Bible Commentaries
Isaiah 49

Verses 1-6

Isa 49:1-6

Isaiah 49:1-6

(The beginning of Section B of Division VI (Isaiah 49-57))

There is a dramatic switch in this chapter to the development of the most wonderful prophecies in the Old Testament concerning the appearance in our world of the Dayspring from on High, the holy Messiah, the True Israel of God, namely, The Lord Jesus Christ, who in spite of every hindrance, even the rejection of his own nation, would bring God’s salvation to the whole world, Jews and Gentiles alike. Cyrus will be mentioned no more; the Jewish exiles’ return from Babylon will be no longer the focus, which is dramatically shifted to Jesus Christ the Son of God, his mission, his characteristics, his assured success, his rejection by the Jewish nation, etc. "Whereas Section I dealt principally with the Doctrine of God, Section II treats especially the Doctrine of Salvation. Salvation comes from God only, and through the ministry of the Servant of Jehovah. It includes deliverance from the penalty of sin, and a new life of protection, joy, and peace; and it is worldwide in scope,”

AN ANALYSIS OF Isaiah 49 :

I. The Messiah himself is introduced as speaking in Isaiah 49:1-6, stating the purpose of his coming, his rejection by the Jewish nation, and the fact of his enlightening the Gentiles. In Isaiah 49:1, he calls the nations of the whole world to hear his voice. He announces his call to be the Messiah, and gives his qualifications for his mission (Isaiah 49:1-3). He identifies himself as "Israel" (Isaiah 49:3). For the meaning of this word see note below on "Israel." He was named even while he was in the womb of his mother (Isaiah 49:1). He was the chosen instrument through whom God chose to be glorified (Isaiah 49:3); his earthly work would appear to fail (Isaiah 49:4); his future success, however, would be glorious (Isaiah 49:5-6). He would gather in the righteous remnant of the old physical nation of the Jews; but he would also become a light to the heathen of all nations, bringing salvation to the ends of the earth.

II. Jehovah directly promises the ultimate success of Messiah’s work (Isaiah 49:7-12). Men would indeed despise and reject him (Isaiah 49:7). No matter what the Old Israel did, Jehovah would make Jesus Christ the basis of a New Covenant for all men, the basis of mankind’s renewal of their lost fellowship with God (Isaiah 49:8). He would free the prisoners (from their sins) and provide light for the peoples walking in darkness (Isaiah 49:9). He would remove all obstacles from the way of the peoples who would desire to serve him (Isaiah 49:10-12).

III. A song of praise in view of the Saviour’s marvelous work (Isaiah 49:13).

IV. Zion is comforted with assurances of the Father’s love, and with the promise that God will never forget or forsake her (Isaiah 49:13-21).

V. God will extend salvation, with all of its blessings, to the Gentiles. Kings and Queens would bring their wealth into the kingdom of Heaven (Revelation 21:24); and all of the enemies of God’s Messiah and his Cause shall be destroyed.

Isaiah 49:1-6

"Listen, O isles, unto me; and hearken ye peoples, from far: Jehovah hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name: and he hath made my mouth like a sharp sword; in the shadow of his hand hath he hid me: and he hath made me a polished shaft; in his quiver hath he kept me close: and he said unto me, Thou art my servant; Israel, in whom I will be glorified. But I said, I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for naught and vanity; yet surely the justice due to me is with Jehovah, and my recompense with my God. And now saith Jehovah that formed me from the womb, to be his servant, to bring Jacob again to him, and that Israel be gathered unto him (for I am honorable in the eyes of Jehovah, and my God is become my strength); yea, it is too light a thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth."

"Made mention of my name ..." (Isaiah 49:1). This was not true of the nation of Israel, that name, having been given through Jacob in the third generation of Abraham’s "seed." Gabriel, however, gave the name Jesus to the Messiah before he was born (Luke 1:31).

"My mouth like a sharp sword ..." (Isaiah 49:2). This indicated that the words which would come out of the mouth of Messiah would be the instrument of his power, the words which would judge men and angels on the last day (John 12:48). This is "the word" that hurled the suns in space, that lifted up the Cross, that stilled the sea; and it is the word that shall summons all the dead who ever lived to receive the sentence of their eternal destiny on the occasion of the final judgment.

"In the shadow of his hand hath he hid me ..." (Isaiah 49:2). God did indeed hide Jesus. He hid him from the wrath of Herod by taking him into Egypt and hid him from all of those who would have killed him until, in his own time, he would allow his crucifixion on Calvary.

"And he said unto me, Thou art my servant Israel, in whom I will be glorified ..." (Isaiah 49:3). This is punctuated differently from the text of the American Standard Version in the text above; because the semicolon that divides Israel from the previous part of this sentence is an error. In this passage, God Almighty himself named the future Messiah "ISRAEL." We have already noted that Jesus Christ is indeed the great Anti-type of Israel; and Christ himself accepted this title in John 15:1 ff, where it is recorded that he said, "I AM THE TRUE VINE," the old fleshy Israel, the secular nation, of course, being the corrupt vine or degenerate vine as revealed in both Isaiah and Jeremiah (Isaiah 5:1-7; Jeremiah 2:21).

MEANINGS OF THE WORD "ISRAEL"

The proper interpretation of the Word of God must always take into account the Biblical pattern of using the same word for multiple meanings. See my discussion of this Biblical phenomenon in Vol. 1 of my Pentateuchal Series (Genesis), p. 15, where I have pin-pointed no less than five meanings of the word "seed." Similarly, there are no less than eight legitimate meanings of the word Israel in the holy Bible.

(1) This was the name (Israel) given by the angel to Jacob on the occasion when he wrestled with him till daylight (Genesis 32:28).

(2) This was the name that came to be applied to the posterity of Jacob through the twelve patriarchs.

(3) This was the name that Ephraim and the ten tribes who seceded from the House of David usurped and claimed for themselves only (Hosea 8:14).

