Thoughts from Isaiah

Thoughts on Isaiah 61: 4-11

Compare the passage to Isaiah 1:7+8, 28-31

I have come across the following opposites:

Isaiah 1:7 states that at the moment of writing, the country is desolate and that the cities are burning. The fields are stripped by foreigners and laid waste. Yet the promise come to Isaiah that good new is at hand that the mourning will be comforted and everything restores to its previous glory. These mourners will rebuild the ruins and restore the devastated places. The vineyards and flocks will be tended and shepherded by foreigners.

It is amazing how the destructive force of the foreign people will be turned into a servant of Israel. Instead of breaking down, they will have to help rebuild and restore.

Isaiah 1: 29 Israel is reprimanded for the “sacred oaks” which have become idols and therefore the curse was that they themselves would be a thirsting oak “with fading leaves, like a garden without water”. In Isaiah 61:3b, the people will be “called oaks of righteousness”.

Again, what an amazing restoration! That which was idolised will become nothing and the people will be righteous and flourish like an oak (a healthy one), since the Lord did the planting to display His splendour.

These two comparisons demonstrate how God uses that which was destroyed to His good purposes and restores everything to its former glory – no even more glorious, because now He will be in charge of that which He has changed.

“For as the soil makes the young plant come up and a garden causes seeds to grow, so the Sovereign Lord will make righteousness and praise spring up before all nations” Isaiah61:11.

Let us praise Him for ever and ever. Amen

“But I am like an olive tree flourishing in the house of God; I trust in God’s unfailing love for ever and ever. I will praise you for ever for what you have done; in your name I will hope, for your name is good. I will praise you in the presence of your saints.” Ps 52:8+9

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