The Gospel's Grand Reconstruction Text: Isaiah 61:4-7
Introduction: The Glorious Ruins
We live in an age of managed decline. Our cultural elites, our talking heads, our academics, all operate from the unquestioned assumption that the best days are behind us. They see the ruins of a once-great civilization, what used to be called Christendom, and their only plan is to catalogue the rubble, manage the decay, and perhaps build some sustainable, eco-friendly yurts on the foundations of what used to be cathedrals. They are curators of a museum of despair. Their eschatology, whether they know it or not, is amillennial at best, and usually just a secularized premillennial panic, a kind of cultural dispensationalism where everything must get worse and worse until the great Rapture of the State comes to save us all with a global government.
Into this miasma of pessimism, the prophet Isaiah speaks a word of glorious, bone-rattling hope. This is not a faint, wispy, "hang in there" kind of hope. This is a concrete, dirt-under-the-fingernails, architectural hope. It is a promise of total reconstruction. The context here is the proclamation of the year of Yahweh's favor, the great Jubilee, which Jesus Himself stood up and read in the synagogue at Nazareth, announcing its fulfillment in His own person. That is the key. The glorious promises we are about to read are not for some far-off, disconnected future. They are the direct and necessary consequence of the gospel of Jesus Christ being preached and believed. They are what happens when the Spirit of the Lord is upon His people.
What Isaiah describes here is nothing less than the postmillennial vision in blueprint form. It is the cultural mandate fleshed out with stone and mortar, with flocks and vineyards. This passage is a direct assault on any eschatology of defeat. It demolishes the idea that the Church is called to huddle in a holy corner, polishing the brass on a sinking ship. No, we are called to be builders. The gospel does not just save souls for a bus ride to heaven; it saves people, who then begin to save civilizations. The gospel creates a new kind of person, and that new kind of person creates a new kind of world. What we have in these verses is a portrait of the kingdom's advance, a picture of what happens when the knowledge of the glory of the Lord begins to fill the earth as the waters cover the sea.
So let us dispense with all timid theology. Let us set aside the eschatology of the bunker and embrace the eschatology of the construction crew. God's purpose is not to evacuate a remnant from a burning world, but to put the fire out. And He does it by rebuilding the ruins.
The Text
Then they will rebuild the ancient waste places;
They will raise up the former desolations;
And they will make new the ruined cities,
The desolations from generation to generation.
Strangers will stand and pasture your flocks,
And foreigners will be your farmers and your vinedressers.
But you will be called the priests of Yahweh;
You will be spoken of as ministers of our God.
You will eat the wealth of nations,
And in their glories you will boast.
Instead of your shame you will have a double portion,
And instead of dishonor they will shout for joy over their portion.
Therefore they will possess a double portion in their land;
Everlasting gladness will be theirs.
(Isaiah 61:4-7 LSB)
The Great Rebuilding (v. 4)
The promise begins with the work of restoration.
"Then they will rebuild the ancient waste places; They will raise up the former desolations; And they will make new the ruined cities, The desolations from generation to generation." (Isaiah 61:4)
Who are "they"? They are the ones upon whom the Spirit of the Lord rests, the ones anointed by the gospel, the ones who have received the good news (vv. 1-3). This is the Church of Jesus Christ, filled with the power of the Holy Spirit. And what is their task? It is a task of comprehensive, multi-generational reconstruction. The imagery is emphatic and repetitive. We have waste places, desolations, and ruined cities. And these are not recent problems; they are "ancient," "former," the "desolations from generation to generation."
This is a picture of the effect of sin. Sin ruins things. It ruins lives, families, cultures, and cities. The world we were born into is a world full of ancient waste places, the accumulated rubble of millennia of human rebellion against God. We see it in our broken political systems, our corrupt institutions, our debased arts, and our shattered families. The secularist sees this and despairs. The pietist sees this and tries to ignore it. But the robust, Bible-believing Christian sees this and rolls up his sleeves.
The promise here is that the people of God will "rebuild," "raise up," and "make new." This is the cultural mandate in action. The gospel does not float three feet off the ground in a cloud of spiritual abstraction. It gets to work. It builds hospitals. It founds universities. It composes symphonies. It reforms laws. It establishes just economies. It makes the deserts bloom. This is the historical outworking of the Great Commission. When we disciple the nations, we are teaching them to obey everything Christ commanded. And when a nation begins to do that, its ruined cities get rebuilt. This is not utopianism; it is basic biblical logic. Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people (Prov. 14:34). The gospel is the power of God for righteousness, and therefore it is the power of God for exaltation.
This is a promise of historical, cultural, and civilizational renewal, accomplished by the Church, in history, before the return of Christ. This is the engine of postmillennialism. The kingdom of God is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, till it was all leavened (Matt. 13:33). The gospel works its way through everything, and the result is this great rebuilding.
The Nations at Work (v. 5)
Next, Isaiah describes a remarkable economic and social arrangement.
