A new heavens and a new earth

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Isaiah could be called a tale of two cities.  Yet both cities are Jerusalem.

There’s an old Jerusalem – the Jerusalem in which Isaiah’s listeners live.  They face a terrifying judgement that is first threatened by Assyria and then effected by Babylon.  The city is sacked, the house of God (the temple) is destroyed, the people are carried away in exile and all this is a judgement from the LORD.  The second half of chapter 2 is a good example of the judgement upon old Jerusalem.

But there’s also a new Jerusalem.  This will be an unbreachable stronghold, a city of eternal peace and prosperity.  Those who make it to the new Jerusalem will have nothing to fear.  The first half of chapter 2 speaks of the new Jerusalem.

Interestingly, Isaiah holds out no hope for old Jerusalem.  Neither better defences nor greater godliness will avert the judgement that is coming.  The LORD will bring a universal judgement and it will not avoid but rather begin with the house of God (1 Peter 4:17).  The first target of God’s judgement is “God’s house” – this means the temple, it means His household (i.e. His people), but ultimately it means Christ (John 2:19-22)!  Judgement upon the world will start at the top and work its way down.

But if that’s the bad news, here is the good news: resurrection will also start with the house of God.  Christ will be raised up, and He – as the true Temple – will provide the true meeting place with God.  Thus a people will be raised in Him.  Indeed a new Jerusalem will rise from the ashes.  And this new Jerusalem will be the capital of a new creation.

For those who take refuge in Christ, they will come through cosmic judgement to cosmic salvation.  They will survive the judgement of old Jerusalem and find themselves in the new Jerusalem.  And this new city will be the centre of “a new heavens and a new earth.”

Isaiah is the first person to use that phrase in the bible, but it’s picked up by Peter and John in the New Testament.  In chapter 65 the LORD says:

For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.  But be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create: for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy.  And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people: and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying.  (Isaiah 65:17-19)

The word “new” here does not imply that the LORD will throw this “old” world into the bin to start again from scratch.  It’s a word which, if left by itself, means “new moon.”  There isn’t a brand new moon every month.  But rather every month the moon goes through a kind of death and resurrection and is renewed. So it will be with all creation.  The whole world will take the path of Christ Himself – through death and into resurrection. And just as Christ did not leave His old body in the tomb in order to replace it with a resurrection body, so this world will not be cast aside but rather redeemed.

And Isaiah means this quite literally:

The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock: and dust shall be the serpent’s meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the LORD.  (Isaiah 65:25)

In a culture that says “Make the most of now”, “Experience all you can”, “There are no second chances” – Isaiah begs to differ.  You don’t need to see the Himalayas before you die.  You can see them afterwards.  You don’t need to despair when your body stops working, it will start again.  You can mourn your loved ones who have died in Christ, but you will hold them in your arms again.  This body, this kind of life, this world will be raised, redeemed and renewed into even greater glory.

And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.  And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.  And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.  And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.  And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new.  (Revelation 21:1-5)

Holier than thou

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Isaiah addresses the blindness of human unbelief.  He proclaims the LORD’s word to a “people walking in darkness.”  But while he insists that human wickedness is a disease, he never prescribes human religion as the cure.  No, healing is found only in the Righteous King- He is the LORD of the temple vision, He is Immanuel, the Prince of Peace, the Spirit-filled Branch and our Sacrificial Lamb.  The Messiah alone is our salvation.  Only He can bind up the brokenhearted.  Therefore we cannot save ourselves and all our own efforts at righteous living fall under this damning indictment from the prophet:

“We are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.”  (Isaiah 64:6)

Notice that Isaiah does not declare our unrighteousness to be like filthy rags.  It’s our righteousness that is the problem!  Isaiah is a tireless campaigner against human religion because human religion is the carrier of that foulest of diseases: self-righteousness.

And so Isaiah begins and ends by opposing this dreaded enemy.  Chapter 1 sees the LORD taking aim at the religion of his day.  His soul hateth their “vain oblations” and “solemn assemblies.”  (Isaiah 1:13-15).

