What does it mean that God will give us beauty for ashes?
In Isaiah 61:1-3 we read, “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn; To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them BEAUTY FOR ASHES, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified.”
What a wonderful portion full of the gracious promises of God to His people. Without a doubt, these words refer to the coming Messiah and the Lord Jesus ascribes these words to Himself. Let’s read Luke 4:16-21, “And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read. And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.” The Lord Jesus proclaimed, “This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears” showing these verses were speaking of Him.
As has been rightfully noted, the Lord did not quote all of the words from Isaiah. The Spirit of the Lord was indeed upon Him to preach the Gospel to the poor. But He stopped in the middle of a sentence. Christ came to preach the Gospel, to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, recovering of sight to the blind and to set at liberty them that are bruised. He did not read “the day of vengeance of our God.” That is indeed part of His work, but not as long as the acceptable year of the Lord lasts. The “acceptable year of the Lord” is an allusion to the year of jubilee as we read in Leviticus 25:10, “And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubile unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family.” However, in its greatest and most literal sense it refers to the day in which we live where the Lord will graciously receive sinners to Himself, offering salvation and freedom to all who will come to Him in faith. The gospel promises us that the guilty may come to Him, and that God will graciously receive them. We are assured in John 6:37 that, “All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.”
The gracious work of the Lord includes the wonderful blessings we read of in Isaiah 61:1-3, including giving BEAUTY FOR ASHES. What does this mean? It was a common tradition that one who was in mourning would put ashes upon their head as a sign of their deep distress and sorrow. We read in Joshua 7:6, “And Joshua rent his clothes, and fell to the earth upon his face before the ark of the LORD until the eventide, he and the elders of Israel, and PUT DUST UPON THEIR HEADS.” We also read in 2 Samuel 13:19, “And Tamar PUT ASHES ON HER HEAD, and rent her garment of divers colours that was on her, and laid her hand on her head, and went on crying.”
The Hebrew word for beauty in Isaiah 61:3 is “peh-ayr’” and it literally refers to a fancy head-dress. We learn from this portion that the Lord will remove the ashes of sorrow from us and place a fancy head-dress of gladness on our heads. He can surely turn our sorrows into joy. We get a picture of that in Isaiah 35:10, “And the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.” When we trust the Lord and cast all our cares upon Him, we can realize the truth that, “…weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.” (Psalm 30:5). (CC) (636.2)