On that day the Branch of the LORD will be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land will be the pride and glory of Israel's survivors. Sermons
I. NATIONAL CONDITIONS OF PROSPERITY. "The shoot of Jehovah will be for adornment and honor." Erit germen Domini in magnificentia et gloria. The rich fertility of the land is compared to a new sprouting growth, caused by the creative energy of God. When the Spirit of God is felt to he operative in the life of a people, then, and then only, can its life be both strong and beautiful. See, again, this thought in Isaiah 28:5: he will be as a "crown of glory and diadem of beauty" to the residue of his people. "Then shall he give the rain of thy seed, that thou shalt sow the ground withal; and bread of the increase of the earth, and it shall be fat and plenteous: in that day shall thy cattle feed in large pastures" (Isaiah 30:23). "In that day the mountains shall drop down new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the rivers of Judah shall flow with waters, and a fountain shall come forth out of the house of Jehovah, and shall water the valley of Shittim" (Joel 3:18). "Behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, that the ploughman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt They shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them. And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, saith Jehovah thy God" (Amos 9:13-15). "I will sow her unto me in the earth" (Hosea 2:23). Glowing pictures! Israel's golden age ever is in the future. And for all who "hope in God," the "good old times," the "Saturnian reign," is coming again. Magnus ab integro sceclorum nascitur ordo. The hard oaks shall again sweat with the dewy honey; our sweetest dreams become a solid fact. "From me is thy fruit found" (Hosea 14:8). II. PERSOSAL CONDITIONS OF PROSPERITY. The one condition is personal holiness. "Every relict in Zion, and every one remaining in Jerusalem, will be called a saint; every one who has been written among the living in Jerusalem." Profound thought! the holy man alone is the living man. Matter is death; spirit is exemption from the rule of matter. Holiness is victory over matter - in its lower form, fleshly cleanliness; in its higher, the purity of self-consistent truth that will not mix with what is alien to itself. III. VISIBLE GLORIES. Upon every home on Mount Zion, and every place of prayer, there will be the cloud by day, and the fume and splendor of flaming fire by night; over all the glory a protection. "Wherever there is true spiritual exaltation and majesty, there is around it a covering and protection which keeps the world away from it." "There's a divinity doth hedge a king." We cannot constantly bear the splendor; we need the cool calm commonplaces of life to resort to when our eyes are wearied with the glare of highest truth. And we may find the "calm retreat, the silent shade" of religious life no less welcome than the mount of glory and of vision. From the storm and rain we may find a refuge in the "secret place of the Most High." - J.
In that day shall the branch of the Lord be beautiful and glorious. If this is a reference to Christ, critics are agreed that it is the first personal reference to the Messiah which Isaiah has yet given.(J. Parker, D. D.) (J. Parker, D. D.) (J. Parker, D. D.) That is to say, fruitfulness, beauty, sufficiency, energy, summer. This is what the Son of God same to be and to do — to fill the earth with fruitfulness, to drive away the ghastly, all-devouring famine, and to feed the world with the fruit of heaven.(J. Parker, D. D.) I. THE GENERAL MEANING OF THE PASSAGE. The time spoken of by the prophet is clearly the time of the Christian dispensation, called "the last days" (ch. 2). And we need not stop to prove that "the Branch of the Lord" is a name or title of the Messiah. We have, therefore, a prophecy of the glory of Christ's kingdom.II. THE INNER MEANING OF THE PASSAGE.(1) Why is it said "In that day," specifying a particular time, "the Branch of the Lord shall be glorious"? And(2) what is the special force or meaning of the title, "the Branch of the Lord"? 1. The glory of Christ is surely the glory which He had with the Father from the beginning. How then can it be said of Him that at any assigned time He is glorious, rather than at another? The word glory, when spoken of God or Christ, cannot have precisely the same sense as when spoken of a man. A man may gain glory by some act above the average of human nature. But starting from infinite perfection, nothing greater or nobler can be conceived. Glory, therefore, with reference to God is not the gaining of any higher excellence, but the manifestation of excellence which existed already. The creation was the first manifestation of the glory of God. And if the glory of God was made manifest in creation, it is yet more fully revealed in those mysteries of redemption which angels desired to look into. 2. But why