60:13 glory of Lebanon. Timber was Lebanon’s claim to fame. As in Solomon’s temple (1 Kin. 5:10, 18), but even more so, the timber taken from Lebanon’s forests will enrich the Lord’s temple in Jerusalem.
60:14 The City of the LORD. Nations which formerly were oppressors of Israel will acknowledge Zion’s supremacy as the city that belongs to the Lord.
60:15 forsaken and hated…eternal excellence. Jerusalem will switch roles from having been despised to being exalted forever.
60:16 milk…milk. As a mother feeds her infant, so Gentiles and kings will provide wealth and power to Zion. The city will recognize the Lord as her Savior and Redeemer, “the Mighty One of Jacob,” as will “all flesh” (49:26).
60:17 gold…silver…peace…righteousness. Jerusalem in the future kingdom will be a place of beauty and peace where right will prevail.
60:18 Salvation…Praise. The walls and gates of the city that will take on those names refer to the divine protection the Lord provides from any form of violence or destruction.
60:19 sun shall no longer…everlasting light. Isaiah, looking beyond the millennial kingdom, sees a view of the new Jerusalem following the Millennium (Rev. 21:23; 22:5). His prophetic perspective did not allow him to distinguish the eternal phase of the future kingdom from the temporal one, just as the OT prophets could not distinguish between the first and second advent of Christ (cf. 1 Pet. 1:10, 11).
60:20 mourning…ended. In the eternal kingdom of the new creation, subjects will shed no more tears (Rev. 21:4).
60:21 inherit the land forever. Israel will inherit the land promised to Abraham (Gen. 12:1, 7; 13:15; 15:18). During the millennial kingdom, that will be the land of Israel as we know it today. In the eternal kingdom, it will be the New Jerusalem, capital of the new creation. I may be glorified. The ultimate mission of Israel is to glorify the Lord (49:3; 61:3).
60:22 little one…strong nation. Israel’s great increase in numbers and power resulting from the Lord’s working will bring them into never-before-experienced world prominence.
Isaiah 61
61:1, 2a The Spirit…acceptable year of the LORD. The Servant of the Lord (42:1) will be the ultimate Preacher and the Redeemer of Israel who rescues them. Jesus speaks of the initial fulfillment of this promise, referring it to His ministry of providing salvation’s comfort to the spiritually oppressed (Luke 4:18, 19). He says specifically, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:21). The Jews that were saved during Christ’s ministry, and those being saved during this church age, still do not fulfill the promise of the salvation of the nation to come in the end time (cf. Zech. 12:10—13:1; Rom. 11:25–27).
61:1 Spirit…Lord GOD…Me. The 3 persons of the Holy Trinity function together in this verse (6:8; cf. Matt. 3:16, 17). liberty to the captives. The “captives” are Israelites remaining in the dispersion following the Babylonian captivity (42:7).
61:2 acceptable year. The same as “the day of salvation” (49:8) and “the year of My redeemed” (63:4). This is where Jesus stopped reading in the synagogue (Luke 4:19), indicating that the subsequent writing in the rest of the chapter (vv. 2b–11) awaited the second coming of Christ. day of vengeance. As part of His deliverance of Israel, the Lord will pour out wrath on all who oppose Him (59:17–18). Cf. Rev. 6–19.
61:3 console…glorified. The purpose of the Lord’s consolation of the mourners after centuries of suffering (60:20) will be to glorify Himself (60:21).
61:4 rebuild. The rebuilding of Israel’s cities is part of God’s future plan for the nation (49:8; 58:12; 60:10).
61:6 priests of the LORD. In fulfillment of Ex. 19:6, Israel will be a kingdom of priests when Christ establishes His kingdom. In the meantime, Peter applied the same terminology to the church (1 Pet. 2:9).
61:7 double honor. Israel will receive double portions of blessing to replace the double punishment of her exile (40:2).
61:8 everlasting covenant. This refers to the New Covenant. See note on 55:3.
61:10 clothed me…covered me. Here is the OT picture of imputed righteousness, the essential heart of the New Covenant. When a penitent sinner recognizes he can’t achieve his own righteousness by works (see notes on Rom. 3:19–22; 2 Cor. 5:21; Phil. 3:8, 9), and repents and calls on the mercy of God, the Lord covers him with His own divine righteousness by grace through his faith.
Isaiah 62
62:1 not hold My peace…not rest. The Lord expresses His determination to make Jerusalem a lighthouse for the world (58:8; 60:1–3).
