Isaiah 61:8-11

3. FAME

TEXT: Isaiah 61:8-11

8

For I, Jehovah, love justice, I hate robbery with iniquity; and I will give them their recompense in truth, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them.

9

And 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 Jehovah hath blessed.

10

I will greatly rejoice in Jehovah, 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.

11

For as the earth bringeth forth its bud, and as the garden causeth the things that are sown in it to spring forth; so the Lord Jehovah will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations.

QUERIES

a.

What is the truth in which Jehovah will recompense?

b.

Whose seed shall be known among the nations?

c.

Why use the illustration of a bridegroom and bride?

PARAPHRASE

I am Absolute, I am Faithful-Yaweh, and so justice is My very nature. I despise injustice and wickedness and so I will faithfully reward My people by delivering them from their wicked oppressors and My pledge of this shall be in an everlasting covenant which I will establish with them. The citizens of New Zion shall be uniquely recognizable and even famous wherever they are all over the world. It will be so simple to identify the godly that everyone who sees them will recognize and acknowledge that Almighty God has blessed them. Zion will be filled with joy and she shall continually offer happy praise to God for His goodness. God has wrapped Zion in the grace of His righteousness and salvation and made her as beautiful and admirable as a bridegroom in his wedding suit or a bride wearing her precious jewelry. Just as surely as the earth produces fruit when seeds are sown in it, so the fruits of righteousness and praise will sprout from the seed of. New Zion sown by Jehovah among the nations.

COMMENTS

Isaiah 61:8-9 RENOWN: Zion will one day rejoice because she shall be made famous. The reason she shall be made famous, however, will not be due to her own merit but because God is who He is He is by nature absolutely just and faithful. God will deliver Zion from her enemies because He loves justice and hates iniquity and therefore must vindicate His absolute sovereignty by destroying iniquity and rewarding loyalty. The loyalty Jehovah will reward will be that of the sinless Servant; but the Servant will impute His perfect meritorious obedience (Hebrews 10:5-10) to all who by faith and covenant-keeping become citizens of the New Zion. The Lord's primary goal is the vindication of His Name (cf. Ezekiel 29:9, Ezekiel 29:14, 22, 44; Ezekiel 36:21-23; Ezekiel 36:32; Ezekiel 38:16; Ezekiel 38:23; Ezekiel 39:7-8, Ezekiel 39:25-29). It is imperative that Jehovah's absolute sovereignty and absolute faithfulness be proven and vindicated. Man's salvation depends on God's faithfulness, not his own (see comments, Isaiah 48:9-11).

The word -emeth is translated truth and is from the Hebrew root -aman (same as Greek and English amen). The word means firmness, faithfulness, stability, fidelity, verity. The idea in verse eight is that God is going to prove His fidelity by keeping His promise to destroy Zion's enemies because they are wicked. This demonstration of Jehovah's absolute faithfulness will, in turn, move men of all nations to happily come into covenant relationship with Jehovah. All this will be accomplished when Jehovah makes an everlasting covenant with man. Thus once again we conclude these scriptures are prophetic of the New Zion, the church. It was at the cross and the empty tomb that God destroyed the power of all the enemies of man (cf. Luke 1:67-79; Luke 2:29-35; John 12:27-33; John 16:11; Romans 8:31-39; Colossians 2:14-15; Hebrews 2:14-15, etc.).

