Isaiah 59:16 - Meaning and Application

We have already seen how sin grew in this chapter, to our great shock. Here we see how grace grows even more. Sin took the commandment and became more sinful, but grace took the same occasion to show itself as even more gracious.

First, consider why God saved this stubborn people, even after all they had done against him. It was entirely for his own name’s sake. There was nothing in them to cause it, and nothing in them to deserve it. They had no merit, no strength, and no will to make things right, so God would act by his own power and for his own glory.

He saw their weakness and their wickedness. There was no one who would stand up for the dying cause of religion and virtue among them, no one who would “execute judgment” (Jeremiah 5:1), that is, carry out what was right. People complained about how bad the times were, but they had no courage to oppose the evil. Corruption had spread everywhere, and almost no one tried to stop it.

There was also no intercessor, no one to step in and plead with God, standing in the gap by prayer and turning away his anger. God would have welcomed such a person, and it is surprising that he found none. Or, more likely, there was no one to uphold justice and truth, which were being trampled down (Isaiah 59:14). There was no advocate to speak up for those who were treated like prey because they held fast to their integrity (Isaiah 59:15).

The people complained that God was not acting for them (Isaiah 58:3), but God had more reason to complain that they did nothing for themselves. This shows how ready he would have been to do them good if he had found even the smallest movement toward reform.

God then pledged his own strength and his own righteousness on their behalf. They would be saved, even so. Since they had no strength of their own, and no active men to set things right, his own arm would bring salvation. This points to the Lord himself, and also to Christ, the power of God and the arm of the Lord, the one God made strong for himself.

The work of reform, which is the first and main part of salvation, would come through God’s direct work on people’s consciences. When magistrates and reform groups fail to do their part, and neither justice is carried out nor reform demanded, God shows that he can act without them when his time comes. He then prepares his people for mercy.

The same is true in deliverance. When God stirred up Cyrus, king of Persia, and brought his people out of Babylon, it was not by human might or power, but by the Spirit of the Lord of hosts. Then his own arm, which is never too short, brought salvation.

God also had no righteousness in them to use as a reason to favor them. So his own righteousness upheld him and carried him through. His justice, which their sins had turned against them, now appears for them through grace. They could not claim mercy as something owed to them, but God would remain true to himself, to his promise, and to his covenant people. In righteousness he would punish the enemies of his people (Deuteronomy 9:5).

This same truth appears in our redemption through Christ. We had no righteousness of our own to offer, so God brought in a righteousness through the merit and mediation, that is, the reconciling work between God and man, of his Son. It is called “the righteousness that comes from God by faith” (Philippians 3:9). That righteousness sustained God’s saving work and upheld all his favor to us, even though we had provoked him.

He “put on righteousness as a breastplate,” protecting his honor, just as a breastplate protects the vital parts. He also “put a helmet of salvation on his head.” He is so certain to complete the salvation he plans that he uses salvation itself as his helmet. That makes his work unshakable, and it shines with glory, fear for his enemies, and beauty for his friends. When righteousness is his coat of arms, salvation is his crest.

Paul uses this same picture for the Christian armor, with the breastplate of righteousness and the helmet of the hope of salvation (Ephesians 6:14-17; 1 Thessalonians 5:8). It is called the armor of God because he wore it first and fitted it for us.

Since people had no spirit or zeal to act for themselves, God would put on the garments of vengeance and clothe himself with zeal as a cloak. He would make his justice against the enemies of his church, and his zeal for his own glory and for the honor of religion and virtue, plain to the whole world. In this way he would show himself great, like a man in rich clothing or in the special dress of his office.

If people will not be zealous against sin, God will be. He will take vengeance on sin for all the harm it has done to his honor and to his people’s good. This was part of Christ’s work in the world, to take away sin and to deal with it in judgment.

Second, consider what kind of salvation God himself will bring about through his righteousness and strength. There would be a present, earthly rescue for the Jews in Babylon, or in whatever other place they were in trouble and captivity. This promise in (Isaiah 59:18, Isaiah 59:19) also pointed to something greater. When God’s time comes, he will do his own work, even if those who should help fail.

It is promised that God will deal with his enemies and repay them for what they have done. This includes the enemies of his people abroad, who oppressed them, and the enemies of justice and truth at home, who also oppressed them. These enemies are God’s enemies too. When the day of vengeance comes, he will deal with both groups according to what they deserve, according to retribution, the law of giving back what is due (Revelation 13:10), or according to earlier acts of repayment. As he has dealt with his enemies before, so he will repay them again, with fury to his adversaries and recompense to his enemies.

His fury will never go beyond justice, as human anger often does. Even to the distant islands, if they have set themselves against him, he will repay them. His hand will find all his enemies (Psalm 21:8), and his arrows will reach them.

