Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 61:1
The Spirit of the Lord GOD [is] upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to [them that are] bound;
1. The Spirit upon me ] Cf. Isa 42:1, Isa 48:16 (Isa 59:21).
because the Lord hath anointed me ] The abiding possession of the spirit is the consequence of this consecrating act of Jehovah. “Anoint” is used, as often, in a metaphorical sense. The idea that prophets were actually anointed with oil is supported only by 1Ki 19:16, and even there the sense may be metaphorical since (as Cheyne observes) we do not read that the act was performed.
to preach good tidings ] The verb is bassr ( ), on which see the notes to Isa 40:9 and Isa 52:7. It is to be remarked that in ch. 40 55 the mbassr (or mebassreth) is an ideal personage or company, whose function is quite distinct from that of the prophet or the Servant.
to bind up (i.e. heal) the broken-hearted ] Cf. Psa 147:3; Psa 34:18; Psa 51:17.
The terms “meek” and “broken-hearted” denote the religious qualities which characterise the recipients of the prophet’s Evangel. How far the following designations, “captives,” “bound,” “mourners,” are to be understood in a spiritual sense is doubtful. It is not unlikely that the immediate reference is to the social evils whose redress is already demanded in ch. Isa 58:6; Isa 58:9.
to proclaim liberty ] a suggestive expression, shewing that the idea of the year of salvation is based on the institution of the Jubilee; see Lev 25:10; and cf. Jer 34:8; Jer 34:15; Jer 34:17, Eze 46:17. These, indeed, are the only occurrences of the word for “liberty,” which is thus seen to denote always a universal emancipation by public decree.
the opening of the prison ] The rendering “opening of the eyes” (R.V. marg.) does not suit the context, though it is true that the word is generally used of the opening of eyes (once of ears). [In the Heb. read pqaqa as a single word, = “opening.”]
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
1 3. The prophet as Evangelist.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The Spirit of the Lord God – Hebrew, The Spirit of the Lord Yahweh. The Chaldee renders this, The prophet said, the spirit of prophecy from the presence of Yahweh God is upon me. The Syriac, The Spirit of the Lord God. The Septuagint, Pneuma Kuriou – The Spirit of the Lord, omitting the word ‘adonay. So Luke quotes it in Luk 4:18. That this refers to the Messiah is abundantly proved by the fact that the Lord Jesus expressly applied it to himself (see Luk 4:21). Rosenmuller, Gesenius, and some others, suppose that it refers to Isaiah himself, and that the idea is, that the prophet proclaims his commission as authorized to administer consolation to the suffering exiles in Babylon. It cannot be denied that the language is such as may be applied in a subordinate sense to the office of the prophet, and that the work of the Redeemer is here described in terms derived from the consolation and deliverance afforded to the long-suffering exiles. But in a much higher sense it refers to the Messiah, and received an entire completion only as applied to him and to his work. Even Grotius, who has been said to find Christ nowhere in the Old Testament, remarks, Isaiah here speaks of himself, as the Chaldee observes; but in him we see not an obscure image of Christ. Applied to the Redeemer, it refers to the time when, having been baptized and set apart to the work of the Mediatorial office, he began publicly to preach (see Luk 4:21). The phrase the Spirit of Yahweh is upon me, refers to the fact; that he had been publicly consecrated to his work by the Holy Spirit descending on him at Iris baptism Mat 3:16; Joh 1:32, and that the Spirit of God had been imparted to him without measure to endow him for his great office (Joh 3:34; see the notes at Isa 11:2).
Because the Lord hath anointed me – The word rendered hath anointed ( mashach), is that from which the word Messiah is derived (see the notes at Isa 45:1). prophets and kings were set apart to their high office, by the ceremony of pouring oil on their heads; and the idea here is that God had set apart the Messiah for the office which he was to bear, and had abundantly endowed him with the graces of which the anointing oil was an emblem. The same language is used in reference to the Messiah in Psa 45:7 (compare Heb 1:9).
To preach good tidings – On the meaning of the word ( bas’ar) rendered here to preach good tidings, see the notes at Isa 52:7. The Septuagint renders it, Euangelisasthai – To evangelize, to preach the gospel.
Unto the meek – The word rendered meek ( anaviym) properly denotes the afflicted, the distressed, the needy. The word meek means those who are patient in the reception of injuries, and stands opposed to revengeful and irascible. This is by no means the sense of the word here. It refers to those who were borne down by calamity in any form, and would be particularly applicable to those who had been sighing in a long captivity in Babylon. It is not improperly rendered by the Septuagint by the word ptochois, poor, and in like manner by Luke Luk 4:18; and the idea is, that the Redeemer came to bring a joyful message to those who were oppressed and borne down by the evils of poverty and calamity (compare Mat 11:5).
To bind up the broken-hearted – (See the notes at Isa 1:6). The broken-hearted are those who are deeply afflicted and distressed on any account. It may be either on account of their sins, or of captivity and oppressionk, or of the loss of relations and friends. The Redeemer came that he might apply the balm of consolation to all such hearts, and give them joy and peace. A similar form of expression occurs in Psa 147:3 :
He healeth the broken in heart,
And bindeth up their wounds.
To proclaim liberty to the captives – This evidently is language which is taken from the condition of the exiles in their long captivity in Babylon. The Messiah would accomplish a deliverance for those who were held under the captivity of sin similar to that of releasing captives from long and painful servitude. The gospel does not at once, and by a mere exertion of power, open prison doors, and restore captives to liberty. But it accomplishes an effect analogous to this: it releases the mind captive under sin; and it will finally open all prison doors, and by preventing crime will prevent the necessity of prisons, and will remove all the sufferings which are now endured in confinement as the consequence of crime. It may be remarked further, that the word here rendered liberty ( deror) is a word which is properly applicable to the year of Jubilee, when all were permitred to go free Lev 25:10 : And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty ( deror) throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof. So in Jer 34:8-9, it is used to denote the manumission of slaves: To proclaim liberty ( deror) unto them; that every man should let his man-servant and every man his maid-servant, being an Hebrew, or an Hebrewess, go free. So also Isa 61:1, of the same chapter.
So also in Eze 46:17, it is applied to the year in which the slave was by law restored to liberty. Properly, therefore, the word has reference to the freedom of those who are held in bondage, or to servitude; and it may be implied that it was to be a part of the purpose of the Messiah to proclaim, ultimately, universal freedom, and to restore all people to their just rights. If this is the sense – and I see no reason to doubt it – while the main thing intended was that he should deliver people from the inglorious servitude of sin, it also means, that the gospel would contain principles inconsistent with the existence of slavery, and would ultimately produce universal emancipation. Accordingly it is a matter of undoubted fact that its influence was such that in less than three centuries it was the means of abolishing slavery throughout the Roman empire; and no candid reader of the New Testament can doubt that if the principles of Christianity were universally followed, the last shackle would soon fall from the slave. Be the following facts remembered:
1. No man ever made another originally a slave under the influence of Christian principle. No man ever kidnapped another, or sold another, BECAUSE it was done in obedience to the laws of Christ.
2. No Christian ever manumitted a slave who did not feel that in doing it he was obeying the spirit of Christianity, and who did not have a more quiet conscience on that account.
3. No man doubts that if freedom were to prevail everywhere, and all men were to be regarded as of equal civil rights, it would be in accordance with the mind of the Redeemer.
4. Slaves are made in violation of all the precepts of the Saviour. The work of kidnapping and selling men, women, and children; of tearing them from their homes, and confining them in the pestilential holds of ships on the ocean, and of dooming them to hard and perpetual servitude, is not the work to which the Lord Jesus calls his disciples.
5. Slavery, in fact, cannot be maintained without an incessant violation of the principles of the New Testament. To keep people in ignorance; to witchold from them the Bible; to prevent their learning to read; to render nugatory the marriage contract, or to make it subject to the will of a master; to deprive a man of the avails of Iris own labor without his consent; to make him or his family subject to a removal against his will; to prevent parents from training up their children according to their own views of what is right; to fetter and bind the intellect and shut up the avenues to knowledge as a necessary means of continuing the system; and to make people dependent wholly on others whether they shall hear the gospel or be permitted publicly to embrace it, is everywhere deemed essential to the existence of slavery, and is demanded by all the laws which rule over the regions of a country cursed with this institution. In the whole work of slavery, from the first capture of the unoffending person who is made a slave to the last act which is adopted to secure his bondage, there is an incessant and unvarying trampling on the laws of Jesus Christ. Not one thing is done to make and keep a slave in accordance with any command of Christ; not one thing which would be done if his example were followed and his law obeyed. Who then can doubt that he came ultimately to proclaim freedom to all captives, and that the prevalence of his gospel will yet be the means of universal emancipation? (compare the notes at Isa 58:6).
And the opening of the prison – This language also is taken from the release of those who had been confined in Babylon as in a prison; and the idea is, that the Redeemer would accomplish a work for sinful and suffering people like throwing open the doors of a prison and bidding the man who had been long lying in a dungeon to go free. On the grammatical structure of the verb rendered here opening of the prison ( peqach–qoach), Gesenius (Lexicon) and Rosenmuller may be consulted. According to Gesenius, it should be read as one word. So many manuscripts read it. It occurs nowhere else. It means here deliverance. The Septuagint renders it, And sight to the blind, which is followed by Luke. The sentiment which is found in the Septuagint and in Luke, is a correct one, and one which elsewhere occurs in the prophets (see Isa 34:5): and as the sentiment was correct, the Saviour did not deem it necessary to state that this was not the literal translation of the Hebrew. Or more properly the Saviour in the synagogue at Nazareth Luk 4:19 used the Hebrew, and when Luke came to record it, he quoted it as he found it in the version then in common use. This was the common practice with the writers of the New Testament. The Evangelist wrote probably for the Hellenists, or the Greek Jews, who commonly used the Septuagint version, and he quotes that version as being the one with which they were familiar. The sense is not materially varied whether the Hebrew be followed, or the version by the Septuagint. The Arabic version agrees nearly with the Evangelist. Horne (Introduction, ii. 403) is of opinion that the Hebrew formerly contained more than we now find in the manuscripts and the printed editions. Of that, however, I think there is no good evidence.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Isa 61:1-8
The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me
The Speaker; probably the Servant of Jonah
Who is the speaker here?
The Targum prefaces the passage with the words, The prophet says, and, except a few, all modern expositors make the author of this book of consolation to be the speaker who, after having (in chap. 55.) let the Church behold the summit of her glory, now, with grateful look directed to Jehovah and rejoicing in spirit, extols his grand commission. But this view is objectionable, for the following reasons–
1. Nowhere has the prophet yet spoken of himself as such in lengthy utterances, but rather (except in the closing words, saith my God, in Isa 57:21) everywhere studiously kept himself in the background.
2. On the other hand, whenever another than Jehovah began to speak, and made reference to the work of his calling and his experiences connected therewith (as in Isa 49:1 ff; Isa 50:4 ff.) it was in such eases this self-same Servant of Jehovah of whom and to whom Jehovah speaks (see Isa 42:1 ff; Isa 52:13 on to end of 53.).
3. All that the person here speaking says of himself is again met with in the picture of the one unique Servant of Jehovah; he has been endowed with the Spirit of Jehovah (Isa 42:1); Jehovah has sent him, and with him sent His Spirit (Isa 48:16); he has a tongue that has been taught ofGod, to assist with words him who is wearied (Isa 50:4); those whoare almost despairing and destroyed he goes to spare and save, preserving the broken reed and expiring wick (Isa 42:3); to open blind eyes, to lead prisoners out of the prison, those who are sitting in darkness out of the house of confinement,–this is what, above all, he has to do in word and deed for his people (Isa 42:7; Isa 49:9).
4. After the prophet has represented the Servant of Jehovah, of whom he prophesies, as speaking in such dramatic directness (as in Isa 49:1 ff; Isa 50:4 ff., and also 48:16 b.), one could not expect that he would now place himself in the foreground and claim for himself official attributes which he has set down as characteristic features in the picture of the predicted One, who (as Vitringa well says) not merely proclaims but dispenses the new and great gifts of God. For these reasons we (with Nagelsbach, Cheyne, Driver and Orelli) consider that the Servant of Jehovah is the speaker here. (F. Delitzch, D. D.)
The speaker: probably the prophet himself
The speaker is not introduced by name. Therefore he may be the prophet himself, or he may be the Servant. The present expositor, while feeling that the evidence is not conclusive against either of these . . . inclines to think that there is, on the whole, less objection to its being the prophet who speaks than to its being the Servant. But it is not a very important question which is intended, for the Servant was representative of prophecy; and if it be the prophet who speaks here, he also speaks with the conscience of the whole function and aim of the prophetic order. That Jesus Christ fulfilled this programme does not decide the question one way or the other; for a prophet so representative was as much the antetype and foreshadowing of Christ as the Servant Himself was. On the whole, then, we must be content to feel about this passage, what we must have already felt about many others in our prophecy, that the writer is more anxious to place before us the whole range and ideal of the prophetic gift than to make clear in whom this ideal is realized; and for the rest Jesus of Nazareth so plainly fulfilled it, that it becomes, indeed, a very minor question to ask whom the writer may have intended as its first application. (Prof. G. A. Smith, D. D.)
The lofty mission and its great results are not too lofty or great for our prophet, for Jeremiah received his orifice in terms as large. That the prophet has not yet spoken at such length in his own person is no reason why he should not do so now, especially as this is an occasion on which he sums up and enforces the whole range of prophecy. (Prof. G. A. Smith, D. D.)
The Spirit in the Son of man
The fact that Christs earthly life became effectual through the ministry of the Holy Spirit within Him, and not alone through the inherent virtue and power He brought with Him from His pre-existent state, has become one of the commonplaces of theology; and yet how little do we realize its true import, and cultivate that humility and dependence of soul which would distinguish us if the great truth were ever in view! In spite of our formal adhesion to this doctrine, it seems still strange to us that one whom we think of as holy and Divine should be indebted at every stage of His earthly life to that inward mystic ministry which is so necessary to us because of our sinfulness. We speak of the Holy Ghost as a Deliverer from inbred corruption, and are ready to assume, quite unwarrantably, that where there is no corruption in the nature, the stimulating forces and fervours of His benign indwelling are needless. We are accustomed to look upon this ministry, which perpetuates in our souls the saving work of the Lord Jesus, as though it were a special antidote to human depravity only. For the Spirit to abide moment by moment with Jesus Christ, and work in His humanity, seems like painting the lily, gilding fine gold, and bleaching the untrampled snow. But that is a mistaken view. When the universal Church shall have been built up and consecrated to its high uses, it be by the Spirit that God will dwell in the temple. And the temple of Christs sacred flesh needed this same indwelling presence. The great Sanctifier blends the essential forces of His personality into this Divinest type of goodness, to show that goodness in even the only begotten Son is not self-originated. In the less mature stages of Christs expanding humanity implicit and docile dependence on this inward leading was the test of His entire acceptability to the Father. (T. G. Selby.)
The Spirit a compensation for the self-emptying of Jesus
The Spirit seems to have been given to compensate for that renunciation of power involved in the mystery of the incarnation, and as an earnest of its coming restitution. The wonderful works accomplished by the Son of Man took their rise, not so much in the superhuman qualities of His personality as in the power of that Spirit with which He was anointed. Although there is no clearly developed doctrine of the Spirit in the older portions of the Old Testament writings, Isaiah at least in his day was made to see that the Messianic works of healing and deliverance and redemption would flow out of that anointing by the Spirit which would single out the elect Servant of the Lord from His fellows. And Peter enforces the same thought in the household of Cornelius, declaring how that God anointed Jesus with the Holy Ghost and with power, who went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil. His own experiences in the Pentecost had taught Peter the secret of his Masters power. Perhaps the discovery had come to him through his own recent mastery over the pride and boastfulness of his nature, and may have helped to confirm him in his new habits of childlike trust upon another. In the days of his self-sufficiency it would have been quite impossible for Peter to believe that He who had been supernaturally revealed as the very Son of God, and glorified by a strange transfiguration splendour that seemed to make Him the fellow of the Most High, should need to achieve His mighty, works by leaning upon another. Could Peter have been told that his Masters marvellous gifts were held upon this tenure, he might have looked upon it as an affront to the Divine dignity of his hero, and have exclaimed, as about the death of shame, Be it far from Thee, Lord. Sometimes Christs miracles are quoted as proofs of His Divine nature. They are certainly proofs of His Divine authority, but they illustrate the energies of this attending Spirit rather than the attributes of Christs own proper personality. Christ cast out devils and opened prison doors and raised the dead, but it was by the power of the Holy Ghost alone. The tempter once tried to induce Him to work in His own strength, in the power of His inherent Godhead, so that He might undo and reverse the self-renouncing humility of His own incarnation, but in vain. All He did was in loyalty to this inward Guide who made known to Him the will of the Father and gave Him power for His appointed tasks. Fools that we are, we attempt much in our own strength, but the Son in His humiliation received back His infinite forces of life and dominion only through this Divine messenger from the Father. (T. G.Selby.)
A faithful Gospel ministry
I. THE ANOINTING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT MAKES A SUCCESSFUL GOSPEL MINISTRY. So it was in Christs ministry.
II. THE SUBJECT-MATTER OF ALL FAITHFUL PREACHING.
1. A faithful minister preaches good tidings to all distressed consciences.
2. A faithful pastor comforts mourners in Zion.
3. A faithful watchman preaches a free Saviour to all the world. (R. M.McCheyne.)
A trite ministry
I. THE TRUE MINISTRY IS ALWAYS INSPIRED AND DIRECTED BY THE HOLY GHOST. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me.
II. THE TRUE MINISTRY IS ANIMATED BY THE SUBLIMEST BENEVOLENCE. If you read the statement given by the prophet, you will find throughout a tone of kindliness, benevolence, sympathy, gentleness, pity, for all human sorrow. Therein may be known the true ministry of the Gospel.
III. THE TRUE MINISTRY, WHETHER PUBLIC OR PRIVATE, NEVER SHRINKS FROM ITS MORE AWFUL FUNCTIONS. Observe this sentence in the midst of the declarations of the text: To proclaim the day of vengeance of our God. (J. Parker, D. D.)
To preach good tidings unto the meek
Jesus a Preacher of good tidings to the meek
I. THE WORK ITSELF IN WHICH THE SON OF GOD WAS EMPLOYED, and to which He was called. To preach good tidings.
II. THE SPECIAL OBJECT OF THIS PART OF THE WORK. The meek. In the parallel place, it reads poor, and the one explains the other. By the meek here is meant the poor in spirit, those who, as being convinced by the law, have seen themselves to be poor, that they have nothing in which they could stand before God as righteous, but look on themselves as wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. And it is remarkable that our Saviours Sermon on the Mount begins with good tidings to such persons (Mat 5:3). Our Lord preached to all who heard Him promiscuously these good tidings, but in effect they were not good to any but to the poor in spirit among them. (T. Boston.)
Jesus and the meek
I. CONSIDER THIS MEEKNESS AND POVERTY, AND SHOW WHO ARE THESE MEEK POOR ONES. This meekness comprehends in it–
1. A pressing sense of utter emptiness in ones self (Rom 7:18).
2. A pressing sense of sinfulness.
3. A pressing sense of misery by sin. Like the prodigal, they see themselves ready to perish with hunger. Debt is a heavy burden to an honest heart, and filthiness to one that desires to be clean. Their poverty presses them down.
4. A sense of utter inability to help ones self. They find the sting in their conscience, but cannot draw it out; guilt is a burden, but they cannot throw it off; lusts are strong and uneasy, but they are not able to master them; and this presses them sore.
5. A sense of the absolute need of a Saviour, and of help from heaven.
6. A sense as to utter unworthiness of the Lords help; they see nothing which they have to recommend them to the Lords help.
7. An earnest desire as to the supply of soul-wants (Mat 5:6).
8. A hearty contentment in submitting to any method of help which the Lord prescribes.
II. EXPLAIN THE GOOD TIDINGS OF THE GOSPEL, AND SHOW THAT THEY ARE GOOD AND WELCOME TIDINGS TO SUCH PERSONS.
1. Gospel tidings are tidings of a complete salvation.
2. These tidings relate to a redemption, to a ransom paid (Gal 3:13).
3. To an indemnity, a pardon to criminals who will come to Jesus (Act 13:38-39).
4. To a glorious Physician of souls, who never fails to cure HIS patients.
5. These tidings are the tidings of a feast (Isa 25:6; Isa 55:2; Psa 22:26).
6. These tidings relate to a treasure (2Co 4:7).
7. To a marriage, a most happy match for poor sinners (Hos 2:19-20).
8. To a glorious victory (Isa 25:8; Rev 3:21).
9. To a most desirable peace (Eph 2:14).
III. SHOW HOW THIS GREAT WORK OF PREACHING IS, AND HATH BEEN, PERFORMED BY CHRIST.
1. He performed this work under the Old Testament dispensation,
(1) Personally, by Himself in paradise (Gen 3:15).
(2) By His ambassador, in HIS name, the prophets, and ordinary teachers.
(3) By His written Word.
2. He preached, and preaches, under the New Testament dispensation.
(1) By His own personal preaching in the days of His flesh, when He went about among the Jews, preaching to them as the Minister of the circumcision (Rom 15:8).
(2) By inspiring His apostles to preach and write the doctrines of salvation contained in the New Testament, on whom He poured out His Spirit, and by their writings, they being dead, yet speak to us from Him and by Him.
(3) By raising up and continuing always a Gospel ministry in the Church Eph 4:11-13; Mat 28:20). (T. Boston.)
To bind up the broken-hearted
Jesus binds up the broken-hearted
I. INQUIRE WHAT IS THAT BROKENNESS OF HEART WHICH IS HERE MEANT. The broken-heartedness is of two kinds.
1. Natural, arising from natural and carnal causes merely, which worketh 2Co 7:10). Many who arc very whole-hearted in respect of sin, complain that their hearts and spirits are broken by their crosses, afflictions, and ill-usage which they meet with in the world. Thus Ahab, Haman, and Nabal, their hearts were broken with their respective crosses.
2. Religious, which arises from religious causes, namely, sin and its consequences. There is a twofold religious breaking of heart.
(1) A mere legal one (Jer 23:29). When the heart is broken by the mere force of the law, it is broken as a rock in pieces by a hammer, each part remaining hard and rocky still. This breaks the heart for sin, but not from it.
(2) An evangelical one, when not only the law does its part, but the Gospel also breaks the sinners heart (Zec 12:10).
II. INQUIRE WHAT IT IS IN AND ABOUT SIN WHICH BREAKS THE MANS HEART, WHO IS THUS EVANGELICALLY BROKEN-HEARTED. There is–
1. The guilt of sin, by which he is bound over to the wrath of God.
2. The domineering power of sin, or its tyranny, by which he is led captive to 2:3. The contrariety which is in sin to the holy nature and law of God.
4. The indwelling of sin, and, its cleaving so close to a person that he cannot shake it off (Rom 7:24).
5. Sins mixing itself with all he does, even with his best duties Rom 7:21).
6. Frequent backslidings (Jer 31:18).
7. Desertions, hiding of the Lords face, and interruptions of the souls communion with God (Isa 54:6; Lam 3:18; Lam 3:44).
8. A Christians sinfulness, with the bitter fruits springing from his sin Rom 7:19).
III. SHOW WHAT SORT OF A HEART A BROKEN HEART IS.
1. It is a contrite or bruised heart (Psa 51:17). Not only broken in pieces like a rock, but broken to powder, and so fit to receive any impression. The heart is now kindly broken and bruised betwixt the upper and nether mill-stones; the upper mill-stone of the law, a sense of Gods wrath against sin; and the nether millstone of the Gospel, of Divine love, mercy, and favour, manifested in word and providences.
2. An aching heart (Act 2:37).
3. A shameful heart (Ezr 9:6; Psa 40:12).
4. A tender heart (Eze 36:26).
5. A rent heart (Joe 2:13).
6. A pliable heart.
7. A humble heart (Isa 57:15).
IV. SHOW HOW THE LORD CHRIST BINDS UP AND HEALS THE BROKEN-HEARTED. The great Physician uses two sorts of bands for a broken heart: He binds them up with inner and with outward bands.
1. With inner bands, which go nearest the sore, the pained broken heart. And these are two.
(1) The Spirit of adoption.
(2) Faith in Christ (the band of the covenant), which He works in the heart by His Spirit. Faith is a healing band, for it knits the soul.
2. Outward bands. There are also two.
(1) His own word, especially the promises of the Gospel.
(2) His own seals of the covenant (Act 2:38). (T. Boston.)
Jesus and the broken-hearted
I. THERE ARE TWO KINDS OF BROKEN HEARTS–THE NATURAL AND THE SPIRITUAL. They may be united. Often they are divided. Every broken heart becomes the subject of Jesus care, and is dear to Him, if for no other reason in the world but for this–because it is unhappy.
II. CHRIST WAS HIMSELF WELL TRAINED IN THE SCHOOL OF SUFFERING HEARTS, THAT HE MIGHT LEARN TO BIND THE MOURNERS. All which goes to break mens hearts He felt. No wonder, then, that the bindings are what they are.
1. Delicate.
2. Very wise.
3. Sure and thorough.
There is no such thing as a half-cure in that treatment. No heart which has not known a breaking knows, indeed, what strength is. (J. Vaughan, M. A.)
A broken heart
Many things are valuable when whole, which, being broken, are little worth; but it is otherwise with the human heart. (R. Macculloch.)
To proclaim liberty to the captives
Jesus proclaims liberty to the captives
I. MENS NATURAL STATE. A state of captivity. They are captives to Satan 2Ti 2:26).
II. CHRISTS WORK WITH RESPECT TO THEM. To proclaim liberty to them. (T. Boston.)
Liberty for Satans captives
I. SINNERS IN THEIR UNREGENERATE STATE ARE SATANS CAPTIVES.
II. JESUS CHRIST, WITH THE EXPRESS CONSENT OF HIS FATHER, HAS ISSUED HIS ROYAL PROCLAMATION OF LIBERTY TO SATANS CAPTIVES. (R. Macculloch.)
The sinners captivity
The properties of it. It is–
1. A spiritual captivity, a captivity of the soul.
2. Universal. It extends to all the powers and faculties of the soul, the inner marl.
3. A hard and sore captivity.
4. A perpetual captivity. This conqueror will never quit his captives, unless they be taken from him by Almighty power.
5. A voluntary captivity, and thus the more hopeless. Though they were taken in war, and born captives, yet now he is their master by their own consent and choice, while they choose to serve the devil, and cannot be brought to give themselves to the Lord. It is a bewitching captivity. (R. Macculloch.)
The Gospel proclamation
1. It is a jubilee proclamation (Lev 25:10).
2. It is a conquerors proclamation to captives. Satan warred against mankind, he carried them all captive into his own kingdom; and there was none to deliver out of his hand. But King Jesus had engaged him, routed all his forces, overturned his kingdom, and taken the kingdom to Himself Col 2:15; 1Jn 3:8). And now being settled on His throne, His royal proclamation is issued, that Satans captives may again return into the kingdom of God. (R. Macculloch.)
Liberty to the captive.
Our Lord Himself directs us to consider Him as speaking in these words.
I. THE DEPLORABLE OBJECTS HE REGARDS. Captives. This slavery–
1. So universal as to our species.
2. Dreadful in its operations upon the individual. Voluntary, and submitted to as though it were a blessing rather than a curse.
4. Diversified as to the degree of its influence and the manner of its operations.
5. Cruel in its present effects and inconceivably more wretched in its final results. Men are guilty as well as enslaved.
II. THE GRACIOUS DESIGN OF THE OFFICE WHICH HE SUSTAINS. To effect deliverance for the captives. To this He is consecrated by the Spirit of the Lord.
1. By Him the claims of justice are perfectly satisfied.
2. Christ dissolves or breaks the power which leads us captive.
3. He induces the captive to accept deliverance when it is offered to him.
4. He renders their deliverance permanent, and prevents them from being again entangled in the yoke of bondage.
III. THE CORRESPONDING MANNER IN WHICH HIS GRACIOUS DESIGN IS TO BE MADE KNOWN. By proclamation.
1. It indicates that His office and its design are to be made universally known.
2. It is intended to excite universal attention–to create the most deep and lively interest. It is a proclamation which at once demands and deserves attention.
3. It shows that deliverance is to be effected in a way perfectly consistent with the freedom of human agency.
4. It is in such a way as to secure the glory of their deliverance to Him who thus proclaims it. (Essex Congregational Remembrancer.)
Jesus the Liberator
It is a blessed name of Jesus, and as true as it is blessed–the Liberator. We can scarcely conceive anything grander, or more delightful, than to be always going about making everything free. To this end, Christ first liberated Himself.
1. As in Him there was no sin, He never indeed could know the worst of all bondage–the bondage of the spirit to the flesh. But He did know the restraints of fear; He did feel the harassing of indecision; He did experience the irksomeness of the sense of a body too narrow for the largeness of His soul; and He did go through the contractions of all that is material, and the mortifying conventionalities of life–for He was hungry, thirsty, weary, sad, and the sport of fools. From all this Christ freed Himself–distinctly, progressively, He freed Himself. Step by step, He led captivity captive. He made for Himself a spiritual body which, in its own nature, and by the law of its being, soared at once beyond the trammels of humanity. Therefore He is the Liberator, because He was once Himself the Prisoner.
2. And all Christ did, and all Christ was, upon this earth–His whole mission–was essentially either to teach or to give liberty. His preaching was, for the most part, to change the constraint of law into the largeness of love. Every word He said, in private or in public, proved expansion.
3. When Christ burst through all the tombs–the moral tombs and the physical tombs in which we all lay buried–and when He went out into life and glory, He was not Himself alone–He was at that moment the covenanted Head of a mystical body, and all that body rose with Him. If so be you have union with Christ, you are risen; bondage is past; you are free. (J. Vaughan, M. A.)
The opening of the prison to them that are bound
Sinners worse than captives
1. They are also prisoners. Every captive is not a prisoner, but all natural men, being Satans captives, are held prisoners.
2. They are prisoners in chains, bound in the prison.
3. They are blinded too in their prison (compare Luk 4:18). It was a custom much used in the Eastern nations to put out the eyes of some of their prisoners, adding this misery to their imprisonment. So the Philistines did with Samson (Jdg 16:21); and. Nebuchadnezzar with Zedekiah2Ki 25:7). This, in a spiritual sense, is the case of all prisoners in their natural state. (T. Boston.)
Causes of sinners imprisonment
1. As debtors to Divine justice.
2. As malefactors condemned in law (Joh 3:18). (T. Boston.)
Satans bands
1. The band of prejudices.
2. Of ill company.
3. Of earthly-mindedness.
4. Of unbelief.
5. Of slothfulness.
6. Of delays (Act 24:25).
7. Of delusion (Isa 44:20; Rev 3:17).
8. Of divers lusts (2Ti 3:6). (T. Boston.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
CHAPTER LXI
The subject of the preceding chapter is continued in this; and
to give it the greater solemnity, the Messiah is introduced
describing his character and office, and confirming the large
promises made before, 1-9.
In consequence of this the Jewish Church is introduced,
praising God for the honour done her by her restoration to
favour, and by to accession of the Gentiles, which is
beautifully described by allusions to the rich pontifical dress
of the high priest; a happy similitude to express the ornaments
of a restored nation and of a renewed mind, 10.
Certainty of the prophecy illustrated by a figure drawn from
the vegetable kingdom, 11.
NOTES ON CHAP. LXI
Verse 1. The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me – “The Spirit of JEHOVAH is upon me”] The Septuagint, Vulgate, and St. Luke, (Lu 4:18,) and a MS., and two old editions omit the word Adonai, the Lord; which was probably added to the text through the superstition of the Jews, to prevent the pronunciation of the word Jehovah following. See Kennicott on the state of the printed Hebrew text, vol. i., p. 610.
In most of Isaiah’s prophecies there is a primary and secondary sense, or a remote subject illustrated by one that is near. The deliverance of the Jews from their captivity in Babylon is constantly used to shadow forth the salvation of men by Jesus Christ. Even the prophet himself is a typical person, and is sometimes intended to represent the great Saviour. It is evident from Lu 4:18 that this is a prophecy of our blessed Lord and his preaching; and yet it is as evident that it primarily refers to Isaiah preaching the glad tidings of deliverance to the Jews.
The opening of the prison – “Perfect liberty”] pekach koach. Ten MSS. of Kennicott’s, several of De Rossi’s, and one of my own, with the Complutensian, have pekachkoach in one word; and so the Septuagint and Vulgate appear to have taken it: not merely opening of prisons, but every kind of liberty – complete redemption.
The proclaiming of perfect liberty to the bound, and the year of acceptance with JEHOVAH. is a manifest allusion to the proclaiming of the year of jubilee by sound of trumpet. See Le 25:9, c. This was a year of general release of debts and obligations, of bondmen and bondwomen, of lands and possessions which had been sold from the families and tribes to which they belonged. Our Saviour, by applying this text to himself, (Lu 4:18-19,) a text so manifestly relating to the institution above mentioned, plainly declares the typical design of that institution.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, as it were, to accomplish that which is foretold and promised in the foregoing chapter, whereby this appears to be either the Holy Ghost; See Poole “1Ki 18:12“; or the Spirit of prophecy, i.e. the gift of prophecy; so we are often to understand by the Spirit, viz. the gifts; as the Spirit upon Samson, viz. the gift of valour, and courage, and strength: see 1Co 12:4, &c. Though the prophet may speak this of himself in person, yet that it is principally understood of Christ is evident, because he applieth this text unto himself, Luk 4:18, being the first text he preached upon after his baptism, at which time the Holy Ghost did descend upon him in a visible shape, of which that John, who baptized him, was an ocular witness, Joh 1:32,33, and so making good the truth of this prophecy; and it is said to rest upon and dwell in him, according as it is prophesied, Isa 11:2; 42:1.
Hath anointed me; set me apart, i.e. both capacitating him with gifts, and commissioning him with authority; and yet more as it is applied to Christ, a power to make all effectual, from whence he hath also the name of Messiah among the Hebrews, and of Christ among the Greeks; nay, Christ alone among the prophets hath obtained this name, Psa 45:7; and the prophet seems here to describe first who Christ is, and then what are his offices; this being the usual ceremony for the designing persons to the offices of prophets, priests, and kings, as hath been divers times shown, in all which respects it doth most eminently belong to Christ; so that the prophet doth hereby intimate both the final cause of his unction, viz. that he should execute these offices to which he was anointed; and the effect of it; that unction being upon him as the Head, it would flow from thence to his members, and so is an unction more peculiar to them; arid in a more general way it hath respect unto all the faithful, 2Co 1:21,22; 1Jo 2:20,27.
To preach good tidings unto the meek: being meant of Christ, this relates to his prophetical office. Literally this points at the good news that Isaiah brought of Cyruss being raised up to bring them out of Babylon, now they are become meek and humble; but if it be thus taken, it must be understood of his prophecies left behind him, for he died many years before the captivity. But they chiefly signify the good tidings of the gospel, that discovers Christ come in the flesh to redeem poor sinners from the captivity of sin and Satan, such as are meek, and tremble, or afflicted, as the word signifies, because ordinary afflictions make men meek and humble; called also the poor, and our Saviour expresseth it by that word, Luk 4:18. To these the gospel, these
good tidings, are brought, Mat 11:5. Whether by poor you understand,
1. The Gentiles, void of all grace and salvation, or tenders of it, till now. Or,
2. Properly so called, indigent and needy persons, of which sort were the greatest number that followed Christ, of which the reason might be, because Christ preached the contempt of the world and riches, which the poor would therefore sooner embrace, and the rich be more likely to oppose. Or,
3. The poor in spirit. To bind up: now follow several particular expressions to describe the same thing that he mentioned before more generally: a metaphor taken from chirurgeons, that carefully and tenderly roll up a broken bone, Hos 6:1; and this relates to Christs priestly office.
The broken-hearted; the heart dejected and broken with sorrow. I am sent to ease their pains, whose consciences are wounded with a sense of Gods wrath. To proclaim liberty to the captives; those captives in Babylon, but principally to Satan, that they shall be delivered; and this appertains to Christs kingly office, whereby he proclaims liberty from the dominion and bondage of sin, and from the fear and terror of hell. See Isa 42:7. The opening of the prison to them that are bound, i.e. supposing them to be in chains and fetters, yet they should be delivered, though in the greatest bondage. The further explication of these things will be found upon Luk 4:18, because there are some passages expressly mentioned here.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
1. is upon me; because . . . hathanointed mequoted by Jesus as His credentials in preaching (Lu4:18-21). The Spirit is upon Me in preaching, becauseJehovah hath anointed Me from the womb (Lu1:35), and at baptism, with the Spirit “without measure,”and permanently “abiding” on Me (Isa 11:2;Joh 1:32; Joh 3:34;Psa 45:7; with which compare1Ki 1:39; 1Ki 1:40;1Ki 19:16; Exo 29:7).”Anointed” as Messiah, Prophet, Priest, and King.
good tidingsas theword “gospel” means.
the meekrather, “thepoor,” as Lu 4:18 has it;that is, those afflicted with calamity, poor in circumstances and inspirit (Mt 11:5).
proclaim liberty (Joh8:31-36). Language drawn from the deliverance of the Babyloniancaptives, to describe the deliverance from sin and death (Heb2:15); also from the “liberty proclaimed” to allbond-servants in the year of jubilee (Isa 61:2;Lev 25:10; Jer 34:8;Jer 34:9).
opening of the prisonTheHebrew rather is, “the most complete opening,”namely, of the eyes to them that are bound, that is,deliverance from prison, for captives are as it were blindin the darkness of prison (Isa 14:17;Isa 35:5; Isa 42:7)[EWALD]. So Lu4:18 and the Septuagint interpret it; Lu4:18, under inspiration, adds to this, for the fuller explanationof the single clause in the Hebrew, “to set atliberty them that are bruised”; thus expressing the double“opening” implied; namely, that of the eyes (Joh9:39), and that of the prison (Rom 6:18;Rom 7:24; Rom 7:25;Heb 2:15). His miracles wereacted parables.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,…. According to the Targum, these are the words of the prophet concerning himself; and so say Aben Ezra and Kimchi; but the latter elsewhere says p they are the words of the Messiah, who should say, “because the Lord hath anointed me”, c. and another of their writers q is in a doubt about them; either, says he, they are the words of the prophet with respect to the Messiah, or the words of the prophet concerning himself; but there is no doubt but the Messiah himself is the person speaking, as appears from Lu 4:17, on whom the Spirit of God was; not his grace and gifts only, but the person of the Spirit, the third Person in the Trinity, equal with the Father and the Son; to whom several divine actions are ascribed, and to whom many things relating to Christ are attributed, and who is described as residing on him, and who, by the baptist, was seen upon him, Isa 11:2 the phrase denotes his continuance with him, whereby he was qualified, as man and Mediator, for his office:
because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings to the meek: not the Lord, the Spirit that was upon him, for Christ was anointed with the Holy Ghost; but Jehovah the, Father, he was the anointer of Christ, by whom he was anointed in some sense from everlasting, being invested by him with the office of Mediator, Pr 8:21 and in the fulness of time, in the human nature, at his birth and baptism, with the Holy Spirit, his gifts and grace, without measure, Ps 45:7, hence he has the name of Messiah or Anointed, and from him his people have the anointing which teacheth all things: and hereby he was qualified, as a prophet, to preach good tidings to the meek; such as are sensible of sin, and humbled for it; submit to the righteousness of Christ; ascribe all they have to the grace of God and have a mean opinion of themselves, and patiently bear every affliction: or “poor”, as in Lu 4:18, the poor of this world, and as to their intellectuals, and spirit, who are sensible of their spiritual poverty, and seek the true riches, to these the Gospel is “good tidings”; and to such Christ preached good tidings concerning, the love, grace, and mercy of God; concerning peace, pardon, righteousness, life and salvation, by himself; concerning the kingdom of God, and the things appertaining to it:
he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted; whose hearts are smitten and made contrite by the Spirit and Word of God, and are truly humbled under a sense of sin; who are cut to the heart, have wounded spirits, and in great pain; these Christ binds up, by speaking comfortably to them; by applying his blood; by discovering the free and full pardon of their sins; and for this, as Mediator, he had a mission and commission from his Father; he came not of himself, but he sent him:
to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening, of the prison to them that are bound; to such who were captives to sin, Satan, and the law, and as it were prisoners to them, shut up by them, and in them, and held fast there; but Christ, as he is the author of liberty; obtains it for his people, and makes them free with it, so he proclaims it in the Gospel; a liberty from sin, from the damning and governing power of it; a freedom from the curse and condemnation of the law; a deliverance from Satan, as of a prey from the mighty, or as of prisoners from the prison house. The allusion is to the proclamation of liberty, in the year of jubilee, Le 25:10. The Targum is,
“to the prisoners appear in light.”
It may be rendered, “open clear and full light to the prisoners” r, so Aben Ezra interprets it; [See comments on Lu 4:18].
p Sepher Shorash. rad. q Ben Melech in loc. r – “et vinctis visum acutissimum”, Vitringa.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The words of Jehovah Himself pass over here into the words of another, whom He has appointed as the Mediator of His gracious counsel. “The Spirit of the Lord Jehovah is over me, because Jehovah hath anointed me, to bring glad tidings to sufferers, hath sent me to bind up broken-hearted ones, to proclaim liberty to those led captive, and emancipation to the fettered; to proclaim a year of grace from Jehovah, and a day of vengeance from our God; to comfort all that mourn; to put upon the mourners of Zion, to give them a head-dress for ashes, oil of joy for mourning, a wrapper of renown for an expiring spirit, that they may be called terebinths of righteousness, a planting of Jehovah for glorification.” Who is the person speaking here? The Targum introduces the passage with . Nearly all the modern commentators support this view. Even the closing remarks to Drechsler (iii. 381) express the opinion, that the prophet who exhibited to the church the summit of its glory in chapter 60, an evangelist of the rising from on high, an apocalyptist who sketches the painting which the New Testament apocalyptist is to carry out in detail, is here looking up to Jehovah with a grateful eye, and praising Him with joyful heart for his exalted commission. But this view, when looked at more closely, cannot possibly be sustained. It is open to the following objections: (1.) The prophet never speaks of himself as a prophet at any such length as this; on the contrary, with the exception of the closing words of Isa 57:21, “saith my God,” he has always most studiously let his own person fall back into the shade. (2.) Wherever any other than Jehovah is represented as speaking, and as referring to his own calling, or his experience in connection with that calling, as in Isa 49:1., Isa 50:4., it is the very same “servant of Jehovah” of whom and to whom Jehovah speaks in Isa 42:1., Isaiah 52:13-53:12, and therefore not the prophet himself, but He who had been appointed to be the Mediator of a new covenant, the light of the Gentiles, the salvation of Jehovah for the whole world, and who would reach this glorious height, to which He had been called, through self-abasement even to death. (3.) All that the person speaking here says of himself is to be found in the picture of the unequalled “Servant of Jehovah,” who is highly exalted above the prophet. He is endowed with the Spirit of Jehovah (Isa 42:1); Jehovah has sent Him, and with Him His Spirit ( Isa 48:16); He has a tongue taught of God, to help the exhausted with words (Isa 50:4); He spares and rescues those who are almost despairing and destroyed, the bruised reed and expiring wick (Isa 42:7). “To open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison-house:” this is what He has chiefly to do for His people, both in word and deed (Isa 42:7; Isa 49:9). (4.) We can hardly expect that, after the prophet has described the Servant of Jehovah, of whom He prophesied, as coming forward to speak with such dramatic directness as in Isa 49:1., Isa 50:4. (and even Isa 48:16), he will now proceed to put himself in the foreground, and ascribe to himself those very same official attributes which he has already set forth as characteristic features in his portrait of the predicted One. For these reasons we have no doubt that we have here the words of the Servant of Jehovah. The glory of Jerusalem is depicted in chapter 60 in the direct words of Jehovah Himself, which are well sustained throughout. And now, just as in Isa 48:16, though still more elaborately, we have by their side the words of His servant, who is the mediator of this glory, and who above all others is the pioneer thereof in his evangelical predictions. Just as Jehovah says of him in Isa 42:1, “I have put my Spirit upon him;” so here he says of himself, “The Spirit of Jehovah is upon me.” And when he continues to explain this still further by saying, “because” ( from , intention, purpose; here equivalent to ) “Jehovah hath anointed me” ( m as ‘oth , more emphatic than m e shachan ), notwithstanding the fact that m ashach is used here in the sense of prophetic and not regal anointing (1Ki 19:16), we may find in the choice of this particular word a hint at the fact, that the Servant of Jehovah and the Messiah are one and the same person. So also the account given in Luk 4:16-22 viz. that when Jesus was in the synagogue at Nazareth, after reading the opening words of this address, He closed the book with these words, “This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears” – cannot be interpreted more simply in any other way, than on the supposition that Jesus here declares Himself to be the predicted and divinely anointed Servant of Jehovah, who brings the gospel of redemption to His people. Moreover, though it is not decisive in favour of our explanation, yet this explanation is favoured by the fact that the speaker not only appears as the herald of the new and great gifts of God, but also as the dispenser of them (“ non praeco tantum, sed et dispensator ,” Vitringa).
