Isaiah 52:7-10/15 – The Old Testament in Seven Sentences: 6, Gospel
How are your feet this morning? I like to try to walk at least 10,000 steps, or 5 miles, a day and I sometimes have problems with my feet. I have a good friend who is a podiatrist and I have had to call on his help in the past to cut off some of the hard skin that builds up on my feet making it feel as though I am walking with pebbles in my shoes.
How are your feet this morning? I want to suggest that you too can have beautiful feet and without the aid of a scalpel!
So let's look together at these verses from Isaiah 52.
I want to begin by setting this chapter in its context within the prophecy of Isaiah.
In the first half of the book of Isaiah, the prophet wared Jerusalem and Judah that their idolatry and lack of concern for the needy was inviting God's judgment. That judgment has now fallen. The Babylonian army besieged the city of Jerusalem in 597 BC, resulting in the death of King Jehoiakim and 7,000 people being taken off into captivity in Babylon. The Babylonians installed a puppet king, Zedekiah, in Jerusalem, but when he also rebelled against the Babylonians, their army returned in 587 BC, broke down the walls of the city and destroyed the temple that had been built by Solomon. Many more of its people were again taken off into captivity in Babylon.
This had all happened two or more generations before the passage we are looking at this morning. As you can imagine, those who had been taken off into captivity longed to be able to return to their homes and to their own land. I am sure you remember the opening lines of Psalm 137:
By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept
when we remembered Zion.
And those who had been left behind in Jerusalem, the ordinary people whom the Babylonians considered not worth their attention, they longed for the day when their city and its temple – the house of God – would be rebuilt.
The prophets had spoken of God's judgment upon the people of Jerusalem and Judah because of their disobedience. But they also had a message of hope for God's people. Just as God had rescued them from Egypt many centuries earlier, so, when the time was right, he would come and rescue his people again, bringing them out of captivity and back into the Promised Land.
Let's have a look at some of these words of hope in the prophets.
Jeremiah prophesied within the city of Jerusalem in the days when it was being besieged. He spoke of the way the people's disobedience and rebellion against God will lead to captivity and exile. But he also spoke words of hope. He wrote that the day would come when God will rescue his people:
This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: “When I bring them back from captivity, the people in the land of Judah and in its towns will once again use these words: ‘The Lord bless you, you prosperous city, you sacred mountain.’ People will live together in Judah and all its towns—farmers and those who move about with their flocks. I will refresh the weary and satisfy the faint.” (Jeremiah 31:23-25)
And he goes on to describe what God will do on that day:
“This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel
after that time,” declares the Lord.
“I will put my law in their minds
and write it on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people.
No longer will they teach their neighbour,
or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’
because they will all know me,
from the least of them to the greatest,”
declares the Lord.
“For I will forgive their wickedness
and will remember their sins no more.” (Jeremiah 31:33-34)
The Lord is not only going to restore them outwardly, restoring them to their land, he will also renew them inwardly. He will not give them his law again on tablets of stone, leaving them to struggle to obey him. He will renew their hearts through the power of his Spirit at work within them so that they will know God and will be pleased to obey him. What a wonderful promise! What a wonderful hope for those who knew that they had failed to live as they should as the people of God.
The prophet Ezekiel was taken off into captivity in Babylon. But he also brought a message of hope for a captive people. He spoke of the day when the dry bones of God's people would be restored to life through the power of God's word and Spirit (Ezekiel 37). God can breathe new life into his people.
Ezekiel pictures the day when the temple will be rebuilt and God's glory will return to it as in the days of Solomon (Ezekiel 40-46). Ezekiel describes how a spring of water will flow from the altar of the temple, from the very presence of God, becoming a stream and then a torrent which will bring abundant life and healing to the land (Ezekiel 47:1-12) – just as in Genesis 2 a river flowed from Eden to water the land around.
And we find a similar message in Isaiah 40-55.
Isaiah 40 begins with the wonderful words:
Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.
Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her
that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for,
that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.
A voice of one calling:
‘In the wilderness prepare the way for the Lord;
make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low;
the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain.
And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all people will see it together.
For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.’ (Isaiah 40:1-5)
God declares that the time of his people's exile is now over. He is going to bring his people back from their captivity just as long ago he brought them out of captivity in Egypt. He will lead them through desert and mountains as he previously led them through the wilderness. The mountains will be levelled before him and the valleys filled in to remove all obstacles from before him as he leads his people back to Jerusalem as the place where his glory will dwell.
And this is the perspective from which we need to understand the verses from Isaiah 52 that formed our reading. Picture those remaining in the ruined city of Jerusalem, longing for the day when God will return to his city; the day when he will bring his people back from exile and dwell with them in glory. Imagine a watchman standing on the rubble of the city walls scanning the horizon. And then he sees a messenger running towards the city with news:
How beautiful on the mountains
are the feet of those who bring good news,
who proclaim peace,
who bring good tidings,
who proclaim salvation,
who say to Zion,
‘Your God reigns!’
