52 Awake, awake,
Clothe yourself in your strength, O Zion;
Clothe yourself in your beautiful garments,
O Jerusalem, the holy city;
For the uncircumcised and the unclean
Will no longer come into you.
2 Shake yourself from the dust, rise up,
O captive Jerusalem;
Loose yourself from the chains around your neck,
O captive daughter of Zion.3 For thus says the Lord, “You were sold for nothing and you will be redeemed without money.” 4 For thus says the Lord [a]God, “My people went down at the first into Egypt to reside there; then the Assyrian oppressed them without cause. 5 Now therefore, what do I have here,” declares the Lord, “seeing that My people have been taken away without cause?” Again the Lord declares, “Those who rule over them howl, and My name is continually blasphemed all day long. 6 Therefore My people shall know My name; therefore in that day I am the one who is speaking, ‘Here I am.’”
We have again a picture of Israel in captivity, but God is about to set them free and calls to them. God tells them to gather their strength and put on fresh (and beautiful) clothes, for they are no longer captives. He also tells them to shake off the dust and loose the chains from their necks, and then describes how they were sold for nothing and will also be redeemed without payment–which was unheard of.
Yet God had already foretold (through Isaiah) that they would return and re-build Jerusalem with money from foreign nations, so this ought to be no surprise. What does seem surprising is that God tells them not to allow unclean things among them, yet they are dirty and must shake off the dust. Would that make them clean? No, they need a good bath!
And then God says to “loose the chains around your neck” which is also odd. Unless someone has broken the bonds already, the chains aren’t coming loose. However, God tells them, “Here I am.” That is, God is already there, working on their behalf. If they will shake off the dust, He will cleanse them. And He has broken their bonds, if they will but shake them off.
So it is with us, that God says, “My people shall know My name…” He doesn’t say this only to those who already know Him, but to all the world, for “Here I am.” God isn’t off in heaven, or in some far away place that we need to make a pilgrimage. Rather, God is here, with us. Already He has broken my bonds, and yours. Already, Jesus has paid the price and is waiting to “cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
It is not of our own doing or works, but the “free gift of God”. For those who already know Him and those who don’t, we must hear His call once more, and follow Him. We do this not just yearly, or monthly, or even weekly, but daily, Jesus calls us to “take up our cross and follow Him.” So once more God says, “Here I am. Are you ready?”