Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 1:31
And the strong shall be as tow, and the maker of it as a spark, and they shall both burn together, and none shall quench [them].
And the strong – Those who have been thought to be strong, on whom the people relied for protection and defense – their rulers, princes, and the commanders of their armies.
As tow – The coarse or broken part of flax, or hemp. It means here that which shall be easily and quickly kindled and rapidly consumed. As tow burns and is destroyed at the touch of fire, so shall the rulers of the people be consumed by the approaching calamities.
And the maker of it – This is an unhappy translation. The word poalo may be indeed a participle, and be rendered its maker, but it is more commonly a noun, and means his work, or his action. This is its plain meaning here. So the Latin Vulgate, the Septuagint, and the Chaldee. It means, that as a spark enkindles tow, so the works or deeds of a wicked nation shall be the occasion or cause of their destruction. The ambition of one man is the cause of his ruin; the sensuality of a second is the cause of his; the avarice of a third is the cause of his. These passions, insatiable and ungratified, shall be the occasion of the deep and eternal sorrows of hell. So it means here, that the crimes and hypocrisy of the nation would be the real cause of all the calamities that would come upon them as a people.
Shall both burn together – The spark and the flame from the kindled flax mingle, and make one fire. So the people and their works would be enkindled and destroyed together. They would burn so rapidly, that nothing could extinguish them. The meaning is, that the nation would be punished; and that all their works of idolatry and monuments of sin would be the occasion of their punishment, and would perish at the same time. The principle involved in this passage teaches us the following things:
(1) That the wicked, however mighty, shall be destroyed.
(2) That their works will be the cause of their ruin – a cause necessarily leading to it.
(3) That the works of the wicked – all that they do and all on which they depend – shall be destroyed.
(4) That this destruction shall be final. Nothing shall stay the flame. No tears of penitence, no power of men or devils, shall put out the fires which the works of the wicked shall enkindle.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Isa 1:31
And the strong shall be as tow
The tinder, and the spark
The strong shall become tow, and his work a spark, and both shall burn together–a vivid picture of the doom of transgressors, since the mighty man is made combustible, and his own act is that which kindles the flame.
(T. W. Chambers, D. D.)
The fire of judgment
The fire of judgment that consumes sinners does not need to come from without; sin carries within itself the fire of wrath. (F. Delitzsch.)
The tow and the spark
These terrible words of warning are not levelled–
1. Against low and vile people (Isa 1:23-26). Nor–
2. Against the avowedly irreligious. The people addressed performed a multitude of sacrifices (Isa 1:11), were punctilious in their attendance on the house of God (Isa 1:12-14), were full of apparent devotion (Isa 1:15). Nor–
3. Do they refer to the grosser forms of sin. These would, of course, come under the same condemnation. But spiritual sins, though more refined to our perception, are more fatal even than sensual sins. It is preeminently a spiritualism in root, however sensual in fruit, that is here arrived at. It is all summed up in the one evil, forsaking the Lord (Isa 1:28). Consider–
I. THE RADICAL CHARGE SIN WORKS IN THE CONSTITUTION OF THE SINNER. Sin, the prophet says in effect, has a disintegrating, deteriorating, degrading influence upon the mans nature who yields to it. Tow is the coarse, broken part of flax or hemp–waste, refuse–It is used here in contrast to that which is strong–also as a pattern of what is inflammable.
1. Sin lowers the tone and tenor of our nature.
2. Sin, depraving and degrading the type and tenor of our nature, enfeebles our powers of resistance to the assaults of external evil. Sin is weakness as well as wickedness; weakness as the result of wickedness.
3. Sin imparts to us an increased susceptibility to evil–makes us more inflammable.
II. THE WAY IN WHICH THE SINNER AND HIS SIN COOPERATE FOR THEIR COMMON DESTRUCTION. Sin is ever multiplying itself between the sinner and his sinful deed. And the issue is irremediable ruin. They shall both burn together, and none shall quench them. The moral is, that if we would keep out of hell, we must keep out of sin. (W. Roberts, B. A.)
Sin weakens the strong
The Earl of Breadalbane planned the massacre of Glencoe, and carried it out in the most cruel and dastardly manner. Macaulay, speaking of the effects produced upon the mind of the perpetrator of this atrocious deed, says that Breadalbane, hardened as he was, felt the stings of conscience, or the dread of retribution. He did his best to assume an air of unconcern. He made his appearance in the most fashionable coffee house at Edinburgh, and talked loudly and self-complacently about the important services in which he had been engaged among the mountains. Some of his soldiers, however, who observed him closely, whispered that all this bravery was put on. He was not the man that he had been before that night. The form of his countenance was changed. In all places, at all hours, whether he waked or slept, Glencoe was ever before him. (Tools for Teachers.)
.
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
The strong; either,
1. Your idols, which you think to be strong, and able to defend you, as appears by your confidence in them. Or,
2. The strongest persons among you, who think to secure themselves against the threatened danger by their wealth, or power, or wisdom; and much more they that are weak and helpless.
Shall be as tow; shall be as suddenly and easily consumed by my judgments as tow is by fire.
