Isa 51:1-5 The Lord Shall Comfort Zion - Discussion

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Isa 51:1-5 The Lord Shall Comfort Zion

[Study Aired December 8, 2019]

Isa 51:1  Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the LORD: look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged.
Isa 51:2  Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you: for I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him.
Isa 51:3  For the LORD shall comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.
Isa 51:4  Hearken unto me, my people; and give ear unto me, O my nation: for a law shall proceed from me, and I will make my judgment to rest for a light of the people.
Isa 51:5  My righteousness is near; my salvation is gone forth, and mine arms shall judge the people; the isles shall wait upon me, and on mine arm shall they trust.

“The Lord will comfort Zion: He will comfort all of her waste places…” was no doubt at least part of the inspiration for these words from the apostle Paul to the beleaguered Corinthians:

2Co 1:3  Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort;
2Co 1:4  Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.
2Co 1:5  For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ.

It is because of all the comfort of scriptures such as these that Peter was led to exclaim:

2Pe 1:3  According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: 
2Pe 1:4  Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

It is “by these… great and precious promises” that we are “partakers of the divine nature”, the nature of Christ and His Father, a nature which actually believes and knows that everything which takes place is a work of God, and a nature which does not condemn a weak brother, but rather consoles and comforts him in the struggles the Lord has placed upon him. Of course, “the divine nature” exhorts us to, “Go and sin not more lest a worse thing come upon you,” but the patience and consolation of the divine nature within us is foreign and counter-intuitive to the nature of our old man. It is actually by “the divine nature” that all “the mysteries of the kingdom of God” are capable of being revealed to us as “the hidden wisdom” which is “a mystery” to our old man who simply is not given to see the things of the spirit which are hidden right out in the open.

1Co 2:1  And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God.
1Co 2:2  For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.
1Co 2:3  And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling.
1Co 2:4  And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power:
1Co 2:5  That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

Notice how the scriptures comfort these “carnal… babes in Christ” by preaching “Christ and Him crucified” to begin with. Paul did not tell these spiritual babes in Christ, “You must die with Christ and daily present your bodies a living sacrifice to God” right off the bat. Rather, this is how the spirit gives us our understanding as we are given to receive the meatier, more mature doctrines of scripture:

1Co 2:6  Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought:
1Co 2:7  But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory: 
1Co 2:8  Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
1Co 2:9  But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.
1Co 2:10  But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.

Every denomination has the same book called ‘the Bible’, but as our next verse demonstrates, not one of them can hear or perceive “the things written therein”.

Isa 51:1  Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the LORD: look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged. 

From what rock are those who “follow after righteousness… hewn”? From what pit are we all digged? It is the same for all men, Abraham included:

Isa 51:2  Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you: for I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him. 

What do we see when we ‘look to Abraham and Sarah’ when the Lord called them? We should see a barren, unfruitful couple of idol worshipers who had nothing to offer the Lord. Should not the Lord at least choose a couple who were not infertile if He intended to make of them a nation and a multitude of nations and to bless the world through them? That is certainly the way any natural man would go about producing a nation and a company of nations. Neither Abraham, nor any herdsman, would ever have picked a couple of cattle which had produced no offspring for over a decade, much less 98 years, to build up his herds. Nevertheless, the Lord chose an infertile couple, past the age of childbearing, to build a nation and a company of nations through which He would bless all other nations:

Gen 18:18  Seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? 

Gen 22:17  That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies;
Gen 22:18  And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.

Gen 26:4  And I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; 

This is the reason the Lord picked an infertile, aged couple who had no hope of ever having any children to establish “a nation and a company of nations”:

Rom 4:13  For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.
Rom 4:14  For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect:
Rom 4:15  Because the law worketh wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression.
Rom 4:16  Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all,
Rom 4:17  (As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were. 
Rom 4:18  Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be.
Rom 4:19  And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sara's womb:
Rom 4:20  He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God;
Rom 4:21  And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.

