The Anointed One Declares His Mission (Isaiah 61:1-4).
“The Spirit of the Lord Yahweh is upon me,
Because Yahweh has anointed me,
To preach good tidings to the meek (or ‘the poor'),
He has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives,
And the opening to those who are bound,
To proclaim the acceptable year of Yahweh,
And the day of vengeance of our God.
To comfort all who mourn.”
We have here the abrupt change of person so typical in the passages about the Servant (Isaiah 42:1-4; Isaiah 49:1-6; Isaiah 50:3-8; Isaiah 52:13 to Isaiah 53:12). At one moment Zion is being addressed, and then in the midst of it comes the voice of one who serves God.
The One described here is God's Anointed. This can be contrasted with Cyrus in Isaiah 45:1. There Cyrus was the anointed of Yahweh, because Yahweh had set him aside for a certain task, but there is no mention of the Spirit there, for in Isaiah the Spirit only ever comes in a good sense on those Who are truly His and have a central task to perform in the final course of the salvation history (Isaiah 11:2; Isaiah 28:6; Isaiah 42:1; Isaiah 59:21; see also Isaiah 32:15; Isaiah 44:3). The Spirit comes in directly to frustrate the enemies of God (Isaiah 59:19).
Here the majesty of the Spirit is brought out. He is the Spirit of the sovereign Lord Yahweh, and it is the sovereign Lord Yahweh Who will act directly and personally through Him. And the Spirit-endowed One is so endowed because Yahweh has anointed Him for a special task, to be a preacher (Isaiah 50:4-9), a healer of the spirit (Isaiah 42:7), a deliverer (Isaiah 11:1-4; Isaiah 42:1-6; Isaiah 49:1-6) and a proclaimer of God's final purposes, not final in respect of what some call ‘the end times', but final in the sense that once God begins to act mightily through His Spirit nothing can stop the purposes that then begin from going onwards until God's purposes are complete (Isaiah 55:10-11), (though it may take a thousand years and more). Thus He is both Servant and King.
The task He has been set is manifold. As a Teacher He is to be a preacher of good tidings to the poor and meek, those too weak to help themselves (Isaiah 50:4-5; Isaiah 52:7), as a spiritual Counsellor (Isaiah 9:6) He is to bind up the broken-hearted (Isaiah 57:15; Psalms 51:9), as a Redeemer (Isaiah 59:20-21) He is to proclaim freedom to those who are captive (Isaiah 42:7, compare Leviticus 25:10; Jeremiah 34:8-10 where it is related to the Year of Yubile, that year when all who were oppressed or in bondage were released), and the opening of the prison gates to those who are bound (Isaiah 42:7), and will proclaim Yahweh's year of deliverance (Isaiah 59:20-21), and as the Mighty Warrior He will come with vengeance on those who rebel against God (Isaiah 59:17-19; Isaiah 63:1-6). And while He exacts His vengeance He will comfort all who mourn over their sins as a Wonderful Counsellor (Isaiah 9:6).
Note the process of restoration. The poor and meek were those whom men disregarded, but it is they whom He will lift up (Matthew 5:3; Matthew 5:5). Broken-heartedness covers a variety of attitudes and situations for the heart was considered to be the very root of a man's life. It covers grief, despair, misery, hopelessness, man without a future. But he will receive his future from God through the Anointed One.
For the captive and the prisoner life was over. They were no longer free to enjoy all that life had to offer. They were in subjection. But for them would come deliverance through Him. Those who mourned were those who were aware of loss and despair. They will be comforted (Matthew 5:4). It is to man in his weakness and helplessness that the Anointed One has come.
It is significant that when Jesus quoted these words He closed the book after the words, ‘the acceptable year of Yahweh'. By this He made clear that the prophecy was to be fulfilled in stages. The work of deliverance and restoration had begun. the completion of His task would come later. Not all would occur at once (Luke 4:16-21).
