ISAIAH - CHAPTER 51 - Angels of Gladness and Joy
ISAIAH 51
The Angels of Gladness and Joy
Pastor Carolyn Sissom
Tuesday Morning Bible Study
January 5, 2015, the Year of Our Lord
Isa. 51:11: “Therefore the redeemed of the Lord shall return, and come with singing to Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their head; they shall obtain gladness and joy; and sorrow and mourning shall flee away.”
The Lord revealed to me many years ago that we have the angels of “Goodness” and “Mercy” on either side of us. As I was reading this verse, the revelation came to me that the angels of “Gladness” and “Joy” are also our companions on our Christian journey.
As portals of glory draw nearer, and the Redeemed draw closer, the song of the Redeemed deepens in melody and strength. We come to Zion “with singing;” then “everlasting joy is on our head.” We obtain a new anointing of “gladness;” and finally those two companions of the wilderness, “sorrow and mourning” rise on their somber, gloomy wings and speed away for ever!
Isaiah 51: 1-6: “Hearken to Me, you that follow after righteousness, you that seek the Lord; look to the rock where you are hewn and to the hole of the pit from where you are dug. Look to Abraham your father, and to Sarah that bare you; for I called him alone, and blessed him; and increased him. For the Lord shall comfort Zion; He will comfort all her waste places and He will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.”
“Hearken” is a strong word meaning, listen, take heed, understand. The encouragement of verse 1 which is to have faith in the joyful future which is promised in verse 3.
The Divine Speaker, the Lord our God, turns to the followers of righteousness, the “seekers after God”, the true and genuine Israel of all ages. He exhorts them and us in the midst of doubt and darkness, trouble and perplexity, and the mysteries of the present to exercise simple faith in His love and power.
He (the Lord) reminds us of the example of Abraham, the father and founder of the Jewish nation, but also the nation of people of faith. “Who hoping against hope, and believing against unbelief”, was “strong in faith, giving glory to God.”
“I called him alone” (Verse 2) One man, a pilgrim and sojourner from another land, childless, heirless, “as good as dead.” But the Divine Speaker (God alone) promised to make of him a great nation; that the barren rock (vs.1) would be turned into a living spring.
The stars of the eastern sky were made the emblems of his unnumbered seed and as in the words of the song, “one star that he saw had been lit for me”. He was faithful who promised. He “blessed him and increased him” (vs.2.)
51: 4-6: Hearken to Me, My people, and give ear to Me, O My nation; for a law shall proceed from Me, and I will make My judgment to rest for a light of the people. My righteousness is near; My salvation is gone forth, and My arms shall judge the people; the isles shall wait upon Me, and on My arm shall they trust. Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath; for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner; but My salvation shall be forever, and My righteousness shall not be abolished.”
Righteousness is the opening theme in verse 1: “you that follow after righteousness”. Then in verse 5, He says, “My righteousness is near”. Verse 6: “My righteousness shall not be abolished.” As Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness” (Rom. 4:3); so is Christ, “the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believes (Rom 10:4).
The righteousness of Jehovah-Jesus is “The righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe; for there is no difference.” (Rom. 3:22)
Paul preached this sermon in Romans from this scripture.
In verse 6, the Lord proceeds to draw the magnificent contrast contained in the most enduring of earthly things and His imperishable spiritual realities.
He takes a two-fold illustration from creation and our own fleeting life.
Again he summons us to take an illustration from nature’s material framework. He summons us to lift up our eyes to the heavens and the same stars on which Abraham gazed. He summons us to earth with its multitude of rocks, mountains, plains, oceans and rivers. “They are to “vanish as smoke”; they are to “wax old as doth a garment.”
Jesus may have been referencing this passage in Matthew 24:35: “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.”
The things which are seen are temporal and temporary. The present apparent stability is not a real permanence; the so-called “everlasting mountains” are not everlasting. The earth’s pillars of primeval granite will be overthrown.
