Isaiah 61:10-62:3

1.     A broken covenant is remade between God and the people.

Isaiah 61:10-11 follows a description of the extensive work and promise of God and the one on whom the Spirit has anointed. God is working to bring good news and renewal of a covenant to the people. As John Watts states in his commentary, Isaiah 61:10-11 are, “a hymn of praise and thanks for salvation and credibility that has come from Yahweh.”[1] Such a hymn uses wedding imagery to describe the joy and praise brought by the Lord. The second section, Isaiah 62:1-3 speaks from God’s voice, proclaiming what God will do to seek the vindication and renewal of the people. There is a deep need behind both the hymn and God’s proclamation. The relationship between the people and God has been disrupted by the unfaithfulness of the people. In response to their unfaithfulness, anxiety can emerge with the question, “Is the Lord’s hand too short to save, his ear too dull to hear?”[2] Likewise, one may question if God is even willing. If the people have lived in brokenness, does God still hold out hope?

Yet our pericope from Isaiah proclaims that God is not only able to restore righteousness and justice, but will do so with passion and power for the people. It affirms that they serve a God who is faithful even when they are not. The God who loves justice and loves the people proclaims continued work to bring restoration to them. Paul Hanson explains then that, “The challenge confronting the people is thus clear: Remain steadfast and the restoration of peace and justice in the land is certain, for the God who remains faithful to God’s promises reigns.”[3] Isaiah’s proclamation holds out hope that those who live in a land of broken-heartedness, spiritual and physical blindness, oppression, and imprisonment can receive the good news of the Lord’s favor.

Because these scriptures are placed together, it is worth noting also whether we should interpret the latter section as a result of the outcry of the first. Is God giving the new name, vindication, and salvation of 62:1-3 as a result of the rejoicing of the prior section? It would seem more likely that God’s desire for this renewal of the people is not dependent on the praise of the people. God’s Spirit already works for the good of the poor, blind, imprisoned, brokenhearted, etc. God is already working toward an everlasting covenant which will bear witness to the nations of God’s blessings[4] From the beginning, God has chosen to extend the call to covenantal faithfulness to the people and the God who initiated the relationship also begins its renewal.

Further, the people’s participation in the joy of salvation, vindication, and a renewed identity is dependent on their humble and obedient reception of what the Lord is promising to do – clothing them, adorning them, causing them to grow and glorify the Lord.

While that means that this relationship is not between equals – people are not on the same level as God – the covenantal relationship is not entirely one-sided. Take for example the “new names” given to the people. Isaiah 61:10-11 has the people praising God for “clothing and covering” them. However, the imagery put from God’s perspective in 62:2-3, is that they are the adornment for God – a crown and diadem for the Lord. They are covered and clothed beautifully by the Lord, and God will be beautifully glorified by God’s people. The Lord, like a divine husband, takes the redeemed people like a bride to be eternally in a joyful, holy, covenantal relationship. As the passage goes on to say in 62:5, “As a young man marries a young woman, so will your Builder marry you; as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you.”

2.     The result of a restored unity with God means that the internal and relational brokenness of people within themselves due to their sin is being mended by God.

God’s work in clothing and cultivating righteousness in the people results in an internal wholeness. In their adultery, the people separate their actions and their proclamations, their being as a people of God and their doing the will of God in holistic love. God rejects this dichotomy but has not abandoned the people to destruction. Rather, God offers renewal of the covenantal relationship so that the people can be whole in their love for God and neighbor. So, the praise of Isaiah 61:10-11 is the result of the transformational work of the Lord. That the recipient of the grace of the Lord can praise out of their “whole being” is a testimony to the grace of God. Praise does not emerge from one’s own works or situation but from the work of God. It is the Lord that causes the earth itself to praise by their creational function; the Lord causes humanity to do the same in their righteousness and praise. There is no circumstance or inward dividedness which hinders the being of the servant of the Lord from praising with their whole self.

Just as this renewed covenant brings wholeness within, it also leads to the path of restored relationships in the community of creation. The brokenness between people is redeemed by God, who loves justice and hates wrongdoing. People who join in faithfulness with a God of justice also seek to enact justice, to extend mercy and to do so out of a humble walk with God. The one anointed by the Spirit the Lord in 61:1-3 is sent on a mission to extend the work of restorative justice among the people:

“…to proclaim good news to the poor…to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn and provide for those who grieve in zion.”

A community restored by this movement of the Spirit joins in the mission of the Sovereign Lord, echoing the same message and reflecting the same acts of justice, mercy, and righteousness. Because of the work of God’s anointed, there is a renewed hope for all creation to embody a life of love for God and neighbor which glorifies God.

3.     The hope for a restored covenant is realized and enacted through Jesus Christ.

In Christ, all that is in our passage has come to fulfillment. Jesus himself reads the beginning of Isaiah 61 in the presence of the congregation in the Nazareth synagogue in Luke 4:14-21. He testifies that its words are fulfilled in his speaking. As that story goes on to demonstrate, there are those who reject the Lord’s anointed Messiah and the Kingdom of God which he proclaims. But, for those who receive the transformational work of God through him, praise will erupt from a restored life. In fulfillment of the words in Isaiah, those who participate in the Gospel of God’s anointed will be clothed like a bride on her wedding day with the dress of praise, salvation, and righteousness. The apostle Paul uses the analogy of adoption to speak of the same transformation,

“So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”[5]

The good news of Christmas is that God has become flesh in Christ Jesus, and through his life, death, and resurrection has clothed the Church with righteousness and salvation. All who come to believe in Jesus Christ can be clothed with God’s very self. They can be made new, set free to do the will of God in wholeness. They can participate in the mission of God to praise with their whole being by participating God’s justice, mercy, and righteousness. Through Christ, God’s people are clothed with the salvation and holiness of their Lord and they clothe God with glory, honor, and praise.

[1] John D.W. Watts, Eds. David A. Hubbard, et al. Isaiah 34-66, Vol. 25 in Word Biblical Commentary (Waco: Word Books Publisher, 1987), 302.

[2] Isaiah 59:1; cf. 50:2

[3] Paul D. Hanson, Isaiah 40-66, Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching, (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1995), 226.

[4] Isaiah 61:1-9

[5] Galatians 3:26-29