Isaiah 51 - Meaning, Themes & Application

" Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the LORD: look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged. "

Isaiah 51:1 means God is calling people who want to live right to remember where they came from and how He started their story. When …

" Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you: for I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased "

Isaiah 51:2 means God is reminding Israel that He took Abraham and Sarah, just one ordinary couple, and greatly blessed and multiplied them. It shows …

" For the LORD shall comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody. "

" Hearken unto me, my people; and give ear unto me, O my nation: for a law shall proceed from me, and I will make my judgment to rest for a light of the people. "

" My righteousness is near; my salvation is gone forth, and mine arms shall judge the people; the isles shall wait upon me, and on mine arm shall they trust. "

Isaiah 51:5 means God is close, actively stepping in to set things right and save people, not just in Israel but everywhere. His “arm” shows …

" Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath: for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner: but my salvation shall be for ever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished. "

Isaiah 51:6 means everything in this world is temporary—people, problems, even the earth—but God’s rescue and goodness never end. When you face loss, aging, or …

" 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. "

Isaiah 51:7 means God is speaking to people who genuinely want to do what’s right and keep His ways in their hearts. He tells them …

" 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. "

" 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? "

Isaiah 51:9 is a prayer asking God to act with the same power He showed in the past. “Arm of the Lord” means God’s strength. …

" 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? "

Isaiah 51:10 reminds people that the same God who miraculously opened the Red Sea can still make a path where there seems to be none. …

" 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. "

" I, even I, am he that comforteth you: who art thou, that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die, and of the son of man which shall be made as grass; "

" And forgettest the LORD thy maker, that hath stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth; and hast feared continually every day because of the fury of the oppressor, as if he were ready to destroy? and where is the fury of the oppressor? "

" The captive exile hasteneth that he may be loosed, and that he should not die in the pit, nor that his bread should fail. "

Isaiah 51:14 means God sees people who feel trapped—by sin, debt, addiction, fear, or unfair situations—and promises they won’t stay stuck forever. He will act …

" But I am the LORD thy God, that divided the sea, whose waves roared: The LORD of hosts is his name. "

" 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. "

" Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem, which hast drunk at the hand of the LORD the cup of his fury; thou hast drunken the dregs of the cup of trembling, and wrung them out. "

" There is none to guide her among all the sons whom she hath brought forth; neither is there any that taketh her by the hand of all the sons that she hath brought up. "

" These two things are come unto thee; who shall be sorry for thee? desolation, and destruction, and the famine, and the sword: by whom shall I comfort "

Isaiah 51:19 describes how God’s people have been hit by one disaster after another—ruin, loss, hunger, and violence—so deep that no one seems able to …

" Thy sons have fainted, they lie at the head of all the streets, as a wild bull in a net: they are full of the fury of the LORD, the rebuke of thy God. "

" Therefore hear now this, thou afflicted, and drunken, but not with wine: "

" Thus saith thy Lord the LORD, and thy God that pleadeth the cause of his people, Behold, I have taken out of thine hand the cup of trembling, even the dregs of the cup of my fury; thou shalt no more drink it again: "

" But I will put it into the hand of them that afflict thee; which have said to thy soul, Bow down, that we may go over: and thou hast laid thy body as the ground, and as the street, to them that went over. "