107. Christ’s Coming Foretold (4)

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Hymns: RHC 543 Face to Face 553 Love Found a Way 561 Come with Contrite Hearts

Isaiah 49

24 Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captive delivered? 25 But thus saith the LORD, 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. 26 And I will feed them that oppress thee with their own flesh; and they shall be drunken with their own blood, as with sweet wine: and all flesh shall know that I the LORD am thy Saviour and thy Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob.

Christ’s Coming Foretold (4)

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  • His Mission and Rejection (v1-8)
  • His Glorious Work of Salvation (v9-23)
  • His Salvific Work to the Gentiles (v24-26)

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  • His Salvific Work to the Gentiles

24 Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captive delivered?

This seems to be the language of Zion. It is not exactly the language of incredulity; it is the language of amazement and wonder. God had made great promises. He had promised a restoration of the captive Jews to their own land, and of their complete deliverance from the power of the Chaldeans. 

He had still further promised that the blessings of the true religion should be extended to the Gentiles, and that kings and queens should come and show the profoundest adoration for God and for His cause. 

With amazement and wonder at the greatness of these promises, with a full view of the difficulties to be surmounted, Zion asks here how it can be accomplished. It would involve the work of taking the prey from a mighty conqueror, and delivering the captive from the hand of the strong and the terrible – a work which had not been usually done. [Barnes]

Or the lawful captive delivered? – “The captivity of the just.” The word ‘just,’ here may either refer to the fact that the just were taken captive, and to the difficulty of rescuing them; it may be taken in the sense of severe, or rigid, standing opposed to benignity or mercy, and thus may be synonymous with severity and harshness; and the meaning may be that it was difficult to rescue a captive from the hands of those who had no clemency or benignity, such as was Babylon. 

The idea is, that it was difficult or almost impossible to rescue captives from such hands, and that therefore it was a matter of wonder and amazement that that could be accomplished which God here promises.

25 But thus saith the LORD, 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.

But thus saith the Lord – The meaning of this verse is, that however difficult or impracticable this might seem to be, yet it should be done. The captives taken by the terrible and the mighty should be rescued, and should be restored to their own land.

Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away – That which could not have been rescued by any ordinary means. The language here refers undoubtedly to Babylon, and to the captivity of the Jews there.

The prey of the terrible – Of a nation formidable, cruel, and not inclined to compassion; in the previous verse described as ‘just,’ that is, indisposed to mercy.

For I will contend with him – I will punish the nation that has inflicted these wrongs on thee, and will thus rescue thee from bondage.

26 And I will feed them that oppress thee with their own flesh; and they shall be drunken with their own blood, as with sweet wine: and all flesh shall know that I the LORD am thy Saviour and thy Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob.

And I will feed them that oppress thee with their own flesh – The language used here is that which appropriately describes the distresses resulting from discord and internal strifes. 

Instead of it being impossible for prey to be taken from the oppressor, God will cause Zion’s oppressors to eat their own flesh. 

In Isaiah 9:20 we read of men in rage eating human flesh, and possibly that is the meaning here.

If so, the enemy is reduced to such straits that individuals in desperation and rage and bereft of their senses eat their own flesh. 

Similar language occurs in Isaiah 9:20 – Isaiah 9:20 (KJV) And he shall snatch on the right hand, and be hungry; and he shall eat on the left hand, and they shall not be satisfied: they shall eat every man the flesh of his own arm:

Their rage shall be excited against each other; and there shall be anarchy, internal discord, and the desire of mutual revenge. They shall destroy themselves by mutual conflicts, until they are gorged with slaughter, and drunk with blood.

So great is the desperation of the enemy that it drinks its own blood, and is as drunken therewith as though that blood were a heady wine.

The results of the tragic condition just described is that all flesh will know that He who speaks is the Lord who delivers Zion. The designation Mighty One of Jacob is similar to Isaiah’s earlier Mighty One of Israel. Thus God is set forth as the Redeemer, Deliverer and Defender of His people, who is willing to be known as the Mighty One of Jacob. All flesh is to know that God is Zion’s Deliverer and that her Redeemer is the Mighty One of Jacob. Israel has learned this truth through the experience of salvation; the enemies have learned it through the experience of judgment. [EJ Young]

And they shall be drunken with their own blood – A similar expression occurs in Revelation 16:6: “For they have shed the blood of the prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink.” 

This expression describes a state of internal strife, where blood would be profusely shed, and where it would be, as it were, the drink of those who were contending with each other. 

It refers to the conflicts between the Persians and the Medes, and those of the Medes and Persians with the Babylonians. 

It received its fulfillment in the contests which took place in the Roman empire, particularly during the reign of Diocletian, when so many rivals contended for the sovereignty. 

Perhaps, however, it is in vain to attempt to refer this to any single conflict, or state of anarchy. The language is general; and it may mean in general that God would guard and protect His people; and that in doing this, He would fill the ranks of His foes with confusion, and suffer them to be torn and distracted with internal strifes; and amidst those strifes, and by means of them, would secure the deliverance and safety of his own people. 

It has not unfrequently happened that He has suffered or caused discord to spring up among the enemies of His people, and distracted their counsels, and thus secured the safety and welfare of those whom they were opposing and persecuting.

As with sweet wine – It is possible, that there may be an allusion here to the fact that it required a ‘large quantity of the must’ or new wine to produce intoxication, and that the idea here is that a large quantity of blood would be shed.

And all flesh – The effect of all this shall be to diffuse the true religion throughout the world. The result of the contentions that shall be excited among the enemies of the people of God; of their civil wars and mutual slaughter; and of the consequent protection and defense of the people whom they were endeavouring to destroy, shall be to diffuse the true religion among the nations, and to bring all people to acknowledge that He who thus protects His church is the true and only God. 

It would be easy to show the fulfillment of this prediction from the records of the past, and from the efforts which have been made to destroy the church of God. But that would be foreign to the design of these notes. A very slight acquaintance with the repeated efforts to destroy the ancient people of God in Egypt, in the wilderness, in Babylon, and under Antiochus Epiphanes; with the early persecution of the Christians in Judea; with the successive persecutions in the Roman empire from the time of Nero to Diocletian; with the persecution of the Waldenses in Switzerland; of the Huguenots in France; and of the Reformers in England, will be sufficient to convince anyone that God is the protector of the church, and that no weapons formed against her shall prosper. Her enemies shall be distracted in their counsels, and left to anarchy and overthrow; and the church shall rise resplendent from all their persecutions, and shall prosper ultimately just in proportion to their efforts to destroy it. [Barnes]