WWUTT 2164 Jesus Binds Up the Brokenhearted (Isaiah 61:1-11)

Isaiah 61 begins, The Spirit of Lord Yahweh is upon me, because Yahweh has anointed me. To bring good news to the afflicted, He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted and proclaim release to the captives, when we understand the text.

This is When We Understand the Text, a daily Bible commentary to help encourage your time in the Word. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday we feature New Testament Study, an Old Testament book on Thursday, and our Q &A on Friday.

Now here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe.

Thank you, Becky.

Isaiah 61 Fulfilled in Jesus’ Reading at Nazareth

Well, being Thursday, we're back in our study of the book of Isaiah. And just like with several other chapters in Isaiah, we're coming across passages today that are referenced in the New Testament. And this is a big one.

So let me read here all of chapter 61 out of the book of Isaiah from the Legacy Standard Bible here, the Word of the Lord. The Spirit of Lord Yahweh is upon me, because Yahweh has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted.

He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim release to captives and freedom to prisoners, to proclaim the favorable year of Yahweh and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, to grant those who mourn in Zion, giving them a headdress instead of ashes, the oil of rejoicing instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a spirit of fainting.

So they will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of Yahweh, that he may show forth his beautiful glory. Then they will rebuild the ancient waste places. They will raise up the former desolations and they will make new the ruined cities, the desolations from generation to generation, strangers will stand and pasture your flocks and foreigners will be your farmers and your vine dressers.

But you will be called the priests of Yahweh. You will be spoken of as ministers of our God. You will eat the wealth of nations and in their glories you will boast. Instead of your shame, you will have a double portion and instead of dishonor, they will shout for joy over their portion.

Therefore they will possess a double portion in their land. Everlasting gladness will be theirs for I, Yahweh, love justice. I hate robbery in the burnt offering and in truth I will give them their recompense and cut an everlasting covenant with them.

Then their seed will be known among the nations and their offspring in the midst of the peoples. All who see them will recognize them because they are the seed whom Yahweh has blessed. I will rejoice greatly in Yahweh.

My soul will rejoice in my God for He has clothed me with garments of salvation. He has wrapped me with a robe of righteousness as a bridegroom decks himself with a headdress and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.

For as the earth brings forth its branches and as a garden causes the thing sown in it to branch out, so Lord Yahweh will cause righteousness and praise to branch out before all the nations. So in Luke chapter 4, Jesus goes to Nazareth.

We just read about Jesus teaching in Nazareth and His hometown of Nazareth in our study in the Gospel of Mark, but this one is in Luke 4 where Jesus goes to His hometown where He had been brought up and as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath and stood up to read.

And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him and He opened the scroll and found the place where it was written. This is Luke 4, 18. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because He anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind to set free those who are oppressed to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord. And He closed the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on Him.

And Jesus began to say to them, Today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. And all were speaking well of Him and marveling at the gracious words which were coming forth from His lips. And they were saying, Is this not Joseph's son?

And He said to them, No doubt you will quote this proverb to me. Physician, heal yourself. Whatever we heard took place at Capernaum, do also hear in your hometown as well. And He said, Truly I say to you, no prophet is welcome in his hometown.

Just like we read in Mark 6. But I say to you in truth, Jesus said, There were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah. And when the sky was shut up for three years and six months, when a great famine came over all the land, and yet Elijah was sent to none of them, but only to Zarephath in the land of Sidon to a woman who was a widow.

And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian. And all the people in the synagogue were filled with rage as they heard these things.

And they stood up and drove him out of the city and led him to the edge of the hill on which their city had been built in order to throw him down the cliff. But passing through their midst, he went on his way.

So the people had sought to kill him, even in his own hometown. But Jesus passed through their midst and simply left. But there he sat in the synagogue in Nazareth and read from Isaiah 61 and saying to them, This scripture has been fulfilled in your midst.

The spirit of Lord Yahweh is upon me, because Yahweh has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim release to captives and freedom to prisoners, to proclaim the favorable year of Yahweh.

That's what we have in the first few lines, all of verse 1 and the very first part of verse 2. This is how this chapter begins that is pointing to Christ and showing how Christ is making all things new and will restore his people and give them an inheritance in the land.

This pertains to the Jews to whom this was given, but even beyond this, even the Gentiles. We have the mention of nations here once again in Isaiah 61. So that all who are in Christ, Jew or Gentile, we receive this beautiful inheritance that is promised in this chapter.

And we see promised quite a bit as we're coming up to the close of the prophecy of Isaiah. We just have, what is this, six chapters left. 61, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Yep, just six chapters left. So here we come back to the beginning of this.

The spirit of Lord Yahweh is upon me. And of course, this is the spirit of God with Christ. We saw that at his baptism. The Holy Spirit descending from heaven and resting upon him, the voice from heaven that says, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.

And we understand also from Colossians 1 that the fullness of deity dwelled in him bodily. So everything of Yahweh is bound up in Christ. He is the Son of God, the second person of the Trinity, but the fullness of the deity of the Trinity is still in Christ.

