Isaiah 61:1-2 (NKJV)

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, Because the Lord has anointed Me To preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives, And the opening of the prison to those who are bound;

To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, And the day of vengeance of our God; To comfort all who mourn

Isaiah 61 is an important Messianic prophecy. Not only does it foretell of Jesus ministry but Jesus himself quoted from this verse to formally announce the beginning of his ministry. Of course it tells of preaching the good news, healing, and setting captives free from sin. Then as Jesus is quoting this verse he stops at a comma, right in the middle of the sentence which begins with proclaiming the acceptable year of the Lord. Read about this event in Luke:

Luke 4:16b-21 (NKJV)

He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read. And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written:

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed; To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord."

Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him. 21 And He began to say to them, "Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing."

What was it Jesus left out? It was the phrase "And the day of vengeance of our God." Jesus announced that this scripture had been fulfilled in their hearing. He means that He is the one of whom this passage speaks and he is currently doing everything of which the passage speaks...except for the vengeance part. So what about that part, did he not fulfill that? Not yet but he will. That is the second coming of Christ. He came the first time to redeem us by his grace and love. He comes the second time to execute his wrath upon the world and to usher in the kingdom. The detail and accuracy of prophecy and scripture amazes me.

Comments


Comments are closed