Deeper Commentary
Isaiah 51:1 Listen to Me, you who follow after righteousness, you who seek Yahweh- "Listen to Me" [repeated in :4,7] is an appeal to the exiles to believe the amazing good news of redemption from Babylon. That appeal went largely unheard, and so it comes down to us who want to accept this great salvation. GNB "You who want to be saved"- which is surely all of us, followers after righteousness, hungering and thirsting to be righteous, as the Lord put it.
Ponder the parallel between Is. 51:1 and 7: “Hearken
to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the Lord… hearken
unto me, ye that know righteousness”. To know God’s righteousness is to
seek / follow it; of itself, it inspires us to ambitiously seek to attain it.
Isaiah 51:2 Look to Abraham your father, and to Sarah who bore you; for
when he was but one I called him, and I blessed him, and made him many-
Abraham was called before he had children, and his wife barren; but from
that feeble beginning God made a new nation. The tiny remnant of exiles
who were faithful should not therefore consider that they were too few to
become the revived Kingdom of God in Judah. All the time we sense they had
so many fears and such weak faith, and God through Isaiah is patiently
addressing them and encouraging them. Ez. 33:24 records how the exiles
turned this reasoning on its head; they argued that they were many, and so
seeing Abraham was few and received the land, so they ought moreso to be
given it. They missed the point, that the repentant remnant would be very
small indeed. But even if they were just two people like Abraham and
Sarah, who also lived far away from Judah to the east, they could still be
multiplied and have the Abrahamic blessing fulfilled in them.
We will discuss on :17 how the alcoholic, abused, drunken Zion lying in the dust was to be transformed, awoken from her stupor, clothed in royal clothes and enthroned as a queen. People in that kind of desperate situation are often sceptical of any good news, let alone a message of love and radical transformation for them. Just as people are so hesitant to believe that they will actually be saved. The Jews are asked to consider Sarah, another woman, like Zion. She also was barren and frail. But at an advanced age, she was miraculously rejuvenated by the Spirit, and bore Isaac. And the Jews were thereby her descendants, and living proof to the fact God can radically transform a person when it seems all is lost and just too far gone. What God had done for Abraham and Sarah was miraculous, and He could do the same for bedraggled Zion, lying drunk in the dust. From one impotent man [so Paul reasons in Romans] and one barren woman- came a multitude. A desert would become the garden of Eden; a wilderness would likewise become Yahweh's garden. And yet the exiles refused to do as asked, and look to Abraham and Sarah. In Is. 63:16,17 they complain that Yahweh has made them err from His ways, and they have no connection with Abraham: "Abraham doesn’t know us, and Israel does not acknowledge us".
Isaiah 51:3 For Yahweh has comforted Zion; He has comforted all her waste
places, and has made her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the
garden of Yahweh; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving,
and the voice of melody- GNB "I will show compassion to
Jerusalem, to all who live in her ruins", perhaps implying that now the
appeal of God was to the poor minority of Jews whom the Babylonians had
left in Judah at the time of the exile. This "joy and gladness" is the
scene of Jer. 33:11, when God's people enter the new covenant. But they
refused to accept this, instead struggling to imperfectly keep the old
covenant; and so this scenario was precluded at that time. The "comfort"
had already been given- but they had to claim it and accept it.
The past tense is used to bring out how this potential was so certain of fulfilment- if they wanted it. The appeal of Is. 40 to "comfort" God's people was being repeated- but they had to accept it. I argued on Gen. 1,2 that the garden of Eden was the eretz promised to Abraham; Eden could have been restored in the reestablished Kingdom of God which was now possible if they listened in obedience and repentance (:4). Adam like Judah had been exiled eastward, but was now being recalled. Instead of the sadness associated with the curse and moral failure, there would instead have been joy.
Isaiah 51:4 Listen to Me, My people; and give ear to Me, My nation: for a
law shall go forth from Me, and I will establish My justice for a light of
the peoples- The LXX better brings out the parallel between God's
people and the Gentiles. A remnant from both groups were being invited to
repent and join in with a new, multiethnic people of God in the restored
Kingdom: "Hear me, hear me, My people; and you kings, hearken to Me: for a
law shall proceed from Me, and My judgment shall be for a light of the
nations". This is the envisaged "law" going forth from Zion in the
reestablished Kingdom (Is. 2:2-4), not the law of Moses, but
a law which was to be "a light to the peoples". Ultimately this is
the message of the Lord Jesus, the light of the world, the word / law made
flesh. For "law", torah, we could better render
"teaching". The "light of the peoples" is the good news of salvation in
the servant (Is. 49:6 "... a light for the Gentiles, that you should
be My salvation to the ends of the earth").
