Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 28:16
Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner [stone], a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.
16. There is but one true ground of confidence Jehovah’s revealed purpose with regard to Zion.
Behold, I lay ] Strictly: Behold, I am he that hath laid (for the Hebr. construction cf. ch. Isa 29:14, Isa 38:5). The figure of the verse requires little explanation; it is illustrated by the massive and “costly” stones which formed the foundations of Solomon’s temple (1Ki 5:17). And the general idea is that Jehovah’s relation to Israel is the stable and permanent, though invisible, foundation of all God’s work in the world. Beyond this it is hardly necessary to go in seeking an answer to the question, Of what is the stone an emblem? It is not Jehovah Himself, since it is Jehovah who lays it; it is not the Temple, nor Mount Zion, nor the Davidic dynasty, for these are at most but visible symbols of a spiritual fact disclosed to the prophet’s faith. The foundation stone represents the one element in human history which is indestructible, viz., the purpose of God, and that purpose as historically realised in the relation which He has established between Himself and the people of Israel.
a sure foundation ] Transl. with R.V. of sure foundation.
he that believeth shall not make haste ] The LXX. reads “shall not be ashamed” ( ybsh for ysh). Cheyne and others propose a slight emendation ( ymsh) which gives the sense “shall not give way.” This is the second great passage in which Isaiah emphasises faith as the primary condition of salvation (ch. Isa 7:9).
The image of the verse recurs in Psa 118:22; and is applied to the Messiah in Rom 9:33; Rom 10:11 ; 1Pe 2:6-8 (following the LXX. text).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Therefore thus saith the Lord – God. This verse is introductory to the solemn threatening which follows. Its design seems to be this. The prophet was about to utter an awful threatening of the judgment of God upon the nation. It might be supposed, perhaps, that the intention was completely to sweep them, and destroy them – that the threatened calamity would remove every vestige of the Jewish people and of the true religion together. To meet this supposition, God says that this should not occur. Zion was founded on a rock. It should be like an edifice that was reared on a firm, well-tried cornerstone – one that could endure all the storms that should beat around it, and be unmoved. The general sentiment of the verse is, therefore, that though a tempest of calamity was about to beat upon the people for their sins; though the temple was to be destroyed, the city laid in ashes, and many of the people slain; yet it was the purpose of God that his empire on earth should not be destroyed. A foundation, a cornerstone was to be laid that would be unshaken and unmoved by all the assaults of the foes of God, and all who were truly resting on that should be safe. The perpetuity of his kingdom, and the safety of his true people, is, therefore, the essential idea in this passage. That it refers to the Messiah, and is designed to show that his kingdom will be perpetual because it is reared on him, we shall see by an examination of the words which occur in the verse.
In Zion – (see the note at Isa 1:8). Zion here is put for his empire, kingdom, or church in general on earth. To lay a cornerstone in Zion, means that his kingdom would be founded on a rock, and would be secure amidst all the storms that might beat upon it.
For a foundation a stone – That is, I lay a firm foundation which nothing can move; I build it on a rock so that the storms and tempests of calamity cannot sweep it away (compare Mat 7:24-25). The Targum renders this, Lo! I appoint in Zion a king, a strong, mighty, and terrible king. That the passage before us has reference to the Messiah there can be no doubt. The writers of the New Testament so understood and applied it. Thus it is applied by Peter 1Pe 2:6, Wherefore, also, it is contained in the Scripture, Behold I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious; and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded (see the notes at Rom 9:33; compare Rom 10:11; Mat 21:42; Luk 20:17-18; Luk 2:34; Eph 2:20). Such a reference also exactly suits the conection. The stability of the kingdom of God on earth rests on the Messiah. God had determined to send him; and, consequently, amidst all the agitations and revolutions that could take place among his ancient people, this promise was sure, and it was certain that he would come, and that his church would be preserved.
A tried stone – The word which is used here is applied commonly to metals which are tried in the fire to test their quality (see Job 23:10; Psa 66:10; Jer 9:6; Zec 13:9). The idea is, that God would lay for a foundation not a stone whose qualities are unknown, and whose stability might be doubtful, but one whose firmness and solidity were so fully known, that the foundation and the superstructure would be secure.
A precious cornerstone – The word precious (Septuagint, and 1Pe 2:6, entimon) refers to the fact that the most solid stone would be used to sustain the corner of the edifice. The principal weight of the superstructure rests on the corners, and hence, in building, the largest and firmest blocks are selected and placed there.
He that believeth – He that confides in that; he that believes that that foundation is firm, and that he is secure in trusting in that, shall not make haste. The great doctrine of faith in the Messiah as a ground of security and salvation, on which so much stress is laid in the New Testament, is here distinctly adverted to. The sense is, that confidence in him should keep the mind firm, and preserve him that believes in safety.
Shall not make haste – The Septuagint renders it, Ou me kataischunthe – Shall not be ashamed. So Peter, 1Pe 2:6; and Paul, Rom 9:33. The Hebrew word yachiysh, from chosh, means properly to make haste; and then to urge on; and then to be afraid, to flee. The idea is derived from one who is alarmed, and flees to a place of safety. The specific thought here is that of a man on whose house the tempest beats, and who apprehends that the foundation is insecure, and leaves it to seek a more safe position. The prophet says here, that the foundation on which Zion was reared would be so firm that if a man trusted to that he would have no cause of alarm, however, much the storms should beat around it. The same idea essentially is conveyed in the version of the Septuagint, and by Paul and Peter, where it is rendered shall not be ashamed, or confounded. That is, he shall have no reason to be ashamed of his confidence in the firm foundation; he shall not flee from it as a man does who puts his trust in that which fails him in the day of trial.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Isa 28:16-17
Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone
The stone laid in Zion
The prophet borrows his figure from the huge and costly foundation stones upon which the temple rested (1Ki 5:17); and the thought which he desires to enforce is that in Zion there is an element of permanency, a constitutional fabric capable of resisting all shocks.
(Prof. S. R. Driver, D. D.)
Foundation stones
The force of the figure in this verse is much enhanced by the statements of modern travellers in relation to the immense stones still remaining at the foundation of ancient walls. (J. A. Alexander.)
The element of permanency
The element of permanency to which Isaiah here looks is, of course, the theocracy centred at Zion, and represented by the Davidic dynasty, the continuance of which had been promised long since by Nathan to David 2Sa 7:13; cf. 2Sa 23:5; 1Ki 11:36). As the people of Israel, in Isaiahs view, is indestructible, so is the dynasty, which, since it was established, became the centre and pivot of the national life. (Prof. Driver, D. D.)
Is this prophecy Messianic?
The element of security to which the prophet appeals is opposed to the plan of an Egyptian alliance, and hence must be something not pointing entirely to a distant future, but having some reference to present needs. But it is true that a Messianic reference is included in the terms of the prophecy, as it was included similarly in the promise of permanency to Davids dynasty. (Prof. Driver, D. D.)
The tried stone
(Festival of St. Simon and St. Jude):–It is the first chapter out of the six which form the Book of Woes (Delitzsch). The Messianic prophecy, though full of consolation, turns its dark side–for it has one–to the scoffing magnates of Jerusalem (Isa 28:14). The zeal of the prophet, manifested in this lesson, against vice and unbelief, may have led to its selection for this festival of St. Simon and St. Jude. The Church has combined them together–these two apostles–in one commemoration, perhaps, among other reasons, because they shared in an especial degree the same spirit of zeal. St. Simon was called the Zealot, it may be, because the quality of zeal was very marked in his temperament; and St. Jude has the name Thaddaeus, probably for the same reason. At any rate, his Epistle is one of denunciation–a Book of Woes against ungodly persons.
I. THE IMAGE.
1. No one person can satisfy the majestically unique description but Christ. The Divine purpose is spoken of as if already accomplished. Behold, I have laid in Zion. It was eternally decreed. It is the acme and explanation of Israels election and history.
2. It was no new figure. Isaiah himself had spoken of Jehovah as a stone of stumbling (Isa 8:14). We must go back to Jacobs partingblessing upon his sons to find the same figure in patriarchal days Gen 49:24). Josephs history was a picture of the rejecting of the stone and of its final triumph. The Psalmist foretold the same vicissitude Psa 118:22). Our Lord alluded to the stone as signifying Himself Mat 21:42). St. Peter, when brought before the council, denounced the Jews for setting at nought this stone (Act 4:11). The same apostle quotes the text in his first Epistle (chap. 2:6) with a variance, and St. Paul a portion of it (Rom 9:33).
3. The frequency of its use or reference shows some especial fitness in the designation. At once the ideas of solidity and strength suggest themselves. Other ideas are connected with the stone as a figure of our Lord, by Zechariah. It is a stone of seven eyes, meaning doubtless that the seven gifts of the Spirit rested upon Him, and setting Him before us as a Being full of light and knowledge.
II. THE QUALITIES OF THE STONE.
1. A tried stone. We miss this in the quotation of the text in the New Testament. Both St. Peter and St. Paul cite the LXX, which omits it, and cite it freely, one of them blending it with another prophecy. The word tried may be interpreted also trial stone or stone of probation. Both interpretations are true of Jesus Christ. Christ was tried and tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin, and through His sufferings was not only proved, but approved of God (Act 2:22). He is also a stone which puts others to the test, like the Lydian stone, which was said to distinguish the genuine metal and to detect the presence of alloy–to separate the true from the false (Luk 2:34). Throughout our Lords life we see, as He came in contact with men, this discerning of spirits, but especially during His Passion.
2. A precious cornerstone. St. Peter says, elect, precious–chosen, that is, of God, and precious both in itself and in relation to the building of which it was the cornerstone. A cornerstone is the stone of junction, where the walls meet. The expression in its highest sense may indicate the union between the Divine and human natures in the One Person of the Word; or, in a less elevated sense, it may refer to the union of Jews and Gentiles in the one Body of Christ (Eph 2:15).
3. A sure foundation. A foundation stone implies a building–implies here the Church, and the cornerstone does the same (Eph 2:20, )–the stone at the extreme corner. The image is somewhat different–the one points to the base, the other to the extreme angle of the building. Christ is Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last (Rev 22:13). There is no contradiction between the statement that the Church is built upon the foundation of the apostles, and that no other foundation can be laid than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ (1Co 3:11). Christ is, St. Augustine explains, Fundamentum fundamentorum. We are built upon the apostles, because through the apostles we are built upon Christ. He is a sure foundation, so that the gates of hell, though they may war against, yet can they not overcome the Church. The foundation is most surely laid by the Lord God Himself.
III. LESSONS.
1. As Christ is the foundation stone, so each Christian is a stone built upon Him, and deriving his spiritual life from Him. St. Peter speaks of Christ as a living stone. The apostle passes here from the metaphor to the reality. Dead as a stone is a common saying; but the stone which the builders rejected came forth from the tomb, not only living, but life giving. Each Christian, baptized into one body, and living in fellowship with Christ, is a living stone from contact with Him (1Pe 2:5). See, then, that we are living in union with Christ.
2. We are not only built upon Christ, but are cemented together with other stones in the walls of the spiritual house. We are members of a Divine society, and not isolated Christians. Hence love of the brethren is a duty which devolves upon every Christian–union with them as well as with Christ, as we are cemented together by the Spirit of the Lord.
3. Though living stones differ from ordinary stones in that the latter have no wills or powers of motion, but are simply passive in the hands of the quarryman or mason; yet the living stone depends for its vitality upon the absolute surrender of the will into the hands of God, so that it may be hewn and shaped and polished, by the trials of this life, as the Master. Builder thinks best. (W. H. Hutchings, M. A.)
The foundation stone of the Church
I. THE CHARACTER OF JESUS CHRIST AS THE SUPPORT AND ORNAMENT OF HIS CHURCH.
1. A stone.
(1) To convey the idea of stability. The hopes of Gods people in all ages were to have the most substantial foundation to rest upon.
(2) Because of the ides of its durability. It has endured through all ages to the present day, and it will endure to the end of time.
(3) Life is also attributed by the apostles to this stone.
2. A tried stone. Completely, adapted to answer all the ends for which it is laid.
3. A precious cornerstone. Examine its excellences. What Solomon said of true wisdom is strictly applicable here–it is more precious than rubles. Precious for the situation which it occupies; because it is the bond which unites the Church of God in all ages. The patriarchal, the Levitical, the Christian Churches are all one in Christ Jesus. All the people of God, however denominated–wherever placed–in whatever age or circumstances–feel the uniting power of this cornerstone. And it binds and unites the Church militant and the Church triumphant.
4. To complete and give greater interest and solidity to the hopes of His people, it is called a sure foundation. Observe by whom it is laid. Not by mortal hands, but by the Founder of the universe. Sure! How vain have been all the assaults of infidelity.
II. IT IS NECESSARY THAT WE SHOULD ASCERTAIN OUR CHARACTERS, and see by those tests which God has furnished, whether we have built on this foundation. Christians are related to Christ after the analogy of stones to the foundation. And what does this imply?
1. Separation from all other purposes. Those who are thus separated are–
2. Appropriated to the especial purpose for which this stone is laid in Zion, namely, the building of a spiritual house. The manner in which Solomons temple was built, was a type of the manner in which this building is to be erected. Each stone was previously squared and polished before it was placed in its permanent situation. It is expressly said of these stones, that they were made ready before they were brought thither; so that no sound of either hammer or axe was heard in the house. This is to teach us that every living stone, to occupy a place in the celestial temple, must be hewn out of natures quarry, by the ministration of Gods Word, by Christian communion, etc., and squared and polished before it is placed in the temple.
3. These stones are themselves endued with spiritual life. By their conjunction with Christ, they obtain a spiritual, celestial life. Do you ask, what is the ultimate design of all this? It is that all the stones may be brought together, and form a fit habitation for Deity Himself Eph 2:19-22).
III. THE PRINCIPLE BY WHICH WE COME TO THIS LIVING STONE, are attached to the building, and become partakers of the privileges. He that believeth. What is the believing here spoken of! We must look at the analogy. It is the resting of the soul on the foundation God has laid.
IV. WHAT ADVANTAGES ARE TO RESULT FROM THIS TRUSTING OF THE SOUL TO CHRIST? He that believeth shall not make haste. (S. Warren, LL. D.)
Jesus Christ the only foundation
I. THE PROPERTIES OF THIS FOUNDATION.
1. It is a stone; for solidity, stability, and durableness.
2. A tried stone.
(1) His obedience was tried, and it appeared upon trial that it was perfect and universal. His meekness was tried by the abusive treatment He met with from men. His patience and resignation to the Divine will were tried, when the bitter cup of the wrath of God was put into His hand. His love to His Father and His zeal for His honour were tried, and they were found an unquenchable flame, that glowed, without once languishing, through the whole of His life. His love to men–to sinners, to enemies, was tried; tried to the uttermost; it was put to the trial whether His own life or theirs was most dear to Him. In short, this stone was thoroughly tried by God and man, and it still remained firm without a flaw. Jesus also has been tried under the capacity of a Saviour, by millions and millions of depraved, wretched, ruined creatures, who have always found Him perfectly able, and as perfectly willing, to save to the very uttermost all that come unto God through Him.
