We’ve finally made it to the end of the series! This week there is an exciting bit of context that I have been sitting on for awhile but I finally feel confident about teaching it. Did you know that the word covenant only appears four times in all of Isaiah 40-55? Twice in reference to the servant who is given as a covenant to/for the people, once in the covenant of peace we talked about last week–but this week we have talk of an “everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David.”
Join me as I talk about why I believe this is referring not to the Sinai Covenant, which was already eternal because it was blood ratified, but instead to the kingly Davidic covenant, which I believe was made eternal when it was blood ratified at the Cross.
Transcript below. Yeah, there are probably mistakes in it. Consider it a growth opportunity 😉
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Isaiah and the Messiah 17
Well, we have come to the final part of this series and I have to say that studying Deutero-Isaiah has been one of the most rewarding things I have ever studied in my life. And I gave you the highlights, but as you recall, in part one, I gave you a reading list and I would sincerely hope that you would consider not just taking my word for all of this but studying it out for yourself. It is very important, when studying something in-depth, that we do not use one source or even two. In order to really get a feel for the material, it is good to have many voices whispering in our ears because oftentimes we get different aspects of the same picture from different scholars. I know I have quoted from John Oswalt a lot just because this was his life’s work and also because he is so darned eloquent and clever, but without the input of Bruggeman, Witherington, and the others, I wouldn’t have gotten nearly as much out of it. I would have missed things entirely because they all cover the same material from differing points of view and specialties. And that’s why true scholars don’t ever try to be a one-stop shopping network. Every scholar has a very narrow specialty, when the entirety of all that can be studied about the Bible and biblical literary forms, and history and archaeology and sociology, etc. etc. are taken into account. I have upwards of six hundred scholarly books right now and I have no idea how many peer-reviewed scholarly articles, and still, it barely scratches the surface of the information out there.
Anyway, last week’s section of Scripture, Isaiah 54, is just the most beautiful love song to Jerusalem within the context of all that went before it—like everything from Isaiah 1 through the announcement of God’s plan for her redemption through the suffering work of the Servant in 53. Just, if it didn’t move you in a very deep and profound way then I must not be a very good teacher—which is a definite possibility. It’s certainly not the fault of the material in question!
Hi, I am Tyler Dawn Rosenquist and welcome to Character in Context, where I teach the historical and ancient sociological context of Scripture with an eye to developing the character of the Messiah. If you prefer written material, I have five years’ worth of blog at theancientbridge.com as well as my six books available on amazon—including a four-volume curriculum series dedicated to teaching Scriptural context in a way that even kids can understand it, called Context for Kids—and I have two video channels on YouTube with free Bible teachings for both adults and kids. You can find the link for those on my website. Past broadcasts of this program can be found at characterincontext.podbean.com and transcripts can be had for most broadcasts at theancientbridge.com. Throughout this series, I have been quoting from the English Standard Version, the ESV.
Last week and this week mark such a turn in the narrative. All of a sudden, with the announcement of Yahweh’s plan of salvation and the end of estrangement, we have this grand and glorious invitation for Israel to come and partake of the new life they are being offered. Gone are the days of spiritual estrangement and hopelessness—here, at long last, is the fruit of the “new thing” repeatedly promised and it is “free” for the taking. These first two verses are heavily alluded to in the Gospels but never directly quoted. Still, when we read those Gospel references now in light of everything that has gone before—the ongoing battle between Yahweh and Israel as He tries to revive the heart and faith of His people, as He moves heaven and earth to reach them—well, it is just incredibly moving and full of more meaning than we ever could have imagined.
55 “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.
2 Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food.
Now, they were just told, as we covered last week, that no weapon formed against them would prosper and, from then on, no strife stirred up against them would be from Yahweh. That men would and could come against them, but anyone who tried would be ruined. Now, on the heels of that amazing promise (who wouldn’t want to hear that?), they are invited to the feast table—and yet not a feast table. Why do I say “not a feast table”? Well, because they are told to come and buy. So, we have this mixed image of two things that are seemingly at odds. First time command to come and eat, to eat and drink what is good and to delight in rich food—but then they are told to buy it, but without money. What the snot is going on here? Before we go into that, I want to cover some of the words of Yeshua/Jesus that allude to this section of Scripture because, of course, He is the way that Yahweh is bringing this all about.
