Prophecy of Isaiah – Isa 52:9-15 That Which They Had Not Heard Shall They Consider
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Isa 52:9-15 That Which They Had Not Heard Shall They Consider
[Study Aired January 19, 2020]
Isa 52:9 Break forth into joy, sing together, ye waste places of Jerusalem: for the LORD hath comforted his people, he hath redeemed Jerusalem.
Isa 52:10 The LORD hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.
Isa 52:11 Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence, touch no unclean thing; go ye out of the midst of her; be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the LORD.
Isa 52:12 For ye shall not go out with haste, nor go by flight: for the LORD will go before you; and the God of Israel will be your rereward.
Isa 52:13 Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high.
Isa 52:14 As many were astonied at thee; his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men:
Isa 52:15 So shall he sprinkle many nations; the kings shall shut their mouths at him: for that which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they consider.
As we read the words of this study remember and apply to yourself the fact that “…as He is so are we in this world”:
The last two verses of our previous study introduce us to the thoughts of the first verse of our study today. Here are verses 7 and 8 from our last study:
Isa 52:7 How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!
Isa 52:8 Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they sing: for they shall see eye to eye, when the LORD shall bring again Zion.
Here is the first verse of our study today:
Isa 52:9 Break forth into joy, sing together, ye waste places of Jerusalem: for the LORD hath comforted his people, he hath redeemed Jerusalem.
“The Lord comforted His people, He has redeemed Jerusalem” means, as we saw last week, that “Jerusalem” is a name He has given to His elect, His ‘first fruit’ people:
Rev 3:12 Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name.
The ‘bringer of good tidings’ and ‘thy watchmen’ are the same as ‘the waste places of Jerusalem’. It is those to whom the ‘glad tidings’ are being proclaimed. It is you and I, if we are the Lord’s elect, who, until the appointed time, have wasted our lives in service to the kingdom of our old man. God has written every day of every man’s life in His ‘book’ before any of us were ever born, and those ‘books’, one and all, first begin with many days of very dark nights, of total ignorance of the Lord and His ways.
Christ made it clear that His elect are not at first the spiritually healthy or the self-righteous or the wise or the exalted of this world. Rather, we are the spiritually sick, we realize we are not of ourselves righteous, and we are brought, through fiery trials, to see ourselves as ‘the chief of sinners, the base and the despised of this world’.
Yet Paul tells us we are espoused as a virgin to Christ as our husband:
2Co 11:2 For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.
Then we read this about the name of the Lord’s ‘bride’:
Rev 21:2 And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
This ‘virgin… bride adorned for her Husband’ is also referred to as “an hundred and forty and four thousand… virgins… being firstfruits unto God and the Lamb”:
Rev 14:1 And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father’s name written in their foreheads.
Rev 14:2 And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder: and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps:
Rev 14:3 And they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders: and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth.
Rev 14:4 These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb.
‘Following the Lamb whithersoever He goes’ tells us that this group of 144,000 signify those who did in their lives what Christ did in His life, and who are still doing the things He told us to do. That is who Paul spoke of as being “espoused to one husband… as a chaste virgin” (2Co 11:2). We are also told that as the Lord’s “bride” we will be used of Him to “bring forth much fruit”, now, in the changes He makes within our own lives, and in terms of showing to the rest of mankind the mercy the Lord has shown toward us:
Joh 15:5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.
Joh 15:8 Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.
Rom 11:30 For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief:
Rom 11:31 Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.
Rom 11:32 For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.
Christ Himself delivered this very same message to us in these words:
Joh 20:21 Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.
Christ’s Father “sent… His… Son into the world… that the world… [in and…] through Him might be saved” (Joh 3:17). The Father speaks, creates, and does all that He seeks to do, in and through Christ:
Col 1:15 Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:
Col 1:16 For by [G1722: ‘en’, in] him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him [G1223: ‘dia’ through], and for him:
Col 1:17 And he is before all things, and by [G1722: ‘en’, in] him all things consist.
Col 1:18 And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.
Col 1:19 For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell;
Col 1:20 And, having made peace through[G1223,: ‘dia’ through] the blood of his cross, by [G1223: ‘dia’ through], him to reconcile all things unto himself; by [G1223: ‘dia’ through] him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.
In this next verse, Christ and those whom He “sends as His Father has sent Him” are referred to as the Lord’s “arm”:
Isa 52:10 The LORD hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.
“All the ends of the earth… seeing the salvation of our God” is the very meaning of “to the praise of the glory of His grace” and “to the praise of His glory” in these verses:
Eph 1:5 Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,
Eph 1:6 To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.
Eph 1:7 In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;
Eph 1:8 Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence;
Eph 1:9 Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself:
Eph 1:10 That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:
Eph 1:11 In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:
Eph 1:12 That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.
