Oaks of Righteousness

Let’s open our Bibles together to the Book of Isaiah.  Isaiah 61:1-3 is our test tonight and we’re going to especially focus upon verse 3.  Kevin mentioned this morning that our evening services for the next number of months are going to be pastor favorites and I actually picked this text not so much because it’s one of my favorites, although ya know, when you’re looking at God’s Word like it’s all wonderful and great, but I really picked this text because of what we did here a few minutes ago praying for our covenant children and thinking about the picture that the prophet Isaiah writes about what happens when the favor of the Lord falls upon us through our Messiah the Lord Jesus.  So, Isaiah 61:1-3 as we read together pay careful attention for this is God’s holy Word.

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,
    because the Lord has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor;
    he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
    and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
² to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor,
    and the day of vengeance of our God;
    to comfort all who mourn;
³ to grant to those who mourn in Zion—
    to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness instead of mourning,
    the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit;
that they may be called oaks of righteousness,
    the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified.

Father in heaven, we do pray that your Holy Spirit would help us both to understand, but also to cherish and hold dear Lord this prophecy from the book of Isaiah as we learn about the messenger of the Lord as we learn about the favor that would fall upon God’s people and for us Lord as we read these scriptures through the New Testament, through the coming of Jesus so father we pray that you would strengthen our hearts and we ask these things in Jesus’ name.  Amen.

Well dear people of God, just outside of my window at the White House stands a mighty oak.  Just a little aside, of all the offices in the White House I have the best one.  I say that because I have more windows than anyone, I have the best view of anyone.  Now I hope that this week my office isn’t swapped out for somebody else’s having said all that, but I do think I have the best office, and just outside the office is this stately large, towering oak tree.  It towers over the front lawn of the White House.  I don’t know exactly how old it is, but within the last year or two there was another oak that had to be taken down and so this week I went out to the stump that remains and began to count all the rings that are in that stump and I came up with something around 80, so that oak that stands on the front lawn must be somewhere around 80 years old and I just encourage you to check it out after church, ya know, head out the north lawn, you can see it from the parking lot this huge oak that is just in front of the White House, a beautiful tree.  Oaks are durable, they’re strong, oakwood is hard wood.  It’s the kind of trees, of course that we make furniture out of, fine grained.  If you want to burn wood in a wood stove you don’t burn pine, maybe burn a little bit of maple, but burning oak is wonderful, it burns hot and long and people of God in our passage tonight Isaiah paints a picture for us of what God’s people would be called and also what God’s people would become as they came out of the exile.  It’s a great passage of hope and renewal.  When we’re reading Isaiah it’s sometimes helpful to think about the context, to think about the history just a little bit.  You may remember that Isaiah prophesied primarily to the southern tribes of Judah.  The northern tribes of Israel were in decline, they were going to fall to Assyria and Isaiah speaks to the people of Judah and he says, “Wait a second, don’t think that you’re gonna escape judgement, yes the Assyrians are going to come and wipe out the northern tribes, but you too are going to fall under the judgement of God for your own unfaithfulness.  The Babylonians are coming and they’re going to bring the judgement of God.”  And yet in the midst of all that Isaiah says, “I wanna remind you, however, that God has not forgotten His people, that God will be gracious to you, God is going to be kind, God is going to favor you, He’s going to bring salvation, He’s going to deliver you from captivity.”

If you have your Bibles still open you can see in chapter 60, the one that we read tonight.  There’s a painting of a picture of the future glory of Israel and notice just one verse in that painting, verse 21, “Your people shall all be righteous, they shall possess the land forever.  The branch of my planting, the work of my hands that I might be glorified.”  Take those last three lines from verse 21 and let your eyes across the column to chapter 61:3 that we read tonight.  “My people will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord that He may be glorified.”  You do see how close those two verses are together.  Chapter 60, “The future glory of Israel.”  Chapter 61, “The one who would bring that glory about.”  And the result of it would be this, that God’s people would be called oaks of righteousness. 

