Jesus was the beautifier of god's people

JESUS WAS THE BEAUTIFIER OF GOD'S PEOPLE
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
Isaiah61:3 3and providefor those who grieve in Zion-
to bestow on them a crown of beauty insteadof ashes,
the oil of joy insteadof mourning, and a garment of
praiseinstead of a spirit of despair. They will be called
oaks of righteousness,a planting of the LORD for the
displayof his splendor.
Pulpit Commentary Homiletics
Comfort And Cheer
Isaiah61:3
W.M. Statham
To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, etc. There is a triple exchange
spokenof in these words, which ought to quicken thought.
I. CHARACTER. "Beautyfor ashes."The penitent is uplifted from the dust.
Instead of standing before God in sad confession, with all the stains of sin
upon his heart and the liturgy of woe upon his lips, he has new life. The
beauty of the Lord is given to him - there is transformation.
II. EMOTION. "The oilof joy for mourning." No longer looking at the dark
side of personalhistory and personalprospect. The very countenance is
anointed with fresh oil - a type of what has taken place within the man.
Becauseyou cannotforce joy, nor can yon pretend it. Nature sets herself

againstall forgeries. Suchjoy as a godly man experiences canonly come from
the goodtreasure of his heart.
III. EXPRESSION. "The garmentof praise for the spirit of heaviness." The
outward life is all so different. As God is said to clothe himself with light as
with a garment, so the Easterns understoodthe garment of light to be the
expressionof the man himself, even as we now look to the habiliments of the
mourner as testifying to his grief. The spirit of heaviness is distressing. It is
not a thankful spirit, nor a hopeful spirit, nor an inspiring spirit. But the
garment of praise is like the melody of the temple choir; like the music of the
river; like the "lark that sings at heaven's gate." "Awake, psalteryand harp; I
myself will awake right early." - W.M.S.
Biblical Illustrator
To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion.
Isaiah61:3
Mourners in Zion

Prof. J. Skinner, D.D.
may mean either those that mourn for Zion (Isaiah66:10) or those that mourn
in her.
(Prof. J. Skinner, D.D.)
Mourners in Zion
J. Young.
I. THE CHARACTER OF THOSE PERSONS WHO HAVE A PRESENT
INTERESTIN THE MEDIATION OF CHRIST. Such as "mourn in Zion."
They differ from others —
1. In respectof the spring or principle of their mourning. They mourn, as
others do, in a natural way, for what is contrary to their natures and is
consideredhurtful to them. But they likewise mourn for what is most
agreeable to their nature, in its presentcorrupt state. The corruption of their
nature is itself a principal cause of their mourning, and therefore can proceed
from no principle inherent in corrupt nature. It is the fruit of "the Spirit of
grace and of supplication."
2. In respectof the object for whom they mourn. Self is always the reigning
principle with unrenewed men. The inhabitant of Zion mourns also for
himself, and while actuated by a principle of self-preservationit must be so:
But he. mourns also —(1) For. his brethren.; for every fellow-creature whom
he sees in misery; even for his enemies if any owl befall them.(2) For Zion, for
the Church of God.(3)For Christ. They have a believing view of their ownsin
as laid upon Christ; therefore they considerevery sin they have committed as
a mortal wound given to Him.
3. In respectof the subject of their grief, or the thing for which they mourn.(1)
For sin as well as for suffering.(2) For the filthiness as wellas the guilt of
sin.(3) For the sin of their nature as well as of their life.(4) For sins against
Christ and the Gospel, as wellas againstGodand the law.(5)Forthe sins of
others as well as for their own.

4. In respectof the fruits and effects oftheir sorrow (2 Corinthians 7:10,
11).(1)Whereas the sorrow of the world excites men to take methods of their
own devising to still the clamours of conscience, the mourning here intended
leads to that remedy which God Himself hath provided.(2) Whereas the
sorrow of the world workethdeath, crucifies the false hopes the man had
entertained of safety in the way of sin, and, when rising to excess,tends to
drive him to despair, the Christian mourning is a happy means of his being
begottenagainto a lively hope.(3)The sorrow of the world inflames the
person's enmity againstGod, but the Christian's mourning stirs him up to
embrace the offers of reconciliationwith God. Being accompaniedwith hatred
of sin, it serves to increase his love to God, His holy law and His service.(4)In
a word, that sorrow for sin that may be found in an unrenewed man leaves
him as it found him. Godly sorrow, on the contrary, worketh"repentance, not
to be repented of" The person convincedof the evil and folly of sin, and
encouragedby a heart-affecting view of the mercy of God in Christ, turns
from sin with loathing of it turns to God with full purpose of heart, and from
that time forth persists in a constantendeavour to walk with Him in all the
ways of new obedience.
II. THE CONDITION THAT THESE PERSONSARE IN, FOR THE MOST
PART, WHILE IN THE WORLD. They are coveredwith "ashes";employed
in "mourning"; and under the prevailing influence of "the spirit of
heaviness."
1. They are subject to all the ordinary miseries of this life, in common with
other men.
2. They are affectedto a greatdepth of sorrow by many things which are no
affliction to the rest of mankind. They are affectedwith spiritual as well as
temporal evils; sin, the hiding of God's face, the low state of the Church, the
divisions among Church members, spiritual judgments, etc.
3. They are subject to many causesofmourning that either fall not upon
others or befall them only in a small degree. Theylive in a foreign land while
others consider themselves as at home. They run, and agonize, and strain

themselves, in the race that is set before them, while others sit still and are at
ease.
4. They are often subjectto groundless discouragements through the
prevalence of temptation and unbelief.
III. THE HAPPY CONDITION TO WHICH THESE MOURNERS SHALL
BE BROUGHT. "Beautyfor ashes," etc.
1. Even while the causesoftheir mourning continue, they are supported,
encouraged, andcomforted in such a manner as to afford them a happiness
superior to what others enjoy in their best times.
2. They shall be completely, though gradually, delivered from all their
mourning, and from all the causes ofit.
3. They shall, at length, enjoy all that positive happiness which their natures
are capable of.
4. They shall, at last, be fully sensible of all the happiness of their condition,
and shall express their sense ofit in songs of eternal praise.
IV. THE MANNER IN WHICH CHRIST WILL BRING ABOUT THIS
HAPPY CHANGE.
1. He is commissionedto appoint these things for them. The word signifies to
ordain by a judicial sentence. Christ, as King in Zion, is invested with the
highest authority: God has committed to Him all judgment.
2. He is sent to give unto them what He has thus appointed for them.
(J. Young.)
Beauty for ashes.
"Beauty
Prof. G. A. Smith, D. D.
"A crest," anyinsignia or ornament for the head.

(Prof. G. A. Smith, D. D.)
Beauty for ashes
H. Macmillan, D. D.
I. The well-knownfable of the Phoenix is one that has been often truthfully
enactedon our earth. Successive platforms of creation, with all their varied
life and loveliness, have been reduced to ruin, and out of the wreck new life
and beauty have emerged. The earth has reachedits present perfectionof
form through repeatedgeologicalfires. The fair Eden, in the midst of which
the history of the human race begins, was developedfrom the ashes of
previous less lovely Edens. The soil of the earth is composedof the ashes of
substances that have been oxidized, burned by the slow, softcaresses ofthe
very air that breathed upon them — and whose gentle smile gave them colour
and form. The building of the world was a process ofburning, and its
foundations were undoubtedly laid in flames. Its crust was originally like a
burnt cinder. The rocks and the earths, the sands and the clays, the very seas
themselves are, as it were, the ashes ofa long-continued and universal
conflagration. But during the long geologicalperiods, by the silent agencyof
vegetable life working in unison with the sunshine, the work of the fire has
been partially undone, and a considerable amount of combustible matter has
been slowlyrescuedfrom the wreck of the first conflagration. Whatevernow
exists on the earth unburnt is owing to the wonderful co-operationof plant life
and solarlight. These two forces have given to us all the beauty which now
spreads over the ashes of the world. Nay, the very ashes of the earth
themselves contribute in the most marvellous manner to its beauty. How
much does the sceneryof our world owe to its picturesque rocks, and sandy
deserts, and lonely seas,which, as we have seen, are but the ashes of the
primeval fire! What wonderful beauty God has brought out of water! It is
strange to think of water being the ashes ofa conflagration — the snow on the
mountain-top, the foam of the waterfall, the cloud of glory in the heavens, the
dewdrop in the eye of the daisy. Without the intervention of vegetable life at
all, God has thus directly, from the objects themselves, givenbeauty for ashes.

He might have made these ashes of our globe as repulsive to the sight as the
blackenedrelics of forestand plain, over which the prairie fire has swept,
while, at the same time, they might have subservedall their ends and uses. But
He has, instead, clothed them with incomparable majesty and loveliness, so
that they minister most richly to our admiration and enjoyment; and some of
the noblestconceptions of the human mind have been borrowed from their
varied chambers of imagery.
2. Like the old processesofnature are the new ones that take place still. Out
of the ashes ofthe localconflagrationthat has reduced the fields and forests to
one uniform blackenedwaste comesforth the beauty of greenerfields and
forests of species unknownthere before. Very strikingly is this seenon the dry
hill-sides of the Sierra Nevada, coveredwith dense scrub which is often swept
by fire. All the trees in the groves ofpine that grow on these hill-sides,
howeverunequal in size, are of the same age, and the cones which they
produce are persistent, and never discharge their seeds until the tree or the
branch to which they belong dies. Consequently, when one of the groves is
destroyedby fire, the burning of the trees causesthe scalesofthe cones to
open, and the seedwhich they contain is scatteredprofusely upon the ground;
and on the bare, blackenedsite of the old grove a young, green plantation of
similar pines springs forth. This curious adaptation explains the remarkable
circumstance that all the trees of the grove are of the same age. In an equally
remarkable way the fires in the Australian bush, which are so destructive to
the forests ofthat country, are made the very means of reproducing the
vegetation.
3. Another illustration of the principle may be derived from volcanic regions.
No scenes ofearth are lovelier than those which are subjectedto the frequent
destructive actionof volcanoes. The Bayof Naples is confessedlyone of those
spots in which scenic beauty has culminated. And yet this secondEden is the
creationof volcanic fires. No soil is so fertile as crumbling lava and volcanic
ashes. The destroyerof the fields and gardens is thus the renovator The ashes
of the burning that has devastatedhomesteadand vineyard reappearin the
delicate clusters of the grape, and the vivid verdure of the vine-leaves which
embowera new home of happiness on the site.

