These are the devotionals that are taken from the book For the Love of God by D.A. Carson. It goes along with the church's bible reading plan
June 14 - Isaiah 46
There are three sections to Isaiah 46, and each advances a distinct argument that implicitly or explicitly calls Israel to faithfulness toward the living God.
(1) In the first two verses, Isaiah mocks Babylonian gods. “Bel” means “lord” and is equivalent to Baal as a title. It was applied to Marduk, the chief god of the city of Babylon. “Nebo” was the son of Bel-Marduk. He was the patron of writing and wisdom. At the New Year festival, Bel-Marduk and Nebo were carried through the streets in a great procession to the Esagila shrine. It was the greatest religious event of the year. But Isaiah foresees a time when Bel-Marduk and Nebo bow and stoop, and the exhausted beasts of burden that have to carry them fall and stagger off into captivity (Isa. 46:1–2). This was not literally fulfilled when the Persians took over in the sixth century, for Cyrus preserved and even enhanced the status of the Babylonian gods. On the long haul, of course, Bel-Marduk and Nebo slipped into oblivion. No one worships them today. But millions of men and women still worship the God of Israel.
(2) In the next section (Isa. 46:3–7), God continues his denunciation of idolatry. Now there is a slightly novel development. God says, in effect, that idolaters have to carry their gods, and even their beasts of burden get tired; but with the true God, it is the other way around: he carries his people. It is hard not to perceive a contrast between two religions. In the one, the people do all the heavy lifting; in the other, God does it, and his people are carried by him.
(3) In the last section (Isa. 46:8–13), God rebukes his covenant people in blunt, not to say brutal, terms. They are rebels, and they have forgotten all of God’s gracious and powerful ways with them when the nation was born at the time of the Exodus. There are important things for the believer to remember (Isa. 46:8–9). Probably part of their hang-up is still Cyrus. They still find it difficult to imagine that God will use a pagan king like that, rather than simply destroy him. But God insists he will summon from the east “a bird of prey” (Isa. 46:11)—almost certainly a reference to Cyrus. Whatever his purpose and plan, he will be sure to bring it to pass. The implication, of course, is that God is both sovereign and good—so stop trying to second-guess him, and trust him. “Listen to me, you stubborn-hearted, you who are far from righteousness. I am bringing my righteousness near, it is not far away; and my salvation will not be delayed” (Isa. 46:12–13).
June 15 - Isaiah 47
At one level, Isaiah 47 is pretty straightforward; at another, it is subtly symbol-laden and prepares the way for the development of some biblical symbolism in the New Testament.
At the obvious level, this chapter depicts the fall of Babylon that the accession of Cyrus will bring about. Babylon is a pathetically proud and arrogant city. She is the “queen of kingdoms” (Isa. 47:5); she thinks she will last forever (Isa. 47:7)—not unlike Hitler’s thousand-year Reich. She is so confident of her own security she cannot envisage becoming a widow or losing her children (Isa. 47:8). Proud of her wisdom and knowledge (Isa. 47:10) and her devotion to astrology, she thinks she can control her future (Isa. 47:12–13). Her self-deification is frankly repulsive: the repeated “I am, and there is none besides me” (Isa. 47:8, 10) is a direct challenge to God’s identical claim (Isa. 45:5). But God has had enough. The “queen of kingdoms” will sit in the dust (Isa. 47:1); she will become a slave (Isa. 47:1–3). This “mother” will suddenly be widowed and bereaved (Isa. 47:8–9). Astrology will prove futile to save her (Isa. 47:12–13), and sorcerers and magicians will be of no avail (Isa. 47:12). God himself is out to destroy Babylon.
But this text hints at another level. Chapters 47 and 48 are tied together, constituting one large unit. Isaiah 47 condemns Babylon for its defiant arrogance and promises her doom; Isaiah 48 is addressed to the captives, who (as we shall see in tomorrow’s meditation) are rousingly told to leave Babylon and return to Jerusalem. Empirically they live in one city, Babylon; theologically, they belong to another city, Jerusalem. At the level of brute history, of course, the captives could not return to Jerusalem at this stage. They could do so only after Cyrus came to power and granted permission to return. But theologically, the exiles must see themselves as belonging to Jerusalem and not to Babylon. Thus just as “Jerusalem” sometimes refers to the ancient city by that name, and sometimes, as we have seen, anticipates the new, eschatological Jerusalem, so also “Babylon” not only may refer to the ancient city that reached the pinnacle of its splendor about the sixth century B.C., but becomes a symbol—a symbol that anticipates every proud city or culture that imagines it will live forever and arrogantly measures all things by the standards of its own sins and presuppositions. Historic Babylon becomes the symbol of many Babylons.
John understands these things. That is why in Revelation 17 he describes Rome as “Babylon the Great, the Mother of Prostitutes and of the Abominations of the Earth” (Rev. 17:5), a woman drunk with the blood of the saints. What Babylons have arisen since then?
June 16 - Isaiah 48
It is one thing for God to raise up a Cyrus who will permit the Jews to return to Jerusalem. But will the Jews be willing to go? And if they are willing to return physically and rebuild Jerusalem, are they spiritually prepared to abandon the sin that sent them into exile in the first place? (Isa. 48).
