If verse 3 of our chapter predicts how the Israel of God in the
coming age will be a crown of glory and a diadem in the hand of God,
verse 4 declares the place of blessing that shall be theirs, in
contrast with all that has characterized them hitherto. Several times
already in reading this prophet we have seen that both they and their
land have been forsaken by God because of their sins. To this day no
interposition of God on their behalf, comparable to what He did, when
He delivered them from Egypt under Moses, has taken place. The
delivering act of God is yet to come.
When it does take place by the appearing of Christ, it will be a
repentant and born-again people who are delivered. As such they will be
called, "Married." The figure used in verse 5; that of a young man
marrying a virgin people and their land, may remind us of the striking
words of Psalm 110, where the people who refused Jesus in the day of
His poverty, will be willing in the day of His power, and the youth of
Israel will rally to Him as the dew falls in the summer morning. Only
then will Jehovah their God rejoice over them.
But though that is so, the forsaken Jerusalem is not forgotten by
the Lord. This is expressed by the setting of watchmen on the walls,
who are never to hold their peace until deliverance comes. It is worthy
of note that Ezekiel was the prophet set as "a watchman unto the house
of Israel" (Ezekiel 3: 17), and he it was who in vision saw the glory
of the Lord depart from the temple and the city. During Israel's night
the watchmen are not to hold their peace. They are, so to speak,
continually to be reminding the Lord that His glory is involved in the
establishment of Israel in their land, and Jerusalem becoming a praise
to His name in the earth.
When we lift our thoughts from the earth and Israel's predicted
place of blessing therein, to God's purpose for the heavens and for the
church, we may surely speak in similar fashion. When in response to our
Lord's assurance of His advent, we cry, "Even so, come, Lord Jesus" we
are thinking, we trust, not only of the fulness of our own blessing in
the heavens, but of God achieving in the church all He purposed before
the foundation of the world. There will be, "the redemption of the
purchased possession, unto the praise of His glory" (Eph. 1: 14). As on the earth, so in the heavens, His glory will shine forth.
Yet after all the watchmen on the walls of Jerusalem are needed to
keep God's purpose before the minds of men, rather than before the mind
of God, since He never fails. God Himself has sworn that He will do it,
and He swears by Himself, as Hebrews 6: 13, reminds. us. He connects
His oath in verse 8 with "His right hand and by the Arm of His
strength." So here again the Arm of the Lord is introduced, since it is
by Him that the thing will be done, and the Arm is characterized by
strength, for Christ is the power of God, as well as the wisdom of God,
as we are told in 1 Corinthians 1: 24.
Corn and wine are frequently mentioned together in Scripture as
indicating the sustenance that man needs, both solid and liquid, only
here we see that all will not only be secured to Israel but that it
shall be enjoyed by them in the presence of their God; as it is put
here "in the courts of My holiness."
The three verses which close the chapter give us a prophetic
forecast of how this will be accomplished. In Isaiah, "the daughter of
Zion," is an expression that occurs a number of times. The first
occurrence is in verse 8 of chapter 1, and it seems to be identified
with the "very small remnant," mentioned in verse 9. We believe that is
the force of it here. The God-fearing remnant will be found scattered
to the ends of the world. They will be called and a standard lifted up
to which they will gather; and then their way to the holy city and
through its gates will be opened up before them, and every stone of
stumbling will be removed.
And how will all this be accomplished? By the advent of their
Salvation, who is evidently a Person, in the light of the words that
follow. By His reward and His work the Arm of the Lord will prove
Himself to be God's "Salvation unto the end of the earth" (Isa. 49: 6).
And what will be the result as regards those who are gathered as
"the daughter of Zion"? They will at last be exactly what Israel was
originally intended to be-"The holy people;" that is, a people
separated to God, in accord with His mind and nature. This delightful
condition will only be reached since they will be, "the redeemed of the
Lord."
This redemption will be a vital and spiritual reality, and not just
a national thing, without regard to the spiritual state of individuals,
as when they were brought out of Egypt under Moses. It will be brought
about by the grace of our God, and not on the ground of law-keeping.
This is indicated very clearly in Romans 11, where Paul states that
though at present shut up in unbelief, they will ultimately "obtain
mercy." The coming salvation of the godly in Israel will be as wholly
an act of Divine mercy as is the salvation of degraded Gentile sinners
today. The mercy of God will reach both the people and their city.