Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 30:26
Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the LORD bindeth up the breach of his people, and healeth the stroke of their wound.
26. moon and sun are, in the original, poetic epithets (see on Isa 24:23).
as the light of seven days ] the light of a whole week concentrated in one day. But the clause is wanting in the LXX., and being redundant is probably a late gloss.
bindeth up the breach wound ] Cf. ch. Isa 1:6.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Moreover – In addition to all the blessings which are enumerated above.
The light of the moon – Light is in the Scriptures an emblem of purity, intelligence, happiness, prosperity; as darkness is an emblem of ignorance, calamity, and sin. This figure is often used by the poets. Thus Horace:
Soles melius nitent.
Carm. liv.: Od. v. 8.
The figure of augmenting light to denote the blessings of religion, and especially of the gospel, is often employed by Isaiah (compare the notes at Isa 2:5; Isa 9:2; Isa 10:17; Isa 13:10; Isa 58:8, Isa 58:10; Isa 60:1, Isa 60:3, Isa 60:19-20). The sense of this passage is, that in those future days the light would shine intensely, and without obscurity; that though they had been walking in the light of the true religion, yet that their light would be greatly augmented, and that they would have much clearer views of the divine character and government. That this refers to the times of the Messiah there can be little or no room to doubt. It is language such as Isaiah commonly employs to describe those times; and there is a fullness and splendor about it which can suit no other period. There is nothing in the connection, moreover, which forbids such an interpretation of the passage.
Shall be as the light of the sun – Shall be clear, bright, intense. The sense is, there shall be a great increase of light, as if the light of the moon were suddenly increased to the brightness of the meridian sun.
Shall be seven-fold – Seven times as intense and clear as usual, as if the light of seven days were concentrated into one. The word seven in the Scriptures often denotes a complete or perfect number; and indicates completeness or perfections. The phrase as the light of seven days, Lowth supposes is a gloss which has been introduced into the text from the margin. The reasons which he adduces for this supposition are, that it is missing in the Septuagint, and that it interrupts the rhythmical construction. But this is not sufficient authority for rejecting the words from the text. No authority of MSS. is adduced for thus rejecting them, and they are found in the Vulgate, the Chaldee, and the Syriac. They are missing, however, in the Arabic.
In the day – Vitringa supposes that this refers to the time of the Maccabees; but although there may be a reference to that time, yet the idea is evidently designed to include the future times of the Messiah. The sense of the prophet is, that subsequent to the great calamities which were to befall them, there would be a time of glorious prosperity, and the design of this was to comfort them with the assurance that their nation would not be wholly destroyed.
Bindeth up the breach of his people – Or the wound. The calamity that should come upon them is thus represented as a wound inflicted on them by the stripes of punishment (see the notes at Isa 1:5). Yahweh would heal it by restoring them to their own land, and to their former privileges.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Isa 30:26
The Light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun
Faiths astronomy
It is worthy of closest observation that the Bible standpoint is as distinct from the astrologers position as it is from that of the modern observer.
It differs equally from each in this respect, that Gods believing children are ever taught to regard these mightiest natural powers as our servants, and not as our sovereigns. Instead of their regulating our destiny, it is our destiny which regulates their continuance and perpetuity. So in this passage we have an example of faiths astronomy.
I. We have here A VISION OF INTENSE GLORY. We are told that even now the moonlight in the lands with which Isaiah was familiar is far more brilliant than that with which we are favoured. It is the strength of those moonbeams that gives significance to the promise, The sun shall not smite thee by day nor the moon by night. And yet the prophet, with all his acquaintance with brighter heavens than ours, ventures upon the conception of still further splendour both by night and by day. It is evident that he is not looking at these things from a bare mundane standpoint. But he is in an ecstasy over the blessed intents of love which God has or His people, and he finds all the ordinary accounts of well-being too scant and meagre to portray the good which is in store; and so, in a bold flight of descriptive eloquence, he tells of sevenfold suns and of sun-like moons diffusing through renovated skies all the myriad benefits of their beams with unfailing profusion. We observe that this forecast of increased glory is the reverse of that which natural calculation would give. The natural theory that finds favour is that the sun once shone more potently than now he does, and that in the future his ray will become still feebler, until night and death settle down upon the entire solar system. While science, then, tells us of exhausting power and expiring energy, it is the province of revelation and of faith which accepts it to speak of superior founts of being, those original sources from which the sun itself and all on which it shines first derived their existence. We observe, again, that human calculation, if it did foresee such an augmentation of sunlight, would be ready to account it disastrous rather than welcome. A seven-fold sun would only emit one flash, and anon this globe would be drawn into its flaming vortex, and the brightness would be but that of conflagration and ruin. Again, then, we have to hall another wisdom besides that of men, which contemplates exaltation where sense only detects degradation, and which effects felicity where carnal reason would only anticipate evil. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man. There was as much disposition in Isaiahs day as there is in ours to think that the world and the sun are wearing out and growing old, and also to think that an intense blaze would be obnoxious rather than welcome. But Isaiah was moved by the Holy Ghost to tell us of a light that should be at once of surpassing effulgence, and yet of sweet and benign influence; a light that should shine, not upon a trembling and alarmed race, but upon those whose breach had been bound up and whose wound had been healed. A vision this, then, of fuller light, of fairer sight, and of people with capacities of beholding and revelling in these sun-like moons and seven-fold suns. Intellectually this promise is accomplished in our days by our discoveries in the structure of the heavens. The moon is for us a grander object than the sun was to the beholders of ancient days, and the sun now strikes our minds as sevenfold, yea, as we speak now, a thousand fold, more magnificent than they thought him then. But the benefit of these discoveries to our spirits was all vouchsafed to Isaiah when the Holy Ghost moved him to contemplate in believing rapture the great resources of God and the beneficence with which He would unlock those resources for the enrichment of men upon whom He would shine with other light than that of suns and moons in the day when the Lord shall bind up the breach of His people. The seven-fold sun is the visage of God Himself; the moon equalling the sun is the glory of the Lamb illuminating the Holy City.
