Unit 1: God Delivers and Restores
Key Verse:
Isaiah 49:23c NLT
23c
Then you will know that I am the Lord.
Those who trust in me will never be put to shame.”
Rejoice! God promises you that when you see His hand on your life, your response will be one of faith and confidence in the knowledge of Him.
What you need to know
Isaiah 49:8 NLT
8 This is what the Lord says:
“At just the right time, I will respond to you.[a]
On the day of salvation I will help you.
I will protect you and give you to the people
as my covenant with them.
Through you I will reestablish the land of Israel
and assign it to its own people again.
In last week’s lesson, we saw Isaiah prophesying the deliverance of God’s people from captivity in Babylon and their return to Jerusalem. This will come as a result of God’s Servant answering the call to lead His people back to Jerusalem. As we discussed, the Servant that Isaiah refers to can be understood as Jesus, who would one day build God’s Church. There is also an interpretation that more directly associates the term Servant with Zerubbabel, who would lead the first and largest group of Jews from Babylon back to Jerusalem, and who would oversee the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem. This week’s lesson completes our study of Isaiah 49.
The Lesson
Isaiah 49:18 NLT
18
Look around you and see,
for all your children will come back to you.
As surely as I live,” says the Lord,
“they will be like jewels or bridal ornaments for you to display.
Picking up from last week’s lesson, we find Isaiah prophesying concerning an event that would occur some one hundred and forty years later. Isaiah voiced God’s redemptive plan for Judah’s eventual return from Babylonian captivity. Beautifully, Isaiah’s rendering of God’s vision for the captives that He would rescue was a spectacular vision of wonderment and joy. They would not just be set free, but they would be free and blessed. Their return would be a victorious procession. There would be singing and celebration. Rejoicing would color the moment.
In verse eighteen above, Isaiah describes a time when Jerusalem’s returning children would be like the ornaments on the gown of a beautiful and beautifully ordained bride. Once forlorn, Jerusalem would experience joy unspeakable at her peoples' return. In this moment, Isaiah’s vision speaks to a time far further in the future when the bride of Christ, the Church, would so beautifully fulfill this vision and more as God makes for Himself a people who were no people through the shed blood of His Son, Jesus.
Isaiah 49:19 NLT
19
“Even the most desolate parts of your abandoned land
will soon be crowded with your people.
Your enemies who enslaved you
will be far away.
Isaiah’s vision reflected a land, once desolate and abandoned, that would become a beautiful place of plenty. It would be crowded with people and commerce. There would be lasting peace. Jerusalem, and by extension, Israel would be free from the threat of enemy encroachment. God’s land would be a peaceful pasture beckoning to all the world a message of hope and joy. Again, Isaiah’s vision told of a time in the near future when God’s Presence would return to Jerusalem, but he also spoke of a time in the distant future when God would inhabit His body in the earth, the Church.
Isaiah 49:20 NLT
20
The generations born in exile will return and say,
‘We need more room! It’s crowded here!’
Every picture painted by Isaiah’s voice provokes images of abundance. Verse twenty continues the pattern, provoking images of a bustling, excited nation bursting at the seams, expanding her borders to make room for the innovation and advancement that comes with God’s inspiration. For as long as the Lord tarries, there will be a growing, burgeoning Church, its growth powered by the Gospel of Christ, which invites the weary and the weak to come and dine at the Lord’s Table.
Isaiah 49:21 NLT
21
Then you will think to yourself,
‘Who has given me all these descendants?
For most of my children were killed,
and the rest were carried away into exile.
I was left here all alone.
Where did all these people come from?
Who bore these children?
Who raised them for me?’”
With so much excitement, with so much hope being spread abroad, one might ask, “What is all of this commotion?” Beloved, the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ has undergone periods of severe persecution or suppression throughout time. Today, even as it appears that her influence is dimming or misdirected, rest assured that God will trigger a revival that will astound the masses.
Isaiah 49:22 NLT
22
This is what the Sovereign Lord says:
“See, I will give a signal to the godless nations.
They will carry your little sons back to you in their arms;
they will bring your daughters on their shoulders.
