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Transcript 143C — The Gospel in Isaiah 61
HC: Good evening. Welcome to Open Forum.
CALLER: Hello. I'd like to ask you a question about Isaiah 61. I get kind of mixed up around verse 6 and verse 7, who all this is referring to. I get lost. So maybe you could clear that up.
HC: First of all, we know from Isaiah 61:1 that it is talking about the coming of the Messiah. "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me because the Lord has anointed Me to bring good tidings to the afflicted. He has sent Me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound."
Now this is quoted in Luke's Gospel, when Jesus read from Isaiah. He said, "This day has this prophecy been fulfilled." You can read this in Luke 4. And so Christ came to do these things, to free the captives, those who are in spiritual bondage to Satan, to bind up the broken-hearted, "Blessed are those who mourn," "Blessed are the meek," and so on. "A broken and a contrite heart I will not despise." We come to the Lord Jesus Christ, and because He went to the cross, we can have joy and salvation.
Now in verse 4 it goes on: "They shall build up the ancient ruins. They shall raise up the former devastations. They will repair the ruined cities." Now this is a statement that is pointing to the offering of the Gospel to the world, in order that God's temple and God's city might be built. The city of God in the New Testament is made up of all the born again believers. You'll recall that in Ephesians 2 it says that we are building blocks in this temple. Or in I Peter 2:4 it says that we are lively stones in the house of God. We are the Holy City, if you will, in Revelation 21.
And that city, that temple, will be built when the Messiah would come. He came to build the temple of God, to build the city of God, which is really another name for the body of Christ.
Then it goes on in verse 5, and it indicates to us that those who will be exercised and blessed by the coming of the Messiah are more than just the Jews, more than just the blood descendants of Abraham. "Aliens shall stand and feed your flocks. Foreigners shall be your plowmen and vinedressers." There will be others that will come into the body of Christ than just Jews.
"You shall be called the priest, of the Lord. Men shall speak to you as the ministers of our God. You shall eat the wealth of the nations, and in their riches you shall glory." Now this is talking about the body of Christ, that we are priests of God. Remember what I Peter 2:9 says: "Ye are a holy priesthood."
CALLER: Here he seems to be speaking about two Israels here, and that eventually the Gentiles would come into the sphere of Israel, and that the Gentiles also would become the people of God.
HC: Yes.
CALLER: But he says "Ye", which seems to be referring to the Israelites, or a certain group of the Israelites, when he says, "Ye shall be named the priests of the Lord." Have I got that wrong?
HC: Verse 5 is really an insertion, indicating that at this point in time God is speaking to Israel, during the days of Isaiah, that is. And He is prophesying what the future is going to be. And we read in Isaiah 6 that Israel as a nation was cursed, that Israel as a nation would never come to Christ as Messiah, never, until Judgment Day itself.
Nevertheless there is going to be blessing flowing out of Israel, and that blessing is focused, or the head of that blessing is the Lord Jesus Christ who comes out of Israel. But that blessing is going to incorporate more than just believers from Israel. It will include the Gentile world. That's verse 5.
But now He's going on, speaking to Israel about the fact that there is blessing that is going to come out of them. That is, there will be Jewish people that are included in this wonderful blessing that's going to come. Yes, there are aliens, too. There are foreigners. There are Gentiles. But specifically, He is indicating to national Israel that there is still to be blessing that's going to flow out of them, for their own people.
And we know from other Scriptures that it will be a remnant chosen by grace. They themselves, personally, can be priests of God. And they themselves, personally, will be ministers of God and will eat the wealth of the nations. I think eating the wealth of the nations has to do with the fact that the born again believers are the inheritors of the New Heaven and the New Earth. All that the nations own eventually will be owned by the born again believers, in the New Heaven and the New Earth.
CALLER: How about verse 7?
HC: Now we come to verse 7: "Instead of your shame you shall have a double portion." Now Israel is under the curse of God. God has nothing good to say about them, hardly anything good to say about them as a nation. They have repeatedly sinned against God. They're under the curse of God.
But out of Israel there is going to come blessing. Now they are ashamed. Now they are under this terrible curse of God. But through the Lord Jesus Christ the blessing will begin to flow. And anyone out of Israel who joins with the Lord Jesus Christ will no longer be ashamed. He shall have a double portion.
Now the double portion was the portion of the firstborn. He is the one who would receive the inheritance. And we become sons of God, co-heirs of Christ. Christ is the heir because He is the only-begotten Son of God, but we stand in the Kingdom of God as firstborn.
CALLER: I was thinking that it was saying, for your shame you shall have double shame, which destroys the whole meaning.
HC: Yes, "instead of" is, I think, a better way of looking at that. Instead of dishonor you shall rejoice in your lot. And therefore, in your land, or in their land, you shall possess a double portion. Which land is that? It's the land that we enter when we come to Christ. It's Heaven. That's the land that we become citizens of when we become saved. And that eventually will be the New Heaven and the New Earth.