(2) It may be rendered, a stone of trial; or, a trying stone; this is the true touchstone of mens characters. Only propose Jesus Christ to them as a Saviour, and according as they receive or reject Him, you may know their true character, and their everlasting doom. This touchstone has discovered many glittering virtues to be but dross. The Pharisees and scribes had a high character among the Jews for piety, till this trying stone was applied to them; and then it appeared what they were. This test made strange discoveries also in the heathen world. Many of the sages of Greece and Rome had a high reputation for wisdom and virtue. But when this stone was pointed out to them as the only foundation of their hopes, they rejected it with proud disdain, and thought it much more safe to depend upon their own virtue and merit, than upon the virtue and merit of one that was crucified like a malefactor. And thus it appeared they were not truly good and virtuous. Let this touchstone be applied likewise to the men of this generation, and it will discover a great many counterfeits. As this is a trying-stone with regard to mens present characters, so it will be also as to their final doom and everlasting state.
3. This is a precious stone.
4. This stone is a sure foundation. Such (says Mr. Hervey) as no pressure can shake; equal, more than equal to every weight; even to sin, the heaviest load in the world. The Rock of Ages, such as never has failed, never will fail those humble penitents who cast their Burden upon the Lord Redeemer; who roll all their guilt, and fix their whole hopes upon this immovable basis. The foundation is sure, because it is of Divine appointment.
5. This is a cornerstone. Jesus Christ may be called a cornerstone, to signify His peculiar importance in this spiritual building.
II. THIS STONE IS A FOUNDATION. Jesus Christ must lie at the bottom of all, or the superstructure cannot stand. To join our own righteousness with His in our justification, is to form a foundation of solid stone, and hay, straw, and stubble, blended together.
III. WOULD YOU THEN KNOW WHETHER YOU ARE REALLY BUILT UPON THIS SURE FOUNDATION?
1. Have you ever seen the utter insufficiency of every other foundation? You will never build upon Christ, while you can build anywhere else with hopes of safety.
2. Have you ever been sensible of the preciousness, the excellency, and the stability of this Divine foundation? If you have ever built upon Christ, it has Been at once an act of the last necessity, and of the most free choice.
3. Where is your habitual dependence? Is it upon Jesus Christ alone? Or is it upon something else?
4. Have you been formed into proper stones for this spiritual kingdom? (S. Davies, M. A.)
The sure foundation
I. THE LORD DECLARES THAT HE HAS LAID THIS GREAT FOUNDATION. Behold, I lay in Zion a foundation. Here, as in many other parts of Scripture, the great work of the salvation of sinners is traced up to its fountainhead.
II. THE LORD DECLARES THE BLESSED PROPERTIES AND EXCELLENCES OF THIS FOUNDATION.
III. THE LORD SETS FORTH THE BLESSEDNESS OF THOSE WHO BUILD UPON IT. He that believeth shall not make haste. (W. Hancock, B. D.)
The ground of a sinners hope
In the preceding context the prophet speaks of unsafe refuges. To bring sinners to the apprehension of the Saviour, God announces the declaration of the text.
I. THE IMPORTANCE WHICH GOD ATTACHES TO THE DECLARATION which He was about to make. He introduces it with the solemn asseveration, Therefore, thus saith the Lord. This is further apparent from the solemn manner in which He calls the minds of all to it. Behold, I lay. He thus summons the attention of men and angels. It can be no trivial matter to which the infinitely wise God thus summons the attention of all. The truth is, He is about to erect a stately temple, unspeakably more glorious than either of the temples that stood once on Mount Moriah. They were only types and obscure shadows of this splendid structure. It is a temple which shall be built up forever. The stones of it are lively stones, being the immortal souls of men. It shall be filled with the glory of the God of the whole earth. Never shall Ichabod, the glory is departed, be written upon its walls. But to employ another figure of the same signification, God is about to build a glorious city. But what is meant by the temple and city? They refer to the Church of the living God, which is built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone. The words have also a reference to sinners of mankind. God may be viewed as laying the foundation stone of a gracious plan for redeeming them from sin and hell.
II. IT IS GOD WHO HAS LAID THE FOUNDATION IN ZION. I lay. None else had sufficient knowledge to discover a safe and suitable method of acceptance. Besides, He alone had it in His power to lay such a foundation. Here is matter of comfort. Had it been laid by another, how could we have had the same evidence that it was safe? Might it not have been disallowed by God? But since it is the doing of the Lord,. who may prohibit, us from building upon it? and who shall cast any reflection upon its security? Here a question suggests itself, and it is, When was this foundation laid? God speaks of it as if He was laying it at the time when He used these words. But it will be remembered that there is no succession of time with God. It was laid in decree from all eternity. The saints of the former dispensations sought it and relied upon it for safety. But again, this foundation was laid, in the fulness of time, by Christs coming into the world, and offering Himself a sacrifice for sin.
III. THIS STONE IS LAID IN ZION,–in the Church. Christ is the foundation upon which it is built. Without His mission and death no Church could have been erected. And from Him proceeded all the ordinances and institutions by which the blessings of redemption are communicated to her members. From Him likewise proceeds all the invisible grace which is necessary to gather, edify, and purify a Church. Again, it is in the ordinances and assemblies of the Church that He is chiefly to be found.
IV. THE STONE LAID FOR A FOUNDATION HAS BEEN TRIED. Though Christ had not been tried, the fact that He was God as well as man would have been sufficient to warrant our strongest confidence in Him. But in what respects was Christ tried and proved?
1. Like Adam, His innocence was tried. His temper was severely tested it was tried by His disciples.
2. Christs confidence in the promises made to Him was greatly tried. God had promised that to Him would be the gathering of the people, and that the heathen and the uttermost parts of the earth would be given Him for His possession; but, instead of witnessing the fulfilment of these promises, He was rejected and despised of men; and His retinue often amounted to no more than twelve fishermen; and yet He continued to trust that all would be accomplished in due time.
3. His qualifications to act the part of our Saviour have likewise been proven.
(1) His mercy has been tried. It has been proven by all who have applied to Him for deliverances of any kind; and they have always found it very tender.
(2) Christs readiness to hear prayer has been tried.
(3) His power has been likewise proved. He has completely demonstrated His ability to save. What comfort is here for the awakened! In coming to Christ for peace and salvation, they incur no risk.
V. CHRIST IS A PRECIOUS CORNERSTONE.
1. It is easy to see some reasons why He is called precious.
(1) He is precious to God on account of the ineffable love that subsists between Him and the Son, who is His delight.
(2) He is precious to the Father, likewise, on account of the work of redemption which the Father gave Him to do, and which He cheerfully undertook and faithfully performed.
(3) To believers He possesses transcendent excellence on account of the nature and perfections of Deity with which He is invested, and because He is a suitable and compassionate Saviour.
2. But why is He also termed a cornerstone? This seems intended to teach us that Christ must be all in all in the work of our salvation.
VI. CHRIST IS A SURE FOUNDATION.
1. God has laid Him for a foundation, and the foundation of the Lord standeth sure.
2. That Christ is a sure foundation is evident from the fact that He stood His trial.
3. It is manifest also, from the many promises and oaths made to Himself, and to His people, through Him.
4. In addition to all other grounds of security, be it remembered, that while our first representative was a creature, the second is the Lord from heaven, the Creator.
VII. HE THAT BELIEVETH ON CHRIST SHALL NOT MAKE HASTE. This mode of expression is evidently borrowed from the idea of a house about to fall–the inmates making haste to get away from under it. When anunexpected inundation has sapped away the sand or earth on which the house was built, then there is a running to and fro: everyone tries to secure his own safety, and to give warning to his relatives. And confusion and haste far greater than this will attend those who now cover themselves with lies and falsehood. There are three seasons of this haste–the season of death, the season of the resurrection, and the season of judgment. These are times of the greatest alarm and confusion to all who stumble upon the stone laid in Zion; but the case is very different with him that trusteth in the Lord. (A. Ross, M. A.)
Gods foundation
I. MAN NEEDS A FOUNDATION ON WHICH TO BUILD HIS HOPES FOR TIME AND FOR ETERNITY. Because of his nature, the nature of sin, the character of God; mans duties and responsibilities; the faculties and capabilities of his immortal soul.
II. MAN CANNOT LAY A SUFFICIENT FOUNDATION. The history of the world shows that humanity has ever been trying to do this. The various systems of religion. Human reason has been deified. Reliance on Gods abstract mercy. Correct creeds, good works–all fail in the time of mans necessity.
III. GOD HAS LAID A FOUNDATION. While men and angels would have failed, God gave His Son, foundation for pardon, purity, peace, heaven.
IV. THIS FOUNDATION HAS BEEN TRIED.
1. By persecution–Church and individual.
2. By trust–all classes, all times, under all circumstances, in life and in death.
V. THE ASSURANCE OF THE TEXT. Shall not make haste. No guilt too deep for pardon; no trial and temptation too great for consoling grace; nothing beyond the power of Christ. (J. T. Murrish.)
The foundation of God
I. THE FOUNDATION. Christ. In a very deep sense Jesus Christ is the foundation of the whole of the Divine dealings with us; and historically, since the day on which He appeared on earth, He has more and more manifestly and completely been the foundation of the whole of the history of the world. But passing these aspects, let us rather fix upon those which are more immediately in the prophets mind. Jesus Christ is the foundation laid for all mens security against every tempest or assault. We may look at the same thought under somewhat different aspects.
1. He is the foundation for all our thinking and opinions, for all our belief and our knowledge. In Him are hid all the treasures of wisdom, and whatsoever of solid fact men can grasp in their thinking in regard of all the most important things with which they come into relation, is to be found in the life and death of Jesus Christ, and in the truths which that reveals. He is the foundation of all our knowledge of God, of all our true knowledge of ourselves, of all our true knowledge of duty, of all our true knowledge of the relations between the present and the future, between man and God. And in His life, in the history of His death and resurrection, is the only foundation for any real knowledge of the awful mysteries that lie beyond the grave. Certitude is in Him.
2. He is the foundation of all restful love.
3. He is the foundation for all noble and pure living. He is the fixed pattern to which it may be conformed. Otherwise mans notions of what is virtuous and good are much at the mercy of conventional variations of opinion.
4. As the one sufficient motive for holy and beauteous living, He is the foundation. If ye love Me, keep My commandments. They that find the reason and the motive for goodness and purity in Christs love to them and their answering love to Christ, will build a far fairer fabric of a life than any others, let them toil at the building as they may.
II. THE TRIED PRECIOUSNESS OF THE FOUNDATION. Because it is a tested stone, it therefore is a precious stone. There are two kinds of testing–the testing from the assaults of enemies, and the testing by the building upon it of friends. And both these methods of proof have been applied, and it has stood the test.
III. THE PROCESS OF BUILDING. The metaphor seems to be abandoned in the last words of our text, but it is only apparently so. He that believeth shall not make haste. The act of building is simple faith in Jesus Christ. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
Gods foundation for man
This passage represents in a word just very much the contrast between Gods way and mans way of doing things. Man, according to his natural ideas, is all for doing things by his own efforts. What he has and what he does he must and shall produce from himself. He must invent, he must devise, he must judge, he must plan, he must execute, and God is to be ignored. His science is to be a science from which God is excluded, and His name is not to be mentioned. His social theories are to be social theories rounded off and complete in themselves, and God is not to be allowed to touch them. His moral life is to be built up upon its own foundations, and God is not to be called in for help. Gods way of doing things is the very opposite of this. In His way of doing things men also are called upon to put forth all the efforts they can, but it is in building up on the foundations He has laid for them, not in laying a foundation for themselves. He calls on them to put forth their efforts in doing, what they can do, and not in attempting to do what they never can accomplish. (Prof. J. Orr, D. D.)
The sure foundation
I. If history teaches us anything, it is surely this–that MAN NEEDS GOD TO LAY HIS FOUNDATION FOR HIM, and that he cannot dispense with Gods help.
1. In the matter of thought man is laid under this very peculiar condition–that, on the one hand he needs a foundation of certainty in regard to the great questions and subjects of existence,–those great questions on which mens minds have tortured and perplexed themselves in all ages–the questions of God, the soul, and the hereafter, on which to build up his life; and, on the other hand, he cannot give himself this certainty. Men need a foundation of assurance on these great questions in order that their individual lives, their institutions, their societies even, may be built upon a strong and stable basis. I dare say you feel as I do, says one of the speakers in a conversation with Socrates, how very hard, or almost impossible, is the attainment of any certainty about questions such as these in the present life. And yet I should deem him a coward who did not prove what is said about them to the uttermost, or whose heart failed him before he had examined them on every side. For he should persevere till he has achieved one of two things, either he should discover or be taught the truth about them; or, if this is impossible, I would have him take the best and most irrefragable of human theories, and let this be the raft upon which he sails through life–not without risk, as I admit, if he cannot find some word of God which will more safely and surely carry him.
2. It is the same in regard to moral life. Men seek to build up their own moral life and the morality of their societies on a basis which shall be independent of religion; but how little they succeed, how abortive have been their efforts, all history might again be cited to prove. God lays the foundation of the true moral life in that new nature He bestows on us in Christ, in the light and power that are imparted to us through Him, and without this divinely laid foundation the builders build in vain.
3. Is it otherwise with religion, with the relation of man to God, and the state and standing of men before God? Here, too, men have ever been found, and are found still, putting forth painful efforts to secure their own peace; going about, as Paul said, to establish their own righteousness, not knowing that Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. Yet how hollow, and temporary, and uncertain is the peace gained by all such efforts; how far removed from the glorious certainty of reconciliation and acceptance with God which the Gospel of Jesus can impart!
II. It is the great central assertion of the Christian faith THAT GOD HAS LAID FOR MANKIND SUCH A FOUNDATION AS IT NEEDS, and that this foundation has been laid in Jesus Christ. With Christs coming into the world a new era began in the history of the world, a new direction was given to the thoughts of men, a new revelation of God was made to them, a new gospel of sonship was preached to them, a new light was thrown on human nature, human needs, and human destiny, new hopes and prospects were opened up for humanity. On this foundation the race has gone on building up ever since. But there are those who tell us that this is passing away–that this may have done for the past, but will not do for the future; that this foundation stone is becoming obsolete, and that men must have done with it, and leave it behind. They must, in obedience to truth and the advance in the worlds ideas, part with it. Well, the text itself does not anticipate that this stone laid by God, being planted there, will remain there without being put to test and trial. It is not a stone which God is to lay, and no one dispute the laying of it–which God is to lay, and no one refuse to build upon it–which God is to lay, and no one contest its right to be there.