The combination of the names of God ( ‘Adonai Yehovah ) is the same as in Isa 50:4-9. On bisser , ( – ). He comes to put a bandage on the hearts’ wounds of those who are broken-hearted: ( ) as in Eze 34:4; Psa 147:3; cf., ( ); . is the phrase used in the law for the proclamation of the freedom brought by the year of jubilee, which occurred every fiftieth year after seven sabbatical periods, and was called sh e nath hadd e ror (Eze 46:17); d e ror from darar , a verbal stem, denoting the straight, swift flight of a swallow (see at Psa 84:4), and free motion in general, such as that of a flash of lightning, a liberal self-diffusion, like that of a superabundant fulness. P e qach – qoach is written like two words (see at Isa 2:20). The Targum translates it as if p e qach were an imperative: “Come to the light,” probably meaning undo the bands. But qoach is not a Hebrew word; for the qchoth of the Mishna (the loops through which the strings of a purse are drawn, for the purpose of lacing it up) cannot be adduced as a comparison. Parchon , AE , and A , take p e qachqoach as one word (of the form , ), in the sense of throwing open, viz., the prison. But as paqach is never used like pathach (Isa 14:17; Isa 51:14), to signify the opening of a room, but is always applied to the opening of the eyes (Isa 35:5; Isa 42:7, etc.), except in Isa 42:20, where it is used for the opening of the ears, we adhere to the strict usage of the language, if we understand by p e qachqoach the opening up of the eyes (as contrasted with the dense darkness of the prison); and this is how it has been taken even by the lxx, who have rendered it , as if the reading had been (Psa 146:8). Again, he is sent to promise with a loud proclamation a year of good pleasure ( ratson : syn. y e shuah ) and a day of vengeance, which Jehovah has appointed; a promise which assigns the length of a year for the thorough accomplishment of the work of grace, and only the length of a day for the work of vengeance. The vengeance applies to those who hold the people of God in fetters, and oppress them; the grace to all those whom the infliction of punishment has inwardly humbled, though they have been strongly agitated by its long continuance (Isa 57:15). The ‘abhelm , whom the Servant of Jehovah has to comfort, are the “mourners of Zion,” those who take to heart the fall of Zion. In Isa 61:3, … , he corrects himself, because what he brings is not merely a diadem, to which the word sum (to set) would apply, but an abundant supply of manifold gifts, to which only a general word like nathan (to give) is appropriate. Instead of , the ashes of mourning or repentance laid upon the head, he brings , a diadem to adorn the head (a transposition even so far as the letters are concerned, and therefore the counterpart of ; the”oil of joy” (from Psa 45:8; compare also there with here) instead of mourning; “a wrapper (cloak) of renown” instead of a faint and almost extinguished spirit. The oil with which they henceforth anoint themselves is to be joy or gladness, and renown the cloak in which they wrap themselves (a genitive connection, as in Isa 59:17). And whence is all this? The gifts of God, though represented in outward figures, are really spiritual, and take effect within, rejuvenating and sanctifying the inward man; they are the sap and strength, the marrow and impulse of a new life. The church thereby becomes “terebinths of righteousness” ( : Targ., Symm., Jer., render this, strong ones, mighty ones; Syr. dechre , rams; but though both of these are possible, so far as the letters are concerned, they are unsuitable here), i.e., possessors of righteousness, produced by God and acceptable with God, having all the firmness and fulness of terebinths, with their strong trunks, their luxuriant verdure, and their perennial foliage – a planting of Jehovah, to the end that He may get glory out of it (a repetition of Isa 60:21).
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| The Office of the Messiah. | B. C. 706. |
1 The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; 2 To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn; 3 To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified.
He that is the best expositor of scripture has no doubt given us the best exposition of these verses, even our Lord Jesus himself, who read this in the synagogue at Nazareth (perhaps it was the lesson for the day) and applied it entirely to himself, saying, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears (Luk 4:17; Luk 4:18; Luk 4:21); and the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth, in the opening of this text, were admired by all that heard them. As Isaiah was authorized and directed to proclaim liberty to the Jews in Babylon, so was Christ, God’s messenger, to publish a more joyful jubilee to a lost world. And here we are told,
I. How he was fitted and qualified for this work: The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, v. 1. The prophets had the Spirit of God moving them at times, both instructing them what to say and exciting them to say it. Christ had the Spirit always resting on him without measure; but to the same intent that the prophets had, as a Spirit of counsel and a Spirit of courage, ch. xi. 1-3. When he entered upon the execution of his prophetical office the Spirit, as a dove, descended upon him, Matt. iii. 16. This Spirit which was upon him he communicated to those whom he sent to proclaim the same glad tidings, saying to them, when he gave them their commission, Receive you the Holy Ghost, thereby ratifying it.
II. How he was appointed and ordained to it: The Spirit of God is upon me, because the Lord God has anointed me. What service God called him to he furnished him for; therefore he gave him his Spirit, because he had by a sacred and solemn unction set him apart to this great office, as kings and priests were of old destined to their offices by anointing. Hence the Redeemer was called the Messiah, the Christ, because he was anointed with the oil of gladness above his fellows. He has sent me; our Lord Jesus did not go unsent; he had a commission from him that is the fountain of power; the Father sent him and gave him commandment. This is a great satisfaction to us, that, whatever Christ said, he had a warrant from heaven for; his doctrine was not his, but his that sent him.
III. What the work was to which he was appointed and ordained.
1. He was to be a preacher, was to execute the office of a prophet. So well pleased was he with the good-will God showed towards men through him that he would himself be the preacher of it, that an honour might thereby be put upon the ministry of the gospel and the faith of the saints might be confirmed and encouraged. He must preach good tidings (so gospel signified) to the meek, to the penitent, and humble, and poor in spirit; to them the tidings of a Redeemer will be indeed good tidings, pure gospel, faithful sayings, and worthy of all acceptation. The poor are commonly best disposed to receive the gospel (Jam. ii. 5), and it is likely to profit us when it is received with meekness, as it ought to be; to such Christ preached good tidings when he said, Blessed are the meek.
2. He was to be a healer. He was sent to bind up the broken-hearted, as pained limbs are rolled to give them ease, as broken bones and bleeding wounds are bound up, that they may knit and close again. Those whose hearts are broken for sin, who are truly humbled under the sense of guilt and dread of wrath, are furnished in the gospel of Christ with that which will make them easy and silence their fears. Those only who have experienced the pains of a penitential contrition may expect the pleasure of divine cordials and consolations.
3. He was to be a deliverer. He was sent as a prophet to preach, as a priest to heal, and as a king to issue out proclamations and those of two kinds:– (1.) Proclamations of peace to his friends: He shall proclaim liberty to the captives (as Cyrus did to the Jews in captivity) and the opening of the prison to those that were bound. Whereas, by the guilt of sin, we are bound over to the justice of God, are his lawful captives, sold for sin till payment be made of that great debt, Christ lets us know that he has made satisfaction to divine justice for that debt, that his satisfaction is accepted, and if we will plead that, and depend upon it, and make over ourselves and all we have to him, in a grateful sense of the kindness he has done us, we may be faith sue out our pardon and take the comfort of it; there is, and shall be, no condemnation to us. And whereas, by the dominion of sin in us, we are bound under the power of Satan, sold under sin, Christ lets us know that he has conquered Satan, has destroyed him that had the power of death and his works, and provided for us grace sufficient to enable us to shake off the yoke of sin and to loose ourselves from those bands of our neck. The Son is ready by his Spirit to make us free; and then we shall be free indeed, not only discharged from the miseries of captivity, but advanced to all the immunities and dignities of citizens. This is the gospel proclamation, and it is like the blowing of the jubilee-trumpet, which proclaimed the great year of release (Lev 25:9; Lev 25:40), in allusion to which it is here called the acceptable year of the Lord, the time of our acceptance with God, which is the origin of our liberties; or it is called the year of the Lord because it publishes his free grace, to his own glory, and an acceptable year because it brings glad tidings to us, and what cannot but be very acceptable to those who know the capacities and necessities of their own souls. (2.) Proclamations of war against his enemies. Christ proclaims the day of vengeance of our God, the vengeance he takes, [1.] On sin and Satan, death and hell, and all the powers of darkness, that were to be destroyed in order to our deliverances; these Christ triumphed over in his cross, having spoiled and weakened them, shamed them, and made a show of them openly, therein taking vengeance on them for all the injury they had done both to God and man, Col. ii. 15. [2.] On those of the children of men that stand it out against those fair offers. They shall not only be left, as they deserve, in their captivity, but be dealt with as enemies; we have the gospel summed up, Mark xvi. 16, where that part of it, He that believes shall be saved, proclaims the acceptable year of the Lord to those that will accept of it; but the other part, He that believes not shall be damned, proclaims the day of vengeance of our God, that vengeance which he will take on those that obey not the gospel of Jesus Christ, 2 Thess. i. 8.
4. He was to be a comforter, and so he is as preacher, healer, and deliverer; he is sent to comfort all who mourn, and who, mourning, seek to him, and not to the world, for comfort. Christ not only provides comfort for them, and proclaims it, but he applies it to them; he does by his Spirit comfort them. There is enough in him to comfort all who mourn, whatever their sore or sorrow is; but this comfort is sure to those who mourn in Zion, who sorrow after a godly sort, according to God, for his residence is in Zion,–who mourn because of Zion’s calamities and desolations, and mingle their tears by a holy sympathy with those of all God’s suffering people, though they themselves are not in trouble; such tears God has a bottle for (Ps. lvi. 8), such mourners he has comfort in store for. As blessings out of Zion are spiritual blessings, so mourners in Zion are holy mourners, such as carry their sorrows to the throne of grace (for in Zion was the mercy-seat) and pour them out as Hannah did before the Lord. To such as these Christ has appointed by his gospel, and will give by his Spirit (v. 3), those consolations which will not only support them under their sorrows, but turn them into songs of praise. He will give them, (1.) Beauty for ashes. Whereas they lay in ashes, as was usual in times of great mourning, they shall not only be raised out of their dust, but made to look pleasant. Note, The holy cheerfulness of Christians is their beauty and a great ornament to their profession. Here is an elegant paronomasia in the original: He will give them pheer–beauty, for epher–ashes; he will turn their sorrow into joy as quickly and as easily as you can transpose a letter; for he speaks, and it is done. (2.) The oil of joy, which make the face to shine, instead of mourning, which disfigures the countenance and makes it unlovely. this oil of joy the saints have from that oil of gladness with which Christ himself was anointed above his fellows, Heb. i. 9. (3.) The garments of praise, such beautiful garments as were worn on thanksgiving-days, instead of the spirit of heaviness, dimness, or contraction–open joys for secret mournings. The spirit of heaviness they keep to themselves (Zion’s mourners weep in secret); but the joy they are recompensed with they are clothed with as with a garment in the eye of others. Observe, Where God gives the oil of joy he gives the garment of praise. Those comforts which come from God dispose the heart to, and enlarge the heart in, thanksgivings to God. Whatever we have the joy of God must have the praise and glory of.
5. He was to be a planter; for the church is God’s husbandry. Therefore he will do all this for his people, will cure their wounds, release them out of bondage, and comfort them in their sorrows, that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that they may be such and be acknowledged to be such, that they may be ornaments to God’s vineyard and may be fruitful in the fruits of righteousness, as the branches of God’s planting, ch. lx. 21. All that Christ does for us is to make us God’s people, and some way serviceable to him as living trees, planted in the house of the Lord, and flourishing in the courts of our God; and all this that he may be glorified–that we may be brought to glorify him by a sincere devotion and an exemplary conversation (for herein is our Father glorified, that we bring broth much fruit), that others also may take occasion from God’s favour shining on his people, and his grace shining in them, to praise him, and that he may be for ever glorified in his saints.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
ISAIAH – CHAPTER 61
MESSIAH’S MINISTRY
The very heart of this final section of Isaiah’s prophecy is set forth in the following three chapters. Here (ch. 61) is a beautiful description of the Messianic ministry of. our Lord Jesus. Initially directed to “the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Mat 10:6; Mat 15:24; Luk 15:4-6), the ministry is ultimately effective in the deliverance and restoration of the covenant-nation, (ch. 62). The prophet then announces “the day of vengeance” in which the Lord’s wrath will be poured out upon the enemies of righteousness – while mentioning the prayers and praise of the holy remnant in Israel, (ch. 63).
Throughout this prophecy there has been a blending of the near and the far – something that perplexed the prophets themselves (1Pe 1:11). It will be well to remember that the speaker is NOT the prophet Isaiah, but “the anointed Servant” – identified in the New Testament as our Lord Jesus, the Christ.
Vs. 1-3: THE MESSIANIC MISSION
1. The anointing (unction) of the spirit, in the Old Testament, was used in the consecration of prophets, priests, and kings to their holy offices, (Lev 8:12; 1Ki 1:34; 1Ki 19:16); it symbolized the spiritual power whereby its recipient was both designated and qualified for his particular office, (vs. 1a; 1Sa 10:1; 1Sa 10:6; 1Sa 16:13).
a. Jesus Christ read this passage in His home-synagogue at Nazareth and startled His audience by claiming: “this day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears”, (Luk 4:16-21); it was not TOTALLY fulfilled that day, but continues, in perpetuity, in the ministry of the church “which is His body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all”, (Eph 1:23).
b. He is the speaker in Isaiah 61.
c. It is the spirit of “Adonai Jehovah” that is upon Him, (Isa 11:1; Isa 48:16), that Jesus’ anointing, for His Messianic ministry, was publicly manifested in connection with His baptism, at the hands of John the Baptist, is deeply significant, (Mat 3:13-17; Joh 1:29-34).
2. It is Jehovah Himself who has anointed the Servant for His task – such a task as never fell upon another among the sons of men, (Psa 45:6-7). He was anointed:
a. To preach good tidings to the meek – the poor, needy, weak, afflicted and lonely, (Isa 11:4; Isa 29:19; Mat 5:5).
b. To heal the broken-hearted, (Isa 57:15).
c. To proclaim Jubilee-liberty to those captivated in the darkness of spiritual bondage (Lev 25:10-13; Lev 27:24; Jer 34:8-10; Eze 46:17), and loosing from the grave those saints who have long awaited the vindication of their faith, (comp. Psa 79:1-2; Psa 79:8; Psa 79:11; Psa 102:13-22, etc.).
d. To proclaim the “acceptable year of the Lord” – an extended season wherein God’s grace and favor are to be extended to ALL MEN!
e. To proclaim “the day of God’s vengeance” – a relatively brief period wherein His wrath will be poured out, in righteous judgment, upon His enemies, (Isa 2:12; Isa 13:6; Isa 34:2; Isa 34:8).
f. To grant comfort and joy to those who mourn because of Zion’s wretchedness, (Jer 31:13; Mat 5:4; Isa 35:10; Isa 65:19; comp. Eze 9:4-6 b).
1) Giving them an ornament (garland, or crown) of beauty instead of ashes – exaltation to share the rule of Messiah as they are comformed to His image in the beauty of holiness, (Rom 8:17-18; Psa 110:2-3; 1Jn 3:1-3).
2) Exchanging the oil of joy for their mourning, (Psa 23:5).
3) Clothing them with the garment of praise instead of the spirit of heaviness (vs. 10).
3. Nothing short of the re-establishment of the NATION of Israel (the Theocracy of old), in a state of unprecedented blessedness, will satisfy the teachings of the prophets, (comp. Isa 49:6; Isa 44:7-8; Eze 34:11-13).
4. The people of Zion are, henceforth, to be called “trees of righteousness”, which the Lord has planted for His own glory, (Isa 60:21; Jer 17:7-8; comp. Psa 1:3).
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
1. The Spirit of the Lord Jehovah. As Christ explains this passage with reference to himself, (Luk 4:18) so commentators limit it to him without hesitation, and lay down this principle, that Christ is introduced as speaking, as if the whole passage related to him alone. The Jews laugh at this, as an illadvised application to Christ of that which is equally applicable to other prophets. My opinion is, that this chapter is added as a seal to the former, to confirm what had hitherto been said about restoring the Church of Christ; and that for this purpose Christ testifies that he has been anointed by God, in consequence of which he justly applies this prophecy to himself; for he has exhibited clearly and openly what others have laid down ill an obscure manner.
But this is not inconsistent with the application of this statement to other prophets, whom the Lord has anointed; for they did not speak in their own name as individuals, or claim this authority for themselves, but were chiefly employed in pointing out the office of Christ, to whom belongs not only the publication of these things, but likewise the accomplishment of them. This chapter ought, therefore, to be understood in such a sense, that Christ, who is the Head of the prophets, holds the chief place, and alone makes all those revelations; but that Isaiah, and the other prophets, and the apostles, contribute their services to Christ, and each performs his part in making known Christ’s benefits. And thus we see that those things which Isaiah said would be accomplished by Christ, have now been actually accomplished.
On that account Jehovah hath anointed me. This second clause is added in the room of exposition; for the first would have been somewhat obscure, if he had said nothing as to the purpose for which he was endued with the Spirit of God; but now it is made far more clear by pointing out the use, when he declares that. he discharges a public office, that he may not be regarded as a private individual. Whenever Scripture mentions the Spirit, and says that he “dwelleth in us,” (Rom 8:11; 1Co 3:16) let us not look upon it as something empty or unmeaning, but let us contemplate his power and efficacy. Thus, after having spoken of the Spirit of God, the Prophet next mentions the “anointing,” by which he means the faculties which flow from him, as Paul teaches that the gifts are indeed various, but the Spirit is one. (1Co 12:4)
This passage ought to be carefully observed, for no man can claim right or authority to teach unless he show that he has been prompted to it by the Spirit of God, as Paul also affirms that “no man can call Jesus Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.” (1Co 12:3) But, it will be said, we see that almost all men boast of having the Spirit of God; for the Pope, and the Anabaptists, and other heretics and fanatics, have his name continually in their mouth, as if they were governed by him. How, then, shall we judge that any man has been sent by God, and is guided by his Spirit? By “anointing;“ that is, if he is endued with the gifts which are necessary for that orate. If therefore, having been appointed by the Lord, he abound in the graces of the Spirit and the ability which the calling demands, he actually has the Spirit. And if he wish to make profession of enjoying that teacher, and if he have no doctrine, (165) let him be held as an impostor.
He hath sent me to preach. The Prophet does not claim for himself right and authority to teach, before he has shown that the Lord “hath sent him” The authority is founded on his having been “anointed,” that is, furnished by God with necessary gifts. We ought not to hear him, therefore, as a private individual, but as a public minister who has come from heaven.
To the afflicted. Some render it, “To the meek;“ and both ideas are conveyed by the word ענוים ( gnanavim). But I preferred to adhere to the former signification, because the Prophet is speaking of captives and prisoners. Yet I think that he includes both; for he means those who, while they are altogether forsaken and abandoned, are also wretched in themselves. Christ is promised to none but those who have been humbled and overwhelmed by a conviction of their distresses, who have no lofty pretensions, but keep themselves in humility and modesty. And hence we infer that Isaiah speaks literally of the Gospel; for the Law was given for the purpose of abasing proud hearts which swelled with vain confidence, but the Gospel is intended for “the afflicted,” that is, for those who know that they are destitute of everything good, that they may gather courage and support. For what purpose were prophets, and apostles, and other ministers, anointed and sent, but to cheer and comfort the afflicted by the doctrine of grace?
To bind up the broken in heart. Numerous are the metaphors which the Prophet employs for explaining more clearly the same thing. By “binding up,” he means nothing else than “healing,” but now he expresses something more than in the preceding clause; for he shows that. the preaching of the word is not an empty sound, but a powerful medicine, the effect of which is felt, not by obdurate and hardhearted men, but by wounded consciences.
To proclaim liberty to the captives. This also is the end of the Gospel, that they who are captives may be set at liberty. We are prisoners and captives, therefore, till we are set free (Joh 8:36) through the grace of Christ; and when Christ wishes to break asunder our chains, let us not refuse the grace that is offered to us. It ought to be observed in general, that the blessings which are here enumerated are bestowed upon us by heavenly doctrine, and that none are fit for the enjoyment of them but those who, conscious of their poverty, eagerly desire the assistance of Christ, as he himself says,
“
Come to me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will relieve you.” (Mat 11:28)
(165) “ S’il veut contrefaire le docteur, et n’a doctrine ni savoir.” “If he wishes to counterfeit the teacher, and has not any doctrine or knowledge.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
THREE SIDES OF THE SAVIOURS WORK
Isa 61:1
IT is a difficult thing for the young man to preach at home. There is no other audience before which it is so profitless to stand as that brought from the neighborhood of ones birth and breeding. Friends and relatives listen with such a personal interest that the point of speech is lost, in their deeper concern for your appearance and popular effect; while your enemies, if ye have any, and certainly your auditors of envy, are sealed against every shaft of truth your quiver may contain. Jesus taught in all the synagogues of Galilee before He ventured to Nazareth, and although His fame was far-reaching, and the people who had heard Him were at His feet in adoration, yet the small-souled neighbors who knew Him well imagined themselves too smart to be gulled by Josephs Son.
Every speaker of power must be exceedingly sensitive to two things which control, in a measure, the results of his every address. In the first place he must know that he speaks the truth, and in the second, that his auditors are in some measure of sympathy with his words. The only man of whom I have ever read that continued an address after the audience had plugged up its ears and opened its mouth with hissing, was Henry Ward Beecher, when in London in 1863, he attempted to defend abolition. From the howling mob, he turned and talked to the newspaper reporters, with not a whit less enthusiasm than he had discovered in his public address. But Beecher was helped to that triumph over prejudice by the consciousness that though London would not hear, the world would read, and his audience would be as sympathetic at last as it would be great. Jesus had no press through which to speak and when those who needed most to hear Him met his words with spite, the great preacher sought new fields and a more congenial synagogue for sermonizing. But a man does not fail when he preaches Gods truth, even though some or all of his auditors are dead to the words. The text of this evening was Jesus text at Nazareth. The sermon that follows has lived and blessed millions who were wiser than the ignorant and vicious of Nazareth; and because He took it to His people as a passage worthy their understanding, I make bold to bring it to you tonight. It has at least three phases of the Christ-character and work in its words. In the first place it presents Him as
The Matchless Preacher.
The question of how to be a great preacher is one of the most important, not merely of interest to him who must seek to solve it with his life, but of little less importance to them before whom he shall stand and talk of eternal things. There is one answer about which all the truly converted would agree.
The way to be a great preacher is to imitate Christ. In our Theological Seminary we had some men who were ardent admirers of Dr. John A. Broadus, and their answer to this question, judging from their tones and affected style, was, Be like Dr. Broadus. But I have noticed that none of those ever amounted to much. Their model was greater than their attainments ever became, but yet too small to inspire every sermon preached. I want you to think, then, about Christ as a model for all preachers.
The text tells us that the Spirit of the Lord was upon Him. Every man who stands in the sacred desk without that qualification is not only a failure, but a veritable fraud. A plain man in speaking of the immoralities of the members of certain sects, who have churches in this city, said to me one day, Dr. Riley, it appears strange that men who call themselves Christians should be guilty of drunkenness, profanity and what not, and their churches seem undisturbed about it. But then I know their Pastors well and few of them give any evidence of conversion, and how can the blind lead the blind? Even so!
Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts (Zec 4:6); and if the preacher hasnt that, he is none of Christs, and his work is the most fatal deception ever practiced upon men. The Preacher who came from God and brought God with Him said, The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me (Isa 61:1).
He had a Divine appointment to preach. The Lord hath anointed Me to preach good tidings (Isa 61:1). I sometimes think that men are not insisting upon a call of God as a condition of successful ministry as they used to. For my part, I pity him who enters the profession without such an appointment from Highest Power. A certainty touching that subject is needed often to save the sinking heart from utter discouragement and cause it to hold steadily to its work whatever befall. That was the Saviours support when men hated Him and hissed His truth. A preacher cannot succeed without the same.
Christ had a definite object in preaching! The Gospel to the poor, deliverance to the captives, recovering of sight to the blind. How infinitely above the object that controls some! Not a word in it about flattering some man who can pay considerable pew rent; not a hint about pleasing some irreligious man for the sake of his social influence; not a syllable about proving himself popular! But glad tidings, freedom, vision! Those were objects for which He came. When a ministers motives are less lofty, his most ardent admirers are often busy with apologies for something he has said. There is greater profit any day to stay at home and read the Word of the Lord than to go up to hear him who does not believe in that Word sufficiently to give it prominence in pulpit ministration. He cannot serve His Lord who does not preach this Word for the sake of heart-healing, soul-freedom and sight-giving. Stalker has said, Whenever a preacher strikes correctly a note of eternal truth, it is Christ that does it. Whenever a preacher makes you feel that there is a world of realities above and behind the one you see and touch; whenever he lays hold of your mind, touches your heart, awakens your aspirations, rouses your consciencethat is Christ trying to grasp you, to reach you with His love, to save you. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christs stead, be ye reconciled to God (2Co 5:20).
But our text makes evident the fact that Christ was
The Miraculous Healer.
He hath sent Me to bind up the brokenhearted (Isa 61:1).
Christ was the Greatest of Physicians for the body. After reading the record of His cures, we affirm that the Medical fraternity cant gainsay His work, even if He was an irregular. The withered hand, budding at His Word to perfect proportions and to long-lost strength; the sick mother of Peters wife escaping the clutch of fever by His help; the paralytic of thirty-eight years standing to his feet and bearing away his bed at His command; the insane Gadarene finding his better mind when He rebuked the demons that possessed him; the blind at Jericho getting sight at His touch; and the foul grave of four days occupancy by a corpse, casting forth live Lazarus at His call; all prove what was His power to heal. The civilized world was excited forty-five years ago over the claim of a cure of intemperance, and Keeleys name became a household word. But the permanent cure of him whose character has felt the touch of Gods Son exceeded a thousand fold Keeleys claim. Multitudes have I met already who testified to the truth of my text in the language I heard from the lips of one. In speaking of the institution at Dwight, he said, I hope it is true. I know what it is to be afflicted by intemperance. I know also how powerless many a man is to rid himself of the overmastering passion. I was once a victim, but Jesus Christ healed me ten years ago, and from that hour I have been whole indeed. Truly He was the matchless physician, and is today.
But after all, His healing art never found its best expression until it bound up the broken heart. One is much impressed, in reading Victor Hugos great work, with the calmness and accuracy with which the Old Conventionist-Hermit described his conscious approach of death. You remember he said, I am something of a physician; I know the steps by which death approaches; yesterday my feet were cold; today the cold has crept to my knees; now it has reached the waist; when it touches the heart, all will be over. As I read those words, I thought, Yes, life may be diseased at almost every part and yet survive, but the danger is full at hand when the heart is involved. Equally so in things religiousthat is where the death stroke comes. Break the heart by sin and none can save except the Physician of Souls. But thanks be to Heaven, He can heal even so deep a hurt. In Tremont Temple, Boston, years ago I heard an eloquent appeal in behalf of Spanish Missions. When the speaker had finished his address and was ready to conclude, he said, When I am dead, open my breast, if you will, and in my heart you will discover Spain. Recalling the incident on yesterday, I thought, If after death or before it, my heart could be seen, I wish rather that on its exterior might be traced the healing touches of Gods Son who hath bound it up, and within might be found holiness unto the Lord. Oh, men if any of you have a wretched heart, call Him who can bind it up with the fullness of His own ineffable glory.
But yet another side of His character is touched by our text.
He is the Strong Deliverer.
He hath sent Me * * to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound (Isa 61:1). It was supposed that this promise came to full fruition in the person and work of Cyrus. In Josephus, Cyrus is reported as claiming that this prophecy pointed to him and so he restored the Children of Israel from their bondage, encouraged them to build Jerusalem and resurrect the holy Temple. But, behold! a greater than Cyrus is come. Cyrus could release from Babylons bondage. He could loose feet and hands; he could unbolt the doors of material prisons; and at his word freedom of life and limb came. But what men needed was one who could break the bondage of iniquity, loose the powers of the soul, set ajar the gates of the penitentiaries of sin, and give everlasting liberty to the spirits of men. To that end Christ came. My friend, will you believe that He wants to set you free? When Libby Prison was an awful reality instead of a twenty-five cent museum, and men were wasting with disease and dying of hunger, a boat was reported approaching from City Point. In a little while it was noised abroad that a pardon had been brought for one and he was to be set at liberty. Nine hundred hearts started up in faint hope, for no one knew whom it might be. At last an officer went in and shouted, Capt. Henry Clay Trumbull is at liberty. The Chaplain said his name never had sounded so sweet as it did that day. But glory be to God, Jesus is not confining His proffers of release to one man.
He came to set the captives at liberty, not one, but many. The only reason why any need stay in bondage is because he prefers that to the liberty wherewith Christ would make him free.
But somebody says, I dont prefer it. I am longing for just such liberty, but here are my chains: chains of intemperance, chains of evil companionship, chains of sinful speech, chains everywhere. How can I get free? You are not chained as poor John Newton was by sin, as John Bunyan was by profanity, as Jerry McAuley was by awful habits and vile companions, as Sam Small was by intemperance. They came to Jesus, chains and all, and He broke their bands, snapped the last fetter and set them free. He will give you the liberty of eternal life if you will let Him. Will you? or do you prefer still to limp about your cell of sin and rattle your chains of death?
Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley
THE SIGNS OF A TRUE MINISTRY
Isa. 61:1-3. The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, &c.
This word, in all the beauty and grace of its meaning, was fulfilled in the person and work of Jesus Christ; yet it may be regarded as setting forth the signs of a true service for the Kingdom of God, whether rendered by an individual labourer or by the Church in its collective capacity. Looked at in this light, the text becomes solemn as a judgment-seat, and terrible as the vision of God. It declares
I. THAT THE TRUE MINISTRY IS ALWAYS INSPIRED AND DIRECTED BY THE HOLY GHOST.
That our service may be animated by the Holy Spirit, and should express Divine ideas and purposes, is clear, from the consideration that ours is not an earthly ministry contemplating earthly matters. In working out religious ideas and Christian purposes, it is not the man who has the longest head that can always do the most good; it is the man who saysand says in reverence and humilityI am but a vessel, an instrument, an agent; I am not the master, I am but a servant; Lord God, be thou my inspiration, my strength, and the completeness of my power! (1Co. 2:14). Our service at home, in the school, &c., ought to be more intensely spiritual. Spiritual character, vitality, will exercise a subtle influence, intensify, and extend. Have we the Holy Ghost?
II. THAT THE TRUE MINISTRY IS ANIMATED BY THE SUBLIMEST BENEVOLENCE.
Throughout the statement of the prophet, there is a tone of kindliness, benevolence, sympathy, gentleness, pity for all human sorrow. The keynote of the Gospel is joy; the watchword of the Gospel is liberty. A ministry that interprets human sorrow downward is not of God [1752]
[1752] The great appeal which Christianity makes to the world is this:I come to make human life freer, grander, purer; I come to open worlds in which human life can be more perfectly developed; I come to set man towards man in the relation of brother towards brother; to break the chains of human captivity; to dispel intellectual and moral darkness, and to bring in an unending summer day: and any religion that comes with a profession of that kind, even were it nothing more, will, prim facie, demand to be heard as possibly for God.Dr. Parker.
III. THAT THE TRUE MINISTRY, WHETHER PUBLIC OR PRIVATE, NEVER SHRINKS FROM ITS MORE AWFUL FUNCTIONS (Isa. 61:2).
Without a day of vengeance human history would not be merely poetically incomplete, but morally imperfect. All trampled rights demand a day of vengeance. Peace is impossible so long as impurity is in existence. The day of vengeance will be spiritual [1755]
[1755] You cannot beat a man with rods, and cause him to suffer to the utmost extremity of his capability; you cannot whip a man with cords till you have whipped him enough: every man must be his own scourge. The Spirit of God must be so revealed in a man that he will see himself as he really is, and pronounce his own sentence upon himself, so that he shall turn himself away from heaven, and from life, and from God, and from saints, and say, Yes, it is right; I ought not to be there. When a man gives way so, when his heart collapses, when he says to God, Yes, I am visited with Thy judgments: they are right and true altogether, that is the day of vengeance.Dr. Parker.
APPLICATIONLet us often stand before this text as before a judgment-seat. Have we the Holy Ghost, or is ours but a feeble testimony we have learnt from teachers that have no claim to Divine inspiration? Are we a joy to all that mourn, &c.? are we a terror to evil-doers, &c.?Joseph Parker, D.D., City Temple, pp. 397404.
THE DIVINE PREACHER Of whom saith the prophet this? I. THE SPEAKER. Doubtless Isaiah was called to comfort the exiles in Babylon, But this language is too elevated to apply to him. The speaker is the servant of Jehovah, the Messiah. Jesus, when at Nazareth, appropriated the words to Himself (Luk. 4:28, &c.) Though to all appearance a poor, unlettered peasant, Jesus was appointed to fulfil so high a function. What an evidence of His divinity! II. IN WHOSE NAME AND WITH WHAT AUTHORITY DOES HE SPEAK?
1. The qualification. The Spirit was given without measurethe Spirit of wisdom, of compassion, of help.
2. The commission. The Lord anointed Him. Approved, sanctioned, prospered by the Lord, He must needs possess the attractiveness and the authority ascribed to Him. This is the explanation of His incomparable power. III. TO WHOM DOES HE SPEAK? To the meek, &c. IV. WHAT IS THE NATURE OF THE MESSAGE Good tidings, &c.
1. Of the Fathers interest and care.
2. Of His purpose of salvation.
3. Of redemption, as expressing and carrying out Divine intentions of grace.
4. Of spiritual riches, which the poor of this world might possess.
5. Of everlasting life and happiness.
APPLICATION.
1. Accept Christs offers of grace!
2. Publish the compassion of this Divine Messiah!The Homiletical Library, vol. ii. pp. 123, 124.
I. The moral diseasebroken-heartedness.
By the broken-hearted, I understand those who, in the language of Scripture, sorrow after a godly sort; whose grief is occasioned by sin, in some one of its endlessly varied forms. It may be best understood by a reference to one or two examplespresenting it in its causes, and in its effects and outward features. Brokenness of heart is often the result
1. Of the presence of guilt upon the conscience (Psa. 32:3-4; Psa. 38:1-8).
2. Of a continued feeling of sin, in its strength in the nature (Rom. 7:23-24).
3. Of Gods dealings with the soul, in order to recover it from backsliding (Psalms 51; Jer. 31:18-19).
4. Of seeing sin prevailing in the Church, and among the people of God (Jer. 23:9).
5. Of a season of desertion (Psa. 77:1-9).
6. Of the reproaches, and calumnies, and persecutions of the wicked (Psa. 69:20). If broken-hearted, is it through the sorrow of this life, or sin?
II. The Physician.
1. The sympathy which leads to the healing of the broken-hearted is with God. There are other comforters.
2. He who has come to heal is peculiarly qualified, by His nature and by His experience, for sympathising with the afflictedthe Spirit, the Comforter.
3. The balm which the Physician applies differs according to the different causes of brokenness of heart.
(1.) If unpardoned guiltthe blood and righteousness of Christ (Heb. 9:14).
(2.) If unsubdued singrace, and strength, and purity, secured in the covenant (Eze. 36:25).
(3.) If backslidingthe tokens of reconciliation (Luk. 15:22-24). (4,) If desertion and darknesssupport of faith (Isa. 1:10), restoration of Gods presence.
(5.) If prevailing iniquitythe Sovereignty of God. He can vindicate His glory. He will yet do so.
I. The condition of men by naturethey are captives.
1. Men are not now in their original and native country. The captive, though born in bondage, yet looks away to his fatherland. That man is not in his native and original condition is evident.
(1.) This is an historical factrecorded.
(2.) The evidence of this is to be found in the very nature of man himselffor, He must have a god, and worship. He bears a conscience, recoguising another law than that which he is under. He is still in a state of progression.
2. The expression captives has a reference to the manner in which men became foreigners. There are but two ways in which any can pass into bondagethrough war and stratagem, or through being sold.
3. The expression of the text leads us to look to the state and character of man for the features of captivity.
(1.) Like the captive and slave, man has lost his freedom. He is in bondage to sinto the fleshto the world.
(2.) Like the captive and slave, man has lost his dignity. Of positionas a kings son. Of characteras Godlike, Of employmentas a worshipper of, and a fellow-worker with, God.
(3.) Like the captive and slave, he has lost his couragedenying God, he dreads man.
(4.) Like the captive and slave, there are given to him hard and unrewarded tasks. He is made to fight against Godto destroy himselfto violate conscience.
(5.) Like the captive and slave, he is miserable.
II. The object and office of Christ.
1. Before accomplishing the actual deliverance of man from his captivity, Christ procures the reversal of his sentence of banishment (Gen. 3:24).
2. Before, &c., Christ had to ransom man as a lawful captive, passive. Ransomedredeemedbought, &c.
3. In order that men may be delivered, Christ overthrows the power which has led them captive, and keeps them enslaved (Mat. 12:29; Col. 2:15; Psa. 68:18).
4. Having crushed the oppressor, Christ leads forth His people from their captivity (Isa. 35:10; Isa. 49:25).
5. This He does through preaching (2Co. 10:4-5).
6. That believers are the Lords freemen, is manifest in their character and conduct.
I. The timethe acceptable year of the Lord.
1. Reference is here made to the sabbatical year of the Jews, and especially to the Jubilee (Lev. 25:8-17) [1758]
2. While this law served important political and religious purposes among the Jews, it was typical of the Christian dispensation (Luk. 4:21).
3. As the Jubilee was ushered in by trumpets, so was the Christian dispensation by preaching. Christ is said to have died at the commencement of the last Jubilee observed.
4. We have thus a perpetual Jubilee, and a perpetual sounding of trumpets (Rom. 10:15).
[1758] The allusion in these words is to the Jewish year of Jubilee. The evangelical sense of the term, as it is to be here understood, is confirmed by the fact that when the Saviour preached in the synagogue this was His text, and He announced the fulfilment of the prophecy from the advent of the dispensation of the Gospel.
The Jewish year of Jubilee was a political institution intended for wise purposes. It was to prevent the oppression of the poor, to guard against the miserly accumulations of the rich, and to preserve the ancient patrimony of families, notwithstanding personal reverses, as a sort of inalienable entail. As in the year of Jubilee all slaves that had sold themselves, in the liquidation of their debts into bondage were liberated, and all property that had been temporarily alienated reverted to its original owner, there was a sort of equality retained amid the tribes, the balance of society was preserved, and an effectual check was put upon the system of confiscation and bondage, which might otherwise have become an unmitigated feudalism. With the Jubilee, however, as a political institution, we have not now to deal: our object is to show that like almost everything else in Jewish polity or ritual, it set forth in shadow the deliverances of the new and better covenant. The analogies are plenteous and significant.
If you study the history of the Jewish Jubilee, you will find
1. That IT COMMENCED AT THE CLOSE OF THE DAY OF ATONEMENT. Of the solemnities of that day, you are doubtless aware. It was after these solemnities, after the prostrate knee and afflicted soul, after the ensanguined altar and the banished trespass offering, after the humbled entrance into the holiest and the exulting emergence from it, that the solemnities of the Sabbatical year began. Scarcely had the priests voice been hushed, scarcely had the last echoing benediction from his lips reached and thrilled the furthest of the crowd, before the sound of the trumpet, caught up and transmitted through all the Jewish city, proclaimed the commencement of the year of Jubilee. Is not this a type of the way in which spiritual blessings are exclusively introduced to mankind.
There could be no Jubilee for us, a race of lost and guilty rebels taken in arms, traitors convicted of treason, unless an all-prevalent atonement had previously purchased our pardon. A criminal does not rejoice in the interval between the sentence and its execution. The atonement is the exclusive source of safety and happiness for man. Apart from its reconciling provisions there is a curse upon humanity which no sorcery of the worlds wizardry can charm away. And all complacency which men may feel, and all good of which they may imagine themselves possessed, are but delusive as the midnight dream. There can be no peace, or if there be it is a peace which God hath not spoken, like the treacherous calm just outside the eddy of the maelstrm, which only speeds the doomed vessel into the cruel eddy of its waves. There can be no hope, or if there be it will have no freedom from the blush of shame, and no steadfast anchorage by which to hold. There can be no joy, or if there be it will be a baseless and fugitive emotion, transient as the dew, but not like the dew, melting into the light of heaven. Peace and hope and joy for renovated man can come in happy jubilee only from the Atonement of Christ.
2. Among the blessings of the Jubilee there was REST FROM EXHAUSTING LABOUR.
By a providential arrangement, similar to that which secured a double supply of manna on the sixth day, the land had unusual fertility in the sixth year, so that in the seventh, which was the ordinary, and in the fiftieth, which was the special Sabbatical year, there was a suspension of the common duties of husbandry. Both the land and the labourers had rest, and yet the supply did not fail, for there was plenty in every barn, and there was gladness in every heart. Profane history tells and confirms what scoffing unbelief might otherwise have regarded as a tale, for we are told by Josephus, an impartial historian certainly, that in the time of Alexander the Great, there was special exemption from taxes during the Sabbatical year, and after the return from captivity the Sabbatical year was reverently and constantly maintained.
3. THE RESTORATION OF ALIENATED PROPERTY.
4. THE RESTORATION OF FREEDOM.W. M. Punshon, LL.D.: The Penny Pulpit, No. 3397.
II. The circumstances which render this year, or season, acceptable or joyous.
If we advert to the year of Jubilee, these will become apparent.
III. The ground on which this year, or season, has become acceptable.
1. The ground of its being acceptable is suggested in Lev. 25:9. It commenced on the day of atonement.
2. By His work of atonement Christ has procured
(1.) The remission of sins (Act. 13:38-39).
(2.) Deliverance from prison and bondage (Gal. 5:1).
(3.) Our lost inheritance (Eph. 1:13-14).
(4.) He has produced mutual love (Joh. 13:34-35).
3. It is only in Christ that the privileges of this year can be offeredthat you can reach them. These blessings are as free to all, as were those of the Jubilee to the Jews.
IV. The acceptable season is limiteda year.
1. The whole Gospel dispensation, which must come to a close.
2. This life, as respects individuals. There are no years in hell. It matters not to those there, that there is grace here.
3. See that it mean not something still shorterthe season of the strivings of Gods Spirit.
Practical lessons.
1. That we come to God in Christimmediately.
2. That we sound the silver trumpet of the Gospel, and proclaim the Jubilee of the world.
I. A leading employment of Christ as Mediatorpreaching.
1. The grand instrument for establishing this kingdom.
2. Christ still fulfils this inspired declaration variously. By the inspired writingsoften alone. By a standing ministry. By the lives of consistent believers, &c.
3. Look to Christ as your teacher.
4. Seek to be an instrument, or mouth to Christ. II. The subject of Christs preachingthe Gospel. III. The persons to whom Christ preached.James Stewart: Outlines, pp. 1728.
The world seems to echo and re-echo with the groans of the suffering. We can form no adequate conception of the widespread misery that exists. Surely, if ever there was a time when Messiah could prove the power of His grace to comfort those who suffer it is now. Has He given such proof? Let facts speak. See the dying who have heeded His story. In our own experience we find no helper in sorrow like the Lord. In health and prosperity we may undervalue His succouring grace; but whenever we are brought into circumstances of sore distress, we find no arm but His can support us.
I. He is an appreciative comforter. Strictly speaking, Jesus is the only appreciative comforter. We wish to be, but fail through incapacity. Let us not say, No one knows what I feel. He knows the very degree, &c. II. He is a sympathetic comfortersuffers with us. III. He is a wise comforter. IV. The main truth is, He is an intelligent comforter.
It is He alone that brings to us the true explanation of suffering. The world without Him regard it as a penal arrangement; Christ shows us sorrow is discipline; that those who suffer most should be the best. We had never found this out apart from revelation. Whatever nature shrinks from we deem obnoxious. Take heed lest you miss the blessing of woe. Sorrow is discipline. Those who suffer most become the worst, unless they become the best. The child who is corrected either becomes more obedient or more way ward. Christ shows us sorrow is not misfortune. In the article of sorrow, spiritual prosperity may be as great as at any other time. Amidst the wildest storm the vessel may be borne on a strong current towards the desired haven. The most fertilising rain may descend at midnight. In the seven-time heated furnace the Hebrews walked with God.Stems and Twigs: second series, pp. 255257.
CHRISTS MISSION. I. The great distinction in which our Lord exulted. II. The great message our Lord had to deliver. III. The great work our Lord had to accomplish.J. P. Chown: Christian World Pulpit, vol. x., pp. 4952.
I. The anointing of the Lord Jesus. The Spirit communicated. The manner. The measure. II. The object for which He was anointed.Studies for the Pulpit, Part I., pp. 318320.
I. The qualification. II. Work. III. Aim of a true minister of Christ.Dr. Lyth.
I. The auspicious day on which the Jubilee commenced. II. The valuable privileges the Jubilee secured. III. The publicity with which the Jubilee was announced.J. Rawlinson.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
B. REJOICING OF ZION, CHAPTER 61
1. FREEDOM
TEXT: Isa. 61:1-4
1
The Spirit of the Lord Jehovah is upon me; because Jehovah hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;
2
to proclaim the year of Jehovahs favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn;
3
to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them a garland for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of Jehovah, that he may be glorified.
4
And they shall build the old wastes, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the waste cities, the desolations of many generations.
QUERIES
a.
Who is me in verse one?
b.
What is the year of Jehovahs favor?
c.
How shall the desolations of many generations be rebuilt?
PARAPHRASE
The Servant says, The Sovereign God will send Me in all the fulness of His Sovereign Spirit because His mission for Me is to deliver the message of the good news of redemption. The Spirit of God upon Me will be the sign that I come with His authority. My mission is to heal men who have been broken in heart and spirit by sin, to declare liberation for all those who have been made prisoners of sin and to announce that the time Jehovah has set in His schedule to be gracious and conciliatory toward sinful man has arrived. Yes, I am to be sent to comfort and strengthen all who are mourning in Zion for spiritual help. I am going to give them a crown of beauty in exchange for the ashes of affliction they have had to suffer, anointing of My Spirit for joy in exchange for their mourning; I am going to wrap them in divine praise and take away their heaviness of heart. I am going to do this so that My New Zion may be established and stabilized like firmly rooted trees. After I have done this no winds or storms of affliction shall uproot them. The ancient house of Israel which for hundreds and hundreds of years has been in ruin and disarray will be rebuilt by these people whom I will liberate from the prison-house of sin.
COMMENTS
Isa. 61:1-2 MESSAGE: The me of verse one can be none other than the Servant of Jehovah, the Messiah. We have divine sanction for that verified by the Servant Himself in the synagogue of Nazareth (Luk. 4:21). Jesus read these verses from the scroll of Isaiah and applied them directly to His own incarnate ministry by saying, Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your ears. The Greek peplerotai is perfect tense for has been fulfilled and would read more literally, has been and is continuing to be fulfilled. From the moment Jesus was born until the Christian dispensation shall close and the gospel cease to be preached, what Isaiah wrote in these verses is being fulfilled. And the Servant is the source of it all. The Hebrew reads, ruach adonay yehoih, or literally, spirit of Lord Jehovah. Adonay is the Hebrew word which suggests Judge or Master. It is like kurios in Greek. Yehoih is translated Jehovah and suggests Covenant-Revealer. This combination of divine character was the ruach (Spirit) which was upon Jesus. God gave His Spirit to Jesus without measure (Joh. 3:34). The reason Jesus needed this full anointing of the Godhead was His mission to a world of rebel prisoners enslaved by a supernatural devil. God anointed Jesus with the Holy Spirit (Act. 10:38) so that in Jesus dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead bodily (Col. 1:19; Col. 2:9). To anoint (the Hebrew word mashah is anoint and is the word from which we get Messiah) meant to crown as kingto give authority. Jesus authority to proclaim good tidings from heaven was demonstrated by the miracles and signs confirming His deity. He demonstrated He had authority on earth to forgive sins by making the lame to walk and giving sight to the blind and raising the dead.
