In that day shall the branch of the Lord be beautiful and glorious
The first personal reference in Isaiah to the Messiah
If this is a reference to Christ, critics are agreed that it is the first personal reference to the Messiah which Isaiah has yet given.
(J. Parker, D. D.)
A pleasing contrast
What so beautiful as that a branch should appear in this wilderness of lava! Blessed are they who can turn away from the desert and look at the garden. (J. Parker, D. D.)
A branch
Then the fountains of life and energy are not dried up. (J. Parker, D. D.)
A branch
That is to say, fruitfulness, beauty, sufficiency, energy, summer. This is what the Son of God same to be and to do--to fill the earth with fruitfulness, to drive away the ghastly, all-devouring famine, and to feed the world with the fruit of heaven. (J. Parker, D. D.)
The Branch of the Lord
I. THE GENERAL MEANING OF THE PASSAGE. The time spoken of by the prophet is clearly the time of the Christian dispensation, called “the last days” (ch. 2). And we need not stop to prove that “the Branch of the Lord” is a name or title of the Messiah. We have, therefore, a prophecy of the glory of Christ’s kingdom.
II. THE INNER MEANING OF THE PASSAGE.
(1) Why is it said “In that day,” specifying a particular time, “the Branch of the Lord shall be glorious”? And
(2) what is the special force or meaning of the title, “the Branch of the Lord”?
1. The glory of Christ is surely the glory which He had with the Father from the beginning. How then can it be said of Him that at any assigned time He is glorious, rather than at another? The word glory, when spoken of God or Christ, cannot have precisely the same sense as when spoken of a man. A man may gain glory by some act above the average of human nature. But starting from infinite perfection, nothing greater or nobler can be conceived. Glory, therefore, with reference to God is not the gaining of any higher excellence, but the manifestation of excellence which existed already. The creation was the first manifestation of the glory of God. And if the glory of God was made manifest in creation, it is yet more fully revealed in those mysteries of redemption which angels desired to look into.
2. But why in this connection is the Saviour called the Branch of the Lord? If the appropriateness of the figure does not at once appear, it will at least remind us of--“I am the Vine, ye are the branches.” The expression thus sets Christ before us in His character as the Mediator--Himself the Branch of the Lord, and His people branches of that true Vine. Thus we are enabled further to connect the title with the glory spoken of. The glory and beauty of the vine is in its fruit (John 15:8). (A. K. Cherrill, M. A.)
God’s perpetual presence with His people
I. THE PREPARATION FOR THE PROMISE. In the earlier verses of the chapter you will find that two things are presented as antecedent to the gifts of blessing--that is, the coming of the Divine Saviour, and His discipline for holiness within His Church.
1. The transition from the gloomy judgment to the grandeur of deliverance is abrupt and striking, as if from a savage wilderness one were to emerge suddenly into green pastures and among gay flowers. And surely this is a true representation of the change which passes upon human destinies when Christ the Lord comes down. We are naturally heirs of judgment. There is not a family, there is not a heart, upon which the curse has not descended in disastrous entail; there is a stain upon the birth, there is a feebleness in the nature of us all. But there comes a sound of help and of deliverance, for a Saviour has been provided--a Saviour who, in the mysterious union of natures, combines perfection of sympathy and almightiness of power.
2. It would at once correct our estimate and restrain our pride if we could remember always that with God the greatest thing is holiness. And then, further, we are told that to work this holiness in His people, God subjects them to discipline, and, if necessary, to the spirit of judgment and to the spirit of burning. Mark the exquisite fitness and the exquisite kindness of the discipline. There are some stains that water can wash away. If the water will avail, there is no need of the fire. There are some stains so deep and foul and crimson that the fire must purge them.
II. THE PROMISE ITSELF (verse 5). As we read these words, we are translated to a former scene of deliverance. We go back to the older ages; and there, in the fierce wilderness, where no groves of palm trees wave with shade, a vast host marching steadily, now in their van for guidance, now in their rear for protection, there rises by day a pillar of cloud and by night a pillar of flame; and, as we gaze, we listen to the snatches of their song: “Sing ye to the Lord, for He hath triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider hath He thrown into the sea.” This was the vision prominent in the mind of the prophet when he symbolised by it God’s presence and protection to His chosen Church.
1. The central thought is the presence of God. Then, there are right-hand and left-hand thoughts or aspects in which that presence manifests itself.
2. The presence of God for counsel.
3. The presence of God for defence. (W. M. Punshom.)
God’s promise to the remnant
I. THE PERSONS INTENDED. The remnant, the escaping, the “evasion of Israel,” as the word signifies (Isaiah 4:2) they that are left, that remain (Isaiah 4:3), who escape the great desolation that was to come on the body of the people, the furnace they were to pass through. Only in the close of that verse, they have a further description added of them, from the purpose of God concerning their grace and glory--they are written among the living, or rather, written unto life; “Everyone that is written,” i.e., designed unto life in Jerusalem.
II. THE CONDITION WHEREIN THEY WERE. This is laid down in figurative expressions concerning the smallness of this remnant, or the paucity of them that should escape, and the greatness of the extremities they should be exercised withal.
III. THE PROMISES HERE MADE TO THIS PEOPLE are of two sorts: Original, or fundamental; and then consequential thereon.
1. There is the great spring, or fountain promise, from which all others, as lesser streams, do flow; and that is the promise of Christ Himself unto them, and amongst them; He is that Branch of Jehovah, and that fruit of the earth, which is there promised (Isaiah 4:2). He is the foundation, the fountain of all the good that is or shall be communicated unto us; all other promises are but rivulets from that unsearchable ocean of grace and love that is in the promise of Christ.
2. The promises that flow from hence--
(1) Of beauty and glory (Isaiah 4:2).
(2) Of holiness and purity (Isaiah 4:3-4).
(3) Of preservation and safety (Isaiah 4:5-6). (J. Owen, D. D.)