II. This glory is set forth as TARRYING FOR A CERTAIN DAY. Our temptation is to think that our circumstances make our characters. But there is more of truth in the contrary thought, that our characters make our circumstances. The land of Palestine has become barren, but this did not produce the degeneracy of her people, but the people degenerated first and the land subsequently. God turneth a fruitful land into barrenness for the wickedness of them that dwell therein. So material things may lend their aid to spiritual results, but really it is the spiritual that regulates the material. The first great change must happen in us, then we shall be qualified to behold and to enjoy the splendour that God will disclose without us. The light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun on a certain day at a date which is determined, not by the chronology of suns and moons, but by that of quickened spirits and broken hearts in the day that the Lord shall bind up the breach of His people.
III. Notice, ON WHAT IT IS THIS VISION OF GLORY IS THUS SUSPENDED. There is joy amongst the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth, and it is no exaggeration to say that the events that transpire within human hearts are of more account in Gods eyes than the vastest convulsions of nature. And the wonder is that sin has not altered that. The story of Joshuas command over the heavenly orbs is not too severe a demand upon my faith when once I have a firm grasp of the truth that the sun has a personal Maker and Maser. But that when we have erred and offended, when the constancy and regularity which the heavenly masses show is found wanting in us, and we become like shooting stars, wandering on a devious way without settled orbit or consistency of course, that God should still track us with His pity, that He should still reserve Lines of gracious attraction for us, and that even for such offenders as we He should submit an entire universe to reconstruction–is not this the most incredible thing of all? Two practical interpretations may be assigned to this imagery.
(1) The joy of the new convert may be depicted thus. The exultation of the delivered one often causes all outward sights to appear brighter because of the souls quickened enjoyment.
(2) Or, again, the prosperity that attends upon Christian union and concord may be delineated by this imagery. (J. M. Stephens, B. A.)
The seven-fold light of the sun
There is a glory above the brightness, of the midday sun; it is the more excellent glory of the Sun of Righteousness. There is a beauty softer and more tender than the pale splendour of the queen of night; it is that of the Church, walking in the beauty and light of her Lord. Taking it all in all, the Church, even now, is the glory of humanity, and the light of the world. And better days are in store for her, when the clouds and shadows shall flee away, and a more glorious illumination shall break forth upon her and from her. This promise, in common with many other texts of Isaiah, shines out like a sun from an angry and troubled sky. But the gathering clouds only add to the intensity of the splendour. Gods richest love ever shines on the blackest clouds of sorrow and sin. We have here–
I. THE CHURCHS UNHAPPY CONDITION. The breach of His people, and the stroke of their wound, may represent more than internal division or disunion; but it may well stand for that, as being among the most grievous of the Churchs wounds, and the invariable outcome and index of other maladies.
1. As a cause of pain. All the Christians of most Christlike spirit have mourned over these divisions, and have had great searchings of heart because of them.
2. There is also the disfigurement of a wound, in the marring of a most perfect and glorious creation by these internal divisions.
3. There is also fatal weakness for work and service from these wounds.
II. GODS GRACIOUS VISITATION OF HIS CHURCH. The Lord shall bind up the breach of His people, and heal the stroke of their wound. We know that the wounds of the body are healed, not by external applications, but by the vigour of the vital forces within itself pouring out their overflowing life, bringing the parts together, and making them whole; and the Churchs wounds are to be healed by the Lords infusion of a larger measure of spiritual and Divine life; of more piety, more power, more zeal, more affection.
III. THE BLESSED CONSEQUENCES OF THE HEALING OF THESE WOUNDS. The light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun seven fold, as the light of seven days.
1. These images denote an immense increase of the Churchs light, or future glory, as the consequence of the healing of the Churchs wounds. Where there is more love there will be more light.
2. The healing of the breach would bring an immense increase of light to the Church within her actual boundaries. This light of the various portions of the Church when brought together, will be more intense–will shine with a mightier fulness, than when separated.
