A few weeks ago in the Sunday message, we considered how all God’s promises are fulfilled in Christ. We also considered how understanding that fulfillment in Christ can help us to more clearly understand the Old Testament. I want to show you one passage briefly that might remain shrouded if we were to pretend Jesus hadn’t come.
It’s a short snippet in Isaiah 1:24-26. This came up in my devotional reading a few weeks ago. Jesus is the key that makes it understandable.
24 Therefore the Lord declares, the LORD of hosts, the Mighty One of Israel: "Ah, I will get relief from my enemies and avenge myself on my foes.
25 I will turn my hand against you and will smelt away your dross as with lye and remove all your alloy.
26 And I will restore your judges as at the first, and your counselors as at the beginning. Afterward you shall be called the city of righteousness, the faithful city.”
To re-cap, God promised us freedom from enemies (Gen 3:15), a nation and homeland (Gen 12:1-3), and an eternal king (2 Sam 7:12-13). If we don’t understand the promises and how they are fulfilled in Christ, this little passage in Isaiah 1 will be an enigma. However, understood through the lens of Christ, it makes perfect sense and should cause us to rejoice.
The Lord says, “I will get relief from my enemies and avenge myself on my foes. I will turn my hand against you…” He’s speaking to the people of Judah. Does this mean that His own people are His enemies? Is He getting relief by turning His hand against them?
Perhaps, in a sense that is the case. Prior to our reconciliation in Christ, we were enemies of God due to our sin (Rom 5:10). However, as the psalmist notes, He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities (Psa 103:10).
It is more likely that God’s enemies here are those enemies of Genesis 3 — sin, death, and the devil. He gets relief from those enemies and avenges Himself on those foes by turning His hand against the people to deal with their sin and death. Even still, He does not exactly turn His hand against them, but against their representative. The heat of God’s wrath on Christ smelted away their dross, removed their impurities (Isa 53:5).
He then says, “I will restore your judges as at the first…” Remember the Old Testament pattern of God’s people walking more faithfully under strong leadership? A sort of righteousness was imposed on them from the outside in. To a certain extent it worked, but it was unsustainable because the judges kept dying.
This pattern showed the necessity of a King who reigns in the hearts of the people and who lives forever. The Lord is forecasting a future of perfect faithfulness under the reign of Christ. Jesus is the faithful judge and king who never dies and who will reign in righteousness in the hearts of His people.
“Afterward you shall be called the city of righteousness, the faithful city.” Earlier in the passage, the prophet noted, “How the faithful city has become a whore, she who was full of justice.” The people who were intended to be a shining people for God’s own possession rebelled and became a hovel of unrighteousness and idolatry. After the atoning work of Christ, those former unfaithful will be counted faithful in Him. As such, they will finally be a people for God’s own possession.
Enemies defeated, a people created, a king installed.
Understood outside of Jesus, these verses simply point to more of what had already failed to save the people: God’s chastening hand against them and external moral leadership. Such an interpretation, rather than delivering hope, would deliver only despair. In Christ alone are the promises of God fulfilled. More importantly, in Christ alone are the promises of God intelligible.
Here again are three questions that may be helpful as you seek to read the OT with Christ in mind:
How are God’s promises being kept?
How is God’s character being exposed?
How is Christ’s work being forecasted?
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