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<p>He feeds on ashes- From a distance, the visual impression may have been of the man apparently eating the ashes from the coals upon which his bread was baked (:19).</p><p>A deceived heart has turned him aside; and he can’t deliver his soul, nor say, Isn’t there a lie in my right hand?- The idol maker prayed to his idol "Deliver me!" (:17), but was not delivered. The deceived heart can’t recognize that they are self-deceived. That seems to be the idea of"a lie in my right hand". See on :17.</p>


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<p>Remember these things, Jacob and Israel; for you are My servant. I have formed you; you are My servant. Israel, you will not be forgotten by Me- The Hebrew more implies a desperate plea: "May you not forget Me!". The amazing offer of redemption was not to be forgotten but always remembered by God's people; and we therefore do the communion service to remember the price paid for our redemption, unlike Israel who were unmoved by the wonder of it all and forgot it. Because God has not forgotten His people, they should remember Him. The fact He is so consciously aware of us ought to bring Him back to our consciousness in the course of the day. As explained on :19, Jacob was asked to"remember"the picture of the idolater, to see himself from outside of himself.</p><p>There is perhaps a purposeful ambiguity in the Hebrew text of <a href='B:290 44:21'>Isa 44:21</a>: “O Israel thou shalt not be forgotten of me” is rendered in the RVmg and LXX: “thou shouldest not forget me”. The fact God never forgets us should be inspiration to not forget Him in the daily round of life. To act as if God doesn’t see all our ways is to effectively deny His existence. Babylon acted as she did because she reasoned that"None seeth me... I am, and there is none else beside me"(<a href='B:290 47:10'>Isa 47:10</a> RV). They appropriated the language of God to themselves, they played God in that they thought their ways were unseen by any higher power. And we all have a terrible, frightening tendency to do this.</p>


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<p>I have blotted out as a thick cloud your iniquities, and, as a cloud, your sins. Return to Me, for I have redeemed you- "Blotted out" is an economic term, meaning to blot out a debt, erasing the sum from the ledger of the book keeper. It is related to the fact that "I have redeemed you", paid the debt to release Israel from their debt slavery. Again we find debt as metaphor for sin. "As a cloud" suggests something transitory (Hos. 6:4; 13:3; Job 7:9; 30:15), something that will be blown away by the wind / Spirit, so that sin is not ultimately a permanent problem.
God imputed His righteousness to them, because He had unconditionally forgiven them. Instead of calling upon them to mourn, as in first Isaiah, second Isaiah calls upon them to rejoice and accept His grace. They are to repent because God had forgiven them (as in <a href='B:510 3:18-19'>Act 3:18-19</a>)- not repent so that He might forgive them: “I, I am He who blots out your transgressions for my own sake [i:e. not for the sake of your repentance or righteousness]… I have swept away your transgressions like a cloud [therefore] return [repent] to me, for I have [already] redeemed you” (<a href='B:290 43:25'>Isa 43:25</a>; <a href='B:290 44:22'>Isa 44:22</a>). This is God’s grace in its essence. Repentance and not just forgiveness is given by the Spirit (<a href='B:510 5:31'>Act 5:31</a>). As they sat by the rivers of Babylon, even as they later became caught up in the politics and business of Babylon, God’s heart broke for His people. And He announced this utter grace- that He had forgiven them, even though they’d not really repented, and counted them as righteous. And therefore He begged them to“return”, not only to return to Him in repentance in their hearts, but to show this by ‘returning’ to the land. And, so tragically, they preferred to stay in Babylon, for the most part. His grace was poured out to them… and Israel would not. All we can resolve in our hearts is to feel for God in this tragedy, and to realize that these very same prophecies of grace have been applied to us. And it’s for us to respond to them.  If we do not, then once again, this amazing redemption and forgiveness remains as it were unclaimed and unused.</p><p>It is our knowledge of God’s mercy to us which empowers us to confidently seek to share with others our knowledge, our relationship, our experience with God. Forgiveness inspires the preacher; and yet the offer of forgiveness is what inspires the listener to respond. God appeals for Israel to respond by pointing out that in prospect, He has already forgiven them: “I have [already] blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions... [therefore] return unto me; for I have redeemed thee” (<a href='B:290 44:22'>Isa 44:22</a> AV). Likewise Elijah wanted Israel to know that God had already in prospect turned their hearts back to Him (<a href='B:110 18:37'>1Ki 18:37</a>). We preach the cross of Christ, and that through that forgiveness has been enabled for all men; but they need to respond by repentance in order to access it. Hence the tragedy of human lack of response; so much has been enabled, the world has been reconciled, but all this is in vain if they will not respond.</p><p>The prophets appeal for their people to repent to avert God’s judgments; and yet they proclaim a message of grace, that because “I have swept away your transgressions [therefore] Return&nbsp;[repent] to me, for I have redeemed you” (<a href='B:290 44:22'>Isa 44:22</a>). The fact of God’s forgiveness leads to repentance- by grace. And yet the prophets also appeal for Israel to repent so that they might be forgiven.</p><p>And so Isaiah urged the Jewish exiles to return to the land by saying that God had forgiven them, and on this basis He appealed for them to both ‘repent’ and ‘return’ to the land. The two terms are related. Thus He showed His grace; forgiveness preceded, not followed, repentance. <a href='B:290 44:22'>Isa 44:22</a> is clear about this: “I have swept away your transgressions like clouds [therefore] return to me, for I have [already] redeemed you”. God was angry with their sins, but kept no record of them- hence He could comfort Judah that there was actually no documentary evidence for their divorce (<a href='B:290 50:1'>Isa 50:1</a>) and therefore she could return to Him. As Paul put it, the goodness of God leads to repentance (<a href='B:520 2:4'>Rom 2:4</a>). And we are asked to show that same “goodness” of God to others, being “kind [s:w. ‘goodness’] one to another… forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake has forgiven you” (<a href='B:560 4:32'>Eph 4:32</a>). We too are to show this grace of forgiveness-before-repentance; but perhaps in no other area has formalized, institutionalized Christianity failed worse. If XYZ shows us she’s repented of her divorce, then we’ll forgive her and accept her in fellowship [as if, in any case, we are the ones who need to forgive her]. These are graceless and yet terribly common attitudes. The Greek word translated “goodness” is rendered “gracious” in <a href='B:670 2:3'>1Pe 2:3</a> - newly converted babes in Christ taste of this gracious goodness, and it leads to repentance.</p>


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<p>Sing you heavens, for Yahweh has done it! Shout, you lower parts of the earth! Break out into singing, you mountains, O forest, all of your trees, for Yahweh has redeemed Jacob, and will glorify Himself in Israel- This seems to be Isaiah's interjection of praise as he considers the amazing good news for Israel. "Yahweh has done it!", they were redeemed from Babylon, they would be saved. But just like "It is finished!", uttered by the Lord as He died, this amazing news that all is in fact done for man... is shrugged off because of human short sightedness and pride.
The same Hebrew words are used about the shout of joy which went up when the foundation of the temple was laid (<a href='B:150 3:11-13'>Ezr 3:11-13</a>). But at that same time, there was a loud sound of weeping from those who realized that what was being built was simply not the temple which Ezekiel had prophesied, and was not even as glorious as Solomon’s. The shout of joy was there, but wasn’t discernible (<a href='B:150 3:13'>Ezr 3:13</a>).</p><p>As the whole creation would share the joy of Hosea and Gomer’s remarriage (see on <a href='B:290 1:26'>Isa 1:26</a>), so <a href='B:290 44:23'>Isa 44:23</a> and <a href='B:290 49:13'>Isa 49:13</a> use similar terms to describe how all creation could have rejoiced in the reuniting of Yahweh with His people on their return from Babylon.</p>


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<p>Thus says Yahweh your Redeemer, and He who formed you from the womb: I am Yahweh who makes all things, who alone stretches out the heavens; who spreads out the earth by Myself- This is in contrast to how the idol maker stretches out and spreads out his plans and materials to make his idol. Both as individuals and collectively, the whole biography and even genetic prehistory of God’s people has been prepared by God in their formation, so that they might encounter God’s salvation at an optimal point for them to give the maximum glory to Him (<a href='B:290 43:21'>Isa 43:21</a>)."Formed"is the word for the potter working on clay, used of how God fashions human hearts or psychologies, working on the deeply internal fabric of the human being (<a href='B:230 33:15'>Psa 33:15</a>). The ’forming’ in view is not only"in the womb"(<a href='B:290 44:2'>Isa 44:2</a>; <a href='B:290 44:24'>Isa 44:24</a>) but throughout their whole psychological and genetic formation. It is possible to strive with our former or"maker"(<a href='B:290 45:9'>Isa 45:9</a>), to be unresponsive to His touch of us the clay. The Messiah figure, ultimately the Lord Jesus, was the ultimate case of being"formed"by Yahweh’s hand (<a href='B:290 49:5'>Isa 49:5</a> s:w:), implying He too was clay, of human and not Divine nature.

It has been pointed out that :24-28 are full of allusion to the statements on the Cyrus Cylinder, which claims Cyrus was raised up by Marduk to do all the things which we read here that Yahweh was to do through Cyrus. To deconstruct the Marduk cult was as radical as the language of the New Testament deconstructing the Caesar cult, instead enstating Jesus as Lord of all lords, son of God and our "only saviour". We likewise are called to a radical deconstruction of the prevailing worldviews of our times. The Cyrus Cylinder claims that Marduk first creates and then redeems. This is deconstructed in :24 by the claim that Yahweh first redeems and then creates; He therefore has in view His new creation of His people and Kingdom. This has even more strength if we translate "He who formed you" as "He who is forming you". Likewise Is. 43:1 "And now thus says Yahweh the one creating you Jacob and the one forming you Israel". However Is. 43:1 has creation and then redemption. The overall idea is that Yahweh has created, redeemed and also redeemed and created. His creative power surrounds His people, physically and spiritually. The experience of redemption is the channel of the new creation, as it is for us in Christ. The outflow of blood and water from His crucified body is the image of birth. The very few believers standing before His cross, fearful, confused and misunderstanding, were the equivalent of the child born; and He breathed His Spirit towards them as He died. But the huge potential creative power of Yahweh was denied by the exiles, as it is by most men today. The God who created light out of darkness can shine in human hearts today, and create spiritual light ex nihilo. Contrary to Marduk, who supposedly created humans with the blood of the slain god Kingu, Yahweh forms human persons out of love, from the womb.
"Who alone stretches out the heavens" alludes to how the planets were thought to be under the control of lesser gods than Marduk. But Yahweh is the one God who controls all as He is the single creator of all: "I
am the Lord the one doing all". Time and again, the Babylonian metanarrative is deconstructed; just as God's purpose to redeem and re-create us deconstructs the metanarratives of our worlds. The exiles were surrounded by Babylonian culture and had absorbed into it. They were being asked to break free of that and have another worldview, that of the restoration of God's Kingdom and their part in it- just as we are likewise invited.
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<p>Who frustrates the signs of the liars- This is s:w. <a href='B:160 4:15'>Neh 4:15</a> about God frustrating the Samaritan opposition. But still the exiles didn’t make full use of all this help, in order to reestablish God’s Kingdom.</p><p>And makes diviners mad; who turns wise men backward, and makes their knowledge foolish- it is the idolater who has just been portrayed as foolish and mad. But the wise men of the nations of those days were all idolaters. Possibly in view would be the word of the diviners that Babylon would never fall to Cyrus.</p>


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<p>Who confirms the word of His servant, and performs the counsel of His messengers; who says of Jerusalem, ‘She will be inhabited;’ and of the cities of Judah, ‘They will be built’, and ‘I will raise up its waste places’- This 'confirmation' contrasts with how He 'frustrates' the word of the magicians of Babylon in :25. This is how God works- confirming one path and frustrating another.The word of His servant could refer to Isaiah or Jeremiah. Yahweh portrays Himself as open to the counsel or advice of His messengers. Perhaps the malak in view are the Angels, and those they represented. God is open to persuasion from both Angels and even men. Confirming and performing are parallel, as are"the word"and"the counsel"."His servant"(singular) is parallel with the plural"His messengers". The singular servant is equated with His “messengers”, whose “counsel” to others is the word which is Jesus, the true servant. This theme of declaring the word occurs repeatedly in this part of Isaiah. Because “I have declared… and I have shewed… therefore ye are my witnesses” (<a href='B:290 43:12'>Isa 43:12</a>). We are to witness / declare / shew, just as the Father has done. Our unity with the Father and Son is thus reflected in our witnessing in the way they witness; and thus their witness is through us. The unity between the preacher and his Lord is therefore wonderful. Truly He is with us in our life of witness, in our obedience to His command to preach world-wide, unto the end of the age.</p><p>Or the servant could refer to Cyrus and his will to rebuild Jerusalem. Yahweh “performs the counsel” of rebuilding Jerusalem. But the Samaritan opposition sought to frustrate Judah’s “purpose” / counsel (<a href='B:150 4:5'>Ezr 4:5</a> s:w:), and succeeded. Yahweh allowed Himself to be limited within how His people performed His purpose. His ‘purpose’ is therefore conditional upon those whom He allows to fulfill it. Many passages in the latter half of Isaiah exult how God has fulfilled prophecy in the decree of Cyrus and the return of the Jews (e.g. <a href='B:290 44:7'>Isa 44:7</a>; <a href='B:290 44:26-28'>Isa 44:26-28</a>). But this fulfilment of prophecy turned out to be limited by the Jews’ lack of obedience to the prophecies.</p>
Cyrus is well attested as describing himself as "servant of Marduk". God would be showing that the power of His Spirit upon His servant was such that He can totally reorientate a person; He can turn someone from servant of sin to servant of righteousness, as happens when we change masters at baptism. Perhaps Cyrus is presented as a parade example of how God can use and transform His "servant", as an example to Israel [who were His intended "servant"] as to what He could likewise do with them.
The Nabonidus Cylinder claims that Marduk through his diviners commanded the king to rebuild the temple of Sin in Harran, which had previously been laid waste becaue of Marduk's wrath with them. This is being deconstructed here; Yahweh has commanded the king to rebuild His temple in Jerusalem, destroyed for similar reasons, and that shall come to pass.
The call for Jerusalem to be inhabited is repeated in Is. 45:18 about the 'heavens and earth': "Yahweh who created the heavens, the God who formed the earth and made it, who established it and didn’t create it in vain, who formed it to be inhabited". God created the new heavens and earth, the restored Jerusalem, to be inhabited. He has planned His eternal Kingdom on earth to be inhabited; to have people in it. This is a profound encouragement if we doubt our own final entry into that Kingdom. The intention to fill the earth with Abraham's spiritual seed, as many as the grains of sand on the seashore, requires the salvation of a great multitude. This is why there is all this created earth around us- for it to be inhabited. Just as God carefully created a habitable world, controlling the exact temperature, proximity to the sun, revolution of the earth etc., so He has created His Kingdom to be inhabited by man.


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<p>who says to the deep, ‘Be dry’, and ‘I will dry up your rivers;’- The reference is to the artificial irrigation canals from the Euphrates which were dried up by Cyrus, forming a lake forty miles square, in order for him to take Babylon. The prophets present the fall of Babylon as necessary for the return of the exiles. Babylon fell, but as the book of Esther makes clear, the bulk of the exiles chose to remain in exile.
But there is also allusion here to how although Marduk was the senior god, there was understood to be a trinity of gods, comprised of Marduk, Nabu and Nergal. Nergal was the god of the deep. Here he is deconstructed. Yahweh shares power with no other god. And we may note that the conception of a triune god is rooted in such tripilisms which occur in many pagan societies. Yahweh had dried up the deep at the Red Sea, and could repeat such miracles at ease.</p>


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<p>who says of Cyrus, ‘He is My shepherd, and shall perform all My pleasure’, even saying of Jerusalem, ‘She will be built;’ and of the temple, ‘Your foundation will be laid’- See on :5. Bullinger claims Cyrus was the son of Astyages and Esther, who named him Cyrus in conscious fulfilment of Isaiah's prophecies.  Ezekiel 34 had predicted that at the restoration, God Himself would be a shepherd to His scattered flock and through the shepherd He would use, He would"deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day"(<a href='B:330 34:12'>Eze 34:12</a>). The cloudy and dark day was the day of judgment which came upon Judah, and which resulted in them being scattered into Babylon and Persia. The shepherd who was to deliver them and get them to return from the various places of their scattering was intended to be Cyrus. <a href='B:290 44:28'>Isa 44:28</a> is crystal clear about this. God"says of Cyrus, ‘He is My shepherd, and shall perform all My pleasure’, even saying of Jerusalem, ‘She will be built;’ and of the temple, ‘Your foundation will be laid’". It was God’s intention that Cyrus repent and become a proselyte, and Yahweh would then use him to save His people"out of all places where they have been scattered". The decree of Cyrus was addressed to"Whoever is left [of the Jews], in any place where he lives"(<a href='B:150 1:4'>Ezr 1:4</a>)."Cyrus"literally means"sun"and so contrasts with the cloudy and dark day. But Cyrus let the ball drop and didn’t carry through the Divine purpose as he might have done and neither did the Jews respond as they should have done. Cyrus was Yahweh’s anointed (<a href='B:290 45:1'>Isa 45:1</a>), and so the essence of these prophecies is to come true in the last days in the person of the Lord Jesus. We could say that the prophecies are transferred from Cyrus to the Lord Jesus. LXX"Who bids Cyrus be wise, and he shall perform all my will" suggests Cyrus had a choice; he was commanded, and it seems he partially obeyed, but not enough to be the Messiah figure envisaged.</p><p>Isaiah elsewhere uses the same Hebrew word to speak of how Yahweh has laid the foundation of the earth in creation (Is. 48:13 "My hand also has laid the foundation of the earth"; Is. 51:13 "Yahweh your maker has laid the foundations of the earth"; Job 38:4; Zech. 12:1 etc.). As so often in Isaiah, the huge power and ability of Yahweh in creation is alluded to as the basis upon which His people can trust that He can so easily lay the foundation of the temple and re-create His Kingdom in Judah. The same words are often used in the accounts of the foundations of the temple being laid- but the returned exiles turned away from them to build their own houses. Despite Yahweh having used Cyrus as the channel for this new creation. 
Cyrus was to "perform all My pleasure" or will, in restoring the temple and re-establishing God's Kingdom on earth. But this didn't really happen. And so the servant prophecy of Is. 53:10 says that the suffering servant, identified in the New Testament as the Lord Jesus, would suffer, die and resurrect so that "the pleasure / will of Yahweh shall prosper in His hand". God's will to save His people was not thwarted. The failure to realize that will by both Israel and Cyrus only enabled a far more glorious fulfilment. We see the same thing in Daniel 9; the 70 years prophecy was turned into a period of 70 times 7, but with a far more glorious outcome. Again and again we see that man's failure reveals a far more wonderful silver lining.
We wonder who is speaking when we read "Even saying of Jerusalem, ‘She will be built’". It could be Cyrus or Yahweh speaking. And the confusion is deliberate; Cyrus would be speaking Yahweh's word, totally controlled by Yahweh. The Cyrus Cylinder [lines 11-14] presents Cyrus as chosen by Marduk to he his shepherd because of his righteousness: "(Marduk) scanned and checked all the countries, looking for a righteous king, dear to his heart, and finally he
took with his very hand Cyrus... and calling his name, he appointed him to be king of the entire world... And all the people that (Marduk) had given into his hands, (Cyrus) tended most carefully like a shepherd in truth and righteousness". Yahweh is saying that He and not Marduk had used Cyrus in this way. Once we appreciate the allusions, it is easier to understand the apparent 'righteousness' associated with Cyrus in Isaiah (Is. 45:13).  
We can only shake our heads in sorrow that in the second year of Cyrus, the Jewish exiles decided that the time had not come to built Yahweh's temple- because they were more interested in building their own houses (Hag. 1:1-4). God had staked His divinity on predicting Cyrus by name, and predicting his edict about Jerusalem and the rebuilding of the temple. It came true. But God's people shrugged, because such is the power of immediate self-interest. 
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<p>Thus says Yahweh to His anointed, to Cyrus- <a href='B:290 45:1-7'>Isa 45:1-7</a> concern Cyrus and really should be read as part of Isaiah 44. Isaiah 45:1 Thus says Yahweh to His anointed, to Cyrus- Is. 45:1-7 concern Cyrus and really should be read as part of Is. 44. The critics struggle with God predicting someone by name ahead of time. But there are other examples of people being named by Divine prophecy before birth: Isaac (Gen. 17:19); Solomon (1 Chron. 22:9); Josiah (1 Kings 13:2). Isaiah had been told to “bind up the testimony, seal the teaching” (Is. 8:16), until the people ask whom they should ask to understand (Is. 8:19), at which time the call will go out “To the teaching and to the testimony!” (Is. 8:20). This may mean that the people would not understand Isaiah's words, read and study them as they might- until the fulfilment came. They would have wondered about this mysterious "Cyrus"- until it was fulfilled. Just as the Lord said that His prophecies about His death and resurrection would not be understood until they came true. And that is how much Divine prophecy is. Striving over its interpretation ahead of time, seeking to work out time lines of fulfilment, is largely futile. 
Whilst "anointed" is a term used of anyone anointed, especially the kings of Israel, clearly Cyrus was also Yahweh's intended servant and "Christ" to deliver His people. He took over as it were from Israel who were the failed servant. He too failed, and the exiles didn't respond to his decrees to return to the land rebuild the temple; and so the Servant prophecies came true in the suffering servant of Is. 53, the Lord Jesus, who achieved a far greater restoration of the Kingdom and eternal salvation for all in Him. God's choice of the gentile Cyrus as His people's saviour may seem at variance with Jer. 31:21 "Their prince shall be one of themselves; their ruler shall come out from their midst; I will make him draw near, and he shall approach me". But we see here how God's purpose is flexible and has various potential iterations. In terms of salvation, they all failed- but came to glorious realization in His Son.
</p><p>Whose right hand I have held- God had offered to hold the right hand of His servant Israel, but they had refused (Is. 41:13; 42:6). Now He attempts to do the same with Cyrus, the next iteration of His servant. The kings of Babylon were said to “take the hand of Bel” (also known as Marduk). Yahweh is saying that He in fact has taken the hand of this king. Constantly the Marduk cult is deconstructed. Cyrus’s son, Cambyses, is recorded as having supposedly done this. But again the Marduk cult is deconstructed; for Cyrus did not so much as take Yahweh's hand, as Yahweh took his hand. There is a juxtaposition of impressions here. Holding the right hand of a person suggests they are feeble (<a href='B:290 42:6'>Isa 42:6</a>). And so Cyrus for all his might was but a feeble person empowered by Israel’s God.</p><p>To subdue nations before him, and strip kings of their armour; to open the doors before him, and the gates shall not beshut- see on <a href='B:290 40:3-4'>Isa 40:3-4</a>. Isaiah 40-55 is packed full with allusion to the Marduk cult. All that Marduk claimed to do and be, Isaiah explained as actually true, and solely true, of Yahweh God of Israel. The descriptions of Cyrus as having been anointed etc. are allusions to the way Cyrus was held to have been anointed and raised up by Marduk. Yahweh is saying that actually He, and not Marduk, had done this. The Abu-Habba collection in the British museum actually has an inscription that claims Nabonidus dreamt that Marduk raised up Cyrus (See P:A. Beaulieu, The Reign Of Nabonidus King Of Babylon (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989) p. 108). Isaiah’s point is that actually it was the God of Israel who had done this. The references to Yahweh taking Cyrus by the hand, anointing him, pronouncing his name and giving him a throne (<a href='B:290 45:1'>Isa 45:1</a>; <a href='B:290 45:8'>Isa 45:8</a>) are almost word-for-word what Cyrus claimed about Marduk in his ‘Cyrus Cylinder’.</p><p>Cyrus was a potential Messiah figure. Cyrus was the anointed one, the ‘Christ’ of God. Anointing is especially associated with being anointed as a king in the Davidic line (<a href='B:90 2:10'>1Sa 2:10</a>; <a href='B:90 2:35'>1Sa 2:35</a>; <a href='B:100 22:51'>2Sa 22:51</a>; <a href='B:100 23:1'>2Sa 23:1</a>; <a href='B:230 2:2'>Psa 2:2</a>). Could it be that God was willing for Cyrus to become Israel’s King? Whilst the chronology is admittedly difficult, it would appear that Daniel and his group of faithful friends, possibly Ezekiel, maybe Esther, and some other prophets were in close contact with Cyrus. The enigmatic reference to Cyrus making the decision to allow Nehemiah’s mission for the Jews to return with his queen sitting near him may suggest Jewish influence upon him (<a href='B:160 2:6'>Neh 2:6</a>). Could it be that potentially, he was enabled to convert to the God of Israel and fulfill the ‘servant’ prophecies? See on :9; <a href='B:290 44:5'>Isa 44:5</a>.
"Strip kings of their armour" is AV "And I will loose the loins of kings" or Heb. ‘Looses the girdle of the strong.’ There was a literal fulfilment of this in regard to Belshazzar, king of Babylon, when the city was taken by Cyrus. When the hand came forth on the walls of his palace, and the mysterious finger wrote his condemnation, "Then the king’s countenance was changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against the other" (Dan. 5:6).</p>


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<p>I will go before you, and make the rough places smooth- This is the language of Isaiah 40 concerning the preparation for the coming of the Messianic saviour and reestablishment of the Kingdom in Zion. But Cyrus failed to fulfill this. The language changes from "I" to "you". We as it were overhear God speaking to the heart of Cyrus. This is a profound insight. God seems to be saying that He will make the rough way smooth for the exiles, LXX "I will level the mountains"- when in Is. 40 He had asked they do this themselves by repentance. But He is now trying to force through His plan to save them, by saying that He will prepare the way Himself. He would as it were force open the gates of Babylon to let them out.</p><p>I will break the doors of brass in pieces, and cut apart the bars of iron- Herodotus (1:179) claims Babylon had 100 massive gates, 25 on each of the four sides of the city, all, as well as their posts, of brass.</p>


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<p>I will give you the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that you may know that it is I, Yahweh, who call you by your name, even the God of Israel- Babylon's treasures are specifically noted in Jer. 51:13 "Abundant in treasures". The location of hidden treasure in conquered cities was typically attributed to magicians and wise men. But here, to Yahweh. God’s mention of Cyrus’ name 150 years beforehand was intended to be the clear proof to all that His prophetic word would really come true. But :4 seems to see his ’naming’ as not so much a case of predicting his name, but giving him a name in the sense of a purpose and intended path of character and behaviour. But he ultimately failed in fulfilling this. "That you may know" is the language of :6, wishing that Israel "may know". It alludes to how at the exodus from Egypt, Yahweh acted so that both His people and the Egyptians would "know that I am Yahweh” (Ex. 6:7; 7:5). The 'knowing' clearly means in practice 'to convert to'. "That you may know that it is I, Yahweh, who call you by your name" suggests it was God's intention that Cyrus should come to know His Name. Although there is no expression of intention, Is. 41:25 carries the same hope: "I have raised up one from the north, and he has come; from the rising of the sun, one who calls on My name". Is. 45:3 clarifies that it was God's intention that he should do this, although Cyrus failed. As it is His so often dashed hope and expectation of so many men.</p>


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<p>For Jacob My servant’s sake, and Israel My chosen, I have called you by your name. I have surnamed you, though you have not known Me- LXX suggests that despite all this Divine intention, Cyrus refused relationship with God by refusing to ’know’ Him:"For the sake of my servant Jacob, and Israel mine elect, I will call thee by thy name, and accept thee: but thou hast not known me". The Divine hope was that Cyrus would accept the Holy One of Israel (Is. 41:25 "I have raised up one from the north...  one who calls on My name... ) although initially Cyrus is the one God had called who knew Him not (Is. 45:4 "I have called you by your name... I have surnamed you, though you have not known Me"). Although Cyrus initially didn't know God's Name, he would come to a point when he did "call on My name". That was the hope, but it seems it didn't happen. We could read Is. 45:4 "yet you have not known Me" as a Divine lament that Cyrus did not respond to Yahweh and enter personal relationship with Him. It is repeated again in Is. 45:5. Just as God has the names of people written in His book, which names will later be blotted out. They were known by name, but refused to respond.</p><p> Israel are "My chosen". The reason why there are no accusers against us, not even our own sins, is because we are “God’s elect” (<a href='B:520 8:33'>Rom 8:33</a>). The supreme chosen one of God was of course the Lord Jesus, “mine elect / chosen, in whom my soul delights” (<a href='B:290 42:1'>Isa 42:1</a>). And yet here later on in the servant songs of Isaiah, “mine elect” or"My chosen"clearly refers to the people of Israel (<a href='B:290 45:4'>Isa 45:4</a>; <a href='B:290 65:9'>Isa 65:9</a>; <a href='B:290 65:22'>Isa 65:22</a>). The true Israel of God are therefore those counted as somehow “in” the elect one, the singular servant of God, Messiah Jesus. Those baptized into Him are therefore His elect. And how do we know we are “God’s elect”? If we are baptized into Christ, “mine elect”, then for sure we are. And further, we have heard the call of the Gospel, we have been called- so, we are God’s elect, His chosen ones. Of course the objection can be raised that the whole idea of calling or election may appear unfair. Indeed, the Greek word for “elect” can carry the idea of ‘the favoured / favourite one’:&nbsp; There is no ultimate injustice here. The chosen One is the Lord Jesus, beloved for the sake of His righteousness, His spirit of life. Those who respond to the call to be “in Him” are counted likewise. And all this is the way, the method used, in order for God to be the one who counts us as right in the ultimate judgment- for “It is God that justifies”.</p>


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<p>I am Yahweh, and there is none else. Besides Me, there is no God- The preceding verse has spoken of Cyrus’ failure. It could be that this was related to his refusal to jettison his belief in the Persian gods of good and evil, refusing to accept that Yahweh could really be in control of all.</p><p>This language (and in :6,12) alludes to the Babylonian god Marduk; the point being that Yahweh and not the god of Babylon is supreme. See on <a href='B:290 40:25'>Isa 40:25</a>. The Jews only totally quit idolatry some time later; they liked to think, as we also tend to, that we can serve the gods of our world in the name of Yahweh worship. But Yahweh is presented as supreme, and Marduk as nothing.</p><p>I will strengthen you, though you have not known Me- LXX"I strengthened thee, and thou hast not known me"continues the theme of lamenting that Cyrus refused relationship [’knowing’] with God, even though he was Divinely strengthened to do His will in restoring Judah. "Strengthen" is as AV "girded", and is in contrast to how he was intended to “loose the loins of kings” in Is. 45:1. </p>


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<p>That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none besides Me. I am Yahweh, and there is no one else- This was fulfilled in a limited way when Cyrus proclaimed throughout his empire, from east to west, that the Jewish exiles were to return home (Ezra 1:1). But "that they may know" suggests intention rather than deterministic prediction. See on :5. This was the intended outcome of the restoration which Cyrus was used to effect. But the returned exiles didn’t make Yahweh known; instead they mixed with the surrounding nations, as Ezra, Nehemiah and the restoration prophets make clear. And so these things are all reapplied to the final work of the Lord Jesus. As will be developed on :7, Yahweh’s existence as the sole God means there is no room for the idea of a personal cosmic Satan being, nor for the equivalent ideas amongst the Persians, which the Jews were accepting.</p>


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<p>I form the light, and create darkness. I make peace, and create calamity. I am Yahweh, who does all these things- Yatzar,&nbsp;to give"form"to previously existing matter, and&nbsp;bara,&nbsp;to"create"from nothing the chaotic darkness, were all from God. Yahweh alone had given light and success to Cyrus,&nbsp;and darkness, "evil"or calamity&nbsp;to Babylon. 
 The words translated "form" and "create" are extensively used in Isaiah regarding God's forming / creation of Israel and all His people (Is. 43:1,7,21; 44:2,21,24; 45:11; 49:5). The new creation both reforms existing material and creates from the nothing of the chaotic darkness of human life. The whole range of experience, from light to darkness, from peace to evil / calamity, is "for our sakes" as Paul would put it. It is in order to create us as His people, as His new creation. Creation and redemption / salvation are mentioned together throughout Isaiah. The blind see light out of darkness- that is salvation (Is. 21:17-21). All this creation of light / darkness, peace / evil, is all part of the salvation process for God's people. 
The "peace" Isaiah's prophecies present is the peace of Jerusalem; which God had created, at least potentially. We note that the contrast is not between good and evil, as we might expect; but between peace and evil. This is because it is specifically "the peace of Jerusalem" which is in view here. The light / darkness refer to the darkness of Jerusalem's destruction by the Babylonians, and the darkness of the exile (Lam. 3:2,6). Indeed the word translated "evil" or "calamity" in :7 is specifically used about these things (Jer. 21:10; 42:10; Zech. 8:14), and Yahweh's formation / creation of the evil that would befall Jerusalem (Jer. 18:11; 26:3; 36:3). The "evil" of the Babylonian exile was not the triumph of the Babylonian gods; it was all of Yahweh the God of Israel. Jeremiah finally grasped Is. 45:7 when he admits in Lam. 3:38 "Doesn’t evil and good come out of the mouth of the Most High?". He says this in the midst of so much consternation that 'evil' / calamity had clearly come from God. Isaiah frequently describes the Jews in Babylon as being in a dark dungeon, to be brought out to the light of Zion. This too ultimately had been brought about by Yahweh. The Servant would be made / created as a light to bring God's people out of the darkness, which He Himself had made: "[God will] make you a covenant for the people, as a light for the nations; to open the blind eyes, to bring the prisoners out of the dungeon, and those who sit in darkness out of the prison" (Is. 42:6,7). The creator of light and darkness can thus also transform darkness into light: "I will make [s.w. create] darkness light before them" (Is. 42:16). Babylon was commanded by God to "go into darkness" (Is. 47:5) as Jerusalem's light arose. All this was God's "creation" of light and darkness. God indeed said "Let there be light" and there was, He commanded the light to shine out of darkness; but we are led by Is. 45:7 to realize what is only implicit in the Genesis account: The pre-existent darkness at creation was also created by God. For as He says in Isaiah, He alone is God and creator, of absolutely everything. God's creation of darkness and of "Leviathan", the supposed god of chaos and darkness, is specifically stated in Ps. 104:20,26: "You create darkness, and it is night... and Leviathan, whom You created". It's hard to appreciate the radical, unusual, paradigm breaking force of these statements to ancient peoples. The darkness, the sea, the supposed monsters of chaos brooding there... whether they are or are not actually there... were all created by Yahweh, the same God who creates "peace" for eternity, for His people. 
There seems significant evidence for believing that the idea of a personal devil first entered Judaism through their contact with the Persian religions whilst in captivity there. Rabbinic writings don’t mention a personal satan until the Jews were in Babylon, and the references become more frequent as Persian influence upon Judaism deepened. This is why the monumental passages in Isaiah [e.g. <a href='B:290 45:5-7'>Isa 45:5-7</a>], addressed to the captive Jews, point out the error of the Persian idea that there is a good God in tension with an evil god, Oromasden the god of light and Ahrimanen the god of darkness. Classically, the devil is understood to be a being with horns and a pitchfork. If we research why this should be the case, we soon find that the Bible itself is absolutely without any such images of satan or the devil. But we do find these images in pagan mythology- Pan, Dionysius and other pagan gods were depicted as having horns, long tails etc. In the British isles, let alone ancient Rome and Greece, there were traditions of ’horned gods’ being the source of evil- e.g. the Cernunnos amongst the Celts, Caerwiden in Wales, etc. In so many ways, apostate Christianity adopted pagan ideas and brought them into its theology. These horned gods, with forks and long tails, became adopted into a false Christianity as ’the devil’. But the Bible itself is absolutely silent about this- nowhere is there any indication that satan or the devil is a personal being with horns etc.</p><p>Isaiah’s statement that Yahweh creates both good and evil / disaster, light and darkness, is not only aimed at criticizing the Babylonian dualistic view of the cosmos. It also has relevance to the false ideas which were developing amongst the Jews in Babylon, which would later come to term in the false view of Satan which most of Christendom later adopted. According to the Jewish Apocryphal writing The Visions of Amram, human beings choose to live under the control of one of two angels. Amram has a vision of the two opposing angels who have been given control over humanity (4Q544 frg. 1, <a href='B:580 2:10-14'>Col 2:10-14</a> [Visions of Amram-b] = 4Q547 frgs. 1–2, <a href='B:580 3:9-13'>Col 3:9-13</a>). The good angel supposedly has power “over all the light”, whereas the evil angel has authority “over all the darkness”. Thus the idea of dualism – which is so attractive to all people – was alive and well amongst the Jews; and thus <a href='B:290 45:5-7'>Isa 45:5-7</a> was also aimed at the developing Jewish belief in Babylon in a dualistic cosmos.</p><p>Of especially significant influence upon Judaism were the Persian views of Zoroastrianism. This was a philosophy which began in Persia about 600 B:C:, and was growing in popularity when Judah went to Babylon / Persia in captivity. This philosophy posited that there was a good god of light (Mazda) and an evil god of darkness (Ahriman). The well known passage in <a href='B:290 45:5-7'>Isa 45:5-7</a> is a clear warning to the Jews in captivity not to buy into this – Israel’s God alone made the light and the darkness, the good and the “evil”. He alone had the power to give “the treasures of darkness” to a man (<a href='B:290 45:3'>Isa 45:3</a>), even though such “treasures” were thought to be under the control of the supposed ‘Lord of darkness’. But Isaiah is in fact full of other allusions to Zoroastrian ideas, seeking to teach Judah the true position on these things. See on <a href='B:290 9:6'>Isa 9:6</a>.</p><p>Apart from seeking to justify themselves, the uninspired Jewish authors were struggling with the issue we all do- how can a good and kind God do negative things? But they took the easy way out, presuming to rewrite His word in order to pass blame into a Satan figure of their own imaginations. These uninspired Jewish writings from between the Testaments repeatedly seek to rewrite Biblical history and statements in order to accommodate the Persian ideas. <a href='B:290 45:5-7'>Isa 45:5-7</a> is clear:"I am the Lord, and there is none else. I form the light and create darkness: I make peace and create evil; I the Lord do all these things". But 4 <a href='B:150 2:14'>Ezr 2:14</a> changes this to:"I have left out evil and created good, because I live, says the Lord". We have a stark choice- the inspired text of the Bible, or uninspired Jewish interpretations seeking to justify the adoption of pagan myths about Satan.</p>


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<p>Distil, you heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness. Let the earth open, that it may bring forth salvation, and let it cause righteousness to spring up with it. I, Yahweh, have created it- <a href='B:290 45:1-7'>Isa 45:1-7</a> concern Cyrus and really should be read as part of Isaiah 44. Because of the decree of Cyrus, the land of Israel could have opened and brought forth the Lord Jesus (“Yah’s salvation”). The LXX gives the picture of cosmic joy meeting the joy of the earth beneath, resulting in the gift of the Spirit, part of the new covenant offered to the exiles in Jeremiah 31 and Ezekiel 20, resulting in righteousness and spirituality within the people left on the earth / land of Israel:"Let the heaven rejoice from above, and let the clouds rain righteousness: let the earth bring forth, and blossom with mercy, and bring forth righteousness likewise: I am the Lord that created thee". The new creation envisioned was to be of spiritual characteristics. Judah refused all this, and it has been applied to those in Christ today (<a href='B:540 5:17'>2Co 5:17</a>).
"Let the earth open" reminds us that when the earth opened before it brought forth destruction (Num. 16:32; 26:10; Ps. 106:17). Now it opens to bring forth salvation. We have here a worked example of how Yahweh creates both evil and good (:5).</p>