III. THIS SUBJECT HAS A RELATION TO THE PREACHER. We are told in the text that it is God who is laying, and has laid, this foundation stone on which everything is to be built up. It is the preachers function to unite himself with this great purpose of God. His function is to exhibit and commend this foundation stone. It is the preachers duty to clear it of the human rubbish which from time to time may have been heaped upon it; to stand upon it himself, and to induce others to stand upon it too, and to rear their life, their work, everything, upon this foundation.
IV. BUT THE TEXT BESIDES HAS A RELATION TO THE HEARER. It is a matter of infinite importance for hearers of the Gospel to recognise the preciousness and importance of this stone which God has laid; for us all that we should ourselves come to this stone and build our lives and hopes upon it. How great the comfort to those in spiritual darkness and perplexity to know that it is not left to them to lay the foundation stone of their spiritual peace; but that God has laid it for them, and that all they have to do is to build on that sure and tried foundation! Jesus Himself has identified Himself with this stone, and has warned us that men cannot come into collision with Him and not suffer grievous spiritual harm. (Prof. J. Orr, D. D.)
Gods foundation for the stability of His Church
1. This foundation was planned in the eternal counsels of Jehovah.
2. It was actually laid in the incarnation and sufferings of Jesus
Christ.
3. It is proclaimed in the preaching of the Gospel (J. Sherman.)
True character
I. CHRIST IS THE FOUNDATION OF A GOOD CHARACTER.
II. BELIEVING IS THE REARING OF A TRUE CHARACTER.
III. GOD IS THE JUDGE OF A TRUE CHARACTER.
1. He measures it by the law of rectitude. He lave judgment to the line, etc.
2. He tests it by the dispensation of His government. Hail shall sweep away, etc. Truly, other foundation can no man lay, etc. (Homilist.)
A tried stone
A stone of proof
A tried stone, literally, a stone of proof; and that may be regarded in either of two senses or in both.
1. It is a stone of proof, because it stands every test that can be applied to it. Praise no stone until you have tested it. Laud no doctrine until you have tried it in the marketplace, in the sick chamber, in the valley of the shadow of the deepest distress; then come forward and say what the stone was worth. When you hear the last patented religion praised, pay no heed to the trivial eulogium; it is a patent that has not been put to the proof; it has done nothing for the world; it has no long, noble, dignified history behind it; it glitters, but it has not been proved in lifes long night of pain and restlessness and sorrow. Herein it is true that antiquity signifies experience, uses that can be employed for purposes of inference and solid deduction. In this sense Jesus Christ was a stone of proof: He was tried morning, noon, and night, in the cold and in the heat, in all the variation of lifes changeful scene; and this is the record which is made of Him by those who have followed Him throughout. Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and today, and forever,–most precious when most needed, strongest when the enemy is most importunate, completest in all attribute, faculty, and grace when hell gathers itself up for final tremendous onslaught upon His dignity and worth. Is it too much to ask that those who have tested Christ and known Him to be s stone of proof should say so publicly, privately, quietly, emphatically, and gratefully?
2. Then, the second sense in which the test would hold good would be that Jesus Christ tries every character. Not only is Jesus Christ Himself tried, but He tries every man. Therefore many have left Him. He tries whether the heart is giving itself in full consecration to His service, or whether it is trifling with the occasion, yielding to the spirit of compromise and concession. In the Church there is but one badge, one symbol, one password; it is not genius, learning, intellectual capacity, profound acquisition in difficult subjects,–it is the Cross. Therefore so few men understand Christianity. He is a Christian who has no self; he has denied himself; he has said No to himself. This is a conquest which is only won in solitude; this is a victory of which a man need not speak, because his whole life tells the tale in simplest eloquence. (J. Parker, D. D.)
The tried stone
I. JESUS CHRIST IS THE FOUNDATION STONE OF THAT SYSTEM OF DOCTRINE WHICH GOD HAS REVEALED IN HIS WORD. In every age of the world too many have been found who employ all their time in laying the foundation, without being able to build thereupon with any pleasure to themselves or advantage to others. And the reason is, rather than build on the Rock of Ages, they are for associating with the foundation, stones which are only designed for the superstructure. Now, the foundation is to be laid of mere grace, in the atonement of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. This is the chief doctrine of Christianity, and is the basement of all the others. This foundation is impregnable.
II. JESUS CHRIST IS A TRIED FOUNDATION STONE. The word tried bears three meanings in Holy Scripture. Sometimes it means to elect or choose, sometimes to prove or put to the test, and sometimes to approve. Answerably to these views, Jesus Christ was, from eternity, chosen of God to be the basis of the Christian system, the foundation of individual faith, and the cornerstone of His believing people in their collective and corporate character. In these capacities He has been openly, solemnly, severely experimented and put to the test. And the result of the whole has been His complete approval.
1. He has been tried, in point of true and faithful attachment to all the great interests which we have mentioned, by the sufferings to which He subjected Himself in support of them.
2. He has been tried in reference to the strength and security of the fabric, by the unfailing success of all attempts to build upon it.
3. He has been tried by the entire failure of all attempts to undermine the foundation or shake the building. (H. Clare.)
Jesus Christ the tested foundation
This is historically true and verifiable. In science we have a process called verification. A law of nature, however strong the induction by which it is supported may seem to be, is not regarded as scientifically or perfectly established till it is brought to the test of verification–that is, until men by experiment or new experience have put it to the trial, and found that their induction holds the field. And so in a sense we may say it has been with Jesus Christ. This stone has been tested by time, and we have now centuries of verification to fall back upon. In many ways, in nearly all possible ways, this stone has been tested, and it has come victoriously out of them all. It has been tried by the upheavals of society in times of the greatest social and political convulsion. It has been tried by the fires of persecution; for often have the rage and enmity of man done their worst against it. It has been tried by error and corruption–by the faithlessness of the builders themselves, who sought to remove it from its place, and put some other stone in its stead. It has been tried in the fires of controversy, and by the corroding influences of scepticism. All that the intellect or wit of man could do has been employed to destroy it. It has been tested in a negative respect by the failure of men to find an adequate substitute for it. Men have tried from the beginning to remove this stone, and find a substitute for it. They have sought for substitutes in science, in philosophy, in culture, but they have not been able to find them. I could quote the confessions of many of our leaders of modern unbelief who think they see the old foundations going, but who sorrowfully confess that they have nothing adequate to put in the place of Christianity, or to restore to man the hopes of which they have deprived him. Finally, this stone has been tested in the most effectual way of all by men actually coming to it, and trying whether it will bear the weight they need to lean on it. And who that has thus tried the religion of Jesus experimentally has not found that it can do all, or more than all, for them that their highest spiritual life requires? (Prof. J. Orr, D. D.)
The tried foundation
I. JESUS CHRIST IS THE CORNERSTONE.
1. He is the foundation of Christianity as a theological and religious system.
(1) Of all Christian doctrine.
(2) Of all the authentic institutions of Christianity. He is the foundation of all the public worship of Almighty God.
(3) So He is the pillar and ground of the morality of the Christian system.
2. He is the foundation of personal confidence and salvation.
3. He is the cornerstone of the general Church–of His people in their associated character.
(1) As the cornerstone of His Church He sustains to it a natural relation.
(2) He unites the various parts of the building.
(3) He supports the system. On this rock will I build My Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
(4) He is the ornament and glory of the Church, fitly, neatly, gracefully, beautifully framed together in Him, it groweth unto a holy temple in the Lord, and shall finally be presented a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing.
II. JESUS CHRIST IS A TRIED STONE. (W. M. Bunting.)
The well-tested Friend of humanity
Mans destiny depends upon his character. In it are the germs of Paradise and the elements of Tophet. It is our blessedness to know that He who came to give the world a new and holy character is no empirical or charlatanic reformer, but one who has been thoroughly tried in the glorious work.
I. HE HAS BEEN TRIED BY THE MISSION HE UNDERTOOK. He came here to give such a knowledge of the nature, the love, the relations, and the claims of God as would effect a moral restoration of the world. Salvation consisteth in the knowledge of God. But in His God-revealing mission, how was He tried? His love, the root of all excellence, was tried in its two great branches of piety and philanthropy. In prosecuting His Divine undertaking He became so completely the victim of human and hellish malignity that He seemed to be forsaken of His Father. Was not this trying to His piety?–trying to His loving confidence in the everlasting Father? Yet He bore the test. He was tried in His philanthropy also. What had He to gain for Himself for His amazing self-sacrifice? Nothing but the Cross. And yet these sufferings, instead of cooling the ardour or dimming the lustre of this heavenly fire, made it more intense and more radiant.
II. HE HAS BEEN TRIED BY RIGOROUS SCRUTINY OF HIS ENEMIES.
1. The scrutiny of His contemporaneous enemies has done so. He lived His public life under a system of keen-eyed and vigilant espionage. The eye of malignant scrutiny glared on Him at every turn. Every test that could be invented was applied in order to convict Him of wrong. But how triumphantly He passed through the ordeal! Even Pilate, who, overborne by public clamour, pronounced the sentence, confessed belief in His innocence by washing his hands in the open court. The day of Pentecost brought new and resistless testimony to His rectitude.
2. The scrutiny of His succeeding enemies has done so. He has had keen-eyed enemies from Celsus, the Epicurean who wrote his Logos Alethes, down to the hostile critics of the present day. Strauss of Germany, and Renan of France, men of signal ability and high attainments, stand prominently amongst those who have submitted Christ to the most crucial of hostile criticism in order to prove Him unworthy of the unbounded faith of man as the Son of God and the Saviour of the world. But who that has read the works of Neander, Rothe, Tholuck, Ullmann, Dorner, Lange, Hengstenberg, including not a few able French and English authors who have answered those hostile critics, does not feel that Christ has stood well the severest of these tests?
III. HE HAS BEEN TRIED BY THE INFLUENCE HE HAS EXERTED ON HUMANITY. If every tree is to be judged by its fruits, it is natural to ask, what has been the fruit of Christs history upon the world? And here we may raise two questions–
1. What has been His influence upon His faithful followers? Ask them if Christ has been to them according to His Word. We fear not the reply. Those of His followers who have studied Him most profoundly, and followed Him most loyally, have ever uttered with the greatest emphasis, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.
2. What has been His general influence upon the world? Has His influence been as unique as His personal character revealed in the Evangelists? Undoubtedly, yes. And this wide, ever-growing influence is, on the whole, salutary. It has always been in favour of the highest intelligence, liberty, morality, social order, and true progress. He stands today, in the mind of humanity, more powerful and more glorious than ever! Why this? One reason is, His character answers to the highest ideal of moral excellence that rises to the souls of men.
Another reason is, His spirit gives to man the highest life. Conclusion: The subject suggests–
1. An encouragement to Christians. Our religion is no experiment. We are resting on one for our guidance and happiness who has borne the test of ages.
2. A warning to infidels.
(1) In the light of the thoughts we have propounded does not your opposition to Christ appear impious?
(2) To oppose Him is to set yourself against the heavens, against omnipotence itself. To oppose Him is futile.
(3) It is inhuman. In opposing Him you are sinning against the interest of your species. Who has helped your race as Jesus has?
3. An invitation to all. Your character is your spiritual house, your spiritual world, that in which you will spend an existence either of misery or of bliss. The only true foundation of that house is Christ. (D. Thomas, D. D.)
A foundation of rock
When the men of Ely contemplated building their cathedral they distrusted the loose, unstable fen country; and in order to have a foundation they dug deep into the fenny soil, and laid stones and mortar and cement there in great abundance, and upon this foundation they reared their noble cathedral. It stood decade after decade, but of late years it showed signs of settling down, and men tried to remedy its precarious condition without full success. But lately they made a most important discovery, so we have read. They dug deep through the concrete foundation that had been laid of yore, and there, some twenty feet beneath it, they found rock, rock which had always been there, but which the builders had not known or found. And today works are on foot to unite the cathedral with the rock. When this has been done they know the cathedral will stand. (J. A. Davies, B. D.)
Human systems no foundation for the soul
There have been systems offered to men as the basis of life; but time has tested them, and they have been found wanting. Men had not gone deep enough. Positivism, secularism, humanitarianism, and such systems fail because they do not go deep enough. They do not reach, nor build upon, the rock. And men have made foundations for themselves other than those that are laid, but find these cannot bear the weight of all the years. Time has told against their foundations; and they must dig down through them, dig deeper, and unite their lives to the Rock of Ages. Down through the man-laid, deceptive foundations of self-righteousness, self-will, and self-sufficiency, or of a profession of faith that has no substance in it, or of worldly and intellectual possessions, right down through these they must dig until they reach the rock, and there by faith they must fix and fasten their lives upon Christ. (J. A.Davies, B. D.)
Building on the rock
I would rather have a mere shanty of deal boards, if it was safe on s rock, than I would have the most pretentious building if it only rested on quicksand. (John Wesley.)
The stability of Christian faith and hope
Macaulay once imagined that in some far distant day a traveller from New Zealand might, in the midst of a vast solitude, take his stand on a broken arch of London Bridge to sketch the ruins of St. Pauls. Such may happen. Neither London, nor St. Paul s, nor aught that is human on the earth is proof against the mouldering breath of time. How blessed the knowledge, how soul-inspiring the assurance that He on whom we are building our all for eternity will remain the same yesterday, today, and forever. (D. Thomas, D. D.)
Christ the one solid foundation
Men who stand on any other foundation than the Rock, Christ Jesus, are like birds who build their nests in trees by the side of rivers. The bird sings in the branches and the river sings below, but all the while the waters are undermining the soil about the roots, till in some unsuspected hour, the tree falls with a crash into the stream, and then the nest is sunk, the home is gone, and the bird is a wanderer. But birds that hide their young in the clefts of the rock are undisturbed, and after every winter coming again, they find their nests awaiting them, and all their life-long brood in the same places, undisturbed by stream or storm. (H. W. Beecher.)
Jesus Christ a stone
Two Jews, one recently converted to Christ, the other strongly opposed to and incensed against his brother because of his renunciation of Judaism, were walking together in warm debate. Being much angered, the opponent of Christ said to his companion, As for your Jesus of Nazareth, I think no more of Him than of this stone that is in our path. Grieved, but not disheartened, the disciple of Christ said, as he picked up the stone and held it in his hand, And I, too, think of Jesus Christ as a stone; but to me He is the Foundation stone laid in Zion, the Elect stone, the Tried stone, the precious Cornerstone. But to you, my brother, he added in deep sorrow, Jesus is a Stone of stumbling and a Rock of offence, that may fall in judgment upon you, even as I build upon Him in safety and mercy. (Nyes Anecdotes.)
He that believeth shall not make haste
The equanimity of the believer
If you observe attentively the works of God you will perceive what may be called a leisurely growth. But this ill accords with our natural inclinations. We would fain be at once what we can only become by degrees. Neither is such a remark limited in its application to matters which are wholly terrestrial. It may be said to hold good in a still greater degree when spiritual concerns are brought under review. But God, who precisely knows what is most for our advantage, has determined against any sudden transition. Many of the most brilliant promises of the Bible are made to those who wait upon the Lord.
