52:3
“You were sold for nothing, and without money you will be redeemed”. Israel had just been overran by the Assyrians. Later Babylon took over Judah (but see the next verse). No price was involved. Assyria and Babylon had not bought Israel and Judah. Likewise, they would not be bought back. Now at this point some might be objecting that Jesus paid the price for our sins, and indeed He did, but the price was not paid to the devil, it was paid to God. From time to time there have been pictures of the cross that see Jesus as buying us back from the devil, such notions are completely erroneous. Yes we were under Satan’s control, but we did not belong to him. The reason we were in captivity to sin was because of our sin against God, and because of His judgement upon us. The devil is a bit player! One of the themes throughout Isaiah has been that Judah’s problems were not Assyria and Babylon, but their rebellion against God. We need to locate the problem in the right place, which is usually with us!
52:4
God then reminds them of their history. They had been in captivity in Egypt, in Isaiah’s day Assyria had oppressed them. In both cases God had rescued them, and in both cases there was no way this should have happened. They were slaves in Egypt and God sent Moses to rescue them, and he did this with signs and wonders (and not with money). And further miracles occurred as God led them through the desert. Similarly, Assyria was right at the walls of Jerusalem. Their own army was incapable of rescuing them, and there was no one else to help. Yet God intervened to defeat Assyria.
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