Isaiah 51:17-52:12

God’s words of hope and comfort for Israel continue in today’s reading.  Two calls to Jerusalem/Zion to “Awake, awake!” (51:17; 52:1) provide a call to those who believe they have been forsaken by God.

·        51:17-23: In the future time of trouble God’s people will experience two horrible things: the cup of God’s fury and the cup of trembling (v17).  God here comforts Jerusalem with the promise that these cups will be passed on to their adversaries.  Jerusalem needs to “stand up”!

·        52:1-12: Zion also needs to put on her strength and beauty (v1; the beautiful garments of salvation).  In v4-5 God reminds Israel how she had first gone down to Egypt.  Then Assyria took captive the Northern Kingdom.  The day would come when Babylon would make exiles of the Southern Kingdom.  God’s name would be blasphemed continually.  But this will all change; a day of great joy will come.  The “holy arm” of the LORD will be bared for the work of salvation to the ends of the earth.  Therefore, because the LORD will go before and after them, the exiles are told to “depart, depart” (v11-12), to leave boldly (without haste) in their return to the holy city.

Perhaps the words of v7 are familiar, quoted by the Apostle Paul in Romans 10:12-15.  We should note that the Apostle uses Isa. 52:11 in its proper context in Romans where the “good news” is the gospel of Jesus Christ, the proclamation of His death and resurrection.  Again, in our passage, the good news to be proclaimed is for Israel but concerns all the nations.  How God will deliver His people as a nation requires the spiritual change that Jeremiah will refer to as a “new covenant” (Jer. 31:31-34).  

This new covenant will rest on the saving work of the Messiah, which is about to be revealed in significant detail in Isa. 52:13-53:12.  It is the same good news that Paul says must be preached as he deals with the question of “what happened to Israel” in Romans 9-11.  It is the same “glad tidings” announced by the angels at the birth of Immanuel, the Son of the virgin (Isa. 7:14; Luke 2:10; Matt. 1:22-23).  Today, Jews and Gentiles (the nations) alike are saved through faith in the LORD, Jesus the Messiah.  In a future day the nation, Israel, will be saved through faith in the one they pierced (Rom. 11:26-27; Zech. 12:10-14).

The words of Isa. 52:11 might also sound familiar as they are quoted by Paul in 2 Cor. 6:17.  We would do well to understand that reproof to the Church in it’s Old Testament context.  In Isaiah God is telling Israel that when the day of salvation comes they should boldly and calmly depart from captivity, hanging on to nothing unclean from that place.  So it is for believers in Christ.  We have been captive to sin (John 8:31-36).  We must not forget the agony of that captivity.  In the way we live our lives afterward it doesn’t make sense that we would walk away from sin in a leisurely or casual manner.  Depart!  Depart with haste!  And bring nothing of that slavery with you.  Leave it all behind!