09 Why the New Covenant Surpasses Every Old Testament Promise (Isaiah 54:1-10)

Krisan Marotta: We're listening to Wednesday in the Word, and I'm Krisan Marotta. Today we're looking at Isaiah chapter 54, verses 1 through 10. This is the ninth topic in our series on the Servant Songs from the Old Testament book of Isaiah. If you'd like to find links for everything mentioned in the talk, you can go to our lecture notes on our webpage. You'll find those at wednesdayintheword.com slash servant songs nine. Thanks so much for joining us. You've probably heard or been taught that it's God's will for Christians to be rich. Many of the television preachers claim that if you send them money, God will reward you by making you rich, and some even go so far as to claim you as you get a dollar for dollar return, you get a dollar back for every dollar you give away, and some claim you even get two dollars back. This view is known as the prosperity gospel or the health and wealth gospel. Some groups are so blatant that it they're easy to dismiss, but what do you do about others who are more thoughtful in their claims or back up their claims from Scripture? For example, in Deuteronomy twenty eight, this is verse one, it says Now it shall be if you diligently obey the Lord your God, being careful to do all his commandments which I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. And then going down to verse eleven, same chapter. The Lord will make you abound in prosperity, and in the offspring of your body, and in the offspring of your beast, and in the produce of your ground, in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers to give you. The Lord will open for you his good storehouse, the heavens, to give rain to your land in its seasons, and to bless all the work of your hand, and you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. So it says right there in Deuteronomy, if you diligently obey the Lord your God, he will open his storehouse for you, make you abound in prosperity, and these are legitimate promises of the old covenant. Well then people might argue, didn't Christ in establishing the new covenant fulfill these old covenant promises and much more besides, why can't we as new covenant believers expect God to make good on this kind of prosperity? You've probably known people or especially new believers who've run into this philosophy, bought into it, and then become disillusioned when life takes a hard turn. They grow disillusioned or despair when God lets their needs go unmet, or it feels like their good deeds go unrewarded. Maybe they're single and desperately want to be married, or they're married and desperately want children but don't have any, or they face sudden unemployment, disability, tragic health problems or some tragedy. And then they ask the question, well, if I trust God and He's not blessing me with whatever kinds of prosperity they're expecting, what's the point of it all? Well, the exiles were probably asking themselves those same kind of questions. What happened to prosperity? Why are we still in captivity? How much longer will God abandon us in Babylon? And those questions are still with us today. So what can a believer expect in this life? What happened to the promises of prosperity in the old covenant? Is there still prosperity for the believer today? These are the kinds of questions we're going to be discussing today in Isaiah chapter 54. We've finished the servant songs proper and now we're looking at the response to the songs. And what we're seeing in this section is that Isaiah announces there's a new age that's coming and it offers an entirely new kind of prosperity, a prosperity that's better than what was promised in the old covenant. This new age begins with a shout of joy as the prophet depicts this messianic age of new prosperity, a new covenant, a new temple, and a new land and a new glory. And we'll see as we go through this section that each of the details is described in terms of the old covenant, but then contrasted with the old covenant as much surpassing it as so much better. But before we get to the description of this new age, we have to figure out when is the new age? When does the new age arrive? When will all these promises be fulfilled? I will put a link in the lecture notes to a chart that describes more visually what I'm about to tell you. I've adapted it from Bruce Walkey's work, it's there on the website, and you can find that chart at Wednesday in the Word.com slash servant songs nine. So the question is when is the new age? The Jews thought that these promises of the New Age would be fulfilled immediately following the coming of the Messiah. So they are their view was a this age, next age version of history where the turning point and the dividing line between the two ages was the coming of the Messiah. What we see in the New Testament under the Lord's teaching and what the apostles tell us is that these prophecies of a new age were indeed fulfilled at the coming of Christ, but they have not yet been fully consummated or fully realized. The two ages overlap. So the age to come was realized in principle and spiritually applied to the church at the first coming of Jesus, but it awaits its final consummation until the second coming of Christ. So the old age is passing away as the new age is being born, and when Christ returns, the labor will be over, the new age will be born in all its glory and grandeur and fully realized. And