4. And — a case ofextremes meeting — frost has the same effectas fire. No
meadows are greener, no corn-fields more luxuriant, than those which spread
over the soft that has been formed by the attrition of ancientglaciers. The
cedars of Lebanon grow On the moraines left behind by ice-streams that had
sculptured the mountains into their present shape;and over the ranges ofthe
Sierra Nevada, the coniferous forests, the noblest and most beautiful on earth,
are spreadin long, curving bands, braided togetherinto lace-like patterns of
charming variety — an arrangementdetermined by the course of ancient
glaciers, upon whose moraines all the forests of the Nevada are growing, and
whose varied distribution over curves and ridges and high rolling plateaus,
the trees have faithfully followed. Elsewhere throughoutthe world pine-woods
usually grow, not on soilproduced by the slow weathering of the atmosphere,
but by the direct mechanicalactionof glaciers,whichcrushed and ground it
from the solid rocks ofmountain ranges, and in their slow recessionatthe end
of the glacialperiod, left it spread out in beds available for tree-growth.
5. Is there not beauty for ashes, whenthe starchy matter which gives the grey
colourto the lichen is changedby the winter rains into chlorophyl, and the
dry, lifeless, parchment-like substance becomes a bright greenpliable rosette,
as remarkable for the elegance ofits form as for the vividness of its colour?
Does not the corn of wheat, when God, as Ezekielstrikingly says, "calls"for it
and increasesit, develop out of the grey ashes that wrap round and preserve
the embers of its life, the long spears ofbright verdure which pierce through:
the dark wintry soil up to the sunshine and the blue air of heaven? All the
beauty, of the greenfields and woods, springing from the root, or the seed, or
the weed, in produced from the ashes ofprevious vegetation. Some plants are
found only where something has been burnt. Farmers say that woodashes will
cause the dormant white clover to spring up; and fields treated in this manner
will suddenly be transfigured with the fragrant bloom. A lovely little moss,
whose seed-vessels,by the twisting and untwisting of their stems, indicate the
changes ofthe weatherlike a barometer, grows on moors and in woods in
spots where fires have been; and it covers with its bright greenverdure the
sites of buildings, marking with its soft, delicate cushions where the
hearthstone had been. From its fondness for growing in such places, it is
known in France by the familiar name of La Charbonniere. After the great

London fire, a species ofmustard grew up on every side, covering with its
yellow blossoms the charred ruins and the recently exposedsoilstrewn with
ashes;and, as if to show some curious affinity betweenthe conflagrationof
cities and the mustard tribe, after the more recentburning of Moscow,
another species ofthe same family made its appearance among the ruins, and
is still to be met with in the neighbourhood of that city.
(H. Macmillan, D. D.)
Beauty for ashes:Judaism
H. Macmillan, D. D.
Out of the ashes ofthe burnt-offering all the beauty of the Hebrew faith
emanated.
Beauty for ashes:the atonement
H. Macmillan, D. D.
How expressive was this type of the atoning death of the Son of God! The
Victim in His case too was reduced to ashes. We see as clearlyon the cross on
which was stretchedHis lifeless body, that the work of atonement was
finished, and that a complete satisfactionhad been made to God for human
sin, as the priest saw in the ashes on the altar how entirely the sacrifice had
met with the Divine approval and acceptance. As the ashes were laid beside
the altar for a while, so the body of Jesus remained upon the cross some time
after death, exposedto the idle and mocking gaze of the multitude, but most
precious in the sight of Him whose law He had magnified and made
honourable by His obedience unto death. As the ashes, further, were placedon
the eastside of the altar, because from that quarter the bright light of the
morning sun arose — a natural symbolism common to nearly all religions,
Christians, Mohammedans, and Pagans alike turning to the eastin prayer,

and laying their dead and building their sacredshrines in that direction — so
the Sun of Righteousness rose fromthat point of the compass, and castback
the light of the glory of the resurrectionupon all the incidents and
circumstances ofHis death. The radiance of the rising sun shone on the ashes
beside the Jewishaltar, making it manifest that the lamb had been entirely
consumed; the sun rose upon the morning of the Sabbath after Christ's
crucifixion upon a cross from which the slain Lamb of God had been taken
away, and upon a sepulchre nigh at hand, wherein had lain the body of Him
who was the end of the law for righteousness. And, lastly, as the Jewishpriests
carried the ashes of the sacrifice without the camp into a cleanplace, so the
body of Jesus was laid outside the city of Jerusalemin a new sepulchre
wherein no man had ever before been laid. His grave was in a garden which
was close to Golgotha, where He was crucified. Truly God gave greatbeauty
for ashes in that garden sepulchre!
Beauty for ashes:sin and grave
H. Macmillan, D. D.
To the sinner who repents and believes in this greatatoning Sacrifice, God
gives beauty for ashes. Sin is an infringement of God's law of order, through
which alone all the brightness and variety of life can be evolved. It
disintegrates, decomposes, reduces to ashes. Its greatcharacteristic is its
wearisome samenessand monotony, a dreary movement without variety from
iniquity to iniquity. It is a defacementand destruction passing overthe soul
and life of man, like an earthquake over a city, overthrowing into one
common heap of similar ruins all the fair variety of its architecture; or like a
fire through a forest, reducing all the multitudinous life and variety of
vegetationto the same uniform dreary level of black cinders and grey ashes,
on which no dew falls, and oh which the sun itself shines with a ghastly and
mocking smile. Out of this melancholy wreck the grace ofGod constructs the
fresh and infinite variety of blessednesswhichbelongs to the convertedsoul.

Perfectthrough suffering
H. Macmillan, D. D.
To the sorrowfulGod gives beauty for ashes. Sorrow andsuffering play a
gracious part in the moral economyof the world. They are all the furnace in
which our evil nature is reduced to ashes. We are laid with the greatSufferer
of our race upon the altar and sham the fellowship of His sufferings, and like
Him are made perfectthrough suffering. On the most awful battlefields of life
grow the greenestpastures ofpeace;on the fierce lava streams that have
desolatedthe heart, bloom the sweetestvirtues and flourish the peaceable
fruits of righteousness.
Beauty for ashes:death and eternallife
H. Macmillan, D. D.
The ashes ofthe dead speak ofthe greatesthumiliation, the uttermost loss,
highest hopes extinguished, and noblest ideas perished. The gifts and gains of
our civilization have made human life more precious than of old; the results of
science, showing throughwhat long stages and by what wonderful processesit
has reachedits present perfection, have greatly exaltedthe conceptionof its
importance; the revelationof Divine grace has made known to us that, for its
sake, the Son of God Himself died, and what unspeakable issues hang upon it;
and the experience of every heart that deeply loves, confirms the truth that in
this human life love is by far the greatestand most blessedthing, "the most
Divine flowerthat Nature, in the long course of her evolutions, has evoked."
And here, in the ashes of the dead, it has all come to an end. Other wastes may
be repaired. Every spring, the earth rises in fresh loveliness from the baptism
of the autumnal fire. But what shall repair the waste of human death? To the
paganall was hopeless!Even the Hebrew faith itself could scarcelyimagine

that any consciousbeauty could ever come from such ashes;and its helpless
cry ascendedup to the pitiless heaven, "Wilt Thou show wonders to the
dead?" And, in our days, cruel science comesand employs all its strength in
ruthlessly rolling a greatstone to the mouth of the sepulchre. But the
Christian religion assures us that for the ashes of our dead we shall yet have
immortal beauty.
Beauty for ashes
I. WHO GIVES THIS WORD? It comes from Him who said, "The Spirit of
the Lord God is upon Me;" "He hath sent Me to bind up the broken.hearted."
Now, in a subordinate sense, Christianministers have the Spirit of God
resting upon them, and they are sent to bind up the broken-hearted;but they
can only do so in the name of Jesus, andin strength given from Him. This
word is not spokenby them, nor by prophets or apostles either, but by the
greatLord and Masterof apostles and prophets, and ministers, even by Jesus
Christ Himself. If He declares that He will comfort us, then we may rest
assuredwe shall be comforted! The stars in His right hand may fail to
penetrate the darkness, but the rising of the Sun of Righteousnesseffectually
scatters the gloom. If the Consolationof IsraelHimself comes forth for the
uplifting of His downcastpeople, then their doubts and tears may well fly
apace, since His presence is light and peace. Butwho is this anointed One who
comes to comfort mourners?
1. He is described in the preface to the text as a preacher. Remember what
kind of preacherJesus was. "Neverman spake like this Man." He was a son
of consolationindeed. It was saidof Him, "A bruised reed shall He not break,
and the smoking flax shall He not quench."
2. In addition to His being a preacher, He is describedas a physician. "He
hath sent Me to bind up the broken-hearted." Some hearts want more than
words. The wounds are deep, they are not flesh cuts, but horrible gashes
which lay bare the bone, and threaten ere long to kill unless they be skilfully

closed. It is, therefore, a greatjoy to know that the generous Friendwho, in
the text, promises to deal with the sorrowing, is fully competent to meet the
most frightful cases.JehovahRophiis the name of Jesus ofNazareth. "By His
stripes we are healed."
3. As if this were not enough, our gracious Helperis next described as a
liberator. "He hath sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the
opening of the prison to them that are bound" There were many downcast
persons in Israelin the olden times — persons who had become bankrupt,
and, therefore, had lost their estates,and had even sunk yet further into debt,
till they were obliged to sell their children into slavery, and to become
themselves bondsmen. But the fiftieth year came round, and never was there
heard music so sweetin all Judea's land as when the silver trumpet was taken
down on the jubilee morn, and a loud shrill blast was blown in every city, and
hamlet, and village, in all Israel, from Dan even to Beersheba. It meant:
"Israelite, thou art free. If thou hast sold thyself, go forth without money, for
the yearof jubilee has come." Jesus has come with a similar message.
4. As if this were not all, one other matter is mentioned concerning our Lord,
and He is pictured as being sent as the herald of good tidings of all sorts to us
the sons of men. "To proclaim the acceptable yearof the Lord." Beholdin the
person of the incarnate God the sure pledge of Divine benevolence. "He that
spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all," etc.
II. TO WHOM IS THIS WORD SPOKEN? To those who mourn in Zion.
They are in Zion; they are the Lord's people, but they mourn. To mourn is not
always a mark of grace. Nature mourns. Fallen human nature will have to
mourn for ever, exceptgrace shallchange it. But the mourning here meant is
a mourning of gracious souls. It assumes various shapes.
1. It begins in most hearts with lamentation over past sin.
2. True hearts also sorrow over their presentimperfections.
3. The Christian mourner laments, also, becausehe cannot be more
continuously in communion with God. A native of sunny Italy deplores the
absence ofheaven's bright blue, when made to dwell in this land of the fleecy

clouds; and he who has dwelt in unclouded fellowshipwith the Lord bemoans
his hard lot, if even for awhile he beholds not that face which is as the sun
shining in its strength.
4. The real Christian mourns, again, because he cannot be more useful.
5. Moreover, like his Lord, he mourns for others. He mourns in Zion because
of the deadness ofthe Christian Church, its divisions, its errors, its
carelessnesstowards the souls of sinners. But he mourns most of all for the
unconverted.
III. WHAT IS THAT WHICH IS SPOKEN in the text to those that mourn?
Come, mourning souls, who mourn in the waydescribed: there is comfort
appointed for you, and there is also comfortgiven to you. It is the prerogative
of King Jesus both to appoint and to give. Observe the change Christ promises
to work for His mourners.
1. Here is beauty given for ashes. In the Hebrew there is a ring in the words
which cannot be conveyed in the English. The ashes that men put upon their
head in the Eastin the time of sorrow made a grim tiara for the brow of the
mourner; the Lord promises to put all these ashes away, and to substitute for
them a glorious head-dress — a diadem of beauty. Or, if we run awayfrom
the words, and take the inner sense, we may look at it thus: — mourning
makes the face wan and emaciated, and so takes awaythe beauty; but Jesus
promises that He will so come and reveal joy to the sorrowing soul that the
face shall fill up again:the eyes that were dull and cloudy shaft sparkle again,
and the countenance, yea, and the whole person, shall be once more radiant
with the beauty which sorrow had so grievously marred.
2. Then, it is added, "He will give the oil of joy for mourning. Here we have
first beauty, and then unction. The Orientals used rich perfumed oils on their
persons — used them largely and lavishly in times of greatjoy. Now, the Holy
Spirit comes upon those who believe in Jesus, and gives them an anointing of
perfume, most precious, more sweetand costlythan the nard of Araby. "We
have an unction from the Holy One.

