A Commentary on Isaiah, Part 64: The Acceptable Year of Yahweh

A Commentary on Isaiah, Part 64: The Acceptable Year of Yahweh

This seems to have been expressed here in various ways already, however we must insist on finding different methods by which to illustrate it as completely as possible, because it is, in my opinion, one of the most significant aspects of this prophecy of Isaiah, and of the lessons of the Old Testament as a whole: There is no temporal salvation for the children of Israel without obedience to Yahshua Christ, and that includes the keeping of His commandments, which are found in the laws of Moses. So what we have read in Isaiah concerning the sins of the children of Israel is sufficient cause for repentance, and repentance certainly is a prerequisite to receiving the blessings and promises of these same chapters. As we have just read, in Isaiah chapter 59:

20 And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith the LORD.

However as we have also seen, the prophecies in these chapters also foreshadow many of the words of Christ Himself in the Revelation, so these same conditions of repentance must be satisfied if we are ever going to see the Kingdom of God. Therefore all Christians should seek to follow in the teachings of Christ, and hope to have a part as repairers of the breach which had developed between Yahweh God and His people Israel on account of their sins.

In our last presentation in Isaiah, we cited a much earlier prophecy found in Isaiah chapter 26 where we read in part: 

15 Thou hast increased the nation, O LORD, thou hast increased the nation: thou art glorified: thou hadst removed it far unto all the ends of the earth. 16 LORD, in trouble have they visited thee, they poured out a prayer when thy chastening was upon them. 17 Like as a woman with child, that draweth near the time of her delivery, is in pain, and crieth out in her pangs; so have we been in thy sight, O LORD. 18 We have been with child, we have been in pain, we have as it were brought forth wind; we have not wrought any deliverance in the earth; neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen.

As Isaiah wrote those words, the children of Israel had already settled diverse places at the ends of the earth, to a great extent, and now the Assyrian captives are prophesied to do that same thing, which is apparent there, but which is described quite explicitly in Isaiah chapter 66. Then, immediately after that confession which was placed into the mouths of the children of Israel by the prophet, we read at the end of that same chapter, going into Isaiah chapter 27:

26:21 For, behold, the LORD cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain. 27:1 In that day the LORD with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea.

The dragon, which is also called leviathan the crooked serpent, is in the sea. In turn, the sea represents the mass of the world’s inhabitants, and it is certainly the same serpent and dragon of which we read in Revelation chapter 12:

15 And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood. 16 And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth. 17 And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

For most of European history, which is also the history of Christendom these last seventeen hundred years or so, Christians had kept the commandments of Christ, and clung to His testimony, at least in a general manner. But this flood from the serpent is a flood of people from that same sea in which leviathan is found. They are the inhabitants of the earth who have not yet fallen, although the children of Israel were enlarged and removed far, “unto the ends of all the earth”. They are also the reason for the parable of the sheep and the goats, as they are the goats and so far as Scripture is concerned, only the children of Israel are ever described as the sheep. 

For that same reason, we also observed how there had been Premonitions of Sheep and Goats in Isaiah chapter 60, and also even in chapter 58, and especially where it contains a promise which perfectly echoes the meaning of that parable where we read:

12 For the nation and kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish; yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted.

In the parable of the sheep and the goats, found in Matthew chapter 25, the sheep are commended by the King for having taken care of one another, but the goats are condemned by the King for not having cared for the sheep. Earlier, in Isaiah chapter 58, the sheep are instructed to provide and care for the hungry and poor and destitute and homeless among themselves, caring for their own people, and that is how they could become repairers of the breach, so that also echoes the meaning of that same parable of sheep and goats, especially where we read in that chapter:

7 Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh? 

Hide not thyself from thy own flesh: this reflects the same meaning as the parable, since the sheep were expected to provide and care for their fellow sheep, and doing so they would be seen as having cared and provided for their King. Then in Isaiah chapter 58 verses 10 and 11, they were also told that in that manner, they would shine their light, and they would have prosperity. Then in verse 12, along with being repairers of the breach, they would “build the old waste places” and “raise up the foundations of many generations”, meaning that a society built on these principles would endure for a long time.

