Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 63:7
I will mention the lovingkindnesses of the LORD, [and] the praises of the LORD, according to all that the LORD hath bestowed on us, and the great goodness toward the house of Israel, which he hath bestowed on them according to his mercies, and according to the multitude of his lovingkindnesses.
7. I will mention ] lit. “commemorate,” but with the implied idea of praise, as 1Ch 16:4; Psa 45:17; Psa 71:16; Isa 26:13, &c.
the praises of the Lord ] the praiseworthy deeds, as ch. Isa 60:6.
and the great goodness ] Cf. Psa 145:7, where the expression occurs.
according to his mercies &c. ] Cf. Psa 51:1, one of several points of resemblance, also Psa 106:45.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
7 9. Celebration of Jehovah’s past mercies to Israel, a frequent feature of O.T. prayers (Psa 77:10-15; Psa 78:1-4; Psa 89:1 f., Psa 105:1 f., Psa 106:2; Neh 9:5 ff., &c.).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Ch. Isa 63:7 to Isa 64:12. A Prayer of the People for the Renewal of Jehovah’s former Lovingkindness
(1) Isa 63:7-9. The prayer begins with thankful commemoration of Jehovah’s goodness to the nation in the days of old ( Isa 63:7). The reference is to the time of Moses and Joshua, when Jehovah’s loving confidence in His children had not yet been betrayed ( Isa 63:8), and when He continuously manifested Himself as their Saviour, bearing them safely through all dangers ( Isa 63:9).
(2) Isa 63:10-14. This ideal relation between Israel and its God has indeed long since been broken, through the rebellion and ingratitude of the people ( Isa 63:10). But in seasons of distress the better mind of the nation dwells wistfully on those ancient wonders of grace, and longs that Jehovah may again put forth His strength and vindicate His glorious name ( Isa 63:11-14).
(3) Isa 63:15-16. From the past the writer turns to the gloomy present, be seeching Jehovah to take notice of and have compassion on the affliction of His people. For He alone, and not Abraham or Israel, is the Father of the nation, and its Redeemer from of old.
(4) Isa 63:17-19. From this point the increasing impetuosity of the language reveals for the first time the extremity of the Church’s anguish. The prophet remonstrates with God for so withdrawing Himself from the people as to harden them in sin ( Isa 63:17) and cause them to be as if He had never ruled over them ( Isa 63:19).
(5) Isa 64:1-3. A passionate wish that Jehovah might now rend asunder the solid firmament, and melt the mountains, and make Himself known to the nation by terrible acts, surpassing the expectations of His people.
(6) Isa 63:4-7. In a more reflective strain the writer appears to seek for a reconciliation of Jehovah’s attitude to Israel with His eternally righteous character. He, the only God known who meets the righteousman, is yet wroth with His people so that they fall into sin ( Isa 63:4-5). The lamentable consequences of this hiding of God’s face on the religious condition of the people are described in Isa 63:6-7.
(7) Isa 63:8-12. Final appeal to the Fatherhood of God, and His consideration for the work of His hands ( Isa 63:8). Let Him moderate His wrath and remember that we are His people ( Isa 63:9). For surely the punishment of sin has been sufficient, the holy cities ruined, Jerusalem a desolation, the Temple burned with fire ( Isa 63:10-11). Can Jehovah look on these things and yet restrain His compassion ( Isa 63:12)?
The passage is one of the most instructive of O.T. prayers, and deserves careful study as an expression of the chastened and tremulous type of piety begotten in the sorrows of the Exile. Along with much that is of the permanent essence of prayer, thanksgiving, confession of sin, and supplication, it contains utterances which may cause surprise to a Christian reader, although they are paralleled in some of the Psalms, and in other portions of the literature. Very singular is the plea that the sinfulness of the people is due to the excessive and protracted anger of Jehovah, who “causes them to err from His ways” (Isa 63:17; cf. Isa 64:5; Isa 64:7). This feeling appears to proceed from two sources; on the one hand the ancient idea that national calamity is the proof of Jehovah’s anger, and on the other the lesson taught by all the prophets, that the sole cause of Jehovah’s anger is the people’s sins. The writer seems unable perfectly to harmonize these principles. He accepts the verdict of Providence on the sins of the nation, but he feels also a disproportion between the offence and the punishment, which neutralises all efforts after righteousness, unless Jehovah will relent from the fierceness of His wrath. The higher truth that the Divine chastisement aims at the purification of the people, and is therefore a mark of love, is not yet grasped, and for this reason the O.T. believers fall short of the liberty of the sons of God. Yet amid all these perplexities the faith of the Church holds fast to the truth of the Fatherhood of God, and appeals to the love which must be in His heart, although it be not manifest in His providential dealings.
So far as the ideas of the passage are concerned, it might have been composed at any time from the Exile downwards. Nor are the historical allusions so clear as could be desired. From Isa 63:18, Isa 64:11 f. we learn that the Temple has been burned, and the land laid waste. It is natural to understand this of the destruction of the city and Temple by the Chaldans in 586, and to conclude that the prayer was written during the Exile or at least before the rebuilding of the Temple in 520. In Isa 63:18 it is said that the Holy Land has been possessed “but a little while.” If the prayer was written in exile this must refer to the whole period from Joshua to the Captivity, which is not an interpretation that commends itself at first sight. It would no doubt be more intelligible if written not long after the restoration under Zerubbabel (cf. Ezr 9:8). But then we are confronted with the difficulty of the destruction of the Temple, for Duhm’s explanation that the writer ignores the second Temple because of its inferiority to the first can hardly be regarded as satisfactory; and to assume (with Kuenen and others) a destruction of the Temple by the Samaritans (see Ryle’s note on Neh 1:3) is hazardous in face of the silence of history. Partly for these reasons, and partly because of affinities to ch. 24 27, and some Psalms which he assigns to the same period, Cheyne brings down the date of composition to the time of Artaxerxes Ochus (cf. Vol. i. of this commentary, p. 204). Apart from Isa 63:18, the hypothesis of exilic authorship presents no serious difficulty, for although the surrounding discourses are probably post-exilic, it is quite conceivable that an earlier writing might have been incorporated with them as sufficiently expressive of the mind of the nation at the later period.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
I will mention – This is evidently the language of the people celebrating the praises of God in view of all his mercies in former days. See the analysis to the chapter. The design of what follows, to the close of Isa 64:1-12, is to implore the mercy of God in view of their depressed and ruined condition. They are represented as suffering under the infliction of long and continued ills; as cast out and driven to a distant land; as deprived of their former privileges, and as having been long subjected to great evils. Their temple is destroyed; their city desolate; and their whole nation afflicted and oppressed. The time is probably near the close of the captivity; though Lowth supposes that it refers to the Jews as scattered over all lands, and driven away from the country of their fathers. They begin their petitions in this verse with acknowledging Gods great mercies to their fathers and to their nation; then they confess their own disobedience, and supplicate, by various arguments, the divine mercy and favor. The Chaldee commences the verse thus, The prophet said, I will remember the mercy of the Lord. But it is the language of the people, not that of the prophet. The word rendered mention ( ‘azekiyr), means properly, I will cause to remember, or to be remembered (see the notes at Isa 62:6).
And the praises of the Lord – That is, I will recount the deeds which show that he is worthy of thanksgiving. The repetitions in this verse are designed to be emphatic; and the meaning of the whole is, that Yahweh had given them abundant cause of praise, notwithstanding the evils which they endured.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Isa 63:7
I will mention the loving kindnesses of the Lord
Gods redemptive triumph evoking thanksgiving, prayer and confession
The dialogue ended, the prophets tone changes.
In the assurance that the redemption, guaranteed by Jehovahs triumph, will be wrought out, he supplies faithful Israel with a hymn of thanksgiving, supplication and confession, expressive of the frame of mind worthy to receive it (Isa 63:7-19; Isa 64:1-12). In a stream of surpassing pathos and beauty the prophet, as it were, leads the devotions (Cheyne) of his nation, and lends words by his eloquence to their repentance. (Prof. S. R. Driver, D. D.)
A chastened piety
The passage (Isa 63:7-19; Isa 64:1-12) is one of themost instructive of Old Testament prayers, and deserves careful study as an expression of the chastened and tremulous type of piety begotten in the sorrows of the Exile. So far as the ideas of the passage are concerned, it might have been composed at any time from the Exile downwards. (Prof. J. Skinner, D. D.)
The tender mercies of God
To discover the heights or to fathom the depths of this grace, exceeds the power of men or angels; yet the view perhaps may be enlightened by some of the following reflections.
1. In purposing and planning the grit work of redemption, the Eternal Mind was self-moved, uncounselled, unsolicited.
2. This love was wholly disinterested, having no-reward in view but the pleasure of doing good.
3. This love is still more sublimely considered as acting towards inferiors.
4. Redeeming love is still more wonderful as exercised towards enemies.
5. This love appears altogether astonishing when we consider the greatness of the sacrifice it made.
6. The extent of redeeming love further appears in the magnitude of the blessings which it intended for a ruined race.
7. This mercy is heightened by the fact that the Saviour is so necessary, reasonable and all-sufficient.
8. This mercy is still further heightened by the patience and condescending tenderness which He exercises towards His people. He calls them His friends, His brethren, His children, His spouse, the members of His body, the apple of His eye.
9. This wondrous mercy is further expressed in the gift of Sabbaths and sacraments, and especially the written Word.
10. Fresh evidence of this love springs up at every review of Gods past providence towards the Church.
11. All these are the more affecting as being marks of distinguishing love.
12. The grace of God appears still greater as being abundant. (E. Griffin.)
A song concerning loving kindnesses
I. THE MERCIES TO BE MENTIONED. A complete summary we cannot give, for who can count the sands of the sea or the stars of the sky?
1. The list commences with special electing love. In the Hebrew the eighth verse runs, For He said, they only are My people.
2. Pass on to the next sweet token of Divine lovingkindness which is found in the Fatherly confidence which the Lord has manifested towards His people. Children that will not lie.
3. His great sympathy with us. In all their affliction He was affected (Isa 63:9).
4. His intimate intercourse with us. The Angel of His presence saved them.
5. The gracious interpositions of God on behalf of His people. In His love and in His pity He redeemed them.
6. God provided for, led, protected and upheld His people by a wondrous special providence while they were in the wilderness. He bare them, etc. (Isa 63:9).
7. The prophet further goes on to mention the Lords chastening. It is to be sorrowed over that we need chastening, but God is to be praised that He does not withhold it from us (Isa 63:10).
8. The next thing the prophet sings about is Gods faithfulness, for though He did smite His people, yet in a very short time we find that He remembered the days of old, etc. (Isa 63:11-13). We will close this catalogue with one more choice mercy, for the prophet tells us of Gods giving His people rest after all (Isa 63:14).
II. CERTAIN POINTS WORTHY OF SPECIAL MENTION.
1. Whatever has been bestowed upon us by God reveals His lovingkindness.
2. The consequent praise which is due to God on account of this.
3. The uniform nature of all Gods dealings with us. According to all that the Lord hath bestowed on us. Let us praise Him according to all that the
Lord hath bestowed upon us, blessing Him for bitters and sweets, for blacks and whites, for storms and calms.
4. The grandeur of the goodness which is shown in every mercy. The great goodness toward the house of Israel. Ingratitude makes little of much, but gratitude sees much in little.
5. We ought to take peculiar note in our song of the condescending tenderness and pity of God, for such is the force of the next expression, which He hath bestowed on them according to His mercies,–a clearer rendering would be, according to His compassion.
6. One other special note demands to be heard, and that is the multitudinous displays of His love. According to the multitude of His lovingkindnesses, of all shapes, and at all times, and in all ways, and from all points of the compass.
III. PRACTICAL REASONS WHY WE SHOULD THUS MENTION THE LOVINGKINDNESSES OF THE LORD.
1. That we may have pleas in prayer. This is the best way of praying: Lord, Thou hast done this for Thy servant, Thou hast done that for Thy servant, therefore I beseech Thee do more. This is not after the manner of men, for when we once relieve a mans necessities we say to him, Do not come again; but every gift which God gives is an invitation to come again, and the best way in which we can show our gratitude is to seek for further gifts.
2. These memories will act as stays to your faith.
3. They will minister to your present comfort.
4. The thought of all this would make us love God more, and obey Him better.
5. To mention the Lords goodness enables us to cheer others, for we do not know who may be standing by.
6. It will glorify Him, and this should always be your master motive. (C. H.Spurgeon.)
A rinsed mouth
The Lord rinse your mouths out if you have a bitter way of talking about other people, or about His providence, and lead you henceforth to glory in His holy name.(C. H. Spurgeon.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 7. I will mention the loving-kindnesses of the Lord] The prophet connects the preceding mercies of God to the Jews with the present prospect he has of their redemption by the Messiah; thus making a circle in which eternal goodness revolves. The remaining part of this chapter, with the whole chapter following, contains a penitential confession and supplication of the Israelites in their present state of dispersion, in which they have so long marvellously subsisted, and still continue to subsist, as a people; cast out of their country; without any proper form of civil polity or religious worship, their temple destroyed, their city desolated and lost to them, and their whole nation scattered over the face of the earth, apparently deserted and cast off by the God of their fathers, as no longer his peculiar people.
They begin with acknowledging God’s great mercies and favours to their nation, and the ungrateful returns made to them on their part, that by their disobedience they had forfeited the protection of God, and had caused him to become their adversary. And now the prophet represents them, induced by the memory of the great things that God had done for them, as addressing their humble supplication for the renewal of his mercies. They beseech him to regard them in consideration of his former loving-kindness, they acknowledge him for their Father and Creator, they confess their wickedness and hardness of heart, they entreat his forgiveness, and deplore their present miserable condition under which they have so long suffered. It seems designed as a formulary of humiliation for the Israelites, in order to their conversion.
The whole passage is in the elegiac form, pathetic and elegant; but it has suffered much in our present copy by the mistakes of transcribers.
The praises of the Lord – “The praise of JEHOVAH”] For tehilloth, plural, twenty-nine MSS. (three ancient) and two editions, have tehillath, in the singular number; and so the Vulgate renders it; and one of the Greek versions, in the margin of Cod. Marchal. and in the text of MSS. Pachom. and I. D. II. , “the praise of the Lord.” – L.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Whether this ought to be the beginning of a new chapter, or no, is not material; but certainly here begins a new matter, which contains the prophets prayer, either in his own name or the churchs, to the end of Isa 64; wherein he begins with mentioning the great kindnesses that God had shown the Jews, and that emphatically, setting it forth with the greatest advantages; and the more, either to aggravate their great unkindness, or to give them some hope of finding him the like again in their distresses, or by way of argument with God to show them mercy, because he had been so good to them.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
7. Israel’s penitentialconfession and prayer for restoration (Psa 102:17;Psa 102:20), extending from Isa63:7 to 64:12.
loving-kindnesses . . .praises . . . mercies . . . loving-kindnessesThe pluralsand the repetitions imply that language is inadequate to express thefull extent of God’s goodness.
usthe dispersed Jewsat the time just preceding their final restoration.
house of Israelof allages; God was good not merely to the Jews now dispersed, but toIsrael in every age of its history.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
I will mention the lovingkindnesses of the Lord,…. These are the words of the prophet, as Jarchi and Kimchi observe; who, having heard what the Lord would do for his church and people in later times, by avenging them on their enemies, calls to mind the favours bestowed on Israel of old; and determines to make mention of them, and put the saints in mind of them, as types, earnests, and pledges of what would be done for them; and to encourage their faith and hope in the performance of what was promised them: these he calls “the lovingkindnesses of the Lord”; meaning not only the instances of his providential goodness in bringing them out of Egypt, leading them through the Red sea and wilderness, and settling them in Canaan’s land, after particularly mentioned; but also those of his special grace and goodness to the chosen of God among them; called in the plural number “lovingkindnesses”, being the acts of all the three Persons displayed in election, redemption, and sanctification; and because these are many and various, and an abundance of grace and love is manifested in them:
and the praises of the Lord, according to all that the Lord hath bestowed on us; which are due to him from all creatures, angels and men, and especially the saints; and which belong to each divine Person, according to the various gifts of grace freely bestowed by them; such as the gift of God himself to his people; the gifts of his Son, and of the blessed Spirit, with all his graces, faith, hope, love, repentance, c. and all the blessings of grace; as pardon, justification, adoption, and eternal life; a right unto it, and meetness for it all which call for praise and thankfulness: and the
great goodness towards the house of Israel, which he hath bestowed on them according to his mercies, and according to the multitude of his lovingkindnesses; the gifts of grace are bestowed, not according to the merits of men, for then they would not be free grace gifts; and, besides, there is no merit in a creature; the best works of the best of men are not meritorious, of anything at the hand of God; but all they have flow from mere sovereign mercy, pure grace, and free unmerited love, which is abundant, yea, boundless, and even infinite. A heap of words is here made use of, and all little enough to express the wonderful kindness of God in the acts of his grace and goodness to his church and people; which ought always to be had in sight and mind, and to be remembered and spoken of in private and in public.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The prophet, as the leader of the prayers of the church, here passes into the expanded style of the tephillah. Isa 63:7 “I will celebrate the mercies of Jehovah, the praises of Jehovah, as is seemly for all that Jehovah hath shown us, and the great goodness towards the house of Israel, which He hath shown them according to His pity, and the riches of His mercies.” The speaker is the prophet, in the name of the church, or, what is the same thing, the church in which the prophet includes himself. The prayer commences with thanksgiving, according to the fundamental rule in Psa 50:23. The church brings to its own remembrance, as the subject of praise in the presence of God, all the words and deeds by which Jehovah has displayed His mercy and secured glory to Himself. (this is the correct pointing, with protected by gaya ; cf., in Isa 54:12) are the many thoughts of mercy and acts of mercy into which the grace of God, i.e., His one purpose of grace and His one work of grace, had been divided. They are just so many t e hilloth , self-glorifications of God, and impulses to His glorification. On , as is seemly, see at Isa 59:18. There is no reason for assuming that is equivalent to , as Hitzig and Knobel do. commences the second object to , in which what follows is unfolded as a parallel to the first. Rabh , the much, is a neuter formed into a substantive, as in Psa 145:7; robh , plurality or multiplicity, is an infinitive used as a substantive. Tubh is God’s benignant goodness; rachamm , His deepest sympathizing tenderness; c hesed (root , used of violent emotion; cf., Syr. c hasad , c hasam , aemulari ; Arab. hss , to be tender, full of compassion), grace which condescends to and comes to meet a sinful creature. After this introit, the prayer itself commences with a retrospective glance at the time of the giving of law, when the relation of a child, in which Israel stood to Jehovah, was solemnly proclaimed and legally regulated. Isa 63:8 “He said, They are my people, children who will not lie; and He became their Saviour.” is used here in its primary affirmative sense. is the future of hope. When He made them His people, His children, He expected from them a grateful return of His covenant grace in covenant fidelity; and whenever they needed help from above, He became their Saviour ( m osha ). We can recognise the ring of Exo 15:2 here, just as in Isa 12:2. Mosha ) is a favourite word in chapters 40-66 (compare, however, Isa 19:20 also).
