The Future Restoration Of Israel (Part 1)

Pastor Bill Farrow

Isaiah 1:26-27

²⁶         I will restore your judges as at the first,
And your counselors as at the beginning.
Afterward you shall be called the city of righteousness, the faithful city.”
²⁷         Zion shall be redeemed with justice,
And her penitents with righteousness.

ISAIAH 1:26

And I will restore … - That is, I will give you such judges as the nation had in former days - in the times of Moses, Joshua, etc. Most of the charges in this chapter are against the magistrates. The calamities of the nation are traced to their unfaithfulness and corruption, Isa. 1:17-23. God now says that he will remove this cause of their calamity, and give them pure magistrates. He will bring to them such men as will tell them the truth and will call them to true righteousness and thus deliver them from the calamities their sin and these false judges had brought upon them.  This is not a restoration to Old Testament things, but a restoration of the kind of men that those Old Testament judges were.

Thy counselors - Thy advisers; that is, those occupying places of trust and responsibility. When this should be, the prophet does not say. The Jewish commentators suppose that he refers to the time after the return from captivity, and to such men as Zerubbabel, Ezra, and Nehemiah; and to the times of Hyrcanus and Herod, Jerome supposes that the times of the Messiah are referred to. It is impossible to determine which is the correct opinion; though, as the Babylonian captivity was the punishment of those national sins which the prophet was denouncing, it is more probable that he refers to the time immediately succeeding that punishment, when the nation would be restored. I am inclined, however, to observe that this has not yet, observably, happened, as Israel is still in unbelief.  We would tentatively put this yet in the future from our point of view.

Thou shalt be called … - The principal cause of your wickedness and calamity, that is, your unfaithful rulers being removed and punished, you shall afterward be distinguished as a city of righteousness. Again we would note that this has not yet occurred and thus leads us to see that this is yet a future event.  Some would suggest that this did indeed occur, either at the time of the restoration from captivity, or in Christ – but that is not satisfactory for several reasons, chief of which it just isn’t what this passage says!  The passage seems to say that this will occur recognizably to the entire nation – and we have not yet seen that.  there doesn’t seem to be much room for this to be symbolic – unless you are predisposed to want it to be symbolic.

The faithful city - That is, faithful to YAHWEH - faithful in keeping his laws, and maintaining the rites of his religion as formerly; (compare Isa. 1:21).