These verses are repeating the Christ-centric nature of the Word of God in Colossians 1:15-23 quoted earlier.
What this world has not been given eyes to see nor ears to hear is the depth of the Truth of these verses:
Mat 25:40 And the King [Christ] shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
Act 9:5 And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.
Act 22:7 And I fell unto the ground, and heard a voice saying unto me, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?
Act 22:8 And I answered, Who art thou, Lord? And he said unto me, I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom thou persecutest.
And the verse with which we began this study:
1Jn 4:17 Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.
It is for this reason, we must be obedient to these words:
Isa 52:11 Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence, touch no unclean thing; go ye out of the midst of her; be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the LORD.
“Be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the Lord” is not referring to the Levites who are not descended from Aaron and who upon pain of death were never to look on or touch the holy things of the tabernacle. The “children of Kohath, the son of Levi”, who were not the direct descendants of Aaron, the high priest, could not carry the holy instruments of the tabernacle until the sons of Aaron had covered them with a blue cloth and then covered the blue cloth with badgers’ skins:
Num 4:9 And they shall take a cloth of blue, and cover the candlestick of the light, and his lamps, and his tongs, and his snuffdishes, and all the oil vessels thereof, wherewith they minister unto it:
Num 4:10 And they shall put it and all the vessels thereof within a covering of badgers' skins, and shall put it upon a bar.
Num 4:11 And upon the golden altar they shall spread a cloth of blue, and cover it with a covering of badgers' skins, and shall put to the staves thereof:
Num 4:12 And they shall take all the instruments of ministry, wherewith they minister in the sanctuary, and put them in a cloth of blue, and cover them with a covering of badgers' skins, and shall put them on a bar:
Num 4:13 And they shall take away the ashes from the [brazen] altar, and spread a purple cloth thereon:
Num 4:14 And they shall put upon it all the vessels thereof, wherewith they minister about it, even the censers, the fleshhooks, and the shovels, and the basons, all the vessels of the altar; and they shall spread upon it a covering of badgers' skins, and put to the staves of it.
Num 4:15 And when Aaron and his sons have made an end of covering the sanctuary, and all the vessels of the sanctuary, as the camp is to set forward; after that, the sons of Kohath shall come to bear it: but they shall not touch any holy thing, lest they die. These things are the burden of the sons of Kohath in the tabernacle of the congregation.
Those Levites, who were “not [to] touch any holy thing”, were the sons of Kohath, the father of Aaron, Moses and Korah. However, they were not the descendants of Aaron, who as the high priest typifies our Lord. All Levites who are not the descendants of Aaron typify the multitudes of Christians who want the name of Christ but will not eat of His table nor wear His apparel:
Isa 4:1 And in that day seven women [the complete, apostatized church] shall take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own bread [our own doctrine], and wear our own apparel [our own righteousness]: only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach.
Christendom, as a whole, is typified by the sons of Levi who were not the sons of Aaron. It is they from whom we are admonished:
Isa 52:11 Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence, touch no unclean thing; go ye out of the midst of her; be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the LORD.
Repeated by Paul, and in the Revelation of Jesus Christ in these words:
2Co 6:14 Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?
2Co 6:15 And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?
2Co 6:16 And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
2Co 6:17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,
2Co 6:18 And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.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.
Rev 18:5 For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.
Our exit out of the churches of this world is not done at the snap of the fingers. We do not leave “with haste” but only as the Lord gradually opens our eyes and ears to see and to hear His Words:
Isa 52:12 For ye shall not go out with haste, nor go by flight: for the LORD will go before you; and the God of Israel will be your rereward.
We leave Babylon only when the Lord Himself drags us out:
Joh 6:44 No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw [G1670: drag] him: and I will raise him up at the last day.
Joh 6:45 It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me. [Mat 13:10-15]
Therefore, it is Christ, and all who are in Him, of whom we are now told:
Isa 52:13 Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high.
Just how ‘high’ is Christ and His Christ exalted?
Eph 2:4 But, God, being rich in mercy, by reason of the great love wherewith he loved us,
Eph 2:5 Although we were dead by our offences, gave us life together with the Christ,—by favour, ye have been saved,—
Eph 2:6 And raised us up together, and seated us together in the heavenlies, in Christ: (REV)
Let’s get the sum of God’s Word (Psa 119:160) concerning how we are given to be seated with Christ in the heavens:
Rom 8:17 And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.
2Ti 2:12 If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us:
Col 1:24 Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake, which is the church:
“If we suffer with Him” is the message of our next verse:
Isa 52:14 As many were astonied at thee; his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men:
We will see Christ’s “marred visage” only in proportion to how sinful we see ourselves as being. It is not someone else we should see as inflicting the stripes which He suffered, and which He even now suffers through His body, which ‘body’ we are:
Joh 2:19 Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.