Now at the end of his prophecy, he returns to this theme.  The LORD preaches against those religious folk

which say, Stand by thyself, come not near to me; for I am holier than thou.  (Isaiah 65:5)

“Holier than thou” is the slogan of the self-righteous.  A “holier than thou” person curls their lip at the unwashed heathen.  They consider sin to be beneath them.  They are apart from the masses and above reproach.

And the tragedy of these kinds of people is that they claim to represent God.  Even more tragically, the world tends to believe them.  Thus, a world that despises “holier than thou” Christians, feels roughly the same way towards God.

But here is what God wants the world to know:  He also despises the “holier than thou” types.  You see our verse continues with the LORD’s verdict on these religionists:

These are a smoke in my nose, a fire that burneth all the day.  (Isaiah 65:5)

His soul hates the “holier than thou” religious.  Essentially they commit two grievous errors.

Firstly they have no actual interest in holiness.  Did you notice what it is they take pride in?  Not their holiness per se, rather their holiness in comparison to you.

CS Lewis put his finger on this issue beautifully in Mere Christianity

Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man. We say that people are proud of being rich, or clever, or good-looking, but they are not. They are proud of being richer, or cleverer, or better-looking than others. If everyone else became equally rich, or clever, or good-looking there would be nothing to be proud about. It is the comparison that makes you proud: the pleasure of being above the rest. Once the element of competition has gone, pride has gone.

The same can be said of holiness.  Those who are “holier than thou” are not interested in holiness.  They simply use it as a tool for exalting themselves over you.

That’s the first problem with these people.  The second is this: they completely misunderstand holiness.

Their holiness is about standing apart and keeping others at bay.  Yet the truly holy person is not estranged from others, but committed to others.  We know this because we have already met the One who is superlatively holy.  In Isaiah 6 we saw the LORD Jesus who is “Holy, Holy, Holy.”  While His holiness makes Isaiah cry “woe is me” that’s not because the LORD wants separation.  The problem is Isaiah!  And so in His holiness the LORD makes forgiveness fly to him.  He sets Isaiah on his feet and commissions him to preach to the people.   This is not a shut-off holiness – this is an outgoing holiness.

His name throughout Isaiah is “the Holy One of Israel” and yet this title is consistently used in conjunction with His redeeming activity.  It’s about His going out to save a people.  His holiness certainly constrasts with our sin.  But that’s not because He shuts Himself away from us, rather the opposite.  While we shut ourselves down, He pursues us with a fierce and relentless passion.  This is His holiness – His complete commitment to the salvation of His people.

And so, in contrast to those who claim to be “holier than thou”, Isaiah 65 begins with a picture of true holiness:

I have spread out my hands all the day unto a rebellious people.   (Isaiah 65:2)

From early in the morning until late at night the LORD Jesus holds out His arms to reconcile His people.  His holiness is not about seeking distance from sinners.  It’s not about erecting an insulating wall against sin.  It’s not about standing aloof from the unwashed.  It’s the very opposite.  Holiness is an arms-wide offer to the wicked.  It’s about pursuing the rebellious with steadfast love.

May we all reject the “holier than thou” self-righteousness.  And may we learn true holiness as we contemplate the outstretched arms of the Holy One of Israel.

Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard

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It’s probably Paul’s quotation of Isaiah 64 that has become the best known version of this phrase:

“As it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man…”  (1 Corinthians 2:9)

Such words can be the equivalent of the magician’s puff of smoke.  When a bible teacher doesn’t know the answer to some thorny theological question, they can always wheel out “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard…”  Whatever ignorance exists in the preacher can be readily stuffed into the category of mystery and sealed with the wistful recitation of this saying.  But that’s not what Paul nor Isaiah meant.

Let me quote Isaiah 64 in a more modern translation:

Since ancient times no-one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for Him.  (Isaiah 64:4)

Here is the thing which “eye hath not seen” – a living God.  Among a world full of gods who claim to be gods – there’s only One true God.  And the mark of this true God is that He works and His people wait.

