Latest / Reformed Thinking / Seeing the King in His Glory: Isaiah’s Vision | Thomas R. Schreiner

Transcript

Seeing the King in His Glory: Isaiah’s Vision | Thomas R. Schreiner · Reformed Thinking

0:00
Welcome to the deep dive brought to you by Reformed Thinking.
0:03
We synthesize what matters from complex sources, providing you a
0:06
clear path to genuine insight. That's right, And today this
0:10
deep dive is really for you, the curious learner who wants a
0:15
well, a thorough but efficient look at some high level biblical
0:18
theology. That's a big topic.
0:19
We're taking on a huge study connecting Israel's songs, the
0:23
wisdom literature, and then the massive prophetic vision in the
0:26
book of Isaiah. And I think when you look at
0:28
these parts by themselves, they're compelling, but when you
0:31
see how they actually lock together the whole picture of
0:34
God's plan is it's just astonishing.
0:37
It really is. What we're doing is tracing the
0:39
dimensions of God's Kingdom so that his rule, the human
0:42
response to that rule, and then the place where that rule
0:45
happens. And those three things show up
0:46
across the Old Testament, but they're not always balanced the
0:49
same way. Not at all.
0:51
I mean think about Deuteronomy. The place, the land, and the law
0:54
are front and center. But we're going to see how those
0:57
themes get handled differently in, say, Proverbs and Psalms,
1:01
and how they all just dramatically converge in Isaiah.
1:03
And that convergence gives us the complete picture of
1:07
salvation. A picture where every single
1:09
thread leads directly to Christ. What's so helpful about this
1:12
kind of analysis is that it takes books that can seem really
1:15
separate. Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Job,
1:18
Song of Songs, all the way to Isaiah and it just unifies them.
1:22
They're not a random collection, no.
1:24
When you see them through this lens of God's kingship and his
1:28
covenant promises, they start to look like complementary parts of
1:32
one big explanation an. Explanation of what it means for
1:36
us to live under the authority of a sovereign king.
1:39
And we absolutely need that big picture.
1:42
I mean, if you jump straight into Isaiah's promises of a new
1:45
creation and a new exodus without this background.
1:47
You miss why they're so needed. Exactly.
1:50
You have to 1st understand what God's rule demands and what
1:53
happens when we fail. And that takes us right to the
1:56
wisdom literature. It defines our obligation.
1:58
OK, so let's unpack this structural framework.
2:01
We've said the Kingdom of God has three elements, his rule,
2:04
the human response, and the place of rule.
2:06
And the wisdom writings, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Job,
2:11
they focus really intensely on that second piece.
2:15
How are human beings supposed to respond to the King's authority?
2:19
There's the absolute core. I mean, books like Exodus or
2:22
Leviticus, they're so concerned with the geography and the
2:25
physical stuff of God's rule, the land, the Tabernacle, the
2:29
temple structures, the structures, the priesthood, but
2:33
the wisdom writings, they turn inward.
2:35
They ask this really practical, most existential question, what
2:39
does a good life look like? You know, when you're living it
2:42
under the day-to-day rule of a wise, sovereign king.
2:45
And the answer that ties all three of those books together is
2:48
that a good life has to be a God centered life.
2:50
It's all defined by what the texts call the fear of the Lord.
2:54
Exactly. The fear of the Lord is the
2:55
beginning of wisdom. Proverbs tells us that right
2:58
away, but we have to be careful not to hear.
3:00
That is just terror. Right, it's not cowering in a
3:02
corner. No, it's reverential awe.
3:05
It's recognizing the King's holiness, his power, his
3:08
absolute jurisdiction over everything.
3:10
If you really get who God is, your only appropriate response
3:14
is submission and, well, practical obedience.
3:17
That recognition, that awe, is what separates real wisdom from
3:21
just, you know, common sense. And one thing about Proverbs
3:24
that makes it so accessible is how it just immediately
3:28
dismantles any idea that your faith only applies on the
3:31
Sabbath or in the sanctuary. Oh, it completely rejects a
3:34
sacred secular split. If Yahweh is king, then his rule
3:38
governs how you act in the marketplace just as much as it
3:41
governs your actions in the temple court.
3:43
You can't separate them. You can't.
3:44
Some people try to read Proverbs as just a secular self help
3:47
book. Save money, work hard, don't
3:49
hang out with foolish people. But that's such a shallow
3:51
reading. It misses the whole theology
3:53
foundation. All that practical advice flows
3:56
from a fundamental relationship with a divine king.
3:58
And when you get into the details, you see just how total
4:01
his role is. It's everything from your
4:03
finances and work ethic to how you speak and conduct your
4:06
relationships. And the treatment of the poor is
4:09
a constant litmus test for whether you truly fear the Lord.
4:12
It comes up again and again. It does, because treating the
4:15
poor with justice it's not just about being nice.
4:18
It recognizes that the king has appointed himself as the
4:21
defender of the needy. So when you oppress the poor,
4:24
the text says you're insulting their maker.
4:26
Wow. Yeah, and it's the same with
4:29
your sexual conduct, your honesty and business, even the
4:31
simple restraint you show with your words.
