This chapter deals with the gathering of a nation “scattered and peeled” throughout all the earth. The description of Israel includes “a people terrible from their beginning hitherto; a nation meted out and trodden down.” Isaiah uses almost the same wording at the beginning and the end of the chapter to describe Israel. He doesn’t use names to identify them, rather he uses these descriptive phrases.
As I reflect upon this, we are talking of a people who are not organized as a people at all among the nations of the earth. This is except within the Church, whose purpose includes the gathering of “scattered and peeled” Israel.
In the middle of the chapter, there is a simple call to the inhabitants of the world, dwellers on earth: see the ensign, hear the trumpet. Is it not important to know that God is already on the move in this gathering process? I appreciate how this invitation is not exclusive to Israel, but is extended to all the world.
This is an invitation to consider the timing of the Lord.