John 7: 37 On the last day of the feast (of Sukkot), the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ ” 39 Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
This is actually an amalgam of a whole bunch of verses from Isaiah, Ezekiel, Zechariah, and a few other places… In Isaiah 44:3, we see the outpouring of water onto the dry land equated with the pouring out of the Holy Spirit on the offspring of Israel. In Ezekiel 47 and Zechariah 14, we see references to healing waters coming out from the Messianic Temple. And in Isaiah 59:21
21 “And as for me, this is my covenant with them,” says the Lord: “My Spirit that is upon you, and my words that I have put in your mouth, shall not depart out of your mouth, or out of the mouth of your offspring, or out of the mouth of your children’s offspring,” says the Lord, “from this time forth and forevermore.”
These are all Messianic verses, an invitation to what the Jews call the Messianic banquet. Let’s review so you have this. Isaiah 1-39, “Hear and obey and trust or you will go into exile.” Isaiah 40-48, “Hear and obey and stop being afraid of the nations because they and their gods are nothing compared to me. “ Isaiah 49-53, “Here is my Servant who will deliver you, it is time to rejoice, followed by Israel’s protests.” Isaiah 54-55, “Join in the salvation that the Servant has brought forth. Rejoice in your restoration.” And we have the further theme of the Israelites being estranged relationally from Yahweh and then being exiled out of the Land, Cyrus bringing them back to the Land but Israel remaining estranged. Then the Servant ending their time of estrangement from Yahweh. Israel is then invited to rejoice and accept her restoration through the work of the Servant and invited to participate fully in the restored Kingdom life. It isn’t a theme or an understanding you can get by taking any verse or chapter alone—this is a beautiful piece of literature that develops and builds to a climax.
I do want to talk about the whole idea of buying food, wine, and milk but without price. I mean, buying “without price” is impossible. Think of food stamps—yes, they allow someone who is impoverished to buy something at no cost to themselves, however, it is only because someone else already paid the price in the form of taxes. Or if someone gets you a gift card—you can buy without price but it still cost the giver the full price, plus tax. Coming on the heels of the song of the suffering servant, this is just logical. Think of 53:5—pierced for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities, chastised for our peace, wounded so that we can be healed. Obviously then, 55:1 and 2 are Messianic verses that describe the Servant’s divine transactions that allowed us to purchase peace, forgiveness, healing, etc.
Verse two challenges us about the things that our money buys—nothing of any eternal value. Nothing satisfying—but if we listen, shema—hear and obey—then what we will consume will be good, rich and nourishing. What did Yeshua say in John 4:32-34? “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” And “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.”
And speaking of which:
3 Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live; and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David.
Another command to shema, really two—combined with the results of listening and obeying—namely that you will come to him and that your soul may live. And here we have another Covenant reference. Remember that the word Covenant only appears four times in Isaiah 40-55 and each time it refers to the Servant, the Messiah. Twice He is given as a covenant for/to the people, last week we heard about the covenant of peace that will never be removed, and of course, that also came through the Messiah, and now an everlasting Covenant. And it is mentioned in conjunction with Yahweh’s undying love for David. So, what is this everlasting Covenant—it isn’t Sinai. That was already blood ratified back in Exodus, but I tell you that the Covenant with David was never blood ratified. It was an if…then covenant. If your descendants are loyal to me then you will never lack a man on the throne. Sinai—Sinai is eternal because of the blood. It can be renewed, and always was with every new leader, but the Davidic? It was not eternal but conditional. Unless…
Unless someone changed the terms of the agreement by blood ratifying it with His own blood, shed in obedience to God’s covenant. I believe that is exactly what happened at the Cross. The Sinai Covenant was renewed under a new King who ratified the Davidic Covenant in His own blood. It’s something I have been wrestling with over the last month or so and it is the only way I can reconcile what this verse is saying.
4 Behold, I made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander for the peoples.
Witness, leader, and commander. That is David himself. Not sinless, not by a long shot. Not perfectly Torah observant, he messed up a lot, but when God called Him on His sins He always genuinely repented. That “witness” element is important because, as we have seen throughout deutero-Isaiah, that was one of the main functions of Israel, to be God’s witnesses on the earth. You know, Scripture talks about a first Adam and a last Adam and I think it is safe to say that the Servant, the Messiah, is the last David as well. You get these ideals. Ideal Israel, ideal Adam, and ideal David in Messiah.
5 Behold, you shall call a nation that you do not know, and a nation that did not know you shall run to you, because of the Lord your God, and of the Holy One of Israel, for he has glorified you.
“You” shall call—you who? The Agent of the Lord here, the Servant, the last David. You shall call a goy, nation, that you do not know and who does not know you and they will run to you because you were glorified by God. Man, I mean if that doesn’t sound like the effect of the resurrection on the Roman Empire post 40 AD then I don’t know what does.
