Devotional Commentary on Isaiah 54

Isaiah describes in this chapter the role of the accumulated new remnant at the Latter Rain added to the regular remnant through all the generations.

M. L. Andreasen explained in his 1929 Sabbath School Quarterly that the chapter in the first part is dealing with spiritual Israel as the wife of God. “This first part of the lesson deals with the relation of God to His church under the symbol of husband and wife…. Hence we need not apply these lessons to Israel only. They have an application now. The second part of the lesson deals with God's protecting care over His people. He created the smith who is forging the weapon with intent to torture God's people. In other words, God knows. He is responsible. Trust Him, and all will be well.”

The preterist Delitzsch Vol. II 1890 page 314 explained the chapter as connected to 53: “After the Servant of God has expiated the sin of his people by the sacrifice of himself [chapter 53], and Israel has acknowledged its sin against him whom it failed to recognise, and has entered into possession and enjoyment of the salvation procured by him, the glory of the Church, which through repentance and faith has become a partaker of salvation, is ready to burst forth.“

The character of the hard-core preteristic commentaries on Isaiah is that they all want to remain existential in these explanations of everything in the chapter. Everything God does in this chapter, for them, is just for the people of Isaiah’s day or shortly afterwards or before. They prune the eschatological tree until there is not a single fruit or branches left.

The “barren one” is probably the non-remnant ones that will be saved at the Latter Rain event and “you have not born [someone]” (v. 1).

M. L. Andreasen in 1929 in his Sabbath School Quarterly on Isaiah page 3 also understood it as the end-time increase of spiritual Israel: “This has reference to a great ingathering of souls for Christ, and how God will greatly bless and prosper the work of the gospel in the last day when He finishes His work in the earth.” This is why Adventists can read Isaiah very easily.

The saved ones at that time will “break forth into joyful shouting and cry aloud” (v. 1b). “For many are the sons of the desolate one [those who never had a chance to grow in the gospel and evangelize]. They are more than the sons of the married one, the regular remnant who is the Bride of Christ through all the ages (v. 1d). This addition group to the longtime remnant must enlarge their tent (v. 2a-3a) since “your seed shall possess nations”, they will come from many nations (v. 3b) and what is desolate cities on a desolate earth after the Hell event, after the Millennium will be recreated as a new earth for them to live in.

Ellen White is on the same page as myself in 2017, Andreasen in 1929 [who spent 90 days with Ellen White near her chair to spy whether she is Holy Spirit filled or not or a fake, see Andreasen Testimony in the 1950’s on Youtube]. Adventists have no problem reading Isaiah. She said according to M. L. Andreasen in 1929 page 3 of verse 2: “The prophet [Isaiah] is here looking forward to the time when the gospel shall be preached to the ends of the earth.” He refers to Ellen White, Prophets and Kings, page 374, paragraph 1. In the repetition of M. L. Andreasen’s work in the republication of it in 1956 Sabbath School Quarterly on Isaiah [if Andreasen was bad, why was his work republished and distributed?] page 18 Ellen White is cited here saying: “Looking on still farther through the ages, the prophet beheld the literal fulfillment of these glorious promises. He saw the bearers of the glad tidings of salvation going to the ends of the earth, to every kindred and people. . . . “These prophecies of a great spiritual awakening in a time of gross darkness, are today meeting fulfillment in the advancing lines of mission stations that are reaching out into the benighted regions of earth.“

Andreasen in 1929 page 4 in his Sabbath School Quarterly on Isaiah explained the subsequent increase of end-time spiritual Israel of verse 3: “It is because of the great increase that shall come to God's people that plans for enlargements are to be made.”

They do not need to fear or feel humiliated or disgraced “the reproach of your widowhood you will remember no more”. The phrase “no more” put it in the Eschaton. Also Paul understood this passage to be the New Jerusalem in Heaven in Galatians 4:27.

On verse 4 Andreasen summarized as follows in 1929 in his Sabbath School Quarterly page 4: “The preceding verses [1-4] have mentioned the enlargement that shall come to God's people. They shall inherit the Gentiles and spread forth right and left. Does this seem too much, Fear not. They shall not be ashamed. The Lord is with His people. Their plans may seem ambitious and incapable of fulfillment, but the living God never fails.”

This “barren one” husband is the Lord of Hosts (v. 5a). He is the Redeemer, the Holy One of [spiritual] Israel (v. 5c). He will also be called the “God of all the earth” (5d). This is also how M. L. Andreasen understood this verse in 1929 page 4.

“For a brief moment I [the Lord] forsook you but with great compassion I will gather you” (v. 7a-b). The Latter Rain is a gathering of the harvest of the Lord in the end-time and Joel also outlined that as well as other prophets.

M. L. Andreasen speaks of this wayward action of the church and return to the Lord as follows in his 1929 Sabbath School Quarterly on Isaiah page 4: “The thought seems to be that although the church has left her Lord, God calls her back again, once more to resume her place as wife.”