It is as types of us (Eph 10:6 and 11) that Abraham and Sarah lived so long waiting for the Lord to just begin to fulfill all these promises He had made to Abraham. It is as a type of us that Abraham was 99 years old and Sarah was past the age of bearing children before the Lord finally gave them the supernatural birth of their first son, Isaac. Then as a type of how the Lord works within our lives, the family of Abraham, typifying the kingdom of God within us, began growing at a snail’s pace, all the while having to watch the nations around him, typifying the kingdoms of this world which are also the rejected kingdoms of Abraham, growing exponentially faster than the “very elect” kingdom of God within us. Ishmael and Esau became nations with kings and a capital city while Jacob was yet but 70 souls going down into Egypt to become Egyptian slaves. That demonstrates how the kingdom of our old man must flourish and thrive long before the new man even begins to come out of the kingdoms of this world. Compare Jacob to Esau after only 20 years living with his avaricious uncle Laban in Haran:

Gen 33:1  And Jacob lifted up his eyes, and looked, and, behold, Esau came, and with him four hundred men. And he divided the children unto Leah, and unto Rachel, and unto the two handmaids.
Gen 33:2  And he put the handmaids and their children foremost, and Leah and her children after, and Rachel and Joseph hindermost.
Gen 33:3  And he passed over before them, and bowed himself to the ground seven times, until he came near to his brother.

“He bowed himself seven times, until he came near to his brother” means that we, too, must first be brought to acknowledge that we, of ourselves, cannot deliver ourselves from our own flesh. That will happen only at the appointed time and then only through “much tribulation [and] fiery trials”:

Act 14:22  Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.

1Co 3:13  Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.

1Pe 4:12  Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you:
1Pe 4:13  But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.

Rev 15:8  And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power; and no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled.

Rev 18:4  And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.

Hundreds of years after Israel comes out of Egypt King David would yet express how we all feel about how slowly our new man is growing, compared to the growth of the kingdom of our old man as it flourishes and increases all about us:

Psa 37:1  A Psalm of David. Fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity.
Psa 37:2  For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb. 
Psa 37:3  Trust in the LORD, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed.
Psa 37:4  Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.
Psa 37:5  Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass.

If the Lord gives us a grateful spirit, then we will rejoice in our faith we are suffering with our Lord and in His Words with all their “great and precious promises”.

One such promise, which is of great value to us in this age, is the promise of comfort as our lives seem to be being wasted by the persecutions and trials of “this present time”:

Isa 51:3  For the LORD shall comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody. 

Our ‘waste places, our wilderness and our desert’ is our lives which seem so unproductive in the light of all the death and dying and all the pain and suffering we and those around us are enduring with no hope of overcoming and no hope of deliverance.

Here is King David, who again expresses rather precisely how we all feel as our own waste places, our wilderness and our desert seem to dominate the landscape of our lives:

Psa 73:2  But as for me, my feet were almost gone; my steps had well nigh slipped.
Psa 73:3  For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
Psa 73:4  For there are no bands in their death: but their strength is firm.
Psa 73:5  They are not in trouble as other men; neither are they plagued like other men. 
Psa 73:6  Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain; violence covereth them as a garment.
Psa 73:7  Their eyes stand out with fatness: they have more than heart could wish.
Psa 73:8  They are corrupt, and speak wickedly concerning oppression: they speak loftily.
Psa 73:9  They set their mouth against the heavens, and their tongue walketh through the earth.
Psa 73:10  Therefore his people return hither: and waters of a full cup are wrung out to them.
Psa 73:11  And they say, How doth God know? and is there knowledge in the most High? 
Psa 73:12  Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world; they increase in riches.
Psa 73:13  Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency.
Psa 73:14  For all the day long have I been plagued, and chastened every morning. 
Psa 73:15  If I say, I will speak thus; behold, I should offend against the generation of thy children.
Psa 73:16  When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me;
Psa 73:17  Until I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their end. 
Psa 73:18  Surely thou didst set them in slippery places: thou castedst them down into destruction.
Psa 73:19  How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment! they are utterly consumed with terrors. 
Psa 73:20  As a dream when one awaketh; so, O Lord, when thou awakest, thou shalt despise their image. 
Psa 73:21  Thus my heart was grieved, and I was pricked in my reins.
Psa 73:22  So foolish was I, and ignorant: I was as a beast before thee.
Psa 73:23  Nevertheless I am continually with thee: thou hast holden me by my right hand. 
Psa 73:24  Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory. 
Psa 73:25  Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee. 
Psa 73:26  My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.
Psa 73:27  For, lo, they that are far from thee shall perish: thou hast destroyed all them that go a whoring from thee.
Psa 73:28  But it is good for me to draw near to God: I have put my trust in the Lord GOD, that I may declare all thy works.

