Isaiah 49:8

In this part of the book of Isaiah we are being told some important details about salvation. All human beings have failed in some way. All human beings have sinned. But God loves us, and so He has provided us a way of salvation through Jesus Christ. The Bible says in Isaiah 49:8, “Thus saith the LORD, In an acceptable time have I heard thee, and in a day of salvation have I helped thee: and I will preserve thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, to establish the earth, to cause to inherit the desolate heritages.” There is an “acceptable time” for salvation. There is a specific time for each individual to become saved. That time is when the Lord Jesus Christ visits you to call you to salvation by trusting in Him. The fact that God has established a “time” for salvation as stated in Isaiah is further expanded upon in the New Testament in Second Corinthians 6:2. The Holy Spirit expands on that which He gave in Isaiah and says, “For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”

The wise person will understand the seriousness and magnitude of his or her sins, and will turn to Christ. The wise person will take advantage of this “time” to be saved, and will yield to the call of Christ and to the invitation to be saved from sin. Remember that opportunities have a beginning, but they also have an end. The Bible says in Genesis 6:3, “And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man…” It would be terrible for a person to come to the end of their life and to have missed their opportunity to know Jesus Christ as Savior.

For those who do get saved by faith in Christ, there is the added benefit of being “preserved” by Christ. This is the eternal security of the believer. God saves us, and He also keeps us forever. The Apostle Paul wrote in Second Timothy 1:12, “For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.”

The Bible says in Isaiah 49:9-10, “That thou mayest say to the prisoners, Go forth; to them that are in darkness, Shew yourselves. They shall feed in the ways, and their pastures shall be in all high places. They shall not hunger nor thirst; neither shall the heat nor sun smite them: for he that hath mercy on them shall lead them, even by the springs of water shall he guide them.” People need to be saved because of two reasons mentioned in Isaiah 49:9. People are “prisoners” to sin, and people are “in darkness.” Only Jesus Christ has the power to deliver these prisoners. And only Jesus Christ has the light to shine into the darkness of the human heart. Notice carefully in verse 10 that having one’s needs met in this life is a part of being “lead” by the Lord. Make sure that you go God’s way, and He shall take care of you. Also, notice carefully that the reason that we can be certain that He will guide each believer into green pastures is because of his “mercy.” Everything in the Christian life is based upon the mercy of God through Christ. We do not deserve His many blessings. We do not deserve to be led by the Lord, but it happens because of His mercy. The Bible says in Psalms 89:1, “I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever: with my mouth will I make known thy faithfulness to all generations.”

The Bible says in Isaiah 49:11-13, “And I will make all my mountains a way, and my highways shall be exalted. Behold, these shall come from far: and, lo, these from the north and from the west; and these from the land of Sinim. Sing, O heavens; and be joyful, O earth; and break forth into singing, O mountains: for the LORD hath comforted his people, and will have mercy upon his afflicted.” These verses place an emphasis on the universality of the worship of the one true God and His Son Jesus Christ. God loves the entire world and everyone in it, and He is at work in all the nations of the world to prepare them for the Gospel of Christ. The truth as revealed in the Old Testament and the truth as revealed in the New Testament has always been offered to the whole world. It is interesting that in Isaiah 49:12 the word “Sinim” is used. It is the only place in the Bible where this word is used, and it appears to be the ancient Hebrew word for China. The word “China” comes from an old dynasty named after its first ruler, “Chin.” The point that the Lord is making is that believers will come out of every country on the earth. That is the same message that Jesus Himself gave. Jesus said in Mark 16:15, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.”

It is important to notice that the “mercy” of God is mentioned in Isaiah 49:13. It also says that God “hath comforted his people.” As was stated earlier, we need God’s mercy because we are sinners. We also need God’s comfort. We need to have our souls nourished and comforted because of the afflictions that come with this life. God can restore our souls and bless our hearts by the Word of God, by His Spirit, and by the presence of Christ who is always with us.

