Isaiah 4:2 - Meaning and Application

The threats that came before this leave Jerusalem in a very sad condition. Everything looks dark. But here the sun breaks through the clouds. These verses give many great and precious promises, bringing comfort that can be seen through the trouble and promising happy days afterward. They clearly point to the kingdom of the Messiah, and to the great rescue he would bring, shown by the restoration of Judah and Jerusalem under Hezekiah after Ahaz, and by the return from Babylon. Those events may both be in view, but the passage mainly points to Christ.

The passage first promises that God will raise up a righteous branch that will bear the fruit of righteousness (Isaiah 4:2). “In that day,” at that very time when Jerusalem is destroyed and the Jewish nation is scattered, the Messiah’s kingdom will be set up. Then the church will begin to revive, just when everyone else fears its complete ruin.

Christ himself will be lifted up. He is the branch of the Lord, the promised branch, one of the prophet’s names for the Messiah, like “my servant, the Branch” (Zechariah 3:8; Zechariah 6:12), “the Branch of righteousness” (Jeremiah 23:5; Jeremiah 33:15), and “a shoot from the stump of Jesse” (Isaiah 11:1). Some think this is also hinted at in the name “Nazarene” (Matthew 2:23). He is called the branch of the Lord because God planted him and caused him to flourish for his praise. The old Aramaic paraphrase here says, “The Christ, or Messiah, of the Lord.”

He will be beauty, glory, and joy. First, he will be lifted up to the joy set before him and to the glory he had with the Father before the world began. The one who was despised by men, and whose face was marred more than any man’s, is now in the heavenly world beautiful and glorious, like the sun in its strength, admired and worshiped by angels. Second, he will be beautiful and glorious in the eyes of all believers. He will gain honor in the world and a name above every other name. To those who believe, he is precious and honorable (1 Peter 2:7), the fairest of ten thousand (Song of Solomon 5:10), and altogether glorious. We should be glad that he is so, and let him be so to us.

His gospel will also be welcomed. The success of the gospel is the fruit of the branch of the Lord, because all gospel grace and comfort come from Christ. It is also called the fruit of the earth because it sprang up in this world and suited the life we now live. Christ compares himself to a grain of wheat that falls into the ground and dies, and then brings forth much fruit (John 12:24). Scripture also pictures gospel success as the earth yielding its increase (Psalm 67:6), and the planting of the Christian church as God sowing it in the earth for himself (Hosea 2:23).

This may be understood both of the people produced by the gospel and of the blessings the gospel brings. They will be excellent and lovely, very pleasing to those who have escaped from Israel, that is, the remnant of the Jews saved from perishing with the rest in unbelief (Romans 11:5). If Christ is precious to us, then his gospel will be precious too, along with all its truths and promises, and his church will be precious, along with all who belong to it. These are the good fruit of the earth. Compared with them, everything else is like weeds. It is a good sign that we belong to the chosen remnant, set apart from the rest who are called Israel and marked for salvation, if we see great beauty in Christ, in holiness, and in the saints, the excellent ones of the earth.

As a picture of this blessed day, Jerusalem, after Sennacherib’s invasion and after the Babylonian captivity, would again flourish like a branch and be blessed with the fruits of the earth. Compare Isaiah 37:31-32. The remnant would again take root downward and bear fruit upward. And if “the fruit of the earth” means the good things of this life, we can say that they have a special sweetness for the chosen remnant, because they have a covenant right to them and enjoy them in the most comforting way. If the branch of the Lord is beautiful and glorious in our eyes, even the fruit of the earth will seem excellent and lovely, because then we receive it as the fruit of the promise (Psalm 37:16; 1 Timothy 4:8).

God will also keep a holy seed for himself (Isaiah 4:3). When most of those who have a place and name in Zion and Jerusalem are cut off like withered branches through their own unbelief, some will still remain. Some will stay with the church, even when its outward form changes and it becomes Christian. God will not completely cast off his people (Romans 11:1). There will be one here and one there left behind.

This remnant is according to the election of grace, as Paul says (Romans 11:5). They are written among the living, marked in God’s counsel and foreknowledge for life and salvation, written to life, planned and settled for it without change. Those kept alive in deadly times were written for life in God’s providence. And should we not believe that those rescued from a far greater death were written in the Lamb’s book of life? (Revelation 13:8). As many as were appointed to eternal life believed to the salvation of the soul (Acts 13:48). All who were written among the living will be found among the living, every one of them, because Christ will lose none of all that were given to him.

This remnant is also under the rule of grace. Everyone who is written among the living, and is therefore left, will be called holy, will be made holy, and will be accepted by God as holy. Only the holy will remain when the Son of Man gathers out of his kingdom everything that causes sin. All who are chosen for salvation are chosen also for sanctification, that is, for being made holy (2 Thessalonians 2:13; Ephesians 1:4).