6 “Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near;
We have already seen this repeatedly throughout not only Isaiah but the Bible in general. But specifically, since Isaiah 40:6, which we covered in part one, when there was a command to cry out and repeated cries to “Behold Your God…He is coming…etc. etc.”
7 let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
A general call to righteousness here. Very much in line with all the prophets. Call to repent along with reminders of mercy and abundant forgiveness. The wicked and unrighteous are commanded not only to forsake their ways but also their thoughts—and I wish I had paid more attention to this back twenty years ago when I was in recovery from porn addiction and would allow my thoughts a bit too much leeway, thinking it didn’t really matter as long as I was diligent about my actions.
8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.
9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
I know these verses get quoted a lot, but to remove them from the context of all of the rest of Isaiah is just an injustice. It makes them so shallow, drains them of the richness of meaning we have uncovered over the last seventeen teachings. From the beginning, Yahweh has been challenging them on how they think. Hopelessness. Lack of faith/trust. Fear of the nations. Fear of false gods. Looking to false gods and other nations to help them in war. A lack of repentance. Blaming the exile on Yahweh instead of on themselves. An unwillingness to leave Babylon. An unwillingness to take Yahweh’s promises as a cause for rejoicing. An unhappiness with the way He has decided to carry out their deliverance. This is like the capstone on top of all of His arguments and everything He has been trying to drill into their heads. We just read it like a mantra, but really it is a summary of His complaints expressed throughout Isaiah.
10 “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
11 so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.
Here is one of the most abused verses in all of the Bible, but let’s look at it in the context of everything that we have studied. One, it does not mean that if we quote a Bible verse at someone that it will have a magical effect on them. Look, the word is going out of Yahweh’s mouth, not ours. So what has He been repeatedly drilling into them all this time? That He would save them, that it was a done deal. That their response should be to prepare to leave because the end result wasn’t in doubt. That He alone, out of all the gods, can predict the future. That’s what this is about. The success of His plans, His promises, His prophetic words through the prophet. And that is all it means. Everything else I have ever seen has just been an abusive use of this verse in order to justify beating people over the heads with Scripture and then saying that regardless of the actions of the messenger, that it will work unless God doesn’t want that person saved or they are just too rebellious to listen. No, that is not the context.
12 “For you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
13 Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress; instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle; and it shall make a name for the Lord, an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.”
And if you need more proof, that all started with a “for” which of course is ki and so this is related to the previous two verses that are saying the word will not come back void? Which word? Well, look at this language—this is a salvation oracle summing up so many others before it—you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace… and it is in the language of an end to exile, and yet not simply a leading back to the Land, because that has already been dealt with, but with the Greater Exodus ending the estrangement of all the world with Yahweh. Not just His people but also the nations as we saw back in verse five. This is the language of renewal and rebirth—cypress instead of thorns and myrtles instead of briers. We get a picture here of worldwide rejoicing even from the mountains, hills, and trees. This is Messianic kingdom language here.
Real quick here at the end, because that was the end of deutero-Isaiah. We’re done. But because we are heading into the Gospel of Mark next week, I want to tack on this promise at the beginning of chapter 56 about the inclusion of the nations into the Kingdom—and how what we see in Isaiah 56 differs from what we see very clearly in Deuteronomy 23:1-8. Let’s read the whole thing first and talk about it:
56 Thus says the Lord: “Keep justice, and do righteousness, for soon my salvation will come, and my righteousness be revealed.
2 Blessed is the man who does this, and the son of man who holds it fast, who keeps the Sabbath, not profaning it, and keeps his hand from doing any evil.”
3 Let not the foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord say, “The Lord will surely separate me from his people”; and let not the eunuch say, “Behold, I am a dry tree.”
4 For thus says the Lord: “To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, who choose the things that please me and hold fast my covenant,
5 I will give in my house and within my walls a monument and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off.
6 “And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord, to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord, and to be his servants, everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it, and holds fast my covenant—
7 these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.”
8 The Lord God, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, declares, “I will gather yet others to him besides those already gathered.”
So, we have the inclusion of not only foreigners but eunuchs in the Kingdom and I can’t even begin to tell you how shocking this would have been to hear because the way we see Torah being interpreted by Ezra doesn’t exactly seem to be copacetic with this very blatant “thus says the Lord” divine decree. Here’s Deuteronomy 23:1-8 concerning those who are automatically excluded from the nation.
“No one whose testicles are crushed or whose male organ is cut off shall enter the assembly of the Lord.
