Isaiah 11, 12: The Branch from Jesse: Chapter 24: God is My Salvation

The “highway from Assyria” in Isaiah 11:16 is the way in which the remnant of grace returns to God. The prophet then gives thanks to God for His “comfort” (nacham) and tells us that the way is through Yeshua, or Jesus. Isaiah 12:1 says,

¹ Then you will say on that day, “I will give thanks to You, O Lord; for although You were angry with me, Your anger is turned away, and You comfort me.”

The time of “anger” ends with “comfort.” The time of judgment is always limited by the law of Jubilee. When the sentence is completed, God sends the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, to cause men to repent and to give them “comfort.” One cannot separate Jesus from this highway, for He is “the way” (John 14:6). Neither can one separate the Holy Spirit from the lifestyle of those who walk this highway.

In the second half of Isaiah, beginning in Isaiah 40:1, the prophet will enlarge on this topic, showing how God’s “comfort” is to be applied through the Holy Spirit.

Yahweh Becomes Yeshua

Isaiah 12:2 says,

² Behold, God is my salvation [Yeshua]; I will trust and not be afraid; for the Lord God [Yah Yahweh] is my strength and song, and He has become my salvation [Yeshua].

Most translators hide the deeper meaning of this verse by not showing the Hebrew words and names. The Hebrew word for salvation is yeshua, which is also spelled “Joshua.” In the New Testament, the name is rendered in Greek as Iesus, and after the letter “J” was invented in the 1700’s, His name came to be spelled in English as “Jesus.”

So we see that Isaiah prophesied that “God is my Yeshua” and that “Yahweh…has become my Yeshua.” The verse above was a reference to one of the songs of Moses in Exodus 15:2,

² The Lord [Yahweh] is my strength and song, and He has become my salvation [Yeshua]; this is my God, and I will praise Him, my father’s God, and I will extol Him.

Thus, Moses identified Yahweh with Yeshua as far back as when Israel crossed the Red Sea during their exodus from Egypt. Whether or not he was aware of this prophecy, we cannot say, since much prophecy is inadvertent. But, as we will see shortly, Jesus was aware that this prophesied of Himself as “the Savior of the world” (1 John 4:14).

Isaiah 12:3 continues, saying,

³ Therefore you will joyously draw water from the springs [may’an, “spring, well, fountain”] of salvation [Yeshua].

Jesus quoted this verse in reference to Himself in John 7:37-39,

³⁷ Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. ³⁸ He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, “From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.” ³⁹ But this He spoke of the Spirit…

Jesus understood that Isaiah’s reference to “salvation” was a prophecy of Himself and that this was why His Hebrew name was Yeshua. This connection was well known to others as well, for others had discovered from the Scriptures that the Messiah’s name would be Yeshua, “Salvation.”

So we are all invited to drink of the Spirit that comes through Yeshua Himself.

Salvation

When Jesus was brought to the temple, for instance, an old man named Simeon knew this. Perhaps he also had revelation about the timing of the Messiah’s birth on the Feast of Trumpets, for he knew that the child’s mother would come to the temple for purification after 40 days, according to the law (Lev. 12:3, 4). Whatever the case, Simeon, whose name means “hearing,” finally “saw” the Messiah before he died. Luke 2:25-30 tells the story:

²⁵ And there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon; and this man was righteous and devout, looking for the consolation of Israel; and the Holy Spirit was upon him. ²⁶ And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. ²⁷ And he came in the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to carry out for Him the custom of the Law, ²⁸ then he took Him into his arms, and blessed God, and said, ²⁹ Now Lord, You are releasing Your bond-servant to depart in peace, according to Your word; ³⁰ for my eyes have seen Your salvation.

He would have said literally, “my eyes have seen Your Yeshua.”

Even before this, when John the Baptist was born, his father Zacharias praised God, saying in Luke 1:68, 69,

⁶⁸ Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for He has visited us and accomplished redemption for His people, ⁶⁹ and has raised up a horn [voice of authority] of salvation for us in the house of David His servant—⁷⁰ as He spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from of old—⁷¹ “Salvation from our enemies…”

He was not speaking of his own son, John, for he was a priest. He was speaking of his son’s calling to prepare the way for the Messiah who was of “the house of David” and of the tribe of Judah. And so when John’s ministry began thirty years later, he was the voice of one crying in the wilderness, saying, “all flesh will see the salvation of God” (Luke 3:6).

