112. Heritage of the Servants of the LORD

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Hymns: RHC 469 The Regions Beyond 400 Every Moment of Every Day 538 In the New Jerusalem

Isaiah 54

1 Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear; break forth into singing, and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child: for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the LORD. 2 Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes; 3 For thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left; and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited. 4 Fear not; for thou shalt not be ashamed: neither be thou confounded; for thou shalt not be put to shame: for thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth, and shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood any more. 5 For thy Maker is thine husband; the LORD of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall he be called. 6 For the LORD hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, and a wife of youth, when thou wast refused, saith thy God. 7 For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee. 8 In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the LORD thy Redeemer. 9 For this is as the waters of Noah unto me: for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth; so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee. 10 For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the LORD that hath mercy on thee. 11 O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted, behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colours, and lay thy foundations with sapphires. 12And I will make thy windows of agates, and thy gates of carbuncles, and all thy borders of pleasant stones. 13 And all thy children shall be taught of the LORD; and great shall be the peace of thy children. 14 In righteousness shalt thou be established: thou shalt be far from oppression; for thou shalt not fear: and from terror; for it shall not come near thee. 15Behold, they shall surely gather together, but not by me: whosoever shall gather together against thee shall fall for thy sake. 16 Behold, I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work; and I have created the waster to destroy. 17 No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, saith the LORD.

Heritage of the Servants of the LORD

OUTLINE

  • Comfort for the Desolate and Barren from the LORD (v1, 6-12)
  • Call to Be Fruitful and Multiply by the Mercy of the LORD (v2-5)
  • Command to Be Established in Righteousness by the Protection of the LORD (v13-17)

INTRODUCTION

The message of comfort and consolation to the people of God whose heritage is the LORD. He has not forsaken His people but has sent His Suffering Servant (Isa. 53), Messiah, to provide a passage way back for His people ridden with sin.

Isaiah 53:6 (KJV) All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.

The extension of the thought for Israel whose impending deportation to Babylon for their transgressions and their restoration back to the land leading to the first coming of Messiah and looking even further to His second coming to restore Israel as the centre of all nations on earth.

The church in the Old Testament consist of the remnant of the nation of Israel whom the LORD has not forsaken because they are walking with the LORD whilst the larger part of the nation has strayed.

Here is a picture of the LORD reviving the nation and extending their influence to the Gentile lands.

When the people of God stray from Him, they become barren and desolate exactly as our Lord Jesus said in John 15:6 (KJV) If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.

But when they abide in the LORD, obeying His laws and commandments, they are fruitful in the LORD as our Lord Jesus also said in John 15:2 (KJV) Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.

Our text begins at the juncture in the nation’s life when the LORD restores them to fruitfulness.

  • Comfort for the Desolate and Barren from the LORD (v1, 6-12)

1 Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear; break forth into singing, and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child: for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the LORD.

The barren and the desolate speaks of the people of God who are not finding strength in the LORD, they become weak and useless.

John 15:5 (KJV) I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.

God’s people estranged from the LORD, is like the wife estranged from the husband. The rejoicing, breaking forth into singing, speaks of the reconciliation between the wife and her husband. She is no longer barren and desolate when she is joined to her husband.

The desolation of nation with the destruction of the nation by the Babylonians was a picture of barrenness and desolation – her sons destroyed by the siege and destruction of Jerusalem.

6 For the LORD hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, and a wife of youth, when thou wast refused, saith thy God.

The wife that is estranged from her husband is forsaken and grieved in spirit. 

The idea is that of a wife wedded in youth; a wife toward whom there was early and tender love, though she was afterward rejected. 

God had loved the Hebrew people as His people in the early days of their history. Yet for their idolatry He had seen occasion afterward to cast them off, and to doom them to a long and painful exile. But He would yet love them with all the former ardour of affection, and would greatly increase and prosper them. [Barnes]

7 For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee. 8 In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the LORD thy Redeemer.

Mercy relates to the misery of the creature in the sight of the Creator who are worthy of condemnation. Mercy signifies the love of God which helps the miserable. When God’s people are estranged from Him, they are like a rudderless ship prone to all sorts of danger in the open sea. 

The LORD restoring His people by showing mercy to them, bringing them back to Him is the thought before us.

Psalm 30:5 (KJV) For his anger endureth but a moment; in his favour is life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.

2 Corinthians 4:17 (KJV) For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding andeternal weight of glory;

Deuteronomy 30:3 (KJV) That then the LORD thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath scattered thee.

Micah 4:6 (KJV) In that day, saith the LORD, will I assemble her that halteth, and I will gather her that is driven out, and her that I have afflicted;

Ephesians 1:10 (KJV) That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:

9 For this is as the waters of Noah unto me: for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth; so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee.

When the LORD restores, the former yoke will be taken away forever.

Genesis 8:21 (KJV) And the LORD smelled a sweet savour; and the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake; for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done.

