Peace with Staying Power

To one degree or another, we have all been negatively affected by someone’s neglect to keep their promise - their word. This can range all the way from minor inconveniences like business transactions, all the way to severe cases of unfaithfulness that might cause a separation or family strife.

These experiences, to one degree or another, leave us emotionally drained. If you speak with someone after they have been abandoned, bereft, taken advantage of, or cheated, often the reaction that comes through in the end is that of emptiness - bleakness - weariness.

As people, we are undeniably dependent upon trust in almost every circumstance. When we purchase gas, we trust that the liquid we are dispensing is actually gasoline and doesn’t have foreign substances that will harm our vehicle. When we order food at a restaurant, we trust that the food has been prepared safely and isn’t poisoned or tainted. When we place money in a financial institution, we trust that they are backed with insurance and that we will be able to withdraw those funds when needed. When we sit in a chair, we trust that the chair is soundly constructed, able to uphold our body weight without falling apart and leaving us lying on the ground.

Because we are so inherently tied to trust, that means that we are usually deeply offended when trust is broken. This is most deeply evidenced in personal relationships and family.

He is speaking metaphorically of those who, in this time, were experiencing the anger and rightful indignation of God because of sin. This chapter is not one of indictment, however. It is one of answer. This prophecy is not one of doom, rather, those knowing the doom and shame are promised peace.

God’s peace is spoken of in terms of his covenant. What is covenant?

Well, humanly speaking, covenant is a form of contract. In a covenant made in the ancient near east, a contract would often be established by the two parties cutting certain animals in half, and walking between the divided corpses of the animals. This odd and gruesome ritual was meant to say, “If i break my contract, may I be as these animals.”

When it comes to God, however, we find that God makes covenant with man. When God covenants with man, he lays out conditions and expectations that are connected to promises and blessings. Specifically, these people were living in the Old Covenant inaugurated at Mount Sinai. This Old covenant, where God promised to be their God and they his people, was conditioned upon the people keeping God’s law and following the Jewish sacrificial and religious ritual. It was unconditional in the fact that it ultimately rested upon God, but it was conditional in the fact that the people had to respond in obedient faith.

It was also temporary, and we will talk more of this next week - but this was not an eternal covenant. It was started in at a point in time, and it had a specific end time.

As God speaks of covenant in Isaiah 54, He speaks of a covenant that will be eternal. One that rests in God’s character or steadfast love and faithfulness. God’s compassion and love is laid out and God’s peace is promised without departure. That is why I have titled this sermon, “peace with staying power.”

This Eternal Covenant of Peace, as it is often known, is far superior to the temporary and wavering peace found in human sources. Specifically for Israel, this eternal covenant of Peace was far superior to even the Old Covenant and the periods of peace they experienced in their national history.

Like God’s people Israel in this passage, we too may find ourselves comparable with one who has been abandoned, or bereft, or is feeling emptiness and loneliness because of our sin. In this passage, God shows Himself to be compassionate and kind, and promises His eternal love. Like God’s people in Isaiah, we have broken God’s law time and time again, and naturally are under God’s anger. But the Eternal Covenant of Peace, announced and lauded here as the answer to the problem of sinful shame, is upheld by God alone. It has world-wide effects, it is based on his compassion, and is a covenant of His steadfast love. May we see in this passage,

The Peace of God is like a perfect union and eternal protection: trust the promise-keeping God.

1. Peace as in a Perfect Union - 1-10

Rejoice with singing and do not be ashamed, for the LORD has compassion on the abandoned.

A. Rejoice with singing - 1-3

In a culture where bearing children was seen as prosperity and evidence of blessing, barrenness was often seen as just the opposite - cause for shame and depression. We understand this. Many deep, sorrowful tears are shed at the news and trial of desiring children, yet not bearing them. In using this metaphor, God strikes at the very heart of the feeling of emptiness and loneliness. It is pain that we can identify with to some degree today, even if the cultural significance isn’t exact.

The promise is of future prosperity compared to that of multiplied family and offspring. This is common imagery for the scripture. Barrenness carried feelings of great reproach for women in the Ancient near east. But it also is true that barrenness sometimes prepared people in a positive way for spiritual blessings.