The maker of it; the maker of the idol, who can neither save himself nor his workmanship. Or,
his work; either all that he doth or can do, or that which he hath done, his wicked course of life, shall bring him to ruin.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
31. strongpowerful rulers (Am2:9).
maker of itrather, hiswork. He shall be at once the fuel, “tow,” and the cause ofthe fire, by kindling the first “spark.”
boththe wicked ruler,and “his work,” which “is as a spark.”
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And the strong shall be as tow,…. , “that strong one”, who is eminently so; the little horn, whose look is more stout than his fellows, Da 7:20 the beast who had great power and authority given by the dragon, Re 13:2 who shall be cast alive into the lake of fire; when he will be like tow in those devouring flames, easily, quickly, and irrecoverably consumed, Da 7:11
Re 19:20
and the maker of it as a spark, or “his work”; so the Targum,
“and the work of their hands shall be as a spark of fire;”
or like the embers and ashes of a coal, which are blown away and lost at once: so antichrist, and all his evil works, as well as all his evil workers under him, will be entirely consumed: or, as it may be rendered, “he that wrought him”: that is, Satan, for his coming is after the working of Satan; he has his seat, power, and authority, from the dragon, the old serpent, and the devil, and may be truly called a creature of his, 2Th 2:9
and they shall both burn together; both the pope and the devil in the lake of fire and brimstone, into which they will both be cast,
Re 20:10
and none shall quench [them]; that fire will be unquenchable and everlasting; they will be tormented for ever and ever, and so will all the worshippers of the beast, Mt 25:41. The Chaldee paraphrase is,
“so the wicked shall be consumed, and their evil works, and there shall be no mercy upon them.”
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Isa 1:31 shows in a third figure where this spark was to come from: “And the rich man becomes tow, and his work the spark; and they will both burn together, and no one extinguishes them.” The form poalo suggests at first a participial meaning (its maker), but would be a very unusual epithet to apply to an idol. Moreover, the figure itself would be a distorted one, since the natural order would be, that the idol would be the thing that kindled the fire, and the man the object to be set on fire, and not the reverse. We therefore follow the lxx, Targ., and Vulg., with Gesenius and other more recent grammarians, and adopt the rendering “his work” ( opus ejus ). The forms and (cf., Isa 52:14 and Jer 22:13) are two equally admissible changes of the ground-form ( ). As Isa 1:29 refers to idolatrous worship, poalo (his work) is an idol, a god made by human hands (cf., Isa 2:8; Isa 37:19, etc.). The prosperous idolater, who could give gold and silver for idolatrous images out of the abundance of his possessions ( C hason is to be interpreted in accordance with Isa 33:6), becomes tow (talm. “the refuse of flax:” the radical meaning is to shake out, viz., in combing), and the idol the spark which sets this mass of fibre in flames, so that they are both irretrievably consumed. For the fire of judgment, by which sinners are devoured, need not come from without. Sin carries the fire of indignation within itself. And an idol is, as it were, an idolater’s sin embodied and exposed to the light of day.
The date of the composition of this first prophecy is a puzzle. Caspari thoroughly investigated every imaginary possibility, and at last adopted the conclusion that it dates from the time of Uzziah, inasmuch as Isa 1:7-9 do not relate to an actual, but merely to an ideal, present. But notwithstanding all the acuteness with which Caspari has worked out his view, it still remains a very forced one. The oftener we return to the reading of this prophetic address, the stronger is our impression that Isa 1:7-9 contain a description of the state of things which really existed at the time when the words were spoken. There were actually two devastations of the land of Judah which occurred during the ministry of Isaiah, and in which Jerusalem was only spared by the miraculous interposition of Jehovah: one under Ahaz in the year of the Syro-Ephraimitish war; the other under Hezekiah, when the Assyrian forces laid the land waste but were scattered at last in their attack upon Jerusalem. The year of the Syro-Ephraimitish war is supported by Gesenius, Rosenmller (who expresses a different opinion in every one of the three editions of his Scholia), Maurer, Movers, Knobel, Hvernick, and others; the time of the Assyrian oppression by Hitzig, Umbreit, Drechsler, and Luzzatto. Now, whichever of these views we may adopt, there will still remain, as a test of its admissiblity, the difficult question, How did this prophecy come to stand at the head of the book, if it belonged to the time of Uzziah-Jotham? This question, upon which the solution of the difficulty depends, can only be settled when we come to Isa 6:1-13. Till then, the date of the composition of chapter 1 must be left undecided. It is enough for the present to know, that, according to the accounts given in the books of Kings and Chronicles, there were two occasions when the situation of Jerusalem resembled the one described in the present chapter.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
31. And your God (34) shall be as tow The Hebrew word חסן ( chason) signifies strong: and though it is here applied to God, still it retains its signification, as if he had said, “That god who was your strength shall be turned into stubble.”
And the maker of it By the maker he means the carver; but as he mentions an idol, we must explain it agreeably to the matter in hand. Some think that he expresses the repentance of idolaters, by telling us that they would acknowledge their folly, and, being covered with shame, would burn their idols. But I consider the meaning to be different; for as a fire is made of dry fuel such as tow, “in like manner,” saith the Prophet,” gather you and your idols into one heap, as when a pile of wood is built up, that you may be consumed together, so that the idols may be like tow, and the men like fire, and that one conflagration may consume the whole.”
