Isaiah study & commentary

Isaiah 49:1

¹"Listen, O coastlands, to Me,
      And take heed, you peoples from afar!
      The LORD has called Me from the womb;
      From the matrix of My mother He has made mention of My name.
The "Me" speaking here is the Messiah, Jesus Christ.  He commands the coastlands.  These are the gentile lands all over the world.  Jesus says that God called Him from the womb.  This is from the womb of Mary, a virgin.  See Micah 5:2 and Luke 1:31 for more.       

Isaiah 49:2

²And He has made My mouth like a sharp sword;
      In the shadow of His hand He has hidden Me,
      And made Me a polished shaft;
      In His quiver He has hidden Me."
The mouth of the Messiah is a sharp sword.  Men need a sharp sword to go to war.  The Messiah needs only his word.  See Hebrews 4:12 and Revelation to see the power of God's word.  The messiah was like a special arrow, polished and waiting in God's quiver.  He was hidden in the shadow of His hand until the perfect time.      

Isaiah 49:3-4

³" And He said to me,
      ' You are My servant, O Israel,
      In whom I will be glorified.'
       ⁴ Then I said, 'I have labored in vain,
      I have spent my strength for nothing and in vain;
      Yet surely my just reward is with the LORD,
      And my work with my God.'"
God the Father is speaking here to the Messiah.  The reference to Israel here is a name or label for the messiah.  This fits the context of previous and subsequent verses.   Israel brought for the Messiah to the whole world.  God will be glorified by Jesus Christ.  The words of verse 4 show the frustration of Jesus in speaking to the stiff necked Jew.  There was no reward in his labors toward the Jew but His reward was with the Lord.

Isaiah 49:5-6

⁵" And now the LORD says,
      Who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant,
      To bring Jacob back to Him,
      So that Israel is gathered to Him
      (For I shall be glorious in the eyes of the LORD,
      And My God shall be My strength),
      ⁶ Indeed He says,
      ' It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant
      To raise up the tribes of Jacob,
      And to restore the preserved ones of Israel;
      I will also give You as a light to the Gentiles,
      That You should be My salvation to the ends of the earth.'"
God the Father, formed Jesus Christ from the womb to be His Servant.  Jesus was the pre-existent One.  He was from the beginning.  However, from the womb he took the form of a man; humbling himself as a servant.  Jesus came as a servant to bring the Jew back to the Father, so Israel, His people, would be gathered to Him.  God also gave Jesus as a light to the Gentiles.  Jesus would be salvation to the ends of the earth.  The work He did was for all men.  Each man must decide to believe that, trust in Jesus Christ and repent to be saved.

Isaiah 49:7

⁷Thus says the LORD,
      The Redeemer of Israel, their Holy One,
      To Him whom man despises,
      To Him whom the nation abhors,
      To the Servant of rulers:
      " Kings shall see and arise,
      Princes also shall worship,
      Because of the LORD who is faithful,
      The Holy One of Israel;
      And He has chosen You."
Isaiah prophesied, Jesus Christ, the Holy One and redeemer would be despised by men.  All the nations would abhor Him at his first coming.  At the first coming of Jesus Christ He was the Servant of rulers.  At the second coming He will be the ruler of all.  He will be the King of kings and the Princes of the world will worship Him.  The Lord God has chosen the Holy One, Jesus Christ, to reveal Himself and to redeem fallen man. 

Isaiah 49:8
⁸ Thus says the LORD:
      " In an acceptable time I have heard You,
      And in the day of salvation I have helped You;
      I will preserve You and give You
      As a covenant to the people,
      To restore the earth,
      To cause them to inherit the desolate heritages;
God the Father ordained a specific time that He would send Jesus Christ to redeem man.  He heard Jesus throughout His earthly ministry.  On the day of salvation we know the Messiah was distressed at the burden of sin that He took on.  God the Father helped Him in the day of salvation.  Jesus had the assurance of the Father and promise of overcoming death.  Jesus was preserved and given; He is a covenant to the people.  A day is coming when He will restore the earth and the Promised Land will be restored.  At that time the Messiah will restore the inheritance to His people, the Israelites.  Paul quotes from these verses in 2 Corinthians 6:2.        

Isaiah 49:9-12

⁹That You may say to the prisoners, 'Go forth,'
      To those who are in darkness, 'Show yourselves.'
      " They shall feed along the roads,
      And their pastures shall be on all desolate heights.
       ¹⁰ They shall neither hunger nor thirst,
      Neither heat nor sun shall strike them;
      For He who has mercy on them will lead them,
      Even by the springs of water He will guide them.
       ¹¹ I will make each of My mountains a road,
      And My highways shall be elevated.
       ¹² Surely these shall come from afar;
      Look! Those from the north and the west,
      And these from the land of Sinim."
There will be a worldwide gathering of the Israelites to the land at the Second Advent.  Their condition will go from oppression and captivity to a time of prosperity.  They will be called out of hiding.  There will be no hunger or thirst, the heat of the sun won't bother them.  Jesus Christ, the shepherd, will lead them and guide them.  The mountains are "My mountains" and while they appear to be an obstacle to man, God makes them a highway to return home.  The land of Sinim is not known for sure.  It may be an ancient name for China or a place in Egypt.  However, the result is the same.  God is calling His people from furthest parts of the earth.      

