Isaiah 49:13

Isaiah 49:13 says, Sing, O heavens; and be joyful, O earth; and break forth into singing, O mountains: for the Lord hath comforted his people, and will have mercy upon his afflicted.  Isaiah called on the people whom God had provided a way for them to return to Jerusalem out of captivity then to rejoice with the heavens, but in the broader context it is what all who have accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord should do.  All of creation rejoices when a sinner is saved, so we as saved sinners certainly should as well. 

Verse fourteen adds, But Zion said, The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me.  Isaiah said that instead of rejoicing that they were God’s chosen people that the people of Israel and Judah were moaning that He had forgotten them because of their current physical situation.  As followers of Christ, we should never allow our physical situation to cause us to begin to doubt that God has forever set us free spiritually. 

Verse fifteen continues, Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee.  God then asked if a woman could forget her very young child, and then said that she could, but that He would never forget His children, those who had put their faith in Him.  We today too often hear about a newborn being left in a bathroom or a trash can, so we know that it is possible for a woman to do this, but we need to be just as certain that it is impossible for God to abandon His children because He has promised He never will and His word is always true. 

Verse sixteen concludes, Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me.  God said that the people of Israel, or more accurately the ones who were still true to Him, were engraved on His palms and that their walls were continually before Him.  I believe this means that He would never forget them and that He would always protect them spiritually as long as they remained faith to Him.  As long as we as Christians remain faithful to God, He will always bring us spiritual victory, and our names are forever written in His Book of Life.  We have everlasting security because of God and His promises and not because of anything we may do other than accept Jesus Christ as our personal Savior and Lord. 

Isaiah 49:9

Isaiah 49:9 says. That thou mayest say to the prisoners, Go forth; to them that are in darkness, Shew yourselves. They shall feed in the ways, and their pastures shall be in all high places.  Isaiah said that when the people put their faith in the Messiah, especially after He had come, that they could tell those in spiritual prison because of their sins that they had been set free if they chose to be by putting their faith in Him.  They were also called on to come out of the darkness and into the Light.  Until someone accepts Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord, they will remain prisoners of sin and will live in spiritual darkness.  This is not talking about being imprisoned physically, which many of the followers of Christ have been, but it is speaking of being imprisoned spiritually and then being set free. 

Verse ten adds, They shall not hunger nor thirst; neither shall the heat nor sun smite them: for he that hath mercy on them shall lead them, even by the springs of water shall he guide them.  Once more, I don’t believe this refers to physical things but to spiritual things.  If we put our faith in Jesus Christ, we will never hunger nor thirst spiritually, because He is the Bread of Life and the Living Water.  Since this is true, we need to always allow Him to lead us.  Even though this also referred to the people of Israel being set free physically at that time and being allowed to return to Jerusalem, it even more so refers to the freedom from spiritual captivity by the forces of evil in the life of everyone and our ability to be able to return to a right relationship with God when we put our faith in Jesus Christ.

Verse eleven continues, And I will make all my mountains a way, and my highways shall be exalted.  God said He would make the way for the people to come to Him.  He would make the way on the mountains even, and His highways would be exalted.  God has made a way for us to come to Him, and that is by putting our faith in Jesus Christ.   When we do, we get on the gospel road and He will lead us when we are traveling on the easy path, but even more importantly, He will guide us when there are mountains in the way. 

Verse twelve concludes, Behold, these shall come from far: and, lo, these from the north and from the west; and these from the land of Sinim.  Matthew Henry says this referred to bringing those people of Israel and Judah who still put their faith in God but had fled to other countries home to Jerusalem.  As Matthew Henry also said, I believe in its broader context it applies to the Gentiles, those who were physically far away from Israel and Judah being called into the kingdom of God when they accept Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord. 

Isaiah 49:4

Isaiah 49:4 says, Then I said, I have laboured in vain, I have spent my strength for nought, and in vain: yet surely my judgment is with the Lord, and my work with my God.  Isaiah begins to speak about his ministry and to say that he had worked in vain since the people weren’t listening.  It is not our responsibility as Christians to make sure that people believe the gospel if we share it with them, but it is only our responsibility to share it.  Isaiah also said that even if he felt that he had failed, that the judgment of his work was up to the Lord.   We are not the ones who will ultimately determine our success or failure in obeying God, but He is.  We are simply to be obedient to His call, and then we are to leave the results of our work up to Him.  Of course, this passage also points to Jesus Christ when he came to redeem the people of Israel and was rejected.\, but He knew He had done what His Father had sent Him to do.

