Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 64:1
Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest come down, that the mountains might flow down at thy presence,
1. O that thou wouldest rend &c. ] Lit. “hadst rent.” So “hadst come down,” “had quaked.” This use of the perf. in the expression of a real wish, whose realisation is contemplated, is unusual, and is only to be explained by the urgency of the speaker’s feeling. Driver, Tenses, 140. see on ch. Isa 48:18.
rend the heavens ] Cf. ch. Isa 51:6; Psa 18:9; Psa 144:5.
might flow down ] Rather, might quake; cf. Jdg 5:5. For the general conception of the Theophany cf. Psa 50:1-6; Hab 3:3 ff.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Isa 64:1-3. The language of complaint again gives place (as in Isa 63:15) to impatient prayer for a Theophany, an imposing manifestation of Jehovah in His might. It is the great “day of the Lord” towards which the desire of the people reaches forward. In the Hebr., ch. 64 begins with Isa 64:2 of our version, Isa 64:1 forming the conclusion of Isa 63:19.
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
Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens – That is, in view of the considerations urged in the previous chapter. In view of the fact that the temple is burned up Isa 64:11; that the city is desolate; that the land lies waste, and that thine own people are carried captive to a distant land. The phrase rend the heavens, implies a sudden and sublime descent of Yahweh to execute vengeance on his foes, as if his heart was full of vengeance, and the firmament were violently rent asunder at his sudden appearance. It is language properly expressive of a purpose to execute wrath on his foes, rather than to confer blessings on his people. The latter is more appropriately expressed by the heavens being gently opened to make way for the descending blessings. The word rendered here rend ( qara), means properly to tear asunder, as, e. g., the garments in grief Gen 37:29; 2Sa 13:31; or as a wild beast does the breast of anyone Hos 13:8. The Septuagint, however, render it by a milder word – anoixes – If thou wouldst open the heavens, etc. So the Syriac renders it by O that thou wouldst open, using a word that is usually applied to the opening of a door. God is often represented as coming down from heaven in a sublime manner amidst tempests, fire, and storms, to take vengeance on his foes. Thus Psa 18:9 :
He bowed the heavens also and came down;
And darkness was under his feet.
Compare Hab 3:5-6. It should be remembered that the main idea in the passage before us is that of Yahweh coming down to destroy his foes. His people entreat him to descend with the proofs of his indignation, so that every obstacle shall be destroyed before him, Thus he is described in Psa 144:5-6 :
Bow thy heavens, O Lord, and come down;
Touch the mountains, and they shall smoke;
Cast forth lightning, and scatter them,
Shoot out thine arrows, and destroy them.
That the mountains might flow down at thy presence – The idea here is, that the presence of Yahweh would be like an intense burning heat, so that the mountains would melt and flow away. It is a most sublime description of his majesty, and is one that is several times employed in the Bible. Thus in relation to his appearance on Mount Sinai, in the song of Deborah Jdg 5:4-5 :
The earth trembled and the heavens dropped,
The clouds also dropped water.
The mountains melted from before Yahweh,
Even Sinai from before Yahweh, the God of Israel.
So Psa 97:5 :
The hills melted like wax at the presence of Yahweh,
At the presence of Yahweh (the God) of the whole earth.
So also in Mic 1:3-4 :
Lo, Yahweh cometh forth out of his place,
And will come down and tread upon the high places of the earth
And the mountains shall be molten under him.
And the valleys shall be cleft,
As wax before the fire,
And as the waters pour down a precipice.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Isa 64:1-2
Oh that Thou wouldest rend the heavens
Prayer for Divine manifestation
I.
This is nothing less than A PRAYER THAT GOD WOULD MANIFEST HIMSELF AS A JUDGE–yes, and as a Destroyer. Isaiah craved for a man who should deliver men from the oppressions of the worlds tyranny, from the storms which are raised by the passions of peoples and rulers, from the weariness and exhaustion which follows when they have accomplished their projects with great labour, and nothing comes out of them. He longed that the true man should appear, who would thoroughly manifest the ways ann purposes of the true God, who would remove the thick veil which had intercepted His light from reaching His creatures, who would make them know that He was present with them, that He was ruling and judging them. To long, then, for a Man who should be a hiding-place from the tempest and a covert from the storm or heat was the very same thing as to long that God would rend the heavens and come down.
II. THERE IS A NATURAL HEART IN ALL OF US WHICH IS AVERSE FROM THIS PRAYER. And there is a natural religion which adapts itself to these cravings of ours, and supplies them with a language. To keep God at a distance from men is the end which it proposes to itself; to convert all persons who perform its offices, all prayers and dogmas, into barriers more or less secure against His appearing, and His vengeance, is its art. This religion expresses all different feelings of men, in different conditions of disease. It does not express the one common feeling of men, to be raised out of their diseases, to be made whole. The universal prayer–the prayer that goes up from the whole heart of humanity–is this of Isaiah.
III. THE PROPHET HAD BEEN DISCIPLINED TO UNDERSTAND THAT MAN DOES NOT REQUIRE TO BE PROTECTED AGAINST GOD, but that God should protect him against himself, and should raise him out of the slavery which he invents for himself. Thus did he learn to rejoice, even while he trembled, at the convulsions in the outward world, or in human society. Thus did he understand that by all such signs God was avenging the cause of the poor, of those who had no helper, was shaking kings on their thrones, was surprising the hypocrites. Thus was Isaiah made into the evangelical prophet, the witness that unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given, who can be a covert from the tempest, because He is both the Son of man and the Son of God; because God appearing in Him does indeed rend the heavens and come down. (F. D. Maurice, M. A.)
The hearts cry
Here is a voice, resonant, magnificent, full of heart-chords, that says, Break up the scheme of nature and rebuild it, only thou Heart of things come to us? We catch our best selves in our best reality when we are thus impassioned. The zoologist or physiologist tells us that animals can only move when they are warm; they can only move in proportion as the sun is in them. It is the sun that makes the bird fly, it is the sun that made the little serpent leap up into your way and flash into the woods like a glare of light in darkness. We move by the sun. So, in a higher sense, in the larger, richer realms of education and culture and growth, we are moved by inspiration, not by information. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Irresistible Divine manifestation
Jehovah is to descend with such irresistible force as fire exerts on brushwood and water, kindling the one, making the other boil, in order by such a display of power to impress His name (revealing itself judicially, therefore, in fire, Isa 30:27; Isa 66:15) on HIS adversaries, and that,(idolatrous) nations may tremble before Him (cf. Psa 68:2 f.). (F. Delitzsch, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
CHAPTER LXIV
The whole of this chapter, which is very pathetic and tender,
may be considered as a formulary of prayer and humiliation
intended for the Jews in order to their conversion, 1-12.
NOTES ON CHAP. LXIV
Verse 1. O that thou wouldest rend the heavens – This seems to allude to the wonderful manifestation of God upon Mount Sinai.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens: either the earnest desire of the prophet, or the Jews strong wish, for the coming of the Messias: or rather, their cry to God for vengeance upon their adversaries, on consideration of the enemys unmerciful dealing with them, and their insolent and opprobrious usage of God in his temple; partly expressing their haste and earnestness, and partly intimating that God would do it with violence and fury, implied in the word rending them, Psa 18:6,7, &c., spoken after the manner of man, who, if he were shut up, must have room made for his coming forth. This God is said to do, when he puts forth some signal manifestation of his power, Psa 144:5; a metaphor taken from men, that when they would resolutely and effectually help one in distress, break and fling open doors, and whatever may hinder coming to their relief.
That the mountains might flow down; or melt, Psa 68:1,2; 97:5; Mic 1:3,4; that all impediments might be removed out of the way: possibly an allusion to Gods coming down upon Mount Sinai in those terrible flames of fire, Jdg 5:4,5.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
1. rend . . . heavensburstingforth to execute vengeance, suddenly descending on Thy people’s foe(Psa 18:9; Psa 144:5;Hab 3:5; Hab 3:6).
flow down (Jdg 5:5;Mic 1:4).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
O that thou wouldst rend the heavens, that thou wouldst come down,…. Before, the church prayed that the Lord would look down from heaven and behold, Isa 63:15, now that he would open the heavens, and descend from thence; not by change of place, for he fills heaven and earth with his presence; but by some visible display of his power, in destroying her enemies, and delivering her from them. Some take this to be a prayer for the first coming of Christ from heaven to earth, by his incarnation, in order to redeem and save his people; and others that it is for his second coming to judgment, to take vengeance on his adversaries, when his wrath will burn like fire; but rather it is for his spiritual coming, to avenge his church and people on antichrist, and the antichristian states. She had seen him, as a triumphant conqueror, stained with the blood of his enemies; and now she prays for the accomplishment of what she had seen in vision and prophecy:
that the mountains might flow down at thy presence; kings and princes of the earth, and kingdoms and states governed by them, compared to mountains for their seeming firmness and stability; yet these will melt like wax, and flow like water, tremble and disappear at the presence of the King of kings, when he comes forth in his great wrath against them; as it is explained in the next verse,
that the nations may tremble at thy presence; see Re 16:20. Here ends the sixty third chapter in the Targum.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The similes which follow cannot be attached to this nazollu , however we may explain it. Yet Isa 64:1 (2) does not form a new and independent sentence; but we must in thought repeat the word upon which the principal emphasis rests in Isa 63:19 (Isa 64:1). “( Wouldst come down) as fire kindles brushwood, fire causes water to boil; to make known Thy name to Thine adversaries, that the heathen may tremble before Thy face! When Thou doest terrible things which we hoped not for; wouldst come down, ( and) mountains shake before Thy countenance! ” The older expositors gave themselves a great deal of trouble in the attempt to trace hamasm to m asas , to melt. But since Louis de Dieu and Albert Schultens have followed Saadia and Abulwlid in citing the Arabic hms , to crack, to mutter, to mumble, etc., and hsm , to break in pieces, confringere , from which comes hashim , broken, dry wood, it is generally admitted that hamasim is from hemes (lit. crackling, rattling, Arab. hams ), and signifies “dry twigs,” arida sarmenta . The second simile might be rendered, “as water bubbles up in the fire;” and in that case m ayim would be treated as a feminine (according to the rule in Ges. 146, 3), in support of which Job 14:19 may be adduced as an unquestionable example (although in other cases it is masculine), and = would be used in a local sense, like lehabhah , into flames, in Isa 5:24. But it is much more natural to take , which is just as often a feminine as is a masculine, as the subject of , and to give to the verb , which is originally intransitive, judging from the Arabic bga , to swell, the Chald. , to spring up (compare , blisters, pustules), the Syr. , to bubble up, etc., the transitive meaning to cause to boil or bubble up, rather than the intransitive to boil (comp. Isa 30:13, , swollen = bent forwards, as it were protumidus ). Jehovah is to come down with the same irresistible force which fire exerts upon brushwood or water, when it sets the former in flames and makes the latter boil; in order that by such a display of might He may make His name known (viz., the name thus judicially revealing itself, hence “in fire,” Isa 30:27; Isa 66:15) to His adversaries, and that nations (viz., those that are idolaters) may tremble before Him ( : cf., Psa 68:2-3). The infinitive clause denoting the purpose, like that indicating the comparison, passes into the finite (cf., Isa 10:2; Isa 13:9; Isa 14:25). Modern commentators for the most part now regard the optative lu’ (O that) as extending to Isa 64:2 also; and, in fact, although this continued influence of lu’ appears to overstep the bounds of the possible, we are forced to resort to this extremity. Isa 64:2 cannot contain a historical retrospect: the word “formerly” would be introduced if it did, and the order of the words would be a different one. Again, we cannot assume that contains an expression of confidence, or that the prefects indicate certainty. Neither the context, the foregoing (why not ?), nor the parenthetical assertion , permits of this. On the other hand, connects itself very appropriately with the purposes indicated in Isa 64:1 (2.): “may tremble when Thou doest terrible things, which we, i.e., such as we, do not look for,” i.e., which surpass our expectations. And now nothing remains but to recognise the resumption of Isa 63:19 (Isa 64:1) in the clause “The mountains shake at Thy presence,” in which case Isaiah 63:19 b -64:2 (Isa 64:1-3) forms a grand period rounded off palindromically after Isaiah’s peculiar style.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| Prayer for the Divine Presence; Blessings Prepared for the Saints. | B. C. 706. |
1 Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest come down, that the mountains might flow down at thy presence, 2 As when the melting fire burneth, the fire causeth the waters to boil, to make thy name known to thine adversaries, that the nations may tremble at thy presence! 3 When thou didst terrible things which we looked not for, thou camest down, the mountains flowed down at thy presence. 4 For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him. 5 Thou meetest him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness, those that remember thee in thy ways: behold, thou art wroth; for we have sinned: in those is continuance, and we shall be saved.
Here, I. The petition is that God would appear wonderfully for them now, Isa 63:1; Isa 63:2. Their case was represented in the close of the foregoing chapter as very sad and very hard, and in this case it was time to cry, “Help, Lord; O that God would manifest his zeal and his strength!” They had prayed (ch. lxiii. 15) that God would look down from heaven; here they pray that he would come down to deliver them, as he had said, Exod. iii. 8. 1. They desire that God would in his providence manifest himself both to them and for them. When God works some extraordinary deliverance for his people he is said to shine forth, to show himself strong; so, here, they pray that he would rend the heavens and come down, as when he delivered David he is said to bow the heavens, and come down (Ps. xviii. 9), to display his power, and justice, and goodness, in an extraordinary manner, so that all may take notice of them and acknowledge them. This God’s people desire and pray for, that they themselves having the satisfaction of seeing him though his way be in the sea, others may be made to see him when his way is in the clouds. This is applicable to the second coming of Christ, when the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout. Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly. 2. They desire that he would vanquish all opposition and that it might be made to give way before him: That the mountains might flow down at thy presence, that the fire of thy wrath may burn so fiercely against thy enemies as even to dissolve the rockiest mountains and melt them down before it, as metal in the furnace, which is made liquid and cast into what shape the operator pleases; so the melting fire burns, v. 2. Let things be put into a ferment, in order to a glorious revolution in favour of the church: As the fire causes the waters to boil. There is an allusion here, some think, to the volcanoes, or burning mountains, which sometimes send forth such sulphureous streams as make the adjacent rivers and seas to boil, which, perhaps, are left as sensible intimations of the power of God’s wrath and warning–pieces of the final conflagration. 3. They desire that this may tend very much to the glory and honour of God, may make his name known, not only to his friends (they knew it before, and trusted in his power), but to his adversaries likewise, that they may know it and tremble at his presence, and may say, with the men of Bethshemesh, Who is able to stand before this holy Lord God? Who knows the power of his anger? Note, Sooner or later God will make his name known to his adversaries and force those to tremble at his presence that would not come and worship in his presence. God’s name, if it be not a stronghold for us, into which we may run and be safe, will be a strong-hold against us, out of the reach of which we cannot run and be safe. The day will come when nations shall be made to tremble at the presence of God, though they be ever so numerous and strong.
II. The plea is that God had appeared wonderfully for his people formerly; and thou hast, therefore thou wilt, is good arguing at the throne of grace, Ps. x. 17.
1. They plead what he had done for his people Israel in particular when he brought them out of Egypt, v. 3. He then did terrible things in the plagues of Egypt, which they looked not for; they despaired of deliverance, so far were they from any thought of being delivered with such a high hand and outstretched arm. Then he came down upon Mount Sinai in such terror as made that and the adjacent mountains to flow down at his presence, to skip like rams (Ps. cxiv. 4), to tremble, so that they were scattered and the perpetual hills were made to bow, Hab. iii. 6. In the many great salvations God wrought for that people he did terrible things which they looked not for, made great men, that seemed as stately and strong as mountains, to fall before him, and great opposition to give way. See Jdg 5:4; Jdg 5:5; Psa 68:7; Psa 68:8. Some refer this to the defeat of Sennacherib’s powerful army, which was as surprising an instance of the divine power as the melting down of rocks and mountains would be.
2. They plead what God had been used to do, and had declared his gracious purpose to do, for his people in general. The provision he has made for the safety and happiness of his people, even of all those that seek him, and serve him, and trust in him, is very rich and very ready, so that they need not fear being either disappointed of it, for it is sure, or disappointed in it, for it is sufficient.
(1.) It is very rich, v. 4. Men have not heard nor seen what God has prepared for those that wait for him. Observe the character of God’s people; they are such as wait for him in the way of duty, wait for the salvation he has promised and designed for them. Observe where the happiness of this people is bound up; it is what God has prepared for them, what he has designed for them in his counsel and is in his providence and grace preparing for them and preparing them for, what he has done or will do, so it may be read. Some of the Jewish doctors have understood this of the blessings reserved for the days of the Messiah, and to them the apostle applies these words; and others extend them to the glories of the world to come. It is all that goodness which God has laid up for those that fear him, and wrought for those that trust in him, Ps. xxxi. 19. Of this it is here said that since the beginning of the world, in the most prying and inquisitive ages of it, men have not, either by hearing or seeing, the two learning senses, come to the full knowledge of it. None have seen, nor heard, nor can understand, but God himself, what the provision is that is made for the present and future felicity of holy souls. For, [1.] Much of it was concealed in former ages; they knew it not, because the unsearchable riches of Christ were hidden in God, were hidden from the wise and prudent; but in latter ages they were revealed by the gospel; so the apostle applies this (1 Cor. ii. 9), for it follows (v. 10), But God has revealed them unto us by his Spirit; compare Rom 16:25; Eph 3:9. That which men had not heard since the beginning of the world they should hear before the end of it, and at the end of it should see, when the veil shall be rent to introduce the glory that is yet to be revealed. God himself knew what he had in store for believers, but none knew besides him. [2.] It cannot be fully comprehended by the human understanding, no, not when it is revealed; it is spiritual, and refined from those ideas which our minds are most apt to receive in this world of sense; it is very great, and will far outdo the utmost of our expectations. Even the present peace of believers, much more their future bliss, is such as surpasses all conception and expression, Phil. iv. 7. None can comprehend it but God himself, whose understanding is infinite. Some give another reading of these words, referring the transcendency, not so much to the work itself as to the author of it: Neither has the eye seen a god besides thee, who doth so (or has done or can do so) for him that waits for him. We must infer from God’s works of wonderous grace, as well as from his works of wondrous power, from the kind things, as well as from the great things, he does, that there is no god like him, nor any among the sons of the mighty to be compared with him.
(2.) It is very ready (v. 5): “Thou meetest him that rejoices and works righteousness, meetest him with that good which thou hast prepared for him (v. 4), and dost not forget those that remember thee in thy ways.” See here what communion there is between a gracious God and a gracious soul. [1.] What God expects from us, in order to our having communion with him. First, We must make conscience of doing our duty in every thing, 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 in his law, must be cheerful 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 his ways, 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 (in a day of prosperity be joyful), with patience and submission when he contends with us. In the way of thy judgments we have waited for thee; for in a day of adversity we must consider. [2.] We are here told what we may expect from God if we thus attend him in the way of duty: Thou meetest him. This intimates the friendship, fellowship, and familiarity to which God admits his people; he meets them, to converse with them, to manifest himself to them, and to receive their addresses, Exod. xx. 24; xxix. 43. It likewise intimates his freeness and forwardness in doing them good; he will anticipate them with the blessings of his goodness, will rejoice to do good to those that rejoice in working righteousness, and wait to be gracious to those that wait for him. He meets his penitent people with a pardon, as the father of the prodigal met his returning son, Luke xv. 20. He meets his praying people with an answer of peace, while they are yet speaking, ch. lxv. 24.
3. They plead the unchangeableness of God’s favour and the stability of his promise, notwithstanding the sins of his people and his displeasure against them for their sins: “Behold, thou hast many a time been wroth with us because we have sinned, and we have been under the tokens of thy wrath; but in those, those ways of thine, the ways of mercy in which we have remembered thee, in those is continuance,” or “in those thou art ever” (his mercy endures for ever), “and therefore we shall at last be saved, though thou art wroth, and we have sinned.” This agrees with the tenour of God’s covenant, that, if we forsake the law, he will visit our transgression with a rod, but his loving kindness he will not utterly take away, his covenant he will not break (Ps. lxxxix. 30, c.), and by this his people have been many a time saved from ruin when they were just upon the brink of it see Ps. lxxviii. 38. And by this continuance of the covenant we hope to be saved, for its being an everlasting covenant is all our salvation. Though God has been angry with us for our sins, and justly, yet his anger has endured but for a moment and has been soon over; but in his favour is life, because in it is continuance; in the ways of his favour he proceeds and perseveres, and on that we depend for our salvation, see Isa 54:7; Isa 54:8. It is well for us that our hopes of salvation are built not upon any merit or sufficiency of our own (for in that there is no certainty, even Adam in innocency did not abide), but upon God’s mercies and promises, for in those, we are sure, is continuance.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
ISAIAH – CHAPTER 64
THE PRAYER AND ASPIRATION OF THE REMNANT
This is a continuation of the note of discouragement on which Chapter 63 ended. So discouraged are the people of God that they feel as though God never bare rule over them, or claimed them as His own. Verse 1 of this chapter should actually be attached to the end of Chapter 63 – being a spontaneous prayer springing out of their deep perplexity and affliction.
Vs. 1-5a: PAST MERCIES A BASIS FOR SUPPLICATION
1. Here is an appeal for God’s help; in the midst of sore trouble, they pray for revival; in His wrath, they desire that He remember to be merciful, (vs. 1-2; Hab 3:2; Eze 39:7).
2. Because the enemy has so sorely tried them, they yearn for the Lord to manifest His marvelous power, and visible presence, in their behalf, (comp. Psa 18:19; Psa 144:5-8).
a. It is for judgment that they want Him to come down -judgment upon their oppressors by direct intervention, (Mic 1:3-4; Hab 3:13).
b. Though the people of God are ever to walk by faith, rather than sight (2Co 5:7), there is always a temptation to urge God to act more quickly! “How long” inquire the afflicted, from age to age, (Psa 13:1-2; Psa 35:17; Psa 79:5; Psa 89:46; Psa 90:13; etc.).
3. Though the nations mock and rage against God, they will all tremble before the brilliant manifestation of His glorious and holy body-presence, (vs. 2b; Psa 2:1-3; Psa 99:1-3; Psa 106:22; Jer 33:9; 2Th 2:8).
4. As Mt Sinai shook at His presence; so kings and kingdoms will be humbled, and reduced to trembling, before Him at His coming, (Exo 19:18; Psa 66:3-5).
5. The God of Israel waits to bless; nor has man ever seen, perceived or heard what He has prepared for those who wait for Him, (vs. 4; Psa 31:19-21; 1Co 2:9; Isa 25:9; Isa 30:18-21; Isa 40:31).
6. He ever blesses those who, remembering His ways, rejoice to walk uprightly before Him, (vs. 5a; Exo 20:24; Isa 26:12-13; Isa 63:7; Isa 56:1; Isa 40:8).
a. Joy in the Lord’s fellowship is the secret of effective Christian service, (comp. Neh 8:10).
b. The Lord takes great delight in those who joyfully reverence His name, (Mal 3:16-18).
c. And it should ever be the desire of the Lord’s people to know Him more intimately, (Php_3:7-11).
Vs. 5b-7: AN ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF SIN-GUILT
1. In the midst of verse 5 Isaiah identifies himself with his people who have long continued in sin, (comp. Dan 9:3-11; Neh 9:16-27).
a. Sin has brought the wrath of God upon the nation, (Isa 63:10).
b. “Shall we be saved?” suggests the prophets recognition that the people have no right to expect deliverance on the basis of any action or merit of their own.
