“Although you have been forsaken and hated,
    with no one traveling through,
I will make you the everlasting pride
    and the joy of all generations.
¹⁶ You will drink the milk of nations
    and be nursed at royal breasts.
Then you will know that I, the Lord, am your Savior,
    your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.
¹⁷ Instead of bronze I will bring you gold,
    and silver in place of iron.
Instead of wood I will bring you bronze,
    and iron in place of stones.

I know that somewhere in the past I have used this title. But it again seems appropriate. With God ‘things can change.’ May we always believe it.

Furthermore, God always gives better than the world gives (17a). His gifts are vastly superior than anything our culture can offer. The devil will lie to us and tell us this is not so, but it absolutely is. Why settle for inferior things?

However, when the Lord intervenes in our circumstances, to bring transformation, the greatest gift is the Giver; it is Himself. See verse 16b. If through His saving, rescuing work we are given a greater revelation of Him, and brought nearer to Him, this is of supreme value.

”Not long ago you were despised refuse—out-of-the-way, unvisited, ignored. But now I’ve put you on your feet, towering and grand forever, a joy to look at! When you suck the milk of nations and the breasts of royalty, You’ll know that I, God, am your Saviour, your Redeemer, Champion of Jacob. I’ll give you only the best—no more hand-me-downs!    Gold instead of bronze, silver instead of iron, bronze instead of wood, iron instead of stones.” The Message.

“Although you have been forsaken and hated,
    with no one traveling through,
I will make you the everlasting pride
    and the joy of all generations.
¹⁶ You will drink the milk of nations
    and be nursed at royal breasts.
Then you will know that I, the Lord, am your Saviour,
    your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.
¹⁷ Instead of bronze I will bring you gold,
    and silver in place of iron.
Instead of wood I will bring you bronze,
    and iron in place of stones.
I will make peace your governor
    and well-being your ruler.
¹⁸ No longer will violence be heard in your land,
    nor ruin or destruction within your borders,
but you will call your walls Salvation
    and your gates Praise.
¹⁹ The sun will no more be your light by day,
    nor will the brightness of the moon shine on you,
for the Lord will be your everlasting light,
    and your God will be your glory.
²⁰ Your sun will never set again,
    and your moon will wane no more;
the Lord will be your everlasting light,
    and your days of sorrow will end.
²¹ Then all your people will be righteous
    and they will possess the land forever.
They are the shoot I have planted,
    the work of my hands,
    for the display of my splendor.
²² The least of you will become a thousand,
    the smallest a mighty nation.
I am the Lord;
    in its time I will do this swiftly.”

I will make a general comment about this section of chapter 60, before coming back to look at certain parts of it in the coming days. It is just to say that there is much here that awaits fulfillment in the future Kingdom of God (see Rev.21:4,23,27;22:5).

‘Isaiah bombards us in the final part of this chapter with expressions such as everlasting, never…again, no longer, and no more. He is telling us that the confusing flux of history will issue at last in a state of permanent peace, righteousness and praise (17-18)…God’s rule, fully realised, will be as perfect and permanent as God himself (19).’ Barry Webb: ‘Isaiah’, p.233.

For the nation or kingdom that will not serve you will perish;
    it will be utterly ruined.

¹³ “The glory of Lebanon will come to you,
    the juniper, the fir and the cypress together,
to adorn my sanctuary;
    and I will glorify the place for my feet.
¹⁴ The children of your oppressors will come bowing before you;
    all who despise you will bow down at your feet
and will call you the City of the Lord,
    Zion of the Holy One of Israel.

In being wide open to all who will come, the Kingdom of God has nothing to fear. It will ultimately be victorious.

Barry Webb says the first thing the vision in chapter 60 affirms ‘…is that the kingdom of God will conquer all other kingdoms. Nations and kings will come to Zion, not to conquer it, but to acknowledge that the God who has chosen to reveal himself there is the only God, and to submit to him (3,14). Those who refuse to do so will perish (12)…The power of human kingdoms will fail, and the kings of the earth will amass their wealth only to lay it down one day at the feet of the king of kings (5).’ ‘Isaiah’, p.232.

Note the image of conquest in (12b): ”…kings led in triumphal procession”.

‘The apparent imperialism of the passage only expresses the sober truth that to reject God’s sway is suicide (12), and that the meek will inherit the earth.’ Derek Kidner: ‘New Bible Commentary’, p.667.

