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CHAPTER TWO

RAYS IN ISAIAH

Strings of Pearls Lit Up

Diamonds of Desire Nascent with Light

THE LOOK OF THE BOOK

Emphasising the Messiah

Entry Terms

At first, in Isaiah you see the  desolatory consequences not only of national sin, but of a form of empty ceremonial and traditional refuge which missed the point, in the Lord, instead becoming a mere substitute. Immoral, unclean, they were so appalling to the Lord that He appealed to them to come and reason together, in a pity that penetrated beyond all the pollution, declaring in His inimitable quietness of spiritual contention, deeper than the heart, above the spirit of man, yet like the sky, inspiringly aloft, what He had in  mind and in heart. This the rest of the book would show in depth, as in height, in breadth as in scale, beyond all that might have been imagined, except for preludes in other prophets.

Early in Isaiah, 1:18,

"Come now," said the Lord amid the denunciations,

"let us reason together.
Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow,
Though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool."

This would not be easy to accomplish, although easiness was not what the Lord had in mind, but rather redemption, and this, as at last most plain in Isaiah 66:1-3,  not merely through the symbolic sacrifice of  animals, indeed at length not at  all with animals; for He had something more effectual, more permanent, more singular in mind. To this He came in various ways amid the strings of pearls in His gifts and graces to come, and amid the diamonds of divine desire, where His light shines so exquisitely.

This being the Messiah, it is fitting to follow these references, and see them a little in setting, watching their progress, in the book of the prophet. Messiah, God in human format, would become the sacrifice literally to end all  redemptive sacrifice.

Thus in Isaiah 2, we are at once lifted to the transcendent scene, the Lord as King in the earth ruling, judging even between the nations, the international and recognised Lord. Before this, there is to be a hiding for the unruly, pompous, boastful, the arrogant and the arid who seek to rule and act to ruin the earth and its people. Just as the Messiah had to suffer to clear guilt for man, as many as  received Him as this sacrifice of  glory on the cross, so the world which does not receive Him lies open, like a roof stripped, before a storm, to the calamities which are due to sin, when maintained without cover. 

"Enter into the rock, and hide in the dust," is the divine advice,

"from  the terror of the Lord and the glory of His majesty.
The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down,
and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day,
for the day of the Lord of hosts shall come upon everything proud and lofty...

"Cease from  man, whose breath is in His nostrils, for of what account is he ?"

What of this last challenge ? What does it portend ? It is this. Man, a creation, empowered to be as a child of God, presents himself now as depraved and depreciated, many becoming children of the devil: what is it that makes you want to depend on man, his thoughts, his deviations and his dispersals ? Cease, leave him alone, a mere fellow creation. If you want life, look to the source, not to another example of it. Do you expect to find in another sinner, or in many, the salvation of your God ? did they make themselves ? Are they angels ? Is God Himself not your resource ? Are you so frantic in faithlessness that you abort blessing and like a baby bird, nestle against another when your flight, as grown, is from above ?

In other words, man outsize, like one of those semi-houses that are too broad for the road on which they are travelling,  will be downsized as much as necessary, and as he exalts himself even before the Lord, so the acme of dizzy desire will be translatable, when the time comes, and before the Lord's rule on this earth, to its proper size! Ignominy will  visit exalted fevers of fiction  about man's place and power, and debasement will be his come-uppance.

What an intervention then is from the  Messiah,  and what grace is His to offer a deliverance from the tempestuous troubles free to guilt,  applicable to sin unmet, assured to life without salvation, repentance or the redemption provided! These trials are one measure, or a measure in part,  of what were His pangs, who met even arrogant ignorance, with preparedness to pardon, and the cry of faith in Him, with forgiveness as for the robber on the cross. 

In terms of our Messianic quest,  then  we come in Isaiah 6 to the opening of the eyes of the prophet to the intense holiness of the Lord, and the purging of his own lips to enable translation of the vision into word and deed. Hence almost at once,  in Isaiah 7 we find the virgin prophecy. It was not any virgin, but THE virgin, and that in the setting of a sign so majestic and staggering in kind, that to be with child in her condition as virgin would be in terms of the actual nature of the case, comparable with asking for ANYTHING! for what was the offer of the Lord to King Ahaz ? It was this, ask a sign, a splendour, a miracle, a divine expression to bring the surge of faith.

Ask it, the offer ran,  high going up or low going down,  high as the heavens,  low as the depths. This was the offer made through the prophet Isaiah, to King Ahaz, who specialised in equivocation, it seems, and did not bother to ask, not having faith. When Ahaz refused glibly to do so, then the response of the Lord was to MAKE from Himself just such a sign, signal, event, high as heaven going up, low as the depths going down. It was that of THE virgin with child, whose child would be named,  GOD WITH US!

No human Father, and the child 'God with us' the product, this is the prelude to Isaiah 9,  and the child itself, the prince of peace,  now comes into articulated focus in the grand  manner.

The Staggering Scene

Thus, to the prophecy of the product of this epochal event concerning the virgin, we now come directly to the child who is born, in turn to be received with delicious awe and inspirational acclaim, leading in  time to the end of war (Isaiah 9:4),  but this as the realisation penetrates, and His day comes; for His is to be a kingdom which will  continue to increase and not fail. To this PRINCE OF PEACE, there are attached the three parallels,

Just as the end of the series^*1 is  "prince of peace" whose kingdom is to proceed indefinitely and for ever, there are the earlier ones, "wonderful, counsellor" and "Mighty God,"  "Everlasting Father," all with their parallel structure. Disrupting the sequence, and the series, would be countermanding the structure, or diverting the name to acclaim of the Father  when the topic is after all, the child of wonder. The term "mighty God" is used in the following Chapter,  Isaiah 10:21, to mean God, so that this is the WONDER, that God is to become man.

As we progress in our theme in Isaiah, we come to Isaiah 11, where we find the matrix of this marvel; for here the Lord Himself, in human form, is found to be exercising all the POWER of God, in judgment, in rule, in understanding, in perfection, as descendant of David, the Messiah promised. This is as in II Samuel 7 where, despite God's announcement that if any of the line of David should sin, sentence  might be applied,  there was nevertheless the undertaking that from the seed of David would be a product who would rule forever as confirmed for example in Psalm 2, 110 and 72, yes one who as God would deal with man as long as sun and moon endure, in the kingdom as in the Psalms, and indeed in Daniel 7:13-14, which would never pass away.

Isaiah 12 shows some of the eventual resultants for man from this Prince of Peace, in that they would be washing freely, for "with joy, you will draw water from the wells of salvation" - Isaiah 12:3. And why ?  It is because "God is my salvation, I will trust and not be afraid, for YAH, the Lord, is my strength and song; He also has become my salvation." The means for this have already been opened to view, and await further definition as the prophecy proceeds.