The Hebrew word for meek is anah and means afflicted, oppressed, ravished, miserable, poor. This is an excellent word to describe those who know they are in need of help. It indicates the kind of person who would be glad to hear good news from God. Jesus pronounced a blessing upon those who were poor in spirit (Mat. 5:3-12). Brokenhearted is from the Hebrew shavar meaning fractured, distressed, sorrowing. This is why the Servant is sent to those who are mourningsin has fractured their livesthey are disintegrating. Jesus was sent to bring them wholeness and to bind them up.
The Servant came to announce liberty to the captives and release to those who were bound. The Hebrew word for liberty is deror and was used in connection with the Year of Jubilee (Lev. 25:10; Eze. 46:17, etc.) when bond-slaves were set free and land taken in payment for debts was returned to its original owners. The Mosaic Year of Jubilee was evidently intended to typify the messianic time. Christ came to bind our jailor (the devil) and free us (Mat. 12:25-30; Heb. 2:14-15; 1Jn. 3:8-9; Rev. 20:1-6). We have allowed Satan, by choosing sin, to imprison us in falsehood, lawlessness, fear and selfishness. The Servant of God sets us free from that prison (see Special Study on Liberty Is Not License). The Hebrew word for Jubilee is yovil, from yaval, which means, protracted sound of the trumpet, signifying that a very important, once-in-a-lifetime announcement is about to be made.
Of course, most of the Jews expected Jesus in the synagogue at Nazareth (Luk. 4:16-30) to interpret this physically. That was the traditional interpretation of the rabbis (see comments on Isaiah 53). When Jesus talked of food they wanted bread and fish; when He talked of wholeness they wanted limbs restored; when He talked of freedom they wanted foreign rulers driven from their land. But circumstances are not what constitute the Kingdom of Godit is character, (Rom. 14:17).
Hebrew qara means proclaim, call out, shout, cry, summon. The Servant became The Prophet, The Apostle. He was sent not only to live a godly life and to do miraculous things; He was sent to preach and teach the will of God for every other individual in the world. That was really His fundamental missionaccomplishing atonement and preaching the gospel. His miracles were simply means to that end. The Hebrew word ratzah is translated favor (or acceptable) and means delightful, pleasurable, gracious. The Servant came to announce the precise time God chose in His divine schedule of redemption to accomplish His grace toward man. In the fulness of time God sent forth His Son . . . (Gal. 4:4). The Servant of the Lord was anointed to summon all men to the year (or appointed time) of the Lords pleasure or conciliation. And the day of vengeance was part of the Servants announcement. All through the O.T. prophets, in highly figurative language, God promises (in the last days of the O.T. dispensation) He is going to defeat His foes in one great battle (Joe. 2:30 to Joe. 3:21; Eze. 38:1 to Eze. 39:29; Zec. 9:9 to Zec. 10:12; Zec. 12:1-14; Zec. 14:1-21; etc.), and give His people victory. That great battle was at Calvary and the great victory over Satan was there and at the empty tomb. The principalities and powers were triumphed over publicly and shamed at the cross (Col. 2:15).; when He ascended on high He led captivity captive (Eph. 4:8). Of course, the final and consummate vengeance of God will come at the end of this year of grace (end of the Christian dispensation, which are the last days, or end of all ages, 1Co. 10:11). But this year is the only year God has sent His Servant to announce. Now is the acceptable time . . . Today is the day of salvation! (cf. 2Co. 6:1-2). The defeat of Gods enemies and His victory is the source of comfort for Zion. The Hebrew word nakham (translated comfort) is very appropriate here for it means consoled, eased, freed.
Isa. 61:3-4 MISSION: The Hebrew word pheer, translated garland. means more precisely, an ornamental headdress, or adorning tiara. The Servant-Messiah accomplishes more than conquestHe brings coronation to His people (cf. Rom. 8:31-39). He makes it possible for believers to sit with Him in the heavenly places (Eph. 2:6). His followers are crowned and reign with Him over death and all other circumstances. (cf. 1Co. 5:9-13; Heb. 11:7; 1Co. 3:21-22; Rev. 5:10). The Servant anoints His followers with the oil of gladness by the anointing of the Holy Spirit (cf. 2Co. 1:21; 1Jn. 2:26-27) which is the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit and the down payment on the believers future inheritance (cf. Eph. 1:14), The maeteh is from the root ataph meaning to cover for protection, or, cloak, veil. A man may, so to speak, wrap himself in his human moods as a defense mechanism. Human moods and emotions are no protection; they are capricious, vulnerable to circumstances and temporal. Instead of human moods which are so manipulative and conducive to despair, the Servant will wrap His followers in a protective cloak of praise. If our lives are wrapped in praise to Jehovah we are protected from the manipulative capriciousness of human emotions which are so subject to circumstances. The object of our hearts desires and hopes is The Almighty, Never Varying, Always Faithful God and so we do not ever need to despair (cf. 2Co. 1:8-11). The Servant will dress His people up richly like the father dressed the prodigal son when he returned home (cf. Luk. 15:22-24). All the despair and heaviness will be forgotten when the Messiah brings Gods sons home! The Messiah will give His followers beauty (righteousness) and stability (trees, planting of Jehovah) (cf. Psa. 1:1-3). The messianic people are going to be established as Gods people and nothing can snatch them out of the Shepherds hand (cf. Joh. 10:27-28). No human, no spiritual power, no circumstance can take away their beauty. All this, of course, brings glory to the one so clothed, but ultimately to the One doing the dressing. The real glory went to the father of the prodigal because he exhibited such mercy, love and forgiveness.
The Servants followers will build up the ancient ruins. The house (tabernacle, dynasty, family) of David was in ruins. Davids house was the house of messianic destiny. Davids throne was the throne reserved for the Messiah. But those who were sitting on Davids throne in the days of the prophets scorned and usurped its messianic destiny. They violently rebelled against Gods purposes for this throne of David and had brought it to shame and ruin. Amos predicted that the house of David (tabernacle of David) would be rebuilt (Amo. 9:11-12). Amos prophecy was fulfilled when the Gentiles were brought into the messianic kingdom (the church) (cf. Act. 15:12-21). We have already commented on this rebuilding (cf. Isa. 59:10, etc.). The church is built as a dwelling place of God in the Spirit (Eph. 2:22); Christians are living stones built into a spiritual house (1Pe. 2:4-8).
QUIZ
1.
What proof do we have that this is a messianic prophecy?
2.
What character is suggested in the Spirit by which the Servant is anointed?
3.
Who are the meek?
4.
What kind of liberty will the Messiah bring?
5.
What is the garment of praise?
6.
How will the Messiahs followers rebuild the ruins of generations?
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
LXI.
(1) The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me . . .We have obviously a new poem in the form of a soliloquy, and we ask, Who is the speaker.? The Jewish Targum and many modern critics hear only the voice of Isaiah. Guided by Isa. 41:1; Isa. 1:4-9, we recognise here, as there, the utterance of the ideal Servant of Jehovah. That view, it needs scarcely be said, is the one suggested to all Christian minds by our Lords application of the passage to His own work in Luk. 4:16-22. The opening words repeat what had been said by Jehovah of the Servant in Isa. 42:1. The anointing, as it stands, might be that of king (1Sa. 9:16; 1Sa. 10:1), or priest (Exo. 29:2; Lev. 7:36), or prophet (1Ki. 19:16). As interpreted by its fulfilment, it may be held to include all three.
To preach good tidings . . .Comp. Note on Isa. 40:9. To this passage, more than any other, even than Isa. 40:9, we may trace the use of the word gospel (evangel, good tidings) in our Lords teaching and that of the Apostles. Claiming the promise as fulfilled in Himself, He became the great evangelist, and all who followed Him were called to the same office.
To bind up the broken-hearted . . .The primary thought is that of a healing bandage applied to the hearts wounds. (Comp. 1:6), The Servant of Jehovah is the great physician as well as the evangelist.
To proclaim liberty.Phrase and thought are taken from the law of the Year of Jubilee (Lev. 25:10; Eze. 46:17; Jer. 34:8).
The opening of the prison.The LXX., adopted in Luk. 4:18, gives recovery of sight to the blind; and as the verb is never used for the opening of a room or door, and is used in Isa. 35:5; Isa. 42:7, for the opening of the eyes, that is probably its meaning here.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
1-3. The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me Upon whom? The use which our Lord Jesus Christ at Nazareth (Luk 4:16-22) made of these words must decide that he made himself the person meant. He declared himself herein the predicted and divinely anointed Servant of Jehovah; and that he had brought glad tidings of redemption to his people. The passages in Isa 42:6-7; Isa 59:20-21, point out the same idea. He (the “Lord God”) hath sent me The “Servant of Jehovah,” the “Messiah.” See Psa 45:7; also Mar 1:1, and Act 10:38. The jubilee phrases are figures expressive of the work really wrought by Christ at his visible advent. The phrases are as follows: “The meek,” “the brokenhearted,” “the captives,” that is, to sin; “the prison-opening,” “the acceptable year,” “the mourners in Zion,” etc. All these were terms of jubilee specialty, and the objects mentioned were those upon which Jesus was tenderly compassionate.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
The Anointed One Declares His Mission ( Isa 61:1-4 ).
Isa 61:1-2
“The Spirit of the Lord Yahweh is upon me,
Because Yahweh has anointed me,
To preach good tidings to the meek (or ‘the poor’),
He has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives,
And the opening to those who are bound,
To proclaim the acceptable year of Yahweh,
And the day of vengeance of our God.
To comfort all who mourn.”
We have here the abrupt change of person so typical in the passages about the Servant (Isa 42:1-4; Isa 49:1-6; Isa 50:3-8; Isa 52:13 to Isa 53:12). At one moment Zion is being addressed, and then in the midst of it comes the voice of one who serves God.
The One described here is God’s Anointed. This can be contrasted with Cyrus in Isa 45:1. There Cyrus was the anointed of Yahweh, because Yahweh had set him aside for a certain task, but there is no mention of the Spirit there, for in Isaiah the Spirit only ever comes in a good sense on those Who are truly His and have a central task to perform in the final course of the salvation history (Isa 11:2; Isa 28:6; Isa 42:1; Isa 59:21; see also Isa 32:15; Isa 44:3). The Spirit comes in directly to frustrate the enemies of God (Isa 59:19).
Here the majesty of the Spirit is brought out. He is the Spirit of the sovereign Lord Yahweh, and it is the sovereign Lord Yahweh Who will act directly and personally through Him. And the Spirit-endowed One is so endowed because Yahweh has anointed Him for a special task, to be a preacher (Isa 50:4-9), a healer of the spirit (Isa 42:7), a deliverer (Isa 11:1-4; Isa 42:1-6; Isa 49:1-6) and a proclaimer of God’s final purposes, not final in respect of what some call ‘the end times’, but final in the sense that once God begins to act mightily through His Spirit nothing can stop the purposes that then begin from going onwards until God’s purposes are complete (Isa 55:10-11), (though it may take a thousand years and more). Thus He is both Servant and King.
The task He has been set is manifold. As a Teacher He is to be a preacher of good tidings to the poor and meek, those too weak to help themselves (Isa 50:4-5; Isa 52:7), as a spiritual Counsellor (Isa 9:6) He is to bind up the broken-hearted (Isa 57:15; Psa 51:9), as a Redeemer (Isa 59:20-21) He is to proclaim freedom to those who are captive (Isa 42:7, compare Lev 25:10; Jer 34:8-10 where it is related to the Year of Yubile, that year when all who were oppressed or in bondage were released), and the opening of the prison gates to those who are bound (Isa 42:7), and will proclaim Yahweh’s year of deliverance (Isa 59:20-21), and as the Mighty Warrior He will come with vengeance on those who rebel against God (Isa 59:17-19; Isa 63:1-6). And while He exacts His vengeance He will comfort all who mourn over their sins as a Wonderful Counsellor (Isa 9:6).
Note the process of restoration. The poor and meek were those whom men disregarded, but it is they whom He will lift up (Mat 5:3; Mat 5:5). Broken-heartedness covers a variety of attitudes and situations for the heart was considered to be the very root of a man’s life. It covers grief, despair, misery, hopelessness, man without a future. But he will receive his future from God through the Anointed One.
For the captive and the prisoner life was over. They were no longer free to enjoy all that life had to offer. They were in subjection. But for them would come deliverance through Him. Those who mourned were those who were aware of loss and despair. They will be comforted (Mat 5:4). It is to man in his weakness and helplessness that the Anointed One has come.
It is significant that when Jesus quoted these words He closed the book after the words, ‘the acceptable year of Yahweh’. By this He made clear that the prophecy was to be fulfilled in stages. The work of deliverance and restoration had begun. the completion of His task would come later. Not all would occur at once (Luk 4:16-21).
‘The Lord Yahweh.’ This title is fairly rare in the second part of the book, but it begins and ends this chapter. It is a title of sovereignty. The Lord Yahweh is the One Who will come to establish His sovereign rule (Isa 40:10); He is the One Who with His Spirit sent the Servant to his task (Isa 48:16); He is the One Who will command the nations and gather His people (Isa 49:22; Isa 56:8); He is the One Who will train and sustain His Servant (Isa 50:4-9); He is the One who will deliver and redeem His people from all oppression (Isa 52:3-6); He is the One Who here endows His Anointed One for His task and will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all nations (Isa 61:1; Isa 61:11); and He is the One Who will bring judgment on those who forsake Him and blessing on those who respond to Him (Isa 65:13-15).
‘The acceptable year of Yahweh’ or ‘year of Yahweh’s favour (acceptance)’. Compare Isa 49:8 where ‘the acceptable time’ is linked with the work of the Servant, and Isa 60:7 where the nations who come are received as ‘acceptable’ in their offerings to Yahweh. It is the year in which Yahweh comes with the offer of acceptance, the offer of His grace and favour. The use of ‘year’ may be seen as confirming connection with the year of Yubile. It is the period of deliverance and new freedom. The contrast with ‘day’ might also suggest a longer period is in mind, with the period of restoration and deliverance brought about by the favour of God being followed by the final, shorter period of vengeance.
Isa 61:3
“To appoint to those who mourn in Zion,
To give to them a garland crown for ashes,
The oil of joy for mourning,
The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness,
That they might be called trees of righteousness,
The planting of Yahweh,
That he might be glorified.
His task is to transform the lives and experiences of God’s own true people. He will bring about their transformation from mourning and weeping to total joy. The ashes (’pr) of mourning smeared on the head will be replaced by the garland crown (p’r) of rejoicing. Men put ashes on themselves when they wished to demonstrate their total misery and despair. They put garland crowns on themselves or others when they wished to express happiness and rejoicing. The Anointed One will remove the ashes of mourning and replace them with a garland crown of rejoicing.
Mourning will be replaced by the application of the oil of joy. When in mourning men had no regard for their appearance, but once their balance was restored they would anoint themselves with oil so that they could appear before the world in full respectability.
For the spirit of heaviness and dullness we may compare the use of the same root in the ‘dimly burning wick’ (Isa 42:3). It is man at his lowest. It will be replaced by the garment of praise. They will be lifted from their state of misery and dejection, in which they are spiritually naked, to being fully clothed as expressed in praise and worship and contentment. We might see in the background the dejected Adam and Eve, bowed down by being caught in sin and found naked before God, and then being clothed by God so that they were once more acceptable to Him and gave Him glad praise (Gen 3:21).
His people will become mighty trees of righteousness, those who have been planted by Yahweh to represent Him and fulfil His work and do His will, and to bring glory to His name. Large trees were seen as the product of many decades. They took a long time to grow. As such they were much treasured and carefully protected. Even the enemy, apart from the unconcerned and uncaring, the vindictive nations like Assyria, would seek not to harm the trees, for they were the future for whoever dwelt in the land. Thus God’s own are to be like mighty trees, planted by Him, firmly established, permanent, a testimony to the glory of God.
The ‘naming’ of them as ‘trees of righteousness’ indicates a new beginning. A new name was regularly given to depict a new beginning (compare Gen 17:5-6; Gen 32:27-28). The ‘large trees of righteousness’ are probably to be contrasted with the large trees in the gardens of idolatry (Isa 1:29; Isa 57:5), the latter replaced by those of God’s planting. The world will finally not to look to false religion but to His people.
Isa 61:4
‘And they will build the old waste places,
They will raise up the former desolations,
And they will repair the waste cities,
The desolations of many generations.’
The picture is one of total restoration. Nothing will be left waste, nothing will remain desolate. Centuries of devastation will be restored. All will be made perfect. All man’s destructive work will be put right. The thought is of much work to be done in order to establish God’s righteous kingdom, put here in physical terms because it was the only way in which his hearers could conceive of it. It is not without significance that the New Testament regularly depicts God’s people as builders (Mat 7:24; Rom 15:20; 1Co 3:9-10; Eph 2:20-22; Col 2:7; 1Pe 2:5; Jud 1:20). And they have continued building through the ages and will continue to do so until the final brick is in place.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
THE COMING OF THE DELIVERER AND THE ESTABLISHMENT OF ZION ( Isa 59:15 to Isa 62:12 ).
Isaiah wanted them to know that God sees their desperate condition and determines to act. He looks for a man, someone to stand in the gap, but there is none. So He Himself acts. He will step in on behalf of His people. He will bring them a Deliverer, a Redeemer, One Who is clothed in righteousness and salvation, and also One Who is clothed in vengeance and zealousness for God. He is concerned with redemption in righteousness, and judgment on unrighteousness. On the one hand He will deal with their enemies and on the other He will come as a Redeemer to Zion, to those who turn from transgression in Jacob, and put His Spirit on them and put His words in their mouths, in such a way that they will never again depart.
But note how in parallel with God rising to act, there will be those who are turning from transgression in Jacob (in sinful Israel). His action and His people’s repentance go together. There can be no deliverance that does not result in repentance. He will not deliver an unrepentant people.
In these chapters Isaiah rises to a new height in his conception of Zion. And we have to stop and consider what he means by Zion.
In Isaiah Zion is looked at from different aspects. On the one hand there is the mundane city of Jerusalem which is fallen and rejected, and symbolic of Israel as a whole, although enjoying a certain measure of protection ‘for David’s sake’. This will eventually be restored (Isa 1:1; Isa 1:8; Isa 2:1; Isa 3:1; Isa 3:8; Isa 3:16; Isa 7:1; Isa 10:12; Isa 10:24; Isa 10:32; Isa 14:32; Isa 16:1; Isa 22:10; Isa 31:4-5; Isa 31:9; Isa 33:14; Isa 36:2; Isa 36:7; Isa 36:20; Isa 37:10; Isa 37:22; Isa 37:32; Isa 40:9; Isa 41:27; Isa 49:14; Isa 52:7-9; Isa 64:10; Isa 66:8), as indeed it was. Then there is the Jerusalem/Zion which is almost synonymous with the people (‘we’ Isa 1:9; Isa 4:4; Isa 5:3; Isa 8:14; Isa 10:10-12; Isa 22:21; Isa 28:14; Isa 30:19; Isa 52:2; Isa 65:18-19). Here it is not the city which is important but the people. (Compare how in Zec 2:6-7 ‘Zion’ represents the exiles). And finally there is the Jerusalem/Zion from which will go God’s message to the world (Isa 2:4; Isa 62:6-7), the Jerusalem/Zion which is the city of God, the ‘earthly’ dwellingplace of Yahweh in which dwells His glory, with its central mount rising up to heaven (Isa 2:2), in contrast with the world city (often seen as Babylon) which is the seat of all evil, which will be toppled from its high place (Isa 26:5-6; compare Isa 24:21-22; Isa 25:2). Here Zion is the future glorious Jerusalem, which has eternal connections and will be part of the everlasting kingdom (Isa 1:27; Isa 4:3-5; Isa 12:6; Isa 18:7; Isa 24:23; Isa 26:1-4; Isa 28:16; Isa 30:19; Isa 33:5; Isa 33:20; Isa 35:10; Isa 46:13; Isa 51:3; Isa 51:11; Isa 51:16; Isa 52:1; Isa 59:20; Isa 60:14; Isa 61:3; Isa 62:1; Isa 62:11; Isa 65:18-19; Isa 66:10; Isa 66:13; Isa 66:20). It is more than a city. It represents the whole future of the people of God, including their hopes of living in His presence, and takes in all God’s people. It is this last view of Zion which is prominent in Isa 59:15 toIsa 62:12.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Isa 61:1 The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;
Isa 61:1
Isa 61:1 Scripture References – Note a similar verse:
Psa 102:20, “To hear the groaning of the prisoner; to loose those that are appointed to death;”
Isa 61:2 To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn;
Isa 61:2
Isa 58:5, “Is it such a fast that I have chosen? a day for a man to afflict his soul? is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the LORD ?”
Scripture References – Note:
Isa 49:8, “Thus saith the LORD, In an acceptable time have I heard thee, and in a day of salvation have I helped thee: and I will preserve thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, to establish the earth, to cause to inherit the desolate heritages;”
2Co 6:2, “(For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.)”
Isa 61:3 To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified.
Isa 61:3
How do you overcome spirit of heaviness Praise the Lord!
Isa 61:1-3 Comments – Jesus’ Earthly Ministry – The purpose of Jesus coming for an earthly ministry is revealed in Isa 61:3. One of his returns in Revelation is to execute judgment upon the enemy. One coming is to receive those of the first resurrection. Thus, in Joh 10:10 Jesus came the first time for us to have an abundant life.
Joh 10:10, “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly .”
Compare Isa 61:1-3 to Isa 58:6-9. The nation of Israel had not been letting the captive go free. Rather, they had been bringing the people into bondage. But, Jesus will come and set the captives free.
Isa 61:10 I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels.
Isa 61:10
[88] Jesse Duplantis, Heaven Close Encounters of the God Kind (Tulsa, Oklahoma: Harrison House, 1996), 72.
Isa 61:11 For as the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden causeth the things that are sown in it to spring forth; so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations.
Israel’s Redemption – The chapters that follow the prophecy of Christ’s sufferings in Isa 53:1-12 tell the children of God to rejoice; for Christ has given them the victory over sin, death and the grave. However, these chapters speak of Christ’s redemption from the perspective of the nation of Israel rather than from the perspective of the Gentiles; for the book of Isaiah contains prophecies of the future destiny of Israel. Later in redemptive history, the Church will be grafted into these prophecies as members of the Kingdom of Heaven.
The Lord’s Year of Jubilee.
v. 1. The Spirit of the Lord God, v. 2. to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, v. 3. to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty, v. 4. And they shall build the old wastes, v. 5. And strangers, v. 6. But ye, v. 7. For your shame ye shall have double, v. 8. For I, the Lord, love judgment, I hate robbery for burnt offering, v. 9. And their seed, v. 10. I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, v. 11. For as the earth bringeth forth her bud, SECTION VIII.SOLILOQUY OF THE SERVANT OF THE LORD, WHO PROMISES GLORY AND PROSPERITY TO JERUSALEM
(Isa 61:1-11; Isa 62:1-12.).
EXPOSITION
Isa 61:1-3
THE MISSION OF THE SERVANT OF THE LORD. The words of our Lord in Luk 4:21, “This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears,” preclude the application of this passage to any other than the Lord himself. It is simply astonishing that some Christian commentators (Ewald, Hitzig, Knobel) have not seen the force of this argument, but, with the Jews, imagine the prophet to be speaking of his own ministry. It is contrary to the entire spirit of Isaiah’s writings so to glorify himself, and specially unsuitable that, after having brought forward with such emphasis the Person of “the Servant” (Isa 42:1-8; Isa 49:1-12; Isa 1:4-9; Isa 52:13-15; Isa 53:1-12), he should proceed to take his place, and to “ascribe to himself those very same official attributes which he has already set forth as characteristic features in his portrait of the predicted One” (Delitzsch). Hence most recent commentators, whatever their school of thought, have acquiesced in the patristic interpretation, which regarded the Servant of Jehovah as here speaking of himself.
Isa 61:1
The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; literally, the Spirit of the Lord Jehovah (Adonai Jehovah) is upon me. The Septuagint, the Vulgate, and one manuscript omit adonai. In the original announcement of “the Servant” it was stated that God had “put his Spirit upon him” (Isa 42:1). The sanctification of our Lord’s human nature by the Holy Spirit is very explicitly taught in the Gospels. The Lord hath anointed me. The “anointing” of Jesus was that sanctification of his human nature by the Holy Spirit, which commenced in the womb of the blessed Virgin (Luk 1:35), which continued as he grew to manhood (Luk 2:40, Luk 2:52), which was openly manifested at his baptism, and never ceased till he took his body and soul with him into heaven. Of this spiritual anointing, all material unction, whether under the Law (Le Isa 8:10-12, 30; 1Sa 10:1; 1Sa 16:13; 1Ki 1:39; 1Ki 19:15,1Ki 19:16, etc.) or under the gospel (Mar 6:13; Jas 5:14), was symbolical or typical. To preach good tidings (comp. Isa 40:9; Isa 41:27; Isa 52:7; and Nah 1:15). Unto the meek (see Mat 5:5; Mat 11:29; and comp. Isa 11:4; Isa 29:19). To bind up the broken-hearted. “Binding up” is an ordinary expression in Isaiah’s writings for “healing” (see Isa 1:6; Isa 3:7; Isa 30:26). To proclaim liberty to the captives. This was one of the special offices of “the Servant” (see Isa 42:7). The “captivity” intended is doubtless that of sin. And the opening of the prison to them that are bound. St. Luke, following the Septuagint, has, “and recovering of sight to the blind.” It is thought by some that the original Hebrew text has been corrupted. Others regard the Septuagint rendering as a paraphrase.
Isa 61:2
To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. An “acceptable year,” or “year of acceptance,” is a space of time during which God would be pleased to accept such as repented and turned to him. It is, of course, not intended to limit the space to a “year.” The space is rather the term of our sojourn here below. The day of vengeance. The “day” of vengeance is contrasted with the “year” of acceptance, to indicate God’s long-suffering and patience towards sinners (comp. Isa 34:8; and see also Exo 20:5, Exo 20:6). To comfort all that mourn; i.e. all who “sorrow after a godly sort” (2Co 7:11)all who mourn their transgressions and shortcomings, their “sins, negligences, and ignorances,” with a hearty desire to be rid of them, and to serve God truly in the future.
Isa 61:3
To appoint to give. The latter expression is a correction of the former, which was not wide enough. Messiah is sent to give to the godly mourners
(1) beauty for ashes; or “a crown for ashes,” i.e. a crown of glory in lieu of the ashes of repentance which it was customary to sprinkle upon the head;
(2) the oil of joy for mourning; or the anointing of the Spirit in lieu of that plenteousness of tears which naturally belonged to mourners; and
(3) the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, or a glad heart inclined to praise God, in lieu of a heavy one inclined to despair. Christian experience witnesses to the abundant accomplishment of all these purposes. That they might be called trees of righteousness; literally, oaks of righteousness, or strong and enduring plants in the garden of God, planted by him, in order that through them he might be glorified. Nothing gives so much glory to God as the proved righteousness of his saints. The planting of the Lord; i.e. “which he has planted” and caused to grow, and rendered righteous. The righteousness, though it is their own, an indwelling quality, has nevertheless come from him (comp. Isa 60:21).
Isa 61:4-9
GOD‘S PURPOSE OF DEALING GRACIOUSLY WITH ISRAEL. Having proclaimed the objects of his own mission, “the Servant” proceeds to declare God’s gracious purposes towards Israel. Taking the Captivity period for his standpoint, he promises, first, the restoration of the cities of Judah (Isa 61:4), and then a flourishing time in which Jews and Gentiles shall dwell together in one community peacefully and gloriously, Israel having a certain pre-eminence (Isa 61:5-9).
Isa 61:4
They shall build the old wastes. (On the “waste” condition, not of Jerusalem only, but of the cities of Judith generally, see Isa 44:26; Isa 49:8, Isa 49:19; Isa 64:10, Isa 64:11, etc.) The first step in the recovery of Israel from the misery of the Captivity would be a return to Palestine, and a general restoration of the ruined towns. It was a ruin of “many generations,” having commenced, probably, with the invasion of Pharaoh-Necho in b.c. 608, and being continued till the edict of Cyrus.
Isa 61:5
Strangers shall stand and feed your flocks (comp. Isa 14:1, Isa 14:2; Isa 45:14; Isa 60:10). The Gentiles who join themselves with the Jews, and form with them one community, are constantly represented in the writings of Isaiah as occupying a subordinate position. In the New Testament, Jew and Gentile are put upon a par. Is the explanation that Isaiah assumes that the Jews generally will accept the gospel, and therefore, to some extent, retain their privileges in the new community, whereas, in fact, they rejected the gospel, and so lost their natural position (see Rom 11:7-20)? Or does Isaiah look onward to a later date? And is there to be a restoration of “Israel according to the flesh” upon their conversion, and a reinstatement of them in a position of privilege? Such a condition of things seems glanced at in Rom 11:23-29, and in Rev 7:4-9; Rev 14:1. The sons of the alien shall be your ploughmen and your vinedressers. Not so much compelled, like the Gibeonites (Jos 9:21-27), to perform menial offices, as undertaking them voluntarily out of good will.
Isa 61:6
But ye shall be named the Priests of the Lord. By the covenant made at Sinai, Israel was to be “a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation” (Exo 19:6). Had they risen to the height of their calling when our Lord and his disciples offered them salvation before offering it to the Gentiles, they might have “been in the midst of the heathen who had entered into the congregation of Jehovah and become the people of God, what the Aaronites farmerly were in the midst of Israel itself” (Delitzsch). Will they ever now obtain this position? Ye shall eat the riches of the Gentiles (comp. Isa 60:5-9 and Isa 60:16). The Gentiles, when they came in, would freely offer to the Church of their substance.
Isa 61:7
For your shame ye shall have double. Instead of the shame and confusion of face which were the portion of Israel during the Captivity (see Isa 51:7, Isa 51:23; Isa 54:4; Dan 9:7, Dan 9:8, etc.), they should after their restoration to Palestine “have double” their former glory and double their former territory. An increase of territory had been already prophesied (Isa 49:18-21)an increase which, however, was not so much an extension of the bounds of Palestine as a spread of the Church over the whole earth (comp. Zec 9:12). For confusion; rather, as for disgrace. So far from feeling disgraced, they will rejoice, or exult, in their portion; i.e. in the territory assigned them. It will be ample; and their life in it will be one of everlasting joy. The speaker passes on in his thought to the time of the “new heavens and the new earth,” which he regards as continuous with that of Israel’s return.
Isa 61:8
For I the Lord love judgment. Either “the Servant” here identifies himself with Jehovah, or he cites a declaration of Jehovah which he has authority to announce. Jehovah will restore the Israelites to their land because he “loves judgment” (equivalent to “justice”) and hates injustice. The Babylonian conquest, though a judgment sent by him, is, so far as the Babylonians are concerned, a wrong and a “robbery.” I hate robbery for burnt offering; rather, I hate robbery with wickedness (comp. Job 5:16; Psa 58:3; Psa 64:7; 92:16). The transplantation of nations was a gross abuse of the rights of conquest. I will direct their work in truth; rather, I will give them their recompense faithfully. As they have been wronged, they shall be righted; they shall be faithfully and exactly compensated for what they have suffered. Nay, moreover and above this, God will give them the blessing of an “everlasting covenant” (comp. Isa 55:3).
Isa 61:9
Their seed shall be known; or, shall be illustrious (Lowth), renowned (Cheyne). A halo of renown still, in the eyes of many, attaches to Jewish descent. Among the people; rather, among the peoples. The seed which the Lord hath blessed; rather, a seed. The blessing has passed in the main to “the Israel of God” (Gal 6:16).
Isa 61:10, Isa 61:11
JERUSALEM ACCEPTS THE PROMISES, AND GLORIES IN JEHOVAH. So the Targum and Rosenmuller. Others think that “the Servant” is still speaking, or that Isaiah speaks in the name of the people. To us the exposition of the Targum appears the most satisfactory. It is in the manner of Isaiah suddenly to introduce a new speaker.
Isa 61:10
I will greatly rejoice in the Lord (comp. Hab 3:18). The promises made were such as naturally to call forth on the part of Israel the most heartfelt joy and rejoicingincluding, as they did, restoration, rule over the Gentiles, a universal priesthood, a wide territory, “everlasting joy,” a high renown, and an “everlasting covenant. He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation (comp. Isa 59:17 and Isa 61:3). The metaphor occurs also in the Psalms (Psa 71:6; Psa 109:18). God clothes Israel with “righteousness” derived from himself (Isa 54:17, ad fin.), and then with its natural consequence”salvation.” The result is to make Israel as a bridegroom who decketh himself with a priestly crown, and as a bride who adornoth herself with her jewels. That bridegrooms ordinarily wore crowns appears from the Mishna.
Isa 61:11
As the garden; rather, as a garden. The Hebrew is without the article. Righteousness and praise. The essential result of righteousness is “salvation” (see verse 20); its accidental result is “praise” or “renown.” Men cannot but recognize the benefits which flow to themselves from goodness in others; and a perfectly righteous nation would attract to itself universal praise (comp. Zep 3:20, “I will make you a name and a praise among all people of the earth, when I turn back your captivity before your eyes, saith the Lord “).
HOMILETICS
Isa 61:1-3
The purposes of Messiah’s mission.
We are not to suppose that the prophet unfolds to us in the present passage the whole purpose of God in sending his Son into the world. Such logical exactness is alien to the spirit of prophecy, and especially unsuited to the rhetorical tone which everywhere characterizes Isaiah. Still, as the subject is one of transcendent interest, and as our Lord himself cites the passage as descriptive of his mission, it may be useful to note how many, and what purposes, it sets before us as included in the counsels of the Father, and intended to be realized by Christ’s coming. They seem to be some nine or ten.
I. THE PREACHING OF GOOD TIDINGS. Christ “came not into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved” (Joh 3:17). The angels who announced his birth intimated that it was a subject for joy and rejoicing”Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men” (Luk 2:14). His forerunner declared it to be the object of his coming, “that all flesh should see the salvation of God” (Luk 3:6). He himself came with “gracious words” (Luk 4:22), and called men into his kingdom. Hence from a very early date his message to man was known as the gospel, i.e. “the good tidings.” What could be better tidings than the announcement of free pardon on repentance, of salvation, of atonement, of deliverance from sin, of a Comforter to support, and sustain, and cleanse the heart, and give men peace and joy in believing? Man, lost without him, was by him sought and saved, and brought out of darkness and misery into light and happiness.
II. THE HEALING OF THE BROKEN–HEARTED. By “the broken-hearted” seem to be meant, not so much those whom misfortune and calamity have afflicted and reduced to despondency, as those who are deeply grieved on account of their sins. Among the objects of Christ’s coming was the healing, or restoring to health, of such persons. He “healed the broken in heart, and bound up their wounds” (Psa 147:3). He made atonement for their sins, and thus secured them forgiveness; he assured them of God’s mercy and readiness to pardon; he bade them “come to him,” and promised to “give them rest” (Mat 11:28). Through his actions and his teaching all the contrite in all ages have their wounds bound up; are strengthened, sustained, and comforted; obtain, even in this life, a “peace that passeth all understanding.”
III. THE GIVING OF LIBERTY TO THE CAPTIVES. “The captives” are the servants of sinthe unfortunates whom Satan has made his prisoners, and compels to labour in his service. Christ came to “proclaim” to them “liberty,” to make them an offer of release. “Christ Jesus,” St. Paul tells us, “came into the world to save sinners” (1Ti 1:15). He himself declared, “I came not to call ,he righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Mat 9:18). It is one of his greatest glories that he delivers men “from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God” (Rom 8:21). He offers to do this for all; but unless his offer is accepted he can do nothing. Men must not only be sinners, but must pass into the class of repentant sinners, before he can aid them. Then, however, his aid is effectual. All the bonds of sin may be struck off; the service of Satan may be renounced and quitted; and the captives have only thenceforth to “stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made them free” (Gal 5:1).
IV. THE GIVING OF SIGHT TO THE BLIND. (See Luk 4:18.) Our Lord, when-on earth, gave recovery of sight, in the most literal sense, to several persons who were literally blind. But this is scarcely the “giving of sight” which was one of the main purposes of his coming. He came to open the eyes of men’s understandings, to give them spiritual intelligence and spiritual insight, to enable them to discern between right and wrong, between good and evil. Men at the time were so far gone from original righteousness, that they were to a large extent blind to moral distinctions”put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter, darkness for light, and light for darkness’ (Isa 5:20), were “vain in their imaginations,and had “their foolish hearts darkened (Rom 1:21). Christ dispelled this spiritual darkness. He taught a pure and broad morality, which re-established moral distinctions in the general conscience, and at the same time, through his Spirit, he gave to each individual Christian an inward light, which man did not possess before, by which he might direct his paths.
V. THE PROCLAIMING OF A TIME OF ACCEPTANCE. Christ proclaimed a “time of acceptance” in various ways. To the Jews generally the three years of his ministry formed “the acceptable time,” during which, if they had received him (Joh 1:11), they would have maintained their position as a nation, and have held pre-eminence in the Church of Christ. To individuals who heard him the “time of acceptance” was that between such hearing and a hardening of the heart consequent on the rejection of his gracious message. To mankind at large the “time of acceptance” is the time of their sojourn here below, during which it is always possible for them to repent and turn to him, unless perchance they have been guilty of the “sin against the Holy Ghost.” Such sin is probably still possible; but it may be hoped that few have committed it, and that the apostle’s declaration, which he made to all his converts (2Co 6:2), may still be repeated to professing Christians generally, “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”
VI. THE PROCLAIMING OF A DAY OF VENGEANCE. It was among the purposes of our Lord’s coming that he should “proclaim a day of vengeance.”
1. To the nation of the Jews, which by rejecting him caused its own rejection from the position assigned it under the first covenant, and was delivered up for punishment to the Romans. This he did by a number of remarkable prophecies (e.g. the following: Mat 21:40-43; Mat 24:4-28; Luk 13:34, 85; Luk 21:20-22), which announced that Jerusalem was to be destroyed, and that there was to be “great wrath upon the people” (Luk 21:23).
2. To the enemies of God universally. The general day of vengeance upon God’s enemies is that “last day,” which our Lord announced so often, when he “will come again with glory to judge both the quick and the dead” (see Mat 7:22, Mat 7:23; Mat 24:29-31; Mat 25:31-46; Mat 26:64, etc.). Then all his enemies will be “put under his feet.” Then will be fulfilled the apocalyptic vision, “I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead that were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead that were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire” (Rev 20:12-15).
VII. THE COMFORTING OF MOURNERS. It was indicative of the tenderness of Jesus, that in his life on earth he had ever such great compassion for mourners. In his sermon on the mount he assigned to them the second Beatitude, “Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted” (Mat 5:4). Thrice only in his ministry does he seem to have come across actual death, and then each time he had such pity on those who mourned their dead, that he worked miracles on their behalf, and comforted them by raising their lost ones to life again (Mar 5:22-42; Luk 7:12-15; Joh 11:32-44). After his resurrection, he hastened to comfort the women who mourned him, by special appearances to them. These, however, were but samples of his power and of his good will. Through the long ages that have elapsed since he founded his Church, mourners have ever found in him a true and potent Comforter. Through him it is that Christians “sorrow not as they that have no hope” (1Th 4:13); through him that they have resignation, and are able to say, “The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away: blessed be the Name of the Lord;” through him that they look to receive their dead again raised to life (Heb 11:35), and to be joined with them in a land where there is no parting.
VIII. THE CROWNING OF THE SAINTS IN BLISS. “Henceforth,” said St. Paul, as he approached the end of his life, “there is laid. up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day; and not to me only, but unto all them that love his appearing” (2Ti 4:8). We shall receive, says St. James, “the crown of life” (Jas 1:12). “When the chief Shepherd shall appear,” says St. Peter, “ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away” (1Pe 5:4). Such crowns were seen by the beloved disciple as worn by the elders in the heaven]y region (Rev 4:4), and were promised to all who should remain “faithful unto death” (Rev 2:10) by him that is “Faithful and True” (Rev 19:11). A part of the intention of Christ’s mission was to purify to himself a people to whom such crowns might without unfitness be awarded in his heavenly kingdom. The term “crown” is, no doubt, a metaphor; but it signifies some definite and positive degree of glory, having a substantial value, and forming a proper object of the Christian’s desire.
IX. THE ANNOINTING THEM WITH THE OIL OF JOY. Christ himself was to be “anointed with the oil of gladness above his fellows” (Psa 45:7). His mission on earth was, in part, to extend the blessing of this anointing to his disciples. The “oil of gladness,” whatever else it may mean, cannot but primarily symbolize the gift of the Holy Spirit, which is called by St. John an “unction from the Holy One” (1Jn 2:20), and which was, in fact, the unction wherewith Christ himself was anointed (see the comment on verse 1). To give the Holy Spirit to Christians was a very main object of his coming. The Spirit was essential to the sanctification of Christians; and he must “send the Spirit,” and he could not send him until he himself was first “glorified” (Joh 7:39; Joh 16:7). St. Luke tells us how soon after his ascension the Spirit was given (Act 2:4-33); and our Lord promised that, after he once came, he would abide with the Church “for ever” (Joh 14:16). Of all the immediate consequences of our Lord’s mission the gift of the Spirit was perhaps the most precious, embracing as it did regeneration, sanctification, comfort, strength, gladness.
X. THE CAUSING THEM TO BE CALLED, AND THEREFORE TO BE, RIGHTEOUS. All the other objects had this final end in view. The good tidings were preached, and the brokenhearted healed, and the captives set free, and the dull of sight given moral discernment, and the acceptable time proclaimed, and the day of vengeance threatened, and the mourners comforted, and the crowns of glory promised, and the Holy Spirit given, in order that “oaks of righteousness” might be planted in the garden of the Lordthat men might burst the bonds of sin, and become righteous, “perfecting holiness in the fear of God” (2Co 7:1). Christ “gave himself for us,” says St. Paul, “that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify to himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works” (Tit 2:14). This was the principal object of our Lord’s comingto “save men from their sins.” Other objects were rather means to cuds. This was the great end. Christianity is a success just so far forth as it weans man from sin, and creates and maintains in the world a “company of faithful men,” who deserve to “be called oaks of righteousness,” who persistently and determinately “eschew evil and do good,” who lead holy lives, who “shine like lights in the world,” “adorning the doctrine of God their Saviour in all things” (Tit 2:10).
Isa 61:10, Isa 61:11
Rejoicing in the Lord.
“Rejoice in the Lord alway,” says the apostle: “and again I say, Rejoice” (Php 4:4). It reflects shame on Christians that their religion should appear, so much as it does, to those without as a religion of gloom and melancholy. In Scripture true religion wears a wholly different aspect. Faithful Israel rejoices constantly in the Lord, is perpetually joyful in its God. The Book of Psalms is one almost continuous jubilation. The worship of David, of Solomon, of Hezekiah, of the Old Testament saints generally, is a glad worship (2Sa 6:12; 1Ch 29:9-22; 2Ch 5:2-13; 2Ch 29:20-36; 2Ch 30:21-26, etc.). In the Gospels we find Christ’s coming on earth the immediate occasion of canticles of praise (Luk 1:46-55, Luk 1:68-79; Luk 2:14, Luk 2:29-32). The apostolic practice is delivered to us in the following words: “They, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God, and having favour with all the people” (Act 2:46, Act 2:47). And such gladness and rejoicing will certainly appear to be reasonable, if we consider
I. THE CAUSES THAT CHRISTIANS HAVE FOR SUCH REJOICING.
1. In the past. The whole scheme of redemption is a thing to be joyful and thankful for, including as it does atonement, forgiveness, reconciliation, renewal of the Divine image in man, revelation of saving truth, assisting grace, etc. The bringing them within the scheme, so as to make its blessings theirs, is a ground for special thankfulness and joy, since the privilege has been granted to them without being deserved by any merit of their own, and has not been taken from them despite their subsequent demerits. The granting of a written revelation, and the preservation of that precious deposit in purity, is another special ground for rejoicing; as also is the institution and continuation of the Church to the present day as an organized corporate body.
2. In the present. Christians have abundant ground for rejoicing in God’s goodness to them individuallyin his providential care of them, in the patience and long-suffering which he has shown towards their shortcomings, in their enjoyment of Christian privileges, and in the many other temporal and spiritual blessings vouchsafed to them.
3. In the future. They have an imperishable hope, a confident expectation of eternal life through the merits of Christ, an assurance of an inheritance that is “incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for them” (1Pe 1:4).
II. THE RESULTS THAT NATURALLY FLOW FROM SUCH REJOICING.
1. Such rejoicing is good for Christians themselves. It makes them realize their blessings and their privileges, and take as it were a firmer hold on them. It helps them to make light of the small trials and hindrances that more or less beset every one, and that, if dwelt upon exclusively, may be magnified until they assume very undue proportions. It actually increases the feeling of joy, and so the feeling of happiness, for every active principle within us is strengthened by being exercised.
2. Such rejoicing has a beneficial effect on others. It attracts them to Christianity in the same degree that a gloomy presentation of the Christian religion repels them. It wakes responsive echoes in their hearts. It stirs up latent and undefined longings in their souls. It leads sometimes to inquiry and conversion.
3. Such rejoicing is, further, for the glory of God. God wills that his saints should praise him and rejoice in him. Such rejoicing sets forth his power and his goodness. It is a proclamation to angels and to men that “the Lord is good, and that his mercy endureth for ever” (Psa 136:1). It is borne through the empyrean, and enters into the courts of heaven, and wakes angelic sympathies and intensifies angelic devotions. It is an offering of a sweet savour to God.
HOMILIES BY E. JOHNSON
Isa 61:1-9
Message of grace to Zion.
I. THE ANOINTING OF THE MESSENGER. Under the Law, the priests were anointed (Exo 29:7; Le 7:36), and also the kings (1Sa 9:16; 1Sa 10:1; 1Sa 16:13). It was the sign of appointment to a high office or commission from God. Hence, by a figure, it is applied to the appointment of Elisha to the prophetic office (1Ki 19:16), and to the designation of Cyrus as the instrument of the purpose of Jehovah. Similarly, in 1Jn 2:20, the use is figurative. The idea is that of consecrated dedication (cf. Psa 45:7; Heb 1:9).
II. THE PURPOSE OF THE ANOINTING.
1. That he may evangelize, or preach the gospel. To whom? To those who need good tidingsthe afflicted, the distressed and needy, the poor (Luk 4:18), or those borne down by long captivity or other calamity (cf. Mat 11:5).
