Chapter 52 The Call To Jerusalem - The Rise of the Servant.
The Third Call to Awake - Spoken To Zion/Jerusalem As The Redeemed Woman (Isaiah 52:1-12).
Yahweh Will Redeem His People (Isaiah 52:1-6)
The drunken woman is no more. Now the new Zion, rising out of the old, is to put on her beautiful garments. She must clothe herself with the righteousness and salvation which has been provided by God. For it is He Who will provide her with the garments of salvation and cover her with the robe of righteousness as He welcomes her as the equivalent of His Bride (Isaiah 61:10; Isaiah 62:5; Isaiah 54:5; Ephesians 5:25-27). What she must do is put them on by responding to Him.
‘Awake, awake, put on your strength, O Zion.
Put on your beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city.
For henceforth there will no more come to you
The uncircumcised and the unclean.
Shake yourself from the dust, arise,
Sit down, O Jerusalem,
Loose yourself from your neck bands,
O captive daughter of Zion.'
Note the double intensities. ‘Awake, awake, -- put on, -- put on.' There is a sense of urgency here. Having had her cup of staggering taken from her hand she can now take the next step. She can arise, shake herself free of the dust, take off her chains, the chains of Assyria (Isaiah 52:4) and all others who will have come against her, and reclothe herself. She can be freed from her chains. For she is promised that none shall enter her again who is not within the covenant, and none who would defile God's holy city. But she is to do it in righteousness. God will never accept an unrighteous bride.
Here we have described for us the pure city that can never be defiled. It is the city where nothing impure can enter in (Revelation 21:27). It is the everlasting city. In the ‘garments of beauty' we are probably to see the high priestly garments of Exodus 28:2, ‘garments made for glory and for beauty'. She is probably here to be seen as not only reinstated but as becoming the holy nation, the kingdom of priests of Exodus 19:5-6.
‘There will no more come to you the uncircumcised and the unclean.' Certainly the mention of circumcised refers to participation in God's covenant. Only those who are ‘circumcised' may enter. But to the prophets circumcision had in mind not only the physical act but the circumcision of the heart. What mattered was that the heart was made right, that God's covenant was within their hearts and that they walked in His ways (Deuteronomy 10:16; Deuteronomy 30:6; Jeremiah 4:4; Jeremiah 6:10; Jeremiah 9:26; Ezekiel 44:7; Ezekiel 44:9). Being clean meant being free from anything that could contaminate and make them unworthy to approach God. Thus the idea is that only those can enter who are true to the covenant and pure and undefiled. It is the prophet's idea of spiritual perfection.
Note therefore the indication that all the Gentiles who flock to her will be circumcised, that is, bound by the covenant. That is why Paul stresses that all true Christians are circumcised with the circumcision of Christ (Colossians 2:11-13).
This picture of Jerusalem rising from the dust counteracts Isaiah 51:23, and is in direct contrast to the experience of proud Babylon. God's enemy, Babylon, went from her throne into degradation, Jerusalem is raised from degradation to her throne. For in the end Babylon and all her beauty (Isaiah 13:19), and all that its stands for must go into the dust, and in the end God's true people will all arise from the dust (Isaiah 26:19) to give Him glory and be made glorious.
There is no reason at all for to thinking that here Isaiah has the future Babylonian captivity in mind. It does not figure in his thinking for he is not aware of the full details of what is to come. He knows only of the captivity under Assyria, ruling Judah from Babylon, of a future invasion by Babylon to strip Jerusalem of all its treasures and its future kings, of the future punishment of Babylon for what it is, and then of the restoration of Jerusalem to full holiness (Isaiah 4:3), and final triumph.