The teaching or judgment [NEV
"justice"] that would be a light to the nations is that of salvation in
Christ. Judgment / justice is thus related to salvation- the judgment is
that we are pronounced justified, uncondemned in Christ, as just explained
in Is. 50. Likewise in :5 we have paralleled justice / rightness and
salvation. This is a great theme of Romans- that sinners rightly condemned
to death can be rightly declared just / righteous, with absolute moral
legitimacy. This legitimacy is through being "in" the ideal Israel,
ultimately the Lord Jesus. Again we find the parallel between justice and
salvation in :8: "My righteousness / rightness / justice shall be forever,
and My salvation to all generations". Remember always that the idea of
being 'righteous' is to be innocent, and to be declared publically
innocent. This is why there is so much legal allusion in Isaiah, and why
it is so crucial to be "in" the righteous servant through whom we are
declared innocent and uncondemned.
Isaiah 51:5 My righteousness is near, My salvation is gone forth, and My
arms shall judge the peoples; the islands shall wait for Me, and on My arm
shall they trust- The idea may be that God's gracious
salvation is approaching, and with this as His "arm" He will judge the
peoples; and that is why the peoples trust upon His arm. This makes sense
of the two references to "arm" in this verse. Man can look forward to
Divine judgment because it means salvation. David's Psalms so often look
forward to Divine judgment. God's arm is His
salvation: "Be thou their arm
every morning, our salvation also in the time of trouble" (Is. 33:2). And
the arm of Yahweh was revealed in the death of His Son (Is. 53:1 "to whom
has the arm of Yahweh been revealed?").
The Kingdom could have come very quickly had the exiles repented. God was so eager to fulfill His saving plan. Hence LXX "My righteousness speedily draws nigh". His enthusiasm and almost impatience to save His people reflects an eternal aspect of His character, which encourages us that He is far from indifferent as to the outcome of His saving purpose with us. See on :14.
Note the parallel between righteousness and salvation. As Paul develops in Rom. 1-8, we are saved by the imputation of righteousness, justification by faith. But that is yet to be revealed, although it could have been "near" even in time for the exiles. They refused these wonderful things, but they are true for us too, as we await the soon revelation of the Lord Jesus at judgment day.
Isaiah 51:6 Lift up your eyes to the skies, and look on the land beneath;
for the skies shall vanish away like smoke, and the land shall wax old
like a garment; and those who dwell therein shall die in the same way: but
My salvation shall be eternal, and My righteousness shall not be
abolished- This is parallel in reference to Is. 50:9: "Behold, all
they shall wax old as a garment, the moth shall eat them up". The "they"
are any possible adversaries who might bring charges against us. This had
particular relevance to all the adversaries to the rebuilding of
Jerusalem. With Yahweh justifying the returned exiles, the court room was
effectively empty of adversaries, all charges were to be seen in the
perspective of God's ultimate justification of His people (see on Is.
50:8). These words are also found in Job 13:28, where it is God who
consumes them, as it were manifesting Himself in a tiny moth. We find the
same ideas here in Is. 51:6, where the "they" is the 'heavens and earth'
of any system, be it Persia / Babylon or an unbelieving Jewish system,
which is adversarial to God's people and purpose. The contrast is with how
the clothing of Israel in the wilderness did not "wax old" (s.w. Dt. 8:4;
29:5; Neh. 9:21). The exodus and journey to the promised land is
repeatedly alluded to in Isaiah as a pattern for the exiles to follow in
returning to Judah, and for us in our exodus from this world and journey
towards the Kingdom.
Salvation and righteousness are paralleled here, as in :5,8. Salvation is due to Yahweh our righteousness, the Lord Jesus, and our becoming in Him. Our knowledge of righteousness (:7), our seeking for it (:1), is a seeking for and pre-experience of salvation. It's not that we must achieve righteousness in order to be saved. It's rather that we seek it, we "know" it, we love it, we want it, and it is fully counted to us in Christ. And because we are justified, counted righteous, there is a 'rightness' to our salvation as unrighteous sinners. Our salvation is eternal, and so is God's righteousness that is counted to us. The outcome of this judgment is that we are declared right, and that is for ever in that the judicial conclusion, the judgment of the Divine court, will never be overturned. Like the servant, we are freed from condemnation- for ever.
Isaiah 51:7 Listen to Me, you who know righteousness, the people in whose
heart is My law- This is addressed to the righteous minority amongst
the exiles, who although they couldn't fully obey the law in exile, still
had it in their hearts. And if they entered the new covenant, the Spirit
would write that law in their hearts (Jer. 31:33). But instead, the
returned exiles refused to have the law in their hearts (Zech. 7:12
"they made their hearts as hard as flint, in case they might hear
the law"), and
so these things are reapplied to Gentiles who are willing to have the
essence of Divine law in their hearts (Rom. 2:15).
Don’t fear the reproach of men, neither be dismayed at their insults- The call is to act as the servant of Is. 50, who was not shamed because he was justified by Yahweh. See on :1,6. As explained on Is. 50:8, we need not fear insults nor false accusation from men because we shall ultimately be justified, and even now have righteousness imputed to us. This had particular relevance to the returned exiles. "Reproach" is s.w. Neh. 1:3; 2:17; 4:4; 5:9 about the reproach of the Gentiles against the partially rebuilt Jerusalem. Is. 51:3-11 is clearly in a restoration context. This passage seems to have foreseen the lagging of spirit in Zerubbabel and the builders, and the need to encourage them that a second group of exiles ought to have come with Nehemiah with great joy. A few came, but this yet further opportunity was again not realized by the returnees. See on :11.