All the other gods wait while their people work.  They sit back on their thrones, distant, examining the work, waiting to be impressed.  Human religion has humans working and the gods waiting.

Isaiah says that the real God is the One who works while we wait.  “He acts on behalf of those who wait for Him.”  It’s the total reverse.

Human religion has humans working for a waiting god.
The bible has God working for His waiting people.

Human religion has humanity centre stage doing it all while God idly watches.
The gospel has God shooing us off the stage and making us sit down in the audience to watch Him work salvation for us.

That’s what marks Him out as the true God, and this is what “eye hath not seen, nor ear heard.”  It’s utterly unique: He acts on behalf of those who wait for Him.

Why does He do it that way?  Well we all know the phrase “If you want a job done properly, do it yourself!”  That’s what He’s said earlier in Isaiah:

The LORD saw it, and it displeased him that there was no justice. He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no one to intercede; then his own arm brought him salvation.  (Isaiah 59:15-16)

If you want a job done right, do it yourself.  So His own Arm works salvation for Him.  We have already met “the Arm of the LORD” in Isaiah 53:1.  He is the King who became the Servant who became the Lamb.  Christ is God’s Arm who works salvation for Him.

Jesus comes into our world, into our humanity.  He is God the Son doing human life for us.  In our place and on our behalf He lived the life we should live and then died the death that we should die.  He rose again to new life and ascended to the Father as our perfect Sacrifice and Priest.  As the Arm of the LORD He does it all and scoops us up into the Father’s presence.

What do we do?  Well we are simply beneficiaries of His mighty acts of salvation.  He works for us, we wait on Him.  What a God!  Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard such condescension and love!

No rest for the wicked

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It’s the sort of phrase your cheery postman might say on his rounds.  “Must push on I’m afraid, no rest for the wicked eh?”  We all titter politely and on with our day.  Yet such levity is incongruous.

This saying is the biblical equivalent of verses such as “these shall go away into everlasting punishment” (Matthew 25:46)  or “the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever” (Revelation 14:11).  “No rest for the wicked” describes exatly the same dreaded reality.  The wicked and their rest-less fate is a chilling thought.

Let’s hear it in its context in Isaiah.  First the LORD declares,

“Peace, peace to him that is far off, and to him that is near, saith the LORD; and I will heal him. But the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.”  (Isaiah 57:19-21)

As far as Isaiah is concerned there is either peace or there is troubled, restless, turbulence.  “Peace” has to come upon a people who would otherwise walk in the darkness of death.  It’s the result of the LORD’s “healing” of a sick humanity.  Left in our natural state we are a “troubled sea.”

That’s important to note.  The wicked are not at the mercy of a troubled sea.  The wicked are a troubled sea.  Their judgement is not the imposition of some external force.  Their judgement is to be left to their own unruly ways.

Here is the restlessness of being left to oneself.  Those who assume the government to be on their shoulders can have no peace.  It doesn’t require the LORD to send such people into a state of turmoil.  Their very rebellion is their judgement.  They clamour for an independence from the Prince of Peace, yet He is the One who rules over the surging seas.  To reject Him is to choose restlessness.  And to continue in that state is hell. There is no rest for the wicked.

But over and above the troubled seas, Jesus still brings a word to still the storm:

Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.  (Matthew 11:28-30)

Seeing eye to eye

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When we use this phrase it’s usually in the negative: “I’m afraid, we don’t see eye to eye on this issue.”

Not seeing eye to eye is about disagreement and the very nature of the phrase communicates an inequality of stature, perhaps also of power.

What would it take for two antagonists to start seeing “eye to eye”? Someone would have to shift.  We might imagine one of them raising themselves up to the height of the other.