2 “No one born of a forbidden union may enter the assembly of the Lord. Even to the tenth generation, none of his descendants may enter the assembly of the Lord.
3 “No Ammonite or Moabite may enter the assembly of the Lord. Even to the tenth generation, none of them may enter the assembly of the Lord forever, 4 because they did not meet you with bread and with water on the way, when you came out of Egypt, and because they hired against you Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you. 5 But the Lord your God would not listen to Balaam; instead the Lord your God turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the Lord your God loved you. 6 You shall not seek their peace or their prosperity all your days forever.
7 “You shall not abhor an Edomite, for he is your brother. You shall not abhor an Egyptian, because you were a sojourner in his land. 8 Children born to them in the third generation may enter the assembly of the Lord.
And yet, Isaiah 56 specifically includes eunuchs who meet certain requirements (which we will discuss later) in the assembly of Yahweh. Also, foreigners are allowed in, who meet certain requirements—and there are zero exclusions specifically listed based on genetics. So, is this a new dispensation where Yahweh is doing a new thing or was the Law being interpreted incorrectly in the past, or what was going on here?
Well, first of all, the law concerning foreigners was never absolutely adhered to as written and not even by Yahweh who chose the grandson of a Moabitess to be king, not to mention the fact that he was the great-grandson of a Canaanite prostitute! Of course, I am referring to David here and yet these verses in Deuteronomy were used during later times to support the general principle of exclusion where a person couldn’t just follow the guidelines of 56:1-8 and become a member of God’s people. But was forced to become halachically Jewish if they wanted to enter the Temple and present sacrifices. Rahab and Ruth are our examples that there are always exceptions to the rule for people who love Yahweh and desire to join themselves to Him.
Ezra had a unique problem as he was not dealing with people who were genuinely serving Yahweh but were actually very much disruptive and undermining forces. In Ezra 4, we see the inhabitants of the Land making a show of being worshipers but then being quite corrupt in their dealings. I imagine that they might always have been corrupt and Ezra barred them on account of that but there is also a very real possibility that they turned on the Jews because of Ezra’s policies. People do debate this. Also, we have in Ezra 10 the situation with the foreign wives and their children. This is a difficult passage and I don’t want to gloss over it. Were these women openly idolatrous or was this a sort of ethnic cleansing without actually killing anyone? Truth is, the text does not tell us.
In any event, the Bible never glosses over difficult subjects and never paints anyone (other than Yahweh and Yeshua) as perfect or doing the right thing all the time. That’s actually the best reason to trust it! So, Isaiah 56 might be reflecting a very real problem that popped up when the exiles returned to a Jerusalem in shambles but which was anything but empty. Assyria had moved people into the northern lands after they deported the ten tribes in the 8th century and then Babylon undoubtedly did the same in the sixth century in the southern lands. The job of the Servant is to bring salvation to the nations—and so what should that look like when it comes to the formal worship of Yahweh and as far as inclusion into the congregation? Let’s go through these eight verses.
56 Thus says the Lord: “Keep justice, and do righteousness, for soon my salvation will come, and my righteousness be revealed.
Divine proclamation here—this is not presented as scribal work but as a direct revelation to the prophet and an announcement to His people. They are told that salvation, yeshuot, is coming. Because of this, they are commanded to keep, shimru (derived from shamar, the same word for keeping the Garden in Eden) mishpat and tzedakah—meaning the proper ordering of society where no one is oppressed and there is a measure of equity among all people. They are not told to perform those things so that salvation will come but because it is coming. As always, we have God’s grace but it comes with obligations to live as witnesses of His character.
2 Blessed is the man who does this, and the son of man who holds it fast, who keeps the Sabbath, not profaning it, and keeps his hand from doing any evil.”
“Blessed is” or ashrei is what is called a makarism and we see this in the psalms (esp. Psalm 1) but most especially in Yeshua’s beatitudes in Matthew, “Blessed are the poor…etc.” Ashrei can also be translated “happy is” but it marks a wholeness of blessing. So, the man who does justice and righteousness is completed in blessing. He is a man who keeps the Sabbath as well as one who keeps his hand from doing evil. And, as scholars point out, it is kind of a strange two things to be pointed out but, importantly, they come lower in precedence than the doing of justice and righteousness—which are mentioned first and therefore more important. Why does it mention sabbath keeping and not doing evil works? Well, some scholars think it is because the Sabbath is primarily relational, and not liturgical. We keep the Sabbath because it is the Lord’s and not because we are scared not to. Within that framework, the Sabbath is only dictated by the Sinai Covenant and so that is where we must look to find out the definition of “not doing evil.” Otherwise, they are kind of an odd pair.