Isaiah 51:8 For the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm
shall eat them like wool- These words are also found in Job 13:28,
where it is God who consumes them, as it were manifesting Himself in a
tiny moth, and also as a "worm". See on :6.
But My righteousness shall be forever, and My salvation to all generations- Note the parallel between righteousness and salvation. As Paul develops in Rom. 1-8, we are saved by the imputation of righteousness, justification by faith. But that is yet to be revealed, although it could have been "near" even in time for the exiles. They refused these wonderful things, but they are true for us too, as we await the soon revelation of the Lord Jesus at judgment day. Keeping this hope in view means we shall ultimately have nobody and nothing charged against us, there will be no legal adversary in court with us at the last day. And this means that we handle accusation, both justified and false, "the reproach of men" (:7) in that perspective. And yet it is criticism and the shame which arises from it which can psychologically and spiritually destroy people in this life.
Isaiah 51:9 Awake, awake, put on strength, arm of Yahweh-
This voice that now is heard is the voice God hoped He would hear from the exiles. To call upon Yahweh to awake is a cry of faith; for we note the criticism of Judah for asking the false gods to "awake" for them in Hab. 2:19: "Woe to the one saying to wood, "Awake"; "Wake up" to the silent stone" (cp. Jer. 2:27). The hope was that the exiles would accept Yahweh's arm to save them from Babylon and bring them to Zion and the restored Kingdom. But they refused this. The essence of God's planned salvation will come true for His people in salvation from sin, and the path to His eternal Kingdom. Yahweh's arm becomes the crucified Lord Jesus, who awoke in resurrection: "To whom has the arm of Yahweh been revealed?" (Is. 53:1).
"Put on strength" can be rendered 'dress yourself'. Yahweh's arm would awake and be dressed for action; and we will read in :17 how Zion, lying in a drunken stupor, was called to likewise awake, and in Is. 52:1,2 to dress herself. Yahweh's mighty arm that created all things and had saved Israel historically from Egypt... could work that same humanly impossible transformation for His people.
This and :10 are perhaps God's hopeful imagination of how the exiles would pray to Him; the kind of Divine fantasy which Hosea had about the repentance of Gomer and her return to him which he imagined to the point of fantasizing about. LXX "Awake, awake, O Jerusalem, and put on the strength of thine arm", repeated in :17. The exiles are called "Jerusalem". They called themselves this (Is. 48:2); but they needed to do more than such merely external, legalistic, ritualistic identification of themselves with a name and culture. And that is an abiding challenge for God's people today. They had to "awake", to allow God's Spirit to act upon their hearts to "stir up" their spirits (s.w. 1 Chron. 5:26; 2 Chron. 21:16), just as He had stirred up the spirit of Cyrus to let them return (s.w. 2 Chron. 36:22). The spirit of the exiles was likewise awoken or stirred up to return (s.w. Ezra 1:5). Isaiah tragically concluded that there were so few who would 'stir up themselves' (Is. 64:7). God had given them the potential to be 'stirred up' in their hearts and minds to leave Babylon and return- but they wouldn't respond. And today, the same happens. God is willing to change hearts, to stir up materialistic and complacent spirits- but because we're not robots, we have to respond.
Awake, as in the days of old, the generations of ancient times. Isn’t it You who cut Rahab in pieces, who pierced the monster?- If they allowed themselves to be 'awoken' or 'stirred up', then Yahweh would likewise awake for them and act miraculously as He had at the time of the exodus from Egypt. But they would not be stirred up, and so the stirring up or awaking of Yahweh's arm had a longer term application. The arm of the Lord- a title of Christ- is described as awaking (cp. Christ's resurrection), and as being "It which hath dried the (Red) Sea, the waters of the great deep; that hath made a way for the ransomed to pass over" (Is. 51:9,10). This is describing the work of Christ in language applicable to the Angel of the Exodus who brought Israel through the Red Sea.
Isaiah 51:10 Isn’t it You who dried up the sea, the waters of the great
deep; who made the depths of the sea a way for the redeemed to pass over?-
Yahweh had promised that He would lead His people on that wilderness
journey from Babylon to Zion just as He had earlier led His people from
Egypt to the same promised land. Jer. 31:2 had encouraged them that Israel
“found grace in the wilderness” before, and they would do again, “When I
go to cause [Israel] to go to their place of rest” (RV). God had promised
in Jer. 31:9 that He would bring Israel on their journey from Babylon to
Judah along the fertile crescent- He would “cause them to walk by the
rivers of waters in a straight way, wherein they shall not stumble”. This
is why Isaiah’s prophecies of the restoration from Babylon are shot
through with allusion to the exodus and wilderness journey (e.g. Is. 43:2;
51:10; 63:11).
The allusion is not only to the exodus, but to creation itself.
