Isaiah 49:17 says, Thy children shall make haste; thy destroyers and they that made thee waste shall go forth of thee. This was a promise that the nation of Israel would once again be a nation of many people. They were beaten down and small in numbers, especially of those who truly believed in God, but they were going to be great again in the days to come. This is also a call to the church today. As followers of Christ, we may at times feel beaten down and defeated, but if we remain true to God, we will one day flourish again.
Verse eighteen adds, Lift up thine eyes round about, and behold: all these gather themselves together, and come to thee. As I live, saith the Lord, thou shalt surely clothe thee with them all, as with an ornament, and bind them on thee, as a bride doeth. This verse speaks not only of people from everywhere coming to Jerusalem after it was rebuilt, but more importantly refers to people from everywhere coming to the church after Jesus Christ died and rose again to redeem those who put their faith in Him, who are His church. God said these others coming to the church would be like an ornament for the people of Israel. I will state once more, the people of Israel were always supposed to call others to God and not keep them from coming to Him, and the same is true of the church today.
Verse nineteen continues, For thy waste and thy desolate places, and the land of thy destruction, shall even now be too narrow by reason of the inhabitants, and they that swallowed thee up shall be far away. Isaiah said that God had declared that the land of Israel, which had for a time been desolate and nearly unpopulated would now be overflowing with inhabitants. This should be our desire for the church today, since we are God’s people as followers of Christ. No matter how bleak things may look, we need to be calling others to salvation so that God’s kingdom can grow.
Verse twenty states, The children which thou shalt have, after thou hast lost the other, shall say again in thine ears, The place is too strait for me: give place to me that I may dwell. God said that the children that they had might have been lost, but they would be blessed with many others, who would call the land too small and ask for a place where they could dwell. We need to overflow the church with people today who will look for a place to grow even larger in numbers. Even though the commandments of God might have been strait, or strict, the people around Israel still wanted to be a part of God’s kingdom. We cannot water down God’s word to increase the numbers in the church, but we must continue to hold up God’s standards for those who would be a part of His kingdom.
Verse twenty-one adds, Then shalt thou say in thine heart, Who hath begotten me these, seeing I have lost my children, and am desolate, a captive, and removing to and fro? and who hath brought up these? Behold, I was left alone; these, where had they been? Isaiah said the people of Israel would ask where these great numbers of people had come from, since for too long they had been desolate and alone. They had been left desolate because as a nation as a whole they had turned away from God and now they had returned, and He was fulfilling His promise to them. At times, the church may almost be invisible, but God will always preserve the true church, and if we obey His command to preach the gospel to all the world, there will be times when the church seems to be overflowing. In either condition, we need to give God the glory and praise Him for His goodness and mercy.
Verse twenty-two continues, Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I will lift up mine hand to the Gentiles, and set up my standard to the people: and they shall bring thy sons in their arms, and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders. Isaiah said God was going to reach out to the Gentiles and they would bring their sons and daughters to Him. The people of Israel should have already been doing this with their children, not that either group could save their children by their own power, but so that the children would know Who God is and what He had done for them. He had made a plan of redemption, not just for the Jews, but for the whole world if they would only accept His plan of salvation.
Verse twenty-three says, And kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their queens thy nursing mothers: they shall bow down to thee with their face toward the earth, and lick up the dust of thy feet; and thou shalt know that I am the Lord: for they shall not be ashamed that wait for me. God said that even some of the rulers of the world at that time would come humbly to Him to be saved, acknowledging that He alone is God. He also said that those who waited on Him wouldn’t be ashamed to proclaim this. We today are waiting on the return of Jesus Christ to claim His people, and we should not be ashamed to wait and proclaim this while we do, no matter how powerful we might be in the eyes of the world.
Verse twenty-four adds, Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captive delivered? Isaiah asked if the prey, those captured by other nations, be taken from them by force. The people of Israel were the prey, and it was not expected that they would be set free, since they weren’t powerful enough to free themselves at that time. We are the prey or captives of sin until we accept Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord, and we are not powerful enough to set ourselves free. So, when Jesus died to set us free, it was not something that would have been expected and it certainly wasn’t done the way people would expect.
Verse twenty-five continues, But thus saith the Lord, Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered: for I will contend with him that contendeth with thee, and I will save thy children. Isaiah said that God proclaimed that He Himself would set the captives free and that He would contend with those who contended with the Jews, or God’s chosen people in other words. God is still the only one Who can defeat our enemies, sin and death, and He did so when His only begotten Son Jesus Christ died on the cross and arose again in victory.
Verse twenty-six concludes, And I will feed them that oppress thee with their own flesh; and they shall be drunken with their own blood, as with sweet wine: and all flesh shall know that I the Lord am thy Saviour and thy Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob. Isaiah said that God was going to totally destroy the enemies of His people and that when He did, they would know that He was their Savior and Redeemer, the mighty one of Jacob. We know that Jesus Christ destroyed the power of all our spiritual enemies if we are one of His followers. The mighty One of Jacob refers to Jesus Christ being the fulfillment of a promise from God to Jacob based on the covenant relationship they made with each other, and it does not mean that Jacob himself was somehow responsible for people being set free. The mighty One was one of his descendants, Jesus Christ. We are not set free from the power of sin and death by our own ability or worth, but we are set free by our accepting the gift of salvation freely provided by the mighty One of Jacob, Jesus Christ.
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