Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 43:22
But thou hast not called upon me, O Jacob; but thou hast been weary of me, O Israel.
22. But thou hast not called upon me ] To call upon Jehovah “in the day of trouble” was the first and most obvious duty of Israel (Psa 50:15), but this duty Israel has neglected. The statement is of course general; it does not exclude the existence of a believing minority which poured out its heart in prayer to God. The position of the word “me” is emphatic in the original; but the emphasis on the object throws a corresponding emphasis on the subject: “But not upon me hast thou called, Jacob”; it is I who have called thee (ch. Isa 41:9, Isa 42:6, Isa 43:1 &c.). It is foreign to the context to suppose an antithesis between Jehovah and other gods.
but thou hast been weary of me ] Or, perhaps: much less hast thou wearied thyself about me (Cheyne). The translation of E.V. is possible, although the expression is not elsewhere used of being weary of a person. The other sense, however, is much to be preferred because of Isa 43:23 b, and is justified by the analogy of ch. Isa 47:12; Isa 47:15, Isa 62:8; Jos 24:13. The use of the conjunction is peculiar; the simple k seems to have the same force as the fuller ’aph k (as in 1Ki 8:27, “much less this house” &c.). The easiest solution might be to suppose that the ’aph has been omitted, but this is not really necessary. How Israel might have “wearied itself about” Jehovah is explained in Isa 43:23 f.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
22 28. Jehovah effects this deliverance for His own sake, not in return for any service He has received at the hands of Israel. The argument of the section is difficult to follow, especially in the part which speaks of sacrifice. Two questions present themselves: ( a) does Jehovah upbraid His people with their neglect of ritual, or does He assert His own indifference to it? and ( b), is the reference to the whole course of Israel’s history or merely to the period of the Exile? The answer to ( b) seems determined by the consideration that if understood of the history as a whole the statement is inconsistent with fact. Although the prophet undoubtedly takes a dark view of Israel’s past religious condition ( Isa 43:27), we cannot suppose that he charges it with disregard of the externals of religion. Whatever faults Israel had been guilty of, it had not been slack in the performance of ritual (see ch. Isa 1:10 ff.). Now if we limit the reference to the Exile, the idea of an implied reproach ( a) must be abandoned, because the suspension of the sacrificial system was in the circumstances inevitable. In other words, the main thought here is expressed in the second half of Isa 43:23 more clearly than in the first halves of Isa 43:23-24. At the same time this hardly amounts to a repudiation of sacrifice in principle on the part of Jehovah. The truth appears to be that the prophet directs attention to the simple fact that during the Exile sacrifice had not been offered; whether Israel was to blame for this or not is immaterial to his argument. He has in his view the prevailing ideas of the time as to the normal attitude of a people to its God; and he shews how inadequate these are to explain Jehovah’s relation to Israel. The natural and proper thing was for a nation to invoke the name of its God, and to honour Him with costly and laborious rites. Israel has done none of these things, it has only burdened Jehovah with its sins; yet Jehovah proves Himself to be its God by forgiving its iniquities and undertaking its cause against its enemies.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
But thou hast not called upon me – The design of this and the following verses, is to show them that they were indebted to the divine mercy alone for their deliverance from bondage. It was not because they had been either meritorious or faithful; it was not because they had deserved these favors at his hand, for they had been a people that had been distinguished for neglecting their God. On that account, these calamities had come upon them, and their deliverance, therefore, was to be an act of mere unmerited favor.
Thou hast been weary – As a people, you have been weary of my service. They had accounted his laws grievous and oppressive; and they had groaned under what they regarded as burdensome rites and ceremonies (see Amo 8:5-6; Mal 1:13). God here refers, doubtless, to the times before the captivity, and is stating what was the general characteristic of the people.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Isa 43:22
But thou hast not called upon Me, O Jacob
Insincerity in religion
It is a common observation that there is very little sincerity in the world.
We are now concerned with insincerity of a deeper and more serious character,–insincerity in religion. I propose to offer some remarks which may serve to detect a mere formal profession of religion. The subject on which I shall chiefly remark is the habit and enjoyment of secret prayer.
I. MANY HAVE CONTINUED FOR A WHILE IN HABITS OF SECRET PRAYER, AND YET ARE ONLY FORMAL PROFESSORS.
II. MERE FORMAL PROFESSORS AFTER AWHILE LEAVE OFF PRAYER IN A GREAT DEGREE.
III. It is evident that these formal worshippers are utterly deceived in thinking they are converted: THIS WEARINESS IN PRAYER SHOWS THE CHANGE WAS NOT REAL. How are we to distinguish the feelings of a mere formalist from the presence of Gods renovating Spirit?
1. They have not the spirit of prayer. Theirs is not prayer suggested, inspired by Gods Holy Spirit.
2. Mere professors, being deficient in secret prayer, soon fall back again into their former sins and worldliness.
3. It is utterly impossible for you to be saved so long as you live in neglect of prayer.
(1) To neglect prayer is utterly inconsistent with the love of God, which is the element of true religion.
(2) Contrary to the fear of God. This is expressed by the opponents of Job. Yea, thou castest off fear, and restrainest prayer before God.
(3) Utterly at variance with that holiness without which no man shall see God.
(4) Allowed negligence of prayer cannot be reconciled with the hope of dwelling with God for ever.
We offer four motives for holy perseverance in prayer.
1. It is wholly necessary for your salvation. If any man draw back, My soul hath no pleasure in him.
2. Take heed to yourselves, and be exceedingly watchful, that you may persevere in this duty, and maintain the spirit of vigorous piety. Let us never seek to shelter ourselves under mere doctrines, such as, true saints shall persevere.
3. To urge you to perseverance in the duty of secret prayer, think how much you need the help of the Spirit of God.
4. The fourth motive for perseverance in fervent prayer is, the great advantages that result from it. (W. B. Mackenzie, B. A.)
A fast sermon
There are two distinct charges–
1. A neglect of prayer.
2. Growing weary of God.
The point is this: people are at a dangerous pass when they begin to neglect prayer. Eliphaz layeth it as a heavy charge upon Job (Job 15:4): Surely thou restrainest prayer before God. When conscience is clamorous, wants pressing, and yet men cannot find the heart to go to God, it is a sad case. So the heathen are described to be the families that call not upon His name (Jer 10:25); that is, that do not acknowledge and worship Him. The workers of iniquity, of what religion soever they profess themselves to he, they call not upon the Lord (Psa 14:4). The evil of this will appear if we consider–
I. WHY THE DUTY WAS APPOINTED.
1. It is a notable part of Gods worship, or a serious calling to mind His presence and attributes. To withdraw from prayer is to withdraw from God; and to be unwilling to pray is to be unwilling to draw nigh to God, or to have any serious thoughts of His being and attributes.
2. It is a profession of our dependence.
3. It is a duty wherein the mysteries of our most holy faith are reduced to practice. There are two great mysteries in the Christian religion–the doctrine of the Trinity, and the mediation of the Son of God.
4. One special end of prayer is to nourish communion and familiarity between God and us; for it is the converse of a loving soul with God, between whom there is a mutual complacency.
5. Prayer is required to preserve in us a sense of our duty, and to keep the heart in better frame.
6. To engage our affections to heavenly things.
7. To be a means of comfort and spiritual refreshing. The soul is disburdened of trouble by this kind of utterance.
II. THE CAUSES WHY MEN NEGLECT IT.
1. Atheism is at the root. When men neglect prayer, either they believe there is no God or no providence.
2. Security.
3. Coldness in religion and weariness of God.
4. Want of peace breeds loathness and backwardness, as David hung off Psa 32:3) till he had recovered his peace.
5. Want of spiritual strength. He that hath lame joints cannot delight in exercise which is a pleasure to them that are strong. (T. Manton, D. D.)
Thou hast been weary of Me, O Israel
Weary of God
Marvellous words! We are not surprised to find God saying to us, Thou hast wearied Me; but it is astonishing that God, to His own people, should complain, Thou hast been weary of Me. We are not astonished that the creature wearies of the creature, man of man, saint of saint. This is in the very nature of things; it arises from the limitation of the creatures powers and resources: no creature can be to another what every creature wants. God in Christ alone can slake the thirst and meet the hunger of our needy souls, and it is worse than useless for men to try to take the place of God in their ministrations and relations to each other. And that God should stoop to say this is also marvellous. Many of you would be too proud to make this acknowledgment if you were placed in a similar position with respect to your fellow-creatures; but here is God reasoning with those whose hearts have wandered from Him, and saying, with all the fidelity of a father, and the pleading tenderness of a mother, Thou hast been weary of Me, O Israel. Many a parent may learn of God even in such matters as rebuke and chastisement. The power of rebuke is very intimately connected with the spirit in which it is administered; you may so rebuke a fault in a child as, by the very rebuking, to attach the child more strongly to yourself; or you may so rebuke as to increase the distance between your child and yourself, and at the same time to confirm him in his fault. Listen to Gods rebukes, and be followers of God, as dear children. The form in which this being weary of God showed itself was partly the restraint of prayer. Thou hast not called upon Me, O Jacob; but thou hast been weary of Me, O Israel. It is very likely that the form of prayer was kept up; yet God says, Thou hast not called upon Me. The day was when they had called upon God first, and upon God last. But now they restrained prayer, and they tried to carry their burdens by the independent strength (and their strength was weakness) of their own shoulders; or they tried to bear their sorrows with the sympathy and assistance which their fellow-creatures and their fellow-saints could administer. God noticed this conduct of His people, and He rebuked it. And not only in the restraint of prayer was this weariness manifested, but also in the neglect of sacrifice; in indifference towards the ordinances of God, and carelessness in the worship of God; in disregard to the will of God; and also in fretful discontent under the dispensations of God (Mal 1:2.). The prophet here represents Israel as sent into captivity, and God as justifying His procedure on the ground of Israel s own spirit and conduct. It is a fault common to Gods saints.
I. THE NATURE OF THIS EVIL. We have already indicated it, but we may put it in another light. We may show it, for example, in contrast. This people, God says, have I formed for myself; they shall show forth My praise. He made us in His own image, that we might reflect Himself, and in the sight of which we might rejoice. And He made us in His own image, that we might reflect Him to each other and to other people; while, for the same object He redeems us. God, in redeeming us, forms us for Himself, that we should love Him; that we should trust Him; that we should honour Him, and that we should try to please and glorify Him. And we realise the work which our blessed Saviour has wrought for us, and which the Spirit of God is now working within us, when we are able to say, I will rejoice in the God of my salvation. Now, what is it to be weary of God? It is to desire to break the connection that exists between us and God. It is to be impatient of continued connection with Him; to be tired of calling upon Him; tired of thinking of Him; tired of trusting Him; tired of waiting for Him; tired of serving Him. I know not a better illustration than that which is supplied by the first part of the parable of the Prodigal Son.
II. ITS MANIFESTATIONS AND DEVELOPMENT.
1. This weariness is first shown by formality in Divine worship.
2. It then shows itself in the outward neglect of Divine requirements. Declension begins in the heart, and shows itself first in formality, and then the steps between formality and the outward neglect of Divine requirements are not very many.
3. Then follows, not looking to God for aid and succour. The man depends more upon himself than he ought to depend, or he looks more to his fellow-creatures than he had been accustomed to look.
III. WHAT IS THE OCCASION OF THE MANIFESTATION OF THIS WEARINESS? You will generally find one of the following things–disappointed hope, the endurance of affliction, or the prosperity of the wicked.