62:2 new name. Jerusalem’s new name will reflect Israel’s new favored status (vv. 4, 12; 65:15).
62:4 Hephzibah…Beulah. The terms mean “My delight is in her” and “Married,” reflecting a full restored relationship with the Lord.
62:5 sons marry you. “Marry” in the sense of occupying and possessing the city.
62:6, 7 never hold their peace…do not keep silent…give Him no rest. The prophets of Israel issued constant warnings about lurking enemies and prayed for Jerusalem to be “a praise” (60:18; 61:11). There will be more prophets in the kingdom who continually proclaim the honor of the Lord.
62:8, 9 The LORD has sworn. The end of foreign domination over Jerusalem is as certain as the oath of God.
62:9 My holy courts. This refers to the millennial temple (cf. Ezek. 40–46).
62:10 Prepare. This and the accompanying commands prepare the people for the exaltation of Zion and the manifestation of her salvation (11:12; 40:3; 57:14).
62:11 Say to the daughter…Behold. Matthew may also have alluded to these words when he was quoting from Zech. 9:9 as it related to Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem (see Matt. 21:5). His reward…His work. See 40:9, 10.
62:12 A City Not Forsaken. See v. 4 and cf. Zion’s complaint in 49:14.
Isaiah 63
63:1 Edom…Bozrah. Edom represents a God-hating world (34:5). Bozrah was a capital city in Edom at one time (34:6). Messiah, coming as the avenger approaching Jerusalem to reign after having avenged His people on His and their enemies, is presented in imagery taken from the destruction of Edom, the representative in this picture of the last and most bitter foes of God and His people. He alone is “mighty to save.”
63:3 anger…fury…blood. The Savior explains the red coloring of His clothing (v. 2) as resulting from His judgmental activity against Israel’s enemies (61:2). The splattered grape juice staining His clothing is, in reality, “blood” from those destroyed in judgment. John alludes to vv. 1–3 in describing the second coming of Christ, the Warrior-King. See notes on Rev. 19:13, 15.
63:4 day of vengeance…year of My redeemed. The Messiah’s future reckoning with the wicked will coincide with His redemption of Israel (61:2).
63:5 no one to help…My own arm. The future salvation of Israel will be a single-handed accomplishment of the Lord (v. 3; 59:15, 16).
63:6 Made them drunk. See 51:17, 21–23. Revelation compares God’s wrath to wine several times (e.g., Rev. 14:10, 19; 16:19; 19:15). “Brought down their strength” is lit. saying “spilled their blood.”
63:7—64:12 As one of Israel’s watchmen, Isaiah, on behalf of the faithful remnant, prays this penitential confession and prayer for Israel’s restoration (cf. 62:6, 7).
63:7–14 The prayer reviews God’s compassionate acts toward His people in spite of their unfaithfulness to Him.
63:7, 8 lovingkindnesses…lovingkindnesses. All the plurals in this verse imply that language is inadequate to recite all the goodness and undeserved mercies God has showered on the nation time after time because of His everlasting covenant with them. By His elective choice, they became His people and He their Savior (43:1, 3); this guarantees that they will not always be false (“lie”), but someday true and faithful to God because of His sovereign election of them. Cf. Eph. 1:3, 4.
63:9 Angel of His Presence. The angel, who delivered the Israelites from Egypt, was none other than the Lord Himself (Ex. 14:19; 23:20–23; 33:12, 14, 15; Num. 20:16). He is sometimes identified
as the Angel of the Lord. He was close enough to His people that He felt their afflictions as if they were His own. See note on Ex. 3:2.
63:10 rebelled and grieved His Holy Spirit. In spite of the Lord’s loving choice and sympathy, Israel continually turned their backs on Him and spurned His lovingkindnesses toward them (Num. 20:10; Pss. 78:40; 106:33; Acts 7:51; cf. Eph. 4:30). Here is an illustration of the reality that the Holy Spirit is a Person, since only a person can be grieved.
63:11–13 he remembered…might not stumble. The Lord, in spite of their perversity, did not forget His covenant nor fully forsake them (Lev. 26:40–45; Ps. 106:45, 46). In contrasting their present state of destitution with that of blessing experienced by Moses’ generation, the people of Israel lamented the loss of God’s mighty works on their behalf and pleaded with the Lord that He would not forsake them. brought them up out of the sea…put His Holy Spirit within them…Dividing the water. Letting the people pass through the sea on dry ground was a typical mighty work of God (Ex. 14:29, 30), and the Holy Spirit ministered among them (Num. 11:17, 25, 29). “Within” does not refer to individual indwelling but rather would best be translated with a corporate sense of “among” or “in the midst.” Another reference is made to the miracle of the Red Sea (Ex. 14:21, 22).