Four things I want to notice with you about that tonight.  Here’s the first.  The Lord’s favor.  So, our chapter here 61 begins with the messenger.  Verse 1, “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news.”  Did you notice that chapter 61,it begins with somebody talking, with somebody speaking a personal message and messenger and of course the question is, who is it, who is the one who was speaking here?  Now friends I think the answer is simply this, it is the anointed of the Lord.  So, chapter 60, it ends in the first person, “This future glory of Isreal” the Lord says at the end of the chapter, “I am the Lord and in its time I will hasten it.”  The Lord says, “I am the one who is going to bring this future glory about.”  And then when you turn to chapter 61 the same kind of personal message carries on, “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, the Lord has anointed me.”  It is the Lord who will hasten and bring about the future of glory of Israel and like the same speaker in chapter 60, with a slight difference, the one who is going to bring about that future glory is the one who was anointed by the Lord.  The Lord speaks in chapter 60; he has an anointing to give in chapter 61.  Here in chapter 61 is the Lord’s servant who will accomplish what the Lord has set out to do.  The servant is anointed by the spirit, the Holy Spirit, the spirit of the Lord God is upon me, he says. 

That connects us back to some earlier chapters or earlier passages in the Book of Isaiah.  In Isaiah 11 verse 1 and following Isaiah prophesied that, “A shoot is going to come forth from the stump of Jesse, a branch from his roots will bear fruit and the spirit of the Lord will rest on him. “  We understand that this shoot that’s going to come from the stump of Jesse from Jesse’s line from David’s line is none other than the Christ, the Messiah.  And the spirit of the Lord will rest on him.  In chapter 42:1, the messianic servant of the Lord, by the way that chapter, chapter 42 begins the servants songs in Isaiah and here the messianic servant of the Lord says, “Behold my servant whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom my soul delights, I have put my spirit upon him.”  Who is the one who is speaking here?  Well, it’s the anointed one of the Lord, it is the Messiah of God and we’ll actually see this fulfilled in Christ here in just a few minutes.  There’s a messenger and he also of course brings a message, that’s what messengers do.  This Messiah, this messenger brings good news, he proclaims it and he accomplishes it.  There is a ministry here of declaration and also a ministry of transformation.  The servant of the Lord preaches, but he also brings something.  In other words, he delivers what he announces.  And what it is that he delivers and what he is that he declares is the Lord’s favor.

There are seven purpose clauses here.  The servant of the Lord who has been anointed by the spirit has been anointed to do seven different things.  Seven of course you remember is the number of completeness.  What is painted here is a picture of a holistic turning upside down of the plight of God’s people.  There in one state and the servant of the Lord proclaims and declares and brings an entirely different state of things to their life, to their situation.  It’s a complete reversal and so he has been anointed he says, verse 1, “To bring good news to the poor.”  I think we could think about this as the materially poor, but something broader than that.  There’s also those who are distressed for any reason including sin.  He has been sent to bind up the brokenhearted to bring healing for the hurting, liberty to captives.  Immediately for Judah would be release from their bondage that was coming to Babylon, but a bigger picture right, because the bondage that Israel experienced to Babylon it harkens back of course to the bondage that Israel experienced in Egypt.  In all of those there’s a picture of the bondage that we’re all in because of our sin.  Comfort to those who mourn, to give them a headdress instead of ashes.  Instead of ashes on the head, that’s where you put your ashes when you’re mourning, when you’re going to a funeral.  Instead of ashes on the head, a headdress on the head, party clothes, wedding attire, oil of gladness for mourning, praise instead of a fainting or a withering spirit.  You see all those insteads there, this instead of that.  Everything flipping upside down, being turned on its head.  In the middle of all this, this comes because this is the year of the Lord’s favor, the day of vengeance, verse 2.  The day of mercy but also a day of justice. 

Friends when I was reading through this this week what kind of popped into my mind was thinking that this is a jubilee year, this is like the declaration of jubilee that you had in the Old Testament.  There would be the sabbath year every seven years when things would change, but every 50 years comes the jubilee year and in the jubilee year liberty is proclaimed, property that has fallen out of your hands into somebody else’s hands returns to your clan.  The land has given rest, the poor who became slaves because they couldn’t fend for themselves, they had to sell themselves off into the service of somebody else, they are released, the captives are set free.  What Isaiah is forecasting here, what he’s prophesying I think is an eschatological messianic year of jubilee, a jubilee of all jubilees.  All those that the Old Testament jubilee year pointed toward and when this comes, God’s people will have a new status and a new name, they will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord that He may be glorified, the Lord’s favor.

