Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
Isaiah 61:4

Clarke's Commentary

Verse Isaiah 61:4. "And they that spring from thee"] A word is lost here likewise. After ובנו ubanu, "they shall build," add ממך mimmecha, they that spring from thee. Four MSS. have it so, (two of them ancient,) and one of mine has it in the margin, and it is confirmed by Isaiah 58:12, where the sentence is the very same, this word being here added. Kimchi makes the same remark: "the word ממך mimmecha is omitted here; but is found in Isaiah 58:12."

The desolations of many generations — It seems that these words cannot refer to the Jews in the Babylonish captivity, for they were not there many generations; but it may refer to their dispersions and state of ruin since the advent of our Lord; and consequently this may be a promise of the restoration of the Jewish people.

Bridgeway Bible Commentary

Good news for the exiles (61:1-62:12)

God’s Spirit gives the prophet some good news to pass on to the Jews held captive in Babylon. They will be released to return to their land, but their captors will be punished (61:1-2). When they arrive in Jerusalem, they may be overcome with grief because of the ruin and devastation they see around them. But God will encourage and strengthen them so that they can rebuild their beloved city (3-4).
Foreigners will carry out the everyday duties for the Jews and contribute liberally to the national income. This will enable the Jews to concentrate on the more important matters of worshipping and serving God (5-6). God will give blessings to his people that are far beyond anything they have ever expected. In justice he will compensate them for the plundering they have suffered at the hands of their enemies (7-9).
In thanks the prophet praises God in advance for saving Israel and giving it glory, a glory that he likens to the beauty of wedding garments. As surely as seeds sprout and grow, so just as surely will God save Israel and bring praise to himself from people of all nations (10-11).
But at the time of writing, the prophet is still in Babylon and Israel has not yet been saved. The prophet will therefore not cease praying for Israel till it has been restored to its land in glory (62:1-3). The nation will then no longer be like an unfaithful wife living alone and in disgrace. Her husband still loves her and will take her back. As the deserted woman becomes happily married again, so the desolate nation will again rejoice in fellowship with Yahweh (4-5).
In Jerusalem watchmen wait expectantly for the first returning exiles. The prophet urges these watchmen to join him in unceasing prayer that God will soon fulfil his promise and bring his people back, never to be plundered again (6-9). He then commands people to go out and prepare the way for Israel’s release from Babylon and return to Jerusalem. Israel will again be known as the people whom God has redeemed (10-12).

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

“And they shall build the old wastes, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the waste cities, the desolations of many generations.”

Although fulfilled in a token manner by the return from Babylon, the true meaning here goes far beyond that. The apostles and prophets of the first century Church applied such passages spiritually, as follows:

As it is written, After these things I will return and build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen; and I will build again the ruins thereof (Acts 15:16).

Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

And they shall build the old wastes - (See the notes at Isaiah 58:12).

Calvin's Commentary on the Bible

4.And they shall build the deserts of the age. He goes on to describe more largely that restoration of the Church; and chiefly with this view, that the Jews may entertain confident hope of deliverance, because those promises appeared to be altogether incredible. And this is the reason why he adorns with extensive and magnificent terms that benefit of redemption. It is a mistake to suppose that these words, “the age” and “many ages, relate to a future period; as if he had said that the building of which he speaks shall be firm and permanent. The Prophet’s meaning was widely different; for he shows (as I have explained at another passage) that the long­continued ruins of the city shall not prevent it from rising anew. When the inhabitants of any city, scattered in all directions, have been absent for a very long time, there can be no hope of rebuilding it; just as no person in the present day takes any concern about rebuilding Athens. Thus, when the Jews had been banished into a distant country, and Jerusalem had been forsaken for seventy years, who would have hoped that it would be built by the citizens themselves?

For this reason Isaiah employs the designations of “deserts of the age, ancient wildernesses, cities of desolation, wildernesses of many ages,” in order to show that all this cannot prevent the Lord from restoring the city to be inhabited by his elect at the proper time. Yet these statements ought also to be accommodated to our time, so that, although the Lord permits his Church, when it has fallen down, to lie long in ruins, and though there is no remaining hope of rebuilding it, yet we may strengthen our heart by these promises; for it is God’s peculiar office to raise up and renew what had formerly been destroyed, and devoted as it were to eternal rottenness. But we have formerly treated of these matters at the fifty­eighth chapter.

