We revert to the words which are guiding our thought at this time in the prophecies of Isaiah 53:1:
“And to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed?”
To whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed?
Having this morning considered a little the meaning of that phrase, “the arm of the Lord,” let it indicate and imply the support, the upholding, the strength of the Lord given to that and to those who are wholly in line with His purpose.
We shall go further this afternoon in considering something more of the content of the question.
We might begin by asking: What does the Word of God show to be the support, the upholding, of the Lord? That is, what do we think of when we think of getting or having the support of the Lord? How do we view it in our minds?
We all want to have the Lord’s support, the Lord’s upholding, the Lord’s strength; in a word, to have the Lord alongside, with us, on our behalf, with all His gracious and infinite power.
That is, after all, as we have said, the most important thing in life—for Christians individually, for the church, and for the work of the Lord. But have we really thought out what we mean by this? What would we expect when we ask for and seek the support of the Lord?
Is it just the bare purpose of the Lord to get us through, to carry us over, to see that we do not collapse on the way? We see somebody carefully standing on one side of the road, afraid to step out and cross, and we proffer an arm. We say, “Let’s give you an arm; see you over.”
Well, yes, there is a support. It helps to the other side. Is that all that we want from the Lord? Is that what we mean? The Lord will give us His arm, get us through this difficulty and that trouble, or through this and that phase where we need strength from Him.
We have many ways in which we put this. We always speak about the arm of the Lord. We ask for grace. We ask for sufficiency. We ask for many things, but it is all gathered into this: the arm of the Lord. But really, what is it that we are seeking?
What does the Word of God show to be the meaning of this support, this arm of the Lord?
Before I answer that question, this is a matter of very far-reaching, very comprehensive importance in its application. I trust that you will believe that I am not at this time merely concerned with giving addresses and matter from the Bible, but that there is a very great practical background to everything that is said here.
Let me pause to say what I mean. Taking just recent months of experience—and the post is coming almost daily into London—there has been a continuous, I could truly say an unbroken, demand made for help in the problems of Christian lives, the problems of churches, and the problems of Christian relationships.
It has been almost day and night, a continuous demand for help in all these difficulties and problems, individual and collective.
And letters are continually coming. I have now waiting to be answered a number of very long letters from assemblies of God’s people in different places, telling of terrible conditions in those assemblies, bringing almost to deadlock, frustration, defeat, limitation, and disappointment, and asking for counsel, for advice, as to what is to be done, and so on.
It is a large background, a real need, and it is over this background that this word is to be spoken this weekend, by the help of God. I want you, therefore, to realize that there is something very practical in this.
Because, after all, you know, dear friends, it all amounts to one thing: Where is the Lord? Where is the arm of the Lord? Where are we going to find the Lord? How are we going to have the Lord? That is what it amounts to: the great need of the Lord.
And that contains this very serious question: How far is the Lord able to support, to come in and undertake, to show His power, and to show Himself mighty? You will agree that that really is the heart of the whole matter.
Does this represent a limitation on the Lord—that He cannot, because of certain things? It is all-important, over everything, that we should know and understand the ground on which the Lord will show His mighty arm in these days on behalf of His people, His church, and His work.
Now, when we ask this question as to what it really does mean that the arm of the Lord should be revealed, I find two or three things in the Word of God, holding a very large place in the Word of God in many forms of expression, which answer that question.
First of all, may I pause again to say that Isaiah 53 is the answer to everything. You think you know Isaiah 53, do you not? Perhaps you could recite it.
I venture to suggest that you know very little about that chapter. It is the most comprehensive chapter in the whole Bible.
If we were able to read it with real spiritual comprehension, we should find all our questions answered in that one chapter, all our needs met in that one chapter, and all our problems solved in that one chapter.
The Bible is comprehended by Isaiah 53.
Having said that, and keeping all the time within the compass of that chapter in what I say, I find that this is the first thing: the arm of the Lord on behalf of His people means the vindication of the course that they have taken.
If you like to go to your Bibles with that, you will find how much there is that gathers around it. And again, you will agree that it is a very important matter that the course we have taken should be proved at the end to have been the right one.
There could be nothing more terrible and tragic than having taken a course, given ourselves and all that we have to it, and poured out our lives, only to find at the end that we have been wrong and that the Lord is not able to vindicate the course that we have taken.
It is, therefore, of utmost importance that the course we have taken should in the end receive the divine vindication. That is, that God is able to say, over against everything, in spite of everything from men and from devils, “That man was right.”
