The Lord’s New Jerusalem

In that day the Branch of the LORD will be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land will be the pride and glory of the survivors in Israel. Those who are left in Zion, who remain in Jerusalem, will be called holy, all who are recorded among the living in Jerusalem.

Isaiah 4:2-4

In Isaiah 4:2-6 we find a description of the Lord’s new Jerusalem. In these verses we see that the ultimate purpose of God is not the destruction of Israel or of the world, but the salvation of the true people of God.

In the first six chapters of Isaiah, the prophet describes the people of God as filthy. However, in God’s ultimate plan, the sinful city of Jerusalem will become the Lord’s new Jerusalem, the holy city of God. This transformation will be brought about by the coming Messiah.

The Last Days

“In that day” (v. 2) refers to the end times, the time of the coming of the Messiah to judge all sinful people. Isaiah was seeing beyond 701 B.C., when Israel was destroyed and exiled by Assyrian power, and beyond 586 B.C., when Judah went into captivity under Babylon. “In that day” refers to the day of the Lord, who comes to judge and to save.

Man has his day, but God has his also. The last and final day is when God’s will alone will be done. Isaiah spoke about this period both in Isaiah 2:1-5 and in Isaiah 4:2-6. This last day began with the incarnation of Jesus Christ.

The Branch of the Lord

In verse 2, then, we read, “In that day the Branch of the Lord. . . .” All of a sudden we are introduced here to someone called the Branch of the Lord. The “Branch of the Lord” is a technical term for the coming Messiah, so the Branch of the Lord is the divine human Messiah, Jesus Christ.

In Isaiah 6 we learn that God was going to send his people into exile until only a very small portion remained. Isaiah likened that portion to a stump (6:13).

In Isaiah 11:1 we find another reference to this stump, representing God’s people: “A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse.” This refers to David and the son of David. Then we read, “from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. The Spirit of the Lord will rest upon him. . . .” Here is a reference to the Spirit-anointed Messiah.

We find the term Branch used also in Jeremiah 23:5: “‘The days are coming,’ declares the Lord, ‘when I will raise up to David a righteous Branch. . . .'” The metaphor is that of a family tree. The Lord continues, “a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land.” Here, then, in verse 5 we are told about the human nature of this righteous Branch. In verse 6 we read about his mission to save: “In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. This is the name by which he will be called: The Lord Our Righteousness.” In the Hebrew it is Yahweh Tsidkenu. Here, then, we see that this Branch is the Lord himself, as to his divine nature. We find the same language in Jeremiah 33:15.

In the book of Zechariah we find additional references to this righteous Branch: “Listen, O high priest Joshua and your associates seated before you, who are men symbolic of things to come: I am going to bring my servant, the Branch” (3:8); “Tell him this is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘Here is the man whose name is the Branch, and he will branch out from his place and build the temple of the Lord'” (6:12). Here we are told that this Branch will be both king and priest.

In the New Testament we discover more about this Branch. Paul writes in Romans 1:1-4,

Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God-the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures regarding his Son, who as to his human nature, was descendant of David, and who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord.

Jesus Christ, the Second Person of the Trinity, who is Deity incarnate, is the Branch of the Lord. He is God/man.

The Branch Makes Us Beautiful

“Messiah” means “anointed one.” Jesus Christ was anointed by the Holy Spirit. The day is coming when this divine human Messiah-our Priest, King, and Savior-will come to make his people glorious.

Isaiah 4:2 tells us, “In that day the Branch of the Lord will be beautiful and glorious. . . .” In the Hebrew it is, “In that day the Branch of the Lord will be beauty, glory, and the fruit of the land will be pride and glory left for the people.”

We are not beautiful, glorious, or honorable. In fact, Romans 3:23 tells us “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” All the beauty aids in the world cannot help us because our problem is not on our face but in our heart. Jeremiah 17:9 tells us, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” Out of the human heart comes sexual immorality, wickedness, lies, and all other sins, as Jesus himself said in Matthew 15:19. But the day is coming when the divine Messiah will appear to benefit his people.

God Makes the Remnant Holy

“Those who are left in Zion, who remain in Jerusalem, will be called holy” (4:3). The Hebrew word for holy is qadosh. We find it used also in Isaiah 6:3 where the seraphim cry out, “Qadosh, qadosh, qadosh” or “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.”