It does not look good. Formally, they take their oaths in the name of the Lord, “and invoke the God of Israel—but not in truth or righteousness” (Isa. 48:1). True, the captives still call themselves “citizens of the holy city” (Isa. 48:2), Jerusalem, which by the sixth century was a pile of rubble. But one of the reasons why God predicted these things, including the return of the people, is that he well knew that many of the Jews would become so enmeshed in Babylonian idolatry that they might be tempted to credit their idols with their return (Isa. 48:3–6). Like their forefathers they can be stubborn (Isa. 48:4), treacherous, and rebellious (Isa. 48:8). The “furnace of affliction” (Isa. 48:10) has taught them so little that the only reason God does not wipe them out entirely is because he wishes to preserve the honor of his own name (Isa. 48:9–11). The world must know that Babylon does not rule; God does. So he will press on, though the terrible problem of sin among his people has not been resolved, even by the exile.
The tragedy is that even in exile God’s people have been unwilling to listen (Isa. 48:1, 12, 16, 17–18). Their entire history would have been dramatically different, filled with untold blessings, if only they had paid attention to God’s commands (Isa. 48:18–19). Their “peace would have been like a river,” their “righteousness like the waves of the sea” (Isa. 48:18). Even now what they most need is to leave Babylon (Isa. 48:20–21)—not yet physically, of course, for Cyrus has not yet arisen and sanctioned it; but morally, spiritually. But if the people remain in their sin even after release from Babylon, they will poison their new freedom: “ ‘There is no peace,’ says the LORD, ‘for the wicked’ ” (Isa. 48:22)—a perennial warning no less applicable in our own day.
So God’s servant Cyrus will not provide the final answer. He may free the Jews from exile, but he cannot free them from their sin. That sets the stage for the reintroduction of the ideal Servant of the Lord, who returns in chapter 49. Indeed, he probably appears rather enigmatically in 48:16, for the one who speaks there has the Spirit upon him (as in Isa. 42:1) and is called by God (as in Isa. 49:1). But there is no doubt of his presence in Isaiah 49. In this Servant of the Lord is the only lasting succor for God’s people.
June 17 - Isaiah 49
In the first six verses of Isaiah 49 the Servant of the Lord speaks. Who is he? He is unnamed, but we can draw some inferences from the description provided by the text. Like the prophet Jeremiah, he was called by God before he was born (Isa. 49:1; cf. Jer. 1:5); like him, he meets opposition that drives him to despair, though he faithfully perseveres (Isa. 49:4; cf. Jer. 4:19–22, etc.). God has made his mouth “like a sharpened sword” (Isa. 49:2), which rather suggests prophetic ministry.
But what is most striking about this Servant is something that at first appears to be a striking confusion. God addresses him in these terms: “You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will display my splendor” (Isa. 49:3, italics added)—so the Servant is Israel. Yet the Lord calls this Servant “to bring Jacob back to him and gather Israel to himself” (Isa. 49:5, italics added)—which distinguishes this Servant from Israel and represents him as Israel’s savior. Why?
As in Isaiah 42, this Servant embodies all that Israel should have been. This Servant is an ideal Israel, God’s perfect Servant—and thus a figure different from empirical Israel, and one that is able to save empirical Israel. In part, the identity of this Servant is still hidden at this point in the book: “[God] made me into a polished arrow and concealed me in his quiver” (Isa. 49:2), says the Servant. God does insist, however, that it is “too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth” (Isa. 49:6). Indeed, even when the Lord uses this Servant “to bring Jacob back to him and gather Israel to himself” (Isa. 49:5), surely this envisages something more than a return to the land or to Jerusalem. After all, the servant Cyrus accomplishes that for Israel. This Servant, however, brings Israel to God; the restoration is not so much to a place as to the living God.
Isaiah 49 is too long and complex to permit an adequate summary here. But I draw attention to two themes. First, in Isaiah 49:8–12, the “returning” people are not Israelites only, but Gentiles, and the return is primarily to God. Israelites would return from the north, but these come from everywhere. Second, although God has promised some fine things, Zion (standing for the people of God) complains that the Lord has forsaken and forgotten her. But God replies with moving commitment: “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast …? Though she may forget, I will not forget you” (Isa. 49:15). In stagnant, discouraging times, remember God’s long-range commitments, and reflect on Romans 8:31–39.
June 18 - Isaiah 50
Isaiah 50 has a transitional importance that belies its brevity. In Isaiah 50:1–3 God addresses the children of Israel in exile, especially those who think he has utterly abandoned them. He hasn’t. He has neither divorced their mother, i.e., Zion, nor sold them into slavery to pay off some creditor—so the way back to him is still open. In this light, the last two lines of Isaiah 50:1 should be read as irony: if the children were “sold” or the mother “sent away” in any sense, it was because of their sin, not because of some final legal action on God’s part. Moreover, the sovereign Creator is certainly capable of bringing them back (Isa. 50:2b–3). The real question is, why did none of them come to him when he called? (Isa. 50:2a).
Then the Servant speaks (Isa. 50:4–9), more to himself than to others, but so as to be overheard (Isa. 50:10–11). Who is he? There have been many suggestions: Isaiah, or a sixth-century disciple of Isaiah; Jeremiah; Israel, personified as an abused and suffering person (cf. Ps. 129:1–3). As the book unfolds, Isaiah will make the Servant’s identity clear. Even now, observe his characteristics: This Servant is a gifted counselor. His words sustain the weary, for he himself has an ear for all the Sovereign Lord says, and he has not been rebellious (Isa. 50:4–5—unlike Israel). Thus he is a perfect disciple, but of the Lord, not of Isaiah (compare John 5:18ff.). He does not draw back from obedience (Isa. 50:5), even in the face of implacable abuse (Isa. 50:6; cf. Matt. 27:30; Mark 14:65; 15:19). The Sovereign Lord sustains him in his mission, so he sets his face like a flint to complete the task assigned him (Isa. 50:7; cf. Luke 9:51), confident that God will finally vindicate him (Isa. 50:7–9; cf. Phil. 2:9–11).
