3. Linking End-Time Events

Having observed Isaiah’s use of metaphorical keywords that identify Israel’s God, his end-time servant, and a tyrannical “king of Assyria,” we now explore how these persons’ actions impact the end-time events Isaiah predicts that are patterned after ancient events. Hopefully, after this third exercise in literary analysis you will feel encouraged to do your own word searches.

God’s “arm” of “righteousness” leads a new exodus

Isaiah 51:9–11

Awake, arise; clothe yourself with power,
O arm of Jehovah!
Bestir yourself, as in ancient times,
as in generations of old.
Was it not you who carved up Rahab,
you who slew the dragon?
Was it not you who dried up the Sea,
the waters of the mighty deep,
and made of ocean depths a way
by which the redeemed might pass?

Let the ransomed of Jehovah return!
Let them come singing to Zion,
their heads crowned with everlasting joy;
let them obtain joy and gladness,
and sorrow and sighing flee away.

Isaiah 58:8

Then shall your light break through like the dawn
and your healing speedily appear;
your righteousness will go before you,
and the glory of Jehovah will be your rearguard.

God’s “hand” and “staff” subdue “Sea” and “River” and make possible the new exodus

Isaiah 11:15

Jehovah will dry up the tongue
of the Egyptian Sea by his mighty wind;
he will extend his hand over the River
and smite it into seven streams
to provide a way on foot.

Isaiah 10:26

His staff is over the Sea,
and he will lift it over them
as he did to the Egyptians.

The new exodus is from the four directions and from among all nations

Isaiah 11:10–12, 16

In that day the sprig of Jesse,
who stands for an ensign to the peoples,
shall be sought by the nations,
and his rest shall be glorious.
In that day my Lord will again raise his hand
to reclaim the remnant of his people—
those who shall be left out of Assyria,
Egypt, Pathros, Cush, Elam, Shinar, Hamath,
and the islands of the sea.

He will raise the ensign to the nations
and assemble the exiled of Israel;
he will gather the scattered of Judah
from the four directions of the earth. . . .
And there shall be a pathway out of Assyria
for the remnant of his people who shall be left,
as there was for Israel
when it came up from the land of Egypt.

A wandering in the wilderness follows the new exodus

Isaiah 43:16–17, 20–21

Thus says Jehovah—
who provides a way in the Sea,
a path through the mighty waters,
who dispatches chariots and horses,
armies of men in full strength;
they lie down as one, to rise no more,
they flicker and die, snuffed out like a wick. . . .

The wild beasts do me honor,
the jackals and birds of prey,
for bringing water to the wilderness,
streams to the dry land,
that I may give drink to my chosen people,
the people I formed for myself
to speak out in praise of me.

The new exodus means escape from worldwide destruction at Jehovah’s coming

Isaiah 30:27–29

Behold, Jehovah Omnipotent coming from afar!
His wrath is kindled, heavy is his grievance;
his lips flow with indignation,
his tongue is like a devouring fire.
His breath is like a raging torrent
that severs at the neck.
[He comes] to sift the nations
in the sieve of falsehood;
with an erring bridle on their jaws
[he will try] the peoples.

But for you there shall be singing,
as on the night when a festival commences,
and rejoicing of heart, as when men march
with flutes [and drums and lyres]
on their way to the mountain of Jehovah,
to the Rock of Israel.

The new exodus and wandering in the wilderness are out of Babylon

Isaiah 48:20–22

Go forth out of Babylon, flee from Chaldea!
Make this announcement with resounding voice;
broadcast it to the end of the earth.
Say, Jehovah has redeemed his servant Jacob.
They thirsted not when he led them through arid places:
he caused water to flow for them from the rock;
he cleaved the rock and water gushed out.
But there is no peace, says Jehovah, for the wicked.

Isaiah 52:11–12

Turn away, depart;
touch nothing defiled as you leave [Babylon].
Come out of her and be pure,
you who bear Jehovah’s vessels.
But you shall not leave in haste or go in flight:
Jehovah will go before you,
the God of Israel behind you.

The servant releases the captives and leads their wandering in the wilderness

Isaiah 49:9–12

To say to the captives, Come forth!
and to those in darkness, Show yourselves!
They shall feed along the way
and find pasture on all barren heights;
they shall not hunger or thirst,
nor be smitten by the heatwave or the sun:
he who has mercy on them will guide them;
he will lead them by springs of water.

All my mountain ranges I will appoint as roads;
my highways shall be on high.
See these, coming from afar, these, from the northwest,
and these, from the land of Sinim.