Listen! Your watchmen lift up their voices;
together they shout for joy.
When the Lord returns to Zion,
they will see it with their own eyes.
Burst into songs of joy together,
you ruins of Jerusalem,
for the Lord has comforted his people,
he has redeemed Jerusalem.
The Lord will lay bare his holy arm
in the sight of all the nations,
and all the ends of the earth will see
the salvation of our God. (Isaiah 52:7-10)
And you will know that Isaiah 52 is followed by Isaiah 53 which explains how it is that the sins of God's people have been paid for and how they can be restored to God's favour. It describes a mysterious character, the Suffering Servant of the Lord and says of him:
Surely he took up our pain
and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
stricken by him, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:4-6)
We have seen that the prophets, as well as telling the people of Jerusalem and Judea that their rebellion against God had brought destruction and exile upon themselves, also bring a message of good news: God is going to rescue and restore his people. Their sins will be forgiven. They will be restored to their land. The temple will be rebuilt and God's glorious presence will be with them.
How are these prophecies fulfilled?
I want to suggest to you that they have a threefold fulfilment.
1. The return from exile
The first fulfilment came with the return from Exile. In 538 BC Babylon was conquered by the Persians and Cyrus the Great gave the Jews permission to return to their homeland and for the temple in Jerusalem to be rebuilt. Later, Nehemiah led the residents of Jerusalem in the task of rebuilding the walls of the city.
But while this return fulfilled some of the prophecies, it also fell short of all that the prophets had spoken about. There was no longer a King descended from David to reign over them. The rebuilt temple was only a pale shadow of glorious temple built by Solomon. The ark of the covenant had been lost or destroyed and the glory of God had not returned to the temple. Though many of the people had returned to their own land it was also occupied by strangers and remained under the Persian government. In many ways they felt that they were still waiting for God to come and lead them out of their captivity.
Clearly, the return from Exile failed to fulfil all that the prophets had promised.
2. The life, death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus
A larger and deeper fulfilment is to be found in the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. John the Baptist prepared the way for the coming of the Lord Jesus. Matthew tells us, using words from Isaiah 40:
This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah:
“A voice of one calling in the wilderness,
‘Prepare the way for the Lord,
make straight paths for him.’”
In Jesus, God has come to redeem his people and to lead them out of captivity into freedom. He is David's greater Son who has come to bring in a kingdom of righteousness and peace. It is through his death, the death of the Suffering Servant, that our sins are forgiven and through his resurrection from the dead that all who believe in him are given eternal life. God lives with us no longer in a temple made of stone and of wood but in the person of his Son, Immanuel, God with us. He is the one in whom God is pleased to display his glory. And by his Spirit, poured out first on the Day of Pentecost and working still in the hearts of his people, God has melted our hearts of stone and given us a heart to love and serve him. That renewing stream has flowed to us from the altar of Christ's sacrifice and flows from us to bring life and transformation to our world.
But even this is not enough. The full glory of God's return to dwell with his people has not been realised. That is still a future hope.
3. With Jesus' return
So thirdly, the promise and hope of the prophets will find its ultimate fulfilment at the return of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The prophets speak of the way in which all peoples will come to acknowledge that the God of Abraham is the living God and will come to bow the knee to the Lord Jesus Christ. They speak of the day when the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of God as the waters cover the sea. They speak of swords being turned into ploughshares and spears into pruning hooks and people studying war no more. They speak of the healing of the nations… and so much more.
The final fulfilment of these prophecies will be when the Lord Jesus Christ returns to reign over all the earth and to gather in his people from every tribe and people and language. In that day, God will wipe every tear from the eyes of his people and there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things will have passed away. In that day there will be new heavens and a new earth, the home of righteousness. God will dwell among us in all his glory; we shall see his face and shall be made fully like our risen Lord. In that day, there will be no temple for the whole of the renewed creation will be filled with God's presence and his glory. What a wonderful day that will be.
So, in closing, let me return to Isaiah 52:7-10. We are those who have a message of good news to bring to a suffering world that longs for words of comfort. We have a message to proclaim. Our God reigns. Jesus is Lord. He has conquered sin and death. In him there is forgiveness and redemption. Through faith in him we may be reconciled to the living God who made us that we might love and know him.
And we have good news for our broken and despairing world. The day is coming when Christ shall return and all things will be made new. He is our hope. He is the hope of the world.
And how shall the world hear this good news? In Romans 10:13-15 the Apostle Paul writes:
"Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”
We also are called to have beautiful feet, bringing good news and proclaiming peace to a needy world.
Will you have beautiful feet this week?
Peter Misselbrook
Quakers' Road Downend – 7/7/2024.