IV. ITS CAUSES. You must be aware of the distinction between an occasion and a cause. Gods dispensations towards Pharaoh, as we are told, hardened his heart. They were the occasions of this, but the cause was not in God; neither was the cause in the dispensation of God–the cause was in Pharaoh. Unless Pharaoh had possessed a hardened heart, those dispensations of Divine providence, instead of increasing this obduracy, would have produced a totally different state of soul. The same dispensations have done it, as in the case of Nineveh; when Nineveh was threatened, Nineveh repented. The cause is to be found either in the absence of love or in the feebleness of love.
V. THE BITTER FRUITS of this weariness. God sees it; and He cannot see it without feeling it. God is angry, and He corrects; and He corrects so as to make the chastisement answer to the sin. The man has, to a certain extent, withdrawn from God, and God withdraws from the man. He deprives the man of whatever influences are still tending to promote his peace and joy and rest. And, of course, if the heart be alive, if it be a quickened heart, this state is one of great misery, until the soul is restored to God. Where there is not life, you find that the case gets worse and worse, and that very frequently men fall from this weariness into scepticism, and into atheism.
VI. THE MEANS OF PREVENTION. Ejecting the first hard thoughts of God; not yielding for a moment to indolence in the service of God; comprehension (so far as we can comprehend) of the principles, and of the general plan of the Divine Government, so as not to be expecting here that which God has given us no reason to hope for here; following Christ implicitly in the conduct of the spirit towards God; and cherishing most sacredly the influences of the Holy Spirit.
VII. When you have fallen into this evil state, WHAT IS THE CURE?
1. Full confession of the weariness. Be willing to speak of it as God speaks of it; to see it as God sees it; and to condemn it as God condemns it. Call it weariness of your merciful Father–weariness of your best and kindest friend.
2. Admission of the Divine goodness in the correction by which you are made sensible of your weariness.
3. Return to a careful observance of Gods ordinances and precepts, the obtaining of pardon, and the assurance of forgiveness. While you are in doubt about pardon with reference to this sin, you will find yourselves keeping at a distance from God. This subject is suitable for self-examination. Are there any signs of this weariness of God in you? (S. Martin.)
Weary of God
To be weary of God is to be weary of His worship and service. It is as sad a character as can be given, either of persons or of a people, to say that they are weary of God.
I. THE NATURE OF THE EVIL. Weariness in the body noteth a deficiency of strength, no more mind to work; in the soul, a falling from God, and we have no mind to His service, which is either partial or total.
1. Partial. When the heart is more alienated from God than before, and all our respects to Him grow burdensome and grievous, and the heart begins to repine at everything we do for Him (Mal 1:13; Amo 8:5).
2. Total when not only the power of religion is abated, but the very profession of it is cast off.
II. IT IS INCIDENT SOMETIMES TO PERSONS CONSIDERED IN THEIR SINGLE CAPACITY; SOMETIMES TO A PEOPLE CONSIDERED IN THEIR COMMUNITY.
1. To persons considered apart, and in their single capacity.
(1) Partly out of natural adverseness to God.
(2) Partly because of the fickleness of man.
2. It is incident to a people considered in their community.
(1) The Church of God in general.
(2) In every nation.
Usually religion is changed in a nation upon two grounds–
(a) Change of persons. When good old zealous men are gone the stage is shifted, and there cometh on a new scene of acts and actors; one generation passeth, and another cometh.
(b) Change of interests. When it is for their own interest to own God, men think they can never bind themselves fast enough to Him; but when the posture of interest is changed, God is laid aside, they grow weary of God; they deal treacherously with the Lord, and walk willingly after the commandment (Hos 5:7; Hos 5:11).
III. THE CAUSES WHY A PEOPLE GROW WEARY OF GOD. Besides those general causes, these may be added–
1. Want of love to God.
2. We are too much led by sense; and if we have not present satisfaction, we soon grow weary of religion.
3. It argueth too much love of the world, which by long importunity prevaileth with us to forsake God, and grow dead and cold in religion 2Ti 4:10).
4. It comes from indulgence to the ease of the flesh. As bodily weariness is most incident to the lazy, so is spiritual weariness to those who do not rouse up themselves.
5. Impatience of troubles, and the manifold discourage merits we meet with in the way to heaven.
IV. THE EFFECTS.
1. Boldness in sinning.
2. More coldness in duties of worship. Either it is omitted or performed perfunctorily, and in a careless, stupid manner.
3. Less care and study to please God.
V. What a sad state of soul it is appeareth–
1. By the heinousness of the sin.
(1) It is a horrible contempt of God, after trial, to fall off from God and return to our carnal pleasures and satisfactions again.
(2) It is a very senseless and unreasonable sin. God never gave you cause or occasion to grow weary of Him. He challengeth Israel: O My people, what have I done unto thee? and wherein have I wearied thee? testify against Me (Mic 6:3).
(3) There is much ingratitude in it. He hath given much cause to the contrary.
2. The terribleness of the judgment.
(1) On nations.
(2) On Churches (Rev 2:5).
(3) For particular persons, it layeth them open to Gods severe correction Hos 5:15).
(4) For total defection. There is dreadful vengeance appointed for them that prefer the creature before God. (T. Manton, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 22. But thou hast not called upon me] The connexion is: But thou, Israel, whom I have chosen, whom I have formed for myself to be my witness against the false gods of the nations; even thou hast revolted from me, hast neglected my worship, and hast been perpetually running after strange gods. The emphasis of this and the following parts of the sentence, on which the sense depends, is laid on the words ME, on MY ACCOUNT, c. The Jews were diligent in performing the external services of religion in offering prayers, incense, sacrifices, oblations; but their prayers were not offered with faith; and their oblations were made more frequently to their idols than to the God of their fathers. The Hebrew idiom excludes with a general negative, in a comparative sense, one of two objects opposed to one another: thus, “I will have mercy, and not sacrifice,” Ho 6:6. “For I spoke not to your fathers, nor commanded them, concerning burnt-offerings or sacrifices; but this thing I commanded them, saying, Obey my voice,” Jer 7:22-23. And the meaning of this place of Isaiah seems to be much the same with that of Amos; who however has explained at large both parts of the comparison, and specified the false service opposed to the true: –
“Have ye offered unto me sacrifices and offerings,
In the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel?
Nay, but you have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch,
And Chiun, your images;
The star of your god, which you made to yourselves.”
Am 5:25-26.
But thou hast been weary of me, O Israel – “Neither on my account hast thou laboured, O Israel.”] For ki yagata, the Septuagint and Vulgate read veyagata. – Houbigant. The negative is repeated or referred to by the conjunction vau; as in many other places. See Clarke on Isa 23:4.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
But; or, for, as this conjunction is oft used. So this may be added as a reason why God called the Gentiles to be his people, because the Jews forsook him.
Thou hast not called upon me; thou hast grossly neglected or very slightly performed the duties of my worship.
Thou hast been weary of me; thou hast not esteemed my service to be a privilege, as in truth it is, but as a burden and bondage. Compare Mal 1:13.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
22. ButIsrael, however,is not to think that these divine favors are due to their own pietytowards God. So the believer (Tit3:5).
butrather, “for.”
weary of me (Amo 8:5;Amo 8:6; Mal 1:13),though “I have not wearied thee” (Isa43:23), yet “thou hast been weary of Me.”
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
But thou hast not called upon me, O Jacob,…. The Jews, though they were the posterity of Jacob, a praying person, yet did not tread in his steps, but were more like the Heathens that called not on the name of the Lord; though there is no necessity of restraining this to prayer, it may regard the whole worship of God, which is sometimes included in the invocation of his name; and so the Targum,
“and ye come not to my worship, O ye of the house of Jacob.”
The Jews, in Christ’s time, did not call upon his name, nor believe in him, nor receive his Gospel, nor submit to him and his ordinances; they rejected him and his service, therefore the Lord rejected them, and called the Gentiles, as before prophesied of:
but thou hast been weary of me, O Israel: of the word, worship, and ordinances of God; see Mal 1:13.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
It would be the praise of God, however, and not the merits of their own works, that they would have to relate; for there was nothing at all that could give them any claim to reward. There were not even acts of ceremonial worship, but only the guilt of grievous sins. “And thou hast not called upon me, O Jacob, that thou shouldst have wearied thyself for me, O Israel! Thou hast not brought me sheep of thy burnt-offerings, and thou hast not honoured me with thy slain-offerings. I have not burdened thee with meat-offerings, and have not troubled thee about incense. Thou hast bought me no spice-cane for silver, nor hast thou refreshed me with fat of thy slain-offerings. No; thou hast wearied me with thy sins, troubled me with thine iniquities.” We cannot agree with Stier, that these words refer to the whole of the previous worship of Israel, which is treated here as having no existence, because of its heartlessness and false-holiness. And we must also not forget, that all these prophecies rested on either the historical or the ideal soil of the captivity. The charge commences with the worship of prayer (with calling upon Jehovah, as in Psa 14:4; Psa 18:7), to which the people were restricted when in exile, since the law did not allow them to offer sacrifice outside the holy land. The personal pronoun , in the place of the suffix, is written first of all for the sake of emphasis, as if the meaning were, “Israel could exert itself to call upon other gods, but not upon Jehovah.” The following k is equivalent to ut (Hos 1:6), or ad – k in 2Sa 23:10, adeo ut laborasses me colendo (so as to have wearied thyself in worshipping me). They are also charged with having offered no sacrifices, inasmuch as in a foreign land this duty necessarily lapsed of itself, together with the self-denial that it involved. The spelling (as in Num 14:31) appears to have been intended for the pronunciation (compare the pronunciation in 2Ki 19:25, which comes between the two). The oloth (burnt-offerings) stand first, as the expression of adoration, and are connected with seh , which points to the daily morning and evening sacrifice (the tamd ). Then follow the z e bachm (slain-offerings), the expression of the establishment of fellowship with Jehovah ( is equivalent to , like = , Isa 43:25). The “fat” ( c helebh ) in Isa 43:24 refers to the portions of fat that were placed upon the altar in connection with this kind of sacrifice. After the z e bachm comes the m ichah , the expression of desire for the blessing of Jehovah, a portion of which, the so-called remembrance portion ( ‘ azkarah ), was placed upon the altar along with the whole of the incense. And lastly, the qaneh (spice-cane), i.e., some one of the Amoma,
(Note: The qaneh is generally supposed to be the Calamus; but the c alamus forms no stalk, to say nothing of a cane or hollow stalk. It must be some kind of aromatic plant, with a stalk like a cane, either the Cardamum, Ingber, or Curcuma; at any rate, it belonged to the species Amomum. The aroma of this was communicated to the anointing oil, the latter being infused, and the resinous parts of the former being thereby dissolved.)
points to the holy anointing oil (Exo 30:23), or if it refer to spices generally, to the sacred incense, though qaneh is not mentioned as one of the ingredients in Exo 30:34. The nation, which Jehovah was now redeeming out of pure unmingled grace, had not been burdened with costly tasks of this description (see Jer 6:20); on the contrary, it was Jehovah only who was burdened and troubled. He denies that there was any “causing to serve” ( , lit., to make a person a servant, to impose servile labour upon him) endured by Israel, but affirms this rather of Himself. The sins of Israel pressed upon Him, as a burden does upon a servant. His love took upon itself the burden of Israel’s guilt, which derived its gravitating force from His won holy righteous wrath; but it was a severe task to bear this heavy burden, and expunge it – a thoroughly divine task, the significance of which was first brought out in its own true light by the cross on Golgotha. When God creates, He expresses His fiat, and what He wills comes to pass. But He does not blot out sin without balancing His love with His justice; and this equalization is not effected without conflict and victory.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| Reproof to God’s People. | B. C. 708. |
22 But thou hast not called upon me, O Jacob; but thou hast been weary of me, O Israel. 23 Thou hast not brought me the small cattle of thy burnt offerings; neither hast thou honoured me with thy sacrifices. I have not caused thee to serve with an offering, nor wearied thee with incense. 24 Thou hast bought me no sweet cane with money, neither hast thou filled me with the fat of thy sacrifices: but thou hast made me to serve with thy sins, thou hast wearied me with thine iniquities. 25 I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins. 26 Put me in remembrance: let us plead together: declare thou, that thou mayest be justified. 27 Thy first father hath sinned, and thy teachers have transgressed against me. 28 Therefore I have profaned the princes of the sanctuary, and have given Jacob to the curse, and Israel to reproaches.