The present world was created by a re-organization of things which existed
in some form before. This means that when our own lives, or the collective
life of God’s people, appears to be in chaos- then we can in faith reflect
that God has brought beautiful order out of chaos, and He can likewise
powerfully bring order to what seems hopeless. This is the context of the
creation allusions in the laments of Ps. 74:12-17; 89:10-15; Is. 51:9 etc.
"The depths of the sea" is mentioned because it was there that the worst sea monsters were imagined to live. And the "depths of the sea" are the place that the condemned sink down to (Ps. 69:3,15; 130:1; Ez. 27:34). As we will discuss on :17, the condemned Zion [she had drunk the cup of Divine condemnation] was at rock bottom and apparently not saveable, an alcoholic in the dust, addicted to the wine of her own condemnation. But the God who made a way for His people through the depths of the sea could make a way for her too, to come on the journey from Babylon to Zion in a new exodus. Those deepest depths of the sea, the place of condemnation, were to be made a way, turned into a road toward eternal salvation. The experience of condemnation, as experienced by Peter weeping in the darkness, was to be used by God to ultimately save His people. Yet they refused even that, and preferred to remain in their condemnation.
Isaiah 51:11 The ransomed of Yahweh shall return, and come with singing to
Zion; and everlasting joy shall be on their heads. They shall obtain
gladness and joy; sorrow and weeping shall flee away- The
envisaged singing was with the Songs of Degrees.
Isaiah had repeatedly prophesied that Judah would come with joy to
Zion, and would continue there with an everlasting joy. But the records
give little indication that they were joyful; Neh. 8:9,10 shows Nehemiah
encouraging them to be joyful, because “the joy of the Lord is your
strength”. They didn’t want to have all joy and peace through believing;
and so the Kingdom of joy didn’t come. They didn’t live the Kingdom life
of joy, and so they didn’t possess or experience the Kingdom. The lowness
of their petty concerns deprived them of it.
Isaiah 51:12 I, even I, am He who comforts you-
The image is
of a mother comforting a child, to the point the child need have no fear
of anything nor anyone else, if loving mother is on their side. But that
comfort was rudely refused by the exiles in Is. 49:13,14. These
prophecies, these appeals to Judah to accept salvation, probe the
psychological and subconscious reasons why they refused. They fear "man
who shall die", they feared that somehow it might all backfire. Or they
feared what they would look like in the eyes of man, giving up the good
life for the ruins of Zion. They feared Babylon, and therefore they didn't
leave when asked. And yet that fear was dealt with, Babylon fell, and
Cyrus immediately invited them to return to Zion. And they still didn't
leave. God addresses and answers all their possible reasons for not
responding. Just as He does with man today. But still they didn't respond.
God is not distant; the God of the cosmos was eager to personally draw near to the hearts ("comfort") of the exiles. But they refused.
Who are you, that you are
afraid of man who shall die- Is. 40:6-8 has the same basic message of comfort through the message of human mortality and
weakness. For it is our fear of others, of their opinions and judgments,
which causes so much discomfort to so many.
And of the son of man who shall be made as grass- In Hebrew thought, “the Son of man” meant an ordinary, mortal man (Is. 51:12). Several times we are reminded that “God is not a man” (Num. 23:19; Hos. 11:9); yet Christ was clearly “the Son of man” or, as he is often called in the New Testament, “the man Christ Jesus”. The Greek text calls him “son of anthropos”, i.e. of mankind, rather than “son of aner” [husband, man].
Isaiah 51:13 And have forgotten Yahweh your Maker, who stretched forth the
heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth; and fear continually all
the day because of the fury of the oppressor, when he makes ready to
destroy; and where is the fury of the oppressor?-
They had "forgotten Yahweh", when in Is. 49:14 they accused Yahweh of having forgotten them. They reflected onto Him their own attitude to Him. We likewise can assume that God is "in" our relationship with Him as much as we are in it. And we only occasionally think of Him. We might therefore transfer this onto Him, assuming He too only occasionally thinks of us. The challenge is to be as constantly enthusiastic for God as He is for us.
LXX "because of the wrath of him that afflicted thee: for whereas he counseled to take thee away, yet now where is the wrath of him that afflicted thee?". In the Isaiah context, this is clearly a reflection upon the boast of the Assyrians that they would take Zion into captivity in their land. The exiles were intended to remember this and to realize that the apparent strength of Babylon and its leadership was not going to hinder their restoration (see on :12).
Time and again, Isaiah’s restoration prophecies told Judah that they should not fear, as Yahweh would mightily be with them in their work (Is. 41:10,13,14; 43:1,5; 44:2,8,11; 54:7,14; 59:19). But Judah feared the surrounding nations- Ezra and Nehemiah are full of this theme (Ezra 3:3). Nehemiah refused to be put in fear by the Samaritan opposition because of his faith in Isaiah’s promises (Nehemiah 6:14). And Isaiah further spoke to Judah’s heart in Isaiah 51:12,13: “I, even I, am he that comforteth you: who art thou, that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die, and of the son of man which shall be made as grass; And forgettest the LORD thy maker, that hath stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations [s.w. re. the foundation of the temple being laid] of the earth [‘heaven and earth’ often refers to the temple]; and hast feared continually every day because of the fury of the oppressor, as if he were ready to destroy? and where is the fury of the oppressor?” (AV). The fact they did fear meant that they had forgotten Yahweh who was so eager to re-establish their Kingdom.
