J. Alec Motyer
"Hast thou not known? Hast thou not heard? the
everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of
the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary" Isaiah 40:28
WHEN Hezekiah appealed to God in his sickness, he was given a direct promise of life for another fifteen years and a gratuitous promise, an added bonus, "... and I will defend this city" (Isaiah 38:6). The Lord then added a sign to seal this double promise. "So the sun returned ten steps on the dial of Ahaz." It was a most remarkable miracle. Nobody knows what this "dial" was, for the translation means "stairs" or "steps" but the interesting thing is that the God who had said to Ahaz: "Ask thee a sign of the Lord thy God, ask it either in the depth, or in the height above" (7:11) and found that Ahaz refused to comply, now Himself offered a sign from the heaven above which would be registered on the dial of that very king Ahaz. How wonderful are God's ways! It was on the dial of Ahaz that the backward movement of the sun gave the sign which confirmed His double promise to Hezekiah.
The first promise was that the king would get better; the second that God would defend the city. Zion needed no other strength than the strength of the Lord. Hezekiah was given great and precious promises. Then he had to face a challenge concerning them. Chapter 39 tells us how letters and a present were sent to the convalescent king. It was like bringing a bunch of grapes to a sick bed, but who, on receiving such a kindness, would totter off his invalid chair and say, "Please let me show you my bank balance"? Yet in effect that was what Hezekiah did: "He was glad of them, and showed them the house of his precious things, the silver, and the gold, and the spices and the precious oil, and all the house of his armour, and all that was found in his treasures: there was nothing in his house nor in all his dominions that Hezekiah showed them not" (39:2). This disparity in his receiving of sick-visitors and immediately showing them the strength of his country can best be explained by what we presume prompted the visit in the first place. When Hezekiah opened the packet with the bunch of grapes, he probably found inside a note from Merodach-baladan asking if he would be interested in a treaty, an alliance. This delighted Hezekiah; he felt that he must justify himself as a possible strong ally, so he took them on their tour of his kingdom.
Merodach-baladan was a conspirator. He planned to establish a kingdom in Babylon in the face of Assyrian opposition. It is now known historically that he built up Babylon so successfully that it provided a balance of power in Mesopotamia. He was an extremely successful rebel and desired to entice Hezekiah into his rebellion so that they might defy the great Assyrian empire, Israel's great enemy.
This overture faced Hezekiah with a challenge; where does the security of his kingdom belong? Should he rely on the way of faith, trusting in those promises given by the Lord (38:6) or should it be based on self-effort by means of collective strength with Chaldea? The Lord had said, "I will defend thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria." but now Merodach-baladan said, "I will defend you; we can link our armaments". The question arose as to whether Hezekiah would trust the promises of God or whether he would rely on his own efforts. He chose the latter, and in doing so he committed the unpardonable sin. [81/82]
Isaiah (who had not been consulted) came into this situation and demanded to know who these visitors were and where they came from. Hezekiah, deceived into the way of pride, replied that they had come all the way from Babylon just to honour him, admitting that he had been glad to receive them. The reply of Isaiah was devastating: "Hear the word of the Lord of hosts. Behold, the days come, that all that is in thy house, and that which the fathers have laid up in store until this day, shall he carried to Babylon: nothing shall be left, saith the Lord". It was as though God said, "You are glad to be associated with Babylon, are you? Very well, you and all that is yours shall go to Babylon. You want Babylon, do you? All right, then you shall have what you want." After all God's mercies to Hezekiah this was a tragic outcome. His attitude and actions brought doom to his people.
So Chapter 39 finishes with a verdict of condemnation. But see what immediately follows in Chapter 40: "Comfort ye, Comfort ye my people, saith the Lord your God". As soon as the word of judgment has been spoken, the word of comfort follows. Here we find that we have an unwearying God. Even when His people commit the unpardonable sin of self-reliance, He does not give them up. At the heels of the message of wrath there comes the message of mercy. This is the truth which bridges Chapter 39 and Chapter 40 and what follows.
Natural logic says that this must be from another man -- Deutero-Isaiah . Commentators argue that since the captivity was a hundred years away in the future, there would be a sense of unreality in calling for a word of comfort which would only find its fulfillment in the release from captivity which took place a hundred and fifty years after Isaiah. They therefore argue that Chapters 40 to 66 cannot come from the same man who wrote the first thirty-nine chapters of the book. But Isaiah was a prophet. He was only doing his job. There is no need for us to pay attention to such commentators.