There's no separation of the three persons in the Trinity. So he has come to bring good news to the afflicted. That's a reference to the gospel. And the afflicted really are those who are feeling weighed down by the guilt of sin.

And recognizing and understanding because of our sin, what we deserve is the judgment of God. And so therefore, the news of Christ, of the Holy One who has come, is good news to the afflicted who are looking for a way for their sins to be forgiven and for them to be made right with God.

Comfort for the Brokenhearted and Release for Captives

He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted. Now certainly God comforts us in our hurts and our pains. Psalm 42 .5 Why are you downcast, O my soul? And why are you disturbed within me? Wait for God, for I shall still praise Him for the salvation of His presence.

And we know that God takes into account our sufferings. As Psalm 56 .8 says, Put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book? Then my enemies will turn back in the day when I call. This I know that God is for me.

And you know from Psalm 23, the Lord prepares for me a table in the presence of my enemies. I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. In 1 Peter 5, let's go to a New Testament promise. We are to cast all our anxieties on Him because He cares for you.

And you know the word of Christ who says, Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. So many places in Scripture where we can find that God comforts us in our trouble.

But specifically here in Isaiah 61, He has sent me to bind up the broken hearted is not in reference to the times when I feel lonely and sad. It is in reference to the broken hearted who are broken over their sin, who understand their guilt before God.

And if left to this, what would be my resolution? I would just go into despair knowing that nothing can make me right with God except that He has sent a Savior who will make me right with Him. Psalm 51, 17, this is a confessional psalm, a psalm in which David is broken over his sin.

And he says in verse 17, the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. So here in Isaiah 61, the one who is broken hearted is the one who is broken over his sin.

And Jesus has come to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim release to the captives. What have we been held captive by? Our sin. And with our sins forgiven, God has set us free. He has broken the bonds that sin had a hold of us.

And we are free indeed. Whom the Son sets free is free indeed, as said in John. And freedom to prisoners, verse 2, to proclaim the favorable year of Yahweh. And that's the year in which we currently live.

Even the calendar is marked. These millennia in which we live, it's referred to as the year of our Lord, Anno Domini. We live in the year of Yahweh, the favorable year. But notice something else. So when Jesus read this in Luke 4, that was where his reading stopped.

That very first line of verse 2, to proclaim the favorable year of Yahweh. But look at the next part. And the day of vengeance of our God. So the day that Christ comes is not just a day in which his own will be delivered, but it is also a day that the vengeance of God will be poured out upon the wicked.

Now that's in reference to the day in which Christ returns. It's not in reference to when Christ first came. Not his first advent, but his second advent. So remember in his first advent, he came not to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved, as said in John 3.

When he comes again, it will be to bring in the day of vengeance of our God. But that promise is still bound up in Christ. It's still Christ fulfilling what is being said here in Isaiah 61. So he brings the day of vengeance of our God, but also to comfort all who mourn.

That's the last line of verse 2. So we could actually take that second line, the day of vengeance of our God, not necessarily in reference to when Christ returns the second time and brings the judgment of God.

It could be in reference to that day on which Jesus died on the cross. And he took the wrath of God upon himself for us. So that all who believe in him were no longer under God's wrath, but we are recipients of his love.

It was previously in Isaiah 53 that we read about how it pleased the Lord to crush him. He placed the iniquity of us all on him. And Christ, by his sacrifice, has taken away our reproach. And so in this way, he comforts all who mourn.

Jesus said at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, in Matthew chapter 5, in the Beatitudes, Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted. And Christ is referencing there. Isaiah 61, 2. Let's continue on.

The Robe of Righteousness and the Oaks of Righteousness

Verse 3. To grant those who mourn in Zion, giving them a headdress instead of ashes, the oil of rejoicing instead of mourning. So to grant those who mourn in Zion, remember that God, wherever God dwells, that's Zion.

So those who mourn before the Lord, God will give a headdress instead of ashes. Or a crown, some translations might say. So we are instead of ashes on our head, which symbolize mourning, we will be restored to gladness.

The oil of rejoicing instead of mourning. The mantle of praise instead of a spirit of fainting. So they will be called oaks of righteousness. The planting of Yahweh that He may show forth His beautiful glory.

We're called oaks of righteousness because the righteousness we have is not our own, but what Christ has given to us. The planting of Yahweh. Let's continue on. Then those who receive this, what do they do next?

Verse 4. Then they will rebuild the ancient waste places. They will raise up the former desolations and they will make new the ruined cities. The desolations from generation to generation. So remember now that what we're reading here specifically pertains to the Jews first.

This is.

Who received this particular prophecy. So the Jews think that when they come back from exile, this is written a hundred years before their exile, but coming back to it during their exile they think coming out of our exile, well we're going to raise up those places that were laid waste by our enemies that came and ransacked the land.

We're going to raise up the former desolations. We're going to make new the ruined cities. But as we read about in Hebrews 11, those faithful were not looking for an earthly inheritance, but a heavenly one.