(4) This was the name that applied to the kingdom of Judah, after the captivity and loss of the Ten Tribes with Ephraim in the fall of Samaria (722 B.C.).

(5) This was the "covenant name" of the righteous remnant as distinguished from the hypocritical, rebellious majority, who made up the principal mass of those deported into captivity in Babylon.

(6) In the times of the personal ministry of Messiah, the name "Israel" was reserved for a tiny handful of the fleshly nation of the Jews who were called "Israelites Indeed" by Jesus Christ (John 1:47), categorically distinguishing between them and the "sons of the devil" who at the same time they plotted the death of Christ were calling themselves "Israelites," and "sons of Abraham." (See John 8:31-50). Nathaniel, Zacchaeus, Anna, Simeon, Zechariah, Elizabeth, Joseph, Mary, the holy apostles, and that little handful of 120 people who attended that meeting in Acts 1:15 made up the total number of Israelites indeed.

(7) The name "Israel" in our own times, and reaching back to the ministry of Jesus Christ, rightfully belongs to the true followers of Jesus Christ, his church. Paul’s letter to the Galatian churches refers to them in Galatians 6:16 as "The Israel of God." The apostles are reigning over the "twelve tribes of Israel," a name applied to the church of Jesus Christ (Matthew 19:28); and the 144,000 of Revelation 7 are none other than the kingdom or church of the Messiah.

(8) The name "Israel" in this very Isaiah 49:3 refers exclusively to Jesus Christ the Messiah. This corresponds with the fact that Christ is the "head of the church which is his spiritual body," the whole body (all the church) itself being also "The Israel of God."

The significance of this meaning of Israel in this passage is very great. Without this information, commentators are simply puzzled and checkmated as regards the discovery of what the passage means. An example of this is seen in the words of Kelley:

"The elusiveness of the servant’s identity is nowhere more apparent than here (Isaiah 49:3) ... He is unequivocally identified as Israel...One way out of the impasse would be to delete the word Israel, but the ancient versions will not support such a deletion ... There is no easy solution to the problem of the servant’s identity.”

All such confusion and lack of understanding disappears instantly when it is understood that "Israel" in this passage is a God-given title of Messiah himself. After all that Isaiah had already revealed about the blindness and deafness of the fleshly nation (Israel), and of their judicial hardening, and of their being no longer the noble vine God had planted, but a "degenerate vine," it is a foolish mistake indeed to try to identify that blind, deaf, hardened, hypocrite of the fleshly nation with the "Servant" who would heal that very nation.

The preposterous proposition inherent in such an identification was duly noted also by Kelley:

"If the servant, therefore, is interpreted collectively (that is, of the fleshly nation of Israel), then one is confronted with the strange anomaly of the nation effecting its own spiritual renewal. Even Muilenburg, who believes the reference here (Isaiah 49:3) applies to the nation collectively, admits that Isaiah 49:5-6 constitute the most serious obstacle to the collective view.”

Of course, such an identification of the servant as Israel in the collective sense as the whole nation is not merely "a serious obstacle" to that viewpoint, it is overwhelming proof of the error of that viewpoint.

"I have labored in vain ..." (Isaiah 49:4). These words from the Messiah himself indicate that Jesus’ work with the nation of Israel would be, in one sense, frustrating, unsuccessful, and in the large measure useless. The discouragement which our Lord surely encountered was first mentioned in Isaiah 42:4, but here it surfaces again. Thus Isaiah follows the pattern he announced in Isaiah 28:10; Isaiah 28:13, the same being proof that our human author here is not some "2nd Isaiah," but Isaiah himself. Regarding the apparent failure of Jesus’ mission to "the physical Israel," only 120 were gathered together as his disciples after the resurrection.

These marvelous prophecies of that "Ideal Servant" reveal that Christ alone offers salvation to men. The ancient idolaters who bowed down to images made by men fed their soul upon ashes and wasted themselves in degrading and worthless activities; but, "Even so, in philosophical circles today, Bible-rejecting agnostics demonstrate a similar blindness to the great truth that the mechanism of the Universe demands a Mechanic to fashion it, and the equally great truth that neither the ancient idolaters nor our modern unbelievers can answer the all-important question: "How can I be saved"?

Isaiah 49:5 speaks of the mission of the Servant to bring Jacob back to the Lord and to restore Israel; but in Isaiah 49:6, it is revealed that God considered such an achievement on the part of Messiah "too light a thing," that is a work not sufficiently great to be the full task of Messiah, and that his complete work would involve also his bringing light to the heathen nations of the Gentiles. "It would have been an insufficient reward for the `Ideal Servant’ to have received only the conversion of Jews as a result of his labors; therefore, God gave him for his recompense the gathering in of the Gentles also, and made him the means of salvation even to the uttermost parts of the earth."

Isaiah 49:6 reveals that Messiah’s mission to the Jewish nation did not include the restoration of all of the rebellious nation, but "the restoring of the preserved of Israel, thus being a reference to the "righteous remnant" only.

The recognition on the part of the Apostles themselves appeared, not at first, but eventually, that there was "no distinction" between Jews and Gentiles, nor even between Jews and barbarians. The Great Commission was "to all creation," and "to every creature," and "all nations."

Isaiah 49:1-3 CALL: Who, other than the Messiah-Servant, could be speaking in these verses? Note the following:

1. Called from the “womb” (he is to be born of a woman) (cf. Isaiah 7:14; Isaiah 9:6; Micah 5:2, etc.).

2. Named while still in the womb (Matthew 2:18-23; Luke 1:30-35; Isaiah 7:14; Isaiah 9:6).

3. His mouth a “sharp sword” (Revelation 1:16; Revelation 2:12; Revelation 2:16; Revelation 19:15; Hebrews 4:12)

4. He is hid in shadow of Jehovah’s hand (Colossians 3:3)

5. He is called “Israel” (Prince of God) (Isaiah 9:6; Daniel 9:24-27; Luke 1:30-35, etc.).

6. Jehovah is to be glorified in Him (cf. John 12:27-36; John 17:1-5)

7. He is to bring Jacob back to Jehovah (Luke 1:33)

8. He is honorable in the eyes of Jehovah (John 12:27-36; Luke 3:21-22; Matthew 17:5-8; Acts 2:22-36; Acts 3:17-26, etc.).

