I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins: return unto me; for I have redeemed thee.
22. Cf. ch. Isa 43:25. “The sense of being forgotten of God is produced by the consciousness of guilt; hence the promise of forgiveness is here repeated” (Dillmann).
as a thick cloud as a cloud ] An image of transitoriness; Hos 6:4; Hos 13:3; Job 7:9; Job 30:15.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
I have blotted out – The word used here ( machah), means properly to wipe away, and is often applied to sins, as if the account was wiped off, or as we express it, blotted out (Psa 51:3, Psa 51:11; see the note at Isa 43:25). The phrase, to blot out sins like a cloud, however, is unusual, and the idea not very obvious. The true idea would be expressed by rendering it, I have made them to vanish as a thick cloud; and the sense is, as the wind drives away a thick cloud, however dark and frowning it may be, so that the sky is clear and serene, so God had caused their sins to disappear, and had removed the storm of his anger. Nothing can more strikingly represent sin in its nature and consequences, than a dense, dark, frowning cloud that comes over the heavens, and shuts out the sun, and fills the air with gloom; and nothing can more beautifully represent the nature and effect of pardon than the idea of removing such a cloud, and leaving the sky pure, the air calm and serene, and the sun pouring down his beams of warmth and light on the earth. So the soul of the sinner is enveloped and overshadowed with a dense cloud; but pardon dissipates that cloud, and it is calm, and joyful, and serene.
And as a cloud – The Chaldee render this, As a flying cloud. The difference between the two words rendered here thick cloud, and cloud ( ab and anan) is, that the former is expressive of a cloud as dense, thick, compact; and the latter as covering or veiling the heavens. Lowth renders the latter word Vapour; Noyes, Mist. Both words, however, usually denote a cloud. A passage similar to this is found in Demosthenes, as quoted by Lowth: This decree made the danger then hanging over the city pass away like a cloud.
Return unto me – Since your sins are pardoned, and such mercy has been shown, return now, and serve me. The argument here is derived from the mercy of God in forgiving them, and the doctrine is, that the fact that God has forgiven us imposes the strongest obligations to devote ourselves to his service. The fact that we are redeemed and pardoned is the highest argument why we should consecrate all our powers to him who has purchased and forgiven us.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Isa 44:22
I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions
Sin blotted out
The meaning of the verse may be–He who offered his sacrifice aright, was as sure that the sin for which he offered it was blotted out, as that the smoke of the sacrifice was dispersed by the wind, and was no longer discernible.
(E. Thompson, D. D.)
Blotting out sin: a classical side-light:
This decree made the danger then hanging over the city, pass away like a cloud. (Demosthenes.)
Clouds and sins:
Clouds do good; but transgressions and sins never do good. They do no good to the body, no good to the soul, no good to the spirit, no good to our present condition, or to our future circumstances; and, in this respect, clouds are unlike sins. Yet there are points of resemblance between clouds and sins. Clouds veil the sun; and sins hide the loving face of God. Clouds hide the lofty firmament; and sins conceal heaven. Clouds contract the prospect; and sins prevent the sight of all coming good. Clouds drop down in rain; and sins fall in punishment. Clouds are beyond our control; and sins committed are entirely out of our power. Clouds are dispersible only by God; and sins God alone can drive away. This is the point of the analogy instituted in our text. (S. Martin.)
Not a cloud to be seen:
I. THE DIVINENESS OF FORGIVENESS. I have blotted out, &c. I, even I. All sin is against God. When you sin against each other you sin against God. And all punishment is in Gods hands; and the dispensation of pardon is His prerogative. Blessed be God for keeping it within His own power! Pardon is dispensed faithfully and wisely, for God is light. Pardon is dispensed graciously, for God is love. And pardon is given according to the Divine promise and covenant, for God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.