4:34
Every bit of it falls under Yahweh's inspection.
4:36
Living under his kingship means every moment, every transaction
4:40
is accounted for. So this wisdom isn't some new
4:43
idea, it's the practical application of the covenant law
4:46
they already had. Precisely.
4:48
The advice parents give in Proverbs often sounds a lot like
4:50
the Calls and Deuteronomy to bind the Torah to your heart, to
4:53
teach it to your children. Wisdom is basically covenant
4:56
application. It takes the big rules of the
4:59
law and applies them to specific real life situations.
5:02
It confirms that the just and sovereign King is in fact
5:05
watching. So Proverbs gives us these
5:09
reliable generalizations. You follow wisdom, things
5:12
generally go well for you. You embrace folly, things
5:15
generally go poorly. But then, then Ecclesiastes and
5:18
Job come crashing in to challenge that simple formula.
5:21
They're the necessary guardrails, aren't they?
5:23
Yeah. If you only read Proverbs, you
5:25
might end up with this mistaken idea that the moral universe
5:28
works like a machine. You put in righteousness, you
5:30
get out prosperity. And Job and Ecclesiastes just
5:33
shatter that illusion. Completely.
5:35
They force us to deal with the frustrating messiness of life
5:39
under the sun, which is the key phrase in Ecclesiastes.
5:42
It means life lived in this world, separated from the full
5:45
light of God's redemptive plan. And that world, that life under
5:49
the sun, it just doesn't seem to make a lot of sense.
5:51
It doesn't. The righteous suffer terribly.
5:54
The wicked often get ahead the greatest human efforts.
5:57
Whether it's chasing pleasure or wealth or even wisdom, none of
6:01
it brings lasting satisfaction. Right, the preacher in
6:03
Ecclesiastes says it's all Hebel.
6:05
Yes, often translated vanity or meaninglessness.
6:09
But a better image might be a puff of smoke.
6:12
It's sleeting. It's absurd.
6:14
Life on this side of the new creation is just deeply flawed
6:17
and unpredictable. And Job tackles that head on
6:19
with the problem of innocent suffering.
6:21
It's a direct challenge to the idea that all suffering must be
6:25
punishment for some specific sin.
6:28
It is, and yet the amazing thing is that the conclusion of both
6:32
of these really challenging books still affirms the main
6:35
truth of the wisdom literature. It just gets there by a much
6:38
harder Rd. A much harder Rd.
6:40
Both Job and the preacher end up in the same place.
6:43
God is sovereign. He reigns over everything, and
6:45
that includes the chaos and the things that don't make sense to
6:48
us. And what's crucial is that God
6:50
makes it clear He has not and will not show us His entire
6:53
playbook. He's the infinite king, and
6:55
we're the finite subjects. That's it.
6:57
You see that so clearly in Job's conversation with God.
6:59
It's one of the most humbling sections in all of Scripture.
7:02
It is when God finally speaks to Job.
7:06
He doesn't give him a neat philosophical answer for his
7:08
suffering. He just points to the majesty of
7:11
the cosmos, the stars, the sea, these incredible creatures.
7:14
And he asked Joe, were you there?
7:16
Do you have any idea how this works?
7:18
The point isn't to make Joe feel small.
7:20
No, the point is that the Lord knows how to run the universe
7:23
and he doesn't need any advice from us.
7:26
And Job's response in the end is just total submission and
7:30
silence. So real wisdom isn't about
7:32
figuring out all the reasons for our pain.
7:35
It's about trusting the King, even when his plan is a complete
7:38
mystery. That's the required response.
7:40
We are not called to solve the puzzle of suffering or even
7:43
worse, try to rule the cosmos. For God, our job is much
7:47
simpler. Trust his wise rule, fear him,
7:50
and keep His commandments. We're meant to live our lives,
7:52
enjoy the good things He gives us, and wait for the day of
7:55
judgement when He will set everything right.
7:57
We have to avoid that pretension of trying to be God.
7:59
That's a great synthesis. From the practical living of
8:02
Proverbs to the deep wrestling and Ecclesiastes and Job, it's
8:05
all one continuous call to submit to a sovereign king.
8:09
OK, so let's bring in the songs and the Psalms.
8:12
They continue this theme, but they seem to dramatically ramp
8:14
up the anticipation for the king himself.
8:18
We shift a bit here from the sort of internal, individual
8:21
response to this collective worship and expectation, and the
8:25
Song of Songs, which people often just see as a romantic
8:27
poem. It's a celebration of married
8:30
sexual love between a king and his bride.
8:32
It's the highest expression of earthly joy and beauty.
8:35
It is, but why does it fit into this larger theme of God's
8:39
kingship and covenant? That's the question.
8:41
Well, the analysis here sees this celebration of love as
8:44
something that points back to Eden, back to the way things
8:47
were supposed to be before the fall.
8:49
It captures the almost paradise like character of marriage
8:52
untainted by sin. But, and this is key, it also
8:56
functions typologically. For listeners who might not be
8:59
familiar with that term, can you just breakdown what
9:01
typologically means in this context?
