a.  Isaiah maintains Israel’s unique standing in God’s plan and in His heart.  
         b.  The Lord focuses on the righteous remnant.  Only some in Israel are faithful: they will undergo testing (siege and/or exile) before being “restored” in the great Messianic age, where they will be "oaks of righteousness."
        c.  At that time, believing Gentiles will join the people of God.  Other Jews and Gentiles will go on in spiritual blindness and deafness until judgment destroys them.
        d.  Other nations, such as Egypt and Assyria, are assigned roles as instruments of the Lord’s wrath.  They overstep, grow proud, act with excessive cruelty, and bring judgment upon themselves.  Israel is to form no alliances with these nations; that would compromise their faith in the Lord as Savior and Redeemer.
        e.  Judah's current peril, though very real, is a type of an end-time battle of the nations against Jerusalem.
        f.  The nations also appear in connection with the repetition of another type: Exile and Restoration.  After a time of exile or dispersal among the nations, the Gentile nations are defeated and Israel’s remnant returns to Judah.  In the Messianic age, triumphant Israel subjugates many of these nations and receives their wealth as tribute.
        g.  Pagan king Cyrus will play a crucial role in authorizing the Restoration of the Jews.  Isaiah calls him "the Lord’s anointed," His shepherd.
        h. The mission of restored Israel (and of the Servant) is to bring the knowledge of the Lord to all nations -- not just by subjugating them, but also by extending justice to them.  The Lord Himself will bring comfort to all of the remnant.  And some Gentiles, typified by the nations of Egypt and Assyria, will be blessings on the earth.