We come to a further development in our chosen theme, in Isaiah 22, where we find a symbolic representation (as indeed the fountain in Zechariah 13:1 represents), such that the vestments that signify divine wonders in the priestly work are seen hung on a nail, and the nail being broken, they fall to the ground. As in Zechariah expressly,  what the articles represent is the figure of an exalted kind, the One to whom  all priestly work pointed, the effectual Prince of peace, both spiritual and among the nations, and  they are used as a symbol of the Messiah. This finds application as the end, the consummation of what the Temple and its appointments stands for: reconciliation with God through the One whom from heaven He has appointed, in the power of His life (cf. II Corinthians 5:17ff.). The cutting of the nail represents the removal of the entire basis and point of the prelude to Messiah's coming for Israel, later to be interpreted in no unsure manner through the prophet in 49-55. This is removed, the prelude, the preliminary, the pointer, and what it is pointing to becomes the new focus, itself! and thus Himself. God with us, this is the aim, and in Him it happens.

This is to be compared with  Zechariah 6, which uses such figures to express directly the coming Messiah, who as only the Messiah could, would be both prince and priest, bearing the glory (Zechariah 6:12-13). As nations are addressed in the prophecy, contemporary ones,  we turn in Isaiah 28-29 to such figures as that in 28:16, where again with emphasis on the singularity of the significance for salvation of ONE PERSON, we find there is to be laid in Zion,  "a stone for a foundation, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation: whoever believes will not act hastily..."

This has come like a wave crest following Isaiah 26, which in turn flows over the preceding one in Isaiah 25. In the latter, we find that God is going to destroy "the veil that is spread over all nations" as if to open the countenance from what obscures, and that "He will swallow up death for ever", indeed, "the Lord God  will wipe away tears from all faces; the rebuke of His people He  will  take away." In that day, it will be said, "This is our God, we have waited for Him."

As then  we pass  to Isaiah 26,  we find that not only is mortality to be taken care of in the Lord's magnificent and strategic plan, poignant with pity, deep in empathy, but that in essence the strong city that  matters most is the one which has appointed, "salvation for  walls" and to this the gate is open for "the righteous nation", a  people whose righteousness if of HIM (as in Isaiah 44:1-5 of the individuals involved, with the gracious attribution of righteousness to  faith, as in Isaiah 54:17 and 53:1-6).

Such will be kept in perfect peace (Isaiah 26:3ff.),"whose mind is stayed on You," each such one, as in Isaiah 44,"because he trusts in you." Trust in the Lord forever, comes the message for all time, for "in the Lord is everlasting strength," or as it might be termed "rock of ages."

We pass from the temporal to the eternal, which itself passes from eternity to our time, to so support us. It  requires a termination of "other lords" (26:13), and that  close relationship of faith and its object, the Messiah, so that individual bodily resurrection will occur, God having plans to provide and cover all things, knowing the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46). Indeed, His people, the righteous nation,  as in I Peter 2, a spiritual one, this will each one  live. How ? The entirety over time of  all such people, whose righteousness is of the Lord, "shall  live: My dead body they shall arise," and the earth will cast out her dead, just as in  Daniel 12.

We are advised, each one, to hide "as it were,  for a little moment, until the indignation be past." This is like Isaiah 2, where the vigour of world judgment is in throes of application; and here it shows the perpetual, perennial necessity of a living faith in the living God, one with Him as object and His action continual, by grace  on ourselves,  on the subject. Indeed, back in Isaiah 24, which dwells on universal judgment, just as there is universal offering of salvation, we see a light ascending from earth to heaven, or more literally hear a spiritual symphony. How beautiful it is.

"From the ends of the earth we have heard songs:

'Glory to the righteous!
 But I said, 'I am ruined, ruined! Woe to me!
The treacherous dealers have dealt treacherously.
Indeed, the treacherous dealers have dealt very treacherously."

This is a theme clear earlier before Isaiah, in such Psalms as 41, 55, 69, 109 where treachery, as again in Zechariah 11, is manifest in this as a group, towards the Messiah. The additional element of treacherous conniving among nations and peoples, is seen in Psalm 2.

Indeed Zechariah dwells on the price paid for such a smash and grab raid on salvation, with a fearful irony assessing the price of 30 pieces of silver, predicted and later fulfilled, as a fine price! Judas seemed to rush to fulfil this to the coin!

Trivialisation of salvation could not be better rebuked than in Zechariah's exposure to irony (Zech. 11:10-14)! So in Isaiah 24:16, we have as so often in the earlier parts of Isaiah, a diamond, glistering with light, sparkling with depth. We ask: WHO ? and then all scriptures tell us, and we see this as one of those constant markers reminding us of the Messiah as we go, and how often these come. It concurs sharply with Isaiah 49:7, where the nation abhorred the Messiah, predicted, then fulfilled. It has its representative, indeed, with the close followers of Jesus.

But in the midst of all this, in due time, we see in this verse of Isaiah 24, Gentiles attesting and praising the betrayed One, with utter depravity surrendered to a paying death for the traitor, one which would as in Isaiah 53, atone for sin. What a prelude is here for Isaiah 28:16, to come.

As in the earlier chapters, these things come in bursts,  like Spring, so latter they are amplified; but some have  earlier amplification as well, as in Isaiah 1,  of sin, 7, of virgin birth, 9 of the endless Kingdom of the Messiah, 11 of the earthly rule as 32, and 28 ... but to that we now come. The preludes cohere backwards with each other, and continually as we look, aspire to what is to come, like one symphony, with repetitive themes, developments of the same, to the codas come at apt times.

Thus we move to Isaiah 28.

By now our spiritual eyes have grown accustomed to the sustained and mutually supportive and interpretive nature of the references to the Messiah, and we see in 28:20-21, an "awesome act" and the "unusual work" of God to come,  for as in Isaiah 2, before the profound peace, there is to be profound disturbance, and before 2:1-4, comes the way to it, the precise opposite, 2:10-22. Before there is a wrenching of the nations from proud mutual hostility, and arrogant defamation of the Lord, by distortions, substitutions or both,

"they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth,
from the terror of the Lord and the glory of His majesty,
when He arises to shake the earth mightily,"

What however is the pith and principle, the point behind the power and its deployment, apart from the exposure of human folly and the revelation of the glory of the Lord  ? What result is in view ?

Isaiah 29 tells more at the directly spiritual level, speaking on the pathological side, of "the spirit of deep sleep" which has been poured on those fit for it (cf. II Thessalonians 2:4-10), who "stagger, but not with intoxicating drink." In other words, they are spiritually drunk, unfit, impure, diseased,  virtually deceased. In the face of the enormity of the fault, there comes an  amazing cure. "Therefore,"  says the Lord in Isaiah 29:14,

"I will  again do a marvellous work among this people,  a marvellous work and a wonder;
for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish
and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hidden."

In view of their state as just described, this would represent small loss! But what of the gain ?

What is this marvellous work ? Isaiah 29:17ff., shows one more index to the work of the Messiah, the transforming work through the only One (as in Psalm 2) who is to make the transmutation in the midst of mankind, to bring a peace which is not a matter of mumble, rumble or self-advantageous rhetoric or the like, but heartfelt, sincere and based on the rock of reality. In that day, the deaf will hear, even the words of the book (Isaiah 29:19ff.), the book of the Lord (Isaiah 34:16), the eyes of the blind will be opened and "see out of obscurity" and the humble will "increase their joy in the Lord."

