05 What the Servant Learned From Looking Like a Failure (Isaiah 49:1-13)

Speaker: This is the Wednesday in the Word podcast, and I'm Krisan Marotta. Today we're looking at Isaiah chapter 49, verses 1 through 13. This is the fifth talk in our series of the Servant Songs from the Old Testament book of Isaiah. You can find links and lecture notes for today's talk by going to our website. Just go to wednesdayintheword.com slash Servant Songs 5. Glad to have you along. Well, a couple of weeks ago we had the Super Bowl, and that reminded me of the 2002 Super Bowl where the St. Louis Rams were favored to beat the New England Patriots by about 25 points. After trailing the entire game, the Rams managed to tie the game with a minute and 30 seconds left on the clock. But the Patriots drove back and kicked a field goal in the final seconds of the game to win 20-17. In all the hoopla that followed that game, I heard the following story. In preparing his team for the game, the coach of the Patriots showed them a video of a horse race. He stopped the tape at each turn and asked the team to predict who was going to win. Finally, he got to the last turn and he asked for their predictions. As they looked at the pack, who did they think was going to win? Well, after they all made their guesses, he said something to the effect of it doesn't matter who's ahead on the last turn, it only matters who's ahead when they cross the finish line. So the game is not over until it's over. It doesn't matter what it looks like going into the last turn, don't give up until the whistle blows. Well, we're going to see that same point in our passage today. Isaiah recounts a similar experience in the life of the servant, and in this remarkable text, we see the servant himself giving personal testimony about his role in his ministry. And surprisingly enough, he's disillusioned. He's looking at the last turn and it doesn't look good. And God's going to respond with essentially the same message as the coach. It's not over till it's over. So we're looking at the second servant song today, and you'll recall that the book of Isaiah has a kind of a spiral outline because he tends to return to the same themes over and over again. But each time he comes back to a theme, he gives it a bit more detail, or he looks at it from a different perspective to flush it out a bit more, and that gives the book this kind of spiral progression as he keeps circling back to the same themes. So we're going to see in this second song that he is circling back, he's going to give us a bit more information than we got the first time. We're looking at it from a different perspective, but he's still not going to answer all our questions. Well, we're going to break the passage into two parts. The first part is verses 1 through 6, which is the servant's testimony, and that's where we're going to start. So this is Isaiah 49, verse 1. Listen to me, O islands, and pay attention, you peoples from afar. The Lord called me from the womb, from the body of my mother, he named me. And the first question we have to answer is, who's talking? So 49-1 begins, listen to me, who is the me? Well, listen to me is a very unusual way to start a passage. We know that it's probably not Isaiah or a prophet, because prophets don't begin, listen to me, because it's not their words that matter, it's the word of the Lord. So they usually begin, thus says the Lord, or hear the words of the Lord. No prophet says, listen to me, unless they are quoting God directly and saying, God said, listen to me. So our first clue would tell us this is not the prophet, and our second clue is that prophets don't usually address a worldwide audience. Usually their audience is more narrow. They're addressing the people of Israel, the people of Judah, one of their neighbors, or so on. So he says, Listen to me, O islands, and pay attention, you peoples from afar. The islands would be to the west of Israel off in the Mediterranean Sea. The peoples from afar would be those from the east, indicating he's probably talking to a worldwide audience. Everyone, listen to me. So our first clues tell us this is not the prophet. How do we know this is not God? How do we know this is not the Lord himself talking? Well, you'll notice he says, From the womb the Lord called me, and from the body of my mother he named me. Well, God couldn't have called himself, nor did he come from the body of a mother, so this rules out Yahweh or the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. So our third clue indicates this is not God, but it also rules out the nation of Israel. We can eliminate the nation of Israel because the grammar is first person singular, it's listened to me, but more importantly, he talks about my mother and from my womb, and that does not indicate a nation. A nation didn't have a single mother. So we've eliminated the prophet, we've eliminated God himself and the nation of Israel, and that leaves us with the servant talking. And as we go on to see the task he describes, the servant is the only one who really fits that task. He is describing the task we know was given to the servant. So he starts listen to me, and that idea is listen with the intent to obey, give full weight to. This is worth paying attention to. And then he describes his credentials. From the womb the Lord called me, and from the body of my mother he named me. Again, from the womb indicates that this is an