There are a lot of trees in our chapter today. Isaiah speaks of cedar, cypress, oak and ash; all valuable trees of the forest, all prized by woodsmen and craftsmen for strength, grandeur and utility. Then the prophet speaks of another tree, the willow, not so grand or valuable, in fact, often little more than a weedy shrub. Isaiah likens God’s elect to the willow and pictures the Lord suppling the water-loving tree with all the moisture it needs. It is a type of distinguishing grace. In the gospel age, the spiritual descendants of Isaiah’s readers will be quickened with grace from heaven and ‘shall spring up … as willows by the water courses’.

There is a sense in which everything belongs to the Lord as Maker and Creator. ‘All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.’ Yet there is a distinct and separate ownership expressed in today’s passage of certain men and women formed as a new creation and redeemed by precious blood. ‘You’, says God, ‘are mine’. Here is another glorious gospel chapter that speaks of Christ’s special ownership of a known and named people, loved of God and called by grace. That’s comforting … The theme of comfort for the Lord’s people is again foremost in our Saviour’s message. He tells us to be unafraid. This must have greatly reassured the remnant people of Judah in Isaiah’s…