Promise in the Prophets 27: Mercy and Chosen

  • 28, Mercy and Chosen

Isaiah 14:1 For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land: and the strangers shall be joined with them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob.

The Lord will have mercy on Jacob, and the Lord will again choose Israel. The first prophecy fulfillment of this verse is the return from Exile in Babylon for the people of God. The further fulfillment is for the Church of the New Testament. Jacob and Israel = the Church. The people of Israel (Jacob) in the OT have become the people of the Church in the NT. Both the before Christ people who believe God’s promise and the after Christ people who believe in God’s promise are the same: they all believe in Jesus, who is the Promise of God.

The Lord will have Mercy on the believers. Many of the Jews, especially the Pharisees, mistakenly thought they could earn mercy by being good and righteous (actually, self-righteous); some of the Jews, like the disciples, the tax collector (God be merciful to me, a sinner), and the Prodigal Son, who returned to his father and received unexpected and extravagant mercy, knew they were sinners who couldn’t earn God’s favor and had to trust that God would be merciful. The Promise is simple: the Lord will have mercy! God did have mercy (He sent His Son), God still has mercy (He forgives sins daily), and God will have mercy (He will resurrect us unto eternal life). This is good news for us prodigals and tax collectors: we may return to God every time we fall away from perfectly righteous living and find mercy. We live and we are alive by mercy.

Secondly, the Lord will choose the believers, and He chose me. This promise is true for me and all believers in Christ: God chose me, I did not choose Him. I cannot ask why He chose me and not others, because I do not know. What I do know is that He chose me because He loves me. Period. Full stop. The promise of my being chosen is a great comfort and security for me.

The further part of this promise is that strangers (Gentiles) will be joined to the Church of the NT and cleave to the Lord. That means me. He is my God and I am part of His people. I am my Beloved’s and He is mine.