New Creation

New Creation January 14, 2014

The Spirit is upon the Servant of Yahweh (Isaiah 61:1), and where the Spirit is, there is new creation (cf. Genesis 1:2).

The mission of the Servant is fittingly described in a complex of seven infinitive clauses (vv. 1-3):

A) Yahweh anointed Me

1) to proclaim good news to the meek

B) (Yahweh) sent Me . . .

2) to bind up the broken-hearted

3) to proclaim liberty to captives and to the bound opening of doors

4) to proclaim the favorable year of Yahweh and day of vengeance

5) to comfort the mourning

6) to set to the mourners of Zion

7) to give to the mourners

a) garlands for ashes

b) oil of gladness for mourning

c) mantle of praise for spirit of fainting

C) (Yahweh) will call to them

a) trees of righteousness

b) planting of Yahweh

c) to beautification

Ultimately, verse 3 says, this restoration will result in a grove, a forest, a new garden, and verse 4 further brings out the new-creation theme. The opening clause is chiastic:

A. They shall build

B. ancient wastes

B’. desolations from the first-times

A’. they shall raise up.

The land has been desolated from ancient times. From this emptiness, Yahweh’s servant will bring cities (v. 4b). Flocks and herds will again fill the land, along with crops and vineyards (v. 5). In and through the Servant, the Spirit hovers again over the empty void and calls out a cosmos.


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