Translation & Sermon by Nate Wilson for Christ the Redeemer Church of Manhattan, KS, 15 June 2008
1. For the sake of Zion I will not sit still, and for the sake of Jerusalem I will not rest, until
her righteousness goes abroad like brightness and her salvation as a flame burns,
2. and nations will see your righteousness, and all the kings your glory ,
and you will be called a new name, as the mouth of Jehovah will brand it.
3. You will be a crown of beauty in the hand of Jehovah
and the diadem of the kingdom in the palm of your God.
4. It will never again be said of you, “She is forsaken,”
and your land will never again be said to be desolate,
for you will be called “My delight is in her,” and your land, “Married,”
for Jehovah has delighted in you and your land will be married.
5. For a young man will marry a virgin; your sons will marry you,
and [as] the rejoicing of a groom over a bride, your God will rejoice over you.
6. Upon your walls, Jerusalem, I have caused guards to visit all the day and all the night continuously, they will not sit still.
Those who cause to remember Jehovah, let there be no breaks for y’all.
7. and do not give Him a break until He will establish and until He will set
Jerusalem to be a praise in the land.
8. Jehovah has sworn by His right hand and by the arm of His strength,
“[May I be cursed] if I ever again give your grain to be food for your enemies,
or if sons of foreigners drink your grape-juice for which you toiled,
9. for those who gather it will eat it and praise Jehovah,
and those who collect it will drink it in the courts of my sanctuary.
10. Pass over, y’all; pass into the gates; face the way of the people.
Heap up, heap up the highway, de-stone [it], raise a banner over the peoples.
11. Look, Jehovah has caused [it] to be heard to the end of the earth,
Say to the daughter of Zion,
“Look, your salvation has come!
Look, His reward is with Him, and His work is before His face,
12. and they will be called The People of the Holy One, The Redeemed Ones of Jehovah,
and you will be called Sought After, the Un-Forsaken City.
Last week we studied God’s incessant work to develop a saved and righteous people for His glory
and we studied the Glories of the Church:
If all this is true, what should we be doing? We should be eagerly watching for the fulfillment of these glorious promises and preparing for their fulfillment. We are to be Watchmen and Way-makers.
v.6 I will appoint “Watchmen” on the walls
s If you went by the neighborhoods that were struck by the tornado last week, you would see policemen. Why did they need policemen in the devastated area?
o In order to watch over and protect what was left from being looted
o and also to help rebuild what was desolated by providing order.
s The verb translated “set/post/appoint” in v.6 is literally “I will cause to visit” and is the same root word as the “officers of peace” that God promised to set up in Zion in 60.17. I think it could be translated “I will cause keepers/watchmen to visit you and bring my principles of living to your attention day in and day out.”
o These walls are not physical city walls. They are the boundaries of the spiritual kingdom of God. These walls were called “salvation” in 60.18
o The last time this word “keepers/watchmen” was used by Isaiah was to describe the foreigners who inhabit Zion and “keep” the Sabbaths (56:6).
o Before that it was used to describe the righteous nation which are “keepers of the truth” who were to enter into the gates (26:2).
o There was also one of these watchmen/guards that told Edom back in chapter 22:12 "Morning comes, and also the night. If you will seek, seek; repent and come." – this watchman sees God’s provision of salvation and points Gentile Edomites to repentance and faith!
o Later on we see the prophet Ezekiel called a “watchman,” using a synomym for the word found in Isaiah (cf. Isa 21:5-6 & 52:8), and his God-given duty was, “whenever you hear a word from my mouth, give the people a warning from me” (Ezek. 3:17, cf . Isa 56:10).
s The work of human watchmen parallels what God is doing:
o 27:3 I, Jehovah, am her guard; every moment I water her. So that he [the spoiler] doesn’t visit upon her, night and day I guard her.
o Isa 49:16 Look, I have engraved you on my palms, your walls are always before me.
