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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadPaul Kretzmann Commentary - Isaiah 58:8 - 58:14
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The Blessings Following True Repentance
v. 8. Then, namely, when a person acts in accordance with the suggestion made in the first part of the chapter, shall thy light break forth as the morning, like the dawn of the Orient, which speedily covers the sky, and thine health shall spring forth speedily, the spiritual healing going on with great rapidity; and thy righteousness, the deliverance promised in the covenant, shall go before thee, as the pillar of Jehovah did at the time of the wilderness journey; the glory of the Lord shall be thy rearward, to protect him against any attack from that quarter. This is nothing else than the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, the Messiah Himself. Cf 2Co_4:6; 1Co_10:4.
v. 9. Then, namely, when this wonderful fellowship obtains, shalt thou call, and the Lord shall answer, with a ready assistance; thou shalt cry, appealing to Him for help, and He shall say, Here I am, indicating His presence and readiness to help with the customary answer. If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, removing every form of oppression, the putting forth of the finger, in a threatening gesture, and speaking vanity, things which would prove harmful to the neighbor;
v. 10. and if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, opening his heart in true mercy, and satisfy the afflicted soul, offering it the desired relief, then shall thy light rise in obscurity, in the midst of the darkness of this vale of tears, and thy darkness, what seems to be the worst form of affliction, be as the noonday, filled with the glorious light of God's kindness and mercy;
v. 11. and the Lord shall guide thee continually, throughout life, and satisfy thy soul in drought, whenever a time of spiritual want comes, and make fat thy bones, strengthening a man's frame for endurance; and thou shalt be like a watered garden, a park with luxuriant growth, and like a spring of water whose waters fail not, such as do not disappoint the traveler by being dried up at the crucial time.
v. 12. And they that shall be of thee, their descendants, the members of their nation, shall build the old waste places, changing ruins into inhabited dwellings; thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations, all the cities of the Holy Land, but especially Jerusalem; and thou shalt be called The Repairer of the Breach, The Restorer of Paths to Dwell In, both activities making the dwelling in the Promised Land possible once more.
v. 13. If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, the Sabbath being regarded as holy ground, which no unholy foot dared touch, from doing thy pleasure on My holy day, whatever pleases the natural heart of man, and call the Sabbath a delight, refreshment for the soul, the holy of the Lord, honorable, keeping it sacred in the manner commanded by the Lord, and shalt honor Him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words, in vanity and foolishness:
v. 14. then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord, finding the soul's true refreshment in Him; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, once more to occupy the hills of their homeland, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob, thy father, enjoying all the blessings promised to that patriarch; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it, a solemn formula to assure men of the fulfillment of God's promises. Even as Israel, the Church of the Old Testament, could come to the enjoyment of Jehovah's heritage only by true repentance, so the believers of the New Testament fitly keep the admonition of the Lord before their eyes, "Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. "