Isaiah 49:13-16

¹³Sing, O heavens!
      Be joyful, O earth!
      And break out in singing, O mountains!
      For the LORD has comforted His people,
      And will have mercy on His afflicted.

     ¹⁴ But Zion said, "The LORD has forsaken me,
      And my Lord has forgotten me."
      ¹⁵ " Can a woman forget her nursing child,
      And not have compassion on the son of her womb?
      Surely they may forget,
      Yet I will not forget you.
       ¹⁶ See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands;
      Your walls are continually before Me.
See Revelations 12:12 where they heavens rejoice because of the blood of the lamb.  The Lord comforts His people and has mercy them.  The cry of the Jew was the same throughout history, "The LORD has forsaken me."  But He has not forsaken them or forgotten them.  God says He has inscribed them on the palms of His hands.  This may be a reference to the ancient custom of puncturing their hands with a symbol of their city and temple as a sign of devotion.  For us, it seems to be a reference to the nail scarred hands of Jesus Christ.  His hands bear the scars of His love for us.

Isaiah 49:17-18

¹⁷Your sons shall make haste;
      Your destroyers and those who laid you waste
      Shall go away from you.
       ¹⁸ Lift up your eyes, look around and see;
      All these gather together and come to you.
      As I live," says the LORD,
      " You shall surely clothe yourselves with them all as an ornament,
      And bind them on you as a bride does.
The destroyers of Israel carried off the people and everything of value.  Many fled the land to escape and the nation of Israel was scattered.  Zion was left a barren place.  But God says that the nation will be gathered again.  There was a partial fulfillment when they returned to the land but the real fulfillment of this was when Israel once again became a nation in 1948.  The presence of the Jews in Zion is like a precious ornament worn by a bride.   

Isaiah 49:19-20

¹⁹" For your waste and desolate places,
      And the land of your destruction,
      Will even now be too small for the inhabitants;
      And those who swallowed you up will be far away.
       ²⁰ The children you will have,
      After you have lost the others,
      Will say again in your ears,
      ' The place is too small for me;
      Give me a place where I may dwell.'
The once barren Zion is now a land filling up once again with inhabitants.  The enemies who carried them away are long gone.  The nation will begin to thrive and prosper.  The children that Zion now has will begin to complain that they need more space.      

Isaiah 49:21-23

²¹Then you will say in your heart,
      ' Who has begotten these for me,
      Since I have lost my children and am desolate,
      A captive, and wandering to and fro?
      And who has brought these up?
      There I was, left alone;
      But these, where were they?'"
       ²² Thus says the Lord GOD:
      " Behold, I will lift My hand in an oath to the nations,
      And set up My standard for the peoples;
      They shall bring your sons in their arms,
      And your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders;
       ²³ Kings shall be your foster fathers,
      And their queens your nursing mothers;
      They shall bow down to you with their faces to the earth,
      And lick up the dust of your feet.
      Then you will know that I am the LORD,
      For they shall not be ashamed who wait for Me."
The nation will wonder where all these children came from.  They were once captive and scattered.  The nation was barren.  No nation has ever before risen from the dust like the nation of Israel.  God has lifted his hand and taken an oath to the nations.  This is as good a promise as you can get.  God says the nations, the gentiles will carry the children of Israel back in their arms.  The kings and queens of the world will be the foster parents of the children of Israel.  They will bow down to them.  These things will happen at the end of the age.  That time is coming.  When it happens, God said, we will know that He is Lord.  Those that wait on Him will not be ashamed…….His promises are sure.

Isaiah 49:24-26

²⁴ Shall the prey be taken from the mighty,
      Or the captives of the righteous be delivered?

²⁵ But thus says the LORD:
      " Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away,
      And the prey of the terrible be delivered;
      For I will contend with him who contends with you,
      And I will save your children.
       ²⁶ I will feed those who oppress you with their own flesh,
      And they shall be drunk with their own blood as with sweet wine.
      All flesh shall know
      That I, the LORD, am your Savior,
      And your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob."

It wasn't normal that the prey of the mighty could be taken away, or the captives be saved.  The Lord said the captives would be taken away.  Even though God used Babylon to chasten his people, he would not allow them to be consumed as prey by them.  The feeding on their own flesh and drinking of the own blood was reminiscent of siege conditions.  This once mighty nation of Babylon would be brought low by the Lord.  He was the savior of His people.  He is the Redeemer, the Mighty God of Jacob.