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<p>Woe to him who strives with his Maker- a clay pot among the clay pots of the earth! Shall the clay ask Him who fashions it, ‘What are you making?’ or your work, ‘He has no hands?’-  "Maker" is the word for "potter" and hence the reference to potsherds. R.V. "a potsherd among the potsherds of the earth!". Cyrus would become just another broken vessel and become like all the others who had failed to respond to the potters' hand. And Isaiah repeatedly states that it was the Jews who had been made or formed by God; yet they resisted the call of His Kingdom, and thus struggled against their own glorious destiny and God's hand striving to save them. So we could render "Woe unto him that contends with the power that formed him; the potsherd with the moulder of the clay". The Jews of Isaiah’s day would have had big problems with the idea of a pagan king like Cyrus becoming&nbsp; the King of Israel and being Yahweh’s special “servant” and even Messiah; see on <a href='B:290 45:1'>Isa 45:1</a>. Folk have the same problem and resistance to the idea today. But passages like <a href='B:290 45:9-13'>Isa 45:9-13</a>, <a href='B:290 48:14-16'>Isa 48:14-16</a> and much of the material that follows the servant songs, are in fact seeking to answer objections to this- e.g. by saying that God is the potter and men are mere clay, and He will raise up precisely whom He wishes- even pagan Cyrus- to be His man, the arm of His salvation, at least potentially. We all struggle with God’s hand in our lives, seeking ways to escape this or that touch of the Divine potter. But we are but striving with our maker. He wishes our salvation, and every touch of His hand is directed toward that glorious end. On one hand we are"a pot that is like all the others"(GNB); our appearances, life experiences and path can appear more or less identical to those of the unbeliever next door. But for us, there is meaning attached to event; even if those events are not dissimilar to those of our unbelieving neighbours.</p><p>Both as individuals and collectively, the whole biography and even genetic prehistory of God’s people has been prepared by God in their formation, so that they might encounter God’s salvation at an optimal point for them to give the maximum glory to Him (<a href='B:290 43:21'>Isa 43:21</a>). And this was potentially true for Cyrus."Formed"is the word for the potter working on clay, used of how God fashions human hearts or psychologies, working on the deeply internal fabric of the human being (<a href='B:230 33:15'>Psa 33:15</a>). The ’forming’ in view is not only"in the womb"(<a href='B:290 44:2'>Isa 44:2</a>; <a href='B:290 44:24'>Isa 44:24</a>) but throughout their whole psychological and genetic formation. It is possible to strive with our former or"maker"(<a href='B:290 45:9'>Isa 45:9</a>), to be unresponsive to His touch of us the clay. The Messiah figure, ultimately the Lord Jesus, was the ultimate case of being"formed"by Yahweh’s hand (<a href='B:290 49:5'>Isa 49:5</a> s:w:), implying He too was clay, of human and not Divine nature.
This verse is quoted in Rom. 9:18-21 in a way which comes perhaps closer than anything in the Bible to teaching absolute, unconditional predestination: "He has mercy on whom He wishes to, and hardens who He wishes. Then you will say to me: Why does He still find fault? For who withstands His will? No, O man; who are you to answer back to God? Shall the thing formed say to Him that formed it: Why did you make me thus? Or has not the potter a right over the clay, from the same lump to make one part a vessel to honour, and another to dishonour?". The same piece of clay can apparently be randomly used by God; one part of it can be used to make a vessel which God eternally keeps, and part of the same lump can be used to make a vessel which is cast away for ever. Putting all scripture together, we cannot believe in absolute, unconditional predestination. Yet I for one would answer the question "Why does He still find fault?" by saying something like: 'Because some of the clay is softer and more responsive to the potter's hand than others. If we are soft and responsive to His hand, then we will be the vessel made that He eternally keeps'. But Paul doesn't answer that way. He basically responds: 'How dare you make any such response! You are not to even question God's apparently absolute, unconditional predestination. Who are you to do so? You are to just accept it in awed silence'. Quite possibly I am being disobedient to that by now saying: There is enough Biblical evidence to conclude that there has to be human freewill response. That must be given due weight and factored in to the final, unknowable equation that equals 'salvation' in its final term. But, within that equation, there is indeed an element of absolute, unconditional predestination. And that element is the "grace" factor. For that is the context in which Paul speaks of salvation.</p>


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<p>Woe to him who says to a father, ‘What have you become the father of?’ or to a mother, ‘To what have you given birth?’- We note how God likens Himself to both father and mother. I noted on :9 that the context here is the Jewish objection to God raising up a ’son’ like Gentile Cyrus to be the deliverer. And this challenge echoes down to our day, where we may have a gut level dislike to those clearly raised up to be Yahweh’s servants. It is not for us to thus speak to God about His children and servants.</p>


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<p>Thus says Yahweh the Maker and Holy One of Israel: You can ask Me about the things that are to come, concerning My sons, and you command Me concerning the work of My hands!- In the context of God lowering Himself to plead with a proud and apostate Israel, God invites them to"command Me":"Thus saith the Lord, the Holy One of Israel... concerning the work of my hands command ye me. I have made the earth and created man upon it: I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded"(<a href='B:290 45:11-12'>Isa 45:11-12</a> AV). Note the two uses of"command"and"hands". God commands the stars, His hands created them; but command ye me concerning my works, and I will answer you. We can command God and His hands will answer. The humility of the creator shows He is the creator. But we can perhaps more easily interpret this in the context of :10 along with GNB:"he LORD, the holy God of Israel, the one who shapes the future, says: "You have no right to question me about my children or to tell me what I ought to do!". However, probably this is an allusion to the court case God is facing over whether He can save His weak and sinful people from Babylon. He challenges His accusers, those who disbelieve, to ask Him further about His plans for Israel. We assume there is silence. And then in :12 Yahweh goes on the attack, as it were, reminding His accusers that He is the creator of the earth / land and man upon it, and He can as easily re-establish His Kingdom in that land and inhabit it with His people. He is the "maker" of Israel (:11) as well as of the earth and heavens (:12).</p>


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<p>I have made the earth, and created man on it. I, even My hands, have stretched out the heavens; and I have commanded all their army- See on :5,11. The creation of the earth / land in view is specifically the new creation of His Kingdom restored in the land of Israel, the eretz promised to Abraham. He had created that land and had returned "man", His people, upon it. The same power which commands the stars (LXX) commanded each of the exiles to return. They were moved around from captivity to Judah just as the stars are moved. We see here again how "stars" represent Israel, a theme seen early on in Joseph’s dreams.
Verses 11-13 are full of God's personal pronouns, "I... Me". Indeed we could translate: "Ask Me about My sons! And about the work of My hands, command Me. I, I made the earth and humankind upon it I created. I, My hands stretched the heavens, and all their host I commanded. I, I stir him up in righteousness, and all his ways I will make straight". The double "I" construction is remarkable. The point is so heavily laboured, that God Almighty Himself in person is so personally involved in the salvation of His people. This is not the abstraction of atonement theory, not a tick box nor equation that results in human salvation, with God setting it up and taking a back seat until judgment day. He, He Himself, personally, is absolutely and passionately working in us towards our salvation. Israel refused so very much, and so does every man who denies the working of God within him unto salvation.  </p>


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<p>I have raised him up in righteousness, and I will make straight all his ways- The idea may be that Cyrus was called to be righteous, to know Yaweh's Name. The "righteousness" in view may simply be an allusion to the ideas found on the Cyrus Cylinder, claiming Marduk had raised by Cyrus in righteousness. Whereas God is saying that it is He and not Marduk to whom these claims really applied; see on Is. 44:28. Yahweh commands the stars (:12) and so there should be no difficulty believing that He could command Cyrus to deliver His people.
LXX suggests this was more of a command, which he failed to obey fully: "I have raised him up to be a king with righteousness". He was to be the king of righteousness but wasn’t. And it was a prophecy reapplied to the Lord Jesus. For the picture of ways being made straight is that of Isaiah 40 about the preparation of Messiah’s path to the restored Zion.</p><p>He shall build My city, and he shall let My exiles go free, not for price nor reward, says Yahweh of Armies- For no human benefit at all to Cyrus:&nbsp; This is as clear a prophecy as any could wish. God categorically stated that Cyrus would be raised up by Him in order to release the captives in Babylon, and to enable the building of Jerusalem (<a href='B:290 45:12'>Isa 45:12</a>); all because God had formed the land [AV “earth”] of Israel to be inhabited and not to be left without His people dwelling upon it. And this happened; the captives were released (although most preferred to stay put in Babylon), and the building of Jerusalem was enabled (although the work was not done very enthusiastically by Judah, and they preferred to build their own houses rather than Yahweh’s).</p><p>Cyrus operated "not for price nor reward", for no personal advantage. This helps explain <a href='B:290 52:3'>Isa 52:3</a>: "You were sold for nothing; and you shall be redeemed without money". They were "sold for nothing" in that God had no personal benefit from the exile of His people; He did this to them for their spiritual benefit, not for any gain for Himself. Their redemption likewise would be according to His grace, and not because of any transaction between God and man. This was reflected in the way Cyrus commanded the Jews to return and provided all that was materially required to rebuild the temple, but "not for reward", for no personal benefit.
Whilst some critics have tried to argue that Cyrus' attitude to the Jews was just part of a general policy of allowing exiles to return to their homelands, it has to be noted that he made the decree about the Jews as soon as he came to power. And there is evidence that his princes thought it a crazy idea and were opposed to it. Thus Dan. 10 records the Angel explaining how he has been detained by needing to spend time overcoming the princes of Persia. Cyrus made the decree for no good human reason. It was an impulse put into his mind by God. And yet this deliverance of the Jews is described in Isaiah as the result of God's Spirit. His Spirit can tamper directly with the human mind, putting ideas and impulses into us and empowering us to follow them... despite opposition all around us.
"Not for price" could also simply mean that the exiles wouldn't need to pay anything. God had cleared their debt- "You shall be redeemed without money" (Is. 52:3).
</p>


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<p>Thus says Yahweh: The labour of Egypt, and the merchandise of Ethiopia, and the Sabeans, men of stature, shall come over to you, and they shall be yours. They will go after you. They shall come over in chains and they will bow down to you. They will make supplication to you: ‘Surely God is in you; and there is none else. There is no other god- But the Egyptians and Ethiopians didn’t come and fall down before Judah, as the Queen of Sheba had before Solomon. Nor did they accept Yahweh as the only God, and ditch their idols. The idea was that the Jewish exiles in the lands of the South would return, and their captors would come with them, wishing to invert what had happened by showing themselves to now be servile to the Jews and their God. But instead, the returned Jews worshipped the idols of Egypt, and married their women (<a href='B:150 9:1'>Ezr 9:1</a>). And thus Israel were ashamed and confounded in the future (cp. :17). So the essence of these things is reapplied to the conversion of the Gentiles in the last day.
There are other references to the [potential] conversion of Egypt. "Princes shall come out of Egypt.
Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto God" (Psa. 68:310; and Is. 19:18-22: "In that day there will be five cities in the land of Egypt that speak the language of Canaan and swear allegiance to the Lord of hosts... In that day there will be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to the Lord at its border... When they cry to the Lord because of oppressors, he will send them a saviour and defender, and deliver them. And the Lord will make himself known to the Egyptians, and the Egyptians will know the Lord in that day and worship with sacrifice and offering, and they will make vows to the Lord and perform them. And the Lord will strike Egypt, striking and healing, and they will return to the Lord, and he will listen to their pleas for mercy and heal them" (ESV). Likewise of Ethiopia and Sheba: "From beyond the ruins of Ethiopia, my suppliants, even the daughters of my dispersed, shall bring mine offering" (Zeph. 3:10). "The kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts" (Ps. 72:10). This potential conversion of Egypt never happened at the time, just as the exiles didn't all return nor was the Kingdom re-established, and neither did Cyrus act as intended. It's not the prophecy was falsified, but rather that God's statements are ofen statements of intention and potential; but His prophecies are not deterministic, railroading men to conversion in spite of their free will. This is the answer to those who misunderstand some statements in the Bible as implying universal salvation. We note that people from these very areas were converted at Pentecost (Acts 2:10,11), along with the eunuch from Ethiopia.
We could read the "you" here as Cyrus, the subject of the context. Although we could read :13 as saying that Cyrus was not given any reward for what he was to do. In any case, Egypt was conquered by the Persians only under Cambyses, not Cyrus. So the intended reward of "Egypt" wasn't given to Cyrus; perhaps because he failed to fully act as the servant was intended to. 
Men falling down before Israel saying "‘Surely God is in you; and there is none else'" is transferred to the function of the true Christian in 1 Cor. 14:25. In this case, those "in" the suffering servant become the servant, rather than natural Israel at this point.
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<p>Most certainly You are a God who has hidden Yourself, God of Israel, the Saviour’- This could be seen as the interjection of Israel in objection to God's statements. It would be one of many examples in Isaiah of where a voice speaks, without introduction. Is. 40 is the clearest example. Yahweh's "I am..." is met by their response "[But] You are...". We could read God as responding in the next verses, not least in His statement that He will save Israel (:16,17). It's as if He stolidly continues in His quest for their salvation, despite their objections that God has hidden Himself. We will discuss on :19 how God responds to this by stating the obvious- that He has not spoken nor worked in some obscure way that needs interpretation and deciphering. The Bible, God's plan of salvation, is not a riddle to be solved. God is not hiding from man, playing hard to get, but openly revealing Himself. LXX gives "For thou art God, though we did not know it, O God of Israel the Saviour".
<a href='B:290 30:20'>Isa 30:20</a> describes the reestablished Kingdom as a time when Judah’s repentant eyes would "see" the God who had taught them through the sufferings of defeat and exile (see note there). Their eyes would no longer be blinded, they would see and perceive the ’hidden’ God who had tried to teach them through all their afflictions. Meaning will finally be attached to event, and the problem of evil resolved finally. God had as it were ’hidden’ Himself during the exile (<a href='B:290 45:15'>Isa 45:15</a>; <a href='B:400 3:4'>Mic 3:4</a>); but now He would be revealed to them. Just as Cain was exiled to the east of Eden (which I have suggested was the eretz promised to Abraham) and been hidden from God’s eyes in his exile (<a href='B:10 4:14'>Gen 4:14</a>; <a href='B:50 31:17-18'>Deu 31:17-18</a>; <a href='B:50 32:20'>Deu 32:20</a> s:w:), so with Judah. The hidden things belong to God and only some are now revealed to us, but in the day of exile’s end, all those things, the meaning attached to the events, will at last be revealed (<a href='B:50 29:29'>Deu 29:29</a> s:w:). Then there will be no need for Jeremiah’s Lamentations and struggles about the exile, all developed in the story of the suffering Job, who felt God hidden from him (s:w. <a href='B:220 3:23'>Job 3:23</a>; <a href='B:220 13:24'>Job 13:24</a>) just as God was to hide His face from Zion at the time of the Babylonian invasion (Jer 335) and exile (<a href='B:330 39:23-24'>Eze 39:23-24</a>). Therefore all human attempts to see the hidden God were doomed to failure, as Job was finally taught (<a href='B:220 34:29'>Job 34:29</a> s:w:). But the glorious truth of <a href='B:290 30:20'>Isa 30:20</a> is that finally, the Divine teacher will not be hidden any more and our eyes shall see Him and His ways, as Job did at the end (<a href='B:220 42:5'>Job 42:5</a>). And yet Isaiah and his family / school of prophets did look or see the hand of the God who was hiding Himself from Judah (s:w. <a href='B:290 8:17'>Isa 8:17</a>). At the restoration, there was to be no need for Judah to feel that their way was "hid from Yahweh" (<a href='B:290 40:27'>Isa 40:27</a> s:w:) any more, as it had been during the exile "for a little moment" when God hid His face (<a href='B:290 54:8'>Isa 54:8</a>). Their eyes would see / perceive. But tragically, the exiles didn’t; God reflected that "I hid me... and he went on proudly in the way of his heart" (<a href='B:290 57:17'>Isa 57:17</a>). Their sins continued to hide His face from them (<a href='B:290 59:2'>Isa 59:2</a>; <a href='B:290 64:7'>Isa 64:7</a>). See on :19.</p>


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<p>They will be disappointed, yes, confounded, all of them. Those who are makers of idols will go into confusion together- "Disappointed... confounded" are the words used earlier by Isaiah concerning the idolaters amongst the Jews (Is. 1:29; 20:5; 30:5), confirming our previous suggestions that the polemics against idol makers are in fact aimed at the Jewish exiles, rather than Gentiles. The Jews in Babylon were idolaters, and that is why they refused to respond to the salvation made possible through Cyrus.
LXX "All that are opposed to him shall be ashamed and confounded, and shall walk in shame: ye isles, keep a feast to me". This walking in shame is applied to the rejection at the last day of those who have refused the things of the Lord Jesus and trusted in the equivalent of "idols" in their generation (<a href='B:730 16:15'>Rev 16:15</a>). It was to be the makers of idols who were "confounded" (s:w. <a href='B:290 41:11'>Isa 41:11</a>; <a href='B:290 45:16'>Isa 45:16</a>) and only the true Israel would not be "confounded" (<a href='B:290 45:17'>Isa 45:17</a>; <a href='B:290 54:4'>Isa 54:4</a>). The sinners in Israel had refused to be confounded or ashamed of their sins (<a href='B:300 3:3'>Jer 3:3</a> s:w:) and so they would be shamed in condemnation. Repentance involves an imagination of ourselves coming to judgment day and being condemned, and feeling shame for that; that is how we shall not be ashamed. And it is the servant alone who shall not be ashamed / confounded because of His righteousness (<a href='B:290 50:7'>Isa 50:7</a>). Our identity with Him removes that shame. If we condemn ourselves, we shall not be condemned (<a href='B:530 11:31'>1Co 11:31</a>). The enemies of Israel would perish alongside the apostate within Israel, in the same judgment. See on :14.</p>


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<p>Israel will be saved by Yahweh with an everlasting salvation- I suggested on :16 that the idol makers were Jews in Babylon and not Gentiles generally. "Israel will be saved..." could be a definition of "Israel" as the true Israel of God. Or it could be another example of where God condemns His people, but then goes right on to protest His love for them and intention to save them (see on Is. 44:1). Ultimately, God's people will not be "disappointed nor ashamed" even though they had been due to their idolatry (the same words are used of them in this connection in :16).
The "eternal age" of the Kingdom of peace could have come at that time, with the Messianic son of Isaiah as the father of that eternal age (see on <a href='B:290 9:6'>Isa 9:6</a>). But it didn’t. An eternal Messianic kingdom could then have been established; Judah were urged to repent and allow it to happen in <a href='B:290 26:4'>Isa 26:4</a>. And the same potential was there for the exiles who returned from Babylon (<a href='B:290 45:17'>Isa 45:17</a>; <a href='B:290 65:18'>Isa 65:18</a>). And the "father" of that could have been a Messianic figure who arose in Jerusalem. But these potentials have been reapplied and rescheduled to the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus to be established in Zion in the last days.</p><p>You will not be disappointed nor confounded to ages everlasting- Or, "ashamed". See on :14,16. Yahweh had promised support for them if they returned to the land; He would preserve them on the way. Consider <a href='B:290 50:10'>Isa 50:10</a>: “Who is among you that feareth the LORD, that obeyeth the voice [s:w. Ezra 1 :1 re the proclamation of Cyrus] of his servant [i:e. Cyrus, <a href='B:290 45:1'>Isa 45:1</a>], that walketh in darkness, and hath no light? let him trust in the name of the LORD, and stay upon his God”. Yet Ezra was ashamed to ask the king for soldiers to guard them on the journey only because he had earlier told the king that Yahweh would be with them (<a href='B:150 8:22'>Ezr 8:22</a>), as if he really did want the support but was ashamed to ask for it. He disallowed Isaiah’s prophesy that the restored Israel would never be ashamed [s:w. <a href='B:150 8:22'>Ezr 8:22</a>; <a href='B:150 9:6'>Ezr 9:6</a>] nor confounded (<a href='B:290 45:17'>Isa 45:17</a>; <a href='B:290 49:23'>Isa 49:23</a>; <a href='B:290 54:4'>Isa 54:4</a>). Nehemiah accepted such support when he came up from Babylon (<a href='B:160 2:9'>Neh 2:9</a>).</p><p>The same Hebrew words for “ashamed [and] confounded” in :16,17 occur in <a href='B:150 9:6'>Ezr 9:6</a>, where as a result of Ezra realizing that Judah had married the local women and broken covenant with Yahweh, he admits: “I am ashamed and blush [s:w. ‘confounded’] to lift up my face to thee, my God: for our iniquities are increased….". The words of Isaiah 45 could have had their fulfilment in the time of Cyrus; the surrounding nations could have come and worshipped before Judah, and the whole earth quit their idols and look unto Yahweh as a just God and a saviour. But Judah would not. Judah in the new temple would not “defile” Yahweh’s Name any more (<a href='B:330 43:7-8'>Eze 43:7-8</a>); but they were lazy to keep the uncleanness laws, they did defile Yahweh by touching dead bodied and then offering the sacrifices (<a href='B:440 2:13-14'>Hag 2:13-14</a> s:w:), just as Israel previously had been defiled by touching the dead bodies of their kings and then offering sacrifices (<a href='B:330 43:7'>Eze 43:7</a>); but now, Judah thought they were above God’s law, and therefore did exactly the same things which had caused the temple to be destroyed in the first place. The promise that Yahweh would dwell in the new temple was conditional on them not touching dead bodies (<a href='B:330 43:9'>Eze 43:9</a>); but <a href='B:440 2:13'>Hag 2:13</a> makes it apparent that they did this very thing at the time of the restoration.</p>


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<p>For thus says Yahweh who created the heavens, the God who formed the earth and made it, who established it and didn’t create it in vain, who formed it to be inhabited: I am Yahweh; and there is no other- Yahweh speaks of the returnees as if they were a new creation, created by Him along with the heavens and earth of the temple which He had stretched out in Zion (<a href='B:290 43:7'>Isa 43:7</a>; <a href='B:290 44:2'>Isa 44:2</a>). He did not form this new land / heavens of the kingdom and temple of Israel in vain- He created it to be inhabited (<a href='B:290 45:18'>Isa 45:18</a>). But the Jews acted like the old creation. And the promise of new creation was deferred until the time of Jesus (<a href='B:540 5:17'>2Co 5:17</a>). Judah for the most part declined to inhabit / dwell in the new heavens and earth [the same word in <a href='B:290 45:18'>Isa 45:18</a> is frequently used re. how the returnees dwelt in the cities of Judah]. And we too can take the simple encouragement- that God has created His Kingdom, with all the careful planning involved, so that it should be inhabited. He is not playing hard to get, nor indifferent to the progress of His plans. He wants us to be there.</p><p>If "the earth" is ’the land’ of Israel and "the Heavens" refer to the temple (see <a href='B:110 8:30'>1Ki 8:30</a>; <a href='B:140 30:27'>2Ch 30:27</a>; <a href='B:230 20:2'>Psa 20:2</a>; <a href='B:230 20:6'>Psa 20:6</a>; <a href='B:230 11:4'>Psa 11:4</a>; <a href='B:650 7:26'>Heb 7:26</a>; <a href='B:100 15:15'>2Sa 15:15</a> etc:) then God is saying that if the temple and land remained uninhabited, His creation of them would be in vain- hence His plan of restoration. The references in Isaiah’s prophecies of the restoration to God being the creator of Heaven and earth would therefore be reminders that it was equally in His power to create the new Heavens and earth of the people of Israel/the temple.</p>


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<p>I have not spoken in secret, in a place of the land of darkness. I didn’t say to the seed of Jacob, ‘Seek Me in vain’. I, Yahweh, speak righteousness. I declare things that are right- The idea of the first sentence may be that He had not spoken this word to the exiles in "the land of darkness", Babylon or ruined Judah, just for the sake of it. It was not "in vain", the prospect of the Kingdom was attainable. Perhaps this is God’s response to the complaint in :15 that He was hiding Himself. He is urging the exiles as He urges us- that His promise of eternal salvation is for real, He has promised it to us in "truth" ["right"] and for all our sin and dysfunction and separation from His ultimate perfection of holiness, His righteousness is not impugned by His wonderful offer to us. "I declare things that are right" could as well be rendered  "I give direct answers". It is Israel who complain He is a God who hides Himself; He replies that in fact the opposite. 
God denies that He spoke in "a place of the land of darkness", alluding to how the pagan responses were usually given from some dark cave, like the famous oracle at Delphi. This surely connects with Jer. 2:31: “Have I been a wilderness unto Israel, a land of darkness?”. God’s revelation to man has not been like a dark, trackless desert, but a light in which men might walk towards an assured goal. Any complaint that His word is hard to understand isn't really valid- it reflects a refusal to understand the obvious good news of His salvation and Kingdom. In the same way, "I said not... "Seek me" in vain", in chaos (tohu), (as in Is. 45:18, the land was not created "in vain"). He did not reveal His plan of salvation and set up the prospect of His Kingdom without hope of result. Life, Bible reading etc. is not a hopeless wander through a confusing wilderness. When Yahweh invited men to “Seek me”, He meant that He could and would be found (Jer. 29:13). Hence :22 "Look to Me and be saved". "I spoke openly to the world... in secret have I said nothing" (Jn. 18:20). "This commandment which I command you this day, it is not hidden from you, neither is it far off" (Dt. 30:11).
The call for Jerusalem to be inhabited of Is. 44:26 is repeated here. God created the new heavens and earth, the restored Jerusalem, to be inhabited. He has planned His eternal Kingdom on earth to be inhabited; to have people in it. This is a profound encouragement if we doubt our own final entry into that Kingdom. The intention to fill the earth with Abraham's spiritual seed, as many as the grains of sand on the seashore, requires the salvation of a great multitude. This is why there is all this created earth around us- for it to be inhabited. Just as God carefully created a habitable world, controlling the exact temperature, proximity to the sun, revolution of the earth etc., so He has created His Kingdom to be inhabited by man.
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<p>Assemble yourselves and come. Draw near together, you who have escaped from the nations- The ’bringing / assembling’ and ’drawing near / gathering’ of the exiles (s:w. <a href='B:290 43:5'>Isa 43:5</a>) would have been primarily fulfilled at the restoration (same words in <a href='B:160 1:9'>Neh 1:9</a>). But most of the exiles remained in the lands of their captivity, just as people resist the Gospel’s call today. They had to themselves bring and gather themselves (<a href='B:290 45:20'>Isa 45:20</a>; <a href='B:290 49:18'>Isa 49:18</a>; <a href='B:290 60:4'>Isa 60:4</a>), so that God would confirm this by bringing and gathering them (<a href='B:290 43:5'>Isa 43:5</a>; <a href='B:300 31:8'>Jer 31:8</a>; <a href='B:330 34:13'>Eze 34:13</a>; <a href='B:330 36:24'>Eze 36:24</a>; <a href='B:330 37:21'>Eze 37:21</a>; <a href='B:450 10:10'>Zec 10:10</a>). And so today with all who wish to be in God’s Kingdom; our desire to be there and first moves towards it will be confirmed many times over by God’s work through His Spirit:&nbsp;The LXX and GNB suggest that the group in view are the minority of the peoples of the Babylonian empire who were to repent and turn to Yahweh: "people of the nations, all who survive the fall of the empire" (GNB). They were intended to join the repentant exiles in a restored, multiethnic Kingdom of God in Judah. This possibility of course didn’t happen, human impenitence was to such an extent, and so it looks forward to the final establishment of the Kingdom in the last days.</p><p>Those have no knowledge who carry the wood of their engraved image, and pray to a god that can’t save- Again idols are characterized by being unable to save; Yahweh’s ultimate salvation of man from death is what makes Him God. The implication is that the remnant who did return from Babylon took idols with them- exactly matching how the Israelites took their idols with them through the Red Sea in their 'return' to Canaan (Ez. 20), and carried the tabernacle of Moloch as well as that of Yahweh. They are challenged in a court case, to present their arguments for doing so, and to justify their disbelief that Yahweh alone could save them He insists that He is a just God and Israel's Saviour (:21).</p>


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<p>Declare and present it. Yes, let them take counsel together- 'Bring your strong arguments'.  This is legal language, inviting any opposed to God’s purpose with Jacob to present their hard evidence in court. But Isaiah’s lengthy prophecies of the restoration must be compared against the sad reality of what actually happened. The prophecies exude a wonderfully positive and joyful spirit, which contrasts with the defeatism of the returnees. And one cannot help but wonder whether we as individuals and therefore as a community have really lived the life of joy which the NT promises for those who truly believe. <a href='B:290 45:20-21'>Isa 45:20-21</a> is an example: “Assemble yourselves and come; draw near together, ye that are escaped of the nations [i:e. Babylon and all the 127 provinces of Persia]…Tell ye, and bring them near; yea, let them take counsel together”. These are the very words used to describe how the local opposition ‘took counsel together’ to frustrate the work of the Jews (<a href='B:160 6:7'>Neh 6:7</a>). Yahweh is exultantly saying: ‘Let them do it... let them get on with it, nothing can prosper against you and your work!’. But instead, the Jews took the opposition so seriously.</p><p>Who has shown this from ancient time? Who has declared it of old? Haven’t I, Yahweh? There is no other God besides Me, a just God and a Saviour; There is no one besides Me- Justice and salvation were not part of the idol worship systems or theologies. And those idols had no histories of prophetic statements and intentions:&nbsp; The whole metaphor of 'redemption' shows that there was a justice in God's salvation. Israel were in debt to Him because of their sin, He didn't quietly forget the debt, rather did He as their redeemer pay the price for their redemption. As it were, to Himself. There is therefore an ethical legitimacy to salvation; He is "a just God and a Saviour".  Ps. 85:10 makes the same point, that "Mercy and truth are met together, righteousness and peace have kissed each other". This ethical legitimacy is a big theme of Romans, which is a conscious development of the arguments of Is. 40-66. Thus Rom. 3:26 argues of how "That He might be just, and the justifier of him that believes in Jesus". Justification is just. It is not a turning of a friendly blind eye to sin.  </p>


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<p>Look to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other- LXX "ye that come from the end of the earth", as if referring to the exiles returning from the boundaries of the eretz promised to Abraham. They were to look to Yahweh in repentance, "turn to Me" (LXX) in repentance; and if they looked, then the blindness of their eyes would be removed by God’s Spirit acting in their hearts, according to the promise of the new covenant. But they continued to look / turn to other gods, and so Yahweh’s face remained hidden from them because they were not looking to Him (s:w. <a href='B:50 31:18'>Deu 31:18</a>), turning or ’looking’ to Yahweh the back and not the face, so that He would remain hidden from them (:15; <a href='B:300 32:33'>Jer 32:33</a> s:w:).</p><p>The altar "Jehovah-Nissi" connected Yahweh personally with the pole / standard / ensign of Israel (<a href='B:20 17:15'>Exo 17:15</a>). Yet nissi is the Hebrew word used for the pole on which the brass serpent was lifted up, and for the standard pole which would lift up Christ. Somehow Yahweh Himself was essentially connected with the cross of Christ. “There is no God else beside; a just God and a Saviour (Jesus)... look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth” (<a href='B:290 45:21-22'>Isa 45:21-22</a>) is evident allusion to the snake on the pole to which all Israel were bidden look and be saved. And yet that saving symbol of the crucified Jesus is in fact God Himself held up to all men.</p>


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<p>I have sworn by Myself, the word has gone out of My mouth in righteousness and will not return, that to Me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall take an oath- God could swear by no greater and so He swears by Himself, by His own life, or as He says often, "As surely as I live" (Heb. 6:13, 16); this, therefore, is the most solemn assurance that He does indeed desire the salvation of His people.
Heb. "righteousnesses", an intensive plural. God's intention is that His people shall bow to Him at the last day and be accepted at His final judgment. That word will not return to Him void. It will achieve fulfilment; just as He formed the new heavens and earth to be inhabited. His plan for the Kingdom will not be in vain.
The Divine hope was that the repentant exiles would enter the new covenant, and take an oath to Him. But they didn’t, and so these things are reinterpreted with reference to the work of the Lord Jesus, and believers bowing before Him. Romans 14 quotes these words about how the new Israel will come from all nations to the judgment seat of the Lord Jesus at the last day. There’s one thing which the sheer height of the Lord’s exaltation leads us to. "Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him... that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow... and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord... wherefore... work out your own salvation with fear and trembling" (Php_2:9-12). These words are alluding to <a href='B:290 45:23-24'>Isa 45:23-24</a>: "…unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear. Surely, shall one say, in the Lord have I righteousness and strength". We all find humility difficult. But before the height of His exaltation, a height which came as a result of the depth of the degradation of the cross, we should bow our knees in an unfeigned humility and realization of our sinfulness, and thankful recognition of the fact that through Him we are counted righteous. We will be prostrated in the day of judgment before Him, and yet will be made to stand. We therefore ought not to judge our brother who will likewise be made to stand in that day- to his Master he stands or falls, not to us.</p><p>In Php_2:10, the Lord Jesus is said to have been given power over all beings in heaven, earth and the nether-world. The Romans understood the world to be divided into these three spheres of the cosmos. But this passage is based upon <a href='B:290 45:23'>Isa 45:23</a>, which says that God has total supremacy (see on :5-7)- and this has been granted to His Son. As I understand it, Paul is reasoning that if God is all powerful, and if that power has been given to the Lord Jesus, then whatever cosmology there is around, e.g. belief in a nether-world, well, in that case, Jesus has all power over that as well. The same argument applies to demons. If they exist, well the essence is that they are well and truly under the Lord’s control and aren’t essentially powerful. Paul doesn’t so much ridicule the idea of a nether-world, rather he takes the view, as Jesus did in His dealings with the demon issue, that God’s power is so great that their existence is effectively not an issue.</p>


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<p>They will say of Me, ‘There is righteousness and strength only in Yahweh’. Even to Him shall men come- These will be the thoughts of us each as we are bow before the judgment seat of the Lord Jesus, which is in view in :24. Then we shall appreciate as never before the meaning of imputed righteousness.</p><p>And all those who were incensed against Him shall be disappointed- The Samaritans could have provided a fulfilment of all this, just as the prideful Assyrians were before. And yet Sanballat, Tobiah, the Ammonites and Ashdodites were “wroth” [s:w. ‘incensed’] against Judah (<a href='B:160 4:1'>Neh 4:1</a>; <a href='B:160 4:7'>Neh 4:7</a>). But they didn’t come to nothing, nor to shame, in that those very groups were the ones who married into Jewry, to the extent that Tobiah even shifted the tithes out of one of the chambers of the temple and et up his office there. But at the last day, all the Lord’s enemies shall be ashamed ["disappointed"] in the shame of condemnation.</p>


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<p>In Yahweh shall all the seed of Israel be justified, and shall glory-"Be righteous", because they access the righteousness that is "in" Yahweh alone (:24). And that worked out through the Lord Jesus, "Yahweh our righteousness" (Jer. 23:6). This phrase "All the seed of Israel" is surely alluded to by Paul when he concludes with awed intensity: "And so all Israel shall be saved" (Rom. 11:26). He has in view natural Israel as well as spiritual Israel.
<a href='B:290 45:20-25'>Isa 45:20-25</a> calls for the Jews to return from Babylon and come unto Him in Zion; but the majority remained in Babylon, and so these words were delayed in fulfilment; Romans 14 quotes them about how the new Israel will come from all nations to the judgment seat of the Lord Jesus at the last day. But had Jewry returned from Babylon as they had been asked, they would have come to their Messiah there and then. "All the seed of Israel" suggests the ten tribes also were intended to return; but they too preferred their exile to restoring the Kingdom in Zion.</p>


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<p>Bel bows down, Nebo stoops; their idols are on the animals, and on the livestock: the things that you carried about are made a load, a burden to the weary- The gods could not save their own images. This is the referent of "their". The gods were supposed to not live on earth, but their images, the idols on earth, were their representatives. By contrast Yahweh saves what is His image, which is His blind, deaf and deformed servant Israel.
This appears to be a vision of the gods of Babylon being removed from the city as the Persians advanced. Just as Merodach-Baladan packed his idols on boats, at the approach of Sennacherib. But as I have noted elsewhere, the fall of Babylon didn’t happen quite as predicted. Darius the Mede actually maintained the Babylonian gods; of whom Bel and Nebo were the popular ones; although "Bel" is the equivalent of Hebrew ’Baal’ and may be a generic name. And so the potential scenario presented elsewhere, of Babylon falling, being destroyed by the fire of Divine judgment Sodom-style, and the exiles returning to Judah- just didn’t come about. The various preconditions involving Judah’s repentance weren’t in place. And so the ’fall of Babylon’ prophecies will in essence, although maybe not in every detail, be fulfilled in the fall of latter day Babylon. And this is how we are to understand this picture of the gods of Babylon being put on animals, after being carried about in the various processions earlier. The weary burdened with idols are reapplied to all heavy burdened who can come to the Lord Jesus and be relieved (<a href='B:470 11:28'>Mat 11:28</a>).</p><p>So much of later Isaiah is taken up with mockery and criticism of the Babylonian gods and the Marduk cult. The book of Esther, with Mordecai as the joint hero, named as he was after Marduk, demonstrates how caught up were the Jews with the Babylonian gods. Ezekiel repeatedly reveals the idolatry of the captives. Isaiah was therefore an appeal for the Jews to quit the Marduk cult and believe in the radical prophecies about the overthrow of Babylon. The situation is analogous to how the New Testament is full of references to the Roman imperial cult of empire worship. So much of the Bible is like Isaiah and the New Testament- a radical, counter-cultural call to see our present world for what it is, and to perceive that the ways of God simply can’t be mixed in, watered down or compromised with the way of this world. Naturally such criticisms of Babylon and its gods would have been a very risky thing- for Babylon had shown grace to many Jews and they were doing well in rising up the social and economic ladder there. To speak of Babylon in the hostile way the prophets do was a brave and unpopular thing (Isaiah 13, 14, 21, 46; Jeremiah 50, 51; often in Zechariah). We know from Ezekiel 8, Jeremiah 44 and Zechariah 5 that many Jews had accepted the idols of their Babylonian conquerors, rather like Ahaz did after his defeat by Assyria (<a href='B:120 16:10'>2Ki 16:10</a>). The spirit of ridiculing the idolatry of Babylon whilst living in it, waiting the call to leave, is so relevant to modern Christians working, living and waiting in latter day Babylon.
Surely the Lord had these words in mind when He bid all who are "weary and heavy laden" to come to Him, to accept His yoke, and find rest under Him (Mt. 11:28,29). In this case, the weariness and weight He refers to is related to idolatry, in whatever form. Not carrying idols means freedom and rest. "The weary" had been offered "rest" in Is. 28:12, but they had refused: "To whom he said, This is the rest wherewith you may cause the weary to rest". Man's restlessness and weariness is indeed related to his idolatry. Look at the burnt out faces of materialists, addicts... No idol ever satisfies, it always needs carrying, and it is exhausting. In its most extreme form, we see this in those in substance addiction; but the same essential experience is found in all idolatry. Man wants rest and peace but refuses the only path that leads to it: "Ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and you shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein" (Jer. 6:16).</p>


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<p>They stoop, they bow down together; they could not deliver the burden, but themselves have been carried away into captivity-  "They could not deliver", i.e. cause to escape. This is the recurrent theme- that the idols couldn't save, only Yahweh can save, Yah-hoshua, Yah saves, "Jesus". In this God is so unique that He becomes the only God. For elsewhere in Isaiah Yahweh predicates divinity upon being able to save eternally. The idea as noted on :1 is that the idols were to be carried away out of danger; but now there is the picture of the idols having been captured and being now taken off into captivity. But as explained on :1, this isn’t what happened when Babylon fell to the Medes.</p>