Smith's Bible Commentary

Shall we turn now in our Bibles to Isaiah 61:1-11 .

We are told in the New Testament that the Old Testament prophets many times wrote of things that they did not really understand. Earnestly desiring, really, to look into these things, but they wrote as the Spirit of God inspired them. And so we find that quite often, the Old Testament prophets did not clearly understand the work of God in creating the body of Christ, the church, from among the Gentiles. Paul the apostle in talking about the church and Christ in us, the hope of glory, said that it was a mystery that was hid from the beginning of time but is now revealed. And so it is something that was not revealed until the New Testament writings and the epistles. It was something that was more or less hid from the Old Testament writers.

Now in their prophecies concerning the work and the ministry of Jesus Christ, quite often both aspects of the coming of Christ would be more or less mixed together in a single phrase or in a prophecy. So they would be prophesying of aspects of the first coming of Jesus Christ and also would go right in and prophesy of the aspects of the second coming of Jesus Christ, right in the same sentence or paragraph. And they did not really clearly see the distinction between... Well, they really didn't see the two comings of Christ. And thus it was a mystery to them the things that they wrote because they seem to be so incongruous. They spoke of the glorious reign of the Messiah and of the kingdom, sitting upon the throne of David and all of the earth flowing unto Jerusalem and all. And then they spoke about Him being despised, rejected, a man of sorrows, acquainted with griefs, and they just really didn't themselves understand these things of which they wrote.

For they were written for our sakes. Now with Daniel, when he was seeking further understanding, the Lord said, "Just seal it up, Daniel. It's for the time of the end. It's not really given to you to understand these things. You just wrote them, you've done your job. That's good now. But in the last days knowledge will be increased. I will give the understanding of these things. These things are written for a generation that is to come. Not written for your understanding, but for the generation that is to come and they will be understanding these things." So that as we look now at the Bible prophecies with the advantage of our history, and we can look back now and see the coming of Christ, we can see Him despised and rejected, and we can now look towards the second coming of Christ and as we see these things beginning to take place in the world around us, we say, "Oh, well that's what Daniel was talking about. Oh yes, I can see that now." And it begins to unfold to us in these days. So as we get into the sixty-first chapter of Isaiah, the prophecy concerning Jesus Christ, he actually just merges both the comings of Christ into one prophecy.

But Jesus, because He understood the two aspects of His coming, when He in the synagogue of Nazareth, turned to the prophecy of Isaiah and read this particular passage, stopped in what is right the middle of verse Isaiah 61:2 in our Bible. And at that point, He closed the scroll and said, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your eyes" ( Luke 4:21 ). He didn't go on, because if you go on you are then dealing with the aspects of the second coming of Jesus Christ. Now that wasn't fulfilled that day. That won't be fulfilled until He comes again. So understanding and discerning His ministry in His first coming, He stopped right in what is the middle of the prophecy here in Isaiah for us and said, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your eyes." So what was fulfilled and what is yet to be fulfilled? This is what was fulfilled:

The spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek ( Isaiah 61:1 );

Now in a restricted sense, this prophecy is of Jesus Christ and His ministry, who was anointed by the Spirit and went about preaching the good tidings to the meek. You remember when John the Baptist was in prison and John did not understand the prophecies concerning Jesus Christ. John was expecting Him to establish the kingdom momentarily. And when John was sitting there in prison for a while, he started getting impatient and he sent his disciples to Jesus and he said, "Are you the One that we're to look for? Or shall we start looking for someone else?" In other words, "When You going to get the show on the road? Tired of this prison life." And he was... He knew that Jesus was the One because he testified of Jesus that the Lord had told him whoever he saw the Spirit descending upon and remaining, that that was the One. And John testified of the Spirit of God descending upon Christ and resting upon Him there at His baptism. So he knew He was the One, and yet because Jesus wasn't moving right into the kingdom and setting up the kingdom and throwing out the Romans and all of this, he said, "Are you the One or shall we look for another?" And Jesus did not directly answer John's inquisition. But instead in that same hour, He healed many of the sick and He opened up the blind eyes and caused the lame to walk and so forth. And then He said to his disciples, "Just go tell John what you have seen-how that the blind have had their eyes opened, the deaf hear, the lame are walking, and to the poor the gospel is being preached. I'm fulfilling the prophecies, John. You know the Word. You know the scriptures. I'm doing the things that the scriptures said. You don't need a direct answer; yes, I am the Messiah. Just go back and tell John the things that you see. John knows the scriptures well enough. He'll know that I am the One. You don't need to look for anybody else."

