(Isaiah 61:1-2) “The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on Me, because the Lord has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour and the day of vengeance of our God.”
The prophet Isaiah has been called the evangelist of the Old Testament whose revelations by and large were related to the Messiah our Lord Jesus and like the prophets Isaiah prophesied for three time frames. He prophesied for his own time frame, he prophesied for the first coming of the Messiah and thirdly for the Second Coming of the Messiah. Isaiah’s most detailed prophecy concerning the crucifixion of the Messiah our Lord Jesus came forth when, by the revelation of the Holy Spirit, Isaiah was able to see into the unseen spiritual realm of eternity where time does not exist as we know it down here, to describe in precise detail the intense suffering, the agonizing death and the glorious resurrection of the Messiah our Lord Jesus as we have it recorded in Isaiah Chapter 52:13-15 and Chapter 53.
In Isaiah Chapter 61 we have all three time frames described and the final spiritual restoration of the remnant of Israel and by extension and inclusion the Body of the Messiah spiritually grafted into Israel. Isaiah prophesied 700 years before the birth of the Messiah our Lord Jesus. In this post we will focus on the first two verses of this prophecy which were uttered by the Lord Jesus in the Temple when He referred this prophecy to Himself causing the uproar of an aggressive and violent chain reaction as it were, that spread through the religious hierarchy in the Temple to the point where they tried to kill Him, but He just walked through the crowd and went on His way. Let’s now look briefly at these first two verses from the prophet Isaiah Chapter 61 which describe the first and the second coming of the messiah.
(Isaiah 61:1-2)
“The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on Me, because the Lord has anointed Me.”
God is the Eternal and Supreme Spirit of the universe and the creator of everything that exists in the whole universe. No purpose of His can be thwarted. He does what He wants, when He wants and in the way He wants and with whomsoever He wants, and asks no man’s permission (Job 42:2) (Isaiah 45:7-9) (Proverbs 16:33) (Ephesians 1:11) (Colossians 1:16-17). The Bible itself in both Testaments reveal that God is sovereign and in control over everything that happens on earth, under the earth, in the heavens and in the unseen spiritual realm and in the whole universe, which He, as the Triune God, created with the command of His mouth (Psalm 33:9).
Because of the fall of man God sent Himself in the person of His Eternal Son into this world to become a man and to physically die as God for the human race, to pay the price of sin (John 3:16-18) (1 John 2:2). Some would argue that God cannot die physically, but He could, being Triune in nature, when He sent His only begotten, not created, eternal Son into the world who proceeded and came forth from God (John 8:42). As we know God was in the Messiah our Lord Jesus reconciling the world to Himself and that the complete fullness of the divine Godhead dwelt in Him in bodily form (2 Corinthians 5:19) (Colossians 2:9).
Now we are also told in the Bible that the Spirit of the Sovereign God rested upon the Lord Jesus and that without measure (John 3:34). Here we see the Holy Spirit, also being God the Spirit, and through Him God is always able to be present everywhere because He is God the Spirit (Psalm 139:7-10). Now we are told that the sovereign God rested upon the Messiah in the person of the Holy Spirit…
“to preach good news to the poor.”
Physical poverty has always been in every society in every age and those who are physically poor in this world are the ones who will respond to the gospel of the kingdom more than those who have things good in this world. As the Lord Jesus said how hard it was for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God. Yet here in the text of Isaiah the reference is primarily directed at those who are poor in spirit or feel within themselves a sense of spiritual poverty that only can be remedied in God. As the Lord Jesus said “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs in the kingdom of heaven.” Only those who recognise their utter spiritual poverty before a just and righteous God will also run to the Saviour our Lord Jesus to be washed by His blood making it possible for them to enter God’s eternal kingdom (1 John 1:7-9).
As it is also written; “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise” (Psalm 51:17) and because “A bruised reed he will not break, and a smouldering wick he will not snuff out” (Isaiah 42:3). What an awesome God we serve! Then we are told …
“He has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted.”
A broken heart here in this context is not talking about a broken heart because of a broken relationship, but a brokenness of heart because of one’s recognition and deep awareness of their perpetual sinful disposition and innate tendency to choose unrighteousness rather than choosing righteousness. This is the human condition of the heart and something that cannot be changed but by a supernatural intervention by the Spirit of God (Jeremiah 17:9) (John 3:3) (2 Corinthians 5:17) (1 Corinthians 2:12-16). When one recognises that they are rebellious at heart and know they love sin, yet also desire with all their heart to hate sin and to love God, the blessed Holy Spirit will come to their aid and work in them “that holiness without which no one shall see God” (Hebrews 12:14).