I. THE CHRISTIAN THRIVES BETTER FROM NOT BEING PERMITTED TO MAKE HASTE IN ACQUIREMENTS. The passage is directed against anything of hurry or bustle. It does not so much declare that the believer can never advance rapidly, as that he shall never move with that agitated step which betokens insecurity. It does not denote a sluggish pace to be unavoidable, but simply implies that what is hasty and sudden will not be allowed. And s little reflection will convince you of the advantages which result from such an arrangement. It holds good in almost everything, that what is done hastily is seldom done well. In mental acquirements the more especially, that which is speedy is likely to be showy rather than solid–so that what is gained in time is lost in strength. The case is just the same in regard of religion. Where the Spirit of God actually, and in good earnest, takes a man in hand, it will not allow him to make haste through the preliminaries of righteousness; he shall be brought down to the dust, so as to abhor himself for his countless iniquities; he shall be reduced to the position of one who is thoroughly conscious that, unless God interfere, he must eternally perish. And it will ordinarily be after this process that the Gospel in all its beauty is expanded before him. This is for the advantage of the believer. Take the experience of Christians, and you will find that where progress has been most rapid, the commencement has been most arduous. And neither is it only at the beginning that the Christian thrives better from not being allowed to make haste. Take him at any other stage of his course, and you will find that he advances rapidly by walking slowly. Suppose him under affliction, then patience must have its perfect work.
II. EXAMINE CERTAIN OF THE COMFORTS AND ENJOYMENTS WHICH ARE ENSURED TO THE BELIEVER BY THE PROMISE THAT HE SHALL NOT MAKE HASTE. We reckon as chief amongst these that he has a Protector always at hand, so that in seasons of emergency he need not run to and fro in search of succour. God is our refuge and strength; a very present help in trouble. The believer has nothing to hasten from, for he is shielded against every assault; he has nothing to hasten to, for he is already enclosed within a rampart of security. It is only by bartering away or forgetting my rights or my duties as a Christian that I can possibly make what is termed a false step. The believer ought to take no step without prayer; and if he ask Gods counsel, he shall not go wrong. Then, in respect of the termination of life, the believer may feel it far better to depart and be with the Lord. He may sometimes be tempted to long for the time when the earthly house shall be taken down, in order to be rebuilt for eternity; but he cannot forget that his times are in Gods hands; that it would not be good for him to die whilst his heavenly Father sees it fit that he should live; and thus he keeps down what is impatient in desire, and makes not haste to be emancipated from the flesh. He longs, moreover, for the final triumph of Christianity, the time when the kingdoms of the world shall become the kingdoms of the Lord and His Christ. But there will be mixed with this longing no fraction of impatience (H. Melvill, B. D.)
The quieting antidote to haste
Is not this making haste, this restless hurrying, turning, questioning a quite precise picture of too many modern thoughts and lives? How many people are waveringly making haste about doctrine, duty, etc. But our Scripture is the quieting antidote.
I. FAITHS OBJECT. He that believeth; but he must have somewhat or someone as the object of belief. Notice faiths object as disclosed in our Scripture.
1. An object given of God.
2. An object sure.
3. Tried or tested.
4. Precious, worthy.
II. THE RESULT OF FAITH. Shall not worryingly, nervously make haste.
1. As to doctrine, Christ is the truth.
2. As to the forgiveness of sins, Christs word is pledged.
3. As to the issue of things, the helm is grasped by the pierced hand.
4. As to death, the risen Christ is deaths master. (Wayland Hoyt, D. D.)
The objective ground of faith
1. Two things are necessary to give stability to a man.
(1) A principle of faith within his own mind.
(2) An objective ground of faith, real or imaginary. The man thus believes in something. In itself it may be unreal, but to him it is a reality. Therefore he follows after it with constancy. Take away his belief in this something and he is immediately at sea, without compass or rudder, the sport of the winds and waves. And precisely in proportion to the grandeur and the durability of that on which his faith rests, and to the simplicity and entireness of his faith itself, will he be found to be steadfast and immovable, full of energy, full of hope, full of perseverance. I appeal to the history of the race. Look at all those who have been remarkable for strength and stability of character, and who swayed by the magic of their firmness the minds of others. They all believed in something: in their mission, or in their destiny, or in their wisdom, or in the power of truth, or in the progress of the race, or in the constancy of nature, or in the future of their country, or in the revelation of God. Faith it was that upheld them from first to last, that imparted a consistency and a unity to all they did, and invested them with a kind of awe as beings of another and higher order. Now, this being the case, you can easily see of what importance it is that the objective ground of faith should be something that is real, true, Divine; something that has substance in it, so that I feel I have hold of it, and am not grasping a shadow; something that lives out of myself altogether, so that I can feel independent of the ever varying phases of my own mind; something that is itself secure, and beyond the possibility of danger, so that I can feel the most perfect confidence in it.
2. And now comes the question than which none can be more intensely interesting, at least to the earnest, awakened, thoughtful mind–Where is this objective ground of faith to be found? Here is the answer, and mark from whom it comes, Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone. Well may it be added, He that believeth shall not make haste. His faith will partake of the stability of the foundation on which it rests. So far as his safety is concerned that is secure. And then, so far as his own feeling or persuasion of his safety is concerned, if his faith is simple it will impart stability not merely to his state, but to his mind. It will bring an assured peace to his soul. Here, then, is the foundation. Examine it.
(1) See how strong it is; there is not one element of weakness about it. It is all Divine.
(2) And see how broad it is. There is room for thee to build, my brother.
(3) See how accessible it is. So near, that one step will place thee on it. A single step, and thou art on the rock!
(4) See how it bears the stamp of the Divine approbation-The Father laid it; the Father has further signified His approbation of the Living Stone, by making Him the headstone of the comer. And what satisfied the Fathers justice may well satisfy thy conscience. Well, here is the foundation If thou believest not, surely thou shalt not be established. (A. L. R. Foote.)
The establishing power of faith
(with Isa 7:9):–
I. The first aspect in which these words may be viewed, namely, in reference TO ONES FIRST ESTABLISHMENT IN THE PEACE OF THE GOSPEL
II. A second aspect in which they admit of being viewed is IN REFERENCE TO ONES CONTINUED ESTABLISHMENT IN THAT PLACE. I do not believe there is anything in the Gospel itself viewed as a system, or any thing in sovereignty viewed as a principle of the Divine procedure, or anything in the believers condition in this world viewed as a state of discipline, that renders it impossible for him, on the whole, to retain undiminished the peace in which he was first established; that necessitates his falling away in any measure from that assurance into which his early, simple, affectionate faith introduced him. The secret of anyones declension in this respect is afforded us here, If ye believe not,–continue not, that is, to believe; for faith is a life, a habit,–surely ye shall not be established, continue, that is, to be established. As faith decays, so also will your feeling of stability, of security, be impaired. On the contrary, He that believeth–lives habitually in the exercise of faith shall not make haste, shall ever maintain a calm, undisturbed repose.
III. There yet remains a third aspect in which these passages may be viewed, namely, IN REFERENCE TO DUTY, OR THE WORK OF SANCTIFICATION GENERALLY. We live in a world of temptation. Do we need some mighty principle of steadfastness? What is that principle? It is faith; faith resting on Christ, and drawing strength and stability from Him; faith realising the love of God, and enjoying it actually in the soul; faith looking beyond this present scene of things, and bringing near to us another and more attractive scene. I must feel that the grasp of the eternal God is upon me. Let us have a faith like this, and under its influence we shall act our part in life, however difficult it may be–
1. With calmness; for we shall do nothing rashly–we shall learn to wait.
2. With dignity; for we shall do all things as in Gods sight, and under His protection; and we shall be raised immeasurably above the petty schemes and the little meannesses of the people of the world.
3. With consistency; for having once entered on what we deem the path of truth and duty, we will follow it out. (A. L. R. Foote.)
The equanimity of faith
The Hebrew word for the making haste, means quite as accurately the being ashamed, or, the being confounded. Accordingly, when St. Paul is arguing with the Romans he sets forth Christ as the foundation stone promised by Isaiah, affirming that whosoever believeth on Him shall not be ashamed; and when St. Peter is exhorting the strangers, he counsels them to build themselves up as lively stones on the redemption provided in the Gospel, quoting the verse from the prophet as if it stood thus,–He that believeth on Him shall not be confounded. There is wonderful significance in this ambiguity, or, rather, interchangeableness of meaning. This will be our subject–the deliberateness, and, therefore, the solidity of all those who are Gods building.
1. It has really passed into a truism, as regards temporal and common affairs, that haste is dangerous, and that slowness, for the most part, is sureness. If there be one attribute in the works of the Creator Himself more universal than any other it is that of doing things by degrees, and never despising in His own government the day of small things. Now take the case of the Christian on the highway of the Gospel. No doubt there is one sense in which he travels with the utmost velocity. In the sense of mortality we are all making haste. But we limit you to the moral pilgrimage of the soul going towards Heaven, with its perfection, whether of holiness or of happiness, and we are reminded by the very character of a believer named in the text that we must avoid hurry, or bustle, or impatience. Faith in its own nature consents to travel slowly, and agrees to the interval between the being justified and the being glorified. There would remain no one behind to be the salt of the earth if every new convert made haste from the mercy seat of repentance to the land of the palm and the crown.
2. Now we turn to the making haste considered rather as an affliction than as an error, and the not making haste rather as a privilege than as a duty. There is quite as much of a promise as there is of a counsel in the words we are considering, more especially if you couple them with the New Testament paraphrase about the being ashamed and the being confounded. It is not only wrong to be impatient and neglect the duties of the passing moment, it is, moreover, very distressing and very costly. What is the reason why some person of your acquaintance never seems to be at ease in other peoples company, carrying an appearance of perpetual flutter, and the crimson mounting to the face for no reason at all? That is often a symptom of ill-health; but the ill-health is generally the excess of self-consciousness–a morbid suspicion that everyone is observing and pronouncing upon me. It is a great affliction, and very often beyond very much control; but we merely give it you as a sign of self-absorption and a token that there is not enough to depend upon in ones self when the features and the manners of your friend seem to be always making haste. Apply that doctrine higher up, to the moral and spiritual nature, and you will come at the reasons for instability, for fickleness, for sudden panic, and for half the disorders of the Christian life. (H. Christopherson.)
Unhasting
I. THE HASTE SO CONSPICUOUS IN MODERN SOCIETY.
1. In what haste men are to accumulate wealth.
2. How eager to gain public recognition.
3. The same spirit of unwise haste has entered into the Christian Church, and exercises there a baneful influence.
II. The haste so conspicuous in modern society ARISES FROM SEVERAL CAUSES.
1. It may spring from ill-regulated ambition. Men are hurried on by impulse and passion, and reason oft yields to desire.
2. There is the haste of rivalry, due to the strain of competition.
3. There is the haste arising from the fear of poverty and the hardships that poverty brings.
III. THE EVIL RESULTS ARE PALPABLE AND GRAVE.
1. The injurious effects physically are very obvious. The imperfect development, the impaired vitality of men are due in no small degree to the restless haste and the rapid pace of life. It has been said that nervous diseases, so common in our time and country, scarcely exist among barbarians and semi-civilised people, and that the primary cause is civilisation, with all its recent accompaniments, the telegraph, the railway, and the periodical press, which continue to draw each year most severely on the nerves of all classes, and have intensified in ten thousand ways cerebral activity and worry. The same writer adds, Our fathers in medicine of the last century, if they could be brought from their graves, would have to be told what we mean by nervousness. Doctors would render yet greater service to humanity if they were, at least occasionally, to ascend the pulpit, and taking as their text Do thyself no harm, discourse to us from the stores of their experienced observation on the manifold and increasing bodily and mental maladies due to the overstrained activity and feverish haste of society.
2. The intellectual evils of haste are also many and serious. Through the ingenious but misleading theories thrown out in haste, with imperfect knowledge, investigators have been diverted from the right track, and discoveries delayed for many years. Haste slowly is wise counsel. In this age of doctrinal unrest, a much-needed counsel is: Be slow to part with the old faiths, be cautious in the acceptance of new doctrines. Close not your eyes to the light, but be ready to receive the truth from whatever quarter it may come. Remember, however, that all is not gold that glitters.
3. The moral evils of haste in the conduct of life also deserve earnest consideration.
(1) The loss of opportunity for religious meditation.
(2) The developed selfishness due to the ruling spirit of haste.
In the common rush for the prizes and pleasures of life, the danger is that every man should think only of himself, and be careless of the claims and comfort of others.
Conclusion–
1. Believing in God, you will not tremble for the safety of His ark.
2. You will not be in danger of adopting hastily unspiritual methods of doing Christs work. Tempted to unbelieving haste in the conduct of religious work, let the example of Jesus be remembered. (A. Cowe, M. A.)
The characteristic of our times
There is a great diversity of opinion as to the character of the age in which we live. If one set of critics is to be credited, our world is rushing to perdition at an alarming pace. Other observers are sanguine and hopeful Considering that stir and activity are preferable to stagnation and torpor, these persons see much that is really encouraging in the conflict of opinion, and are inclined to expect the birth of a new and brighter era out of the throes of the period through which we are passing. Our day is one in which men emphatically make haste. In the passage to which the text belongs, a contrast seems to be drawn between those persons who construct some refuge of their own to protect them from the ills of life, and those others who are willing to avail themselves of that well-built and well-founded house which the Lord God hath provided for them; and then the dismay and disappointment of the one party, when their expectations are found to deceive them, are contrasted with the calm security and confidence of the other. But, we will take up, from the surface of the text, this idea–that if a man believes in God, and trusts in God, and will consent to work on the lines which God has laid down, he will be saved from that restless, worldly agitation of mind which produces so frequently such calamitous results. Let us notice, in one or two particulars, how this desirable state of things will be brought about.
I. AS TO TEMPORAL MATTERS. I have been told, that as business life is constituted now, it is impossible for a man, if he would hold his own, to act in entire accordance with the dictates of an enlightened conscience; that competition is so keen and risks so great, and the area of labour so crowded, that a man cannot make his footing good without resorting, at least in some matters, to tricks, and evasions, and subterfuges, and misrepresentations, which shock his moral sense, and which he cannot, without much difficulty, persuade himself at first to practise. Now why do men maintain that it is an impossible thing to obey conscience in matters of business! The root lies here–in the want of full belief in God. If I believed that God went partners with the devil in the management of the world, then it would be quite consistent for me to try to appease Satan by acknowledging his co-ordinate authority, and falling in with his ways. But if I believed that God was the Ruler of the universe,–that He was continually working and continually upholding the right,–I should be saved from these sad and painful deviations from the path of rectitude; because I should be perfectly satisfied, that he who did the right, at whatever cost, and left the matter in Gods hands, would be sure to be borne harmless in the end. Much of the feverish restlessness of the present day arises from a real, but unavowed and perhaps unconscious distrust of the results of honest, conscientious work. The idea is too frequently entertained, that merely to work does not answer; and that work must be supplemented and made successful by something else. This feeling is, in its root, distrust of God.