In chapter 60, that light is described as having come, and the nations of sheep would flock to the light, but all other people would remain in darkness, where once again, they must be the goats of the parable of Christ, because the light is not meant for them. Ultimately, if they refuse to serve the children of Israel, as the goats had not cared for the sheep, then they shall all be destroyed, and the fate of the goats is with that of the devil and his angels. 

Now, as we enter into Isaiah chapter 61, we shall see yet another prophecy of the ministry of Christ, and then this same theme which we had seen in Isaiah chapters 58 through 60 shall continue, wherein some aspects of the promises in the previous chapters shall be expressed once again, although in somewhat different terms:

1 The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;

Here, in the immediate sense of the prophecy, Isaiah himself has been fulfilling these words. On some occasions throughout his ministry, he had done so to an extreme, as we read in Isaiah chapter 20:

3 And the LORD said, Like as my servant Isaiah hath walked naked and barefoot three years for a sign and wonder upon Egypt and upon Ethiopia…

But of course, the Burden of Egypt of Isaiah chapter 19 was a warning to the people of Judah not to seek help from the Egyptians, nor flee to Egypt for refuge. Ethiopia was mentioned because at that time, Kush was ruling over Egypt, which is evident in the historical portions of Isaiah’s writing.

Likewise, it is certain that Isaiah had announced all of his prophecies before the people and the rulers of Jerusalem, although we cannot be certain as to whether any of the people in Assyrian captivity had an opportunity to hear these words, at least not until after the coming of Christ, who is the subject of their ultimate fulfillment, in the far vision sense of the prophecy. So where the ministry of Christ had begun, as Luke placed the event just after his record of the temptation in the wilderness, Christ had entered into a synagogue in His home town of Nazareth and rose to speak, where we read, in the King James Version:

17 And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, 18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, 19 To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. 20 And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him.

Yet in Isaiah 61:1 as it appears in the Septuagint, there are differences from the Masoretic Text, and we will read that version, because that is the version which Luke cited nearly verbatim. So, as Brenton had translated the passage:

1 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me; he has sent me to preach glad tidings to the poor, to heal the broken in heart, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind;

The Greek of Luke’s manuscript is a near verbatim copy of this verse as it is found in the Greek of the Septuagint, and ignoring just a couple of letters in word stems which are meaningless, there are two differences. The first difference must have been intentional on the part of Christ Himself, who had inserted a clause from Isaiah 58:6 which says “to let the oppressed go free” after the reference to the blind at the end of the verse. That is the clause which the King James Version of Luke translated to read “to set at liberty them that are bruised”, and either translation is an adequate representation of the original.

The second difference is found where Yahshua Christ had continued to read from this passage of Isaiah as far as the first clause of what we now know as verse 2, where we see the verb proclaim here in both Isaiah and in Luke. In the Septuagint, the Greek verb is καλέω, which is to call, summon or invoke, rather than κηρύσσω, which is to proclaim something as a herald would make a proclamation. However that was an honest interpretation on the part of the Septuagint translators, since the Hebrew word קרא or qara (# 7121) may bear either meaning. However in spite of the choice of καλέω in the Septuagint, Luke used κηρύσσω. The Hexapla of Origen is silent on this difference, but it is possible that there were divergent manuscripts in Luke’s time, or some other way to account for the difference. So now, continuing with the first half of verse 2: 

2 To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD…

We shall pause here, because this is as much as Luke had recorded, and it is evident that Christ had stopped here when He read the passage in the synagogue at Nazareth. This acceptable year of Yahweh which Christ had a mission to proclaim seems to have been alluded to in an earlier prophesy found in Isaiah chapter 49:

8 Thus saith the LORD, In an acceptable time have I heard thee, and in a day of salvation have I helped thee: and I will preserve thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, to establish the earth, to cause to inherit the desolate heritages; 9 That thou mayest say to the prisoners, Go forth; to them that are in darkness, Shew yourselves. They shall feed in the ways, and their pastures shall be in all high places.

