I am still reading in Isaiah 61 and today I will look at verse 3. It says here that He is speaking to them that mourn in Zion. He is telling them here the huge difference that will be theirs as they go from mourning to better things. The first thing He mentions is He will give them beauty for ashes. Could this be that the ashes He is talking about is the ashes of Sodom and Gomorrah? Just a thought but when judgment fell upon those two cities, all that was left was ashes. I am not sure if that is the meaning of it or not but whatever the meaning is, He is telling them there will no longer be ashes but beauty instead.

There is nothing more beautiful then coming to the realization that His judgment has already been poured out and instead of ashes caused by judgment, you can see the beauty of His finished work at the cross. There is nothing more beautiful then seeing your judgment poured out and your redemption fully paid for by Jesus at the cross.

The oil of joy for mourning. In other words there will be this great joy between you and God because He has made everything right between you and Himself. Instead of mourning about your relationship with God you will be rejoicing about your relationship with God. The next thing He mentions is the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. What is this spirit of heaviness? I know I have heard it many times in the churches I have attended that we are to praise so the spirit of heaviness that was in the church at the time, or our lives for that matter, would lift when we praised Him. This is not what this scripture is talking about. They had a spirit of heaviness, and it is mentioned throughout Isaiah, that was upon them because of the impending judgment that was coming. But Jesus said that He would give them the spirit of praise instead of the heaviness. When they saw their judgment was going to be upon Jesus instead of themselves, I am sure they praised.

The purpose for all this is stated in the latter part of the verse…..that they might be called the trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord that He might be glorified. How is God glorified? How do we see His majesty? We see Him glorified through His judgment that resulted in righteousness when His vengeance was poured out upon His Son for us. This is how God is glorified. If you are being preached to that you need to perform to gain something from God or a performance based lifestyle based on what you do or don’t do, it is taking away from the Glory of the cross. The blessedness of all this is that blessed is the man that never does anything right or when he sins that God does not hold it against him. Why is this possible? Because God’s vengeance was satisfied at the cross of Calvary.