II. THE COMPLETENESS OF PARDON. In the country which Isaiah knew, the clouds were entirely blotted out during four months of the year; so that it was an extraordinary thing from May to September, to see a cloud: and the clearness of the atmosphere enabled the prophet to appreciate this illustration to an extent impossible to us, who are so often under a leaden sky. Still, even here, we do know what it is to stand under a blue sky. In the morning, or in the evening, or late at night, we know what it is to stand under the cloudless heavens, and to say, There is not a cloud to be seen. And when God pardons a man there is not a sin to be seen. The sins of childhood, and youth, and maturity-the sins of every year, and day, and hour–are blotted out. The sins of the body, and the sins of the soul–the sins of the tongue, and of the hand, and of every member of the body–the sins of the thought, and of the imagination, and of desire, and ofaffection, and of volition, are all blotted out. The sins of the heart, and the sins of the home, the sins of the place of business, and the sins of the Church, and the sins committed against brothers and sisters, and kindred of every degree–against husband, and wife, and children, and neighbours, and friends, and the country, sins against the Saviour, and against the Holy Spirit, and against our Father in Heaven are blotted out. Sins wilful, sins careless, sins repeated, sins aggravated, are all blotted out. Not some sins, but all sins. The least are not overlooked; the worst are not reserved. Pardon is not the mitigation of punishment–it is not the passing by of some transgressions and the bringing forward of others–but an entire remission of future punishment. Sin is not behind following us; sin is not before preventing us; sin is not above falling upon us; sin is not on either hand hemming us in. Pardoned by God, our sins are gone; actually gone for ever.
III. THE ASSURANCE WHICH GOD GIVES THE PARDONED THAT THEY ARE FORGIVEN. God might forgive without telling us now that He has pardoned us. He might reserve the communication of this fact until the last great day. But He would have the forgiven know that they are pardoned. Now what profit is there in this? Knowledge of pardon is a particular knowledge of God. A man who is pardoned sees God in the dispensation of Divine forgiveness, as God is not to be seen elsewhere, or in any other dispensation. It is one thing to see God in the general provision He has made for the supply of our wants, and quite another thing for us to see God applying that provision to ourselves. A knowledge of pardon is a source of joy and peace. It is, moreover, a power awakening love. You remember the case of the woman who came to Christ, upon the occasion of the great banquet given to Him by one of the chief of the Pharisees. Then, the knowledge of pardon is a motive to the pursuit of holiness.
IV. THE KNOWLEDGE OF PARDON ENCOURAGES US TO BRING OTHERS TO GOD.
V. WHO ARE THE ASSURED?
1. Those who confess to Him their sins.
2. The confession is to be accompanied by the forsaking of sin.
3. There is no forsaking sin, without turning to God. (S. Martin.)
What man can and cannot do:
Man may divert the course of a river, and fill up the former bed; thus blotting out in certain places the river. Man may pare down portions of the hills; thus blotting out the hills. Man may raise the valley; thus blotting out the valley. Man may drain the lake, and sow it with seed, and raise crops upon the soil of the lakes bed; thus blotting out the lake. Man may, to a small extent, alter the boundaries of the ocean; thus blotting out in some places even the sea. Man may tunnel the earth and make a highway where foot never trod. But man can neither bring clouds into the firmament, nor send them away. Moreover a man may blot out ignorance by teaching, and folly by instruction, and some bad habits by good training, and animal wants by the supply of temporal necessities, and captivity by release, and disease by healing; but no man can forgive sins. The dispensation of pardon is too precious, and too important, to be entrusted to men or to angels. (S. Martin.)
Pardon not entrusted to men or angels:
A man, if he were entrusted with the dispensation of forgiveness, might be sleeping, or journeying, or sick, or in various ways out of reach. A man might be angry, or morose, or occupied, or unloving, when the penitent was calling for forgiveness. And an angel might take a hypocrite for a true penitent, or a contrite one for a hypocrite; or he might hesitate to forgive some chief of sinners. God keeps the dispensation of forgiveness in His own kind hand. (S. Martin.)
Sin and forgiveness:
There is, at first sight, a little obscurity in this expression. Is the cloud intended to represent the sin, or is it the obscurity with which the sin is to be obliterated? Does the text liken transgressions to a cloud which is to be driven away, or the transgression to be covered and blotted out as if by a cloud? There is a difference in opinion with regard to the matter. But there is no reason for not taking the words literally as they stand, and looking upon sin as likened to a cloud.
I. THE FIGURE UNDER WHICH SIN IS REPRESENTED. A cloud; a thick cloud. It affords an apt illustration of human evil.
1. Clouds obscure the beauty of the earth. Sin obscures the prospects of the soul and shuts out the glories of the heavenly horizon! It blurs the outline of truth, it disturbs our views of life, of our fellow-creatures, of our own actions and the actions and motives of others, of the providence and dealings of God, of the true import of existence, of the future and the past. What is evil seems good; what is good seems evil; what is real seems false; and what is false appears true.