Think of Abraham and Sarah and the lessons that they learned. They learned lessons both in their waiting and also in their impatience. In their waiting, they learned that God is a miracle working God - that He is not confined to the normal expectations of humanity - that He has a grand and wonderful purpose for His creation. In their impatience, they learned that taking the work of God into our own hands does not produce blessing, but rather a curse.

Galatians 4:27–28 ESV

For it is written, “Rejoice, O barren one who does not bear; break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in labor! For the children of the desolate one will be more than those of the one who has a husband.” Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise.

In Galatians, Paul quotes Isaiah 54:1 when talking about this very thing. And in speaking of the difference between Isaac and Ishmael, he is making comparison between slavery and freedom - between flesh and spirit. He says that we find ourselves in this very imagery of children after barrenness, because we are children of the promise.

As Isaiah speaks of enlarging the tent, stretching out the curtains, strengthening the stakes, he is using metaphors speaking of the increase of spiritual children - increase of the blessings of truth in that there will be people, as He says in verse 3, offspring of Israel that will possess the nations and inhabit the desolate places. The idea of offspring and seed goes all the way back to Genesis, where God promised that the seed of the Woman would crush the head of the seed of the serpent. The idea of seed or offspring growing to great lengths goes back to the promise to Abraham. And as Paul uses this scripture, we know this promise goes forward to the New Covenant as well where the tent of God’s people is being enlarged daily by the work of the Gospel. Here in a beautiful and poetic way, God is reiterating that promise to His people who were feeling abandoned and desolate.

B. Do not be ashamed - 4-5

Isaiah then turns to another metaphor, that of widowhood. The imagery of husband and bride concerning God and Israel is meant to portray the sacred union between God and His People. In the Old Covenant, God promised that He would be their God and they would be His people. But again, in Sin, that covenant was broken by the people. The resulting consequences left God’s people feeling as if they had been widowed, or even divorced as we will see in the next section.

While there was currently shame, God says “you will not be ashamed.” While there was currently confounding, or humiliation, God says “you will not be disgraced.”

The future blessing will be so great that all shame and humiliation will be forgot. All reproach and confounding will be remembered no more. And what is the reason?

Because God’s people have a great husband. God pictures himself here as a husband and redeemer. When we think of redeemer, our minds go to the New Testament Idea of Christ as redeemed - one who purchased us back from slavery. The idea of a redeemer in this metaphor is that of a family protector. Especially in the case of widowhood, a redeemer was one who would take ownership, in a caring and preserving sense, of those left behind. Like the story of Ruth where Boaz was her near kinsman after her husband’s death, so in this case, God Himself is said to be the near kinsman - he is the redeemer who takes up the cause of this bride who is abandoned due to sin.

Interestingly, the bride-groom comparison is not lost in the New Testament. In John’s Gospel, he uses the imagery of the bride and the bridegroom to compare that of the Messiah and His People. Paul in Ephesians uses the imagery to speak of the sacrificial, selfless love of Christ for his bride, the church. And in revelation the image continues, where the bride of Christ is said to be the people of the city of New Jerusalem.

The picture is that, again, of the sacred, special union of God and His People. God who is described here as the Lord of Angel Armies, the Holy One, the maker of us, and God over all the earth. God’s people are said not to be slaves of a master, or property of an owner, but they are His People, his very bride. God Himself is the husband - God Himself is the redeemer. Those who are abandoned due to sin find their only and true belonging in the Lord.

C. For the Lord has compassion on the abandoned - 6-10

Finally in keeping with the imagery of a suffering woman, God’s people are said to be a wife deserted and divorced. Here the imagery is strong, because God says that He did in fact desert them. For a season, because of their sin and breaking of the Old Covenant, God gave them their due punishment as promised. Yet, not even their sin can thwart the plan of redemption God has.

He says his desertion is for a short time.

Psalm 30:4–5 ESV

Sing praises to the Lord, O you his saints, and give thanks to his holy name. For his anger is but for a moment, and his favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning.

Here is the beautiful picture of God’s covenant-keeping nature. Here is pictured how God unilaterally sustains his promises, even when His people break theirs. This desertion should have and could have been permanent, but God promises redemption.

We see some of the glorious attributes of our God in this portion.

Compassion

In a human sense, this is an emotional feeling that causes us to act on behalf of one who is suffering. God, of course, is not a God of emotions - so His compassion is not based on feelings, but on His character. He has compassion because He is compassionate. Our compassion can be fleeting, but God’s is perfect ans sovereign.

