Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 63:8
For he said, Surely they [are] my people, children [that] will not lie: so he was their Savior.
8. The retrospect goes back to the beginning of the nation’s history, when Jehovah’s affection for His people was still unimpaired. Cf. Hos 11:1, “When Israel was a child then I loved him.”
children ( sons) that will not lie ] Contrast ch. Isa 1:2, Isa 30:9.
so he was their Saviour ] and he became to them a saviour. LXX. adds from the following verse: in all their distress. On metrical grounds the addition is an obvious improvement; and it leads to an interesting explanation of the first part of Isa 63:9 (see below).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
For he said – Yahweh had said. That is, he said this when he chose them as his unique people, and entered into solemn covenant with them.
Surely they are my people – The reference here is to the fact that he entered into covenant with them to be their God.
Children that will not lie – That will not prove false to me – indicating the reasonable expectation which Yahweh might have, when he chose them, that they would be faithful to him.
So he was their Saviour – Lowth renders this, And he became their Saviour in all their distress; connecting this with the first member of the following verse, and translating that, it was not an envoy, nor an angel of his presence that saved them. So the Septuagint renders it, And he was to them for salvation eis soterian) from all their affliction. The Chaldee render it, And his word was redemption ( pariyq) unto them. But the true idea probably is, that he chose them, and in virtue of his thus choosing them he became their deliverer.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Isa 63:8
Children that will not lie
Sincerity toward God
The Christian exemplifying the power of truth in his renewed nature, and in all the engagements and relations of life, is a phenomenon–a miracle of grace.
A Christian Church, consisting of believers adorning, in all things, the doctrine of God our Saviour, are men wondered at. Yet, peculiar or eccentric as the course of such men may be deemed in the world, it is evident, from Scripture, that the people of God are expected to render practical homage to the truth no less habitual and profound.
I. THEIR REGARD FOR TRUTH. Children that will not lie.
1. They estimate truth at its proper value. Buy the truth, but sell it not. Divine truth–the truth as it is in Jesus–is the greatest treasure our world contains. The full possession of this treasure cannot be secured with diligence and care. Search the Scriptures. Prove all things. So that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding. Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding; if thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures, then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God. Yet no man ever reached a full and abiding conviction of Divine truth by a mere process of investigation. No one will ever come to the light until he feels that he is walking in darkness. No one will ever find the truth until he feels that he has everything to learn in order to life and salvation, and that Christ alone can teach him. All Thy children shall be taught of the Lord.
2. When truth is sought from this Divine source it will be cordially welcomed.
3. They are concerned for the preservation of the truth in themselves. Not in the letter only, but in its spirit and power. The truth may be held in unrighteousness. The Gospel itself may become the savour of death unto death. What solemn words are those of Christ, If, therefore, the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!
4. They bear a distinct and consistent testimony for the truth. What we feel deeply we shall speak freely. We believe, said the apostle, and therefore speak.
5. If the truth be so valued, received, obeyed, and testified, it will exert a practical influence in all the relative duties and circumstances of life.
II. HOW FAR IS THIS THOROUGH TRUTHFULNESS DISTINCTIVE OF THE PEOPLE OF GOD?
1. Sincerity toward God–faith unfeigned–brings with it the conviction that the subjects of it are His people. They have the witness within themselves. They are the children of light. They that have known the truth in its power can say, The truth dwelleth in us, and shall be in us for ever.
2. Their relation to God is made manifest to others.
3. Such sincere and faithful men have the strength of the people of God. If you would find the strongest men in the worlds history you must not look for them in camps, in senates, or in palaces, but in dungeons, in exile, or at the stake. It was not Caesar, Alexander, Napoleon, or Wellington that affected the greatest changes in the world, but men who were made witnesses for the truth. Ye are strong, for the Word of God abideth in you; and ye have overcome the wicked one. The spirit of faith alone is invincible.
4. Those who are faithful to the truth have the freedom of Gods people. I will walk at liberty, for I seek Thy precepts.
5. They have the peace of the people of God and the honour sure to arise from fidelity. (J. Waddington, D. D.)
Fidelity between God and His people
God deals fairly and faithfully with them, and therefore expects they should deal so with Him. (M. Henry.)
