Isaiah
chapters 61 to 66
Brit-Am
Summary
A Biblical Commentary
Courtesy of
Brit-Am
Isaiah
chapters 61 to 66
Brit-Am
Summary
A Biblical Commentary
Courtesy of
Brit-Am
Isaiah Summary chs.61 to 66
The Captives will be freed (Isaiah 61:1) and the mourners of Zion comforted (61:2-3). The wasted places will be rebuilt (61:4). The land will be renewed. Strangers shall serve you and produce for you (61:5). All who see you will know that God has blessed you (61:9). There will be a Restoration of Israel which will be centered on Jerusalem (62:1). Jerusalem will be blessed greatly and known throughout all the earth (62:3-10). The people of Jerusalem will be recognized as the Redeemed of God (62:11-12). A Special Person (The Messiah son of David? or son of Joseph?) shall take revenge on Bozrah of Edom through the strength of his might (63:1-5). He will trample down peoples (63:6). God will do great goodness to the House of Israel (63:7). God says these are my children who will act according to their parentage and fulfill the task they were destined to fulfill (63:8). God Himself suffered when HIS people were persecuted and suffered (63:9). Israel sinned and so God turned away (63:10). Even though they sin and turn away from HIM, HE will remember and return to HIS people at some stage, no matter what.
WHERE IS HE THAT PUT HIS HOLY SPIRIT WITHIN HIM? If God puts HIS spirit in us or in His prophet we can be led onto the right track (63:11). We do not act as our forefathers would have wanted us to do and we do not merit to receive the blessings promised to them neither do we fulfill the tasks they accepted upon themselves on our behalf. They would be in their rights to disown us BUT even so God will not disown us.
We may not be recognized as the physical descendants of Abraham and Israel even though that is what we feel ourselves to be and probably are. Even so God will help us (63:16). We are the tribes of Israel. THE TRIBES OF THINE INHERITANCE. We need to feel the Divine Presence and return (63:17). The enemy possesses the Temple Mount and defiles it. OUR ADVERSARIES HAVE TRODDEN DOWN THY SANCTUARY (63:18). Israel is the People of God. The physical descendants of the Israelites are the chosen people. There is none other (63:19). If only God would show Himself then nobody would doubt or rebel against Him (64:1).
[Isaiah 64:4] FOR SINCE THE BEGINNING OF THE WORLD MEN HAVE NOT HEARD, NOR PERCEIVED BY THE EAR, NEITHER HATH THE EYE SEEN, O GOD, BESIDE THEE, WHAT HE HATH PREPARED FOR HIM THAT WAITETH FOR HIM.
Nobody has seen that which God has prepared for the righteous in the Afterlife. Only they who have learnt the Torah of Israel have ever received a glimpse of the Ultimate Truth.
God has hidden His face from us and we are in danger of losing. If however we overcome and take hold of God He will save us (64:7). God is our father. He is the potter who forms us according to His will (64:8). God wants the cities of Israel and especially Jerusalem to be built up and inhabited with Israelites (64:10). Our soul is afflicted as long as the cities of Ancient Israel are not settled by Israelites. The world is not as it should be as long as the Temple is not rebuilt (64:12). God will return to Judah and to the lost Tribes who forgot who they were and that God was their God, the God of Israel (65:1). God is calling us all the time (65:2). The Lost Tribes worshipped idols, in groves, and graveyards, and cults of the dead, and eat pig-meat and abominations (65:3-4). The Lost Ten Tribes and Judah together shall return (65.9). They amongst the Israelites who continue in the Druidical and similar pagan idolatrous practices of their forefathers will be punished (65:11, 13-16). Creation will be changed. Everything will be renewed (65:17). There will be a New Jerusalem and a change in human nature with people living to a very very old age (65:18-21, 65:23-25). God will be close to us (65:22).
We must give our heart to God (Isaiah 66:1). Man can give something of himself back to God (66:2). God wants righteous behavior and good intention (66:3). Someone who disregards the will of God is liable also to be disregarded when they need His help (66:4). God will take vengeance against those who disregarded Him and against those who desecrated the Temple and Temple site (66:6). Zion will be delivered suddenly (66:7). We should rejoice with Jerusalem that represents re-union and reconciliation (66:10). Through Jerusalem Israel will be comforted (66:13). Those who believed in God and the Bible and did the best they could will rejoice (66:14). People who keep pagan practices will be punished (66:17). They who from Israel and Judah were scattered amongst other nations will return (66:19). Priests and Levites will be drawn also from amongst they who return (66:21).
The Sages (Talmud, Kiddushin 70;a) said:
"When God decides to let it be known who belongs to which Tribe, he clarifies firstly who belongs to the Tribe of Levi, as it says, And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi... (Malachi 3;3)".
Maimonides (1135-1204):
<<In the days of the Messianic King: When his kingdom shall be settled and all of Israel gather unto him, he shall then give the Tribal-genealogy of each one. He shall do this through Divine inspiration. As it says, HE SHALL SIT AS A REFINER AND PURIFIER (Malachi 3:3). He will purify the Tribe of Levi first.as it says, "till there be stood up a priest with Urim and with Thumim" (Ezra 2:63). He gives the genealogy of Israel only concerning which tribe each one belongs to..
(Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, The Laws of Kings, ch. 12, no.3).
Non-Israelite Gentiles will also be accepted and reconciled. All the world will worship the God of Israel whose worship will be centered on Jerusalem (66:23). There will be a Resurrection of the Dead (66:24).
 chs. 56 to 60 |