Isaiah 51:1-11: Assurance of Salvation

Translation and sermon by Nate Wilson for Christ the Redeemer Church, Manhattan, KS, 25 Nov. 2007

Translation:

1. Listen to me, pursuers of righteousness, seekers of Jehovah.

Look to the rock from which you were hewn and to the excavation pit from which you were dug.

2. Look to Abraham, your father, and to Sarah, who went into labor with you.

For I called one of him and blessed him and multiplied him.

3. So Jehovah comforted Zion.

He comforted all her dry places

and set her wilderness like Eden

and her desert like the garden of Jehovah.

4. Pay attention to me, my people, and my community. To me give hear,

for from me a law will go out, and my judgment for a light of peoples I will stir.

5. My righteousness is near,

my salvation has gone out,

and my arm will judge peoples.

For me the coastlands eagerly wait, and for my arm they hope.

6. Lift up your eyes to the heavens and look to the earth beneath,

for the heavens will be dissolved like the smoke,

and the earth like wear out like the garment,

and her inhabitants will die likewise,

but my salvation will exist forever, and my righteousness will not come undone.

7. Listen to me, knowers of righteousness - people in whose heart is my law;

do not fear the reproach of man, and from their revilings, do not come undone.

8. For a moth will eat them like the garment,

and a worm will eat them like wool,

but my righteousness will exist forever, and my salvation to generation upon generations.

9. Awake! Awake, arm of Jehovah! Put on strength!

Awake like the days of old - the eternal generations.

Were you not the one that cut Rahab to pieces, piercing the dragon?

10. Were you not the one that dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep –

the one that set a way (in the) depths of the sea for the redeemed ones to pass over?

11. So the ransomed of Jehovah will turn

and come to Zion with singing, everlasting gladness upon their head.

They will obtain joy and gladness;

sorrow and sighing have fled!

Introduction: Promises and Disappointment

Have you ever trusted someone and then been disappointed? My family was pretty disappointed last week when they rented a video of a musical that was highly recommended by a history textbook my kids were using. The author of the textbook had called the movie a “personal all-time favorite” with a great cast and wonderful songs. My family discovered pretty quickly that there’s a reason why that musical never made it very big. In the words of one of my boys, it was “really boring fluff.”

Promises – especially in advertisements - don’t always deliver.

But here in Isaiah chapter 51 is an advertisement with promises that seem too good to be true.
Here is a product called “righteousness and salvation” which is

• what everybody’s been waiting for
• has produced satisfied customers all over the world
• and all throughout history since Abraham and Sarah
• is a true source of comfort
• it transforms deserts into gardens
• it is indestructible
• it has locations near you
• it comes with a lifetime guarantee
• and then claims to be a limited time offer
• so don’t be caught dead without it.

Is God’s promise worth waiting for, or will it disappoint like so many other things?

Can you be sure you’re really saved when you trust in Jesus, or is there any reason to doubt your salvation?

Isaiah points to three historical events that should strengthen our assurance in God’s salvation, but first let’s look at the nature of this salvation:

What is Salvation?