Isaiah 51:14 The captive exile shall speedily be freed-
Again we note
how "speedily" the deliverance and reestablishment of the Kingdom could
have happened. The Kingdom was indeed very "near"; see on :5.
And he shall not die and go down into the pit, neither shall his bread fail- See on Is. 52:2. The exiles failed to discern that in spiritual terms Babylon was a prison cell from which the righteous should seek to hasten out of, to flee from; to shake off the yoke it put upon their necks (Is. 51:14; 52:2). Yet all they saw was a nice, comfy life, and they thought they were doing their bit by giving some silver and gold to those who wanted to return and build the temple, a desire which they would all have soberly nodded in agreement with as being ‘a great work’ (what similarities with ourselves?). Those who did return satisfied themselves with a small temple, disregarding the instructions which Ezekiel had given them in Babylon, they lacked the faith to believe that Yahweh would be a wall of fire around them and instead built their own wall, and got on with building their own ceiled houses (as Haggai lamented) rather than Yahweh’s house, marrying the local women, extorting wealth even from each other and enslaving their less fortunate brethren, trading on the Sabbath, allowing the local Arab leaders chambers even in the temple... and so the Kingdom prophecies were deferred. The process that could have brought about Yahweh’s establishment of His Kingdom seems to have been centered around an attack from the surrounding nations, aimed against the wonderful new temple Judah were supposed to have built, which would be destroyed by Yahweh who dwelt in that temple [‘Zion’].
Is. 51:14, speaking of the call to Judah to leave Babylon, sounds as if they were willing and eager to leave that spiritually dreadful place. But the reality was that Judah didn’t hasten to be loosed, they preferred the Babylon life, and didn’t perceive it for the spiritual pit that was killing them which it was. Most of them chose to remain there. So this passage is therefore a prophecy, a command, about how God wanted Judah to respond.
Isaiah 51:15 For I am Yahweh your God, who stirs up the sea, so that its
waves roar: Yahweh of Armies is His name- The roaring of the waves is
applied here to Yahweh's victory at the roaring Red Sea, implying that
this invasion is going to be destroyed as the Egyptians were. This didn't
happen at the Babylonian invasion, although potentially it could've done
had Judah repented. Is. 17:12 uses the phrase about the judgment upon
Syria and Israel; and probably Judah is also in view here (see on Is.
17:5), with the rushing of waters representing the various nations
in the Assyrian or Babylonian confederacy. But this strange rush of
nations against them would be strangely stopped (Is. 17:13), by grace.
"The roaring of the seas" is the term used for the Babylonian invasion of
Judah (Jer. 5:22; 6:23). What began in Is. 17 as a prophecy of judgment
against Syria and Israel at the hands of the Assyrians now morphs into
judgment against Judah at the hands of the Babylonians; see on Is. 13:1.
There is Angelic reference here: "The Lord of Hosts (of Angels) is His Name... I have put My words in thy mouth, and I have covered thee in the shadow of mine hand (an Angelic phrase- for the Angel hid Moses in the shadow of His hand), that I may... say unto Zion, Thou art My people" (Is. 51:15,16).
Isaiah 51:16 I have put My words in your mouth, and have covered you in
the shadow of My hand- Israel the servant was likewise hidden
in the shadow of God's hand (Is. 49:2). All the characteristics of the
individual "Israel" were to be imputed to the people of Israel whom he
represented. This would be achieved if they accepted the
Spirit, part of the package offered in the new covenant (Is. 59:21). His
words would be written in their hearts too. Having Divine words put in the
mouth meant they were to be as Aaron and Moses before Pharaoh (s.w. Ex.
4:15); for it was also Moses who was covered in the shadow of Yahweh's
hand as He passed by. See on Is. 52:13. Remember that they were bidden
flee Babylon before she fell to the Medes. The servant figure need not
have feared the king of Babylon, he was intended to go to him and plead as
Moses "let My people go". But the exiles feared men, perhaps one
particular ruler of Persia or Babylon, whom they thought would not allow
their restoration; see on :12. They feared him rather than God, and so
they didn't flee Babylon as asked.
That I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and tell Zion, ‘You are My people’- LXX renders this in the future tense: "I will put my words into thy mouth, and I will shelter thee under the shadow of mine hand, with which I fixed the sky, and founded the earth: and the Lord shall say to Sion, Thou art my people". But the confusion of tenses is because this is what Yahweh had already done for His people; He was about to make a new creation, with all the excitement of the creator; but they didn't want to be recreated. They had to realize that potential. And it's the same for us, called to leave Babylon and participate in the reestablished Kingdom of God.
