The LORD's Assurance for the Remnant

By Dan & Brenda Cathcart

The video version is available at: https://youtu.be/KaCnbhmA7yc

The scripture reading is Isaiah 49:14-51:3

The title of the Torah Portion this week is Ekev. Ekev means because.  Because the LORD is God and He has chosen a special people among the inhabitants of the earth to be His people; His priests to the nations, He will preserve them forever. As we have learned from our recent studies, despite their continual rebellion and idolatry, the LORD will preserve a remnant and reestablish them in the land.

This week’s haftarah reading is again from the prophet Isaiah. As we focus on a portion of Isaiah’s writings known collectively as “the Song of the Servant”, found in Isaiah chapters forty-two through fifty-three, we will see the LORD speaking assurance to the remnant. Assurance through their remembrance; their re-population of the land; through their covenant relationship with Him; and assurance through the promise of a redeemer; and God’s assurance of “the rock.”

As we explore these words from Isaiah in this second of seven weeks of comfort, we will begin to see the larger picture of the redemption of Israel. We will see the groundwork the LORD is laying for the salvation of His people and ultimately the redemption and salvation of all mankind.

In these sabbaths of comfort Isaiah looks forward to the time of Israel’s return from captivity and exile. The people are understandably in desperate need of comfort after the destruction of the Temple and seeing the mighty city of Jerusalem brought down in flames.

The haftarah opens with a question.

Isaiah 49:14-16 NKJV 14 But Zion said, "The LORD has forsaken me, And my Lord has forgotten me." 15 "Can a woman forget her nursing child, And not have compassion on the son of her womb? Surely they may forget, Yet I will not forget you. 16 See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands; Your walls are continually before Me.

The metaphor of a mother’s love is a vehicle used many times and places in the scriptures to describe God’s love for His children. Isaiah points out through this rhetorical question that the LORD will never forget His people. Isaiah is reminding them that, even through their darkest moments, God is ever mindful of them and His covenant with them. He is reminding them that His love and compassion is stronger than that of a mother for her child, which is perhaps the strongest of any human ties.

The second image that Isaiah presents in the opening of this Haftarah is that of them being written on the palms of His hand. Are the names of his children actually written there?  I remember, when as a child in school, I needed to remember something important, I would write it on my hand so that it was readily present to me. The implication is that God has inscribed all of Zion on His hand, not just the people but the place as well.

The Hebrew word translated as inscribed in verse sixteen is “khaw-kak” number 2710 in the Strong’s Concordance meaning literally to engrave or to enact as in a law. The implication is that all of Zion, the city, the walls, the gates, and the people are engraved on the hand of God! Just as indelible as if engraved in stone. In this way the LORD is assuring His people that He will never forget them.

The next section of our Haftarah passage deals with God’s assurance of their repopulation of the land.

Isaiah 49:17-21 NKJV 17 Your sons shall make haste; Your destroyers and those who laid you waste Shall go away from you. 18 Lift up your eyes, look around and see; All these gather together and come to you. As I live," says the LORD, "You shall surely clothe yourselves with them all as an ornament, And bind them on you as a bride does. 19 "For your waste and desolate places, And the land of your destruction, Will even now be too small for the inhabitants; And those who swallowed you up will be far away. 20 The children you will have, After you have lost the others, Will say again in your ears, 'The place is too small for me; Give me a place where I may dwell.' 21 Then you will say in your heart, 'Who has begotten these for me, Since I have lost my children and am desolate, A captive, and wandering to and fro? And who has brought these up? There I was, left alone; But these, where were they?'"

God makes some specific and astonishing promises about the return of the people to Zion. In verse seventeen God, through Isaiah, says that the destroyers, or those who sought to destroy Zion will, in turn, be taken away. In context of Isaiah, we would naturally think that this is speaking of the outside nations who came against Israel and Judah. Over the last few weeks we have quoted commentary by Rabbi J H Hertz. He points out that the Hebrew of this passage can also be interpreted as speaking of the destroyers from within.

“Israel’s worst enemies, and those who do the most to tarnish Israel’s fair name, come from Israel’s own camp.”[i]

The Hebrew word translated as “sons” in verse seventeen is “ben”, number 1121 in the Strong’s Concordance. Ben can also be interpreted, in context of this passage to mean “builder” as found in the Young’s literal translation.

Isaiah 49:17 YLT 17 Hastened have those building thee, Those destroying thee, and laying thee waste, go out from thee.

God’s people are not just hurrying back to the land, they have a purpose to build it into a dwelling place for God and all His people.