individual speaking, this is not a nation, there's a particular reference to his mother. And while prophets were often named by their father, they were usually identified as the son of someone. It is the Messiah who is frequently identified by his mother. So again, that's another clue that this is the servant talking here. And then the idea being emphasized is that from the beginning he was formed and named and called for a specific task. So like the prophets who were called to restore the nation to their God, the servant is called and named before birth to restore the nations to the Lord. Before he's even born, the angel tells Mary, this is Luke 1, verses 30 to 33. And the angel said to her, Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God, and behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great, and he will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end. Even before his conception, Jesus is called and named and given a task. So look at verse two. The servant is given gifts to fulfill his calling. He says in verse two, he has made my mouth like a sharp sword, in the shadow of his hand he concealed me. He has also made me a select arrow, he has hidden me in his quiver. Verse 2 tells us that the servant is equipped to fulfill his calling. The sharpness of the sword is a metaphor for its effectiveness. The sharper the sword, the more effective it is. And the polished arrow refers to its accuracy. It's rubbed free of any blemish such that it has a true flight path. There's nothing to turn it right or left. Hence it's more accurate. So the metaphor here is the servant has been given an effective and accurate word, an effective and accurate teaching. His word is piercing and penetrating. And he's going to bring about this kingdom by the word and not by the sword. So his speech is like a sharp sword, it will effectively penetrate right to the heart, and it will be like a sharpened arrow, it will cover a broad distance and land true and accurately. So it's piercing and penetrating. And why is his speech so effective? Because he was hidden and prepared in secret. Notice that his preparation was personal and intimate. He says, in the shadow of his hand, or he's hidden me in his quiver. The idea here is that he is under the protective hand of God. The servant is trained in secret, he's trained away from enemies, away from distractions, and he is prepared well for this task. So for thirty years he was hidden and polished and taught, making him effective and prepared for his calling. 49 3. He said to me, You are my servant Israel in whom I will show my glory. This is still the servant speaking, but notice he's quoting the Lord, so that he said to me, Is the Lord said to the servant, You are my servant Israel in whom I will show my glory, and then verse four, but I said, I have toiled in vain. I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity, yet surely the justice do me is with the Lord, and my reward is with God. He quotes himself. Then in forty-nine five the Lord speaks again, and now says the Lord who formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob back to him so that Israel might be gathered to him, for I am honored in the sight of the Lord, and my God is my strength. In forty-nine three he says, You are my servant Israel. Okay, so you'd think, wait a minute, you are my servant Israel, he must now be speaking to the nation of Israel. But notice it's he said to me, and that is singular, and then in 49.5, he says, His purpose, his task is to bring Jacob back to him. Alright, so we've got Israel and Jacob. Israel was the name given to Jacob, the son of Isaac, in Genesis 35. So when Jacob, the son of Isaac, inherits the promises God made to his grandfather Abraham, his name is changed to Israel. Israel is then the name given to the nation that inherited those promises, and the nation is sometimes referred to as Jacob. So these two names become interchangeable, and they can refer to both the patriarch and the nation, as we see in 49.5. But how can the Lord be speaking to the nation? Because the nation's purpose can't be to bring the nation back. So rather I think he says, You are my servant in 49.3 refers to the one servant who the New Testament authors identify as Jesus, and then Jacob and Israel in 49.5 is the nation, the family of believers. So remember, the nation of Israel was to be God's chosen people, a light to the nations, and salt of the earth, and all the people of earth were to be blessed through the nation of Israel. But they failed in that calling, and when Isaiah is writing this, the nation of Israel has been destroyed and exiled. The southern kingdom of Judah is about to be exiled, and they are not a light to the nations. But God is faithful to his promises. So their calling is going to be fulfilled by another. It's going to be fulfilled by the servant. God in his faithfulness will send a servant who will accomplish everything that the nation of Israel was supposed to accomplish, and at the same time, the servant is going to create a new holy nation who will obey God from the heart. He's going to establish this new kingdom, this new covenant, and through this servant God will show his glory. So the servant is picking up the mantle of the nation, and he will succeed where they have failed. But it doesn't look like success on the outside. Look at 49.4 again. But I said, I have toiled in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity, yet