Again, in John 4:22 Jesus told the Samaritan woman, “Salvation is from the Jews.” He was not telling her that she had to become a Jew to obtain salvation, as some have said. He was telling her that Yeshua the Messiah comes from Judah, as prophesied in Scripture.

Hence, when Isaiah prophesied that Yahweh was to become my Yeshua, we ought to take this as a major theme revealed by the prophet’s own name, for Isaiah is a Hebrew variation of Yeshua. This is why Isaiah is the Prophet of Salvation and was also a type of Christ.

Father and Son

When Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit, as Matt. 1:18 tells us, He came into the earth as the Son of God, but more specifically, as “the only begotten God” (John 1:18). He was the pre-existent Word (Logos) that “became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). For this reason, He had the right to be called “God,” although John made a distinction between “The God” and “God” in John 1:1, as the Greek text shows.

Yet Jesus prayed to His Father, calling Him “the only true God” (John 17:3), and Heb. 1:3 says that Christ “is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature.” In other words, Jesus Christ is the image of God, called to reveal the nature of His Father. Jesus never usurped the place of His heavenly Father, nor did He claim equal status, but referred to Him in John 20:17 as “My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.”

Jesus always made a distinction between His Father and Himself insofar as personhood is concerned. Their unity in John 10:30, “I and the Father are one,” was unity of purpose, having one mind and one heart and was not meant to be interpreted to mean that Jesus was literally His Father. Instead, in the end, the Son subjects Himself to the Father who has put all things under His feet—except for the Father Himself (1 Cor. 15:27, 28). Jesus is second in command and is the visible Agent of the Father Himself.

This, then, is how we ought to interpret the words of Moses and Isaiah. “God is my Yeshua” shows that Yeshua is properly “God” (or “a God,” as some prefer). But the prophecy that Yahweh has become my Yeshua shows an identification between the two without actually making them the same God. It is not one God changing names but God and His Image, as Heb. 1:3 tells us. It is hard to tell them apart, because the Image precisely reflects the One casting the Image.

For further study on this, see my book, Theology of the Logos.

It is also important to see that Isaiah’s prophecy, as interpreted by Jesus Himself, shows the close identification between Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Jesus is the well, or spring, while the Holy Spirit is the water itself. Just as Jesus did nothing of His own initiative (John 5:30), so also the Holy Spirit does nothing of His own initiative (John 16:13). Jesus was the Agent of His Father; the Holy Spirit is the Agent of Jesus Christ.

The Message of Praise

Isaiah 12:4 says,

⁴ And in that day you will say, “Give thanks to the Lord, call on His name, make known His deeds among the peoples; make them remember that His name is exalted.”

In the day that we come to the well of Yeshua and drink the water of the Holy Spirit, we will truly “give thanks to Yahweh” and “call on His name.” When we call upon the name of the Father, the Son reveals the Father to us. When we see the deeds of the Son, we see the deeds of the Father, for the Son does only what the Father does.

Isaiah 12:5, 6 finishes the thought, saying,

⁵ Praise the Lord in song, for He has done excellent things; let this be known throughout the earth. ⁶ Cry aloud and shout for joy, O inhabitant of Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy one of Israel.

True praise is to do the will of our Father. Those who truly praise God are of the tribe of Judah, which means “praise.” For this reason, Paul says in Rom. 2:28, 29 that those who have New Covenant heart circumcision are “Jews” in the eyes of God and by His definition, while those who rely on Old Covenant outward circumcision are not Jews at all. That is, they are not of the tribe of Judah. Men defined Jews (or Judahites) in terms of genealogy; God defines them in terms of their ability to praise Him.

So those who come to the Well of Yeshua and drink of the Holy Spirit are those who truly “praise the Lord in song.” Of these, the prophet says, “great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.”