Dealing with the Darkness Again

The beginning of this chapter continues what we looked at last week. Through His prophet Isaiah, Jesus continues to exhort His saints. In last week’s chapter, the faithful were labeled as those who ‘trust in the name of the LORD and rely upon [their] God’. While the group this week is the same, the label is different. This week the faithful are called ‘you who pursue righteousness, you who seek the LORD’. In both chapters, He is speaking to the exiles in Babylon as they deal with the darkness. In this chapter, He calls His exiles to deal with the darkness from a perspective that is different from that of last week’s chapter.

Listen as I read Isaiah 51.

The chapter makes sense when you keep in mind that Isaiah is writing to the Jewish exiles in Babylon. That explains what the darkness is. They are far from Jerusalem which is where they yearn to be. You need to remember the crucial importance of Jerusalem to the Old Testament saints. It was the place of God’s special presence. Moses wrote, ‘But you shall seek the place that the LORD your God will choose out of all your tribes to put his name and make his habitation there.’ That was Jerusalem. God’s name was there. The Temple was the evidence of this. This understanding of Jerusalem explains something that Daniel did while he was an exile. When he prayed, he opened the windows of his house so that he could face Jerusalem, the place of God’s special presence. And the Psalmist wrote, ‘If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill! Let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth, if I do not remember you, if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy!’ Because the faithful exiles yearned for their God, they yearned to be in Jerusalem, but they were not there. They were, in that sense, estranged from their God. They were exiles. Darkness. That’s what our text is dealing with. Jesus is responding to the discouragement and dismay of His faithful saints who live in exile far from their God.

So, what does Jesus do? How does He respond and try to help them deal with this? The first thing to note is what He does not do. He does not scold them. He doesn’t say, ‘Hey, what are you sad about? Just shake it off. Enough of this sadness. You should feel up!’ You hear nothing like this. The sense of longing and the sadness that went with it made sense. It was what they should have felt. In this they were simply imitating what another Psalmist expressed. ‘As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?’ There are times when sadness is the right response to the darkness. They were, after all, exiles.

That’s what Jesus doesn’t do. But there are things that He does to encourage His saints. First, He reminds them of their history. ‘Look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who bore you; for he was but one when I called him, that I might bless him and multiply him.’ Jesus had dealings with Abraham and Sarah. He promised them that their descendants would be as the stars in the heavens and as the sand on the seashore. Bear in mind to whom He made these promises: two old people who had no children at all and no reasonable expectation of ever having children. And yet, Jesus came through. He did the impossible. In this He showed that He is the God who keeps His promises. And that is what He wants these exiles to remember. He is the God who keeps His promises. In doing this He is reinforcing their faith. He is dealing with their doubts. And He does this not by pointing to something vague and abstract. He points to the concrete, to what He actually did in history. And He points to something that they knew to be true. After all, they were the promised descendants. They were the proof that Jesus kept His promise to Abraham and Sarah. The situation that the exiles faced was hard. There was much darkness. At times, I imagine, that the situation felt impossible. And yet, Jesus reminds them that He keeps His promises, even the impossible ones.

That leads to the next section where Jesus renews some of those promises. ‘For the LORD will comfort Zion; he will comfort all her waste places and will make her wilderness like Eden, her desert like the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness will be found in it, thanksgiving and the voice of melody.’ [NKJV] The focus here is the land. The promise is that the land that is now desolate, a wilderness, will become like the Garden of Eden. But let’s go a bit further. This promise isn’t only about the land. In this land there will be people, happy people, people who are rejoicing and filling the land with their songs of thanks. It’s not just that the land will be restored to its pristine beauty. The people will be restored to the land. And once there, they will be happy; not just joyous but happy. ‘… joy and gladness will be found in it…’ This is what the future held for the exiles. They would be returned to their land, and that includes Jerusalem, the place of God’s special presence. And when they get there they would find it to be just like the Garden, and they will be ecstatic. Jesus promises. And He is the God who keeps His promises.