surely the justice do me is with the Lord and my reward is with God. The servant, speaking of himself, says, I have toiled in vain and spent my strength for nothing and vanity. He's looking at the final turn of the horse race and saying, You know, this doesn't look good. The situation looks bleak. God has promised him glory, he's promised that Israel would see that glory, return to God, but what happens? Israel rejects him and they choose him to be crucified and let a common thief go free. In Matthew 23, 37, just days before the crucifixion, we catch a glimpse of this despair in Jesus. He says, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it. How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not? Have you ever tried to gather one of your hurting children into your arms, but he or she just pulls away and refuses to accept your love and comfort? You just want to hug her tightly and soothe her pain, but she squirms away and fights you and rejects your comfort. I think that's the kind of pain Jesus is describing here, only probably multiplied by the thousands. He was sent to regather Israel. He called twelve apostles to replace the twelve tribes of Israel, and what happens? Israel rejects him, and then at the cross after the crucifixion, the apostles scattered like flies. At the end of Jesus' earthly ministry, the twelve apostles were scattered, and it appears that his ministry had ended in failure because he was crucified. I think this is why he looks around and says, I have toiled in vain. He properly understood his calling, he was prepared for it, he faithfully followed it, and yet he looks at how the Jewish people have rejected him, and he says, It's all in vain. And that word vanity is a word that can mean vapor. It's used by the author of Ecclesiastes to describe a breath of vapor, this transitory, fleeting thing that is just gone immediately. And the servant is looking at his accomplishments and says, it appears to be fleeting, it appears to be in vain. But notice he doesn't stop with despair. Verse 4 continues, yet surely the justice due to me is with the Lord, and my reward is with God. So the servant is saying, despite the fact that there's no visible external evidence that my ministry has been successful. So he's looking at his circumstances, he's called to regather Israel. It doesn't look like he's regathered Israel. Israel has instead rejected him and chosen him to be crucified. Yet he trusts that God will accomplish something, that God will reward him and fulfill his promises. So he looks at the outward evidence and says, you know, this doesn't look good, but God knows what he's doing. My reward is with him, my justice is with him. I trust that this was my calling, I have faithfully fulfilled it, and God is in control. So this is the same point that I started with, looking at the final turn of the horse race and saying, the race isn't over, the clock has not yet run out. Standing at the foot of the cross, the ministry of the Messiah may look like a failure. Or facing the Garden of Gethsemane, the trial before Pilate, the denial of his closest friends, the scattering of his apostles like sheep, that may look like failure. That may look like spending your strength for nothing, but it's not over yet. The resurrection happens three days later. He says, Yet surely the justice do me is with the Lord, and my reward is with God. Remember, Isaiah spent several chapters making the point that it is our God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who controls history. He's the one who interprets the meaning of past events. He calls the kings and the king makers, the nations do his bidding, he writes history, he predicts it, he interprets it, and the race isn't over until God says it's over. God determines the final victory. We see this same attitude of trust in Jesus in his farewell prayer. This is John 17, verses 4 and 5. I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do, and now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed. I did what you asked, Father, and I trust that it's all in your hands, and you will fulfill your promises. Abraham had to go through the same process when he offered Isaac on the altar. And how could God keep his promise to bring a great nation from Abraham's seed if Isaac was killed? He had no physical evidence that doing what God asked would accomplish anything. Yet he was willing to do it because he must have reasoned that Isaac would be raised from the dead if he was truly the promised seed that God would raise him. Likewise, Isaiah functioned as a prophet for about fifty years, but he was told at his calling that the people were going to reject him and they're not going to listen to him, and the nation would end up in exile. So from the outside, his ministry might have looked like a failure. Yet he knew that was his calling and he ought to fulfill it. He had to fulfill. Likewise, the servant must have reasoned that God knew what he was doing. Looking at the cross, looking at the apostles being scattered, looking at their apparent despair, it didn't look good, but he would ultimately see the fruits of his labor. He would start seeing them in the resurrection, and then he will see the full fulfillment of that in the second coming. So the servant was called to regather Israel, but Israel rejected him, so it looks like he spent his life in vain, but he knows God is ultimately