In any case at this very time Babylon was obviously a current possibility. What is more, Isaiah said nothing about a lapse of time. As we look back, we can observe the long interval between Hezekiah's days and those of the return from Babylon, but that was nothing to God or to His message of comfort which was valid enough at the time. God gave the word of comfort as soon as He had uttered the word of wrath. That is what He is like: He is full of grace. In our case the trial may be fully deserved, as it here was, but God still commands comfort. He never wearies in being merciful.
This same truth applies in the comfort which comes to us all in the promise of the Coming Again of the Lord Jesus. It could be argued that it was futile for the Lord Jesus to offer comfort to His disciples by telling them not to worry for after some two thousand years He would be returning: "Let not your heart be troubled ... if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself" (John 14:13), but we know that this is a false argument for, throughout the centuries, His saints have been greatly comforted by the expectation of His Return. He said nothing about two thousand years; He simply said that He would return -- and He will! What is significant about His words is that He spoke a warning. "I am going away" and with the same breath He spoke the words of comfort, "I will come back again". We can be far too clever in our natural reasoning. The comfort is real, and the guarantee of the promises are found in the Promiser.
Isaiah goes on to describe to us who it is who gives this comfort. He is the Unlimited God.
i. He is the Creator of all (40:12-26)
God operates on a worldwide scale. And there is no other God, so that what He says is bound to happen, for there is no-one to stop Him. From this truth we draw the conclusion (vv.27-31): "He gives power to the faint: and to him that has no might he increases strength". He is not going to forget you. You can never be so far away that He cannot help you. So just wait for Him!
ii. He is the Ruler of all (41:1-4)
Everything is under His control. He calls the stars by name (40:26) and He calls the conqueror [82/83] by name (41:2). Even the greatest conqueror comes on his way only because the Lord has called him to do so.
iii. He is always Sufficient (41:21 - 46:13)
We might have a problem concerning the concern of such a great God for the larger part of the world which He has created. Is He only concerned for Israel? No, the answer is that He meets the world's need as well as meeting Israel's need. "He shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles", and "the isles shall wait for his law" (42:1 & 4). Our God is not only the Unwearied God but is also the Unlimited God.
Israel had two areas of need, the circumstantial or political and the spiritual. In both cases God had His agent for providing for these needs, and in both cases they are called His servants.
i. Israel's political need
They were an enslaved people, needing to be released from captivity: "This is a people robbed and spoiled; they are all of them snared in holes, and they are hidden in prison houses; they are for a prey, and none delivereth: for a spoil, and none saith, Restore" (42:22). God had a promise of release for them in their circumstantial need and an agent through whom His resources would be ministered: "For your sakes I have sent to Babylon ..." (43:14).
The agent is named: "Thus saith the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus whose right hand I have holden ... to open the doors before him ..." (45:1). It is a pity that the commentators take exception to the thought that the original Isaiah could predict the personal name of Cyrus. Prediction of personal names is not commonplace in Scripture, but it is found there from time to time, so there is nothing exceptional in Isaiah's prediction. In fact he did more than that, for a careful reading of this chapter shows that Isaiah predicted the rise of Cyrus, "For Jacob my servant's sake, and Israel my chosen I have called thee by thy name: I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me" (45:4). Commentators say that the "Second Isaiah" must have lived within the time of Cyrus to write of his delivering power, but they ignore the fact that the original (and only) Isaiah predicted the rise of Cyrus as well as his actions. God's prophet could operate even before Cyrus had been heard of.
In fact the work of Cyrus was a resounding success. He released the captives from Babylon and the exiles returned in circumstances like a second exodus: "He that hath mercy on them shall lead them, even by the springs of water shall he guide them. And I will make all my mountains a way, and my high ways shall be exalted ..." (49:10-11). This was God's meeting of Israel's political need. Nevertheless it is still written: "There is no peace, saith the Lord, for the wicked" (48:22). God had called out a great conqueror, but they still needed a great Saviour.
ii. Israel's Spiritual Need
This was the most serious need of all but, as always, the Lord has an answer for this need too. "Who gave Jacob for a spoil, and Israel to the robbers? Did not the Lord against whom we have sinned ..." (42:24). We have offended the Lord but, blessed be His name, He has the answer. He has promised forgiveness and He has the Agent for the fulfilment of that promise, even the Servant who could bear sin. For the wicked there is no peace, but God brings comfort to His people by means of His suffering Servant who makes peace for them.
