Isaiah 5.8 51

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Isaiah 51:1–11 ESV

1 “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. 2 Look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who bore you; for he was but one when I called him, that I might bless him and multiply him. 3 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. 4 “Give attention to me, my people, and give ear to me, my nation; for a law will go out from me, and I will set my justice for a light to the peoples. 5 My righteousness draws near, my salvation has gone out, and my arms will judge the peoples; the coastlands hope for me, and for my arm they wait. 6 Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look at the earth beneath; for the heavens vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment, and they who dwell in it will die in like manner; but my salvation will be forever, and my righteousness will never be dismayed. 7 “Listen to me, you who know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law; fear not the reproach of man, nor be dismayed at their revilings. 8 For the moth will eat them up like a garment, and the worm will eat them like wool, but my righteousness will be forever, and my salvation to all generations.”

Isaiah 51:1–11 ESV

9 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? 10 Was it not you who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep, who made the depths of the sea a way for the redeemed to pass over? 11 And the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

Isaiah 51 is an offer and reminder of hope, a movement of God’s comfort for His people, an encouragement that for those who trust in Him there will be ultimate deliverance from this exile. Again, I come back to our question throughout the book of Isaiah: how can a sinful people have faith? Part of the answer lies in Isaiah’s structure and style, constant new reminders of God’s faithfulness and salvation.

We’re going to look at Isaiah 51 and the encouragement it is through the literary framework of the chapter. First there is a series of three “listen to me!” statements. And that’s really what divides up these verses we just read, v. 1-11. V. 1 starts with the phrase “listen to me,” then v. 4 “give attention to me,” and then v. 7 “listen to me.”

Whenever we see repeated patterns like this in scripture, we’re meant to think of them as a sort of signal: something is going on here! Pay attention! And of course, it’s easy to see why we should pay attention when the repeated phrase is :Listen to me!” God wants us to listen!

Isaiah 51:1–3 ESV

1 “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. 2 Look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who bore you; for he was but one when I called him, that I might bless him and multiply him. 3 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.

It starts with a proclamation of comfort! God is calling all those who seek the Lord and he wants them, as they seek righteousness, as they seek His presence, to remember where they came from, “from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were dug.” Where did they come from? What is this quarry? They came from the rock of Abraham! And why does God draw there memory back to their father Abraham? Was it because Abraham was so great? So faithful? No! Abraham had plenty of issues of his own, plenty of moments of doubt and sin. No, God draws their memory back to Abraham because “he was but one when I called him, that I might bless him and multiply.” It was just Abraham and Sarah when I called them, no more, and then I blessed them and multiplied them. You are a people today because I called one man. And if one man could be called by God and this God would deliver in such mighty ways on the promises He made, won’t this same God be faithful to Israel even now in exile?

The Lord comforts His people, He will, the promises is here, restore her wasteland and wilderness and turn it into Eden. See, God draws their memory back even further, not to their Father Abraham but to their first father and mother: Adam and Eve in Eden. Remember in Genesis study a few months ago, after the fall and sin in the garden, part of the consequence was that Adam and Eve were exiled. So it was with Israel, they disobeyed God and they were exiled from their land. But now God promises to restore it like Eden. From desolation and despair to joy and gladness. He will transform the broken things into new and prosperous things.

The book of Joel talks about God restoring your wasted years. I used to think that was just something nice to say. But I have found in my life that indeed, the Lord gives and the Lord takes away. He will restore what was lost, in totally unexpected ways. We ought to be careful not to think that because he restores, all the bad things in our lives will turn around and be perfect and I’ll get everything back. No. BUT, For those who follow the Lord, He will bless and keep us, be gracious to us, and bring us peace. And that from an eternal perspective, yes, we can absolutely say that God will restore our wasted years, he will redeem our desolation and wilderness and turn it into Eden.

