The gathering of the nations

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Isaiah 49:14–26 NKJV

14 But Zion said, “The Lord has forsaken me, And my Lord has forgotten me.” 15 “Can a woman forget her nursing child, And not have compassion on the son of her womb? Surely they may forget, Yet I will not forget you. 16 See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands; Your walls are continually before Me. 17 Your sons shall make haste; Your destroyers and those who laid you waste Shall go away from you. 18 Lift up your eyes, look around and see; All these gather together and come to you. As I live,” says the Lord, “You shall surely clothe yourselves with them all as an ornament, And bind them on you as a bride does. 19 “For your waste and desolate places, And the land of your destruction, Will even now be too small for the inhabitants; And those who swallowed you up will be far away. 20 The children you will have, After you have lost the others, Will say again in your ears, ‘The place is too small for me; Give me a place where I may dwell.’ 21 Then you will say in your heart, ‘Who has begotten these for me, Since I have lost my children and am desolate, A captive, and wandering to and fro? And who has brought these up? There I was, left alone; But these, where were they?’ ” 22 Thus says the Lord God: “Behold, I will lift My hand in an oath to the nations, And set up My standard for the peoples; They shall bring your sons in their arms, And your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders; 23 Kings shall be your foster fathers, And their queens your nursing mothers; They shall bow down to you with their faces to the earth, And lick up the dust of your feet. Then you will know that I am the Lord, For they shall not be ashamed who wait for Me.” 24 Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, Or the captives of the righteous be delivered? 25 But thus says the Lord: “Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, And the prey of the terrible be delivered; For I will contend with him who contends with you, And I will save your children. 26 I will feed those who oppress you with their own flesh, And they shall be drunk with their own blood as with sweet wine. All flesh shall know That I, the Lord, am your Savior, And your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.”

Who is Zion?

The hill where the throne of David and the dwelling place of God were together.

The promises of verses 1-13 seem impossible.

The throne is cast away (Psalm 89) and God has departed from his temple (Hosea 1)

How can it be destroyed?

Are God’s people always to be desolate, without a king, a land, or the presence of God?

As I said last week, Isaiah is seeing farther now than the deliverance under Cyrus. He is seeing a new age, all blurred into one.

The Servant takes the place of Cyrus. The enemy is not Babylon any longer, but sin and misery and the kingdom of darkness.

The servant will take the desolation and hopelessness and pain upon himself, but will be victorious in the end, not only redeeming Israel, but also adding to them the outcasts among the Gentiles.

This is great cause for the whole universe to burst into singing.

But....but but but....

The situation looks so hopeless.

The mother.

The highest form of “unconditional love” that is witnessed among men is the love of a mother for her sucking child. Will a mother forget her child

The expected answer, of course, is no.

But God also knows that all human love fails and mothers do indeed forget their children.

God’s love is greater than all human love. Though mothers can and do forget, yet God will never forget his people.

What is “unconditional love”

God is just. Israel rebels again and again. They are unfaithful. Their destruction and their captivity were just. God never does wrong.

So how can God redeem his people?

This will be unpacked as we move forward...

From every human perspective, Israel was no more. Jerusalem was laid waste.

But now, answering Zion’s complaint -

God repeats his promise in much grander terms than before

“Your sons shall make haste” - this refers to the building of the church, the assembly - Not the building, but the people of God.

God’s people will be gathered from everywhere and the church rebuilt.

In order to do that, everyone that destroys must be driven out.

Redemption and rebuilding

And thus the pattern, repeated everywhere. The church declines until it is impossible to see any prosperity at all. The faithful wonder at the desolation.

And then, God comes with deliverance.

He gathers the children of Zion from the corners of the world.

Hebrews 12:18–24 NKJV

18 For you have not come to the mountain that may be touched and that burned with fire, and to blackness and darkness and tempest, 19 and the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words, so that those who heard it begged that the word should not be spoken to them anymore. 20 (For they could not endure what was commanded: “And if so much as a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned or shot with an arrow.” 21 And so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I am exceedingly afraid and trembling.”) 22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, 23 to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, 24 to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.

