Isaiah

 Isaiah Chapter 51

• Isaiah 51:1 Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the LORD: look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged.

This seems to be a call and exhortation to all who seek the righteousness of the Lord. We are encouraged to seek the one who created and made us. This time in which Isaish spoke these words though; it is mainly for Israel to return to the Lord that called her out of Egypt. They had fallen away and He calls them back into fellowship with God who formed them from the womb.

• Isaiah 51:2 Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you: for I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him .

Verse two is a call for the children of Abraham to remember their creator. This call is to remind the children of Israel from where they came from. His calling remains forever and His promise eternal. God used the seed of Abraham to bring salvation to the whole earth. The gifts and calling of God is without repentance. He doesn't take them back. Israel was cut off temporarily when the gospel was given to the Gentiles but they will be grafted in again. The book of Romans 9, 10 and 11 speak more on this.

• Isaiah 51:3 For the LORD shall comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.

Here is the promise that God will not forsake Zion. They are to be restored and the waste places will blossom. They will have joy, gladness, and thanksgiving.

This is God's desire for all of us. His desire is to save rather than destroy. We see God pictured in the Old Testament sometimes as a severe God of judgment. When we study the bible closer, however, we see that God would much rather save than destroy. He always sends prophets and preachers to warn before sending destruction. Remember the story of Jonah. Jonah knew how God was and did not want to go warn the city of Nineveh that they needed to repent. Nineveh was the capital of Assyria, which was an empire that persecuted Israel for years. Jonah did not want them saved but destroyed. Jonah knew that if Nineveh repented, God would spare the city. Destruction is a last resort to keep evil from continuing from those who refuse correction continually.

The angels rejoice when just one sinner repents and his soul is saved from eternal death. God wants to save, heal and deliver. It is never His will that any should perish.

• Isaiah 51:4 Hearken unto me, my people; and give ear unto me, O my nation: for a law shall proceed from me, and I will make my judgment to rest for a light of the people.
• 5 My righteousness is near; my salvation is gone forth, and mine arms shall judge the people; the isles shall wait upon me, and on mine arm shall they trust.

Here we see the plan and the very heart of God: His desire to save, to have us listen for His voice and His words.

• Isaiah 51:6 Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath: for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner: but my salvation shall be for ever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished.

This is why we need to receive the gift of eternal life and live forever. God sent a savior to save us from sin and made us fit to inherit eternal life. The heavens and earth that we know now will pass away. All the old sin and corruption shall pass away with it.

We who have received Jesus Christ, the one God sent to save all that believe; are the ones who will inherit the new heaven and the new earth. He will make all things new in which nothing that defiles, makes a lie or is an abomination shall enter into that new city. Now is the time to have our sins washed away by the shed blood of Jesus Christ so that we become worthy to inherit eternal life. We are not worthy, but the blood of Jesus Christ covering our sins makes us worthy. We are covered by His righteousness. If we do not believe the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ for our sins, then we will have to die for our own sins which is eternal death and separation from God in hell.

To receive Jesus is to hate our sin, to want to be free from sin and to receive His forgiveness for our sins. To receive Christ means to receive His righteousness in place of our own righteousness, which can never be good enough. We need to desire to be righteous and desire that sin does not dwell within us any longer. We should hate the stuff that destroys so many and causes them to be eternally separated from God.

Jesus Christ makes us free from that old stuff and makes us a new creature. Jew and Gentile alike can inherit eternal salvation by faith in Jesus Christ. This is the promise given to Abraham. We who are not the natural seed of Abraham can become the seed of Abraham by adoption. That adoption into the family of God comes by faith in Jesus Christ. The natural seed of Abraham needs the same salvation. They have to have their sins taken away also because sin cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. The new heaven and earth cannot have sin. That is why Jesus came, to save us from that sin that causes eternal death and separation from our heavenly Father.

• Isaiah 51:7 Hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law; fear ye not the reproach of men, neither be ye afraid of their revilings.

When we trust in God and love His law, we are not to fear the mocking, persecution and reproach of men: If God is for us, who is he that stands against us? They pass away but those who believe and love the Lord will live forever.

• Isaiah 51:8 For the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like wool: but my righteousness shall be for ever, and my salvation from generation to generation.

God is everlasting and those who live for God will be everlasting also.