You know, that after all was the vindication of Job, was it not? Oh, how much that man met—misconstruction, misinterpretation! But in the end God said, “My servant Job is right.”
And that is no small thing. In Isaiah 53, the vindication of a course taken in spite of everything—and that “in spite of everything” is quite a lot in that chapter, is it not? If you look at it again later, there it is: an overwhelming amount of contradiction and misunderstanding, but in the end vindicated, God saying, “He was right. He was right.”
To whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? To that one.
And again I say that it is a matter of the greatest importance that, at the end, the way that you and I have taken with God shall be proved by God to have been the right way in spite of everything.
Now, you look into your Bible. I am not going to take you through it with that thought, but it runs everywhere. See it not only in relation to Job, but to Abraham and to them all as they went with God.
What a way they went! What a difficult way they went! What a misunderstood and misinterpreted way they went! But in the end God said, not in word only but in very, very practical vindication, “He was right. He was right.”
That is the meaning of the arm of the Lord. That is what I want when I ask for the arm of the Lord: “Oh, Lord, that I may take such a way with You that, in the end, You may stand by that way and say, ‘He was right. She was right.’”
Do you want that? What is the good of anything if it does not work out like that?
A second thing that I see to be the meaning of the arm of the Lord is the abiding spiritual fruit of a life. Isaiah 53 says:
“He shall see His seed.”
The abiding spiritual seed—that is, the life that was in Him now perpetuated and established, indestructible, in new forms of expression. “He shall see His seed.”
What is the good of anything if we live our lives here and, when we go, that is the end of everything? We do our work and, when we have gone, that is the end of everything. It is a memory, growing more and more indistinct, fading into the past.
Perhaps it is true to that very depressing line some people like to sing:
“Time, like an ever-rolling stream,
Bears all its sons away;
They fly forgotten, as a dream
Dies at the opening day.”
I say that is pessimism to the last degree. But that ought not to be our heritage. That ought not to be true of any servant of the Lord.
Forgotten; died; fallen away; passed; nothing left; a vapor. No! He shall see His seed.
The arm of the Lord on behalf of any true servant of the Lord ought to mean that, when the form of service and expression—the vessel and the framework, which were only temporary—have gone, there is something intrinsic that goes on and ever on, indestructible, to be found in heaven, abiding through eternity.
That is the arm of the Lord. Again I say, that is the vindication of life, and that is the thing that you and I would have as its outcome. Surely that is the only thing to justify our having lived at all—not that we did a lot of things and there was a lot to show while we were here, but that when we are gone, the work lives on.
The seed goes on. It is an imperishable seed.
Well, that is what the Bible shows to be the meaning of the arm of the Lord: the Lord standing by, supporting, carrying on, giving His seal. However you may put it, it involves that which is established.
You see, the arm of the Lord establishes what is of Him. It is something that is established, that cannot be destroyed. Oh, do you not want the arm of the Lord in that way? Surely, we all do.
Spiritual fruitfulness, spiritual increase, no stagnation, no end, but a going on.
Of course, we can see that in the case of all the true servants of the Lord. The Lord came in afterward, after they were gone, and He stood by. He stood by Jeremiah, and though Jeremiah was gone, the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah was fulfilled. The Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia; he made a decree, and the Lord was standing by Jeremiah though he was gone.
Paul ministered to the seven churches in Asia, and Paul is gone. In fact, the Lord comes back to the seven churches to stand by the ministry of His servant Paul and to vindicate it. No, that is the arm of the Lord.
He does not allow what has been of Himself in any servant’s life to perish. It is established.
The arm of the Lord is the verdict of God upon everything—the verdict of God upon everything.
I suggest to you that that is something that you ought to take away, not in your notebook but in your heart. It is the verdict of God upon everything that matters—not the verdict of man, not the verdict of our own minds or hearts, not what we think about it, but the verdict of God.
To Abraham the Lord said:
“Walk before Me.”
That is the last thing, the final thing: “Walk before Me.” Live your life to get My verdict upon it.
Day by day, day by day, see to it that at the close of the day—at the close of every day—you can have My verdict of approval on that: what you said, what you have done, the way you have lived. In all things, you have lived through that day in the light of the verdict of God which is to come: “Walk before Me.”
And all that is gathered into this word, the arm of the Lord. That is happening.
We come back to this chapter. What are the principles upon which the arm of the Lord will be revealed?
