Isaiah 51:1-52:12 "The Redemption of Zion"
Isaiah 49-55 opens "Listen to me, O coastlands,"
echoing the call of 41:1.
Chapters 38-55 focus on the restoration from exile,
which will come about through the Servant of the Lord.
Hence these chapters are sometimes called "the book of the Servant."
The refrain of "listen to me, Jacob/Israel" was common in 41-48.
But here in chapter 51 we have a different call.
The three calls in verses 1, 4 and 7 speak to the remnant of Israel.
1 "Listen to me you who pursue righteousness, you who seek the Lord." (51:1)
Remember whence you came!
Look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who bore you.
If you are looking for righteousness,
then remember that he was but one when I called him.
If I can bring a whole nation through one man,
imagine what I can do through my Servant.
God will comfort Zion.
He will make her desolate wilderness into a Garden of Eden.
A day will come when the seed of Abraham will inherit the earth.
2 "Give attention to me, my people, and give ear to me, my nation" (51:4)
The first call was to those who sought righteousness.
This second call promises that God's righteousness is indeed drawing near.
Salvation is coming-it will not be thwarted.
3 "Listen to me, you who know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law" (51:7).
This call is not merely to those who seek.
This call does not merely promise righteousness.
This call is to those who know righteousness.
God calls to the remnant-those who have God's law in their hearts:
Do not be afraid of the reproach of man.
Scoffers will say "when will he come and rescue you!"
Remember what God has said:
"The moth will eat them up like a garment,
And the worm will eat them like wool;
But my righteousness will be forever,
And my salvation to all generations."
These three calls emphasize the remnant-those within Israel who still seek the Lord.
Chapters 41-48 show that Israel is the Servant of the Lord-
but Servant Israel is blind and deaf.
He does not see what God is doing.
He does not hear what God is saying.
Therefore, chapters 49-55 explain that God will send one servant who will redeem the servant.
The Servant is indeed Israel, but Israel will be reduced to one man.
Jesus will be the remnant of One.
This threefold call to the remnant is followed at the center of our passage
by a threefold cry to wake up!
Each of these three cries are doublets:
awake, awake
wake yourself, wake yourself
awake, awake
But the first call is the call of the righteous remnant to God:
"Awake, Awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord" (51:9)
Wake up, O God!
Remember your promises, and come do to our enemies what you did in days past.
Remember how you cut Rahab to pieces?
Rahab here is the name of an ancient mythological creature.
In Babylonian myth, the god Marduk slew Tiamat the dragon,
(or sea-monster)
God is frequently portrayed in scripture as the true slayer of the dragon.
In Isaiah 30 Rahab was used as a code-name for Egypt.
And here Rahab is again connected with Egypt.
Egypt is like a monster that held captive God's people.
Yahweh rules the seas-as was demonstrated at the Red Sea.
Any power that stands against him will be destroyed.
The seas frequently represent the power of the nations.
We've seen that Isaiah uses the image of the rushing sea
to describe the coming of the Assyrian armies in Is 1-37.
Now Isaiah uses that image
to speak of God's power over the nations.
And Isaiah declares that God will do this once again.
Using the imagery of a Babylonian myth,
Isaiah declares the glorious truth that the Babylonian captivity
is no more final than the Egyptian one.
When God redeems his people,
(read verse 11)
The people of God-the righteous remnant call out:
Remember how you delivered us from Egypt through the Red Sea?
Do it again, O God!
But then God replies to Zion:
"I, I" (51:12)
This doubled use of the pronoun was used in chapter 43
to emphasize God's sovereign power in salvation.
Its use here calls us to remember what God has already said.
Now verses 12-16 look pretty straightforward in English,
but that is only because our pronouns don't include gender!
Verse 12a is addressed to you (masculine plural)-in other words, "all of you."
But then immediate in the next two lines "who are you that you are afraid"
the you is feminine singular.
This is fairly easy-that refers to Zion/Jerusalem
Why are you afraid, O Zion, of man who dies?
But then in verses 13-16 it switches to masculine singular.
The LORD "your" (masculine singular) maker.
You fear all the day
Here the "you" is not all Israel, but the Servant.
The movement is from the fearful Zion and the fearful Servant
to the restored Servant and the restored Zion.
If Yahweh is the God who comforts his people,
"Who are you that you are afraid of man who dies?"
Why are you afraid of the Babylonians?
I could ask you the same thing:
Why are you afraid of the Iraqis?
Why are you afraid of al-Qaida?
Or closer to home:
Why are you afraid of what others think of you?
Why are you intimidated by others?
Who are you, that you should be afraid of them!
To be afraid of them is to forget Yahweh, your Maker.
The city of God has no business fearing the city of man.
You fear continually all the day because of the wrath of the oppressor.
If you are my people, then you should fear me.
I am the LORD your God, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar.
The noise of the nations is due to God.
They have been sent to test you.
Will you follow me?
Yahweh of Hosts is truly the sovereign Lord.
And what is more,
the Servant of the LORD should not die and go down to the pit,
but should declare the Word of the Lord:
"I have put my words in your mouth and covered you in the shadow of my hand,
establishing the heavens and laying the foundations of the earth,
and saying to Zion, 'You are my people.'"
The righteous remnant had called to God in verse 9, "Awake, awake!"
But having revealed who he is, God replies,
"Wake yourself! Wake yourself, stand up, O Jerusalem,
you who have drunk from the hand of the LORD the cup of his wrath,
who have drunk to the dregs the bowl, the cup of staggering."
You want me to wake up.
But the problem is that you are still asleep!