Isaiah 51:4–6 ESV

4 “Give attention to me, my people, and give ear to me, my nation; for a law will go out from me, and I will set my justice for a light to the peoples. 5 My righteousness draws near, my salvation has gone out, and my arms will judge the peoples; the coastlands hope for me, and for my arm they wait. 6 Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look at the earth beneath; for the heavens vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment, and they who dwell in it will die in like manner; but my salvation will be forever, and my righteousness will never be dismayed.

We’ve seen God talking to the righteous, saying they will be made prosperous, now we see that the righteous not only prosper, but unlike the rest of creation, they will be saved and will not vanish like smoke.

“Blessed is the one who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night…in all that he does he prospers, the Lord knows the way of the righteous but the way of the wicked will perish.”

This whole chapter is dripping in Psalm 1 language.

Here we see God’s law and justice going to all the peoples, all the nations. Again, the them of God’s people as those called to delight in his law, and those who then will be a light to the nations. Look at what he says, the heavens and earth will vanish, but God’s salvation and righteousness are eternal. He’s using this hyperbolic language to say, there is nothing that will outlast God os his righteousness or his holiness or his goodness. Part of the point of the comparison is this: take the most sure and certain thing you could imagine: the heavens and the earth, now we must see that compared to God’s eternal character, these sure and certain things like the heavens and the earth are like smoke in the air, like a garment that might be worn out and thrown away. God and His goodness are not like smoke that vanishes—for his everlasting— nor like an old garment—for He will never fade or falter.

Isaiah 51:7–8 ESV

7 “Listen to me, you who know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law; fear not the reproach of man, nor be dismayed at their revilings. 8 For the moth will eat them up like a garment, and the worm will eat them like wool, but my righteousness will be forever, and my salvation to all generations.”

Isaiah 51:9–16 ESV

9 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? 10 Was it not you who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep, who made the depths of the sea a way for the redeemed to pass over? 11 And the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. 12 “I, I am he who comforts you; who are you that you are afraid of man who dies, of the son of man who is made like grass, 13 and have forgotten the Lord, your Maker, who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth, and you fear continually all the day because of the wrath of the oppressor, when he sets himself to destroy? And where is the wrath of the oppressor? 14 He who is bowed down shall speedily be released; he shall not die and go down to the pit, neither shall his bread be lacking. 15 I am the Lord your God, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar— the Lord of hosts is his name. 16 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.’ ”

Verses 9–10: Call for God to awake and remember his past victories—defeating Rahab and drying up the sea for the redeemed (Isa 51:1–23)

Rahab functions as a poetic name for Egypt1. The term draws on ancient Near Eastern mythology, where Rahab appears as a chaos monster defeated by God, but the biblical writers repurposed this image to represent Egypt’s power and opposition to God’s purposes.

The connection makes sense historically: Egypt’s oppressive role toward Israel before the Exodus and the sea’s central role in that deliverance (Exodus 14–15) made the defeated sea dragon an apt metaphor for Egyptian power2. When Isaiah invokes the memory of God cutting Rahab “in pieces,” he’s drawing a parallel between God’s mythological victory over chaos and His historical triumph over Egypt at the Red Sea.

Verse 11: The ransomed of the LORD will return to Zion with singing and everlasting joy (Isa 51:1–23)

Verses 12–16: God assures his people of his protection and presence

Isaiah 51:17–23 ESV

17 Wake yourself, wake yourself, stand up, O Jerusalem, you who have drunk from the hand of the Lord the cup of his wrath, who have drunk to the dregs the bowl, the cup of staggering. 18 There is none to guide her among all the sons she has borne; there is none to take her by the hand among all the sons she has brought up. 19 These two things have happened to you— who will console you?— devastation and destruction, famine and sword; who will comfort you? 20 Your sons have fainted; they lie at the head of every street like an antelope in a net; they are full of the wrath of the Lord, the rebuke of your God. 21 Therefore hear this, you who are afflicted, who are drunk, but not with wine: 22 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; 23 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.”

Verses 17–20: Call for Jerusalem to awake from her stupor caused by drinking God’s cup of wrath2

Verses 21–23: Once Jerusalem has experienced God’s full judgment, he will remove the cup of wrath and give it to her tormentors, particularly Babylon