Joh 2:21 But he spake of the temple of his body.
Of which ‘temple’ we are told:
1Co 3:16 Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
1Co 3:17 If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.
We are also told:
Eph 5:30 For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.
Eph 1:22 And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church,
Eph 1:23 Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.
It will not hurt to repeat:
Col 1:24 Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake, which is the church:
So it is that “as [His] Father… sent [Him]… even so has [Christ] sent [us to] fill up in our bodies what is behind of His afflictions [and] that the world through Him might be saved”:
Joh 3:17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
Joh 20:21 Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.
The ‘sprinkling’ of what is called the blood of “the Lord’s goat” is not to be offered without the “living sacrifice [of] the scapegoat”:
Lev 16:7 And he shall take the two goats, and present them before the LORD at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.
Lev 16:8 And Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats; one lot for the LORD, and the other lot for the scapegoat.
Lev 16:9 And Aaron shall bring the goat upon which the LORD'S lot fell, and offer him for a sin offering.
Lev 16:10 But the goat, on which the lot fell to be the scapegoat, shall be presented alive before the LORD, to make an atonement with him, and to let him go for a scapegoat into the wilderness.
The scapegoat is “presented alive before the Lord, to make an atonement with... the Lord’s goat”. This “scapegoat” symbolizes the “living sacrifice” which we are told to count ourselves as being:
Rom 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
Rom 12:2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
Notice that in verse 5 both goats are called “a sin offering” and not just “the Lord’s goat”:
Lev 16:5 And he shall take of the congregation of the children of Israel two kids of the goats for a sin offering, and one ram for a burnt offering.
That is why Paul tells us that we must “fill up in our bodies [as “a living sacrifice” (Rom 12:1)] what is behind [that which is lacking] of the afflictions of Christ, for His body’s sake, which is the church” (Col 1:24).
Then we are told this of the scapegoat, the living sacrifice, the living sin offering:
Lev 16:20 And when he hath made an end of reconciling the holy place, and the tabernacle of the congregation, and the altar, he shall bring the live goat:
Lev 16:21 And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness:
Lev 16:22 And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited: and he shall let go the goat in the wilderness.
The “land not inhabited” is the land of our old man whose kingdom is daily being destroyed and through whose death life must spring forth:
Joh 12:24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.
It is “with Christ” that we are being crucified… daily as a “living sacrifice… for sins”, and it is in Christ that we “bring forth much fruit” in our changed lives, and as His instruments for the administration of His mercies to all the rest of mankind in the great white throne judgment:
1Co 15:31 I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.
Gal 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
Isaiah tells us who will administer “the devouring fire… the age-lasting burnings” of the great white throne judgment:
Isa 33:14 The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?
Isa 33:15 He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil;
As clearly as it is stated that we must “fill up in our bodies what is behind of the afflictions of the Christ for His body’s sake which is the church”, and as clearly as it is stated that it is “the church which is His body [which is] the fulness of Him that fills all in all”, and as clearly as it is stated that “all the iniquities of the children of Israel and all their transgressions in all their sins [are] put… upon the head of the [scape]goat, and as clearly as it is stated that we are to present our own bodies to God as this “living sacrifice” to bear “all the iniquities of the children of [the] Israel of God”, such a doctrine is rejected by any and all who have been given over to the damnable false doctrine of “the substitutionary death and atonement of Christ”. “Substitutionary death” is the exactly the opposite concept of “dying daily… presenting [our] bodies as a living sacrifice to God [and] filling up in [our] bodies that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ”.
Nevertheless, the fact is that the Father…
Eph 1:22 …hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church,
Eph 1:23 Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.
…And when we have served our purpose of being “the fulness of Him that fills all in all”, then these words will also be fulfilled in us and through us:
Isa 52:15 So shall he sprinkle many nations; the kings shall shut their mouths at him: for that which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they consider.
‘Hearing’ and ‘seeing’ and “considering… that which had not been told them” will all take place for the “many nations” first within us, and only then, through us in the greatest work ever of the grace of God, called in scripture the “great white throne… judgment” of which we are told earlier in this very same prophecy:
Isa 26:8 Yea, in the way of thy judgments [now “at the house of God” and later at the “great white throne… judgment”], O LORD, have we waited for thee; the desire of our soul is to thy name, and to the remembrance of thee.
Isa 26:9 With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments [now and at the great white throne] are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.
So much for the damnable false doctrine of eternal torment. God’s judgments are for the purpose of chastening us, not simply to torment us for all eternity as the wages of sins for a season.
Rom 3:4 God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged.
1Co 11:32 But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.
That is our study for today, and these are our verses for our next study which continues to reveal to us “that which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they consider”:
Isa 53:1 Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?
Isa 53:2 For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
Isa 53:3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Isa 53:4 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
Isa 53:5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
Isa 53:6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.