Whenever we read:

Psa 73:11  And they say, How doth God know? and is there knowledge in the most High?

We must remember that it is we who must live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God, and we must learn to apply every plural pronoun, personally and within ourselves. We all forget that the Lord sees and hears our very thoughts, and that the darkness and the light are alike to Him, and nothing is hidden from His eyes:

Psa 139:11  If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me.
Psa 139:12  Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee.

The holy spirit inspired King David to say what we all feel at our own appointed time:

Psa 73:14 For all the day long have I been plagued, and chastened every morning.

If we are suffering excruciating pain while our brothers and sisters in Christ do not seem to suffer to the same extent, and even worse, the unconverted people of the world seem to be blessed in everything they do, even in their death they seem blessed, it just naturally makes us wonder why the Lord is doing things the way He is as He goes about “working all things after the counsel of His own will’ (Eph 1:11).

Then, as King David tells us, the end of all who reject our Lord will yet be brought up in “the resurrection of judgment” to face all the terrors they may have never faced in “this present time” (Rom 8:18). It will be in “the resurrection of judgment” that those who reject the Lord, and seem never to suffer in this life, will awake to be “utterly consumed with terrors”:

Psa 73:19  How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment! they are utterly consumed with terrors. 
Psa 73:20  As a dream when one awaketh; so, O Lord, when thou awakest, thou shalt despise their image.

The Lord ‘does not slumber or sleep’. It is those who oppose Him whom He will awaken to the terrors of being corrected by their own wickedness:

Psa 121:4   Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. 

Jer 2:19  Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee: know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter, that thou hast forsaken the LORD thy God, and that my fear is not in thee, saith the Lord GOD of hosts.

As we saw earlier, judgment is now on the Lord’s house, and that judgment is called “fiery trials”:

1Pe 4:12  Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you:
1Pe 4:13  But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.

1Pe 4:17  For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?

Is there not a “great white throne… judgment”? Yes, of course there is, and it is also called “the resurrection of judgment… [the] great white throne… judgment”. Only the Lord’s elect are judged in “this present time” to come up in “the resurrection of life” because their names are already written in “the Lamb’s book of life”, as opposed to those whose names are not in the Lamb’s book of life, and who are therefore “cast into the lake of fire [which] is the second death”:

Joh 5:28  Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice,
Joh 5:29  And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation. [G2920: krisis, judgment)

Rev 20:7  And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,
Rev 20:8  And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.
Rev 20:9  And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them. 
Rev 20:10  And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

What immediately follows this destruction of “the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth”?

Rev 20:11  And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.
Rev 20:12  And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.

The only names in “the book of life” are the names of those who are being judged now “in this present time” who, though they “have the firstfruits of the spirit” and are called “the firstfruits unto God and the Lamb”, still they also “groan and travail in pain together until now, waiting for the adoption, to wit… the redemption of the purchased possession”:

Rom 8:18  For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
Rom 8:19  For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. 
Rom 8:20  For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope,
Rom 8:21  Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
Rom 8:22  For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. 
Rom 8:23  And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.
Rom 8:24  For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?
Rom 8:25  But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.
Rom 8:26  Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
Rom 8:27  And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.
Rom 8:28  And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
Rom 8:29  For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Rom 8:30  Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified [“first… in this present time” (vs 18)].

Paul is inspired to repeat all this years later writing from His prison house in Rome. This is what He tells us of what is promised to “the firstfruits unto God and the Lamb” in the first chapter of Ephesians:

Eph 1:12  That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ. 
Eph 1:13  In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,
Eph 1:14  Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.

“The earnest of our inheritance” is the beginning of the fulfillment of the prophecy of our last two verses:

Isa 51:4  Hearken unto me, my people; and give ear unto me, O my nation: for a law shall proceed from me, and I will make my judgment to rest for a light of the people. 
Isa 51:5  My righteousness is near; my salvation is gone forth, and mine arms shall judge the people; the isles shall wait upon me, and on mine arm shall they trust.

