The Branch Beautiful And Glorious

Our Bible passage, introduction to Sunday 29th January service and hymns are below.

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Our verses are:

Isa 4:1  And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach.

Isa 4:2  In that day shall the branch of the LORD be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel.

Isa 4:3  And it shall come to pass, that he that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem:

Isa 4:4  When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning.

Isa 4:5  And the LORD will create upon every dwelling place of mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night: for upon all the glory shall be a defence.

Isa 4:6  And there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the daytime from the heat, and for a place of refuge, and for a covert from storm and from rain.

 The Branch Beautiful And Glorious

Isaiah’s prophecy is full of the prophet looking forward to this gospel age in which we live. He calls it ‘the last days’ and ‘the coming day of the Lord’. In today’s passage we continue to dwell on his gospel theme. Seven times in these first few chapters Isaiah begins with, ‘In that day’. He was speaking to the elect of his day; encouraging them with visions of our day and its gospel successes. The Lord used the gospel’s power and expansion in our day to comfort downtrodden believers of past ages.

Christ set forth

By this vision the Holy Spirit enlarged and enriched the understanding of the Old Testament church concerning the coming Messiah and His work to redeem His people from their sin. But Isaiah reveals, too, ‘the glory that should follow’ as Gentile believers are gathered into Christ’s kingdom. These things were revealed to strengthen and comfort through anticipation the pressed and persecuted saints of old. They continue to speak to saints today by describing Christ’s ongoing success and fruitfulness, and helping us to interpret what is going on around us in these last days.

A strange start

Our opening verse speaks of seven women negotiating marriage terms with one man in order to take his name and remove their desolation at being without a husband. It pictures a time when men slain in battle left many widows. There is a delightful spiritual application here. Christ is Husband of the church and we are His Bride: but to come to Him for love and take His name we must first learn that grace is free. We must be disabused of every notion of bringing something to the marriage. Christ will give us all, or nothing.

The Righteous Branch

Our Lord Jesus is the righteous branch that Jehovah caused to sprout, and promised to raise up in Zion. This speaks of Christ’s deity. The Righteous Branch is a Messianic title employed in the prophecies of Isaiah, Jeremiah and Zechariah. Christ is the ‘rod out of the stem of Jesse’. God says, ‘I will cause the Branch of righteousness to grow up unto David’, which is why the Saviour is called, the ‘Son of David’.

‘Beautiful and glorious’

These terms describe Christ’s divine nature and point to His covenant obligations and accomplishments. As Jesus is the ‘altogether lovely’ One and all-glorious in the estimation of His people, so too, His people are made beautiful and glorious in their covenant union with their Beloved Friend. What Christ is in Himself, we are made to be in Him. We are beautiful and glorious in Christ, not with the false beauty of chains, and bracelets, rings and nose jewels as described previously, but inwardly adorned with the beauty of Christ, the beauty of holiness.

Fruit of the earth

In describing the Lord Jesus as the ‘fruit of the earth’, Isaiah also points to Christ’s humanity; being born of Mary, and His prolific fruitfulness and abundance in bringing many sons, and daughters, to glory. Isaiah’s descriptions of the Lord Jesus provided ample information, even then, for those with Holy Ghost insight and spiritual understanding to discern the true nature of the coming Messiah; both God and Man.

The remnant again

Isaiah describes features of the future people of faith sufficient to encourage and delight his ancient audience amid their trials and distresses. The remnant people of God, those ‘left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem’, are the elect of God in every age, whom He has chosen, preserved, protected and redeemed, they ‘shall be called holy’. Christ will have His Bride; dedicated, justified, sanctified, purified and ‘most holy unto the Lord’. When the future seemed bleak for Judah, these promises of gospel enlargement brought hope.

Wisdom and passion

Brothers and sisters, we are the people purged, washed and cleansed, not with water but by blood. We have a new spirit, a spirit of judgment to discern gospel truth, and a spirit of burning to stir up a passion for holy living and dedicated service. We come to Mount Zion, the kingdom of the great King. There we find rest, peace and protection, a covert from the storm of this world’s spiritual strife.

We are a prophecy fulfilled

When Isaiah set before his generation the words of God’s revelation he told the saints about Jehovah’s one great Righteous Branch, the Messiah, who would appear at the appointed time, ‘In that day’. These Old Testament saints were also informed of the Messiah’s many righteous children who would ‘in that day’ be gathered ‘from the four winds’ and brought into Zion as a great and holy nation. The elect in Isaiah’s day were heartened and blessed by seeing both Christ and us. Today, we are heartened and blessed to be, by God’s grace, amongst the fruit they foresaw.

Amen

Our hymns are below.

Hymn 1

Gadsby selection 103

The Imputed Righteousness of Christ. Isa. 61. 10

Count Zinzendorf trans. by J. Wesley                 L.M.

1
Jesus, thy blood and righteousness
My beauty are, my glorious dress;
Midst flaming worlds, in these arrayed,
With joy shall I lift up my head.

2
When from the dust of death I rise,
To take my mansion in the skies,
E’en then shall this be all my plea:
“Jesus has lived and died for me.”

3
Bold shall I stand in that great day,
For who aught to my charge shall lay,
While through thy blood absolved I am,
From sin’s tremendous curse and shame?

4
Thus Abraham, the friend of God,
Thus all the armies bought with blood,
Saviour of sinners, thee proclaim –
Sinners, of whom the chief I am.

5
This spotless robe the same appears,
When ruined nature sinks in years;
No age can change its glorious hue;
The robe of Christ is ever new.

6
O let the dead now hear thy voice;
Bid, Lord, thy banished ones rejoice;
Their beauty this, their glorious dress,
Jesus, the Lord our righteousness.

Hymn 2

Gadsby selection 924

Christ a Refuge from the Storm. Isa. 4. 6; 32. 2

J. Kent                 L.M.

1
Great Rock, for weary sinners made,
 When storms of sin distress the soul,
 Here let me rest my weary head,
 When lightnings blaze and thunders roll.

2
Within the clefts of his dear side,
 There all his saints in safety dwell.
 And what from Jesus shall divide?
 Not all the rage of earth or hell.

3
Blessed with the pardon of her sin,
 My soul beneath thy shade would lie,
 And sing the love that took me in,
 While others sank in sin to die.

4
O sacred covert from the beams
 That on the weary traveller beat,
 How welcome are thy shade and streams;
 How blest, how sacred, and how sweet!

The Lord Jesus Christ was foreseen by Isaiah. He looked forward to a time when the beauty and glory of the Messiah would be seen through all the earth. With this prophecy he encouraged and comforted the elect of his own day as he anticipated the fruitfulness of Christ in bringing many sons to glory.

29 January 2023