1. Sat: Psalms 64-68
  2. Sun: Leviticus 1-4
  3. Mon: Luke 6-7
Tuesday · Week 23
The Early Prophets

Isaiah 61-64

Week 23 · about 11 min
  1. Wed: 1 Kings 1-3
  2. Thu: Colossians
  3. Fri: Ezekiel 43-44

The anointed one brings good news, Zion is restored, and the people pray for God to come down.

Beauty for Ashes

But now, O LORD, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand.

Isaiah 64:8 (KJV)

Jesus read the opening of chapter 61 in Nazareth, and he stopped in the middle of a sentence, just before “the day of vengeance of our God.” His first coming was for good news. The promise is “beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning.” In chapter 62 God says he won’t rest until Jerusalem is a praise in the earth. Chapter 64 is a raw prayer: “Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest come down.” The people confess that “all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags,” and they end by trusting the potter.

Reflect: What ashes in your life are you asking God to turn into something beautiful?

Isaiah 61

1The spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;

2to proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn;

3to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them a garland for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified.

4And they shall build the old wastes, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the waste cities, the desolations of many generations.

5And strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, and aliens shall be your plowmen and your vinedressers.

6But ye shall be named the priests of the LORD: men shall call you the ministers of our God: ye shall eat the wealth of the nations, and in their glory shall ye boast yourselves.

7For your shame ye shall have double; and for confusion they shall rejoice in their portion: therefore in their land they shall possess double: everlasting joy shall be unto them.

8For I the LORD love judgment, I hate robbery with iniquity; and I will give them their recompence in truth, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them.

9And their seed shall be known among the nations, and their offspring among the peoples: all that see them shall acknowledge them, that they are the seed which the LORD hath blessed.

10I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with a garland, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels.

11For as the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden causeth 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.

Isaiah 62

1For Zion’s sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until her righteousness go forth as brightness, and her salvation as a lamp that burneth.

2And the nations shall see thy righteousness, and all kings thy glory: and thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the LORD shall name.

3Thou shalt also be a crown of beauty in the hand of the LORD, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God.

4Thou shalt no more be termed Forsaken; neither shall thy land any more be termed Desolate: but thou shalt be called Hephzi-bah, and thy land Beulah: for the LORD delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married.

5For as a young man marrieth a virgin, so shall thy sons marry thee: and as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee.

6I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem; they shall never hold their peace day nor night: ye that are the LORD’S remembrancers, take ye no rest,

7and give him no rest, till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth.

8The LORD hath sworn by his right hand, and by the arm of his strength, Surely I will no more give thy corn to be meat for thine enemies; and strangers shall not drink thy wine, for the which thou hast laboured:

9but they that have garnered it shall eat it, and praise the LORD; and they that have gathered it shall drink it in the courts of my sanctuary.

10Go through, go through the gates; prepare ye the way of the people; cast up, cast up the highway; gather out the stones; lift up an ensign for the peoples.

11Behold, the LORD hath proclaimed unto the end of the earth, Say ye to the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy salvation cometh; behold, his reward is with him, and his recompence before him.

12And they shall call them The holy people, The redeemed of the LORD: and thou shalt be called Sought out, A city not forsaken.

Isaiah 63

1Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? this that is glorious in his apparel, marching in the greatness of his strength? I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save.

2Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth in the winefat?

3I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the peoples there was no man with me: yea, I trod them in mine anger, and trampled them in my fury; and their lifeblood is sprinkled upon my garments, and I have stained all my raiment.

4For the day of vengeance was in mine heart, and the year of my redeemed is come.

5And I looked, and there was none to help; and I wondered that there was none to uphold: therefore mine own arm brought salvation unto me; and my fury, it upheld me.

6And I trod down the peoples in mine anger, and made them drunk in my fury, and I poured out their lifeblood on the earth.

7I will make mention of the lovingkindnesses of the LORD, and the praises of the LORD, according to all that the LORD hath bestowed on us; and the great goodness toward the house of Israel, which he hath bestowed on them according to his mercies, and according to the multitude of his lovingkindnesses.

8For he said, Surely, they are my people, children that will not deal falsely: so he was their saviour.

9In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old.

10But they rebelled, and grieved his holy spirit: therefore he was turned to be their enemy, and himself fought against them.

11Then he remembered the days of old, Moses, and his people, saying, Where is he that brought them up out of the sea with the shepherds of his flock? where is he that put his holy spirit in the midst of them?

12that caused his glorious arm to go at the right hand of Moses? that divided the water before them, to make himself an everlasting name?

13that led them through the depths, as an horse in the wilderness, that they stumbled not?

14As the cattle that go down into the valley, the spirit of the LORD caused them to rest: so didst thou lead thy people, to make thyself a glorious name.

15Look down from heaven, and behold from the habitation of thy holiness and of thy glory: where is thy zeal and thy mighty acts? the yearning of thy bowels and thy compassions are restrained toward me.

16For thou art our father, though Abraham knoweth us not, and Israel doth not acknowledge us: thou, O LORD, art our father; our redeemer from everlasting is thy name.

17O LORD, why dost thou make us to err from thy ways, and hardenest our heart from thy fear? Return for thy servants’ sake, the tribes of thine inheritance.

18Thy holy people possessed it but a little while: our adversaries have trodden down thy sanctuary.

19We are become as they over whom thou never barest rule; as they that were not called by thy name.

Isaiah 64

1Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest come down, that the mountains might flow down at thy presence;

2as when fire kindleth the brushwood, and the fire causeth the waters to boil: to make thy name known to thine adversaries, that the nations may tremble at thy presence.

3When thou didst terrible things which we looked not for, thou camest down, the mountains flowed down at thy presence.

4For from of old men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen a God beside thee, which worketh for him that waiteth for him.

5Thou meetest him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness, those that remember thee in thy ways: behold, thou wast wroth, and we sinned: in them have we been of long time, and shall we be saved?

6For we are all become as one that is unclean, and all our righteousnesses are as a polluted garment: and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.

7And there is none that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee: for thou hast hid thy face from us, and hast consumed us by means of our iniquities.

8But now, O LORD, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand.

9Be not wroth very sore, O LORD, neither remember iniquity for ever: behold, look, we beseech thee, we are all thy people.

10Thy holy cities are become a wilderness, Zion is become a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation.

11Our holy and our beautiful house, where our fathers praised thee, is burned with fire; and all our pleasant things are laid waste.

12Wilt thou refrain thyself for these things, O LORD? wilt thou hold thy peace, and afflict us very sore?

Revised Version (RV). Revised Version (RV), 1885, public domain.