II. We turn, now, to SPIRITUAL MATTERS. I know that, at a time like this, there must be discussion amongst young men on points affecting the very foundation of our holy religion. But I am not inclined to make the circumstance a subject of unmixed lamentation. Easily gotten; soon parted with,–applies to religion as well as to other things. At the same time, I dread that discussion which never seems to get beyond discussion. The purpose for which we are placed in the world is not that we should be forever asking questions, and raising and solving doubts,–but that we should be living a life. But how can that be accomplished, unless we have fixed principles to start from? Do I wish to be a geometrician? I shall make very little progress if I am perpetually employed in discussing and settling, in arranging and rearranging my axioms and definitions. And how am I to be advancing with that life which is to be the seed plot of my eternity, if I go on, month after month, year after year, unable to settle anything? Contrast with this vacillation and incertitude the condition of the man who believeth. When a strain comes upon him, he has not to run helplessly hither and thither, seeking for principles to sustain him in the hour of trial. He has got his principles, and they are ready for use. In other words, he believes in the living God, and therefore he does not make haste.
III. THE MAN WHO BELIEVES IN A LIVING GOD WILL NOT BE FULL OF NERVOUS APPREHENSIONS ABOUT THE FUTURE OF CHRISTIANITY. Men may break themselves to pieces against the Rock of Ages, but the Rock itself will never move. (G. Calthrop, M. A.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 16. Behold, I lay in Zion] See the notes on the parallel places in the margin (Ge 49:32; Ps 118:22; Mt 21:42; Ac 4:11; Ro 9:33; Ro 10:11; Eph 2:20; 1Pe 2:6-8). Kimchi understands this of Hezekiah; but it most undoubtedly belongs to Jesus Christ alone; and his application of it to himself, even the Jews could not contest. See the margin as above.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Therefore: the coherence is something obscure and difficult. It may be made either,
1. Thus, Therefore I will bring most terrible judgments upon you; which are fully expressed, Isa 28:17-21. But before he comes to the commination, to which therefore properly belongs, he first propoundeth a comfortable promise concerning the sending of the Messiah, partly for the support of believers, who are apt to tremble at Gods word, and might otherwise be apt to despond at the prediction of such dreadful things; and partly to aggravate their misery, by comparing it with the safety and happiness which the godly and believing Jews, whom they despised and mocked, should find in Zion; and by signifying that that blessed and sure Foundation laid in Zion should yield them no support nor benefit, nor secure them from the vengeance of God. Or,
2. Thus, Because your refuges are so mean, and vain, and deceitful; therefore I will direct you to a better and surer Refuge, which will never fail those that trust to it, which God hath made in Zion. But if you shall despise and reject that Refuge, which I now offer to you all, if you will believe, then know that I will lay judgment to the line, &c., as it follows, Isa 28:17. And this seems to me to be the most natural and easy connexion.
I lay; I have purposed and promised it, and will, in the fulness of time, actually perform it.
In Zion in my church, which is commonly called Zion; and in Jerusalem, where this Stone shall be first laid, which afterwards spread further, and filled the whole earth, as it is said of it, Dan 2:35. For a Foundation, upon which I will build my church, consisting both of Jews and Gentiles, the Foundation of all the hopes, and comfort, and happiness of my people; the Foundation of my covenant made with my church, and of all my promises.
A Stone; not Hezekiah, but the Messiah, as appears,
1. From those Scriptures of the Old Testament, in which Christ is called a Stone, as Psa 118:22; Isa 8:14; Dan 2:34,35,45; Zec 3:9.
2. From the New Testament, where this text is directly expounded of Christ, as Rom 9:32,33; 1Pe 2:4.
3. From the last clause, wherein he requires faith in this Stone, which is not to be given to any mere man, Jer 17:5; and wherein he implies that this Stone was not yet come, nor to come speedily, into the world; whereas Hezekiah was king at the time of this prophecy.
4. From the usual practice of the prophets, and especially of this prophet, which is to comfort and fortify Gods people against the dread of approaching calamities by that great and fundamental promise of the Messiah, in whom alone all other promises are yea and amen; whereof we have seen some instances already, and shall see more hereafter.
A tried Stone; which I have tried, and approved as every way sufficient to be a Corner-stone, and a Foundation-stone. Such stones in buildings use to be chosen with care, and to be thoroughly examined by the builder.
Precious; giving not only strength, but beauty and glory, to the building, as corner-stones frequently do, Psa 144:12.
Corner-stone; uniting the several parts of the building together, making Ephraim and Judah, now sadly divided, one stick, Eze 37:19,24; and Jews and Gentiles, now implacable enemies, one church and people, Eph 2:14, &c.
A sure Foundation, upon whom you may securely rest; one who will not fail nor deceive you, as your lying refuges will.
He that believeth, to wit, this promise, or in this Stone, as it is explained, 1Pe 2:6,
shall not make haste; shall not make more haste than he ought, or, as we say, more haste than good speed; shall not hastily and greedily catch at any way of escaping his danger, whether it be right or wrong, but shall patiently wait upon God in his way till he deliver him. Withal, here is a plain intimation that the mercy here promised was not to be given presently, but after some considerable time; and therefore that they should quietly and patiently submit to Gods will under their present difficulties, and expect the accomplishment of it in Gods due time: compare Hag 2:3. The word here rendered make haste, is by the seventy interpreters rendered be confounded, whom the apostles follow, Rom 9:33; 1Pe 2:6, either because they thought it most convenient, in a matter where the difference was not considerable, to follow that translation which was most used and best understood by the generality of Jewish and Gentile Christians; or because the same word hath both these significations in the Eastern languages, as the most learned and worthy Dr. Pocock hath proved; or because the one follows upon the other, and precipitation or haste commonly exposeth men to shame and confusion; which also is implied in the following verses, wherein the dreadful judgments of God are denounced against those who should not believe, and would make haste to prevent or remove their dangers by any means whatsoever.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
16. Literally, “BeholdMe as Him who has laid“; namely, in My divine counsel(Re 13:8); none save I couldlay it (Isa 63:5).
stoneJesus Christ;Hezekiah [MAURER], orthe temple [EWALD],do not realize the full significancy of the language; but only intype point to Him, in whom the prophecy receives its exhaustiveaccomplishment; whether Isaiah understood its fulness or not(1Pe 1:11; 1Pe 1:12),the Holy Ghost plainly contemplated its fulfilment in Christ alone;so in Isa 32:1; compare Gen 49:24;Psa 118:22; Mat 21:42;Rom 10:11; Eph 2:20.
triedboth by the devil(Lu 4:1-13) and by men(Lu 20:1-38), and evenby God (Mt 27:46); a stone oftested solidity to bear the vast superstructure of man’s redemption.The tested righteousness of Christ gives its peculiar merit toHis vicarious sacrifice. The connection with the context is, though a”scourge” shall visit Judea (Isa28:15), yet God’s gracious purpose as to the elect remnant, andHis kingdom of which “Zion” shall be the center, shall notfail, because its rests on Messiah (Mat 7:24;Mat 7:25; 2Ti 2:19).
preciousliterally, “ofpreciousness,” so in the Greek, (1Pe2:7). He is preciousness.
corner-stone (1Ki 5:17;1Ki 7:9; Job 38:6);the stone laid at the corner where two walls meet and connectingthem; often costly.
make hasteflee inhasty alarm; but the Septuagint has “be ashamed”; soRom 9:33; 1Pe 2:6,”be confounded,” substantially the same idea; he who restson Him shall not have the shame of disappointment, nor flee in suddenpanic (see Isa 30:15; Isa 32:17).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD,…. In order to show what is the true foundation of hope and trust for security from death and hell, and to convince men of their vain and false confidence, as well as to comfort the people of God, such as truly feared him in Jerusalem; who, bearing the judgment denounced, might conclude that they were going to be cut off from being a nation, and that the family and kingdom of David would be at an end, and then where was the promise of the Messiah? wherefore, to relieve the minds of such, a promise of him is delivered out in the midst of a denunciation of judgment upon the wicked:
Behold, (a note of attention and admiration, as well as asseveration,)
I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone; which the Targum interprets of a king; and Jarchi of the King Messiah, who undoubtedly is meant, as is clear from Ro 9:33 and not Hezekiah, as Kimchi, and others, who was now king, when this prophecy was made, and therefore cannot respect him; but Christ, who is frequently spoken of, under the simile of a stone, Ge 49:24 and may be compared to one for his usefulness in the spiritual building, being both foundation and cornerstone, and for his great strength and durableness; and this is a stone of the Lord’s laying, which he had been laying in his eternal purposes and decrees, as the Mediator, Saviour, and Redeemer of his people; and whom he was about to lay, by sending him forth, in the fulness of time, to be incarnate, suffer, and die for them: and whom he lays as the foundation in the effectual calling of his people, to build their faith and hope upon; and this is done in Zion, in the church, which is built upon him, and where he is revealed and made known to be what he is, and as here described:
a tried stone; by the Old Testament saints, and by saints in all ages, who have ventured their souls on him, and laid the whole stress of their salvation upon him, and have been saved by him; and by Satan, and his principalities and powers, by his temptations of him in the wilderness, and by his attacks upon him in the garden, and on the cross, and found him to be an immovable stone, and were broken by him; and by his divine Father, who tried his faithfulness by trusting him with all his elect, and the salvation of them; and his great strength, by laying upon him all their sins, and the punishment due unto them. Some render it, “a stone of trial”, or “a trying stone” t; by which men are tried, and discovered to be what they are, whether believers or unbelievers, sincere Christians or hypocrites; which may be known by their conduct and behaviour to Christ; if they come to him as a living stone, and he is precious to them, they are true believers; but if he is to them a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, they are unbelievers, and reprobate persons, 1Pe 2:4:
a precious corner [stone]; which, as it is both for the beauty and strength of the building, so it knits, cements, and keeps the parts together; and of this use is Christ in the spiritual building; angels and men are knit together in him, Jews and Gentiles, Old and New Testament saints, saints above and saints below, saints in all ages, times, and places: and a “precious” stone he is, a pearl of great price; precious to his Father, who loves him, and delights in him, and has chosen and laid him as the foundation of his church, and of every true believer; to whom also he is precious, his person, names, offices, and relations, his blood, righteousness, and sacrifice, his word, ordinances, and people, and everything belonging to him:
a sure foundation; a well founded one u; which will never give way; a rock on which the church is built, and the gates of hell cannot prevail against it; a sure foundation of faith and hope, of peace, joy, and comfort, and of eternal happiness, to all that build upon it; a foundation firm and strong, immovable and everlasting; and so is every thing that is laid or depends upon it, the covenant of grace, and the promises of it, the persons of the Lord’s people, and their salvation:
he that believeth; either those things, as the Targum adds, this promise and prophecy, and the things contained therein; or in Christ, the foundation laid, the tried and precious cornerstone, so it is explained in 1Pe 2:6:
shall not make haste; or be impatient for the fulfilment of this prophecy, but patiently wait for it, knowing that it is for an appointed time, and will not tarry; and that God will hasten it in his own time; or will not make haste to lay any other foundation, being satisfied with this that is laid; nor make haste to a strange god, to another Saviour, knowing there is salvation in him, and in no other. The Targum is,
“shall not be moved when trouble comes;”
being founded upon this Rock of ages, which is proof against all storms and tempests; see Mt 7:24. The Apostles Paul and Peter, agreeably to the Septuagint version, render it, “shall not be ashamed”, or “confounded”; [See comments on Ro 9:33] [See comments on 1Pe 2:6].
t “lapidem probationis”, Junius Tremellius, Calvin, Vitringa. u “fundamentum fundatum” so some in Vatablus; “fundationem fundatissimam”, Junius Tremellius “fundamentum solidum”, Calvin; “solidissimum” Tigurine version; So Ben Melech interprets it a strong foundation.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
16. Therefore thus saith the Lord God. Isaiah now comforts the godly, and threatens against the wicked such punishment as they deserved. In the first instance, he brings forward consolation, because the godly were a laughingstock to those crafty men, as we see at the present day that irreligious men laugh at our simplicity, and reckon us to be fools, because amidst such deep adversity and sore afflictions we still hope that it will turn out to our advantage. In opposition to this insolence of the reprobate, the Prophet encourages and supports the hearts of the godly to pass by with indifference, and reckon of no account their jeers and reproaches, and to believe firmly that their hope will not be confounded or vain.
Behold, I lay in Zion a stone, a stone of trial. The demonstrative particle behold expresses certainty; as if he had said, “Though wicked men despise my words, and refuse to believe them, yet I will perform what I have promised.” The pronoun I is emphatic, that the prophecy may be more firmly believed. As to the words, the genitive בחן, ( bōchăn,) of trial, which is used instead of an adjective along with stone, may be taken both in an active and in a passive sense, either for a stone by which the whole building is “tried,” or examined as by a standard, or for a “tried stone.” The former meaning appears to me to be more appropriate, and undoubtedly the usage of the Hebrew language requires us to interpret it rather in an active sense. He calls it therefore a trying stone, or a trier, on account of the effect produced; because by this stone the whole building must be squared and adjusted, otherwise it must unavoidably totter and fall.
A precious corner-stone, a sure foundation. He calls it a corner-stone, because it supports the whole weight of the building, and by this name, which is also given to it in Psa 118:22, he commends its force and strength. Lastly, he calls it a “foundation,” and, so to speak, a “fundamental foundation,” proceeding gradually in the commendation of it; for he shews that it is not an ordinary stone, or one of many which contribute to the building, but that it is a highly valuable stone, on which the whole weight of the building exclusively rests. It is a stone, but a stone which fills the whole corner; it is a corner-stone, but the whole house is founded on it. As “another foundation cannot be laid,” so on it alone must the whole Church, and every part of it, rest and be built. (1Co 3:11.)
He that believeth shall not make haste. This clause is interpreted by some as an exhortation, “He that believeth, let him not make haste.” But I prefer to take it in the future tense, both because that meaning agrees best with the context, and because it is supported by the authority of the Apostle Paul. I do acknowledge that the Apostles followed the Greek translation, (233) and used such liberty, that while they were satisfied with giving the meaning, they did not quote the exact words. Yet they never changed the meaning, but, taking care to have it properly applied, they gave the true and genuine interpretation. Whenever, therefore, they quote any passage from the Old Testament, they adhere closely to its object and design.
Now, Paul, when he quotes this prophecy, adopts the Greek version, “He that believeth shall not be ashamed.” (Rom 9:33.) And certainly the design of the Prophet is to shew, that they who believe will have peace and serenity of mind, so that they shall not desire anything more, and shall not wander in uncertainty, or hasten to seek other remedies, but shall be fully satisfied with this alone. That is not a departure from the meaning, for the word signifying to make haste conveys the idea of eagerness or trembling. In short, the design of the Prophet is, to extol faith on account of this invaluable result, that by means of it we enjoy settled peace and composure. Hence it follows that, till we possess faith, we must have continual perplexity and distress; for there is but one harbour on which we can safely rely, namely, the truth of the Lord, which alone will give us peace and serenity of mind.
