Listen Up - C. R. Oliver (best romance books of all time TXT) 📗

(v. 19). He cares for His people (v. 22). 

(O nations, woe to you to whom He passes that terrible cup of trembling--those of you who have trampled the covenant people! The cup of trembling is both in dread of its fury and its permanent effect. Somehow, the majority of the world is about to experience what it means to "receive the cup." Holiness Ones drink the cup of covenant [the Lord's supper], but the nations that have made themselves the enemy of God will drink the cup of wrath. ) 

Chapter 52:

This chapter contains one of the most quoted verses in Scripture,

Isaiah 52:7
7 How beautiful upon the mountains 
Are the feet of him who brings good news,
Who proclaims peace,
Who brings glad tidings of good things,
Who proclaims salvation,
Who says to Zion,
"Your God reigns!"
NKJV

(This passage is surrounded with challenges, promises and promotions from the Lord.) 

At the beginning of the chapter, the Lord is shown calling His people to a new level and position among the nations. The chapter ends with a picture of the death of Jesus and the poignant and graphic depiction of His visage. 

With this verse comes a refreshing "new persona" for His covenant people. Instead of wrath, discouragement and sinful failure, they must arouse themselves, for they have a change of clothing like Zechariah 4. The filthy garments are laid aside and the pure ones of grace are put on.

Isaiah 52:1
Wake up, wake up, Jerusalem, and clothe yourselves with strength 
Put on your beautiful clothes, O Zion, Holy City;

They must awaken and rise up to become the Holy City they were destined to be, clothed in God's strength and beautiful attire. A huge promise follows this admonition which tells us this is yet a future event. In other words, "Wake up to who you are!" This could well be the message to the body of Christ for today. 

Some promises attend the re-clothing.

Isaiah 52:1
Sinners--those who turn from God--will no longer enter your gates.
TLB

Again, God issued a command to, "Rise Up, from the dust"

Isaiah 52:2
Rise from the dust, Jerusalem; take off the slave bands from your neck, O captive daughter of Zion

Beaten down, bruised, vilified and so accustomed to the slave status, the people of God have taken on the manner and character of the "downtrodden (being labeled the 'captive daughter of Zion')." It is up to them to take off the "slave bands." With the Lord, their status has already been changed; it is up to them to awaken to it and remove their slave bands.

Isaiah52:3-4
3 For the Lord says, "When I sold you into exile, I asked no fee from your oppressors; now I can take you back again and owe them not a cent! 4 My people were tyrannized without cause by Egypt and Assyria, and I delivered them."

"Tyrannized Without Cause" would make a great book title chronicling the history of God's people. 

In this passage, God takes responsibility for punishing His people for their waywardness. He sold them to their oppressors (Egypt and Assyria) without monetary exchange. He delivered them once from those oppressors, and now they are enslaved again (by Babylon). In a few verses from now, He will tell them to shed the character of Babylon and be free again. 

(O Church, from how many things have you been delivered, but once again are enslaved? Rise up and awaken to your place in Him. Throw off the chains of bondage and repent of being less than God planned.)

Isaiah 52:5-6
5 "And now, what is this?" asks the Lord. "Why are my people enslaved againand oppressed without excuse? Those who rule them shout in exultation, and My Name is constantly blasphemed day by day. 6 Therefore I will reveal My Name to My people, and they shall know the power in that Name. Then at last they will recognize that it is I, yes, I, who speaks to them."
TLB

Transforming power lies in that Name! 

Abram experienced the Yahweh change as The "Eternal Breath" breathed upon him and changed him to Abraham (part of the name being "ah"[the breathe]). Sara was changed to Sarah. Moses heard from the great "I Am." All the names of God from the Old Testament change to one name: Jesus! THERE IS POWER in that Name! (If there are other "name additions," given by the Lord, we must wait to hear them [for He promised to "reveal" them]). In the book of Acts, the "upper-roomers" did exploits in the power of that name. 

(Ah! Church, there is still power in the Name. Use it!)

Isaiah 52:7-10
7 How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of those who bring the happy news of peace and salvation, the news that the God of Israel reigns. 8 The watchmen shout and sing with joy, for right before their eyes they see the Lord God bring His people home again. 9 Let the ruins of Jerusalem break into joyous song, for the Lord has comforted his people; He has redeemed Jerusalem. 10 The Lord has bared His holy arm before the eyes of all the nations; the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.
TLB

The King James Bible waxes poetic with verse seven and is quoted often-mostly in accolade to those bearing the message in foreign settings as missionaries or to ministers in general. However, the chief element of the message is, "the God of Israel reigns." How truly beautiful are the feet of them, who, in purity and truth, bring souls into the fullness of the gospel. All too often, it is not this message that is transmitted to the "evangelized." (I have encountered all kinds of doctrines brought alongside the central message of the gospel. The feet that carried such error are not beautiful.) The watchman, presiding over the ruins of Jerusalem, saw "before their eyes" the people of God returning from captivity. The redemption of Jerusalem has been and will be forever a focal point of history. (All these passages have both historic and future dimensions. Once again, Jerusalem is front and center of world affairs.) 

