Isaiah 49:7 - Meaning and Application

In these verses we see the Messiah, Christ, both humbled and then honored (Isaiah 49:7). The Lord, the Redeemer of Israel and Israel’s Holy One, speaks to the one who would carry out that salvation. He first points to Christ’s deep humiliation, and it was unlike anything else. He was one whom people despised, as Isaiah 53:3 says, “despised and rejected by men.”

To be despised by man, a creature so small and weak, shows the lowest kind of shame. The very people he came to save rejected him and treated him with contempt. Their ingratitude made their cruelty even worse. The disgrace he suffered was part of his suffering, not a small part of it. They did more than make him seem unimportant, they made him hated. He was the one the nation loathed, and they cried, “Crucify him, crucify him.”

This was true among both Gentiles and Jews, though the Jews were worse in this respect, since the cross was a stumbling block to the one and foolishness to the other. He was also a servant of rulers, treated like a slave, trampled on, abused, whipped, and crucified. Pilate even boasted of his authority over him (John 19:10). Christ submitted to all this for our salvation.

Yet God also promises Christ honor. Even in the depth of his shame, he received some honor. Herod feared him, and noblemen, rulers, and centurions came and bowed to him. But this promise was seen even more fully when kings received his gospel, yielded to his rule, joined in worship, and counted themselves servants of Christ. Christ does not value the rich above the poor, since all stand equal before him. Still, it brings honor to his kingdom when the great ones of the earth openly support him and do him homage.

This would happen because of God’s own promise. He would give Christ the nations for his inheritance, and that would show that God had sent him and chosen him. It would also prove that Christ had full authority for all he did, and that God would stand by the one he had appointed.

God also promises to support Christ in his work and bless all those who receive salvation through him. He says, “In a favorable time I heard you” (Isaiah 49:8). That is, God would hear him. During the days of his earthly life, Christ offered up strong cries and was heard (Hebrews 5:7). He knew the Father always heard him (John 11:42). The Father heard him for himself, giving him strength to drink the cup, even if it did not pass away. He also heard him for all who belong to him. For that reason, Christ could pray for them with full authority, saying, “Father, I want” (John 17:24).

All our joy flows from the Son’s standing with the Father and from the power of his prayer. This is part of what makes the gospel time a favorable time, because through Christ we are accepted by God. We are reconciled to him and brought near to him, since God hears the Redeemer for us (Hebrews 7:25). God will not only hear him, but also help him finish his work. The Father was always with him, and did not leave him, even when his disciples did. When the powers of darkness attacked the Lord Jesus in their hour, God promised to preserve him and keep him steadfast. The seven eyes on the one stone point to God’s full watchful care (Zechariah 3:9). God would preserve Christ’s person and his work, and would preserve his kingdom among people, even though enemies fought against it on every side. Christ is preserved while Christianity is preserved.

God also authorizes Christ to bring the benefits of redemption to his church. God’s preserving and helping him would make the time of the gospel a time of salvation. The apostle explains it this way: “Now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2). Christ is given as a covenant of the people (Isaiah 49:8). This means he is the pledge and guarantee of all covenant blessings. In him God was reconciling the world to himself, and since he did not spare his own Son, he will not refuse us what is truly good. Christ is not only the mediator, the one who brings both sides together, but the whole heart of the covenant itself. All the duty of the covenant is summed up in belonging to him, and all its blessing is summed up in his belonging to us.

He will also repair the broken places of the church and build it firmly on a rock. He will establish the land, that is, the land of Judea, which pointed to the church. He will cause the ruined inheritances to be inhabited again. This happened when the cities of Judah were resettled after the captivity, and it also happened when the church, which had become like a wasted land in the later years of the Jewish nation, was filled again through the preaching of the gospel.

He will free people from guilt and corruption and bring them into the glorious freedom of God’s children. He says to the prisoners, who were held under God’s justice and under Satan’s power, “Come out” (Isaiah 49:9). Forgiving mercy frees us from the curse of the law, and renewing grace frees us from sin’s rule. Both come from Christ, and both belong to the great salvation. It is he who says, “Come out,” and the Son makes us free, so we are truly free indeed. He also says to those in darkness, “Show yourselves.” That means not only to see the light, but to live openly to God’s glory and your own comfort. When he sent lepers away from confinement, he told them, “Go and show yourselves to the priest.” In the same way, when we see the light, we should let our light shine.

Christ will also care for the safe journey of those he frees until they reach their resting place and settled home (Isaiah 49:9-11). These verses first refer to the Jews returning from captivity, when God took them under special care as those he especially favored. But they also describe the guidance all God’s spiritual Israel receive, from release from bondage to their settlement in the heavenly Canaan. They will not have to bear their own expenses, and they will be fed freely with what is needful. They shall feed along the roads like sheep, because God still leads Joseph like a flock. When God chooses, even the road itself will become good pasture for the sheep of his field. Their pasture will be not only in valleys, but also on the high places, which are usually dry and barren. Wherever God leads his people, he will see that they lack nothing that is good for them (Psalm 34:10).

They will be so well supplied that they will not hunger or thirst. They will receive what they need in good time, before their need becomes desperate. They will also be protected from anything that would trouble them. The sun will not strike them with burning heat, and God will give his flock rest at noon (Song of Songs 1:7). Nothing harmful will happen to those who place themselves under God’s protection. He will also help them carry the weight and heat of the day.

They will be under God’s kind and steady guidance. The one who had mercy on them by bringing them out of captivity will lead them, just as he led their ancestors in the wilderness by a pillar of cloud and fire. He will guide them even by springs of water that are ready along the way. God will give them comforts that are fitting and timely, not like the shallow pools in the valley of Baca, but like the water from the rock that followed Israel. Those who live under God’s guidance and follow it closely may rightly expect comfort from him. The world leads its followers to broken cisterns, or to streams that dry up in summer. But God leads his people by springs of water.

Those whom God guides will also find an open road and removed obstacles (Isaiah 49:11). God says, “I will make all my mountains a way.” The same God who once made the sea a path will, with equal ease, make mountains into a road, even when they seem impossible to cross. The highway, or raised road, will be built up to make the way clearer and more beautiful. The paths by which God leads his people are under his care, and he will see that they are kept in good repair, as the roads to the cities of refuge were in Israel. The leveling of the roads from Babylon, foretold in (Isaiah 40:2, Isaiah 40:3), was applied to the work of the gospel, and this promise may be understood that way too. Though there are difficulties on the way to heaven that we cannot get over in our own strength, God’s grace will be enough to help us across them and make even mountains into a way (Isaiah 35:8).

He will also gather them together from every place so they can return as one body. That way they can encourage one another and be more clearly seen. They had been scattered through different parts of Babylon, as their enemies wished, to stop them from joining together. But when God’s time came to bring them home, one spirit would move them all. Those farthest apart, and those who had found shelter in other lands, would meet them in the land of Judah (Isaiah 49:12). Some would come from far away, some from the north, some from the west, and some from the land of Sinim, which is probably a province of Babylon not named elsewhere in Scripture. Some think it was a land near one of the main cities of Egypt, called Sin, mentioned in (Ezekiel 30:15, Ezekiel 30:16). This promise also points ahead to the many converts who would come into the gospel church, and it will be fully completed when God’s chosen people come from east and west to sit with the patriarchs in the kingdom of God (Matthew 8:11).