Well the bible has other ideas.  Isaiah shows us two parties who do see eye to eye, but they are as unequal as they come.  It’s the LORD and His people.  But when they see eye to eye it’s great news:

“How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!  Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they sing: for they shall see eye to eye, when the LORD shall bring again Zion.  Break forth into joy, sing together, ye waste places of Jerusalem: for the LORD hath comforted his people, he hath redeemed Jerusalem.”  (Isaiah 52:7-9)

Here are “good tidings of good” (perhaps not the greatest King James translation!) – but what it speaks of is priceless.  The reigning God of heaven will see “eye to eye” with His people.

Is this because His people have raised themselves up?  Not at all.  God has stooped.  This eye to eye agreement and fellowship is all because “the LORD hath comforted his people.”

The word “comfort” is very important in Isaiah.  The prophet uses it to describe the LORD’s attitude to His people.  Listen to the LORD’s comfort:

O LORD, I will praise thee: though thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortedst me.  (Isaiah 12:1)

Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.  Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the LORD’S hand double for all her sins.  (Isaiah 40:1-2)

Sing, O heavens; and be joyful, O earth; and break forth into singing, O mountains: for the LORD hath comforted his people, and will have mercy upon his afflicted.  But Zion said, The LORD hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me.  Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee.  Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me.   (Isaiah 49:13-16)

For the LORD shall comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.  (Isaiah 51:3)

The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound… to comfort all that mourn;  (Isaiah 61:1-2)

As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you; and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem.  (Isaiah 66:13)

Just look at all that the LORD’s comfort involves: It’s His resolute turning from anger, His pardon for all our sins, His mercy upon the afflicted, His renewal of the whole earth, His reversal of death and curse and His tender, motherly compassion.

And because of His steadfast compassion, He comes down to our level.  Seeing eye to eye with the LORD is not about us raising ourselves up.  Nor does it mean giving broad consent to His moral philosophy.  It’s about face to face fellowship.  And how is it possible?  Because He has stooped.

Isaiah 52 continues by telling us of this LORD who became a Servant, this Servant who became a Lamb, this Lamb who was led to the slaughter.  Who can doubt that the LORD wants to comfort us when we see Him plunge into our murky depths?

We do not naturally see eye to eye with God.  Our lives are not in agreement.  We fall far short.  Yet look to the cross and there you see a divine condescension motivated by astounding love.  To see Christ and Him crucified is to see “eye to eye” with God.  In that encounter we know almighty compassion and we “break forth into joy!”

Bind up the brokenhearted

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In the Bible, hearts can be failed, faint, glad, hard, willing, stirred, sorrowful, obstinate, lifted up, circumcised, wicked, grieved, hot, astonished, trembling, melted, inclined, merry, rejoicing, naughty, offended, dead, desirous, despising, lion-like, bowed, upright, understanding, large, turned away, turned back, sore troubled, tender, double, perfect, tried, prepared, free, united, proud, soft, walking, deceived, enticed, hypocritical, trembling, firm, proved, wax-like, pure, enlarged, strengthened, disquieted, panting, meditating, clean, contrite, sore pained, fixed, overwhelmed, poured out, set, froward, smitten, brought down, wounded, inclined, fat, sound, desolate, subtil, perverse, heavy, sick, haughty, fretting, despairing, hasty, ravished, awake, moved, stout, fearful, revived, evil, washed, rebellious, uncircumcised, deceitful, turned, affected, whorish, stony, idolatrous, weak, new, bitter, of flesh, divided, exalted, rent, lowly, waxed gross, far from God, good, slow, burning, troubled, pricked, single, not right, opened, impenitent, anguished, veiled, blind, true, established.

Out of these, heavy, hard, pure and stout-hearted are all common sayings today.  But perhaps the most popular variation on this theme is “broken-hearted.”  We have all felt “broken-hearted” at times.  But wonderfully, the LORD Jesus has healing for us.  The very reason He was sent into the world was to bind up our broken hearts:

The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; 2 To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn; 3 To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified.  (Isaiah 61:1-3)

Throughout Isaiah, the prophet lifts up the King before us.  The true King is the LORD of the temple vision, He will become the miraculous Child Immanuel, the Prince of Peace, the Spirit-filled Branch and our Sacrificial Lamb.  And here in chapter 61 we read about the just and gentle rule of this Spirit-filled King.  This Ruler does not use His power to dominate but to heal and bless.

