Carrying over from the previous chapter, the context here continues with the symbolic Return from Exile. While the literal Restoration would come in about 536 BC, some 200 years into Isaiah's future, it was a symbol of something far greater, far later: The spiritual Restoration of a New Israel. Thus, John the Baptist associated this passage with a spiritual return from spiritual exile.
We are reminded here the phrase "in That Day" refers to the day God judges sin. In the Hebrew mind, that could not possibly refer to some particular day on a calendar, or even a literal day, but refers to any time period when God acts mightily to remove sin. For those who have embraced sin, That Day will be a very bad time, whenever it happens. To those who embrace repentance, That Day will be a time of rejoicing, of relief from the oppression of sin. While it surely does echo of some final day at the end of this age, such a reference simply gives meaning to any event which signals the judging hand of God. Because That Day may come at any time during the life true believers, and can come often, to attempt narrowing it down to a singular reference does violence to Isaiah's message.
So it is, the context here refers to That Day of the Messiah, with repercussions echoing down through history starting at the Cross. In His Kingdom, the Elect will take up a spiritual, otherworldly focus. They will confess the justice of God's anger against their sin. They will rejoice in the knowledge that His wrath is turned aside by the Blood of the Lamb. It will be hard to put into mere words how this will lift the hearts of the Redeemed. The image is given life by the historical Restoration from Exile, as these words would reflect their just response, the response so few of them actually had.
Verse 3 offers the image of coming back to Jerusalem, of cleaning and reopening the well built on the Gihon Spring just outside the main eastern gate of the city during Old Testament times. This well is the most ancient symbol of why the city stood on that ridge, a powerful image of nostalgia to anyone who had ever lived there. From the most ancient times, a spring-fed water well was the most fundamental factor in siting a place to dwell. It was the ultimate symbol of God's provision for life and security. It is no surprise that this passage was considered a reference to the Holy Spirit. Without His presence in the human soul, the human was spiritually dead.
The single reason for God choosing Israel was for the sake of revelation. They were to be "a kingdom of priests," a term emphasizing their task of bringing God near to the rest of humanity. They failed miserably in this task. As early as Jonah's day, we see the arrogant racist attitude that all the rest of the world ought to die in their sins; Jonah actively resisted any call to bring the light of truth to Ninevah. The contempt Jews held for Gentiles in Jesus' day was painfully obvious, but only slightly worse than the leadership's contempt for Jewish peasants. It was this smug elitism that destroyed the mission of Israel to bring the light of truth to the world. Thus, a primary element of Jesus' mission during His life was to overcome this failure, to fill up the measure of what Israel failed to do in revealing Him to all humanity.
Again, it cannot be emphasized enough when reading Hebrew literature: We must not make the mistake of mentally limiting ourselves to a one-for-one relationship between images and what they may symbolize. In these few verses, we see at work the typical Hebrew mysticism, which weaves together into a single tapestry the literal historical events past and future, plus a higher meaning for which those events are symbols. It is truly rare when we can explain a Hebrew catchphrase as having only one, concrete meaning. Reading Isaiah from such a limited viewpoint is serious error. All the meanings offered in this commentary here can be found in the rest of Scripture.
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By Ed Hurst
13 August 2008, revised 01 February 2013
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