• Isaiah 51:9 Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD; awake, as in the ancient days, in the generations of old. Art thou not it that hath cut Rahab, and wounded the dragon?
• 10 Art thou not it which hath dried the sea, the waters of the great deep; that hath made the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass over?
• 11 Therefore the redeemed of the LORD shall return, and come with singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their head: they shall obtain gladness and joy; and sorrow and mourning shall flee away.

Rahab means Egypt here and the dragon, Pharaoh and His armies that came against them as they tried to flee Egypt after years of bondage and slavery. God parted the Red Sea that Israel could pass through. Zion is the capital of Israel, Jerusalem, where Christ shall reign over all the earth.

What a comfort, what a joy: To remember our creator who has all power and lives forever. To accept His plan of redemption and live forever in joy and gladness. Why do so many resist this beautiful message of hope?

No more cancer, no more sorrow or crying, no more death. Why do so many refuse to hear this message and even persecute those who preach it?

• Isaiah 51:12 I, even I, am he that comforteth you: who art thou, that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die, and of the son of man which shall be made as grass;
• 13 And forgettest the LORD thy maker, that hath stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth; and hast feared continually every day because of the fury of the oppressor, as if he were ready to destroy? and where is the fury of the oppressor?

God is asking here, why His people fear other nations and oppressors more than they fear God. God is the one who has the power to eternal life or eternal death. Those upon the earth can only kill temporarily. They have no power over eternity. God is eternal. It is more important to worry about what God thinks of us rather than what man thinks.

• Isaiah 51:14 The captive exile hasteneth that he may be loosed, and that he should not die in the pit, nor that his bread should fail.
• 15 But I am the LORD thy God, that divided the sea, whose waves roared: The LORD of hosts is his name.
• 16 And I have put my words in thy mouth, and I have covered thee in the shadow of mine hand, that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and say unto Zion, Thou art my people.

Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Greece, Rome are nothing compared to the power and greatness of God. Those empires passed away and so will all future empires no matter how great they may seem at the time. God is the one to fear. He is everlasting. He is what counts. His opinion should be what we care about, His salvation should be sought, and His word should be what we devour night and day. He is eternal.

We sometimes get so upset at the those that cast out God out of schools, the abortionists, and the enemies of righteousness but they will pass away. God is eternal and His plan will come to pass. Nothing shall stop it. Let us get on the Lord's side and hide in His salvation, which is eternal. All the other things shall pass away and be no more.

• Isaiah 51:17 Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem, which hast drunk at the hand of the LORD the cup of his fury; thou hast drunken the dregs of the cup of trembling, and wrung them out.
• 18 There is none to guide her among all the sons whom she hath brought forth; neither is there any that taketh her by the hand of all the sons that she hath brought up.
• 19 These two things are come unto thee; who shall be sorry for thee? desolation, and destruction, and the famine, and the sword: by whom shall I comfort thee?
• 20 Thy sons have fainted, they lie at the head of all the streets, as a wild bull in a net: they are full of the fury of the LORD, the rebuke of thy God.
• 21 Therefore hear now this, thou afflicted, and drunken, but not with wine:
• 22 Thus saith thy Lord the LORD, and thy God that pleadeth the cause of his people, Behold, I have taken out of thine hand the cup of trembling, even the dregs of the cup of my fury; thou shalt no more drink it again:
• 23 But I will put it into the hand of them that afflict thee; which have said to thy soul, Bow down, that we may go over: and thou hast laid thy body as the ground, and as the street, to them that went over.

This chapter ends with a plea to Israel the chosen people of God to not fear the nations that come against them but remember the Lord. The Lord allowed other nations to oppress them because they turned from His righteousness and rejected Him and preferred the gods of other nations. He exhorts them to repent and return to Him and the other oppressing nations will be destroyed. God is the one they need to turn to and not trust in other nations.

If I could give a message to the nation of Israel today, I would tell them to seek God and receive their Messiah, Jesus Christ. It's the people who sincerely trust in Jesus for real, that love Israel. It is those that know the bible and believe in it, that support Israel because they know the word God gave to Abraham, "I will bless those that bless thee and curse those that curse thee."  The Christians who do not support Israel either are Christian in name only or they just haven't read the bible.

 Those that supported Hitler during the Holocaust did not know Jesus. They were not real Christians. I would say to Israel: Trust Jesus for help and deliverance instead of looking to the United States so much. In fact that is a message for the whole world. Look to God and His Son Jesus Christ for salvation and help. He is everlasting not the nations of the world. DC

Isaiah 52

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