54. Isaiah Chapter Fifty-Four

Isaiah Chapter 54

Chapter fifty-four bursts out in exultation after the prophecies of the sufferings, sin-bearing and glory of the Servant of Jehovah in chapter fifty-three. Israel is called upon to rejoice with singing and shouting, as her state of barrenness would yield place to fruitfulness. The experiences of their ancestress Sarah had been a foreshadowing of this. The desolate condition of the people and their land was not to last indefinitely. Jehovah had not divorced her. The time will come when she will no more be termed “Forsaken” neither will the land be termed “Desolate,” for “as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride,” so will God rejoice over her (Isaiah 62:4-5) and her children will be more numerous than they were before she became desolate (Isaiah 54:1).

She is therefore bidden to broaden out her tent and stretch out the curtains of her habitations, to lengthen her cords and strengthen her stakes, language metaphorically setting forth the extension of her territory so that there may be room for the increased population.

Accordingly the promise is given her, “thou shalt spread abroad on the right hand and on the left; and thy seed shall possess the nations, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited” (Isaiah 54:3). The right hand and the left stands for both the south and the north, as in Genesis 15:18, Egypt and the Euphrates; also for the east and the west (see Genesis 28:14). There will be much more in the coming time than what was enjoyed in the reign of Solomon. They are to become the head of the nations, ruling over those who oppressed them (see Micah 4:1-3). Cities desolated by war and pillage will become populous. Israel, repentant and converted, will then be the meek who shall inherit the earth.

Such are the Lord’s ways. Enlargement follows curtailment when His chastening hand has done its work. When the disciplined soul learns to realize more fully what was accomplished at Calvary and bows in self-judgment before Him, spiritual enlargement is sure to result. Fruitfulness, which has suffered through impoverishment of soul, bursts forth in abundance, for the glory of the Lord and for the enrichment and blessing of others. The passage that follows from verse 4 onward is full of the tenderest promises and comfort, telling out the lovingkindness of the Lord, His covenant mercies, and the glorious future in store for the nation. Israel is no longer to fear, for she will not be put to shame. She is exhorted not to be confounded (or rather, as it may be rendered, “to bid defiance to reproach”). Her future will be so delightful that she will “forget the shame of her youth,” the time when she was in bondage in Egypt. There she was like a virgin, but Jehovah who redeemed her betrothed her to Himself with a covenant of love (see Jeremiah 51:5), for her Husband was none other than her Maker (Isaiah 54:5). He who had become her Husband was the One who brought her into existence, and He is “the Lord of hosts,” the One whose bidding the hosts above fulfill. In the Hebrew the words for Maker and Husband are plural, alike with Elohim, “God,” the last divine title in the verse; they are thus expressive of the fullness of the relation and of His creatorial power.

Again, her Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, is described as “the God of the whole earth,” indicating that the power to assist her belongs to Him and will be exercised because of the relation of love in which she stands to Him. The relation had suffered a kind of disillusion, but Jehovah will yet call her back to Himself, “as a wife forsaken and grieved in spirit, even a wife of youth, when she is cast off” (Isaiah 54:6). Wonderful is the restoring grace of God. He calls Israel back to Himself as a husband receives back the wife he loved in his youth. She has displeased Him, but she was not as one hated. On the contrary, the Lord regards the time in which He had forsaken her, the time of her captivity, as “a small moment” (Isaiah 54:7). The time of her captivity in the east had seemed long to the captives, and this is especially evinced in the intercessory prayer and supplications made by Daniel, who realized the terrible nature of God’s disciplinary dealings in the time of the forsaking (see Daniel 9:1-27 and Jeremiah’s Lamentations). Jeremiah says, “Wherefore dost Thou forget us forever, and forsake us so long time?” (Lamentations 5:20). Viewing the still longer period from the unalterable character of His mercy, God speaks of it as a moment. He says “with great mercies will I gather thee” (Isaiah 54:7-8). At the beginning of Isaiah 54:8 the r.v. rightly renders the phrase “In overflowing wrath,” that is, in the gushing forth of indignation. It is with this that His “everlasting kindness” is set in contrast. The Lord then gives a pledge that He will never again be wroth with Israel or rebuke her. Similarly, He says, He pledged Himself to Noah and His descendants that He would never cut off all the flesh again by the waters of a flood. Just as the already existent rainbow was then set as a token of a covenant between Himself and the earth and every living creature, so now He speaks of His “covenant of peace” as that which will never be removed, and conveys the assurance that likewise, even when the mountains have departed and the hills have been removed, His kindness shall never depart from Israel. For He is “the Lord that hath mercy on thee” (Isaiah 54:10).

