Isaiah Guide

ISAIAH 51-55 Advent Reading Guide

John D. Morrison, PhD EXILE TO EMMANUEL A GUIDE TO ISAIAH

JOHN D. MORRISON, PHD Exile to Emmanuel: A Guide to Isaiah Copyright © 2019 John D. Morrison Published by Lakewood Baptist Church 2235 Thompson Bridge Road Gainesville, Georgia 30506 Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from the ESV© Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version©), copyright © 2001 by Crossway. OT19 Greetings! Welcome to our journey through the Old Testament from Eden to Exile! I am so excited about what we are going to learn together and how we are going to grow together as we read God’s Word together in these next twelve months. Our reading the New Testament in a year as a church was a much broader and deeper success than we ever imagined. We saw God work in individuals and in relationships as his Word was made a daily priority. God tells us that his Word is powerful to accomplish his purposes (Isaiah 55:10-11), and we saw that on full display last year. We believe that all of God’s Word is, as Paul tells us, “able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 3:15). It is our commitment as a church to the whole counsel of God that has led us to read the Old Testament this year. I am even more excited about this year because of a new and added “twist.” Each week you’ll read from the Old Testament, but you’ll also find a devotional for the end of the week written by a member of our Lakewood Team. These devotionals will draw the connection between what you read each day and the New Testament. We are about to discover more regarding the unity of the Scriptures. God’s Word tells us the one story of salvation freely offered through Jesus Christ. Please keep current and encourage others to read along with you. I would love to hear your thoughts and impressions as you reflect on each day's reading. Please email me at [email protected] We are blessed as a ministry to have such a talented, gifted, and doctrinally sound staff who each have the competency to lead us into a deeper understanding of God's Word. As you read their devotional thoughts and commentary, consider letting them know how their words have impacted your daily walk of faith. Enjoy our journey from Eden to Exile!

Dr. Tom Tom Smiley Senior Pastor Lakewood Baptist Church ISAIAH 51-55

WEEK 52 Isaiah 51 - Day 1 Isaiah 51 pictures a conversation between the Lord and his people. In verses 1-8, the Lord calls upon his people to “listen.” Then, in verses 9-11, the people respond with a cry for the Lord to “awake.” They say that they hear his promises, but they long to see him put them into action. The chapter ends and continues into Isaiah 52 with the Lord telling the people, “Wake yourself.” It is not the Lord, but his people, who have been asleep. 51:1-8. The chapter begins with the Lord calling on his people, “Listen to me” (v. 1). God comforts his people with a message of hope. He is the God who brought children to Abraham and Sarah. The Lord turned this one man and his barren wife into a great nation, and so the Lord will be able to do it again (v. 2). This promise to multiply has hints of an even greater promise. Isaiah speaks of “Eden” and “the garden of the Lord” to draw our attention back to creation (v. 3). The promise the Lord makes here is nothing short of a new creation. As Isaiah continues in verses 4-6, he elaborates on this theme of a greater redemption. This promise is that salvation will go to the ends of the earth. It is the promise that the Lord will be “a light to the peoples” and that the “coastlands” will hope for him (vv. 4-5). Creation will fade away, but the Lord’s salvation is forever (v. 6). Thus, the Lord’s people should not fear those who are temporary; rather, they should trust the Lord who offers everlasting hope (vv. 7-8). 51:9-11. The people respond with a cry for the Lord to do something: “Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord” (v. 9). His people are growing impatient. It seems as if the Lord has fallen asleep. He seems to have forgotten them, and they want him to act. Building off imagery from the Exodus, they call on the Lord to act once again to redeem his people. 51:12-51:2. In this section, the Lord retorts that it is not he but his people who need to wake up. It is the people, not God who have fallen asleep. Verses 12-16 draw attention to who the Lord is. He is “I AM,” the completely self-existent one who is like no one or nothing else (v. 12). He is the LORD their Maker; he is the creator and ruler of all things (v. 13). He is “I AM the LORD your God” who delivered his people through the Red Sea (v. 15). He is the Lord of Hosts (v. 15). These verses conclude with a reminder of who the people are: “You are my people” (v. 16). They belong to the one, true, and living God, and so they should not 62 fear those who will perish. Rather, they should trust in the eternal Lord who made all people. Verses 17-23 are a call for the people, “Wake yourself.” Isaiah pictures the people as staggering around in a drunken stupor. They are staggering from experiencing God’s judgment, but this judgment is not the final word. The Lord’s judgment was just, but it is coming to end. The people need to wake up and trust the Lord. These themes carry into the start of chapter 52 where the Lord through Isaiah calls on his people to wake up to the hope of the promised restoration. The Lord will work to restore them. Do you ever feel like the Lord is asleep? Like he has forgotten you? What promises of Scripture do you turn to in order to remind yourself that the Lord remembers you and is with you? Take time to reflect and to meditate on Psalm 121:3-4.

