For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: Isaiah 62 :1-3

1 For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent,
    for Jerusalem’s sake I will not remain quiet,
till her vindication shines out like the dawn,
    her salvation like a blazing torch.
2 The nations will see your vindication,
    and all kings your glory;
you will be called by a new name
    that the mouth of the Lord will bestow.
3 You will be a crown of splendour in the Lord’s hand,
    a royal diadem in the hand of your God.

A. Find Out:

1. Why will he not keep quiet? v.1a
2. What does he want to see? v.1b
3. Who will see what? v.2a
4. What will come from whom? v.2b
5. What will Zion be? v.3

B. Think:

1. How do you think these verses continue from ch.61?
2. What does Isaiah want to see?
3. Why do you think he wants that?

C. Comment:

In verse 3 the Lord spoke of those who grieve “in Zion”. Zion is the centre of Jerusalem. It means fortress and is the hill where the Temple was built. It is the place of central encounter with God. Hearing God’s will expressed as restoration in chapter 61, Isaiah’s response now is a heart cry of agreement. The Lord has declared it so now he will pray for it and be part of the spiritual process to bring that restoration into reality. In this Isaiah teaches us an important lesson: when God expresses His will, don’t simply sit back and wait for it to happen – join in the process for enabling His will to come about – pray!

So, says Isaiah, I’m not going to remain quiet until I see this come about, until Jerusalem , the city of God is fully restored to full splendour and she is seen as a place of righteousness, a place where the blessing of God brings great glory.

When this happens people will look at her and even give her a new name, for she will be so different from the old Jerusalem. People from all over the earth will see and know! She will be like a wonderful crown that God holds in His hand, a royal jewel of great splendour. She will be wonderful to see and all peoples will wonder. This is the picture that now grabs Isaiah’s heart, this is the vision that entrances him and makes him cry, “I will not keep silent until….”

D. Application:

1. Do we understand that we are to be part of the process of bringing God’s declared will to reality as we pray?
2. Let God bring vision of what can be, to touch and move your heart.

Passage: Isaiah 62:4-7

4 No longer will they call you Deserted,
    or name your land Desolate.
But you will be called Hephzibah,
    and your land Beulah;
for the Lord will take delight in you,
    and your land will be married.
5 As a young man marries a young woman,
    so will your Builder marry you;
as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride,
    so will your God rejoice over you.

6 I have posted watchmen on your walls, Jerusalem;
    they will never be silent day or night.
You who call on the Lord,
    give yourselves no rest,
7 and give him no rest till he establishes Jerusalem
    and makes her the praise of the earth.

A. Find Out:

1. What will the land no longer be called? v.4a
2. But what will it be called instead? v.4b
3. To what will this be compared? v.5
4. What has the Lord done? v.6a
5. What are they not to do? v.6b,7a
6. Until when? v.7b

B. Think:

1. How is the land going to be transformed?
2. Yet how do verses 6 & 7 confirm the principle we considered yesterday?

C. Comment:

Isaiah is on a prophetic roll! In his spirit he has been rejoicing over what he senses God is going to do for Jerusalem. Whether he sees what has been or what will be isn’t made clear, but he knows that Jerusalem and the land has been, is, or will be, desolate and deserted. But he also knows that the Lord is going to change that. It’s all going to come about, this change, because God is going to come to them and enter into a fresh relationship with them, and delight in them. There will be a coming together as there is when there is a wedding.

Now, observe verses 6 & 7. Previously we noted a principle in those who are spiritually aware: they hear God’s intentions declared and then they pray for those intentions to be fulfilled. Here we have that again. God has declared His intent in respect of Jerusalem and Israel, and now he sets intercessors and prophets to cry out to God until He does it! Some how there is a link between prayer and God moving. It is as if He wants us to more fully enter into the wonder of what He is going to do, and the way He gets us to do that is us to pray His will into being, or perhaps more accurately, to pray until He brings His will into being. As we pray, that which we have heard with our ears becomes a spiritual reality in our hearts, and as we become sure of it, we can start declaring it as truth that WILL be. And as it is declared as truth, God does it.

D. Application:

1. Have I simply heard God’s will declared, and left it at that?
2. Am I praying out God’s will until it happens?

Passage: Isaiah 62:8-12

8 The Lord has sworn by his right hand
    and by his mighty arm:
‘Never again will I give your grain
    as food for your enemies,
and never again will foreigners drink the new wine
    for which you have toiled;
9 but those who harvest it will eat it
    and praise the Lord,
and those who gather the grapes will drink it
    in the courts of my sanctuary.’

10 Pass through, pass through the gates!
    Prepare the way for the people.
Build up, build up the highway!
    Remove the stones.
Raise a banner for the nations.

11 The Lord has made proclamation
    to the ends of the earth:
‘Say to Daughter Zion,
    “See, your Saviour comes!
See, his reward is with him,
    and his recompense accompanies him.”’
12 They will be called the Holy People,
    the Redeemed of the Lord;
and you will be called Sought After,
    the City No Longer Deserted.

A. Find Out:

1. What solemn thing has God done? v.8a
2. What has He promised NOT to do? b.8b
3. Instead what will happen? v.9
4. What does He call to be done? v.10
5. What does He call to be proclaimed? v.11
6. What will be the result? v.12

B. Think:

1. How has the Lord “removed the past”?
2. What is the point of verse 10?
3. How is verse 11 the opposite side of that?

C. Comment:

Verses 8 and 9 are a seal on the past. In the past Israel had gone away from the Lord and as a result the enemies of Israel had come in and plundered the land. With what I’m going so do, says God, that will never happen again! At this point we have to ask serious questions: was that word immediately fulfilled? Is it yet to be fulfilled? The reality was that in following centuries the enemy came again and again. So does it mean some yet future fulfilment in modern day Israel ? Or was it fulfilled when the people of God ceased to be a geographical people and became an international world-wide people – the church?

The latter has got to be the answer. Make a way for “the people”… “the nations” says the Lord in verse 10. Prepare a way for people to come to Zion, the place of God’s presence. Did that not happen through Jesus’ ministry?

“Your Saviour comes!” is the cry. One is coming who will bring this tremendous change, who will bring tremendous life-changing blessing (his “reward”, v.11) and when He comes, a new people will be brought into being who, as a whole, will be called holy, the redeemed of the Lord, ones purchased by God. Is this not exactly what happened through Jesus’ death on the Cross? It will be seen that there is a new community of God, and many will come looking for it.

D. Application:

1. Jesus is the Saviour who brought into being a new people.
2. The new people are a blessed, redeemed people – us!