This charge (and a high charge it is which is here exhibited against Jacob and Israel, God’s professing people) comes in here, 1. To clear God’s justice in bringing them into captivity, and to vindicate that. Were they not in covenant with him? Had they not his sanctuary among them? Why then did the Lord deal thus with his land? Deut. xxix. 24. Here is a good reason given: they had neglected God and had cast him off, and therefore he justly rejected them and gave them to the curse (v. 28); and they must be brought to own this before they are prepared for deliverance; and they did so, Dan 9:5; Neh 9:33. 2. To advance God’s mercy in their deliverance and to make that appear more glorious. Many things are before observed to magnify the power of God in it; but this magnifies his goodness, that he should do such great and kind things for a people that had been so very provoking to him and were now suffering the just punishment of their iniquity. The pardoning of their sin was as great an instance of God’s power (for so Moses reckons it, Num. xiv. 17, c.) as the breaking of the yoke of their captivity. Now observe here,
I. What the sins are which they are here charged with.
1. Omissions of the good which God had commanded and this part of the charge is here much insisted upon. Observe how it comes in with a but; compare v. 21, where God tells them what favours he had bestowed upon them and what his just expectations were from them. He had formed them for himself, intending they should show forth his praise. But they had not done so; they had frustrated God’s expectations from them, and made very ill returns to him for his favours. For, (1.) They had cast off prayer: Thou hast not called upon me, O Jacob! Jacob was a man famous for prayer (Hosea xii. 4); his seed bore his name, but did not tread in his steps, and therefore are justly upbraided with it. God takes it ill when children degenerate from the virtue and devotion of their pious ancestors. To boast of the name of Jacob, and yet live without prayer, is to mock God and deceive ourselves. If Jacob does not call upon God, who will? (2.) They had grown weary of their religion: “Thou art Israel, the seed not only of a praying but of a prevailing father, that was a prince with God; and yet, not valuing his experiences any more than his example, thou hast been weary of me.” They had been in relation to God, employed in his service and in communion with him; but they began to snuff at it, and to say, Behold, what a weariness is it! Note, Those who neglect to call upon God do in effect tell him they are weary of him and have a mind to change their Master. (3.) They grudged the expense of their devotion, and were niggardly and penurious in it. They were for a cheap religion; and in those acts of devotion that were costly they desired to be excused. They had not brought, no, not their small cattle, the lambs and kids, which God required for burnt-offerings (v. 23), much less did they bring their greater cattle, pretending they could not spare them, they must have them for the maintenance of their families. So little sense had they of the greatness of God and their obligations to him that they could not find in their hearts to part with a lamb out of their flock for his honour, though he called for it and would graciously have accepted it. Sweet cane, or calamus, was used for the holy oil, incense, and perfume; but they were not willing to be at the charge of that, v. 24. What they had must serve, though it was old and good for nothing; they would not buy fresh. Perhaps it was usual for devout pious persons to bring free-will incense as well as other free-will offerings; but they were not so generous, nor did they fill the altar of God, nor moisten it abundantly, as they should have done, with the fat of their sacrifices; what sacrifices they did bring were of the lean and refuse of their cattle, that had no fat in them to regale the altar with. (4.) What sacrifices they did offer they did not honour God with them, and so they were, in effect, as no sacrifices (v. 23): Neither hast thou honoured me with thy sacrifices. Some of them offered their sacrifices to false gods; others, who offered them to the true God, were either careless in the manner of offering them or hypocritical in their intentions, so that they might be truly said not to honour God with them, but rather to dishonour him. (5.) That which aggravated their neglect of sacrificing was that, as God had appointed it, it was no burdensome thing; it was not a service that they had any reason at all to complain of: “I have not caused thee to serve with an offering; I have not made it a task and drudgery to you, whatever you, through the corruption of your natures, have made it yourselves. I have not wearied thee with incense.” None of God’s commandments are grievous, no, not those concerning sacrifice and incense. They were not more costly than might be afforded by those that lived in such a plentiful country, nor did their attendance on them require any more time than they could well spare. But that which especially forbade them to call it a wearisome service was that they were required to be cheerful and pleasant, and to rejoice before God in all their approaches to him, Deut. xii. 12. They had many feasts and good days, but only one day in all the year in which they were to afflict their souls. The ordinances of the ceremonial law, though, in comparison with Christ’s easy yoke, they are spoken of as heavy (Acts xv. 10), yet, in comparison with the service that idolaters did to their false gods, they were light, and not to be called services nor found fault with as wearisome. God did not require them to sacrifice their children, as Moloch did.
2. Commissions of the evil which God had forbidden; and omissions commonly make way for commissions: Thou hast made me to serve with thy sins. When we make God’s gifts the food and fuel for our lusts, and his providence the patron of our wicked projects, especially when we encourage ourselves to continue in sin because grace has abounded, then we make God to serve with our sins. Or it may denote what a grief and burden sin is to God; it not only wearies men and makes the creation groan, but it wearies my God also (ch. vii. 13) and makes the Creator complain that he is grieved (Ps. xcv. 10), that he is broken (Ezek. vi. 9), that he is pressed with sinners as a cart is pressed that is full of sheaves (Amos ii. 13), and to cry out, Ah! I will ease me of my adversaries, ch. i. 24. The antithesis is observable: God had not made them to serve with their sacrifices, but they had made him to serve with their sins. The master had not tired the servants with his commands, but they had tired him with their disobedience. Those are wicked servants indeed that behave so ill to so good a Master. God is tender of our comfort, but we are careless of his honour. Let this engage us to keep close to our duty, that it is easy and reasonable, and no disparagement to us, nor too hard for us.
II. What were the aggravations of their sin, v. 27. 1. That they were children of disobedience; for their first father (that is, their forefathers) had sinned; and they had not only sinned in their loins, but sinned like them. Ezra confesses this: Since the days of our fathers have we been in a great trespass, ch. ix. 7. But their forefathers are called their first father to put us in mind of the apostasy and rebellion of our first father Adam, to which corrupt fountain we must trace up the streams of all our transgressions. 2. That they were scholars of disobedience too: for their teachers had transgressed against God, were guilty of gross scandalous sins, and the people, no doubt, would learn to do as they did. It is ill with a people when their leaders cause them to err, and their teachers, who should reform them, corrupt them.
III. What were the tokens of God’s displeasure against them for their sins, v. 23. He brought ruin both upon church and state. 1. The honour of their church was laid in the dust and trampled on: I have profaned the princes of the sanctuary, that is, the priests and Levites who presided with great dignity and power in the temple-service; they profaned themselves, and made themselves vile, by their enormities, and then God profaned them and made them vile, by their calamities and the contempt they fell into, Mal. ii. 9. 2. The honour of their state was ruined likewise: “I have given Jacob to the curse, that is, to be cursed, and hated, and abused by all their neighbours, and Israel to reproach, to be insulted, ridiculed, and triumphed over by their enemies.” They reproached them perhaps for that in them that was good; they mocked at their sabbaths (Lam. i. 7); but God gave them up to reproach, to correct them for what was amiss. Note, The dishonour which men at any time do us should humble us for the dishonour we have done to God; and we must bear it patiently because we suffer it justly, and must acknowledge that to us belongs confusion.
IV. What were the riches of God’s mercy towards them notwithstanding (v. 25): I even I, am he who notwithstanding all this blotteth out thy transgressions.
1. This gracious declaration of God’s readiness to pardon sin comes in very strangely. The charge ran very high: Thou hast wearied me with thy iniquities, v. 24. Now one would think it would follow: “I, even I, am he that will destroy thee, and burden myself no longer with care about thee.” No, I, even I, am he that will forgive thee; as if the great God would teach us that forgiving injuries is the best way to make ourselves easy and to keep ourselves from being wearied with them. This comes in here to encourage them to repent, because there is forgiveness with God, and to show the freeness of divine mercy; where sin has been exceedingly sinful grace appears exceedingly gracious. Apply this, (1.) To the forgiving of the sins of Israel as a people, in their national capacity. When God stopped the course of threatening judgments, and saved them from utter ruin, even then when he had them under severe rebukes, then he might be said to blot out their transgressions. Though he corrected them, he was reconciled to them again, and did not cut them off from being a people. This he did many a time, till they rejected Christ and his gospel, which was a sin against the remedy, and then he would forgive them no more as a nation, but utterly destroyed them. (2.) To the forgiving of the sins of every particular believing penitent–transgressions and sins, infirmities though ever so numerous, backslidings though ever so heinous. Observe here, [1.] How the pardon is expressed; he will blot them out, as a cloud is blotted out by the beams of the sun (ch. xliv. 22), as a debt is blotted out not to appear against the debtor (the book is crossed as if the debt were paid, because it is pardoned upon the payment which the surety has made), or as a sentence is blotted out when it is reversed, as the curse was blotted out with the waters of jealousy, which made it of no effect to the innocent, Num. v. 23. He will not remember the sin, which intimates not only that he will remit the punishment of what is past, but that it shall be no diminution to his love for the future. When God forgives he forgets. [2.] What is the ground and reason of the pardon. It is not for the sake of any thing in us, but for his own sake, for his mercies’-sake, his promise-sake, and especially for his Son’s sake, and that he may himself be glorified in it. [3.] How God glories in it: I, even I, am he. He glories in it as his prerogative. None can forgive sin but God only, and he will do it; it is his settled resolution. He will do it willingly and with delight; it is his pleasure; it is his honour; so he is pleased to reckon it.
2. Those words (v. 26), Put me in remembrance, may be understood either (1.) As a rebuke to a proud Pharisee, that stands upon his own justification before God, and expects to find favour for his merits and not to be beholden to free grace: “If you have any thing to say in your own justification, any thing to offer for the sake of which you should be pardoned, and not for my sake, put me in remembrance of it. I will give you leave to plead your own cause with me; declare what your merits are, that you may be justified by them:” but those who are thus challenged will be speechless. Or, (2.) As a publican. Is God thus ready to pardon sin, and, when he pardons it, will he remember it no more? Let us then put him in remembrance, mention before him those sins which he has forgiven; for they must be ever before us, to humble us, though they are pardoned, Ps. li. 3. Put him in remembrance of the promises he has made to penitents, and the satisfaction his Son has made for them. Plead these with him in wrestling for pardon, and declare these things, in order that thou mayest be justified freely by his grace. This is the only way, and it is a sure way, to peace. Only acknowledge thy transgression.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Vs. 22-28: INGRATITUDE REQUIRES HUMILIATION
1. In spite of God’s bounty toward Israel, the people of the covenant have not considered and called upon Him, (vs. 22a; Isa 1:2-4; Isa 30:9-11).