I have said that we are very familiar with this chapter, Isaiah 53—or we think we are. And when we read it, we are usually so taken up with the sorrows and the sufferings, the sin-bearing, of this One in view, this Servant of the Lord.
We are usually taken up so much with those vividly descriptive words of His person and His experiences that we almost entirely lose sight of the tremendous significance of this fundamental, initial question: “To whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?”
You see, the whole chapter would have very little value and meaning but for that question. Think about it again. Supposing all that happened which is described there about His sufferings and His sin-bearing—supposing it all happened, and then the arm of the Lord had not been revealed on His behalf. What is the value of it all?
It happened, but where is His vindication? What is the verdict of God upon it all?
Although the content of the chapter is so impressive and overwhelmingly pathetic, it all relates to this one thing: To whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? The answer is: to that One.
That One, described here in such vivid detail—the arm of the Lord is revealed to that One. If you want to know on what ground the arm of the Lord will be revealed, it is on that ground, and that ground only.
The obvious answer to the question is that the arm of the Lord is revealed to the One who is here in view, with all this full descriptiveness, with all this pathos, with all this tragedy, with all this affliction, with all this misunderstanding and misrepresentation. It is to that One that the arm of the Lord is revealed.
You see, the prophet is giving the whole reaction of the world—Israel and the Gentiles—to the report, the proclamation:
“Who hath believed our report?
And to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed?”—Isaiah 53:1
The message has gone out. It is all prophetic, all looking on to the day of the sons of men. The proclamation was made. What a proclamation it was, made on the day of Pentecost! It went out from Jerusalem into all the region round about. But who believed it? What were the reactions to it—Israel and the Gentiles?
The prophet, in very vivid, inspired foreknowledge and insight into the reactions of the world—Jew and Gentile—to the message of the gospel, says, “Who has believed?”
He answers his question in the whole chapter. Then he says, “To whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?” They have all reacted. They have all refused, all denied. They have all done this. This is the construction they have put upon it.
But nevertheless, in spite of all that, it is to this One that the arm of the Lord is revealed. It is alongside of this One that the Lord stands.
And that, of course, leads you to the whole comprehensive context of the question. You are thrown back into this context. First of all, in the wider context, of which this chapter and the two or three verses before it are the immediate context.
The wider context takes us back to Isaiah 42:
“Behold, My servant, whom I uphold;
My chosen, in whom My soul delighteth:
I have put My Spirit upon Him;
He will bring forth justice to the Gentiles.”—Isaiah 42:1
The whole matter is, “My servant.” You see, that is the immediate context of Isaiah 53. We have pointed out that Isaiah 53 ought to commence at Isaiah 52:13. There should never have been a break there. The real beginning of this passage is there:
“Behold, My servant shall deal wisely,
He shall be exalted and lifted up,
And shall be very high.”—Isaiah 52:13
We are brought into the wider context of the Servant of the Lord, and what real service to the Lord means. That service is that which the Lord vindicates, that servant whom the Lord stands by, to whom He shows His arm.
You and I are very much concerned with that, I am sure. What kind of service is it that the Lord will stand by and vindicate, saying, “Behold, My servant, whom I uphold”? That is only another way of saying, “To whom I show My mighty arm.”
You see, the term “servant of the Lord” is used in a threefold way by Isaiah. In Isaiah 41, it is used for Israel. Israel is called the servant of the Lord, raised up to serve the Lord in those great purposes of God in the midst of the nations.
But Israel, as the servant, fails the Lord—tragically fails. And out of that mysterious travail, God raised up One, His Messiah, and transferred the title to Him: “My servant, whom I uphold; I have put My Spirit upon Him. Behold, My servant; He shall be exalted and lifted up, and shall be very high.”
That is the second way in which the title is used: of the Messiah. And that opens up a very profitable line of study if you care to follow it, noting that Isaiah 53 is quoted eleven times in the New Testament.
These very words are transferred to the Lord Jesus in the New Testament. Matthew himself says that the word of Isaiah might be fulfilled, and then he quotes from Isaiah 53 in relation to the Lord Jesus. You can follow that.
You might say here that the whole New Testament can just be bracketed into Isaiah 53 and into this title, “the Servant of the Lord”—His person and His work.
The third way in which Isaiah uses the title “servant of the Lord” is in a collective, or plural, way: faithful believers. You will find that in Isaiah 54:17 and Isaiah 65:13. The faithful people of the Lord are given this title, “servants of the Lord.”
So you see, there is a sense in which you and I come within the company of this great divine vindication.