How, then, does the second part of this chapter relate to the first? Surely in this way: those who are addressed in Isaiah 50:1–3 still seem alienated, distant, unresponsive, cynical, while here in Isaiah 50:10–11 a line is drawn in the sand, and this line concerns the Servant. On the one side is the person who “fears the LORD and obeys the word of his servant,” who despite the terrible darkness that now engulfs him “trust[s] in the name of the LORD” (Isa. 50:10, italics added). On the other side is the person who tries to provide his or her own light, who lights fires of rebellion; God says to such a person, “This is what you shall receive from my hand: You will lie down in torment” (Isa. 50:11). Thus the identity of “the people of God” is undergoing subtle redefinition. In Isaiah 49:8–12 they embrace both Israelites and Gentiles; here one element that defines them is that they obey the word of the Lord’s Servant.
June 19 - Isaiah 51
In the light of the absolute alternatives set out at the end of Isaiah 50—either fear the Lord and obey his Servant and know his blessing, or light your own fire and lie down in torment—Isaiah 51:1–11 opens with words of encouragement to the faithful remnant. The passage climaxes with a grand vision of returning to the Lord, of entering Zion with singing (Isa. 51:11). The words evoke the pilgrimages the godly undertook when they were in the land. In the best of circumstances these were joyful occasions, full of singing, full of personal and family memories, full of joyous expectation as the people of God wended their way to Zion, to the temple of the living God. But the pilgrimage that the prophet has in mind eclipses any other. The old pilgrimages occurred three times a year for the prescribed feasts. Here the language of pilgrimage is retained, but we are given a glimpse of the End: “They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away” (Isa. 51:11). We have returned to the ultimate hope expressed in Isaiah 2:1–5 and Isaiah 11:1–16.
But the people are not there yet. If they are discouraged by their small numbers and reduced circumstances, they should remember their origins, the rock from which they were cut: Abraham started off as one man, but God “blessed him and made him many” (Isa. 51:2). So here: “The LORD will surely comfort Zion and will look with compassion on all her ruins” (Isa. 51:3). Indeed, God’s salvation will last forever, and his righteousness will never fail (Isa. 51:6). Meanwhile, God’s people must listen to him. They have God’s “law” in their hearts (Isa. 51:7): the word properly means “instruction,” and may here include not only the Law of Moses but all the instruction of God mediated through prophets and priests alike. If this word is what anchors you, the next injunction is manageable: “Do not fear the reproach of men or be terrified by their insults” (Isa. 51:7). On the long haul, they will perish like a moth-eaten garment, while God’s righteousness and salvation “will last forever … through all generations” (Isa. 51:8).
Some manuscripts preserve (probably rightly) a slightly different reading in verse 4. Instead of “my people” and “my nation,” read “peoples” and “nations.” That means that Isaiah 51:4–6 addresses another group of pilgrims, in addition to the Israelites—all those drawn in from around the world. All of these, together with the remnant of Israelites, constitute “the ransomed of the LORD” (Isa. 51:11; cf. Rev. 5:9–10).
June 20 - Isaiah 52
We may usefully divide Isaiah 52 into three unequal parts.
(1) In the first six verses, the tone is of tender reassurance. So much that has happened to Israel (even though her sin has brought it on) has crushed her. She has been “sold for nothing” (Isa. 52:3) and “taken away for nothing” (Isa. 52:5); she has been defiled (Isa. 52:1), chained (Isa. 52:2), “oppressed” (Isa. 52:4), and mocked (Isa. 52:5). But now she is to wear “garments of splendor” (Isa. 52:1) and “sit enthroned” (Isa. 52:2) like a queen in Jerusalem. Though she was sold for nothing, in God’s eyes she is still beyond price (Isa. 52:3). God still calls Israel “my people” (Isa. 52:4). Moreover, he attaches his own name to what has happened to them: his name has been “constantly blasphemed” (Isa. 52:5). Now they can take comfort: the God who foretold their destruction has foretold their restoration (Isa. 52:6).
What is striking about this list of opposites—the crushing defeat and denigration of Israel on the one hand, and the rapturous categories that the Sovereign Lord uses of her on the other—is that the first set is generated (according to the running argument of the book) by Israel’s own sin, while the second set is generated by God’s gracious goodness and faithfulness in pursuing her and delivering her from the punishment that he himself has imposed.
(2) In the next four verses (Isa. 52:7–10) the good news that God is reversing the sanctions imposed on Israel is to be carried to the ends of the earth. Not only are the ruins of Jerusalem commanded to burst into songs of joy, but “[t]he LORD will lay bare his holy arm in the sight of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God” (Isa. 52:9–10).
(3) The last two verses (Isa. 52:11–12) call on the exiles to depart, to leave their captivity behind. At the historical level, of course, this could not happen until Cyrus granted his permission. But Isaiah’s prophecy must have stirred anticipation and helped to prepare the people. The language itself is redolent of the Exodus, but the difference in emphasis is striking. When the Israelites left Egypt they were told to bring with them whatever they could get from the Egyptians—valuable jewelry and clothing. Here, however, the people are warned not to touch anything, but to come out “from there” and be pure. This suggests that the ultimate goal is not geographical Jerusalem, but the new Jerusalem, and what must be left behind is more than Babylon, but all that Babylon represents. That reflection enables us to understand how and why Paul uses this passage in 2 Corinthians 6:14–18, and how we should use it today.