9. He is to be a light to the Gentiles (Isaiah 9:1-2; Matthew 4:12-17; Luke 2:29-32, etc.)

10. He is Jehovah’s salvation to the end of the earth

A new emphasis is begun by the prophet Isaiah. From this point on Babylon and Cyrus are not directly mentioned. The Messiah-Servant and the glory of His future kingdom will be pre-eminent. Everything the prophet has to say to his contemporaries will, from this point on, be in relationship to the future messianic glory.

Note the absolute authority with which the Servant addresses the world, commanding the isles and all afar off to listen to Him. Jehovah has made the Servant His instrument of conquering warfare. The Servant is a “polished arrow” and His words are a sharp sword. The Servant is kept in Jehovah’s “quiver” until the proper time for battle. The word of Christ is more powerful than any sword or arrow or any other carnal weapon. The word of Christ converts the mind and soul—carnal weapons only subdue bodies (cf. 2 Corinthians 10:3-5; Ephesians 6:10-20; Hebrews 4:12). It is imperative that the people of God today remind themselves they are engaged in the warfare of God. God sent His Son as a sword and an arrow! God so loved the world that He sent His Son, but He was sent to engage in a “life and death” struggle, a war, with the devil and his henchmen. The devil has been defeated and bound, but he still struggles against his “chain” and will devour all who willingly put themselves within his sphere of influence. God does not see the world, the flesh and the devil as a “good place, every day and every way getting better and better.” The world, the flesh and the devil are condemned, doomed, judged. Only those who bring every thought into captivity to obedience of Christ will survive the final judgment of the world.

The Messiah-Servant is also called to be anointed “Israel” (Prince of God). The Hebrew word yiserael means “Prince of God.” Jesus was descended from David according to the flesh (Romans 1:1-6), and promised the throne of His earthly father and His Heavenly Father—therefore, Prince (cf. Isaiah 9:6; Daniel 9:24-27; Luke 1:30-35, etc.). To glorify is to honor. The highest form of praise or compliment is imitation and impersonation. Jesus reflected the very image of God (Hebrews 1:3); to see Jesus was to see God (John 14:8-10); in Him dwelt all the Godhead bodily (Colossians 1:15-20; Colossians 2:9); Jesus was the Word become flesh (John 1:1-18); He glorified the Father on earth (John 12:27-36; John 17:1-5).

Isaiah 49:4 COMMITMENT: This verse is one of the most unique verses of all the Bible! It predicts, in the words of the Servant-Messiah Himself, a point in the Servant’s ministry when He will cry out in frustration and disappointment. Edward J. Young comments, “The expression of discouragement is no thought of unbelief, but simply of a genuine modesty borne from a consciousness of one’s own weakness.” Jesus, the Eternal Son, pre-existent with the Father, humbled Himself, emptied Himself and took upon Himself the form of flesh (cf. Philippians 2:5-11). He partook of the same nature as man (Hebrews 2:10-18) and was tempted in all points like we are tempted (Hebrews 4:14-16) yet without sinning. It was in this incarnation that He partook of human weaknesses. Part of that weakness was the frustration and disappointment men know when they love other men and want to lead them to God’s redeeming grace and when sinful, rebellious men refuse to be led (cf. Matthew 19:16-22; Matthew 23:37-39; Mark 3:1-6; Luke 19:41-44; John 12:27-36; Matthew 26:36-46). Did Jesus agonize? Did He have to cry out to God in prayer? Yes! (cf. Hebrews 5:7-9). Jesus was “astonished” at the unbelief of His countrymen (Mark 6:6); He wept at the grief of Mary and Martha (John 11:35); He even despaired of finding faith on the earth at His second coming (Luke 18:8). The earthly ministry of Jesus was not spectacular in its personal results—judged by human standards. He made more enemies, per capita, than friends. He convinced only 12 men to follow Him, one of them was a traitor, and the others disavowed Him at His death. He came unto His own and His own received Him not (John 1:9-11). This was predicted (Isaiah 52:13 to Isaiah 53:12)!

In spite of the fact that the Messiah experienced discouragement and disappointment and was “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief,” He realistically committed His cause to Jehovah for vindication, justification and reward. The Christian must be a realist also! If they persecuted the Master they will persecute the disciple (cf. John 15:18-27; 1 Peter 4:12-19, etc.). There will be emotional lows as well as emotional highs for the Christian. The implication that believers should have a constant, happy glow about life is a form of Christian schizophrenia. Christian emotional dishonesty often can lead to deep despair and other psychological problems. A Christian psychologist says: “God allows us to experience the low points of life in order to teach us lessons we could not learn in any other way. The way we learn those lessons is not to deny the feelings but to find the meanings underlying them. . . . Emotional dishonesty may be creating problems for others . . . Emotional honesty is necessary for one’s own spiritual growth and it also helps others to get the right perspective on their own experience.” Commitment to God is not built on human feelings as a basis—they are too subjective, biased and vacillating. Christ did not “feel” like going to the cross (“. . . let this cup pass from me . . .”). Commitment to God is built on faith in the facts about who God is as they are objectively revealed in the Scriptures and in the Person of Jesus (“. . . nevertheless, not my will but thine be done . . .”). Even the Messiah, in His incarnate humiliation, knew emotional depression and could overcome it only by commitment and faith in the knowledge of who the Father is. The Messiah knew He could depend upon the faithfulness of Jehovah to see that justice was ultimately done and that His ministry would receive its eventual reward. Eventually the work of the Messiah would produce a “great multitude” of believers “which no man could number” (Revelation 7:9 f),’ but not in the earthly lifetime of the Messiah. Christians need to learn the lesson of the parable . . . “first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear” (Mark 4:26-29).

