Isaiah 61:7, commentary and pictures

For shame there will be a double portion, also understood as double honor, and for confusion there will be rejoicing in portion or inheritance, and in their land there will be possession of the double, with everlasting joy. The double is in their land, and the rejoicing is in what is theirs as their inheritance.

The promise is to believing people who take the Word and claim to be God's children, to those named priests of the Lord and ministers of God, and to those who serve God. Its setting is God's people rebuilding ruined places and serving as God's ministers. In its wider chapter setting it belongs to those who share the riches and glory of the Gentiles, whose work God directs in truth, with whom God makes an everlasting covenant, whose seed is acknowledged among the Gentiles and all people as the seed the Lord has blessed, whose righteousness the Gentiles see, and who become a crown of glory and royal diadem in the hand of God.

The surrounding passage defines Christ's work as saving people under Satan's power, fulfilling heaven's purposes, and setting God's vineyard right. That chapter testifies to the work Christ came to do and was fulfilled in his life and ministry, so it gives no ground for expecting him to appear with the worldly glory wrongly demanded. The chapter will be understood when reformation comes to God's people.

The promise is fulfilled in medical missionary work as the pioneer work of the gospel that brings humanity release from suffering, practices the gospel and reveals Christ's compassion, heals the sick, blesses poor suffering humanity, and enters new open fields, so that the work of the ministry is after the Lord's order. It applies to those who do the work Christ did on earth and act as God's helping hands and Christ's helping hands by serving others and opening prison doors to those who are bound, with lives marked by goodness, love, and compassion.