Isaiah 46-48 "The Redeemer of the Servant"

Isaiah 41-48 consists of God's message to his servant Israel, corporately considered.

Isaiah 49-55 then introduces a distinction between the servant and Israel.

Isaiah 41:1 and Isaiah 49:1 open each section of the servant songs

with the call for the coastlands to "listen."

The nations are to hear what God is doing with his servant,

for they, too, will be affected by this.

Isaiah 41-48 is structured by seven calls to "Israel/Jacob"

Listen to me in silence, O coastlands (41:1-48:22)

1) But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen... (41:8-42:25)

This identified Israel as the Servant of the LORD

who would bring God's judgment against his enemies.

But also declared that servant Israel was blind and deaf-no better than the nations.

2) But now thus says the LORD, he who created you O Jacob/Israel (43:1-28)

Here God promised that he would redeem his Servant, in spite of Israel's sins.

3) But now hear, O Jacob/Israel (44:1-20)

God promised to pour out his Spirit upon Israel's offspring

4) Remember these things, O Jacob/Israel (44:21-46:2)

After revealing the folly of idolatry, God calls his servant Israel to remember.

All throughout these first four sections, there has been a constant contrast

between idolatry and the living and true God.

Yahweh alone is the Creator-a designation that is used both to refer to Yahweh

as the creator of all things,

but also to refer to him as the creator of Israel-

blending the themes of creation and new creation.

He is also the only one who has declared what will be.

And so in the fourth section he goes so far as to declare

that a king named Cyrus will be his instrument in redeeming Israel.

Now in the last three sections,

Yahweh emphasizes how he is the only Redeemer of his people.

Listen to me, O house of Jacob/Israel (46:3-47:15)

Hear this, O house of Jacob/Israel (48:1-11)

Listen to me, O Jacob/Israel (48:12-22)

I've suggested that these seven "Listen to me, O Jacob/Israel" give structure to Isaiah 41-48.

That is not the same thing as saying that each one introduces something new.

Indeed, here in 46:3, the language continues the themes of the previous section

(as we saw in 44:1-8, as it echoed 43:1-7).

The emphasis is still on Babylon, Cyrus, and the restoration from exile.

You may recall how Isaiah opens his prophecy of the coming restoration:

"Comfort, comfort my people, says your God."

Yet these words do not sound very comforting.

As Isaiah concludes the first section describing "my Servant Israel,"

his language concerning Israel grows increasingly strident:

"You transgressors" (46:8)

"You stubborn of heart, you who are far from righteousness" (46:12)

"Who confess the God of Israel, but not in truth or right" (48:1)

"You are obstinate" (48:4)

"You have never heard, you have never known" (48:8)

Israel is my Servant, whom I have chosen to bring salvation to the nations.

But Israel is no better than the nations.

The Servant is blind and deaf, and does not know his God.

That is where Israel is at the end of Isaiah 41-48.

Israel will be restored to the land-but not by a Son of David.

Israel will be restored to the land by Cyrus, a pagan who does not know God.

God will save his people-but such a deliverance will not do anything to change his people

Israel will be restored to the land, but that is not the restoration that will change their hearts.

Israel is frequently compared to idols.

Such a comparison is found in the relationship between 46:1-2 and 3-4.

Bel and Nebo, the gods of Babylon, are borne as burdens on weary beasts.

Israel has been borne by Yahweh.

He has carried them.

The gods of the nations must be rescued from an invading army by their devotees.

But the God of Israel carries his people and delivers them.

How can you then compare me to an idol? God asks.

Don't you know the difference between gold and God?

The word "remember" is frequently found in the context of idolatry.

In Deuteronomy Moses calls the people of God to "remember" the Lord,

and not to turn to other gods.

Forgetting God is nothing less than idlatry.

And so God calls Israel to (read 46:8-9)

God is the one who declares his purposes.

He is the one speaks, and it comes to pass!

Indeed, God declares in his anger (verses 12-13)

My righteousness is coming,

but you are far from righteousness.

God will deliver Zion; he will "put salvation in Zion,"

by casting down Babylon.

That is the message of chapter 47.

God speaks to the "virgin daughter of Babylon,"

and he explains what he is about to do.

Verses 1-4 speak of the enslavement of Babylon (grinding flour).

The virgin daughter shall become a slave girl,

at the whim of her new master.

The mistress of kingdoms shall become a widow, and shall lose her children (5-9)

She does not remember God's purposes.

God, after all, had simply used Babylon as a tool in disciplining his people.

But Babylon mistreated the people of God (verse 6),

and in her pride and power, believed that she would never fall.

And the wise sorceress shall be proved impotent (verses 10-13)

You said in your heart "I am, and there is no one besides me"

Babylon has played god.

But her sorceries shall prove powerless to save.

There is no one who can rescue Babylon from the hand of the Lord.