In verses nineteen and twenty, Isaiah paints a picture of a land which cannot contain the returning remnant, it is too small for the number of people! How will God accomplish this miraculous return? God’s ways are inevitably beyond our human understanding. As we read on in verses twenty-two through twenty-six, we begin to get a glimpse of God’s plan to accomplish the return of His people.

Isaiah 49:22-26 NKJV 22 Thus says the Lord GOD: "Behold, I will lift My hand in an oath to the nations, And set up My standard for the peoples; 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; They shall bow down to you with their faces to the earth, And lick up the dust of your feet. Then you will know that I am the LORD, For they shall not be ashamed who wait for Me." 24 Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, Or the captives of the righteous be delivered? 25 But thus says the LORD: "Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, And the prey of the terrible be delivered; For I will contend with him who contends with you, And I will save your children. 26 I will feed those who oppress you with their own flesh, And they shall be drunk with their own blood as with sweet wine. All flesh shall know That I, the LORD, am your Savior, And your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob."

In verse twenty-two, we see that God uses the nations to discipline His children and He will use the very same nations to facilitate their return to the Land. When God says that He will “set up My standard” there is an interesting double meaning in the Hebrew.  The word is “nace” number 5251 meaning flag or sail, signal, or banner.  It is from the primitive root “naw-sas’” meaning a signal or to lift up an ensign. However, the word can also imply a sign as in a miracle or a direct act of God.

Numbers 26:10 NKJV 10 and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up together with Korah when that company died, when the fire devoured two hundred and fifty men; and they became a sign (nace).

When a nation is formed, a standard or a flag is created to represent that nation.  It is a kind of announcement of who and what the nation is. In this instance, God not only reestablishes the nation of Israel and places His flag or standard in the land, but also, God will use the peoples of the nations to assist the Children of Israel to return to their land, hence the miracle or sign of their mass return. We see through history that it was the nations who made the Children of Israel slaves and shackled them with heavy burdens, but God will use these same nations to bring His people back!

What would the listeners or readers of Isaiah’s words think?  When would they assume that these events take place? They would naturally think that the mass return of the righteous remnant would follow the Babylonian captivity. A major return to the land did happen after the fall of Babylon when the king of the Media-Persian empire facilitated a remnant to return to Jerusalem and the Temple was rebuilt.  But the majority of the people did not return to the land at that time and the massive return is yet to come! Much of Isaiah’s prophecy is yet to be fulfilled. The land is not yet overcrowded as described by Isaiah. When in history have kings and leaders of the world carried the people back to Zion on their own shoulders? The assurance that these events will take place as the Lord says is given in verse twenty-six. We see that these prophecies not only apply to the Israelites returning from their captivity in Babylon but apply to an even greater future return.  

God has provided them with assurances that He will not forget them and that He will return them and repopulate the land. Now God assures them that He is their God and that they will always be His people.

Isaiah 50:1-3 NKJV 1 Thus says the LORD: "Where is the certificate of your mother's divorce, Whom I have put away? Or which of My creditors is it to whom I have sold you? For your iniquities you have sold yourselves, And for your transgressions your mother has been put away. 2 Why, when I came, was there no man? Why, when I called, was there none to answer? Is My hand shortened at all that it cannot redeem? Or have I no power to deliver? Indeed with My rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness; Their fish stink because there is no water, And die of thirst. 3 I clothe the heavens with blackness, And I make sackcloth their covering."

Did God really divorce Israel as a man would divorce an unfaithful wife? Did God sell His children to the nations because of an unpaid debt? There is a certain irrationality to Isaiah’s words in verse one making the question purely a rhetorical one. Their separation from God and the land would only be temporary and was of their own making.

Verses two and three of chapter fifty, seem to be referring to the exodus from Egypt. God is reminding them of their covenantal relationship with Him. That this covenant is still in force and a real bill of divorce or “sale” to creditors does not, in fact exist.

There seems to be a very sudden transition beginning at verse four of chapter fifty. Here God is giving Israel the assurance of a redeemer. This gets to the very heart of the theme of Isaiah’s “Song of the Servant.”

Who is the servant being spoken of in this chapter? Some scholars say the verse four identifies Isaiah himself as the servant because it speaks in the first person.

Isaiah 50:4 NKJV 4 "The Lord GOD has given Me The tongue of the learned, That I should know how to speak A word in season to him who is weary. He awakens Me morning by morning, He awakens My ear To hear as the learned.

Is Isaiah the servant indicated by this verse? The characteristic of the servant which stands out here is his ability to speak the words perfectly designed to meet the people’s needs. When we take the entirety of the “Song of the Servant” in context, we see that this verse is speaking of the Messiah. Verse four is actually a shadow of Yeshua’s own words recorded by Matthew.

