Isaiah 55:6-13

2. EXTENT

TEXT: Isaiah 55:6-13

6

Seek ye Jehovah while he may be found; call ye upon him while he is near:

7

let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return unto Jehovah, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

8

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith Jehovah.

9

For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

10

For as the rain cometh down and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, and giveth seed to the sower and bread to the eater;

11

so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth; it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.

12

For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing; and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.

13

Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir-trees; and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle-tree: and it shall be to Jehovah for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.

QUERIES

a.

Why does Isaiah exhort his audience to seek Jehovah?

b.

Why mention the word of God here?

c.

How do mountains and hills sing?

PARAPHRASE

Believe what the Lord says about His Servant and His covenant, O Zion, and seek Him in faith while the opportunity to do so is still yours. Those who are rebelliously and wickedly pursuing lives of worldliness, assuming that the Lord's covenant promises are not going to come to pass had better forsake their unbelief and turn back to Jehovah. Trust in the faithfulness of Jehovah is the only source of mercy for the sinner; and that mercy will be abundant. You may not understand all I am saying about My Servant and His covenant of grace, but that is because my thoughts are not completely reducible to human experiences and concepts, says the Lord. My sovereign program and plan of redemption through My Servant and His Covenant is beyond human wisdom. But just as rain and snow falling from heaven have life in themselves and are the source of life for physical vegetation on the earth, so My Word has spiritual life in it. When I promise forgiveness only through My Servant and His covenant it shall be so. My word will produce eternal life through an eternal covenant. Do not think that the imminent captivity of Zion by Babylon is going to stop My promises from coming to pass. Your redemption from captivity by My sovereign purpose will eventuate in an everlasting covenant of joy and peace for Zion. Indeed, even nature itself shall ultimately be redeemed through My sovereign word. When this covenant is fulfilled it will be a sign that will last forever, a reminder of what I, Jehovah, have done.

COMMENTS

Isaiah 55:6-7 REPENTANCE: The favor (grace) and the faithfulness (verified in the work of the Servant) of Jehovah's promised everlasting covenant is appropriated through repentance in accordance with the revealed word of God. Great numbers of the people in Isaiah's day were choosing to believe that Jehovah was not, indeed, could not, ever make good on bringing to pass His glorious promises to the fathers. The rich and powerful really did not want God to interfere with their worldliness. They wanted Jehovah to get out of their lives (cf. Isaiah 30-31). The prediction of the Suffering Servant (Isaiah 52:13 to Isaiah 53:12) was unacceptable then as later. So Isaiah's exhortation to Zion is, Believe what the Lord says about His Servant and His covenant and turn to Him while you still have the opportunity to do so! Many of them would die in the captivity that was coming. If they did not turn in faith and repentance to the promises of Jehovah of atonement through the Servant, they would die in their sins. Isaiah believed and saw the glory of the Christ (John 12:38). If he could, why couldn-'t other Jews of his day? Because they chose to pursue a worldly scheme of salvation. They chose to believe in idolatry or alliances with foreign military powers. Isaiah calls upon his people to change their minds and forsake their wicked ways, and to put their confidence in God's promises that He will work out their salvation through His Servant. Before they can claim His promise of pardon, they must make up their minds they want it. They must choose. If they choose to trust God's way of salvation, they may find it in His salvation.

Isaiah 55:8-11 REVELATION: The sovereign plan of God for the redemption of the world is beyond the experience of man. That God Himself could become incarnate and live a perfect life (without sin in a fleshly body) and then willingly allow Himself to be made sin on sinful man's behalf so that man might be given an imputed righteousness which man does not deserve, is incomprehensible to man because man has no experiential base from which to comprehend such an event. The cross is a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to the Greeks (cf. 1 Corinthians 1:18 to 1 Corinthians 2:15; see also Special Study, The Wisdom of God, pgs. 309-322). God's plan to redeem man through The Servant and His New Covenant is a challenge to the pride of man who believes he can secure his own salvation by his own wisdom. Therefore, man refuses to accept God's plan because God's plan is beyond man's wisdom, But that is just the pointGod's plan is a revelation. Habakkuk had this problem. He could not understand why God would punish the Jews by the Chaldeans. But God told Habakkuk, in effect, I do not ask, Habakkuk, that you understand it, but that you believe it and accept it! The apostle Paul quoted from Habakkuk in Romans 1:16-17. The gospel of God cannot be understood by man, it must be simply believed and accepted.

There is, however, a tangible point of contact between the incomprehensible, unsearchable mind of God and the mind of finite man. That is the revealed word of God. If man will believe the word of God and conform his actions to the covenant terms of God's revealed word, he shall have redemption. The word of God is authenticated and validated by supernatural proofs seen by eyewitnesses and transmitted in human language under the direction of the Holy Spirit of God. So faith in the revelation of God is not a subjective leap without an objective basis. And God promises that His word is dynamicit is living (Hebrews 4:12-13). His revealed word is the source of our spiritual life, (cf. John 6:63; 1 Peter 1:22-25; James 1:18; James 1:21, etc.). God's word produces life like the rain and snow produces vegetation. That is one of the evidences upon which we may base our faith in God even though we may not understand His ways. We see His word produce goodness and life. Man believes many things he does not fully understand (electricity, gravity, personality, atomic structure and behavior). Man believes and acts upon those principles because of objective evidence he has seen to establish their reality. So, man can believe and act upon the revealed precepts and principles of God in the Bible, even though he may not understand them.

The point of these words of Isaiah is to encourage the Jews of his day that covenant relationship to God in the work of the Servant may not be completely comprehensible, but this relationship has as its bond the historical deeds of God for evidence and has as its bounds, the propositional (verbal) revelation of God in human language. Covenant relationship to God is through the Servant according to the precepts of God's written word. Anything less than that is too little; anything more is too much. God has spoken through Isaiah and the other prophets that He is going to fulfill His covenant in the Servant. God's word will accomplish that for which it is sent! Isaiah 55:12-13 REJOICING: The graphic picture of the whole creation rejoicing at Zion's redemption in these verses may be hyperbolic description of release from the Babylonian captivity. Contextually, however, it is a figurative description of the rejoicing the whole creation is going to enter into when the whole creation is redeemed through the work of the Servant (cf. Romans 8:18-25). When that redemption which the Servant accomplished is finally consummated at the creation of a new heavens, and new earth there will be cosmic jubilation. Paradise will be restored and the curse which brought thorns and thistles upon the original earth (Genesis 3:17-19) will be removed. It is through the work of the Servant that man's dominion over creation has been potentially regained now (cf. Hebrews 2:5-9). Isaiah, by the Spirit of God. saw all this. No wonder he burst forth into such beautiful hyperbole! All of this shall cause the name of Jehovah to be exalted forever and ever.

QUIZ

1.

How is the favor of God appropriated?

2.

Were people of Isaiah's day capable of believing and turning to the promise of atonement through the Servant?

3.

Why are God's ways beyond man's comprehension?

4.

May we believe something we do not understand?

5.

Is belief a leap in the dark? Why not?

6.

What is the ultimate goal of the rejoicing mentioned in Isaiah 55:12-13?