Isaiah Calls On His Followers To Be Watchmen And Preparers of the Way (Isaiah 62:6-12).
These words probably to be seen as the words of Isaiah, although they could till be the words of the Anointed One. Both Isaiah and the Anointed One would seek to inspire God's people to pray.
The Appointment of Watchmen (Isaiah 62:6-9).
‘I have set watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem,
They will never hold their peace day nor night,
You who are Yahweh's remembrancers,
Take for yourselves no rest,
And give him no rest until he establish,
And until he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth.
Isaiah calls on the true people of God to constant intercession. He has set them as watchmen on the walls of Jerusalem, perhaps literally. But ‘watchmen' could also be translated ‘guardians'. Either way they are to pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17; Luke 18:7-8). (A by-product to this would therefore be the assumption that the walls of Jerusalem are still standing, but Isaiah is not necessarily speaking literally). And they are to intercede unceasingly day and night until it is turned into the true city of God which brings praise to the earth.
This is in fact the basis of the Lord's Prayer. May your name be hallowed (by the bringing about of Your purposes - Ezekiel 36:23), may your Kingly Rule come, may Your will be done. This should be the daily burden of the churches.
In this last section of Isaiah, from the coming of the Redeemer to Zion in Isaiah 59:20 onwards, the people of God are regularly thought of in terms of Zion/Jerusalem. Thus the city is acting as a depiction of God's people in their association with their God as present among them and reigning over them. It represents ‘those who turn from transgression in Jacob' (Isaiah 59:12) who are now wrapped up in God. God's concern is not that an earthly city become famous, but that what is depicted in terms of it, His glorious presence and His powerful reign, and the conjunction with Him of the whole true people of God as His priests and servants, should bring praise throughout the earth.
Note on the Use of Israel and Zion.
Both ‘Israel' (Isaiah 1:3), and ‘the daughters of Zion' (Isaiah 1:8), were introduced to us in chapter 1 as indicating the nominal people of God in the sad state that they were in, with Israel as the epitome of disobedience, while Zion itself was the harlot city (Isaiah 1:21) which was yet destined to be redeemed and filled with converts (Isaiah 1:26-27). A third alternative name is ‘Jacob' (Isaiah 2:5). The names ‘Israel' (and ‘Jacob') necessarily connected them with their forefathers, but Zion is primarily the name in connection with the need for transformation. The idea of redemption is clearly connected with both, although with regard to ‘Israel' only in 41-49. Outside those Chapter s it largely applies to Zion/Jerusalem (Isaiah 51:11; Isaiah 52:3; Isaiah 52:9; Isaiah 59:20; Isaiah 60:16) or is used without appellation.
In regard to this it will be noted that the most extreme language used in order to depict the sinfulness and degradation of the nominal people of God is applied to them as related to ‘Zion' (Isaiah 1:21; Isaiah 3:16-17; Isaiah 4:4). Israel are disobedient, Zion is degraded.
With regard to the use of the terms from Chapter 40 onwards it can surely not be without significance and intention that after its continual use chapter by chapter, once the Servant has been stated to be the true ‘Israel' in Isaiah 49:1-6, committed to the restoring of wayward Israel, the use of ‘Israel as a direct designation ceases (it is almost solely afterwards used as a genitive and never as a direct designation of His people). Having been previously used in abundance, and in every chapter from 40-49, it is replaced by centring everything on Zion (Isaiah 49:14; Isaiah 51:3; Isaiah 51:11; Isaiah 51:16; Isaiah 52:1-2; Isaiah 52:7-8 etc), or sometimes Jacob.
Part of the reason for this is the close connection of ‘Israel' with ‘the Servant'. Israel are the seed of Abraham, and the Servant is the fulfilment of the promises made to Abraham. Once therefore ‘Israel' has come to represent the Servant as one man (Isaiah 49:3) the name Israel as a designation for the many is dropped. Another reason is that redemption from degradation fits in better with the idea of Zion.
Against the background of the whole of heaven and earth it is now ‘Zion' which epitomises Israel/Judah who are represented by it as ‘My people' (Isaiah 51:16). Interestingly from chapter Isaiah 52:13 onwards, when the Servant suffers for His people, until mention of His return as Redeemer (Isaiah 59:20), no designation is used, the people simply being connected with Jacob (Isaiah 58:1; Isaiah 58:14). They are ‘the barren one' (Isaiah 54:1). Then from Isaiah 59:20 onwards, on the coming of the Redeemer, Zion is central, for Zion points to the everlasting future. It is destined to be the heavenly city, the everlasting city (Isaiah 60:19-21). In the thought of Isaiah Zion is to be Yahweh's city, in which He makes known His presence among His people (Isaiah 24:23; Isaiah 26:1-4; Isaiah 2:2-4; Isaiah 4:2-6), in contrast with the world city (Isaiah 24:10; Isaiah 24:12; Isaiah 26:5-6), the city of idolatry (Isaiah 47:8-13). But Zion is nowhere directly called ‘the Servant'. It represents the sinful city which becomes the dwellingplace of Yahweh among His redeemed people, and incorporates those redeemed people, thus fulfilling the witnessing task of the Servant.
