Isaiah 52:1, commentary and pictures

The verse calls Zion and Jerusalem the holy city to wake up and clothe herself with strength and beauty, with the promise that what is uncircumcised and unclean will never enter her again. It stands with the proclamation of good news that God reigns, the watchmen seeing eye to eye at the restoring of Zion, the Lord comforting His people and redeeming Jerusalem with His holy arm laid bare before all nations, and the captive shaking off dust and bondage to be redeemed without money. The beautiful garments are full forgiveness and acceptance through the crucified and risen Jesus, the robe of His righteousness and the beauty of holiness that takes away reproach and ends spiritual barrenness. It is a present call for the sleeping church to awake, rise, shine, and give itself to saving souls in fields at home and abroad. Putting on that clothing means walking in the light in humility, repentance and obedience, laying aside pride, sin, self-indulgence and vain display, and esteeming heavenly things above earthly things. Putting on strength means seeking the Lord, upholding His commandments and the faith of Jesus, and growing in grace and knowledge so as to stand victorious against the rising powers of darkness.

Verse Wording and Context

Awake, awake, put on strength, O Zion, put on beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city, for henceforth the uncircumcised and the unclean shall no more come into her, shut out forever. The promised exclusion is future holiness and freedom from defilement as part of the promised glory of God's people, with the surrounding promises joining that restored condition to righteousness and the final conflict of the church. It portrays the happiness and overcoming grace seen in families where unity and peace and love abide, where peaceful homes honor the Lord as symbols of the purity of the heavenly home.

The call stands joined to bringing good tidings upon the mountains, publishing peace and salvation, and saying unto Zion that God reigns. It stands joined to watchmen lifting up the voice together and seeing eye to eye when the Lord brings again Zion, with every soul brought into harmony where the Lord wants His people to be. It stands joined to breaking forth into joy because the Lord has comforted His people and redeemed Jerusalem, making bare His holy arm before all nations so that all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of God. It is a message to the churches to shake off dust and loose the bands of captivity, since there is no safety in placing confidence in human wisdom or strength, and His captive people sold for nothing shall be redeemed without money.

The larger setting is prophecy about Christ's work given to help and bless God's people. With Isaiah 51 and Isaiah 53 it reveals God's gift of a life-giving Saviour to fallen sinful man as the only hope of a life that measures with the life of God. With Isaiah 48, 51, 58, and 60 it is a stirring call to be kept in mind, showing the work God's people are to do. It belongs to Isaiah 50-58, which leaders in the cause and those connected with institutions are charged to study. It brings reproof disregarded by those who accept only the word they choose and do not make thorough consecration, yet received with faith and followed on to know the Lord it equips to warn as to what is truth and to bring unwarned souls the reasons of faith, while neglected it leaves guilt for neglected duty to warn, for which the Lord judges, pointing to the commandments of God as the great subject for this time and calling Zion to seek the Lord, put on the spiritual strength it lacks, and do the essential work of saving souls rather than agitating non-vital questions that cause division and furnish enemies with doubts.

Promised Purity and Redemption

The call to awake and be clothed is a promise of the future holiness of Jerusalem as the holy city, which will no more be entered by the uncircumcised and the unclean. That restored freedom from defilement belongs to the promised glory of God's people, joined to righteousness and to the church's final conflict. It means that after severe conflict, trial, and affliction the warfare will be accomplished and the redeemed will triumph and enter into possession of the Promised Land. Then present persecution and sorrow will end in glory and joy when the Lord's glory is revealed.

The beautiful garments are forgiveness and full, free acceptance through the merits of the crucified and risen Jesus, who blots out transgressions. They give beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, and the garment of praise for heaviness, making the wearers trees of righteousness, the holy people, the redeemed of the Lord, with their rebuke taken away. They are the robe of Christ's righteousness in which pride, self-exaltation, sin, and spiritual weakness are left behind. They are also the beauty of holiness shining as God's glory rests upon the church, bringing greater life and power and ending spiritual barrenness. Those so clothed are to have works that match the truth received.

The same garments picture the spiritual readiness needed to meet the Bridegroom and to be prepared for the King's coming. That preparation is a transformation of character into purity. The Lord's coming will make clear who is fit for honor. Yet many who expect to share in the marriage supper are unprepared.

Present Call to Awaken

The call is addressed to a sleeping and idle church that must wake from spiritual sleep, rise from inactivity to its appointed work, shine in the beautiful character given by God, and serve others in saving souls. This waking means entering unworked fields with the message for those who have not yet heard it, both in lands abroad and in the home field. Zion is the people of God summoned to awaken, put on strength and beautiful garments, and shine by rising to bless and serve.

The summons shows where the Lord wants His people to be, brought into harmony so that they see eye to eye. It portrays the happiness and overcoming grace revealed in families where unity and peace and love abide. Such peaceful homes honor the Lord and stand as symbols of the purity of the heavenly home, while the holy city itself is pictured as clothed with strength and beauty from which the uncircumcised and the unclean are shut out forever.

Zion is called to seek the Lord and put on the spiritual strength it lacks, with the commandments of God held up as the great subject for this time. Awakening to its calling and putting on righteousness as its beautiful garments means restoring and displaying the distinction between holiness and disloyalty by upholding the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. The church is to keep God's authority and law clear before the world and refuse to let human laws or influence override them when they conflict with God's law, and it is to do the essential work of saving souls rather than agitating non-vital questions that cause division and furnish enemies with questioning doubts.

Putting on the beautiful garments means walking in the light as doers of the word, leaving behind pride, self-exaltation, sin, and spiritual weakness, and turning away from all self-indulgence and extravagance. This includes putting away display in dress such as feathers and ribbons and letting the work stand in its highest beauty, and instead walking humbly, repenting, obeying God's word, knowing Christ, and living in purity and holiness while valuing heavenly things above earthly ones. Those garments are the righteousness of Christ, and the works of the church should match the truth it has received, so that unbelievers take knowledge that believers have been with Jesus as laborers together with God arising and shining. When the church has received great light and large blessing yet fails to walk in it and live by it, its time of great light becomes its time of peril, bringing the judgments of God and a darkness that beclouds vision and judgment until light is regarded as darkness and darkness as light.

The call to awake and put on strength from the Lord applies to meeting the rising and growing powers of darkness. Believers and Israel must awaken, rise spiritually, keep growing in grace and knowledge of the truth, and maintain victory in the Lord's strength. Otherwise those powers will overcome them and gain the victory over them.

Strength and beauty mean self-sacrificing effort and large freewill gifts to establish schools and mission work instead of borrowing, with each person doing his appointed part and his very best so that his ways please God. Then workers are trained to build, plant, teach, learn languages, and lift others from national prejudice, so that the salvation of God is seen before the eyes of all nations as the message goes to every part of the world, and this will not come without effort, for at last everyone will be rewarded according as his work shall be. The passage gives reproof from the Lord requiring thorough consecration to God rather than accepting only the word one chooses. Received with faith and followed on to know the Lord, it equips to warn the people as to what is truth and to bring unwarned souls the reasons of faith, while neglected it leaves guilt for neglected duty to warn, for which the Lord judges.