THE FIRST PART: A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF THE OLD TESTAMENT
From Captivity to the Return
Message Three—Isaiah (II)
Scripture Reading: Isa. 41:1, 5; 42:1, 6; 44:28; 53:1-3; 2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15
I. The prophet’s speaking in Isaiah 40—his announcing of the all-inclusive Christ, Jehovah the Savior, as the glad tidings—is an excellent example of preaching the gospel; all human beings need the incomparable God (vv. 18-26), the coming Christ (v. 3), the glory of Jehovah as the center of the gospel for the new creation (v. 5), the living and abiding word of God for regeneration to have eternal life (vv. 6-8), and the manifestation of the Lord Jehovah, the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ (vv. 9-12): (2010 WT, msg. 13)
A. The word of comfort spoken to the heart of Jerusalem is actually the announcing of the gospel; the fact that this word is spoken to the heart means that it is concerned not with the outer man but with the inner man—vv. 1-2. (2010 WT, msg. 13)
B. The word of God is actually Christ Himself, the embodiment of God, as the gospel of God—Isa. 40:8. (2010 WT, msg. 13)
C. In Isaiah 40:9-26 we have the revelation of the Lord Jehovah—the manifestation of the Lord Jesus Christ, the incomparable God. (2010 WT, msg. 13)
D. Christ as the glory of Jehovah is the revealing of Jehovah—Isa. 40:5. (2010 WT, msg. 13)
II. We need to live in the Reality of the New Creation; the first thirty-nine chapters of Isaiah, corresponding to the thirty-nine books of the Old Testament, focus mainly on the old creation, whereas the last twenty-seven chapters, corresponding to the twenty-seven books of the New Testament, center on the new creation—2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15: (2010 WT, msg. 14)
A. Isaiah 40 reveals the announcing of the gospel (corresponding to the four Gospels—Isa. 40:1-5), salvation through regeneration (corresponding to the Acts—Isa. 40:6-8), and transformation (corresponding to the Epistles—Isa. 40:28-31); this is the revelation of God becoming a man through incarnation so that man might become God (in life and in nature but not in the Godhead) through regeneration and transformation as the content of God’s eternal economy. (2010 WT, msg. 14)
B. Isaiah 40:28-31 reveals a regenerated and transformed person who is one with the eternal God and absolutely in the new creation: (2010 WT, msg. 14)
1. Isaiah 40 presents a comparison between Hezekiah, a godly man who was still in the old creation (chs. 36—39), and a regenerated and transformed person in the new creation; the apostle Paul is the best representative of the kind of person described in Isaiah 40. (2010 WT, msg. 14)
2. May we all be like Paul, who was absolutely in the new creation; with him, the old creation had been terminated, fired, and replaced, and now the new creation is here with Christ—Gal. 2:20; 6:15-18; cf. Rom. 6:4; 7:6. (2010 WT, msg. 14)
III. In Isaiah 41 through 66 Christ is revealed as the Servant of Jehovah: (2010 WT, msg. 15)
A. In the book of Isaiah Christ as the Servant of Jehovah is typified by three persons—by a Gentile king, Cyrus the king of Persia; by God’s chosen corporate people, Israel; and by the prophet Isaiah: (2010 WT, msg. 15)
1. Cyrus was raised up by Jehovah, anointed by Jehovah, and loved by Jehovah—41:2a. (2010 WT, msg. 15)
2. Israel typifies Christ for the carrying out of the kind word of comfort spoken by Jehovah. (2010 WT, msg. 15)
3. Isaiah typifies Christ as the Servant of Jehovah (Mark 10:45) for God’s speaking (Deut. 18:15; John 3:34; 14:24). (2010 WT, msg. 15)
B. The source of Christ as the Servant of Jehovah is His divinity (Isa. 42:1, 6; 49:5, 7-8), whereas His qualification is in His humanity, in His human virtues (42:2-4). (2010 WT, msg. 16)
C. Christ as the Servant of Jehovah is for the exposing of the falsehood and vanity of the idols—42:8; 43:10-11; 46:5, 9: (2010 WT, msg. 16)
1. Everything except Christ is false, vain, and an idol—42:8; 43:10-11. (2010 WT, msg. 16)
2. We testify that we are nothing, that we have been “fired” and replaced by Christ, and that Christ is everything to us as our reality, centrality, and universality—John 14:6; Col. 1:18; 2:9; 3:11; Gal. 2:20. (2010 WT, msg. 16)
IV. The all-inclusive Christ according to God’s New Testament economy in the stage of His incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection and ascension—Isa. 52:14—53:3, 10b-12a: (2010 WT, msgs. 17-19)
A. The incarnated Savior is the arm of Jehovah; the arm of Jehovah is God Himself in His saving power—Isa. 53:1b: (2010 WT, msg. 17)
1. “For He grew up like a tender plant before Him, And like a root out of dry ground. He has no attracting form nor majesty that we should look upon Him, Nor beautiful appearance that we should desire Him”—Isa. 53:2.
2. “He was despised and forsaken of men, A man of 1sorrows and acquainted with grief; And like one from whom men hide their faces, He was despised; and we did not esteem Him”—Isa. 53:3:
a. When the Lord Jesus came out to preach the gospel, that was the unveiling of the arm of Jehovah—Luke 4:18-19; Mark 1:14-15. (2010 WT, msg. 17)
b. Christ’s being such a man and His living such a lowly and sorrowful human life fully qualified Him to be the Redeemer and the Savior to save us from Satan, sin, death, and self—Heb. 2:14-18; Matt. 1:21; Rom. 8:3; 2 Tim. 1:10; Matt. 16:24-25. (2010 WT, msg. 17)
B. Isaiah 53 covers the all-inclusive Christ in His crucifixion: (2010 WT, msg. 18)
1. “Surely He has borne our sicknesses, And carried our sorrows; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God and afflicted”—Isa. 53:4.
