Isaiah 51:17 - Meaning and Application

God has already stirred for the comfort of his people, and now he calls them to stir themselves too, as he does later in Isaiah 52:1. This is a call to wake up, not mainly from the sleep of sin, though that is needed too, but from the heavy numbness of despair. The people of Jerusalem, in exile, were so crushed by sorrow that they had no energy left to seek comfort or relief. They were like the disciples in the garden, sleeping because of grief (Luke 22:45), and like people who later felt as if they had dreamed when deliverance came (Psalm 136:1).

This is also a call to wake up as if from death, like the command to the dry bones to live (Ezekiel 37:9). “Wake up, look around, and see the dawn of your deliverance. Gather your senses, do not sink under your burden, but rise and act for your own help.” The same call fits Jerusalem in the apostle Paul’s time, when she was “in bondage with her children” (Galatians 4:25) and under “a spirit of stupor” (Romans 11:8). They were told to wake up, pay attention to the things that made for their peace forever, and then the cup of trembling would be taken away, peace would be spoken to them, and they would triumph over Satan, who had blinded their eyes and put them to sleep.

Jerusalem’s miserable condition is fully admitted. She had long been under signs of God’s anger. God had put into her hand the cup of his fury, meaning her portion of his righteous displeasure. His dealings with her gave every reason to think he was angry, because she had strongly provoked him. The cup of God’s fury becomes a cup of trembling for everyone who must drink it. Lost sinners will find that true forever. Psalm 75:8 says that the wicked will drink the dregs, the heavy sediment at the bottom of the cup. Jerusalem, which had become like the wicked nations around her, was forced to wring out and drink that cup herself. Where there has been a cup of idolatry, there will sooner or later be a cup of fury. So stand in awe, and do not sin.

Those who should have helped her in her trouble failed her, either because they could not help or would not help, as the next verse shows. She was drunk from the cup of God’s fury and so stumbled in her judgment and efforts. She did not know what to say or do. In that sad condition, among all her sons, none could guide her. Zion had many famous sons, for it was said of her that this and that man were born there (Psalm 87:5), yet none of them took her by the hand to keep her from falling or from bringing shame on herself. None lent a hand to lift her out of trouble or a word to comfort her in it. It should not surprise us if even wise and good people are disappointed by their children and do not get the help they expected from them. Children who had been like arrows in a parent’s hand can become arrows in the heart. Jerusalem had no prince, priest, or prophet who had enough sense of duty or gratitude to help her when she most needed help. This is like the complaint in Psalm 74:9, “There is none to tell us how long.”

What made the disappointment worse was, first, that her trouble was very great, and yet no one pitied her or helped her. “These two things have come upon you,” says the Lord, “to finish your ruin,” namely famine and sword, two severe judgments (Isaiah 51:19). Or the two things may mean the ruin itself, made up of desolation, destruction, famine, and sword, together with her helpless and comfortless state under it. It is a sad thing to be in such misery and to have no one to pity you, no one to share your grief, bear your burden, comfort your heart, or help ease your trouble. The same kind of twofold sorrow is later spoken of Babylon, loss of children and widowhood (Isaiah 47:9). When misery comes because of a person’s own sin and folly, and when that person grows bitter and difficult under it, who will feel sorry for them? Those who will not listen to counsel cannot be helped.

Second, the people who should have comforted Jerusalem had themselves fallen apart from fear and despair (Isaiah 51:20). They had fainted, completely discouraged, with no patience to hold on to their peace or any faith in God’s promise to keep them calm. In their grief, they lay at the head of every street, crying out to all who passed by (Lamentations 1:12). They were starving and wasting away. They were like a wild bull caught in a net, thrashing and struggling to free itself, but only making things worse. By their own anger and discontent, they tangled themselves more deeply.

By contrast, those with a meek and quiet spirit are like a dove in a net. They stay calmer under suffering because they trust God as their protector. The cause of God’s people, and of the holy religion they confess, is a righteous cause, or the righteous God would not stand up for it. Yet for a time it may be pushed down and seem lost. Still, God will plead it, either by convincing the consciences of its enemies or by ruining their plans. He will show its rightness and beauty to the world, and he will give success to those who defend it. It is his own cause, and because he has taken it as his own, he will defend it with jealous care.

Third, they would soon be done with these troubles and say goodbye to them for good. “I will take the cup of trembling out of your hand,” he says, “that bitter cup. It will pass from you.” It is no use throwing the cup away or saying, “We will not drink it, we cannot drink it.” If we quietly submit, the same hand that put it into our hands will take it away again.

No, the promise is that, “You will drink it no more.” God has set aside his case against you and will not bring that judgment back.

The persecutors and oppressors will be made to drink the same bitter cup they once forced on others (Isaiah 51:23). See how boldly they abused and crushed God’s people. They said to your soul, to your very life, “Bow down, so we can walk over you.” They even said this to your conscience, taking pride and pleasure in forcing you to worship idols.

In that, later Babylon follows the same path as the old oppressor. It tyrannizes over people’s consciences, rules over them, puts them under pressure, and forces sinful compromises. Anyone who sets up a supposed infallible leader or judge, demands blind trust in his decisions, and requires obedience to his commands, is in effect saying to people’s souls, “Bow down, so we can walk over you.” And they say it with delight.

See also how low God’s people sank, because sin had taken away much of their courage and sense of honor. “You have laid your body as the ground.” The oppressors demanded more than outward obedience. They wanted souls to submit to them, so that everyone would believe and worship exactly as they pleased.

Yet all they really got was outward compliance. People lay their bodies on the ground, but that was only external and hypocritical obedience. Conscience cannot be forced, and that kind of yielding is not praised here. Still, God will deal justly with those who acted so harshly toward his people. “The cup of trembling” will be put into their hand.

Babylon’s suffering will be as severe as Jerusalem’s was. Daniel’s persecutors will be thrown into Daniel’s den, and they will learn what that is like. In these judgments, the Lord makes himself known.