Comfort for those who pursue Righteousness
Isaiah • Sermon • Submitted
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· 14 viewsIt is in Yahweh's nature to bring comfort to those who seek Him and His ways. His comfort is the Salvation of His people.
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Transcript
Have we experienced persecution or real trials in our walk of faith? We may be able to highlight experiences where it seemed that way, but the reality of our existence in contemporary society is that we have been living in relative ease when it comes to our faith.
As we have prayed for peace and comfort for the persecuted church earlier, we have little cognitive recognition of what many of our brothers and sisters are facing for the name of Christ. I believe it is fitting that the passage before us in Isaiah today deals with comfort for those who pursue righteousness.
Throughout the latter portion of Isaiah, he has been developing the theme of the Servant. At first it seemed like Isaiah must have been referring still to Israel as this Servant, but further description of Israel as being blind, spiritually guilty, and who falsely swears by the name of the Lord, it becomes very evident that this Servant of which Isaiah prophesies is much more than a mere sinful human Israel.
The thrust of Isaiah 51 is those who pursue righteousness Listening to the call of God. Listen to me, Vs. 1. Pay attention to me, vs. 4, Listen to me, Vs. 9. When we hear these words in Isaiah 51, it should be noted that the last time those words were spoken back in chapter 49, they were spoken by the Servant.
Listen to me, O coastlands,
and give attention, you peoples from afar.
The Lord called me from the womb,
from the body of my mother he named my name.
He made my mouth like a sharp sword;
in the shadow of his hand he hid me;
he made me a polished arrow;
in his quiver he hid me away.
And he said to me, “You are my servant,
Israel, in whom I will be glorified.”
This is the Servant who would be a light, not only to Jacob, not only to Israel, but a light to the Gentiles.
Again, in Isaiah 50:10 - we find the call to obey the voice of the Servant. The question is asked, who fears Yahweh, who obeys the voice of his servant?
God always has a faithful remnant, and it appears that one of the hallmarks of the faithful remnant of God’s people, whether here in Babylonian exile, or in the future salvation promised where light is given to the Gentiles also, is this element of fear and obedience to Yahweh’s Servant.
Isaiah 50 set a model, really. It distinguished the Servant as the model for all those who would live a life of faithfulness. I know last week that Matt spend much time with you looking forward to the fulfillment of some of the prophetic language in Isaiah 50, regarding the Servant, Jesus Christ. Ultimately we know, having the full revelation of the New Testament, that this Servant is the sinless Servant, Jesus Christ the Son of God. We are privileged in looking back on these prophetic words to have the fulfillment of the prophesy revealed to us in fulness.
With that privilege we look to Isaiah 51, where we find that the theme of Comfort and Salvation is on the pen of Isaiah. The promise of comfort and salvation is given to that faithful remnant, those who fear the Lord and pursue Him. We aren’t currently facing the kind of discomfort that Israel was facing in Captivity, nor are we facing the kind of persecution that our believing family is across the globe. But all who know Christ according to the Gospel have experienced, and will experience, the greatest comfort that the Lord grants to His children.
In the next couple weeks we really see the prophecy of Salvation in prospect, centered on the Work of the Divine Servant, and leading up to the culmination of worldwide salvation, that is, worldwide in availability, in the following chapters. Today I hope to see this.
It is in The Lord's nature to bring comfort to those who seek Him and His ways. His comfort is the Salvation of His people.
It is in The Lord's nature to bring comfort to those who seek Him and His ways. His comfort is the Salvation of His people.
As we view this portion of scripture I want to highlight three applicable lenses.
Give Attention to God’s Wonderful Works
Remember God’s Miraculous Nature
Find Comfort in God’s Authoritative Character
1. Give Attention to God’s Wonderful Works - Vs. 1-8
1. Give Attention to God’s Wonderful Works - Vs. 1-8
The speaker emphatically calls the ones who pursue righteousness and seek the Lord to Listen - which is more than just to hear, it is to listen and obey. To understand and accept a request or call.
Who are the hearers, and who is the speaker? The hearers are identified as those who are seeking God and his righteousness. They are, at least, the faithful remnant in Isaiah’s day, but there are certainly implications of obedience for those who still seek Him.
The Speaker is the one who called Abraham, as shown in verse 2. This of course is The Lord, but recall as we said in the introduction that the last speaker to say “Listen to me” was the Servant in chapter 49. It appears that Isaiah is starting to cue that there is more to the Servant than simply His Human nature.
It is a call to “Look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were dug.”
