Isaiah 62:6 - Meaning and Application

Two things are promised here to Jerusalem.

First, there will be plenty of the means of grace, that is, abundant good preaching and prayer (Isaiah 62:6, Isaiah 62:7). This shows the way God often works when he means to show mercy to a people. He first brings them to their duty and pours out a spirit of prayer on them, and then he brings salvation to them.

Provision is made, first, so ministers may do their duty as watchmen. This is spoken of as a sign of good things to come, a step toward greater mercy, and a pledge of it. For what he planned to do for them, he would set watchmen on their walls who would never be silent. Ministers are watchmen on the church’s walls, because the church is like a city under siege, and it needs sentries on the walls to notice the enemy’s movements and warn others. As watchmen, they must be alert, faithful, and willing to endure hardship.

They are meant to stand guard day and night. They must never stop watching as long as the people whose souls they guard are still in danger. They must never be silent. They must seize every chance to warn sinners, whether the time seems favorable or not, and they must never betray Christ’s cause by cowardly silence. They must also never be silent at the throne of grace. They must pray and keep on praying, like Moses, who held up his hands until Israel won the victory over Amalek (Exodus 17:10, Exodus 17:12).

Second, provision is made so the people may do their duty. Those who make mention of the Lord must not keep silent either. They should not think it is enough that their watchmen pray for them. They must pray for themselves too, because all of this will still be too little to meet coming mercy with the honor it deserves. God’s professing people are marked by this, they make mention of the Lord, even in dark times, when the land is called forsaken and desolate. They are the Lord’s remembrancers, as the margin says. They remember the Lord themselves and remind one another of him.

God’s professing people must be a praying people. They must be public-minded in prayer, wrestling with God and continuing in it. They must keep not silent, never grow careless in prayer and never grow tired of it. Give him no rest, like an importunate beggar, or like the widow who kept coming until the judge gave in. God once said to Moses, “Let me alone” (Exodus 32:10), and Jacob said to Christ, “I will not let you go unless you bless me” (Genesis 32:26).

God is far less annoyed by such pressing prayer than people usually are. In fact, he invites and encourages it. He tells us to cry out to him. He is not like those disciples who tried to turn away a needy person (Matthew 15:23). He tells us to make urgent requests at the throne of grace and give him no rest (Luke 11:5, Luke 11:8). He allows himself not only to be reasoned with, but also to be wrestled with.

What we should ask for most earnestly is the public good and peace of God’s Jerusalem, meaning his church. We should pray that it may be safe, that he would establish it, so its interests will be firm and settled now and secured for future generations. We should also pray that it may be great, a praise in the earth, honored among the nations, and that God may be praised for it. When gospel truth is clearly defended, when gospel ordinances are rightly carried out in purity and power, and when the church becomes known for holiness and love, then Jerusalem is a praise in the earth.

We must keep praying for mercy to the church until it comes. We should do as the prophet’s servant did and go yet seven times, until the promising cloud appears (1 Kings 18:44). It is a good sign that God is drawing near to a people in mercy when he pours out a spirit of prayer on them and stirs them to be earnest and steady in their prayers.

Second, there will be plenty of all other good things too (Isaiah 62:8). This follows the first promise. When the people praise God, and all the people praise him, then the earth gives its increase (Psalm 67:5, Psalm 67:6). Then outward prosperity, crowning their godliness, helps make Jerusalem a praise in the earth.

Notice first the great distress they had been in and the losses they had suffered. Their grain had become food for their enemies, though they had hoped it would feed themselves and their families. This was a double burden. They lacked what they needed to survive, and their enemies were strengthened by it. Their enemies’ camp was supplied with it, and that made those enemies better able to harm them. God is said to have given their grain to their enemies, because he not only allowed it, but ordered it as just punishment for their misuse of abundance and their dealings with foreigners (Isaiah 1:7). The wine they had worked for, and that they needed in their trouble to help those of a heavy heart, was drunk by strangers to satisfy their own desires. This severe judgment had been threatened for their sins (Leviticus 26:16; Deuteronomy 28:33). We should see how uncertain earthly comforts are, and how wise it is to labor for the food that can never be taken away.

Now notice the great fullness and satisfaction they would be restored to (Isaiah 62:9). Those who gathered it would eat it and praise the Lord. Here we see God’s mercy in giving plenty, and peace to enjoy it. The earth yields its increase, there are hands to gather it in, and those hands are not taken away by plague or sickness, or tied up in war. Strangers and enemies do not come and gather it for themselves, or snatch it from us after we have gathered it. We eat the work of our hands, and the bread is not taken from our mouths. Best of all, we have a heart and opportunity to honor God with it, and his courts are open to us so we are not kept from attending him there.

We also see our duty in enjoying this mercy. We must gather what God gives with care and diligence. We must eat it freely and with gladness, not burying God’s gifts but using them. When we have eaten and are full, we must bless the Lord and thank him for his goodness to us. We must serve him with what we have, using it in acts of worship and kindness. We are to eat it and drink it in the courts of his holiness, where the altar, the priest, and the poor all have their portion. The greatest comfort a good person has in food and drink is that it can become an offering to the Lord his God (Joel 2:14). The greatest comfort in wealth is that it gives a chance to honor God and do good. This wine is to be drunk in the courts of God’s holiness, and so it should be used moderately and with self-control, as before the Lord.

The solemn confirmation of this promise is this: the Lord has sworn by his right hand and by his mighty arm that he will do this for his people. God gives this promise an oath so that his people, who trust in him and his word, may have strong comfort (Hebrews 6:17, Hebrews 6:18). Since he cannot swear by anyone greater, he swears by himself, sometimes by his own life, “As I live” (Ezekiel 33:11), and sometimes by his holiness (Psalm 89:35).

Here he swears by his power, by his right hand, which was raised in swearing (Deuteronomy 32:40), and by his arm of strength. This is a great comfort to those who build their hope on God’s promise, because they can be sure he is able to do what he has said (Romans 4:21). To reassure us, he has sworn by his strength, as if he has staked the honor of his all-powerful nature on it. If he did not do it, the only possible reason would be that he could not, and the Egyptians would never say that, nor would anyone else (Numbers 14:16). It is a comfort to God’s people that his power is committed to them, and that his right hand is the place where the Mediator, the one who stands between God and people, sits.