As in Isaiah 35, the kind of power in this season of divine power to come,  will be such that

                 "the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.
Then shall the lame leap like a deer, and the tongue of the dumb sing,
   for waters shall burst forth in the wilderness, and streams in he desert...
                        A highway shall be there, and a road, and it shall be called the Highway of Holiness...
        And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with singing..."

It is to be, then,  a season of miraculous power to heal, both spirit and body. The significance of truth will be seen, and its application realised. Hope is turned to faith, for it will come, quite surely. Indeed, this is precisely what has come and did come as in the day of Jesus the Christ upon this earth, and the resultant power unleashed through the Holy Spirit as in Luke 24:46-49, Acts 2, and exhibited as in Acts 10-12, 13-19, for example.

It is then that we find particular actions concerning the righteous King Hezekiah, as the power of God in answer to faith in Him according to His covenant is used, with the deliverance of the nation from Assyria through faith in the Lord; and the error that followed this triumph and  glorious intervention which reminds of the Exodus in its severity on the invasive Babylonian foe, with his reckless attack on the very name of God! (cf. Isaiah 37:10-13, II Chronicles 32:17). AS the gods of the nations could not deliver from the power of Assyria, the letter to Hezekiah ran in its confrontation, so will not the God of Israel deliver it from his hand.

Here is David and Goliath over again. This is direct assault as well as insult, and it goes beyond the sin of man to the sanctity of God. HENCE the answer to faith was profound. The army was ruined, for Assyria was battered by God, its King departing in humiliation, later to be slain in his own temple, before his own gods, by his own offspring.

Alas, for the sin of man, despite this vast result, under the test of success, Hezekiah erred. Before confrontation, he went aright; in the midst of triumph, he went awry. Triumph is a time of maximal danger.

Thus after a plainly and directly miraculous cure from a physical disease, in which the prophet Isaiah was directly involved, Hezekiah was guilty of regal folly. It concerned messengers from a rising nation in that day, namely Babylon. To them,  Hezekiah, in the excess of urbanity, opened the temple, showing its treasures. The occasion ? since he had been ill, these came to his greatness to express their solicitude. As if ignorant of the sanctity of the Lord and the sacredness of His appointments which spoke of salvation, Hezekiah, like so many today who similarly mix with anti-Christian follies in fallen churches, SHARED with them (contrary to I Corinthians 5-6, Romans 16:17, Titus 4:2, II John).

Alas, to these Babylonian messengers, in grand manner were shown the wonders and symbols of the Temple, which they did not fail to take in, with their financial worth... In time,  they would destroy it. It would be an evil day when this mighty and coming kingdom would act, and a foul one for Judah; but that was not yet.

While this in no way diminishes the miraculous work of the Lord, and indeed it was to be increased by the forecast of the very name of the Ruler of the ensuing empire after Babylon (Isaiah 44:24-45:7), namely the Medes and Persians (as foretold in Isaiah 13:17 and Daniel 8) who would deliver them from Babylon, enabling them to return to their land after its overthrow, it  serves as worthy prelude to the sheet lightning of revelation to follow in Isaiah 40. Firstly, we move from the now illustrated failure of even the best to meet the requirements of redeemer, as in the movement from Isaiah 41-42:4, and again in Isaiah 51:20 to 52:13-53:12. It is a logical progression as well as a chronological one. Secondly, the immense catastrophe, which became wholly stormy in the King Manasseh who preceded the righteous King Hezekiah, and is foretold in Isaiah 39:5ff., is contrasted with the utmost poignancy, mixed with solemn majesty, as God releases such light of comfort as Isaiah 40 opens,  as staggers the soul and rejoices the heart.

There comes suddenly, the consolation from eternity,  the encouragement from The Eternal God. In this way as continually, so that there is a progress and a progression.

The third clear binding association of this earlier series of Chapters and 40 to come, is this, that just as Hezekiah has just been told the aweful immediate destiny for his people, so at once God intervenes, to show the OUTCOME AFTER this desolation at the hand of Babylon, that comforting restoration, seen as in a sudden change of stage scenery in a powerful drama, as now at the terminus of the horror soon to come. You see out of prison, in its beauty, imprinted on the ready mind, which had begun to be concerned at impending judgment.

Again, and fourthly, we find here introduction to what is to come in this, that there is soon to be seen as we  proceed through the prophecy, a mingling of contrast stimulating to the mind,  which will be made between deliverance from Babylon, through Cyrus, soon to occur (after the 70 year time frame for it,  given to the prophet Jeremiah to declare) and deliverance  from sin in the salvation of the Messiah. This itself to be seen as it comes into view in Isaiah, as the supreme performance,  past all comparison and introduction, and the fulfilment of type, in the atypical. That, it means that when GOD acts in person, although there may be a common type to the point of deliverance, in what in lesser  degree or mode, someone else does, there is still an utter divergence in power and purity, and here, in result.

Thus the onset of Babylon and its exile for Israel, which booms like cannon fire as Isaiah 39 ends, is met at once by the result from a greater deliverance, that from the Lord who comes in Person, and is seen with His lambs after the rebuke of the exile is over. Thus we move at once towards a far greater deliver, in fact the Messiah, who will bring back from a worse land, the land of sin and rebellion, to the land of God, safety in His salvation.

It is He who moves in and out like a swallow, flitting about the ground or the water, covering it with presence and movement, leaving the air almost vibrant with expectation and velocity, as we find where it all moves next. All the preludes are now to be developed,  again sometimes in sudden movements as Isaiah 40 in its commencement, or in extended confirmations and consolidations, as in Isaiah 52-55, and intensive challenges to understanding, with the very richness of the diet,  as in Isaiah 60 and 26, 66 and 24.

The Costly Relief Force

It is in Isaiah 40 that the prophet comes to the result, the day of the overthrow of the nation which would spoil Israel and reduce Judah, to the  fall  to  that Babylon,  and the restoration of Israel, freely (Isaiah 45:13) from that fall. Indeed, as we will see, he, called Cyrus, famous for the Cyrus cylinder in history, showing just such things, would let them return freely, and even the stolen golden items of the temple would be restored. This too was a symbol of the free deliverance from sin to come, when the ultimate and spiritual deliverer, the Messiah would come, for He too would deliver freely, as Isaiah 55 deeply and dramatically states!

Thus, as Isaiah predicted in 39:6ff., his land would be assaulted and the people devastated.

Now, however, it is the deliverance which is view, the next step in the saga.

" Comfort you, yes comfort My people,' says your God.
'Speak comfort to Jerusalem and cry out to her that her warfare is ended,
that her iniquity is pardoned...' "

How great that spiritually two-timing iniquity was, we read in II Kings and II Chronicles!

