Isaiah 62:1 - Meaning and Application

The prophet here tells us what he will do for the church. A prophet, as a seer, is also a spokesman. Isaiah resolves to carry out that office faithfully, as this verse says. He will not stay silent, and he will not rest. He will do his work, take the trouble it requires, and not look for ease. In this, he is a picture of Christ, who tirelessly carried out the work of a prophet and kept at it until the task was finished.

Notice three things about the prophet’s resolve. First, he will not hold his peace. He will keep preaching, not only faithfully delivering the message he has received from the Lord, but also repeating it often. If people do not receive the commands and promises the first time, he will press them again and again, line by line. He will also keep praying, and he will not be silent at the throne of grace until he has obtained the mercies promised. Christ’s ministers must give themselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word (Acts 6:4). They must labor steadily in both and never grow tired of doing good.

Second, the reason for this resolve is Zion and Jerusalem, not any private gain of his own. He cares about the church because it lies near his heart. Whatever happens to his own home and family, he wants the good of Jerusalem and plans to seek it all his life (Psalm 122:8-9; Psalm 118:5). It is God’s Zion and God’s Jerusalem, and that makes it dear to him, because it is dear to God and because God’s glory is tied to its prosperity.

Third, he will keep pressing on until the promise of the church’s righteousness and salvation, given in the previous chapter, is fulfilled. Isaiah himself would not live to see the captives released from Babylon, much less the gospel brought in, where grace rules through righteousness unto life and salvation. Yet he will not be silent until these things come to pass in full. His prophecies will keep speaking of them, and in every age there will be a remnant who continue praying for them, as his successors, until the promises are fulfilled and the prayers founded on them are answered. Then the church’s righteousness and salvation will shine out like brightness and like a burning lamp. It will carry its own proof. It will bring honor and comfort to the church, making her look pleasant and appear glorious. It will also give light and guidance to the world, not only to the eyes but to the feet and paths of those who once sat in darkness and the shadow of death.

The prophet can only pray and preach, but God will confirm the word and answer the prayers. The church will be greatly admired. When that righteousness, which is her salvation, praise, and glory, is made known, the Gentiles will see it. News of it will be carried to them, and the offer of it will be made to them. They may see this righteousness in such a way that they can share in it, unless their own fault keeps them from it. Even kings will see her glory and be drawn to love it (Isaiah 62:2). They will look past the splendor of their own courts and kingdoms and turn their attention to the spiritual glory of the church, because it is greater than all else.

She will also be truly admirable. Great names make people important in the world, and great respect follows them. But honor really comes from the one who gives it. God is the source of honor, and the church’s honor comes from him. She will be called by a new name, a pleasant name, one she has never had before, not even in her best days. It will be the opposite of the name she had in her time of trouble. She will have a new character, a new rank, and people around her will think of her differently. This seems to be hinted at in the promise of the white stone and the new name written on it (Revelation 2:17), and in the name of the city of my God and Christ’s new name (Revelation 3:12). It is a name the Lord himself will give, and he does not misname anything. He will also cause others to call her by the name he has given, because his judgment is true and will be acknowledged in the end.

God will give her two names. First, he will call her his crown. She will be a crown of glory in the Lord’s hand, not on his head as if she added anything to his honor or power, but in his hand, meaning under his care and for his display. He is pleased to count his people as a glory and beauty to himself. When he took them as his people, it was so they would be for him a name, praise, and glory (Jeremiah 13:11). He will make her a crown of glory and a royal diadem by his good hand upon her. He will be a crown of glory to her, and she will be safe in his hand. The one who gives her glory will also create a defense around that glory, so the flowers of her crown will never fade and its jewels will never be lost (Isaiah 28:5).

Second, he will call her his spouse (Isaiah 62:4-5). This is an even greater honor, especially considering how low she had fallen. Her condition had been deeply sad. During the captivity she was called forsaken, and her land desolate, like a woman shamefully divorced or left as a sorrowful widow. That is a picture of religion in the world before the preaching of the gospel, when it was, in a sense, forsaken and desolate, something no one truly cared for.

Now her condition will be pleasant, because God will return to her in mercy. Instead of those two shameful names, she will be called by two honored names. First, she will be called Hephzi-bah, meaning, My delight is in her. That was the name of Hezekiah’s queen, the mother of Manasseh (2 Kings 21:1), and it is a fitting name for a wife, who should be her husband’s delight (Proverbs 5:19). Here, the church’s Maker is her husband. The Lord delights in you. By his grace, God has worked in his church what makes her his delight, as he has refined her, reformed her, and brought her home to himself. Then, by his providence, he does what shows that she is his delight and that he delights to do her good. Second, she will be called Beulah, meaning married, whereas she had been desolate, which is the opposite of being a married wife (Isaiah 54:1).

“Your land will be married,” that is, it will become fertile again and be filled with people. Though it has long been like a barren woman, it will once more be inhabited and made “a joyful mother of children” (Psalm 113:9). The land will be “married” because it will belong again to those who care for it and delight in it.

First, its sons will gladly take up the land of their birth and its best interests, which they had long neglected because they thought they would never enjoy it again. “Your sons shall marry you” means they will live in it and take pleasure in it. While they were in Babylon, they seemed to have attached themselves to that land, because they were told to settle there and seek its peace (Jeremiah 29:5-7). But now they will return to their own land with the same love that a young man has for the virgin he marries, a love marked by delight, commitment, and hope for a fruitful life.

It is a good sign for any land when its own people are pleased with it and choose it above others. It is also a good sign when its rulers give themselves to their country and are resolved to share its future. A people prosper when they love the place God has given them and work for its good.

Better still, its God will bind himself to her in righteousness (Hosea 2:19-20). That means he will treat her with faithful love and justice, and he will deal with her as his own. He will take pleasure in his church, just as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride. He will be glad in his relationship to her and in her love for him, and he will rest in that love (Zephaniah 3:17).

He will also delight to do her good, with all his heart and all his soul (Psalm 147:11; Jeremiah 32:41). This fits especially well with the love Christ has for his church and the joy he takes in it, which shines so clearly in Solomon’s Song and will be made complete in heaven.