this kind of separation between a promise realized and a promise ultimately fulfilled is not a new concept. There are many instances in Scripture where a promise is given and the first step is realized, but it's not fully consummated until years later or generations later. For example, David was promised that one of his line would rule over the house of Israel forever. That promise has been realized in the Messiah, but it has not yet been fully consummated. Abraham was promised a land and a seed more numerous than the stars. That promise was realized at the birth of Isaac, but not fulfilled until four hundred years later at the Exodus, when the nation of Israel was born, and there's a sense in which it's still not yet fully consummated, but will be at the second coming of Christ, when all Abraham's seed, as in his spiritual children, will be gathered together. In fact, that promise to Abraham is one of the first things Isaiah is going to allude to in chapter fifty-four. So let's look at it. We're going to look at the first three verses where he announces this new kind of prosperity and a new kind of seed and a new inheritance. So this is Isaiah 54, verses one through three. Shout for joy, O barren one, you who have borne no child, break forth into joyful shouting, and cry aloud, you who have not travailed. For the sons of the desolate one will be more numerous than the sons of the married woman, says the Lord. Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch out the curtains of your dwellings, spare not, lengthen your cords and strengthen your pegs, for you will spread abroad to the right and to the left, and your descendants will possess nations and will resettle the desolate cities. So the first thing we have to figure out is what do all these metaphors mean? Who is the barren one? Who's the desolate one, and who is the married woman? And I think what he's referring to here is the barren one is the believing remnant under the old covenant, or the believers who lived during the time of the old covenant. The desolate one refers to the servant, and the sons of the desolate one are believers under the new covenant, and the married woman refers poetically to Israel under the old covenant. So he's saying, Shout for joy, O barren one, so the remnant under the old covenant, you now have a reason for joy because the desolate one, the servant, and his children will surpass those of the married woman, those of Israel under the old covenant. The remnant is depicted as a barren woman, and the pain of her barrenness is contrasted with the joy of the future. You'll notice he keeps describing the barrenness, intensifying the pain, but each time he describes it, he matches it with a reason for joy. So first she's described as barren, like Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, and Hannah, her womb is closed, she's unable to have children. Then she's described as you who were never in labor, or you who have not travailed, so you who haven't even begun that process of experiencing labor. But notice each of those was matched. It's shout for joy, O barren one. You have borne no child, break forth into joyful shouting, you who have not travailed. Why? Because the sons of the desolate one will be more numerous than the sons of the married woman. Okay, so let's talk about what that means. The desolate one is an interesting metaphor for him to choose. The only woman described as desolate in the Old Testament is Tamar. She was one of David's daughters, and it's helpful to know her story and to think about why he might have chosen this word desolate. Tamar was raped by her half brother Amnon, and afterwards scripture tells us that he hated her with a greater hatred than the lust he had for her, so he threw her out of his presence. 2 Samuel 1320 says, So Tamar remained and was desolate in her brother Absalom's house. Why is she desolate? She has no future possibility of marrying or having children. Not only did she not have a child, she hadn't even started the labor process, and now she didn't even have the chance or the possibility of having children. Likewise, the servant never married. He never had any physical seed, he died on a cross forsaken, barren, and desolate. Like Tamar, he is desolate. He doesn't even have a chance of having any physical seed, and yet his seed will be more numerous than the married woman. What Isaiah is poetically saying is that believers have this great cause for joy because the new covenant is greater than the old covenant, because the spiritual children of the new covenant are going to surpass and be greater than those of the old covenant. Israel, as the married woman, was poised for fruitfulness. She had the law, she had the prophets, she had the promises of the Old Testament, she had the history of God dealing with his people. She was all set to be fruitful and prosper, but she failed. She played the adulterous wife, abandoned her God, rebelled, and turned to idolatry over and over. Now the prophet says the servant, the desolate one, the one who wasn't even in a position to be fruitful, who showed no promise, who didn't look like a king, didn't meet the expectations of what the Messiah would be, who didn't usher in the political revolution they were expecting, this one who was crucified, he's going to succeed. His children, the results of his labor, are going to far outnumber those of the married woman the old covenant. Shout for joy, break forth in joyful shouting for two reasons. The new seed will be a spiritual seed, and it will far outnumber the physical seed. This new seed's going to be supernatural in origin. It is the work of God, not the work of the flesh. It is the work of the spirit of God changing lives, not of physical efforts. So we see that in the desolate one who has no physical possibility of having children is going to have children, while the married woman who has all the reason to think she will have children is not going to. Think how many times God has used barrenness to bring about something incredible or fulfill a promise. Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, Hannah, Elizabeth, even Mary in her own way. How many times did he show us that the new seed was according to the promise, according to the Spirit? It's according to His blessings and not our striving or our doing. The seed that's going to come about depends on His resources, not ours. So the barren woman is not to sing because now she has ceased to be barren. The contrast here is not between an Israel that was barren and an Israel that is now fruitful. The contrast is between one who had absolutely no chance of having children, the desolate one, and one who is naturally placed to be fruitful. The point being that this new seed that's coming, this new gathering family, is not the result of natural explanations. The children will be spiritual and supernatural in origin. They will be born out of God's resources and God's actions, not human effort or human striving. The New Testament picks up on this very idea. This is John one verses twelve and thirteen. But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God, even those who believe in his name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. Ephesians two, one through ten makes the same point, particularly in verse five. Even when we were dead in our transgressions, God made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved. That's two five of Ephesians. And then Paul quotes this text in Galatians four to make the same point. This is Galatians four verses twenty six through twenty-eight. But the Jerusalem above is free, she is our mother, for it is written, and then he quotes our passage, rejoice bearing woman who does not bear, break forth and shout, you who are not in labor, for more numerous are the children of the desolate than of the one who has a husband. And you, brethren, like Isaac, are children of promise. He's saying you are that seed, you are those children of promise. The seed is not those who are physically born Jewish, but you who, like Abraham, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. You're the ones born according to the promise and the Spirit, and are the true children of Abraham. So the barrenness and the failure of physical Israel will be supernaturally surpassed by the children of the servant. And this metaphor is that God will gather his children. He will write the law in their hearts, replace their disobedience, replace their idolatry with a willingness and a heart that wants to follow him. So he will replace the physical children that rebelled and abandoned him for other gods with a spiritual seed that, like their spiritual father the servant, will follow him and obey him and honor him. This new seed needs a new land, and that's where he goes next. This new seed will have a new land or a new inheritance. Look at two and three again. Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch out the curtains of your dwellings, spare not, lengthen your cords and strengthen your pegs, for you will spread abroad to the right and to the left, and your descendants will possess nations and will resettle the desolate cities. So he's talking about placing your tent and stretching it out, not sparing any expense, not sparing any effort, and this metaphor changes from a woman just giving birth to a woman now building a home for her family. She's told to expand her dwellings beyond measure, not to spare any effort, any material or any expense. When the people of Israel gained their inheritance in the promised land, it had geographical limits and boundaries. There are lots of passages we could look at, but I picked this one. Look at Deuteronomy chapter two. I'm gonna read you three through five. You have circled this mountain long enough, now turn north and command the people, saying, You will pass through the territory of your brothers, the sons of Esau, who live in Seir, and they will be afraid of you, so be very careful. Do not provoke them, for I will not give you any of their land, even as little as a footstep, because I have given Mount Seir to Esau as a possession. So they're told, Okay, it's now it's time to go into the promised land, but this land doesn't belong to you. This land over here, that belongs to Esau. The land he's giving them had boundaries. Later on when Moses sent word to the king of Edom, he says in Numbers twenty verse seventeen, please let us pass through your land. We will not pass through field or through vineyard, we will not even drink water from a well, we will go along the king's highway, not turning to the right or the left until we pass through your territory. Well compare that language with what we just saw in verse three, where they're commanded to turn right or left. The spiritual seed is told to spread abroad to the right and left, to enlarge their tent and spare no effort and spread through all their nations, because