1. Celebrating the Servant-Savior
The Gospel of Isaiah
Jason S. DeRouchie, PhD
Professor of Old Testament and Biblical Theology
Bethlehem College & Seminary
Elder, Bethlehem Baptist Church
Fall 2018

2. ISAIAH 54: The Servants’ Proper Response to the Their New Covenant Heritage
I. A Proper Response to Promises of Descendants, Dwelling, and No Disgrace (54:1–10) A. A Call to Sing (54:1) B. A Charge to Enlarge the Dwelling (54:2–3) C. A Plea to Not Fear Further Disgrace (54:4–10) II. A Proper Response to God’s Promises of Protection and Justice (54:11–17) A. The Context for a Response: Grounding in Righteousness (54:11–14a) B. The Nature of the Response: Not Oppressing Others (54:14b–17e) C. Postscript (54:17f)

3. A Proper Response to Promises of Descendants, Dwelling, and No Disgrace (54:1–10)
A Call to Sing (54:1)
The Structure:
The Call to Sing (54:1a–e)
The Reason to Sing: The Promise of Many Descendants (54:1f)

4. The Background:
Barren Sarah (Gen 11:30) picks fertile Hagar to solve the “offspring” problem (16:3–4).
Gen 15:5. And [the LORD] brought [Abram] outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring become.” (Cf. 3:15)
Gen 17:5–6, 16. I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you…. I will bless [Sarah], and moreover, I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and shall shall become nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.

5. The Message:
The long period of the Mosaic covenant has not produced lasting life; the full Abrahamic covenant promises remain unfulfilled.
Isa 51:17–19. Wake yourself, wake yourself, stand up, O Jerusalem, you who have drunk from the hand of the LORD the cup of his wrath, who have drunk to the dregs the bowl, the cup of staggering. 18 There is none to guide her among all the sons she has borne; there is none to take her by the hand among all the sons she has brought up. 19 These two things have happened to you— who will console you?— devastation and destruction, famine and sword; who will comfort you?

6. The Message:
The long period of the Mosaic covenant has not produced lasting life; the full Abrahamic covenant promises remain unfulfilled.
A promised new work of God is coming: God will completely fulfill the Abrahamic promises by bringing blessing to the world.
Isa 51:1–2. Listen to me, who pursue righteousness, you who seek the LORD: look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were dug. Look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who bore you; for he was but one when I called him, that I might bless him and multiply him.

7. Foreground:
Gal 4:24–28. Now this may be interpreted allegorically: these women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery; she is Hagar. 25 Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia; she corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. 26 But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother. 27 For it is written, “Rejoice, O barren one who does not bear; break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in labor! For the children of the desolate one will be more than those of the one who has a husband.” 28 Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise.

8. A Charge to Enlarge the Dwelling (54:2–3)
The Structure:
The Charge to Enlarge (54:2)
The Reason to Enlarge (54:3)

9. The Message: Past promises:
Gen 22:17–18. I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, 18 and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.
Gen 26:3–4. Sojourn in this land, and I will be with you and will bless you, for to you and to your offspring I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath that I swore to Abraham your father. 4 I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and will give to your offspring all these lands. And in your offspring all the nations of the earth shall be blessed.

10. Gen 28:14. Your offspring shall become like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.

11. Present affirmations:
Isa 45:14. Thus says the LORD: “The wealth of Egypt and the merchandise of Cush, and the Sabeans, men of stature, shall come over to you and be yours; they shall follow you; they shall come over in chains and bow down to you. They will plead with you, saying: ‘Surely God is in you, and there is no other, no god besides him.’” (Cf. 14:1–2)
Isa 49:22–23. Thus says the Lord GOD: “Behold, I will lift up my hand to the nations, and raise my signal to the peoples; and they shall bring your sons in their arms, and your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders. 23 Kings shall be your foster fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers. With their faces to the ground they shall bow down to you, and lick the dust of your feet. Then you will know that I am the LORD; those who wait for me shall not be put to shame.” (Cf. 60:10–14, 16)

12. A contemporary promise and its fulfillment:
Amos 9:11–12. “In that day I will raise up the booth of David that is fallen and repair its breaches, and raise up its ruins and rebuild it as in the days of old, 12 that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations who are called by my name,” declares the LORD who does this.
Acts 15:14–18. Simeon has related how God first visited the Gentiles, to take from them a people for his name. 15 And with this the words of the prophets agree, just as it is written, 16 “After this I will return, and I will rebuild the tent of David that has fallen; I will rebuild its ruins, and I will restore it, 17 that the remnant of mankind may seek the Lord, and all the Gentiles who are called by my name, says the Lord, who makes these things 18 known from of old.”

13. A song celebrating the transformed Jerusalem:
Ps 87:1–6.  On the holy mount stands the city he founded; 2 the LORD loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwelling places of Jacob. 3 Glorious things of you are spoken, O city of God. Selah 4 Among those who know me I mention Rahab and Babylon; behold, Philistia and Tyre, with Cush— “This one was born there,” they say. 5 And of Zion it shall be said, “This one and that one were born in her”; for the Most High himself will establish her. 6 The LORD records as he registers the peoples, “This one was born there.” Selah