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| Acknowledgments of Divine Goodness. | B. C. 706. |
7 I will mention the lovingkindnesses of the LORD, and the praises of the LORD, according to all that the LORD hath bestowed on us, and the great goodness toward the house of Israel, which he hath bestowed on them according to his mercies, and according to the multitude of his lovingkindnesses. 8 For he said, Surely they are my people, children that will not lie: so he was their Saviour. 9 In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old. 10 But they rebelled, and vexed his holy Spirit: therefore he was turned to be their enemy, and he fought against them. 11 Then he remembered the days of old, Moses, and his people, saying, Where is he that brought them up out of the sea with the shepherd of his flock? where is he that put his holy Spirit within him? 12 That led them by the right hand of Moses with his glorious arm, dividing the water before them, to make himself an everlasting name? 13 That led them through the deep, as a horse in the wilderness, that they should not stumble? 14 As a beast goeth down into the valley, the Spirit of the LORD caused him to rest: so didst thou lead thy people, to make thyself a glorious name.
The prophet is here, in the name of the church, taking a review, and making a thankful recognition, of God’s dealings with his church all along, ever since he founded it, before he comes, in the latter end of this chapter and in the next, as a watchman upon the walls, earnestly to pray to God for his compassion towards her in her present deplorable state; and it was usual for God’s people, in their prayers, thus to look back.
I. Here is a general acknowledgment of God’s goodness to them all along, v. 7. It was said, in general, of God’s prophets and people (ch. lxii. 6) that they made mention of the Lord; now here we are told what it is in God that they do especially delight to make mention of, and that is his goodness, which the prophet here so makes mention of as if he thought he could never say enough of it. He mentions the kindness of God (which never appeared so evident, so eminent, as in his love to mankind in sending his Son to save us, Tit. iii. 4), his loving-kindness, kindness that shows itself in every thing that is endearing; nay, so plenteous are the springs, and so various the streams, of divine mercy, that he speaks of it in the plural number–his loving-kindnesses; for, if we would count the fruits of his loving-kindness, they are more in number than the sand. With his loving-kindnesses he mentions his praises, that is, the thankful acknowledgments which the saints make of his loving-kindness, and the angels too. It must be mentioned, to God’s honour, what a tribute of praise is paid to him by all his creatures in consideration of his loving-kindness. See how copiously he speaks, 1. Of the goodness that is from God, the gifts of his loving-kindness–all that the Lord has bestowed on us in particular, relating to life and godliness, in our personal and family capacity. Let every man speak for himself, speak as he has found, and he must own that he has had a great deal bestowed upon him by the divine bounty. But we must also mention the favours bestowed upon his church, his great goodness towards the house of Israel, which he has bestowed on them. Note, We must bless God for the mercies enjoyed by others as well as for those enjoyed by ourselves, and reckon that bestowed on ourselves which is bestowed on the house of Israel. 2. Of the goodness that is in God. God does good because he is good; what he bestowed upon us must be traced up to the original; it is according to his mercies (not according to our merits) and according to the multitude of his loving-kindnesses, which can never be spent. Thus we should magnify God’s goodness, and speak honourably of it, not only when we plead it (as David, Ps. li. 1), but when we praise it.
II. Here is particular notice taken of the steps of God’s mercy to Israel ever since it was formed into a nation.
1. The expectations God had concerning them that they would conduct themselves well, v. 8. When he brought them out of Egypt and took them into covenant with himself he said, “Surely they are my people, I take them as such, and am willing to hope they will approve themselves so, children that will not lie,” that will not dissemble with God in their covenantings with him, nor treacherously depart from him by breaking their covenant and starting aside like a broken bow. They said, more than once, All that the Lord shall say unto us we will do and will be obedient; and thereupon he took them to be his peculiar people, saying, Surely they will not lie. God deals fairly and faithfully with them, and therefore expects they should deal so with him. They are children of the covenant (Acts iii. 25), children of those that clave unto the Lord, and therefore it may be hoped that they will tread in the steps of their fathers’ constancy. Note, God’s people are children that will not lie; for those that will are not his children but the devil’s.
2. The favour he showed them with an eye to these expectations: So he was their Saviour out of the bondage of Egypt and all the calamities of their wilderness-state, and many a time since he had been their Saviour. See particularly (v. 9) what he did for them as their Saviour. (1.) The principle that moved him to work salvation for them; it was in his love and in his pity, out of mere compassion to them and a tender affection for them, not because he either needed them or could be benefited by them. This is strangely expressed here: In all their affliction he was afflicted; not that the Eternal Mind is capable of grieving or God’s infinite blessedness of suffering the least damage or diminution (God cannot be afflicted); but thus he is pleased to show forth the love and concern he has for his people in their affliction; thus far he sympathizes with them, that he takes what injury is done to them as done to himself and will reckon for it accordingly. Their cries move him (Exod. iii. 7), and he appears for them as vigorously as if he were pained in their pain. Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? This is matter of great comfort to God’s people in their affliction that God is so far from afflicting willingly (Lam. iii. 33) that, if they humble themselves under his hand, he is afflicted in their affliction, as the tender parents are in the severe operations which the case of a sick child calls for. There is another reading of these words in the original: In all their affliction there was no affliction; though they were in great affliction, yet the property of it was so altered by the grace of God sanctifying it to them for their good, the rigour of it was so mitigated and it was so allayed and balanced with mercies, they were so wonderfully supported and comforted under it, and it proved so short, and ended so well, that it was in effect no affliction. The troubles of the saints are not that to them which they are to others; they are not afflictions, but medicines; saints are enabled to call them light, and but for a moment, and, with an eye to heaven as all in all, to make nothing of them. (2.) The person employed in their salvation–the angel of his face, or presence. Some understand it of a created angel. The highest angel in heaven, even the angel of his presence, that attends next the throne of his glory, is not thought too great, too good, to be sent on this errand. Thus the little ones’ angels are said to be those that always behold the face of our Father, Matt. xviii. 10. But this is rather to be understood of Jesus Christ, the eternal Word, that angel of whom God spoke to Moses (Exo 23:20; Exo 23:21), whose voice Israel was to obey. He is called Jehovah,Exo 13:21; Exo 14:21; Exo 14:24. He is the angel of the covenant, God’s messenger to the world, Mal. iii. 1. He is the angel of God’s face, for he is the express image of his person; and the glory of God shines in the face of Christ. He that was to work out the eternal salvation, as an earnest of that, wrought out the temporal salvations that were typical of it. (3.) The progress and perseverance of this favour. He not only redeemed them out of their bondage, but he bore them and carried them all the days of old; they were weak, but he supported them by his power, sustained them by his bounty; when they were burdened, and ready to sink, he bore them up; in the wars they made upon the nations he stood by them and bore them out; though they were peevish, he bore with them and suffered their manners, Acts xiii. 18. He carried them as the nursing father does the child, though they would have tired any arms but his; he carried them as the eagle her young upon her wings, Deut. xxxii. 11. And it was a long time that he was troubled with them (if we may so speak): it was all the days of old; his care of them was not at an end even when they had grown up and were settled in Canaan. All this was in his love and pity, ex mero motu–of his mere good-will; he loved them because he would love them, as he says, Deu 7:7; Deu 7:8.
3. Their disingenuous conduct towards him, and the trouble they thereby brought upon themselves (v. 10): But they rebelled. Things looked very hopeful and promising; one would have thought that they should have continued dutiful children to God, and then there was no doubt but he would have continued a gracious Father to them; but here is a sad change on both sides, and on them be the breach. (1.) They revolted from their allegiance to God and took up arms against him: They rebelled, and vexed his Holy Spirit with their unbelief and murmuring, besides the iniquity of the golden calf; and this had been their way and manner ever since. Though he was ready to say of them, They will not lie, though he had done so much for them, borne them and carried them, yet they thus ill requited him, like foolish people and unwise, Deut. xxxii. 6. This grieved him, Ps. cxv. 10. The ungrateful rebellions of God’s children against him are a vexation to his Holy Spirit. (2.) Thereupon he justly withdrew his protection, and not only so, but made war upon them, as a prince justly does upon the rebels. He who had been so much their friend was turned to be their enemy and fought against them, by one judgment after another, both in the wilderness and after their settlement in Canaan. See the malignity and mischievousness of sin; it makes God an enemy even to those for whom he has done the part of a good friend, and makes him angry who was all love and pity. See the folly of sinners; they wilfully lose him for a friend who is the most desirable friend, and make him their enemy who is the most formidable enemy. This refers especially to those calamities that were of late brought upon them by their captivity in Babylon for their idolatries and other sins. That which is both the original and the great aggravation of their troubles was that God was turned to be their enemy.
4. A particular reflection made, on this occasion, upon what God did for them when he first formed them into a people: Then he remembered the days of old, v. 11.
(1.) This may be understood either of the people or of God. [1.] We may understand it of the people. Israel then (spoken of as a single person) remembered the days of old, looked into their Bibles, read the story of God’s bringing their fathers out of Egypt, considered it more closely than ever they did before, and reasoned upon it, as Gideon did (Judg. vi. 13), Where are all the wonders that our fathers told us of? “Where is he that brought them up out of Egypt? Is he not as able to bring us up out of Babylon? Where is the Lord God of Elijah? Where is the Lord God of our fathers?” This they consider as an inducement and an encouragement to them to repent and return to him; their fathers were a provoking people and yet found him a pardoning God; and why may not they find him so if they return to him? They also use it as a plea with God in prayer for the turning again of their captivity, like that Isa 51:9; Isa 51:10. Note, When the present days are dark and cloudy it is good to remember the days of old, to recollect our own and others’ experiences of the divine power and goodness and make use of them, to look back upon the years of the right hand of the Most High (Psa 77:5; Psa 77:10), and remember that he is God, and changes not. [2.] We may understand it of God; he put himself in mind of the days of old, of his covenant with Abraham (Lev. xxvi. 42); he said, Where is he that brought Israel up out of the sea? stirring up himself to come and save them with this consideration, “Why should not I appear for them now as I did for their fathers, who were as undeserving, as ill-deserving, as they are?” See how far off divine mercy will go, how far back it will look, to find out a reason for doing good to his people, when ho present considerations appear but what make against them. Nay, it makes that a reason for relieving them which might have been used as a reason for abandoning them. He might have said, “I have delivered them formerly, but they have again brought trouble upon themselves (Prov. xix. 19); there I will deliver them no more,” Judg. x. 13. But no; mercy rejoices against judgment, and turns the argument the other way: “I have formerly delivered them and therefore will now.”
(2.) Which way soever we take it, whether the people plead it with God or God with himself, let us view the particulars, and they agree very much with the confession and prayer which the children of the captivity made upon a solemn fast-day (Neh. ix. 5, c.), which may serve as a comment on these verses which call to mind Moses and his people, that is, what God did by Moses for his people, especially in bringing them through the Red Sea, for that is it that is here most insisted on for it was a work which he much gloried in and which his people therefore may in a particular manner encourage themselves with the remembrance of. [1.] God led them by the right hand of Moses (v. 12) and the wonder-working rod in his hand. Ps. lxxvii. 20, Thou leddest thy people like a flock by the hand of Moses. It was not Moses that led them, any more than it was Moses that fed them (John vi. 32), but God by Moses; for it was he that qualified Moses for, called him to, assisted and prospered him in that great undertaking. Moses is here called the shepherd of his flock; God was the owner of the flock and the chief shepherd of Israel (Ps. lxxx. 1); but Moses was a shepherd under him, and he was inured to labour and patience, and so fitted for this pastoral care, by his being trained up to keep the flock of his father Jethro. Herein he was a type of Christ the good shepherd, that lays down his life for the sheep, which was more than Moses did for Israel, though he did a great deal for them. [2.] He put his holy Spirit within him; the Spirit of God was among them, and not only his providence, but his grace, did work for them. Neh. ix. 20, Thou gavest thy good Spirit to instruct them. The spirit of wisdom and courage, as well as the Spirit of prophecy, was put into Moses, to qualify him for that service among them to which he was called; and some of his spirit was put upon the seventy elders, Num. xi. 17. This was a great blessing to Israel, that they had among them not only inspired writings, but inspired men. [3.] He carried them safely through the Red Sea, and thereby saved them out of the hands of Pharaoh. First, He divided the water before them (v. 12), so that it gave them not only passage, but protection, not only opened them a lane, but erected them a wall on either side. Secondly, He led them through the deep as a horse in the wilderness, or in the plain (v. 13); they and their wives and children, with all their baggage, went as easily and readily through the bottom of the sea (though we may suppose it muddy or stony, or both) as a horse goes along upon even ground; so that they did not stumble, though it was an untrodden path, which neither they nor any one else ever went before. If God make us a way, he will make it plain and level; the road he opens to his people he will lead them in. Thirdly, To complete the mercy, he brought them up out of the sea, v. 11. Though the ascent, it is likely, was very steep, dirty, slippery, and unconquerable (at least by the women and children, and the men, considering how they were loaded, Exod. xii. 34, and how fatigued), yet God by his power brought them up from the depths of the earth; and it was a kind of resurrection to them; it was as life from the dead. [4.] He brought them safely to a place of rest: As a beast goes down into the valley, carefully and gradually, so the Spirit of the Lord caused him to rest. Many a time in their march through the wilderness they had resting-places provided for them by the direction of the Spirit of the Lord in Moses, v. 11. And at length they were made to rest finally in Canaan, and the Spirit of the Lord gave them that rest according to the promise. It is by the Spirit of the Lord that God’s Israel are caused to return to God and repose in him as their rest. [5.] All this he did for them by his own power, for his own praise. First, It was by his own power, as the God of nature, that has all the powers of nature at his command; he did it with his glorious arm, the arm of his gallantry, or bravery; so the word signifies. It was not Moses’s rod, but God’s glorious arm, that did it. Secondly, It was for his own praise, to make himself an everlasting name (v. 12), a glorious name (v. 14), that he might be glorified, everlastingly glorified, upon this account. This is that which God is doing in the world with his glorious arm, he is making to himself a glorious name, and it shall last to endless ages, when the most celebrated names of the great ones of the earth shall be written in the dust.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Vs. 7-14: A RETROSPECTIVE VIEW
1. In verses 7-9 Isaiah praises the faithfullness of Jehovah in identifying Himself with His covenant people, and for sustaining them from ancient times.
a. He recalls the loving-kindness (Isa 54:8-10; Psa 25:6; Psa 25:10; Psa 40:11; Psa 92:1-2), great goodness (1Ki 8:56; Neh 9:24-25; Neh 9:35), and constant mercy (Neh 9:19; Neh 9:27-28; Psa 51:1; Psa 86:5; Psa 86:15; La 3:22; Dan 9:9; Dan 9:18; Eph 2:4; Rom 12:1) of the Lord toward His people – all illustrating the incredible love that He manifested toward them!
b. Having acknowledged Israel as His own people (Exo 6:6-7; Isa 3:15; Isa 51:4). He might well expect them to deal faithfully with Him (Isa 51:7; Psa 37:30-31); He was their constant Deliverer (vs. 8; Isa 60:16; Isa 43:3; Isa 43:11; Isa 45:15; Isa 45:21).
c. Bearing their afflictions (Jdg 20:16; Jdg 2:18; comp. Heb 12:5-11; La 3:33), the “angel of His presence” (the form in which He appeared to them in Old Testament times) saved them from destruction at the hands of their enemies, (vs. 9a; Exo 23:20; Exo 23:23; Exo 32:34; Exo 33:2; Exo 33:14-15).
d. In loving sympathy, He redeemed them, lifted them up, and carried them through all the days of old, (Deu 7:7-8; Deu 1:31; Deu 32:10-12; Deu 32:19-25; Isa 43:1-2; Isa 46:3-4).
2. When they rebelled (Psa 78:40-41; Psa 106:33), and grieved the Holy Spirit (Act 7:51; Eph 4:30; Psa 51:11), the Lord .became the antagonist of His erring people, and fought against them, (vs. 10; Jdg 2:14; Psa 78:59-64; Psa 106:40).
3. Then the nation recalls the blessedness of ancient days – when Moses, under the Lord’s direction, faithfully led their fathers from bondage and affliction into rest; they finally come to recognize that their own sin has separated them from the manifested presence and protection of the Lord, (vs. 11-14a).
4. Here Isaiah addresses the Lord directly – recalling His goodness toward His ancient people, and reminding Him of the glorious name He has made for Himself by His faithful guidance and sustenance, (vs. 14b).
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
7. I will keep in remembrance the compassions of Jehovah. Isaiah brings consolation to his people in distressed and calamitous circumstances, and by his example bids the Jews, when they were oppressed by afflictions, call to remembrance God’s ancient benefits, and betake themselves to prayer; that they may not be like hypocrites, who only in prosperity feel the goodness of God, and are so much cast down by adversity as to remember no benefit. But when the Lord chastises us, we ought to mention and celebrate his benefits, and to cherish better hopes for the future; for the Lord is always the same, and does not change his purpose or his inclination; and therefore if we leave room for his compassion, we shall never be left destitute.
Such appears to me to be the scope of the context, though others view it in a different light, namely, that the Prophet, having hitherto spoken of the destruction of the people, comforts himself by this confident hope of compassion, that God wishes to save some of them. But they are mistaken in supposing that Isaiah has hitherto spoken of the Jews, as if God punished them only, whereas he testified that he would likewise punish other nations, that they might not think that they alone were hated by God; and accordingly, he now exhorts them to celebrate the remembrance of those benefits which God had formerly bestowed on the fathers, that by their example they may know better the love of God toward them. From the context it will also appear clearly, that the Jews are joined with their fathers, that the covenant which belongs to them in common with their fathers, may encourage them to hope well.
As upon all that Jehovah hath bestowed on us. He employs the particle of comparison, As, in order to shew that in adversity we ought instantly to remember those benefits which the Lord bestowed on his people, as if they were placed before our eyes, though they appear to be buried by extreme old age; for if they do not belong to us, the remembrance of them would be idle and unprofitable.