But here we must pause. We must make a fundamental distinction. That is the distinction between the unique servanthood, the unique work, of the Lord Jesus, and that which relates to others.
Isaiah 53 sets forth that unique Servant with a unique work, in which no one else shares at all. Thank God, it is not necessary. He has done it Himself, fulfilled it all without our help and without needing us in it.
That has to be noted. But while that is true, and we keep that distinction, let us remember that the principles of the service of the Lord are the same principles of the service which we are to render to the Lord.
If we do not share in the atoning work of the Lord Jesus, if we do not come into this vicarious service, nevertheless we come into a service. And that service is based upon the same spiritual principles as His service. That is a thing we have got to see, because it is very important.
These are the principles upon which the arm of the Lord is revealed.
Let us spend a few minutes looking at His unique work and service.
I think it is impressive, dear friends, to know that this section begins with a glorious end to which God is moving:
“Behold, My servant shall deal wisely,
He shall be exalted and lifted up,
And shall be very high.”—Isaiah 52:13
It is always good to get the end right into view at the beginning—to bring the end right to the beginning. You see, how is all this going to work out? All this tragedy of Isaiah 53, all this terrible story—how is it going to end?
It is not just a matter of idle curiosity; it is a matter of tremendous effectiveness. What is going to be the end of this? Well, God begins with the end. He says, “This is how it is going to end.”
“Before I tell you all about the course of things, which might terribly distress and depress, let Me tell you how it is all going to end. This Servant, whom I am going to describe in His person and His work, in the end shall be exalted, shall be lifted up, and shall be very high.”
Because you just have to put right into that, have you not, Acts 1:2, Philippians 2, and Hebrews 1.
“He became obedient even unto death, yea, the death of the cross. Wherefore also God highly exalted Him, and gave unto Him the name which is above every name; that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow.”
—Philippians 2:8-10
And in Hebrews 1, there He is, exalted to the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens. That is how it has ended—not merely how it is going to end, but how it has ended. And that is how the terrible story is introduced.
It is all found in this repeated phrase, or these two words: “He shall.” He shall, He shall, He shall. He shall be exalted. He shall be lifted up. He shall be very high. He shall see of the travail of His soul. He shall be satisfied. He shall. It is established from the beginning.
That is vindication. That is the arm of the Lord. Let all this transpire; nevertheless, the arm of the Lord will see that that is how it will be at the end. “He shall” is established before anything happens—before the cross, before the rejection. It is established, it comes with God: “He shall.”
You and I, if we really do come under the true spiritual principles of Christ’s service, will find that exactly how it will be with us. God will see to it that that is how the end will be. “He shall. He shall.”
If we suffer together with Him, we shall reign together with Him.
But having noted how it is introduced, let us look at the story of His unique servanthood. There are eleven expressions in Isaiah 53 which describe the vicarious character of the sufferings of the Servant of the Lord.
You might like to run your eye down through these verses:
“Surely He hath borne our griefs,
And carried our sorrows.”“He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement of our peace was upon Him;
And with His stripes we are healed.”“The Lord hath laid on Him
The iniquity of us all.”“For the transgression of my people was He stricken.”
“When Thou shalt make His soul an offering for sin.”
“He shall bear their iniquities.”
“He bare the sin of many.”
—Isaiah 53:4-12
Eleven expressions describe the vicarious character of His service and suffering.
It is very instructive to notice the three words used in this passage: iniquities, transgressions, and sins.
Now, if you would like to turn back to Leviticus 16, you will understand what Isaiah was talking about, what the Holy Spirit was pointing to.
Here in Leviticus 16:16:
“He shall make atonement for the holy place, because of the uncleannesses of the children of Israel, and because of their transgressions, even all their sins: and so shall He do for the tent of meeting, that dwelleth with them in the midst of their uncleannesses.”
Then, in Leviticus 16:21-22:
“Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions, even all their sins; and he shall put them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness:
And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a solitary land.”
You see, here we have our three words of Isaiah 53. And then, in Leviticus 16:30:
“For on this day shall atonement be made for you, to cleanse you; from all your sins shall ye be clean before the Lord.”
And Leviticus 16:34 says:
“This shall be an everlasting statute unto you, to make atonement for the children of Israel because of all their sins once in the year.”
He shall carry their iniquities. He shall bear their sins. In Isaiah, then, we have that which corresponds to the work of the scapegoat. And that word and name fit into this chapter so perfectly.