o Isa 58:11 Jehovah will guide you continually and will satisfy your soul in scorched places…
o “be silent/hold peace” here in v.6 is the same verb as the one in v. 1 describing God’s ceaseless work. These guards/watchmen follow in God’s footsteps of ceaseless vigilant action.
o When God steps into action, the goal of His work is to make righteousness and salvation shine forth so that He is glorified. When His people step into action, their goal should be the same: to cause God’s righteousness and salvation to shine forth so that God is glorified.
s What are they supposed to do? “make mention/remember/call on/remind/put in remembrance Jehovah” This is ambiguous in the Hebrew text and could be taken two ways:
1. They are to remind God of His people
2. They are to remind people of God (which is really what happens when you do #1)
o What were they to “remember”? Here’s what Isaiah says throughout his book about remembering:
§ Remember the name of the Lord God (17:10) that His name is exalted (12:4)
§ Remember the rock of their strength (17:10)
§ Forget sinful ways and remind God of His forgiveness (43:18&25-26)
§ Remember that you are God’s servant and He has formed you (44.21)
§ Remember that there is none like God (46:9)
s Prophets were EXAMPLES of being watchmen:
o Note what Isaiah says in the immediately following chapter about what he will be a reminder of: Isa 63:7 I will cause to remember the lovingkindnesses of the LORD, and the praises of the LORD, according to all that the LORD has bestowed on us, and the great goodness toward the house of Israel, which He has bestowed on them according to His mercies, and according to the multitude of His lovingkindnesses.
o Haggai stood upon the walls of Jerusalem, and proclaimed the glory of the second temple as surpassing that of the first.
o Zechariah pointed from Joshua and Zerubbabel, the priest and governor of his day, onwards to the sprout of Jehovah, Jesus, who is priest and prince in one person, and who would build the true temple of God.
o Malachi predicted the coming of the Lord to His temple, and the rising of the Sun of righteousness.
o “Under the eyes of these prophets the city of God rose up again, and they stand upon its pinnacles, and look thence into the glorious future that awaits it, and hasten its approach through the word of their testimony. Such prophets, who carry the good of their people day and night upon their anxious praying hearts, does Jehovah give to the Jerusalem after the captivity, which is one in the prophet's view with the Jerusalem of the last days." (Franz Delitzsch, The Prophecies Of Isaiah, p.438)
s So, what about you? How will you cause to remember the Lord?
o You can pray. Pray for the fulfillment of God’s promises.
o Little things in our conversation can bring Him to rememberance, such as saying, “God protected me from getting hit by the tornado,” instead of “I was lucky not to get hit by the tornado.”
o Teach the Bible to people in your sphere of influence, whether that’s family devotions or a Bible study for other people, this is the most powerful way to work God’s word into the lives of other people
o Visual reminders can also help people remember the Lord: The Bible on your desk at work or a cross necklace, or a meaningful photo or plaque.
v.7 “until He will establish and set Jerusalem to be praise”
s God has already promised the establishment of a new kingdom under His Messiah, so this is speaking of praying until the fulfillment of a promise which has already been made:
s Why pray for what God has already promised?
o ILLUSTRATION: Imagine a fisherman by the side of the lake. He casts his line in and sits down to enjoy his lunch. A fish bites the hook and is caught, but this fisherman reasons to himself, “If I’ve already caught the fish, I needn’t put out any more effort!” He finishes his lunch, takes a nap, and then carries his pole back to the car, dragging the fish on the end of the string. He gets home and shows his family, “Look I’ve caught a fish!” But there’s not much left of the fish after being dragged across the road for fourty miles home. Sure he had the fish, but how much better it would have been if he had reeled that bass in, cleaned it, preserved it in the cooler, and thrown the hook back in the water to catch some more fish! Likewise, we can be like the lazy fisherman who says, “The promises are already mine, why should I put out any more effort?” or we can be like the fisherman who enjoys much more of his catch by actually reeling those promises in by prayer and eager watching for their fulfillment!
