Isaiah 61:5 - Exposition

Strangers shall stand and feed your flocks (comp. Isaiah 14:1 , Isaiah 14:2 ; Isaiah 45:14 ; Isaiah 60:10 ). The Gentiles who join themselves with the Jews, and form with them one community, are constantly represented in the writings of Isaiah as occupying a subordinate position. In the New Testament, Jew and Gentile are put upon a par. Is the explanation that Isaiah assumes that the Jews generally will accept the gospel, and therefore, to some extent, retain their privileges in the new community, whereas, in fact, they rejected the gospel, and so lost their natural position (see Romans 11:7-20 )? Or does Isaiah look onward to a later date? And is there to be a restoration of "Israel according to the flesh" upon their conversion, and a reinstatement of them in a position of privilege? Such a condition of things seems glanced at in Romans 11:23-29 , and in Revelation 7:4-9 ; Revelation 14:1 . The sons of the alien shall be your ploughmen and your vinedressers. Not so much compelled, like the Gibeonites ( Joshua 9:21-27 ), to perform menial offices, as undertaking them voluntarily out of good will.