may seem (Isaiah 49:24-25, Micah 7:15ff.), for this is part of an oath on the part of the Lord (cf. Genesis 12, 15, 17). Israel will come to know the hand of the Lord once more! It will now even be as one with the actual Church of Christ (Isaiah 49:6, 66:14-21, Zechariah 12:10ff.) - that is, the authentic, biblical one, not some mock-up version of a 'church', manipulatively manufactured by man! (Revelation 13:11) 49:22-23
16. God's dealings with Israel or any would-be determinants of history, whether the plus or the minus be involved, whether through adversity or direct, will be barred by none, but bared by the Lord for all to see. Thus ALL FLESH will be confronted with the Lord. Their hiding like Adam, will no more avail and in their recalcitrance He will feed them "with their own flesh"; the facts of history matching the predictions of the Lord, will hit the very sockets of their closed eyes! 49:24-26