He confirms this also by saying on us. Because the Jews were members of the same body, he justly reckons them the descendants of their grandfathers and other ancestors. Isaiah did not, indeed, experience those benefits which he mentions; but because they had been bestowed on the Church, the fruit of them came partly to himself, because he was a member of the Church. And undoubtedly that communion of saints which we profess to believe, ought to be so highly valued by us, as to lead us to think that what the Church has received from the hand of God has been given to us; for the Church of God is one, and that which now is has nothing separate from that which formerly was. (175)
In the multitude of kindness toward the house of Israel. By these words Isaiah more fully explains his meaning. Since therefore the Lord shewed himself to be kind and bountiful toward his people, we ought to hope for the same thing in the present day, because we are “fellow-citizens,” and members of the very same Church. (Eph 2:19.) Although we feel that God is angry with us on account of our sins, yet our hearts ought to be encouraged by hope and armed by confidence; because he cannot forsake his Church. Yet it ought to be carefully observed, that the Prophet extols and magnifies in lofty terms the mercy of God, that we may know that the foundation of our salvation and of all blessings is laid on it; for this excludes the merits of men, that nothing may in any way be ascribed to them.
That this doctrine may be better understood, we must take into account the time of which Isaiah speaks. At that time righteousness and godliness chiefly flourished; for although the people were exceedingly corrupted, yet Moses, Aaron, and other good men, gave illustrious examples of unblamable and holy lives. Yet the Prophet shews that all the blessings which the Lord. bestowed on Moses and others ought to be ascribed, not to their merits, but to the mercy of God. But what are we in comparison of Moses, that we should deserve anything from God? This repetition, therefore, of kindness, mercies, and compassions, as it raises feeble minds on high, that they may rise above stupendous and formidable temptations, ought also to remove and swallow up all thought of human merits.
(175) “Here the Prophet, in the person of a captive Jew, makes a grateful acknowledgment of the manifold mercies bestowed on their nation from the time that he first took them into favor, the thoughts of which served to keep up their spirits, and made them hope that some time or other he would be mindful of them, and redeem them, as he did their forefathers.” — White.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(7) I will mention . . .The words begin an entirely new section, of the nature of a psalm of thanksgiving for redemption (Isa. 63:16). Possibly, in the arrangement of the book it was thought that such a psalm followed rightly on the great dramatic dialogue which represented the victory of the Redeemer. The psalm begins, according to the implied rule of Psa. 50:23, with praise, and passes afterward to narrative and supplication.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
7. I will mention the lovingkindness of the Lord Or, I will record, etc. The words of the voice recall the deep religious sense of Psalms 139. Praises of the Lord bestowed mercies, etc. That is, in the name of the Church, to such a degree restored, the prophet recounts the Lord’s mercies, which show that he is worthy of abounding thanksgiving from the Church.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
THE LAST CONTROVERSY WITH ISRAEL, Isa 63:7 to Isa 65:25.
Israel’s former Mercies and Sins.
There are various schemes of division of the matter now following. The one here adopted as best, is that of two well-defined sections, namely, The Last Controversy of Israel, with subdivisions as the topics vary, (Isa 63:7 to Isa 65:25,) and The Full Redemption of Zion, comprising chapter 66.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘I will put in remembrance the covenant lovingkindnesses of Yahweh,
And the praises of Yahweh, according to all that Yahweh has bestowed on us.
And the great goodness towards the house of Israel which he has bestowed on them according to his mercies,
And according to the multitude of his covenant love.’
Isaiah states that, as his response to the appearance of the figure in Isa 63:1-6, he will begin to act as a ‘remembrancer’ for his people (compare Isa 62:6) by examining God’s past goodness to His people. He will put Him in remembrance of the greatness of ‘Yahweh’s covenant lovingkindnesses’, and the many reasons they have for praising Him in the light of all He has bestowed on them in faithfulness to the covenant. As Yahweh’s prophet he will reveal His great goodness to the house of Israel bestowed on them in accordance with His mercies and the vastness of His covenant love. For these past mercies are the basis of his hope.
Note the covenant love mentioned both at the beginning and the end. Chesed is very much God’s love as connected with the covenant. His covenant lovingkindnesses cover all that He has done and said in fulfilling His part of the covenant and demonstrate how He has been faithful to the covenant.
‘The house of Israel’. In accordance with his pattern mentioned previously Isaiah does not speak simply of Israel. House of Israel is less personal and differentiates them from the Servant. (See note on Isa 58:14).
He then begins to outline the ups and downs of the relationship between God and His people.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
The Response of Jacob Through Isaiah ( Isa 63:7 to Isa 64:12 ).
In response to the glory and fierceness of the One Who is coming Isaiah, fearfully aware of what the future might hold, especially in the light of the revelations given to him, and knowing the spiritual condition of his own people, brings God into remembrance of what He has done for His people in the past. He draws out how He has chosen them and through them brought great glory to His name, and then pleads for Him to act again and have mercy. In the face of the undeserving of His people Isaiah asks God to remember His own nature. He pleads for God to intervene on their behalf. Let them not be as Edom.
Isaiah Prayerfully Acts As A Remembrancer Of God’s Past Mercies In The Light of the Challenge of the Bloodstained One (Isa 63:7-14).
As chapters 63-64 will bring out, in spite of his previous descriptions of the saving work of God, Isaiah has no delusions about the people. Their condition at present is dreadful, and he recognises that all that he can do is remind Him of His past mercies and promises, and plead that He will be merciful towards them.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
The Lord’s Loving-Kindness in the Past and his People’s Prayers.
v. 7. I will mention the loving-kindnesses of the Lord, v. 8. For He said, Surely they are My people, v. 9. In all their affliction He was afflicted, v. 10. But they rebelled, v. 11. Then he, v. 12. that led them by the right hand of Moses with His glorious arm, v. 13. that led them through the deep, v. 14. As a beast goeth down into the valley, the Spirit of the Lord caused him, v. 15. Look down from heaven and behold from the habitation of Thy holiness and of Thy glory, v. 16. Doubtless Thou art our Father, v. 17. O Lord, why hast, Thou made us to err from Thy ways, why did He permit this going astray, and hardened our heart from Thy fear?
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Isa 63:7. Vitringa begins here the second section of the fifth discourse, which is comprised, according to him, in this and the following chapter, and contains the discourse of a company of penitent Jews, confessional and supplicatory. In the confessional part we have, first, a commemoration of the benefits conferred by God upon the Jewish nation, in hope that they would rightly use them; general in Isa 63:7-8 particular, with respect to the angel of Jehovah, and the Holy Spirit, Isa 63:9-10. Secondly, we have the ingratitude of this nation, with the sad consequence thereof; namely, deprivation of their superior light and grace, Isa 63:10. Thirdly, a complaint of the people, long forsaken, concerning the misery of their state, compared with the benefits of ancient times; Isa 63:11-14. The supplicatory part contains, first, an humble supplication for this miserable and afflicted people; the arguments bring drawn from the divine excellencies, Isa 63:15.from confidence in God alone, with a renunciation of all merit; Isa 63:16.and from the greatness of their misery and calamity, Isa 63:17-19. Secondly, a prayer is intermixed, expressing their ardent desire of this benefit; the first reason being drawn from the example of God’s descent upon mount Sinai, chap. Isa 64:1-3. The second from the greater examples of divine grace which were expected under the new oeconomy, Isa 63:4. We have, thirdly, the supplication repeated; wherein they justify the ways of God, and in the most humble manner again confess their own unworthiness and spiritual misery; Isa 63:5-7. They earnestly deprecate the wrath of God, which had lain so long upon them, from a regard to God and themselves, Isa 63:8-9. They urge in mournful terms their external and temporal calamity, to move the compassion of God; Isa 63:10-12. Vitringa supposes that this section pertains to the present dispersed Jews, who, seeing the wonderful display of God’s power in the destruction of the papal church and tyranny, will be converted in consequence to the Christian religion: in a view to this he here introduces a company of Jews, representing the first-fruits at the beginning of this great work of grace, deploring the blindness and hardness of their nation, and with the utmost humility turning themselves, and praying for that complete conversion of their nation, which is to follow the coming-in of the fulness of the Gentiles. See Rom 11:25-26.
I will mention I will commemorate, &c. The prophet here speaks in the person of those penitent Jews, who, convinced themselves of the truth of Christianity, intercede for the rest of their brethren, in that state of blindness and darkness under which the nation had long groaned. An attention to the analysis will, perhaps, prove the best comment on this section.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
IV.THE FOURTH DISCOURSE
The Prophet in Spirit puts Himself in the Place of the Exiled Church, and bears its Cause in Prayer before the Lord
s Isa 63:7 to Isa 64:11
Chapters 6063. 6, are like a prophetic high plateau, which the Prophet, by means of chapters 58 and 59 has ascended out of his own time. In this fourth discourse he comes down again to the present time, that is to say, to a time relatively present, to that of the people in exile. He transports himself entirely into this time, as if he were passing through it, and sets before the Lord the temporal and spiritual need of the people living in exile. He does this by first taking a retrospect of the past, and showing what the Lord formerly was to the people (Isa 63:7-14). Then he entreats the Lord as the Father of His people to look upon them (Isa 63:15-19); then he prays that the Lord, for their complete deliverance, would visibly come to them with a grand manifestation of His divine majesty (64).
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1. RETROSPECT OF WHAT THE LORD FORMERLY WAS TO THE PEOPLE
Isa 63:7-14
7I will mention the loving-kindnesses of the Lord,
And the praises of the Lord,
According to all that the Lord hath bestowed on us,
And the great goodness toward the house of Israel,
Which he hath bestowed on them according to his mercies,
And according to the multitude of his loving-kindnesses.
8For he said, Surely they are my people,
Children that will not lie:
So he was their Saviour.
9In all their affliction he was afflicted,
And the angel of his presence saved them:
In his love and in his pity he redeemed them;
And he bare them, and carried them all the days of old.
10But they rebelled, and vexed his holy Spirit:
Therefore he was turned to be their enemy,
And he fought against them.
115 Then he remembered the days of old, Moses, and his people, saying,
Where is he that 6brought them up out of the sea with the 7 shepherd of his flock?
Where is he that put his holy Spirit within him?
128That led them by the right hand of Moses with his glorious arm,
Dividing the water before them,
To make himself an everlasting name?
13That led them through the deep, as an horse in the wilderness,
That they should not stumble.
14As a beast goeth down into the valley,
The Spirit of the Lord caused him to rest:
So didst thou lead thy people,
To make thyself a glorious name.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
Isa 63:7. The words are to be taken as one term, to which , in the sense of secundum, is prefixed. stands in a causal sense [ is = uti par est propter]. is to be regarded as the object dependent on rather than as dependent on in .
Isa 63:9. Instead of the Kethibh we must with the Kri read , as , however it may be explained, does not yield an appropriate sense [?]. Some take for in pause, either in the passive sense: in all their affliction there was (to them) no distress ) as, e.g., Isa 25:4; Isa 26:16, comp. pressi non oppressi), or in the active sense=oppressor, adversary (Isa 63:18; Isa 64:1; Isa 1:24; Isa 9:10, et saepe). Both these views are set forth under the most manifold modifications (comp. Stier). But whichever of the two constructions we choose, there is an abruptness in the expression. We should expect , or, if should refer to Jehovah, the pronoun is wanting: In all their affliction He was not an oppressor. It is better, therefore, to follow the Kri, although all the old versions support . Our place belongs, then, to the fifteen, or according to another enumeration (comp. on Isa 9:2 and Isa 49:5) eighteen places, in which according to the opinion of the Masoretes is to be read instead . Drechsler is certainly right when he remarks (on Isa 9:2) that the unusual position of , which was originally in the text, caused it to be altered into which was more current and sounded more familiar in such a position. [But this is a confession that instead of we should find if were the original reading. We dislike departing from the textual reading when it is supported by all ancient versions. In order to get the meaning He was afflicted, we must not only alter the negative into , but must also suppose an abnormal collocation of the words. Add to these considerations that does not mean simply, he was afflicted, or grieved, but he was reduced to a strait, was , (Kay). This could not be predicated of Jehovah; though it could be said of Him anthropopathically, as in Jdg 10:16, that Gods soul was grieved. But there the expression is quite different in the original. If we take in the sense of adversary: In all their affliction He (God) was not an adversary to them, the absence of need not so much surprise us, as it occurs in the close of the preceding verse, where God is declared to have been a Saviour . The proof that God was not an adversary to them is given in the next clause, when it is said: and the angel of his presence saved them, etc. Kay justly remarks that God was the reverse of an adversary to Israel. His heaviest chastisements were sent with the view of frustrating the designs of their worst enemies, and were removed as soon as that work was accomplished.D. M.].
Isa 63:11. is not grammatically quite normal. [The suffix refers to the forefathers, and the participle has both the article and suffix because it is not to be conceived as a noun, nor as the expression of a finished act (), but is to be thought as possessing continued verbal force (Ges. Gr., 135, 2), and is to be construed as an imperfect: ille qui sursum ducebat, educebat; on this account the suffix has the accusative or objective form em as Psa 68:28, not am, comp. Job 40:19; Psa 103:4. Delitzsch.D. M.]. I am inclined, with De Rossi, to believe that (which is found in one very old codex cited by Kennicott, and in two of De Rossis, one of which is very accurate), is the right reading. The LXX., Peshito and the Arabic version in the London Polyglott, favor this reading. [But there is here no necessity for correcting the text.D. M.].
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. The prayer commences with a historical retrospect. For, as the suppliant intends to entreat new grace from God, he gives this prayer an appropriate foundation by first of all making mention of the former mercies of Jehovah. He, therefore, begins, Isa 63:7-8, by recalling the election of the people, and the glorious succor rendered to them in what might be called the time of their birth and childhood (Isa 63:9). The whole time from the deliverance out of Egyptian bondage to the Babylonish exile is comprehended in the brief words of Isa 63:10, the first part of which indicates the various apostasies of the people, and the last part the punishments which they suffered. Out of the depths of the last and greatest of these, the punishment of the Exile, there arises, Isa 63:11-14, a melancholy sigh and the question; where is He now who saved Israel from the first, the Egyptian captivity, so wonderfully by the hand of Moses?
2. I will mentionloving-kindnesses.
Isa 63:7. The aim of this verse is to gain in the manifestations of favor in the past a foundation for the supplication in regard to the future. On (see the List). stands here as frequently (comp. Deu 26:19) as abstract for the concrete: laudationes for res laudatae, res laudabiliter gestae. [There is no reason for departing from the proper meaning of the termpraises. D. M.]. occurs only here and Isa 59:18. We must take in the abstract signification benignitas (comp. Psa 25:7; Psa 31:20 et saepe), although the following relative sentence seems at first sight rather to recommend the concrete signification bona, optima dona (comp. Jer 31:12; Jer 31:14). But against this view is the connection of with by the simple preposition . is, therefore, Gods goodness, kindness, benevolence which springs from His love which is merciful (i.e., moved by the sight of distress), and gracious (i.e., which does not punish according to desert).
3. For he saidfought against them.
Isa 63:8-10. The first manifestation of the divine goodness spoken of in Isa 63:7 is introduced by . The Vav in makes a connection, not with the historical facts just referred to, but with the loving disposition in God. In brief, emphatic, words the Prophet describes the founding of the covenant relation between Jehovah and Israel. Jehovah formed it of Himself by His free purpose of election. He declared Israel to be His people . has here, too, (comp. Isa 14:15; Isa 34:14-15) on the basis of its restrictive signification, a strongly affirmative force. The Lord in declaring Israel to be His people does this with the hope that this His confidence will be perceived and justified. refers, therefore, to the hope of fidelity, of obedience. (They will not deceive, disappoint this hope). And in this hope Jehovah became Israels , i.e., Deliverer, Saviour (comp. Isa 19:20; Isa 43:11; Isa 44:15; Isa 44:21; Isa 47:15; Isa 49:26; Isa 60:10). [This eighth verse is literally rendered Only my people are they; children will not lie, or prove false; and He was to them a Saviour. The Prophet tells us that the Lordsaid this. We may look, then, in the books of Moses for language employed by the Lord of which this is a fair representation. That Israel is Gods chosen people is often declared in the Pentateuch. In Deu 14:1-2 they are called both children and the Lordspeople. Comp. Deu 7:6 sqq., et saepe. But the Lord never states regarding Israel that they are children that will not lie. On the contrary He testifies of them, Deu 32:20 that they are children in whom is no faith. The Lord said to the children of Israel: If ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my commandments, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people. And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. Exo 19:5-6. But we look in vain in the Pentateuch for any declaration in which the Lord expresses the confident expectation that Israel would prove faithful to the covenant. So far from doing this, God foretells that Israel would prove unfaithful. We must, then, take the words children will not lie, prohibitively and as expressing what is required of children, and not the Lords expectation; children shall not lie. The sentiment that Israel, as being Gods children, ought not to act perfidiously, is expressed Deu 32:6. Comp. Deu 17:16-17 where we have as here with the third person of the future to express not what a king of Israel would not do, but what he ought not to do. The last clause should bestrictly rendered and He was to them a Saviour.There is no need, then, of assuming here a very strong example of anthropopathism in which God declares Himself disappointed. D. M.]. From Isa 63:9 we see that the suppliant has first of all in view that most ancient, glorious deliverance which was vouchsafed to the people in Egypt in the commencement of their history. We have, therefore, to refer to the oppression of the people by Pharaoh. And of this oppression it is said that it was one which the Lord Himself felt. [Rather, In all their oppression He was not an oppressor. See under Textual and Grammatical.D. M.]. That under this affliction the sufferings of the Israelites in Egypt are to be understood, is shown by the following sentence. For by the angel of His face who saved them, the suppliant evidently intends , by whom the redemption of the people from Egyptian slavery was effected. The expression refers immediately to Exo 33:14-15, where to the request of Moses that the Lord would let him know whom He intends to send with them (Isa 63:12-13), the answer is given . Moses thereupon rejoins: If (thy face) go not, carry us not up hence. It is impossible to discuss fully here the exceedingly difficult question of the . I refer to Langes thorough exposition on Gen 12:1 sqq. In reference to the chief question, whether the is to be regarded as a created angel, or as a precursory and partial manifestation of the Logos corresponding to the Old Testament standpoint, I would only briefly remark: 1) When Paul, 1Co 10:4, regards the rock out of which Moses struck water, and which remained fixed and immovable, and did not accompany them, as a symbol of the Spiritual Rock that followed them of which he says: that Rock was Christ, we must still more assume that he saw a manifestation of Christ in the angel of the face, of whom it is further said, Exo 23:21 : my name is in Him;. 2) Further, in Heb 3:1 Jesus is called the Apostle and high-priest of our profession. The word cannot but be in that place which is pervaded by typological ideas a translation of the Hebrew . The author of the epistle to the Hebrews designedly avoided the use of the word , because lie wished to point to the man Jesus and to His human official life, i.e., to the fidelity which He displayed in it. He means to say: If He, who was so much higher than Moses, inasmuch as the Lord and Son of the house is higher than the house itself, was faithful, this exalted pattern must impel you also to fidelity. Plainly, then, the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews likewise saw in the angel of the Lord a manifestation of Christ. 3) With these considerations agree the expressions and . For the face is the external side which is outwardly visible. Thus in Hebrew the surface of the earth and of the heaven, etc., is called , because the surface is that which may be seen outwardly andwe may addis that which sees. He now, who is called Gods , must therefore be He by whom God both sees and is seen. The latter is in not a few places of the New Testament most clearly declared regarding the Son of God. See Mat 11:27; Joh 1:18 (comp. Joh 6:46; 1Jn 4:12; 1Ti 6:16); Joh 12:45; Joh 14:9. But the other idea also, that God sees through Him who is His , face, appears from this, that not only is creation effected by Him, but also the conservation of things created (Col 1:16-17), the visitation, sustentation, direction and redemption of the world. And in this Mediator is the name of God. For what God is, expresses itself in Him. We should not know that God is, and what God is, if the Mediator did not reveal it. But in the Old Covenant this face of God has not become manifest in His full equality with God, and yet at the same time in His distinction from Him. The knowledge of this mystery was reserved for the New Covenant. Nevertheless the light of the relation of the Trinity breaks through even in the Old Testament in traces here and there. In the form of an angel and under the name of angel He appears in the Old Covenant, who in the New has appeared as the Son of man. There was for Him in the Old Covenant no other form of manifestation. But He is so characterized that we can distinguish Him readily from common angels. This is, in brief, my unpretending view of this subject. is the positive, fundamental notion, (only here in Isaiah, comp. Gen 19:16) is the negative, accessory notion. For it denotes forbearance, refraining from the right of punishing (comp. Isa 9:18; Isa 30:14). The sentence seems to state that this bearing and carrying maternal love of God lasted not merely during the period of the deliverance from Egypt, but during the whole time that, from the standpoint of the Prophet, belonged to the days long gone by. This is seen from Isa 63:10 sqq., where the so oft-repeated, alternating relation of apostasy, punishment and return to God is comprehensively depicted. For during the whole time which passed between the Egyptian and the Babylonian captivity, what in Isa 63:10 sqq. is described was repeated. and have both for their object (comp. Isa 3:8 and Eph 4:30). They were rebellious against and grieved the Holy Spirit by resisting the drawings of His grace and by offending His holy nature with doing evil. The expression occurs in the Old Testament besides here and Isa 63:11 only further in Psa 51:13. The adjective is never joined with . The necessary consequence of resisting the Holy Spirit is that the Lord too is changed into an adversary of him who resists Him. stands emphatically before : How dreadful it is to have Him as an adversary!