3. Then, it is added, to give still greaterfulness to the cheering promise, that
the Lord will give "the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.'The man
is first made beautiful, next he has the anointing, then afterwards he is
arrayed in robes of splendour. "The garment of praise," what a dress is this!
When a man wraps himself about, as it were, with psalmody, and lives for
ever a chorister, singing not with equal voice, but with the same earnestheart
as they do who day and night keepup the never-ending hymn before the
throne of the infinite! AM, what a life is his, what a man is he!
4. Notice whatwill be the result of this appointment, "That they might be
calledtrees of righteousness," etc. The originalis like "oaks ofrighteousness,"
that is, they shall become strong, firmly rooted, coveredwith verdure; they
shall be like a well-wateredtree for pleasantness. Butthe very pith of the text
lies ",m, a little word to which you must look. "Ye shall be calledtrees of
righteousness. There are many mourning saints who are trees of
righteousness, but nobody calls them so;they are so desponding that they give
a doubtful idea to others. Observers ask, "Is this a Christian?" But, O
mourners I if Jesus visits you, and gives you the oil of joy, men shall call you
"trees of righteousness," theyshall see grace in you. I know some Christian
people who, whereverthey go, are attractive advertisements of the Gospel.
Nobody could be with them for half-an-hour without saying, Whence do they
gain this calm, this peace, this tranquillity, this holy delight and joy?" Many
have been attractedto the Cross of Christ by the holy pleasantness and
cheerful conversationof those whom Christ has visited with the abundance of
His love.
5. The result of all this goes further, "They shall be called trees of
righteousness, the planting of the Lord," that is to say, where there is joy
imparted, and unction given from the Holy Spirit, insteadof despondency,
men will say, "It is God's work, it is a tree that Godhas planted, it could not
grow like that if anybody else had planted it; this man is a man of God's
making, his joy is a joy of God's giving."
6. Another word remains, "ThatHe might be glorified." That is the great
result we drive at, and that is the object evenof God Himself, "that He might
be glorified." For when men see the cheerful Christian, and perceive that this

is God's work, then they own the powerof God. Meanwhile, the saints,
comforted by your example, praise and bless God, and all the Church lifts up
a song to the MostHigh.
( C. H. Spurgeon.)
Grief transformed
A. Maclaren, D. D.
There is a beautiful thing which comes out more distinctly if we follow the
RevisedVersion, and read it as "to give unto them a garland for ashes, the oil
of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. There
we have two contrastedpictures suggested, one of a mourner with grey ashes
strewedupon his dishevelledlocks, and his spirit clothed in gloomlike a black
robe; and to him there comes One who, with gentle hand, smoothes the ashes
out of his hair, trains a garland round his brow, anoints his head with oil, and,
stripping off the trappings of woe, casts abouthim a bright robe fit for a guest
at a festival. That is the miracle that Jesus Christ cando for every one, and is
ready to do for us, if we will let Him.
(A. Maclaren, D. D.)
The Joy-bringer
A. Maclaren, D. D.
I. JESUS CHRIST IS THE JOY-BRINGER TO MEN BECAUSE HE IS THE
REDEEMER OF MEN. In the original application of my text to the
deliverance from captivity, this gift of joy, and change of sorrow into gladness,
was no independent and secondbestowment, but was simply the issue of the
one that precededit, viz. the gift of liberty to the captives, and the opening of
the prison to them that are bound. The gladness was a gladness that welledup
in the heart of the captives setfree, and coming out from the gloom of the
Babylonian dungeon into the sunshine of God's favour, with their faces set

towards Zion "with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads." You have
only to keepfirm hold of this connectionbetweenthese two thoughts to come
to the crownand centre-point of this greatprophecy, as far as it applies to us,
and that is that it is Christ as the Emancipator, Christ as He who brings us
out of the prison and bondage of the tyranny of sin, who is the greatJoy-giver.
For there is no real, deep, fundamental and impregnable gladness possible to
a man until his relations to God have been rectified, and until, with the
consciousnessofforgiveness and the Divine love nestling warm at his heart, he
has turned himself awayfrom his dread and his sin, and has recognizedin his
Father God "the gladness of his joy." There are many: us who feelthat life is
sufficiently comfortable without any kind of reference to God at all. But about
all that kind of surface joy, the old words are true, "evenin laughter the heart
is sorrowful," and hosts of us are satisfiedwith joys which Jesus has no part
in brining, simply because our truest self has never once awakened. Whenit
does you will find out "that no one can bring real joy who does not take away
guilt and sin.
II. JESUS CHRIST TRANSFORMS SORROWBECAUSE HE
TRANSFORMS THE MOURNER. All that this Joy-bringer and Transmuter
of grief into its opposite is representedas doing, is on the man who feels the
sorrow. In regardto the ordinary sorrows oflife, He affects these not so much
by an operationupon our circumstances as by an operationupon ourselves,
and transforms sorrow and brings gladness, because He transforms the man
that endures it. The landscape remains the same, the difference is the colour
of the glass through which we look at it. How does He do it?
1. By giving to the man sources ofjoy, if he will use them, altogether
independent of external circumstances. "Although the fig-tree shall not
blossom," etc. The paradox of the Christian life is "as sorrowful, yet always
rejoicing.
2. There is another way by which for us, if we will use our privileges, the
sorrows oflife may be transmuted, because we, contemplating them, have
come to a changedunderstanding of their meaning. We shall never
understand life if we class its diverse events simply under the two opposite
categoriesofgood— evil; prosperity — adversity; gains-losses;fulfilled

expectations — disappointed hopes. Put them all togetherunder one class —
discipline and education; means for growth; means for Christlikeness. When
we have found out, what it takes a long while for us to learn, that the lancet
and the bandage are for the same purpose, and that opposite weathers
conspire to the same end, that of the harvest, the sting is out of the sorrow, the
poison is wiped off the arrow.
3. Here we may suggesta third way by which a transformation wrought upon
ourselves transforms the aspectofour sorrows, andthat is that possessing
independent sources ofjoy, and having come to learn the educationalaspectof
all adversity, we thereby are brought by Jesus ChristHimself to the position
of submission. That is the most potent talisman to transform mourning into
praise. An acceptedgriefis a conquered grief; a conquered grief will very
soonbe a comforted grief; and a comforted grief is a joy.
III. JESUS GIVES JOY AFTER SORROW.Jesus Christ, evenhere and now,
gives these blessedresults of our sorrows, if they are takento the right place,
and borne in the right fashion. For it is they "that mourn in Zion that He thus
blesses. There are some of us, I fear, whose only resource in trouble is to fling
ourselves into some work, or some dissipation. And there are some of us
whose only resource for deliverance from our sorrows is that, after the wound
has bled all it can, it stops bleeding, and that grief simply dies by lapse of time,
and for want of fuel. An affliction wastedis the worstof all waste. But if we
carry our grief into the sanctuary, then, here and now, it will change its
aspect, and be a solemn joy. I say nothing about the ultimate result, where
every sorrow rightly borne shall be representedin the future life by some
stage in grace or glory, where every tear shall be crystallized, if I might so say,
into a flashing diamond, which flings off the reflection of the Divine light,
where "there shall be no sorrow nor sighing, nor any more pain," for the
former things are passedaway. When the lessonhas been learnt, God burns
the rod. But there is another saddertransformation of joy into its opposite. I
saw a few days ago, on a hill-top, a black circle among the grass and heather.
There had been a bonfire there on Coronationnight, and it had all died down,
and that was the end — a hideous ring of scorchedbarrenness amidst the
verdure. Take care thatyour gladnessesdo not die down like that, but that
they are pure, and being pure are undying. Separationfrom Christ makes joy

shallow, and makes it certain that at last, instead of a garland, shall be ashes
on the head, and that, instead of a festalrobe, the spirit shall be wrapped in a
garment of heaviness.
(A. Maclaren, D. D.).
Trees. ofRighteousness.
Trees ofrighteousness
Homilist.
Notice some points of comparisonwhich this figure suggestswhenused to
representthe redeemed.
I. THEY ARE TREES. This indicates —
1. That they have life. They are not inanimate objects.
2. That they have dependent life. They are planted in the ground.- Their
fertility depends on the soil. Those planted in Christ shall be fruitful.
3. That they have a life of growth. Spiritual life is a development.
II. THEY ARE GOODLYTREES. "Treesofrighteousness." Notpoisonous
or useless objects. The objectof trees is —
1. To afford shelter. They shade from the heat and the storm.
2. To adorn the world. They are the beauty of earth, its crown and delight.
3. To give fruit. They are the profit and sustenance ofthe sower. Treesof
righteousness are all this in the spiritual world.
(Homilist.)
G. W. Humphreys, B. A.

