52:1  Awake, arise; clothe yourself with power, O Zion! Put on your robes of glory, O Jerusalem, holy city. No more shall the uncircumcised and defiled enter you.

And that’s very similar to what we saw in chapter 51, verse 9 Awake, arise, clothe yourself with power, O arm of the Lord, and what we saw in verse 17 of chapter 51. Only it’s more explicitly parallel with what happens to the servant, they are clothed with power; endowed with power. Now it may not be the same power that the Lord’s servant is endowed with; the power of Moses, power over the elements, power to dry the deep, and so forth; to bring about the redemption of the people. But nevertheless Zion is empowered with power to minister to Jacob or Israel, to that level. That parallelism, again, solidifies that idea of what happens to him happens to them. The one who puts on the robes of glory, who clothes Zion the robes of glory is the Lord’s servant. In chapter 61: His job there is to proclaim liberty to the captives, and so forth, to comfort all who morn, to endow those who morn in Zion, bestowing on them a priestly head piece in place of ashes, a festal anointing in place of morning, a resplendent robe in place of a downcast spirit. They shall be called the oaks of righteousness. The servant’s mission to Zion is to empower Zion. As God empowers him, so he empowers Zion, and robed her in the robes of glory. Which it turns out are the robes of the priesthood. Zion is robed in the robes of the priesthood and assumes the power of the priesthood, and also the political power, in the next chapter, chapter 62. It is the servant who does that because he ministers to those who are on a lower level. The Lord sends him to empower them.

Zion is called a holy city. Those who are holy are the ones who are delivered and saved, the elect. In contrast to the uncircumcised and those who are defiled who are unholy who come into her no more. And you can read this on several different levels. You can read it literally as a woman yoked with a spouse that is not on her spiritual level. You can read it as the people of God who are on a higher or holier or a sacred sanctified level and among them are those who defile them, who through their very presence in their mist defile the place. That intermingling of the wicked and the righteous will no more be. The righteous will be in a place of their own, in a holy city where the wicked cannot come. There is a separation of the righteous and the wicked and it happens in the exodus. It happens at the destruction of the wicked. They go somewhere else; they leave this world at that time. The Lord gives Zion or Jerusalem His glory, their robes of glory, it’s His glory to give. And it is rising to a higher level than she was before. She becomes a new entity. When you are born again you become a new creature, you’re not like what you were before; so it’s like wakening up to a new reality. You are not the old person that you used to be.

52:2  Shake yourself free, rise from the dust; sit enthroned, O Jerusalem. Loose yourself from the bands around your neck, O captive Daughter of Zion.

Awaken and arise are a resurrection motif. These people are recreated from being a non-entity; they become a new entity. Those who were an entity now become a non-entity. This is an exact reversal of circumstances as Babylon’s. They become a new entity when they become the people of God in the latter-days; just as the people of Israel became a new entity at the exodus out of Egypt. They became a nation of Israel. Before that they were just some loose tribes, descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They were in bondage; they were not a people of Israel at that point. God remembered the covenant with their fathers and brought them out, and constituted them as a nation in the Sinai wilderness. So these become a new entity.

They rise from the dust implies that among them are resurrected people; literally, people who rise from the dust. It’s not just read metaphorically, it can be read literally. Because we saw in chapter 26 that there are those who do rise from the dust, those are word links. Chapter 26, verse 19 says yet shall thy dead live when their bodies arise that will say to them, awake and sing for joy ye who abide in the dust, for the Earth shall cast up its dead. So among those who constitute Zion, in the latter days, in the ushering on the millennium will be those who rise from the dust literally, who participate in the regeneration of Israel which is now called Zion; a new covenant people of the Lord. Sit enthroned O Jerusalem because there are an exalted people. Who will they rule over? Why are they endowed with power? The servant is endowed with power to minister and deliver the Lord’s people, elect; those who respond to the Lord’s message given through the servant. When Zion and Jerusalem are empowered it’s not to consume on their own lust, it’s not for their own self aggrandizement, it’s for a purpose. It’s to minister to another category, a lower category of the Lord’s people. Who are they? Well, they’re the ones whom the King of Assyria had power over during that day of judgment, who somehow survived without God’s direct intervention, a lesser category, an intermediate category. Not the ones who were destroyed because they are no more. Loose yourself from the bands around your neck, O captive daughter of Zion. So the servant delivers her. His job is to release the captives, and so forth.

