A Commentary on Isaiah, Part 53: The Redeemed of Yahweh

A Commentary on Isaiah, Part 53: The Redeemed of Yahweh

In Isaiah chapter 41 the Word of Yahweh turned from the events surrounding Judah and Jerusalem, and began to address the isles and coastlands, which are the places where the children of Israel would be found after the time of the Assyrian captivities. Many had also escaped Palestine by sea, and others had settled the Mediterranean coasts much sooner, which we had discussed in relation to The Burden of Tyre much earlier in Isaiah’s writing, where Yahweh had also admonished them, that they would not be forgotten. However, from that chapter forward, the context in the narrative of Isaiah really has no clear break until the opening verse of chapter 49, where the Word of Yahweh once again begins to addresses the same people and says “Listen, O isles, unto me; and hearken, ye people, from far,” so even that is not really a break in the context at all but seems to be more of a reminder of who it is that He is addressing. Then, while He had addressed the isles and coastlands, at the same time Yahweh continually addressed Jacob and Israel, so they remain His subject and concern throughout Isaiah, and it cannot be imagined that He is speaking to any people other than Israel in captivity. None of the promises found throughout these chapters of Isaiah are relevant to any other people. The isles or coastlands who would await His law and His light are the places where He had expected to find the children of Israel. 

This is illustrated even further where chapter 50 opens, and the children of Israel in captivity are challenged to produce their mother’s bill of divorcement, their mother being an allegory for their nation, and again here in chapter 51 where in the opening verses they are told to look to their ancestors, Abraham and Sarah. So nearly eight hundred years after the time of Isaiah, when Paul of Tarsus had written his epistle to the Romans, he explained in Romans chapter 4 that the promise the Abraham’s seed had already become many nations by his time was fulfilled “as it is written”, and he told his readers that Abraham was their forefather, according to the older Greek manuscripts, or their father, in the medieval Byzantine manuscripts, “as pertaining to the flesh”, so Abraham was their natural, genetic forefather, as well as the forefather of the remnant of Judah in Judaea. The Israelites of the captivity who had forsaken the law, for which reason they were sent into captivity, had become the “uncircumcision” of Paul’s epistles, while the Israelites of Judaea who had aspired to keep the law were the “circumcision” of his epistles. 

In our last presentation, The Comfort of Zion, discussing the opening verses of Isaiah chapter 51, we are not finished with that message of comfort, but in relation to those opening verses of this chapter, we already hope to have illustrated the fact that the entire basis for the comfort of Zion, in spite of all of the grievous sins of the children of Israel, is found in the unconditional covenants and promises which Yahweh God had made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, as well as to Sarah and Rebekah. That is what Paul of Tarsus had endeavored to explain in Romans chapter 4, and it is also something to which Paul had also made an explicit reference in Romans chapter 9, and which is declared in several places in the opening chapters of the Gospel of Luke. 

So we shall read from Romans chapter 9, from where Paul had prayed only for his kinsmen according to the flesh, for those to whom the covenants and promises had belonged, and he said: 

7 Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called. 8 That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed. 9 For this is the word of promise, At this time will I come, and Sara shall have a son. 10 And not only this; but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac; 11 (For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;) 12 It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger. 13 As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.

For this same reason, when she had informed her cousin of her expectation of a child, as it is recorded in Luke chapter 1, Mary had made an announcement where she declared, in part, that: 

54 He hath holpen his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy; 55 As he spake to our fathers, to Abraham, and to his seed for ever.

Then later in the same chapter, Zacharias the father of John the Baptist made a similar announcement in relation to the birth of his own son, and expressed the hope:

71 That we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us; 72 To perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant; 73 The oath which he sware to our father Abraham,

The basis for their beliefs in the purpose of the promised Messiah is found here in Isaiah, in many of the promises and prophecies in his writing, but especially in the words of this chapter, where the children of Israel are informed to look back unto Abraham and Sarah as the reason for the comfort of Zion. So in Luke chapter 2, where the elderly Simeon had his long-awaited opportunity to see the Christ as a child, he is recorded as having declared, from the Christogenea New Testament: 

29 Now release Your servant, Master, in peace according to Your word: 30 Because my eyes have seen Your Salvation, 31 which You have prepared in front of all the people: 32 a light for the revelation of the Nations and honor of Your people Israel!