2. Clouds intercept the light of heaven. And what hides the full brightness of the face of God, who is the source of all spiritual light and warmth and joy, but sin? Your iniquities have separated between Me and you. Our sins have kept the revelation of full light and the manifestation of fullest love from vivifying and rejoicing our hearts. Not that even sin entirely obscures Gods mercy and love. The darkest cloud cannot altogether hide the light of day. The suns rays are so powerful that they penetrate even through the thickest mists. But what a contrast is the feeble light of a November day to that of the genial sunbeam in June! So not even sin can entirely hide the Divine influence of the love of God or prevent it from warming the earth. But how different is its manifestation to what it was amid the glories of Paradise!
3. Clouds cause inconvenience and discomfort. The traveller amid the mountain mists, with his garments soddened and weighted with the moisture, his breathing laboured and his movements hampered, is a fitting representative of the Christian journeying heavenwards amid the many hindrances which check his progress through the uncongenial atmosphere of this sinful world, saturated with the essence, as it were, of iniquity.
4. Clouds are about us everywhere.
(1) They overshadow every portion of the globe. Not in the same intensity, not always in the same place, not similar in appearance and density.
(2) Does not sin, like the clouds, everywhere compass the spiritual world? It varies, indeed, Some countries are more enlightened, and the clouds not being so dense, more is seen and felt of the light and warmth of the Sun of Righteousness. But there are other countries where mental and spiritual clouds dominate in various degrees of density, till we arrive at those places where the savage reigns supreme and no ray of the light of heaven ever penetrates.
(3) Are not the clouds a fitting image of sin in their deceptive beauty? There are occasions when evil shines resplendent with the borrowed glory of heaven. How many noble characters have, in the virtues reflected from Christianity, attracted for a time the admiration and rapture of an astonished and delighted world! For a time! For as soon as the reflection from above, which imparted glory to their characters, was gone, they sank: again into their native nature of darkness and gloom. And observe how much the reflection of Divine truth and heavenly law beautifies this world of ours, with all its sin! The philanthropy towards those who are weak and suffering, the courtesy towards the feeble, the hospitals which are provided, the many means which are adopted for exalting the race: all these are the glints of heavenly sunshine reflected upon the clouds of sin.
(4) We also see that the clouds resemble sin because of their unreality. There is nothing on which a man can trust or lean or hope. They are unsubstantial, empty, frail.
(5) They also are changing, fleeting, driven away by all kinds and by every breath of wind; never the same, unstable, assuming all sorts of guises in the presence of the light.
II. THE PROMISE WHICH IS HERE BESTOWED. Although the statement is put in the past–I have blotted out–yet it is really a future and a conditional declaration. The early part of this chapter is a description of awful impenitence and apostasy. In purpose, in intention, this is forgiven, but it is not a forgiveness independent of reformation. We have seen the sky when the summer sun has driven away the clouds. It is deep, unfathomable, ethereal, blue. The suns glory is undimmed. The whole of nature rejoices with unspeakable joy. The heart rebounds with lightness. Not a speck on the surface of the heaven casts a shadow on the earth. Such is the idea of a world without sin. All brightness and no clouds, all joy without a sorrow to dim its glory. And this is the spiritual gist of the promise which the great God has made to His believing people. It is an assurance so certain that it is spoken of as having actually taken place. And how will God blot out the sins of His people? By the same means as physically disperse the clouds of earth.
1. By the tempests of wrath. The tempest of Gods wrath, as it fell upon the head of Christ, sent a current of electric justice through the load of sin and rendered it possible for its power to be removed.
2. By the glorious shining of rays of warmth and light. It is the warmth of Gods infinite, eternal love that shall disperse the last trace of sin. That love shining from His throne shall drive all the consequences of evil from the heart, from the life. And with the clouds of sin shall go all other clouds–the clouds of suffering, of sorrow, of death. And when sin is driven away, that love shall shine in unceasing glory. It will not be limited to time, or place, or season, or circumstance. It will not come in diminished or lessened degrees, but it will be perfect, pure, and complete. Still, this is but a figure–an incomplete one, too–one which has its deficiencies. But God Himself gave it out. (J. J. S. Bird, B. A.)