But what is this ? It is in this very Chapter 40 of Isaiah that we find the next series of Messianic pearls. Indeed it moves with intervals of contemporary matters, like a river through many lands, always with scenes at the side, and here is the Messiah. In Isaiah 40, He is seen with His flock, even the Lord God, with lambs in His arms, as He comes to rule, tender and solicitous, and with this is good tidings for Zion. In Isaiah 41, as it ends, we find that none of Israel's sons will do for the task required to bring the Messianic power and purity, pardon and peace to  light. Rather, in very direct and dramatic contrast, as we move from Isaiah 41 to 42, we find who it is. It is "My servant" whom God describes, the God with us noted before, the Prince of Peace seen earlier, the seed of David, foretold and appointed long before, in the mind of God who would send Him, indeed in view as from the first in Genesis 3:15, and  long before (Ephesians 1:4).

Thus,  in utter and total contrast with the children of Israel, the very best like Hezekiah, alas not without sin, there is the sinless saving substitute for man in his guilt and failure, the Christ, who would cover the cost and make good the loss in His own inimitable way. As God, He would purge as for and before God, being so sent, and having purged, purify His people and make a people, a remnant of believers for Himself.

As then to the best of men, they fail; but this One is not only triumphant but entirely the consummation of excellence. In Him, man is to depend, for when they did not go to God, God came to them.

Not only  is He modest and prudent, but persistent and powerful (Isaiah 11, 40, 42, 49). Thus is the revelation through Isaiah, in depicting the power, person and productions of the coming Messiah!

Not only will HE not fail or be discouraged, be broken in His task, but with like concern, He will be kind to those in danger of being broken themselves, and neither snuff out the smoking flax nor break the bruised reed (Isaiah 42:1-4), and for all that, a contrast with the lords of the nations, He will bring light not only to Israel, but to the nations as well (Isaiah 42:6, 49:6). Further, as in Psalm 2, He is to rule the entire earth (Isaiah 11:3-5), both light and Lord, delivering many from their sins and woes, this in line with the fulfilment of the Covenant With Abraham.

As in Psalm 2, the rulers, the judges, the self-appointed assessors of the earth are warned to make their peace with God through Him, with due devotion, for despite their wranglings and manglings, this He is (Psalm 2:1-3, 8-12). Indeed, just as He is to be insulted and assaulted by sinners with their sin, so He will be exalted by God with His salvation, having used the sin to service the hearts and spirits of fallen man, redeeming not a few! This is the more amply shown in Isaiah 52-55, 59-60.

So is the divine exposure of Isaiah 40 linked to things in many places, as well as in the prophet's own book. Next, after various dealings with Israel in the intervening Chapters, we find in Isaiah 45 the emphasis on God as the creator of all things and the heavens, of man, the ruler of history; and in the sequence from 44-45, His presently intended act is exposed,  to send one named in advance, Cyrus, to deliver Israel from their coming sojourn in Babylon, when in times past that of Isaiah, they would be devastated as we have already seen. Naming him before the event, ruler of a nation to let Israel return, one who will beat down Babylon and free Israel, is so amazing that God uses this to show an example of the fact that it is HIS OWN prophecies, those of God to His people, which make fools of those who pretend wisdom without Him who KNOWS.

It is indeed He who "turns wise men backwards, and makes their knowledge foolishness" (Isaiah 44:25), while His own prophecies are always fulfilled. It is this which the apostle Paul focusses in I Corinthians 1,  concerning Christ, the wisdom and the power of God (I Corinthians 1:24,30).

People often love to mock His divine mockery of their pretentious non-wisdom in philosophy and pseudo-science; but it is in HIS statements which come to pass, not the devious and delinquent desires of the human heart, and it is in Him, precisely according to His word, that fulfilment is found, both for hearts and for history. This comes whether the tantrums against the word of God be dressed up as science, religion or any other type of human knowledge,  while in fact infected with pretension and not strong in reality, void of divine inspiration and desire for it. Sidestepping God is not limited to Israel, nor are the results either! We see them now in this 21st century, after two millenia of international resistance, though shafts of light have come in nations from Sweden to Germany, Britain to Switzerland, from time to time.

Alas, how quickly the darkness seeks to swallow them up; but though the world chooses not to comprehend, yet the light continues to shine, till the full divine strategy is finished, already long past the active provision of divine and free salvation, and now moving on towards the realm of the return of the Messiah to rule, leading in due course to the removal of this staging, the dismantling of the universe and the creative construction through the Creator who made it in its testing phase for man and all, and will end it in His own time for the new heavens and the new earth (Isaiah 65:17, II Peter 3:10-13);  for the old must go (Matthew 24:35), and the new will come.

Let us however return to Isaiah, in our progressive working through it in the  Messianic theme.

In Isaiah 45:22-25 God thrusts on those who hear the need to "look to Me, and be saved, all you ends of the earth!" adding, "For I am God, and there is no other... To Me every knee shall bow."

Isaiah 46 shows the Lord's attitude to the barbarities of Babylon with Israel, the fate of that nation and the fact that no nation has the true God, but Israel, as well as its own follies and failures, while Isaiah 47 exhibits the desolation to come to Babylon (as also did Isaiah 13-14), never to be restored. This, in turn,  leads on to the second part of the divine letter of mercy. It is in Isaiah 44-45 that we find the coming ruler Cyrus and his liberating act, but in Isaiah 48, there is an intimation of greater and more permanent deliverance. It is at verse16, that it enters:

"Come near to Me, hear this:

I have not spoken in secret from the beginning;
From the time that it was, I was there,
And now the Lord God and His Spirit
Have sent Me."

The Speaker in this case,  is the One of whom it is said,

"I am He, I am the First,
I am also the last.
Indeed  My hand has laid the foundation of the earth..."

ït is apparent that God is sending God, for He in His unity is not limited to one Person: that the Trinity is in action, the Sender, the Sent and the Spirit, and it is as Redeemer that He is speaking, as in Isaiah 48:17. It is HE who is coming, and it is HE who is sent (as in Zechariah 2:8):  it is He who tells them not to linger in Babylon, where the time has come, their iniquity being pardoned, to return to their land following this captivity. It is never good to stay where the Lord forbids, or to linger where spiritual things are not in place, as now (cf. Revelation 18:4),  in false churches, of which Babylon is the very type (cf. Revelation 17).

Moving on to Isaiah 49,  we find the same Messiah as in Isaiah 42, with partly the same message, namely that He is the light sent to the Gentiles as well (49:6 as in 42:6) as to Israel, and His mouth is as a sharp sword, active, effectual. We begin now however to see a new feature. His work in the midst of sublime saving passion, begins to look in vain (Isaiah 49:4), and we hear this, "I have spent My strength for nothing." Nevertheless, "surely My just reward is with the Lord, and My work with My God."  Despite the agony and anguish of His task, its role is amplified in accord with God as the God of creation of ALL; and it is thus that we find His salvation is to extend to the Gentiles, as well as to "restore the preserved ones of Israel."

Staggeringly, but truly, we are told that the Sender is addressing the Sent One,
Himself the Lord, saying,

 "Thus says the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel, their Holy One,

to Him whom man despises,

to Him whom the nation abhors,

to the Servant of rulers:

Kings shall see and arise,
princes also shall worship,
because of the Lord who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel
and He has chosen you."

Thus, since the nation is to 'abhor' Him,  to cap its revolts, Israel as a nation,  is emphatically not going to receive this Messiah ... at first. It is as in Micah 5:1-3, where He whose goings are from eternity, though come as Judge to earth, will be smitten on the cheek, about as cheeky a derogation as you could ask!

