The Wellspring. No.49

13th April, 2006
Our website address is  www.oxleigh.freeserve.co.uk

“Understanding is a Wellspring of Life to him that has it.” (Proverbs. 16:22)

 Occasional papers by Arthur & Rosalind Eedle

Ten “Everlasting” wonders in Isaiah

 

Here are the ten wonderful promises of God, by the pen of Isaiah.

 

1. COVENANT. 24:5 The earth is defiled under the inhabitants thereof, because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, and broken the everlasting covenant. [This covenant is the one found in Genesis 17:19, ratified to Abraham and his son Isaac.]

 

55:3. Incline your ear and come to me, hear, and your soul shall live, and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.

 

61:8 I the Lord love judgment; I hate robbery for burnt offering, and I will direct their work in truth, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them. And their seed shall be known among the nations, and their offspring among the peoples, and all who see them shall acknowledge that they are the seed the Lord has blessed.

 

2. STRENGTH.  26:4  Trust in the Lord for ever, for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength.

 

3. JOY.  35:10. The ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs, and everlasting joy shall be upon their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. [Repeated in 51:11]

 

61:7. For your shame you shall have double, and for confusion [reproach] they shall rejoice in their portion, therefore in their land they shall possess the double, and everlasting joy shall be unto them.

 

4. NATION. 44:6-7. Thus says the Lord the King of Israel, and His Redeemer the Lord of Hosts, I am the first and I am the last; beside me there is no God. And who as I, shall call, and shall declare it, and set it in order for me, since I appointed the ancient people? [lit. everlasting nation]

 

5. SALVATION. 45:17. Israel shall be saved with an everlasting salvation. You shall not be ashamed or confounded world without end. [lit. to the ages of futurity.]

 

6. KINDNESS. 54:8. In a little [lit. overflow] of wrath I hid my face from you for a moment, but with everlasting kindness  I will have mercy on you, says the Lord your Redeemer.

 

7. SIGN. 55:12-13. You shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace; the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Instead of thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree, and it shall be to the Lord for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.

 

8. NAME. 56:5 For thus says the Lord to the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, and choose the things that please me, and take hold of my covenant; even unto them I will give in my house and within my walls and place, and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off.

 

9. EXCELLENCY. 60:15. Whereas you [in the symbol of a city] have been forsaken and hated, so that no man went through you, I will make you an everlasting excellency, a joy of many generations.

 

10. LIGHT. 60:19-20 Your Sun shall no more go down, neither shall your Moon withdraw itself, for the Lord shall be your everlasting light, and the days of your mourning shall be ended. Your people also shall be all righteous, they shall inherit the land for ever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may be glorified. A little one shall become a thousand, and a small one a strong nation; I the Lord will hasten it in its time.

 

And finally we learn that the word everlasting is also used of God Himself.

 

GOD.  40:28. Have you not known? Have you not heard, that the everlasting God,  the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints nor is weary?  [See James 1:17  There is no shadow of turning with Him. Also Lamentations 5:19 You O Lord remain for ever, [Lit. perpetually] Your throne from generation to generation.]

 

 

The word everlasting  may be better understood through these references, and English words that best betray the underlying meaning of the Hebrew OLAM are as follows –

 

Perpetual, Enduring, Unpunctuated, Uninterrupted, Unfailing, Ceaseless, Continual.

 

The opposite can therefore be described best by the following words

 

Broken, Intermittent, Discontinuous, Interrupted, Punctuated.

 

The word perpetual as a translation of OLAM is hardly used in Isaiah, but found frequently in Jeremiah, making it conjectural that two different committees of translators were responsible for these two books, as we find them presented in the Authorised Version.

 

Here are the references in Jeremiah.

 

5:22 Do you not fear me, says the Lord? Will you not tremble at my presence, who has placed the sand for a bound of the sea by a perpetual decree. [As in Genesis 9:16]

18:16 Land desolate, a perpetual hissing

23:40 Reproach and perpetual shame

25:9 perpetual desolations. Repeated in 25:12

49:13 cities shall be a perpetual waste

50:5 Come. Let us join ourselves to the Lord with a perpetual covenant.

51:39 That they (Babylon) may sleep a perpetual sleep. Repeated in 51:57