And there shall be none to quench them It ought to be observed that the Prophets, when they mention the wrath of God, describe it by outward representations, because it cannot be perceived by the eyes or by any other sense. Thus the wrath of God, by which the ungodly are destroyed, is compared to fire, which consumes all things. It is now evident enough what the Prophet means, namely, that all the ungodly shall be destroyed, whatever may be the nature of their confidence; and not only so, but that their destruction shall be the greater, because they have placed their confidence in false and deceitful things, and that utter destruction will overtake them from that very quarter from which they had vainly looked for deliverance. For the images and idols are excitements of the wrath of God, kindling it into a flame which cannot be quenched.
(34) And the strong. — Eng. Ver.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
THE TOW AND THE SPARK
Isa. 1:31. And the strong shall be as tow, and the maker of it as a spark, and they shall both burn together, and none shall quench them.
For the phrases and the maker of it, the margin reads, and his work. So Alexander and Henderson. This reading renders the passage intelligible in meaning and terrible in import. It then in simple, vivid manner sets forth the reciprocal influence of the sinner and his sin. The man in committing sin degrades and enfeebles himself, and then the sin he has committed reacts upon his degraded and enfeebled nature to kindle in it the fire of its corruption. It is worth observing that these terrible words of warning are not levelled
(1) against low and vile people. The term strong precludes that opinion. They are spoken against those who have been, or are still, esteemed, exalted, and powerful,presumably against the princes, the judges, the counsellors of the nation (Isa. 1:23-26). Nor are they spoken
(2) against the avowedly irreligious. The people addressed performed a multitude of sacrifices (Isa. 1:11), were punctilious in their attendance on the house of God, &c. (Isa. 1:12-14), were full of apparent devotion (Isa. 1:15). Nor
(3) do they refer to the grosser forms of sin. These would of course come under the same condemnation. But spiritual sins, though more refined to our perception, are more fatal even than sensual sins. It is pre-eminently a spiritual sin in root, however sensual in fruit, that is here arrived at. It is all summed up in the one evil, forsaking the Lord (Isa. 1:28). It is important to bear these considerations in mind if we would obtain personal and profitable application of these words. Consider
I. The radical change sin works in the constitution of the sinner. Sin is lawlessness, an outbreak of self-will (1Jn. 3:4). It is conscious wrongdoing (Jas. 4:17). And sin, the prophet says in effect, has a disintegrating, deteriorating, degrading influence upon the mans nature who yields to it. The strong shall be as tow. Tow is the coarse, broken part of flax or hempwaste, refuse. Used here in contrast to that which is strong. Used also as pattern of what is inflammable.
1. Sin lowers the tone and tenor of our nature. Mans nature is originally a very high nature. A little lower than the angels (Psa. 8:5); a little lower than Divinity (see Alexander and Thrupp in loc.) Originally a king with all highest forms of existence grouped around his throne (Psa. 8:6-8). He falls by sin. How low? To level of beasts that perish? (Psa. 49:20). Lower than that (Isa. 1:3). To level of trees and shrubs? Lower than that. See, that heap of coarse and tangled refuse was a plant once, a living thing. Now it is cut down, dried, dead; choicest parts gone, wasted! Towthat is the symbol of the sinful man. The height from which he has fallen measures the degradation incurred. To that which is by nature tow, it is no degradation to be as tow. But for that which is strong to become as towfor the highest of Gods creations to become as the lowestthis is disgraceful, dreadful.
2. Sin, depraving and degrading the type and tenor of our nature, enfeebles our powers of resistance to the assaults of external evil. Sin is weakness as well as wickedness; weakness as the result of wickedness. The strong becomes as tow, becomes weak. Hard to tell which is the worse to bear, the paroxysms of remorse, or the paralysis of power which the habit of sin engenders [487] To feel that when some temptation comes and calmly states itself before us we are helplessly a prey to it, is terrible indeed. The first sin of any kind greatly facilitates a second commission of the same [490] and every repetition increases that facility till the ease of doing it almost amounts to a practical inability to abstain from doing it [493] Sin gets dominion over us. Men are sold under sin.
3. Sin imparts to us an increased susceptibility to evilmakes us more inflammable. And Satans fiery darts striking, inflame us [496] Some counsellors advise young people to indulge in a certain measure of sin as a remedy for its enkindling impulses; they call it sowing their wild oats. A figure is sometimes the best vail for a fact. One would think that sowing would of itself suggest reproduction and multiplied reproduction (Gal. 6:7-8). If you wish your nature to become hopelessly inflammable, utterly uncontrollable, give way to the indulgence of its hot impulses while you are young.
[487] One of the affecting features in a life of vice is the longing, wistful outlooks given, by the wretches who struggle with unbridled passions towards virtues which are no longer within their reach. Men in the tide of vice are sometimes like the poor creatures swept down the stream of mighty rivers, who see people safe on shore, and trees and flowers, as they go quickly past, and all things that are desirable gleam upon them a moment to heighten their trouble, and to aggravate their swift-coming destruction.Beecher.
