Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 41:18
I will open rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of the valleys: I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water.
18. Cf. ch. Isa 30:25. in high places ] R.V. on the bare heights. The word occurs only in ch. Isa 49:9 and in Jeremiah (Isa 3:2 &c.). In Num 23:3 the text is doubtful.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
I will open rivers – That is, I will cause rivers to flow (see the note at Isa 35:7). The allusion here is doubtless to the miraculous supply of water in the desert when the Israelites had come out of Egypt. God then supplied their needs; and in a similar manner he would always meet his people, and would supply their needs as if rivers of pure water were made to flow from dry and barren hills.
In high places – The word used here denotes properly barrenness or nakedness Job 33:21; and then a hill that is bare, or destitute of trees. It is applied usually to hills in a desert Jer 3:2, Jer 3:21; Jer 4:11; Jer 7:29; Jer 14:6. Such hills, without trees, and in a dry and lonely desert, were of course usually without water. The idea is, that God would refresh them as if rivers were made to flow from such hills; and it may not improperly be regarded as a promise that God would meet and bless his people in situations, and from sources where they least expected refreshment and comfort.
And fountains in the midst of the valleys – (See Isa 30:25, note; Isa 35:6, note).
I will make the wilderness – (See the note at Isa 35:7).
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Isa 41:18
I will open rivers in high places
Gods I wills
In this verso the Lord twice says, I will; and in that respect this verse is in harmony with the rest of the chapter.
When we come to the I wills of God, then we get among the precious things, the deep things, the things which minister comfort and strength to the people of God. We sometimes say I will; but it is in a feeble fashion compared with the way in which God says it. People say Must is for the king. So I will is for the King of kings. It is His prerogative to will
1. It is an I will, uttered with deliberation. James said, Known unto God are all His works from the beginning of the world. We say, I will in a hurry, and then we take time to repent of it. We are under excitement, persuasion, or compulsion, and we say, I will, and we are very sorry afterwards, and perhaps we are so unfaithful as not to keep our word; but God never speaks under compulsion; He is almighty. God never speaks in a hurry; He has infinite leisure. Now, when a man speaks a thing prudently and wisely, you believe that he will carry it out, if he can. You may have much more confidence with regard to what the Lord says, for He has not spoken without due deliberation.
2. When God says, I will, His resolution is supported by omnipotence. You say, I will, but you cannot do what you have promised. That can never happen with God.
3. When God says, I will, it is sealed with immutability. We are always changing. Hence, we say to-day, I will, and we mean it; but to-morrow we wish that we had never said. I will, and the next day we say, I will not. But God never changes.
4. When God says, I will, it will be carried out in faithfulness. (C. H.Spurgeon.)
Two I wills in Isa 41:1-29.
I propose to apply the text as a general promise to many things.
I. TO THE TRIALS OF SAINTS.
1. Their temporal trials. What though there is nothing at present, perhaps by to-morrow morning the Lord may have opened rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of the valleys.
2. The spiritual experience of believers. There are in our text four words relating to water. Everything had been dry before, and there was no water for the thirsty to drink. Now, here you have rivers, fountains, a pool, and springs of water. There is a difference in the four words. The first is rivers. There shall come directly from God a rush of mighty grace, like the streams of flowing rivers. There shall be waters to swim in. You shall have abundance where before you had nothing. The next word is fountains, which may be rendered wells. Wells are places to which people regularly go for water. They represent the means of grace. Perhaps you have been to the means of grace, and obtained no comfort. But, on a sudden, God appears, and opens wells in the midst of the valley. Now the service is all full of refreshment. There is a third word, I will make the wilderness a pool of water. Here you have the idea of overflowing abundance. God can give you so much joy that you will not know how to hold it all; you will have to let it be like a pool that overflows its banks. God can give you so much earnestness that you can hardly employ it all in the work that you have to do. He can give you so much nearness to Himself, that your heart shall scarcely be able to contain your delight. The fourth word is springs. It seems to indicate a perpetual freshness. Where there was a long-continued drought, there shall come perpetual freshness; always something new–new thoughts of Christ, new delights in holy service, new prospects of the world to come, new communion with God.
II. To the experience of converts.
1. Who were these people to whom the Lord spoke? They were people who were poor and needy. God will not do much for spiritually rich people; I mean you who say that you are rich in yourselves.
2. When will He do it? When they begin to seek Him. When the poor and needy seek water. Can you expect God to bless you if you do not seek Him?
3. But the time is noted further still. It is not only when they begin to seek, but when they begin silently to plead. When their tongue faileth for thirst, I the Lord will hear them. They could not speak. Yet says the Lord, I will hear them. A glib tongue is bad at praying. When a man prays in his heart, he is often like Moses, slow of speech
4. But the time mentioned is more sorrowful still; these people were in abject distress. When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none. My day of grace in past, says one. I wonder whoever told you that he! Ah, well, says one, I have gone to look for mercy, and there is none. So you think. Now is the time for Divine interposition. When you seek water, and find none, God will open rivers for you.