In  Isaiah 50, this string of spiritual pearls found in this prophecy continues; for we find His beard torn, although He for His part was "not rebellious", His cheeks are smitten (as in  Micah 5, where His birth from eternity to time is announced); but in the face of these now increasingly obvious physical afflictions and inordinate rejections,

"... the Lord God will help Me: therefore I will not be disgraced.

Therefore I have set My face like a flint, and I know that I will not be ashamed..

Who is My adversary ? Let him come near Me.

Surely the Lord God will help Me: Who is he who will condemn Me  ?"

(from Isaiah 50:7-9).

 Again in Isaiah 51:19-20, as in 41:28-29, we find that there is none of Israel able to  bring the relief or redemption, the salvation or the restorative power to the presence of God, but the Servant, found to be God Himself in human form, who in Himself CONSTITUTES the covenant (Isaiah 42:6). This was fulfilled when Jesus Christ stated that this was the New Covenant in His blood (Matthew 26:28), for even Moses did not CONSTITUTE the covenant, far from it, being excluded from entry, himself, into the promised land, but the Messiah, as God, IS IT! (cf. Hebrews 4).

It is not in Israel as a group of covenanted sinners, but in God that the restoration, therefore, is based, and is to come; and so does Isaiah 52-53, proceed to show in considerable detail. The Messiah is a better'-than-Israel advent, "an Israel in whom I will be glorified," (Isaiah 49:3), a prince of God, the import of the word 'Israel' who is indeed Prince of peace! It is not in any nation, though the Messiah is made incarnate through one, that salvation is found, for it is only through it, and in particular, through the word of God given it, and the Messiah to be found (and slain) in it, that salvation comes! Israel is neither central nor insignificant in salvation; it is used, it is a site, it is elevated to a mission; it failed, but it will be found once more, and this on the same terms as those which it once rejected, as did so many of the Gentiles, those of the effectual 'Israel', God Himself coming as the Prince of peace. Surely this is not hard, nor does it contain the slightest ground for any confusion, except the wilful, though the heart of man can be so easily bewitched. Let however the word of God be the rule, and one is safe in Him whose it is.

But what of this Gospel which has been so defined, so distinctive and contra-distinct from all else, and from the power of any man or men ? Even the feet of those conveying this news are beautiful on the mountains, for the means are totally surpassed by the message (52:7). The famous passage in 52-53 of Isaiah,  then proceeds concerning the abominable butchery wrought on the Messiah, the redeeming by His blood, the transfer of guilt by His sacrifice, this by divine desire (Isaiah 53:10),  to be received by treating what He did as a sacrifice for sin, and so being pardoned by faith^*2.

After this centrality of salvation in Isaiah 53-53, Isaiah 54 stresses the everlasting character of the fruits of the atonement, 55 its entire freedom for acceptance, all having been paid; and we thus proceed to Isaiah 59 in our theme, where we find another focus and feature of the Messiah. It is as Christ declared (Luke 24), that there are two major phases in His work (Luke 24:25-29): the sufferings and the glory to come.

As the  regimen of unruliness proceeds, as expressed in Isaiah 59, there comes the limit,  that "truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter. So truth fails, and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey."

Into this ultimate situation, the Lord Himself comes with divine effectiveness, so that "according to their deeds, He will repay," Isaiah 59:18. He comes to Zion, site of the crucifixion (as the close proximity of Zechariah 12:10-13 to14:5ff. reminds), as site for rule (Isaiah 2, Micah 4). It is not only land for Israel, it is also site for salvation's actual accomplishment by Christ!

There will be contest (as formerly even in heaven - cf. Revelation 12), but it will soon be over: "When the enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him." To Zion He comes, the Redeemer, and His Spirit will not depart, not His words, for it will all come and become history (Isaiah 59:21). This is in accord with Zechariah 12:10-13:1, as to  salvation and its permanency, on the one hand, and the Lord's coming action, this day of grace done, as in Zechariah 14:3ff. and Isaiah 59,66, Micah 7 and Habakkuk 3:12-13, parallel to Isaiah 2.

Isaiah 60 shows the nature of spiritual salvation and we see a city, Zion, with the very walls constituted of salvation, and the gates,  Praise. What then ? This spiritual city is illustrative of the fact that many a Jew and a Gentile will now come, and Jerusalem will be situated as a city of fulfilment, indicative of what was long in mind, the Church of Jesus Christ now being universal, its meaning for all mankind. That said, nevertheless God does not forgo His own city, which symbolised salvation for so long, and where His only begotten Son was crucified, and for His purposes alone: of His Son as Redeemer alone will its message continue.

In Isaiah 61,  we move to the Gospel, and this is cited by Jesus as in Luke 4, when He visited Nazareth, where He insists that the reference is to Himself, for God sent Him

"to heal the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and the opening of the prison to those who are bound,
to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord."

That acceptable year of the Lord is evidently based on the jubilee year, which signifies the 50 year time when lands lost through poverty and sold were to be returned to those whose they had been, and those in bondage to masters in Israel, were released, civilly in the land (Leviticus 25). Liberty and free deliverance were its keynotes, and this is applied spiritually in Isaiah 61, enabling immediate return to God, without cost, in jubilation.

There you have direct confirmation from them mouth of the Messiah, concerning His role. Christ, when He cited this prophecy, having come as in John 3:16-19, NOT to condemn the world, but to save it, did not proceed to the next part of the Isaiah 61 prophecy, when it is noted in Luke 4, what He said to those at Nazareth. What is that next part ? It reads: "and the day of vengeance of our God."

Since, as He declared, every tiniest part of prophecy will be fulfilled (Matthew 5:17-20), it is apparent that this was not because it will not happen, but because it was not part of His Messianic Mission as the suffering Servant, that it should then be presented. There is as He told them (Luke 24), the suffering phase of His work and the glory phase. The glory which is to follow was not yet! It is glorious to deliver His people from endless trial and persecution, butchery and hauteur; but first they must suffer and declare the Gospel concerning Him; and until that time comes, we labour in travail but with joy, there being much to be done: for God in magnificent mercy seeks all. Being  splendidly patient, however, He is not lax. Long He waits before the judgment; but He does not wait forever (as in II Peter 3:9). Truth in the end comes out, each one covered and converted, or discovered and judged. The ONLY cover is this same Jesus, the Christ, Messiah, and the result of its rejection is inspection and condemnation (John 3:19,36) cf. Isaiah 66 in its ending.

But we have not yet finished the theme in Isaiah 61, so let us revert.
 

Remnants, Name Changes and Restoration

The underlying and basic principle being now direct salvation without the symbolic means of expression of yore, we see this exultation (Isaiah 61:10):

"I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God,
for He has  clothed me with the garments of salvation,
He has covered me with the robe of righteousness...
for as the earth brings forth its bud,
as the garden causes the things that are sown in it to spring forth,
so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth
before all the nations."