This is defined for us in verse two. Speaking of their human lineage, Abraham is the Rock and Sarah was the quarry. Why is God reminding them of their earthly history here? In doing so he is teaching and reminding about himself.
Abraham was called as one man, most likely a pagan worshipper who had never heard of or worshipped Yahweh, the true God before. He says “when I called him he was only one man, and I blessed him and made him many.”
This is the miraculous nature of God’s work on display. Not only was Abraham destitute of children in a physical sense, as he and Sarah had never been able to bear children, but he was also destitute of Spiritual children, in that he was the first in a sense to be called in this way by the true God. God says, remember the meager beginnings in Abraham? Now look at your numbers. Look at the vast nature of you physical family, and look at the miraculous nature of your spiritual lineage. Abraham was one and became many - this is the wonderful measure of what God can do.
Verse 3 - The Lord will surely comfort Zion. This is the main thrust of promise in this chapter - the promise of Comfort. God had not forgotten his past dealings with his people, and he would look compassionately on the tragedies taking place.
“The Lord Comforts Zion, He Comforts all her waste places.” This repetition in Old Testament Literature is called an idiom of certainty. In other words, it was a literary device that signalled the sure nature of God’s Word to his people.
“He makes her wildernesses like Eden, her desert like the garden of the LORD.” This is really a reference still to Abraham and Sarah - a parallel vision of God’s wonderful works. The Term for desert is an arid and barren place. So, too, were Abraham and Sarah barren in their childrearing. In the season of old age, beyond that of any natural expectation, God blessed them with the fruit of a child. So here, he promises the comfort of turning Zion’s barrenness into that of Eden -the bountiful garden of the Lord. Here we find that our God is He who takes suffering and devastation and in its place gives joy and prosperity.
And the reference to Eden brings to the hearer more than just the vision of prosperity and abundance of fruit, but to a time again where the curse will be removed. A restoration of creation to the original intention of its existence. It points our minds to the new earth promised after the Day of the Lord.
We should not here that if the earth is to be restored as promised to an Eden-like state, then not only do the effects of the curse have to be dealt with, also the reason for the curse must be dealt with. The reason for the universal curse, and the reason for Israel’s troubles, is God’s right dealing with sin. So a promise of ultimate restoration is a promise of ultimate removal of sin.
Verse 4 - “Give Attention” We find then a promise that a law, or a teaching, would go out. What Law is this? The Law went forth from Moses at Mt. Sinai. The law was given on stone tablets and expanded by the Lord during the time of Moses. What law is this?This is to be understood as a new Law, not simply the Torah that had been established, but in this law would be a light for the peoples. The word for peoples or nations in the end of vs 4 if in the plural for a reason. This seems to be an understanding that those who seek the Lord, or those who pursue righteousness, do not only come from the seed of Abraham, but also from the nations.
Jonathan Edwards, Perhaps America’s greatest theologian said this:
“We find that Mt. Sinai and Mt. Zion are opposed to one another by the Apostles in this respect, that as the law went forth out of the one, so the glorious gospel went forth from the other.”
“We find that Mt. Sinai and Mt. Zion are opposed to one another by the Apostles in this respect, that as the law went forth out of the one, so the glorious gospel went forth from the other.”
Verse 5 continues that theme. Righteousness and salvation are spoken of as going out. God’s judgment is promised for - again plural - the peoples. But not only judgment in the sense of torment. We are told that the coastlands hope for Him. The coastlands, or islands in some translations, are a picture of the distant nations. So we find God’s righteousness and his salvation going out to people who hope for him in all nations.
Here we must look backward and forward. We look backward to the promise to Abraham that in his seed all the nations of the earth would be blessed. Here we see that the promise of those nations being blessed is not just that of being blessed by association, but blessed by righteousness and salvation. We must look forward, just a few chapters, where we are told that God’s suffering Servant, whom we know to be Christ, would, being righteous, cause many to be accounted as righteous.
We also see here the beautiful picture of Righteousness and salvation. Salvation, in this sense, is not just a saving from disaster or calamity. It is a saving unto righteousness. You could say, salvation does not take place in the truest sense apart from righteousness, and righteousness for the peoples does not exist apart from Divine salvation.
Verse 6 expands that thought by reminding the people that God’s Salvation and righteousness are not temporary blessings - they are eternal and can never be frustrated.
Verse 7 gives us a third and final call to listen, this time addressed to those who know righteousness. Those who have God’s instruction in their heart. I can’t help but turn here in my mind to the promise of the New Covenant given in Jeremiah 31:33-34.
