109. Christ’s Righteous Rule

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Hymns: RHC 338 Show Me Thy Way, O Lord 339 When I Fear My Faith Will Fail 243 The Lord Is My Shepherd

Isaiah 51

1 Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the LORD: look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged. 2 Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you: for I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him. 3 For the LORD shall comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody. 4 Hearken unto me, my people; and give ear unto me, O my nation: for a law shall proceed from me, and I will make my judgment to rest for a light of the people. 5 My righteousness is near; my salvation is gone forth, and mine arms shall judge the people; the isles shall wait upon me, and on mine arm shall they trust. 6 Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath: for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner: but my salvation shall be for ever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished. 7 Hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law; fear ye not the reproach of men, neither be ye afraid of their revilings. 8 For the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like wool: but my righteousness shall be for ever, and my salvation from generation to generation. 9 Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD; awake, as in the ancient days, in the generations of old. Art thou not it that hath cut Rahab, and wounded the dragon? 10 Art thou not it which hath dried the sea, the waters of the great deep; that hath made the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass over? 11Therefore the redeemed of the LORD shall return, and come with singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their head: they shall obtain gladness and joy; and sorrow and mourning shall flee away. 12 I, even I, am he that comforteth you: who art thou, that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die, and of the son of man which shall be made as grass; 13 And forgettest the LORD thy maker, that hath stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth; and hast feared continually every day because of the fury of the oppressor, as if he were ready to destroy? and where is the fury of the oppressor? 14 The captive exile hasteneth that he may be loosed, and that he should not die in the pit, nor that his bread should fail. 15 But I am the LORD thy God, that divided the sea, whose waves roared: The LORD of hosts is his name. 16 And I have put my words in thy mouth, and I have covered thee in the shadow of mine hand, that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and say unto Zion, Thou art my people. 17Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem, which hast drunk at the hand of the LORD the cup of his fury; thou hast drunken the dregs of the cup of trembling, and wrung them out. 18 There is none to guide her among all the sons whom she hath brought forth; neither is there any that taketh her by the hand of all the sons that she hath brought up. 19 These two things are come unto thee; who shall be sorry for thee? desolation, and destruction, and the famine, and the sword: by whom shall I comfort thee? 20 Thy sons have fainted, they lie at the head of all the streets, as a wild bull in a net: they are full of the fury of the LORD, the rebuke of thy God. 21 Therefore hear now this, thou afflicted, and drunken, but not with wine: 22 Thus saith thy Lord the LORD, and thy God that pleadeth the cause of his people, Behold, I have taken out of thine hand the cup of trembling, even the dregs of the cup of my fury; thou shalt no more drink it again: 23 But I will put it into the hand of them that afflict thee; which have said to thy soul, Bow down, that we may go over: and thou hast laid thy body as the ground, and as the street, to them that went over.

Christ’s Righteous Rule

OUTLINE

  • Turn to the LORD (v1-11)
    • My People (v1-6)
    • My Nation (v7-11)
  • Find Comfort in the LORD (v12-23)
    • He is LORD in Calamity (v12-16)
    • He is LORD in Greatest Trial (v17-23)

INTRODUCTION

Our Lord addresses now the godly in the nation, turning from the godless (Isaiah 50) who chose not the LORD. With three commands, “Hearken to me” (v1 – my people, 4 – my nation, 7 – my people), Isaiah turns the hearers to the LORD. 

He is the righteous LORD who formed His people and raised up the nation of Israel. His people are to look to Him for guidance and salvation, comfort in the times of chastisement.

  • Turn to the LORD (v1-11)
    • My People (v1-6)
    • My Nation (v7-11)

1 Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the LORD: look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged. 2 Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you: for I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him. 3 For the LORD shall comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.

All in Israel who seek deliverance should remember God’s care for them since He took them from the rock quarry (Mesopotamia). They should be encouraged by the memory of God’s gracious dealings with Abraham … and Sarah, and how He gave them a numerous posterity. And they should be heartened by His promise to comfort Zion. Notice three calls to listen (vv. 1, 4, 7) and three calls to awake (51:9, 17; 52:1).

God addresses them in the language of consolation, and directs them to remember the founder of their nation, and assures them that he is able also to deliver them (v1-3).

He speaks of them as pious, and as seeking the Lord (v1). They were to remember Abraham and Sarah – the quarry, so to speak, from which the nation had been hewed; they were to remember how feeble they were, and yet how God had made a great nation of them, and to feel assured that God was equally able to conduct them forth and to multiply them into a great nation (v2-3). A direct promise that God would comfort Zion, and make it like Eden (v3).

