The Persistent Siege of Prayer Text: Isaiah 62:6-9
Introduction: The Offensive Posture of the Church
We live in an age of defensive, retreating Christianity. The modern church, particularly in the West, has adopted the posture of a beleaguered garrison, huddled behind crumbling walls, hoping the onslaught of secularism will simply pass us by. We are told to be quiet, to be private, to keep our faith to ourselves, and to not make a fuss. The world has set the terms of engagement, and we have meekly accepted them. The result is a neutered gospel and an impotent church.
But the vision of the prophet Isaiah, and indeed the vision of the entire Scriptures, is altogether different. It is not a vision of retreat, but of glorious, inexorable advance. It is not a picture of a silent, cowering church, but of a loud, persistent, and demanding people who lay siege to the very throne of heaven. The kingdom of God is not a bunker; it is an invading army. And our primary weapon in this invasion is prayer. Not quiet, timid, milquetoast prayer, but bold, relentless, covenantal petition that takes God at His word and refuses to let Him go until He has fulfilled every last promise.
This passage in Isaiah gives us the divine mandate for this kind of praying. It reveals the role God has assigned to His people in the great project of history, which is nothing less than the establishment of Christ's reign over all the earth. God has made promises, stupendous promises, about the victory of His Son. He has promised that the gospel will triumph, that the nations will be discipled, and that His church, the new Jerusalem, will be made a praise in all the earth. But He has designed the fulfillment of these promises to be brought about through the prayers of His people. He sets watchmen on the walls, not to look for the enemy, but to look to Him, and to give Him no peace until He does what He has already sworn to do.
This is not a matter of twisting God's arm. It is a matter of aligning ourselves with His stated will and demanding that He vindicate His own name. It is to see prayer not as a pious suggestion but as our central, world-altering duty. We are to be a people who bother God, who pester Him with His own promises, who lay hold of the horns of the altar and refuse to be silent. This is the offensive posture of the church militant, and it is the only path to the church triumphant.
The Text
On your walls, O Jerusalem, I have appointed watchmen; All day and all night they will never keep silent. You who remind Yahweh, take no rest for yourselves; And give Him no rest until He establishes And sets Jerusalem as a praise in the earth. Yahweh has sworn by His right hand and by His strong arm, “I will never again give your grain as food for your enemies; Nor will foreigners drink your new wine for which you have labored.” But those who collect it will eat it and praise Yahweh; And those who gather it will drink it in the courts of My sanctuary.
(Isaiah 62:6-9)
The Divine Appointment and Ceaseless Clamor (v. 6)
We begin with the stationing of these heavenly hecklers.
"On your walls, O Jerusalem, I have appointed watchmen; All day and all night they will never keep silent." (Isaiah 62:6)
First, notice the source of the appointment. "I have appointed watchmen." This is not a human initiative. This is not a volunteer prayer-chain committee organized by some well-meaning ladies in the church basement. This is a divine institution. God Himself sets up this system. He ordains that His purposes will be called down from heaven through the ceaseless prayers of His saints. This tells us that this kind of prayer is not optional; it is integral to the way God governs the world.
The location is also significant: "On your walls, O Jerusalem." In the ancient world, watchmen on the walls had two functions: to watch for approaching enemies and to watch for the arrival of the king or his messengers. In our defeated, pessimistic age, we have assumed the watchman's only job is to shout warnings about the latest cultural bogeyman. But that is only half the job, and it is the lesser half. The primary task of the new covenant watchman is to look for the advance of Christ's kingdom and to announce its coming. We are posted on the walls of the Church, the heavenly Jerusalem, and our job is to look out at the world with postmillennial optimism, seeing the victory of Christ, and to pray it into existence.
And what is their appointed task? "All day and all night they will never keep silent." This is a picture of perpetual, unceasing prayer. It is not the quiet mumbling of a monk in a cell. The word for "silent" here implies inactivity, quietness, or rest. These watchmen are commanded to be restless, loud, and active. They are to make a continual noise before the throne. This is holy clamor. This is sanctified racket. The world wants the church to shut up. God commands us to do the opposite.
The Mandate to Pester God (v. 7)
Verse 7 gives the explicit command, and it is a staggering one.
"You who remind Yahweh, take no rest for yourselves; And give Him no rest until He establishes And sets Jerusalem as a praise in the earth." (Isaiah 62:7)
The watchmen are identified as "you who remind Yahweh." The old King James says, "ye that make mention of the Lord." This is a formal, covenantal term. It means to act as a remembrancer, to bring the terms of a covenant before a king and call upon him to act according to his sworn word. We are not informing God of something He has forgotten. We are formally presenting His own promises back to Him as the legal basis for our appeal.