2. To bind up the broken-hearted. In temporal or spiritual reference, “He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds” (Psa 147:3). And this by the proclamation of liberty. The sound of the words would remind of the great “year of jubilee” (Le 25:10; cf. Eze 46:17; Jer 34:8). If nothing is said in the law of jubilee about the release of prisoners or the remission of debts, all the associations of the time led to its being spoken of as a symbol of manumission, emancipation, and so of universal joy.
3. To proclaim a time of grace and of retribution. A “year” of mercy, a “day” only of vengeance. Punishment descends to the third and fourth generation, but mercy to the thousandth (Exo 20:5, Exo 20:6; cf. Deu 7:9). But the coming or deliverance must ever mean also the coming in destruction (cf. Mat 25:31-46; 2Th 1:7-10).
4. To comfort mourners. Especially those of Zion. But an application of evangelical promises must be equally larger with human need, human receptivity, human willingness, human power to receive, i.e. faith. Upon such the “coronet” is to be placed instead of ashes; the associations of the wedding (1Jn 2:10) are to replace those of the funeral (2Sa 13:19), the nuptial song the former lamentation. Instead of the failing spirit,” described under the image of a wick burning out, or of dimness, or faintness (Isa 42:3; 1Sa 3:2; Le 13:39), there will be the “mantle of renown.” In the Orient, especially, the apparel expresses the mood of the mind. See an illustration in Jdg 10:3, Jdg 10:4 : she “put on her garments of gladness, wherewith she was clad during the life of Manasses her husband.”
5. To produce a vigorous and beautiful life. Men shall call them “oaks of righteousness, the plantation of Jehovah for showing himself glorious” (cf. on the simile, Psa 92:12-14, “The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree,” etc.; Psa 1:3; Jer 17:8). A mystic plantation under the care of the Divine Gardener (cf. Mat 15:13). The exiles will return, will “build up the ruins of antiquity, and raise up the desolations of the forefathers, and renew the ruined cities. As ruins suggest all the pathos of the decay of families and nations, so does the act of rebuilding remind of that ever-recreative energy which lies in the religious heart of mankind, and which breaks forth afresh after every epoch of calamity. Strangers are to feed their flocks, aliens are to be their ploughmen and vinedressers, and all classes are to partake in the Messianic blessings. The people of Israel themselves will be called the “priests of Jehovah.” For the priests, as a class only, represented the idea of Israel, as a nation consecrated to the service of the Eternal, destined to perform a holy ministry to the rest of mankind. Men will take hold of the skirts of the Jew (Zec 8:23). There will be compensation, double compensation, in the possession of the land in increased fertility and. with enlarged boundaries.
III. THE CONFIRMATION OF JEHOVAH.
1. The principle of justice and compensation. He “hates things torn away unjustly,” and will compensate his people for their past sufferings. How grand and all-consoling that truth of compensation! “All things are moral. That soul which within us is a sentiment, outside of us is a law. We feel its inspiration; yonder in history we can see its fatal strength.” “It is in the world, and the world was made by it. Justice is not postponed. A perfect equity adjusts its balance in all parts of life. The dice of God are always loaded. Every secret is told, every crime is punished, every virtue rewarded, every wrong redressed, in silence and certainty. What we call retribution is the universal necessity by which the whole appears wherever a part appears” (Emerson).
2. The everlasting covenant. (Isa 55:3.) Part of the condition of that covenant is the securing of an illustrious position for Israel among the nations; to be “known” is to be honoured, as in Psa 67:2; Psa 76:1; Psa 79:10. The time shall come in a larger sense, when the friends of the lowly and despised Nazarene shall be regarded as the favoured of the Lord; instead of being persecuted and despised, the whole earth shall regard them with confidence and esteem. Providence throws a veil of obscurity over its deepest designs, and the seed of glorious futures lies slumbering in the rough husk until the appointed time for its germination and growth.J.
Isa 61:10, Isa 61:11
Spiritual joy in the Eternal.
We may regard the city as the speaker, and the city may typify the Church.
I. HER CLOTHING. As garments are for protection and ornament, so it may stand as a figure of a community arrayed in the strength and righteousness of Jehovah. And so the Church still sings
“Jesus, thy robe of righteousness There is an allusion to the dress of the bridegroom and of the priest; for at one time the bridegroom wore a crown, and the priest wore a mitre, with the plate or crown of gold in front of it (Exo 29:6). Such portions of the dress mark out the wearer in his sacred character and in his solemn functions. They are not for mere ornament. The Church, the saints in general, are designated as a” royal priesthood,” to offer praise and prayer continually.
II. NATURE‘S PARABLE OF SPIRITUAL JOY. (cf. Isa 42:9; Isa 43:19; Isa 45:8; Isa 55:10, Isa 55:11; Isa 58:11.) The joy with which we see the earth becoming all “one emerald” with the new verdure of spring; the burgeoning of the trees, the disclosure of the rudiments of future leaves and flowers, is in a sense prophetic of some analogous process in the spiritual world. For self-fulfilling is the power of the Divine Word. And even when the aspect of Church and state is most dark and depressing, life is stirring, seeds of better development are germinating, and events are being set in motion which shall stir men up to praise Israel and the God of Israel.J.
HOMILIES BY W.M. STATHAM
Isa 61:1
The coming Saviour.
“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,” etc. These words are specially memorable as being those which the Saviour read in the synagogue at Nazareth. We have had it described to us “with its pillared portico of Grecian architecture, with its scats on one side for the men; on the other, behind a lattice, are seated the women, shrouded in their long veils.” When the lesson from the Pentateuch was over, Jesus ascended the steps of the desk, and the chazzan, or clerk, “drew aside the silk curtain of the painted ark, which contained the sacred manuscripts,” and from the roll of the Prophet Isaiah, either read the lesson for the day, or chose the portion himself. We can scarcely read these words here without thinking of him there, the whole congregation standing up to listen to him. The words contain
I. THE MESSIANIC GRANDEUR OF CHRIST. Anointed of the Father. No mere prophet or teacher, but the Holy One of Israel. This prophecy, written some seven hundred years before, and thus attested by the Saviour as written concerning himself, gives Divine testimony to the ancient inspiration.
II. THE MESSIANIC WORK OF CHRIST.
1. It was a proclamation. “Good tidings.” Think of the iron power of Rome; the selfishness of the rich; the pride of the patrician; the helplessness of the slave; the hopelessness of the philosopher. Christ came to the meek, not the mighty.
2. It was a consolation. “To bind up the brokenhearted.” To heal by the touch of his sympathy, and to save by the power of his cross.
3. It was a deliverance. “To proclaim liberty to the captives,” etc. Sin had woven its silken cords into iron bands. Men were slaves of lust and habit. The prison was opened; and the fetters which they could not shake off Christ struck from their souls.W.M.S.
Isa 61:3
Comfort and cheer.
“To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion,” etc. There is a triple exchange spoken of in these words, which ought to quicken thought.
I. CHARACTER. “Beauty for ashes.” The penitent is uplifted from the dust. Instead of standing before God in sad confession, with all the stains of sin upon his heart and the liturgy of woe upon his lips, he has new life. The beauty of the Lord is given to himthere is transformation.
II. EMOTION. “The oil of joy for mourning.” No longer looking at the dark side of personal history and personal prospect. The very countenance is anointed with fresh oila type of what has taken place within the man. Because you cannot force joy, nor can yon pretend it. Nature sets herself against all forgeries. Such joy as a godly man experiences can only come from the good treasure of his heart.
III. EXPRESSION. “The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.” The outward life is all so different. As God is said to clothe himself with light as with a garment, so the Easterns understood the garment of light to be the expression of the man himself, even as we now look to the habiliments of the mourner as testifying to his grief. The spirit of heaviness is distressing. It is not a thankful spirit, nor a hopeful spirit, nor an inspiring spirit. But the garment of praise is like the melody of the temple choir; like the music of the river; like the “lark that sings at heaven’s gate.” “Awake, psaltery and harp; I myself will awake right early.”W.M.S.
Isa 61:4
Restoration.
“They shall build the old wastes.” All waste is wicked. It is so in war. Even taken at its lowest estimate, think of the ruin of glorious temples, and exquisite sculptures, and works of art,all ground to dust, as Mr. Ruskin says, by mere human rage. Florence, and many of the Southern cities, have been the war-fields of Europe. What waste! There genius toiled; there multitudes, in sweat of brow, built the aqueduct and decorated the capitol; and there, from time to time, the rude hand of the despoiler has come. History has made record of victories and glorified conquerors, and some minstrel has caught the infection and sung the lay of the wasters. What a satire on man! Why smile at the child who builds houses for the sea to smite down? Man builds, and then with the waves of maddened war-lust dashes to pieces his own best works. So it is. The history of Europe has been, in this sense, a history of waste, and instead of the glorious works of Phidias to gaze upon, we have broken arms, fractured columns. In devastated districts we dig for relics. This is only the material side of the waste of war. I say all waste is wicked. And I have to speak of human hearts and lives. Much more precious these than sculptured column or lofty fane. Yes; do not let us forget that the words of Christ refer to life present as well as life to come. “What shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world and lose his own life?”
I. ALL LIVES WERE DESIGNED TO HAVE A DIVINE IDEAL IN THEM. We cannot understand the “why” of creation at all apart from that. “Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions” (Ecc 7:29). They have, in fact, invented many ideals for themselves, and have wasted in these inventions the fine God-created faculties of their souls. If the end is missed all is missed. If the column does not stand erect and uphold the building, it is nothing to me that you decorate it when on the ground. That is not its place, its use; it is a pillar or nothing. So man was made in this highest end to glorify God; and his life is blightedif it is rich in cultivation, elevated in taste, artistic in style, comprehensive in erudition, useful in applied mechanicsif he does not glorify God. Our Saviour said, “My meat and my drink is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.”
1. Lives are blighted, if certain seasons of spring and seed-time, which cannot return, pass idly by. Men may be saved; for the precious blood of Christ can cleanse from all sin, even in old age. But they cannot bear the fruit of a spiritual manhood, or of a Christian childhood.
2. Lives are blighted, if not filled with the power of immortality. However noble and glorious they may appear, their fruits wither; there is no deep soil; the roots do not strike into the eternal life.
3. Lives are blighted, if not influential as good soil to be used for harvests. Man does not live for the mere enjoyment and admiration of spiritual beauty in hours of meditation. There must be fruit in the tree for others to gather. It is disappointing in the autumn to lift the leaves and find no rich bloom of purple fruit, “Abide in me.” “So,” says Christ, “shall ye bear much fruit.”
II. ALL WASTING OF LIFE IS TRACEABLE. What to? Well, you can trace the blight to something in the atmosphere, something at the root, or some confinement from the free breath of heaven. So you can trace human waste and moral waste.
1. Sometimes it comes from absence of faith. There has been energy or heroic determination to conquer evil, to pursue the good, but this has been mere doing, not being; men need faith to win Christ; to have him in them, the Hope of glory. “If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered.”
2. Sometimes it comes from absence of love. It is love that makes the other graces grow and bring forth fruit. Love is warmth and life when inspired by Christ. Let me say also that I wanted to speak of lives in a human sense blighted, and there are some such. Why? Because love is absent; they are treated coldly, contemptuously, cruelly; the fire of love, at first damped, has now died out in their hearts; they know, they feel it is. Mated to coarseness and rudeness, with the first thin superficial refinement and tenderness all worn away, they find life worse than a blankit is a bitter, bitter bondage to the selfishness and tyranny of others. Poor heart! God help thee wherever thou art. Love can bear much and hope on. But when love’s ashes are white, life is blighted indeed.
3. Sometimes it comes from indifference. Let it alone. That is enough. Leave religion to take care of itself. Then, like the best garden, it soon becomes desolate.
III. WASTED LIVES ARE REPARABLE ONLY BY REDEMPTION. In the body there is a kind of self-healing after sickness. Not so with the soul; that requires a Divine Physician.
1. Christ does more than forgive. He renews and restores. Perhaps you desire now that God should restore unto you the joy of salvation. You are sad about your own fruitlessness. So little peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. Then, just as springsweet springcomes in time, and the tender herb appears, and Nature puts on her new garment of beauty, rejoicing to have her incense-cup filled again by the hand of the Most High, so you desire that new graces should spring forth. Christ can make you abound with life through the abundant grace which he is waiting to bestow.
2. Christ does wore than teach. He will live in you. The fruit is not yours, but Christ’s. He is the Vine, we are the branches. A closer union with him is what we need. If we seek to be grafted into the true Vine, then, and then only, shall we bring forth fruit in our season. Christ is sometimes tailed the great Teacher. So he is! All his teaching is that of the infinite mind. “In him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” What, then, is his first teaching? Believe on me! Then we become one with him, and our character has life in it.
3. Christ does more even than commence this life. He completes it. He carries it on to perfection. So that we, sinful and weak as we are, are made perfect in every good work. Waste, then, is not to be mourned over only; it is to be restored. The satirist speaks scornfully of evil when seen and lived out. The optimist says all is the best possible in the best of worlds, could we but understand all. The Christian says, “No; evil is here, and evil is not of God.” And then by the aid of the Holy Ghost he seeks to have the old man crucified with Christ, and to live unto God. May renewal come to us all! May blight and waste give place to life and fruit!W.M.S.
Isa 61:10
Fulness of joy.
“I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God.” This does not certainly seem like the ease with the anchorite and the ascetic and the hermit. A religion that fails in the direction of felicity would seem to lose claim, at all events, to be considered a true ideal of the gospel. Mediaevalism rejoiced in pictures of the saints, who could not fairly be said to have an aureole, of gladness about their heads.
I. THERE ARE GREAT REASONS FOR REJOICING.
1. God has forgiven and forgotten our sin. He has blotted it out of his book of remembrance. “He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation.”
2. God has made us one with himself. The highest pleasures are those of fellowship with mind. To know the author is more than to read the book; to know the heart of a beautiful nature is to discover a greater world than Columbus did. What, then, is it to walk as Enoch did with God, and to know him whom to know is life eternal! Here we have introduced the relation of bride and bridegroomso condescending is the love of Christ.
II. THERE ARE GREAT DEPTHS OF REJOICING. “My soul.” Joy may be superficial. It is idle to deny the fact that there are pleasures which have their root in the passions, or in the imagination, or in the accumulative faculty. But all these joys have their reactions, their limitations, their exhaustions. But spiritual joy is connected with the soul, and as such it is
(1) ever capable of increase;
(2) never liable to exhaustion;
(3) and immortal in its sphere of development.
At God’s right hand there are pleasures for evermore.W.M.S.
HOMILIES BY W. CLARKSON
Isa 61:1, Isa 61:2
The beneficent mission.
These words are undeniably Messianic; that is their secondary, if not their primary, import. Of the mission of Christ they remind us
I. THAT JESUS CHRIST WAS SENT OF GOD. Our Lord not only stated but insisted that he came forth from God. He constantly took up the position here asserted, “the Lord hath anointed me” (Joh 4:34; Joh 5:19, Joh 5:30; Joh 8:28; Joh 9:4; Joh 12:49).
II. THAT HE WAS FILLED WITH THE STRAIT OF GOD. “The Spirit of the Lord God” was upon him, and dwelt in him as in no other child of man. God gave not the Spirit “by measure” unto him (Joh 3:34; Joh 14:10, etc.).
III. THAT HE WAS CHARGED WITH A MISSION OF DIVINE BENEFICENCE. “Anointed to preach good tidings.” Well might the human world have expected that a special messenger from heaven would come with ill tidings on his lips; would come to announce wrath, penalty, destruction; would pass through town and village with such a “burden” as that of Jonah to the thousands of Nineveh (Jon 3:4). But the coming of Christ was the advent of grace; he came to promise peace, to publish salvation. The thoughts and ways of the Supreme are not as ours; they are immeasurably magnanimous.
IV. THAT THE BENEFICENCE OF CHRIST WAS SPIRITUAL AND PROFOUND. He came to effect something more and better than the overthrow of a tyrannical government and the establishment of an earthly kingdom, than the removal of abounding poverty and the supply of material prosperity, than the introduction of any visible and transient good. He came:
1. To confer spiritual freedom on those who were in bondage. “To proclaim liberty to the captives;” to open the prison-doors and emancipate human souls from the thraldom of sin, of vice, of error, of folly, and to lead them into the glorious liberty of the children of Godthe liberty of truth and righteousness.
2. To convey comfort to the sorrowful. “To bind up the broken-hearted:” to comfort all that mourn. He came to furnish us with those facts and principles which can light up the dark shadows of deepest affliction with rays of peace and hope. (See next homily.)
V. THAT EVEN THE LIGHT OF DIVINE BENEFICENCE CASTS A SHADOW OF CONDEMNATION. The day of deliverance to the righteous is a “day of vengeance” or retribution to the guilty. The brightest light of truth must fling the darkest shadow of responsibility and condemnation. The corner-stone of salvation to the penitent and believing must prove a stumbling-block to the impenitent and the unbelieving.C.
Isa 61:3
Christ our Comforter.
We think of our Lord as of our Divine Friend; and there is no way in which any one can show himself so true a friend as in the time of trouble. Well says the old adage, “A friend in need is a friend indeed.”
I. OUR URGENT NEED OF HIS DIVINE SUCCOUR. “Them that mourn in Zion.” In virtue of his relation to us as our Saviour, Jesus Christ delivers ,s from the power and bondage of sin, and so from the remorse which attends its presence and constitutes a principal part of its penalty. But there are other things from which he does not profess to save his people in this world; these are suffering and sorrow. His very best disciples may inherit a bodily constitution which has in it the seeds of feebleness and pain, and which may develop these evils in their acutest form; or they may be the victims of some terrible accident or of human cruelty; or they may be called on to pass through trying straits, or to bear hitter disappointment, or to endure grievous losses and long-continued loneliness. There is no mark on the lintel of their doors to tell the angel of sorrow to pass by. He enters every home; he has a message for every heart, and the children of the kingdom hear his voice, and feel the touch of his hand, even as do the citizens of the worldly kingdom.
II. THE SUFFICIENCY OF OUR SAVIOUR‘S SUCCOUR. Christ saves us in suffering and sorrow, though he does not here deliver us from it. Such is the transforming power of his mighty touch, that he converts it into another thing; under his hand it changes its aspect and is something else; the disfiguring ashes become a diadem of beauty; instead of the signs of mourning there is seen the anointing with the oil of joy; divested of the spirit of heaviness, the soul is clothed in the blessed garment of praise. The power of the wonderful Worker (Isa 9:6) has transfigured everythinghas turned the curse into a blessing. And how?
1. By a sense of his gracious presence. The sorrowing spirit rejoices to feel that its Lord is nearis nearer than closest relative, than dearest friend.
2. By a consciousness of his tender pity. The known and felt compassion, the assured sympathy of the Lord of love, fills the heart with peace.
3. By the direct, sustaining influences of his Holy Spirit.
4. By the assurance that he is seeking our highest good; that things are not happening by accident or mistake; that the gracious and wise Lord of all hearts and lives is working out an issue, dark and afar off, perhaps, but kind and good, righteous and beneficent; that he is planting and nourishing “trees of righteousness,” and that these can only be grown with drenching rains and searching winds as well as with sweet sunshine and balmy airs.
5. By the promise of unshadowed blessedness a little further on.C.
Isa 61:6-9
Privilege, reputation, hope.
We have here
I. AN OPEN PRIVILEGE to be eagerly employed. “Ye shall be named the Priests of the Lord.” Under the Law the priesthood was limited to one family of one tribe; the rest of the nation had rights and duties outside and inferior. There stand, indeed, the ancient words, “Ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests,” but this promise finds no complete fulfilment in the history of Israel. It is realized only in the kingdom of Christ. Under him the whole community is a “holy priesthood,” a “royal priesthood.” Christ “has made us (all) kings and priests unto God.” It is open to every one of us to draw nigh unto God in closest spiritual communion; to intercede with him in earnest, believing prayer; to present unto him “spiritual sacrifices” of obedience, of resignation, of consecration. The way is open now into the holiest of all, and they please God most who approach him most frequently, and offer to him most continually the sacrifice which comes from clean hands and a pure and loving heart.
II. AN ENVIABLE REPUTATION to be greatly coveted. “Men shall call you the Ministers [servants] of our God.” What is it that we would have men say about us? By what do we most desire to be distinguished and remembered? By our bodily strength or muscular skill? By our intellectual powers? By our possessions? These things “profit a little;” they “have their reward” in momentary satisfaction, in pleasure that lives awhile and dies. But they are not significant of the best and worthiest, of that which endures amid the wreck and passage of the things which perish. The one reputation worth possessing is that of being a true “servant of God.” It is worth while doing much and endeavouring much, if need be, that the thing which our contemporaries shall associate with our name, and by which those who survive us shall distinguish us from others, is our faithful and devoted service of the Divine Master. So let us live that the first thought which will arise in men’s minds concerning us is that we are servants of our God.
III. AN INVALUABLE HOPE to be devoutly cherished. “All that see them [their offspring] shall acknowledge them, that they are the seed which the Lord hath blessed.” What are our deepest solicitudes concerning our children? That they will rise, will be enriched, will be honoured of men? These might prove curses rather than blessings. The wise parent will hope, will live and strive, will pray that his children may be such in spirit, in character, in behaviour, that all who see them will feel about them that the blessing of God is in their heart and upon their head.C.
Isa 61:10, Isa 61:11
Wise exultation.
I. OUR CAPACITY OF EXULTATION. Our human spirit is capable of great emotion. Our feeling may sink to great depths of sorrow, or may rise to great heights of joy. We have no language which will express the degrees of spiritual distress and agony which are possible to the stricken and despairing, or which will measure the degrees of joy and ecstasy possible to the blessed and the victorious.
II. OUR TEMPTATION in this matter. The warning of the prophet of the Lord (Jer 9:24) proves that in other lands and other times than ours the wise (learned) man has been tempted to glory in his wisdom, the rich man in his wealth, the mighty man in his power and prowess. But such glorification is our weakness and our folly; it is not built on truth; it conducts to complacency; it ends in disappointment, if not in shame.
III. OUR WISDOM. This is to rejoice in God, to ‘;glory in this, that we understand and know him,” and are ranked among his people. We cannot go too far in our delight in him.
1. His character provides a source of spiritual satisfaction absolutely inexhaustible. We say everything in one word as to his sufficiency when we say that he is “our God.“
2. He has done greatest things for us. He has
(1) wrought for us the greatest of all deliverancessalvation; and
(2) bestowed on us the greatest of all blessingsrighteousness, inward and spiritual rectitude.
3. He stands pledged to accomplish that in which we shall greatly triumph (Isa 61:11). As the well-cultivated garden has in it living forces which will show themselves in fairest flowers and richest fruits, so has the Lord our God in himself all the wisdom, grace, and power which will be manifest in righteousness and praise, springing forth in the sight of all the nations.C.
HOMILIES BY R. TUCK
Isa 61:1
Messiah’s mission, to the troubled.
Those more especially addressed by Messiah are called the “meek,” the “broken-hearted,” the “captives,” and the “bound.” It at once comes to mind that precisely such persons were addressed in the sermon on the mount: and it may be remarked, as distinguishing Christ from all ordinary human teachers, who have their own personal gain and success to consider, that he never sought out the great, the rich, or the learned, but gave his best to the heart-sore, the body-smitten, and the life-humbled. Our Lord makes a very striking reference to this passage in his sermon at Nazareth (Luk 4:18). Before entering on the proper subject of this homily, it may be well to note that the only credentials which our Lord cared to present were the manifest signs and proofs that the Spirit of God was upon him. And what better credentials would any true-hearted man wish to offer.’? Material figures of moral conditions may be found in the depressed, afflicted, almost despairing state of the captives in Babylon.
I. MESSIAH‘S MISSION TO THE MEEK. This term is used in several senses in Scripture. Sometimes it stands for the humble, who think lowly things concerning themselves. Sometimes it stands for the disinterested, who are willing to give up their own things for the sake of others. Here it stands for crushed and hopeless ones, who have lost all spirit, and think there is no light, no cheer, in this life for them. The battle with sin sometimes leaves men hard, and then it is of little use to bring “good tidings.” But sometimes it makes men meek, sort, impressible, and to them Messiah comes with “good tidings:” for them is born a Saviour.
II. MESSIAH‘S MISSION TO THE BROKEN–HEARTED. This term best expresses the state of conviction and penitence. It is the sign of that supreme grief which a man knows when he sees himself as he is, and as God regards him. To such a man Messiah comes with the message of a free and full forgiveness, which is a binding up, a healing; the joy of acceptance and welcome of love.
III. MESSIAH‘S MISSION TO THE CAPTIVES. Those between whose circumstances and whose souls there is constant conflict. Sin gets power to enslave through the body. “Whoso committeth sin is the slave of’ sin.” Messiah comes to energize souls for victory over enslaving bodies and enslaving circumstances. Giving life to souls, he gives liberty. “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.”
IV. MESSIAH‘S MISSION TO THE BOUND. The moral suggestion is of those who are mastered by old evil habits, easily besetting sins. These become the distress of souls that have been forgiven and accepted. And Messiah comes to give “more grace,” so that they may “resist unto blood, striving against sin.” So Messiah meets all our gravest human troubles. He is Burden-bearer and Burden-lifter.R.T.
Isa 61:2
The year of acceptance and the day of vengeance.
Very striking is the frequency with which this, and other prophets, set together the two sides of Messiah’s work. Deliverance of those who trust him goes together with judgment on those who reject him. In a most impressive way the Old Testament canon closes with this dual aspect of Divine dealings, “For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble But unto you that fear my Name shall the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing in his wings” (Mal 4:1, Mal 4:2). And the New Testament opens with the prophetic exclamation of Simeon, as he held the infant Saviour in his arms, “This Child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel.” Some make a distinction between the long year of acceptance and the short day of vengeance. No doubt the first reference of the text is to the Divine indignation against those faithless or selfish Jews who would not respond to the Lord’s call to return to their ancient land. So it may stand for the Divine indignation against those who are “condemned already, because they have not believed in the Name of the only begotten Son of God.” This subject is so frequently and variously treated, that we here confine ourselves to two points.
I. ACCEPTANCE FOLLOWS FORGIVENESS. Messiah proclaims acceptance because he brings forgiveness. It is of the utmost importance that there should be no uncertain sound as to the necessity for “forgiveness.” Vague sentiments prevail concerning the Divine acceptance; and there is a notion that all we can need is a sort of educating into goodness. Man, every man, needs to be forgiven. No man can be accepted until he is forgiven. This may lead to a full consideration of that work of Messiah which bears on the ensuring of forgiveness. It is a mediatorial work, which has relations of propitiation towards God and relations of conviction towards man. The acceptancetime is proclaimed to guilty rebels who lay down their arms and ask for mercy.
II. REJECTION FOLLOWS THE HARDNESS THAT WILL NOT SEEK FORGIVENESS. That is the “day of vengeance of our God.” If put into a word, that word may be thisthey are left to their fate. If put into a figure, it may be thisthey are outside the lighted halls, in the “outer darkness.” If fashioned in human images, the offended king must put to death those who rebelliously refuse to touch his offered golden sceptre. There is a mystery of profound and awful meaning in the expression, “the wrath of the Lamb.”R.T.
Isa 61:3
God glorified in the joyous and the beautiful.
“A garland for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness that he might be glorified.” The figures used arc drawn from Eastern customs and sentiments. The afflicted clothe themselves in sackcloth, sit in ashes, and throw dust on their heads. In gladness and feast-time men crown themselves with garlands or wreaths. In sickness men do not use oil at toilet; when restored to health they resume the oil which “makes the face to shine.” Festal days call forth bright-coloured garments; troublous seasons find men crouched on the ground heedless of the robes that cover them. But God is not honoured with ashes; he wants garlands. Nor is he honoured with neglected toilets; he wants the oil of joy. He asks for songs by the way from all who are journeying to Zion. His call ever is, “Lift up your heads, for your redemption draweth nigh.”
I. GOD‘S MESSIAH FINDS MEN SAD. And they had abundant reason for being sad. Illustrate from the state of the Jewish nation when deliverance from captivity came; also from the state of the world when Jesus the Saviour came. “Darkness covered the earth, and gross darkness the people.” Dr. Kane and His shipwrecked crew might well be sad when, in the polar regions, they never saw the sun for one hundred and forty long and weary days. Those out of Christ have good reason to be sad. It is even a hopeful sign that they are. Philosophers and scientific teachers who do not “like to retain God in their thoughts” are always sadaffectingly, impressively sad. The saddest hook ever written is John Stuart Mill’s autobiography.
II. GOD‘S MESSIAH MAKES MEN GLAD. Jesus Christ cannot do with people who, in moral senses, stay in the ashes, neglect their toilet, and keep up miserable groans. He wants to get a song into men’s set, iseven praise unto a redeeming Godwhich shall compel them to put garlands and festal garments on, and make their faces shine. We cannot keep Jesus and sadness both with us, any more than the world can keep both sunshine and mists. This homily should be used for pleading against a long-faced, dreary religion, and in behalf of the smiles and song that should characterize all who know the grace in Christ Jesus unto life eternal.
“I came to Jesus as I was,
Weary, and worn, and sad;
I found in him a Resting-place,
And he has made me glad.”
R.T.
Isa 61:6
The world’s priests and preachers.
“Men shall call you the Ministers of our God.” Dean Plumptre says of this verse, “This had been the original ideal of the nation’s life (Exo 19:6), forfeited for a time through the sins of the people (Exo 28:1), to be fulfilled at last in the citizens of the New Jerusalem”. Matthew Arnold says, “The Jews, a nation of God’s servants appointed to initiate the rest of the world into his service, are to give themselves to this sacred and priestly labour, while the rest of the world do their secular labour for them.” Matthew Henry says, “All believers are made to our God kings and priests; and they ought to conduct themselves as such in their devotions, and in their whole conversation, with ‘holiness to the Lord’ written upon their foreheads, that men may call them the “priests of the Lord.'” We learn from this passage what are the views we may rightly take of our “priests and preachers.”
I. THEY BELONG TO OUR GOD. Importance attaches to the personal appropriation indicated in the expression” our God.” Only those who are themselves in right relations with God will ever put ministers into their right place, or keep them in their right place. A man who does not know God for himself will want his minister to become a priest, and do too much for him. The man who, in covenant relations, can say “my God,” will thankfully accept, and wisely use, all that God’s servants can do for him.
II. THEY MINISTER FOR OUR GOD. And they can do nothing but minister. They are, like their Lord and Master Jesus Christ, among us “as he that serveth.” “We preach Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake.” Ministers bring to us messages from God, but we must never let them stand before God. There is peril for our souls whenever officiating priest or popular preacher takes all our attention, and keeps us from direct dealing with God. We must never let even apostles have “dominion over our faith;” they are only “helpers of our joy.” Very possibly some of our souls are hindered from attaining the best in Christian life, because our outlook is stopped by the figure of a man, and we cannot see God.
III. THEY SERVE US IN THE NAME OF OUR GOD. Emphasis is put on the word “us.” It is peculiar to all faithful and wise ministers that they have a “passion for souls,” the “enthusiasm of humanity:” and are ever seeking to gain adaptation to us. Some men are more interested in truth than in persons; but the real priests and preachers and pastors of our God follow after the great apostle and say, “We seek not yours, but you.” R.T.
Isa 61:9
Blessed children.
“All that see them shall acknowledge them, that they are the seed which the Lord hath blessed.” “Let the children of godly parents live in such a manner that they may be known to be such, that all who observe them may see in them the fruits of a good education, and an answer to the prayers that were put up for them.” “Easterns value highly the retention of blessings through succeeding generations.” Abraham, as the first father of the race, may be taken as the type of all fathers and mothers. Then the course of thought may be this
I. THE PIOUS PATERNAL CHARACTER. As seen in Abraham, it includes:
1. Reverence. A due sense of the “unseen” is the secret of the sense of duty which lies at the basis of all real authority.
2. Uprightness. Which gives a certain firmness, almost sternness, which ensures a blended fear and confidence.
3. Obedience. A man’s own response to his sonship with God is the secret of his power to command the obedience of his children.
II. THE SECURITY PATERNAL CHARACTER AFFORDS THAT FAMILIES WILL BE RULED. There is a strange idea entertained, that there is no strong rule in fatherhood. But every home must have its laws. The mightiest men of earth are not the giants with the big fists. The Davids of intellectual, moral, and emotional force are grander than all Sauls who stand heads above their fellows. The highest power of influence attends on character. Put a man of good character anywhere, and he proves to be a king; he rules. There is a natural authority belonging to parentage. This is not enough. It can he kept into the manhood of the children only as parents gain the higher power of moral character.
III. THE RESULT OF GOOD RULING IS THAT THE CHILDREN TURN OUT WELL. How we dream over the future of our children! We may leave it all with God, if we are culturing ourselves into Christ-likeness, and watchfully anxious that this our Christ-likeness should shine well on them. But what do we mean by “our children turning out well’? Does that mean “proving talented,” “marrying prudently,” “winning business successes? Or do we mean keeping well in the ways of the Lord, whatever may be their circumstances, and whatever may be their relations?
IV. THROUGH GOOD PARENTS AND GOOD FAMILIES GOD‘S PURPOSES IN THE WORLD ARE ACCOMPLISHED. Compare Dr. Horace Bushnell’s very striking expression, “The out-populating of the Christian stock.” As are the families so will be the nation. We trust in virtuous homes, well-ruled families, godly fathers, and pious mothers. Blessed indeed are those children who grow up constrained to goodness by the example, influence, and authority of godly parents!R.T.
Isa 61:10
Joy in the Divine adornings.
Richard Weaver gives an effective and pleasing illustration. “A lady once took me into her garden, and I found there beds filled with all kinds of beautiful flowers; but at the end of the garden I came to the edge of a steep precipice, and as I stood looking down at the great black rock beneath, I thought what a dreadful place that would be to fall down. ‘ Come with me,’ said the lady, ‘and I will show you something beautiful.’ She led me round to the foot of the rock and desired me to look up, and when I did I could see no rock, it was completely covered with beautiful white roses. Oh, thought I, that is just a picture of a poor sinner; he is a black, unsightly thing like that rock, but the ‘Rose of Sharon’ comes and covers him; and when God looks, he cannot see the sinner, for between is Christ, and he covers him with the spotless robe of his own righteousness.”
I. CHRIST‘S GIFT OF ADORNMENTS. Urge that a sinner, even a saved sinner, cannot be called beautiful, and cannot be fit for a place at the feast. Fetch the poor beggar in from the street, give him free invitation, and let him respond to it with all his heart; and still he will want something before he can sit down with the guests. It is something he cannot win, something he cannot buy, something of the king’s own, which the king himself must give. It is a royal robe from the king’s treasure. It is robe and ornaments and jewels, as the bridegroom’s gift. So in the New Testament we are bidden to “put on the Lord Jesus Christ,” and the graces of Christian character are treated as a Divine investiture. They who have such adornings will be sure to try and be worthy of them, and so graces given and graces sought for will graciously blend.
II. CHRIST‘S JOY IN THOSE WHOM HE HAS ADORNED. Figured in the joy of a bride-groom over the bride when beautiful with garments and jewels which he has himself provided, and every one of which is an expression of personal affection. The joy of every faithful pastor is found in those whom he has led to rest in God. “Ye are our glory and our joy.” The joy of Jesus, the Saviour and Bridegroom, is found in the multitude whom no man can number, arrayed in white garments, his gift, because they are white-souled at last, through his grace.R.T.
Isa 61:1-3. The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me The Spirit of JEHOVAH is upon me, because JEHOVAH hath anointed me. To publish glad tidings to the meek hath he sent me; to bind up the broken-hearted: to proclaim to the captives freedom; and to the bounden, perfect liberty: to proclaim the year of acceptance with JEHOVAH; and the day of vengeance of our God: to comfort all those that mourn; to impart [gladness] to the mourners of Sion; to give them a beautiful crown instead of ashes; the oil of gladness instead of sorrow; the clothing of praise, instead of the spirit of heaviness: that they may be called trees approved; the plantation of JEHOVAH for his glory. Lowth. These are the words of the Son of God, made man, wherein he sets forth the nature of his high and blessed office. From Luk 4:18 there can be no doubt of the application of these words; nor of the meaning of them, from a review of the spiritual blessings offered to mankind by the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The second verse alludes to the year of jubilee, which was proclaimed by the sound of the trumpet, when there was a general release from all manner of servitude, debts, and obligations; a lively and striking type of that liberty which Christ hath procured for all mankind. See Lev 25:8-9. The day of vengeance, which is here mentioned as accompanying the acceptable year of the Lord, alludes to that vengeance which was to be taken upon the enemies of the Gospel and Son of God. See Heb 10:27-30. Mat 24:21. Rev 18:1; Rev 18:24. The prophet adds, as a consequence of the preaching, the gifts and graces dispensed by the Messiah, that the believers in him, and the partakers of his mercy, should be called trees of righteousness; that is so say, should become true and righteous believers, strong and firm in the faith; spiritual trees, planted and flourishing in the house of their God. See Psa 1:3; Psa 92:12. From this prophesy we gather, that the epithet of Messiah, Christ, or Anointed, which is given to the future Saviour in the writings of the Old Testament, and which afterwards became a part of his proper name, is to be referred to the oeconomy of grace; and that Jesus Christ was anointed by the Father, not only to preach the blessings of the Gospel, and to promulgate the beginning of the new year of grace, but also to confer those blessings which should constitute this oeconomy of the church, and distinguish it from the ancient one; which goods and gifts of grace, being divine and celestial, demonstrate the sovereign and divine excellence of the person of the Messiah, though he is here represented principally as clothed with the human nature, and anointed in it for the great offices which he had undertaken. See Vitringa.
3THE THIRD DISCOURSE
The Personal Centre of the Revelation of Salvation
Isaiah 61, 62 and Isa 63:1-6
Great works are never accomplished without great men. After reading chapter 60,sone involuntarily asks himself: Who will be the instrument in Gods hand of performing this great work? This question is answered by the Prophet in the three chapters, 6163, in which he speaks of Him who will bring complete salvation to Israel, but will judge the heathen. Most modern interpreters (with the exception of Stier, Hengstenberg, Delitzsch, Rohling) are of opinion that the Prophet here speaks of himself. I approve in general of the reasons adduced by Delitzsch in favor of the view that the Saviour of Israel is the subject of the prophecy.[Delitzsch alleges the following grounds in support of his view: 1) Nowhere has the Prophet hitherto spoken of himself as such in detail; rather he has, with the exception of the close of Isa 57:21 (saith my God), purposely kept his own person in the background. 2) On the other hand, where another than Jehovah has spoken of the work to which he was called, and of what he had experienced in the fulfilment of his calling, Isa 49:1 sqq.; Isa 1:4 sqq., that person was the very Servant of Jehovah, of whom and to whom Jehovah speaks, Isa 42:1 sqq.; Isa 52:13-15, not the Prophet, but He who is destined to be the Mediator of a new covenant, to be a light to the Gentiles, and the Salvation of Jehovah for the whole world, and who by self humiliation unto death ascends to this full glory of His calling. 3) Everything that the Prophet here says of himself is found in the picture of that Servant of Jehovah, who stands alone and unapproachable, highly exalted above the Prophet; He is endowed with the Spirit of Jehovah, Isa 42:1; Jehovah has sent Him and with Him His Spirit, Isa 48:16 b; He has the tongue of the learned, to help the weary with words, Isa 1:4; He spares and delivers those who are almost despairing and destroyed, the bruised reed and the dimly burning wick, in order, Isa 42:7, to open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house,this is what above all He has in word and deed to do to His people, Isa 42:7; Isa 49:9. 4) After the Prophet has once so dramatically set forth the Servant of Jehovah of whom he prophesies, and has made Him appear as the speaker in Isa 49:1 sqq.; Isa 1:4 sqq. (and also Isa 48:16 b), we cannot suppose that he will now put himself in the foreground, and ascribe to himself such official attributes as he has made to be characteristic features of that unique Personage predicted by him.D. M.]To the reasons mentioned by Delitzsch, I add what Hengstenberg and Rohling have called attention to, that much which the speaker here says of himself is far too great to be ascribed to a mere man. The Prophet can indeed announce, but he cannot himself effect and bestow what he has announced. And if chapter 63, as cannot be denied, stands in closest connection with chaps, 61 and 62, is He, we ask, who there performs the negative side of the work of salvation, the Prophet? Does not the Prophet most clearly distinguish himself from Him, as the questioner from the person interrogated?
A.THE POSITIVE SIDE OF THE REVELATIONS OF SALVATION
6162
1. A distant view of him who, as Prophet, King and Priest is the founder of Salvation
s Isa 61:1-11
1The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me;
Because the Lord hath anointed me 2To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord,
And the day of vengeance of our God; 3To2 appoint unto them that mourn in Zion,
To give unto them beauty for ashes, The planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified.
4And they shall build the old wastes,
They shall raise up the former desolations, 5And strangers shall stand and feed your flocks,
And the 4sons of the alien shall be your plowmen and your vinedressers.
6But ye shall be named the Priests of the Lord:
Men shall call you the ministers of our God:
Ye shall eat the riches of the Gentiles, 7For your shame ye shall have double;
And for confusion they shall rejoice in their portion:
Therefore in their land they shall possess the double: 8For I the Lord love judgment,
I hate 6robbery for burnt offering;
And I will 7direct their work in truth,
And I will make an everlasting covenant with them.
9And their seed shall be known among the Gentiles,
And their offspring among the people: 10I will greatly rejoice in the Lord,
My soul shall be joyful in my God; And as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels.
11For as the earth bringeth forth her bud,
And as the garden causeth the things that are sown in it to spring forth; To spring forth before all the nations.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
Isa 61:1. The expression is to be written as one word without Maqqeph; for there is in Hebrew no word (on the form see Ewald, 157, c). As is employed only of the opening of the eyes and ears, the LXX. in rendering are in part right, inasmuch as even prisoners who sit in darkness and the shadow of death are brought by deliverance from prison to see again the light. However the Septuagint is wrong in taking the expression to mean healing of the blind.
Isa 61:6. The . . is either from = (of which there is besides only the Hiphil permutavit Jer 2:11), or from = (from which is the Hithpael Psa 94:4, extulit se). The former derivation seems to be the more appropriate, because Psa 94:4, is evidently used in a bad sense.
Isa 61:10. (on account of the pause ) is, if correctly pointed, to be derived from which occurs only here, but is identical with . is Kal as Hos 2:15; Jer 4:30; Jer 31:4.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. The middle triad (chaps, 61, 62 and 63) of the third Ennead (an aggregate consisting of nine) sets Him again before our eyes by whom the great salvation promised in chap. 60 is to be accomplished. Much of what the Prophet sees done by this great Personage whose name is withheld, bears a prophetic character, such as the bringing of glad tidings and comforting (Isa 61:1). But the setting free of the prisoners (ibid.), the proclaiming of the time of grace and of vengeance (Isa 61:2), and the real communication of ornament and joy for ashes and mourning (Isa 61:3), seem to indicate kingly might. Of like significance is the new order of things spoken of in Isa 61:4-7. In Isa 61:8-9 Jehovah ratifies the work of His Servant by declaring of it, that it is conformable to justice, and that He intends to make an everlasting covenant with Israel, by which the Israelites shall be known by all nations as the people blessed by Him. Finally, He, who had spoken from Isa 61:1-7, speaks again. He rejoices that He is clothed with the garments of salvation, which make Him appear as priestly bridegroom in wonderful union with His bride, to whom His righteousness and glory are by a vital and organic relation communicated (Isa 61:10-11). It almost seems as if the Prophet lets us have a glimpse of the three offices which have their common root in the unction of the Spirit.