the author of history. He will bring about his purposes, and you don't call the race at the final turn, you wait until the finish line. It's not over till it's over. I think that's an important lesson for us to dwell on because we are often quick to judge ourselves as a failure before the race is over. We expect a certain type of results, maybe it's financial reward or growth in numbers or a specific answer to a prayer. And when we get something else or we're still waiting, we judge ourselves a failure, and sometimes we judge God a failure. We're tempted to fall into that despair and say, I've spent my strength for nothing, my efforts were wasted, I might as well hang it up and go home. And yet, it's not over till it's over. God knows what he's doing and his purposes he will accomplish. The task which seems to have defeated the servant is actually the very task which God prepared him for. Look at verse 5. And now says the Lord, who formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob back to him, so that Israel might be gathered to him, for I am honored in the sight of the Lord, and my God is my strength. So he repeats his original calling. He says, God said his servant would bring the nation back, and it's going to happen. The task will be accomplished. The task was an honor, and God gave the servant the resources necessary to accomplish it, and he will bring it about. It's a monumental task to regather the nation of Israel. In chapter 37, Ezekiel describes the nation as dead bones and graves. And how do you bring dead bones back to life? It requires a miracle to take bones from the grave and then put flesh back on them and breathe life back into them, so that Israel would have a heart to respond to God. This is a colossal task, and yet God says, This task is too small for the servant. Look at verse six. And he says, he being God, it is too small a thing that you should be my servant, to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved ones of Israel. I will also make you a light of the nations, so that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth. So God's responding to Jesus' apparent despair, and he says, Follow me to the cross and the resurrection, and not only will the tribes of Israel be restored to sit at the table of heaven, people from every tribe and every nation are going to join them. It is too small a thing for you to raise up the house of Israel alone. I will give you to be a light to the nations, all nations, so that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth. I think the Apostle Paul must have gone through this same kind of process. At the end of his life, he's sitting in a prison cell and he's writing letters in obscurity while the churches he founded seemed to be falling apart and struggling with infighting and heresies. And from an earthly standpoint, there wasn't much physical evidence that his ministry was successful. But God, I think, probably said to the the same kind of thing to the apostle it's too small a thing for you to raise up believers in just your generation. There will be countless people from nations yet unborn who will read your letters thousands of years from now and be saved. Part of the point of all this is don't put God in a box. We don't know the scope and the extent of his plans. So if we look around us and all looks like it's lost, or it looks pointless, or all in vain, but we're convinced or you're convinced it's part of your calling, then just trust God that he will accomplish his purposes. So we faithfully do what he has called us to do and we trust him for the results. The servant had to suffer apparent failure in accomplishing his ministry, and I think we probably shouldn't expect anything different. If we've obeyed the Lord, if we've understood our calling correctly, then there's no cause for despair, even though it looks like our efforts may have been in vain, because God is the one who vindicates and justifies, and like the servant, we ought to say the justice to me is with him. I will trust him for the results. If God seems to shut the door on our earthly hopes, it is out of his graciousness, his love, and his mercy, for it is too small a thing to have only earthly hopes. Now, if I were smart, I'd just stop right there and let you digest that, but we're going to press on because I don't want to leave out the next section. Part two, verses seven through thirteen is the Lord's testimony. I just said if God shuts the door on our earthly hopes, it's out of love, for it's too small a thing to have earthly hopes, and that raises the question, well, what about those earthly hopes on which God shuts the door? What about those shattered dreams? What does God do about them? And as you're going to see, he will replace them with something so much better you can hardly compare the two. Look at verse 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, because of the Lord who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel who has chosen you. So look again who's talking. Thus says the Lord, this is now God speaking, the Redeemer, the Holy One. He's speaking to the despised one, the one abhorred by nations, to the servant. So notice the first thing he does is he says, You're right, you are going to be despised and rejected. Rather than being received with the honor of a king as is your right, you will be despised and rejected. And despised, that word has the idea of treating someone with