The imagery in the text, takenfrom trees, is very frequently used in the Bible
(Psalm 1:3; Psalm 92:12;Jeremiah 17:8; Hosea 14:5-7;John 15:1.; Revelation
22:2).
I. IN WHAT RESPECTDO TREES REPRESENTCHRISTIANS .II. Trees
contribute largelyto keep the atmosphere pure and healthful. When human
beings, and indeed all animals, breathe out, there is given off a gas which is
injurious and destructive to animal life. But this deleterious air is needful to
the life and growth of plants; so trees and vegetationeagerlyappropriate the
air which is hurtful to us. At the same time the leaves oftrees give off oxygen,
which tends to purify the air, and render it fit for us to breathe. When the air
around us has passedthrough an extent of leaf surface it is pure and
invigorating There is a moral atmosphere, and the presence of Christian
people in that moral atmosphere contributes to make it pure.
2. Trees supply many articles which are most useful in commerce — such as
food, clothing, medicine. These things, as products in which men trade, tend to
the enrichment and generalbenefit of society. Trees yield timber, with which
our houses are built and our furniture is made. Palms yield edible fruits, and
a greatquantity of oil. And so, like these trees, true Christians contribute in
many ways to benefit societyat large. Look around on our own country, and
notice the immense number of charitable institutions, etc. To what do they
owe their existence? Unquestionably to the power of Christian love.
3. Trees are objects ofgreat beauty. Scripture and poetry recognize the
beauty of trees, and every one who has any eye to enjoy the charm of the
country will readily admit that trees are objects of indescribable beauty. So
there is a beauty, a charm, in the gracesofChristian characteras seenin
purity of life, a loving, self-denying spirit which lays out its powers for the
goodof others (1 Corinthians 13:4-8; Philippians 4:8).
4. Trees are endowedwith greatstrength. There are grand old oaks which
have stoodfor more than a thousand years. A friend told me that an engineer
in his employ saw a cedar in Algiers which must have been more than two
thousand years old. A writer in the Times gives the following calculationas to
the age ofthe Mammoth pine of California. He says, "A friend has sent me

two specimens of the woodof the Wellingtonea gigantea. Ofthe timber sent
there are two pieces:one a specimenof the older, or heart-wood;the other a
specimenof the more recent, or sap-wood."He then goes into a careful and
elaborate calculationas to the age of the tree, and on the lowestestimate, he
makes out that the tree was five thousand five hundred and forty-four years
old. This long duration suggests how many storms and dangers the grand old
tree has had to weather. So true Christians are possessedofgreatstrength.
Think of the many temptations, the many severe trials, through which such
believers have had to pass!
II. THE PLANTING OF THESE TREES. Theyare not self-planted. They are
not of man's planting. "The planting of the Lord."
1. Their nature in its fruit-bearing powerand in its beauty and strength is
given to them by the Lord. How did they become "trees ofrighteousness?"
Not by any serf-originatedchoice oract of their own. The Gentiles are spoken
of by Paul as being "cut out of the wild olive tree, which is wild by nature, and
grafted contrary to nature into the goodolive tree." Here the scionof the wild
olive is representedas grafted on the stock of the productive oil-bearing one;
and they are called on to remember that they derive their life and
nourishment from the root of the stock, which, being holy, makes the
branches holy (Romans 11:16, 18). All their life and sufficiencyare from
Christ alone.
2. The culture, as well as the nature, of these trees is of the Lord. "My Father
is the Husbandman." "Every branch in Me that bearethnot fruit He taketh
away, and every branch that beareth fruit He purgeth it, that it may bring
forth more fruit."
III. THE GREAT DESIGN AND END OF OUR BEING MADE TREES OF
RIGHTEOUSNESS. "ThatHe might be glorified."
1. The glory of the Lord and our spiritual welfare go together. The beauty of
the flower, the fruitfulness Of the tree, are the glory of the gardener.
2. The glory of the Lord is the highest end which any createdbeing can serve.
This was the grand end Christ kept before Himself, and accomplished:"I

have glorified Thee on the earth." This in the deepestdesire of every saint in
his holiestmoments: "that God in all things maybe glorified."
(G. W. Humphreys, B. A.)
J. H. Evans, M. A.
The passagetakesin the whole family of God. Observe —
I. WHY THEY ARE CALLED TREES OF RIGHTEOUSNESS.
1. A tree is the beauty of the landscape. The Church of God is the beauty of
the world.
2. A tree is remarkable for its strength. And there is that in the believer that
gives one the conviction of strength. Where is his strength? He is united to
Christ — "Rootedin Him."
3. A tree is fruitful (Philippians 1:9-11;John 15:5).
II. THEY ARE DESCRIBED AS "THE PLANTING OF THE LORD." There
are some trees that are not of His planting, and yet they seemfor a time to be
goodtrees. There is a gooddeal of outward acquaintance with Divine things, a
gooddeal of outward change;yet, after all, it is not a tree of the Lord's right
hand planting. It is a solemn truth — "Every plant which My heavenly Father
hath not planted, shall be rootedup." It may look wellfor a time; it may be
fair and promising to the outward eye; but not being rooted in Christ, not
bringing forth fruit, it shall be destroyed. But these are trees of "the Lord's
planting." He chose them for His own. And with His own hand He transplants
them out of the "wastehowling wilderness, and plants them in His own
garden. All the "trees of righteousness"are transplants. The end for which
the Lord did it was that they might be," trees of righteousness.'
III. THE GREAT END. "That He might be glorified. It shall be His Glory
when they exhibit the beauty of a consistentprofession. He shall be glorified
especiallyby their fruitfulness. Concluding remarks:If you are trees of the

Lord, do not be surprised if He should take His knife. You must be exposedto
storms.
(J. H. Evans, M. A.)
W. Jones.
I. HEN AS TREES.
1. As all trees have roots, so have all men. These roots are the principles which
lie at the foundation of their character. These principles perform the same
functions in the moral organismof a man as the root does in the material
organismof a tree. The peculiar business of a tree-rootis to collectthe
necessaryfoodfor sustaining the living body of the tree; and for this purpose
it seems to be endowedwith a kind of instinct which enables it to attractonly
those substances whichcorrespondto the nature of the tree and will
contribute to its growth, and to repel those which are different and would
accordinglyprove hurtful. Similarly, the principles which underlie human
characterare virtually the food-finders and life-sustainers of the soul, groping
about among the scenesand circumstances andevents by which they are
surrounded, for such moral or immoral entertainment as is demanded by the
nature of the being with which they are connected.
2. As all trees grow by assimilationfrom within, so do all men. You cannot
build a tree, as you canbuild a house or construct a ship, by mechanical
additions from without. The tree must build itself, by a delicate machinery of
its own. In the same way does human nature grow by assimilationfrom
within.
3. As all trees put forth leaves, so do all men. They put forth the leaves of an
outward profession, not necessarilyin words, but tacitly in external
behaviour. A man without a professionis an impossibility. If there be vitality
in a tree the annual approach of spring will make it bud and put forth tender
sprouts; and so if there be vitality in a soulit will as surely clothe itself in a

garment of speechand action. And as the leaves assume a shape and tint
corresponding to the nature of the tree, so do the words and deeds of men
contracta characterfrom their souls.
4. As all trees produce fruit of some kind or other, so do all men. There is an
endless variety among the fruits of the earth, but there are no trees that have
not fruit of some kind; and there are no souls that are not continually
producing fruit, whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto
righteousness.
II. SAINTS AS TREES.
1. The saints as trees differ from the rest of men as to the kind of fruit they
produce. They are "trees of righteousness, lit. oaks ofrighteousness, a phrase
susceptible of different renderings, though the obvious one is perhaps as good
as any, "oaksthat bear the fruits of righteousness." Saints are instruments of
holy service "createdin Christ Jesus unto goodworks." Theyproduce good
works by the very same necessityas an oak bears acorns — a necessityof
nature. "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace," etc.
2. Saints as trees differ from the rest of men as to the specialtraining or
culture they receive. Theyare "the planting of the Lord." Other trees grow
wild on the open common of an unprotected and sin-accursedworld, enjoying
no other culture than the laws of nature and the winds and rains of heaven are
able to impart; but these have been uprooted from the sterile soil in which
they grew and planted in the garden of the Church — uprooted by the skilful
hand of the GreatHusbandman of souls, and planted beside the gentle
streams of grace that proceedfrom the throne of God, in some quiet and
secludedcorner, where they are carefully trained and tended.
3. Saints as trees differ from the rest of men as to the ultimate end for which
they grow. Other trees have no end to serve beyond bearing their appropriate
fruits, but these have a specialview to the honour and reputation of the
Husbandman who planted them; being "the planting of the Lord that He may
be glorified." So does Christ say of saints, "Herein is My Father glorified, that
ye bear much fruit."

(W. Jones.)
Tongues in trees
J. A. Rimmer.
1. One thing which strikes us in connectionwith trees is their very small
beginnings, e.g. the oak. The trees of righteousness are small in their
beginnings. Faith, as exercisedatfirst, is only as a grain of mustard seed.
Grace, as first experiencedin the heart, is a very tender plant. Look at , and
Wesley, and Whitefield, and many others, who illustrate the perfection that is
attainable here. And see what perfectionthese trees of righteousness may
attain hereafter.
2. Trees are slow and progressive in their growth. The concentric circles that
may be seenwithin certainkinds of trees, have come there by the annual
addition of one; and in full-grown ones there may be counted as many as a
hundred or more. Hence an idea may be gatheredof the gradualness of
development in tree life. The trees of righteousness are oftensimilarly slow
and progressive in their growth. We should not be discouragedbecausewe do
not reachperfectionat once. Walking is a favourite Scriptural mode of
describing the progress of a godly life. The believer is representedfirst as a
babe, then as passing through a state of youthhood, and then as having
reachedthe maturity of manhood in Christ Jesus.
3. Greatvarieties distinguish trees. Among the well-knownkinds are the
strong and kinglike oak, the lofty and aspiring pine, the gracefuland lovely
beech, the timid and trembling aspen, the unsocialthorn, the dependent ivy,
and many others. There are equally greatvarieties within the sphere of
religious life. Moses'nature was equable, Elijah's stern, and inflexible,
Isaiah's buoyant, Jeremiah's plaintive, Peter's impulsive, and John's amiable.
And what varieties are met with in the sphere of modern religious life! We
may be reminded, in relation to this fact, that we should not trouble ourselves
because we are not like somebody else.

4. Observe in trees a dependence on external conditions for their growthand
development. In all the stages ofvegetable life the influences of the soiland of
the atmosphere are necessaryto a full and healthy growth. The trees of
righteousness require certain outward conditions for their growth and
development. Their spiritual vitality is not self-originatedand underived. We
should therefore not neglectcommunion with Him who is "the fountain of life
and of grace," by the means which are intended to secure us these benefits.
5. Notice also the different effects upon trees of the sun's powerful influence at
certain seasons ofthe year, and of the diminution of that influence at other
seasons. Whenthe sun comes forth "as a bridegroom from his chamber," and
"rejoicethas a strong man to run a race," as he does in the vernal seasonof
the year, how beautifully the trees begin to exhibit signs of returning life! How
they put forth shoots!How they cover themselves with foliage!And how, by
and by, they are laden with fruits! But when his influence is partially
withdrawn or modified, as in the autumnal season, how quickly there appear
the tints which are sure signs of decay. God's people are similarly affectedby
the Sun of Righteousness.Whenthey enjoy His radiant and genialbeams, as
they never fail to do when they do not interpose their own unbelief, how
admirable is the effect! But when the Sun of Righteousnesswithdraws
Himself, or hides His face from His people through their unfaithfulness, then
there ensues a period of decay, and even death.
6. Trees arc useful. This is not merely the case with such trees as provide us
with delicious fruit, or furnish us with materials for the manufacture of
articles of clothing, or supply us with certainmedicines, or yield us timber for
the constructionof our dwellings, it is the ease withall trees. A writer, who is
an authority, tells us, "Every tree in nature makes itselffelt in the goodit does
the air." The trees of righteousness arc useful. This is the case with all. We
may not have the commanding abilities of some, nor occupy the positions of
influence of others;but all who are living truly Christian lives, however
hidden from public gaze, are helping to purify the moral atmosphere of
society, and of the world. And this is usefulness that receives Divine approval.
(J. A. Rimmer.)

