For a moment this morning, I thought that maybe the "Drive-by" theme should be Foghat's Slow Ride, but when you consider Jack Hibbs takes 4 Sundays to cover 2 verses in 2 Peter, a roughly 4 chapters a post average ain't bad! Today we start in Chapter 49, which really hammers home the life of Jesus, some 700 years before His advent on earth.
Isa 49:1 Listen to me, O coastlands, and give attention, you peoples from afar. The LORD called me from the womb, from the body of my mother he named my name.
Isa 49:2 He made my mouth like a sharp sword; in the shadow of his hand he hid me; he made me a polished arrow; in his quiver he hid me away.
Isa 49:3 And he said to me, "You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified."
Isa 49:4 But I said, "I have labored in vain; I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity; yet surely my right is with the LORD, and my recompense with my God."
Verse 3 kind of puts you into a quandary whether this is about a nation or a person, but lets look at why this is about Jesus:
First, the call is from A PERSON (Jesus) to the 'coastlands'- a term generally used for the pagan nations beyond the scope of Israel's day-to-day.
Second, Jesus has been extensively described in the New Testament as the Word, 'sharper than any two-edged sword', and was hidden in mortal flesh.
Third, the problem for Isaiah and his ministry is the people WEREN'T laboring at all, let alone in vain, this was Jesus looking at the Cross, and how many were going to reject it and Him.
So having set the tone, what else can we draw about Jesus from this passage?
For one, His mission to save the world entire, and the success that mission will someday have...
Isa 49:6 he says: "It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel; I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth."
Isa 49:7 Thus says the LORD, the Redeemer of Israel and his Holy One, to one deeply despised, abhorred by the nation, the servant of rulers: "Kings shall see and arise; princes, and they shall prostrate themselves; because of the LORD, who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you."
For another, the rejection by Israel of Jesus:
Isa 49:13 Sing for joy, O heavens, and exult, O earth; break forth, O mountains, into singing! For the LORD has comforted his people and will have compassion on his afflicted.
Isa 49:14 But Zion said, "The LORD has forsaken me; my Lord has forgotten me."
Isa 49:15 "Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you.
Isa 49:16 Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me.
Note the last verse: Despite what the 'believers' of ancient times thought, Jesus died for the Jews as well. Yes, He engraved us with nail holes. And that comes with a promise:
Isa 49:24 Can the prey be taken from the mighty, or the captives of a tyrant be rescued?
Isa 49:25 For thus says the LORD: "Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken, and the prey of the tyrant be rescued, for I will contend with those who contend with you, and I will save your children.
Isa 49:26 I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh, and they shall be drunk with their own blood as with wine. Then all flesh shall know that I am the LORD your Savior, and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob."
The next chapter starts with some of what Jesus would go through, along with His resolve:
Isa 50:4 The Lord GOD has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary. Morning by morning he awakens; he awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught.
Isa 50:5 The Lord GOD has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious; I turned not backward.
Isa 50:6 I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard; I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting.
Isa 50:7 But the Lord GOD helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame.
Chapter 51 condenses the story: Reminding Israel of her beginnings, telling of the coming salvation, and the power with which God has led them, promising that one day the spiritual blindness caused by their lack of faith would be lifted, and used to judge the nations.
And as the start of 52 trumpets the return of Israel to faith at the End of Days, it concludes- as do we for this week- with one further description of Jesus that they were destined to ignore...
Isa 52:13 Behold, my servant shall act wisely; he shall be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted.
Isa 52:14 As many were astonished at you-- his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the children of mankind--
Isa 52:15 so shall he sprinkle many nations; kings shall shut their mouths because of him; for that which has not been told them they see, and that which they have not heard they understand.
Get that last line... God telling Israel they HAVE been told, and they should have understood.
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