51:1 “Listen to me, you who pursue godliness, who seek the Lord! Look at the rock from which you were chiseled, at the quarry from which you were dug!
Isaiah gave a message of comfort for the Jewish believing remnant who will live in Babylon 150 years later. He asked the Remnant to look at the rock from which they were chiseled. This rock was Abraham, the Father of the Jewish nation. The quarry was Sarah, the wife of Abraham. The entire Jewish nation consisted of only one couple. From this one couple, a great nation would emerge. If God could make a great nation out of this one couple, then think what He can surely make out of a small remnant.
51:2 Look at Abraham, your father, and Sarah, who gave you birth. When I summoned him, he was a lone individual, but I blessed him and gave him numerous descendants.
Abraham was a lone man in a nation of satanists (Canaan). His wife was past the age of child-bearing. However, God took this couple and turned them into a great nation. All of the Jews and Arabs in the world today come from the loins of Abraham. Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all point to Abraham as their founding father.
51:3 Certainly the Lord will console Zion; he will console all her ruins. He will make her wilderness like Eden, her desert like the Garden of the Lord. Happiness and joy will be restored to her, thanksgiving and the sound of music.
After Babylon destroyed Israel and took her captive, then Israel was left in ruins. If God can turn Abraham and Sarah into a mighty nation, then He can surely turn the ruins of Israel into another Garden of Eden.
51:4 Pay attention to me, my people! Listen to me, my people! For I will issue a decree, I will make my justice a light to the nations.
Jehovah asked His people to listen to Him, not to idols. In the future, Jehovah will bring justice to all nations. Nations are not receiving justice today. They have never received justice, because Satan is “the god of this world.” An unrighteous creature cannot bring justice into the world.
When the Lord Jesus Christ returns with a rod of iron, then He will administer justice that is fair and equal. The streets will be safe. There will be no more war. There will be no more corrupt politicians and judges. Crime will be dealt with swiftly. Unbelievers will be executed. The teaching of God will not be censored in public schools. The media will not blaspheme God and glorify sin. The Bible will be studied in every classroom. God will live on earth among His people and rule bodily from Jerusalem. The world will return the earth to its Garden-of-Eden conditions. Taxes will be used for the glory of God and not for the build-up of weapons of mass destruction.
51:5 I am ready to vindicate, I am ready to deliver, I will establish justice among the nations. The coastlands wait patiently for me; they wait in anticipation for the revelation of my power.
The Hebrew for “the revelation of my power” is זְרֹעִ֖י (zeriah), meaning “my arm.” The arm of Jehovah is first introduced in this passage. In Isaiah 53, the arm of Jehovah will be identified as the Messiah. Jehovah is ready to establish His Millennial Kingdom. The arm of Jehovah, or the Messiah, will establish justice among the Gentiles. They will wait patiently for the Messiah to establish His Millennial Kingdom.
51:6 Look up at the sky! Look at the earth below! For the sky will dissipate like smoke, and the earth will wear out like clothes; its residents will die like gnats. But the deliverance I give is permanent; the vindication I provide will not disappear.
These are some of the conditions of the Great Tribulation which will precede the Millennial Kingdom and the New Heavens and the New Earth. God’s remaining program consists of (1) the church age, (2) the seven years of the Great Tribulation, (3) the 1,000 years of the Millennial Kingdom, and (4) the eternal order of the New Heavens and the New Earth. All of these different dispensations will disappear (except for the eternal order), but salvation is eternal. Believers will live and experience all of these dispensations.
51:7 Listen to me, you who know what is right, you people who are aware of my law! Don’t be afraid of the insults of men; don’t be discouraged because of their abuse!
Jehovah offered comfort to future generations of Jewish believers. He encouraged them not to be afraid of men who would come against them. The Law is the New Covenant of Jeremiah 31.
51:8 For a moth will eat away at them like clothes; a clothes moth will devour them like wool. But the vindication I provide will be permanent; the deliverance I give will last.”
Jehovah will send moths to eat away at the enemies of the Jewish Remnant. When Jehovah gives His final judgment against these evil men, then it will be eternal. Jehovah will also give eternal salvation to the Jewish Remnant.
51:9 Wake up! Wake up! Clothe yourself with strength, O arm of the Lord! Wake up as in former times, as in antiquity! Did you not smash the Proud One? Did you not wound the sea monster?
The arm of the Lord is to awake. The arm of the Lord is the Messiah. There will be more details about this arm in Isaiah 53. God used His fingertips to create all of the billions of stars in the universe, but he used his “bared arm” to bring salvation.
The Hebrew word for “the Proud One” is רַ֖הַב (Rahab), who was identified in other Old Testament passages as the Pharaoh of Egypt. Pharaoh was smashed by the ten plagues of Egypt.
51:10 Did you not dry up the sea, the waters of the great deep? Did you not make a path through the depths of the sea, so those delivered from bondage could cross over?
If Jehovah can dry up the Red Sea, then He can move the Jewish remnant back into the Promised Land.
