THE PANORAMA OF THE KINGDOM
Five Meditations on Isaiah 55
2 - GOD'S COVENANT IN CHRIST
(verses 3-5)
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"Give ear and come to me; hear me that your soul may live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you, my unfailing kindness promised to David. See, I have made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander of the peoples. Surely you will summon nations you know not, and nations that do not know you will hasten to you, because of the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, for he has endowed you with splendour."
(Isaiah 55:3-5)
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IN THE first meditation on this wonderful chapter we revelled in the glorious invitation of God to come to him and be satisfied; to feast our souls on the rich fare of the Gospel. The invitation, when we dwell upon it, seems too good to be true. How can God freely give us all these blessings. Surely they cannot endure or last. It is in the next three verses of this revelation of God through Isaiah, that God opens up to us the basis on which he makes this free and gracious invitation, and the enduring grounds on which it is built.

The connection between verses 3 to 5 and verses 1 and 2 are essential and complete. Jesus makes us the Gospel invitation in verses 1 and 2, speaking of it in terms of the blessing it will bring in abiding happiness in our souls. In verses 3 to 5 God opens up to us his glorious eternal purpose of grace to sinners, which makes this Gospel invitation possible and sure. Because it is given in Old Testament times, before the coming of the Saviour, it is necessarily given in a more obscure way than is the case in the New Testament, but the revelation is none the less there, and able to be grasped.

THE MEANING OF THESE VERSES

I feel that it will be helpful in this meditation to go through the verses and explain them, and draw out the meaning as we proceed. There is no doubt that at first these verses are not easily comprehended, and it is important that we should be sure that they do speak of the Gospel covenant in Christ.

Verse 3 marks the transition from the free invitation in verses 1 and 2. God understands that questions arise in the mind as to how the invitation he makes can possibly be true. Verse 3 addresses this question, before giving the answer. God invites us to sit at his feet and listen. If we listen and grasp what he is about to tell us, then we shall know the basis of the blessings of the free invitation, and our souls will live - that is we may be sure of the truth and certainty of the promises in the invitation that they do give life to the soul.

The words of Jesus here show that if God's people are to be built up in the word of life which God gives, it will require careful and diligent attention to what God is saying, and the willingness to give time and patient meditation on the words of the Bible. It is as we are willing to wrestle in our reading, seeking to understand God's word, that we enter into its blessing. Note how what God says here emphasises the need to work hard in understanding - "Give ear and come to me, hear me ..." Like Mary we need to sit at Jesus feet, and sacrifice other things to do so. It will bring a rich reward of harvest to our souls.

THE EVERLASTING COVENANT

The basis of the invitation is the everlasting covenant of God which he makes with us. We need to take seriously that God tells us it is an everlasting covenant. Whenever we hear in the Bible of this everlasting covenant it is always speaking of the covenant of grace in Christ which is the basis of our salvation. It we remember this fact, we shall have a key which unlocks the meaning of many passages in the Bible.

The everlasting nature of this covenant takes us back before time began to the deliberations and councils of the eternal Trinity, where God the Father plans the redemption of the world through the sacrifice of his Son. Where God the Son agrees to become man, taking human nature; agrees to take the place of sinners, and in his life and death atone for all their sin. Where God the Holy Spirit covenants to make this saving grace known to sinners and to bring all those for whom Christ died, to faith in him.

Its basis in eternity in the very council of God marks it out as a covenant that cannot be broken or rescinded. Nothing which comes after in time can ever supplant it. It is because of this that God is continually speaking of it and reaffirming it, as he does here in these verses before us.

Because it is everlasting, its blessings reach forward to eternity, and therefore all who respond to the invitation know most certainly that the blessings they have received can never be lost or taken away. This fact must be certain because the persons engaging in the covenant are the persons of the One God in Trinity. They have bound themselves in this covenant in a sovereign resolve, and their word and purpose cannot and will not be broken. It is for this reason that God reaffirms the covenant now, and it was for this reason Paul could say in Galatians 4:4 "But when the time was fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive the full right of sons." God says here in Isaiah 55:3 that he makes this covenant with us, but we do not have to agree to it for God to execute it, we only have to agree to it to receive it. When God says he makes this covenant with us, it is to tell us of it and so give us sure confidence in his invitation to come and be blessed in it.

God then in the rest of verse 3 tells that the covenant is the same as he made with David - "my unfailing kindness promised to David". This kind promise to David was that there would always be one of his line to sit upon the throne as king of God's people. David could not sit on the throne for ever. David had to die, but one from his line on the human side would sit on the throne for ever. This was the promise. David understood this. Peter, in Acts 2:34-35, explains that David understood it in this way. David understood that the one whom God promised to sit upon his throne was his Lord, who would reign until all his enemies had been made a footstool for his feet. One, though from David's line as to his human nature, was indeed God, the divine Son.

Having understood the meaning of verse 3, we now know that the words of verses 4 and 5 refer, not to David himself, but to Jesus who was the one promised who would sit upon the throne for ever. This could not refer to David in person, because David was dead at this time, and therefore had ceased to reign, and could not be made anything in the world or the world to come as a king.

THE REVELATION OF THE SAVIOUR

What a wonderful revelation of Jesus we have here. He is made a witness to the peoples. This witness is in his life and work which declares to all that salvation has been worked out and achieved, and that the invitation to come and delight our souls in the richest of fare will not be found to be vain.

Because of this witness to his great achievement in living and dying, where he fulfilled all righteousness for his people, he has a saved people to lead and be commander to, and he will do this under the authority of the Father, until he brings his people to the eternal glory he has won for them.

It is because of this Jesus will summon nations and nations will hasten to him. This is a declaration of the application of his atoning work to all the elect from every nation under heaven, and declares the effectiveness of the work that the Holy Spirit covenanted to do in the eternal council of the Trinity. Just as there was no doubt that Jesus would come and make atonement for his people, because in eternity he covenanted to do so; so it is certain that the Holy Spirit will make this salvation effective in all those whom God has predestined to life, because he covenanted to do so.

All this will happen "because of the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel". Because God the Father covenanted this plan of redemption in eternity, so he will perform it, and so Christ came and made atonement, and so the Holy Spirit is making the Gospel invitation effective throughout the world.

THE SPLENDOUR OF THE SAVIOUR

In this tremendous covenant and in all the workings of it Jesus is glorified. God has endowed Jesus with splendour. What glorious splendour do we see when we accept the free Gospel invitation.

There is nothing and no one who satisfies the soul like Jesus. There is a hymn which we used to sing from a book called 'Youth Praise'. This perhaps expresses very well something of the splendour which the saved soul sees in Jesus, and with this hymn I will close this meditation.

The Chorus goes like this -

All that thrills my soul is Jesus
He is more than life to me,
And the fairest of ten thousand
In my blessed Lord I see.

The verses are as follows -

Who can cheer the heart like Jesus,
By His presence all divine?
True and tender, pure and precious,
O how blest to call him mine.

Love of Christ so freely given,
Grace of God beyond degree,
Mercy higher than the heaven,
Deeper than the deepest sea.

What a wonderful redemption!
Never can a mortal know
How my sin, tho' red like crimson,
Can be whiter than the snow:

Ev'ry need His hand supplying,
Ev'ry good in Him I see;
On His strength divine relying,
He is all in all to me:

By the crystal flowing river
With the ransom'd I will sing,
And for ever and for ever
Praise and glorify the King.