The Year of the Lord’s Favor
Isa 61:1 The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners,
Isa 61:2 to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn,
Isa 61:3 and provide for those who grieve in Zion— to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendor.
Isa 61:4 They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated; they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations.
Isa 61:5 Strangers will shepherd your flocks; foreigners will work your fields and vineyards.
Isa 61:6 And you will be called priests of the LORD, you will be named ministers of our God. You will feed on the wealth of nations, and in their riches you will boast.
Isa 61:7 Instead of your shame you will receive a double portion, and instead of disgrace you will rejoice in your inheritance. And so you will inherit a double portion in your land, and everlasting joy will be yours.
Isa 61:8 “For I, the LORD, love justice; I hate robbery and wrongdoing. In my faithfulness I will reward my people and make an everlasting covenant with them.
Isa 61:9 Their descendants will be known among the nations and their offspring among the peoples. All who see them will acknowledge that they are a people the LORD has blessed.”
Isa 61:10 I delight greatly in the LORD; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
Isa 61:11 For as the soil makes the sprout come up and a garden causes seeds to grow, so the Sovereign LORD will make righteousness and praise spring up before all nations.
1 The office of Christ. 4 The forwardness, 7 and blessings of the faithful.
The Year of the Lord’s Favor
Isa 61:1 The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners,
The Spirit.
This is one of the most striking chapters of the book of Isaiah.
For every Christian this is clearly a Messianic prophecy, one that Jesus applied to Himself in His hometown of Nazareth (see on Luke 4:16–21). The speaker is Christ, in His role as God’s Servant (see on Isa. 41:8). The subject matter of ch. 61 is closely related to that of ch. 60 (compare ch. 61:3 with ch. 60:9, 15, 18, 20, 21).
Ancient Jewish expositors recognized the Messianic import of this and many other passages in Isaiah. Verses 1–3 present a graphic picture of what the Messiah was to have accomplished for His people Israel as individuals and as a nation. Because of their rejection of Jesus as the Messiah, however, the nation as such forfeited the ministry and favour of Messiah.
Anointed me. Heb. mashach, from which is derived the noun mashiach, “anointed one,” or “Messiah” (see on Ps. 2:2; Matt. 1:1; Luke 4:18). Mashach might thus appropriately be translated, “made me Messiah.” At the ceremony of anointing, an individual was set apart for some office or mission.
Aaron was anointed by Moses to be high priest (Ex. 40:13). Both Saul and David were anointed by Samuel (1 Sam. 10:1; 16:13). Elijah was to anoint Jehu as king and Elisha as prophet (1 Kings 19:16). Christ was to be anointed by God the Father (Ps. 45:7) through the Holy Spirit (Acts 10:38) at the time of His baptism (Mark 1:10; Luke 3:21, 22).
To proclaim. The great work of Christ on earth was to proclaim the “good tidings,” or “good news,” of salvation (see on Mark 1:1). After His anointing, Jesus went about from place to place preaching His message of forgiveness and acceptance with God (Luke 4:14, 15, 21, 31, 43, 44; 5:32; 6:20; 8:1; etc.).
The meek. Christ’s message was for the poor and the meek in spirit (Matt. 5:3, 5). Jesus Himself was “meek and lowly in heart” (Matt. 11:29), and those who came to Him were to become like Him (see 1 John 3:1–3).
To bind up.
Jesus came to assuage the suffering of those who are grieved and weary of their burden of sin (see on Matt. 5:3; Matt. 11:28–30; Luke 4:18). Christ is the Great Physician, who came to heal the hearts and souls of men.
To proclaim freedom.
Men who yield to sin become its captives and slaves (John 8:34; Rom. 6:16). Christ came to free men from the bondage of evil and to make them free in Him (John 8:36; Rom. 6:1–23; 8:2, 15, 21). The phrase itself and the thought it expresses are taken from the proclamation made in the year of jubilee (Lev. 25:10; Jer. 34:8; Eze. 46:17). See on Luke 4:18.
Opening of the prison. Literally, “restoring the sight,” as in as in Luke 4:18. The Hebrew verb paqach is never used in the sense of opening a door, but exclusively of the restoring of sight to the blind and of hearing to the deaf (Isa. 35:5; 42:7; etc.).
In ch. 42:1, 7, the Lord’s Servant—Messiah—was to do the very work here foretold.
Isa 61:2 to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn,
The acceptable year. Literally, “the year of the favour [shown by God to men].” This refers to the manifestation of God’s saving grace as seen in the life and ministry of our Saviour (see on Luke 4:19).
The day of vengeance.
The contrast is between “favour” for those who accept Messiah and “vengeance” upon those who reject Him. In the synagogue at Nazareth Christ ended His reading of Isaiah with the words preceding this clause (see on Luke 4:18). Jerusalem was indeed to see “days of vengeance” (Luke 21:22), but only because the Jews rejected Christ and His message of salvation (Matt. 21:43, 44; 23:36–38). The destruction of Jerusalem was a type of the great, final day of vengeance (see on Matt. 24:3).
