Folks we live in incredible times! These are moments in which we see the coming purpose of every Believer in Jesus. As I am studying Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Obadiah – there is a continuity of thought between them regarding the awakening of the nations to Israel, its people, and covenant; and Jerusalem– even though the lives of these three prophets span about 200 years, they carry not only the same message of repentance – but also of specific directives given by God towards Israel BY the nations of the world. In this blog, we will focus on Isaiah 49…
- “Listen, O coastlands, to Me, And take heed, you peoples from afar! The LORD has called Me from the womb; From the matrix of My mother, He has made mention of My name. And He has made My mouth like a sharp sword; In the shadow of His hand He has hidden Me, And made Me a polished shaft; In His quiver, He has hidden Me.” (vs 1-2)
These words come prophetically from the Messiah, the Servant of the LORD revealed in previous chapters. Here, He commands the coastlands – the distant lands of the Gentiles – to listen to Him. Folks – that is us as in the USA – the West. It also describes that the Messiah was called from the womb. As shown in Micah 5:2, Jesus was called even before He was in Mary’s womb, yet here He starts at the point everyone can identify with… and that being fulfilled in Luke 1:31, where the LORD, through the angel Gabriel, declared the name of Jesus before the conception in Mary’s womb.
The Messiah here goes on to say His very words have power and authority. While some might need to display a weapon to show their authority, the Messiah needs only to speak… That is powerful! The Messiah prophetically goes on to proclaim that He is like a carefully made and polished arrow in the service of the LORD, ready to be used at the right time. This probably has reference to the “hidden” years of Yeshua, when He lived in obscurity, as a polished shaft waiting in the quiver of the LORD.
- Verses 3-4 say this: “And He said to me, ‘You are My servant, O Israel, In whom I will b
e glorified.’ Then I said, ‘I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing and in vain; Yet surely my just reward is with the LORD And my work with my God.’”
This Scripture proves the Messiah comes from Israel, and is a representative of that nation. Second, because the Messiah fulfills the name Israel, which means, “governed by God”, there is a distinction of Israel being the compass to the world of what and to Whom they should look for the Creator of the Universe – not another descended pagan deity – but the true God of the Universe in which all things were made. You might think ‘You are my servant, Israel,’ simply identifies Yahweh’s Servant as the nation Israel. But if that were the case, there would be a contradiction when comparing to Isaiah 49:5-6, in which the Servant’s task is to bring Israel back to Yahweh and the land…the view that ‘Israel’ is a title of the individual Messianic Servant (Son of God/Yeshua) lines up with and is congruent to the passage
The passage goes on to prove Jesus was going to be tempted by the discouraging thought that all His work was in vain and for nothing. Yet He triumphed over such temptation.
- “And now the LORD says, Who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant, To bring Jacob back to Him, So that Israel is gathered to Him (For I shall be glorious in the eyes of the LORD, And My God shall be My strength), Indeed He says, ‘It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant To raise up the tribes of Jacob, And to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also give You as a light to the Gentiles, That You should be My salvation to the ends of the earth.’” Thus says the LORD, The Redeemer of Israel, their Holy One, To Him whom man despises, To Him whom the nation abhors, To the Servant of rulers: “Kings shall see and arise, Princes also shall worship, Because of the LORD who is faithful, The Holy One of Israel; And He has chosen You.” (vs 5-7)
The primary directive of the Messiah’s mission was to bring Israel back to the LORD. This shows that ethnic Israel has an enduring place in God’s plan, and that plan will be fulfilled when all Israel will be saved (Romans 11:26). However, He also has a mission to the Gentiles. What will the Messiah do for the Gentiles? That You should be My salvation to the ends of the earth. The Messiah would not simply bring salvation; He would be actual salvation to the ends of the earth… And we think that we can only read about God’s salvation to the Gentile nations in the New Testament – not so – we see it prophesied right here in Isaiah.
- Thus says the LORD: “In an acceptable time I have heard You, And in the day of salvation I have helped You; I will preserve You and give You As a covenant to the people, To restore the earth,
To cause them to inherit the desolate heritages; That You may say to the prisoners, ‘Go forth,’
To those who are in darkness, ‘Show yourselves.’ “They shall feed along the roads, And their pastures shall be on all desolate heights. They shall neither hunger nor thirst, Neither heat nor sun shall strike them; For He who has mercy on them will lead them, Even by the springs of water He will guide them. I will make each of My mountains a road, And My highways shall be elevated. Surely these shall come from afar; Look! Those from the north and the west, And these from the land of Sinim.” (vs 8-12)
Messiah predicts His time of acquiring salvation for the Gentiles here…because He states he is not simply giving a covenant to the people – but that He IS a covenant to the people. In Mark 5:1-15 he sets the demoniac free – then also heals the lepers in Luke 10 and tells them to show themselves to the priests. He also set the sick and diseased free from the bondage of their infirmities in Luke 13:16. Every place Yeshua went was a place where Israel had either not fulfilled God’s instruction or was defeated in battle…referring to God’s supply and sustaining of the exiles returning from Babylon to Judah, through the unseen hand of the Messiah He references Psalm 23. He also refers to the Mountains of Israel as being a pathway of purpose FOR THE NATIONS! – Sinim is the southern border of Egypt.
NOW – skipping to the crux of the point The Messiah (Yeshua) makes to us as the nations.
- “For your waste and desolate places, And the land of your destruction, Will even now be too small for the inhabitants; And those who swallowed you up will be far away. The children you will have, After you have lost the others, Will say again in your ears, ‘The place is too small for me; Give me a place where I may dwell.’ Then you will say in your heart, ‘Who has begotten these for me since I have lost my children and am desolate, A captive, and wandering to and fro? And who has brought these up? There I was, left alone; But these, where were they?’” Thus says the Lord GOD: “Behold, I will lift My hand in an oath to the nations, And set up My standard for the peoples; They shall bring your sons in their arms, And your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders; Kings shall be your foster fathers, And their queens your nursing mothers; They shall bow down to you with their faces to the earth, And lick up the dust of your feet. Then you will know that I am the LORD, For they shall not be ashamed who wait for Me.” Shall the prey be taken from the mighty or the captives of the righteous be delivered? But thus says the LORD: “Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, And the prey of the terrible be delivered; For I will contend with him who contends with you, And I will save your children. I will feed those who oppress you with their flesh, And they shall be drunk with their own blood as with sweet wine. All flesh shall know That I, the LORD, am your Savior, And your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.”
Folks this is like reading a current news article – right out of Isaiah 49. Nations are coming to the rescue of Israel, caring for the dispersed, carrying them back to their land; and the God of Israel is defeating the foe of the Messiah of Israel – you see the Land and the people Messiah calls HIMSELF – is Israel – and so we in the West have made the Bible about ourselves – our western Christianity – when in fact it has nothing to do with us except the fact we were grafted into a covenant given to a specific people – and who has a Messiah given to them. If we think differently then we are the chastisement of Romans 11 in which the Apostle Paul gives rebuke to the early Roman Believers.
The Bible was written FOR us NOT TO us – again – FOR US not TO US…we came to the show later on – which is OK – because we have a role to play in being adopted and grafted into the family…Part of that is what Isaiah 49 is all about and when we realize it was written for the West, we will begin to fulfill all the Father has for us..
Shalom!
