61. Isaiah Chapter Sixty-One
Isaiah Chapter 61
Up to the end of the last chapter the speaker was Jehovah. In the first verse of this chapter there comes a change; the speaker is not Isaiah but Christ the Messiah. In confirmation of this, what He says about Himself is identical with what has already been said about the Servant of Jehovah. He says, “the Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me” (see Isaiah 42:1); “the Lord hath anointed Me to preach good tidings unto the meek. He hath sent Me [see Isaiah 48:16] to bind up the broken-hearted [cp. Isaiah 50:4], to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound” (see Isaiah 42:7; Isaiah 49:9). When the Lord Jesus was in the synagogue at Nazareth, having read this very passage, He closed the roll and said “Today hath this Scripture been fulfilled in your ears” (Luke 4:17-21). This passage speaks of the Trinity. The Three in One are mentioned in the very first words uttered by the Lord. The title “the Lord God,” Adonai Jehovah, is the same as is mentioned four times in Isaiah 50:4-9. Some manuscripts omit “the Lord” here. The anointing was probably what took place when, at His baptism, “the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily form, as a dove, upon Him” (Luke 3:22, together with Luke 4:1, Luke 4:18). The word rendered “the meek” primarily signifies suffering ones. The binding up of the brokenhearted is that of applying a relieving bandage to heart wounds. The Gospel of Luke almost immediately records the Lord’s tender acts in this respect (see Luke 4:40; also the case of the widow of Nain, Luke 7:13-15; the woman with the issue of blood, and the daughter of Jairus, Luke 8:43-56; the women with the spirit of infirmity, Luke 13:11-13; and the lepers in Samaria, Luke 17:11-19). So with the proclamation of liberty to the captive, those who were bound with the fetters of sin and of the Devil. The phrase rendered “the opening of the prison” should probably read as in the r.v. margin, “the opening of the eyes” (as in Isaiah 35:5; Isaiah 42:7). There were many who were spiritually imprisoned and blinded by the religions of the Pharisees, Scribes and Sadducees (the Lord remarks upon their blindness in Matthew 23:24).
Great the joy when the blinding film of human tradition and religion is removed by the power of the ascended Lord through the Spirit! great the gladness and gratitude in the possession of liberty and spiritual sight!
He was sent “to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord,” (lit., “the year of the Lord’s good pleasure,” Isaiah 61:2). The year stands not for a particular date but for a season. That season lasted during the days of the Lord’s testimony and subsequently in the proclamation of the Gospel to Israel; it applies in a wider sense to the whole period of Gospel grace. God in mercy will shorten the period of the exercise of His wrath. The Lord, in quoting this passage in the synagogue, finished His quotation at the preceding clause. He had not come to earth to usher in the day of vengeance. Later He foretold that the days of vengeance would come upon the nation, and that Jerusalem would be “trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled” (Luke 21:22-24). The objects next mentioned, “to comfort all that mourn; to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion” (Isaiah 61:3) will be fulfilled after the time of “Jacob’s trouble,” when the godly remnant in Israel will have passed through their time of unprecedented sorrow. The Lord, coming as their Deliverer at His Second Advent, will delight to minister His comfort, giving them (what follows is the object of the verb “appoint,” lit., to put upon, resumed in the verb to give) “a garland for ashes,” (lit., a diadem, to adorn the head). For the sprinkling of ashes on the head of those in sorrow see, e.g., 2 Samuel 13:19. The oil of joy is emblematic of that which refreshes and cheers (see Psalms 45:7). This is to be imparted in the day when the Lord sets up His Kingdom over the world in the midst of His earthly people. He will clothe them with “the garment of praise for [i.e., instead of] the spirit of heaviness” (the word describes a condition burdensome enough to cause one’s death). As a garment upon the body so will be the praise of the redeemed as the expression of inward jubilation. The Lord who makes all things work together for good to them that love Him, turns our very sorrow into joy. There could be no such joy if there were no preceding sorrow. The dark cloud makes the following sunshine all the brighter. The change wrought by the Lord in Israel will likewise be of a moral character. They will be called “trees of righteousness.” Trees suggest firmness, fullness, verdure and fruit. So with the righteousness which will characterize the nation. This will not be their own doing, it will be “the planting of the Lord, that He might be glorified” (cp. Isaiah 60:21).
Isaiah 61:4-9 foretell the restoration of Palestine and the exaltation of Israel to their appointed position of dignity and honor and authority over the Gentile nations. Places that were waste and desolate will be fertile and thickly populated. Those who belonged to nations that afflicted them in their time of trouble will now minister to them as shepherds of their flocks, farm laborers and cultivators.
They themselves will be what the Lord designed them to be from the beginning, “a kingdom of priests” (Exodus 19:6). Accordingly in this high service they will be, from the earthly point of view, associated with the Church in its priestly ministry. Not only so, the Gentile nations will recognize them as acting in this capacity and will acknowledge the God of Israel as the true God. All the Gentile powers who have in past periods used the world for their self-enrichment, will become the possession of His people, who will “eat the wealth of the nations.” All that the Gentiles boasted in, glorying in their development and prowess and in the objects to which they devoted the products and deposits of the earth, will be bestowed upon Israel under the benign and firm administration of Christ. This whole subject is described by the apostle Paul in Romans 11:12-32. If their fall and their present loss has meant the riches of the Gentiles through gospel grace and ministry, still greater will be the effect of their fullness, that is, the full national prosperity of Israel. “As touching the gospel, they are enemies for your sake: but as touching the election [the predestining counsel of God concerning them], they are beloved for the fathers’ sake.”
“For their shame they shall have double” (Isaiah 61:7). They will have, so to speak, a double posession in their land, which will be extended far beyond its former confines. Whereas formerly they were in confusion, the objects of reproach and contempt, they will be filled with exceeding and unending joy. There will be altogether a double compensation for their former sufferings. In Isaiah 61:8 the Lord makes known that in all this blessing His own character will be vindicated. He declares that He loves judgment and hates robbery with iniquity (r.v.), referring to the cruel treatment which Israel had sustained from their adversaries. In direct contrast to this He will give them their recompense in truth and make an everlasting covenant with them, with the result that they will be recognized among the nations as those whom the Lord has blessed—a complete reversal of present conditions.
What follows in Isaiah 61:10-11 has been regarded by some as the utterance of the redeemed nation. It seems, however, almost certain that the Speaker is the same Person as in the beginning of the chapter. It is surely Christ, speaking in identification with His people and declaring His joy in Jehovah on their behalf. He is regarding what will have been accomplished in the coming day as if it were already fulfilled. The garments of salvation with which the godly ones in Israel will be clothed are His own garments. Just as a bridegroom “decketh himself with a garland, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels,” so will the Lord manifest Himself in His glory and beauty in His relation to His redeemed people. The word rendered “decketh” signifies to deck as a priest, and it is in that capacity that the Lord will act in the day when His righteousness is manifested in the earth. He will then be the revealed antitype of Melchizedek. He will act in the threefold capacity of a King, Priest and a Bridegroom. The picture of the bride adorning herself with her jewels especially portrays His earthly Kingdom as wedded to Himself. So with regard to the Church, He acts, and ever will act, as a royal Priest (Hebrews 7:17; Hebrews 9:11), and as her Heavenly Bridegroom (Ephesians 5:25-32).
Just as the earth brings forth its sprouts and as the garden causes the things that are sown in it to sprout up, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise (or renown) to spring forth (or sprout up) before all the nations. It is God that causes the seed to germinate, and the Bearer of the seed is Jehovah’s Servant. All these processes are at work through the gospel among all nations, but the immediate application here is the Millennial state of Israel.