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<p>Listen to Me, house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel, that have been carried from their birth, that have been carried from the womb- The remnant of the whole house of Israel refers to the repentant remnant of both Judah and the ten tribes, who were intended to repent and return to Zion together, united by their experience of repentance, grace and forgiveness. The contrast is with how the idols / false gods had to be carried by their people and beasts (:1,2), but Yahweh the true God has carried His people. This is where mere religion and true spirituality are shown to be so different; religion often involves making ourselves feel good by supposedly doing something for God, whereas salvation by grace through faith is about accepting His carrying of us. The "remnant" were those whom Yahweh had hoped would repent, e.g. in Is. 6:9-13: "even if a tenth part remain in it, it will be burned again, like a terebinth or an oak whose stump remains standing when it is felled... The holy seed is its stump". Or again in Is. 10:20-23: "The remnant [lit. the  remains] of Israel, the people who have escaped of Jacob’s household, will not again any more lean on the one that hit it, but will lean on Yahweh, Israel’s holy one, in truth. The remnant will turn, the remnant of Jacob, to God the warrior. Although your people, Israel, may be like the sand of the sea, a remnant will return for it. An end is decreed, overflowing with faithfulness". Thus Isaiah had been asked to name his son "The remnant shall return". But it seems from Is. 46 that even the remnant were caught up in idolatry.
The picture of being carried 'from birth in the womb' could suggest that God was the pregnant mother who somehow had for a long time carried a child that had not come to the birth. Or possibly, had been an invalid child that from birth had to be carried. We think of the man lame from birth being carried in Acts 3:2; and in that acted parable, he represented an Israel who looked for healing in the wrong place. Earlier Yahweh had used the same image- He was as a woman who had been a long time [70 years] pregnant, but was now screaming as she came to the birth: "I have been silent a long time, I have been quiet and restrained Myself; now I will cry out like a travailing woman, I will both gasp and pant" (Is. 42:14). The pain and anxiety of a 70 year pregnancy... is a powerful image. As is the feminine image of "God". The child to be born was "the remnant"- a community of those who 'got it', who were spiritually born. But it is questionable if they ever came to the birth. And so the imagery is applied to all Christians who are "born" of the Spirit (Jn. 3:3-5). 
</p>


text:
<p>And even to old age I am He, and even to grey hairs will I carry you. I have made, and I will bear; yes, I will carry, and will deliver- As discussed on :3, the image of a child who must be carried from birth is that of an invalid child. Especially in the days before wheelchairs, a handicapped child had to be carried. This child grows up, to grey hairs- and is still carried by God. Not like the super mum who carries her invalid child- until she can do so no more, and must die herself. We have here a picture of the dysfunctional and handicapped nature of God's people. We recall that His beloved servant Israel is presented in the witness box as blind and deaf. He carries them from birth onwards, as the mother of a disabled child does, because He feels a responsibility to that which He has made and "born". There is a word play in "I will bear". He had born the child, so He must bear it for all time. Bearing, carrying and delivering are the words of child birth, but God does these things all our lives. But unlike a human mother, He never gets old. This is a powerful image, and comforts us that the people of God are imperfect, not "normal", and handicapped. But loved to the end by the greatest parent. What a contrast with the idols, who had to be carried and could not carry their people... Acts 13:18 continues the image in saying that God carried Israel as a nursing father through the wilderness. It is a mother who nurses / breast feeds a child. But God was a nursing father for forty years... and would be pregnant with them again fo seventy years and carry them / us their entire lives. 
An oft overlooked component of the promises to Abraham which are the core of the Gospel is that “I will be your God”. Land and eternal life in the future, blessings... these are indeed wonderful. But the King of the Cosmos is my God. Oh how rich the promise. So often we read that God is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. I take this to mean that He was there for them, through every moment, He was their God, He alone is without beginning and has immortality in Himself. This continuity in God over history is therefore an encouragement to us that He likewise is the continuous One in our lives too. Israel in captivity felt God had forgotten them; and so they are comforted that they are individuals “which have been borne by me from the belly, which have been carried from the womb: and even to old age I am he, and even to grey hairs will I carry you: I have made, and I will bear; yea, I will carry, and will deliver” (<a href='B:290 46:3-4'>Isa 46:3-4</a>). Note how God, who is presented as male, likens Himself to a woman here. As He carried us n the womb, so He will carry us when we are old and grey haired. True to human parenting experience, the baby is always the father’s little baby, even in grey hairs. And this wonderful comfort is so simply because “I am he”. This is an evident reference to God’s Name, YHWH. The mystery of the Name is partly because the declaration of it in <a href='B:20 3:6'>Exo 3:6</a> implies grammatically that He is, was, and shall be. &nbsp;This was intended to be a great comfort to Israel in Egypt, who again had felt that God was somehow distant, looking the other way, leaving them in their aloneness. The same Name, the promise of God’s&nbsp; abiding presence and purpose with us, provides comfort to every one of His people.</p><p>God is likening Himself to a woman who carries a child in her womb, then bears it, and then carries it as a baby, but still carries it when the child is an old man. Incidentally, this simile is proof enough that God is not somehow ’anti-women’. The God of all knowledge is aware of a fundamental psychological phenomena in all men; the fear, however passive and buried, of being without their mother; the fear of loneliness, the fear of eternal separation from the woman who bore and carried them. From the president to the happy village grandfather, this sense is there. Perhaps David appreciated this when he referred to a man weeping at his mother’s funeral (not his father’s) as the ultimate cameo of grieving and desolation of soul (<a href='B:230 35:14'>Psa 35:14</a>). And yet God says that He is in some ways the eternal mother, the one who bore and carried us in babyhood, but the One who will yet carry us when we are gray headed and once again unable to walk. Yet He is also the everlasting Father, through His Son (<a href='B:290 9:6'>Isa 9:6</a>). It’s a picture of exquisite beauty. Our relationship with God as the One who will never leave us is the only answer to what philosophers call ’the existential problem’; the awareness that has come to every thoughtful soul, the terror of being so alone as we get older, the dread of being without our human roots, of becoming the one to whom others (e.g. our children) look to as their background and root, whilst we ourselves have no tangible link with our past. This problem is defined by C:S. Lewis in The Inner Ring: "I believe that in all men’s lives at certain periods…one of the most dominant elements is the desire to be inside the local Ring and the terror of being left outside":&nbsp; This horror of existential loneliness can only be met by our sure knowledge that we have a very personal relationship in the Kingdom of God with our Heavenly Father, who will never ever leave us, and will preserve us unto His eternal Kingdom.</p>


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<p>To whom will you liken Me and make Me equal, and compare Me, that we may be alike?- This seems addressed to the idolaters within Judah, who were not denying Yahweh but making Him "equal" to the idols by claiming to worship Him through worshipping them.</p>


text:
<p>Some pour out gold from the bag, and weigh silver in the balance. They hire a goldsmith, and he makes it a god. They fall down- yes, they worship- The idea is that people pay in gold to a goldsmith, and he then makes that gold into a god, after keeping part of it for himself as wages. This explains the Divine cameraman zooming in on the handover of the gold pieces to the goldsmith. This recalls the picture in <a href='B:290 44:15-17'>Isa 44:15-17</a>, of a man cutting down a tree, using half for an idol and the other half for firewood. The purpose of presenting this bizarre picture was to enable the audience to perceive the utter foolishness of idolatry, although the person caught up in it can’t perceive it. And that is a feature of idolatry to this day.
The creation of idols was something done only under the supposed command of the gods. It seems there is extensive allusion to Marduk here, the Babylonian god whom many of the Jewish exiles had worshipped. We recall "Mordecai", named after Marduk. The ninth to the eighth century Babylonian Erra Epic has Marduk listing the necessary elements for the remaking of his living image: the help of the carpenter-god Nin-ildu, the smith-god Ninagal and Gushkin-banda, 'Creator of god and man', the god of gold working. The entire Babylonian mythology is being mocked here. And it was exactly the cult of Marduk which the Jewish exiles were still involved with. </p>


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<p>They bear it on the shoulder, they carry it, and set it in its place, and it stands, from its place it shall not move: yes, one may cry to it, yet it can not answer, nor save him out of his trouble- Again we have irony being used; the idols had to be carried by their people, whereas Yahweh carried His people (:3,4). This sounds like the processions in Babylon where the idols were carried through the streets on the shoulders of men, and then placed in high places and worshipped. Clearly Isaiah 40-66 was addressed directly to the returning exiles who would’ve been familiar with this scene; Isaiah was prophesying all this after Hezekiah had sinned and the captivity had been prophesied in Isaiah 39. Isaiah has so many detailed allusions to Babylonian life and beliefs that it’s impossible to think that it was all written in Hezekiah’s time, with no reference to the Babylonians. We find the specific names of Babylonian idols (<a href='B:290 46:1-2'>Isa 46:1-2</a>), ceremonies and processions known only in Babylon (Isa 467), omens (<a href='B:290 44:25'>Isa 44:25</a>), magic and astrology (<a href='B:290 47:1-2'>Isa 47:1-2</a>; <a href='B:290 47:12-13'>Isa 47:12-13</a>). Time and again there is specific reference to leaving Babylon and returning to Judah (<a href='B:290 40:3-11'>Isa 40:3-11</a>; <a href='B:290 42:15-16'>Isa 42:15-16</a>; <a href='B:290 48:20-22'>Isa 48:20-22</a>; <a href='B:290 49:9-12'>Isa 49:9-12</a>; <a href='B:290 52:11-12'>Isa 52:11-12</a>).</p>


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<p>Remember this, and show yourselves men; bring it again to mind, you transgressors- LXX has this as a call to repentance from idolatry by the exiles in Babylon: "Remember ye these things, and groan: repent, ye that have gone astray, return in your heart". They were to “remember this” that they already knew, and “bring it again to mind” that God is really the great eternal, and His Name is as it is, and they should have had no part in the idol processions spoken of in :7. The idol makers of Is. 44:19 are criticized because "No one takes this to heart". The idol makers of Is. 46:8 are asked "You transgressors, take it to heart". The appeal for repentance suggests it is the Jewish exiles who are in view; they were making the idols.  </p>


text:
<p>Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like Me- The exiled Jews ought to have had no part in the idol worship of Babylon spoken of in :7. They should have perceived that the magnitude of Yahweh made all other gods and idols of no significance. Our strength against idolatry in its modern forms is likewise found from appreciating the greatness of our God.
Elsewhere, God cites "the former things" as witnesses of Him and of His saving purpose for Israel. What were the former things? "The former things shall be forgotten" (:18; "the former things shall not be remembered", Is. 65:18)- all the sin and failure. But it was how God dealt with Israel's "former things" which were the witness to Him as He is and was and always shall be- the God who saves sinners by grace. In this sense Israel were to remember their former things, their sins and God's gracious forgiveness of them (Is. 44:20,21). Is. 46:8,9 is clear about this: "Remember this, and show yourselves men; bring it again to mind, you transgressors. Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like Me". Only Yahweh would forgive so much sin, "the former things"; no other god would have done. There is none like Him in His forgiveness of His people.</p>


text:
<p>Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done; saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure- The emphasis on this (e.g. also <a href='B:290 41:26'>Isa 41:26</a>) is understandable seeing that such a specific prophecy regarding the 70 years captivity was to be given and fulfilled. But the emphasis and flavour of the words used is not upon prediction but rather explanation, of attaching meaning to event. God alone can provide such explanation of both past and future events according to the far reaching narrative found in the prophets. The idol religions explained just a few isolated incidents. This is what is unique about the one true God- that He alone attaches meaning to event, both in personal and collective life, and indeed to all human history. Whether we correctly perceive it is another question, but He alone does this and holds the masterplan.
The pleasure or will of God refers specifically to the restoration; Cyrus was raised up to do all God's pleasure in restoring Zion (Is. 44:28). </p>


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<p>Calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man of My counsel from a far country; yes, I have spoken, I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed, I will also do it- Literally, a raven. This was an unclean bird. The idea is continually that the ones God uses as His servants are far from ideal and not morally qualified. But still He calls them to His service. God thus addresses the Jewish difficulty of having a Gentile saviour in Cyrus.
The servant songs or poems of Isaiah clearly have reference to a Messiah figure who was to appear at the time of the restoration from Babylon. The early songs clearly have reference to Cyrus- he is named as such. Expositors such as Harry Whittaker and J:W. Thirtle have sought to prove the naming of Cyrus as an interpolation, claiming that Isaiah has sole primary reference to the days of Hezekiah. This seems to me to be desperate. The naming of Cyrus, and the specific references to his military campaigns in the prophecies, simply can’t be gotten around. To brush all this off as uninspired interpolation and fiddling with the text of holy Scripture just won’t do. The references to Cyrus aren’t merely the mention of his name. <a href='B:290 41:1-5'>Isa 41:1-5</a> alludes unquestionably to the dramatic conquest of Sardis by Cyrus in 547 BC. The ‘servant’ is described as swooping down first from the east and then from the north, trampling local rulers beneath him (<a href='B:290 41:2-5'>Isa 41:2-5</a>; <a href='B:290 41:25'>Isa 41:25</a>; <a href='B:290 45:1'>Isa 45:1</a>; <a href='B:290 46:11'>Isa 46:11</a>). This ‘servant’ was to end the Babylonian empire (<a href='B:290 43:14'>Isa 43:14</a>; <a href='B:290 48:14-15'>Isa 48:14-15</a>), enable the captive Jews in Babylon to return to their land (<a href='B:290 42:6-7'>Isa 42:6-7</a>; <a href='B:290 43:5-7'>Isa 43:5-7</a>; <a href='B:290 45:13'>Isa 45:13</a>), restore Jerusalem and the ruined cities of Judah (<a href='B:290 44:26-28'>Isa 44:26-28</a>; <a href='B:290 45:13'>Isa 45:13</a>). There can be no serious doubt that it was Cyrus who fulfilled these things. The servant is a “bird of prey from the east” (<a href='B:290 46:11'>Isa 46:11</a>)- according to Xenophon, the eagle was the emblem of Cyrus. The servant “victorious at every step” with lightning speed (<a href='B:290 41:2'>Isa 41:2</a>) surely refers to how Cyrus conquered the Medes, the former Assyrian empire, and the Lydiansbefore taking Babylon in 539 BC. We should have no problem with a pagan king being described as God’s “servant”, for that very term is used of Nebuchadnezzar in <a href='B:300 25:9'>Jer 25:9</a>. See on :7. Cyrus failed to live up to his potential (see on <a href='B:290 45:4-5'>Isa 45:4-5</a>) and so the prophecies came to be applied to the Lord Jesus, who was far more fully "the word made flesh" (<a href='B:500 1:14'>Joh 1:14</a>), which is perhaps the idea of "the man of My counsel", the man who would fulfill God’s purposes and prophetic word in totality.</p>


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<p>Listen to Me, you stout-hearted, who are far from righteousness- Despite this laboured and repeated assurance, the exiles were stout hearted, which is how they are described in <a href='B:330 2:4'>Eze 2:4</a>. Time and again in the restoration prophecies we encounter statements intended to answer the skepticism felt by the exiles about the promises of redemption from Babylon (<a href='B:290 40:27-31'>Isa 40:27-31</a>; <a href='B:290 42:22'>Isa 42:22</a>; <a href='B:290 43:22'>Isa 43:22</a>; <a href='B:290 46:12'>Isa 46:12</a>; <a href='B:290 48:4'>Isa 48:4</a>; <a href='B:290 48:8'>Isa 48:8</a>; <a href='B:290 49:14'>Isa 49:14</a>). See on <a href='B:290 49:24'>Isa 49:24</a>. It was the invaders of Zion who were the stout-hearted who were to be destroyed (s:w. <a href='B:230 76:5'>Psa 76:5</a>); the hard hearted amongst God’s people were and are to&nbsp; be destroyed at the same time as them, facing the same judgment for having the same heart. God criticises His people for being far away from righteousness, but then immediately He goes on to assure them of His grace and insistent attempts to save them. For He says that although they have stepped far away from His righteousness, He will cause His righteousness to draw near to them (:13). They were "far" from righteousness but He would make that righteousness not "far" from them (:13).</p>


text:
<p>I bring near My righteousness, it shall not be far off, and My salvation shall not wait; and I will place salvation in Zion for Israel My glory- GNB "Listen to me, you stubborn people who think that victory is far away. I am bringing the day of victory near" suggests that Israel thought it was still far off, but God says He has speeded it up. God began in Is. 40 by saying that He had paid the debt of His people and thus brought to an early end their period of servitude. But as we know from Haggai, they liked to think that the day of restoration was still far off and it was not the time to build the temple. Because they wanted to build their own houses first.
This connects back to <a href='B:290 5:19'>Isa 5:19</a>, where we read that the Jews mocked Isaiah and his God, saying "Let Him make speed, let Him hasten His work, that we may see it; and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw near and come, that we may know it!". There was clearly opposition to Isaiah’s prophecies. The idea of judgment coming would have been mocked in these kinds of words. But we wonder whether this is really a verbatim quotation from these people; or whether God read their thoughts as effectively saying this, and as being the real implication of their positions. For there is no evidence that Judah abandoned Yahweh; rather did they claim obedience and loyalty to Him, although they claimed the same about their idols whom they worshipped in His Name. But God was not deaf to their words, or the implications of their thoughts and actions. He in fact heard their mocking ’prayer’, because He here says that He will "come near" (s:w:) in fulfilment of His counsel or words.</p><p>But, perhaps intentionally, these words can be read another way. This idea of bringing salvation near is in the context of the hard hearted Jews being "far" from Yahweh’s righteousness. It’s as if God wishes to somehow force through His plan of saving them, bringing near the salvation which they pushed far from them. But even then, they refused it. He has the same enthusiasm for human salvation today.</p>


text:
<p>Come down and sit in the dust, virgin daughter of Babylon; sit on the ground without a throne, daughter of the Chaldeans: for you shall no more be called tender and delicate- The Ras Shamra texts include a section on the fall and death of Baal, another form of the Babylonian "Bel" of <a href='B:290 46:1'>Isa 46:1</a>. Although written in Ugaritic, this section has amazing similarities with the poem of Isaiah 14 about the fall of Babylon – e.g. “The death of Baal” includes lines such as “From the throne on which he sits... how hath Baal come down, how hath the mighty been cast down!”. Isaiah’s message was therefore: ‘Forget those stories about Baal being cast down; what’s relevant for us is that mighty Babylon, which tempts us to trust in her rather than Yahweh God of Israel, is to be cast down, let’s apply the language of Baal’s fall to the kingdoms of this world which we know and liveamongst’. Another such example is to be found in <a href='B:290 47:1'>Isa 47:1</a>: “Come down and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon; sit on the ground without a throne”. This is almost quoting [albeit through translation] from the ‘Death of Baal’ poem.
The reference to Babylon as a virgin may be summed up best by the GNB paraphrase: "You were once like a virgin, a city unconquered, but you are soft and delicate no longer! You are now a slave!". The idea is that she is about to be raped and lose her virginity; for Babylon had never been captured by another power at that point. Lam. 1 has the same figures used of what the Babylonians did to Jerusalem: virgin daughter Zion has been widowed and her children taken, the princess has become slave,  mocked and abused with none to help her, "Oh how she sits alone, the city full of people" (Lam. 1) is Babylon now sitting in the dirt (Is. 47:1), just as Judah's king and queen had to 'sit' in humiliation, "your beautiful crown has come down" (Jer. 13:18) etc. "You shall no more be called tender and delicate" uses the words of Dt. 28:54,56 about the judgments upon unfaithful Israel. Judah acted like Babylon and therefore received her judgments, just as the rejected of God's people will be "condemned with the world". The judgments had been carried out by Babylon under God's direction, but they were to experience them themselves because they had not only overstepped the limits, but had not shown Divine pity to the sinful and condemned. And the essence of that warning comes through to us.</p>


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<p>Take the millstones, and grind meal; remove your veil, strip off the train, uncover the leg, pass through the rivers- This was the lowest work; the son of the slave woman who grinds at the mill means the lowest person in society (Ex. 11:5). Babylon was to fall suddenly and be plunged down to the lowest slavery. The suddenness of the fall is stressed later in Is. 47. But the fall of Babylon to Cyrus and his general Darius didn't quite achieve this. As I have noted elsewhere (see on <a href='B:290 46:1'>Isa 46:1</a>), the fall of Babylon didn’t happen quite as predicted. Darius the Mede actually maintained the Babylonian gods; of whom Bel and Nebo were the popular ones; although "Bel" is the equivalent of Hebrew ’Baal’ and may be a generic name. Many within Babylon supported him, and the Babylonians didn’t go into captivity across "the rivers", having to lift up their skirts and bare their legs to cross them. And so the potential scenario presented elsewhere, of Babylon falling, being destroyed by the fire of Divine judgment Sodom-style, and the exiles returning to Judah- just didn’t come about. The various preconditions involving Judah’s repentance weren’t in place. And so the ’fall of Babylon’ prophecies will in essence, although maybe not in every detail, be fulfilled in the fall of latter day Babylon. And this is how we are to understand this picture of Babylon being led into captivity. Isaiah has earlier spoken of the Jewish exiles passing through the rivers in returning from Babylon to Zion. Surely this must be the same reference; Babylon were to be humbled, and join the Jews in a pilgrimage through the rivers to Zion. But that didn't happen. This prophecy was however to help the exiles see Babylon differently. The apparent greatness and permanence was going to end, and the city was evil in God's eyes. The exiles needed to leave it. And that message stood, regardless of when and how the judgements upon Babylon were fulfilled. We could also see these prophecies against Babylon as being like those of Jonah against Nineveh- the Divine hope was that there would be repentance in the gap between the prophecy and its intended possible fulfilment.</p>


text:
<p>Your nakedness shall be uncovered, yes, your shame shall be seen: I will take vengeance, and will spare no man- See on :2. This scenario didn’t totally come about when Babylon fell to the Medes. The population wasn’t destroyed, there was very little bloodshed. But the language of Babylon’s judgment here and in :2 is very similar to that of Israel’s judgment. The idea is that what Babylon did to Judah was to be done to them, finally. This is the theme of Revelation, where the judgments upon Israel are related to the final judgments upon the beast system which has judged her.
Yahweh is repeatedly presented in Isaiah as the redeemer or go'el of Israel. He therefore paid their debt so that they may be freed from their indentured labour. But another duty of the go'el was to revenge the shedding of the family blood. And here this idea is alluded to, in that Yahweh would "take vengeance" upon the Babylonians. Thus we go on to read in :4 of Yahweh as His people's "redeemer". It was God who had raised up the Babylonians to punish Judah; but He also looked at it another way. He was the redeemer of His people, and so He must take vengeance for their blood. To have Yahweh as your redeemer, the one who will avenge you, is so wonderful- it must remove from us all attempts at vengeance and achieving payback in this life. The natural desire to settle up over past issues must be resigned- and the psychological energy thereby released put to the Lord's service.
"Will spare no man" is an attempt to translate a very difficult original. GNB "and no one will stop me" is a bit better, but the idea seems to be that Yahweh will accept no intercession to stop His vengeance on Babylon, as the redeemer of His people: “Neither will I suffer man to intercede with me”. Vengeance is His for His beloved family member, and nobody will stop Him being the redeemer. And that has wider implications- nobody can stop Yahweh being a redeemer. In this context, the redemption is about serving vengeance; but His redemption has far wider applications.  
The language here is disturbing: of being uncovered and shamed as a man takes vengeance upon the virgin daughter of Babylon. Uncovering or exposure of someone's nakedness is a euphemism for sexual intercourse. This surely suggests rape, the kind of rape performed by victors against the vanquished. But Yahweh appears strongly behind it. We could argue that the language is similar to that of the Lamentations, where these things were done to the daughter of Zion. And the idea would simply be that what Babylon did to Zion was to be done to her- under God's control. Lam. 1 has the same figures used of what the Babylonians did to Jerusalem: virgin daughter Zion has been widowed and her children taken, the princess has become slave,  mocked and abused with none to help her, "Oh how she sits alone, the city full of people" (Lam. 1) is Babylon now sitting in the dirt (Is. 47:1), just as Judah's king and queen had to 'sit' in humiliation, "your beautiful crown has come down" (Jer. 13:18) etc.
</p>


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<p>Our Redeemer, Yahweh of Armies is His name, is the Holy One of Israel- Here we have a voice breaking in, as so often in Isaiah, notably in Is. 40. The voice is that of the exiles. And then the prophecy returns to God speaking directly. The hope was that the exiles would say Yahweh was "our redeemer". This is a fantasy of what God hoped they would say. We find similar fantasy in Hosea, the fantasy of love. And yet it was a redemption refused. God was Israel's "holy one", the unique one, in that He was their saviour: "I am Yahweh your God, the Holy One of Israel your Saviour" (Is. 43:3). See on :15. God's abiding, eternal Name is contrasted with how the names of Babylon are removed- "you shall no more be called [named] 'Tender and delicate'... you shall no more be called [named] 'The mistress of kingdoms'" (:1,5). All names and titles, all personality, will ultimately come to nothing. Only Yahweh's Name will endure, centered as it is around His characteristic of eternally saving man. Only the fruits of the Spirit, the characteristics of the Yahweh Name in us, will abide eternally. Your characteristic of [e.g.] impatience will not endure; but your characteristic of [e.g.] pity for sick animals will endure eternally. This points up the supreme importance of character and personality development. For that alone will eternally endure.
The sad thing is that the redemption of Israel made possible through the fall of Babylon wasn’t accepted by them; and they remained in exile, for the most part. As Hosea ‘redeemed’ Gomer in His attempt to force through His fantasy for her (<a href='B:350 3:1'>Hos 3:1</a>), so Yahweh is repeatedly described in Isaiah as Israel’s go’el, redeemer (<a href='B:290 41:14'>Isa 41:14</a>; <a href='B:290 43:14'>Isa 43:14</a>; <a href='B:290 44:6'>Isa 44:6</a>; <a href='B:290 44:24'>Isa 44:24</a>; <a href='B:290 47:4'>Isa 47:4</a>; <a href='B:290 48:17'>Isa 48:17</a>; <a href='B:290 49:7'>Isa 49:7</a>; <a href='B:290 49:26'>Isa 49:26</a>; <a href='B:290 54:5'>Isa 54:5</a>; <a href='B:290 54:8'>Isa 54:8</a>). The redeemer could redeem a close relative from slavery or repurchase property lost during hard times (<a href='B:30 25:25-26'>Lev 25:25-26</a>; <a href='B:30 25:47-55'>Lev 25:47-55</a>; <a href='B:80 2:20'>Rth 2:20</a>; <a href='B:80 3:9'>Rth 3:9</a>; <a href='B:80 3:12'>Rth 3:12</a>). The redeemer was also the avenger of blood (<a href='B:40 35:9-28'>Num 35:9-28</a>; <a href='B:60 20:3'>Jos 20:3</a>; <a href='B:60 20:9'>Jos 20:9</a>). All these ideas were relevant to Yahweh’s relationship to Judah in captivity. But the promised freedom didn’t come- even under Nehemiah, Judah was still a province within the Persian empire. And those who returned complained: “We are slaves this day in the land you gave…” (<a href='B:160 9:36'>Neh 9:36</a>). The wonderful prophecies of freedom and redemption from slavery weren’t realized in practice, because of the selfishness of the more wealthy Jews. And how often is it that the freedom potentially enabled for those redeemed in Christ is in practice denied them by their autocratic and abusive brethren.</p><p>LXX "Thy deliverer is the Lord of hosts, the Holy One of Israel is his name" would suggest that Yahweh was ready to deliver Babylon- this therefore could be read as a call for her to repent, which is also in view in <a href='B:300 51:9'>Jer 51:9</a>. This prophecy against Babylon can therefore be read like the prophesied destruction of Nineveh- to appeal for their repentance in the gap between prophecy and fulfilment.</p>


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<p>Sit in silence, and go into darkness, daughter of the Chaldeans; for you shall no more be called the mistress of kingdoms- Darkness is the imagery of condemnation. "Mistress" implies she is a whore awaiting judgment. Again, the language of Judah’s judgment, ’sitting in silence’, is applied now to Babylon (<a href='B:310 2:10'>Lam 2:10</a>; <a href='B:310 3:28'>Lam 3:28</a> "The elders of the daughter of Zion sit upon the ground and keep silence, they have cast up dust upon their heads"; likewise Is. 3:26: "And she (Jerusalem) being desolate shall sit upon the ground" (cp. :1,2). "Go into darkness" recalls Judah being sent into the darkness of Babylon; and now Babylon must go through the same. Lam. 3:2 "He has led me, and brought me into darkness, and not into light"). But the mistress of kingdoms was to be destroyed as Sodom was (<a href='B:290 13:19'>Isa 13:19</a>); and that didn’t happen at the fall of Babylon to the Medes. This, as noted on <a href='B:290 46:1'>Isa 46:1</a>, was a potential scenario that was delayed until the latter day fall of Babylon the whore as described in Revelation. We see that condemnation involved being made to go through [at least mentally] what they had put God's people through. This terrible mental torture is symbolized by the language of fire and burning in Gehenna. </p>


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<p>I was angry with My people, I profaned My inheritance, and gave them into your hand: you showed them no mercy; on the aged you have very heavily laid your yoke- Nebuchadnezzar was God’s servant. Babylon were not condemned for executing God’s judgments upon Judah; but for their subsequent bloodlust and showing no mercy, and abusing those such as the elderly who were not the primary objects of the Divine judgment. This abuse of the elderly was particularly noted by God (<a href='B:310 4:16'>Lam 4:16</a>; <a href='B:310 5:12'>Lam 5:12</a>). It was their subsequent pride and pretending to Yahweh (:7) which were the reasons for judgment falling upon them.
We could read with LXX "You defiled My inheritance". The Jewish exiles accepted Babylonian gods and were thereby defiled, but God blames and punishes Babylon for this. Indeed the Jews had worshipped those gods before the Babylonian invasion. So Yahweh's argument here seems very much biased towards Israel's innocence and Babylon's guilt. His reasoning arose clearly from His great love of His people. And yet this revealing of Babylon for who they were was also a way of appealing to the exiles to come out from her. 
But Israel had once been "holy to Yahweh" (Jer. 2:3), but He had profaned them (Is. 43:28 "Therefore I will profane the princes of the sanctuary; and I will make Jacob a curse, and Israel an insult"). Likewise the suffering of the aged is mentioned in Lamentations as something Yahweh had brought upon His people: "The anger of Yahweh has scattered them; He will no more regard them: He didn’t respect the persons of the priests, nor favour the elderly" (Lam. 4:16 Heb.). But now Babylon is being condemned for not having mercy upon the condemned, especially upon the elderly and priests whom Yahweh had condemned. "You did not have compassion" is the centerpiece of the argument. This was the reason Babylon was to be brutally judged. For Yahweh had said that He would show compassion to Judah- and Babylon were supposed to have figured that and meted out judgment aware of that: "For Yahweh will have compassion on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land" (Is. 14:1; 54:7,8: "For a small moment have I forsaken you; but with great mercies will I gather you. In overflowing wrath I hid My face from you for a moment; but with everlasting loving kindness will I have mercy on you, says Yahweh your Redeemer"). In the midst of judgment, God would show the compassion of a woman to her own child: "Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb?" (Is. 49:15). But Madame Babylon, although a woman, failed to have that instinctive female compassion upon a child; the compassion God had, as a woman. And Babylon was condemned for it. This is a profound insight into how God sees things when it comes to those whom He judges for their sins. We are inclined to enthusiastically relish the punishment of the wicked: 'He got what he deserved'; 'I hope he dies in prison'; 'Serves him right', or even 'May he rot in hell'. And theology-gone-wrong has relished in inventing all manner of awful punishments for our own enemies in "hell" and Dante's inferno. But God asks us to instead have pity upon the condemned- for although He was the author of Judah's condemnation and sufferings, He had huge pity for them. It is this pity for the lost and condemned which is an essential part of God's personality, and we like Babylon will be condemned if we fail to have this. This explains why Babylon were the Divinely used instruments for Judah's judgment, and yet were condemned because they didn't have pity upon the Jews. In wrath they didn't remember mercy.  “I was but a little angry and they helped forward the affliction” (Zech. 1:15). There is however no evidence that the Babylonians abused the Jews in captivity. In fact they did very well for themselves. So the criticisms of Babylonian cruelty apply specifically to their actions at the capture of Jerusalem- the kind of cruelty lamented by Jeremiah in Lamentations: "This Nebuchadnezzar has broken his bones" (Jer. 1:17). We can deduce therefore that Yahweh expected the Babylonian soldiers and leadership to have had more mercy upon the Jews when the city was breached. Even though their wrath was that of Yahweh. He wanted them to have remembered mercy in their wrath, just as He did. They didn't, neither did they repent of it, and so in a later generation, Babylon had to fall.  
</p>


text:
<p>You said, ‘I shall be a mistress forever;’ so that you did not lay these things to your heart, nor did you remember the latter end of it- This also is the criticism made of Judah (<a href='B:460 2:2'>Mal 2:2</a>). Babylon was intended to reflect and repent; <a href='B:300 51:9'>Jer 51:9</a> suggests Babylon was only judged because she was offered a chance to repent which she refused. I noted on <a href='B:290 46:1'>Isa 46:1</a> that her fall to the Medes was not executed with the full extent of the judgments then pronounced upon her; and maybe that was because some of them did repent.
Literally, Babylon said that she would be "a lady eternally", a “mistress of eternity”, her blasphemous equivalent to how Messiah would be the “Father of eternity” (Is. 9:6). Babylon's subconscious thinking and self talk is being described. It is that of all men outside of Christ. They assume their eternity, they play God, and thus refuse to accept the reality of judgment to come. It is exactly because of this that Babylon, and all like her, are cruel to others. They refuse to live in the shadow of inevitable judgment to come. They didn't consider the end results of their actions against the Jews. This is the essence of sin, to refuse to consider the end consequence of our actions. Man generally lives like this, smart or foolish, refusing to accept that there is an end consequence for all thought and action.</p>


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<p>Now therefore hear this, you who are given to pleasures, who sit securely, who say in your heart, ‘I am, and there is none else besides me; I shall not sit as a widow, neither shall I know the loss of children:’- This critique of a woman "given to pleasures" mirrors that of Is. 32:9-13 concerning the women of Judah. Judah and Babylon acted the same way and were judged the same way, hence all the connections between Is. 47 about the daughter of Babylon and Lamentations about the daughter of Zion. The language of destruction by burning as chaff in :14 is exactly that of Zion's destruction (Lam. 1:7, 13; 2:3, 4; 4:11). Their sins, the reason for the judgment, were the same. Just as Babylon trusted in her enchanters, "the great abundance of your enchantments" (:9), so had Judah trusted "the clever enchanter" (Is. 3:3). Judah were no better than Babylon, but Isaiah is full of prophecy that she shall gloriously rise again from her judgment. There is no such message for Babylon. In this we see absolute sovereign grace. For God's people are demonstrated to be no intrinsically better than the world of sinners in which they live. But still God would save them. Babylon would sit as a widow bereft of her children; Zion likewise would suffer both widowhood and the loss of her children (Is. 49:20,21; 51:15-20; 54:4). But as Isaiah's prophecies make clear, she would find her husband [Yahweh] again, and be blessed with multiple and eternal children. The descriptions of this in Is. 57 are a parody of the way Babylon permanently loses these things in Is. 47. For Babylon, there was no such promised restoration. She lost her husband [her king?] and her children [vassal states? Inhabitants?]. With only perpetual desolation promised for her future, never to be rebuilt. Babylon had nobody to save them (:15) whereas repeatedly Yahweh is presented as Israel's saviour- by grace alone (Is. 45:21; 46:2,4).
The implication is that Babylon would hear the prophecies of her destruction and mock them; and apply the very language of Isaiah about Yahweh "I am, and there is none else" to themselves (<a href='B:290 45:6'>Isa 45:6</a>). For "I am..." is Yahweh's repeated title and Name in second Isaiah (Is. 44:24; 45:3,5,6,7,8,18,19,21,22; 46:4,9). Babylon were condemned for playing God, and we must ask in which ways we are tempted to do this. Not least in our natural tendency to judge others by what we 'say in our heart', our deepest self talk. Likewise Madame Babylon considered she would last "for ever" (:7)- and eternity is Yahweh's unique characteristic (Is. 45:17; 57:15). We must continually remember that these prophecies about Babylon are in order to help the exiles perceive God's take on the society that surrounded them. We too need to realize that society around us is playing God- and will miserably fall as a result. They are not passive in their positions; we must see how God interprets those positions.</p><p>We bear the Name of Yahweh / Jehovah, by reason of our baptism into it. His Name is declared as His character- merciful, truthful, judging sin, patient etc. (<a href='B:20 34:5-7'>Exo 34:5-7</a>). He who will be who He will be, manifesting His characteristics as He does so, must have His way in us too. Babylon and Nineveh were condemned for having the attitude that “I am, and there is none beside me” (<a href='B:290 47:8'>Isa 47:8</a>; <a href='B:430 2:15'>Zep 2:15</a>). Their self-perception was a parody on the Name and being of Yahweh: He alone can say “I am, and there is none else” (<a href='B:290 43:11'>Isa 43:11</a>; <a href='B:290 44:6'>Isa 44:6</a>; <a href='B:290 45:6'>Isa 45:6</a>; <a href='B:290 45:21'>Isa 45:21</a>) and seek to be who He is. He alone can seek to articulate the characteristics that make up His Name onto the lives of others, and onto the things that comprise His Kingdom. We are not to be who we are; to ‘just be yourself’; to ‘just do it’, as foolish slogans and adverts encourage us. We are here to show forth His mercy, truth, judgment of sin, patient saving of the weak etc:, not our own personality. We are, in the very end, Yahweh manifested to this world, through our imitation of the Lord Jesus.</p>


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<p>but these two things shall come to you in a moment in one day, the loss of children, and widowhood; in their full measure shall they come on you, in the multitude of your sorceries, and the great abundance of your enchantments- It could be argued that because the level of destruction spoken of here didn’t happen to the people and city of Babylon when the Medes took it, therefore the prophecies apply to the king and royal family of Babylon, who were slain by Darius the Mede. The queen was therefore left literally a widow. But even that was but a primary fulfilment; the final fulfilment would be in the destruction of the sorceries of latter day Babylon (<a href='B:730 18:23'>Rev 18:23</a>). But even that will only be because she refuses the invitation to repent of them (<a href='B:730 9:21'>Rev 9:21</a>).</p>


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<p>For you have trusted in your wickedness; you have said, ‘No one sees me’; your wisdom and your knowledge, it has perverted you, and you have said in your heart- "No one sees me" is the attitude of this world. Man lives as if he is not in fact observed by God, as if Yahweh does not in fact see and know all things, reading the thoughts of every man before he even has them in his mind (Ps. 139). Living in the awareness of God's omniscience changes everything.
The condemnation of Babylon’s wisdom and knowledge alludes to the contrast between the wisdom of Daniel in the court of Babylon compared to the false knowledge of Babylon’s wise men. God could have condemned Babylon for a whole host of sinful actions; but His essential, repeated reason was because of how they spoke in their hearts (<a href='B:290 47:10'>Isa 47:10</a>; <a href='B:430 2:15'>Zep 2:15</a>; <a href='B:730 18:17'>Rev 18:17</a>). And He gave the same reason for His condemnation of Tyre (<a href='B:330 28:2'>Eze 28:2</a>) and Edom (<a href='B:380 1:3'>Oba 1:3</a>).</p><p>I am, and there is none else besides me’- Babylon acted as she did because she reasoned that “None seeth me…I am, and there is none else beside me” (<a href='B:290 47:10'>Isa 47:10</a> RV). They appropriated the language of God to themselves, they played God in that they thought their ways were unseen by any higher power. And we all have a terrible, frightening tendency to do this.</p>


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<p>Therefore evil will come on you; you won’t know when it dawns: and mischief will fall on you; you will not be able to put it away: and desolation shall come on you suddenly, which you don’t know- This sudden desolation refers only primarily to the sudden fall of Babylon to Darius as described in Daniel 5. As explained on <a href='B:290 46:1'>Isa 46:1</a>, the city and people of Babylon weren’t suddenly destroyed. According to <a href='B:300 51:43'>Jer 51:43</a>, the king was already deeply concerned at the advance of the Medes and was feeble at the news of the enemy advance. Hence we should give due weight to the discovery by Layard of inscriptions which say that Babylon opened her own gates in surrender. There was much support for Darius the Mede within Babylon; both the Babylonian Chronicles and the Cyrus Cylinder describe Babylon being taken "without battle". So the main fulfilment of this must yet be future.</p><p>"Mischief" is literally ’wretchedness’. Paul in <a href='B:520 7:24'>Rom 7:24</a> felt “wretched” (s:w. LXX). The Greek word is elsewhere used about the feelings of the rejected before God’s judgment (<a href='B:660 5:1'>Jas 5:1</a>; <a href='B:730 3:17'>Rev 3:17</a>), likewise in the LXX (<a href='B:290 47:11'>Isa 47:11</a>; <a href='B:400 2:4'>Mic 2:4</a>; <a href='B:360 1:15'>Joe 1:15</a>; <a href='B:430 1:15'>Zep 1:15</a>). Paul feels as if he is even now standing before the judgment seat of God, and is condemned- yet suddenly he rejoices that he is in fact amazingly saved by Christ. This is the very theme of the earlier sections of Romans- that we are suddenly declared right, justified, as we stand condemned in the dock before God. This lends weight to the suggestion that Romans 7 is indeed autobiographical of Paul, declaring the process of his own conversion, yet telling the story, as it were, in terms which present him as personifying every Jew under the Law.
"Put it away" is the word used for atonement. Man in his condemnation will realize his chronic need for atonement. We have had the wisdom to grasp that now in the blood of the Lord.</p>


