Post by alon on Sept 29, 2016 12:11:36 GMT -8
Isaiah 61:1-9
Well … I wanted to get the haftarah done so I wouldn’t be rushed going into Yom Kippur. But … The haftarah reading for this week skips over what I consider to be a very important passage for Messianic believers, as well as both Christians and Jews. So I think I'd better do this passage first. If nothing else it will help me to understand the haftara better. However I think this passage is worthy of it's own study
Scholars debate the identity of the one speaking here; whether it is just the prophet or just Tzion (metaphorically) speaking. I tend to be in the camp which says it is the infinite Word of Elohim and thus either or both may be said to be the one “speaking.”
Isaiah 61:1-2a (JPS) The spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to bring good tidings unto the humble; He hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the eyes to them that are bound; To proclaim the year of the LORD'S good pleasure,
Messiah (Moshiach) means literally “Annointed One.” Many were anointed- priests, prophets, judges, kings; however at times prophecy clearly speaks of haMoshiach as the Annointed One of Elohim.
Isaiah 42:1 (ESV) Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations.
And we see this prophecy fulfilled in Yeshua:
2 Peter 1:17 (ESV) For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,”
Yeshua, quoting this in the synagogue at Nazareth, stopped reading at 2a “to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.” (Luke 4:19). It was not yet time for “the day of vengeance of our God;” or to “comfort all that mourn.”
Luke 4:16-21 (ESV) And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written,
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives
and recovering of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.”
And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
Scripture goes on to tell us that all who heard Yeshua ‘marveled at His words.’ They all knew who He was; knew He was next in line for kingship over all Yisro’el. They expected to see miracles and that He’d come in power and glory. When He refused to perform and essentially told them it was not yet time for that, they grew angry. Men want their gods to be what we expect. However that is how idols are made and demons worshiped. And while God Himself is no demon, we can make Him into an idol, both literally (statues etc.) and by remaking Him in our image as Christianity has done with "Jesus."
The ministry of Yeshua at His first coming as HaMoshiach was teaching, healing (especially spiritually), and graciously bestowing favor on all who put their trust in Him- those with Him, those past and all future believers as well. “Because the LORD hath anointed me to bring good tidings.” This is the “Good News.” Yeshua here is giving us His besorah, His message to us. He is to more completely explain 
, bring spiritual healing and make a way for sinful man to be reconciled to a Holy God.
The “year of the Lord's favor” is clearly that of Lev 25:8-13:
Leviticus 25:8-13 (ESV) “You shall count seven weeks [Sabbaths] of years, seven times seven years, so that the time of the seven weeks of years shall give you forty-nine years. Then you shall sound the loud trumpet on the tenth day of the seventh month. On the Day of Atonement you shall sound the trumpet throughout all your land. And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you, when each of you shall return to his property and each of you shall return to his clan. That fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you; in it you shall neither sow nor reap what grows of itself nor gather the grapes from the undressed vines. For it is a jubilee. It shall be holy to you. You may eat the produce of the field. “In this year of jubilee each of you shall return to his property.
Yeshayahu here relates the Year of Jubilee with the Babylonian captivity, which started in 586 BCE and fifty years later ended with Cyrus edict that the Hebrews could return to Eretz Yisro’el. Yovel- shofar balsts, Jubilee; a time of releasing slaves, canceling debts, and making a new beginning free of our past enslavement to sin and indebtedness to Elohim for those sins. This time and the future time prophesied herein are times of renewal. The land of Judah lay in ruins after the captivity in Babylon. Hashem would help people repair and rebuild in that day. Prophetically there will be a later time when tikun olam, started in first advent and even before by all who were obedient, now will extend to ha’Eretz Yisro’el and spread to the entire universe.
Isaiah 61:2b-3 (JPS) … and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn; To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them a garland for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the mantle of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called terebinths of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, wherein He might glory.
The ministry of HaMoshich at the second advent will be the day spoken of as the "day of the vengeance of our God." It will also be the time to comfort all who mourn, especially in Tzion.
In verses 4-9 we see the results of the ministry of haMoshiach at His second advent:
- Waste places are rebuilt
- Yehuda which was enslaved now will be served
- They were degraded, but will be exalted as priestly
- They who were afflicted will be enriched and comforted
- Scattered over the earth, they are even now being divinely gathered and guided, making Aliyah to Yisro’el as the world ramps up its’ anti-Semitic hatred and attacks
- The Jews will be fully vindicated before all nations
Isaiah 61:4 (JPS) And they shall build the old wastes, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall renew the waste cities, the desolations of many generations.
We who have been ‘baptised’ into the Ruach and into His Word now can see the repair of the wastes, desolation and destruction which our sins have caused in own lives and lives others
Isaiah 61:5-6 (JPS) And strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, and aliens shall be your plowmen and your vinedressers. But ye shall be named the priests of the LORD, men shall call you the ministers of our God; ye shall eat the wealth of the nations, and in their splendour shall ye revel.
The nations in that time will serve the Judeans, and they reciprocate by serving the nations as priests.
Zechariah 8:20-23 (ESV) “Thus says the Lord of hosts: Peoples shall yet come, even the inhabitants of many cities. The inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, ‘Let us go at once to entreat the favor of the Lord and to seek the Lord of hosts; I myself am going.’ Many peoples and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem and to entreat the favor of the Lord. Thus says the Lord of hosts: In those days ten men from the nations of every tongue shall take hold of the robe of a Jew, saying, ‘Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.’”
“Ye shall be named the priests of the LORD.” The Aaronic priesthood is now extended to whole nation, as it was meant to be at Sinai before the Hebrew people sinned with the golden calf:
Exodus 19:6 (ESV) and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.”
Most of those I’ve met raised Jewish have such a greater depth of understanding of scripture than I have, I can’t begin to even comprehend how much. I believe God is with anyone who studies .
1 Peter 2:9 (ESV) But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
Isaiah 61:7-9 (JPS) For your 
which was double, and for that they rejoiced: 'Confusion is their portion'; therefore in their land they shall possess double, everlasting joy shall be unto them. For I the LORD love justice, I hate robbery with iniquity; and I will give them their recompense in truth, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them. And their seed shall be known among the nations, and their offspring among the peoples; all that see them shall acknowledge them, that they are the seed which the LORD hath blessed.
This is quite a turnaround in peoples’ view of the Jew. Once despised, often persecuted, beaten, robbed, even many attempts to exterminate them. Now they are recognized and looked up to, even sought after. Rav S says one of the ways he gauges anti-Semitism in a person is how willing they are to take on the title of “Jew.” Are they willing to take on whatever trappings of Judaism are necessary to worship as the first century Nots’rim did? I’m willing to do that, however every time I put on a tallit I recognize just how far my knowledge falls short of that of even the secular Jews- let alone the practicing, religious Jews. I don’t know what my role will be in the time prophesied of here; but I’d be willing to just serve as a teachers aid to a really knowledgeable Jew. I could probably learn a lot just running the photocopier for him!
Dan C
Resources: JPS Study TNK, W Wiersbe, FB Meyer, MF Unger, my father, Rav S and others