2. Then he confesses the uncleanness of the entire nation; what they have assumed to be “righteousness’.” is as “filthy rags” in the sight of God, (vs. 6; Isa 6:5; Job 15:14-16; Psa 51:5; Psa 58:3; Isa 46:12; Isa 48:1; Eph 2:3) – nor will the flesh-righteousness of ANY man find acceptance before Him! (Tit 3:5; Eph 2:8-10).
a. Thus, do they “fade as a leaf”, wilt, or turn pale, even in their own eyes, (Isa 1:30; Psa 90:5-9).
b. Their iniquities, like the wind, have carried them away from God, (Psa 1:4; Isa 50:1; Isa 59:2; comp. Jer 4:11-14).
3. No longer does any among them really pray, (Isa 59:4; comp. Eze 22:30), or lay hold on God through faith, (vs. 7a; Isa 27:5; Heb 11:6; 1Jn 5:4).
4. Therefore, God has hidden His face from them (Isa 1:15; Isa 54:8; comp. Deu 31:18) – delivering them to the mastery of such iniquities as they have deliberately chosen, (Isa 9:19; Eze 22:18-22; comp. 1Co 5:4-5).
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
1. O that thou wouldest rend the heavens! The particle לוא ( lu) appears to me, in this passage, to denote a wish; for, although it has many significations, yet the context shews that this signification is more appropriate to this passage than any other. Here believers burst forth into earnest prayer, as usually happens, when in sore adversity we do not find plain terms to be sufficiently forcible for our purpose.
God is said to “rend the heavens,” when he unexpectedly gives some uncommon and striking proof of his power; and the reason of this mode of expression is, not only that men, when they are hard pressed, commonly look up to heaven, from which they expect assistance, but that miracles, by interrupting the order of nature, open up for themselves an unusual path. Now, when God renders no assistance, he appears to be shut up in heaven, and to disregard what is taking place on earth. For this reason he is said to open and “rend the heavens,” when he holds out to us some testimony of his presence; because otherwise we think that he is at a great distance from us.
That thou wouldest come down. This expression, like the former, is adapted to the estimation of our flesh; for God does not need to move from one place to another, but accommodates himself to us, that we may understand those subjects better. (185) (Gen 11:5.)
Let the mountains flow down. That is,
“
Let thy majesty be openly displayed, and let the elements, struck by the perception of it, yield and obey.” (Psa 18:11.)
This will appear more plainly from what immediately follows.
(185) “ Afin que nous comprenions mieux ce qui nons est dit de luy.” “That we may understand better what is said to us about him.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
A PRAYER FOR SPIRITUAL REVIVAL
Isa. 64:1-2. Oh that Thou wouldst rend the heavens, that Thou wouldst come down, &c.
It is not into the mouth of every Israelite that the prophet puts this prayer: only the true-hearted, believing remnant could offer it. Selfish grovelling souls can, perhaps, ask certain blessings from God,health when they are sick, bread when they are hungry, deliverance when they are in danger; but that God Himself should come down is a thing which they can neither desire nor endure. They can be satisfied with what is beneath the heavens, while the desires of the godly aspire to what is above the heavens. How is it with us? May the Holy Spirit elevate our desires, and teach us that our true blessedness lies in the answer to this great petition. Whether for ourselves, the Church, or the world at large, it expresses the most urgent need.
I. THE BLESSING WHICH IT CRAVES. A repetition of Gods former acts in their behalf (Isa. 63:8-14); some manifest Divine intervention. It had long seemed as if He had withdrawn His presence, and they pray that these darkened heavens that hung over them like a pall, might be rent for a disclosure of His majesty and saving power. Is not this also our need? To the Spirits gracious influences we must ascribe those times of refreshing, which come in answer to fervent prayer (Act. 1:8 and others).
II. THE PLEAS BY WHICH THE PRAYER IS SUPPORTED.
1. Former mercies (Isa. 63:15).
2. A close and endearing relation is pleaded (Isa. 63:16).
3. The disobedience and unbelief of the great mass of the nation (Isa. 63:17).
4. The rapacity of their adversaries (Isa. 63:18-19).
III. THE EFFECTS WHICH ITS ANSWER INVOLVES. The mountains of difficulty and opposition shall be levelled into smoothness; every anti-Christian power shall be weakened and destroyed. We are often hindered and thwarted in our work for God by huge mountain masses that rear their giant forms right in front of us, and seem insurmountable, rendered all the greater by the unbelieving fears and faint-heartedness of fellowworkers. But let God come down, and they are removed (Zec. 4:7). This Divine interposition is also compared to the twofold action of fire in its destructive and beneficent effects (Isa. 64:2, Revised Version). In spring we see fires blazing in fields and gardens, burning up the worthless prunings and brushwood, that the operations of husbandry may go forward. So, when God comes down, all that is evil, all that opposes the progress of the truth within us and around us is consumed (Luk. 12:49; Mal. 3:2-3).William Guthrie, M.A.
Isa. 64:1. THE POWER THAT REMOVES DIFFICULTIES. This is a cry for help and deliverance coming from the Church in the midst of conscious difficulties. Those difficulties produced by a general abandonment of God (Isa. 63:10; Isa. 64:5-7). The remedy is found only in calling upon God, and obtaining a display of His wondrous power. The text implies
I. That there are great difficulties encompassing the people of God.
Here compared to mountains, because of their formidable attitude and strength.
1. Difficulties arising from the active opposition of the Churchs enemies, organised and instigated by the great enemy of mankind.
2. Difficulties arising from the magnitude of the work committed to the Church. How vast all the interests at stake and the responsibility involved. Low, weak, and incapable the human instruments: how disastrous is failure!
3. Difficulties arising from ourselves. Our mistakes, unwatchfulness, unfaithfulness, follies, create our own worst entanglements.
4. Difficulties arising from a common sourcesin. This severs our connection with Divine power, and forfeits the Divine approval (Isa. 64:7). All is gonehope, help, happinesswhen God is absent!
II. That difficulties vanish when God puts forth His power.
1. God puts forth His power in bestowing imposing revelations of Himself. Here referred to as rending the heavens; coming down.
2. In defeating the Churchs enemies. The mountains flow down at His presence.
III. The Power of God removes difficulties when His people cry unto Him.
1. This is a cry of penitence. It involves a confession of unfaithfulness, of sin, of baffled endeavours, of helplessness.
2. This is a cry of faith.
(1) Faith in Gods power to remove difficulties, or we should never pray.
(2) Faith in Gods willingness, or we should not persevere in prayer. Earnest, believing, importunate prayer opens the heavens, brings God near, and conquers every mountain of difficulty.G. Barlow.
Isa. 64:1-3. I. Some of the obstacles to the prosperity and happiness of the Church. II. The power of God to remove them. Signally. Unexpectedly. Effectually. III. The encouragement He has given us to believe He will remove them. IV. The necessity of soliciting His help and interposition.J. Lyth, D.D.
Isa. 64:4-8. I. The transcendent excellency of the Divine purpose respecting His people. II. The principles on which this purpose proceeds. Righteousness. Justice. Mercy. III. The utter want of merit in us. We have sinned. Our very righteousness is polluted. Our nature is frailbecause of iniquity. IV. The humble determination to submit ourselves now to the will of God.
Isa. 64:4. I. The characters described. They wait for Godin faith, hope, obedience. II. The blessedness prepared for them. Surpasses all human experience and expectation. Is only known to God.J. Lyth, D.D.
GODS SPECIAL REGARD FOR HIS PEOPLE
Isa. 64:5. Thou meetest him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness, &c.
The most weighty and important of all inquiries must be those which relate to our acceptance with God, and to that description of character which He will approve, &c. The text is a comprehensive description of the character of the people of God.
I. The attributes of character by which the servants of God are known.
1. By their patient waiting for God (Isa. 64:4). None but those who wait love; none but those who love wait.
2. By their love of righteousness.
3. By their devout remembrance of God. They remember God in the ways of His providence and grace.
4. By their fixed adherence to their principles in times of discouragement and declension.
II. The special favour with which God regards them. However they fail in securing the sympathy of men, they are assured of the effectual and sustaining sympathy of God. He meets them
1. In the gracious promises of His Wordassuring them of protection, of guidance, of support.
2. In the ordinances of His appointment. The ministry of the Word, the secret exercises of devotion, &c.
3. In the events of His providence.
4. In the season of departure from earth to heaven.
CONCLUSION.
1. If such be the privileges of the righteous how anxious should we be to be enrolled among their number.
2. If such be the greatness and glory of God how formidable must it be to stand in enmity against Him. All resistance is vain. Be wise! Lay down the weapons of your warfare at the cross of your Redeemer.Samuel Thodey.
I. The people whom God regards. II. The grace which God displays.S. Thodey.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
D. RESTLESSNESS OF ZION (contd), CHAPTERS 63 64
4. PENITENTLY VEXED
TEXT: Isa. 64:1-7
1
Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest come down, that the mountains might quake at thy presence,
2
as when fire kindleth the brushwood, and the fire causeth the waters to boil; to make thy name known to thine adversaries, that the nations may tremble at thy presence!
3
When thou didst terrible things which we looked not for, thou camest down; the mountains quaked at thy presence.
4
For from of old men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen a God besides thee, who worketh for him that waiteth for him.
5
Thou meetest him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness, those that remember thee in thy ways: behold, thou wast wroth, and we sinned: in them have we been of long time; and shall we be saved?
6
For we are all become as one that is unclean, and all our righteousnesses are as a polluted garment: and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.
7
And there is none that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee; for thou hast hid thy face from us, and hast consumed us by means of our iniquities.
QUERIES
a.
Why has the attitude of the people now apparently changed?
b.
Is verse four quoted in 1Co. 2:9?
c.
How does one take hold of God? (verse seven)
PARAPHRASE
O Lord we wish you would break open the impenetrable expanse of the skies that seems to be keeping You from coming down personally to us in all Your omnipotence making the whole earth shake and tremble with Your judgment. If you would intervene directly, Lord, Your righteous glory would consume our enemies like fire consumes brushwood and the fiery lava of volcanoes makes the waters boil. Yet, when we think about it Lord, if you came down thus You would do such awe-inspiring wonders that we do not even have language to describe them. Since the world was created no person anywhere has ever seen or heard of a God like You who works for those who patiently trust in Him. Lord, You gladly receive any man who comes to you doing righteousness and joyfully following in Your ways. But we have continued in our sinning; even when You expressed Your hatred of our rebellious ways we went right on sinning. How can we ever be saved? Yes, we all stand in relationship to You as one cut off from the covenant because of our uncleanness; any righteousness we might think we have is really non-existent and we are as legally unclean as the bloodstained rags of a woman at her monthly period. Like the leaves of autumn, we fade, fall and wither; our sins sweep us away like the wind blows away the autumn leaves, In spite of our very apparent condition, no one calls upon Your name and no one ever prods himself to make any firm commitment of his life to Your word. You have withdrawn Your grace from us and we are being consumed by the consequences of our sins.
COMMENTS
Isa. 64:1-3 CRY: The complaint of the preceding passage begins to turn toward a cry of desperation which leads to a confession. The remnant is gradually coming to the attitude God is able to use in His messianic program. Now the cry is that Jehovah will tear an opening in the impenetrable black cloud that is standing in the way of His seeing their predicament and come down to help them. They are begging God to come in direct intervention as He did for their ancestors. God presented Himself as directly as He dared to Isaiah in His theophany in the temple (cf. Isa. 6:1 ff). Why could the people not accept Isaiahs testimony to that direct appearance and trust Him to deliver them from the impending captivity? For the same reason men and women today demand a physical appearance from God before they will believe when there is sufficient testimony to His incarnation in the New Testament!
The anticipation of Jehovahs appearance is couched in the experiences of their ancestorsmountains quaking, fire burning, waters boiling, nations trembling, (cf. Exo. 19:16 ff; Psa. 144:5; Deu. 32:22; Jdg. 5:4-5; Mic. 1:3-4; Heb. 1:4-6; Heb. 3:3; Heb. 3:15; Psa. 18:8-16, etc.). Should God appear directly He would consume the whole material universe (cf. Heb. 12:18-21; 18:2529). Instead of coming in His consuming Presence, He sent His Son to give the world a saving Presence. So when the people give more thought to what such a direct intervention of Jehovah would bring, they are moved to cry, O, Jehovah, if You came down thus You would do awe-inspiring deeds and wonders that not even we could anticipate! Should Jehovah appear on earth it would be overwhelmingno human language could express it, no human being could guess what it would be like! The great apostle Paul was caught up into the third heavens and saw things it was impossible for human language to describe (cf. 2Co. 12:1-4).
Isa. 64:4-7 CONFESSION: At last, the remnant, after contemplating the awesome holiness of Jehovah and His unsearchable power, confesses its sin and prepares to be clay in the Potters hand (cf. Isa. 64:8). First, there is the confession of the uniqueness of Jehovahs revelation of Himself and His relationship to those who wait (or trust) in Him. The people are at last testifying that Jehovah is quite unlike the idols. In fact, no one in all the world is able to know the mind, Spirit, deeds, person-hood of Jehovah unless Jehovah chooses to reveal Himself. And even then, man can know only as much of Gods mind as He chooses to reveal through His appointed spokesmen (prophets and apostles, etc.). This is the sense in which the apostle Paul quoted Isa. 64:4 in 1Co. 2:9. The nature of the living God is such that the human mind is incapable of discovering Him or inventing Himman must humbly wait until God reveals Himself and man must humbly accept both the instrumentality by which and the extent to which God reveals Himself.
The uniqueness of Jehovah stands out in contrast to all pretended gods most apparently in His faithfulness to be constantly present with those who seek righteousness and remember (walk in) His ways. The holiness of Jehovah was unique in contrast to all the gods of the heathen. At last the people are admitting that Jehovah requires men to rejoice in and work righteousness to enjoy His presence. They have come confessing as Hosea (Hos. 14:1-9) instructed their northern countrymen to do. This remnant of Isaiahs disciples has been brought to its confession through the preaching of the prophet concerning the atoning suffering of the Servant and the future glory of Zion. They will produce a progeny of faithful servants (by implanting Isaiahs message in their offspring) which will, in turn, bring the Messiah into the world (cf. Mat. 1:18-25; Luk. 1:24-56; Luk. 1:67-80; Luk. 2:1-52; Luk. 4:14-30, etc.).
Once man has been confronted with a revelation of Jehovahs holiness and admits it, then he sees himself as he truly is, a sinner in need of Jehovahs saving grace (cf. Isa. 6:5-6). The remnant here acknowledges it has been a long time in its sin and in need of Gods grace; else, how shall it be saved? They see their uncleanness. They now realize they are spiritually cut off from Jehovah because He is absolutely holy and they have defiled themselves and are no longer worthy to stand in His presenceeven if He should come in answer to their prayer. This is quite different from the attitude expressed by some in Judah when they haughtily dared the Lord to come down and be present with them (cf. Isa. 5:19). They see their uncleanness as a polluted garment using the figure of the ceremonial uncleanness of a woman at the time of her monthly period (cf. Eze. 36:17; Lev. 18:24-28). The Hebrew word tame is translated unclean and is the same word the leper is to cry out (Lev. 13:45-46) indicating the confession here is a recognition of having been cut off from covenant relationship by their sin.
Not only are they experiencing the legal condemnation of their sin, they are also experiencing the psychological and social consequences of it. They are all withering and dying like leaves on a tree and their sin is tossing them about and blowing them away like the wind blows the fallen leaves. The tragedy of the situation is that sin is so pervasive in the nation, no one seems concerned enough to call upon the name of the Lord which involves taking hold of His word. Perhaps the none would be qualified by the fact that a few were calling on the Lord (Isaiah and the remnant). But there were so few Jehovah must still withhold His direct intervention (hid thy face from us) until the captivity comes and the nation is chastened and purified and a larger remnant is formed. The Hebrew word khazak is translated take hold but is usually more intense and translated hold fast as when Hagar was told to hold fast to Ishmael (Gen. 21:18) or when Pharaoh was holding on to the Israelites (Exo. 9:2). So now their sin is consuming themthey are suffering the due penalty of their sins (cf. Rom. 1:28), and the nation as a whole does not turn to God and hold fast to Him for strengthit is going to be blown away into captivity.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
LXIV.
(1) Oh that thou wouldest rend . . .The division of chapters hinders the English reader from seeing that this is really a continuation of the prayer of Isa. 63:15-19. The prophet asks that Jehovan may not only look down from heaven, but may rend, as it were, the dark clouds that hide the light of His countenance from His people, and that the mountains might tremble at His presence. (Comp. Psa. 68:8; Exo. 19:18.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
1. Rend Or, tear asunder.
The heavens The overhanging heavens, to simple fancy, was the seat of Jehovah’s power. Thence came the lightning and the thunder. Jehovah’s sudden and sublime descent was prayed for, to melt away the mountain difficulties in the way of Zion’s permanent settlement and rest.
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
Isaiah’s Heart Cry to Yahweh For Him To Work Dramatically ( Isa 64:1-4 ).
Isa 64:1
‘Oh that you would rend the heavens, that you would come down,
That the mountains might flow down at your presence.
As when fire kindles the brushwood,
The fire causes the water to boil.
To make your name known to your adversaries,
That the nations might tremble at your presence.’
Isaiah now pleads for God to manifest Himself as in days of old. He longs that Yahweh will rend the heavens, will come down, so that even the mountains flow down like fire burning all before them. Others would however translate as, ‘Oh that you had rent the heavens’ with the idea of looking back and thinking of what might have been.
‘Oh that you would rend the heavens.’ The verb is regularly used of the tearing of the clothes under great stress or in mourning. But the thought here is probably more of God acting so vigorously that He tears the heavens apart as He breaks through to come down to act. Or the idea may be of His rending it by a powerful storm.
‘That the mountains might flow down at your presence.’ The verb contains the idea of excess. The thought is probably of the mountains moving and shaking, and thus of an earthquake caused by the mightiness of the presence of God. Such earthquakes were a regular feature of theophanies (Exo 19:18; Jdg 5:5; Psa 18:7; Psa 68:8; Hab 3:6).
‘As when fire kindles the brushwood, the fire causes the water to boil.’ The idea is again of vivid effects, the kindling of brushwood in a bush fire, the water in the streams bubbling violently as a result of the flames. This may encourage the idea of the storm with its accompanying lightning, which might well start a bush fire, but not necessarily so.
Or the thought may be of gathered brushwood put on the fire and used to boil water, seen as another wonder of God.
But the whole idea of the heavens rent, the quaking mountains and the hot spreading flames is certainly of violent action and God mightily revealing His presence.
‘To make your name known to your adversaries, that the nations might tremble at your presence.’ And the purpose of the violent action is so that the adversaries of God’s people, and therefore of God, may recognise what Yahweh is and might tremble in His presence. He seeks to put a protective cloak around God’s people.
Isa 64:3
‘When you did terrible (awe-inspiring) things which we looked not for,
You came down, the mountains flowed down at your presence.’
He reminds God of the past when He had acted similarly, when He had acted with terrible effect. When those things happened it was because God came down and the mountains shook at His presence (e.g. Exo 19:18; Jdg 5:5). So he pleads, let it so happen again as a result of God’s working. They may not be able to avoid the threat described to Hezekiah (Isa 39:7) but at least let it not be final.
Isa 64:4
‘For from of old men have not heard,
Nor have they perceived by the ear,
Nor has the eye seen, a God beside you,
Who works for him who waits for him.’
His confidence that Yahweh will hear His prayer lies primarily in the greatness and uniqueness of Yahweh. No one like Him has ever been known. No one has ever heard, nor have they ever seen, a God like Yahweh Who works for those who wait for Him. Once again Isaiah is stressing the necessity for trust in God, revealed by waiting on Him. Isaiah is confident that He is the great responder to those who genuinely seek His face and trust Him. The implication is that he and his disciples are waiting on Him.
When we become despondent and begin to have doubts we too must remember these words. Who is like God? His like has never been seen. And even when things are at their lowest ebb He constantly steps in to act on behalf of those who wait for Him.
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
Isa 64:4 For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him.
Isa 64:4
1Co 2:9, “But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.”
Comments – Note these insightful words from Sadhu Sundar Singh.
“The human spirit abides in the body very much as the chicken in the shell. If it were possible for the bird within the shell to be told that outside of it was a great widespread world, with all kinds of fruit and flowers, with rivers and grand mountains, that its mother also was there, and that it would see all this when set free from its shell, it could not understand or believe it. Even if anyone told it that its feathers and eyes, ready now for use, would enable it to see and to fly, it would not believe it, nor would any proof be possible till it came out of its shell. In the same way there are many who are uncertain about the future life and the existence of God, because they cannot see beyond this shell-like body of flesh, and their thoughts, like delicate wings, cannot carry them beyond the narrow confines of the brain. Their weak eyes cannot discover those eternal and unfading treasures which God has prepared for those who love Him (Isa. lxiv.4, lxv.17). The necessary condition for attaining to this eternal life is this, that while still in this body we should receive from the Holy Spirit by faith that life-giving warmth which the chicken receives from its mother, otherwise there is danger of death and eternal loss.” [90]
[90] Sadhu Sundar Singh, At the Master’s Feet, trans. Arthur Parker (London: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1922) [on-line]; accessed 26 October 2008; available from http://www.ccel.org/ccel/singh/feet.html; Internet, “I The Manifestation of God’s Presence,” section 2, part 7.
Isa 64:6 But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.
Isa 64:6
Isa 64:11 Our holy and our beautiful house, where our fathers praised thee, is burned up with fire: and all our pleasant things are laid waste.
Isa 64:11
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Israel’s Redemption – The chapters that follow the prophecy of Christ’s sufferings in Isa 53:1-12 tell the children of God to rejoice; for Christ has given them the victory over sin, death and the grave. However, these chapters speak of Christ’s redemption from the perspective of the nation of Israel rather than from the perspective of the Gentiles; for the book of Isaiah contains prophecies of the future destiny of Israel. Later in redemptive history, the Church will be grafted into these prophecies as members of the Kingdom of Heaven.
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
v. 1. Oh, that Thou wouldest rend the heavens, v. 2. as when the melting fire burneth, v. 3. When thou didst terrible things which we looked not for, v. 4. For since the beginning of the world men have not heard nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside Thee,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION
Isa 64:1-12
ISRAEL‘S PRAYER CONTINUED AND CONCLUDED. Not content with praying God to look upon them once more with favour (Isa 63:15), Israel now asks for a theophany, or manifestation of the Divine Presence, such as they have experienced in the times of old, and such as shall suffice to strike terror into the hearts of their enemies (Isa 64:1-4). With profound humility confessing their manifold and grievous iniquities, they beseech God once more, as their Father and Maker, to have pity upon them, reminding him of the desolate condition of Judaea and Jerusalem, and urging him no longer to “refrain himself” (Isa 64:5-12). “The manner,” as Mr. Cheyne observes, “is that of a liturgical psalm; the prophet, as it were, leads the devotions of the assembled Church,” and utters in impassioned language the feelings which deeply move them.
Isa 64:1
Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens! God “dwells in the thick darkness” (2Ch 6:1). “Thick clouds are a covering to him” as he “walketh in the circuit of heaven” (Job 22:14). The Church would have the covering “rent,” and God show himself openly, both to his people and to their enemies. That thou wouldest come down! God” came down” ou Sinai in the sight of all the people (Exo 19:11, Exo 19:20). David saw him in vision “bow the heavens and come down; and there was darkness under his feet” (Psa 18:9). It is such an “epiphany” which the Church now desiresa revelation of God in all his glory, in his might as against “the nations” (Isa 64:2), in his mercifulness as towards themselves. That the mountains might flow down; or, quake. When God descended on Sinai, “the whole mount quaked greatly” (Exo 19:18). When he appeared to David, “the earth shook and trembled; the foundations also of the hills moved and were shaken” (Psa 18:7). When he was seen of Elijah, “a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; and after the wind was an earthquake” (1Ki 19:11). Micah saw the Lord “coming forth out of his place,” and “the mountains were molten under him, and the valleys cleft” (Mic 1:3, Mic 1:4). The mountains represent that which is most firm and solid and strong upon the face of the earth. If even they “melt and flow and tremble” at the presence of God, what might must his be! And who may abide him?