Jerusalem is in a drunken stupor,
from having drunk from the cup of the Lord.
This whole passage is constructed in twos:
two calls to wake yourself,
two references to the cup (verse 17)
two statements of the lack of sons (verse 18)
Devastation and destruction
Famine and sword (verse 19)
The wrath of the LORD and the rebuke of your God (verse 20)
Zion has received a double portion for all her sins (Is. 40),
not twice as much as she deserved,
but the full inheritance-the double portion of the firstborn.
Notice the problem here:
The cup of God's wrath has been drunk deeply by Zion
She has no sons to guide her (the Davidic line has failed)
And she is desolate and comfortless due to the wrath and rebuke of the LORD.
But even in the midst of this desolation, God speaks comfort:
"Hear this, you who are afflicted, who are drunk, but not with wine"
(in other words, who are drunk with the wrath of God's cup)
Thus says your Lord, Yahweh, your God, who pleads the cause of his people:
(it is God himself who will speak for his people-not a son of Zion)
Behold, I have taken from your hand the cup of staggering;
the bowl of my wrath you shall drink no more.
Isaiah himself may not have understood the implications of this.
God says that he himself will take the cup of staggering.
It is no accident that our Lord Jesus Christ said,
"If it be your will, take this cup from me."
He held in his hand the cup of staggering-the cup of God's wrath.
He had come as the Servant of the LORD,
but no ordinary son of Zion was this.
He was the Word of God incarnate.
And yet he too would faint after drinking that cup to the dregs.
He too would be "full of the wrath of the LORD, the rebuke of your God"
because he who knew no sin became sin for us.
The only way that God could take the cup of staggering from us,
was for him to drink it himself.
But because he has drunk that cup to the dregs,
he now will put it into the hand of our tormentors.
The nations will now drink the cup of God's wrath.
Indeed! Who are you that you should fear the nations!
And because of this, again a second time God calls:
"Awake, Awake" (52:1),
put on your strength, O Zion,
put on your beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city
As the arm of the LORD put on strength in 51:9,
so now Zion puts on strength in 52:1.
Desolate and abandoned Zion is now beautiful and glorious Zion.
The uncircumcised and the unclean will no longer enter Jerusalem.
Wake up!
The day is at hand when the people of God will be glorified!
The explanation returns to the themes and images of Egypt and Assyria.
As God delivered his people from Egypt, so he will do it again.
And as God sent a messenger to Egypt from the desert before (Moses),
so also will come one from afar to bring good news to Zion.
"How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news,
who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness,
who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, 'Your God reigns.'"
How many times had residents in Jerusalem seen a single runner,
coming over the mountains from the battle to report on the news (2 Samuel 18)?
There will be another runner.
One will come to proclaim the coming of the Kingdom of God.
And when the watchmen see the coming kingdom,
when they see the return of Yahweh to Zion,
they will sing for joy.
(Think of Zecharias, Simeon, and Anna)
Break forth together into singing, you waste places of Jerusalem,
for the LORD has comforted his people; he has redeemed Jerusalem!
The LORD has bared his holy arm before the eyes of all the nations,
and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.
"Lord, now let your servant depart in peace, according to your word.
For my eyes have seen the salvation you have prepared before the face of all peoples.
A light to enlighten the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel."
Simeon said that in the temple as one who had waited patiently for the kingdom of God.
He understood that Israel was still in exile.
They had been restored to the land.
They had rebuilt the temple.
But Zion was still desolate.
Israel did not see what God was doing,
Jerusalem did not hear what God was saying.
But the righteous remnant still clung in faith to God's promises.
"All the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God!"
And when Simeon saw Jesus,
he knew that this baby was the herald-the runner-
who would bring the news of God's victory.
Paul cites 52:7 in Romans 10:15 to speak of the work of the preacher today.
It is my task to proclaim the gospel of the kingdom.
Your God reigns!
The kingdom of God has triumphed.
The king is sitting at God's right hand,
and he will be coming soon to judge the living and the dead.
And so Isaiah calls to the Exiles, "depart, depart,
go out from there; touch no unclean thing; go out from the midst of her;
purify yourselves, you who bear the vessels of the LORD.
For you shall not go out in haste, and you shall not go in flight,
for the LORD will go before you,
and the God of Israel will be your rear guard."
Yes, this is speaking to those in exile in Babylon.
Like in the days of the Exodus,
they will go forth openly with the full consent of the Babylonians.
But they must still maintain their purity-especially those who bear the sacred vessels-
the priests and the Levites.
But in the context of what Isaiah is doing in chapters 49-55,
we must see that Isaiah is speaking beyond Babyon.
This is why Paul cites 52:11 in 2 Corinthians 6:17
The call to depart and be separate (holy) is God's call to us today.
You may not live in Babylon.
You may not find your identity and purpose in the city of man.
There is a strong economic component in Paul's usage of Isaiah 52:11,
blended with the language of worship:
"Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers.
For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness?
Or what fellowship has light with darkness?
What accord has Christ with Belial?
Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever?
What agreement has the temple of God with idols?"
He then goes on to cite Isaiah 52:11-go out from their midst and be separate from them
John also quotes 52:11 in Rev. 18:4 with a similar focus.
Babylon the great is portrayed as the great economic and religious power of the age.
But the people of God must not be ensnared in her traps.
(Read 18:4-7)
The cup of wrath will be given to Babylon-just as Isaiah had said.
Babylon will now receive the "double portion"-the full inheritance that she deserves.
Because God has established his kingdom,
and restored the glory of Zion,
therefore we may not live as citizens of this age.