2. The Spirit of the Lord Godshall be unto them.
Isa 61:1-7. With the words, The Spirit of the Lord Jehovah is upon me, the Subject of the prophecy attributes to Himself what Jehovah Isa 42:1 declared of His Servant, and what had been already, Isa 11:2, declared of the root of Jesse. [Three times in Isaiah is Messiah described as endued with the Spirit of the Lord. First the Prophet affirms this of Him, Isa 11:2, the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him. Next, Isa 42:1, Jehovah Himself declares of the Messiah: I have put My Spirit upon Him. Here, lastly, One, whose appointed work marks Him as the Messiah, declares: The Spirit of the Lord Jehovah is upon Me. Does not this parallelism speak in favor of the identity of person in all three passages? It serves, too, to mark the unity of the whole book. D. M.]. The speaker affirms that He has the Spirit of Jehovah, that all He speaks and does may be known to be wrought by God. The Spirit of the Lord is upon Him because ( comp. Isa 30:12; Isa 65:12; Isa 66:4) Jehovah has anointed Him. [ is more emphatic than . In the choice of the word we may find an intimation that the Servant of Jehovah and the Messiah are one person. Delitzsch. Anointing, whether it occurs as an outwardly performed symbolical action, or as a mere figure, is always used to designate the gifts of the Holy Ghost, comp. 1Sa 10:1; 1Sa 16:13-14; Dan 9:24. As the anointing is identical with the imparting of the Spirit, we cannot isolate the words: because the Lord has anointed me, but must closely connect them with all that follows. He has endued Me with His Spirit to preach good tidings, etc.Hengstenberg.D. M.] occurs only in the second part of the book, and is rendered everywhere, with the exception of Isa 41:27, in the Septuagint by . It is here, as frequently, connected with the accusative of the person. is found further in Isa 11:4; Isa 29:19. [ as from to bow down; the latter is one bowed down through adversity, the former one inwardly bowed down, emptied of all self-confidence. Delitzsch. and are never confounded. In this world of sin the meek are at the same time the suffering; and that especially here the meek are at the same time to be regarded as suffering, is shown by the glad tidings which stand in contrast to their misery. The in opposition to the wicked, appear as the people of the Messiah in Isa 11:4 also. Hengstenberg.D. M.]. The binding up of the broken-hearted can be conceived as wrought by words of consolation. [But comp. Psa 147:3 where this work is ascribed to Jehovah as His own; and Vitringa truly remarks that the speaker here appears non praeco tantum, sed et dispensator of the rich blessings that are mentioned.D. M.]. On the year of liberty comp. Lev 23:8 sqq. [The proclaiming of perfect liberty to the bounden, and the year of acceptance with Jehovah, is a manifest allusion to the proclaiming of the year of Jubilee by sound of trumpet. This was a year of general release of debts and obligations, of bond men and women, of lands and possessions, which had been sold from the families and tribes to which they belonged. Our Saviour, by applying this text to Himself, Luk 4:18-19, a text so manifestly relating to the institution above- mentioned, plainly declares the typical design of that institution. Lowth. The Servant of God proclaims nothing which He does not at the same time bestow, as Isa 61:3 clearly shows. Hengstenberg.D. M.]. The expressions, captives and bound point to, first of all. Israels deliverance from the Exile. For the Israelites in exile were indeed prisoners of war and captives. [But they were freed from the Babylonish exile before the mission of the Messiah. How then could He be sent to them?D. M.]. The Prophet here comprehends in his view the whole time of salvation beginning with the liberation from exile. In all that the Prophet here says of the healing of the sick, of the freeing of prisoners, of the rejoicing of the sorrowful, or the honoring of the despised (Isa 61:7), and of the rebuilding of what was laid waste, he has evidently in his mind the getting rid of the misery of the old time, and the commencement of the new, glorious era. To this commencement he reckons also the time of the establishment of a new covenant (Isa 61:8). It is hard to say where he sees the boundary which marks the beginning of this time. It may not have been clearly perceived by him (1Pe 1:11). Yet comp. on Isa 62:2. The expression is not an official term, but a rhetorical variation for and is intended to designate a time of glory and blessing such as that of the Messiah will be. It will have in its train a day of vengeance, one day of judgment, for wrath is short (comp. Psa 30:6; Isa 10:25; Isa 54:8, etc.), grace long. In Isa 34:8; Isa 63:4 we have the same kind of representation; for the year of recompenses or redemption [my redeemed] is just the long time of grace granted to Israel, Chaps. 61 and 62 correspond to the year of grace, chap. 63 to the day of vengeance. In regard to the expression see remarks on Isa 34:8. [It is manifestly with allusion to the year of jubilee that the time of grace here predicted is called an acceptable year of the Lord,i.e., a year of favor or of grace. This allusion explains the employment here of the definite time year. The time of grace is elsewhere spoken of as a day; In an acceptable time have I heard thee, and in a day of salvation have I helped thee, comp. 2Co 6:2. The New Testament speaks, too, of the day of redemption and of days of vengeance, Luk 21:22; Eph 4:30. The time of wrath towards the church is a comparatively short time, and is frequently contrasted with Gods everlasting mercy to her. But the day of vengeance here predicted has respect to obdurate enemies of the Lord, and on them Gods wrath abideth,Joh 3:36.D. M.]. In Luk 4:16 sqq. it is related that Jesus Christ read the commencement of this chapter in the synagogue of Nazareth, and declared Himself as the person by whom this prophecy is fulfilled. We see from this that He did not apply it merely to the deliverance from the Exile, and that He regarded it as a genuine prophecy given by God, and not as the work of a deceiver. [Our Lord ended His reading in the synagogue at the acceptable year of the Lord (Luk 4:19); but at the close of His ministry (Luk 21:22) He spoke of the days of vengeance. Kay.D. M.] They who mourn are Zions mourners, Isa 61:3, and on them shall be put on, or to them shall be given (the Prophet substitutes the word for because this word is applicable only to clothes) the head-ornament [E. V. beauty] for ashes. is the name of the female turban (Isa 3:20) and of the priests cap, Exo 39:28; Eze 44:18. Note the paronomasia here. Putting ashes on the head was a sign of mourning, 2Sa 13:19. The expression is found besides only in Psa 45:5, in that Psalm which typically represents a King of Israel as a bridegroom, and which has manifold points of contact with our chapter. There shall be the oil of joy given instead of mourning, and a magnificent robe, as symbol of exaltation, instead of a heavy, oppressed spirit. [Dr. Naegelsbach takes in the sense of glory, honor, in which view he follows Delitzsch. Alexander considers a garment of praise to be a garment which excites praise or admiration. But Hengstenberg best explains the meaning of these mourners having a garment of praise put on them as denoting that they shall be clothed with praise, the praise of a divine goodness which has been manifested to them. Comp. Psa 109:18, He clothed himself with cursing like as with his garment.D. M.] amictus, is found only here. The same remark applies to (comp. Isa 42:3). The Prophet proceeds now to speak of those who are blessed by Him whose work had been described. They shall be called, what they really are, Terebinths of righteousness. What this name signifies, the Prophet immediately explains in words repeated from Isa 60:21. [The gifts of God, although described by material figures, are spiritual, inwardly efficacious, renewing and sanctifying the inner man, sap and strength and marrow and motive power of a new life. The church becomes thereby Terebinths of righteousness,i.e., possessors of a righteousness wrought by God, approved by God, in such force, constancy and fulness as Terebinths with their strong stems, their luxuriant verdure, their perennial [?] foliagea planting of Jehovah to the end that He may get honor thereby. Delitzsch. D. M.]. We see from Isa 61:4 that the Prophet is thinking of exiles who have returned to their own country. But here again he sees everything together which will in the future prove to be a return from exile; for he cannot possibly have before his mind only the return under Zerubbabel and Ezra, as this poor beginning in no way corresponds to the grandeur of the picture here drawn. Having reached their home the exiles will build again the places that have lain waste for an incalculably long time, and restore the ruins of the habitations built by their ancestors. Comp. Isa 58:12 and Isa 44:26. They will be assisted in this work by foreigners as their servants. For these will feed their flocks, and be their husbandmen and vinedressers, while they themselves shall be called Priests of Jehovah, ministers of our God. As a privileged, ruling caste they shall live on the wealth of the heathen, and in regard to honor and glory shall come into their place (. Israel appears here as the priestly nobility (comp. Exo 19:6), and the Gentiles as the misera contribuens plebs, that has to perform the hard work. When the Prophet, Isa 66:21, says of the Gentiles that Priests and Levites shall be taken from them also, he rises above his Old Testament stand-point, and speaks purely and entirely as the Evangelist of the Old Covenant. [The future conversion of Israel, instead of reducing the Gentiles to the condition of menials, will conduce exceedingly to their riches, Rom 11:12. Believing Gentiles can never be considered and treated as aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise Eph 2:12. On the contrary, they are fellow heirs and of the same body, Eph 3:6. The Prophet is speaking here not of Israel after the flesh, but of the Israel of God (Gal 6:16), and does not contradict what he elsewhere states in regard to the equal privileges of converted Gentiles, Isa 19:24-25; Isa 66:21 sqq. Even in connection with the new heavens and the new earth our Prophet speaks of the people of Jerusalem themselves planting vineyards and eating their fruit, Isa 65:17-23,and so not confining themselves to the exercise of priestly functions. Literally understood, these places are mutually exclusive and contradictory. They must be taken figuratively. Barnes extracts the kernel from the shell in saying: The whole idea is, that it would be a time of signal prosperity, a time when foreigners would embrace the true religion; and when the accession would be as great and important as if they were to come in among a people, and take the whole labor of attending their flocks and cultivating their fields. I append Abarbanels comment on Isa 61:5-6. He (the Prophet) mentions also that the Lord anointed him to announce to the Israelites that the nations shall be subjected unto them so that foreigners will stand and feed their flock, and aliens will cultivate their fields and vineyards, so that the children of Israel shall not be employed in any coarse work, but shall serve the glorious God with their law and prayer alone. Therefore he says: Ye shall be called Priests of the Lord, as if he would say, ye shall not feed flock, nor till the ground, but shall serve the Most High and be Priests of God and servants of the Most High, and so this will be your name. And that ye may have time for the service of the blessed God, ye shall eat the wealth of the Gentiles. D. M.]. Isa 61:7 is plainly duplum, double. I do not think that we can understand this of twofold in land. This interpretation puts into the text something not contained in it. The direct antithesis of shame is honor. can therefore mean nothing else than double compensation in honor for the lost honor, which is explained when Israel enters into the glory of the Gentiles. We have to supply before as in many other cases. [We have here an enallage of persons, the second giving place to the third. Dr. Naegelsbach renders: On their inheritance they shall sing for joy. But he admits that can be the accusative of the object as in Psa 51:18, which is evidently the construction adopted by the translators of the E. V. D. M.]. Israels land is not become larger, nor is the separate inheritance of individuals. But there are added to their own honor and to their own possession the wealth and honor of the heathen. Therefore the inheritance of each Israelite has become double, and therefore they shall have everlasting joy. If we consider what has been mentioned from Isa 61:3 b as the fruit of the agency of Him who speaks, we must say that the Israelites shall be called Terebinths of righteousness as a fruit of prophetic work. [He who produces trees of righteousness is more than a prophet.] But that they can build again their cities, make the heathen to be their servants, and live in prosperity and honor, has been brought about by their King.
3. For I the Lordhath blessed.
Isa 61:8-9. These two verses confirm what the Accomplisher of the divine will set in prospect before the people of Israel from Isa 61:1-7. Jehovah Himself now speaks in order to sanction the word of His Anointed. Was such a sanction necessary, or does the person of Him who designated Himself, Isa 61:1, as the Anointed of Jehovah, pass over into the person of Jehovah Himself? I do not venture to decide. The latter would not be impossible. Comp. the remarks on Isa 9:5. Injustice and iniquitous robbery (=59:3, here as Job 5:16; Psa 58:3; Psa 64:7 with quiescent wav comp. Ps. 92:16), such as was perpetrated on Israel, challenges the justice of God. He makes good, then, for the past the injury which Israel suffered, while he renders to Israel uprightly and fairly ( comp. Isa 10:20; Isa 16:5; Isa 38:3; Isa 48:1) the merited i.e., labore partum, reward, indemnification, (Comp. Isa 40:10; Isa 49:4; Isa 62:11; Isa 65:7), [Translate not: I will direct their work, E. V., but I will give their reward in truth], and makes for the future an everlasting covenant with them, which shall guarantee to them protection against such evil. I will make an everlasting covenant with them. Comp. Jer 32:40, where also the expressions 61:44 (comp. Isa 61:3), and are reminiscences from our place. The ninth verse speaks of one glorious result of that everlasting covenant: It unfolds its effects in such fulness and intensity, that a character (character indelebilis) is imprinted upon the Israelites which distinguishes them from all nations. They will bear the opposite of the mark of Cain, the sign of blessing on their forehead; is not causal, but states the object of (the subject of the dependent sentence is attracted by the governing verb, comp. Isa 3:10). All that see them will know them that they are, etc., is for all that see them will know that they are, etc. This everlasting covenant cannot possibly be any other than the new covenant, spoken of in Jer 31:31 sqq. (comp. Heb 8:8; Heb 8:13). We see, hence, that the Prophet has here in his eye the time following that of the old covenant, the time of the new covenant. [The true application of this verse is to the Israel of God in its diffusion among all the nations of the earth, who shall be constrained by what they see of their spirit, character, and conduct, to acknowledge that they are the seed which the Lord hath blessed. The glorious fulfilment of this promise in its original and proper sense, may be seen already in the in- fluence exerted by the eloquent example of the missionary on the most ignorant and corrupted heathen, without waiting for the future restoration of the Jews to the land of their fathers.Alexander.D. M.]
4. I will greatly rejoicebefore all the nations. Isa 61:10-11. The speaker here is the Servant of Jehovah; for who else could be compared at the same time with the priestly Bridegroom and with the bride? He expresses his holy joy in God, because Jehovah has clothed Him with garments of salvation, and covered Him with the robe of righteousness (comp. Isa 59:17). Garments of salvation are not such as signify salvation received, but such as cause salvation, for the Servant of Jehovah is the bringer of salvation, not the receiver of it, Redeemer, not redeemed. [Yet is predicated of Him, Zec 9:9.D. M.] How the garments of the Redeemer cause salvation, is shown by the which follows the . The Redeemer covers those who are redeemed by Him with His garment. Because His garment is pure and holy and unexceptionable before God, all who present themselves before God in this garment appear righteous, and so are redeemed. Or is it, perhaps, more correct and more accordant with what follows (Isa 61:11) to say that the Lords garment, as a living power, germinates and multiplies itself [?], and that, therefore, the wedding garment spoken of in Mat 22:11 sqq., and the white robes of Rev 3:4-5; Rev 4:4; Rev 6:11; Rev 7:9; Rev 7:13, are, as it were, shoots from the living garment of the Saviour? The is not the outer garment, the but a tunica superior, an over undergarment, or under overgarment(Leyrer in Herzog,R. Enc. 7, p 725), which was worn only by distinguished persons, such as kings and princes, and by the high-priest (Exo 28:31 sqq.; Lev 8:7). Comp. the nearer description in JosephusAntiqq. 3, 7, 4. In the second part of the verse some interpreters (Hitzig, Hahn), after the LXX. and Vulg., would take simply in the sense of or But nowhere has this meaning; and the expressions and seem to indicate priestly ornament. is not in itself the priestly covering of the head. But in two places it is brought into connection with the priestly head-ornament; Exo 39:28, and Eze 44:18. is not=to act priestly, i.e., gloriously, with pomp, in the tropical sense; but it is Sacerdotem agere, sacerdotio fungi. Whatever its radical, etymological signification may be, the word means in the Old Testament never anything but to act priestly, to attend to the priesthood. stands in the accusative of modality, or of nearer definition: the bridegroom is priest, not in general, but in relation to his head-ornament. For this characterizes him as priest. The glorified Servant of God here spoken of, is compared with a priestly bridegroom, because He has purchased the bride by His priestly work, i.e., by the sacrifice which He offered for her (53), and because He still executes the office of a priest for her by intercession and blessing. But why the comparison with the bride with her ornaments on her? Why is not the comparison rather with a bridal pair?What means this distinction of bride and bridegroom? It seems to me that this question can be answered from only one stand-point, and this one on which the Prophet himself cannot yet have consciously stood. There hovers over this whole chapter a sort of vail which was riot raised till its fulfilment. The words of 1Pe 1:10-11, are fully applicable to our Prophet in regard to this place. The fulfilment makes known to us that the Lord comprehends the bride with Himself as one. He is the Head, she is the body (Eph 1:23). The life of Christ, His Spirit, His salvation, His righteousness, are in the church. Therefore is He who wears the garments of salvation and the robe of righteousness compared both with the priestly bridegroom and the bride recalls Isa 49:18, as recalls Psa 19:6. Under the the whole apparatus of female finery is to be understood (comp. Gen 24:53; (Deu 22:5) Isa 61:11 is and must remain enigmatical, if it is not taken, as it has been by us, as an explanation of the thought that the garments of righteousness and salvation, which the Servant of God wears, can, as a living principle, propagate themselves, and so become the ornament of the bride. Isa 61:11 is therefore connected with Isa 61:10 by . I accordingly regard Isa 61:11 as explaining why He who compared Himself with the priestly bridegroom, compares Himself also with the bride. This can be done because the righteousness which the bridegroom as priest has acquired, and consequently the glory, too, which He has obtained, must appear in His body, the bride, just as the seed committed to the ground must appear in the field or in gardens. [Alongside of this explanation I place that of Delitzsch: The word in the mouth of the Servant of Jehovah is the seed, from which a grand thing unfolds itself before all the world. The field and soil () of this development is the human race, the enclosed garden of the same is the church, and the grand thing itself is as the actual inward nature of His church, and glory, as its actual outward appearance. He who makes the seed to grow is Jahve, but the bearer of the seed is the Servant of Jahve, and to be permitted to scatter the seed of a future so full of grace and glory is the ground of His nuptial jubilation. While Christ and His bride the church are one, and while He does for her all our author states, more is evidently drawn from the similes in Isa 61:10 than they were intended to teach.D. M.]
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. On Isa 61:1. The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me.Old writers found in this statement the three persons of the Holy Trinity.
2. On Isa 61:1. Because Jehovah has anointed me. It is beyond question that the Saviour had the triple office of Prophet, Priest and King. Nor can it be questioned that in the old covenant priests, kings and prophets were anointed, although we must say of the prophets, that they, in accordance with the peculiar nature of their office, were not anointed by men, but were anointed solely and immediately by God with the Holy Spirit. There is, then, a threefold theocratic office, and what is common to them all is anointing. As each of the three offices has different duties, so different qualifications are needed for each. A different and therefore a different also is imparted to the Prophet, a different one to the priest, a different one to the king. This does not prevent a king from being also prophet, or a prophet from being also priest, or a priest from being also prophet in certain special cases. But He who has the anointing in full measure, who has the Spirit not merely (Joh 3:34, comp. 1Co 12:27; Eph 4:7), but the whole Spirit, He is eo ipso King, Priest and Prophet, He is the .
3. [On He hath sent me.Christ when fulfilling His ministry delighted to speak of Himself as the sent of God. It is remarkable with what frequency He so describes Himself in the Gospel of John. In that Gospel He makes mention of the Fathers sending Him about forty times. He always acted under a sense of His responsibility as commissioned by the Father. We can reason backwards, and establish the divine mission of Jesus Christ from His corresponding to the Servant of God here described, more perfectly than any person who has ever appeared in the world. Mark how every trait in the picture was fulfilled in Him.D. M.].
4. [On to proclaim liberty to the captives.Whereas by the guilt of sin we are bound over to the justice of God, are His lawful captives, sold for sin till payment be made of that great debt, Christ lets us know that He has made satisfaction to divine justice for that debt, that His satisfaction is accepted, and if we will plead that, and depend upon it, and make ourselves over and all we have to Him, in a grateful sense of the kindness He has done us, we may by faith sue out our pardon, and take the comfort of it; there is, and shall be, no condemnation to us. And whereas by the power of sin in us we are bound under the power of Satan, sold under sin, Christ lets us know that He has conquered Satan, has destroyed him that had the power of death, and his work, and provided for us grace sufficient to enable us to shake off the yoke of sin, and to loose ourselves from those bands of our neck. The Son is ready by His Spirit to make us free. Henry.D. M.].
5. On Isa 61:2-3. The year of Jubilee in the prophecy Isa 61:1-3, as whose fulfiller Christ presents Himself, Luk 4:21, is regarded as a type of the Messianic time of salvation, in which, after all the conflicts of the kingdom of God are victoriously passed through, the discords of the world will lose themselves in the harmony of the divine life, and with the of the people of God (Heb 4:9) the acts of history will be concluded. hler.
6. On Isa 61:2. On this passage Clement of Alexandria (Strom. Isa 1:21) and other cotemporary fathers founded the view that Christs public ministry lasted only one year, a view which Gerh. Joh. Vossius took up afterwards on other grounds.
7. [On Isa 61:2. The day of vengeance of our God.It is a great truth manifest everywhere that Gods coming forth at any time to deliver His people is attended with vengeance on His foes. So it was in the destruction of Idumearegarded as the general representative of the foes of God (3435); so it was in the deliverance from Egyptinvolving the destruction of Pharaoh and his host; so in the destruction of Babylon and the deliverance of the captives there. So in like manner it was in the destruction of Jerusalem; and so it will be at the end of the world, (Mat 25:31-46; 2Th 1:7-10). The coming of the Redeemer to save His people involved heavy vengeance on the inhabitants of guilty Jerusalem, and His coming to judgment in the last day will involve the divine vengeance on all who have opposed and hated God. Barnes.D. M.]
8. On Isa 61:3. Christ in coming to preach the Gospel confers many benefits: He binds up, He sets free, He opens, He comforts, He gladdens, He adorns, He anoints, He clothes. In Him we have every thing, so that we can say with Ambrosius: We have every thing in Christ, and Christ is every thing in us. Wilt thou that thy wounds be healed, He is the physician; art thou in a burning fever, He is the cool fountain of water; art thou burdened with sins, He is righteousness; dost thou need aid, He is strength; dost thou fear death, He is the life; dost thou desire heaven, He is the way; dost thou fear darkness, He is the light; dost thou crave nourishment, He is food. Therefore taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man who trusteth in Him (Psa 34:9). Cramer.
9. On Isa 61:4. [The setting up of Christianity in the world repaired the decays of natural religion, and raised up those desolations both of piety and honesty, which had been for many generations the reproach of mankind. An unsanctified soul is like a city that is broken down, and has no walls, like a house in ruins; but by the power of Christs gospel and grace it is repaired, it is put in order again, and fitted to be an habitation of God through the Spirit. And they shall do this, they that are released out of captivity; for we are brought out of the house of bondage, that we may serve God, both in building up ourselves to His glory, and in helping to build up His church on earth. Henry,D. M.] When hereafter the city will be on earth in which there will be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying, nor pain, in which, too, there will be no temple, for the Lord God Almighty is Himself its templethen will the earth itself, which is the oldest ruin, be restored to what it originally was, to be the soil and ground which bears the tabernacle of God with men (Rev 21:3).
10. On Isa 61:5-6. Weber is of the opinion that the Israelites will fulfil the priestly office only in so far as it related to teaching, and that they will receive for this as fair compensation the bodily services of the Gentiles. But that the office of teachers is not here in question is shown by the words Teaching is not the essential function of the priesthood, but sacrificial and sacramental mediation. [We have not far to look to find the animal sacrifices (see Isa 60:7), if we find here a prophecy of the literal conversion of Israel after the flesh into a nation of priests. Ezekiel, however, tells us (Isa 45:15-16) that not even all the Levites, but only the priests the Levites, the sons of Zadok, should perform the proper functions of priests in the house of the Lord in that city whose name is Jehovah-Shammah. The New Testament and the providence of God have sufficiently shown that this prophecy was not designed to confer on the Jews a patent of nobility among the nations. In the exposition of Isa 61:5-6 we have pointed out its true interpretation. How the Jews understood this passage may be seen in Eisenmengers Entdecktes Judenthum, Vol. 2, p. 758 sqq. It will not be every nation that will be allowed the privilege of serving the Jews. Some will perish utterly. But every Jew will have two thousand eight hundred servants. And this number of servants is determined by Zec 8:23 : In. those days it shall come to pass that ten men shall take hold out of all languages of the nations, even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you: for we have heard that God is with you. Now there are according to the Jews seventy nations, and ten men from each would make seven hundred, but as the garment of every Jew will have four wings ( not skirts), each of which will be seized by a Gentile, it follows that four times seven hundred persons, i.e., two thousand eight hundred, will be the servants of one Jew. How so many could take hold of the garment of one man is not explained. But Peter, the Jewish Christian, may be supposed to have understood in what sense we should take the prophecies in Isaiah 60, 61. Yet he would not suffer the Gentile Cornelius to bow down at the soles of his feet, and he thought that no human being should permit a fellow-man to do so. Act 10:25-26. And those words of his (Act 10:34-35), God is no respecter of persons: But in every nation he that feareth Him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with Him, should have prevented Christian expositors of the Old Testament from adopting the carnal interpretation of the Jews. Dr. Charles Hodge has truly said that in the didactic portions of the New Testament there is no intimation that any one class of Christians, or Christians of any one nation or race, are to be exalted over their brethren; neither is there the slightest suggestion that the future kingdom of Christ is to be of earthly splendor. Not only are these expectations without any foundation in the teachings of the Apostles, but they are also inconsistent with the whole spirit of their instructions. It is as much opposed to the spirit of the Gospel that pre-eminence in Christs kingdom should be adjudged to any man or set of men on the ground of natural descent, as on the ground of superior stature, physical strength, or wealth.D. M.].
11. On Isa 61:9. Omnis, qui viderit eos, prima fronte cognoscet, quia semen sit, cui benedixerit Dominus. Quis enim ex ordine vitae, mansuetudine, continentia, hospitalitate, cunctisque virtutibus non intelligai populum Dei? Hieronymus.
12. On Isa 61:11. [So that the whole world is become Eden: reclaimed for ever out of the hand of the unrighteous spoiler. In, this year of Jubilee the earth is restored to its proper heirs, the righteous seed. For all those weary ages of wrong, compensation shall be made. The Priestly King will re-consecrate shame-stricken men, and they shall now be kings and priests unto God. Kay, D. M.].
HOMILETICAL HITS
1. On Isa 61:1-3. The announcement of the coming Saviour by HimselfIt tells 1) the Person who sends Him; 2) His equipment for His work; 3) the design of His mission. It is a) to promise and bestow all consolation for the godly; b) to announce judgment for the wicked.
2. [The Lord hath anointed me.Aaron wag anointed to be high-priest by Moses (Exo 40:13; Lev 8:12). The Lord Himself has anointed Messiah Psa 45:7, God thy God, hath anointed Thee. So we know that when Jesus was baptized (amidst crowds who were confessing their sins, Mat 3:6, as on a great Day of Atonement), the heavens were rent (Mar 1:10), as if the veil which separated God and man were torn asunder, and God anointed Him with the Holy Ghost (Act 10:38), declaring Him to be His beloved Son, in whom He was well pleased. Shortly afterwards Jesus publicly applied this prophecy to Himself (Luk 4:17); and then went forth to proclaim the worlds Jubilee (Luk 4:43; Luk 8:1). Kay, D. M.].
3. On Isa 61:6-7. The Spiritual Priesthood of Christians.1) Their office (ministers of God), a) by spiritual sacrifices (Rom 12:1; 1Pe 2:5; Heb 13:16); 6) by interceding and blessing; 2) Their present shame; 3) Their future glorification.
4. On Isa 61:9. How are Christians known among other men? 1) By their confession, which does not agree with that of the world; 2) By their walk, which differs most decidedly from that of the children of the world.
5. On Isa 61:10-11. The mutual relation between Christ and His Church.1) Christ as the priestly bridegroom puts His Church in possession of righteousness and salvation; 2) The church, arrayed in her bridal ornament, brings forth righteousness and praise to the Lord.
Footnotes:
[1]opening of the eyes.
[2]put on.
[3]terebinths.
[4]aliens.
[5]enter, substitute yourselves.
[6]robbery by iniquity.
[7]give their reward.
[8]Heb. decketh as a priest.
DISCOURSE: 1004 Isa 61:1-3. The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn; to appoint unto them that mount in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified.
IMPORTANT as these words evidently are on account of the blessed truths contained in them, they come recommended to us with double force, from their having been made the subject of our Lords first discourse after his entrance on his prophetic office. The interpretation of them, which he has suggested, leaves us no doubt respecting the propriety of applying them to him [Note: Luk 4:17-22.]. While therefore we begin at this Scripture, and preach unto you Jesus, we may truly say, This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears. May the rehearsal of it excite amongst us, not merely a transient admiration, but a deep and permanent desire to enjoy the blessings revealed in it. The prophet, speaking of the Messiah, declares,
I.
His call to his office
Our Lord was consecrated to his prophetic office by a visible unction of the Holy Spirit. By that unction too he was qualified for the discharge of the office committed to him. The prophet proceeds to open at large,
II.
The commission given him
The terms, in which his commission are expressed, have especial reference to the jubilees that were proclaimed every fiftieth year. He was sent,
1.
To offer salvation to all who needed it
[At the time of jubilee all who had by any means been reduced to sell their estates, and to surrender up themselves and families as slaves to their creditors, were liberated from their bondage, and restored to the full possession of their inheritance, the very instant the trumpet sounded [Note: Lev 25:10; Lev 25:41]. The Gospel is that trumpet, and it proclaims liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; and our Lords office was to sound this trumpet, to announce these glad tidings, to declare that this acceptable year was arrived, and that the day was come wherein God would take vengeance on all their enemies and oppressors. These are glad tidings indeed to those who are sensible of their bondage to sin and Satan, and who know that they have sold the inheritance of heaven for the pleasures of sin: but to those who are unconscious of their guilt and misery, the sound of the trumpet seems an empty noise, or rather, an insult, as implying a state of degradation, which they do not feel and will not acknowledge. Hence our Lords commission, though extending to all, was more particularly to the meek: for it is to them only, who are humbled under their wretched condition, that the offer of a free salvation contains any welcome news.]
2.
To impart salvation to all who desired it
[To the broken hearted, and the mourners in Zion he came to appoint and to give the blessings they desired. He was expected as the consolation of Israel; and, in that character, he particularly appeared. Were any bowed down with a spirit of heaviness, and mourning in dust and ashes! he came to bind up their broken hearts, and to exhilarate their souls; that they might be comforted, and become as persons anointed with oil, and arrayed in gayest apparel for some great festivity [Note: There is in the original a paronomasia which cannot be expressed in a translation; he will give Phear for Ephar, that is, beauty for ashes.]. We may conceive the feelings of a man who in one instant has been restored, from the lowest degree of servitude and want, to affluence and honour; but we must experience the blessedness of salvation, before we can form any adequate idea of the joy and gladness which Christ infuses into the contrite and believing soul.]
Thus far our Lord himself applied the passage: but the prophet adds,
III.
The ends for which he executes this commission
Our Lord in every part of his work connected two great ends:
1.
The benefit of man
[Though once we were planted a noble vine, we are become the degenerate plants of a strange vine; and instead of producing good fruit, we bring forth nothing but grapes of Sodom, and clusters of Gomorrha [Note: Jer 2:21. Deu 32:32.]. But Christ desires to rectify our fallen nature, and to make us trees of righteousness; that, instead of the thorn may come up the fir-tree, and instead of the brier the myrtle-tree [Note: Isa 55:13.], that so we may be as trees planted and watered by the hand of God. This was the end of his mission; and it is invariably the effect of his ministration. Let us only view the converts on the day of Pentecost, and in them we shall behold a just specimen of the effects produced by the preached Gospel: and, to whomsoever the word of Christ comes with power, the same blessings are given; they are transplanted from the wilderness into the garden of the Lord, and they have their fruit unto holiness, and their end everlasting life.]
2.
The glory of God
[This could not but be the great end which Jesus ever had in view: he had sinned if there had been any consideration in his mind superior or even comparable to this. And how well was his commission calculated to promote it! View him as undertaking our cause, and coming from heaven to redeem us; can we fail of admiring the love and condescension of that God who sent him? Hear the tidings he proclaims; a full, a free, an everlasting salvation to perishing sinners: are we not filled with wonder at such stupendous mercy? See the myriads whose broken hearts he has healed; see them rejoicing on earth, or shouting their hallelujahs in heaven; are we not ready to clap our hands for joy, and to break forth into acclamations and hosannahs? There is not any part of Christs work, whether as performed by him, or enjoyed by us, but what calls upon us to glorify God with our whole hearts: and to all eternity will the praises of God resound from myriads of the redeemed, who, with united voices will exclaim, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and to the Lamb for ever and ever [Note: Rev 5:13.].]
This subject may be improved, For conviction
[All profess to hope for salvation through Christ, even though they be insensible of their lost and helpless state. But, if it be to the meek, the mourners, and the broken-hearted, that Christ came, what can they have to do with him, whose hearts are whole, and who are unhumbled before him? They that are whole need not a physician, but they that are sick: nor did he come to call the righteous (those who fancy themselves righteous), but sinners to repentance. Let none then expect to participate his salvation, unless they feel their need of it, and consent to receive it as his free unmerited gift.]
2.
For consolation
[They who are sensible that they have sold heaven and their own souls for a thing of nought, are ready to say, Can such a lawful captive ever be delivered [Note: Isa 49:24-25.]? We answer, You may instantly cast off your bonds and assert your liberty, if you will but accept the preferred mercy. Only believe in Christ, and the forfeited inheritance of heaven shall be yours. Arise then, and sing, thou that sittest in the dust; put off thy sackcloth, and gird thee with gladness. Be not afraid, us though the tidings were too good to be true: the jubilee is come, and the trumpet now sounds by the command of God himself: you have not to pay any thing for your deliverance; but to receive it freely: you have nothing to fear from your enemies; for the day of Gods vengeance is come, and he will bruise all your enemies under your feet. Let but these tidings sink into your hearts; and God will glorify himself in your eternal happiness.]
CONTENTS
Another Chapter, full of Christ, in which, under the spirit of prophecy, the Lord Jesus is the preacher. Some precious promises are added, respecting the Church.
Had the shadow of a doubt existed as to whom this blessed scripture applies, the Lord Jesus would have fully removed it, when, in his visit to the Jewish synagogue on the sabbath, he read it, and declared its accomplishment. See Luk 4:14-21 . But, over and above this precious testimony, I pray the Reader to remark under what features of character he is described by the Prophet; and then I beg of him to look at the original, as he appeared in the days of his flesh. See those scriptures, Isa 11:1-3 ; Mat 3:16-17 ; Joh 1:29-34 .
Isa 61:1
Speaking against the South, on 3 February, 1863, John Bright declared: ‘I cannot understand how any Englishman, who in past years has been accustomed to say that “there was one foul blot upon the fair fame of the American Republic,” can now express any sympathy for those who would perpetuate and extend that blot. And more, if we profess to be, though it be with imperfect and faltering steps, the followers of Him who declared it to be His Divine mission “to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,” must we not reject with indignation and scorn the proffered alliance and friendship with a power based on human bondage, and which contemplates the overthrow and the extinction of the dearest rights of the most helpless of mankind?’
References. LXI. 1. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxvii. No. 1601; vol. xl. No. 2371. G. Matheson, Voices of the Spirit, p. 73. T. G. Selby, The Holy Spirit and Christian Privilege, p. 25. C. Kingsley, Sermons on National Subjects, p. 17. W. M. Punshon, Sermons, the Year of Jubilee, p. 171; see also Outlines of Sermons on the Old Testament, p. 239. LXI. 2. J. M. Neale, Sermons on the Prophets, vol. i. p. 254. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxiii. No. 1369. LXI. 3. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Isaiah XLIX.-LXVI. p. 191. J. Pulsford, Infoldings and Unfoldings, p. 1. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xvii. No. 1016. LXI. 4. Mandell Creighton, Christian World Pulpit, vol. li. 1897, p. 324. LXI. 7. J. B. Brown, The Soul’s Exodus and Pilgrimage, p. 392. LXI. 10. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xliii. No. 2543. LXI. 11. Ibid. vol. xix. No. 1104.
Chapter 3
Christ’s Qualifications As a Preacher. The Necessity of Character Christ’s Intellectual Resources What We Owe to the Enemy the Variety of Christ’s Method
Prayer
Almighty God, we come to thee in the name of thy Son, Jesus Christ our Saviour, and not ours only, but the Saviour of the whole world, who by his precious blood answered all the accusation of thy law. He is the Way, the Truth, the Life, and there is none other, and we now accept him as thy gift, the very utterance and expression of thine own infinite love. We rejoice to know that there is one God and one Mediator between God and man, the Man Christ Jesus; we come therefore to thee, through him alone: in him is our worthiness, in him is our strength, and if we are dumb before thee, it is that he himself may pray for us.
We thank thee that we still have an interest in the affairs of thy kingdom. Time doth not charm us, and all the earth with its fulness and all the sea with its music cannot content us. We declare plainly that we seek a country; our eyes are lifted up, and we seek a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. Thou hast stirred us by a Divine ambition, thou art moving us by heavenly impulses, the unrest which disturbs our heart is itself a blessing, calling upon us to arise and work and serve and wait and suffer until the end, which is full of light, shall come.
Wherein we have done wrong in thy sight do thou now exercise thy mercy, that the miracle of thy forgiveness may exceed the marvel of our guilt. Thou hast an answer to us in Christ Jesus: he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed. Lo, this is thy gospel, to our heart when it smites itself with accusation, and to our conscience when it rises threateningly and demands our life. Help us to find rest in Christ, refuge in the cross, and peace in the holy blood then let thy word dwell in us richly as a new life and a new light, the very glory of Heaven, the very peace of God. So shall we have an answer to every tempter, a refuge in the time of every tempest, and our peace shall be complete, because it is of the nature of the tranquillity of God. Help us to use our time well: may no talent be wrapped up and laid aside, may we be living at every point of our character, yea, may there be no death in us at all; even now may we lay hold upon our immortality and bring to bear upon the things of the dying day the power of an endless life.
Where there is sorrow of heart this day, surprise the sorrowful with new joys: where there is a sense of blankness and emptiness because of the visitations of thy bereaving providence, do thou fill up such blankness with thy presence more fully than ever thou hast yet done. When the tears are in the eyes and the sob is suppressed in the heart, bring thy gospel in all its tender solaces and infinite consolations to bear upon the bruised and heavy laden. Interpret unto us the meaning of the grave that is dug under our own hearthstone show us why death is a continual guest at our table, and do thou thus interpret unto us the mystery of life and give unto us the piety which sees the bright view, the far and celestial outlook, that anticipates the resurrection, the utter and lasting destruction of death. Then shall our voices mingle with the sweet hymn in thy house that gives thee praise for all thy dispensation, and the psalm that adores thee shall have in it the utterance of our love.
Text: “The Lord hath anointed me to preach.” Isa 61:1
Christ’s supreme qualification as a preacher was that he himself was the Word made flesh, was both the text and the sermon, the doctrine and its exemplification. That must be the qualification of his ministers: in such degree as is possible to them they must be incarnations of the very spirit and perfection of God. They will not, of course, succeed in this, but they will press towards the mark for the prize of their high calling of God in Christ Jesus. I am not aware that any promise is given to genius or learning, in the matter of expounding the Divine word, but exceeding great and precious promises are given to modesty, humility, trust, childlike love, transparent, ingenuous simplicity. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. The Lord resisteth the proud, but he giveth grace unto the humble. You will find at the basis of Christ’s ministry what must be at the basis of every ministry that is divine, true, and beneficent solid character. This is the character of Jesus Christ: Without sin; a just man; innocent blood; no fault in him; he did no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. That is the basis of all vital and lasting influence in every man. In the long run character goes for most. Tongues cease, prophecy fails, eloquence is dumb, and music is silent, but character, charity, love, abideth forever.
You mistake Jesus Christ if you think of him as a miracle-worker only. He made nothing of his miracles, except as means to ends. He was never intoxicated by the eulogiums of the people who said, “Never man spake like this Man,” who wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth like rich, deep rivers running in green pastures. He was not stopped in his course by being applauded as the most perfect, graceful, and eloquent speaker of his time, a magician in the use of words and a master in their application. All those trivial compliments he despised: he was holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners with us, above us, here, yonder, on earth, in Heaven that weird mystery that eternally frightens all wickedness. He was more than a merely good man that, being a very doubtful description, may mean much that Jesus Christ would have resented. He was holy, he was in deep sympathy with God, he dwelt in the secret place of the Almighty, he made his habitation in the Lord, whereas in our case the temple may have a thousand pinnacles flashing in the sun, and on every pinnacle a thousand marble gods, but the temple itself is on the sand, and the wind will carry it away.
First of all, there must be in all Christian teachers, public or private, high or obscure, solid, indestructible character. But there will be imperfections? Certainly. Mistakes, failures in judgment, sometimes actions that seem to mock the very first suggestions of common sense? Truly. These things do not touch character. You may fall a thousand times a day, and still there may be in you that seed of the divine sonship which the devil cannot steal, and which winter cannot bind up in more than temporary frost. When I speak of character, I do not speak of what is termed outward and visible perfection a mechanically-wrought contrivance of expediencies, which challenge the most jealous and critical human eye but of an inner kingdom of spirit, conviction, sympathy, purpose, against which the gates of hell shall not prevail. Peter fell: Peter was not lost. All men have fallen, yet man shall be saved. This is a great mystery, but I speak to those who understand it by many a suffering, by many a grief, by many a tragedy too sacred for words.
Not only was Christ holy, he was called. It is not every good man that is called to preach. Jesus Christ was distinctly called to this high work of the ministry. “The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek. He hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound.” “Behold my servant whom I uphold, mine elect in whom my soul delighteth. I have put my spirit upon him.” “God giveth not the spirit by measure unto him.” God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power. Thus, then, Jesus Christ was a holy Man I now take the merely human view of the case distinctly and specifically called of God to preach a certain gospel. It is beautiful to think that almost every man, when he is converted, wants to be a minister. Do not ridicule the young ambition. There is an element of grandeur shall I say of divinity? about it. Have I ever received a young man into the church who did not come to me soon after and say that he felt as if he would like to be a minister, a preacher of the truth which has made him what he is in his new life? Yea, in that first love, in that early passion of consecration, he is willing to be a missionary an enthusiasm which often dies out too soon. He says he will be a home missionary, he will even be an evangelist; his love is so simple, large, and pure, that he will be a door-keeper in the house of the Lord. Well, it is morally beautiful, it is spiritually pathetic, exquisite in the perfectness of its delicacy, and in the subtlety of its deepest meanings, yet every man is not called to be a minister. I gently discourage all I can from being preachers. My gentle discouragements will do them no harm: if God really means to have them in this work, he will know where to find them and how to call them. You cannot mistake fire was fire ever mistaken for anything else? It is a baptism of fire with which God anoints his chosen ones. It is fire that makes the difference between one man and another; it is not intelligence, it is not the mere use of words. The most copious speakers I have ever heard in my life have been to me the most inane and pointless. What was wanted? Fire. Who can despise it? None. Who can feel it? All. Be quiet, then, for the time, my neophyte; see whether it is really God’s fire that is under thee, and in thee, and round about thee it cannot easily be put out, and there will be no mistaking it by-and-by.
Men are called to be what they are. Every musician is called of God. Do you suppose that every man who has ten fingers can play the organ? Do you suppose that every man who has large lungs can play upon a trumpet to the instruction and edification of those who hear him to their lifting up and their resurrection? Every poet is called to make his verse: he is anointed of God. Herein is that saying true which a Frenchman spoke, to whom it was said, “It must be very difficult to make epic verses.” Said he, “No: easy, or impossible.” Every tradesman is called to his employment, if he be in the right sphere. A tradesman cannot be made any more than a poet. I know how to account for all the failures in commercial life; either the men are not in their right places, and were never meant for those places, or there is that necessary want of energy and genius, tact and perseverance, which comes out of antipathy to the pursuit. Train up a child in the way he should go, catch God’s idea concerning him, interpret the Divine idea in the creation of his life, and then you will have a natural, symmetrical, and happy development of faculty and energy and love, and at the last you will have a life beautiful for its completeness and utility.
I am not sure that any man has yet made enough of Christ’s intellectual resources as a preacher. I do not remember any essay upon the intellect of Christ. We, of course, as Evangelical Christians, believe him to have been God the Son that is the central fact in my Christian faith. But speaking of him now as a historical character, merely as a preacher, a speaker, a teacher of men, I feel that we have not dwelt sufficiently upon the intellectual virility, fecundity, and majesty of Christ. Only this morning the idea occurred to me how his intellectual power is displayed in the hell which he described in the lesson I have just read. Thinking of my service this morning, that conception of hell came before me as one of the finest exemplifications of the intellectual power of Christ, and therefore I determined to read to you, as I have now done, that solemn and mysterious parable concerning the rich man and Lazarus. I will risk my whole contention as to Christ’s intellectual supremacy upon that one parable. I read Dante’s hell till I became familiar with it: it is a poet labouring to kindle a hell with fagots of words, and the trick is well done. But you may multiply words till you work in the hearer a familiarity which makes him a critic upon the very hell you meant him to fear. What a hell is this, in the passage we have just read! “Have mercy on me,” the man is in a place, for the first time in his being, where mercy never came, “send Lazarus” the humiliation that forms part of the final penalty “that he may dip the tip of his finger in water” the very least blessing magnified into a redemption “and cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame.” He made that hell who made the parable of the Prodigal Son! These colours are thrown on with a master’s touch: there is no labour here. Dante’s hell is a perdition which the poet has dreamed, Christ’s hell is a pit which he has seen.
All the parables indicate the supreme intellectual majesty of Christ. There was no end to his inventiveness. All his parables are original. To-day we have books of anecdotes, thick books, sold for ministerial use, that the minister may feather his arrows with anecdotes imagined by other men. If I told you twenty anecdotes, I should have borrowed them from various sources. Christ made his anecdotes, invented his parables, elaborated, out of an inexhaustible genius, all the beauteous pictures which he hung up before the eye and the fancy of his hearers. Gather them altogether into one gallery, mark their contrasts, their varieties hardly any two of them alike why, he who made the flowers made these paradisal plants; they bear the same signature, they have about them the same mystery alike, dissimilar, identical, separate all the widest contrasts possible to imagination. The parable of the Sower and the parable of Dives and Lazarus came out of the same mind. The parable of the Good Samaritan, and the parables by which the kingdom of heaven is illustrated in twenty different shining lights, all came out of the same mind; and that mind had never been at school, that mind was an untrained peasant’s mind, that mind never knew letters in the rabbinical and scholastic sense of the term, and yet it grew those flowers, like a garden tilled by an invisible hand, of which God was the husbandman. Collect these things, dwell upon them, and see how they add up to Deity!
But the instantaneousness of the speech was as remarkable as its inventiveness. Christ’s was not the art that conceals art, not the trick of a preacher who can have a long written sermon before him, and yet be so reading it as to appear not to be reading it at all. Jesus Christ knew nothing of our homiletic tricks. He had no time to prepare some of his sublimest utterances; they were retorts How long would it take me to make the parable of the Good Samaritan? Would you begrudge me three days if I asked that time in which to make the parable? I believe you would willingly grant me that space for preparation. How long did Christ take? An immeasurable moment. The tempting lawyer said, “Who is my neighbour?” And he, answering, said . Then came that beautiful utterance: not a three days’ thinking, not a week’s preparation, but an answer out of the abundance of the heart. The heart that could give such utterances every day was not a peasant’s heart only, it was God’s.
All the most beautiful parables of Christ were spoken in reply to the enemy. “Then drew near to him the publicans and the sinners to hear him. And he said, ‘A certain man had two sons.'” Then came the parable of the Prodigal Son. Look at Christ’s knowledge of human nature. He needed not that any should testify of man, for he knew what was in man. That was one of his supreme qualifications as a public expounder of Divine mysteries. He knew his audience; he knew his material. A great musician says, “I must know my organ.” One of the greatest musicians in our land says, that before you can play any organ you must get out of your memory every other organ you ever touched, and must make the particular instrument to be played upon a separate and independent study. Jesus Christ knew every string in the instrument he had to play. Socrates says the orator must be all man. Jesus Christ needed not that any should testify of man, for he knew what was in man.
This must be the secret of our power as preachers and teachers and private expositors of the Divine mysteries. Not to know human nature is to be ignorant. To know human nature is to speak all languages. Some men have the spirit of burning who have not the spirit of judgment in this matter. What shall we say of a young man who, in the excess of his zeal, was giving away religious tracts, and to two acquaintances of my own, two very respectable citizen-mothers, two ladies of the highest character, this young man gave a tract, each on the subject of profane swearing? You could hardly believe any such idiocy: you could scarcely believe that any man could perpetrate so foul an irony. If thou dost not know human nature thy ministry will be a pitiful failure. Know how to speak to every man. If he is a weakling who comes to thee, chaffer like a weakling, and make him feel like a hail fellow well met, and he will go away saying, “Well, really, he is not such a great man as I thought he was: I felt as if we were just standing on a level.” That’s right. That is genius. And when the great man comes to talk to thee, speak in another language take him on his own level, and he will say as he is going away, “I did not expect to find so superior and distinguished a man.” That is genius. To the weak, weak; to the strong, strong; to the shrewd, shrewd; to the simple, simple; to all men, all things. So was Christ. A ruler among the Jews could talk to him till his flesh crept as if ghosts were tormenting him all over, and a woman at a well could talk to him and ask him questions, and little children could go up to him and toddle about him as if they had the right to do so, and kings and procurators turned pale in his presence, and were made silent by his silence. He looked at them till they were afraid of themselves. He knew what was in man, yet he was a peasant, a carpenter, a Nazarene whence had this Man this wisdom? And echo answers, “Whence?” And the answer only comes from eternity.