63 Isaiah 52 - Day 2 Chapter 52 focuses on the coming hope of redemption for God’s people. The chapter begins with the announcement that the Lord will restore his people, and then it continues with a song of praise and rejoicing. 52:1-6. The first two verses continue with the call to awake from chapter 51. The people need to awaken to the hope to which the Lord has called them and then respond in the obedience of faith (vv. 1-2). The Lord proceeds to assure them of the certainty of their deliverance: “You were sold for nothing, and you shall be redeemed with no money” (v. 3). In other words, God does not have to pay anyone off to get them back. No one took God’s people from him. There is no other power involved with whom he must contend. They are in exile for their disobedience. They have offended God’s perfect justice, and so this redemption will be made by God. Currently, the people’s disobedience and subsequent exile is causing the Lord’s name to be despised (v. 5). People do not think he is able to save, and so the Lord will again show his power to save. The Bible often uses economic terms to describe the work of Christ. Scripture will describe Christ’s work as buying us at a price and being purchased by his blood. Even the word “redemption” itself is an economic terms. The question for many, then, is to whom is God paying such a price. 2 Cor. 5:19 helps make sense of this: “In Christ was reconciling the world to himself.” God was the one offended by sin, and our redemption is reconciling us to himself through Christ. Thus, Isaiah can prophesy as he does in 52:3. There is no one else to whom God owes a price for our redemption. He works through Christ and by his Spirit to meet the righteous demands of his nature so that we can know and love him. 52:7-12. In this section, Isaiah pictures a messenger running back to the city to announce the news of a great victory. You might imagine the legend of Philippides running from Marathon to Athens to announce the Greek victory over the Persians. Isaiah describes the feet of the runner announcing God’s victory as beautiful (v. 7). There is great joy and celebration in the announcement of this victory. Isaiah describes peace, happiness, and salvation all coming from this pronouncement: “Your God reigns” (v. 7). Why do peace, happiness, and salvation flow from God’s reign? How has the Lord enabled you to experience such things in your life? In Romans 10:15, Paul cites Isaiah 52:7 as a call to proclaim the gospel to all people. To whom is the Lord calling you to proclaim the good news of Christ’s victory?

64 In verses 8-10, there is a progression of rejoicing over God’s victory. It begins with the watchmen who first sees the messenger coming (v. 8), and then expands to all Jerusalem (v. 9), and finally this rejoicing over God’s reign expands to a chorus from all the ends of the earth. Once again, we see Isaiah’s often repeated theme that salvation is to go to the ends of the earth. How do these verses apply to our lives today? We are called to rejoice that salvation has come to us at the ends of the earth. Also, Jesus calls us to pray for the Lord to raise up workers and send them out into the harvest (Matt. 9:38). As this section concludes in verses 11-12, Isaiah gives us a new image. Now, the people from exile are pictured as returning home. Isaiah draws on imagery from the Exodus of the Lord hemming in his people. He goes both before and behind them. He is their guide and protector. Yet unlike the Exodus, God’s people are not in hurry. This is a better restoration than the Exodus there is no need to flee a pursuing enemy. God’s victory has been total and secure. He will redeem and restore his people.