Over the subsequent centuries, once they had accepted Christianity and turned back to Yahweh their God in Yahshua Christ, the revelation of the nations of the children of Israel was indeed manifest. There, both in the opening chapters of Luke and in Romans chapters 4 and 9, as well as in Romans chapter 15 (15:8), the apostles have fully informed us that the purpose of Christ is on account of the promises which Yahweh had made to the forefathers of the children of Israel, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. 

The denominational Christians frequently claim that Jesus alone is the seed of the promise, however in Romans chapter 9 Paul had professed that “the children of the promise are counted for the seed”, the word children being plural, and “in Isaac shall they seed be called”, not in Christ. He then related the election to the same children of Jacob, who had inherited that promise from Isaac, as it is described in Genesis chapter 28 (28:4), and he explained that Esau was hated. While we cannot recount all of the history here, it is fully evident that in the time of Christ, Edomites had dominated Judaea, and they had comprised well over half of the population. Since the time of the first Herod those Edomites also had control of the government, the temple and the priesthood. Therefore, as it is recorded in John chapter 10, Christ had told them “26 But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you.” 

Once this is fully understood, it is absolutely evident that just as Christ had done, Paul of Tarsus also upheld the teaching of the fulfillment of the promises to Abraham. So in Acts chapter 26, where he was compelled to address Herod Agrippa II, Paul is recorded as having professed that:

6 … now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers: 7 Unto which promise our twelve tribes, instantly serving God day and night, hope to come. For which hope's sake, king Agrippa, I am accused of the Jews.

Having made that statement in that manner, it is evident that when he had addressed Agrippa in 60 AD, which is the approximate date of that event, Paul had even considered the twelve tribes and the people of Judaea to have been mutually exclusive entities. This is also why, in John chapter 11, the apostle John had remarked on the declaration of the high priest, “that Jesus should die for the nation” and said: “52 And not for that nation only, but that also he should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad.” But of course, John’s understanding of why Christ had to die for the nation was far removed from the understanding of that high priest. 

Furthermore, once it is realized that Paul’s intention was to bring the message of the Gospel of Christ to the same isles and coastlands which are the subjects of these prophecies here, and that was where he had expected to find those twelve tribes for which he professed that he had labored, then it becomes evident that the New Testament is indeed for the same people who had the Old Testament, and that both New and Old Testaments are Christian books, and that they are certainly not Jewish books, because God hates Esau. The recipients of New Testament redemption are the same people to which redemption had been promised in the Old Testament, and any attempt to assign that redemption to any other people is actually an attempt to defraud Yahweh God Himself. Paul had declared in Galatians chapter 4 that Christ had come “ To redeem them that were under the law” (4:5), referring to those same Old Testament children of Israel from whom the Galatians had also descended. 

So now, as we proceed with Isaiah chapter 51, another element of the comfort of Zion is a promise that those who oppose the children of Yahweh shall be destroyed, and also that “the redeemed of Yahweh shall return”. These redeemed cannot be separated from the descendants of Israel, who can call Abraham their father, and Sarah their mother, in verse 2 of this chapter, nor can they be distinguished from the Zion of verse 16 here, where we read: “And I have put my words in thy mouth, and I have covered thee in the shadow of mine hand, that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and say unto Zion, Thou art my people.” 

Salvation and redemption were promised to Israel alone, and as we proceed with Isaiah, there are no further explicitly discernible breaks in the context until the very end of the book. Interwoven with promises of redemption for Israel are Messianic prophecies which have been, or which shall be fulfilled in Yahshua Christ. So all of these promises are for the children of Israel in captivity, who had moved to A Place of Their Own in the isles and coastlands of the north and west. Of course, we have already cited Isaiah chapter 66 (66:19) several times in the course of this commentary, and that is an explicit prophecy which fully supports these assertions here.

