Commentaries and Other Bible Study Helps - Prayer Tents - Prayer Tents

59:14-20 Human sin is so radical that only God can redeem the guilty.

59:14-15a Guilty mankind has so rejected justice, righteousness, truth, and uprightness that godliness is persecuted. truth has stumbled in the public squares. The people no longer have any publicly acknowledged standard of truth. Falsehood is freely proclaimed and readily accepted. He who departs from evil (i.e., the evil that the people are doing) makes himself a prey (i.e., he is hunted like an animal).

59:15b-16 it displeased him . . . his own arm brought him salvation. God, who is offended by sin, is the only one able to accomplish salvation. his righteousness upheld him. His faithfulness to his covenant promises was expressed in what he did.

59:17 God displayed (put on) the powers of a fully equipped warrior. God not only forgives sin; he opposes it with all his might (cf. 42:13; 63:1-6). On the "armor of God" (Eph. 6:11-17) as the equipment of the Messiah, see note on Isa. 11:5.

59:18 According to . . . so. Perfect justice, measure-for-measure, in a final settlement. to the coastlands. There is no hiding place, however remote (cf. Amos 9:2-4).

59:19 To fear the name of the Lord is the right response to him (Deut. 28:58; Neh. 1:11; Ps. 61:5; 86:11; Mal. 4:2). This passage reflects the expectation that all kinds of people will know the Lord and fear his name (cf. 2 Chron. 6:33; Ps. 102:15; Mal. 1:11). the west . . . the rising of the sun. Opposite directions, suggesting the entire world (cf. Isa. 45:6; 52:10; Mal. 1:11). a rushing stream . . . the wind. The power of God, applied with double force.

59:20 a Redeemer. See note on 41:14. The Redeemer is the sole alternative to the wrath of God (see 59:18). Only the redemption of God saves from his wrath. In Rom. 11:26-27, Paul combines this verse (from the LXX) with Jer. 31:33 (and perhaps Isa. 27:9) to describe his hope for his ethnic kin.

59:21 And as for me. God declares his commitment to his people. My covenant with them is the messianic servant, the Redeemer of v. 20 (cf. 42:6; 49:8). My Spirit that is upon you, i.e., upon the Messiah (cf. 61:1). my words. All the words that God speaks to his people through his prophets (cf. Deut. 18:18). But the promise does not apply only to the prophets who first spoke God's words, for their offspring and their children's offspring shall also have these words and will speak them to others. This promise implies that God's people would preserve his words spoken by the prophets; this process ultimately resulted in the written words of the Bible.

60:1-22 Isaiah foresees the final glory of God's people, uniting all humanity in knowing the true God.

60:1-9 God will put his beauty upon his people, attracting the nations.

60:1 Arise, shine addresses Zion (cf. 59:20; 60:14). The bright future of God's people calls for cheerful expectancy now by faith. your light has come. Cf. 58:8. the glory of the Lord. Cf. 40:5. The false glories of mankind will finally fade away into the nothingness they really are.

60:2 God will make a clear public distinction between those who are his and those who are not his (cf. Ex. 8:22, 23; Rev. 21:10-11).

60:3 Isaiah predicts a reversal of the prestige presently given to unbelief and the shame heaped upon God's people (cf. 2:2-4; 11:10).

60:4 Lift up your eyes. Isaiah calls believers to look expectantly for many converts to the Lord entering Zion as a growing family (cf. 43:5-7; 49:18; 54:1-8; 66:18-23).

60:5-7 A wonderful reordering of society, so that the people of God become the predominant culture of the world, honored by the nations. The victory of God includes the victory of his people and the blessing of the world, as God promised (cf. Gen. 12:1-3).

60:5 the wealth of the nations shall come to you. Cf. notes on 18:7; 60:6-7; 60:8-9.

60:6-7 Midian is one of Abraham's sons (by Keturah), and Ephah is Midian's son, and Sheba his nephew (Gen. 25:1-4). From Midian and Ephah descended an Arabian tribe that dwelt east of the Red Sea in what is today northwestern Saudi Arabia. "Those from Sheba" were a people and a kingdom in southern Arabia that corresponds to modern-day Yemen. Together with the place names pertaining to two sons of Ishmael (Gen. 25:13) named in Isa. 60:7--Kedar (approximately 240 miles or 386 km northeast of Midian, still in modern Saudi Arabia) and Nebaioth (associated with the Nabateans, whose kingdom was approximately 120 miles or 193 km north of Midian, in present-day Jordan)--the verses depict an abundance of wealth and goods flooding into Zion from Israel's near and far neighbors. gold and frankincense. This is the fulfillment of the promise given in v. 5. (See further the ultimate fulfillment, prefigured in Matt. 2:11, and the final fulfillment as seen in Rev. 21:24-26.)

60:7 Isaiah uses the language of his times to portray the exalted spiritual destiny of God's people. they shall come up with acceptance on my altar. See Rom. 15:16. I will beautify my beautiful house. Ezra 7:27 uses these words to describe the mission on which the Persian king sent him to Jerusalem, portraying that mission as part of the fulfillment of this passage.

60:8-9 These that fly like a cloud are rapidly approaching foreign ships--not an invading force but a merchant fleet bringing converts devoted to the Lord, for his glory. the ships of Tarshish. See 2:16 and 23:1. The nations see in the beauty of God's people the beauty of the Holy One of Israel. He glorifies his name by glorifying the people who bear his name.

60:10-14 God will fulfill his ancient promises to Abraham.

60:10 Instead of persecuting God's people, the nations will build them up. your walls. Zion, the city of God. See Neh. 2:7-8 for a short-term "down payment" on this promise, and Acts 15:12-16 for a longer-term, spiritual fulfillment. I struck you. God had used the hostile nations to discipline his own people (cf. Isa. 10:5-6). His disciplines are never final, only remedial, but his mercies are final and endless.

60:11 Your gates shall be open continually because there will be no more war or threat of war, or even the threat of plundering by thieves (cf. 2:4; 26:1-4; 33:20-22). Cf. the new Jerusalem, Rev. 21:25.

60:12 The attitude of the nations toward God's people reveals their true attitude toward God (cf. Gen. 12:3). Serving God entails serving his people.

60:13 The glory of the nations will beautify, not profane, the worship of God. the place of my feet. I.e., the temple as his footstool on earth (cf. Ps. 99:5; 132:7; Ezek. 43:7).

60:15-22 God will reverse the present failures and sorrows of his people through the open display of his own presence forever.

60:16 The powerful people of this world will no longer trample on God's people but will care for them. This poetic imagery pictures the people of God as infants and pictures other nations--even leaders of nations--as caring for them. you shall know. God will move his people from their cynical unbelief (cf. 40:27; 49:14) to a wondering acknowledgment of him.

60:17 Instead of bronze . . . gold. See 1 Kings 10:21, 27.

60:18 Salvation and Praise portray dominant traits of Zion. Contrast 5:7.

60:19 the Lord will be your everlasting light. Cf. the new Jerusalem, Rev. 21:23.

60:21-22 The people of Zion will be righteous, not sinful; secure, not imperiled; fruitful, not disappointing; and influential, not ignored. in its time I will hasten it. The fulfillment of these promises does not await favorable historical conditions but depends directly on the act of God.