Isaiah 49:5-6 COMMISSION: The Servant is born incarnate to accomplish a specific mission. He is to bring back Jacob and gather Israel to Jehovah. Ye’seph is the Hebrew word translated gathered and means, “to be brought in; placed in safety.” His commission was to go to the “lost sheep of the house of Israel.” This He did. And He brought to safety all of the true Israel (cf. Galatians 6:16; Romans 11:25-32). The parenthetical statement is the Messiah-Servant’s reiteration that He has committed His cause to Jehovah and He is sure Jehovah will vindicate His ministry with honor and strength.

The Messiah-Servant’s commission is much broader than physical Israel, although in the sovereign plan of God that is where redemption began (Acts 1:8). The Messiah was for the whole world. He was to gather sheep not of Israel into the flock of God to become part of the true Israel (cf. John 10:16). Paul the apostle quotes Isaiah 49:6 in Acts 13:47 to give us the inspired interpretation of this prophecy. Jesus Christ is no provincial Messiah; He is not just a prophet of the Jews—He is Savior of the whole world. He is the Light of the world (John 8:12 f). One religion is not as good as another—not even to Isaiah. There is salvation in no other name (Acts 4:12). Isaiah is the prophet of world missions. Strangely enough, Isaiah says more about the salvation of the Gentiles than any O.T. book, and yet he is the one most read in the Jewish synagogues! Of course, most of the Jews have a different view of what God has in store for the Gentiles than Isaiah predicted (cf. Luke 4:16-30).

Verses 7-13

Isa 49:7-13

Isaiah 49:7-12

"Thus saith Jehovah, the Redeemer of Israel, and his Holy One, to him whom man despiseth, to him whom the nation abhorreth, to a servant of rulers: Kings shall see and arise; princes, and they shall worship; because of Jehovah that is faithful, even the Holy One of Israel, who hath chosen thee. Thus saith Jehovah, In an acceptable time have I answered thee, and in a day of salvation have I helped thee; and I will preserve thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, to raise up the land, to make them inherit the desolate heritages; saying to them that are bound, Go forth; to them that are in darkness, Show yourselves. They shall feed in the ways, and on all bare heights shall be their pasture. They shall not hunger nor thirst; neither shall the heat nor sun smite them: for he that hath mercy on them will lead them; even by springs of water will he guide them. And I will make all my mountains a way, and my highways shall be exalted. Lo, these shall come from far; and, Lo, these from the north and from the west; and these from the land of Sinim."

The speaker in this passage is Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel; and it should be noted that God here speaks of that Ideal Servant, Messiah.

"Man despiseth ... the nation abhorreth ..." (Isaiah 49:7). Here is the prophecy that natural, secular Israel will despise and reject the Son of God when, at last he comes from heaven to redeem the world from sin.

"A servant of rulers ..." (Isaiah 49:7). "This means that the rulers of that day would look upon him with the same disdain with which they looked upon any servant whom thy considered to be far beneath themselves and unworthy of any particular interest on their part."

All of that, however, would be erased in the glorious success God here promised to give his Ideal Servant Messiah. Kings and princes would honor and worship him; all obstacles to those who would serve him shall be removed.

"I will give thee for a covenant of the people ..." (Isaiah 49:8). "The paradox of Israel sent to redeem Israel is insoluble in Old Testament terms, since no prophet or king or priest was ever big enough for the title. It is part of the powerful thrust of the Old Testament toward the New Testament in which Jesus Christ stands forth as the sole worthy and rightful bearer of the name Israel." Christ alone is the mediator of the new covenant; he only is the means by which men on earth may come unto God. He only is the "Way, the Truth and the Life; and no in an cometh unto the Father except by him" (John 14:6).

Isaiah 49:9 regards the release of captives and the enlightenment of those in darkness; but the interpretation of this is spiritual, as indicated in Jesus’ own words in Luke 4:17-20, where it is clear that the captives are those bound in sin, and the ones "in darkness" are those who do not know the Lord.

"I will make all my mountains a way ..." (Isaiah 49:11). All of these verses in this part of the paragraph speak of the aid and support God will provide for Messiah and his Church.

Isaiah 49:12 reveals that the disciples of Messiah shall come from "afar," from the north, the west, and from the land of Sinim. This place name is not satisfactorily identified. Kidner believed it was "Aswan in Egypt on the Nile, where a Jewish colony existed from the 6th century B.C." Others have supposed the name refers to China. It stands here as a symbolical name for all the distant places on earth that have heard and obeyed the gospel of Christ.

Isaiah 49:13

"Sing, O heaven; and be joyful, O earth; and break forth into singing, O mountains: for Jehovah hath comforted his people, and will have compassion upon his afflicted."

This little gem was called by Barnes, "A song of praise in view of the glorious results of the work of Messiah.” The appearance of this outburst of praise in the midst of a long list of prophecies is similar to the appearance of the proleptic songs interspersed throughout the prophecy of Revelation, thus exhibiting the same characteristic found in other authentic portions of God’s Word.