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<p>Stand now with your enchantments, and with the multitude of your sorceries in which you have laboured from your youth; if so be you shall be able to profit, if so be you may prevail!- See on :13. "Laboured" is literally "wearied", as AV. The way of the flesh is a weariness, both for Babylon and the unfaithful within Judah (<a href='B:290 43:22'>Isa 43:22</a>).</p>


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<p>You are wearied in the multitude of your counsellors: let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up and save you from the things that shall come on you- Babylon ought to have learnt from the humiliation of her sorceries and wise men before the Divine wisdom of Daniel. We too see God working in the same way today; lessons are taught to people which they don’t learn, and therefore harder judgment comes. The critics like to point out that Isaiah knows much detail about Babylonian practices, implying he was in Babylon. But I have no problem believing that Isaiah was given God's Spirit to foresee these things, just as he predicted Cyrus far ahead of time. But there is also the sad possibility that he knew all about these cultic practices because although Babylon's power was yet future, the Jews were already practicing this kind of things even in Isaiah's time.</p>


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<p>Behold, they shall be as stubble; the fire shall burn them; they shall not deliver themselves from the power of the flame: it shall not be a coal to warm at, nor a fire to sit before- The fire would burn so totally that not a live coal would be left (as in <a href='B:290 30:14'>Isa 30:14</a>). This suggests a supernatural cataclysm bursting upon Babylon, after the pattern of Sodom’s destruction (<a href='B:290 13:19'>Isa 13:19</a>). But as explained on :1, this didn’t happen when the Medes took Babylon. The prophecy was reapplied to the final fall of Babylon described in Revelation. The image of dry stubble before a spreading fire is used of Judah (Is. 1:31). The judgments on Babylon and upon Judah are so often identical. The rejected of God's people will likewise be "condemned with the world", sent back into the world they had loved to share its judgments.</p>


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<p>Thus shall the things be to you in which you have laboured: those who have trafficked with you from your youth shall wander each one to his place; there shall be none to save you- The idea is that the people from the nations within the Babylonian empire would leave Babylon and return home- including the Jews. But this didn’t happen; see on <a href='B:290 46:1'>Isa 46:1</a>. The Jews were intended to flee Babylon before she fell (<a href='B:290 48:20'>Isa 48:20</a>), but they didn’t; and so God put another plan into operation, whereby the fall of Babylon was to lead to all the foreigners there, including the Jews, thereby being freed to return to their ancestral homelands. But still the Jews remained, as the book of Esther testifies. God tried then and tries now, by all means, to bring His chosen people to His Kingdom. Human resistance to His efforts is tragic. He must have pleasure in we weak sinners who have at least said "Yes" to His plans.
"None to save you" is the climax, the end stress of the prophecy. Thus it concludes with the essential point: Only Yahweh saves. The astrologers and idols of Babylon couldn't save. That is the theme that echoes throughout second Isaiah. The Babylonian religion was obsessed with predicting the future, but couldn't save; "those who gaze at the stars, who declare each new moon what will befall you" (:13). This is rather similar to how so much Protestant preaching has been about predictions of the future, through interpretations of Bible prophecy- rather than the simple truth of Yah's salvation in Jesus. Earlier, Yahweh is presented as knowing the future- in that He knows Israel shall be eternally saved by grace, when they finally respond to and trust in His salvation. That is the future, the only future worth knowing. But by contrast, man is fascinated by short term predictions of geopolitical events in his own time. This is in fact the spirit of Babylon, seeking to predict the events of each month by the signs of the zodiac (:13). But prediction is not salvation. And Yah saves. "I am God; and beside me there is no Saviour. I have declared [the future], and have saved" (Is. 43:11,12). See on :4.</p>


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<p>Hear this, house of Jacob, you who are called by the name of Israel, and have come forth out of the waters of Judah; who swear by the name of Yahweh, and make mention of the God of Israel, but not in truth nor in righteousness- This prophecy is addressed to Judah, the Jewish exiles in Babylon. Who called Jacob by the name of Israel? It was God, hoping that the exiles like the historical Jacob would change to Israel. But they didn't. This usage of Jacob / Israel is very common up until this point (Is. 40:27; 41:8,14; 42:24; 43:1,22,28; 44:1,5,21,23; 45:4; 46:3; 48:1,12; 49:5,6). But after Is. 49 we will read of Zion and Jerusalem rather than Jacob and Israel. The Divine hope had been that Jacob would change to Israel. But as Isaiah progresses, especially in so called 'third Isaiah' from Is. 55-66, we find a far harsher spirit of criticism and judgment upon the people for having refused the great salvation and restoration offered. It's as if God accepts that Jacob will not change to Israel, and instead the prophecies speak of a far future time with a different form of God's people, known as Zion.
He called them by this name, but they didn't respond  by calling upon Yahweh's Name; they spoke of "the God of Israel" but not sincerely. Exactly as they had done before they went into captivity: "Though they say, Yahweh lives, surely they swear falsely" (Jer. 5:2). They accepted the existence of Yahweh, but that is not the same as calling truly upon His Name. Just ticking a box to the effect that 'I am not an atheist' will not save anyone. The exile had not reformed them, as this prophecy will go on to say.
The exiles did not reject Yahweh, but as explained on :5, they were heavily involved in idolatry as well, apparently justifying this as a form of Yahweh worship. They called themselves by the name of Israel and swore by the name of Yahweh, and identified themselves as the people of Zion (:2). The emphasis is upon their naming of themselves, whereas God had wanted to place His Name upon them; see on <a href='B:290 44:5'>Isa 44:5</a>. And so we have here a powerful warning to nominal Christians, who use the culture and nomenclature of the true faith and yet whose hearts may be far from it. The exiles were similar to how they had been before they went into captivity; there had been no repentance. For according to Jer. 5:2,6 they also swore by Yahweh but insincerely- and that's why the Babylonians destroyed them: "Though they say, ‘As Yahweh lives;’ surely they swear falsely... Therefore a lion out of the forest shall kill them". Despite this lack of repentance and spiritual progress, still Yahweh was intent on saving them.</p>


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<p>(for they call themselves of the holy city, and rest themselves on the God of Israel; Yahweh of Armies is His name)- Possibly the most hypocritical of the exiles were those who claimed to have originated from Jerusalem- the upper classes of priests and nobles. "Even if they call themselves 'from the Holy City'". They leaned or trusted on God externally but God wants those "Whose mind is stayed upon You" (Is. 26:3 s.w. "rest themselves"). Their heart was not trusting in Him. They just said they trusted in Him. And this is the crucial difference.
As so often, form had dominated over content. As explained on :1, the exiles were very culturally loyal to Zion and proclaimed their "rest" or trust in Israel’s God; and yet as explained on :5, they were heavily involved in idolatry as well, apparently justifying this as a form of Yahweh worship. And they didn’t want to return to Zion and reestablish Yahweh’s Kingdom. And so He reminds them that He, the God of Israel, is Yahweh of Armies. His unlimited power articulated through His Angelic hosts could actually bring about in practice the restoration of the Kingdom.</p>


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<p>I have declared the former things from of old; yes, they went forth out of My mouth, and I showed them: suddenly I did them, and they happened- This sudden action of God may refer to the sudden fall of Babylon described in Isaiah 47. See on :5. This is being cited as an encouragement to the exiles to see the powerful hand of their God in human history, to realize this was in fulfilment of His prophetic program, and they could take it further. His prophetic words had come out of His mouth; this was the intimacy achieved in the Divine-human encounter through the words of inspired prophets. "The words of the prophets are written on the subway wall", read en passant, heard, treated as ordinary and incidental... but the wonder of Divine inspiration, the fact these words and ideas dropped from the mouth of God was overlooked then as it is now.</p>


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<p>Because I knew that you are obstinate, and your neck is an iron sinew, and your brow brass- This hard hearted attitude of the Jews is commented upon by Ezekiel, who lived amongst these Jewish exiles in Babylon. God took into account their skepticism and hard hearts, and had therefore made amazing prophecies ahead of time, predicting Cyrus by name 150 years before (:5). We see here God’s earnest desire to convince even the hard hearted, and not to just turn away from them if they rejected Him, but to construct His purpose ("project" may be a better word) in order to somehow still incorporate them within His salvation purpose. It’s similar to how He mapped out the path of Israel through the wilderness lest they see war and be discouraged&nbsp; (<a href='B:20 13:17'>Exo 13:17</a>). He could have justifiably reasoned that what they had seen in the plagues and at the Red Sea ought to have been enough to motivate anyone to follow Him for the rest of their lives. But He was and is sensitive to our sins and unjustifiable weaknesses; and we should be likewise to others.
So often hardness is condemned: ‘hard of neck’ that is, stiff-necked, stubborn (Ex. 32:9; 34:9); "hard of face",  "hard of heart" (Ez. 2:4; 3:7). "Your brow brass" is the image used for the hard, shameless brow of a prostitute (Jer. 3:3; Ez. 3:7). This was how they were before going into captivity, and they had not been reformed by the exile. So much of the language used about the exiles in Babylon is used also of how they were before the captivity. We are to be soft clay in the hand of the potter. But we live in a world where hardness is almost glorified and softness is seen as weakness. We see hardness on the media all the time, anger and bitterness. And it affects us. Again we note that Judah went into captivity because "they are brass and iron" (Jer. 6:28)- the exile hadn't reformed this. The refining fire had not brought forth any silver (:10) but still Yahweh wanted to save them.</p>


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<p>Therefore I have declared it in advance to you from of old; before it came to pass I showed it to you; lest you should say, ‘My idol has done them, and my engraved image, and my molten image, has commanded them’- See on :4. This is a tragic reflection of the deep seated belief in idols amongst the exiles. It took some generations for them to quit idolatry, and I have noted throughout the book of Esther the extent of idolatry amongst the Jewish exiles. Ezekiel’s ministry was to the exiles already in Babylon, and he frequently condemns their idolatry. It seems that the decree of Cyrus for the restoration and the "sudden" fall of Babylon (:3) were ascribed by the Jews to their idols. Hence the repeated emphasis that God had predicted these things, and even named Cyrus, well in advance. He and His prophetic word were to be given the credit, and not the idols.
Israel had previously wanted to believe that the gods summarized in the golden calf had brought them out of Egypt (Ex. 32:4), and so God knew they were likely to attribute their deliverance from Babylon as being thanks to their gods. For as Ezekiel makes clear, they were idolaters in Babylon. They were so hard hearted. Why didn't God just give up with them? Every honest man asks himself the same question about himself. But God's grace keeps on and on trying. He did so because of His Name and not because of their righteousness (:11). The argument is that because God knew they were stubborn and unresponsive, He had declared this in advance. The 'former things' were therefore the things of Israel's sins and weaknesses. Those former things will not ultimately come to mind, but God's argument is that He "declared" those things, His love was so great for Israel that He went into the relationship knowing those former things. He will not accept that they had only sinned because they were merely doing what their idols commanded them- because before that, from the beginning, He had chosen His people, well before their encounter with Babylonian idols. And He chose them foreknowing their apostacy: "I knew you would be utterly faithless and I called you a rebel from birth" (:8). Hence He pleads with them "Will you not declare / admit it?" (:6). That Yahweh had declared and foretold Israel's miserable, unfaithful past is one thing; but it becomes of ultimate moment when factored into Yahweh's argument that despite all that unfaithfulness, He will still save Israel into an amazing future salvation and restoration. His past patience and love for them, totally unrequited, is evidence of this. For time and again, Yahweh's argument in Isaiah is that He is a God who can and will ultimately save His people. This came to full term in Yahoshua, Yah saves, Jesus. Apart from the specific prophecies, we could say that the spirit of Yahweh's salvation in Christ is found throughout later Isaiah.</p>


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<p>You have heard it; see all this; and you, will you not declare it? I have shown you new things from this time, even hidden things, which you have not known- LXX "Ye have heard all this, but ye have not known: yet I have made known to thee the new things from henceforth, which are coming to pass". As explained on :5, the exiles knew the prophetic words of Isaiah about the fall of Babylon and the decree of Cyrus and the restoration; but they attributed these events to their idols. They had heard but not known God’s word in their hearts. And this is the challenge to all Bible readers; as to whether we are just hearing or reading God’s word on a surface level, or whether we really know these things in the Hebraic sense of ’knowing’.
The "new things" are now defined in the following verses; and they include the realization of God's grace toward them despite their treachery (:8), His amazing desire to push forward the work of their salvation. Again Israel are asked to be God's witnesses in the court case about whether Yahweh can in fact save such a sinful people. With the change of a consonant we can translate "and you, will you not bear witness?". Yet the "new things" are "hidden things" which Israel had not yet experienced and to which their ear had not been opened (:8). The things of the new covenant of Jer. 33:3 (“difficult things which you know not”). These are the things Paul speaks of, the things prepared in salvation for those who love God, which eye has not seen, but are revealed by the Spirit given to those who truly repent...  </p>


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<p>They are created now, and not from of old; and before this day you didn’t hear them; lest you should say, ‘Behold, I knew them’- "They are created now" in the sense that creation is by a word, and God is now uttering the word of new creation- that His people will in fact have salvation in a restored Kingdom. See on <a href='B:560 1:9-10'>Eph 1:9-10</a>. LXX "say not thou, Yea, I know them". Their attitude to the prophecies was that ’Sure, we know all that stuff’. But it was surface level reading and hearing; they refused to perceive the wonderful reality, that the events connected with Cyrus, the fall of Babylon and the decree for restoration had all been foretold and were all part of Yahweh’s saving purpose. As noted on :3, "The words of the prophets are written on the subway wall", read en passant, heard, treated as ordinary and incidental... but the wonder of Divine inspiration, the fact these words and ideas dropped from the mouth of God was overlooked then as it is now.</p>


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<p>Yes, you didn’t hear; yes, you didn’t know; yes, from of old your ear was not opened- Their deafness to the real import of the prophetic word (see on :5-7) was their own fault, but they were confirmed in this by not having their ears and eyes opened by God. And yet He was willing and eager to open their ears (see on <a href='B:290 42:18'>Isa 42:18</a>; <a href='B:290 43:8'>Isa 43:8</a>). But they didn’t hear or know as intended because they didn’t want to; they were unwilling for their narrative of life and self-identity in the prosperity of Babylon and Persia to be so radically interrupted.</p><p>For I knew that you dealt very treacherously, and were called a transgressor from the womb- The allusion is to the naming of Jacob from the womb. He was a heel-catcher, and treacherous. Their treachery is described in the word used of Babylon and Assyria’s treachery against them (<a href='B:290 33:1'>Isa 33:1</a>; <a href='B:310 1:2'>Lam 1:2</a>). And it is used of their marital unfaithfulness against Yahweh (<a href='B:300 3:11'>Jer 3:11</a>; <a href='B:300 3:20'>Jer 3:20</a>; <a href='B:300 5:11'>Jer 5:11</a>). Knowing that this is how they would be, Yahweh had still entered a relationship with them, exactly as Hosea did with the unfaithful Gomer. Hosea’s relationship with her reflected that of God with an Israel who likewise were "treacherous" to Him (<a href='B:350 5:7'>Hos 5:7</a>; <a href='B:350 6:7'>Hos 6:7</a> s:w:). His foreknowledge of their sins was thereby an even greater display of His passionate love, hope and grace toward His people.
Alternatively we could see "the womb" as Egypt, from whose waters, of the Red Sea, the nation was born. Ez. 20:5 is relevant: "And I made Myself known in the land of Egypt (cp. :7) and I said to them, Cast away each man the abominations of his eyes, and do not contaminate yourselves with the idols [of Egypt]". They took the idols of Egypt with them; and they were doing the same in Babylon.</p>


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<p>For My name’s sake will I defer My anger, and for the sake of My praise will I refrain for you, that I not cut you off- "Cut off" is the word used of how the Assyrians had threatened to cut down the cedars of the temple (<a href='B:290 37:24'>Isa 37:24</a>; <a href='B:290 2:13'>Isa 2:13</a>; <a href='B:290 10:34'>Isa 10:34</a>). And the Babylonians actually did this (<a href='B:290 14:8'>Isa 14:8</a>). But the Jews then cut down cedars and made idols from them (<a href='B:290 44:14'>Isa 44:14</a> s:w:), acting like the Babylonians, and ignoring the great grace shown in Yahweh’s averting or deferring the threatened Assyrian destruction of the temple by cutting down its cedars. See on <a href='B:290 48:9'>Isa 48:9</a>. But by not immediately judging His people for their unfaithfulness to Him (see on :8), God’s grace as it were earns yet more praise for Him; from us, the spiritually discerning.</p><p>Even though so classically undeserving, Israel were saved "for His Name’s sake" (<a href='B:230 106:8'>Psa 106:8</a>; <a href='B:330 20:9'>Eze 20:9</a>; <a href='B:330 36:22'>Eze 36:22</a> etc:)- and the same applies to the New Israel, baptized into the same saving Name of grace. They were not punished according to their sins for the Name’s sake which they carried, and so will it be with us (<a href='B:290 48:9'>Isa 48:9</a>)- but we have to treat others baptized into the same covering Name in this same way as we are treated!</p><p>The usage of the idea of restraining anger, like the use of the terms ’remembering’ and ’forgetting’, suggests that God is so fully willing to enter into our kind of time; for a Being cannot forget and remember simultaneously, an element of time is involved. Likewise at times we read of God being slow to anger (<a href='B:20 34:6'>Exo 34:6</a>), at others, of Him not restraining His anger, or restraining it (<a href='B:230 78:38'>Psa 78:38</a>; <a href='B:290 48:9'>Isa 48:9</a>; <a href='B:310 2:8'>Lam 2:8</a>; <a href='B:330 20:22'>Eze 20:22</a>), and holding His peace (<a href='B:290 57:11'>Isa 57:11</a>; <a href='B:230 50:21'>Psa 50:21</a>), and being provoked to anger by the bad behaviour of His covenant people (<a href='B:50 32:21'>Deu 32:21</a>; <a href='B:230 78:58'>Psa 78:58</a>; <a href='B:290 65:3'>Isa 65:3</a>; <a href='B:300 8:19'>Jer 8:19</a>). God clearly has emotions of a kind which are not unrelated to the emotions we experience, as beings made in His image. But those emotions involve a time factor in order to be emotions. We read of the anger of God "for a moment" (<a href='B:230 30:5'>Psa 30:5</a>; <a href='B:290 54:7-8'>Isa 54:7-8</a>), and of His wrath coming and going, leaving Him "calm" and no longer angry (<a href='B:330 16:42'>Eze 16:42</a>). When we sin, we provoke God to anger- i:e. at a point in time, God sees our sin, and becomes angry. This is attested many times in Scripture. But it’s meaningless if God is somehow outside of our time and emotions.  God very nearly cut Israel off, doing what He had thought to do at Moses' time. Instead of burning them up, He used the fire of the exile to refine them- but even then, no silver emerged from it (:10).  </p>


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<p>Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have chosen you in the furnace of affliction- LXX "Behold, I have sold thee, but not for silver", similar to the idea of Is. 50:1 and Is. 52:3: "Which of My creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities were you sold... You were sold for nothing". Or "But not as silver" might mean that He would not destroy them in the fire of condemnation, but rather would use the fire of affliction to refine them. Or that despite the refining process in exile, no silver had emerged. 
LXX "I have rescued thee from the furnace of affliction", just as Daniel’s friends had been. They were representative of all the exiles. But despite that ’rescue’, they refused to leave Persia. Nor would they perceive their prosperity in Babylon / Persia as in fact a furnace, a living out of condemnation. They chose for the most part to remain in it. The idea may be that despite the refining fire of the affliction of exile, they had still not become as silver; the dross was not removed. This is the tragedy of Israel’s long history; so much fire, but the dross still held on to, and not removed. And it is so in the lives of so many associated with the new Israel.</p>


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<p>For My own sake, for My own sake, will I do it; for how should My name be profaned? I will not give My glory to another- We sense here the struggle within God, which we see too throughout Hosea, especially in <a href='B:350 11:8'>Hos 11:8</a>. They had been unfaithful and treacherous to Him, and His anger was kindled (:8,9); they needed to be judged. But He had refrained the expression of that anger (:9). On one hand, He cannot let His Name be profaned; but on the other, He will not give His glory to another. This conflict is at the very heart of His being, for His "own sake". The fact the pole of His grace and mercy emerges stronger than the pole of His anger and judgment is not to say that He is simply soft hearted. That triumph of mercy over judgment is the result of real conflict and tension within the heart of God Himself, at the very core of His character.</p><p>God will not let His Name be polluted by His people (<a href='B:290 48:11'>Isa 48:11</a>; <a href='B:330 20:9'>Eze 20:9</a>). But God polluted His people (<a href='B:290 47:6'>Isa 47:6</a>). They did pollute His Name (<a href='B:300 34:16'>Jer 34:16</a>; <a href='B:460 1:7'>Mal 1:7</a>). God invites us to see His efforts to stop His Name being polluted as somehow defeated by the extent of Israel’s pollutions. This theme comes out clearly in Ezekiel: they polluted Him, but He strove lest His Name should be polluted. Here is the extent of freewill which God gives man to sin- and also the extent of the hopefulness of God. It’s as if He didn’t imagine they would pollute Him as much as they did.
"I will not give My glory to another" could mean that Yahweh wouldn't let Israel be destroyed totally lest the other gods took glory for this. This would then be another connection with His decision at the Exodus not to destroy Israel, as He was minded to.</p>


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<p>Listen to Me, O Jacob, and Israel My called: I am He; I am the first, I also am the last- The Hebrew could imply "O Jacob whom I called Israel" (see on :1), again referring to the Divine hope that Jacob would change to Israel. The same God who calls His people has also called the heavens and earth into existence (:13 "Mine hand also" AV). He who was the first is also the last. He will be with us to the end, to the future, which for Him is infinite, ["the last" is s.w. "the uttermost"]. The calling and usage of pagan Cyrus (:15) was a worked example to the Jews of how God could have used every one of them. The sense may be as in <a href='B:290 41:4'>Isa 41:4</a>: "I Yahweh, the first and with the last, I am He". First and last are terms used by the Lord Jesus of those who shall be in His Kingdom (<a href='B:470 20:16'>Mat 20:16</a>). "The last" would then refer to the last generation of God’s people. Yahweh would save the exiles along with the "first" of His people such as Abraham; for at the time of the restoration of that last generation, there would be a resurrection of all God’s true people, to form a new people would eternally inherit the reestablished Kingdom.</p>


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<p>Yes, My hand has laid the foundation of the earth, and My right hand has spread out the heavens: when I call to them, they stand up together- The idea of calling things which don’t exist into existence (<a href='B:520 4:17'>Rom 4:17</a>) has suggestions of creation (<a href='B:290 41:4'>Isa 41:4</a>; <a href='B:290 48:13'>Isa 48:13</a>). The new, spiritual creation is indeed a creation ex nihilo, an act of grace. Incomprehensible to the modern mind, the natural creation involved the creation of matter from out of God, and not out of any visible, concrete matter which already existed. The physical creation therefore looked forward to the grace of the new creation- creating people spiritually out of nothing, counting righteousness to them which theydidn’t have, treating them as persons whom they were not.</p><p>In the same context of Babylon’s apparent might being brought down by God’s hand, God reasoned that He would perform His will against Babylon, and this should be believed because His hand had created the heavens and earth (<a href='B:290 48:13-14'>Isa 48:13-14</a>). Likewise He taught Job the futility of having such metaphysical doubts about Him, of the joy there is all around us in creation regardless of our personal suffering…through an exposition of His power as creator. All this is why the disciples were inspired to faith that their prayers for deliverance would be answered by the recollection of the fact that God has created all things and therefore nothing is too hard for Him (<a href='B:510 4:24'>Act 4:24</a> RV).
God through His word created the stars and makes them "stand up"; He creates the stars and "brings out their army" (Is. 40:26). He likewise through His word of restoration could "bring out" His people from Babylon, as the stars of Abraham's seed (also referred to in :19), and make them "stand up"- a Hebrew word commonly used of the 'setting up' of the restored temple in Ezra and Nehemiah. But "stand up together" is the very phrase used in a legal context in Is. 50:8, of standing up together in court: "He is near who justifies me; who will bring charges against me? Let us stand up together: who is my adversary? Let him come near to me". It's as if in the court case, God calls the stars to stand up as witnesses. His word can make them obedient. So He can make His people obedient and His word can bring about the restoration of the Kingdom. The obedience of the physical stars shows God can make the stars of Abraham's seed likewise appear and be obedient. That Israel refused this is none less than tragic. But the promise and reality holds true to all Abraham's seed in any age.</p>


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<p>Assemble yourselves all of you, and hear; who among them has declared these things? He whom Yahweh loves shall perform His will on Babylon, and his arm shall be on the Chaldeans- It is hard to understand Yahweh's "love" for Cyrus. We can detect an open attitude to who this servant is- whoever is the beloved of Yahweh will do His will on Babylon. And the prophecies of Revelation interpret that servant as the Lord Jesus. Or perhaps the idea is that if God so loved Cyrus just as a man may love his hammer or tool in his hand, how much more does He love His servant Israel. LXX offers "out of love to thee I have fulfilled thy desire on Babylon, to abolish the seed of the Chaldeans".
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. The cup of judgment which Judah drunk for 70 years was passed to Babylon (<a href='B:290 51:22'>Isa 51:22</a>). This accounts for Isaiah’s repeated and detailed emphasis on the coming fall of Babylon for Judah / Israel’s sake (e.g. Isaiah 47). Although they had sinned, Yahweh showed His gracious love for His people by bringing down Babylon. “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 “ (<a href='B:290 45:4'>Isa 45:4</a>). World geopolitics are manipulated for the sake of God’s people. And yet we can refuse to participate in the program, as the exiles did. 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:&nbsp;See on <a href='B:150 2:1'>Ezr 2:1</a>. But "Israel would not". I explained on <a href='B:290 46:1'>Isa 46:1</a> and <a href='B:290 47:11'>Isa 47:11</a> that Cyrus did not particularly destroy "the Chaldeans" as envisaged in these prophecies. He did not respond to Yahweh’s love and refused to "know Him". And so these things are more fully to be realized in the fall of latter day Babylon at the hand of the Son of God’s love, the Lord Jesus.</p>


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<p>I, even I, have spoken; yes, I have called him; I have brought him, and he shall make his way prosperous- The Jews of Isaiah’s day would have had big problems with the idea of a pagan king like Cyrus becoming&nbsp; the King of Israel and being Yahweh’s special “servant” and even Messiah; see on <a href='B:290 45:1'>Isa 45:1</a>. Folk have the same problem and resistance to the idea today. But passages like <a href='B:290 45:9-13'>Isa 45:9-13</a>, <a href='B:290 48:14-16'>Isa 48:14-16</a> and much of the material that follows the servant songs, are in fact seeking to answer objections to this- e.g. by saying that God is the potter and men are mere clay, and He will raise up precisely whom He wishes- even pagan Cyrus- to be His man, the arm of His salvation, at least potentially. His way was made prosperous, potentially; the "way" to the restored Zion of Isaiah 40 had been potentially prepared.</p>


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<p>Come near to Me and hear this: ‘From the beginning I have not spoken in secret; from the time that it was, there am I’. Now the Lord Yahweh has sent me, with His Spirit- As often in Isaiah, we have a case here of a 'voice' suddenly speaking, an interjection which can appear unexpected because it is so sudden. Is. 40:6-8 is the clearest example but we have noted these voices / interjections several times in Isaiah. I suggest that this is another example: "Now the Lord Yahweh has sent me, with His Spirit". This could be Isaiah speaking, or it could be the voice of the "servant" figure, just as we suddenly have in Is. 61:1: "The Spirit of the Lord Yahweh is on me; because Yahweh has anointed me to preach good news to the humble. He has sent me to bind up the broken hearted".
The sending forth of Isaiah was the sending forth of God’s word to His people (s:w. <a href='B:290 6:8'>Isa 6:8</a>; <a href='B:290 9:8'>Isa 9:8</a>). Isaiah like the Lord Jesus and like us, was the word made flesh; his prophetic word about Cyrus and the restoration was published and not spoken in secret, and he was sent in the power of the Spirit to authenticate his message. And in Isaiah, the man became his message; there was a congruence between him personally and the word preached. In the immediate context, Isaiah himself was the servant messenger sent forth (s:w. <a href='B:290 42:19'>Isa 42:19</a>; <a href='B:290 48:16'>Isa 48:16</a>; <a href='B:290 61:1'>Isa 61:1</a>); hence GNB "Now the Sovereign LORD has given me his power and sent me". But he was largely rejected, and Jewish tradition has it that Isaiah was sawn in two by Hezekiah’s son Manasseh (<a href='B:650 11:37'>Heb 11:37</a>). And so the messenger came to fulfilment in the Lord Jesus.</p>


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<p>Thus says Yahweh, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel- As Hosea ‘redeemed’ Gomer in His attempt to force through His fantasy for her (<a href='B:350 3:1'>Hos 3:1</a>), so Yahweh is repeatedly described in Isaiah as Israel’s go’el, redeemer (<a href='B:290 41:14'>Isa 41:14</a>; <a href='B:290 43:14'>Isa 43:14</a>; <a href='B:290 44:6'>Isa 44:6</a>; <a href='B:290 44:24'>Isa 44:24</a>; <a href='B:290 47:4'>Isa 47:4</a>; <a href='B:290 48:17'>Isa 48:17</a>; <a href='B:290 49:7'>Isa 49:7</a>; <a href='B:290 49:26'>Isa 49:26</a>; <a href='B:290 54:5'>Isa 54:5</a>; <a href='B:290 54:8'>Isa 54:8</a>). The redeemer could redeem a close relative from slavery or repurchase property lost during hard times (<a href='B:30 25:25-26'>Lev 25:25-26</a>; <a href='B:30 25:47-55'>Lev 25:47-55</a>; <a href='B:80 2:20'>Rth 2:20</a>; <a href='B:80 3:9'>Rth 3:9</a>; <a href='B:80 3:12'>Rth 3:12</a>). The redeemer was also the avenger of blood (<a href='B:40 35:9-28'>Num 35:9-28</a>; <a href='B:60 20:3'>Jos 20:3</a>; <a href='B:60 20:9'>Jos 20:9</a>). All these ideas were relevant to Yahweh’s relationship to Judah in captivity. But the promised freedom didn’t come- even under Nehemiah, Judah was still a province within the Persian empire. And those who returned complained: “We are slaves this day in the land you gave…” (<a href='B:160 9:36'>Neh 9:36</a>). The wonderful prophecies of freedom and redemption from slavery weren’t realized in practice, because of the selfishness of the more wealthy Jews. And how often is it that the freedom potentially enabled for those redeemed in Christ is in practice denied them by their autocratic and abusive brethren.</p><p>I am Yahweh your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you by the way that you should go- LXX "I have shewn thee how thou shouldest find the way wherein thou shouldest walk". The way to Zion had been prepared (see on Isaiah 40), but they had to walk in it. They were being led in that way, potentially, just as many are today- but they refused to walk in it. The idols and the Gentile nations amongst whom they lived would not "profit" them (s:w. <a href='B:290 30:5-6'>Isa 30:5-6</a>; <a href='B:290 44:9-10'>Isa 44:9-10</a>); but as the book of Esther makes clear, they were profiting well, apparently, from remaining amongst them. But the only real "profit" would be if they quit all that and returned to Zion. But they saw no "profit" in being forgiven and restored as God’s people (s:w. <a href='B:220 35:3'>Job 35:3</a>).</p>


text:
<p>Oh that you had listened to My commandments! then your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea- This was the potential possible if they had repented and returned to Judah:&nbsp; The promises to Abraham (:19) and the coming of the Messianic seed of Abraham could have been fulfilled; but because Israel chose to be wicked, there was no such peace: “There is no peace… unto the wicked” (:22).</p><p>Because of His capacity to imagine, to see possible futures, God feels rejected both by His children and by His wife at the same time. Hence the poignancy behind His words of regret here, seeing what could have been. Likewise "Oh that they would have a mind such as this always" (<a href='B:50 5:29'>Deu 5:29</a>), "O Israel, if you would but listen to Me"(<a href='B:230 81:8'>Psa 81:8</a>; <a href='B:230 81:13'>Psa 81:13</a>). It’s as if He could see the potentially happy future which they could’ve had stretching out before Him.</p>


text:
<p>your seed also had been as the sand, and the offspring of your body like its grains: his name would not be cut off nor destroyed from before Me- The new covenant offered to the exiles at this time by Jeremiah and Ezekiel was based on the Abrahamic promises. The promises to Abraham and the coming of the Messianic seed of Abraham could have been fulfilled then, had they repented (:18). The offspring of their body could have been as sand grains; they really could have personally been as Abraham. Likewise for us, the receipt of the promises to Abraham means that we stand absolutely with him (<a href='B:550 3:27-29'>Gal 3:27-29</a>). But the LXX reads as if despite their refusal of these things, all the same God would not totally reject them: "Neither now shalt thou by any means be utterly destroyed, neither shall thy name perish before me". And yet the plain sense of the context is surely that God would cut off the name of His people (Rom. 11:20). Later Isaiah speaks of this and describes a new version of "Israel" who would inherit the restored Kingdom. But they had not yet been cut off- hence the intensity of the appeal in :20 to leave Babylon quickly. Before Yahweh cut their name off.</p>


text:
<p>Go forth from Babylon, flee from the Chaldeans; with a voice of singing declare, tell this, utter it even to the end of the earth: say, ‘Yahweh has redeemed His servant Jacob’- 
Perhaps at this point Babylon had already fallen and Cyrus was urging the Jews to return to Zion. The redemption of Jacob referred to the consistent Isaianic image of God paying to redeem His people from debt slavery in Babylon. Hence the idea of redemption is connected to Jacob [the exiles] being a "servant" or slave. The nuance here is that by buying them out of slavery in Babylon, Yahweh had purchased them as His own servant or slave. They were returning to the home family, that of Yahweh in Zion, but with joy at becoming His slave within the family. It was to be a change of masters, just as baptism is presented in Rom. 6. For the new Israel, the redemption or ransom is in the Lord's blood, which He says He gave "as a ransom for many". Yahweh would pay them for their service: "I, Yahweh, love justice; I hate robbery with injustice. I will pay their wages faithfully" (Is. 61:8). We have here the exact picture of the prodigal son, who wished to return to the paternal family as a paid labourer.
Leaving Babylon with a voice of singing / joy is in view in  Is. 55:12: "For you shall go out in joy, and be led back in peace". But this was a commandment in Is. 48:20, which the exiles generally disobeyed. They returned hardly with joy, but with nervousness and expectation only that there might be some material benefit for themselves. Yet Jer. 31:8,9 predict this return as being with tears, along with comfort from Yahweh. In Is. 48:20, the return would be with joy. Such a mixture of emotions is reflected in the Songs of Degrees. And it is about the only realistic, imaginable  word picture of entry into salvation: "With weeping they shall come, and with consolations I will carry them back, I will let them walk by brooks of water... I am going to bring them from the land of the north, and gather them... a great company, they shall return here" (Jer. 31:8,9). The redeemed exiles were to "declare" the great salvation they had experienced, just as we are to declare it to the world. But "declare" is a common idea in second Isaiah; Yahweh repeatedly claims to have "declared" the future, the salvation of His people. This salvation was "the end" which He declared from the beginning (Is. 46:10; 42:9; 44:7; 43:12 "I have declared and I have saved"); and in this chapter (Is. 48) Yahweh uses the word of His declaration of Israel's future salvation (Is. 48:5). Those who have been saved will join Yahweh in declaring this great salvation as their experience. This is the basis of our witness- not information about the Bible, not theory nor theology, but our personal experience of the Gospel of salvation and redemption.
Consider all the calls to leave Babylon:
"Go forth from Babylon, flee" (Is. 48:20)
"Depart [s.w. eschew, withdraw from, desist from], go out from there... go out of the midst of her" (Is. 52:11)
"Flee out of the midst of Babylon, go forth out of the land of the Chaldeans... Be the first to leave!" (Jer. 50:8)
"Flee out of the midst of Babylon and save every man his life... go away from the midst of her" (Jer. 51:6,45)
"Come! Flee from the land of the north... Come, Zion, Escape [slip away] you who dwell with the daughter of Babylon" (Zech. 2:6,7)
"Come out of her My people" (Rev. 18:4; 2 Cor. 6:17).
There is a repeated sense of urgency, after the pattern of the call of Lot to leave Sodom (Gen. 19:17 "flee for your life"). But like Lot, the exiles didn't want to leave and many didn't. The fact Babylon wasn't destroyed as planned was because God so loved His people who had wrongly chosen to remain there. "I will bring them from the north country" (Jer. 31:8)- but they had to make the decision to leave. Whether slipping away or boldly upping and going... God will take anyone on the journey- if they want to make it. He will not drag people against their will. But His enthusiasm is great.
The idea in <a href='B:290 47:15'>Isa 47:15</a> was that the people from the nations within the Babylonian empire would leave Babylon and return home- including the Jews. But this didn’t happen; see on <a href='B:290 46:1'>Isa 46:1</a>. The idea here is that the Jews were intended to flee Babylon before she fell, but they didn’t; and so God put another plan into operation, whereby the fall of Babylon was to lead to all the foreigners there, including the Jews, thereby being freed to return to their ancestral homelands. But still the Jews remained, as the book of Esther testifies. God tried then and tries now, by all means, to bring His chosen people to His Kingdom. Human resistance to His efforts is tragic. He must have pleasure in we weak sinners who have at least said "Yes" to His plans. Although Babylon had fallen to Cyrus, this was not the judgment of Babylon described by the prophets. A yet greater fall of Babylon was envisaged at the time, after the Jews had left. Most of them remained, and so by grace, the prophecies didn't come true then and were reapplied and reinterpreted in the picture of Babylon's final fall in Rev. 18.</p><p>“Come out from among them and be separate” (<a href='B:540 6:17'>2Co 6:17</a>) is picking up the language of <a href='B:290 48:20'>Isa 48:20</a>; <a href='B:290 52:11'>Isa 52:11</a>; <a href='B:300 50:8'>Jer 50:8</a>; <a href='B:450 2:7'>Zec 2:7</a> concerning the return of the exiles from Babylon. The edict of Cyrus for the Jews to return to the land was reapplied to God’s command to us to leave the spirit of Babylon, the Gentile world, and go up to do His work. The returned exiles are us. God told His people to flee from Babylon, to come out of her and return to His land and Kingdom (<a href='B:290 48:20'>Isa 48:20</a>; <a href='B:290 52:7'>Isa 52:7</a>; <a href='B:300 50:8'>Jer 50:8</a>; <a href='B:450 2:7'>Zec 2:7</a>). Babylon offered them a secure life, wealth, a society which accepted them (<a href='B:190 8:17'>Est 8:17</a>; <a href='B:190 10:3'>Est 10:3</a>), houses which they had built for themselves (<a href='B:300 29:5'>Jer 29:5</a>). And they were asked to leave all this, and travel the uncertain wilderness road to the ruins of Israel. They are cited in the NT as types of us in our exit from this world (<a href='B:540 6:17'>2Co 6:17</a>; <a href='B:730 18:4'>Rev 18:4</a>). Those who decided to obey God’s command and leave Babylon were confirmed in this by God: He raised up their spirit to want to return and re-build Jerusalem, and He touched the heart of Cyrus to make decrees which greatly helped them to do this (<a href='B:150 1:2-5'>Ezr 1:2-5</a>). And so the same Lord God of Israel is waiting to confirm us in our every act of separation from the kingdoms of this world, great or small; and He waits not only to receive us, but to be a Father unto us, and to make us His sons and daughters (<a href='B:540 6:18'>2Co 6:18</a>).</p><p>The command to flee Babylon must be compared with <a href='B:290 52:12'>Isa 52:12</a>: "For you shall not go out in haste, neither shall you go by flight: for Yahweh will go before you; and the God of Israel will be your vanguard". Although the exodus from Egypt was in many ways a pattern for the exiles to leave Babylon, in distinction from then, they would not "go out in haste" (s:w. <a href='B:50 16:3'>Deu 16:3</a>). They would not be persecuted in Babylon, leading them to flee. Rather they were to "flee" from Babylon spiritually (<a href='B:290 48:20'>Isa 48:20</a>) of their own volition and desire.</p>


