Isaiah 49:22-26

Many years ago I had the privilege of being involved in a service of blessing for a godly couple on their wedding day. The bride’s sister had been invited to sing a solo, which she duly did. But before the song she said a few words. As I recall, she expressed an opinion that there had been a certain amount of disappointment surrounding the occasion. Things had not gone quite as planned. Then she sang the lovely hymn: ‘’He is not a disappointment, Jesus is far more to me, than in all my wildest daydreams I had fancied Him to be.’’

‘He is not a disappointment ‘(23b). ‘’No one who hopes in me ever regrets it.’’ The Message.

Quite explicitly, verses 22 and 23 refer to the coming of Gentiles into the Messiah’s Kingdom. There will be Gentile kings and queens among their number, and, according to this remarkable prophecy, they will ‘’bow down’’ before the people of God, as well as before the Messiah Himself (7). In particular, Isaiah is referring to the part Gentiles (and Gentile rulers) will play in bringing the Jewish exiles home. But it is probably correct to see more in it than that. It also contains the thought of Gentiles coming to the King in His Kingdom. That marriage blessing service, back in the 80’s, was full of Gentiles who could share the joyful view that ‘He is not a disappointment.’

In (24) Isaiah asks the rhetorical question, ‘Will this actually be possible?’ Can captives be rescued from fierce warriors? He is thinking about how the exiles will be rescued from the Babylonians. Maybe he is giving voice to a question the people of Israel might themselves ask when they hear about this rescue. The Lord assures Isaiah that the exiles will indeed be rescued, and he will continue to contend with the enemies of His people, just as He has done in the past. In fact, they will be so overcome by hunger and thirst that they will eat each other’s flesh and drink each other’s blood (26; see and compare Lamentations 4:10). They would reap what they had sown; they would experience what they had caused the Jews to experience.

‘’Can plunder be retrieved from a giant, prisoners of war gotten back from a tyrant?…I’m the one who’s on your side, defending your cause, rescuing your children. And your enemies, crazed and desperate, will turn on themselves, killing each other in a frenzy of self-destruction. Then everyone will know that I, GOD, have saved you – I, the Mighty One of Jacob.’’ The Message.

In all that He does, God is working for His own glory in all the earth. May He be glorified in us today.

Prayer: Lord God, we think of our persecuted brothers and sisters thisday. We pray that they will know that you are for them, and that you will contend with those who contend with them.