Isaiah 55: The Call of the Spirit: Chapter 6: The Call to Repentance

Isaiah 55:7 says,

⁷ “Let the wicked forsake his way [derek, “way, path, journey”] and the unrighteous man his thoughts [machashabah, “thought, plan, purpose”]; and let him return [shuwb] to the Lord, and He will have compassion [racham, “love deeply, have mercy, tender affection, be compassionate”] on him and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon [salakh, “pardon, forgive”].”

The call of the Spirit is a call to repentance—a change of mind, a reversal of one’s path and plan, and a return to God and His law. This was the message of John the Baptist and of all the prophets. Repentance does not create compassion in God, but it exhibits His compassion in practical terms.

Compassion is from the word racham, which is translated Ruhamah in Hosea 2:1. Ruhamah was one of Hosea’s daughters, who was prophetically named to show God’s compassion upon Israel after her repentance. So we read in Hosea 2:23, “I will also have compassion on her who had not obtained compassion.”

The compassion of God is exhibited through repentance, but His pardon or forgiveness is made possible through Christ’s death on the cross, pictured in Isaiah 53. Sin is reckoned as a debt—or in modern economic terms, a bond. All have sinned and therefore have been bonded, making them slaves in bondage. By taking upon Himself the sin of the world, Jesus purchased all bonds, redeemed all slaves, and obtained lawful ownership of all mankind.

This gave Him the lawful right to do as He pleased with every living creature. He could keep them in bondage or set them free, according to His will. His will was free, because the law gave Him the rights accorded to every victim of crime. This is the law of victim’s rights. On the cross, Jesus chose to forgive (Luke 23:34), but yet there was a process by which that forgiveness would be exhibited in practical terms. Hence, the judgments of God continued to fall upon men and nations, but ultimately, the promise of God to save His creation is assured because the matter was settled at the cross.

So the call of the Spirit is still a call to repentance, for Jesus has the lawful right to withhold forgiveness for as long as it takes for men to repent. His plan is not simply to save mankind in spite of their sin but to turn their hearts. When they hear the word, faith is born, and when they put on the mind of Christ, they grow into mature sons of God.

Furthermore, repentance and faith in God’s promise imputes righteousness to them, even as it did with Abraham (Rom. 4:21, 22). This gives believers righteous status even before they have had time to become righteous. During this time, God disciplines (judges) them as His children in order to bring them to maturity. Lack of discipline is evidence of illegitimacy (Heb. 12:7). Hence, those who are lawless are yet in need of repentance.

Jesus said of them in Matt. 7:23, “Depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.” In other words, at the great White Throne, they will have further need of discipline, some metaphorically given “many lashes” and others only a “few” (Luke 12:47, 48).

Those who think that Zionism is the fulfillment of the “return” will be disappointed in the end. Immigrating from one physical location to another is not how God defines repentance. True immigration, acceptable to God, is set forth in the book of Hebrews. A Hebrew is literally an immigrant, and the book of Hebrews shows how we are to immigrate from the Old Covenant to the New.

This is true Zionism—actually, Sionism, because true believers are gathering even now around Christ on Mount Sion, which is Mount Hermon (Deut. 4:48). It was the place of His transfiguration and manifestation as the Son of God. (See Heb. 12:22, KJV.)

Different Ways, Different Thoughts

Isaiah 55:8, 9 says,

⁸ “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord. ⁹ “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.”

In Proverbs 14:12 and 16:25, we read,

¹² There is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.

Men’s understanding has been clouded by mortality and the corruption that naturally flows from it. As long as men have faith in their own understanding, rather than in God, they will follow the path that leads to death. Few, it seems, have the revelation to distinguish between the law and men’s understanding of the law.

When men read the law with an Old Covenant mindset, which is based on the will of man, they assume that their understanding is no different from the mind of God Himself. It is only when they cease to have faith in their own will and promises, and instead have faith in the will and promise of God, that they are truly able to see the distinction between the ways of God and the ways of men.

Moses knew this as well when he wrote in Deut. 30:19,

¹⁹ “I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants.”

The difference between the mind of the God of heaven and the mind of earthly men is the difference between life and death. Hence, to place our faith in man’s will is to choose death; to place our faith in God’s will is to choose life. Why? Because it is the difference between the Old and New Covenant. The Old Covenant plan of salvation, based upon the will of man, seems right to those who yet retain faith in their own “free will.” But to truly become a son of God, we must be “born [or begotten], not of blood[line], nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:13).

The Power of the Word

Isaiah 55:10, 11 says,

¹⁰ “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there without watering the earth and making it bear and sprout, and furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater; ¹¹ so will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; it will not return to Me empty, without accomplishing what I desire, and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.”