Jerusalem herself, on whose walls God has set watchmen (Isaiah 62:6), in her own time will  join in this salvation, at least in large measure, though as we saw in Isaiah 49:7, their initial action was to be distressingly negative, as it was in history likewise, in that never broken conjunction of the word of God and what happens. As forecast, they would as a nation "abhor"  the Messiah,  to kill Him, to pierce and slowly murder Him (Psalm 22).

In Isaiah 63, we see something of the final side of judgment as the turmoil moves into the rule of Christ, as reflection is made on the wonderful grace of God shown to them earlier, when He had led them to Israel, making them to lie down "as a beast goes into the valley to rest, and the Spirit of the Lord causes him to rest," for "thus hast Thou led Thy people to make Thyself a majestic name" (Delitzsch). What a lot there is in such a majestic name, and what a marvel to behold and believe in, is He whose name it is!

Alas, by the day of Isaiah, rebellion has surged, spirituality has dived. Different now it is, for Israel as envisaged at this point is not  yet brought back to the Lord, so that a passionate appeal to God in terms of His Fatherhood is not received (Isaiah 64:65:3). Why is this so ? It is because the sacrifice of Christ was not received, redemption placed with face and grace in history, was trifled with, despatched! that is why. That was the prediction, and it became likewise the fact. God in His wisdom knew of all of this before the sending, and it became incorporated in His plan whose is excellent in counsel, and wonderful in His ways. The sooner one realises this in any heart, the sooner life will be in that life, nearer to what it could be, should be and has hope of being.

For Israel, however, such realisation was still far off, for the nation. MUCH had to happen before the glory of the New Covenant would be received into Israel, and thus we have the famous repudiation of Isaiah 65:13-15, in which the staggering evil reception given to the Messiah by the nation (NOT by the JEWS, since some were apostles), meets now with a rejection from God. Reject the prescription, and you reject the remedy. It is here as simple as that. It is others who will rejoice in the Lord in this epoch, while

 "you shall leave your name as a curse to My chosen:
for the Lord will slay you and call His servants by another name."

That is the divine reply to the prayer to the Father, which omitted the Redeemer for access! Had not the blood of centuries in sacrifice yet taught them, nor any of the earlier prophecies, as in Moses and the Psalms ? Did they have to follow dud ways, and suffer ? This however they chose. Nations might imagine the plight of Israel to have other grounds, in the not unusual human folly of pride, but it is not so. If they had stayed with their God as He had shown them and encouraged them, then He would have stayed with Him; and if they had as a nation returned to their God, then He would have returned to them (Malachi 3:7). But at that point, and for two millenia, this was not so, one of the greatest tragedies in history, but not different in kind from the case of anyone who being first illuminated and tasting the wonder of things supernatural, yet swerves from the entry point, and bypasses the way.

Such sorrow does one have for each such case, and one is reminded of Jeremiah 13:15-17:

"Give glory to the LORD your God, before he cause darkness,
and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains, and,
while you look for light, he turn it into the shadow of death, and make it gross darkness.

"But if you will not hear it,
my soul shall weep in secret places for your pride;
and my eye will weep sorely, and run down with tears,
because the LORD’S flock is carried away captive.

"Say to the king and to the queen,

'Humble yourselves, sit down: for your principalities shall come down,
even the crown of your glory.
The cities of the south shall be shut up, and none shall open them:
Judah shall be carried away captive all of it, it shall be wholly carried away captive.

"Lift up your eyes, and behold them that come from the north:
where is the flock that was given you, your beautiful flock?

"What wilt you say when He punishes you ? for you have taught them to be captains,
to be head over you: will not pangs seize you, like a woman in labour ?"

There is the illustration of the pangs, grief, sorrow at all this unnecessary labour, travail, trivialisation of truth and distancing from the Lord despite all His grace.

Yet what is this that He has said in Isaiah 65,

 "you shall leave your name as a curse to My chosen:
for the Lord will slay you and call His servants by another name."

The new name for those who DID follow the Lord, during Israel's temporary absence from its former place (as in Romans 11) ? This naturally would be that of the Messiah, so that His people would be Messiah-followers, Messiah-people, a new nation of international kind, and they would be Messiah-ans,  or using the Greek form, Christ-ians, Christians (cf. I Peter 2, Acts 11:26). So it came to pass, as it does always, whatever He says. Moreover, it does so for the reasons which He declares. So Israel, cut out for the time from its spiritual tree, finds itself in the work of the ministry of the Gospel, the testimony of grace, the sovereign work of God, and their very name becomes instead of a stirring and a stimulus to glory and a sense of the grace, power and pardon of the God of truth, is left "as a curse to My chosen ones."

So do people pity the wandering Jew; and some like Hitler find not pity but crushing their code of cruelty. When a people abandons their God, be it Gentile or Jew, alas and grievous is their result; for righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people. The more so is it the case when the nation had been far nearer to God, and the case is epitomised when to it the Messiah had come. Yet for all that, the practice is like zeal in reverse when any nation, as now so many nations, presume on the patience of God and sever basic ties once made. One prays for instance for Australia in its current mood of quivering querulousness toward God, for so many, and those especially in government if by any means revival may stop the tumult, and give reprieve from disruptive spiritual folly.

So much for "a curse to My chosen", a reference to those who, in whatever nation, will come and believe and walk with the Lord, as Israel the nation, and many another, has not done; called by another name, Christians, they bring those beautiful feet, electronic now or through satellite, to many.

Indeed, not only are there a new people (which Israel is to join as in Isaiah 66, when the Gentiles rejoice in their coming deliverance through the direct and naked power of God, turning their hearts as well as the tide of events as in Zechariah 12-13, Ezekiel 37), but there is to be even a new heaven and a new earth (Isaiah 65:17); moreover it is to be CREATED, and this II Peter 3 exposes in some detail, in its dynamic. The old introduced; the New Covenant consummates, and in the terms which never change, God predicts, performs and consummates concerning the Messiah and His redemption, and all done, removes and replaces the heavens and the earth. They will have seen much including His own rule in that which now is (as in Revelation 20, Isaiah 11, Psalm 72), and the fruits of misrule by renegades.

We pass now to the last Chapter in Isaiah.

Isaiah 66 completes the Messianic picture of Isaiah, for here we find the direct repudiation of animal sacrifice, with loathing, for the love of God used what was less in symbol, but now that what is more and entirely adequate to cover sin is presented, it would be a loathsome thing to insult the Spirit of grace by continuing with symbol in the face of the divinely paid price of salvation! (66:3). It is as always the case, that "on this one will I look: on him who is poor, and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at My word." As to those who "insist on their own ways," the Lord "will choose their delusions," as in II Thessalonians 2:4-10.

Here we have something closely parallel to that glorious passage of empathy and hope, in Micah 7, in Isaiah 66:8ff..

"Hear the word of the Lord you who tremble at His word:

'Your brethren who hated you, who cast you out for My name's sake, said,

'Let the Lord be glorified, that we may see your joy,'

but they shall be ashamed."

Their heartless mockery (epitomised as in Matthew 27:39), ricochets from the walls of history, and those who cast themselves  in this debased mould, will certainly suffer deeply in shame and disgrace, unless in the interim, they have repented of folly. Truth does not alter.

