The Certain Fulfilment of What Yahweh Has Purposed Through The Power Of His Word (Isaiah 55:8-13).
Isaiah now concludes this section from Isaiah 40:1 onwards by a final statement of the triumph of God's powerful word as it goes forward to do His will bringing new birth to creation and finally establishing victory to His people, bringing glory to His name.
Thus will His purposes triumph. Beginning with the call of Abraham (chapter 41) and advancing through to the victory of God's Davidic King and Servant and the triumph of His people (Isaiah 52:13 to Isaiah 55:5), His word has been effective throughout.
‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways my ways, says Yahweh.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are my ways higher than your ways,
And my thoughts than your thoughts.'
These words summarise all that has gone before. Strange as it may seem to man God is working through His Servant, from the first triumphal entry into the land by His servant Abraham (Isaiah 41:1-8), through His Servant faithful Israel (Isaiah 41:8 and often), right through to the Suffering and disfigured Servant (Isaiah 52:13 to Isaiah 53:12) Who is finally glorified and established as world ruler (Isaiah 55:4-5), and it is through that work that He will finally be exalted. For God does not work as man works. He does not think as man thinks. His ways are not man's ways. They are above and beyond all that man can conceive.
Who would have thought that the coming into Canaan of a small tribal leader uniquely called by God; that the establishing in that land of a small, struggling nation as His witness, which sadly proved itself mainly unworthy but produced its spiritual heroes; and that the final coming of One Who would end His life in great suffering, followed by resurrection; all scarcely noticed while the tide of history flowed on, could have achieved the new birth of the world and the establishing of God's final purposes? But it will. And that is Isaiah's glorious message.
Such is beyond men's thoughts. Such would not be man's ways. But they are God's thoughts and God's ways. The same idea is to be found in the temptation of Jesus. Satan came with man's thoughts and man's ways, bribery, worldly power, religious manifestations, Jesus countered with God's thoughts and God's ways, obedience, submission, humility, response to His word. And it was Jesus Who finally triumphed.
Note carefully the connection with the following verses. The first part of what follows could be seen as describing man's ways, although even there its source comes from God, from heaven, the second part reveals God's ways without any intervention by man, although coming to man. But even in the first part man is seen as on the whole the recipient. All is provided by God, man simply uses it to produce food and enjoy it, which he can only do because of God's provision of rain (firmly reflecting conditions in Palestine).
‘For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven,
And does not return there, but waters the earth,
And makes it bring to birth, and bud,
And gives seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
So will my word be that goes forth out of my mouth,
It will not return to me empty,
But it will accomplish that which I please,
And it will prosper in the thing to which I sent it.
The illustration brings out man's dependence on God for everything. He is dependent on the God-given rain, he is dependent on the God-given earth, he is dependent on the God-given process, and then he uses and eats what is provided. His part is so small. He comes as it were at the very tail end, having a small part in the whole, and continually receives God's blessings.
Then God declares that His powerful word works like the God-given rain and snow, and it is all under His control. Just as the rain goes forth and does not immediately return, so it is with His word. It continues its work day by day, season by season, it waters and feeds, it brings about new birth, it produces, first buds, and then full grain, which reproduce themselves both to provide further grain and to feed men's bodies, and it will finally result in a forested, evergreen, thorn-free world that bears testimony to its Creator (Isaiah 55:13). (The trees are pictures of permanence). This is also what God's word accomplishes. It too brings about His will and prospers in His purposes. And the Paradise that will result will be all His work
Here as elsewhere in the Scripture the word of God is seen as a powerful and living, almost personal, force that goes forth to accomplish what it wants to do. As in the account of creation, God speaks, and His purpose is fulfilled. This is the Creator again in action. That is one reason why Jesus was called ‘the Word'.
Note that the hiphil ‘bring to birth, cause to be born' is rarely used elsewhere of anything but human birth. Behind this verse therefore lies the idea of the new birth that is so prominent in the New Testament (John 3:1-6; James 1:18), the result of God at work in the world.
So God's world is an orderly world, superbly planned to provide for man's continued existence and prosperity, and dependent on God's gift of rain. And it should be noted that the illustration is one that would readily spring to the mind of someone writing in Palestine, where all depended on rain, but not so in Babylon where he would have spoken of irrigation channels and rivers, and snow would have been very unlikely.