For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”
As Isaiah is leading ever forward toward this Idea of ultimate salvation, faith in the Servant of God, perhaps this is what this verse points to. The New Covenant brought by Christ, in which we are partakers, where the law has been fulfilled in Christ and God’s word has been written on our hears, the hearts of his New Covenant children, children and heirs by faith in the Son.
So What is the comfort here? Well, in verse 6 we are told that the heavens and earth will vanish and wear out. This current creation is doomed for destruction. This hearkens back to the idea of the new earth that we saw in verse 3. Verse 8 gives us a similar promise concerning those who reproach righteousness. Their end is promised.
These themes are echoed in some of Paul’s writings.
Of the earth, he writes in Romans 8:22-24
For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things.
We see these themes of waiting and anticipation - waiting for final redemption. Waiting for the vindication of righteousness. Waiting for the new creation. Let us not be dismayed and discouraged by the unrighteousness that surrounds us. Yahweh’s salvation has been revealed to the nations, and those who trust in His servant, those who pursue righteousness and seek the Lord will be comforted.
The promise in verse 8 is that the Lord’s righteousness and salvation will be for all generations. We are not in Babylonian exile, we are not living in the captivity such as national Israel was. We are, however, the ones who are pursuing righteousness and seeking the Lord in this generation. We take surety in this promise of comfort, for we have seen the work of the Gospel in Christ. And we proclaim to you, if you are not a pursuer of righteousness, a seeker of the Lord, that there is comfort in the Good news of the Gospel for all who come to Christ.
2. Remember God’s Miraculous Nature - Vs. 9-11
2. Remember God’s Miraculous Nature - Vs. 9-11
The promise of comfort through God’s righteous salvation is followed by a call for God to arise and work as he had in the past!
The speaker here may be Isaiah, it may be the faithful remnant whom he is prophesying to. Either way, we see here that a good and faithful response to hearing God’s promises is to pray and plead God urgently for their fulfillment. We see this theme often in the psalms.
Awake! Why are you sleeping, O Lord?
Rouse yourself! Do not reject us forever!
Awake and rouse yourself for my vindication,
for my cause, my God and my Lord!
Has God fallen asleep? Recall the prophet Elijah and the prophets of Baal? The false prophets earnestly sought their false God to bring down fire from above to light the altar, but to no avail. And what did Elijah say? Maybe your God is sleeping, or maybe he is using the bathroom!
But Yahweh is not so.
Behold, he who keeps Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.
As the faithful ones call upon God to awake, awake, and put on strength, it is not as though He had actually fallen asleep, but it is a poetic and urgent way for them to call out in Faith to the Lord!
God is again anthropomorphized - that is, given human characteristics, as they call out to “the arm of the Lord.”
For sake of time we won’t turn to these passages, but in the account of the Exodus, time and time again God is recalled as having saved by a mighty hand and an outstretched Arm. The Arm of the Lord is a symbol of his awesome strength. They are faithfully calling upon the Lord to act for their salvation.
Then an illustration is given.
“Was it not you who cut Rahab in pieces, who pierced the dragon? Was it not 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?”
Of course, we understand the reference to drying up the sea, and making the waters a way for the redeemed to pass over. This is referring to the crossing of the Red Sea in the Exodus. But what about this Rahab? and why was she cut in pieces?
Two possibilities.
The first is this - Rahab was Isaiah’s nickname for Egypt - Israel’s formidable enemy to the southwest. Certainly Egypt’s efforts to keep them enslaved were shattered by God’s actions in the exodus, so maybe Isaiah is referring to this.
The second one is this. Rahab was also the name of a sea monster in Canaanite-Babylonian mythology. There was much mystery and fear concerning the sea and the deep waters in this day. Rahab, the sea monster, was sort of a deified imagining of the terrors and disorders of the sea for people in that culture. So when Isaiah goes on to speak about how God dried up the sea and made it a dry land for people to pass over, in Essence Isaiah is saying “You are the God who has defeated even the mysterious and unknown fears to exert your sovereign will.” In essence, nothing can stand in the way of the covenant God of scripture, Yahweh.
The words in verse 11 are repeated here from back in Isaiah 35:9-10. That was the first place that Isaiah used the word “redeemed” to speak of the deliverance of God’s people.
This joy and singing looks immediately forward to their deliverance from captivity where they would be reunited with the freedom and joy of the Lord. But in the sense that Isaiah speaks here of everlasting joy upon this redemption, we understand that the ultimate fulfillment of this eternal joy is the ultimate redemption purchased for us by Christ, the Servant son of God, on the cross. We, his children by faith, will one day too experience the eternal joy and removal of all sorrow and sadness as we enter his presence eternally because of his redemptive work.