• The first word we encounter in chapter 51 describing this salvation is the word “righteousness.” In verse 1, it is parallel to the word “Jehovah.” To seek Jehovah is parallel to pursuing righteousness.
• In verse 5, “righteousness” and “salvation” are parallel to each other, and God claims both to be His. “My righteousness… My salvation.” Salvation is related to righteousness, and both are found in Him, which is why we must seek Him personally to find salvation.
• Jewish commentators write that this prophecy is practically fullilled in 536 BC when Cyrus freed the Jews to rebuild Jerusalem. Although the return of the redeemed ones does find some fulfillment in the Jews who returned from Babylon to reconstruct Jerusalem, it is not limited to that event.
• “The salvation is spiritual… a manifestation of God’s righteousness.” (E.J. Young)
• It is the basis upon which Gentiles can find hope.
• At the end of verse 6, God’s righteousness is something that will not “be dismayed/come undone.” The same Hebrew word “dismayed/come undone” shows up in verse 7 as something that we should not experience despite being insulted and reviled.
• This leads me to believe that “my righteousness” is not an abstract principle which can “fail” or “be abolished” or “wane,” but rather a person who can potentially be dismayed. Who would that person be?
• Jeremiah speaks of “our righteousness” being a person, God Himself, in 23:6 and 33:16 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and He shall reign as king and deal wisely, and He shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.  6  In His days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which He will be called: 'The LORD our righteousness.'
• Jesus is that “Righteous Branch” called “The Lord our righteousness”
• Paul says so in 1 Cor. 1:30  “But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption”
• In verse 7, we see a further revelation of the meaning of righteousness: here “righteousness” is parallel to God’s “law.” Righteousness is not judged by our own ideas as to what is right and wrong, rather, righteousness is judged by the standard of God’s law and what He says is right and wrong. The core of that law is the Ten Commandments of Exodus 20. Perfect adherence to all God’s commandments is what defines righteousness, and that is a standard that no one is able to live up to. That’s why we need Jesus to be our righteousness.
• Rom 3:21-26  “But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it--  22  the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction:  23  for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,  24  and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,  25  whom God put forward as appeasement by His blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because, in His divine forbearance, He had passed over former sins.  26  It was to show His righteousness at the present time, so that He might be righteous and be the one who makes righteous him who has faith in Jesus.
• 2 Cor. 5:21  For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.
• By perfectly obeying the law of God and then suffering God’s punishment for our sin on the cross, Jesus was able to save us by giving us His own righteousness.
• If you believe that, then you are saved; you have God’s righteousness!
• This salvation or righteousness is also called “eternal life” dozens of times in the New Testament, and Isaiah backs that up with God’s statements in v.6, and 8 that “My salvation will exist forever… my righteousness will exist forever and my salvation to generation upon generations…” He calls that salvation “everlasting gladness” in v.11.

Now that we see what salvation is, let us look at the three historical events that should strengthen our assurance in God’s salvation:

1. Abraham

• v.1 – “Look to the rock… and to the pit / quarry” you came from is generally agreed to be a parallel statement to the phrase in v.2 “Look to Abraham and Sarah”
• The idea is this: You see your problems and your need for salvation? Abraham and Sarah were in a similar situation: Barren, old, childless, hopeless. But against all odds, God brought His righteousness and salvation to bear upon them, made a covenant with them, gave them a son and multiplied them.
• The language at the end of v.2 “bless and multiply” is covenantal language used in creation (Genesis 1:22-28), with Noah (Gen. 9:1), and with Abraham (Gen 22:17, 26:4&24).
• Verse three says that just as God intervened on Abraham’s behalf to bring blessing, so God will do with His people, Zion, you who pursue righteousness and seek the Lord.

2. End of the World

• Verse 3 contains an allusion to the garden of Eden at the beginning of the world where everything was perfect. This is because the salvation God is bringing will be a new creation. He first makes us into a “new creation” (2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15) and then tells us to wait until the end of the world when He creates a new heavens and a new earth which will be a “return to the original state before the fall” (Young).
• Verse 6, however, exhorts true believers to observe the heavens and earth decaying and disappearing at the other end of time.
• Why? because we are not supposed to look to the creation for our salvation and our comfort. If we will look along the line of history and keep the beginning and the end of the world in view, we will have the Creator and Judge of the world in view and will not be so tempted to find our help and comfort from earthly things that will evaporate on that last day.
• Some people have suggested that the next-to-last Hebrew word in verse 6 is a rare form of the word for “flies,” so the NIV renders the phrase that the inhabitants of earth “will die like flies,” but most scholars believe that the Hebrew word in question should be translated the way it usually is, as the word “thus/so/likewise,”  in other words, just as the heavens and earth will one day be destroyed, so also the people on earth will die.
• When we think of the end of the world, we can find assurance that God’s salvation will last forever.

