Today, I am reading and commenting on Isaiah 60-63.

Luke records that Jesus read from Isaiah 61 when He returned to Nazareth after being tempted in the wilderness.  Jesus told those present on that day that Isaiah 61 verse 1 through the first part of verse 2 was fulfilled in Him that day.  So, Jesus declared that the year of the Lord’s favor had come.  Now, there is a Jewish tradition, which was prevalent in the First Century, that to quote part of a passage was to quote the entire passage.  So, if Jesus was following that He was also proclaiming the day of God’s judgement.  However, I have seen some commentators on Luke 4 say that Jesus stopped where He did on purpose because He was proclaiming the year of God’s favor, but not yet the day of God’s judgement.  There is some merit to that idea, both because of the way Jesus stopped reading where He did and because of the way the prophet presents it here.  Here, the prophet makes the statement proclaiming the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of God’s judgement then he spends the rest of chapter 61 and chapter 62 discussing what the “year of the Lord’s favor” means.  It is not until chapter 63 that he starts writing about the “day of God’s judgement.

So, was the prophet saying that the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of God’s judgement would come at the same time?  Or, was he saying, as some interpret the Luke passage, that the year of the Lord’s favor arrived with Jesus and the day of God’s judgement will arrive with Jesus’ return?  I suspect a bit of both.  I have noticed that many Old Testament prophecies have more than one meaning and apply to more than one occasion.  I am not sure of the answer, but reading the prophet we can see that we want to avoid the day of God’s vengeance (a term the prophet uses in parallel with judgement).  God loves justice and hates wrongdoing.  In chapter 63, while discussing the day of judgement, the prophet tells us that God looked for those who would support Him in His quest for justice and found no one.  So, let us support justice and work against injustice, otherwise we may find ourselves subject to God’s vegeance.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.