4 Hearken unto me, my people; and give ear unto me, O my nation: for a law shall proceed from me, and I will make my judgment to rest for a light of the people. 5 My righteousness is near; my salvation is gone forth, and mine arms shall judge the people; the isles shall wait upon me, and on mine arm shall they trust. 6 Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath: for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner: but my salvation shall be for ever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished.

God calls upon his people to hearken to him, with the assurance that he would extend the true religion even to the Gentile world, and that his salvation should be more permanent than were the heavens (v4-6).

He would make his religion a light to the Jewish people (v4). Though now in darkness, yet they should be brought forth into light. He would extend it to the isles – to the pagan world (v5). It should be everlasting. The heavens should grow old and vanish, but his salvation should not be abolished (v6).

God assures them that they have no reason to despond on account of the number and power of their enemies. However mighty they were, yet they should be consumed as the moth eats up a garment, and as the worm consumes wool (v7-8).

The people are introduced as calling upon God, and as beseeching him to interpose as he had done in former times in their behalf (v9-10). In this appeal they refer to what God had done in former periods when he cut Rahab, that is, Egypt, in pieces, and delivered his people, and they cry to him to interpose in like manner again, and to deliver them.

  • Find Comfort in the LORD (v12-23)
    • He is LORD in Calamity (v12-16)
    • He is LORD in Greatest Trial (v17-23)

12 I, even I, am he that comforteth you: who art thou, that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die, and of the son of man which shall be made as grass; 13 And forgettest the LORD thy maker, that hath stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth; and hast feared continually every day because of the fury of the oppressor, as if he were ready to destroy? and where is the fury of the oppressor? 14 The captive exile hasteneth that he may be loosed, and that he should not die in the pit, nor that his bread should fail. 15 But I am the LORD thy God, that divided the sea, whose waves roared: The LORD of hosts is his name. 16 And I have put my words in thy mouth, and I have covered thee in the shadow of mine hand, that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and say unto Zion, Thou art my people.

To this petition the LORD replies (v11-16). He assures them – 

That His redeemed shall return with joy and triumph (v11).

He that had made the heavens was their comforter, and they had nothing to fear from man, or the fury of any oppressor (v12-13).

The captive exile was soon to be unloosed, and they hastened that they might be restored; that is, it would soon occur (v14).

The LORD, who had divided the sea, was their protector. He had given them a solemn promise, and he had covered his people with the shadow of his hand, and he would defend them (v15-16).

The chapter closes with a direct address to Jerusalem, and with assurances that it shall be rebuilt, and that it would He no more visited with such calamities (v17-23).

17 Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem, which hast drunk at the hand of the LORD the cup of his fury; thou hast drunken the dregs of the cup of trembling, and wrung them out. 18 There is none to guide her among all the sons whomshe hath brought forth; neither is there any that taketh her by the hand of all the sons that she hath brought up. 19 These two things are come unto thee; who shall be sorry for thee? desolation, and destruction, and the famine, and the sword: by whom shall I comfort thee? 20 Thy sons have fainted, they lie at the head of all the streets, as a wild bull in a net: they are full of the fury of the LORD, the rebuke of thy God.

The calamities of Jerusalem are enumerated. She had drunk the cup of the fury of the LORD; she had been forsaken of those who were qualified to guide her; desolation and destruction had therefore come upon her; her sons had fainted in the streets, and had drunk of the fury of God (v17-20).

21 Therefore hear now this, thou afflicted, and drunken, but not with wine: 22 Thus saith thy Lord the LORD, and thy God that pleadeth the cause of his people, Behold, I have taken out of thine hand the cup of trembling, even the dregs of the cup of my fury; thou shalt no more drink it again: 23 But I will put it into the hand of them that afflict thee; which have said to thy soul, Bow down, that we may go over: and thou hast laid thy body as the ground, and as the street, to them that went over.

God promises deliverance. She was drunken, but not with wine. God had taken out of her hand the cup of trembling, and she should no more drink it again; he would put that cup into the hand of those who had afflicted her, and they should drink it (v21-23).

All in Israel who seek deliverance should remember God’s care for them since He took them from the rock quarry (Mesopotamia). They should be encouraged by the memory of God’s gracious dealings with Abraham … and Sarah, and how He gave them a numerous posterity. And they should be heartened by His promise to comfort Zion. Notice three calls to listen (vv. 1, 4, 7) and three calls to awake (51:9, 17; 52:1).