"But the Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me. For the Lord has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the meek." As Jesus said, "He did not come to call the righteous, but the sinners to repentance. For they that are whole need not the physician, but they that are sick" ( Mark 2:17 ). "The Son of man has come to seek and to save that which was lost" ( Luke 19:10 ).

I am interested in observing the ministry of Jesus Christ, His attitude towards those who were acknowledged, confessed sinners, and His attitude towards those self-righteous individuals. To the woman that was brought to Him caught in the very act of adultery, He shows great tenderness, understanding and grace. "Woman, where are your accusers?" "Sir, I guess I don't have any." "Well, neither do I condemn thee, go thy way, sin no more" ( John 8:11 ). Oh, how tender He deals with her.

To the woman of Samaria there at the well. Now she wasn't the most moral woman around. She had been married to five different men. And then finally decided marriage wasn't for her and so she was just living with a man. Some of those who think they are so modern today, that stuff has been going on for a long time. People have been immoral from the beginning. And yet Jesus in His dealing with her was so gracious, revealing to her His identity. For she said, "I know that when the Messiah comes, He's going to teach us all things." And He said, "Woman, I that speak to thee am He" ( John 4:25-26 ). Oh, the attitude of Christ towards the sinner was always beautiful. He had good news for sinning man and those that confessed and were aware of their sinful state.

To those who were righteous in themselves, He had nothing but words of vilification. He was harsh with them. "Woe unto you, scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites!" Boy, did He denounce them. If you think, "Gentle Jesus, meek and mild, look upon this little child," you better think again and read Matthew's gospel twenty-two. And you'll see His attitude towards the self-righteous, self-sufficient. But, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me; He's anointed Me to preach the good tidings to the meek."

he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound ( Isaiah 61:1 );

Now I believe that this particular portion of the verse refers to the ministry of Christ to those who had died before He came. "To open the prison to those that are bound." For we are told by Peter that Christ preached to those souls that were in prison. Paul tells us that He who has ascended is the same One who first of all descended into the lower parts of the earth. And when He ascended, He led the captives from their captivity. You see, from the time even before Abraham, there were those men of the Old Testament who were accounted righteous because of their faith in God. Abraham became more or less the figurehead for those who believe and had faith in God. And they were waiting for the promises of God.

Hebrews 11:1-40 tells us that "they all died in faith, not having received the promise, but seeing it afar off, they embraced it" ( Hebrews 11:13 ). They held on to it. They claimed, "I'm only a stranger and a pilgrim here. I'm only passing through. This isn't my life. This isn't where it's at. I'm looking for a city which has foundation whose maker and builder is God." They were looking for the glorious kingdom of God. And they all died in faith believing the kingdom and God to establish that kingdom. They all died in faith not having received the promise. "God having reserved something better for us that they, apart from us, couldn't be brought into the completed state" ( Hebrews 11:40 ). It was impossible that the blood of bulls and goats could put away their sin. That took the sacrifice of Jesus Christ upon the cross. So the blood sacrifices that they had made according to the old covenant covered their sin, but did not put it away. And they had to wait for the sacrifice of Jesus Christ before they could enter in to that heavenly scene.

So we are told by Peter that when Jesus died He descended into hell. He tells us the purpose of His going there, to preach to those souls that were in prison that one time were disobedient. But they believed and trusted in God. And Paul tells us when He ascended, He led the captives from their captivity. And Matthew's gospel, chapter 27, tells us that when He arose from the dead, many of the graves of the saints were open and they were seen walking in the streets of Jerusalem after His resurrection from the dead. They were released from the prison. So a part of the first coming was to release from the prison those that were bound by death. For Jesus said, "I am the resurrection, and the life. He that believeth on Me, though he were dead, yet he's going to live. And he who lives and believes in Me shall never die" ( John 11:25-26 ).

We will have a transition that is necessary. This corruption must put on incorruption. This mortal must put on immortality. And I know that when this earthly tabernacle is dissolved, I have a new building of God, a house that is not made with hands that is eternal in the heavens. And while I am still in this dumb old tent, I groan earnestly, desiring to move out.