contempt because that person has no significance. And abhorred is a very strong word in Hebrew. It's a word for rejection. We get the noun abomination from it. It's usually rejection because someone or something is unclean. But notice while he's confirming, yes, you will be rejected, look at the titles used for God, the Redeemer of Israel. It's Holy One. I think even in that confirmation of rejection, there's a hint that God will redeem. He is the Holy One. Yes, the servant will be rejected, but he is in the hand of the one who redeems. So there's a hint of comfort even in that confirmation of rejection. And then he goes on to say, He will change the servant's position. Kings will see and arise, princes will bow down. So the use of kings and princes suggest all the nations, all the peoples, those who initially rejected the servant who despised and abhorred him will be given the spiritual insights so that they now arise and then bow down at his feet. So while Jesus spent his earthly lifetime serving, ultimately he will be served and worshipped. Why? Because the Lord is faithful. He's the Holy One of Israel. He is the Redeemer. The Lord said he would redeem Israel and He will through His servant. He will reverse the servant's position because he is faithful to redeem his people, and His plan is to bring about that redemption through His servant. So notice this verse is bracketed by the phrase the Redeemer and Holy One of Israel. It begins calling God the Redeemer and Holy One of Israel, and it ends because of the Lord who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel who has chosen you. The race isn't over until your Redeemer says it is. The success or failure of your calling is in the hands of the Holy One of Israel. We saw in the earlier chapters that we can have confidence in God because He is the one who controls all of Israel. So the exiles can have confidence that God will redeem them from their slavery and the exile will end. The servant can have confidence that his task will be accomplished, and so can we. We can have confidence that Jesus Christ did in fact pay the price for our sins on the cross, and one day he will come to gather us home. How does all this change come about? What makes the difference? Look at 49.8. Thus says the Lord, in a favorable time I have answered you, in a day of salvation I have helped you, and I will keep you and give you for a covenant of the people to restore the land, to make them inherit the desolate heritages. In a favorable time, the idea is in his timing, he's going to respond and answer the discouragement from verse 4. He will make sure this the servant accomplishes his calling and the purposes God gave him. And I think verse eight is a reference to the resurrection and the new covenant brought about by that resurrection. So God promised David that he would have a line of sons who would be kings in Israel, and God would maintain this father-son unique special relationship with them. Eventually David came to understand that this promise did not mean that he would have son after son after son after son, and that one of them would hold the throne forever. But he came to understand that he was going to have one particular son who will live forever and reign on his throne. And God promised that the people would be saved through this one son who would reign forever, but that salvation is in a sense a whole new world order. It's a whole new covenant. He says, I will give you for a covenant. He will establish this new covenant, but in order to do that, he has to make a way to forgive their iniquities and their sins once and for all, and the servant is going to be the one to bring that about. So let me give you an analogy. Imagine you're a poor family living in the 15th century, and you're in the midst of a very severe winter, and your only source of light is candles, and your only source of heat is firewood, and both are running out. You become desperate. So you pray, Lord, please give me heat and light, but nothing happens. You use up your last candle, and the last fire is dying out, and just then someone knocks on your door and says, God has answered your prayer, and you look around hoping to see a stack of firewood and candles, but you see nothing. Then the visitor says, God is going to do something new for you. He has brought forth an entire new source of power, and it's called electricity. This is a new age dawning, the age of electricity, and you can have light and heat at the touch of a button. Well, that's the kind of shift we're talking about here. This is what Jesus offers in the resurrection. It's a new life, a new covenant, a new nation, a new power source, if you want to extend my analogy. And Paul uses this verse from Isaiah in 2 Corinthians in just the same way. This is 2 Corinthians 6, verses 1 and 2. Working together with him, then we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. For he says, In a favorable time I listened to you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you. Behold, now is the favorable time. Behold, now is the day of salvation. So Paul's saying what God has done for Christ in the resurrection is what he will do for you right now through faith in Jesus. Salvation is not salvation from dying on this earth, but the salvation he's offering is eternal life, the forgiveness of your sins. So he's not offering you candles and firewood, he's offering you electricity. He's not