The forests and orchards of God
W. H. Jackson.
I. THE SUGGESTIVE DESCRIPTION OF THE CHARACTER OF GOD'S
PEOPLE AND OF THEIR RELATION TO HIM. "Trees."
II. THE MANNER IN WHICH THIS CHARACTER IS TO BECOME THE
POSSESSIONOF MEN. "The planting of the Lord." God is His own
gardener, and those who would know the blessednessofbeing "God's
husbandry" are to be in all things submitted to God's hand.
1. God choosesthe position in which His trees are to be planted.
2. He hides the roots in life-giving soil.
3. He visits our life with the renewing power of His own life. "As the rain
cometh down and watereththe earth and makethit bring forth and bud," so
is the operationof the Holy Spirit upon the inner life of those who "ask the
Father" that it may be so.
III. THE GREAT PURPOSE WHICH THIS CHARACTER IS TO SERVE.
"ThatHe might be glorified." Christians are calledto increase the honour of
the Divine name.
1. In the spiritual condition of their" own life. Trees ofrighteousness must
exhibit, the beauty, and symmetry of a rightly-formed and healthily-developed
spiritual life..
2. This characterhas to be shown as the most truly living thing the world
contains.. If you erecta building and fill it with industrious or noisy people,
and by the side, of it plant a few elm trees, you will find that "life's little day
ebbs out" from within the house, that even the building crumbles towards
decay, and that the trees, living and increasing in force of life, will run their
roots beneath and through the foundations until they have warpedthe whole
structure and brought it to its overthrow. One has standing room for its
lifeless form on the earth, the other lives, and therefore overcomes. And the

Christian has to show the world that though it may erectthe sturdiest
structures out of itself, there is a mightier presence in the characterof
godliness which by roots of living union gathers its power from Christ, and
which will overthrow resistance andestablishitself with the calm
irresistibleness ofeternal life planted and watchedover by the almighty and
unchangeable God.
3. Trees ofrighteousness must cause men to taste the fruit of righteousness
and to live under its shadow. We all love shadow. None would like to be
deprived of its beauty or of its refreshment. And even to think afar off of some
fruit-trees is to experience realpleasure. Oh! for the spirit of Christ to dwell
in us so richly that to have our societywould be like walking beneath thickly
overhanging trees in the noontide heat, or roaming at will in a well watered
garden, and would cause men to give ungrudging testimony that Christian
characterwas earth's true similitude of heaven.
(W. H. Jackson.)
"Trees ofrighteousness
W. H. Jackson.
Keeping to the natural figure under which the thing of God in man are
described, these must be trees of beauty and symmetry, developedequally on
all sides, with timber, twig, and foliage answering to the ideal in a mind which
knows what a perfecttree would be.
(W. H. Jackson.)
COMMENTARIES
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(3) To appoint unto them that mourn . . .—The verb (literally, to set) has no
objecteither in the Hebrew or English, and it would seemas if the prophet
correctedhimself in the actof writing or dictating, and substituted for a word
which would have applied only to the coronetone which was better fitted for
the whole context.
Beauty for ashes.—Literally, a diadem, or coronet, which is to take the place
of the ashes that had been sprinkled on the head of the mourners or penitents
(2Samuel1:2; 2Samuel13:19; Joshua 7:6). The assonance ofthe two Hebrew
words, ’epher, paer, deserves notice.
Oil of joy.—Same phrase as in Psalm 45:7.
The spirit of heaviness . . .—The secondnoun is that used for the “smoking”
or “dimly burning” flax in Isaiah 42:3, and in its figurative sense in Isaiah
42:4; Ezekiel21:7.
That they might be calledtrees of righteousness . . .—Strictly, terebinths, or
oaks, as the symbols of perennial verdure—the “righteousness”being thought
of as the gift of the Spirit of Jehovah,. and, therefore, life-giving and
enduring—and in their beauty and strength manifesting His glory.
MacLaren's Expositions
Isaiah
THE JOY-BRINGER
Isaiah61:3.
In the little synagogue ofNazarethJesus beganHis ministry by laying His
hand upon this greatprophecy and saying, ‘It is Mine! I have fulfilled it.’ The
prophet had been painting the ideal Messianic Deliverer, with special

reference to the return from the Babylonian captivity. That was ‘the liberty to
the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound,’ and about
which he was thinking. But no external deliverance of that sort could meet the
needs, nor satisfythe aspirations, ofa soul that knows itself and its
circumstances. Isaiah, orthe man who goes by his name, spoke greaterthings
than he knew. I am not going to enter upon questions of interpretation; but I
may say, that no conceptionof Jewishprophecy can hold its ground which is
not framed in the light of that greatsaying in the synagogue ofNazareth. So,
then, we have here the ‘Man of Sorrows,’as this very prophet calls Him in
another place, presenting Himself as the Transformer of sorrow and the
Bringer of joy, in regardto infinitely deepergriefs than those which sprang in
the heart of the nation because ofthe historicalcaptivity.
There is anotherbeautiful thing in our text, which comes out more distinctly if
we follow the RevisedVersion, and read ‘to give unto them a garland for
ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of
heaviness.’There we have two contrastedpictures suggested:one of a
mourner with grey ashes strewedupon his dishevelled locks, andhis spirit
clothed in gloomlike a black robe; and to him there comes One who, with
gentle hand, smoothes the ashes out of his hair, trains a garland round his
brow, anoints his head with oil, and, stripping off the trappings of woe, casts
about him a bright robe fit for a guest at a festival. That is the miracle that
Jesus Christ cando for every one, and is ready to do for us, if we will let Him.
Let us look at this wonderful transformation, and at the way by which it is
effected.
The first point I would make is that-
I. Jesus Christis the Joy-bringer to men because He is the Redeemerof men.

Remember that in the original application of my text to the deliverance from
captivity, this gift of joy and change of sorrow into gladness was no
independent and secondbestowment, but was simply the issue of the one that
precededit, viz., the gift of liberty to the captives, and the opening of the
prison to them that were bound. The gladness was a gladness that welledup in
the heart of the captives setfree, and coming out from the gloom of the
Babylonian dungeon into the sunshine of God’s favour, with their faces set
towards Zion ‘with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads.’
Now you have only to keepfirm hold of this connectionbetweenthese two
thoughts to come to the crown and centre-point of this greatprophecy, as far
as it applies to us, and that is that it is Christ as the Emancipator, Christ as
the Deliverer, Christ as He who brings us out of the prison of bondage of the
tyranny of sin, who is the greatJoy-Giver. For there is no real, deep,
fundamental and impregnable gladness possible to a man until his relations to
God have been rectified, and until, with these rectified relations, with the
consciousnessofforgiveness and the divine love nestling warm at his heart, he
has turned himself awayfrom his dread and his sin, and has recognisedin his
Father God ‘the gladness of his joy.’
Of course, there are many of us who feel that life is sufficiently comfortable
and moderately happy, or at leastquite tolerable, without any kind of
reference to Godat all. And in this day of growing materialism, and growing
consequentindifference to the deepestneeds of the spirit and the claims of
religion, more and more men are finding, or fancying that they find, that they
can rub along somehow, andhave a fair share of gladness and satisfaction,
without any need for a redeeming gospeland a forgiving Christ. But about all
that kind of surface-joythe old words are true, ‘even in laughter the heart is
sorrowful,’and hosts of us are satisfiedwith joys which Jesus has no part in
bringing, simply because our truest self has never once awakened. When it
does-andperhaps it will do so with some of you, like the sleeping giant that is
fabled to lie beneath the volcano whose sunny slopes are smiling with flowers-

then you will find out that no one canbring realjoy who does not take away
guilt and sin.
Jesus Christ is the Joy-bringer, because Jesus Christis the Emancipator. And
true gladness is the gladness that springs from the conscious possessionof
liberty from the captivity which holds men slaves to evil and to their worst
selves. Brethren, let us not fancy that these surface-joys are the joys adequate
to a human spirit. They are ignoble, and they are infinitely foolish, because a
touch of an awakenedconscience, a stirring of one’s deeper self, can scatter
them all to pieces. So then, that is my first thought.
Let us suggesta second, that-
II. Jesus Christ transforms sorrow because He transforms the mourner.
In my text, all that this Joy-bringer and Transmuter of grief into its opposite
is representedas doing is on the man who feels the sorrow. And although, as I
have said, the text, in its original position, is simply a deduction from the
previous greatprophecy which did point to a change of circumstances, and
although Jesus does bring the ‘joy of salvation’ by a greatchange in a man’s
relations, yet in regardto the ordinary sorrows oflife, He affects these not so
much by an operation upon our circumstances as by an operation upon
ourselves, and transforms sorrow and brings gladness, because He transforms
the man who endures it. The landscape remains the same, the difference is in
the colourof the glass through which we look at it. Instead of having it
presentedthrough some black and smokedmedium, we see it through what
the painter calls a ‘Claude Lorraine’ glass, tingedgolden, and which throws
its own lovely light upon all that it shows us. It is possible-the eye that looks
being purged and cleansed, so as to see more clearly-that the facts remaining
identical, their whole aspectand bearing may be altered, and that which was

felt, and rightly felt, to be painful and provocative of sadness and gloom, may
change its characterand begeta solemn joy. It would be but a small thing to
transform the conditions; it is far better and higher to transform us. We all
need, and some of us, I have no doubt, do especiallyneed, to remember that
the Lord who brings this sudden transformation for us, does so by His
operationwithin us, and, therefore, to that operation we should willingly yield
ourselves.
How does He do this? One answerto that question is-by giving to the man
with ashes on his head and gloomwrapped about his spirit, sources ofjoy, if
he will use them, altogetherindependent of external circumstances.’Though
the fig-tree shall not blossom, and there be no fruit in the vine . . . yet will I
rejoice in the Lord.’ And every Christian man, especiallywhendays are dark
and clouds are gathering, has it open to him, and is bound to use the
possibility, to turn away his mind from the external occasions ofsadness,and
fix it on the changelessreasonfordeep and unchanging joy-the sweet
presence, the strong love, the sustaining hand, the infinite wisdom, of his
Father God.
Brethren, “the paradox of the Christian life” is, ‘as sorrowful, yet always
rejoicing.’Christ calls for no hypocritical insensibility to ‘the ills that flesh is
heir to.’ He has sanctionedby His example the tears that flow when death
hurts loving hearts. He commanded the women of Jerusalemto ‘weepfor
themselves and for their children.’ He means that we should feel the full
bitterness and pain of sorrows which will not be medicinal unless they are
bitter, and will not be curative unless they cut deep. But He also means that
whilst thus we suffer as men, in the depths of our own hearts we should, at the
same time, be turning awayfrom the sufferings and their cause, and fixing
our hearts, quiet even then amidst the distractions, upon God Himself. Ah! it
is hard to do, and because we do not do it, the promise that He will turn the
sorrow into joy often seems to be a vain word for us.

