Isaiah 54:7 For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee. In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer. This is spoken to the "desolate." If taken in isolation, it could be messianic, speaking of Christ's suffering on the cross when he asked why God had forsaken him, but the preceding verses make it clear that he is speaking to Christ's betrothed. So is that the Jews or the Church? Is the small moment the past couple thousand years, or is it the time that each of us suffers following sin when his spirit is withdrawn from us?
Isaiah 54:13 And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord; and great shall be the peace of thy children. Taken in context with the rest of the chapter, this would seem to be a societal teaching that applies to all the children in the community, but I've always looked at this one as though it could stand alone and refer to our individual families. When we teach our children about the Lord, the peace of our children will be great. Of course, in English, this verse could mean that All thy children will be taught BY the Lord, not ABOUT, thanks to the ambiguity of our sentence structure. Either way, I like to think this one can apply to our children. Being taught by the Lord might mean that they will be enlightened by his Spirit, so perhaps the ambiguous grammar is useful because it is both. The Ukrainian says something like, All your children will become the Lord's students. It didn't really help in understanding who would be doing the teaching the way I wanted to, because the word used for student is similar to the word used for disciple, and with disciples, the onus is on the disciple to learn and follow, not necessarily on the Lord to teach and lead.
Isaiah 54:17 No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper. I'm pretty sure the first time I heard this line and noticed it was in a reggae song, either the Fugees or Bob Marley. It's a pretty generous promise.
Isaiah 55:2 Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. This verse is a ponderer. How frequently do we waste our efforts trying to acquire things that have no lasting significance? What do we focus on that is not going to bring us happiness? If you could know beforehand that your efforts toward a particular thing were going to feel like a waste of time when you are finished, how seriously would you take it. Yet, on the flipside, this may well refer to things like pursuing a career. I doubt that my job is something that satisfies in a spiritual sense, but I still need to make money if I am going to support my family. Does the spiritual responsibility of supporting my family offset the spiritually unimportant elements of my job? Because at the end of the day, supplying overpriced athletic-wear to middle class citizens is probably not very spiritually important.
It could refer to our non-productive time, though, when we pursue entertainment that is the opposite of spiritually satisfying. Even inoffensive movies and television shows are probably a complete waste of time.
Isaiah 55:3 Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David. The sure mercies of David is an interesting turn of phrase, given that David sinned and lost significant portions of his blessings. Paul indicates in Acts 13:34 that it has reference to the resurrection. I'm not quite sold on that, because in Isaiah he says he wants to make a covenant with us dependent on our choices, which the resurrection isn't: it comes to all men the same way death does. However, if we use David as an archetype for Christ, we have a man who was despised and rejected of men in his own family; Christ's family was the Jews, David's family included his brothers, and later his children; David fought for Israel and overcame an enemy that no one else was willing or able to combat, just as Jesus overcame Lucifer for us; and lastly, David typifies Christ through the covenants God made with him. Thus, if David and represents Christ in this section, it is possible that the sure mercies of David are more literally conveyed as the sure mercies of Christ, which would include forgiveness of our sins, joy in this life, and an eventual estate in our Father's Kingdom. I think Isaiah sometimes forgot whether he was speaking of David or of David's eventual descendent, Jesus Christ. In Isaiah 9:6-7, we have the famous verse that is in Handel's Messiah, For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given...Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end; upon the throne of David and upon his kingdom, to order it and establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. So I am now convinced that the sure mercies of David are synonymous with the sure mercies of Christ and that we receive them by the covenant of Baptism.
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