Forgiveness: its blessings and its duties:
I. AN IMPORTANT DECLARATION. I have blotted out, &c.
II. A CORRESPONDING DUTY. Return unto Me.
III. AN ALL-CONSTRAINING MOTIVE. I have redeemed thee. (S. Bridge, M. A.)
Sin and grace:
I. THERE IS RECOGNISED THE EXISTENCE OF SIN.
II. THERE IS AFFIRMED THE EXISTENCE OF MERCY. (W. M.Punshon, LL. D.)
Invitation:
The features of the Divine character, and the blessings of salvation, which are to be manifested in Gods dealings with Israel in the latter days, are the very same as are now manifested in Gods dealings with all believers. We may consider the text, then, as an exhibition of Gods mercy, in which we are ourselves interested.
I. With reference to HIS MERCY.
1. The first words of the text denote an act of Gods gracious forgiveness. I have blotted out thy transgressions and thy sins. In the New Testament scriptures, this expression blotting out is connected with the atonement Col 2:14).
2. The language of pardoning mercy goes still farther. As a thick cloud. How is a thick cloud blotted out? When a debt is blotted out from a debt book, the blot remains. It is true there is no evidence against the sinner; the charge against him is at an end; but the remains of what was a debt are to be seen, and the very act of cancelling it shows that there was a debt. But when a cloud is blotted out, it is different. How is that cloud blotted out? Either by the wind dispersing it, or by the sun breaking through it and dispersing it; and when this is done, we say either that the storm is blown over, or that there is now a clear sky, and all that we can see, if we see anything, with regard to the threatening cloud, is now composed of those beautiful hues which are lighted up by the shining of a bright sun in a clear sky. Well, then, when God says that He will blot out as a thick cloud our transgressions, and as a cloud our sin, we are to understand that He undertakes to remove all traces of our transgressions and all remains of guilt from the conscience, so that the sinner thus pardoned may look up to God as a Father full of grace and love, and may approach Him with holy boldness, and without any particle of fear. Observe, then, what full forgiveness God assures us of in this language. Thick clouds, as well as ordinary clouds,–two expressions which must be taken in a figurative meaning, as including all kinds of sin–what we call greater and lesser sins alike–are what the Lord declares His purpose to do away with, and completely to remove from being a ground of fear to those who approach Him in the name of His dear Son.
3. Now, inasmuch as no one can disperse a thick cloud but the God who can send His bright sun to shine through it, so none hut that God who proclaims Himself a pardoning God and Saviour can say, so that the conscience of the sinner shall respond, I have blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgressions, and as a cloud thy sins. And this is the forgiveness in which God delights–full, complete, and such as only He Himself can bestow.
II. But in order that this mercy may be ours, and that we may rejoice in it, IT IS NEEDFUL THAT WE SHOULD RIGHTLY RESPOND to that intimation of Gods grace. I have blotted out thy transgressions. Return unto Me.
1. It is the Redeemer who calls, because it says, Return, for I have redeemed thee.
2. How different to our natural expectation is this! The Redeemer crying after the sinner, instead of the sinner crying after the Redeemer.
3. Then observe how the language before us manifests the deep concern of God our Saviour. Return to Me. He would not speak in language like this, if it were not a matter of immense moment to the sinner to return.
4. There is another suggestion: for what purpose is this call of entreaty made? Not that the sinner may receive punishment. God calls thee, O careless one, not to be frowned upon, but smiled upon.
5. Then, after all this intimation of grace on the part of God, there can be no hope of lasting peace or a future glory, except as we return.
III. NOTICE THE LOVE IN THE ASSURANCE THAT HE GIVES ABOUT REDEMPTION. Return, for I have redeemed thee. What return do you make to the call of Him who assures of mercy and redemption, and who graciously says, Return? (W. Cadman, M. A.)
The cloud of sin and its dispersion:
I. A wonderful teaching as to the INMOST NATURE OF SIN. I refer especially to the two words for sin which are employed here. That translated transgression literally means treachery or rebellion, and that translated sin missing a mark. All iniquity is stamped with this damning characteristic, it is rebellion against a loving will, an infinite King, a tender Father. And all iniquity has this, by the merciful irony of Providence, associated with it, that it is a blunder as well as a crime.