What king cares about the hearts of his subjects?  This King does.  He binds up the broken-hearted.

And part of the reason He can bind up the broken-hearted is because He has experienced the ultimate heart-break Himself.

We know Psalm 69 to be the words of Christ (cf John 2 and Romans 11) and here He lays bare His soul:

Hide not thy face from thy servant; for I am in trouble: hear me speedily. Draw nigh unto my soul, and redeem it: deliver me because of mine enemies. Thou hast known my reproach, and my shame, and my dishonour: mine adversaries are all before thee. Reproach hath broken my heart; and I am full of heaviness: and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none. They gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.  (Psalm 69:17-21)

Christ died of a broken heart in every sense.  Read the whole Psalm to get a sense of the pain of unrequited love which He experienced.  Yet His own heart was bound up – healed – in resurrection.  And by His Spirit He offers the sympathy of One who knows, and the power of One who has conquered.

The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.  (Psalm 34:18)

Rise and shine

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When morning comes the phrase trips off our tongues.  Yet we rarely think of its strangeness.  To say “Rise and shine” is odd.  We’re not simply exhorting the slumberer to notice the sun or respond to the sun.  We’re telling them to be the sun – or at least, like the sun.

The sun rises.  We rise.  The sun shines.  We shine.  Or we’re supposed to if the saying is anything to go by.

People are meant to be miniature suns.

To understand how and why, let’s go back to the source – Isaiah chapter 60.  Listen to the interaction of “rising” and “shining” here:

1 Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee.  2 For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the LORD shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee.  3 And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising. (Isaiah 60:1-3)

In verse 1 the people rise and shine.  But in verse 2 we learn that their rising and shining springs from no power of their own.  They live in “gross darkness”.  It is “the LORD” who rises and shines (note that in verse 1 He is called “the Glory of LORD”).  But then in verse 3 we see that the people do have a “light” and a “rising” they can call their own.  And who do they rise and shine upon?  The nations.

So we have a picture – we rise and shine because the LORD rises and shines.  And just as He rises and shines on us, so we rise and shine on the world.  Appropriately enough the shining of the LORD is an outgoing brilliance that doesn’t terminate on His people but, once it’s received, it radiates out to the nations.

We should note that in Isaiah, neither rising nor shining comes naturally to God’s people.  In fact, the book is an extended wake up call to Jerusalem (i.e. Zion):

Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust:  (Isaiah 26:19)

Awake, awake, put on strength, (Isaiah 51:9)

Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem, (Isaiah 51:17)

Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion… Shake thyself from the dust; arise,  (Isaiah 52:1-2)

And darkness seems to be their natural habitat.

We wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, but we walk in darkness.  (Isaiah 59:9)

Yet, famously,

The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined. (Isaiah 9:2)

The people are naturally in the dark, yet there is an other-worldly Light.  He is the Miraculous Child – the Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.  In Isaiah 42 He is described as the Servant who will be a Light for the Gentiles, “To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house.” (Isaiah 42:6-7)

The Messiah is the Divine Glory of the LORD.  And He not only shines upon those in darkness.  He has the power to make them radiate this glory to others.  He is a Sun who rises to transform gloomy slumberers into shining stars.

So in the morning, just as you let the sun rise and shine upon you to brighten your face and give you warmth, so let Christ rise and shine upon you to give you hope and peace.  Know His glory chasing away every shadow and His love as free as the sunshine.  Then see if you don’t shine yourself.  And the world will be drawn to your brightness.