Well, that leads us to second the Lord’s people.  So, what is this picture that Isaiah is talking about here in verse 3, calling God’s people oaks of righteousness?  Well, I think there’s two main things here.  First of all, this is simply a picture of strength.  In fact, the very word that’s used in Hebrew for oak, you can just translate it strength, it’s a picture of a tree that’s tall and strong or a people who are tall and strong.  Oaks are long-lasting, sometimes living between 200 and 400 years.  Some oaks in warmer climates never lose their leaves, they’re vibrant, they’re alive, they’re flourishing.  Trees that are strong, lifting up their branches as it were in praise to God and Isaiah is saying in the year of the Lord’s favor this is what is going to be true of the people of God.  God’s people will no longer be weeping willows.  That’s what they were thinking about is this judgment from Babylon is coming, there will no longer be weeping willows, but they will be mighty oaks and Isaiah says oaks of righteousness.  Not righteous in themselves but made righteous by God.  A planting of the Lord, change from a people who are under the judgement of God to being accepted by God, counting righteous because of what God will do through his anointed one.  Return to the Lord’s favor because of the servant saving and justifying work.

I want you to turn back with me if you have your Bibles open to Isaiah 1, going back to the first chapter of this prophecy.  Isaiah chapter 1 and there’s a great contrast here between chapter 1 and what we read in chapter 61.  Isaiah chapter 1 beginning at verse 27 and reading through the end of the chapter verse 31, and there’s a picture painted here of the unfaithful city, God’s people living apart from God, not in obedience to God, but disobedience.  Verse 27, “Zion shall be redeemed by justice, those in her who repent by righteousness.  But rebels and sinners shall be broken together and those who forsake the Lord shall be consumed.  For they shall be ashamed of the oaks that you desired, and you shall blush for the gardens that you have chosen.”  Probably thinking here about Canaanite rituals and having a sacred oak tree or some kind of sacred garden but then look at verse 30 because of all this disobedience, “You shall be like an oak whose leaf withers, and like a garden without water.  And the strong shall become tinder and His work a spark and both of them shall burn together with none to quench them.”

Here in this earliest chapter of Isaiah, Isaiah paints quite the different picture, doesn’t he, than what you find in chapter 61.  God’s people drifting from God, disobedient to God, and God says, what are you gonna be like, you’re gonna be like an oak tree that withers and you’re gonna be like a garden that doesn’t have any water, it’s baren, it’s dusty, it’s dry, it’s shriveling.  The plants don’t have any life in them, they’re leaves are hanging down, they’re hanging low and what you’d be good for is simply fire to be burned in judgement.  What a turn around here in chapter 61. When the Lord’s favor is poured out God’s people no longer like a withering oak, but an oak of righteousness.  The planting of the Lord, standing strong in the Lord, a picture of strength, and also a picture of fruitfulness.  Because this isn’t just a static strength, this is a planting of the Lord, green leaves, hardy branches.  I was saying to somebody just recently when, I don’t know, we were talking about plants in our yard and keeping them going and I made the comment to them, I said, “Ya know, when the Lord waters my plants it always goes a lot farther than when I water the plants.”  In other words, when the rain falls the rain seems to do so much more than my watering can does, water that I’m getting out of the spicket.  When God plants, what He plants is full of life and this was a picture of fruitfulness not just a picture of strength, but a fruit bearing of glorifying God.  The scriptures remind us of this in a number of different places, psalm 1 being one of them of course.  “Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, or stand in the way of sinners, or sit in the seat of mockers, but blessed is the one who delights in the law of the Lord. You know what He is like, He is like a tree that yields its fruit in season, its leaf does not wither in all that He does He prospers.”

Picture of fruitfulness, fruit bearing, flourish.  Psalm 92 that was part of our call of worship tonight, “The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree and grow like a cedar of Lebanon; they are planted in the house of the Lord, they flourish in the courts of our God.”  By the way, it will go on to talk about even the elderly, right, still bearing fruit in old age.  But this picture of a tree that is full of life, its leaves are not hanging down, its leaves are standing up, full of fruit and Jesus of course reminds us of that same thing in John 15 when he talks about the vine and the branches remain in Christ, and you will bear much fruit. 