The picture here is thus of Jerusalem, and of Jerusalem where she was, and what she will finally be. His final picture here is not of some particular time in history but of God's saving action in the end when He will restore His own. We may certainly see it as accompanying and following the action of Cyrus (Isaiah 44:28 to Isaiah 45:13), and the rebuilding of the city and the Temple, for that is the first stage in her reinstatement, but no historical environment is specifically described there or here. And Isaiah is now looking beyond that to the final triumph. A Jerusalem into which no one who is literally uncircumcised can enter is hardly an earthly reality, and in no way can we see Isaiah as saying that all who are circumcised will enter it. It is quite clear that the circumcision of the heart is what is in mind, as Paul so clearly saw (Romans 2:25-29). The picture is in terms of Isaiah 4:3. So there is a sense in which the arising and dressing of Jerusalem takes us in Isaiah's eyes to the end of time. For this is restored and purified Jerusalem, it is ideal Jerusalem, the holy city, now clothed in beautiful clothing with all chains removed, the place where only those united with God by covenant can come, where all that is impure is excluded. It is the final Paradise, God's final intention for His people (Revelation 21:10 to Revelation 22:5).
But unknown to Isaiah her clothing in beautiful garments will take a long time. It will commence not long after his time, it will advance at the first coming of Christ, and it will continue on through two thousand years and more. Once the king has come it will go on through the centuries. But at last she will be ready, clothed in the righteousnesses of the saints, as the bride of Christ, ready for the marriage supper of the Lamb (Revelation 19:7-8).
‘For thus says Yahweh,
“You were sold for nothing,
And you will be redeemed without money.
For thus says the Lord Yahweh,
My people went down at first into Egypt to sojourn there,
And the Assyrians oppressed them without cause.
Now therefore what do I here, says Yahweh,
Seeing that my people is taken for nothing.
Those who rule over them do howl, says Yahweh,
And my name is continually all the day blasphemed.
Therefore my people will know my name,
Therefore they will know in that day that I am he who speaks.
Behold me.” '
Note the connecting ‘for'. Jerusalem can be raised from the dust precisely because Yahweh has acted to redeem her.
There could be no clearer indication that Isaiah see Jerusalem's two great enemies as having been Egypt, and as being at this time Assyria. He does not go beyond Assyria. (Overall rule by Babylon is simply not in mind). These are the nations to whom Israel was ‘sold'. But His people had not been dealt with fairly. They had only gone to Egypt to sojourn there. The Assyrians had had no cause to oppress them. Why then had they been taken into bondage? There had been nothing right about either bondage. They had been ‘sold for nothing', for they had been ‘taken'. No price had been paid. It was theft. Neither Egypt nor Assyria had any rights over them. So Yahweh feels quite justified in redeeming her for nothing.
The fact that Yahweh used both Egypt and Assyria as His means of chastening His people does not alter the position. Yahweh may do what He will. But that provides no excuse for Egypt and Assyria. They did what they did because of their sinfulness, not because they were obeying Yahweh. We note again the two nations who are seen as oppressors at this stage.
And now the position is that those who rule over her ‘howl'. The verb usually indicates mourning and weeping and distress. However in Hosea 7:14 it probably indicates a howling of self-pleasing and self-gratification, possibly sexual. That may be the meaning here. They howl because they take advantage of them, because they get their enjoyment by misusing them. It is a howl of glee, of rapaciousness. Thus is calumny brought on the name of Yahweh for allowing His people to be treated in this way. Furthermore the thought may include that some of His people had joined in with the wild behaviour and had themselves blasphemed Yahweh in their enjoyment of it. All are guilty.
‘You will be redeemed without money.' This must be taken strictly. Redemption demands a payment, but as she was bought without money she will be redeemed without money. Yahweh is too powerful to submit to demands for ransom. Yet she has to be redeemed, so if not by money, how? The question is left in suspense for it will be answered later (see chapter 53). For the freeness of their redemption compare Isaiah 55:1-2; Isaiah 35:10; Isaiah 51:11 (where her current oppressors are to be dealt with in the same way as Egypt was).
The result of Yahweh's redemption of them will be that His people will ‘know His name' that is, thoroughly know and understand Who and What He is. And they will know Who has spoken to them, saying ‘Behold me.' For they will see Him as He is. And from His saving action they will know that He is truly the faithful Kinsman Redeemer of His people, willing to pay any price for those on whom He has set His love.