5. The promise also relates to those who are in various positions. Some are in very high places. You run up to the very tops of the mountains, and you fancy God cannot reach you there, but He says, I will open rivers in high places. A river on the top of a mountain is a wonderful thing; but God can make it so. Others are ordinary sinners down in the valleys. Well, says the Lord, I will open fountains in the midst of the valleys. Yes, and to vary the promise still more the Lord says, I will make the wilderness a pool of water. Have you ever seen a large extent of flat country covered with sand and stones? God pictures you as being like that barren, dried-up land, and He says that He will turn you into a pool of water. In a word, no condition can be so bad but God can change it.
III. TO THE LABOURS OF WORKERS FOR GOD. God can soon change the condition of the plot of ground on which you are at work.
1. I may be speaking to one who says, Mine is a very bad place to work in, for I cannot get the people to come and hear the Gospel; there seems to be no spirit of hearing. Do not give up preaching; do not give up working, you who long for souls to be saved, for God can suddenly give a love for His house, and an eagerness to hear the Gospel.
2. Another says, I get the people to hear, but there is no feeling. When the old St. Pauls Cathedral had to be taken down for the present one to be built, Sir Christopher Wren had to remove some massive walls that had stood for hundreds of years; so he had a battering-ram, with a great mass of people, working away to break down the walls. I think that for four-and-twenty hours they kept right on, and there seemed to be no sign of giving way, the walls were so well built, very different from our modem walls. The structure was like a rock, it could not be stirred; but the battering-ram kept on and on and on, blow after blow, stroke after stroke, and at last the whole mass began to quiver, like a jelly, and by and by over went the massive walls. You have only to keep on long enough, and the same thing will happen in your work. The first blows upon the wall were not wasted; they were preparing for the others, and getting the whole structure into a condition of disintegration; and when that was done, down it came, and great was the fall thereof.
3. Well, says one, what we want in our place is for the ministry itself to be supplied. If the minister himself is dry, what is to be done? Find fault with him, and leave him? No! if he is a man of God, pray for him, and never rest till the Lord makes the dry land springs of water.
4. But what is wanted, too, is the same blessing upon the helpers. What is the preacher to do, what is the Church to do, if the workers are half asleep? One sleepy Christian in a Church may do much mischief. In some businesses the whole thing is so arranged, that if one person goes to sleep, all the machinery goes wrong; and I believe that it is very much so in the Church of God.
5. Then we may look for a change throughout the whole congregation. Men and women will cry out, What must we do to be saved? There will be plenty of people to be talked to about their souls. We shall have no difficulty in increasing the Church, month by month, with such as shall be saved.
6. Then all the neighbour-hood will be transformed. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Gods abounding generosity
He does not measure His gifts of water by the pint and by the gallon; but here you have pools, and springs, and rivers. When He has given waters, He will give trees to grow by the waters. When God gives blessing, He makes other blessings to spring out of it. (C. H.Spurgeon.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
In high places; upon the mountains, where by the course of nature there are no rivers.
In the midst of the valleys; or, in the valleys, to wit, in such of them as are not well watered. I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water: these people, who are like a dry and barren wilderness, I will abundantly water with my blessing, and make them fruitful and beautiful, as the next verse showeth; which may be understood, either of the Jews, who were in a wilderness condition, till God brought them out of it; or of the Gentiles converted to the true religion under the gospel.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
18. Alluding to the waters withwhich Israel was miraculously supplied in the desert after havingcome out of Egypt.
high placesbare oftrees, barren, and unwatered (Jer 4:11;Jer 14:6). “High places . .. valleys” spiritually express that in all circumstances,whether elevated or depressed, God’s people will haverefreshment for their souls, however little to be expected it mightseem.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
I will open rivers in high places,…. Which is not usual; but God will change the course of nature, and work miracles, rather than his people shall want what is necessary for them; thus he opens to them his everlasting and unchangeable love, and makes it manifest, and shows it to them, and their interest in it, which is a broad river, that cannot be passed over; this is in high places, it flows from the throne of God, and of the Lamb; and of this river of pleasure he makes his people to drink, the streams whereof make glad the city of our God; likewise the fulness of grace in his Son, whose grace is as rivers of water in a dry land, exceeding abundant, and very refreshing; also the graces of his Spirit, which he gives in great abundance, and are those rivers of water he causes to flow forth from them that believe in Christ, in the comfortable exercise of them; see
Ps 36:8,
and fountains in the midst of the valleys; God himself is the fountain of life, and of living waters; Christ is the fountain of gardens, and in him are wells of salvation; the grace of the Spirit is a well of living water, springing up unto eternal life; and of these, humble souls, comparable to the lowly valleys, are partakers,
Ps 36:9:
I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water; respecting either the Gentile world, which was like a wilderness and dry land before the Gospel came into it, but by that was watered and made fruitful; or the state and case of the people of God being in a wilderness condition, when the Lord takes notice of them, and supplies them with everything necessary, so that they are like a watered garden, whose springs fail not, Re 12:14. This passage is applied by the Jews to the times of the Messiah w.