The Bible says in Isaiah 49:14-16, “But Zion said, The LORD hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me. Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me.” The initial statement made by the children of Israel is not uncommon for believers when they have suffered greatly. The Israelites had definitely suffered very much. Jerusalem had been destroyed. Many of them had been killed, and the rest had been taken captive to Babylon. From a human standpoint it is easy to understand that they had doubts and feelings that God had “forsaken” them or had “forgotten” them.

In Isaiah 49:15-16 God refers to two symbols to emphasize the fact that He would never forget His children: the mother of a new-born child and the palms of God’s hands. Referring to one of the closest of human bonds, God reminds us that a woman would not normally forget her new-born child. Even so, the all-powerful, loving God definitely will not forget His children. The second symbol that God uses is very interesting. God said in Isaiah 49:16, “Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands.” We know what happened to Jesus’ hands when He was crucified. We can look at the hands of Christ and realize that He will not forget us because of the price that He paid to save us and to make us His children. He suffered for us and He died for us. He will never forsake us nor forget us. It says in Romans 8:32, “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?”

The Bible says in Isaiah 49:17-26, “Thy children shall make haste; thy destroyers and they that made thee waste shall go forth of thee. Lift up thine eyes round about, and behold: all these gather themselves together, and come to thee. As I live, saith the LORD, thou shalt surely clothe thee with them all, as with an ornament, and bind them on thee, as a bride doeth. For thy waste and thy desolate places, and the land of thy destruction, shall even now be too narrow by reason of the inhabitants, and they that swallowed thee up shall be far away. The children which thou shalt have, after thou hast lost the other, shall say again in thine ears, The place is too strait for me: give place to me that I may dwell. Then shalt thou say in thine heart, Who hath begotten me these, seeing I have lost my children, and am desolate, a captive, and removing to and fro? and who hath brought up these? Behold, I was left alone; these, where had they been? Thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I will lift up mine hand to the Gentiles, and set up my standard to the people: and they shall bring thy sons in their arms, and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders. And kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their queens thy nursing mothers: they shall bow down to thee with their face toward the earth, and lick up the dust of thy feet; and thou shalt know that I am the LORD: for they shall not be ashamed that wait for me. Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captive delivered? But thus saith the LORD, Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered: for I will contend with him that contendeth with thee, and I will save thy children. And I will feed them that oppress thee with their own flesh; and they shall be drunken with their own blood, as with sweet wine: and all flesh shall know that I the LORD am thy Saviour and thy Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob.”

In Isaiah 49:17-26 God makes promises concerning two matters that affected the Children of Israel very much. All of us can certainly identify with these two matters: one refers to what happens to our children, and the other refers to what happens to our enemies. Notice that God makes the promise in Isaiah 49:17, “Thy children shall make haste; thy destroyers and they that made thee waste shall go forth of thee.” God promises that good things will happen to your children, and bad things will happen to your enemies. In other words God promises to take care of the things and the people that you love, and He promises to fight your battles for you and to protect you from those who hate you. God mentions children four times in this passage and He mentions sons and daughters also. No matter how badly things get with your children, the Lord is able to turn things around. The Israelites were in a situation where they called themselves “desolate.” They said, “I have lost my children, and am desolate, a captive.” But God promised that their sufferings were temporary. He would end their sufferings because He is merciful. God said that He would use other people in the world to make sure that your children were okay. He said in Isaiah 49:22, “they shall bring thy sons in their arms, and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders.” And the Lord said in verse 25, “I will save thy children.” We will take God at His word, and we will see what He does with our children also. There is one requirement to having this kind of help from God: faith. He said in verse 23, “they shall not be ashamed that wait for me.” To “wait” for God means that we are waiting to see what God is going to do because we are trusting in Him. We can trust in Jesus because He says in Isaiah 49:26, “I the LORD am thy Saviour and thy Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob.”

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