65 Isaiah 52:13-53-12 - Day 3 This is the final Servant Song in Isaiah. It is the song of the suffering Servant. In many ways the section is the highpoint of the Old Testament as it so clearly points to the work of Christ from his incarnation to his exaltation. In the flow of Isaiah’s prophecy, this section serves to answer the question of how God’s people will be redeemed. Cyrus will be the Lord’s instrument to restore the people from physical bondage, but it will be the Servant who will free them from spiritual bondage. He will accomplish such deliverance in a most surprising way: by suffering as a substitutionary sacrifice. The promised deliverance will be won not be by overwhelming force but by the Servant’s suffering and humiliation. “This effect in the Servant [v. 5] is Verse 13 begins this section with the announcement the measure of how seriously God takes our rebellion and that the Servant will accomplish the Lord’s purposes: crookedness. We typically wish to he will act wisely. Then, Isaiah prophesies about the make light of our ‘shortcomings,’ Servant, “He shall be high and lifted, and shall be to explain away our ‘mistakes.’ But exalted.” This is the language Isaiah uses elsewhere to God will have none of it. The describe God himself, most notably in his vision of the refusal of humanity to bow to the Lord seated on his throne (Isa. 6:1; 57:15). This is the Creator’s rule, and our insistence Servant of the Lord, but he is also described as the on drawing up our own moral Lord himself. The mystery of how this will be only codes that pander to our lusts, are becomes clear in Jesus Christ. not shortcomings or mistakes. They are the stuff of death and While the Servant is highly exalted, he causes corruption, and unless someone astonishment (vv. 14-15). People are shocked by him, can be found to stand in our place, for he is not the savior they expected. Hints of his they will see us impaled on the suffering and humiliation begin to appear in these swords of our own making and verses: he is so marred that he is not even recognized as broken on the racks of our own human. The idea of sprinkling many nations seems to design. But someone has been be an allusion to the way blood was sprinkled to cleanse found. Someone has taken on in the sacrificial system. Somehow, this Servant’s himself the results of our suffering would cleanse the nations. rebelliousness, and we have been given the keys of the kingdom (2 As this song continues, Isaiah makes clear that the Cor. 5:21; 8:9; 1 Pet. 2:24).” suffering of the Servant is “the arm of the - John N. Oswalt Lord” (52:1). That is to say, this suffering is God’s act of deliverance. Such redemption is received with shock and disbelief (vv. 2-3). This Servant is an unexpected savior. This is not the demonstration of might and splendor that one would expect from the arm of the Lord. He is despised and rejected. 66 The Servant is despised and rejected, not for his own sake, but for his people (vv. 4-6). Over and over again, Isaiah speaks of “our” ____. It is “our griefs” and “our sorrows” and “our transgressions” that have led to his suffering. The Servant is suffering as a substitute. He is taking his people’s punishment upon himself. We are all like sheep who have gone astray (v. 6), and the Servant has become like us (vv. 7-9). He is “like a lamb that is led to slaughter.” Sheep were the primary animal for sacrifice, and so the Servant’s becoming like a lamb for the slaughter once again highlights the sacrificial nature of the Servant’s death. These verses highlight the servant’s submissiveness, his innocence, and the injustice against him as compared to our nature as wandering sheep. He has become like us but without fault or blemish. This suffering of the Servant is not an accident; rather, it is God’s will (v. 10). By God’s perfect will, the Servant has become a guilt offering. By his bearing their iniquities, the Servant makes many righteous (v. 11). The section concludes with the image of a victory parade (v. 12). The Lord is handing over to the Servant the spoils of victory. The Servant is being exalted (just as this section began with the exalted Servant—high and lifted up—in 52:13). He is exalted because of his sacrificial death through which “he bore the sin of many.” How does this section find its fulfillment in Jesus Christ? Clearly, this song speaks about the crucifixion of Jesus. What other aspects of his life and ministry do you see in this song? Oswalt suggests that this section of Isaiah helped form the basis for the Christ hymn in Philippians 2. Put these two passages side by side and compare them. What similarities do you note? Where else is this passage from Isaiah quoted or alluded to in the New Testament? In light of this passage and its fulfillment in Jesus Christ, how is the Lord calling you to respond?

67 Isaiah 54 - Day 4 Chapters 54 rejoices in the redemption won through the Servant’s suffering (52:13-53:12). This chapter uses two images to describe this redemption: the restored wife (vv. 1-10) and the rebuilt city city (vv. 11-17). 54:1-10. The Restored Wife. The Bible will commonly describe the Lord’s relationship with his people as a marriage (see, for example, Hosea, Song of Solomon, and Ephesians 5). He is the husband, and his people are his bride. Closely tied to this marriage imagery is that the Lord brings life to the wombs of barren women. The conception and birth from a barren woman are at once great acts of God and signs that point to his saving work. Hannah’s song (1 Sam. 2:1-10) combines these two themes. Hannah thanks the Lord for giving her a miraculous child, but she also praises the Lord because this is the way he chooses to work: exalting the lowly and bringing life where there is barrenness. As Isaiah picks up on these images in verses 1-3, he seems to draw particularly from the lives of Abraham and Sarah. The barren woman will have a child, and that family will grow to cover the whole earth. Compare Isaiah 54:1-3 with Genesis 12:1-3. In what way is the promised work of God that Isaiah prophesies even greater than what God did for Abraham? In light of the Lord’s promise, the call to the people is “fear not” (v. 4). Verses 5-6 elaborate on why they need not fear: the Lord is his people’s husband. They are married to the Creator of all the earth, the Lord of hosts. Just as with Ruth, their husband is also their redeemer. The Lord himself has called them back. The people were punished “for a brief moment” (v. 7), but now they will be restored “with everlasting love” (v. 8). As much as Isaiah has focused on the Lord’s sovereignty and transcendence, he never loses sight of the intensely personal love that God has for his people. He is the God of great compassion and everlasting love. Like the days of Noah, the Lord’s judgment is not the final word (vv. 9-10). God’s love is sure and steadfast. His love is more secure than any mountain. How have you experienced the Lord as a God of great compassion and everlasting love? How does the cross highlight this aspect of God’s character? According to 2 Cor. 1:3-5, what are we to do with the comfort we receive from God? 54:11-17. The Rebuilt City. The present condition of God’s people is miserable. They are afflicted, storm-tossed, and without comfort (v. 11). Yet, because of the Lord’s steadfast love, his people will move from affliction to abundance. The imagery of a