51:11 Those whom the Lord has ransomed will return; they will enter Zion with a happy shout. Unending joy will crown them, happiness and joy will overwhelm them; grief and suffering will disappear.
The “ransomed” is the Jewish believing remnant who was held captive in Babylon. Jehovah will return them to Jerusalem. They will return with joy and happiness.
51:12 “I, I am the one who consoles you. Why are you afraid of mortal men, of mere human beings who are as short-lived as grass?
Jehovah is the One who consoles Israel. There is no need for them to be afraid of evil mortal men in the future. The lives of evil men are like grass. Jehovah can mow them down at any time. The grass will quickly wither and die.
51:13 Why do you forget the Lord, who made you, who stretched out the sky and founded the earth? Why do you constantly tremble all day long at the anger of the oppressor, when he makes plans to destroy? Where is the anger of the oppressor?
The Jewish remnant trembled at the thought of the enemy coming against them all day long, forgetting that Jehovah was in charge of all things. The modern application is that the believer is not to worry about frivolous things in this life. God is in control of all things. Nothing evil will happen to a child of God, unless God allows it. If God does allow it, then He has an eternal purpose for this sovereign act. There is no such thing as random chance. The government will not take away one’s children unless God allows it. Death will not come knocking at one’s door unless God allows it. Satan wants to cause harm to those who are God’s elect, but he is on a leash. God placed a fence of protection around Job. Satan could not touch him, unless God allowed it. It is God’s sovereignty, not random chance, which dictates the outcome of all history.
51:14 The one who suffers will soon be released; he will not die in prison, he will not go hungry.
Jehovah told the Jewish Remnant not to worry about those who would be imprisoned for their faith. He would personally see to it that they would be released, they would not die in prison, and they would not go hungry. The future Jewish Remnant would have to experience these things, so Jehovah offered them encouragement in advance.
Be careful of prosperity preaches who use this Old Testament reference for the modern church. Jehovah was not speaking to the modern church (although there is always application). He was speaking to the Jewish Remnant who would later read this passage and suffer these things.
51:15 I am the Lord your God, who churns up the sea so that its waves surge. The Lord who commands armies is his name!
The future Jewish Remnant needs to recognize who is protecting them. Jehovah is the covenant-keeping-promise-keeping God. He is Elohim, the Triune Creator God who created all things. He can sink ships and destroy cities with hurricanes, monsoons, and tidal waves. He commands the angelic army.
51:16 I commission you as my spokesman; I cover you with the palm of my hand, to establish the sky and to found the earth, to say to Zion, ‘You are my people.’ ”
Jehovah gave this commission to the Jewish remnant, not to modern Jehovah Witnesses. Jehovah would protect this Jewish Remnant by covering them with His own hand.
51:17 Wake up! Wake up! Get up, O Jerusalem! You drank from the cup the Lord passed to you, which was full of his anger! You drained dry the goblet full of intoxicating wine.
Jehovah commanded Jerusalem to wake up. They were in a spiritual stupor. They were intoxicated by the wine of demonic idols. Therefore, they were forced to drink the goblet of God’s wrath.
51:18 There was no one to lead her among all the children she bore; there was no one to take her by the hand among all the children she raised.
Since Israel refused to follow Jehovah, then she was the blind leading the blind. Israel was a flock without a Shepherd.
51:19 These double disasters confronted you. But who feels sorry for you? Destruction and devastation, famine and sword. But who consoles you?
Since Israel was the firstborn son of God, then she received not only double blessing, but double punishment as well. When the strong arm, or the Messiah, comes to earth, then Israel would reject Him. They would face destruction and devastation. Jerusalem would be destroyed. The temple would be knocked down. Many of the Jews would die by famine and sword. The temple destruction of 70 A.D. was the result of Israel rejecting her Messiah.
51:20 Your children faint; they lie at the head of every street like an antelope in a snare. They are left in a stupor by the Lord’s anger, by the battle cry of your God.
The children of Israel were growing faint. They were about to die. Their bodies would be found on every street corner. They would all be captured like an antelope in a snare. They would drink Jehovah’s cup of wrath and they would be left in a stupor.
51:21 So listen to this, oppressed one, who is drunk, but not from wine!
Israel was drunk, but not from wine. She did not know what was going on. She was continually vomiting in the streets.
51:22 This is what your sovereign master, the Lord your God, says: “Look, I have removed from your hand the cup of intoxicating wine, the goblet full of my anger. You will no longer have to drink it.
Israel can be comforted. Jehovah will finish His double punishment upon Israel. She will not have to drink from God’s cup of wrath again.
51:23 I will put it into the hand of your tormentors who said to you, ‘Lie down, so we can walk over you.’ You made your back like the ground, and like the street for those who walked over you.”
Since Israel has received double punishment, then Jehovah would now begin to judge the Gentiles. He would offer the Gentiles His cup of wrath and the Gentiles will drink from it.