9:03
Sure, it means that this earthly reality, this beautiful human
9:07
love, acts as a pattern or a prophecy that points to a
9:10
greater heavenly reality. So the ecstatic love between the
9:14
king and his bride anticipates and foreshadows the love between
9:18
Yahweh and Israel. And ultimately Christ in his.
9:22
Church and ultimately Christ in his church, yes.
9:24
So the greatest joy we can experience in this life is
9:27
actually just a shadow, a shadow of the ultimate joy of seeing
9:30
the King in all his beauty. That's it.
9:33
The Song of Songs is looking ahead to the Church, seeing God
9:36
face to face in the New Jerusalem.
9:39
The earthly relationship is a pointer to the relationship that
9:42
will last forever, where all our deepest longings and joys are
9:45
finally and fully realized in the presence of the King.
9:47
And that flows perfectly into the Psalms, which is really the
9:50
worship book of the King. The whole framework for the
9:52
Psalter is set right at the beginning in Psalms 1 and 2.
9:55
And they instantly combine the themes of wisdom with
9:58
messianism. How so?
10:00
Well, Psalm 1 is a classic wisdom Psalm.
10:02
It describes the blessed man as the one who delights in the
10:04
Torah, who meditates on God's instruction day and night.
10:07
Which confirms that link we just talked about.
10:09
Real blessing comes from obeying the King's law.
10:12
Exactly. But then right after that, Psalm
10:15
2 just completely shifts gears. It becomes explicitly Messianic.
10:19
It moves from a general righteous life to the promise of
10:22
a very specific Davidic king. It does.
10:24
This king, installed on Zion by Yahweh himself, is promised
10:29
universal rule. He's going to rule the ends of
10:31
the earth and shadow the rebellious nations.
10:33
And this convergence is so significant, the ideal human
10:37
response, which is wisdom, gets linked directly to the ideal
10:41
promised King, the Messiah. So the life of perfect obedience
10:45
that no human king, not even Israel as a whole, could ever
10:48
maintain. Will be perfectly maintained and
10:50
ultimately fulfilled by this anointed.
10:52
One that's huge. That means the promise of
10:54
worldwide blessing to Abraham and the political promise to
10:57
David will be fulfilled by someone who also embodies
11:00
perfect wisdom and obedience. Yes, the whole Psalter is a
11:04
testimony that Yahweh's promise to David hasn't been canceled.
11:07
Even though the earthly Kingdom eventually collapsed.
11:10
The expectation is that Yahweh's rule will become this glorious
11:13
reality through Jesus the Messiah.
11:16
The Psalms are looking forward to the true and final David.
11:19
The one who will bring about a second exodus and true freedom.
11:22
Right. And notice how the Psalter ends.
11:24
The final word of the whole book is just praise.
11:27
It suggests that all the lament, all the struggle, all the
11:30
unanswered questions found in the Psalms are ultimately
11:33
resolved by the presence and the goodness of the King.
11:36
That praise comes from a place of certainty.
11:39
It does. The Psalms talk over and over
11:41
about the deep satisfaction of seeing the Lord of heavier,
11:44
deepest hunger and thirst completely satisfied in His
11:47
presence. The conviction is that God will
11:49
fulfill His promises through Jesus the Messiah, and when His
11:53
Kingdom finally arrives to the Anointed One, His people will
11:56
rejoice because they'll finally see their King and experience
11:59
perfect satisfaction in His presence forever.
12:02
And that sets the stage perfectly for Isaiah.
12:04
We're moving from the ideal of the King's rule and this great
12:08
anticipation for the Anointed One to the the stark historical
12:13
reality of Israel's catastrophic failure.
12:16
A failure so deep and so widespread that it makes an
12:19
overwhelming judgement necessary, and then out of that,
12:22
a radical new plan for salvation.
12:25
Isaiah has a challenging book, no doubt about it.
12:26
Structurally, it's often divided into two big sections.
12:29
Chapters one through 35, which are mostly dealing with the
12:32
immediate threat from the Assyrian Empire, and then
12:35
chapters 40 to 66, which look way past the Babylonian exile
12:39
and toward a future restoration. With that fascinating hinge in
12:42
the middle. Chapters 30 sort to 39.
12:44
Which is amazing. It details Jerusalem's
12:47
miraculous deliverance from Assyria and then immediately
12:50
follows it with this omits prediction of what Babylon will
12:53
do in the future. But the one theme that threads
12:55
through the entire book is judgment, and it's not random
12:58
judgment. It's specifically covenantal
13:00
punishment. It's the unavoidable outcome of
13:03
covenant failure. Israel broke the very specific
13:06
rules laid out centuries before in Leviticus and Deuteronomy.
13:11
I mean, the book opens with Israel portrayed as this
13:13
diseased body infected from head to toe.
13:16
Jerusalem itself is compared to a little makeshift booth left
13:19
standing in a field that's been completely conquered.
13:22
It's an image of total devastation.
13:24
And abandonment. And what was at the heart of
13:26
this failure? Our sources point to this toxic
13:30
mix of religious ritual combined with just profound active
13:34
injustice. That combination is just lethal.