Children that will not lie
Gods people are children that will not lie, for those that will are not His children, but the devil s. (M. Henry.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 8. – 9. So he was their Saviour. In all their affliction – “And he became their Saviour in all their distress”] I have followed the translation of the Septuagint in the latter part of the eighth, and the former part of the ninth verse; which agrees with the present text, a little differently divided as to thee members of the sentence. They read miccol, out of all, instead of bechol, in all, which makes no difference in the sense; and tsar they understand as tsir. , “And he was salvation to them in all their tribulation; neither an ambassador nor an angel, but himself saved them.” An angel of his presence means an angel of superior order, in immediate attendance upon God. So the angel of the Lord says to Zacharias, “I am Gabriel, that stand in the presence of God,” Lu 1:19. The presence of JEHOVAH, Ex 33:14-15, and the angel, Ex 33:20-21, is JEHOVAH himself; here an angel of his presence is opposed to JEHOVAH himself, as an angel is in the following passages of the same book of Exodus. After their idolatrous worshipping of the golden calf, “when God had said to Moses, I will send an angel before thee – I will not go up in the midst of thee – the people mourned,” Ex 33:2-4. God afterwards comforts Moses, by saying, “My presence (that is I myself in person, and not by an angel) will go with thee,” Ex 33:14. , “I myself will go before thee,” as the Septuagint render it.
The MSS. and editions are much divided between the two readings of the text and margin in the common copies, lo, not, and lo, to him. All the ancient Versions express the chetib reading, lo, not.
And he bare them and carried them all the days of old – “And he took them up, and he bore them, all the days of old.”] See Clarke on Isa 46:3. – L.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
For he said, viz. within himself of old, when he made a covenant with our fathers, and brought them out of Egypt,
Surely they are my people, in covenant; though they are unworthy of me, yet I cannot but look upon them as my people. Their enemies would persuade themselves, O they are not Gods people, but cast-outs, that none cared for or looked after; but God will own them.
Children that will not lie; that will keep my covenant; they will not deal falsely with me, that are under such obligations: or, I presume they will not; though they did go after their idols, and prove unfaithful to me in serving Baal and Ashteroth, &c., now I presume they will do so no more. Thus parents are apt tenderly to think of those children that they have been indulgent to, that they will not offer to abuse their kindness; thus God thinks the best of them. Or, he intimates here what they are obliged to do, though he knew they would do otherwise. Or, they will not degenerate after I have renewed them.
So he was their Saviour, viz. on these hopes and on these conditions he undertook the charge of them, Exo 19:5,6; Psa 81:8-10; or, he; so he alone was their Saviour; when none to save, none to uphold, then he saved them; not Cyrus, Zerubbabel, Nehemiah, &c., but Christ himself.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
8. heJehovah “said,”that is, thought, in choosing them as His covenant-people; so “said”(Ps 95:10). Not that God wasignorant that the Jews would not keep faith with Him; but God is heresaid, according to human modes of thought to say withinHimself what He might naturally have expected, as theresult of His goodness to the Jews; thus the enormity of theirunnatural perversity is the more vividly set forth.
lieprove false to Me(compare Ps 44:17).
soin virtue of Hishaving chosen them, He became their Saviour. So the”therefore” (Jer 31:33).His eternal choice is the ground of His actually saving men(Eph 1:3; Eph 1:4).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
For he said, surely they are my people,…. Not in common with the rest of mankind, being his creatures, and the care of his providence; but his special people, whom he had chosen to be such, and had made a covenant with; he had avouched them for his people, and they had avouched him to be the Lord their God; and this covenant interest was the ground and foundation of the actual donation and application of all the blessings of grace and goodness to them before mentioned. These are the words of Jehovah himself, related by the prophet; and are applicable to all the elect of God, whom he has chosen in Christ; taken into the covenant of grace made with him; and who appear manifestly to be his peculiar people by their effectual calling; when it is a sure and certain thing, that they, who were not known by themselves or others to be the people of God, are evidently so; and the Lord himself makes no scruple of acknowledging them as such, even though their conduct and behaviour towards him is not altogether as it should be, and which was the case of the people of Israel; however, he is willing to hope well of them, as parents do of their children, speaking after the manner of men, and that they will behave better for the future, being by fresh mercies laid under obligation to him, as he did of Israel of old:
children that will not lie; not the children of Satan, as liars are, who was a liar from the beginning, and the father of lies; as wicked men are, who go astray from the womb, speaking lies; but children of God by adopting grace, and through faith in Christ; and therefore should not lie to God, nor to men, nor to one another, as being unbecoming their relation as children: this opinion the Lord entertains of his children, speaking after the manner of men, that they will not deal deceitfully and hypocritically with him, but serve him in sincerity, and worship him in spirit and in truth; that their hearts will be right with him, and they steadfast in his covenant: thus he hoped well of Israel of old, and so he does of all his spiritual Israel, his special people, and dear children:
so he was their Saviour; in this view and expectation of things, as he is of all men in a providential way, and especially of them that believe; he was the Saviour of literal Israel in a temporal manner, in Egypt, the Red sea, and wilderness; and of his chosen people among them, in a spiritual manner, as he is of all his elect in Christ Jesus; and even though they do not entirely answer the just expectations expressed concerning them.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
8. For he said, Surely they are my people. He mentions the election of the people, and represents God as speaking of it, that we may keep in view the end of our calling., that he wished to have a peculiar people, who should call upon him. And yet he accuses the people of ingratitude, in having disappointed God of his expectation; not that the Lord can be deceived, for he dearly foresaw what they would become, and also declared it (Deu 32:15) by Moses; but Scripture speaks in this manner, when it is altogether owing to the ingratitude of men that they, disappoint God, as we formerly saw,
“
I looked that it should yield grapes, and it hath yielded wild grapes.” (Isa 5:4.)