But the word that goes out from God does not just produce a semi-automatic response like nature does in its response to rain, it is living and active, it does what He pleases, it accomplishes what He wills. It is positive and powerful and subject always to His purposes and His control. But it does bring men spiritually to birth and it does feed men's lives. And it does bring about all His will. And nothing can thwart it. And its process has been especially described from chapter 41 to this present chapter. The Servant is uniquely God's word going forth.
‘For you will go forth with joy,
And be led forth in peace,
The mountains and the hills will break forth before you into singing,
And all the trees of the field will clap their hands,
Instead of the thorn will come up the fir tree,
And instead of the briar will come up the myrtle tree,
And it will be to Yahweh for a name,
For an everlasting sign that will never be cut off.
And the result will be joy and peace and rejoicing. We note here that ideally man both goes forth and is led forth. On the one hand he is in control of his activity, he is free, but on the other he is subject to control, he is led. And the wise men, as these are, ensure that when they are led they are led by God. The verb ‘go forth', as used also in Isaiah 55:11, is neutral. It simply means ‘go'. It has no necessary exilic connections. The going forth is of God's people through all eternity just as that into which they go forth also symbolises the heavenly Paradise.
Here the thought is of godly men. As they ‘go forth' they will be filled with joy, and they will be led forth in peace. These are the two great blessings of redeemed man. Joy is the expression of what he has received, peace is its core. It is to peace that we have been brought, peace with God, peace from God, the peace of God; reconciled to Him, at one with Him, inwardly enjoying what He is to us and what He has given us, and all through the work of the Servant (Isaiah 53:5; Isaiah 54:10). These blessings all come to us through His covenant of peace (Isaiah 54:10). Peace is an Isaianic key word and is central to the coming everlasting glory (Isaiah 9:6-7; Isaiah 26:3; Isaiah 26:12; Isaiah 27:5; Isaiah 32:17-18; Isaiah 45:7; Isaiah 48:18; Isaiah 48:22; Isaiah 52:7; Isaiah 53:5; Isaiah 54:10; Isaiah 54:13; Isaiah 57:2; Isaiah 57:19; Isaiah 57:21; Isaiah 59:8; Isaiah 66:12).
It is in this context that we are to work out our own salvation with greatest care, because it is God Who is at work in us to will and to do of His good pleasure (Philippians 2:12-13). And it will come to its glorious final fulfilment when we are presented before Him, holy, unblameable and unreproveable in His sight (Colossians 1:22).
And as they are led forth by God they will finally sing. Yes, even the mountains and hills will break out in singing, and the fields will accompany it with the clapping of hands. It will be like one great festival. And the curse of Eden will be reversed. The briars and the thorns will be replaced by glorious evergreen trees, and the whole transformation of creation will fully enhance God's reputation, it will be to Him for a name, and it will be an everlasting sign, a symbol of His triumph similar to the monuments of the great kings, that in His case will not be cut off or toppled. Here is something that will last for ever bringing great glory to God. So is the work of the Servant fulfilled.
Note carefully the everlastingness of it all. Everlastingness is constantly in Isaiah's mind and vocabulary. Not for him some temporary future state, but a state that lasts for all eternity.
Such promises as we find here, and in for example Isaiah 41:19; Isaiah 35:1-2, and such calling on creation to sing as we find in Isaiah 44:23; Isaiah 49:13; Isaiah 52:9, arise from the consciousness, which was common to both prophets and apostles, that those who truly know their God will joy with joy unspeakable and full of glory (1 Peter 1:8), and that one day the whole creation will share in the liberty of the glory of the children of God (Romans 8:21). They describe both the continual blessing which the redeemed will experience as they enjoy eternal life in this life (John 5:24; John 10:10; 1 John 5:13), and above all as they enjoy the wonderful perfection of eternity.
Final note on the Servant.
To us is the privilege of a full understanding of Who the Servant is and what His ministry and function would be. But the genius of Isaiah lies in the fact that his words could be an encouragement to his people even before the Servant came. They could still hear the call and encouragement of Yahweh to be His Servant in their time. They could still look forward with joy and hope towards the coming King. Through the centuries before Christ came his ideas were a continual encouragement to His people. They were the seed of Abraham His friend. But now for us who have seen the glorious fulfilment it is a joy beyond all measure. God having provided some better thing for us, that without us they could not have been made perfect (Hebrews 11:40). For we are the seed of His even Greater Friend. ‘I will no longer call you servants, I will call you friends' (John 15:15). End of note.