Chapter 49
2024 - The Messianic nature of the prophecies toward the end of 48 continue into 49.
1 Listen to me, O coastlands, and give attention, you peoples from afar. The LORD called me from the womb, from the body of my mother he named my name. [Isa 49:1 ESV]
Seems to me pretty important to know what name we are talking about here. My old NKJV does not have a star by this verse. Still, it is obvious that this is about Jesus. MSB says 49:1-57:21 define the Messiah/Servant's prophetic and priestly functions. The outline switches now from the deliverance from Babylonian captivity to the sufferings of the Servant of the Lord.
As to 49:1 specifically, MSB says it this way: The whole world, including Gentiles...are called to recognize two significant points:
1) The Messiah/Servant will be a human being, born as others are of a woman, yet virgin born, and
2) He will be an individual as distinct from a personified group such as the nation of Israel, which has also been called the Lord's servant.
Also, MSB says 1-13 is the second of four "Servant Songs". The first was 42:1-9, next will be 50:4-11, and then 52:13-53:12. So three of them will be covered today.
(((2021 - I am just too tired to absorb all this. I can see what an unbelievable remarkable chapter this is. This verse in particular:
6 he says: "It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel; I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth." [Isa 49:6 ESV]. What an amazing, outstanding, encompassing verse this is!!! The death of God in human flesh must be MORE than just the salvation of Israel. It is salvation, redemption, of the whole world, of all men. What a great verse to read as we get nearer Christmas. What a great verse to go in next year's Christmas cards!!!
God could have sent Jesus just to save Jacob. This would have fulfilled all the promises He had made. But this was not enough for such a sacrifice. Something so unprecedented and so encompassing had to do more than save just one small tribe on planet earth. So God made it a bigger thing. He opened the nations, not just the nation of Israel, to redemption by this sacrifice. Looking at the notes below, I had seen this before, and understood it this way, but I had forgotten. How can you forget something like this???)))
Possible FB Post for Christmas! He was born for the whole world!
So for many chapters we will see a prophecy of the characteristics, actions, and purposes of the incarnation of God. Every verse of the first four is "notable".
In 2, we see the sharp sword- the word that Jesus brought was clear, new, concise, direct from God. It was provocatively direct in its accusation of the practices of the time. (Again, this was written around 750 BC, long before Jesus appeared, yet the NT descriptions of Jesus and His life tie right back to these verses in Isaiah.)
vs 4, many will say that the life of this Servant was a failure. But the Servant knows He accomplished what He was sent for. This is what Islam denies. They are ashamed of the cross, and they say that "story" is a lie, because God would not let such a Servant die in so ignominious a way. Yet Isaiah says that is what will happen.
vss 5, 6, God says that for Jesus to have come ONLY for Jacob, and ONLY to bring back Israel, is just not enough. God will make him a light for the nations, that salvation may reach the ends of the earth.
In vs 7 we see the contrast between Jesus' coming in the first century and His second coming. The first time, he was deeply despised, the next time, Kings and princes will prostrate themselves before him.
vss 8-13 tell of Israel's return. The image of them coming on highways back to Canaan is repeated yet again. Many references to it in Isaiah. They will come, and God will provide as they come, so that they neither hunger nor thirst, nor is the sun too hot or the wind too bitter as they come. All nations will see this and know that there is a God in Israel. Exactly when is this? Is this during the entire 7 year tribulation period that they make their way back to Jerusalem? Or is it a migration that begins when Jesus takes the throne in Jerusalem? It would be a good study to tie this passage - and the others about the "highways" back to Jerusalem - to a specific point in the future. This is a good marker for end times, and it would be good to know if it marks the beginning, or is dispersed through the whole 7, or does not really occur until Trib is over.
Also, in vs 8, in this second servant song, Jesus is again called a covenant to the people. (As he was in 42:6, within the first servant song.) The New Covenant in Christ's blood is foretold here, almost in so many words. How did they not see it. The phrases about prisoners being freed and those in darkness shown the light is here for the second time...But my memory is too poor to remind me whether the first time was in Isaiah or one of the prophets contemporary with him. "The people in darkness have seen a great light..." is one verse - I could find that. The answer Jesus gives to John the Baptist's disciples - the blind see, the lame walk...that verse also talks about prisoners and darkness - so I could find that one also. So my memory does not completely fail me...I could get there. (Actually no. Jesus does not mention the prisoners being set free in either Matthew or Luke. Because John was not going to be set free. Jesus left that out because THAT part is yet future.)
New section starts in 14. Zion claims God has forsaken them. Maybe this is what they were thinking when they heard the stories about Jesus, and the claims He was Messiah. He did not do as they expected, He did not throw off Roman rule. So they saw it as God forsaking them, and leaving them in bondage and captivity to Rome, as they had been to Egypt.
Beginning in 15, we have God's answer to that charge:
15 "Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. [Isa 49:15 ESV]
Next several verses imply that when the Jews come home, there will be so many that the land will barely contain them. The Jews themselves will be shocked at the numbers. The lost 10 could be a lot of "uncounted" Jews. Maybe even they don't know they are Jews.
2023 - These two verses:
19 "Surely your waste and your desolate places and your devastated land-- surely now you will be too narrow for your inhabitants, and those who swallowed you up will be far away. 20 The children of your bereavement will yet say in your ears: 'The place is too narrow for me; make room for me to dwell in.' [Isa 49:19-20 ESV]. Does this not imply that God knows the layout of the land in Ezekiel, when Israel is apportioned again to the 12 tribes, won't really fit into present day geography? Don't these verses acknowledge that God knows about this, and has a plan to "make it fit"? Vss 22-23 imply that all the land Israel needs will be "donated" at that time?
2023 - Note that this same passage tells us that when the Jews return to Israel, it is not going to be a trickle. It is not going to be any 30,000 a year, or even a month. It will be a flood.
23 Kings shall be your foster fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers. With their faces to the ground they shall bow down to you, and lick the dust of your feet. Then you will know that I am the LORD; those who wait for me shall not be put to shame." [Isa 49:23 ESV]
So this is talking about a future time when Israel will be exalted by all nations. Israel will be honored, and all will submit to her.
Those who oppose Israel in that time will be dealt with by God Himself:
26 I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh, and they shall be drunk with their own blood as with wine. Then all flesh shall know that I am the LORD your Savior, and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob." [Isa 49:26 ESV] Seems to be a description of Tribulation. That would tie the return to the 7 year period as a whole, rather than to one of the endpoints I think. 2022 - Or directly to the fall of Babylon in Revelation. Perhaps this is a clue to how that will happen. Looks like insanity - but possibly the world will just no longer be able to support its population by the time things get to the fall of Babylon. Maybe the whole economic/trade/greed system comes crashing down when all anyone really wants is a loaf of bread. 2024 - Or is this about the blood running as deep as the horses' bridles: "20 And the wine press was trodden outside the city, and blood came out from the wine press, up to the horses' bridles, for a distance of two hundred miles. [Rev 14:20 NASB95]"?