The previous four posts have been exploring the influence of Isaiah within Matthew’s gospel, which is far more extensive than the direct quotations from Isaiah suggest, and amounts to something like a template on which the gospel is based. Isaiah’s prophetic landscape could be regarded as the very backdrop and foundation for the gospel, and its presentation of Jesus in particular. Jesus is a hugely Isaianic figure. In saying this, it must also be added that Isaiah was himself developing key themes from Israel’s history: Abraham and his legacy, an exile coming to an end, the exodus (and a new exodus mirroring but exceeding the old), the promised restoration of David’s kingdom, worldwide blessing.

This final post attempts to explore the worldwide implications of Israel’s destiny in Isaiah’s prophecy, and how this relates to the Isaianic presentation of Jesus in Matthew’s gospel. The underlying question (I hope not begging the question) will be: if Isaiah has a worldwide framework in view in his prophecy, is it possible to have a Jesus who is presented in terms any less than this?

This review of Isaiah’s influence on Matthew begins where Matthew breaks off – in the final verses of Matthew 28. Jesus’s final instructions to the disciples are: “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” – Matthew 28:19. The only imperative in the original Greek here is “make disciples”, and not “Go” as we have in the translations. To this are attached three present participles: “going”, “teaching”, and “baptizing”. In other words, it is taken as read that being one of the eleven apostles entailed “going”, and that this “going” was to “all nations”. This could only have been fulfilled outside the borders of Israel. What was the basis for this assumption of a worldwide mandate?

In the first place, we need look no further than Matthew 28:19. The key phrase is “all nations” – a phrase familiar to Jews schooled in the Pentateuch and the Prophets, and very familiar to one Jew in particular – Paul. παντα τα εθνη reaches back to the very first promise made to Abraham following God’s command that he leave his own country, people and household and go to the land which God would show him. The final clause of the promise is “all peoples of the earth will be blessed through you.” – Genesis 12:3. The LXX has “peoples” as φυλαι, or ‘tribes’ here. But whenever the phrase is used again with Abraham, it is the same as in Matthew 28:19 - παντα τα εθνη, “all nations” - Genesis 18:18; 22:18; 26:18.

Whatever Israel’s history in the intervening period, the worldwide destiny of Israel is understood and repeated through this phrase in Isaiah:

Isaiah 2:2 - describes the mountain of the Lord in the last days – “all nations shall stream to it” - παντα τα εθνη

Isaiah 25:7 – “On this mountain he will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples and ‘the vail (AV) that is spread over all nations’ “ - παντα τα εθνη

Isaiah 43:9 describes an eschatological gathering of the nations– “All the nations gather together” - παντα τα εθνη

Isaiah 52:10 – “The Lord will lay bare his holy arm in the sight of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God.” - παντα τα εθνη

Isaiah 61:11 – “so the sovereign Lord will make righteousness and praise spring up before all nations - παντων των εθνων”

Isaiah 66:18 – “because of their actions and imaginations I am about to come and gather all nations παντα τα εθνη and tongues and they will come and see my glory.”

To this could be added variations on the worldwide theme, such as :

Isaiah 11:10 – “In that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations will rally to him”

Isaiah 12:4 - “make known among the people what he has done … let this be known to all the world.”

Isaiah 14:1-2 - “Aliens will join them and unite with the house of Jacob. Nations (people) will take them and bring them to their own place. And the house of Israel will possess the nations as menservants and maidservants in the Lord’s land.”

Isaiah 19:23-25 - “In that day Israel will be the third, along with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing on the earth.”

Isaiah 25:3, 6 - “Therefore strong peoples will honour you; cities of ruthless nations will revere you”; “On this mountain the Lord Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all the peoples etc” (see above for παντα τα εθνη)

Isaiah 27:6 – “In days to come, Jacob will take root, Israel will bud and
blossom and fill all the world with fruit.”

Isaiah 40:5 – “And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all mankind together will see it.”

Isaiah 42:6 – “I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles, to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.”

Isaiah 49:1 – “Listen to me you islands; hear this you distant nations” (of the Lord’s servant)

Isaiah 49:5-6 – “And now the Lord says … ‘It is too small a thing for you the be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light to the gentiles that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth.”

Isaiah 49:22 – “See, I will beckon to the Gentiles, I will lift up my banner to the peoples; they will bring your sons in their arms and carry your daughters on their shoulders.”

Isaiah 54:3 - “For you will spread out to the right and to the left; your descendants (seed) will dispossess nations and settle in their desolate cities.”

Isaiah 54:5 - “the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer; he is called the God of all the earth.”

Isaiah 55:4-5 - “See I have made him (David) a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander of the peoples. Surely you will summon nations you know not, and nations that do not know you will hasten to you, because of the Lord your God,”

Isaiah 56 – the foreigner and eunuch are to be included in temple worship on the holy mountain, and the temple to become a “house of prayer for all people” -

Isaiah 60:3 – “Nations will come to your light”

Isaiah 60:5 – “to you the riches of the nations will come.”

Isaiah 60:11 – “Your gates will always stand open … so that men may bring you the wealth of the nations”

Isaiah 60:12 – “For the nation or kingdom that will not serve you will perish”

Isaiah 61:5-6 – “Aliens will shepherd your flocks; foreigners will work your vineyards … You will feed on the wealth of the nations”

Isaiah 61:9 – “Their descendants (seed) will be known among the nations and their offspring among the peoples.”