13:36
It is Israel kept up the appearance of piety.
13:39
They were going through all the motions, endless sacrifices,
13:42
offerings, observing the feasts, but their hearts were completely
13:46
disconnected from God. That famous line from Isaiah?
13:49
They honor God with their lips, but their hearts are far from
13:51
Him. They were going through the
13:53
religious drill while actively rebelling against Yahweh.
13:55
And the comparison of Jerusalem and Judah to Sodom, that must
13:59
have been an absolute shock to the people who first heard it.
14:02
Devastating. I mean for the nation that had
14:04
the covenant, the Law, and the temple to be compared to the
14:07
archetype of divine annihilation, it was like the
14:10
undoing of their entire identity.
14:12
It just shows you how deep the rebellion went.
14:15
And the text is very specific about the injustice.
14:17
It really zeroes in on the sins of the powerful, the governing
14:22
class. The powerful, the Princess, the
14:24
elders, the economic elite they were condemned for.
14:27
And this is the quote grinding the face of the poor.
14:31
This isn't passive neglect. You know it's active oppression.
14:33
It's using legal and economic systems to crush the needy.
14:37
They were ignoring the rights of widows and orsons, the very
14:40
people the covenant was supposed to protect.
14:42
They were just exploiting vulnerability for their own
14:44
gain. And the judgment even extends to
14:46
the elite women, which adds a really uncomfortable layer of
14:49
detail. It does.
14:50
The condemnation focuses on their arrogance, their obsessive
14:53
focus on, you know, clothing, jewelry and personal status
14:56
often paid for by their husbands.
14:58
Corrupt practices, Their vanity, maybe even combined with sexual
15:01
impropriety, just showed a society whose values were
15:04
completely upside down. Instead of justice and mercy,
15:07
they valued luxury and display. And then you have that famous
15:11
metaphor of the vineyard. Yahweh planted Israel.
15:15
He cared for it, tended it perfectly, expecting the best
15:18
fruit. But instead of righteousness,
15:20
all he got were wild grapes. Which in context means
15:23
oppression and injustice. This failure showed up as
15:26
profound greed, the rich just constantly expanding their land
15:30
holdings, joining house to house, leaving no room for
15:33
anyone else. It also showed up as hedonism
15:36
and this total reversal of moral norms.
15:38
The prophet calls them heroes at drinking wine.
15:41
It sounds like a society that's just lost its moral center.
15:44
It was a conscious rejection of sobriety and responsibility, and
15:47
most critically, they began to call evil good and good evil.
15:52
When a society loses its ability to define even basic moral
15:55
categories, when they criticize what should be praised, and
15:58
praised what should be criticized, they're
16:00
fundamentally lost. That moral inversion sealed
16:03
their fate. So the symptoms were injustice
16:05
and hypocrisy. But if we dig down to the
16:08
spiritual root, the sources say the real problem was a
16:10
catastrophic failure to trust Yahweh.
16:13
This is the key. The root cause wasn't just bad
16:15
behavior, it was a crisis of faith in the king.
16:18
And you see this play out so clearly in the political world.
16:21
With King Ahas, yes. When King Ahas was threatened by
16:25
this coalition of Syria and Israel, Yahweh promised him
16:28
divine protection. He even offered him a sign, and
16:31
Ahas refused to trust the promise.
16:33
He went looking for human security instead of divine
16:35
assurance. And that same pattern just
16:37
repeated itself generations later.
16:40
It did. When the massive Assyrian threat
16:42
appeared, instead of consulting the Lord, the people formed a
16:45
politically pragmatic alliance with Egypt.
16:48
And on the surface, it made perfect sense.
16:50
Egypt was a strong military ally.
16:52
But that pragmatism was judged so devastatingly by God.
16:56
Because it showed a complete lack of faith in the Holy One of
16:58
Israel. The Prophet describes it as
17:01
relying on horses and Chariots instead of on the Divine King.
17:04
He announces a woe on them. A woe for their dependence on
17:08
military might instead of God's instruction.
17:10
And the Lord's evaluation of their choice was harsh, for they
17:13
are a rebellious people, lying children, children unwilling to
17:17
hear the instruction of the Lord.
17:19
They just prefer the advice of generals to the counsel of the
17:22
Almighty. And this pattern really
17:23
clarifies why the Babylonian exile happened.
17:26
It wasn't because Babylon had a better army.
17:29
It was divine judicial abandonment.
17:31
Exactly the reason for Judah's defeat is stated plainly later
17:35
in the book. Your iniquities have made a
17:37
separation between you and your God.
17:40
Yahweh handed them over. Because of their rebellion, they
17:43
had turned to idolatry while claiming to be righteous,
17:46
deceived by a superficial piety that ignored justice and mercy.
17:50
The description of the chaos in chapter 59 Murder, deceit, lies.
17:54
It's a picture of a nation acting completely contrary to
17:57
its purpose. They were embodying the
17:58
rebellion of the serpent, bringing disaster on themselves,
18:02
and they had no peace or security because they had
18:04
abandoned the source of truth and justice.