3. The healing of the Churchs wounds would bring increase of light beyond the boundaries of the Church. The Church is destined to be the light of the world. Seven fold! There are days that have a seven-fold fulness of light in comparison of other days, when the summer sunshine has a splendour, and a glory, and a fulness, that are equal to the light of many cloudy and dark days. And what is it that makes the difference? It is the intervening atmosphere that is different; it is the thick and murky air that intercepts and weakens his light. Only let the Church be in a right condition, and the revealed Christ will shine forth in gladness, and the revelation will discover itself in all its fulness. There is no glory of the Church that is not made up of individual excellence, and the only way to promote its splendour and glory is to elevate individually the Christian spirit. (J. Riddell.)
The transfiguring power of righteousness
As men grow in godliness and righteousness so will the glory of all things be revealed and heightened. Just as men realise the grace of God will human nature itself be uplifted and all things be transfigured with it.
I. The text finds an illustration in the direction of NATURE. How wonderfully science has enlarged our conception of the magnitude of the universe; it is always pushing back the sky. How wonderfully, too, has science raised our conception of the orbs which fill the infinite abyss! To us also the sea has become mysterious and magnificent as an inverted sky. And the earth itself has become a veritable wonderland. The microscope, the spectroscope, the telescope, have discovered unexpected treasures. But someone asks, What have godliness and righteousness to do with that science which is ever more fully interpreting the world? I reply, Godliness and righteousness make science possible. Godliness creates that infinite curiosity of soul which is the life of science, and righteousness secures that condition of things which makes the prosecution of science possible. Galileo was a Christian, and it was whilst he was worshipping in the Cathedral of Pisa that the swinging of the lamp set him thinking aright about the sublime forces and laws of the universe. Which historical fact is a parable, for again and again has science lit her torch at the lamp of the temple. Faith and righteousness make science possible. And the more pure in heart men become the more vividly do they see and appreciate the beauty and grandeur of the world.
II. The text will be illustrated in THE PERFECTING OF HUMANITY. As the Spirit of God frees us from unbelief, fear, passion, and puts us into fellowship with our Heavenly Father, so does our nature unfold all its wonderful faculties. Just as men become spiritual and righteous so do they gloriously realise themselves.
1. The fact is that our bodily organs are growing, they are ever becoming enlarged in range and heightened in ability. Our senses are becoming sevenfold. What a wonderful ear the telephone has given us! What a penetrating quality the telegraph has imparted to our voice! What a splendid eye the telescope, the microscope, and camera have given us! What marvellously manifold and facile hands we have acquired in the scientific and mechanical apparatus of our times. All this is equivalent to the enlargement of the bodily organs themselves.
2. A higher moral and spiritual life will realise most gloriously our intellectual faculties. Ruskin assures us that none of the great masters had faults of character but those faults told in their work, mysteriously staining and darkening the prismatic splendours of their masterpieces.
3. Mans highest moral possibilities are being attained in Jesus Christ.
III. The text finds fulfilment in THE TRANSFORMATION OF SOCIETY. By the action of the Spirit of God society is being purified and uplifted; instead of being a mere convention for selfish ends it is becoming a brotherhood, its spirit the spirit of kindness, its law the law of love. And how wonderfully will this change, silently, deeply working, ennoble and glorify everything. Nothing glorifies like unselfishness. How a noble, unselfish spirit will exalt government! And ennoble commerce! And all industrialism! And so everything else will be uplifted and beautified as you get more of the spirit of love into it. All culture, all pleasure, all domesticity, all friendship. I heard a brother say in a love feast that when he walked home after his conversion he thought that all the sign boards in the street had been freshly painted. Yes, indeed, love will paint everything fleshly, both the commonplace and grand; paint them with the hues of heaven, gild them with untarnished gold. Today we have to apologise for government whenever we mention it; we have to confess the vulgarity of trade and industrialism; we have sorrowfully to acknowledge how much there is in social life that justifies cynicism and satire; we have to blush for pleasure; there is little poetry and greatness in these things, but it shall not be always so. Poor sentiments are yielding; nobler thoughts are prevailing; and the prophecy in our text is being fulfilled every day. (W. L. Watkinson.)
The Christian should cherish large expectations concerning the Church and the race
God has done wonderful things, but He will do greater yet. A brother in York told me that one day he noticed an American eagerly scanning one of their ancient buildings. Said the visitor: I am looking at your grand cathedral. Our cathedral, said the citizen; Stranger, come with me, and taking the pilgrim a little distance, he pointed him to the magnificent pile, and said, That is our cathedral, sir. We are always being tempted to pause at some miserable shanty or other as if it were the final shrine of God. We look at our nation as if it were about the embodiment of ultimate civilisation. We look at our Church as if it were the perfected Church of God. But the Spirit is ever showing us beyond all the poor present an idea home, Church, nation, an ideal full of righteousness. (W. L. Watkinson.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 26. Shall be sevenfold] The text adds keor shibath haiyamayim, “as the light of seven days,” a manifest gloss, taken in from the margin; it is not in most of the copies of the Septuagint. It interrupts the rhythmical construction, and obscures the sense by a false, or at least an unnecessary, interpretation.
By moon, sun, light, are to be understood the abundance of spiritual and temporal felicity, with which God should bless them in the days of the Messiah, which should be sevenfold, i.e. vastly exceed all that they had ever before possessed.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
As the light of the sun, for constancy and brightness; which, as also the following clause, is to be understood metaphorically, of the most glorious and comfortable condition of Gods church, far surpassing what it was in former ages. And so this, as well as other passages in this chapter, concerns the times of the gospel.
