Startling Revelation of Messianic Redemption

Isaiah 52:1-15 

1 Awake, awake!
Put on your strength, O Zion;
Put on your beautiful garments,
O Jerusalem, the holy city!
For the uncircumcised and the unclean
Shall no longer come to you.

2 Shake yourself from the dust, arise;
Sit down, O Jerusalem!
Loose yourself from the bonds of your neck,
O captive daughter of Zion!
3 For thus says the LORD:
"You have sold yourselves for nothing,
And you shall be redeemed without money."

4 For thus says the Lord GOD:
"My people went down at first
Into Egypt to dwell there;
Then the Assyrian oppressed them without cause.

5 Now therefore, what have I here," says the LORD,
"That My people are taken away for nothing?
Those who rule over them
Make them wail," says the LORD,
"And My name is blasphemed continually every day.

6 Therefore My people shall know My name;
Therefore they shall know in that day
That I am He who speaks:
'Behold, it is I.'"

7 How beautiful upon the mountains
Are the feet of him who brings good news,
Who proclaims peace,
Who brings glad tidings of good things,
Who proclaims salvation,
Who says to Zion,
"Your God reigns!"

8 Your watchmen shall lift up their voices,
With their voices they shall sing together;
For they shall see eye to eye
When the LORD brings back Zion.

9 Break forth into joy, sing together,
You waste places of Jerusalem!
For the LORD has comforted His people,
He has redeemed Jerusalem.

10 The LORD has made bare His holy arm
In the eyes of all the nations;
And all the ends of the earth shall see
The salvation of our God.

11 Depart! Depart! Go out from there,
Touch no unclean thing;
Go out from the midst of her,
Be clean,
You who bear the vessels of the LORD.

12 For you shall not go out with haste,
Nor go by flight;
For the LORD will go before you,
And the God of Israel will be your rear guard.

13 Behold, My Servant shall deal prudently;
He shall be exalted and extolled and be very high.

14 Just as many were astonished at you,
So His visage was marred more than any man,
And His form more than the sons of men;
15 So shall He sprinkle many nations.
Kings shall shut their mouths at Him;
For what had not been told them they shall see,
And what they had not heard they shall consider.

The sin-bearing Servant, the Messiah who is the Christ, He is foretold here to startle the world with His redeeming work.  It would begin with a call to cleansing, a repentance from sin and a turning back to Him.  They had sold themselves into sin’s bondage at such a high price of their souls, but were promised to be redeemed without cost as a precursor to deliverance by grace and not by their own efforts of doing good to earn their release from captivity.  This captivity was real by their enemies and also symbolic of their fallen and sinful state in rebellion against the LORD who called them out to Himself.  This is the gospel in veiled form before it was revealed to us in Christ through His words and work, then further opened to our understanding by His apostles and Spirit given to us.  It began in God’s work through Israel before including we His people out of all the other nations.  They had freely gone to Egypt to survive a drought (Genesis 46:3-4) and ended up in bondage (Exodus 13:14) for four hundred years (Exodus 1:10-11, 12:40-41, Acts 7:6).  Through all these things they came to learn that He is who He is by knowing His name at last and His essence of being as the self-existing and eternal God over them and all creation.  Verse 7 sums up the gospel to them of deliverance which is repeated and explained in Romans 10:14-15 as fulfilled eternally in the Messiah when He came on earth at last, the hope of those who are His chosen people of the world  delivered from the wrath of God on sin through Him.  This is good news of peace with God and great joy (Luke 2:10-11) of salvation through the omnipotent power of the Almighty God who reigns as the Sovereign of us all.  There would be much joy and singing when Israel was redeemed and comforted in that deliverance, just as we who are in the Messiah who is Christ Jesus are also now exceedingly joyful and comforted in our salvation from His due wrath on our sin!  All the earth saw and will see the salvation of our Lord for His people.  This call is into holiness as well, for we are to be holy and righteous in Him and in our lives afterwards (2 Corinthians 6:17).  He goes before His people in triumph and keeps us as a guard for eternity and not just in this life.  The last three verses point then to the Servant who is the Messiah as one disfigured by the beatings before being crucified as He suffered in our place, the one who would startle the nations with His cruel death and glorious resurrection.  They will then see God’s mighty hand of reconciling grace at work in the suffering of His Servant and listen to what God has done, which is the gospel broadcast to them by beautiful feet of His witnesses to these things.  May we remember how He told us of the gospel of Jesus Christ from long ago by the prophets and has revealed it (Luke 24:25-27, 32) to us by His Spirit through the apostles as His messengers (Ephesians 3:5, 2 Peter 3:2).  May our beautiful feet bring many this good news of God’s sovereignty of purpose to redeem us and bring peace with God in place of justice and judgment, good new for the bad news of the just end of our sinful state in which we all enter this world!  This is the startling revelation of the Messianic redemption.  Amen and amen.