After Yahweh told the children of Israel to look to Abraham and Sarah, he made a promise to comfort Zion, all of her waste places, her wilderness and her desert. The pronouns for her are found in the Hebrew forms of the words as well as in the Septuagint translation, so Zion is also an allegory for the nation of Israel. The location of these waste places is not necessarily limited to Palestine. As it is found in both Jeremiah chapter 31 and in chapter 12 of the Revelation, the children of Israel had been sent into the wilderness. So in the opening verses of that chapter of Jeremiah, which is the very same chapter in which an explicit promise of the New Covenant is made, we read:

1 At the same time, saith the LORD, will I be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people. 2 Thus saith the LORD, The people which were left of the sword found grace in the wilderness; even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest.

Then in verses 4 and 5 of Isaiah chapter 51 there is a promise that a law shall proceed from God, and His judgment shall be a light of the people, where Yahweh further professed that “the isles shall wait upon me, and on mine arm shall they trust.” This is similar to an earlier promise found in these same chapters, in chapter 42, where we read in a passage which is obviously a Messianic prophecy of Christ:

1 Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the [Nations]. 2 He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. 3 A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench: he shall bring forth judgment unto truth. 4 He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till he have set judgment in the earth: and the isles shall wait for his law.

That passage was cited as having been fulfilled in Christ, in Matthew chapter 12 where after Christ had healed the withered hand of a man on the Sabbath, the apostle had written:

14 Then the Pharisees went out, and held a council against him, how they might destroy him. 15 But when Jesus knew it, he withdrew himself from thence: and great multitudes followed him, and he healed them all; 16 And charged them that they should not make him known: 17 That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, 18 Behold my servant, whom I have chosen; my beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased: I will put my spirit upon him, and he shall shew judgment to the [nations]. 19 He shall not strive, nor cry; neither shall any man hear his voice in the streets. 20 A bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench, till he send forth judgment unto victory. 21 And in his name shall the [nations] trust.

Having written those things, and having cited that passage of Isaiah in reference to Christ, it becomes evident in Matthew, as it was in Paul and in Luke, that the purpose of Christ was to fulfill the words of Isaiah as they had been spoken by Isaiah. Therefore since the words of Isaiah chapter 42 pertained only to the children of Israel, then those words of Matthew chapter 12 must also pertain only to the children of Israel, and men cannot righteously add their own feelings to the Word of God. As Paul had written in Galatians chapter 3:

15 Brethren, I speak after the manner of men; Though it be but a man's covenant, yet if it be confirmed, no man disannulleth, or addeth thereto.

Paul’s intention there was to explain the fact that if men could not justly add to a covenant of men, then they certainly could not add to a covenant of God, ostensibly seeking to do so for their own benefit – something which is implicit in the Greek text but which is missing in the King James translation. So for that same reason, two verses later Paul wrote:

17 And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect.

That is why, in his epistle to the Romans, in Romans chapter 4 Paul had written explaining that the covenant was assured to all the seed, or offspring, of Abraham, through Jacob: both to those of the law, which is the remnant of Israelites in Judaea who aspired to keep the law, and to those of the faith of Abraham, which are all the Israelites of the captivity, who were of the belief of Abraham who had believed God when he was promised that his seed, from his loins, would become many nations.

[This should not be difficult to understand, once the Word of God is plainly understood, and two thousand years of judaized propaganda is cast aside. While the world despises what we refer to as Christian Identity, it truly despises the teaching of the precise fulfillment of all the promises of God which is in Christ. Christ is not the recipient of the promises, but the Fulfillment, as well as having been the Mediator declaring that Fulfillment.] 

Finally, in our last presentation here in Isaiah we had left off with verse 7 of this chapter where we read:

7 Hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law; fear ye not the reproach of men, neither be ye afraid of their revilings.

This evokes words which Christ had said in reference to His adversaries which are recorded in Luke chapter 12, and also in Matthew chapter 10 which we shall cite here, where He said:

28 And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

Where we had left off in our discussion of that verse in The Comfort of Zion, having already remarked that the law was promised by Yahweh God to have been written on the hearts of the children of Israel exclusively and in connection with the promise of a New Covenant, in Jeremiah chapter 31, we shall now continue in reference to men who would reproach those of the children of Israel who would act righteously, where the Word of Yahweh continues and He is recorded as having said:

8 For the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like wool: but my righteousness shall be for ever, and my salvation from generation to generation. 

