Isaiah 55:12,13

For ye shall go out with joy

The reversals of pardoning mercy

The wealth of God’s abundant pardon is here set forth in metaphors which the least imaginative can understand.

Not only were the exiles forgiven, their warfare accomplished, their iniquity pardoned; but they would be restored to the land of their fathers--“Ye shall go out. .. ye shall be led forth. .. ” Not only were they to be restored; but their return was to be one long triumphal march. Nature herself would celebrate it with joyful demonstration; mountains and hills would break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field would clap their hands. But even this was not all. One of the necessary results of the depopulation of the land of Israel was the deterioration of the soil. Vast tracts had passed out of cultivation; the terraces, reared on the slopes of the hills with so much care, had become heaps of stones; where corn had waved in the rustling breeze, or luscious fruits had ripened in the autumn sunshine, there was the sad fulfilment of the prediction, “They shall smite upon their breasts for the pleasant fields,,, for the fruitful vine. Upon the land of My people shall come up thorns and briars (Isaiah 32:12).But this, too, was to be reversed. Literally and metaphorically, there was to be a complete reversal of the results of former sins and backslidings. (F. B.Meyer, B. A.)

God’s dealings with the soul in grace

To the Jew in Isaiah’s time this promise doubtless bore reference to three things: the return from the seventy years’ captivity; their ultimate restoration, first to their own land, and then to Christ; and God’s way of dealing with each individual’s own soul. To us it stands only in the last reference; to us the words are simply spiritual.

I. THE GOING GUY appears to relate to that great moral exodus when a man emerges from a state of nature into a state of grace, from bondage to liberty, from darkness to light, from the world to Christ, This is indeed to be with joy.

II. THE BEING LED FORTH denotes the further experiences of the Christian,--God’s conduct of him by the way; his future courses, and especially themanner in which he is brought out at last--out of this life into a better; and all this is to be “with peace.” (J. Vaughan, M. A.)

What is joy?

1. Novelty of perception. It is a wonderfully new feeling when a soul first tastes the promises and grasps its own interest in Christ.

2. Keenness of perception. Keen is the first sense of sin to a penitent, and keen is the first sense of pardon to a believer. In that early dawn the soul’s atmosphere is so clear that every object stands out in its distinctness.

3. Sweetness of perception. Sweeter are those perceptions than they are keen. Are they not the touches of the Holy Ghost They are all about beautiful things--saints and angels, a holy heaven, and a perfect Jesus. (J. Vaughan, M. A.)

“And be led forth with peace:”

As we go on in the spiritual life the sense of sin grows deeper and deeper; and a deep sense of weakness, nothingness, and guilt, combining with a fuller sense of pardon and love, makes joy peace. To a mind led and taught of God all the changes and chances of life lend themselves to peace. A great affliction is a deep fountain of peace; the very agitation hushes, and it makes all troubles afterwards so very small. Another and another promise fulfilled every day is always enlarging the rock underneath our feet. Another and another answer to prayer is always strengthening the arguments for the future. Another and another new drop of the knowledge of Christ is always swelling the tide, till the “peace flows like a river,” because we see the “righteousness of Christ” as the waves of the sea. (J. Vaughan, M. A.)

The effect produced by the Gospel

I. AN EFFECT THE MOST JOYFUL. Joy to whom?

1. To themselves. “The redeemed of the Lord shall return, and come with singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their head. Lord Chesterfield said, “I hope I shall never be what they call converted, for I should be the most miserable man upon earth; not considering that this change would have produced a change in his taste, and that he would have been able to relish things which he disliked before. He to talk of religion making him miserable! Why, does he not, in one of his letters, tell us that he had always been wretched--that he had always found the world a cheat--and that he was now leaving it, not because he was reconciled to it, but because he was compelled; and that, since time had become his enemy, he was endeavouring to sleep away the remainder of it in a carriage? Bolingbroke, too, said, “I now find in my affliction that my philosophy fails me. But the Christian’s religion does not fail him in the day of trouble.”

2. To their fellow-Christians. There is no room for envy here, for there is enough for others as well as for yourselves, and enough for all.

3. To their pious friends, connections and relations. They had given them many a pang before.

4. Joy to ministers. When they observe the success of their labours, they resemble the husbandman, who, after his ploughing, manuring and sowing, goes forth and sees, first the blade, then the ear, and after that the full corn in the ear.

5. Joy to the angels.

6. Joy to the Mediator.

7. Joy to God Himself. “The pleasure of the Lord,” says Isaiah, “shall prosper in his hand.” “The Lord thy Go-d in the midst of thee is mighty; He will save, He will rejoice over thee with joy; He will rest in His love; He will joy over thee with singing.”

II. AN EFFECT THE MOST TRANSFORMING. “Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree,” etc.

III. AN EFFECT THE MOST HONOURABLE TO GOD. It shall be to the Lord for a name, for an everlasting sign, that shall not be cut off.” (W. Jay.)