ISAIAH 61: 4-11
PROMISES TO GOD’S FAITHFUL SERVANTS
[Revelation 19:6-8]
The Messiah has returned to bring to fruition the good promises of redemption to His beleaguered people. His wondrous presence will draw the astute people of the nations to come to His glory. The glory of the Lord upon His people will also cause the world to accord them their rightful place and recognition. It will be acknowledge that these are the people whom the Lord has blessed.
The outcome of Jesus’ return will be the exaltation of the Lord and His saved people fully appropriating His righteousness. God will fulfill all His promises to His people and they will be forever the people whom the Lord has blessed (CIT).
I. GOD’S ETERNAL EXCHANGE, 4-7.
II. A JUST RECOMPENSE, 8-9.
III. SALVATION’S RESULTING RIGHTEOUSNESS, 10-11.
Verse 4 continues the thought of restoration from verse 3. Then they will rebuild the ancient ruins. They will raise up the former devastations, and they will repair the ruined cities, the desolations of many generations.
After the Second Advent of Jesus God’s people will rebuild the ruins, which I understand to include the truly important labors, our spiritual works, which the enemy has stopped, ruined, or destroyed. His people, God’s living stones down through the centuries, have attempted to build God’s kingdom amidst great opposition. Their labors which God’s enemies devastated, ruined, destroyed, or stopped, will be raised up, repaired or rebuilt. [Rebuilding the ancient ruins is a mark of God’s restoring of past defeats (58:12; 44:26, 28; Ezek. 36:10; Amos 9:11, 14; Neh. 2:17).]
No matter how devastated the ruins are, no matter how long ago it occurred, God will enable it to be rebuilt. New life will spring up out of the old. God’s purpose and promises are the final evaluating and determining factor in all human endeavors.
Verse 5 addresses Israel’s standing with a world that once oppressed the people of God. Strangers will stand and pasture your flocks, and foreigners will be your farmers and your vinedressers.
God’s servants will be so revered that Gentiles (aliens and foreigners) will join with them (14:1; 60:10) and be their servants. They will do such tasks as farming, shepherding and caring for vineyards. Strangers and foreigners will come to preform the work necessary to maintain Zion.
God’s people then will be freed to fully devote themselves to their calling. Verse 6, But you will be called the priests of the Lord. You will be spoken of as ministers of our God. You will eat the wealth of nations, and in their riches you will boast.
God’s people will not rule the world but minister to Him and others. They will be a nation of priests and ministers in a world that knows not the privations of the past. As a nation of priests each one will know the Lord, and have access to Him, and mediate on behalf of others, as did the Levitical priests. [A priest is a mediator between man and God, assisting in worship and teaching the ways of God.] This was to be one of Israel’s functions. Exodus 19 (Ex. 19:6) tells us it was God’s original intention that the people of Israel be a nation of priests in the world. Tragically she did not fully carry out that responsibility. They rebelled against God and lost their calling (43:10-13). In the Millennium, when Jesus comes back, Israel will again be ministers and priests of Yahweh.
The redeemed people from the nations (the "sheep" of Mt. 25:31-46) will want to join Israel in her worship in Jerusalem (Zech. 14:16-19). Those people will bring wealth to Israel (Isa. 60:11; 61:6; Hag. 2:7-8; Zech. 14:14). The wealth which the nations have know will become the wealth of God’s servants.
[God is not through with Israel. The prophecies of the Bible will not make sense to you unless you see clearly that the Lord still has a wonderful work to do with her. In Romans 9-11, we see God’s plan and heart for His people, the nation of Israel.]
God promises a double repayment for the lost and shame His people have suffered in verse 7. Instead of your shame you will have a double portion, and instead of humiliation they will shout for joy over their portion. Therefore they will possess a double portion in their land. Everlasting joy will be theirs.
Instead of the shame and dishonor that the oppressor so often heaps on God’s Servants, they will be honored with a double portion. The double portion refers to the inheritance the eldest son in a family would receive from his father’s estate (Deut. 21:17; Zech. 9:12). As the eldest son was given special honor so will God give a double portion to His people who endure reproach for His name sake. Like the Lord’s firstborn (Ex. 4:22), they will granted the place of honor. This double portion will cause them to shout for joy and this joy will be everlasting.
II. A JUST RECOMPENSE, 8-9.
God makes a special promise to those who have been faithful in their tithes and offerings in verse 8. For I, the Lord, love justice, I hate robbery in the burnt offering. And I will faithfully give them their recompense and make an everlasting covenant with them.