Everlasting Love

We will see a very similar concept in the end of this chapter, but here God’s love is said to be everlasting. The hebrew word behind “everlasting” speaks not just of the love continuing into the future, but it also speaks of it coming from the past. That is, God’s love which started in the distant past will continue to the distant future. Its a constant stream. Similarly, God does not love in an merely emotional sense, rather he loves in a perfect sense because He Himself is love.

Then we have the concept of Covenant, like we talked about in the introduction. The word covenant is used here, but also the comparison is made with one of God’s covenants - the Noaic covenant. God made a covenant with Noah after the worldwide flood that He would never destroy the earth with a flood of water again. The covenant sign was his bow in the sky, which we still see to this day. This is a reminder of God’s covenant-keeping nature. And he says, just as I have kept my covenant to Noah, so will I keep my covenant with you.

This covenant, however, is called the “eternal covenant of peace.” It will never be removed. What is this covenant of peace? Well we can say that He is not referring to the Old Covenant, the covenant made at Sinai - for in that Covenant there was the promise of punishment for God’s people failing to keep up their end - which they experienced greatly in their exile. This covenant of peace would require a New Covenant to be made. One in which the promise of peace was unconditional, unilaterally upheld by God. Just as God has unilaterally upheld his promise to never destroy the earth with a flood again, even though human kind has constantly become more and more evil. So it is with this covenant of peace.

Ezekiel also speaks of this future covenant of peace, where God’s people would no more be prey to enemies, where there would be no more of this suffering and pain. Where there would be no more famine and hunger. When would this covenant be experienced?

Jeremiah also speaks of a New and Better covenant. A covenant where the word of God would be written on the hearts of His people. A covenant where God would forgive iniquity and sin once and for all, where the sin would not be remembered. Again, a covenant where God upholds the promises unilaterally.

I say to you that Christ has ushered in this new and better covenant. He has become the sacrifice for our sins - the eternal forgiveness for all who call upon Him. And while the experience of perfect peace is still coming, it will be experienced in this New Covenant where the bride of Christ, New Jerusalem, will dwell in harmony and peaceful bliss as intended. The Old Covenant made at Mount Sinai could never deliver this, was never intended to deliver this - but the New Covenant, the covenant of Christ, upheld unilaterally by the Work of God, and applied to all those who repent and believe by faith, this New Covenant will in fact lead us to this eternal experience of peace and the steadfast love of God which will never depart.

2. Peace as in Eternal Protection - 11-17

God’s people are like a beautiful city whose inhabitants are taught by God Himself, and their heritage is safety and righteousness.

A. God’s people are like a beautiful city - 11-12

This is a promise for God’s people, but Isaiah uses the language of the “city” here. This is common for Isaiah. When he speaks of the oppression of Zion, or Jerusalem, he is speaking of not just the physical city, but the inhabitants. The people of Israel, and Jerusalem itself, were like a storm-tossed ship. They were in a state of wreck. As they had been compared to a barren, abandoned or widowed woman in the previous section, here too they are in ruin.

God is promising that he, he himself will step in to the timeline of this ruined city and these ruined people and transform them. God describes the walls of a city beyond imagining for its beauty. Nehemiah would rebuild the city walls after Cyrus of Persia allowed them to return, but these walls - built not by a human King but by God, look forward to a future glorious city.

This description is mirrored in the New Jerusalem in Revelation 21. While we were not inhabitants of the former Jerusalem, we can look forward to the heavenly glory that is prepared for God’s people. This is what our God does, by His grace he takes the ruin and waste of his people and replaces it ultimately with glory and beauty beyond imagine.

B. Whose inhabitants are taught by God Himself - 13-14

Not only is the physical ruin removed by the goodness and compassion of God, but also the spiritual ruin is removed. The very reason that Israel faced such great tragedy and ruin is because of their failure to learn from and listen to God. Here is the promise that the children of Zion would be taught by the Lord Himself. Their peace would be multiplied because of the direct relationship of learning they had with God Himself.

Along with knowledge and peace comes the promise of righteousness.

This knowledge, peace, and righteousness is nearly an exact parallel with the promise of the New Covenant in Jeremiah 31.