Isaiah 49:7-8 VINDICATION: Jehovah calls Himself “Redeemer of Israel.” Redeemer is from the Hebrew word, go’el, which means, avenger, vindicator, ransomer, retributor, recoverer (often translated, kinsman, esp. in Ruth). Jehovah is going to redeem mankind through His Servant, and when He does His Servant will be vindicated. During His earthly tenure, the Servant, because of His humble station and His sinless purity, will be despised by rebellious, sinful men. In order to destroy the wisdom of the wise and thwart the cleverness of the clever, God chose what is weak, low, despised and foolish to the world in order to save the world. Man must learn to trust completely in God. If man is given any margin for egotism or boasting in self, he cannot trust God completely (cf. 1 Corinthians 1:18-31). So God chose to send the Messiah, born in a Bethlehem barn, of poor parents, not tutored in the rabbinical schools, reared in Galilee (circuit of the Gentiles), a friend of fishermen, tax-collectors and harlots. He was abhorred by His own people. They called Him, “Samaritan,” “demon-possessed,” “friend of sinners.” He had no “form or comeliness . . . that they should desire Him,” (cf. Isaiah 53:1 f). They were sure no good thing could come out of Nazareth (John 1:46). Finally, they murdered Him (cf. Acts 2:22-24; Acts 3:13-16; Acts 13:26-32, etc.). But Jehovah raised Him from the dead and exalted His name above every name (cf. scriptures just cited plus Philippians 2:9-10; Revelation 1:5; Revelation 5:5; Revelation 15:3-4; Revelation 19:11-16). After the exaltation of the Servant, kings and princes and men in high places became His followers and worshipped Him (cf. Acts 13:7; Acts 17:32-34; Acts 18:8; Romans 16:23; Philippians 1:13). In succeeding centuries many kings and national leaders have become Christians. The Son was, for a little while, made lower than the angels (cf. Hebrews 2:9). After He suffered the necessary humiliation and accomplished atonement for sin, He was enthroned at the right hand of the Majesty on high (Hebrews 1:3 f) and was restored to the glory He had with the Father from the beginning (John 17:5). All this was according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God (Acts 2:23 f) and God kept His word (Acts 3:12-26).

The “acceptable time” (Heb. be’eth ratzon) means literally, “delightful, pleasing, gracious, satisfying time.” It is the “time” pre-figured in the Year of Jubilee (Leviticus 25:8 ff), when tribal inheritances were restored and bond-slaves were set free—a time for great rejoicing. Jubilee was a type of the time of delight and grace that would come when the Messiah appeared (cf. Isaiah 61:2) to release captives, etc. “Day of salvation” (Heb. yom yeshu’ah) is, interestingly, “day of Jesus” or “day of Joshua.” The apostle Paul apparently quotes this verse in 2 Corinthians 6:2 and applies it to the N.T. dispensation. In the fulness of time, God sent His Servant (Galatians 4:4) to bring salvation and, in person, be a “covenant” of the people. Isaiah has already revealed that the Servant will Himself be given as a covenant to the whole world (cf. Isaiah 42:6). How does the Servant become a covenant? Girdlestone says in his, Synonyms of The Old Testament, “The Lord Jesus is called the mediator of the New Covenant, because He is the medium wherein the Disposition of God is carried into effect, whether as regards the individual or the race as a whole (Hebrews 8:6; Hebrews 9:15; Hebrews 12:24). The inheritance which was given by promise to Christ (Galatians 3:16) was conveyed by covenant (through His blood-shedding) to all believers (Galatians 3:17; Galatians 3:29), who are made one with Him by faith; and it is this union of God with man, and of man with God, in Christ, which is summed up in the N.T. sense of the word berith.” Jesus, in the offering of Himself to die the “second death” for all sin, became personally a covenant. Covenant relationship is relationship to Christ, the Person, not to a legal system. He said His blood (death) was the covenant (Matthew 26:26-29). All the promises of God find their Yes in Him (2 Corinthians 1:20). Christ became a servant . . . to show God’s truthfulness, in order to confirm the promises given . . . (Romans 15:8). When God could find nothing higher to swear by in order to show the unchangeable character of His purpose, He interposed (Himself) with an oath (Hebrews 6:17). Malachi calls Him the “messenger of the covenant” (Malachi 3:1-2). Daniel says the “prince, the anointed one” who is to be cut off will make a strong covenant with many (Daniel 9:24-27). The renovated “land” of verse eight is all part of the imagery of the fulfillment of Jehovah’s covenant with Abraham and his spiritual descendants, and is not to be understood literally. We come into covenant relationship with God by being “joined” in discipleship to Jesus. Disciples of Jesus are those who have been baptized into Him and keep His word (Matthew 28:18 f; John 8:31 f).

Isaiah 49:9-11 VIVIFICATION: The Servant will give Jehovah’s people back their life. Men will be released from their bondage to sin and delivered from their blindness (darkness) (cf. Isaiah 61:1-3; Luke 4:16-30; John 8:12; John 9:39; 1 John 1:7; 1 John 2:10; etc.). Furthermore the Servant will shepherd Jehovah’s people (see comments on Isaiah 40:11). God’s people will not have to wander in the deserts of unbelief and sin aimlessly. They will be led by the Incarnate Messiah-Son who has partaken of their nature in order to become The Good Shepherd (cf. John 10:1 f). They will pasture in ways that formerly would not provide or were inaccessible. The Servant will change everything! The Servant’s people will not want (Psalms 23); when they hunger or thirst after righteousness, they will be filled (Matthew 5:6). The Hebrew word sharav may be translated heat, drought, or mirage. It is the same word used in Isaiah 35:7 and there translated “glowing sand” which would seem to mean mirage. The mirage was a common experience of the thirsty Palestinian traveler, who often thought he saw water where there was none. The Servant will not delude the many dying of spiritual thirst—He will provide living water and that in abundance. The Hebrew word mabbu‘ey is translated springs and means, to gush out, effervescent, bubbling out, abundant. It is also found in Isaiah 35:7, translated springs. The final thing the Servant will do will be to make mountains into highways and raise the roads through deep valleys up to where they are safe and easily accessible. Apparently the mountains and valleys here stand for obstacles that are to be overcome by the Servant on behalf of His people (cf. Isaiah 40:4). Faith in Christ makes mountains into mole-hills (cf. Matthew 17:20; Matthew 21:21; Mark 11:23). Every obstacle to the knowledge of God may be destroyed with the weapons of the Servant (2 Corinthians 10:3-5).