[490] A brand that has been once in the fire easily catches the second time.Flavel, 16301696.
[493] Sin is like the descent of a hill, where every step we take increases the difficulty of our return. Sin, in its habits, becomes stronger every daythe heart grows harder, the conscience grows duller, the distance between God and the soul grows greater, and like a rock hurled from a mountains top, the further we descend we go down, and down, and down, with greater and greater rapidity.Guthrie.
[496] It is in our own bosom that the power of temptation is found. Temptation is but a spark; and if a spark fall upon ice, if it fall upon snow, if it fall upon water, what is the harm of a spark? But if it fall upon powderthe powder is yours, the spark only is the devils.Beecher.
The power of temptation is in proportion to the nature of the soul tempted. A thoughtless miner takes an uncovered light into the mine: where there is but little gas, there is but a wavering and flickering of a transient flame,hardly flame, indeed; but where there is an accumulation of gas, the uncovered light occasions an explosion which shivers the rocks and brings swift destruction upon all who are in the mine. In both cases it was the same mine, the same miner, but the condition of the air was different. So is it with the fiery darts of the wicked one; they are shot into all human hearts, and just in proportion to the materials, so to speak, which are to be found there, will be the success or failure of the enemy.Dr Parker.
Every commission of sin imprints upon the soul further disposition and proneness to sin; as the second, third, and fourth degrees of heat are more easily introduced than the first. Every one is both a preparative and a step to the next. Drinking both quenches the present thirst and provokes it for the future. When the soul is beaten from its first station, and the mounds and earthworks of virtue are once broken down, it becomes quite another thing from what it was before. In one single eating of the forbidden fruit, when the act is gone, yet the relish remains; and the remembrance of the first is an easy allurement to the second. One visit is enough to begin an acquaintance; and this point is gained by it, that when the visitant comes again, he is no more a stranger.South, 16331716.
II. The way in which the sinner and his sin co-operate for their common destruction. We all know the influence of coming into contact with the instruments, the companions, the locality even, of a former sin. They stir up in us the memories, the emotions, the impulse to the same transgression. So the sinner goes about the world setting new snares for his feet at every turn as he sins. The relation of sin to the sinner and to his sinful deed is like that of a lamp placed between two mirrors, which reflect and re-reflect the light, till both the mirrors seem full of lamps. Sin is ever multiplying itself between the sinner and his sinful deed. And the issue is irremediable ruin. They shall both burn together, and none shall quench them. And the moral is, that if we would keep out of hell, we must keep out of sin.W. Roberts, B.A.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
(31) The maker of it as a spark.Better, his work as a spark. The sin itself becomes the instrument of destruction. The mighty and the proud, who were foremost in the work of idolatry, and who did not repent, should perish with their worki.e., with the idol which their hands had made. The tow and the spark are chosen as representing the most rapid form of combustion.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
31. And the strong The “strong” men “strong” rulers of the nation, of which the present rulers are the fit representatives.
As tow Beaten flax. A symbol of weakness.
And the maker of it Better, his work, as in the marginal reading. All that his skill has laboriously produced whether his idols or worldly schemes.
A spark As the “spark” which ignites the “tow.” No longer than this shall they endure they shall go up in a flash and in smoke, and that shall be the end of them.
Such is the appropriate warning of the close of this preface to the body of prophecies following. “The hand of the Lord shall be known toward his servants, and his indignation toward his enemies.” Isa 66:14.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Isa 1:31. And the maker of it as a spark The prophet had explained the judgment of God upon the finally disobedient, as it principally concerned their spiritual state; he now subjoins another explanation, which chiefly respects their corporal afflictions. The words are elegant; and the meaning of them is, that the rich, the powerful, the great (meant by the word chason, which we render strong), who seemed like a lofty and well-rooted oak, shall perish, with their works; for their works, their great and wicked undertakings by which they had sought safety, like sparks, shall set them on fire, and consume them like tow. They shall perish, like fools, by their own devices. Nay, the very works themselves which they had raised with a proud spirit to the glory, preservation, and safety of themselves and their nation, shall afford an occasion for their destruction, and be turned into the very cause of it. The prophet here alludes, according to Vitringa, to the destruction of the state and temple by the Romans. The verse might be rendered, And the powerful, or mighty one, shall be as tow, and his work as a spark. Taylor would render it, as a blaze, whose effects upon tow would be certain, while that of a spark might be doubtful. See ch. Isa 50:11. Mal 4:1; Mal 4:6 and Vitringa.
REFLECTIONS.1st, The first verse is a kind of title to the whole book. The author is Isaiah, or the salvation of the Lord: his father was Amoz, not Amos the prophet, but a different person, and of a different name. It is called his vision, as being delivered to him in this way; and, as he had himself a clear understanding of what he spoke, he delivered it very perspicuously to others. His ministry continued under four kings; but in what year of Uzziah he began his prophesies, or in which of Hezekiah he finished, is uncertain. Certain however it is, that he lived to see the best and worst of times, and under both proved himself alike faithful. They who live long may expect to see strange alterations; happy if, with the prophet, they can in all states and conditions approve their unshaken fidelity to God!