o Daniel was one of the princes from Jerusalem who went into exile in Babylon in 606 B.C. He became an important officer in the Babylonian empire, and when Darius the Mede conquered Babylon, Daniel got a copy of the book of Jeremiah and read there that Israel would be in captivity for seventy years (Jer. 25:11-12; 29:10). Daniel did a little math and realized that the 70 years were up. He wrote, “I, Daniel, observed in the books the number of the years which was revealed as the world of the Lord to Jeremiah the prophet for the completion of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely, seventy years. So I gave my attention to the Lord God to seek Him by prayer and supplications” (Daniel 9:1-3). Poor Daniel, he didn’t have to fast and pray in order to get God to fulfill His promise, did he? Why didn’t Daniel just sit back and wait; God will fulfill His promise no matter what, won’t He?
o Puritan John Owen put it like this: "Prayer helps the promise bring forth. Because a woman's time is come [to be delivered of her child], therefore shall she have no midwife? Nay, therefore give her one. He that appointed their return, appointed that it should be a fruit of prayer."
o Dr. Frank Barker paraphrased it like this: “Don't let Me alone until I make Jerusalem a praise in the earth, until I make my Church powerful, glorious, and exalted, until I revive my Church. Our earnest intercession is a crucial part in its accomplishment, both on a broad scale and on an individual scale. You might go to heaven and after a little while say, ‘God, my neighbor is not here.’ What if God were to reply, ‘You didn't remind Me to save your neighbor.’”
o George Mueller said, "It is not enough to begin to pray, nor to pray aright, nor is it enough to continue for a time to pray, but we must patiently, believingly, continue in prayer until we obtain an answer."
s PURPOSE: The result of righteousness and salvation is for God to be praised, not just for us to be healthy, wealthy and prosperous.
s Is that right hand of God trustworthy to make an oath by?
o It was the same hand that created the world (48:13)
o and which upholds God’s righteousness (41:10)
o and which will help you.
s What is at the right hand of God?
o Jesus is. (Rom 8:34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died--more than that, who was raised--who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.)
o He swears by Himself – by Jesus, His right hand because there’s no one greater to swear by (Heb. 6:13).
o This is a trustworthy promise. What God promises will come true. We can join in giving Him no rest until He fulfills the promise, because we are confident that He will keep His promise.
What is the content of the oath? A new covenant relationship:
s The curse of not being able to eat the grain you raise and the drink you produce was part of the Mosaic covenant: Deut. 28:15-39 "But if you will not obey the voice of the LORD your God or be careful to do all His commandments and His statutes that I command you today, then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you. 16 Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the field. 17 Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. 18 Cursed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock…. 29 … And you shall be only oppressed and robbed continually, and there shall be no one to help you. 30 You shall betroth a wife, but another man shall ravish her. You shall build a house, but you shall not dwell in it. You shall plant a vineyard, but you shall not enjoy its fruit… 33 A nation that you have not known shall eat up the fruit of your ground and of all your labors… 38 You shall carry much seed into the field and shall gather in little, for the locust shall consume it. 39 You shall plant vineyards and dress them, but you shall neither drink of the wine nor gather the grapes… (cf. Lev. 26:16)
s This oath indicates that either the curses of the Mosaic covenant will be done away with or else that the people under God’s new covenant will no longer sin and thus will never experience the curses.
s This appears to be fulfilled in the new heavens and new earth, not in this world.
o Isa 65:8-23 Thus says the LORD… 9 I will bring forth offspring from Jacob, and from Judah possessors of my mountains; my chosen shall possess it, and my servants shall dwell there… 16 So that he who blesses himself in the land shall bless himself by the God of truth, and he who takes an oath in the land shall swear by the God of truth; because the former troubles are forgotten and are hidden from my eyes. 17 "For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth... 19 I will rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in my people; no more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping and the cry of distress... 21 They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. 22 They shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat; for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be, and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands. 23 They shall not labor in vain or bear children for calamity, for they shall be the offspring of the blessed of the LORD, and their descendants with them.
o As we’ve seen from the last couple of chapters, in the new economy, foreigners will not be plunderers but rather givers of labor and goods to God’s people (61:5, 60:10, 56:3-6)
o This phrase “courts of my sanctuary/holy courts” is found in only one other place in the Bible, and that is in Ezekiel 42-44, where he describes the ideal temple of the future.