In view of this, the world may have been even more beautiful during the days of Abraham and the days of Isaiah.
The second illustration is the consideration of our own frailty and mortality (verse 6). “they that dwell therein shall die in like manner.” The span of days appointed for all living awaits each one of us; that the path of poverty and riches, childhood and age, obscurity and glory, “leads but to the grave”. The mightiest cannot escape the common doom of dust to dust and ash to ashes. The world’s conqueror cannot include the stronghold of death among his victories. The world’s wisest cannot invent the cure to counteract death. Sooner or later the words of the Prophet will be spoken over each one of us, “How is the strong staff broken and the beautiful rod?” (Jer. 48:17) “There is a time to die.” (Ecc. 3:2) “There is no discharge in that war.” (Ecc. 8:8)
The scoffer may declare that “all things continue as they were” concerning the planets and earth. However, the words, “They that dwell therein shall die in like manner.”
Earth’s most enduring things may and will perish. But the righteousness and the salvation of God are beyond the possibility of wreck and decay; the provisions of the everlasting covenant began in grace here, will be perpetuated in endless glory hereafter and through all eternity.
I see no value in making my security in the world’s shifting ambitions, perishable riches and fleeting pleasures. I will not build my nest on any bough except the Tree of Life. “My heart is overwhelmed. Lead me to the Rock that is higher than I”. It is only, at best, tent-life here; the permanent mansions are in the real of the Spirit, which is Heaven.
Let us hold loosely that which is vanishing smoke or the moth-eaten garment. Let us seek that Salvation which is “forever”, and that righteousness which “shall not be abolished.”
51: 7-8: “Hearken to Me, you that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is My law, fear you not the reproach of men, neither be you afraid of their revilings. For the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like wool; but My righteousness shall be forever, and My salvation from generation to generation.”
Encouraged with these comforting assurances, they (the people are now speaking) break forth with the response and invocation:
51:9-11: “Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord; awake, as in ancient days in the generations of old. Are You not it that has cut Rahab, and wounded the dragon? Are you not it which has dried the sea, the waters of the great deep; that has made the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass over? Therefore the redeemed of the Lord shall return and come with singing to Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their head; they shall obtain gladness and joy; and sorrow and mourning shall flee away.”
In the long seventy years of the Babylonian captivity; seasons of persecution and apostasy to which the Church has been no stranger; when the cry goes up from before the altar, “Lord, how long?”; the exiles on the banks of the Euphrates, who have hung their harps on the Willows and the suffering Church in all ages, renew the remembrance of the greatest and grandest of miraculous deliverances.
The Lord’s right arm is the emblem of His power. His right arm delivered them in the Exodus. It cut Rahab, demolished the insolence and arrogance of Egypt. His right arm had wounded the dragon or the crocodile, the mighty river monster, the symbol of proud Pharaoh. His arm had dried the Red Sea. He made the depths of the sea the way for the ransomed to pass over.
These monsters of the Nile were regarded as the emblems of spirits of evil. Pharaoh and his hosts are symbols of satanic rage and power, adversaries of the Church.
51:12-13: “I, even I, am he that comforts you; who are you, that you should be afraid of a man that shall die, and of the son of man which shall be made as grass and forgets the Lord your maker that has stretched forth the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth, and have feared continually every day because of the fury of the oppressor, as if he were ready to destroy? And where is the fury of the oppressor?”
The great dragon of the Apocalypse is here represented as “the fury of the oppressor” preparing to destroy. The unholy trinity is to kill, steal and to destroy, the dragon, beast, and false prophet.
This glorious overthrow of the destroyer by the Ancient of days is to us a covenant of his pledge to us of victory over all our spiritual enemies.
“I will remember the works of the Lord; surely I will remember your wonders of old.”
“The Lord’s arm is never shortened that it cannot save, nor His ear heavy that it cannot hear.”
As surely as the King of Jeshurun has made a pathway for His people through the mighty waters, and brought them to the Promised Land; so surely does He guarantee a safe conduct for His ransomed Church in all ages.