2nd, Dark and dismal is the prospect with which the prophet opens his discourse.
1. He begins with an address to the heavens and the earth, as if turning from an incorrigible people deaf to reproof, to the inanimate creation; or appealing to the hosts above, and men in general, to record God’s mercies and his people’s impenitence.
2. He charges them with black ingratitude. I have nourished and brought up children; or, I have magnified and exalted them; not only preserved them from their state of infancy, but distinguished them with peculiar marks of honour; and they rebelled against me; made him the basest requital for his mercy, rejecting his government, and apostatizing from his worship. Note; (1.) Ingratitude is justly reckoned among the greatest crimes. (2.) As no kindnesses can equal those which God hath shewn to the sons of men in their creation and redemption; so can no ingratitude be so great and criminal as that of the impenitent sinner.
3. He upbraids them with the more than brutish stupidity of their conduct. The dull ox appears sensible of the hand which feeds him, and knoweth his owner’s voice; and the very ass the crib in which he receives his food; but more stupid Israel doth not know or acknowledge the gracious care of God, or make the least suitable returns of love; and my people doth not consider; they pay no regard to the ordinances of God’s service, and, wilfully obstinate, neither know nor desire to know him. Note; (1.) When men choose dissipation, and fly from every means which would lead them to consider their ways, they cannot but be led captive by the devil at his will. (2.) Many are in profession God’s people, whose practice is utterly opposite thereto, and therefore their sins are highly aggravated. (3.) Negligence about God and our souls must necessarily end in ruin.
4. He dwells upon their wretched state, either as threatening them with the consequences of their sins or lamenting the evils that he foresaw. Ah, sinful nation! what will be thine end? How grievous the prospect! universal apostacy reigned; a people laden with iniquity, sinking under its heavy load and curse; a seed of evil doers, degenerated utterly from their pious ancestors: children that are corrupters, not content with being abandoned themselves, but doing the devil’s work in turning tempters to others. They have forsaken the Lord, his ways and worship; they have provoked the holy of Israel unto anger, who is justly incensed at such rebellious conduct: they are gone away backward, vile apostates from their holy profession. Note; When God comes to visit for sins, he will be minute; and every aggravation of them will be remembered.
5. They were incorrigible under every visitation, and their case, of course, was desperate. Why should ye be stricken any more? when all the past visitations produced no gracious effects. Ye will revolt more and more; become desperate and hardened by the corrections which should have led them to repentance. The whole head is sick, and the whole heart is faint; which may respect their sufferings, that, though reaching from the highest to the lowest, produced no reformation: or their sins which had so thoroughly infected priests and people, that, like a leper, from head to foot not a found part was left; and, im-penitently obstinate, none thought of repentance, or laboured to avert the heavy judgments under which they groaned. Note; (1.) We have here a lively picture of the corruption of the human heart, universally defiled by sin, loathsome before God, and incurably desperate for aught that man can do in his own strength to help himself. (2.) Afflictions, though a bitter portion, are the means which God often employs to awaken the sinner’s conscience, and restore health to his soul. (3.) When sinners refuse to answer the gracious visitations of God, instead of being humbled by them, they grow more hardened. (4.) The case of that soul is desperate indeed, concerning which God saith, Let him alone.
6. He laments the desolations of Zion which were begun, or rather foretels what would be shortly her sad condition: Your country is, or shall be, desolate; ravaged by their enemies, their cities burnt, their land devoured by strangers, while they looked on, unable to prevent their ruin; their country a desert; the holy city and temple depopulated, deserted, despicable, ruinous, as the wretched hut which the keeper of the vineyard forsakes when the vintage is gathered; and the lodge, where the gardener watched till his fruit was safe, and then is overturned by the winter’s blasts: or like a besieged city, from which escape is so difficult and dangerous, and which none care to approach. This was the case, 2Ch 28:17-19 under Ahaz, during whose wicked reign it is supposed this prophecy was written: or it refers to the desolations which at first the Babylonians, and afterward, more dreadfully, the Romans brought upon them. Note; They who will not be warned, must endure the rod: whether it be a nation or individual, impenitence and perdition are inseparable.
7. A few, and but a few, still remained firm to God amidst the general apostacy; and, but for these, utter extirpation must have ensued, dreadful as that which fell upon the devoted cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. The apostle quotes this as applicable to his own times, and descriptive of them, Rom 9:29 when, except the few who received the Gospel, the rest of the Jewish nation persisted in unbelief and hardness of heart. Note; (1.) It is a mercy that there have been a few faithful souls in the worst of times. (2.) The fewer they are, and the more wicked the days, the greater diligence should we give to be of that few. (3.) To go with the multitude is the sure way to hell. (4.) The more we reflect upon the wonders of grace, in plucking us as brands from the burning, the more should our hearts abound in love and praise.
3rdly, We have,
1. An awful address to the rulers and people, to hear God’s word. He calls them rulers of Sodom, and people of Gomorrah, because, like them, they were sinners before the Lord exceedingly, Gen 13:13 and magistrates, priests, and people, were sunk in the deluge of iniquity. Perhaps also he has reference here in the spirit of prophecy to the Gospel, which the Jewish people were called to receive; and, for rejecting which, it will be more tolerable in the day of judgment for Sodom, than for them, Mat 11:24.
