The opening chapters of Isaiah are comprised of pointed accusations and harsh words of judgment. The people had turned away from God, their leaders (political and religious) were corrupt and mistreated the people, idols abounded, and the people simply refused to turn from their ways. Yet, in the midst of all this, Isaiah reports of a future day: “In that day the branch of the Lord shall be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land shall be the pride and honor of the survivors of Israel. And he who is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy, everyone who has been recorded for life in Jerusalem, when the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and cleansed the bloodstains of Jerusalem from its midst by a spirit of judgment and by a spirit of burning” (4:2-4). This “branch” is spoken of in Isaiah 11:1, Jeremiah 33:15, and Zechariah 3:8. The prophets speak with one voice: the true people of God will find redemption in this branch. Not only the prophets, but the entire Bible speaks with one voice. Who is this branch? “For there is one God, and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus; who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time” (I Timothy 2:5-6).
See, the streams of living waters,
springing from eternal love,
well supply thy sons and daughters
and all fear of want remove.
Who can faint while such a river
ever flows their thirst to assuage?
Grace, which like the Lord, the Giver,
never fails from age to age. –John Newton (1799)
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