Isaiah changed his illustration from a restored wife to a rebuilt city, but the point remains the same.613The people of God can anticipate a glorious future. The prophet was not describing the rebuilding of Jerusalem following the Jews' return from exile. He was using the image of rebuilding a city to convey the joy and security that lay in the future for all God's people, particularly Israel.
54:11-12 Presently God's people were wretched, but they would be redeemed. They were bereft of support, without stability, and in despair, all of which God in His compassion noted. They would enjoy richness, abundance, completeness, and variety. Antimony was a black powder that masons added to mortar that held stones inplace. It set off the beauty of the stones by providing a dark background for them.614Foundations of sapphires (lapis lazuli, a prized dark blue stone) would be foundations of the highest quality and greatest beauty. The battlements Isaiah saw were bright red rubies. The gates were clear crystal, and the walls were a mosaic of other precious stones.615This picture of wealth, stability, and confidence contrasts strongly with the conditions of poverty, insecurity, and despair in verse 11. The key is God, who will affect the change: "I will."
54:13 All the spiritual descendants of the redeemed then would be disciples of the Lord. They would follow Him faithfully, and they would enjoy the highest quality of spiritual life (cf. 1:26).616
54:14 The righteous would be secure in the love and plans of God. Oppression and terror would not come anywhere near them, so they would not fear (cf. 32:17).
54:15 Whatever trouble might come to them would not come from God as discipline, as in former times. Moreover, God's people would be able to overcome all their opponents. This indicates that conditions for the redeemed will not be completely placid at this time, as they will be in the eternal state where nothing offensive will assail God's people. Isaiah rather described conditions during the first part of the renovation of all things, the Millennium.617
54:16 Whatever happens to the redeemed then would be by the will of God who not only raises up destroyers to destroy and provides the weapons that they use but creates the blacksmiths who make the weapons. All that the people of God would experience would be part of God's good intention and design for them.
"This verse is very instructive for the study of divine providence. It teaches that nothing occurs, not even the destroying acts of the enemies of God's people, apart from God Himself. At the same time we are not to blame Him for the evil that men do (cf. the express statement of the previous verse), but in His secret providence God governs the efforts and actions of men and employs them as the instruments of His anger."618
54:17 Even though opponents might arise, they would be ineffective against God's people. Hard steel or a hot tongue, two forms of antagonism that represent all forms of it, would not prosper. Yahweh's vindication of His people would be the heritage of His servants then. That heritage would include restoration to intimacy with God (cf. vv. 1-10), and, for Israel, fulfillment of the promises in the Abrahamic Covenant (Gen. 12:1-3, 7).
"Beginning here and throughout the rest of the book, Israel is referred to as servants(pl.), and the Servant who restores his people to the covenant and brings justice to the nations is not referred to again as such [contrary to the AV]. . . .
"The purpose then in the shift to the plural at this point seems to be to finalize the distinction between the servant' of the Lord, who receives benefits, and the Servant' of the Lord, who makes those benefits possible."619
The historical setting for the fulfillment of this prophecy is the time following the Servant's full redemption of His people. This full redemption will take place at His second advent.620Thus the joy Isaiah described in this chapter will come to fruition during the Millennium and thereafter, throughout eternity.
