Ttranslation and sermon by Nate Wilson for Christ the Redeemer Church, Manhattan, KS, 11 Nov. 2007
14. Yet Zion said, “Jehovah has forsaken me; my Lord has forgotten me.”
15. Can a woman forget her nursing baby - from having compassion on a son of her womb?
Even these may forget, yet I, I will not forget you.
16. Look, I have engraved you on my palms, your walls are always before me.
17.Your children hurried in; your demolishers and your desolators will go out from you.
18. Lift up your eyes and look around. They are gathered – all of them; they came to you!
As I live, declares Jehovah,
surely you will put them all on as the ornament; you will bind them on like the bride.
19. Surely your wastes and your desolate places and your demolished land –
surely now you will be cramped from the settler, and those who swallowed you up will be far away.
20. Once again the children of your bereavement will say in your ears,
“The place is cramped for me, scooch close for me and let me settle in.”
21. Then you will say in your heart,
“Who has given birth to these for me while I was bereaved and barren, exiled and rejected?
And who has brought up these? Look, I, I was left all alone; How did they get here?”
22. Thus says the Lord Jehovah, “Look, I will lift up my hand to nations and raise my signal to peoples,
and they will bring your sons in the bosom
and your daughters will be carried upon the shoulder,
23. and it will come about that kings are your supporters and their princesses are your nurses!
Faces earthward they will prostrate themselves for you and lick the dust of your feet,
and you will know that I am Jehovah.
Those who will not be ashamed wait for me!”
24. Can he be taken from the mighty as plunder and with the righteous captives be rescued?
25. For thus says Jehovah,
“Even the captives of the mighty will be taken
and the prey of the ruthless one will be rescued,
and I myself will fight against those who fight against you,
and I myself will cause to save your children,
26. and I will make your molesters eat their own flesh,
and they will be intoxicated with their own blood like grape juice,
and all flesh will know that
I am Jehovah who causes you to be saved
and your Redeemer is the Mighty One of Jacob.
Job 9:13-10:3 "God will not turn back his anger… 16 If I summoned him and he answered me, I would not believe that he was listening to my voice. 17 For he crushes me with a tempest and multiplies my wounds without cause; 18 he will not let me get my breath, but fills me with bitterness. 19 If it is a contest of strength, behold, he is mighty! If it is a matter of justice, who can summon him? 20 Though I am in the right, my own mouth would condemn me; though I am blameless, he would prove me perverse. 21 I am blameless; I regard not myself; I loathe my life. 22 It is all one; therefore I say, He destroys both the blameless and the wicked. 23 When disaster brings sudden death, he mocks at the calamity of the innocent. 24 The earth is given into the hand of the wicked; he covers the faces of its judges-- if it is not he, who then is it? 25 "My days are swifter than a runner; they flee away; they see no good… 10:1 "I loathe my life; I will give free utterance to my complaint; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul. 2 I will say to God, Do not condemn me; let me know why you contend against me. 3 Does it seem good to you to oppress, to despise the work of your hands and favor the designs of the wicked?
Have you ever felt like God had abandoned you?
Jesus Himself struggled with the feeling of abandonment on the cross when He cried out, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”
God’s people are struggling with a fear in this second half of Isaiah 49:
14. Yet Zion said, “Jehovah has forsaken me; my Lord has forgotten me.”
“Forsaken” suggests an outward abandonment, whereas “forgotten” indicates an inward abandonment. (Young)
God answers us in our fear here in Isaiah 49. He answers with several reasons why we should not fear. First comes an argument from the lesser to the greater:
15. Can a woman forget her nursing baby - from having compassion on a son of her womb?
Even these may forget, yet I, I will not forget you.
When we have a nursing baby, she goes with us everywhere. She is never far from my wife’s mind. If my wife goes shopping and leaves the baby with someone at home, the mere sound of a crying baby is enough to break her concentration in shopping.
If a mother can’t forget her own child, God argues, how much less will God forget us! The word “you” in the Hebrew text was masculine earlier in the chapter, speaking of the coming Messiah, but in the second half of the chapter the word “you” is feminine, indicating Zion, the bride of Christ, the church. If you have committed your life to Jesus, it is impossible for Him to forget you!
We dearly love our children and try to give them as much attention as we can. However, we forget on occasion. I remember last week we left our 2–year-old to take a nap in the car while we set up for the Reformation Day party. I had left her unbuckled and the door open so that she would wander into the building when she got up from her nap. Two hours later I came up short when I counted heads at dinner. Then I remembered, my daughter must still be sleeping! I ran down to the car and sure enough, she was still sawing logs there! I felt awful for having forgotten her for so long! But God says He will never forget.
Hebrews 13:5b-6 He has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you." 6 So we can confidently say, "The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?"