Arise, shine; for thy light is come,
and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.
For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth,
and gross darkness the people:
but the Lord shall arise upon thee,
and his glory shall be seen upon thee.
And the Gentiles shall come to thy light,
and kings to the brightness of thy rising.
Lift up thine eyes round about, and see:
all they gather themselves together, they come to thee:
thy sons shall come from far,
and thy daughters shall be nursed at thy side.
The sun shall be no more thy light by day;
neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee:
but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light,
and thy God thy glory.  (Isaiah 60:1-4,19-20)

Led like a lamb to the slaughter

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When someone is “led like a lamb to the slaughter” it’s not pretty.  Perhaps a partner in the firm is about to be ousted for the sake of the company.  As he blithely enters the boardroom he’s like a lamb to the slaughter.

It’s a brutal verbal picture.  An innocent lamb will follow a leader no matter where they’re taken.  No protests, no questions asked.  At the slaughterhouse they train a “Judas sheep” to lead the others to their doom.  “Judas” escapes through a hatch, the others get it in the neck.  A lamb led to the slaughter is a chilling image.

But Isaiah says the true Lamb to the slaughter is the LORD Almighty!

Pause there and meditate on the LORD… led like a Lamb… to the slaughter.

We’ve considered Isaiah’s vision of the LORD Jesus in the temple.  Isaiah described Him as “high and lifted up.”  But later, Isaiah has another vision of Him.  And again He is “high and lifted up” but not in quite the same way.

Here the Father addresses the world with pride saying,

Behold, my Servant… he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high.  (Isaiah 52:13)

The King of Isaiah 6 is now seen as the Servant of Isaiah 52-53.  In both visions He is “exalted”, “lifted up”, “very high” etc.  But the two images of “lifted up” appear very different.  In one, He sits on a throne.  In the other He is slain on an altar.

John’s Gospel also picks up on this double-meaning from Isaiah.  Jesus is truly “lifted up” – that is, truly glorified – by being lifted up on the cross.  (e.g. John 3:14; 8:28; 12:32-34)

Yet for both Isaiah and John, this is not so much His descent as His true exaltation!

Listen to the upside-down glory of the LORD Jesus who is lifted up in sacrifice:

2 For he shall grow up before [God] as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. 3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. 4 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. 5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. 7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.  (Isaiah 53:2-7)

Notice the wonderful exchange going on here.

We are the ones with transgressions, He is the One bruised for them.

We are the ones who gain peace, He is the One who takes the chastisement.

He takes the stripes (the wounds), we are healed.

We are the ones like willful sheep.  He is the lamb to the slaughter.

In this gracious exchange we see the true glory of the LORD.  A King may remain on his throne “high and lifted up.”  Yet there is a far greater majesty.  It’s the majesty of Christ.  He is the King of the temple, the LORD Almighty to Whom angels cry “Holy, Holy, Holy!”  This same King becomes the Servant who descends even lower to be slain as a Lamb.  He is “crushed” under the weight of a world’s sin (Isaiah 53:10).  And He “pours out His soul unto death (Isaiah 53:12).  This is true glory.

When John wrote the final book of the bible – Revelation – he returned to this truth.  In his vision of heaven he saw to the heart of divine majesty, and what did he see?

Lo, in the midst of the throne… stood a Lamb as it had been slain  (Revelation 5:6)

He calls Jesus,

the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne.  (Revelation 7:17)

The throne is the manifestation of divine power and glory.  And what is at the centre of the throne?  The Lamb.  If you push through to the deepest depths of divinity what will you find?  A Lamb led to the slaughter.

How do you picture God?  How do you picture divine glory?  Look again to that willing Sacrifice and you will see.  And with the rest of heaven you will sing:

Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing.  (Revelation 5:12)

They shall mount up with wings as eagles

28 Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding. 29 He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. 30 Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: 31 But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.  (Isaiah 40:28-31)

Chariots of Fire shows us two ways that “young men” can run.  Harold Abrahams is every inch the driven man.  At one point he explains why he must win gold at the 100 metres: “I have 10 seconds to justify my existence.”  That’s one way to run.