June 21 - Isaiah 53
Now the identity of the perfect Servant comes into sharp focus. Isaiah 53, or better, Isaiah 52:13–53:12, is the fourth of five Servant songs that describe him. “See, my servant” (Isa. 52:13), God says, echoing the introduction to this Servant in Isaiah 42:1. The “arm of the LORD,” God’s saving power, has been promised in Isaiah 51:9 and 52:10. Now the question becomes, “[T]o whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?” (Isa. 53:1). The implicit answer in this high point of Isaiah’s prophecy is that God’s saving power is nowhere more clearly seen than in the work of the Servant. In the previous chapters God has repeatedly promised forgiveness to his people, but its basis has not been established. Here all becomes clear: “my righteous servant will justify many … he will bear their iniquities” (Isa. 53:11). He is a priest, sprinkling the unclean (Isa. 52:15); he is a guilt offering, removing their iniquities (Isa. 53:10).
The first of five sections (Isa. 52:13–15) anticipates the whole: “My servant will act wisely,” God says, anticipating the conclusion. Beginning with the Servant’s exaltation (Isa. 52:13), this stanza descends to his appalling suffering (Isa. 52:14) and ends with the “sprinkling” of many nations and the stunned reaction to it. “Sprinkling” with blood, oil, or water is in the Old Testament bound up with cleansing, i.e., with making a person or thing fit to come before God. Normally this has reference to Israel or its institutions, but not here: this is for “many nations” (Isa. 52:15). The stunned reaction testifies that God’s wisdom overthrows and confounds all human wisdom (cf. 1 Cor. 1:18–2:5).
In the second and third stanzas (Isa. 53:1–3, 4–6) the speakers are witnesses. God has repeatedly called on his people to bear witness to him (Isa. 43:10, 12; 44:8), but they have been blind and deaf. Now, not only do they attest that the Lord alone is God (Isa. 43:12), but they bear witness to what God has done through his suffering, vindicated, exalted Servant. At first, reactions to him are cautious, and then negative (Isa. 53:1–3). He grew to be despised and rejected by men: “we esteemed him not,” the witnesses say. Indeed, when he was barbarically killed, many thought it God’s providential judgment (Isa. 53:4)—and they spoke better than they knew. But the witnesses come to grasp that “he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities”—a substitutionary lamb (Isa. 53:5–7). In the fourth stanza (Isa. 53:7–9) Isaiah reflects on the Servant’s silent suffering and ambivalent death and burial (Had God accepted his work?), to end in the fifth (Isa. 53:10–12) with resounding affirmation of the purposes of God. God’s Servant will act wisely (Isa. 52:13); “by his knowledge” he will (literally) cause many to become righteous, “and he will bear their iniquities” (Isa. 53:11). Reflect on Matthew 1:21. Hallelujah! What a Savior!
June 22 - Isaiah 54
Repeatedly Isaiah’s Prophecy has anticipated “peace,” the total well-being that flows from a right relationship with the living, Sovereign Lord. Early on he tells us that the Messiah would be “the Prince of Peace” (Isa. 9:6), introducing a reign of everlasting peace (Isa. 9:7). Ultimately it is the Lord who establishes peace (Isa. 26:12). But while this is good news (Isa. 52:7), such peace is reserved for those who trust him (Isa. 26:3). “There is no peace … for the wicked” (Isa. 48:22). Those who trust God become witnesses who fully and gladly recognize that their reconciliation with God has been accomplished by the Servant: “the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed” (Isa. 53:5). The result, in Isaiah 54–55, is great peace for Zion’s children (Isa. 54:13), a “covenant of peace” that will never be removed (Isa. 54:10), a great procession of God’s people who “will go out in joy and be led forth in peace” (Isa. 55:12).
In Isaiah 54, this glorious prospect is heralded as a “covenant of peace” (Isa. 54:10) that in some ways fulfills three other great covenants:
First, the covenant with Abraham comes into view (Isa. 54:1–3). References to the “barren woman,” the “tent,” and promised “descendants” who dispossess the nations call it to mind. God will overcome Zion’s desperate circumstances during the exile as readily as he overcame Sarah’s barrenness. Abraham’s descendants eventually dispossessed the nations in the land of Canaan; the returning exiles will do the same—or is there a hint that the children of this new covenant of peace will ultimately dispossess nations more comprehensively as they “spread out to the right and to the left” (Isa. 54:3)?
Second, the Sinai covenant enters the picture, with the reminders of the shame of Israel’s youth (the slavery in Egypt, Isa. 54:4), of Israel’s “Maker” as her “husband” (Isa. 54:5), and of her widowhood in exile (Isa. 54:5–8). But now God discloses himself as their Redeemer still, though now in the light of the great redemption secured in Isaiah 52:13–53:12: “with everlasting kindness I will have compassion on you” (Isa. 54:8), he declares, establishing the direction of the Sinai covenant’s continuity.
Third, the covenant with Noah is probed (Isa. 54:9–17), temporally out of sequence but entirely appropriate, as it was a covenant made not with Israel but with the entire human race. The exile is likened to the Flood, and Zion’s children to Noah’s descendants. They will not be destroyed; indeed, the “servants of the LORD” (Isa. 54:17) follow the pattern of the Servant of the Lord in suffering and ultimate vindication.