Isaiah 43:5–8

Do not fear, for I am with you.
I will bring your offspring from the east
and gather you from the west;
I will say to the north, Give up!
to the south, Withhold not!

Bring my sons from afar
and my daughters from the end of the earth—
all who are called by my name,
whom I have formed, molded and wrought
for my own glory.
Let go the people who are blind, yet have eyes,
who are deaf, yet have ears.

Kings and queens of the Gentiles assist in the new exodus

Isaiah 49:22–23

Thus says my Lord Jehovah:
I will lift up my hand to the Gentiles,
raise my ensign to the peoples;
and they will bring your sons in their bosoms
and carry your daughters on their shoulders.
Kings shall be your foster fathers,
queens your nursing mothers.

Isaiah 60:3–4

Nations will come to your light,
their kings to the brightness of your dawn.
Lift up your eyes and look about you!
They have all assembled to come to you:
your sons shall arrive from afar;
your daughters shall return to your side.

The callout into the wilderness goes unnoticed

Isaiah 57:1–2

The righteous disappear,
and no man gives it a thought;
the godly are gathered out,
but no one perceives that from impending calamity
the righteous are withdrawn.
They who walk uprightly shall attain peace,
and rest in their beds.

Isaiah 13:3

I have charged my holy ones,
called out my valiant ones:
my anger is not upon those who take pride in me.

The new exodus passes through elements and enemies

Isaiah 42:16

Then will I lead the blind by a way they did not know,
and guide them in paths unfamiliar;
the darkness confronting them I will turn into light,
and the uneven ground make level.
These things I will not fail to perform.

Isaiah 43:1–2

But now, thus says Jehovah—
he who formed you, O Jacob,
he who created you, O Israel:
Do not fear, for I have redeemed you.
I have called you by name; you are mine.
When you cross the waters, I will be with you;
[when you traverse] the rivers,
you shall not be overwhelmed.
Though you walk through the fire,
you shall not be burned;
its flame shall not consume you.

God’s covenants are renewed in the wilderness

Isaiah 51:1–3

Hear me, you followers of righteousness,
seekers of Jehovah:
Look to the rock from which you were cut,
to the quarry out of which you were hewn;
look to Abraham your father,
to Sarah who bore you.
He was but one when I called him,
but I blessed him by making him many.

For Jehovah is comforting Zion,
bringing solace to all her ruins;
he is making her wilderness like Eden,
her desert as the garden of Jehovah.
Joyful rejoicing takes place there,
thanksgiving with the voice of song.

Isaiah 44:3–5

I will pour water on the thirsty [soil],
showers upon the dry ground;
I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring,
my blessing upon your posterity.
They shall shoot up like grass
among streams of water,
like willows by running brooks.
One will say, I am Jehovah’s,
and another name himself Jacob.
Yet others will inscribe on their arm, To Jehovah,
and adopt the name Israel.

The wilderness regenerates as God’s people return home

Isaiah 55:12–13

You shall depart in joy and be led back in peace;
the mountains and hills shall sing at your presence
and the trees of the meadows all clap their hands.
In place of the thornbush shall come up the cypress,
in place of nettles, the myrtle.

Isaiah 41:17–18

When the poor and needy require water,
and there is none,
and their tongue becomes parched with thirst,
I Jehovah will answer their want;
I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them.
I will open up streams in barren hill country,
springs in the midst of the plains;
I will turn the desert into lakes,
parched lands into fountains of water.

God regenerates his people in the wilderness 

Isaiah 35:1–6

Wilderness and arid land shall be jubilant;
the desert shall rejoice
when it blossoms like the crocus.
Joyously it shall break out in flower,
singing with delight;
it shall be endowed with the glory of Lebanon,
the splendor of Carmel and Sharon.

The glory of Jehovah and the splendor of our God
they shall see [there].
Strengthen the hands grown feeble,
steady the failing knees.
Say to those with fearful hearts,
Take courage, be unafraid!
See, your God is coming to avenge and to reward;
God himself will come and deliver you.

Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened
and the ears of the deaf unstopped.
Then shall the lame leap like deer,
and the tongue of the dumb shout for joy.
Water shall break forth in the wilderness
and streams [flow] in the desert.

The servant gathers a new nation of God’s people

Isaiah 40:11

Like a shepherd he pastures his flock:
the lambs he gathers up with his arm
and carries in his bosom;
the ewes that give milk he leads gently along.