What a vision Paul paints of this ultimate triumph in Philippians 2:9-11:

”Therefore God exalted him to the highest place    and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

In spite of all appearances to the contrary, at times, God is in control, Jesus is the King of the whole universe, and we in the church are on the winning team.

“Foreigners will rebuild your walls,
    and their kings will serve you.
Though in anger I struck you,
    in favour I will show you compassion.
¹¹ Your gates will always stand open,
    they will never be shut, day or night,
so that people may bring you the wealth of the nations—
    their kings led in triumphal procession.

No ancient city would keep its gates open all the time. It would then be vulnerable to attack. But the doors of the church are open to all who genuinely want to come in, and be under God’s rule. Here there is a wide and warm welcome extended to everyone: to gentiles as well as Jews. In ultimate terms, the church has nothing to fear in its openness. As we will see next time, it is a victorious church.

The book of Revelation 21: 2, 24,25 describes the ultimate fulfillment of this prophecy in the new heavenly Jerusalem.

Just recently, my wife and I had reason to visit the city of Manchester. We managed to get into the art gallery for about half an hour before it closed. We were surprised, and delighted, to see a few paintings by Holman Hunt. His famous, ‘the Light of the world’ was there. This picture depicts Jesus standing outside the heart’s door, wanting, waiting to be let in. That is one side of the gospel coin. It comes with the challenge, ‘Will you open your door to Him? The other side of the coin (in terms of Isaiah’s picture) is, ‘Will you go through the door God has opened for you?’

Jesus said,

”I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.” (John 10:9: King James Version)

‘Lift up your eyes and look about you:
    all assemble and come to you;
your sons come from afar,
    and your daughters are carried on the hip.
⁵ Then you will look and be radiant,
    your heart will throb and swell with joy;
the wealth on the seas will be brought to you,
    to you the riches of the nations will come.
⁶ Herds of camels will cover your land,
    young camels of Midian and Ephah.
And all from Sheba will come,
    bearing gold and incense
    and proclaiming the praise of the Lord.
⁷ All Kedar’s flocks will be gathered to you,
    the rams of Nebaioth will serve you;
they will be accepted as offerings on my altar,
    and I will adorn my glorious temple.

⁸ ‘Who are these that fly along like clouds,
    like doves to their nests?
⁹ Surely the islands look to me;
    in the lead are the ships of Tarshish,^[a]
bringing your children from afar,
    with their silver and gold,
to the honour of the Lord your God,
    the Holy One of Israel,
    for he has endowed you with splendour.

This chapter is about the return of God’s people to Jerusalem and the wealth that will be brought to the city from all over the world.

But it also speaks, at least in part, of the influx of the nations (and resources) into the church. Every conversion is for the glory of God (9b) who, in turn, makes His people glorious. The last line takes us back to verses 1-3: ”for he has endowed you with splendour.”

I don’t know about you, but verse 5a comes close to describing how I feel when I see someone to turn to Christ. There is nothing quite like it.

Living in the British Isles, I want to say how thankful I am that the good news of the gospel reached these ”islands” (9a).

The prophecy about ”flocks” and ”rams” being gathered to Jerusalem to serve as ”offerings” (verse 7) was partly fulfilled during the reign of Darius king of Persia (see Ezra 6:9). Don’t forget this is a multi-layered prophecy, and although this was true of the restored city of Jerusalem in Old Testament times; after Jesus came into the world, animal sacrifices were no longer necessary (see Hebrews 10:1-5, 10-14).

Derek Kidner comments that ‘The gold and incense (6) remind the Christian reader of the harbingers of this migration in Mt.2, whose homage then, however, was perilous and whose gifts included the enigmatic myrrh (cf. Mk.15:23; Jn.19:39) – pointers to the struggle that still lay ahead.’ New Bible Commentary, pp.666/667.

‘Arise, shine, for your light has come,
    and the glory of the Lord rises upon you.
² See, darkness covers the earth
    and thick darkness is over the peoples,
but the Lord rises upon you
    and his glory appears over you.
³ Nations will come to your light,
    and kings to the brightness of your dawn.

God’s people are called to ”shine” in this very ‘dark’ world. But our light is not our own. It is a reflected glory. It is like the beautiful light of the moon, transmitting the rays of the sun.

”And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate (or reflect) the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” (2 Cor.3:22).

This light is attractive, drawing others in (3, see Mat.5:14-16).

It has been said that God is depicted in these words as rising over Jerusalem like the sun, filling it with glory, so that it becomes magnetic, drawing nations towards it.