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<p>They didn’t thirst when He led them through the deserts; He caused the waters to flow out of the rock for them; He split the rock also, and the waters gushed out- Just as everything had been provided for them when they left Egypt, so they need not worry about the logistics of returning to Judah. The practical issues which loom in the minds of those confronted with the Gospel of the Kingdom will all likewise be dealt with by the God who desperately wants us to say "yes". But the exiles generally said "no", and so these things are reapplied and reinterpreted to&nbsp; new Israel who say "Yes" to the invitation to participate in the restored Kingdom of God in Judah. The Lord Jesus spoke of how out of Him would come "living water", not still well water, but bubbling water fresh from a fountain (<a href='B:500 4:11'>Joh 4:11</a>; <a href='B:500 7:38'>Joh 7:38</a>). And He invites His people to drink of it. It was this kind of water that bubbled out of the smitten rock. <a href='B:230 78:15-16'>Psa 78:15-16</a>; <a href='B:230 78:20'>Psa 78:20</a>; <a href='B:230 105:41'>Psa 105:41</a>; <a href='B:290 48:21'>Isa 48:21</a> describe it with a variety of words: gushing, bursting, water running down like a high mountain stream, "flowed abundantly"... as if the fountains of deep hidden water had burst to the surface ("as out of the great depths", <a href='B:230 78:15'>Psa 78:15</a>). So the Lord was saying that He was like the rock, and we like Israel drinking of what came out of Him.</p><p>We note here that the rock gave water throughout the wilderness journey (<a href='B:290 48:21'>Isa 48:21</a>). This would surely necessitate that the giving of water at Horeb was not a one-off solution to a crisis. There is a word play in the Hebrew text of <a href='B:290 48:21'>Isa 48:21</a>: "He led them through the Horebs [AV ’desert places’]" by making water flow from the rock. The Horeb experience was repeated for 40 years; as if the rock went on being smitten. Somehow the water from that smitten rock went with them, fresh and bubbling as it was the first moment the rock was smitten, right through the wilderness. It was living, spring water- not lying around in puddles. Isaiah and other scripture uses the quenching of thirst as a figure for salvation (Is. 41:17; 48:21; 49:10). Whoever has a thirst for salvation will get it- the key thing is that we thirst after righteousness, as the Lord taught in the Beatitudes.</p>


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<p>There is no peace, says Yahweh, for the wicked- "The wicked" are the Jewish exiles of :18 who refused the potential peace with God which was offered if they repented and returned to Judah to reestablish His Kingdom of peace.</p>


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<p>Listen, islands, to me; and listen, you peoples, from far: Yahweh has called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother has He made mention of my name- The previous chapter has concluded with a lament over the Jewish exiles’ refusal of the Gospel of the reestablished Kingdom in Judah. Now, "the servant" addresses the Gentiles. But we have to wait until :6 to understand that this was a result of his failure to convert Israel. Cyrus had failed to "know Yahweh". And so the invitation to participate in the Kingdom is made to "your peoples", "the Gentiles" (LXX). The servant now takes on a different identity; it is "Israel" (:3), but this is clearly a title for a Messianic figure, ultimately the Lord Jesus. His personal preexistence is clearly ruled out here: "Before I was born, the LORD chose me and appointed me to be his servant" (GNB).</p><p>But all those of the new Israel who are "in" Israel-the-Messiah also have the words of the servant songs relevant to them. For all true of Him becomes true of us. And so there are a number of instances of where these Old Testament Messianic Scriptures are applied to Paul in the context of his preaching Christ. The servant known from birth (<a href='B:290 49:1'>Isa 49:1</a>; <a href='B:290 49:5'>Isa 49:5</a>)= <a href='B:550 1:15-16'>Gal 1:15-16</a> [choice from birth, calling, ministry to the Gentiles]; “I have laboured in vain…” (<a href='B:290 49:3'>Isa 49:3</a>) = “That I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain” (Php_2:16; <a href='B:530 15:58'>1Co 15:58</a>); “Yet surely my judgment is with the Lord” (<a href='B:290 49:4'>Isa 49:4</a>) = “He that judgeth me is the Lord” (<a href='B:530 4:4'>1Co 4:4</a>); “Him whom man despiseth” (<a href='B:290 49:7'>Isa 49:7</a>) = “We are despised” (<a href='B:530 4:9-10'>1Co 4:9-10</a>; <a href='B:540 4:9-10'>2Co 4:9-10</a>); “The Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you” (<a href='B:290 49:7'>Isa 49:7</a> RSV)&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;= “A chosen vessel” (<a href='B:510 9:15'>Act 9:15</a>); <a href='B:290 52:15'>Isa 52:15</a> = <a href='B:520 15:21'>Rom 15:21</a> [here Paul appropriates a prophecy of how the news of the crucified Christ would spread to those who had never heard it. He didn’t just read those verses as prophecy; he saw in them an imperative to fulfill them. This is an example of where prophecy depends to some extent upon us to fulfill it. The 19th century brethren understood the prophecies of Israel’s return to the land like this- they collected funds to enable it; <a href='B:290 49:8'>Isa 49:8</a> “In an acceptable time have I heard thee” = <a href='B:540 6:2'>2Co 6:2</a>; <a href='B:290 53:1'>Isa 53:1</a> = <a href='B:520 10:16'>Rom 10:16</a>; <a href='B:290 49:6'>Isa 49:6</a> = <a href='B:510 13:47'>Act 13:47</a>; <a href='B:290 43:5'>Isa 43:5</a> = <a href='B:510 18:9-10'>Act 18:9-10</a>.</p><p>At times, the prophets are paralleled with Israel- Jeremiah was a&nbsp;“prophet to the nations” (<a href='B:300 1:5'>Jer 1:5</a>), and yet this was Israel’s role, as stated here in <a href='B:290 49:1'>Isa 49:1</a>. Both the prophets and Israel are described as “the servant of the Lord”. But God and Israel were in the process of divorce, as they knew. The prophets were both on God’s side, and Israel’s. They were torn men. Just as God Himself was. He appeared “like a man confused” (<a href='B:300 14:9'>Jer 14:9</a>).</p>


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<p>And He has made my mouth like a sharp sword; in the shadow of His hand has He hidden me: and He has made me a polished shaft; in His quiver has He kept me close- <a href='B:290 51:16'>Isa 51:16</a> uses the same language about an individual who would restore Zion. Whatever primary application this may have had to Cyrus, Zerubbabel, Nehemiah etc:, they clearly failed. And so the words are reapplied to the Lord Jesus.  He would achieve the purpose of Yahweh by the words of His mouth, rather than physical actions and conquests. His word would have a sharp piercing quality to it, like a sword or javelin / arrow. And so it is with the word of the Lord Jesus whose mouth is like a sharp sword (Rev. 1:16), able to penetrate (a 'sharp sword') and to range far ('a polished arrow'). It would appear from these statements that the Lord Jesus was protected and specially guided by the Angel in the first thirty years of his life: "In the shadow of His hand (an Angelic phrase) hath He hid me, and made me a polished shaft; in His quiver hath He hid me". The word ’quiver’ comes from the word for an astrologer, in the sense of being something that conceals knowledge. Thus the Angel hid the true identity of Jesus, so that "flesh and blood" alone could not recognize that He was God’s Son (<a href='B:470 16:13-17'>Mat 16:13-17</a>). "The Lord" that passed by Moses and hid him with his hand in the cleft of the rock was an Angel.</p><p>But as explained on :1, the Messianic Servant, ultimately the Lord Jesus, includes all who are "in" Him. Thus Paul’s description of each of us as the warrior of the Gospel in Ephesians 6 composites together various descriptions of Messiah’s clothing in the servant songs (<a href='B:290 11:5'>Isa 11:5</a> = “loins girded with truth”; <a href='B:290 49:2'>Isa 49:2</a> “mouth like a sharp sword”; <a href='B:290 52:7'>Isa 52:7</a> “bring good tidings / publish salvation” = “the preparation of the Gospel of peace”; <a href='B:290 59:17'>Isa 59:17</a> “breastplate of righteousness”; <a href='B:290 59:17'>Isa 59:17</a> “helmet of salvation”). We are to be Christ to the world.</p><p>The idea of Messiah being "hidden" connects with other similar prophecies. The restoration prophecies continually refer to an individual called "the righteous one"- the references are somewhat masked in the English translations which speak simply of "righteousness", but it is evidently ’the righteous one’ who is being addressed rather than abstract righteousness. Consider the statements of intent about this Person: The righteous one would be prepared and kept hidden by Yahweh (<a href='B:290 42:6'>Isa 42:6</a>); he was to be raised up to rebuild Zion and release the captives from Babylon (<a href='B:290 45:13'>Isa 45:13</a>); he is pictured as near / approaching (<a href='B:290 51:5'>Isa 51:5</a>), called to Yahweh’s footstool in Zion (<a href='B:290 41:2'>Isa 41:2</a>); he was to be "brought in" to the temple at the end of the 70 weeks prophecy (Dan 924); then, Jerusalem would be known as the habitation of the righteous one (<a href='B:300 50:7'>Jer 50:7</a> and often- AV "habitation of justice"), the intention of <a href='B:330 48:35'>Eze 48:35</a> would be fulfilled, in that Jerusalem would be known as the city where Yahweh dwells; the righteous one of Yahweh would then "go out" in blessing to the surrounding nations. Hence <a href='B:300 33:16'>Jer 33:16</a>; <a href='B:300 23:6'>Jer 23:6</a> etc. outline God’s intention that after the restoration, the rebuilt Zion would be named "The Lord our righteous one" because Jerusalem would be the habitation of the righteous one (<a href='B:300 31:23'>Jer 31:23</a>; <a href='B:300 50:7'>Jer 50:7</a>). This is similar language to the restoration prophecies of Isaiah- the surrounding Gentile world would see / perceive / believe in "the righteous one" who would reign in the rebuilt Zion (<a href='B:290 62:2'>Isa 62:2</a>). The impression seems inescapable that at the time of the restoration, God had prepared a Messiah-figure, hidden (as it were) in Yahweh’s quiver (<a href='B:290 49:2'>Isa 49:2</a>), not revealed to Israel, who could have restored Judah, rebuilt Zion and converted the surrounding Gentiles. It could be that this person was Zerubbabel, Ezra, Nehemiah or some other known historical figure. Or it could be that this person was prepared, waited in the wings, but was never used by God. He could have been revealed to Judah by the anonymous messenger of Isaiah 40. But all these prophecies had to be reapplied- to the Lord Jesus, with John the Baptist and later the latter day Elijah as the announcing messenger.</p>


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<p>And He said to me, You are My servant; Israel, in whom I will be glorified- As noted on :1, the servant is now no longer Cyrus, who had failed to "know Yahweh" and live up to his potential. And Israel had refused the potentials of responding to the Gospel. So now Yahweh was to be glorified in an individual servant, in whom "Israel" could be comprehended if they became in Him. It all looks forward to the entrance into the Lord Jesus of all baptized into Him, thereby becoming the true Israel of God and Abraham’s seed (<a href='B:550 3:27-29'>Gal 3:27-29</a>).
The servant is told "You are Israel", but his mission is "to bring Jacob again to Him, and that Israel be gathered to Him" (:5). "Israel" brings Israel back to God. He does this by being their representative, also "formed from the womb" just as Israel were (Is. 44:2,24). The servant so far in Isaiah has been Israel, but the servant has been a failure. The mission of this new iteration of the servant is to make Israel that servant they were intended to be. And that is one of the wonders of personal salvation, that we shall be restored to who we should have been, could have been, were individually intended to be. We will finally and eternally fulfil our intended mission. Israel had failed to declare Yahweh to the Gentile world as intended, but this Israel-like servant would do. The Lord Jesus is "Israel" in that He is all we should and could have been. This is why He enables all in Him to be the true Israel as God intended, and it's why Paul uses the language of the "Israel" servant about himself and all in Christ. He is called both "My servant" and "My salvation to the end of the earth" (:6). Yah's salvation, Yahoshua, is 'Jesus'. God was to be glorified in Israel (Is. 44:23) but now, in His servant Israel. John's Gospel stresses how the Lord Jesus glorified Yahweh, supremely in His death and the salvation achieved thereby.
The fact He is perfect and sinless has this nuance and facet to it- that He is as we might have been. He was all "Israel" was intended to be, all they could have been and should have been. He is likewise all we should and might and could have been. We each have individual callings and possibilities that we fail in. But He is perfect in each of them. This is the power of understanding the Lord as our representative; He was "Israel", God's people as intended, fulfilling their intended function through identity with them, and on that basis He brings "Israel" to God. His discouragement at Israel's lack of response flows on naturally from God's complaints about Israel in the previous chapter. The new Israel, the Lord Jesus, would be the witness Israel were intended to have been to all the borders of the land promised to Abraham: "these shall come from far; and behold, these from the north and from the west; and these from the land of Sinim" (:12). Sinim is a reference to Sin (Pelusium) on the border of Egypt, the boundary of the promised land. People were to come from the North, West and South- not from the East, because the restoration from Babylon had already been predicted. The idea is 'in addition to those in Babylon'. Israel were to have filled that land with the knowledge of Yahweh. They failed, but "Israel" in the sense of the Lord Jesus would do this- and in fact literally to the ends of the planet. The other nations 'imprisoned' in Babylon were intended to join the Jewish exiles and be led by them to Zion. But the Jews preferred to stay in Babylon. The Lord Jesus as the ideal Israel would lead the Gentiles out of spiritual Babylon on a global level, and take them to Zion eternally. 
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<p>But I said, I have laboured in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity- We must give weight to the way "voices" appear in Isaiah, especially in Is. 40. These could be God fantasizing about the words and feelings His faithful servant would have. Just as Hosea does about Gomer, putting words into her mouth and imagining her doing things which in fact she never did. The fantasy of love. 
Paul alludes here in saying that because of the Lord's resurrection, our labour is not in vain. We are "in" Him and His mission to Israel and the Gentile world becomes our mission. And somehow in the bigger picture, it will succeed. We may lose our battles, but our team wins, gloriously. At least some will respond. The next verses will give the servant a commission to the Gentiles. So the servant is pictured at a point where his ministry to Israel appears to have ended in failure, and when his ministry to the Gentiles begins. That snapshot point is surely the cross. Likewise in :7, the snapshot of the servant is at a point when he was "him whom man despises... whom the nation abhors, a servant of rulers". This is the language of Is. 53 about the Lord's sufferings in His time of dying.
The LXX makes the allusion to idolatry clearer: "I have given my strength for vanity and for nothing". The Messiah, "Israel", was totally representative of His people, even in their sinfulness. This representative identification with them was to be the basis of their ultimate salvation.</p><p>Yet surely the justice due to me is with Yahweh, and my reward with my God- The idea may be "my work should be my recompence". Even if we feel our work for God has not been successful, we were the ones rewarded by doing it, it was itself our blessing. "My reward is with my God" recalls the feelings of Nehemiah, who perhaps could have been this Messianic figure in an initial sense: "Remember me, O my God, for good" (<a href='B:160 13:31'>Neh 13:31</a>; "my God" is a common theme in Ezra and Nehemiah). <a href='B:290 49:4-6'>Isa 49:4-6</a> seems to foresee how the returnees would be discouraged in their work of rebuilding, and at the fact that not all God’s people had been gathered back. And yet even then, provided they had the right spirit, the Kingdom blessings could still come. Isaiah 49 goes on to comfort the servant that the remainder of Israel would be regathered, and that the broken down walls of Zion were continually before Yahweh (<a href='B:290 49:16'>Isa 49:16</a>). And so love's labour is not lost, in that it is rewarded finally, at the last day. Even if what we worked for didn't of itself work out. In the Kingdom we shall those things from a different perspective, one we cannot yet get to. The words put in the Lord's mouth here are allusive to those of the failed servant Israel in  Is. 40:27: “Why do you say, O Jacob, and assert, O Israel, my way is hidden from the Lord, and the justice due me escapes the notice of my God?”. Again we see the Lord Jesus as the true Israel, God's people as they ought to be.</p>


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<p>Now says Yahweh who formed me from the womb to be His servant- The application of these words to the Lord Jesus precludes any idea of His personal preexistence. <a href='B:290 49:5-6'>Isa 49:5-6</a> contains a prophecy concerning Christ as the light of the world, which he fulfilled (<a href='B:500 8:12'>Joh 8:12</a>). He is described as meditating on “the Lord that formed me from the womb to be his servant”. Christ was therefore “formed” by God in Mary’s womb, through the power of His Holy Spirit. Mary’s womb was evidently the place of Christ’s physical origin.</p><p>Both as individuals and collectively, the whole biography and even genetic prehistory of God’s people has been prepared by God in their formation, so that they might encounter God’s salvation at an optimal point for them to give the maximum glory to Him (<a href='B:290 43:21'>Isa 43:21</a>). "Formed" is the word for the potter working on clay, used of how God fashions human hearts or psychologies, working on the deeply internal fabric of the human being (<a href='B:230 33:15'>Psa 33:15</a>). The ’forming’ in view is not only "in the womb" (<a href='B:290 44:2'>Isa 44:2</a>; <a href='B:290 44:24'>Isa 44:24</a>) but throughout their whole psychological and genetic formation. It is possible to strive with our former or "maker" (<a href='B:290 45:9'>Isa 45:9</a>), to be unresponsive to His touch of us the clay. The Messiah figure, ultimately the Lord Jesus, was the ultimate case of being "formed" by Yahweh’s hand (<a href='B:290 49:5'>Isa 49:5</a> s:w:), implying He too was clay, of human and not Divine nature.</p><p>To bring Jacob again to Him, and that Israel be gathered to Him (for I am honourable in the eyes of Yahweh, and my God has become my strength)- LXX "I shall be gathered and glorified before the Lord". Israel had refused to be regathered to the land, they had not obeyed the command to be gathered (s:w. <a href='B:290 43:9'>Isa 43:9</a>; <a href='B:360 2:16'>Joe 2:16</a>); but this individual servant would be, and thereby the true Israel "in Him" would be regathered. The verb for “gather” can be used in two senses, either “to gather in” or “to take away,” “gather off” (e.g. <a href='B:330 4:9'>Eze 4:9</a>). Response to the Messiah figure would lead to one of these two gatherings- to salvation, or condemnation.
Dt. 30:1-5 was clear that when Israel returned to Yahweh in repentance whilst in captivity, He would gather them back to their land. Hence the word play with shub, meaning both to repent, and to return. But the servant in Is. 49 is tasked with gathering Israel to Yahweh and returning them to their land. As if His work was to bring them to repentance and gather them almost in spite of their lack of repentance. And this is indeed the work of the Lord Jesus on human hearts today. It is the Lord's death that does this, according to John's allusions to this servant prophecy; He lifted up is the point and impetus of gathering together. The cross elicits repentance and return to God. Whilst there must still be freewill response, the cross is a far more powerful impetus to repentance than simply offering to gather God's people once they repent.
We note again the parallel of Jacob and Israel. This is very common up until this point (Is. 40:27; 41:8,14; 42:24; 43:1,22,28; 44:1,5,21,23; 45:4; 46:3; 48:1,12; 49:5,6). But from now on in Isaiah we will read of Zion and Jerusalem rather than Jacob and Israel. The Divine hope had been that Jacob would change to Israel. But as Isaiah progresses, especially in so called 'third Isaiah' from Is. 55-66, we find a far harsher spirit of criticism and judgment upon the people for having refused the great salvation and restoration offered. It's as if God accepts that Jacob will not change to Israel, and instead the prophecies speak of a far future time with a different form of God's people, known as Zion.  
The servant Israel was to glorify God (:3) and also be glorified [s.w. "honourable"] by God. This language of glorifying and therefore being glorified is frequently found in John's Gospel, especially John 17, where the Son glorifies the Father and the Father glorifies the Son. It is specifically applied to the Lord's death and resurrection (Jn. 12:28; 13:31; 14:13; 17:1,4). Clearly the servant Israel is ultimately the Lord Jesus. Israel were gathered to God through the Lord's death; He was lifted up "so that he might also gather together into one the children of God that are scattered abroad" (Jn. 11:52). "I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself" (Jn. 12:32). We note that Jn. 11:52 speaks of gathering Israel plus the dispersed: "not for the nation only, but that he might also gather together into one the children of God that are scattered abroad". This idea of salvation for Israel plus the Gentiles is directly taken from Is. 49:6. I have noted on :4 that a snapshot is presented of the servant at the point when His ministry to Israel appears to have ended, and His to the Gentiles begins. Which is the cross.
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<p>Yes, He says, It is too light a thing that you should be My servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel- This could have come true at the restoration. <a href='B:290 49:6'>Isa 49:6</a> speaks of the reestablishment of the tribes of Israel and the ‘establishing’ of the land (<a href='B:290 49:8'>Isa 49:8</a>). The intended boundaries of the tribal cantons are given in Ezekiel 48. There was perhaps a renewed awareness of which tribe each captive was from, after the genealogical records were burnt at the fall of Jerusalem. Note the references to Judah (<a href='B:150 10:23'>Ezr 10:23</a>), Benjamin (<a href='B:160 3:23'>Neh 3:23</a>), Manasseh <a href='B:150 10:33'>Ezr 10:33</a>) and Joseph (<a href='B:150 10:42'>Ezr 10:42</a>; <a href='B:160 12:14'>Neh 12:14</a>). But the land wasn’t laid out again according to tribal boundaries as envisaged in the prophecies of Isaiah and Ezekiel. The few who returned were content with their little farms, and didn’t rise up to a wider vision. And how much potential achievement for us as a community is disabled by our parochial, selfish, self-satisficing attitudes…?</p><p>The servant was encouraged that although His mission was primarily to Israel and they had refused His work (:5), He was not to be discouraged because the project of salvation was to be extended to the Gentiles. The idea seems to suggest that the extent of this purpose had to be revealed to the Lord Jesus in order to save Him from disappointment with His mission to Israel, as if His conception of His work had to be enlarged. This would be appropriate for someone with human nature.
We could render "to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept", in which case we have an allusion to the minority in the time of Elijah who were likewise "kept" from apostacy (1 Kings 19:18; Rom. 11:4). Messiah, like Elijah, didn't appreciate that despite His apparently failed ministry, a small remnant of Israel would be restored to God.</p><p>I will also give you for a light to the nations, that you may be My salvation to the end of the earth- The Lord was to save the Gentiles, even "the ends of the earth / land" promised to Abraham, where the exiles were located. And yet He died to save Israel rather than everyone in the Gentile world (<a href='B:290 49:5'>Isa 49:5</a>; <a href='B:290 53:8'>Isa 53:8</a>; <a href='B:550 4:4-5'>Gal 4:4-5</a>), He was “a servant to the circumcised"(<a href='B:520 15:8'>Rom 15:8</a>),"the consolation of Israel", unto them was born a saviour (<a href='B:490 2:11'>Luk 2:11</a>; <a href='B:490 2:25'>Luk 2:25</a>), and therefore He had to be exactly representative of them. For this reason it was theologically necessary for Jesus to be Jewish in order to achieve the work He did. We are only saved by reason of becoming in Christ and therefore part of the Israel of God (<a href='B:550 3:27-29'>Gal 3:27-29</a>). The Jewish basis of salvation is absolutely fundamental to a correct understanding of the Gospel.</p><p>I explained earlier in this chapter that the Messiah as"Israel"was an individual in whom the true Israel of God would be found, through mutual identification of Him with them and they with Him. And so Paul takes this prophecy concerning how Christ personally would be the light of the whole world, and applies it to himself in explanation of why he was devoted to being a light to the whole world himself (<a href='B:510 13:47'>Act 13:47</a> - although <a href='B:510 26:23'>Act 26:23</a> applies it to Jesus personally). Paul even says that this prophecy of Christ as the light of the world was a commandment to him; all that is true of the Lord Jesus likewise becomes binding upon us, because we are inHim. Note that Paul says that God has commanded us to witness; it wasn’t that Paul was a special case, and God especially applied Isaiah’s words concerning Christ as light of the Gentiles to Paul. They apply to us, to all who are in Christ.
Everything about the Lord Jesus becomes a commandment to us to be likewise. The Lord Jesus understood Himself as "the servant" and yet also understood Paul to be that servant who brought light to the world: "I have appeared to you, to appoint you a servant and a witness... to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light" (Acts 26:16,18). All that is true of the Lord is true of all those in Him. As He said, "You are the light of the world", because He is. We note that Paul and Barnabas quote Is. 49:6 about themselves at a point when they felt they had failed with their ministry to the Jews and decided to "turn to the Gentiles". This is exactly how the servant [Jesus] felt at the time of His death- and He is told that He would be given a greater ministry, to the Gentiles. Paul and Barnabas perceived what we call can- a bridge from the Lord on the cross [and the prophecies about Him there] to their own life situations. And they acted as Him.
Light and salvation are clearly parallel. In this sense the Lord was the light of the world (Jn. 8:12; 9:5). It is the experience of salvation which is the light in which the believer lives; all other experience of human life is simply life lived in darkness. The Lord was indeed "the light of men" (Jn. 1:4). He was to bring people out of darkness (:9)- and into Himself, the true light. Those who follow the Lord Jesus will not remain in darkness (Jn. 12:46). He didn't simply show them the light of salvation- He was and is the light, He is the salvation. He is Yah-saves. That light must spread "to the ends of the earth", and the great commission clearly alludes to this- beginning in Jerusalem and with the Jews, the message of the light and salvation of the Lord Jesus must be taken to "the ends of the earth". When this is achieved, the Lord's mission will have been accomplished. Missionary and evangelistic endeavour is the fulfilment of who He essentially is. And all who engage in it will experience the very special presence of the Lord who is that light that they are spreading.
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<p>Thus says Yahweh, the Redeemer of Israel, and His Holy One- The servant Israel was to redeem Israel. But Yahweh was the redeemer. The servant Israel, the Lord Jesus, was the means by which Yahweh would work to redeem Israel. As Hosea ‘redeemed’ Gomer in His attempt to force through His fantasy for her (<a href='B:350 3:1'>Hos 3:1</a>), so Yahweh is repeatedly described in Isaiah as Israel’s go’el, redeemer (<a href='B:290 41:14'>Isa 41:14</a>; <a href='B:290 43:14'>Isa 43:14</a>; <a href='B:290 44:6'>Isa 44:6</a>; <a href='B:290 44:24'>Isa 44:24</a>; <a href='B:290 47:4'>Isa 47:4</a>; <a href='B:290 48:17'>Isa 48:17</a>; <a href='B:290 49:7'>Isa 49:7</a>; <a href='B:290 49:26'>Isa 49:26</a>; <a href='B:290 54:5'>Isa 54:5</a>; <a href='B:290 54:8'>Isa 54:8</a>). The redeemer could redeem a close relative from slavery or repurchase property lost during hard times (<a href='B:30 25:25-26'>Lev 25:25-26</a>; <a href='B:30 25:47-55'>Lev 25:47-55</a>; <a href='B:80 2:20'>Rth 2:20</a>; <a href='B:80 3:9'>Rth 3:9</a>; <a href='B:80 3:12'>Rth 3:12</a>). The redeemer was also the avenger of blood (<a href='B:40 35:9-28'>Num 35:9-28</a>; <a href='B:60 20:3'>Jos 20:3</a>; <a href='B:60 20:9'>Jos 20:9</a>). All these ideas were relevant to Yahweh’s relationship to Judah in captivity. But the promised freedom didn’t come- even under Nehemiah, Judah was still a province within the Persian empire. And those who returned complained: “We are slaves this day in the land you gave…” (<a href='B:160 9:36'>Neh 9:36</a>). The wonderful prophecies of freedom and redemption from slavery weren’t realized in practice, because of the selfishness of the more wealthy Jews. And how often is it that the freedom potentially enabled for those redeemed in Christ is in practice denied them by their autocratic and abusive brethren.</p><p>To him whom man despises, to him whom the nation abhors, to a servant of rulers- LXX"Sanctify him that despises his life, him that is abhorred by the nations that are the servants of princes". This Messianic servant would sacrifice His life and be abhorred by the nations; so that the nations would come to worship Him. This is exactly what was and shall be achieved through the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus.</p><p>Kings shall see and arise; princes, and they shall worship; because of Yahweh who is faithful, even the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you- The leadership who had despised the suffering Servant would arise from their thrones and bow in homage before Him.</p>


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<p>Thus says Yahweh, In an acceptable time have I answered you, and in a day of salvation have I helped you; and I will preserve you, and give you for a covenant of the people, to raise up the land, to make them inherit the desolate heritage-
These words about the servant, the Lord Jesus, are quoted in 2 Cor. 6:1,2, where we are called "workers together with" the Lord Jesus and are urged to appeal to others to be saved. The context is in 2 Cor. 5:20: "we are ambassadors on behalf of Christ, as though God were entreating the world by us. We beg you on behalf of Christ". The servant was Israel but is the Lord Jesus personally. If we are "in Christ", then all these servant prophecies apply to us. We will be answered and helped during the acceptable time, the day of salvation. We are to make use of that as we too fulfil the servant's ministry, to bring Israel and the whole world to salvation and acceptance.
Whatever the initial possible application to the exiles, the "acceptable time" is now, for now is the today of salvation. All these things have been transferred and reapplied to all who would believe them, seeing the first audience rejected them. We could translate "to restore (:6) the land (of Israel), to allot (Dt. 21:16) the desolate inheritances". Just as each Israelite had a specific allotted inheritance in the land, so each believer in Christ has a specific inheritance in the future restored Kingdom.
There are many allusions to David's sufferings throughout the servant songs. Here it is to Ps. 69:13 "But I pray to you, O LORD, in the time of your favour; in your great love, O God, answer me with
your sure salvation". The moral weakness of the servant is thus suggested. And yet the servant is also the Lord Jesus, and as Is. 53 will make clear, the servant identified totally with the sin and weakness of His people.
"The people" is "the nations", the Gentiles. Gentile salvation is however connected with restoring the land (of Israel; <a href='B:290 49:6'>Isa 49:6</a>), and allotting (<a href='B:50 21:16'>Deu 21:16</a>) the desolate heritages. The latter chapters of Ezekiel stress how Israel were to “inherit” the land; yet the same word is used in other restoration prophecies, about Messiah causing Israel to “inherit” the land again after their return from “the north country” (<a href='B:450 2:12'>Zec 2:12</a>; <a href='B:450 8:12'>Zec 8:12</a>; <a href='B:290 49:8'>Isa 49:8</a>; <a href='B:300 3:18'>Jer 3:18</a>). When Judah returned from the “north country”, then Jerusalem would be the universally recognized “throne of the Lord” (<a href='B:300 3:17-18'>Jer 3:17-18</a>). The Kingdom could have come when Judah returned from Babylon. It was therefore potentially possible for the returning exiles to inherit all the land outlined in <a href='B:330 47:13-21'>Eze 47:13-21</a> and share it out between the 12 tribes. But they grabbed every man for himself, his own farmstead, his own mini-Kingdom. They had no interest in the wider vision, nor in subduing extra land; and the majority of the Jews didn’t even want to inherit it; they preferred the soft life of Babylon, the Kingdom of men rather than the Kingdom of God. And thus the Kingdom made possible was never actually fulfilled at that time.</p><p>&nbsp;The vision is of a multiethnic people of God; the restoration of the Kingdom in Israel is connected with the salvation of Gentiles. The ’help’ and ’preservation’ of the Servant was ultimately through the strengthening and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. But all that is true of the Messianic Servant is true of those in Him; hence His Name is"Israel". And so this verse is quoted about us in <a href='B:540 6:2'>2Co 6:2</a> in the context of our being preachers, labouring with God. This is the language of the Lord’s preaching, which freed men from the prison house (<a href='B:290 61:1-2'>Isa 61:1-2</a>). Yet because we are in Him, we too have His ministry; our words too can make men inherit the Kingdom, and free men from their bondage. “We are witnesses [through being] in him” (<a href='B:510 5:32'>Act 5:32</a> RVmg:). As the Lord in Isaiah’s servant songs was the suffering, saving, atoning servant, lifted up to give salvation world-wide- so are we. For we are in Him.</p>


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<p>Saying to those who are bound, ‘Come out!’- This is the same word as in <a href='B:290 48:20'>Isa 48:20</a>"Go forth of Babylon". But they chose to remain there.</p><p>To those who are in darkness, ‘Show yourselves!’- This is language applied to the Lord Jesus bringing people out of darkness to the light, which means salvation in Him (Jn. 8:12; 12:46). They could have had a deliverance similar to that of Israel from the darkness of Egypt (<a href='B:230 107:10'>Psa 107:10</a>; <a href='B:230 107:14'>Psa 107:14</a>), but they preferred darkness to light. Just as they did before the captivity, they put darkness for light (<a href='B:290 5:20'>Isa 5:20</a>). Thus they refused the work of the saving Servant, who wanted to bring them out of that darkness (<a href='B:290 42:7'>Isa 42:7</a>), and preferred to remain in the darkness of condemnation (<a href='B:290 47:5'>Isa 47:5</a>).</p><p>And so these things have been reapplied to the work of the Lord Jesus. Those who are thankfully redeemed in Christ, now lovingly reconciled to Him, are described as blind, starving prisoners, bound in the darkness, awaiting execution (<a href='B:230 107:14'>Psa 107:14</a>; <a href='B:290 42:7'>Isa 42:7</a>; <a href='B:290 49:9'>Isa 49:9</a>; <a href='B:290 61:1'>Isa 61:1</a>; <a href='B:450 9:11'>Zec 9:11</a>). Our prayers should be like those of a man on death row in a dark dungeon, waiting to die, but groaning for salvation (<a href='B:230 102:17'>Psa 102:17</a>; <a href='B:230 102:20'>Psa 102:20</a>):&nbsp; This is the extent of our desperation. We are “the poor” (Gk. ‘the crouchers’), cringing in utter spiritual destitution (<a href='B:470 5:3'>Mat 5:3</a>). The Lord in the Sermon on the Mount clearly understood this deliverance of the prisoners to refer to His work with a new Israel; since the Jews in Babylon had preferred to stay in their comfortable prison of exile, and didn’t perceive it as a place of spiritual darkness.</p><p>They shall feed in the ways, and on all bare heights shall be their pasture- The idea is that there would be abundant provision for them, with pasture even on the beaten paths and bare heights where usually there wouldn’t be. The idea here and in :10 was and is that absolutely all their needs would be abundantly provided for on the physical and spiritual journey to the restored Kingdom. This is the picture of the return of the exiles found in Is. 40:11; 41:18; 42:7, with rivers opened on the bare heights and ample food and pasture on the return path to Zion.</p>


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<p>They shall not hunger nor thirst; neither shall the heat nor sun strike them: for He who has mercy on them will lead them, even by springs of water He will guide them- 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 (<a href='B:290 51:18'>Isa 51:18</a> 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 (<a href='B:290 40:11'>Isa 40:11</a>; <a href='B:290 49:10'>Isa 49:10</a>).</p><p>This repeats the assurance of <a href='B:290 48:21'>Isa 48:21</a>. Just as everything had been provided for them when they left Egypt, so they need not worry about the logistics or"the way"of returning to Judah. The practical issues which loom in the minds of those confronted with the Gospel of the Kingdom will all likewise be dealt with by the God who desperately wants us to say"yes". These words are repeated about the faithful of the new Israel in <a href='B:730 7:16'>Rev 7:16</a>, brought "out of great tribulation" (Rev. 7:14) just as the exiles were intended to have been brought out of Babylon.</p>


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<p>I will make all My mountains a way, and My highways shall be exalted- This repeats the message of the highway to the restored Zion being prepared in <a href='B:290 40:4'>Isa 40:4</a>.</p>


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<p>Behold, these shall come from far; and behold, these from the north and from the west; and these from the land of Sinim-"Sinim"my simply refer to the uttermost border of the eretz promised to Abraham,"Sin"being on the southern border with Egypt (cp. <a href='B:10 10:17'>Gen 10:17</a>). LXX"And others from the land of the Persians", GNB"and from Aswan in the south". The tragedy of the book of Esther is that at its conclusion, the Jews were established in Persia in prosperity. They refused to use all this potential. The refusal of the exiles to respond led to the reapplication of this to the worldwide gathering in of Gentiles from all over the globe.  Sinim is a reference to Sin (Pelusium) on the border of Egypt, the boundary of the promised land. People were to come from the North, West and South- not from the East, because the restoration from Babylon had already been predicted. The idea is 'in addition to those in Babylon'. Israel were to have filled that land with the knowledge of Yahweh. They failed, but "Israel" in the sense of the Lord Jesus would do this- and in fact literally to the ends of the planet. The other nations 'imprisoned' in Babylon were intended to join the Jewish exiles and be led by them to Zion. But the Jews preferred to stay in Babylon. The Lord Jesus as the ideal Israel would lead the Gentiles out of spiritual Babylon on a global level, and take them to Zion eternally. </p>


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<p>Sing, heavens; and be joyful, earth; and break forth into singing, mountains: for Yahweh has comforted His people, and will have compassion on His afflicted- The ‘singing’ of the heavens refers to Judah’s intended joy at the restoration (cp. <a href='B:290 48:20'>Isa 48:20</a>). See on <a href='B:290 54:2'>Isa 54:2</a>. As the whole creation would share the joy of Hosea and Gomer’s remarriage (see on <a href='B:290 1:26'>Isa 1:26</a>), so <a href='B:290 44:23'>Isa 44:23</a> and <a href='B:290 49:13'>Isa 49:13</a> use similar terms to describe how all creation could have rejoiced in the reuniting of Yahweh with His people on their return from Babylon.</p><p>The temple still lay “waste” (<a href='B:440 1:4'>Hag 1:4</a>; <a href='B:440 1:9'>Hag 1:9</a>) just as it had lain “desolate” [s:w. <a href='B:300 33:10'>Jer 33:10</a>; <a href='B:300 33:12'>Jer 33:12</a>] after the Babylonian destruction. The ‘restoration’ was in fact not really a restoration at all, in God’s eyes. Thus Ezra sat down desolate [AV “astonied”] at the news of Judah’s apostasy in marrying the surrounding women; using the very same word as frequently used to describe the ‘desolate’ Jerusalem that was to be rebuilt (<a href='B:150 9:3'>Ezr 9:3</a> cp. <a href='B:290 49:8'>Isa 49:8</a>; <a href='B:290 49:19'>Isa 49:19</a>; Isa 543; <a href='B:290 61:4'>Isa 61:4</a>). He tore his priestly garment (<a href='B:150 9:3'>Ezr 9:3</a>), as if he realized that all Ezekiel’s prophesies about those priestly garments now couldn’t come true (s:w. <a href='B:330 42:14'>Eze 42:14</a>; <a href='B:330 44:17'>Eze 44:17</a>; <a href='B:330 44:19'>Eze 44:19</a>). <a href='B:290 58:12-13'>Isa 58:12-13</a> prophesied that the acceptable rebuilding of Zion was dependent upon Judah keeping the Sabbath acceptably; and yet Nehemiah’s record makes clear their tragic abuse of the Sabbath at the time of the restoration; and this therefore meant that the rebuilding of the temple and city were not going to fulfill the Messianic prophecies about them which existed.</p><p>Comfort and compassion from God can be given by Him, and yet refused. And again we have an abiding warning to us, as the new Israel, not to waste or disregard all the potential comfort there is from God, not least in our day through the ministry of"the comforter, which is the Holy Spirit".</p>