the cross changed everything. Jesus did not defeat some local king and some local fiefdom. He dealt with the ultimate enemies of mankind, sin and rebellion. This is why he could say to the apostles, All authority has been given to me in heaven and earth, go therefore and make disciples in all the nations. Now there's this boundless, endless freedom because the enemy behind all the nations has been dealt with. The new land knows no boundaries, but it's not just that it has no geographical boundaries, it will include all the nations, not just Israel. Notice verse three, and your descendants will possess nations and will resettle the desolate cities. The Old Testament Jews dreamed of a day that God would restore the time of David and Solomon or even Joshua and Moses, that they would restore those boundaries of the promised land. But with the Messiah, with the coming of Jesus, they have been given something better. In the new age, the new Israel will not only resettle the cities left desolate by her exile, the new Israel will expand to include all the Gentile nations. It's more than restoration, it's this transcendent reunification. So we've seen that the promise of the seed in the land has been fulfilled and surpassed. What about the covenant between God and Israel? What about that relationship? It needs to be restored as well. And again, the prophet's going to use this picture of a marriage relationship to describe what's happened. But just for background, at Mount Sinai, God and Israel entered into a covenant or a kind of marriage agreement, a contract. God liberated Israel from bondage in Egypt, and in response the nation was to give God her whole heart. But as we've seen, Israel was the unfaithful spouse. God, the faithful husband, was forced to give her a bill of divorce and send her into the wilderness into exile because of her long history of spiritual adultery. Even though God was the wronged party in this covenant or in this marriage, he had compassion on his unfaithful wife, and as we'll see, he initiates reconciliation by searching for Israel, and once he find her, cleansing her and renewing her vows. And then he's going to go on to say this time it's different. This time the marriage, the covenant contract, is going to work because of the work of the servant. Let's look at four through ten, this new covenant and restored relationship. We'll start with verse four. Fear not, for you will not be put to shame, and do not feel humiliated, for you will not be disgraced, but you will forget the shame of your youth and the reproach of your widowhood you will remember no more. So the first benefit of this restored relationship is forgiveness for all the past, forgiveness for all the past sins and confidence for the future. So here the prophet is saying that from Israel's youth, I think that's the wilderness period when the nation was wandering in the wilderness after crossing the Red Sea, to her widowhood when God abandoned her to exile in Babylon. So Israel had been the unfaithful spouse from the Exodus, her youth, to exile, her widowhood, Israel had been unfaithful to God, but now all that is forgiven and cleansed. If you want a full picture of what has been forgiven, read Ezekiel 16 sometime. In it, Ezekiel recounts the history poetically of Israel's sin, and he uses the same metaphor of an unfaithful wife. I'll just give you a highlight. This is from 1632 through thirty-four. You adulterous wife who takes strangers instead of her husband. Men give gifts to harlots, but you give your gifts to all your lovers to bribe them to come to you from every direction for your harlotries. Thus you are different than from those women in your harlotries, and that no one plays the harlot as you do because you give money and no money is given to you, thus you are different. So he accuses them of being an adulterous wife, but worse than that, rather than than men paying for the prostitution, they end up paying others. to be unfaithful. And all of that is cleansed and forgiven. He says, fear not. You will not be put to shame. You will not be humiliated. You will forget the shame of your youth and the reproach of your widowhood. You won't even remember it. As we talked about in the first week in chapter 40, the basis of our comfort is that the past has been dealt with. The past has been dealt with at the cross. The blood of Christ cleanses us more than double the amount of our sins. And even the memory of that sin will one day be forgotten. So the past is forgiven but notice he says the future will be assured. Fear not, you will not be put to shame and do not feel humiliated for you will not be disgraced. You don't have to look forward and and worry that it's going to happen again. You won't be put to shame in the future you won't be disgraced in the future. Well under the old covenant we didn't have that guarantee and in fact we see the nation of Israel sinning and sinning repeatedly like an alcoholic husband they have to repeatedly and daily commit to a sober lifestyle like that Israel repeatedly committed herself to following God and then failed and we see through the Old Testament stories Israel reaching new spiritual highs, recommitting herself to the Lord and then those are followed by greater valleys and lows where they turn yet again. So they lived in fear of this banishment of discipline from the Lord if they lapsed into rebellion again and he's saying not anymore. You don't have to fear that