Isaiah recorded God’s word by using a poetic phrase which rhymes “In the reception [Egyptian šsp meaning receive] of anger [from the not yet remnant ones] I [God] hid My face from you” (v. 8a-b). God’s compassion and everlasting lovingkindness made Him to have compassion over them (v. 8d). We know it is the end of time for Christ said that just as it was in the days of Noah before the Flood so shall it be in the end time. God said in Isaiah 54:9 “for this is like the days of Noah to Me”. Before mentioning what Andreasen said about this verse, take note of the utter confusion that is in the so-called Greek Septuagint on this verse in the same phrase: Instead of “like the days of Noah to Me” as in the Hebrew, Symmachus Greek private text of 170 A.D.; Latin Vulgate of Jerome in 389 A.D.; Aramaic Targum Jonathan to the Prophets; the Syriac translation of Isaiah after 380 A.D. and the Middle Age commentator Saadya Gaon, the Greek of the Septuagint had problems with the orthography of his text: Instead of kymy = כימי like these texts, the Septuagint read mmy = ממי. Of course in Hebrew. Of course in Hebrew. It was a slip of hand with bad orthography in the text used by the Greek and then a slip of the eye misreading a /k/ as an /m/, an error that was very common also at Qumran. After Antiochus Epiphanes in 164 BCE, to which most of the texts of Qumran is dating, the texts copiers worked very sloppy. (See Nägelsbach 1878 page 587). Qumran is a mirror of degenerative scribal-workmanship. Slips of all kinds are found in multiplication including the Isaiah scrolls. The intent was to be faithful to the text but the result was not always that successful probably due to the method and times they were living in.

M. L. Andreasen in 1929 in his Sabbath School Quarterly on Isaiah page 5 dealt with the skepticism of those who accuse God of not keeping His promises to spiritual Israel because of all the disasters: Some have thought that God has not kept this promise. Did He not more than a hundred years later permit Judah to be carried into captivity in the time of Daniel? And did He not finally in A. D. 70 reject the whole Jewish nation? Note this: The captivity of the ten tribes in 721 B. C. was final. There was no return. The captivity in the time of Daniel was not final. There was a return. God rejected the Jewish nation and permitted Jerusalem to be destroyed in A. D. 70; but before that time, He had already established His New Testament church composed of such as should be saved in Israel, together with the Gentiles, and this constituted the true church, the continuation of the church of Isaiah's day. Hence God has kept His promise. The rejection of the nation did not mean the rejection of individuals.”

Delitzsch Vol. II 1890 page 319 as preterist wants to apply it to the last days, contrary to his model but he also wants to cling to his preteristic model so he adds a preteristic principle that is really an extra-biblical principle common among preterists: “The promise, confirmed by oath, applies to the converted Israel of the last days, whose Jerusalem will not be destroyed again: but, in accordance with the character of all prophecy, these last days are viewed by the prophet in connection with the close of the Exile.“ Prophets can thus only see on their own horizon not further! But, he admitted the last days.

There will be a shaking of mountains in the eschaton but “My covenant of peace will not be shaken” (v. 10c). Both the regular remnant and the joined remnant will be afflicted “o afflicted one, storm tossed and not comforted” (v. 11a). In the Time of Jacob’s Trouble God will have “compassion on you” (v. 8c).

Then follows a description of the New Jerusalem build by God for the remnant saved at the Second Coming of Christ “your foundations I will lay in sapphires” (v. 11c); “your gates of crystal” (v. 12b); “your entire wall of precious stones” (v. 12c). The saints have beautiful apartments and houses in the New Jerusalem which cannot be compared to present earthly conditions.

The Lord will be their teacher (v. 13a) and their “well-being of your sons will be great” (v. 13b).

M. L. Andreasen pointed out in 1929 in his Sabbath School Quarterly on Isaiah page 5 on verse 13 that Christ has cited this verse and that it refers to the last days: “In John 6:45 Christ quotes this text. (See also 1 Thess. 4:9.) ‘Great shall be the peace.’ In a world of tumult, God's people will have peace. Serene, confident, unperturbed, God's own will pass through the perils of the last days. (See John 14:27; Ps. 119:165.)“

Ellen White indicated that 54:9-13 is all eschatological: “All the fifty-fourth chapter of Isaiah is applicable to the people of God, and every specification of the prophecy will be fulfilled. The Lord will not forsake His people in their time of trial. …The promise is for those who amid general apostasy, keep the commandments of God, and lift up the moral standard before the eyes of the world who have forsaken the ordinance, and broken the everlasting covenant. She cited Isaiah 54:9-11 in Review and Herald August 20, 1895).

God says to the remnant that they will be established “in righteousness” (v. 14a). “You will be far from oppression for you will not fear” (v. 14b) meaning that safely in the New Jerusalem after the Second Coming the remnant is safe. “From terror for it will not come near you” (v. 14c).

Verse 15 cancels any form of antagonism from an enemy. The Lord is the creator just like a iron smith who blows the fire of coals to make a weapon is a creator and the Lord has originally created Lucifer who became Satan “the destroyer” but God planned his “ruin” (v. 16c).

M. L. Andreasen said in 1929 in his Sabbath School Quarterly on Isaiah on page 5: “God's people need not fear any danger. The furnace may be heated seven times hotter than usual, but God has created both the fireman and the fuel he uses. These are in God's hands.”

During the Time of Trouble “no weapon that is formed against you shall prosper” (v. 17b). Every accusation against a remnant member in earthly courts of law will be judged during the millennium by the remnant in heaven reopening the books to verify why certain people were not saved “every tongue that accuses you in judgment you will condemn” (v. 17b).

God says that this safety and these beautiful apartments in the New Jerusalem is the “heritage of the servants of the Lord” (v. 17c). Their vindication is from the Lord (v. 17d).

Dear God

Enlarging your remnant in the End Time is the constant yearning of the present remnant. Come quickly Lord Holy Spirit to gather them in globally and prepare the remnant for the arrival of Christ at the Second Coming. Amen.