4. Then He rememberedglorious name, Isa 63:11-14. Jehovahs being their enemy brought so many evils on the people that they out of the depths of the last and greatest distress long earnestly for the restoration of the old friendship. The question: Where is He that brought them up?etc., can come only from the mouth of the people. For this reason the subject of can only be not Moses or the indefinite they (German man). The people remembered the old days of Moses, i.e. the days when Moses led the people and procured for them the wonderful manifestations of the favor of God. The accumulation of substantives in the genitive characterizes the language of Isaiah; at all events, this form of expression occurs in, no book of the Old Testament so frequently and in such intensity as in Isaiah. Comp. Isa 18:1, where two words follow in the construct state. There are three such words in Isa 13:4; Isa 28:1; four in Isa 10:12; five in Isa 21:17. Comp. Ewald, 291 a.[Dr. Naegelsbach (see under Text, and Gram.) would drop the suffix in , and would render: Where is He that brought up out of the sea the shepherd of His flock? The sea here is the Nile, and the shepherd, Moses; and the fact referred to, the deliverance of Moses when an infant from drowning. But this view is exposed to obvious and insuperable objections. Delitzsch refers the suffix in to the forefathers of Israel, takes as=una cum, and is disposed to read , which is strongly attested, instead of the singular. By the shepherds of the flock he understands Moses and Aaron with Miriam, Ps. 77:21; Mic 6:4. If we, with the E. V., regard God as the subject of remembered, then it is better, with Kay, to put a full stop at people, and omit the word saying, and regard the appeal that follows as made by the Prophet in the peoples name. It is unsuitable to put it in the mouth of Jehovah. Against making the subject of , the remoteness of its position is an obvious objection. Such an asyndeton as that in is of frequent occurrence, and, on the whole, the rendering of the E. V., if we only strike out the supplied word saying, is the most obvious and natural.D. M.] God gave Moses His Holy Spirit, and with Him the gift to perform miracles, and to lead and teach the people (comp. Num 11:17).[But the suffix in refers to , the people, and not to Moses alone.D. M.]The beginning of Isa 63:12 is literally rendered: who made the arm of His glory to go at the right hand of Moses. The most remarkable effect of this was the dividing of the water before them, the Israelites (properly away from the face of them, so that the waters went out of the way). Hitzig, Umbreit, Knobel, understand the words of the water from the rock (Exo 17:5 sqq.). But this event, as belonging to a later time, could not well be placed before the passage through the Red Sea. Moreover, is especially employed of this dividing of the waves of the sea, Exo 14:21; Psa 78:13; Neh 9:11. These great and wonderful deeds of God had the design to make known, first to the people of Israel, and then to other nations also, the name of Jehovah, i. e. the nature of that God who is called Jehovah; and thus to bring them to the knowledge of His exclusive Godhead (Neh 9:10; Isa 55:13; Isa 63:14). The depths, Isa 63:13, are plainly the depths of the Red Sea (not of the Jordan, as Knobel thinks).[This is clear from comparing Psa 106:9.D. M.]One might suppose that Israel would have trodden with trembling, uncertain steps the strange way over the bottom of the sea on which human foot was never set, with the walls of the standing waters on the right hand and on the left. But it was not so. Rapidly and surely, as the desert horse goes over the flat, smooth desert, without tottering, so did they march over that strange, perilous road. The Israelites are the subject of The image of the cattle descending into the valley is very appropriate for marking the arrival of the Israelites in the promised land after the journeying in the desert. For the dry, stony deserts through which Israel had to march were really higher than the fertile regions watered by the Nile and the Jordan. It seems to me, too, that the Prophet here thinks of the herds of Nomades that must cross a mountain range or a plateau in order to reach regions rich in pasture. Just so the Spirit of the Lord, who by means of the leaders directed the march of Israel, brought the people to rest. The Prophet could justly designate the arrival of Israel in Palestine after the long journeying as an attaining to rest. The same thing had been said before (Deu 12:9; Jos 1:13; Jos 21:44; Jos 22:4; Jos 23:1; Psa 95:11; comp. Heb 3:11; Heb 3:18; Heb 4:1; Heb 4:3; Heb 4:9). The last sentence of Isa 63:14 is a recapitulation. refers to all that goes before, and the words to make thyself a glorious name declare that the design of the Lord was not merely to confer a benefit on the Israelites of that time, but to prepare the way for the knowledge and acknowledgment of His name among all nations and to all times (Isa 63:12).
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. On Isa 63:7. [God does good because He is good; what He bestows upon us must be run up to the original, it is according to His mercies, not according to our merits, andaccording to the multitude of His loving-kindnesses, which can never be spent. Thus we should magnify Gods goodness, and speak honorably of it, not only when we plead it (as David Psa 51:1), but when we praise it. Henry. D. M.].
2. On Isa 63:9. The angel of the face or presence belongs to the deep things of God” (1Co 2:10). It is not right to imagine that a certain and exhaustive knowledge is possible in reference to these things. The humility which becomes even science, imposes on it the duty to write everywhere a non liquet, where, through the nature of things, limits are placed to human knowledge. Not to regard these limitations is the manner of the pseudo-scientific, immodest scholasticism. What, therefore, we have said regarding the angel of the face makes no higher pretension than that of a modest hypothesis. [Comp. in Hengstenbergs Christology, Vol. Isaiah 1 : The Angel of the Lord in the books of Moses and in the book of Joshua.D. M.].
3. On Isa 63:10. There are two ways in which the Holy Ghost is offended or vexed. One way is of a less dreadful nature. It is when a man takes from the Holy Spirit the opportunity to work in the soul for its joy, as He is wont to communicate to it His gracious influence and His gracious operations. When such is the case, then as an offended friend when He perceives that no heed is given to most of His counsels, the Holy Spirit is grieved, and, although reluctantly, ceases for a time to advise the stubborn, ut carendo discat quantum peccaverit. Of this kind of grieving Paul speaks Eph 4:30. It can be committed by the godly and the elect. But the Holy Spirit can be offended and vexed in a gross and flagitious way, when one not only does not believe and follow Him, but also obstinately resists Him, despises all His counsel, reviles and blasphemes Him, will none of His reproof (Pro 1:24-25), gives the lie to His truth, and so speaks against the sun This the Scripture calls (Act 7:51), (Heb 10:29), (Mat 12:31), (Act 5:39). Let us, therefore, not grieve the Holy Spirit with evil desires, words and deeds, that we may be able on the future day of redemption to show that seal uninjured with which we were sealed on that day of our redemption when we were regenerated. To this end let us assiduously breathe forth the prayers of David Psa 143:10; Psa 51:12-14. Leigh.
4. On Isa 63:10. [They rebelled and vexed His Holy Spirit. This statement implies the personality of the Holy Ghost, or the Spirit of Gods holiness. He is represented as a person whom we can grieve. We have in this passage clear indications of the doctrine of the Trinity. In Isa 63:9 we have the Angel of Gods face, and in Isa 63:10 we have the Spirit of His holiness, both clearly distinguished from God the fountain of their being.D. M.].
5. On Isa 63:11. Faith asks after God and so does unbelief, but in different ways. Both put the question, Where? Faith does it to seek God in time of need, and to tell Him trustfully of His old kindnesses. Unbelief does it to tempt God, to deny Him, to lead others into temptation, and to make them doubt regarding the divine presence and providence. Therefore it asks: Where is the God of judgment (Mal 2:17)? Where is now thy God “(Psa 42:4; Psa 42:11; Psa 79:10; Psa 115:2)? If you, as the praying Church here does, ask in the former manner diligently after God, you will be preserved from the other kind of asking. Leigh.
6. On Isa 63:15. Meritum meum miseratio Domini. Non sum meriti inops, quando ille miserationum Dominus non defuerit, et si misericordiae Domini multae, multus ego sum in meritis. Augustine.
7. On Isa 63:16. We can from this sentence [?] cogently refute the doctrine of the invocation of the Saints. For the Saints know nothing of us, and are not personally acquainted with us, much less can they know the concerns of our hearts, or hear our cry, for they are not omnipresent. If it be alleged that God makes matters known to them and that they then pray for us, what a round-about business this would be! It would justify the prayer said to have been made by a simple man: Ah Lord God! tell it, I beseech thee, to the blessed Mary that I have told thee to tell it again to her, that she should tell thee that I have wished to say to her by so many Ave Marias and Pater Nosters, that she should say to thee to be pleased to be gracious unto me. Meyer, de Rosariis, cap. III., thes. V., p. 52). With how much more brevity and efficacy do we pray with the penitent publican: God be merciful to me, a sinner! Leigh.
8. On Isa 63:17. There is no more heinous sin than to accuse God of being the cause of our sin. Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God (Jam 1:13; Psa 5:5; Deu 32:4; Ps. 92:16). He commands what is good, forbids and punishes what is evil. How then could He be the cause of it? But when He punishes sin with sin, i.e., when He at last withdraws from the sinner His grace that has been persistently despised, then He acts as a righteous Judge who inflicts the judgment of hardening the heart on those who wilfully resist His Spirit. Leigh.
9. On Isaiah 66 [This chapter is a model of affectionate and earnest entreaty for the divine interposition in the day of calamity. With such tender and affectionate earnestness may we learn to plead with God! Thus may all His people learn to approach Him as a Father; thus feel that they have the inestimable privilege in the times of trial of making known their wants to the High and Holy One. Thus when calamity presses on us; when as individuals or families we are afflicted; or when our country or the church is suffering under long trials, may we go to God, and humbly confess our sins, and urge His promises, and take hold of His strength, and plead with Him to interpose. Thus pleading, He will hear us; thus presenting our cause, He will interpose to save us. Barnes. D. M.].
10. On Isa 64:3-4 a. [4, 5 a]. The God who appeared to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, called Moses, and led by him the people of Israel out of Egypt, who chose Joshua, Samuel, David and others to be His servants and glorified Himself by them, this God alone has shown Himself to be the true and living God, and we can hope from Him that He will yet do more, and manifest Himself still more signally.
11. On Isa 64:4 [5]. [Note what God expects from us in order to our having communion with Him. First, We must make conscience of doing our duty in everything, we must work righteousness, must do that which is good, and which the Lord our God requires of us, and must do it well. Secondly, We must be cheerful in doing our duty; we must rejoice and work righteousness, must delight ourselves in God and His law, must be pleasant in His service and sing at our work. God loves a cheerful giver, a cheerful worshipper; we must serve the Lord with gladness. Thirdly, We must conform ourselves to all the methods of His providence concerning us, and be suitably affected with them; must remember Him in Hisways, in all the ways wherein He walks, whether He walks towards us, or walks contrary to us; we must mind Him, and make mention of Him, with thanksgiving, when His ways are ways of mercy, for in a day of prosperity we mustbe joyful, with patience and submission when He contends with us, for in a day of adversity we must consider. Henry. D. M.].
12. On Isa 64:7 [8]. [This whole verse is an acknowledgment of the sovereignty of God. It expresses the feeling which all have when under conviction of sin, and when they are sensible that they are exposed to the divine displeasure for their transgressions. Then they feel that if they are to be saved, it must be by the mere Sovereignty of God; and they implore His interposition to mould and guide them at His will. It may be added, that it is only when sinners have this feeling that they hope for relief; and then they will feel that if they are lost, it will be right; if saved, it will be because God moulds them as the potter does the clay. Barnes. D. M.].
HOMILETICAL HINTS
1. On Isa 63:7. Text for a Thanksgiving Sermon. What is our duty after that the Lord has shown us great loving kindness? 1) To remember what He has done to us. 2) To be mindful of what we ought to render to Him for the same.
2. On Isa 63:8-17. The history of the people of Israel a mirror in which we too may perceive the history of our relation to God. 1) God is to us from the beginning a loving and faithful Father (Isa 63:8-9). 2) We repay His love with ingratitude, as Israel did (Isa 63:10 a). 3) God punishes us for this as He punished Israel (Isa 63:10 b). 4) God receives us again to His favor when we, as Israel, call on Him in penitence (Isa 63:11-17).
On Isa 63:7-17. If God in Christ has become our Father, He remains our Father to all eternity. 1) He is our Father in Christ. 2) He abides faithful even when we waIsa Isa 63:3) When we have fallen, His arms still stand open to receive us. Deichert in Manch. G. u. ein Geist, 1868, page 65.
4. On Isa 64:5-7. Joh. Ben. Carpzov has a sermon on this text, in which he treats of righteousness, and shows 1) justitiam salvantem, i. e., the righteousness with which one enters the kingdom of heaven; 2) justitiam damnantem, i. e., the righteousness with which a man enters the fire of hell; 3) justitiam testantem, i. e., the righteousness by which a man testifies that he has attained the true righteousness.
5. On Isa 64:6-9. Let us hear from our text an earnest and affecting confession of sin, and at the same time consider 1) the doctrine of repentance; 2) the comfort of forgiveness which believers receive.Eichhorn.
6. On Isa 64:6. (We all do fade, etc.) These are very instructive words, from which we learn what a noxious plant sin is, and what fruit it brings forth. First, says he, we fade as a leaf. This means that sin brings with it the curse of God, and deprives us of His blessing both for the body and the soul, so that the heart is dissatisfied and distressed. Then it robs us of the highest treasure, confidence in the grace of God. For sin and an evil conscience awaken dread of God. As it is impossible to call upon God aright without faith and a sure persuasion of His aid, it follows that sin hinders prayer also, and thus robs us of the highest comfort. When men have no faith and cannot pray, then the awful punishment comes upon them, that God hides His face and leaves them to pine in their sins. For they cannot help themselves, and have lost the consolation and protection which they need in life.Veit Diet.
Footnotes:
[5]Then kit people remembered the old days of Moses.
[6]brought up out of the sea the shepherd of his flock.
[7]Or, shepherds.
[8]that put at the right hand of Moses his glorious arm.
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
DISCOURSE: 1013
THE LOVING-KINDNESS OF THE LORD
Isa 63:7. I will mention the loving-kindnesses of the Lord, and the praises of the Lord, according to all that the Lord hath bestowed on us, and the great goodness toward the house of Israel, which he hath bestowed on them according to his mercies, and according to the multitude of his loving-kindnesses.
NOTHING conduces more to the production of true repentance than a view of the mercies of our God. A sight of sin only will often lead to despondency; or, if attended with a determination to seek for mercy, will never melt the soul into deep contrition. It is the contrasted view of Gods goodness, and of our own depravity, that alone begets ingenuous shame, and unfeigned self-abhorrence: it is from thence alone that we derive the complete knowledge of our own vileness, and are enabled to maintain a hope of acceptance with God, notwithstanding all our desert of his wrath and indignation.
In the latter part of this chapter, and the whole of the next, we have a confession, which seems to have been drawn up for the use of the Church, when they should be in captivity in Babylon. But the prayer itself begins with the words of our text; wherein we have an acknowledgment of Gods unbounded goodness to his people; an acknowledgment, which is amplified and illustrated in the following verses by a variety of particulars. In this view it was an excellent preparation for that self-abasement which they were to express in the subsequent confession.
We shall find it a profitable subject for our present contemplation to consider the loving-kindness of our God to us: and that we may confine our thoughts within a proper limit, we shall shew,
I.
What there is in the loving-kindness of our God that deserves particular notice
It is obvious, that the subject, taken in all its latitude, is absolutely inexhaustible. But by confining our attention to some prominent parts of it, we shall be enabled to form a just conception of the whole, without being distracted by too great a variety of particulars. Let us then notice,
1.