offering you salvation from dying on this earth, but eternal life through the deaths and resurrection of Jesus Christ. So God responded to the servant's discouragement, he listened and he fulfilled his promises. The new covenant is here, and all we have to do is believe it. Then he compares the servant's ministry to the other great leaders of Israel. This is the last part of verse eight and nine. He says, I will keep you and give you as a covenant to the people, to establish the land, to apportion the desolate heritages, saying to the prisoners, Come out, to those who are in darkness, appear, they shall feed along the ways, on the bare heights shall be their pasture. So the servant will be like Joshua, who established Israel in the land and defeated the Canaanites. But he's going to be greater than Joshua, because the land Joshua gave them would not ultimately provide rest. Joshua did give the Israelites the promised land, but they had no rest. They were constantly besieged by their enemies. The servant is going to take a desolate land, a place that is barren and ruined, and make a new creation out of it. He will be like Moses, who set the slaves in Egypt free from their physical slavery through the Exodus, but Moses couldn't set the people free from their sins. He couldn't make them keep the law. The servant will free them from their sins, forgive their sins, and then through the Holy Spirit, write the law in their hearts. So the servant will free their souls from the slavery to sin and idolatry. That's what the rest of nine and ten allude to. The time when Moses led the children of Israel out of Egypt and provided food and protection for them in the wilderness. This is look at nine and ten, saying to those who are bound, go forth, to those who are in darkness, show yourselves along the roads they will feed, and their pasture will be on all bare heights. They will not hunger or thirst, nor will the scorching wind or sun strike them down, for he who has compassion on them will lead them and will guide them to springs of water. So like Moses, the servant will be a faithful shepherd, he will lead the people, but unlike Moses, the food he provides will endure and be eternal. In John six, verses forty eight through fifty-one, Jesus says, I am the bread of life. Your father ate the manna in the wilderness and they died. This is the bread which comes down out of heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down out of heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever, and the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is my flesh. So the servant is a better deliverer, a better provider, and a better protector than Moses. And next he compares them to Solomon. Look at eleven and twelve. I will make all my mountains a road, and my highways will be raised up. Behold, they will come from afar, and lo these will come from the north and from the east, and these from the land of Sinan. So Solomon built Zion, the city of God, with material gathered from all over the world, and people came from everywhere to see this glorious city and temple that he built there. Three times a year the Jews were required to make their journey to Zion to celebrate the holy feast. But the mountains were always this great obstacles to the journey, as were the robbers and thieves. This is why I think Psalm 121 says, I will lift up my eyes to the mountains, from whence shall my help come. Because how is he going to make it? There's obstacles in the way to get there. But in the days of the servant, the mountains will no longer be an obstacle to the worship of the Lord, because worship will no longer be tied to geography. This is why Jesus says to the Samaritan woman, this is John 4, 21 through 23, Jesus said to her, Woman, believe me, the hour is coming, when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know. We worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. So now, thanks to the servant, there is a new Zion, a heavenly Jerusalem being built by the servant, where all physical obstacles to worship are removed, and, as he says, when two or three are gathered in his name, he's in the midst of them. The mountains, the robbers, the thieves are no longer a problem. And not only that, but the city is inclusive of all peoples. Notice verse 12, they come from afar, they come from the north, from the west, and then the land of Sinon, which was in the south. You have this metaphor of the peoples from afar, that's the east, and then he goes around the compass from the north to the west to the south, and they were restored from all four points of the compass. God is saying, Though you are far away, I'm calling you home, and there are no obstacles between us. The mountains are level, the roads are passable. So the servant is greater than Moses and Joshua and Solomon. He's bringing people home from all parts of the earth. He's greater than Joshua, for his land will be a new creation of ultimate rest. He's greater than Moses, for he calls us out of sin, so that we might be truly free, and he gives us food which does not perish, but produces eternal life. And he's greater than Solomon, for his city has no geographical obstacles, no internal divisions, and not one soul is lost. And how are we to respond? Look at verse 13. Shout for joy, O heavens, and rejoice, O earth. Break forth into joyful shouting, O mountains, for the Lord has comforted his people and will have compassion