Isaiah 62:2 – “The nations shall see your righteousness”

Isaiah 62:10 – “Pass through, pass through the gates! Prepare the way for the people. Build up, build up the highway! Remove the stones. Raise a banner for the peoples.”

Isaiah 62:11 – “The Lord has made a proclamation to the ends of the earth: ‘Say to the Daughter of Zion, See, your Saviour comes!’ “

Isaiah 66:19 – “I will send some of those who survive to the nations … They will proclaim my glory among the nations.”

Isaiah 66:23 – “”From one New Moon to another and from one Sabbath to another, all mankind will come and bow down before me,” says the Lord.

Also there are various references to Isaiah’s vision extending to the “ends of the earth” –

Isaiah 26:15 – “You have enlarged the nation, O Lord; you have enlarged the nation. You have gained glory for yourself; you have extended all the borders of the land (far unto all the ends of the earth)”

Isaiah 43:6 – “Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth”

Isaiah 45:22 – “Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth”

Isaiah 52:10 – “The Lord will lay bare his holy arm in the sight of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God.”

Sometimes the worldwide vision seems to be one of assistance given by the nations to Israel’s return from exile to live inside her own borders.

Sometimes the vision seems to be simply to announce to the world something that God has done for Israel. But this cannot have been without relevance to the nations, and that God did something remarkable for one nation alone. In Isaiah, God is always the God of the entire earth. His involvement with Israel has the whole earth in view. Why be God of the whole earth, and yet do something which was of significance to Israel alone, and then tell the rest of the world about it?

It seems that what God was going to do for Israel was of relevance to the rest of the world, and that in telling the world about what God had done for Israel, there would be direct benefit for the rest of the world.

This takes us back to the promises made by God to Abraham as the very basis of Israel’s destiny. Abraham’s descendants would fill the whole earth and bring blessing to the whole earth. Isaiah reiterates the worldwide significance of the promises throughout his prophecies. But in what way or form would this be seen? How would the Lord “lay bare his holy arm in the sight of all the nations”? How would “all the ends of the earth see the salvation of our God”?

Parts of Isaiah suggest what this salvation might be. Instead of protection against the predations of physical or geographical enemies, something greater is foreshadowed. Isaiah 25:7-8 speaks of a victory over death itself –

“On this mountain he will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations; he will swallow up death for ever. The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces; he will remove the disgrace of his people from all the earth.”

Various features of this passage suggest something more than language being used as metaphors for events within history which affected Israel’s fortunes as a nation. The shroud and the sheet are suggestive of the winding sheet used to wrap corpses. This sheet covers not only Israel, but “all peoples,/all nations”. The verb “swallow up” is frequently used in the OT to describe death ‘devouring’ a person. Earthquakes swallowed people up. Enemies swallowed up their foes. Here, the process is reversed – death is “swallowed up forever” by God. The idea is so striking, that Paul refers to it in 1 Corinthians 15:54, and again in 2 Corinthians 5:4 – where resurrection and life are not metaphors for victory over mortal enemies, but victory over death itself.

In Revelation 21:4, Isaiah 25:7-8 is again echoed in a picture not simply of life having overcome death, but of the advent in its completeness of a new order of things: “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, heither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away.”

When did God “swallow up death forever” in the history of Israel? Clearly, in the death and resurrection of Jesus. If this event had relevance for the rest of the world outside Israel, there would indeed be reason for declaring it amongst the nations. But ‘death’ was never an isolated metaphysical or even biological reality for Israel, and had come to be associated with the heart of Israel’s apostasy and distancing from God. She had made a ‘covenant with death’ – Isaiah 28:15, 18 – through her faithlessness, rebellion and idolatry. God was committed to destroying this covenant with death and agreement with the grave.

The image of the suffering servant which underlies the crucifixion event is the next key which Isaiah provides for Matthew, and all the gospel crucifixion accounts. The suffering of Isaiah 53 was vicarious for Israel. But the inclusive first person plural pronoun with which the meaning and effects of the suffering are described was not limited to Israel alone, since Israel was enacting a drama which was to be, in itself, not only the means of blessing to the world, but contained in itself that very blessing. Hence Isaiah could say, in anticipation of the outcome of the servant’s suffering, “so he will sprinkle many nations” – Isaiah 52:15. The word is used of the ritual purification procedures through animal sacrifice in the temple, especially of Aaron the high priest – Exodus 29:21, and for the sin offering – Leviticus 5:9. In the same way, it is used to denote the cleansing of consciences from the guilt of sin in Hebrews 10:22. The purification was now not for Israel alone, but for the nations.

The eschatological focus of Isaiah reflects the paradox of the gospels, and of Matthew’s gospel in particular. Isaiah was caught between a belief in what God would eventually do for Israel, a small nation surrounded by larger predatory empires and only able to survive through God’s favour, and the impact that Israel would have on the world. The images of a future reversal of Israel’s fortunes are staggering through their sheer scale and improbability. Yet they serve as metaphors of what God eventually did through Jesus. In Matthew we have the seedbed in Israel’s history of what would be brought through Acts, and would be reflected in the letters, to the rest of the world. The issue would not be whether God would do it, but how he would do it. Isaiah provides the template for much of what is described about Jesus in Matthew’s gospel. It also provides the template for what that gospel would go on to accomplish, in fulfilling Israel’s destiny for the world in the promises made to Abraham. Return from exile for Israel became indistinguishable from return from a much longer and more widespread exile for the world.