After the glorious visions of chapters 60–62 and the vision of God’s day of vengeance in 63:1–6, Isaiah offers a prayer of lament on behalf of Israel and their future exile. Isaiah calls attention to their crisis of separation from their covenant God and Father, and he prays for mercy....
After learning about the day of God’s vengeance and year of his redemption, Isaiah calls Israel to remember God’s steadfast, covenant love. Drawing on imagery from the exodus and their time in the wilderness, Isaiah reminds Israel of all that their God had done for them, his goodness, his compassion,...
Isaiah 60-62 has been a glorious vision of Zion, which is the church descried as a city that is beautiful and radiant, liberated and fruitful, beloved and hopeful. The church is the heavenly city with its doors swung wide open for the nations to come in. Now, in Isaiah 63,...
So far, in Isaiah 60-62 we’ve been looking at the glory of Zion. These chapters are about the church, the place on earth where God’s saving rule is known. And it’s because of Christ that the church is a new-creation city of joy and righteousness. Now in one sense, these...
In chapter 60, we learned that Zion is ultimately the church, the city of God that shines amidst the cities of men. With the coming of Jesus, the light of God’s glory had broken through the darkness of our world. And all who come to King Jesus in faith become...
At the end of chapter 59 we read how the Lord Yahweh himself would come to save his people, securing both worldwide and eternal results. This promise was fulfilled when Jesus Christ came in the armor of God to redeem us from sin and establish a new covenant in his...
One of the greatest and most comforting themes of Israel’s history is that the Lord fights for his people. The good news is that God does for them what they cannot do for themselves. And this is what Isaiah 59 is all about. In the first half of the chapter...
Since we started the final section of Isaiah (56-66) we have seen Israel’s failure and inability to produce the righteousness which God requires. After highlighting Israel’s irresponsible and corrupt leaders; their idolatry, and their hypocrisy. we now have a summary of Israel’s sinful condition seen in their social injustice. The...
In Isaiah 57 we learned that God delights to draw near to the contrite and lowly, to those who recognize their great need, who mourn over their sinfulness. But in chapter 58 we find that there is a way to look humble and repentant on the outside yet remain unrepentant...