As God longed to pronounce the words “You are my people” to them (Hos. 2:25), so here Isaiah speaks of how at the restoration God wished to use that very phrase to returned Judah; see on Is. 1:26. Hosea / God speak in the most shocking terms- “I will sow her… in the land” (Hos. 2:25). This means, bluntly, they would have sex, in the land of God. But the Jews in Babylon just plain weren’t interested in returning to the land. They preferred to remain there where they were, and ‘worship’ God, criticizing others for their apostasy, but not really come back to Him with any passion. God wished that once again He would be with them in the wilderness as He was at the beginning of their national relationship, and then enter a new covenant with them, the joy of which would result in the physical transformation of the planet.
The same word that called heaven and earth into existence can ["that I may plant"] call Zion "My people". Yahweh will now go on in :17-22 to present Zion as a naked, drunk, alcoholic, sensually abused woman laying in the dust. But she would still be reinstated as God's people. If we doubt God's power to save us, or think we are just too hard or complex a case- just look at what God has so effortlessly created.
Isaiah 51:17 Awake, awake, stand up, Jerusalem-
The exiles are called
"Jerusalem". They called themselves this (Is. 48:2 "they call themselves
of the holy city"); but they needed to do
more than such merely external, legalistic, ritualistic identification of
themselves with a name and culture. And that is an abiding challenge for
God's people today. They had to "awake", to allow God's Spirit to act upon
their hearts to "stir up" their spirits (s.w. 1 Chron. 5:26; 2 Chron.
21:16), just as He had stirred up the spirit of Cyrus to let them return
(s.w. 2 Chron. 36:22). The spirit of the exiles was likewise awoken or
stirred up to return (s.w. Ezra 1:5).
God 'stirred up' the spirit of Cyrus and also of the Jews who returned (Ezra 1:1,5). Isaiah uses the same Hebrew term to describe how Israel's saviour would be "raised up" [s.w.]- Is. 41:2,25; 45:13. And yet Isaiah pleads with Zion, i.e. the faithful, to indeed be stirred up- Is. 51:17; 52:1 appeals to Zion to "Awake!"- the same word translated "stirred up". But Isaiah tragically concluded that there were so few who would 'stir up themselves' (Is. 64:7). God had given them the potential to be 'stirred up' in their hearts and minds to leave Babylon and return- but they wouldn't respond. And today, the same happens. God is willing to change hearts, to stir up materialistic and complacent spirits- but because we're not robots, we have to respond. And yet, God's grace still shines through.
Yahweh would "stir up" Cyrus (s.w. Is. 41:2,25; 45:13), so this could have been fulfilled through that stirred up "mighty man" of Is. 42:13. But he failed. The "mighty man", the gibbor, therefore became reapplied to the Lord Jesus (Is. 9:6 s.w.). But He will act through the stirring up of a repentant Judah (s.w. Is. 51:9,17; 52:1), seeing that no man would be 'stirred up' (s.w. Is. 64:7). All the potential candidates had refused the Divine nudges to be stirred up.
That has drunk at the hand of Yahweh the cup of His wrath; you have drunken the bowl of the cup of staggering, and drained it- Taking the cup of wine is a double symbol: of blessing (1 Cor. 10:16; 11:25), and of condemnation (Ps. 60:3; 75:8; Is. 51:17; Jer. 25:15; Rev. 14:10; 16:19). Why this use of a double symbol? Surely the Lord designed this sacrament in order to highlight the two ways which are placed before us by taking that cup: it is either to our blessing, or to our condemnation. Each breaking of bread is a further stage along one of those two roads. Paul realized this in pleading with the Corinthians to examine themselves before taking the emblems. He saw the ceremony and our self-examination there as a kind of foretaste of the judgment (1 Cor. 11:29-32). If they wanted to accept it, judgment was over and done. But they didn't, and so they were to many times more drink it.