It is not ours to rejoice as the world does, nor is it ours to sorrow as those who
have no hope, or as those who have no God with them. But the two opposite
emotions may, to a large extent, be harmonised and co-existentin a Christian
heart, and, since they can be, they should be. The Christian in sorrow should
be as an island set in some stormy sea, with wild waves breaking againstits
black, rockycoast, and the wind howling around it, but in the centre of it
there is a deep and shady dell ‘that heareth not the loud winds when they
call,’ and where not a leaf is moved by the tempest. In a like depth of calm and
central tranquillity it is possible for us to live, even while the storm hurtles its
loudest on the outermostcoasts ofour being; ‘as sorrowful, yet always
rejoicing,’because the Joy-bringer has opened for us sources ofgladness
independent of externals.
And then there is another way by which, for us, if we will use our privileges,
the sorrows oflife may be transmuted, because we, contemplating them, have
come to a changedunderstanding of their meaning. That is, after all, the
secretcharm to be commended to us at all times, but to be commended to us
most when our hearts are heavy and the days are dark around us. We shall
never understand life if we class its diverse events simply under the two
opposite categoriesofgood-evil; prosperity-adversity; gains-losses;fulfilled
expectations-disappointed hopes, Put them all togetherunder one class-
discipline and education; means for growth; means for Christlikeness. When
we have found out, what it takes a long while for us to learn, that the lancet
and the bandage are for the same purpose, and that opposite weathers
conspire to the same end, that of the harvest, the sting is out of the sorrow, the
poison is wiped off the arrow. We can have, if not a solemn joy, at leasta
patient acquiescence, in the diversities of operation, when we learn that the
same hand is working in all for the same end, and that all that contributes to
that end is good.
Here we may suggesta third way by which a transformation wrought upon
ourselves transforms the aspectofour sorrows, andthat is, that possessing

independent sources ofjoy, and having come to learn the educationalaspectof
all adversity, we hereby are brought by Jesus Christ Himself to the position of
submission. And that is the most potent talisman to transform mourning into
praise. An acceptedgriefis a conquered grief; a conquered grief will very
soonbe a comforted grief; and a comforted grief is a joy. By all these means
Jesus Christ, here and now, is transmuting the leadand iron of our griefs into
the goldof a not ignoble nor transient gladness.
And may I sayone last word? My text suggestsnotonly these two points to
which I have already referred-viz. that Jesus Christis the Joy-bringer because
He is the Emancipator, and that He transforms sorrow by transforming the
mourner-but, lastly, that III. Jesus gives joy after sorrow.
‘Nevertheless,afterward’is a greatword of glowing encouragementfor all
sad hearts. ‘Fools and children,’ says the old proverb, ‘should not see half-
done work ‘; at least, they should not judge it. When the ploughshare goes
deep into the brown, frosty ground, the work is only begun. The earth may
seemto be scarpedand hurt, and, if one might say, to bleed, but in six
months’ time ‘you scarce cansee’the soil for waving corn. Yes; and sorrow,
as some of us could witness, is the forecastofpurest joy. I have no doubt that
there are men and women here who could say, ‘I never knew the powerof
God, and the blessednessofChrist as a Saviour, until I was in deep affliction,
and when everything else wentdark, then in His light I saw light.’ Do not
some of you know the experience? and might we not all know it? and why do
we not know it?
Jesus Christ, even here and now, gives these blessedresults of our sorrows, if
they are taken to the right place, and borne in right fashion. For it is they
‘that mourn in Zion’ that He thus blesses. There are some of us, I fear, whose
only resource in trouble is to fling ourselves into some work, or some
dissipation. There are people who try to work awaytheir griefs, as well as

people who try feverishly to drink them away. And there are some of us whose
only resource for deliverance from our sorrows is that, after the wound has
bled all it can, it stops bleeding, and the grief simply dies by lapse of time and
for want of fuel. An affliction wastedis the worst of all waste. But if we carry
our grief into the sanctuary, then, here and now, it will change its aspectand
become a solemn joy.
I say nothing about the ultimate result where every sorrow rightly borne shall
be representedin the future life by some stage in grace or glory, where every
tear shall be crystallised, if I might say so, into a flashing diamond, which
flings off the reflection of the divine light, where ‘there shall be no sorrow nor
sighing, nor any more pain, for the former things are passedaway.’When the
lessonhas been learned, God burns the rod.
But, brethren, there is anothersadder transformation. I have been speaking
about the transformation of sorrow into joy. There is also the transformation
of joy into sorrow. I spoke a little while ago about the ‘laughter’ in which the
heart is ‘sorrowful,’ and the writer from whom I quoted the words goes onto
say, ‘The end of that mirth is heaviness.’‘Thereofcomethin the end
despondencyand madness.’I saw, on a hilltop, a black circle among the grass
and heather. There had been a bonfire there on CoronationNight, and it had
all died down, and that was the end-a hideous ring of scorchedbarrenness
amidst the verdure. Take care that your gladnesses do not die down like that,
but that they are pure, and being pure are undying. Union with Jesus Christ
makes sorrow light, and secures thatit shall merge at last into ‘joy
unspeakable and full of joy.’ I believe that separationfrom Christ makes joy
shallow, and makes it certain that at last, instead of a garland, shall be ashes
on the head, and that, instead of a festalrobe, the spirit shall be wrapped in a
garment of heaviness.
Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

61:1-3 The prophets had the Holy Spirit of God at times, teaching them what
to say, and causing them to say it; but Christ had the Spirit always, without
measure, to qualify him, as man, for the work to which he was appointed. The
poor are commonly best disposedto receive the gospel, Jas 2:5;and it is only
likely to profit us when receivedwith meekness. To suchas are poor in spirit,
Christ preachedgoodtidings when he said, Blessedare the meek. Christ's
satisfactionis accepted. Bythe dominion of sin in us, we are bound under the
powerof Satan;but the Son is ready, by his Spirit, to make us free; and then
we shall be free indeed. Sin and Satan were to be destroyed; and Christ
triumphed over them on his cross. Butthe children of men, who stand out
againstthese offers, shall be dealt with as enemies. Christ was to be a
Comforter, and so he is; he is sentto comfort all who mourn, and who seek to
him, and not to the world, for comfort. He will do all this for his people, that
they may abound in the fruits of righteousness, as the branches of God's
planting. Neither the mercy of God, the atonement of Christ, nor the gospelof
grace, profit the self-sufficientand proud. They must be humbled, and led to
know their own characterand wants, by the Holy Spirit, that they may see
and feeltheir need of the sinner's Friend and Saviour. His doctrine contains
glad tidings indeed to those who are humbled before God.
Barnes'Notes on the Bible
To appoint unto them - Hebrew, 'To place;' that is, to place happiness before
them; to give them joy arid consolation.
That mourn in Zion - (See the notes at Isaiah1:8). The mourners in Zion
mean those who dwelt in Jerusalem;then all those who are connectedwith the
church of God - his poor and afflicted people.
To give unto them beauty for ashes - In the Hebrew there is here a beautiful
paronomasia, which cannotbe transferred to our language - ‫רפא‬ ‫תחת‬ ‫פרא‬ pe'ēr
tachath 'êpher. The word rendered 'beauty' (‫רפא‬ pe'ēr) means properly a
head-dress, turban, tiara, or diadem; and the idea is, that the Redeemer
would impart to his mourning people such an ornament instead of the ashes
which in their grief they were accustomedto easyon their heads. For the use
of the word, see Isaiah3:20; Isaiah61:10; Exodus 39:29; Ezekiel24:17-23. It

was common among the Orientals to eastdust and ashes upon their heads in
time of mourning, and as expressive of their grief (compare the notes at Isaiah
57:5; 2 Samuel 13:19).
The oil of joy - The oil of joy denotes that which was symbolic or expressive of
joy. Oil or ointment was employed on occasions offestivity and joy (see the
notes at Isaiah 57:9); but its use was abstainedfrom in times of public
calamity or grief (see 2 Samuel 14:2).
The garment of praise - That is, the garment or clothing which shall be
expresive of praise or gratitude insteadof that which shall indicate grief.
For the spirit of heaviness. - Instead of a heavy, burdened, and oppressed
spirit. The word used here (‫הככ‬ kēhâh), usually means faint, feeble, weak (see
the notes at Isaiah42:3). It is applied to a lamp about to go out Isaiah 42:3; to
eyes bedimmed, or dull 1 Samuel 3:2; to a faint or pale colorLeviticus 13:39.
Here it denotes those of a faint and desponding heart. These expressions are
figurative, and are taken from the custom which prevailed more in Oriental
countries than elsewhere - and which is founded in nature - of expressing the
emotions of the mind by the manner of apparel. These customs are statedin
the book of Judith. She 'pulled off the sackclothwhichshe had on, and pus off
the garments of her widowhood, and washedher body all over with water,
and anointed herself with precious ointment, and braided the hair of her
head, and put on a tire upon it (Greek, μιτρε mitre), and put on her garments
of gladness wherewithshe was cladduring the life of Manassesherhusband.
And she took sandals upon her feet, and put about her her bracelets, andher
chains, and her rings, and her ear-rings, and all her ornaments, and decked
herself bravely to allure the eyes of all men that should see her' Isaiah10:3-4.
That they might be called- That is, those who had mourned in Zion.
Trees ofrighteousness - In the Hebrew, 'Oaks,'or terebinth trees. By their
being oaks ofrighteousness is meant people distinguished for righteousness or
justice. The Septuagint renders it, Γενεαὶ Geneai- 'Generations;' Jerome,
Fortes - 'Strong;' the Chaldee, 'Princes;' the Syriac, 'Rams;' but the word
properly denotes the oak, orthe terebinth tree - a lofty, strong, and

magnificent tree. It is not uncommon to representpeople by trees (see Isaiah
1:29-30;Psalm92:12-14):
The righteous shall flourish like the palm-tree;
He shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon,
Those that be planted in the house of the Lord,
Shall flourish in the courts of our God.
They shall still bring forth fruit in old age;
They shall be fat and flourishing.
continued...
Jamieson-Fausset-BrownBible Commentary
3. To appoint … to give—The double verb, with the one and the same
accusative, imparts glowing vehemence to the style.
beauty for ashes—There is a play on the sound and meaning of the Hebrew
words, peer, epher, literally, "ornamental headdress" ortiara (Eze 24:17),
worn in times of joy, instead of a headdress of "ashes," caston the head in
mourning (2Sa 13:19).
oil of joy—Perfumed ointment was poured on the guests at joyous feasts (Ps
23:5; 45:7, 8; Am 6:6). On occasionsofgrief its use was laid aside (2Sa 14:2).
garment of praise—bright-coloredgarments, indicative of thankfulness,
instead of those that indicate despondency, as sackcloth(Joh 16:20).
trees of righteousness—Hebrew, terebinth trees;symbolical of men strong in
righteousness, insteadofbeing, as heretofore, boweddown as a reed with sin
and calamity (Isa 1:29, 30; 42:3; 1Ki 14:15;Ps 1:3; 92:12-14;Jer17:8).
planting of … Lord—(See on [863]Isa 60:21).
that he might be glorified—(Joh15:8).
Matthew Poole's Commentary