All who mourn. That is, for their own sins (see on Matt. 5:4) and the sins of others (Ps. 119:53, 136; Jer. 13:17; Eze. 9:4; 2 Cor. 2:1; 12:21; 2 Peter 2:8).
Isa 61:3 and provide for those who grieve in Zion— to bestow on them the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendour.
In times of mourning and fasting the Hebrews refrained from the use of anointing oils (Dan. 10:3; cf. Matt. 6:17). Now every indication of sorrow was to be put away, and God’s people were to bedeck themselves as for an occasion of festivity and joy. Their garments of mourning were to be replaced by those used for gala occasions (see Zech. 3:3–5; cf. Luke 15:22).
Spirit of despair. Or as we would say today, “disheartened spirit.”
Oaks of righteousness. In the OT, trees are often used figuratively of people (see on Ps. 1:3); here, of God’s ransomed ones. They would be righteous because they had put on His likeness and been re-created in His image (see on Isa. 60:1).
God is honoured when His children bear the fruits of righteousness and reveal in their lives His own traits of character (John 15:8; Gal. 5:22, 23).
Isa 61:4 They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated; they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations.
Isa 61:5 Strangers will shepherd your flocks; foreigners will work your fields and vineyards.
Those who had once been enemies of Israel would become friends. Those who had once laid the land waste would cooperate with Israel in its restoration. Compare ch. 14:1, 2. Israel would lead out in the work, and their Gentile converts would assist (see on chs. 14:1, 2; 56:6–8; 60:3–10).
Isa 61:6 And you will be called priests of the LORD, you will be named ministers of our God. You will feed on the wealth of nations, and in their riches you will boast.
The sons of Aaron were dedicated to the service of the Lord (Ex. 40:13–15). Isaiah here foretells the ministry of all of God’s people, as a “kingdom of priests,” in the great task of bringing the Gentiles to a knowledge of the true God (Ex. 19:6; 1 Peter 2:5–9).
Isa 61:7 Instead of your shame you will receive a double portion, and instead of disgrace you will rejoice in your inheritance. And so you will inherit a double portion in your land, and everlasting joy will be yours.
After Job’s affliction God rewarded him with twice as much as he had had before (Job 42:10). God’s people had suffered, it seemed to them, twice as much as they deserved, but God would amply reward them (see Isa. 40:2; Zech. 9:12; cf. Jer. 16:18; Rev. 18:6).
Disgrace. Instead of shame God would give them joy. The tables would be turned. Whereas they had once been oppressed and despised, they would now be honoued and exalted. In vs. 7–9 Isaiah speaks of Israel, rather than to Israel, as in vs. 5, 6.
Isa 61:8 “For I, the LORD, love justice; I hate robbery for burnt offering; I will direct their work in truth, And will make with them an everlasting covenant
Isaiah here seems to return to the thought of ch. 1:11–17. God respects justice, mercy, and love (Ps. 11:7; Micah 6:8), but rejects utterly the mere form of worship (see on Isa. 1:11; 2 Tim. 3:5; cf. John 4:23, 24). None but those who have “clean hands, and a pure heart,” who walk uprightly, work righteousness, and speak the truth in their hearts, will “dwell” in His “holy hill” (Ps. 24:3–5; 15:1–5; see on Matt. 7:21–27).
Work. Heb. pe‘ullah, literally, “a reward [for work performed].” God will grant reward in strict accord with merit (see on Matt. 20:1–16).
Isa 61:9 Their descendants will be known among the nations and their offspring among the peoples. All who see them will acknowledge that they are a people the LORD has blessed.”
Isa 61:10 I delight greatly in the LORD; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
Zion returns thanksgiving and praise to God for the wonderful favours bestowed upon her. God has graciously removed her shame and made her to appear glorious in the eyes of the world (chs. 49:13–23; 54:1–8; see on chs. 54:5–7; 61:7).
Garments of salvation. These “garments” represent the perfect character of Christ (4T 88) that His people are to wear, even in this life (COL 319; see on Matt. 22:1–14). They stand in sharp contrast with our own “filthy rags” (see on Isa. 64:6).
Isa 61:11 For as the earth brings forth its bud, As the garden causes 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.
Sin has made the earth desolate and waste, but it will not always remain so. The gospel of God’s grace will cause the desert places to spring into bloom and to bear fruits of righteousness to the glory of God (see on Isa. 61:3; Gal. 5:22, 23). Compare Isaiah’s parable of the vineyard (see ch. 5:1–7; cf. chs. 32:15, 16; 35:1, 2; 41:18, 19; 43:19–21; 44:3, 4; 55:12, 13).