June 14 - Isaiah 46
There are three sections to Isaiah 46, and each advances a distinct argument that implicitly or explicitly calls Israel to faithfulness toward the living God.
(1) In the first two verses, Isaiah mocks Babylonian gods. “Bel” means “lord” and is equivalent to Baal as a title. It was applied to Marduk, the chief god of the city of Babylon. “Nebo” was the son of Bel-Marduk. He was the patron of writing and wisdom. At the New Year festival, Bel-Marduk and Nebo were carried through the streets in a great procession to the Esagila shrine. It was the greatest religious event of the year. But Isaiah foresees a time when Bel-Marduk and Nebo bow and stoop, and the exhausted beasts of burden that have to carry them fall and stagger off into captivity (Isa. 46:1–2). This was not literally fulfilled when the Persians took over in the sixth century, for Cyrus preserved and even enhanced the status of the Babylonian gods. On the long haul, of course, Bel-Marduk and Nebo slipped into oblivion. No one worships them today. But millions of men and women still worship the God of Israel.
(2) In the next section (Isa. 46:3–7), God continues his denunciation of idolatry. Now there is a slightly novel development. God says, in effect, that idolaters have to carry their gods, and even their beasts of burden get tired; but with the true God, it is the other way around: he carries his people. It is hard not to perceive a contrast between two religions. In the one, the people do all the heavy lifting; in the other, God does it, and his people are carried by him.
(3) In the last section (Isa. 46:8–13), God rebukes his covenant people in blunt, not to say brutal, terms. They are rebels, and they have forgotten all of God’s gracious and powerful ways with them when the nation was born at the time of the Exodus. There are important things for the believer to remember (Isa. 46:8–9). Probably part of their hang-up is still Cyrus. They still find it difficult to imagine that God will use a pagan king like that, rather than simply destroy him. But God insists he will summon from the east “a bird of prey” (Isa. 46:11)—almost certainly a reference to Cyrus. Whatever his purpose and plan, he will be sure to bring it to pass. The implication, of course, is that God is both sovereign and good—so stop trying to second-guess him, and trust him. “Listen to me, you stubborn-hearted, you who are far from righteousness. I am bringing my righteousness near, it is not far away; and my salvation will not be delayed” (Isa. 46:12–13).
June 15 - Isaiah 47
At one level, Isaiah 47 is pretty straightforward; at another, it is subtly symbol-laden and prepares the way for the development of some biblical symbolism in the New Testament.
At the obvious level, this chapter depicts the fall of Babylon that the accession of Cyrus will bring about. Babylon is a pathetically proud and arrogant city. She is the “queen of kingdoms” (Isa. 47:5); she thinks she will last forever (Isa. 47:7)—not unlike Hitler’s thousand-year Reich. She is so confident of her own security she cannot envisage becoming a widow or losing her children (Isa. 47:8). Proud of her wisdom and knowledge (Isa. 47:10) and her devotion to astrology, she thinks she can control her future (Isa. 47:12–13). Her self-deification is frankly repulsive: the repeated “I am, and there is none besides me” (Isa. 47:8, 10) is a direct challenge to God’s identical claim (Isa. 45:5). But God has had enough. The “queen of kingdoms” will sit in the dust (Isa. 47:1); she will become a slave (Isa. 47:1–3). This “mother” will suddenly be widowed and bereaved (Isa. 47:8–9). Astrology will prove futile to save her (Isa. 47:12–13), and sorcerers and magicians will be of no avail (Isa. 47:12). God himself is out to destroy Babylon.
But this text hints at another level. Chapters 47 and 48 are tied together, constituting one large unit. Isaiah 47 condemns Babylon for its defiant arrogance and promises her doom; Isaiah 48 is addressed to the captives, who (as we shall see in tomorrow’s meditation) are rousingly told to leave Babylon and return to Jerusalem. Empirically they live in one city, Babylon; theologically, they belong to another city, Jerusalem. At the level of brute history, of course, the captives could not return to Jerusalem at this stage. They could do so only after Cyrus came to power and granted permission to return. But theologically, the exiles must see themselves as belonging to Jerusalem and not to Babylon. Thus just as “Jerusalem” sometimes refers to the ancient city by that name, and sometimes, as we have seen, anticipates the new, eschatological Jerusalem, so also “Babylon” not only may refer to the ancient city that reached the pinnacle of its splendor about the sixth century B.C., but becomes a symbol—a symbol that anticipates every proud city or culture that imagines it will live forever and arrogantly measures all things by the standards of its own sins and presuppositions. Historic Babylon becomes the symbol of many Babylons.
John understands these things. That is why in Revelation 17 he describes Rome as “Babylon the Great, the Mother of Prostitutes and of the Abominations of the Earth” (Rev. 17:5), a woman drunk with the blood of the saints. What Babylons have arisen since then?
June 16 - Isaiah 48
It is one thing for God to raise up a Cyrus who will permit the Jews to return to Jerusalem. But will the Jews be willing to go? And if they are willing to return physically and rebuild Jerusalem, are they spiritually prepared to abandon the sin that sent them into exile in the first place? (Isa. 48).
