“The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn; To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified” (Isaiah 61:1-3).
This is an important messianic prophecy concerning the coming of the Messiah. In Luke 4:18-19, Jesus read from this scripture in the synagogue at Nazareth, but He stopped reading and closed the book in the middle of verse 2, when He had read “to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord”. He then said; “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your ears” (Luke 4:21). The reason that He shut the book and handed it back to the attendant is that in His first coming, this was as far as He was going; preaching the good tidings, binding up the broken hearted, proclaiming liberty to captives, setting free those in bondage and proclaiming the acceptable year of the Lord. The rest of the work of this prophecy applies to His second coming. He Himself referred to this in Luke 21 when He was talking of the second coming;
“These are the days of vengeance, in which all that is written is to be fulfilled” (Luke 21:22). The rest of the prophecy relates to Israel, who will be mourning when they look upon Him whom they have pierced (see Zechariah 12:10-11).
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