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It is impossible to read this chapter without realizing that God has a future purpose for the nation Israel—just as He has a future purpose for the church and for you and me.

Let me remind you that the final verse of chapter 50 concluded with a warning, which might lead you to an amillennialist interpretation. And God doesn’t want us to hold the view that Israel as a nation has been set aside permanently and that when He speaks of Israel, He means the church. My friend, when God says Israel, He means Israel. If He had meant the church instead of Israel, somewhere along the line He would have said, “I hope you understand that when I say Israel I mean the church.” No, He makes it very clear that He means Israel. Just as Israel has had a past rooted in a very small beginning, just so today they are small and set aside. But this does not mean God has forsaken them.

To illustrate this I use the figure of a train. God is running through the world a twofold program: One of them is expressed in the words, “Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion” (Ps. 2:6)—that train will be coming through later, but now it is on the side-track. On the main track He is “… bringing many sons unto glory” (Heb. 2:10), which refers to believers (or the church). When this train has come into the Union Station on time, God will put back on the main track the program of Israel and the gentile nations which are then upon the earth. And He is going to bring that train through on time also.

God’s time piece is not B-U-L-O-V-A or G-R-U-E-N, but I-S-R-A-E-L. In this chapter God turns on the alarm to awaken those who are asleep that they might know that the eternal morning is coming soon. In Romans 13:11–12 we read, “And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.”

Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the Lord: look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged [Isa. 51:1].

Hearken unto me,” is God turning on the alarm. This is a call to every sincere heart in Israel that longs to be righteous and desires to know God. He says, “Wake up! Hear Me! I have a plan.”

God is saying, “I called Abraham when he was over in Chaldea in idolatry, and look what I’ve done through him! Now I want to move in your heart and life.”

Hearken unto me, my people; and give ear unto me, O my nation: for a law shall proceed from me, and I will make my judgment to rest for a light of the people [Isa. 51:4].

My righteousness is near; my salvation is gone forth, and mine arms shall judge the people; the isles shall wait upon me, and on mine arm shall they trust [Isa. 51:5].

“The isles” are all the continents which are inhabited by the human family. God says, “I have a salvation which I will send out to them.”

“On mine arm shall they trust—the arm of God, as we shall see in Isaiah 53, is His salvation. The question is asked, “to whom is the [bared] arm of the Lord revealed?” (Isa. 53:1). God wants that bared arm of redemption in Christ to be revealed to the lost world. Therefore He is sending out this message that this bared arm will deliver Israel in the future.

Therefore the redeemed of the Lord shall return, and come with singing, unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their head: they shall obtain gladness and joy; and sorrow and mourning shall flee away [Isa. 51:11]