Isaiah 49:8

Thus saith the Lord, God the Father, unto Christ, In an acceptable time, Heb. In a time of good-will; in that time when I shall have, and in a special manner manifest, my good-will unto the sons of men; in the day of my grace, and of man's salvation, as this phrase is explained in the next clause; in the time of the gospel, which is the time of God's good-will towards men, as the host of heaven declared at the birth of Christ, Luke 2:14; In the days of thy flesh, when thou didst offer up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save thee from death, as we read, Hebrews 5:7, which text is a good comment upon this place. Heard thee; though not so as to deliver thee from death and from the sense of my wrath, yet so as to keep thee from sinking under these burdens, and so as thou shouldst not be holden under the pains or power of death, Acts 2:24, and so as to crown thee with glory and honour, and a blessed success of all thy labours and sufferings. In a day of salvation; in the time of grace and of the gospel, which I have appointed for the working out of man's salvation by thee. I will preserve thee upon earth till thy work be finished, and unto that eternal kingdom and glory which is prepared for thee. Give thee for a covenant; to be the Mediator and Surety of that covenant, which is made between me and them; as Christ is called, Hebrews 7:22, Hebrews 8:6; to renew and confirm the covenant, which the Messiah is said to do, Daniel 9:27, by his own blood, by which God and men are reconciled and united one to the other. And therefore he may well be called the covenant by a known metonymy, which is very usual in such eases, as upon the same account circumcision, the sign of the covenant, is called God's covenant, Genesis 17:10, and the paschal lamb is called the passover, Exodus 12:11, and the sacramental cup is called the new testament, Luke 22:20, and the communion of the blood of Christ, 1 Corinthians 10:16. Of the people; indefinitely of all my people, not only Jews, but also the Gentiles, as may be gathered from the context, and by comparing this place with Isaiah 42:6, where the same phrase is used; from both which places it is most manifest that the Messiah is designed, and not Isaiah, to whom this and divers other phrases here used cannot be ascribed without great force. To establish the earth; to compose and settle the earth, and the inhabitants thereof, by making peace between God and men, and between Jews and Gentiles, and by establishing truth, and righteousness, and holiness upon earth, and by subduing those lusts and passions which are the great disturbers of human society; which was the design of God in sending, and of Christ in coming into the world. To cause to inherit the desolate heritages; that desolate places may be repaired and repossessed. That Christ may possess the heathen, according to Psalms 2:8, who were in a spiritual sense in a most desolate and forlorn condition.