Today, Paul Trask looks at Jesus’ “Pregnant Pause,” as He read Isaiah 61 in the synagogue as recorded in Luke 4.

¹⁸ “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, ¹⁹ to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

After reading this portion of Isaiah, Jesus startled His listeners by claiming, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

However, Jesus did not actually complete Isaiah’s job description of Israel’s coming Messiah. His citation concluded with Messiah’s anointing “to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor,” which was certainly true. But Isaiah’s very next phrase tells us that Messiah was also anointed to proclaim “the day of vengeance of our God.”  And that is the subject of today’s program.

Jesus’ entire earthly ministry was a proclamation of the Lord’s favor, and a message of love, forgiveness and redemption for Israel. But when Israel spurned this most gracious offer, first by killing Jesus, and then by declaring war on God’s own newborn children – the first Christians – Jesus’ other anointing came into play, “the day of vengeance of our God.” And God’s vengeance was indeed executed during the Jewish-Roman war, inaugurated in 66AD, culminating with the final destruction of Masada, the last Jewish stronghold in 73AD – a 7 year period of tribulation for Israel. And right in the middle of this bloodshed came the brutal demolition of Jerusalem, the Jerusalem Temple and the near annihilation of its inhabitants.

(Luke 4:16–21; Isaiah 61:1–2; Luke 21:20–22; Matthew 24; Deuteronomy 28:45-65, 32:5; Matthew 23:33-36; Deuteronomy 32:all, 4:27; Romans 10:19; Revelation 18:4-10, 20; Jeremiah 50:15, 51:6; Isaiah 35:4; Matthew 11:28–30)