We have no problem calling God holy, but here in Isaiah 4:3 there is a puzzling statement: In that day those who are left in Zion-the filthy people of Israel-will be called holy. The verb is passive; who is going to call these people holy? Isaiah is saying that in the final day, a certain number of the citizens of Zion, known as the remnant, will be called holy by the holy God himself. In The Doctrine of God Professor John Frame makes a distinction between those who are historically chosen and those who are eternally chosen. Historically chosen people are people who come to church but eventually fall away. But there is a true remnant who are chosen by God from all eternity; it is they who will be called holy. God let a certain remnant of people escape the terrible just judgment he poured out on Judah.

Throughout the Bible God says, “Be holy, because I am holy.” But holiness is the nature of God, not man. In fact, these people were filthy, fruitless and rebellious. In the Hebrew the word to describe their actions is pasha, which means they had revolted against the Lord of the covenant. How, then, could such sinful people be called holy and become glorious? How could the condition of these unjust people be changed so that they could be called just?

The Messiah had a plan for their cleansing and justification. This is the eternal counsel that we read about in John 17. There was an eternal plan made in which all persons of the Godhead are involved: God the Father is the author of this plan to redeem a certain people; God the Son agreed to execute this redemption by his death on the cross; and God the Holy Spirit applies the fruit of that redemption to every eternally chosen human being in history.

In verse 2, these people are called escapees, or survivors. Just as some Jewish people survived the horrors of the Holocaust, these people escaped the terrible judgment God executed on Judah during their time. These are the people God is calling holy.

The apostle Paul referred to this in Romans 11:5: “So too, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace,” and in Romans 9:6: “not all who are descended from Israel are Israel.” This can also be illustrated with two concentric circles. Those in the outer circle are Israelites, but not true Israel, while those in the inner circle are the true elect, the remnant to which Isaiah was referring, whom God was to call holy.

Registered in the Book of Life

Isaiah then gives further clarification about the remnant: “all who are recorded among the living in Jerusalem.” Every city had a register and every citizen had to be registered in his own city. It is the same today. If you want to get a passport, you must obtain a birth certificate that is registered where you were born. In the Hebrew we read that these people were registered in the city of Jerusalem “for lives”-l’chaim- which in this case means for full, eternal life.

In this new Jerusalem, every citizen will be registered for eternal life. We find this register, the book of life, mentioned many places in the Bible. In Exodus 32:32-33 we find Moses speaking to God about the people of Israel: “‘But now, please forgive their sin-but if not, then blot me out of the book you have written.’ The Lord replied to Moses, ‘Whoever has sinned against me I will blot out of my book.'” From this we understand there is a book called the book of life.

Psalm 87:5-6 tells us, “Indeed, of Zion it will be said, ‘This one and that one were born in her.” How do we know they were born in Zion? Because the register says so! The psalmist continues, “‘and the Most High himself will establish her.’ The Lord will write in the register of the peoples, ‘This one was born in Zion.'”

In Luke 10:20 Jesus Christ himself spoke about the existence of this book in which the names of all the saved are written: “However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” Notice, Jesus did not say that their names were going to be written when they came forward to accept Christ. PGM No, he said, rejoice because “your names are written in heaven.”

The apostle Paul understood about this register as well. In Philippians 4:3 he wrote, “Yes, and I ask you, loyal yokefellow, help these women who have contended at my side in the cause of the gospel, along with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.”

In Revelation 20:11-15 the apostle John speaks of the book of life in his account of the final judgment:

Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. Earth and sky fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

I pray that we may all know that our names are written in the book of Zion, in the register of the new Jerusalem, which is called the book of life!

Registered for Eternal Life

As we said, in Isaiah 4:3 we read that the names of the remnant were registered “among the living in Jerusalem,” which Hebrew is l’chaim, “for lives.” In modern Jewish society we hear the phrase, “L’chaim!” and associate it with drinking wine and celebrating this life. But that is not how we get eternal life. Eternal life comes only through the Messiah, Jesus Christ.

In John 3:16 we read, “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” In John 10:10 Jesus said, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” He was speaking about eternal life. In John 10:28 Jesus said, “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand.” It is this eternal life through Christ that Isaiah was speaking of in Isaiah 4:3.