52:3  Thus says the Lord: You were sold without price, and you shall be redeemed without money.

Now it happens among a people or in a nation when the majority of the people choose wickedness, then they bring the whole nation under condemnation; or when a people choose wickedness, they bring the whole people under condemnation, and covenant curses come upon the people. And it may be through no fault of the righteous, but there are not enough righteous to prevent the covenant curses from happening. The righteous individuals who remain are sold without price, they too suffer the covenant curses of bondage, even though it’s not directly their fault. That’s why they are redeemed without money. The Lord can’t tolerate that situation very long because He’s bound by covenant to deliver His righteous people. How does He deliver them without price? Chapter 55: Come buy wine and milk with no money, at no cost. And their deliverance or sustenance, which is a covenant blessing, is held out to them as a free gift. Every aspect of the Lord’s salvation is a free gift. All you have to do is abide by the terms of the covenant and the Lord is bound by covenant to deliver you.

52:4  For thus says my Lord the Lord: At first my people went down to Egypt to sojourn there. Then the Assyrians subjected them for nothing.

And when they went down to sojourn there, what happened? There came a Pharaoh who knew not Joseph and put the people into bondage. Do you think the people had anything to do with it? I think so. I think they probably went down there, the twelve tribes of Israel, the twelve ancestors of the tribes of Israel, went down there. And they multiplied and had descendents, and probably began to decline, so that the Pharaoh who arose, who knew not Joseph and what happened in those days, put them into bondage because they had become a wicked people. Bondage is a covenant curse, no matter which way you look at it. It doesn’t just happen. Then the Assyrians subjected them for nothing. In the days of Isaiah the Assyrians subjected them for nothing. But was it really for nothing? When you read the first part of Isaiah and the Prophet Hosea, and others, it’s because of the wickedness of the people that the Assyrians came and subjected them. That’s bondage, too. That subjection was a covenant curse; makes it very clear that’s a covenant curse. But from the Assyrian prospective, all they did was just come in there and take people over. From Egypt’s prospective they had no right, they had no legal right to do it, to put the Israelites into bondage, and make slaves out of them. The Egyptians didn’t and the Assyrians didn’t. They did it because of the spiritual reality that overrode and came as a result of the people’s wickedness. The righteous among, however, had nothing to do with it. They became victims of it, in spite of themselves. But it was not a situation that the Lord could tolerate for very long if there were enough righteous. Either He would deliver them individually, or He would bring deliverance soon, on the heels of the oppression

52:5  And now, what have I here? says the Lord. My people are taken over without price; those who govern them act presumptuously, says the Lord, and my name is constantly abused all the day.

Well, we have the Egyptian bondage and the Assyrian subjection, then the Babylonian came right after it. And in Isaiah’s scenario it is the Babylonian that is now in force that is now current. The Babylonian captivity happened after the Assyrian captivity. But Isaiah uses the Babylonian captivity as the type for today. Today there is a Babylonian captivity. We’re subject to the harlot Babylon and all her oppression, we’re subject to corrupt politicians who have taken us over, who have taken over this nation, and who are taking over the nations of the world, and creating this new world order, the United Nations which has some kind of governing power, even over the constitutions of individual nations, or so they think. Have you read literature on this subject? Have you read how people in the United States now are in court are subject to the United Nations decrees? They are totally running over the freedom of this land. And no doubt that’s what it’s talking about. What have I here now, says the Lord, (in Babylon that is,) my people are taken over without price by those who govern them. They act presumptuously, not knowing that the God of Israel is at the helm, and He’s going to do His thing. They can’t take over His people for free. And His name is abused all the day showing the corruption that’s there. Not only do they forget the God of Israel, they use it as a swear word. They use His name as a swear word.

52:6  Therefore shall my people come to know my name; in that day they shall know that I, who speak, am at hand.

