Isaiah 48
McGeeCHAPTER 48THEME: Last call to the house of Jacob; longing call of God to the remnantAll three of these last sections conclude with the phrase, “no peace …to the wicked” (Isa_57:21). The Messiah brings peace, but those who reject Him will never know peace. Turning to idols is turning from the Messiah. As we have seen, this section has majored in a denunciation of idolatry. Idolatry is a road that leads to Babylon. God, in this book, is traveling the lonely road to Calvary.
Isaiah 48:1
LAST CALL TO THE HOUSE OF JACOBThere are those who say that Judah and Israel are different, God contradicts that thinking in this verse. Don’t try to change the name God has given them. The whole house of Israel is addressed here, and they belong to the chosen line through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The apostate nation back then and in our day should listen to this final injunction to turn back to God. They speak of the God of Israel as though they know Him. Actually, they neither know Him nor serve Him. They have a religion without any strength whatsoever. They will not find the solution to their problems by turning to the United States, or to Russia, or to the Arab nations. Help will come when they turn to God. That is their solution and our solution.
Isaiah 48:2
They boast of being citizens of Jerusalem and of being children of God, but they are such only in name; they are actually strangers to God.
Isaiah 48:4
From the very beginning, when God took Israel out of Egypt, He knew they were stiff-necked people. My friend, God did not choose them because they were superior, nor did He choose us because we are superior. God chose them and us because of His grace and because He saw our great need.
Isaiah 48:12
LONGING CALL OF GOD TO THE REMNANTHe is pleading with His people to listen to Him. It would seem that God is no longer addressing the nation as a whole but confines His word to the remnant labeled, “my called.”
Isaiah 48:15
This is the heart cry of God.
Isaiah 48:16
It is Isaiah who becomes God’s messenger. He is pleading with them, and as He pleads you can hear the Lord Jesus Christ. F. Delitzsch (p. 253) appropriately says, “Since the prophet has not spoken in his own person before; whereas, on the other hand, these words are followed in the next chapter by an address concerning Himself from that servant of Jehovah who announces Himself as the restorer of Israel and light of the Gentiles, and who cannot be therefore either Israel, as a nation, or Isaiah, it can be none other than the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.” God has never been able to bless the nation Israel to the fullness of His promise, and you and I have never been blessed as much as God would like to bless us. Whose fault is it? Is it God’s fault? No! It is Israel’s fault and the fault of you and me.
Isaiah 48:19
Then he concludes this section, as the three sections of this last major division of Isaiah conclude:
Isaiah 48:22
This is the solemn benediction of this section where God’s Servant is set over against all the idols of the heathen. He alone gives peace. If a person is away from God, living in sin, he cannot find peace in the world today. We have several thousand years of recorded history which tell us that anyone away from God hasn’t had peace.