Because (ki) of who God the Lord is, He will keep His special promises. The Lord loves justice. One of the most unjust actions in the world is to refuse to acknowledge God’s care and blessing by refusing to return to Him His offerings. He calls it robbery. God is promising to faithfully reward or recompense forever those who brought Him His offering. [Burnt offerings were the typical Hebrew sacrifice or offering.] He will make an everlasting covenant to do so with them. The outcome of their offering will be eternal security for them.
God also promises those faithful in their tithes and offerings a special blessing upon their descendants in verse 9. Then their offspring will be known among the nations, and their descendants in the midst of the peoples. All who see them will recognize them, because they are the offspring whom the Lord has blessed.
The result of God’s faithfulness to these faithful will be that their offspring will be recognizably special. Because of the blessings of God upon the faithful remnant, even their offsprings will be acknowledge that they are indeed God’s special people. All will recognize them as the offspring whom the Lord has blessed (44:3; 65:23). God’s promise to Abraham will be completely fulfilled (Gen 12:1-3).
III. SALVATION’S RESULTING RIGHTEOUSNESS, 10-11.
In verses 10 &11 the prophet seems to be speaking for the redeemed remnant who will rejoice (9:3) in response to God’s blessings mentioned in 61:1-9. The song of the ransomed and redeemed begins in verse 10. I will rejoice greatly in the Lord, My soul will exult in my God. For He has clothed me with garments of salvation, He has wrapped me with a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
Notice that the great rejoicing is in the Lord just as the exalting is in God. As the bride looks not at her beautiful garment but at her beloved bridegroom’s face so believers rejoice not so much over what has been done but over who has done it. Apart from the redemption and the presence of the Redeemer there can be no true rejoicing or exultation.
What has God done to cause such exhilaration? He has clothed His bride with salvation and righteousness (Rev. 19:6-8). The imparted salvation and righteousness are pictured as clothes worn by the bride (God’s clothes, 59:17). In other words God’s redeemed people are characterized by salvation and righteousness (those who are living by God’s standards (58:8; 60:21).
The joyful tone is heighten by the image of a wedding. To display their joy and blessing a bridegroom wore a fancy headgear, like a priest’s turban, and the bride wore costly jewelry. The bridegroom excitedly put on his turban and she her costly jewels. So does the believer delight in His garment of salvation and the robe of righteousness which each must receive from Jesus, the bridegroom Himself (Mt. 9:15; 22:11-12. The joy is not over the costly covering, but over the One who made it all possible by His love, faithfulness, and self-sacrifice.
Verse 11 continues the benefits that can be received from God. For as the earth brings forth its sprouts, and as a garden causes the things sown in it to spring up, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations.
The joyous event just described is an absolute certainty because God Himself will produce it. God will cause righteousness to spring up in (be known by) other nations (62:1-2) just as surely as the earth causes seed sown in it to sprout and just as the soil sustains the growth of plants. If nature is reliable, how much more so is the Creator of nature! [Oswalt, Isaiah, 40-66; 575]. Let His name be praised for ever and ever.
A favorite book for children is Frog And Toad Together by Arnold Lobel. Frog had a garden that Toad admired, and he wanted one too. So Frog told him: "It is very nice, but it was hard work." When he gave Toad some flower seeds, Toad quickly ran home and planted them.
"Now seeds," said Toad, "start growing." He tried very hard to make his garden grow. He shouted at the seeds, read them long stories, and sang songs to them - but they did not grow.
"What shall I do?" cried Toad. "Leave them alone," Frog said. "Let the sun shine on them, let the rain fall on them. Soon your seeds will start to grow." Then one day, little green plants appeared. "At last," shouted Toad, my seeds have stopped being afraid to grow! But you were right, Frog. It was very hard work."
So many people think it’s very hard work to grow in righteousness. We must spend time reading the Word, praying, and cultivating our faith by being with other believers. But our progress in holiness is still dependent on God. As He shines His face upon us and rains His love into our lives, we will grow. Then righteousness will begin to "spring forth."
Don’t be discouraged if spiritual growth comes slowly. Stay in the Word and the work. Soon you will have a garden of righteousness.
CONCLUSION / TIME OF RESPONSE
Although Israel as a nation refused to accept the challenge and take up the mission that God called them to undertake, God did not abandon them or His mission. Jesus of Nazareth came and took up His people’s appointed task, and brought true hope and salvation to the world.
God now calls us as the people of His eternal covenant to take up His mission of hope for the hopeless of this world. As we do we experience the blessings of His righteousness and gain assurance of the everlasting joy that is ours, and then God shows His splendor through us to the world lost in its self imposed darkness.
In order to enter into Christ’s mission you must first be clothed in His righteousness (2 Cor. 5:21). Are you clothed in the righteousness of Christ?