II. THE PERMANENT RECORD OF SIN. I have blotted out. That points, of course, to something that has been written, and which it promises shall be erased. It may be, perhaps, the idea rather of a stain which is covered and removed, but that I think less probable than the other one, that the evil is written down somewhere. A book written; a permanent record of my evil doing. Where is it written? Where, rather, is it not written? Written on character, written to a very large extent even on circumstances, written above all in the calm, perfect memory of the all-judging God. The book is written by ourselves, moment by moment, and day by day. We write it with invisible ink, and it only needs to be held to the fire to flash up into legibility.
III. THE DARKENING POWER OF SIN. I have blotted out as a thick cloud. When the cloud draws its veil over the heavens, the sunshine and the blue are shut out from a mans eye, and all the flowerets close; and when the heaven is veiled the birds cease to sing. So, like a misty veil drawn across the face of the heavens are mans sins. Our only way of knowing God is by sympathy, by conformity.
IV. THE REMOVAL OF THE SIN. I have blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgressions, and as a cloud thy sins. The erasure implies the making a clean sheet of the blurred page; the cancelling of the whole long formidable column of figures that expresses the debt. The blotting out as a cloud implies the disappearing of the misty vapour, as some thin fleecy film will do in the dry Eastern heavens, melting away as a man looks. So God, in His marvellous patience, shining on the upper side, as it were, of all the mists that wrap and darken our souls, thins these away by the process of self-communication, until they gather themselves up, routed and broken, and disappear, floating in thin fragments beneath the visual horizon. It is to no purpose to ask whether that means pardon or cleansing. It means both. Isaiah could proclaim: I have blotted out thy transgressions, because Isaiah could also proclaim: The chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed. Now, mark this, that this removal of sin, in all its aspects and powers, is regarded in my text as a past accomplished fact. It is not set forth as contingent upon the mans return, but as the reason for his return. I have redeemed thee, therefore come back to Me, not Come back to Me that I may redeem thee. You have to take your portion of the great blessing by the simple act and exercise of faith in Jesus Christ. Then it becomes yours. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
Sin as clouds
It is by no means an uncommon circumstance to find in the Bible the very same natural object employed as a symbol of very different and even opposite things. Thus, the lion is used as the emblem both of Christ and of the Prince of Darkness; fire is used as the emblem both of Divine purity and of human suffering; water is used as the emblem both of peace and of trouble; and the cloud is employed as an emblem both of good and evil. Here the Almighty Himself speaks of sin as a cloud. In order to guard against an abuse of the comparison, notice two striking points of dissimilarity.
(1) Clouds are objects of beauty.
(2) Clouds are sources of blessing. In what respect, then, is sin like a cloud?
I. He blotteth out sin as a cloud which OBSTRUCTS THE GENIAL INFLUENCES OF HEAVEN. It rolls like a thick cloud between God and the soul. It obstructs the rays of His love; it makes life gloomy and sad.
II. He blotteth out sins as a cloud which RISES FROM BENEATH. Whence come these clouds? Not from the celestial regions. They are exhalations from the earth. From noxious marshy lands and stagnant pools, as well as from restless seas they rise. So it is with sin. It is an exhalation from the depraved heart. The clouds that roll between the soul and its God are an aggregation of the noxious vapours that have risen from the heart.
III. He blotteth out sins as a cloud which EXISTS IN EVERY VARIETY OF FORM. Clouds are endless in their variety. It is so with sin. You have it in the fleeting thought, the transient feeling, the passing word; as well as in the deep plot, the cherished passions, the confirmed habits, the dark, dark life.
IV. He blotteth out sins as a cloud which is CHARGED WITH EVIL. Whilst clouds are sources of blessings to the world, they are often filled with elements of destruction. There are forged the thunderbolts that terrify; there are kindled the lightnings that consume; there are the floods that deluge. It is so with sin. The miseries of retribution are all nursed in it as storms in the cloud.
V. He blotteth out sins as a cloud WHICH NO FINITE INTELLIGENCE CAN DISPERSE. Who can dispel the smallest cloud from the face of the sky? No skill, no strength, can dispel one cloud. It is so with sin. No finite being can dispel it. No Church, priesthood, &c.
VI. He blotteth out sins as a cloud, which ONCE DISPERSED, IS GONE FOR EVER. Sins pardoned, like clouds dispersed, are lost for ever. In those days, saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for and there shall be none, and the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found, for I will pardon them.