You know, it's hard to get out of bed in the morning anymore. Dumb left foot of mine starting to pain first thing in the morning. I've got to walk for a few steps to get the thing operating. I never thought I'd reach this age. Hard to walk in the morning. What a tent. Wearing out. But oh, thank God, I have a building of God that's not made with hands, that's eternal in the heavens. One of these days I'm not going to die; I'm going to move from the tent into that glorious building of God. The mansion that He's prepared for me.

So to finish the aspects of His first coming:

To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD ( Isaiah 61:2 ),

This is the accepted day. God's accepted time for your salvation. At this point, Jesus closed the scroll because these things dealt with the first aspect of His coming. Now Isaiah, not really seeing the two comings, goes right on and he declares,

and the day of vengeance of our God ( Isaiah 61:2 );

Well, that's not going to take place until yet future. God's vengeance and wrath is going to be poured out upon this earth. As the seals are opened, the judgments of God are going to begin to fall and the earth will enter into that period known as the Great Tribulation. And we read where the men, the chief men of the earth and the captains and so forth, will call to the rocks and the mountains and say, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of the Lamb, for His day of wrath has come" ( Revelation 6:16-17 ). The day of the vengeance of our God.

Well, that won't take place until a yet future time during the Great Tribulation, and I think that it is totally inconsistent with God and the nature of God and the work of Jesus Christ to think that the church would be here during the time that God pours out His wrath upon the earth. In fact, Paul tells us in Rom 5:9 that we have not been appointed unto wrath. He tells us again in First Thessalonians Isa 5:9 that we've not been appointed unto wrath. And I think it's totally inconsistent with the nature of God to think that Christ having borne the wrath of God for our sin, that we would somehow have to face the wrath of God during the Great Tribulation.

Now as a child of God, as long as I'm in this alien world, I'm going to have tribulation. Jesus said, "In this world you will have tribulation. But be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world" ( John 16:33 ). Now if you were of the world, the world would love you because you'd be a part of their whole system. Because you're not of the world, they hate you. And if they haven't received Me, they're not going to receive you. They hated Me; they're going to hate you. The servant isn't greater than his Lord.

And so as a child of God walking in fellowship with God in this alien world, I can expect to have tribulation. It's not going to be easy. However, I shall surely not face the wrath of God, the Great Tribulation. And the whole vast difference is the tribulation that I face comes from Satan. The tribulation that the world is going to face comes from the vengeance of God who has declared, "Vengeance is Mine; I will repay, saith the Lord" ( Romans 12:19 ).

So, "To proclaim the day of the vengeance of our God,"

and to comfort all that mourn ( Isaiah 61:2 );

Moving into the Kingdom Age.

To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give them the beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called Trees of righteousness, The planting of the LORD, that he may be glorified. For they shall build the old wastes ( Isaiah 61:3-4 ),

The rebuilding that will go on in that land.

they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the waste cities, the desolations of many generations ( Isaiah 61:4 ).

And, of course, we see a beginning of that today. But what we see today is not really the fulfillment of this particular passage in Isaiah, because Isaiah here is going on into the Kingdom Age. That which... so much of that which is being built up now is going to be destroyed. Unfortunately, Israel is going to be the central battlefield of two more major battles. Probably the biggest and bloodiest battles in the history of the world are yet to be fought in that land. And so much of that marvellous building that is going on there today will be destroyed in the wars that are yet to come upon this nation. But this particular prophecy goes out into the Kingdom Age as they rebuild the waste and the waste cities and the desolations of many generations.

And strangers shall stand and feed your flocks ( Isaiah 61:5 ),

As God restores the nation Israel. Now you hear a lot of people and even ministers who talk about the final restitution of all things, "God is going to finally save everybody. Nobody will be lost. Even Satan will repent and be brought back as a child." That is not what the Bible teaches when it speaks of the final restitution. In the final restitution, God is talking about His restitution of the nation of Israel as His people. They have been put away as an unfaithful wife and God is going to bring them back again, even as is depicted graphically in the prophecy of Hosea.

