For I, Jehovah, love judgment, I hate robbery with wrong; and I will give their recompence in truth, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them.
Isaiah 61 looks past Christ's first coming to the full restoration of Israel. At verse 8 God gives the reason it will all happen: not something in the people, but what He Himself loves and hates, and a covenant He makes.
Verse 7 has just spoken of shame and confusion; verse 8 answers it with a covenant. One writer traces how this settles the whole reversal:
This is a remarkable prophecy. It shows the end God is going to reach in His dealings with His earthly people. Verse 7 speaks of shame and confusion. These things have been their lot under the strong hand of their God, in holy government because of their many sins. But now God will turn it all around. Other passages have shown us how "the everlasting covenant" of verse 8 will have turned their whole spiritual condition around. The everlasting joy predicted in verse 7 rests on that everlasting covenant. All will have to acknowledge that now, as a born again people, they are "the seed which the Lord has blessed."
Notice the order. The joy is not the foundation; the covenant is.
The two halves of the opening line belong together. One writer turns them on the person who gives:
We must give what is our own. "To deal your bread to the hungry" — it must be bread of your own, "For I the Lord love judgment, I hate robbery for burnt offering."
The older translation reads "robbery for burnt offering." The ESV reads, "I hate robbery and wrong." Either way the point stands: an offering never cleans up how you got it.
If God loves justice, how can He bind Himself to a people who rejected His Christ? Writers answer that the everlasting covenant is not an agreement between equals:
This could only become true out of pure grace and mercy… A verse in Isaiah 55 links the sure mercies promised to David with the new covenant. It is a covenant of pure grace. God takes all the obligations and Israel receives all the blessing. This covenant rests on one foundation only: the shedding of the blood of Christ.
That is why the promise can be called everlasting. Another writer shows where its security lies:
How secure, how stable, how sure everything must be in Him. The Letter to the Hebrews calls Him "the Surety" of the new covenant. His precious blood is "the blood of the everlasting covenant." It calls Him "the Mediator" of the new covenant. But in Isaiah, He Himself is the Covenant. So the covenant must be, like Himself, unfailing and perfect… Everything depends upon Him, not upon us. God forgives because of Him, and will remember the believer's sins no more. This will be Israel's blessing too, when they turn to the Lord and come into the covenant.
One writer places the chapter's two halves in the Lord's two comings:
The prophet here sees that the second coming of Christ, in power and glory and in judgment, must happen. The glorious state of things he predicts will never arrive till Christ comes again. Christ laid the foundations for it in the redemption He accomplished at His first coming. He will bring it to pass in power, and with vengeance, at His second coming.
The covenant of verse 8 flows into the promise about their descendants in verse 9. One writer takes it as a real future event on earth:
Here, beyond dispute, we have the literal fulfilment of the promises to Abraham and his seed. But the terms of the prophecy, like the terms of the original covenant, cannot be squared with the idea that Jews and Gentiles receive identical blessings, with every difference between them wiped out. The nations of the earth may gain great privileges from these promises. Even so, a clear and blessed superiority belongs to Israel as a right that cannot be taken away… All this agrees perfectly with the covenant made with Abraham, whose fulfilment in any strict sense is still future.
- Because — the verse opens with a reason. God acts for Israel not because they deserve it, but because of what He loves: justice.
- Hates — He refuses an offering built on robbery. What you give must first be your own.
- Gives — the covenant is pure grace. God takes all the obligations, the people receive all the blessing, and the blood of Christ is its one foundation.
- Holds — it cannot fail, because Christ Himself is the Covenant. Everything depends on Him, not on us.
- Shows — the outcome is public. When Christ comes again, their shame turns into everlasting joy, and the nations acknowledge them as the seed the Lord has blessed.
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 a seed that Jehovah hath blessed.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.