Isaiah 61:6-8 - You will be called priests of the Lord

61:6,7

“And you will be called priests of the Lord most high”. All these things will happen only as Israel serves the Lord. For current Israel, they will never find true peace until they recognise Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour. As with the previous verse, the feeding on the wealth of nations is a reversal of the situation they were used to, where other nations plundered Israel. The shame of the nation will vanish, and instead they will rejoice in their inheritance.

61:8

“For I the Lord love justice and hate wrongdoing”. This has all sorts of consequences, and we need to appreciate it if we are to properly understand God, the world and ourselves. First, for Israel it meant that they could not get away with sinning against God (for that produces injustice and wrongdoing).  Secondly it meant that the nations that wronged Israel could also not get away with it. Thirdly, it means that God’s salvation will involve putting wrongs right, putting sin right. Those “Christians” and “churches” which are sin-affirming are completely nuts. So God will reward His people with an everlasting covenant. The cross deals with our unrighteousness, the Holy Spirit begins a work of transformation in our lives.