again why? Because of the work of the servant you need never fear another exile like the Assyrians or the Babylonians. No longer do you need to live in fear of being abandoned by God to another exile because of what the servant has done. He has washed us and cleansed us from both past and future sin. So why does it work this time? Why is it different? The answer is in verse five the new covenant is not based on Israel's resources it's based on God. So the new covenant surpasses the old covenant because it is based on the Lord's doing and the Lord's resources not the people's look at verse five for your husband is your maker whose name is the Lord of hosts and your redeemer is the Holy One of Israel who's called the God of all of earth so why do you not need to fear? Why will you not be disgraced? Because your husband is your maker your husband is the Lord of hosts the redeemer the holy one of Israel look at the vocabulary in this section it's almost overwhelming in the adjectives and the way he describes God Husband denotes a deliberate permanent committed relationship. A husband chooses and makes a commitment that is forever. He says your husband is your maker using a word that's part of the creation vocabulary. In Genesis one it's used of the work of the creator giving this perfect expression to his creative designs and bringing these acts of creation to their intended concrete expression whose name is the Lord we've talked about name before it's everything that he's revealed himself to be sort of his reputation in a way his name is used to refer to everything he's revealed himself to be. So when we pray in Jesus' name we're not praying with a magic word like please and thank you. We're praying based on who we believe Jesus to be who his role was what it means to be the Christ what it means to be the Messiah and what it means for him to die in our place so we're praying in his name in everything he's been revealed to be. It's on that basis that he is the Messiah the atoning sacrifice. Similarly whose name is the Lord of hosts God has been revealed to be the Lord of hosts the Lord of everything and all his power and might. So hosts are almighty includes everything of every sort he is the sovereign ruler of all of creation and then he's called the Holy One of Israel which looks back to Isaiah chapter six when Isaiah saw God sitting on his throne in all his holiness God in his unique and total moral perfection and majesty and if all of that's not enough he even calls him a redeemer the redeemer is the next of kin the person who would buy you back out of slavery the one who would willingly shoulder the burden for someone else who is utterly helpless to help themselves. He takes that person's needs as his own and handles them. So your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel who is called the God of all of heaven and earth. So we see in this verse the Lord has committed himself as a husband in all his fullness of power he's on our side as a redeemer in all the fullness of his divine nature. Every circumstance that comes our way is within his sovereignty and control. But now the servant has taken on the role of Israel taken on the role of the bride but instead of being unfaithful he is faithful and obedient and loves God in return because of his willing sacrifice everything we talked about in the last two sessions God places his spirit in our hearts so that we now can be faithful. Our righteousness no longer rests on our feeble and fickle efforts but on God working within us. So the new covenant far surpasses the old because it's initiated by God and not Israel. And not only is our righteousness up to God even our return is up to him. Look at verse six for the Lord has called you like a wife forsaken and grieved in spirit even like the wife of one's youth when she is rejected says your God Now remember Israel was the guilty party in this covenant marriage. She was the one who had wronged the Lord, who had abandoned him and turned to idolatry. So the Lord was forced to abandon her to discipline her into exile because of her rebellion and idolatry. The Lord was the wrong party but he is the one who calls her back. He calls her as if she were a wife forsaken as if she were the innocent party and not the guilty party. So even though the nation of Israel was the guilty party and the Lord was the faithful innocent party he calls her back as if she were the innocent wife of one's youth rejected through no fault of her own. This new relationship then is based on God's initiative and now we see that it's based on a permanent love which is contrasted with a temporary judgment. Look at seven through ten for a brief moment I forsook you, but with great compassion I will gather you. In an outburst of anger I hid my face from you for a moment, but with everlasting loving kindness I will have compassion on you, says the Lord your redeemer for this is like the days of Noah to me when I saw that the waters of Noah would not flood the earth again, so I have sworn that I will not be angry with you, nor will I rebuke you, for the mountains may be removed and the hills may shake, but my loving kindness will not be removed from you and my covenant of peace will not be shaken, says the Lord who has compassion on you. So God's love is contrasted here with his judgment or his wrath. Israel suffered under his judgment for seventy years of the exile but now that is over. Compared to God's everlasting