68 rebuilt city pictures this restoration and flourishing of God’s people. This restoration is all accomplished by the Lord. Verses 13-14 clarify that the abundance described in 11-12 is spiritual. The true blessing is not lavish buildings; rather, it is a right relationship with the Lord. Their children will follow the Lord and be taught by him. This right relationship with God brings peace and security. This promised deliverance is secure because the Lord is sovereign (vv. 15-17). He can bring them into their inheritance (ESV: “heritage”), which is nothing less than a restored relationship with himself. The Lord will grant them their righteousness (ESV: “vindication), which the servant made possible through his substitutionary sacrifice. Do we view our right relationship with the Lord as the greatest treasure? Read and reflect on Matthew 13:44-46. Consider also how much the restoration of this relationship cost the Lord. Is the inheritance of knowing and loving God enough for you? Where do you find yourself wrongly believing that it is God + something else that will satisfy you? How, by God’s grace, can you come to see rightly that God alone is who you need?

69 Isaiah 55 - Day 5 In chapter 54, Isaiah rejoiced over the redemption won through the suffering Servant as described in 52:13-53:12. Now, in chapter 55, Isaiah calls on the people come and receive the promised salvation. 55:1-5. Listen and Receive God’s Promise. The chapter begins with a call to free receive the spiritual nourishment that the Lord offers (v. 1). What the Lord offers cannot be earned; it is gift that can only be received (v. 2). The Lord calls on the people to listen to him (v. 3), and if they will listen and come to him, they will find life in him (v. 3). This promise is an everlasting covenant; it is a promise that will endure forever. This covenant is closely tied to David, for the hope Isaiah describes is the hope of a Messiah. Verse 4 seems to describe the historic David, and verse 5 looks forward to the work of the coming Messiah. This promise of life is for all who will believe, and through it God will form a new people for himself (v. 5). Compare Isaiah 55:5 and Ephesians 2:11-22. How has the promise of Isaiah now come true in Christ for the chruch? 55:6-13. Seek the Lord. Here the call to listen and to come to the Lord is expanded to a call to seek the Lord. Isaiah begins by describing what it looks like to seek the Lord, and then he sets forth three reasons the Lord should be sought. In verses 6 and 7, Isaiah calls people to seek the Lord, and that seeking involves turning from sin and turning to God. Both wicked actions and unrighteous thoughts are to be left behind as one seeks the Lord. Seeking the Lord looks like repentance: turning from sin and turning to God. It is when we turn to the Lord that we find him full of compassion and willing to abundantly pardon. We are often tempted to try to seek God while holding our to our ways and thoughts that are unpleasing to him. Where is the Lord calling you to turn from your sin so that you can fully seek him? The final verses in this chapter offer three reasons to seek the Lord. First, in verses 8 and 9, Isaiah says that we should seek the Lord because we are not currently thinking and acting as he does. Our ways are wicked and our thoughts are unrighteous (v. 7), and so we need to seek the Lord because his ways are higher and better than ours (vv. 8-9). He is the Holy One of Israel, and we need his grace in order to live in a manner that honors him. Where is are your thoughts and ways not in line with God’s? Pray for God by his Spirit to convict you concerning sin and righteousness.

70 Second, Isaiah says that we should turn to the Lord because his word is totally dependable (vv. 10-11). We should seek the Lord because he has promised deliverance to all who seek him and faith, and he will deliver on that promise. His word is faithful and true. He will accomplish all that he has promised. Read John 1. How does Jesus, the Word of God made flesh, bring all of God’s promises to fruition? Consider also 2 Cor. 1:20. Finally, Isaiah says that we should seek the Lord because he is the one who will restore all things (vv. 12-13). The imagery in these final verses is of the new creation. All things have been made new and are rejoicing that God’s salvation has gone forth into all the world. This salvation will be everlasting, and all creation will rejoice and sing because of the great redemption the Lord has accomplished. Read Romans 8:18-25. Why is creation now waiting “with eager longing” for the redemption of God’s people? Why will the whole creation rejoice when the Lord completes the redemption of his people? What implications should we draw for our lives today that the new creation will be a physical place where we have physical bodies? Why is it significant that Christ came with a body and soul to redeem us in our bodies and souls?