s In the new heavens and new earth, there will be no more sin and no more curse, no more experiences of grief and loss, but that’s not the way it is now, is it!
o ILLUSTRATION: Some of y’all helped me build a roof on the shed in my backyard last Fall and helped me put siding on the shed so that it would look nice. We sweated and labored for days on that shed. Last week, most that labour was undone by the hailstorm that ripped through our neighborhood. My “enemies” just “ate” some of my “food,” as it were, last week. That’s life in this world of sin. But there is a world to come when this kind of thing won’t happen.
o
So, should we just sit back and
wait for heaven? No! Reel that fish in! Be watchmen!
Joel 2:17-20 …let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep and say, "Spare your people, O LORD, and make not your heritage a reproach, a byword
among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, 'Where is their
God?'" 18 Then the LORD became jealous
for His land and had pity on His people. 19 The LORD answered and said to His people, "Behold, I am
sending to you grain, wine, and oil, and you will be satisfied;
and I will no more make you a reproach among the nations...”
PURPOSE: Why reel it in? To enjoy personal peace and affluence? No to
glorify God!
v.9 You will collect grain and juice and enjoy it in the “courts of my
sanctuary”
s
This phrase alludes to the
fellowship meals that were instituted in the Mosaic law, in which
everyone had to bring 10 percent of their crops to the tabernacle and
have a feast in the Lord’s presence with the priests and Levites.
Deu 14:22-27 Thou shalt surely tithe all the increase of thy seed,
that which cometh forth from the field year by year. 23 And thou shalt eat
before Jehovah thy God, in the place which He shall choose, to cause His name
to dwell there, the tithe of thy grain, of thy new wine, and of thine oil, and
the firstlings of thy herd and of thy flock; that you may learn to fear
Jehovah your God always. 24 And if the way is too long for you, so that
you are not able to carry it… 25 then turn it into money, and bind up the
money in your hand, and go… 26 and thou shalt use the money for whatever your
soul desires, for beef, or for lamb, or for wine, or for beer, or for
whatsoever… eat there before Jehovah your God and rejoice, you and your
household, 27 and the Levite within your town limits, do not neglect him…
s We enjoy a taste of the blessings of heaven whenever we get a paycheck, and we do well to remember God with our tithes and use our income to praise God, much as the Old Testament Jews did. The blessings of food and drink and whatever else were not just given to make you healthy, wealthy, and prosperous, but ultimately to be used to glorify God.
SUMMARY: So we’ve looked at the role of a watchman who causes to remember Jehovah, who reels in the promises through prayer and organizes life to the glory of God. Now we turn to the second role we are called to fulfill:
10. “Pass into the gates/go through the gates; prepare (lit. face toward) the way”
This is a command to start moving in a particular direction. This passage lends itself remarkably to the threefold fulfillment that I have advocated throughout Isaiah:
10b “heap up/build up/cast up/pile high a highway, clear it from stones”
s ILLUSTRATION: When I was in high school, a new soccer field was made across the street from the school building. They had dumped several truckloads of chert down (for those of you not from the South, that’s dirt that’s mostly red clay), and they leveled it and planted grass seed. But there was a problem: the chert has lots of rocks in it, so if anybody fell while playing soccer on that new field, he would invariably get all skinned up. Visiting teams never tried more than once to slide tackle on our field! Anyway, the coaches figured out a way to get some free labor to clear the stones out of this field. You guessed it, my classmates and I spent many hours of PE class picking up rocks and flinging them off the field. I suspect that current generations of soccer players don’t get skinned knees when they take a tumble on that field and they have no idea how many stones we pioneers cleared out of that field to make their life easier!