The cup is clearly the symbol of God's wrath and judgment, as in Rev. 14:10: "The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture, into the cup of His indignation". Both Judah and Israel had been made to drink of this cup (Ez. 23:31-33; Lam. 4:21). In this figure, they had been laying on the floor drunk in Babylon. Drinking from a "bowl" or flagon is the language of drinking to get drunk. Hence the verse begins with a call to awake ["rouse yourself!"] and stand up. But the same language is used of the cup being given to Babylon (Jer. 25:15; 49:12; 51:7). Judah had drunk the same cup as Babylon. She had been urged to flee Babylon lest she share Babylon's judgment. She had not done so. She ultimately shared Babylon's judgment. But even then, God seeks to awake His drunken wife [to use another image] and make her stand up from her stupor. He keeps on and on trying. This impoverished relative whom He had paid dearly to redeem / buy out of slavery is here pictured as a drunkard, stoned on the floor. Who had "wrung / sucked out" the dregs, so desperate was she to get the alcohol out from the dregs at the bottom of the goblet; or at best, drained every drop of alcohol from the cup. Rather like the drunken alcoholic who vomits but will try to suck out the alcohol from his own vomit. She was addicted to the wine of her own condemnation- for she wanted to remain in Babylon. The figure of a helpless drunk continues in :18- she [and it is a female drunkard] has sons, but there were none of them to take her by the hand [to help her stand up], none of her sons were there to take her by the arm and guide her home. The Hebrew for "guide" is also translated to carry, to lead gently. All appropriate to helping a drunk person. They were sons who she had "brought up" (:18), so she is not a young woman. There always seems something extra tragic in the image of a drunk woman. Indeed :19 comments: "Who shall be sorry for you?". Usually man does feel sorry for other men who suffer- but not when we consider their suffering to be their fault. In :22 the woman is pictured as still clutching her cup of wine, until Yahweh forcibly takes it from her and gives it to the Babylonians. "You afflicted and drunken, but not with wine" (:21) may mean that the language is not criticizing literal drunkenness; rather is the wine to be read symbolically of God's judgment. And yet this verse begins with God [or the servant] calling upon drunken Zion to awake ["rouse yourself!"] and stand up. The chapter break is unfortunate, for Is. 52:1,2 go on in this same context: "Awake, awake, put on your strength, Zion; put on your beautiful garments, Jerusalem, the holy city... Shake yourself from the dust! Arise, sit up, Jerusalem! Release yourself from the bonds of your neck". The vulnerable woman in the drunken stupor, lying in the dust, is to be transformed very quickly into a beautiful woman. She who was sitting on the dusty ground was to arise, be dressed, and then sit again- on a throne. She is to be dressed after being roused from her drunken stupor; suggesting she may well have been naked as she lay there. There is a clear connection between nakedness and drunkenness in the case of Noah; and Lam. 4:21 associates drinking the cup of wrath with nakedness: "the cup shall pass through to you also; you [you too, like Zion] shall be drunken, and shall make yourself naked". Hab. 2:15,16 associates drunkenness and nakedness as if becoming naked is inevitable: "Woe to him who gives drink to his neighbours, pouring it from the wineskin till they are drunk, so that he can gaze on their naked bodies!". There may be in :23 a suggestion that she was sexually abused whilst in this state: "...who have said to your soul, ‘Bow down, that we may walk over you;’ and you have laid your body as the ground, and as the street, to those who walk over". 'Bowing down' is certainly a sexual euphemism in Job 31:10: "let my wife grind unto another, and let others bow down upon her". Laying the body down horizontally for others to dominate likewise is sexually suggestive. Lam. 1:8-10 describe Jerusalem as naked, despised and sexually abused for her sins: "Jerusalem has grievously sinned; therefore she has become as an unclean thing; all who honoured her despise her, because they have seen her nakedness: yes, she sighs, and turns backward. Her filthiness was in her skirts; she didn’t remember her latter end; therefore is she come down wonderfully; she has no comforter: see, Yahweh, my affliction; for the enemy has magnified himself. The adversary has spread out his hand on all her pleasant things". Ezekiel 23 likewise describes Jerusalem / Judah as Oholibah, drunk on the wine of God's wrath ["You shall even drink it and drain it out, and you shall gnaw the broken pieces of it", Ez. 23:34], so drunk and distressed she tries to pluck off her own breasts, naked and sexually abused by the Babylonians. Hence the comfort of Is. 52:1 that now, never again shall the unclean or polluted "enter into her".
We marvel again at the imagery- the wife of Yahweh had been repeatedly unfaithful to Him, lived like a whore [according to Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea etc.], had sold herself into debt slavery in Babylon, and ended up collapsed drunk in the dust for 70 years, during which she was sexually abused. And still God wanted her back, seeking to rouse her from her stupor to be dressed as a glorious queen and enthroned as queen, counted as "the holy city" (Is. 52:1,2), having a glorious remarriage and second wedding (Is. 54). A man would only do this from love for that woman, love at its most absolute, love to the end, love to its ultimate term. And still she refused... and that huge love was then chanelled to us, the new Zion.
But again, this was to be due to the representative servant "Israel" sharing all their experiences; for the statement that the Lord Jesus "tasted death for every man" (Heb. 2:9) suggests He too drunk the cup of death and condemnation, whilst personally innocent. He was the arm of Yahweh who would "Awake" out of the dust as drunken Zion was called to.
Isaiah 51:18 There is none to guide her among all the sons whom she has
brought forth; neither is there any who takes her by the hand among all
the sons whom she has brought up- See on :17. The LXX renders this in the past
tense: "and there was none to comfort thee of all the children whom thou
borest; and there was none to take hold of thine hand, not even of all the
children whom thou has reared". Now Isaiah returns to the reality- that
they would not respond to the call, and would have no servant figure who
could in the spirit of Moses ask the king of Babylon to let them go; see
on :16.
Zerubbabel, the ‘shoot out of
Babylon’ as his name means, could have been the promised
Messianic shoot out of the withered stem of Jesse. He could have been the
Messianic shoot out of the dry ground of Babylon (Is. 53:2) who would
accompany the return of the temple vessels from Babylon (Is. 52:11). But
he disappears strangely out of the record. Thus the events of Nehemiah 8,
where the Feasts of Trumpets, Atonement and Tabernacles as well as the
dedication of the wall are all recorded, make no mention of the High
Priest or Zerubbabel officiating. He, Joshua and indeed anyone who could
have taken their place somehow didn’t rise to the occasion. And so Is.
