1
10 I delight greatly in the Lord;
my soul rejoices in my God.
For he has clothed me with garments of salvation
and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness,
as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest,
and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
11 For as the soil makes the sprout come up
and a garden causes seeds to grow,
so the Sovereign Lord will make righteousness
and praise spring up before all nations.
Zion’s New Name
62 For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent,
for Jerusalem’s sake I will not remain quiet,
till her vindication shines out like the dawn,
her salvation like a blazing torch.
2 The nations will see your vindication,
and all kings your glory;
you will be called by a new name
that the mouth of the Lord will bestow.
3 You will be a crown of splendor in the Lord’s hand,
a royal diadem in the hand of your God.
During this Christmas season I discovered a lie about myself, the lie was that I didn't care for clothes. Ever since I was a child, I did not want to see clothes under the Christmas tree, I wanted toys and electronic gadgets. Even as an adult I wouldn't spend a bunch of time shopping for clothes, when shopping in person, I go in the store grab my stuff and get out, I look online, I click for my size, click buy now, and wait for my shipping to come I don't care about clothes, or so I thought. I got most of my clothes from three places, Walmart, Target, and Joseph A. Bank. Walmart for socks, underwear, and workout clothes, Target for casual wear, and Joseph A. Bank for business attire. I spent more time in line than picking out my clothes. I didn't want to have to purchase uniforms or have a dress code for meetings. I'm liable to buy the same shirt in a bunch of different colors or have a bunch of the same shirt in the same color. I have dri-fit black polos for days. I only followed a handful of clothing rules, make sure your colors matched, and buy weather-specific clothing from the area you plan to use it. If need a winter coat for traveling up north
But as I found myself in the clothing section again, I realized this time I wasn't in and out, I was looking at the material, seeing how it felt against my skin, reading the label for the style and fit, are these slim jeans, boot cut, athletic, or loose fitting? Is this shirt breathable, and will it protect me from the elements? I was taking longer with the clothes not because of the style, but because of the clothes function, I wanted to be able to function in the clothes so I had to take a little longer in picking them out. I was thinking about what I had been using the clothes for and what I could use them for in the future at the same time.
Isaiah 61, some scholars call this 3rd Isaiah is a passage just like Psalm 126 that looks backward and forward at the same time. This prophet is speaking for the sake of Jerusalem when he speaks. Our text from Isaiah 61 has the words of a prophet who showed his happiness in God because the Lord had “clothed him with the garments of salvation and covered him with the robe of righteousness.” That sure sounds like protective clothing. And as we read the rest of the pericope, which continues into the next chapter of Isaiah, we gather that the prophet meant his metaphor to be a collective one. God has provided the garments of salvation and robes of righteousness for the whole people of Judah. They had been gathered, following the end of the Babylonian exile, back into their homeland, where now, said God, “for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until her vindication shines out like the dawn, and her salvation like a burning torch.”
But why did the people need to be protectively clothed? Because they understood the collapse of their nation and the long exile that followed as judgment from God for their sins. They understood that it was their fault that some of the bad things happened to them. Isaiah said in 2:21 that the people would “enter the caverns of the rocks and the clefts in the crags, from the terror of the Lord, and from the glory of his majesty, when he rises to terrify the earth.”
But by the time of today’s passage from Isaiah, that catastrophe was in the past, in the past their best and brightest were taken away from them and during that time it was hard for the people to even see a vision of what freedom looked like, but it passed. Now if the people were to recover in any meaningful way, they needed to understand and believe that when God looked at them now, he saw not their sins, but their righteousness. And, according to the prophet, to make sure that happened, God himself, the divine tailor, gave them robes of righteousness. This was not to make the people fashion statements, but to make them able to survive the “weather” conditions going forward.
Certain clothes require certain behavior, you have to have the right clothing on and you have to treat that clothing right.
This passage is a commitment to praise and prayer for the people of God. The relationship between God and Jerusalem is fertile and as natural as plants growing in the springtime, why would someone have to say that this is natural. Probably because people had been acting unnaturally for so long that the wrong behavior became the accepted norm. Ever let someone borrow something of yours for so long you had to borrow it back. Churches have gotten so far from Evangelism that asking church members to go tell people about Jesus seems strange. John Wesley started the Methodist Movement with tent revivals and firey worship services. Catching the Holy Ghost in the service when the spirit got high used to be called "having a Methodist Fit" but generations have passed and now people see staunch reserved worship and compare that to Methodists. Praise is the proper response to what God has done for the people and praise is supposed to be as natural as flowers and plants growing in the spring.
The word for praise in this passage has no miscommunication, it is a verbal, audible response. The Hebrew is clear for this verse, it is used for verbal praise or singing. There is no verse where this is used for quiet reflection, open your mouth and tell God and the world how much you love him.
Vindication = Righteousness in the Hebrew passages.
The prophet is so happy that he cannot keep still
Do you love the Lord, do you love the church? Have you told somebody about it? That is what the text means when it says the nations and kings will see the glory and the vindication. This is public praise, not private worship. The nations, everyone will see.
Jesus read from this same scroll when he said that the spirit of the Lord is upon me.
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