Wednesday
Morning
- Ps. 22, 23, 24, Is. 49, 1 John 1:1-9
Evening
- Ps. 48, 117, Is. 54:1-10, Acts 28:23
Commentary,
Isaiah 49
Here
we see God's promise to end the Jewish captivity. They have been forcefully moved to Babylon
and other countries by their captors, and this has been purposed by God because
of their sin. But His anger does not
last forever, and He remember mercy, even in wrath. He will return the Jews to Judea by His
powerful and graceful hand. They
"shall come from afar: and, lo, these from the north and from the west;
and these from the land of shinim" (49:12). Their numbers will be far greater than
before. Areas now uninhabited wastelands
because of the desolation of war will be too small to hold the numbers of their
people. They will say, "The place
is too straight (small and narrow) for me; give place (land, room) to me that I
may dwell" (49:20).Gentiles will bring the children of Israel (49:22) and
will enable and aid them to return.
Gentiles will also join themselves to them, and become heirs with them
in the salvation of God. They will bring
them and they will also come themselves (49:6-7).
This
will be made possible by a mysterious Person sent from God to accomplish
it. He will be formed in the womb to
bring Jacob to God again (49:5). Nor
will His ministry end with the Jews, for He shall be a light to the Gentiles,
and accomplish salvation "unto the end of the earth" (49:6).
Obviously,
the passage looks forward to much more than the physical return from
Babylon. It pictures a spiritual return
to God that begins with the Jews and extends to people in all parts of the
world. The One who accomplishes this is
none other than Christ Jesus, and the salvation written of in these verses is ultimately
His Kingdom of grace.