Then consider what an eye he had for the suggestiveness of the material world. A sparrow falling to the ground, a lily growing, a ship sailing, the fields whitening unto the harvest, the sky lowering, red at night, red in the morning all things helped him to make his ministry clearer, fuller, stronger. The whole heaven and earth became to him a great gallery of illustration; every star was a teacher, every flower had in it the power of suggesting to him deeper and ever deeper truth. Lift up thine eyes and behold; seek not in thy worm-eaten books for new revelations, seek for them in God’s lights and God’s flowers, old as immemorial time, new as the dew that was made out of the viscid vapours last night.
Jesus Christ availed himself of every method. What was Jesus Christ’s method of preaching? You cannot tell. The chariots of God are twenty thousand. He taught; then his voice fell into a conversational tone; he was expository, communicative, illuminative; he took words, and terms, and phrases to pieces; he went back upon the old writings, and put them into new forms set them so that they could catch the light at angles hitherto unillumined. He solemnly, quietly taught the people, spoke with infinite dignity, scarcely seemed to move a finger or a feature; in the deepest sense of infinite quiet and peace, he taught the people. His words were light, his sentences were baptisms, his expositions were revelations the quietness overawed and soothed the auditors.
That was one method. Was he always the same? No. He cried. I should like to have heard the uplifting of his voice. “And Jesus stood on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood” usually he sat to teach the people, but on that day he stood, full height, expanded to the utmost of his dignity, “And cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink.” Not a note lost, every tone alighting upon every man as if the whole of it belonged to him, an entire gospel for his thirsting soul. So it is this day the thirst is here, it burns our heart, it scorches our tongue, it dries up our whole life, and still that sweet, resonant voice is lifted up in its cry of welcome, “If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink.”
Was that his only method of teaching and crying? No: he entreated. “Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, beautiful as a sister, tender as a mother, city of cities, how often would I have gathered thee and thou wouldst not be gathered. Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any man open the door I will come in.”
These were the methods of Christ: he taught quietly as a sage, cried loudly like an evangelist, wooed, entreated, persuaded, warned like one whose whole life was love, and who lived in the pain and agony of his affection.
These were Jesus Christ’s qualifications: a solid, holy character, a specific, Divine call, an intellectual power more than equal to every occasion, an inventiveness never rivalled in its fecundity, an instantaneousness that outran the lightning, a knowledge of human nature that looked into every vein and fibre of our life and soul, an eye for the beautiful and grand in physical creation, and a method diversified, so that to have heard him once was to have known nothing about him. He taught, he cried, he entreated, he came in all ways that he might bring us to God.
In which way will you come? Do you yield to teaching? Jesus taught. Do you answer appeal? Jesus appealed. Do you say you are not to be driven, you are to be led? Jesus entreated, and yearned, and persuaded, and waited for, till a mother would have tired and a father would have died. “What more could I do?” saith he. He has been to us Father and Mother, Sister, Shepherd, and Nurse and Friend, a friend that sticketh closer than a brother. How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation? How can your genius for escape exceed his genius for redemption? It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
XXVII
THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST IN ISAIAH
The relation between the New Testament Christ and prophecy is that the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. To him give all the prophets witness. All the scriptures, the law, the prophets, and the psalms, testify of him. And we are fools, and slow of heart to credit adequate testimony when we distrust any part of the inspired evidence.
Of the ancient prophets Isaiah was perhaps the most notable witness of the coming Messiah. An orderly combination of his many messianic utterances amounts to more than a mere sketch, indeed, rather to a series of almost life-sized portraits. As a striking background for these successive portraits the prophet discloses the world’s need of a Saviour, and across this horrible background of gloom the prophet sketches in startling strokes of light the image of a coming Redeemer.
In Isa 2:2-4 we have the first picture of him in Isaiah, that of the effect of his work, rather than of the Messiah himself. This is the establishment of the mountain of the Lord’s house on the top of the mountains, the coming of the nations to it and the resultant millennial glory.
In Isa 4:2-6 is another gleam from the messianic age in which the person of the Messiah comes more into view in the figure of a branch of Jehovah, beautiful and glorious. In sketching the effects of his work here the prophet adds a few strokes of millennial glory as a consummation of his ministry.
In Isa 7:14 he delineates him as a little child born of a virgin, whose coming is the light of the world. He is outlined on the canvas in lowest humanity and highest divinity, “God with us.” In this incarnation he is the seed of the woman and not of the man.
The prophet sees him as a child upon whom the government shall rest and whose name is “Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Isa 9:6 ). This passage shows the divinity of Christ and the universal peace he is to bring to the world. In these names we have the divine wisdom, the divine power, the divine fatherhood, and the divine peace.
In Isa 11:1-9 the prophet sees the Messiah as a shoot out of the stock of Jesse, i.e., of lowly origin, but possessing the Holy Spirit without measure who equips him for his work, and his administration wrought with skill and justice, the result of which is the introduction of universal and perfect peace. Here the child is presented as a teacher. And such a teacher! On him rests the seven spirits of God. The spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge, and the fear of the Lord. He judges not according to appearances and reproves not according to rumors. With righteousness he judges the poor and reproves with equality in behalf of the meek. His words smite a guilty world like thunderbolts and his very breath slays iniquity. Righteousness and faithfulness are his girdle. He uplifts an infallible standard of morals.
In Isa 40:3-8 appears John the Baptist, whom Isaiah saw as a voice crying in the wilderness, preparing the way for the coming King.
In Isa 11:2 ; Isa 42:1 ; Isa 61:1-3 the prophet saw the Messiah as a worker in the power of the Spirit, in whom he was anointed at his baptism. This was the beginning of his ministry which was wrought through the power of the Holy Spirit. At no time in his ministry did our Lord claim that he wrought except in the power of the Holy Spirit who was given to him without measure.
In Isa 35:1-10 the Messiah is described as a miracle worker. In his presence the desert blossoms as a rose and springs burst out of dry ground. The banks of the Jordan rejoice. The lame man leaps like a hart, the dumb sing and the blind behold visions. The New Testament abounds in illustrations of fulfilment. These signs Christ presented to John the Baptist as his messianic credentials (Mat 11:1-4 ).
The passage (Isa 42:1-4 ) gives us a flashlight on the character of the Messiah. In the New Testament it is expressly applied to Christ whom the prophet sees as the meek and lowly Saviour, dealing gently with the blacksliding child of his grace. In Isa 22:22 we have him presented as bearing the key of the house of David, with full power to open and shut. This refers to his authority over all things in heaven and upon earth. By this authority he gave the keys of the kingdom to Peter one for the Jews and the other for the Gentiles who used one on the day of Pentecost and the other at the house of Cornelius, declaring in each case the terms of entrance into the kingdom of God. This authority of the Messiah is referred to again in Revelation:
And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as one dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying. Fear not: I am the first and the last, and the Living one; and I was dead, and behold I am alive for evermore and I have the keys of death and of Hades. Rev 7:17
And to the angel of the church in Philadelphis write: These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth and none shall shut, and shutteth and none openeth. Rev 3:7
In Isa 32:1-8 we have a great messianic passage portraying the work of Christ as a king ruling in righteousness, in whom men find a hiding place from the wind and the tempest. He is a stream in a dry place and the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.
In Isa 28:14-18 the Messiah is presented to w as a foundation stone in a threefold idea:
1. A tried foundation stone. This is the work of the master mason and indicates the preparation of the atone for its particular function.
2. An elect or precious foundation stone. This indicates that the stone was selected and appointed. It was not self-appointed but divinely appointed and is therefore safe.
3. A cornerstone, or sure foundation stone. Here it is a foundation of salvation, as presented in Mat 16:18 . It is Christ the Rock, and not Peter. See Paul’s foundation in 1 Corinthians:
According to the grace of God which was given unto me; as a wise masterbuilder I laid a foundation; and another buildeth thereon. But let each man take heed how he buildeth thereon. For other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 1Co 3:10-11 .
In Isa 49:1-6 he is presented as a polished shaft, kept close in the quiver. The idea is that he is a mighty sword. In Revelation, Christ is presented to John as having a sharp, twoedged sword proceeding out of his mouth.
In Isa 50:2 ; Isa 52:9 f.; Isa 59:16-21 ; Isa 62:11 we have the idea of the salvation of Jehovah. The idea is that salvation originated with God and that man in his impotency could neither devise the plan of salvation nor aid in securing it. These passages are expressions of the pity with which God looks down on a lost world. The redemption, or salvation, here means both temporal and spiritual salvation salvation from enemies and salvation from sin.
In Isa 9:1 f. we have him presented as a great light to the people of Zebulun and Naphtali. In Isa 49:6 we have him presented as a light to the Gentiles and salvation to the end of the earth: “Yea, he saith, It is too light a thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth.”
In Isa 8:14-15 Isaiah presents him as a stone of stumbling: “And he shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And many shall stumble thereon, and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken.”
The prophet’s vision of his maltreatment and rejection are found in Isa 50:4-9 ; Isa 52:13-53:12 . In this we have the vision of him giving his “back to the smiters, and his cheeks to them that plucked off the hair.” We see a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. His visage is so marred it startled all nations. He is a vicarious sacrifice. The chastisement of the peace of others is on him. The iniquity of others is put on him. It pleases the Father to bruise him until he has poured out his soul unto death as an offering for sin.
The teaching of Isaiah on the election of the Jews is his teaching concerning the “holy remnant,” a favorite expression of the prophet. See Isa 1:9 ; Isa 10:20-22 ; Isa 11:11 ; Isa 11:16 ; Isa 37:4 ; Isa 37:31-32 ; Isa 46:3 . This coincides with Paul’s teaching in Romans 9-11.
In Isa 32:15 we find Isaiah’s teaching on the pouring out of the Holy Spirit: “Until the Spirit be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness become a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be esteemed as a forest,” and in Isa 44:3 : “For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and streams upon the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring.”
In Isa 11:10 he is said to be the ensign of the nations: “And it shall come to pass in that day, that the root of Jesse, that standeth for an ensign of the peoples unto him shall the nations seek; and his resting place shall be glorious.”
Isa 19:18-25 ; Isa 54:1-3 ; Isa 60:1-22 teach the enlargement of the church. The great invitation and promise are found in Isa 55 .
The Messiah in judgments is found in Isa 63:1-6 . Here we behold an avenger. He comes up out of Edom with dyed garments from Bozra. All his raiment is stained with the blood of his enemies whom he has trampled in his vengeance as grapes are crushed in the winevat and the restoration of the Jews is set forth in Isa 11:11-12 ; Isa 60:9-15 ; Isa 66:20 . Under the prophet’s graphic pencil or glowing brush we behold the establishment and growth of his kingdom unlike all other kingdoms, a kingdom within men, a kingdom whose principles are justice, righteousness, and equity and whose graces are faith, hope, love, and joy, an undying and ever-growing kingdom. Its prevalence is like the rising waters of Noah’s flood; “And the waters prevailed and increased mightily upon the earth. And the water prevailed mightily, mightily upon the earth; and all the high mountains, that are under the whole heavens, were covered.”
So this kingdom grows under the brush of the prophetic limner until its shores are illimitable. War ceases. Gannenta rolled in the blood of battle become fuel for fire. Conflagration is quenched. Famine outlawed. Pestilence banished. None are left to molest or make afraid. Peace flows like a river. The wolf dwells with the lamb. The leopard lies down with the kid. The calf and the young lion walk forth together and a little child is leading them. The cow and the bear feed in one pasture and their young ones are bedfellows. The sucking child safely plays over the hole of the asp, and weaned children put their hands in the adder’s den. In all the holy realms none hurt nor destroy, because the earth is as full of the knowledge of the Lord as the fathomless ocean is full of water. Rapturous vision! Sublime and ineffable consummation! Was it only a dream?
In many passages the prophet turns in the gleams from the millennial age, but one of the clearest and best on the millennium, which is in line with the preceding paragraph, Isa 11:6-9 : “And the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together: and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of Jehovah, as the waters cover the sea.”
The prophet’s vision of the destruction of death is given in Isa 25:8 : “He hath swallowed up death for ever; and the Lord Jehovah will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the reproach of his people will he take away from all the earth: for Jehovah hath spoken it,” and in Isa 26:19 : “Thy dead shall live; my dead bodies shall arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust; for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast forth the dead.”
The clearest outlines of the prophet’s vision of “Paradise Regained” are to be found in Isa 25:8 , and in two passages in chapter Isa 66 : Rejoice ye with Jerusalem, and be glad for her, all ye that love her: rejoice for joy with her, all ye that mourn over her; that ye may suck and be satisfied with the breasts of her consolations; that ye may milk out, and be delighted with the abundance of her glory. For thus saith Jehovah, Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream: and ye shall suck thereof; ye shall be borne upon the side, and shall be dandled upon the knees, as one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you; and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem. And ye shall see it, and your heart shall rejoice, and your bones shall flourish like the tender grass: and the hands of Jehovah shall be known toward his servants ; and he will have indignation against his enemies. Isa 66:10-14
For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make shall remain before me, saith Jehovah, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith Jehovah. Isa 66:22-23
QUESTIONS
1. What is the relation between the New Testament Christ and prophecy?
2. What can you say of Isaiah as a witness of the Messiah?
3. What can you say of Isaiah’s pictures of the Messiah and their background?
4. Following in the order of Christ’s manifestation, what is the first picture of him in Isaiah?
5. What is the second messianic glimpse in Isaiah?
6. What is Isaiah’s picture of the incarnation?
7. What is Isaiah’s picture of the divine child?
8. What is Isaiah’s vision of his descent, his relation to the Holy Spirit, his administration of justice, and the results of his reign?
9. What is Isaiah’s vision of the Messiah’s herald?
10. What is the prophet’s vision of his anointing?
11. What is the prophet’s vision of him as a miracle worker?
12. What is the prophet’s vision of the character of the Messiah?
13. What is the prophet’s vision of him as the key bearer?
14. What is the prophet’s vision of him as a king and a hiding place?
15. What is the prophet’s vision of the Messiah as a foundation stone?
16. What is the prophet’s vision of him as a polished shaft?
17. In what passages do we find the idea of the salvation of Jehovah, and what the significance of the idea?
18. What is Isaiah’s vision of the Messiah as a light?
19. Where does Isaiah present him as a stone of stumbling?
20. What is the prophet’s vision of his maltreatment and rejection?
21. What is the teaching of Isaiah on the election of the Jews?
22. Where do we find Isaiah’s teaching on the pouring out of the Holy Spirit?
23. Where is he said to be the ensign of the nations?
24. What passages teach the enlargement of the church?
25. Where is the great invitation and promise?
26. Where is the Messiah in judgment?
27. What passages show the restoration of the Jews?
28. What is the prophet’s vision of the Messiah’s kingdom?
29. What is the prophet’s vision of the millennium?
30. What is the prophet’s vision of the destruction of death?
31. What is the prophet’s vision of “Paradise Regained?”
XXV
THE BOOK OF ISAIAH PART 17
Isa 61:1-63:8
The threefold theme of this section (Isa 61:1-63:6 ) is the mission of the Servant of Jehovah, a new picture of Zion’s glory, and the judgments of the Servant upon his enemies. The speaker in Isa 61:1-3 is the Messiah and the positive proof of it is the testimony of our Lord himself:
And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and he entered, as his custom was, into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up to read. And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Isaiah. And he opened the book, and found the place where it was written.
The spirit of the Lord is upon me, Because he anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor: He hath sent me to proclaim release to the captives, And recovering of sight to the blind, To set at liberty them that are bruised, To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.
And he closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant, and sat down: and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he began to say unto them, Today hath this scripture been fulfilled in your ears: Luk 4:16-21 .
This short paragraph sets forth, in general, the preparation of the Messiah for his special mission. There are several items of information in this passage. We are told here that the Messiah had a special anointing for his work. This took place at his baptism when the Holy Spirit came upon him and abode with him ever afterward without measure. There follows in this passage the several offices that the Messiah filled. In the Old Testament we have the special anointing of prophets, priests, and kings for their respective offices. This anointing was performed by the use of the holy anointing oil for which we have the specific recipe in Exo 30:22-23 . All these offices of the Old Testament prophet, priest, and king were combined in the one person of the Messiah. He was prophet, priest, and king, and in Jesus Christ we have all these functions performed.
In this commission of our Lord here we have these functions distinctly indicated. His prophetic office is signified in the special commission to preach the good tidings unto the meek; his priestly work is indicated in his commission to bind up the brokenhearted; and his kingly office, in his commission to set free the captives. Then he was to proclaim the Jubilee year in which all captives were set free and all oppression of debt was removed, and there was a time of general rejoicing. All this has a distinct fulfilment in the gospel dispensation through Christ and his heralds. The picture here is one of joy and gladness, just such as comes to a people who have been freed from the bonds of slavery, of which the greatest is the slavery of sin. This is the mission of the Messiah and amply fulfilled in our Lord Jesus Christ.
The results of such a ministry are pictured in Isa 61:4-9 . In the preceding paragraph the recipients of the blessings of the Messiah are called “trees of righteousness, the planting of Jehovah.” In this passage the prophet takes as his starting point the captivity, then pictures in glowing terms their return and rebuilding of the waste places, and then sweeps out into the future where he sees the Jews and the Gentiles in the kingdom together and the Jews holding a prominent place in the great plan of God for the salvation of the world. At that time instead of their shame they shall have double honor and instead of their dishonor they shall have rejoicing. One of the results of his work is the establishing of justice and the meting out of rewards in truth, and he makes an everlasting covenant with them.
Then in Isa 61:9 we have a striking prophecy. Here we are told that the seed of the’ Jews shall be known among the nations and their offspring among the peoples; that they should be acknowledged by all who see them, as “seed whom Jehovah hath blessed.” This marvelous prophecy is being fulfilled in every nation of the world where the Jew has migrated. No man fails to recognize the shrewd Jew in the affairs of the governments and in the great commercial and financial interests of the marts of the world. He has figured largely at all the great courts of the earth ever since Joseph was prime minister at the court of Pharaoh and Daniel, at the court of Nebuchadnezzar. He is a success everywhere, so much so that the world points the finger at him and says, “There is the one whom Jehovah hath blessed.”
The speaker in Isa 61:10-11 is Zion, responding to the gracious promises of the preceding parts of this section. This was a great time for rejoicing. The good tidings, their healing and their liberty brought by the Messiah now finds a hearty response in heartfelt joy and rejoicing.
The things here mentioned for which God’s people rejoice and are joyful in him are as follows: The first thing mentioned is the garment of salvation, or the robe of righteousness. This, of course, is the imputed righteousness of Christ, and Dressed in his righteousness alone, Faultless to stand before his throne, God’s people may go on rejoicing as a bridegroom or as a bride adorned for the marriage. There is here also the strong assurance of the final triumph of righteousness in all nations. The whole world is to become an Eden, reclaimed forever out of the hand of the unrighteous spoiler. In this year of Jubilee the earth will be restored to its proper heirs, the righteous seed. For all the preceding weary ages of wrong, compensation shall be made. All God’s saints, who have long been shame-stricken, shall then become “kings and priests unto God,” and thus their joy shall be made full.
Some regard the speaker in Isa 62 as Jehovah; some, the prophet himself or the prophetic order, while others regard him as the Servant of Jehovah. The last supposition is by far the most logical and the best. The close connection with the preceding chapter is evident. In that chapter we have a soliloquy of the Servant and a response upon the part of Zion. Here the Servant takes up the soliloquy and goes on through this chapter.
The Servant in Isa 62:1-5 declared that he would not hold his peace any longer for the time had come for the publishing of Zion’s righteousness and salvation; that this should be evident to the nations; that she should have a new name and should be a crown of beauty and a royal diadem in the hand of God; that her new name should be expressive of her new relation, i.e., “not forsaken,” but Hephzibah, “My delight is in her,” and Beulah, which means “married”; that thenceforth Zion should be a delight and that God would rejoice over her. All this has its realization in the ministry of Christ and the Holy Spirit.
There has been a great controversy over the name, “Hephzibah.” Our Campbellite brethren claim that the new name here given Zion is the name, Christian, which the disciples received at Antioch (Act 11:26 ). They insist that the church should have that name and that to wear that name is essential to salvation. Just what that new name is, it is not easy to decide. Two names are given here “Hephzibah” and “Beulah.” Why we should select the first rather than the second, is not evident. These names are expressive of a new condition and of a new relation, one meaning, “My delight is in her” and the other, “married.” Then, it will be noted here that this new name shall be the “name, which the mouth of Jehovah shall name.” But the name “Christian” was given the disciples by the heathen and in derision. Then the name Christian occurs but three times in the New Testament and in each case it is applied to the individual disciple and nowhere is it applied to the church. Another mystery about it all is that if the church of Jesus Christ should be called “The Christian Church,” why was it so long receiving this name? Not until 1827 was the name suggested at all, and then several other names were tried before they hit upon this name. According to this passage in Isaiah, if we find this new name in the New Testament, we must expect to find it given by Christ himself or by some one of his inspired apostles. But we look in vain for such name in their ministry and writings.
It seems better to consider these names in the light of the historical background of Zion at this time and in the light of the specific meaning of the words here used. The two names, “Hephzibah” and “Beulah,” have their corresponding application in the history of Israel, expressing a condition and a relation at the time the prophet wrote. “Azubah,” forsaken, was the name of Jehoshaphat’s mother (2Ch 20:31 ) and Hephzibah, “my delight is in her,” was the name of Hezekiah’s wife (2Ki 21:1 ). So here he says, “Thou shall no more be termed forsaken [Azubah]; neither shall thy land any more be termed Desolate: but thou shalt be called Hephzibah, and the land Beulah; for Jehovah delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married.” This explains that these names are expressive of Zion’s new condition and relation, which she was to maintain in the gospel dispensation under the new covenant. We find some New Testament expressions that correspond to these, indicating the relations under the new covenant, such as “the honorable name,” by James and the “new name” of Rev 2:17 ; Rev 3:12 , which will be given to individual saints in the heavenly kingdom.
Further interest in Zion is expressed by the Servant in Isa 62:6-9 . The interest here is in the setting of the watchmen on the walls of Jerusalem, who are to watch Jerusalem with an everlasting vigilance. Some think that the watchmen here are the prophets and priests; others, that they are angels who keep perpetual watch and ward over Zion. That these watchmen here are angelic beings appears from their personal vigilance and that they are reminders to Jehovah of his oath and covenant to bless Zion. This corresponds to the watchers in Dan 4:13 ; Dan 4:17 ; Dan 4:23 which are admitted, generally, to be angels. In the New Testament this idea of angel ministrations is emphatic. Our Lord refers to the angels that have charge of the “little ones” and angels ministered unto him on different occasions. Paul tells us that the angels are present and watching over the assemblies in the churches, and in Heb 1:14 he defines their work in particular, thus: “Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to do service for the sake of them that shall inherit salvation?”
Their special mission has already been intimated in the preceding paragraph. But as this passage here sets forth, they are to be Jehovah’s remembrancers, reminding him of his covenant with them and his promises to them. They are not to let Jehovah rest until “He establish and make Jerusalem a praise in the earth.” This thought of importunity is also expressed in Luk 11:5-13 ; Luk 18:1-8 . Here is also set forth the oath of Jehovah respecting Zion, that the enemies of Zion shall no more triumph over her but that Zion shall enjoy the full blessing of her fruitage.
The proclamation of Isa 62:10-12 is a proclamation for all to go up to Jerusalem. A highway must be prepared, the stones must be gathered out and an ensign for the peoples be lifted up. The prophet here starts again with the Babylonian captivity, delineates the parts the several peoples perform in the return and restoration of the Holy City and its institutions. Then he announces the proclamation of Jehovah to the end of the earth that the salvation of the daughter of Zion cometh. Then stretching forward in his vision, he sees the Holy City called “Sought out, a city not forsaken.” This was not fully realized after the return and so we keep our faces toward the future in anticipation of this glorious day when the Jews everywhere shall receive with joy in their hearts this proclamation to go up to their own land and to the Holy City, never again to be forsaken.
The prophet’s vision in Isa 63:1-6 is a vision of someone coming from Edom, with crimsoned garments from Bozrah. His apparel is glorious, and his step is characteristic of a conqueror. But who is this conqueror from Edom? He here announces himself to be one speaking in righteousness and mighty to save. This is fulfilled only in our Lord Jesus Christ. We see him here in the capacity of an avenger, coming in judgments.
There is no idea of expiation in this passage whatever. It is the idea of vengeance upon the enemies of Zion that stands out prominent here. He explains that he had trampled the peoples in his wrath and that alone. There was no one with him and his own arm brought salvation to him.
Edom here, as in other places in Isaiah, refers to the worst enemies of Zion. The day of vengeance is yet future. It is the day when our Lord shall vindicate his people against all their enemies, who shall feel the weight of his mighty hand.
The whole of this prophecy is future and the verbs here are claimed by some to be in the future tense, but the dramatic form of the narrative demands that the verbs be in the past. So often the prophet sees the events, yet future, as already accomplished. This emphasized the certainty of their fulfilment, just as the tense of the verbs in Rom 8:29-30 which present the work of our salvation as if it had already been accomplished.
We find the parallel of this passage in Rev 19:1-21 . There we have the man on the white horse going forth to battle and winning his victor over the nations, stained also with their blood. This great conflict is a precursor of the millennium.
QUESTIONS
1. What is the threefold theme of this section (Isa 61:1-63:6 )?
2. Who is the speaker in Isa 61:1-3 and what the proof?
3. What are the things set forth in Isa 61:1-3 and what their fulfilment?
4. What are the results of such a ministry as pictured in Isa 61:4-9 ?
5. Who is the speaker in Isa 61:10-11 ?
6. What are the things here mentioned for which God’s people rejoice and are joyful in him?
7. Who is the speaker in Isa 62 ?
8. What interest expressed for Zion by the Servant in. Isa 62:1-5 ?
9. What is the controversy over the name, “Hephzibah,” and what the new name given to Zion?
10. What further interest in Zion is expressed by the Servant in Isa 62:6-9 ?
11. What are these watchmen set by the Servant and what the corresponding New Testament teaching?
12. What is their special mission and what Jehovah’s oath here concerning Zion?
13. What is the proclamation of Isa 62:10-12 and what will be its fulfilment?
14. What is the prophet’s vision in Isa 63:1-6 ?
15. Who is this conqueror from Edom?
16. In what capacity do we here see him?
17. Is there any idea of expiation in this passage, and what his own explanation of his crimsoned garments?
18. What does Edom here represent and when the “day of vengeance” here spoken of?
19. What can you say of the tense of the verbs in Isa 63:3-6 ?
20. Where do we find the parallel of this passage in Revelation?
Isa 61:1 The Spirit of the Lord GOD [is] upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to [them that are] bound;
Ver. 1. The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me. ] Christ had graciously promised to accomplish his people’s happiness in its due time. Isa 60:22 Here he showeth how and when he will do it – viz., by himself, anointed and appointed by his heavenly Father to be “Messiah the Prince”; Dan 9:25 “Christ the Lord”; Act 4:26 Priest, prophet, and king of his Church; a Saviour ex professo, consecrated as the priests of old were, first with oil, and then with blood. So was he (1.) By the Holy Spirit, invisibly at the first instant of his conception, and visibly, at his baptism; (2.) By his own blood sprinkled upon him at his circumcision, but especially at his Passion, which was another baptism. Mat 20:23 Luk 12:50
Because the Lord hath anointed me.
To preach good tidings unto the meek.
Unto the meek.
He hath sent me to bind up the broken hearted.
The broken hearted.
To proclaim liberty to the captives.
And the opening of the prison, a Pangit et ungit ut sanet.
Isaiah Chapter 61
This forms the beginning of a section (Isa. 61 – Isa 63:1-6 which embraces Jehovah-Messiah in His first advent as well as His second for the blessing and glory of Israel and the destruction of their enemies. We have the Lord’s own warrant in Luk 4 . for declaring that the early portion He read applies to His then presence in grace here below. It has been often and justly observed how He stopped after the first clause of verse 2, closing the book, and in due time saying, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. He cites what portrays His character as it was (or about to be) displayed on earth at that time in ways of divine mercy, but forbears even to finish the sentence where the part following alludes to His exercise of judicial wrath. Such was in no way the object of His first coming; and so, if strangely in appearance, with divine wisdom He read no more. “The day of vengeance of our God” awaits the epoch of His appearing in power and glory. “The Spirit of the Lord Jehovah [is] upon me, because Jehovah hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek. He hath sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and opening of the prison to the bound, to proclaim the acceptable year of Jehovah, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn; to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, that beauty be given them instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of the spirit of heaviness” (vv. 1-3).
The richest mercy will then indeed be the spring of God’s way with Israel. For Jehovah, while He executes earthly judgement, will comfort those that mourn, especially mourners in Zion, giving them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, “that they might be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of Jehovah, that he might be glorified. And they shall build the old wastes, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the waste cities, the desolations of many generations. And strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, and aliens’ sons [shall be] your ploughmen and your vine dressers. But ye shall be named Priests of Jehovah: they shall call you Ministers of our God. Ye shall eat the wealth of the nations, and into their glory shall ye enter. Instead of your shame [ye shall have] double; [instead of] confusion they shall rejoice in their portion: therefore in their land they shall possess the double; everlasting joy shall be unto them. For I Jehovah love judgement, I hate robbery with iniquity; and I will give their recompense in truth, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them. And their seed shall be known among the nations, and their offspring among the peoples: all that see them shall acknowledge them, that they [are] a seed Jehovah hath blessed” (vv. 3-9). Restoration of past decayed places shall go forward; strangers shall serve Israel, who shall themselves be called priests of Jehovah. For their shame they should have not merely reinstatement of what had lapsed but double, like Job; and Jehovah, Who as fully loves judgement as He hates robbery with wrong, will make an everlasting covenant with them; so that all who see them will acknowledge that they are indeed the blessed of Jehovah.
Nay more, Jehovah Himself becomes the centre of all joy and the giver of all beauty, causing righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations. “I will greatly rejoice in Jehovah, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh [himself] with the turban, and as a bride adorneth [herself] with her jewels. For as the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden causeth the things that are sown in it to spring forth; so the Lord Jehovah will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations” (vv. 10, 11).
We see how the Holy Spirit, having testified to the Messiah and His character which was of the utmost value for souls at His first advent, passes by His rejection and going on high which brought in the church, and hastens on to His establishment of the kingdom in Zion at the latter day. So it is here, as with prophecy in general. They look on to Israel restored in the land when Christ reigns publicly. The fundamental principle of neology, that we have no more than a forecast of what was at the door, is a daring lie against inspired prophecy, the great body of which is on the magnificent and holy reign of the Messiah not yet begun. Hence the desire to treat it as “ideal”; hence indifference to the bright and assured prospects of Israel under Him and the new covenant, not in principle only, but in its fulfilled terms to the joy and blessing of all the nations and of the earth itself.
Theodoret in his comment, like others, saw the church, not the future restoration of Israel and the Lord reigning in Zion after receiving those that now believe to heavenly glory. And such is the prevalent view of Christendom still. They overlook the plain testimony which the New Testament renders to the setting aside, as of the Jew in the past, so of the Gentile in the future, because of failure to continue in the goodness of God. Yet that failure is a fact over which every God-fearing soul mourns; and the apostolic warning of it is set forth beyond doubt in Rom 11 , while the judgement of Christendom and the habitable earth is declared in many scriptures from Matthew to the Revelation. When that judgement of the quick is executed, Israel shall be saved, and these bright promises for the earth fulfilled, not before nor otherwise.
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Isa 61:1-3
1The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me,
Because the LORD has anointed me
To bring good news to the afflicted;
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to captives
And freedom to prisoners;
2To proclaim the favorable year of the LORD
And the day of vengeance of our God;
To comfort all who mourn,
3To grant those who mourn in Zion,
Giving them a garland instead of ashes,
The oil of gladness instead of mourning,
The mantle of praise instead of a spirit of fainting.
So they will be called oaks of righteousness,
The planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified.
Isa 61:1 The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me This occurred visibly in Jesus’ life at His baptism (cf. Isa 11:1-2; Isa 42:1; Mat 3:13-17; Mar 1:9-11; Luk 3:21-22; Joh 1:31-34), but the spirit had always been with Jesus. See Special Topic: THE PERSONHOOD OF THE SPIRIT .
anointed This is the same word meaning Messiah (BDB 602, see Special Topic at Isa 40:10) or the Anointed One. This was a sign of God’s unique blessing and equipping for a task (cf. Psa 23:5). In the OT prophets, priests, and kings were anointed as a symbolic act of God’s unique presence and call upon their lives. From this John Calvin derived his threefold category for describing Christ’s ministry as prophet, priest, and king (cf. Heb 1:2-3).
SPECIAL TOPIC: ANOINTING IN THE BIBLE (BDB 603)
To bring good news to the afflicted The Messiah’s (see Special Topic: MESSIAH ) message will be one of hope and forgiveness to the outcast, ostracized, and socially oppressed (cf. Isa 35:5-6).
Notice the series of INFINITIVE CONSTRUCTS in Isa 61:1-3 that describe the Messiah’s task.
1. to bring good news to the afflicted – Piel, BDB 142, KB 163
2. to proclaim liberty to captives – Qal, BDB 894, KB 1128
3. to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord – same as #2
4. to comfort all who mourn – Piel BDB 636, KB 688
5. to grant those who mourn in Zion a garland instead of ashes
a. grant – Qal, BDB 962, KB 1321
b. give – Qal BDB 678, KB 733
6. another INFINITIVE CONSTRUCT but directed towards the Messiah, Himself – that He may be glorified – Hithpael, BDB 802, KB 908
Isa 61:2 the favorable year of the LORD This is an allusion to the year of Jubilee (cf. Lev 25:10). This was a year of release from all debts and a return of all lands to the original owners every fifty years. There is not one example in the OT that this was ever historically enacted.
the day of vengeance of our God It is significant to notice that the favorable year and the day of vengeance occur at the same time. To those who know God in the Messiah, it is a day of reward. To those who do not know our Christ, it is a day of judgment and great sorrow. There must be bad news before there is good news! (cf. Romans 1-3).
Isa 61:3 Notice the contrasts (i.e., instead).
1. a garland instead of ashes
2. oil of gladness instead of mourning
3. the mantle of praise instead of a spirit of fainting
Also notice the same contrast in Isa 61:7.
1. double portion instead of shame
2. shout of joy instead of humiliation
garland. . .ashes These are examples of types of things put on the head (cf. Eze 24:17).
The oil of gladness The ancients lacked the availability of makeup, therefore, to prepare themselves for times of joy and festival, they anointed themselves with olive oil (cf. Psa 45:7).
The mantle of praise Here is an OT example of clothing used as a metaphor for attitude and spiritual position.
oaks of righteousness. . .The planting of the LORD In Psalms 1 it refers to God’s initiating love and ongoing support and provision (cf. Jer 17:7-8). Here it refers to the Messiah (cf. Isa 60:1-2).
The Spirit, &c. Quoted in Luk 4:18, Luk 4:19. The speaker id therefore the Messiah.
Spirit. Hebrew ruach. App-9.
the Lord. Hebrew Adonai Jehovah. See App-4. Some codices, with two early printed editions, Septuagint, and Vulgate, omit “Adonai”.
the LORD. Hebrew. Jehovah. App-4.
anointed. Mat 3:17, with the Divine formula of consecration, “This is My Son”, for the office of Prophet; Mat 17:5 for the office of Priest; Psa 2:7 and Heb 1:5, for the office of King.
meek = oppressed, or lowly ones.
bind up. Figure of speech Anthropopatheia.
the opening of the prison = an opening of the understanding or heart, instead of prison doors. Occurs only here. Heb, pekah-koah, referring to the opening of the vision.
Shall we turn now in our Bibles to Isa 61:1-11 .
We are told in the New Testament that the Old Testament prophets many times wrote of things that they did not really understand. Earnestly desiring, really, to look into these things, but they wrote as the Spirit of God inspired them. And so we find that quite often, the Old Testament prophets did not clearly understand the work of God in creating the body of Christ, the church, from among the Gentiles. Paul the apostle in talking about the church and Christ in us, the hope of glory, said that it was a mystery that was hid from the beginning of time but is now revealed. And so it is something that was not revealed until the New Testament writings and the epistles. It was something that was more or less hid from the Old Testament writers.
Now in their prophecies concerning the work and the ministry of Jesus Christ, quite often both aspects of the coming of Christ would be more or less mixed together in a single phrase or in a prophecy. So they would be prophesying of aspects of the first coming of Jesus Christ and also would go right in and prophesy of the aspects of the second coming of Jesus Christ, right in the same sentence or paragraph. And they did not really clearly see the distinction between… Well, they really didn’t see the two comings of Christ. And thus it was a mystery to them the things that they wrote because they seem to be so incongruous. They spoke of the glorious reign of the Messiah and of the kingdom, sitting upon the throne of David and all of the earth flowing unto Jerusalem and all. And then they spoke about Him being despised, rejected, a man of sorrows, acquainted with griefs, and they just really didn’t themselves understand these things of which they wrote.
For they were written for our sakes. Now with Daniel, when he was seeking further understanding, the Lord said, “Just seal it up, Daniel. It’s for the time of the end. It’s not really given to you to understand these things. You just wrote them, you’ve done your job. That’s good now. But in the last days knowledge will be increased. I will give the understanding of these things. These things are written for a generation that is to come. Not written for your understanding, but for the generation that is to come and they will be understanding these things.” So that as we look now at the Bible prophecies with the advantage of our history, and we can look back now and see the coming of Christ, we can see Him despised and rejected, and we can now look towards the second coming of Christ and as we see these things beginning to take place in the world around us, we say, “Oh, well that’s what Daniel was talking about. Oh yes, I can see that now.” And it begins to unfold to us in these days. So as we get into the sixty-first chapter of Isaiah, the prophecy concerning Jesus Christ, he actually just merges both the comings of Christ into one prophecy.
But Jesus, because He understood the two aspects of His coming, when He in the synagogue of Nazareth, turned to the prophecy of Isaiah and read this particular passage, stopped in what is right the middle of verse Isa 61:2 in our Bible. And at that point, He closed the scroll and said, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your eyes” ( Luk 4:21 ). He didn’t go on, because if you go on you are then dealing with the aspects of the second coming of Jesus Christ. Now that wasn’t fulfilled that day. That won’t be fulfilled until He comes again. So understanding and discerning His ministry in His first coming, He stopped right in what is the middle of the prophecy here in Isaiah for us and said, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your eyes.” So what was fulfilled and what is yet to be fulfilled? This is what was fulfilled:
The spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek ( Isa 61:1 );
Now in a restricted sense, this prophecy is of Jesus Christ and His ministry, who was anointed by the Spirit and went about preaching the good tidings to the meek. You remember when John the Baptist was in prison and John did not understand the prophecies concerning Jesus Christ. John was expecting Him to establish the kingdom momentarily. And when John was sitting there in prison for a while, he started getting impatient and he sent his disciples to Jesus and he said, “Are you the One that we’re to look for? Or shall we start looking for someone else?” In other words, “When You going to get the show on the road? Tired of this prison life.” And he was… He knew that Jesus was the One because he testified of Jesus that the Lord had told him whoever he saw the Spirit descending upon and remaining, that that was the One. And John testified of the Spirit of God descending upon Christ and resting upon Him there at His baptism. So he knew He was the One, and yet because Jesus wasn’t moving right into the kingdom and setting up the kingdom and throwing out the Romans and all of this, he said, “Are you the One or shall we look for another?” And Jesus did not directly answer John’s inquisition. But instead in that same hour, He healed many of the sick and He opened up the blind eyes and caused the lame to walk and so forth. And then He said to his disciples, “Just go tell John what you have seen-how that the blind have had their eyes opened, the deaf hear, the lame are walking, and to the poor the gospel is being preached. I’m fulfilling the prophecies, John. You know the Word. You know the scriptures. I’m doing the things that the scriptures said. You don’t need a direct answer; yes, I am the Messiah. Just go back and tell John the things that you see. John knows the scriptures well enough. He’ll know that I am the One. You don’t need to look for anybody else.”
“But the Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me. For the Lord has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the meek.” As Jesus said, “He did not come to call the righteous, but the sinners to repentance. For they that are whole need not the physician, but they that are sick” ( Mar 2:17 ). “The Son of man has come to seek and to save that which was lost” ( Luk 19:10 ).
I am interested in observing the ministry of Jesus Christ, His attitude towards those who were acknowledged, confessed sinners, and His attitude towards those self-righteous individuals. To the woman that was brought to Him caught in the very act of adultery, He shows great tenderness, understanding and grace. “Woman, where are your accusers?” “Sir, I guess I don’t have any.” “Well, neither do I condemn thee, go thy way, sin no more” ( Joh 8:11 ). Oh, how tender He deals with her.
To the woman of Samaria there at the well. Now she wasn’t the most moral woman around. She had been married to five different men. And then finally decided marriage wasn’t for her and so she was just living with a man. Some of those who think they are so modern today, that stuff has been going on for a long time. People have been immoral from the beginning. And yet Jesus in His dealing with her was so gracious, revealing to her His identity. For she said, “I know that when the Messiah comes, He’s going to teach us all things.” And He said, “Woman, I that speak to thee am He” ( Joh 4:25-26 ). Oh, the attitude of Christ towards the sinner was always beautiful. He had good news for sinning man and those that confessed and were aware of their sinful state.
To those who were righteous in themselves, He had nothing but words of vilification. He was harsh with them. “Woe unto you, scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites!” Boy, did He denounce them. If you think, “Gentle Jesus, meek and mild, look upon this little child,” you better think again and read Matthew’s gospel twenty-two. And you’ll see His attitude towards the self-righteous, self-sufficient. But, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me; He’s anointed Me to preach the good tidings to the meek.”
he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound ( Isa 61:1 );
Now I believe that this particular portion of the verse refers to the ministry of Christ to those who had died before He came. “To open the prison to those that are bound.” For we are told by Peter that Christ preached to those souls that were in prison. Paul tells us that He who has ascended is the same One who first of all descended into the lower parts of the earth. And when He ascended, He led the captives from their captivity. You see, from the time even before Abraham, there were those men of the Old Testament who were accounted righteous because of their faith in God. Abraham became more or less the figurehead for those who believe and had faith in God. And they were waiting for the promises of God.
Heb 11:1-40 tells us that “they all died in faith, not having received the promise, but seeing it afar off, they embraced it” ( Heb 11:13 ). They held on to it. They claimed, “I’m only a stranger and a pilgrim here. I’m only passing through. This isn’t my life. This isn’t where it’s at. I’m looking for a city which has foundation whose maker and builder is God.” They were looking for the glorious kingdom of God. And they all died in faith believing the kingdom and God to establish that kingdom. They all died in faith not having received the promise. “God having reserved something better for us that they, apart from us, couldn’t be brought into the completed state” ( Heb 11:40 ). It was impossible that the blood of bulls and goats could put away their sin. That took the sacrifice of Jesus Christ upon the cross. So the blood sacrifices that they had made according to the old covenant covered their sin, but did not put it away. And they had to wait for the sacrifice of Jesus Christ before they could enter in to that heavenly scene.
So we are told by Peter that when Jesus died He descended into hell. He tells us the purpose of His going there, to preach to those souls that were in prison that one time were disobedient. But they believed and trusted in God. And Paul tells us when He ascended, He led the captives from their captivity. And Matthew’s gospel, chapter 27, tells us that when He arose from the dead, many of the graves of the saints were open and they were seen walking in the streets of Jerusalem after His resurrection from the dead. They were released from the prison. So a part of the first coming was to release from the prison those that were bound by death. For Jesus said, “I am the resurrection, and the life. He that believeth on Me, though he were dead, yet he’s going to live. And he who lives and believes in Me shall never die” ( Joh 11:25-26 ).
We will have a transition that is necessary. This corruption must put on incorruption. This mortal must put on immortality. And I know that when this earthly tabernacle is dissolved, I have a new building of God, a house that is not made with hands that is eternal in the heavens. And while I am still in this dumb old tent, I groan earnestly, desiring to move out.
You know, it’s hard to get out of bed in the morning anymore. Dumb left foot of mine starting to pain first thing in the morning. I’ve got to walk for a few steps to get the thing operating. I never thought I’d reach this age. Hard to walk in the morning. What a tent. Wearing out. But oh, thank God, I have a building of God that’s not made with hands, that’s eternal in the heavens. One of these days I’m not going to die; I’m going to move from the tent into that glorious building of God. The mansion that He’s prepared for me.
So to finish the aspects of His first coming:
To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD ( Isa 61:2 ),
This is the accepted day. God’s accepted time for your salvation. At this point, Jesus closed the scroll because these things dealt with the first aspect of His coming. Now Isaiah, not really seeing the two comings, goes right on and he declares,
and the day of vengeance of our God ( Isa 61:2 );
Well, that’s not going to take place until yet future. God’s vengeance and wrath is going to be poured out upon this earth. As the seals are opened, the judgments of God are going to begin to fall and the earth will enter into that period known as the Great Tribulation. And we read where the men, the chief men of the earth and the captains and so forth, will call to the rocks and the mountains and say, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of the Lamb, for His day of wrath has come” ( Rev 6:16-17 ). The day of the vengeance of our God.
Well, that won’t take place until a yet future time during the Great Tribulation, and I think that it is totally inconsistent with God and the nature of God and the work of Jesus Christ to think that the church would be here during the time that God pours out His wrath upon the earth. In fact, Paul tells us in Rom 5:9 that we have not been appointed unto wrath. He tells us again in First Thessalonians Isa 5:9 that we’ve not been appointed unto wrath. And I think it’s totally inconsistent with the nature of God to think that Christ having borne the wrath of God for our sin, that we would somehow have to face the wrath of God during the Great Tribulation.
