Isaiah chapter 52 - 1st Thessalonians

“Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city: for henceforth there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean. Shake thyself from the dust; arise, and sit down, O Jerusalem: loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion. For thus saith the LORD, Ye have sold yourselves for nought; and ye shall be redeemed without money. For thus saith the Lord GOD, My people went down aforetime into Egypt to sojourn there; and the Assyrian oppressed them without cause. Now therefore, what have I here, saith the LORD, that my people is taken away for nought? they that rule over them make them to howl, saith the LORD; and my name continually every day is blasphemed. Therefore my people shall know my name: therefore they shall know in that day that I am he that doth speak: behold, it is I. How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth! Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they sing: for they shall see eye to eye, when the LORD shall bring again Zion. Break forth into joy, sing together, ye waste places of Jerusalem: for the LORD hath comforted his people, he hath redeemed Jerusalem. The LORD hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God. Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence, touch no unclean thing; go ye out of the midst of her; be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the LORD. For ye shall not go out with haste, nor go by flight: for the LORD will go before you; and the God of Israel will be your rereward. Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high. As many were astonied at thee; his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men: So shall he sprinkle many nations; the kings shall shut their mouths at him: for that which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they consider.” (Isaiah 52)

But, let me clip some little tidbits. The whole chapter is about God’s delivery of Israel out of bondage, but these lines remind me of a different event.

Awake, awake;
Shake thyself from the dust; arise
ye shall be redeemed without money
(we have been in) Egypt to sojourn there
for they shall see eye to eye, when the LORD shall bring again Zion
he hath redeemed (us)
The LORD hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations;
and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.
go ye out from thence

The above sounds a lot like the rapture to me. The most intriguing passage is in verse twelve where it says;

“For ye shall not go out with haste, nor go by flight: for the LORD will go before you;”

Why did He tell Israel that they would not go in “haste” and that they would not go by “flight”? I know that He meant to say that they would not be running away, and would be able to take their time leaving Egypt, but Isaiah wrote these words under the direction of the Holy Spirit long after Israel had left Egypt. They had been back in the Holy Land for centuries.

It is of interest to me that the rapture will be instantaneous, and it will be by flight. Was God connecting these words in the fifty-second chapter to the fifty-second book of the Bible that hadn’t even been put together yet? I believe so. What is the fifty-second book of the Bible anyway? It is 1st Thessalonians. They are connected.