by Pastor Steve Ellison
As we continue our journey through the Bible, seeking out the questions the Creator has directly posed to the creatures, we find ourselves still in the book of Isaiah. God asked many related questions there. It might be easy to tire of the repetition, but that would be a mistake. I can assure you that God has a purpose for the repetition. Certainly, it is for our edification, to emphasize to us the importance of a particular truth. That seems to be because of the import and significance of the upcoming chastisement of God upon His people first at the hands of the Assyrians, followed by the Babylonians. The Creator can and will discipline and chastise His people. However, He does not stop loving them and He will always maintain a Remnant who will deliver Christ to the lost world. No one, not Assyria, not Babylon, not Rome, not Satan himself can thwart God’s purposes.
Verse 22 of Isaiah 49 begins with the familiar call to attention, “thus says the Lord.” However, the word “surely” precedes it. I think we are being warned that now would be a great time to focus. This prophetic word is from the covenant God of the Jewish people, through a Jewish prophet, to the Jewish people. However, the verse continues, “Behold, I will lift up My hand to the nations And set up My standard to the peoples; And they will bring your sons in their bosom, And your daughters will be carried on their shoulders.” (Isaiah 49:22, NASU) The message is clear. A time is coming (indeed it has come) when God will beckon and welcome Gentiles into the fold. “Your sons in their bosom” and “your daughters carried on their shoulders” surely signals a complete mingling and absolute unity in the fold.
God is going to continue the lesson with a rhetorical question. Isaiah 49:23b-25 states, Those who hopefully wait for Me will not be put to shame. “Can the prey be taken from the mighty man, Or the captives of a tyrant be rescued?” Surely, thus says the Lord, “Even the captives of the mighty man will be taken away, And the prey of the tyrant will be rescued; For I will contend with the one who contends with you, And I will save your sons. (NASU) Every child of God is called to wait in enduring hope for the promised deliverance of the Lord. Even though we cannot define deliverance and we do not know when it will come, hopefully wait we must. Can the one who belongs to God be rescued from the mighty tyrant? The answer is a resounding and emphatic yes. Without a doubt, the Creator can and will exercise authority and power over all of creation. God clearly states that He will rescue those who are in His fold. He follows that declaration with an extremely graphic illustration in Isaiah 49:26, “I will feed your oppressors with their own flesh, And they will become drunk with their own blood as with sweet wine; And all flesh will know that I, the Lord, am your Savior And your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.” (NASU)
No matter if Assyria, Babylon, Rome, or Satan is on the doorstep, there is no mighty man or tyrant who is capable of keeping God’s people (be it national Israel or the Church) captive forever. God has promised to always have a Remnant on the earth as a place for His name and He will deliver every one of them. As always, the point is that the whole world will acknowledge that the God of the Bible is worthy of worship.
