Isaiah chapter 49 - Ephesians

The Gentile Church was a mystery, hidden in God and brought forth only after the work of the cross was completed by Jesus. Jesus did not build his church before Calvary. He did not speak of his Church in the four books which record his earthly ministry, the gospels, but the Greek word ‘ekklesia’ is translated as ‘church’ three times. That Greek word is also translated as ‘assembly’ three times in the four gospels.

We like to quote Matthew 16:18 to support the permanency of ‘the church’, but this statement by Jesus is speaking of the body of Christ, and perhaps the idea would have been equally well expressed had the word been translated as ‘assembly’ instead. The same is true of its use in Matthew 18:17. The fact that the word church does not occur anywhere else in the four gospels speaks volumes. The church was never mentioned in the Old Testament.

Paul’s letter that bears the name Ephesians is believed by many to have originally been intended for all the churches to circulate. Perhaps no other of his letters better expresses the basic tenets of Christianity. Ask a Christian to quote a verse from scripture, and most will probably try to quote John 3:16, but running a close second and maybe even neck-and-neck with John 3:16 would be Ephesians 2:8-9. That may be because this verse so clearly and precisely articulates the most basic premise of Christianity, that we are saved by grace and not by our works.

A basic analysis of the words common to Isaiah’s forty-ninth chapter and the book of Ephesians indicates that every word in one phrase of that chapter is found in the book of Ephesians. While such a correlation of words common to the two may not be all that convincing, the content of that one statement definitely is.

“I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth.”

This is Isaiah 49:6b. Paul was the apostle called specifically to minister to the Gentiles, as God revealed the mystery kept secret in God for so long. The words recorded here were penned at least 600 years before Paul came on the scene, and yet Isaiah, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit speaks of the gentiles being brought into the household of God. Later in the chapter a second witness of this fact can be identified.

“Thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I will lift up mine hand to the Gentiles, and set up my standard to the people: and they shall bring thy sons in their arms, and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders. And kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their queens thy nursing mothers:” (Isaiah 49:22-23a)

Again, the ministry to the Gentiles is identified here, and it comes in conjunction with the mention of ‘fathers’, “mothers”, “sons” and “daughters”. So, we return to Ephesians.

“Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. Honour thy father and mother; (which is the first commandment with promise;) That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth. And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.” (Ephesians 6:1-4)

We have read from chapter forty-nine of Isaiah, and Ephesians is the forty-ninth book of the Bible. They are connected.