The word of God is seed, and when He speaks, He sows His seed in the earth. He will never sow in vain, for it will always accomplish what He desires and will bear fruit. God will always harvest wherever He has sown. Hence, whatever God speaks will come to pass, because His word brings into existence that which He has spoken.

So we read that “God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light” (Gen. 1:3). God spoke it into existence. God sowed light, and God immediately harvested light, so to speak. By the same power, He gave Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, a word of promise, which immediately came into existence, though within our bubble of time, we would not see it fully manifested until the final harvest.

The interim between the beginning of its existence and its full manifestation in the earth is a time when that which exists is hidden from those who wear the veil of the Old Covenant. Because they do not see it, they think it does not exist. But we must take off that veil and see as God sees. Some call this “the eye of faith.” By swapping our Old Covenant sight for New Covenant faith, we receive a new set of eyes that other men do not yet have.

The word of God is always a promise. In men’s terminology, a word is perhaps the least forceful. A promise is stronger, a vow or oath is still stronger, and a covenant is the strongest. But God cannot lie, because even if He tried to lie, His “lie” would immediately be fulfilled and turn into truth by the power of His will. Hence, His word is as binding upon Him as His promises vows, oaths, and covenants.

Like the rain and snow from heaven, which accomplishes its purpose to bring life in the desert, so also is the word of God. God says, “it will not return to Me empty, without accomplishing what I desire.” Therefore, we can be fully assured that His New Covenant promise will succeed in the end. The covenant with Noah and the whole earth will be fulfilled; the covenant with Abraham will be fulfilled; the covenant with David will be fulfilled. Each contains its own element of truth, but all are based on the sure word of God.

So, too, the call of God in Isaiah 55:11 is His word which, in the end, will not return to Him void. The call will be heeded, though not all at once. All who are “not My people” will become God’s people by faith in Him, because His word is powerful enough to accomplish His will in spite of the opposition of man’s will.

God has obligated Himself by taking an oath to make us His people (Deut. 29:12, 13) by the power of His word. This is the New Covenant. When His word is fully accomplished, then all will come to His feast, that great Communion which denotes unity and fellowship with God. All things then will be reconciled to God.

The Success of the Word

Isaiah 55:12, 13 concludes,

¹² “For you will go out with joy and be led forth with peace; the mountains and the hills will break forth into shouts of joy before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. ¹³ Instead of the thorn bush the cypress will come up, and instead of the nettle the myrtle will come up, and it will be a memorial to the Lord, for an everlasting sign which will not be cut off.”

The prophet’s metaphors compare nature to the divine plan of salvation for the earth. Mountains and hills are nations, great and small. Hence, the nations will rejoice, as Psalm 67:4 says,

⁴ Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for You will judge the peoples with uprightness and guide the nations on the earth.

The people themselves are the “trees of the field” who “clap their hands.” In Deut. 20:19 “the trees are men” (literal rendering), and in Matt. 13:38, “the field is the world.” Isaiah pictures the nations rejoicing at the fulfillment of God’s promise. This is why all creation eagerly looks forward to the manifestation of the sons of God (Rom. 8:19). The promise of God that was given to Noah was not to destroy the earth but to save it. Hence, all of creation looks forward to the end of its bondage to sin.

When the prophet says that “instead of the thorn bush the cypress will come up,” he alludes to the thorns that came upon the earth as the judgment of God for Adam’s sin (Gen. 3:18). The cypress, on the other hand, was a stately tree that represented royalty and divine rulership.

Hence, when the thorns are replaced by cypress trees, the prophet metaphorically said that judgment would end and that Christ would rule His Kingdom in righteousness. The judgments of God (“thorns”) are not a permanent feature of God’s plan, for if they were, then the word and intention of God prior to Adam’s sin would fail and the seed that God sowed would fail to produce the desired harvest.

The “memorial” in Isaiah 55:13 is from the Hebrew word shem, “name,” as in making a name for yourself. He who has made a name for himself has a reputation, so that men will remember his name. (The usual word for a memorial is zikron.) The prophet tells us that the myrtle tree will be a name for the Lord and “an everlasting sign that will not be cut off.”

In other words, the myrtle tree is a prophetic picture of Christ, whose name will be known to all in the day that the New Covenant promise is fulfilled.

Hence, the call of the Spirit, the call to repentance, will actually succeed. Men everywhere will indeed repent and bear fruit. This call gives the appearance of being optional at the present time, thus suggesting the possibility of failure. But in the end, all failure is only temporary, for God has promised to save the whole earth.

The salvation of all has already been spoken into existence, and it is only a matter of time before we will see the success of His will for all nations.