Isaiah foreshadows the ministry of Jesus

In Isaiah 61, there are passages that speak of an anointed one who preaches the good news to the poor, frees the people who are imprisoned, heals the blind and releases the oppressed. About 700 years after the time of Isaiah, Jesus relates these Bible passages to Himself:

Luke 4:15-20 (NIV translation):

14 Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside.
15 He taught in their synagogues, and everyone praised him.
16 He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read.
17 The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:
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."
20 Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him,
21 and he began by saying to them, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing."

At this point during the ministry of Jesus, he had already been preaching the good news to the poor and he had already healed many people of various afflictions, including blindness, both in a physical sense and in a spiritual sense.

But Jesus had not yet begun the other part of his mission, which includes a "day of vengeance," which Bible scholar John Gill explains as "the day of vengeance of our God; when vengeance was taken on sin, in the person of Christ; when he destroyed the works of the devil, … and who will take vengeance on antichrist at his spiritual coming, and upon all the wicked at the day of judgment."

With this in mind, it is interesting that Jesus stopped reading Isaiah 61 mid way through verse 2, immediately before the mention of a "day of vengeance."


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