The Book of Isaiah

Hebrew Study

Explanation

The Servant Himself speaks, calling the distant coastlands to listen. He tells of His calling: "The LORD hath called me from the womb," His name known before His birth. God prepared Him as a weapon, "my mouth like a sharp sword," a "polished shaft" hidden "in his quiver" until the moment of use. God says, "Thou art my servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified", the Servant is called "Israel" because He is the true Israel who does what the nation failed to do. Then comes a note of apparent failure: "I have laboured in vain, I have spent my strength for nought", the Servant's rejection, yet He entrusts the outcome to God, "my judgment is with the LORD." And God answers by enlarging the mission beyond anything imagined: "It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob... I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth." Restoring Israel is too small a task; the Servant will be the salvation of the whole world.

Gospel Focus

This Servant is Jesus Christ. Called and named from the womb, prepared with a mouth "like a sharp sword" (for "the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword," Hebrews 4:12), He came first to His own. And He knew the sorrow of apparent failure, "I have laboured in vain", for He was "despised and rejected of men," His own nation largely refusing Him. Yet He committed it all to the Father, "my judgment is with the LORD." And out of that seeming defeat, God announced the greatest expansion in history: the Servant would be "a light to the Gentiles... my salvation unto the end of the earth." Israel's rejection became the world's opportunity, exactly as Paul preached, quoting this very verse when he turned to the Gentiles, "for so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles" (Acts 13:47). If you are a Gentile who has come to Christ, this verse is your charter: the salvation of God was always meant to reach "the end of the earth," to reach you. And notice, salvation is not merely something the Servant brings; He is it, "that thou mayest be my salvation." Jesus does not just offer salvation; He is our salvation. Come to the Light that God set for all the nations, and be saved.

Hebrew Study

Explanation

God speaks to the Servant "whom man despiseth, to him whom the nation abhorreth, to a servant of rulers", the lowly, rejected Servant, and promises a stunning reversal: "Kings shall see and arise, princes also shall worship." The despised One will be honored by the mighty. God gives Him as "a covenant of the people," the living bond of a new relationship, with a liberating mission: "That thou mayest say to the prisoners, Go forth; to them that are in darkness, Shew yourselves." He leads the freed captives home like a shepherd: "They shall not hunger nor thirst; neither shall the heat nor sun smite them... by the springs of water shall he guide them." God levels the mountains into a highway and gathers His people "from far... from the north and from the west; and these from the land of Sinim (the far distance)." And such comfort calls for a cosmic song: "Sing, O heavens; and be joyful, O earth... for the LORD hath comforted his people."

Gospel Focus

This passage is a tapestry of Christ. He is "him whom man despiseth... whom the nation abhorreth", the foreshadowing of "he is despised and rejected of men" (Isaiah 53:3), yet destined to be worshiped by kings, exactly the arc of Philippians 2: humbled to the lowest place, then given "a name which is above every name... that every knee should bow." He is "given for a covenant," the Mediator of the new covenant in His blood. And His work is liberation: "say to the prisoners, Go forth; to them that are in darkness, Shew yourselves", the very thing Jesus announced, "to preach deliverance to the captives... to set at liberty them that are bruised" (Luke 4:18). See too the shepherd's care for the freed: "They shall not hunger nor thirst; neither shall the heat nor sun smite them... by the springs of water shall he guide them", words the book of Revelation lifts and applies to the redeemed before the throne, "the Lamb... shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters" (Revelation 7:16-17). And the "acceptable time" is now: "behold, now is the accepted time" (2 Corinthians 6:2). The prison door stands open, the Shepherd waits to lead you to living water, and the day of salvation is today. Go forth from your darkness into the Light of the world.

Hebrew Study

Explanation

Here the mood turns intimate. Zion, feeling abandoned in her ruin, voices the deepest fear of the suffering soul: "The LORD hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me." God's answer is one of the most tender in Scripture. He appeals first to the strongest human bond: "Can a woman forget her sucking child?" A nursing mother is bound to her baby by every instinct; yet even that can fail, "yea, they may forget", but God's love never will: "yet will I not forget thee." Then He gives an even stronger image: "Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me." Zion's name is permanently engraved on God's own hands, always before His eyes. And He promises reversal: her scattered children will "make haste" back, so many that the ruined city will be "too narrow" to hold them, and the desolate widow-city will marvel, "Who hath begotten me these... Behold, I was left alone; these, where had they been?" The barren, forsaken Zion will overflow with children she never expected.

Gospel Focus

"Can a woman forget her sucking child... yet will I not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands." These verses have comforted more grieving, forsaken-feeling believers than almost any others in Isaiah. When you cry, "The Lord has forgotten me," His answer is a love stronger than a mother's, a love that cannot forget. A mother's love is the tenderest thing on earth, and God says His is greater. But the deepest word is the graven hands. In the ancient world, the promise of a name engraved on the palm was a vow never to forget. For the believer, it reaches its literal fulfillment at Calvary: Jesus bears in His own hands the marks of the nails, graven there for us forever. When doubting Thomas needed proof, the risen Christ said, "Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands" (John 20:27), the scarred hands that will bear the print of the nails through all eternity. Your name is not merely remembered by God; it is written into the wounds of His Son. He cannot forget you, for the cost of you is graven on His hands. If you feel forsaken and forgotten today, look to the pierced hands of your Saviour, and know you are engraved there, "continually before me."

Hebrew Study

Explanation

God pledges to gather Zion's children from the nations: "Behold, I will lift up mine hand to the Gentiles... and they shall bring thy sons in their arms." The nations that scattered them will help bring them home, and even "kings shall be thy nursing fathers." Those who wait on God "shall not be ashamed." Then Isaiah raises the human objection: "Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captive delivered?" Can captives really be freed from so strong a captor? God answers with certainty: "Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered: for I will contend with him that contendeth with thee, and I will save thy children." God Himself will fight for His people and rescue them from the strongest oppressor. The oppressors will be undone, and the whole point is God's self-revelation: "all flesh shall know that I the LORD am thy Saviour and thy Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob."

Gospel Focus

The chapter ends with a promise and a name. The promise is that God fights for His people against the strongest foe: "Shall the prey be taken from the mighty?" Humanly, no, a strong captor does not release his prey. But "I will contend with him that contendeth with thee, and I will save thy children." This is the gospel of a stronger Deliverer, for Jesus is the "stronger than he" who binds the strong man and takes his spoils (Luke 11:21-22), the One who came "that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil" (Hebrews 2:14). No captor is too mighty; Christ has already overcome the strongest, and He will save His children. And the goal of it all is that "all flesh shall know that I the LORD am thy Saviour and thy Redeemer." Notice again the Oneness truth: the LORD Himself is the Saviour and Redeemer, and we know that Saviour and Redeemer in Jesus, "the mighty One of Jacob." If you feel held by a captor too strong for you, sin, addiction, fear, the enemy of your soul, take heart: the mighty One of Jacob contends for you, and there is no captor He cannot overpower. Wait on Him, and you shall not be ashamed, for all flesh shall yet know that He is Saviour and Redeemer.