Isa 64:2
As when the melting fire burneth, etc.; rather, as when fire kindles brushwood, and makes water to boil. Connect the similes with the last clause of Isa 64:1. The mountains shall be as powerless to resist Jehovah, as brushwood or water to resist fire. To make thy Name known (comp. Isa 63:12). Such an “epiphany” as the Church prays for would make the Name of Jehovah known far and wide, exalting him high above all gods, and causing “the nations”i.e. the whole heathen worldto “tremble at his presence” and refrain from injuring his people.
Isa 64:3
When thou didst terrible things (comp. Deu 10:21; 2Sa 7:23; Psa 49:4; Psa 106:22). The phrase, as Mr. Cheyne remarks, is a “standing” one for the wonders of the Exodus. Which we looked not for; i.e. which transcended our utmost expectations. Thou earnest down (see Exo 19:11, Exo 19:20).
Isa 64:4
Neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared, etc.; rather, as in the margin, neither hath the eye seen a God, beside thee, which worketh for him that waiteth upon him. The only “living God” who really works for his votaries, and does them good service, is Jehovah (comp. Isa 41:23, Isa 41:24; Isa 44:9, etc.).
Isa 64:5
Thou meetest him that rejoiceth. God “meets” with gracious welcome and ready aid whoever rejoices in doing righteousness and serving him, whoever “remembers him in his ways.” But this, alas: is not the present relationship between God and Israel. God is “angry” with themthey must, therefore, “have sinned;” and so they proceed to confess their sin. In those is continuance, and we shall be saved. This is a very difficult passage. Mr. Cheyne regards it as hopelessly corrupt. Bishop Lowth and Ewald attempt emendations. Of those who accept the present text, some understand “in those” of God’s ways, others of the “sins” implied in the confession, “We have sinned:” some make the last clause an affirmation, others a question. Delitzsch renders, “Already we have been long in this state (of sin), and shall we be saved?” Grotius and Starck, “If we had remained in them (i.e. thy ways) continually, we should have been saved.”
Isa 64:6
But we are all as an unclean thing; rather, we are all become as one who is unclean (comp. Isa 35:8; Isa 52:1). A moral leprosy is upon us. We are like the leprous man, who has to rend his clothes, and to go about crying “Tame! tame!” “Unclean: unclean!” that those who hear may get out of his way. All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; or, as a menstruous garment (see Lam 1:17). In the best deeds of the best men there is some taint of evil. As Hooker says, “Our very repentances require to be repented of.” We all do fade as a leaf (comp. Isa 1:30, “Ye shall be as an oak whose leaf fadeth;” see also Isa 34:4). Our iniquities have taken as away; or, carried us away; i.e. taken us far from God, carried us into a region where God is not, or where at any rate “his presence is not felt” (Cheyne).
Isa 64:7
There is none that calleth on thy Name. A hyperbole, like Psa 19:1, Psa 19:3, “There is none that doeth good, no, not one.” A general lethargy and apathy had come over the people, so that they could with difficulty rouse themselves to faith and calling upon God. But this general lethargy was not universal; there was a “remnant” which “prayed and did not faint.” That stirreth up himself to take hold of thee. This expresses more than mere prayer; it is earnest, intense, “effectual fervent” prayer. Perhaps none among the exiles may have been capable of such supplication as this, especially as God had hid his face from them, and no longer looked on them with favour. And hast consumed us, because of our iniquities; rather, and hast delivered us into the power (literally, hand) of our iniquities. Men’s sins are their masters, and exercise a tyrannical control over them, which they are often quite unable to resist (comp. Eze 33:10, “If our transgressions and our sins be upon us, and we pine away in them, how should we then live?”). God at times judicially delivers the wicked into the power of their sins (see Rom 1:24, Rom 1:26, Rom 1:28).
Isa 64:8
But now, O Lord, thou art our Father (see the comment on Isa 63:16). We are the clay, and thou our Potter (comp. Isa 29:16; Isa 45:9). Thy hands have made us and fashioned us, both as individuals and as a nation. Thou hast lavished thy labour and thy skill upon us. Surely thou wilt not “forsake the work of thine own hands” (Psa 138:8).
Isa 64:9
Be not wroth very sore. At the time of the Captivity God was wroth very sore (Lam 5:22). His auger was hot against the sheep of his pasture (Psa 74:1). But they had suffered, they had been afflicted many years. Might he not now relent, and remit somewhat from his fierce anger? Neither remember iniquity (comp. Psa 79:8). God had already made a promise by the mouth of Isaiah, “I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy trangressions, and will not remember thy sins“ (Isa 43:25). The captives lay hold, as it were, on this promise, and entreat that their “iniquity” may be not only forgiven, but forgotten (Jer 31:34). We are all thy people. A fresh argument. “We are thy children,” individually (verse 8); “we are thy work, thy creatures” (verse 8), again individually; but also, “we are all of us (kullanu), collectively, thy people”the people whom thou hast chosen to thyself, and over whom thou hast watched for so many centuries. Surely this consideration, if no other, will induce thee to forego thy wrath and forgive our iniquity.
Isa 64:10
Thy holy cities are a wilderness. Commonly Jerusalem stands alone as “the holy city” (Isa 48:2; Isa 56:1; Dan 9:24; Neh 11:1, Neh 11:18); but here the epithet is applied to the cities of Judah generally. They were all in a certain sense “holy,” as being comprised within the limits of “the holy land” (Zec 2:12) and “the holy border” (Psa 78:54). Zion Jerusalem (see the comment on Isa 62:1).
Isa 64:11
Our holy and our beautiful house. This is the true meaning. The exiles have the tenderest and most vivid remembrance of the holiness and the beauty (or glory) of that edifice, which had formed the centre of the national life for above four centuries, and had been a marvel of richness and magnificence. Many of them had seen it with their own eyes (Ezr 3:12), and could never forget its splendours. Where our fathers praised thee. Though in the later times of the Captivity there were still some of the exiles who had seen the temple, and probably worshipped in it, yet with the great majority it was otherwise. They thought of the temple as the place where their “fathers” had worshipped. Burned up with fire (see 2Ki 25:9; 2Ch 36:19; Jer 52:13). Our pleasant things; or, our delectable thingsas in Isa 44:9; the courts, gardens, outbuildings of the temple, are probably meant.
Isa 64:12
Wilt thou refrain thyself for these things? rather, at these thingsseeing that these things are so. Will they not provoke thee to interfere?
HOMILETICS
Isa 64:8-12
Pleas for mercy.
Israel had three main grounds on which they could rely in pleading to God for mercy.
I. GOD WAS THEIR MAKER. The framer of a work cannot see without dissatisfaction the destruction of his work, or its deterioration, or its depravation to purposes lower. than those intended for it. This dissatisfaction is the greater, the more considerable the labour and the thought that has been expended upon the work, the greater the care that has been taken of it, the longer that it has been watched over. Israel, as far as earth was concerned, was God’s master-work, that in which God’s creative efforts had culminated. He had created the world for mankind, and mankind (in a certain sense) for Israel. He had loved and cherished Israel, watched over his work, protected and guarded it, for well-nigh a millennium. Israel might well feel that it had a tower of strength in the plea, “We are the work of thy hand” (Isa 64:8).
II. GOD WAS THEIR FATHER. God had condescended to reveal himself as their “Father” at the time of the Exodus (Deu 32:6); and ever since had constantly addressed them, through his prophets, as his “children” (Exo 3:22; Deu 32:19, Deu 32:20; Psa 80:15; Psa 82:6; Psa 103:13; Pro 3:12; Pro 8:32; Isa 1:2, Isa 1:4; Isa 30:1, Isa 30:9; Isa 43:6; Isa 45:11; Isa 63:8; Hos 1:10; Hos 11:1, etc.). Rebellious, backsliding children, indeed, had they been; yet still not wholly renounced, not wholly cast off, not deprived of the name or of the rights of children. Thus they could plead with God his fatherhood (Isa 63:16; Isa 64:8), and therewith claim his tender care, and kind consideration, and merciful forgiveness, and gracious protection, and powerful aid against their enemies. A Father could not but pity his children, could not but be ready, on their turning to him with true penitence and humble confession of sin (Isa 64:5-7), to receive them and reinstate them in his favour.
III. GOD WAS THEIR KING. The Israelites were not only God’s “children”they were “his people.” He had acknowledged them as such from the days of Moses (Exo 3:7, Exo 3:10; Exo 7:16; Exo 8:1, etc.). He had taken them to himself to be his “peculiar treasurea kingdom of priests, and an holy nation” (Exo 19:5, Exo 19:6). He had actually directed the policy of their state, as king, for several centuries (Jdg 8:23; 1Sa 8:7; 1Sa 10:19; 1Sa 12:12). They had rejected him, when they insisted on having a king “like the nations” (1Sa 8:5); but, with the Captivity, his kingly right had revived (Hos 13:10), and they could properly appeal to him as “his people” (Isa 64:9).
The Christian Church, “Israel after the Spirit,” is equally entitled to make these pleas with “Israel after the flesh.” God is their Maker; God is their Father (Mat 5:45, Mat 5:48; Mat 6:1-9, etc.). Christ is their King (Joh 18:36). But they have also a further plea; Christ is their Redeemer; he has borne their sinshe has suffered in their steadhe has made atonement for them. In his Name they can “go boldly to the throne of grace” (Heb 4:16), secure that they will “obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.”
HOMILIES BY E. JOHNSON
Isa 64:1-5
Longing for the appearance of God.
“Widely yawns the gulf between Israel and her God. A revelation on the widest possible scale is necessary to smite down unbelief and annihilate opposition; God himself must appear.”
I. FIGURES OF THE MANIFESTATION OF GOD. The rending of the heavens. For the time of trouble is as the hiding of the face of God behind thick clouds (Job 22:13, Job 22:14). The word given, rend, is very strongtear asunder, as garments in grief (Gen 37:29; 2Sa 13:31), or as a wild beast the breast of any one. The faithful firmly believe that he will find a way to show himself through the densest darkness of the most unhappy time. The idea is that of a coming in power to destroy his foes (cf. Psa 44:5, Psa 44:6). The shaking mountain, the fire causing the boiling of the waters, the terror of the nations, and the terrible deeds of Jehovahall this imagery belongs to the memory of the Exodus, where he proved himself to be the living God.
II. EVANGELICAL APPLICATION. Isa 64:4 is cited by St. Paul as illustrating the effect of the gospel in producing happiness and salvation (1Co 2:9). If the prophet urges that no god had ever done what Jehovah had done, and no human being had witnessed such manifestations from any other quarter, the apostle applies the thought to the manifestation of God in Christ. For waiting men salvation is prepared. Piety may be definedis so defined in Scriptureas waiting upon God (Psa 25:3, Psa 25:5, Psa 25:21; Psa 27:14; Psa 37:9; Psa 130:5). God had given manifestations of his existence in the past, of his power and goodness, which had been furnished to none other than his friends. And to those interpositions the suppliants appeal as a reason why he should again interpose and save them in their sore calamities.J.
Isa 64:5-11
The cry of humiliation and of hope.
I. THE CONFESSION. “Woe are we, for we are unclean!” Like the leper, dwelling alone without the camp (Le 13:44-46), so is the people; as he is cut off from the society of men, so they from the converse of God; or as something ceremonially polluted and defiled (Le Isa 5:2; Deu 14:19), or morally defiled (Job 14:4). The language carries a feeling of intense abhorrence. Under another figure, their penal offences have “carried them away like the wind,” whither Jehovah is not; and they are as the leaves fallen and faded, from which all beauty has disappeared. In this degeneracy the very conscience and the religions instinct is dead, or in a state of lethargy. “How aptly is the state of a sinful world described! How indisposed to rouse itself to call upon God!” No man rises to God without an effort; and unless men make an effort for this, they fall into the stupidity of sin as certainly as a drowsy man sinks back into deep sleep. So nerveless are they, they cannot “stir themselves” to take hold on God. He, on the other hand, seems to have hidden his face from them, and to have given them over into the hand of their sinsif this be the true rendering. Their iniquities tyrannize over them; they pine in them, and moral life seems, under such conditions, hopeless.
II. THE PLEA OF THE CHURCH.
1. She reminds him of the fatherly relation. This includes creative energy and providential will. He has made them and moulded them, as clay is moulded by the potter. He, therefore, must restore them, and he alone; for they are wholly in his hand, and under his control. “The whole verse is an acknowledgment of the sovereignty of God. It expresses the feeling which all have under the conviction of sin, when sensible that they are exposed to the Divine displeasure for their transgressions. Then they feel, 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.’ Only when sinners have this feeling do they hope for relief; and then they 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.”
2. She reminds him of other motives for his interference. His holy cities have become waste, the holy and splendid house of Jehovah reduced to ruins, with all its precious objects. The land and the temple were alike dedicated, consecrated to God, hallowed also by the memory of ancestral piety. And what attachment stronger than that to places of worship where our forefathers engaged in the service of God? “It would be difficult to find any passage in the Bible, or out of it, to equal this in pathos. Here was an exiled people, long suffering in a distant land, with the reflection that their homes were in ruins, their splendid temple long since fired and lying in ruins, the rank grass growing in their streets, their country overrun by beasts and with a rank vegetation. To that land they sighed to return; and here, with the deepest emotion, they plead with God on behalf of their desolate country. We should go to God with deep emotion when his Church is prostrate, and then is the time when we should use the most tender pleadings, and our heart should be melted within us.” We are reminded also of the lesson of childlikeness in prayer. Why should we ever be ashamed of the child-heart and the child’s utterance, “crying in the night, and with no language but a cry”? “Wilt thou hold thy peace?” If there is any meaning in the names “Father” and “child” in religion, then such language is natural, reverent, justifiable; and the energy of the soul from which it springs is prevailing with the All-powerful and the All-merciful. “Here is a model of affectionate and earnest entreaty for Divine interposition in the day of calamity. Thus may all God’s people learn to approach him as a Father, and feel that they have the inestimable privilege, in times of trial, of making known their wants to the Most High. Thus pleading, he will hear us; thus presenting our cause, he will interpose to save us.”J.
HOMILIES BY W.M. STATHAM
Isa 64:7
The averted face.
“Thou hast bid thy face from us.“ If so we cannot be happy. The universe itself will refuse to strike out its sweetest notes of joy for us. It is a Father’s world, and must have a Father’s love in it all to make us blessed! One of the oldest, sweetest prayers in the Bible is, “God be merciful to us, and bless us, and cause his face to shine upon us.” The Christian must have this blessing. You say, “Ah! but men of the world can enjoy nature and society without God.” It is manifest, you declare, that they do. Certainly; but even then it is a surface-joy, even then it may be disturbed by the Egyptian death’s-head at the feast; by memories flashing across the mind; some vulture may suddenly swoop down upon its prey in their hearts. But a Christian has his joy in God, and without him he is out of health, sick, faint, weary, sad. Spiritual health is necessary to the soul who has known God, to make enjoyment complete and real.
I. THIS IS NOT AN ARBITRARY ACT. Some parents are by turn tender and severe; they indulge and they punish in hasty moods. Their frame of mind is not regulated by high principle, by a healthy estimate of things. It is otherwise with God. The earliest records tell us that to deal with the righteous as with the wicked is far from him. Yes, very far! We read in Isaiah that God had hidden his face from the house of Jacob, but it was because they had “sought out them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards.” “Should not,” says the prophet, “a people seek unto their God?” And again Isaiah says, “But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you” This is the secret of the hiding. Sin is against the peace, purity, beauty, order of the universe, and it wrongs a man’s own soul. Would it be right to smile, then? Mark, God does not hide his face because of old sins that have been repented of and forgiven. Remember that there is no human meanness in God’s nature. He does not touch the heart with pain about old delinquencies. “Thy sins and thine iniquities will I remember no more.” I am told that there are some people who do not pray for the forgiveness of sins, because they are Christians, and all has been forgiven them unto the end. What a perversion! Is not the very test of their being Christ’s at all something more than present feeling; viz. that enduring unto the end they shall be saved? Then they find the Lord’s Prayer a difficulty”Forgive us our trespasses,” and they suggest that that was only a provisionary prayer, until the dispensation of the Spirit came! Such methods would destroy the whole authority of Scripture. A man might hear me take a text and say, “That was said to apostles,” implying it was only meant for them. No! we sin every day, and we need a fountain ever open for sin and uncleanness. We need as much the prayer for daily forgiveness as we do for daily bread. It is when sin is indulged in by us who profess to love himwhen it becomes sweet, when it becomes habitual, when it has withdrawn us from the Divine fellowshipthat God hides his face.
II. THIS IS DETRIMENTAL TO ALL JOY. We are made to enjoy nature and men. We are constituted for every variety of joy. But as one nerve in agony can destroy all the rest of night, so a sin that separates us from God can darken all other joy. Even in the sweet summer-time, when holiday comes, we still need him. The golden-sanded bay, the landscape full of greens and greys, the iridescence of light through the clouds above the mountains, the scent of the pines, the delicate harmonies of colour in the fields, the mossy carpet of the woods, the russet roofs of cottages half hidden in the blossoms of summer,all these, so restful and refreshing, lose their charm if the Saviour’s smile be absent, if we cannot hear his voice amid the groves and hills, and at evening feel “we have walked with God to-day.” It was true in the old dispensation, when the revelation was through patriarchs, and prophets, and symbols, and sacrifices; but it is intensely true now, that we have seen God in the face of Jesus Christthat God’s averted face is the soul’s severest punishment. We have come very near to God. No human priesthood intervenes now. We have boldness of access by faith to the throne of God. No veil is over the holy of holies now. We draw near through the rent veilthat is to say, Christ’s flesh. Consequently enjoyment deepens; consequently also the sorrow deepens when I sin. Why? Because the more clearly I have seen the face, the more I feel its averted glance.
III. THIS IS THE MOST SPIRITUAL OF ALL TESTS. It has to do with the life within as well as the conduct without. There, where no eye of man reachesthere, in the galleries where no foot of man ever treadsare the sights and sounds which may drive away the Divine Guest. Long before sin incarnates itself in deeds, before it becomes actual and open, the evil is at work. The tree is rotten while the bark is sound. First make the tree good. Yes; and remember that decay always begins at central points outside the reach of man’s observation. Yes, and outside the reach of our own observation sometimes. Hence the prayer, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts; and see if there be any evil way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”
1. Men like other tests. Their “opinions,” their attendance at sacraments, their absolution by confessors, their consistency of conduct.
2. Men realize the power of this in times of anxiety and trial, Now that they are brought low in sickness; now that friends are separated from them who used to cheer and inspire them; now that they are very near to the valley of the shadow of deathnothing will do but reality then. The words of others, their good opinions of us,all these stand for less than nothing then. May God’s face shine in again upon our souls now! That is heavenat least, it is the premonition of it. All our worst sorrows will flee like the weird shadows on the mountains before the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness. It is pleasant for others to smile on usto walk in the light of human appreciation and love. Households feel this; Churches feel it. Sometimes noble and valiant men in great Reformation eras have to do without it. The light varies so, too; it is so uncertain at the best. But this shining of the face of God makes the heart restful and gladsome everywhere. We shall one day enjoy it to the full. No clouds of sin or doubt will intervene between us and God. So is it with the blessed dead. Many times the beautiful descriptions St. John gives of heaven in the Apocalypse are negative. “No curse,” “no night,” “no sorrow,” “no more death.” But once it is positive: “They shall see his face, and his Name shall be in their foreheads.”W.M.S.
HOMILIES BY W. CLARKSON
Isa 64:1-5
Hope in God.
The fervent language of the text is indicative of an intense spiritual struggle; the heart of the prophet is filled with conflicting hopes and fears. Sensible of great national sins, but mindful of great mercies at the hand of God, he now fears lest Israel has gone beyond redemption, and now prays for Divine rescue and restoration. We have
I. A SENSE OF GOD‘S OVERWHELMING POWER. Israel was brought very low; her land was desolate, her people scattered, her ordinances unobserved; but let God once appear in his majesty and his strength, and everything would be subdued before him; the enemy would be utterly routed, the cause of truth and piety would immediately triumph (Isa 64:1-3). Low as the Church may be found at any time, it only needs that God’s presence should be manifested, and his power be exercised, and the strongest mountains of difficulty will melt away, prejudice be uprooted, hatred be cast out, unbelief be dislodged, indifference and indecision be consumed, earnest thought be enkindled, piety and virtue be made to burn and to enlighten.
II. A RECOGNITION OF HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS. (Isa 64:5.) God meets with the tokens of his favour those that rejoice to work righteousness, that remember him in his appointed waysin worship, in thanksgiving, in obedience, in filial submission; but he is wroth with Israel, and righteously so, for Israel has sinned. In every age and land he that works righteousness is accepted and blessed of God; at all times and in every place the man that sins against his conscience must confront the anger of God, showing itself in one or more of a number of waysin compunction, in ignominy, in desolation and ruin, in sickness, in desertion and loneliness, or in early death.
III. A CONSCIOUSNESS OF UTTER UNDESERVEDNESS. “In those [sins] is continuance;” or long have we continued in our sins, “and shall we be saved?” (Isa 64:5). Is there salvation to be found for the nation that for whole generations has forsaken its God? is there mercy to be had for the individual soul that for whole periods of life has lived in guilty negligence of a Divine Father and Saviour?
IV. A REMEMBRANCE OF HIS ABOUNDING GOODNESS. (Isa 64:4.) It is. “Jehovah of hosts” alone that wrought these marvellous deliverances for his expectant people. All other deities ignominiously and pitiably failed their devotees in the hour of trial. Their idols had mouths, but they spake not; they had hands, but they handled not; their voice could not command the storm, nor their arm arrest the tide. But the history of the people of God and of the Church of God is a history of Divine goodness and grace, of interposition in the time of peril, of redemption from ruin, of gracious and glorious manifestations of Divine affection and attachment. This encourages to
V. A PRAYER FOR HIS EFFECTUAL INTERPOSITION. “Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens! that thou wouldest come down!” (Isa 64:1). Our unworthiness is very great, but thy mercy is large and free; make thy presence known, thy power felt, in the midst of us.C.
Isa 64:6
Life as a leaf.
There are three volumes in the great work of God by which he is educating usthe written Word, Divine providence, and the world in which he has placed us. There are many pages in this last volume, and we do well to read them with reverent spirit. We may learn many things from the vegetation which clothes and adorns the world, and which supplies us with food and medicine and shelter. The fading of the leaf is particularly suggestive; we are reminded that
I. ALL IS NOT LOST TO THE TREE WHEN THE LEAF FALLS. The leaf has been a recipient from the trunk, drinking in its vital juices, but it has been giving as well as receiving; it has been absorbing sunshine and air and moisture, and has been passing these on to the trunk, doing this in the very act of decaying, so that when the leaf has fallen its most precious part remains behind. We are large recipients from the society to which we belong, but we should be continually giving as well as taking. Before we fall, and even as we fade, we may be, and should be, imparting wisdom and truth, all wholesome and helpful principles, a reverent and holy spirit, by which the community will be the better and the richer when we are no longer seen or even remembered.