Nor does he treat of God’s secret decree, but speaks after the manner of men about the mutual consent between God and believers, that all to whom he deigns to offer himself as their Father, may answer to God when he calls; “for the foundation standeth sure, that none of the elect shall perish, because the Lord knoweth who are truly his. (2Ti 2:19.)
Children that do not lie. We know that the end of our calling is, that we may lead a holy and blameless life, as the whole of Scripture testifies, and as we have often stated at former passages. (Isa 43:21.) Justly, therefore, does the Lord say that he elected the people, that they might be holy and true, that he might have children who were averse to falsehood and vanity. But the people did not keep their promise, and were far removed from that simplicity which they ought to have followed; for everything was full of deceit and hypocrisy. Yet nevertheless he holds out the hope of pardon, provided that they fly to God and humble themselves by sincere repentance.
Therefore he became their Savior. The Prophet shews what is the chief part of the service of God; namely, to have a pure and upright heart. Hence it follows that God forsakes us, because we are treacherous and are covenant-breakers. Seeing therefore that this people took pleasure in their vices, it was proper first to convict them of their unbelief, that being afterwards converted to God, they might find him to be their Savior.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(8) For he said . . .The words throw us back to the starting-point of Gods covenant with His people, based, so to speak, on the assumption that they would not fail utterly in the fulfilment of their promises. (Comp. Exo. 19:3-6.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
8. He said Jehovah said, in the exercise of his great mercy.
Surely Without possible ground for doubt.
They are my people They only are the people.
That will not lie That is, that are true to the covenant with me. The body of Israel had not so proved: but these are they whose characters have been proved.
He was their Saviour Namely, of the few who, out of severe trial, proved genuine, and deserving to be saved.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘For he said, “Surely they are my people, children who will not deal falsely.” So he was their Saviour.’
In the past Yahweh had looked at His people, choosing them out and assuring Himself that because He had chosen them as His people they would not deal falsely, for were they not His own people (Exo 6:7), yes, His children. Surely those whom He had chosen and with whom He had made His covenant would not deal falsely? (This is Isaiah’s vivid way of bringing out the point that Yahweh treated them in this way. It is not to be interpreted literally).
That is why He had continually acted to save them. He had regularly been their Saviour, first in Egypt, then at the Reed Sea, and then regularly in the wilderness and in the land He had given them.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
DISCOURSE: 1014
VEXING THE HOLY SPIRIT
Isa 63:8; Isa 63:10. He said, Surely they are my people, children that will not lie: so he was their SaviourBut they rebelled, and vexed his Holy Spirit: therefore he was turned to be their enemy, and he fought against them.
WE all notice with wonder the perverseness of the Jewish people, and justify in our minds the judgments inflicted on them. But it would be well, it, when looking at them, we beheld our own selves, as in a glass: for verily the whole of their conduct is but a just representation of our own. The expectations which God formed respecting them were such as were perfectly just and reasonable: and when he was so grievously disappointed, we wonder not that he resented it in the way he did.
We shall find it not unprofitable to consider this passage,
I.