2. He rejects all their hypocritical services and sacrifices. Their most solemn assemblies, their feasts, sabbaths, incense, prayers, were an abomination. What purpose could they answer, when their hands were defiled with blood, and remaining pride, impenitence, and unbelief, made these outward ceremonies, however expensive, but a solemn mockery of God. This is especially applicable to the times of Christ, when with the greatest zeal the scribes and pharisees maintained the temple-worship, while they rejected him who was prefigured in these institutions, and exclusive of whom God never delighted in the most expensive sacrifices: and after having imbrued their hands in the Saviour’s blood, though by his death an end was put to all the ritual services, yet they persisted in them, till God destroyed their city and temple together. Note; (1.) The greatest enemies to the power of godliness are often those who are the most rigid observers of the form. (2.) Whilst inward iniquity is harboured, and the heart continues estranged from God, the most liberal charities, or the largest gifts to God’s altar, will be rejected with abhorrence. (3.) Many in a fright will be driven to their knees and their prayers, who are not driven from their sins, and therefore pray in vain. (4.) So far are all the outward services of religious worship from pleasing God, where the soul is unconverted and self-righteous, that he abhors the sabbaths and the solemn meeting; so that the very duties on which the formalists depend, will increase their damnation.
4thly, Since the ceremonial worship was declared ineffectual, the prophet directs them to the only sufficient means of acceptance with God.
1. By washing and making themselves clean, which all their ritual ablutions never could effect; and therefore they must come by faith under the sense of their guilt and pollution, to the fountain which should be opened in a Saviour’s blood. Note; We might as soon think to wash the Ethiopian white, as to remove one spot of sin from our souls by any other method than through the atoning blood of Jesus.
2. As washed from their sins, they must amend their lives; putting away all known evil, making restitution for every act of injustice, and ceasing from sin. They must not merely rest in negative holiness, but exercise themselves unto godliness in the practice of every good word and work, under the influence of divine grace, and with a single eye to the divine glory. And he instances wherein this course of well-doing consists, under the two great points of mercy and justice, which would please the Lord better than the most costly sacrifices. Note; (1.) Where the blood of Jesus cleanses from the guilt of sin, the Spirit of Jesus will deliver from the power of it; and in vain do they hope for the one, who continue strangers to the other. (2.) A Christian has no time to be idle; much has he to learn, much to do; and all his attention and care will be little enough for the great work which is before him.
3. He silences an objection which might be raised in the minds of those, whose deep views of past guilt might discourage them from returning to God, as if their sins were beyond pardon and hope. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow: though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool: however great and aggravated their iniquities, they need not be discouraged: nay, are invited to come, yea, to come now, without delay, and let us reason together, saith the Lord; though on the ground of their own deeds or duties they could not appear in any wise at God’s bar, yet, when God put that prevailing argument in their mouths of the promises of full and free pardon through the blood and merits of a Redeemer, then they might come boldly to the throne, and fear no condemnation; the plea would be accepted, the sinner justified from all things. Note; That blood of Jesus which alone can cleanse from the least sin, as easily and effectually cleanses from the greatest: let no returning sinner despair.
4. He sets before them the blessing and the curse. If ye be willing to submit to this advice, to wash and be clean, and obedient to the word and ways of God, ye shall eat the good of the land, the land of Canaan, in which their abode would be sure as long as their fidelity was maintained; and a better country than this also is the portion of the faithful servants of God. But if ye refuse to hearken to these admonitions, and rebel against the government and ministers of God, and against his incarnate Word the Messiah, then their ruin was determined; the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it, the sentence is fixed and irrevocable; Ye shall be devoured with the sword of the Babylonians and Romans, executing upon them God’s temporal judgments, and by the sword of eternal vengeance after death pursuing them to the lowest hell. Note; (1.) If sinners perish, it will not be for want of warning; their blood will be upon their own heads. (2.) They who will not submit to God’s sceptre, must suffer under his sword. (3.) When sinners persist in their rebellion, they reject their own mercies, and God’s justice in their condemnation will be manifest to all.
5thly, As Jesus wept over the devoted city, the prophet, moved with a portion of his compassionate spirit, laments the wickedness that he beheld.
1. An awful change had passed on Jerusalem: the once faithful city is become an harlot, turning from the worship and service of God, and prostituting herself to all the abominations of iniquity. It was in past days famed for justice, full of judgment, her magistrates distinguished for integrity; righteousness lodged in it, as if chosen for her favoured abode. But how awful the contrast! now the habitation of murderers, who first massacred the prophets who witnessed of the just One, and then at last murdered the Son of God, Mat 23:37. Act 7:52. Pure once, and bright as silver, dross now only remained; their practice corrupt, and their principles depraved. Thy wine is mixed with water; the lively oracles of God adulterated and debased by false glosses and human traditions; so that it was become of no effect. Thy princes are rebellious, ringleaders in sin; and companions of thieves, conniving at their crimes; and, for the protection they afforded, sharing of the fruits of their robberies. Gifts and bribes were their known delight, and ever carried the cause at their bar; while the poor, the fatherless, and widow, who had nothing to give, were suffered to be oppressed without redress; and such was exactly the character of the Jews in our Saviour’s days, See Romans 2. Note; (1.) Prostitution of justice for gain is more infamous than the prostitution of the harlot for hire. (2.) Injustice and bribery on the seat of judgment are a heavier curse on any people, than the ravages of the worst banditti: against the one we may guard, from the other there is no redress. (3.) We must not only abstain from injuring the poor; but we are criminal if we neglect to vindicate them from oppressors, and to espouse the cause of the afflicted. (4.) The former good examples of preceding magistrates, or illustrious progenitors, reflect double darkness on their degenerate successors.
