The Book of Isaiah

Hebrew Study

Explanation

God addresses His people with a sobering honesty. They bear His name, "swear by the name of the LORD," and call themselves "of the holy city", but "not in truth, nor in righteousness." Their religion is real on the surface and hollow underneath. God recounts that He "declared the former things from the beginning... I did them suddenly, and they came to pass," and He explains why He foretold everything so plainly: "Because I knew that thou art obstinate, and thy neck is an iron sinew, and thy brow brass." He announced the future in advance "lest thou shouldest say, Mine idol hath done them." Knowing how quick they would be to credit their idols, God made His prophecy unmistakable. He even reveals "new things... hidden things" they never knew, so they cannot claim, "Behold, I knew them." And He names their nature with painful candor: "I knew that thou wouldest deal very treacherously, and wast called a transgressor from the womb." God is under no illusion about His people; He knew their sin from the start, and loved them still.

Gospel Focus

Two humbling truths meet here. First, it is possible to bear God's name "but not in truth." These people swore by the LORD, claimed the holy city, and leaned on the God of Israel with their mouths, yet their hearts were far off, exactly the empty worship Jesus condemned (Matthew 15:8). Religion can be perfectly correct on the outside and hollow within. The question is not whether we use God's name, but whether we do so "in truth." Second, and wonderfully, God loves His people knowing the worst about them. "I knew that thou wouldest deal very treacherously, and wast called a transgressor from the womb." God had no illusions; He saw their obstinate, iron-necked, treacherous nature from the beginning, and chose them anyway. This is the very shape of grace: "while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). He does not love us because we hid our sin well; He loves us with full knowledge of it. That means your worst, the sin you are most ashamed of, is not news to God, and it has not changed His mind about redeeming you. Come to Him "in truth," honestly, and find that the God who knew you were "a transgressor from the womb" still says, "for my name's sake will I defer mine anger."

Hebrew Study

Explanation

Why would God spare a people so stubborn? These three verses give the stunning answer: not for their sake, but for His own. "For my name's sake will I defer mine anger, and for my praise will I refrain for thee, that I cut thee not off." God holds back the judgment they deserve because His own name and reputation are bound up with them. Yet His mercy is not soft; it refines: "I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction." Their suffering was not rejection but purification. And He repeats the ground of it all with emphasis: "For mine own sake, even for mine own sake, will I do it: for how should my name be polluted? and I will not give my glory unto another." God's saving of His people is ultimately for His own glory, so that His name is not disgraced and His glory is not handed to idols.

Gospel Focus

"For mine own sake, even for mine own sake, will I do it." This is one of the most freeing truths in the Bible: God saves us for His own name's sake, not because we earned it. That may sound at first like cold comfort, until we realize it is our greatest security. If God saved us because of something in us, our salvation would be as shaky as we are; but because He saves "for mine own sake," it rests on His unchanging character and glory, and it cannot fail. He forgave "for his name's sake" (1 John 2:12), saved us "according to his own purpose and grace" (2 Timothy 1:9), and does it all "to the praise of the glory of his grace" (Ephesians 1:6). And notice the furnace: "I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction." God's choosing did not exempt His people from the fire; it met them in it and used it to refine them. The affliction you are in may be the very furnace where God is purifying gold, "that the trial of your faith... might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 1:7). He is not punishing you in wrath but refining you in love, for His name's sake and your good. Rest in a salvation grounded in His glory, and let the furnace do its purifying work.

Hebrew Study

Explanation

God calls His people to listen to who He is: "I am he; I am the first, I also am the last." He is the Creator, "Mine hand also hath laid the foundation of the earth," at whose call the stars "stand up together." He alone declared Babylon's fall in advance; no idol did. He points to His chosen instrument, whom "the LORD hath loved," who "will do his pleasure on Babylon" (Cyrus again), saying, "I, even I, have spoken; yea, I have called him." Then comes verse 16, one of the most striking in the chapter. God says He has "not spoken in secret," and then, remarkably, the voice shifts: "and now the Lord GOD, and his Spirit, hath sent me." The one who is "the first and the last" speaks as the Sent One, sent by God and anointed by His Spirit. This is the voice of the coming Servant, the Messiah, God Himself come to save, anointed with the Spirit and sent on His redeeming mission.

Gospel Focus

Verse 16 opens a window on the mystery of redemption. The eternal God, "the first and the last," speaks as One sent: "the Lord GOD, and his Spirit, hath sent me." This is not a picture of three separate gods, for the whole chapter thunders "I am he... I will not give my glory unto another." It is the one God unfolding His plan of salvation: God Himself, come in the flesh as the Servant-Messiah, anointed by His own Spirit and sent on His mission. Isaiah says almost the same words in the mouth of the Messiah later: "The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me... he hath sent me" (Isaiah 61:1), words Jesus read in the synagogue and applied to Himself (Luke 4:18-21). Here, then, is the gospel foretold: the God who is first and last does not stay distant, but comes, anointed with His Spirit, sent to redeem. The Sender, the Sent, and the Spirit are the one God accomplishing our salvation, God manifest in the flesh (1 Timothy 3:16). When you read of the Father sending the Son and anointing Him with the Spirit, do not imagine three rival deities; behold the one God so committed to saving you that He came in person, in Christ, to do it.

Hebrew Study

Explanation

God reveals Himself tenderly as "thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel... which teacheth thee to profit, which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest go." He is not only Saviour but Teacher and Guide, wanting only their good. Then comes one of the most poignant verses in the book, a divine lament: "O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments! then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea." God grieves the flowing peace and fruitfulness His people forfeited by disobedience. Yet grace prevails, and He sounds the great summons: "Go ye forth of Babylon, flee ye from the Chaldeans, with a voice of singing... say ye, The LORD hath redeemed his servant Jacob." Redemption calls for a joyful exodus. And He promises provision for the journey home, as in the first exodus: "he caused the waters to flow out of the rock for them." The chapter ends with a solemn refrain: "There is no peace, saith the LORD, unto the wicked." Peace as a river is God's gift to the obedient; the wicked, who will not leave their Babylon, have none.

Gospel Focus

Three gospel treasures close this chapter. First, God as Teacher: "I am the LORD thy God which teacheth thee to profit, which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest go." He does not save us and leave us to find our own way; He teaches and leads us for our good. Second, the ache of forfeited peace: "O that thou hadst hearkened... then had thy peace been as a river." God actually grieves over the peace we miss through disobedience. His commandments are not arbitrary burdens; they are the path to a river of peace, and to reject them is to reject our own good. Obedience is where the peace flows. Third, the call out of Babylon: "Go ye forth of Babylon... The LORD hath redeemed his servant Jacob." The redeemed are called to leave the place of bondage, and the New Testament repeats it over the last Babylon, "Come out of her, my people" (Revelation 18:4). To be redeemed is to be called out. And the water from the rock that provisions the journey is, Paul tells us, Christ Himself, "that Rock was Christ" (1 Corinthians 10:4). But the chapter ends with a warning that cannot be softened: "There is no peace... unto the wicked." Peace as a river is for those who hearken and come out; there is none for those who cling to their Babylon. Hear His voice, leave the far country, drink from the Rock, and let your peace flow like a river.