Now as a child of God, as long as I’m in this alien world, I’m going to have tribulation. Jesus said, “In this world you will have tribulation. But be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world” ( Joh 16:33 ). Now if you were of the world, the world would love you because you’d be a part of their whole system. Because you’re not of the world, they hate you. And if they haven’t received Me, they’re not going to receive you. They hated Me; they’re going to hate you. The servant isn’t greater than his Lord.
And so as a child of God walking in fellowship with God in this alien world, I can expect to have tribulation. It’s not going to be easy. However, I shall surely not face the wrath of God, the Great Tribulation. And the whole vast difference is the tribulation that I face comes from Satan. The tribulation that the world is going to face comes from the vengeance of God who has declared, “Vengeance is Mine; I will repay, saith the Lord” ( Rom 12:19 ).
So, “To proclaim the day of the vengeance of our God,”
and to comfort all that mourn ( Isa 61:2 );
Moving into the Kingdom Age.
To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give them the beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called Trees of righteousness, The planting of the LORD, that he may be glorified. For they shall build the old wastes ( Isa 61:3-4 ),
The rebuilding that will go on in that land.
they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the waste cities, the desolations of many generations ( Isa 61:4 ).
And, of course, we see a beginning of that today. But what we see today is not really the fulfillment of this particular passage in Isaiah, because Isaiah here is going on into the Kingdom Age. That which… so much of that which is being built up now is going to be destroyed. Unfortunately, Israel is going to be the central battlefield of two more major battles. Probably the biggest and bloodiest battles in the history of the world are yet to be fought in that land. And so much of that marvellous building that is going on there today will be destroyed in the wars that are yet to come upon this nation. But this particular prophecy goes out into the Kingdom Age as they rebuild the waste and the waste cities and the desolations of many generations.
And strangers shall stand and feed your flocks ( Isa 61:5 ),
As God restores the nation Israel. Now you hear a lot of people and even ministers who talk about the final restitution of all things, “God is going to finally save everybody. Nobody will be lost. Even Satan will repent and be brought back as a child.” That is not what the Bible teaches when it speaks of the final restitution. In the final restitution, God is talking about His restitution of the nation of Israel as His people. They have been put away as an unfaithful wife and God is going to bring them back again, even as is depicted graphically in the prophecy of Hosea.
When God said, “Go out and take a wife,” and he married this wife and she bore him a couple of children. She bore another child and called it Loammi. “That’s not my kid.” And she finally just went out and became a prostitute. Her life was marred and ruined as she made love with anybody who would come along. God finally said to Hosea, “Go find your wife and take her again and buy her. Redeem her. She’s gone into slavery. Redeem her. Wash her up. Clean her up and take her as your wife again.” So God spoke then through that graphic illustration of how He would bring Israel again back into a relationship with Him. For He will love her as a wife and be a husband unto them. And this goes into that area, “The stranger shall stand and feed your flocks.”
and the sons of the alien shall be your plowmen and your vinedressers. But ye shall be named the Priests of the LORD: men shall call you the Ministers of our God ( Isa 61:5-6 ):
The word minister is servant. I think that it’s important that we remember that. We so oftentimes use that as a title of great distinction. “Oh, he’s a minister.” You’re saying he’s a slave. That’s great. We ought to think of it as that. Sometimes I think, “Well, I’m a minister, you know. Give me a ten percent discount, after all, you know.” And we think if I’m a minister I should have special privileges. I’m a minister. I should get in front of the line. Or I’m a… And that is totally incongruous with the true aspect of the word minister and the idea of ministry as Jesus spoke of it. He said if you’re going to be chief, then learn to be the servant of all. And He taught the servanthood. He took and put a towel around Himself. Tied a towel around Himself and He went around and washed the disciples’ feet. “If I being your Lord have become your servant, then learn to be servants.” And so the beautiful privilege we have of serving God by serving one another. “Inasmuch as you’ve done it unto the least of these My brethren, you’ve done it unto Me” ( Mat 25:40 ). Giving a cup of cold water, serving in the name of the Lord. God rewards us for His service. “Whatsoever you do in word or deed, do all to the glory of God” ( Col 3:17 ). Do it as unto the Lord, knowing that of the Lord you’re going to receive your reward. And so the glorious thing to be called.
Now in the book of Revelation in chapter 1, as He is giving the opening remarks, in speaking of Jesus Christ, he said, “Who hath redeemed us with His blood. Who hath made us kings and priests unto our God” ( Rev 1:6 ). More literally, a kingdom of priests unto our God. So that is going to be a part of the ministry and the work of the church in the Kingdom Age is that we will be priests unto our God. In the fifth chapter of the book of Revelation, when Jesus takes the scroll out of the right hand of the Father and they sing the new song, it is, “Thou art worthy to take the scroll and loose the seals: for Thou was slain, and hath redeemed us by Thy blood out of all of the nations, tribes, tongues and people. And hath made us unto our God [again] a kingdom of priests: and we shall reign with Thee upon the earth” ( Rev 5:9-10 ). And so looking forward to the glorious Kingdom Age, the place of the church will be as a kingdom of priests reigning with the Lord upon the earth.
And so, “You shall be named the Priests of the Lord: men shall call you the Ministers of our God.”
ye shall eat the riches of the Gentiles, and in their glory shall ye boast yourselves. For your shame [talking again to Israel, the shame that they’ve gone through] ye shall have double; and for confusion they shall rejoice in their portion: therefore in their land they shall possess the double: everlasting joy shall be unto them. For I the LORD love judgment, I hate robbery for burnt offering; and I will direct their work in truth, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them. And their seed shall be known among the Gentiles, and their offspring among the people: all that see them shall acknowledge them, that they are the seed which the LORD has blessed ( Isa 61:6-9 ).
The universal recognition of God’s grace and mercy as He restores the nation Israel to that favored nation status.
I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness ( Isa 61:10 ),
This is the response, actually, to these glorious promises of God of restoration. “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, He’s covered me with the robe of righteousness.”
as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with jewels. For as the earth brings forth her bud, and as the garden causeth the things that are sown in it to spring forth; so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations ( Isa 61:10-11 ).
Oh, that glorious day of the Lord. How we anticipate and look for it. As I look around the world today and I see the things that are happening, I pray with John, “Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus” ( Rev 22:20 ).
This week they’ll be sharing with you some of the things that the scientists are now dabbling in genetic engineering, and some of the goals that the chief geneticists have declared for genetic engineering. And some of the things that they’re starting to do now, shocking things. Some of the creatures that they’re beginning to create through genetic engineering. It’s really shocking things that are happening in the world today. And you wonder, how far will God allow these things to go? It seems that man in the past has perhaps had periods of genetic engineering. It isn’t… Man has arisen to tremendous scientific levels in the past. But whenever man seems to get to a point in development, especially as they move into the area of genetic engineering, God says, “That’s it,” and He cuts it off. Even as before the flood there were these creatures that were upon the earth, the giants, men of renown through genetic engineering, and God wiped them out and started all over again with Noah. You’ve got some very interesting things to consider this week as they share with us some of the past and some of the future from a scientific standpoint.
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Isa 61:1-2. The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn;
How condescending and how kind are the objects of our Saviours mission to put an end to sorrow. He looks out the mourners: they are the especial objects of his care, and all that he does has this for one of its grand objects to comfort all that mourn. Surely if there be any troubled heart here, it may claim an interest in such a divine work as this. Jesus has come to comfort all that mourn. Shall he not comfort you?
Isa 61:3. To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion,
To make an appointment an ordinance a decree concerning them; and it will be to this effect.
Isa 61:3. To give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified.
So it seems that God finds glory in the helping of his sad sick, sorrowful creatures. He gets glory out of making them: he gets higher glory out of new making them. Creation yields the moonlight glory; the new creation is a glory as of the sun shining in its strength. O ye mourners, may God grant you grace now to give glory to God by cheerfully accepting those wondrous blessings of grace which Christ has come to bestow.
Isa 61:4. And they shall build the old wastes, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the waste cities, the desolations of many generations.
When mourning souls find comfort, and captive souls get liberty, they are full of life and full of energy, and they begin to restore what had become wasted and desolate. I warrant you that there is nothing for a church by way of medicine at all equal to pouring new blood into her by new-saved souls. They come among us with their new songs, like the sweet birds in summer, and seem to wake the morning with their gladsome music. They come among us like the dewdrops from the womb of the morning, sparkling in beauty, bearing the dew of their youth. May God send to many old churches that have got to be like old wastes, and some communities that have come to be like desolations may he send to them these builders these earnest, loving hearts to build them up.
Isa 61:5-6. And strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, and the sons of the alien shall be your plowmen and your vinedressers. But ye shall be named the priests of the LORD.
Gods true Israel, his chosen, his elect they may look upon all other men as their ploughmen and their vine dressers. Kings and queens rule the world for you. For you the merchant, with his keel, divides the sea; for you the ploughman ploughs the soil. As for you, though you have a hand in these things, they are not your main employment. Your occupation is a higher one than theirs the service of your God. Ye shall be named the priests of the Lord.
Isa 61:6. Men shall call you ministers of our God: ye shall eat the riches of the Gentiles, and in their glory shall ye boast yourselves.
For all things are of God, and all things are yours through Jesus Christ. In that same day in which the Lord comforts mourners and binds up their broken hearts, he gives them to enter into a sacred priesthood, in which they walk among the sons men as Gods peculiar people honoured above all the rest of mankind. Oh! the distinctions which distinguishing grace makes! How it lifts the poor from the dunghill and setteth him among princes, even the princes of his people! Christ has done great things, indeed, for us, for though we were as beggars, behold he hath made us kings and priests unto God, and we shall reign for ever and ever.
Isa 61:7. For your shame ye shall have double; and for confusion they shall rejoice in their portion:
You may be persecuted: your name may be cast out as evil, but when the Lord in mercy blesses and visits you, you shall have a wonderful recompense more than you could have expected. For your shame ye shall have double.
Isa 61:7-8. Therefore in their land they shall possess the double, everlasting joy shall be unto them. For I the LORD love judgment, I hate robbery for burnt offering; and I will direct their work in truth, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them.
There are churches in the world that are not churches of God, and they supply their needs by forged demands from the people; but God hateth robbery for a burnt-offering. He accepts the willing gifts of his people, and with those who present them he makes an everlasting covenant.
Isa 61:9. And their seed shall be known among the Gentiles, and their offspring among the people: all that see them shall acknowledge them, that they are the seed which the LORD hath blessed.
Oh! to have such distinguishing marks of character about us that all who see us may see that the blessing of God is upon us. And this will be quite consistent with poverty, with sickness, for in the poverty there will be content, and in the sickness and depression of spirit there will yet be such divine upholdings that men shall be astonished that their fellowmen shall be capable of such joy under such circumstances. They shall acknowledge them that they are the seed which the Lord hath blessed.
Isa 61:10. I will greatly rejoice in the Lord,
Brothers and sisters. I wish we could all catch hold of the spirit of this verse that each one of us would now say, I will greatly rejoice in the Lord.
Isa 61:10. My soul shall be joyful in my God;
What a precious sentence My soul shall be joyful in my God.
Isa 61:10. For he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels.
On those festive occasions the Orientals are wont to use all the wealth they have in decoration. The bridegroom decketh himself with a crown puts on a tiara. He is a king for once. And the bride herself brings out all the many jewels with which Eastern women deck themselves. Now all this, in a high spiritual sense, we find in Christ. He is not merely covering to us, but ornament and beauty, adornment, exaltation, glory, honour. How beautiful a child of God looks in Christ I cannot tell you, but I believe that next to his dear Son, the most engaging sight to the divine Father is any one of his dear Children whom he sees in Christ. You know we all think our children lovely, and God knows his children to be so when he hath covered them with the robe of righteousness, and clothed them with the garments of salvation.
Isa 61:11. For as the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden causeth the things that are sown in it to spring forth; so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations.
This exposition consisted of readings from 2Sa 15:13-23; Isaiah 61.; Mar 14:22-41.
Isa 61:1-4
Isa 61:1-3
The interpretation of this chapter derives from no less an authority than the Head of our Holy Religion, Jesus Christ himself, of whom Luke wrote, as follows:
“And he (Christ) came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and he entered, as his custom was, into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up to read. And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Isaiah. And he opened the book and found the place where it was written. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, Because he anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor; He hath sent me to proclaim release to the captives, And recovering of sight to the blind, To set at liberty them that are bruised. To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant, and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fastened upon him. And he began to say unto them, Today hath this scripture been fulfilled in your ears” (Luk 4:16-21).
The quotation which Jesus read to the people that day is that of the first verse of this chapter, read apparently from the LXX, because the line about “recovering of sight to the blind” is from that version of the Old Testament, not from the ASV.
Chapter and verse divisions of the Old Testament were not known when Jesus read this passage; but there can be little or no doubt that Christ here identified himself and his ministry with the entire passage which includes this chapter.
We feel very strong disapproval of those “scholars” whose writings refuse to recognize the Suffering Servant, the Messiah, the Christ, as the speaker here. This writer has just finished reading a half dozen of them, marveling at the pains they take to “Kiss the calf” (Hos 13:2), that is, declare their allegiance to the critical enemies of the word of God, by accepting their impossible proposition that the opening word s of this chapter refer to the prophet Isaiah as the speaker.
“That the speaker here is not Isaiah, but the Great Messiah is an interpretation that derives from the highest possible authority, the words of Jesus of Nazareth … No principle of accommodation, or of secondary application can at all satisfy any other view. The Christ unequivocally applied the passage to his own commission.”
Isa 61:1-3
“The Spirit of the Lord Jehovah is upon me; because Jehovah hath anointed me to preach good tidings to the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the year of Jehovah’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn; to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them a garland for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of Jehovah, that he may be glorified.”
“The Spirit of the Lord Jehovah is upon me …” (Isa 61:1). This is a reference to the baptism of Christ (Mat 3:16 f), upon which occasion the Spirit of God in the form of a dove descended and alighted upon Jesus, remaining upon him. Nothing like this is written of Isaiah. Jesus Christ alone possessed the Spirit of God without limitation (Joh 3:34).
Furthermore, as Hailey noted, “The message and work of the Speaker here far transcend those of a prophet, even Isaiah; they are characteristic of deity.” Also, as Rawlinson noted, “It is contrary to the entire spirit of Isaiah’s writings for him to have glorified himself in such language as that which appears here.” Without any question whatever, we have here another passage like the others labeled “The Song of the Servant.” This writer is happy to identify himself as among those mentioned by Kelley: “Some have interpreted these verses as a fifth Servant Song (Isa 42:1-4; Isa 49:1-6; Isa 50:4-9; Isa 52:13 to Isa 53:12).” This interpretation is required by simple logic. The Suffering Servant is Christ; this passage refers to Christ; therefore, the passage refers to the Suffering Servant, regardless of the fact that the title does not appear in the passage!
“To preach the gospel to the poor (the meek in the ASV) …” (Isa 61:1). Our Lord referred to this paragraph when he replied to John the Baptist’s inquiry, “Art thou he that should come, or look we for another”? (Mat 11:3-4), again identifying himself as the speaker here.
To the generation of the exiles in Babylon who first received Isaiah’s prophecy, the dramatic import of these words is that God would release them from their Babylonian bondage; but when Christ applied these words to himself, that bondage had ended long ago; and it was evident that Christ referred to an even greater deliverance of men, their deliverance from the captivity and bondage of sin. Our Lord did not come to earth on a mission of getting people out of jail!
“The opening of the prison to them that are bound …” (Isa 61:1). “This must be interpreted spiritually, as John the Baptist had to learn.” There is no record of Jesus’ having procured the release of anyone from an actual prison.
“The year of Jehovah’s favor …” (Isa 61:2). This is a reference to the year of Jubilee; and from this has come the recognition that the reign of Messiah is the earth’s “Jubilee” from the darkness of paganism.
“The planting of Jehovah …” (Isa 61:3). This identifies the “trees of righteousness” in the passage as members of the body of Christ (See Isa 60:21).
Isa 61:4
“And they shall build the old wastes, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the waste cities, the desolations of many generations.”
Although fulfilled in a token manner by the return from Babylon, the true meaning here goes far beyond that. The apostles and prophets of the first century Church applied such passages spiritually, as follows:
As it is written, After these things I will return and build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen; and I will build again the ruins thereof (Act 15:16).
Isa 61:1-2 MESSAGE: The me of verse one can be none other than the Servant of Jehovah, the Messiah. We have divine sanction for that verified by the Servant Himself in the synagogue of Nazareth (Luk 4:21). Jesus read these verses from the scroll of Isaiah and applied them directly to His own incarnate ministry by saying, Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your ears. The Greek peplerotai is perfect tense for has been fulfilled and would read more literally, has been and is continuing to be fulfilled. From the moment Jesus was born until the Christian dispensation shall close and the gospel cease to be preached, what Isaiah wrote in these verses is being fulfilled. And the Servant is the source of it all. The Hebrew reads, ruach adonay yehoih, or literally, spirit of Lord Jehovah. Adonay is the Hebrew word which suggests Judge or Master. It is like kurios in Greek. Yehoih is translated Jehovah and suggests Covenant-Revealer. This combination of divine character was the ruach (Spirit) which was upon Jesus. God gave His Spirit to Jesus without measure (Joh 3:34). The reason Jesus needed this full anointing of the Godhead was His mission to a world of rebel prisoners enslaved by a supernatural devil. God anointed Jesus with the Holy Spirit (Act 10:38) so that in Jesus dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead bodily (Col 1:19; Col 2:9). To anoint (the Hebrew word mashah is anoint and is the word from which we get Messiah) meant to crown as king-to give authority. Jesus authority to proclaim good tidings from heaven was demonstrated by the miracles and signs confirming His deity. He demonstrated He had authority on earth to forgive sins by making the lame to walk and giving sight to the blind and raising the dead.
The Hebrew word for meek is anah and means afflicted, oppressed, ravished, miserable, poor. This is an excellent word to describe those who know they are in need of help. It indicates the kind of person who would be glad to hear good news from God. Jesus pronounced a blessing upon those who were poor in spirit (Mat 5:3-12). Brokenhearted is from the Hebrew shavar meaning fractured, distressed, sorrowing. This is why the Servant is sent to those who are mourning-sin has fractured their lives-they are disintegrating. Jesus was sent to bring them wholeness and to bind them up.
The Servant came to announce liberty to the captives and release to those who were bound. The Hebrew word for liberty is deror and was used in connection with the Year of Jubilee (Lev 25:10; Eze 46:17, etc.) when bond-slaves were set free and land taken in payment for debts was returned to its original owners. The Mosaic Year of Jubilee was evidently intended to typify the messianic time. Christ came to bind our jailor (the devil) and free us (Mat 12:25-30; Heb 2:14-15; 1Jn 3:8-9; Rev 20:1-6). We have allowed Satan, by choosing sin, to imprison us in falsehood, lawlessness, fear and selfishness. The Servant of God sets us free from that prison (see Special Study on Liberty Is Not License). The Hebrew word for Jubilee is yovil, from yaval, which means, protracted sound of the trumpet, signifying that a very important, once-in-a-lifetime announcement is about to be made.
Of course, most of the Jews expected Jesus in the synagogue at Nazareth (Luk 4:16-30) to interpret this physically. That was the traditional interpretation of the rabbis (see comments on Isaiah 53). When Jesus talked of food they wanted bread and fish; when He talked of wholeness they wanted limbs restored; when He talked of freedom they wanted foreign rulers driven from their land. But circumstances are not what constitute the Kingdom of God-it is character, (Rom 14:17).
Hebrew qara means proclaim, call out, shout, cry, summon. The Servant became The Prophet, The Apostle. He was sent not only to live a godly life and to do miraculous things; He was sent to preach and teach the will of God for every other individual in the world. That was really His fundamental mission-accomplishing atonement and preaching the gospel. His miracles were simply means to that end. The Hebrew word ratzah is translated favor (or acceptable) and means delightful, pleasurable, gracious. The Servant came to announce the precise time God chose in His divine schedule of redemption to accomplish His grace toward man. In the fulness of time God sent forth His Son . . . (Gal 4:4). The Servant of the Lord was anointed to summon all men to the year (or appointed time) of the Lords pleasure or conciliation. And the day of vengeance was part of the Servants announcement. All through the O.T. prophets, in highly figurative language, God promises (in the last days of the O.T. dispensation) He is going to defeat His foes in one great battle (Joe 2:30 to Joe 3:21; Eze 38:1 to Eze 39:29; Zec 9:9 to Zec 10:12; Zec 12:1-14; Zec 14:1-21; etc.), and give His people victory. That great battle was at Calvary and the great victory over Satan was there and at the empty tomb. The principalities and powers were triumphed over publicly and shamed at the cross (Col 2:15).; when He ascended on high He led captivity captive (Eph 4:8). Of course, the final and consummate vengeance of God will come at the end of this year of grace (end of the Christian dispensation, which are the last days, or end of all ages, 1Co 10:11). But this year is the only year God has sent His Servant to announce. Now is the acceptable time . . . Today is the day of salvation! (cf. 2Co 6:1-2). The defeat of Gods enemies and His victory is the source of comfort for Zion. The Hebrew word nakham (translated comfort) is very appropriate here for it means consoled, eased, freed.
Isa 61:3-4 MISSION: The Hebrew word pheer, translated garland. means more precisely, an ornamental headdress, or adorning tiara. The Servant-Messiah accomplishes more than conquest-He brings coronation to His people (cf. Rom 8:31-39). He makes it possible for believers to sit with Him in the heavenly places (Eph 2:6). His followers are crowned and reign with Him over death and all other circumstances. (cf. 1Co 5:9-13; Heb 11:7; 1Co 3:21-22; Rev 5:10). The Servant anoints His followers with the oil of gladness by the anointing of the Holy Spirit (cf. 2Co 1:21; 1Jn 2:26-27) which is the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit and the down payment on the believers future inheritance (cf. Eph 1:14), The maeteh is from the root ataph meaning to cover for protection, or, cloak, veil. A man may, so to speak, wrap himself in his human moods as a defense mechanism. Human moods and emotions are no protection; they are capricious, vulnerable to circumstances and temporal. Instead of human moods which are so manipulative and conducive to despair, the Servant will wrap His followers in a protective cloak of praise. If our lives are wrapped in praise to Jehovah we are protected from the manipulative capriciousness of human emotions which are so subject to circumstances. The object of our hearts desires and hopes is The Almighty, Never Varying, Always Faithful God and so we do not ever need to despair (cf. 2Co 1:8-11). The Servant will dress His people up richly like the father dressed the prodigal son when he returned home (cf. Luk 15:22-24). All the despair and heaviness will be forgotten when the Messiah brings Gods sons home! The Messiah will give His followers beauty (righteousness) and stability (trees, planting of Jehovah) (cf. Psa 1:1-3). The messianic people are going to be established as Gods people and nothing can snatch them out of the Shepherds hand (cf. Joh 10:27-28). No human, no spiritual power, no circumstance can take away their beauty. All this, of course, brings glory to the one so clothed, but ultimately to the One doing the dressing. The real glory went to the father of the prodigal because he exhibited such mercy, love and forgiveness.
The Servants followers will build up the ancient ruins. The house (tabernacle, dynasty, family) of David was in ruins. Davids house was the house of messianic destiny. Davids throne was the throne reserved for the Messiah. But those who were sitting on Davids throne in the days of the prophets scorned and usurped its messianic destiny. They violently rebelled against Gods purposes for this throne of David and had brought it to shame and ruin. Amos predicted that the house of David (tabernacle of David) would be rebuilt (Amo 9:11-12). Amos prophecy was fulfilled when the Gentiles were brought into the messianic kingdom (the church) (cf. Act 15:12-21). We have already commented on this rebuilding (cf. Isa 59:10, etc.). The church is built as a dwelling place of God in the Spirit (Eph 2:22); Christians are living stones built into a spiritual house (1Pe 2:4-8).
Passing from the description of material prosperity, the prophecy describes the inner secret, namely, spiritual realization. This description opens with a new declaration of the Servant of the Lord. The anointed Messenger declares His appointment, and describes His program. All the deliverance described is to be due to the message which He delivers. In the light of the use made of this passage by Christ, it is interesting to consider the program.
“To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord” is the first item. At that point Jesus ceased His reading in the synagogue. Next will come “the day of vengeance of our God.” That will be the period of judgment. Beyond it, “to comfort all that mourn.” Therefore the description of the glorious restoration has reference to what still lies in the future. In that future the people of God will be His priests, His ministers. Themselves redeemed from shame and from confusion, they will exert an influence for righteousness among the peoples, who, in their turn, will recognize the truth and submit themselves to it.
The Acceptable Year of the Lord
Isa 61:1-11
Messiahs mission, Isa 61:1-3. At Nazareth our Lord applied these words to Himself. Let us care for the outcasts as He did; but to do so, we need to be anointed with the Holy Spirit, who rested so mightily on Him. The acceptable year is clearly that of Lev 25:8-13. Our Lord, when quoting this, stopped at the comma, Isa 61:2, because the day of vengeance is not yet. See Luk 4:19. Mark that it is only for a day! God not only delivers, but anoints and crowns.
Messiahs kingdom, Isa 61:4-9. In days yet future, the ruined cities of Palestine shall be restored. In a spiritual sense, we also may appropriate this promise. When we receive the Pentecostal gift, we also witness the restoration of the wastes, which our sins have caused in our own lives and in the lives of others. Let us clasp to our hearts Isa 61:7-9.
Messiahs joy, Isa 61:10-11. Jesus is the true bridegroom of the soul; and we may appropriate our side of these happy words. Note this combination of imputed and imparted righteousness. The one is put on as a garment, Isa 61:10; the other blossoms out from within, Isa 61:11. Oh, that from our lives God would cause righteousness and praise to spring forth!
EXPOSITORY NOTES ON
THE PROPHET ISAIAH
By
Harry A. Ironside, Litt.D.
Copyright @ 1952
edited for 3BSB by Baptist Bible Believer in the spirit of the Colportage ministry of a century ago
ISAIAH CHAPTER SIXTY-ONE
THE ANOINTED SERVANT AND HIS MINISTRY
IN CHAPTER sixty-one we have the portion to which the Lord JESUS directed His hearers’ attention when He went into the synagogue at Nazareth. After His baptism in the Jordan and His temptation in the wilderness He came up through Judea – He gave the Word in Judea – into Galilee and entered into the city where He had been brought up – Nazareth. There, we are told, that as His custom was on a Sabbath day, He went into the synagogue. That is very significant. As already remarked, we have but little information as to the early days of the Lord JESUS CHRIST, and men have tried to imagine what may have taken place between His childhood and His thirtieth year, when He went forth to be baptized by John, as He consecrated Himself to His great work.
In connection with this, all sorts of vain imaginations have been indulged in. Some years ago, a Russian wrote a book purporting to be a translation of a record that he found in a Lama monastery in Tibet, and supposed to be a record of the journeys of Issah. It was taken for granted that Issah was to be identified with JESUS, and that he came from Palestine through India to Tibet, and among the lamas learned secrets that enabled him to perform miracles. Eventually he went back to Palestine to begin his work, but was suspected by the Jewish leaders of trying to subvert their teaching and at last was crucified. Many hailed this at first as a wonderful discovery which might add to our knowledge of JESUS, but finally the author confessed that it was a forgery, and that he had written it himself.
People have tried to imagine what JESUS may have done during those years, but Scripture says that when some of His townspeople came to hear Him, they said: “Is not this the carpenter?” They had known Him as a carpenter. And Luke says that He went as His custom was on the Sabbath day into the synagogue. It shows that the Lord JESUS not only submitted Himself to the obedience of the laws divinely given, but also to the ordinary regulations of the rabbis, and attended the synagogue service and apparently took part in it. They would recognize Him as one who had a right to go up to the dais and read from the Holy Scriptures. In that synagogue at Nazareth was handed to Him the book of the prophet Isaiah; this book, the last part, too, of this book – and it is called the prophet Isaiah.
“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord” (verses 1, 2a).
Then He closed the book. He read to the middle of the sentence but then He closed the book. Why did He not go on with Isaiah’s words? Because those verses tell what He came to do at His first coming. His first and His second comings are intimately linked together in this chapter of Isaiah.
– He came to preach deliverance to captives,
– He came to give sight to the blind, to open the prisons of those that are bound,
– He came to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.
There He stopped at what we would call a comma. He put this whole dispensation in which you and I live into that comma. It is the acceptable year of the Lord still. We have not moved one iota beyond that point where He closed the book. Why did He close it there? Because the rest of the sentence would carry us on into the day of the Lord after this present age has come to an end. So now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation. Speaking metaphorically, when He comes again He will open that book once more to the rest of this passage and it will all be fulfilled to the letter.
“And the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn; To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified” (verses 2b, 3).
It is a wonderful linking of the first and second comings. He came to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, He is coming again to declare the day of vengeance of our GOD. When GOD destroys those who are in red-handed opposition to Himself, and the enemies of His people Israel, it will be the time of the Lord’s vengeance.
Then our Lord will bring comfort and blessing to those who have suffered so much. “To comfort all that mourn.” This glorious prophecy will be fulfilled literally for all Israel after the judgments of the day of the Lord have been poured out upon the wicked. Meantime, each individual soul who trusts in CHRIST may enjoy the blessings here enumerated. CHRIST gives the wedding garments of praise in place of the funeral attire of the mourner of which the ashes and the garment of heaviness speak. Those who have sought in vain for peace and satisfaction in the world and whose fondest hopes have failed may find fullness of joy and satisfaction in CHRIST, who is glorified in all His saints and who finds His joy in their eternal blessing.
Our English word “comfort” is from two Latin roots, con, to be with, and fortis, strong. It literally means “to strengthen by companionship.” A child, with a long walk before him on a dark night, may be filled with fear. But if his father is with him to take his hand, all fear is gone as they walk together through the gloom of the night. So GOD would have us realize the blessed reality of His presence with us as we face the trials and griefs to which all are exposed while
passing through the changing scenes of time and sense. It is this that will keep the heart in peace and free the spirit from fear. Nothing can come to those who know the Lord but what His love allows and which He will use for our blessing as we go through it all in subjection to His holy will and implicit dependence upon Himself.
“Beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.”
The figures suggest a funeral and a wedding. At a funeral service Jews put ashes upon their heads and mourn and lament; at a wedding, they wear beautiful bridal wreaths and garments of praise. Israel’s long centuries of mourning will be over and she will enter into the joyousness of her marriage to the Lord with all the blessings attendant upon it.
We are living now in the parenthesis between the sixty-ninth and seventieth weeks of Daniel, between the beginning of the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our GOD.
Other passages contain the same thought. For instance, the Apostle Peter speaks of those who would see good days, who seek peace and ensue it, for the face of the Lord is against them that do iniquity. He stops there. The Old Testament continues, “to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth.” That day has not yet come. GOD’s face is still against wickedness and corruption, but the day has not come when He will cut off the remembrance of evil-doers from the earth. We can still preach the Gospel of the grace of GOD and offer salvation to the worst sinner. To the vilest sinners, those who have done the very worst, GOD is offering His grace. We are living in this period between the first coming of CHRIST and His second coming, the one having to do with the fulfillment of these early prophecies and the other with the later ones – all linked up – with the restoration of Israel and the blessing of the whole Gentile world.
“But ye shall be named the priests of the Lord: men shall call you the ministers of our God: ye shall eat the riches of the Gentiles, and in their glory shall ye boast yourselves” (verse 6).
The nation of Israel then will be a nation of priests, who will go into GOD’s presence on behalf of all the other peoples of the earth, and also be GOD’s messengers to them.
“I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be Joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels. For as the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden causeth the things that are sown in it to spring forth; so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations” (verses 10, 11).
How much these wonderful promises should mean to GOD’s earthly people, and how we should be interested in them!
Our blessings are heavenly. Theirs, to a great extent, will be earthly, and yet their salvation is just the same as our salvation. “He hath clothed me,” they will be able to sing in that day, “with the garments of salvation, He hath covered me with the robe of [His] righteousness.”
Is not that true of us today? We who at one time were trying to piece out a covering for ourselves with the filthy rags of our own unrighteousness have cast that to one side and can say, “He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, He hath covered me with the robe of [His] righteousness.”
GOD has provided a righteousness for men and women who have none of their own. And in that coming day, Israel will learn this precious truth – they will give up all pretense of their human righteousness and rejoice in the righteousness of GOD which will be bestowed upon them.
The prophet Jeremiah referring to this time says, “This is His name whereby He shall be called, [Jehovah-tsidkenu] the Lord our Righteousness.” And then a little farther on in his prophecy, speaking of Jerusalem and its restoration, he says, “This is the name whereby she shall be called, [Jehovah-tsidkenu] the Lord our Righteousness,” recognizing that she has no righteousness of her own, but the day will come when the people of Israel will find their righteousness in the Lord GOD Himself. What a blessed thing it is when we have learned that lesson even now! So many people have never learned it.
Years ago it was no easy thing when a colored school was first started in Dallas. There was no help financially, and as we vainly tried to interest people, I began to wonder if it was worthwhile to do anything for these colored people. After the third year as I was in Dallas to lecture I went to the school to give an address there one night. I said to my son, “It costs so much to run this and you are giving your very life for it, and I don’t know whether it is really worthwhile.” He looked at me rather strangely, and then said, “Why don’t you ask the men what they think about it?”
So before speaking that night, I said, “I would like to know what you men think of it. Is it a worthwhile investment? Are you getting enough out of it?” For many minutes there was not a sound. They sat there with downcast faces and no one said a word.
Finally one man got up and said, “I’ve been wondering if I heard aright. Did I understand that this school may be closed? If this school is closed, then I shall feel that the last bit of light for us poor colored people in Dallas has gone out, and we are just to be left in the dark. Let me tell you how I was in the dark.
I was a pastor of a church for thirteen years. I didn’t know the Gospel. I didn’t know how sinners were saved. I preached. The people came together and I baptized them and they joined the church – and they shouted and they went on. I thought if I put on plenty of ‘arousements’ and got them all going, that that was the power of the Holy Spirit. I heard about this school, but I was kind of prejudiced when I heard a white man was running it. I thought there must be something queer about it. But finally I came one night.”
He turned to me and went on, “Your son was speaking that night on the first three chapters of the Epistle to the Romans. It took away from me all the religion I’d been building up for thirteen years. I just sat there in a daze as he tore off one filthy rag after another until I stood there naked before GOD. I had no righteousness of my own and I thought I had so much. I thought I was doing so well.
“I went out of the class that night and went home, and said, ‘What am I going to do? All that I’ve tried to do to fit myself for heaven is gone. I haven’t anything left.’ I could hardly wait for the next class two nights later. That night he began in the middle of the third chapter of Romans and he went on to show that GOD had a righteousness for men who had none of their own. Oh, I can’t tell you what that meant to me! I found out that night I didn’t have to provide my own righteousness, God had provided one, and if I just trusted the Lord JESUS CHRIST, I was made the righteousness of GOD in Him.
From that day to this I’ve been preaching the righteousness of GOD, and my people have been learning to see this great truth. Brother, don’t close up this school – it’s the only place I know where they open up these things to us colored folks.”
Many people try to build up a righteousness of their own – and poor Israel is doing that. The Apostle Paul says, “They being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God” (Rom 10:3).
In this coming day everything will be changed. Their eyes opened, they will see in CHRIST their Redeemer and be able to sing with gladness, “He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation . . . covered me with the robe of righteousness.”
~ end of chapter 61 ~
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Isa 61:1
The person of our blessed Lord is a type of the mystic personality of His Church. The notes by which He was manifested to the world as the true Messiah are notes by which also His Church is manifested to the world as the true Church. He was to be the true Healer and Comforter of all, bringing good tidings of good, binding up broken hearts, loosing prisoners out of bondage, comforting mourners, sympathising with all, drawing all that are afflicted to Himself, by the consciousness of their own miseries and by the attractions of His compassion. And this He did by His own Divine love, by His perfect human sympathy, by His own mysterious experience as the Man of Sorrows.
I. Such was His character and ministry; such is the character and ministry of His mystical body, the Church. The anointing which was upon Him flowed down from the Head to the members. So we find after His ascension. The Holy Ghost came upon the Apostles on the Day of Pentecost, and thenceforward they opened their work of compassion and of spiritual mercy by works of healing and by words of consolation. It was indeed the dispensation of the Comforter; the Church was the almoner of the poor, the physician of souls, the solace of the afflicted. It spoke peace, forgiveness, ransom, purity, gladness of heart, to all. And after the descent of the Spirit, the Church passed into that truest discipline of sympathy, the experience of sorrow. Christians were sons of consolation, because they were men of sorrows. To the poor was given the first place in Christ’s earthly kingdom; widows, orphans, mourners, were so many distinct orders whom the Church nourished and consoled; little children were among its chiefest cares. The whole visible system of hospitals, asylums, alms-houses, and the like, are the expression and means of fulfilling the ends of mercy for which the Messiah was anointed by the Spirit of the Lord.
II. What has been said will show us the benefit of affliction to the Church. It is most certain that it was never so like its Divine Head as when it suffered for His name’s sake. Whatsoever adversity be upon us, it is manifestly a token not only of God’s love, but of God’s purpose, to make us fitter for His work of mercy to the world.
III. Another thing we learn from what has been said is the design of God in afflicting the several members of the Church. It is to make them partakers of this true note of Christ’s mystical body. We are all by nature hard and unsympathising. By our regeneration we learn to see the great truth of Christian compassion; but it lies dormant in us, until by the visitations of God’s hand it is unfolded into contrition and spiritual sorrow. It is God’s deepest way of teaching, and what we learn by affliction is our truest learning.
H. E. Manning, Sermons, vol. ii., p. 200.
Isa 61:1
It is a blessed name of Jesus, and as true as it is blessed-the Liberator. We can scarcely conceive anything grander, or more delightful, than to be always going about making everything free. To this end, Christ first liberated Himself.
I. As in Him there was no sin, He never indeed could know the worst of all bondage-the bondage of the spirit to the flesh. But He did know the restraints of fear; He did feel the harassing of indecision; He did experience the irksomeness of the sense of a body too narrow for the largeness of His soul; and He did go through the contractions of all that is material, and the mortifying conventionalities of life,-for He was hungry, thirsty, weary, sad, and the sport of fools. From all this Christ freed Himself-distinctly, progressively, He freed Himself. Step by step, He led captivity captive. He made for Himself a spiritual body, which, in its own nature, and by the law of its being, soared at once beyond the trammels of its humanity. And therefore He is the Liberator, because He was once Himself the Prisoner.
II. And all Christ did, and all Christ was, upon this earth-His whole mission-was essentially either to teach or to give liberty. His preaching was, for the most part, to change the constraint of law into the largeness of love. Every word He said, in private or in public, proved expansion. He was always opening new fields of thought and being, bidding men go out into the breadth of the liberty of their sonship and their destiny and their immortality. His disciples were always looking down into the valleys and shut-up things: He led them to the high hills beyond. Men saw the shadows: He pointed to the sun travelling in its strength, without which those shadows could not be, and into which all those shadows were to be absorbed.
III. When Christ burst through all the tombs-the moral tombs and the physical tombs in which we all lay buried-and when He went out into life and glory, He was not Himself alone,-He was at that moment the covenanted Head of a mystical body, and all that body rose with Him. If so be you have union with Christ, you are risen; bondage is past; you are free.
J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 7th series, p. 274.
Isa 61:1
I. There are two kinds of broken hearts: the natural and the spiritual. They may be united; and sometimes the heart is broken in nature, when it is very plain that it may be broken in grace. Often they are divided. Every broken heart becomes the subject of Jesus’ care, and is dear to Him, if for no other reason in the world but for this-because it is unhappy.
II. Christ was Himself well trained in the school of suffering hearts, that He might learn to bind the mourners. All which goes to break men’s hearts He felt. No wonder then that the bindings are what they are. (1) They are delicate. (2) They are very wise. (3) They are sure and thorough. There is no such thing as a half-cure in that treatment. No heart which has not known a breaking knows indeed what strength is.
J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 7th series, p. 269.
References: Isa 61:1.-J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 7th series, pp. 262, 282; A. F. Barfield, Christian World Pulpit, vol. v., p. 70; Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxvii., No. 1604; Homiletic Magazine, vol. xiii., p. 337; W. M. Punshon, Old Testament Outlines, p. 239.
Isa 61:1-3
Observe the breadth and comprehensiveness of this great announcement. It includes all forms and classes of sorrow: “the poor”-the world’s sad and uniform majority; “the brokenhearted”-all the children of sorrow; “the captives”-all upon whose soul ignorance or sin had bound fetters; “the blind “-all who were insensible to the light and joy with which Christ’s mercy had filled the world. He came to teach all who needed teaching, to heal all who needed healing, to liberate all who were deprived of freedom. The misery that selfish men traded on, that sentimental pity turned away from because it could not bear to look upon it, His strong, healthy compassion went amongst; His hand was firm as His heart was tender. He had no professional narrowness that excluded the pariahs of life. He assumed no Pharisaic superiority. He seemed as if unconscious of Himself-a pure, ministering angel of God, bent only upon pitying and saving others. Let us distinctly note His principles and motives.
I. Can we suppose that His natural tastes and sympathies were not hurt by such association? He had no preference for squalor and poverty and misery for their own sakes. We may be sure that all the human sensibilities and refinements of our Lord would be jarred and pained by His contact with the poor, and yet we never hear of Him borrowing an excuse from His sensibilities.
II. Nor can we think of Him as insensible to the vices, the moral loathsomeness, of those to whom He ministered. His sinless sensitive soul came into direct contact with the world’s reprobates, whose every word was a blasphemy and every act a sin. He subjected Himself to the unspeakable moral anguish of this: “endured the contradiction of sinners against Himself.”
III. Nor did He throw the glamour of romance about the vices of the poor. He spake to them, and of them, with a calm, clear, righteous judgment, without favour and without partiality. They were not interesting because they were wicked. His pity was perfectly holy. Their misery touched not His sentimentalism, but His deep, strong, holy compassion.
IV. In proclaiming His mission to the poor, our Lord began at the root of the world’s misery and sin. All the mightiest social influences come from beneath, upwards. If we would make the tree good, we must mend its root, not its upper branches. The religious system which is strong enough and purifying enough to sanctify the poor will thereby most effectually influence the rich.
H. Allon, Sermons at the Dedication of Union Chapel, Islington, p. 175.
I. The text declares that the true ministry is always inspired and directed by the Holy Ghost. “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me.” The minister does not speak in his own name, or work in his own strength. A ministry without the Holy Ghost is a cloud without water; a Church without the Holy Ghost is a tree twice dead, that cannot too soon be plucked up by the roots. That our service may be animated by the Holy Spirit, and should express Divine ideas and purposes, is clear from the consideration that ours is not an earthly ministry contemplating earthly matters. When we are working not for this world only, but for worlds we have never seen, and which have been revealed to us by a Spirit which is not of this world, we have to be careful that we work not in our own strength or after our own imagination, but clearly, steadily, and constantly along the line of Divine inspiration.
II. The text shows us that the true ministry is animated by the sublimest benevolence. If you read the statement given by the prophet, you will find throughout the statement a tone of kindliness, benevolence, sympathy, gentleness, pity, for all human sorrow. Therein may be known the true ministry of the Gospel. Suspect every ministry that is gloomy. The keynote of the Gospel is joy; the watchword of the Gospel is liberty. Any ministry, public or private, that increases our gloom is a ministry that never came out of yonder central Light that is the light of the universe.
III. The text shows that the true ministry, whether public or private, never shrinks from its more awful functions. Observe this sentence in the midst of the declarations of the text: “To proclaim the day of vengeance of our God.” There must yet be a day of vengeance in human history. Without a day of vengeance human history would not be merely poetically incomplete, but morally imperfect.
Parker, City Temple, 1870, p. 397.
References: Isa 61:2.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxiii., No. 1369; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. v., p. 44, and vol. ix., p. 50.
Isa 61:3
I. God’s people are called “trees of righteousness” because they are “the planting of the Lord.” Godliness is not a thing which any craft of man can fashion. A man can no more make Himself godly than he can make a tree, or so much as the seed of a tree. If he becomes so, it must be the work of God. When God gave His word to man, He gave it to be full of seeds. If this seed be duly sown in the heart (it matters not by what means-let it only be sown), and if it neither be choked by thorns, nor burnt up by the heat, nor killed by the frost, the plant thus sown, if God watches over it and prospers it, will grow up to be a tree of righteousness.
II. Growth is a second point of likeness between trees and godliness, which makes it proper to call the righteous “trees of righteousness.” Without the sun and air and rain, where would be the growth of the tree? Without the light and the purifying breath and dew of God’s Spirit, where would be the growth of the Christian? It is God, and God alone, who giveth the growth and increase. What then is left for man to do toward working out his salvation? It is left for man (1) to pray; (2) to seek manure for the spiritual orchard in the constant study of God’s word, and in diligent attendance on the ordinances of his Church.
III. A third likeness between the spiritual and the natural tree is that their growth is by degrees. A forest tree does not spring up in a day or a month or a year. Nor do the trees of righteousness; they too want time to grow. Plant your tree in good time, that you may be trees and not gourds.
IV. The next and perhaps the most remarkable point of likeness between the spiritual and vegetable life is the sap which flows through a healthy tree and makes it thrive and grow. “The trees of the Lord are full of sap.” In other words, they are full of Christian feeling, which is the food and nourishment of Christian practice. You can no more have the fruits of holiness, without the life-blood of Christian love, than you can have a tree thriving and growing without sap.
V. The finest trees are rooted deep in earth, and point in their uprightness to heaven. So too must we have our root of faith strong in Christ; so our hearts must look, our minds must turn, our souls must rise, toward heaven.
A. W. Hare, The Alton Sermons, p. 258.
References: Isa 61:3-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xvii., No. 1016; Homiletic Quarterly, vol. v., p. 463; Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. x., p. 20, and vol. xiv., p. 15; W. H. Jackson, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxi., p. 346; Forsyth and Hamilton, Pulpit Parables, p. 1.
Isa 61:10-11
“The robe of righteousness” is a familiar phrase with evangelical Christians. Adopted, undoubtedly, from the passage just read, it is used to denote that righteousness of the Lord Jesus which they who believe in Him are supposed to have attributed to them by God, so that their actual personal imperfections and defects disappear before Him, like some foul or ugly object beneath the overspreading of a fair white mantle; and He is enabled to accept them for what they are not-to regard and deal with them as sinless.