Its freeness and sovereignty
[The freeness of Gods mercies is that which constitutes their first and most distinguishing feature: without adverting to that, we can never have any just conception of them at all. If we suppose God to have any respect to human merit, and to confer his favours on account of that, we undermine the principal foundations of our gratitude, and take honour to ourselves in exact proportion as we ought to give glory unto him. But a very little reflection will suffice to shew us, that God is altogether sovereign in the distribution of his favours. Who made the difference between the apostate angels and fallen man? or what was there in us, rather than in them, that induced God to provide a Saviour for us, when no such mercy was vouchsafed to them? Who has made the difference between the benighted Heathens and ourselves? or wherein have we merited that God should send us the light of revelation, when they are left in darkness and the shadow of death, and given up to follow their own delusions? If we prosecute the same inquiry in relation to the distinctions visible amongst ourselves, we shall be constrained to come to the same conclusion; By the grace of God we are what we are. It is manifest, that still, as in former ages, things which are hid from the wise and prudent are revealed unto babes; and the only reason we can give for it, is that which our Lord himself assigned, Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight [Note: Mat 11:25-26. See also Eze 16:3-6.]. Whether therefore we look at our rank in society, our intellects, our bodily constitution, or our attainments in grace, we must confess, that it is God, and God alone, that has made any of us to differ [Note: 1Co 4:7.].]
2.
Its richness and variety
[Were we to attempt to enumerate particulars, we should not know where to begin, or where to end. The mercies we enjoy as men, in contradistinction to all the rest of the creation, are unspeakably great Nor should we overlook those which we possess as Britons [Note: Here the particular occasion that is celebrated may be introduced.] but, above all, those which we enjoy as Christians, deserve our most attentive consideration. That we have a Saviour to whom we may flee for refuge, and who is able and willing to save us to the uttermost; that we have the aids of the Holy Spirit promised to us for the renovating of our fallen nature; that the invitations and promises of the Gospel are yet sounding in our cars, when so many millions of our fellow-creatures have received their final doom, and are gone beyond a possibility of redemption; these things, I say, display in its brightest colours the loving-kindness of our God to us; and therefore we should meditate upon them day and night.
We have a striking pattern for our imitation in Nehemiah: he wished to impress the Jews with a sense of Gods goodness to them, and therefore set it forth before them in a variety of most affecting particulars [Note: Neh 9:7-15.]: let us also, for the same end, recall to mind the mercies which we ourselves have experienced at his hands; and we shall and them countless as the sands upon the sea shore.]
3.
Its constancy and continuance
[After all, we scarcely know whether this be not the view in which the loving-kindness of our God appears to greatest advantage. This seemed to Nehemiah to be the crown and summit of Gods mercies vouchsafed to the Jewish nation [Note: Neh 9:16-21; Neh 9:26-31.]: and certainly not even the greatest of his mercies astonishes us more than the continuance of them to us. Let us but reflect, how numerous our provocations have been, and what ungrateful returns we have made to God for all his loving-kindness, and we shall stand amazed at his patience, and long-suffering, and forbearance: we shall be surprised that he has not long since shut up his tender mercies in displeasure, and sworn, in his wrath, that we should not enter into his rest. We shall then understand (what else is quite inexplicable) why David, in a psalm of only twenty-six verses, repeats no less than twenty-six times that Gods mercy endureth for ever [Note: Psalms 136.]: we shall see that to this, and to this alone, we owe it, that we have not been consumed long ago [Note: Lam 3:22.].]
Let us proceed to consider,
II.
In what manner, and for what ends, we should notice it
And,
1.
As to the manner
[A mere speculative view of this subject is by no means that which becomes us. We should consider it with the profoundest admiration, and the liveliest gratitude.
One might as well expect a person to speak in a light manner of sin, as of the mercies of his God. There is something so vast and incomprehensible in the loving-kindness of God, that the very thought of it should utterly overwhelm us. The exclamation of St. Paul, when contemplating the decrees of Providence respecting the calling of the Gentiles, and the restoration of the Jews, is that which suits us in reference to the subject before us; O the depth! O the depth! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out [Note: Rom 11:33.]! Even a Heathen, when restored to the exercise of his understanding, was so amazed at the goodness of Jehovah, that he exclaimed, How great are his signs, and how mighty are his wonders [Note: Dan 4:2-3.]! How much more then ought we to be impressed with it, to whom it is revealed in the stupendous work of redemption! Surely the meditation of the prophet should be ever on our mind, and his words upon our lips; How great is his goodness, how great is his beauty [Note: Zec 9:17.]!
Yet, as the angels, who veil their faces and their feet before the Deity from a sense of their unworthiness to behold or serve him, do yet exert themselves to the utmost to exalt his name; so we, however incapable of comprehending fully the mercies of our God, should do our utmost to praise and glorify him on account of them. David stirred up his soul, and all that was within him, to bless the Lord, who had crowned him with mercy and loving-kindness [Note: Psa 103:1-4.]. And we are taught by the prophet the precise terms, as it were, in which it becomes us to express our gratitude to God [Note: Isa 12:4-6.]. The very words of our text may serve to shew us in what manner our admiration and gratitude should be combined: if I may so speak, our admiration should be lively, and our gratitude profound.]
2.
As to the ends
[No other meditation, no subject of discourse, more imperiously demands your notice than this. You should reflect upon, and mention the loving-kindness of God, both for the instruction of others, and the encouragement of your own souls.
How are others to become acquainted with God, if you, whose understandings are enlightened, do not endeavour to instruct them? or to what purpose has God imparted to you the knowledge of himself, if you do not impart it to those around you? Your light is not to be hid under a bushel, but to be put on a candlestick, that it may be a source of benefit to others. It is the command of God that his mercies should be thus treasured up in the minds of all, and be transmitted by oral testimony from generation to generation [Note: Psa 78:2-7.]. And the more truly any persons have been devoted to God themselves, the more active and exemplary they have been in making him known to others [Note: Psa 145:1-8.].
And what can be such a source of encouragement to yourselves? There is nothing like this to encourage you to pray; the goodness of God is revealed on purpose to lead you to repentance [Note: Rom 2:4.], and to animate your petitions at the throne of grace [Note: Psa 51:1; Psa 69:16-17.]. And what can so embolden you to trust in God? Were you to contemplate nothing but his power, you might be filled with dread, rather than with confidence: but when you consider his goodness also, your hopes of mercy are strengthened, and you are led to commit yourselves to his fatherly protection [Note: Psa 36:7.]. Surely also there cannot be found any stronger inducement to serve him. What shall I render unto the Lord? is the natural question that must arise in the bosom of every one that feels his obligations to the Lord [Note: Psa 63:3.]: and if we did not serve the Lord with gladness and joyfulness of heart for the abundance of the mercies he has vouchsafed unto us, we should be filled with self-reproach, and be constrained to acknowledge ourselves deserving of the heaviest condemnation [Note: Deu 28:45; Deu 28:47.].]
Behold now, what matter here is,
2.
For reproof
[Is it not surprising, that, surrounded as we are with the mercies and loving-kindness of our God, we should be so insensible of all his goodness? Let us blush for our ingratitude: let us strive henceforth so to think of his loving-kindness, that we may say with David, Thy loving-kindness, O God, is ever before mine eyes [Note: Psa 26:3; Psa 48:9.]: yea, let us praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works unto the children of men [Note: Psa 107:8; Psa 107:15; Psa 107:21; Psa 107:31.]. If we will but contemplate his acts, we shall soon become acquainted with his love [Note: Psa 107:43.].]
2.
For encouragement
[What do we mean by entertaining hard thoughts of God, or doubting his willingness to accept and bless us? His very nature is love [Note: 1Jn 4:8.]; and all his acts, though often misapprehended by us, are love also. Be it so, our sins have so abounded, that we seem almost beyond the reach of mercy: but where sin has abounded, his grace shall much more abound [Note: Rom 5:20.]. And if we will only go and remind him of his loving-kindnesses which have been ever of old, we shall find that our plea is absolutely irresistible [Note: Psa 25:6-7; Psa 25:11.].]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
The subject is here changed, as well as the Person speaking. The Prophet, probably contemplating what had passed, begins to celebrate the divine goodness, and especially with an eye to the Church’s mercies in time past. It is worthy to be observed, how often the redemption of the church from Egypt, and the blessings in the wilderness, are alluded to, in different parts of the word of God. The Holy Ghost thus taught the Church to exercise faith for all that was to come, in recounting the Lord’s goodness for all that was past; and certainly nothing contributes more to the accomplishment of this end. Psa 77:3-12 . Who can read the account, here given, of Jesus taking part in all the affliction of his people in the wilderness, without having their hearts led forth in love and praises to the Redeemer?
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
XXVI
THE BOOK OF ISAIAH PART 18
Isaiah 63:7-66:34
The general theme of this last section of the book of Isaiah is the divine principle of discrimination. More particularly, the items of this theme are penitent Israel’s prayer, Jehovah’s response, and the fixing of final destinies.
This section opens with the prophet’s recounting of the mercies of Jehovah. In the distant past the Lord had pity on Israel and bore his people in his arms. The elements of his compassion are here mentioned as loving-kindness, great goodness, mercies, sympathy, love, and pity, the expression of which is realized in his salvation, deliverance, redemption, and support. All these terms are strong and significant of the relation Jehovah sustained to his people in the past. This is a most excellent way to stimulate in a people the spirit of prayer. The people had rebelled at Sinai in the incident of the golden calf, at Taberah they murmured, at Shittim in the case of the daughters of Moab, in the time of the Judges, in Samuel’s time, the ten tribes under Jeroboam, and Judah under Manasseh, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah. Thus Jacob was a rebellious people.
The results of this rebellion and the effect on the people were tremendous. This rebellion on the part of God’s people (1) grieved his Holy Spirit, (2) caused him to turn to be their enemy, and (3) made him to fight against them. When the Holy Spirit was withdrawn from the people and Jehovah began to fight against them, they were set to questioning thus: Where is the God that brought us up out of Egypt? Where is he that put his Holy Spirit in our midst? and so on (Isa 63:11-14 ). This reminds us of the dear old hymn that runs thus: Where is the blessedness I knew When first I saw the Lord? Where is the soul-refreshing view Of Jesus and his word? The prophet here is going back to their glorious experience with the Lord and in so doing he is kindling in them the spirit of prayer and supplication which finds expression in the following paragraphs.
The elements of prayer in Isa 63:15-19 are striking. In this excellent and pious prayer in which they entreat God, for his grace and mercy, to behold them with an eye of compassion, they argue both from the goodness of his nature, and from the greatness of the works which he had formerly done for them. God sees everywhere and everything, but he is said to look down from heaven, because there is his throne, whereon he reigns in majesty. This is a plea for Jehovah’s condescension, followed by a complaint that God had relaxed in his zeal for them and had restrained his compassion toward them. Then they plead his fatherhood and his redemption from everlasting, following it up with a complaint of his judgment of judicial hardness of heart, and a lamentation for the desolation of their own land and their forsaken condition in a strange land.
This prayer is continued (Isa 64:1-7 ) in an expression of an earnest wish that God would show himself as visibly in favor of his ancient people as he did when he came down upon Mount Sinai, amidst thunder, and lightning, and tempests, which shook heaven and earth, and testified his presence. They plead what God had formerly done, and was always ready to do for his people. Then they confessed themselves to be sinful and utterly unworthy of God’s favor, and that they had deserved the judgments under which they were now suffering. Note that there are three emphatic “alls” in his confession “All unclean,” “ all our righteousness” and “we all do fade as a leaf.” They were all morally unclean; a moral leprosy was upon them. They were like a leprous man who had to rend his clothes and go about crying, “Unclean! unclean!” They were like one under a ceremonial pollution and not admitted to the courts of the tabernacle. All their righteousnesses were as filthy rags, rags which would only defile. This is true when considering the very best works and actions that can be performed by the very best of mankind, for all our works have so great an alloy of imperfection that they cannot justify us before a just and holy God. They were all like a fading and falling leaf, but Leaves have had their time to fall, And flowers to wither at the north wind’s breath, And stars to set; but all Thou hast all seasons for thine own, O death.
The final plea of this prayer (Isa 64:8-12 ) is threefold: (1) They again plead the fatherhood of God who had made them as a potter makes the vessel out of the clay; (2) his holy cities, Zion and Jerusalem, were a wilderness and a desolation; (3) their holy and beautiful house was burned with fire and all their pleasant places were a waste. They urged that these things should move Jehovah in pity and compassion to interfere in their behalf.
The special theme of Isaiah 65-66 is Jehovah’s response to the prayers and confessions of penitent Israel. In the most restricted sense, this is an answer of Jehovah to the preceding confession and prayer. It is the close of the great prophecy of the Servant who is to glorify Jehovah on earth and to finish the work given him to do. It is also a winding up of Isaiah’s ministry.
The first response to these prayers is a sharp discrimination between the faithful and unfaithful, a contrast in the hopes of the faithful and the unfaithful, a contrast in the hopes of acceptably approaching Jehovah cherished by the two parties: those who find him had not been called by his name; whereas Israel in the mass are cast off through their own sinfulness (Isa 65:1-7 ).
In Isa 65:1-2 we have the ones who find Jehovah and the ones who fail to find him. Here he is represented as hastening to assist and welcome a people that was not called by his name. This refers to the Gentiles, the proof of which is found in Rom 10:20-21 . These words of Isaiah certainly include the Gentiles, as he had included them in Isa 56:7 , in which he said, “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.” On the other hand he spread out his hands to a rebellious people, which, as Paul construes it, refers to Israel who rejected Christ.
The details of their rebelliousness (Isa 65:3-5 ) are stated, in general, as provoking Jehovah to his face, and are specified as follows:
1. Sacrificing in gardens, i.e., the groves and gardens of Palestine in which they worshiped Astarte. The profligacy of these rites cannot be described.
2. Burning incense upon bricks, i.e., upon the tiled or bricked roofs of houses, which was directly contrary to the Mosaic Law.
3. Sitting among the graves, i.e., the rock tombs of Palestine, for the purpose of raising the dead, or of obtaining prophecies from them, or of getting prophetic intimations made to them in dreams.
4. Lodging in the secret places, i.e., in the Crypts, for the mysteries celebrated in the natural caves and artificial crypts.
5. Eating swine’s flesh, i.e., as a part of the sacrificial meals.
6. Eating broth of abominable things, i.e., from the flesh of unclean or unlawful animals.
7. They said, “Stand by yourself; I am holier than thou.” This was self-conceit and hypocrisy.
The votaries of these abominations are described as smoke in the Lord’s nose, and a fire that burns continually. They were objects of his wrath and should receive the measure of their work into their own bosom.
The contrast in Isa 65:8-12 , or the second item of Jehovah’s response, is a contrast in their character and in their notions of God. In Israel there is a precious seed, or kernel, which shall be preserved, whereas the doings of the idolaters shall return upon their own heads.
But what is the meaning of “inheritor of my mountains,” (Isa 65:9 ) ? The whole of Palestine is little more than a cluster of mountains, which may be divided into three groups: (1) the mountains of Galilee, extending from Hermon to Tabor; (2) the mountains of Samaria and Judea, extending from Carmel and Gilboa to the plateau of Mamre above Hebron, separated from the first group by the plain of Esdraelon; (3) the mountains of the trans-Jordanic region, including those of Bashan, Gilead, Moab, and Edom, separated from the two other groups by the Jordan Valley. The inheritor of this whole region of Palestine was to be the true Israel of God.
Then what the meaning of “Fortune” and “Destiny” in Isa 65:11 , and what the application here? These are heathen deities for whom Israel prepared viands and poured out a drink offering, respectively. The prophet here makes a play upon the word, “destiny,” saying, “I will destine you to the sword,” and then assigns the reason, viz: that he called but they did not answer.
The third item of Jehovah’s response (Isa 65:13-16 ) is a contrast in results. The promised blessings are more than realized to the one, whereas the other has a corresponding disappointment. The first paragraph is introduced by the word “therefore,” which connects back with the thought of their ‘rejecting the call of Jehovah. The thought, as carried on in this paragraph, is the supply of good things for his servants while those who reject the call shall hunger and thirst. The servants shall rejoice, while they are put to shame. The servants shall sing for joy of heart, while they shall cry for sorrow of heart, and shall wail for vexation of spirit. They shall leave their name for a curse unto God’s people. They will be slain by the Lord, while the servants receive a new name. “So that he who blesseth himself in the earth shall bless himself in the God of truth; and he that sweareth in the earth shall swear by the God of truth.” All this is now being realized. The prophet starts with the call from the captivity which many of them did not have the heart to hear and suffered many privations among the nations as the consequence, but the deeper meaning is their spiritual privation which the Jews have suffered for these many centuries since they rejected the salvation offered to them. Their name is a curse to every Jew today, as the Jews are hated and persecuted in all lands.
The phrase, “the God of truth,” in Isa 65:16 should be translated, “the God of the Amen,” which is a unique epithet. The explanation of it is found in the New Testament passages (2Co 1:20 ; Rev 3:14 ). This means the God of the covenant; the God, to whom that quality of covenant keeping truth essentially belongs, is he in whom all shall “bless themselves” or “shall be blessed.” The seed of Abraham and the seed of David are to be identified with this God of truth, a mystery completely realized in him who is “the Amen, the faithful, and true witness” of Rev 3:14 . In him “all the promises of God are . . . Amen.” In his person God and man were joined in an immutable covenant of peace. To the curse pronounced upon everyone that violates God’s law, he said, “Amen,” upon the cross. To the blessings guaranteed to all nations by God’s promises to Abraham and David, he said, “Amen,” when he rose from the dead to “live for evermore” (Rev 1:18 ). When the time shall come in which men shall call themselves by the name of the Lord and know only one God as the source of blessing in Christ Jesus, then the former state of human affairs, with all its “troubles” will have passed away, and the new era will be inaugurated, which is abundantly described in the next paragraph.
The prophetic picture in Isa 65:17-25 is an ideal picture of the overflowing blessings in the messianic age extending into the millennium. In some respects this picture corresponds to John’s picture of the holy city in Revelation, but they cannot be identical, since death and sin are not banished from Isaiah’s new Jerusalem. In this ideal state the heavens and the earth are new; there will be rejoicing, but no weeping and crying. Death shall be there but the longevity of the patriarchal times will be restored. There shall be such prosperity as they never saw in the land of Canaan. Then prayer and its answer are simultaneous, and heaven and earth are closer together than ever before since sin entered the world. The enmity in the animal creation caused by sin will be removed. The wolf and the lamb shall feed as one, and the full curse of sin shall fall upon the serpent whose food shall be dust. Nothing shall hurt nor destroy in the Holy Mountain of the Lord. This picture makes one think of paradise regained, but it does not reach the complete ideal. John carried much of the symbolism here into his picture of paradise regained, but he saw the Holy City in its state of perfection, with no death, no sin, no tears, no sea, and with the glory of all the nations brought into it.
The fourth item of Jehovah’s response to penitent Israel’s prayer (Isa 66:1-4 ) is a contrast in the ideas and methods of approach to Jehovah. In the new order of things (Isa 66:1-2 ) Jehovah will operate the affairs of his kingdom from his throne in heaven and will not need the old temple for his resting place. But his new temple will be a spiritual house and the man to whom he will look will not be one after the Jewish ritual but the poor and contrite in spirit. This looks very much like the beatitudes of our Lord, which set forth the true characteristics of the citizens of his kingdom.
