(Read Isaiah 61:1-3, 10-11)
Note: This blog post is split up into sections for ease of reading.
Isaiah 61:1-3
Who speaks in these verses? Whom has the Lord anointed and sent to preach good news? Isaiah identified the speaker in several earlier passages. In 11:2, the prophet wrote that the Spirit of the Lord would rest on the Branch from the stump of Jesse. In 42:1, the Lord promised that he would put his Spirit upon his Servant, who would bring “justice to the nations.” In 50:4, a part of one of the Servant passages, the Servant claims to have an “instructed tongue, to know the word that sustains the weary.” Just after another of the Servant passages in 49:8,9, the Lord promised to recall the captives and free those in darkness, two things God anointed the speaker in these verses to do.
As this chapter begins, the speaker says, “The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me.” Is there any reason to doubt who speaks these words? The speaker is none other than the Servant of Jehovah, the Branch from Jesse, that is, Jesus Christ. One important New Testament passage removes all questions. When Jesus attended the synagogue in Nazareth, he received the scroll of the prophet Isaiah and read this passage. After he had finished reading, he rolled up the scroll and sat down. Then Jesus said, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:21). It was a dramatic moment for everyone in the synagogue. They were amazed and so furious that they sought to throw Jesus off a cliff. But their reaction did not change the fulfillment. Jesus identified himself as the one who fulfilled these prophecies.
So Jesus speaks here in prophecy and announces that the Spirit of the Lord is upon him. That Spirit descended upon him visibly at his baptism (Matthew 3:13-17; Mark 1:9- 11; Luke 3:21,22). In these words from Isaiah, Jesus identifies the Spirit as the Spirit of the “Lord,” that is, the God of the covenant, who has promised grace and mercy. In addition, this is the Spirit of the “Sovereign Lord.” This identifies the Spirit as coming from the all-powerful God, who carries out the promises he makes. Jesus did not come on his own. The God of free and faithful grace sent him and endowed him with his Spirit. We note the implied reference to the Trinity: the Lord, the Spirit, and the Servant, or the Anointed One.
Jesus became the Anointed, that is, the Messiah. He has come to announce good news. His entire mission centers on the “good news,” or the gospel. We should not forget that God did not send his Messiah to restore the earthly kingdom of David and Solomon or even to establish a new, better kingdom on earth. The speaker tells us that he has come “to preach . . . to proclaim . . . to comfort . . . to bestow.” He descended with a message of good news, healing, and freedom. He came to address that good news to the poor, the brokenhearted, and the prisoners. The larger context of these words drives us to view them as spiritual problems rather than physical ones. Isaiah had written that the iniquities of the people had separated them from God (59:2) and that darkness covers the earth (60:2). In the previous chapters, God promised wonderful relief from sin and the darkness. In this chapter he tells us who will bring that relief and deliverance. The Messiah brings this deliverance because “the Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on [him].” Not only did the Messiah come to achieve the deliverance from sin and death (chapter 53), but he also came to proclaim it clearly to all who were so afflicted.
On one level, the prophecy anticipates the return of God’s people from their Babylonian exile. The remnant heard the announcement of “freedom,” and they returned to Jerusalem to rebuild their land. But that deliverance became only the prelude to a much larger deliverance from captivity—the captivity of sin and death. On another level, the Messiah came to proclaim the healing message of forgiveness from God. He bandages brokenhearted sinners with his soothing message of forgiveness. He removes the burden from guilty consciences. He releases sinners bound in the hopeless dungeon of their own depravity. He breaks the bondage of Satan’s controlling influence over human lives. His message announces the wonderful deliverance from sin, death, hell, and Satan.
All humans need to hear the good news of Jesus. Human lives are often filled with misery and trouble. We endure defeat and failure more often than we triumph. Our hearts are broken. We are disappointed again and again. Our loved ones suffer pain and die. Sometimes those we love inflict pain upon us and then desert us. We are captives. Either we cannot escape the consequences of our own failures, or we are controlled by the mistakes of others. We suffer from the bitterness of a spouse, the loveless attitude of a parent, and the harsh criticisms of others. Our lives are often a series of episodes of mourning and grief. Moments of happiness and joy pass all too quickly, and we mourn another loss or another failure. Lives are often filled with greed, jealousy, pride, lust, envy, hatred, and anger. At the end of human life stands death—inescapable, dark, and undeniable. All humans are heirs to such conditions because of their own sins, rebellion, and guilt.
The Lord, however, does not want any human to be abandoned to such a fate. He has sent his own Anointed to announce the good news of a different future. The third verse sets up a series of opposites that bring joy to every human heart. On one side we have mourning, grieving, ashes, and despair. On the other side, we find comfort, a crown of beauty, the oil of gladness, and a garment of praise. The Lord knows when tears stream down our cheeks and when our lives appear colorless and drab because of our sins. He has provided the alternative—the good news of his love in Christ. Words—spoken, written, and remembered— express the good news. The gospel is the power of God (Romans 1:16). The Lord chooses to work in human hearts through the gospel. Through those words, God imparts comfort, joy, freedom, and strength.