Here Yahweh must be speaking of His enemies, both His eternal enemies and the enemies which may arise out of His Own people. Later, we also find the warnings here in verses 7 and 8 in the words of Christ as they are recorded in John chapter 15, where He said to His disciples:

18 If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. 19 If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. 20 Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. 21 But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that sent me. 22 If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloke for their sin.

23 He that hateth me hateth my Father also. 24 If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father. 25 But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause. 26 But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me: 27 And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning.

So here in Isaiah, we see that the enemies of God would hate those who keep the Word of God, and that same profession was made by Yahshua Christ. Where Christ had said that “They hated me without a cause”, while that circumstance is indeed fully evident in the Gospel accounts, it is also a reference to the words of David found in the 35th Psalm where we read:

19 Let not them that are mine enemies wrongfully rejoice over me: neither let them wink with the eye that hate me without a cause.

Then later, in the 69th Psalm, David repeated the clause where we read:

4 They that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of mine head: they that would destroy me, being mine enemies wrongfully, are mighty: then I restored that which I took not away.

It must be noted that where Christ had said that the clause “they hated me without a cause” is found in the law, it is only found in those Psalms, and not in the writings attributed to Moses. So it is apparent that Christ Himself must have esteemed the Psalms as having the weight of the law. The apostles of Christ had also considered David to have been a prophet, which is apparent in Acts chapters 2 and 13.

While I have only just recently begun to assess the Psalms of Solomon, I am already certain that at least many of them were written well after Solomon’s own time, and that they should not be attributed to him. There are eighteen psalms in the collection, which are considered pseudepigraphal by academic theologians. The opening verses of the 7th of those Psalms is a prayer to God which is quite relevant here:

1 Make not Thy dwelling afar from us, O God; Lest they assail us that hate us without cause. 2 For Thou hast rejected them, O God; Let not their foot trample upon Thy holy inheritance. 3 Chasten us Thyself in Thy good pleasure; But give (us) not up to the nations; 4 For, if Thou sendest pestilence, Thou Thyself givest it charge concerning us; 5 For Thou art merciful, And wilt not be angry to the point of consuming us.

Of course, the surrounding nations did eventually prevail over the children of Israel in the short term, on account of their sin, however here the promise in Isaiah is that they shall ultimately overcome their enemies, but on account of their God, and not of themselves. So now, where Isaiah continues there is further comfort, and Yahweh promises to deliver His people from those who hate them:

9 Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD; awake, as in the ancient days, in the generations of old. Art thou not it that hath cut Rahab, and wounded the dragon? 10 Art thou not it which hath dried the sea, the waters of the great deep; that hath made the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass over? 

The Septuagint in missing the last clause of verse 9, where the translation of Brenton is sufficient:

9 Awake, awake, O Jerusalem, and put on the strength of thine arm; awake as in the early time, as the ancient generation.

This is only the first clause of verse 9 as it is found in the manuscripts of both the Brenton and Rahlfs-Hanhart editions of the Greek text. So the entire second clause of the verse is wanting, where the King James Version has “Art thou not it that hath cut Rahab, and wounded the dragon?”

While the Dead Sea Scrolls Bible translates a few words somewhat differently, it nevertheless supports the reading found in the Masoretic Text. Furthermore, the readings found in the Old Latin provided in the Hexapla of Origen does also, and so do the Greek editions of Theodotian, Aquila and Symmachus, in spite of their differences in the translation of the Hebrew text. So we shall treat the clause as if it belongs, and imagine that perhaps an early scribe of the Septuagint must have omitted it inadvertently. 

Here the reference to the events of the Exodus and the crossing of the Red Sea is only an appeal that Yahweh is able to do anything which He wills. The reference to Rahab and the dragon are the same, and the clause contains a Hebrew parallelism, equating Rahab to the dragon. The Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon defines רהב or rahab (#’s 7293-7294) as “literally storm, arrogance, but only as names” however the verb (# 7292) and adjective, which are spelled the same way, are defined similarly as stormily, boisterously, to make proud or be arrogant, and as proud or defiant, among other things [1]. 

