Isaiah 51:1-52:12, "Listen and Wake Up!"

Isaiah’s prophecy is a wake-up call. Yahweh, the Ever-living God is everything, idols are nothing. Give up your idolatry. Return to God with a whole heart, listen to His voice, and He will turn your wastelands of sin into gardens of eternal life.

Because there is so much talk about turning from idols, let’s revisit, what is idolatry? The New City Catechism says, “Idolatry is trusting in created things rather than the Creator for our hope and happiness, significance and security.” This is helpful for understanding the message of Isaiah, especially in today’s passage.

While we don’t necessarily set up carved images of deities any more, we are all looking for meaning and purpose in these four ways: hope, happiness, significance, and security. When we obtain them, we are fulfilled, feel complete, have shalom, peace. Our passage today will show us how God fulfills all four of these desires, and this is good news.

This passage is organized in six exhortations. The first three are “Listen!” and the last three are “Wake up!”. What are we supposed to hear, and to what are we to wake up? What we will see is that the gospel gives us our significance, and this leads to our happiness, hope, and security if we purify ourselves of impure loves.

The structure of our passage tells us a little about how to understand its message. If we could diagram the passage, it would look a little like this:

51:1-3 - Your significance leads to happiness

51:4-6 - Your significance gives you hope

51:7-8 - Your significance gives you security

51:9-16 - Your significance gives you secuirty

51:17-23 - Your significance gives you hope

52:1-12 - Your significance leads to happiness, hope, and security

This is what Bible scholars call a chiasm. The thought structure works out and back in, and at the center point, where it turns on a hinge, you find a key point. So, we should find a key point at the turn of 51:8 into verse 9.

51:1-3 - Listen, You Matter, so Be Happy

Everyone wants their life to count for something, to be significant in some way to someone. This is why many people turn to idols in the first place.

For example, some people worship the idol of achievement. When we achieve in work or school, people will applaud us and tell us we’re smart, or talented, or gifted, or whatever. This makes us happy. But when someone else gets noticed, promoted, awarded, a better grade, our happiness wears off. And there is the downside that we have other people telling us who we are. It’s hard to know your true identity. But what if we look to God for our significance? What would we hear Him say?

Isaiah 51:1 (ESV)

“Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness, you who seek the Lord:

look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were dug.

If you are pursuing righteousness and seeking the LORD, you come from a long line of other seekers after the kingdom of God and His righteousness, tracing its ancestry to Abraham and Sarah, who gave birth not just to the Jewish nation, but to a family of faith in God.

And on account of the promise He made to bless and multiply Abraham and Sarah, God will turn wastelands and wilderness into the Garden of Eden. Wasted lives become fruitful again whenever someone seeks God.

Isaiah 51:3 (ESV)

For the Lord comforts Zion; he comforts all her waste places and makes her wilderness like Eden, her desert like the garden of the Lord;

joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the voice of song.

God will fulfill His promise to your spiritual ancestors by fulfilling this blessing in your life. The question for me is, am I experiencing the joy and happiness this verse says should come?

Does it make you happy when you realize that you might be very insignificant in the measures used by our world, but you are part of something bigger than you, but includes you? God’s big plan is to bless the whole world through a family of people who will pursue righteousness and seek God in a world filled with idols. Are you finding your happiness in that?

Isaiah 51:4-6 - Listen to your Instructor and Hope

Like significance and happiness, everyone is seeking hope. Everyone is hoping that the world will be set right again. Everyone hopes that all the injustice we see unanswered in this life will be answered with justice somehow. We all want a just judge to hear our case in the end.

There is great hope for the one who seeks God over everything else. In verse 5, the LORD says that the peoples of the earth hope for judgment from Him.

Verses 4-6 tell us that justice comes from God in the form of instructions (Torah, verse 4, translated “law”). The good news is that for those seeking righteousness, justice, and salvation, you don’t have to go looking for it. Instruction leading to justice goes out from God like a light to all peoples. His righteousness and salvation reach out to us, and His mighty arm brings the judgment we are all hoping for.