Just as Noah and his family came forth into a new world after the deluge, so after “the great tribulation” will God’s redeemed earthly people come forth to Millennial blessedness. “Weeping may tarry [or come in to lodge] for the night, but joy cometh in the morning” (Psalms 30:5, where God’s anger is said to last “but for a moment,” just as here in Isaiah 54:7-8; cp. 2 Corinthians 4:17).

Thus does the Lord, while administering the necessary unjoyous chastening of His people, fix His heart and keep His eye upon the “peaceable fruit of righteousness.” Never does He cease to have our highest and best interests in view. From Isaiah 54:11 to the end of the chapter the future glory and happiness of God’s earthly people is described in a beautiful variety of ways, which serve to set forth the coming deliverance and its issues in contrast to their present woes. This latter condition He describes in tender terms: “O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted” (Isaiah 54:11). The tempest expresses the fury of Gentile powers in their Satanically inspired determination to crush Israel to the uttermost. Of Jerusalem, which at the height of the storm will become the center of the world’s last great war, He says “I will set thy stones in fair colors, and lay thy foundations with sapphires. And I will make thy pinnacles [or minarets, not “windows,” a.v.] of rubies, and thy gates of carbuncles, and all thy border [r.v.] of pleasant stones.” All this represents the reflection of the glory of God Himself. The jewels which God has hidden in the earth, and which man has unearthed for purposes of his own avarice and self-glorification, have been designed for the purpose of setting forth the glory of Christ’s attributes and character, and while they will be literally used to beautify the earthly Jerusalem, they will thereby be a continuous reminder and token to God’s people of the glories and grace of Christ their Redeemer. So the twelve precious stones, set in the breastplate of the high priest of old, set forth the glory and grace of Christ in His High Priestly ministry. And as from that breastplate the words of light and instruction were given for the impartation of the mind of the Lord to His people, so in the coming day the natural glory of Jerusalem, instead of ministering to human pride, will convey the mind and will of God as revealed in the Messiah. This is what is immediately promised, for Isaiah 54:13 says: “And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord; and great shall be the peace of thy children.” That is to say, they will all be disciples (see the r.v. margin). They will not need human instruction. This promise Christ Himself quoted when He said to the murmuring Jews: “Every one that hath heard from the Father, and hath learned, cometh unto Me,” John 6:45. The two words in that verse in the original, “taught of God,” are combined into one adjective in 1 Thessalonians 4:9, lit., “God-taught.” Just as believers are taught of God to love one another, so in Israel, as those who will be “taught of the Lord,” love will characterize them all. It naturally follows that peace will prevail. For where love is in exercise joy and peace inevitably exist (cp. Colossians 3:14-15).

All this is the outcome of the knowledge of the Lord. Israel will not need to teach every man his neighbor and every man his brother, saying, “know the Lord”: for they will all know Him “from the least to the greatest” (Jeremiah 31:34). But all this happiness will be enjoyed on the basis of Divine righteousness: “in righteousness shalt thou be established,” Isaiah 54:14 (see chap. Isaiah 11:5). No longer will foes oppress them. They will be far from oppression. They are not to fear a repetition of their troubles. They are to be far from terror; it will not come near them again. Their enemies may gather together, but all who dare to do so will fall because of them. Jerusalem will be invincible (Isaiah 54:15). God has created the smith who blows the coal fire and produces a weapon for his work (or “according to his trade”); He has also created the waster (or destroyer) to destroy (Isaiah 54:16). The very creative power of Jehovah is to be used to defend His people. Accordingly no weapon formed against them shall prosper. And then, just as every hostile weapon fails, so Jerusalem, quickened into the knowledge of the Lord, and therefore conscious of its Divine right, will convict every accuser as guilty and therefore subject to punishment. “Every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn” (Isaiah 54:17). The closing statement of the chapter sums up all the preceding promises, and describes them as “the heritage of the servants of Jehovah.” What is the rightful reward of the great Servant of Jehovah in His exaltation, is differently described in respect of His servants, for their heritage is of grace. And whereas He is Himself “Jesus Christ the righteous,” the righteousness granted to His people is likewise a matter of grace: “their righteousness is of Me, saith Jehovah.” That is how Jerusalem is to be established. Israel will not be able to claim anything of this by their own merit, any more than we can who are “justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”