Isaiah 49:12-13 VERIFICATION: The Servant will also verify that God has kept His promise (Isaiah 40:1-2) to “comfort” His people and bring their “warfare” to an end (see comments on Isaiah 40:1-2). The Servant’s people are to come from the far reaches of the world. We have again the universal nature of the messianic salvation. The return from exile in Babylon is no longer the focus. The prophet’s revelation is now expanded to the whole world. The word Siyniym (Sinim) means, some commentators say, people of the wilderness of Sin, or the Sinites, a people of Canaan (Genesis 10:17; 1 Chronicles 1:15). Gesenius says it means Chinese. Kyle and Delitzsch also believe it refers to people of the ancient land of China. The word Tsin can be traced back to about 1122–1115 B.C. as a name (in many different forms) of small states into which the empire of China was divided after the reign of Wu-wang. Tsin, according to the Sinologist Neumann, was the name of a feudal kingdom of some importance in Shen-si, one of the western most provinces of the land of China, and Fei-tse, the first feudal king of Tsin, began to reign as early as 897 B.C. It would be quite possible then for Isaiah to have heard of the land of the Sinese. Of course, there were no exiles in China from the Babylonian dispersion. However, there is documentation that there were Jews who immigrated from Persia to China during the Han dynasty (205 B.C.—220 A.D.). If Isaiah is speaking of the messianic era, as we think he is, then there is no problem with some people from China (Sinim) becoming followers of the Messiah. Since the emphasis is on distance from Palestine, China is more acceptable than the first two suggestions. Whatever the case, the whole universe is commanded to acknowledge in a hymn of praise that Jehovah has comforted His people and shown compassion to the afflicted. He has done it in the Person of the Servant who, despised and abhorred, tested in the crucible of incarnate weakness and disappointment, is now the exalted and desirable Savior.

Verses 14-21

Isa 49:14-21

Isaiah 49:14-21

"But Zion said, Jehovah hath forsaken me, and the Lord hath forgotten me. Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, these may forget, yet will not I forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee on the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me. Thy children make haste; thy destroyers and they that make thee waste shall go forth from thee, Lift up thine eyes round about, and behold; all these gather themselves together, and come to thee. As I live, saith Jehovah, thou shalt surely clothe thee with them all as with an ornament, and gird thyself with them like a bride. For, as for thy waste and thy desolate places, and thy land that hath been destroyed, surely now shalt thou be too strait for the inhabitants, and they that swallowed thee up shall be far away. The children of thy bereavement shall yet say in thine ears, the place is too strait for me; give place to me that I may dwell. Then shalt thou say in thy heart, Who hath begotten me these, seeing I have been bereaved of my children, and am solitary, an exile, and wandering to and fro? and who hath brought up these? Behold, I was left alone; these, where were they?"

"Jehovah hath forsaken me ..." (Isaiah 49:14). This verse expresses the extreme discouragement and depression that were doubtless felt by the exiles in Babylon; but the same feelings of frustration and sorrow were felt by the Son of God Himself, the True Israel of God, during his earthly ministry, a fact already mentioned in Isaiah 49:4, above, and suggested in Isaiah 42:4. One of the cries of Jesus Christ from the Cross, "My God, My God, Why hast thou forsaken me"? (Matthew 27:46) is proof of this.

"Can a woman forget her sucking child ..." (Isaiah 49:15)?. God here declared that such is possible; and every day’s newspaper is the proof of it, as new-born infants are deserted in parking lots and filling stations; but Jehovah here declared that his devotion to his children was and shall forever be invariably dependable and constant. The saddest things on earth today must surely include the failure of mothers to love and preserve their own children. Shakespeare made one of his characters, Lady Macbeth, declare that, "I would, while it was smiling in my face, have plucked my nipple from his toothless gums, and dashed his brains out!" There have also been instances of human cannibalism in which basic instincts were similarly contradicted, as in 2 Kings 6:18; 2 Kings 6:29. Despite such rare exceptions, however, "The nearest thing on earth to God’s unfailing love is the love of a mother for her children." The essential message of these verses is simply that, "God’s parental love surpasses that of any human mother."

"I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands ..." (Isaiah 49:16). The custom of pagan worshippers of tatooing the name or symbol of their heathen god upon their bodies might have suggested this statement; but it was a far greater reality for God to engrave the names of his children upon the palms of his hands. The vast difference between the heathen ethnic religions, and the true religion appears in the fact that in pagan worship, it was the worshipper who was engraved; but here it is God who engraves himself! The so-called studies in "Comparative Religions" never seem to catch on to this point. In the pagan religions, it was always man who made the sacrifice; the fairest maiden was bound over to the dragon, and the boldest warrior went out to give his life for the people. A man, such as Prometheus, was bound to the rock forever in order to procure fire for the people; but in Christianity, God himself, in the person of His Son Jesus Christ, makes the supreme sacrifice and dies upon the Cross for the sins of the world.

Isaiah 49:17-18 depict the return of the children of Zion and also the return of "her destroyers," Babylon, Assyria, etc., as coming "unto thee," that is, returning to the true worship of the God of Israel. As Hailey declared, "If there was any fulfillment of this prophecy upon the return of the Jews from Babylon, it was only minimal; the full realization was under the messianic Servant."

Isaiah 49:19-20, declare that the best days of Israel (the New Israel) are ahead of her, when her new family will overflow all bounds.

"The New Testament applies such promises not to `the present Jerusalem,’ but to `the Jerusalem which is above,’ (Galatians 4:25-27); see also Isaiah 54:1, to the universal church in heaven and on earth. The ruins of the city (the literal Jerusalem) were indeed rebuilt in the 6th and 5th centuries; but these prophecies transcend the modest scale of those events."

The meaning of Isaiah 49:19 is simply that, "The growth of the Church would necessarily spread itself far beyond the limits of Palestine, and would ultimately require the whole earth for its habitation." That this is indeed the meaning of the passage appears in the fact that there was no sudden rush of populations into Palestine after the return of the captives from Babylon.

Significantly, there appeared to be astonishment on the part of Israel at this great increase of "her children" following her bereavement; but the note of joyful appreciation for this great increase, which should have been Israel’s reaction, is totally missing from the prophecy. Why? The answer is that Israel did not appreciate it; in fact they resented it and opposed it with every weapon of opposition that they could muster. They hounded the missionaries all over Europe, contrived the death of James, and would doubtless have destroyed the Church of God if it had been in their power to do so.