The Messiah was sent to announce the message of God’s love for weary sinners. One description of his work tells us that he proclaims the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance. The message of God is always both law and gospel. The phrase “the year of the Lord’s favor” comes from the law of the Year of Jubilee in ancient Israel. In the Year of Jubilee, property that had been sold reverted to its original owner, debts were forgiven, and those who had been enslaved for their debts were released (see Leviticus 25:8-55). In contrast to such good news, God threatened a “day of vengeance.” We should not forget to notice that the Lord’s favor extended throughout a year and his vengeance, for only a day. God wants to be known more for mercy and compassion than for vengeance. But for all those who refuse his mercy, there will be judgment and vengeance. The entire Scriptures make that clear (see Exodus 34:5-7; Mark 16:16; John 3:16-18; 2 Peter 3:8-10).
Verse 3 concludes by pointing us to the results of the preaching of this good news. Those who have heard the Messiah’s message and believe it are called “oaks of righteousness.” The oak, or terebinth, of the ancient world was a strong and durable deciduous tree. The Scriptures picture believers as such trees. Here they are trees of “righteousness” because they find their righteousness in the Messiah, not in their own good works. The righteousness of God gives them their strength and life.
The Lord has done everything for them. They are “a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor.” With this phrase we can recall the end of the previous chapter: “Then will all your people be righteous. . . . They are the shoot I have planted, the work of my hands, for the display of my splendor” (60:21). The proclamation of the gospel creates faith in the hearts of some. They are God’s saints, righteous and strong in this world, but strong only because God has declared them righteous. God’s saints have grown strong because they are nourished on the promises of the Lord. They are enduring trees in a world of chaos, violence, and evil.
Isaiah 61:10-11
The Messiah spoke in the opening verses of this chapter, but someone else speaks here. These words cannot be the words of the Messiah. Instead, they are the words of someone who has received the benefits of the Messiah’s work. Isaiah described this speaker as one clothed in the “garments of salvation.” The Messiah brings forgiveness and peace with God and dispenses it to sinners, who need these blessings. The Messiah has no need of these blessings himself. The words remind us of the “Song of Mary” when she heard that she would be the mother of the Messiah: “My soul praises the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior” (Luke 1:46,47). The words recorded here by the prophet Isaiah are the words of a believer who has received the great blessings of God. Great joy fills the heart of such a believer.
Every believer may rejoice that God has covered his or her sinful life with the robe of righteousness. Jesus fashioned this robe from the threads of his perfect life. Then he wove it on the loom of the cross and colored it with his own red blood. God freely gives the cloak of his Son’s perfect life to the sinner, and it covers every sin, rebellion, and deviation from God’s standard. This robe of Christ’s righteousness is long and wide enough to cover every twisted human thought, word, and deed. But this robe comes only from God. No human can erase a single sin. Left to ourselves, we walk about as Lady Macbeth did. She killed the king, and her sins haunted her conscience and heart. Like Shakespeare’s character, we vainly attempt to wipe our own sinful hands clean. If we are honest, we will conclude as she did: “Here’s the smell of the blood still; all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand” (Macbeth 5.1.52-54). Only God’s grace in Christ can cover human sin. Forgiveness cannot be achieved by human effort, no matter how godly that effort may appear to other human eyes. We are justified, that is, we are declared righteous, freely by grace. By faith we put Christ’s spotless robe on our shoulders and make it our own. So we sing:
Jesus, your blood and righteousness
My beauty are, my glorious dress;
Mid flaming worlds, in these arrayed,
With joy shall I lift up my head. (CW 573:1)
Because this robe covers the deepest stain of human sin, it becomes also a garment of salvation. Humans stand before God dressed in this robe. God sees the believer clothed with the perfection of his own Son and welcomes the believer into his presence. Without the righteousness of Christ, we are turned away from God and sent to the eternal torment of hell. But the perfection of Christ mantled about us by faith brings eternal life and deliverance from judgment. We rejoice because God has given such a garment of salvation to us and claimed us as his own.
The last verse of the chapter assured God’s Old Testament readers that this would all come to pass. Just as the soil brings forth green grass and beautiful flowers, so surely will the “Sovereign Lord” make “righteousness and praise spring up before all nations.” The soil may look barren and lifeless, but after a time the seed sprouts and grows. For the Jews of Isaiah’s day, Jerusalem would be destroyed and God’s people led away captive. But, in God’s good time, they would return. Beyond that return, further into the future, the Messiah would come and proclaim the good news of the gospel. All the words of this chapter, as well as all the other prophecies, would then bloom into fulfillment.
This blog post is an excerpt from The People’s Bible: Isaiah 40-66. You can check out the whole book here. The People’s Bible series is a Bible commentary for everyone. The authors of the series have served as pastors, college teachers, or seminary professors. Each author began with the original Hebrew or Greek text and then worked to bring the message of God’s Word to Christians who are looking to dive deeper into their study of the Bible. Two important truths guide all the commentaries: First, the Bible is God’s inspired Word and is therefore true and reliable. Second, the central message of the entire Bible is Jesus Christ.