The question for us is, are we listening to God’s instruction in ways that form our hope around His justice and righteousness? Or are we seeking these in created things that will ultimately disappoint? Our significance doesn’t come from our achievements to establish justice at the human level. According to verse 6, long after the heavens and earth vanish and wear out, those experiencing God’s salvation and righteousness will be happy.

51:7-8 - Listen, You Are Secure, so Fear Not

This builds on the last exhortation. For those that come to God for instruction and receive His salvation and righteousness, they enter the new covenant we saw established last week in and through the Servant of the LORD. This new covenant imprints God’s instruction on the hearts of His saved people by His Spirit whom He sends out into them. If you are one of these people, He is saying to you, you should not fear the reproach or revilings of men.

In fact, as Jesus said,

Matthew 5:10–12 (ESV)

“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Do you rest in your security, so that the insults of others draw you closer to Jesus Christ? When we are united to Jesus in His death to sin and in His resurrection to a righteous life, we have total security with God. If you are experiencing fear of others, it’s time to wake up.

It’s here that the passage turns. This thought, that God’s people sometimes fear other people more than they fear, love, and trust God, reveals that our hearts have become impure in our affections and faith. The people of God respond in verse 9 with a cry to God to awake to their need,

51:9-16 - Awake the LORD but Listen for His Answer

The people seeking God hear the exhortation to find their significance, happiness, hope and security in God, but the fear of man is too tempting. We know God acted in the past to deliver Israel out of Egypt, but will God act for us in our present circumstance? So they cry out to God...

Isaiah 51:9 (ESV)

Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord; awake, as in days of old, the generations of long ago.

Was it not you who cut Rahab in pieces, who pierced the dragon?

Rahab is a name that means “stormy” or “raging”. Isaiah has used it to describe Egypt when Pharaoh stirred up his army to pursue Israel into the wilderness, under the influence of the dragon, Satan. When we feel insecure in our circumstances, we want to see God do in our time what He did when He parted the Red Sea and brought it crashing down on Pharaoh’s chariots.

But then the answer comes, starting in verse 12. The LORD says, when you fear men, you have forgotten Me, the LORD, your Maker. If you think the humans who hate you are stormy and threatening, think about how stormy the sea can be. Then think about the fact that the LORD God made the sea, and He has all of it under control.

Isaiah 51:15 (ESV)

I am the Lord your God, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar— the Lord of hosts is his name.

And more than this, He uses all His sovereign power to empower you, protect you, and assure you of your identity in Him.

Isaiah 51:16 (ESV)

And I have put my words in your mouth and covered you in the shadow of my hand,

establishing the heavens and laying the foundations of the earth, and saying to Zion, ‘You are my people.’ ”

Cry out to God when you feel threatened, but realize He’s not the one asleep. Sometimes we have been lulled to sleep by the satanic lullaby that we should protect ourselves from people because God might really not help us. The storms of life tempt us to fear instead of rest in our security, that we matter to God.

So, God follows up and calls His people to wake up...

51:17-23 - Awake to Your Hope, the LORD Pleads Your Cause

It’s one thing to fear people, but when the circumstances of life make us feel like God Himself is against us. So, for the storm-tossed seeker after God, Yahweh has a message: Your affliction makes you feel like you’re in a drunken stupor, but awake to this fact, God is on your side.

Isaiah 51:21–23 (ESV)

Therefore hear this, you who are afflicted, who are drunk, but not with wine:

Thus says your Lord, the Lord, your God who pleads the cause of his people:

“Behold, I have taken from your hand the cup of staggering; the bowl of my wrath you shall drink no more; and I will put it into the hand of your tormentors,

who have said to you, ‘Bow down, that we may pass over’; and you have made your back like the ground and like the street for them to pass over.”

Your circumstances don’t determine your future. Those who pile on when you’re down don’t determine your identity. In the end, when you seek God and pursue His righteousness, God will vindicate you, He will give you justice, and He will relieve you of your affliction. It will feel like waking up from a drunken stupor to a new clarity and freedom that you never thought possible.

