Isaiah 49:14-50:3 Click here for Bible Verses
Hi GAMErs!
Today’s passage is Isaiah 49:14-50:3. Let’s go!
To me this passage reflects the genius of the LORD and Isaiah working together. In Isaiah chapters 40-48, not only does Isaiah predict future events and write down messages for a people not yet born; even more, Isaiah anticipates how this future people might complain and object to those messages and addresses those complaints and objections in advance.
In particular, Isaiah addresses three complaints that he expects the Jewish exiles in Babylon would have when they hear the news that the LORD will deliver them from their captivity. I wonder if the Jewish exiles in Babylon, upon reading Isaiah’s messages, must have felt like Isaiah and the Holy Spirit had read their minds, or that they were carrying on a debate with someone who lived 150 years before.
What can we learn from this?
– If we are not careful, suffering can cause us to have a distorted view of reality, causing us to think things about God and about ourselves that are simply not true. As Pastor David Pawson writes: “When you suffer…your mind gets twisted, unless you are very careful. If life has treated you badly, if you are bruised and broken by the experiences through which you have passed, your thinking about God can get distorted. You might begin to doubt or question him. People who are suffering sometimes say things about God that they would never say if they were not suffering.” (Pawson, David. Come With Me Through Isaiah. Travelers Rest, True Potential Publishing, 2010 at page 269)
– God is proactive and pre-emptive in His ways. God will anticipate the questions, objections, concerns and complaints His people will have about their situation and does something to address them in advance.
Isaiah 49:14-23 (NIV)
14 But Zion said, “The LORD has forsaken me, the Lord has forgotten me.”
15 “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you!
16 See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are ever before me.
17 Your sons hasten back, and those who laid you waste depart from you.
18 Lift up your eyes and look around; all your sons gather and come to you. As surely as I live,” declares the LORD, “you will wear them all as ornaments; you will put them on, like a bride.
19 “Though you were ruined and made desolate and your land laid waste, now you will be too small for your people, and those who devoured you will be far away.
20 The children born during your bereavement will yet say in your hearing, ‘This place is too small for us; give us more space to live in.’
21 Then you will say in your heart, ‘Who bore me these? I was bereaved and barren; I was exiled and rejected. Who brought these up? I was left all alone, but these–where have they come from?'”
22 This is what the Sovereign LORD says: “See, I will beckon to the Gentiles, I will lift up my banner to the peoples; they will bring your sons in their arms and carry your daughters on their shoulders.
23 Kings will be your foster fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers. They will bow down before you with their faces to the ground; they will lick the dust at your feet. Then you will know that I am the LORD; those who hope in me will not be disappointed.”
On 49:14-23: The first complaint that the Holy Spirit and Isaiah anticipate the Jewish exiles making is: “The LORD has forsaken us and forgotten about us. So don’t tell us that He is going to come and deliver us now” (see v14). In response to this complaint, God says, “How can I forget you?” He compares Himself to a mother who cannot possibly forget the children that she bore. (v15) (It’s interesting that God compares Himself here to a mother instead of a father. Maybe it’s because God knows that people often experience more disappointment from their fathers than their mothers.)
To show that He can never forget His people, no matter where they are, God says in verse 16, “See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are ever before me.”
What can we learn from this? When we are going through difficult suffering, we can fall into the trap of thinking that God is not there and that He doesn’t care. But God promises that never will He leave us or forsake us, no matter how difficult the circumstances may seem (Deuteronomy 31:6; Hebrews 13:5). Like the Jewish exiles, your name is tattooed on the palm of God’s hands and your entire life is always before Him.
In verses 17-23, God goes one step further in His comfort of the Jewish exiles who feel like they have been forgotten, forsaken and rejected. After telling them that they have a heavenly Father who cannot forget them and who is always thinking of them (v15-16), God says that these same people who felt forgotten, forsaken and rejected will themselves become parents with many children (v17-23). Where will all these children come from? These children will be people from other nations who, through God’s people, will join the family of God as well. God is promising that not only would the Jewish people be blessed, but the world would be blessed through them. God reminds His people: “those who hope in me will not be disappointed” (v23).
Isaiah 49:24-26 (NIV)
24 Can plunder be taken from warriors, or captives rescued from the fierce?
25 But this is what the LORD says: “Yes, captives will be taken from warriors, and plunder retrieved from the fierce; I will contend with those who contend with you, and your children I will save.
26 I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh; they will be drunk on their own blood, as with wine. Then all mankind will know that I, the LORD, am your Savior, your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.”
On 49:24-26: Here the Holy Spirit and Isaiah anticipate the second objection that the Jewish exiles might make when they read that the LORD is going to deliver them from captivity. That second objection is expressed in verse 24, where the exiles are basically saying: “That’s impossible. The LORD can’t deliver us from this.”
In response to this second objection, the LORD assures them that the Jewish captives will certainly be rescued from their fierce captors (v25). He tells them that their captors will be defeated, for as strong as their captors may seem, God is greater still. He is “your Saviour, your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.” (v26)
What can we learn from this? Your situation may be incredibly difficult, but nothing is impossible with God. When God promises to do something, no matter how impossible it may seem, you can bet that He is strong enough to do it.
Isaiah 50:1-3 (NIV)
1 This is what the LORD says: “Where is your mother’s certificate of divorce with which I sent her away? Or to which of my creditors did I sell you? Because of your sins you were sold; because of your transgressions your mother was sent away.
2 When I came, why was there no one? When I called, why was there no one to answer? Was my arm too short to ransom you? Do I lack the strength to rescue you? By a mere rebuke I dry up the sea, I turn rivers into a desert; their fish rot for lack of water and die of thirst.
3 I clothe the sky with darkness and make sackcloth its covering.”
On 50:1-3: The third objection that the Holy Spirit and Isaiah anticipate the Jewish exiles making is: “We have behaved too badly to expect any deliverance now. We’re beyond hope.” Though the objection is not expressed explicitly here, it is implied by what the LORD says in this section. God’s response to this objection: “As long as you have Me, you’re never beyond hope.”
God does not deny the fact that Judah’s sins separated them from God (“Because of your sins you were sold” v1). But God invokes images that recall His past miracles like how He made a way for the Israelites through the Red Sea in Exodus (“By a mere rebuke I dry up the sea” v2), and through the Jordan River in Joshua (“I turn rivers into a desert” v2). In other words, it’s not about the Jewish exiles deserving God’s help because of their performance; it’s about them trusting in the unfathomable kindness and power of God to save and redeem.
Likewise, as long as we have the LORD, you and I are never beyond hope. Our hope is not anchored in our performance or how good we are. Our hope is anchored in who God is: His kindness, His love, and His power to save. So put your hope not in yourself or in your circumstances, but in the LORD.
Father, thank You for proactively loving us, so much so that You anticipate our concerns long before we know we have them. Thank You that You will never leave me or forsake me. May I place my hope not in myself or my circumstances, but in You. In Jesus’ name, AMEN!