This is also the root of God's message to Babylon in Revelation.

Any nation that exalts itself over/against the God of heaven will pay dearly for it.

The day will come when Babylon will be overthrown.

This is where the pride and arrogance of the United States

has reached Babylonian proportions.

We are the new mistress of nations.

Every nation must bow to what the United States desires.

There is no one besides us.

Our military power, our economic wealth, and our political wisdom

will one day be our undoing.

Our president may claim that what our soldiers did to Iraqi prisoners was not "American"

and I suppose that is true.

It is not American.

It is human.

Mistreating those under our authority is human-especially when we hate them.

Only the nation that loves God with its whole heart, soul, mind and strength,

and truly loves its neighbor as itself can stand in God's sight.

But where can you find such a nation?

Not in the City of Man.

Only the City of God.

And that is where Isaiah 48 goes.

Because the house of Jacob, who is called by the name of Israel,

who came from the waters of Judah,

who swear by the name of Yahweh and confess the God of Israel,

BUT NOT.

Those two most fearful words in scripture.

But not in truth and right.

They call themselves after the holy city.

They claim to be the city of God.

But they do not act like it.

In truth, they are no better than Babylon.

God has performed what he promised in doing the "former things."

Some say that the former things are the redemption from Egypt.

Others say that it is the things formerly revealed in Isaiah,

such as the restoration from exile.

But it really doesn't matter.

You can think of any example you like.

God always tells his people what he is going to do before he does it.

"Because I knew that you are obstinate, I declared them to you from of old,

before they came to pass I announced them to you."

And verse 6 speaks of "new things" that God is announcing,

hidden things that you have not known.

This points ahead to something new.

God knew from the beginning that Israel would fail.

His plan included the rebellion of his people.

(Read verse 8)

It is one thing for Babylon, the city of man to be wicked and rebellious.

But for the house of Jacob, the city of God, to rebel is treason against the Most High.

And yet, God is not surprised.

He knew that "from before birth you were called a rebel."

God cannot give his glory to Israel, because Israel will muck it up.

Read verses 9-11.

For the sake of his praise, God restrains his anger.

He will only pour it out in full upon his own Son.

Rather he has refined his people, testing them in the furnace of affliction.

And for this own sake he does this.

He will not allow his name to be profaned.

He will not give his glory to another.

It is only when our Lord Jesus Christ comes that his glory will come to man.

Only when there is one who will be a worthy recipient of the glory of God.

And so In the final "listen to me, O Jacob" in 48:12-22,

God reveals his purposes.

In verses 12-16 He tells the "new thing" that he will do.

The One who is the first and the last.

The one who laid the foundations of the earth.

He will call Cyrus, the pagan, to do his purposes.

I, even I, have spoken and called him;

I have brought him and he will prosper in his way."

God has raised up one who will fell Babylon-but not from among his people.

In verses 17-19 the Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, speaks of the failure of Israel:

I showed you the way that you should go.

But you refused to listen to my commands.

If you had listened to me, "Then your peace would have been like a river,

and your righteousness like the waves of the sea;

Your offspring would have been like the sand,

and your descendants like its grains;

their name would never be cut off or destroyed from before me."

Israel has failed to live like the people of God.

And so they will not receive the blessings of the covenant, but its curse.

In that light, verses 20-21 must be read with irony.

(Read-with irony!)

The restoration from Exile-the glorious promise of redemption-

is a joke.

The LORD has redeemed his servant Jacob.

But Jacob isn't worth redeeming.

God will provide water in the desert for the Exiles as they return to Jerusalem,

but it is as futile as the last time he did it.

-when the wilderness generation ate and drank spiritual food,

and yet perished in the desert because of their rebellion.

There is no peace for the wicked.

I can bring you back to Jerusalem.

I can restore my servant to his proper place.

But so long as Israel, my servant, is no better than the nations, "shalom" cannot come.

Only when my servant heeds my commands will peace flow like a river.

Only when my servant follows in the right way will your offspring be like the sand.

Isaiah 41-48 ends in despair.

These chapters introduce Israel as the Servant of the Lord,

a blind and deaf servant

who does not see what God is doing,

and does not hear what God is saying.

The restoration from Exile is but a band-aid on a severed artery.

In Deuteronomy 29-30 Moses speaks of the redemption from Egypt in similar terms.

Israel is called to love and obey God,

but Moses admits that Israel will fail.

The difference is that there is a note of despair in Isaiah that you don't find in Moses.

We've been at this now for seven hundred years.

And we are no closer to righteousness!

The promises to Abraham (descendants like the sand) are not coming to pass.

The covenant has been broken, and the servant is a wicked fool.

Things are so bad that God has to raise up an unbelieving pagan Gentile

in order to redeem his servant.

Do you see why Paul says "but now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it-the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe." ?