And on the basis of those promises, we are given a twofold command. First, "take no rest for yourselves." There is to be no spiritual lethargy, no quietism, no passive waiting. We are to be in a constant state of prayerful agitation. Second, and more shockingly, "give Him no rest." This is the language Jesus would later use in the parable of the persistent widow and the unjust judge. That widow pestered the corrupt judge until he gave her justice simply to get her off his back. Jesus' point was an argument from lesser to greater: if a wicked man will respond to sheer persistence, how much more will your righteous Father, who loves you, respond to the persistent cries of His elect? We are commanded to wear God out. We are to come to Him day and night with His promises until He acts.
And what is the goal of this holy harassment? It is "until He establishes And sets Jerusalem as a praise in the earth." This is not talking about the salvation of individual souls, though that is part of it. This is not talking about a secret rapture that whisks us away from a world gone bad. This is talking about the visible, historical, cultural triumph of the Church of Jesus Christ. Jerusalem here is the people of God, the Church. And the goal is that this Church would become so glorious, so righteous, so joyful, and so fruitful that it becomes a praise, an object of admiration and glory, in the entire earth. This is a promise of worldwide revival and reformation. This is the Great Commission fulfilled. And God says, "Pray this into being. Give me no rest until it is done."
The Unbreakable Oath of God (v. 8)
Lest we think our prayers are a desperate gamble, God undergirds our persistence with His own unbreakable oath.
"Yahweh has sworn by His right hand and by His strong arm, 'I will never again give your grain as food for your enemies; Nor will foreigners drink your new wine for which you have labored.'" (Isaiah 62:8)
When God makes a promise, it is sure. When God swears an oath, it is doubly sure. And when God swears by Himself, because there is no one greater to swear by, the matter is settled for all eternity. Here, He swears "by His right hand and by His strong arm." This is the language of divine power and sovereignty. The right hand is the instrument of power and authority. The strong arm is what brought Israel out of Egypt. God is staking His very omnipotence on this promise.
And what is the promise? It is a promise of covenantal blessing and security. In the old covenant, when Israel was disobedient, God would bring foreign armies to devour their harvests as a curse (Deut. 28:33). The grain and wine, the fruit of their labor, would be stolen. This was a sign of God's judgment. But now, in this new and better covenant, God swears that this curse is reversed. The enemies of God's people will no longer triumph. The fruit of the Church's labor will not be given to her enemies. The cultural capital we build, the institutions we found, the wealth we create, will not ultimately be handed over to the pagans. God has sworn that the long defeat is over. The era of victory has begun.
This means that our work in this world matters. Our labors in education, in business, in the arts, in government, are not just rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. We are planting vineyards and harvesting grain that God has sworn to protect. Our prayers for the church to be a praise in the earth are backed by God's own oath that the fruit of our work will not be plundered.
The Joyful Feast of Victory (v. 9)
The passage concludes with a picture of the end result of our persistent prayers and God's faithful oath.
"But those who collect it will eat it and praise Yahweh; And those who gather it will drink it in the courts of My sanctuary." (Isaiah 62:9)
This is a portrait of unhindered, joyful, God-centered prosperity. The labor of God's people results in a harvest, and that harvest is enjoyed by those who worked for it. But notice the purpose of this enjoyment. They will "eat it and praise Yahweh." The end of our labor is not consumption for its own sake; it is worship. Our prosperity is meant to fuel our doxology. Every good gift, every successful enterprise, every cultural victory is another reason to praise the God who gave it.
And where does this feasting take place? "In the courts of My sanctuary." This is corporate worship. This is the people of God gathering together to celebrate His goodness. This is the Lord's Supper writ large. The grain becomes the bread, and the new wine fills the cup. This is a picture of the sacramental life of a victorious church, feasting on the goodness of God in the presence of God. The fruit of our cultural and evangelistic labors flows directly into the worship of the church. We work and build and plant out there in the world, and we bring the harvest in here, to the courts of the sanctuary, and we feast before our God in triumph.
Conclusion: Take Your Post on the Wall
This passage is a direct refutation of all forms of Christian pessimism and escapism. God is not calling us to hide, but to stand on the wall. He is not calling us to be silent, but to shout His promises back to Him. He is not calling us to manage a graceful defeat, but to lay siege to heaven until the promised victory comes on earth.
Your prayers are not futile. They are the means God has ordained to establish His kingdom. Every time you pray "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven," you are acting as one of God's appointed watchmen. You are reminding Yahweh of His promises. You are giving Him no rest.
And you are praying on the firm foundation of His unbreakable oath. He has sworn by His own right hand that the work of His people will not be in vain. The enemies will not get the final harvest. We will. And we will feast on it in His presence, and we will praise His name.
So take your post. Know the promises of God. And resolve to give Him no rest. Do not be discouraged by the morning headlines. Do not be intimidated by the bluster of God's enemies. They are temporary. God has sworn by His own strong arm to make His Church a praise in all the earth. Let us therefore be about the business of pestering Him until He does it.