‘The Lord Yahweh.' This title is fairly rare in the second part of the book, but it begins and ends this chapter. It is a title of sovereignty. The Lord Yahweh is the One Who will come to establish His sovereign rule (Isaiah 40:10); He is the One Who with His Spirit sent the Servant to his task (Isaiah 48:16); He is the One Who will command the nations and gather His people (Isaiah 49:22; Isaiah 56:8); He is the One Who will train and sustain His Servant (Isaiah 50:4-9); He is the One who will deliver and redeem His people from all oppression (Isaiah 52:3-6); He is the One Who here endows His Anointed One for His task and will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all nations (Isaiah 61:1; Isaiah 61:11); and He is the One Who will bring judgment on those who forsake Him and blessing on those who respond to Him (Isaiah 65:13-15).
‘The acceptable year of Yahweh' or ‘year of Yahweh's favour (acceptance)'. Compare Isaiah 49:8 where ‘the acceptable time' is linked with the work of the Servant, and Isaiah 60:7 where the nations who come are received as ‘acceptable' in their offerings to Yahweh. It is the year in which Yahweh comes with the offer of acceptance, the offer of His grace and favour. The use of ‘year' may be seen as confirming connection with the year of Yubile. It is the period of deliverance and new freedom. The contrast with ‘day' might also suggest a longer period is in mind, with the period of restoration and deliverance brought about by the favour of God being followed by the final, shorter period of vengeance.
“To appoint to those who mourn in Zion,
To give to them a garland crown for ashes,
The oil of joy for mourning,
The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness,
That they might be called trees of righteousness,
The planting of Yahweh,
That he might be glorified.
His task is to transform the lives and experiences of God's own true people. He will bring about their transformation from mourning and weeping to total joy. The ashes ('pr) of mourning smeared on the head will be replaced by the garland crown (p'r) of rejoicing. Men put ashes on themselves when they wished to demonstrate their total misery and despair. They put garland crowns on themselves or others when they wished to express happiness and rejoicing. The Anointed One will remove the ashes of mourning and replace them with a garland crown of rejoicing.
Mourning will be replaced by the application of the oil of joy. When in mourning men had no regard for their appearance, but once their balance was restored they would anoint themselves with oil so that they could appear before the world in full respectability.
For the spirit of heaviness and dullness we may compare the use of the same root in the ‘dimly burning wick' (Isaiah 42:3). It is man at his lowest. It will be replaced by the garment of praise. They will be lifted from their state of misery and dejection, in which they are spiritually naked, to being fully clothed as expressed in praise and worship and contentment. We might see in the background the dejected Adam and Eve, bowed down by being caught in sin and found naked before God, and then being clothed by God so that they were once more acceptable to Him and gave Him glad praise (Genesis 3:21).
His people will become mighty trees of righteousness, those who have been planted by Yahweh to represent Him and fulfil His work and do His will, and to bring glory to His name. Large trees were seen as the product of many decades. They took a long time to grow. As such they were much treasured and carefully protected. Even the enemy, apart from the unconcerned and uncaring, the vindictive nations like Assyria, would seek not to harm the trees, for they were the future for whoever dwelt in the land. Thus God's own are to be like mighty trees, planted by Him, firmly established, permanent, a testimony to the glory of God.
The ‘naming' of them as ‘trees of righteousness' indicates a new beginning. A new name was regularly given to depict a new beginning (compare Genesis 17:5-6; Genesis 32:27-28). The ‘large trees of righteousness' are probably to be contrasted with the large trees in the gardens of idolatry (Isaiah 1:29; Isaiah 57:5), the latter replaced by those of God's planting. The world will finally not to look to false religion but to His people.
‘And they will build the old waste places,
They will raise up the former desolations,
And they will repair the waste cities,
The desolations of many generations.'
The picture is one of total restoration. Nothing will be left waste, nothing will remain desolate. Centuries of devastation will be restored. All will be made perfect. All man's destructive work will be put right. The thought is of much work to be done in order to establish God's righteous kingdom, put here in physical terms because it was the only way in which his hearers could conceive of it. It is not without significance that the New Testament regularly depicts God's people as builders (Matthew 7:24; Romans 15:20; 1 Corinthians 3:9-10; Ephesians 2:20-22; Colossians 2:7; 1 Peter 2:5; Jude 1:20). And they have continued building through the ages and will continue to do so until the final brick is in place.