You see when the prophet Isaiah here speaks about an oak of righteousness I think he speaks of both what we are, accepted and justified before God, but also what we must become, that we are people who are to bear fruit, to the glory of God we are not only declared righteous, but we are to have righteous lives.  Both that God may be glorified it says here that God will get the glory.  This doesn’t come from us, this is His work, but that He would be glorified in what He has done for us and in what He is doing in us.  Both what has been accomplished and what is ongoing in our lives.  And friends all of this comes true or can be true of us. 

The third point, and that is the Lord’s servant.  You know this prophecy came true for Judah at least in part.  She was uprooted, she was violently transplanted, taken off into Babylon for seventy years and we were reminded this morning, weren’t we, of Cyrus the one who God had raised up, Cyrus who levels the decree, let Israel go back, let Judah return and God brought his people back and he replanted them in the land.  But the real reality of this prophecy of course comes through the Lord Jesus.  This was the passage that Mike read for us tonight as part of our liturgy from Luke chapter 4, the inauguration of Jesus’ ministry, the first instance of public teaching by Christ.  As was His custom He went to the synagogue on the sabbath, and He was handed a scroll to read the scroll in the service and this was a scroll from the prophet Isaiah.  In the words of Isaiah 61 Jesus took on his lips, “The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor, he has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives, recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who were oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”  And the passage goes on to say that He rolled up the scroll and then he said these words, he said, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”  In other words, Jesus said, I’m the one that Isaiah was talking about.  Who was this one who has been anointed by the Lord, the spirit of the Lord rests upon him, the one who has been anointed, set apart to not only proclaim good news, but to bring good news.  Jesus says, “It’s me, I am the one who can turn your life upside down, I am the one who comforts those who mourn, I am the one ultimately that gives liberty to captives, I will give you a beautiful headdress instead of ashes.  Through me you will be called an oak of righteousness.”  In Christ, isn’t it true, through God we hear it over and over and over again, but it’s the old, old story that we have to hear of Jesus and His love, in Christ there is life, in Christ there is joy, in Christ there is liberty, in Christ there is freedom, in Christ there is comfort, in Christ we have a strong standing and through Christ we are able to bear fruit to the glory of God.  And of course, you know why this is, all because of His death and his resurrection for us.

It’s interesting when Jesus quotes from Isaiah 61, Jesus stopped at a certain point.  He stops with the words “To proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”  Isaiah would go on to say, “And the day of vengeance of our God.”  But Jesus stops just before that.  And it’s not because Jesus didn’t know the words of Isaiah or perhaps those words weren’t even there, but Jesus stops there with those words, “The year of the Lord’s favor”, why, not because of the day of vengeance of our God is not true, God is just, God cannot overlook sin, God will judge and yet for anyone who comes to Christ in repentance and faith, anyone who puts their hope in Christ for salvation the day of vengeance is past, why, because Jesus endured it for us.  He came to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and He came to endure the day of vengeance of our God.  That day when he cried out, “My God, my God why have you forsaken me.”  That day when the wrath of God because of our sin poured out upon Him, He bore our sins in His body on the tree, Peter tells us.  And justice was poured out upon Christ so that mercy can be given to us.  It’s the great exchange we call it, right, He took our sins on Himself so that His righteousness might be credited to us, that they may be called oaks of righteousness.  It is in Christ that we stand.

Where I want to end tonight friends is thinking about the Lord’s children.  We pray tonight for our covenant children and I’m sure there were many, many different prayers that were prayed, praying for school, praying for friends, praying for safety, praying for a whole host of things, but I’m sure that this prayer was prayed as well.  A vision that our students would grow in Godliness and grow closer to the Lord Jesus Christ, that they might become oaks of righteousness, a planting of God, strong, fruitful, vibrant, glorifying God through lives of obedience and service, united to Jesus in faith.  What a vision that is for our children.  Just think about that.  All the pictures we could use of what we want our children to be and what we want our children to become and I love this image here, that our children maybe, they’re sort of like saplings right now, but they would grow to be these mighty oaks of righteousness, that they would know Christ, that they would be found in Him.  Not having a righteousness of their own, but a righteousness that comes by faith through Jesus Christ. 