63:14 make Yourself a glorious name. The Lord’s purpose for Israel was and is to make them great so as to magnify His name in the world. Cf. v. 12.
63:15–19 After having extolled God’s goodness (vv. 7–9) and rehearsed God’s past faithfulness to Israel for the sake of His glory (vv. 11–13), the prophet offered a prayer of repentance by the nation in its desolate condition.
63:15 Where…Your mercies toward me? On behalf of the people, Isaiah asked if God had changed how He felt about Israel and prayed for new mercies such as He had exhibited toward the nation in the past.
63:16 Abraham…Israel. The nation’s physical ancestors, Abraham and Jacob (Israel) played a crucial role in Jewish thinking. It had been the besetting temptation and sin of the Jews to rest on the mere privilege of descent from Abraham and Jacob (cf. Matt. 3:9; John 4:12; 8:39), but at last they renounce that to trust God alone as Father.
63:17 made us stray…hardened our heart. The sense is that God allowed them to stray and be burdened in their hearts. They were not denying their own guilt, but confessing that because of it, God gave them up to the consequences of their iniquitous choices. Cf. 6:9, 10; Ps. 81:11, 12; Hos. 4:17; Rom. 1:24–28.
63:18 trodden down Your sanctuary. The Babylonians, among others, had possessed the land given to Israel and desecrated God’s sanctuary (Ps. 74:3–7).
63:19 never…never. Israel’s complaint was that her desolate condition was comparable to that of nations who had no unique relationship with the Lord.
Isaiah 64
64:1–5 A plea for the Lord to demonstrate His power as He did in earlier days.
64:1, 2 rend the heavens…shake at Your presence. Israel’s response to her own complaint (63:19) was a plea that God would burst forth to execute vengeance suddenly on His people’s foes (cf. Pss. 18:7–9; 144:5; Hab. 3:5, 6), manifesting Himself in judgment again as He did at Mt. Sinai (Ex. 19:18; Judg. 5:5; Ps. 68:8; Heb. 12:18–20). As God’s name is to receive glory through His redemption of Israel (63:14), it also is to have widespread recognition because of His judgment against Israel’s enemies (Ps. 99:1).
64:3 awesome things. Another reference to God’s acts at Sinai (Deut. 10:21).
64:4 ear…eye. God’s judgmental manifestations are unique. No one has witnessed the likes of His awesome works on behalf of His own. Paul adapts words from this verse to speak of direct revelation of God imparted to His apostles and prophets and pertaining to mysteries hidden from mankind before the birth of the church (1 Cor. 2:9).
64:5 we need to be saved. Direct exposure to the awesome character of God’s judgment brings a realization of sinners’ need of salvation (cf. Acts 16:26–30).
64:6 unclean thing...filthy rags. As in 53:6, the prophet included himself among those confessing their utter unworthiness to be in God’s presence. Isaiah employed the imagery of menstrual cloths used during a woman’s period to picture uncleanness (cf. Lev. 15:19–24). This is true of the best behavior of unbelievers (cf. Phil. 3:5–8).
64:7–9 no one who calls. The prophet finds no exception among a people whose iniquities had separated them from God. See notes on Rom. 3:10–18. Such seeking and calling on the Lord as Isaiah describes in 55:6, 7 cannot occur apart from the powerful conviction and awakening of the sinful heart by the Holy Spirit. Thus the prayer recognizes God as a potter in control of clay and pleads for Him to do a saving work (v. 8). Cf. 45:9, 10; 60:21; 63:16. Such a work is what God promised to end His fury (54:7, 8) and His memory of sin (v. 9; 43:25).
64:11 burned up with fire…laid waste. Through prophetic revelation Isaiah uttered these words many years before the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple in 586 B.C. Yet, he lamented over the fallen state as though it had already occurred. God’s people were in desperate straits and their prayers urgent and persistent: “How can You stand by when Your people and Your land are so barren?”
Isaiah 65
65:1–7 In response to the prayer of 63:7—64:12, the Lord repeated the warnings of His judgment.
65:1 not ask…not seek…not called. Though Israel sought the Lord, they did so only superficially. They did not genuinely seek Him. The NT assigns an additional sense to the words in Rom. 10:20, applying them to Gentiles who find Him through the work of His sovereign grace.