As the light of seven days; as if the light of seven days were combined together in one. Its light shall then be transcendently more bright and glorious than it hath hitherto been. Which magnificent expressions seem to be too high for the deliverance of the Jews, either from Sennacherib or but of Babylon; and do much better agree to the times of the gospel, in which the light is far more clear, and the grace of God much more abundant, than ever it was ill former times. And this exposition seems the more probable, because it is the manner of the prophets, and especially of this, who is rightly called the evangelical prophet, to take all occasions to speak of the days of the Messiah, and of the blessed privileges of that time and state of the church, among which they constantly reckon light, whether you take it for knowledge or for comfort, to be one.
In the day that the Lord bindeth up the breach of his people, and healeth the stroke of their wound; when God shall effectually cure the wounds and breaches of his people, first making up the breach between him and them, then making Israel and Judah to be one, who now are sadly divided; and making Jew and Gentile to be one fold under one Shepherd, even the Messiah, which the prophets foretell that it shall be in the times of the gospel.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
26. Image from the heavenlybodies to express the increase of spiritual light and felicity.”Sevenfold” implies the perfection of that felicity,seven being the sacred number. It shall also be literally fulfilledhereafter in the heavenly city (Isa 60:19;Isa 60:20; Rev 21:23;Rev 21:24; Rev 22:5).
breachthe wound, orcalamity, sent by God on account of their sins (Isa1:5).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun,…. An hyperbolical expression, used to set forth the exceeding great light of the Gospel under the dispensation of it, which would as far exceed the light of the former dispensation, comparable to the moon, as the light of the sun exceeds the light of the moon; as also that great degree of spiritual joy and comfort that should be in those times, especially in the latter day; and the Jews themselves apply this to the times of the Messiah, and to the times after the war of Gog and Magog, after which they say there will be no more sorrow and distress; so Kimchi; and to these times it is applied in the Talmud h; and Aben Ezra says, that all interpreters understand it of the time to come:
and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days; as if the light of seven days was collected together; or as if there were seven suns shining together. The Targum and Jarchi not only make it to be seven times seven, that is, forty nine; but multiply forty nine by seven, and make it three hundred and forty three, or as the light of so many days. Maimonides i thinks it has respect to the seven days of the dedication of the temple in Solomon’s time, when the people never had such glory, felicity, and joy, as at that time: with this compare the light of the New Jerusalem state, Re 21:23:
in the day that the LORD bindeth up the breach of his people, and healeth the stroke of their wound; not only peace being made, by the blood of Christ, between God and his people, and they healed by his stripes, and Jew and Gentile reconciled in one body on his cross, and through the preaching of the Gospel; but as will be in the latter day, the fulness of the Gentiles will be brought in, and all Israel shall be saved; and all the Lord’s people will be one in his hands, and be entirely freed from all grievances and afflictions by the man of sin, who will now be destroyed, and also will be in a sound and healthful state and condition. This will be at the time of the rising and ascending of the witnesses, Re 11:11.
h T. Bab. Pesach. fol. 68. 1. & Gloss. in ib. & Sanhedrin, fol. 91. 2. i More Nevochim, par. 2. c. 29. p. 267.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The promise now rises higher and higher, and passes from earth to heaven. “And the light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be multiplied sevenfold, like the light of seven days, in the day that Jehovah bindeth the hurt of His people, and healeth the crushing of His stroke.” Modern commentators from Lowth downwards for the most part pronounce a gloss; and there is one external evidence in favour of this, which is wanting in the case of the other supposed glosses in Isaiah, namely, that the words are omitted by the lxx (though not by the Targum, the Syriac, or Jerome). Even Luther (although he notices these words in his exposition and sermons) merely renders them, der Sonnen schein wird siebenmal heller sein denn jtzt (the sunlight will be seven times as bright as it is now). But the internal evidence does not favour their spuriousness even in the case before us; for the fact that the regularity of the verse, as consisting of four members, is thereby disturbed, is no evidence at all, since the v. could be warranted in a pentastic quite as well as in a tetrastic form. We therefore decide in this instance also in favour of the conclusion that the prophet composed the gloss himself. But we cannot maintain, with Umbreit, that the addition was necessary, in order to guard against the idea that there would be seven suns shining in the sky; for the prophet does not predict a multiplication of the sun by seven, but simply the multiplication of its light. The seven days are the length of an ordinary week. Drechsler gives it correctly: “The radiated light, which is sufficient to produce the daylight for a whole week according to the existing order of things, will then be concentrated into a single day.” Luther renders it in this way, als wenn sieben tag ynn eynander geschlossen weren (as if seven days were enclosed in one another). This also is not meant figuratively, any more than Paul means is figuratively, when he says, that with the manifestation of the “glory” of the children of God, the “corruption” of universal nature will come to an end. Nevertheless, it is not of the new heaven that the prophet is speaking, but of the glorification of nature, which is promised by both the Old Testament prophecy and by that of the New at the closing period of the world’s history, and which will be the closing typical self-annunciation of that eternal glory in which everything