John Calvin wrote, “The prophet here describes to us the inconceivable carefulness with which God unceasingly watches over our salvation, that we may be fully convinced that He will never forsake us, though we may be afflicted by great and numerous calamities.”
In addition to the argument from the lesser to the greater, God adds a mnemonic device.
I have a neighbor whose name is Rosie. For her 50th birthday she got a tattoo of a rose on her ankle. The way she explained it to us was that if she ever got so old and forgetful that she couldn’t say her name anymore, she could just point to the tattoo on her ankle – Rosie! We do all kinds of things to help us remember, don’t we? We’ll set up a photo of our family at our desk because we want to always remember them. I occasionally write notes with a pen on my palm so that I won’t forget – “Call so-and-so.” Here in v.16, we have the picture of God etching a drawing of Zion on his hands.
(v.16.) “Look, I have engraved you on my palms, your walls are always before me.”
I expect this is figurative language, anthropomorphism - describing God like a man with hands, although, in a very real way, we marked the palms of God with our sins when Jesus was placed on the cross and those nails were driven through his hands. The scars on His hands were still there after His resurrection for Him to show Thomas. They may still be there.
“There is the figure of Zion… as close to Him as He is to Himself, and facing Him amidst all the emotions of His divine life. There He has the walls of Zion constantly before Him, and even if for a time they are broken down here below, with Him they have an ideal eternal existence, which must be realized again and again in an increasingly glorious form.” – Delitzsch
Isaiah 62:3 You shall be a crown of beauty in the palm of Jehovah, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God. 4 You shall no more be termed Forsaken, and your land shall no more be termed Desolate, but you shall be called My Delight Is in Her… 6 On your walls, O Jerusalem, I have set watchmen; all the day and all the night they shall never be silent. You who put the LORD in remembrance, take no rest,
If God is more loving toward you than a mother, and if God takes the trouble to provide constant reminders to Himself about you, you have no grounds to fear that He will forget you. God underscores this truth with promises of the future that He is working out for His people. He gives Isaiah a prophecy and a solemn oath of a population boom among His people:
17.Your children hurried in; your demolishers and your desolators will go out from you.
18. Lift up your eyes and look around. They are gathered – all of them; they came to you!
As I live, declares Jehovah,
surely you will put them all on as the ornament; you will bind them on like the bride.
19. Surely your wastes and your desolate places and your demolished land –
surely now you will be cramped from the settler, and those who swallowed you up will be far away.
20. Once again the children of your bereavement will say in your ears,
“The place is cramped for me, scooch close for me and let me settle in.”
21. Then you will say in your heart,
“Who has given birth to these for me while I was bereaved and barren, exiled and rejected?
And who has brought up these? Look, I, I was left all alone; how did they get here?”
God had already given the prophetic command to hurry out of Babylon in 48:20. Here, the eyes of the prophet see the other end of the journey – the children of Zion coming home and bounding into the arms of their mother. In fact, so many of them are coming home that it gets quite crowded!
In our humanistic American culture, we are brainwashed to think that population increase is a bad thing, and we spend millions of tax dollars trying to get everybody in the world to limit population. In God’s economy, however, an increase in children is a good thing, they are an “ornament” and a treasure that you want to “tie on.” Do you consider your children as valuable? Do you want your children bound close to you?
(Images of
Middle-Eastern bridal jewelry:
http://www.arab2.com/arab-traditional-dress/images/bridal-dress-Hebron-palestine.jpg
http://www.kaneesha.com/jewelry_images/BGJW-08101_large.jpg)
Now, if you’re reading an ESV or NAS Bible, you’ll see these people called “builders” instead of “children” In Hebrew the two words (“children” and “builders”) are spelled similarly, but the standard Hebrew text says “children,” and the scholars I respect most vouch for that. The idea is that the children of Zion are coming in and the enemies of Zion are going out.
The enemies are
described as “demolishers/destroyers” – this word was used to describe
the king of Babylon in chapter 14 (v.17)
and the enemies are described as “those who lay waste / make desolate” –
this word was used to describe the king of Assyria in chapter 37 (vs.
18-25).
Other words previously used to describe the Assyrian king can be found in verse 25: “Tyrant” was used of Assyria in 13:11, 25:3, and 29:5) and “the one who fights/contends/strives” is the Hebrew word “Jerib,” which is used of the Assyrian king in Hosea 5:13 and 10:6.
Back to v. 19 of Isaiah 49, the Assyrians are also described as those who “swallowed up” God’s people in chapter 28 (v.4). Other things that had “swallowed up” God’s people were their own addictions to sinful behaviour (drunkenness - 28:7) and their own evil political leaders (3:12). These political enemies of the nation of Israel were a very real threat that led God’s people to wonder if God had forgotten them. God promises that this threat would go away,
but the language goes much further than describing the preservation of the political nation of Israel. If you look at the way Isaiah uses the phrases of v.18 throughout the book, you will see that it is a prophecy referring to the spiritual Israel - of the ingathering of all the nations to faith in God.