Genesis 9:11-16 (KJV) And I will establish my covenant with you; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth. 12 And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: 13 I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth. 14 And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud: 15 And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh. 16 And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth.

Psalm 104:9 (KJV) Thou hast set a bound that they may not pass over; that they turn not again to cover the earth.

10 For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the LORD that hath mercy on thee.

The LORD’s mercy will not fail. His people shall see it and His kindness be meted out to the comfort of their souls.

Psalm 89:33-34 (KJV) Nevertheless my lovingkindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail. 34 My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips.

11 O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted, behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colours, and lay thy foundations with sapphires. 12 And I will make thy windows of agates, and thy gates of carbuncles, and all thy borders of pleasant stones.

Here He shows that they should not only be defended, but that His church would rise with great beauty, and be ornamented like a most splendid palace or temple.

This is to be regarded as addressed primarily to the exiles in Babylon near to the close of their seventy years’ captivity. [Barnes]

But nothing forbids us to apply it to the church in all similar circumstances when persecuted, and when she is like a ship rolling on the heaving billows of the ocean. 

Psalm 34:19 (KJV) Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the LORD delivereth him out of them all.

Psalm 129:1-2 (KJV) A Song of degrees. Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth, may Israel now say: 2Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth: yet they have not prevailed against me.

  • Call to Be Fruitful and Multiply by the Mercy of the LORD (v2-5)

2 Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes; 3 For thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left; and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited. 

Here is described the stretching and extending of the nation to inherit Gentile lands. Israel will expand and grow and break forth in fruitfulness and the land will once again be built up after past destruction.

The curtains of thy habitations. The word here, however, denotes the canopy or cloth used in a tent; and the idea is, that the boundaries of the church were to be greatly enlarged, in order to accommodate the vast accession from the pagan world. [Barnes]

Isaiah 27:6 (KJV) He shall cause them that come of Jacob to take root: Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit.

Not that the Church shall ever enjoy perfect peace, and be secured against all the attacks of enemies; but yet God, bearing with the weakness of His people, defended them from wicked men, and restrained or warded off their attacks, so that at least the kingdom of Satan might not grow out of the ruins of the Church. [Barnes]

Luke 13:29 (KJV) And they shall come from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God.

4 Fear not; for thou shalt not be ashamed: neither be thou confounded; for thou shalt not be put to shame: for thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth, and shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood any more. 

2 Corinthians 11:2-3 (KJV) For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. 3 But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.

5 For thy Maker is thine husband; the LORD of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall he be called.

Both these words, ‘Maker’ and ‘Husband,’ in the Hebrew are in the plural. Here it refers to ‘The LORD of hosts,’ necessarily in the singular, as the LORD is one – Deuteronomy 6:4 (KJV) Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:

He shall no more be regarded as uniquely the God of the Jewish people, but shall be acknowledged as the only true God, the God that rules over all the world. 

This refers undoubtedly to the times of the gospel, when He should be acknowledged as the God of the Gentiles as well as the Jews.

Romans 3:29 (KJV) Is he the God of the Jews only? is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also:

  • Command to Be Established in Righteousness by the Protection of the LORD (v13-17)

13 And all thy children shall be taught of the LORD; and great shall be the peace of thy children. 

Proverbs 22:6 (KJV) Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

Psalm 71:17-18 (KJV) O God, thou hast taught me from my youth: and hitherto have I declared thy wondrous works. 18Now also when I am old and grayheaded, O God, forsake me not; until I have shewed thy strength unto this generation, and thy power to every one that is to come.

14 In righteousness shalt thou be established: thou shalt be far from oppression; for thou shalt not fear: and from terror; for it shall not come near thee. 

In the righteousness of Christ, from whence flows the peace before spoken of, and which is the stability of the church of Christ, and the security of it and its members from condemnation. 

15 Behold, they shall surely gather together, but not by me: whosoever shall gather together against thee shall fall for thy sake. 

Psalm 37:12-13 (KJV) The wicked plotteth against the just, and gnasheth upon him with his teeth. 13 The Lord shall laugh at him: for he seeth that his day is coming.

Zechariah 2:8 (KJV) For thus saith the LORD of hosts; After the glory hath he sent me unto the nations which spoiled you: for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye.

16 Behold, I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work; and I have created the waster to destroy. 17 No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue thatshall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, saith the LORD.

The sense of this verse is, ‘Everything that can effect your welfare is under my control. The smith who manufactures the instruments of war or of torture is under me.

His life, his strength, his skill, are all in my hands, and he can do nothing which I shall not deem it best to permit him to do. So with the enemy of the church himself – the waster who destroys. I bare made him, and he is wholly under my control and at my disposal.’ 

The smith who bloweth the coals, denotes the man who is engaged in forging instruments for war, or for any other purpose. Here it refers to him who should be engaged in forging instruments of battle to attack the church; and why should it not refer also to him who should be engaged in making instruments of torture – such as are used in times of persecution? [Barnes]

Psalm 32:6 (KJV) For this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found: surely in the floods of great waters they shall not come nigh unto him. Amen.