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<p>But Zion said, Yahweh has forsaken me, and the Lord has forgotten me- This is a huge anticlimax to the loving grace declared in :13. The mountains, skies and earth all rejoice in it [there's a similar picture in Hosea in the same context of God's saving, marital love for Israel]. But Zion refuses to accept the grace, making the foolish complaint that Yahweh has forgotten about her. Indeed it could be that we are to read her words as the accusation of a wife in a divorce court, for legal language is so common in Isaiah. Accusing him of abandoning her- the word for "forsaken" is used when lamenting a loss, like of Jacob losing Benjamin, Gen. 44:22. She presents herself as the abandoned / forsaken one, despite the visible presence of God in the cherubim amongst the exiles [see Ezekiel]. This is such a spiteful, ungrateful response that we feel it unworthy of any further response. No sensible further dialogue seems possible. Yahweh addresses Zion, but in :14 she speaks to nobody in particular, telling the world she is an abandoned woman. Come on, Zion. You can do better than this. We therefore marvel at Yahweh's patience in even engaging with it, replying personally to her as He does in His response of :15. His grace shines through time and again; His eager desire to always engage with His people shows how He has not at all abandoned nor forgotten them.
See on :25. AV "my Lord", as if referring to Yahweh as her husband (<a href='B:290 50:1'>Isa 50:1</a>; <a href='B:290 54:6'>Isa 54:6</a> cp. <a href='B:10 18:12'>Gen 18:12</a>). But as explained on :13, Yahweh had not forsaken them; it was they who refused to avail themselves of the comfort of His love. We must follow the images carefully. Zion is presented in Is. 49:14 as a forsaken young wife. She is also presented as a young mother who had lost her children, who suddenly gets them back. But Is. 49:15 then applies feminine imagery to God as Zion's mother, actually breastfeeding His people. God is the eternal mother, the figure that every man, if he is honest, would dearly love to have. Not an old frail lady with dementia, as his last memories of her might be, but the younger woman who, as a child, apparently had all the answers and made all the provisions. Even if man never had a mother or had a bad mother, that is the idea desire of every man. It is clearly enough why men have a "thing" about women's breasts. And that is God to man. God has set eternity in our hearts, a longing for things which we shall never quite achieve in this life. But that longing is met uniquely in Him. The woman longs for a strong father, a wonderful ever present husband, and children who are always somehow present and not distant, who crown her maturity with teeming happy grandchildren (Is. 49:21-23). She never has those things... her father may or may not have been the strong one, but he grows old and weak. Her husband was not perfect, and is not always strong. Her children are not as she would wish, perhaps she is estranged from one and another is lost to her, under the influence of in-laws or drugs... or not thinking spiritually as she does. But these deep longings are met uniquely in the things of the Father and His Kingdom. Yahweh is revealed as the eternal husband of Zion, the go'el who redeems from all life's problems, the father of her wonderful children. Family life, good as it can be when lived in the Lord, never fully meets these longings of both man and woman. And even the best of human relationships are time limited. Only Yahweh of Israel can be eternally all these things to man. The failures and lack of total fulfilment in family life for both men and women are merely to hone and focus upon what we would ideally wish for- and we shall receive it eternally, in our relationship with God and His people in His Kingdom. And in Is. 54, Zion is presented as a once barren woman. Now and for eternity she not only has children but her children are abundant (Is. 54:1), widespreading (Is. 54:22) and prosperous (Is. 54:13). They come to her from all directions (Is. 60:4) and her children "dwell with her" (Is 62:5 LXX)- a woman's secret desire, to have her children with her and not distant in any sense. And she has yet more children, without the pain of labour (Is. 66:7-14).</p><p>Reasoning back from the addresses to the captives in later Isaiah, it appears they thought that Yahweh was a God who just operated in the land of Israel. The captives felt they couldn’t sing the songs of Yahweh in a Gentile land (Psalms 137). They thought that now they were outside His land and far from His temple, they were forgotten by Him (<a href='B:290 49:14-15'>Isa 49:14-15</a>), their cause ignored by Him (<a href='B:290 40:27'>Isa 40:27</a>) and they were “cast off” from relationship with Him (<a href='B:290 41:9'>Isa 41:9</a>). Hence Isaiah emphasizes that Yahweh is the creator and the God of the whole planet, and His presence is literally planet-wide. Likewise there is much stress in those addresses on the fact that Yahweh’s word of prophecy will come true. Remember that there had been many false prophets of Yahweh just prior to the captivity who predicted victory against Babylon and prosperity (<a href='B:310 2:9'>Lam 2:9</a>; <a href='B:310 2:14'>Lam 2:14</a>; <a href='B:300 44:15-19'>Jer 44:15-19</a>). And the 70 years prophecy of Jeremiah appeared to not be coming true, or at best was delayed or re-scheduled in fulfilment [even Daniel felt this, according to his desperate plea for fulfilment in Daniel 9]. And so there was a crisis of confidence in the concept of prophecy, and Yahweh’s word and prophets generally. Isaiah addressed this by stressing the nature and power of that word, and urging faith in its fulfilment and relevance.  We hear today the same responses when we confront people with the Gospel. They complain that God has forgotten them because indeed they are too weak and sinful, and they just want to have a reasonable life as and how they are. But this is not genuine humility. It is a stubborn lack of faith in the offer of salvation. It is a limiting of God's power, a denial of His passionate interest in us, and a spurning of His earnest pleas to let Him save us. And a short sighted love of the present world experience.</p><p>The sufferings of Christ on the cross have connections with the punishments for Israel’s sins (e.g. being offered gall to drink = <a href='B:300 8:14'>Jer 8:14</a>; <a href='B:310 3:5'>Lam 3:5</a>). Israel were temporarily forsaken by God because of their sins (<a href='B:290 49:14'>Isa 49:14</a>; <a href='B:290 54:7'>Isa 54:7</a>), and therefore so was Christ. Christ was chastened with the rod of men"and with the stripes of the children of men", i:e. Israel (<a href='B:290 53:5'>Isa 53:5</a>; <a href='B:670 2:24'>1Pe 2:24</a>; <a href='B:400 5:1'>Mic 5:1</a>), in His death on the cross.</p>


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<p>Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yes, these may forget, yet I will not forget you!- And yet in anger God said He would destroy Israel’s children and walk away from them and forget them (<a href='B:350 9:12'>Hos 9:12</a>). Unlike the stone faced gods of the Gentiles, Yahweh had emotion and passion, and internal conflicts. And His word reveals them to us. This"compassion"was only to be shown when Israel repented (s:w. <a href='B:50 30:3'>Deu 30:3</a>) and would not be shown if they were impenitent (s:w. <a href='B:290 9:17'>Isa 9:17</a>; <a href='B:290 27:11'>Isa 27:11</a>; Isa 557). But although they had not repented, Yahweh still felt that fatherly"compassion"toward them (<a href='B:290 49:15'>Isa 49:15</a> s:w:). He is unafraid of appearing to contradict His word, such is the passion of His love.
We note that the Hebrew words for "compassion" and "womb" are related, from the same root rhm, riham (compassion) and rehem (womb). We could translate 'womb-compassion'. Whilst a woman may indeed murder and even eat her own baby, as the Bible itself testifies, there is a unique natural bond between a woman and the child of her womb. This bond is far stronger than between a father and his child. God therefore uses this  uniquely feminine allusion in order to show the depth of His compassion with His people. It points up the intensity of His usage of the word for "compassion" in saying through Hosea that His people are Ruhamah (Hos. 2:1,4), not those upon which He any longer has compassion (as in Jer. 13:14 "I will not have compassion"). He used the word in Dt. 30:3, saying that He would have this "compassion" when He would "turn your captivity, and have compassion upon you, and will gather you from all the nations whither Yahweh your God has scattered you". This idea that Yahweh would show compassion only once they repented is also found in Jer. 30:18; 33:26. But His point now is that in fact that compassion had never left them throughout the exile. He had been far more compassionate to them than He had said- because of the nature of things being their mother. Hence Jer. 31:20 says the same thing as Is. 49:15: "Is [not] Ephraim My dear son? Is he [not] a darling child? For as often as I speak against him, I do earnestly remember him still: therefore My heart yearns for him; I will surely have compassion on him". If the wicked amongst the exiles forsook their ways and thoughts and returned to Yahweh, then Yahweh would have compassion upon them (Is. 55:7). Ps. 102:13 likewise speaks of the time when Yahweh would arise and have compassion upon Zion because "the set time is come", as if His compassion is shown only at the restoration; likewise Is. 14:1 "Yahweh will have compassion on Jacob... and set them in their own land" (also Jer. 12:15; Ez. 39:25; Zech. 10:6). But in Is. 49:15 Yahweh is saying that He had had compassion upon them throughout the exile, although He would indeed show them compassion in returning them from Babylon (s.w. :10,13). Judah's conquerors, the Assyrians and Babylonians, had had no compassion upon the Jews (s.w. Is. 9:17; 13:18; Jer. 6:23). But Yahweh did, in His wrath He always remembered His mercy / compassion (Hab. 3:2), all through the exile. But the exiles didn't see this, complaining that they had had no compassion, no breastfeeding, but had been abandoned. They complained "How long will You not have compassion on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, against which You have had indignation those seventy years?  Yahweh answered the angel who talked with me with kind and comforting / compassionate words" (Zech. 1:12,13). The compassion had been there all along. Yet the exiles rejected it. And this amazing compassion has been applied to us: "In Him the fatherless find mercy / compassion" (Hos. 14:3), we who were not His begotten children are given the compassion of the womb. These very words are quoted in the New Testament about all believers in Christ: "I will have mercy [s.w. compassion] on her who had not obtained mercy; and I will tell those who were not My people, ‘You are My people;’ and they will say, ‘You are my God!’". This amazing womb-compassion is for all who have been born again.    
The image of breastfeeding is of course distinctly and uniquely feminine. Yahweh uses this aspect of femininity about Himself. Perhaps in no other place in scripture does He so strongly present as female. And yet He does so in the context of also presenting as the male husband of Zion. He indeed is all things to every person. In the years of exile, when "Zion" liked to imagine her God was far away- He was in fact breastfeeding her, the ultimate moment of intimacy between parent and child, the act of physico-emotional bonding that no male can share nor replicate with their child [hence Yahweh uses this female imagery about Himself at this point]. Breast milk production depends upon the child continually drinking the milk. If the child stops doing so, the production of breast milk stops. The language used here is so powerful. Zion had been feeding from Yahweh all through her exile. To claim He had abandoned and forgotten her was self contradictory and so obviously wrong. A lactating woman is unable to forget her child in that her body is focused upon her production of milk. Even the thought of the child, or hearing a crying baby, can cause a milk ejection reflex from the woman. The mother's body is unable to forget that she is nursing, and reminds her to feed it. It's an amazing picture of God's constant awareness of and love for His people. But because they were switched off to Him, they reflected their attitude to Him back onto Him- a psychological classic. They were disinterested in Him, and they decided that He was like that to them too. The challenge comes down to us today: Be as constantly enthusiastic for God as He is for you.
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<p>Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of My hands- The idea may be that Israel were as the lines graven on a man’s palm, with which he was born. Thus from absolute eternity, we were the great"all things"to Almighty God, intimately connected with Him, part of His very own person- He the God of all, all past and future creations. But God’s hands are His creative members; on those hands were the walls of Zion, and so all His actions were geared towards the final salvation of Israel. Their rejection of such great Divine passion and interest was and is the tragedy of the cosmos. And the marks in the palms of His Son will apparently remain eternally, He still appears looking like a lamb with the wounds of His slaughter upon Him (<a href='B:730 5:6'>Rev 5:6</a>). &nbsp;</p><p>Your walls are continually before Me- The broken down state of the walls was continually in God’s mind throughout the exile, as they were in Nehemiah’s mind too. Or perhaps the walls of a restored Zion, those spoken of in Revelation 21, are in view. The ultimate hope of Israel, of their restoration, was ever before God. But at the time of the restoration, very few of His people cared about the state of the walls; such was the distraction of materialism. Possibly the idea is that the walls of Jerusalem were engraven on God's palms, i.e. on both His hands. The plans to rebuild the city, found in Ez. 40-48, were totally on and in His hands. He was so eager to make it happen. If only the exiles had grasped this, they would have had God working with both hands along with them.</p>


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<p>Your children make haste; your destroyers and those who made you waste shall go forth from you- LXX"And thou shalt soon be built by those by whom thou were destroyed, and they that made thee desolate shall go forth of thee". The idea was that a repentant remnant of Gentiles would return with the repentant exiles and work in the rebuilding of Zion. But this didn’t happen. And so it is all given a reapplication to Gentiles building in Zion, the new Jerusalem.</p>


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<p>Lift up your eyes all around, and see: all these gather themselves together, and come to you- All these prophecies of Isaiah were because when the Gentiles came to Zion after the Assyrians were destroyed, they were supposed to gather together to Judah’s God. But Hezekiah's apostacy influenced them, and therefore Judah went into captivity in Babylon and only after repentance were to be restored. Now the situation was to be repeated; and the Gentiles would again be gathered to Zion, but now they would permanently join themselves to Israel’s God.</p><p>It is God who gathers His people (<a href='B:290 11:12'>Isa 11:12</a>; <a href='B:290 40:11'>Isa 40:11</a>; <a href='B:300 31:10'>Jer 31:10</a>; <a href='B:330 34:12'>Eze 34:12</a>), whereas the Gentiles gather themselves to Him (<a href='B:290 49:18'>Isa 49:18</a>). His grace therefore appears the greater to His people, somehow forcing through His purpose with obstinate sheep. The ’bringing / coming’ and ’drawing near / gathering’ of the exiles (s:w. <a href='B:290 43:5'>Isa 43:5</a>) would have been primarily fulfilled at the restoration (same words in <a href='B:160 1:9'>Neh 1:9</a>). But most of the exiles remained in the lands of their captivity, just as people resist the Gospel’s call today. They had to themselves bring and gather themselves (<a href='B:290 45:20'>Isa 45:20</a>; <a href='B:290 49:18'>Isa 49:18</a>; <a href='B:290 60:4'>Isa 60:4</a>), so that God would confirm this by bringing and gathering them (<a href='B:290 43:5'>Isa 43:5</a>; <a href='B:300 31:8'>Jer 31:8</a>; <a href='B:330 34:13'>Eze 34:13</a>; <a href='B:330 36:24'>Eze 36:24</a>; <a href='B:330 37:21'>Eze 37:21</a>; <a href='B:450 10:10'>Zec 10:10</a>). And so today with all who wish to be in God’s Kingdom; our desire to be there and first moves towards it will be confirmed many times over by God’s work through His Spirit.</p><p>As I live, says Yahweh, you shall surely clothe yourself with them all as with an ornament, and dress yourself with them, like a bride- As if they were the girdle worn by a bride- which Judah had forgotten to wear, so slack were they in their attitude to their Heavenly husband (<a href='B:300 2:32'>Jer 2:32</a>). The conversion of the Gentiles was to be to the glory of God’s people.  "As I live" continues the theme we have so often, of God forcing through His saving purpose "for My own sake" (see on Is. 45:23), swearing by His own life because He could swear by nothing greater- that truly He would save His people. "Clothe yourself... dress yourself" is the word 'bind / girdle'. In Jer. 2:32 Yahweh had lamented “can… a bride forget her girdle?". But Judah had forgotten Yahweh. Now the Divine hope is that she will learn her lesson and decorate herself for her husband. But this was to be the desperate hope of Hosea that Gomer would one day love him. These things have had to be transferred to us, the new people of God, the new iteration of His wife.</p>


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<p>For, as for your waste and your desolate places, and your land that has been destroyed, surely now you shall be too small for the inhabitants, and those who swallowed you up shall be far away- This is exactly relevant to the situation in Judah after the first break in the rebuilding; the walls were broken down by the Samaritans, but Nehemiah was raised up to lead more back with him from Babylon and rebuild them. And yet sadly, this too failed, for Judah were still unwilling to completely forsake Babylon. “Thy walls are continually before me [even during the 70 years captivity]… [even while in captivity they were thinking that Yahweh had forgotten them, :14]…thy builders (RVmg:) make haste…thy land that hath been destroyed [by the Babylonian scorched earth policy] shall even now be too narrow by reason of the inhabitants…then shalt thou say, Who hath begotten me these, seeing I am barren, an exile…?” (<a href='B:290 49:16'>Isa 49:16</a>; <a href='B:290 49:19'>Isa 49:19</a>; <a href='B:290 49:21'>Isa 49:21</a> RV). This all implies there would be a population explosion at the time of the restoration. But there is no evidence this was the case. All this was potentially true; but it didn’t come to pass in reality.</p>


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<p>The children of your bereavement shall yet say in your ears- LThese children were born after she had lost her husband and children. She has no idea who had conceived them for her (:21). The idea surely is that whilst Israel were estranged from God, the Gentiles would become God's children and become her spiritual children. This explains the obvious paradox of bereavement of children resulting in having children, "the children of bereavement". 
LXX "For thy sons whom thou hast lost shall say in thine ears". The idea of receiving back children who had been once slain is clearly alluded to in Job’s experience (<a href='B:220 42:13'>Job 42:13</a>), who is set up as representative of the Jews in exile.</p><p>‘The place is too small for me; give more space to me that I may dwell!’- The implication is that eretz Israel will be too small for the restored people of God; and they will therefore have to go and live with the Gentiles. The implication is that the boundaries of the promised land will expand to encompass the entire planet.</p>


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<p>Then you will say in your heart, ‘Who has conceived these for me, since I have been bereaved of my children, and am solitary, an exile, and wandering back and forth? Who has brought up these? Behold, I was left alone; these, where were they?’- see on <a href='B:10 33:5'>Gen 33:5</a>. Children born through another were still reckoned as the wife’s children (<a href='B:10 16:1'>Gen 16:1</a>; <a href='B:10 30:1'>Gen 30:1</a>). The children of Zion were therefore suckled by the Gentiles (<a href='B:290 60:16'>Isa 60:16</a>); nursing fathers implies guardians.. The implication is that just as the eretz Israel will be expanded to include Gentile territories (see on :20), so ethnic Gentiles will be genuinely considered by the Jews to be their people.
We note Zion's wonder at God's grace, that she the widow and bereaved of children should now find a husband and children- in contrast to Babylon who proudly denies she will ever experience widowhood nor bereavement of children, but would abide a "mistress forever". Zion has the realization so many of us do at times- God was with me through this all along. All through our weak periods, be they minutes or years, He was there. Showing His grace, love and compassion to us. She had complained that she was "forgotten" (:15), and this is a figure for being barren. Thus when barren women bore children, it is said that Yahweh remembered them, having apparently 'forgotten' them in their time of barrenness (Hannah in 1 Sam. 1:11,19; Rachel in Gen. 30:22). Now Zion sees that she does have children- she has not in fact been forgotten by God. She says this in her heart, to herself. It's a picture of deep internal marvel at God's grace. Just as we shall walk away from the judgment seat into eternity, with the faithful of all ages, wondering at His grace, saying within our deepest self "How did this happen? Duncan, you shouldn't be here. But you are!".</p>


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<p>Thus says the Lord Yahweh, Behold, I will lift up My hand to the nations, and set up My banner to the peoples; and they shall bring your sons in their bosom, and your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders- This banner or ensign lifted up in Zion is ultimately the pole of the cross of the Lord Jesus. Upon this will be predicated Yahweh’s extension of His covenant to the Gentile nations; for to ’lift up the hand’ is to enter into solemn covenant.</p>


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<p>Kings shall be your nursing fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers: they shall bow down to you with their faces to the earth, and lick the dust of your feet; and you shall know that I am Yahweh; and those who wait for Me shall not be disappointed- Or"ashamed". Yahweh had promised support for them if they returned to the land; He would preserve them on the way. Consider <a href='B:290 50:10'>Isa 50:10</a>: “Who is among you that feareth the LORD, that obeyeth the voice [s:w. Ezra 1 :1 re the proclamation of Cyrus] of his servant [i:e. Cyrus, <a href='B:290 45:1'>Isa 45:1</a>], that walketh in darkness, and hath no light? let him trust in the name of the LORD, and stay upon his God”. Yet Ezra was ashamed to ask the king for soldiers to guard them on the journeyonly because he had earlier told the king that Yahweh would be with them (<a href='B:150 8:22'>Ezr 8:22</a>), as if he really did want the support but was ashamed to ask for it. He disallowed Isaiah’s prophesy that the restored Israel would never be ashamed [s:w. <a href='B:150 8:22'>Ezr 8:22</a>; <a href='B:150 9:6'>Ezr 9:6</a>] nor confounded (<a href='B:290 45:17'>Isa 45:17</a>; <a href='B:290 49:23'>Isa 49:23</a>; <a href='B:290 54:4'>Isa 54:4</a>). Nehemiah accepted such support when he came up from Babylon (<a href='B:160 2:9'>Neh 2:9</a>). And so these things are reapplied to the coming of Gentiles to the hope of Israel in Christ. Former enemies worshipping at the feet of repentant Jews becomes reapplied to all believers in Christ (<a href='B:730 3:9'>Rev 3:9</a>).</p>


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<p>Can prey be taken from a warrior? Or can prisoners of a tyrant be rescued?- LXX"Will any one take spoils from a giant? and if one should take a man captive unjustly, shall he be delivered?". The Lord Jesus alludes here in saying that through His work, the house of the strong man has been taken and his spoils looted (<a href='B:480 3:27'>Mar 3:27</a>).</p><p>Or this can be read as the Jews remonstrating against God’s message of deliverance from captivity: “Can prey be taken from a warrior? Or can prisoners of a tyrant be rescued?”. They thought their salvation was too hard even for God. They made the same mistake as all who reason that their situation or personality is too far gone for God to redeem. For the ‘salvation’ of the exiles in Babylon is alluded to in the New Testament as a prototype of our salvation in Christ. The good news of potential deliverance from Babylon is quoted as the good news of salvation from sin (<a href='B:290 52:7-10'>Isa 52:7-10</a> = <a href='B:480 1:15'>Mar 1:15</a>; <a href='B:470 10:7-8'>Mat 10:7-8</a>; <a href='B:520 10:15'>Rom 10:15</a>; <a href='B:560 6:15'>Eph 6:15</a>; <a href='B:290 61:1-2'>Isa 61:1-2</a> = <a href='B:490 4:16-21'>Luk 4:16-21</a>). Time and again in the restoration prophecies we encounter statements intended to answer the skepticism felt by the exiles about the promises of redemption from Babylon (<a href='B:290 40:27-31'>Isa 40:27-31</a>; <a href='B:290 42:22'>Isa 42:22</a>; <a href='B:290 43:22'>Isa 43:22</a>; <a href='B:290 46:12'>Isa 46:12</a>; <a href='B:290 48:4'>Isa 48:4</a>; <a href='B:290 48:8'>Isa 48:8</a>; <a href='B:290 49:14'>Isa 49:14</a>). Passages like Ezekiel 18 and <a href='B:290 59:9'>Isa 59:9</a> imply a certain bitterness of Israel towards their God, considering that He had dealt with them unfairly, and inappropriately punished them for the sins of their fathers. Despite having enabled their exit from Babylon, they complained: “Vindication remains far removed from us and deliverance does not reach us” (<a href='B:290 59:9'>Isa 59:9</a>). This was an awful spurning of the great salvation enabled for them.</p>


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<p>But thus says Yahweh, Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered; for I will contend with him who contends with you, and I will save your children- LXX"If one should take a giant captive, he shall take spoils, and he who takes them from a mighty man shall be delivered". But when Babylon fell, the captives didn’t want to leave and preferred prosperity under the Persians, as the book of Esther makes clear. And so these things were reapplied and fulfilled in more abstract, spiritual terms. Thus the Lord Jesus alludes here in saying that through His work, the house of the strong man has been taken and his spoils looted (<a href='B:480 3:27'>Mar 3:27</a>).</p>


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<p>I will feed those who oppress you with their own flesh; and they shall be drunken with their own blood, as with sweet wine- The idea is as in GNB"I will make your oppressors kill each other", which will come true in the last days (<a href='B:330 38:21'>Eze 38:21</a>; <a href='B:440 2:22'>Hag 2:22</a>; <a href='B:450 14:13'>Zec 14:13</a>).</p><p>And all flesh shall know that I, Yahweh, am your Saviour, and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob- The final triumph of God’s project of saving His people will be the parade witness to"all flesh"which finally brings about the spread of His Kingdom worldwide. The lovely story of Ruth speaks of our redemption. Her “kinsman redeemer” [Heb. Go’el] was the “mighty one”, Boaz. We find this word especially used in Isaiah’s prophecies to the Jewish exiles in Babylon, urging them to return from that Gentile land to Judah, and take the Gentiles with them. They had the impression there in Babylon that God had somehow forgotten them. The book of Ruth appears to have been written up [perhaps in Babylon] in order to encourage them to return- after the pattern of Naomi and Ruth returning to the land and being redeemed by their Go’el. But this Go’el is none less than God Himself. So many passages in Isaiah allude to the Ruth story: “I Yahweh am your Saviour and your redeemer [Go’el], the mighty one of Jacob” (<a href='B:290 49:26'>Isa 49:26</a>). Judah were urged in <a href='B:290 55:6'>Isa 55:6</a> to call upon God “While He is near”- the same Hebrew word translated “kinsman”. The servant songs go on to explain how Yahweh could become our kinsman through His Son, our representative, of our nature. Judah in captivity were likewise encouraged by Jeremiah to return to the land- with full allusion to Ruth: “Turn again, O virgin of Israel, turn again to these thy cities... for the Lord has created a new thing in the earth: a woman shall compass a man” (<a href='B:300 31:21-22'>Jer 31:21-22</a>). This refers to the way in which Ruth summed up the courage to ‘go after’ Boaz, to present herself to him for marriage- reflecting the spiritual ambition of all those who seek redemption and restoration in Christ.</p>


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<p>Thus says Yahweh, Where is the bill of your mother’s divorce, for which I have put her away? Or which of My creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities were you sold, and for your transgressions was your mother put away- We have reached the point in the previous chapter where the apparently abandoned Zion finds that she has children she never knew about- ultimately referring to the Gentile converts made whilst she was in a state of separation from God her husband. Now we have explained to us the difficulties with her previous sons, who clearly saw the exile as unjust, as we have recorded in Ezekiel. But in the immediate intended context, "Zion" may refer to the community in Jerusalem while her “sons” symbolize the returning exiles. Zion's sons are spoken of clearly in Lamentations and Is. 51:20: "Your sons have fainted, they lie at the head of all the streets". Those "sons" who were slain and sent to Babylon never in fact did return for the most part, they declined the offer of redemption. And so the "sons" of Zion become the Gentiles in the final fulfilment. Now these children [perhaps primarily those at the time of the exile] are addressed, and they have explained to them what actually happened with their absent mother. And they are also reminded that they too are sinners and sold themselves into slavery, and Zion's captivity was actually their fault.

Zion was indeed sent away by God, but He remained married to her and we are left with the intentionally ambiguous challenge: Where [or what] is the bill of her divorce? What kind of divorce? And can the bill even be found? Has God perhaps destroyed it? The word for sending away is that used of Adam being sent out from Eden, although in hope of return (Gen. 3:23,24). Is. 50:2 likewise alludes to God's calling out to Adam: "Why when I called, was there none to answer?". The seed of the woman was to enable man's return, through overcoming the seed of the serpent. And that clearly looks forward to the Lord's work on the cross.
Jer. 3 says that God did divorce the 10 tribes, but Judah sinned worse than them. It would seem the case God didn't divorce Judah: "Turn O backsliding children, says the Lord, for I am married unto you" (Jer. 3:14). This highlights His special grace to Judah- and points up their deep wrongness in refusing it. 

So the intent of the questions is something like this: "I wrote no bill of divorce, nor have I any creditors whose demands I met by selling you into slavery. These are not the real reasons for the separation that has taken place between you and Me, and for My sending you into captivity".
It could be argued that God had divorced the ten tribes and given them a bill of divorce (Jer. 3:8). But although Judah had sinned even worse, by grace He didn't do this. It would seem the case God didn't either didn't divorce Judah, or all the same considered her His wife despite their divorce: "Turn O backsliding children, says the Lord, for I am married unto you" (Jer. 3:14). They had sold themselves to exile in Babylon by worshipping Babylon's gods; the same figure is used in Judges. Or we could understand that the bill of divorce cannot be found because God had so totally forgiven their sins.

This can be read as God’s answer to the Jewish objection that God had as it were gotten rid of them as His wife for His own ends, such as getting cash benefit. And so He invites them to look again at the bill of divorce and remind themselves of the reasons for the divorce; LXX" Of what kind is your mother’s bill of divorcement?". It was because of their gross unfaithfulness. Ezekiel had to reason with the exiles in a similar way, arguing against their idea that God had been unreasonable to them.
The simplest reading is that the exiles were complaining that God had sent them into captivity for His own benefit, not because they had deserved it. Ezekiel speaks to the same wrong attitudes. God's reply is that they sold themselves. Or we can read this as God saying that He had indeed divorced them and sold them- and they need to ask why this was. It was because of the huge debt of their sins. Hence CEV "I didn't divorce your mother or sell you to pay debts; I divorced her and sold you because of your sins". But that paraphrase is also problematic. In one sense, it was Israel and not God who had debts. Perhaps the idea is that their debts to Him were so great that He sold them to the Babylonians as slaves. And yet the metaphors beg questions. Not least, why was God so driven to force His own family member to pay debt that He sold them? The debt was to Him- why was He so insistent they pay up? That is the seriousness of sin, and the cost of their redemption was fully paid by Him so that there was some justice in this glorious, costly plan of redemption. The idea is that it was Israel who had accumulated the debt, and so God as the head of the family had had to sell them into debt slavery to clear it. But then He Himself clears the debt.
</p><p>But further, here Isaiah urged the Jews to return to the land by saying that God had forgiven them, and on this basis He appealed for them to both ‘repent’ and ‘return’ to the land. The two terms are related. Thus He showed His grace; forgiveness preceded, not followed, repentance. <a href='B:290 44:22'>Isa 44:22</a> is clear about this: “I have swept away your transgressions like clouds [therefore] return to me, for I have [already] redeemed you”. Perhaps the question as to where the bill of divorce was could imply that it didn’t exist; God was angry with their sins, but kept no record of them- hence He could comfort Judah that there was actually no documentary evidence for their divorce and therefore she could return to Him. As Paul put it, the goodness of God leads to repentance (<a href='B:520 2:4'>Rom 2:4</a>). And we are asked to show that same “goodness” of God to others, being “kind [s:w. ‘goodness’] one to another… forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake has forgiven you” (<a href='B:560 4:32'>Eph 4:32</a>). We too are to show this grace of forgiveness-before-repentance; but perhaps in no other area has formalized, institutionalizedChristianity failed worse. If XYZ shows us she’s repented of her divorce, then we’ll forgive her and accept her in fellowship [as if, in any case, we are the ones who need to forgive her]. These are graceless and yet terribly common attitudes. The Greek word translated “goodness” is rendered “gracious” in <a href='B:670 2:3'>1Pe 2:3</a> - newly converted babes in Christ taste of this gracious goodness, and it leads to repentance.
"Her term of service is over, that the debt owed for her iniquity has been satisfied" (Is. 40:2) suggests a kind of transactional approach which some find inappropriate. Zion had a debt to pay she could only deal with by selling herself as a slave for a period. But they are the terms used. A debt was paid or cleared; although not necessarily by her labour! "Without money you will be redeemed" (Is. 52:3). For the language of "redemption" will be used about Zion; someone had redeemed her, had met the debt. For that is what 'redemption' alludes to her. Clearly sin is presented as debt; Is. 50:1 is clear: "Do you think I sold you into captivity like a man who sells his children as slaves? No, you went away captive because of your sins; you were sent away because of your crimes". God did not sell them into slavery, they sold themselves, just as Elijah said of Ahab: "you have sold yourself to do evil" (1 Kings 21:20). Indeed the captivity occurred because they sold themselves to do evil (2 Kings 17:17). We likewise are "sold under sin" (Rom. 7:14). But somehow the debt had been cleared, not by Zion's slave labour, and so she need not serve any longer. The fact the Jews chose to remain in Persia is exactly for the same reasons as people prefer to remain in bondage to sin when faced with the Gospel of redemption. How that was achieved is not at this point made clear. God could simply forgive debt. But the servant song of Is. 53 surely gives the deeper answer- it was the death of the Messianic servant which provided the technical answer as to "how" this was achieved. We could render Is. 40:2: “Indeed, she will receive double from the hand of Yahweh in exchange for all of the suffering on account of her sins". This double blessing is that if Is. 61:7: "Instead of your shame you shall have double; and instead of dishonour they shall rejoice in their portion: therefore in their land they shall possess double". It is in Is. 53 that we have the explanation as to how suffering for sin can lead to this double blessing- it was through the suffering servant, representative of Israel and yet morally perfect. </p>


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<p>Why, when I came, was there no man?- We could read this as God being amazed that no man had responded to His message to return and restore the Kingdom. But Is. 59:16 says He was amazed there was no intercessor. None of the potential Messiahs made good on their potential. Or the idea may be that God is explaining why Judah had gone into exile. He had 'come' to them in the prophets, but there was nobody who responded to His call. Yet in :4 we read the servant saying that He had responded. So on balance it seems that this is indeed a reference to Judah's failures to respond to God's word- but the servant, who has been defined as the true "Israel" in Is. 49, did respond. And wonderfully so. The servant has his ear opened to Yahweh's word (:5) whereas Israel kept their ears shut to that word (Is. 48:8, and that is emphasized throughout Isaiah, see Is. 8:11-9:6; 30:8-14; 42:18-25). As discussed on Is. 49, the Lord Jesus was and is all God's people ought to have been. He is "Israel". This is why we are bidden obey the servant and follow His example in :10: "obey the voice of His servant... He who walks in darkness, and has no light, let him trust in the name of Yahweh, and rely on his God" just as :4-9 have shown the servant to have done during His sufferings. In the initial context of the exile, no Messiah figure arose to provide this pattern. Those who walked in darkness (:10) were the exiles, for they were promised deliverance from the dark dungeon of Babylon. They were to obey the servant figure. All this is transferred to us and our following of the Lord Jesus in order to leave the darkness of our "Babylon".
The Messiah figure was to appear at a time when the cities of Israel were desolate and needed rebuilding, and when the people had been told “Go forth” of Babylon, and Zion’s “builders” would hastily work, despite feeling themselves to be “exiles” (<a href='B:290 49:6'>Isa 49:6</a>; <a href='B:290 49:9'>Isa 49:9</a>; <a href='B:290 49:17'>Isa 49:17</a> RVmg:,21 RV). There could have been a Messiah figure at the restoration. “But Zion said, The Lord hath forsaken me” (<a href='B:290 49:14'>Isa 49:14</a>). They didn’t have the faith to believe that God’s grace was enough to really forgive them for the sins that had led them into captivity, and for their apostasy in Babylon, where they had been spiritually “marred” (<a href='B:300 13:7'>Jer 13:7</a>). And so the planned Messiah figure and Kingdom never fully happened. And God laments this: “Wherefore, when I came, was there no man? When I called, was there none to answer?” (<a href='B:290 50:2'>Isa 50:2</a>). Nobody responded to the Divine call to repentance as God 'came' to them in the prophets, nor for a Messiah. No Messiah figure appeared; or the reference may also be to the paucity of response when Cyrus announced the possibility of returning to the land.</p><p>There even seems at times a difficulty on God’s part to understand why the people He had loved could hate Him so much:"Have I been a wilderness to Israel, or a land of thick darkness? Why then do my people say, We will no more come to thee?"(<a href='B:300 2:31'>Jer 2:31</a>);"Why then has this people turned away?"(<a href='B:300 8:5'>Jer 8:5</a>);"Why have they provoked me to anger?"(<a href='B:300 8:19'>Jer 8:19</a>; <a href='B:300 2:14'>Jer 2:14</a>; <a href='B:300 30:6'>Jer 30:6</a>; <a href='B:290 5:4'>Isa 5:4</a>; <a href='B:290 50:2'>Isa 50:2</a>)."What more could I have done for my vineyard... why did it yield wild grapes?"(<a href='B:290 5:1-7'>Isa 5:1-7</a>). This is so much the anguished cry of bewildered middle age parents as they reflect upon a wayward child. This Divine struggle to understand reflects the extraordinary depth of His love for them; and it warns us in chilling terms as to the pain we can cause God if we spurn His amazing love.</p><p>When I called, was there none to answer? Is My hand shortened at all, that it can’t redeem?- Here and in <a href='B:290 59:1'>Isa 59:1</a> the idea of Yahweh’s hand being shortened is used as an excuse not to repond to God’s call to quit Babylon for Zion. The idea was that His ability to act, His hand, was somehow limited or ’reaped down’. They assumed the fact they had been reaped in the harvest of judgment meant that their God had been (<a href='B:290 17:5'>Isa 17:5</a>; <a href='B:300 9:22'>Jer 9:22</a>; <a href='B:350 8:7'>Hos 8:7</a>; <a href='B:350 10:13'>Hos 10:13</a>). They simply refused to accept the repeated prophetic message that it was the God of Israel who brought judgment upon Israel. They treated Him as the surrounding peoples treated their gods- always saving them in trouble, and if they didn’t, then the god had died with them.</p><p>Or have I no power to deliver? Behold, at My rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness: their fish stink, because there is no water, and die for thirst- "To deliver" continues the language of deliverance from debt and debt slavery. God is asking 'Do I really not have the means to buy you out of your debt?'. He did, but allowed them to go through the process of trying to pay off the debt they couldn't pay. And allowing the debt of sin to be dealt with leg
God sent His prophets to appeal to Israel for repentance. They could have lead to repentance. But Israel would not. The word they heard was powerful, so powerful it could dry up the Red Sea in a moment (hence the dead fish; or a reference to <a href='B:20 7:21'>Exo 7:21</a>); but despite that power, the Jews didn’t respond to it, considering that God was unable to redeem from exile. So they didn’t return / repent, both to their God and to His land. Their impenitence was related to their disbelief that the Kingdom was really possible, even though they accepted Yahweh’s existence and were loyal to the culture of being His people. The marriage feast was totally ready and waiting for the Jewish people; they could have had it. But they didn’t want it, and so the course of human history was extended. Therefore finally God sent His Son. The Lord Jesus Himself was amazed that no other man had achieved the work which He had to; and therefore He clad Himself with zeal and performed it (<a href='B:290 41:28'>Isa 41:28</a>; <a href='B:290 50:2'>Isa 50:2</a>; <a href='B:290 59:16'>Isa 59:16</a> cp. <a href='B:730 5:3-4'>Rev 5:3-4</a>). God knew that salvation in the end would have to be through the death of His Son. But there were other possible scenarios for the repentance and salvation of mankind, which no man achieved. And so, as in the parable of the servants sent to get fruit from the vineyard, there was left no other way but the death of God’s only Son. We have to note the similarities with denomination Christianity. There is an external culture of 'belief' in God and His Son, but when individuals are asked whether they believe they will be saved if the Lord comes now or they die now- there is an awkward silence, or the accusation of being proud if you think that. When effectively they are saying that God's saving hand is shortened and He has no power to deliver. To believe the gospel of the Kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ is to believe we will be there. It is not the same as knowing about these things in doctrinal purity.</p>


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<p>I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering- This could refer to God’s deep mourning for all the wasted potential; He had empowered the people to return (:2), but they didn’t, and no Messiah figure arose as had been potentially possible. For the degree of unrealized or wasted potential is fundamentally connected to our depth of mourning.</p><p>Isaiah’s constant references back to the Exodus deliverance are to make the point that what God had done then, He could just as easily do for the exiles as they left Babylon / Egypt. <a href='B:290 50:2-3'>Isa 50:2-3</a> could be read as a statement of God’s possibilities, bringing out the huge potential power which God could wield for the exiles:"If I were to rebuke the sea it would dry up! I could turn rivers into a wilderness... I could clothe the heavens with blackness". All this conditional language and grammar shows the great potential which Israel could have tapped into had they wished.</p><p>The reference may be to the plague of darkness coming upon Babylon or the Jews in judgment, just as it did upon Egypt. The final fulfilment of this will be in the last days, for it is alluded to in&nbsp; <a href='B:730 6:12'>Rev 6:12</a>,"The sun became black as sackcloth of hair".</p>


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<p>The Lord Yahweh has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with words him who is weary- The Lord is described here as the ideal disciple. He had "the tongue of the learned" a disciples’ tongue (see Is. 8:16), He studied the Divine master morning by morning "as the learned", after the manner of disciples, and so He too could then teach disciples. He says this in Jn. 17:8: "The words which You gave me I have given to them, and they received them". Again we see Him as our representative, Himself first a disciple, a pattern to us as His disciples. Likewise He was called "Israel" because He was the ideal people of Israel. And in :6 "I gave my back to the smiters" is the language of Ps. 129:3 about the sufferings of Israel as a nation in exile. The appeal in :10 to hear His voice obediently is legitimate because He Himself had done so ( LXX “let him hearken"). The servant has the disciples' tongue in that the words he speaks are the words of his teacher, God. The Lord supremely fulfilled this, speaking the Father's words and not His own, to the point that He was "the word made flesh". 