This fruit of faith is elsewhere described by the same Apostle Paul, when he says that, “being justified by faith, we obtain peace with God.” (Rom 5:1.) The Apostles and evangelists shew that this “stone” is Christ, because the Church was actually settled and founded at the time when he was presented to the view of the world. (Mat 21:42; Act 4:11; Rom 9:33; 1Pe 2:6.) First, in him the promises have their firmness; secondly, the salvation of men rests on him alone, and therefore if Christ be taken away, the Church will fall down and be ruined. The state of the fact therefore shews, that these statements must undoubtedly be referred to Christ, without whom there is no certainty of salvation; and therefore at every moment ruin is at hand. Next, we have the authority of evangelists and Apostles; and indeed the Holy Spirit conveys that instruction by their mouth.
But it will be proper to examine it more closely, that we may see in what manner these things are applied to Christ. First, it is not without good reason that Isaiah represents God as speaking, whose peculiar work it is to found the Church, as we have already seen elsewhere, and as the Prophet will afterwards declare; and this statement occurs very frequently in the Psalms. For if all men devote their labor to it, they will not be able to lay the least stone. It is God alone, therefore, who founds and builds his Church, though he employs for this purpose the labors and services of men. Now, by whom was Christ given, but by the Father? So then it was the heavenly Father who did and accomplished these things, and who appointed Christ to be the only foundation on which our salvation rests.
But was not this stone laid before? Did not the Church always rest on this foundation? I acknowledge that it did, but only in hope; for Christ had not yet been revealed, and had not fulfilled the office of a Redeemer. On this account the Prophet speaks of it as a future event, that believers may be fully persuaded that the Church, which they saw not only tottering and falling, but grievously shaken and almost laid in ruins, will yet be made firm by a new support, when it shall rest on a stone laid by the hand of God.
I lay in Zion. He says that it is “in Zion;” because Christ must come out of it, which contributes greatly to confirm our faith, when we see that he came out of that place which was appointed for this purpose so long before. Now, at the present day, “Mount Zion” is everywhere; for the Church has spread to the ends of the world.
Christ is truly “the stone of trial,” for by him must the whole building be regulated, and we cannot be the building of God, if we are not adapted to him. Hence also Paul exhorts us to
“
grow in him who is the head, from whom the whole body must be joined and united.” (Eph 4:15.)
Our faith must be wholly applied to Christ, that he may be our rule. He is also the “corner-stone,” on which rests not only one part of the building, but its whole weight, and the foundation itself.
“
No man,” as Paul says, “can lay any other foundation than Jesus Christ.” (1Co 3:11.)
This is the reason why, when the Lord promises by the mouth of Isaiah the restoration of his Church, he reminds us of the foundation; for it was wasted in such a manner that it resembled a ruin, and there was no way in which it could be restored but by Christ. As to Christ being called also the “stone of stumbling,” this is accidental; for the fault lies on ungrateful men, who, having rejected him, find him to be altogether different from what he would have been to them. But on this subject we have spoken at Isa 8:14. (234)
(233) Bogus footnote
(234) Bogus footnote
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
THE SURE FOUNDATION
Isa. 28:16. Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Behold! I lay in Zion a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner-stone for a firm foundation; he that believeth shall not be in haste.Birks [1105]
[1105] He that believeth shall not make haste. The apostles Paul and Peter, in citing this passage, quote from the Septuagint, and accordingly they render it he that believeth shall not be ashamed (Rom. 9:33), or confounded (1Pe. 2:6). The Hebrew word properly signifies to make haste, and hence, according to one lexicographer, to hurry hither and thither as persons in confusion. The apparent discrepancy between the text as given by Isaiah in the Old Testament and as quoted by the apostles in the New vanishes at once when we consider the nature of the figure employed. Conceive the situation of a man who has built his house upon the sand. The rains descend, the floods beat upon that house, the foundations begin to give way, the house totters to its fall, and the frightened inmate, terrified and bewildered, makes haste to escape to a place of safety. Another has built his house upon the rock. Upon this also the rains descend and the floods beat, but its firm foundations remain unmoved because it is founded upon a rock, and its happy inmate, so far from being obliged to make haste to escape, in conscious security may smile at the storm. He that believeth shall not make hasteshall not be confoundedshall not be ashamed of his hope.John Dowling, D.D.
I. Who this foundation is. II. Where this foundation is laid. III. The Author of this foundation. IV. The character of this foundation. V. The safety of those who build upon it.R. Bingham, M.A.: Sermons, p. 202.
I. Gods foundation for the eternal salvation of sinners. II. Its properties and excellences. III. The blessedness of those who build on it.W. Hancock, B.D.: Sermons, pp. 116.
The person and salvation of Jesus Christ are frequently spoken of under the image here presented, the most obvious and expressive image of security, that of a foundation. Our Saviour expressly appropriates to Himself (Psa. 118:22). The same architectural idea appears in Eph. 2:20; 1Pe. 2:4-8.
I. The grand object which God proposed to Himself in all His dispensations to man, viz., the laying of a foundation on which the hope of a repenting sinner might rest, with regard to God and Eternity. We trace this object,
1. In the primal promise (Gen. 3:15).
2. In the mysterious rite of sacrifice divinely appointed from the beginning to prefigure the Lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the world.
3. In the whole system of the Mosaic law, the schoolmaster to bring us to Christ.
4. More and more distinctly announced in the Psalms and Prophecies. The foundation proclaimed by Jehovah in the text is the chief end of all He has done and revealed to mankind; the central point in which all the lines of His providence and His word meet and terminate. Nature supplies the scene, providence the scaffolding, revelation the plan, of that mighty spiritual edifice of which this is the foundation.
II. This foundation was needed. None will dispute this point. So sensible are men that they need a foundation for hope towards God, that every one is disposed to lay his own. Every one feels that without some restitution made to a holy God sin cannot be pardoned nor the sinner saved. The question is, How shall a proper foundation be laid? where shall an adequate restitution be found? The most important question in the universe to be answered, and at the same time the most difficult! (1Sa. 2:25). Only three kinds of restitution on the part of man are imaginablepenitence, good works, voluntary sufferings; but none of these, nor all put together, can be deemed satisfactory in the case before us.
1. Penitence is no foundation of the soul before God; the most sorrowful remembrance of sin cannot repair it (H. E. I., 42254228).
2. Neither are good works, to which the same insufficiency attaches; they are always required, and therefore can never possess a superfluity or redundancy of merit (H. E. I., 375, 1950). And this applies to the best works; but what are ours in the sight of God?
3. The only remaining kind of restitution is by voluntary sufferings: this, by its very definition, is absurd and vain, for if any sufferings are required they become part of our duty; but to invent penances of our own is no part of our duty, and must be contradictory rather than satisfactory to the Divine law. Penitence, good works, voluntary sufferings, may be methods of procuring for us the priestly absolution of a poor sinful man like ourselves; but they will not secure for us the Divine acceptance.
III. Observe, it is in the midst of the false foundations, the baseless fabrics of sinners, that God in our text introduces His own, the only true and solid foundation. All who build their hope on any other will be compelled at last to say, We have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood we have hid ourselves. See 1Co. 3:10. The wonderful way in which this stone was laid; how a person of the Godhead assumed our human nature, He who was in the form of God took the form of a servant, He became Jehovah our righteousness. See 2Co. 5:19. He who laid the foundation of the heavens and the earth alone could lay this foundation in Zion!
The excellent qualities of this foundation. It is represented
1. As a tried stone: a foundation which has resisted the strongest attempts to shake it,that has stood the trial of unnumbered enemies and friends. It has been proved in the fiery trial of Divine justice, and the sins of the whole world have tried its strength to sustain an overwhelming weight. The storms of persecution have raged against it in vain, still it stands uninjured (Heb. 13:8)! In every respect a tried stone; tried by God, by Satan, by man; tried in life, in death, in eternity; tried by all the saints in all their trials; and never tried in vain!
2. As a corner-stone. The corner-stone unites both sides of an edifice; and St. Paul represents Christ as Him in whom the whole building, fitly compacted, rises a spiritual habitation of God (Eph. 2:19-22).
3. As precious; precious in respect to the Saviours Person as the only begotten Son of God; in respect to His sacrifice; a foundation composed not of corruptible things (1Pe. 1:18-19).
4. As a sure foundation: not an imaginary one like every other, but one real and substantial! In the Hebrew the word is reduplicated for the greater emphasis, A foundation, a foundation! Not a transitory but an eternal one. We are dying men; we sojourn in a world of vanity and death; what we want is a sure foundation. Behold in Christ this grand desideratum!
V. The happiness of him who rests on this foundation. He that believeth shall not make haste; he shall not be thrown into disquietude and agitation of spirit. Never has the strength of this foundation been so well appreciated as when it was most tried, most needed. When our flesh and our heart fail, then is the time to find in God the rock of our heart, in Christ the foundation of our soul!
CONCLUSION.But then we must possess the character defined in the text; he that believeth, is he that amidst the wreck of nature shall be saved on this foundation. We must see to it that we have that faith which is known by its fruits, which keeps the commandments, purifies the heart, works by love, overcomes the world, resists the devil, rejoices in Christ.Robert Hall: Fifty Sermons, pp. 6886.
I. Gods foundation for the stability of His Church. 1. This foundation was planned in the eternal counsels of Jehovah (1Pe. 1:20; Luk. 11:50; Rev. 13:8).
2. This foundation was actually laid in the incarnation and sufferings of Jesus Christ (2Co. 5:21; Gal. 3:13; 1Pe. 2:22).
3. This foundation is proclaimed in the preaching of the Gospel (Luk. 24:47; Act. 13:38-39).
II. The peculiar qualities by which this foundation is distinguished.
1. It is a stone, denoting strength.
2. It is a living stone. Possessing life in Himself, He is able to communicate it (Joh. 1:4; Joh. 5:26; Rom. 8:2).
3. A tried stone. The Father tried it, earth tried it, hell tried it.
4. A precious corner-stone. Corner-stones are generally placed for three purposes, for (a.) union; for (b.) beauty; for (c.) direction or example.
5. A sure foundation.
III. The safety and blessedness of all those who depend upon this foundation.J. Sherman: British Pulpit, ii. 185193.
Whatever subordinate reference there may be in these words to the Jews, the principal reference is to the Messiah. For this view we have apostolic authority. St. Paul says: As it is written. Where? In our text. Whosoever believeth in Him shall not be ashamed. And St. Peter quotes from Isaiah the same text.
I. THE EMBLEM OF THE LORD JESUS. A stone. Whether we consider Him a stone for solidity, or for strength, or for duration, He is all these; for whatever changes may take place among men, with Him there is no variableness nor shadow of turning. Peter calls Him
1. A living stone, meaning that He has life in Himself, that He procures and dispenses it to others. So Paul (Col. 3:4).
2. He is a tried stone. Everything in regard to Him was tried in the days of His flesh: His wisdom, His meekness, His love.
3. He is a precious stone. Precious to God the Father, to angels, to Christians. (1Pe. 2:7.)
4. A precious corner-stone. The corner-stone stands to unite. He unites in His person deity and manhood. We see in Him united the Old and New Testament dispensations. He unites Jews and Gentiles (Eph. 2:14).
II. His destination. Behold I lay in Zion, &c.
1. Who lays this foundation? GOD.
2. Where does He lay this foundation? In Zion. Jesus was a Jew, of the family of David. To the woman at the well He said, Salvation is of the Jews. See Psa. 110:2; and Isa. 2:2-3; Isa. 25:6.
III. How well He answers the purpose and end. A sure foundation. He is a sure foundation for all. Myriads have trusted in Him, and to the whole world it may be said (Isa. 26:4).
IV. The blessedness of those who make use of it. He that believeth shall not make haste. This declaration is not opposed to diligence; no, for the Kings business requireth haste. No (Psa. 119:60). But
1. To impatience (see chap. Isa. 5:19), Blessed are they that wait on Him.
2. To confusion. Terror will overwhelm the godless (Rev. 1:7). But believers (1Jn. 2:28).
V. Observe the ushering in of the whole scene. Behold. Angels pause before the great work of redemption, and desire to look unto these things. Herein is His love made manifest. Behold He hath commended His love, that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. Be not of those who Behold and wonder and perish; but let the command inspire you with gratitude, admiration, obedience, and zeal. Hear, and your souls shall live.William Jay: Sunday Evening Discourses, pp. 1825.
I. The prominent idea of the text. Christ a foundation-stone.
1. The Builder is Jehovah Himself. He drew the plan of the spiritual building, determined the materials of which it should be constructed, the stone on which it should rest, and then with His own hand laid that foundation.
2. The Site of the building was Zion. This is generally explained as referring to the Church. But is not the Church the building? Is there not an incongruity in saying, I lay in the Church a foundation-stone on which the Church is to be built? Is there any reason why the passage might not be understood literally as referring to Jerusalem? Is there not a very appropriate sense in which it was true that the foundation on which the Church rests was laid in Jerusalem? Was it not there that the Son of God offered up Himself as a sacrifice, and made atonement for man? Was it not there that the Holy Spirit descended and gave effect to the finished work of redemption? Was it not there the gospel was first preached by the apostles? And was not all this in accordance with the pre-arrangements of Gods plan? As Zechariahs fountain was to be opened to the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and as Ezekiels waters were to flow forth from the temple, so Isaiahs foundation-stone was laid in Jerusalem.
3. The building to be reared on this stone was to be composed of Christian men of all ages and all nations. They are being collected now; they will all as lively stones be gathered in, fitly framed together, and built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner-stone.
II. The qualities attributed to this foundation-stone.
1. A tried stone.
2. A precious corner-stone. How shall we estimate its worth? By its intrinsic value? Precious beyond all price. By its scarceness? No other stone like it in the universe. By the importance of the service it renders in the building? Precious to the Builder, to the holy angels, to the redeemed before the throne, to believers on earth.
3. A sure foundation. Firm, solid, safe.
III. The import of the promise annexed [1108]
1. Shall not make haste, or be in haste.
2. Shall not be put to shame (Rom. 9:33; Rom. 10:11, &c.)
[1108] A. V. Shall not make haste. See translations by Alexander and Delitzsch. Kay and Birks, Shall not be in haste. Cheyne, He that hath faith shall not give way. The text reading does not suit the connection; it seems to have arisen out of a confusion of the letters mem and kheth. Sept., Tay., Pesh., feeling that something was wrong, render freely Shall not be put to shame? But as to the connection see preceding extract from Dowling.
CONCLUSION.If not on the foundation, get on it. If on it, keep on it. Be not content to build on it yourself, but try to induce others to do so.John Corbin.
I. Sinful, dying man needs a foundation on which he may securely rest his immortal hopes. Every man who studies his own nature and destiny as immortal and accountable instinctively feels that he needs something to give him support under the trials of life, and peace and hope as he is about to enter upon the invisible world. This feeling may exert no decisive influence over his conduct; it may be counteracted by other influences; but it is in him; and he cannot get rid of it.
