Our Text today, please read it carefully. God is speaking …

“For this is as the waters of Noah unto Me: for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth; so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee. For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but My kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of My peace be removed, saith the LORD that hath mercy on thee.” Isaiah 54:9-10

Yes, God has disciplined Israel, at times severely. But she has been such an erring nation! God even laments in Hosea 11:7, “My people are bent to backsliding from me.” This verb “bent” means “to cling to” something!

Nonetheless, overall … God intends to BLESS Israel! And today’s Passage proves such in no uncertain terms!

In fact, looks to me like the Abrahamic Covenant is unconditional! Show me any “ifs” in it, please. Here it is …

God to Abraham, once Abram left Ur of the Chaldees, which he certainly did … “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.” Genesis 12:2-3

And so today (back to Isaiah 54:9-10) look what God has promised (again) to the Jewish people, to the Nation! There is coming a day when God “will no longer be wroth” with them! No longer “angry, displeased!”

A day when God will no longer “rebuke” His people!

“So have I (the Lord) sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee.” Verse 10b, King James Version! (The Hebrew verb “to swear” literally means “to say something seven times!”)

And how sure is that Word, that Commitment from God? A Divine Illustration now: God says: “As the waters of Noah unto me: for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth.” That’s absolute, isn’t it?

Then in verse 10 God adds that His Word to Israel is a stable as the “mountains” and the “hills!” In fact, more so! (“For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but MY KINDNESS shall NOT depart from thee.”)

God will also honor His “Covenant of Peace” with the Jews! Sounds like Salvation to me! And it will be guaranteed “secure!” I’d say “eternally secure!” (Verse 10b … “Neither shall the covenant of My peace be removed.”)

Wow!

What MERCY!

Now, take a few seconds and read this again, our Meditation this morning: “For this is as the waters of Noah unto me: for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth; so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee. For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the LORD that hath mercy on thee.” And do note it is authoritatively signed “saith the Lord!”

Now let’s go and pray for Israel!

Psalm 122:6 … “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee.”

Psalm 51:18 … David praying … “Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion: build thou the walls of Jerusalem.”

Psalm 137:6 … If I do not remember thee (that City, Jerusalem), let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy.”Surely this includes “remembering” that city in prayer!

The previous verse too … “If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning.” Forget to pray for her? (Psalm 137:5)

And even Jeremiah 51:50 has some advice in this area: “Stand not still: remember the LORD afar off, and let Jerusalem come into your mind.” Wow!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

Praying a Petition God is sure to answer!

Folks, God is going to DO, PERFORM what He has said, promised! But sill, He asks us “to pray” for those Results!

Proof?

Ezekiel 36:36-36 … “Then the heathen that are left round about you shall know that I THE LORD build the ruined places, and plant that that was desolate: I THE LORD have spoken it, and I will do it. Thus saith the Lord GOD; I WILL YET FOR THIS BE ENQUIRED OF (pray for it) BY THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL, to do it for them; I will increase them with men like a flock.”

Amen!

.

“For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee. In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the LORD thy Redeemer.” Isaiah 54:7-8

This is God, talking to Israel!

More specifically, to Judah!

A people who had sinned against her Lord, incurring His Wrath!

And in her dark days of punishment, discipline, correction … God encourages her with the words of this great two-verse Text.

Look at it with me:

Yes, God DID forsake (“azab” in Hebrew = to leave or depart from) His people! He admits it! (In fact, He forsook … still using the same verb,”azab” … His only Begotten Son as Jesus died on Calvary!)

BUT … that period of destitution was relatively short, quite measured! Because God here promises that he is going to “gather” His people, “re-gather” them. Our Text again, that first Clause: “For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee.”

Look … a “small” moment of discipline! But with “great” Mercies will come the Revival! (Recall Habakkuk’s Prayer … “God, in wrath remember mercy.” Habakkuk 3:2)

The our Text adds even more consolation: “In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee.” Wow!

Compare (contrast) “little wrath” with then (soon) coming “everlasting kindness!”

And again watch the stark difference: a “hidden Face” at first … but then “open, extended Mercy!” (A smiling Face!)

Reminds me of Psalm 30:5 … “For his (the Lord’s) anger endureth but a moment; in his favour is life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.” (You would think the Psalmist had been reading Isaiah!)

And I ask, just to be sure, Who is Promising this to His people? Jehovah God! “Thus saith the LORD thy Redeemer.”

And that beautiful noun “Redeemer” is “gaal,” the Kinsman Redeemer of Israel’s history, culture! (God will be the gracious “Boaz” to Judah’s tainted “Ruth” in coming days!)

We probably cannot imagine the HELP these two verses will become to suffering (and yet believing) Jews say … during the Tribulation!

Or during any future wave (it’s already building) of anti-Semitism that may sweep the world.

In fact, and I am not even a Jew … this Text is encouraging me! Because there is a Principle embedded in them that reveals God’s great, loving Heart!

God has, in fact, disciplined each of us who is truly born-again … but only in a “limited” sense! Hebrews 12:11 … “Now no chastening for the PRESENT seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless AFTERWARD it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.”

He knows what He is doing!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

Oh, we are in Good Hands!

.

Isaiah 54:5 caught my attention earlier today! God speaking to His people Israel …

“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.”

To employ all its various “truths,” its five “word pictures,” it has visited the realms of human “manufacturing, marriage, warfare, commerce (banking), and geography!”