18:06
Their sin was so deep it had to lead to the ultimate
18:08
consequence, the day of the Lord.
18:11
The day of the Lord, it's such a massive concept.
18:14
It's both judgment and salvation.
18:17
But the shock for Israel was that it wasn't just for them.
18:20
It was judgment against anyone found in sin.
18:23
The popular expectation was that the day of the Lord would be
18:25
judgment on their enemies and salvation for them.
18:28
Isaiah just turns that completely on its head.
18:30
If Israel keeps on in his wickedness, judgment is coming
18:33
for them too. This day is primarily directed
18:36
against human pride. It's about bringing down the
18:39
arrogant. The prophet says the haughty
18:41
looks of man shall be brought low, and the lofty pride of men
18:45
shall be humbled and the Lord alone will be exalted in that
18:48
day. The people who are self
18:50
important, who failed to give Yahweh credit for their success,
18:54
they will be crushed. And Yahweh proves His
18:56
sovereignty not just by judging Israel, but by using nations
18:59
like Assyria as his instrument. His rod of anger, and this is a
19:03
fascinating theological tension. Yahweh uses Assyria to punish
19:06
Syria, Israel, and Judah, but then he turns around and judges
19:10
Assyria itself because Assyria became arrogant, believing its
19:14
own military might was responsible for its success.
19:17
This act of judging the very tool he used just shows that God
19:21
is sovereign over all of history.
19:23
The text calls this judgment Yahweh's strange work.
19:27
That's an unusual phrase. It's strange because judgment
19:30
actually runs contrary to God's nature, which is salvation and
19:33
mercy. He longs to save, but as the
19:36
thrice Holy One, as the Seraphim cry out, he cannot tolerate sin.
19:41
His purity means that when human beings embraced rebellion,
19:44
judgement is unavoidable, even if it's unwanted.
19:47
And the sovereignty extends to all nations far beyond Israel's
19:51
borders. The oracles against the nations,
19:53
Babylon, Philistia, Moab, they all demonstrate that Yahweh's
19:56
purpose cannot be stopped by any earthly power, and the judgement
19:59
of Babylon in particular is a spectacular example.
20:02
Babylon's arrogance, it's claimed to be like God, is the
20:05
very reason for its sudden and total destruction, and this
20:08
advertises God's glory. To the whole world it proves he
20:11
is the only king. And the judgement even extends
20:13
to the cosmos itself. Yes, chapters 24 to 27 look
20:17
ahead to the collapse of the old creation.
20:20
The earth reels like a drunkard, and in that same passage, the
20:24
prophet promises that the king will slay Leviathan, the fleeing
20:27
serpent or dragon. A clear reference back to
20:31
Genesis A. Very clear apocalyptic reference
20:33
back to the promise in Genesis 3 that the offspring of the woman
20:37
will crush the serpent's head. The judgment of humanity and the
20:41
redemption of creation are tied together from the very
20:43
beginning. Despite the the severity and
20:46
universal nature of that judgment, Isaiah is still a
20:49
book, just saturated with hope. And we see that first in the
20:52
short term promise about Jerusalem's immediate
20:54
protection, right? Even though Zion is called a
20:57
horror for its sins, a key promise in that first big
21:00
section is that Jerusalem would not be completely overthrown
21:02
even when it was surrounded by the most powerful army on earth.
21:05
The high point being the miraculous deliverance from
21:07
Sennacherib's Assyrian army. They were right at the gates.
21:10
Sennacherib had already conquered all the surrounding
21:12
cities. Jerusalem was isolated, and by
21:15
any human measure it was doomed. But Yahweh responded to the
21:19
faithful prayer of King Hezekiah by rebuking a serious pride.
21:23
And he declared he would defend the city.
21:25
Not because Jerusalem deserved it, but for my own sake and for
21:28
the sake of my servant David. And in a single night, the army
21:31
was decimated and Sennacherib went home in defeat.
21:34
And that temporary protection links back to the sign of
21:37
Emmanuel, given much earlier to King Ahaz.
21:39
That's right, the sign of Emmanuel, which means God with
21:41
us, promised protection for Judah from that immediate threat
21:45
from Israel and Syria. The message to Ahaz and to all
21:49
of Judah was profound. Stop fearing human opponents and
21:52
honor Yahweh as holy. Let him be your fear and your
21:55
dread. So the answer to the immediate
21:57
threat was faith, not foreign alliances.
22:00
Exactly. But we have to stress the
22:02
limitation here. The preservation of Zion in the
22:04
seven hundreds BC was temporary. A century later, Babylon
22:08
destroyed the city and the temple.
22:10
But that temporary act of protection does establish this
22:13
durable theology of Yahweh's protection.
22:15
A theology rooted in the remnant and the bigger eschatological
22:18
promises. Precisely.
22:20
And this idea of the Remnant is so crucial.
22:23
If the whole nation deserve to be destroyed, why does any part
22:26
of it survive? It's a question of grace.