And that has a two-fold fulfillment. On the one hand the wicked will know it through the calamities that will come; through the unexpected disasters and catastrophes that will overtake them, as we read in chapter 47 with the whore of Babylon. On the other, the elect will know the Lord personally. Remember the other comforter; He Himself is the comforter. They will know Him. To know His name is to know Him. You know His name and you speak the name, you are brought into His presence. The high priest of Israel did that anciently; he went into the Holy of Holies once a year, on the Day of Atonement, pronounced the holy name and the Lord appeared. That will happen at the time of His coming. And it better happen at the time of His coming, otherwise, if He comes to the whole world, to all flesh, in power and glory, and all flesh sees Him, they would all perish in His presence. So they had better know Him individually first, that when He comes in glory to all nations, they can receive His presence because they know Him and they have been in his presence and they can tolerate His presence.

52:7  Then shall they say, How comely upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger announcing peace, who brings tidings of good, who heralds salvation, saying to Zion, Your God reigns!

The King of Zion there is the God of Israel. And interestingly enough, these chapters, 52 and 53, are juxtaposed in the Book of Isaiah with chapter 14, 21 antithetical verses describe the King of Babylon and contrast him with the King of Zion who is the Lord God himself, in these verses. Who is this messenger announcing piece? Here we see the synonymy and the parallelism with salvation and with good. Peace, good and salvation are all in a synonymous parallelism. And that peace is God Himself, when He rules. He pays the price of our peace, in chapter 53, verse 5, across the page. The price of our peace He incurred. The price of our salvation, in other words; who brings tidings of good, good meaning covenant blessing or covenant keeping. Covenant blessing comes with covenant keeping; who heralds salvation because He is a forerunner of salvation, forerunner of the coming of the Lord. The messenger is the Lord’s servant, it starts talking about his as such in chapter 41, verse 27 where he’s called The Herald of Tidings to Jerusalem, and chapter 44, verse 26, talks about the one servant and the messengers which are the other servants. And here the situation is reversed; the one servant is the messenger. The mouth is our metaphor for nations, so his mission is among the nations.

52:8  Hark! Your watchmen lift up their voice; as one they cry out for joy: for they shall see eye to eye when the Lord returns to Zion.

52:10  The Lord has bared his holy arm in the eyes of all nations, that all ends of the earth may see our God’s salvation.

There is a chiasm (sp) there between verse 7, 8 and 10. Nine and 10 are out of place. One way we know that is from that parallelism of 21 consecutive verses. The one who heralds salvation is the one whom the Lord bares. The Lord has bared His holy arm, that is, the Lord commissions His servant, who is one of the arms of God; the arm of righteousness. The Lord reveals him, or bares him, in the eyes of all nations because his mission is to all nations. First he was hidden; remember, the servant’s mission is kept quiet and he is hidden, then he is exposed or revealed as he is here. And that’s the time God intervenes through His servant, the arm signifies intervention. In the eyes of all nations. This is kind of a sudden event. That all the ends of the earth may see our God’s salvation. Because the servant was commissioned, remember in chapter 49, that His salvation may be to the ends of the Earth; chapter 49, verse 6, the Lord says to His servant, It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, I will also appoint you to be a light to the nations that My salvation may be to the end of the Earth. And so it is here. His job is to bring about the Lord’s salvation to the ends of the Earth, among all nations. He’s the messenger announcing peace, announcing the coming of salvation. Verse 7.

Who then are the watchmen in verse 8? In chapter 21, the watchman is the one who is appointed on the tower to keep watch. When he sees trouble coming he is to warn the people. And the Lord chooses a watchman who reports what he sees, in that chapter. And there are other watchmen who are dumb watchmen, who don’t warn the people. In chapter 56, verse 10 it says: their watchmen are altogether blinded, unaware. All of them are but dumb watchdogs, unable to bark, loathing seers, fond of slumber. So here in Isaiah we have two different kinds of watchmen. We have the ones who don’t fulfill their job as watchmen, and we have the ones who do fulfill their job as watchmen. Which is really interesting because it sounds like first we have one group that’s in authority and they’re replaced by another group because these ones are not doing their job.

