The opening verse of chapter 61 brings to mind that sabbath day in the synagogue at Nazareth when our blessed Lord was present and stood up to read (Luke 4:16-2116And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read. 17And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, 18The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, 19To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. 20And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. 21And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. (Luke 4:16‑21)). He read the words written for Him 750 years before:
"The Spirit of the Lord Jehovah is upon Me, because Jehovah hath anointed Me to announce glad tidings unto the meek; He hath sent Me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and opening of the prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of Jehovah,"—and there He stopped. He would not say, "And the day of vengeance of our God," for had come in lowly grace, and what He had read disclosed His blessed mission in His first coming.
Yet His speaking to the people that day filled them with hatred for Himself, They sought to accomplish His death, and only divine power kept them from casting Hint headlong from the precipice. Men and women today, like those, unconcerned about their eternal destiny, select portions of the Scriptures and quote them to serve their own purposes, invariably making use of only such passages as do not reach their consciences; they reject the Bible as the Word of God, and are angry if directed to its disclosures of the natural heart, and the one way of salvation,
The day of vengeance belongs to His second coming to this earth, and cannot now be far off. After it, the old wastes and former desolations, the waste cities, places desolate from generation to generation, which are found in the Holy Land, will be rebuilt, for Israel's land will be populated as never before, ere the Millennium closes,
Then mercy will flow in abundance, and the earthly people of God will fully delight in Him, themselves born anew (John 3),
It is remarkable how the Holy Spirit in Old Testament prophecy passes over the long interval between the Lord's first and second comings, without a hint of what would take place during this interval, in the forming of the Church, a heavenly body. God chose to withhold that secret (Eph. 1:9; 3:3-69Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself: (Ephesians 1:9)
3How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery; (as I wrote afore in few words, 4Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ) 5Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit; 6That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel: (Ephesians 3:3‑6)) until Israel, that is to say, the Jews, had sealed their rejection of the Messiah in the most positive manner.