2. God with indignation awakes to execute vengeance on his enemies. Ah! I will ease me of them, as a load under which the earth groaned: or, I will take comfort of them, pleased with the execution of righteous judgment upon them. And this he confirms by a recital of his glorious titles, The Lord of Hosts, the mighty One of
Israel, able to fulfil all his denunciations, and before whom every foe must fall. Terrible was the execution of this threatening in their first destruction by the Babylonians; but most fearful, when, having rejected and murdered the Lord of life, he employed the Roman sword, and commanded that these his enemies, who would not that he should reign over them, should be slain before him.
3. A part will be recovered, converted, and saved; I will turn my hand upon thee, revive the decayed state of religion, purging their dross away in the furnace of affliction, and taking away the tin, the adulterations which they had mixed in their worship, and the corruptions of their practice; restoring their judges as at the first, and their counsellors as at the beginning; and then they would recover their former credit and honour, as the city of righteousness, the faithful city, redeemed by judgment executed on their foes; and being now converted unto God, his righteousness became engaged for their recovery. And this was the case in a measure under Hezekiah’s reformation, and may allude to their restoration from Babylon; but especially regards the day of Christ, when, by the powerful grace of God in the Gospel, such multitudes of Jews were converted; their sins, as dross, purged away; their self-righteousness, like tin, renounced, as false and base alloy. The apostles, as judges, were raised up to recover them from the worst enemies, sin and Satan, and to counsel and direct them in the way of truth and holiness. Being incorporated into Christ’s church, they would become a praise in the earth, a people clothed with righteousness, and faithful to Christ, his Gospel and ordinances. His Zion is thus redeemed by the judgment executed on the divine Redeemer in her stead, and her converts with righteousness, in a way perfectly consistent with the holiness of God, whose righteousness eminently appears displayed in the salvation of the Gospel. Note; (1.) Every man by nature and practice is the slave of sin, that worst of slavery, till redeemed by grace. (2.) The Redeemer’s sufferings unto the death of the cross are the great meritorious cause of our conversion; hereby God can be just, when he is the justifier of him that believeth on Jesus. (3.) When we recover the favour of God that we had forfeited, we shall be restored to the honour which we had lost.
4. The destruction of the enemies of Christ and his people is as sure as the salvation of the faithful. Their false confidence shall fail and confound them. Stripped as the oak in winter, they shall be left naked and bare, and withered as the garden that hath no water. The strong shall be as unable to resist, as the tow before the devouring fire; and the maker of it, the idol, or his work, all the devices of the transgressors, shall be as a spark of fire, and they shall burn together, and none shall quench them; which will eminently be fulfilled in the day of final recompense, when God shall execute judgment upon the ungodly; and the man of sin and all his followers, who have forsaken the ways of truth for lying vanities, human traditions, false doctrines and worship, and abominable idolatries, will have their portion together in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death, see Rev 10:11.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
REFLECTIONS
My soul, suffer not a portion of this blessed chapter to be overlooked, nor fancy the prophet’s commission in the delivery of it to have ceased with the men of Judah and Jerusalem; Alas! every age and every period of the church, hath carried with it the same marks, more or less, of corruption, and to everyone, the expostulation of a gracious God is but too applicable: I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me!
Blessed Spirit of truth! Do thou, Lord, in grace, and love, and compassion, exercise thy kind office, with my poor soul, as the glorifier of Christ Jesus! By thy word, and by thy grace in my heart, give me to see, and feel, and know, that, like Israel, the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. Let me never seek justification by the deeds of the law, or presume to think myself clean in thy sight! Plead, Lord, in my heart the injured cause of my God, and of his Christ; and by such saving discoveries as thou art making to thy church, by thy blessed word, both of human corruption, and the necessity of divine cleansing; make me to know that in Jesus, and his great salvation alone, it can be accomplished; that my sins, which are as scarlet, shall be white as snow; and though red as crimson, shall be as the wool.
And oh! the praises due to a covenant God in Christ, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, for the rich discovery! Blessed, forever blessed be Jehovah, in having brought sinners acquainted with the cause of our ruin, and the only source of our relief in Jesus. Lord! help me to seize all the gracious improvements thy mercy hath designed, from the rich salvation by Jesus. And since by his precious blood and righteousness, thou halt opened a way for purely purging away our dross, and taking away all our sin; bring, Lord, the souls of thy redeemed, through this gracious process of thy mercy, and let thy people be again called the city of righteousness, the faithful city!