Verse five adds, And now, saith the Lord that formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob again to him, Though Israel be not gathered, yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of the Lord, and my God shall be my strength.  Isaiah said that God had formed him from the womb to bring Jacob, or the people of Israel, to Him again.  God has a purpose for each individual before they are born, but it is up to each individual whether they accept that purpose for their life or not.  If we are to be glorious in God’s eyes, we must obey His will, and when we do, He will empower us to carry out our calling. Once more, this also applies to Jesus Christ when He was here in the world.

Verse six continues, And he said, It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth.  Though Isaiah had also been speaking of himself in the last couple of verses I believe, here the focus shifts to Jesus Christ once again.  Isaiah could not bring salvation to people to the ends of the earth, and he was not the light that they needed.  He could proclaim God’s word, but that could only point the to the coming Messiah, Jesus Christ.  Jesus Christ is still the only One Who can bring salvation to anyone. 

Verse seven says, Thus saith the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel, and his Holy One, to him whom man despiseth, to him whom the nation abhorreth, to a servant of rulers, Kings shall see and arise, princes also shall worship, because of the Lord that is faithful, and the Holy One of Israel, and he shall choose thee.  Isaiah now speaks of the humiliation that the Messiah would face, especially by God’s chosen people, Israel.  Jesus Christ came to be the Redeemer of Israel, but the people of Israel despised Him as a nation, because he came as a Servant and not as an earthly ruler.  There are people today who reject Jesus Christ because He doesn’t live up to their standard of what a Christian should be.  We as followers of Christ should never reject the leadership of the Holy Spirit, the Comforter Who came to be with us when Jesus Christ ascended into heaven, because what He teaches does not align with what we want. 

Verse eight adds, Thus saith the Lord, In an acceptable time have I heard thee, and in a day of salvation have I helped thee: and I will preserve thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, to establish the earth, to cause to inherit the desolate heritages;  Matthew Henry says this refers to God’s saving Jesus Christ at the acceptable time, which was after all His humiliation and His death on the cross.  God did not let death defeat Jesus Christ, but He raised Him from the dead when the time was right.  Without His enduring death for our sins, we could not be saved, so the time was not right before then.  God also said in the day that He raised Jesus Christ from the dead that He established a new covenant with them.  We are a part of that covenant relationship if we have accepted Jesus Christ as our personal Savior and Lord.  I believe that the acceptable time that God will hear us is when we call out to Him in faith and finally realize that He alone can save us.  I also believe that it was just a small minority of the people of Israel who did this in that day, but those who did were a part of the true descendants of Abraham. 

Isaiah 49:1

Isaiah 49:1 says, Listen, O isles, unto me; and hearken, ye people, from far; The Lord hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name.  The message from God was now extended to the isles, or the Gentiles.  It didn’t matter how far away from Israel they might be, God’s message still applied to them.  That message was that God was going to send a Redeemer to them, One Who had been made known when He was still in His mother’s womb.  God had revealed to Mary and Joseph Who Jesus was even begore He was born.  We may tend to think that the gospel going to the Gentiles, that would be us, was something new that happened after the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, but the Old Testament tells us many times that God’s intention was always to save everyone who would accept His gift of salvation. 

Verse two adds, And he hath made my mouth like a sharp sword; in the shadow of his hand hath he hid me, and made me a polished shaft; in his quiver hath he hid me;  Isaiah said that this coming Messiah would be like a sharp sword, and Matthew Henry adds two-edged.  He would divide the truth from the lies and those who put their faith in Him from those who didn’t.  He is still doing that today.

Verse three continues, And said unto me, Thou art my servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified.  This coming One would declare Israel to be His servant through whom He would be glorified.  This was always God’s plan for Israel.  He was not to glorify them, but they were to glorify Him.  As followers of Christ, we do not put our faith in Him so that we might be glorified, but we put our faith in Him and should live our lives so that He might be glorified.

Isaiah 48:16

Isaiah 48:16 says, Come ye near unto me, hear ye this; I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; from the time that it was, there am I: and now the Lord God, and his Spirit, hath sent me.  In this verse, Isaiah calls on the people to listen to him, because God has called him and given him the message for them.  Isaiah had not been speaking in secret but had spoken openly from the beginning of his ministry.   We as Christians are commissioned to carry God’s word into the world and we cannot do that in secret and be effective. Preachers and teachers in particular should make sure that they are proclaiming God’s word, and the Holy Spirit will help them to do so. 

Verse seventeen adds, Thus saith the Lord, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; I am the Lord thy God which teacheth thee to profit, which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest go.  Isaiah said that God declared Himself to be their Lord and Redeemer, and that He was the Holy One of Israel.  God said He taught them things that would be profitable for them spiritually and not just materially I believe.  God will always lead us to an understanding of Who He is, and this will be profitable for us spiritually, no matter what is happening in our lives materially or physically.