22:28
Pure grace. Zion's sin was so bad it
22:30
warranted the fate of Sodom. And yet Yahweh preserves
22:34
survivors. The judgement itself works to
22:37
cleanse Jerusalem, leaving behind this small holy remnant
22:41
that is specifically recorded for life.
22:43
So survival isn't based on merit, it's a divine
22:46
preservation for a future purpose.
22:48
A very deliberate preservation. In chapter 6, the vision is
22:51
bleak. The nation is like a tree cut
22:53
down. But the prophet says a remnant
22:56
will remain because the holy seed is its stump.
22:59
This means God's covenant purpose cannot be extinguished.
23:02
The remnant survives, and crucially, it's represented by
23:05
its promised king. And the survival of that small
23:07
group forecasts a much greater future salvation.
23:11
It does, and the New Testament writers saw this so clearly.
23:14
They identified believers in Jesus, both Jew and Gentile, as
23:18
the true remnant. The small number of faithful
23:21
people preserved through judgment points directly to the
23:24
ultimate worldwide salvation that the King will bring.
23:27
Which brings us right to the new David.
23:29
Just as the Judgement fulfilled the covenant curses, the
23:32
promises of this new David fulfill the Davidic covenant.
23:35
Right. The promise made to David
23:36
centuries earlier is now applied to this new desperate situation
23:41
through the figure called the branch.
23:42
The offspring of David. The one who will restore the
23:44
throne. And chapters 9 and 11 have these
23:47
explosive prophecies about this king.
23:49
Let's start with the one who will sit on David's throne.
23:51
The context is darkness and oppression.
23:55
But the promise is so radical. This son will bring perpetual
23:59
peace, righteousness and justice, and the titles you
24:02
describe him just shatter all previous royal expectations.
24:06
He's called wonderful counselor, Mighty God, everlasting Father,
24:09
Prince of Peace. Mighty God and everlasting
24:11
Father, those are attributes for Yahweh Himself.
24:14
This king is more than just a human ruler.
24:17
It's a clear statement of his divine nature.
24:19
No Davidic king before ever came close to this standard.
24:22
This king surpasses everything that came before.
24:25
He establishes a rule that is eternal and based on divine
24:28
wisdom and justice. And that divine nature is
24:30
reinforced in the next great prophecy, identifying the ruler
24:33
as a shoot from the stump of Jesse, who is just saturated
24:36
with the Spirit of God. He is the Spirit, anointed
24:39
Messiah. The text gives us this sevenfold
24:42
work of the Spirit that rests on him.
24:44
Wisdom, understanding, counsel, might, knowledge, and the fear
24:49
of the Lord. He's perfectly equipped to rule.
24:51
And what does his rule accomplish?
24:52
New creation. New creation.
24:54
We shift from politics to the entire cosmos.
24:57
The result of his rule is a restored identic paradise.
25:00
The national orders reset. Infants can play safely near
25:03
poisonous snakes. Predators graze peacefully with
25:05
their prey. The whole earth will be full of
25:08
the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.
25:10
This king doesn't just manage a Kingdom, he starts a cosmic
25:13
recreation. He defeats the serpent and
25:16
restores Shalom. He does, and that's why he
25:19
provides ultimate security. This king is described elsewhere
25:22
as the precious, secure cornerstone laid in Zion.
25:26
His arrival is tied to the pouring out of the Spirit, and
25:29
when the Spirit comes, justice and righteousness are
25:31
established, leading to quietness and trust forever.
25:36
And the vision climaxes by connecting all of it, the New
25:39
Jerusalem, the king, and that ultimate security.
25:42
In that day, we're told, your eyes will behold the King in his
25:45
beauty. Jerusalem becomes this
25:47
immovable, eternally secure place, and the core reason for
25:51
that security is just staggering.
25:53
The city will enjoy the forgiveness of sins.
25:56
The new creation is not secured by bigger walls or a better
25:59
army. It's secured by the King's work,
26:01
which grants pardon. We established that the
26:04
deliverance from Assyria, which saved Jerusalem, didn't last.
26:07
Jerusalem fell to Babylon. And that failure raises a big
26:11
question. If the first deliverance was
26:12
temporary, what about the promise of a greater permanent
26:15
salvation? The fault of Babylon proves that
26:17
even the greatest historical act of preservation couldn't solve
26:20
the fundamental problem of sin. Right.
26:22
And so the themes of new Exodus, new creation, run through the
26:25
entire book, pointing to a future act of salvation that is
26:28
infinitely greater. It's deliverance not just from
26:31
Assyrians or Babylonians, but from all enemies, including
26:35
death and sin itself. And we saw back in Chapter 11
26:38
that the new David, the new Exodus, and the new creation are
26:41
all introduced as happening at the same.
26:43
Time. We're all intertwined.
26:44
The new David is one who will gather his people from the end
26:47
of the earth. In a second decisive exodus,
26:50
Yahweh will make a highway for the remnant to return.
26:53
This new exodus is the means by which He establishes His eternal
26:56
Kingdom. It's the ultimate reversal of
26:58
the exile. But this return from captivity,
27:02
it's not based on Israel having paid his debt or earned its way
27:05
back. The Gospel of the Return has a
27:07
very clear prerequisite. Yes, and this is the Gospel
27:09
miniature right here. The return from exile only
27:12
happens because Jerusalem has forgiven its sins.
