The Day of Salvation: Isaiah 25-35 (6)

Pray Psalm 98.1, 2.
Oh, sing to the LORD a new song!
For He has done marvelous things;
His right hand and His holy arm have gained Him the victory.
The LORD has made known His salvation;
His righteousness He has revealed in the sight of the nations.

Read Isaiah 34, 35.

Reflect.
1. The judgment of God against the nations is described as indignationand vengeanceand recompense. What is the sense of each of these?

2. The coming salvation and restoration of the Lord is far-reaching. How many different applications of God’s great salvation can you identify in chapter 35?

Meditate.
These two chapters are a fitting summary of Isaiah’s ministry thus far. On the one hand is the message that God is coming to exercise justice and judgment against the nations of the earth for their transgressions against Him. God is indignantagainst the nations (34.2); their sins have highly offended Him, for He has been good and patient toward them in many ways. His judgment is an act of vengeancefor their violence against Him and His people, and of recompense in paying out to them the wages of their sins (34.8). His judgment against those who oppose Him will be devastating, total, and permanent. 

Here Isaiah points both to the imminent judgment, coming under the power of Nebuchadnezzar, and to a day of judgment beyond the immediate present. He looks through the one to warn of a more distant, comprehensive, and final day of judgment to come.

On the other hand, the promise of a coming day of salvation is enlarged in chapter 35, showing how great and far-reaching is the grace of God when He comes to save His people. When God comes with His saving mercy and grace, the creation will be restored and will abound in fruitfulness (35.1, 2, 7). The glory of God will be evident on every hand (v. 2). The weak and feeble will be restored to strength (vv. 3-6), and praise will redound throughout the land. The Highway of the Lord will be clear, open, and safe for all who seek Him and His holiness (vv. 8, 9). And those who have come to know the redemption of the Lord shall walk that path with great joy and gladness (vv. 9, 10). Sorrow and sighing will be no more.

Here again, Isaiah is looking past the time of captivity in Babylon to Israel’s return to the land of promise. He is also looking to “that day” when God will do an unusual work to redeem His people and remove His wrath from them. And he is pointing even further down the corridor of time to a day when sorrow and sighing will no longer be part of the experience of God’s people.

Isaiah will further elaborate this great promise in subsequent chapters.

The hinge for these two chapters is Isaiah 34.16, 17. This passage closes a door to one group of people and opens it widely to others. God has spoken. He has written down His Word, both of judgment and salvation. None of His words shall fail; each shall come to pass just as God has spoken. The door of God’s mercy slams shut against those who reject His Word, but opens wide to those who receive His Word. We do well to search and read these promises, so that we will seek the Highway of the Lord and dwell in the land of His promises forever.

Prepare.
1. How would you describe God’s attitude toward His Word? Why has He given it to us? What does He intend us to do with it?

2. How should we expect to know the great salvation of our Lord? That is, what should our experience of this salvation include? How much of our lives does this great salvation address?

3. What is the Lord’s Highway of Holiness? How does one travel this Highway? Why should we travel it, and what can we expect if we do?

I ask you to consider the condition of the other life, so far as it is possible to consider it; for no words will suffice for an adequate description. But from the things which are told us, as if by means of certain riddles, let us try and get some indistinct vision of it. “Pain and sorrow and sighing,” we read, “have fled away.” What then could be more blessed than this life? John Chrysostom (344-407 AD), Letter to the Fallen Theodore 1.11

Show me the great scope and promise of Your salvation, Lord, and help me to lay firmer hold on that salvation by…

Pray Psalm 98.
This is a psalm of joyous anticipation, looking forward to the restoration of the world to its good and upright condition before the Lord. How can this psalm lead you in thinking about they day ahead? To whom can you share the Good News of salvation? What opportunities for expressing the joy of the Lord are before you today?

Sing to the Lord.
Psalm 98 (Duke Street: Come, Let Us Sing unto the Lord)
Come, let us sing unto the Lord new songs of praise with one accord!
Wonderful things our God has done: Jesus has our salvation won!

Now is God’s saving mercy known; His glory to the world is shown.  
Faithful and kind is God our Lord; earth has the Name of Jesus heard.

Raise to the Lord your loudest voice! Break forth and sing! Rejoice! Rejoice!
Praise, praise to You our God and King, with all our hearts and strength we bring!

Now let the whole creation ‘round burst into song with joyous sound!
Jesus will come to judge the earth; let all proclaim His matchless worth!

T. M. Moore

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Forward today’s lesson to some friends, and challenge them to study with you through this series on Isaiah. Each week’s lessons will be available as a free PDF download at the end of the week. Get a copy for yourself and send the link for the download to your friends. Plan to meet weekly to study Isaiah’s important message.

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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. All psalms for singing adapted from The Ailbe Psalter. All quotations from Church Fathers from Ancient Christian Commentary Series, General Editor Thomas C. Oden (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2006).All psalms for singing are from The Ailbe Psalter (available by clicking here).