EVERYTHING AND EVERYONE
"FIRED" BY GOD AND REPLACED WITH CHRIST
The content of chapters one through twelve of Isaiah is the all-inclusive Christ. This section of Isaiah begins with the degradation of God’s people and ends with the enjoyment of God as our salvation. If Isaiah’s prophecy ended with chapter twelve, we might feel that it was sufficient. Of course, the book is much longer, and the next eleven chapters deal with God’s judgment.
Isaiah 13—23 covers the judgment of Jehovah upon the nations, including Jerusalem, and its issue. Here God considered Israel the same as the nations. The key to this section of Isaiah is God’s "firing" and Christ’s replacing. In His judgment God discharged, or "fired," everyone and everything. According to Isaiah, all of God’s chastising and judging is a firing. All the kings of the nations, including the kings of Babylon and Assyria, were raised up by God. He appointed them, or hired them, and eventually He also fired them. They were appointed by Him, but they proved to be unqualified and made many mistakes. Thus, the time came when God intervened to fire them. After this hiring and firing, there is the replacing. Who is the replacement? The replacement is Christ, Immanuel.
God not only fired the kings of the nations, but He also fired Shebna, a steward in the house of the king (22:15), and replaced him with Eliakim, a type of Christ (vv. 20-24; Rev. 3:7). God also fired all the utensils and vessels, all the bowls and jars (Isa. 22:25).
What we have here is a picture showing us that in the entire universe everything in God’s house and outside God’s house should be fired and replaced with Christ. The nations, the steward, and all the bowls and jars in the king’s house needed to be replaced. God replaced all of them with Immanuel. He replaced everyone and everything with Christ. This is the reason Christ is unveiled as a Father, a Steward, a throne of glory, and a peg (a nail) driven into a sure place (a wall), on which hang all the utensils and vessels—all the things that belong to God for His people to enjoy Him. Here we see that whatever or whoever is not Christ, God fires.
In these messages on Isaiah, we need to see not only the way to enjoy God as our salvation, but also see that we have been fired by God and replaced with Christ. God created us to be a man, but He has fired us, discharged us, from being a man. Although we have been fired, we may still keep our post as a man and go on trying to be a man. We need to see that when God created us, He hired us, and that when He put us on the cross, crucifying us with Christ, He fired us. We all have been fired by God. Concerning this, Galatians 2:20 says, "I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me." God fired everyone on the cross, and He is replacing everyone with Christ.
(Life-Study of Isaiah, Chapter 13, by Witness Lee)
