“…He is called the God of all the earth.”

There are sections and even single verses in the Old Testament where the writers almost go overboard in their description of the Lord.  Oftentimes it is to emphasize a point that is particularly imperative.  In Isaiah 54:5, it is to link the promises God gives in the context to his character and nature.  So we see God reminding his immediate Jewish audience about who he is: “your Maker…your husband—the Lord Almighty is his name—the Holy One of Israel…your Redeemer”, and last but not least, “the God of all the earth”.  This last description is used only here in the whole Bible.  A couple of verses elsewhere are close, but not the same.  And this description is kind of a crescendo of all the previous names combined. Let’s look at it.

Anytime anyone begins to launch a point from a single verse in Scripture, make sure they have properly framed the context.  As I have gotten older, I can’t tell you how critical this is.  Down through the millennia so many people have spun their own understanding from the text that they make the Bible say virtually anything for anyone.  That makes the book meaningless.  To avoid such foolishness we must take it on its own terms.  Failing to remember that this is God’s Word, not ours, is to fail without remedy.

Isaiah begins a major shift in his writing in chapter 49: “Listen to me, you islands: hear this, you distant nations; before I was born the Lord called me: from my birth he has made mention of my name” (v. 1).  This begins an extended section on the long-predicted Messiah Jesus.  And notice that he proclaims this to the Gentile (“distant”) nations, not Israel.  More identification comes throughout that chapter and the next.  Then in chapter 51 God comforts (vs. 3, 12) Israel by detailing his coming salvation. In 51:17 God’s judgment departs from Israel and falls on Babylon.  The next chapter begins by telling Israel to prepare herself for her deliverance and return to Zion (v. 8).  It also sets up a fuller revelation of the Messiah in chapter 53.  Ah, chapter 53!  The clearest delineation — along with Psalm 22 — of the crucifixion in the entire Old Testament!  But instead of getting into that, let’s remember again the context.  It tells us that the Jews’ future return to their homeland, including the coming Davidic Kingdom, is based on the work of the suffering Servant, who is also future.  This means that even Israel’s return from Babylon after the 70-year captivity also depended on Jesus’ crucifixion five hundred years later!  In short, everything that God does for us out of his mercy, grace, forgiveness, kindness, love, etc., is based on and an extension of the Cross, even all his dealings with restoring, recovering and reestablishing Israel.

Let’s jump to chapter 54 to confirm this: “To me this is like the days of Noah, when I swore that the waters of Noah would never again cover the earth.  So now I have sworn not to be angry with you, never to rebuke you again.  Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed…I will build you with stones of turquoise, your foundations with sapphires.  I will make your battlements of rubies, your gates of sparkling jewels, and all your walls of precious stones.  All your sons will be taught by the Lord and great will be your children’s peace…terror will be far removed; it will not come near you” (vs. 9-14).  Never a rebuke from God anymore?  Unfailing love? A permanent covenant of peace?  Houses of sapphires, rubies and the like?  Children being taught directly by the Lord?  This can only be heaven he’s talking about.  It certainly isn’t addressing the return from Babylon or any other experience in a fallen and war-torn world.

That is the context that surrounds Isaiah 54:5.  Returning to that verse, we find this order of descriptions of the Lord: (1) Maker, (2) husband, (3) the Lord Almighty, (4) the Holy One of Israel, (5) Redeemer, and finally (6) the God of all the earth, our main interest here.  As we said earlier, the last one acts as the “ta-daahh”, the high point of this series.  Based on all that we’ve seen, God of all the earth clearly means that no local god, no tribal deity could pull of what is described in the fuller context.  We’re talking future prophecies of glory for the nation Israel, of a completely safe kingdom at peace with all its neighbors bedecked with jewels, not armaments and bulwarks.  We are literally talking about the God of the entire earth and heaven!  Without the surrounding context, we miss the entire emphasis.

How big is the God you worship?  Is he over all the earth?  Is he over all of your life today?