In this context, the name Rahab appears elsewhere only in the Psalms, first in the unattributed 87th Psalm where we read:

4 I will make mention of Rahab and Babylon to them that know me: behold Philistia, and Tyre, with Ethiopia; this man was born there. 5 And of Zion it shall be said, This and that man was born in her: and the highest himself shall establish her.

Then in the 89th Psalm, which is attributed to “Ethan the Ezrahite”, where the Septuagint has “Ethan the Israelite”; there is an Ethan of the time of David who is mentioned as a singer in 1 Chronicles chapter 15, along with another singer named Heman, and the 88th Psalm is attributed to “Heman the Ezrahite”. It is possible that the word Ezrahite is an error for Zerahite, and a certain Zerah was mentioned among the Levites in 1 Chronicles chapter 9. In any event, this Psalm mentions David and the writer is certainly a contemporary of David. So in the 89th Psalm we read a passage which makes expressions that are very similar to these verses of Isaiah:

8 O LORD God of hosts, who is a strong LORD like unto thee? or to thy faithfulness round about thee? 9 Thou rulest the raging of the sea: when the waves thereof arise, thou stillest them. 10 Thou hast broken Rahab in pieces, as one that is slain; thou hast scattered thine enemies with thy strong arm. 11 The heavens are thine, the earth also is thine: as for the world and the fulness thereof, thou hast founded them.

Here, as we have also done in earlier places of Isaiah, we would assert that the sea is the mass of the world’s peoples, or the peoples of any particular region, and Rahab is representative of the eternal enemies of Yahweh God, identified in Revelation chapter 12 and elsewhere with the dragon and serpent of Genesis chapter 3. Referring once again to the Psalms of Solomon, there is a line in the 2nd of the psalms which makes allusions to this same entity, using a word for pride, which Rahab represents, and which is also a prayer to God and begging for relief in the same manner which we see here: “29 (25) Delay not, O God, to recompense them on (their) heads, To turn the pride of the dragon into dishonour.” While rahab is not the word used for proud in Isaiah chapter 13, there we read a prophecy which we believe also parallels this passage of Isaiah:

9 Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it. 10 For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine. 11 And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.

Likewise, in Isaiah chapter 27 there is another parallel prophecy, which reads in part:

1 In that day the LORD with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea.

Now, continuing with Isaiah:

11 Therefore the redeemed of the LORD shall return, and come with singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their head: they shall obtain gladness and joy; and sorrow and mourning shall flee away. 

The ransomed of verse 10 are the redeemed of verse 11, and while two different Hebrew words are represented they are indeed close synonyms. Since from the opening verses of the chapter it is quite clear that the Word of Yahweh is addressing the people who had descended from Abraham and Sarah, but whom had been sent into captivity in the isles and coastlands in the north and west, the people who are the redeemed of Yahweh can also only be those same Israelites, because Israel is the only people which is promised redemption. Israel is also the only people whose history had necessitated any need for or any had given expectation of redemption. 

So far, in the ten chapters of Isaiah prior to this, since Yahweh first addressed the isles and coastlands, there have been eight occasions where Yahweh had described Himself as the Redeemer of Israel, and four more occasions where Israel is described as the redeemed. All of these are found in the following passages:

First, in Isaiah chapter 41:

14 Fear not, thou worm Jacob, and ye men of Israel; I will help thee, saith the LORD, and thy redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.

Then in Isaiah chapter 43:

1 But now thus saith the LORD that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine.

Yahweh says “I have redeemed thee” not because, when Isaiah had written these words, it was already a historical fact from man’s perspective, but because He speaks of things which He says shall happen, or shall come into being, as if they already had, which Paul of Tarsus also had explained in Romans chapter 4. 

Continuing, in Isaiah chapter 44:

6 Thus saith the LORD the King of Israel, and his redeemer the LORD of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God.

