Isaiah 59:15b-21 Click here for Bible Verses
Hi GAMErs!
Today’s passage is Isaiah 59:15b-21. Let’s go!
Isaiah 59:15-19 (NIV)
15 Truth is nowhere to be found, and whoever shuns evil becomes a prey. The LORD looked and was displeased that there was no justice.
16 He saw that there was no one, he was appalled that there was no one to intervene; so his own arm worked salvation for him, and his own righteousness sustained him.
17 He put on righteousness as his breastplate, and the helmet of salvation on his head; he put on the garments of vengeance and wrapped himself in zeal as in a cloak.
18 According to what they have done, so will he repay wrath to his enemies and retribution to his foes; he will repay the islands their due.
19 From the west, men will fear the name of the LORD, and from the rising of the sun, they will revere his glory. For he will come like a pent-up flood that the breath of the LORD drives along.
On verses 15b-19: In verses 1-15 Isaiah gave vividly showed the effects that sin has on our lives, how all of us have sinned and how our sins separate us from God. After presenting this problem, Isaiah is now going to offer the solution. He says that God saw our helpless predicament. Since no one else could help, “his own arm worked salvation for him” (v16). “His arm” isn’t just a poetic way of saying that God did something. More specifically, Isaiah connects God’s own arm with the Servant, the Messiah (Isaiah 53:1-2). Jesus, God’s arm, would work to make salvation possible. Verse 17 describes the Servant putting on armour like a warrior going into battle, and yet the way he will “repay wrath to his enemies and retribution to his foes” will be unlike anything anyone could expect. As Isaiah 53 explained, the Servant would take away God’s wrath from us by dying for our sins: “But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:5) The “pent-up flood” (v19b) of God’s wrath would be poured out upon Jesus, while a flood of God’s mercy would fill our lives. For this reason people from the west and the east will fear and revere the name of the LORD (v19).
This is Isaiah preaching the gospel. His message: Sin separates us, but a Saviour will save us.
Isaiah 59:20 (NIV)
20 “The Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who repent of their sins,” declares the LORD.
On verse 20: To whom does this Saviour, this Redeemer come? Only to those “who repent of their sins” (v20). In other words, Jesus can only save you and redeem you from your sins if you admit that you need saving. Have you trusted Jesus Christ and what He did on the cross for you, or are you still relying on your own efforts to be good to save you from your sins?
Isaiah 59:21 (NIV)
21 “As for me, this is my covenant with them,” says the LORD. “My Spirit, who is on you, and my words that I have put in your mouth will not depart from your mouth, or from the mouths of your children, or from the mouths of their descendants from this time on and forever,” says the LORD.
On verse 21: God describes a covenant that He is going to make with “them”. Who is them? Those “who repent of their sins” (v20). About 150 years before the prophet Jeremiah would describe a “new covenant” that God is going to make with the people (Jeremiah 31:31-34), Isaiah hints at that new covenant here. The old covenant, if you’re wondering, was the old system instituted by Moses where priests would offer lambs and bulls to sacrifice for the people’s sins. The new covenant is where Jesus Christ becomes our sacrificial lamb and His perfect blood makes our forgiveness possible (see Hebrews 9-10). As part of this new covenant, God gives us the Holy Spirit to live in our hearts in a way that wasn’t available to people under the old covenant. Isaiah hints at this new covenant here when he describes how under this covenant God’s Spirit and God’s Word will live in the hearts of the people from that time on and forever.
Seven hundred years before Jesus walked this earth, here we have Isaiah, explaining as best as he can, the gospel (the good news) that Jesus would make possible.
Thank You Jesus for being the Servant, the Messiah, the Saviour who worked salvation for us. I repent of my sins and I receive You into my life today. In Jesus’ name, AMEN!