on his afflicted. What else is there to do but shout for joy? The Lord has not only comforted his people, but in the process he has given us a servant who will bring salvation to the whole earth. Well, actually, there is another option, and that is to complain, which is what they do in verse 14. But Zion said, The Lord has forsaken me, and the Lord has forgotten me. So Zion is a hilltop in Jerusalem where the Temple Mount is located. The picture here is that the people are gone and in exile, and Zion looks out on the desolate, broken land and says, I'm alone and forgotten. The Lord's forsaken me. And metaphorically, I think Zion then is reflecting the despair of the people who are in exile. So as the exile continues year after year, they think, Oh, I'm alone and forgotten and abandoned. But then the God answers, speaking to Zion, this is 49. Just gonna read you through 20, 15 through 20. Can a woman forget her nursing child and have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, but I will not forget you. Behold, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands, your walls are continually before me, your builders hurry, your destroyers and devastators will depart from you. Lift up your eyes and look around, all of them gather together, they come to you. As I live, declares the Lord, you will surely put on all of them as jewels and bind them on as a bride. For your waste and desolate places and your destroyed land, surely now they will be too cramped for inhabitants, and those who swallowed you will be far away. The children of whom you were bereaved will yet say in your ears, The place is too cramped for me, make room for me that I may live here. Zion is compared to a woman who's all alone, all her children are gone, and she's left by herself. And God responds, I won't forget you. On the contrary, you're inscribed on the palms of my hand, where I see it constantly and daily. Your builders hurry, they're coming back to rebuild. So the word builders is kind of a play on word because the word builders and the word for sons have the same consonants in Hebrew. Later on, he's going to talk about sons, and I think we're supposed to associate those two poetically. So the destroyers will leave, but the builders will come back. And lift up your eyes, and you can see the changes coming. He's going to bring the people back in such number that it's going to be so crowded that the people are going to say, There's not enough room. There's not enough room for everybody to live here. Move over and make room. Verse 21, then you will say in your heart, Who has begotten these for me since I have been bereaved of my children and am barren and exile and a wanderer? Who has reared these? Behold, I was left alone. From where did these come? So Zion responds, Where did all these children come from? Mine were taken away, now they're back in abundance. Where did they come from? And God answers, 22 and 23, Thus says the Lord, Behold, I will lift up my hand to the nations and set up my standard to the peoples, and they will bring your sons in their bosom, and your daughters will be carried on their shoulders. Kings will be your guardians, and their princes your nurses. They will bow down to you with their faces to the earth and lick the dust of your feet. And you will know that I am the Lord. Those who hopefully wait for me will not be put to shame. I wanted to get to that ending verse. Those who hopefully wait for me will not be put to shame. So God will lift up a standard to the nations. Previously in Isaiah, he used this image of lifting up a standard or a flag, and he used that image as a lift up the standard so that the enemies of Israel and Judah would gather around and discipline them. Now it's the opposite. He's going to lift up the standard that will call all the sons and daughters back. So not the enemies, the people, the sons and daughters will come back from the land, and kings will guard them rather than attack them. And he concludes, You will know that I am the Lord, and those who wait in hope will not be put to shame. So those who wait for God to fulfill his promises will see those promises fulfilled. I think the only way to end this is with that same kind of exhortation. Do not receive this grace in vain. For thousands of years the Jews have been praying for candles and firewood when God has given them electricity, and we can make the same mistake. Don't look for candles and firewood when we have electricity. Don't look for earthly promises and wealth and idols when God has given us so great a servant. Our generation frantically scampers after political correctness and new age philosophies and alternative lifestyles and idols that just won't satisfy. But we, if we've heard this word from Isaiah, if we've heard the gospel and the word of the Lord, we have been given the chance to hear that there is something better, something new and something wonderful. Let us not receive that grace in vain. Thank you for listening to Wednesday in the Word, the podcast that explains not only what a passage means, but also tries to show you how to figure that out. If you've been blessed by this podcast and want to hear about it, please email me at feedback at wednesdayintheword.com. Also, please share this podcast with a friend and subscribe on Apple Podcasts or however you get your podcast.org and I forgot around it, and you can hear more of the previous episodes on Wednesday.