II. Such a foundation is laid for him in Zion. This foundation is our Lord Jesus Christ (1Pe. 2:4-6). It is described
(1) as a stone, indicating the solidity and durableness of that on which we are invited to rest our immortal interests. In rearing a building of any importance, we deem it essential that the foundation be laid in the most enduring materials. How much more should we look for this when we build for eternity!
2. As a tried stone. It has been tested in every possible way, and in the severest manner, and therefore justly claims our full and unhesitating confidence [1111] Other grounds of hope have been resorted to by menphilosophy, infidelity, self-righteousnessbut they have always failed in the day of trial. But a countless multitude, as they have risen from earth to heaven, have testified to the perfect safety of trusting in Christ. Hence it is called
(3) a precious stone. How precious none can know but such as have made trial of it in their times of needthe sinner, burdened with a sense of guilt, and sinking in despair; the believer, rejoicing in hope, and looking forward to heaven as his eternal home; the dying Christian, as he closes his eyes on this world, in joyful hope of another and a better; the redeemed in glory, as they cast their crowns at His feet. Ask them what they think of Christ.
4. As a corner-stone. The principal weight of an edifice rests on the corners; and hence, in building, the largest and firmest blocks are selected and placed there as best adapted to unite and support the whole structure. This is the idea intended to be expressed when Christ is spoken of as a corner-stone. It is He who, by His truth, His grace, and His spirit, converts and sustains the whole living temple (Eph. 2:20-22).
5. As summing up the wholea sure foundation. Hence it is said, He that believeth shall not make haste [1114] The specific idea is that of a man on whose house the tempest beats, and who apprehends that the foundation is insecure, or feels it to be giving way beneath him, and therefore makes haste to flee from his dwelling to seek a more safe position. The foundation laid in Zion is so firm and secure that if a man trusts himself on it, he shall have no cause of alarm, however the storms may beat, and the waves dash and foam around him. Amid the wreck of matter and the crash of dissolving worlds, he shall not be confounded, but shall come forth at last unharmed and victorious over all, and find in his Judge a friend, and in the kingdom of his Father and God an everlasting home.
[1111] If you had a bridge to cross which had stood for centuries and over which thousands of people had passed every day with entire safety, you would feel no hesitation in making that of it yourself. So is Christ set before youa tested foundation of hope.Hawes.
[1114] He that believeth shall not make haste. The apostles Paul and Peter, in citing this passage, quote from the Septuagint, and accordingly they render it he that believeth shall not be ashamed (Rom. 9:33), or confounded (1Pe. 2:6). The Hebrew word properly signifies to make haste, and hence, according to one lexicographer, to hurry hither and thither as persons in confusion. The apparent discrepancy between the text as given by Isaiah in the Old Testament and as quoted by the apostles in the New vanishes at once when we consider the nature of the figure employed. Conceive the situation of a man who has built his house upon the sand. The rains descend, the floods beat upon that house, the foundations begin to give way, the house totters to its fall, and the frightened inmate, terrified and bewildered, makes haste to escape to a place of safety. Another has built his house upon the rock. Upon this also the rains descend and the floods beat, but its firm foundations remain unmoved because it is founded upon a rock, and its happy inmate, so far from being obliged to make haste to escape, in conscious security may smile at the storm. He that believeth shall not make hasteshall not be confoundedshall not be ashamed of his hope.John Dowling, D.D.
III. It is the duty and privilege of all to build their hopes on this foundation without delay.
Joel Hawes, D.D.: Sermons, pp. 307317.
OUR TRUST AND OUR TEST
Isa. 28:16. A tried stone.
This phrase may be more literally rendered a stone of proof, and so rendered admits of two interpretations. The commonly received opinion, that it means a stone which has been tried and found sufficient is probably correct, and is more in harmony with the context; but Calvin understands by it a stone which was to be the test or standard of comparison for others. However this may be, we have inspired authority for saying that the stone is no other than our Lord Jesus Christ (1Pe. 2:6); and we may profitably consider Him in these two aspects, as our Trust and our Test.
I. HE IS OUR TRUST, because He has been tried. Tried in the days of His humanity by all the vehemence of temptations, and the weight of afflictions, yet, like gold from the furnace, rendered more shining and illustrious by the fiery scrutiny.(Hervey.)
[For further amplifications, see the other outlines on this text].
II. HE IS OUR TEST. In Him we have the true touchstone of character. All men naturally divide themselves into good or bad, saved or lost, by their acceptance or rejection of Him. By this touch-stone strange discoveries have been made in every age. The Pharisees and Scribes had a high character for piety until this trying stone was applied to them, and then it appeared what they werethe most inveterate enemies of God on earth. The reception which men gave to Jesus Christ is the grand criterion of their character, as Simeon predicted, (Luk. 2:34). This is the supreme test by which God is trying you, and by which your eternal destiny will be determined.Samuel Davies, A.M.: Sermons, ii. 2933.
A TESTED SAVIOUR
Isa. 28:16. A tried stone.
This is perhaps an allusion to the custom of builders who are about to lay the foundation for some massive structure. Before they raise the edifice they test the character of the substratum on which they think of building. Is not our blessed Lord in every way a tried, a tested, an approved Saviour! I. Did not the Father try Him and find Him faithful in every way?in His willingness, His obedience, His love? II. Did not Satan try Him and find Him upright? Tried by temptations addressed to His natural appetite, to pride, and to ambition. III. Was He not tried by wicked and unbelieving men? By Pharisees, Sadducees, and Herodians in His own day, and by sceptics in ours. IV. By the afflicted, the poor, the destitute in His own day and ours? and in each case only to bring out more clearly the marvellousness of His resources. V. By the contrite and broken-hearted? VI. By believers in every generation? And what has been their unanimous testimony? Is it not that they found Him more than equal to all their wants and able to do for them all that they could ask or think? Could so many millions of witnesses, in other respects trustworthy, be mistaken on this point? VII. HAVE YOU TRIED HIM?R. Bingham, M.A.: Sermons, pp. 208215.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
(16) Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation . . .We have first to deal with the imagery, then with the interpretation. The former connects itself with the importance which attached, in ancient as in modern architecture, to the foundation stone of a building (1Ki. 5:17). So in Zion the foundation stone was laid, as witnessed in the Arabic name of the Mosque of Omar (Kubhet-es-Sakhra),(i.e., dome of the rock), on the solid rock. In the stone which was made the head of the corner (Psa. 118:22) we have a like thought. From the prophets stand-point this was identical with the manifestation of Jehovahs righteousness in and through the Temple in its higher spiritual aspect. Christian interpreters have rightly found the true fulfilment of the words in the person of the Christ (Eph. 2:20; 1Pe. 2:6-7). The corner stone, the lapis angularis of the Vulg. is that upon which two walls at right angles to each other rest and are bonded together. The tried stone (literally, stone of proof) may be one (1) which stands every test, or (2) one which tries those who come in contact with it, becoming an asylum, or a stone of stumbling, according to their character. (Comp. Luk. 2:34-35; Luk. 20:18.)
He that believeth shall not make haste.The LXX. and some other versions give shall not be ashamed, which is a paraphrase rather than a translation. The English Version, following the Vulgate, represents the meaning of the Hebrew, haste and hurry being regarded in their contrast to the calm temper of a steadfast faith. (Comp. Isa. 5:19.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
16. Therefore To the evil ones a terrible threatening follows, to the good a glorious promise. As, on a former occasion Ahaz refusing to ask a sign Jehovah selected his own for him, so now Jehovah opposes to the false confidence of these evil ones, a foundation stone laid in Zion a firm foundation which nothing can move; (1Pe 2:6😉 a king mighty and morally terrible; no doubt the Messiah.
A precious corner stone Tried and unfailing, and sustaining the whole grand spiritual edifice. Who rests on this is sure never to fail.
Shall not make haste The sacred stone played an important part in the very early Semitic religions. Its influence lingered among the Jews, and lingers still among the Mohammedans. Modern travellers, too, are struck with the eminent figure here used, by the immense stones still remaining at the foundation of ancient walls. (See, especially, ROBINSON’S Researches, vol. i, pp. 343, 351, 422.) Some New Testament quotations from the Septuagint render “shall not be ashamed,” shall not lack confidence, which comes to the same thing. Gesenius thinks both these ideas are in the Arabic cognate word, hence doubtless in the Hebrew word itself, and this accounts for the Septuagint translation.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Isa 28:16. Behold, I lay in Zion, &c. Or, Behold, I am he who layeth for a foundation in Zion, a stone, a tried stone, a corner stone, precious, a sure foundation, &c. The prophet seemed immediately about to declare the temporal punishment determined for the Jewish elders; and indeed he does so, but in such a manner as to declare the counsel of God concerning the manner of executing this judgment, and the whole reason and order of its execution. He teaches therefore, in the first place, to refute the boasting of the wicked concerning the false foundation of their confidence; that God was now prepared to lay a better and more certain foundation of confidence for the true believers, which should sustain the great edifice of his church; a foundation with every property necessary to sustain the church; and that he would at length produce that foundation-stone, upon which the believers of all times had fixed their eyes; in which foundation whoever should perseveringly place his confidence, he should never fail; and this foundation, for the consolation of the pious, the prophet contradistinguishes, and opposes to the false foundation wherein the wicked placed their trust. The connection is this: “Thereforebecause you so impiously suppose that there is no foundation for the church, no support but such as carnal wisdom may supply;Behold, I, the powerful and faithful God, will at this time fulfil my promises, and lay in Sion that stone of the Great Redeemer, in whom whosoever believeth shall not be confounded.” See Amo 9:11. There is no doubt of the reference of this passage to the Messiah; who was a tried stone intimately known and explored by his Father; and who is also a trying stone, the touch-stone of the faith and truth of his people: A corner-stone; he, in whom all the parts of the spiritual building are united, Jews and Gentiles being made one in him. See Eph 2:16. A precious and a sure foundation, in whom are found all the treasures of grace; who is that only foundation, that rock, whereon his church is firmly built; on whom his faithful people wholly depend; and against which the gates of hell shall never prevail. See 1Co 3:11. Mat 16:18. It is added, He that believeth shall not make haste; which the LXX render, shall not be ashamed. St. Peter and St. Paul have both followed this rendering; and Vitringa thinks that the idea of being ashamed, is comprized in the Hebrew word iachish which we render shall not make haste; i.e. He shall not be in that perturbed, unsettled state of mind, which arises from doubt and uncertainty: “He shall possess his soul in patience, (according to a similar expression in scripture; Luk 21:19 compared with Rom 8:25.) and have none of those uneasy fears and sensations of shame and chagrin arising from the apprehension of disappointment.” What a blessing it is, to be always preserved in such a spirit!
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
I cannot begin to offer a single observation upon this most precious verse, before that I have first desired to bend the knee of my heart before the throne, to bless the Lord for it. And at the same time I would no less desire to adore the riches of his grace, in that the Lord God would not leave so blessed a portion to our conjecture, concerning whom it referred to, but by his servant the apostle Peter hath done it to our hands. Let the Reader therefore, when he hath again and again read what the prophet here saith, turn to the Epistle of Peter; 1Pe 2:6-8 . Reader! think how gracious our God and Father is, thus to lay the foundation of his Church! think how firm, immoveable, blessed, and eternal, is Jesus Christ, the rock on which his Church is built? And oh how safe and secure must they be in their everlasting interests, who are built upon him, against which the gates of hell cannot prevail. Oh! precious, precious Jesus! whatever stone of stumbling, or rock of offence thou art to those that know thee not, be thou to me the rock of salvation; for blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in thee! Reader! think it not troublesome to turn to those several scriptures; Mat 21:42 ; Psa 118:22 ; Act 4:11-12 ; Zec 3:9 ; Dan 2:34-35 ; Rom 9:33 ; Eph 2:20-21 ; Rom 10:11 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Isa 28:16 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner [stone], a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.
Ver. 16. Therefore thus saith the Lord God. ] This is purposely prefaced for the support of the faithful, when they should hear the ensuing dreadful denunciations, and see them executed. We cannot beat the dogs, but the children will be ready to cry.
For a foundation a stone.
He that believeth shall not make haste,
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Isaiah
THE FOUNDATION OF GOD
Isa 28:16
‘Therefore thus saith the Lord.’ Then these great words are God’s answer to something. And that something is the scornful defiance by the rulers of Israel of the prophet’s threatenings. By their deeds, whether by their words or no, they said that they had made friends of their enemies, and that so they were sure that, whatsoever came, they were safe. To this contemptuous and false reliance God answers, not as we might expect, first of all, by a repetition of the threatenings, but by a majestic disclosure of the sure refuge which He has provided, set in contrast to the flimsy and false ones, on which these men built their truculent confidence; ‘I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone.’ And then, after the exhibition of the great mercy which has been evoked by the very blasphemy of the rulers, and not till then, does He reiterate the threatenings of judgment, against which this foundation is laid, that men may escape; God first declares the refuge, and then warns of the tempest.
Without entering at all upon the question, which for all believing and simple souls is settled by the New Testament, of the Messianic application of the words before us, I take it for granted. There may no doubt be an allusion here to the great solid blocks which travellers tell us may still be seen at the base of the encircling walls of the Temple hill. A stone so gigantic and so firm God has laid for man to build upon.
I. Note, then, first, the foundation, which is Christ.
Jesus Christ is the foundation laid for all men’s security against every tempest or assault. The context has portrayed the coming of a tremendous storm and inundation, in view of which this foundation is laid. The building reared on it then is, therefore, to be a refuge and an asylum. Have not we all of us, like these scornful men in Jerusalem, built our refuges on vain hopes, on creatural affections, on earthly possessions, on this, that, and the other false thing, all of which are to be swept away when the storm comes? And does there not come upon us all the blast of the ordinary calamities to which flesh is heir, and have we not all more or less consciousness of our own evil and sinfulness; and does there not lie before every one of us at the end of life that solemn last struggle, and beyond that, as we most of us believe, a judgment for all that we have done in the body? ‘I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone.’ Build upon that, and neither the tempest of earthly calamities, changes, disappointments, sorrows, losses, nor the scourge that is wielded because of our sins, nor the last wild tempest that sweeps a man on the wings of its strong blast from out of life into the dark region, nor the solemn final retribution and judgment, shall ever touch us. And when the hail sweeps away the refuge of lies, and the waters overflow the hiding-place, this foundation stands sure-
And lo! from sin and grief and shame
I hide me, Jesus, in Thy name.
We may look at the same thought under somewhat different aspects. He is the foundation for all our thinking and opinions, for all our belief and our knowledge. ‘In Him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge,’ and whatsoever of solid fact men can grasp in their thinkings in regard to all the most important facts and truths with which they come into relation, is to be found in the life and death of Jesus Christ, and in the truths which these reveal. He is the foundation of all our knowledge of God, and of all our true knowledge of ourselves, of all our true knowledge of duty, and all our true knowledge of the relations between the present and the future, between man and God.
