CHAPTER 51

(712 B.C.)

TRUST GOD; HIS MERCY BESTOWED ON ABRAHAMS SEED

¹Hearken to Me, you who follow after righteousness, you who seek the LORD: look unto the Rock whence you are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence you are digged. (Abraham and Sarah are referred to as the Rock from which Israel was hewn. The hole of the pit refers to idolatry from whence Abraham and Sarah were brought, for they were idolaters when they came to the Lord.

The idea of this Verse is: Israel was raised up from an aged man and a barren woman and made into a numerous nation, a multitude like the sand of the sea.)

²Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah who bore you: for I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him. (The idea is: If God could multiply the progeny of one man, how much more could He make a flourishing nation out of the exiles, who, though but a Remnant of the pre-captivity Israel, were yet many thousands in number, that is, if Judah would only believe Him.)

COMFORT PROMISED: ZION AND WASTE PLACES WILL BE RESTORED

³For 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. (The Promise of this Verse has several applications. It certainly referred to Judah after the captivity, if they would only believe the Lord; it, as well, refers to Israel upon the Second Advent of the Lord. But these Promises also picture the perpetual bliss promised to all who listen to and obey the Lord Jesus Christ.)

CALL TO ISRAEL

⁴Hearken unto Me, My People; and give ear unto Me, O My nation: for a Law shall proceed from Me, and I will make My judgment to rest for a light of the people. (The spiritual life is sustained, as well as initiated, by the principle of hearing. The Divine provision for this is the Bible. That is the Law, which has proceeded from God; and that is the Judgment established to be the light of the nations.)

⁵My Righteousness is near; My Salvation is gone forth, and My arms shall judge the people; the isles shall wait upon Me, and on My arm shall they trust. (Christ is both Righteousness and Salvation. As Salvation, He has gone forth, and, as Righteousness, He has come near. He is, therefore, within the reach of all sinners; and all who come to Him, sincerely seeking Him, will find exactly what He has promised!)

⁶Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the Earth beneath: for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the Earth shall wax old like a garment, and they who dwell therein shall die in like manner: but My Salvation shall be forever, and My Righteousness shall not be abolished. (The Lord uses the most stable illustration to be found, His Own Creation. As glorious and stable as this Creation is, still, it will one day have to be refurbished; however, His Salvation and Righteousness, which refer to His Word, shall be forever, and shall not be abolished.)

⁷Hearken unto Me, you who know righteousness, the people in whose heart is My Law; fear you not the reproach of men, neither be you afraid of their revilings. (Progress in the Christian life entails increasing hostility from the world, and even from the Church.)

⁸For the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like wool: but My Righteousness shall be forever, and My Salvation from generation to generation. (If men themselves never wholly pass away, yet it is otherwise with their judgments. These perish absolutely, disappear, and are utterly forgotten. In other words, the taunts will come to a speedy end, while those whose will and affections are governed by the Scriptures will live forever.)

⁹Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD; awake, as in the ancient days, in the generations of old. Are you not it that has cut Rahab, and wounded the dragon? (The phrase, Awake, awake, is a cry of faith and desire addressed to the Messiah by those who hearken unto Him, and in whose heart is His Law. Rahab is a symbolic expression for Egypt. The name actually means pride or the proud one. The phrase, Wounded the dragon, refers to Egypts power and such being destroyed at the Red Sea.)

¹⁰Are you not it which has dried the sea, the waters of the great deep; that has made the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass over? (This Passage pertains to the Deliverance of the Children of Israel from Egypt and the opening of the Red Sea.)

¹¹Therefore the redeemed of the LORD shall return, and come with singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their head: they shall obtain gladness and joy; and sorrow and mourning shall flee away. (This speaks of Israels acceptance of Christ as the Messiah and, as such, will be redeemed. At that time, and we speak of the beginning of the Kingdom Age, and from all over the world, they shall come to Zion with singing and everlasting joy. Then, the sorrow and mourning of thousands of years shall flee away.)

COMFORT AND RESTORATION PROMISED

¹²I, even I, am He Who comforts you: who are you, that you should be afraid of a man that shall die, and of the son of man which shall be made as grass (I, even I refers to Christ as the only One Who can comfort you. The man referred to in this Verse is the oppressor, the Antichrist. Under his oppression, Israel will reach the lowest depth of misery. They are admonished here to not be afraid of him, but to look to the Lord);

¹³And forget the LORD your Maker, Who has stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations of the Earth; and has feared continually every day because of the fury of the oppressor, as if he were ready to destroy? and where is the fury of the oppressor? (The Lord chastises Israel for forgetting Him Who has created all things, and then living in fear of the oppressor, whoever the oppressor might be.