II. THERE IS AN APPARENT BUT TREACHEROUS BEAUTY IN DECAY. The russet tints of autumn are very exquisite, but it is the beauty of decay. Each particular leaf is pitted and spotted and torn, and it owes its colour to the decomposition which has begun. So is it with some fair human institutions: there may be the grandeur or the brilliancy of external prosperitysuperficially regarded they are interesting, fair, admirablebut there is no inward soundness; it is not the excellency of growing life we are looking upon, but the melancholy beauty of decay.
III. THE INEVITABLENESS OF DECLINE. A psalmist and a prophet speak poetically of” trees whose leaves do not fade.” But such trees, we know, are not found in the vegetable kingdom. Human hearts need not fade. They who are ever drinking in the sunshine of Divine truth, who bathe in the waters of Divine wisdom, on whom fall continually the dews of the Divine Spiritthese are “trees planted by the rivers of water,” and “their leaf does not wither; ‘ they keep their freshness, their purity, their joy to the last; they never lose it. But human lives must. We all do fade as a leaf; the time must be reached when the physical and mental powers begin to decline, and then life lessens in its force and its range from year to year, until the gust comes which brings down the faded leaf to the earth. Prudence may put off the date, but the experience is inevitable and must be faced. We must be provided with a true and real consolation.
IV. THE MINGLING OF THE GRADUAL WITH THE SUDDEN IN THE DECLINE OF LIFE. Everything, in the history of the leaf, is a gradual process, until the last killing frost or pelting rain detaches it from the bough. Death is seldom quite sudden, usually much less so than it seems. It is generally the case that the vigour of the frame has been impaired and the vital powers lessened before the attack proves fatal. We all do fade as a leaf; we decline before we die, we fade before we fall, we walk down the hill by many paces before we take the last step and touch the bottom. Yet is there, almost always, something sudden in the great removal. The day of the Lord still comes as a thief in the night.
V. HUMAN LIFE, UNLIKE THE LEAF, HAS NO FIXED TIME TO DROOP AND DIE. We know the season of the falling leaf, but the time of failing health and of the departing spirit we do not know. Well sings Mrs. Hemans
“Leaves have 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.”
C.
Isa 64:7
Taking hold of God.
We do well to associate with the words of the text those of Isa 27:5, “Let him take hold of my strength;” thus connected, we have before us
I. THAT WHICH CONSTITUTES GOD‘S STRENGTH TO US, or that in him of which we have the greatest need. The strength of the father is, to the family, his providing and directing power; the strength of the mother is her affection and her unfailing sympathy; the strength of the elder brother is his protection, of the elder sister her example. The strength of any one to whom we are related is that in him which most powerfully affects our welt-being. There may be in creation many millions of beings to whom God’s strength appears to be that of his majesty, his infinity, his omniscience, his holiness. We also, the children of men, have a very large and deep interest in these, especially in his holiness. We give thanks at the remembrance of it (vide Psa 30:4; Psa 97:12). Without it we should not be what we are, and should have no hope of rising to the noble heights we have before us. But that in God of which we have most conscious need is
(1) Divine mercy;
(2) Divine bounty and guidance;
(3) Divine succour.
The one hope we have is in the assurance that God is strong in these, and we feel that if they are but directed toward us and embrace us in their beneficent course, all will be well with us.
II. THE NECESSITY WE ARE UNDER TO APPROPRIATE IT. It may be said that God is so generous a Being that he does not wait for any action on our part to bestow his blessings upon us; that, notwithstanding human disregard and rebellion, he multiplies his mercies unto us; that the magnanimous Father in heaven makes his sun to shine on the evil as well as on the good. This is true, but it is far from exhausting the truth. To what extent we shall be recipients of Divine mercy depends on whether or not we “take hold” upon it. God is so strong, so abundant in mercy, that his grace overflows to those who seek not for it, and they are not “dealt with according to their sins;” they derive great benefit from the abundance of God’s patience. But if we wish to know all the fulness of Divine mercy as it is to be known by any seeking human spirit, we must lay hold on God’s strength in this direction. We must “call upon his Name” with penitential spirit and with true faith in Jesus Christ, and we shall have not merely the overflow, but the full cup of Divine mercy, his grace in all its richness and fulness outpoured upon our own heartthe forgiveness of all past sin and all present unworthiness, admission to his full friendship, freedom to partake of all the privileges which belong to the child at home, heirship of the heavenly kingdom. In the same way, it is necessary, if we would experience the fulness, the height and depth, and length, and breadth, open to us of God’s bounty and guidance, or of his succour in a time of special need, that we should “lay hold on him,” on “his strength,” in all these things; and we do lay hold by
(1) maintaining toward him the attitude of sonship, and
(2) going to him in the act of earnest, believing prayer.
III. THE NEED FOR HOLY ENERGY IN OUR SPIRITUAL LIFE. “There is none that stirreth up himself,” etc. If men complain that they have not felt the peace and joy, or found the provision and the guidance, or experienced the delivering succour which they looked for from waiting on God, the answer and the explanation may be thisthat they have been cold in their approach and their requests to God, when they should have been eager and ardent; formal, when they should have been spiritual; unexpectant, when they should have been full of faith and hope; languid, when they should have been energetic; easily daunted, when they should have been earnestly persistent. They have made a feeble and futile effort, when they should have thrown their whole soul into the sacred exercise, into the spiritual work. They must arouse themselves, “stir themselves up.”C.
Isa 64:8-12
A twofold plea.
The prophet addresses himself to God in earnest prayer for Divine interposition, and he uses a twofold plea.
I. THE INTIMACY AND FULNESS OF GOD‘S RELATIONSHIP.
1. God was their Creator. He made them as truly as the potter fashions the clay; they were his workmanship (Isa 64:8).
2. God was their Father. He had cared for them and bestowed on them his parental love; would he abandon his own children?
3. God was their Redeemer. He had rescued them from bondage, had given them their heritage, had made them “his people” (Isa 64:9). So fully and so intimately is God related to us now, and we can use the same terms with a deeper and larger meaning, taught of Christ and redeemed by his blood.
II. THE SEVERITY OF THEIR DISTRESS. Zion a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation, “the holy and beautiful house” a calcined ruin, the beauty of the land a barrenness and a blot. The extremity of the Church’s misery, its utter helplessness without Divine relief, is a strong plea with which to come to him who gave himself for it and lives to establish it.C.
HOMILIES BY R. TUCK
Isa 64:1
Prayer for humbling manifestations of God.
“Isa 64:1-3 are parallel to Isa 63:15, but grander and bolder. There the prophet, in the name of the Church, petitioned that Jehovah would look down on the misery of his people. Here a look is felt to be insufficient, so widely yawns the gulf between Israel and his God. A revelation on the largest possible scale is necessary to smite down unbelief and annihilate opposition; God himself must appear” (Naegelsbach). The prayer is for a Divine manifestation suited to the circumstances and necessities of God’s people as truly as the fire-manifestation of Sinai had been. The prophet seems to think that some overwhelming manifestation of God would silence the unbelievers, and put the hinderers out of the way, as nothing else could. There is always a tendency to trust in the extraordinary rather than in the ordinary methods of Divine working. We think men will repent, if only some one would rise from the dead and witness of eternal things to them; and God’s answer in every age is, “If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead.”
I. SUCH PRAYER OFTEN SHOWS THAT WE FAIL TO NOTICE GOD‘S WORKING IN QUIETER WAYS. Men do not pray for “lightning” who duly recognize what the “light” is doing. Yet the silent forces are the mighty ones. Atmosphere does more than wind; dew does more than storms; moisture does more than rains. God works his best work silently, quietly. We think big things must make a big noise. It is true of our everyday lives; the things that make our happiness and success are not prominent things that happen occasionally, but the ten thousand little things that pass almost unheeded, and that seem to us too small to hold God. It is true of our spiritual life. Living in the warmth of the smile of God does more for us than any special times of manifestation. It is true of the kingdom of God in the world. It cometh on secretly, no man knoweth how.
II. SUCH PRAYER SOMETIMES SHOWS THAT WE WANT GOD TO WORK BY JUDGMENTS RATHER THAN BY MERCIES. It means, “Appear, O Lord, to overthrow our adversaries.” That, indeed, seems to be the tone of the prophet’s prayer in the text. He at least wants the hinderers and enemies forcibly persuaded, if, indeed, he does not pray for them to be taken out of the way. But it is never consistent with the Christian spirit to take prayers to God for the judgment of anybody. That is not the way in which to pray for hinderers, slanderers, or enemies. We are properly taught to pray that God would “baffle their designs and turn their hearts.” If we rightly felt God’s presence with us now, we should not want to ask for any coming of his from heaven.R.T.
Isa 64:4
Man’s ignorance of God’s goodness to him.
“For from of old men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen a God beside thee, which worketh for him that waiteth for him” (Revised Version). A very old weakness of humanity it is to try and find somebody who may be preferred to God, and this comes out of the fact that God is so very imperfectly known, or else is so very strangely misunderstood. A hint is here given us of the reason why there is so much misunderstanding of Godhe has to be waited for. It is quite true of him that he is always working for us; but it is also true that he is often a long time in the working out of his purposes. Then, because men cannot get what they want done done quick, they foolishly begin to think that God cannot do it for them, or will not do it for them. They fail to see the Lord’s goodness. The point of impression may be, that in all the reviews we can take of the past, God has surely wrought good things, even if he has been long at the working. We may, therefore, cherish trustful thoughts concerning him, and be quite willing to leave the unfoldings of all the future in his supreme control.
I. REVIEW GOD‘S WAYS or EDUCATING THE WORLD. What a long time of preparation before he could manifest his Son, and, through him, teach the world the Divine fatherhood!
II. REVIEW GOD‘S WAYS OF TRAINING THE JEWS. Their good things were always long in coming. Canaan was forty years away from Egypt. Restoration was seventy years away from judgment.
III. REVIEW GOD‘S WAYS OF SANCTIFYING HIS CHURCH. Our hardest work nowadays is to hold fast the conviction that the Church is sanctifying, for the process seems so long, and the waiting-time is so trying.
IV. REVIEW GOD‘S DEALINGS IN PERSONAL LIVES. Who of us has not had to learn the lesson of the goodness of God in what he holds off, out of our reach, and makes us wait for and work for long? Do not let us, then, ever mistake God. It is ours to wait for him, and to wait on him, but we may hold the good cheer of this faithhe is surely “working for every one that can wait for him.”R.T.
Isa 64:6
The sincere man’s estimate of himself.
“For we are all become as one that is unclean, and all our righteousnesses are as a polluted garment: and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.” This is the language indeed of an intercessor, of one who speaks as representing the nation, and tries to speak as the nation should speak. But such a man must get at the knowledge of the condition of the nation by a deep and true estimate of his own real self. There is no sign of conscious separation of himself from his people. Right reading of his own life alone enables him to read theirs. And this is true for us also. No man who fails to apprehend the “plague of his own heart” will ever properly realize the evils of his own times. Pharisee-souls can never know the real sins of their age. Sincere and humble souls find themselvesas they know themselvesthe measure of the men around them, as they stand in God’s sight.
I. THE SINCERE MAN FINDS HIS GOODNESS IS SEARCHED. A man’s own goodness is no more than a crust put over a state of uncleanness. Before God a man sees it to be no more than a crust. A man’s own goodness is a dainty garment, which makes a brave appearance. Before God a man sees that it does but cover a foul person, and the foul person has polluted the dress. There is no place where we find out the worthlessness of our own goodness like the place of prayer.
II. THE SINCERE MAN IS IMPRESSED WITH his OWN FRAILTY. It is not that he finds life fading; the thing that oppresses him is that he can never keep at a high level of goodness; he is always fading from his standards; he can no more keep on in goodness than the leaves can keep on the trees all autumn and winter through. One writer says, on the expression “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.”
III. THE SINCERE MAN RECOGNIZES JUDGMENT INFLICTED. The past calamities of life are read aright, and seen to be a man’s iniquities taking him away from peace and prosperity. There is no standing steady for any of us who keep in our sins. If we cannot find out how our iniquities can be taken away, we shall be sure to find that our iniquities will take us away. When we are truly humbled under God’s hand concerning ourselves, we are fitted to make confession before God in the name of our nation.R.T.
Isa 64:8
Our Father and our Potter.
“But now, O Lord, thou art our Father; we are the clay, and thou cur Potter; and we all are the work of thy hand.” The prophet here is making no such assertion of the absolute sovereignty of God as we associate with the figure of the potter because of St. Paul’s use of it in Rom 9:20, Rom 9:21. Here the power of the great Potter is made the ground of prayer. “The clay intreats him to fashion it according to his will, and has faith in his readiness, as well as in his power, to comply with that prayer. The thought of the ‘potter’ becomes, in this aspect of it, one with that of the fatherhood of God.” Fausset says, “Unable to mould themselves aright, they beg the sovereign will of God to mould them into salvation, even as he made them at first, and is their Father.” The idea of the fatherhood of God, as held by the Jews, differs as materially from the idea held by us, as our impressions of human fatherhood differs from theirs. To us the association of “father” and “potter” is incongruous; but to Easterns, who hold the absolute rights of fathers, it was quite a natural association. What may we learn by the linking of the two terms together?
I. Potter reminds us that God can answer our prayer BY THE MASTERY OF OUR CIRCUMSTANCES. The clay must yield under the potter’s hands. He makes of it what. vessel he pleases. He makes or mars as he pleases. So we say, “Our times are in thine hands.” All belonging to us is fully within the Divine control. He can mould as he pleases the “clay” of our circumstances, so that our prayers shall be answered. The “we” of the text is not “we as individuals,” but “we inclusive of all our surroundings and associations.”
II. Father reminds us that God can answer our prayers UPON DUE CONSIDERATION OF US. Father brings in the element of feeling and personal relationship. Beyond what God can do, we have the most gracious assurances as to what he will do. This should lead us on to the Christian conception of answer to prayer, based on our Lord’s words, “If ye then know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give good things to them that ask him?”R.T.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
Isa 64:1-3. Oh that thou wouldst rend, &c. Wouldst rend, &c. Isa 64:2 as the fire kindleth the dry fuel; as the fire causeth the waters to boil, &c. Lowth. The ideas are here taken from the descent of God upon mount Sinai, and are very similar to Jdg 5:4. The connexion is this: “Oh that thou wouldst descend, that the mountains might flow at thy presence! thy indignation so raging, as a fire breaketh out of dried sticks, (so the original may be rendered,) and spreads the flames around, and as a more vehement fire makes the water to boil.” It is subjoined, To make thy name known to thine adversaries, namely, “to consume in thy wrath;” which answers to the former member:that the nations may be moved at thy presence, which answers to the latter member; that is to say, so moved, as the fire makes the water to boil. When thou didst terrible things, which we looked not for, namely, “when thou descendedst to deliver us from Egypt, and to form us into a people, the mountains flowed, &c.” See Exo 19:18. Deu 32:22; Deu 32:52. Psa 18:7. &c. and Vitringa.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
3. PRAYER THAT THE LORD WOULD VISIBLY INTERVENE, AND SO PROVE HIMSELF TO BE, AS OF OLD, THE GOD AND FATHERr OF ISRAEL
Isa 63:19 b to Isa 64:11. (Isa 64:1-12)
Chap Isa 63:19 b. Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens,
That thou wouldest come down,
That the mountains might flow down at thy presence,
Chap Isa 64:1As when 17 18the melting fire burneth,
The fire causeth the waters to boil,
To make thy name known to thine adversaries,
That the nations may tremble at thy presence!
219When thou didst terrible things which we looked not for,
Thou camest down, the mountains flowed down at thy presence.
3For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear,
Neither hath the eye 20seen, O God, beside thee,
What he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him.
4Thou meetest him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness,
21Those that remember thee in thy ways:
Behold, thou art wroth; for we have sinned:
22In those is continuance, and we shall be saved.
5But we are all 23as an unclean thing,
And all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags:
And we all do fade as a leaf;
And our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.
6And there is none that calleth upon thy name,
That stirreth up himself to take hold of thee:
For thou hast hid thy face from us,
And hast 24consumed us, 25because of our iniquities.
7But now, O Lord, thou art our father;
We are the clay, and thou our potter;
And we all are the work of thy hand.
8Be not wroth very sore, O Lord,
Neither remember iniquity for ever:
Behold, see, we beseech thee, we are all thy people.
9Thy holy cities are a wilderness,
Zion is a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation.
10Our holy and our beautiful house, where our fathers praised thee,
Is burned up with fire:
And all our pleasant things are laid waste.
11Wilt thou refrain thyself for these things, O Lord?
Wilt thou hold thy peace, and afflict us very sore?
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
Isa 63:19 b. Regarding the division into chapters, there can be no doubt that what follows from Isa 63:19 b is closely connected with what precedes. There is no reason for beginning a new chapter here. It would be appropriate to make the chapter begin at Isa 63:15. But it is quite awkward to commence the chapter with . With , Isa 63:19 a, the verse ought properly to close.[Delitzsch, while he condemns the beginning of a new chapter with , defends the Masoretic division of verses, and maintains that Isa 63:19 b could not be united with Isa 64:1, for the verse thus formed would be beyond measure overladen. This sigh, too, belongs really to 19 a, as it arises out of the depths of the complaint there expressed.D. M.] is probably a mongrel form from and . For from . to shake, comes the perfect Niphal . But the Prophet wished to speak not merely of a shaking, but also of a dissolving, a flowing down of the mountains (comp. Psa 44:7 [6]). For this purpose he availed himself of the freedom allowed in forming the Niphal of verbs, . The Niphal of these verbs can be inflected, as if its normal third person masculine were an independent stem. Thus we have , Eze 41:7; , Jdg 5:5, as if these were forms of the Kal, ,. There occur, moreover, Niphal forms which suppose a Kal perfect e or o, from which they are formed: , Eze 26:2; , Amo 3:11; , Isa 34:4, etc. In this way has arisen, and the occasion of its formation seems to have been the endeavor to unite the significations of the stems and . The one of these stems has given the consonants and the vocalization of the first syllable, the other, the vocalization of the second syllable (comp. Olshausen, 263, 6, p. 592).[It is hard to imagine that the Prophet intended by the irregular form which he employed to unite in it both the meaning of , to shake, and that of , to flow. Most modern interpreters prefer to assume as the stem .D. M.]
Isa 64:4. The combination is manifestly formed in the genuine style of Isaiah for the sake of the alliteration.[There is here no example of alliteration.D. M.]This combination is grammatically admissible according to the usage which allows us to add to a verb a nearer specification by means of a second verb in the same verbal form and connected by wav (comp. Job 6:9; 2Sa 7:29; Deu 5:19, et saepe).
Isa 64:5. is, it appears to me, Hiphil from (, marcuit, absumtus, confectus est.[Delitzsch regards it as the Hiphil from , or from =.D.M.]The Hiphil is directly causative, to produce withering, i. e. to wither away.
Isa 64:6. is Kal, which is here exceptionally used in a transitive signification (comp. on ,, Isa 64:1). marks the terminus in quem, and recalls Gen 14:20.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. In violent agitation the suppliant expresses the wish that God would put an end to all this misery by a visible and grand manifestation of His might and majesty, that He would come down upon the earth, so that all His enemies must flee trembling before Him (Isa 63:19 to Isa 64:2). And Jehovah can do this, for He alone has proved Himself by deeds to be the living God to those who hope in Him (Isa 64:3-4 a). Gods procedure hitherto, in ever visiting Israel with repeated punishment, has been of no avail. Israel has not reformed thereby, but has only sunk deeper in impurity, corruption and decay (Isa 64:4 b6). But Jehovah is Israels Father, Israel is the clay in His hand, and He is the Potter. Is not Israel then, such as it is, properly His work? (Isa 64:7) [?] Let it please Him, then, not to exercise wrath to the utmost degree, but to consider that Israel is His people (Isa 64:8). All the cities of the holy land lie waste and desolate, even Zion and Jerusalem (Isa 64:9). The temple is burnt down, and all places in which Israel once delighted are ruins (Isa 64:10). Can Jehovah endure this? Can He be silent at it, and only continue to afflict His people? (Isa 64:11).
