The Year of the Lord’s Favor
61 The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,
because the Lord has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor;
he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
2 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor,
and the day of vengeance of our God;
to comfort all who mourn;
3 to grant to those who mourn in Zion—
to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness instead of mourning,
the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit;
that they may be called oaks of righteousness,
the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified.
4 They shall build up the ancient ruins;
they shall raise up the former devastations;
they shall repair the ruined cities,
the devastations of many generations.
5 Strangers shall stand and tend your flocks;
foreigners shall be your plowmen and vinedressers;
6 but you shall be called the priests of the Lord;
they shall speak of you as the ministers of our God;
you shall eat the wealth of the nations,
and in their glory you shall boast.
7 Instead of your shame there shall be a double portion;
instead of dishonor they shall rejoice in their lot;
therefore in their land they shall possess a double portion;
they shall have everlasting joy.
8 For I the Lord love justice;
I hate robbery and wrong;
I will faithfully give them their recompense,
and I will make an everlasting covenant with them.
9 Their offspring shall be known among the nations,
and their descendants in the midst of the peoples;
all who see them shall acknowledge them,
that they are an offspring the Lord has blessed.
10 I will greatly rejoice in the Lord;
my soul shall exult in my God,
for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation;
he has covered me with the robe of righteousness,
as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress,
and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
11 For as the earth brings forth its sprouts,
and as a garden causes what is sown in it to sprout up,
so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise
to sprout up before all the nations.
In this chapter we are reminded again that God will restore His people and they will become an incredible witness to the nations. It happens because of the work of the Messiah and all that He will accomplish (verses 1-3; the very works that Jesus does throughout His ministry—Luke 4) and in this chapter wedding imagery is used to describe the relationship between Israel and the Messiah in that the groom clothed His bride with salvation and righteousness and that both the groom and the bride are wonderfully adorned (vs. 10). It’s wonderful wedding covenant imagery and in verse 10 the prophet breaks into a song of praise because he is recognizing that the Lord has covered him with the garments of salvation and righteousness. In the next chapter, the imagery becomes explicit: as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you. Isaiah 62.5
That same wedding imagery is used to describe the church in relationship with Jesus. Paul draws upon the same bridal imagery, in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish (Ephesians 5:27).
Similar imagery is used when it comes to the wedding feast of the Lamb in Revelation 19:7-8.
What the wedding imagery is describing is a covenant relationship between the Lord and the people, and here’s the interesting and amazing thing that I don’t want you to miss: God wants us to enjoy an intimate relationship with Him, one in which we enjoy life to the fullest as His sons and daughters.
That’s pretty awesome in and of itself, but it’s richer and deeper still because we know that on our own, we can’t hold up our end of the covenant relationship, and so God does for us what we cannot do for ourselves.
We can grasp that through all the verbs connected with the wedding language passages: Isaiah: He has clothed me. Ephesians: that He might present the church. Revelation 19:8: it was granted her to clothe herself. Not one of them describes a bride who dressed herself.
It's through Jesus that we are called righteous AND it's only through Jesus that we are able to live the righteous life that God has in store for us.
Jesus has accomplished for us what we could not accomplish for ourselves. What’s required of us is just to entrust ourselves to Jesus and live into our relationship with Him.
Will we be perfect? Of course not. We all struggle in our own way and have our own moments of failure.
What we must grasp and never let go of is this: Christ is at work in our lives, changing and transforming us to become more and more like Him.
Here’s the thing to grasp. A bride who cannot clothe herself has only one thing to offer—she must trust the One who can.
Trust is a theme that has been weaving itself throughout Isaiah. Ahaz didn’t; Hezekiah did. What about you? Will you entrust yourself to the One who has come to set you free and give you life to the fullest? Will you trust the One who poured out His life for you on the cross? Or will you place your trust in something or someone else?
God bless you and have a great and wonderful day! I am praying for you!
Scott