Isaiah 57

Isaiah 57:14-21

God’ s Promise to the Humble and Contrite (57:14-21) It is not improbable that verses 14-21 are simply a continuation of the preceding poem. The promise of restoration, guidance, and peace to those who take refuge in the Lord (see end of vs. 13) is now elaborated. God is high and lofty; he has eternity as his place of abode, and Holy is his name. Nevertheless, he is a God who is with the humble and the contrite in spirit (vs. 15). Indeed, the spirit which gives life comes solely from him (vs. 16). The theme in verses 16-19, that God punished his people in the past because of their backsliding but that now he proposes to heal them and bring peace to those far and near, has been developed in the earlier chapters (see, for example, 42:18— 43:7; 48:8-11; 51:17-23; 54:7-10). For this healing, which would remove the infection that had led them to rebel against their Lord, Israel hoped devoutly. It was an integral part of her hope for the great age to come that God would remove this disease, the root evil so frequently described in the pages of the Bible, as for example in the story of the first man and woman (Genesis 3; see also Jeremiah 31:31-34; Ezekiel 36:22-32). The urgency of this desire for cleansing appears also as an important part of the great psalm of confession (Psalms 51:6-12). The center of the New Testament is directed squarely at this basic problem. The meaning of God’ s act in Jesus Christ is understood as the deliverance of man from the burden of his sin and the provision of the possibility of a new life apart from that slavery. The final verses (20-21) deal with the wicked who have been described in the preceding section. In God’ s plan there is no future for such people. They are like the tossing sea which is continually stirring up “ mire and dirt,” but “ there is no peace . . . for the wicked.” Verse 21 seems to be in its proper context here (see comment on 48:22).