Tagged: bondage in Egypt

January 5, 2009

Isaiah 12: God is My Salvation

Prologue

Where we are:

Part 1: Judgment	Part 2: Historical Interlude	Part 3: Salvation
Chapters 1-35	Chapters 36-39	Chapters 40-66

When this takes place:

Chapter 12 likely takes place during the reign of Ahaz, Judah’s wicked king.

Key verse:

Isa. 12:2: Indeed, God is my salvation. I will trust Him and not be afraid. Because Yah, the Lord, is my strength and my song, He has become my salvation.

Quick summary:

Isaiah recites a song of praise that God’s people will sing when the Messiah accomplishes His mission.

Take note:

Isaiah’s song of praise is similar to the song Moses and the Israelites sang when God delivered them from bondage in Egypt (Ex. 15:1-21).

Thanksgiving to the Lord (Isa. 12:1-3)

Isaiah uses the phrase “on that day” 48 times in his prophetic writings, often to emphasize the certainty of God’s pending judgment. But he uses this common phrase twice in Isaiah 12, in verses 1 and 4, to preview days in which God’s anger is set aside and His compassion is brought to the forefront. These are days in which His people will exalt Him with praise, thanksgiving, and celebration.

The idea of salvation (v. 2) in the Jewish mind is tied to the feast of tabernacles. The reference in verse 3 to joyfully drawing water from the springs of salvation reminds the people of the ceremony practiced each day of the feast in which water is drawn from the Pool of Siloam, and it foreshadows the day when Jesus would stand, on the final day of the feast, and proclaim, “If anyone is thirsty, he should come to Me and drink” (John 7:37). “As the Jew was reminded by the feast of tabernacles of his wanderings in tents in the wilderness, so the Jew-Gentile Church to come shall call to mind, with thanksgiving, the various past ways whereby God has at last brought them to the heavenly ‘city of habitation’ (Ps. 107)” (Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset, David Brown, A Commentary, Critical and Explanatory, on the Old and New Testaments, S. Is 12:2).

Some may wonder how to reconcile the concept of a loving God with Isaiah’s depiction of the Lord as angry. Matthew Henry comments, “Though God may for a time be angry with his people, yet his anger shall at length be turned away; it endures but for a moment, nor will he contend for ever. By Jesus Christ, the root of Jesse, God’s anger against mankind was turned away; for he is our peace…The turning away of God’s anger, and the return of his comforts to us, ought to be the matter of our joyful thankful praises” (Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible : Complete and Unabridged in One Volume, S. Is 12:1).

Testimony to the world (Isa. 12:4-6)

The saved remnant of Israel will thank the Lord for what He has done and call upon one another to tell the world about His greatness. Isaiah previews several acts of worship that will flow from the hearts of his redeemed Jewish brothers, who will say:

“Give thanks to the Lord; proclaim His name!”
“Celebrate His deeds among the peoples.”
“Declare that His name is exalted.”
“Sing to the Lord, for He has done great things.”
“Let this be known throughout the earth.”
“Cry out and sing, citizen of Zion, for the Holy One of Israel is among you in His greatness.”

“Chapter 12 is a fitting climax to the contrast between the fall of the Assyrian Empire, which was threatening Judah in Isaiah’s day, and the rise of God’s glorious kingdom, which will certainly come. Eventually all the world will know of God’s truth” (John F. Walvoord, Roy B. Zuck, The Bible Knowledge Commentary : An Exposition of the Scriptures, S. 1:1058).

Closing Thought

Gary V. Smith comments that in this short hymn of praise “worship and evangelism are connected at the hip … For worship to become evangelical it has to be done outside of the four walls of a church, where non-believers can hear God’s praise” (The New American Commentary, Isaiah 1-39, p. 284).