It does not look good. Formally, they take their oaths in the name of the Lord, “and invoke the God of Israel—but not in truth or righteousness” (Isa. 48:1). True, the captives still call themselves “citizens of the holy city” (Isa. 48:2), Jerusalem, which by the sixth century was a pile of rubble. But one of the reasons why God predicted these things, including the return of the people, is that he well knew that many of the Jews would become so enmeshed in Babylonian idolatry that they might be tempted to credit their idols with their return (Isa. 48:3–6). Like their forefathers they can be stubborn (Isa. 48:4), treacherous, and rebellious (Isa. 48:8). The “furnace of affliction” (Isa. 48:10) has taught them so little that the only reason God does not wipe them out entirely is because he wishes to preserve the honor of his own name (Isa. 48:9–11). The world must know that Babylon does not rule; God does. So he will press on, though the terrible problem of sin among his people has not been resolved, even by the exile.
The tragedy is that even in exile God’s people have been unwilling to listen (Isa. 48:1, 12, 16, 17–18). Their entire history would have been dramatically different, filled with untold blessings, if only they had paid attention to God’s commands (Isa. 48:18–19). Their “peace would have been like a river,” their “righteousness like the waves of the sea” (Isa. 48:18). Even now what they most need is to leave Babylon (Isa. 48:20–21)—not yet physically, of course, for Cyrus has not yet arisen and sanctioned it; but morally, spiritually. But if the people remain in their sin even after release from Babylon, they will poison their new freedom: “ ‘There is no peace,’ says the LORD, ‘for the wicked’ ” (Isa. 48:22)—a perennial warning no less applicable in our own day.
So God’s servant Cyrus will not provide the final answer. He may free the Jews from exile, but he cannot free them from their sin. That sets the stage for the reintroduction of the ideal Servant of the Lord, who returns in chapter 49. Indeed, he probably appears rather enigmatically in 48:16, for the one who speaks there has the Spirit upon him (as in Isa. 42:1) and is called by God (as in Isa. 49:1). But there is no doubt of his presence in Isaiah 49. In this Servant of the Lord is the only lasting succor for God’s people.
June 17 - Isaiah 49
In the first six verses of Isaiah 49 the Servant of the Lord speaks. Who is he? He is unnamed, but we can draw some inferences from the description provided by the text. Like the prophet Jeremiah, he was called by God before he was born (Isa. 49:1; cf. Jer. 1:5); like him, he meets opposition that drives him to despair, though he faithfully perseveres (Isa. 49:4; cf. Jer. 4:19–22, etc.). God has made his mouth “like a sharpened sword” (Isa. 49:2), which rather suggests prophetic ministry.
But what is most striking about this Servant is something that at first appears to be a striking confusion. God addresses him in these terms: “You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will display my splendor” (Isa. 49:3, italics added)—so the Servant is Israel. Yet the Lord calls this Servant “to bring Jacob back to him and gather Israel to himself” (Isa. 49:5, italics added)—which distinguishes this Servant from Israel and represents him as Israel’s savior. Why?
As in Isaiah 42, this Servant embodies all that Israel should have been. This Servant is an ideal Israel, God’s perfect Servant—and thus a figure different from empirical Israel, and one that is able to save empirical Israel. In part, the identity of this Servant is still hidden at this point in the book: “[God] made me into a polished arrow and concealed me in his quiver” (Isa. 49:2), says the Servant. God does insist, however, that it is “too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth” (Isa. 49:6). Indeed, even when the Lord uses this Servant “to bring Jacob back to him and gather Israel to himself” (Isa. 49:5), surely this envisages something more than a return to the land or to Jerusalem. After all, the servant Cyrus accomplishes that for Israel. This Servant, however, brings Israel to God; the restoration is not so much to a place as to the living God.
Isaiah 49 is too long and complex to permit an adequate summary here. But I draw attention to two themes. First, in Isaiah 49:8–12, the “returning” people are not Israelites only, but Gentiles, and the return is primarily to God. Israelites would return from the north, but these come from everywhere. Second, although God has promised some fine things, Zion (standing for the people of God) complains that the Lord has forsaken and forgotten her. But God replies with moving commitment: “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast …? Though she may forget, I will not forget you” (Isa. 49:15). In stagnant, discouraging times, remember God’s long-range commitments, and reflect on Romans 8:31–39.
June 18 - Isaiah 50
Isaiah 50 has a transitional importance that belies its brevity. In Isaiah 50:1–3 God addresses the children of Israel in exile, especially those who think he has utterly abandoned them. He hasn’t. He has neither divorced their mother, i.e., Zion, nor sold them into slavery to pay off some creditor—so the way back to him is still open. In this light, the last two lines of Isaiah 50:1 should be read as irony: if the children were “sold” or the mother “sent away” in any sense, it was because of their sin, not because of some final legal action on God’s part. Moreover, the sovereign Creator is certainly capable of bringing them back (Isa. 50:2b–3). The real question is, why did none of them come to him when he called? (Isa. 50:2a).
Then the Servant speaks (Isa. 50:4–9), more to himself than to others, but so as to be overheard (Isa. 50:10–11). Who is he? There have been many suggestions: Isaiah, or a sixth-century disciple of Isaiah; Jeremiah; Israel, personified as an abused and suffering person (cf. Ps. 129:1–3). As the book unfolds, Isaiah will make the Servant’s identity clear. Even now, observe his characteristics: This Servant is a gifted counselor. His words sustain the weary, for he himself has an ear for all the Sovereign Lord says, and he has not been rebellious (Isa. 50:4–5—unlike Israel). Thus he is a perfect disciple, but of the Lord, not of Isaiah (compare John 5:18ff.). He does not draw back from obedience (Isa. 50:5), even in the face of implacable abuse (Isa. 50:6; cf. Matt. 27:30; Mark 14:65; 15:19). The Sovereign Lord sustains him in his mission, so he sets his face like a flint to complete the task assigned him (Isa. 50:7; cf. Luke 9:51), confident that God will finally vindicate him (Isa. 50:7–9; cf. Phil. 2:9–11).