2. Oh, that thou wouldest rendthy ways.Isa 63:19 to Isa 64:4 a. At the head of the preceding paragraph (Isa 63:15-19 a) we read the prayer that the Lord would graciously look down from heaven on the misery of His people (Isa 63:15). How needful it is that He should do this is then shown by various negative and positive reasons. The suppliant is now not satisfied with a mere looking down. He has come to know (Isa 63:17 sqq.) how great the gulf is which separates Israel inwardly and outwardly from its God. Inwardly, a great part of the nation has gone astray from Jehovah, and is even confirmed, hardened in this apostasy: externally, the people have been expelled from the land of their inheritance and from their sanctuary. The suppliant now thinks that in order to heal all these evils, there is needed a grand and signal manifestation of the divine majesty which should strike down all unbelief and annihilate all opposition. He desires, therefore, that God would rend the heaven, remove as it were the curtain which now conceals Him from the bodily eye, and thus makes unbelief and its consequences possible. Something is here asked, which is far more than the bowing of the heaven and coming down which is described in Psa 18:10 as having taken place, and which is implored in Psa 144:5. In these places by the bowing of the heaven and coming down only a manifestation by means of a tempest is denoted, while Isaiah here prays that Jehovah would show Himself in His terrible majesty, as according to Eze 1:1 He did really show Himself to His prophet. comp. on Isa 48:18. The perfect after depicts impatience. The rending of the heaven and coming down is set forth not as something merely possible, but as something in regard to which merely the wish is expressed that it may have already happened. In what way the Prophet pictures to himself the occurrence indicated by , he explains in Isa 44:1 by two comparisons. He supposes the which surrounds the Lord as consuming fire penetrating the mountains, though these are properly not combustible, and kindling them as easily and rapidly as fire ignites a fagot, yea, dissolving them despite their hardness and consistency into a boiling, seething mass, just as fire causes liquid water to boil (comp. Psa 83:15; Psa 97:5) stands in Deu 32:22; Jer 15:14 in an intransitive sense, but in the parallel passage Jer 17:4, and in Isa 1:11, it is transitive. too, which from the radical meaning ebullire has, on the one hand, the signification of hot desire, longing, asking (Isa 21:12 bis), on the other, that of blowing ones self up, swelling (Isa 30:13), possesses both a transitive and an intransitive power, as is the case with so many Hebrew verbal stems. , . ., which the LXX. render by , wax, and the Vulgate by tabescere, was perceived by De Dieu and Schultens to be related to the Arabic hams and haschim (dry herb, dry, brittle wood). It denotes sarmenta, dry wood of the vine or of branches, brushwood. [Instead of as when the melting fire burneth (E. V.), translate as fire kindles brushwood. D. M.]. The aim of this indubitable manifestation of Jehovah is that He may make His name (i.e., the knowledge of His being comprised in word) known to his enemies,i.e., to all those who stray from Him and harden themselves in this alienation (Isa 63:17), whether they are Israelites or heathen. The Prophet evidently hopes that this manifestation as demonstratio ad oculos will compel all Israelites, who hitherto did not believe the instruction given to them (because its evidence was not palpable enough) to know and acknowledge their God. If, however, there should be some among the , who, notwithstanding this revelation apparent to the senses, should not be disposed to believe, these must at least flee vanquished and incapable of resistance. On comp. on Isa 63:12. in Isa 63:2 is dependent on . The knowledge of the name of God will be imparted to men, so far as this rending and coming down is a deed, not merely an instruction by word. This is a thought quite after Isaiahs manner, as may be seen from comparing Isa 26:8-10, the remarks on which passage may be consulted. After the statement of the design to make thy name known,etc., the manner of doing this is also declared: in thy doing terrible thingsetc. [Not: When thou didst terrible,etc.E. V.]. And then there is mention again made of the visible event which should precede the making known of Jehovahs name to His adversaries. For at the close of verse 2 we have a repetition of the conclusion of Isa 63:19 (Oh, that) thou wouldest come down, etc. [Not, as in the E. V.: Thou comest down,etc.]. By this recurrence of the same words the verses Isa 63:19 to Isa 64:2 are shown to form logically and rhetorically an inseparable whole. The words of the third verse [fourth in E. V.] stand manifestly in a causal relation to what precedes. The Prophet had expressed the bold wish that the Lord might no longer remain concealed, but might visibly display His Godhead. Can this happen? Imaginary gods cannot, indeed, comply with such a requirement. But Jehovah is no fictitious god. He is the true, the living God. And He alone has shown Himself as such from the beginning. For from primeval time men have not seen nor heard a God beside Jehovah who showed Himself by living deed to him who hopes in Him. I take before in a causal sense=and truly, as we had it frequently already (e.g., Isa 24:5; Isa 38:17; Isa 39:1, comp. with 2Ki 20:12). That is to be taken as the accusative, and not as the vocative, is clear, because neither in itself nor in this connection is it a suitable thought to say: None but Thou, O God, has seen and heard what Thou wilt do to those who hope in Thee. For it is self-evident that no one previously saw and heard what God intends. And what, too, is intended by this strange sentence in this connection? And how explain the change of person in ? It is objected that is not in other cases followed by the accusative. But this is not the case. has frequently, when in the parallelism corresponds to it, the accusative after it (Gen 4:23; Job 33:1), and we may say that in the passage before us is subordinated to the as a merely rhetorical repetition, and forms one idea with it. Even if the construction of with the accusative could not in any way be justified, this would not signify. For the accusative can also depend on the verb alone as the nearest verb. Delitzsch rightly remarks: We cannot in chapters 4066 hear the words preceded by a negation, without at once receiving the impression that Jahves [Jehovahs] exclusive Godhead is attested (Isa 45:5; Isa 45:21).” stands in a pregnant sense, as in Ps. 22:32; 37:5; 52:11; Jer 14:7; Dan 8:24; Dan 11:17; Dan 11:28; Dan 11:30. The God, who from the beginning has proved Himself to be a real, living God by working, i.e., by such indubitable proofs in deeds as only a real, living power could showthis God can also do that which the Prophet (Isa 63:19 to Isa 64:2) with such intense ardor desires to see. I, too, believe that Paul freely quotes this passage in 1Co 2:9. But I think, on account of the words , that the place Isa 65:17 was also before the Apostles mind. [Pauls quotation of this place is seen to be appropriate when we reflect that the Object perceived by no ear, seen by no eye, is, as Delitzsch puts it, not God in Himself, but the God who acts for His people, who justifies their waiting on Him.D. M.]. What the Prophet had intimated by the one word , he expands in the first part of verse 4. is a strong expression, and is intended to denote a friendly impingere, but one which is right sensibly felt, an occursus which leaves no doubt as to the reality of the person who meets us, though He should be invisible. stands with the accusative in the general sense of meeting (Exo 5:20; Exo 23:4; 1Sa 10:5; Amo 5:19; comp. Exo 5:3; Isa 47:3). The Lord meets in a way that is perceptible to Him who loves righteousness and practises it, i.e., does it with joy. [He who rejoices and works righteousness is one in whom joy and doing right are united. The expression is therefore equivalent to rejoices to do righteousness. But it is, perhaps, more correct, with Hofmann, to take as the object of both verbs: Such as let what is right be their joy and their work; for (), though it cannot immediately (see Isa 8:6; Isa 35:1), can mediately, as here and Isa 65:18, be joined with the accusative of the object.Delitzsch.D. M.]. As the Prophet, in Isa 64:4 b passes over to a new, specifically different thought, in must begin a new verse.
3. Behold, thou art wrothus away. Isa 64:4-6. With these words the Prophet sets that procedure which the Lord had hitherto pursued over against that which he himself so ardently longs for as certainly leading to the desired end. Hitherto the Lord has been wroth. Although individuals might experience the assisting grace of their God, yet, on the whole, His conduct toward His people was characterized by anger. And what was the result? Was Israel thereby reformed? No. The old sin ever succeeded punishment. Sin, punishment, and sin again, that has been the whole history of Israel from the beginning. This is, in my judgment, the meaning of the words . Thus retains its full force as a perfect, and retains unimpaired the signification of an aoristic imperfect. has a neuter force: in (with, during) these (things) which are indicated by thou wast angry, and we sinned, is (contained, elapsed) an , i.e., an eternity, a period of incalculable duration. The writer means the so often spoken of previously (Isa 63:9; Isa 63:11; Isa 63:16; Isa 63:19; Isa 64:3): the past of the people of Israel. Its history was really since the journeying in the wilderness an uninterrupted series of transgressions and punishments. It cannot be objected that would be required. For the Prophet will not press the idea time past, or even the past of the Israelitish people. He just wishes to say that an eternity has passed in such an alternation of things. That can be used thus indefinitely, is beyond doubt (comp. Isa 38:16; Eze 33:18; Jer 18:13, etc.). So, in the main, Delitzsch. But he translates: In this state we have been already long. It appears to me, that in order to express this, the Prophet would have written . I, too, take as a question (comp., e.g., Eze 20:31). If punishing and correcting have already lasted for an eternity without good result, can this be the right way to save Israel? [This question is hardly becoming. And such correction is really Gods successful way of turning Israel from their sins (comp. Isa 27:9; Hos 5:5, etc.). If under we understand Gods wrath and Israels sin, then we must take as a question, which looks a somewhat arbitrary construction. The translators of the English version evidently regarded as referring to in the preceding hemistich. This view is still held by many interpreters, and it is, perhaps, on the whole entitled to the preference. Adopting it Alexander thus paraphrases this verse: Although Thou hast cast off Israel as a nation, Thou hast nevertheless met or favorably answered every one rejoicing to do righteousness, and in Thy ways or future dispensations such shall still remember and acknowledge Thee: Thou hast been angry, and with cause, for we have sinned; but in them, Thy purposed dispensations, there is perpetuity, and we shall be saved.D. M.] That the discipline hitherto applied has not been of any help is shown by the Prophet still more in detail in what follows. Very far from being healed and sanctified, the whole people became rather as a man rendered unclean by leprosy, who must be expelled from human society (Lev 13:44 sqq.). The people, therefore, that had become unclean through the leprosy of sin, must as one man be cast out of the holy land into exile. The same thing is declared under another image. The moral habitus of the people (their righteousness, i.e., juste facta, Isa 33:15; Isa 45:24) is compared with a menstruous garment(, . . from , counted time), whose touch makes unclean. But moral pollution deprives people of firmness and strength. Therefore the suppliant further acknowledges that they are withered as a leaf. But leaves when they are dry and fall off, become the prey of the wind. Thus iniquities ( is defectively written plural for , Isa 64:6; Jer 14:7; Dan 9:13) have mediately swept the people into exile with the irresistible force of a tempest. And in exile the mass of the people have not been improved. Although, as this prayer itself proves, the stem is not quite dead (Isa 6:13), it may yet be said, if we consider the great mass of the people, that there is no one who calls upon the name of the Lord, no one who would have roused himself as a man to make the necessary moral effort to take fast hold of Jehovah. [Gods hiding his face stood in a causal relation to the absence of prayer on the part of the people. The neglect of calling on Jehovahs name and the want of importunity in prayer are traced to the withdrawal of the divine favor and to the abandonment of the people to the consequences of their sins.D. M.]
4. But now, O Lord
Very sore.
Isa 64:7-11. is emphatic, Isa 64:7. It is as if he would say: Our condition is very dreadful. The worst is to be feared. But now, Thou art our Father. Therefore there is still hope. With he returns to the thought which he had already expressed, Isa 63:16. [Instead of relying upon any supposed merits of their own, they appeal to their own dependence upon God as a reason why He should have mercy upon them. The paternity ascribed to God is not that of natural creation in the case of individuals, but the creation of the church or chosen people, and of Israel as a spiritual and ideal person. The figure of the potter and the clay, implying absolute authority and power, is used twice before (Isa 29:6; Isa 45:9), and is one of the connecting links between this book and the acknowledged Isaiah. Alexander.D. M.] On the double declaration that the Lord is not only Father, but also Potter, the prayer, Isa 64:8, is founded that He would not be wroth very sore, nor remember iniquity forever, but rather consider that all Israel is His people. This short emphatic exclamation forms plainly the highest point of the prayer, and here it could accordingly come to an end. [?] I regard it as possible that the verses 911 have been inserted by an Israelite living in the Exile, to whom the sad condition of the holy land, of the holy city and of the holy house seemed to be for God and Israel the thing most unendurable.
We could thus explain the singularly vivid and exact description of the state in which the home of the exiles was at the time here supposed. For certainly the words of Isa 64:9 and Isa 64:10 do not sound as those of one who viewed the things from a distance, but as the words of one who saw them most closely. [Here our authors arbitrary theory of prophecy misleads him, comp. Introduction, foot-note, pp. 17,18. Dr. Naegelsbach has himself told us in the heading of this fourth discourse, Isa 63:7 to Isa 64:11, that the Prophet transports himself in spirit into the situation of the church of the Exile. He lives in spirit in the Exile, and speaks of the misery prevailing in it as if he were an immediate eye-witness. This is in accordance with the custom of the Prophet. That condition of things which Isaiah by prophetic anticipation here describes as existing, is clearly predicted by his cotemporary Micah (Mic 3:12). It was after the Prophet had described the treading down of the sanctuary (Isa 63:18) that he exclaimed, Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens and come down,etc.; and it is strange that Isa 63:9-10 should not be considered by our author as a most appropriate close to the prayer, and that these verses should be regarded by him as the language of carnal Israel, and as an interpolation by a later hand.D. M.]. Thy holy cities are the cities of the land. is to be taken in an abstract sense: urbes tuae sanctitatis, thy holy cities (comp. Psa 78:54; Zech. 2:16). Zion is here the mount Zion, the seat of the kingdom, the political centre of the theocracy; Jerusalem is the entire holy city, the national centre. There is added in Isa 64:10 the religious centre, the temple. [The people call it house of our holiness and our glory; Jahves holiness and glory have in the temple transplanted, as it were, heaven on the earth (comp. Isa 63:15 with Isa 60:7), and this earthly dwelling-place of God is Israels possession, and thereby Israels and . The relative sentence tells what sacred historical recollections are attached to it. is here= where, as Gen 39:20; Num 20:13 et saepe Delitzsch.D. M.]. is found only here. But comp. Isa 9:4. with the predicate in the singular is uncommon; this urns loquendi does not occur elsewhere in Isaiah (comp. Ew. Gr. 317 c; Pro 15:2; Eze 31:15). We shall not err if we understand under our pleasant things, in opposition to the previously mentioned sacred localities, the buildings in private possession. [Delitzsch holds that the parallelism leads us under pleasant things to think of objects connected with the worship of God in which the people had a holy joy.D. M.]. The singular is found in Isaiah only here (see the List). The expression occurs no where else in Isaiah. But it is found frequently in Jeremiah, and in Eze 38:8. After the Prophet had set this sad picture before the Lord, he closes with the question, whether the Lord can in such circumstances restrain himself (Isa 42:14; Isa 63:15) be silent (Isa 42:14; Isa 57:11; Isa 62:1; Isa 62:6; Isa 65:6) and so let His people be oppressed to the utmost (comp. Isa 40:27 sqq.)?
Footnotes:
[17]Heb. the fire of meltings.
[18]As fire kindles brushwood.
[19]When thou dost terrible deeds which we did not expect,that thou wouldest come down, that mountains might flow down before thee!
[20]Or, seen a God beside thee, which doeth so for him, etc.
[21]In thy ways they remember thee.
[22]for a long time it is so; and shall we, be saved?
[23]We were all as the unclean (person), etc.
[24]Heb. melted.
[25]Heb. by the hand of.
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.
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
CONTENTS
This Chapter is one continued strain of prayer, from beginning to , end. It is to the same amount in supplication, as the conclusion of the former chapter, and contains the fervent cries of the Church for the divine manifestations.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Here is a most fervent, animated prayer, in which the Church petitions her Lord, that by the sovereignty of his grace, and the outpouring of his Holy Spirit, he would so come forth, and come down in the midst of his people, that the mountains of sin and unbelief might melt before him. Reader! depend upon it, when grace enables the Church, or the individual believer, to go forth in such awakening cries of soul; the Lord, who thus prepares the heart for mercy, is near at hand, in mercy to meet and bless his people.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Isa 64:1
‘A phantasmagoria of men and events floats before the historian,’ says Mr. J. H. Shorthouse; ‘men seem in history to have walked in a vain show; the more he inquires into men and creeds, the more he is perplexed he finds none which he can say is absolutely right, no one fully wrong; the course of Nature maintains its impartial calm, shutting out the sight of God from him, and his constant prayer is that ejaculation of Isaiah, “O that thou wouldest rend the heavens and come down! “‘
References. LXIV. 1, 2. F. D. Maurice, Lincoln’s Inn Sermons, vol. vi. p. 164; see also Sermons, p. 193. LXIV. 3. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxvi. No. 1538. J. Keble, Sermons for Sundays After Trinity, part i. p. 212. LXIV. 4. A. Murray, Waiting on God, p. 110. LXIV. 5. J. M. Neale, Sermons Preached in Sackville College Chapel, vol. i. p. 95. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Isaiah XLIX.-LXVI. p. 231. LXIV. 6. S. Horton, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lx. 1901, p. 283. J. Parker, City Temple Pulpit, vol. iii. p. 261. T. De Witt Talmage, Sermons, p. 70. R. Collyer, Where the Light Dwelleth, p. 299. J. E. Vernon, Plain Preaching for Poor People (6th Series), p. 85. C. Silvester Home, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lxxiv. 1908, p. 230.
Fading Leaves (An Autumn Sermon)
Isa 64:6
The literal reference of these words is to a spiritual rather than to a physical condition. The sap the inner life of the Jewish people had failed, for they had separated themselves from God, who was their life (Deu 30:20 ). ‘And the destruction of the transgressors and of the sinners shall be together, and they that forsake the Lord shall be consumed; for ye shall be as an oak whose leaf fadeth, and as a garden that hath no water’ (Isa 1:28 ; Isa 1:30 ).
The object-lesson before us is not simply a leaf, but a fading leaf. ‘We all do fade as a leaf,’ and fading leaves suggest four special lessons:
I. They are emblems of man’s mortality. Scripture abounds with images descriptive of the shortness and uncertainty of human life, but none is more striking than the emblem of a leaf. How weak, how frail it is! By what a slender bond does it retain its place! How slight is its tenure! Even if it last a whole season and live its appointed time, it does not retain its verdure and vigour; the sap of life begins to fail; the tints which give it such a beauty are the symbols of weakness and decay. The leaf fades sooner than it falls. To change the figure, the ‘flower’ withers before the ‘grass’ upon which it glows. Man’s physical and mental ‘glory ‘begins to decline often long before the man himself departs.
Death comes with noiseless steps. He is not heard; he is not seen; he is not perhaps suspected. He enters our chamber the chamber of the poorest; for this king knows no distinction. His majesty is so great that he can afford to dispense with the adventitious adjuncts of pomp and circumstance. His cold shadow falls upon us, and his dark form stands between us and the light of the living world. Let us look the fact in the face; let us not put it from us. And as we contemplate it in the light of Him who died upon the cross and who burst the bars of death in His garden sepulchre, the aspect of the fact will change, and we shall not fear to die. As regards the soul, like the angel who visited Peter’s prison, death is but the Lord’s messenger to break off its fetters and lead it from the prison-house to the open streets of the celestial city. And as regards the body, ‘the grave will be like the bath of Esther, in which she lay for a time to purify herself with spices that she might be fit for her Lord’.
II. When the leaf fades it exhibits its greatest beauty, and is in this an emblem of the end of a Christian life. Before the leaf falls it breaks forth into its richest hues.
‘And have you never known,’ says Mr. Vaughan of Brighton, ‘known better than you like to confess, by the exquisite advancing loveliness of his moral features, as by a surer symptom than any physical indication, that one whom you loved so well was going to his end? Have you not seen those mellowed glows of tempered intellect and joy and Christlike sweetness, which showed by how slight a tenure the life was held, and how soon the scene would change, and all that made earth so pleasant was all going from your sight? “We all do fade as a leaf;” but let us “fade “as the leaves do, and let our last be our best; and the truth of God be reflected and Himself made glorious in the sanctity of our later years, in the peace, and love, and grace of our dying!’
III. The fading of a leaf is a proof that its work is accomplished and that its mission is fulfilled. The leaves of trees are made subservient by an all-wise Creator to most important ends. One of their chiefest functions is to keep up the purity of the atmosphere. As Christ said of His disciples, ‘Ye are the salt of the earth,’ we might say of them, ‘Ye are the leaves of the world’; your office is to stay the moral pollution which surrounds you and to breathe a healthy and life-giving influence. To have done this is not to have lived in vain. Who shall account how much we in this twentieth century are indebted to those who have passed away before us like the leaves of a hundred generations? Each leaf in its turn withered and went back to its kindred earth, but left behind it the elements of a continuous life. Have the deaths of patriarchs and prophets, of evangelists and apostles, of ministers and missionaries, of district visitors and Sunday School teachers, of godly parents and children, of brothers and sisters in Christ, of relatives and friends, been in vain? The teachings of their holy experience, their words, their writings, their letters, their living examples, their dying testimonies, all live on. They cheer, they instruct, they quicken us. These fallen leaves have entered into the experience of the living Church Today. They are part of our heritage, they enrich and strengthen our spiritual life. Thus also may we of this generation live, and then fade and fall. The tree of the Church will never die; it is the Tree of Life in the midst of the Paradise of God, and therefore the history of each leaf will live in it and abide for ever and ever.
IV. The fading leaves of autumn tell us that death is the necessary precursor of life. Every leaf that falls carries with it not only the memorial of death, but of resurrection-life.
J. W. Bardsley, Many Mansions, p. 215.
References. LXIV. 6-8. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. viii. No. 437. LXIV. 7 . Ibid. vol. xxiii. No. 1377. LXIV. 11. J. Marshall Lang, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lxii. 1902, p. 149. LXIV. 11, 12. T. Spurgeon, ibid. vol. liii. 1898, p. 257. LXV. 1. F. E. Paget, Sermons for the Saints’ Days, p. 19. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxii. No. 1919. LXV. 5. Ibid. vol. xxv. No. 1497. P. McAdam Muir, Modern Substitutes in Christianity, p. 33.
Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson
The Heart’s Cry
Isa 64:1
The heart must have its time for speech as well as the cold and foolish intellect. The intellect is always a fool when it is not held in check by the heart, in the consideration of all pious, moral, and beneficent questions. There are many persons who are much afraid of changing the solar system. They tell us that when we pray to God to give us a fine day we ask God to change for the time being the whole construction of the solar system; and some persons can never endure that. They are fond of the solar system; it is to them more than God; they worship the solar system, and all the more so that they know nothing about it, having only seen one little speck of it, and only the outside of that little speck. Here is a man, come whither he may, who rises above the whole solar system, and would have it torn to pieces rather than be without God. That man is right. We say “man,” although literally it may be the petition of the Church; yet we take Isaiah as the typical prophet in this instance, and the cry is Never mind what becomes of the solar system, we want thyself, thou God and King and Father of men. Melt the mountains, break up the mechanism of the universe, only come to thy children, and take up thy habitation in our hearts, and let us see thee, and feel thee, that we may love thee more deeply and completely. That is musical. The other person is very anxious not to touch the umbrella which he calls the solar system; that must always be hung out and held up properly; but, passion, heart, frenzied love, says, I must have God, come what may of the solar system, and all the stellar constitution of that blue dome. That man speaks the deeper language, his is the grander eloquence; the other man is a little mechanician and expert in one thing out of millions of things, and because he does not know the remaining millions he does not really know the one thing which he has undertaken to handle; only he knows what a pebble is who knows what God is. You will be ruined by your specimens and museums and collections, because they amount to nothing, until they are related to the currents of the universe.
There are persons who are very anxious not to suspend the laws of nature. They therefore cannot believe in miracles; they are the victims of the expression “the laws of nature.” What is nature? What is law? What are the laws of nature? How do they begin, how do they run, how do they eventuate, for what purpose were they established? What are these tyrants that even God cannot modify, alter, or discharge as if with sovereign contempt? It is very interesting to hear persons who have never been farther than their own back garden discourse upon the sublimities of all the zones of the globe: how fluent they are! When did ignorance stand still for want of a word? Wisdom often stands still, the highest eloquence often hesitates; it is dainty in its elections, it is discriminating, penetrating; it cannot be taken in by shades that graduate into one another, it must be precise, definite, emphatic. So it is always interesting to hear persons who have made a collection of a basket of flowers or butterflies talk about the laws of nature. Here is a voice, resonant, magnificent, full of heart-chords, that says, Break up the scheme of nature and rebuild it, only thou Heart of things come to us! We catch our best selves in our best reality when we are thus impassioned. The zoologist or physiologist tells us that animals can only move when they are warm; they can only move in proportion as the sun is in them. It is the sun that makes the bird fly, it is the sun that made the little serpent leap up into your way and flash into the woods like a glare of light in darkness. We move by the sun. So, in a higher sense, in the larger, richer realms of education and culture and growth, we are moved by inspiration, not by information. Information is a liar, either intentional or unconscious. It never tells a whole story. Inspiration stands clear out above all the details, and, seizing the universe in the gross, speaks the purpose of its divine Creator. You do not know yourselves until you are drowned in tears, or roused into enthusiasm; you do not know your own patriotism until in the presence of some crying wrong you rise into a new and nobler consciousness. So we must come to inspiration, to highest poetry, to divinest touch, such as we find in this Christianity, that we may know what can be done in the imagination of faith, even to the solar system and to the laws of nature. The man who talks coldly to you cares nothing about you. While he is looking at you he is looking into you, and while he is apparently interested in you he is adding you all up to see what he can make of you in the end, or he is wishing you were a mile off. The man whose heart is ablaze with divine fire, and who looks at everything through his tears, and throws upon all commonest things the glamour of a chastened and purified imagination, is the man who would do more for you than the man who is a self-constituted constable or a self-appointed sentinel, whose business it is to take care of the solar system. When you have caught yourselves in religious rapture you have seen an image of yourselves that would remind you that man was made in the image and likeness of God.
There are two ways of looking at a flower: the one is a botanical way, or, to use the general expression, the scientific way; the other is the poetical or spiritual way. The botanist takes the flower to pieces because, he says, he loves it. To the lay mind that seems to be a curious way of showing love, but scientifically we are bound to believe it is quite correct. He takes the flower all to pieces and calls it a stem, and petal, and cell, and leaf, and so on. The poet says, Do not touch it; if you touch it you will take the bloom off the fair thing, an almost angel. Walk around it, fix your eyes upon it, love it, let it talk to you. They are both right. We could not do without either the one interpretation or the other. We ask the poet why these flowers are red, and those are blue, and others are tinged with other hues, and he says, To please the eye of man. We turn to the botanist and say, Is that true? and he says, Not a word cf it. The flowers are red and blue and other colours of a vivid kind in order to attract the insect; however these flowers came into being, there was not the faintest intention of pleasing the eye of man with their colours; they are not fashion-plates, they are not printed in order to entertain foolish sightseers; the flowers are made vivid that the insects may see them, come to them, and fertilise them, and take away something out of them and carry it to some other flowers. Wherever the wind fertilises a plant it leaves it of a dull colour. The wind does not fertilise your fine reds and your tender blues; these are the mission field of insects. Whatever the wind does, it never leaves a patch of colour upon anything; it simply blows upon it and goes away, leaving it dull, unpainted, unflushed with poetic blood. The botanist may be right from a botanical point of view; but what is a botanical point of view? Who would pay for it, or go a long way on a wet day to seek it? Who would die for it? There may be some botanists who would die for their plants. I do not know them, and therefore I will neither affirm nor deny their existence; but the poet must have his flower, his garden, his paradise; yea, it he be a great man in a little house and have all his garden on the window-sill, yet through that little garden he will see all the flowers that ever bloomed in the parterres of the unmeasured universe.