22 I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins: return unto me; for I have redeemed thee. 23 Sing, O ye heavens; for the LORD hath done it: shout, ye lower parts of the earth: break forth into singing, ye mountains, O forest, and every tree therein: for the LORD hath redeemed Jacob, and glorified himself in Israel. 24 Thus saith the LORD, thy redeemer, and he that formed thee from the womb, I am the LORD that maketh all things; that stretcheth forth the heavens alone; that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself.

In Isaiah chapter 49 we read that Jacob would be “glorious in the eyes of Yahweh” once Israel is gathered to Him. So Jacob’s redemption is seen as an act of glorifying Jacob in the eyes of God, but if there is any redemption for any other race but that of Jacob, how could Jacob be glorified? And how would Yahweh be glorified, as it is here, if anyone but Jacob is gathered to Him? If the seed of his enemies have any part of his redemption, then his enemies are justified, and Jacob is disgraced rather than glorified, and Yahweh is also disgraced, because such a redemption is contrary to His many promises of redemption for Jacob. 

Yet Jacob himself had told his son Judah, in the blessings of Genesis chapter 49: “8 Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise: thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies; thy father's children shall bow down before thee.” So when Judah defeats his enemies, then he shall have the praise of his brethren. Even in Luke chapter 1, part of the purpose of the Messiah, who is of Judah, was declared to be: 

71 That we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us; 72 To perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant; 73 The oath which he sware to our father Abraham… 

So continuing with Isaiah chapter 47:

4 As for our redeemer, the LORD of hosts is his name, the Holy One of Israel.

Then in Isaiah chapter 48:

17 Thus saith the LORD, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; I am the LORD thy God which teacheth thee to profit, which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest go.

Yahweh being the “Holy One of Israel”, He is declaring that He is the God of Israel in spite of His relationship to the other Adamic nations and the other elements of His creation. 

Finally, in Isaiah chapter 49:

7 Thus saith the LORD, the Redeemer of Israel, and his Holy One, to him whom man despiseth, to him whom the nation abhorreth, to a servant of rulers, Kings shall see and arise, princes also shall worship, because of the LORD that is faithful, and the Holy One of Israel, and he shall choose thee.

Then in that same chapter and in reference to those same enemies:

26 And I will feed them that oppress thee with their own flesh; and they shall be drunken with their own blood, as with sweet wine: and all flesh shall know that I the LORD am thy Saviour and thy Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob.

The purpose of God is not to redeem all flesh along with Jacob, but to the contrary, for all flesh to know that He has redeemed Jacob, and Jacob only. In Isaiah chapter 50 Yahweh had asked a rhetorical question, which has the effect of an assertion, where He had asked, in part, “2 … Is my hand shortened at all, that it cannot redeem? or have I no power to deliver? ” Later in Isaiah, in the opening verse of chapter 59, the rhetorical question is answered where we read: “1 Behold, the LORD'S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear.” 

With all of this, when we read the epistles of Paul of Tarsus in the New Testament, where Paul had spoken of redemption we cannot imagine that he was speaking of redemption in any other context than the promises of redemption which are found here throughout the words of the prophet Isaiah. So as we have already cited earlier, in Galatians chapter 4 he had told the Galatians that Christ had come “to redeem them that were under the law”. In Galatians chapter 3 Paul had told them that “13 Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law…” Then, later in chapter 3, he had told them that “the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ,” and in other ways in the epistle to the Galatians he had indicated to them that they had descended from Abraham.

The denominational churches think that one may claim for himself to be of Christ, and somehow that would make him Abraham’s seed, but that is not in agreement with the law and the prophets, where even Abraham was prohibited from making substitution for his own seed. Rather, the text of Galatians 3:29 is is a conditional sentence which expresses a factual implication. As we had explained over ten years ago, in our August, 2015 commentary on Galatians chapter 4, in such a sentence if the protasis, which is the clause following the if is true, then the apodosis, which is the clause following the then must also be true.