To appoint; supply it, viz. comfort or joy; or else it may refer to those
accusative casesfollowing, beauty, oil, garments. In Zion; put by a metonymy
for the Jews;q.d. among the Jews;and they for the church of God, or,
according to the Hebrew, for Zion.
Beauty for ashes:by ashes understand whatever is most proper for days of
mourning, as sackclothsprinkledwith ashes;and these ashes, whichwere
sprinkled on their heads, mixing themselves with their tears, would render
them of a woeful aspect, whichwas wont to be the habit of mourners; as by
beauty whatevermay be beautiful or become times of rejoicing.
The oil of joy for mourning: the sense is the same with the former; he calls it
oil of joy, in allusion to those anointings they were wont to use in times of joy,
Psalm104 15: and also the same with what follows, viz. gladness for
heaviness;gladness brings forth praise to God: and it is called a garment in
allusion to their festival ornaments, for they had garments appropriated to
their conditions, some suitable to times of rejoicing, and some to times of
mourning; or else an allusion to comely garments; and
the spirit of heaviness, becauseheaviness dothoppress and debase the spirits.
It is all but an elegantdescriptionof the same thing by a threefold antithesis.
That they might be called;that is, that they may be so, as it is usually
expressed, Isaiah58:12 60:18;they shall be acknowledgedso, Isaiah61:9.
Trees ofrighteousness:he ascribes righteousness to trees, understanding
thereby persons by a metaphor, by which he means that they shall be firm,

solid, and well-rooted, being by faith ingrafted into Christ, and bringing forth
fruit suitable to the soil wherein they are planted, that had been as dry trees;
see on Isaiah56:3; viz. the church, the vineyard of God, and the hand by
which they are planted, as in the next words.
The planting of the Lord; planted by the holy Lord, who’ being himself holy
and righteous, would plant none but such; which notes also their soundness
and stability, an allusion to that passagein Moses’ssong, Exodus 15:17.
That he might be glorified, either in that glory which he should conferupon
them, or that glory he may expect and receive from them, that so it may be
evident whose handiwork it was. See Isaiah60 21.
Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible
To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion,.... Or, "to the mourners of Zion"
(u); such who are of Zion, belong to the church of God, and mourn for the
corruptions in Zion's doctrines;for the perversion, abuse, and neglectof
Zion's ordinances; for the disorders and divisions in Zion; for the declensions
there, as to the exercise ofgrace, and the power of godliness;for the few
instances of conversions there, or few additions to it; for the carelessness,ease,
and lukewarmness ofmany professors in Zion; and for their unbecoming lives
and conversations.Now one part of Christ's work is to "appoint" comfort to
such; he has appointed it in counseland covenantfrom eternity; made
provision for it in the blessings and promises of his grace;he has "set" (w) or
put it in the ministry of the word; be has ordered his ministering servants to
speak comfortably to his people; yea, by his Spirit he "puts" comfortinto the
hearts of them, who through their unbelief refuse to be comforted; and he has
fixed a time when he will arise and have mercy on Zion, and bring her into a
better state than she is now in, when there will be none of these causes of
complaint and mourning:
to give unto them beauty for ashes;in the Hebrew text there is a beautiful play
on words, which cannot be so well expressedin our language, "to give peer for

epher" (x); in times of mourning, it was usual to put on sackclothand ashes,
Esther 4:1, instead of this, Christ gives his mourners the beautiful garments of
salvation, and the robe of his righteousness, andthe gracesofhis Spirit, and
his gracious presence, togetherwithhis word and ordinances, and sometimes
a large number of converts; all which, as they are ornamental to his people,
they yield them joy, peace, and comfort: and this is a beauty that is not
natural to them, but is of grace;not acquired, but given; not fictitious, but
real; is perfect and complete, lasting and durable, and desired by Christ
himself, who gives it:
the oil of joy for mourning; oil used to be poured on the heads of persons at
entertainments and festivals, and at times of rejoicing;and so is opposed to
the state of mourners, who might not be anointed, as the Jewish
commentators observe;see Psalm23:5 the grace of the Spirit without
measure, with which Christ was anointed, is called "the oil of gladness",
Psalm45:7 and of the same nature, though not of the same measure, is the
grace which saints have from Christ; the effect of which is joy and gladness,
even joy unspeakable, andfull of glory; which is had in believing in Christ,
and through a hope of eternal life by him; hence we read of the joy of faith,
and of the rejoicing of hope: this oil is Christ's gift, and not to be bought with
money; this holy unction comes from him; this goldenoil is conveyedfrom
him, through the golden pipes of the word and ordinances;is very valuable, of
greatprice, and to be desired; and, being had, cannot be lost; it is the
anointing that abides:
the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness;such as is in persons under
afflictions, or under a sense ofsin, a load of guilt, and expectationof wrath;
such as have heavy hearts, contrite and contracted(y) ones, as the word is
observedto signify; for as joy enlarges the heart, sorrow contracts it; instead
of which, a garment of praise, or an honourable one, is given; alluding to
persons putting on of raiment suitable to their characters and circumstances,
at seasonsofrejoicing, such as weddings, and the like, Ecclesiastes 9:7 by
which may be meant here the robe of Christ's righteousness latermentioned,
Isaiah61:10 so calledbecause worthy of praise, for the preferableness ofit to
all others, being the best robe; for its perfection and purity; for the fragrancy
and acceptablenessofit to God, and for its eternal duration; also, becauseit

occasions andexcites praise in such on whom it is put; and such likewise shall
have praise of God hereafter, when on accountof it they shall be receivedinto
his kingdom and glory:
that they might be called trees of righteousness;that is, that the mourners in
Zion, having all these things done for them, and bestowedon them, might be
called, or be, or appear to be, like "trees" that are well planted; whose root is
in Christ, whose sap is the Spirit and his grace, andwhose fruit are good
works;and that they might appearto be goodtrees, and of a goodgrowthand
stature, and be laden with the fruits of righteousness,and be truly righteous
persons, made so by the imputation of Christ's righteousness to them: "the
planting of the Lord"; planted by him in Christ, and in his church, and so
never to be rootedout:
that he might be glorified; by their fruitfulness and goodworks, John 15:8 or
that he might glorify himself, or gethimself glory by them; See Gill on Isaiah
60:21.
(u) "lugentibus Sionis", Junius & Tremellius, PiscatorVitrtnga. So Syr. (w)
"ad ponendum" Montanus; "ut ponerem" Munster Pagninus. (x) the Targum
and Vulgate Latin version render it a "crownfor ashes" andthe word is used
for the tire of the head in Ezekiel24:17. The Syriac and Arabic versions read,
"for ashes sweetointment", or "oil of gladness",joining it to the next clause;
and mention being made of oil or ointment there, Fortunatus Scacchus thinks
the allusion is to crowns of roses and, lilies moistened with, ointment of
myrrh, and like ointment, which used to be wore at nuptial solemnities;and so
opposedto ashes put on the head in times of mourning, which falling from
thence, and moistened with tears on the cheeks, were clottedthere, and so
expressedthe miserable condition they were in; but these things the reverse.
See his Sacror. Eleaoehr. Myrothec. I. 1. c. 28. Colossians139. (y) "pro spiritu
stricto", Montanus, Paganinus;"loco spiritus contracti", Junius &
Tremellius, Piscator;"constricto", Vatablus.
Geneva Study Bible
To appoint to them that mourn in Zion, to give to them beauty for {f} ashes,
the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness;

that they may be called{g} trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD,
that he may be glorified.
(f) Which was the sign of mourning.
(g) Trees that bring forth goodfruits, as in Mt 3:8.
EXEGETICAL(ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)
Cambridge Bible for Schools andColleges
3. them that mourn in Zion] Lit. “the mourners of Zion,” which may mean
either “those that mourn for Zion” (as Isaiah66:10) or those who mourn in
her.
beauty for ashes]R.V. a garland (but it. “a turban”) for ashes. Ashes
sprinkled on the head were a sign of mourning (2 Samuel 13:19); these shall
be replacedby the headdress which betokeneddignity or festivity (see on
Isaiah61:10). There is a paronomasia in the Hebrew which cannotbe imitated
in English; Germans render “Putz statt Schmutz.”
oil of joy for mourning] (Omit the art.) As anointing with oil was a mark of
joy or honour (Psalm45:7; Psalm 23:5; Luke 7:46) so its omissionwas one of
the tokens ofmourning (2 Samuel 14:2).
the spirit of heaviness]a failing spirit; the same word as “dimly burning” in
ch. Isaiah42:3.
that they might be called] Strictly: and they shall be called.

trees of righteousness]lit. “oaks”or“terebinths.” The evergreentree is a
favourite emblem of the life of the righteous: Jeremiah17:8; Psalm 1:3; Psalm
92:14.
the planting … glorified] see ch. Isaiah60:21.
Pulpit Commentary
Verse 3. - To appoint... to give. The latter expressionis a correctionof the
former, which was not wide enough. Messiahis sent to give to the godly
mourners
(1) beauty for ashes;or "a crownfor ashes,"i.e. a crown of glory in lieu of the
ashes ofrepentance which it was customaryto sprinkle upon the head;
(2) the oil of joy for mourning; or the anointing of the Spirit in lieu of that
plenteousness oftears which naturally belongedto mourners; and
(3) the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, or a glad heart inclined to
praise God, in lieu of a heavy one inclined to despair. Christian experience
witnesses to the abundant accomplishmentof all these purposes. That they
might be calledtrees of righteousness;literally, oaks ofrighteousness,or
strong and enduring plants in the garden of God, planted by him, in order
that through them he might be glorified. Nothing gives so much glory to God
as the proved righteousnessofhis saints. The planting of the Lord; i.e. "which
he has planted" and causedto grow, and rendered righteous. The
righteousness, thoughit is their own, an indwelling quality, has nevertheless
come from him (comp. Isaiah 60:21).
Keil and DelitzschBiblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The fifth turn celebratesthe glorifying of Jerusalem, through the shining of
Jehovahas its everlasting light and through the form of its ever-growing
membership, which is so well-pleasing to God. The prophecy returns to the
thought with which it set out, and by which the whole is regulated, viz., that
Jerusalemwill be light. This leading thought is now unfolded in the most
majestic manner, and opened up in all its eschatologicaldepth. "The sun will
be no more thy light by day, neither for brightness will the moon shine upon
thee: Jehovahwill be to thee an everlasting light, and thy Godthy glory. Thy
sun will no more go down, and thy moon will not be withdrawn; for Jehovah
will be to thee an everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning will be
fulfilled." Although, in the prophet's view, the Jerusalemof the period of
glory in this world and the Jerusalemof the eternal glory beyond flow into
one another; the meaning of this prophecy is not that the sun and moon will
no longer exist. Even of the Jerusalemwhich is not to be built by Israel with
the help of convertedheathen, but which comes down from heavento earth,
the seerin Revelation21:23 merely says, that the city needs neither the
shining of the sun nor of the moon (as the Targum renders the passagebefore
us, "thou wilt not need the shining of the sun by day"), for the glory of God
lightens it, and the Lamb is the light thereof, i.e., God Himself is insteadof a
sun to her, and the Lamb instead of a moon. Consequently we do not agree
with Stier, who infers from this passagethat"there is a final new creation
approaching, when there will be no more turning round into the shadow
(James 1:17), when the whole planetary system, including the earth, will be
changed, and when the earth itself will become a sun, yea, will become even
more than that, in the direct and primary light which streams down upon it
from God Himself." We rather agree with Hofmann, that "there will still be
both sun and moon, but the Holy Place will be illuminated without
interruption by the manifestation of the presence ofGod, which outshines all
besides." The prophet has here found the most complete expression, for that
which has already been hinted at in such prophecies in Isaiah4:5; Isaiah
30:26;Isaiah 24:23. As the city receives its light neither from the sun nor from
the moon, this implies, what Revelation21:25 distinctly affirms, that there will
be no more night there. The prophet intentionally avoids a ‫כליל‬ ‫אופל‬ parallel to
lliw ti dna" ,91:06 haiasI niesualc dnoces eht redner ton tsum eW .‫לפוא‬ ‫יומם‬
not become light to thee with the shining of the moon," for ‫איפכ‬ never means