3 Let not the foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord say, “The Lord will surely separate me from his people”; and let not the eunuch say, “Behold, I am a dry tree.”
Now we get to the main thrust of the first part of this chapter. Obviously there is an expectation here with the foreigners (actually the Hebrew says “son of a foreigner or foreign land”) that they have no shot whatsoever at actually joining the congregation even though they have chosen to join themselves to God. Additionally, the eunuchs clearly feel as though they are beneath consideration. Now, foreigners are easy to explain because they are just everywhere, right? But what is this about eunuchs? Well, eunuchs are of four sorts in the ancient world. First, you have those men who were inducted forcibly into service into royal houses and they were actually castrated and often at a young age. It is very likely that Daniel, Shadrach, Mischach, and Abednego as well as Nehemiah, the king’s cupbearer, were all eunuchs. It is vitally important to recognize that the Bible goes out of its way to paint these four men as incredibly honorable and obedient. Additionally, a man could choose to become a eunuch either for religious reasons or because they wanted to qualify for service. The other two possibilities are that a man had a terrible accident that crushed his genitalia or he was born that way. The important thing is here that they are assuming that, despite recognizing Yahweh as the One God, they are separate from the congregation. And they can argue it based on Deuteronomy 23, as I read before.
4 For thus says the Lord: “To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, who choose the things that please me and hold fast my covenant,
BUT, we have an oath—a “thus says the Lord” promise. Not a scribal work, but a divine revelation here. No matter what happened, whether you were deformed by force or by choice or by accident when you choose to act in Covenant faithfulness…
5 I will give in my house and within my walls a monument and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off.
This is bigger than it looks to us in the 21st century. “In my house” is a clear reference to the Temple, from which we know that all non-Jews were barred in the first century. There was a dividing wall situation around the Temple Mount proper, the original Temple Mount that had been enlarged greatly over the many years. Located at various places around this wall were warning signs telling all non-Jews that they would be killed if they passed beyond the “Court of the Gentiles” (which in the first century had been transformed into a noisy marketplace). Hence, the overturning of the Temples because the gentiles who wished to join themselves to Yahweh were being effectively snubbed, disrespected, and barred from doing so. Imagine trying to worship in a glorified meat market with living animals all around you and people buying and selling!
But here, Yahweh is promising the eunuchs a place—on the inside and not on the outside. And not only that, a promise to be remembered—which is actually one of the main reasons that people in the ancient world had children, and specifically sons, to be remembered. Ancestor worship, very prevalent even in the modern world, is based upon this belief and desire. The eunuchs, outside of childbearing, are promised a thing that will fade even with children—an enduring name. Very important to ancient people.
6 “And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord, to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord, and to be his servants, everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it, and holds fast my covenant—
Again, sons of a foreign land who make the choices to join themselves to Yahweh, to minister (sharet) to Him, love (ahavah) Him, and to be His servants (abadim, same word as when Hebrews are His servants) and we have that Sabbath and Covenant keeping reference again. Same as with the eunuchs only a bit more involved. Oh, and before I go on, we have talked about the Great Isaiah Scroll penned by the Qumran community. The Scribes did not like that reference to “minister” or sharet, evidently, which is the same word used for Levites and Priests ministering because they flat out left it out. It is in all the other manuscripts, but not 1QISa—but then they were a priestly community and probably not thrilled about the implications of Gentiles ministering to Yahweh in a formal way (even though it says the exact same thing in Is 66:21). Just funny. Folks are funny. Anyway–
7 these (the foreigners) I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.”
Ben Witherington III made the really great observation that it is likely that the eunuch from the court of Queen Candace of Ethiopia who came to Shavuot/Pentecost in Acts 8 and was obviously both a eunuch and a foreigner possibly had come to Jerusalem in hopes that this was all true (as he had a scroll of Isaiah in hand), that a foreign eunuch had a place in the inner courts of Yahweh and that he could pray there and have his sacrifices accepted—only to find that the legal authorities had barred the very worshippers that Isaiah 56 says are to be allowed. But, despite how sad that was—look, we’re still remembering that guy when the people who put up that wall are anonymous.
8 The Lord God, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, declares, “I will gather yet others to him besides those already gathered.”
I really love this, and this is the last verse of these seventeen teachings on deutero-Isaiah. If you ever wanted to know God’s agenda with human beings, all human beings and not just some, here it is. He is a gatherer. He is an exile-ender. He has gathered. He still gathers. He will continue to gather. And, as Isaiah 49:5 tells us, He will do it through the work of the Servant, the Messiah.
