A Glorious Future.

A GLORIOUS FUTURE.

Isaiah 4:2-6.

ISAIAH 4:2. “In that day” is the same expression as is used in the preceding chapters (cf. Isaiah 2:11-12; Isaiah 2:17; Isaiah 2:20). There it speaks of the desperation of both men (cf. Isaiah 3:6-7), and women (cf. Isaiah 3:18; Isaiah 4:1) under the judgment of the LORD. But our compassionate LORD tempers His judgments with mercy, and ISAIAH 4:2 introduces the Messiah under the motif of “the branch of the LORD (cf. Isaiah 11:1).

“The branch of the LORD shall be beautiful and glorious.” Beautiful in His Person as the divine man. Glorious in the accomplishment of our salvation through His humiliation and death, resurrection and ascension, exaltation, and the advancement of the gospel.

“The fruit of the earth (shall be) excellent and comely.” In His incarnation, Messiah became ‘the seed of the woman’ (cf. Genesis 3:15). He was seen to “excellent” in His Person as the Son of God (cf. Hebrews 1:4; Psalm 76:4; Hebrews 8:6). There is a “comeliness,” an attractiveness about His Person as both God and man – but only “for them that are escaped of Israel” (i.e. those who have put their trust in Jesus as the only Saviour of sinners).

ISAIAH 4:3. Those who are “left in Zion, (that) remain in Jerusalem” are the same as those who “escaped” (at the end of ISAIAH 4:2). The church is in view here, the citizens of the new Jerusalem who “shall be called holy” (cf. 1 Corinthians 1:2; Ephesians 1:4). These are the ones who are “written among the living,” who are ‘ordained unto eternal life’ (cf. Acts 13:48); whose names are written in ‘a book of remembrance’ (cf. Malachi 3:16), even ‘the Lamb’s book of life’ (cf. Revelation 21:27).

ISAIAH 4:4. It is remarkable that the LORD Himself should commit Himself to wash away “the filth of the daughters of Zion” (cf. Isaiah 3:16-24) and purge “the blood of Jerusalem” (cf. Psalm 106:38). This is accomplished “by the spirit of judgment and by the spirit of burning.” The filth is washed away as with the baptism of repentance, whilst the blood must be purged by the fiery blast of God’s breath, or Spirit (cf. Matthew 3:11).

ISAIAH 4:5. “The LORD” [the God who created all things in the beginning (cf. Genesis 1:1)], will now “create” upon His own “dwelling place” (cf. Exodus 15:17) and the “assemblies” of His people (cf. Hebrews 12:22-23), a “defence” (or ‘covering’) of “glory.” This consists of “a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night” (cf. Exodus 13:21; Numbers 9:15; Isaiah 6:4), and represents the manifestation of the glory of the LORD upon the church in all ages (cf. Ephesians 2:20-21).

ISAIAH 4:6. “There shall be a tabernacle.” Jesus, ‘the Word’ became flesh and (literally) ‘tabernacled’ amongst us (cf. John 1:14). He is the One who will cover us from the “heat,” our place of “refuge,” our security from the “storms” of life. The prophet Isaiah carries these metaphors over into the praise of Isaiah 25:4.