VII. He blotteth out sins as a cloud, which WHEN DISSIPATED BENEFITS THE UNIVERSE. (Homilist.)
Gods forgiveness:
I. A DESCRIPTION OF SIN. Mans transgressions are as a thick cloud.
1. In their number.
(1) The sins of the wicked–murders, revellings, debaucheries, and the like.
(2) The sins of the moral man–intellectual sins, worse than the animal–avarice, pride, ambition, unbelief.
(3) The sins of the good. The lives of the best of men may seem, to the natural eye, holy and good; but, seen under the microscope of Gods law, these are full of impurities.
2. Because they intervene between God and man.
3. Because they engloom the earth.
4. Because they contain the consequences which we dread. Out of the cloud the angry lightnings flash, and in the cloud the fury of the tempest sleeps.
II. A DESCRIPTION OF FORGIVENESS. I have blotted out, &c. You have witnessed the dispersion of a storm. This is a symbol of Gods forgiveness.
1. It is so because it is the work of God only. It is a transaction in which man has no share.
2. Gods forgiveness is a complete forgiveness.
3. May we not learn that all sin is overruled to our good? After the storm has gone over us, have we not found the atmosphere purified? Can we not see that the world is disciplined by the deluge of evils which pours forth from the clouds of sin?
4. This is a symbol of Gods forgiveness in respect to the gladness which succeeds the storm. The prophet represents the whole earth as awakening, after the dispersion of the storm, to exultant joy. Sing, O ye heavens, &c. Such is the joy of the world on account of Gods forgiveness.
III. A DESCRIPTION OF THE CONDUCT OF THE FORGIVEN. Return unto Me, &c. (H. M. Jackson.)
Departing clouds:
The bestowment of spiritual blessings is a warrant for the expectation of all needful temporal blessings. This passage is the foundation on which God causes His ancient people to rest. Gods forgiving love is the promise of all needful help and grace.
I. WE MAKE OUR OWN CLOUDS. As the natural clouds are formed by the vapours drawn up from the sea, so, in a degree, those clouds which darken our skies are the effects of our transgressions.
II. GOD MAKES OUR CLOUDS THE MINISTERS OF HIS MERCY. The natural clouds are the ministers of His mercy, the testimonies of His faithful care, of His loving thoughtfulness for the children of men. But how wonderful that the clouds of our sins should be the ministers of His mercy! The clouds lead us to appreciate the glorious sunlight.
III. GOD DISPERSES OUR CLOUDS BY THE INTERVENTION OF HIS REDEEMING LOVE AND POWER. Clouds move in obedience to natures laws; and the clouds of our sins cannot be blotted out in an arbitrary method. Not as a bad debt, not as chalked figures may be obliterated. God is a Father, but He is a moral Governor. Even He has only a right to blot out transgressions, because He has redeemed.
IV. GOD DISPERSES OUR CLOUDS IN ORDER THAT WE MAY STAND IN THE CLEAR SUNSHINE. When sin is blotted out, then the soul is started on a career of never-ending fruitfulness.
V. GOD MAKES THE DEPARTING CLOUDS HIS PATHETIC PREACHERS. Return unto Me. Every time we see the clouds sweeping across the heavens, let us listen to their still small voice. (W. Burrows, B. A.)
Gods abundant pardon:
In pardoning His people God freely forgives them all their sins of every description, flowing from corrupt propensities and evil habits, committed through ignorance, infirmity, temptation, or presumption. (R. Macculloch.)
Barriers obliterated:
I. HERE IS AN INTERPOSING AND DIVIDING MEDIUM: a cloud of sins. A vapour, says the Hebrew; and, then, a thick cloud. Gods people ought always to dwell in fellowship with their God. There ought to be nothing between the renewed heart and God to prevent joyful and hallowed fellowship; but it is not so. Sometimes a cloud comes between,–a cloud of sin; and, whenever that cloud of sin comes between us and God, it speedily chills us. Our delight in God is no longer manifest; we have little or no zeal in His service, or joy in His worship. Beneath that cloud, we feel like men who are frozen; and, at the same time, darkness comes over us. We get into such a sad state that we hardly know whether we are Gods people or not. Besides that, it threatens us. Remember, clouds are earthborn things. Yet, recollect that the sun is not affected by the clouds.