In chapter 6 of his second epistle to the Corinthians, Paul of Tarsus had cited this passage in reference to the ministry and Gospel of Christ, just before a lengthy admonition for them to separate themselves from idolaters and from all those who are outside of the Christian faith, those whom he esteemed to have been “unclean”, ostensibly because they had not been cleansed on the cross of Christ. Now, as this prophecy continues, it will repeat these promises, but with somewhat different language. However first we must finish verse 2, and a portion of this prophecy which Christ had not included in the description of His first ministry. He stopped where we read “to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord”, but Isaiah continues and adds:

2 … and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn;

Yahshua Christ had stopped short of completing this verse in the synagogue in Nazareth, ostensibly since it was not the purpose of His first advent. It certainly is His purpose when He returns, as He has promised to return, and as His return is described in chapter 19 of His Revelation, where all of these things shall be fulfilled. In that chapter, it is Yahshua Christ who is the figure sitting on the white horse and leading His armies to destroy all of His enemies at the marriage supper of the Lamb. He is The Word of God, and King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

But here we would assert that in an indirect manner, in the course of His Revelation Christ did proclaim the acceptable year of Yahweh. First, in Revelation chapter 14 where we read of the day of vengeance:

8 And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication. 9 And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, 10 The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: 11 And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.

Then right after that we read:

12 Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus. 13 And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them.

This is the fulfillment of obedience, to be found keeping the commandments of God as Babylon is falling and the world is being judged for its iniquity. Then, in Revelation chapter 18, where the fall of Babylon is announced once again, we read:

4 And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. 5 For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities. 6 Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double.

From a different perspective, Paul of Tarsus wrote concerning this same event, in 2 Corinthians chapter 10 where we read:

2 But I beseech you, that I may not be bold when I am present with that confidence, wherewith I think to be bold against some, which think of us as if we walked according to the flesh. 3 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: 4 (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) 5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; 6 And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled.

Later, we read in Revelation chapter 22:

14 Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.

Only those who keep the commandments may enter into the city of God, but as we have seen in Isaiah chapter 60, the city represents the actual people of God, where we read:

14 The sons also of them that afflicted thee shall come bending unto thee; and all they that despised thee shall bow themselves down at the soles of thy feet; and they shall call thee, The city of the LORD, The Zion of the Holy One of Israel.

In the opening chapter of Acts (1:7), Christ had told His disciples, in the moments before He ascended into heaven, when they had asked Him whether He would restore the kingdom to Israel, that “It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power.”

So the acceptable year of Yahweh is not a date on a calendar, even if Yahweh God, knowing all things, also knows when that date shall come. In Christ, and ever since they had received the Gospel of Christ, the children of Israel have had the opportunity for this year to come, but it is still pending to this day, because His judgment has not yet been executed. Even the so-called “Church Age”, or the thousand years of Revelation chapter 20, had begun before all Israel had received the Gospel, and in that process the Church had corrupted itself as a shadow of the empire of Rome.

Rather than being a date on a calendar, the acceptable year of Yahweh is the time in which the children of Israel finally admit their defeat, where they had proclaimed in Isaiah chapter 26 that “neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen”, and they come to realize that Yahweh their God is their only hope of salvation, and finally they turn to seek repentance and obedience to Him. Then, because they have not prevailed on their own, they should resort to the mourning of repentance, and sackcloth and ashes which represent that mourning in a spirit of heaviness, repenting and turning to Yahweh their God for deliverance, where we continue with Isaiah chapter 61 and read more of the purpose of the second coming of Christ:

3 To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto 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.

Where the children of Israel are called “the planting of Yahweh”, the clause evokes the words of Christ made in reference to His adversaries, where in Matthew chapter 15 Christ was informed by His disciples that some of the Pharisees were offended by His words, and we read:

13 But he answered and said, Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up.

Here we also see that the children of Israel had evidently been reduced to mourning in the time of their captivity, and it is apparent that their mourning is a prophetic type for what their descendants shall face with the fall of Mystery Babylon, before the time of the day of vengeance which is mentioned here. Paul of Tarsus spoke of their suffering in the captivities in Hebrews chapter 10, and on account of certain quite archaic language in the King James Version, we shall cite our own translation:

32 Now remember the former days in which being enlightened you endured a great struggle of sufferings: 33 on the one hand being made a spectacle with both reproaches and afflictions, and on the other having become partners of those so returning. 34 For you also sympathized with the prisoners and you accepted the seizure of your possessions with joy, knowing to have and awaiting a better possession yourselves.