will be swallowed up. The brightest, sunniest days then alternate, as the prophet foretells, with the most brilliant moonlight nights. No other miracles will be needed for this than that wonder-working power of God, which even now produces those changes of weather, the laws of which no researches of natural science have enabled us to calculate, and which will then give the greatest brilliancy and most unchangeable duration to what is now comparatively rare – namely, a perfectly unclouded sky, with sun or moon shining in all its brilliancy, yet without any scorching from the one, or injurious effects from the other. Heaven and earth will then put on their sabbath dress; for it will be the Sabbath of the world’s history, the seventh day in the world’s week. The light of the seven days of the world’s week will be all concentrated in the seventh. For the beginning of creation was light, and its close will be light as well. The darkness all comes between, simply that it may be overcome. At last will come a boqer (morning), after which it will no more be said, “And evening was, and morning was.” The prophet is speaking of the last type of this morning. What he predicts here precedes what he predicted in Isa 24:23, just as the date of its composition precedes that of chapters 24-27; for there the imperial city was Babylon, whereas here the glory of the latter day is still placed immediately after the fall of Assyria.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
26. And the light of the moon shall be. The Prophet was not satisfied with describing an ordinary state of prosperity, without adding something extraordinary; for he says that the Lord will go beyond the course of nature in this kindness and liberality. It never happened that the brightness of “the sun” was increased, unless when “the sun” stood still in the days of Joshua, in order to give time for pursuing the enemies, (Jos 10:12,) and when, for the sake of Hezekiah, the dial went backward. (2Kg 20:11; Isa 38:8.) But on this occasion nothing is said about those miracles. (304) Besides, the Prophet does not speak about prolonging the course of “the sun” above our horizon, but about increasing its brightness sevenfold. He shews what will be the condition of the godly under the reign of Christ; for in other respects the Lord
“
maketh his sun to shine on the bad as well as on the good.” (Mat 5:45.)
But here he speaks of happiness in which ungodly men can have no share. There is one kind of liberality which is bestowed indiscriminately on all, and another kind which is peculiar to believers alone; as it is said, “Great is the abundance of thy goodness which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee.” (Psa 31:19.) Isaiah speaks of this special favor, (305) and, in order to describe it, borrows metaphors from well-known objects. Accordingly, he declares that God will enlighten believers with so great brightness that, if “seven” suns were brought together, their brightness would be far inferior to this.
When the Lord shall have bound up the breach of his people. That the weight of afflictions, by which the people were soon afterwards overwhelmed, might not hinder them from believing this statement, he likewise adds another promise, that the Lord will be like a physician to heal their wounds. Hence it follows, that the people must be chastened, and, in some measure, prepared for repentance by wounds, and must even be crushed and bruised in such a manner as to be reduced almost to nothing.
And healed the stroke of their wound. What he now adds about a “stroke,” is intended to shew that this bruising will not be slight; for it resembles a body beaten and wounded by many strokes. If therefore we shall be ready at any time to think that the Lord deals harshly with us, let us call to remembrance those predictions, that the Lord will “bind up our wounds,” which otherwise might appear to be mortal. And if any one ask why the Lord chastises his people so severely, I reply, that it produces no good effect on us when he treats us mildly; our vices are deeply rooted, and adhere to our very marrow, and cannot be separated but by a razor which has a sharp and keen edge.
(304) Bogus footnote
(305) Bogus footnote
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
GROWING LIGHT
Isa. 30:26. Moreover, the light of the moon, &c.
These words, doubtless, look forward to the restoration of Israel. But there are spiritual truths implied in them, which are of present and immediate application. We have here different kinds of light; different degrees of the same light; and also the seasons when such increase of light is vouchsafed.
I. THE LIGHT OF THE MOON. It is a real light, but it is reflected light. It does not come to us direct from the sun, but is thrown first upon the moon, and from her it comes to us. Hence its peculiarities. It is a dim light; it does not warm and quicken; it does not make things grow and vegetate. It is a waning light; sometimes it is full, but it soon begins to decline, and for a season it is wholly withdrawn. It is a light which never makes day; even at its fullest, it is still night; men occasionally walk and work in it, but usually they rest and sleep.
Why do I notice these things, which are obvious to all on a moments reflection? Because I believe there is important Divine truth hidden under them. All Nature is a prefiguring or shadowing forth of grace and truth (H. E. I. 5, 6).
We have been describing the religious knowledge of not a few. It is moonlight; it does not come to them direct from Christ, the Sun of Righteousness, the source of all true light; it is hearsay; they have learned it from their fellow-men. It is not experimental, and hence its deficiencies. It is a vague, dim knowledge; they see nothing clearly, neither sin nor salvation, neither Christ nor themselves, neither law nor gospel, neither grace nor glory. It is a cold, heartless knowledge; it does not warm, quicken, stir their affections, influence their wills. It is a waning knowledge; sometimes they seem full of itafter a stirring sermon, or when they are in the company of frank, lively Christiansbut a short time passes and it is all gone, as if it had never been. It never makes them children of the day, it never arouses them from the sleep of sin and worldliness, nor sends them forth to work for God and for eternity.