Verse 10 is about to explode on a scale which has never been seen before ("The ends of the earth will "see" the salvation of our God!")

Isaiah 52:11-12
11 Go now, leave your bonds and slavery. Put Babylon and all it represents far behind you--it is unclean to you. You are the holy people of the Lord; purify yourselves, all you who carry home the vessels of the Lord. 12 You shall not leave in haste, running for your lives; for the Lord will go ahead of you, and He, the God of Israel, will protect you from behind. 
TLB

Babylon is not just a place; it was and is a way of life. Some call today's economic base "A Babylonian system," because of society's belief that man can provide mankind all that is needed for life, both physically and emotionally. Such philosophy denies the need for God. 

Israel was told to put the "Babylonian way of life" behind them as unclean. They must see themselves as a "Holy" people. (The modern church would do well to heed these words). 

The Lord's protection hovers around His covenant people. As they move away from Babylon and come home, they will not have to leave hurriedly, as in Egypt. There will be time to engage a new lifestyle. Holy people need to know that God is "in the change" for them. He promised to be "ahead" and "behind them (As you and I move into Holiness, He is there to guide our path and be our "rereward [KJV)])." 

Beginning with verse 15, and continuing through to the end of Isaiah's prophetic words, is a graphic picture of Jesus as Messiah.

Isaiah 52:13-53:1
See, My Servant shall prosper; He shall be highly exalted. 14 Yet many shall be amazed when they see Him--yes, even far-off foreign nations and their kings; they shall stand dumbfounded, speechless in his presence. For they shall see and understand what they had not been told before. They shall see My Servant beaten and bloodied, so disfigured one would scarcely know it was a person standing there. So shall he cleanse many nations.

Though this passage needs little explanation, it has certain elements needful to enjoin. "My servant shall prosper and be highly exalted" is a historical fact-also His crucifixion. There has come a time and there will come a greater time, when the nations "will see and understand." The Bible says "had they known," they would not have crucified Him. 

Isaiah saw a suffering servant and an exalted King. 

Chapter 53:

Isaiah sounds like he is making a national confession for Israel (and the world) in this chapter. (Such a confession would suit today's marketplace globe.)

Isaiah 53:1-6
1 But, oh, how few believe it! Who will listen? To whom will God reveal His saving power? 2 In God's eyes He was like a tender green shoot, sprouting from a root in dry and sterile ground. But in our eyes there was no attractiveness at all, nothing to make us want Him. 3 We despised Him and rejected Him--a man of sorrows, acquainted with bitterest grief. We turned our backs on Him and looked the other way when He went by. He was despised, and we didn't care. 

4 Yet it was our grief He bore, our sorrows that weighed Him down. And we thought His troubles were a punishment from God, for His own sins! 5 But He was wounded and bruised for our sins. He was beaten that we might have peace; He was lashed--and we were healed! 6 We--every one of us--have strayed away like sheep! We, who left God's paths to follow our own. Yet God laid on him the guilt and sins of every one of us!
TLB

Two views of the Suffering Servant reveal the divergence between God's eyes and man's. Isaiah starts his confession with, "We despised," "we rejected," we turned our backs," "we looked the other way" and "we didn't care." 

Similarly, Isaiah also took the "our" position--just as he did with the "we." What the prophet saw, broke his heart. Isaiah understood he was also a part of the "we" and a great respondent to the "our." He bore "our grief" and carried (was weighed down with) our sorrows and beaten for our peace (Why then do we grieve, sorrow and have no peace?). 

The KJV says "by his stripes we were healed." (Why then do we struggle with disease and ill health?) 

Again, Isaiah takes on the national persona and confesses:

6 We--every one of us--have strayed away like sheep! We, who left God's paths to follow our own. Yet God laid on Him the guilt and sins of every one of us!

(Knowing all that mankind has cumulatively done [the amalgamation of every person's sin], still He makes provision and forgiveness.) 

"YET," God "laid on Him the guilt and sins of every one of us! (This message is the message that must reach the world! He is the answer to the question posed by Jesus to Peter, "Whom say ye that I am?") 

All about Jesus:

The most poignant description of the plan of God in Jesus' crucifixion surfaced in a few short verses:

Isaiah 53:7-12
7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He never said a word. He was brought as a lamb to the slaughter; and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He stood silent before the ones condemning Him. 8 From prison and trial they led Him away to His death. But who among the people of that day realized it was their sins that He was dying for--that He was suffering their punishment? 9 He was buried like a criminal, but in a rich man's grave; but He had done no wrong and had never spoken an evil word.