Isaiah 54 Verses 6-10

Isaiah 54 

Verses 6-10

"That though sometimes God might seem 

to withdraw from her, (His church) 

and suspend the tokens of his favor, 

he would return in mercy 

and would not return 

to contend with them anymore."

The Lord will call you back

    as if you were a wife deserted and distressed in spirit—

a wife who married young,

    only to be rejected,” says your God.

7 “For a brief moment I abandoned you,

    but with deep compassion I will bring you back.

8 In a surge of anger

    I hid my face from you for a moment,

but with everlasting kindness

    I will have compassion on you,”

    says the Lord your Redeemer.

9 “To me this is like the days of Noah,

    when I swore that the waters of Noah would never again cover the earth.

So now I have sworn not to be angry with you,

    never to rebuke you again.

10 Though the mountains be shaken

    and the hills be removed,

yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken

    nor my covenant of peace be removed,”

    says the Lord, who has compassion on you.

The assistance and relief which God sent his captives in Babylon (think of it as "The world" these days), when they had a discharge from their bondage there (as shall we) are told about here. As a type and figure of all the comfort received by individuals after a loss or disappointment of God, which are stored up for the Church in general and true believers in particular, in the agreement of grace. (A favor done for you which you did not deserve and can in no way repay, Christ death on the cross, his mercy, forgiveness)

Look back to their former troubles and in comparison with them God's favors to his people seem very comfortable. 

Verses 6-8 

The Lord will call you back

    as if you were a wife deserted and distressed in spirit—

a wife who married young,

    only to be rejected,” says your God.

7 “For a brief moment I abandoned you,

    but with deep compassion I will bring you back.

8 In a surge of anger

    I hid my face from you for a moment,

but with everlasting kindness

    I will have compassion on you,”

    says the Lord your Redeemer.

Think about how sorrowful the church's condition had been. She had been a woman forsaken, whose husband was dead, or had fallen out with her, though she was a wife of youth, due to this she is grieved in spirit, takes it very ill, frets and grows a feeling of pensive sadness upon it, or she had been as one refused and rejected and therefore full of discontent. (Wanna take a guess who that matches up with previously? I think you know already.) Even those that are adopted or supported to God may yet seem to be refused and forsaken, and may be grieved in spirit under the anxiety or fear that something bad or unpleasant will happen. Even those that shall never be forsaken and left in despair may yet for a time be perplexed and in distress. Yeah, that one hits home for some reason.

The similarity between a young wife forsaken and the church is explained:

Verses 7-8

“For a brief moment I abandoned you,

    but with deep compassion I will bring you back.

8 In a surge of anger

    I hid my face from you for a moment,

but with everlasting kindness

    I will have compassion on you,”

For a small moment have I forsaken thee. In a little wrath I did hide my face from thee. Wow, is the following not the truth? When God holds his people long in trouble, he seems to forsake them, or at least thats how their enemies look at it. Psalm 71:11 "They say, “God has forsaken him; pursue him and seize him, for no one will rescue him.”. So they themselves misinterpret it. Isaiah 49:14 "But Zion said, “The Lord has forsaken me, the Lord has forgotten me.” When they are comfortless under their troubles, because their prayers and expectations are not answered, God hides his face from them, as if he regarded them not, nor had designs for them any kindness. God owns that he has done this; for he keeps an account of the afflictions of his people, and though he never turned his face against them as he does against the wicked, Psalm 34:16 "but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil, to blot out their name from the earth." He remembers how often he turned his back upon them. This arose indeed from his displeasure. It was in wrath that he forsook them and hid his face from them. Isaiah 57:17 "I was enraged by their sinful greed; I punished them, and hid my face in anger, yet they kept on in their willful ways." But this was only for a short time, not that God's wrath should ever be considered a small thing or be made fun of. Who knows the full power of God's anger? But they got little in comparison with what they had deserved and what others justly suffer, on whom the full containers of his wrath are poured out. He did not then stir up all his wrath on them. But God's people, though they are able to tell of ever so small a degree of God's displeasure? Can not but be sorrowful in spirit because of it. And for it to continue? It was but just for a moment, for God does not keep his anger against his people forever, no, it is soon over. This is so great, as he is slow to anger? So is he swift to show mercy. The afflictions of God's people, as they are light, so they are but for a moment, a cloud that presently blows over. Lots of times? Individuals may be afflicted by God to refine them for the task he is about to set them out upon. Isaiah 48:10-11 "See, I have refined you, though not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction. For my own sake, for my own sake, I do this. How can I let myself be defamed? I will not yield my glory to another. Proverbs 17:3 "The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold, but the Lord tests the heart."

