- Isaiah 62 BSB ↗
A nickname can follow a person for years. The child once called 'the slow one' or 'the unlucky one' can hear it in their head long after everyone else has forgotten it. In many families a new name marks a new chapter — at a naming ceremony, a marriage, a change of life. Isaiah 62 is about a city that has been carrying cruel names. Jerusalem has been called 'Forsaken', and her land 'Desolate'. The prophet refuses to stay silent until those labels are replaced, and God himself gives the new ones: 'My Delight Is in Her', and 'Married'.
Where it sits in the story: In Act 3, the returned community lives in a city that still looks abandoned. Isaiah 62 takes up the marriage imagery the prophets used for God and his people — Hosea's broken marriage, Isaiah 54's forsaken wife taken back — and turns it fully towards joy. The bride-city will return in Revelation 21, where the new Jerusalem comes down 'as a bride adorned for her husband'.
What this chapter is doing: To assure a discouraged Jerusalem that God has not finished with her, that her shame will be replaced by delight, and to call both prophet and watchmen to persistent, unembarrassed prayer until it comes true.
- 62:1–5 — For Zion's sake the prophet will not keep silent until her righteousness shines like dawn. She will be a crown of beauty in God's hand. No longer 'Forsaken' and 'Desolate', she will be called 'My Delight Is in Her' and her land 'Married'; as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so God will rejoice over her.
- 62:6–9 — Watchmen are posted on the walls, never silent day or night. They are told to remind the LORD and give him no rest until he makes Jerusalem a praise on earth. God swears that enemies will no longer eat the grain and wine; those who harvest will eat and praise him in his courts.
- 62:10–12 — 'Go through, go through the gates!' Build the highway, clear away the stones, raise a banner for the peoples. Tell daughter Zion that her salvation is coming. Her people will be called 'the Holy People, the Redeemed of the LORD', and she 'Sought Out, a City Not Forsaken'.
Key verse: Isaiah 62:4 · So what: This chapter gives permission to pray stubbornly: the watchmen are told to give God no rest, which is a surprisingly bold instruction for Scripture to give. It also suggests how God deals with shame. He does not simply tell Jerusalem to forget her old names; he gives her new ones that speak of being wanted. For anyone carrying a label that has stuck, that is worth sitting with.