"The weary" would be those wearied by their own sins and weaknesses (Mt. 11:28). The servant sustains the weary with His word: "that I may know how to sustain with words him who is weary". The weary are clearly the unspiritual exiles: "you have been weary of Me, Israel" (Is. 43:22; 40:30). It isn't a case of man facing off against God's word, and being left to respond or not. The Lord Jesus, the supreme servant, knows "how to sustain with words him who is weary" of God's words because God had specifically taught Him how to do that. And He was the best student. This is an amazing insight into the relationship between Father and Son. He will not force, but He will go beyond leaving man to respond to God's word unaided. He will go further than that. And we will have seen this in our own spiritual paths- somehow God's word is made alive to us through the higher working of the Lord's hand. 
The previous verses have lamented Judah’s refusal to hear the call to repentance. But now the Saviour Servant speaks of how He was trained by Yahweh to teach people, Israel especially, the true way; and then to exemplify and embody that teaching in His own suffering and death (:6,7). Clearly these things refer to the Lord Jesus. The LXX speaks of His ability to teach and instruct us His people:"The Lord even God gives me the tongue of instruction, to know when it is fit to speak a word". But"those who are taught"is literally ’the disciples’, the taught ones. He spoke to them in their own tongue, in their own terms and language; and He was taught to do this. This would explain why the Lord used the language of demon possession rather than correcting those wrong ideas.</p><p>He wakens me morning by morning, He wakens my ear to hear as those who are taught-"Those who are taught" are literally ’the disciples’. He was taught by God, morning by morning, to hear as the disciples heard. He was progressively led to appreciate the perspective of those far less spiritual than Himself. He was taught the ability to hear as we hear, although as God’s Son He Himself heard with far quicker and deeper perception than we do.</p><p>He “learned obedience” through experience, “by the things which He suffered”; thus gaining that practical learning which adapted Him for “speaking a word in season” to suffering men (Heb 5:8). The contrast is with how God daily appealed to Judah and they refused to listen, “daily rising up early” (Jer. 7:25). In Mk. 1:35 we have the practical picture of the Lord's early morning sessions with His Father. The image is drawn from a master wakening his pupils early for instruction.</p><p>The Lord Jesus “morning by morning” heard God’s word “as the learned” (<a href='B:290 50:4'>Isa 50:4</a> AV); but the Hebrew words for “accustomed” in <a href='B:300 13:23'>Jer 13:23</a> and “learned” in <a href='B:290 50:4'>Isa 50:4</a> are the same. God teaches by repetition- which may be out of vogue in the experience / problem based learning philosophy of current education, but it’s God’s way. Once habit solidifies, it becomes effectively part of our nature and almost impossible to change, at least in human strength- so <a href='B:300 13:23'>Jer 13:23</a> teaches us: “Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? Then may you also do good, that are accustomed to do evil”. The Hebrew translated “accustomed” carries the idea of repeated habit. The Hebrew idea of ‘teaching’ is connected to the words for ‘habit’ or ‘custom’; because teaching was by repetition.</p><p>The Lord was noted for rising up early and praying (<a href='B:480 1:35'>Mar 1:35</a>). <a href='B:290 50:4'>Isa 50:4</a> prophesies of the Lord Jesus that morning by morning, God awoke His ear"to learn as a disciple". That last phrase is surely to signal the intended similarities between the Lord’s path of growth, and that of all disciples. How we start our days is really so important. The next two verses go on to predict that because of this morning-by-morning teaching process,"I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair; I hid not my face from shame and spitting"(<a href='B:290 50:5-6'>Isa 50:5-6</a>). Thus we come to the cross, the life of cross carrying, as the end result of our morning reflections. It was from His own experience that the Lord could bid us take up our cross- His cross- each morning. The unbelieving world is repeatedly characterized as walking in a crooked path (<a href='B:490 3:5'>Luk 3:5</a>; <a href='B:510 2:40'>Act 2:40</a>; Php_2:15 and often in Proverbs). Quietly starting every day right is part of our walking in a straight path, following the way of the cherubim; and by walking in that straight daily path we will not have opportunity to stumble (<a href='B:650 12:13'>Heb 12:13</a>). </p><p>The same word for "waken" is used of God stirring up the spirit of men to rebuild Jerusalem (Ezra 1:1,5). It is often used in the sense of stirring up spiritually. But although Jerusalem was urged to awake, to be thus roused up (Is. 51:17; 52:1 "awake, awake!"), "there is none that stirs up himself" (Is. 64:7). But the Lord did respond magnificently to this stirring up. This can be our daily experience, morning by morning stirred up and responding as the Lord did.</p>


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<p>The Lord Yahweh has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away backward- The early morning teaching sessions between Father and Son resulted in His ear being opened to perceive the death of the cross. And He was not rebellious. He as"Israel"was representative of sinful Israel (see on <a href='B:290 49:1-3'>Isa 49:1-3</a>); it was the exiles who were to have their ears opened. But they refused, preferring to remain deaf (see on <a href='B:290 42:20'>Isa 42:20</a>; <a href='B:290 43:8'>Isa 43:8</a>; <a href='B:290 48:8'>Isa 48:8</a>). But His ears were opened because He wanted to hear; unlike them He was not rebellious (s:w. <a href='B:290 1:20'>Isa 1:20</a>; <a href='B:290 63:10'>Isa 63:10</a>); He did not"turn away backward"as the idolaters of Judah did (s:w. <a href='B:290 42:17'>Isa 42:17</a>; <a href='B:300 38:22'>Jer 38:22</a>). He triumphed at every point where we as Israel fail. To be right with God, Israel had to identify with Him. We become in Him by baptism, and thus His righteousness is imputed to us (<a href='B:550 3:27-29'>Gal 3:27-29</a>).</p>


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<p>I gave my back to the strikers, and my cheeks to those who plucked off the hair; I didn’t hide my face from shame and spitting- Giving His back to the smiters reflects His body language displayed in His sufferings, offering the other cheek to be smitten (Mt. 5:39), in a spirit of giving His life and body. The symbol of which we take in the communion bread. "My cheeks to those who plucked off the hair" is LXX "I gave my cheeks to buffering" i.e. to being smitten with the open hand, which was literally fulfilled in the Lord's case (Mt. 26:67; Mk. 14:65). The spitting likewise (Mt. 26:67; 27:30). The Lord said in Lk. 17:32 that the prophecies of His sufferings included the prediction that He would be spat upon. Only Is. 50:6 mentions this, so we can be sure that this is true of the Lord Jesus. </p><p>Time and again in the restoration prophecies we encounter statements intended to answer the skepticism felt by the exiles about the promises of redemption from Babylon (<a href='B:290 40:27-31'>Isa 40:27-31</a>; <a href='B:290 42:22'>Isa 42:22</a>; <a href='B:290 43:22'>Isa 43:22</a>; <a href='B:290 46:12'>Isa 46:12</a>; <a href='B:290 48:4'>Isa 48:4</a>; <a href='B:290 48:8'>Isa 48:8</a>; <a href='B:290 49:14'>Isa 49:14</a>). See on <a href='B:290 49:24'>Isa 49:24</a>. The servant was called to sustain the “dispirited” by the prophetic word (<a href='B:290 50:4'>Isa 50:4</a>). And yet passages like <a href='B:290 50:4-11'>Isa 50:4-11</a> and even Isaiah 53 speak of how the servant met even physical abuse as well as rejection in his ministry to his fellow Jews. Indeed the servant feels that his mission to them has been a failure (<a href='B:290 49:1-6'>Isa 49:1-6</a>), a complaint met by God’s promise that his mission would be in some way reapplied to the Gentiles in their captivity to sin. The way the servant is beaten and has his hair pulled out (<a href='B:290 50:4-11'>Isa 50:4-11</a>) reminds us of how the prophet Jeremiah was treated the same way by the Jews when his message was rejected (<a href='B:300 20:2'>Jer 20:2</a>; <a href='B:300 37:15'>Jer 37:15</a>). The servant was spat at by his fellow Jews- an expression of utter contempt (<a href='B:220 30:10'>Job 30:10</a>). Whilst the servant prophecies find their later fulfilment in the Lord Jesus, it seems to me that in their first context, they speak of how a prophet or prophets at the time of the exile were rejected and even beaten up by their fellow Jews. Indeed, Isaiah ends on a negative note, describing the judgments to come upon the Jews who had rejected the message of deliverance from Babylon (<a href='B:290 66:24'>Isa 66:24</a>).</p><p>As explained on :5, the cross was the end point of the Lord’s early morning teaching sessions with His Father. And so He unlike every other victim of crucifixion and torture willingly gave His body parts to His torturers.</p><p>Jesus commanded us not to physically resist the forces of evil: “But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. If anyone wants to sue you and take away your tunic, let him have your cloak also” (<a href='B:470 5:39-40'>Mat 5:39-40</a>). Christ is the example in this: “I gave My back to those who struck Me ..." (<a href='B:290 50:6'>Isa 50:6</a>). The Lord gave His life, it wasn’t taken from Him. Likewise He gave His back to the smiters when they flogged Him; He gave His face to them when they spoke about pulling out His beard (<a href='B:290 50:6'>Isa 50:6</a>).</p><p>The Lord would have meditated upon the way righteous men had taken upon themselves the sins of their people. Thus Jeremiah speaks as if he has committed Israel’s sins; Ezra rends his clothes and plucks off his hair, as if he has married out of the Faith (<a href='B:150 9:4'>Ezr 9:4</a> cp. <a href='B:160 13:25'>Neh 13:25</a>; the Lord received the same sinner’s treatment, <a href='B:290 50:6'>Isa 50:6</a>). Moses’ prayer for God to relent and let him enter the land was only rejected for the sake of his association with Israel’s sins (<a href='B:50 3:26'>Deu 3:26</a>).</p>


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<p>For the Lord Yahweh will help me; therefore I have not been confounded- Though his body is beaten, plucked, and handled as if it were an animal body, and he is subjected to ridicule and humiliation (:6), the servant is not ashamed. That was a psychological miracle, attributable to God. "Confounded" or "ashamed" is the same word for "shame" as in :6. The Lord didn't seek to avoid the shame, because He trusted that God would help Him not to experience shame. His abusers must surely have noticed that His body language was so different to the crucifixion victims they often abused and shamed before their deaths. The Lord was not ashamed. And it is this same quiet assurance which is shared with all in Him; see on :9. </p><p>It was to be the makers of idols who were"confounded"(s:w. <a href='B:290 41:11'>Isa 41:11</a>; <a href='B:290 45:16'>Isa 45:16</a>) and only the true Israel would not be"confounded"(<a href='B:290 45:17'>Isa 45:17</a>; <a href='B:290 54:4'>Isa 54:4</a>). The sinners in Israel had refused to be confounded or ashamed of their sins (<a href='B:300 3:3'>Jer 3:3</a> s:w:) and so they would be shamed in condemnation. Repentance involves an imagination of ourselves coming to judgment day and being condemned, and feeling shame for that; that is how we shall not be ashamed. And it is the servant alone who shall not be ashamed / confounded because of His righteousness (<a href='B:290 50:7'>Isa 50:7</a>). Our identity with Him removes that shame. If we condemn ourselves, we shall not be condemned (<a href='B:530 11:31'>1Co 11:31</a>). The enemies of Israel would perish alongside the apostate within Israel, in the same judgment.</p><p>Therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be disappointed- This again is understandable in the context of the cross. The Lord set His face to go to Jerusalem, and the final sacrifice which would be there (<a href='B:490 9:51'>Luk 9:51</a>). He hardened His face like a rock; and yet the wicked similarly harden their faces like a rock to go in the way of the flesh (<a href='B:300 5:3'>Jer 5:3</a>). We are hardened in our path, one way or the other. Jeremiah had his face hardened in response to his own hardening of face (<a href='B:300 1:17'>Jer 1:17</a>; <a href='B:300 5:3'>Jer 5:3</a>), and the wicked in Israel likewise were hardened (<a href='B:300 3:3'>Jer 3:3</a>; <a href='B:300 4:30'>Jer 4:30</a>).</p><p>His whole life and heart direction was"set"in the way of the cross, and that eternity which He knew was beyond it. Perhaps His lack of destructive anger was because He didn’t let Himself be shamed by men, instead taking His self-worth and values from God’s acceptance of Him. To avoid"anger"in the wrong sense, we need to avoid being wrongly shamed. And we can do this by ensuring we ourselves aren’t led into shame, due to placing too great a value upon the opinions of men. Our shame should be before God for our sins against Him, and not before men. Hence the prophets often criticize Israel for not being ashamed of their sins before God (<a href='B:300 6:15'>Jer 6:15</a>). Our shame before men leads to anger; our shame before God is resolved in repentance and belief in His gracious forgiveness.</p><p>The ideal servant knew that He would not be "turned back" nor "ashamed". The unfaithful amongst the exiles would be "turned back and ashamed" (Is. 42:17) and the word for "ashamed" is repeatedly used of how the unfaithful amongst the exiles would be "ashamed" because of their idolatry and lack of faith (Is. 42:17; 44:9,11; 45:16; 65:13; 66:5). God's true people would never be ashamed, world without end (Is. 45:17); "they shall not be ashamed that wait for me" (Is. 49:23). Zion would "not be ashamed... for you shall forget the shame of your youth" (Is. 54:4). As explained on Is. 49:2, the servant is the true Israel, who would be unashamed.
We may enquire how this meshes with the specific prophecy that the servant would not "faint nor be discouraged' (Is. 42:4) until His mission is accomplished, of saving God's people. What we read here nuances that prophecy. We have setbacks and defeats, but like the Lord we are to see that discouragement as temporary, and the overall thrust of our lives is not to be discouraged. For ultimate victory is certain. And after each momentary discoursgement we again set our faces like a flint as did Ezekiel: "Behold, I have made thy face strong against their faces, and thy forehead strong against their foreheads. As an adamant, harder than a flint, have I made thy forehead; fear them not, neither be dismayed at their looks" (Ez. 3:8,9). This again was God's psychological strengthening of His servant, available to us through the Spirit.
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<p>He is near who justifies me; who will bring charges against me? Let us stand up together: who is my adversary? Let him come near to me- We note the legal language. Justification, having charges brought, an adversary, standing up together in court (as in Is. 47:12,13). Now it is the Lord Jesus as it were in the dock. He was struck and spat upon during His mock trial before the crucifixion- but He remembered that the ultimate judgment was before God, and in His mind, challenged His accusers to stand up with their accusations before God. Knowing God would justify Him. Indeed a pattern for us when facing false accusation and being wrongly judged by men. The declaration of His innocence was in the resurrection (Rom. 1:4) and the judgment upon His false accusers spoken of in :9 could refer to the events of AD70 and the last day. The case against Him would collapse before God's righteous judgment, like the moldering of a moth-eaten garment.</p><p>As explored on :7, those who feel the real justification of the Spirit, the real power of imputed righteousness, will not be unsettled by human criticism or"charges"brought. For the nearness of God’s justification in Christ is more than sufficient. <a href='B:290 56:1'>Isa 56:1</a> is a parallel passage, speaking of how Yahweh’s righteousness (imputed to us by His justification of us in Christ) is"near to come", and His salvation soon to be revealed. As Paul develops in Romans 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, 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.</p><p>The songs of the suffering Servant are applied to us in <a href='B:520 8:31'>Rom 8:31</a>, where Paul exalts that"if God be for us, who is against us?"- alluding to <a href='B:290 50:8'>Isa 50:8</a>"The Lord God is helping me- who is he that would convict me?". If we are in Christ, we like Him cannot be condemned. In the legal context, if the judge of all is legally “for us”, then there effectively is no accuser, nothing and nobody standing against us. It’s as if Paul has rightly guessed his readers’ response: ‘OK Paul, I have nothing to say against your argument, but all the same you don’t know what a sinner I am, what a line of sins I have waiting there to condemn me’. And Paul’s exultant answer is that if God is “for us”- and he has demonstrated this time and again, that God quite simply wants to save us- then nothing and nobody, not even our own sins, can ultimately stand against us.</p>


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<p>Behold, the Lord Yahweh will help me; who is he who shall condemn me?- This is the language of Rom. 8:33. But the "me", referring here to the Lord Jesus, is applied to us. We are in Him. He stands in the dock uncondemned and justified. And so do we. This is the huge, unspeakable significance of being "in Christ": "If God is for us, who can be against us? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died— more than that, who was raised— who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us". The Lord was declared righteous by God through His death on the cross, yet these very words are applied to us. A related idea is found in the Messianic prophecy of Ps. 118:6: "Yahweh is on my side; I will not fear: what can man do unto me?". Yahweh justified the Lord Jesus (:8). To justify clearly means to declare righteous. The Lord Jesus was vindicated by God in the court case against Him and the resurrection was His declaration as right (Rom. 1:4). We have here in Is. 50 His very thoughts as He was spat upon, tried and falsely accused. He was telling Himself how God was His judge, and none of the accusations were true nor valid. And then Romans 8 applies His thoughts there- to us, justified in Him!</p><p>As explained on :8, with God on our side in the final judgment, as both judge and advocate, there are no charges against us nor legal adversaries left in the court room. Yahweh had repeatedly offered the"servant"His"help"in order to encourage the weak minded exiles to return to Zion, just as His hand had ’helped’ Hezekiah against the Assyrians (s:w. <a href='B:140 32:8'>2Ch 32:8</a>). At the restoration, Ezra believed this"help"would enable the restoration to the extent that they didn’t need any human soldiers to help them (<a href='B:150 8:22'>Ezr 8:22</a> s:w:).</p><p>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 :8). These words are also found in <a href='B:220 13:28'>Job 13:28</a>, where it is God who consumes them, as it were manifesting Himself in a tiny moth. We find the same ideas in <a href='B:290 51:6'>Isa 51:6</a>, where the"they"is the ’heavens and earth’ of any system, be it Persia / Babylon or an unbelieving Jewish system, which is adversarial toGod’s people and purpose. The contrast is with how the clothing of Israel in the wilderness did not"wax old"(s:w. <a href='B:50 8:4'>Deu 8:4</a>; <a href='B:50 29:5'>Deu 29:5</a>; <a href='B:160 9:21'>Neh 9:21</a>). 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.</p>


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<p>Who is among you who fears Yahweh, who obeys the voice of His servant? He who walks in darkness, and has no light, let him trust in the name of Yahweh, and rely on his God- “Who among you reveres Yhwh, listens to his servant’s voice?  One who has walked in deep darkness and had no brightness must trust in Yhwh’s name and lean on his God”. God had made the darkness light for them, but still there had to be some freewill response from the exiles.  See on :11. The"darkness"initially was that of exile in Babylon; see on <a href='B:290 49:9'>Isa 49:9</a>. A Messianic figure was to arise, whose voice they were to obey, and thereby trust in their God. This didn’t happen at the time, and so it is all reapplied to the Lord Jesus as the servant. But the servant whose voice was to be obeyed was intended to be Cyrus."Who is among you who fears Yahweh... his God?"is the language of <a href='B:150 1:3'>Ezr 1:3</a>. Yahweh had promised support for them if they returned to the land; He would preserve them on the way."Voice"is s:w. <a href='B:150 1:1'>Ezr 1:1</a> about the proclamation of Cyrus, the servant (<a href='B:290 45:1'>Isa 45:1</a>). Yet Ezra was ashamed to ask the king for soldiers to guard them on the journey only because he had earlier told the king that Yahweh would be with them (<a href='B:150 8:22'>Ezr 8:22</a>), as if he really did want the support but was ashamed to ask for it. He disallowed Isaiah’s prophesy that the restored Israel would never be ashamed [s:w. <a href='B:150 8:22'>Ezr 8:22</a>; <a href='B:150 9:6'>Ezr 9:6</a>] nor confounded (<a href='B:290 45:17'>Isa 45:17</a>; <a href='B:290 49:23'>Isa 49:23</a>; <a href='B:290 54:4'>Isa 54:4</a>). Nehemiah accepted such support when he came up from Babylon (<a href='B:160 2:9'>Neh 2:9</a>).</p><p>The Yahweh Name is the most essential challenge to faith."I will be"is a challenge to believe that what is not yet seen will be on the basis of what has been and what is. We must trust / believe in the Name of Yahweh (<a href='B:290 50:10'>Isa 50:10</a>). The emphasis is perhaps upon the word "him". As the Lord Jesus clearly trusted God throughout the trauma of His sufferings (:8,9), so let every believer likewise trust. But considering the Lord's absolute faith / trust at that time, this is quite some challenge. But this is where the Lord's personality and final sacrifice are not to simply be admired from afar- He as He was is an abiding invitation to us all to follow His example.</p>


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<p>Behold, all you who kindle a fire, who adorn yourselves with torches around yourselves; walk in the flame of your fire, and among the brands that you have kindled. You shall have this of My hand; you shall lie down in sorrow- Why this reference to paganism and idolatry immediately after the call to obey the voice of God’s servant Cyrus and leave Babylon (:10)? Isaiah frequently shows the folly of worshipping Babylonian idols. And yet it seems that it was Judah’s worship of these idols that kept them in Babylon. Those who feared Yahweh had none of the&nbsp; light provided by the Babylonian idols; but the majority preferred Babylon’s light to Zion’s.</p>


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<p>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. </p><p>Ponder the parallel between <a href='B:290 51:1'>Isa 51:1</a>; <a href='B:290 51:7'>Isa 51:7</a>: “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. The Messianic servant addresses the exiles again, specifically those who were seeking Yahweh rather than seeking idols . God was willing to push forward His salvation plan even with a remnant, but there is no evidence there was even a remnant of repentant, faithful ones at the time of the restoration.</p><p>Look to the rock you were cut from, and to the hold of the pit you were dug from- The rock and pit were the feeble Abraham and Sarah (:2). The returning, repentant exiles could potentially have been the little stone cut out of the rocky mountain of Daniel 2, which would come to the eretz / land promised to Abraham and form the reestablished Kingdom of God. But they failed in this, and so Daniel 2 had a longer fulfilment. To liken Abraham and Sarah to a"pit"is strange, but GNB offers"quarry". The extra information of Daniel 2 is that they were cut out"without hands". The exiles refused to respond, and so the Lord applies this language to the spiritual children of Abraham in Mt. 3:9 "God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham".</p>


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<p>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. <a href='B:330 33:24'>Eze 33:24</a> 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.</p><p>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".</p>


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<p>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. </p><p>The past tense is used to bring out how this potential was so certain of fulfilment- if they wanted it. The appeal of Isaiah 40 to"comfort"God’s people was being repeated- but they had to accept it. I argued on Genesis 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.</p>


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<p>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 ye 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 (<a href='B:290 2:2-4'>Isa 2:2-4</a>), 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.</p>


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<p>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?").</p><p>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.</p><p>Note the parallel between righteousness and salvation. As Paul develops in Romans 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.</p>


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<p>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 <a href='B:290 50:9'>Isa 50:9</a>:"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 <a href='B:290 50:8'>Isa 50:8</a>). These words are also found in <a href='B:220 13:28'>Job 13:28</a>, where it is God who consumes them, as it were manifesting Himself in a tiny moth. We find the same ideas here in <a href='B:290 51:6'>Isa 51:6</a>, 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. <a href='B:50 8:4'>Deu 8:4</a>; <a href='B:50 29:5'>Deu 29:5</a>; <a href='B:160 9:21'>Neh 9:21</a>). 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.</p><p>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.</p>


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<p>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 (<a href='B:300 31:33'>Jer 31:33</a>). But instead, the returned exiles refused to have the law in their hearts(<a href='B:450 7:12'>Zec 7:12</a> "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 (<a href='B:520 2:15'>Rom 2:15</a>).</p><p>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 <a href='B:290 50:8'>Isa 50:8</a>, 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. <a href='B:160 1:3'>Neh 1:3</a>; <a href='B:160 2:17'>Neh 2:17</a>; <a href='B:160 4:4'>Neh 4:4</a>; <a href='B:160 5:9'>Neh 5:9</a> about the reproach of the Gentiles against the partially rebuilt Jerusalem. <a href='B:290 51:3-11'>Isa 51:3-11</a> 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.</p>


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<p>For the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like wool- These words are also found in <a href='B:220 13:28'>Job 13:28</a>, where it is God who consumes them, as it were manifesting Himself in a tiny moth, and also as a"worm". See on :6.</p><p>But My righteousness shall be forever, and My salvation to all generations- Note the parallel between righteousness and salvation. As Paul develops in Romans 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.</p>


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<p>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 (<a href='B:290 48:2'>Isa 48:2</a>); 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. <a href='B:130 5:26'>1Ch 5:26</a>; <a href='B:140 21:16'>2Ch 21:16</a>), just as He had stirred up the spirit of Cyrus to let them return (s:w. <a href='B:140 36:22'>2Ch 36:22</a>). The spirit of the exiles was likewise awoken or stirred up to return (s:w. <a href='B:150 1:5'>Ezr 1:5</a>). Isaiah tragically concluded that there were so few who would ’stir up themselves’ (<a href='B:290 64:7'>Isa 64:7</a>). 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. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p>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"(<a href='B:290 51:9-10'>Isa 51:9-10</a>). This is describing the work of Christ in language applicable to the Angel of the Exodus who brought Israel through the Red Sea.</p><p>Marduk killed Tiamat in the waters and cut him in pieces. This is one of many mocking allusions to Marduk, showing Yahweh’s supremacy over him. See on <a href='B:290 40:25'>Isa 40:25</a>. Marduk was formed- but Yahweh had no god before Him and will have none after Him (<a href='B:290 43:10'>Isa 43:10</a>). Marduk had a counsellor, Ea, called in the inscriptions “the all-wise one”. But Yahweh has all wisdom and has no such counsellor (<a href='B:290 40:13-14'>Isa 40:13-14</a>; <a href='B:290 41:28'>Isa 41:28</a>). All this reference to the Marduk cult was in my opinion not merely a pointless mockery and poking of fun at the Persian culture. It was a very real appeal to the Jewish exiles to quit it, to come out and be separate; remember again and again that Mordecai [and perhaps Esther too] had adopted names reflective of the Marduk cult.</p><p>Yahweh"Trod on the back of Sea", i:e. the supposed Satan figure called"Sea"(<a href='B:220 9:8'>Job 9:8</a>; <a href='B:50 33:29'>Deu 33:29</a>; <a href='B:370 4:13'>Amo 4:13</a>; <a href='B:400 1:3'>Mic 1:3</a>; <a href='B:290 63:3'>Isa 63:3</a>). Even if such a being existed, he had been destroyed for good by Yahweh at the Red Sea."You split Sea... cut Rahab in pieces... didst pierce the dragon"(<a href='B:230 78:13'>Psa 78:13</a>; <a href='B:160 9:11'>Neh 9:11</a>; <a href='B:290 51:9-11'>Isa 51:9-11</a>). Thus the splitting of the Red Sea was understood as a splitting of the Satan figure or god known as"Sea". All this was what Moses had in mind when he sought to explain to his people what had happened at the Red Sea- even if there were such a being as the"Sea"god of evil, Yahweh their God had totally destroyed him and split him into pieces. And the real ’satan’ was Egypt, real men on a real earth who posed a danger to Israel.</p><p>The various sea monsters alluded to all spoke of chaos. The sea and all within it was seen as chaos, which man could not deal with. And so life can appear to man. And so it is. It is only the hope of eternal salvation which gives us victory and peace over the chaos. The ransomed of Yahweh pass over the sea of chaos, at peace (:10).</p>


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<p>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. <a href='B:300 31:2'>Jer 31:2</a> 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 <a href='B:300 31:9'>Jer 31:9</a> 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”:&nbsp; This is why Isaiah’s prophecies of the restoration from Babylon are shot through with allusion to the exodus and wilderness journey (e.g. <a href='B:290 43:2'>Isa 43:2</a>; <a href='B:290 51:10'>Isa 51:10</a>; <a href='B:290 63:11'>Isa 63:11</a>).</p><p>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 <a href='B:230 74:12-17'>Psa 74:12-17</a>; <a href='B:230 89:10-15'>Psa 89:10-15</a>; <a href='B:290 51:9'>Isa 51:9</a> etc.</p><p>"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. </p>


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<p>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; <a href='B:160 8:9-10'>Neh 8:9-10</a> 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.</p><p>There was great joy at the time of the first Purim in Esther’s time when sorrow was turned to joy (s:w. <a href='B:190 9:22'>Est 9:22</a>), but the people did not return. The restoration was intended to be the time when sorrow was turned to joy (<a href='B:300 31:13'>Jer 31:13</a> s:w:). But as we can, they forgot the price aid for their ransom and remained in slavery. And those who did return didn’t do so with the voice of joy, but with nervousness and then complaining about the famine, bad harvests and diseases they and their crops were smitten with on returning. The eternal joy spoken of here will come true only at the return of the Lord Jesus. Joy by its nature is temporal in this life, because of our emotional structure; we cannot maintain such experiences of joy in a permanent sense. But this is the wonderful nature of salvation."Sorrow and sighing"is the same phrase used about David’s feelings because of his sin with Bathsheba (<a href='B:230 31:10'>Psa 31:10</a>). As noted throughout Isaiah 35, the essential theme is of internal spiritual transformation, and no longer experiencing the effects of sin; for that is the greatest"joy". The exiles refused all these things, and so they are reapplied to the final removal of sorrow and sighing at the return of the Lord Jesus (<a href='B:730 21:3-4'>Rev 21:3-4</a>).</p><p>There is no account of the actual journey to Zion of the first exiles in Ezra 1:11, but the apocryphal 1 Esdras 5:1-6 speaks of the returnees playing the restored musical instruments of the temple and singing as they came. This was therefore a primary fulfilment of the restoration prophecies about God's people coming with singing unto Zion (Is. 35:10; 51:11). We note how Ezra 2:65 mentions "singers" as amongst the exiles who returned.</p>


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<p>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. </p><p>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.</p><p>Who are you, that you are afraid of man who shall die- <a href='B:290 40:6-8'>Isa 40:6-8</a> 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 so here too, the mortality of humanity is used as a comfort to the downtrodden people of God. Because man is mortal... don’t fear man, but rather God. And this is to be a comfort to us. God chose His message of comfort to be simply:"Man is mortal!". But the exiles and the potential"servant"figure feared men, perhaps one particular ruler of Persia or Babylon, whom he thought would not allow their restoration; see on :16; <a href='B:290 52:13'>Isa 52:13</a>. They feared him rather than God, and so they didn’t flee Babylon as asked. But then God removed Belshazzar and Cyrus gave the decree for them to return. And they refused even that. But all their possible excuses for not responding to the call of the Gospel are dealt with in Isaiah’s prophecies; and mankind today is likewise without excuse for not responding.</p><p>And of the son of man who shall be made as grass- In Hebrew thought, “the Son of man” meant an ordinary, mortal man (<a href='B:290 51:12'>Isa 51:12</a>). Several times we are reminded that “God is not a man” (<a href='B:40 23:19'>Num 23:19</a>; <a href='B:350 11:9'>Hos 11:9</a>); 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].</p>


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<p>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.</p><p>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).</p><p>Time and again, Isaiah’s restoration prophecies told Judah that they should not fear, as Yahweh would mightily be with them in their work (<a href='B:290 41:10'>Isa 41:10</a>; <a href='B:290 41:13-14'>Isa 41:13-14</a>; <a href='B:290 43:1'>Isa 43:1</a>; <a href='B:290 43:5'>Isa 43:5</a>; <a href='B:290 44:2'>Isa 44:2</a>; <a href='B:290 44:8'>Isa 44:8</a>; <a href='B:290 44:11'>Isa 44:11</a>; <a href='B:290 54:7'>Isa 54:7</a>; <a href='B:290 54:14'>Isa 54:14</a>; <a href='B:290 59:19'>Isa 59:19</a>). But Judah feared the surrounding nations- Ezra and Nehemiah are full of this theme (<a href='B:150 3:3'>Ezr 3:3</a>). Nehemiah refused to be put in fear by the Samaritan opposition because of his faith in Isaiah’s promises (<a href='B:160 6:14'>Neh 6:14</a>). And Isaiah further spoke to Judah’s heart in <a href='B:290 51:12-13'>Isa 51:12-13</a>: “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.</p>


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<p>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.</p><p>And he shall not die and go down into the pit, neither shall his bread fail- See on <a href='B:290 52:2'>Isa 52:2</a>. 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 (<a href='B:290 51:14'>Isa 51:14</a>; <a href='B:290 52:2'>Isa 52:2</a>). 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’].</p><p><a href='B:290 51:14'>Isa 51:14</a>, speaking of the call to Judah to leave Babylon, sounds as if they were&nbsp; 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.</p>


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<p>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. <a href='B:290 17:12'>Isa 17:12</a> uses the phrase about the judgment upon Syria and Israel (and probably Judah is also in view here (see on <a href='B:290 17:5'>Isa 17:5</a>), with the rushing of waters&nbsp; representing the various nations in the Assyrian or Babylonian confederacy. But this strange rush of nations against them would be strangely stopped (<a href='B:290 17:13'>Isa 17:13</a>), by grace."The roaring of the seas"is the term used for the Babylonian invasion of Judah (<a href='B:300 5:22'>Jer 5:22</a>; <a href='B:300 6:23'>Jer 6:23</a>). What began in Isaiah 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 <a href='B:290 13:1'>Isa 13:1</a>.</p><p>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"(<a href='B:290 51:15-16'>Isa 51:15-16</a>).</p>


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<p>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 (<a href='B:290 59:21'>Isa 59:21</a>). 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. <a href='B:20 4:15'>Exo 4:15</a>); for it was also Moses who was covered in the shadow of Yahweh’s hand as He passed by. See on <a href='B:290 52:13'>Isa 52:13</a>. 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:&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p>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.</p><p>As God longed to pronounce the words “You are my people” to them (<a href='B:350 2:23'>Hos 2:23</a>), so here Isaiah speaks of how at the restoration God wished to use that very phrase to returned Judah; see on <a href='B:290 1:26'>Isa 1:26</a>. Hosea / God speak in the most shocking terms- “I will sow her… in the land” (<a href='B:350 2:23'>Hos 2:23</a>). 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.</p><p>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. </p>


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<p>Awake, awake, stand up, Jerusalem- The exiles are called"Jerusalem". They called themselves this (<a href='B:290 48:2'>Isa 48:2</a>); 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. <a href='B:130 5:26'>1Ch 5:26</a>; <a href='B:140 21:16'>2Ch 21:16</a>), just as He had stirred up the spirit of Cyrus to let them return (s:w. <a href='B:140 36:22'>2Ch 36:22</a>). The spirit of the exiles was likewise awoken or stirred up to return (s:w. <a href='B:150 1:5'>Ezr 1:5</a>).</p><p>God ’stirred up’ the spirit of Cyrus and also of the Jews who returned (<a href='B:150 1:1'>Ezr 1:1</a>; <a href='B:150 1:5'>Ezr 1:5</a>). Isaiah uses the same Hebrew term to describe how Israel’s saviour would be"raised up"[s:w:]- <a href='B:290 41:2'>Isa 41:2</a>; <a href='B:290 41:25'>Isa 41:25</a>; <a href='B:290 45:13'>Isa 45:13</a>. And yet Isaiah pleads with Zion, i:e. the faithful, to indeed be stirred up- <a href='B:290 51:17'>Isa 51:17</a>; <a href='B:290 52:1'>Isa 52:1</a> 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’ (<a href='B:290 64:7'>Isa 64:7</a>). 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.</p><p>Yahweh would"stir up"Cyrus (s:w. <a href='B:290 41:2'>Isa 41:2</a>; <a href='B:290 41:25'>Isa 41:25</a>; <a href='B:290 45:13'>Isa 45:13</a>), so this could have been fulfilled through that stirred up"mighty man"of <a href='B:290 42:13'>Isa 42:13</a>. But he failed. The"mighty man", the gibbor, therefore became reapplied to the Lord Jesus (<a href='B:290 9:6'>Isa 9:6</a> s:w:). But He will act through the stirring up of a repentant Judah (s:w. <a href='B:290 51:9'>Isa 51:9</a>; <a href='B:290 51:17'>Isa 51:17</a>; <a href='B:290 52:1'>Isa 52:1</a>), seeing that no man would be ’stirred up’ (s:w. <a href='B:290 64:7'>Isa 64:7</a>). All the potential candidates had refused the Divine nudges to be stirred up.</p><p>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 (<a href='B:530 10:16'>1Co 10:16</a>; <a href='B:530 11:25'>1Co 11:25</a>), and of condemnation (<a href='B:230 60:3'>Psa 60:3</a>; <a href='B:230 75:8'>Psa 75:8</a>; <a href='B:290 51:17'>Isa 51:17</a>; <a href='B:300 25:15'>Jer 25:15</a>; <a href='B:730 14:10'>Rev 14:10</a>; <a href='B:730 16:19'>Rev 16:19</a>). 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 (<a href='B:530 11:29-32'>1Co 11:29-32</a>). 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.</p><p>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.
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<p>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.</p><p>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 (<a href='B:290 53:2'>Isa 53:2</a>) who would accompany the return of the temple vessels from Babylon (<a href='B:290 52:11'>Isa 52:11</a>). 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 somehowdidn’t rise to the occasion. And so <a href='B:290 51:17-18'>Isa 51:17-18</a> 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 (<a href='B:290 59:18'>Isa 59:18</a> 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 (<a href='B:290 40:11'>Isa 40:11</a>; <a href='B:290 49:10'>Isa 49:10</a>).</p>


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<p>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 <a href='B:160 5:2-3'>Neh 5:2-3</a> (as prophesied here in <a href='B:290 51:19'>Isa 51:19</a>), in Haggai’s time, and later in <a href='B:460 3:10'>Mal 3:10</a>; <a href='B:460 3:12'>Mal 3:12</a>; when the restored Zion could have been as the garden of Eden, i:e. paradise restored on earth (<a href='B:290 51:3'>Isa 51:3</a>). 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.</p>


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<p>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).</p>


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<p>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 (<a href='B:290 49:13'>Isa 49:13</a>; <a href='B:290 54:11'>Isa 54:11</a>; <a href='B:290 66:2'>Isa 66:2</a> s:w:).</p>


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<p>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.</p><p>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 (<a href='B:290 43:14'>Isa 43:14</a>). 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 (<a href='B:290 48:14'>Isa 48:14</a>). “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 “ (<a href='B:290 45:4'>Isa 45:4</a>). 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:&nbsp;See on <a href='B:150 2:1'>Ezr 2:1</a></p>


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<p>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 (<a href='B:490 21:24'>Luk 21:24</a>), when these prophecies will come to their final term.</p>


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<p>Awake, awake, put on your strength, Zion-&nbsp; God ’stirred up’ the spirit of Cyrus and also of the Jews who returned (<a href='B:150 1:1'>Ezr 1:1</a>; <a href='B:150 1:5'>Ezr 1:5</a>). Isaiah uses the same Hebrew term to describe how Israel’s saviour would be"raised up"[s:w:]- <a href='B:290 41:2'>Isa 41:2</a>; <a href='B:290 41:25'>Isa 41:25</a>; <a href='B:290 45:13'>Isa 45:13</a>. And yet Isaiah pleads with Zion, i:e. the faithful, to indeed be stirred up- <a href='B:290 51:17'>Isa 51:17</a>; <a href='B:290 52:1'>Isa 52:1</a> 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’ (<a href='B:290 64:7'>Isa 64:7</a>). 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.</p><p>Put on your beautiful garments, Jerusalem, the holy city- The implication is that she was about to be married to Yahweh.</p><p>For henceforth there shall no more come into you the uncircumcised and the unclean- But the uncircumcised did come and live in the temple and marry the Jews. And Ezra and Nehemiah covered themselves with sackcloth in mourning because of these things. And thus they showed that this prophecy could not be fulfilled at their time. Tobiah the Ammonite was given a chamber in the temple for him to use as an office for undermining God’s people (<a href='B:160 13:7'>Neh 13:7</a>). This precluded the fulfilment of the restoration prophecies. There were to be “holy chambers” in the temple for the Levites (<a href='B:330 46:19'>Eze 46:19</a> and very often in Ezekiel 40-48). The uncircumcised Gentiles were not to be brought into the sanctuary (<a href='B:330 44:7'>Eze 44:7</a>). It was God’s intention that when Judah returned from Babylon, the uncircumcised would not come into Zion (the temple), and the Kingdom would be established (<a href='B:290 52:1'>Isa 52:1</a>; <a href='B:290 52:11'>Isa 52:11</a>). There was to be no Canaanite in the house of Yahweh (<a href='B:450 14:21'>Zec 14:21</a>).</p>