2. Though they grew weary of him, it was not because He wearied them by requiring incense, (vs. 22b; 23c; Mic 6:3; Mal 1:13; Mal 3:14; Jer 7:21-26).
3. His people have been unfaithful in their stewardship and worship.
a. They have brought no cattle for burnt offerings, nor have they honored Him with sacrifices, (vs. 23a; Amo 5:25; Zec 7:5-6; Mal 1:6-8).
b. They have withheld their offerings, (vs. 24a; 2Ch 29:7).
c. And they have wearied God with their sins and iniquity, (vs. 24b; Neh 13:10; Mal 3:8).
4. Yet, for His own name’s sake (Isa 37:35; Isa 48:9; Isa 48:11; Eze 36:22), God blots out their transgressions and declares that He will remember their sins no more, (vs. 25; Isa 44:22; Isa 55:6-7; Jer 50:20; Isa 38:17; Jer 31:34).
5. Still, He summons them to vindicate their actions, (vs. 26; Isa 1:18).
a. Their first father (Abraham) sinned, (vs. 27a; Isa 51:2; Eze 16:3).
b. And their teachers have transgressed against the Holy One of Israel, (vs. 27b; Isa 9:15; Isa 28:7; Jer 5:31).
6. Therefore, He has excommunicated them (cutting them off from covenant-fellowship with Himself), and delivered them up to reviling, until they are ready to humble themselves before their Maker, (vs. 28; 47:6; La 2:2-6; Eze 6:14-14).
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
22. And thou hast not called on me. He confirms by an indirect reproof what he said in the preceding verse, that it was not by any merits of his people that he was induced to act so kindly towards them. This deliverance, therefore, ought to be ascribed to no other cause than to the goodness of God. In order to prove this, he says, “Thou hast not called on me.” Calling on the name of God includes the whole of the worship of God, the chief part of which is “calling upon him;” and, therefore, following the ordinary manner of Scripture, he has put a part for the whole. But in other passages the Lord plainly shews that calling upon him is the chief part of his worship; for, after having said that he despises sacrifices and outward ceremonies, he adds,
“
Call upon me in the day of trouble.” (Psa 50:15.)
Hence also Scripture, when it speaks of the worship of God, chiefly mentions “calling on him;” for when Moses states that the worship of God had been restored, he says, “Then began men to call on the name of the Lord.” (Gen 4:26.)
But thou hast been wearied of me. In this second clause I consider the particle כי ( ki) to be disjunctive, “But rather thou hast been wearied of me.” Others render it “Because thou hast wearied;” as if he had said, “Thou hast received with dislike what was enjoined on thee;” which amounts to nearly the same thing. As the Lord demands obedience, so he wishes all that worship him to be ready and cheerful; as Paul testifies, that “the Lord loveth a cheerful giver,” (2Co 9:7,) and they who obey reluctantly cannot be called, and are not reckoned by him, true and sincere worshippers. Thus, in order to show that the Jews have not worshipped him as they ought to have done, he says that they did it reluctantly. If any one choose rather to view it as assigning the reason, and render it thus, — “Thou hast not called on me, for thou hast rendered to me no worship without regret, and what may be said to have been extorted from thee by violence,” as it makes little difference in the meaning, I do not greatly object; but the translation which I have given appears to convey more clearly what the Prophet intends. Besides, the contrast contains within itself the assigning of a reason; and therefore, if we wish that God should accept of our service, let us obey him with a cheerful disposition.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
d. TO BE PERFECTED
TEXT: Isa. 43:22-28
22
Yet thou hast not called upon me, O Jacob; but thou hast been weary of me, O Israel.
23
Thou hast not brought me of thy sheep for burnt-offerings; neither hast thou honored me with thy sacrifices. I have not burdened thee with offerings, nor wearied thee with frankincense.
24
Thou hast bought me no sweet cane with money, neither hast thou filled me with the fat of thy sacrifices; but thou hast burdened me with thy sins, thou hast wearied me with thine iniquities.
25
I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake; and I will not remember thy sins.
26
Put me in remembrance; let us plead together: set thou forth thy cause, that thou mayest be justified.
27
Thy first father sinned, and thy teachers have transgressed against me.
28
Therefore I will profane the princes of the sanctuary; and I will make Jacob a curse, and Israel a reviling.
QUERIES
a.
Did the people of Israel consider Gods offerings a burden?
b.
What is the sweet cane they should have bought?
c.
How are they to put God in remembrance?
PARAPHRASE
In spite of all My graciousness in calling you to the honored place of servant of the living God, you have not honored that call by seeking after Me, O Jacob. As a matter of record, you have said, Were tired of Jehovah, and of doing things His way! All the offerings of sheep and all the other sacrifices you have brought are not really because you love Me, but are dedicated to your own self-righteousness. The offerings and sacrifices I commanded in My law were intended to give you a way to express your joy for My grace and goodness to you, never did I think they would be considered insufferable by you. You never did anything special for Me like buying expensive sweet cane to make the sacred incense and anointing oil. You did not drench My altar with the choicest fat of your sacrifices. But you have gone out of your way to load Me down with your insults and rebellions. I am sick and tired of your disobedience. When I blot out your transgressions and forget your sins, it will be for My own sake and out of gracenot from any perfect goodness on your part. Remember who I am. I am God and you receive forgiveness on My termsnot yours. If you think you can justify yourself without My grace, then plead your case! The father of your nation was a sinner, and all those who have been sent to teach you not to sin have sinned. Because of this continual increase in rebellion and sin I will take Israel and her spiritual leaders and profane them in a pagan land. There they will be like outlaws and mocked as fugitives.
COMMENTS
Isa. 43:22-24 To PRAISE: Israel was called to praise and exalt the name of Jehovah by worshipping Him and keeping His commandments. By worship and obedience to Jehovahs Law, Israel would thus call upon Him in faith and show her dependence on His grace. However, Israel did not call upon Him. Israel did not obey Jehovahs Law. Israel considered the Law of Jehovah insufferable, restrictive, boring, and she tired of its discipline, (cf. Isa. 7:13; Jer. 9:5; Mic. 6:3; Hab. 3:2; Mal. 2:17, etc.). Israel tired of God as lustful men tire of their wives (Jer. 3:19-20; Hosea 1, 2; Eze. 16:1 f). The word of the Lord became to Israel an object of scorn (Jer. 6:10; Jer. 6:16). To be sure, Israel had trampled Gods courts with multitudes of sacrifices and offerings (Isa. 1:10-17). But, the prophet speaks with sarcasm. Israel was not really bringing all those sacrifices to honor Jehovah. They were doing it to honor themselves. They were more than willing to bring ten thousand offerings as a substitute for putting to practice the Law of God in personal godliness (Mic. 6:6-8). They were willing to earn religious merit from sacrifices as long as the Holy One of Israel did not demand moral holiness from them. It was not the number of offerings that burdened the Israelites, it was the moral strings attached to a humble relationship of faith and obedience to a Holy God that wearied Israel. The astonishing thing is Jehovahs law was always a refreshing, regenerating, pleasurable experience every time Israel obeyed itindividually and nationally (cf. Psalms 119, etc.). Jehovah intended only blessing in His Law (Deu. 28:1 f). History proved it!
The sweet cane (Heb. kaneh) of Isa. 43:24 was probably the scented calamus (reed) or some kind of aromatic bark. It was an ingredient of the holy oil (Exo. 30:23); imported from a distance (Jer. 6:20; Eze. 27:19) and was thus rare and costly. Its sweetness refers to the scent, not the taste. Another Hebrew word in this verse is significant (kaniytha) because it is from the same root as the word translated sweet cane but means bought or purchased. There appears to be a definite play upon words here emphasizing the preciousness of the offering of cane. Reviythaniy is translated filled in the same verse but literally means moisten, satiate, or drench. The point of this verse is simply this: the people of Israel had not really extended themselves in giving offerings of quality or quantity. They probably skimped on their offerings much the same as their descendants did after the return from the captivity (cf. Mal. 1:6-14; Mal. 3:6-12, etc.). On the contrary, Israel had gone out of its way to load Jehovah down with its insulting rebellion. The word burdened in this verse is from the Hebrew root avad meaning servile labor. The guiltiness of Israel pressed upon The Holy One of Israel, as a burden does upon a servant. The other word, wearied, is from the Hebrew root vaga which means literally, fatigued or exhausted. Instead of Israel fulfilling its calling to praise Jehovah, it was a pain to Him. But the Lord is going to create for Himself an Israel (a new Israel, ruled by His new David) that will fulfill its calling of praise. And He is beginning the work with the prophets and the captivity (cf. Isa. 43:19).
Isa. 43:25-28 To PARDON: Jehovah is going to perfect (bring to fruition or completion) from the Israel of Isaiahs day, a pardoned Israel. There is a very interesting three-fold repetition of the personal pronoun I, I, I am, in the Hebrew construction of Isa. 43:25, translated I, even I, am he . . . It means emphatically that Jehovah alone is responsible for any blotting (makhah, taking away even down to the very core or marrow) out of transgressions. Jehovah does it exclusively from His own graciousness, for His own names sake. He does it because of Who He Isnot from any merit of mans person. The rest of the context indicates this is the emphasis. Jehovah wills to pardon man and Jehovah accomplishes mans pardon by His work and Jehovah decrees the terms of acceptance. Man is left free to accept or reject the divinely procured pardon according to mans willingness to obey the divinely decreed terms. One thing is certain; standing before the tribunal of God, no man can claim self-justification. Jehovah warns Israel to remember Who He Is! He knows their sins (cf. Amo. 5:12; Amo. 5:8; Eze. 8:12; Eze. 9:9, etc.). The first father of Israel, Abraham, called father of the faithful and friend of God, sinned. All the teachers (prophets, priests and kings) of Israel sinned (Isa. 53:6; Psa. 14:2-3; Psa. 53:3)all have sinned. Therefore, Jehovah would have to take away Israels priests (because they were leading Israel to sin) into captivity. Israels access to God through its priesthood and its sanctuary would be suspended until she repented. Jacob (Israel) was to be made a curse (kherem in Hebrew, literally, devoted or banned, or outlawed). Israel was to suffer the ban of God and become an outlaw (read Deut. ch. Isa. 28:15 f), and instead of being respected by vile pagan nations, Israel would be reviled. God called her from the beginning to show forth His wonderful grace and forgiveness through covenant relationship, but she rejected His covenant and His grace. Now she must be allured back to pardon in a new covenant relationship, but through trouble (see our comments, Minor Prophets, Hos. 2:14-15, College Press). Israels pardon will be perfected when she brings forth her Messiah, but she must be prepared for that by chastening.
QUIZ
1.
How did Israel express its weariness of Jehovah?
2.
Why did God say He had not wearied them with offerings?
3.
How did Israel burden God?
4.
Why call Israel to remember Jehovah?
5.
What perfection is Jehovah calling Israel to in this section?
6.
What curse was placed upon Israel?
