Isaiah 52:10, commentary and pictures

The Lord openly uncovers His holy power in the sight of every nation so that people to the farthest ends of the earth see His saving work. It belongs to glad news of peace and rescue for Zion that God reigns, comforting and redeeming His people and Jerusalem while watchmen see eye to eye and the ruined places break into joyful singing together. That same rescue is joined to the suffering servant who is exalted to bless many nations, a power shown in the life of Christ when healing the sick, opening blind eyes and deaf ears, raising the dying, and freeing the possessed proved Him the promised Savior mighty to save. As He once freed His captive people so all nations would know the living God, so His gospel of grace is to be heard through all the earth in the last days, though not all will receive it. Therefore His people are appointed to carry that invitation of mercy systematically to the world and to unwarned cities, and as consecrated, united, clean messengers proclaim it courteously and in the Spirit's power, especially in the third angel's message, God works through them to convict hearts and make His salvation widely seen.

Open Power and Salvation

The Lord openly displays His saving power before all nations, making bare His holy arm in their sight so that all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of God. That public revelation is the whole earth beholding His salvation, with His holy arm revealed and made visible to every nation and to people throughout the earth. It is joined to the proclamation of good news to those who have not heard, for God comforts and redeems His people in connection with announcing it.

In its setting this public salvation is good tidings of good, publishing peace and salvation and saying to Zion that God reigns. It is His comforting of His people and His redeeming of Jerusalem, and of His people and of Jerusalem together. With it the watchmen see eye to eye, and the waste places of Jerusalem break forth into joy and sing together.

The same setting joins this salvation to the servant who suffers, is exalted, and brings blessing to many nations. That power was seen in the life of Christ. His healing of the sick, restoring sight and hearing, raising the dying, and freeing the demon-possessed made bare the arm mighty to save and showed He was the promised Christ.

The chapter shows God has furnished fallen, sinful man a life-giving Saviour, revealing the only hope of a life that measures with the life of God. The Saviour is the Lord Jesus standing at the head of humanity to make men and women sons and daughters of God. Clothing His divinity with humanity, He encircles the human race with His human arm while grasping the throne of the Infinite with His divine arm. So He places man on vantage ground with the Infinite Father as Mediator between God and man, without whom even the highest in intelligence and most learned remain mere infants.

To ask Him to make bare His arm is to ask Him to use that power to save rather than to destroy.

Deliverance Then and Now

God's deliverance of His captive people from captivity would lay His power open before every nation, so that people throughout the earth would see His salvation and the living God would be made known to the nations. He scattered impenitent Judah among the nations for their good, that they might learn obedience and trust, and that in exile they might give others a knowledge of the living God. Many strangers would thus learn to love Him as Creator and Redeemer and would begin to keep His holy Sabbath day as a memorial of His creative power. When He delivered His people, these converts from heathenism would desire to join fully with Israel on the return to Judea, and would thenceforth be numbered among spiritual Israel, His church on earth.

The gospel of His grace will be heard throughout the earth, and the whole world will see His salvation, though not everyone will accept it. The promise is prophecy to be looked for in the last days and to be fulfilled by God's people. This gives reason for joy, because the Lord will impress human minds and human hearts to bring it to pass.

The verse belongs to the great subject for this time, the commandments of God. With Isaiah 48, 51, 58 and 60, Isaiah 52 should stir souls. Isaiah 52:10 is to be carried in mind, leading to seeking the Lord and working the works essential to be done, while giving enemies no opportunity for questioning doubts about the work the Lord is doing.

Carrying Salvation Worldwide

The bared arm in the sight of all nations is the appointed warrant for proclaiming good news, for God comforts and redeems His people and His salvation is to be announced to those who have not heard. That work belongs to His people as soul-saving labor throughout the world, including in the cities, carrying Christ's invitation and message of mercy. As they undertake the warning of the world they will see Him bring salvation, and the sight will encourage them. Persistent, systematic proclamation in the cities can bring people to see that salvation and give workers confidence to carry the work to other places.

Seeing the salvation of God comes through far-reaching and systematic work for unwarned cities where thousands are perishing without knowledge of the truth, including Washington and other cities of the South and East. The work is to be entered in God's appointed way with perseverance that allows no slacking or slackening of effort until that salvation is seen, and seeing it gives confidence to continue in still other places. He is revealing His power openly to do a mighty work in the mission field inside America, in the South among the colored people in the Southern States, where there are unusual opportunities to spread the message rapidly. He gives opportunity for that rapid spread by generosity when the yearly offering for the colored work is taken up on the first Sabbath in October. The same promise reaches the colonies, in the hope that the Lord will work there and His salvation will be seen.

Making bare His arm in the eyes of all the nations means taking missionaries who have learned to build, to plant, and to carry on work intelligently, and sending them to every part of the world even where they do not know the language. There they learn the language and teach and train the people, and their intelligent, self-denying labor puts them ahead in the eyes of the nations, leads the people to build plain houses of their own, and educates away national prejudice. The Lord thereby makes His work stand in its highest beauty, yet all the ends of the earth seeing His salvation does not happen without effort, for every person must act a part in giving and working, and at last each will be rewarded according as his work shall be. That salvation is to be seen as Christ's commission to His disciples is fulfilled in laying the foundations of His church in various fields, and establishing educational centers is part of that work through which God makes His salvation visible. Seeing it calls for self-sacrificing effort and large freewill gifts to support schools and new mission enterprises rather than dependence on borrowed money. His salvation is revealed as His people work together in harmony under His guidance, and then His saving work can be seen widely, on every side.

His salvation is made visible when His people in the printing offices at Washington and Nashville rise to a higher platform bringing a clear and holy atmosphere, cleansed from every selfish principle with narrow self-conceived ideas purged away, and hungering for the incoming of pure uplifting principles, and this revelation glorifies God. He cannot be expected to reveal Himself in their work while they remain selfish and unconsecrated, for deeper consecration, earnest faith, and a decisive change of character are needed. That power, seen in the life of Christ, will be revealed again when wholehearted missionary work is done in public ministry and house-to-house labor, when the watchmen on the walls of Zion are wide-awake and arouse others, and when workers are earnest and faithful with all selfishness separated from their lives. Then the efficacy of the grace of Christ will be seen, truth for this time will be presented in neglected cities in clear lines and in the power of the Spirit, workers will see eye to eye, decided changes will be made, confidence will be restored, and there will be unity in the churches, even while the liberty of the church of Christ is endangered and oppression by transgressors of the Sabbath appears to triumph.

Those who look to Jesus and trust wholly in Him will see God's salvation and be clothed in Christ's righteousness, and those who work with God through faith in the Saviour's merits will see it and serve as channels through whom He brings life-giving truth to people in error and darkness. Reaching people depends on God's power, so the glory belongs to God, not to the workers. He brings people to see His salvation through His messengers in proclaiming the third angel's message, who do not rely on their own power but as they speak, live, and pray the truth, God works through the Holy Spirit and heavenly agencies to move hearts, convict and convert people, and bring souls to salvation. Those who bear His message must be clean, for He has comforted His people and redeemed Jerusalem and His gospel is good tidings of good, publishing peace and salvation and saying to Zion that God reigns, with watchmen seeing eye to eye and waste places breaking forth into joy and singing together. Its beautiful fruit and rich treasures should therefore be offered in a courteous, pleasant, joyful, Christlike way that shows their desirability, as Christ taught, blessed in the belief of the truth and filled with His converting grace, and not in a harsh, forbidding, fierce, condemnatory way as with a scourge that mars its influence and turns people from it.