The church as the “mother” of the faithful:

Revelation 12:17 NKJV

17 And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

And thus, the promise made to Abraham is fulfilled:

Genesis 17:4 NKJV

4 “As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations.

Not the institution - and this doctrine, like so many, can easily be twisted to empower wicked and ruthless men, just as it did in Isaiah’s time. It is Christ and His Spirit, and the work of begetting Christ in the hearts of the hearers

Christ is so identified with his people that they are truly flesh of his flesh and bone of his bones

And he works through each part to grow each part,

Ephesians 4:11–16 NKJV

11 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, 13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; 14 that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, 15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ—16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.

And not everyone that carries the name pastor is proclaiming Christ or drawing the nations to him…

But the promise - even when Jehoikin is on the throne and the church is worshiping the calves and the apostacy of the people is bringing the judgment of God...

The promise is this - the nations will bring sons to Zion and the destroyers will be driven out.

The kingdom described

There are three things necessary for a kingdom

A people

A land

A king.

The kingdom of God is God’s people in God’s land under God’s king.

king

Since we in our modern climate cannot think in terms of anything other than authority and submission, it is difficult to describe the meaning of a “king” in Biblical thought.

A king is the rescuer from enemies, the provider of everything necessary, the protector, the glory of the people, the bringer of peace

When the king is righteous and godly and powerful, everyone sits under their own vine and fig tree without fear

Even the poor and needy, even the widow.

And the Servant, through his work, is bringing about the kingdom of God.

This was what was envisioned in the Garden. The kingdom, entering into God’s rest and beholding all of creation and saying, behold it is very good.

But Adam failed. A new king is needed, one to fulfill the “dominion” mandate

When he crushes the head of the serpent on the cross, and when he rises from the dead, death and hell are conquered. And now, instead of trying to build the tower of Babel, which is the cry of every earthly kingdom, instead we go and make disciples of all nations.

sons of the kingdom

All nations - they will bring their sons from afar.

The barren will rejoice, for the curse is broken.

The sons of the kingdom aren’t the physical descendents, but those with the faith of Abraham.

God is able of stones to raise up children to Abraham, and he did

By uniting them to Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit

“Son” in Hebrew did not only mean physical ancestry.

But it means - taking the character of the “father”

Sons of belial, sons of the kingdom, sons of God

It also means the one who inherits everything.

Brought into the family.

Adopted by grace

And here, being the firstborn son is given to all by invitation - come unto me and rest.

There is no bar based on gender, wealth, status, or nationality

No bar on those with a sin nature, for we all have that.

There is no immigration test

There is simply coming to Jesus for rest.

When that word is proclaimed, the nations bring their sons from all over the world to Zion - the place where the Son of David reigns and God himself dwells with his people.

We will speak more of the theological concept of “Barrenness” and how it plays into the quiver-ful movement when we get to chapter 54

But for now - notice Zion’s astonishment (once again, personification) from nothing, barrenness, emptiness, waste - to order

The site of ruins, a place of destruction - to a place so full of people and life that it is too small.

Just like creation, so also the new creation.

The land

But it isn’t just Israel, and it isn’t just the land of Canaan. The land of Canaan is just a token, a down payment.

The land is the whole earth, the new heavens and the new earth where there is no more curse.

In the previous section, Israel was too small for the servant. So God promises the nations of the world.

So also, Canaan is too small for all the sons of the kingdom. So God will give the whole earth.

Revelation 21:1–4 NKJV

1 Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. 2 Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. 4 And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”

The king, the land, the people.

Objection

Babylon is mighty - how can this be.

And further, the exile was just. They were justly taken captive.

So also our captivity to death and misery. God is always just. His justice requires that sin that is committed against his majesty be punished and he never lies

The day you eat the fruit you will surely die. They ate, and death, fear, shame and guilt entered the world.

God put us in the bondage of the devil, who always pits God’s righteousness against God’s love.

And - hear me on this - the kingdom of the devil is too strong for you or me.

It can only be destroyed by the power of God.

But how can he do that and release the captives without violating his justice?

Isaiah 49:24 NKJV

24 Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, Or the captives of the righteous be delivered?

Only one way - by the person and work of the Servant, who fulfills perfectly the love and the justice of God, silences the voice of the accuser and sets the captive free.