"I have seen his ways, and will heal him: I will lead him also, and restore comforts unto him and to his mourners" (Isaiah 57:18). The omniscient God knows all the actions of sinful man, and so he says, "I have seen his ways." "For the ways of man are before the LORD, and He pondereth all his goings" (Proverbs 5:21). "The way of man is froward and strange..." (Proverbs 21:8). "Froward" means crooked and "strange" means guilty. Since the ways of man are crooked and guilty, the justice of God has pronounced him worthy of death. You might well expect, therefore, for the next words of our text to be a declaration of judgment, but instead the Lord proclaims He will be merciful to the sinful. Behold and be amazed at God's everlasting love for His covenant people! It is not for any thing in us that He shows mercy, but purely from the good pleasure of His will He declares His gracious intentions toward His chosen people.
1. Divine healing. "I will heal Him." This is not a healing of the body, but a curing of the soul. "He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed" (Isaiah 53:5). Sin is an incurable disease that cannot be healed except by the Lord, and the healing of this disease is to be had only through the substitutionary sacrifice of the Son of God. How great a Physician Christ is! By taking our sickness upon Himself and suffering the infinite wrath of God, He healed all of His chosen people.
2. Divine leadership. "I will lead him also." The Spirit of God leads us to Christ Who is the Way to God (John 14:6). In Him we find the full forgiveness of our sins, a righteousness with which God is well pleased, an inheritance that is undefiled and eternal, and a God ever gracious and full of mercy toward us. "And I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known: I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them" (Isaiah 42:16). "He leadeth me in paths of righteousness for His Name's sake" (Psalm 23:3).
3. Divine restoration. "And restore comforts unto him and to his mourners." The Lord brings us to mourn over our sin and comforts us through the gospel which declares that our sins, which were many, have all been drowned in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. God graciously removes our sin and restores us to communion and fellowship which man once enjoyed before the fall.
Is not this verse a declaration of God's free grace? There is nothing here about man's worthiness or personal merits, for we have none. There is everything here to excite the ransomed heart to magnify the God of free and sovereign grace. Notwithstanding our guilt, He loved us and saved us in Christ Jesus.