How, then, does the second part of this chapter relate to the first? Surely in this way: those who are addressed in Isaiah 50:1–3 still seem alienated, distant, unresponsive, cynical, while here in Isaiah 50:10–11 a line is drawn in the sand, and this line concerns the Servant. On the one side is the person who “fears the LORD and obeys the word of his servant,” who despite the terrible darkness that now engulfs him “trust[s] in the name of the LORD” (Isa. 50:10, italics added). On the other side is the person who tries to provide his or her own light, who lights fires of rebellion; God says to such a person, “This is what you shall receive from my hand: You will lie down in torment” (Isa. 50:11). Thus the identity of “the people of God” is undergoing subtle redefinition. In Isaiah 49:8–12 they embrace both Israelites and Gentiles; here one element that defines them is that they obey the word of the Lord’s Servant.
June 19 - Isaiah 51
In the light of the absolute alternatives set out at the end of Isaiah 50—either fear the Lord and obey his Servant and know his blessing, or light your own fire and lie down in torment—Isaiah 51:1–11 opens with words of encouragement to the faithful remnant. The passage climaxes with a grand vision of returning to the Lord, of entering Zion with singing (Isa. 51:11). The words evoke the pilgrimages the godly undertook when they were in the land. In the best of circumstances these were joyful occasions, full of singing, full of personal and family memories, full of joyous expectation as the people of God wended their way to Zion, to the temple of the living God. But the pilgrimage that the prophet has in mind eclipses any other. The old pilgrimages occurred three times a year for the prescribed feasts. Here the language of pilgrimage is retained, but we are given a glimpse of the End: “They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away” (Isa. 51:11). We have returned to the ultimate hope expressed in Isaiah 2:1–5 and Isaiah 11:1–16.
But the people are not there yet. If they are discouraged by their small numbers and reduced circumstances, they should remember their origins, the rock from which they were cut: Abraham started off as one man, but God “blessed him and made him many” (Isa. 51:2). So here: “The LORD will surely comfort Zion and will look with compassion on all her ruins” (Isa. 51:3). Indeed, God’s salvation will last forever, and his righteousness will never fail (Isa. 51:6). Meanwhile, God’s people must listen to him. They have God’s “law” in their hearts (Isa. 51:7): the word properly means “instruction,” and may here include not only the Law of Moses but all the instruction of God mediated through prophets and priests alike. If this word is what anchors you, the next injunction is manageable: “Do not fear the reproach of men or be terrified by their insults” (Isa. 51:7). On the long haul, they will perish like a moth-eaten garment, while God’s righteousness and salvation “will last forever … through all generations” (Isa. 51:8).
Some manuscripts preserve (probably rightly) a slightly different reading in verse 4. Instead of “my people” and “my nation,” read “peoples” and “nations.” That means that Isaiah 51:4–6 addresses another group of pilgrims, in addition to the Israelites—all those drawn in from around the world. All of these, together with the remnant of Israelites, constitute “the ransomed of the LORD” (Isa. 51:11; cf. Rev. 5:9–10).
June 20 - Isaiah 52
We may usefully divide Isaiah 52 into three unequal parts.
(1) In the first six verses, the tone is of tender reassurance. So much that has happened to Israel (even though her sin has brought it on) has crushed her. She has been “sold for nothing” (Isa. 52:3) and “taken away for nothing” (Isa. 52:5); she has been defiled (Isa. 52:1), chained (Isa. 52:2), “oppressed” (Isa. 52:4), and mocked (Isa. 52:5). But now she is to wear “garments of splendor” (Isa. 52:1) and “sit enthroned” (Isa. 52:2) like a queen in Jerusalem. Though she was sold for nothing, in God’s eyes she is still beyond price (Isa. 52:3). God still calls Israel “my people” (Isa. 52:4). Moreover, he attaches his own name to what has happened to them: his name has been “constantly blasphemed” (Isa. 52:5). Now they can take comfort: the God who foretold their destruction has foretold their restoration (Isa. 52:6).
What is striking about this list of opposites—the crushing defeat and denigration of Israel on the one hand, and the rapturous categories that the Sovereign Lord uses of her on the other—is that the first set is generated (according to the running argument of the book) by Israel’s own sin, while the second set is generated by God’s gracious goodness and faithfulness in pursuing her and delivering her from the punishment that he himself has imposed.
(2) In the next four verses (Isa. 52:7–10) the good news that God is reversing the sanctions imposed on Israel is to be carried to the ends of the earth. Not only are the ruins of Jerusalem commanded to burst into songs of joy, but “[t]he LORD will lay bare his holy arm in the sight of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God” (Isa. 52:9–10).
(3) The last two verses (Isa. 52:11–12) call on the exiles to depart, to leave their captivity behind. At the historical level, of course, this could not happen until Cyrus granted his permission. But Isaiah’s prophecy must have stirred anticipation and helped to prepare the people. The language itself is redolent of the Exodus, but the difference in emphasis is striking. When the Israelites left Egypt they were told to bring with them whatever they could get from the Egyptians—valuable jewelry and clothing. Here, however, the people are warned not to touch anything, but to come out “from there” and be pure. This suggests that the ultimate goal is not geographical Jerusalem, but the new Jerusalem, and what must be left behind is more than Babylon, but all that Babylon represents. That reflection enables us to understand how and why Paul uses this passage in 2 Corinthians 6:14–18, and how we should use it today.