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(22) But thou hast not called upon me.The startling abruptness of the complaint has led many critics to question the genuineness of these verses (22-24). Their insertion, however, by a later writer would be at least as hard to understand as their having come from the hand of the same writer as the glowing picture that precedes them. May we not find the solution of the problem in the fact that Isaiahs experience taught him that there would be in the future, as in the past, a dark as well as a bright side to the picture? that the mercies shown to the exiles would not be according to their merits, but to Gods great goodness? The worship of the restored exiles would be as that of the people had been in his own time, meagre and unthankful. Visions of failure alternate with the glowing hope that the ideal will be realised, and this alternation constitutes the great problem of the book, as it does of all like apocalyptic intimations.
But thou hast been weary.Better, so that thou shouldest be weary. Others render it, Much less hast thou toiled for me. Sacrifices elsewhere than in the Temple were forbidden by the Law, and the prophet does not so much blame the people for not offering these as for not compensating for their absence by the true worship of which they were the symbols.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
22-24. Sweet cane A “reed of fragrance,” from which perfuming extracts and ointments are made; used also in costly offerings. It is said “sweet cane” is not to be found in Syria. Gainsaying this, I quote from my journal of route from Sinai to Hebron, date March 6, 1870: “Found to-day, sixteen hours from Beersheba, in Wady El Abriad, moist from recent rains, a very fragrant reed, resembling Andropogon calamus, but the genus and species of which are unknown. These stalks were three feet high, of last year’s growth, and very fragrant.”
The tenor of these verses does not hold well with the preceding. The writer falls back to describing Jacob in another character than that which fits him for immediate restoration. How could this have been written by an unknown prophet at the end of the exile? But it tallies completely with Isaiah, through all these prophecies. From one subject to another he often leaps to the reader’s surprise. Then there is another difficulty for anti-supernaturalistic critics. The pious Jews were forbidden to offer sacrifices elsewhere than at Jerusalem. No remedy for the critics but to mutilate, as usual, the passage, and consign it to another origin. Yet this need not be done. The break here in Isaiah’s style of address, is in this wise explainable: His spirit had glowed in view of the grand Messianic outcome which the literal deliverance from exile suggested. But he at once bethought himself how unworthy, even yet, they were for so great a mercy, and he reminded them of it to show how great a gratuity they were to share, and how low in humiliation they needed to be. Failure of proper devotion to the temple was made an illustration of Israel’s habit of unfaithfulness.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
But God’s People Have Failed To Be His True People And Must First Face Cursing And Revilement ( Isa 43:22-28 ).
However, while there is the glorious vision of this future true people of God, Isaiah has not forgotten the present state of Israel. He was under no illusions about that. Indeed God had warned him what they would be like (Isa 6:9-11). Jacob was in a dreadful state even in spite of all God’s offers of forgiveness. Israel was not walking in the way.
These verses must be read with care. At no time did Judah and Jerusalem actually cease the Temple ritual, (it probably even continued, at least spasmodically, during the exile in the ruins of Jerusalem), they simply ceased genuinely offering it to Yahweh. Their home cultus, formally carried on, had become a meaningless ritual, a sideline to their offerings to other gods. That this is the meaning is evidenced by the first verse. Never in Israel’s whole existence did they cease outwardly calling on Yahweh, whether in the land or in exile. The ritual prayers continued, the Psalms were sung, the cult continued, dead though it might be. But here it is made clear that their hearts were not in it. They ceased because they had wearied of Him not because they had been driven from the land. (Note that the general cessation of sacrifice in exile was not due to weariness, so that this does not have that in mind). They were no longer really calling on Him, they simply muttered by rote. In the same way their sacrifices continued as a sideline to the religions they really took an interest in. They were offered mechanically, not as something really offered to a living and present Yahweh. This all ties in with the early part of the reign of Manasseh when there was a great turning back to false gods, probably under Babylonian influence.
This must not be taken too literally. It is the idea that matters. Not all in Judah rejected Yahweh. No doubt there were still some who treated Yahweh seriously, including Isaiah and his disciples for example, but the point is that the general trend was in this direction. This was what it looked like to those who saw them.
Israel Have Failed to Honour Him Therefore He Will Profane Them ( Isa 43:22-28 ).
Isa 43:22
“Yet you have not called on me, O Jacob,
But you have been weary of me, O Israel,
You have not brought me the small cattle of your burnt offerings,
Nor have you honoured me with your sacrifices.
I have not made you to serve with offerings,
Nor wearied you with frankincense,
You have brought me no sweet cane with silver,
Nor have you filled me with the fat of your sacrifices,
But you have made me to serve with your sins,
You have wearied me with your iniquities.”
The picture of Israel’s present condition (that of Judah and Jerusalem) is a dismal one. They have not sought Him or genuinely called on Him, and it is because they are weary of Him. They have outwardly continued the ritual but their hearts have been with other gods, and it is on them that they have called and to whom they have looked. They have not brought their sacrifices with a glad heart, and with a genuine sense of worship. While they have continued with the cult it has been formal and dead. They were in fact not offerings made to Him, simply temple ritual, following a dead custom.
‘I have not made you to serve –.’ They did not do it for Him. It was not the propulsive effect of their awareness of Yahweh that made them serve with offerings and an abundance of frankincense, but, in so far as they did it, simply habit and custom. It was not He, and the sense of His presence, Who made them carry out their service, because they looked to Him as living and as there, making demands on them, it was simply the fact that they were in a rut. Empty ritual went on but Yahweh was sidelined, indeed pushed out of mind. It was not He, and the thought of Him, that made them ‘serve’.
‘You have brought me no sweet cane (or ‘fragrant calamus’) with silver, nor have you filled me with the fat of your sacrifices.’ They brought Him no gifts of sweet cane or fragrant calamus (Exo 30:23; Jer 6:20) and silver. These extra gifts from a thankful and responding heart went to other gods, not to Yahweh. There was no lavishing on God of fat from freewill offerings. He was sidelined.
‘But you have made me to serve with your sins, you have wearied me with your iniquities.’ Rather than them serving Him, they had thought that through their ritual, offered so sinfully, they could actually make Him serve them, forcing Him to do their will, manipulating Him by their activity. Their whole attitude towards Him was sinful and was due to their sins. Sin unforgiven and not admitted always leads to formal worship. And all they have otherwise brought is their iniquities, which have wearied Him. And their sins and their iniquities have especially been brought to His attention by what they do in His house (compare Isa 1:12).
Isa 43:25
“I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake,
And I will not remember your sins.”
Yet it should not be so. If only they were willing He was standing there ready to forgive. These wonderful words are a reminder to them of what the Temple service should have been all about, the removal of their sins, and a guarantee to those who were still faithful of forgiveness and of what He did for them. Let them remember that it is Yahweh, and only Yahweh, Who can truly blot out their sins, yes, and wills to do it. It is He Who can remove their sins in such a way that they are no longer remembered, but deliberately put aside, filed away as no longer relevant, and no longer held against them, because they are cancelled. And He does it for His own sake, that He might have them as His people. Let them remember this and come back to Him that He may do it. He is the blotter-out and non-rememberer of their sins. Let them therefore return to Him that they may obtain these blessings.
And He is still the same for us today. Once we become aware of our sins we can hear His voice calling to us, ““I, even I, am He Who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins.” And if we call on Him we can then be sure that He will do it. We can be sure that He will blot out our transgressions, our breaking of His Law and our coming short of His requirements, and He will put our iniquities in the place of non-remembrance (better than being forgotten for nothing will bring non-remembered sins back to God’s memory. They are deliberately excluded). Compare 1Jn 1:7. But it is not automatic. It results from our response to His call.
Isa 43:26
‘Put me in remembrance. Let us plead together.
Set forth your cause that you may be shown to be right.
Your first fathers sinned,
And your representatives have transgressed against me,
Therefore I will profane the princes of the sanctuary,
And I will make Jacob a devoted thing,
And Israel a reviling.”
He pleads with His people to discuss matters with Him. Let them remind Him of their arguments. Let He and they both plead their two positions before a tribunal together. If they are right, let them set forth the case to prove that they are right. Then indeed will He have His opportunity to prove that they are wrong and He is right. But they will not listen. It is the same story all over again. Their fathers sinned in the wilderness almost immediately after the covenant had been written in stone, and continued to sin constantly, and now their own representatives and ambassadors to God have done the same. They have shown a continual obstinacy of heart.
‘Your first father(s).’ Actually in the singular but probably a composite or collective noun signifying all their fathers, whoever they looked to. But it may possibly specifically mean Adam, Abraham or Jacob. The continual reference to ‘Jacob/Israel’ in this section may suggest the latter.
‘Therefore I will profane the princes of the sanctuary, and I will make Jacob a devoted thing, and Israel a reviling.’ That is why He will profane the princes of the sanctuary. (He could only do this because the sanctuary was still standing). He will make the leading priests cease to be priests. They will be removed from priestly office. They will lose their ‘sanctity’. They will be made profane.
So the humiliation of the Temple is at the forefront of what Isaiah sees as inevitable. Those who serve in the Temple have humiliated God, and so He will now humiliate those who serve in the Temple. It may well be that he saw that this could only be achieved by the removal of these ‘princes of the Sanctuary’ to an unclean land. Thus he may have seen the final destruction of the temple for its treasures as inevitable, with the consequent cessation of the whole round of sacrifices and the slaughter of priests as they incongruously defended it, and the removal of the chief priests to captivity where they would certainly be ‘unclean’. Isaiah is becoming more aware of what the future holds, but probably only slowly. It will shortly lead on to his declaration that the Temple will one day need to be rebuilt.
‘And I will make Jacob a devoted thing, and Israel a reviling.’ This confirms that he is anticipating disaster for Jerusalem and for Israel. To be ‘a devoted thing’ was to be under sentence of death. Things that were ‘devoted’ had to be destroyed (see Joshua 7) for they were God’s alone. Thus Jacob/Israel will either be destroyed as profaned, or reviled because defeated and humiliated.