Trees of righteousness are men who keep the law and judgement, as we had seen in Isaiah chapter 59 that Israel had been punished for want of judgment. When the children of Israel turn to obedience to their God, He is glorified, and in turn He blesses them. So we read, in Revelation chapter 21:

4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.

So the sackcloth and ashes and mourning caused by their suffering is turned to beauty and the oil of joy and garments of praise. But more importantly, they develop into a godly society:

4 And 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.

These are the desolate heritages referred to in Isaiah 49:8, which we have just cited in relation to verse 2 of this chapter, so we read again, in part:

8 Thus saith the LORD, In an acceptable time have I heard thee, and in a day of salvation have I helped thee: and I will preserve thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, to establish the earth, to cause to inherit the desolate heritages…

Note the words “I have heard thee and I will preserve thee”. Paul of Tarsus had cited Joel chapter 2 where he wrote, in Romans chapter 10: “13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” That verse also implies that Yahweh shall hear those who call upon Him in that day. However we have already seen in Isaiah chapters 58 and 59 that only the prayers and sacrifices of those who seek righteousness are regarded. Therefore perhaps a sinner should first pray for repentance.

Here, in the clause “the day of the vengeance of our God, to comfort all that mourn”, it is evident that the vengeance is not executed against those who mourn. The vengeance is for the enemies of Yahweh, while those of the children of Israel who mourn the sins of the people and repent may expect comfort.

The children of Israel were promised to “inherit the desolate heritages”, and in Isaiah chapter 54 we read:

3 For thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left; and thy seed shall inherit the [Nations], and make the desolate cities to be inhabited.

So these promises, along with the accompanying conditions, are repeated in diverse ways throughout this prophecy of Isaiah. these promises would be fulfilled while the children of Israel were enlarged and moved to the ends of the earth, as we have discussed. In those places, where they eventually accepted the Gospel of Christ and became known as Christendom, they did strive to develop a Godly society, but it was never perfected according to the words of Christ, and in many ways it had retained the oppressions of the pagan world which existed before it, which is evident throughout the medieval history of the Roman Catholic Church. Not being perfected, the acceptable year of Yahweh still awaits us, at which time His vengeance shall finally be executed.

This interpretation of this passage in Isaiah chapter 61 is corroborated in the words of the prophet in Isaiah chapter 63, where Yahweh God is portrayed as treading down Edom by Himself, and we read in part:

4 For the day of vengeance is in mine heart, and the year of my redeemed is come.

So when Edom, or world Jewry, shall finally be destroyed, that marks the coming of the acceptable year of Yahweh. That shall also mark the end of the Controversy of Zion for which Yahweh has an issue with Edom, described in Isaiah chapter 34. Now returning to our place in Isaiah, another promise from Isaiah chapter 60 is repeated:

5 And strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, and the sons of the alien shall be your plowmen and your vinedressers.

The word stranger in this verse is translated from the Hebrew word זור or zuwr (# 2114), which is considered by Strong’s to have been a primitive root, something with which I only partially agree. Strong’s primary definition is as a verb, “to turn aside (especially for lodging)”. But there is no indication in any use of the term in the Hebrew of the Old Testament which supports that definition, so far as I can find, except that Gesenius also defined it in that manner, where he turned to a similar Arabic word to define זור or zuwr [1]. Gesenius, defining the verb as “to turn aside, to depart” and citing an Arabic use of a similar word, offers three verses of Scripture to support his definition, Job 19:13, Psalm 78:30 and Psalm 58:4, but none of those passages use the word in that manner. Furthermore, I could not support the use of Arabic, which developed over a thousand years after the time of Isaiah, in order to understand Biblical Hebrew [2].

In a Topical Discussions program where I had discussed this word in December of 2023, I had discussed Strong’s second definition of this word at length, where he has “hence to be a foreigner, strange, profane; specifically (active participle) to commit adultery” and I explained that the reference to adultery is highly dependent on context and should not really be a part of the definition, because the word is used in other contexts. In that discussion, I then proceeded to describe how, on most of the occasions upon which it is used, the word is spelled identically to another word which is related to the concept of a border, but which Strong’s had ignored in his definitions. [3] So we would assert that a stranger in this case differs from the word nekar because nekar signifies someone not recognized, where zuwr signifies a stranger who is from outside of one’s border, which could be someone of another nation, tribe or clan, or even someone from outside of the race as a whole, in the sense in which the word adam is used in Scripture.