in this connection is the Saviour called the Branch of the Lord? If the appropriateness of the figure does not at once appear, it will at least remind us of — "I am the Vine, ye are the branches." The expression thus sets Christ before us in His character as the Mediator — Himself the Branch of the Lord, and His people branches of that true Vine. Thus we are enabled further to connect the title with the glory spoken of. The glory and beauty of the vine is in its fruit (John 15:8). (A. K. Cherrill, M. A.) I. THE PREPARATION FOR THE PROMISE. In the earlier verses of the chapter you will find that two things are presented as antecedent to the gifts of blessing — that is, the coming of the Divine Saviour, and His discipline for holiness within His Church.1. The transition from the gloomy judgment to the grandeur of deliverance is abrupt and striking, as if from a savage wilderness one were to emerge suddenly into green pastures and among gay flowers. And surely this is a true representation of the change which passes upon human destinies when Christ the Lord comes down. We are naturally heirs of judgment. There is not a family, there is not a heart, upon which the curse has not descended in disastrous entail; there is a stain upon the birth, there is a feebleness in the nature of us all. But there comes a sound of help and of deliverance, for a Saviour has been provided — a Saviour who, in the mysterious union of natures, combines perfection of sympathy and almightiness of power. 2. It would at once correct our estimate and restrain our pride if we could remember always that with God the greatest thing is holiness. And then, further, we are told that to work this holiness in His people, God subjects them to discipline, and, if necessary, to the spirit of judgment and to the spirit of burning. Mark the exquisite fitness and the exquisite kindness of the discipline. There are some stains that water can wash away. If the water will avail, there is no need of the fire. There are some stains so deep and foul and crimson that the fire must purge them. II. THE PROMISE ITSELF (ver. 5). As we read these words, we are translated to a former scene of deliverance. We go back to the older ages; and there, in the fierce wilderness, where no groves of palm trees wave with shade, a vast host marching steadily, now in their van for guidance, now in their rear for protection, there rises by day a pillar of cloud and by night a pillar of flame; and, as we gaze, we listen to the snatches of their song: "Sing ye to the Lord, for He hath triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider hath He thrown into the sea." This was the vision prominent in the mind of the prophet when he symbolised by it God's presence and protection to His chosen Church. 1. The central thought is the presence of God. Then, there are right-hand and left-hand thoughts or aspects in which that presence manifests itself. 2. The presence of God for counsel. 3. The presence of God for defence. (W. M. Punshom.) I. THE PERSONS INTENDED. The remnant, the escaping, the "evasion of Israel," as the word signifies (ver. 2) they that are left, that remain (ver. 3), who escape the great desolation that was to come on the body of the people, the furnace they were to pass through. Only in the close of that verse, they have a further description added of them, from the purpose of God concerning their grace and glory — they are written among the living, or rather, written unto life; "Everyone that is written," i.e., designed unto life in Jerusalem.II. THE CONDITION WHEREIN THEY WERE. This is laid down in figurative expressions concerning the smallness of this remnant, or the paucity of them that should escape, and the greatness of the extremities they should be exercised withal. III. THE PROMISES HERE MADE TO THIS PEOPLE are of two sorts: Original, or fundamental; and then consequential thereon. 1. There is the great spring, or fountain promise, from which all others, as lesser streams, do flow; and that is the promise of Christ Himself unto them, and amongst them; He is that Branch of Jehovah, and that fruit of the earth, which is there promised (ver. 2). He is the foundation, the fountain of all the good that is or shall be communicated unto us; all other promises are but rivulets from that unsearchable ocean of grace and love that is in the promise of Christ. 2. The promises that flow from hence — (1) (2) (3) ( J. Owen, D. D.) 4040 beauty Thirteenth Day for the Spirit of Burning A vision of Judgement and Cleansing The Evening of the Third Day in Passion-Week - on the Mount of Olives: Discoures to the Disciples Concerning the Last Things. Purity and Peace in the Present Lord Thoughts Upon the Appearance of Christ the Sun of Righteousness, or the Beatifick vision. How to Make Use of Christ as the Truth, that we May Get Our Case and Condition Cleared up to Us. A Clearing-Up Storm in the Realm Isaiah |
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