When God said, "Go out and take a wife," and he married this wife and she bore him a couple of children. She bore another child and called it Loammi. "That's not my kid." And she finally just went out and became a prostitute. Her life was marred and ruined as she made love with anybody who would come along. God finally said to Hosea, "Go find your wife and take her again and buy her. Redeem her. She's gone into slavery. Redeem her. Wash her up. Clean her up and take her as your wife again." So God spoke then through that graphic illustration of how He would bring Israel again back into a relationship with Him. For He will love her as a wife and be a husband unto them. And this goes into that area, "The stranger shall stand and feed your flocks."

and the sons of the alien shall be your plowmen and your vinedressers. But ye shall be named the Priests of the LORD: men shall call you the Ministers of our God ( Isaiah 61:5-6 ):

The word minister is servant. I think that it's important that we remember that. We so oftentimes use that as a title of great distinction. "Oh, he's a minister." You're saying he's a slave. That's great. We ought to think of it as that. Sometimes I think, "Well, I'm a minister, you know. Give me a ten percent discount, after all, you know." And we think if I'm a minister I should have special privileges. I'm a minister. I should get in front of the line. Or I'm a... And that is totally incongruous with the true aspect of the word minister and the idea of ministry as Jesus spoke of it. He said if you're going to be chief, then learn to be the servant of all. And He taught the servanthood. He took and put a towel around Himself. Tied a towel around Himself and He went around and washed the disciples' feet. "If I being your Lord have become your servant, then learn to be servants." And so the beautiful privilege we have of serving God by serving one another. "Inasmuch as you've done it unto the least of these My brethren, you've done it unto Me" ( Matthew 25:40 ). Giving a cup of cold water, serving in the name of the Lord. God rewards us for His service. "Whatsoever you do in word or deed, do all to the glory of God" ( Colossians 3:17 ). Do it as unto the Lord, knowing that of the Lord you're going to receive your reward. And so the glorious thing to be called.

Now in the book of Revelation in chapter 1, as He is giving the opening remarks, in speaking of Jesus Christ, he said, "Who hath redeemed us with His blood. Who hath made us kings and priests unto our God" ( Revelation 1:6 ). More literally, a kingdom of priests unto our God. So that is going to be a part of the ministry and the work of the church in the Kingdom Age is that we will be priests unto our God. In the fifth chapter of the book of Revelation, when Jesus takes the scroll out of the right hand of the Father and they sing the new song, it is, "Thou art worthy to take the scroll and loose the seals: for Thou was slain, and hath redeemed us by Thy blood out of all of the nations, tribes, tongues and people. And hath made us unto our God [again] a kingdom of priests: and we shall reign with Thee upon the earth" ( Revelation 5:9-10 ). And so looking forward to the glorious Kingdom Age, the place of the church will be as a kingdom of priests reigning with the Lord upon the earth.

And so, "You shall be named the Priests of the Lord: men shall call you the Ministers of our God."

ye shall eat the riches of the Gentiles, and in their glory shall ye boast yourselves. For your shame [talking again to Israel, the shame that they've gone through] ye shall have double; and for confusion they shall rejoice in their portion: therefore in their land they shall possess the double: everlasting joy shall be unto them. For I the LORD love judgment, I hate robbery for burnt offering; and I will direct their work in truth, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them. And their seed shall be known among the Gentiles, and their offspring among the people: all that see them shall acknowledge them, that they are the seed which the LORD has blessed ( Isaiah 61:6-9 ).

The universal recognition of God's grace and mercy as He restores the nation Israel to that favored nation status.

I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness ( Isaiah 61:10 ),

This is the response, actually, to these glorious promises of God of restoration. "I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, He's covered me with the robe of righteousness."

as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with jewels. For as the earth brings forth her bud, and as the garden causeth the things that are sown in it to spring forth; so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations ( Isaiah 61:10-11 ).

Oh, that glorious day of the Lord. How we anticipate and look for it. As I look around the world today and I see the things that are happening, I pray with John, "Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus" ( Revelation 22:20 ).

This week they'll be sharing with you some of the things that the scientists are now dabbling in genetic engineering, and some of the goals that the chief geneticists have declared for genetic engineering. And some of the things that they're starting to do now, shocking things. Some of the creatures that they're beginning to create through genetic engineering. It's really shocking things that are happening in the world today. And you wonder, how far will God allow these things to go? It seems that man in the past has perhaps had periods of genetic engineering. It isn't... Man has arisen to tremendous scientific levels in the past. But whenever man seems to get to a point in development, especially as they move into the area of genetic engineering, God says, "That's it," and He cuts it off. Even as before the flood there were these creatures that were upon the earth, the giants, men of renown through genetic engineering, and God wiped them out and started all over again with Noah. You've got some very interesting things to consider this week as they share with us some of the past and some of the future from a scientific standpoint.