Here is this significant burden—iniquities, transgressions, sins—being driven out into desolation, into the wilderness.
Well now, what are we to conclude from this, for the present, as to the arm of the Lord and as to the service of the Lord?
The arm of the Lord, with all that that means, is inseparably related to the cross of the Lord Jesus. There you have the heart and sum of the whole matter.
You want the arm of the Lord? You want vindication? You want the Lord to stand in and stand by, to support, to uphold, to carry through, to commit Himself, to be with you? However you may put it, you want the Lord on your side and with you in your life, in your company of believers, in the work of the Lord.
The arm of the Lord is inseparably related to the cross of the Lord Jesus, and none of us will ever find the Lord’s support except on the ground of the cross.
Remember how I opened this afternoon, telling of the situations in lives and in companies in so many places—situations of spiritual tragedy amongst the Lord’s people? Dear friends, I have one answer, only one answer, but I have a sure answer for every one.
Because again and again, in personal words and in the letters that I have received, these terms exist: “It seems that the cross has not done its work in us.” Yes, that is it. That is it.
Therefore, this lack of support from the Lord. You see, Isaiah 53 covers everything. The support of the Lord, the presence of the Lord, the power of the Lord, the committing of the Lord to us and to the work, can only be and will only be on the ground of the cross of the Lord Jesus—as the ground upon which we stand and live, as the ground of God in us individually and collectively.
The arm of the Lord only operates by the cross. You may say, if you like, that the cross is the arm of the Lord.
There divine vindication is found:
“Christ crucified, the power of God.”
—1 Corinthians 1:23-24
The arm of the Lord is related inseparably to a seed which is the fruit of the travail of this Servant of the Lord. To whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? To this One. “He shall see His seed. He shall see of the travail of His soul.”
That church, that church which is essentially the fruit of His travail—not the making or building of men, but the fruit of His travail, something that has come right out of His own anguish and passion, something that has been born out of His cross.
The arm of the Lord is inseparably bound up with that.
Friends, I am sure you recognize how important it is that you and I should be a part of that—a part of that.
There is a danger in making things too personal, in the sense that very often we are not just so happy to be a part of something larger. We want it to focus down upon ourselves.
Oh yes, if it focuses down upon us, we are very happy. But just say, “I am only a bit of something more. I am only a part of something.” Well, that is not very interesting at all—to be a part of some larger thing.
Ah, but here it is: the arm of the Lord is bound up with that larger thing, of which we are only perhaps small parts. But we come into the value of the arm of the Lord as parts of something more.
Take any local company. The arm of the Lord may be with the local company, and we shall only find the arm of the Lord as we are really integrated into that local company.
Whereas, we may not find the arm of the Lord if we are taking independent and personal lines. The Lord will not stand by us on that ground at all.
But to be wholly integrated into something that has been born out of the work of the Lord Jesus by His cross—that is the place where we shall find the arm of the Lord. It is to that He shall see His seed.
Oh, it is a very important thing that we should lose our own distinctive, independent entity in that thing where the Lord is finding His fullest interest and concern. We should live for that. We should live for that. That is where the arm of the Lord is.
And finally, for the moment, the arm of the Lord, with all that it means, is inseparably bound up with the vindication of His Son as the test of our lives.
Paul said:
“For to me to live is Christ.”
—Philippians 1:21
God has vindicated Paul. What enemies he had in his own lifetime, and more since! What enemies Paul had, and still has! I think nothing has been left untried to discredit the apostle Paul, but he has a greater place today than ever he has had in history.
The Lord is with that man. Why? Because for him to live was Christ. He had but one all-absorbing concern: the vindication of God’s Son.
Read again all Paul’s bitter words about his earlier life against the Lord Jesus. Again and again he tells us how he persecuted the church, how he hailed men and women to prison. Then again he speaks of his attitude now—his whole being, to the last ounce, given to vindicate the One whom he had persecuted. God is with him.
Remember that: a life really poured out for the vindication of God’s Son will have God with it.
If we are serving ourselves, serving some piece of work, trying to make something go and be successful, we may have to take the responsibility, and God may leave us with a lot to carry and all the troubles associated with it.
But have a passion for the honor, the glory, the name of His Son, and God will take care of the rest. He will.
To whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? These are a few of the things which answer the question: on the ground of the cross, on the ground of the Name, on the ground of the glory of the Lord Jesus, we shall find the arm of the Lord.
If we live there, friends, we shall find the Lord will return to that again.