The Hebrew word for alien here is נכר or nekar (# 5236), which is simply someone who is not recognized by one, even if it is of one’s own family, tribe or nation, as the word is used elsewhere in Scripture. Earlier in this commentary we had described how Leah, Rachel, David and Job had all used this word in reference to themselves and their own families. However here both zuwr and nekar are descriptive of the same people, as the clauses are a parallelism, so the text is not portraying different types of strangers.

But here we have only sought to dispel the wayward notion that these words must describe “people” of races other than that of Adam, which is certainly not the case even if they could describe such “people”. More likely, at least in the near-vision fulfillment of this prophecy, it refers to the people who are described in Isaiah chapter 14, which speaks of Israel in captivity after the fall of ancient Babylon:

2 And the people shall take them, and bring them to their place: and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of the LORD for servants and handmaids: and they shall take them captives, whose captives they were; and they shall rule over their oppressors.

So in the near-vision fulfillment of this prophecy, those Adamic nations who took Israel captive, but whom Israel would in turn take captive upon departing the lands of their captivity, they would be the strangers who built their walls, and fed their flocks and plowed their fields and dressed their vines. However in the far vision, at the time leading up to the acceptable year of Yahweh and the vengeance of Yahshua Christ, the words do certainly seem to have a broader application, as the flood of the serpent would evidently inundate the seed of the women in her places of refuge.

In the ancient world, there were no other races in any significant number in the Near East or in Europe. The other Adamic nations, so long as they were not among those who had been forbidden by the law in Deuteronomy, certainly were acceptable in Israel under specific conditions. There was also a prophecy in Genesis chapter 9 that Japheth would dwell in the tents of Shem, and while the Assyrians, Persians and Lydians were of Shem, most of the nations of the isles and coastlands to which the Israelites had been sent, and who are addressed here in these final twenty-six chapters of Isaiah, had been of Japheth.

The promises here in Isaiah continue:

6 But ye shall be named the Priests of the LORD: men shall call you the Ministers of our God: ye shall eat the riches of the [Nations], and in their glory shall ye boast yourselves.

Citing the Christogenea New Testament, the apostle Peter had addressed his first epistle to “the elect sojourners of the dispersion” scattered throughout certain provinces of Anatolia, and told them in part:

9 But you are an elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people, so that you should proclaim the virtues for which from out of darkness you have been called into the wonder of His light, 10 who at one time were “not a people” but now are the people of Yahweh, those who “have not been shown mercy” but are now shown mercy.

Saying those things, in verse 10 Peter was referencing Hosea chapters 1 and 2, where Hosea had prophesied these very things of the children of Israel who had been about to go into captivity, at the time when he wrote. So Peter understood that he was writing to some of the Israelites of the former captivity. For that same reason, Peter used an allegory which is found here in Isaiah, where he told them that they had been called from out of darkness “into the wonder of His light”. While the allegory appears frequently in Isaiah, expressed in different ways, we read in chapter 9, where it addressed the children of Israel, that:

2 The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.

Later, in Isaiah chapter 42, where Israel is being addressed once again, the same allegory is repeated:

16 And I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known: I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them.

However Peter had also called his intended readers an elect race, a holy nation, and a peculiar people. A “church” made up of all the world’s races can never fit any of these descriptions. Rather, Peter knew that he was writing to scattered Israelites, and we read in Isaiah chapter 45, for example:

4 For Jacob my servant's sake, and Israel mine elect, I have even called thee by thy name: I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me.

Jacob is Yahweh’s servant. The word in this verse of Isaiah which is translated as ministers is שׁרת or sharath (# 8334), which means minister or servant. But even that is redundant, since the English word minister is taken directly from a Latin word of the same spelling which means servant, attendant or helper. While the word for priest, which is כהנ or kohen (# 3588) is defined differently, the Brown, Driver, Briggs Hebrew lexicon does have minister as part of its definition [4], and a priest is essentially a minister to God, a man who performs a service for God, and on that basis, Peter described the children of Israel as a “royal priesthood”, and here we shall see that they are called a “kingdom of priests” in the Law. So going back much further, in Exodus chapter 19, there is an offer which was never made to any other people:

5 Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine: 6 And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.