But what is the import of Isa 66:3-4 ? This relates to the sacrifices in the new order of things. The man that offers an ox will be in God’s sight as if he sacrificed a man, and he that offers a lamb as if he sacrificed a dog. “He that offereth an oblation, as he that offereth swine’s blood; he that burneth frankincense, as he that blesseth an idol.” Then follows a graphic description of the state of the Jews in their delusion. The Jews are now holding on to the old ritual and the Catholics would put the whole of Christendom back under the types and shadows by their system of ritualism. What the prophet here labors to show, the apostle Paul elaborates in his letters to the Colossians, to the Ephesians, and to the Hebrews. The Jews are under this delusion today and in judicial blindness because they did not heed the call of God through the Messiah.
The fifth response of Jehovah to these prayers (Isa 66:5-6 ) is a contrast between the love and favor shown by Jehovah to his people, and the hatred toward them, cherished by the ungodly Israelites.
The short passage announces that the true Israel will be hated and persecuted by Israel after the flesh. These Jews in their zeal for Jehovah’s cause will persecute the righteous, but they shall be put to shame, for Jehovah is keeping watch over his own and recompenses their enemies. All this was fulfilled in the early history of Christianity and God’s judgment on the Jews.
In Isa 66:7-9 we have distinctly, the conversion of the Jews as a nation which ushers in the millennium. This is the nation born in a day. It is this restoration that Ezekiel speaks of in Eze 37 , and Zechariah in Zec 14:1-8 , and Paul in Rom 11:11-15 , and the period here introduced corresponds to the millennium of Rev 20:1-6 .
The sixth response of Jehovah to the penitent prayer of Israel is a command to all who love Jerusalem to rejoice that she is extended and enriched (Isa 66:10-14 ). There are two tender expressions in this paragraph relative to Jerusalem, viz: (1) “Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream.” (2) “As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you.”
These two blessings here are the thoughts of peace and comfort: peace like a river, and comfort like a mother’s love. The added thought of the glory of the nations flowing into it is worthy of note. This is to be the center of all that is beautiful and glorious and John carrying this idea over into his description of the New Jerusalem, says, “And the nations shall walk amidst the light thereof: and the kings of the earth bring their glory into it . . . and they shall bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it.”
The seventh item of Jehovah’s response to their prayers is the announcement of the final work of Jehovah, universal and everlasting, glorifying his people, and judging his and their enemies.
The judgment of Isa 66:15-17 is the final judgment at his coming after the millennium, in which all the nations are gathered and his fiery judgment is executed upon the abominable of the earth, and the thought is carried on in Isa 66:18-21 . There is the happy issue of the judgment on the righteous, as in Mat 25:31-40 .
The final picture of the book (Isa 66:22-24 ) shows us the final habitat of the righteous, who will occupy the “New Earth” forever, and the eternal destruction of the wicked, whose “worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh.”
QUESTIONS
1. What are the general theme of this last section of the book of Isaiah?
2. What more particularly the items of this theme?
3. How does this section open and what the contents of Isa 63:7-9 ?
4. What had the people done and when?
5. What are the results of this rebellion and what the effect on the people?
6. What are the elements of prayer in Isa 63:15-19 ?
7. How is this prayer continued in Isa 64:1-7 ?
8. What the final plea of this prayer (Isa 64:8-12 )?
9. What is the special theme of Isaiah 64-66?
10. What is the first item of this response?
11. Who are the ones who find Jehovah and the ones who fail to find him (Isa 64:1-2 )?
12. What are the details of their rebelliousness (Isa 64:3-5 )?
13. How are these abominations characterized by Jehovah?
14. What is the contrast in Isa 65:8-12 , or the second item of Jehovah’s response?
15. What is the meaning of “inheritor of my mountains” (Isa 65:9 )?
16. What is the meaning of “fortune” and “destiny” in Isa 65:11 , and what is the application here?
17. What is the third item of Jehovah’s response, how does the first paragraph (Isa 65:13-16 ) carry on this thought and when are the prophecies therein fulfilled?
18. What is the meaning and application of “the God of truth” in Isa 65:16 ?
19. What is the prophetic picture in Isa 65:17-25 and what the fulfilment?
20. What is the fourth item of this response to penitent Israel’s prayer (Isa 66:1-4 )?
21. What is the import of Isa 66:1-2 ?
22. What is the import of Isa 66:3-4 ?
23. What is the fifth response of Jehovah to these prayers (Isa 66:5 )?
24. What is the import of Isa 66:5-6 ?
25. What is the import of Isa 66:7-9 ?
26. What is the sixth response of Jehovah to the penitent prayer of Israel?
27. What are two tender expressions in this paragraph relative to Jerusalem?
28. What is the seventh item of Jehovah’s response to their prayers?
29. What is the judgment of Isa 66:15-17 ?
30. How is the thought carried on in Isa 66:8-21 ?
31. What is the final picture of the book (Isa 66:22-24 )?
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
Isa 63:7 I will mention the lovingkindnesses of the LORD, [and] the praises of the LORD, according to all that the LORD hath bestowed on us, and the great goodness toward the house of Israel, which he hath bestowed on them according to his mercies, and according to the multitude of his lovingkindnesses.
Ver. 7. I will mention the lovingkindnesses of the Lord, ] a scil., As an aggravation of Israel’s great unkindness and unthankfulness to so liberal a Lord, so bountiful a benefactor. Good turns exaggerate unkindness; and men’s offences are increased by their obligations. See Deu 32:7 ; Deu 32:14 .
According to his mercies, &c.
a Summam Cantici sui paucis complectitur.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Isa 63:7-14
7I shall make mention of the lovingkindnesses of the LORD , the praises of the LORD ,
According to all that the LORD has granted us,
And the great goodness toward the house of Israel,
Which He has granted them according to His compassion
And according to the abundance of His lovingkindnesses.
8For He said, Surely, they are My people,
Sons who will not deal falsely.
So He became their Savior.
9In all their affliction He was afflicted,
And the angel of His presence saved them;
In His love and in His mercy He redeemed them,
And He lifted them and carried them all the days of old.
10But they rebelled
And grieved His Holy Spirit;
Therefore He turned Himself to become their enemy,
He fought against them.
11Then His people remembered the days of old, of Moses.
Where is He who brought them up out of the sea with the shepherds of His flock?
Where is He who put His Holy Spirit in the midst of them,
12Who caused His glorious arm to go at the right hand of Moses,
Who divided the waters before them to make for Himself an everlasting name,
13Who led them through the depths?
Like the horse in the wilderness, they did not stumble;
14As the cattle which go down into the valley,
The Spirit of the LORD gave them rest.
So You led Your people,
To make for Yourself a glorious name.
Isa 63:7 the lovingkindness of the LORD This is the special covenant NOUN, hesed. See Special Topic: Lovingkindness (hesed) .
according Notice how the NASB uses this word three times to describe YHWH.
1. the great goodness
2. His compassion
3. multitude of His lovingkindness
Isa 63:8 they are My people This is covenant language (cf. Exo 6:7; Isa 51:4).
Sons who will not deal falsely This is the exact opposite of Isa 1:2-3 (cf. Jer 3:22).
So He became their Savior Notice the contrast between Isa 63:5; Isa 63:8 b. Although God’s sovereignty is emphasized, still there is a place for Israel’s faithfulness!
Isa 63:9 In all their affliction He was afflicted In English this is a powerful statement of the unity between YHWH and His covenant people (cf. Isa 57:15), but the MT is difficult to follow.
1. This phrase may relate with the last line of Isa 63:8 (NRSV, TEV).
2. This phrase may relate to the second line of Isa 63:9 (NJB).
The MT has not () but the Masoretic scholars suggest , him (qere, JPSOA).
the angel of His presence This is a direct allusion to Exo 23:20-23; Exo 33:14-15. It refers to events during the Wilderness Wandering Period. Israel’s sin caused YHWH to replace Himself with a personal representative (i.e., the angel of the Lord).
YHWH affirmed His personal presence (cf. Deu 32:9-14).
1. He redeemed them – Qal PERFECT, BDB 145, KB 169
2. He lifted them – Piel IMPERFECT, BDB 642, KB 694
3. He carried them – Piel IMPERFECT, BDB 669, KB 724 (cf. Isa 46:3; Deu 1:31)
Also note the three NT Divine Persons in Isa 63:9-10.
1. the Father, Isa 63:9 a
2. the pre-incarnate Messiah, Isa 63:9 b
3. the Holy Spirit, Isa 63:10 b
SPECIAL TOPIC: THE TRINITY
Isa 63:10 Notice two VERBS describe Israel’s sin and two VERBS describe YHWH’s reaction (synonymous parallelism).
1. rebelled – Qal PERFECT, BDB 598, KB 632
2. grieved His Holy Spirit – Piel PERFECT, BDB 780, KB 864 (cf. Act 7:51; see Special Topic: The Personhood of the Spirit at Isa 42:1; for a good article entitled Who Is the OT Holy Spirit? see Hard Sayings of the Bible, pp. 273-274, also pp. 306-207)
3. He turned Himself to become their enemy – Niphal PERFECT, BDB 245, KB 253, cf. Lam 2:4-5
4. He fought against them – Niphal PERFECT, BDB 535, KB 526
Isa 63:11-14 This lists the things that YHWH did for Israel during the Exodus.
1. brought them up out of the sea (cf. Exodus 14-15)
2. put His Holy Spirit in the midst of them (cf. Num 11:17; Num 11:25; Num 11:29; Hag 2:5)
3. caused His glorious arm to go at the right hand of Moses (cf. Exo 6:6; Exo 15:16)
4. divided the waters before them
a. Red Sea – Exodus 14-15 (Isa 11:15; Isa 51:10)
b. Jordan River – Joshua 3
5. led them through the depths (same as #4)
6. gave them rest (i.e., the Spirit, cf. Jos 21:44; Jos 23:1)
7. led Your people
YHWH did all of this for Israel to make Yourself a glorious name. YHWH wanted to reveal Himself to all humanity through Israel. His acts toward them were for the greater good (i.e., eternal redemptive plan, see Special Topic: YHWH’s Eternal Redemptive Plan ).
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
the LORD. Hebrew. Jehovah. App-4.
house of Israel. See note on Isa 5:7.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Isa 63:7-9
Isa 63:7-9
“I will make mention of the lovingkindness of Jehovah, and the praises of Jehovah, according to all that Jehovah hath bestowed on us, and the great goodness toward the house of Israel, which he hath bestowed on them, according to his mercies, and according to the multitude of his lovingkindnesses. For he said, Surely, they are my people, children that will not deal falsely: so he was their Saviour. In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bare them and carried them all the days of old.”
The words in this paragraph are the background for God’s terrible disappointment in Israel. God mentioned here his personal love of Israel, the mercies without number conferred upon the chosen people, the constant and remarkable evidences of his loving-kindnesses, his bearing their sorrows and afflictions, and his constant concern for their well-being. Look at what God supposed would be the result of all this loving care. He said, “Surely, the children of these people will not lie or deal falsely!” (Isa 63:8). “There was a condition, however, that if God was to abide among them, Israel would be required to hearken unto God’s voice (Deu 6:3; Jer 7:23; Eze 11:20)); but God was disappointed in them.”
The near-universal extent of wickedness is emphasized by the statement that “There was none to help” (Isa 63:5). However, it is probably best to view such statements as hyperbole for the sake of emphasis. The use of this figure of speech is frequent in both the Old Testament and the New Testament.
“They are my people, children …” (Isa 63:8). Here God “picks up the metaphor of his being the `father’ of his people, corresponding to the opening theme of Isaiah (Isa 1:2; Isa 1:4),” thus affirming once more the unity of these final chapters with the very first chapter, identifying the book as one, and the author as one.
“The angel of his presence saved them …” (Isa 63:9). “Inasmuch as Christ accompanied Israel in the wilderness (1Co 10:4), and is the `image of God’ (2Co 4:4; 2Co 4:6; Col 1:15) and `the effulgence of his glory’ (Heb 1:3), the angel of God’s presence here is probably the Word of God that became flesh (Joh 1:1).
Isa 63:7-9 CELEBRATION: Zion, through the prophet Isaiah, is led to rejoice in Jehovahs judgment of her enemies. It is not sadistic for those who love righteousness to praise God when He judges and defeats evil. The Bible insists that an Omnipotent, Absolutely Holy and Just God must, by His very nature, ultimately uphold and give complete victory to truth, holiness and justice. He must, on the other hand, bring about complete defeat and incarceration of evil. That is why He made Hell! God intends to accomplish those objectives through two means. First, He will make available an opportunity and a way for all human beings, who so choose, to be declared righteous (by Jesus blood) and to grow into the image of His own righteous nature (through faith and obedience to His revealed New Covenant). These, He will save and give Life everlasting. Second, He creates an everlasting penitentiary (Hell) where He will ultimately defeat and imprison all those who choose against His will and desire to live in rebellion against Him. Now a part of recreating in His own righteous image those who choose that Life by surrender to His will is that they shall also hate evil and love good (cf. Isa 1:16-17; Pro 8:13; Amo 5:15). Heaven and the saints are told to rejoice over the fact that God destroyed the harlot, Babylon (the city of Rome and the Roman empire) with blood, war, pestilence, fire, destruction and torments (cf. Revelation 17-18, esp. Rev 18:20; Rev 19:1-8)1 A person who cannot hate evil, cannot love good! The uniqueness of Jesus fleshly nature was that as a man He loved righteousness and hated lawlessness (Heb 1:9) and thus was the Perfect Man!
Thus in these verses it is a mark of the righteousness and godliness of Zion that she praise God and speak of His loving-kindnesses in response to His wreaking vengeance upon those who despise Him, rebel against Him and oppress His people. He vindicates His holiness, He upholds His absolute justness and He delivers His people and vindicates their faith in Him. If He cannot thus vindicate mans faith in His absolute holiness and justice and righteousness, then His faithfulness is compromised and there is no hope in worshipping Him as opposed to any other god!
God is true! Those who wish to be known as His children must be true. They must rejoice at the defeat of evil and the establishment of righteousness because this is the absolute truth. Those who oppose good and rejoice in evil cannot be His children because that is the ultimate falsehood. In addition, His sons will act upon their choice and do righteousness. Those who claim to be His children will not deal falsely. A citizen of Zion cannot say he stands for righteousness and refuse to do it. That is falseness (cf. 1Jn 2:3-6; 1Jn 3:4-10). God cannot save the declared rebel and He cannot save the pretending servant; the pretender is as much a rebel as the declared one!
There is a difficult problem with the opening phrase of verse nine. The modern, vowel-pointed Hebrew text reads, bekal-tzaratham lo tzar, or, In all their affliction he was not afflicted. The ancient Hebrew text was strictly consonantal (without vowel-points). There is a consonantal text known as Kethiv, or, written which acquired a standing of sacredness and prohibited any scribe from tampering with it. It could not be changed. But the Massoretes (cir. 950 A.D.), a group of Hebrew scholars, produced a text which preserved traditional readings in variance with the sacred Kethiv; this was called Qere, or, to be read. The Qere was a text with the traditional variant consonants out in the margin. Because the vowels, being added later, did not have the sacredness of the consonants, the Massoretes felt it was proper to put the vowels for the marginal consonants (Qere) with the old consonants in the text (that is, with the Kethiv). This, of course, resulted in some impossible forms. The problem in verse nine is that the Kethiv text has lo while the Qere text has lo. Young advocates the adoption of the Qere reading which would make the phrase read, In all their affliction, there was affliction to him. Keil and Delitzsch say, The Masora actually does reckon this as one of the fifteen passages in which lo is to be read for lo. The Qere reading of lo certainly fits the context better and suits the concept already expressed concerning the suffering Servant (cf. Isa 53:4-6; Isa 53:10-11). The context indicates that when His people suffered affliction from their oppressors, God Himself felt that affliction and acted in judgment. That is no strange teaching in the Bible. The experiences of Hosea were indicative of the feelings God experienced toward a nation of people who had spurned His love (cf. Hos 1:2-3; Hos 3:1; Hos 11:1-4, etc.). Our God feels-He is not a robot or a stoic, impassive, insensitive Idea. Jesus proved God feels (cf. Joh 11:33-35).
Another interesting phrase in verse nine is, and the angel of his presence saved them . . . The Hebrew word translated presence is panaym which means literally, face or person. The word malek is angel and means messenger. God promised to send the messenger of His face or person to His people (Exo 23:20-23) and actually did send to them this messenger (Exo 14:19; Num 20:16). He is the Lords messenger (Exo 33:14-15) and is actually the Lord Jehovah Himself (Exo 33:12). Keil and Delitzsch say, This mediatorial angel is called the angel of His face, as being the representative of God, for the face of God is His self-revealing presence (even though only revealed to the mental eye); and consequently the presence of God . . . is called directly His face in Deu 4:37 . . . and my face in Exo 33:14-15, by the side of my angel in Exo 32:34, and the angel in Exo 33:2, appears as something incomparably higher than the presence of God through the mediation of that one angel . . . Young says, The angel of His face is the angel who is His face or in whom His face is made clear. In him the Lord is Himself present. When the Lord said He would send His angel to slay 185,000 Assyrian soldiers (Isa 37:36) it is reported that the Lord Himself did the deed (cf. Isa 10:12; Isa 10:33-34).
The next section (Isa 63:10-14) indicates the judgments over Zions enemies here declared (Isa 63:1-9) were past judgments upon which Zion might base her trust in Jehovah for deliverance from the Babylonian captivity which was apparently inescapable as Isaiah was writing these words. But, as the next section indicates, Zion is having difficulty believing that Jehovah will work for her deliverance as He did in days gone by.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
CHAPTER 63:7-19-64:12
The Great Intercessory Prayer
1. Jehovahs loving kindness and power in the past remembered (Isa 63:7-14) 2. Their deepest need (Isa 63:15) 3. The cry of faith, Thou art our Father (Isa 63:16) 4. The increasing plea (Isa 63:17-19) 5. The prayer for Jehovahs manifestation (Isa 64:1-4) 6. Confession and humiliation (Isa 64:5-7) 7. The cry for mercy and help (Isa 64:8-12) This is one of the greatest prayers in the Bible. The prophet no doubt prayed it first of all, and the Spirit of Christ through him. But its full meaning will be reached when the faithful remnant of Israel in the end time cries for help and deliverance during the great tribulation. When Daniel discovered that the end of the Babylonian captivity was at hand, he uttered a great prayer Dan 9:1-27. The same beautiful spirit of a contrite heart, confession of sin, trust in Jehovah, pleading for Jerusalem and expectation of deliverance, which characterizes Daniels prayer is seen in this great prayer. Many of the prayers in the book of Psalms are the prayers of the remnant suffering in the land before the Second Advent.
