After Hezekiah restored the worship of YHWH and God delivered him from the Assyrians at the time of the Jubilee (restoring each family’s land inheritance), Israel again fell away and was carried out of the land to a seventy-year captivity in Babylon. Returning under foreign dominance, Israel’s temple building and national restoration did not go well, forcing them to understand that a new exodus was in their future. Shortly after the nation rejected their Messiah, they were entirely removed from the land until an appointed time. Isaiah 40-55 pointed to a national restoration of Israel to their calling and covenant through a Messiah, who would deal with their sins, take them through a new exodus sojourn that involved a new creation in Him, renewing the covenant and their inheritance. This blog explores the exodus dynamic of Israel, fulfilling her calling as YHWH’s servant through the Suffering Servant, so that the glory of His kingdom fills the whole world.

Isaiah’s new exodus proceeds seamlessly from the mid-section without an introduction. In Isaiah 40, YHWH’s people are comforted because their warfare has come to an end and God has pardoned their iniquity. They are to prepare the way for His glory to return to them according to His promise (Isa. 40:1-5). Though in exile, they are like grass that fades, while He, their Everlasting God, comes with His outstretched arm to gather them and shepherd them once again by His Spirit to His holy mountain. Having not grown weary, their Creator gives power to the weak and those who have no might; He increases strength so that none are feeble. He renews the covenant with those who wait for Him. Since there is no condemnation for those in the Messiah’s Camp who walk according to His glory (spirit), Israel’s righteous generations can draw near to God without fearing judgment. He has chosen them, the seed of Abraham, and will help them, upholding them by His right hand. They will be His servants, a royal priesthood and a holy nation to proclaim His praises. Because He has helped them, planting them in the wilderness, they will reign in Him, the Servant of the Most High God, threshing the grain from the chaff, giving drink to the thirsty, and making the wilderness pools and springs of water (Isa. 41). YHWH bore Israel on eagle’s wings to Himself, groaning to give birth to a new Israel, opening their ears and eyes, making the darkness light before them as He led them on a straight path they had not known (Isa. 42:14-16). A renewed Israel will fulfill what God called His people to be through the Spirit of the Living God dwelling in them.

The second exodus theme continues in Isaiah 43, guiding Israel through a new exodus aligned with the timeline of the Feasts of YHWH. YHWH calls out, “I have formed you. Fear not, for I have redeemed you and called you by your name,” signaling the calling of Abraham from deadness and the emergence of Israel into a vocation, redemption through Passover, and flight from bondage, (observed by eating unleavened bread for seven days). YHWH was with Israel as they passed through the waters, humbling and purifying them during the seven Sabbaths to Sinai (v. 2). He will gather Israel from the four cardinal directions and assemble all who are called by His name into a holy Camp of Israel, bearing His glory (v. 5-9). What YHWH accomplished with Israel, despite her rebellions, serves as a testament that He is God (v. 10-13). He blots out their sins (v. 25) and blesses them with His Spirit (Isa. 44:3) as He initiates a “new thing” (exodus, Isa. 43:19) with His people, confirming that there is no other God besides Him (44:6-8). He redeemed Israel to fulfill her calling to glorify YHWH in a new creation (Isa. 44:21-27) as He shepherds His people, raining down righteousness from the skies and bringing forth salvation on the earth (45:8). YHWH will build His city to be inhabited and save His people, all nations, and creation with an everlasting salvation (45:17-18, 22-23). He declares the end from the beginning (Isa. 46). Israel’s oppressors will be no more (Isa. 47), for God refines her in the furnace of affliction (Isa. 48), just as He did with the first generation of Israel, teaching the second generation the way of life (v. 20-22). Chapter 49 reveals how God’s Servant will raise up and restore “the preserved ones of Israel” and bring salvation through them to the ends of the earth (49:6). The Servant becomes Israel’s hope and comfort, transforming her wilderness into Eden, from which will proceed the law and light to the nations in their exodus also (Isa. 50-51). God puts His words in His people’s mouths so that He might “plant the heavens and lay the foundations of the earth” in Zion (Isa. 51:16; Isa. 52). The good news is that the people of the Messiah know His name, the names of their Redeemer, and are called by His name, having crossed over from death to life via a new exodus (Isa. 52:6, 11-12). Because the Servant suffered with Israel in the wilderness, taking away her sins by His chesed love, He renewed the covenant with her as her Maker and Husband, making her exceedingly fruitful. Therefore, all her children will be taught by YHWH and established in righteousness and great peace (Isa. 54), resulting in an invitation to all peoples to join the exodus to abundant life (55).

God called and chose a new Israel to holiness and hope, guiding them on a pilgrimage to Himself, the journey of the Feasts of YHWH, through the wilderness to worship Him. He sets them apart so that through them, all the world will see Him. Standing as the images of God in the new temple, His people share in the Messiah’s suffering, interceding as a royal priesthood, carrying the pain and sorrows of the world —the groanings of creation —to God and bringing His comfort of hope back to the world¹. Yeshua’s people are heralds of God’s remaking of the world through a new exodus and covenant renewal, positioned at the place where YHWH and humans unite — the crossroads of Mount Zion’s holy space and time. Like the evening and morning sacrifices at the boundaries of light and darkness, the festival offerings, and the Sabbath offerings, YHWH’s new creation prays and sings a new song of victory at these junctions, meeting in holiness daily, weekly, and annually in the rhythm of life in His Presence. By reflecting on His powerful presence in the past Exodus story and remembering the strong arm of the Creator’s name, “I am the God who brings you out of bondage,” the present and future exodus is sure (Isa. 42:9), even eclipsing the former exodus. Isaiah 40-55 foretells that the exodus salvation is not just for YHWH’s royal people, but through the seed of Abraham, all nations will be blessed and come up to celebrate Sukkot, interlocking heaven’s sacred space and time on earth.

Takeaway:
Isaiah 40-55 depicts the hope of Israel and all nations through the new exodus journey with Yeshua, as reflected in the Feasts of YHWH in the Pentateuch of the New Covenant. Isaiah 40-55 illustrates YHWH returning to His people, redeeming them, blotting out their sins, renewing the covenant, and, through His servant’s royal priesthood calling as image bearers in the new temple, standing in prayer at the boundaries of space and appointed time, opening the door for God to fill the entire world with healing glory—the rule of YHWH.

Fun Factors:
Isaiah 40-55 has 1725 letters (2 × 8627, 8627 is the 107^th prime) in 4335 words (15 × 17), totaling 1101627, 3³ × 40801, 3³(201² + 20²), 27(40401 + 400), 3³ relates to the Holy of Holies cube; zeroes between digits indicate completion, so 40401, is 441 (“truth,” emet), or 21², 1³ +… + 6³,  3 × 147; 147 is the time marker of the creation days and years of Jacob. Removing the zeroes from 40801 gives 481, 13 × 37, 15² × 16²; the tribes (13) of His Names (37) restored (15) to His House (16). Remarkably, if we look at 1101627 as a number series of 110, 16, and 27, 110 is the age of Joseph and Joshua, who began and ended Israel’s exodus from the land, and 16 x 27 is 432, the Greek value of “all things” of Hebrew 2:8, “You have put all things in subjection under his feet.” The sun’s radius number is 432, revealing God’s love and will (see Blog 141, Fun Factors).