51:17,18 lamented, prophetically: “Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem,
which hast drunk at the hand of the LORD the cup of his fury [at the end
of the 70 years captivity]... [but] 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”. It was the
responsibility of the priests and religious leaders to "gently lead" the
exiles back to their God and their land, but they failed in this (Is.
59:18 s.w.); and so because their was none to guide / gently lead (s.w.),
God Himself had to intervene and do this through His Son (Is. 40:11;
49:10).
Isaiah 51:19 These two things have happened to you; who will bemoan you?
Desolation and destruction, and the famine and the sword; how shall I
comfort you?-
Nobody would be sorry ["bemoan"] for her-
except God. We could render: "Who can bemoan you?". Only God. The
Divine sorrow and comfort for Zion is the great message throughout Is.
40-55. God was eager to personally comfort them, but they
refused. Hence this rhetorical question. The primary reference is to God
seeking to comfort them over the desolation of Judah by the Babylonians.
But also in view may be
the
withholding of agricultural blessing after the restoration which occurred
several times- in Neh. 5:2,3 (as prophesied here in Is. 51:19), in Haggai’s
time, and later in Malachi 3:10,12; when the restored Zion could have been
as the garden of Eden, i.e. paradise restored on earth (Is. 51:3). Here we
see frightening similarities with ourselves. We know, but often don’t do.
We sense this cycle of failure, crying out for mercy, receiving it,
failing again, crying for mercy, receiving it, failing again...we see it
in Israel, in our brethren and those around us, and in ourselves. We can
expound it, lament it, feel the shame and tragedy of it all...and yet
continue to have a part in it. Eventually, the people stayed in this
groove so long that they degenerated into how they were at the time of
Malachi- self-righteous, with no sense of failure any more, living
self-centered lives of petty materialism, earning wages as they did in
Haggai’s time, to put into pockets with holes in, life without
satisfaction, achieving nothing, passively angry. This is what Malachi
clearly portrays. It’s a terrible picture, and one which we can sail
dangerously close to identifying with.
Isaiah 51:20 Your sons have fainted, they lie at the head of all the
streets, as an antelope in a net; they are full of the wrath of Yahweh,
the rebuke of your God- God recognizes here that He is not unaware of
the desolation of Jerusalem. He uses the language of Lamentations to
describe the scenes. He is not the judge who hands out judgments and
sentences with no personal comprehension of what they involve. But these
judgments had been legitimate; but they were now over, if they wanted them
to be (:21,22).
Isaiah 51:21 Therefore hear now this, you afflicted and drunken, but not
with wine- They had drunk the cup of judgment (:17,20), but not the
wine of final condemnation. Isaiah's prophecies continually emphasize that
God is fully aware of their "affliction", and would have mercy upon them
in it (Is. 49:13; 54:11; 66:2 s.w.).
Isaiah 51:22 Thus says your Lord Yahweh, and your God who pleads the cause
of His people, Behold, I have taken out of your hand the cup of
staggering, even the bowl of the cup of My wrath; you shall no more drink
it again-
Despite their pathetic state, God would still take their side in court ['plead their cause' as their advocate against Himself as the judge] and justify them. How much will He, for we who are in Christ.
Babylon fell so that Persia would take over the administration of the 127 provinces where the Jews were scattered, and would allow them to return to Judah (Is. 43:14). The cup of judgment which Judah drunk for 70 years was passed to Babylon. This accounts for Isaiah’s repeated and detailed emphasis on the coming fall of Babylon for Judah / Israel’s sake (e.g. Isaiah 47). They had been asked to flee Babylon before that, but when they didn't, God still worked with them; now reasoning as if their cup of judgment had passed to Babylon (:23), and they were now free to leave Babylon. Although they had sinned, Yahweh showed His gracious love for His people by bringing down Babylon so that they might leave (Is. 48:14). “For Jacob my servant's sake, and Israel mine elect, I have even called thee [Cyrus] by thy name: I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me “ (Is. 45:4). Likewise the iron curtain came down to allow preachers of God’s Truth to take it to those once in darkness. And English has become the lingua-franca of the world, enabling Christian preaching to now penetrate societies literally world-wide. See on Ezra 2:1.
Isaiah 51:23 And I will put it into the hand of those who afflict you, who
have said to your soul, ‘Bow down, that we may walk over you;’ and you
have laid your back as the ground, and as the street, to those who walk
over- See on :22. There were yet to be many times when the Gentiles would trample
Zion underfoot. Here and in :22 is envisioned a time when this would never
happen again. The Babylonian treading down of Jerusalem could have been
the last time. But that potential was spurned by the exiles. And so there
shall come one final time in the last days when Jerusalem shall be trodden
down of the Gentiles (Lk. 21:24), when these prophecies will come to their
final term.
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