Yahweh was only maintaining promises which He made in the Law, and Peter was only explaining that those promises applied to scattered Israel in the places of their dispersions, once they accepted the Gospel of Christ. This is also prophesied for a future time, partly foreshadowing the words of Peter, in Isaiah chapter 62 where we read:

12 And they shall call them, The holy people, The redeemed of the LORD: and thou shalt be called, Sought out, A city not forsaken.

While the children of Israel had failed under the Old Covenant, this is nevertheless their destiny under the New Covenant, and God shall not fail. These Old Testament passages must be the basis for Peter’s words. So we read, in Isaiah chapter 41:

8 But thou, Israel, art my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham my friend.

In Luke chapter 1, and Romans chapter 15 and elsewhere, it is evident that the New Covenant is founded upon the promises to Abraham, so we shall cite Romans in that regard:

8 Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers.

Here, once again, where the children of Israel would depart from the places of their captivity in the ancient world, and be enlarged and removed to the ends of the earth, that history also seems to be a prophetic type for the still-future fall of Mystery Babylon which shall come with the acceptable year of Yahweh:

7 For your shame ye shall have double; and for confusion they shall rejoice in their portion: therefore in their land they shall possess the double: everlasting joy shall be unto them.

Here in Isaiah, the children of Israel are called to depart from the places of their captivity, which are in ancient Assyria and Babylon. For example, we read in Isaiah chapter 52:

11 Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence, touch no unclean thing; go ye out of the midst of her; be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the LORD. 12 For ye shall not go out with haste, nor go by flight: for the LORD will go before you; and the God of Israel will be your rereward.

Now it is evident that the children of Israel are in captivity in Mystery Babylon, and this passage also evokes the description of their release from that captivity, where we read, in Revelation chapter 18:

4 And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. 5 For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities. 6 Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double.

Now there is a promise of another covenant, which must be the New Covenant that is later prophesied in Jeremiah chapter 31, rather explicitly, and also in Ezekiel chapters 16 and 37:

8 For I the LORD love judgment, I hate robbery for burnt offering; and I will direct their work in truth, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them.

Where Yahweh attested to hate robbery for burnt offering, it seems that under the Sinai covenant, the children of Israel had not made honest sacrifices, and often even stole them. So in Hosea chapter 8 we read:

13 They sacrifice flesh for the sacrifices of mine offerings, and eat it; but the LORD accepteth them not; now will he remember their iniquity, and visit their sins: they shall return to Egypt.

Returning to Egypt means that they would be going into captivity, but not to Egypt in the literal, geographic sense. Much later, in Malachi chapter 1, the remnant which returned from Babylon is charged by Yahweh with having offered lame, blind and sickly animals for their offerings (1:8), while the Law in Leviticus chapter 22 demands healthy animals (22:22-23).

The term everlasting covenant occurs several times in Genesis, in chapters 9 and 17, where Yahweh had made such a covenant first with Noah, and then with Abraham. Then it appears in Leviticus chapter 24 in reference to the Sinai covenant. In 1 Chronicles chapter 16 and the 105th Psalm the phrase refers back to the covenant with Jacob, who inherited the unconditional covenant which had been made with Abraham. In 2 Samuel chapter 23 it refers back to the covenant with David, which is also fulfilled in Christ.

While the Sinai covenant was meant to be everlasting, that covenant was only everlasting on the condition that the children of Israel kept the conditions of obedience which were required of them when the covenant was made, when they agreed to keep the law, and of course, they had failed. So we read in Isaiah chapter 24:

5 The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant.

The breaking of the Sinai covenant is also announced much later, in Zechariah chapter 11:

10 And I took my staff, even Beauty, and cut it asunder, that I might break my covenant which I had made with all the people. 11 And it was broken in that day: and so the poor of the flock that waited upon me knew that it was the word of the LORD.

So there is no more Sinai covenant, the only covenant which had been made with all the people, and the New Covenant is made upon the foundation of the promises to Abraham, as we read in the Gospel and epistles. That must be the everlasting covenant which is promised here, and also in Jeremiah chapter 31:

31 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: 32 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD: 33 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.