The Hebrew word berith is the word for covenant. It is from the Hebrew root word barah which means literally to cut, or to choose, to select. Its fundamental idea is chosen separated or that which distinguishes a selected people. God's salvation and blessings are available always within a covenant. A covenant, by its very nature, demands choice, or selection, and that requires conditions and terms. The everlasting covenant (or new covenant Jeremiah 31:31 ff) has conditions and terms men must choose if they wish its blessings. Christ is the new covenant (cf. Matthew 26:26-29; Hebrews 8:6; Hebrews 12:24; Hebrews 13:20). He is the resurrection and the life, whoever lives and believes in Him shall never die (John 11:26). Paul, the apostle, spoke of the new covenant relationship as being in Christ (cf. Romans 12:5; 1 Corinthians 15:22; 2 Corinthians 1:21; 2 Corinthians 3:14; 2 Corinthians 5:17; Galatians 3:27; Ephesians 3:6; etc.). The everlasting covenant is predicted in many places in the O.T. (cf. Isaiah 55:3; Jeremiah 32:40; Ezekiel 16:60-63; Ezekiel 37:26, etc.).

The seed and offspring of New Zion will be renowned among the Gentiles. The people of the Messiah (Christians) were known throughout the Roman world of the first century (and ever after) for their faith, obedience and love (cf. Acts 2:47; Acts 4:13; Acts 4:33; Romans 16:19; 1 Thessalonians 1:8-10; Philemon 1:4-7; 1 Peter 4:4). Pliny the younger wrote the believers met regularly early in the morning to worship Christ as a divinity. They insisted on a strict code of ethics; to abstain from fraud, theft, and adultery, never to lie, nor to default on an obligation. At the end of the assembly they ate a common meal and then adjourned. John Noble (prisoner of the Russians for 12 years) received the admiration and respect of the Russian prison guards for his Christian life. Isaiah means to stress how different the people of the Messiah will be from the heathenish behavior of the Israel of his day or the paganism of the world in general (cf. John 13:35). The goodness and blessedness and joy of the lives of the citizens of Zion will be acknowledged (perhaps even grudgingly respected) by the whole world. The Messiah's people are blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places (Ephesians 1:3).

In verse ten, New Zion is rejoicing in the Lord because the Lord has clothed her in salvation and righteousness. The church is all dressed up like someone waiting for a wedding! (cf. Ephesians 5:25-27; Revelation 19:6-10). The people of the Messiah partake of the glory of the Messiah by being made partakers of His nature (2 Peter 1:3-4) which is done by abiding in His Will (John 15:1-11). New Zion partakes of her King's nature gradually, progressively, from one degree of glory to another (2 Corinthians 3:17-18). New Zion must never forget that her beauty is relative to and dependent upon partaking of her Lord's righteousness and salvation. New Zion has no beauty of her own. She is clothed by Someone else! So all her boasting or rejoicing is directed to the Source of her glory (cf. 1 Corinthians 1:29-31; Galatians 6:14-16).

As surely as the earth produces when seeds are sown in it, so the Lord will produce righteousness and praise to spring forth all over the world. Isaiah affirms the faithfulness of Jehovah to keep His word. God's word always producesit always comes to pass! (Isaiah 55:10-11). The existence of God and His faithfulness has been demonstrated in thousands of supernatural, historically-eyewitnessed events. Many of these events were predicted hundreds of years before they occurred. But most finally and ultimately God has proved His absolute veracity and trustworthiness in the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Death, the ultimate enigma, the ultimate obstacle, has been defeated. It has been swallowed up forever (Isaiah 25:8). He kept His word! In spite of dungeon, fire and sword, God saved a remnant of Judah and brought the Messiah into the world. Babylon could not stop His word from being fulfilled; Persia, Greece, Romethey could not stop it! Not even the death of the Messiah upon a Roman cross could stop His word.

Now the Lord works slowly, estimated by our finite, limited experience. But He works certainly! Some, in fact a majority of men, may scoff (2 Peter 3:1-10), but one day this victorious, living Messiah is coming back for His dressed-up bride. What righteousness and praise that will call forth from New Zion (the bride) whose citizens are from every tribe and tongue and people on the face of the earth. Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father!

QUIZ

1.

What does the nature of God have to do with our salvation?

2.

What is a covenant?

3.

What is man's relationship to God's covenant?

4.

Has verse nine been fulfilled?

5.

What is the source of Zion's beauty?

6.

How do we know God's word is sure?