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One-sentence summary: The Lord says He will be a Savior to Israel and promises to bring back His true people.
The Lord speaks comfort to His people. He says Jerusalem's warfare has ended, and that her iniquity is pardoned, because she has "received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins." "The voice of one crying in the wilderness, 'Prepare the way of the Lord! Make straight in the desert a highway for our God!' Every valley will be exalted, and every mountain and hill brought low. The crooked places will be made straight, and the rough places, smooth. The glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all flesh will see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken." "All flesh is as grass, and all its loveliness like the flower. The grass withers, and the flower fades." However, "The word of the Lord stands forever." Zion and Jerusalem will bring good tidings, so the Lord implores them to lift up their voice with strength and say to Judah, "Behold, your God! Behold, the Lord God will come with a strong hand, and His arm will rule for Him. Behold! His reward is with Him, and His reward before Him. He will feed His flock like a shepherd. He will gather the lambs in His arm and carry them in His bosom." "Who has made the heavens and measured the sand? Who has directed or taught the Lord so as to be His counselor?" Did anyone teach Him justice, knowledge, or understanding? The nations are like "a drop in the bucket and a piece of dust in His scales." They are as nothing before Him and counted as less than nothing and worthless. "To whom can you compare God?" To the idol makers, the Lord says, "Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers... Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in. He brings the princes to nothing. He makes the judges of the earth useless." The Lord asks who is His equal. He alone is the creator, Who "brings out the stars and calls them all by name." "Why do you say, oh Jacob, and speak, oh Israel, 'My way is hidden from the Lord?' and, 'My just claim is passed over by my God.' Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the Earth, neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might, he increases strength. Even the youths will faint and grow weary, and the young men will utterly fall, but those who wait on the Lord will renew their strength. They will mount up with wings like eagles. They will run and not be weary; they will walk and not faint."
The Lord tells the coastlands to keep silence before Him, then to come near and speak. He tells them to come near for judgement. "I, the Lord, am the first, and with the last, I am He." Jacob is the Lord's servant, whom He has chosen. He tells Jacob, "Fear not, for I am with you. Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. Yes, I will help you. I will uphold you with My righteous right hand." All his enemies will be ashamed and perish. They will seek them and not find them. Those who war against them will be as nothing because the Lord will hold his right hand, telling him, "'Fear not. I will help you. Fear not, you worm, Jacob, you men of Israel. I will help you,' says the Lord and your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel." The will beat down the mountains and the hills and rejoice in the Lord and glory in the Holy One of Israel. "The poor and needy seek water, but there is none... I the Lord will hear them. I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them. I will open rivers in desolate heights and fountains in the midst of the valleys. I will make the wilderness a pool of water and the dry land, springs of water." He will plant trees in the desert that they may know that the hand of the Lord has done it and that the Holy One of Israel has created it.
The Lord tells Israel to present her case and consider the former things so they we may know the latter end to them or declare things to come, that "we may know that they are gods." "Either do good or evil," He tells them. The Lord has raised up One from the north who will call on His name and come against princes like the potter treads clay. "Who has declared from the beginning that we may know? Or the former times that we may say, 'He is righteous?'" The Lord will give to Jerusalem One who brings good tidings. As for those who worship idols, "They are all worthless. Their works are nothing. Their molded images are wind and confusion."
"Behold, My Servant, Whom I uphold, My elect One in Whom My Soul delights. I have put My Spirit upon Him. He will bring forth justice to the gentiles. He will not cry out nor raise His voice, nor cause His voice to be heard in the street. A bruised reed, He will not break, and smoking flax, He will not quench. He will bring forth justice for truth. He will not fail nor be discouraged til He has established justice in the earth, and the coastlands will wait for His law. Thus says God the Lord Who created the heavens and stretched them out, Who spread forth the earth and that which comes from it, Who gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk on it, 'I the Lord have called you in righteousness and will hold your hand. I will keep you and give you as a covenant to the people, as a light of the Gentiles to open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the prison who sit in darkness from the prison house.' I am the Lord. That is My name, and My glory I will not give to another, nor My praise to carved images. Behold, the former things have come to pass, and new things I declare. Before they spring forth, I tell you of them." Isaiah says, "Sing to the Lord a new song, and His praise from the ends of the earth!" Let all sing and rejoice, shouting for joy, giving glory to the Lord and declaring His praise. "The Lord will go forth like a mighty man. He will stir up His zeal like a man of war. He will cry out, yes, shout aloud. He will prevail against His enemies." The Lord says He has been still and restrained Himself and held His peace for a long time, but now, He will cry out like a woman in labor, and He will dry up the waters and lay waste the mountains and hills. He says, "I will bring the blind by a way they did not know. I will lead them in paths they have not know. I will make darkness light before them and crooked places straight." He will not forsake them, but whoever trusts in images will be greatly ashamed. "Hear, you deaf! and look, you blind, that you may see! Who is blind but My servant? or deaf as My messenger whom I send? Who is blind as he who is perfect and blind as the Lord's servant? Seeing many things- but you do not observe, opening the ears, but he does not hear... This is a people robbed and plundered. All of them are snared in holes... hidden in prison houses. They are for prey, and no one delivers, for plunder, and no one says, 'Restore!'" He asks who will listen to this, and who gave them to the plunderers but the Lord, because they sinned and would not walk in His ways and disobeyed His law, so He poured on them the fury of His anger, but still, they did not take it to heart.
"'But now,' thus says the Lord Who created you, oh Jacob, and He Who formed you, oh Israel: 'Fear not, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by name, and you are Mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and through the rivers, they will not overtake you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned, nor will the flames scorch you, for I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, Your Savior. I gave Egypt for your ransom... since you were precious in My sight, you have been honored, and I have loved you. Therefore, I will give men for you and people for your life. Fear not, for I am with you. I will bring your descendants from the East and gather you from the West. I will say to the North, 'Give them up!" and to the South, 'Do not keep them back! Bring My sons from afar, and My daughters from the ends of the earth! Everyone who is called by My name, who I am created for My glory. I have formed him, yes. I have made him... Bring out the blind people who have eyes and the deaf who have ears. Let all the nations gather together, and let the people be assembled. Who among them can declare this and show us former things?... You are My witnesses, says the Lord, and My servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe me and understand that I am He. Before Me, there was no God formed, nor will there be after Me. I, even I, am the Lord, and besides Me there is no Savior. I have declared and saved. I have proclaimed, and there was no foreign god among you. Therefore, you are My witnesses that I am God. Indeed, before the day was, I am He, and there is no one who can deliver out of My hand. I work, and who will reverse it?... Thus says the Lord your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, 'For your sake, I will send to Babylon and bring them all down as fugitives.'" The Lord makes a way in the sea and a path through the mighty waters. He tells His people, "Do not remember the former things nor consider the things of old. Behold! I will do a new thing. Now it will spring forth. Shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert." The Lord gives water in the wilderness and rivers in the desert, to give drink to His people whom He has formed for Himself and who will declare His praise. But Jacob has not called upon the Lord, and Israel has been weary of Him. They have burdened the Lord with their sins and wearied Him with their iniquities. He says, "I, even I, am He who blots our your transgressions for My own sake, and I will not remember your sins. Put Me in remembrance."
Thoughts/discussion questions:
There are so many beautiful passages here that I have quoted many of them in full. My favorite is, "When you pass through the waters..." God's promises are for you in Christ.