27:15
The voice in chapter 40 announces that her iniquity is
27:17
pardoned. That forgiveness, which comes by
27:20
grace is the good news. Without pardon, there is no
27:23
restoration. And the size of this promise
27:26
after all of Israel's failure? It requires an assurance that
27:30
only the Creator himself could provide.
27:32
That's why Chapter 40 spend so much time showing Yahweh's sheer
27:35
incomparability. The nations are like nothing
27:38
before Him. He's the Creator of all who
27:40
gives strength to the weary. This assures the Exiles that
27:44
this seemingly impossible restoration is absolutely
27:48
possible because their God is infinite.
27:50
And this return is described with the language of redemption.
27:53
Which links it directly to the forgiveness of sins.
27:56
Redemption means being bought back from bondage.
27:58
In this context, the bondage is sin and exile, and the release
28:02
comes through pardon. And one of the most compelling
28:05
proofs of Yahweh's supremacy is his ability to declare the
28:08
future, something no idol could ever do.
28:10
He proves he's the only God by predicting events before they
28:13
happen. He declares the end from the
28:15
beginning. This includes the stunning
28:17
prediction of Cyrus naming the Pagan king who would conquer
28:20
Babylon and allow the temple to be rebuilt, all before Cyrus was
28:24
even born. So that new exodus then sets the
28:26
stage for the new creation, the identic paradise.
28:29
The themes are deeply connected. The return from exile kicks off
28:33
the new creation. The desert blossoms.
28:35
It becomes like Eden, the Garden of the Lord.
28:37
It's a cosmic reversal of the curse.
28:39
The woes of the old creation, sickness, death, frustration,
28:44
they pass away. We see the vision of the wolf
28:46
and the lamb grazing together. The language about the serpent's
28:50
food is a strong reference back to the crushing of the serpent
28:53
promised in Genesis. The ultimate purpose of this new
28:56
creation is to complete that ancient promise.
28:58
And the combination is the New Jerusalem.
29:01
A new Jerusalem is a new cosmos. They're inseparable.
29:04
In the New Jerusalem, sorrow is gone.
29:07
The city shines so brightly with Yahweh's glory that the sun
29:10
isn't needed anymore because the Lord will be your everlasting
29:13
light. And this secure, eternal reality
29:16
is rooted once again in the forgiveness of sins.
29:19
But let's ground this in history for a moment.
29:21
The return from Babylon did happen, but it clearly didn't
29:24
bring the wolf and the lamb together or get rid of death.
29:26
And that's the critical theological distinction.
29:29
The historical return from Babylon was only an inaugurated
29:32
return. It was like the first down
29:34
payment. It proved God's faithfulness.
29:36
But the promises were so huge, new creation, resurrection,
29:40
universal knowledge of God, they required a much greater event.
29:43
And the New Testament writers saw that fulfillment only in
29:47
Christ. Right, which establishes that
29:48
fundamental tension of the Kingdom, the already, but not
29:51
yet. We live in the time between the
29:54
inauguration of these promises and their final completion.
29:58
And if the new Exodus and new creation are going to be fully
30:01
realized, we have to focus on the figure who makes that
30:04
prerequisite, the forgiveness of sins, possible, and that is the
30:08
servant of the Lord. Yes, who really dominates the
30:11
second-half of Isaiah? And the identity of the Servant
30:14
starts out a bit ambiguous. Initially, the Servant is
30:16
identified as the nation Israel, chosen by the Lord to be His
30:20
witnesses. But the text almost immediately
30:22
creates A distinction, making it impossible for the servant to be
30:25
just the whole nation. What forces that separation?
30:29
A few things. First, Israel is described as
30:32
blind and deaf, but Yahweh says he delights in this servant who
30:36
is faithful. Second, the servant's job is to
30:39
bring Jacob back to the Lord, which means he has to be
30:42
separate from the nation he's restoring.
30:45
And 3rd, the scope of his work goes way beyond Israel.
30:48
He's a light for the nations. And the final proof that he has
30:51
to be distinct comes in the Servant songs, especially
30:54
chapters 52 and 53. Those chapters give us the
30:57
conclusive evidence the servant has to be a unique individual
31:01
figure because he atones for Israel's sin.
31:04
He bears their griefs, their sorrows, their transgressions.
31:07
The Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all.
31:09
So he's not suffering for his own failures.
31:11
It's a substitution. Which raises the question, if
31:13
the servant is also the righteous king from Chapter 11,
31:16
why does he have to suffer at all?
31:17
And this is the theological genius of Isaiah.
31:20
The servant was completely innocent, yet he suffered for
31:23
the transgression of the people, making them righteous.
31:26
He is taking the covenant curse on himself to grant the pardon
31:29
that's needed for the new Exodus to happen.
31:31
He can't be the same as the sinful nation or even the
31:34
prophet himself who needed his own atonement.