Isaiah 49:14-18 MELANCHOLIA: The people of Zion are represented as being in a state of deep despondency. This is anticipating the nation of Judah in exile in Babylon. The Psalmist of the exile wrote: “By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion . . .” (see Psalms 137:1 f). The promises of the prophets were glorious but only the most thoroughly committed believer put much hope in them. All recent history taught the Jews was that nations taken captive into Mesopotamia disappeared or lost their national identity. The great empires had never allowed a conquered nation to return to its own homeland. Judah was certain Jehovah had forsaken her (cf. Lamentations 5:1 f).

The Lord left His people in Babylon for 70 years (two generations would have been born and reared in a foreign land). Some of those who were taken down to Babylon as captives of war undoubtedly died there without ever seeing their homeland again (perhaps Daniel and his three friends). It was a great temptation for many Jews to despair and to spread their discouragement among others. The Lord works slowly, as men are prone to count time, but He is absolutely faithful to keep His promises. One of the most beautiful promises of the Old Testament is pictorialized in Isaiah 49:15-16. The Hebrew word ‘ulah is translated “sucking child” but means more literally an infant (newly born). On rare occasions one learns of a mother deserting her new-born child, but it is very unusual. The Lord’s love for Zion is indestructible! He cannot forget her—it is not in His nature at all to forget His promises. He is preparing to sacrifice His only Son for her. True Zion is precious to Him. He has khakak, graven, them on the palms of His hands (not tattooed, but carved, etched deeply). He is constantly reminded of Zion! Her walls may be torn down by her enemies but in God’s sovereign vision, they are constantly before Him as built up forever. Whatever God dreams or envisions comes to pass. God’s dreams are not sand-castles. He has proven this through dreams and visions He manifested to the world by the instrumentality of His prophets. They all came to pass! So when God envisions the wells of Zion built forever, they shall be built forever! Maybe not in the lifetime of Isaiah, or the returned exiles, but when the Messiah arrives, He shall build the eternal walls of Zion (cf. Hebrews 12:25-28, “a kingdom that cannot be shaken” is already being received by the recipients of the Hebrew epistle)!

Those contemporaries of Isaiah who read his prophecy should look and see that what God has promised about Zion is already beginning to happen, and believe. Already the true Zion is beginning to take shape. Already the sifting process is taking place. True believers in the long-range program of God are starting to separate themselves from those who are “destroyers” of Zion (unbelievers). Already Isaiah’s teaching had begun to form a small band of “disciples” (Isaiah 8:16-18), a “remnant,” which would eventually include all “those who walked in darkness” even the Gentiles (Isaiah 9:1-7). Jehovah swears by His own life (which is, of course, never ending and absolute) that Zion shall one day wear these few, faithful believers (of Isaiah’s day) as a bride would her wedding finery (cf. Ephesians 5:26-27; Revelation 12:1; Revelation 19:7-8; Revelation 21:2).

Isaiah 49:19-21 MARVEL: Zion’s melancholia would eventually turn to marvel. These verses indicate Isaiah is predicting a “spiritual” land of Zion. Zion’s literal land has never been too small for her. She has never thought she had too many literal, physical “children.” There were times, however, after the establishment of the New Testament church that some of the Jewish Christians (even Peter) wondered about the amazing and rapid growth of the new Zion (the church). Many were wondering how God could make room in “Zion” for Gentiles from all over the world! There has never been a time (especially after the return from exile) that the enemies (“those who swallowed up”) the Jews were literally far away. Enemies of the Jews have always been near and have continually oppressed them and “swallowed them up” (e.g., Sanballat, Alexander the Great, Antiochus IV, Pompey, the Mohammedans; in our lifetime, the Germans, Russians and Arabs). But spiritually, the Messiah defeated the arch-enemy of Zion, the devil, and bound him for a thousand years so that Zion’s enemy is “far away.” It is a constant source of wonder and amazement that Jehovah could take the small minority of believers exiled in Babylon and preserve them through centuries of “indignation” and eventually make of them a world-wide Zion (cf. Acts 11:1-8; Acts 15:1-21, etc.).

We quote from Edward J. Young, “Even during the exile the tide was turning. God was raising up Cyrus, who would make it possible for the exiles to return to their home. In this return there is seen the first fulfillment of this promise, but in the deeper sense the fulfillment takes place in the distant future when the Gentiles are brought into the Church of Christ. Zion is bereaved, but she has children, so many that there is no room for them.”

The remainder of this chapter confirms the messianic intent of the prophet.

Verses 22-23

Isa 49:22-23

Isaiah 49:22-23

"Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Behold, I will lift up my hand to the nations, and set up my ensign to the peoples; and they shall bring thy sons in their bosom, and thy daughters shall be carried on their shoulders. And kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their queens thy nursing mothers: they shall bow down to thee with their faces to the earth, and lick the dust of thy feet; and thou shalt know that I am Jehovah; and they that wait for me shall not be put to shame."

This paragraph is a prophecy of the great prosperity throughout history of the holy Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, the New Israel of God, which replaced the Old Israel without any reservation whatever, and which is identified with the True Israel who is Christ, the head (in heaven) of the New Israel (his spiritual body). The kings and queens of the civilized world shall accept Christianity (See Revelation 21:14); and that promise about the peoples coming and bowing clown to Israel and licking the dust of their feet probably did nothing more for the Old Blind and Deaf Israel than to feed their arrogant egotism; but what the promise meant was that the bowing down to Israel referred exclusively not to Old Israel at all, but to the world as a whole worshipping the True Israel, Jesus Christ.