June 21 - Isaiah 53
Now the identity of the perfect Servant comes into sharp focus. Isaiah 53, or better, Isaiah 52:13–53:12, is the fourth of five Servant songs that describe him. “See, my servant” (Isa. 52:13), God says, echoing the introduction to this Servant in Isaiah 42:1. The “arm of the LORD,” God’s saving power, has been promised in Isaiah 51:9 and 52:10. Now the question becomes, “[T]o whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?” (Isa. 53:1). The implicit answer in this high point of Isaiah’s prophecy is that God’s saving power is nowhere more clearly seen than in the work of the Servant. In the previous chapters God has repeatedly promised forgiveness to his people, but its basis has not been established. Here all becomes clear: “my righteous servant will justify many … he will bear their iniquities” (Isa. 53:11). He is a priest, sprinkling the unclean (Isa. 52:15); he is a guilt offering, removing their iniquities (Isa. 53:10).
The first of five sections (Isa. 52:13–15) anticipates the whole: “My servant will act wisely,” God says, anticipating the conclusion. Beginning with the Servant’s exaltation (Isa. 52:13), this stanza descends to his appalling suffering (Isa. 52:14) and ends with the “sprinkling” of many nations and the stunned reaction to it. “Sprinkling” with blood, oil, or water is in the Old Testament bound up with cleansing, i.e., with making a person or thing fit to come before God. Normally this has reference to Israel or its institutions, but not here: this is for “many nations” (Isa. 52:15). The stunned reaction testifies that God’s wisdom overthrows and confounds all human wisdom (cf. 1 Cor. 1:18–2:5).
In the second and third stanzas (Isa. 53:1–3, 4–6) the speakers are witnesses. God has repeatedly called on his people to bear witness to him (Isa. 43:10, 12; 44:8), but they have been blind and deaf. Now, not only do they attest that the Lord alone is God (Isa. 43:12), but they bear witness to what God has done through his suffering, vindicated, exalted Servant. At first, reactions to him are cautious, and then negative (Isa. 53:1–3). He grew to be despised and rejected by men: “we esteemed him not,” the witnesses say. Indeed, when he was barbarically killed, many thought it God’s providential judgment (Isa. 53:4)—and they spoke better than they knew. But the witnesses come to grasp that “he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities”—a substitutionary lamb (Isa. 53:5–7). In the fourth stanza (Isa. 53:7–9) Isaiah reflects on the Servant’s silent suffering and ambivalent death and burial (Had God accepted his work?), to end in the fifth (Isa. 53:10–12) with resounding affirmation of the purposes of God. God’s Servant will act wisely (Isa. 52:13); “by his knowledge” he will (literally) cause many to become righteous, “and he will bear their iniquities” (Isa. 53:11). Reflect on Matthew 1:21. Hallelujah! What a Savior!
June 22 - Isaiah 54
Repeatedly Isaiah’s Prophecy has anticipated “peace,” the total well-being that flows from a right relationship with the living, Sovereign Lord. Early on he tells us that the Messiah would be “the Prince of Peace” (Isa. 9:6), introducing a reign of everlasting peace (Isa. 9:7). Ultimately it is the Lord who establishes peace (Isa. 26:12). But while this is good news (Isa. 52:7), such peace is reserved for those who trust him (Isa. 26:3). “There is no peace … for the wicked” (Isa. 48:22). Those who trust God become witnesses who fully and gladly recognize that their reconciliation with God has been accomplished by the Servant: “the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed” (Isa. 53:5). The result, in Isaiah 54–55, is great peace for Zion’s children (Isa. 54:13), a “covenant of peace” that will never be removed (Isa. 54:10), a great procession of God’s people who “will go out in joy and be led forth in peace” (Isa. 55:12).
In Isaiah 54, this glorious prospect is heralded as a “covenant of peace” (Isa. 54:10) that in some ways fulfills three other great covenants:
First, the covenant with Abraham comes into view (Isa. 54:1–3). References to the “barren woman,” the “tent,” and promised “descendants” who dispossess the nations call it to mind. God will overcome Zion’s desperate circumstances during the exile as readily as he overcame Sarah’s barrenness. Abraham’s descendants eventually dispossessed the nations in the land of Canaan; the returning exiles will do the same—or is there a hint that the children of this new covenant of peace will ultimately dispossess nations more comprehensively as they “spread out to the right and to the left” (Isa. 54:3)?
Second, the Sinai covenant enters the picture, with the reminders of the shame of Israel’s youth (the slavery in Egypt, Isa. 54:4), of Israel’s “Maker” as her “husband” (Isa. 54:5), and of her widowhood in exile (Isa. 54:5–8). But now God discloses himself as their Redeemer still, though now in the light of the great redemption secured in Isaiah 52:13–53:12: “with everlasting kindness I will have compassion on you” (Isa. 54:8), he declares, establishing the direction of the Sinai covenant’s continuity.
Third, the covenant with Noah is probed (Isa. 54:9–17), temporally out of sequence but entirely appropriate, as it was a covenant made not with Israel but with the entire human race. The exile is likened to the Flood, and Zion’s children to Noah’s descendants. They will not be destroyed; indeed, the “servants of the LORD” (Isa. 54:17) follow the pattern of the Servant of the Lord in suffering and ultimate vindication.