When I think about one of the prayers that Sheri and I are praying almost daily, it’s the prayer for our grandchildren that they would receive the Lord Jesus.  They’re all growing up in good churches, they get to hear the Gospel preached.  Their parents I know are nurturing them in the admonition of the Lord, but we pray and we pray and we pray that they would see their need for Christ, that they would recognize that they’re not righteous in themselves, but they would see that they need a righteousness that can only come from Jesus and they would put their faith in Him, if that would happen that they would have a name and a status of oaks of righteousness, firm and towering for His glory and honor.  Also need to pray that our children would be led in Christ right, bearing much fruit, walking in obedience, living with hope and joy, learning to give their lives in service to Christ and His people.  Friends, this is something that we have to be working on in our homes.  Think about our homes, maybe something like soil, it’s where our children develop their roots, the roots are going down and how essential good soil is to good growth.  There’s no substitute for a home that’s centered on Christ.  Friends a Christian school cannot take the place of a Christian home.  Youth group, young life cannot make up for a home that is lacking in discipleship.  How important it is that we nurture these things in our homes and in our church.  Never discount what’s happening when you bring your children and your young people to the house of God and they sit under the preaching of the Word, and they observe or perhaps partake of the means of grace.  This is a place where discipleship happens, this is a place where God wants to nurture His people, even the little ones.  And friends, we do this with certain means and certain tools. 

Our staff is going to be reading over the next number of months Matthew Bingham’s book, A Heart Aflame for God: A Reformed Approach to Spiritual Formation.  And in that book Bingham talks about the reformational triangle.  Spiritual formation that is consistent with the reformation keys of being word centered, a biblical simplicity of engaging the heart through the mind and Bingham says there are three main pillars that we need to keep in mind as Christian homes, a Gospel centered church.  The first is scripture hearing from God the word preached, the word read, the word sung, the word remember, the word recited.  Think back to the way God puts it in Deuteronomy 6 in the Shema.  You are to diligently teach these words to your children, talk about them when you get up, walk along the road, lie down, tie them on your forehead, put them on the doorframes of your houses, biblical saturation, Bible saturation.  The scriptures, meditation, reflecting on God, pressing down and into the things that we know from God’s Word biblical application, biblical memorization.  So, Scripture, meditation and prayer responding to God.  Now these are not the only things we may do, but friends they are the pillars that come from our own theological heritage and are consistent with our theological convictions about growth in God.  At His home we think about those three things.  Of course, as a church as well.  May our children, may our young people be called oaks of righteousness as they stand in the Lord Jesus Christ. 

Let me end tonight with the words of a song.  I don’t know that it was ever a tune put to these words, it was a song written by Thomas Hastings in 1834.  He wrote many hymns, wrote many tunes, in fact composed the tune to our Rock of Ages, but here are the words of a hymn that he put together.  Again, I don’t know that there’s any notes to it, I saw this in the back of a hymnal.  It goes like this; it may be our prayer.

O Lord, to hold us at thy feet, a needy sinful band, a suppliance round thy mercy seat we come at thy command.  Tis for our children we would plead the offspring thou has given.  Where shall we go in time of need but to the God of heaven.  We ask not for them wealth or fame amid the worldly strife, but in the all prevailing name we ask eternal life.  We crave the spirits quickening grace to make them pure in heart that they may stand before thy face and see thee as thou art. 

Let’s pray together.  We thank you Father, for the words of this prophecy from Isaiah, words that were fulfilled by the Lord Jesus as He declared this is what I have come to do, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, good news to the poor, and not only declare it, but to bring it, to accomplish it and indeed Jesus you have done that for us so that we might have a new name and a new status called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.  We do pray this for ourselves, we’ll pray this for our children.  What a vision, what an image Lord, our children would stand tall and strong, branches as it were, uplifted to the glory of God, to the praise of His name we pray that they may be found in Christ.  We pray these things in Jesus’ name.  Amen.