Such is this moonlight knowledge. Still it would be something if it led those who have it to Christ, the true Light. The people of Sychar had the moonlight when the woman on whom the Sun had just arisen came and cast a portion of her light upon them. But they did not rest on this; they went out of the city and saw and heard for themselves, and so many believed and were saved. But this is what many fail to do in revival times. The Lord has visited His people, has refreshed and saved them; and others speak freely of the good they have received, sing gladly their new songs, and are for the time stirred and affected. But it is only moonlight; they have never come to Him who changes not; and so when the warmth and stir of the revival passes they fall back, and perhaps become worse than before. Not a few are still in the moonlight, and are satisfied with it. You hear about Christ, perhaps can talk about Him, but this is not salvation (H. E. 1. 3148).
II. THE LIGHT OF THE SUN. This comes immediately from the sun, and hence its excellence. It is a clear, bright light, and so things afar off and near at hand are distinctly seen. It is a warm light; there is heat in it; it thaws and chases away the winter; it makes spring and summer; it causes all things to grow and vegetate. It is an awakening light; it makes day, and men arise and go to their work, and wild creatures and evil-doers retire. It is a constant light. The sun never waxes or wanes; he is ever the same. True, there are wintry days, dark, dreary days, but still the sun is there, shining through the clouds, and shining them away, and soon breaking forth again in his glory. Is this the character of your religious knowledge? [Work out the details of the comparison.]
III. DIFFERENT DEGREES OF LIGHT. The light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days. Here there is only a change of degree. There is no new luminary; it is still the sun, but it is far more intense and continuous. We can conceive what would be the effect of this in the natural world. Things now invisible from their minuteness or indistinctly seen from their distance would then be clearly revealed, and fruits and flowers which cannot at present be reared in our climate would then be common and indigenous among us. There can be a sevenfold Divine light and Divine warmth. Christ has it to give. He will one day give it to all His people, and the weak shall be as David, and David as the angel of the Lord. Even now He grants it to those who seek Him with the whole heart. The patriarchs, prophets, apostles had it. Nor are these peculiar, exceptional cases. I believe there is more of it than we are aware of, and probably there would be more if we did not straighten and hinder the Lord by our want of desire and expectation.
IV. THE TIMES WHEN THIS BLESSING IS VOUCHSAFED. In the day that the Lord bindeth up the breach of His people, and healeth the stroke of their wound. This evidently looks forward to the time when the long alienation between Israel and their God will be healed. But is He the God of the Jews only? Nay, of the Gentiles also. There are two opposite errors into which men fall on the reading of these promises. Some see only the Jew in them; others do not see the Jew in them at all. But there is room for both in those green pastures. Even now there are fulfilments of this promise in its truest, highest sense. Even now the light of the moon becomes as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun as that of seven days. It is so, for instance, often at conversion; it is a passing from darkness into marvellous light. It is often so when the backslider returns. Look at David in the 51st psalm, what light he has got! It is so often in times of sore affliction. Then the exceeding great and precious promises come out into view, as darkness shows us worlds of light we never saw by day (Psa. 94:12). It is so at death, when the soul leaves its cage and soars away into heavenly light and liberty. It will be so when the Lord comes on the resurrection morn. And once more, oh! the light there will be when the Lamb opens the books and makes every mystery plain! (H. E. I. 3127, 3128).John Milne: Gatherings from a Ministry, pp. 114122).
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
(26) The light of the moon shall be . . .The vision of the future expands, ascending from the new earth to the new heaven. With the passionate joy in light which sees in it, in proportion to its intensity, the symbol of the Divine glory, Isaiah beholds a world in which sun and moon shall shine with a brightness that would now be intolerable, but which shall then be an element of delight.
In the day that the Lord bindeth up.The day of blessing follows on the day of judgment. Even that had, for Gods true servants, been the beginning of blessings, but this was but the earnest of a more glorious future. Isaiah reasons as St. Paul does. If one is the reconciling of the world, what shall the other be but life from the dead ? (Rom. 11:15). (Comp. also Deu. 32:39.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Isa 30:26. Moreover, the light of the moon, &c. The images of light and darkness are made use of in almost all languages, to represent prosperity and adversity; but the Hebrews make use of them more frequently than any other nation, insomuch that they scarce ever omit them when the subject will bear them. They may thereby be referred to the parabolic style, wherein they are used with greater boldness and luxuriance than in any other: for the Hebrews do not confine themselves to the images of the spring, of the day-break, or of a cloudy night; but describe the sun and stars, rising as it were out of a new creation, with re-doubled splendor, or immerged a second time into chaos and primeval darkness. Does the prophet promise a renewal of the divine favours, and a revival of every kind of felicity to his people? With what dazzling colours does he paint the event, which no version can convey, nor indeed any totally obscure! The light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, &c. There is nothing difficult in the literal meaning of these words, which informs us of the fifth illustrious benefit to be conferred upon the church, together with the sign of the time in which it should be conferred. The emblem made use of by the prophet is singly designed to express the great and exuberant plenty of light with which the people of God should be blessed at that time; and the sum of what he says is, that God would copiously and gloriously illuminate his church by his Spirit, and that the church should be sanctified and rejoiced by his glory, Exo 29:43 insomuch that if the former times were compared, its measure and abundance should be as much more as seven exceeds one, or as the collected light of seven days exceeds the light of one day, or as the light of the sun exceeds that of the moon. See Zec 12:8. The sign of the time in which this event should happen, is said to be in the day when the Lord bindeth up the breach of his people, &c. that is to say, when he restores the Jews, utterly ruined and overthrown, and with them the church, miserably afflicted and fallen by its idolatry, vices, and hypocrisy, and gives again to religion its honour and beauty. Compare Isa 30:13-14 and ch. Isa 1:5-6. The time here pointed out must necessarily be the same with that mentioned in the preceding note, for the subject is the same. See 1Ma 13:41 and 1Pe 1:8. 2Co 4:6. Vitringa, and Bishop Lowth’s 4th Prelection.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
DISCOURSE: 904
BENEFITS ARISING FROM GODS RETURN TO THE SOUL
Isa 30:26. Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the Lord bindeth up the breach of his people, and healeth the stroke of their wound.