Then this is repeated in a somewhat different manner in Jeremiah chapter 32:

38 And they shall be my people, and I will be their God: 39 And I will give them one heart, and one way, that they may fear me for ever, for the good of them, and of their children after them: 40 And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me.

The broken covenant, along with a promise of the New Covenant, is also evident in Ezekiel chapter 16:

59 For thus saith the Lord GOD; I will even deal with thee as thou hast done, which hast despised the oath in breaking the covenant. 60 Nevertheless I will remember my covenant with thee in the days of thy youth, and I will establish unto thee an everlasting covenant.

Then again, in Ezekiel chapter 37:

25 And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, even they, and their children, and their children's children for ever: and my servant David shall be their prince for ever. 26 Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them: and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore. 27 My tabernacle also shall be with them: yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 28 And the heathen shall know that I the LORD do sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore.

So in Luke chapter 1, after Mary is informed that she would have a child, and of the nature of that child, when she visited her cousin Elisabeth she exclaimed to her, in part, speaking of God:

54 He hath holpen his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy; 55 As he spake to our fathers, to Abraham, and to his seed for ever.

Then later, Zacharias, the husband of Elisabeth and the father of the child who would become John the Baptist, had declared, in part:

68 Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people, 69 And hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David; 70 As he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began: 71 That we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us; 72 To perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant; 73 The oath which he sware to our father Abraham, 74 That he would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear, 75 In holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life.

For this reason alone did Paul of Tarsus conduct his ministry, as he himself had declare in Acts chapters 26 and 28 where he said that he had labored “for the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers … 7 … which promise our twelve tribes, instantly serving God day and night, hope to come” and “that for the hope of Israel I am bound with this chain.” Paul never professed working for any other purpose, and the hope of Israel was never a hope for any other people or race. Rather, it was only for the seed of Israel, as we now see here in Isaiah:

9 And their seed shall be known among the [Nations], and their offspring among the people: all that see them shall acknowledge them, that they are the seed which the LORD hath blessed.

This may have had its fulfillment in the ancient world, although it is difficult to even attempt to quantify the perceptions of the peoples of the other nations. In the Roman period, by the time of the ministry of Christ, at least many of the children of Israel in Assyrian captivity had already migrated into Anatolia and Europe, and many more would follow in the ensuing centuries. The Romans, who were Israelites of early migrations, and the Parthians, who may also be shown to have been Israelites of the Assyrian captivity, had ruled the Old World while the Sakae, or Galatae, who later became known as Gauls and Germans, were still forming a New World in Central and Western Europe, which would only begin to come into its familiar modern form after the fall of Rome. In this process, people of the Old World must have seen the non-Roman nations of Europe which became known as Christendom grow into a world power and understand that they did indeed have the grace of God.

By the time of the European colonial period, but as early as the fall of Rome, the truth of the words found in Isaiah chapter 60 should have been fully evident where we read:

16 Thou shalt also suck the milk of the [Nations], and shalt suck the breast of kings: and thou shalt know that I the LORD am thy Saviour and thy Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob.

Now in verse 10 there is another significant prophecy which has an important presence in the Gospel of Christ:

10 I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels.

In Isaiah chapter 50, the prophet had asked a rhetorical question, addressing the children of Israel, and also gave an answer where we read:

1 Thus saith the LORD, Where is the bill of your mother's divorcement, whom I have put away? or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities have ye sold yourselves, and for your transgressions is your mother put away.

Some time earlier, as the ministry of Hosea was apparently concluded before these chapters of Isaiah were written, in Hosea chapters 1 and 2 the divorce of Israel and Judah were evident, and we read from chapter 2, in part:

1 Say ye unto your brethren, Ammi; and to your sisters, Ruhamah. 2 Plead with your mother, plead: for she is not my wife, neither am I her husband: let her therefore put away her whoredoms out of her sight, and her adulteries from between her breasts;

In that passage, ammi and ruhamah mean My people and beloved. However in the verses before that, in chapter 1, the children of Israel had already been warned that they were going to be considered loammi and loruhamah, phrases which mean not my people and not beloved. So after that statement indicating divorce in the opening verses of Hosea chapter 2, Yahweh God promises to remove her and prevent her from finding her way until she gives up in desperation, and decides to repent and return to seek her first husband.