31:37
And the suffering is not a tragedy, it's the path to his
31:40
exaltation. Exactly.
31:41
His self sacrifice results in his ultimate exaltation and
31:44
prosperity. The Prophet even foresees that
31:47
he will see the light of life, a prediction that confirms he
31:50
would be raised from the dead to share his victory.
31:53
This work secured the forgiveness of sins, which is
31:56
the prerequisite for everything else.
31:57
So we have the suffering atoning Servant from chapters 52 and 53,
32:02
and the triumphant Spirit anointed New David from Chapter
32:05
11. For the prophecy to work, these
32:07
two have to be the same person. They merge into the royal
32:10
servant. Both figures are spirit
32:12
empowered. Both are supposed to establish
32:14
justice and bring in the new creation.
32:17
The service of the Davidic king is explicitly tied to the
32:20
Servant's work. Isaiah's own structure forces us
32:24
to conclude that the ultimate king must also be the one who
32:26
suffers and atones. And the pouring out of the
32:29
Spirit, which signals the fulfillment of all these
32:31
promises, confirms that connection.
32:33
Right. The Spirit is the eschatological
32:35
spirit, the spirit for the last days, bringing final salvation.
32:40
When the Spirit is poured out, the new creation dawns, and the
32:43
King's servant is the one endowed with that spirit.
32:46
The New Testament concerns it all.
32:48
Jesus is the royal son of David who brings the Kingdom, but he's
32:51
also the suffering servant who delivers his people from sin
32:55
through his death and resurrection.
32:56
And finally, the scope of this work.
32:58
It's not just for Israel. It's salvation to the ends of
33:01
the earth. And that flows from Yahweh's
33:02
absolute incomparability. Since He is the only God and all
33:06
other idols are useless. There is only one way to be
33:09
saved and that leads to the universal call.
33:12
Turn to me and be saved all the ends of the earth.
33:15
This massive inclusion of the Gentiles fulfills the original
33:18
covenant promise to Abraham that through his offspring, all
33:21
nations would be blessed. And we see that vision in the
33:25
last days. Many peoples will stream to
33:27
Jerusalem to seek Yahweh's instruction.
33:30
The Servant is a light for the nations.
33:33
What's truly astonishing is the inclusivity Isaiah forecasts.
33:37
He puts Egypt and Assyria, Israel's most brutal enemies, on
33:41
the same level as Israel, calling them a blessing in the
33:43
midst of the earth. Foreigners and those
33:45
traditionally excluded are welcomed in.
33:48
They stream to the New Jerusalem and share in the Messianic
33:50
feast. It's a stunning picture of
33:52
global grace. And the final reason for this
33:55
entire structure of judgement, atonement, and recreation seems
33:58
to be the display of Yahweh's incomparable glory.
34:00
It's the driving purpose. God's glory is the outward
34:03
splendor of His Holiness and wisdom, and by judging the
34:06
wicked, fulfilling His promises, and saving a people from every
34:09
nation through this unique plan of a royal suffering servant,
34:13
Yahweh demonstrates His deity, His faithfulness, and His
34:16
sovereign plan for all of creation to see.
34:18
OK, so let's try to pull all 5 parts together one last time.
34:22
We started with the wisdom literature, which defined the
34:25
ideal human response to the king, perfect submission and
34:28
fear. Then we saw how the whole
34:30
storyline, the covenant promises from Adam to Abram to David,
34:34
seemed completely destroyed by Israel's sin and lack of faith.
34:38
And here's where the ultimate design becomes clear.
34:40
Isaiah assures us that Yahweh didn't abandoned his promises to
34:44
David. The new David is coming, but he
34:46
secures the new exodus in the new creation in this highly
34:48
unexpected way, by suffering for the sins of the nation to grant
34:51
the forgiveness that's necessary for restoration.
34:54
He doesn't just conquer enemies, he conquers sin.
34:57
Which brings us to the final cohesive reality.
35:00
The Suffering Servant and the new David are one person, Jesus
35:03
of Nazareth, the Christ of God. His work brings the Kingdom of
35:06
God into reality, fulfilling the promise of worldwide blessing
35:10
and the ultimate triumph over the serpent, reaching salvation
35:13
to the ends of the earth. So we've seen the true wisdom is
35:16
the fear of the Lord shown in total submission to God's rule.
35:19
We establish the necessity of judgment because of Israel's
35:22
sin, which shows Yahweh's holiness.
35:24
And we've concluded that all the threads of hope come together in
35:27
this spirit, anointed Davidic king and suffering servant,
35:30
whose atonement is the only way the new exodus, new creation and
35:34
final security can arrive. And the ultimate outcome of this
35:37
magnificent plan is to display Yahweh's glory and holiness to
35:40
the entire cosmos, securing the New Jerusalem through the pardon
35:44
of sin. So if that new exodus and new
35:47
creation were inaugurated in Christ, and we are living now in
35:50
that tension between the already but not yet, how does your
35:54
present living reflect the certainty of that glorious final
35:58
New Jerusalem? Something for you to consider
36:00
long after this deep dive ends. Until next time.
36:02
Until next time.