So with the solar system, and the laws of nature. There is a scientific view, cold, exact, precise, ignorant, fluent, and characterised by every other element that can be contributed either by partial wisdom or absolute ignorance; and there is a poetical view of things, the view that is disclosing itself to imagination’s tender expectant eye; the view that looms on dreams. There is the hard stern doctrine that says God is shut up in his own universe, and he cannot get either under it or above it or round about it; he has enclosed himself in that magnificent cage, and there he must stop. There is another view that says, “Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens, oh that the mountains might flow down at thy presence!” The world would die but for this second and nobler view. There are occasions when the heart expects great things from God, and insists upon having them. These are moments of inspiration; the heart says, I know that God can do this, and I will give him no peace until it be done; I will importune him, I will besiege his throne, I will smite the gate of heaven violently, I will give no rest to my eyes or my eyelids until this consummation of righteousness and truth and love take place. Let the wild heart pray; let such holy excitement work out its impassioned enthusiasm. To the cold, unexpanded mind it may seem to be ecstatic, romantic, and fantastic, but God alone, who made the soul, can interpret and appreciate all its varying moods and passions. To him remit the great arbitrament.
The heart knows what God can do, and the intellect does not. Be very jealous of your intellect, especially if you have been tempted to believe that you have one. The intellect is vain, conceited, self-idolatrous, fond of invention, pleased with its own discoveries, overjoyed with little toys of its own making and preservation. It was through the intellect that the devil wrought all his mischief; he made no appeal to the heart, he said, God said you may not eat of every tree of the garden; if you were to eat of the tree that is forbidden you would be what? wise, intellectual. Not a word was addressed to the region of the soul in which lie all the holy elements of obedience, love, loyalty, trust, expectancy of fellowship and communion with the divine heart. You know what it is to be importuned by the head on the one side and the heart on the other. The heart will go farther than the head; the head will sometimes say, Now I am nearly exhausted, and I must lie down. The heart never gives in. The heart says, We will find him over the next sea. The intellect says, I cannot go upon any more seas. The heart says, Then I will go alone. The heart never tires; the heart says, There is yet more to be seen than we have beheld, I will sit up all night; go, thou laggard intellect, and lie down and rest thee, and talk thy nightmare; I will spend all the darkness in seeking some new star. The heart is the last to give up; it cannot relinquish its quest, when it is once self-assured that God may at any moment appear with deliverance and redemption and sanctification. Believe the heart; follow your best impulses; do not be chaffed out of your piety by being called fantastic, romantic, enthusiastic. They are bad men who know the measure of God and the measure of piety, and who carry about their religion as they would carry about an outer garment. Your religion is not to be outside of you, an imposition to be carried either by head or heart; it is to be part of yourself wrought into the very tissue of the soul, so that you shall live and move and have your being in God: a marvellous, but under the mighty energy of the Holy Ghost a quite possible, absorption.
We have often had occasion to remark, in going through this People’s Bible, that close communion with God, real fellowship with the heart of things, reduces nature to very small dimensions. In proportion as we are out of God nature appears to us to be simply infinite. We have to get rid of that fallacy before we can begin to pray. You must see, as science teaches us, that the greatest comet that ever alarmed the nations could be put into a thimble. You must overget the imposing hypocrisy of nature. In proportion as men grow in grace they rise above nature, they dominate nature, they look down upon it. Travelling up to God, inquiring for God, they wonder and say, “When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; what is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?” but when they get really into sympathy with God as revealed in Christ, even a fisherman can say, “The heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat.” In proportion as we rise into the higher poetry, we dismiss “the cloud-capp’d towers, the gorgeous palaces, the solemn temples, the great globe itself,” and say that they shall be dissolved, and like the baseless fabric of a vision, “leave not a rack behind.” When you find a man who is frightened by nature, and feels that he has a whole solar system to carry somewhere, you find a man who has not begun really to say, “Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.” The man who says that looks upon nature, so far as magnitude, pomp, majesty are concerned, with contempt. He who has seen the king and who loves the king cares next to nothing for the chariot in which he rides. When we have seen God with our hearts and felt his power and answered the appeals of his love, we say, Come down to us, though thou dissolve the solar system and melt the mountains that affright us by their shadows; come through the nature thou hast made, and claim our poor hearts as thy dwelling-place.
Do not think that God has built himself out of his own universe. Curious notions prevail respecting God in this matter. The general conception of theological ignorance seems to be that God has pinioned himself hand and foot, and that he calls the pinions he has created and applied “the laws of nature.” The Christian conception is that God is greater than all. The Lord reigneth; he is King; the Most High hath his way in the heavens and in the great deep and to the ends of the earth; the morning is his gospel, the night is his benediction, and all the rolling seasons are revelations of his characteristics, and he can do what he will among the armies of heaven and among the children of men. He taketh up the isles as a very little thing; he weigheth the mountains in scales, and smiles at their so-called magnitude; and as for the great blue highway of the stars which we call the sky, it is a multiplied film, a bubble that he can blow into nothingness. Always avoid those people who are anxious to take care of the solar system. They are wondrously concerned about its system, and they would not for the world pray for a fine day because the solar system, as we have said, would have to be reconstructed if they got a fine day to visit their friends in. And they think that God is as much bound by the solar system as they are. What a God is theirs! a godless God, an uncrowned divinity, a divinity, indeed! a liar! Oh, rest in the Lord, wait patiently for him, and he shall give thee thine heart’s desire. To our present limitation the universe is indeed great, all the stars are points of glory; but when God has fully revealed his Son in us, and has taken us to view things from the right point, we shall see them as he does, and we shall find that God never can have anything above him. How great soever the universe, it is but a footstool.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
XXVII
THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST IN ISAIAH
The relation between the New Testament Christ and prophecy is that the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. To him give all the prophets witness. All the scriptures, the law, the prophets, and the psalms, testify of him. And we are fools, and slow of heart to credit adequate testimony when we distrust any part of the inspired evidence.
Of the ancient prophets Isaiah was perhaps the most notable witness of the coming Messiah. An orderly combination of his many messianic utterances amounts to more than a mere sketch, indeed, rather to a series of almost life-sized portraits. As a striking background for these successive portraits the prophet discloses the world’s need of a Saviour, and across this horrible background of gloom the prophet sketches in startling strokes of light the image of a coming Redeemer.
In Isa 2:2-4 we have the first picture of him in Isaiah, that of the effect of his work, rather than of the Messiah himself. This is the establishment of the mountain of the Lord’s house on the top of the mountains, the coming of the nations to it and the resultant millennial glory.
In Isa 4:2-6 is another gleam from the messianic age in which the person of the Messiah comes more into view in the figure of a branch of Jehovah, beautiful and glorious. In sketching the effects of his work here the prophet adds a few strokes of millennial glory as a consummation of his ministry.
In Isa 7:14 he delineates him as a little child born of a virgin, whose coming is the light of the world. He is outlined on the canvas in lowest humanity and highest divinity, “God with us.” In this incarnation he is the seed of the woman and not of the man.
The prophet sees him as a child upon whom the government shall rest and whose name is “Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Isa 9:6 ). This passage shows the divinity of Christ and the universal peace he is to bring to the world. In these names we have the divine wisdom, the divine power, the divine fatherhood, and the divine peace.
In Isa 11:1-9 the prophet sees the Messiah as a shoot out of the stock of Jesse, i.e., of lowly origin, but possessing the Holy Spirit without measure who equips him for his work, and his administration wrought with skill and justice, the result of which is the introduction of universal and perfect peace. Here the child is presented as a teacher. And such a teacher! On him rests the seven spirits of God. The spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge, and the fear of the Lord. He judges not according to appearances and reproves not according to rumors. With righteousness he judges the poor and reproves with equality in behalf of the meek. His words smite a guilty world like thunderbolts and his very breath slays iniquity. Righteousness and faithfulness are his girdle. He uplifts an infallible standard of morals.
In Isa 40:3-8 appears John the Baptist, whom Isaiah saw as a voice crying in the wilderness, preparing the way for the coming King.
In Isa 11:2 ; Isa 42:1 ; Isa 61:1-3 the prophet saw the Messiah as a worker in the power of the Spirit, in whom he was anointed at his baptism. This was the beginning of his ministry which was wrought through the power of the Holy Spirit. At no time in his ministry did our Lord claim that he wrought except in the power of the Holy Spirit who was given to him without measure.
In Isa 35:1-10 the Messiah is described as a miracle worker. In his presence the desert blossoms as a rose and springs burst out of dry ground. The banks of the Jordan rejoice. The lame man leaps like a hart, the dumb sing and the blind behold visions. The New Testament abounds in illustrations of fulfilment. These signs Christ presented to John the Baptist as his messianic credentials (Mat 11:1-4 ).
The passage (Isa 42:1-4 ) gives us a flashlight on the character of the Messiah. In the New Testament it is expressly applied to Christ whom the prophet sees as the meek and lowly Saviour, dealing gently with the blacksliding child of his grace. In Isa 22:22 we have him presented as bearing the key of the house of David, with full power to open and shut. This refers to his authority over all things in heaven and upon earth. By this authority he gave the keys of the kingdom to Peter one for the Jews and the other for the Gentiles who used one on the day of Pentecost and the other at the house of Cornelius, declaring in each case the terms of entrance into the kingdom of God. This authority of the Messiah is referred to again in Revelation:
And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as one dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying. Fear not: I am the first and the last, and the Living one; and I was dead, and behold I am alive for evermore and I have the keys of death and of Hades. Rev 7:17
And to the angel of the church in Philadelphis write: These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth and none shall shut, and shutteth and none openeth. Rev 3:7
In Isa 32:1-8 we have a great messianic passage portraying the work of Christ as a king ruling in righteousness, in whom men find a hiding place from the wind and the tempest. He is a stream in a dry place and the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.
In Isa 28:14-18 the Messiah is presented to w as a foundation stone in a threefold idea:
1. A tried foundation stone. This is the work of the master mason and indicates the preparation of the atone for its particular function.
2. An elect or precious foundation stone. This indicates that the stone was selected and appointed. It was not self-appointed but divinely appointed and is therefore safe.
3. A cornerstone, or sure foundation stone. Here it is a foundation of salvation, as presented in Mat 16:18 . It is Christ the Rock, and not Peter. See Paul’s foundation in 1 Corinthians:
According to the grace of God which was given unto me; as a wise masterbuilder I laid a foundation; and another buildeth thereon. But let each man take heed how he buildeth thereon. For other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 1Co 3:10-11 .
In Isa 49:1-6 he is presented as a polished shaft, kept close in the quiver. The idea is that he is a mighty sword. In Revelation, Christ is presented to John as having a sharp, twoedged sword proceeding out of his mouth.
In Isa 50:2 ; Isa 52:9 f.; Isa 59:16-21 ; Isa 62:11 we have the idea of the salvation of Jehovah. The idea is that salvation originated with God and that man in his impotency could neither devise the plan of salvation nor aid in securing it. These passages are expressions of the pity with which God looks down on a lost world. The redemption, or salvation, here means both temporal and spiritual salvation salvation from enemies and salvation from sin.
In Isa 9:1 f. we have him presented as a great light to the people of Zebulun and Naphtali. In Isa 49:6 we have him presented as a light to the Gentiles and salvation to the end of the earth: “Yea, he saith, It is too light a thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth.”
In Isa 8:14-15 Isaiah presents him as a stone of stumbling: “And he shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And many shall stumble thereon, and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken.”
The prophet’s vision of his maltreatment and rejection are found in Isa 50:4-9 ; Isa 52:13-53:12 . In this we have the vision of him giving his “back to the smiters, and his cheeks to them that plucked off the hair.” We see a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. His visage is so marred it startled all nations. He is a vicarious sacrifice. The chastisement of the peace of others is on him. The iniquity of others is put on him. It pleases the Father to bruise him until he has poured out his soul unto death as an offering for sin.
The teaching of Isaiah on the election of the Jews is his teaching concerning the “holy remnant,” a favorite expression of the prophet. See Isa 1:9 ; Isa 10:20-22 ; Isa 11:11 ; Isa 11:16 ; Isa 37:4 ; Isa 37:31-32 ; Isa 46:3 . This coincides with Paul’s teaching in Romans 9-11.
In Isa 32:15 we find Isaiah’s teaching on the pouring out of the Holy Spirit: “Until the Spirit be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness become a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be esteemed as a forest,” and in Isa 44:3 : “For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and streams upon the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring.”
In Isa 11:10 he is said to be the ensign of the nations: “And it shall come to pass in that day, that the root of Jesse, that standeth for an ensign of the peoples unto him shall the nations seek; and his resting place shall be glorious.”
Isa 19:18-25 ; Isa 54:1-3 ; Isa 60:1-22 teach the enlargement of the church. The great invitation and promise are found in Isa 55 .
The Messiah in judgments is found in Isa 63:1-6 . Here we behold an avenger. He comes up out of Edom with dyed garments from Bozra. All his raiment is stained with the blood of his enemies whom he has trampled in his vengeance as grapes are crushed in the winevat and the restoration of the Jews is set forth in Isa 11:11-12 ; Isa 60:9-15 ; Isa 66:20 . Under the prophet’s graphic pencil or glowing brush we behold the establishment and growth of his kingdom unlike all other kingdoms, a kingdom within men, a kingdom whose principles are justice, righteousness, and equity and whose graces are faith, hope, love, and joy, an undying and ever-growing kingdom. Its prevalence is like the rising waters of Noah’s flood; “And the waters prevailed and increased mightily upon the earth. And the water prevailed mightily, mightily upon the earth; and all the high mountains, that are under the whole heavens, were covered.”
So this kingdom grows under the brush of the prophetic limner until its shores are illimitable. War ceases. Gannenta rolled in the blood of battle become fuel for fire. Conflagration is quenched. Famine outlawed. Pestilence banished. None are left to molest or make afraid. Peace flows like a river. The wolf dwells with the lamb. The leopard lies down with the kid. The calf and the young lion walk forth together and a little child is leading them. The cow and the bear feed in one pasture and their young ones are bedfellows. The sucking child safely plays over the hole of the asp, and weaned children put their hands in the adder’s den. In all the holy realms none hurt nor destroy, because the earth is as full of the knowledge of the Lord as the fathomless ocean is full of water. Rapturous vision! Sublime and ineffable consummation! Was it only a dream?
In many passages the prophet turns in the gleams from the millennial age, but one of the clearest and best on the millennium, which is in line with the preceding paragraph, Isa 11:6-9 : “And the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together: and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of Jehovah, as the waters cover the sea.”
The prophet’s vision of the destruction of death is given in Isa 25:8 : “He hath swallowed up death for ever; and the Lord Jehovah will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the reproach of his people will he take away from all the earth: for Jehovah hath spoken it,” and in Isa 26:19 : “Thy dead shall live; my dead bodies shall arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust; for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast forth the dead.”
The clearest outlines of the prophet’s vision of “Paradise Regained” are to be found in Isa 25:8 , and in two passages in chapter Isa 66 : Rejoice ye with Jerusalem, and be glad for her, all ye that love her: rejoice for joy with her, all ye that mourn over her; that ye may suck and be satisfied with the breasts of her consolations; that ye may milk out, and be delighted with the abundance of her glory. For thus saith Jehovah, Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream: and ye shall suck thereof; ye shall be borne upon the side, and shall be dandled upon the knees, as one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you; and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem. And ye shall see it, and your heart shall rejoice, and your bones shall flourish like the tender grass: and the hands of Jehovah shall be known toward his servants ; and he will have indignation against his enemies. Isa 66:10-14
For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make shall remain before me, saith Jehovah, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith Jehovah. Isa 66:22-23
QUESTIONS
1. What is the relation between the New Testament Christ and prophecy?
2. What can you say of Isaiah as a witness of the Messiah?
3. What can you say of Isaiah’s pictures of the Messiah and their background?
4. Following in the order of Christ’s manifestation, what is the first picture of him in Isaiah?
5. What is the second messianic glimpse in Isaiah?
6. What is Isaiah’s picture of the incarnation?
7. What is Isaiah’s picture of the divine child?
8. What is Isaiah’s vision of his descent, his relation to the Holy Spirit, his administration of justice, and the results of his reign?
9. What is Isaiah’s vision of the Messiah’s herald?
10. What is the prophet’s vision of his anointing?
11. What is the prophet’s vision of him as a miracle worker?
12. What is the prophet’s vision of the character of the Messiah?
13. What is the prophet’s vision of him as the key bearer?
14. What is the prophet’s vision of him as a king and a hiding place?
15. What is the prophet’s vision of the Messiah as a foundation stone?
16. What is the prophet’s vision of him as a polished shaft?
17. In what passages do we find the idea of the salvation of Jehovah, and what the significance of the idea?
18. What is Isaiah’s vision of the Messiah as a light?
19. Where does Isaiah present him as a stone of stumbling?
20. What is the prophet’s vision of his maltreatment and rejection?
21. What is the teaching of Isaiah on the election of the Jews?
22. Where do we find Isaiah’s teaching on the pouring out of the Holy Spirit?
23. Where is he said to be the ensign of the nations?
24. What passages teach the enlargement of the church?
25. Where is the great invitation and promise?
26. Where is the Messiah in judgment?
27. What passages show the restoration of the Jews?
28. What is the prophet’s vision of the Messiah’s kingdom?
29. What is the prophet’s vision of the millennium?
30. What is the prophet’s vision of the destruction of death?
31. What is the prophet’s vision of “Paradise Regained?”
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
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 64:1 Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest come down, that the mountains might flow down at thy presence,
Ver. 1. Oh that thou wouldst rend the heavens. ] That thou wouldst lie no longer hid there, as to some it may seem; but making thy way through all impediments and obstacles, thou wouldst powerfully appear for our help, as out of an engine. Utinam lacerares coelos et descenderes. a Some take the words for a hearty wish that Christ would come in the flesh; others that he would make haste and come to judgment, late fisso coelo ad percellendum impios. The metaphor seemeth to be taken from such as being desirous suddenly and effectually to help others in distress, to break open doors, and cast aside all lets, to make their way to them.
That the mountains may flow down.
a Lyra. Alex. Ales.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Isaiah Chapter 64
This leads out the heart in still more earnestness. “Look down from heaven” suffices no more. “Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest come down – that the mountains might flow down at thy presence, as fire kindleth brushwood, [as] fire causeth the waters to boil – to make thy name known to thine adversaries, [that] the nations may tremble at thy presence! When thou didst terrible things we looked not for, thou tamest down, the mountains flowed down at thy presence. Ever since the beginning of the world they have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, a God besides thee, who will act for him that waiteth for him” (vv. 1-4).
It is interesting here to note the great difference for which the accomplishment of redemption gives occasion by the gift of the Holy Ghost. (Cp. 1Co 2:7-10 ) We see that God now does reveal the things He has prepared for them that love Him. We do not wait for the emergence of the great High Priest to know our blessedness; for while He is still in the holiest, the Holy Spirit, as the gospel teaches, has come out and given us to enter in as anointed of God and made free to go boldly within the veil. Indeed for us the veil is rent, and all things hidden are revealed. But Israel (and the prophet speaks of Israel) must wait till they see Him Whom their fathers so guiltily pierced, though undoubtedly their heart will be then converted to Jehovah-Messiah. They are born again but not in peace till they actually behold Him, and even then what searchings of heart, what self-reproach!
Hence we have in what follows the language of true repentance. “Thou meetest him that rejoiceth to work righteousness, [those that] remember thee in thy ways (behold, thou art wroth; for we have sinned): in those is perpetuity, and we shall be saved. But we are all as an unclean [thing], and all our righteousnesses as filthy rags; and we all fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. And there is none that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee; for thou hast hid thy face from us, and made us melt away through our iniquities But, now O Jehovah, thou [art] our father; we [are] the clay, and thou our potter; and we all [are] the work of thy hand. Be not wroth very sore, O Jehovah, neither remember iniquity for ever. Behold, see, we beseech thee, we [are] all thy people. Thy holy cities are a wilderness, Zion is a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation. Our holy and our beautiful house, where our fathers praised thee, is burned up with fire; and all our pleasant things are laid waste. Wilt thou refrain thyself for these [things], O Jehovah? wilt thou hold thy peace, and afflict us very sore?” (vv. 5-12).
The truth is that we must leave room in our faith for others to be blessed in the grace of God, when the saints called to a distinctively heavenly portion are no longer on earth. God will prepare Israel, His firstborn son here below, to be His destined chief among all the families of the earth, whom He will surely bless according to promise, and in honour of His Only-begotten Son. And thus it is that the Jew must, after his long and varied failure, undergo so searching a spiritual process to fit him for his assigned post as the most honoured nation. For this he is kept now, the standing witness (in spite of his present heart-unbelief) of divine chastening, in order to obtain mercy in “that day,” when he renounces self-confidence, confesses his sins unreservedly in truth, and hails in Jehovah’s name Him Whom heretofore he slew by the hand of lawless men. It was a grand discovery for faith, that Jehovah’s honour was concerned in their blessing; and that the desolation touched Him at least as much as them, though the sins were theirs and the grace was His.
There is a remarkable form of expression in the Hebrew of ver. 9, where the substantive verb occurs and is repeated, contrary to the well-known Hebrew usage which ordinarily omits it. As its insertion cannot be without a sufficient reason, we are entitled to infer that the revealing Spirit had in His mind by the preterite form employed a continuous state of desolation from a past act of judgement. This entirely agrees with the facts, not so much of the Babylonian infliction but of the more permanent ruin which followed the destruction by the Romans. For God was marking His sense, not only of the national defection of His people in idolatry, but of the returned remnant’s still more heinous and fatal rejection of the Messiah. All hope therefore turns on His mercy and faithfulness to His gifts and calling. All must be vain, unless Jehovah rent the heavens and came down in the person of Him Who had already come to suffer for all their iniquities and all their transgressions in all their sins, banishing and effacing their guilt for ever. This, we know from other scriptures, He will assuredly do for His own great name, and in virtue of the atonement already effected.
Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Isa 64:1-7
1Oh, that You would rend the heavens and come down,
That the mountains might quake at Your presence-
2As fire kindles the brushwood, as fire causes water to boil-
To make Your name known to Your adversaries,
That the nations may tremble at Your presence!
3When You did awesome things which we did not expect,
You came down, the mountains quaked at Your presence.
4For from days of old they have not heard or perceived by ear,
Nor has the eye seen a God besides You,
Who acts in behalf of the one who waits for Him.
5You meet him who rejoices in doing righteousness,
Who remembers You in Your ways.
Behold, You were angry, for we sinned,
We continued in them a long time;
And shall we be saved?
6For all of us have become like one who is unclean,
And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment;
And all of us wither like a leaf,
And our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.
7There is no one who calls on Your name,
Who arouses himself to take hold of You;
For You have hidden Your face from us
And have delivered us into the power of our iniquities.
Isa 64:1 The first two lines are labeled as Isa 63:19 in the MT. There is a series of PERFECT VERBS from Isa 63:18 through Isa 63:19.
