The Greater Redeemer

Text

Isaiah 49:1–13 NKJV

1 “Listen, O coastlands, to Me, And take heed, you peoples from afar! The Lord has called Me from the womb; From the matrix of My mother He has made mention of My name. 2 And He has made My mouth like a sharp sword; In the shadow of His hand He has hidden Me, And made Me a polished shaft; In His quiver He has hidden Me.” 3 “And He said to me, ‘You are My servant, O Israel, In whom I will be glorified.’ 4 Then I said, ‘I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing and in vain; Yet surely my just reward is with the Lord, And my work with my God.’ ” 5 “And now the Lord says, Who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant, To bring Jacob back to Him, So that Israel is gathered to Him (For I shall be glorious in the eyes of the Lord, And My God shall be My strength), 6 Indeed He says, ‘It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant To raise up the tribes of Jacob, And to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also give You as a light to the Gentiles, That You should be My salvation to the ends of the earth.’ ” 7 Thus says the Lord, The Redeemer of Israel, their Holy One, To Him whom man despises, To Him whom the nation abhors, To the Servant of rulers: “Kings shall see and arise, Princes also shall worship, Because of the Lord who is faithful, The Holy One of Israel; And He has chosen You.” 8 Thus says the Lord: “In an acceptable time I have heard You, And in the day of salvation I have helped You; I will preserve You and give You As a covenant to the people, To restore the earth, To cause them to inherit the desolate heritages; 9 That You may say to the prisoners, ‘Go forth,’ To those who are in darkness, ‘Show yourselves.’ “They shall feed along the roads, And their pastures shall be on all desolate heights. 10 They shall neither hunger nor thirst, Neither heat nor sun shall strike them; For He who has mercy on them will lead them, Even by the springs of water He will guide them. 11 I will make each of My mountains a road, And My highways shall be elevated. 12 Surely these shall come from afar; Look! Those from the north and the west, And these from the land of Sinim.” 13 Sing, O heavens! Be joyful, O earth! And break out in singing, O mountains! For the Lord has comforted His people, And will have mercy on His afflicted.

Introduction

Israel will be sent into exile. They will be tempted to reject Jehovah as the one true God and serve the idols of the nations.

They have always done so, but this will cinch it. So God through Isaiah intervenes.

He promises that just as he redeemed them from Egypt, so also he will redeem them from Babylon. He will use a very unlikely person to deliver them: Cyrus, king of the Persians.

All of this talk of God’s mighty hand, the same power the created the universe

And this talk of God’s merciful intervention and compassion on his people -

Now leads to a further revelation in redemptive history:

There is a greater redeemer to come, and there is a greater redemption.

Israel is going into bondage because of their hardness of heart, their idolatry and the oppression and cruelty of the rich against the poor, their rejection of God and the inevitable result - the hatred of their neighbor.

And they do this because they want to. They have become unloving and unlovable. They are the adulterous spouse, still prone to hate God and their neighbor.

How will God redeem them? He redeemed them from Egypt and they didn’t change.He redeemed them from the surrounding nations over and over, and they returned to their filth.

History will repeat itself. If they are delivered from Babylon, won’t they fall into the same patterns again, and again bring judgment on themselves?

God cannot change.

In fact, that is exactly what happened. They were delivered from Babylon and returned to Israel.

Immediately they set up a system demanding strict adherence to the law in order to keep God from judging them again.

Ezra and Nehemiah record the beginnings of what became the doctrine of the Pharisees.

And that is always the temptation - lay down the law. Get rid of sinners.

But that will never change the heart.

At bottom, we are still enslaved by death, sin, misery. Rejection, shame, fear, isolation, self-love coupled with self-hatred, a longing to be known and a fear of being known at the same time.

And we still think that if we could only get the others in line, we could make the world into the kingdom of God and it would be safe for Jesus to return and make us his right hand guys.

But exile and deliverance, exile and deliverance, exile and deliverance - never delivered Israel from the bondage of the misery of sin and death.

And so now, Isaiah switches to the subject of the Servant, which he has already hinted at -

Cyrus the deliverer gives way to the Servant.

The call to the world

To all places strange and exotic - the “coastlands” - that is, every place that you land a boat on, a landmass that connects to the sea - that is, everywhere

And the command to hear - he speaks with authority

From the womb he is set aside. God did not see his character and THEN call him; but he created him from the womb.