to get light; nor "and as for the shining of the moon, it does not give the light,"
as Hitzig and Knobel propose, for ‫ּהלנלּו‬ is used alone, and not ‫ּהלנלּו‬ ‫כגאח‬ as the
antithesis to ‫לפוא‬‫,יומם‬ in the sense of"to light up the night" (compare ‫נלּו‬ as
applied to the shining of the moon in Isaiah 13:10, and ‫נלּו‬ to the glittering of
the stars in Joel2:10), and even the use of ‫כלילכ‬ is avoided. The true rendering
is either, "and for lighting, the moon will not shine upon thee" (Stier, Hahn,
etc.); or, what is more in accordancewith the accentuation, whichwould have
given ‫כלנלו‬ tifchah and not tsakephgadol, if it had been intended to indicate
the object, "and as for the lighting" (‫ל‬ as in Isaiah32:1). The glory of
Jehovah, which soars above Jerusalem, and has come down into her, is
henceforth her sun and her moon - a sun that never sets, a moon ‫ףספי‬ ‫פל‬
which is not takenin towards morning, like a lamp that has been hung out at
night (compare ‫,ףספנ‬ Isaiah16:10, withdrawn, disappeared). The triumph of
light over darkness, whichis the objectof the world's history, is concentrated
in the new Jerusalem. How this is to be understood, is explained in the closing
clause of Isaiah60:20. The sum of the days of mourning allotted to the church
is complete. The darkness ofthe corruption of sin and state of punishment is
overcome, and the church is nothing but holy blessedjoy without change or
disturbance; for it walks no longerin sidereallight, but in the eternally
unchangeable light of Jehovah, which with its peacefulgentleness and perfect
purity illumines within as wellas without. The seerof the Apocalypse also
mentions the Lamb. The Lamb is also known to our prophet; for the "Servant
of Jehovah" is the Lamb. But the light of transfiguration, in which he sees this
exalted Lamb, is not greatenoughto admit of its being combined with the
light of the Divine Nature itself.
END OF BIBLEHUB RESOURCES
An Oak of Righteousness
September 5, 2014Cheryl1 Comment
Isaiah61:1-3

1 The Spirit of the SovereignLord is on me,
because the Lord has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release fromdarkness for the prisoners,[a]
2 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor
and the day of vengeance ofour God,
to comfort all who mourn,
3 and provide for those who grieve in Zion—
to bestow on them a crown of beauty
instead of ashes,
the oil of joy
instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise
instead of a spirit of despair.
They will be called oaks ofrighteousness,
a planting of the Lord
for the display of his splendour.
Last winter, I was part of a Bible study with a specialgroup of women.
Women who are actively seeking Godand His voice in their lives. Women who
want to leave the brokenness ofthis world and walk in the freedom that Jesus
bought us. His costwas great. I want Him to be able to look at me and saythat
it was worth it.

This passagein Isaiah was the jumping off point for the Beth Moore study
that we participated in. I cannot tell you how God stretchedme during that
study. I love being in His Word. I love trying to learn about Him. His Word is
truth and I want that truth deep in my heart. In the marrow of my bones. I
could try to pick up my Bible and read but it takes a Bible study to get me
really into it. And this was like that. We all left the study feeling like we
wanted to continue with the change that God had our permissionto start in
us. I wanted it to continue in me.
I identify with these verses. I have read them over and over again, hoping that
they would stick. My memory isn’t what it used to be. But I know where they
live. And I am a frequent visitor. What resonants in my heart is the word
picture of a crownreplacing mourning. Beauty insteadof ashes. Iunderstand
mourning. I have lived it. I live in it still, three years later. I wished, especially
in those first days and weeks,months even, that we still practicedthe dress of
mourning. The black garb. The outward sign of the heart’s condition. I would
have even settled for sackclothand ashes. I felt it, even if you couldn’t see it on
me.
I love watching “DowntonAbbey”. I love the big house. The fancy clothes.
The picture of that time. I played particular notice of the characters’clothing,
especiallywhile they were in mourning. Especiallyafter Sybil’s death. She
dies during childbirth. The youngest of her mother’s daughters. I watchedas
the whole household dressedin black. Slowly, one by one, the characters
resume their normal dressing habits until one, alone, remains in black–her
mother, Cora. I don’t recall when her husband stopped. I could see he
mourned deeply too but I paid specialattention to this mother. I knew what it
felt like. She was the last to leave the physical, outward sign of her loss. As
moms, I think we are often one of the last to leave. Our heart-string
connections with our kids canbe very strong.
I have been coveredin ashes. We all have. Maybe not in the same way or to
the same degree. I would be surprised to hear of someone who has never
mourned. Neversuffered the loss of something. My ashes have been thick and
disfiguring. They have alteredmy appearance, so much so at times, that I
hardly recognize the face in my mirror. I have wallowedin them too. There

have been times when they were comfortable, too comfortable. Life was easier
when nothing else mattered. And so I stayed.
I believe that there is a time for that. A wonderful friend of mine gave me a
picture of being coveredand carried in our Heavenly Father’s cupped hands.
We reston His palm while the other hand shelters us from the elements. In
this place of refuge there is peace and comfort. I have been there. I know. It is
an easyplace to stay.
But there is a time to go. There is a time to start to pick up the pieces. I don’t
leave God. I just leave a place of mourning. A place where it isn’t just about
me. It comes from the last part of verse 3. It is about becoming an “Oak of
Righteousness”. This isn’t righteousness thatI have somehow manufactured
for myself. My suffering hasn’t bought it. Jesus’s suffering did. His
righteousness coversme. When my Father looks atme, His faultless Son’s
righteousness is what He sees.
Being an Oak of Righteousnessis not about me, though. It is a signto the
world of God’s splendour. His faithfulness. His grace. His love. An outward
sign of a heart’s condition. A healing that only a the true Physiciancould have
accomplished. And the glory belongs to Him.
I am sometimes afraid that leaving my time of mourning will somehow make
me forget. ForgetArlynne. But the funny thing is, though, that I don’t believe
that I have to be unmarked to be a reflectionof God’s splendour. It is actually
allowing others to see those scars from my wounding that they canreally start
to see what God has done. What He is doing. What He cando. If He can turn
me, a heartbrokenmom, into someone who can testify to His grace then He
can do it with anyone.
I am not a greatand mighty oak yet. I think I am more likely a sapling. I am
nothing in myself. It is God who tends to me and causes me to change. To
revealHis glory. And I’ve decidedto let Him. https://gracefromtheashes.com/

Beauty ForAshes
Contributed by Apostle Itoro-Obong Jacobon Feb16, 2019
based on 1 rating
(rate this sermon)
| 1,750 views
Scripture: Isaiah61:1-7, Psalms 34:19
Denomination: Evangelical/Non-Denominational
Summary: Beautyfor ashes is literary replacing a rejectedidentity with an
acceptable andcelebratedtag.
Key Verse 3 “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 calledtrees of righteousness, the
planting of the LORD, that He might be glorified”.
Beauty is the quality present in a thing or person, that gives intense pleasure
or deep satisfactionto the mind.
Ash is the grey or black powdery substance that is left after something is
burnt.
From our key verse Isaiah61:3 ,God promised to give beauty for ashes, for
those who mourn in Zion.

In biblical times, it was customary for people to sit in ashes or cover
themselves with ashes to express loss or mourning, such as a grief;
1. Over a traumatic situation, e.g. Tamarraped by Amnon (2 Samuel 13:19).
2. Over a distressing national disaster, e.g. Deaththreat to Mordecaiand the
Jews (Esther4:1)
PowerfulPreaching with PRO
14 days FREE, getstarted now...
Enter your name and email to begin. Credit card required, cancelany time.
Plus, getemail updates & offers from SermonCentral. Privacy
3. Associatedwith repentance from one’s own sin (Jonah 3:5-7)
Ashes is therefore linked with negativities of life such as pain, loss, afflictions,
disappointments, distress, despair, shame, darkness, dispute, bitterness and
suffering . Hence, God promises to replace it with beauty (hope, light, success,
joy and glory).
Beauty for ashes, is an ever-running promise to God’s people that He shall
deliver us from our plights and ultimately send us the Messiah. So we canstill
look up to Him (Hebrews 12:2), for encouragementand hope when facing
difficulty. For He has assuredus in His word in Psalm 34:19 “Many are the
afflictions of the righteous: but the LORD delivereth him out of them all”.
My beloved in the LORD, no matter the ashes that has coveredthe burning
coals ofyour life, health, job, marriage, ministry, relationships, family,
education, and business;and you are overwhelmed with mourning and
heaviness. Keepfaith and head high in the LORD, for He is still and always
waiting to turn things around for your goodand favour; So you canhave the
oil of joy for mourning, be adorned with the garment of praise for the spirit of
heaviness;and be named tree of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that
He might be glorified.
May God richly bless you in Jesus Christ Name, Amen

Beauty ForAshes
Contributed by Apostle Itoro-Obong Jacobon Feb16, 2019
based on 1 rating
(rate this sermon)
| 1,750 views
Scripture: Isaiah61:1-7, Psalms 34:19
Denomination: Evangelical/Non-Denominational
Summary: Beautyfor ashes is literary replacing a rejectedidentity with an
acceptable andcelebratedtag.
Key Verse 3 “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 calledtrees of righteousness, the
planting of the LORD, that He might be glorified”.
Beauty is the quality present in a thing or person, that gives intense pleasure
or deep satisfactionto the mind.
Ash is the grey or black powdery substance that is left after something is
burnt.

Jesus was the beautifier of god's people

Jesus was the beautifier of god's people

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

What's hot

What's hot (20)

Similar to Jesus was the beautifier of god's people

Similar to Jesus was the beautifier of god's people (20)

More from GLENN PEASE

More from GLENN PEASE (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Jesus was the beautifier of god's people