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Scripture Reading: Isa. 43; Isa. 44; Isa. 45; Acts 2:17a; John 10:11; Heb. 10:7; John 5:30b; Neh. 2:5-6; Ezra 1:2-3; John 2:19; Isa. 42:1a; Luke 4:18c; Rev. 1:5a
In this message we will see that in chapters forty-three through forty-five Christ as the Servant of Jehovah is typified by Cyrus king of Persia to be Jehovah's Shepherd and to fulfill all the desires of Jehovah.
In Isaiah 43 we have Jehovah's word of comfort and encouragement to Israel.
In verse 1 Jehovah tells Israel not to fear. This verse says, "Now thus says Jehovah/Who created you, O Jacob, and who formed you, O Israel:/Do not fear, because I have redeemed you;/I have called you by your name; you are Mine."
Verses 2 and 3a continue, "When you pass through the waters, I will be with you,/And through the rivers, they will not flow over you./And when you walk through the fire, you will not be burned,/And the flame will not consume you./ Because I am Jehovah your God,/The Holy One of Israel, your Savior." Verse 4 goes on to say that Israel is precious and honorable in the eyes of Jehovah. To be precious is a matter of value, and to be honorable is a matter of position or state. As God's people, we should be both precious and honorable.
Isaiah 43:5-7 says, "Do not fear, because I am with you; / I will bring your seed from the east,/And gather you from the west./I will say to the north, Give them up,/And to the south, Do not keep them back./Bring My sons from afar, / And My daughters from the end of the earth, / Everyone who is called by My name,/Whom I have created, formed, and even made for My glory." "From the east" means from the river, and "from the west" means from the sea. From the east, west, north, and south, God will bring the scattered Israelites.
In 41:8 Israel is called God's servant. Israel's being God's servant is related to God's desire in His economy to have a corporate expression of Himself for His glory. God wants such a corporate expression so that He may be glorified. This is the reason 43:7 says that God created, formed, and made Israel for His glory. God's glory can be expressed only by a group of people. Israel is God's servant in the sense of fulfilling God's purpose to have a corporate expression for His glory.
Cyrus was also a servant of God. Because Cyrus was used by God and did many things for God, he was God's servant. God needed someone to defeat Babylon, His enemy, which had captured His people and destroyed the temple. Cyrus was used by God to subdue Babylon. Having gained dominion over Babylon, Cyrus, according to God's desire and at the expiration of Israel's seventy years of captivity, then declared the release of Israel from captivity. Cyrus also issued a decree allowing the Jews to rebuild their temple in Jerusalem (Ezra 1:2-3). In doing these things, Cyrus was surely one with Christ as a servant of Jehovah. These three matters — the defeat of Babylon, the release of Israel, and the decree concerning the rebuilding of the temple — were great matters in the fulfillment of God's economy at that time. These three things are also types, signifying Christ's defeating Satan, releasing us from captivity, and building up the church as the temple.
It is easy for us to realize that Cyrus was one with Christ as God's servant, but it is difficult for us to realize this regarding Israel. We need to see, therefore, that, apart from Israel, Cyrus could not have done anything as God's servant. For instance, Cyrus released the captives, but who were the captives? The captives were the people of Israel, the people who were to be used by God to express Him in a corporate way for His glorification. In this sense, Israel was one with Christ as God's servant. The servant of Jehovah is corporate, and Israel, having been released by Cyrus, was part of this corporate servant.
The point we would emphasize here is that in God's economy Christ is everything. He is the releasing One, typified by Cyrus, and He is also the released One, typified by Israel. Typically speaking, both Cyrus as the releasing one and Israel as the released ones are parts of Christ, who is the reality of everything in God's move, the centrality and the universality of the great wheel of God's move.
Today the church is the testimony of God in the sense of being one with Christ as the testimony of God. It is in being such a testimony that the church serves God. For this reason, all God's elect can be considered servants of God with Christ for the expression of God's glory. The glorification of God is the purpose of our service. The highest service we can render to God is to express His glory.