God will also reform his church and correct whatever is wrong in it (Isaiah 4:4). Then the remnant will be called holy, when the Lord has washed away their filth. He will wash it away from among them by cutting off wicked people, and from within them by cleansing out what is evil. They will not be called holy until they are, in some measure, made holy. Gospel times are times of reform, a more complete cleansing from sin (Hebrews 9:10). That was pictured in the reform under Hezekiah and in the later reform after the captivity, which this promise points to.

Notice the places and people that need reform. Jerusalem itself, though it was the holy city, still needed cleansing. And because it was the holy city, its reform would affect the whole kingdom for good. The daughters of Zion, especially the women he had just rebuked (Isaiah 3:16), also had to be reformed.

When people were dressed up in their ornaments, they thought they were wonderfully clean. But because they were proud of those things, the prophet called them their filth. No sin is more hateful to God than pride. Or the “daughters of Zion” may mean the towns and villages around Jerusalem, which belonged to it as the mother city and also needed reform.

The reform itself is this: the filth will be washed away. Wickedness is like dirt, especially bloodshed, and Jerusalem was known for that (2 Kings 21:16). Bloodshed stains a land more than any other sin. So when a city is reformed, it is being cleaned. When sinful customs and trends are stopped, and open wickedness is held back, a place that was like a dung heap is made clean and sweet. This helps not only its reputation among outsiders, but also the comfort and health of the people living there.

The one who brings about this reform is the Lord. Reform is God’s work, and if anything good and lasting is done, it is his doing. At times he destroys and removes sinners by his judgments. But he reforms and converts by the Spirit of his grace. This work is done not by human strength, but by the Spirit of the Lord of hosts (Zechariah 4:6). He works on the sinners who need reform, and also on magistrates, ministers, and others whom he uses as tools in reforming others.

The Spirit works in two ways here. First, he works as a spirit of judgment, opening the mind, convincing the conscience, and giving wisdom for careful, practical action (Isaiah 52:13). He also helps people tell the precious from the worthless. Second, he works as a spirit of burning, stirring up afflictions and making people eager to do good. The Spirit works like fire (Matthew 3:11). Deep love for Christ and for souls, along with a burning hatred of sin, will move people firmly to turn ungodliness away from Jacob. See Isaiah 32:15, 16.

God will also protect his church, and all who belong to it (Isaiah 4:5, 6). When they are purified and brought into order, they will no longer be left exposed. God will take special care of them. Those who are made holy are also well protected, because God will be both their guide and their guard.

Their dwellings will be defended (Isaiah 4:5). This promise applies to their homes, the places where they rest, their own houses, where they worship God alone and with their families. The blessing on the home of the righteous will be a protection to it (Proverbs 3:33). In the homes of the righteous there will be voices of joy and salvation (Psalm 118:15). God watches over the homes of his people, every one of them, from the poorest cottage to the grandest palace. When sin is put away from the house, the Almighty will defend it (Job 23:23, 26).

It also applies to their meetings for worship. The temple is not mentioned, because this promise points to a time when not one stone of it would remain on another. Yet all Christian gatherings, even if only two or three meet in Christ’s name, are under heaven’s special care. They will no longer be scattered or disturbed, and no weapon formed against them will succeed. We should count it a great mercy if we are free to worship God in public, without fear of war or persecution.

This promise is described with two pictures. First, it is like the safety Israel enjoyed while traveling through the wilderness. God will give the Christian church the same real proofs of his care, though not always in the same visible way. He will again create a cloud and smoke by day to shield them from the sun’s heat, and a shining fire by night to give light and warmth in the dark and cold (Exodus 13:21; Nehemiah 9:19). That pillar of cloud and fire stood between Israel and the Egyptians (Exodus 14:20). Though miracles have ended, God is still the same to the New Testament church that he was to Israel long ago, the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Second, it is like the covering of rams’ skins and badger skins over the tabernacle curtains, as if every dwelling place on Mount Zion and every assembly were as dear to God as that tabernacle. “Over all the glory” there will be a defense, to protect it from wind and weather. The church on earth has its glory. Gospel truth and worship, the Scriptures, and the ministry are the church’s glory. And over all this glory there is, and always will be, a defense, because the gates of hell will not defeat the church. If God himself is the glory in its midst, he will also be a wall of fire around it, safe and strong. Grace in the soul is its glory too, and those who have it are kept by God’s power as in a fortress (1 Peter 1:5).

Their tabernacle will also be a defense to them (Isaiah 4:6). God’s tabernacle was a shelter for the saints (Psalm 27:5), but when that is taken down, they will still not lack a refuge. God’s own power and goodness will be a tabernacle to all the saints. God himself will be their hiding place (Psalm 32:7). They will be at home in him (Psalm 91:9). He will be to them like the shadow of a great rock (Isaiah 32:2), and his name will be a strong tower (Proverbs 18:10). He will be not only a shadow from the heat in the day, but also a shelter from storm and rain.

In this world we must expect changing weather and all the trouble that comes with it. We will meet storms and rain in this lower world, and at other times the heat of the day will be just as hard to bear. But God is a refuge to his people in every kind of weather.