And so even these things that are being talked about here, raising up the former desolations, this is the way Jesus says I am making all things new and giving us a promise of a place that cannot be touched, cannot be ruined by human hands.

Therefore the desolations will be made new from generation to generation. They won't ever come to an end. This renewal that's taking place will be a permanent renewal and nothing will be able to take it away from us.

No one will be able to take us out of it. Verse 5 strangers will stand and pasture your flocks and foreigners will be your farmers and your vine dressers. And this is just simply to say that we will reign as kings with him and then all the others will be our servants or will be under our feet is really the picture that's being put there.

Verse 6, but you will be called the priests of Yahweh. You will be spoken of as ministers of our God. You will eat the wealth of nations and in their glories you will boast. Going back to 1 Peter again, it's in 1 Peter 2 where it says that you are a chosen family, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession so that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness and into his marvelous light.

We are priests in his holy nation that we might testify of his goodness to the world so others will know the good news of Christ and what he has done and put their faith in him and be saved. Verse 7, instead of your shame you will have a double portion and instead of dishonor they will shout for joy over their portion.

Therefore they will possess a double portion in their land. Everlasting gladness will be theirs. We're talking about receiving so much more than whatever earthly abundance we can accumulate. Consider the words of Jesus in Luke 6, 38.

Give and it will be given to you. They will pour into your lap a good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, for by your standard of measure it will be measured to you in return. So as we have received the love of God, let us show the love of God to others and the reward and the treasure that we will receive as a result of that will be abundant.

Abundant in everlasting.

Life.

Justice, the Everlasting Covenant, and the Spread of the Gospel

Verse 8, for I, Yahweh love justice. I hate robbery in the burnt offering and in truth I will give them their recompense and cut an everlasting covenant with them. So this once again calls us to justice, to righteousness, that we would live in those things that God calls right and do so before him all our days.

And we will show ourselves to be part of that everlasting covenant that he has given us in Christ. Then their seed, verse 9, will be known among the nations and their offspring in the midst of the peoples.

This is talking about the spread of the gospel to many others and those others that come to faith and believe. The kingdom of God will be seen throughout the world. All who see them will recognize them.

They will know that we are Christians by our love. Because they are the seed whom Yahweh has blessed. And indeed, that's every Christian. Talked about that earlier this week too. As we've been in the gospel of Mark.

Everyone who is in Christ are those whom Yahweh has blessed. And the rest of the world will see that we are blessed and wonder what it is that we have that they do not have. Verse 10, I will rejoice greatly in Yahweh.

My soul will rejoice in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation. He has wrapped me with a robe of righteousness. Again, the righteousness is not ours. It is the gift that God has given to us.

The very thing that he demands of us to live in justice and righteousness, as we read earlier, is the thing he gives to us. He clothes us in salvation. He wraps us in righteousness. As a bridegroom decks himself with a headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with jewels.

Verse 11, for as the earth brings forth its branches, and as a garden causes the things sown in it to branch out, so Lord Yahweh will cause righteousness and praise. Once again, the very thing that God demands is the thing that he gives.

He will cause righteousness and praise. Let me go back to Psalm 51 again, verses 14 and 15. Deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God, the God of my salvation. Then my tongue will joyfully sing of your righteousness.

O Lord, open my lips, that my mouth may declare your praise. For you do not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it. You are not pleased with burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, as I just read earlier.

A broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. It is God who opens our lips to make our mouth declare his praise. And I am so thankful for that. There are some that will read a passage like that and say, well, that means we're robots.

Now, I am under the control of God, and I am grateful for that, because under my own control, I know the stupid things I do. So may God open my mouth to declare praise to him. Amen for that. So Lord Yahweh will cause righteousness and praise, in the very last line of verse 11, to branch out before all the nations.

And indeed, you can go throughout the world and find the praises of God sung. I believe the gospel is going to go out even farther than it already has, so that you will hear the praises of God everywhere on earth.

This is foretold in Scripture, and it is fulfilled even in these days. You could go to any country in the world, and you can find people that know and worship God. And so may his name continue to be praised, looking forward to that day, here in the favorable year of Yahweh, when we are not only delivered into the eternal kingdom, the promises that we even read about here in Isaiah 61, but also that day when the vengeance of God is poured out on his enemies.

Turn to Jesus Christ, and you will live.

Heavenly.

Father, I thank you for what we have read here, the prophetic things that we have read here, pointing to Christ so that we may know it is through him that the good news has been given to us, that our hearts have been mended, that we have been released from captivity, that we have been granted freedom where previously we were imprisoned by sin and our flesh and the world.

We have been set free in the sun to proclaim the favorable year of Yahweh, comforting all who mourn. Forgive us our sins, lead us in paths of righteousness for your name's sake. It's in Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

This has been When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabriel Hughes. For all of our podcasts, episodes, videos, books, and more, visit our website at www .utt .com. If you'd like to submit a question to this broadcast, or just send us a comment, email whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com and let your friends know about our ministry.

Join us again tomorrow as we grow together in the study of God's Word when we understand the text.