Isaiah (the whole Book generally and chapter 54 specifically) is sort of like (regarding the Millennium) peeling a sweet onion! Each new layer reaches/reveals more “meat” and gets nearer and nearer to the central “core”, the very “heart” of the matter!
And today’s Text is no different.
“Fear not; for thou shalt not be ashamed: neither be thou confounded; for thou shalt not be put to shame: for thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth, and shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood any more. For thy Maker is thine husband; the LORD of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall he be called.” Isaiah 54:4-5
What a “reversal” from Israel’s checkered history …
No longer fearful! (Does that not somehow imply peace?)
No longer ashamed!
No longer confused!
No longer a widow, poor and alone!
No longer considered a “blight” on society, a “useless” people, a “freak” of nature!!
These few foregoing sentences sum the Text’s first half … “Fear not; for thou shalt not be ashamed: neither be thou confounded; for thou shalt not be put to shame: for thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth, and shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood any more.”
But why?
Who cares anyway?
Martin Luther, echoing (or maybe even determining) the Reformation’s attitude toward them, called the Jews … “a base, whoring people, that is, no people of God, and their boast of lineage, circumcision, and law must be accounted as filth.” (Quoted from his Book “On the Jews and their Lies.”) There’s much more: They are full of the “devil’s feces … which they wallow in like swine.” Their synagogue was (according to Luther) a “defiled bride, yes, an incorrigible whore and an evil slut.”
Is that shame enough, especially when heaped upon them by a churchman? (Martin Luther is NOT my hero, not by any means!) Hitler used some of these nefarious lines to promote his brand of anti-Semitism!
Yes, that was Israel’s legacy for many years, decades, centuries! And nobody cared!
Well … I’ll tell you Someone Who does care about His people, His little “chosen nation” … God Himself cares!
He (during the Millennium) will remove all that blight from the Jewish Nation! (From “the apple of His Eye,” called such four times in Scripture, Israel is.)
The rest of today’s Text … the “Meat/Heart” of it … “For thy Maker is thine husband; the LORD of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall he be called.” Isaiah 54:5, notice the Titles here!
God is Israel’s “Maker!” In essence, Creator!
And her “Husband!” (Then she is a widow no longer!)
And her “Defender,” not as plain in the Passage but there! “The Lord of Hosts” is literally “the God of the armies!” Look it up …
And her “Redeemer,” having bought her unto Himself with His precious Blood!
And I’ll add, her “Sanctifier,” as the “Holy One” of Israel!
Then also, to the earth’s other Millennial inhabitants … He is the “God of the whole planet!”
Truly, a world Ruler!
If I am reading this right, taking Isaiah literally … the Millennium will be wonderful for Israel, her believing remnant!
And we who are alive today, having trusted Jesus as Saviour, having been saved, born-again … will at that time (during the “Millennium”) also be “with the Lord,” right near His side I assume.
According to Paul, anyway … “For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: AND SO SHALL WE EVER BE WITH THE LORD.” Quoting 1st Thessalonians 4:13-17, King James Version.
“Ever with the Lord!”
What comfort!
— Dr. Mike Bagwell
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