3. Exodus (v.9-10)

• In verse 9, Isaiah brings to mind a third event “from the days of old,” from many “generations” ago, where an entity was “hacked to pieces” by the arm of the Lord.
• This “Rahab” appears to be the same as the “Tannin/sea monster/ dragon” which was also “pierced /wounded” by the arm of the Lord.
• Who is this dragon named Rahab? In chapter 30 (v.7) Isaiah has already referred to Egypt as Rahab. (“They will help Egypt, worthless and empty, therefore I called her, ‘Rahab they are a dud!’”) Psalms 87 (v.4) and 89 (v.10) also refer to Egypt as Rahab.
• The Nile river moved like a great serpent through Egypt, and quite possibly large aquatic animals lived in the Nile (perhaps even dinosaurs of some type) and were a symbol of the great civilization built around the Nile river. Twice Ezekiel calls the king of Egypt a dragon (29:3, 32:2)
• v. 10 makes clearer what the event is that Isaiah is remembering. It was an event where the sea was dried up and a road was made through the bottom of the sea for the redeemed to pass over. This is obviously describing the Exodus. Isaiah is remembering the time that God parted the waters of the Red Sea for an entire nation to cross over the dry seabed, then brought the sea crashing down upon the Egyptian army, wounding the nation of Egypt.
• God’s salvation is like that. He will act to bring an end to His enemies and preserve His people.

So, Isaiah has shown us what God’s salvation is, and he has shown us three events that illustrate and build our faith in God’s salvation. What do we do with this information?

Application

1. Pay attention; don’t neglect so great a salvation
1. Seven times in the first seven verses, God calls us to pay attention: “Listen” (v.1), “Look” v.2), “Pay attention… and give ear” (v.4), “Lift up your eyes and look” (v.6), and “listen” (v.7).
2. If you are not a believer, now is the time to start paying attention and trusting in God’s righteousness and salvation.
3. Stop looking at and paying attention to other things.

i. In 22:8-11, Israel was “looking” to their weapons instead of to God to save them.

ii. In 1:23, they were “pursuing” bribes and financial kickbacks,

iii. and in 5:11 they were “pursuing” alcohol.

4. Hebrews 2:1-3  Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.  2  For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution,  3  how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard,
5. (v.3) Do you need comfort? Do you have dry places and wildernesses in your life that you want transformed into gardens? Would you like to have joy and gladness? This salvation is worth paying attention to and waiting for!
1. Fight impatience and discouragement with remembering God’s great acts in history
1. Calvin quotes: “We know by experience how slow we are to hear Him, especially in adversity , and when we have great need of consolation, we reject it by our impatience and faint… What is here demanded is attention, so sustain our hearts by patience, till the season of grace e fully come… Amidst the distracted condition of the church, it is highly necessary that we may not be discouraged because our number is small and that we may hope for God to increase His church by unexpected methods [as He did with Abraham].”
2. Rom 4:18-21  In hope [Abraham] believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, "So shall your offspring be."  19  He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb.  20  No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God,  21  fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.
3. The remnant will always be small, but don’t be discouraged. God started with one man, Abraham, and has indeed filled the earth with Christians too numerous to count.
4. I have to remind myself of this in relation to Christ the Redeemer Church.
2. Use assurance of salvation to combat fear of man and their criticisms
1. v.7 “fear not the reproach of man and from their revilings do not be dismayed.”
2. Isaiah described the Israelites as a fearful bunch.

i. They were afraid of neighboring kings (7:4),

ii. they were afraid of what other people were afraid of (8:12),

iii. they were afraid of Assyria (10:24) and of Rabshaqah’s taunts (37:6), to name a few.