By God's agent, Cyrus, the people had been delivered from bondage and were now on their way back home, but their deeper need remained. A change of address is not a change of heart. Political liberation is not the same as spiritual redemption. Setting people free from bondage is not the same as giving them peace with God. So we are shown the great Servant of the Lord who alone can deal with the predicament of those who had come out of Babylon but still had no peace with God. The Jews needed One who could not only bring them back to Jerusalem but bring them back to the Lord. [83/84]
There are various passages which describe to us this suffering Servant. He suffered for the sake of obedience (50:4-9). Sin is rebellion, but He was able to say, "I was not rebellious". The costliness of such obedience is painful in the extreme: "I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting". In His case, obedience meant not turning His back to the task but setting His face like a flint for the work of sin-bearing. This is explained to us in 52:13 to 53:12.
"He was numbered with the transgressors" (53:12). At His baptism, which was a baptism for sinners who repented for their sins, He took His place among them. John the Baptist, who had a personal knowledge of Jesus although not yet fully enlightened, knew enough to argue that it would be much more fitting for Jesus to baptise him, since Jesus had nothing for which to repent. Even so Jesus went down into the waters of Jordan. No doubt at the end of the day those who enjoyed statistics -- there are always some like that -- would be able to recount how many sinners had been baptised that day. But they would have been wrong. The Servant of Jehovah was no sinner, though He might be numbered among them.
But this was not all. When the Lord Jesus took up this matter He pointed directly to His death when He told His disciples: "I say unto you that this which is written must be fulfilled in me. And he was numbered among the transgressors: for that which concerns me has fulfilment" (Luke 22:33). So that which was prefigured in His baptism was fully and perfectly realised on the cross. Any casual passer-by that day would have remarked that he saw three criminals suffering for their deeds.
But no, we read that "He was wounded because of our transgressions". There is nothing vague about His sufferings; the precise word affirms that those sufferings had a cause, even our transgressions. From that cross of sacrifice the strong Son of God uttered two loud cries. In spite of all that He had endured, with fresh vitality, the holy Servant of the Lord made the announcement "It is finished", but before that and from the deep, deep darkness, He called out to His God, "Why hast thou forsaken me?" And He said this because of our transgressions.
In the Scriptures, darkness means the dark presence of God in judgment. Darkness is not where God is not, but where He is, and He is in wrath. It is not where God is absent, but where He is present in holy anger. We read of the plague in Egypt where there was "a thick darkness which could be felt" (Exodus 10:21-22). This was not due to the absence of God but to His real presence in judgment. He had entered the land of Egypt in all the darkness of His outraged holiness. And when darkness descended around the cross it was the darkness of His holy anger with sin -- our sin. Buried deep in the Old Testament is the psalmist's comment made from his own long experience, that God would not forsake the righteous: "I have never seen the righteous forsaken" (Psalm 37:25). But Jesus was forsaken! The only explanation for this sombre truth is found in Isaiah's confession that all had gone astray like lost sheep but that "the Lord had laid upon him the iniquity of us all" (53:6). David had never seen the righteous forsaken, but at the cross the holy Servant of the Lord was forsaken. The only possible explanation for every believer is that "In my place condemned He stood."
The previous verse records that "the chastisement of our peace was upon him". Being wicked, we had no peace for "there is no peace, saith the Lord, unto the wicked", but through Christ's agony we can gratefully speak of our peace. The Servant secures peace for the people of God, so much so that later the assurance comes: "The mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed, but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall my covenant of peace be removed ..." (54:10). In the interest of making peace for a sinful people the divine Servant was "cut off out of the land of the living". Our peace comes through the blood of Christ's cross.
John lays great stress on this matter of the blood of Christ: "Howbeit one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and straightway there came out blood and water" (John 19:34). Two observations are made by the Evangelist at this point, the first is that there was an authentic witness to testify to what happened and the second is that it was all according to the Scriptures. The narrative tells us how a group [84/85] of thoughtless soldiers, knowing nothing of the Bible and simply carrying out the cruelty of their trade, were governed and overruled by the Word of God which said that not a bone of Him should be broken. In view of the approaching Sabbath they had to see that death was not delayed, so they broke the legs of the two criminals, not merely to add the trauma of pain but to remove all support from the legs so that the victims' bodies should be held only by their arms in a most unnatural position and they would suffocate. When they came to Jesus, however, they found that He was already dead, so they had no need to break His legs. So the one Scripture was fulfilled, "A bone of him shall not be broken."
