Isaiah 51:17-52:12 Click here for Bible Verses
Hi GAMErs!
Today’s passage is Isaiah 51:17-52:12. Let’s go!
Isaiah 51:17-23 (NIV)
17 Awake, awake! Rise up, O Jerusalem, you who have drunk from the hand of the LORD the cup of his wrath, you who have drained to its dregs the goblet that makes men stagger.
18 Of all the sons she bore there was none to guide her; of all the sons she reared there was none to take her by the hand.
19 These double calamities have come upon you– who can comfort you?– ruin and destruction, famine and sword– who can console you?
20 Your sons have fainted; they lie at the head of every street, like antelope caught in a net. They are filled with the wrath of the LORD and the rebuke of your God.
21 Therefore hear this, you afflicted one, made drunk, but not with wine.
22 This is what your Sovereign LORD says, your God, who defends his people: “See, I have taken out of your hand the cup that made you stagger; from that cup, the goblet of my wrath, you will never drink again.
23 I will put it into the hands of your tormentors, who said to you, ‘Fall prostrate that we may walk over you.’ And you made your back like the ground, like a street to be walked over.”
On 51:17-23: Before in Isaiah 51:9, the people were telling God to “awake”. But now it is God’s turn to tell His people to wake up, and He does so twice – once in verse 17 and again in 52:1. What does God want His people to wake up to? First, God wants His people to wake up to reality. There are two realities which verses 17-20 talk about. The first reality is that Jerusalem has had to drink the cup of God’s wrath because of their sins (v17). The second reality is that over the centuries Jerusalem’s sons have generally failed to guide and provide for Jerusalem (v18). These two realities are related, for the second problem is a big cause for the first problem. When the “sons” of Jerusalem (i.e. Jerusalem’s leaders) don’t lead the way they ought to, all the people suffer as a result.
But God is going to change these two realities. As the “God who defends His people” (v22) God declares that He has taken the cup of His wrath away from His people, such that they will never have to drink from it again (v22). Instead He will put that cup in the hand of Jerusalem’s tormentors who had oppressed Jerusalem (v23).
I believe the wrath which God says He is taking away in verse 22 is not political oppression or religious persecution, for history will show that Jerusalem and the Jewish people would suffer and be persecuted in many more ways on many more occasions throughout the centuries well after Isaiah wrote down these prophecies. Rather when God and Isaiah talk about God taking away the cup of God’s wrath, the focus is not political but spiritual. God is taking away His eternal wrath from His people, such that sin and Satan which held them captive will no longer separate them from Him.
How will God accomplish this? He will do so by providing a perfect Son who will be totally unlike the sons that Jerusalem has been used to. Jesus Christ would drink the cup of God’s wrath on behalf of all of us by dying on the cross. Jesus would then conquer Jerusalem’s oppressor – sin, death and Satan – by rising from the grave. Jesus, Jerusalem’s perfect son, would remove the cup of wrath from Jerusalem by drinking it himself and defeat Jerusalem’s oppressor by rising again.
Isaiah 52:1-12 (NIV)
1 Awake, awake, O Zion, clothe yourself with strength. Put on your garments of splendor, O Jerusalem, the holy city. The uncircumcised and defiled will not enter you again.
2 Shake off your dust; rise up, sit enthroned, O Jerusalem. Free yourself from the chains on your neck, O captive Daughter of Zion.
3 For this is what the LORD says: “You were sold for nothing, and without money you will be redeemed.”
4 For this is what the Sovereign LORD says: “At first my people went down to Egypt to live; lately, Assyria has oppressed them.
5 “And now what do I have here?” declares the LORD. “For my people have been taken away for nothing, and those who rule them mock,” declares the LORD. “And all day long my name is constantly blasphemed.
6 Therefore my people will know my name; therefore in that day they will know that it is I who foretold it. Yes, it is I.”
7 How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, “Your God reigns!”
8 Listen! Your watchmen lift up their voices; together they shout for joy. When the LORD returns to Zion, they will see it with their own eyes.
9 Burst into songs of joy together, you ruins of Jerusalem, for the LORD has comforted his people, he has redeemed Jerusalem.
10 The 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.
11 Depart, depart, go out from there! Touch no unclean thing! Come out from it and be pure, you who carry the vessels of the LORD.
12 But you will not leave in haste or go in flight; for the LORD will go before you, the God of Israel will be your rear guard.
On 52:1-12: The first time God told His people in 51:17 to wake up, He was telling Him to wake up to two problems that have been plaguing His people for a long time, which problems we describe above. Now in 52:1 is this second time that God tells His people to wake up (“awake!”), and this time God is telling His people to wake up to a new way of thinking, a new way of seeing themselves. Tired of seeing His people oppressed (52:4) and His name blasphemed (52:5), God is going to do something to change the situation. He wants His people to “shake off the dust” (51:2) of their difficult past and step into – literally clothe themselves in – a new glory that He is giving them (51:1). Whereas before they had been captives to sin, God is going to deliver them from their captivity and give them royal robes to wear.
That is exactly what God does for all of us as well. All of us were captives to sin, living in the dust of our sinfulness and brokenness. But God would “lay bare his holy arm in the sight of all nations” (52:10) by sending Jesus Christ to deliver us from our captivity to sin. Through Jesus’ death on the cross and His resurrection from the grave, we go from captives to sin to royal children of God. Through Jesus, we go from captives to bringers of good news to others. This good news is that in Jesus Christ there is salvation available for all the ends of the earth.
Because we know that God goes before us and protects us from behind, we don’t need to live in the hurry of worry or the flightiness of fear (v12). We don’t need to cling to unholy things for peace and security (v11). Instead we live secure and confident because of Jesus (“you will not leave in haste or go in flight; for the LORD will go before you, the God of Israel will be your rear guard” v12). Now it is up to us to awake and step into this new identity and reality that Jesus has made possible for us.
Thank You Father for taking away from me the cup of Your wrath and giving me instead status as a royal member of Your family. Help me to shake off the dust of my past and wake up to who I really am in You. In Jesus’ name, AMEN!