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<p>Shake yourself from the dust! Arise, sit up, Jerusalem!- The drunken Zion, lying in the dust, was to arise and sit down [Heb.] on a throne. These prophecies about Zion's glorification from the dust are an inversion of the prophecies of Babylon's fall- she [also presented as a woman] was to come down from her throne, having drunk the cup of wine of Yahweh's judgment, and lay in the dust (Is. 47:1 etc.). This was the great inversion so typical of how God works. But Zion refused to be part of it. She wanted to remain in the dust. </p><p>God’s psychological stirring up of the exiles (:1) depended upon them being open to this- hence the verbs here suggest proactive action by the exiles themselves- shaking themselves, arising and sitting up."Arise"is the word used often of the ’rising up’ of the exiles to rebuild Jerusalem (<a href='B:150 1:5'>Ezr 1:5</a>; <a href='B:150 3:2'>Ezr 3:2</a>; <a href='B:150 9:5'>Ezr 9:5</a>; <a href='B:160 2:18'>Neh 2:18</a>; <a href='B:160 3:1'>Neh 3:1</a>). This was a fulfilment of the command to"Arise... Jerusalem!"(<a href='B:290 51:17'>Isa 51:17</a>; <a href='B:290 52:2'>Isa 52:2</a>; <a href='B:290 61:4'>Isa 61:4</a>). But this ’arising’ was to be associated with the dawning of Zion’s light in the form of Yahweh’s glory literally dwelling over Zion (<a href='B:290 60:1'>Isa 60:1</a>). This didn’t happen at the time, because the appearance of ’arising’ by the exiles was only external and wasn’t matched by a spiritual revival. The word for"sit up"is in fact used of how both Ezra and Nehemiah"sat down"in grief at the apostasy of the Jews (<a href='B:150 9:3'>Ezr 9:3</a>; <a href='B:160 1:4'>Neh 1:4</a>):&nbsp;</p><p>Release yourself from the bonds of your neck, captive daughter of Zion!- The Jews didn’t perceive the soft life of Babylon as chains around their necks, and so they didn’t loose themselves and leave. See on <a href='B:290 51:14'>Isa 51:14</a>. The same words are used in <a href='B:290 58:6'>Isa 58:6</a> of how the exiles refused to release the bonds they had placed upon their brethren. And yet they were themselves in bondage, needing release, if only they would realize their true position. But God was simply so positive about His people- <a href='B:290 51:14'>Isa 51:14</a> appears to be a descriptive statement about the Jews, but in reality it wasn’t true: “The bound down one hastens to be loosed”. Sadly, they didn’t respond to the exhortation to loose themselves from the bands upon them (<a href='B:290 52:2'>Isa 52:2</a>). They preferred to stay in bondage, as so many do today, despite God willing them to seek release as He did with the exiles.</p>


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<p>For thus says Yahweh, You were sold for nothing; and you shall be redeemed without money- They were"sold for nothing"in that God had no personal benefit from the exile of His people; He did this to them for their spiritual benefit, not for any gain for Himself. Their redemption likewise would be according to His grace, and not because of any transaction between God and man. This was reflected in the way Cyrus commanded the Jews to return and provided all that was materially required to rebuild the temple, but"not for reward", for no personal benefit (<a href='B:290 45:13'>Isa 45:13</a>). Or the idea may be that they were not sold as slaves, whereby their owner [God] would have received payment; but rather they sold themselves into debt servitude, whereby their labour and time in service paid the debt, and therefore no money changed hands. And yet Israel complained: "You sell your people for nothing at all" (Ps. 44:3). They failed to accept they had sold themselves into slavery by their sins. The exiles with whom Ezekiel reasoned likewise failed to understand the real reasons why they were in exile / slavery.
"Her term of service is over, that the debt owed for her iniquity has been satisfied" (Is. 40:2) suggests a kind of transactional approach which some find inappropriate. Zion had a debt to pay she could only deal with by selling herself as a slave for a period. But they are the terms used. A debt was paid or cleared; although not necessarily by her labour! "Without money you will be redeemed" (Is. 52:3). For the language of "redemption" will be used about Zion; someone had redeemed her, had met the debt. For that is what 'redemption' alludes to her. Clearly sin is presented as debt; Is. 50:1 is clear: "Do you think I sold you into captivity like a man who sells his children as slaves? No, you went away captive because of your sins; you were sent away because of your crimes". God did not sell them into slavery, they sold themselves, just as Elijah said of Ahab: "you have sold yourself to do evil" (1 Kings 21:20). Indeed the captivity occurred because they sold themselves to do evil (2 Kings 17:17). We likewise are "sold under sin" (Rom. 7:14). But somehow the debt had been cleared, not by Zion's slave labour, and so she need not serve any longer. The fact the Jews chose to remain in Persia is exactly for the same reasons as people prefer to remain in bondage to sin when faced with the Gospel of redemption. How that was achieved is not at this point made clear. God could simply forgive debt. But the servant song of Is. 53 surely gives the deeper answer- it was the death of the Messianic servant which provided the technical answer as to "how" this was achieved. And the Lord alluded to it in saying that He gave His life as a ransom payment for "the many", a term used throughout the suffering servant song. We could render Is. 40:2: “Indeed, she will receive double from the hand of Yahweh in exchange for all of the suffering on account of her sins". This double blessing is that of Is. 61:7: "Instead of your shame you shall have double; and instead of dishonour they shall rejoice in their portion: therefore in their land they shall possess double". It is in Is. 53 that we have the explanation as to how suffering for sin can lead to this double blessing- it was through the suffering servant, representative of Israel and yet morally perfect. 
Redemption or buying a relative out of slavery always involved money being paid. Here, it is noted that Israel were redeemed without money. That could simply mean 'without them having to pay'. But the image of debt slavery is such that the slave didn't receive money nor pay it back. I suggest that this comment is meant to provoke the question: With what did Yahweh redeem Israel, if not with money? The answer is in the servant song that follows. The price was the blood of the servant. Surely 1 Pet. 1:18,19 allude here in saying that we were redeemed not with silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ. And yet redemption without money may refer to the fact that Cyrus was moved to pronounce freedom for the Jewish exiles, at a time when nobody let their slaves go free for nothing. He stood only to lose and not to gain anything by letting them go. His decision was purely the result of God's Spirit working upon him. 
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<p>For thus says the Lord Yahweh, My people went down at the first into Egypt to live there: and the Assyrian has oppressed them without cause- Ezekiel is very clear that God's judgments upon His people were not at all "without cause" / without a legal reason (Ez. 6:10; 14:23). But just as He gave them a bill of divorce and then destroyed it as if the reasons didn't exist any more (Is. 50:1,2), so the legal "cause" of the judgments was taken away. They were "oppressed without cause", God says, as He seeks to persuade the exiles of how totally He has dealt with their sin (Is. 52:3).</p><p>If we take this translation, then this is amazing grace; for the prophets are full of reasons / causes as to why Israel were oppressed by Assyria. But God is prepared to impute righteousness to them to such an extent that this is seen as having been"without cause". The Lord was hated "without a cause" (Jn. 15:25) and this is imputed to all those in Him. But GNB is worth considering:"When you went to live in Egypt as foreigners [in disobedience, at the time of Jeremiah, with him pleading with them not to], you did so of your own free will; Assyria, however, took you away by force and paid nothing for you:&nbsp;And now in Babylonia the same thing has happened: you are captives, and nothing was paid for you".</p>


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<p>Now therefore, what do I do here, says Yahweh, seeing that My people are taken away for nothing? Those who rule over them mock, says Yahweh, and My name continually all the day is blasphemed- "What do I here?" could be read as if Yahweh is already in Zion, and presents as being there alone, with His beloved people / woman in Babylon. As if He is thinking, "I am here... but My beloved people are there. And I want to be with them". He feels the same to us. Almost regretting the vast distance, physically and morally, which there is set between us. He has and will collapse that distance in the things of His Son and His Kingdom. He was so zealous to have them back with Him, because He has forgiven them and therefore considers they were absent from Him "for nothing". And yet God presents Himself as in a quandry, because His Name was every day being blasphemed in Babylon. These words are quoted in Rom. 2:23,24 as if the behaviour of the exiles made the Babylonians blaspheme; and also because He had said He would restore His people and yet hadn't done so. And God wanted to put an end to that, for His Name's sake: "You who boast in the law dishonour God by breaking the law. For, as it is written, “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you”". Hence His plan to do something to stop His people blaspheming His Name: "My people shall know My name" (:6). Initially (see Dt. 30), His plan was that if and when Judah repented / returned to Him in exile, He would return to them and return them to their land. They didn't repent. And so, as Isaiah's prophecies have already stated, He decided to in any case return them to their land. But they refused to leave Babylon. They came up with foolish excuses, that God was unreasonable to them, had forgotten about them as His wife and gone off with other women, that He was just in this for the money etc. Through Isaiah and other prophets, He answers these objections and uses every appeal and approach He can to try to persuade them to accept His great redemption. They refused. Their moral behaviour in Babylon was so bad that it caused His Name to be blasphemed amongst the Gentiles. And so he was in a quandry, and decided to all the same return them to Zion. But He was morally bound by His refusal to force people against their will. And so they still had to make some volition of their own- hence :2 "Release yourself from the bonds of your neck, captive daughter of Zion!". The bonds were opened, they just needed to lift them off. But still they refused. This Divine lowering of the bar in order to save is reflected in the Lord's parable of the marriage supper. The Jews, those invited, made bizarre excuses as to why they couldn't come. And so as the dinner sat on the table going cold, as it were, the homeless and vagabonds were invited in. But not all of them could believe in such grace. Still there were places. And so the command was given to go out and force in just anyone willing. Perhaps we see a similar progressive lowering of the bar in the parable of the labourers in the vineyard- the first workers agreed to work for a penny / day. But there were still workers needed, and so any lazy or handicapped man willing to do at least some work, even for just an hour, was offered a day's wage for the little work they did. If these things have any chronological application, it would mean that the call of the Gospel in the very last days must be offered to anyone willing to say yes. The bar is lowered. The spiritually homeless and unclean are to be urged to come in, all they have to do is say "Yes". If indeed we are in the last days, then the bar was lowered so that the likes of you and me could accept the invitation.</p><p> See on :4. LXX"And now why are ye here?"would suggest that the Jews ought to have already returned. The Babylonians didn’t so much mock them, as their God. They were not unpopular in Babylon, and they were popular under Persian rule, as the book of Esther makes clear. They should not only have left Babylon, but quit worshipping the local idols and shown what Yahweh worship was really about; and He would have acted in a wondrous way to restore His Kingdom. But their impenitence precluded that from happening, and so the restoration project of Yahweh didn’t work out as planned, and so His Name was blasphemed. This verse seems to be behind &nbsp;the mention in <a href='B:520 2:24'>Rom 2:24</a> that God’s Name was blasphemed amongst the Gentiles because of Jewish impenitence and refusal to accept Messiah. Hence this prophesy continues to state that He would reveal His Name to His people as it is in His Son, and then they would ultimately accept Him and thus the blasphemy of God’s Name would cease.
"Taken away" in Is. 53:8 is the word used just prior to the commencement of this fourth servant song: "what do I do here, says Yahweh, seeing that My people are taken away for nothing... oppressed without cause?" (Is. 52:5). They were taken away because of their sins. But Yahweh identified Himself with the exiles as if with them in exile (reflected by the visions of the cherubim glory seen with the exiles by the rivers of Babylon). And He wonders why He and His people are in exile, seeing the people had been "taken away for nothing". Somehow the reason for their exile had been removed. And Is. 53:8 explains how this could have happened- the suffering servant "was taken away" and had been "stricken for the disobedience of My people". The debt had been paid, the sin removed, so Yahweh and His people were now in exile for no reason. Sin has been made an end of, according to Dan. 9. Tragically, most of them chose to remain in that exile rather than accept this amazing offer and truth. Which has therefore been extended to all men.</p>


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<p>Therefore My people shall know My name. Therefore they shall know in that day that I am He who speaks; behold, it is I- See on :5. The lament in :5 that God’s Name was blasphemed may refer to blasphemy by the exiles, in that they bore His Name but worshipped idols. In the day of restoration, they would"know"the Name in truth which they had before blasphemed or caused to be blasphemed, and not just as a word or culture they adhered to. Knowing God’s Name is paralleled to knowing that He really speaks and His saving purpose expressed in that word is Him."It is I","the word was God", that word which for the exiles was all about their certain salvation in His Kingdom, was the essence of God. He is all about saving, and so His Son was rightly named ’Yah’s salvation’.</p>


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<p>How beautiful on the mountains- As discussed on :5, God's offer of salvation to Zion is amazing: offered on virtually any terms, so long as there was some volition from Zion to remove her now loosened chains. The message was amazing and beautiful, indeed good news, and God expected Zion to eagerly and joyfully receive it. They didn't. And so that Gospel of the Kingdom has been reapplied and re-offered- to the whole world. And so this verse is quoted in Rom. 10:15 about the preachers of the Christian Gospel today. 
"Mountains" may refer as an intensive plural to the great mountain, of Zion. For it is Zion, the temple mount, which is addressed with the news that"Your God reigns".</p><p>Are the feet of him who brings good news- The future reestablished Kingdom is called “good things” in <a href='B:290 52:7'>Isa 52:7</a> (quoted in <a href='B:520 10:15'>Rom 10:15</a>) and <a href='B:300 8:15'>Jer 8:15</a>. All things work together for good (<a href='B:520 8:28'>Rom 8:28</a>) doesn’t mean that somehow everything will work out OK for us in this life- for so often they don’t. We are asked to carry the Lord’s cross, to suffer now and be redeemed in glory later at His return, in the “good things” of the Kingdom.</p><p>Who publishes peace, who brings good news of good, who publishes salvation- The"peace"in view is peace with God after all Israel’s conflict with Him.</p><p>Who says to Zion, Your God reigns!- Heb. "Your God has become king", i.e. has established His everlasting kingdom. The enthronement of Yahweh in Zion could have happened at the time of the restoration. So much potential was disallowed by Judah’s lack of faith, vision and repentance. And so these things are applied to the Lord Jesus, who is presented here as both the herald of the king and also the king. But all that is true of Him, the servant named "Israel", is true of all those in Him. Isaiah’s description of the beauty of Christ’s heralding or preaching in <a href='B:290 52:7'>Isa 52:7</a> is quoted by Paul concerning every preacher of the Gospel (<a href='B:520 10:15'>Rom 10:15</a>); the “he” of Isaiah 52 is changed to “them” in Romans 10. And Paul is quoting this Old Testament prophecy about Jesus to prove that we are all “sent” to preach the Gospel. The validity of our commission to preach is quite simply that Jesus Himself preached; in this way we are all personally “sent” to preach, simply because He was sent to preach. As the Father sent Him, so He sends us.</p><p>The whole latter part of Isaiah is full of descriptions of this preaching to Israel, appealing to them to repent, humble themselves, quit their materialism and idolatry, and accept the Lord Jesus as Messiah (e.g. 55:1-5). The preaching of <a href='B:290 52:7'>Isa 52:7</a> is the"report"concerning Christ’s cross of <a href='B:290 53:1'>Isa 53:1</a>; the message of"peace"of <a href='B:290 52:7'>Isa 52:7</a> is the Gospel of peace with God through the sacrifice of Christ (<a href='B:290 53:5'>Isa 53:5</a>). And Isaiah 40 expands this message to include the mortality of man and the primacy of God’s word. All these things are distinctive Bible doctrines; it is surely we who ought to be making this witness!</p><p>In <a href='B:520 15:21'>Rom 15:21</a>, Paul justifies his preaching by quoting from part of the suffering servant prophecy in Isaiah 52 / 53. That whole passage is set in a context of explaining “how beautiful are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings… all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God” (<a href='B:290 52:7'>Isa 52:7</a>; <a href='B:290 52:10'>Isa 52:10</a> AV). The preaching of good tidings and the declaration ofGod’s salvation was through the crucifixion. Paul quotes <a href='B:290 52:15'>Isa 52:15</a>: “To whom he was not spoken of, they shall see: and they that have not heard shall understand”. This was Paul’s justification for taking the Gospel to where Christ has not been named. Note in passing how the Lord Jesus sees us as “beautiful” in our witness to Him (as in <a href='B:260 7:1'>Son 7:1</a>). Yet further into Isaiah 53, so much else jumps out at us as appropriate to Paul’s preaching: “Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high [cp. Paul knowing how to be exalted and abased, themes that occur in Isaiah 53 about Jesus’ death]. As many were astonied at thee; his visage was so marred more than any man [cp. Paul’s thorn in the flesh?], and his form more than the sons of men: So shall he sprinkle many nations; the kings shall shut their mouths at him: for [that] which had not been told them shall they see; and [that] which they had not heard shall they consider”. Paul appeared before Agrippa, Festus, and one or two Caesars, with a visage marred by his evangelistic sufferings.</p>


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<p>The voice of your watchmen! They lift up the voice, together do they sing; for they shall see eye to eye- GNB perhaps gives the sense:"Those who guard the city are shouting, shouting together for joy. They can see with their own eyes the return of the LORD to Zion":&nbsp; <a href='B:290 4:5-6'>Isa 4:5-6</a>, <a href='B:330 48:35'>Eze 48:35</a> and other passages suggest the literal dwelling of Yahweh in Zion, such as will happen at the establishment of the Kingdom when we shall see His face, and God Himself shall dwell amongst us (<a href='B:730 22:4'>Rev 22:4</a>). Such wonderful potentials were wasted by the exiles. For this could have happened then in some sense. This is a prophecy embedded between verses which speak of the command for Judah to leave Babylon: “Loose thyself from the bands… depart ye, go ye out from thence” (<a href='B:290 52:2'>Isa 52:2</a>; <a href='B:290 52:11'>Isa 52:11</a>). But most of them preferred to remain. Who are the watchmen? Surely they are the Angels, who potentially prepared the way for Judah to leave Babylon. Had the people of Judah followed the cherubim Angels above them and all returned to Zion, they would have as it were seen the Angels eye to eye, sung together with the Angels at the new creation of Zion… and God’s eyes are the Angels, so in that sense Judah would have seen eye to eye with God. But they didn’t utilize what God had prepared; they lazily preferred to stay within their comfort zones by remaining in Babylon. In our experience in Christ, the same is all true, day by day. The way is set up for us, and if we bravely and boldly go in the way which the Angels have prepared, the way God intends, then we will have the experience of truly walking with the Lord, singing with His Angels, seeing eye to eye, in foretaste of the final day when we shall finally see Him face to face. See on <a href='B:150 8:21'>Ezr 8:21</a>.</p><p>When Yahweh brings Zion back- Time and again, Jeremiah had prophesied how Yahweh would bring again His people and the vessels of the temple back to the land (<a href='B:300 28:3-4'>Jer 28:3-4</a>; <a href='B:300 28:6'>Jer 28:6</a>; <a href='B:300 30:3'>Jer 30:3</a>; <a href='B:300 30:18'>Jer 30:18</a>; <a href='B:300 31:23'>Jer 31:23</a>); and this all had a fulfilment in the return from captivity under Ezra and Nehemiah. It was then that in some sense Yahweh ‘brought again Zion’ (<a href='B:290 52:8'>Isa 52:8</a>). Yet they would only be "brought" if they were willing to leave; their preferrence to stay within their comfort zone meant that so much was precluded. The same word is to be found in <a href='B:330 38:8'>Eze 38:8</a> and <a href='B:330 39:27'>Eze 39:27</a>, where again, the invasion is to happen once Judah had been ‘brought again’ from captivity. Judah returned, and yet they didn’t rebuild the temple as they were commanded. Therefore the invasion didn’t come, and therefore the Kingdom wasn’t then established. As if knowing this, <a href='B:350 6:11'>Hos 6:11</a> had prophesied [otherwise strangely] that Judah would reap their punishment, when they returned from captivity. They returned [s:w. ‘bring again’], but not to the Most High (<a href='B:350 7:16'>Hos 7:16</a>). Joel 3, however, speaks from the perspective that Judah would be ‘brought again’ from Babylon under Ezra; and then&nbsp; <a href='B:360 3:2'>Joe 3:2</a> “I will also gather all nations... and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land”. This applies therefore to the last days.</p>


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<p>Break forth into joy, sing together, you waste places of Jerusalem; for Yahweh has comforted His people, He has redeemed Jerusalem- The broken down wastes of Jerusalem suddenly bursting into joy suggests an immediate, in a moment transformation; rather than slow and partial rebuilding with many obstacles and difficulty shifting the rubble, as was experienced at the restoration. Such a rebuilding of the waste places as envisioned here would suggest miraculous Divine intervention and activity. It will finally come true when the heavenly Jerusalem and Zion descend from above, ready built, onto the site of Zion; as seen in the final visions of Revelation.</p>


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<p>Yahweh has made bare His holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God- The past tense is used because this outcome was so certain- but it still depended upon the repentance and faith of the exiles. Had they returned, supported with the same kind of miraculous manifestations as seen at the exodus, then"the nations"amongst whom they were scattered, the 127 provinces of Persia, would have seen God’s arm revealed. The ends of the eretz were specifically those areas on the borders of the eretz promised to Abraham, which is where they had been taken into captivity.</p><p>But this didn’t happen. And so the arm of Yahweh which brings salvation is revealed now to the nations through the work of the Lord Jesus (<a href='B:290 53:1'>Isa 53:1</a>). We can reflect how an omnipotent God could have achieved salvation in a less painful way than He did- but He made bare His arm in the death of the cross (<a href='B:290 52:10'>Isa 52:10</a>), i:e. He expended Himself greatly. The same idea is present when we read of Yahweh paying a price for the redemption of His people from Egypt. He didn’t pay the Egyptians anything, but the figure is used to express the extensive effort He was involved in for His people.  The baring of an arm means a display of strength and intention- and God does this to show the ultimate strength He has to save His people. His power and intention to save is so huge.</p>


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<p>Depart, depart, go out from there, touch no unclean thing! Go out of the midst of her! Cleanse yourselves, you who bear the temple vessels of Yahweh- See on :1. “Come out from among them and be separate” (<a href='B:540 6:17'>2Co 6:17</a>) is picking up the language of <a href='B:290 48:20'>Isa 48:20</a>; <a href='B:290 52:11'>Isa 52:11</a>; <a href='B:300 50:8'>Jer 50:8</a>; <a href='B:450 2:7'>Zec 2:7</a> concerning the return of the exiles from Babylon. The edict of Cyrus for the Jews to return to the land was reapplied to God’s command to us to leave the spirit of Babylon, the Gentile world, and go up to do His work. The returned exiles are us. <a href='B:330 40:42'>Eze 40:42</a> speaks of the vessels to be used in the temple [AV “instruments”] with the same word used for the temple vessels which were brought up out of Babylon back to Judah, in fulfilment of several of Isaiah’s ‘Kingdom’ passages (<a href='B:150 1:6-11'>Ezr 1:6-11</a>; <a href='B:150 8:25-33'>Ezr 8:25-33</a> cp. <a href='B:290 52:11'>Isa 52:11</a>; <a href='B:290 66:20'>Isa 66:20</a>). The restoration of the kingdom could potentially have happened at the time of Ezra. LXX"separate yourselves, ye that bear the vessels of the Lord"was not really obeyed by the Levites and priests at the time of the restoration, because Malachi as well as Ezra and Nehemiah often mention their lack of separation from the peoples of the land, even intermarrying with them.</p><p>Cyrus specifically commanded the temple vessels to be restored (Ezra 1:7-11). The vessels were to be caried by the priests and Levites (Num. 1:50; 4:15); but it is noted that very few priests and Levites wanted to leave Babylon. So again, the potential here wasn't realized by the exiles, and the language is applied to Christians today as they leave the world and make the journey Zionwards (2 Cor. 6:17).</p>


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<p>For you shall not go out in haste, neither shall you go by flight: for Yahweh will go before you; and the God of Israel will be your vanguard- Although the exodus from Egypt was in many ways a pattern for the exiles to leave Babylon, in distinction from then, they would not"go out in haste"(s:w. <a href='B:50 16:3'>Deu 16:3</a>). They would not be persecuted in Babylon, leading them to flee. Rather they were to"flee"from Babylon spiritually (<a href='B:290 48:20'>Isa 48:20</a>) of their own volition and desire. After the decree of Cyrus, they went with the King’s blessing and not in panic. Thepromise that Yahweh would go before and behind them suggests that He would be even more present with them than He was with the Israelites who left Egypt, for He went before them but not also behind them. Such a visible accompaniment of the exiles back to Zion was potentially possible.
Is. 40 opens with a picture of the triumphant march in glory from Babylon to Zion. This is a great theme in Isaiah, and it speaks of our path from the world to God's Kingdom. Yahweh goes both in front (Is. 52:12) and behind, as the vanguard (Is. 58:8). Just as He is both the one to whom Israel owe their debt, and the one who redeems them from it by paying it off. He is involved in us, including our history of sin, around and above us, all the way through. Not going with haste highlights the comparison with their hasty exodus from Egypt. This was to be a far greater and more glorious exodus.</p>


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<p>Behold, My servant shall deal wisely, he shall be exalted and lifted up, and shall be very high- It could be argued that whenever "Behold..." is used with reference to a prophesied person, the reference is to the Messiah, the Lord Jesus. And the call to "Behold" or see is effectively an invitation to perceive. Thus "Behold the man whose name is The Branch" (Zech. 6:12), "Behold your King comes unto you, humble..." (Zech. 9:9), "Behold... I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper" (Jer. 23:5).
The servant was "wise" and turned / made others righteous (Is. 52:13; 53:11). These very words are used in Dan. 12:3 of how all who are "wise" and "turn many to righteousness" will shine eternally at the resurrection. Clearly our work of witness in this world is to be a living out of the sufferings of the Lord on the cross. He there is not just to be passingly admired, but to be the template for the lives of all who are God's suffering servants. 
But "deal wisely" in Is. 52:13 could also be translated "succeed"; and the fourth servant song concludes with the same idea: "Through him Yahweh's purpose will succeed" (Is. 53:10). The implication could be that He will be the succesful servant, whereas the other possible iterations of the servant in Israel, Cyrus and Zerubbabel had not succeeded. The same word for "succeed" used in Is. 53:10 is found in Is. 55:11 "so shall My word be that goes forth out of My mouth: it shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper [succeed] in the thing I sent it to do". That word of restoration of the Kingdom would succeed, because the servant would succeed. It was made possible through His sufferings. It's not a question of whether we succeed; God's plan to save us through His suffering Son has succeeded. We just have to accept that, and thereby be freed from the success / failure complex that grips our societies. The 'success' of the servant would be in that He would be high and lifted up- on a cross. That is the ultimate success and not any human exaltation.
We could understand that Cyrus was the servant who indeed brought about the physical return to the land of Israel (Is. 44:24-48:22); but the "servant" also needed to bring about the spiritual return / repentance of the people to enable their forgiveness and full spiritual restoration. And the "servant" who achieved that was the Lord Jesus. Or we could understand that there is only one "servant"; initially Israel, later Cyrus.  But Cyrus had failed to be the servant figure intended and Israel had failed to prepare the way through repentance. And so now another servant is spoken of- ultimately the Lord Jesus. Cyrus was not so much a 'type of Christ' as being a failed Messiah figure, who was replaced by the Lord Jesus. And that accounts for the similarities between them. Likewise "the servant" as Israel had not worked out- he proved blind, handicapped and incapable of action (Is. 42:18). But the Lord Jesus was the servant Israel failed to be- He was the ideal Israel, called out of Egypt as they were ["out of Egypt have I called My Son"]. Through His representative death, He enabled all in Him to be the servant- and that is why after Is. 53, Isaiah speaks of "servants" in the plural (Is. 54:17; 56:6; 65:8,9,13-15; 66:14) or offspring (Is. 59:21; 61:8,9; 65:9,23; 66:22). These are the children who come out of His travail, as Is. 53 will put it. This is why elements of the servant's sufferings are presented as the pattern for all His people "In Him". As He did not strive in the streets, so Paul says that the Lord's servant likewise must not strive. The servants/offspring continue the Servant’s activity by suffering (57:1); enlightening the nations (60:1–4, 9; cp. 42:6; 49:6, applied by Paul to himself); receiving the promised Spirit (61:1; cp. 44:3); and sharing in the Servant’s exaltation and vindication (60:1, 3; cp. 52:13). The Lord uses the language of the suffering servant to describe how His servants would also be "lead", "delivered up", beaten, brought before rulers etc. (Mk. 13:9-11 "when they shall lead you, and deliver you up..."). 
This continues the allusions to the exodus in :12 and throughout the servant songs. Moses was the great servant of Yahweh, and he"was very great"in the eyes of the Egyptians and their leaders (<a href='B:20 11:3'>Exo 11:3</a>). The servant figure had been intended to come before the king of Babylon as Moses came before Pharaoh, to demand freedom for God’s people, and then to lead them out of Babylon back to Judah, accompanied by Divine miracles, signs and logistical provision just as Israel had on their wilderness journey (<a href='B:290 51:12'>Isa 51:12</a>; <a href='B:290 51:16'>Isa 51:16</a>). The potential servant figures at the time of the restoration failed in this, and so the prophecies are reapplied to the Lord Jesus and His mediation for us on the cross, leading His people thereby out of Babylon into the restored Kingdom.</p><p>Clearly a Messiah figure could have arisen at the restoration:"And their leader shall be one of them, and their ruler shall come forth from their midst; and I will bring him near, and he shall approach me; for who would dare to risk his life to approach me?’ declares the LORD” (<a href='B:300 30:18-21'>Jer 30:18-21</a> NAS). This leader who would come close to God in mediation would be willing to give his life to enable this. This must be connected with how Isaiah 53, describing Messiah’s death, is actually in a restoration context (beginning in Isaiah 52). Could it not be that a Messiah figure could have arisen and died a sacrificial death to bring his people to God? Daniel 9 likewise associates the rebuilding of Zion with the death of “Messiah the prince” to reconcile Israel to God- perhaps potentially possible within a literal 70 week period from Cyrus’ decree? Ezra’s prayer of Ezra 9 is full of reference to Daniel 9, as if he saw it as capable of fulfilment then.</p><p>The glory "high and lifted up" which Isaiah saw in <a href='B:290 6:1'>Isa 6:1</a> is more specifically defined here in <a href='B:290 52:13'>Isa 52:13</a> where "high and lifted up" is used of the exaltation of the suffering servant, the Messiah figure who could have been Hezekiah, had he responded rightly to his sufferings. But after God’s attempts to reapply it to Zerubbabel and others, it came to full term in the suffering of the Lord Jesus. <a href='B:290 6:10'>Isa 6:10</a> is quoted in John 12, with the information that "these things said Isaiah, because he foresaw his glory, and he spoke about him" (<a href='B:500 12:41'>Joh 12:41</a>). The hour of glory was the hour of crucifixion. The son of God, naked, covered in blood and spittle... was the Son of man glorified. And likewise when we are fools for Christ’s sake, then we know His glory. <a href='B:500 12:37-41'>Joh 12:37-41</a> tells us that Isaiah 6 is a vision of the Lord Jesus in glory; and in this passage John quotes both Isaiah 6, 53 together, reflecting their connection and application to the same event, namely the Lord’s crucifixion. So it is established that Isaiah 6 is a vision of the crucified Lord Jesus, high and lifted up in glory in God’s sight, whilst covered in blood and spittle, with no beauty that man should desire Him. The point is, when Isaiah saw this vision he was convicted of his sinfulness: "Woe is me, for I am undone...". And yet the same vision comforted him with the reality of forgiveness, and inspired him to offer to go forth and witness to Israel&nbsp;of God’s grace. Isaiah saw a vision of the Lord "high and lifted up", with the temple veil torn (<a href='B:290 6:4'>Isa 6:4</a> cp. <a href='B:470 27:51'>Mat 27:51</a>), and was moved to realize his sinfulness, and vow to spread the appeal for repentance (<a href='B:290 6:1'>Isa 6:1</a>; <a href='B:290 6:5'>Isa 6:5</a>). The high, lifted up Lord whom he saw was He of <a href='B:290 52:13'>Isa 52:13</a> - the crucified Lord. And yet Isaiah saw Him enthroned in God’s glory, as it were on the cross. What was the nadir of shame in the eyes of men was the acme of exaltation in God’s eyes. So John links the visions of Isaiah 6 and Isaiah 52/53 as both concerning the crucifixion (<a href='B:500 12:37-41'>Joh 12:37-41</a>); there the glory and essence of God was revealed supremely. <a href='B:500 12:38-41'>Joh 12:38-41</a> draws a parallel between being converted, and understanding the prophecies of the glory of the crucified Christ. To know Him in His time of dying, to see the arm of Yahweh revealed in Him there, is to be converted.</p>


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<p>Just as many were astonished at you (his appearance was marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men)- 
The "many" astonished are the "many nations" of :15 and the "many" who are accounted righteous (Is. 53:11) because "He bore the sin of many" (Is. 53:12). This same group of "many" are those whose sins are carried- having been convicted by His sufferings, or, as is now ultimately true, the cross of Christ. See on Is. 53:1. 
"Astonished" is the word used of Israel being viewed like this in their exile and condemnation among the nations (Lev. 26:32). As the rabbis point out, the language of the suffering servant is indeed at some points that of Israel. As He was oppressed and afflicted (Is. 53:7) so were Israel in Egypt. As He was cut off from the land of the living, so had Judah been cut off from their land. But the point is that Israel had failed to be the servant, and the Lord Jesus took their condemnation onto Him as their representative. This was of absolute relevance to the exiles of Judah in Babylon. Likewise Isaiah's descriptions of "Zion", humiliated then exalted, match very much with the language of the suffering servant. Again and again we see representation. The Lord's death and resurrection to glory indeed was of power to us in that He did that as our representative. The word for "astonished" or "apalled" is used when one is considered to be under judgment from God (Lev. 26:32; Jer. 18:16; 19:8); they think He is suffering for His own sins (as in Is. 53:3,4) and consider him a sinner forsaken by God. Just as happened at the cross. 
It has been observed that the later language of the song, especially about bearing sin through death, has similarities with the language of a substitute king being dressed as a king, sat upon the king's throne, and then taking on himself all the evil omens and curses that were upon the actual king- and being killed in order to remove those curses from the king. Those things are indeed alluded to; the idea of bearing sin and curse for another through death would have elicited these things in the minds of the first hearers. But the record adapts and deconstructs it to show the far greater truth of the servant's work. He died not as a substitute, a vicarious death, but as a representative, in order to save not merely a king but the whole world of sinners who would identify with Him. Because this sufferer does not merely die and stay dead as a substitue would need to, instead He resurrects to eternal life, and this is the basis of the salvation of all in Him: "He shall see his seed. He shall prolong his days... After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light and be satisfied"(Is. 53:10,11). He was "numbered with the transgressors", counted as a transgressor, in order that He might make intercession for the transgressors, being pierced for our transgressions, stricken for the transgression of the people (Is. 53:5,8,12).   
See on <a href='B:10 39:6'>Gen 39:6</a>; <a href='B:220 17:7-8'>Job 17:7-8</a>. We are to be “conformed to the image of [God’s] son"(<a href='B:520 8:29'>Rom 8:29</a>)- to share His morphe, which was so marred beyond recognition that men turned away in disgust (<a href='B:290 52:14'>Isa 52:14</a> cp. Php_2:7). The mind that was in Him then must be in us now (Php_2:5). This is proof enough that His"form"was not His essential nature. It is a form which we can share and reflect. The mixture of the Divine and human in the Lord Jesus is what makes Him so compelling and motivational. He was like us in that He had our nature and temptations; and yet despite that, He was different from us in that He didn’t sin. Philippians 2 explains how on the cross, the Lord Jesus was so supremely"in the likeness of men"; and yet the same ’suffering servant’ prophecy which Philippians 2 alludes to also makes the point that on the cross,"his appearance was so unlike the sons of Adam"(<a href='B:290 52:14'>Isa 52:14</a>). There was something both human and non-human in His manifestation of the Father upon the cross. Never before nor since has such supreme God-likeness, ’Divinity’ , if you like, been displayed in such an extremely human form- a naked, weak, mortal man in His final death throes.</p><p>There, on the cross, the Lord Jesus was the form of God, equal with God in that sense, the only begotten Son. And yet on the cross His form was marred more than that of any man, He finally had no form that could be desired (<a href='B:290 52:14'>Isa 52:14</a>; <a href='B:290 53:2'>Isa 53:2</a>). And yet this was the form of God. He&nbsp; was contorted and marred more than ever, there was no beauty in Him that men should desire Him, in those hours in which His Son suffered there. The Lord Jesus then had the form of God, although in His mind He had taken the form of a servant. The Lord made Himself a servant in His mind; He looked not on His own things, but on those of others (Php_2:4; Php_2:7). This is the context of Philippians 2; that we should have the mind of Christ, who disregarded His own status as Son of God and humbled Himself, even to death on the cross, so that we might share His status. His example really is ours, Paul is saying.</p><p>He was ‘lifted up’ in crucifixion and shame; and yet ‘lifted up’ in ‘glory’ in God’s eyes through that act. We read in <a href='B:290 52:14'>Isa 52:14</a> that His face was more marred, more brutally transmogrified, than that of any man. And yet reflecting upon <a href='B:540 4:4'>2Co 4:4</a>; <a href='B:540 4:6'>2Co 4:6</a>, we find that His face was the face of God; His glory was and is the Father’s glory: “The glory of Christ, who is the image of God… the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ”. Zenon Ziolkowski (Spor O Calun) discusses contemporary descriptions of the faces of the crucified, including Jehohanan the Zealot, whose crucifixion Josephus mentions. Their faces were renowned for being terribly distorted by pain. The Lord’s face was marred even more than that of any other, so much so that those who saw Him looked away (<a href='B:290 52:14'>Isa 52:14</a> AV). This prophecy may suggest that for the Lord, the crucifixion process hurt even more.
The servant was "marred", a word that appears only in Leviticus to describe strangers so corrupted that they
must be barred from offering Yahweh’s bread (Lev. 22:25). This in turn is part of the code of Lev. 22:19-25 that bars any animal that is marred from being offered as a sacrifice. A related word is used in the complaint that Israel offered marred / lamen animals for sacrifice (Mal. 1:14). The root word is frequently used of moral corruption. The sacrifice of the servant was therefore of one who was barred from being either a priest or a sacrifice. The rejected sacrifice became the ultimately acceptable sacrifice. Likewise the servant in the form of Israel had been found blind and dumb, again, disqualifying them from priestly service or sacrifice. But it was exactly through that identity with the unacceptable that the servant, the Lord Jesus, acted as the supreme priest and sacrifice. We go on to read of His priestly action: "So shall he sprinkle many nations", when He was "marred" and legally disqualified from priesthood. We note too that this servant functions as both priest and offering.  
"More than any man... more than the sons of men" is a double emphasis. It is the same idea as the Messianic Ps. 22:6, "I am a worm, and no man". The Lord was humiliated until He felt He had made less than human. And thus He is able to identity with all who are abused to the point of being treated in an inhumane way, as if they were not people. Like the labourer treated like an animal rather than a person let alone the physical and mental abuses that go on in relationships. It has been observed that Christian art before the time of Constantine pictured the Lord as repulsive in His appearance; after Constantine He is portrayed as having an ideal beauty. This is typical of the increasingly unreal conception of the Lord. 
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