Isaiah 52:10

The Bible says in Isaiah 52:10-12, “The LORD hath 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. Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence, touch no unclean thing; go ye out of the midst of her; be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the LORD. For ye 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 rereward.” In these Bible verses the Lord is emphasizing the fact that He is going to do something special for His people, and not for His people only, but also for the whole world. What the Lord is going to do will be for “the eyes of all the nations.” It says in Isaiah 52:10, “all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.” Of course, “the salvation of our God” is the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. In today’s world, only believers honor the name of Jesus, and only believers appreciate who He is. We know that He is King of kings and Lord of lords. But the day will come when the whole world will know about the salvation of God. It will be just as it says in Isaiah 52:10, “all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.” Concerning the Second Coming of Christ, the Bible says in Revelation 1:7, “Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all the kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen.”

An interesting truth is presented when Isaiah 52:12 tells us that God is our “rereward.” The word that is translated “rereward” in the King James version of the Bible comes from a word that means “to gather together.” God will gather us to Himself. It paints the picture of those who are on a journey, a journey that can be dangerous. But there is nothing to fear because God will go first and make sure the coast is clear and safe. And then He will gather us to Himself. It is always best to go God’s way for your life. That is the safest way to go. He will protect you. If you go your own way into a relationship or some other venture, you will go without this special promise of protection.

It is important to notice that in Isaiah 52:10-12, that even when telling us everything He is going to do for us, the Lord also still expresses His will that His believers live holy lives. The Lord said in Isaiah 52:11, “touch no unclean thing.” And He said, “be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the LORD.” God’s grace through Christ is never a license to sin. God’s message to His people is always this, “Be ye holy, for I am holy, saith the Lord.”

Isaiah 52:13-15 are actually verses that present an introduction to Isaiah chapter 53. Isaiah chapter 53 is the great chapter of Isaiah that tells us about the immense sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ for the sins of the world. This tremendous description of the sufferings of the Messiah was written over 500 years before Jesus was born. The Bible says in Isaiah 52:13, “Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high.” God’s “servant” is the Messiah. The first thing said about the Messiah refers to His wisdom. It says, “my servant shall deal prudently.” One of the notable attributes of the Messiah is that He is very, very wise. Jesus was the wisest person who ever walked this earth. Every word that He said, every deed that He did, and every choice that He made was based upon having the wisest of wisdom. We were told about Jesus in Isaiah 11:2, “And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.” Remember also that it said about the Messiah in Isaiah 9:6, “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful Counseller, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.” The Messiah is celebrated for His wisdom as much as for anything else, including being “The Mighty God.” It is no wonder that the book of Proverbs makes such a heavy emphasis on the importance of gaining wisdom. By the way, the word that is translated “wisdom” in Hebrew means “wisdom, shrewdness, experience.” There is a heavy emphasis on knowing how to take care of practical matters, when you have this wisdom. It refers to knowing the right way of doing things. This kind of wisdom comes from experience, and comes from understanding how life really works from a practical standpoint. It says in Proverbs 2:1-6, “My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my commandments with thee; So that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding; Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding; If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures; Then shalt thou understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God. For the LORD giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding.” It says in Proverbs 3:13, “Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding.” It says in Proverbs 4:7, “Wisdom is the principle thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.” It says in Proverbs 5:1, “My son, attend unto my wisdom, and bow thine ear to my understanding.” It also says in Proverbs 16:16, “How much better is it to get wisdom than gold? And to get understanding rather to be chosen than silver!” And it says in Proverbs 24:3, “Through wisdom is an house builded, and by understanding it is established.”

Isaiah 52:13 says that the Messiah “shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high.” He is after all “The Mighty God”, the King of kings, and the Lord of lords. But before Jesus regained His exalted throne in heaven, He suffered terrible and cruel torments at the end of His life when He endured the agony of the suffering for sin. He wears a crown now, but He wore a crown of thorns then. He is glorified now, but He was humbled then. He is admired and honored now by many, but He was rejected by all then. We are given a short but vivid description of His sufferings in Isaiah 52:14, and we will be given a further description of His sufferings in Isaiah chapter 53. The Bible says in Isaiah 52:14, “As many were astonied at thee; his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men.” It may very well be true that no accurate description has yet been given of how much the body of Jesus had been ripped and beaten by His tormentors. The Romans had perfected the art of violent torture, and the full force of Roman corporal punishment fell upon the back and the head and the face of Jesus Christ. Evidently, Jesus was beaten and punched and whipped to the point of being unrecognizable. The bruises, and the tears, and the cuts, and the rips of His skin on Jesus’ face and on Jesus’ back must have been unimaginably disfiguring for Isaiah to have written by the Spirit, “As many were astonied at thee; his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men.”

Of course, the sufferings of Jesus were even more than the physical sufferings that He endured. Jesus also suffered the greatest of all spiritual sufferings. Somehow Jesus suffered the pains of hell while He hung upon the cross separated from the Father. The Bible says in Second Corinthians 5:21, “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” Jesus suffered greatly, but in so doing, He also accomplished greatly. He suffered more than any other, but He also accomplished more than any other. Jesus showed us that there is a relationship between suffering and doing the will of God. Eventually, as faithful servants you will be rewarded by God because you were willing to suffer for Him; and you were willing to keep trusting in Him even though you were called to suffer. The Bible says in Second Timothy 3:12, “Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.”

Concerning what Jesus accomplished because He was willing to suffer, it says in Isaiah 52:15, “So shall he sprinkle many nations; the kings shall shut their mouths at him: for that which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they consider.” The word that is translated “sprinkle” is used in the Old Testament to refer to what the high priest would do when animal sacrifices were performed, and the blood of the innocent animal was sprinkled on the alter or other things to symbolize cleansing from sin. For example, it says in Leviticus 5:9, “And he shall sprinkle of the blood of the sin offering upon the side of the altar; and the rest of the blood shall be wrung out at the bottom of the altar: it is a sin offering.” Isaiah 52:15 tells us that Jesus will shed His blood for the sins of the world. It tells us that He will be the King of kings by saying that all the other kings “shall shut their mouth at him.” It also tells us that Jesus will be the greatest of all teachers because it says that when the Messiah comes, “that which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they consider.” When Jesus reveals Himself to a lost soul, the greatest truths of this life and of life after death are learned, and the opportunity to be enlightened from His Word is opened up.

The Bible says in Isaiah 53:1, “Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?” These two questions are asked because of the fact that many people do not receive the gospel of Christ. Many people do not repent of their sins. Many people do not believe Jesus, nor call upon His name. Why does it happen this way when there is so much to gain from turning to Christ: the most important of which is eternal life. One reason for this is the fact that there is a stigma in this world to the name of Christ, to the person of Christ, and to believing on Christ. That is partly the meaning of the next couple of verses in Isaiah. It says in Isaiah 53:2-3, “For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.” In a certain sense these verses are talking about what Jesus suffered when He was crucified on the cross of Calvary when the hatred against Him came to its absolute peak, but the verses are also talking about the general attitude of the populace of this earth against Jesus. It says, “he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.” And it says, “we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.” That is one reason that some people only turn to Christ when they have fallen so far down into the pit of sin that there is no place left for them to look, but to Jesus Christ. You must want Jesus more than the opinions of the world in order to gain Him. If you do not know Jesus as your Savior, today you can cast aside the opinions of the world, and give yourself to Christ.

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