w Bemidbar Rabba, sect. 1. 4. fol. 212. 3.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
18. and 19. I will open rivers. He illustrates the former doctrine in a different manner, namely, that God has no need of outward and natural means for aiding his Church, but has at his command secret, and wonderful methods, by which he can relieve their necessities, contrary to all hope and outward appearance. When no means of relief are seen, we quickly fall into despair, and scarcely venture to entertain any hope, but so far as outward aids are presented to our eyes. Deprived of these, we cannot rest on the Lord. But the Prophet states that at that time especially they ought to trust, because at that time the Lord has more abundant opportunities of displaying his power, when men perceive no ways or methods, and everything appears to be utterly desperate. Contrary, then, to the hope and belief of all men, the Lord will assist his people, that we may not suffer ourselves to be driven hither and thither by doubt and hesitation.
On lofty mountain tops. In order to confirm his statement more fully, he promises that he will perform miracles contrary to the nature and order of things, that we may not imagine that we should think and judge of these things according to human capacity, or limit the power and promises of God to these inferior means. (143) The Lord has sufficient power in himself, and needs not to borrow from any other, and is not confined to the order of nature, which he can easily change, whenever he thinks fit; for when he says that he will make waters to flow on the tops of mountains, and fountains in valleys, and pools in deserts, we know that all this is contrary to the order of nature. The reason why he promised these things is abundantly evident. It was that the Jews might not think that they were prevented from returning to Judea by that vast desert in which travelers are scorched by the heat of the sun, and deprived of all the necessaries of life. The Lord therefore promises that he will supply them with water, and with everything else that is necessary for the journey. Now, these things were fulfilled when the Lord brought his people out of Babylon, but much more abundantly when he converted the whole world to himself by Christ the Redeemer, from whom flow in great abundance throughout the whole world waters to quench the thirst of poor sinners. (144) At that time such a change took place as could never have entered into the imaginations of men.
(143) “ Aux causes secondes.” “To second causes.”
(144) “ Des poures pecheurs.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(18) I will open rivers.The words have all the emphasis of varied iteration. Every shape of the physical contour of the country, bare hills, arid steppes, and the like, is to be transformed into a new beauty by water in the form adapted to each: streamlets, rivers, lakes, and springs. (Comp. Isa. 35:7.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Isa 41:18 I will open rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of the valleys: I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water.
Ver. 18. I will open rivers in high places. ] Rather work miracles, as once in the wilderness, Exo 17:6-7 than my poor people shall want necessary support and succour (help).
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
open rivers, &c. Note that all these physical marvels must be accomplished by the miraculous power of God, not by the spirituality of His People. See note on Isa 35:1.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Isa 12:3, Isa 30:25, Isa 32:2, Isa 35:6, Isa 35:7, Isa 43:19, Isa 43:20, Isa 44:3, Isa 48:21, Isa 49:9, Isa 49:10, Isa 58:11, Psa 46:4, Psa 78:15, Psa 78:16, Psa 105:41, Psa 107:35, Eze 47:1-8, Joe 3:18, Zec 14:8, Rev 7:17, Rev 22:1
Reciprocal: Gen 24:17 – water of Exo 17:6 – that the people Num 20:8 – bring forth Num 21:16 – Gather Jdg 15:19 – Enhakkore 2Ki 3:17 – Ye shall not Neh 9:20 – gavest Job 38:26 – on the wilderness Psa 63:1 – General Psa 104:10 – He sendeth Psa 107:6 – Then Psa 126:4 – as the streams Isa 29:19 – the poor Isa 42:11 – Let the wilderness Isa 51:3 – make Isa 55:1 – every Amo 4:8 – two Mat 12:43 – dry Luk 16:24 – in water Joh 4:10 – living Joh 7:37 – If 1Co 12:13 – to drink
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
41:18 I will open rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of the valleys: I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry {p} land springs of water.
(p) God would rather change the order of nature than that they should want anything, who cry to him by true faith in their miseries: declaring to them by this that they will lack nothing by the way, when they return from Babylon.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
He would provide by innovation (water where it did not usually appear, on hilltops), multiplication (more water where there was some, in valleys), and transformation (water where it never existed, in deserts; cf. Isa 35:6-7).