· 40:11 Like a shepherd He will tend His flock, In His arm He will gather the lambs And carry them in His bosom; He will gently lead the nursing ewes.
· 43:9 All the nations have gathered together So that the peoples may be assembled…
· 45:20 "Gather yourselves and come; Draw near together, you fugitives of the nations...
· 56:8 The Lord GOD, who gathers the dispersed of Israel, declares, "Yet others I will gather to them, to those already gathered."
· 66:18 "For I know their works and their thoughts; the time is coming to gather all nations and tongues. And they shall come and see My glory.
· 60:4-9 "Lift up your eyes round about and see; They all gather together, they come to you. Your sons will come from afar, And your daughters will be carried in the arms… The wealth of the nations will come to you. 6 "A multitude of camels will cover you, The young camels of Midian and Ephah; All those from Sheba will come; They will bring gold and frankincense, And will bear good news of the praises of the LORD. 7 "All the flocks of Kedar will be gathered together to you, The rams of Nebaioth will minister to you; They will go up with acceptance on My altar, And I shall glorify My glorious house. 8 Who are these who fly like a cloud And like the doves to their lattices? 9 Surely the coastlands will wait for Me...
· This phrase, “Lift up your eyes” comes from God’s promise to Abraham in Genesis 13 (v.14b-ff) where He said, "Now lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward; 15 for all the land which you see, I will give it to you and to your descendants forever. 16 I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth, so that if anyone can number the dust of the earth, then your descendants can also be numbered…” This was never fulfilled in the political nation of Israel, but rather it was fulfilled in the myriads of spiritual descendents of Abraham who believe in Jesus.
· Jesus also quotes this phrase in John 4 (v.35) in preparing His disciples for the sight of a bunch of Samaritan villagers coming toward them who were recruited by the woman at the well to come see the Messiah. “Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields, that they are white for harvest.”
You wonder if God has forgotten you? God hasn’t forgotten you; just lift your eyes up and look around! He is actively about His purpose of saving people from every point of the compass!
“Zion regarded herself as a widow; as a matter of fact, her Husband, the Lord, has not forsaken or forgotten her. The children who will one day crowd to her are legitimate children begotten through a lively faith… the Gentiles brought in to the church of Christ.” - E.J. Young
God’s work at multiplying His people will lead to the shocked statement, “How’d they all get here?!” This is actually a humble acknowledgement that we do not have the resources to save ourselves and enter a life of blessing. These things do not come from our broken, barren bodies. Salvation and blessing are a gracious gift of God. How did they get here? The answer is that God caused them to come.
22. Thus says the Lord Jehovah, “Look, I will lift up my hand to nations and raise my signal to peoples,
and they will bring your sons in the bosom
and your daughters will be carried upon the shoulder,
23. and it will come about that kings are your supporters and their princesses are your nurses!
Faces earthward they will prostrate themselves for you and lick the dust of your feet,
and you will know that I am Jehovah.
Those who will not be ashamed wait for me!”
Isaiah 11:10-14 Then in that day The nations will resort to the root of Jesse, who will stand as a signal for the peoples; and His resting place will be glorious. 11 Then it will happen on that day that the Lord will again recover the second time with His hand the remnant of His people, who will remain, from Assyria, Egypt, Pathros, Cush, Elam, Shinar, Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. 12 And He will lift up a standard for the nations and assemble the banished ones of Israel, And will gather the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. 13 Then the jealousy of Ephraim will depart, And those who harass Judah will be cut off; Ephraim will not be jealous of Judah, And Judah will not harass Ephraim. 14 They will swoop down on the shoulder of the Philistines...
God promises honor to the head of Zion – the Messiah
· Isaiah 49:7 Thus says the LORD, the Redeemer of Israel and its Holy One, to the despised One, to the One abhorred by the nation, to the Servant of rulers, "Kings will see and arise, Princes will also bow down..."
· Psalm 72:8 May He also rule from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth. 9 Let the nomads of the desert bow before Him, And His enemies lick the dust. 10 Let the kings of Tarshish and of the islands bring presents; The kings of Sheba and Seba offer gifts. 11 And let all kings bow down before him, All nations serve him. 12 For He will deliver the needy when he cries for help, The afflicted also, and him who has no helper. 13 He will have compassion on the poor and needy, And the lives of the needy He will save…
God also promises to honor the body of Zion, His people – the church:
· Isaiah 60:10 "Foreigners will build up your walls, And their kings will minister to you; For in My wrath I struck you, And in My favor I have had compassion on you. 11 "Your gates will be open continually; They will not be closed day or night, so that men may bring to you the wealth of the nations, with their kings led in procession… 14 "The sons of those who afflicted you will come bowing to you, and all those who despised you will bow themselves at the soles of your feet; and they will call you the city of the LORD, the Zion of the Holy One of Israel. 15 Whereas you have been forsaken and hated with no one passing through, I will make you an everlasting pride, a joy from generation to generation. 16 You will also suck the milk of nations and suck the breast of kings; then you will know that I, the LORD, am your Savior and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.” – very similar wording in chapter 60 to what we have in chapter 49.