So Yahweh is described as having punished His wife for her adulteries, but after her punishment we read:

16 And it shall be at that day, saith the LORD, that thou shalt call me Ishi [my husband]; and shalt call me no more Baali [my lord]. 17 For I will take away the names of Baalim out of her mouth, and they shall no more be remembered by their name. 18 And in that day will I make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven, and with the creeping things of the ground: and I will break the bow and the sword and the battle out of the earth, and will make them to lie down safely. 19 And I will betroth thee unto me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in lovingkindness, and in mercies. 20 I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness: and thou shalt know the LORD. 21 And it shall come to pass in that day, I will hear, saith the LORD, I will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth; 22 And the earth shall hear the corn, and the wine, and the oil; and they shall hear Jezreel [God sows]. 23 And I will sow her unto me in the earth; and I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy; and I will say to them which were not my people, Thou art my people; and they shall say, Thou art my God.

So here in Hosea, we see an explicit promise to the children of Israel, that they would once again be married to Yahweh their God, once their period of punishment is past. For this reason, speaking of Christ, John the Baptist had said in reference to the followers which had gathered to Him, that:

29 He that hath the bride is the bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom's voice: this my joy therefore is fulfilled.

Likewise Christ, in Matthew chapter 9, where He was challenged as to why His disciples did not fast, we read:

15 And Jesus said unto them, Can the children of the bridechamber mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them? but the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then shall they fast.

In the Revelation, the City of God which descends from heaven, which we would insist is an allegory for the children of Israel, is called the “bride adorned for her husband” and “the bride, the Lamb’s wife” in chapter 21. But in chapter 19, when Christ comes to destroy His enemies, we read:

7 Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. 8 And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints. 9 And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God.

That is the point at which the enemies of Yahweh are then destroyed, as the narrative in that chapter goes. That is also the point spoken of by Paul of Tarsus, where he wrote to the Corinthians, in 2 Corinthians chapter 10, and said that they should be found:

5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; 6 And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled.

That is what we have described as the acceptable year of Yahweh, and we must also notice that in Revelation chapter 19, it is through her ordeals following the fall of Babylon that the bride prepares herself for her Husband.

The reception of the Gospel of Christ was the start of this process, but the final obedience of Israel shall be the end of it, which is the day of the vengeance of our God. Then the final verse of this chapter evokes thoughts of the City of God as it is described in the Revelation:

11 For as the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden causeth 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.

Surely, in the near-vision fulfillment of this prophecy, Europe was turned into a bountifully fruitful land, especially in places where agricultural development were quite challenging, and for centuries, Christians praised God for their bounty. However this also evokes visions of the City of God, where after the devil, the beast, the false prophet, and all those not found written in the Book of Life are cast into the Lake of Fire, we read, in Revelation chapter 22:

1 And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. 2 In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

Isaiah was indeed a prophet of the Revelation, just as Zechariah had also been in various ways, however Isaiah also foreshadowed some of the parables of Christ, just as Zechariah had foreshadowed other aspects of the Gospel, and notably the struggle between Christ and the false accusations of His adversaries.

In all of this we must know that there is a perfect continuity between the prophets of Yahweh, and the words of the Gospel and Revelation, and the entire stated purpose of Yahshua Christ. The Old Testament and the New are one book describing several different covenants, one of fleshly failure because the Sinai covenant relied on the deeds of men, and one of eternal victory because God Himself shall not fail, so He shall keep the promises which He made to the fathers, and on account of those shall all Israel be saved.

However there is nothing in either testament for any other races. In the age of colonialism the children of Israel may have sucked the milk of nations, but it was also accompanied by idealistic egalitarianism and the wayward concept that the promises of God should be shared with “people” to whom God Himself had promised nothing. That is certainly one of the sins from which Israel must repent, or the bride will never be able to adorn herself for her Husband.

This concludes our commentary through Isaiah chapter 61.

Footnotes

1 Gesenius’ Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament, translated by Samuel Prideaux Tregelles, Baker Books, 1979, p. 242.

2 “Stranger” in the Old Testament: the Hebrew word zuwr, Topical Discussions, December, 2023, https://christogenea.org/podcasts/bible-discussion/topical-discussions-december-2023, accessed April 10th, 2026.

3 ibid.

4 The Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon, Hendrickson Publishers, 2021, p. 464b.