I. Now here is, first, an assumption-the false and cruel assumption-that the great Father, while waiting the gradual accomplishment of our complete purification from sin, requires to have our existing sinfulness hidden from Him, requires to have it veiled and concealed; that He must not be revolted nor disturbed by the spectacle; that we must be made somehow, nay anyhow, at least to look clean to Him, whatever our actual uncleanness may be; that He is not capable of enduring the sight of His children as they are, but needs that a mask shall be worn by them, to smile between Him and their unseemliness. Is it conceivable that God should ever be content to be blind to that which is, that He should ever endure to have any reality disguised to Him? Can aught be hidden from Him, the All-seeing One?
II. Turn now to the prophet, whose noble figure has been so miserably perverted, so falsely applied, and observe how different his idea of the robe of which he speaks. “The Lord hath covered me,” he says, “as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels,” which seems to imply certainly a putting on from without, and nothing more; yet, if we consider, the writer may well have discerned, in the lavish decoration of themselves on the part of the bridegroom and the bride, something more than that-not a mere imposition, but an expression, the natural expression, of what was within. But then, as if apprehensive of mistakes-as if anxious to guard against the conclusion that the robe of which he sang was only flung over him from without-the prophet hastens on to a further and more complete illustration (Isa 61:11), as though He had said: While in the self-adorning of the bridegroom and the bride on their wedding-day, I find an image of the grace with which my Lord clothes me, and of the joy that belongs to it, yet this fails to represent the whole of the matter-fails, indeed, to represent the profoundest and most important part of it, viz., the modus operandi-the way in which my clothing is effected. That is adumbrated, in the world of material nature, in the vernal decking of the bare brown fields, and the winter-stripped pleasure grounds. What is it, and whence comes it? Is it not just a growth from within-an efflux upon the surface of life that throbs below-a bursting through and running over of the earth’s own germ-charged bosom? And God’s robe of righteousness is the forth-flowing upon me of His hidden movement and working in my soul-not a robe laid on, but a robe coming out-not a robe assumed, but a robe issuing; it is the holy character and the holy living that are begotten of His Divine inbreathing.
S. A. Tipple, Echoes of Spoken Words, p. 107.
Reference: Isa 61:10.-Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. xvi., p. 17.
Isa 61:11
Just as incredible as spring is to winter, as life is to death, is the summer splendour that shall one day mantle this sad world, this sad universe, to the darkness and drearihood of its present winter and night.
I. Consider the concords of the natural and the human worlds. The worlds are one; the Author is one; the life is one. Nature fits man as a dress the body. Man is the mould on which, as a garment, nature is fashioned. Isaiah had a keen eye for this unity. His prophecies are full of imaginative revelations of the likeness between the ways of God in nature and in man. The future of the world, of the universe, unfolded itself before him, as the outburst of a glorious spring-a spring which should know no autumn, a dawn that should never darken into night.
II. The winter of life and of the world. All that we look upon, all that strains our pity, oppresses our sympathy, saddens our heart and kills our hope, to the prophet’s eye was but as the earth in winter-bare, bleak, stern, cold, dark, storm-beaten, frost-nipped, a wilderness of desolation, a waste of death. It is winter; and winter, let us understand, it will be yet. But in our dark despondent moods we entrench ourselves in the promise, “The Lord God shall cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations.”
III. The certainty of a future everlasting spring. The law reigns throughout all the spheres, that light shall burst out of darkness, spring out of winter, life out of death. To an intelligent eye winter is not all desolation. There is a prophecy in every shrinking bud and blade. There is a living thing shining faintly under the pall. Those see it most whose hearts are most attuned to sympathy with the patience and the hope of God. There is more good in the worst heart than any of us dare credit. There is more seed springing under the hard dead crust of winter than any of us dare dream.
J. Baldwin Brown, Christian World Pulpit, vol. vi., p. 111.
Reference: Isa 61:11.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xix., No. 1104.
CHAPTER 61
The King, Jehovahs Messenger: His People and their Salvation Song
1. Jehovahs Messenger and His work (Isa 61:1-5) 2. His people a kingdom of priests and their work (Isa 61:6-9) 3. The salvation song (Isa 61:10) 4. The blessings of the whole earth (Isa 61:11 Luk 4:1-44 tells us that the Lord Jesus Christ applied the opening verses to Himself. The destructive criticism denies both the Isaiah authorship of this chapter and its messianic application. The satanic origin of this kind of criticism is here fully exposed. But our Lord did not quote the whole of verse 2. He only read up to the acceptable year of the Lord. This sentence marks the work He did in His first advent. The day of vengeance is introduced by His second advent. The results of His second coming are described in the verses which follow. Then Israel will be the kingdom of priests and a holy nation Exo 19:1-25). They will sing the song of salvation (Isa 61:10). Righteousness and praise will follow.
The Lords Sermon
The spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; He hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound.Isa 61:1.
As we speak of the The Lords Prayer we may call this The Lords Sermon. He adopted it as His own (Luk 4:16-22) as He did not the Lords Prayer. It is the model of all sermons. It contains all that a sermon need or can contain(1) The Audience, (2) the Message, (3) the Preacher.
I
The Audience
There are four classes.
1. The meek, or the poor.It is the same word that is applied to Moses in Num 12:3, and it means the opposite of self-seeking. In Luk 4:18 it is given as the poor, the same word being used as Jesus uses when He says, Blessed are the poor in spirit (Mat 5:3). Blessed be ye poor (Luk 6:20). Perhaps its meaning is best expressed by the phrase, poor and needy. The poor may not be blessed as such, and the rich may; but the poor are more likely to be blessed because more likely to feel their need. It is a gospel to them that need and know it. It is for all the young, all the helpless, all but the self-sufficient.
The Hebrew word has just a shade of ambiguity between poor simply and poor in spirit, and we can easily imagine it susceptible of both renderings. It is a word, too, which comes into one of those central passages of the Old Testament which our Lord took up most directly as His own teaching. It will be observed that, in the Revised Version of Isa 61:1, the old rendering is retained: The spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek: but poor is given in the margin as an alternative for meek; and in the quotation of this passage in St. Luk 4:18, poor is the rendering both in the Greek and in the English. In Psa 9:18, The expectation of the poor shall not perish for ever, the Revised Version has poor in the text, meek in the margin. There can be little doubt that the Hebrew (or Aramaic) corresponding to this was the word originally used in the first beatitude, and that the evangelist has represented it to us by an apt and just paraphrase.1 [Note: W. Sanday in The Expositor, 4th series, iii. p. 313.]
When nw is translated the poor or the afflicted, oppressed, or the helpless, the meek, its exact significance will be best understood if we bear in mind the traits in the character of the toil-worn man, his poverty of spirit, his slowness to insist upon his rights, his patient forbearance, his long enduring of any number of wrongs. It may be said that this is introducing into the slow-moving, tranquil Eastern world the conditions of life which pertain only to Western civilisation. But an enslaved nation, as the Israelites were more than once in the earlier part of their history, would be likely to know something of the wearing effect of laborious toil on both the body and the mind, and that knowledge has left its impression on the plastic surface of their language.2 [Note: A. T. Burbridge in The Preachers Magazine, 1901, p. 542.]
The Rev. Thomas Guthrie, fresh from his Forfarshire parish, bounded by the restless North Sea, with singing larks and decent peasants, looked down through the iron gratings on George iv. Bridge on the one he had come to cultivate. It was before the age of the City Improvement Commission, and the Cowgate showed battered humanity in a state not now visible there. High-flatted houses, each having the population of a village, with windows innocent of glass and stuffed with dirty rags, some of these tenements were the scene of domestic tragedies, for in one of their upper flats five families had been made fatherless through the fever. But the dwellers did not mind, for Guthrie noted women lying over window-sills, and others at close mouths with children in arms, chaffing passers-by, or screaming each other down. It looked to the new minister a venture into the darkness of a coal-pit from the light of day. A hand was laid on his shoulder. Then the voice of Dr. Chalmers, whose face glowed with enthusiasm as, waving his arm, he exclaimed, A beautiful field, sir, a very fine field of operation.1 [Note: T. Cochrane, Home Mission Field, p. 7.]
2. The broken-hearted.These have more than a general sense of need. They have learned in the school of suffering. They can recall loss, perhaps betrayal, at least disappointment. They cannot help recalling it. For its scar is on them. They bear about in their hearts the marks of wrongwrong which they have suffered, and, yet more deeply, wrong which they have done. They are broken-hearted; they cannot receive or they cannot give restitution.
The exact significance of shbhar is to break in pieces; thus there is contained in it the idea of destruction, with its resultants, helplessness, uselessness, inactivity. For instance, shbhar is used of ships broken by the storm, of the tearing asunder of wild beasts, of the dismembering of corporate bodies, e.g. a kingdom, a city, a people. And the verb must suffer no impoverishment of meaning if the exact significance of the now familiar expression, the broken-hearted, is to be retained. The phrase, a broken heart, is descriptive not simply of an organ full of aching and suffering, but of an organ which, while it is racked with pain, is also helpless, unable to do what is required of it. That which can happen to any physical organ or limb of the body can happen also to the heart conceived of as the centre of mans emotional life. Struck with a sudden blow, the arm is broken, hangs down suffering and useless. Overtaken by a sudden calamity the heart is broken, suffering intensely, but amid all its suffering useless. The broken heart can still feel, it is not dead or hardened like the heart of the wicked or the stubborn, but it can no longer prompt, purpose inspire, urge on to fresh effort, to victory or death; its vitol strength is gone. Some forms of suffering act as a stimulus, they arouse new energy in a man, but the suffering of the broken-hearted is accompanied by a listlessness, an apparent inability to do anything but suffer, an utter helplessness not simply of body but also of mind and soul. It is this element of helplessness which constitutes the tragedy of a broken heart, and it is this element of helplessness which is emphasised in the Hebrew term nishber-lbh. Yet even in this most disastrous effect of human trouble, when sorrow robs the heart of its last resources and strength, the Bible discovers an opportunity for the coming of God: The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart, a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. Is not every form of human helplessness a recommendation to the Deity? Must not this extreme form be so most of all?1 [Note: A. T. Burbridge.]
An old woman came into the city from the country to buy medicine at a native medicine vendors. While the man was preparing the medicine, his wife came into the shop, and noticing the old woman looking very sad and unhappy, asked her the reason. The old woman replied, Last year I lost my husband. Now my eldest son is ill at home, and I am afraid he is going to die, and I am taking this medicine to see if it will do him any good. Ah, replied the shopmans wife, I am sorry for you. I wish I could help you. If you want the words that comfort mens hearts, go to the Gospel Hall across the way there. They have the words that comfort mens hearts.
3. The captives.The description grows denser. These are more needy than even the broken-hearted. They are the victims of habit, evil habit, ill-regulated deeds settling or settled down into an ill-regulated life. If women, they are such as St. Paul describes (2Ti 3:6), silly women laden with sins, led captive with divers lusts.
The word does not describe those whose condition is a woeful one by reason of bonds and imprisonment. It has nothing to do with either gaol or dungeon. By paying attention to the exact significance of the original meaning we shall best know how to interpret the Hebrew. The term means literally those carried off as booty. It depicts what must have been one of the bitterest moments in the experience of the prisoner of war, the moment when the power of the conqueror dragged him away from home and native city, when he saw for the last time loved walls and ways and faces without which life was without joy. Thus, as generally used, it denotes the ever present bitterness of the enslaved among strange faces in a strange country; the sad memories, the troublous longings which would haunt him even when the treatment he experienced was the kindest and his lot was of the easiest and pleasantest.
Crouched in the corner of every house sat a thing, without home, without rights, without hope, called the slave; the victim of every caprice, the safety-valve of every passion, the tool of every lust. The work of construction Christianity wrought out. It restored the family life by restoring the marriage relation. It made every Christian home a retreat where purity might repose in the bosom of order. It created that type of Christian gentleness which we see in our mothers and sisters and wives. It touched the brow and heart of the slavenot just snapping the chains and then leading him forth to a freedom he could not use. It first touched the slaves soul, and taught him to raise his branded brow, and to know that he was a free man, that Christ had made freefree from the yoke of sin, and therefore free one day to walk as king.1 [Note: Archbishop Alexander, Primary Convictions.]
4. Them that are bound.The proper and more general sense of the verb asv is to bind, but in its special sense as applied to prisoners the original meaning seems to have faded out. The history of the word presents us with an excellent illustration of the elasticity of the Hebrew language. In earliest times one can understand how a prisoner and a bound-man were synonymous terms. But when arrangements for confining a person guilty of some offence were rendered more secure, the bonds might be dispensed with and a man might be shut up in prison without being pinioned. However, the old word was still used, and such a man was known as sr, literally one bound, properly a prisoner. The place where he was confined was known as the house of the bound, the prison house. Illustrations of this can be found in the histories of Joseph and of Samson (Gen 40:3; Gen 39:20; Jdg 16:21). A reference to the context will make it clear that though referred to as sr Joseph and Samson were evidently not pinioned. But, while losing its old significance, sr gathered about itself a fresh meaning. One of the most dreadful horrors of the prison house was its darkness, and, if this were not absolute, its sunless gloom. Thus the word came to signify a prisoner, as one to whom light was denied. In several passages prisoners are classed in the same category with the blind and them that sit in darkness (Isa 42:7; Isa 49:9; Psa 146:7-8). It is evident that it would be a mistake to adhere strictly to the original significance of the word. The literal meaning the bound is no longer applicable, and there must be substituted for it, as characteristic of the prisoner, one who is longing for the light. In the interpretation of Isa 61:1, it is quite possible that even the idea expressed in the term the prisoner may be dismissed, and only the broader significance of one who is longing for the light retained.
It is their eyes that are bound. And so these are in worst case of all, for they cannot see their condition. They are as good as deaddead in trespasses and sins. She that liveth in sin is dead while she liveth. When Lazarus came forth from the tomb his face was bound about with a napkin, for that was the way they did with the dead. The eyes were closed and bound. These are they who say, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing, and do not know that they are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.
A spirit lay bound in a house of clay,
Closed to the light of God alway,
Dark with the gloom of mortal sin,
Earth without and a Spirit within.
But how can Earth with Spirit agree?
Or Death with Immortality?
There moved a Form in the shadows dim,
And a tender radiance flowed from Him;
But the light disclosed in the prison cell
Ignorance, Pride, and Hate as well.
His voice was sweet, and soft, and low,
And the poor dumb Spirit loved it so;
But Ignorance, Pride, and Hate unite,
To drown the voice, and hide the light.
O who will set the Spirit free,
And save her from the hideous three?
The Light has pierced the gloom of sin,
The Word has silenced the strife and din,
The Saviour has broken the house of clay,
And borne the ransomed Spirit away.
O hidden Life! O Christ within!
Break Thou the fetters of my sin!
My soul from mortal limits free
And bear me up to Heaven with Thee.1 [Note: H. Marwick.]
II
The Message
The message is determined by the audience. It is fitted to be good tidings to each class, each person.
1. To the poor and needy it is simply a Gospel. What they need most is hope. It is the hopelessness of the poor that is the most striking, the most characteristic thing about them. Watch the faces of the trampsthey are all hopeless. This is a message of hope. And it is a hope that does not die out, that maketh not ashamed. To poor shepherds, working lads, came the first Gospel sermon: To you is born this day a Saviour. Jesus is a Saviour from hopelessness.
(1) First of all, this Gospel goes to the very root of the matter, in its cause and in its history. Know you certainly that it is Gods visitation. It is the will of God that you should be poor. Suppose that your poverty be even the result of folly, misconduct, or sin, still it is now, for you, the will of God. There is repose, there is satisfaction, at once. Whatever second causes have been at worksickness or misfortune, wrongdoing of another, wrong doing of your ownthis, to-day, in fact, is the will of God concerning you; povertypoverty as a providence, or else poverty as a chastisement. It is the will of God.
(2) Again, the Gospel of Jesus Christ says this to me. The life that is, is the mere porch and vestibule of the life that shall be. I must walk by faith. I must claim and I must practise already that equality of being which is mine, in Gods sight, not only with the greatest of earths heroes, but even with just men already made perfect. These distinctions of birth and rank, of fortune and station, are absolutely unrecognised in heaven. It is difficult, I know, to see it so: it is of the very nature of these inequalities to strut and parade themselves; it is natural to us, it is even our duty, to feel and to own these varieties below; it is a part of Christian virtue to order myself lowly and reverently towards those who are here above me. But let mine be a willing subordinationwilling, because it is also erect, independent, dignified. Let me live already as one whose citizenship is in heavenwhose fellow-citizens are saints and angels, the souls of the faithful here, the spirits of the righteous in glory. There is no degradation in that poverty which, within a few years, will be transfigured and recreated into glory.1 [Note: C. J. Vaughan.]
2. It heals the broken-hearted. Macbeth said to the physician, Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased? and the physician answered, No. This Physician can bind up a broken heart, can heal a wounded spirit. He came as a Physician to the sick. They that are whole need not a physician, but they that are sick; I came to call sinners. He healed the woman that was a sinner, broken-hearted perhaps through mens sins. He healed Zacchus, whose extortions had broken others hearts, and sent him to restore what yet was in his power.
A great thinker has said that Christianity first taught man the reverence for things beneath him. It is profoundly true. The Spirit of Christ can say distinctively, He hath sent me to bind the broken heart. It has come through other channels for other purposes, but through this channel it has had but one purpose. Sometimes its mission has been to teach me Gods majesty, sometimes to reveal His beauty, sometimes to proclaim His law. But here in the heart of Jesus the mission of the Spirit is to show me a new exhibition of Gods powerHis power of infinite stooping.2 [Note: G. Matheson.]
3. It is a message of liberty to the captives. Jesus did not loose any ones chain, so far as we know, when He was on earth. He sent Johns messengers back to John in prison, not with a message to open the prison door, but with Blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me. But He gave liberty to the captive in sin. He said to the paralytic, Son, thy sins are forgiven thee. He did more than break the chains of sin for the moment. He set in a large place, gave liberty to go in and out, victory over the very temptation that it became no temptation longer. He brought His banished home again, with the Fathers welcome and the Sons place.
I do not know whether you generally read the daily newspaper. I think we might get up a Society for the Suppression of Useless Knowledge. A great deal that appears in the newspapers amounts only to that, and much time is wasted thereon; but sometimes we get a gem amongst the news, and to my mind there was a gem contained in a Reuters telegram from Rio Janeiro, 10th May:The Brazilian Chamber of Deputies has voted the immediate and unconditional abolition of slavery in Brazil.1 [Note: C. H. Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, 1894, p. 349.]
The island of Capri in the Bay of Naples is a very tiny island, only about three and a half miles square. But it is a very beautiful island, for small though it is, it has upon it two mountains, connected with each other by a ridge or saddle. And the sides of these mountains are covered with gardens and trees. There are orange trees and lemons and olives and vines. And the air in the summer time is heavy with the sweet fragrance they send forth. There are remains also upon the island of Roman villas and baths and temples. And on one side of the island is a wonderful grotto, which can be reached only from the sea.
Now if we were in the island of Capri on Easter morning we might see a very curious sight. Rising early, we should climb the long flight of steps that lead upward from the shore, past the quaint old houses, by the vineyards and the orange groves, until we reached the church. There we should find a crowd of people waiting; dark-eyed boys and girls with jet black hair; women wearing the many-coloured costume of the island; men with their faces sunburnt from their daily exposure to the rays of the hot, fierce sun.
By and by there comes the priest, with the boy acolytes behind him, chanting as they come. First they enter the church, where they hold a service; then, after a while, they reappear outside the church, and people and priests and boys all stand together on the great open square in front, with the wide sea below and the great broad dome of the blue sky above. But what are those people carrying in their hands? Cages. And what are in the cages? Birds. Let us watch. See, there is a signal given. What does it mean? The doors of the cages are being opened; and the men, or the boys, or the girls who hold them are putting in their hands. And now they are taking out the birds. They must be about to set them free. And so they are. Another moment and there is a little cloud of birds just above the peoples heads, and in another the birds which a minute ago were captives in their cages are flying upward, here and there and everywhere, into the wide sky beyond. They, every one of them, are free. This is what may be seen every Easter morning on the island of Capri, and it may be seen also, I believe, in other places, especially in Russia.1 [Note: J. Byles, The Boy and the Angel, p. 191.]
Conquering kings their titles take
From the foes they captive make.
Jesus by a nobler deed
From the thousands He hath freed.
4. And it is a message of the opening of the eyes to the blind. None of Christs miracles astonished more than His making the blind to see; none cost Him more. In the spiritual sphere it verges on the impossible. The blindness of ignorance is removable: we are to blame if we do not remove that. But who so blind as he that will not see? Whose eyes are so hard to open as theirs who say, we see, while yet their sin remaineth? But the things which are impossible with men are possible with God. This Worker is anointed for His work. Therefore He has the Spirit, and the Spirit will stay with Him till his work is doneeven to the opening of the eyes of the blind.
Lo! the light cometh that shall never cease;
Soon shall the veil be lifted; be at peace!
Light, and more light, shines from the eternal shore,
Light of the life that dieth nevermore.2 [Note: Walter C. Smith.]
III
The Preacher
In a dialogue between a Christian and a Jew, which was written in the beginning of the second century, but published in English only a few years ago (Expos. 5th ser. v. 302, 443), the Christian quotes this prophecy of Isaiah, upon which the Jew remarks, All this is to be in the future, though the time is not yet. That is the Jews admission of the extraordinary wealth of promise this prophecy contains. He does not acknowledge Jesus Christ, but he sees that no one else has yet come to fulfil it. We acknowledge Jesus Christ. We know that He took this sermon and made it His. We believe that
He comes the broken hearts to bind,
The bleeding souls to cure;
And with the treasures of His grace
To enrich the humble poor.
The majority of people do not think of Christ as a great preacher. They look at Him as a man of supreme love, gentleness of spirit, kindness of manner, and as thoroughly good and unselfish in all He did; but they do not think of Him as possessing the qualities which we think necessary to make what we call a great preacher. The wonderful gift of language, the skilful choice of words, the ability to gather His arguments and focus His thought so as to carry His audience to the point of decision, most people, I say, do not thus think of Christ. When the great preachers of history are named, people speak of Brooks, Beecher, Finney, and Edwards in America; Spurgeon, Chalmers, Whitefield, and Wesley in Britain; Luther, Savonarola, and Chrysostom of the old world. But did you ever hear any one put Christ in this category?
1. That Christ was a great preacher is evident from our text, for the requisites, which all concede as necessary, are here set forth as being in His possession.
(1) First, He had the right qualification for His work, namely, the anointing of the Holy Spirit. The Lord hath anointed me to preach. Christ received this special qualification at the time of His baptism, with the declaration, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. It was this anointing for the work that gave Christ His power. The account in Luke closes with the suggestive sentence, His word was with power, and immediately following the text occurs the statement, And they wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth.
The fact that Christs earthly life became effectual through the ministry of the Holy Spirit within Him, and not alone through the inherent virtue and power He brought with Him from His pre-existent state, has become one of the commonplaces of theology; and yet how little do we realise its true import, and cultivate that humility and dependence of soul which would distinguish us if the great truth were ever in view! In spite of our formal adhesion to this doctrine, it seems still strange to us that one whom we think of as holy and Divine should be indebted at every stage of His earthly life to that inward mystic ministry which is so necessary to us because of our sinfulness. We speak of the Holy Ghost as a Deliverer from inbred corruption, and are ready to assume, quite unwarrantably, that where there is no corruption in the nature, the stimulating forces and fervours of His benign indwelling are needless. We are accustomed to look upon this ministry, which perpetuates in our souls the saving work of the Lord Jesus, as though it were a special antidote to human depravity only. For the Spirit to abide moment by moment with Jesus Christ, and work in His humanity, seems like painting the lily, gilding fine gold, and bleaching the untrampled snow.
But that is a mistaken view. When the universal Church shall have been built up and consecrated to its high uses, it will be by the Spirit that God will dwell in the temple. And the temple of Christs sacred flesh needed this same indwelling presence. It was imperative that to the Son in His humiliation the Father should give the Spirit, and give Him, too, upon no grudging scalegive Him for His own sake as well as for ours, whom He came to represent and to save. The great Sanctifier blends the essential forces of His personality into this divinest type of goodness, to show that goodness in even the only begotten Son is not self-originated. In the less mature stages of Christs expanding humanity implicit and docile dependence on this inward leading was the test of His entire acceptability to the Father.
(2) He had also the second requisite of a preacher, whose sermon must always be about Christ. Christs sermon in Nazareth was about Himself. The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, He has sent me. The personal pronoun runs through all He has to say. The subject of His discourse was, in a word, Himself. Just after the resurrection, when Christ was on the road to Emmaus with two of the disciples, we are told that, Beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the thing concerning Himself. Again, He said: I am the Vine. I am the Resurrection and the Life. I am the Son of God. I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
More than that, Christs sermon was Himself. He gave His life a ransom, His soul an offering for sin. That day this Scripture was fulfilled. He preached the sermon in Nazareth by anticipation; for He delighted to do the Fathers will,and it was as good as done already, even to the last agony.
I once heard a prayer of a rough ploughman in a village schoolroom; and this was in his prayerDear Lord, if there be any poor stricken one in this room to-night, come and bind him up, and bind Thyself, Lord, into the binding.1 [Note: J. Vaughan, Sermons, viii., No. 729.]
2. It is because Christ is this sermon, not because He preached it, that the prophet could preach it, and that we can preach it now. The Cross of Christ looks before and after. One arm stretches backward and gives this prophet the right to preach a sermon he has no power himself to fulfil; the other stretches forward and gives the same right to us. For the Spirit of the Lord is not straitened by time or circumstance. As the prophet spoke, the Cross of Christ was already raised in His sight, and it stands erected in His sight to-day.
Thus the preacher can say, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach glad tidings to the meek. This is his work. It is a special work. Like every work for which one is anointed, it is honourable and glorious. He has been chosen to accomplish it. And because he has been chosen to accomplish this work, the Spirit of the Lord will be with him as long as he gives himself to its accomplishment.
The question very naturally arises, if one of the offices of Christ was that of physician, and He healed the sick and made the lame to walk, and gave sight to the blind, will He not do these same things to-day? In other words, it is asked, have we not here Scripture which supports the theory known as Divine healing, or faith cure? Christ undoubtedly could heal the sick to-day, and give sight to the blind, just as much as when He was here upon earth, for He has the same power now that He had then. Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever. But what He can do and what He will do are two different things, and while many would willingly concede that He could do these things, yet most Christians believe that He will not now work miracles of physical restoration.
The reason for this is that such miracles are not needed. God could inspire men to prophecy, but the probability is that He will not. Simply because Christ has come, the acme of all prophecy has been fulfilled, and the necessity does not now exist. So God could inspire men to write a Bible, for He has the same power as when He spoke to Isaiah, and Paul, and James; but the probability is that He will not thus inspire men to-day, for we have a Bible, and such inspired writings are not needed. On the same basis do we believe that Divine healing is not to be expected in present times. The purpose of Christs physical miracles was to support His authority as a spiritual healer. He restored the sight of the blind that the world might be more easily convinced that He had the power to heal spiritual blindness. He bound up the broken-hearted that people might be taught to trust Him as the physician of the soul.
The Lords Sermon
Literature
Banks (L. A.), The Kings Stewards, 16.
Bourdillon (F.), Short Sermons, 39.
Byles (J.), The Boy and the Angel, 190.
Challacombe (W. A.), The Souls Wardrobe, 48.
Harper (F.), A Year with Christ, 195.
Henson (H. H.), Westminster Sermons, 280.
Jowett (B.), Sermons on Faith and Doctrine, 282.
Kingsley (C.), National Sermons, 17.
Knight (G. H.) Divine Upliftings, 2.
Lewis (A.), Sermons Preached in England, 206.
Manning (H. E.), Sermons, ii. 200.
Manning (H. E.), Sermons on Ecclesiastical Subjects, ii. 383.
Matheson (G.), Voices of the Spirit, 73.
Selby (T. G.), Holy Spirit and Christian Privilege, 25.
Spurgeon (C. H.), Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, xxvii. No. 1604; xl. No. 2371; liv. No. 3104.
Vaughan (C. J.), Family Prayer and Sermon Book, ii. 209, 247.
Vaughan (J.), Sermons (Brighton Pulpit), viii. No. 729 ff.
Christian World Pulpit, v. 70, 94, 102 (Barfield); lxxv. 209 (Henson).
Church of England Pulpit, lxi, 234 (Cecil).
Expository Times, ix. 492.
Preachers Magazine, ii. 170 (Harper); xii. 540 (Burbridge).
Spirit: Isa 11:2-5, Isa 42:1, Isa 59:21, Mat 3:16, Luk 4:18, Luk 4:19, Joh 1:32, Joh 1:33, Joh 3:34
anointed: Psa 2:6, *marg. Psa 45:7, Dan 9:24, Joh 1:41, Act 4:27, Act 10:38, Heb 1:9
to preach: Isa 52:9, Psa 22:26, Psa 25:9, Psa 69:32, Psa 149:4, Mat 5:3-5, Mat 11:5, Luk 7:22
to bind: Isa 57:15, Isa 66:2, Psa 34:18, Psa 51:17, Psa 147:3, Hos 6:1, 2Co 7:6
to proclaim: The proclaiming of perfect liberty to the bound, and the year of acceptance with Jehovah, is a manifest allusion to the proclaiming of the year of the jubilee by sound of trumpet; and our Saviour, by applying this text to himself, plainly declares the typical design of that institution. Isa 42:7, Isa 49:9, Isa 49:24, Isa 49:25, Psa 102:20, Jer 34:8, Zec 9:11, Zec 9:12, Joh 8:32-36, Act 26:18, Rom 6:16-22, Rom 7:23-25, 2Ti 2:25, 2Ti 2:26
Reciprocal: Exo 28:41 – anoint them Exo 29:7 – General Exo 29:21 – the anointing oil Exo 30:26 – General Exo 35:31 – And he Exo 37:29 – he made Exo 40:9 – the anointing oil Exo 40:10 – sanctify Exo 40:12 – General Exo 40:13 – anoint him Lev 2:4 – wafers Lev 2:16 – General Lev 7:35 – portion Lev 8:30 – the anointing Lev 21:12 – for the crown Lev 25:10 – proclaim Deu 15:1 – General Deu 26:15 – Look down 2Sa 22:28 – afflicted 2Ch 6:42 – thine anointed Job 29:25 – one that Job 33:23 – an interpreter Psa 2:2 – anointed Psa 28:8 – his Psa 68:6 – he bringeth Psa 89:20 – General Psa 107:14 – brake Psa 116:16 – thou hast Psa 119:32 – enlarge Psa 142:7 – my soul Psa 146:7 – looseth Ecc 1:1 – the Preacher Isa 11:4 – for the meek Isa 29:19 – meek Isa 30:19 – thou shalt Isa 40:1 – comfort Isa 40:6 – Cry Isa 41:17 – the poor Isa 42:3 – bruised Isa 48:16 – the Lord God Isa 51:3 – the Lord Isa 52:2 – loose Isa 52:7 – How beautiful Jer 52:33 – changed Eze 34:16 – seek that Zep 2:3 – all Zep 3:12 – leave Zec 4:14 – These Zec 11:7 – General Mat 5:5 – the meek Mat 10:7 – preach Mat 11:1 – he departed Mat 12:18 – I will Mat 12:20 – bruised Mat 20:30 – two Mar 1:14 – preaching Mar 1:38 – for Mar 3:27 – General Mar 6:34 – and he Luk 2:10 – I bring Luk 2:26 – the Lord’s Luk 3:5 – valley Luk 4:17 – the place Luk 4:43 – therefore Luk 6:21 – ye that weep Luk 8:1 – the glad Luk 9:11 – and he Luk 24:44 – in the prophets Joh 4:34 – My meat Joh 6:27 – for him Joh 8:36 – General Joh 10:36 – whom Joh 17:3 – and Jesus Joh 17:18 – General Act 1:2 – through Act 5:19 – General Act 13:32 – we Act 16:26 – and every Act 26:6 – the promise Rom 10:15 – and bring 1Co 11:3 – and the head of Christ 2Co 1:21 – anointed 2Co 3:17 – where Gal 5:1 – the liberty Gal 5:13 – ye Eph 4:2 – lowliness 2Th 2:17 – Comfort 2Ti 4:2 – Preach Heb 9:14 – who Jam 1:21 – and receive Jam 3:13 – with meekness 1Pe 3:4 – a meek 1Pe 3:19 – in 1Jo 2:20 – ye have 1Jo 5:7 – The Father
THE EDICT OF EMANCIPATION
To proclaim liberty to the captives.
Isa 61:1
It is a blessed name of Jesus, and as true as it is blessedthe Liberator.
I. As in Him there was no sin, He never indeed could know the worst of all bondagethe bondage of the spirit to the flesh.
II. And all Christ did, and all Christ was, upon this earthHis whole missionwas essentially either to teach or to give liberty.His preaching was, for the most part, to change the constraint of law into the largeness of love.
III. When Christ burst through all the tombsthe moral tombs and the physical tombs in which we all lay buriedand when He went out into life and glory, He was not Himself alone; He was at that moment the covenanted Head of a mystical body, and all that body rose with Him.
Isa 61:1. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me To qualify me for effecting what is foretold and promised in the foregoing chapter. As Christ has applied this passage to himself, (see Luk 4:16,) and assured us that it was fulfilled in him, we may, with the utmost reason, conclude that he is here introduced by the prophet in his own person, and not that the prophet speaks of himself, as some have thought. Because, or rather, for, the Lord hath anointed me Hath commissioned me with authority, qualified me with gifts, and set me apart, for the important offices here mentioned. Prophets, priests, and kings, among the Jews, were usually appointed and set apart to their several offices, as we have repeatedly seen, by anointing them with oil, which ceremony was used by the express command of God, and was intended to show, not only that the persons so anointed were called to, but were, or should be, qualified for, these offices, with suitable gifts and graces. But the anointing of Christ, who was to sustain offices incomparably more important, and productive of infinitely greater effects, was of another nature, he being anointed, not with external and corruptible oil, but with the eternal Spirit of the incorruptible God, which qualified him for every part of the great work to which he was called, beyond all others that were before him. Which Spirit he had without measure, Joh 3:34; and therefore is said (Psa 45:7; Heb 1:9) to be anointed with the oil of gladness above his fellows. To preach good tidings Namely, tidings of salvation, of pardoning mercy, of renewing grace, and of eternal glory; unto the meek Or, poor, as the words are rendered by the LXX., whom the evangelists follow Luk 4:18; Mat 11:5; namely, to the penitent, the humble, and poor in spirit; to whom the tidings of a Redeemer, and of salvation through him, are indeed good tidings, faithful sayings, and worthy of all acceptation. These, and even the poor, as to worldly circumstances, are best disposed to receive the gospel, Jas 2:5; and then it is likely to profit them when it is received with meekness, as it ought to be. This relates to Christs prophetic office. To bind up the broken-hearted To give relief and comfort to persons burdened and distressed with a sense of the guilt and power of their sins, and of the wrath of God, to which they are obnoxious. It is a metaphor taken from surgeons binding up wounds: see Isa 1:6. This relates to Christs priestly office, his blood being the true expiation of sin, and the procuring cause of pardon and peace to the guilty. To proclaim liberty to the captives Namely, liberty from the dominion and bondage of sin and Satan, of the world and the flesh, and from the slavish, tormenting fear of death and hell. This appertains to his kingly office. And those whom he, who is exalted to be a prince, as well as a Saviour, makes free, are free indeed; not only discharged from the miseries of captivity and bondage, but advanced to all the immunities and dignities of citizens. This is the gospel proclamation, and it is like the blowing of the jubilee trumpet, which proclaimed the great year of release, Lev 25:9; Lev 25:40; in allusion to which, it is here called the acceptable year of the Lord; the time in which men should find acceptance with God, which is the origin of their liberties: or, it is called the year of the Lord, because it publishes his free grace, to his own glory; and an acceptable year, because it brings glad tidings to us; and what cannot but be very acceptable to those who know the capacities and necessities of their own souls.
Isa 61:1. The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me. Here the Redeemer appears clothed with humanity, and invested with all the high offices of our redemption. Jehovah gave not the Spirit by measure unto him, not at times and seasons; as to the prophets; the fulness of Deity always dwelt in him, and flowed as a fountain. He therefore spake in righteousness, mighty to save: Isa 63:1. He had said above, The isles shall wait for my law; and he adds below, I the Lord love judgment. In the days of his flesh he said in the synagogue of Nazareth, To day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears; and the people wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. Luk 4:21-22. The Chaldaic, it is true, makes Isaiah the speaker, but they knew no better; the apology for the Arians who follow that version is inadmissible. To gainsay the words of Christ is with them a small thing.
To preach good tidings to the meek. enovim, , the poor, the humble, the afflicted. Job 34:28. Psa 25:9; Psa 34:11. Pro 15:33; Pro 22:4. Zep 2:3. Num 12:3. Our Saviour did this, according to the words of David. Psa 37:11. Mat 5:5.
To bind up the brokenhearted, by preaching deliverance to the captives, and opening of the prison to those that are bound. Cyrus very much cheered the Jews, by the liberation of more than forty thousand; but this was small, when compared with the promises of a full redemption. Jehovah says, By the blood of thy covenant I have sent forth thy prisoners out of the pit wherein is no water. Zec 9:11. It is a most humiliating truth, that we have been led captive by the devil at his will; that we are tied and bound with the chain of our sins, and speechless at the bar of God. What can cheer hearts so disconsolate but the voice of him who is sent to preach the acceptable year of the Lord, the year of jubilee, of full redemption from all iniquity, and of restoration to the heavenly inheritance.
Isa 61:2. The day of vengeance of our God. Grace must be guarded with justice. Diem ultionis, the final day of perdition to all who despise the riches of his goodness, which leadeth to repentance. Rom 2:4. The Lord passed sentence on the abandoned and unbelieving Jews: Behold, your temple is left unto you desolatedesecrated, demolished. He also pronounced sentence on the rebellious gentiles, bidding the goats on his left hand depart, and burning up the tares with unquenchable fire. The final punishment will be heavy on those who make light of the gospel; while on the other hand, he shall fully comfort mourners, by the full enjoyment of his heavenly kingdom.
Isa 61:3. To give unto them beauty for ashes. The Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces, will brighten every countenance with joy, and give the garments of praise for the spirit of heaviness. The happy state of the church shall then differ as much from her former state, as a feast differs from a fast. Sackcloth shall be superseded by the white garments of praise, and the peace and joy of God shall inspire every bosom. But better still; this glorious enlargement of Zion shall be a permanent state. The church has long been afflicted with rebellious Reubens, unstable as water; now the saints shall resemble trees or oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord for his glory. Psa 1:3. This beautiful idea of an enlivened cosmography and agriculture runs through the chapter.
Isa 61:4. They shall build the old wastes, or rebuild their houses, as in Isa 65:21.
Isa 61:6. Ye shall be named the priests of the Lord. Such was the original promise, in Exo 19:6. God chose the Israelites, if they had obeyed his voice, to be a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation. Moses indeed did all that a prophet could do, to make the people like the holy patriarchs; but that cannot be done without circumcision of the heart. The carnal Hebrews were chained to duties by the law, but in all ages waited an opportunity to break the restraint, and revel in licentiousness. With the same high and hallowed promises, St. Peter admonishes the christian church to follow after holiness, as becomes our consecration to God. Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a new or peculiar people, to show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light. 1Pe 2:9. Heb 13:15.
Isa 61:9. Their seed shall be known among the gentiles. In India, in central Asia, in Persia, and other foreign states, the Jews are extremely poor and wretched, and are scarcely admitted to any of the privileges of civil society; but when converted to the Messiah, their spiritual birth shall be as life from the dead, filling all the church with joy. We say to the Jews, as Moses to Hobab, Come thou with us, and we will do thee good. Num 10:29. Change your name, as this prophet has said, for the new name of Christ, the anointed: Isa 62:2; Isa 65:15. This change is essential to your title of inheritance. In the Messiah only you have the promise.
Isa 61:11. As a garden causeth seeds that are sown in it to spring forth, and is adorned with plants and flowers of exquisite beauty, so shall the church recover from her wilderness state to the glory of Hephzibah and Beulah, as in the next chapter. The Lord will cause his name to be known, and his praises to be sung in all the earth.
REFLECTIONS.
As the plowman can do nothing in the field till the rigours of winter are removed, so the church lay dormant till the promised Prince and Prophet came to Zion, and preached deliverance to the captives. Life attended his voice; light and righteousness opened by his word, and the trumpet of jubilee resounded in all the earth.
Yet we must add, that the prophet foresaw, that those joys would be embraced by the meek only, and by the humble who had long been weary of Satans yoke. I will leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor people, and they shall trust in the name of the Lord. Zep 3:12. Go and tell John, said the Saviour, that to the poor the gospel is preached.
But though the beginning of the Messiahs kingdom was small as a grain of mustard seed; yet the consummation shall be glorious, and shall fill the earth. Zion, after all her tears, shall greatly rejoice; shall be clothed with the garments of salvation, with the robe of righteousness, and with all the brilliant costume of the Lambs wife. Yea, her glory shall revive the earth, as the verdure revives in the spring.
Isaiah 61-62. The Coming Year of Grace.
Isa 61:1-4. The prophet speaks of his call in language reminiscent of the Servant Songs. Yahwehs spirit abides with me, because He has ordained me. He has sent me to bring glad news to the distressed; to proclaim freedom to the Jews in bondage; to herald the year of favour to those who love Yahweh, which shall prove a day of vengeance upon His foes; to comfort all mourners, giving them a coronal for a coronach (so Box, bringing out a word-play in Heb.), festal unguents for mourning attire, and songs for sighs. They shall be called Terebinths of Triumph (righteousness) planted by Yahweh for His glory. They shall rebuild the cities that have long been desolate ruins.
Isa 61:1. meek: Heb. may mean either poor or pious; parallelism favours mg.
Isa 61:3. the garment of: should precede mourning.
61:1 The Spirit of the Lord GOD [is] {a} upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings to the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the {b} brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the {c} captives, and the opening of the prison to [them that are] bound;
(a) Thus belongs to all the prophets and ministers of God, but chiefly to Christ, of whose abundant graces everyone receives according as it pleases him to distribute.
(b) To them that are lively touched with the feeling of their sins.
(c) Who are in the bondage of sin.
The mission of the Anointed One 61:1-3
These two chapters begin with an introduction of the Servant (Messiah) and His mission. Some scholars regard Isa 61:1-3 as a fifth Servant Song. [Note: E.g., Robert B. Chisholm Jr., "The Christological Fulfillment of Isaiah’s Servant Songs," Bibliotheca Sacra 163:652 (October-December 2006):401-4), regard 61:1-3.] That the Servant of the Servant Songs is the same person as the Anointed One (Messiah) of chapter 11, is clear from what Isaiah wrote about Him.
"The Anointed One now appears for the second time. As in the second Servant Song (Isa 49:1-6), he speaks in his own person about himself and his God-given ministry." [Note: Motyer, p. 499.]
Isaiah spoke for the Messiah, as is clear from what he said about Him (cf. Isa 49:1; Isa 50:4). The Spirit of sovereign Yahweh would be upon Him (cf. Isa 11:2; Isa 48:16). This is a verse in which all three members of the Trinity appear. This verse indicates that He would possess supernatural wisdom and capacity (cf. Gen 41:38; Exo 31:3; Num 11:17; Num 11:29), and that He would be able to bring justice and righteousness to the earth through His spoken word (cf. Isa 11:2; Isa 32:15-16; Isa 42:1; Isa 44:3; Isa 48:16; Isa 59:21). His possession of the Spirit is a result of God anointing Him for His mission. He would need divine enablement by the Spirit to fulfill it (cf. 1Sa 10:1; 1Sa 10:6-7; 1Sa 16:3; 2Sa 23:1-7; Mat 3:16-17). This Anointed One would do the Servant’s work.
The mission of the Anointed One would be to announce good news to distressed people (cf. Psa 25:16-21; Mat 9:12-13; Mar 2:17; Luk 5:31-32). In other occurrences of this verb, it is the hope of Israel that is in view, specifically deliverance from Babylon and deliverance from sin (cf. Isa 40:9; Isa 41:27; Isa 52:7; Isa 60:6). What "announcing good news to the afflicted" means, follows next (through Isa 61:3). First, it means He would mend the hearts of those so broken by life that they despair of having any hope. Second, it means the Anointed One would liberate those so enslaved that they could not break free (cf. Isa 1:27; Isa 11:3-5). Captives are in bondage to another person, and prisoners are bound to a place.
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
My beauty is, my glorious dress.”
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
To preach good tidings unto the meek;
He hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives,
And 1the opening of the prison to them that are bound;
To comfort all that mourn;
The oil of joy for mourning,
The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness;
That they might be called 3trees of righteousness,
And they shall repair the waste cities,
The desolations of many generations.
And in their glory shall ye 5boast yourselves.
Everlasting joy shall be unto them.
All that see them shall acknowledge them,
That they are the seed which the Lord hath blessed.
For he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation,
He hath covered me with the robe of righteousness,
As a bridegroom8 decketh himself with ornaments,
So the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
CHRISTS COMMISSION
[As the priests and kings were separated to their respective offices by pouring oil upon their heads, so, on some occasions, were the prophets also [Note: 1Ki 19:16.]. Our Lord, who, in all his offices, infinitely excelled all that had gone before him, was consecrated by an unction, of which the anointing oil was but a type and shadow. The Spirit of the Lord God was poured out upon him at the time of his baptism; and the descent of the Spirit in a visible shape, like a dove, upon him, marked him as divinely commissioned to execute the work and office of the Messiah [Note: Joh 1:32-34.]. Indeed, he was called Messiah, and Christ, from that very circumstance of his being anointed with the oil of gladness above all that ever had partaken of that heavenly gift [Note: . Heb 1:9. with Psa 45:7.].]
[Though, as God, our Saviour was incapable of improvement, yet, as man, he grew in wisdom as he grew in stature, and needed to be furnished with those gifts and graces, which were proper for the discharge of his mediatorial office. Accordingly we read, that the Spirit was given to him, not by measure, as to other prophets, but in all his fulness [Note: Joh 3:34.]; and that it rested on him as a spirit of wisdom and understanding, a spirit of counsel and of might, a spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord [Note: Isa 11:2-3.]. Thus was he both called and qualified at the same time: for though he was destined for his work from eternity, and prepared for it from his first conception in the virgins womb, yet were not his qualifications completed till the great seal of heaven was affixed to his commission, and he was openly consecrated to the service of God.]
1.
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
Fuente: Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets
Fuente: The Sermon Bible
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
Fuente: The Great Texts of the Bible
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)