Isaiah 49:22-23 SIGNAL: Two different Hebrew words are used to denominate the recipients of Jehovah’s “ensign”—goim (Gentiles, or nations) and ‘ammim (peoples). Girdlestone says, “. . . the word goim primarily signifies those nations which lived in the immediate neighborhood of the Jewish people; they were regarded as enemies, as ignorant of the truth, and sometimes as tyrants . . . If goi denotes a nation regarded from without, ‘am signified a people as viewed by one of themselves. Sometimes it (‘am) is used in the familiar and domestic way in which we speak of ‘folk’ . . . It is often brought into direct . . . contrast with goi. Thus Moses, speaking to God concerning Israel, says, ‘This nation (goi) is thy people (‘am),’ Exodus 33:13. ‘Am is used by Isaiah (and other prophets) to distinguish Israel as God’s people, and to mark them off from the heathen goim.” Often Isaiah predicts that the goim who had not been ‘ammim should become the people of God through the messianic redemption. Psalms 18:43; for example, reads, “Thou hast made me the head of the heathen (goim); a people (‘am) whom I have not known shall serve me.” This will come to pass when Jehovah shall be acknowledged as holding rule as “King of the goim” (Jeremiah 10:7; Hosea 1:9-10; Hosea 2:23).

This by-play upon the words goim and ‘ammim in Isaiah 49:22 seems to indicate the delivered society referred to, although it may begin with deliverance from exile by Cyrus, has its ultimate goal as the messianic society (the church). The setting up of an “ensign” (a battle standard upon a pole; a rallying flag) is one of Isaiah’s favorite pictures of the coming Messiah (Isaiah 11:12; Isaiah 18:3; Isaiah 62:10). When God sends His Messiah to the world, the pagan nations are going to deliver up (by the preaching of the gospel) all whom God in His omniscience knows are His (both Jew and Gentile). The Lord once told Paul “I have many people in this city . . .” That city was Corinth (Acts 18:9-11). “Nursing fathers” is from the Hebrew word ‘omenayik (root word is ‘man) which means “foster-father” and its root meaning is “to stay, to support.” The Hebrew word yanak (“nursing mothers”) means literally “to suckle” and therefore may be translated “foster-mother.” The whole idea is that kings and queens of the goim (heads of state of heathen nations) will one day become, as it were, parents or supporters of Zion! And the once haughty, domineering goim will come to Zion in all humility to serve as slaves of Zion and her King. This is the only way anyone can join Zion—humility and service. When Jehovah begins the great work He is predicting here then many will begin to acknowledge Him as Sovereign and look forward in faith to the completion of it all in the messianic kingdom (just when the completion is to come they will not know, cf. 1 Peter 1:10-12). Those who thus “wait” in patient faith upon Jehovah’s promises, even though they do not live to see them accomplished, (Hebrews 11:13-16), will not be put to “shame” but will “stand at their allotted place at the end of the days . . .” (Daniel 12:13).

Verses 24-26

Isa 49:24-26

Isaiah 49:24-26

"Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captive be delivered? But thus saith Jehovah, 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 that contendeth with thee, and I will save thy children. And I will feed them that oppress thee with their own flesh; and they shall be drunken with their own blood, as with sweet wine: and all flesh shall know that I, Jehovah, am thy Saviour, and thy Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob."

Here is God’s dogmatic promise to deliver Israel from Babylonian captivity. He will feed the captors with their own flesh, and make them drunk with their own blood. This language seems to be metaphorical with the meaning, "Not that the Babylonians would literally resort to cannibalism, but that they would destroy themselves through war and internal strife."

It will be remembered that Cyrus’ siege of Babylon went on for quite a long time before Babylon was captured; and Rawlinson explains how this prophecy was fulfilled during that interval:

"The prophecy meant that disunion would break the power of Babylon and render her an easy prey to the Persians. Recently discovered inscriptions clearly show that this was the case. Nabonidus had alienated the affection of his subjects by changes in the religion of the country, and during the course of the war with Cyrus, many Babylonian tribes went over to the invaders and fought against their own countrymen (from the Cylinder of Nabonidus)."

Despite the application of these last two verses to the breaking of Babylonian power and the delivery of the captives, there is a much more universal prophecy here of the ultimate victory of the New Israel, the Church of our Lord, over a more powerful enemy than Babylon, namely, Satan himself. As Clarke accurately stated:

"These last two verses contain a glorious promise of deliverance to the persecuted Church of Christ from the "terrible one," Satan, and all his representatives and vicegerents, and persecuting anti-Christian rulers. They shall at last cease from persecuting the Church of God, and destroy one another.”

Isaiah 49:24-26 SPECTACLE: Zion is not yet convinced. If Zion is taken captive by the mighty (gibbor) one (Babylon) how is it possible that she shall ever see kings and queens coming to her in humble service? The lawful captives are, in Hebrew, the tsadiyk or righteous captives. They are righteous compared to Babylon. The “righteous” are Jews essentially non-warlike as compared to “unrighteous” Babylon. It was historically unheard of that a nation taken from its homeland into exile by such self-serving empires as Babylon should ever reappear again in its own homeland. Jehovah predicts that Zion shall not only be returned to her homeland but her enemies shall serve her. Incredible as it may seem, Zion is going to be delivered from her mighty and terrible enemy. These verses apply to the return of the Jews from Babylonian exile at the decree of Cyrus the Persian. This is a prelude to the signal to the goim of Isaiah 49:22-23 and their becoming foster-parents to Zion (the church). Zion needs first to believe that Jehovah will deliver her from Babylonian captivity. This is the first obstacle in the way to the formation of a remnant which will in turn perpetuate the true Zion through the centuries until the King of Zion appears. So God says, I will make war upon those who contend with Zion. This is one of the fundamental warnings of the Bible; “Leave God’s people alone—do not harm them—for He is jealous for them.” Whoever would attack the people of God attacks God! God even holds the world responsible for “standing aloof” when His people are being set upon (cf. Isaiah 49:10-14). All God has to do is give pagan empires up to their own paganism and they turn on one another and bite and devour one another (cf. Romans 1:24-32). The history of the unbelieving world of human governments is one long tale of war, tyranny, destruction and politico-socio cannibalism. Man, in his perverse rebellion against God, goes on devouring himself! It is a matter of history that when Cyrus took up the conquest of Babylon some of the satrapies of the Babylonian empire revolted and fought with the Persians against their former rulers. Isaiah’s prediction came to pass specifically and generally.