Gospel days are in view as Isaiah begins to preach his sermon concerning the Messiah and His saving work. In chapter 40 the Lord repeatedly asked, ‘Have ye not known? Have ye not heard?’ These questions served to emphasis the Messiah’s divinity and unique ministry which God’s prophets had long foretold amongst the Jews. However, Christ’s ministry would be expansive and worldwide. Now the Lord calls on the isles, that is, the Gentile nations beyond Israel to present themselves before the Lord to witness an account of Christ’s deeds and irrefutable power. The righteous man The evidence concerns the Lord’s own work in raising up ‘the righteous man from the East’ and various suggestions are given to identify this person. Some suggest Abraham who was…

Our progress through Isaiah’s prophecy has brought us to a new section. Of course, there has been much of Christ in earlier chapters as we have seen. There have been details about His incarnation and the virgin birth as well as anticipation of what Christ would accomplish at the cross for His remnant people. However, here we step through into the more evangelical and spiritual part of this prophecy. This reaches to and includes the whole Gospel age from the coming of John the Baptist to the second coming of Christ. A worrying time At the end of the previous chapter Isaiah spoke of Judah’s exile and captivity in Babylon after the death of Hezekiah. Now Isaiah himself is to comfort the Lord’s captive people.…