Isaiah 62
by Pastor David Groendyk

This is a chapter filled with beautiful truths and beautiful exhortations to God’s people. Keep in mind the context of the past two chapters and all of the salvation that God has accomplished. Isaiah 62 describes a benefit of salvation that maybe we don’t talk about enough. In verses 1–5, we see that since God has done so much for his people, he delights in them. Meditate on some of these descriptions: you are filled with glory (v. 2), you are a crown of beauty and a royal diadem in the Lord’s hand (v. 3), your name is My Delight Is In Her (v. 4), you are like a beloved spouse to God (v. 5a), and God rejoices over you (v. 5b). A great parallel passage is Zephaniah 3:17: “The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.” What a beautiful truth that God looks at you as so precious and cherished in his sight! The way one devotional writer puts it is, “Salvation is not just a matter of legal verdicts and rescue from danger but of bringing people to the Lord so that he may love them forever.” That’s something to hold on to, especially when Satan accuses us and lies to us that we cannot possibly be loved and accepted by God because of our sin. God’s delight in us should give us confidence that he will bring us all the way home and finish the work that he’s started in us. It reminds me of that verse in the hymn “He Will Hold Me Fast” that we sang a couple weeks ago:

Those he saves are his delight // Christ will hold me fast

Precious in his holy sight // he will hold me fast

He’ll not let my soul be lost // his promises shall last

Bought by him at such a cost // he will hold me fast

Then there are two exhortations that stand out as a result of this great salvation. In verses 6–9, we have this curious example of the watchmen. What are they doing? Why are they crying out? What does it mean that they give no rest to God? They are crying out day and night that God would complete this work of salvation among his people. It shouldn’t be hard for us to recognize that the great promises found in Isaiah 60–62 and all throughout this book have not yet been fulfilled. Therefore, we should continue wrestling with God in prayer that he would bring these things about once and for all! These continual prayers should sound a lot like Revelation 22:20: “Come, Lord Jesus!” We want to see God’s kingdom built up, and we want to see his churches filled, and we want to see Jesus come back and establish the new heavens and the new earth so that we can be freed from this world of sin and finally dwell with God. We want to see God’s plan brought about! Is this something that you regularly pray for?

A final exhortation we see comes in verses 10–12. We should be preparing the way for others to enter into the church. Salvation has come, and we want the world to hear about it. Verse 10 really stands out to me: “Build up the highway; clear it of stones; lift up a signal over the peoples.” God doesn’t just want us to tell people about Jesus, but he wants us to make it easy for people to come to Jesus. Now, that doesn’t mean dumbing down the gospel or glossing over the fact that we ought to obey him or that we are called to pick up our cross when we become a Christian. But it means that we should do all that we can to remove the barriers to becoming a Christian. The only stumbling block that should cause someone not to accept the gospel is the offensive message that we are sinners who need to be saved by Jesus. Let us love those who don’t know Jesus and do all that we can to bring them to a saving knowledge of our Redeemer!