To emphasize the certainty of this promise, Jesus stresses something about Himself. Listen for the repetition. ‘My righteousness draws near, my salvation has gone out, and my arms will judge the peoples; the coastlands hope for me, and for my arm they wait. Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look at the earth beneath; for the heavens vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment, and they who dwell in it will die in like manner; but my salvation will be forever, and my righteousness will never be dismayed. Listen to me, you who know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law; fear not the reproach of man, nor be dismayed at their revilings. For the moth will eat them up like a garment, and the worm will eat them like wool; but my righteousness will be forever, and my salvation to all generations.’ Three times we hear the words, ‘My righteousness’ and ‘My salvation’. It’s obviously important because of the repetition. What is this? Well, for one thing, these are church words that we need to translate. What is ‘righteousness’? It has to do with what is right. Here, it is a quality of Jesus’ character. He always does what is right. This is simply an expression of His wisdom and His goodness. He does what is right for His people. And ‘salvation’ is just another word for rescue. A drowning swimmer experiences salvation when the lifeguard brings him to the shore. Rescue. Jesus rescues His people from all that threatens them. So, here Jesus is reminding the exiles that He is doing the right thing. And that is important for them to know and to hold on to as they face the darkness. Somehow, their experience of the darkness is not an obstacle to Jesus’ plan. It is actually part of the plan, a stepping stone to His goal for them. In having them experience the darkness, He is doing what is right. But the darkness will not last forever. He reminds them that His rescue is on the way. He has already set it in motion. And once it arrives it will never fade away. The land will be renewed like Eden, and it will be filled with laughing saints, and this will be something that will last forever.

This leaves verses 9-11. ‘Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD; awake, as in days of old, the generations of long ago. Was it not you who cut Rahab in pieces, who pierced the dragon? Was it not you who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep, who made the depths of the sea a way for the redeemed to pass over? And the ransomed of the LORD shall return and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.’ What is this? Jesus isn’t speaking to the exiles here. Actually, it’s the exiles speaking to Him. This is their response to what He has told them. This is their prayer. It begins with a call for Jesus to act. It is a prayer for Jesus to use His strength for their good. But did you notice what else was included? It’s a prayer that remembers history. All that they say about days of old, piercing the dragon, drying up the seas so that the redeemed could pass over – it’s all about the exodus from Egypt. It’s all about another time when Jesus kept His promise and cared for His people. This prayer is the exiles saying, ‘We remember how You rescued us before, and we know that you will do it again. We know that ‘the ransomed of the LORD shall return and come to Zion with singing’. We know that we will see Jerusalem and enjoy Your presence again. So, put on Your strength, Lord, at act on our behalf.’ This is a prayer of faith, the only kind that works. This is proof that the exiles believe what Jesus has just told them: a lively prayer full of expectation because of the promises of Jesus.

I’ve explained the text. Now it’s time for me to make clear some ways in which it speaks to you. For one thing, this text is a reminder that you also are exiles. You are far from Jerusalem; not some earthbound city but the heavenly Jerusalem where the special presence of your God resides. You are exiles. That is actually a very helpful way to understand your life. Now, the text makes an assumption when it labels the exiles of Isaiah’s day as it does. It assumes that these exiles pursue righteousness and seek the LORD. This is important. Without these traits no one can deal with the darkness. Can the text assume the same of you? How are you doing at this? Jesus spoke about seeking while He was here. ‘Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.’ And since we pursue what we love, another saying of Jesus fits here. ‘Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.’ So, how are you doing at pursuing righteousness and seeking the Lord in the way that Jesus has described? Let’s be concrete. What would you point to as evidence that seeking the Lord is the priority of your life? The question is not about trying to find areas of your life that are perfect. It’s more about where you are working to become perfect in these things. So, how are you doing at working at this? This actually is a helpful question because once you can say that seeking Jesus really is the priority of your life, that this is what you are working toward, you will then understand better the darkness that you face. Those who work the hardest at seeking Jesus feel the darkness the most. And that’s because those who work hard at seeking Jesus feel most deeply the gap between what is and what they so dearly desire to see. These really do get the idea that they are exiles. These then understand that their experience of the darkness is not because they are failing in some way to pursue righteousness and seek the LORD. Their experience of the darkness is rather because they are making progress at doing those things.

This text can, then, give you hope. It tells you how to respond. It tells you to remember your history. Meditate on Jesus’ faithfulness during the exodus at the Red Sea. That is part of your history too, you know. Consider the return of the exiles, these exiles that Isaiah was writing to. They did return, you know. And most importantly, ponder what happened at the Cross. Jesus makes promises, and He keeps them. He does what is right, and He rescues His people. And that’s you. What you need to do is simply believe Him. And the evidence of a lively faith will be found in your prayers. You will know that you believe these things as you call out to Jesus to rise up and act with power. You will know that you believe these things as you find yourself praying in hope, expecting Jesus to do great things. And one of the great things that He will do will be to dispel some of that darkness. The gap between what is and what you so dearly desire to see will shrink, a bit at a time. But the greater thing that He will do will be to restore you to a land that has itself been restored. This won’t be limited to the little parcel that Jesus promised Abraham. It will be the whole world. One day creation, which we now see as twisted by sin and a kind of a desert, will become again a beautiful Garden filled with laughing saints. So, there is hope as you face the darkness of this fallen place. Jesus is acting now in the darkness, and He will act supremely when He returns to make this a beautiful place for you to enjoy.