loyal love the seventy years in exile in Babylon will seem like a brief moment. Notice the contrast here in verse seven he says for a brief moment I forsook you but with great compassion I will gather you and in verse eight in an outburst of anger I hid my face from you for a moment but with everlasting loving kindness I will have compassion on you for this is like the days of Noah to me. Okay. What what's the comparison? What is this event like the days of Noah? How is how is there a comparison? The permanent quality of his love is compared to the oath he made with Noah and the comparison between these days and the days of Noah I think is in part that both are turning points. The magnitude of the change between the old and the new covenant is on the same order as the promise to Noah after the flood. The mercy following the captivity parallels the mercy God demonstrated following the flood. During Noah's time God established through an oath that he would never again destroy the earth by flood and the reason he gives is that judgment didn't help. Judgment did not change the heart of man. And Genesis eight twenty one he says and the Lord said to himself I will never again curse the ground on account of man for the intent of man's heart is evil from his youth and I will never again destroy every living thing as I have done. The intent of man's heart is evil from his youth. I think part of the lesson of the flood is that judgment alone is not enough. Judgment and discipline alone is not going to save us. God wiped out the entire earth except for one family and you'd think we would learn from that and be obedient from that point forward. You'd think after a worldwide cataclysmic flood we would learn to fear God and be obedient but as we go through the rest of biblical history we'll see we repopulated the earth and we sinned again and again and again the people came back to God and then turn away they run to him when he disciplines them and then they turn back to their idolatry. Judgment alone cannot change our hearts but God's everlasting loving kindness can. So he has sworn that he will not forsake us again just as in the days of Noah he swore not to destroy us again but now where judgment could not change our hearts because of the work of his servant and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit as a result now God's loyal love can and will change us. And notice it will outlast history itself he says for the mountains may be removed and the hills may shake but my loving kindness will not be removed from you and my covenant of peace will not be shaken says the Lord who has compassion on you so the mountains may be removed the hills may shake in other words creation itself may fail but this promise this loving kindness will not be removed this covenant will not be broken. So the new covenant far surpasses the old covenant God made with Noah it will outlast history it will outlast the created order and his love will create within his people new hearts and they will remain forever secure in his abiding love. So we've seen the new covenant ends our guilt for past shame it ends all fear of the future because our even our future sins have been covered it's based on the resources of God not ourselves and our own feeble efforts. It's initiated by God not by us and it's established in a love greater than judgment a love which is more enduring than the universe itself so what do we do with these promises of prosperity in the old Old Testament? What have we learned? I think the answer we've been given is that under the new covenant we have a new and a better kind of prosperity if only we have the eyes to see it. Like the analogy we talked about a few weeks ago of looking for candles and firewood when we've been given electricity we sometimes look for earthly health and wealth and prosperity but we have been promised a whole new kind of life in the age of ages. It's one thing to have rain and harvest and fruitfulness now but we don't want to trade heaven for it. We've been promised a much deeper, much richer, lasting and eternal kind of prosperity and that is freedom from sin and death itself. We've been promised ultimately to be freed from the tyranny of sin and all its presence all its power and all its effects all because of the faithfulness of God's servant and his everlasting love. So if we have to endure anything now unemployment, sickness, tragedy, distress, whatever we go through in this life, if we go through that to gain a mature faith that gets us into the kingdom of heaven, it's worth it. Those old covenant promises of prosperity have been far surpassed by the new covenant. Just like the physical seed and the physical land have been surpassed, just like the old marriage relationship has been replaced, we stand to inherit a prosperity beyond our wild imaginings, a secure and everlasting relationship with God the Father based on the work of his servant thank you for listening to the Wednesday in the words not only what a passage means but also shows you how to figure that out. If you've been blessed by this podcast please do me a favor and take two minutes and leave a waiting or a review on Apple Podcasts. It really does help. Every five reviews make it easier for others to find the podcast and I would really appreciate your support our theme music is graciously provided by Reggie Coast of HeartHelpmusic.org I'm Krisan Marotta and you can find more talks on wednesdayintheword.com