As we come in to this magnificent chapter, I want to share Tom Hale’s helpful introductory words. They provide an excellent over-view, and will no doubt assist us in the coming days:

This prophecy ‘is to be interpreted on three levels. First, it is a prophecy of the restoration of Jerusalem after the Babylonian exile. However, that restoration was only a partial fulfillment of this prophecy; the scope of Isaiah’s words in this chapter far exceeds anything that happened in Old Testament Jerusalem.

Second, this is a prophecy of Christ’s church in this present age, to whose light the nations are even now coming (verse 3). Foreigners will rebuild [its] walls (verse 10) – that is, the church will be built by Gentile believers (see Acts 15:14-16; Ephesians 2:19-22; 1 Peter 2:5).

Third, this is a prophecy of the Messianic age that is yet to come. Much of the prophecy in this chapter, especially verses 15-22, has not yet been fulfilled. It will be fulfilled only when Christ comes again at the end of this present age to establish His Messianic kingdom.

In summary, the return of the Jewish exiles to Jerusalem was a foreshadowing of a much larger movement of believers into the church of Christ And the church today, in spiritual terms, is a foreshadowing of the Messianic reign of Christ that is yet to come. All of this is dealt with in this one chapter…’ ‘Applied Old Testament Commentary’, pp.1064, 1065.

‘The Redeemer will come to Zion,
    to those in Jacob who repent of their sins,’
declares the Lord.

²¹ ‘As for me, this is my covenant with them,’ says the Lord. ‘My Spirit, who is on you, will not depart from you, and my words that I have put in your mouth will always be on your lips, on the lips of your children and on the lips of their descendants – from this time on and for ever,’ says the Lord.

Somebody said that the gospel is bad news before it is good news. The flow of this chapter takes us from the bad and into the good.

‘Isaiah has moved from his people’s sins to their confession of sin, then to God’s judgment on evildoers, and here finally to God’s redemption of his repentant people-the remnant of Israel.’ Tom Hale: ‘Applied Old Testament Commentary’, p.1064.

”The Redeemer” has come, and His Name is Jesus. He gives grace and forgiveness to all who will repent of their sins. Through Him we experience the New Covenant (see Jer.31:31-34), with His two great everlasting Covenant gifts: His ”Spirit” and His ”Words”.

How precious it is to be the recipients.

The Lord looked and was displeased
    that there was no justice.
¹⁶ He saw that there was no one,
    he was appalled that there was no one to intervene;
so his own arm achieved salvation for him,
    and his own righteousness sustained him.
¹⁷ He put on righteousness as his breastplate,
    and the helmet of salvation on his head;
he put on the garments of vengeance
    and wrapped himself in zeal as in a cloak.
¹⁸ According to what they have done,
    so will he repay
wrath to his enemies
    and retribution to his foes;
    he will repay the islands their due.
¹⁹ From the west, people will fear the name of the Lord,
    and from the rising of the sun, they will revere his glory.
For he will come like a pent-up flood
    that the breath of the Lord drives along.

Some people give the impression that God is never ”displeased” about anything. He is seen as a kindly, over-indulgent grandfather figure who never shows anger. But such an idea is a flagrant contradiction of many clear statements of Scripture. This passage says otherwise and shows God, like a warrior taking action. We might not like the doctrine of divine judgment, but our distaste for it doesn’t make it unreal.

The word ”displeased” is even sharper than it appears. It should be rendered ”appalled”, as at 63:5.

Derek Kidner makes the point that with this unshared indignation of God (see verse 16 – ” no one…no one to intervene…”) we should compare Jesus’ solitary grief and anger over the temple, as described in Luke 19:41,45. But he also says that this judgment ‘clears the way for a kingdom of converts.’ New Bible Commentary’, p.666.

  uttering lies our hearts have conceived.
¹⁴ So justice is driven back,
    and righteousness stands at a distance;
truth has stumbled in the streets,
    honesty cannot enter.
¹⁵ Truth is nowhere to be found,
    and whoever shuns evil becomes a prey

“A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.” Mark Twain

In this ‘post-truth’ environment we often hear people speak about my truth. ‘So long as it’s true for me, you have to respect it.’ That seems to be the prevailing orthodoxy, and woe betide anyone who dares to challenge it.

But objective truth is still objective truth, and a lie is a lie even when smartly dressed in the garb of truth. The Bible remains the litmus test for all truth claims.

It is tragic when we in the church speak ”lies our hearts have conceived”, making out that the Bible says what it doesn’t; damning souls to Hell in the wake of our infidelity.

May God have mercy on us!