The remaining two chapters contain the answer to this prayer.
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
mention: Isa 41:8, Isa 41:9, Isa 51:2, Neh 9:7-15, Neh 9:19-21, Neh 9:27, Neh 9:31, Psa 63:3, Psa 78:11-72, Psa 105:5-45, Psa 107:8, Psa 107:15, Psa 107:21, Psa 107:31, Psa 136:1-26, Psa 147:19, Psa 147:20, Eze 16:6-14, Hos 2:19
the great goodness: 1Ki 8:66, 2Ch 7:10, Neh 9:25, Neh 9:35, Zec 9:17, Rom 2:4
according to his: Isa 55:7, Exo 34:6, Exo 34:7, Num 14:18, Num 14:19, Psa 51:1, Psa 86:5, Psa 86:15, Lam 3:32, Rom 5:20, Eph 1:6, Eph 1:7, Eph 2:4, 1Ti 1:14, Tit 3:4-7
Reciprocal: Gen 32:10 – not worthy of the least of all Jos 24:17 – General 1Sa 12:6 – It is the Lord 2Sa 7:23 – went 1Ch 21:13 – great 2Ch 7:3 – For he is Psa 69:16 – according Psa 71:16 – I will make Psa 73:1 – God Psa 78:4 – praises Psa 89:49 – where Psa 92:2 – show Psa 103:2 – forget not Psa 106:7 – multitude Psa 106:45 – to the Psa 111:4 – gracious Psa 118:29 – General Psa 119:68 – good Psa 119:132 – Look Psa 119:149 – according unto Psa 119:156 – are thy Psa 138:2 – and praise Psa 143:5 – remember Psa 145:7 – abundantly Son 1:4 – remember Jer 2:2 – when Jer 31:2 – found Eze 16:8 – thy time Dan 9:9 – To the Lord Luk 1:54 – General Luk 1:78 – tender Luk 8:38 – saying Eph 5:20 – thanks Jam 5:11 – the Lord is
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Isa 63:7. The remaining part of this chapter says Bishop Lowth, with the whole chapter following, contains a penitential confession and supplication of the Israelites in their present state of dispersion, in which they have so long marvellously subsisted, and still continue to subsist, as a people; cast out of their country, without any proper form of civil polity or religious worship; their temple destroyed, their city desolated, and lost to them; and their whole nation scattered over the face of the earth; apparently deserted and cast off by the God of their fathers, as no longer his peculiar people. Vitringa has nearly the same views of this section of the prophets discourse. He supposes that it pertains to the present Jews and their posterity, during this their dispersion, and that when they shall see that wonderful display of Gods power, which will hereafter be made in the destruction of the Papal church and tyranny, they will be converted to the Christian religion. In a view to this, he considers the prophet as here introducing a company of them, who represent the first-fruits at the beginning of this great work of grace, deploring the blindness and hardness of their nation, and with the utmost humility turning themselves to God, and praying for that complete conversion of their people which is to follow the coming in of the fulness of the Gentiles. See Rom 11:25-26.
I will mention the loving-kindness of the Lord Those penitent Jews, in whose name the prophet is supposed to speak, being convinced themselves of the truth of Christianity, begin here to intercede for the rest of their brethren, still remaining in that state of blindness and darkness under which the nation had long groaned. They begin with acknowledging Gods great mercies and favours to their nation, and the ungrateful returns made for them on their part; that by their disobedience they had forfeited his protection, and caused him to become their adversary. But now, induced by the memory of the great things he had done for them, they address their humble supplication to him for the renewal of his mercies. They beseech him to regard them in consideration of his former loving-kindness; they acknowledge him for their Father and Creator; they confess their wickedness and hardness of heart; they entreat his forgiveness, and deplore the miserable condition under which they had so long suffered. The whole passage is in the elegiac form, pathetic and elegant, and probably designed as a formulary of humiliation for the Israelites, in order to their conversion. A few remarks on some of the expressions used therein may tend to place them in a clearer point of view.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Isa 63:7-14. A Recital of Yahwehs Kindness to His People of Old.This passage seems to be a liturgy of thanksgiving: resemblance to Pss. is obvious.
I will recount Yahwehs acts of love, His deeds of renown, in accordance with all that Yahweh, great in goodness (cf. LXX), has done for us. He thought, Surely they are My people, sons that will not play Me false. So He became their deliverer in all their distress. Following LXX, connect the first four words of Isa 63:9 with Isa 63:8, and continue: No messenger or angel, but His own presence delivered them.) Yahweh Himself, no intermediary, delivered, ransomed, and led them with tender care. But, disappointing His thought (Isa 63:8), they were perverse, and pained His holy spirit (i.e. His manifested presence) so that He was compelled to fight against them. In their consequent distress Israel (cf. mg.) recalled His grace in times gone by; where, they lamented, is He who brought up (delete them with VSS and some MSS) from the sea the shepherd (mg.) of His flock? i.e. saved Moses from the Nile (cf. Isa 19:5*). Where is He who put His holy spirit within the community, lending His wonder-working power to Moses hand and bringing, to His eternal glory, His people through the Red Sea, so that they did not stumble but walked as surely as a horse on the plain, and with the unerring step of cattle descending a hillside? Read with VSS, guided for caused to rest in Isa 63:14.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
63:7 I will {g} mention the lovingkindnesses of the LORD, [and] the praises of the LORD, according to all that the LORD hath bestowed on us, and the great goodness toward the house of Israel, which he hath bestowed on them according to his mercies, and according to the multitude of his lovingkindnesses.
(g) The prophet speaks this to move the people to remember God’s benefits in times past, that they may be confirmed in their troubles.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The reminiscence 63:7-14
This part of Isaiah’s lament consists of a review of Israel’s relationship with the Lord (Isa 63:7-10) and a call for Israel to remember who He is (Isa 63:11-14).
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
The delayed salvation 63:7-64:12
If the Lord was capable of defeating Israel’s enemies, as the previous revelation of the Warrior claimed, why had He not acted for Israel already? This intercessory communal lament explains that delayed salvation was not because of Yahweh’s inability or disinterest, but because of Israel’s manipulative attitude toward Him. Isaiah’s other prayers on Israel’s behalf are in Isa 6:11; Isa 25:1-5; Isa 51:9-10; Isa 59:9-15; and Isa 62:1 (cf. 1Sa 12:19-25; Jer 15:1; Amo 7:1-6). Israel’s experiences were a result of her relationship with the Lord.
"The Isaianic literature is characterized by a wonderful perception of the future, yet every time we are brought to the point where all seems to be fulfilled we meet a ’not yet’. Chapter 12 sings in joy over the glory of the coming king (chapters 6-11), but chapters 13-27 intervene to remind us of the scale in time and space on which the Lord is working. Again, we trace the work of the Servant to the point where all is done and only the enjoyment of the Messianic banquet remains (chapter 55), and then we discover (Isa 56:1) that salvation is still to come. Finally, we reach the sombre [sic] but marvellous [sic] Isa 63:1-6. Surely now, with the overthrow of every foe, the redeeming work is fully done! But no, the remembrancers take their place on the walls to give the Lord no rest till he fulfils all that is promised." [Note: Motyer, p. 512.]
"The glories of chapters 60-62 and the vision of the decisive action in Isa 63:1-6 stir the prophet to one of the most eloquent intercessions of the Bible as he surveys the past goodness of God and the present straits of his people." [Note: Kidner, p. 623.]
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
The poetic prophet announced that he would reflect on the loyal love (Heb. hesed) of Yahweh toward His people Israel. The Lord had been super-abundantly good and compassionate in blessing them.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
CHAPTER XXV
A LAST INTERCESSION AND THE JUDGMENT
Isa 63:7 through Isa 66:1-24
WE might well have thought, that with the section we have been considering the prophecy of Israels Redemption had reached its summit and its end. The glory of Zion in sight, the full programme of prophecy owned, the arrival of the Divine Saviour hailed in the urgency of His feeling for His people, in the sufficiency of His might to save them, -what more, we ask, can the prophecy have to give us? Why does it not end upon these high notes? The answer is, the salvation is indeed consummate, but the people are not ready for it. On an earlier occasion, let us remember, when our prophet called the nation to their Service of God, he called at first the whole nation, but had then immediately to make a distinction. Seen in the light of their destiny, the mass of Israel proved to be unworthy; tried by its strain, part immediately fell away. But what happened upon that call to Service happens again upon this disclosure of Salvation. The prophet realises that it is only a part of Israel who are worthy of it. He feels again the weight, which has been the hindrance of his hope all through, -the weight of the mass of the nation, sunk in idolatry and wickedness, incapable of appreciating the promises. He will make one more effort to save them-to save them all. He does this in an intercessory prayer, Isa 63:7 through Isa 64:1-12, in which he states the most hopeless aspects of his peoples case, identifies himself with their sin, and yet pleads by the ancient power of God that we all may be saved. He gets his answer in chapter 65, in which God sharply divides Israel into two classes, the faithful and the idolaters, and affirms that, while the nation shall be saved for the sake of the faithful remnant, Jehovahs faithful servants and the unfaithful can never share the same experience or the same fate. And then the book closes with a discourse in chapter 66, in which this division between the two classes in Israel is pursued to a last terrible emphasis and contrast upon the narrow stage of Jerusalem itself. We are left, not with the realisation of the prophets prayer for the salvation of all the nations, but with a last judgment separating its godly and ungodly portions.
Thus there are three connected divisions in Isa 63:7 through Isa 66:1-24. First, the prophets Intercessory Prayer, Isa 63:7 through Isa 64:1-12; second, the Answer of Jehovah, chapter 65; and third, the Final Discourse and Judgment, chapter 66.
I. THE PRAYER FOR THE WHOLE PEOPLE
(Isa 63:7 through Isa 64:1-12)
There is a good deal of discussion as to both the date and the authorship of this piece, was to whether it comes from the early or the late Exile, and as to whether it comes from our prophet or from another. It must have been written after the destruction and before the rebuilding of the Temple; this is put past all doubt by these verses: “Thy holy people possessed it but a little while: our adversaries have trodden down Thy sanctuary.” “Thy holy cities are become a wilderness, Zion has become a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation. The house of our holiness and of our ornament, wherein our fathers praised Thee, is become for a burning of fire, and all our delights are for ruin.”
This language has been held to imply that the disaster to Jerusalem was recent, as if the citys conflagration still flared on the national imagination, which in later years of the Exile was impressed rather by the long cold ruins of the Holy Place, the haunt of wild beasts. But not only is this point inconclusive, but the impression that it leaves is entirely dispelled by other verses, which speak of the Divine anger as having been of long continuance, and as if it had only hardened the people in sin; compare Isa 63:17; Isa 64:6-7. There is nothing in the prayer to show that the author lived in exile, and accordingly the proposal has been made to date the piece from among the first attempts at rebuilding after the Return. To the present expositor this seems to be certainly wrong. The man who wrote Isa 63:11-15 had surely the Return still before him; he would not have written in the way he has done of the Exodus from Egypt unless he had been feeling the need of another exhibition of Divine Power of the same kind. The prayer, therefore, must come from pretty much the same date as the rest of our prophecy, -after the Exile had long continued, but while the Return had not yet taken place. Nor is there any reason against attributing it to the same writer. It is true the style differs from the rest of his work, but this may be accounted for, as in the case of chapter 53, by the change of subject. Most critics, who hold that we still follow the same author, take for granted that some time has elapsed since the prophets triumphant strains in chapter 60-62. This is probable; but there is nothing to make it certain. What is certain is the change of mood and conscience. The prophet, who in chapter 60 had been caught away into the glorious future of the people, is here as utterly absorbed in their barren and doubtful present. Although the salvation is certain, as he has seen it, the people are not ready. The fact he has already felt so keenly about them, -see Isa 42:24-25, -that their long discipline in exile has done the mass of them no good, but evil, comes forcibly back upon him. {Isa 64:5 b ff.} “Thou wast angry, and we sinned” only the more: “in such a state we have been long, and shall we be saved!” The banished people are thoroughly unclean and rotten, fading as a leaf, the sport of the wind. But the prophet identifies himself with them. He speaks of their sin as ours, of their misery as ours. He takes of them the very saddest view possible, he feels them all as sheer dead weight: “there is none that calleth on Thy name, that stirreth himself up to take hold on Thee: for Thou hast hid Thy face from us, and delivered us into the power of our iniquities.” But the prophet thus loads himself with the people in order to secure, if he can. their redemption as a whole. Twice he says in the name of them all, “Doubtless Thou art our Father.” His great heart will not have one of them left out; “we all,” he says, “are the work of Thy hand, we are all Thy people.”
But this intention of the prayer will amply account for any change of style we may perceive in the language. No one will deny that it is quite possible for the same man now to fling himself forward into the glorious vision of his peoples future salvation, and again to identify himself with the most hopeless aspects of their present distress and sin; and no one will deny that the same man will certainly write in two different styles with regard to each of these different feelings. Besides which, we have seen in the passage the recurrence of some of our prophecys most characteristic thoughts. We feel, therefore, no reason for counting the passage to be by another hand than that which has mainly written “Second Isaiah.” It may be at once admitted that he has incorporated in it earlier phrases, reminiscences, and echoes of language about the fall of Jerusalem in use when the Lamentations were written. But this was a natural thing for him to do in a prayer in which he represented the whole people and took upon himself the full burden of their woes.
If such be the intention of Isa 63:7 through Isa 64:1-12, then in them we have one of the noblest passages of our prophets great work. How like he is to the Servant he pictured for us! How his great heart fulfils the loftiest ideal of Service: not only to be the prophet and the judge of his people, but to make himself one with them in all their sin and sorrow, to carry them all in his heart. Truly, as his last words said of the Servant, he himself “bears the sin of many, and interposes for the transgressors.” Before we see the answer he gets, let us make clear some obscure things and appreciate some beautiful ones in his prayer.
It opens with a recital of Jehovahs ancient lovingkindness and mercies to Israel. This is what perhaps gives it connection with the previous section. In chapter 62 the prophet, though sure of the coming glory, wrote before it had come, and “urged” upon “the Lords remembrancers to keep no silence, and give Him no silence till He establish and till He make Jerusalem a praise in the earth.” This work of remembrancing, the prophet himself takes up in Isa 63:7 : “The lovingkindnesses of Jehovah I will record,” literally, “cause to be remembered, the praises of Jehovah, according to all that Jehovah hath bestowed upon us.” And then he beautifully puts all the beginnings of Gods dealings with His people in His trusting of them: “For He said, Surely they are My people, children that will not deal falsely; so He became their Saviour. In all their affliction He was afflicted, the Angel of His Face saved them.” This must be understood, not as an angel of the Presence, who went out from the Presence to save the people, but, as it is in other Scriptures, Gods own Presence, God Himself; and so interpreted, the phrase falls into line with the rest of the verse, which is one of the most vivid expressions that the Bible contains of the personality of God. “In His love and in His pity He redeemed them, and bare them, and carried them all the days of old.” Then he tells us how they disappointed and betrayed this trust, ever since the Exodus, the days of old. “But they rebelled and grieved the Spirit of His holiness: therefore He was turned to be their enemy, He Himself fought against them.” This refers to their history down to, and especially during, the Exile: compare Isa 42:24-25. Then in their affliction they “remembered the days of old”-the English version obscures the sequence here by translating he remembered- and then follows the glorious account of the Exodus. In Isa 63:13 the wilderness is, of course, prairie, flat pasture-land; they were led as smoothly as “a horse in a meadow, that they stumbled not. As cattle that come down into the valley”-cattle coming down from the hillside to pasture and rest on the green, watered plains-“the Spirit of Jehovah caused them to rest: so didst Thou lead Thy people to make Thyself a glorious name.” And then having offered such precedents, the prophets prayer breaks forth to a God, whom His people fed no longer at their head, but far withdrawn into heaven: “Look down from heaven, and behold from the habitation of Thy holiness and Thy glory: where is Thy zeal and Thy mighty deeds? the surge of Thy bowels and Thy compassions are restrained towards me.” Then he pleads Gods fatherhood to the nation, and the rest of the prayer alternates between the hopeless misery and undeserving sin of the people, and, notwithstanding, the power of God to save as He did in times of old; the willingness of God to meet with those who wait for Him and remember Him; and, once more, His fatherhood, and His power over them, as the power of the potter over the clay.
Two points stand out from the rest. The Divine Trust, from which all Gods dealing with His people is said to have started, and the Divine Fatherhood, which the prophet pleads.
“He said, Surely they are My people, children that will not deal falsely: so He was their Saviour.” The “surely” is not the fiat of sovereignty or foreknowledge: it is the hope and confidence of love. It did not prevail; it was disappointed.
This is, of course, a profound acknowledgment of mans free will. It is implied that mens conduct must remain an uncertain thing, and that in calling men God cannot adventure upon greater certainty than is implied in the trust of affection. If one asks, What, then, about Gods foreknowledge, who alone knoweth the end of a thing from the beginning, and His sovereign grace, who chooseth whom He will? are you not logically bound to these?-then it can only be asked in return, Is it not better to be without logic for a little, if at the expense of it we obtain so true, so deep a glimpse into Gods heart as this simple verse affords us? Which is better for us to know-that God is Wisdom which knows all, or Love that dares and ventures all? Surely, that God is Love which dares and ventures all with the worst, with the most hopeless of us. This is what makes this single verse of Scripture more powerful to move the heart than all creeds and catechisms. For where these speak of sovereign will, and often mock our affections with the bare and heavy (if legitimate) sceptre they sway, this calls forth our love, honour, and obedience by the heart it betrays in God. Of what unsuspicious trust, of what chivalrous adventure of love, of what fatherly confidence, does it speak! What a religion is this of ours in the power of which a man may every morning rise and feel himself thrilled by the thought that God trusts him enough to work with His will for the day; in the power of which a man may look round and see the sordid, hopeless human life about him glorified by the truth that for the salvation of such God did adventure Himself in a love that laid itself down in death. The attraction and power of such a religion can never die. Requiring no painful thought to argue it into reality, it leaps to light before the natural affection of mans heart; it takes his instincts immediately captive; it gives him a conscience, an honour, and an obligation. No wonder that our prophet, having such a belief, should once more identify himself with the people, and adventure himself with the weight of their sin before God.