They’re not warning the people like they should, for one reason or another. It gives some reasons there. But these watchmen see eye-to-eye. These watchmen are united. Nothing can shake them. As one they cry out for joy. Well, what do they cry out? Just yahoo, no. They give the message of salvation; they are proclaiming the coming of the Lord. They are the watchmen who are assisting the one watchman. They are the servants who assist the one servant, and from here on out you’ll see these servants emerging, coming into being. And what the one servant does, they do. They work together in redeeming Gods people, temporally. This has a parallel in the Book of Revelation, where the 144,000 servants of God are empowered with power from on high before the calamities of the last days happen, before the massive destructions occur, so that they can bring people out through them, so that they can have power over the elements the same as the one servant does; the angel from the east. Angel from the east and the servant from the east are one in the same. That’s the nature of those watchmen; they do lift up their voice, they do warn, and they do minister to God’s people so that He may come to them, so that they may experience His salvation. That’s what it’s all about. It also says they lift up their voice. Voice is a metaphor for the Lord’s servant. So it is as if they sustain him, on a metaphorical level.

52:9  Break out all together into song, you ruined places of Jerusalem: the Lord has comforted his people; he has redeemed Jerusalem.

How does He do it? Through the instrumentality of the servant and these watchmen, through intervening in the affairs of His people among all nations.

52:11  Turn away, depart; touch nothing defiled as you leave Babylon. Come out of her and be pure, you who bear the Lord’s vessels.

Just like the Israelites came out of Egypt, come out in an exodus. Leave there. Don’t touch any idols in Babylon, because Babylon and her idols are going to be destroyed, chapter 21. They’re going to fall. Who are the Lord’s vessels? Vessels, in chapter 22, refers to people. Also in chapter 66. Chapter 66 has the best example of what this could mean: And they shall bring back all your brethren from throughout the nations to Jerusalem, my holy mountains, says the Lord, as offerings to the Lord. On horses and chariots, (and so forth,) just as the Israelites brought offerings in pure vessels to the house of the Lord. In chapter 22, as I mentioned, likens people to vessels, or vessels to people, greater vessels and lesser vessels, or smaller vessels. And people are like that, aren’t they? There’s great people and there’s ordinary people. Upon Him shall be hung all the glory of His fathers house, (that is chapter 22 verse 24,) His descendants and posterity, that’s people, including all the lesser vessels, from ordinary bowls to the most common containers. In other words, every level of person, great and small, will be represented there or will hang on that. And so it is here. Come out of her and be pure, you who bare the Lords vessels. They’re the ones who bring Israel out, out of Babylon in the exodus. Who does that? While we read in chapter 49 verse 22: I will lift my hand to the nations, raise my ensign to the peoples and they will bring your sons in their bosoms and carry your daughters on their shoulders. They’re bringing the Lord’s vessels, in the exodus. And that’s what it is here in 52:12:

52:12  But you shall not leave in haste or go in flight: the Lord will go before you, the God of Israel behind you.

Just like in the exodus out of Egypt, the God of Israel accompanied them. This is exodus language. And it won’t be hasty. It won’t be in confusion. It won’t be in a panic. In contrast to who? The wicked who will be in confusion, and haste, and panic. They won’t know what to do. Otherwise it wouldn’t mention that. There are some who do go flying around in haste, like chickens without a head on, not knowing where they’re going. These people will know where they’re going; it will be a very deliberate thing; they know exactly what it’s all about. They have been waiting for it and expecting it. How will this come about? Well through the servant.

52:13  My servant, being astute, shall be highly exalted; he shall become exceedingly eminent:

Who was highly exalted and exceedingly eminent anciently? Moses was. So was Solomon, King Solomon.

52:14–15  just as he appalled many—his appearance was marred beyond human likeness, his semblance unlike that of men—So shall he yet astound many nations, rulers shutting their mouths at him—what was not told them, they shall see; what they had not heard, they shall consider.

