LESSON 22

GOD HAS A PLAN FOR HIS PEOPLE

ISAIAH 51

God has a plan for Israel and all nations in the future.  As Isaiah 51 opens, the call is, “Listen to me, you who follow righteousness” and is directed to those who seek God and are anxious to do His will.  Remember this was addressed to a small group of very discouraged Jews who had endured 70 years of captivity in Babylon.  The way to hope many times begins by looking back to past victories and realizing victory in the future is possible.  First of all, look to the rock and remember Abraham and Sarah.  They were old people, past child-bearing age, and look what God did.  Then Isaiah gives the Jewish people a look at what He is going to do for Zion and Jerusalem.  They will be like Eden, the garden of God, with joy and gladness found resounding with thanksgiving.  Anybody who reads the newspaper or has been to Jerusalem lately knows this has not happened up until this point.  So here is eschatology or a view of what God is still going to do in the future.  Notice the close identification God has with His people in the emphasis of,  “My people, My nation, My justice, My righteousness, My arm, My salvation.”  The grace of God is always available if we will but stop and consider the arm of the Lord is always near, but we must depend on the grace of God.

The good thing is the mighty arm of God is invoked to deliver Israel in Isaiah 51:9-11.  It is made very clear here that the Messianic King or suffering and exalted Servant of God shall reign over all the kingdoms of the earth.  In verses 12-16, the people of God are reminded of the power of the Creator.  In view of the promises, we might ask ourselves why should the people of God live in fear or terror when we believe the God of all creation will hide us in the shadow of His hand.  He says to Israel in verse 16, “And they with confidence can believe and trust in what God says to be true about the future.”  In the statement, “That I may plant the heavens and lay the foundation of the earth,” we have the promise of a new heaven and earth, which is mentioned again and again with Revelation 21 and 22, the final word on what God is going to do.

In Isaiah 51:17-22, he calls upon Jerusalem to wake up and shake off her enslavement and suffering.  The scene of devastation and destruction set the tone in which the sons of Israel are compared to captured wild animals.  Instead of being exhausted and frightened, God is announcing a new message of hope.  The final picture is a cruel oriental custom practiced by the Assyrians and the Babylonians of making captives lie down and then walking over them.  “Thou shall no more drink it again” reminds us that Anti-Semitic nations such as Persia, Rome, Spain and Germany have fallen; and with God’s prophetic time clock moving ahead the period of time of Jerusalem’s exaltation is drawing near.