Eleven chapters ago, God charged a rebellious people who did not know their master as an ox and a donkey know theirs. Every chapter since has traced the working out of that charge: judgment falling, a remnant surviving, a shoot growing from a stump. This closing passage gathers nearly every thread the first movement of Isaiah has laid down and answers each.
The Lord will 11"extend his hand yet a second time" to recover the remnant. It is a second exodus, and Isaiah names the geography on purpose: Assyria, Egypt, Elam, the coastlands of the sea, every direction at once, wider than the return from Babylon alone could fill. There will be 16"a highway from Assyria for the remnant," as there was when Israel came up from Egypt. The God who split a sea once does it again, striking the Euphrates into seven channels so his people can cross dry-shod.
13"The jealousy of Ephraim shall depart." Two brother tribes who tore at each other in chapter 9, Manasseh devouring Ephraim and Ephraim Manasseh, are reconciled, and the old wound this book has carried since it opened is allowed to close.
Then Isaiah gives his people the words they will say when the promise lands. 1"I will give thanks to you, O LORD, for though you were angry with me, your anger turned away." The anger stretched out, hand still raised, refrain after refrain since chapter 5, is turned away. 2"Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid." The fear Ahaz could not master in chapter 7 and Isaiah told his own disciples to set aside in chapter 8 is answered by something stronger than fear.
Then comes 3"With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation." Remember the waters of Shiloah, the gentle stream Judah rejected in chapter 8 for a mightier river. That modest trickle has become, by the time this book reaches its first resting place, a well, inexhaustible and drawn from with joy and no longer despised as too small. A quieter detail: the word for salvation here shares its root with Isaiah's own name. The prophet who has spent eleven chapters delivering hard news finds his name written into the joy of the people who once refused to listen.
4"Give thanks to the LORD, call upon his name." The song widens from one voice to many, from Israel's private relief to a proclamation meant for the nations. 6"Shout, and sing for joy, O inhabitant of Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel." The holy God whose vision undid Isaiah in chapter 6 is, at the end of this movement, the reason for shouting instead of trembling.
Centuries later, at a feast where worshipers drew water and remembered this promise, a man stood up and cried out, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink" (John 7:37). The wells Isaiah promised were always pointing to the one who would offer, in a temple courtyard, water that never runs dry.
Ask what you have been drawing from that runs dry, and where the well is.
Prayer
Father, thank you for anger turned away and comfort given, and for a highway home as wide as the world's exile. Thank you for wells of salvation, deep enough to draw from with joy and not with fear. Make known your deeds among the peoples through us, as this whole book has promised since its first chapter. Great is the Holy One of Israel in our midst. In Jesus' name, amen.