Future promise is the source of the Christian's deepest joy.
2. PROMISE BRINGS JOY Future promise is the source of the Christian's deepest joy.
It is pre-figured in abundance of comfort and satisfaction the Jews experienced on their return from captivity (cf. Isa. xt. 7f.). They were in a new world, and now knew how to value liberty and property, the pleasures of which were continually fresh and blooming. And much more do all those rejoice whom Christ has brought into the glorious liberty of God's children, especially when the privileges of their adoption shall be completed in the resurrection of the body.
(a) They shall rejoice in their portion. They shall not only have their own again, but (which is an additional gift of God) they shall have the comfort of it, and a heart to rejoice in it (Eccles. iii. 13). Though the houses of the returned Jews, as well as their temple, be much inferior to what they were before the captivity, yet they shall be well-pleased with them, and thankful for them. It is a portion in their land—their own land, the holy land, Immanuel's land. Therefore they shall rejoice in it, having so lately known what it was to be strangers in a strange land. They that have God and heaven for their portion have reason to say that they have a worthy portion, and to rejoice in it.
(b) Everlasting joy shall be with them. 'The joyful state of this people shall last long, much longer than the captivity had lasted. Yet that joy of the Jews was so much alloyed, so often interrupted, and so soon brought to an end, that we must look for the accomplishment of this promise in the spiritual joy which believers have in God, and the eternal joy they hope for in heaven.
(c) This shall be a double recompense to them, and more than double, for all the reproach and vexation they have lain under in the land of their captivity. For your shame you shall have double honour, and in your land you shall possess double wealth to what you lost: the blessing of God upon it, and the comfort you shall have in it, shall make it an abundant reparation for all the damages you have received. You shall not only be owned as God's sons, but as His firstborns (Exod. iv. 22), and therefore entitled to a double portion. As the miseries of their captivity were so great, that in them they shall receive double for all their shame. The former is applicable to the