Jehovah now answers His people’s invocation. He immediately endorses their words.
“I, even I, am he that comforts you.”
51: 14-16: “The captive exile hastens that he may be loosed, and that he should not die in the pit, nor that his bread should fail. I am the Lord your God, who divided the sea; whose waves roared; the Lord of hosts is His name. I have put My words in your mouth, and I have covered you with the shadow of My hand, that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and say to Zion, You are My people.”
Many a prisoner of war and prisoners persecuted for their faith have clung to this scripture.
There is a story in Scotland during the Indian Mutiny in a prison in Lucknow, a lady prisoner who had lost all hope except for God, picked up from the ground a torn and soiled paper. It was a leaf of the Bible. Through her delirium, she opened her eyes, reading the words, and it was these scriptures, “I even I am He that comforts you…”
The words also have a higher, truer, spiritual interpretation with reference to the Church, “awake, awake, O arm of the Lord,” said Zion to Jehovah.
The Lord will cover His Church in the shadow of his hand in all times of her earthly tribulation;---moreover, when the days of her mourning are ended, as the captive exile leaps forth from his chains in haste to be free (Vs. 14). Whether this is literal captivity or bondages to addictions, the promise is sure.
With the chains of sin and sorrow broken the church shall go forth into the glorious light of her eternal day. As in the prophetic words of the song, Amazing Grace, our chains will be broken by this Great Grace.
We are ransomed travelers. We have found the “Righteousness” and the “Salvation” spoken of in the opening verses. Jesus has already wounded the dragon. The “Man at God’s right hand”, who in His cross and Passion has destroyed him that had the power of death, who is the devil. Jesus Christ is the death conqueror for all who receive Him as their Savior.
We are more than conquerors through Him that loves us. My life is not winding down, but it is winding upward.
We are accompanied on our journey through the wilderness with peace and joy in abounding hope.
Many picture a coming heaven as a place of unmingled happiness and miss the joy of the journey because they are waiting for an “any-minute-rapture” to deliver them from the wilderness.
These chimes of gladness come from within us through the Parousia of His Presence not from without. Glory surrounds us. The desert is alive with the sound of music. Gladness and joy are our attendants accompanying us all the way, hand in hand.
Yes! The Christian is joyful even in the midst of all our growing and stretching. Yes! It is a wilderness which we must pass through, and sorrow and mourning are in the realm of the soul. Yet, we know how to “enter the rest”, and “walk in the Spirit” in the realm of no more pain, never crying again, for we are living in the light of the risen Lamb.
I count it all joy every tear I have ever shed! I am at peace with God! My sin is forgiven! My heart changed! My affections are elevated! Grace continually molds, sustains, quickens, sanctifies and empowers me to rise above all circumstances! I am assured of Glory hereafter!
“He has put gladness in my heart more than in the time that their corn and wine increased” (Ps. 4:7).
As the portals of glory draw near, the song of the redeemed deepens in melody and strength. We come to Zion’ “with singing;” then “everlasting joy is on our head.” We obtain a new anointing of “gladness;” and finally sorrow and mourning ---these two companions of the wilderness,--rise on their gloomy wings and fly away for ever!
His Righteousness is promised as imputed and implanted---“the attire of the King’s daughter, all-glorious without,---all glorious within”.
We desire to be conformed to His will, and serve Him with His active energy endued by the Holy Spirit.
God our Maker gives songs in the night. Better the night with songs in it, than no night and no song. Better the thorn in the nest than to settled in the downy nest of false security, ease, selfishness and death.
Everlasting joy like a coronet shall be upon our heads. Our robes are ever bright, palms ever green and crowns never fading. The Lord shall be our everlasting light, and the days of your mourning shall be ended.
Carolyn Sissom, Pastor
Eastgate Ministries Church
Scripture from K.J.V. – I entered into the labors of John Ross MacDuff “Comfort, Comfort Ye”.