God promises that the church will receive the support and submission of civil authorities. This has indeed happened throughout history.
Has God forsaken or forgotten His people? No. It is only a matter of time before they are honored by Him again. It was only a matter of time before Job’s health and fortunes were restored. The key is to wait on God with faith.
· 40:31 Yet those who wait for the LORD will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles...
· 25:9 And it will be said in that day, "Behold, this is our God for whom we have waited that He might save us. This is the LORD for whom we have waited; Let us rejoice and be glad in His salvation."
· 45:16-17 They will be put to shame and even humiliated, all of them; The manufacturers of idols will go away together in humiliation. 17 Israel has been saved by the LORD With an everlasting salvation; You will not be put to shame or humiliated to all eternity.
24. Can he be taken from the mighty as plunder and with the righteous captives be rescued?
If you have a NAS or ESV translation, it will have the word “tyrant” in v.24 instead of “righteous.” NIV has “fierce.” Like the variation in v.17, the NAS & ESV are following the Dead Sea Scrolls which use the word “tyrant” from v.25, whereas the rest of the translations – including the American Jewish Version which was made after the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls – go with the traditional Masoretic Hebrew text which says “righteous.”
Either way, the question is, “Can God deliver me from my enemies, because they are truly powerful?!” Babylon was the great world power. Satan is a roaring lion. My flesh has overwhelming urges. Does God have what it takes to deliver from such powerful foes?”
The answer is, “Sure, no problem!”
25. For thus says Jehovah,
“Even the captives of the mighty will be taken
and the prey of the ruthless one will be rescued,
and I myself will fight against those who fight against you,
and I myself will cause to save your children,
26. and I will make your molesters eat their own flesh,
and they will be intoxicated with their own blood like grape juice,
and all flesh will know that
I am Jehovah who causes you to be saved
and your Redeemer is the Mighty One of Jacob.
1. Notice that the grounds for belief that captives will be delivered is faith in God’s word, v.25 “Thus says the Lord.”
2. Notice
also that God is the actor in salvation: “I myself will fight… I
myself will save… I will reduce your enemies to infighting among themselves.”
Salvation comes from God, not from man, and is the result of His active
fight against His enemies.
Colossians 1:21 Although you were
formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, 22 yet He has
now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you
before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach… 2:13 When you were dead in
your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive
together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, 14 having
canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which
was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the
cross. 15 When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public
display of them, having triumphed over them through it.
3. Notice also the promise to save not just you, but your children in v.25. This goes back to that generational vision I talked about two summers ago. God doesn’t just want to save you, He wants to save you and your descendents.
4. Finally notice that there is judgment for the wicked.
a. “As is often the case in Isaiah, the conclusion consists of a short statement of the opposite of what has just been in the foreground… All flesh is to know that God is Zion’s deliverer… Israel has learned this truth through the experience of salvation; the enemies have learned it through the experience of judgment.” (E. J. Young)
b. The picture of the oppressors eating their flesh and being drunk with blood is a picture of divine judgment. This picture occurs in several places in the Bible that describe God’s wrath upon the wicked, including Deuteronomy 32:40, and the ultimate end-time battle described in Ezekiel 39:17ff, and Revelation 16:6.
c. It would take vast quantities of the “new wine” mentioned here to make anyone drunk. It was basically freshly-squeezed grape juice. For this reason, it is supposed that this verse is talking about there being a lot of blood. God will not go easy on those who do not fear Him.
d. The kind of infighting that is described here could be parallel to Isaiah 9:19-20 “By the fury of the LORD of hosts the land is burned up, And the people are like fuel for the fire; No man spares his brother. 20 They slice off what is on the right hand but still are hungry, And they eat what is on the left hand but they are not satisfied; Each of them eats the flesh of his own arm.” A way this may have been fulfilled would be when the Hyrcanians fought with Cyrus against their former rulers, the Babylonians (Knobel). The enemies of God will end up fighting each other, while those who love Him and wait for Him will be delivered.
Every time you question whether God loves you,
every time it feels like the steamroller has caught your pants leg and you’re
going down,
every time you wonder if God can save you now,
remember these three things about God:
Those who will not be ashamed wait for me!
Nate Wilson’s website – Isaiah Sermon Expositions
Christ the Redeemer Church website - Sermons
