Isaiah 59, Oh, What a Redeemer!

An outline of Isaiah 59 is in terms of how sinful men can have a right relationship with God: sin (v1-8), confession (v9-15a) and redemption (v15b-21).  This pattern was true for Israel and is true today.  Thus it is very much worth our consideration.

·        59:1-8: Sin

Israel, God’s chosen people, were not experiencing God’s blessing and they were blaming God.  How typical of men.  How gracious of God that He sent His prophet to tell the truth.  The problem is not with God; it is not that He is incapable.  The problem is your sin.  It has separated you from God.  This it truth, pure and simple.

The description of sin is powerful.  The Lord uses two spider illustrations.  Israel was trusting lies and thus were holding themselves up as with a spider’s web.  Israel was confident the lives they were living were productive, but actually they were laying spider’s eggs that were producing deadly spiders.  That is the nature of humanity all the time.  We hold to a philosophy that makes us feel good but which will not give us a covering for sin when we stand before our Creator.  We take pride in our accomplishments but in fact we are giving birth to more and more that separates us from God because it is filled with self.

·        59:9-15a: Confession

We call this a confession but not because the confessor ever says I’m sorry.  Confession is not apologizing; it is agreeing, agreeing with God that what He says is sin in my life is, in fact, sin!  Do your own comparison of what God called sin in 59:3-7 and what Isaiah agrees is sin in 59:9-13.  He says we look for light but grope in the darkness; thus he recognizes the spider’s web lies God mentioned.  We make choices day by day that drive us further away from God.  These are the spider eggs we are hatching.  This is the place we must come to in our thinking, where we no longer blame God for our issues but readily confess our sin.

·        59:15b-21: Redemption

What is God’s response when He sees our sin?  First, He is displeased that there is so much sin.  Second, He wonders that there is no one who is qualified or willing to stand between Him and the sinners to provide a basis for saving the lost souls.  This is truly a hopeless matter: sinful men standing before a holy God have no standing.  They are condemned and worthy of the worst punishment for such arrogance.

Then we ask, “What does God do about this hopeless situation?”  What He does is He bares His arm and takes the place of the intercessor Himself.  HE BECOMES MAN, living a holy and righteous life so that He qualifies to stand for mankind to provide salvation.  His own arm brought salvation for Him and His own righteousness, it sustained Him.  The Redeemer that comes out of Zion is none other than the LORD Himself. 

The idea of redeemer in the Old Testament is of the kinsman who is willing to buy the property and possessions of the deceased kin (cf. the book of Ruth).  That is what God did in Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ.  He became our Kinsman Redeemer.  By His perfect intercession He established a New Covenant in which the sinner would have standing before God.  Through faith in Christ we enter this covenant, taking on the righteousness of Christ.  The holy God is satisfied that a perfect Lamb has paid the price of redemption; the sinful man has the hope of eternal life.

But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed … even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe … being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus … (Rom. 3:21-26).