s “All who enter Zion are to make preparation for others. They are to gather stones out of the way…” (F. Barker) This theme can be seen throughout the prophet’s writings:
a. Jer 18:15 But my people have forgotten me; they make offerings to false gods; they made them stumble in their ways, in the ancient roads, and to walk into side roads, not the highway
b. Isa. 57:13b …But the one who takes refuge in me will possess the land, and he will take over my holy mountain! 14. And he will say, “Build up! Build up! Face the way! Pick up so as to keep from obstructing from my people’s way.”
c. 40:3 A voice is calling, “In the wilderness, y’all face the way of Jehovah Make straight in the desert a highway for our God
d. 35:4c He Himself will come, and He will save you. 5. Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped… 8. And there will be a highway and the road, and it will be called “The Way of the Holy.” An unclean man will not pass over it, but it belongs to him walking the way, and the simple will not go astray... 10. And the ransomed of Jehovah will return, and go to Zion with singing - everlasting joy upon their head…
s How about you, what kind of stones can you clear out to prepare the way for others to come to Christ?
o How many non-Christians say, “Christians are such hypocrites; I don’t want anything to do with them?” Repenting of hypocrisy and working on making your words and actions match is one way to clear stones out of the way.
o How many people have been to a church of some kind and yet never heard the Gospel? This boulder of false teaching blocks the path for many people. We can remove it by teaching God’s word to other people.
o Or here’s another one I’ve heard, “Why do you have so many denominations? Christians are always infighting with one another.” This is a stumbling block that we can clear out of the path by guarding our tongues from criticizing our fellow-believers of whatever denominational stripe, but rather showing as much solidarity as we can with others who believe in the Bible.
o Cultural hurdles can also be a tripping hazard in the road. In a legitimate attempt to follow the Bible and flesh out a culture that reflects the Bible, we nevertheless develop vocabulary words and customs which don’t make a lot of sense to outsiders. Does one have to wear a dress or a tie, but not wear makeup or earrings, and memorize the Ecumenical Creeds and the psalms of ascent in the Scottish Psalter and have more than two kids that can sit still for 90 minutes to be accepted in this church? How can we help people see the difference between areas of personal choice and things that are standards? How can we help others become comfortable with our customs and also be a melting pot of Christian thought where new people with good ideas can influence the whole body? Wrestling through these issues is part of throwing those stones out of the road.
Waymakers are people who:
ILLUSTRATION: Construction of K-18
This works spiritually as:
This third part of being a way-maker – the proclamation - is addressed in 11b. “Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Look your Salvation has come, look His reward is with Him and His recompense before Him’”
s Look/behold points to an event in the future which hasn’t been seen yet; it is speaking of Jesus
s 52:2 Shake yourself, arise from the dust, be seated, Jerusalem. Let the bonds of your neck be unlocked, captive daughter of Zion!... 7. How fitting are the feet of an announcer upon the mountains, causing peace to be heard, announcing goodness, causing salvation to be heard, saying to Zion, your God reigns! 8. A voice! Your watchmen lifted up the voice; together they cheered, for eye with eye they watched while Jehovah restored Zion!
s Developed by Zec 9:9 Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is He, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. [Which Mt. 21:5 tells us is a prophecy of Jesus]
s 51:5 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.
s 40:9 Raise your voice with strength, evangelist of Jerusalem; Raise [it] - don’t be afraid! Say to the cities of Judah, ‘Look, your God! (10) Look, the Lord Jehovah will come in might, and His arm rules for Him. Look, His reward is with Him, and His work before His face. (11) Like a shepherd He will shepherd His flock: Jesus is coming back from heaven, accompanied by the people that He has redeemed, and He will take us home to heaven!
s This is our message: “Jesus has come and provided salvation, and He is coming back!”
This is the call before us today: Will you be a Watchman and a Waymaker?
As a Watchman, will you:
s cause to remember Jehovah,
s reel in the promises through prayer,
s and organize life to the glory of God?
As a Way-maker, will you:
s enter the kingdom of God through faith in Jesus,
s repent of sin and clear the way of hindrances,
s and proclaim the salvation of our Lord Jesus?
Nate Wilson’s website – Isaiah Sermon Expositions
Christ the Redeemer Church website - Sermons