On the other hand, Eric Liddell is a man who knows how to wait on the LORD.  He even forgoes Olympic glory to rest on a Sunday.  Does this mean he has forgotten about running?  No.  It’s just that he runs for a very different reason: “When I run I feel His pleasure.”

One man runs to prove himself.  The other abandons himself to the LORD and now he can simply enjoy the running.  Two ways to run – two ways to live.  Either we do it in our own strength, to justify our own existence.  Or, in dependence on the LORD’s strength, we entrust our justification and life to Him.  When we do that we receive it back as renewed strength.

When verse 31 says the LORD shall “renew” their strength, it’s a word that most often means to “change” or “exchange”.  It’s a swap which the LORD offers.

He receives our weakness to Himself.  In that ultimate sense, He takes on our frailty, becoming flesh and running our race all the way to its bitter end at the cross (Hebrews 12:1-3).  But He rises again by the power of the Spirit and offers us a cross-shaped strength – a strength-in-weakness.

Sometimes this strength will be “eagle’s wings” (see here for more on “eagles wings”).  Sometimes it will be running with endurance.  And sometimes it will be just enough to walk “and not faint”.  But at all points it will be the LORD Jesus who upholds us.

You can run in your own strength and you will run yourself into the ground.  Or you can stop the self-justification.  You can swap human strength for Christ’s, and simply run in His good pleasure.

Take root

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In common parlance, ideas “take root” or cultural movements “take root”.  But in the bible it’s people who “take root.”  In fact there is a whole theme of “uprooting” and “taking root” that bears examination.

In Deuteronomy, Moses warned the people, even before they entered the promised land, that they faced exile for disobedience.  And this is how he described it – the people would be “rootedout of their land… and cast… into another land.”  (Deuteronomy 29:28)

Both Israel and Judah are warned of this fate as their disobedience manifests:

“For the LORD shall smite Israel, as a reed is shaken in the water, and he shall root up Israel out of this good land, which he gave to their fathers, and shall scatter them beyond the river.”  (1 Kings 14:15)

“But if ye turn away, and forsake my statutes and my commandments, which I have set before you, and shall go and serve other gods, and worship them;  Then will I pluck them up by the roots out of my land which I have given them; and this house, which I have sanctified for my name, will I cast out of my sight, and will make it to be a proverb and a byword among all nations.”  (2 Chronicles 7:19-20)

Can you picture the scene?  The people are like a plant, wrenched from the land, the roots dangling in the air, and then tossed to the wind.

Perhaps you have felt a physical upheaval when you have had to move home.  Many times I have switched hemispheres and it can feel like being plucked and scattered.

But that physical and social experience is just a picture of the spiritual upheaval which the whole human race has experienced.  We have already said that Adam is presented in Scripture as a plant – a plant who reproduces after his kind.  Through disobedience, he and his “cutting” Eve were uprooted from God’s place and cast off.  This is the decisive uprooting that has shaped the whole crop.  And it’s an uprooting that was re-enacted by Israel thousands of years later.

Therefore, there is a deep sense in all the race of Adam that we are rootless, plucked up, not at home spiritually speaking.  Yet Isaiah gives hope.  In chapter 37:31 he speaks of a re-planting that will occur after the horrors of exile.  The people…

shall again take root downward, and bear fruit upward.

Here is what we need.  We need to be planted again in God’s presence – that’s our true habitat.  But how will it happen?

Well Isaiah has already spoken of Christ as “the holy Seed” and as “the Branch“.  And in chapter 53 Isaiah will call Him a “Root out of dry ground.” Jesus comes as the true Adam, the true Israel, the true Seed, the true Vine.

He is planted into the ground on Good Friday and sprouts up again on Easter Sunday to immortal, resurrection life.  And He says to us scattered, rootless drifters: “Come, get grafted into Me.”

We long to “take root” spiritually speaking – to be secure and fruitful in God’s presence.  Well Jesus is rooted in the very life of God, filled with the nourishing sap of the Spirit.  And in Him we take root, now and eternally:

As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him:  Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.  (Colossians 2:6-7)