How sweet the returns of mercy would be to them when God should come and comfort them according to the time that he has afflicted them. This is exactly what's happening in our lives right now everybody. God called them into an agreement with himself when they were forsaken and grieved, and he calls them out of their afflictions when they are the most pressing. He won't give you more than you can take even though it seems like it sometimes, and if he brings you to it? He will bring you through it the old saying goes. Both so true. Isaiah 54:6 "The Lord will call you back..." God's anger for his people endures for a moment, but he will gather his people when they think themselves neglected. He will gather them out of their being dispersed over a wide area. He will do so that they may return in a body to their own land. (They're going home Lucy). He will gather them into his arms, he will protect them, he will embrace them, and bear them up. He will gather them at last to himself (The time has come for him to start gathering up his two's). He will gather the wheat into the barn. Matthew 13:28-30 "“‘An enemy did this,’ he replied. “The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’ “‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.’” The enemy is Satan. The weeds are the wicked. The wheat is the righteous. At the end of times they will be separated from one another. Matthew 13:49 "This is how it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous." It's happening. Right now. The point here is when he gathers them up, he will have mercy on them. Thank goodness. Sorry, it just kinda all hits home. This makes the assumption of the turning away of his anger and the admitting of them again into his favor. God gathering his people comes solely from his mercy, not any merit of anyone else, again, it's a form of grace, you didn't deserve it, he gave it to you anyway, you'll never be able to repay him. He does so with great mercies, Isaiah 54:7 “For a brief moment I abandoned you, but with deep compassion I will bring you back. and everlasting kindness. I'm sorry what kind of kindness again? Everlasting. Yeah, go find ya some of that somewhere else. Good luck. Isaiah 54:8 "In a surge of anger I hid my face from you for a moment, but with everlasting kindness I will have compassion on you,” Again, how awesome is it that the wrath is little, but the mercies are great? The wrath last but a little while, but the kindness is everlasting. You can't find a better deal anywhere. It may not seem like it when your in the middle of it but when he brings you out of it and bestows his mercy on you? You'll know it was more than worth it. One is set up with the other to serve his purpose. So that we may neither become despondent under our afflictions, nor despair of relief, cause we know it's coming. Hard to think about while your travailing the afflictions? You betcha, but you know, you just know, it's serving his purpose and the relief will come. Maybe not when or how you wanted, but you know it's coming. Hold out for it. Never give up on it. He'll never fail you. Be patient. Don't get off the path. Don't go to the left or to the right. He'll come with everlasting kindness and compassion. Look forward to more afflictions in the future even. For in defiance of them God's favors to his people appear very constant, and with his everlasting kindness it is formed into a covenant, an agreement if you will, here called a covenant of peace, because it is founded in the restoration of friendly relations and is inclusive of all good. 

Now? Now this is as firm as the agreement of his protective care. It is like the waters of Noah, that is as that promise which was made concerning the deluge that there should never be the like of it again. Isaiah 54:9 “To me this is like the days of Noah, when I swore that the waters of Noah would never again cover the earth. So now I have sworn not to be angry with you, never to rebuke you again." Same type of agreement. God during the time of Noah dealt with the world in great wrath, and for a full year, yet at length? Returned in mercy, in everlasting mercy, for he gave his word, which was as unbreakable as his oath, that Noah’s flood should never return, that he would never drown the world again. Genesis 8:21-22 "The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done. “As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.” And God has kept his word ever since, though the world has been very provoking and he will keep it to the end for the world that now is is reserved unto fire. 

2 Peter 3:7 "By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly." This is how unbreakable the agreement of his grace is. Here he has sworn that once he brings them back he would not send his wrath on them or rebuke them as he has done, he will not be so angry with them as to cast off and break his covenant with them. Psalm 89:34 "I will not violate my covenant or alter what my lips have uttered." Nor will he rebuke them as he has rebuked the heathen, to destroy them and put out their name forever and ever. Psalm 9:5 "You have rebuked the nations and destroyed the wicked; you have blotted out their name for ever and ever." This agreement? It is more firm than the strongest parts of visible creation. Isaiah 54:10 " Though the mountains be shaken

    and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed,” says the Lord, who has compassion on you. (As is my love for you Lucy). The mountains shall depart, which are called everlasting mountains, and the hills be removed though they are called perpetual hills. Habakkuk 3:6 "He stood, and shook the earth; he looked, and made the nations tremble. The ancient mountains crumbled and the age-old hills collapsed—but he marches on forever." Sooner shall they be removed than God’s covenant with his people be broken. Mountains have sometimes been shaken by earthquakes and removed; but the promises of God were never broken by the shock of any event.

The day will come, and indeed is coming, when all the mountains shall depart and all the hills removed, not only the tops of them covered as they were by the waters of Noah, but the roots of them torn up; for the earth and all the works that are therein shall be burnt up; but the covenant of peace between God and his true believers shall continue in the everlasting bliss of all those who are the children of that covenant. Mountains and hills signify great men, men of bulk and high stature. Do these types of mountains seem to support the skies and hold them up? Of course not. They shall depart and be removed. Modern conveniences shall fail us. In vain is salvation hoped for from those types of hills and mountains. But the firmament is firm and answers to it's name, when those who claim to prop it up are gone. When our friends fail us? Does God? Does his kindness ever depart us? Do these types of mountains (men of bulk and high stature.) threaten and seem to top the skies and bid defiance to them? Do the kings of the earth, and the rulers, set themselves against the Lord? They shall depart and be removed. Luke 1:52 "He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble." Great mountains that stand in the way of the salvation of the church shall be made plain. (You with me here Lucy?) Zechariah 4:7 “What are you, mighty mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become level ground. Then he will bring out the capstone to shouts of ‘God bless it! God bless it!’” But God’s kindness shall never depart from his people, for whom he loves he loves to the end; nor shall the covenant of his peace ever be removed, for he is the Lord that has mercy on his people. Therefore the covenant is immovable and unbreakable, because it is not built on anyone's merit, which is subject to change and uncertainty, but this covenant is built on God's mercy, which is from everlasting to everlasting.

Amen.

Lucy?

We're in great hands sweetheart.

"I am in love with nothing less. 

Tear drops of joy runs off my face, 

I will rise for someone that's afraid to love."