Isaiah 54:6 - Meaning and Application

The timely help and relief God gave his captives in Babylon, when they were released from their bondage, are foretold here. That release was a sign of all the comfort God has stored up for the church as a whole and for every believer in particular, in the covenant of grace, God’s saving promise of mercy.

Look back at earlier troubles, and God’s kindness to his people becomes much sweeter in comparison. First, notice how sorrowful the church’s condition had been. She had been like a woman left by her husband, as if he had died or turned away from her, though she had been his wife from youth. She felt deep grief, took it hard, and grew bitter and downcast. Or she had been like a woman rejected and refused, and so full of discouragement. Even those who belong to God may seem, for a time, to be refused and abandoned, and they may be very troubled by that thought. Those who will never truly be forsaken may still spend a season in distress.

The meaning is explained in Isaiah 54:7-8: "For a brief moment I abandoned you. In a little anger I hid my face from you." When God keeps his people in trouble for a long time, it seems as if he has left them. Their enemies read it that way (Psalm 71:11), and they themselves may misunderstand it too (Isaiah 49:14). When they feel no comfort in their trouble because their prayers and hopes seem unanswered, God seems to hide his face from them, as if he were ignoring them or no longer planning good for them. God himself says he did this, for he keeps account of his people’s suffering. Though he never turned his face against them as he does against the wicked (Psalm 34:16), he remembers how often he seemed to turn away from them.

This came from his displeasure. It was in anger that he forsook them and hid his face from them (Isaiah 57:17). Yet it was only “a little anger.” That does not mean God’s anger is small or harmless, for who can measure the power of his anger? It means it was small compared with what they deserved, and with what others rightly suffer when God pours out his full wrath. He did not stir up all his anger. Still, God’s people, even if they feel only a little of his displeasure, cannot help being grieved by it. And as for how long it lasted, it was only for a moment, a very short time. God does not keep his anger against his people forever. He is slow to anger, and he is quick to show mercy. So the troubles of God’s people, though real, are light and brief, like a cloud that soon passes over.

Now notice how sweet God’s return in mercy would be to them when he came to comfort them in the same way he had afflicted them. God called them into covenant with himself when they were forsaken and grieving, and he called them out of their troubles when those troubles were at their worst (Isaiah 54:6). His anger lasts only a moment, but he gathers his people when they think they have been forgotten. He gathers them from their scattered places so they may return together to their own land. He gathers them into his arms to protect them, embrace them, and carry them. And in the end he gathers them to himself, like wheat brought into the barn. He will have mercy on them. That means his anger turns away, and he welcomes them back into his favor.

God’s gathering of his people comes from his mercy, not from any merit in others. And it is done with great mercies (Isaiah 54:7), with everlasting kindness (Isaiah 54:8). The anger is little, but the mercies are great. The anger lasts for a moment, but the kindness lasts forever. The two are set against each other so that we do not lose heart in trouble or give up hope of relief.

Look ahead to future dangers, and even in the face of them God’s favor to his people stays sure, and his kindness remains forever. It is made into a covenant, here called a covenant of peace, because it is based on peace with God and includes every good gift. First, this covenant is as firm as God’s covenant in providence, his ordering care over the world. It is like the waters of Noah, that promise made after the flood that such a judgment would never again disturb the normal pattern of seasons, seedtime, and harvest (Isaiah 54:9). God had once dealt with the world in great wrath, and for a full year. Yet in the end he returned in everlasting mercy. He gave his word, as unbreakable as an oath, that Noah’s flood would never come again, and that he would never again destroy the world that way, as in Genesis 8:21-22 and Genesis 9:11. God has kept that word ever since, though the world has often rebelled against him, and he will keep it to the end. In the same way, the covenant of grace is unbreakable: "I have sworn that I will not be angry with you like this again, and I will not rebuke you as I have done." He will not cast them off or break his covenant with them (Psalm 89:34). He will not rebuke them as he rebuked the nations, to destroy them and wipe out their name forever (Psalm 9:5).

This covenant is even more secure than the strongest parts of the visible world (Isaiah 54:10). The mountains may depart, though they are called everlasting mountains, and the hills may be removed, though they are called lasting hills (Habakkuk 3:6). It would be sooner for those to move than for God’s covenant with his people to be broken. Mountains have been shaken by earthquakes and removed, but God’s promises have never been broken by any event. A day is coming when all mountains will depart and all hills will be removed, not only covered, as they were by Noah’s flood, but torn up from the roots, because the earth and all that is in it will be burned up. Even then, the covenant of peace between God and believers will remain, and all who belong to that covenant will enjoy everlasting blessedness.

Mountains and hills can also stand for great and powerful people. Do such “mountains” seem to hold up the sky, like Atlas in old stories? They will depart and be removed. Trusting in people will fail us. It is useless to hope for salvation from those hills and mountains. But the heavens remain firm, fitting their name, even when those who seem to support them are gone. When our friends fail us, God does not fail, and his kindness does not depart. Do these mountains threaten and seem to rise against the sky, like Pelion and Ossa in the old tales? Do the kings and rulers of the earth set themselves against the Lord? They too will depart and be removed. Great mountains that stand in the way of the church’s salvation will be made level (Zechariah 4:7). But God’s kindness will never leave his people, for he loves them to the end. Nor will the covenant of his peace ever be removed, because he is the Lord who has mercy on his people. So this covenant cannot be moved or broken, because it rests not on our changing merit, but on God’s mercy, which lasts forever.