"

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

Those who formerly mourned in Israel, because of their downtrodden and deprived conditions, would rebuild their land, which others had destroyed. These destructions had come on Israel because of her sins. God predicted that the cities that opposed His people would suffer destruction and never rise again (cf. Isaiah 13:19-22; Isaiah 34:8-17). But the cities and land of His people, though terribly decimated throughout history, would be rebuilt (in the Millennium).

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

The benefits of the mission of the Anointed One 61:4-11

The Anointed One would fulfill God’s ancient promises to Israel.

"The Servant of Jehovah celebrates the glorious office committed to him, and expounds the substance of the gospel given him to proclaim. It points to the restoration of the promised land, and to the elevation of Israel, after its purification in the furnace of judgment, to great honour and dignity in the midst of the world of nations." [Note: Delitzsch, 2:428.]

Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

And they shall build the old wastes,.... The captives set at liberty, and who are called trees of righteousness, and the planting of the Lord; righteous and good men, who shall be employed in the spiritual building of the church in Gospel times, and especially in the latter day; for here begins an account of the benefits and blessings the church of Christ should partake of, particularly at the time of the calling and conversion of the Jews: after having described the work and office of the Messiah, and his fitness for it, the Holy Ghost returns to the same subject with the preceding chapter, and which is carried on in the next. What is here said was literally true, when the Jews returned from Babylon, and built their ruined houses and cities; or, at least, there is an allusion to it: but it respects either the setting up of the interest of Christ, and forming churches in the Gentile world, where nothing but blindness and ignorance reigned; where there were no preaching nor ordinances, but all things were in ruin and confusion; as they were before the ministry of the Gospel by the apostles, who were wise master builders, and instruments of converting multitudes, and of raising churches to the honour of the great Redeemer there: or rather it respects the building up of the tabernacle of David, that is fallen down, or the church of God among the Jews, which will be in the latter day, when they are turned to the Lord, Amos 9:11 and the same sense have all the following expressions,

they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the waste cities, the desolations of many generations; setting forth the desolate state and condition of the Jews; their long continuance in it, age after age; and their recovery and restoration, when they shall become a flourishing people again, both in civil and spiritual things.

Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

      4 And they shall build the old wastes, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the waste cities, the desolations of many generations.   5 And strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, and the sons of the alien shall be your ploughmen and your vinedressers.   6 But ye shall be named the Priests of the LORD: men shall call you the Ministers of our God: ye shall eat the riches of the Gentiles, and in their glory shall ye boast yourselves.   7 For your shame ye shall have double; and for confusion they shall rejoice in their portion: therefore in their land they shall possess the double: everlasting joy shall be unto them.   8 For I the LORD love judgment, I hate robbery for burnt offering; and I will direct their work in truth, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them.   9 And their seed shall be known among the Gentiles, and their offspring among the people: all that see them shall acknowledge them, that they are the seed which the LORD hath blessed.

      Promises are here made to the Jews now returned out of captivity, and settled again in their own land, which are to be extended to the gospel church, and all believers, who through grace are delivered out of spiritual thraldom; for they are capable of being spiritually applied.

      I. It is promised that their houses shall be rebuilt (Isaiah 61:4; Isaiah 61:4), that their cities shall be raised out of the ruins in which they had long lain, and be fitted up for their use again: They shall build the old wastes; the old wastes shall be built, the waste cities shall be repaired, the former desolations, even the desolations of many generations, which it was feared would never be repaired, shall be raised up. The setting up of Christianity in the world repaired the decays of natural religion and raised up those desolations both of piety and honesty which had been for many generations the reproach of mankind. An unsanctified soul is like a city that is broken down and has no walls, like a house in ruins; but by the power of Christ's gospel and grace it is repaired, it is put in order again, and fitted to be a habitation of God through the Spirit. And they shall do this, those that are released out of captivity; for we are brought out of the house of bondage that we may serve God, both in building up ourselves to his glory and in helping to build up his church on earth.