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Isa 1:31 And the strong shall be as tow, and the maker of it as a spark, and they shall both burn together, and none shall quench [them].
Ver. 31. And the strong shall be as tow. ] The idol is here called the strong one, either by an irony, sicut siquis scelestum bonum virum dicat, as if one should say to a knave, You are a right honest man: or else according to the idolater’s false opinion of it, and vain expectation of it: like as in 2Ch 28:23 , the gods of Damascus are said to have “smitten” or “plagued” Ahaz: not that they did so indeed (for an idol is “nothing in the world,” and this strong in the text is weak as water, Jer 10:5 2Co 8:4 ), but he thought they did so like as the silly Papists also think of their male saints and female saints, whereof they have not a few, but are shamefully foiled and frustrated; besides that they are here and elsewhere threatened with unquenchable fire. Jerome, following Symmachus, for “tow,” hath the “refuse of tow,” which is quickly kindled.
And the maker of it.
And they shall both burn together.
And none shall quench them.
a Boissard. Biblioth.
the strong. Hebrew. hason. Occurs only here, and Amo 2:9.
the maker of it = his work (whatever it be): i.e. the idols (doubtless the ‘asherahs.
App-42).
the strong: Eze 32:21
as tow: Isa 27:4, Isa 43:17, Isa 50:11, Jdg 15:14, Rev 6:14-17
the maker of it: or, his work
and they: Isa 34:9, Isa 34:10, Isa 66:24, Eze 20:47, Eze 20:48, Mal 4:1, Mat 3:10, Mar 9:43-49, Rev 14:10, Rev 14:11, Rev 19:20, Rev 20:10
Reciprocal: Jdg 9:15 – let fire Isa 9:18 – wickedness Jer 11:16 – with Jer 17:27 – shall not Jer 21:12 – none Lam 2:3 – he burned Eze 6:6 – your works Eze 15:4 – the fire Amo 5:6 – there Hab 2:18 – that the Mat 3:12 – with
THE SINNER AND HIS WORKS DESTROYED
And the strong shall be as tow, and the maker of it [his work] as a spark, and they shall both burn together, and none shall quench them.
Isa 1:31
There are those who glory in outward greatness. They are (they think) strong as the oaks, but that strength, when not supported by righteousness, is only like the coarse, unwoven flax, easily broken and easily consumed. Wickedness shall perish, though it sit on thrones. An empire based upon the wrong is rotten through and through. The lesson of the text is, that the sin of the evil-doer becomes his scourge. The work of the strong shall be as a spark of fire to him, and both shall burn, and burn inextinguishably. The words look at the Advent of the Lord purely on the side of judgment.
I. It is Gods law that wickedness shall be destroyed.(1) History of nations proves this, and all such history is a prophecy of the Great Judgment. The Jewish nation has been effaced from history as a nation. See the fate of the empires of all the pastEgypt, Nineveh, Babylon, Greece, Rome. Think of Napoleon I, and his successor in the empire. (2) History of individual men. Have you ever seen it? Say not Where is the promise of His coming? for every such instance is a promise.
II. It is Gods law that a mans own sin shall be his destruction.His work is as a spark. Ambition lights up the penal retribution of one man; sensuality is the spark to the tow of another; and avarice works the ruin of a third. Our pleasant vices are made our scourges (Psa 9:16; Psa 28:4).
III. It is Gods law that this destruction shall be irretrievable.They shall both burn together, and none shall quench them. There is a time when even tears and penitence would seem to be vain.
Illustration
The principle in this passage teaches us the following things: (1) That the wicked, however mighty, shall be destroyed. (2) That their works shall be the cause of their ruina cause necessarily leading to it. (3) That the works of the wickedall that they do and all on which they dependshall be destroyed. (4) That this destruction shall be final. Nothing shall stay the flame. No tears of penitence, no power of men or devils shall put out the fires which the works of the wicked shall enkindle.
Isa 1:31. And the strong The wisest, strongest, or richest persons among you, who think to secure themselves against the threatened danger by their wisdom, wealth, or power, and much more they that are weak and helpless; shall be as tow Shall be as suddenly and easily consumed by Gods judgments as tow is by the fire. And the maker of it The maker of the idol, who can neither save himself nor his workmanship; as a spark To set it on fire: by his sin he shall bring himself to ruin. Or, as , may be rendered, his work shall become a spark, shall be the cause of his destruction. The words are elegant, and the meaning of them is, that the rich, the powerful, the great, (meant by the word , which we render strong,) who seemed like a lofty and well-rooted oak, shall perish with their works: for their works, their great and wicked undertakings, by which they had sought safety, like sparks, shall set them on fire and consume them like tow. They shall perish, like fools, by their own devices. The very works themselves, which they had raised for the glory and preservation of themselves and their republic, shall be turned into the very cause of their destruction. Vitringa thinks the prophet alludes to the destruction of their state and temple by the Romans. Dodd.
1:31 And the strong shall be as a {p} wick, and its maker as a spark, and they shall both burn together, and none shall quench [them].
(p) The false god’s in which you put your confidence will be consumed as easily as a piece of wick.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes