Isaiah chapter 51 opens with a glorious note of promise! To the believing sons of Abraham anyway.

“Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the LORD: look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged. 2 Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you: for I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him. 3 For the LORD shall comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.” Isaiah 51:1-3

The imperative verb “hearken” is “shama” in Hebrew, meaning “listen, hear,” and even “obey!”

The paragraph is NOT addressed to the ungodly in Israel, not this Text! Rather, the Prophet is talking to those who “follow righteousness” and “seek the Lord.” (People “hungry” for the things of God!)

First, these good people are minded to not forget their past. Their very existence is owed to the miracle working Power of God! “Look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged. Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you.” Verse 1b and 2a, blended.

Maybe Sarah’s dead, dry womb (at age 90) was the “rock” or “hole” from which Israel was “hewn.” We know (from the context) that the “hewn rock” and “digged pit” refer to Abraham and Sarah in some manner. (Every Christian who is Spirit-filled also ought to “remember” his or her past! The hard, rocky place where the Lord “found” you!)

Think … God twice promised “honey” from the rock … and now “life” itself from the rock! See Deuteronomy 32:13 and Psalm 81:16.

All these born-again Israelites have historically come from one person, one man! (That being Abraham!) Whom God abundantly blessed and multiplied as promised back in Genesis 12:1-3. Here is verse 2 of that Text … “And I (the Lord) will make of thee (Abraham) a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing.“)

Wow!

We too, every Christian who reads these lines, also came (spiritually) from one man! One Whom Paul calls “the last Adam,” that being none Other than Jesus Christ our Saviour! (Romans 5:15 … “The grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by ONE MAN, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.”)

Then today’s Paragraph reaches it zenith (high point)! Verse 3: “For the LORD shall comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.” Layered promises, one upon another!

As I titled this Lesson … “God’s future for Israel.”

Comfort! (The verb is “nacham,” expressing deep “compassion,” from the very depths of God’s Heart.)

Transformation! (The stark, arid desert becoming like the Garden of Eden!) By the way, here is proof that Isaiah interpreted the first chapters of Genesis literally!)

Internal delight! Both (synonyms) joy and gladness, each being very emotional words! Plus thanksgiving, no more national grumbling! And also singing, as in “the voice of melody.” (God’s people have always had songs in their hearts!)

I will assure you that in the dark days ahead, for Israel as a people, she will come to these three verses and read them again and again!

Utilizing what Paul the Apostle much later called “the comfort of the Scriptures!” (Romans 15:4 … For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.”)

Amen!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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In Isaiah 50:4 a remarkable fact is shared with us, something about our Lord Jesus, once He became incarnate. Once He came to earth to die for our sins.

“The Lord GOD hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned.” He (Jesus) is testifying that His Father (“the Lord GOD”) woke Him every morning … and taught Him! (Mark 1:35 … “And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he (Jesus) went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed.” One of those “Classes!”)

The Father … taught Him what?

“How to speak a word in season to him (or her) that is weary.” Jesus as Encourager!

Wow!

Then, just six verses later … we have the Lord Jesus doing what he has (theoretically) been taught, encouraging the “weary!”

Watch … “Who is among you that feareth the LORD, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness, and hath no light? Let him trust in the name of the LORD, and stay upon his God.” Isaiah 50:10

Based on this verse … YES, you can be saved (fearing the Lord and obeying His Voice) and still “walk in darkness,” go through some very hard times!

You can, child of God, experience days or hours (maybe even weeks or months) of “no light!”

Now … here comes the Encourager!

Pre-incarnate Jesus! (Just meaning “before” the Virgin Birth.)

The rest of verse 10, Jesus’ Word to the weary … “Let him trust in the name of the LORD, and stay upon his God.”

Keep on trusting (with “not a care” in the world, the total absence of worry, “batach” in Hebrew) the Lord!

Then the verb “stay” (in Hebrew “shaan”) means “to lean upon” Someone! Three times in the King James Version, “to rest” upon Him!

“A Word in season to the weary,” indeed!

The Bible, what a practical Book!

And our great God … how supremely Sufficient He is … and then some!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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Isaiah 50 begins another of the Prophet’s well-known “Servant” Texts. And perhaps this Unit is the clearest of them all … so far!

No doubt, Jesus is in view!

Let me share a couple of verses. See if you agree that our Lord is the Speaker, via the miracle of Bible Prophecy.

“The Lord GOD hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back. I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting.” Isaiah 50:5-6

The word picture about the “opened ear” indicates “voluntary servanthood.” Jesus was not FORCED to come to earth and die on the Cross! Rather, He (gladly) did it out of Love. Primarily (I think) love for His Father … then also love for us lost sinners! (See Exodus 21:6 and Deuteronomy 15:7, for the servant’s “pierced” ear concept.)

Then … “I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting.” Is this not certainly our Lord Jesus Christ, at the Cross? Notice please … He “gave” Himself!

John 10:17-18 … Jesus preaching … “Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.”

Wow!

Then one more verse today, pure dynamite!

“For the Lord GOD will help me; therefore shall I not be confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed.” Isaiah 50:7

Jesus was that DETERMINED to go to Calvary! He adamantly set His Face … like a flint!

And though He was (in the estimation of the men and women on the Scene) shamed and disgraced and belittled … in His Own Heart and Mind … He was the Victor!

“Not confounded!”

“Not ashamed!”

How so, in the face of all apparent data?

Because … of the Reward that awaited Him, at the Right Hand of His father in Heaven!

Here’s my proof Text … “Jesus , Who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews 12:2

Luke 12:50 adds to our discussion as well. Did Jesus “shrink” from the Cross, even at Gethsemane?

No!

He welcomed it!

“But I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished!”

Wow, almost “I can’t wait until it (the Cross) be accomplished!” The verb here is “teleo,” as in “It is finished!”

The more I learn about Jesus, the more I admire and adore and worship Him!

The Darling Son of God!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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If you recall, the second “Section” of Isaiah (chapters 40-66 in distinction to chapters 1-39) began with these words: “Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.”Isaiah 40:1

And that, dear students, sets the overarching Theme to Isaiah’s Prophecies in these final (27) chapters … “COMFORT!”

Including today’s Text, our last meditation from Isaiah chapter 49. (And what a thrilling chapter it has been!)

Again, God is speaking to His people, to the Jews: “And I will feed them that oppress thee with their own flesh; and they shall be drunken with their own blood, as with sweet wine: and all flesh shall know that I the LORD am thy Saviour and thy Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob.” Isaiah 49:26 … a Victory so pronounced that it may not occur until the days of the Tribulation, its very climax!

God overcoming (or promising to overcome) all Israel’s “oppressors!” The verb “oppress” here is “yanah” in Hebrew. It is used only 21 times in the entire Old Testament! It means (in part) “to treat violently!” In the King James Version it is translated “to thrust out” once! And “to destroy” once as well.

Those who so hate Israel (and act upon that hate) God will literally kill! In a particularly graphic manner! He will “feed them with their own flesh.”

What does that mean?

I think it may be a case where these enemies (who bitterly say of Israel, quoting Psalm 83:4, “Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance”) are sent strong confusion from the Lord, so much so that they attack themselves! Mistakenly kill each other in a massive case of “friendly fire!” (Called “strong delusion” by Paul in 2 Thessalonians 2:11.)

Or perhaps … they themselves are put under such a long siege from a more formidable enemy … that they become so hungry and so thirsty … that they eat their own children and drink the blood of the recently dead! (A common result of extremely long sieges!)

Yes … “They shall be drunken with their own blood, as with sweet wine.” Thus saith the Lord!

And what will be the result of this great Victory God provides Judah/Israel? “And all flesh shall know that I the LORD am thy Saviour and thy Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob.” The last clause of Isaiah 49:26, today’s Text.

Wow!

“All flesh!”

As when “That unto me (God) every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear.” Also written by Isaiah the Prophet, in 45:23.

Which Paul adapted to say (under the Guidance of the Holy Spirit) … “That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Philippians 2:10-11

I sure would not want to be guilty of “oppressing” Israel, would you? Of “cursing” her? Genesis 12:1-3, notice especially the capitalized line: “Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee: and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: AND I WILL bless them that bless thee, and CURSE HIM THAT CURSETH THEE : and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.”

Comfort indeed … for Israel!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

Isaiah the Prophet … what a writer!

And the Holy Spirit of God … What An Author!

And us Christians, looking on this Scene of Victory … thrilled that our God is receiving Honor and Glory eternally due his Name!

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Israel, the nation, is discouraged. “Hard times” have come her way. Largely, though, due to her own sin, truth be told!

So, in today’s Text, she laments: “But Zion said, The LORD hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me.” Isaiah 49:14a,b

“Hath forsaken” is “azab” in Hebrew … as if the Lord “has lost” Israel, had “misplaced” her! And “hath forgotten” translates “shakach,” meaning “to ignore!” Pretty strong charges!

But instead of retorting in anger … God lovingly responds with an apt illustration from everyday life: “Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee.”Isaiah 49:14c-15

Can a young mother “forget” her little nursing baby? Or not love the little boy to whom she recently gave birth? RARELY that could happen, one guesses! (The implication is that GOD is a better Parent than any human! God is the Perfect One! God will not forget His children!)

That’s right! I can gladly proclaim: GOD FORGETS NOTHING! Except in regard to those who are saved, washed in the Blood of Jesus … “And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.” Hebrews 10:17, praise His Name!

Yes, revel and delight in this uplifting Truth for a minute! (“My sins are gone!”)

Then there’s even more … God gives Judah/Israel a reminder, a promise, a great fact to ponder!

“Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me.” Isaiah 49:16

How could God forget His people? He has etched (cut) them (their names) into His very hands! “Have graven” (in Hebrew “chaqaq”) means just that, “to indelibly imprint, inscribe, mark!”

Did Jesus have this picture in Mind? As He preached in John 10:28 … “And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.”

And wonderfully so, “pluck” here means “to seize, to carry off!” Of course not, we’re safe … we are engraved there, in His Hands!

And that closing line, about Jerusalem’s “walls?”

The walls of any ancient city were their foremost means of protection. God is saying that He knows the condition of Judah’s citizenry! Even the details! (Like the number of hairs on our head! Luke 12:7)

He has His gracious, all-seeing “eyee” on every aspect of their lives, even their city walls and gates! Proverbs 15:3 is still true … “The eyes of the LORD are in every place!”

He is even watching us … right now

Hallelujah!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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