Isaiah 52:3
For this is what the Lord says: “You were sold for nothing,
and without money you will be redeemed.” (NIV)
Today’s Reading: Isaiah 52:1-3 and Isaiah 61:1-3
As we approach the fourth song of the Servant which begins at the end of Isaiah 52, God sets the stage through Isaiah in chapters 51 and 52 by reminding Israel of their history alongside God’s promise to restore and deliver them. He does this with three instances of the words: “Awake, awake!”
The first instance this occurs in Isaiah 51:9:
“Awake, awake, arm of the Lord,
clothe yourself with strength!
Awake, as in days gone by,
as in generations of old.”
This is a call of action for God to rise up and save Israel like He has done in the past. The arm of the Lord is symbolic of God’s power and might. It speaks to His ability to intervene and deliver Israel from captivity. God will in fact save Israel but this is about saving them from sin as much as it is about saving them from physical captivity. God will bring salvation in the form of the Messiah.
The second instance this phrase occurs is Isaiah 51:17:
“Awake, awake!
Rise up, Jerusalem,
you who have drunk from the hand of the Lord
the cup of his wrath,
you who have drained to its dregs
the goblet that makes people stagger.”
This is a call of action for the city of Jerusalem to be spiritually alert. God reminds them in this verse that He gave them a cup to drink. This cup was full of his wrath and judgement. God made them drink it because of their sin and spiritual adultery. However, God says in Isaiah 51:22:
“See, I have taken out of your hand
the cup that made you stagger;
from that cup, the goblet of my wrath,
you will never drink again.”
God says is telling them to wake up because they will not have to drink from this cup anymore. They will now drink from the cup of salvation. God is again pointing to the Messiah who will usher in a new covenant when God’s people will be fully reconciled to Him. The Messiah will drink the cup of God’s wrath so that Jerusalem will never have to drink from that cup ever again. Jesus refers to his crucifixion as drinking this cup:
“Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, ‘My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will…’ He went away a second time and prayed, ‘My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done’ (Matt 26:39, 42).
The third time this call to awaken occurs in Isaiah 52:1:
“Awake, awake, Zion,
clothe yourself with strength!
Put on your garments of splendor,
Jerusalem, the holy city.
The uncircumcised and defiled
will not enter you again.”
Here is another reference for the city to awaken. The city of Jerusalem (Zion) is the symbol of God’s chosen people with whom He has a covenant. His people will now put on new clothes. These will be clothes of strength and beauty. A new kingdom is coming and it will be a beautiful kingdom. The current state of the city is that it has been destroyed. It has been corrupted by sin. The Messiah will bring redemption to Zion and establish a new kingdom.
However, Zion would not accept the Messiah. They would crucify him instead. So these new clothes will be exchanged for their rags after they accept the Messiah at the time of his second coming. Recall that Jesus quoted Isaiah 61:1-2 at the beginning of his ministry in the synagogue of Nazareth which says:
“The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me,
because the Lord has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor”
He then told them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:21). The rest of Isaiah verse 2 along with verse 3 says:
“and the day of vengeance of our God,
to comfort all who mourn,
and provide for those who grieve in Zion—
to bestow on them a crown of beauty
instead of ashes,
the oil of joy
instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise
instead of a spirit of despair.
They will be called oaks of righteousness,
a planting of the Lord
for the display of his splendor.”
There is a crown of beauty coming for Zion. They will put on a garment of praise and display all of God’s splendor. This matches up with Isaiah 52:1-3. They will be redeemed and put on these new clothes, but not until after the day of vengeance of our God which is the Great Tribulation at the end. John saw these new clothes in his vision of Revelation:
“Then one of the elders asked me, ‘These in white robes—who are they, and where did they come from?’ I answered, ‘Sir, you know.’ And he said, ‘These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb’” (Rev 7:13-14).
So Zion will put on these new clothes representing righteousness. This righteousness would come at a price but not with money. God says in Isaiah 52:3:
“You were sold for nothing,
and without money you will be redeemed.”
Peter explains this for us:
“For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect” (1 Peter 1:18-19).
Jesus coming to Jerusalem as the Messiah fulfilled God’s promise to redeem Israel, His people. They were redeemed from the “empty way of life” that their ancestors passed down to them with all of their traditions. Those rituals did not save them. Jesus did.
“For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant” (Heb 9:15).
Christ in the Old Testament 
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