Then we find a detailed particularisation, that for Israel, for Jerusalem. We find that there is to be an exceedingly sudden restoration of the nation from its exile and dispersion (as predicted in Leviticus 26, with Deuteronomy 28-32, and shown in Hosea), as it were giving birth before being in labour (Isaiah 66:8-9). She will be filled with inhabitants once more, she who was desolate. It is astonishing:  

"Shall a nation be born at once!" the Lord apostrophises.

Of what kind is this birth then, as spoken of in Isaiah 66 ?

It relates to a change of tide, in which those who had mocked in Israel, who had indeed been the entirely singular focus in Isaiah 65-66, in terms of sorrow and suffering, become ashamed of what they have done. It is not to do with a spiritual edifice, in a general sense, though its nature is spiritual, but in a special sense, that of the contextual focus. That it is Israel who, at last as in Deuteronomy 32, Romans 11:25, is brought from blindness to sight, and delivered in spectacular power from murder, mockery and suppression, by the divine power which had originally delivered them as a nation.  This was spectacularly seen  in the Exodus, a point heavily emphasised in Micah 7:15 in the parallel passage:

"As  in the days when you came out of the land of Egypt, I will show them wonders.
The nations will see and be ashamed of all their might,
they  will put their hand over their mouth;
their ears will be deaf.
They will lick the dust like a serpent;
they will crawl from their holes like snakes of the earth.
They will be afraid of the Lord our God..."

. God remembers what He has said to all people, and here as in Micah 7:19-20 He remembers Israel. Indeed it is in terms by which alone they can now stand, that of mercy, and pardon in peace through the covenant which bloomed in Christ, seen budded in Isaiah. In delight, Micah the prophet adds at this point of divine power and rehabilitation for Israel, with the same mercy now given to faith, to one and to all

"Who is a God like unto thee, who pardons iniquity,
and passes by the transgression of the remnant of His heritage?
He does not retain His anger for ever, because He delights in mercy. 1

"He will turn again, He will have compassion on us;
He will subdue our iniquities; and You wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. 2
You will perform the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham,
which You have sworn unto our fathers from the days of old."

At the same eventuation in Deuteronomy, when God acts as in Exodus with mighty reproof to bullies and belligerents, intelligentsia wedded to foolishness, and cognoscenti acquainted with folly (32:43), He declares this to the Gentiles, those who believe from that source:

"Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad with here, all you who love her,"

the Lord declares, thus making the Christian heart and Jerusalem two entities, the one in general, and the other in particular. It is just as in the Paul-cited Deuteronomy 32:43, where the Gentiles are to rejoice with her, as the Lord  will then "provide atonement for the land and for the people." Indeed,  "He will avenge the blood of His servants."

Just as in Deuteronomy 32:36, the Lord will act to avenge and deliver His people so long oppressed, the focus of Deuteronomy 32 in their highly particular situation as in Deuteronomy 28-32. When will He do this ? It is WHEN "He sees that their power is gone," and thus He will act to "repay those who hate Me," making His arrows, " drunk with blood"  (cf. Revelation 19), there being none who can " deliver from My hand". As there,  so here in Isaiah 66, we find the same depiction, with the same focus. Into the suddenly restored nation (Isaiah 66:7-8)Isaiah 49:19-20), there comes this divine power of deliverance as at the Exodus. Tied to the one enterprise in in Micah 7:15ff. likewise, we find here that there was an act of massive deliverance for the people,  Israel. This involves explicit overthrow of militant, military and hostile powers. Thus will be shown "His indignation to His enemies," for He will come

" with fire, and with His chariots, like a whirlwind, to render His anger with fury,
and His rebuke with flames of fire,
for by fire and by His word the Lord will judge all flesh,
and the slain of the Lord shall be many."
 

So it was to be in terms of God's faithfulness; and so as always in such matters of reliability, it will be. It is as real and historical as was Jeremiah's purchase of land, and burial of the title deed, just before as he had prophesied, Israel went into EXILE! for it was sure they would return, just as it is sure Jesus the Christ will return, and His people of all races will be one, and His will will be one, and His place and mode and actions and fulfilments, these will be many, just as He has said.
 

Vengeance is Mine, says the Lord

What then of this divien intervention as shown in Micah, Deuteronomy and Isaiah ? as paralleled in part in Revelation 19 ?

At this point, it is vengeance, not salvation^*3; it is rebuke and slaughter, not faith and pardon; it is judgment and not atonement, it is over-rule of forceful oppression by direct and immediate  power of death and rebuke,  leading to comfort for His people, who had been without comfort.

In this is the consummation, the blessed  change from the situation in Isaiah 65:13-15, where Israel was outcast, to this, where the Gentile Christians in hearty agreement with this change for Israel, can delight in her new status, joy in deliverance almost too vast to comprehend. Rendering His anger with fury on adversaries is by no means the same as rendering His pity on His people. Those slain of the Lord, as in Revelation 19, are not metaphorically slain in this military action when God finds Israel weak in power, as if fury were fervour, but are killed for their chronic oppression of Israel, slain in vengeance. It is in this as in Revelation 19: one does not call the birds to devour the remnants of battle, if it is merely a battle of the mind. When God directs history, He speaks clearly in context of this and that for those defined by the backgrounds implicit or explicit for them; and a wandering mind is not to be found in the Almighty.

Indeed, the entire misuse of this phrasing is so prodigious that one trembles for those so often responsible for it.  God acts to deliver Israel by power  comparable with the occasion of the Exodus when Egypt was the oppressor, no small action by intervening deity, dividing between the military power of Pharaoh and the need to be faithful to Israel,  and doing this by the requisite might. In this, singular steps were taken leading as are listed here, leading this time not to the case of Egypt, as one nation, but to the nations "which will be ashamed of  all their might" in rebuke and devastation, not enticement and salvation: not here! He speaks of  His indignant judging of all flesh, not here of His pardon and regeneration. What then do we find ? It is this. The modes of slaying, fire and the sword, and the preservation of His protectorate, as before, being in view, as in Micah, where the very nations creep into their holes: these represent something different from conviction of sin and pardon, so that people so saved may come out of their holes, and live! It is the direct opposite. Here they go into them!

We then revert to the central mission of the Messiah, as in Isaiah 66:18, where the Jew-Gentile division (as in Ephesians 2:14-22), is lost in the new amplitude in Christ, the one as the other in Christ, now winning sinners and bringing them home to Himself. There is to be a sign is in the central mission. The last emphasis in Isaiah, as always the chief one, that of redemption, is here epitomised in what is the famous feature of Christianity, that GOD as man DIED on a CROSS to redeem, and rose from the dead in His body to publish it! That doubtless is the sign set among the nations (Isaiah 66:19), symbolised in form as actualised in fact, at Calvary, as that of the cross. Now there is no longer any differentiation of tribes for priestly tasks, for  at this time, Jew and Gentile alike as brothers proceed now, as the Gentiles did when Israel was spiritually absent AS A NATION: together they perform their holy task, as in Romans 15:18, uncramped by Levitical laws, past symbols, immersed in heart in substantial reality, in Christ, the basis of the new name, that alone now recognised for Jew or Gentile or Greek.