The other point of the prayer is the Fatherhood of God, concerning which all that is needful to say here is that the prophet, true to the rest of Old Testament teaching on the subject, applies it only to Gods relation to the nation as a whole. In the Old Testament no one is called the son of God except Israel as a people, or some individual representative and head of Israel. And even of such the term was seldom employed. This was not because the Hebrew was without temptation to imagine his physical descent from the gods, for neighbouring nations indulged in such dreams for themselves and their heroes; nor because he was without appreciation of the intellectual kinship between the human and the Divine, for he knew that in the beginning God had said, “Let us make man in our own image.” But the same feeling prevailed with him in regard to this idea, as we have seen prevailed in regard to the kindred idea of God as the husband of His people. The prophets were anxious to emphasise that it was a moral relation, -a moral relation, and one initiated from Gods side by certain historical acts of His free, selecting, redeeming, and adopting love. Israel was not Gods son till God had evidently called and redeemed him. Look at how our prophet uses the word Father, and to what he makes it equivalent. The first time it is equivalent to Redeemer: “Thou, O Lord, art our Father; our Redeemer from old is Thy name”. {Isa 63:16 b} The second time it is illustrated by the work of the potter: “But now, O Lord, Thou art our Father; we are the clay, and Thou our potter; and we are all the work of Thy hand”. {Isa 64:8} Could it be made plainer in what sense the Bible defines this relation between God and man? It is not a physical, nor is it an intellectual relation. The assurance and the virtue of it do not come to men with their blood or with the birth of their intellect, but in the course of moral experience, with the sense that God claims them from sin and from the world for Himself; with the gift of a calling and a destiny; with the formation of character, the perfecting of obedience, the growth in His knowledge and His grace. And because it is a moral relation time is needed to realise it, and only after long patience and effort may it be unhesitatingly claimed. And that is why Israel was so long in claiming it, and why the clearest, most undoubting cries to God the Father, which rise from the Greek in the earliest period of his history, reach our ears from Jewish lips only near the end of their long progress, only (as we see from our prayer) in a time of trial and affliction.
We have a New Testament echo of this Old Testament belief in the Fatherhood of God, as a moral and not a national relation, in Pauls writings, who in the Second Epistle to the Corinthians {2Co 6:17-18} urges thus: “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be My sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.”
On these grounds, then, -that God in His great love had already adventured Himself with this whole people, and already by historical acts of election and redemption proved Himself the Father of the nation as a whole, -does our prophet plead with Him to save them all again. The answer to this pleading he gets in chapter 65.
II. GODS ANSWER TO THE PROPHETS INTERCESSION
(Chapter 65)
Gods answer to His prophets intercession is twofold. First, He says that He has already all this time been trying them with love, meeting them with salvation; but they have not turned to Him. The prophet has asked, “Where is Thy zeal? the yearning of Thy bowels and Thy compassions are restrained towards me. Thou hast hid Thy face far from us. Wilt Thou refrain Thyself for these things, O Jehovah? Wilt Thou hold Thy peace and afflict us very sore?” And now, “in the beginning of chapter 65, Jehovah answers, not with that confusion of tenses and irrelevancy of words with which the English version makes Him speak; but suitably, relevantly, and convincingly.” “I have been to be inquired of those who asked not for Me. I have been to be found of them that sought Me not. I have been saying, I am here, I am here, to a nation that did not call on My name. I have stretched out My hands all the day to a people turning away, who walk in a way that is not good, after their own thoughts; a people that have been provoking Me to My face continually,”-and then He details their idolatry. This, then, is the answer of the Lord to the prophets appeal. “In this I have not all power. It is wrong to talk of Me as the potter and of man as the clay, as if all the active share in salvation lay with Me. Man is free, – free to withhold himself from My urgent affection; free to turn from My outstretched hands; free to choose before Me the abomination of idolatry. And this the mass of Israel have done, clinging, fanatical and self-satisfied, to their unclean and morbid imaginations of the Divine, all the time that My great prophecy by you has been appealing to them.” This is a sufficient answer to the prophets prayer. Love is not omnipotent; if men disregard so open an appeal of the Love of God, they are hopeless; nothing else can save them. The sin against such love is like the sin against the Holy Ghost, of which our Lord speaks so hopelessly. Even God cannot help the despisers and abusers of Grace.
The rest of Gods answer to His prophets intercession emphasises that the nation shall be saved for the sake of a faithful remnant in it (Isa 65:8-10). But the idolaters shall perish (Isa 65:11-12). They cannot possibly expect the same fare, the same experience, the same fate, as Gods faithful servants (Isa 65:13-15). But those who are true and faithful Israelites, surviving and experiencing the promised salvation, shall find that God is true, and shall acknowledge Him as “the God of Amen, because the former troubles are forgotten” (those felt so keenly in the prophets prayer in chapter 64) “and because they are hid from Mine eyes.” The rest of the answer describes a state of serenity and happiness wherein there shall be no premature death, nor loss of property, nor vain labour, nor miscarriage, nor disappointment of prayer nor delay in its answer, nor strife between man and the beasts, nor any hurt or harm in Jehovahs Holy Mountain. Truly a prospect worthy of being named as the prophet names it, “a new heaven and a new earth!”
Chapter 65 is thus closely connected, both by circumstance and logic, with the long prayer which precedes it. The tendency of recent criticism has been to deny this connection, especially on the line of circumstance. Chapter 65 does not, it is argued, reflect the Babylonish captivity as Isa 63:7 through Isa 64:1-12 so clearly does; but, on the contrary, “while some passages presuppose the Exile as past, others refer to circumstances characteristic of Jewish life in Canaan.” But this view is only possible through straining some features of the chapter adaptable either to Palestine or Babylon, and overlooking others which are obviously Babylonian. “Sacrificing in gardens and burning incense on tiles” were practices pursued in Jerusalem before the Exile, but the latter was introduced there from Babylon, and the former was universal in heathendom. The practices in Isa 65:5 are never attributed to the people before the Exile, were all possible in Babylonia, and some we know to have been actual there. The other charge of idolatry in Isa 65:11 “suits Babylonia,” Cheyne admits, “as well as (probably) Palestine.” But what seems decisive for the exilic origin of chapter 65 is that the possession of Judah and Zion by the seed of Jacob is still implied as future (Isa 65:9). Moreover the holy land is alluded to by the name common among the exiles in flat Mesopotamia, My mountains, and in contrast with the idolatry of which the present generation is guilty the idolatry of their fathers is characterised as having been “upon the mountains and upon the hills,” and again the people is charged with “forgetting My holy mountain,” a phrase reminiscent of Psa 137:4, and more appropriate to a time of exile, than when the people were gathered about Zion. All these resemblances in circumstances corroborate the strong logical connection which we have found between chapter 64 and chapter 65, and leave us no reason for taking the latter away from the main author of “Second Isaiah,” though he may have worked up into it recollections and remains of an older time.
III. THE LAST JUDGMENT
(Chapter 66)
Whether with the final chapter of our prophecy we at last get footing in the Holy Land is doubtful. It was said that, “in Isa 66:1-4 the Temple is still unbuilt, but the building would seem to be already begun.” This latter clause should be modified to, “the building would seem to be in immediate prospect.” The rest of the chapter, Isa 66:6-24, has features that speak more definitely for the period after the Return; but even they are not conclusive, and their effect is counterbalanced by some other verses. Isa 66:6 may imply that the Temple is rebuilt, and Isa 66:20 that the sacrifices are resumed; but, on the other hand, these verses may be, like parts of chapter 60, statements of the prophets vivid vision of the future. Isa 66:7-8 seem to describe a repeopling of Jerusalem that has already taken place; but Isa 66:9 says, that while the “bringing to the birth” has already happened, which is, as we must suppose, the deliverance from Babylon, -or is it the actual arrival at Jerusalem?-the “bringing forth from the womb,” that is, the complete restoration of the people, has still to take place. Isa 66:13 is certainly addressed to those who are not yet in Jerusalem.
These few points reveal how difficult, nay, how impossible, it is to decide the question of date, as between the days immediately before the Return and the days immediately after. To the present expositor the balance of evidence seems to be with the later date. But the difference is very small. We are at least sure-and it is really all that we require to know-that the rebuilding of Jerusalem is very near, nearer than it has been felt in any previous chapter. The Temple is, so to speak, within sight, and the prophet is able to talk of the regular round of sacrifices and sacred festivals almost as if they had been resumed.
To the people, then, either in the near prospect of Return, or immediately after some of them had arrived in Jerusalem, the prophet addresses a number of oracles, in which he pursues the division that chapter 65 had emphasised between the two parties in Israel. These oracles are so, intricate that we are compelled to take up the chapter verse by verse. The first of them begins by correcting certain false feelings in Israel, excited by former promises of the rebuilding and the glory of the Temple. “Thus saith Jehovah, The heavens are My throne, and earth is My footstool: what is this for a house that ye will build (or, are building) Me, and what is this for a place for My rest? Yea, all these things” (that is, all the visible works of God in heaven and earth) “My hand hath made, and so came to pass all these things, saith Jehovah. But unto this will I look, unto the humble and contrite spirit, and that trembleth at My word.” These verses do not run counter to, or even go beyond, anything that our prophet has already said. They do not condemn the building of the Temple: this was not possible for a prophecy which contains chapter 60. They condemn only the kind of temple which those whom they address had in view, -a shrine to which the presence of Jehovah was limited, and on the raising and maintenance of which the religion and righteousness of the people should depend. While the former Temple was standing, the mass of the people had thus misconceived it, imagining that it was enough for national religion to have such a structure standing and honoured in their midst. And now, before it is built again, the exiles are cherishing about it the same formal and materialistic thoughts. Therefore the prophet rebukes them, as his predecessors had rebuked their fathers, and reminds them of a truth he has already uttered, that though the Temple is raised, according to Gods own promise and direction, it wilt not be to its structure, as they conceive of it, that He will have respect, but to the existence among them of humble and sincere personal piety. The Temple is to be raised: “the place of His feet God will make glorious,” and men shall gather round it from the whole earth, for instruction, for comfort, and for rejoicing. But. let them not think it to be indispensable either to God or to man, -not to God, who has heaven for His throne and earth for His footstool; nor to man, for God looks direct to man, if only man be humble, penitent, and sensitive to His word. These verses, then, do not go beyond the Old Testament limit; they leave the Temple standing, but they say so much about Gods other sanctuary man, that when His use for the Temple shall be past, His Servant Stephen {Act 7:49} shall be able to employ these words to prove why it should disappear.
The next verse is extremely difficult. Here it is literally: “A slaughterer of the ox, a slayer of a man; a sacrificer of the lamb, a breaker of a dogs neck; an offerer of meat-offering, swines blood; the maker of a memorial offering of incense, one that blesseth an idol, or vanity.” Four legal sacrificial acts are here coupled with four unlawful sacrifices to idols. Does this mean that in the eye of God, impatient even of the ritual He has consecrated, when performed by men who do not tremble at His word, each of these lawful sacrifices is as worthless and odious as the idolatrous practice associated with it, -the slaughter of the ox as the offering of a human sacrifice, and so forth? Or does the verse mean that there are persons in Israel who combine, like the Corinthians blamed by Paul, {1Co 10:1-33} both the true and the idolatrous ritual, both the table of the Lord and the table of devils? Our answer will depend on whether we take the four parallels with Isa 66:2, which precedes them, or with the rest of Isa 66:3, to which they belong, and Isa 66:4. If we take them with Isa 66:2, then we must adopt the first, the alternative meaning; if with Isa 66:4, then the second of these meanings is the right one. Now there is no grammatical connection, nor any transparent logical one, between Isa 66:2 and Isa 66:3, but there is a grammatical connection with the rest of Isa 66:3. Immediately after the pairs of lawful and unlawful sacrificial acts, Isa 66:3 continues, “yea, they have chosen their own ways, and their soul delighteth in their abominations.” That surely signifies that the unlawful sacrifices in Isa 66:3 are things already committed and delighted in, and the meaning of putting them in parallel to the lawful sacrifices of Jehovahs religion is either that Israelites have committed them instead of the lawful sacrifices, or along with these. In this case, Isa 66:3-4 form a separate discourse by themselves, with no relation to the equally distinct oracle in Isa 66:1 and Isa 66:2. The subject of Isa 66:3-4 is, therefore, the idolatrous Israelites. They are delivered unto Satan, their choice; they shall have no part in the coming Salvation: In Isa 66:5 the faithful in Israel, who have obeyed Gods word by the prophet, are comforted under the mocking of their brethren, who shall certainly be put to shame. Already the prophet hears the preparation of the judgment against them (Isa 66:6). It comes forth from the city where they had mockingly cried for Gods glory to appear. The mocked city avenges itself on them. “Hark, a roar from the City! Hark, from the Temple! Hark, Jehovah accomplishing vengeance on His enemies!” A new section begins with Isa 66:7, and celebrates to Isa 66:9 the sudden re-population of the City by her children, either as already a fact, or, more probably, as a near certainty. Then comes a call to the children, restored, or about to be restored, to congratulate their mother and “to enjoy her. The prophet rewakens the figure, that is ever nearest his heart, of motherhood, -children suckled, borne, and cradled in the lap of their mother fill all his view; nay, finer still, the grown man coming back with wounds and weariness upon him to be comforted of his mother.” As a man whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you, and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem. And ye shall see, and rejoice shall your heart, and your bones shall flourish like the tender grass.” But this great light shines not to flood all Israel in One, but to cleave the nation in two, like a sword of judgment. “The hand of Jehovah shall be known towards His servants, but He will have indignation against His enemies” (enemies, that is, within Israel. Then comes the fiery judgment) “For by fire will Jehovah plead, and by His sword with, all flesh; and the slain of Jehovah shall be many. Why there should be slain of Jehovah within Israel is then explained. Within Israel there are idolaters: “they that consecrate themselves and practise purification for the gardens, after one in the middle; eaters of swines flesh, and the Abomination, and the Mouse. They shall come to an end together, saith Jehovah, for I” (know, or will punish,) “their works and their thoughts.” In this eighteenth verse the punctuation is uncertain, and probably the text is corrupt. The first part of the verse should evidently go, as above, with Isa 66:17. Then begins a new subject.
“It is coming to gather all the nations and the tongues, and they shall come and shall see My glory; and I will set among them a sign” (a marvellous and mighty act, probably of judgment, for he immediately speaks of their survivors) “and I will send the escaped of them to the nations Tarshish, and Lud, drawers of the bow, to Tubal and Javan” (that is, to far Spain, and the distances of Africa, towards the Black Sea and to “Greece, a full round of the compass) the isles far off that have not heard report of Me, nor have seen My glory; and they shall recount My glory among the nations. And they shall bring all your brethren from among all the nations an offering to Jehovah, on horses and in chariots and in litters, and on mules and on dromedaries, up on the Mount of My Holiness, Jerusalem, saith Jehovah, just as when the children of Israel bring the offering in a clean vessel to the house of Jehovah. And also from them will I take to be priests, to be Levites, saith Jehovah. For like as the new heavens and the new earth which I am making shall be standing before Me, saith Jehovah, so shall stand your seed and your name.” But again the prophecy swerves from the universal hope into which we expect it to break, and gives us instead a division and a judgment: the servants of Jehovah on one side occupied in what the prophet regards as the ideal life, regular worship-so little did he mean Isa 66:1 to be a condemnation of the Temple and its ritual!-and on the other the rebels unburied carcasses gnawed by the worm and by fire, an abomination to all. “And it shall come to pass from new moon to new moon, and from sabbath to sabbath, all flesh shall come to worship before Me, saith Jehovah: and they shall go out and look on the carcasses of the men who have rebelled against Me; for their worm dieth not, and their fire is not quenched, and they shall be an abhorrence to all flesh.”
We have thus gone step by step through the chapter, because its intricacies and sudden changes were not otherwise to be mastered. What exactly it is composed of must, we fear, still remain a problem. Who can tell whether its short, broken pieces are all originally from our prophets hand, or were gathered by him from others, or were the fragments of his teaching which the reverent hands of disciples picked carefully up that nothing might be lost? Sometimes we think it must be this last alternative that happened; for it seems impossible that pieces so strange to each other, so loosely connected, could have flowed from one mind at one time. But then again we think otherwise, when we see how the chapter as a whole continues the separation made evident in chapter 65, and runs it on to a last emphatic contrast.
So we are left by the prophecy, -not with the new heavens and the new earth which it promised: not with the holy mountain on which none shall hurt nor destroy, saith the Lord; not with a Jerusalem full of glory and a people all holy, the centre of a gathered humanity, -but with the city like to a judgment floor, and upon its narrow surface a people divided between worship and a horrible woe.
O Jerusalem, City of the Lord, Mother eagerly desired of her children, radiant light to them that sit in darkness and are far off, home after exile, haven after storm, -expected as the Lords garner, thou art still to be only His threshing-floor, and heaven and hell as of old shall, from new moon to new moon, through the revolving years, lie side by side within thy narrow walls! For from the day that Araunah the Jebusite threshed out his sheaves upon thy high windswept rock, to the day when the Son of Man standing over against thee divided in his last discourse the sheep from the goats, the wise from the foolish, and the loving from the selfish, thou hast been appointed of God for trial and separation and judgment.
It is a terrible ending to such a prophecy as ours. But is any other possible? We ask how can this contiguity of heaven and hell be within the Lords own city, after all His yearning and jealousy for her, after His fierce agony and strife with her enemies, after so clear a revelation of Himself, so long a providence, so glorious a deliverance? Yet, it is plain that nothing else can result, if the men on whose ears the great prophecy had fallen, with all its music and all its gospel, and who had been partakers of the Lords Deliverance, did yet continue to prefer their idols, their swines flesh, their mouse, their broth of abominable things, their sitting in graves, to so evident a God and to so great a grace.
It is a terrible ending, but it is the same as upon the same floor Christ set to His teaching, -the gospel net cast wide, but only to draw in both good and bad upon a beach of judgment; the wedding feast thrown open and men compelled to come in, but among them a heart whom grace so great could not awe even to decency; Christs gospel preached, His Example evident, and Himself owned as Lord, and nevertheless some whom neither the hearing nor the seeing nor the owning with their lips did lift to unselfishness or stir to pity. Therefore He who had cried, “Come all unto Me,” was compelled to close by saying to many, “Depart.”
It is a terrible ending, but one only too conceivable. For though God is love, man is free, -free to turn from that love; free to be as though he had never felt it; free to put away from himself the highest, clearest, most urgent grace that God can show. But to do this is the judgment.
“Lord, are there few that be saved?”
The Lord did not answer the question but by bidding the questioner take heed to himself:
“Strive to enter in at the strait gate.”
Almighty and most merciful God, who hast sent this book to be the revelation of Thy great love to man, and of Thy power and will to save him, grant that our study of it may not have been in vain by the callousness or carelessness of our hearts, but that by it we may be confirmed in penitence, lifted to hope, made strong for service, and above all filled with the true knowledge of Thee and of Thy Son Jesus Christ, Amen.