Isaiah 60-61 Good News and Gardens

If you could see God change one person’s life, who would it be? And how do you imagine it would happen? Today, we’ll see how Jesus the Messiah transforms us to become ministers of the life-giving presence of God in the lives of others.

The Messenger

Isaiah 61:1-4 - Those who mourn in Zion have good news. The messenger of this good news is unlike any other.

He is anointed with the Spirit of the Lord Yahweh. Back in chapter 11, Isaiah promised there would come a shoot from the stump of Jesse. The dead line David’s kingdom would be given new life. This person would have the 7-fold Spirit of the LORD.

Isaiah 11:2 (ESV)

And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.

This is a way of saying this person will have all the fullness of the Spirit of God. There is nothing God won’t share with this person to accomplish His mission. What is His mission?

Four couplets. Each pair are related and linked in some way:

Isaiah 61:1 (ESV)

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;

Our first observation is that these sound a whole lot like what we read in chapter 58 about the fast Yahweh desires of the truly religious. That was to loose the bonds of wickedness, undo straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free and break every yoke, to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house. And for those that practiced this true religion, the LORD would make a covenant with them to put His Spirit upon them and His words in them. So, what we find out in our passage today is that Messiah is going to fulfill the covenant of true religion.

But our second observation is that these couplets fill out our understanding of each part of Messiah’s mission. The good news for the poor is linked with healing the brokenhearted. Liberating captives is linked with opening prisons. These make sense. But then the third couplet takes an interesting turn.

Isaiah 61:2–3 (ESV)

to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God;

to comfort all who mourn; to grant to those who mourn in Zion— to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, ...that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified.

The third couplet links the year of the LORD’s favor with the vengeance of our God. For those who read Isaiah’s original prophecy, they would have linked these in this way: the year of the LORD’s favor for us is also the day of God’s vengeance on our enemies.

But when we keep going in the context, something surprising emerges. The next couplet is about comforting those who mourn in Zion with a beautiful headdress, gladness, praise, and being called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, who will be glorified for His work.

And the mourners turned glad, headdress-wearing, praising oaks of righteousness will start a rebuilding project.

Isaiah 61:4 (ESV)

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.

As we find out in verse 10, there are two kinds of people who wear a beautiful headdress and are glad in their praise of God: bridegrooms and priests. And both bridegrooms and priests build things. Bridegrooms build houses, and priests build the temples. In this case, the building will be everything that has been ruined over many generations.

If we pulled all the imagery together, we would say, when Messiah comes, filled with the Spirit of God, He will liberate the poor and oppressed to become strong partners with God in His rebuilding the world according to justice and righteousness.

What would you rebuild if you could? God has been promising in these chapters of Isaiah’s prophecy that He will rebuild the earth to be a garden through the work of Messiah in His people. Even Jerusalem, the great city of God that will fall to Babylon, will one day be rebuilt as a garden. What are some places or institutions or people or relationships that have become wastelands, and what is one thing you could do this week to plant a seed for the sake of God’s kingdom there?

When the poor, and the brokenhearted, and the captives and prisoners, and those who mourn because of the corruption in our world all believe in the good news of Messiah, God plants them so securely in His love and His word becomes so richly planted in their hearts that they become priests to others we see this in Isaiah 61:5-9.

The Priests

For a little context, priests in Israel had a special place, but also a precarious one. They ministered to the people on God’s behalf; they helped people reconcile with God and draw close to Him. But they were the one group of people who were not given property in the Promised Land as an inheritance. God scattered them through all the other tribes, and they were at the mercy of whatever provision those people would give. God was their inheritance, but they had to trust in Him to take care of them.

So the message of Isaiah 61 is that when Messiah, filled with the Spirit of God, binds up the brokenhearted and strengthens the mourners with a new gladness in the gospel, outsiders will be drawn to them. Isaiah says strangers will tend your flocks as you tend to them as priests of the LORD and ministers of our God, see verses 5-6. The nations will be willing to provide for you if you will minister the presence of God to them.

That sounds pretty good, except verses 7-9 make it clear that these priests, those who have been given new life in Messiah, were also the ones mistreated by the Babylon world system. They have received shame, dishonor, injustice, robbery, and wrong. But God has seen it all, and He will exchange all of those for a generous inheritance.

The world takes advantage of the weak and the poor and the humble. God treats them like privileged children. The Messiah says in verse 7,

Isaiah 61:7 (ESV)

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.