      II. Those that were so lately servants themselves, working for their oppressors and lying at their mercy, shall now have servants to do their work for them and be at their command, not of their brethren (they are all the Lord's freemen), but of the strangers, and the sons of the alien, who shall keep their sheep, till their ground, and dress their gardens, the ancient employments of Abel, Cain, and Adam: Strangers shall feed your flocks,Isaiah 61:5; Isaiah 61:5. When, by the grace of God, we attain to a holy indifference as to all the affairs of this world, buying as though we possessed not--when, though our hands are employed about them, our hearts are not entangled with them, but reserved entire for God and his service--then the sons of the alien are our ploughmen and vine-dressers.

      III. They shall not only be released out of their captivity, but highly preferred and honourably employed (Isaiah 61:6; Isaiah 61:6): "While the strangers are keeping your flocks, you shall be keeping the charge of the sanctuary; instead of being slaves to your task-masters, you shall be named the priests of the Lord, a high and holy calling." Priests were princes' peers, and in Hebrew were called by the same name. You shall be the ministers of our God, as the Levites were. Note, Those whom God sets at liberty he sets to work; he delivers them out of the hands of their enemies that they may serve him,Luke 1:74; Luke 1:75; Psalms 116:16. But his service is perfect freedom, nay, it is the greatest honour. When God brought Israel out of Egypt he took them to be to him a kingdom of priests,Exodus 19:6. And the gospel church is a royal priesthood,1 Peter 2:9. All believers are made to our God kings and priests; and they ought to conduct themselves as such in their devotions and in their whole conversation, with holiness to the Lord written upon their foreheads, that men may call them the priests of the Lord.

      IV. The wealth and honour of the Gentile converts shall redound to the benefit and credit of the church, Isaiah 61:6; Isaiah 61:6. The Gentiles shall be brought into the church. Those that were strangers shall become fellow-citizens with the saints; and with themselves they shall bring all they have, to be devoted to the glory of God and used in his service; and the priests, the Lord's ministers, shall have the advantage of it. It will be a great strengthening and quickening, as well as a comfort and encouragement, to all good Christians, to see the Gentiles serving the interests of God's kingdom. 1. They shall eat the riches of the Gentiles, not which they have themselves seized by violence, but which are fairly and honourably presented to them, as gifts brought to the altar, which the priests and their families lived comfortably upon. It is not said, "You shall hoard the riches of the Gentiles, and treasure them," but, "You shall eat them;" for there is nothing better in riches than to use them and to do good with them. 2. They shall boast themselves in their glory. Whatever was the honour of the Gentiles converts before their conversion--their nobility, estates, learning, virtue, or places of trust and power--it shall all turn to the reputation of the church to which they have joined themselves; and whatever is their glory after their conversion--their holy zeal and strictness of conversation, their usefulness, their patient suffering, and all the displays of that blessed change which divine grace has made in them--shall be very much for the glory of God and therefore all good men shall glory in it.

      V. They shall have abundance of comfort and satisfaction in their own bosoms, Isaiah 61:7; Isaiah 61:7. The Jews no doubt were thus privileged after their return; they were in a new world, and now knew how to value their liberty and property, the pleasures of which were continually fresh and blooming. Much more do all those rejoice whom Christ has brought into the glorious liberty of God's children, especially when the privileges of their adoption shall be completed in the resurrection of the body. 1. They shall rejoice in their portion; they shall not only have their own again, but (which is a further gift of God) they shall have the comfort of it, and a heart to rejoice in it, Ecclesiastes 3:13. Though the houses of the returned Jews, as well as their temple, be much inferior to what they were before the captivity, yet they shall be well pleased with them and thankful for them. It is a portion in their land, their own land, the holy land, Immanuel's land, and therefore they shall rejoice in it, having so lately known what it was to be strangers in a strange land. Those that have God and heaven for their portion have reason to say that they have a worthy portion and to rejoice in it. 2. Everlasting joy shall be unto them, that is, a joyful state of their people, which shall last long, much longer than the captivity had lasted. Yet that joy of the Jewish nation was so much allayed, so often interrupted, and so soon brought to an end, that we must look for the accomplishment of this promise in the spiritual joy which believers have in God and the eternal joy they hope for in heaven. 3. This shall be a double recompence to them, and more than double, for all the reproach and vexation they have lain under in the land of their captivity: "For your shame you shall have double honour, and in your land you shall possess double wealth, to what you lost; the blessing of God upon it, and the comfort you shall have in it, shall make an abundant reparation for all the damages you have received. You shall be owned not only as God's sons, but as his first-born (Exodus 4:22), and therefore entitled to a double portion." As the miseries of their captivity were so great that in them they are said to have received double for all their sins (Isaiah 40:2; Isaiah 40:2), so the joys of their return shall be so great that in them they shall receive double for all their shame. The former is applicable to the fulness of Christ's satisfaction, in which God received double for all our sins; the latter to the fulness of heaven's joys, in which we shall receive more than double for all our services and sufferings. Job's case illustrates this: when God turned again his captivity, he gave him twice as much as he had before.