YHWH, who lives on high, rends (Qal PERFECT, BDB 902, KB 1146, cf. Isa 34:4; Rev 6:14) the atmosphere of the earth (i.e., heavens, cf. Gen 1:1).
As the creator approaches the creation quakes (Niphal PERFECT, BDB 272, KB 272 [this form occurs only here and Jdg 5:5, which is Deborah’s praise/psalm of the defeat of Hazor and its army], cf. Isa 64:2; Psa 18:7-15; Psa 68:8; Psa 77:18; Psa 144:5)
For heavens see Special Topic below.
SPECIAL TOPIC: HEAVEN
Isa 64:2 fire See Special Topic: Fire .
Notice the purpose of YHWH is that His name be known and that the nations tremble (hopefully in repentance, cf. Psa 99:1-5; Jer 33:9).
Isa 64:3
NASB, NKJV,
NRSV, REBawesome things
TEVterrible things
NJBunexpected miracles
JPSOAwonders
The Hebrew word (BDB 431, KB 432, Niphal PARTICIPLE) literally means fear, but in this form it can denote the majestic, awesome miracles of YHWH on behalf of Israel (cf. Deu 10:21; 2Sa 7:23;
1Ch 17:21; Psa 66:3; Psa 66:5-6; Psa 106:22; Psa 145:6).
In Psa 139:14 several Hebrew words are used in parallel.
1. BDB 431 – fearful
2. BDB 811 and 810 – wonderful
See Special Topic below.
SPECIAL TOPIC: WONDERFUL THINGS
Isa 64:4 The interpretive question is to whom does the PRONOUN they refer.
1. national Israel
2. the faithful returnees
3. the nations (cf. Isa 64:2)
4. #2 and #3 together
a God besides you See Special Topic: MONOTHEISM .
Who acts. . . The word is works (Qal IMPERFECT, BDB 793, KB 889). This is the theological distinction between YHWH and the idols. They cannot see, hear, act, speak, but He can and does!
the one who waits for Him This describes the person of faith. He/she waits (Piel PARTICIPLE, BDB 314, KB 313). This word has the connotation of hoping, trusting, waiting of God (cf. Isa 8:17; Isa 30:18; Hab 2:3). Another root (BDB 875 I) is also translated wait, but often not as theologically significant (cf Isa 25:9; Isa 26:8; Isa 33:2; Isa 40:31; Psa 25:3; Psa 27:14; Psa 37:34; Psa 40:1; Psa 130:5; Pro 20:22).
Isa 64:5 You meet him who. . . The VERB (Qal PERFECT, BDB 803, KB 910) in this context denotes an encounter of/for fellowship and/or kindness.
Notice the kind of people YHWH meets with.
1. him who rejoices in doing righteous
2. him who remembers You in Your ways
These are parallel (see Appendix One: Hebrew Poetry).
Lines 3-5 ask a pertinent question. Israel is a covenant-breaking people. Can a sinful people be saved (i.e., delivered, BDB 446, KB 448)
1. from the physical consequences of sin
2. from the spiritual consequences of sin
I want to believe, Yes, yes, yes (cf. Isa 64:8-9)! But only divine mercy and grace (this chapter is a prayer for YHWH’s intervention) can do it (recommended translation of UBS Text Project, p. 164). The consequences of Genesis 3 are staggering and relentless.
However, in this context (i.e., Isa 64:4-7) this verse is not redemptive but condemnatory (Isa 64:8-12 are a cry for mercy). Israel sinned in the past and the present. If this is to be accepted as the meaning then the VERB delivered (, BDB 446, KB 448) must be changed to and we were evil (, UBS Text Project, p. 163; NET Bible, #16, p. 1283).
NASBWe continued in them a long time;
And shall we be saved?
NKJVIn these ways we continue’
And we need to be saved
NRSVBecause you hid yourself we transgressed
NJBnow we persist in your ways and we shall be saved
JPSOAWe have been steeped in them from of old
And can we be saved?
LXXtherefore we went away
The MT is uncertain. AB suggests an emendation involving two consonants which yields, we have long been rebels (p. 190).
Isa 64:6-7 Notice the consequences of sin.
1. all of us – scope of the problem (cf. Rom 3:9-18; Rom 3:23; Rom 11:32; Gal 3:22)
2. unclean (BDB 379)
3. our righteousness is a polluted garment (cloth of menstruation, BDB 723, cf. Lev 15:19-24)
4. wither (BDB 614, KB 663, Qal IMPERFECT, cf. Isa 1:30; Isa 34:4) like a leaf
5. the wind takes us away
6. none call on the name of the Lord (i.e., worship)
YHWH reacts to this tragedy of a sinful covenant people, meant to promote and clarify His own character.
1. He hid His face (cf. Isa 1:15; Isa 54:8; Deu 31:18)
2. He delivered us (MT melted, BDB 556, KB 555) into the power (i.e., consequences) of our iniquities (this is theologically parallel to Rom 1:24; Rom 1:26; Rom 1:28!)
These verses serve as a petition of confession. There is no reason why YHWH should forgive/forget, but He does (cf. Isa 55:6-7)! The new covenant is in view here (cf. Jer 31:31-34; Eze 36:22-38). YHWH will deal with them (i.e., Israel) and with all humans in a new way based on His character, His acts, His purposes, and through His Son and Spirit!
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
Oh, &c. Figure of speech Euche. Isa 64is joined to Isa 63by the Massoretic pointing.
flow down = quake. The reference is to Sinai in these verses. Compare Psa 68:7, Psa 68:8. Jdg 5:4, Jdg 5:5.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Chapter 64
Oh that you would rend the heavens, that you would come down, and that the mountains might flow down at thy presence, As when the melting fire burns, the fire causes the waters to boil, and makes thy name known to thine adversaries, that the nations may tremble at thy presence! When you did awesome things which we looked not for, you came down, and the mountains flowed down at thy presence. For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waits for him ( Isa 64:1-4 ).
Now he’s praying, “God, why don’t You manifest Yourself like You did in the past? When people saw Your power, the glory of Your power?” Now God is. In the thirty-eighth chapter of the book of Ezekiel when God speaks of His fury rising in His face to destroy the invading Russian army as they come into Israel, He said, “And I will be sanctified before the nations of the earth and they will know that I am God when I have destroyed thee, O Gog”( Eze 38:16 ). So God once more will move. Now in prayer Isaiah is praying for this day that God would move once again. Come and let the mountains flow down before His presence. The awesome things that He did and He will do them again. Now verse Isa 64:4 , “For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside Thee, what You have prepared for him who waits for You.” Oh, the things that God has prepared for those that just wait on Him.
Our problem is that we don’t wait on God. We get so impatient. We want to see things done. Like Abraham, we know what God wants to do and so we go about to help God out. And that’s always tragic. Oh, the things that God has prepared for those that wait. You remember Paul said something like this in Corinthians, and no doubt he was making reference to this passage here in Isaiah, for Paul said, “As the scriptures saith, ‘Eye hath not seen, ear hath not heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, the things that God has prepared for those that love Him.’ But He has revealed them unto us by His Spirit” ( 1Co 2:9-10 ). Paul’s talking about the natural man, the spiritual man. The natural man doesn’t understand anything about the Spirit. He doesn’t know the things of the Spirit. He can’t know the things of the Spirit because they’re spiritually discerned. Yet he which is spiritual understands all things, though he is not understood. But in talking about the contrast between the natural man and the spiritual man, he says, “The eyes have not seen, ears have not heard; neither has it entered into the hearts of man the things that God has prepared for those that love Him.” But God has begun to reveal them unto us by His Spirit.
Paul prayed for the Ephesians that God would grant unto them the spirit of wisdom and understanding that they might know what is the hope of their calling. Oh, if you only knew what God has in store for us as His children. If you only knew the glory of the kingdom. It is so marvellous, it is so beyond anything that we in our own imaginations could conceive or devise. It is so glorious that when Paul got a little view of the thing, got a little taste of it, taken up into the third heaven and there heard these glorious things that were so marvellous it would be a crime to try to describe them in human language. And it was so glorious that Paul said, “It was necessary that God give to me a thorn in the flesh to keep me on the ground lest I be exalted above measure because of these revelations that were given unto me. It was just so fantastic I just… God had to keep me on the ground and I just… live in that heavenly vision and realm.” So because of the abundance of Lord’s revelation, because it’s so glorious, this old thorn in the ground to just remind me I’m still human. But that desire from then on. I have a desire to depart and to be with Christ which is far better. And that yearning. If you only knew the things that God has prepared.
Now God has begun to reveal them to us by His Spirit. But yet Paul’s prayer, “That you might have the spirit of wisdom and understanding, that you might know what is the hope of your calling.” If you only knew what God had for you, you couldn’t be happy or satisfied with these worldly things anymore. You like Paul would just… People say, “You’re so heavenly-minded, you’re no earthly good.” Well, I’ve never yet met that person, in all honesty. I think that we’re too earthly-minded to be any heavenly good, for the most part. I wish we were more heavenly-minded. I wish that we were more looking towards what God has prepared for those that love Him, because then our perspective would be better, as far as the things of the world, and we wouldn’t get so deeply involved in the things that are going to perish. But we would be more involved in those things that are eternal. “We look not,” Paul said, “at the things which are seen. For the things which are seen are temporal. But we look at those things which cannot be seen, for they are eternal” ( 2Co 4:18 ). We have our eyes upon the unseen; the things of the Spirit is revealed of God’s glorious kingdom. Oh, you get restless in this world in which you live and you just want to keep a light touch on the earth. “For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside Thee, what He has prepared for those that wait on Him.” Oh God, help us to just wait on Him.
Continuing his prayer:
You meet him that rejoices and works righteousness, those that remember thee in thy ways: behold, thou art angry; for we have sinned: in those is continuance, and we shall be saved. But we are all as an unclean thing, for all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away ( Isa 64:5-6 ).
Now he is not trying to justify himself before God, which we so often do in our prayers. Many a time in our prayers, our prayers are an attempt to explain to God why we’re so rotten, to justify ourselves. Like Adam, “Lord, the woman that You gave me to be my wife. That’s my problem, Lord.” And we’re trying to justify ourselves, laying the blame somewhere else. The Bible says, “He that seeks to justify himself will not be cleansed, but whoso confesseth his sin shall be forgiven” ( Pro 28:13 ). Now if you’ll notice in Daniel’s prayer, and we’ll get there in a few months, Daniel also confessed the sin and the sin of the people. “Lord, You’re righteous in what You have done. We are at fault. We are guilty, God.” And it is important when we come to God that we come open-faced and open-handed. “God, I’m guilty!” And put yourself on the mercy of God rather than through your prayers trying to explain to God all of the extenuating circumstances that caused you to do your transgression. God is not interested in that. He’s only interested in the confession of guilt. “Lord, we’re wrong. God, we have sinned. And all of our righteousnesses are as filthy rags in Thy sight.”
I look at man, poor man, parading about in his righteousnesses. “Well, I do my best to do unto others as I would have them to do unto me. I give to the Red Cross and I give to the United Fund and I spend an hour a week in my charitable activities.” And men try to clothe themselves in their little good deeds. And they parade around in such pomp and all in their good deeds. They get their pictures in the paper doing their good deeds. God says it’s all filthy rags. It stinks. Our righteousnesses.
Now Paul the apostle said, “If any man has whereof to boast in his own works, in the law, I have more than the rest of you. You want to be righteous by keeping the law? Hey, I’ve got you beat hands down. See, I was a Jew. I was circumcised the eighth day. I’m from the tribe of Benjamin. I was a Pharisee. I was very zealous concerning the law. In fact, as far as the righteousness which is of the law, I was perfect. I’ve done it all. Yet those things which were gain to me I counted loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ for whom I suffer the loss of all things but count them but refuse that I may know Him and be found in Him. Not having my own righteousness which is of the law but having now the righteousness which is of Christ through faith.” My righteousness is as filthy rags.
But in Revelation chapter 17, again, he sees the bride adorned for her husband and she is clothed in fine linen, pure and clean. And the fine linen is the righteousness of the saints. I’m clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ which God has imputed to me by my faith in Jesus Christ. And that’s what Paul was talking about. I took off my old rags. That which was gain to me, as far as the law was concerned, is refuse. It’s stinky. I want to be found clothed in the righteousness which is of Christ through faith. The new robes of righteousness that I have in Christ. So here, our righteousnesses are as filthy rags in God’s sight.
And there is none that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee: for thou hast hid thy face from us, and hast consumed us, because of our iniquities. But now, O LORD, thou art our Father; we are the clay, and thou art our potter ( Isa 64:7-8 );
Three times in the Bible the figure of the potter and the clay are used to describe the sovereignty of God in His relationship with man. Jeremiah, and Paul the apostle uses the same figure. Paul uses it in emphasizing the sovereignty of God and says, “Can the clay say to the potter, ‘Hey, how come you put that shape in me? I don’t like that.’ No, the clay has no power over what it’s going to be. That’s all in the hands and the mind of the potter. He has total sovereignty over the clay.” Now that could be very frightening if you didn’t know the potter. But because I know the Potter, I know that whatever He wants to make of me is the best for me. I have absolute confidence in the Potter. To yield myself to Him, because the only way I can discover what is in the Potter’s mind is by yielding to the Potter. So, “Thou art the Potter, we’re the clay.”
and we all are the work of thy hand. Be not angry very sore, O LORD, neither remember iniquity for ever: behold, see, we beseech thee, we are all thy people. Thy holy cities are a wilderness, Zion is a wilderness, Jerusalem is a desolation. Our holy and our beautiful house, where our fathers praised thee, is burned up with fire: and all our pleasant things are laid waste. Wilt thou refrain thyself for these things, O LORD? will you hold thy peace, and afflict us very sore? ( Isa 64:8-12 ) “
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
Isa 64:1-2. Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest come down, that the mountains might flow down at thy presence, as when the melting fire burneth,
Or, much better, as when the brushwood burneth; for if God does but come to his people, they are ready to catch the flame, like the dry heather which is soon ablaze; and his enemies also shall be like brushwood before the fire.
Isa 64:2-3. The fire causeth the waters to boil, to make thy name known to thine adversaries, that the nations may tremble at thy presence! When thou didst terrible things which we looked not for, thou comest down, the mountain flowed down at thy presence.
O Lord, come again! Thou didst come in the past; repeat thy former acts, and let us see what thou canst do for the avenging of thy people.
Isa 64:4. For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him.
God is ready to help. He has everything in preparation before our needs begin. He has laid in supplies for all our wants. Before our prayers are presented, he has prepared his answers to them; blessed be his name! You remember how Paul uses this passage, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit. The spiritual man is a privileged man.
Isa 64:5. Thou meetest him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness, those that remember thee in thy ways:
God does not wait for us to return to him. He meets us. He comes to us the moment that we turn our feet towards his throne. While we are, like the prodigal, a great way off, he sees us, and has compassion upon us, and runs to meet us.
Isa 64:5. Behold, thou art wroth; for we have sinned: in those is continuance ,and we shall be saved.
In thy faithfulness, in thy love, in thyself, in thy ways of mercy there is continuance. This is our safety. What are we? Here is the answer:
Isa 64:6. But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.
It is not a flattering picture that the prophet draws. Even our righteousnesses are like filthy rags, fit only for the fire; what must our righteousnesses be like? We, ourselves, are like the sere leaves on the trees; and just as the wind carries away the faded leaves of autumn, so our sins, like a mighty blast, carry us away.
Isa 64:7-8. And there is none that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee:
That is a wonderful description of prayer. When a man rouses himself from sinful lethargy, and stirs himself up to take hold of God in prayer, he will become an Israel, a prince prevailing with God.
Isa 64:8. For thou hast hid thy face from us, and hast consumed us, because of our iniquities. But now, O Lord, thou art our father;
Adoption does not come to an end because of sin. Regeneration or sonship does not die out; it cannot die out. I am my fathers son, and so I always shall be; and if I am my heavenly Fathers son, I shall never cease to be so.
Now, O Lord, thou art our Father! This truth must not be perverted into an argument for sinning; it ought rather to keep us from sinning, lest we should grieve such wondrous love.
Isa 64:8-12. We are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand. Be not wrath very sore, O Lord, neither remember iniquity for ever: behold, see, we beseech thee, we are all thy people. The holy cities are a wilderness, Zion is a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation. Our holy and our beautiful house, where our fathers praised thee, is burned up with fire: and all our pleasant things are laid waste. Wilt thou refrain thyself for these things, O Lord? Wilt thou hold thy peace, and afflict us very sore?
The prophet touches the minor key, and weeps and wails for the sorrows of his people; but he does not neglect to pray. In the next chapter God breaks out, and says, I am sought of them that asked not for me; I am found of them that sought me not. How much more quickly is he found of them who do seek him! Verily, God does hear prayer; and he will hear prayer; let us not cease to pray to him as we look round on the sad state of the professing church at this time, and with Isaiah let us cry, Wilt thou refrain thyself for these things, O Lord? Wilt thou hold thy peace, and afflict us very sore?
This exposition consisted of readings from Isaiah 63-64
Fuente: Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible
Isa 64:1-7
Isa 64:1-4
This chapter is a continuation of the previous one, containing a prayer, which McGuiggan called, “a half-hearted confession and prayer, which Cheyne identified as the “prayer of the prophet in the name of the captive nation, and which Barnes criticized as being concerned more with, “God’s execution of wrath upon his foes, rather than with his conferring blessings upon his people. The fact of this prayer having been composed in the times of the prophet Isaiah would, it seems to us, favor the view of Cheyne. That being the case, we should understand the prayer as altogether sincere.
“All this is seen in vision; and, though a hundred fifty years would occur before it would be realized, yet, according to the prophetic manner, he described the scene as actually passing before him.
Isa 64:1-4
“Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest come down, that the mountains might quake at thy presence, as when fire kindleth the brushwood, and the fire causeth the waters to boil; to make thy name known to thine adversaries, that the nations may tremble at thy presence? When thou didst terrible things which we looked not for, thou camest down, the mountains quaked at thy presence. For from of old men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen a God besides thee, who worketh for him that waiteth for him.”
Isaiah’s prayer here calls for nothing less than a recurrence of the great wonders that accompanied the Exodus from Egypt. It could be that the prophet supposed God would require the same type of wonderful miracles in the deliverance of the captives from Babylon. At any rate, that is exactly what he requested here.
“That the mountains might quake …” (Isa 64:1). This is a reference to what happened at Sinai.
“When thou didst terrible things …” (Isa 64:3). The last two words here are, “A standing phrase, as in Deu 10:21,2Sa 7:23, and Psa 106:22, for the wonders of the Exodus.”
Isa 64:4 stresses the unique nature of God’s care for Israel and the scope of the wonders God wrought upon her behalf. “Nowhere else among men had there ever been such blessings imparted, such happiness enjoyed, or so many proofs of love and affection, as for the benefit of Israel.”
“Neither hath the eye seen …” (Isa 64:4). Lowth noted that commentators generally suppose that Paul was quoting from this passage in 1Co 2:9, adding that, “It seems very difficult, if not impossible, to reconcile them.”
All such suggestions, implying that Paul garbled, misquoted, or otherwise erred in such alleged quotations are based upon a common error, noted frequently in comments on Paul’s writings. As an inspired, plenary apostle of Christ, Paul was not “quoting” Scripture at all here, he was “writing” Scripture. What was more natural than that some of the phraseology of earlier prophecies should also occur in his own? The purpose of Paul in 1Co 2:9 was utterly unlike that of Isaiah here. Isaiah was saying that “eye had not seen,” etc. and the things God had already done for Israel. Paul was speaking of the wonderful things that “eye had not seen,” etc. the wonderful things that God had laid up in the future for them that love him. There also are a number of instances of this same error on the part of commentators which we have cited in the New Testament. It would be well to keep this in mind every time one encounters an allegation that Paul “misquoted” some passage of Scripture!
Isa 64:5-7
“Thou meetest him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness, those that remember thee in thy ways: behold, thou wast wroth, and we sinned, in them have we been of long time; and shall we be saved? For we are all become as one that is unclean, and all our righteousnesses are as a polluted garment: and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. And there is none that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee; for thou hast hid thy face from us, and hast consumed us by means of our iniquities.”
Isa 64:5 in the very oldest manuscripts of the Hebrew text is damaged to the point of its being impossible to know exactly what is meant by it. There is little or no reason to trust the emendations that have produced the various statements printed here in recent versions as the last half of the verse. The first part of the verse is clear enough. God will accept and bless those who work righteousness.
“All our righteousnesses are as a polluted garment …” (Isa 64:6). This is inferior to the KJV which has, “All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.” “The word rendered `garment’ or `rags’ here has the literal meaning of “vestis menstruis polluta”, that is, a soiled cloth of the type used by women in their monthly periods. The reference could not be to “garments,” but to “rags.”
“There is none that calleth upon thy name …” (Isa 64:7). “This is hyperbole, emphasizing the general apathy that had come over all the people.
Isa 64:1-3 CRY: The complaint of the preceding passage begins to turn toward a cry of desperation which leads to a confession. The remnant is gradually coming to the attitude God is able to use in His messianic program. Now the cry is that Jehovah will tear an opening in the impenetrable black cloud that is standing in the way of His seeing their predicament and come down to help them. They are begging God to come in direct intervention as He did for their ancestors. God presented Himself as directly as He dared to Isaiah in His theophany in the temple (cf. Isa 6:1 ff). Why could the people not accept Isaiahs testimony to that direct appearance and trust Him to deliver them from the impending captivity? For the same reason men and women today demand a physical appearance from God before they will believe when there is sufficient testimony to His incarnation in the New Testament!
The anticipation of Jehovahs appearance is couched in the experiences of their ancestors-mountains quaking, fire burning, waters boiling, nations trembling, (cf. Exo 19:16 ff; Psa 144:5; Deu 32:22; Jdg 5:4-5; Mic 1:3-4; Heb 1:4-6; Heb 3:3; Heb 3:15; Psa 18:8-16, etc.). Should God appear directly He would consume the whole material universe (cf. Heb 12:18-21; 18:25-29). Instead of coming in His consuming Presence, He sent His Son to give the world a saving Presence. So when the people give more thought to what such a direct intervention of Jehovah would bring, they are moved to cry, O, Jehovah, if You came down thus You would do awe-inspiring deeds and wonders that not even we could anticipate! Should Jehovah appear on earth it would be overwhelming-no human language could express it, no human being could guess what it would be like! The great apostle Paul was caught up into the third heavens and saw things it was impossible for human language to describe (cf. 2Co 12:1-4).
Isa 64:4-7 CONFESSION: At last, the remnant, after contemplating the awesome holiness of Jehovah and His unsearchable power, confesses its sin and prepares to be clay in the Potters hand (cf. Isa 64:8). First, there is the confession of the uniqueness of Jehovahs revelation of Himself and His relationship to those who wait (or trust) in Him. The people are at last testifying that Jehovah is quite unlike the idols. In fact, no one in all the world is able to know the mind, Spirit, deeds, person-hood of Jehovah unless Jehovah chooses to reveal Himself. And even then, man can know only as much of Gods mind as He chooses to reveal through His appointed spokesmen (prophets and apostles, etc.). This is the sense in which the apostle Paul quoted Isa 64:4 in 1Co 2:9. The nature of the living God is such that the human mind is incapable of discovering Him or inventing Him-man must humbly wait until God reveals Himself and man must humbly accept both the instrumentality by which and the extent to which God reveals Himself.