So in the King James Version of Galatians 3:29 we read:

29 And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.

According to all of the promises and prophecies, the heirs must be Abraham’s literal seed. But the truth is that the then part of Paul's statement is “something which explains what has preceded”, which is the if part of Paul's statement. That is how Liddell and Scott had defined this use of the Greek word ἄρα which was translated as then here, where it appears in such conditional sentences [2]. So this is like saying “If I may enjoy the sunshine, then the weather is fair”, or in the words of Christ as they are recorded in Matthew chapter 12: “28 But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you.” So if the kingdom of God had not come unto those people to whom Christ had spoken, then He could not have cast out devils by the Spirit of God. According to all of the promises and prophecies of redemption, if one is of Abraham’s acknowledged seed, the seed of Jacob-Israel, then one is also of Christ. Both statements, the if and the then of Galatians 3:29, must be true.

In Ephesians chapter 1 Paul had written to his readers and said:

4 According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: 5 Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, 6 To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. 7 In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace.

In Romans chapter 9, Paul explicitly stated that the adoption, along with the covenants, promises, law, the glory and the service were for his brethren, which is for Israel “according to the flesh”. Here Paul had associated “redemption through His blood” with the forgiveness of sins, which we shall see had been explained by Yahweh in Isaiah chapter 52. But first, in Romans chapter 8 Paul explained who was predestinated where he wrote: 

29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. 30 Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.

So those who had been predestinated are those who had been foreknown, called, and were already the brethren of Christ. But first we shall discuss the concept of sin. Throughout the words of the prophets, only Israel had the law, which we read in the 147th Psalm:

19 He sheweth his word unto Jacob, his statutes and his judgments unto Israel. 20 He hath not dealt so with any nation: and as for his judgments, they have not known them. Praise ye the LORD.

Then, Paul wrote in Romans chapter 5:

13 For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law.

Later, the apostle John explained sin, where he wrote in chapter 3 of his first epistle that:

4 Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.

So only the children of Israel could have had sin imputed to them, because only they had the law. Therefore, only they would need forgiveness for sin, because where the law is not given, sin is not imputed. Furthermore, since Yahweh predestined those whom He had foreknown, in Amos chapter 3 we read that He only knew Israel, and for that reason He would punish them for their sins:

1 Hear this word that the LORD hath spoken against you, O children of Israel, against the whole family which I brought up from the land of Egypt, saying, 2 You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.

No other people could possibly fit into this context. This is the entire purpose of the promise of the Messiah, that Yahweh would forgive the children of Israel of their sins, and only the children of Israel were imputed with sin. Then the purpose of their punishment is found in the very next verse of that chapter of Amos:

3 Can two walk together, except they be agreed?

Once the children of Israel agree with Yahweh in Christ, then they may walk with Yahweh their God. For that same reason, Paul cited Isaiah chapter 52 in 2 Corinthians chapter 6 and wrote:

15 And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? 16 And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, 18 And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.

There it is informing the children of Israel that they must separate from others, and not join themselves to them. Writing that, Paul cited a verse from Isaiah chapter 52, which was spoken to Israel in the places of their captivity:

11 Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence, touch no unclean thing; go ye out of the midst of her; be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the LORD. 12 For ye shall not go out with haste, nor go by flight: for the LORD will go before you; and the God of Israel will be your rereward.

But he also alluded to a passage in Ezekiel chapter 37, where Yahweh had promised a New Covenant with Israel and we read, in part:

26 Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them: and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore. 27 My tabernacle also shall be with them: yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 28 And the [nations] shall know that I the LORD do sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore.

Yahweh has promised to sanctify Israel, and Israel alone, so all other nations and races are the unclean in the admonishments of Isaiah and Paul, from whom they are commanded to separate themselves if they are to please their God. This certainly does not facilitate any possibility that any of them could somehow be transformed into Abraham’s seed, contrary to the words and examples of Scripture.

Therefore Paul of Tarsus associated the redemption which is in Christ with the captivity of ancient Israel, in his citations of Isaiah and his allusions to Amos and Ezekiel. Then a little further on in the same chapter of Ephesians Paul wrote:

11 In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will: 12 That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.

If Yahweh God “worketh all things after the counsel of his own will” then Paul must have been referring to the will of God as it is revealed in the words of the prophets, as he had also attested in Romans chapter 15. In the opening verses of his epistle to the Romans, Paul said that he had been “separated unto the gospel of God”, and in reference to that Gospel he then said: “Which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures,” so it is evident that he was working within, and not against or in spite of the words of the prophets. Paul was working within the context of the prophets, and not outside nor apart from them.