As fulfilled in the Jewish people
Gods expectations from them were reasonable
[The mercies which he vouchsafed to them, when he took them for his own peculiar people, are well known. They are again and again specified in the Holy Scriptures [Note: See Neh 9:7-25.] In particular, he revealed to them his laws from heaven [Note: Neh 9:13.], yea, and gave his Holy Spirit also to instruct them [Note: Neh 9:20.]. In doing these things, he said, Surely they are my people, that will not lie. They will be to me a peculiar people: they will love, and serve, and honour me: and nothing will ever induce them to depart from me.
This, I say, was nothing more than what his mercies towards them most plainly called for. Never had any nation under heaven been dealt with as they had been [Note: Deu 4:7-8; Deu 4:32-35.]: and therefore he might reasonably expect that they would requite him according to the mercies vouchsafed unto them.]
But they most grievously disappointed him
[They soon forgat his works, and were disobedient to him at the sea, even at the Red Sea. Their whole conduct was one continued series of murmurings and rebellions; as Moses himself testified, Ye have been rebellious from the day that I knew you [Note: Deu 9:7; Deu 9:22-24.].
Nor was it in the wilderness only that they thus grieved and vexed him. When they were brought into Canaan, they still continued a stiff-necked and rebellious people; insomuch that God himself was broken with their whorish heart [Note: Eze 6:9.]; and was pressed under them, as a cart is pressed that is full of sheaves [Note: Amo 2:13.]. Thus they proceeded, till at last they filled up the measure of their iniquities, in the murder of their Messiah.]
His resentment against them, therefore, was most just
[In the wilderness they so provoked him to anger, that of the whole number who were above twenty years of age at the time of their coming out of Egypt, two only were suffered to enter into the Promised Land. In Canaan, too, he was constrained in like manner to punish their descendants also with the severest judgments, insomuch that on some occasions his own soul was grieved for the misery of Israel. But all his chastisements proved ineffectual for their permanent reformation; so that he delivered them up, first into the hands of the Chaldeans, and in process of time into the hands of the Romans; and has now, for these eighteen hundred years, made them a spectacle to the whole world, an awful monument of his righteous indignation.]
But wherefore are these things related concerning them? Surely for our sakes. It will therefore be proper for us to consider them,
II.
As recorded for our instruction
The whole history is declared by St. Paul to have been written as an admonition to us [Note: 1Co 10:1-11.] Let me then ask,
Has not God been disappointed in us?
[The mercies vouchsafed to the Jews were nothing more than shadows of the blessings which we enjoy. What was their redemption, in comparison of ours? What their support in the wilderness, and their possession of the land of Canaan, in comparison of the spiritual food administered to us, and the glory kept in reserve for us? Were the Jews a favoured nation in comparison of the Gentiles? What then are we in comparison of the Heathen world? yes, and in comparison of a great part of the Christian world too? How fully and faithfully is the Gospel ministered to you! I may truly say, as Paul did to the Galatians, that Jesus Christ is evidently set forth crucified before your eyes.
What, then, must have been Gods expectations respecting you? Surely of you he has said, They will walk before me as dear children: they will never lie: I can depend on them: whoever may neglect me, they will not: whoever may disobey me, they will not: I have given myself to them, to be their Saviour; and they will feel their obligations, and surrender up their whole souls to me, to be saved in the way of mine appointments.
But how have you fulfilled these expectations? Has he seen you devoting yourselves to him in sincerity and truth? Has he not seen you, on the contrary, weary of his service, and going for happiness to an ensnaring world? Has he not seen you indulging many hidden abominations, and yielding to unhallowed tempers; and either neglecting altogether, or performing in a mere heartless and formal way, your duties of prayer and praise? ]
May we not then well expect that his anger should be kindled against us?
[Yes, truly: such conduct cannot but grieve and vex his Holy Spirit: and he might well swear concerning the greater part of us, as he did respecting the Jews, that we shall never enter into his rest. And what if he should do so? What if, instead of being to us a Saviour, he should become our enemy; and all his love and pity should be turned to wrath and fiery indignation? Can we bear the thought? Reflect, I pray you, my Brethren, what an evil and bitter thing it will be to fall into the hands of the Living God. Yet can we expect no other, than that he should be thus incensed, when we are multiplying our rebellions against him, and trampling under foot his dear Son, and doing despite to his Spirit of grace. He has told us, that we shall reap according as we sow: if we will sow to the flesh, we must of the flesh reap corruption: but if we will sow to the Spirit, we shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
Isa 63:8 For he said, Surely they [are] my people, children [that] will not lie: so he was their Saviour.
