In chapter 53 we were taught about the person of Jesus Christ, the Messiah, and how He represented, suffered and died for His people. In Ch. 54 we learned that Christ’s reward was His Bride and of the success and enlargement of the church of whom it had been said, in Ch. 52, ‘all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God’. In today’s passage we have the unfolding of Christ’s gifts to His church under the gospel call and the Lord’s encouragement to His people to partake, eat and be satisfied with His goodness. How to holler! The word ‘Ho’ is a public shout to gain attention, it carries a sense of pity, concern, even danger…

Seven hundred years before Christ’s incarnation Isaiah wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost concerning things to come and blessings to be fulfilled. He wrote to encourage and comfort the hard pressed people of His own age and did so by telling them beforehand of the Messiah’s success and how this success would be measured. Having spoken of God’s righteous servant being sacrificed for the sins of His people the prophet goes on to describe the fruit of Christ’s suffering and the harvest He achieved. Prepare to go big The Old Testament remnant was by definition small. Even the number of Christ’s followers in His own lifetime was not large. He called them His ‘little flock’ and they seem to have numbered only one…

Our studies in Isaiah now bring us to Chapter 53, surely the Mt Everest of Old Testament Christology. Isaiah has been comforting the Lord’s remnant people with views of deliverance by the Messiah. Here, the representative nature and saving purpose of Jesus’ death to redeem His people from the captivity of sin is plainly laid out. Our Old Testament brothers and sisters are shown the circumstances of Christ’s passion, the meaning of His suffering and the glory that should follow. These verses might have been written by an eyewitness. A restricted revelation The Lord Jesus told His followers ‘strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it’. Isaiah was aware of this phenomenon. The…

It is very suitable for us to apply this prophecy to gospel times, as Isaiah’s readers surely did. Zion putting on strength may be likened to the worldwide conversion of the Gentiles to salvation. Jerusalem putting on her beautiful garments symbolises the gift of justifying righteousness given to Christ’s Bride. Paul describes believers as those who have ‘put on Christ’. Here, the Old Testament church is called to rise from sleep to ‘put on’ and wear the divine redemption promised by the coming Messiah’s success. Garments washed in blood The beautiful garments of Christ’s church are robes of holiness and truth; washed robes, made white in the blood of the Lamb (Revelation 7:14). They speak of the covering of grace by which God’s elect are…

The Lord speaks of a people who feel their need of righteousness and follow Christ seeking what He alone can supply. These are God’s elect people and Isaiah calls them to listen to the word of God. It is a fitting instruction. In this world the Lord’s people suffer at the hands of enemies who make them drink ‘the cup of trembling’. God’s purpose is to show us salvation in Christ, bring to an end the hurt of His church and gladden the hearts of those He calls ‘my people’ and ‘my nation’. An urgent cry The chapter divides into three sections. In verses 1-8 God promises salvation and deliverance to those He loves in Christ. In verses 9-16, God’s people cry to Him to…

In the opening of our chapter the Lord lays blame for man’s separation from God squarely on the shoulders of the sinner. The reference to divorce and children sold into servitude reveal this. Had the Lord put away the Jews a bill of divorcement would have existed. Had the Lord sold His children a creditor’s statement of debt could be produced. That neither can be brought forward shows where the blame lies. The Jews abandoned God by their disobedience and sin.  Christ rejected The Lord speaks of coming and calling but no man answering. If this is a reference to the coming of the Messiah, as it appears to be, it reflects the widespread rejection of the Lord Jesus by the Jews during His earthly…