Isaiah 62:12, commentary and pictures

The verse gives new names to God's gathered people and to their city, calling the people set apart and bought back to belong to the Lord and to serve Him in righteousness, and calling Zion searched for and restored instead of abandoned. These names come with His coming salvation, with His reward and His work with Him, to be announced to the world to its very ends. They carry full forgiveness and restoration through Christ, in which God wipes out the wrongs of His chosen for His own sake, remembers their sins no more, and grants free pardon, hope, and acceptance through Jesus as Saviour and Redeemer. In the end they mean complete vindication and glory, when Christ welcomes the redeemed to their eternal home, overturns unjust human condemnation, removes all reproach, and ends feebleness, scattering, oppression, pain, and weeping forever. They are joined to the command to get the way ready by going out, clearing every hindrance, lifting up the standard of truth, and waking into earnest work beginning in the home and reaching the lost, so that those gathered in become that holy, redeemed, sought-out people.

Promised Names and Restoration

The gathered people are called holy and redeemed, which means they belong to the Lord, have been bought back by Him, and are gathered to serve Him in righteousness. To be holy is to be set apart as His own, and to be redeemed is to be reclaimed by His saving act. Zion and Jerusalem are called sought out and a city not forsaken, which means the Lord seeks out His people and restores them rather than abandoning them. The sought-out name marks a people diligently searched for and found, and the not-forsaken name marks the end of desertion and the promise of welcome and restoration.

These names come with the Lord's salvation, with His reward and His work accompanying it. Salvation is coming to them, and reward comes to them as the result of the Lord's work for His people. This is a message to be proclaimed throughout the world, even to the end of the world. The names therefore do not stand alone but arrive as the appointed outcome of salvation received.

The verse expresses forgiveness and restoration through Christ, in which God blots out the transgressions of His chosen for His own sake and remembers their sins no more. He invites them to plead together with Him that they may be justified, and He makes Himself known as their Saviour and Redeemer. Those who discerned His mission found in Him free forgiveness and hope, and what follows is full and free acceptance through the merits of Jesus as crucified and risen Lord. Though afflicted and rebuked, God's people are thus forgiven, restored, and given new names marking them as holy and bought back by the Lord.

Future Glory and Vindication

The verse looks forward to the coming of Christ in glory to welcome the redeemed and take them to their eternal home, where they will be known as a holy people bought back by the Lord, a people He has sought out and will never forsake. At that time God Himself will judge His faithful people and reverse the decisions of earthly tribunals that condemned them as criminals and the vilest offenders and sent them to the grave in infamy because they refused to yield to Satan and his deceptive claims. Those who were destitute, afflicted and tormented on earth will then have their rebuke and reproach taken away and will be publicly gathered to Christ and recognized by the new names of holy and redeemed of the Lord.

To bear those names means to be no longer feeble, afflicted, scattered and oppressed, but to receive beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. They are to be ever with the Lord and stand before His throne, clothed in white robes richer than those worn by the most honored of earth and crowned with diadems more glorious than the crowns of earthly monarchs. They are made trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He might be glorified, with pain and weeping forever ended and every cause of grief removed in the song of salvation to God and the Lamb.

The same naming belongs to the future glory of Zion as a holy city cleansed so that the unclean no longer enter, shaken from the dust, loosed from captivity, and clothed in beautiful garments. She is rebuilt with fair colors and precious stones, with all her children taught of the Lord and established in righteousness, given great peace and freedom from oppression and terror as her heritage from the Lord. Every gathering against her fails, no weapon formed against her prospers, and every accusing tongue is condemned. This restoration of a gathered, holy, redeemed community, sought out and not forsaken, is part of the great plan of redemption extending to the whole world and drawing the nations to see God's salvation.

Mission to Prepare Way

The verse sets forth the experience purposed for those who hold fast the beginning of their confidence firm to the end. It portrays the work Christ will accomplish through those who follow His example, by which His name shall be exalted among the nations, even among all nations. That experience belongs together with the worldwide proclamation that salvation is coming, with reward and work before Him, to be carried to the ends of the world and to the end of the world. Those who receive that salvation are thereby recognized as holy and redeemed, and Zion as sought out and no longer forsaken.

With that proclamation goes the command to prepare the way by going through the gates, making the way ready and building the highway. That preparation means clearing obstacles, removing hindrances, and lifting up the standard of truth for the people. The chapter speaks decisively to God's people, calling them to put away complaining and evil work, to stop evil, repent and be converted. When they heed that call, power is manifested in conviction and conversion of souls.

The verse declares the result promised when people wake from careless indifference into unceasing activity. That activity begins in families through communion with God and being filled with His Spirit. It then reaches outward to those wandering in sin far from Christ, bestowing on those in need the grace received from Him. Those thus gathered in become a holy and redeemed people, sought out and never abandoned, gathered to serve in righteousness in a city God has not forsaken.