But there was more than that. Out of sheer wantonness a soldier took his spear and made such a great hole in the Saviour's side that Thomas, who must have seen it, declared that it would be possible to plunge his hand into it. So was fulfilled the marvellous Word of God which prophesied: "They shall look on him whom they have pierced" (Zechariah 12:10). Those soldiers were totally thoughtless and callous men and yet they fulfilled God's Word. From that wound came blood and water. There was a distinct and separate flow of blood and water, not mingled, but flowing separately from the Saviour's wounded side.
If the unbroken bones corresponded to the Passover lamb, then this surely was "passover" blood, the sure guarantee of perfect shelter from the wrath of God. There is tremendous power in the blood of Christ; it reaches upward and touches God, for He passes by and does not judge when He sees the blood. It changes His attitude; provides propitiation, which means the taking away of His enmity. Then there was also the water, which in Scripture speaks of cleansing. There is cleansing by the cross. The blood runs upward and speaks of a satisfied God because the price of sin has been paid, and the water flows down to the trusting sinner in purifying power. So, in the interest of making peace for a sinful people, the Servant of the Lord goes down into the dust of death.
There follows the matter of His burial. The verse which speaks of the Lord being destined to be buried with the wicked, goes on to say that this did not happen, for He occupied a rich grave: "... he was with a rich man in his death" (Isaiah 53:9). The word "wicked" is plural, whereas the word "rich" is singular and I cannot for the life of me imagine why translators fail to notice the accuracy of this Scripture. The Jews reckoned that He should be buried with thieves as He had been crucified between two of them, but God, in His sovereignty, made sure that His holy body should rest in a rich man's grave. This could not be fully appreciated until it was fulfilled, but, looking back, we are awestruck by the accuracy of God's Word. In the haste of that approaching Sabbath it might be expected that the precious body of Jesus would be slung into a criminal's grave like the other two, but God saw to it that this did not happen.
Isaiah has more to say. This is not the end. The unwearying God has seen to that. No sooner has the prophet told us of the Lord's Servant's being made an offering for sin than he goes on to speak of Him as very much alive, prolonging his days and with the pleasure of the Lord prospering in His hand. The mighty Servant, having made peace for us by His death, is now seen alive after His passion. He who a minute ago was in a grave is now alive and victorious.
Resurrection is not actually mentioned. It must not be inserted when it is not there. Nevertheless we cannot fail to perceive the amazing sequel to the cross in that he is spoken of as being alive and reigning after "pouring out his soul unto death" and being "cut off out of the land of the living." This Servant who died is now the One in whose hands the will of God will prosper; He is God's appointed Executive. Those hands execute the most comforting result of His having borne our iniquities, namely our complete justification before God: "By his knowledge shall my righteous Servant provide righteousness for the many". Here is the wonderful New Testament doctrine of imputed righteousness for the believer as a gift of God's grace. That righteousness is based, of course, on the fact that Christ has Himself borne all our iniquities. As against Hezekiah's folly of self-reliance which is so calamitous, we have the [85/86] divine comfort which comes to those who commit their whole cause to the unwearied Saviour.
The Servant passage of Isaiah 53 concludes with what at first may seem most unsatisfactory: "Therefore will I divide with him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong ..." (v.12). Is it possible that the Servant must share the fruits of His sacrifice with others? What a disappointment if, after all, He has to divide the spoil with others! Surely this cannot be. No, this is not possible.
I will never forget my excitement when I discovered that the proper rendering of this verse is: "I will apportion to him the many, and He shall take the strong as a spoil". That is right! The Servant's victory is personal and it is unique. God will give Him the many of saved ones as His portion. The spoils of His Calvary victory consist of the whole portion of the redeemed.
This verse begins with the word "therefore". The same word is found in Philippians 2:9 and with the same connection: "Therefore also God has highly exalted him, and given unto him the name which is above every name". The Father's reaction to this absolute humbling of His Son in the death of the cross is to exalt Him to the highest heights. There can be no other name to equal His. That is what the Lord thinks of His Servant. That is what our Saviour rightly deserves. The everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, will never faint nor grow weary until everything is put under the feet of His beloved Son.
We have already noted that Isaiah's message about God is not only that He is unwearied but also that He is unlimited. Lest anyone should imagine that this comfort belongs only to Israel, God proceeds with His promise to His servant, "Behold, I have given thee for ... a leader and commander to the peoples. Behold, thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest not, and a nation that knew not thee shall run unto thee, because of the Lord thy God, and for the Holy One of Israel; for he hath glorified thee" (54:45) and sums it all up in the great invitation to all men: "Ho, every one that thirsts, come ye to the waters, and he that has no money, come buy and eat ..." (55:1). The gospel call still stands today: ours is an unwearying God.
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