Then even later in the same chapter of Ephesians, we read:

13 In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, 14 Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.

The references to the “purchased possession” may evoke Exodus 19:5 where Israel is called “a peculiar people” on the condition that they keep the Sinai covenant. Israel was also redeemed from Egypt, so in that sense they were purchased, as it is stated to them in Deuteronomy 7:8 that “the LORD brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.” But this is not the purchase to which Paul had referred here.

Rather, in 1 Corinthians chapter 6 Paul told his readers: “20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.” Then in chapter 7, referring to Christ he wrote: “23 Ye are bought with a price; be not ye the servants of men.”

These passages should be cross-referenced to Isaiah chapter 50 where Yahweh had asked the children of the captivity “Where is the bill of your mother's divorcement, whom I have put away? or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you?”, and also to Isaiah chapter 52 where Yahweh informs the same Israelites: “3 For thus saith the LORD, Ye have sold yourselves for nought; and ye shall be redeemed without money.” Following that statement is a prophecy of the Gospel of Christ which had also been cited by Paul in his epistle to the Romans.

But sin leads to death, as the apostle James had explained in chapter 1 of his epistle:

14 But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. 15 Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.

Paul wrote similarly in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, saying:

56 The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.

So aside from sin, the children of Israel also needed to be redeemed from death, so we read such a promise in Hosea chapter 13:

14 I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction: repentance shall be hid from mine eyes.

For that same reason, Paul had written in Romans chapter 5:

21 That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.

This is how Paul had told the Ephesians that they had “redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins”. Since their ancestors had sold themselves into sin, then it is those sins from which they had need to be redeemed. Many other passages from the epistles of Paul may be included in this context.

So the purpose of Yahweh God for the redemption of the children of Israel is spelled out here in his prophets, and it is repeated in the epistles of Paul. In those epistles, it is manifest that Paul was teaching the fulfillment of what Isaiah and the other prophets had prophesied concerning the children of Israel and Christ their Redeemer, and in Acts chapter 26 Paul declared that:

6 … now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers: 7 Unto which promise our twelve tribes, instantly serving God day and night, hope to come….

Then in Acts chapter 28:

20 … for the hope of Israel I am bound with this chain.

Christianity fulfilled the promises of God to the fathers and the children of Israel. Properly, according to the Word of God, they alone can be Christians, and that is exhibited in the words of the prophets and apostles. In the places of their captivity, the children of Israel were considered strangers and sojourners, so we shall cite the words of Paul from Ephesians chapter 2, from the Christogenea New Testament, because most other translations treated these words poorly:

19 So therefore you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but fellow-citizens of the saints and of the household of Yahweh, 20 being built upon the foundation of the ambassadors and the prophets, Yahshua Christ being the cornerstone Himself.

The Legacy Standard Bible, the American Standard Version and the English Revised Version, as well as several minor translations, all agree with our translation of the plural form of πάροικος as sojourners.

There shall be continued references to Jacob and the children of Israel as the redeemed of Yahweh throughout the final chapters of Isaiah. The children of Israel are the redeemed of Yahweh, here according to Isaiah, and in the New Testament, even according to Paul. We cannot justly imagine that Paul was not of the same mind as Isaiah, and his own words demonstrate his full agreement with the prophet.

Anything else is an attempt to defraud God Himself, since Israel is His inheritance. Comparing Israel to the other nations and races at the fall of Babylon, in Jeremiah chapter 51 we read:

19 The portion of Jacob is not like them; for he is the former of all things: and Israel is the rod of his inheritance: the LORD of hosts is his name.

God is the portion Yahweh willing, we shall return to this point in Isaiah chapter 51 in the near future.
 

Footnotes

1 The Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon, Hendrickson Publishers, 2021, pp. 922-923.

2 A Greek-English Lexicon Compiled by Henry George Liddell and Robert Scott… With a revised supplement 1996, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1940, 1996, pp. 232-233.