Isaiah 46:12-13

“Listen to me you stubborn-hearted,

You who are far from righteousness,

I am bringing near my righteousness,

It will not be far off,

And my salvation will not linger,

And I will place salvation in Zion,

For Israel my glory.”

This is an apt ending to a chapter which has concentrated on God's uniqueness and the fulfilment of His purposes, which is Isaiah's constant prime concern. It explains why Yahweh has brought His bird of prey, who executes His counsel, from the east. It is a call to the stubborn people of his day, in accordance with his instructions at his inaugural call (Isaiah 6:9), to recognise all that God is going to do. For through His Servant Yahweh will certainly bring about His salvation in Zion for the sake of the true Israel, who are His prized possession, the one who is to bring glory to His name.

‘You stubborn-hearted who are far from righteousness.' There could be no more apt description than this of Isaiah's hearers as Isaiah 6:9 makes clear. Their hearts are stubborn, they are far from righteousness. But God is going to bring His righteousness near. He is going to establish a righteous people. And from the point of view of God's timing it is not far off. His deliverance in righteousness will not linger.

This last is a constant theme of Scripture. Man may see the end as delayed, but God sees it as fast approaching (e.g. Habakkuk 2:3; Hebrews 10:37). Note the paralleling of righteousness and deliverance. When God delivers it is always in righteousness, and God's deliverance is always a righteous act and contains, and results in, righteousness.

And then finally salvation will be in Zion, the end to which all has been leading up, the culmination of the call of Abraham, the bird of prey from the East. And God's true and faithful Israel will be His glory, His prized possession, that which brings glory to Him and in which He delights. The picture is of God's final triumph, the establishing of the everlasting kingdom, the full deliverance of the true people of God.

(For the use of glory to mean prized possessions, wealth and power see for example Isaiah 8:7; Isaiah 10:3; Isaiah 10:16; Isaiah 16:14; Isaiah 17:3 (where the glory is sparse); Isaiah 21:16; Ezekiel 24:25; Ezekiel 25:9; Ezekiel 26:20; Zechariah 11:3).

To the prophets, apart from Ezekiel who sidelines Jerusalem and places the heavenly Temple well away from it, allowing Jerusalem only peripheral significance as far as the worship of God is concerned, a restored and glorified ‘Zion' is seen as the final goal of history. They had little conception of an afterlife, although Isaiah does occasionally have moments of inspiration concerning such (Isaiah 26:19; Isaiah 51:6). Instead they use a renewed Zion as a picture of God's final triumph. The whole world will respond to Mount Zion where God dwells. They will all come to His feet. But as Isaiah constantly makes clear he has in mind the everlasting kingdom. He is depicting pictorially God's final triumph. Any literal interpretation of Zion's future as depicted in the prophets can only end up in contradiction and chaos. (We note that few ever try to bring them all together).

If we cavil at this we must remember that the truth is that even we cannot speak of Heaven literally. It is beyond our conceptions as well, so that even John in Revelation had to use earthly figures which if taken literally become absurd. All have to speak of God's future kingdom in idealistic terms, based on pictures from this world which must not be overpressed, and constant reference to its everlastingness is to warn us against taking it too literally. They had no other method that they could use.