      VI. God will be their faithful guide and a God in covenant with them (Isaiah 61:8; Isaiah 61:8): I will direct their work in truth. God by his providence will order their affairs for the best, according to the word of his truth. He will guide them in the ways of true prosperity, by the rules of true policy. He will by his grace direct the works of good people in the right way, the true way that leads to happiness; he will direct them to be done in sincerity and then they are pleasing to him. God desires truth in the inward parts; and, if we do our works in truth, he will make an everlasting covenant with us; for to those that walk before him and are upright he will certainly be a God all-sufficient. Now, as a reason both of this and of the foregoing promise, that God will recompense to them double for their shame, those words come in, in the former part of the verse, I the Lord love judgment. He loves that judgment should be done among men, both between magistrates and subjects and between neighbour and neighbour, and therefore he hates all injustice; and, when wrongs are done to his people by their oppressors and persecutors, he is displeased with them, not only because they are done to his people, but because they are wrongs, and against the eternal rules of equity. If men do not do justice, he loves to do judgment himself in giving redress to those that suffer wrong and punishing those that do wrong. God pleads his people's injured cause, not only because he is jealous for them, but because he is jealous for justice. To illustrate this, it is added that he hates robbery for burnt-offering. He hates injustice even in his own people, who honour him with what they have in their burnt-offerings, much more does he hate it when it is against his own people; if he hates robbery when it is for burnt-offerings to himself, much more when it is for burnt-offerings to idols, and when not only his people are robbed of their estates, but he is robbed of his offerings. It is a truth much to the honour of God that ritual services will never atone for the violation of moral precepts, nor will it justify any man's robbery to say, "It was for burnt-offerings," or Corban--It is a gift. Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, to do justly and love mercy better than thousands of rams; nay, that robbery is most of all hateful to God which is covered with this pretence, for it makes the righteous God to be the patron of unrighteousness. Some make this a reason of the rejection of the Jews upon the bringing in of the Gentiles (Isaiah 61:6; Isaiah 61:6), because they were so corrupt in their morals, and, while they tithed mint and cummin, made nothing of judgment and mercy (Matthew 23:23), whereas God loves judgment and insists upon that, and he hates both robbery for burnt offerings and burnt-offerings for robbery too, as that of the Pharisees, who made long prayers that they might the more plausibly devour widows' houses. Others read these words thus: I hate rapine by iniquity, that is, the spoil which the enemies of God's people had unjustly made of them; God hated this, and therefore would reckon with them for it.

      VII. God will entail a blessing upon their posterity after them (Isaiah 61:9; Isaiah 61:9): Their seed (the children of those persons themselves that are now the blessed of the Lord, or their successors in profession, the church's seed) shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation,Psalms 22:30. 1. They shall signalize themselves and make their neighbours to take notice of them: They shall be known among the Gentiles, shall distinguish themselves by the gravity, seriousness, humility, and cheerfulness of their conversation, especially by that brotherly love by which all men shall know them to be Christ's disciples. And, they thus distinguishing themselves, God shall dignify them, by making them the blessings of their age and instruments of his glory, and by giving them remarkable tokens of his favour, which shall make them eminent and gain them respect from all about them. Let the children of godly parents love in such a manner that they may be known to be such, that all who observe them may see in them the fruits of a good education, and an answer to the prayers that were put up for them; and then they may expect that God will make them known, by the fulfilling of that promise to them, that the generation of the upright shall be blessed. 2. God shall have the glory of this, for every one shall attribute it to the blessing of God; all that see them shall see so much of the grace of God in them, and his favour towards them, that they shall acknowledge them to be the seed which the Lord has blessed and doth bless, for it includes both. See what it is to be blessed of God. Whatever good appears in any it must be taken notice of as the fruit of God's blessing and he must be glorified in it.