Isa_52

Isaiah 52:1-15….   The Scripture text:

Isaiah 52:1-15 (ESV)
¹  Awake, awake, put on your strength, O Zion; put on your beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city; for there shall no more come into you the uncircumcised and the unclean.
²  Shake yourself from the dust and arise; be seated, O Jerusalem; loose the bonds from your neck, O captive daughter of Zion.

1. 3-6 – Knowing the Lord’s Name – ³  For thus says the LORD: “You were sold for nothing, and you shall be redeemed without money.”
   ⁴  For thus says the Lord GOD: “My people went down at the first into Egypt to sojourn there, and the Assyrian oppressed them for nothing.
   ⁵  Now therefore what have I here,” declares the LORD, “seeing that my people are taken away for nothing? Their rulers wail,” declares the LORD, “and continually all the day my name is despised.
   ⁶  Therefore my people shall know my name. Therefore in that day they shall know that it is I who speak; here I am.”
   V. 7-12 – Salvation for Jerusalem  –  ⁷  How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.”
   ⁸  The voice of your watchmen—they lift up their voice; together they sing for joy; for eye to eye they see the return of the LORD to Zion.
   ⁹  Break forth together into singing, you waste places of Jerusalem, for the LORD has comforted his people; he has redeemed Jerusalem.
   ¹⁰  The LORD has bared his holy arm before the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.
   ¹¹  Depart, depart, go out from there; touch no unclean thing; go out from the midst of her; purify yourselves, you who bear the vessels of the LORD.
   ¹²  For you shall not go out in haste, and you shall not go in flight, for the LORD will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your rear guard.
   Servant Song:  52:13-53:12  ¹³  Behold, my servant shall act wisely; he shall be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted.
   ¹⁴  As many were astonished at you— his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the children of mankind—
   ¹⁵  so shall he sprinkle many nations; kings shall shut their mouths because of him; for that which has not been told them they see, and that which they have not heard they understand.

V.1 – “Awake, awake”  –  a double command to Zion-Jerusalem   –   “the uncircumcised and the unclean” would be those who are ritually unclean and in this case, the Babylonians.   Now Babylon is to be debased and Jerusalem exalted.  It is “transferred punishment” and illustrated by instructions to put on ‘your beautiful garments’.   These in view of her new God-given holiness.

Zion can refer to the mountain on which the temple was built in Jerusalem or figuratively represent the entire city.  The city or the land can metaphorically represent the people.  The people were being called to order….

V.2 – They are to take the first steps toward liberation by throwing off the bonds of captivity.   Not to engage in revolt but rather to undo the psychological chains on bondage.  Zion is not to be enthroned in queenly splendor, a gloriously free city.

1. 3-6 – Knowing the Lord’s Name

Show three important truths:

• Jerusalem was, in fact, handed over to Babylonia by God himself as a punishment for their sins.
• Yet those who were given her paid nothing and so were owed nothing.
• So God would act again and now in a redemptive way to redeem His people. (The word ‘redeemed” normally implying cost does not have this connotation here.

V.4-5 the history of God’s people.   All three tyrant nations scoffed at the God of Israel. 

1. 6 – Yet there will be a day when they will know who Jehovah really is.

1. 7-12 – Salvation for Jerusalem

V.7 -“on the mountains” – Jerusalem surrounded by mountains and thus a messenger would have to cross them.  Brings GOOD NEWS…

“Who Announces Salvation” (Publishes Salvation)  Due to the bursting of the reign of God.    Good News in the light of their present situation.     “Your God reigns”

V.7 – The message states a recurring confession of faith in God’s kingship in ancient Israel. Here is the heart of ancient Israelite spirituality. The declaration Your God reigns means that the God of Israel controls history and the forces of nature. This is good news in Israel’s immediate situation because it means that there are limits to exile and punishment. It is also good news in a universal sense because it offers humankind, along with Israel, a foundation for salvation and peace on earth.^[1]

V.8 – The sentinels awaiting the messenger’s arrival.  They give out a cry as Yahweh’s return to Zion that was made possible by the redemption and deliverance that He has accomplished.

V.9-10 – the two-stanza praise to Him.

The call for worship – The motive for worship.  –  Publicly, the Lord discloses himself to the nations through his redemption of his people.

”bared his holy arm” – is the earthly manifestation of His power and might.  “Bared” H2834 – to lay bare….

V.11-12  –  They are instructed to take nothing as they leave Babylon for all is ‘unclean’.  However, the vessels of the temple are given to them to take back.    They were to observe the purity rituals associated with those emblems.

Servant Song:  52:13-53:12    – The fourth servant song that brings a witness to the nations of the power of nonviolence, a condition of peace for the earth.

Ch. 53: 1-10 – This suffering and death illustrate the power of one person, solidly obedient to God’s will, inspiring future generations for faithfulness.

V.13-15 – Demeanor (the outward manner that the servant bears himself…)and Disfigurement

He was pierced for Our Transgressions:

V.13 –  The Lord’s word, spoken by the prophet, presents the servant’s demeanor in terms of prosperity and dignity.  This is about what the Servant will accomplish and what will happen to him.

Isa. 53:1-6 – The Servant’s Suffering

^[1] Friesen, I. D. (2009). Isaiah (pp. 330–331). Scottdale, PA; Waterloo, ON: Herald Press.