In this Verse, the gauntlet is laid down. Believers can trust the Lord or fear man. You cant do both.)

¹⁴The captive exile hastens that he may be loosed, and that he should not die in the pit, nor that his bread should fail. (In a strict sense, the captive exile refers to Israel in the latter half of the Great Tribulation, and more particularly in the Battle of Armageddon, when bottled up by the Antichrist, facing extermination. The Promise by God is that Israel, by the Second Coming of the Lord, will be loosed and will not die in the pit. As well, her sustenance will not fail; the Lord will see to that.

In general, the Promise is to all who will dare to believe God, whoever they might be!)

¹⁵But I am the LORD your God, Who divided the sea, Whose waves roared: the LORD of Hosts is His Name. (The reference is once more to the great miracle wrought at the Exodus, when the Red Sea was divided before the host of Israelites [Ex. 14:21].)

¹⁶And I have put My Words in your mouth, and I have covered you in the shadow of My Hand, that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the Earth, and say unto Zion, You are My People. (Regarding its total fulfillment, this pertains to the Millennium, when Israel will be converted under the Messiah, and will trust, love, and serve Him. For the last two thousand years, God has refused to say concerning Israel, You are My People. Now, because of their turning to Him, this will all change.)

CALL TO JERUSALEM

¹⁷Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem, which has drunk at the Hand of the LORD the cup of His fury; you have drunk the dregs of the cup of trembling, and wrung them out. (This speaks of the Battle of Armageddon, when the Antichrist will attempt to annihilate the Jews. As well, it refers to Jerusalem when it fell to Babylonian captivity, but its greater fulfillment pertains to the coming time of Jacobs trouble [Jer. 30:7].)

¹⁸There is none to guide her among all the sons whom she has brought forth; neither is there any who takes her by the hand of all the sons that she has brought up. (There was no one to help Israel during the time of the Babylonian siege. Neither will there be anyone to help during the time of the Battle of Armageddon, when it seems that every nation in the world will either side with the Antichrist or else remain neutral.)

¹⁹These two things are come unto you; who shall be sorry for you? desolation, and destruction, and the famine, and the sword: by whom shall I comfort you? (There is only One Who can comfort Israel, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ, and that He will do at the Second Coming.)

²⁰Your sons have fainted, they lie at the head of all the streets, as a wild bull in a net: they are full of the fury of the LORD, the rebuke of your God. (This speaks of both the invasion by Nebuchadnezzar and by the Antichrist. The difference is this: Israel was not rescued during the siege by the Babylonians, but will be rescued at the siege of the Antichrist. But not without great destruction!

The phrase, Full of the fury of the LORD, refers to Gods Wrath being poured upon Israel, because of their great sins and refusal to accept Him as their Saviour.

Only when Israel is destitute, trapped like a wild bull in a net, panting, exhausted, and incapable of the least resistance, will they finally turn to the Lord. Then, the fury that has been turned upon them will now be turned upon their adversaries.)

²¹Therefore hear now this, you afflicted, and drunken, but not with wine (rebellion against God has such an effect upon individuals that it is as if they are drunk, when in fact they have not taken any intoxicating beverage at all):

²²Thus says your Lord the LORD, and your God Who pleads the cause of His People, Behold, I have taken out of your hand the cup of trembling, even the dregs of the cup of My fury; you shall no more drink it again (their punishment will now be complete! They had asked for Caesar as their king and had received Caesar, along with desolation, destruction, famine, and the sword.

Now, their True Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, the One they rejected, upon hearing their cry, will come to their rescue. It will be the greatest phenomenon the world has ever known! It will be at the Battle of Armageddon, with Christ coming Himself, leading His great Army, which will include every Saint of God who has ever lived.

When He rescues Israel, He will take the cup of trembling out of their hands for them to no more drink it again):

²³But I will put it into the hand of them who afflict you; which have said to your soul, Bow down, that we may go over: and you have laid your body as the ground, and as the street, to them who went over. (The Antichrist will make his boasts that he is going to so completely destroy Israel that nothing will be left. However, his certain victory will be turned into certain defeat, by the return of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Saviour of Israel.

Instead of the Antichrist walking on Israel, his body will be laid on the ground, and conquering feet will tread upon it.

He demanded that Israel bow down. Instead, he will bow down, because his evil sponsor, Satan, bowed down to Christ at Calvary.)