This is again alluding to his reversal of circumstances, when first he’s marred beyond human likeness (that must be pretty bad, he will look like some thing, not even human, that must be a horrible thing they will do to him). Chapter 57 says that the Lord smote him and then healed him. Chapter 57 says: By his sin of covetousness I was provoked. I struck him and him my face in anger when he strayed following the ways of his heart. Yet I have seen his conduct and will heal him, or recover him. I will guide him and amply console him and those who morn for him, says the Lord who heals him. It seems like it’s partly his own fault. On the other hand, the servant is like Hezekiah, he takes upon himself or he answers for the sins of the people, to God. Hezekiah is smitten instead of them, after the pattern of Christ in chapter 53. Christ pays the price of our sins for our spiritual salvation. Hezekiah pays the price for the peoples temporal salvation. He answers for their disloyalties to their God. And thus he becomes a proxy savior for them; and so is the servant a proxy savior. And so his marring, it’s not sure weather it’s entirely his own fault, or weather it’s because he takes on himself and answers for their disloyalties to their God. Maybe a combination of both.

Each level of the spiritual ladder has its own laws and covenants. And as you ascend higher those become higher laws; so that there could still be transgression within that realm. Moses transgressed, by smiting the rock instead of speaking to the rock. That was considered a transgression by the Lord, and for that He would not let him come into the Promised Land. The Lord is judge of these things. But certainly he meats with opposition, he’s marred and then he’s healed at his reversal of circumstances. And I suspect that the servant is empowered when he receives that divine power, that power over the elements that Moses received, and assumes that seraph level of the spiritual ladder, that that is when he is healed of this marring. So first he’s marred and humiliated, and then he’s exalted at the time he is healed of the marring; at the same time empowered to that kind of stature. There is a reversal of circumstances for him, even here. He’s marred beyond human likeness, and then rulers suddenly shut their mouths at him. And we saw earlier that, um, they prostrate themselves in front of him. In chapter 49, verse 7: first he’s despised and abhorred. Well if you were marred and didn’t look like a human being, you might be abhorred too, wouldn’t you. And then suddenly rulers rise up and they see him and heads of state prostrate themselves in front of him. At the turnaround then he’s suddenly looked at quite differently. Now what does he tell them that they haven’t seen and they haven’t heard and considered before. Maybe what we read in chapter 48. As of now I announce to you new things, chapter 48, verse 6, remember, the Lord announced new things to them, things withheld and unknown to you, things now coming into being, not hitherto, things you have not heard of before. Lest you should say, indeed I knew them. You have not heard them, you have not known them. Before this your ears have not been open to them, for I knew you would turn treacherous; you were called a transgressor from the womb. Who announces these new things? The servant does. He predicts the future, and it comes to pass. He has the power of words, also. He is a preacher, as we saw in chapter 50 verse 4: My Lord Jehovah has endowed me with a learned tongue that I may know how to preach to those grown weary or word to wake them up. And he’s not there on the street; he doesn’t raise his voice in public, as we saw in chapter 42. But his audience are rulers of nations and authorities.

The last three verses of chapter 52 are talking about the Lord’s servant and the Lord Himself is referring to His servant, “My servant”, He says. Then in chapter 53, the first ten verses, someone is speaking about the Lord Himself, or a spokesman of the people is speaking about what I call the suffering figure, scholars call him the suffering servant, that when you look at it there is really no indication here that this person, who’s referred to in verses one thru 10 of chapter 53 is that same servant. There is a different speaker this time. In fact, it could be the servant speaking as a spokesman for the people about the Lord Himself. How do we know it’s the Lord Himself? Because of the ??????? and parallelism which parallels chapter 14, the King of Babylon with chapters 52 and 53 which talk about the King of Zion. And part of that structure includes chapter 53 which talks about the King of Zion in His descending or negative aspect. And in chapter 52 it talks about His ascending of positive aspect. Isaiah’s great themes are those of humiliation and exaltation, as you know. And this account here in 53 in His humiliation aspect; where He is being humiliated and He’s suffering. But you know those are not themes in and of themselves, that they don’t stand alone. They’re tied to the other themes of salvation and exaltation, the paired themes. So when you see that you know that this is not the end-all. This is not the final condition of this person, its prelude to his exaltation.