Isaiah 57 Commentary
The Righteous Kept Safe In Death
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KEY THOUGHT: The righteous is taken away from [a]evil. [Isaiah 57:1c NKJV]
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Isaiah 57 NKJV
Israel’s Futile Idolatry
57 The righteous perishes,
And no man takes it to heart;
Merciful men are taken away,
While no one considers
That the righteous is taken away from [a]evil.
2 He shall enter into peace;
They shall rest in their beds,
Each one walking in his uprightness.
3 “But come here,
You sons of the sorceress,
You offspring of the adulterer and the harlot!
4 Whom do you ridicule?
Against whom do you make a wide mouth
And stick out the tongue?
Are you not children of transgression,
Offspring of falsehood,
5 Inflaming yourselves with gods under every green tree,
Slaying the children in the valleys,
Under the clefts of the rocks?
6 Among the smooth stones of the stream
Is your portion;
They, they, are your lot!
Even to them you have poured a drink offering,
You have offered a grain offering.
Should I receive comfort in these?
7 “On a lofty and high mountain
You have set your bed;
Even there you went up
To offer sacrifice.
8 Also behind the doors and their posts
You have set up your remembrance;
For you have uncovered yourself to those other than Me,
And have gone up to them;
You have enlarged your bed
And [b]made a covenant with them;
You have loved their bed,
Where you saw their [c]nudity.
9 You went to the king with ointment,
And increased your perfumes;
You sent your messengers far off,
And even descended to Sheol.
10 You are wearied in the length of your way;
Yet you did not say, ‘There is no hope.’
You have found the life of your hand;
Therefore you were not grieved.
11 “And of whom have you been afraid, or feared,
That you have lied
And not remembered Me,
Nor taken it to your heart?
Is it not because I have [d]held My peace from of old
That you do not fear Me?
12 I will declare your righteousness
And your works,
For they will not profit you.
13 When you cry out,
Let your collection of idols deliver you.
But the wind will carry them all away,
A breath will take them.
But he who puts his trust in Me shall possess the land,
And shall inherit My holy mountain.”
Healing for the Backslider
14 And one shall say,
“Heap it up! Heap it up!
Prepare the way,
Take the stumbling block out of the way of My people.”
15 For thus says the High and Lofty One
Who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy:
“I dwell in the high and holy place,
With him who has a contrite and humble spirit,
To revive the spirit of the humble,
And to revive the heart of the contrite ones.
16 For I will not contend forever,
Nor will I always be angry;
For the spirit would fail before Me,
And the souls which I have made.
17 For the iniquity of his covetousness
I was angry and struck him;
I hid and was angry,
And he went on [e]backsliding in the way of his heart.
18 I have seen his ways, and will heal him;
I will also lead him,
And restore comforts to him
And to his mourners.
19 “I create the fruit of the lips:
Peace, peace to him who is far off and to him who is near,”
Says the Lord,
“And I will heal him.”
20 But the wicked are like the troubled sea,
When it cannot rest,
Whose waters cast up mire and dirt.
21 “There is no peace,”
Says my God, “for the wicked.”
Footnotes
a. Isaiah 57:1 Lit. the face of evil
b. Isaiah 57:8 Lit. cut
c. Isaiah 57:8 Lit. hand, a euphemism
d. Isaiah 57:11 remained silent
e. Isaiah 57:17 Or turning back
New King James Version (NKJV)
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Isaiah 57 Commentary
Verses 1 and 2 are strange. All along, the Scripture has presented death as the ultimate punishment for evil. It is the very opposite of the blessing of increase that the LORD bestowed on mankind. It plays on the essence of life itself.
But here we are with the LORD talking about death as a good exit door out of a troubled world. The suggestion is that it is deliberate and timed for the saint to escape trouble and evil. They find rest in death.
Ponder the verses again. Death shouldn’t be bad news always. And the word rest? We thought one attains rest by observing the Sabbath! Consider the context. Check the other references to death and rest. It always appears that there is more to these terms.
Particularly in this Book, death isn’t exactly a penalty in its purest sense. The LORD is simply clearing His house – getting rid of the bad smell. But when the cleaning is deliberately delayed, let not His people suffer from the bad smell. Isolate them, shield them, or simply take them away in death to keep them safe from the bad smell. Death, therefore, assumes a different taste and color.
The chapter nibbles on a thought of death that we extract from Genesis 3. Our understanding of the text makes it appear like punishment. But the text itself points to something deeper.
Genesis 3:22-23. “Lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”. Because of sin, there are difficulties for the woman and the man. They shouldn’t live forever under these difficulties. Physical death becomes an escape from troubles wrought on self by self.
Death is like a spare wheel. It’s a good thing because it keeps the journey live. But its presence means a failure has occurred. In many cases, the Scripture mourns and regrets the failure. The opening verses of this chapter celebrate the “spare wheel”.
Of course, the text in Genesis 3 discusses two different “deaths” with different definitions. Implications are also different.
But the story is different for the wicked. Who are they mocking? Do they know what they are doing?
What are they so scared of that they abandon the Creator God? It is a question that the vanity seeker should ask. Why have you killed someone? Why have you cheated? Why have you committed adultery? What are you afraid of? Death? Missing out? Missing what?
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: “For your sake, we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans Chapter 8.
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