Though God’s people have acted so badly that they do not deserve rescue, their enemies act even worse, and they do deserve judgment. Whatever the enemies of God’s people later try to do to disturb their peace, they will be stopped and brought to nothing. When the enemy comes in like a flood, like a rushing tide or a land flood that seems ready to sweep everything away, the Spirit of the Lord will, by hidden and unseen power, lift up a banner against him and drive him back. He that has delivered will still deliver. When God’s people are weak and helpless, and have no banner to raise against the attack, God will give a banner to those who fear him (Psa 60:4). By his Spirit, he will lift up a standard that draws many together to defend the church.

Some understand this in another way: the Lord himself will come, with his name and glory seen beforehand in the promised Messiah, and the Spirit of the Lord will lift him up as a banner. Christ, by the preaching of his gospel, will cover the earth with the knowledge of God, like waters covering a floodplain, with the Spirit of the Lord setting him up as a banner to the nations (Isa 11:10). All this will bring glory to God and help religion spread in the world (Isa 59:19). People from east and west will fear the name of the Lord and his glory. The rescue of the Jews from captivity, and the ruin of their enemies, would stir many to ask about the God of Israel and lead them to serve and worship him under the banner the Spirit of the Lord lifts up. When God acts for his church, many are brought into it. This was fully seen in gospel times, when many came from east and west to take the places of the children of the kingdom who were cast out, and eastern and western churches were formed (Mat 8:11).

There is also a greater salvation, worked by the Messiah in the fullness of time, which all the prophets kept in view. Two great promises belong to that salvation. The first is that the Son of God will come to us as our Redeemer (Isa 59:20). The promise is applied to Christ in Rom 9:26. The Deliverer will come. Christ’s coming as Redeemer is the center of all the promises in both the Old and New Testaments. This is the redemption in Jerusalem that believing Jews looked for (Luk 2:38). Christ is our Goel, our nearest kinsman-redeemer, the one who buys back both the person and the property of the poor debtor.

Notice where this Redeemer will appear, he will come to Zion, because there, on that holy hill, the Lord set him up as his King (Psa 2:6). In Zion the chief cornerstone was to be laid (Pe1 2:6). There he came to his temple (Mal 3:1). Salvation was to be placed there (Isa 46:13), because from there the law would go out (Isa 2:3). Zion was a picture of the gospel church, and the Redeemer acts for the church in all his appearances. The Septuagint reads it, “The Redeemer shall come for Zion’s sake.”

The people who will enjoy the comfort of his coming are those who turn from sin in Jacob. He comes to those who are in Jacob, to the praying seed of Jacob, in answer to their prayers. But he does not come in saving mercy to everyone who is inside the visible church. He comes only to those who turn from wrongdoing, repent, change their ways, and leave the sins Christ came to free them from. Sinners in Zion will gain nothing from the Redeemer’s coming to Zion if they keep going on in their sins.

The second promise is that the Spirit of God will come to us as our sanctifier, the one who makes us holy (Isa 59:21). In the Redeemer, God made a new covenant with us, a covenant full of promises. The great and full promise of that covenant is that God will give and keep giving his word and Spirit to his church and people through all generations. If God gives the Spirit to those who ask him, he gives with him all good things (Luk 11:13; Mat 7:11). This covenant is said to be made with those who turn from sin, because those who stop doing evil will be taught to do good.

The promise is stated to one person, “My Spirit that is upon you.” This may refer to Christ as the head of the church, who received the Spirit so that he could give it. The Spirit promised to the church was first on him, and from his head that precious oil flowed down to the edges of his garments. The gospel word was first placed in his mouth, because it began to be spoken by the Lord. All believers are his seed, in whom he prolongs his days (Isa 53:10). Or the words may refer to the church, and then they promise that the church will continue in the world to the end of time, matching the promises that Christ’s throne and seed will endure forever (Psa 89:29, Psa 89:36; Psa 22:30).

The church is kept up through a succession, just as the human race is kept up through children and grandchildren. As one generation passes away, another comes. In place of the fathers, there will be the children. It will continue from now on and forever, always, even to the end of the world. Since the world is allowed to stand for the sake of the church, we may be sure that as long as it stands, Christ will have a church in it, even if it is not always visible. The church will be maintained by the steady presence of the word and the Spirit.

The Spirit that was on Christ will always remain in the hearts of the faithful. In every age there will be some on whom he works and in whom he dwells, so the Comforter will abide with the church forever (Joh 14:16). The word of Christ will also remain in the mouths of the faithful. In every age there will be some who believe with the heart unto righteousness and confess with the mouth unto salvation. The word will never disappear from the church’s mouth, because there will always be a seed that speaks Christ’s holy language and professes his holy religion.

The Spirit and the word belong together, and by them the church is preserved. The word in the mouths of ministers, and even in our own mouths, will not help us unless the Spirit works with the word and gives us understanding. Yet the Spirit does his work through the word and alongside it, and anything claimed as the Spirit’s teaching must be tested by Scripture. On these foundations the church is built, stands firm, and will stand forever, with Christ himself as the chief cornerstone.