The uniqueness of Jehovah stands out in contrast to all pretended gods most apparently in His faithfulness to be constantly present with those who seek righteousness and remember (walk in) His ways. The holiness of Jehovah was unique in contrast to all the gods of the heathen. At last the people are admitting that Jehovah requires men to rejoice in and work righteousness to enjoy His presence. They have come confessing as Hosea (Hos 14:1-9) instructed their northern countrymen to do. This remnant of Isaiahs disciples has been brought to its confession through the preaching of the prophet concerning the atoning suffering of the Servant and the future glory of Zion. They will produce a progeny of faithful servants (by implanting Isaiahs message in their offspring) which will, in turn, bring the Messiah into the world (cf. Mat 1:18-25; Luk 1:24-56; Luk 1:67-80; Luk 2:1-52; Luk 4:14-30, etc.).
Once man has been confronted with a revelation of Jehovahs holiness and admits it, then he sees himself as he truly is, a sinner in need of Jehovahs saving grace (cf. Isa 6:5-6). The remnant here acknowledges it has been a long time in its sin and in need of Gods grace; else, how shall it be saved? They see their uncleanness. They now realize they are spiritually cut off from Jehovah because He is absolutely holy and they have defiled themselves and are no longer worthy to stand in His presence-even if He should come in answer to their prayer. This is quite different from the attitude expressed by some in Judah when they haughtily dared the Lord to come down and be present with them (cf. Isa 5:19). They see their uncleanness as a polluted garment using the figure of the ceremonial uncleanness of a woman at the time of her monthly period (cf. Eze 36:17; Lev 18:24-28). The Hebrew word tame is translated unclean and is the same word the leper is to cry out (Lev 13:45-46) indicating the confession here is a recognition of having been cut off from covenant relationship by their sin.
Not only are they experiencing the legal condemnation of their sin, they are also experiencing the psychological and social consequences of it. They are all withering and dying like leaves on a tree and their sin is tossing them about and blowing them away like the wind blows the fallen leaves. The tragedy of the situation is that sin is so pervasive in the nation, no one seems concerned enough to call upon the name of the Lord which involves taking hold of His word. Perhaps the none would be qualified by the fact that a few were calling on the Lord (Isaiah and the remnant). But there were so few Jehovah must still withhold His direct intervention (hid thy face from us) until the captivity comes and the nation is chastened and purified and a larger remnant is formed. The Hebrew word khazak is translated take hold but is usually more intense and translated hold fast as when Hagar was told to hold fast to Ishmael (Gen 21:18) or when Pharaoh was holding on to the Israelites (Exo 9:2). So now their sin is consuming them-they are suffering the due penalty of their sins (cf. Rom 1:28), and the nation as a whole does not turn to God and hold fast to Him for strength-it is going to be blown away into captivity.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
The praise and confession merge into a prayer in which the sore need of the people is first described, and then a cry full of intense anguish is lifted for the dawning of the day when Jehovah will act in judgment.
Again the prophet strengthens his own faith as he remembers how God had wrought on behalf of His people in the past. This memory of His faithfulness produces a new sense of their unfaithfulness, and he confesses sin and failure. Out of the midst of desolation and destruction he appeals to Jehovah to act on behalf of His people.
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
a Cry for Pardon
Isa 64:1-12
The great past, Isa 64:1-5. We are introduced to the prophets oratory and hear the outpourings of his heart. As he recalls the story of bygone days, he asks that God would do as He had done. It is as easy for God to rend the heavens as for us to tear a piece of cloth: and great mountains of difficulty dissolve before Him, as a pyramid of snow in a thaw. God works while we wait. When there is no sign of His help, He is hastening toward us. If you go out to meet Him, He will quicken His pace, and run to embrace you. These are Gods ways and in them there is everlasting continuance. See Mal 3:6.
Confession and prayer, Isa 64:6-12. The leper, the foul garment, the fading leaf fleeing before the autumn gusts-such emblems become us. If our righteousnesses are black, what must not our sins be! We need Him who comes not with water only, but with water and with blood. See 1Jn 5:6. Perhaps our greatest sin is our prayerlessness. We do not stir ourselves up to it. God cannot refrain His mercy, if we cannot refrain our tears!
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
EXPOSITORY NOTES ON
THE PROPHET ISAIAH
By
Harry A. Ironside, Litt.D.
Copyright @ 1952
edited for 3BSB by Baptist Bible Believer in the spirit of the Colportage ministry of a century ago
ISAIAH CHAPTER SIXTY-FOUR
THE HEART-CRY OF THE REMNANT
THE last three chapters of the book (chaps. 64, 65, 66) are all intimately linked together. In chapter sixty-four we have what might be called the heart cry, the prayer, of the remnant in the last days, whilst suitable for GOD’s people at any time of trial or affliction, who feel the need of divine intervention. In actual prophetic application it opens up to us the hearts of the people of Israel in the last days, suffering under the Beast and the Antichrist. They cry to the Lord to come down on their behalf.
“Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest come down, that the mountains might flow down at thy presence. As when the melting fire burneth, the fire causeth the waters to boil, to make thy name known to thine adversaries, that the nations may tremble at thy presence! When thou didst terrible things which we looked not for, thou camest down, the mountains flowed down at thy presence. For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him” (verses 1-4).
The Apostle Paul quoted these words from the Septuagint Version in the Epistle to the Corinthians, “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard. . . the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him” (1Co 2:9, 10). But he immediately adds, “But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit.”
An added revelation has been given, of which Isaiah knew nothing, something that GOD had reserved for a future day. People often quote the words as if they stand today as in Isaiah’s time. They forget Paul immediately gives the added revelation, “But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit . . . But we have the mind of Christ”” (verses 10, 16).
How fitting will be the cry for help on the lips and from the hearts of the exercised remnant of Israel in the last days. They call upon GOD to intervene, they see no help in man, as the nations are gathering together. GOD has said in the book of Zechariah, “I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle” (Zec 14:2). The remnant see that ominous gathering and cry, “O God, wilt Thou not intervene? Wilt Thou not rend the heavens and come down? Wilt
Thou not deal with these nations Thyself and give the deliverance for which our hearts crave?”
“But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. And there is none that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee: for thou hast hid thy face from us, and hast consumed us, because of our iniquities. But now, O Lord, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand” (verses 6-8).
The remnant take the place of confession, of self-judgment, of repentance before GOD, realizing that if GOD will undertake for them, they must take their rightful place in His presence. They know of the patience of GOD so often shown to Israel, so there is no self-justification. They do not ask GOD to intervene because of their merits or their faithfulness. They say, “Our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.” We understand why we and our fathers have been suffering through the centuries. “We are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.” It is not merely filth contracted by dragging garments in the streets, but contaminated by filth from within. They are all as an unclean thing because of the corruption of the heart. But they turn to GOD because He has promised definitely, “He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy” (Pro 28:13).
David cried out in Psa 25:11, “O Lord, pardon mine iniquity, for it is great.” “Great!” We might have expected him to say, if he had been like some of us, “O Lord, pardon mine iniquity, for after all it is not very great. I didn’t really mean to do wrong. I failed, but I am sorry, but I did not mean to be bad.” That is the way people talk today. But he says, “O Lord, pardon mine iniquity, for it is great.”
Only a great GOD can pardon great iniquity. And so the remnant here do not try to justify themselves, nor cover up, but make full, frank confession of their sin and iniquity and acknowledge that they have no righteousness of their own to plead. All their own fancied righteousnesses are but contaminated rags in the sight of a holy GOD. When we take this attitude we may count on GOD’s answer in blessing.
~ end of chapter 64 ~
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Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets
Isa 64:1-2
I. This is nothing less than a prayer that God would manifest Himself as a Judge-yes, and as a Destroyer. Isaiah craved for a man who should deliver men from the oppressions of the world’s tyranny, from the storms which are raised by the passions of peoples and rulers, from the weariness and exhaustion which follow when they have accomplished their projects with great labour, and nothing comes out of them. All the misery which they cause springs, so the prophet thinks, from their assuming to be gods themselves, and from the disbelief which they cherish, and which they generate in a God who is altogether unlike them, whose ways are not their ways, whose purposes are not their purposes. And what he longed for was that the true man should appear, who would thoroughly manifest the ways and purposes of the true God, who would remove the thick veil which had intercepted His light from reaching His creatures, who would make them know that He was present with them, that He was ruling them and judging them. To long then for a man who should be a hiding-place from the tempest and a covert from the storm or heat, was the very same thing as to long that God would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains would flow down at His presence.
II. There is a natural heart in all of us which is averse from this prayer, which would rather utter any prayer than this. And there is a natural religion which adapts itself to these cravings of ours, and supplies them with a language. To keep God at a distance from men is the end which it proposes to itself; to convert all persons who perform its offices, all prayers and dogmas, into barriers more or less secure against His appearing, and His vengeance, is its art. This religion expresses all different feelings of men, in different conditions of disease. It does not express the one common feeling of men, to be raised out of their diseases, to be made whole. It has no language for the infinite craving after God, the intense longing to be brought face to face with Him-to encounter all His vengeance rather than be separated from Him-which dwells in every man. The universal prayer-the prayer that goes up from the whole heart of humanity-is this of Isaiah’s.
III. The prophet had been disciplined to understand that man does not require to be protected against God, but that God should protect him against himself, and should raise him out of the slavery which he invents for himself. Thus did he learn to rejoice, even while he trembled, at the convulsions in the outward world, or in human society. Thus did he understand that by all such signs God was avenging the cause of the poor, of those who had no helper, was shaking kings on their thrones, was surprising the hypocrites. Thus was Isaiah made into the evangelical prophet, the witness that unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given, who can be a covert from the tempest, because He is both the Son of man and the Son of God; because God appearing in Him does indeed rend the heavens and come down.
F. D. Maurice, Sermons, vol. vi., p. 179.
References: Isa 64:3.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxvi. No. 1538; Isa 64:4.-H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit, No. 2466.; J. Keble, Sermons for Sundays after Trinity, Part I., p. 212.
Isa 64:6
I. Notice, first, the very pernicious fact of our inaptitude to feel and reflect that our mortal condition is fading. (1) We are very unapt to recognise the common lot and destiny of all human life-that it is to fade and is fading. The vast world of the departed is out of our sight-even what was the material and visible part. What is constantly in our sight is the world of the living, and we are unapt to think of them as all appointed not to be living. And we may note a circumstance which aids the deception, namely, that the most decayed and faded portion of the living world is much less in sight than the fresh and vigorous. “Out of sight, out of mind” in a great degree. (2) We are very prone to forget our own destiny, even while we do recognise the general appointment to fade and vanish. We have some unaccountable power and instinct to dissociate ourselves from the general condition and relationship of humanity. (3) We are apt to regard life much more as a thing that we positively possess, than as a thing that we are losing, and in a train to cease possessing.
II. Notice a few of those monitory circumstances which verify this our declining state. (1) How many successive generations of men have faded and vanished since the text itself was written? (2) To a reflective mind, the constant, inevitable progress towards fading would appear very much related to it. One has looked sometimes on the flowers of a meadow which the mower’s scythe was to invade next day:-perfect life and beauty as yet,-but to the mind they have seemed already fading through the anticipation. (3) But there are still more decided indications of decay. There are circumstances that will not let us forget whereabouts we are in life; feelings of positive infirmity, diminished power of exertion, grey hairs, failure of sight, slight injuries to the body far less easily repaired. Let us not absurdly turn from this view of life because it is grave and gloomy, but dwell upon it, often and intensely, for the great purpose of exciting our spirits to a victory over the vanity of our present condition; to gain from it, through the aid of the Divine Spirit, a mighty impulse toward a state of ever-living, ever-blooming existence beyond the sky.
J. Foster, Lectures, 1st series, p. 245.
I. Isaiah forms a most correct estimate of our condition upon earth, because we are all frail like the leaf.
II. The prophet’s reminder marks the certainty of our approaching death.
III. The metaphor reminds us of the uncertainty of the time when death may come.
IV. The lesson of our gradual decay is set forth in the falling leaf.
V. The text suggests the renovation which will follow our decay.
W. N. Norton, Every Sunday, p. 447.
References: Isa 64:6.-Spurgeon, Evening by Evening, p. 303; S. Randall, Literary Churchman Sermons, p. 236; Pulpit Analyst, vol. ii., p. 454; Outline Sermons to Children, p. 102; A. F. Barfield, Christian World Pulpit, vol. iv., p. 150; F. Wagstaff, Ibid., vol. vi., p. 232; E. D. Solomon, Ibid., vol. xxiv., p. 296. Isa 64:6-8.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. viii., No. 437. Isa 64:7.-G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 229; J. F. Haynes, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xvi., p. 314; J. P. Gledstone, Ibid., vol. xvii., p. 89; Homiletic Magazine, vol. ix., p. 204; Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxiii., No. 1377.
Isa 64:8
I. How does the Potter use and convert the clay? (1) It is clear that the clay must be purified. The blood of Jesus Christ passes over it, mingles with it, and it is pure. (2) And so God proceeds to shape and remake it. We are all of the same clay, and we are all made for one purpose, though in different ways and various degrees,-to glorify God: first, to hold His love, and then to communicate that love to others. (3) And then, thirdly, God stamps His own work with His own signet and His own image; it carries its own evidence in it that it is His. To every man’s own heart it carries it by a secret witness. To the world and to the Church it carries it, by a mark which characterises it,-a meekness, a love, a holiness, a humility, which cannot be mistaken.
II. In order that God may fashion us, it is plain that our self-renunciation must be complete and our faith must be clear. We must accept our own utter wretched nothingness, and we must have a distinct expectation that God can and will make us all our fondest hope ever grasped, or all our utmost imagination ever painted.
J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 8th series, p. 152.
Isa 64:8; Isa 33:22
God is related to each of us both as a Father and a King. The idea of a Father contains more prominently the sentiment of bountiful and tender cherishing, while that of a King contains more prominently that of regulation and control; and it is not till we have combined them that we can form an adequate conception of the relation in which He stands to us.
I. We should give the idea of God’s Fatherhood the first place in our meditations on His character, and not only begin with it, but carry it as the master-thought athwart all our other contemplations of Him, qualifying them with its influence. (1) Even a heathen could say, as an apostle has approvingly told us, “We are also His offspring.” How much more is it not incumbent that we make the acknowledgment with filial and confiding hearts-we who enjoy that clear revelation that God created man in His own image? What else does this import than that, above all His other works, He distinguished man by producing him as a son, with a nature resembling His own? Accordingly, He endowed him with a son’s prerogative-the dominion over all His inferior creation. (2) If God is our Father, we should have confidence in His lovingkindness.
II. Besides being a Father, God is a King. An earthly father’s administration of his family is a matter of privacy. Public interests are not concerned in it, and he may do with his own what pleases his humour. He may open his door and readmit the prodigal, even without any repentance and confession, if he choose. But God’s family being the public-the universal public of created moral intelligence,-though this does not affect the personal love of the administrator, yet does it materially affect the mode of the administration. The family of children has enlarged into a kingdom of subjects. The order of all good government of a kingdom is, that the violation of the laws shall be visited with penal suffering before there be a restoration to the privileges of citizenship. Shall the fatherly love of God, then, resign His rebel child as lost? Behold the mystery of our redemption. The paternity of God secures that His regal justice will accept of an adequate ransom, if such should be offered. The proclamation of the gospel is not so much the proclamation of a King, declaring that no man shall be saved except through faith in Christ’s sacrifice, as it is the earnest entreaty of a Father that His children should believe, so as to be saved.
W. Anderson, Discourses, 2nd series, p. 1.
References: 64-S. Cox, Expositions, 1st series, p. 118. Isa 65:1.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxii., No. 1919; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. i., p. 53.
Fuente: The Sermon Bible
Oh that: Psa 18:7-15, Psa 144:5, Psa 144:6, Mar 1:10, *marg.
that thou wouldest come: Isa 63:15, Exo 3:8, Exo 19:11, Exo 19:18, Exo 19:19, Mic 1:3, Mic 1:4, Hab 3:1-13
that the: Jdg 5:4, Jdg 5:5, Psa 46:6, Psa 68:8, Psa 114:4-7, Amo 9:5, Amo 9:13, Nah 1:5, Nah 1:6, 2Pe 3:10-12, Rev 20:11
Reciprocal: 2Sa 22:10 – bowed 1Ki 8:33 – pray Neh 4:14 – great Neh 9:13 – camest Job 14:18 – the mountain Psa 14:2 – The Lord Psa 83:14 – As the fire Psa 84:2 – heart Psa 97:5 – hills Psa 104:32 – he toucheth Psa 114:7 – Tremble Psa 148:9 – Mountains Son 4:16 – Awake Isa 10:17 – for a flame Isa 25:5 – shalt bring Isa 64:3 – the mountains Lam 3:50 – General Hab 3:2 – O Lord Hab 3:6 – the everlasting Hab 3:10 – mountains Zec 4:7 – O great Zec 14:4 – cleave Zec 14:5 – the Lord Act 7:34 – and am 2Pe 3:12 – melt
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Isa 64:1-2. O that thou wouldest rend the heavens This God is said to do, or to bow the heavens, and come down, when he gives a very signal display of his power. It is a metaphor taken from men who, when they would resolutely and effectually help a person in distress, break through every opposition and obstacle. That the mountains might flow down, &c. Or, melt; that all impediments might be removed out of the way. There seems to be an allusion to Gods coming down upon mount Sinai in those terrible flames of fire, Jdg 5:4-5. As when the melting fire burneth Come with such zeal for thy people that the solid mountains may be no more before thee than metal that runs, or water that boils by the force of a vehement fire; to make thy name That is, thy power; known to thine adversaries That thine enemies, who are also the enemies of thy people, may know thy power, and that thy name may be dreaded among them.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Isa 64:1. A new scene of prophetic events opens here, where the prophet in time of trouble cries the more in spirit to the Messiah. Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavensand come down. It is strikingly observable, that the promises of the Saviours coming were desired and renewed in times of affliction, and in war. Isa 7:9. Mic 4:5. Job 19:20-25. In Psalms 85. it is promised that righteousness shall look down from heaven, and truth shall spring out of the earth. So also in Isa 45:8. Drop down ye heavens from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness. No Jew, accounted orthodox, would dispute St. Pauls assertion: The second Adam is the Lord from heaven.
Isa 64:2. As when the melting fire burneth, the fire causeth the waters to boil. The lowest coal, as in Somerset and other places, is formed chiefly of sea-weeds, and melts in the fire. But the secondary coal, as at Dudley, Burslem, &c. is formed of timber, and burns as charcoal. The spiritual reference is to the zeal of the Lord, as on Sinai, to redeem, to save and avenge his people, and that in every age of the church, but especially in the great act of our redemption on the cross.
Isa 64:4. Men have not heard, nor perceived what God hath prepared for him that waiteth for him. In the creation the Lord had every possible plan before him, and he has always followed the best. So in regard of redemption, his counsel and love have laid up treasures for them that love him, far beyond all conception. 1Co 2:9. These are unfolded in the gospelin the grace in which believers standand in the glories of the heavenly kingdom.
Isa 64:5. Those that remember thee in thy ways. The rendering of this passage does great violence to theology. It seems to mean that we shall be saved, though we continue in sin, and under Gods wrath! Our translators were led into this error by a servile adherence to Montanus, and some other Latin versions; for they widely differ. Vide Biblia Maxima. Lowth renders the text well. Thou meetest those with joy, who work righteousness; who in thy ways remember thee. Lo, thou art angry because of our deeds, for we have sinned; we have been rebellious, and are all of us as a polluted thing, like a rejected garment are all our righteous deeds. Castellio reads this text as an interrogation. He understands the prophet as acknowledging that we have sinned in the Lords ways, and that the Lord was wroth; and then asks, How shall we be saved? Others would read, In those things we have sinned for a long time, and yet we have been saved. The present English version revolts the reader; he pauses to make conjectures concerning the sense.
REFLECTIONS.
This chapter cannot be restricted to the Jews in Babylon; the prophets were fully aware that the sentence of exile was for seventy years. Besides, the Romans burnt the temple, and laid the cities waste, as well as the Chaldees. Hence as the scriptures were designed to comfort the church at all times, we must regard the prophet as praying for the final restablishment of Zion, when she should no more be defiled.
Let us learn of him, fervently to pray for the glory of the church, accompanied by an abhorrence of our own righteousness, and an ample confession of all our sins. Let us learn to pray as they did, for a discovery of those secret things which eye hath not seen nor ear heard, but which the Lord hath prepared for them that love him. For as God delivered Israel from Egypt, by means unheard of and unknown before; and as he most singularly instructed the learned Greeks by plain apostles, so in the glory of the latter day he will show a thousand marvels in converting the gentile world, and in restoring his believing people, a remnant of Israel.
Let us also adore the goodness of God, in giving the holy prophets such clear views of his justice in the burning of Jerusalem for its wickedness, and the temple for being polluted with idols. They saw the city and sanctuary in flames, and spake of it to a scoffing people, to promote repentance and reformation.
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Isa 63:15 to Isa 64:9. A Fervent Prayer to Yahweh to Intervene again for His Children.The appeal rings like a litany, reminding Yahweh, who has withdrawn into His glorious heavenly palace, of His former compassion. To Abraham and Israel appeal has been made in vain (some approach to ancestor-worship seems to have been prevalent), but Yahweh is their father and redeemer. His severity has sent them wandering even further away, and hardened their heart so that they cannot fear Him, i.e. carry out the duties of religion. If only He would come back from His seclusion! Isa 63:18 is corrupt; regrouping of consonants and very slight changes give the excellent sense, Why do the wicked despise thy Holy House, our enemies desecrate thy Sanctuary? The allusion is not to a destruction, but a profanation, of the Temple by the pro-Samaritans, who refused to accept the new standard of religious practice, adhering tenaciously to old usages now regarded as heathenish. The strict party is left, through Yahwehs seclusion, as a shepherdless flock. If Yahweh would but manifest Himself in a glorious theophany (cf. Jdg 5:4 f.), rending the heavens and causing the mountains to shake, even as fire makes brushwood crackle and blaze or water boil over, that He might put the fear of God into His adversaries, and make the peoples tremble while He does terrible thingsthe term used of the marvels of the Exodusbeyond the hopes of His people or the experience of men! (Delete Isa 64:3 b, thou camest . . . presence an accidental repetition from Isa 63:1, and connect For from of old men have not heard with what precedes, changing For to and. On the basis of LXX the rest of Isa 63:4 may possibly be reconstructed, Ear hath not heard and eye hath not seen the deeds and exploits which thou wilt work for those who wait on thee.) Oh! that He would meet, i.e. be gracious to, those who work righteousness and remember His ways (cf. LXX). The remainder of this corrupt verse (cf. mg.) may read, Behold, thou wast wroth and we sinned, wroth at our doings, so that we became guilty.) For we have become like the unclean, our righteous deeds like a polluted garment: we are withered like leaves, and our iniquity (read sing.) has whirled us away like the wind. So that hardly one among us calls on Thy name (cf. Gen 4:26), or is zealous to lay hold on Thee, because Thou hast withdrawn Thy countenance from us and delivered us up to the power of our sins (mg.). We are the clay which Thou hast fashioned; destroy not Thy work by unrelenting anger (cf. Job 10:8-12). Look at us, we entreat Thee, we are Thy people!
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
64:1 O that thou wouldest {a} rend the heavens, that thou wouldest come down, that the mountains might flow down at thy presence,
(a) The prophet continues his prayer, desiring God to declare his love toward his Church by miracles and mighty power, as he did in mount Sinai.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The confession 64:1-7
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
The prophet called on God to make another appearance among His people, as He had done at Mt. Sinai and at other times (cf. Exo 19:18-20; Judges 5; Psalms 18; Mic 1:3-4; Habakkuk 3). The Israelites’ condition was so desperate that another special visitation from God was what they needed. The next time God did this was at the Incarnation.
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.