Verse eighteen continues, O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments! then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea:  God said it was too bad that the people of Israel had stopped listening to His commandments and that if they had, they would have had peace like a river and righteousness as the waves of the sea.  This was God’s plan for them had they lived up to their part of the covenant, but they didn’t.  So instead of having years of peace and righteousness, they had lived in captivity and started to put their faith in idols, which made them anything but righteous.  God calls everyone to a covenant relationship with Him, and until people accept that call to salvation, they will never live at peace spiritually.  If a person does accept Jesus Christ and strays away from God’s word like the people of Israel had done in that day, they will never be at peace spiritually, and since we can only be made righteous by Jesus Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, we like Israel then will need to return to Him confessing our sins and asking His forgiveness if we want to become righteous once again. 

Verse nineteen states, Thy seed also had been as the sand, and the offspring of thy bowels like the gravel thereof; his name should not have been cut off nor destroyed from before me.  Isaiah said that at one time the people of Israel had been as numerous as the sand of the sea and that this was because of God’s promise, so God’s name should not have been cut off before Him.  The people of Israel should have never turned away from God, Who had made them a great nation.  Instead, because of their disobedience to God, they were few in numbers and in captivity.  We as followers of Christ need to obey the commandments of God and only give Him praise if we are to grow in numbers. 

Verse twenty adds, Go ye forth of Babylon, flee ye from the Chaldeans, with a voice of singing declare ye, tell this, utter it even to the end of the earth; say ye, The Lord hath redeemed his servant Jacob.  God said that He had freed them from their captivity in Babylon and that they were to flee from the Chaldeans while singing to the world that God had delivered them.  As Christians, God has forever delivered us from the penalty of sin, and we should sing this out to the world. 

Verse twenty-one continues, And they thirsted not when he led them through the deserts: he caused the waters to flow out of the rock for them: he clave the rock also, and the waters gushed out.  Isaiah reminded them that God had brought water out of a rock when they were thirsty in the desert or wilderness.  God had always met their needs even when it seemed impossible, yet they had not continued to put their faith in Him.  As followers of Christ, God supplies us with Living Water, and yet we too often let concerns about the world come between Him and us.  Once we put our faith in Jesus Christ as our personal Savior and Lord the spiritual battle is won for us, so all we need to do is to continue to be faithful to Him. 

Verse twenty-two concludes, There is no peace, saith the Lord, unto the wicked.  God had said that if the people of Israel would put their faith in Him that they would have peace, but that the wicked, anyone who would not put their faith in Him, would never have peace.  If you want to be at peace in the world today, spiritually if not materially and physically, you need to put your faith in God.  Until you do, there will never be any spiritual peace in your life.

Isaiah 48:9

Isaiah 48:9 says, For my name's sake will I defer mine anger, and for my praise will I refrain for thee, that I cut thee not off.  God said for the sake of His name and for His glory that He wouldn’t just cut them off, or completely destroy them.  God could have just as easily destroyed mankind when they rebelled against Him, but He chose to provide a way of redemption instead.  He did this for the sake of His name and for His praise and not for mankind to be praised.  Even if we are redeemed by accepting Jesus Christ as our personal Savior and Lord, we are still but a part of God’s creation, and all the honor and glory for our redemption should go to Him. 

Verse ten adds, Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.  God said that He had refined the people, not with wealth, but with affliction.  We today seem to often proclaim a gospel that says that God is going to refine us with material blessings, but I believe we are more often refined with affliction.  If we have everything we want or desire as Christians, then it is easy to begin to think that we are so valuable to God that we deserve these blessings, but we are still like grass before God.  It is in trials and tribulations that our faith is really refined. 

Verse eleven continues, For mine own sake, even for mine own sake, will I do it: for how should my name be polluted? and I will not give my glory unto another.  God said He was going to redeem the people of Israel for His name’s sake alone and that none other would ever receive His glory.  As Christians, all that we have is a gift of God and we can rest assured that He will never fail to deliver on His promises.  We just need to always give Him the glory, even if we are going through times of trouble, or maybe especially when we are.

Verse twelve adds, Hearken unto me, O Jacob and Israel, my called; I am he; I am the first, I also am the last.  God again calls on the people of Israel, the ones He entered into a covenant relationship with, to listen to His word and obey it.  We as follower of Christ are a part of the new covenant that God made with mankind when He sent His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to die for our sins, so we need to listen to His words to us.  We should start by reading and understanding what His word, the Bible, says, and the Holy Spirit will help us to do so if we submit to His leadership. 

Verse thirteen continues, Mine hand also hath laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand hath spanned the heavens: when I call unto them, they stand up together.  God said that He created and controls the universe, and we either believe that, or we don’t.  Those are the two choices.  I believe that God is the Creator and Sustainer of the universe and that Jesus Christ is the only Redeemer that there is. 

