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Isaiah, Prophet of Salvation, Book 7, part 19

In Isaiah 52:1, 2 God again tells Jerusalem to awaken,

¹ Awake, awake, clothe yourself in strength, O Zion; clothe yourself in your beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city; for the uncircumcised and the unclean will no longer come into you. ² Shake yourself from the dust, rise up, O captive Jerusalem; loose yourself from the chains around your neck, O captive daughter of Zion.

The garment theme runs throughout Scripture from the beginning to the end. In Isaiah 61:10 the prophet tells us that “He has clothed me with garments of salvation.” These are not literal garments but they represent the glorified bodies of the saints. Paul uses this terminology in 2 Corinthians 5:1 and 4,

¹ For we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens… ⁴ For indeed while we are in this tent, we groan, being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed but to be clothed, so that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life.

This clothing is also pictured as a “house” and a “tent.” It is the body in which we live. We are presently clothed in mortality, but God is safeguarding for us an immortal body with which we will be clothed when the feast of Tabernacles (“tents”) is fulfilled. The example of this is seen in the glorified body of the resurrected Christ.

Isaiah instructs Jerusalem to “clothe yourself in your beautiful garments.” This will be fulfilled at the proper time in history, for we read in Revelation 19:7, 8,

⁷ Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready. ⁸ It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.

This was not speaking of the earthly Jerusalem, for later John tells us in Revelation 21:2,

² And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband.

The earthly Jerusalem was also called “the holy city” (Nehemiah 11:1, 18). Isaiah 48:2 says, “they call themselves after the holy city and lean on the God of Israel,” but yet they were “obstinate” (Isaiah 48:4) and idolatrous (Isaiah 48:5). The earthly Jerusalem was named “City of Peace,” for that was its calling; but the prophets rename it “The Bloody City” (Ezekiel 22:2; 24:9; Nahum 3:1) when it failed to live up to its calling.

As “The Bloody City,” it is rejected and cast out, because “flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Corinthians 15:50).

The true “City of Peace” is thus the New Jerusalem. This is the city that is adorned as a bride for the Son of God. Paul says that the earthly Jerusalem is Hagar and that the heavenly city is Sarah. These are the two wives of Abraham, and they serve as types and shadows. Hagar is to be cast out, while Sarah represents the true bride of Christ that produces the heirs.

No Entry for the Unclean

Isaiah’s instruction, then, was not followed by the earthly Jerusalem but only by the heavenly city. This, then, is the city referenced in Isaiah 52:1 as “Jerusalem, the holy city.” It is not the city that religious men called the holy city. It is the city that God called the holy city. It is the city where “the uncircumcised and the unclean” are not allowed to enter.

Circumcision in this case is defined by God through the Apostle Paul in Romans 2:28, 29,

²⁸ For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. ²⁹ But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God.

By God’s definition, “circumcision is that which is of the heart,” not “in the flesh.” In other words, those whose hearts remain uncircumcised will not have access to the holy city.

The same applies to “the unclean.” While religious Jews are obsessed with ritual cleansing, God’s people are cleansed by the word, for Jesus said in John 15:3, “You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.” The water of the word is our cleansing agent, for it alone can change the heart.

Referring to the New Jerusalem, Revelation 21:27 affirms,

²⁷ and nothing unclean, and no one who practices abomination and lying, shall ever come into it, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

Again, John says in Revelation 22:14, 15,

¹⁴ Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and may enter by the gates into the city. ¹⁵ Outside are the dogs and the sorcerers and the immoral persons and the murderers and the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices lying.

In practice, the earthly Jerusalem could not keep out those who were unclean. The priests of Bethphage were responsible for the ashes of the red heifer that was stored near the base of the Mount of Olives. As the people entered the city, those in need of cleansing were supposed to sprinkle themselves with water mixed with the ashes. Yet the priests could not possibly know if someone were unclean, except perhaps known lepers.

It was therefore largely voluntary, and there is no doubt that many came into the city (including Roman soldiers) who were unclean from a ritualistic standpoint. The standard of holiness only increased to a higher level under the New Covenant, where the hearts of men had to be cleansed by the washing of the word to gain entrance to the New Jerusalem.

The Captive Daughter of Jerusalem

Isaiah 52:2 instructs the captive daughter of Jerusalem to rise from the dust and loose her chains. In reality, however, she could not do this by her own strength, because Babylon had taken the city captive. It would require a strong deliverer to set her free. In the gospel in the stars, we find Perseus coming with a great club to kill the sea monster and set free the captive woman, Andromeda, who was chained to the rock.

Persia was named after Perseus, and so King Cyrus of Persia conquered Babylon and set captive Jerusalem free to return to her own land. The greater fulfillment of this is when Christ conquers Mystery Babylon, sets the captives free worldwide, and frees, as it were, the New Jerusalem to come down from heaven and manifest in the earth as a bride.

Isaiah 52:3 says,

³ For thus says the Lord, “You were sold for nothing and you will be redeemed without money.”

In other words, God did not require the Babylonians to pay Him anything for this slave. Jerusalem was given to Babylon without any cost, a free slave, so to speak. Thus also, we read in Isaiah 55:1, “Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.” The wine of the Spirit and the milk of the word are given free of charge, for these are made available by His grace.

It is important to understand the types and shadows that occurred in the Old Testament, so that we may reapply the same principles to the antitypes in a New Covenant setting. We should not expect to see a virtual repeat in our time of events that occurred as types and shadows. Those who retain an Old Covenant mindset invariably make that mistake, for they do not truly understand the distinct nature of the New Covenant.