Isaiah is aware of Assyria’s continued dominance, but his thoughts are now fixed on what God had said concerning Babylon, the great anti-God which at present has jurisdiction over them under Assyrian overlordship, and his thoughts are now being turned more towards what God had said He would do through Babylon because of Hezekiah’s folly (Isa 39:6). He possibly fears not only subjection and looting but the destruction and rape of Jerusalem, although he does not specifically say so. He was probably not aware of the full details. He only knew that those who ran the Temple must be humiliated, and that Israel (Judah) also must be humiliated. And he is recognising more and more the implications of it. That is why in Isa 44:28 onwards he will introduce God’s partial solution to the problem that he foresees, although we have to interpret it with care.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Israel’s Salvation the Work of Jehovah’s Mercy
v. 22. But thou hast not called upon Me, O Jacob, v. 23. Thou hast not brought Me the small cattle of thy burnt offerings, v. 24. Thou hast bought Me no sweet cane with money, v. 25. I, even I, am He that blotteth out thy transgressions for Mine own sake, v. 26. Put Me in remembrance, v. 27. Thy first father, v. 28. Therefore,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Isa 43:22-24. But thou hast not called upon me This reproof may be connected in a two-fold manner with the preceding discourse. First, that the prophet, while he consoles the better part of the church, and confirms their faith by the predictions and promises of great things to come, may at the same time reprove the greater and worst part of the church, and give them to know that these benefits were not conferred upon the church for their sake, or that they should have any part in them; but that, on the contrary, they might be assured that they should incur the severest judgments of God. Or, secondly, the connection may be thus: that after the prophet had foretold and promised the singular blessings of deliverance from exile, and the privileges of the oeconomy of grace, to be exhibited in their proper time, he yet informs the Jewish people that these benefits should proceed solely from the grace of God: that the worship which they had paid him by their sacrifices and offerings so abounded with defects, that it could not be esteemed true worship; nay, that Jehovah was determined not to pass by the grievous sins of the people and the priests unpunished. Therefore, whatever benefit should happen to the church, it was to be ascribed solely to his grace, not to their merits. This method of connecting the passage seems better to agree with the context; particularly the 27th verse. The sweet cane refers to that aromatic cane, probably the cinnamon, which was made use of for the incense. See Jer 6:20. Bishop Lowth reads the last clause of Isa 43:23 and Isa 43:24. I have not burthened thee with exacting oblations; nor wearied thee with demands of frankincense: thou hast not purchased for me with silver the aromatic reed: neither hast thou satiated me with the fat of thy sacrifices. On the contrary, thou hast burthened me with thy sins, &c.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
DISCOURSE: 934
THE GREATNESS OF GODS MERCY
Isa 43:22-26. Thou hast not called upon me, O Jacob; but thou hast been weary of me, O Israel. Thou hast not brought me the small cattle of thy burnt-offering; neither hast thou honoured me with thy sacrifices. I have not caused thee to serve with an offering, nor wearied thee with incense. Thou hast bought me no sweet cane with money, neither hast thou filled me with the fat of thy sacrifices: but thou hast made me to serve with thy sins, thou hast wearied me with thine iniquities. I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins. Put me in remembrance: let us plead together: declare thou, that thou mayest be justified.
THE sinfulness of man, and the goodness of God, are subjects which mutually illustrate each other: neither can be viewed in its true colours, unless it be considered in its relation to the other: but both appear in perfection, when they are brought into immediate contrast together. This is the view in which they are frequently presented to us in the holy Scriptures, and especially in the passage now before us; in which we have,
I.
A contrasted view of Gods conduct towards us, and of ours towards him
God has not required any oppressive services of us
[God, as the author of our being, has a right to all our time, and all our faculties: but he requires of us only one day in seven, to be spent in his more immediate service. The law, which he imposed upon the Jews, appeared indeed burthensome, through the infirmity of their flesh; though, when considered in its true light, it ought not to have appeared so [Note: It was necessary, in order to keep them separate from the heathen: it was the means of directing their attention to the Messiah, and of preparing them for the fuller light and liberty of the Gospel: it was also the means of their maintaining communion with the Deity, and of obtaining his richest blessings.]. As for us, we are wholly freed from that yoke, and have only two easy and significant rites to observe. Nor is the moral law burthensome; for the whole substance of it is, Be holy, and be happy [Note: Rom 7:12.]: and if a permission were given us to violate any one of its commands, it would be, in fact, a dispensation to make ourselves miserable.]
But we have been backward to offer him any token of respect and love
[The Jews grudged to purchase a little calamus for the holy perfume and incense [Note: Exo 30:23; Exo 30:25; Exo 30:34-35.]. Nor, if they brought any sacrifices, would they present the fat and good of their flocks, but rather, such as were lean and refuse [Note: Mal 1:8.]. Thus have we been averse to call upon him, being soon weary of that holy employment or, if we have just waited upon God in his outward ordinances, we have withheld from him that which alone could render our services pleasing in his sight, the tribute of an humble, contrite, and grateful heart. To mortify our lusts, and exercise devout and heavenly affections, would have cost us more pain and labour than we have been willing to afford: we have therefore wholly declined such services, and contented ourselves with offering only the cheap sacrifices of external and occasional formalities.]
Yea, instead of serving him aright, we have even wearied him with our iniquities
[How awful the charge, which God himself here brings against us! He, who might justly demand any thing of us, has not required of us any great services, or wearied us with an intolerable yoke: but we, who are bound by every tie to please and honour him to the uttermost, have quite oppressed and wearied him by our long continued iniquities, till he is even pressed under us, as a cart is pressed that is full of sheaves [Note: Amo 2:13.]. There is scarcely an evil desire, which we have not harboured and indulged. Pride, envy, malice, revenge, covetousness, impurity, and whatever else is hateful unto God, have at all times found a ready admission into our hearts: and if an outward restraint has been imposed upon our actions, it has not proceeded from a fear of God [Note: Rom 3:18.], or a hatred of sin, but from a regard to our characters among men, and to the temporal consequences which we dreaded. When we have known that our dispositions were offensive to God, we have not regarded him, any more than if he had been our slave, that was constrained to bear whatever we might impose upon him: we have altogether contemned him [Note: Psa 10:4; Psa 10:13.] as unworthy of our notice, and lived as though there were no such Being in the universe.]
Marvellous as this contrast is, we shall be yet more astonished, while we consider,
II.
Gods address to us, founded upon the foregoing representation
The former part of Gods address is a free and gracious promise of forgiveness
[What might such rebels have expected, but to hear God say, Ah! I will ease me of mine enemies [Note: Isa 1:24.]; I swear in my wrath, that they shall never enter into my rest [Note: Psa 95:10-11.]; my fury shall rest upon them, and I will be comforted [Note: Eze 5:13.]. But, behold, how different is his voice! I, even I, whom you have so insulted, degraded, wearied; I, who could in an instant cast you into hell, us I did the rebel angels; I, who might be glorified in your eternal condemnation; even I, am ready to blot out all your transgressions, as a morning cloud: yea, I will blot them out through the blood of my dear Son; and, though I might well seal them up in a bag, and bring them forth at a future day to your everlasting confusion, I will no more remember them; they shall be perfectly blotted out, even as if they had never been committed. I well know, that if I seek for any thing in you to justify such an act of mercy, I shall never find it: there is nothing in you but what calls for wrath and fiery indignation: yet I will not on this account forbear to exercise mercy; I will pardon thee for mine own sake, that I may be glorified in displaying the exceeding riches of my grace.
How infinitely does this surpass our highest conceptions! and how obdurate must be the heart that can withstand these overtures of love and mercy!]
The latter part of the address is an urgent invitation to accept of mercy
[It may possibly be understood as a rebuke to a proud self-justifying Pharisee. Many, instead of humbling themselves under the charge brought against them, will instantly reply, Wherein have we wearied thee [Note: Mal 2:17.]? To such God may be considered as saying, Since you plead your innocence [Note: Jer 2:35.], and stand on your own defence, as though you did not need this offer of mercy, come, and put me in remembrance of your good deeds (for, if you have any to boast of, they have quite escaped my notice): Let us plead together, and see whether I am right in my charge, or you in your vindication of yourself: declare thou the grounds of thy dependence, that, if they will bear thee out in thy confidence, thou mayest be justified before me.
Alas! alas! that the offers of a free salvation should ever be despised through a vain confidence in our own goodness! O that we might not so despise our own mercies! Whatever sentence God shall pass upon us, he will surely be justified in his saying, and be clear when he is judged [Note: Psa 51:4.]. Let us not then provoke God to such a contest; for our hope will be only as a spiders web, that shall be swept away with the besom of destruction [Note: Isa 28:17.].
But I understand it rather as a direction and encouragement to the repenting sinner. While some put away from them the word of life, because they feel not their need of mercy, others do the same, from an apprehension of their unworthiness to obtain mercy. But God is ever solicitous to encourage the humble, and says, Put me in remembrance of this promise; come and plead it with me! declare thou thine affiance in it; and, unworthy as thou art, thou shalt be justified. As our Lord vouchsafed to Thomas the evidence of his senses, in order that his doubts might be effectually removed, so he here condescends to the infirmities of his people, in order to bring them to a full conviction of his love and faithfulness. Let this direction then be followed by every doubting, trembling soul. Let us take the Canaanitish woman for our pattern [Note: Mat 15:26-27.]: and our confidence shall ere long be crowned with a rich reward [Note: Heb 10:35.].]
Reflections
1.
How averse is God to the perishing of an immortal soul!
[What stronger comment can we have on that oath of Jehovah, As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of a sinner: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel [Note: Eze 33:11.]? Contemplate the text in that view, and say whether God does not desire that all men should be saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth [Note: 1Ti 2:4.]? Verily He delighteth in mercy; and judgment, on whomsoever it is exercised, is his strange work, to which he is utterly averse.]
2.
How bitter will be the reflections of all who perish in their sins!
[If there be one ingredient in the cup of a damned soul more bitter than another, it is this; My God and Saviour would have saved me, but I would not accept of his salvation [Note: Mat 23:37.]. I would not come to him that I might have life [Note: Joh 5:40.]. I pray you, beloved, treasure not up for yourselves such bitterness as this: but improve the present opportunity of obtaining mercy, for the day of grace once lost, is lost for ever. This, Brethren, is the accepted time: the Lord grant that it may prove unto every one of you the day of salvation [Note: 2Co 6:2.].
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
Reader, do not fail to overlook the very great tenderness of this expostulation, which the Lord makes with his people. What did the Lord look for, and expect in his people? Evidently, from what is here said, the Lord was jealous of their not calling upon him: Jacob, father of the Israelites; was remarkable for keeping up acquaintance, by prayer and communion with the Lord. And the Lord had never said to the praying seed of Jacob, Seek ye my face, in vain. But it seems the children did not turn after their father; they neglected to come to the mercy-seat; they grew shy of the Lord; they brought not the tokens of love in sacrifices and offerings. Reader, doth not the blush of shame tinge our faces, while hearing God’s charge against Israel for this neglect, under a consciousness that we are equally guilty? Precious Jesus, how truly humbled do I feel my soul in the very moment that I read of Israel’s inattention, under a deep sense of my own! Is it possible that so much love in Jesus can be requited with so much indifference? Yes! for I feel it, and groan under it; Rom 7:24-25 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Weary of God
Isa 43:22
God knows what is the matter with us. He knows whether it is unbelief, or indifference; whether it is a new and perplexing view, or whether it is a closing of the eyes and a total disregard of all aspects of life. Does he care for us enough to consider what our relation to him is in reality? Does he keep some thermometer by which he can mark the rise and fall of our zeal? Surely there must be a thermometer somewhere, for ever and anon we find in the Bible distinct indications of change now it is a rise and now it is a fall; now we are weak, now we are strong; at one moment we are regarded as faint, at another moment we are registered as courageous. One man kept the record, and wrote with a strong hand, “Weary not in well doing.” “Ye did run well; who did hinder you?” Life is not lived without notice, without record; there is a distinct and daily and momently registration of every pulse that beats in us, every aspiration that stirs our life upward, every desire that draws us as thirst draws the hart to the water-brooks.