Matthew 11:27-30 NKJV 27 "All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him. 28 "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 "Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 "For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."

Isaiah fifty verse five says that this servant obeyed God perfectly. We know that, although Isaiah may have been faithful, he, like all men, was never perfect.

Isaiah 50:5 NKJV 5 The Lord GOD has opened My ear; And I was not rebellious, Nor did I turn away.

In verses six and seven, Isaiah describes the suffering which this servant would submit himself to.

Isaiah 50:6-9 NKJV 6 I gave My back to those who struck Me, And My cheeks to those who plucked out the beard; I did not hide My face from shame and spitting. 7 "For the Lord GOD will help Me; Therefore I will not be disgraced; Therefore I have set My face like a flint, And I know that I will not be ashamed.

Here we see this servant redeemer submitting to the suffering when He answered God’s calling. We see a hint of the greater detail given at the culmination of the Song of the Servant in chapter fifty-three. Isaiah did not suffer this type of abuse. However, it is a vivid description of the suffering and humiliation Yeshua faced.

Matthew 26:67 NKJV 67 Then they spat in His face and beat Him; and others struck Him with the palms of their hands,

Verses eight and nine of Isaiah chapter fifty speaks of the servant’s trust in the LORD and the knowledge of his vindication.

Isaiah 50:8-9 NKJV 8 He is near who justifies Me; Who will contend with Me? Let us stand together. Who is My adversary? Let him come near Me. 9 Surely the Lord GOD will help Me; Who is he who will condemn Me? Indeed they will all grow old like a garment; The moth will eat them up.

It is because of the faithfulness of the servant that he is, in the end vindicated by God. The Children of Israel will experience victory and vindication if they remain as faithful as the servant and put their trust in his words. Because the servant is victorious through his suffering, they can be victorious as well through and by the servant.

Isaiah 50:10 NKJV 10 "Who among you fears the LORD? Who obeys the voice of His Servant? Who walks in darkness And has no light? Let him trust in the name of the LORD And rely upon his God.

The Haftarah ends on a positive note with the familiar first three verses of chapter fifty-one.

Isaiah 51:1-3 NKJV 1 "Listen to Me, you who follow after righteousness, You who seek the LORD: Look to the rock from which you were hewn, And to the hole of the pit from which you were dug. 2 Look to Abraham your father, And to Sarah who bore you; For I called him alone, And blessed him and increased him." 3 For the LORD will comfort Zion, He will comfort all her waste places; He will make her wilderness like Eden, And her desert like the garden of the LORD; Joy and gladness will be found in it, Thanksgiving and the voice of melody.

The metaphor of the rock is used in scripture for the most part to refer to God himself such as that found in Deuteronomy chapter thirty-two and in second Samuel chapters twenty two and twenty three. Here in this Isaiah passage, the Hebrew word is “tsoor” number 6697 which generally means a block of stone, a boulder, or a rocky cliff. It implies something on which one would build a house. The context of this passage indicates that this rock is the foundation from which the people of Israel came; the covenant which God made with them going back to Abraham.

In this Haftarah Isaiah is calling on the people to look backward at the very foundation of their relationship with God in order to enable them look forward to their redeemer. In this very dark time in their history, Isaiah is giving them the assurance that their redemption is certain.  The Song of the Servant paints a vivid picture of the redeemer Messiah. Despite their continual rebellion, and because of God’s faithfulness to his covenant, the Children of Israel and all of us who call upon the name of the LORD, receive comfort and assurance that God will never break His covenant with us.

Study Questions:

1. Discuss the connection of this teaching to the Torah Portion Ekev Deut. 7:12-11:25.

2. Who are the builders?  Back up your answer with scripture.

3. Sometimes the prophets seem to speak in riddles.  In 50:11, Isaiah refers to sparks, fire or firebrands, depending on your translation.  What is Isaiah trying to communicate with this verse? What are the Hebrew words and their root words, and how does this help to understand this verse?

4. How does God prepare the land for the return of His people?  How was it prepared for the return from Babylon and how will it be prepared for the mass return described by Isaiah in this Haftarah?

5. With the understanding that Isaiah chapters 42 through 53 are the Song of the Servant, and the servant is Messiah, what are the characteristics of the Messiah depicted in this Haftarah?

6. What new insight did you gain from this teaching? How do you respond to this new insight? How will you realign your life based on this new understanding?

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[i] Rabbi J. H. Hertz, Pentateuch and Haftarah, P. 794