Exposition by Max A Forsythe
Our chapter today is well known from the fulfillment report by Jesus Himself in the Gospel of Luke which we have just heard. There are several aspects of this reading that we must consider before we turn to the particular words of Isaiah’s prophecy. First, let us take into consideration the whole scene in Luke’s report. Certainly, Nazareth was Jesus’ home town, and He could expect a fair hearing initially. If you still have your Bibles open to the Luke passage, look at what happens. Even as Jesus assures the people that they may have difficulty accepting Him and His words, He reminds them that it was strangers who had honored the prophets Elijah and Elisha more than the people of Israel.
The home town crowd took offense and even tried to throw Jesus over the cliff at the edge of town, but easily Jesus disappeared from their very midst and went on, as that chapter tells us, to deliver a possessed man from captivity, to heal Simon’s mother-in-law of a fever, and to heal a multitude of people in the Capernaum district. Certainly, as Jesus shows us by example, all of those who claim His Name are to be about His work in similar ways. By doing so we, even as He shows us how, may earn the right to witness to those deeds and works of our Lord Jesus Christ. Of course, the worldly will always expect the service without reference to our Lord’s commands, and especially they may not respond to the free offer of the Gospel. This is troubling. A few years ago when we worked our way through Revelation, we noted that in the midst of famine, earthquake, war and disaster, some were brought into a saving relationship and others went their own way to destruction.
So may we also understand our diaconal ministry as well. Wherever God’s elect are served, our gifts and service will point them on to salvation. Wherever the worldly are served, their rejection of the gifts in God’s Name will certainly not make their final end any easier. I remember well a couple of charlatans whom we helped some years ago. In both cases, I heard later that in spite of our generous help, they were much worse off after taking the Lord’s money under false pretensions than they had been before. With these things in mind, let us turn to the text before us to understand as much as we are able.
Since we are already willing servants of our Lord Jesus Christ, and comfortable with knowing that He was indeed the Lord’s Anointed proclaimed here in verse one and in Luke’s passage as well, let us focus on His ministry which we may find laid out before us in the context of Isaiah. In looking at the layout of the NIV text, I believe we could have a much better outline of the main points than our printed page sets before us. I am certainly comfortable with the implications of subordination of the preaching in verse one to the anointing of the Spirit. But I would rather see the phrase “He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted” as a heading for much of what follows to the end of verse four.
In my outline then, the following points would be the major emphases of this division:
“to preach good news to the poor ...
to proclaim freedom ...
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor ...
to comfort all who mourn ...
to bestow on them a crown of beauty”
Are these not the major tasks of our Lord’s ministry and of our very own as well? Certainly, there is much more that we could develop here if we could spend more than a week on this wonderful chapter.
But, let us hurry on to the last phrases of the exceptionally long verse three. “They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor.” In this verse we see that all of those who respond to the varied ministry of our Lord and of His Church will be like a nursery for seedling trees. A veritable forest in the making if you will. Thirty some years ago when I toured England, our bus drove through some barren hills. As we headed up into the hills we passed a large sign which proclaimed that before us several thousands of acres had been replanted to trees. The name of the tree park? It was Sherwood Forest! As the bus moved along, you could just barely glimpse the foot and a half seedlings in 1967. I would love to be able to go back and see what Sherwood Forest looks like today.
In God’s own time, His own seedlings may have an impact on the nations and the world’s peoples, as we see in the next division of our text. Do we not see a land restored, is there not prosperity shared by and with the gentiles? God’s elect are promised a double portion. Recently at school, some of my students were grousing over how poor they were. They had no money to do anything, and yet were not able to hold a job for very long. I told them that they needed to visit Haiti or some other hell hole of poverty where natural man has had his way with the environment and with the common people. Then, I said, you would understand why two-thirds of the world’s people would gladly cut off their right arm to be allowed into America.
We have been richly blessed in this great land of ours, material wealth in abundance is spread more widely here than anywhere else. However, there is still much spiritual poverty. Isn’t it great to know the everlasting joy of the double portion that is ours? All of this present glory of God’s presence and heaven too! Verse eight is chock full of heavenly coffee, if you remember the old advertisement! Certainly, the Lord abhors all that is wicked and evil even in the midst of our fair land and the Judea of Isaiah’s time as well.
However, God promises a reward for the elect; He promises an everlasting covenant. Even the worldly will know and recognize the people that the Lord has blessed. In the ancient world, by the time of Jesus, all of the known world expected great things to come out of Palestine. The fullness of time was coming and the worldly audience held their breath in anticipation to hear the promise fulfilled. “The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.” If all the world had been there in Nazareth that day, the local crowd would not have had a chance to chase Jesus out of their “Church”. No indeed, but who here is the anticipated gathering who will share the Covenant promise? It is the redeemed of all the earth, all of those who will thank the Lord Almighty for the garments of salvation and praise Him earnestly for the robe of righteousness. But I have jumped ahead to the scene at the end of the chapter, haven’t I?
I have passed over the worldly in Israel who would not accept their Messiah. But who indeed is Israel, who indeed is the bride of Christ except the very Church composed of both Jews and Gentiles who faithfully followed after our Lord and Savior? As our last verse points out, out of the garden of Old Covenant Israel there will spring up before all the nations sons and daughters who belong to the Lord’s everlasting Covenant. A Covenant of bread and wine celebrated when He was with His disciples. A Covenant which we share in today, in remembrance of His dying there on the cross, so that we might have the promised salvation and righteousness proclaimed in our text today. May we adorn ourselves with praise, thanksgiving and heartfelt gratitude for that great gift of salvation, even as we remember the ministry that led Him on to the cross, the grave and thence to heaven.
Resources Used:
Ellis, Charles..
The Wells of Salvation.
Schaeffer, Francis. Everybody
Can Know.
Thomas, Derek..
Welwyn Commentery Series: God Delivers.
Young, Edward J.
The Book of Isaiah.
Youngblood, Ronald F. The Book of Isaiah: An
Introductory Commentary.
The Holy Bible.
New International Version (1984 Edition)
NOTE: I am not able to automatically
recommend any future editions.
Christ Covenant Reformed (Presbyterian Church in America) -
Box 13926 - Columbus, OH 43213
(c) 2001
29 January 1995
Permission granted to redistribute unedited versions with this notice.