Here is a distinct complaint: “Thou hast been weary of me, O Israel:” thou hast had enough of me; thou hast been with me and in my service to the point of satiety; thine ear is sated with my name, and thy heart is surfeited with my memory and my service. Is it possible to become weary of the worship and service of God? We know by experience how possible and even easy it is. There are times when we are weary of church, and prayer, and service of every kind. It is best to acknowledge this lest we excuse our weakness with a lie. At the same time we should look at the weariness discriminatingly lest we load ourselves with needless reproaches. First, let there be frank confession: we can make no progress until we have washed our hands, then we may reason with God, and God will reason with us. First, he says, wash your hands; put away the evil of your doings: now let us reason together. As a matter of fact, the Church is weary of God, the age is tired of religion, the Church is an incubus upon society. Were we to leave the charge there we should wholly misrepresent the case. Yet we lose nothing by frankness of confession, provided we limit our confession to occasional moods and intermittent experiences, and do not confound the real solid settled habit of mind with transient emotions or sensations or declensions. Let us face the difficulty squarely and broadly. We never gain anything by evading difficulties: they are not to be dodged, they are to be removed. A day of confession may be a day of black ness, like the darkness which immediately precedes the dawn. We shall be the better for telling God that he is perfectly correct in his judgment when he says that we are often weary of him. But may we not become weary of mere ceremony, or form, or routine? That weariness does not always relate to the inner quality, the spiritual reality and truth, but it relates to the mechanical iteration of duties, observances, rites, and ceremonies; the turning of that great wheel has a lulling effect upon us, so much so that we are asleep when we thought we were beginning to pray. Let us discriminate then. After all, it may not have been real worship we were weary of, but simulated worship, mechanical repetition, which had degenerated into lifelessness and monotony.
Sometimes our weariness is physical. Who can add up the debts of the body? Who can send in a true bill of particulars to the flesh? How it drags us down, overshadows us, mocks us, aggravates its own weight, until we cannot lift it, and then it suffocates us with heavy oppressiveness. Others are physically weak; they suffer on the other side of fleshly limitation and burdensomeness; they are not full-blooded, they inherit a thousand difficulties, perplexities, blindnesses, which they cannot explain and cannot escape; the head aches, the poor strength gives way under the increasing burden, the eyes become so dim that they cannot see whether the hand is going to the right or to the left or seizing the right instrument. God knows it all, and he will not judge the weak one harshly. He has special promises for the weak, and as for his Son it is among his glories that he has the tongue of the learned, and is able to speak a word in season to him that is weary. Let us here pluck up courage like men who have heard a message from the King, and are told that weakness is not faithlessness when it can be traced to physical causes.
May we not sometimes be conscious of a weakness that is reactionary? We are not yet conscious of immortality; we are yet in the body, we bear about the writing of condemnation in the flesh; we have passed through regeneration, but not through resurrection, and our doctrine is that resurrection must complete what regeneration began; meanwhile, we have to encounter all the difficulties and disadvantages connected with the flesh; we have been in high excitement, and the natural consequence is that we fall correspondingly in moral enthusiasm, in spiritual rapture and ecstasy. We cannot always be upon the mountain, Now and again God gives us mountain air and mountain views and mountain light, and we think it is going to continue so evermore; when, lo! we are suddenly brought down the hill into the damp relaxing valleys, where our strength gives way, where we forget much of what we have seen in the upper places and sacred liberties of the elevated region. We have been in such rapture that it would seem as if blank atheism alone could be its counterpart. How far is it from the zenith to the nadir? Remember, that we, too, have our zenith, our highest point; and our nadir, our lowest point; but still, whether at the one or at the other, we are in God’s universe, and are reckoned amongst his stars, or at least among the paler beams that drop from the minor planets. Where weariness comes from reaction it must not be judged harshly. As well say that a man is a traitor to the stewardship of life because he has been working so hard all day that he has fallen into a deep sleep at night; rather count his sleep a tribute to his industry than credit his industry with a flaw on account of his slumber.
There is a sense in which our very weariness may be an honour to us. Sometimes our weariness is a protest against vain service or perfunctory worship; then it is to our honour. We are men who say, “We become weary of this.” Religion is life, or it is nothing; religion is passion, or it has no meaning; Christianity is a Cross, or it is a mockery. Where men would give us stones for bread we have a right to become weary. Congregations should fall asleep under any man who offers them a scorpion for an egg, a stone for bread. It would be the severest rebuke that could be administered to a traitorous trustee that his audience should slumber when he thus mocks the desire of the human heart Before, therefore, condemning ourselves too severely for weariness, let us institute a process of examination, and let us be content to abide by fact.
Having thus cleared the ground of some possible misconceptions, we have only brought ourselves face to face with the appalling fact that the soul may become really weary of God. We have lost nothing of standing ground by making confessions and distinctions, but if we have accepted these in the right spirit and measure we are the better prepared to face the appalling charge that we who once loved the Saviour with a passionate affection have become the slaves or the victims of rival claims. We think we know the prayer before it is uttered; we suppose ourselves to be perfectly familiar with the hymn before the tune has made itself heard; we think we know all the preacher is going to say before he opens his mouth; and as for the Bible we suppose ourselves, with deadly delusion, to have read it a miracle which no man can accomplish. The Bible is always to be read; it has a thousand beginnings, it has no end. On the other hand, how prone we are to blame the preacher for our weariness and to credit the service with our indifference! How often shall we repeat the doctrine that a good hearer makes a good preacher! and how often shall we reiterate the view that the hearer is as much bound to be prepared as is the preacher! Is all the preparation to be in the pulpit? Is the minister always to be a radiant angel, eloquent with praise and prayer? and is the hearer to be but an indifferent listener? When the hearer hastens to the church, saying, I will see my God today, I will meet my Lord this morning; may the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, inspire the teacher that he may see far and clearly, and speak wisely and well, that hearer will never be disappointed. We are always in danger of weariness through what we call the monotony of life. There is not sufficient distinction between the days. We easily fall into circumstances in which we forget the succession of days. A man who is on the sea day after day has sometimes to inquire what day it is, what date it is; the days are blurred into one another, and the man cannot distinguish in the confusion. So it is with life in some of its broadest aspects. One day is so like another; the same bell rings, the same meal is spread, the same duty calls, and by-and-by we become weary of it all. Then there is our conscious limitation: how far can we go? We know almost to a mile where we must stop. Our courage is not allowed to overleap certain lines: it would do so; sometimes it seems to say, This shall be a day of liberty, and I will know more than I have ever known before of God’s method; today I may be able to force the divine hand, and see what is next to be done; I will not live in the little cage of today, I will live and sing in the great liberty of the future. This cannot be done. We are still puzzling over the same old lesson; again and again we recur to first principles; often we try to whisper ourselves into a new faith by promising ourselves that we shall yet see what we have not before beheld. Thus every day is a day of disappointments; the evening and the morning are not one day; the morning comes in with great promises; the evening closes with great disappointments. We are always just about to enter, yet our fingers cannot quite grasp the handle of the door; we are just about to seize the prize, and it recedes, and Tantalus burns with thirst; we are sure that tomorrow we shall see the fuller light, and tomorrow is as dull and grey as yesterday; we say, At midday we shall hear the blast of the trumpet and go forth to meet the descending King, and forget time’s troubles in the quiet and joy of eternity, and lo! at midday we hear but a thunderstorm, and lose sight of one another in sevenfold darkness; thus our patience dies, and the soul sinks in great weariness. What a trial to every mind this constant repetition of religious service must be! It is a heavy trial to the conductor of such services. How much we expect of the poor man who leads our worship and directs our studies: what little pity we have for him! Every Sabbath he must perform a miracle of resurrection upon our dead piety; we have been in the world six days, buying, selling, getting gain, or making losses, we have forgotten the whole conception of God, and we expect some brother man to come and revive us and recreate us and make us fit instruments to be played upon, and having retuned the instrument he must discourse the very music of heaven upon us, or we complain of inferiority, inability, monotony.
From the divine side there comes a lesson that ought not to be overlooked: “Thou hast not brought me the small cattle of thy burnt offerings” ( Isa 43:23 ). Here the text is difficult of English representation. Where others so mighty have failed we shall not attempt to succeed; but may we not pause and ask whether some emphasis may not be laid upon the designation “the small cattle”? Do not many men fail in religious details? They are emphatic in their stupendous word-creed, but they do not bless some little child on the road to church, or bring some wandering soul to the Church home. We might bring a little crowd with us if we cared to do so. We could give away so much alms on the road to church that people would say, Where is that man going? we must see the destiny of so good a soul! What if they were thus led into the church? We do certain great or conspicuous things, and we forget the small cattle, the little offerings and tributes. Every omission is noticed: “Thou hast bought me no sweet cane with money, neither hast thou filled me with the fat of thy sacrifices” ( Isa 43:24 ). Does God care for our sweet cane? Does he like to see us spending a trifle upon some cane stick that we may take it and offer it as if it were a flower? Yet he hath no need of any service of the kind; the silver and the gold are his, and the cattle upon a thousand hills; all rams that browse, or cattle that feed in Nebaioth or on Kedar are his: yet it pleases him that we should with some small piece of money buy sweet cane. Observe how he notes the omissions! This might be the very voice of Christ who said to Simon the Pharisee, “I entered into thine house, thou gavest me no water for my feet: but she hath washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head. Thou gavest me no kiss: but this woman since the time I came in hath not ceased to kiss my feet. My head with oil thou didst not anoint: but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment.” What an eye is the eye of Omniscience! It notices every slip and flaw and omission. That would, indeed, be a miserable declaration to make if it stood alone; but it only leads to the fuller declaration that it notices every cup of cold water, every widow’s gift, every child’s service. God is not unrighteous to forget your work of faith and labour of love. He challenges Israel: “Put me in remembrance: let us plead together: declare thou, that they mayest be justified.” Translated: “Remind me if thou canst of thy merits;” if I have forgotten aught, tell me what I have forgotten, if I am charging thee by mistake, correct my mistake. “Remind me of my promises” may be another translation of the word. But we accept the words as a challenge. The Lord has made a charge upon us, and now he says. Put me in remembrance, if I have forgotten anything: if thou hast had thy small cattle with thee, show me them. He would apologise to us if we could convict him of having made an omission.
The Lord is weary of us sometimes. What wonder? “Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them.” Is our weariness actual, explicable, yea, as it were religious, or an aspect of our religion? Does it come of brokenheartedness? Then there is a special word to each: “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” In this sense we are all welcome on the very ground of our weariness. Let us say, Lord, thou art right, thy judgment is true; we thought sin would be a pleasure, a song, and a banquet of delights; we said sin is an easy weight, and we put on its yoke, saying it will take little. or no strength to carry: but we were wrong; sin has eaten our life, blinded our vision, excluded the light; it has grown little by little and day by day, until we feel as if we were carrying mountain piled on mountain. Wilt thou now pity us? We have no right to ask even for pity, for this is sin, not misfortune, we have brought it all upon ourselves; but somehow, whether from mother’s speech or thine own written Book, or a voice in the heart other than our own, we have come to feel that after all our weariness shall prevail where our strength could do nothing, and where thou, O Son of God, wouldst pass a Pharisee in disdain thou wilt stop to talk to a blind man, and thou wilt not leave him until he sees how high is thy bright blue heaven. Let us renew our vows. We are all weary, but there is a weariness that is no shame; if we are weary of good because we want to do evil, if we are weary of discipline because we want the licence of iniquity, then is our weariness a reproach and an abomination. When we do one-half for the Church what we do for ourselves we shall have some right to be weary. How men slave for themselves! How they gather it all together, and when they are putting out their palsied hand for the last increment, they and their burden together fall into the open grave. What if a voice should say, Thou fool I thou fool!
