Notes on Isaiah 61

A number of these thoughts were suggested by students during exams during the last week. I can’t remember now who said what, but thanks to them all.

1) Isaiah 61 begins with a declaration of the Spirit, and ends with a reference to a garden. That suggests the possibility that Gen 1-2 is structuring the passage. The Spirit comes on the prophet (and on Jesus the great Prophet) as He hovered over the waters in the original creation week. The passage describes a “formless and waste” Israel – an Israel full of ashes and ruined cities – transformed back into order and prosperity. There might be some more detailed connections with Genesis, but at least the overall sequence is similar.

2) In several places, the passage uses a fourfold structure. Verse 1 describes the good news in four different clauses – good news to the afflicted, bind up the broken, liberty to captives, freedom to prisoners. This fourfold good news matches the fourfold devastation described in verse 4: ancient ruins, former devastations, ruined cities, desolations. Since 4 is the number of geographic extend (four corners of the earth, eg), these fourfold lists point to the universality of the restoration. The good news of restoration is being proclaimed to the four corners of the land, and the land is restored from one end to another – in all four dimensions.

3) The sequence of verse 3 is intriguing. Those who mourn in Zion are given a garland, oil, and a mantle. This suggests an investiture; the mourning people are raised up from the dust and ashes and decked with the accouterments of celebration. They are also raised up to be priests (v. 6) and kings. In verse 3, the garland, anointing, and investiture make the people into “oaks of righteousness, the planting of Yahweh.” The mourning faithful are invested to be trees. They are the new trees of the new garden, the new wooden temple, the grove of Yahweh.

4) The passage is all about reversal, and the reversal is neatly captured in verse 5. Instead of Israel serving foreign powers, the Lord promises to make the Gentiles serve them, tending their sheep and farming their land.

5) Meanwhile, Israel will be made into ministers in Yahweh’s house, priests to the lord. It is as priests that they will “eat the wealth of nations” (v. 6). This is not only an exodus plunder-the-Egyptians allusion, but also points to one of the functions of the priestly nation. The Gentiles will bring their offerings to the Lord’s house, and Israel will eat from the abundance that flows in from the nations.

6) Finally, verse 11 makes a strange comparison. Earth brings forth sprouts, and a garden causes the sown things to spring up. Earth and garden are compared to Yahweh, who “will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations’ (v. 11). The Lord is the source of growth of praise and righteousness as the earth is the source of sprouts and garden causes things to sprout up.