December 23, 2025 - Isaiah 4

“In that day the branch of the LORD shall be beautiful and glorious . . . And he who is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy” (4:2-3).  Now, there is much more here, which I have left out of my abridgement.  The point, though, is that the “branch of the Lord” is the Messiah (Both Jeremiah and Zechariah use this terminology, also.).  Here is an expansion and further development of the great hope of 2:2-4, which we looked at, yesterday.  Isaiah, if not completely preoccupied with, certainly is strongly focused on the Messiah and his work.  He comes from the Lord, and his rule spreads over all the world.  He himself is beautiful and glorious, and he makes his people holy.  He washes away the filth of his people.  Over his people will be a protecting canopy, and “there will be a booth for shade by day from the heat, and for a refuge and a shelter from the storm and rain” (4:6).  It’s amazing, isn’t it, how the Scriptures come back to this central theme over and over again, i.e., God’s salvation of his people through the person and work of Messiah.

Beneath the cross of Jesus

I fain would take my stand;

The shadow of a mighty rock

Within a weary land;

A home within the wilderness,

A rest upon the way,

From burns beneath the noontide heat

And burdens of the day.

O safe and happy shelter!

O refuge tried and sweet!

O sacred place where Heaven's love

And Heaven's justice meet!

As to the exil’d patriarch

That wondrous dream was given,

So seems my Savior's cross to me:

A ladder up to Heav’n.   --Elizabeth Cecilia Clephane (1868)