So, keep looking to God in hope. Here’s why you should, the final awakening.

52:1-12 - Awake to the Gospel and Purify Yourselves

Yahweh tells those who seek Him to awake and strengthen themselves in four ways.

Their calling as priests - 52:1 - “put on your beautiful garments”

Their status as kings - 52:2 - “be seated, O Jerusalem”, royal throne language

Their identity - 52:6 - “My people shall know my name,” “know that it is I who speak; here I am.”

The good news - “Your God reigns”

Everyone is looking for significance. Eternal significance is found in God alone. Look at the significance God puts on His people who know Him, listen to His voice, pursue righteousness, and seek Him. This gives us security and hope as well.

The gospel is that God reigns. And it’s good news because He’s your God. Your God is reigning over the circumstances of your life. He reigns over the people that make themselves your enemies. He reigns over wastelands to make them into gardens. This is the good news Jesus preached: the kingdom of God is at hand. You can enter the reign of God. Seek His kingdom and His righteousness and all you need will be added to you.

According to Isaiah 52, this means

Isaiah 52:7 (ESV)

How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news,

who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.”

peace (שָׁלוֹם, wholeness, completeness), happiness (טוֹב, good, pleasant), and salvation (יְשׁוּעָה).

Then He returns to this theme of the end of all things being the redeemed people of God singing His praises with joy in the wasteland turned garden, the new Jerusalem.

Isaiah 52:8–9 (ESV)

The voice of your watchmen—they lift up their voice; together they sing for joy;

for eye to eye they see the return of the Lord to Zion.

Break forth together into singing, you waste places of Jerusalem, for the Lord has comforted his people; he has redeemed Jerusalem.

So, what is the application? Your hope, happiness, significance, and security are found in this good news. That God is yours, you can know Him, listen to His instruction in ways that turn wasted lives into fruitful gardens as part of a bigger plan to spread His kingdom into the whole world. When He saves you and redeems you, He gives you the status of king and the calling as priest in His kingdom. What should we we do with this?

Isaiah 52:11 (ESV)

Depart, depart, go out from there; touch no unclean thing; go out from the midst of her; purify yourselves, you who bear the vessels of the Lord.

What are the unclean things of which we must purify ourselves to carry out our royal priesthood? We purify ourselves of all the ways we have sought our hope, happiness, significance, and security in the idols of this world. We have desired comfort and success more than we have desired union with Christ in His sufferings. So we have found our hope in strategic planning. We have found our happiness in predictability and physical comforts. We have found our significance in positions of influence in halls of power. We have found our security in holding to our rights.

Where are the Christians who have put their hope in Christ alone and are willing to walk with Him into dangerous and unknown places to bring good news that God reigns to the people outside His kingdom? Some of them are in this room. How many of us are listening to God that our significance comes from our union with Him in Christ and this is where our hope, happiness, and security are found? How many of us are awake to our identity as God’s people, our hope in His kingdom, and our gospel calling as royal priests, and the purity of heart and mind that it requires.

Questions for Discussion

What makes someone significant?

Why does Yahweh direct Israel’s attention to their founding father and mother in Isaiah 51:1-3 to assure them of His promise of restoration? What can we learn from this?

Where are you finding happiness right now? What is the source(s) of happiness Isaiah promises to Israel in 51:3, 6, 11, and 52:7-10? How can we grow in finding our happiness in these truths?

What does it mean to hope for the judgment of God? (see Isaiah 51:4-6? How does anticipating the return of Jesus Christ in glory give us hope on Monday morning? (can also read Titus 2:11-14)

What is the connection between having the law of God in our hearts and overcoming the fear of man (Isaiah 51:7)?

Read Isaiah 51:12-16 and reflect on: What are the ways the church in America has sought security that don’t reflect trust in God? How can we apply Isaiah 51:15-16?

Why is the fact that our God reigns good news? How do we seek greater peace, happiness, and joy in this? What difference would it make in our lives?

From what can we purify ourselves to better live up to our role as royal priests and messengers of the gospel?