65:2 I have stretched out…rebellious people. God had continually taken the initiative in inviting His people Israel to walk in His ways, but time after time they rebuffed Him. Using this verse, Paul concurred in citing the rebelliousness of his fellow Jews (Rom. 10:21).
65:3, 4 Here Isaiah gave more references to Israel’s sin, such as defiance in practicing idolatry, communing with the spirits of the dead (a forbidden practice according to Deut. 18:10, 11), eating in ways forbidden by the Mosaic law (Lev. 11:7, 8), consuming food connected with “abominable” idol sacrifices, and the arrogance of self-righteousness (cf. Matt. 9:11; Luke 5:30; 18:11).
65:5 smoke in My nostrils. This alluded to the smoke of their self-righteous sacrifices, an endless irritation to God who responds in judgment.
65:6 I will not keep silence. The Lord’s response to the prayer asking Him not to restrain Himself in granting deliverance (64:12) was that He will act in judgment, not deliverance, to punish sin (v. 7).
65:8–10 In the midst of the final fury of judgment when the time of Jacob’s trouble comes (cf. Jer. 30:7) and God purges out the rebels in Israel (cf. Ezek. 20:38), there will also be the restoration of the faithful remnant to the Land. Though judgment comes to the nation as a whole, God will spare and save (cf. Zech. 12:10—13:1; Rom. 11:25–27) the faithful remnant, “My servants” (1:9), in the future kingdom. This will include a physical return of God’s elect, believing Jews, to the land of Israel (57:13).
65:10 Sharon…Valley of Achor. Sharon was the western fertile territory on the Mediterranean coast, S of Mt. Carmel (35:2). The eastern Valley of Achor was near Jericho and the Jordan River (Josh. 7:24, 26). Together they represented the whole land.
65:11, 12 Another pronouncement of judgment was given on the rebellious Israelites, who resorted to the worship of pagan gods, like “Gad” and “Meni,” and had no one to blame but themselves for the sword of damnation that fell on them.
65:13, 14 Continuing to address the rebel idolaters, the Lord Himself gave contrasts between the faithful and unfaithful of Israel.
65:15 your name as a curse…another name. Israel’s new name was to reflect her favored status among the nations (62:2–4). Delinquent Israelites, on the other hand, were to endure the reproach of men, so that the very name “Jew” would be disclaimed.
65:16 God of truth. Lit. this is “God of Amen,” referring to the very God, the True God, who will honor His promises to Israel, thus vindicating
Himself in the eyes of all people. Someday the rebels will be purged out and the redeemed remnant will be left. In that time, all blessing and swearing will be by the one and only True God, because all idols will be vanquished and forgotten in the glory of the kingdom of Messiah.
65:17–25 The blessings of faithful Israel in the coming kingdom are described.
65:17 new heavens and a new earth. Israel’s future kingdom will include a temporal kingdom of a thousand years (see notes on Rev. 20:1–10) and an eternal kingdom in God’s new creation (51:6, 16; 54:10; 66:22; cf. Rev. 21:1–8). The prophet uses the eternal kingdom here as a reference point for both. Isaiah’s prophecy does not make clear the relationship between the kingdom’s two aspects as does later prophecy (Rev. 20:1—21:8). This is similar to the compression of Christ’s first and second advents, so that in places they are indistinguishable (cf. 61:1, 2).
65:20 No more shall an infant…Nor an old man. Long life will prevail in the millennial kingdom. In the temporal phase of the kingdom, death will happen, but not nearly so early as in the time of Isaiah. sinner…accursed. In the millennial phase of Israel’s kingdom, a sinful person may die at age 100, but will be considered a mere youth at the time of his premature death. Having died an untimely death at such a youthful time, it will be assumed that God has taken his life for sin. The curse will be reversed in the Millennium, but it will not be removed until the eternal state (cf. Rev. 22:3).
65:21, 22 build…inhabit…plant…eat. Social justice will prevail in Israel’s kingdom. No enemies will deprive people of what is rightfully theirs (contra. Deut. 28:30).
65:23 Nor…for trouble. Lit. this means “for sudden death.” Subjects in the kingdom will enjoy freedom from ordinary misfortunes related to the premature death of infants. There will be the lowest infant mortality rate ever. Along with longer life (v. 20), this means the earth will be greatly populated at an exponential rate of reproduction. Cf. Rev. 20:7–9 for the massive collection of people at the end of the kingdom who come against Christ.
The MacArthur Study Bible, NKJV Page 345