Verses 10 and 11 say, "You are My witnesses, declares Jehovah,/And My servant whom I have chosen,/In order that you may know and believe Me/And understand that I am He./Before Me there was no God formed,/Neither will there be any after Me./I, even I, am Jehovah;/And there is no Savior besides Me." How can it be proved that only Jehovah is God? This can be proved only by a group of people who are God's witnesses. Those who are God's witnesses are also His servants. Christ is God's Witness and His Servant. Today, we, the church people, are one with Christ as God's witnesses and servants.
In verse 14 we are told that for Israel's sake God sent to Babylon and "will bring down all of them as fugitives." Then in verses 18 through 21 Jehovah tells Israel not to call to mind the former things nor to consider the things of old. He wanted Israel to forget their seventy years in Babylon and to know that He was about to do a new thing. "Behold, I am doing a new thing;/It will now spring forth;/Do you not know it?/I will even make a way in the wilderness,/Rivers in the desert./..This people I have formed for Myself;/They will show forth My praise" (vv. 19, 21).
In verses 22 and 23a Jehovah tells Israel that they have not called upon Him, but have grown weary of Him. They have not brought Him a sheep for their burnt offerings, and they have not honored Him with their sacrifices. Indeed, they have burdened Him with their sins and wearied Him with their iniquities (v. 24b). Nevertheless, in verse 25 Jehovah declares, "I, even I, am He who wipes away your transgressions for My own sake,/And I will not remember your sins."
Chapter forty-four of Isaiah is Jehovah's word of shepherding to His servant Israel.
Verses 1 through 4 are a word concerning Israel's restoration. Jehovah, the One who formed Israel from the womb, tells Israel not to fear. Then He goes on to say, "I will pour water upon the thirsty one,/And streams upon the dry ground;/I will pour out My Spirit upon your seed [Acts 2:17a], /And My blessing upon your offspring./They will spring up among the grass,/Like poplars beside the flowing streams of water" (Isa. 44:3-4).
Jehovah, the King of Israel and her Redeemer, is the First and the Last, and apart from Him there is no God (v. 6). Israel is a witness that Jehovah is the unique God. Concerning this, verse 8b says, "You are My witnesses. Is there a God besides Me?/Or is there any other Rock? I do not know of any." All those who make idols are a waste, and the things they delight in will not profit them (v. 9).
Jehovah has formed Israel, His servant, and Israel will not be forgotten by Him (v. 21). He has wiped away, like a thick cloud, Israel's transgression and, like a cloud, their sins. Thus, Jehovah says, "Return unto Me, for I have redeemed you./Sing for joy, O heavens, for Jehovah has accomplished it./Shout, O lower parts of the earth;/Break forth with singing, O mountains,/The forest and every tree in it;/For Jehovah has redeemed Jacob/And has been glorified in Israel" (vv. 22-23).
Jehovah confirms the word of His servants and fulfills the counsel of His messengers. Jehovah also says to Jerusalem, "She will be inhabited," and to the cities of Judah, "They will be built," and "I will raise up their ruins" (v. 26). He says to the depths, "Be dried up," and "I will dry up your rivers" (v. 27). Furthermore, Jehovah says to Cyrus, "He is My shepherd," indicating that Cyrus is God's shepherd for the shepherding of Israel. Jehovah also says to Cyrus, "He will fulfill all My desire." Cyrus will do this by saying of Jerusalem, "She will be built," and of the temple, "Her foundations will be laid" (v. 28). These words are pleasant to God's ears.
Isaiah 45 speaks regarding a servant of Jehovah and a witness of Jehovah.
In this chapter a servant of Jehovah is raised up by Jehovah in righteousness (v. 13a). He is called by Jehovah (vv. 3b, 4b) and chosen by Jehovah (42:1a) for the sake of Jehovah's servant, Israel (45:4a). He is anointed by Jehovah (v. 1a) to subdue the nations (vv. 1b-2), to build Jehovah's city of Jerusalem (v. 13b; cf. Neh. 2:5-6), and to send away Jehovah's captives of Israel, neither for a price nor for a reward (Isa. 45:13c; Luke 4:18c).
A witness of Jehovah testifies that only Jehovah is "Jehovah" and "there is no one else" (Isa. 45:5a). Besides Jehovah there is no God. Jehovah is the One "who forms the light and creates darkness" and "who makes peace and creates evil" (v. 7). Here evil refers to the lack of peace.