Ver. 8. For he said, Surely they are my people, children that will not lie, ] q.d., I presume they will not; it were a foul shame for them if they should deceive my expectation, deal disloyally, show themselves deceitful in the covenant. The officers of Merindol, in France, answered the Popish bishop that moved them to abjure, that they marvelled much that he would offer to persuade them to lie to God and the world. And albeit that all men by nature are liars; yet they had learned by the Word of God that they ought diligently to take heed of lying in any matter, be it never so small. Also that they ought diligently to take heed that their children did not accustom or use themselves to lie, and therefore punish them very sharply when they took them with any lie, even as if they had committed a robbery; for the devil is a liar, &c. Here the bishop rose up in a great anger, and so departed. a
a Acts and Mon., 866.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
children = sons.
lie = deal falsely.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Surely: Isa 41:8, Gen 17:7, Exo 3:7, Exo 4:22, Exo 4:23, Exo 6:7, Exo 19:5, Exo 19:6, Rom 11:1, Rom 11:2, Rom 11:28
children: Isa 57:11, Exo 24:7, Psa 78:36, Psa 78:37, Zep 3:7, Joh 1:47, Eph 4:25, Col 3:9
so he: Isa 12:2, Isa 43:3, Isa 43:11, Deu 33:29, Psa 106:21, Jer 14:8, Hos 13:4, 1Jo 4:14, Jud 1:25
Reciprocal: Psa 15:2 – speaketh Psa 34:13 – speaking Psa 74:12 – working Psa 78:35 – their redeemer Isa 30:9 – lying Jer 2:13 – For my Hos 7:13 – though Zep 3:13 – nor Mar 10:21 – loved Act 7:34 – I have seen 1Ti 1:1 – God
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Isa 63:8-9. For he said Namely, within himself, of old, when he made a covenant with our fathers, and brought them out of Egypt; Surely they are my people In covenant with me: though they are unworthy of me, yet I cannot but look upon them as my people. Children that will not lie That will keep my covenant; that will not deal falsely with me, to whom they are under such unspeakable obligations. This is spoken by God, after the manner of men, who are always apt to hope the best concerning their children, even though, in times past, they may have been refractory and disobedient. So he was their Saviour Namely, on these hopes and conditions he undertook to be their Saviour: or, he alone was their Saviour. When there was none to save, none to uphold, then he saved them. In all their affliction he was afflicted When there was a necessity of correcting them, in order to their amendment, he had a compassionate sense of the evils which they suffered: see Deu 32:36; Jdg 10:16; Psa 106:44-45. And the angel of his presence saved them From the house of bondage, through the Red sea, and in the wilderness. The same angel that conducted them in all their journeys, and brought them into Canaan, as Captain of the Lords host, (Jos 5:15,) even the Lord Jesus Christ, who appeared to Moses in the bush, (Exo 3:2-6, compared with Act 7:35,) in whom Gods name was, Exo 23:20-21. Whom the Jews tempted in the wilderness, for they tempted Christ, 1Co 10:9; and who was the spiritual rock that followed them, typified by the natural rock cleft to afford them water: who was before Abraham, Joh 8:58, and before all things, Col 1:17 : see note on Exo 23:20-21 : called the angel, messenger, or mediator of the covenant, Mal 3:1; and here the angel of his presence; and his presence, Exo 33:14, as appearing continually before his face to intercede for his church. In his love and in his pity he redeemed them This shows the ground of his kindness: they were a stubborn, superstitious, idolatrous people, yet Christs love and pity saved them notwithstanding. And he bore them, and carried them As a father his child, or an eagle her young ones; he carried them in the arms of his power, and on the wings of his providence: see notes on Deu 1:31; and Deu 32:10-12; and Isa 46:4. And this he did all the days of old, for many ages past; from the days of Abraham or Moses; from their bondage in Egypt to their settlement in Canaan, and through their succeeding generations. And this his ancient kindness is thus mentioned to induce him to continue it, and still to uphold, protect, and preserve his church till he should bring her to his Father.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
63:8 For he said, Surely they [are] my {h} people, children [that] will not lie: so he was their Saviour.
(h) For I chose them to be mine, that they should be holy, and not deceive my expectation.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
God had elected Israel as His son. This was not due to anything in Israel but totally due to God’s loving selection of Abraham and his descendants for special blessing (cf. 1Co 15:9-10). God had a right to expect that the nation, so chosen, would respond with loyalty and integrity toward Him. This mutual commitment would have resulted in God delivering His people whenever they needed salvation. Note that the result would not be God insulating the Israelites from difficulties but delivering them from them.