Isaiah 4
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And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach.
2 In that day shall the branch of the Lord be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel.
3 And it shall come to pass, that he that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem:
4 When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning.
5 And the Lord will create upon every dwelling place of mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night: for upon all the glory shall be a defence.
6 And there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the day time from the heat, and for a place of refuge, and for a covert from storm and from rain.
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Commentary
Isaiah 4:1 is the conclusion of the theme started in chapter 3. The tragedy of Judah not trusting in God resulted in war. With the loss of men in battle, the self-absorbed women in Jerusalem (unlike the virtuous woman described in Proverbs 31:10-31) competed with each other for marriage with surviving men. They superstitiously believed that it was a divine curse to be childless. Instead of trusting God and patiently waiting for His will and His timing, they were willing to compromise for a carnal human solution.
In the midst of a message of doom, Isaiah lifts anxious hearts to see in the future a small remnant of survivors that would be “called holy” (v.3). Today, as a faithless world hurtles toward self-destruction, those who see Jesus as “the branch of the Lord” (v.2), and accept Him as their personal Savior, will experience the fulfillment of these Messianic promises. The everlasting gospel mentioned in Revelation 14:6 has no national boundaries.
In the end-time ministry of Jesus in heaven’s sanctuary we can have our “filth” and our sins “washed away” (v.4). As we journey to the heavenly Canaan, Jesus will be our “place of refuge” in every time of “storm” (v.6).
Lloyd and Sheila Schomburg
Pastoral couple
Kentucky-Tennessee Conference