Washing away Sin

How, then, can the filthy be called holy and experience eternal life? In verse 4 Isaiah states: “The Lord will wash away the filth of the women of Zion; he will cleanse the bloodguilt,” referring to the sin of murder, a social violence that existed in the city. This speaks about God dealing with all our sin. Remember how David prayed, “Save me from bloodguilt, O God, the God who saves me, and my tongue will sing of your righteousness” (Ps. 51:14)? But who can wash all our sin away?

Proverbs 30:12 speaks of “[t]hose who are pure in their own eyes and yet are not cleansed of their filth. . .” This is speaking about moral filth. We can be clean in our own eyes and yet not be clean before God. No wonder David prayed, “Cleanse me with hyssop and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow” (Psalm 51:7).

How, then, could the filthy people of Jerusalem be cleansed? How can any sinner be cleansed? In Zechariah 13:1 we discover that God himself provides a fountain which is able to wash away our sins: “On that day a fountain will be opened to the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to cleanse them from sin and impurity.” Isaiah 53:4 tells us about the Messiah: “Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted.” Then God gives us the reason for the Messiah’s suffering: “But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed” (v. 5).

The fountain that cleanses our moral filth is the blood of Christ shed on the cross. “[W]ithout the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness” (Hebrews 9:22).

The Basis of Forgiveness: Justice

Isaiah 4:4 tells us God would cleanse the bloodstains from Jerusalem “by a spirit of judgment and a spirit of fire.” This cleansing must be based on justice. God simply cannot say, “I forgive you.” He is a righteous God, so sin must be atoned for. So Isaiah says, “Yes, there is cleansing, but it will be by ‘a spirit of judgment and a spirit of burning.'” The simple interpretation, as we just read in Isaiah 53, is that Jesus Christ was judged in our place. The punishment that brought us peace was upon him.

In Isaiah 6 we find Isaiah’s vision of the holy God. Whenever God reveals himself to us in his holiness, we see our own filth. But unless we come into his presence, we cannot see it. We must pray for God to reveal himself to us in his holiness.

When Isaiah saw God, he realized that he was full of sin and guilt. He cried, “‘Woe to me! I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips. . . .'” Isaiah’s lips were unclean because his heart was unclean. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. Isaiah continued, “‘and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty,'” referring to the Lord of the covenant, the transcendent, thrice-holy God. Isaiah continued, “Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, ‘See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.'”

This picture of an altar and the live coal from the altar touching the prophet’s lips demonstrates the application of Christ’s redemption to us. Through Christ’s blood our moral filth can be washed away and atoned for. Only when that is done shall we be called holy. Yes, we are by nature unholy, but the Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah, calls us holy and makes us holy. It is God’s great plan to conform us to the character and nature of Jesus Christ.

God Makes Us Holy

Although our sin and guilt caused us to be separate from God, this passage in Isaiah tells us how God dealt with our problem through Jesus Christ. Now we can be called holy and have fellowship with God. That is why Isaiah 4:1 tells us the Branch of the Lord will be beauty, honor, pride for us in that day. In John 15:1 Jesus said, “I am the vine; you are the branches.” Now all of Christ’s beauty and glory comes to us. This is the wonderful doctrine of a Christian’s vital union with Jesus Christ.

Isaiah 3 spoke about the women of Jerusalem who had great external beauty but whose hearts were haughty and filthy, but in Isaiah 4 everything changes. He is beautiful; therefore, we are beautiful. He is glorious; therefore, we are glorious. He is majestic; therefore, we are majestic. He is honorable; therefore, we are honorable. God glorifies the remnant who are registered in the city. Now, instead of false, external beauty, we have true beauty-the beauty of a clean heart-in our Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Isaiah 28:1 speaks of the problem with mere external beauty: “Woe to that wreath, the pride of Ephraim’s drunkards. . .” This describes those who are not God’s people. Because their beauty is merely external, it results in pride, haughtiness, rebellion, arrogance, self-promotion, and self-esteem. But there is a beauty from God, which is described in Isaiah 28:5, “In that day the Lord Almighty will be a glorious crown, a beautiful wreath, for the remnant of his people,” and in Isaiah 60:19, “The sun will no more be your light by day, nor will the brightness of the moon shine on you, for the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory.” May God help us to experience this true beauty as we look to him today. Amen.