3. Find Comfort in God’s Authoritative Character
3. Find Comfort in God’s Authoritative Character
What are all these promises resting on? Certainly there is proof of God’s work in the past, and certainly God’s miraculous undertakings give an element of credence to His word; but ultimately the surety of his promises rest firmly in his character, and that is what He uses to back it up.
“I, I am he who comforts you.”
God here offers himself as the guarantor and the seal of his promise. His character and being alone are enough to make sure the contract. And we know that this is not unique here. What did God tell Moses when he questioned his plan for deliverance? He said, Moses, tell them that I Am sent you. That was Yahweh’s seal of his promise.
When Isaiah was translated into Greek sometime around the third century before Christ, the words that were used to translate this phrase, ‘I, I am he.” are the greek words Egw Eimi. That is the emphatic version of “I am”. That is also the way it was translated in Exodus when God said to tell Pharaoh that I AM sent you.
God said to Moses, “I am who I am.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I am has sent me to you.’ ”
And it is of no coincidence that when Christ was on this earth, the words that he often used to identify Himself were those very Words, “Egw Eimi.” When he said, “I am the good shepherd.” “I am the bread of life.” “I am the door” “I am the light of the world” Or perhaps most memorably,
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Jesus - the I Am - That was Jesus Christ using the same verification for his promises as we see used here in Isaiah - the promises of the Lord are sealed and secured by the very being and nature of God himself. So it is no wonder that Paul writes, speaking of Christ, that
For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory.
Vv. 12-16
Here God adds meat to his promise by giving wonderful account to his own greatness.
Creation
the Lord your maker
stretched out the heavens
laid the foundations of the earth
He calls the weight of their oppression to be examined against his own goodness and promise.
Where is the wrath of the oppressor?
You have forgotten me because of your physical and temporary situation, but what is that compared to your God, the maker of the universe?
15 - “I am the Lord your God, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar - the Lord of hosts is his name.”
God reminds them that it is He who is actually in charge of the turbulent and violent seasons in life. What seems a tragedy and an uncontrollable raging is actually part of God working out his plan.
Verse 16 is quite remarkable. Given the theme in the recent chapters of God speaking of and to his servant, it seems most likely that God must be speaking here to the Servant. Almost identical language was used back in
He made my mouth like a sharp sword;
in the shadow of his hand he hid me;
he made me a polished arrow;
in his quiver he hid me away.
God says that he has covered this one in the shadow of his hand. He has hidden him away. He has been hidden away until the proper time. And the ultimate purpose, he states, is to establish the heavens, lay the foundations of the earth, and to say to Zion, “You are my people.” The language really lends itself to the idea that this will be the work of the Servant. This Servant is hidden away for the ultimate work of redemption of God’s people. Not simply for their immediate release from Babylonian captivity, but for the true and greater redemption. And at the center of this promise, at the center of the work of this Servant, is God’s people. What kind of servant of God can establish a new heaven and a new earth? The ultimate Servant, the one who we will find in a couple chapters to be the Suffering Servant, the Eternal Son of God.
Beloved, we are not today members of Ethnic Israel finding ourselves in Babylonian captivity, but we are those who have been miraculously redeemed by the work of the Servant of God that Isaiah is speaking about. We have been spiritually redeemed by the work of Christ on the Cross. We have seen God’s wonderful works, we have been shown his miraculous nature, and we take comfort in his authoritative character. We, as those who seek the Lord and his righteousness by His grace, have found his comfort - the comfort of salvation for his people. We can be thankful that the redemption spoken of here was not just a temporal redemption of a captive people from their captives, but ultimately a spiritual redemption of people from every people, language, and nation.
If you are here today and, you say, “I’m confused by all this prophecy, all this Old Testament.” Well know this, while Isaiah was speaking directly to his contemporaries in his day, God was ultimately using Him to speak into the future concerning Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ, God’s eternal son, who came in flesh as the sinless Man of God, fulfilled these prophesies of redemption and deliverance. Know that all who are without God in this world are in sinful rebellion and captivity to that sin. The end of a that sinful rebellion is the eternal wrath of the Holy God. But God has made a way by his Grace, a way of redemption and salvation by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross, so that all who will come to him in faith are thereby delivered from that very wrath.
It is in The Lord's nature to bring comfort to those who seek Him and His ways. His comfort is the Salvation of His people.
It is in The Lord's nature to bring comfort to those who seek Him and His ways. His comfort is the Salvation of His people.