ISAIAH - CHAPTER 61 - THE NEW PRIESTHOOD
ISAIAH- Chapter 61
THE NEW PRIESTHOOD
Tuesday Morning Bible Study
March 31, 2015, the Year of Our Lord
Pastor Carolyn Sissom
Our Lord quoted this passage as His first public sermon and introduced His ministry of JUBILEE. In the preceding chapter Isaiah described the future blessing of Zion (the Gospel Church); the Church militant and triumphant “in the summit of its glory”, like a mighty temple covering the whole earth, and whose songs are yet to fill the everlasting ages. He now goes on to introduce the One who is to bring that blessing, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Isa. 61: 1-3 describes the two-fold mission of the Servant of the Lord, namely: to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord--- the opening of the day of grace; and, to proclaim the day of vengeance of God and His judgment of the nations.
In verses 4-9, we see the restoration of Israel’s cities and compensation for her sufferings. Next the prophet proclaims Israel’s worshipful rejoicing in righteousness. Then in chapter 62, we see the Servant’s persistence in accomplishing Jehovah’s gracious purpose toward Zion to a place of pre-eminence among the nations; and to the delight of the Lord, who works all things after the counsel of His own will.
I believe at this present time, Israel’s horn has been strengthened by the defeat of the opponent of Netanyahu which was also a defeat for the President of the United States. I believe Israel’s position in the world will be given greater pre-eminence as a voice and a power.
In 61: 5-9, God’s people become the nation of priests He always intended us to be. This is the most excellent ministry mentioned in Heb. 8:6 and is a high priestly ministry after the order of Melchisedec. The Most Holy Place ministry is too vast a subject for one teaching.
- It is that of a PROPHET, PRIEST, and KING.
- Unlimited in its scope.
- Has as its source an endless life.
- Is eternal
- Is immutable and unchangeable.
- Is universal, ministering to all men without prejudice.
- Springs out of Judah, which means praise.
- Brings perfection and completion.
- Puts away the curse (sin, sickness, poverty, and death).
The prophecy gives a new declaration of the Servant of the Lord. The description of this restoration reveals God’s people to be His priests, His ministers.
61: 1: Holy Spirit-filled Messenger:
“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord has anointed me to preach good tidings to the meek; he has sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound.”
These are the words of the great Lord, who is the Jubilee. We have the most conclusive of all testimonies, when Jesus publically owned this scripture. All kings and prophets were, and prophets still are officially consecrated by having anointing-oil poured on their heads.
So was Jesus publicly set apart and anointed when emerging from His baptism in Jordan. The Holy Spirit was poured upon Him without measure. The descent of the Divine agent was symbolized by the form of a dove, accompanied with the attesting voice, “This is my Beloved Son.”
Immediately after we find Jesus beginning His public ministry in the synagogue of Nazareth (Luke 4:17). He does so, by declaring these words refer to Him. After reading from Isaiah, “He closed the book” with the comment, “This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.”
The first public speech or utterance of a great man on earth is regarded with close observation. It is the key of subsequent utterances and the substance of his life.
Jesus’ sermon rings through eternity as a manifesto of the Prince of Prophets, the Lord of Glory of whom it was declared, “Never a man spoke like this Man!”
His manifesto of glory reveals Him to us as our Messiah, Evangelist, Healer, Liberator; Comforter, Messenger of, fulfillment of and perpetual sustainer of Jubilee for those who will receive Him as Savior and Lord.
By His resurrection and ascension, we the Church of the First Born, have that same Spirit of the Lord in and upon us enabling us to do greater works as the Church triumphant. Here we are conducted into the porch or vestibule of the Temple who is Jesus Christ. It is adorned with five varied pictures each illustrating the work of Him who “loved the Church, and gave Himself for it, that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word; that He might present it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.” (Eph. 5: 25-28)
First we hear the voice of the divine Evangelist or Teacher. The Holy Spirit has anointed Jesus to preach good tiding unto the “Meek”. We are reminded of His great Beatitude sermon, when He opened His mouth and taught saying, “Blessed are the poor in spirit.”
The acknowledgment that we are all saved by the gift of free and unmerited grace, the breathing of a deep heart-and-soul persuasion---“Lord, save me, (Mt. 14:20) (else) I perish!” “The hungry he has filled with good things; and the rich He has sent away empty”. (Lk. 1:53)
The next picture is a crowd of “broken-hearted,” with the tear in their eye, crying out, in the agony of conviction, “What must we do to be saved?” Other mourners are there for different reason. But he groups in the first instance, those who are suffering from the cause of all sorrow, “the inner ground of all evil” ---sin (Gen. 2:9). They are filled with the broken-hearted sense of their alienation and estrangement from the true Life and Life-giver.
Jesus comes to all who are broken-hearted whether from grief or their own sin, as our gracious, gentle and tender Physician; saying, “Jehovah Rophi, I am the Lord that healeth thee” (Exodus 15:26). He heals the broken hearted and binds up their wounds.”(147:3) “…You put my tears into Your bottle; are they not in Your book?”
Hear the inspired words which describe the noblest altar, costliest sacrifices, and sweetest incense, which human hands and hearts can present---“The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, you will not despise”. (Ps. 51:17)
The next picture is that of a Prison. Through its iron bars we visualize a band of forlorn Captives, bound with fetters, in hopeless servitude. It is the worst of all captivity, for it is the same spiritual bondage of sin. “Oh wretched that we are! Who shall deliver us?”