"Strangers will stand and pasture your flocks, And foreigners will be your farmers and your vinedressers." (Isaiah 61:5 LSB)
At first glance, this might seem like some kind of spiritual aristocracy, where the people of God sit on the porch sipping sweet tea while unbelievers do all the work. But that is to read it with the jaundiced eye of our envious, egalitarian age. We must read it in light of the New Covenant. Who are these "strangers" and "foreigners"? They are the Gentile nations, who were once far off, brought near by the blood of Christ (Eph. 2:13). This is a picture of the Great Commission's success.
As the gospel goes out and disciples the nations, those nations are brought into the commonwealth of Israel, the Church. They joyfully bring their gifts, their labor, and their resources to build up the house of God. This is not exploitation; it is willing, glad-hearted cooperation. Think of what Paul says in Romans 15, that the Gentiles have shared in the spiritual things of the Jews, so they are indebted to minister to them in material things (Rom. 15:27). This is that principle writ large, on a civilizational scale.
The nations, converted to Christ, will recognize the unique role and wisdom of the historically Christian peoples. They will gladly come and learn, work, and build alongside them. This describes a world where the influence of the gospel is so pervasive that the basic, productive work of the world, farming and animal husbandry, is conducted by those who were once "foreigners" to the covenant, but are now fellow citizens with the saints. This is a picture of a thoroughly Christianized global order, where the wealth and labor of the nations flow into the kingdom.
A Kingdom of Priests (v. 6)
While the nations are tending the flocks and vineyards, what is the specific calling of God's covenant people?
"But you will be called the priests of Yahweh; You will be spoken of as ministers of our God. You will eat the wealth of nations, And in their glories you will boast." (Isaiah 61:6 LSB)
Here the promise made to Israel at Sinai, "you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation" (Ex. 19:6), finds its ultimate fulfillment in the Church. The Apostle Peter applies this directly to us: "But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession" (1 Pet. 2:9). The primary role of the Church in this coming golden age is priestly and ministerial. Our job is to mediate the knowledge of God to the world. We are the teachers, the preachers, the theologians, the counselors, the philosophers, the artists, the leaders. We are the ones who set the cultural tone. We are the ministers of God, applying His Word to every area of life.
And what is the result of this faithful priestly ministry? "You will eat the wealth of nations." This is not a promise of indolent luxury. It is the biblical principle that the laborer is worthy of his hire (1 Tim. 5:18), and that those who sow spiritual things should reap material things (1 Cor. 9:11). When the Church is faithfully teaching the nations how to live, how to build, how to farm, how to govern, how to create, it is only natural that the material prosperity that results from this wisdom would flow back to support that ministry. A Christian world will be a prosperous world, and it will be a world that honors and supports the ministry of the Word that made it so.
"And in their glories you will boast." This is not arrogant boasting in ourselves. The word can mean "to exchange" or "to put oneself in the place of." It means we will partake in their glory. As the nations bring their unique cultural glories into the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:24), we will share in that glory. It is a picture of mutual honor and blessing, all centered on the worship of the true God.
The Great Reversal (v. 7)
Finally, the prophet summarizes this grand transformation as a great reversal of fortunes.
"Instead of your shame you will have a double portion, And instead of dishonor they will shout for joy over their portion. Therefore they will possess a double portion in their land; Everlasting gladness will be theirs." (Isaiah 61:7 LSB)
The history of God's people in a fallen world is often a history of shame and dishonor. We are mocked, persecuted, and marginalized. The world holds the Church in contempt. But the day is coming, in history, when that will be reversed. Instead of shame, we will receive a "double portion." This is the inheritance of the firstborn son (Deut. 21:17). The Church, in Christ the firstborn over all creation, will receive the double portion of the inheritance. This means preeminence, blessing, and authority.
This is not just a spiritual reality, but a tangible one. "Therefore they will possess a double portion in their land." The land here is the whole earth. "The meek... shall inherit the earth" (Matt. 5:5). The result of this great reversal is not stoic endurance, but exuberant joy. They will "shout for joy over their portion." And this is not a fleeting, temporary happiness. It is "everlasting gladness."
This is the emotional climate of a Christian civilization. Not the grim, grey misery of socialism, or the frantic, empty hedonism of secularism, but deep, lasting, covenantal joy. It is the joy of seeing God's will being done on earth as it is in heaven. It is the gladness of a world put right, of ruins rebuilt, of shame removed, and of God's glory filling all things.
Conclusion: Pick Up Your Trowel
This is our future. This is the world that the gospel is creating. These promises are not allegories for a disembodied heaven. They are the firm, prophetic word of what God intends to do on this planet through the faithful ministry of His Church. The "ancient waste places" are all around us. The cultural desolations are deep and wide. The enemies of God are quite confident in their work of demolition.
But they are fools. They are trying to build their secular Babel on a sinkhole, while we are building the City of God on the rock of Jesus Christ. The Lord has anointed us, by His Spirit, to preach the good news. And the good news has consequences. The consequence is that the blind see, the captives are freed, and the ruined cities are rebuilt.
Therefore, we must not lose heart. We must not believe the lies of the defeatists. We are on the winning side of history because we are on the Lord's side. The shame we may feel now is temporary. The dishonor is fleeting. What is coming is a double portion, an inheritance of the entire world, and everlasting gladness. So pick up your trowel. Find your place on the wall. The great reconstruction has begun, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.