And in His life, in the history of His death and resurrection, is the only foundation for any real knowledge of the awful mysteries that lie beyond the grave. He is the Alpha from whom all truth must be deduced, the Omega to which it all leads up. Certitude is in Him. Apart from Him we are but groping amid peradventures. If we know anything about God it is due to Jesus Christ. If we know anything about ourselves it is due to Him. If we know anything about what men ought to do, it is because He has done all human duty. And if, into the mist and darkness that wraps the future, there has ever travelled one clear beam of insight, it is because He has died and risen again. If we have Him, and ponder upon the principles that are involved in, and flow from, the facts of His life and death, then we know; and ‘the truth as it is in Jesus’ is the truth indeed. To possess Him is to hold the key to all mysteries, and knowledge without Him is but knowledge of the husk, the kernel being all unreached. That Stone is the foundation on which the whole stately fabric of man’s knowledge of the highest things must ever be reared.
He is the foundation of all restful love. A Czar of Russia, in the old days, was mad enough to build a great palace upon the ice-blocks of the Neva. And when the spring came, and the foundations melted, the house, full of delights and luxury, sank beneath the river. We build upon frozen water, and when the thaw comes, what we build sinks and is lost to sight. Instead of love that twines round the creature and trails, bleeding and bruised, along the ground when the prop is taken away, let us turn our hearts to the warm, close, pure, perfect changeless love of the undying Christ, and we shall build above the fear of change. The dove’s nest in the pine-tree falls in ruin when the axe is laid to the root. Let us build our nests in the clefts of the rock and no hand will ever reach them. Christ is the foundation on which we may build an immortal love.
He is the foundation for all noble and pure living. He is the fixed pattern to which it may be conformed. Otherwise man’s notions of what is virtuous and good are much at the mercy of conventional variations of opinion. This class, that community, this generation, that school, all differ in their notions of what is true nobleness and goodness of life. And we are left at the mercy of fluctuating standards unless we take Christ in His recorded life as the one realised ideal of manhood, the pattern of what we ought to be. We cannot find a fixed and available model for conduct anywhere so useful, so complete, so capable of application to all varieties of human life and disposition as we find in Him, who was not this man or that man, in whom the manly and the feminine, the gentle and the strong, the public and the private graces were equally developed. In Christ there is no limitation or taint. In Christ there is nothing narrow or belonging to a school. This water has no taste of any of the rocks through which it flowed. You cannot say of Jesus Christ that He is a Jew or a Gentile, that He is man or woman, that He is of the ancient age or the modern type, that He is cut after this pattern or that. All beauty and all grace are in Him, and every man finds there the example that he needs. So, as the perfect pattern, He is the foundation for all noble character.
As the one sufficient motive for holy and beauteous living, He is the foundation. ‘If ye love Me, keep My commandments.’ That is a new thing in the world’s morality, and that one motive, and that motive alone, has power, as the spring sunshine has, to draw beauty from out the little sheaths of green, and to tempt the radiance of the flowers to unfold their lustre. They that find the reason and the motive for goodness and purity in Christ’s love to them, and their answering love to Christ, will build a far fairer fabric of a life than any others, let them toil at the building as they may. So, dear brethren, on this foundation God has built His mercy to all generations, and on this foundation you and I may build our safety, our love, our thinkings, our obedience, and rest secure.
II. Note next the tried preciousness of the foundation.
Think of all the assaults that have been made from this side and the other against Christ and His gospel, and what has become of them all? Travellers tell us how they often see some wandering tribes of savage Arabs trying to move the great stones, for instance, of Baalbec-those wonders of unfinished architecture. But what can a crowd of such people, with all their crowbars and levers, do to the great stone bedded there, where it has been for centuries? They cannot stir it one hair’s-breadth. And so, against Jesus Christ and His gospel there has stormed for eighteen hundred years an assaulting crowd, varying in its individuals and in its methods of attack, but the same in its purpose, and the same in the fruitlessness of its effort. Century after century they have said, as they are saying to-day, ‘ Now the final assault is going to be delivered; it can never stand this .’ And when the smoke has cleared away there may be a little blackening upon the edge, but there is not a chip off its bulk, and it stands in its bed where it did; and of all the grand preparations for a shattering explosion, nothing is left but a sulphurous smell, and a wreath of smoke, and both are floating away down into the distance. Generation after generation has attacked the gospel; generation after generation has been foiled; and I do not need to be a prophet, or the son of a prophet, to be quite sure of this, that all who to-day are trying to destroy men’s faith in the Incarnate Son of God, who died for them and rose again, will meet the same fate. I can see the ancient and discredited systems of unbelief, that have gone down into oblivion, rising from their seats, as the prophet in his great vision saw the kings of the earth, to greet the last comer who had fought against God and failed, with ‘Art thou also become weak as we? Art thou become like unto us?’ The stone will stand, whosoever tries to blow it up with his dynamite, or to pound it with his hammers.
But there is the other kind of testing. One proves the foundation by building upon it. If the stone be soft, if it be slender, if it be imperfectly bedded, it will crumble, it will shift, it will sink. But this stone has borne all the weight that the world has laid upon it, and borne it up. Did any man ever come to Jesus Christ with a sorrow that He could not comfort, with a sin that He could not forgive, with a soul that He could not save? And we may trust Him to the end. He is a ‘tried stone.’ ‘This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles,’ has been the experience of nineteen centuries.
So, being tried, it is precious,-precious to God who laid it there at a great and real cost to Himself-having given up ‘His only begotten Son’; precious, inasmuch as building upon it is the one safety from the raging tempest and flood that would else engulf and destroy us.
III. Note, next, the process of building.
IV. So note, lastly, the quiet confidence of the builders.
Dear friends, there is only one refuge for any of us-only one from the little annoyances and from the great ones; from to-day’s petty troubles, and from the day of judgment; from the slight stings, if I may so say, of little sorrows, cares, burdens, and from the poisoned dart of the great serpent. There is only one refuge for any of us, to build upon Jesus Christ, as we can do by simple faith.
And oh! remember, He must either be the foundation on which we build, or the stone of stumbling against which we stumble, and which one day will fall upon us and grind us to powder. Do you make your choice; and when God says, as He says to each of us: ‘Behold! I lay in Zion a foundation,’ do you say, ‘And, Lord, I build upon the foundation which Thou hast laid.’
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
I lay = I have laid. So the Syriac and Septuagint. Laid, in the counsels of eternity: in Abraham’s promise (Gen 12); in David’s covenant (2Sa 7).
in Zion. In Zion; not Zion itself.
a stone. This is a distinct reference to Isa 49:24. It is the Immanuel (of Isa 7), the promised Son (of Isa 9), the rod from Jesse’s stem (of Isa 11).
a tried stone = a test stone: i.e. tested itself, and testing others. Compare Isa 28:17, and Zec 3:9.
a sure foundation. Figure of speech Polyptoton (App-6), for emphasis. Hebrew a foundation founded: i.e. a wellfounded foundation, or a firm or sure foundation.
not make haste = be constant, steady, not fleeing away. See note on Pro 8:30. Note the Figure of speech Metonymy (of Subject), by which the hastening, or flight is put for the confusion and shame which is the cause of it. Septuagint reads “ashamed”. In Rom 9:33; Rom 10:11. 1Pe 2:6, the Figure of speech is translated, and means therefore exactly the same thing: = shall have no need for hurried flight (Compare Isa 49:23).
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Behold: Isa 8:14, Gen 49:10, Gen 49:24, Psa 118:22, Zec 3:9, Mat 21:42, Mar 12:10, Luk 20:17, Luk 20:18, Act 4:11, Act 4:12, Rom 9:33, Rom 10:11, 1Co 3:11, Eph 2:20, 1Pe 2:6-8
he that: Isa 30:18, Psa 112:7, Psa 112:8, Hab 2:3, Hab 2:4, Jam 5:7, Jam 5:8
Reciprocal: Exo 5:23 – neither hast thou delivered Deu 20:3 – tremble Deu 32:4 – the Rock Jos 4:10 – stood in the midst Jos 6:10 – until the day Rth 3:18 – Sit still 1Sa 14:19 – Withdraw 1Ki 5:17 – costly stones 1Ki 7:10 – the foundation 1Ki 8:1 – out of the city 2Ki 21:12 – whosoever Job 38:6 – fastened Job 40:23 – hasteth Psa 25:2 – O Psa 87:1 – His Pro 19:2 – and Isa 35:4 – fearful Isa 46:13 – salvation Isa 52:12 – ye shall Jer 42:7 – General Jer 44:28 – shall know Dan 2:34 – a stone Dan 2:45 – thou sawest Dan 3:26 – come forth Zec 4:7 – headstone Mat 16:18 – upon Luk 6:48 – and laid Luk 24:44 – in the prophets 2Ti 2:19 – the foundation Heb 6:19 – both Heb 12:22 – ye are come 1Pe 2:4 – stone
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
THE CALMNESS OF FAITH
He that believeth shall not make haste.
Isa 28:16
Our day is one in which men, emphatically, make haste. The idea of the text is, that if a man believes in God, and trusts in God, and will consent to work on the lines which God has laid down, he will be saved from that restless, worldly agitation of mind which produces so frequently such calamitous results.
I. Notice how, in temporal matters, this desirable state of things will be brought about.Let a man believe thoroughly in God as One who rewards faithful labour, although He may not see fit to reward it at once, and that man will be kept from the perils into which a restless and unsettled agitation of mind would probably betray him. He can afford to be strong and patient, for he knows that the reward will come.
II. Turn from temporal to spiritual matters.(1) The man who believeth has not to run helplessly hither and thither, when a strain comes upon him, seeking for principles to sustain him in the hour of trial. He has got his principles, and they are ready for use. Restless agitation is not his, for his soul is centred and held in equipoise. (2) The man who believes in a living God will not be full of nervous apprehensions about the future of Christianity. Men may break themselves in pieces against the Rock of Ages, but the Rock itself will never move. He that believeth shall not make haste.
Prebendary Gordon Calthrop.
Illustration
This passage brings before us what may be called the establishing power of faith; its power to impart strength and stability to the mind; its power to give solidity of character, to keep the soul calm amid all the changes of the world.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
Isa 28:16. Therefore, thus saith the Lord Because your refuges are vain and deceitful; therefore I will direct you to a better and surer refuge, which will never fail those that trust to it, which God hath prepared in Zion. But if you shall despise and reject that refuge, which I now offer to you all; if you will not believe, then know, that I will lay judgment to the line, &c., as it follows, Isa 28:17. Some think that in this famous prophecy, Behold I lay in Zion, &c., the prophet only means to tell these scorners, that God would protect Jerusalem, but not them, whom he would suffer to perish; and that he expresses the protection which God would afford it under the image of laying a foundation for new walls, with the largest and hardest stones, and those most fit for the purpose, to make it impregnable, and to stand for ages. But to understand the prophet thus, is to make him utter a false prophecy, which was afterward contradicted by facts. For Jerusalem, whether we understand thereby the city or its inhabitants, was not protected, but given up into the hands, first of the Chaldeans, and then of the Romans, to be destroyed. Certainly, as Lowth observes, this prophecy cannot belong to any but Christ, to whom it is often applied in the New Testament. But it may import thus much, with respect to the time wherein Isaiah lived, that those should never be disappointed who believed in God, who had made peculiar promises to his church, which should be eminently fulfilled at the coming of the Messiah, in whom all Gods promises made to his people should receive their final accomplishment. Understood of Christ, the interpretation of every expression in the passage is natural and easy; Behold I lay I have promised it, and in the fulness of time will perform it; in Zion In my church; for a foundation Upon which I will build my church, the foundation of all the confidence, hope, and comfort of my people; a stone Not Hezekiah, as some have supposed, but the Messiah, as appears, 1st, From those passages of the Old Testament, in which he is called a stone, as Psa 118:22; Isa 8:14; Dan 2:34-45; Zec 3:9. 2d, From those texts of the New Testament, in which this prophecy is directly expounded of him, as Rom 9:32-33; 1Pe 2:4. 3d, From the last clause, wherein faith in this stone is required, which is not to be placed in any mere man, or mere creature. A tried stone Which I have tried and approved, as every way sufficient for a foundation to support the building. A precious corner-stone Uniting the several parts of the building together, making Ephraim and Judah, and Jews and Gentiles, though now implacable enemies, one church, and giving not only strength, but beauty and glory to the building, as cornerstones frequently do. A sure foundation Upon whom you may securely rest; one who will not fail nor deceive you, as your refuges of lies will. He that believeth Namely, this promise, or places his confidence in this stone, as it is explained 1Pe 2:6; shall not make haste Shall not hastily catch at any way of escaping his danger, whether it be right or wrong, but shall patiently wait upon God in his way till he deliver him. The words
, here rendered, shall not make haste, are by the LXX. translated,
, shall in no wise be ashamed or confounded, because precipitation, or haste, commonly exposes men to shame and confusion.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
28:16 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a {r} tried stone, a precious corner [stone], a sure foundation: he that believeth {s} shall not make haste.
(r) That is, Christ, by whom all the building must be tried and upheld, Psa 118:22, Mat 21:42, Act 4:11, Rom 9:33, 1Pe 2:6 .
(s) He will be quiet, and seek no other remedies, but be content with Christ.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
"In contrast to this supposedly clever diplomacy of power politics, God declares the true basis of Israel’s safety: the person and work of the Messianic Redeemer." [Note: Archer, p. 628.]
The Lord God’s response to His people’s lack of faith in Him was to reveal that He was doing something too. He was laying a firm foundation in Jerusalem that they could and should build on. This huge "stone" was tested, planted securely, and a sound basis for security. Ancient cornerstones were not the same as modern western ones. They were the largest and most determinative stone in the foundation of a building. Builders oriented the rest of the foundation in reference to this stone (cf. Eph 2:20), and it supported the major portion of the superstructure. What was this stone? I believe it was Messiah (cf. Psa 118:22; Zec 3:9; Zec 10:4; Mat 21:42; Mar 12:10; Luk 20:17; Act 4:11; Rom 9:33; Rom 10:11; Eph 2:20; 1Pe 2:6).
The commentators have offered many interpretations of this cornerstone, and several of them have written extended discussions of the figure. In biblical usage, the figure of God as a stone goes back to Gen 49:24 (cf. Deu 32:4; Isa 8:14-15). Since Messiah would be God (Isa 9:6), the interpretation of this stone as Messiah is in harmony with these other biblical uses of the figure (cf. Isa 8:14). God was doing something that would make possible a stable edifice (Israel), namely, preparing for Messiah. Those in Isaiah’s day who believed that God was working for His people would not panic. Perhaps Isaiah’s hearers did not recognize this as messianic prophecy when the prophet gave it (cf. Isa 7:14; Isa 9:6). Perhaps they thought that Isaiah just meant that God was doing something hidden that would result in the security of their nation, and they should trust Him.