Isaiah 56 Justice - For The Glory of Jesus

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Justice

God is seeking justice for His people. They are to be just in their dealing with each other. God is including Gentiles in this group.

This is a Bible Study. Have your own Bible handy to look up the references mentioned.

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Isaiah 56

1. “The prophet’s message begins with a divine messenger speech (‘thus says the Lord’), assuring the reader that what follows has full authority and should guide the theology of the reader.” (Smith, Gary V., The New American Commentary, Volume 15B, Isaiah 40-66. [Nashville, B & H Publishing Group, 2009], 528)

“My salvation is near to come’—apparently the prophets expected the establishment of the kingdom immediately.” (McGee, J. Vernon, Thru the Bible: Volume III. [Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1983], 322)

“Anticipation of the coming salvation was to be an incentive to do justice—just as our hope of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ is an incentive today to lead a holy life.” (McGee, 322)

“The lack of justice and righteousness periodically caused God to bring severe judgment on his people and other nations (10:2; 28:17; 29:21; 59:15b), so there is no question about the importance of these principles.” (Smith, 528)

2. “This, you see, is for a people who are back under the Sabbath. The Sabbath will be restored to this earth during the Millennium.” (McGee, 322)

Sabbath: “Neither group (Hebrews or people from the nations) should violate the holy nature of that day or defile the holy temple where they could come to worship.” (Smith, 531)

“One should understand them as the natural outward expressions of a heart that truly loves God.” (Smith, 531)

Eunuch

3. “The Gentile in that day is not to feel that he is an outsider because of God’s peculiar arrangement with Israel. A physical handicap will shut no one out in that future day.” (McGee, 522)

4. “Holding on strongly indicates a firm conviction about continuing a relationship with God.” (Smith, 534)

5. “God promises that there will be a future memory of their faithfulness within God’s temple environment (within the temple walls of this house).” (Smith, 534)

Foreigners

6. “Being ‘joined to God’ implies that they have forsaken all of their former gods and have chosen to bind themselves to God alone and worship (an act of ‘temple service’ as in 60:7; 61:6) only Israel’s God.” (Smith, 535)

7. “God promises to cause these foreign people to come into ‘my holy mountain,’ a promise that picks up earlier concepts of the nations coming to the temple in Zion (2:2b-3; 9:10-12; 14:1-2; 25:6; 45:20-25; 49:6,22) and later reference in this literary unit to the nations coming to Zion (57:13; 60:3-11; 66:18-21).” (Smith, 535)

“This is the verse from which the Lord quoted when He cleansed the temple the second time.” (McGee, 322) Matthew 21:13; Mark 11:17; Luke 19:16

8. “The kingdom is to be worldwide in its extent and will include members of every family of the human race. God says in that day they are going out after folk.” (McGee, 323)

Leaders

9. “Our vision is now shifted from the lofty contemplation of the glorious future kingdom to the sorry condition of the then existing kingdom. God was permitting the nations of the world to come in like wild and ferocious beasts, and they were robbing and pillaging His People.” (McGee, 323)

10. “Spiritual leaders are ‘watchmen’ (Ezekiel 3:17-21; 33:1-11) who must be awake to the dangers that threaten God’s people. They are ‘shepherds’ who must put the care of the flock ahead of their own desires.” (Wiersbe, 65)

“The text emphasizes ‘all of them’, all the prophetic watchmen (cf. Ezekiel 3:17), are spiritually blind. The phrase ‘all of them’ emphasizes how terrible the spiritual situation is, for none of these prophets know what is really happening.” (Smith, 542)

“See Acts 20:18-38 for the description of a faithful spiritual ministry.” (Wiersbe, 65)

11. “They are concerned with their own personal interests rather than the welfare of their people.” (McGee, 323)

“Their focus was on gaining materialistic payment for their services (cf. Micah 3:5,11), rather than providing spiritual truth to those seeking God’s wisdom.” (Smith, 543)

“The leaders in this verse were totally inept at their job for they did not have any ‘understanding.’” (Smith, 543)

12. “These people drowned their sad plight and condition in drink, and they faced the future as drunkards and blind optimists.” (McGee, 324)

References

In this article Scripture quotations taken from KJV.

McGee, J. Vernon, Thru the Bible: Volume III. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1983
Smith, Gary V., The New American Commentary, Volume 15B, Isaiah 40-66. Nashville, B & H Publishing Group, 2009
Wiersbe, Warren W, The Bible Exposition Commentary: Old Testament Prophets. Colorado Springs: David C Cook, 2002

Mercy Wicked

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