In this, then, we have seen the theme throughout Isaiah, in very small compass in order not to be overcome with detail, contrary to purpose, but to see the thrust and power of it, the Messianic centrality and certainty, its core and its character, its results and its coherence, its application and its intimation.
 

The Book of Isaiah Flows like a Vast Liner on her Passage: 

One Boat of Benediction,
One Ocean of Truth for its Lodgment, 
One Underlying Theme, One  Salvation

In the prophecy of Isaiah, it is interesting to note the coherence; indeed the cohesion of it all. For example, as illustration, let us take one case. If you say, right, Isaiah 49-55 is a piece in one focus, with salvation central,  the Messiah illuminated in amazing lens work, to show now this and now that feature,  as in some marvellous work of photography, or of lecturing, with the eye moving, a pointer selecting relevant data, as it roves over the whole.  Let us however  look back before Isaish 49, and one finds as shown above, the power of God in creation and prophecy, as in Isaiah 45, and then the contrast of His refuge with rotten Babylon with its Bel, in 46, with the Lord's promises to His people featured. In the end of Isaiah 46, we find His salvation is near, and that one from the East is to bring deliverance (as in Isaiah 44-45), which is Cyrus as named. In Isaiah 47, we find the ruin of this Babylon, with the short contrasting statement of stable security, "

"As for our Redeemer, the Lord of hosts is His name, the Holy One of Israel," we are reminded. Isaiah 48 moves on to a succinct and sophisticated development,  from one deliverer in some things, to the One who can deliver in all things. Thus in Isaiah 48, we see the trinitarian bases of the greater deliverance to come, as already noted above. In Isaiah 49, we move to the nature of the Redeemer, and so the whole from Isaiah 45 - 55 is one piece.

Similarly Isaiah 40 had shown the Lord with tenderness personally and in human form ministering His loving care, Isaiah 41 the rebuke to building on other rocks which move, while 42 moves into the Messianic in direct focus, extending our domain of understanding significantly, 43 tells there is NO OTHER SALVATION, GOD ONLY its source (43:10-11), so that in Isaiah 44 we see depicted people one by one, finding salvation in the Lord (44:3-5), and the production of idols seen as a substitutionary farce of unrealism, worthy of the mockery it gets there.

God, as Isaiah 44 ends, ,returns to the initial contribution to deliverance in Cyrus, and proceeds to specialise on the scope of the God who is the source of their redemption, before dealing as above in Isaiah 47-48 with the preparation for the advance to the massive and great redemption in Himself (as in Hosea 13:14). This as expressed in Isaiah 49 directly, moves on till Isaiah 55 in its Messianic intensity.  Thus in stages, leading to Isaiah 48, the trinitarian culmination in necessary and total deliverance, and 49, the outcome in the Redeemer as He would come to be, and  50-55 as before dwelling on aspects of the Saviour and salvation, the Redeemer and redemption, we come to what follows.

After Isaiah 56-58 have dealt  with special issues and spirituality as such, we come to Isaiah 59, with its massive and near terminal divine intervention, as just discussed, as the Redeemer comes to Zion, and this moves on through 60-66 with its culminating outcomes in the entire work of history, the salvation and the repudiation, the New Covenant coming to its completion, the word of God to its varied accomplishments, and the Jew-Gentile harmony in Gospel affairs to its depiction.

Thus, readily, you see in just one instance, the entire integrity of the vision, from Isaiah 40-66, this being preceded as in our discourse revealed, in touches, nuances, sudden exhibits, dramatic centrings on the way to salvation in the Messiah, in what has preceded that entire bloc, so that in the end, having been awakened with lightnings of illumination, inset  like diamonds, we come to stronger waves of confirmation, all assembled like a university course, Part I, Part II, Part III, from the same lecturer, even able to go to any depth at any point, while studiously moving to greater and greater expectations of understanding.

Again, it is as when one takes last year's fallow ground, first ploughs it and then seeds and goes through all the attendant practices, till the wheat at last, so that this all done in order and with method, and it all IS THERE!

Another comparison to focus the nature of the development in Isaiah: it is like a young body and mind, which first shows large development in some areas (such as the size of the feet), small in others (such as the size of the eyes), noticeable in some, such as the size of muscles in many cases,  less so in others, such as the depth of wisdom, while some departments do not increase very much (such as sharpness of vision), and others grow exceedingly, such as information. Yet all in all, there is an  assortment of growths, relative to one basic design and  platform, in which all is adjusted,  to which all is adapted and for which all is presented, so that at the end, you are looking at a man.

So does Isaiah (cf. John 12:38ff.), give from the Lord the gracious scope of this consuming flame of inspiration, each part secure by its partner, all secured in their integrality to give a message challenging, abiding, clear and deep.  It develops like a youth, parts  suddenly becoming more systematic, systematic becoming more detailed, until the whole like a bursting Spring day, has had its way and fulfilled all its promise and promises.

 For more on Isaiah and its development and themes,  see

With Heart  and Soul, Mind and  Strength, Chs. 4-7 for example, and  also

scriptural indexes.

NOTES

*1

See Bible Translation   7.

*2

See Bible Translation 20, Isaiah 53:10
 

*3

It is a great pity that some have a preconceived idea, it seems, that all references to Israel in the Old Testament prophecy, unless in a direct historical context (and some even then) MUST be made to refer to the Church, and in the case of others, that all references to Israel must not refer to the  Church, as if some kind of philosophical presupposition, not  exegesis  text by text of what is there on the basis that the Lord does not provide trickery but clarity (Proverbs 8:8), stupefying obscurity but comprehensibility.

Call it what you will, even textual fidelity instead of either the amillenial construct of the all Church type, or the dispensational of the all to Israel type, so that the use of imaginationmust conform on the one hand, to biblical principles and coherence to the vision in view and on the other, to its immediate and thematic contextual manifestations.

There is much loss in seemingly monstrous ignorings of basic principles of biblical statement,  on the one hand, and of contextual elements of great clarity, on the other, most directly so that a philosophy may be achieved. There is often another reason. It is this: that the other side of any contest will not succeed. In each case there is fear about 'the other side'.

There is fear of the ludicrous and unwise folly of dispensationalism in ignoring biblical integrity, principles set out in the Bible for interpretation,  so that the very heart of the Gospel may at times or in part molested. There is fear on the other side, equally just, that the actualities which God in His faithfulness, loyalty and  reliability in promises, premises and statement, in this case to Israel, may be aborted, so giving a blow to His undoubted constancy and consistency and a seemingly shameless shambles with prophecy, like someone determined not to believe that a suitor loves her, always finding imaginary grounds for believing it is all self-interest. It may be, but it is unwise to know without testing.

Each party, whether in one way or in another does not give sufficient concern to each TYPE of context, thus allowing with all liberty and assurance,  each party to say what it will; but rather, each must be conformist in orientation, and say what it is 'supposed'  to say. This is disenfranchisement of the word of God.

This topic is dealt with in Bay of retractable Islands Ch. 4 (cf. Ch. 19). See also Deliver us from Dispensationalism and SMR Appendix A.