“Thy Maker,” our Creator, none other than the Lord God Almighty! But the noun “Maker” here translates the participle “asah” in Hebrew. It means “to do, to make, to build, to fashion, to prepare,” God being the Real Architect of the little nation of Israel!

“Thine Husband,” a familiar term indeed! (Just as in the New Testament the Lord Jesus is the Bridegroom of the Church … so in the Old Testament is God the Father portrayed as the Husband of Israel!) The noun (brace yourself) is “baal!” Yes, the heathen named one of their many gods after this concept, “Baal.” It means “ruler, possessor, owner!” Twice in the King James Version is “baal” translated “dominion!” (God and Israel, in personal relationship! Having made vows to each other!)

“The LORD of Hosts,” now we are talking martial (military) language! It literally means “Jehovah of the Armies!” Or the God of “warfare!” And get this … He has never lost a battle! How safe Israel will feel when she trusts this great General (God) with all her heart!

“Redeemer,” which necessitates the very Holiness (sacredness) of God, is a loan word from the field of commerce, banking. The word is “gaal,” related to the great Kinsman-Redeemer Concept of the Bible! Jesus “bought” me out of poverty, out of prison, and paid my debt in full! Yes, Calvary involves a “transaction” in which God the Father was “paid, satisfied, appeased” regarding my sin … via the Value of the precious Blood of Jesus!

Then He is “the God of the whole earth!” North, south, east and west … every continent and every lisle and every ocean! Some day, the Prophets promise us: “For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.” Isaiah 11:9 … geography bearing witness to the Power of our great God! And His Omnipresence, too!

No doubt saved Jews (the few still alive, a “remnant” no doubt) during the dark days ahead (Tribulation) will read this verse again and again and treasure its every thought!

In fact, this old Gentile is pretty enamored with them!

The Church, of a truth, is not Israel.

But still, I think, we might apply the principles of these great concepts to our lives as well!

God … my Maker, my Bridegroom, my Commander-in-Chief, my Ransom, my Purity, my Lord over all the earth!

Praise His dear Name!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

.

Immediately after Isaiah chapter 53 has described (in detail) the Death of Jesus on the Cross … believing Israel is invited to “sing!”

A Nation that has mourned so much throughout her existence … now jubilantly singing!

If you remember, she also sang after she came up out of the dry Red Sea bed … immediately after the armies of Pharaoh had been drowned! (Another instance of singing after salvation!)

Read our Text with me: “SING, O barren, thou that didst not bear; break forth into SINGING, and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child: for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the LORD. Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes; for thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left; and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited.” Isaiah 54:1-3, and this Text just “begins” the list of blessings a saved (born-again) Israel will some day enjoy!

The implication here is that Israel will have more “children” (offspring, seed, inheritance) that any of the ungodly nations who did (with much travail) bear many sons and daughters.

Furthermore, Israel will have to “enlarge” her coasts! Growth is ahead, during the Millennium if no other time! (I am thinking of the prayer of Jabez, now.) That’s what the “enlarging” of the place of her “tents” means. The geographical territory called “Israel” will be widened and lengthened exponentially!

Also, according to our Text today, she is going to explode (“break forth”) into revival and expansive national health! She (her capital city Jerusalem) will be the center of the earth some day, in fact … “the joy of the whole earth!” According to Psalm 48:2, it’s Bible!

And again, WHY all this reversal, change of status?

Because of Jesus, His vicarious Death (again, Isaiah 53) and Israel’s subsequent trust (belief) in our Lord Jesus Christ as her Saviour!

Did not the same thing happen to us Gentiles? Soon as we were saved? Colossians 3:16 … “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.”

When the WORD really gets “in” you … joyful singing apparently comes “out” of you!

Praise the Lord!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

My saved friend, sing some today!

.

That last verse, number 12, is loaded with divine meaning!

But today particularly I’d like to discuss the clause: “He hath poured out his soul unto death.” Describing Jesus on Calvary, on the Cross.

What does it mean “to pour out” one’s soul?

The verb is “arah” in Hebrew. And it usually means “to lay bear, to uncover!” The lexicons say, “to be naked.”

In the King James Version “arah” is translated as follows: “uncover” (3 times), “discover” (3 times), “to empty” (2 times), “rase” (to level or to destroy, 2 times), “leave destitute” (1 time), “make naked” (1 time), “poured out” (1 time), then just “poured” (1 time), then “spreading” (1 time).

All these depict some “price being paid,” or some “cost being exacted,” or some “sacrifice being offered!”

It cost Jesus much … Calvary did!

He became the Ransom for our sins!

One Greek scholar captures the meaning well, I thought. “He EXPOSED Himself to Death!” Hanging publicly on a Tree! Dying before men!

Jesus willingly died for us sinners!

And as a Result of His Soul being so expended … or maybe I should say as a Reward … God has “given Him a Portion with the great!” And allows Jesus “to divide the spoil with the strong!”

Thee is “booty” for Jesus winning His great Conflict on Calvary!

What might that be?

The Church, I believe.

Souls saved!

Including you and me, dear Christian friend!

Part of God’s “blessing” upon Jesus … God actually gave His Son a BRIDE for His (Successful) Work of the Cross!

Wow!

If I have interpreted this correctly, we have just been given a glimpse into the very Mind of Almighty God!

Into the very Heart of the Trinity!

The Salvation of a soul … what a magnificent miracle! And at what great Cost!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

Let us sing forever: “Redeemed, redeemed … redeemed by the Blood of the Lamb!”

.