Isaiah 62:5 (ESV) … “For as a young man marries a young woman, so shall your sons marry you, and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.”
A new day will dawn for the people of God. It will be a day of vengeance for their enemies, but a day for which the Lord’s people long and pray. The waiting will come to an end. The glory won’t!
There is a wedding day in prospect, but, as always, God’s promises are given to encourage persevering prayer. And that’s what Isaiah commits himself to. When the wedding day finally arrives, there will be a change of name for the bride, reflecting a change of fortunes. Or perhaps ‘reversal of fortunes’ would be more accurate. The time when God’s people appeared forsaken and their land was left desolate will come to an end. Instead, the Lord’s delight in his people and care for their land will once again be evident (62:1–5).
Isaiah wants the people to join him in praying for that day to be sooner rather than later. It is the same kind of praying the Lord Jesus says we ought to be engaged in (Luke 18:1–8) while we are ‘waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God’ (2 Peter 3:12). There is, again, a switch of focus between final deliverance for the people of God and the more immediate deliverance. It will be the deliverance to end all deliverances. Never again will the produce of Jerusalem fall into the hands of the people’s enemies (62:8). The peace they will enjoy will be employed for worship (62:9).
Salvation and a Saviour are on the way. One way (metaphorically) of speeding their arrival is by preparing, building and clearing the way (62:10). With the entrance of the Redeemer the people, along with the city, will be established, and their holiness and relationship with God will be finally secure. This new Jerusalem will neither provoke the Lord like the old one, nor be forsaken, even temporarily (62:11–12).[1]
[1] Thomson, A. (2012). Opening Up Isaiah (pp. 148–149). Leominster: Day One.
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