Each has his own special fetter---the iron chain of some fierce temptation; the golden fetter of some guilty pleasure; debasing lusts, fiery passions, unholy thoughts, unworthy fears, and especially the fear of death, which makes many a lifetime subject to bondage.
Jesus is represented as a Divine Warden approaching the dungeon, with they keys of deliverance at His side, declaring “liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;” but in addition, giving help, strength and comfort to each individual soul –saying, “I will make my grace sufficient for you: I will perfect strength in weakness.”
As His spiritual freedman, we are ransomed by His blood and protected by His grace and power. He sends us forth from cells and fetters, “compassed about with songs of deliverance.” (Psa. 32:7)
The next picture we see in the crowd of humanity is the Jewish bond slaves. Some would have their ears bored in degradation; other’s debtors; other’s of noble blood and pedigree, but by misfortune or crime, have forfeited their inheritance.
Isa. 61:2: “To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn;”
The scene and time of the picture is laid in Jubilee, that well-known season of emancipation and joy which occurred every fiftieth year in Israel. The true Proclaimer is Jesus Christ who in his ministry fulfilled “the acceptable year of the Lord” (a year of grace). This is the reason why I write on all my postings, “The Year of the Lord”. Since the day Jesus made this proclamation, we are in a perpetual year of grace until Jesus returns.
The silver trumpet proclaims “The acceptable Year of the Lord” and “the day of vengeance of our God!”
The dungeons of condemnation are thrown open; the debts of a guilty past are cancelled. God favor is restored---“Blessed are the people who know the joyful sound”.
Now is the accepted time (the acceptable year). Behold now is the day of salvation.
As a concluding picture, we have the human crowd of mourners.
Isa. 61:3: “To appoint to them that mourn in Zion, to give to them beauty 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 the Lord, that He might be glorified.”
The previous picture of sorrow and suffering was due to sin. This last pictures suffering from poverty, pain, sickness, wounded with cruel disappointment, worldly loss, heartless treachery, selfish unkindness, faithless friendship, unmerited wrong; above all, from bereavement, the Rachels' “weeping for their children;” the Ezekiels' tell of “the desire of their eyes” (Ez. 24:21) taken away by the sword.
The aged Jacobs saying, “Joseph is not and Simeon is not, will you take away Benjamin also?”
Jesus who is “anointed with the oil of gladness above His fellows” (Ps. 45:7) ---has a glorious message to every mourner ---at the cross He bore our grief and sorrow. He combines the might of Deity with the sympathies of humanity; He gives us beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning.
A portion of that oil, poured by the Holy Spirit on His own head, descends to the skirts of His garment. Those “poor afflicted ones” will receive the same outpouring of joy. He gives “a garment of praise” for those who, in a spirit of heaviness” have been sitting in the dust, and refusing to be comforted.
He appoints unto us the balm of Gilead. He forgives all our iniquities. He heals all our diseases.” Forever, O Lord, your word is settled in heaven. He alone had the right to utter His own beatitude, “Blessed are they that mourn; for they shall be comforted.”
We have here every emblem of sin and of human misery---over each one, we can read the gleaming letters, “AND HE HEALED THEM ALL” (Mt. 4:24)
“I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Mark 2:17).
Truly the leaves of this Tree are for the healing of the nations. This divine Shelter is like the giant oaks of Bashan or the mighty cedars of Lebanon. The Jubilee ministry and restored people are said to be the trees and the planting of the Lord. Jesus, the Tree of Life, multiplies Himself. In Rev. 22:2, the Tree of Life becomes a forest.
By and through Jesus there is coming forth a new creation man.
Jesus stopped reading at Isa. 61:2a---“and the Day of Vengeance of our God…” was not read by the Lord.
- Isa. 61:1-2a – points to Jesus first advent.
- Isa. 61:2b-11 points to the time of His second advent.
Jesus fulfilled 61: 1-2a. He and His brethren, (His Body) a ministry created in His image, will fulfill the rest of the chapter.
This is an Elijah ministry (in the pattern of John the Baptist) who will see the restoration of the church and the Restoration of the Creation.
61:4-5: “They shall build the old wastes, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the waste cities, the desolations of many generations. Strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, and the sons of the alien shall be your plowmen and your vinedressers.”
These waste areas not only speak of wasted cities, but wasted mind, and the wasted bodies of men. They can also refer to those truths which were lost during the Middle Ages which are now being recovered line upon line. Those who were once alienated from the truth of the Kingdom will come in and become part of a caretaker’s ministry, which will operate in the principle of dominion (vine dressing).
This royal priesthood and Zadok Priesthood shall inherit the nations. These stand in His righteousness and rule. They shall rule the nations with a rod of iron.
61:7-11: “For you shame you shall have double; and for confusion they shall rejoice I am their portion; therefore in their land they shall possess the double; everlasting joy shall be to them.”
In this wonderful chapter we personally appropriate all the blessings of our great Salvation. The opening verses of the chapter are who He is and the promise of the closing ones are what he procured for us by His finished work on the Cross.
We can say in glad response to This Great love and grace, his gracious unfolding of His ability and willingness: “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation, he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. For as the earth brings forth her bud, and the garden causes the things that are sown in it to spring forth; so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations.”
Carolyn Sissom, Pastor
Eastgate Ministries Church
Scripture from K.J.V. – I entered into the labors of Kelly Varner, Principles of Present Truth of Isaiah; Rev. John Ross MacDuff, Comfort Ye, Comfort Ye (public domain). Comments and conclusions are my own and not meant to reflect the views of those who I entered into their labors.