“A light of the people” refers specifically to “the light of the world”:

Joh 8:12  Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.

Jesus called Himself “the light of the world”. However, Jesus identifies with His body to such an extent that He also says this about us:

Mat 5:14  Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.

Christ identifies with us so much that He makes this incredible statement:

Joh 20:21  Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. 
Joh 20:22  And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost:
Joh 20:23  Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained.

The only meaning there is that those who can remit sin and retain sin have the mind of Christ and know what is His mind on any doctrine. In other words, they simply remain faithful to Him and His doctrine in all things. That is the meaning of:

Isa 51:5  My righteousness is near; my salvation is gone forth, and mine arms shall judge the people; the isles shall wait upon me, and on mine arm shall they trust.

Righteousness is the scepter of Christ’s kingdom:

Heb 1:8  But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom.
Heb 1:9  Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.

Notice how Christ identifies His kingdom with those whom He sends even as His Father sent Him (Joh 20:21):

Luk 10:1  After these things the Lord appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, whither he himself would come.
Luk 10:2  Therefore said he unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest.
Luk 10:3  Go your ways: behold, I send you forth [Joh 20:21] as lambs among wolves.

The kingdom of God is wherever the King of that kingdom resides. If Christ resides in you, then you are the very kingdom of God which has come near unto every person to whom you and I are sent.

Luk 10:5  And into whatsoever house ye enter, first say, Peace be to this house.
Luk 10:6  And if the son of peace be there, your peace shall rest upon it: if not, it shall turn to you again. 
Luk 10:7  And in the same house remain, eating and drinking such things as they give: for the labourer is worthy of his hire. Go not from house to house.
Luk 10:8  And into whatsoever city ye enter, and they receive you, eat such things as are set before you
Luk 10:9  And heal the sick that are therein, and say unto them, The kingdom of God is come nigh unto you.
Luk 10:10  But into whatsoever city ye enter, and they receive you not, go your ways out into the streets of the same, and say,
Luk 10:11  Even the very dust of your city, which cleaveth on us, we do wipe off against you: notwithstanding be ye sure of this, that the kingdom of God is come nigh unto you.
Luk 10:12  But I say unto you, that it shall be more tolerable in that day for Sodom, than for that city.

These are the Lord’s instructions to us:

Luk 10:5  And into whatsoever house ye enter, first say, Peace be to this house. 
Luk 10:6  And if the son of peace be there, your peace shall rest upon it: if not, it shall turn to you again. 

We can tell immediately “in whatsoever house [we] enter” whether our testimony and the words of Christ within us are received or rejected. If they are received, “Your peace shall rest upon [that house, that person].” If it is rejected “it shall return to you again”, and you must back off and say, “Even the very dust of your city, which cleaveth on us, we do wipe off against you: notwithstanding be ye sure of this, that the kingdom of God is come nigh unto you.”

If Christ abides in us, then you and I are the very “ambassadors for [the kingdom] of Christ”:

2Co 5:20  Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God.

As such, wherever we are as “ambassadors for Christ… the kingdom of God has come near unto [all those about us]”, and we can put our trust in His arm, whose “arm” we are (Isa 51:9):

Isa 51:5  My righteousness is near; my salvation is gone forth, and mine arms shall judge the people; the isles shall wait upon me, and on mine arm shall they trust.

Here are our verses for next week’s study:

Isa 51:6  Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath: for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner: but my salvation shall be for ever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished.
Isa 51:7  Hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law; fear ye not the reproach of men, neither be ye afraid of their revilings.
Isa 51:8  For the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like wool: but my righteousness shall be for ever, and my salvation from generation to generation.
Isa 51:9  Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD; awake, as in the ancient days, in the generations of old. Art thou not it that hath cut Rahab, and wounded the dragon?
Isa 51:10  Art thou not it which hath dried the sea, the waters of the great deep; that hath made the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass over?
Isa 51:11  Therefore the redeemed of the LORD shall return, and come with singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their head: they shall obtain gladness and joy; and sorrow and mourning shall flee away.