Awake, Zion, and Celebrate: Your God Reigns

For you know that you were redeemed from your empty way of life inherited from your fathers, not with perishable things like silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of an unblemished and spotless lamb.

No silver or gold could ever have ransomed us from slavery to sin but only the blood of Christ. And like Assyria and Babylon, Satan’s kingdom had no lasting claim on the children of God, so the ransom was not paid to him but to the righteous claims of God’s law.

Isaiah 52:7-12

Next we see a herald running to Zion to proclaim the joyful news: “Peace! Salvation! Your God reigns!” The image of watchmen on the walls of Zion waiting for this news is powerful, for the literal walls of Jerusalem would be piles of rubble at that point. But the hearts of all exiled Jews were longing for the day when the Lord would return to Zion and rebuild Jerusalem. In this chapter that day has come at last! The news is carried by a herald, and it is so welcome even his feet would be seen to be beautiful by those eager to hear his news. The message is a triple one: (1) “Peace!” God is at peace with his people; the time of Jerusalem’s warfare has ended (see Isa 40:2 KJV)! (2) “Salvation!” Zion’s sins have been paid for and she will not be condemned! (3) “Your God reigns!” The glory for all this goes to God alone! The message results in overwhelming joy on the part of the “watchmen” who were waiting for this very day, whether literally in the ruins of Jerusalem or living in exile with hearts longing for Jerusalem to be restored. Every eye will see the Lord’s return to Jerusalem, and all nations will hear of the greatness of Zion’s God. Before all nations, he has bared his holy arm; Babylon is crushed by the power of God.

This section ends with a breathless and tripled command: “Leave, leave, go out from there!” The command refers to God’s chosen people leaving Babylon and returning home to Jerusalem. As you leave Babylon, touch nothing filthy, for God yearns to cleanse you from the defilement of that city. The text mentions the carrying of the Lord’s vessels, a clear reference to the sacred articles that would have been taken from the temple to Babylon by King Nebuchadnezzar (Dan 1:2) and later defiled by Belshazzar’s idolatrous feast the night Babylon fell (Dan 5). Cyrus the Great would specifically bring them out and entrust them to Ezra and the Jews for the return trip to Jerusalem (Ezra 1:7). But the people would not have to leave Babylon in haste as if they were running for their lives, for the new emperor would freely and officially release them, and God himself would be their rear guard (Ezra 8:21-23).

The final verses in Isaiah 52, 13-15, so clearly belong with Isaiah 53 that I will deal with them in the next chapter. But suffice it to say at this point that the work of the Suffering Servant described in Isaiah 52:13-15 is the very payment that procures the redemption of Zion spoken of in verse 2.

The immediate application of this chapter is not as significant as its timeless application. Yes, this chapter speaks eloquently about the redemption of Zion (Jerusalem) and the restoration of a remnant of Jews under Ezra to rebuild Jerusalem after the fall of Babylon. But the ideas of Isaiah 52 soar vastly above that significant detail of redemptive history. “Zion” is an idea too big for the history of the literal city of Jerusalem to capture entirely. Paul spoke of a “Jerusalem above” (Gal 4:26) that is the spiritual mother of all the elect, both Jews and Gentiles. So the call for “Zion” to wake up and put off her slumber, to rouse up and sit in glorious clothing on a holy throne, must ultimately be seen in the redemption of all God’s chosen people, Jew and Gentile, from their sin and worldliness in this earthly “Babylon” in which we all live. It is a call upward to the true and final “new Jerusalem” that is the consummation of all redemptive history, in which God will openly live with his holy people. The new Jerusalem will be a place where the spiritually uncircumcised and unclean (v. 1) will never enter (Rev 21:27) and where we will celebrate eternally the peace and salvation of our sovereign God.

So the spread of the gospel of Jesus Christ among all the nations of the earth by evangelists and missionaries is seen by the apostle Paul in Romans 10:15 as a direct fulfillment of verse 7. It is not spiritualizing Isaiah 52 to speak primarily of the work of missions in calling elect people from every tribe, language, and nation to faith in Christ. This is precisely how the eternal Zion will be populated. And Paul also quotes Isaiah 52 in 2 Corinthians 6:17: “Therefore, come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord; do not touch any unclean thing, and I will welcome you.” There he is commanding Gentile converts to Christ living in Corinth to come out from virtual Babylon spiritually by living pure and holy lives, free from the defilements of the non-Christians we live with every day. Ultimately, then, Isaiah 52 is a timeless call to all of God’s people (1) to be powerfully active in missions (Rom 10:13-15) and (2) to be free from defilements of lust and worldliness (2 Cor 6:17).