Did not our Lord Jesus say; “Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Matthew 11:28-29). Only when we are yoked together with the Lord Jesus through a personal relationship with Him will we be able to walk in step with Him in the will of God and obey His Commandments as revealed in God’s Word the Bible. Both yoked together will be able to tread out the nutritious spiritual grain of God’s Word to feed the hungry souls of men. And then we are told the He was anointed…
“to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners,”
These are all those enslaved to sin, whose inner spirit man is like a dark dungeon because of sin that has no spiritual light whatsoever, which only the blood of Jesus can break and set them free from its power and grip in this world, and from and its eternal and conscious penalty being hell and the lake of fire in the world to come. If we are enslaved to sin and under Satan’s power it is only the blood of Jesus applied to the doorpost of our hearts by the Holy Spirit that can loose us from Satan’s grip, loose us from sin, redeem us back to God, purge our innermost being from all unrighteousness and wickedness of heart, enable us to serve the Living God, and bestow upon us forgiveness of sins according to the riches of God’s unmerited and unearned favour (Revelation 1:5) (Ephesians 1:7) (Ephesians 2:8-10). As Isaiah also tells us, that the Messiah will give us “a crown of beauty in place of ashes” and “clothe us with the garments of salvation and array us in the robe of the Messiah’s righteousness” (Isaiah 61:3, 10) (Philippians 3:7-11).
It is only the blood of Jesus that can atone for, and cleanse us from all sin and unrighteousness through repentance and faith in Him to do this for us (1 John 1:7-9). It is the blood of Jesus that gives us the confidence to come into God’s presence, having our conscience purged from dead works to serve the living God (Hebrews 10:19-20) (Hebrews 9:14). It is only the blood of Jesus that can break Satan’s power to keep us enslaved to sin. Make much of the blood of Jesus, as by its power we can be set free from the lust of the eyes, from the lust of the flesh and from the pride of life. As that old hymn goes “Would you be free from the power of sin, there’s power in the blood, power in the blood. Would you o’er evil a victory win, there’s wonderful power in the blood!” And then we read what the Lord Jesus has been anointed to do; He was anointed…
“to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.”
God tells us in His Word that He is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9). He also tells us that now is the day of salvation, and that now is the accepted time to receive it and not put it off any longer if you know you are not as yet saved and born again by the Spirit of God. We are also told in the Bible that today if you Hear His voice do not harden your heart as you may never have another chance to be saved before you die because it is appointed for man once to die and after that to face the judgement (2 Corinthians 6:2) (Hebrews 3:15) (Hebrews 9:27). Finally we are told that the Messiah was anointed to proclaim…
“the day of vengeance of our God.”
This of course refers to the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus when God will pour out His wrath on a Messiah hating, Messiah rejecting world. Only those who by faith in the Messiah are justified before God and are sheltered under the Messiah’s blood will be spared (Romans 5:9). When the Lord Jesus applied this text in Isaiah Chapter 61:1-2 to Himself in Luke Chapter 4:18-19 in the Temple when reading from the prophet Isaiah, He stopped at the phrase, “the year of the Lord’s favour” and did not quote “the day of vengeance of our God” because He was only referring to the fact of His first coming as the Messiah was to redeem Israel from their sins as the suffering servant.
His focus in the Temple was to reveal to them the fact that He was the suffering servant described also in the prophet Isaiah. He had come into the world to seek and to save the lost. In His Second Coming He will come as the all-conquering king of kings and Lord of Lords! Retribution for rebellion and sin and the rejection of salvation will also happen at His Second Coming at the end of the age. It would be God’s vengeance, as it is written where God Himself says, “Vengeance is mine and I will repay!”
There is only one safe place to be when the destroying angel passes through the Egypt of this world, and that is to be sheltering by faith under the blood of the Messiah, and by having that blood applied to the doorposts of our heart by the blessed Holy Spirit. While we are destined for tribulation in this world, we are not destined for wrath, because in the day of vengeance of our God it is our Lord Jesus, who through His redeeming and cleansing blood, will save us from the coming wrath (John 16:33) (1 Thessalonians 3:3; 1:10; 5:9).