As this mystery is further revealed, God becomes flesh in the womb.

Men do not become divine. Our salvation is not us climbing the ladder to God, but God descending to us.

Even in this text, he is given the attributes of God and Man, although in shadow, to be revealed gradually through history.

The secret weapon in the arsenal

A sword, an arrow, a polished beam - but the sword is his mouth.

He speaks, and it is done.

The arrow in God’s hand - HE will defeat the greatest enemy of all: death.

Through him, God will annul the covenant of death.

The commission

The Servant, Israel

The firstborn son. the Seed. The son called out of Egypt.

“You are my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased”

Israel the nation failed, but God will keep his promise in ISRAEL the man, the true seed, the well-beloved son, the firstborn redeemed by the blood of the lamb. The lamb and the son, the priest and the sacrifice.

In whom I will be glorified

The radiance of his glory

Hebrews 1:2–4 NKJV

2 has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; 3 who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, 4 having become so much better than the angels, as He has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.

But he is human

Tempted as we are, yet without sin.

Here he is shown as despondent, a very real human feeling.

He feels the futility and uselessness of work, that curse that came on the world.

Not only did he wear the thorns and thistles on his brow, he experienced the rejection of his message, the rejection of his hometown

He spoke without sin, he was the wisdom of God made flesh - and even that didn’t change the heart.

They eventually all forsook him and fled.

But even though he is despondent, he is faithful - he knows that his reward is with God and his work is not futile - because God will make it fruitful.

Hebrews 2:9–12 NKJV

9 But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone. 10 For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. 11 For both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one, for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren, 12 saying: “I will declare Your name to My brethren; In the midst of the assembly I will sing praise to You.”

Notice how closely we are united to Christ.

His suffering and our suffering. His sanctification and ours. The only difference is that he was without sin.

His reflection of God’s glory is given to us.

His task

To redeem Israel

He will gather the outcasts of Israel, the afflicted, the remnant.

And not only that - the redemption of Israel is too small a thing for the glory of the servant - he will also redeem the outcasts of the Gentiles.

A light to the gentiles. His glorious radiance will shine not just to Israel but to the whole world.

John 1:9–12 NKJV

9 That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. 11 He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. 12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name:

But this will involve suffering

Humiliation and exaltation

He will descend into the lowest place - even the death of the cross, and will be obedient to the end.

Despised and rejected, the servant of all...

But after his death, exaltation. Princes bowing low

And this will be the work of Jehovah.

The Christ holds to this promise, and points to the future time.

The world does not bow to the church in this age - this is the age where we are the servants of all, rejected by the nations and the world - just as He was.

But the day will come when we also will descend with him in clouds of glory.

Matthew 26:64 NKJV

64 Jesus said to him, “It is as you said. Nevertheless, I say to you, hereafter you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven.”

Romans 8:19 NKJV

19 For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God.

The power of God bursting forth in this age

God hears his anointed one, his servant.

God preserves him and gives him as a covenant

He does not teach a covenant, enforce a covenant, or point to a covenant - he IS the covenant

His blood seals it. God and man are at peace in his person.

This is why the person of Christ is so crucial.

If his person is denied - either his divinity, or his humanity, or both - then salvation is up to us.

We are left with attempting to fulfill the covenant ourselves.

But Christ, appointed as the Second Adam, the firstborn of his new race, takes us from the lineage of Adam, breaks the curse and gives us HIS life

He sends his spirit, joining us to himself. And when we have come to Christ, we have come to God.

Christ gives his flesh and his blood that we might be joined to God forever.

The mediator mediates in his person.

When this is denied, we are back to negotiation - but how do you negotiate with a holy God.

Job 9:32–35 NKJV

32 “For He is not a man, as I am, That I may answer Him, And that we should go to court together. 33 Nor is there any mediator between us, Who may lay his hand on us both. 34 Let Him take His rod away from me, And do not let dread of Him terrify me. 35 Then I would speak and not fear Him, But it is not so with me.

It is not so with any of us.

The only way to approach is through the one appointed as a covenant.

It is finished, in his person and in his work.

And so in him all the promises are fulfilled - yes and amen.

And all the blessings of the covenant become ours in Him.

In this sense, it is unconditional. In verses 9-12 there are no stipulations that we must fulfill, for they have already been done.

They have been done in Christ, our covenant.