Isaiah 45:8 says, "Drip down, O heavens, from above,/ And let the clouds flow down righteousness;/Let the earth open/And bring forth salvation and righteousness;/Let them spring forth together;/I, Jehovah, have created it." What does it mean to say that the clouds will "flow down righteousness"? This means that the Spirit will flow down to dispense Christ as righteousness into the people on earth. The earth here signifies human beings. Thus, for the earth to be opened is for people to be opened. On the one hand, God causes the Spirit to flow down from heaven to impart Christ as righteousness into us; on the other hand, God causes us as the earth to open and bring forth salvation and righteousness, both of which are Christ Himself. In this verse, therefore, we have a description of how God carries out His salvation. God carries out His salvation by using His Spirit to bring down Christ as righteousness and by opening us to receive Christ as salvation and righteousness.
Jehovah is "a God who hides Himself" (v. 15). Even today, God is still hiding. Jehovah is also the Savior of Israel, the Savior of those "who have escaped from the nations" (vv. 15, 20a). However, those who make idols will be ashamed and go in confusion (v. 16).
In 45:20-25 we have Jehovah's loving word of invitation.
First, there is the invitation to turn to Jehovah for salvation. "Turn to Me and be saved,/All the ends of the earth,/For I am God and there is no one else" (v. 22).
To Jehovah every knee will bow and every tongue will swear (v. 23).
"It will be said of Me, Only in Jehovah/Is there righteousness and strength./To Him will men come,/And all those who are burning in anger against Him will be ashamed" (v. 24). Here righteousness refers to salvation, and strength refers to life. This means that in Jehovah we have salvation and life. Those who come to Him will be saved, but those who oppose Him will be ashamed.
According to verse 25, in Jehovah all the seed of Israel will be justified and will glory. Here to be justified is to be saved. In Jehovah all the seed of Israel will be saved and will glory.
In chapters forty-one through forty-five, Isaiah gives us a conclusion. In the first forty chapters he unveiled in a hidden way God's economy, which is to have a people so that Christ as the embodiment of God can be expressed as everything, to be the centrality and the universality of everything in God's economy. God in Christ and Christ with God have reached this point, that is, to have Christ expressed as God's centrality and universality, to such an extent that Cyrus, a Gentile king, became one with Christ and that even pitiful Israel also became one with Him. No doubt Isaiah was one with Him. Thus, Cyrus, Israel, and Isaiah were one with Christ that God might have a corporate expression.
Everyone who is one with Christ, including us, is a type of Christ because such persons are part of Christ. All who are part of Christ are types of Christ, who is the Servant of God, and they also are servants of God. All other persons have been terminated, "fired," and put aside by God. We who are one with Christ also have been fired by God, but unlike the unbelievers, we have been replaced with Christ to be one with Him. Furthermore, we who are one with Christ have become a great corporate Christ. This corporate Christ is the same as the individual Christ in being the testimony and servant of God.
God's economy is to have Christ processed for the divine purposes to be the centrality and universality of the great wheel of the move of the Divine Trinity for the divine dispensing of Himself into His elect. The divine dispensing is implied throughout the book of Isaiah. For example, the child born and the son given (9:6) is for the dispensing of the Triune God into His chosen people. To drink the water of God's salvation is to receive His dispensing (12:3). The feast (25:6) with Christ as the canopy (4:5-6) to cover the entire situation is for the dispensing of the riches of the Triune God into those who enjoy Christ.
With Hezekiah in chapters thirty-six through thirty-nine we do not see anything of the divine dispensing, but we see much of this dispensing in chapter forty. When a person realizes that he is nothing, that he is withering and fading, and that only God is everything and that only He abides forever, he is willing to come to the word of God to be regenerated. Regeneration by the living and abiding word of God (40:6-8) is the issue of God's dispensing. Regeneration is actually a great dispensing. We were born of Adam to be temporal persons, but we have been regenerated to be eternal persons. In regeneration, the Triune God dispenses Himself into us as life to make us eternal persons. Regeneration is followed by transformation. Becoming transformed persons who mount up with wings like eagles (v. 31) is also a matter of the divine dispensing.