THE dispensations of Providence, if rightly improved, are calculated to promote our spiritual welfare.
The Jews derived many instructive lessons from the dealings of God with them in Egypt and the wilderness. But God here promises them more abundant knowledge and joy by means of their deliverance from the Assyrian host [Note: That this is the literal import of the passage appears from ver. 31. compared with ver. 25, 26.]. The grandeur, however, of the words before us evidently shews, that the prophet had respect to more distant times, and to blessings which no temporal deliverance was able to convey. We must say of this promise,
I.
That it is verified amongst us at this day
It is fulfilled to us,
1.
At the first reconciliation of our souls to God
[The convictions of an awakened conscience are as deep wounds to the soul. Sin, though it be honey in the mouth, becomes gall in the stomach: Peter, Judas, and David in particular, shew what wounds it will make in the soul [Note: Psa 32:1-6.]; nor can any one view it aright, without having his heart broken with a sense of its malignity.
But reconciliation with God heals these wounds. The blood of Christ is that balm of Gilead, which never was applied in vain [Note: Jer 8:22.]. It operates as the sight of the brazen serpent on the dying Israelites, to restore to life and vigour those, whose state seems altogether desperate [Note: Joh 3:14-15.]. David, after the foulest transgressions, declared his persuasion of its efficacy to cleanse even him [Note: Psa 51:7-8.]. And all who are reconciled to God through Christ experience its full effects [Note: Luk 4:18. 1Pe 1:8.].
Now this is a season wherein the knowledge and joy of the soul are much enlarged. Till this great event is accomplished, the views of the soul are very contracted; nor is it acquainted with any joy but what is carnal: but no sooner has this taken place, than the light of the knowledge of the glory of God shines into the heart, and all his perfections are admired and adored. Now also the excellency of the Gospel salvation is discovered; and the reasonableness of a life devoted to God is deeply felt. Now is a new and inexhaustible source of happiness opened to the soul: and its peace and joy flow down like a river; and all the pleasures that it ever enjoyed in the ways of sin, are no more in comparison of its present consolations, than the faint light of the moon to the invigorating rays of the meridian sun. But this promise has a further accomplishment,]
2.
At any return of God to the soul after a season of darkness and desertion
[God finds it necessary sometimes to hide his face from his people, and thus to wound their souls afresh. How the loss of Gods presence afflicts a pious soul, may be seen in the lamentations and complaints which the most eminent saints have uttered on such occasions. Job tells us, that Gods arrows stuck fast in him, and that the poison of them drank up his spirit [Note: Job 6:4.] And David even roared for the disquietness of his heart. Nor are there wanting at this day many whose experience accords with the description which that eminent saint has given of his [Note: Psa 42:3-4; Psa 42:6-7; Psa 42:9.].
But the return of God binds up this breach. The deliverance from such a state is compared by our Lord to the joy that succeeds the pangs of childbirth [Note: Joh 16:21.]: nor can its effects upon the soul be more fitly represented than in the language of the Jews on their return from Babylon [Note: Psa 126:1-3.].
And this also is another season of peculiar instruction and comfort. By this the soul obtains much deeper discoveries of its own corruptions [Note: Job 42:5-6.]; and more encouraging views of Gods power and faithfulness [Note: Isa 25:1; Isa 25:4.]: the depths of Satans devices also are more clearly discerned, and, if its joys are less ecstatic than before, they are more pure and refined. The still fuller accomplishment of the text will take place,]
3.
At the hour of dissolution
[God never entirely withholds his chastening rod in this world. The whole of this life is a state of discipline But at death there is an end of every thing that is penal or painful. Whatever wounds may have pained us here, death will heal them all [Note: Rev 21:4.]
Then will this promise be fulfilled in its utmost extent. What amazing discoveries will be made to the soul on its first dismission from the body! And with what inconceivable raptures will it be transported, as soon as ever it shall enter the gates of heaven! Whatever it may have heard of the blessedness of the saints, it will surely say, that not a thousandth part had been declared to it. Then shall those descriptions given by the prophets all be realized [Note: Isa 60:19-20.]. As for the joys it experienced below, they shall appear as nothing in comparison of those it will then possess. What the saints tasted here was through the medium of ordinances, and mixed with frequent sorrows, and, at best of short duration; but what they possess in heaven will be immediate, unmixed, and everlasting.]