This double portion is the inheritance of a first-born son in a family in those days. No matter how many siblings, the firstborn would inherit the farmhouse and the truck. It’s a privileged position. So, He’s saying no matter how much shame and injustice this world has thrown on you, in my household, you have a privileged place.

God loves justice, and He hates robbery and wrong.

Isaiah 61:8 (ESV)

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.

He sees everything that has been done to you, and He is keeping a record of what you are owed as recompense for any injustice and wrong. But what if the inheritance isn’t a social status with land attached?

Another place the phrase “double portion” shows up in the Hebrew Bible, it is in the account of the older prophet Elijah who is giving the mantle of prophecy to his disciple, Elisha. The one thing Elisha asks for is a double portion of Elijah’s spirit. And as the rest of the record goes, Elisha did greater works than what Elijah had done.

So, if we connect the same thought in Isaiah 61, we could say that this double portion is a double portion of the Spirit of the Messiah, which is the Spirit of God. Would you rather have forty acres and a family business or the full measure of the Holy Spirit?

This is what brings this whole passage together.

One of Jesus’ early sermons was in His hometown of Nazareth. The doctor Luke records it in chapter four of his gospel. Jesus went into the synagogue and intentionally turned to this very passage in Isaiah 61. But He did something unexpected with it. He began reading verses 1 and 2. But He stopped after the word “favor”.

Isaiah 61:1–2 (ESV)

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;

to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn;

So, what happened to the vengeance of our God? He left that out. And after the good news of the year of the LORD’s favor,

Luke 4:21 (ESV)

And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

During this Advent season, we celebrate the Incarnation, that Jesus, God the Son, came to us in the flesh. He healed, He welcomed for the outcasts, He forgave sinners and showed them freedom in the kingdom of God, He cast out demons, and He spoke truth to unjust rulers. He invites all of us to believe in Him and follow Him and He will renew us like fruitful branches on a vine. Jesus is the vine.

He was filled with the Spirit of God. And He breathed out that Spirit upon His disciples, and said, “As the Father sent Me, so I send you.” This was an anointing to a priesthood, to minister the presence of God in the lives of others.

If you are a believer in Jesus, you are sent out as a priest for the sake of God’s kingdom. The mission of the Messiah is your mission. In what ways has God called you to carry out your priestly role? In what ways can you bring the presence of God into the lives of those right now may be strangers and foreigners, but are welcomed into the kingdom of God. Maybe they’ve even done injustice in your life or the lives of others.

Which reminds me, what about that day of vengeance of our God that Jesus left out of His sermon? We’ll see more about that in chapter 63, but for now, let’s finish Isaiah 61, looking at verses 10-11,

The New Garden

Here the Messiah says that God has clothed Him with the garments of salvation and the robe of righteousness, and He will be the source of righteousness and praise springing up in a garden for all nations to see.

Gardeners don’t dress in fancy clothing. When Jesus became our High Priest, He did not dress in the beautiful robes and headdress of the High Priests of Isreal. He clothed Himself with humility, surrendered to day of the vengeance of God for sin when He died on the cross, and this bought our salvation. He was vindicated by God when He raised Him on the third day, and for all who find their new life in Him, He dresses us in the robes of His righteousness.

We are those nations who have become the new garden of the Lord, righteousness and praise sprouting up in our lives because of the work of Jesus Christ in us. Jesus plants the gospel in your life, and as it bears fruit, you become a beautiful example of God’s transforming grace to others. And because you are a priest, He sends you into the lives of others to bring His presence to them.

In whose life are you planting seeds of this gospel?

Communion

Questions for Discussion

Are you celebrating Advent in any special way this year?

What are some ways you are thankful that Jesus Christ has come, and what are you looking forward to most when He comes again?

What did it look like for Jesus to bring good news into the lives of the lowly? Do any of His words or actions come to mind?

What does it look like for someone who is mourning over the brokenness of our world to be transformed into a glad, praising oak of righteousness? Which would you say you are these days? Can these two things coexist?

When you think about being a priest in God’s kingdom through Jesus Christ, what does that make you think of? How does God use the various gifts of the Spirit in the body of Christ to carry out our priesthood?

If this is the year of the Lord’s favor that Jesus instituted in His first coming, where are you seeing God’s favor change our world these days?

Where are you finding places to plant seeds of the gospel right now? How can we pray about that?