End of Note.
‘You who are Yahweh's remembrancers.' These ‘remembrancers', those who call on God to remember His promises, and who remind God of the state of His people and of the world, are, in a similar way to the Anointed One (Isaiah 62:1), to take no rest until God's purposes are brought about and He is honoured through His true people.
Note the true purpose of prayer and its emphasis, and the requirement for continuance in it. When Jesus gave us the Lord's Prayer the first part was concentrated on such intercession, that God's name be hallowed (sanctified) through the bringing about of His purposes (compare Ezekiel 36:23), that God's Kingly Rule might come and that His will might be done on earth, as in Heaven. That was His concentration. He was one of Yahweh's remembrancers.
He stressed indeed that prayer for our general lifestyle was not necessary because our Father knew of our daily needs. And this emphasis was carried on into the rest of the New Testament. How different His emphasis from many a prayer list today. God graciously allows our prayers but they are often a sign of our immaturity in faith.
So God's true people are called on to be Remembrancers, to be watchmen for God, and to cry to God day and night for the final bringing about of His purposes.
‘Yahweh has sworn by his right hand,
And by the arm of his strength,
Surely I will no more give your corn,
To be food for your enemies,
And strangers will not drink your wine,
For which you have laboured,
But those who have garnered it will eat it,
And praise Yahweh,
And those who have gathered it will drink it,
In the courts of my sanctuary.'
There is no more heartbreaking situation than to have laboured and then to find the fruits of that labour unfairly wrested from us by another. But the world is a place of greed and selfishness, and there are always those who will strive to obtain what is not theirs. It was the constant experience of small nations. None experienced this more than Judah in Isaiah's time as Assyria again and again entered the territory of Judah in predatory raids, preparatory to the invasion that resulted in the investment of Jerusalem, and no doubt similar raids also came later, partly through Babylon, prior to Manasseh's submission.
However, that will not be so in God's new world. There selfishness and greed will have been done away. Predatory enemies will have ceased. Each person will enjoy the fruits of his life and activity in the presence of God. It will be Paradise restored. The symbolic nature of the promises is brought out in that all consumption of wine is to be in the courts of His sanctuary. This could not be literal. The thought was rather that wherever they were they would drink it as in the presence and conscious awareness of their Protector, just as those who ate would praise Yahweh. For they would live in the presence of God.
The Call To Readiness And The Certainty of Fulfilment (Isaiah 62:10-12).
Isaiah finishes this section from Isaiah 61:1 onwards with a call to respond to God's initiative. His people are to prepare the way, ready for God to act.
‘Go through, go through the gates,
Prepare the way of the people,
Cast up, cast up the highway, gather out the stones,
Lift up a banner for the peoples.'
While the work of salvation is all of God it is the privilege of His people to have their part to play in it. They are to prepare the way for Him to act. Thus they are not to sit in their Jerusalem but are to go outside the gates and prepare the way for the return to God of those who are scattered. Zion is to make a way back to Zion. They are to build up the highway, remove stumblingblocks, and raise a banner calling the people to come. Theirs is the work of evangelism. The double repetition stresses the urgency of the task. Note the active participation required. They are to put great effort into making the way for people as easy as possible by every means at their command.
But the requirement is not literal. The preparation is to be spiritual preparation. If God's people are to come to Him the way must be prepared.
‘Behold Yahweh has proclaimed to the end of the earth,
“Say to the daughter of Zion,
Behold your salvation comes.”,
Behold his reward is with him,
And his recompense before him,
And they will call them the holy people,
The redeemed of Yahweh,
And you will be called Sought Out,
A city not forsaken.'
Note God's call to the end of the earth. The scattered exiles around the world, ‘the daughter of Zion', are to be informed (by whom we are not told. Possibly Isaiah sent messengers to leaders of communities) that the time of Yahweh's deliverance is coming. Note the threefold repetition of ‘behold'. It is a startling event. They are to ‘behold' Yahweh's proclamation. They are to ‘behold' the coming Deliverer and His deliverance. And they are to ‘behold' what blessings the Deliverer has obtained in His people.
‘Behold your salvation comes.' This salvation is a ‘He'. The One Who comes is the author of their salvation and its mediator. He is the One Who bore their transgressions and offered Himself a guilt offering on their behalf (Isaiah 53:1-12). He is the One Who makes them to be accounted righteous (Isaiah 53:11). He is the One Who saves by His mighty arm (Isaiah 59:17; Isaiah 62:8)
His call is worldwide. All God's people are to be stirred. The Saviour is coming to receive His reward and recompense, and those who respond will thus become the holy people, the redeemed of Yahweh. Then they will seek out Zion, which will be called Sought Out, the city not forsaken. Pictured in terms of one huge return from exile of a believing people, something which as far as we know only marginally occurred after the Exile, and never since, we have rather a picture of what would be the result of the coming of Salvation in Jesus, and the spread of the Gospel, with those responding coming to the heavenly equivalent of Zion, the truly free Zion (Galatians 4:26; Hebrews 12:22), and there being made holy as the redeemed of Yahweh. They will have come home to Zion (Galatians 4:26; Hebrews 12:22).