Beloved, God holds the times in His hands. He controls and affects all of the doings of men. Jerusalem’s children, the Church will be drawn from every nation and ethnos. When Babylon’s captives were freed to return to Jerusalem, it was pagan rulers who fueled and funded their return. God can turn the hearts of leaders today toward the purpose of His kingdom and its people. Our task is to remain hopeful in the bleakest of times, remembering that in all circumstances, God is in control.
Isaiah 49:23
23
Kings and queens will serve you
and care for all your needs.
They will bow to the earth before you
and lick the dust from your feet.
Then you will know that I am the Lord.
Those who trust in me will never be put to shame.”
The lesson closes with the same hopefulness with which it began. The nations would bow at the feet of those who belong to the Lord. They would offer the riches of all the earth to the furthering of God’s Kingdom. God’s people would see a time of unparalleled prosperity. The same will be true of God’s Church on that great day when presents His bride before the universe. She (we) will be beautifully adorned, a rapturous vision before all eternity.
Selah,
wb
Zechariah 8:4-5 NLT
4 “This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: Once again old men and women will walk Jerusalem’s streets with their canes and will sit together in the city squares. 5 And the streets of the city will be filled with boys and girls at play.
Did you know that today’s lesson will be on Juneteenth (June 19)? In America, Juneteenth marks the date of June 19th in 1865, two years after Lincoln signed Proclamation 95 (The Emancipation Proclamation) was signed on September 22, 1862. America has a long history of racially driven, capitalistic policies, or rather, capitalist-driven, racist policies. American capitalism and corporatism were cemented in the free labor provided by slavery. For nearly two hundred years, America has tried, often times unsuccessfully, to correct this issue. The Emancipation Proclamation’s abolishment of slavery was one such attempt. Many people don’t know this, but the proclamation went into effect on January 1st, 1863 at midnight. On December 31st, 1862 slaves throughout the South gathered in their places of worship within the confines of the plantation, awaiting midnight, January 1 when they would be free according to Lincoln’s proclamation. Thus, the services that occurred started a tradition known as ‘Watch Night’ in the Black Church.
However, slavery continued in some southern states in defiance of the Emancipation Proclamation. Thus, the US government dispatched the military to go to those states and enforce the edict. On June 19th,1865, Major General Gordon Granger and a contingent of Union Soldiers arrived by ship at Galveston, Texas with the express purpose of setting the slaves in Texas free. As a Black Texan, born and raised, I’ve celebrated Juneteenth my whole life. Some of my fondest memories are of the annual celebrations that we participated in down in Webberville, Tx. and in Austin, Tx. At the same time, since I’ve been saved, I participated in many ‘Watch Night’ celebrations on New Year’s Eve at one African American church or another. Both days hold importance for me. I find myself surprised by the number of black folks that I have encountered who were not aware of the connection between the abolishment of slavery and the celebration of ‘Watch Night’’. By the same token, I have always seen Juneteenth as a specifically Texan observance and I now struggle with the thought that it has been ‘appropriated’ by the Black community nationwide and has now become a national holiday. Wow. However, when I reflect on these things in light of today’s lesson, I find solace in the thought that ‘WatchNight’, a purely a ‘spiritual’ recognition of black people’s emancipation from slavery observed by many on New Year’s Eve each year has been codified into federal law, thus becoming a ‘temporal’ entity that will be observed officially and nationally each year, thus placing the topic of racial equality squarely in the public lexicon to heighten awareness of continued vestiges of racism that remain as an affront to real justice for all Americans, regardless of nationality, or ethnicity.
Let us be reminded that Babylon failed as a nation-state over issues of justice. God punished them so severely that they never regained any semblance of significance after they fell to Cyrus, the Great under God’s direction. Thank God for His great grace in regards to His great patience with America as she continues to struggle toward true righteousness and equality. May the national recognition of Juneteenth accelerate our country and all of the world toward God’s purpose in the earth: Justice and Righteousness. Lord, have mercy! Happy Juneteenth!
Amos 5:24 NKJV
24
But let justice run down like water,
And righteousness like a mighty stream.