2. “We all like sheep have gone astray; Each of us has turned to his own way, And Jehovah has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him”—Isa. 53:6.
3. “Because He poured out His life unto death And was numbered with the transgressors, Yet He alone bore the sin of many And interceded for the transgressors”—Isa. 53:12b.
C. Isaiah 53 covers the all-inclusive Christ in His resurrection: (2010 WT, msg. 19)
1. “But Jehovah was pleased to crush Him, to afflict Him with grief. When He makes Himself an offering for sin, He will see a seed, He will extend His days, And the pleasure of Jehovah will prosper in His hand”—Isa. 53:10.
2. “He will see the fruit of the travail of His soul, And He will be satisfied”—Isa. 53:11a.
D. Isaiah 53 covers the all-inclusive Christ in His ascension: (2010 WT, msg. 19)
1. “Therefore I will divide to Him a portion with the Great, And He will divide the spoil with the Strong”—v.12a:
a. Christ fought the battle on the cross and in His resurrection, and by winning the battle He captured all Satan’s captives as the spoil—Col. 2:15; Acts 2:24; Rev. 1:18. (2010 WT, msg. 19)
b. In His ascension Christ, the Fighter, and God, the Great and the Strong, shared the spoil with each other. (2010 WT, msg. 19)
2. Christ’s ascension consummates in the accomplishment of the work of God for His new creation—2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15; Rev. 21:2. (2010 WT, msg. 19)
3. The work of God for His new creation is to complete the constitution of the New Jerusalem to be God’s corporate expression and the saints’ blessing for eternity—Rev. 21:2, 9-11; 22:3-5, 14, 17. (2010 WT, msg. 19)
V. The All-inclusive Salvation brought in by Christ to Israel and the nations—Isa. 40:1:
A. God’s full salvation is based on His righteousness and consummated in His life—Rom. 10:3; 3:21-28; 5:10, 17-18. (2010 WT, msg. 20)
B. Christ has been called by Jehovah to be a covenant for the people; “I have kept You and I have given You As a covenant for the people”—Isa. 42:6b. (2010 WT, msg. 20)
C. Christ has been called by Jehovah to be a light for the nations; “I have kept You and I have given You…as a light for the nations”—42:6b. (2010 WT, msg. 20)
D. “Therefore you will draw water with rejoicing from the springs of salvation”—12:3a:
1. Both the Old Testament and the New Testament show that God’s practical salvation is the processed Triune God Himself as the living water—Isa. 12:2-3; 55:1; Rev. 7:10, 14, 17; 21:6; 22:1, 17. (2010 WT, msg. 22)
2. To be our salvation, the Triune God was processed to become the life-giving Spirit as the living water, the water of life—1 Cor. 15:45b; John 7:37-39: (2010 WT, msg. 22)
a. The waters in Isaiah 55:1 and Revelation 22:17 are the redeeming God, the very God who accomplished redemption for us through His incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection. (2010 WT, msg. 22)
b. In totality, what Christ is and has accomplished is just the divine water, which is the consummated Spirit as the consummation of the Triune God for us to drink and enjoy—Isa. 55:1; John 7:37-39; 1 Cor. 12:13. (2010 WT, msg. 22)
E. God’s building is the desire of His heart and the goal of His salvation—Exo. 25:8; Matt. 16:18; 1 Pet. 2:2-5. (2010 WT, msg. 23)
Ⅵ. The central thought of the Scriptures is that God is seeking a building as a living composition of persons redeemed by and mingled with Himself—Matt. 16:18; Eph. 2:21-22; 4:16: (2010 WT, msg. 23)
A. God intends to have a dwelling place in the universe that is the mingling of—God and man, in which God is built into man and man is built into God, so that God and man, man and God, can be a mutual abode to each other—John 14:2, 20, 23; 15:4; 1 John 4:13. (2010 WT, msg. 23)
B. In the church as a house of prayer, God wants us to pray concerning His sons, concerning the work of His hands, and concerning Jerusalem—Isa. 56:7; 62:6-7: (2010 WT, msg. 23)
1. “Concerning My sons, And concerning the work of My hands, command Me”—Isa. 45:11.
2. “Upon your walls, O Jerusalem, I have appointed watchmen; All day and all night They will never keep silent”—Isa. 62:6.
3. Our prayer in the church as a house of prayer should be for the fulfillment of God’s economy; the Holy Land, the holy city, and the holy temple are three crucial things regarding God’s economy—1 Kings 8:48; Dan. 6:10. (2010 WT, msg. 23)
Ⅶ. Living and Proclaiming Christ as the Jubilee of Grace will issue in the full enjoyment of Christ as the jubilee in the millennium and in the fullest enjoyment of Christ in the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth—Acts 3:20-21; Matt. 19:28; Rev. 21:1-2: (2010 WT, msg. 24)
A. The proclamation of the jubilee in Luke 4 governs the central thought of the whole Gospel of Luke, and the parable of the prodigal son in Luke 15 is an excellent illustration of the jubilee—vv. 11-32. (2010 WT, msg. 24)
B. The living of the jubilee is a living in the enjoyment of Christ, a living of enjoying God as our inheritance and real freedom—Acts 26:18; John 8:36. (2010 WT, msg. 24)
C. We need to be today’s ministers and witnesses by living and proclaiming the gospel—Christ as the jubilee of grace—for the accomplishing of God’s eternal economy—Acts 26:16-19. (2010 WT, msg. 24)