Jeremiah 31:33–34 ESV

For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

Again, we are partakers of this New Covenant by the work of Christ. We are made righteous by His blood, we experience His peace that is beyond understanding, and we are taught by the Spirit himself who dwells within us as believers. And while we do not experience the fulness of this covenant until Christ returns, it is in this New Covenant that all these promises are and will be fulfilled. -

Do you lack peace? Do you desire true knowledge of the Lord and righteousness? Then come to Christ! For He alone provides these things to His people both now and in eternity.

C. Their Heritage is Safety and Righteousness - 15-17

This final section reveals God’s sovereignty over the safety and wellbeing of His people.

Now you probably have heard of verse 17 - it is often quoted as a general description of God’s watchcare over his people. The problem is that it is often quoted with the wrong objective in mind. We naturally desire a blissful experience of peace and ease in the here and now, but what is this verse promising?

Well, keep in mind that the people originally reading this were about to experience, or maybe had just experienced real war and calamity, and this calamity was sent by God Himself as judgment over their breaking of the old covenant. And seeing that Isaiah seems to be comparing here an old and new covenant, we find that He is looking forward into this new existence, this new covenant, this covenant of peace, and saying that “in the future, God is not going to cause nations to rise up against you because of your sin.”

Verse 15 says “if anyone stirs up strife.” This is important, because God is not promising a perfect condition of peace on earth from this point on, and God is not promising that there will be no difficulty or opposition. What he is saying, is in this new covenant the difficulty is not judgment on sin.

God also reveals that He is working even in the very difficult and tragic events in the world. He is still sovereign over everything that happens. Verse 16 says He creates the smiths that make the iron weapons. He creates individuals whom He knows will be destructive and case harm. God is not ignorant of these things, neither is he helpless in these things. If God were only involved in the positive things that happen in our lives, wouldn’t that leave us questioning his power? How much more significant is it that God works mysteriously yet wonderfully in the good and the tragic, in the peace and the storm to display his glory.

So what is the final promise of verse 17? No weapon formed against you shall prosper. Does that mean we as God’s people, and Israel as God’s people then, could not be harmed by individuals, weapons, warfare, and tragedy? Of course not. God is saying that amid the tragedy and warfare and distress, none of this will prosper over our spiritual condition. In the Old Covenant, God had sent distress and warfare as punishment for breaking of the covenant - but in the new, the warfare and tragedy, although difficult and wearisome, is not for our harm - it is for our good.

This is a physical reality, but it is mostly a spiritual reality. The chapter closes by saying that all this, these promises, are the “heritage” or perhaps better, the inheritance, of the servants of the Lord, and our final vindication, which is just another translation for righteousness, is from Him.

So what should we gain from this? What is our task upon hearing these words? Well it is this - we must trust the covenant-making, promise keeping God. The God who promises children for the barren, peace for the abandoned, comfort for the bereft. This is the God who deals compassionately and with his stedfast love to his people. This is our God. This work is accomplished by the work of the Servant that we looked at in Isaiah 53. The one who was put to death for our sins, slain for our righteousness. This one, our Messiah, Jesus Christ, is trustworthy for our peace. In this new covenant of peace, the promise is that it would never fail - never go away. And these promises find their “yes,” their “amen” in Christ.

John 14:27 ESV

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.

John 16:33 ESV

I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

A range of feelings and emotions has been covered in this chapter. They are described by great tragedies. Widowhood, bareness, abandonment, shipwreck, war, oppression. These are pictures of soul-felt realities. Ultimately, all these are felt because of sin. And like Israel before us, we are tempted to remedy these feelings in ways that will only temporarily satisfy us. Are we satisfied to place a bandage of human comfort on an eternal wound? Do you know of Christ and His eternal peace? If so, do you rest in His merits today? Do you rest in His unchanging, everlasting, promise-keeping nature that grants us peace?

As we close 2020, perhaps the most tumultuous and uncertain year that we have faced in some time, will you rest your soul in the peace provided in Christ? Rest for the weary, knowledge for the searching, comfort for the afflicted are results of Christ’s work in the new Covenant. Are you weary? Are you searching? Are you afflicted in your struggle with sin? Know this, dear one.

The Peace of God is like a perfect union and eternal protection: trust the promise-keeping God.