Prayer
Almighty God, the living, the living shall praise thee, as we do this day. Thy works towards us have been wonderful in love; thou hast magnified thy mercy towards us, so that we can now say, His mercy endureth for ever. Thou art merciful unto the children of men always, but peculiarly merciful unto those who look upward and expect thee with their love and cry unto thee with sincerest desire; towards all such thy mercy is tender mercy and thy kindness is loving kindness. Who can tell what mystery of love thou canst work out; who can say where God shall terminate his ministry of pity? We know not what thou wilt do, but it will be worthy of thyself, it will be measured upon the scale of eternity, it will be glorious in majesty, or tender in compassion; upon it shall thy signature be found, and we know in very deed that thy signature is Love. For all thy tender care, thy patient endurance, thy longsuffering, how can we bless thee? Thou mightest have cut us off in the midst of our days, and hurled us away like a shepherd that had no tent; but thou hast spared us, and tried us, and renewed our opportunities, and in manifold ways hast thou shown thy tender interest in us, if haply we might be recovered from the end of our ways, from the ruin that lies at the end of our paths. What shall we say of the Cross of Christ, the greatest manifestation of all of the love and pity, the righteousness and mercy, of the living God? Herein is love: while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. If thou hast not spared thine only begotten Son, but freely delivered him up for us all, we need have no care, no fear, no doubt; thou wilt also with him freely give us all things all rest, all conquest, all heaven. May we realise this inheritance of joy, may we know that this is so in very deed; may no man come and steal away our faith, or poison our trust, or pervert our judgment. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil; for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory for ever. May we rest in thine almightiness; may we hide ourselves in the sanctuary of thy love. Amen.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
Isa 43:22 But thou hast not called upon me, O Jacob; but thou hast been weary of me, O Israel.
Ver. 22. But thou hast not called upon me, O Jacob. ] During the captivity they prayed not to any purpose, as Daniel also acknowledgeth: Isa 9:13 “All this evil is come upon us, yet made we not our prayer before the Lord our God, that we might turn from our iniquities and understand thy truth.” Nevertheless, of his free grace, God brought them back again.
But thou hast been weary of me, O Israel.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Isa 43:22-24
22Yet you have not called on Me, O Jacob;
But you have become weary of Me, O Israel.
23You have not brought to Me the sheep of your burnt offerings,
Nor have you honored Me with your sacrifices.
I have not burdened you with offerings,
Nor wearied you with incense.
24You have bought Me not sweet cane with money,
Nor have you filled Me with the fat of your sacrifices;
Rather you have burdened Me with your sins,
You have wearied Me with your iniquities.
Isa 43:22-24 This is not a condemnation of sacrifice in general but of false motives (cf. Jeremiah 7). The VERBS are all PERFECTS which show a settled attitude of rebellion.
Isa 43:24 sweet cane This refers to holy anointing oil (cf. Exo 30:23; Jer 6:20).
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
called upon Me. Put by Figure of speech Synecdoche (of Species), App-6, for all that has to do with worship, as developed in verses: Isa 43:23, Isa 43:24.
been weary of Me. Note the emphasis is on “Me” in these verses (compare Mic 6:3. Mal 1:13).
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Isa 43:22-24
Isa 43:22-24
“Yet thou hast not called upon me, O Jacob; but thou hast been weary of me, O Israel. Thou has not brought me of thy sheep for burnt-offerings; neither hast thou honored me with thy sacrifices. I have not burdened thee with offerings, nor wearied thee with frankincense. Thou hast bought me no sweet cane with money, neither hast thou filled me with the fat of thy sacrifices; but thou hast burdened me with thy sins, thou hast wearied me with thine iniquities.”
If any further proof of when and by whom this chapter was written, here it is. Now, could any exilic, or post-exilic “Deutero-Isaiah,” or “Second Isaiah” have written such a complaint to Israel at any time whatsoever after the onset of the captivity? Absolutely No! Why? Because at the time projected in such a ridiculous postulation, It was sinful for Israel to have offered any such sacrifices as those mentioned here anywhere else on earth except in Jerusalem! What kind of simpleton, therefore, must that alleged “Deutero-Isaiah” have been to complain of Israel’s alleged action in this passage? On the other hand, Isaiah was writing of the conditions in Jerusalem over a century before the captivity during which Israel would have the comfort and encouragement of these passages. This is another example of how the radical critics overreach themselves and exhibit their own incompetence.
Isa 43:22-24 To PRAISE: Israel was called to praise and exalt the name of Jehovah by worshipping Him and keeping His commandments. By worship and obedience to Jehovahs Law, Israel would thus call upon Him in faith and show her dependence on His grace. However, Israel did not call upon Him. Israel did not obey Jehovahs Law. Israel considered the Law of Jehovah insufferable, restrictive, boring, and she tired of its discipline, (cf. Isa 7:13; Jer 9:5; Mic 6:3; Hab 3:2; Mal 2:17, etc.). Israel tired of God as lustful men tire of their wives (Jer 3:19-20; Hosea 1, 2; Eze 16:1 f). The word of the Lord became to Israel an object of scorn (Jer 6:10; Jer 6:16). To be sure, Israel had trampled Gods courts with multitudes of sacrifices and offerings (Isa 1:10-17). But, the prophet speaks with sarcasm. Israel was not really bringing all those sacrifices to honor Jehovah. They were doing it to honor themselves. They were more than willing to bring ten thousand offerings as a substitute for putting to practice the Law of God in personal godliness (Mic 6:6-8). They were willing to earn religious merit from sacrifices as long as the Holy One of Israel did not demand moral holiness from them. It was not the number of offerings that burdened the Israelites, it was the moral strings attached to a humble relationship of faith and obedience to a Holy God that wearied Israel. The astonishing thing is Jehovahs law was always a refreshing, regenerating, pleasurable experience every time Israel obeyed it-individually and nationally (cf. Psalms 119, etc.). Jehovah intended only blessing in His Law (Deu 28:1 f). History proved it!
The sweet cane (Heb. kaneh) of Isa 43:24 was probably the scented calamus (reed) or some kind of aromatic bark. It was an ingredient of the holy oil (Exo 30:23); imported from a distance (Jer 6:20; Eze 27:19) and was thus rare and costly. Its sweetness refers to the scent, not the taste. Another Hebrew word in this verse is significant (kaniytha) because it is from the same root as the word translated sweet cane but means bought or purchased. There appears to be a definite play upon words here emphasizing the preciousness of the offering of cane. Reviythaniy is translated filled in the same verse but literally means moisten, satiate, or drench. The point of this verse is simply this: the people of Israel had not really extended themselves in giving offerings of quality or quantity. They probably skimped on their offerings much the same as their descendants did after the return from the captivity (cf. Mal 1:6-14; Mal 3:6-12, etc.). On the contrary, Israel had gone out of its way to load Jehovah down with its insulting rebellion. The word burdened in this verse is from the Hebrew root avad meaning servile labor. The guiltiness of Israel pressed upon The Holy One of Israel, as a burden does upon a servant. The other word, wearied, is from the Hebrew root vaga which means literally, fatigued or exhausted. Instead of Israel fulfilling its calling to praise Jehovah, it was a pain to Him. But the Lord is going to create for Himself an Israel (a new Israel, ruled by His new David) that will fulfill its calling of praise. And He is beginning the work with the prophets and the captivity (cf. Isa 43:19).
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
thou hast not: Isa 64:7, Psa 14:4, Psa 79:6, Jer 10:25, Dan 9:13, Hos 7:10-14, Hos 14:1, Hos 14:2, Jam 4:2, Jam 4:3
thou hast been: Job 21:14, Job 21:15, Job 27:9, Job 27:10, Jer 2:5, Jer 2:11-13, Jer 2:31, Jer 2:32, Mic 6:3, Mal 1:13, Mal 3:14, Joh 6:66-69
Reciprocal: Hos 7:7 – there Zep 1:6 – and those Zep 3:2 – she drew Act 22:7 – why
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Isa 43:22-24. But thou hast not called upon me Thou hast grossly neglected, or very negligently and hypocritically performed the duties of my worship. Thou hast been weary of me Thou hast not esteemed my service to be a privilege, as in truth it is, but as a burden and a bondage. The connection is: But thou, Israel, whom I have chosen, whom I have formed for myself, to be my witness against the false gods of the nations; even thou hast revolted from me, hast neglected my worship, and hast been perpetually running after strange gods. The Jews were diligent in performing the external services of religion; in offering prayers, incense, sacrifices, oblations; but their prayers were not offered with faith, and their oblations were made more frequently to their idols than to the God of their fathers. Neither hast thou honoured me If thou didst not neglect sacrificing to me, thou didst perform that duty merely out of custom; or didst dishonour me, and pollute thy sacrifices by thy wicked life. I have not wearied thee Or, Although I have not wearied thee, &c. Although God had not laid such heavy burdens upon them, nor required such costly offerings, as might give them cause to be weary, nor such as idolaters did freely perform in the service of their idols. Thou hast brought me no sweet cane This was used in the making of that precious ointment, (Exo 30:34,) and for the incense, Exo 30:7. See Jer 6:20. Thou hast been niggardly in my service, when thou hast spared for no cost in the service of thine idols. Nor filled me, &c. Thou hast not multiplied thy thank-offerings and free-will-offerings, though I have given thee sufficient occasion to do so. But thou hast made me serve, &c. Thou hast made me to bear the load and burden of thy sins.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Isa 43:22 to Isa 44:5. Yahwehs Intervention, not Purchased by His People but Entirely of His Grace, shall Bring New Life to Israel.It is not that during the exile Israel has assiduously sought Yahwehs aid by prayer and sacrifice. Nor has He exacted gifts and incense. So far from requiring them to buy sweet-scented cane to make fragrant their choice sacrifices, He has been compelled to do service for them, in saving them from the consequences of their sins. (Of His grace He will pardon their sins. What plea can they advance?) Their ancestor, Jacob, and the prophets, the very men who should have mediated between Yahweh and Israel, sinned against Him; the princes profaned His sanctuary. So He had given His people to the ban. Yet He bids His chosen people, addressing them by the pet name Jeshurunthe upright onefear not. Upon them He will pour out His quickening life-spirit like rain on the thirsty ground. Their vigour shall be renewed, and they shall flourish like grass that grows amid waters (LXX) or willows on the banks of streams. Unto them, to share their prosperity, shall come men from the nations, giving their adherence to Yahweh, and marking on their hands the inscription, Yahwehs (cf. mg.), as a sign that they have become naturalised Israelites.
Isa 43:22 b. Read, nor hast thou wearied thyself over me, O Israel.
Isa 43:25 f. Probably a gloss. The connexion would be improved by its removal.plead: as in a law-court.
Isa 43:28 a. Read (cf. LXX), Thy princes profaned my holy sanctuary; a succeeding parallel clause may have been lost.will make: read mg.curse: devoted to destruction (p. 99).
Isa 44:2. Jeshurun: Deu 32:15*, Deu 33:5; Deu 33:26, cf. Num 23:10*.
Isa 44:3 a Metaphorical; read mg.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
43:22 But thou hast not {x} called upon me, O Jacob; but thou hast been {y} weary of me, O Israel.
(x) You have not worshipped me as you ought to have done.
(y) Because you have not willingly received that which I commanded you, you grieved me. By which he shows that his mercies were the only reason for their deliverance, as they had deserved the contrary.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The Israelites would genuinely worship God for His coming deliverance of them (Isa 43:21), but at present they were not doing so. They had forsaken their God, and their praise was only formal rather than heartfelt (cf. Isa 1:11-14; Isa 66:3; Jer 7:5-10; Hos 6:6; Amo 4:4-6; Mic 6:3-8; Mal 1:13; Mal 2:17; Mat 15:9).