Isaiah 49:8
Author: Steve Amato
Keywords: bible study,bible, isaiah

Translations: 简体中文 繁體中文

## Messiah - A Covenant

Isaiah 49:8-10
This is what the LORD says: "In the time of my favor I will answer you, and in the day of salvation I will help you; I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people, to restore the land and to reassign its desolate inheritances, to say to the captives, ‘Come out,’ and to those in darkness, ‘Be free!’ "They will feed beside the roads and find pasture on every barren hill. They will neither hunger nor thirst, nor will the desert heat or the sun beat upon them. He who has compassion on them will guide them and lead them beside springs of water."

## Comment

It is not that the Messiah makes a covenant, but rather that the Messiah is the covenant, as he said at the last supper, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you."Luke 22:20 But much as we think of the justification which comes from the blood of Christ, here in Isaiah the emphasis is on the freedom which comes with the new covenant. But what kind of freedom does it mean? The earthly illustration here likens it to Israel's freedom from Babylonian captivity and restoration to the promise land. But that is really a metaphor for something greater. Jesus spoke of freedom in John 8 and confronted the misconceptions of the Jews about freedom:

> John 8:31-36
> To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said,
> "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples.
> Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."
> They answered him, "We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?"
> Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.
> Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever.
> So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed."

Freedom from captivity to sin is the promise of the new covenant.

The Berean Christian Bible Study Resources