The Book of Isaiah

Hebrew Study

Explanation

The final section of Isaiah opens with a call to holy living grounded in hope. "Keep ye judgment, and do justice", live fairly and rightly, "for my salvation is near to come, and my righteousness to be revealed." The nearness of God's salvation is the motive for godly living: because deliverance is coming, live now as people who belong to the coming kingdom. Then a beatitude: "Blessed is the man that doeth this, and the son of man that layeth hold on it." The blessed person is marked by two things, honoring God's day, "keepeth the sabbath from polluting it," and personal integrity, "keepeth his hand from doing any evil." True devotion to God shows in both directions: reverence toward Him and righteousness toward others. And the verb "layeth hold" reveals the heart of it, this is not passive religion but an active grasping of God's way and holding on tight.

Gospel Focus

"My salvation is near to come, and my righteousness to be revealed." For Isaiah's first hearers this pointed to God's approaching deliverance; for us it is fulfilled in Jesus, in whom "the righteousness of God" is "revealed" (Romans 1:17). The pattern here is exactly the New Testament pattern of grace and holiness: because salvation is near, live rightly, "the grace of God... teaching us that... we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; Looking for that blessed hope" (Titus 2:11-13). Grace does not cancel the call to justice and integrity; it empowers it. And notice the reach: this opening word speaks of "the man" and "the son of man" in the broadest terms, setting up the chapter's great theme that God's blessing is for anyone who "layeth hold" on His way, not one nation only. Take hold of Christ and His righteousness, and do not let go; His salvation is near, and blessed is the one who grasps it.

Hebrew Study

Explanation

This is the heart of the chapter, and it is stunningly gracious. Two groups of people whom the Law kept at a distance are named. First, "the son of the stranger", the foreigner, who might fear, "The LORD hath utterly separated me from his people." Second, "the eunuch," who might despair, "Behold, I am a dry tree," a man unable to have children, cut off from the future through offspring, and barred from the assembly under the Law (Deuteronomy 23:1). To both, God says: do not count yourself out. To the faithful eunuch who keeps God's covenant, He promises "a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters... an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off." The very thing he lacked, a lasting name through children, God gives him directly and eternally. And to the foreigners who "join themselves to the LORD" to love and serve Him, God promises to bring them "to my holy mountain," to make them "joyful in my house of prayer," and to accept their offerings, "for mine house shall be called an house of prayer for all people." Then God, "which gathereth the outcasts of Israel," widens the circle further: "Yet will I gather others to him", more will come, beyond those already gathered.

Gospel Focus

Here the gospel's worldwide embrace shines centuries early. The middle wall that once shut out the foreigner is thrown down in Christ, "for he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition" (Ephesians 2:14). The temple was always meant to be "an house of prayer for all people," and Jesus Himself quoted these words, in anger, when the court of the Gentiles had been turned into a market, robbing the nations of their place to pray (Mark 11:17). Most beautiful of all is what happened to the very example named here: the eunuch. In Acts 8, an Ethiopian eunuch, a foreigner and a eunuch, both categories of this chapter, was reading Isaiah 53, believed on Jesus, and was baptized, going on his way rejoicing (Acts 8:26-39). God kept His word in Isaiah 56 in the most literal way: a eunuch given a place and a name in God's family. And Jesus said, "other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring" (John 10:16), fulfilling "yet will I gather others to him." If you have ever felt like an outsider, a "dry tree," or cut off, this chapter is God's personal welcome: His house is a house of prayer for all people, and there is a place and a name in it for you.

Hebrew Study

Explanation

After the wide welcome of God's house comes a jarring warning about those who should be guarding it. God summons "beasts of the field" to "come to devour", judgment is invited, because the shepherds have failed. Israel's "watchmen are blind", the very ones set to see danger cannot see. They are "ignorant," "dumb dogs" that "cannot bark," useless guardians who sleep while wolves approach, "sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber." Worse, they are "greedy dogs which can never have enough," driven by appetite, and "shepherds that cannot understand" who "look to their own way, every one for his gain." Instead of feeding the flock, they feed themselves; instead of watching, they party: "I will fetch wine, and we will fill ourselves with strong drink; and to morrow shall be as this day." They live in reckless self-indulgence, assuming the good times will roll on forever, blind to the judgment God has just summoned. It is a devastating portrait of leaders who exploit their calling for personal comfort.

Gospel Focus

This grim picture stands in deliberate contrast to the Good Shepherd. Where these shepherds "feed themselves," Jesus said, "I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep" (John 10:11). Where these watchmen "cannot bark," the faithful shepherd warns and protects. The Bible everywhere condemns leaders who fleece the flock, "Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves! should not the shepherds feed the flocks?" (Ezekiel 34:2), and Peter charges elders to shepherd "not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind" (1 Peter 5:2). The self-indulgent boast, "to morrow shall be as this day," is the very folly Jesus exposed in the rich man who said, "Soul... take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry," only to hear, "This night thy soul shall be required of thee" (Luke 12:19-20). The warning is sobering for any who lead God's people, and for all of us: God's house is open to all, but those entrusted to guard and feed His flock will answer for how they did it. Thank God that the true Watchman never sleeps and the true Shepherd laid down His life; run to Him, not to the dumb dogs.