But the true import of the promise leads me to shew,
II.
That it shall hereafter be more abundantly verified amongst Gods ancient people
They shall be healed of their wounds at a period not far distant
[Certainly their breach is grievous, and their wounds are to all human appearance incurable. So has God himself declared [Note: Jer 30:12-15.]. Nevertheless God in due season will surely restore health to them, and heal them of their wounds [Note: Jer 30:16-17. The word therefore should here be translated nevertheless.]. Through the preaching of the Gospel shall this blessed consummation be effected [Note: Jer 33:6.], and happiness shall be restored, not to that nation only, but through them to the whole world [Note: Jer 33:7-11. with Rom 11:12; Rom 11:15.] ]
And oh! what light and joy and holiness will then abound!
[Methinks, when it is said that the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea, we must understand it as predicting not the extent only of divine knowledge, but its depth also, and the blessedness arising from it: the light of the moon will then indeed be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun sevenfold, as the light of seven days; yea the moon shall be confounded, and the sun itself ashamed, when the Lord of hosts shall reign in Mount Zion, and before his ancients gloriously [Note: Isa 24:23.]. This is beyond all doubt to be accomplished in due season; The ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs, and everlasting joy upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness; and sorrow and sighing shall flee away [Note: Isa 35:10.]. Of the extent of their knowledge in that day, and the fulness of their joy, we at present can form scarcely any conception. What surprising views will they then have of the whole mystery of redemption, when they shall see all the prophecies fulfilled, and all the types and shadows realized in the person and work of Christ! Of that season, no less than of heaven, it is said, The city will have no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it; for the glory of God will lighten it, and the Lamb be the light thereof. And ~there shall be no night there; and they need no light of the sun: for the Lord God giveth them light; and they shall reign for ever and ever [Note: Rev 21:23-26; Rev 22:5.].]
Application
1.
Let us look forward then to that blessed period
[We need not be distracting our minds, and the minds of others, with curious questions about the precise manner in which Christ and his saints will reign: still less is it expedient to dogmatize upon this matter, as some are doing at this day: but we should look forward to it with holy joy, and expect it with most confident assurance: and the 98th Psalm should express the habitual frame of all our minds [Note: Psa 98:1-9.] ]
2.
Let us seek the foretaste of it in our own souls
[Why should we rest satisfied with low measures of holiness or of joy, when it is our privilege to rejoice in Christ with joy unspeakable and full of glory [Note: 1Pe 1:8.]? We are not contented with the light of the moon, when we can have the light of the sun, nor are we satisfied with the sun in its early dawn, when we can enjoy it in its meridian height. Let us, then, extend this desire to all spiritual blessings, and never be satisfied, till we are as holy and as happy as God himself can make us.]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
Isa 30:26 Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the LORD bindeth up the breach of his people, and healeth the stroke of their wound.
Ver. 26. Moreover, the light of the moon, &c. ] i.e., Very great shall be your joy upon that slaughter of Sennacherib’s army: the sun and moon also seeming to rejoice with you by their extraordinary outshinings.
In the day that the Lord bindeth up the breach.
a Hyperius.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
the light of the moon: Isa 11:9, Isa 24:23, Isa 60:19, Isa 60:20, Zec 12:8, Zec 14:7, Rev 21:23, Rev 22:5
bindeth: Isa 1:6, Deu 32:39, Job 5:18, Jer 33:5, Jer 33:6, Lam 2:13, Heb 6:1, Heb 6:2, Amo 9:11
Reciprocal: Psa 60:2 – heal Isa 25:8 – rebuke Isa 32:3 – General Isa 52:8 – see Isa 60:17 – brass Jer 6:14 – hurt Jer 30:17 – For I Jer 31:34 – for they Eze 36:11 – will do Eze 47:9 – for they Dan 12:4 – many Hos 11:3 – I healed Mal 4:2 – the Sun Mat 11:11 – he that Act 26:13 – above
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Isa 30:26. The light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun For constancy and brightness, which, as also the following clause, is to be understood metaphorically, of that glorious and happy state of the church which should take place in future times. And the light of the sun seven- fold, as the light of seven days As if the light of seven days were combined together in one. Its light shall then be transcendently more bright and glorious than ever it was before. Which magnificent expressions seem evidently to be too high for the deliverance of the Jews, either from Sennacherib or out of Babylon; and do much better agree to the times of the gospel, in which the light is far more clear, and the grace of God conferred on his people much more abundant, than ever it was in former times. In the day that the Lord bindeth up the breach of his people, &c. When God shall effectually cure the wounds and breaches of his people, first making up the breach between himself and them, then making Israel and Judah to be one, and making Jews and Gentiles to be one fold under one shepherd.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
30:26 Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the {y} sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the LORD bindeth up the breach of his people, and healeth the stroke of their wound.
(y) When the Church is restored, the glory of it will pass seven times the brightness of the sun: for by the sun and moon which are two excellent creations, he shows what will be the glory of the children of God in the kingdom of Christ.