Isaiah 55:3–5

Give ear and come unto me;
pay heed, that your souls may live!
And I will make with you an everlasting covenant:
[my] loving fidelity toward David.
See, I have appointed him as a witness to the nations,
a prince and lawgiver of the peoples.
You will summon a nation that you did not know;
a nation that did not know you will hasten to you—
because of Jehovah your God,
the Holy One of Israel, who gloriously endows you.

God’s “hand” leads a new conquest of the Promised Land

Isaiah 11:13–14

Ephraim’s jealousy shall pass away
and the hostile ones of Judah be cut off;
Ephraim will not envy Judah,
nor Judah resent Ephraim.
But they will swoop on the Philistine flank
toward the west,
and together plunder those to the east;
[they will take] Edom and Moab at hand’s reach,
and the Ammonites will obey them.

Isaiah 41:13, 15

I, Jehovah your God,
hold you by the right hand and say to you,
Have no fear; I will help you. . . .
I will make of you a sharp-toothed threshing sledge
of new design, full of spikes:
you shall thresh mountains to dust
and make chaff of hills.

The servant restores God’s people and administers their inheritances

Isaiah 49:5–6, 8

For now Jehovah has said—
he who formed me from the womb
to be his servant, to restore Jacob to him,
Israel having been gathered to him;
for I won honor in the eyes of Jehovah
when my God became my strength—
he said: It is too small a thing
for you to be my servant
to raise up the tribes of Jacob
and to restore those preserved of Israel. . . .

I have created you and appointed you
to be a covenant of the people,
to restore the Land
and reapportion the desolate estates.

Isaiah 34:16–17

By his mouth he decreed it,
by his Spirit he brings them together.
It is he who allots them an inheritance,
his hand that divides it by measure.
They shall possess it forever,
inhabit it from generation to generation.

Isaiah 57:13–14

But they who seek refuge in me shall possess the earth
and receive an inheritance in my holy mountain.
It will be said: Excavate, pave a road!
Prepare the way;
remove the obstacles from the path of my people!

God’s “hand” releases the exiles and builds his city

Isaiah 45:12–13

It is I who made the earth
and created man upon it;
I with my hand suspended the heavens,
appointing all their host.
It is I who rightfully raise him up,
who facilitate his every step;
he will rebuild my city and set free my exiles
without price or bribe, says Jehovah of Hosts.

Isaiah 1:25–26

I will restore my hand over you
and smelt away your dross as in a crucible,
and remove all your alloy.
I will restore your judges as at the first,
and your counsellors as in the beginning.
After this you shall be called
the City of Righteousness, a faithful city.

The city of Zion forms a place of refuge

Isaiah 26:1–3

Our city is strong; salvation he has set up
as walls and barricades!
Open the gates to let in the nation
righteous because it keeps faith.
Those whose minds are steadfast, [O Jehovah,]
you preserve in perfect peace,
for in you they are secure.

Isaiah 33:19–20, 24

The insolent people are not to be seen,
a nation of incomprehensible speech,
whose babbling tongue was unintelligible.
Behold Zion, the city of our solemn assemblies;
let your eyes rest upon Jerusalem,
the abode of peace—an immovable tent,
whose stakes shall never be uprooted,
nor any of its cords severed. . . .
None who reside there shall say, I am ill;
the people who inhabit it
shall be forgiven their iniquity.

Isaiah 51:16

I will put my words in your mouth
and shelter you in the shadow of my hand,
while I replant the heavens and set the earth in place,
that I may say to Zion, You are my people.

Jehovah glorifies Zion at his coming

Isaiah 60:5–7

The multitude of the Sea shall resort to you;
a host of nations shall enter you.
A myriad of camels shall cover your land,
the dromedaries of Midian and Ephah;
all from Sheba will come,
bearing gold and frankincense
and heralding the praises of Jehovah.
All Kedar’s flocks will gather to you,
the rams of Nebaioth will serve you;
they shall be accepted as offerings on my altar,
and thus I will make glorious my house of glory.

Isaiah 62:3–4

Then shall you be a crown of glory
in the hand of Jehovah,
a royal diadem in the palm of your God.
You shall no more be called the forsaken one,
nor your land referred to as desolate;
you shall be known as her in whom I delight
and your land considered espoused.

Isaiah 60:15–16

They will call you the City of Jehovah,
Zion of the Holy One of Israel.
Although you had been forsaken and abhorred,
with none passing through [your land],
yet I will make you an everlasting pride,
the joy of generation after generation.
You will suck the milk of the nations,
suckling at the breasts of kings.
Then shall you know that I, Jehovah,
am your Savior,
that your Redeemer is the Valiant One of Jacob.