Verse fourteen states, All ye, assemble yourselves, and hear; which among them hath declared these things? The Lord hath loved him: he will do his pleasure on Babylon, and his arm shall be on the Chaldeans.  The people were called on to assemble themselves and were asked which of these idols among them had declared these things.  There was none that did or even could.  God said that He loved the people of Israel and He would defeat the Babylonians and the Chaldeans, even though the false prophets had not said anything about their deliverance. God alone can deliver us from the power and penalty of sin, so we need to put our faith in Him alone.  Not only can He do it, but He already has, when He sent His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to die in our place.  All we have to do is accept this gift of salvation. 

Verse fifteen adds, I, even I, have spoken; yea, I have called him: I have brought him, and he shall make his way prosperous.  This was speaking about Cyrus at that time, and God was already at work to bring about his success in delivering the people of Israel from captivity.  I believe that it also refers to a date in future when Jesus Christ would come to deliver all who believe in Him forever. 

Isaiah 48:1

Isaiah 48:1 says, Hear ye this, O house of Jacob, which are called by the name of Israel, and are come forth out of the waters of Judah, which swear by the name of the Lord, and make mention of the God of Israel, but not in truth, nor in righteousness.  God called on those of the house of Jacob who called themselves people of Israel, which included Judah, or the whole kingdom of Israel before it divided, to remember who they were.  He said they called on His name but didn’t do so in truth.  They were paying lip service to God, but they weren’t living in righteousness.  It is not enough for us to use God’s name to endorse what we do or even our righteousness before Him if we do not truly believe in Jesus Christ as our personal Savior and Lord, and I believe that God will always call us to a real relationship with Him. 

Verse two adds, For they call themselves of the holy city, and stay themselves upon the God of Israel; The Lord of hosts is his name.  This is a continuation of the fact that even though the people of Israel, especially those in Jerusalem, called themselves a holy people and city, they were so in name only.  We in America can call ourselves a holy nation and use the name of God to justify a lot of what we do, but if our actions are not consistent with our words, we are fooling ourselves, but we will never fool God. 

Verse three continues, I have declared the former things from the beginning; and they went forth out of my mouth, and I shewed them; I did them suddenly, and they came to pass.  God said that He had showed the people of Israel that He was God in the past by telling them things that would happen and then having them coming to pass.  God has shown the world that He is God, and this was manifested at its most personal level when Jesus Christ came to live a perfect life and die on the cross so that the sins of everyone could be forgiven.  Of course, we have to put our faith in this in order for it to be of any benefit to us. 

Verse four states, Because I knew that thou art obstinate, and thy neck is an iron sinew, and thy brow brass;  God said He called the people of Israel even though He knew that they were a stiff-necked people who would tend to turn away from Him.  God still calls each individual today, even though He knows that even if we accept Jesus Christ as our personal Savior and Lord that we can be stiff-necked, going our own way at times instead of following His. 

Verse five adds, I have even from the beginning declared it to thee; before it came to pass I shewed it thee: lest thou shouldest say, Mine idol hath done them, and my graven image, and my molten image, hath commanded them.  God said he showed them the truth of Who He was from the beginning so that they could not give the credit for what He had done to idols, yet we find that they often did.  As followers of Christ, we need to give credit to God for all the good that He has done in our lives and never try to give the credit to anyone or anything else.  If we do give the credit to any one or anything other than God, even giving ourselves credit for the good things in our lives, we are giving credit to an idol.

Verse six continues, Thou hast heard, see all this; and will not ye declare it? I have shewed thee new things from this time, even hidden things, and thou didst not know them.  God continued to call on the people of Israel to acknowledge that He alone was God and stated that He had revealed this to them plainly.  We can see the workmanship of God in the order of the universe today, and this should lead us to acknowledge Him as the only God that there is.  Instead, many times we try to give credit for His work to someone or something else, even a giant cosmic explosion. 

Verse seven says, They are created now, and not from the beginning; even before the day when thou heardest them not; lest thou shouldest say, Behold, I knew them.  God said He had revealed to them new things that were set in order even before they heard them, so how could they claim to have known these things before He revealed them to them.  We may see things happening in the world today that have been foretold by God long ago and then claim that we always knew exactly what was going to happen and when based on our own intelligence, but we never will.  We may see some things coming to pass that God has foretold, but we certainly didn’t know what was going to happen before He did.

Verse eight adds, Yea, thou heardest not; yea, thou knewest not; yea, from that time that thine ear was not opened: for I knew that thou wouldest deal very treacherously, and wast called a transgressor from the womb.  God said that not only did they not know what He was going to do because they wouldn’t listen to His word, but that they were born transgressors.  I know some people disagree, but I believe this means that they had the ability to choose to transgress from the time they were conceived since everyone is born with free will and not that they were guilty even before they had the opportunity to choose whether to obey or defy God.