3. “It frequently happens that we are more moved by the insults of men than by fire and sword, but we ought to reckon it praise and glory to be the object of their contempt. True valor springs from this consideration, that, although the world reject us as ‘filth and offscourings,’ (I Cor. 4:13), God holds us in estimation, because we maintain the same cause with Himself.”
4. If God’s word and righteousness are what will last – not men – then don’t fear men! (v.7) They have already been proclaimed “worm food!”
5. “The smallest [animals] are quite sufficient to annihilate [man’s] sham-greatness and sham-power!” (Delitzsch)
6.  “Men are afraid of many things – mostly of what man can do to them. There is only one way such fear can be overcome, and that is to know righteousness and possess the law in one’s heart.” (Young)
7. It is instructive to note that God is the one who gave His people over to reviling in 43:28 because of their sin. If somebody makes fun of you, you just might deserve it to some extent. It just might be God’s way of bringing up your sin against Him and calling you back to Him to trust Him.
3. Pursue righteousness and hide God’s law in your heart.
1. v.1 “you who pursue righteousness, who seek Jehovah” – the Hebrew word for “pursue” means to chase after, to actively and vigorously go after (Young). Do you vigorously pursue God and His righteousness?
   “Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be filled” (Mt. 5:6)
2. v.7 We “know righteousness” when we are people “in whose heart is [God’s] law.” God’s law, His instruction, the Bible,  teaches us what righteousness is, and so we need to lay the words of the Bible on our hearts, reading it, listening to it read, and memorizing it. This is how we know righteousness.
   Psalm 119:11  Your word I have treasured in my heart, That I may not sin against You.
3. Peter also exhorts us to live righteous lives in light of eternity: 2 Peter 3:9-15  “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.  10  But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.  11  Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness,  12  waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn!  13  But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.  14  Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace.  15  And count the patience of our Lord as salvation…”
4. Live in light of eternity
1. v.6-8 command us to remember the end of the world
2. Keep in mind what will last forever. It won’t be your house or your job or your toys, or your collection, or your achievements, it will be God and His salvation and righteousness that lasts after the earth is destroyed.
3. Matt. 6:19-20  "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal,  20  but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.
4. How do we lay up treasure in heaven? By investing what we have in God’s salvation and righteousness. Give your money generously, and spend your time generously on prayer, service, and evangelism.
5. Spread the Gospel to the coasts – How long must the isles wait to hear the good news of salvation through Jesus? (v.5) How long will they live in darkness before they see the light God established for the Gentiles (v.4)? Let us pray for our missionaries and support them and consider who among us can go as well.
5. Follow Isaiah’s example and pray for the fulfillment of the promises
1. In verse 9, Isaiah ‘gets it.’ God had said to remember the history of salvation and righteousness in Abraham and Sarah, so now Isaiah continues in obedience by bringing up God’s righteousness and salvation in the Exodus.
2. v.11 is then either Isaiah looking to the future with assurance of God’s salvation and without fear, or it may be God answering Isaiah’s faith with the assurance that this kind of faith will result in great joy.
3. Calvin wrote, “When God cheers us by His promises, we ought also to pray earnestly that He would perform what He has promised. He does not comfort us in order to be slothful, but that we may be enflamed with a stronger desire to pray.”
4. What promises has God made in His word that you yourself could pray?
   IDEA: God’s word has not yet been translated into every tongue. You could pray, “Lord, let the ‘knowledge of the glory of the Lord cover the earth as the waters cover the sea.’ (Hab. 2:14) You raised up Martin Luther to translate the Bible into German; you raised up John Wycliffe to translate the Bible into English; arise now, Lord, thrust forth new laborers into the fields so that Your word can be translated into every tongue!”

Conclusion

• God’s promises will not disappoint; they are worth waiting for!

• If God has called you “redeemed” then you may not doubt that it belongs to you indeed!
• So, pay attention; don’t neglect so great a salvation
• Fight impatience and discouragement with remembering God’s great acts in history
• Use assurance of salvation to combat fear of man and their criticisms
• Pursue righteousness and hide God’s law in your heart.
• Live in light of eternity
• Follow Isaiah’s example and pray for the fulfillment of the promises

Nate Wilson’s website – Isaiah Sermon Expositions

Christ the Redeemer Church website - Sermons