The joy here spoken of, is not that carnal joy, which men of the world are seeking after; but the spiritual joy of grace in the heart: and the similitude of harvest-men and warriors is uncommonly beautiful. The husbandman soweth in hope; the soldier warfares in the same: but the race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong. The seed sown must pass under a long and anxious process; and the warrior must go through a long and painful campaign, before he can cry, Victory! But the joy of both is great, when the end hath crowned the action. Such is the joy of the spiritual. When the Lord hath broken the yoke of sin and Satan, those foes, more tremendous than all the host of Midian, and brought the soul out of prison, and the prison-house; and when this battle of the warrior, hath been accomplished by the blood of Christ and the fuel of the Spirit's fire; oh! the joy of the soul in Christ Jesus! The Prophet is here, under the spirit of prophecy, speaking of those things as already accomplished, when as yet Christ, the sole author and finisher of them, is not come. But this is among the features of prophecy: for what shall assuredly come to pass, is in the divine mind as if already completed. Hence Christ, who was to come in the fulness of time, is called the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, Revelation 13:8.
Related Commentaries of Isaiah 9:3
Isaiah 9:3-5
3 Thou hast multiplied the nation, and not increased the joy: they joy before thee according to the joy in harvest, and as men rejoice when they divide the spoil.
4 For thou hast broken the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, as in the day of Midian.
5 For every battle of the warrior is with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood; but this shall be with burning and fuel of fire.