II. THE COMPLETE REMOVAL OF THIS BARRIER. I have blotted out, &c.
1. No known human power can remove the clouds. So it is with your darkness and doubts if you have fallen into sin.
2. But what a mercy it is that God can remove these clouds of sin.
3. When God drives away these clouds from us, though we may see other clouds, we shall never see those black ones any more. When the Lord takes away His peoples sins, they are gone, and gone for ever.
4. The glory of it is that the Lord has already done this great work of grace. I have, &c.
III. THE TENDER COMMAND. Return unto Me. The great barrier that separated us, is removed; so let us not be divided from one another any longer.
1. When He says, Return, He wants you to give up that which has grieved Him.
2. The Lords gracious invitation also means, Come back, and love Me. See how I have loved you. I have already forgiven you your sin, you who are, indeed, My child, but whose faith has almost disappeared. Though you have provoked Me, I still love you. Will you not love Me? After such pleading, can you keep on in this cold-hearted state towards your God?
3. The Lord also means, Return again to your old joys.
IV. THE SACRED CLAIM WHICH BACKS UP THE GRACIOUS INVITATION. I have redeemed thee.
1. The meaning is this: I have loved you so much that I redeemed you with the blood of My dear Son; and, having loved you so much in the ages past, I love you still. Come back to Me. I did not make a mistake when I first loved you, through which I shall have to change the object of My choice. I knew all about you from eternity,;, all that you ever would be or could be, I knew it; yet I loved you and bought you, &c.
2. You belong to Me. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Return unto Me
The freeness of the gospel scheme, and the universality of Gods love
I. THE FREENESS OF THE METHOD OF MANS ACCEPTANCE. Return unto Me; for I have redeemed thee. There can be no difficulty in proving that we are bought with a price; there can be no difficulty in showing that it was God Himself to whom the price was paid. But there is something of a difficulty in understanding how purchase can consist with gift; and how that which is dearly bought can be said to be freely bestowed. The difficulty is just what follows. Much is said in the Bible as to our deliverance being perfectly gratuitous; but if God bestows nothing that has not been paid for, what becomes of that gratuitous character of redemption? Certainly it would seem that purchase is so inconsistent with donation, that He of whom forgiveness is bought can lay but slight claim to a surprising liberality. Careful examination, however, will set this in a proper light. Return unto Me; for I have redeemed thee, is an assertion whose proof lies in the assurance that God is ready to receive the prodigal. A deliverance that has been bought for the world is more illustrative of Gods free grace than any other which would have required no satisfaction. For a plan of deliverance in every sense gratuitous is one of those absurd creations of the fancy which it would have been impossible to turn into reality. If it could not have been said to man, Thou art a redeemed thing, and a purchased thing, it must have been said, in opposition to our text, Thou shalt not return; thou shalt continue a ruined thing. It fell not within the power of Deity to grant what men call unconditional forgiveness. It is requiring God to undeify Himself–to cease to be the Just One, the Faithful One. The fact that we may return to the Father only because we are purchased by the blood of His Son, wondrously demonstrates the freeness of the grace. The death of the Son does not, after all, place the Father under the necessity of extending forgiveness to sinners; He need not have said, Return, even though we were redeemed. We are not merely debtors who have nothing to pay–we are criminals who have punishment to endure. If I were only a debtor, and Christ had discharged the debt, I cease to be a debtor, and God cannot, in justice, refuse to release me; but, if I were a criminal, I do not cease to be a criminal because another might have died in my room. Hence it is free grace, and nothing else, that grants me forgiveness.
II. THE EARNEST LONGING THAT GOD HAS THAT SINNERS SHOULD BE SAVED, DISCOVERED IN THE PATHOS OF THE ENTREATY. Men are bid to return because they are redeemed. There are, therefore, two conditions: they must have faith in the Redeemer, and they must have that repentance which includeth forsaking of sin: so precious are you in Gods sight that to return is to please God. (H. Melvill, B. D.)
I have redeemed thee
I have redeemed thee
To redeem is to buy back; and our redemption is a buying us out of bondage. We are sold under sin, and God has bought us back with the precious blood of His well-beloved Son. If you will look at Lev 25:23, &c., you will find the law by which the land could be redeemed; or those persons who had waxen poor and sold themselves as bondmen–the law of redemption.
1. Christ is born in our midst that He may become a Kinsman, a Brother to us all, He comes bringing our ransom price. But he does not bid the angels bring the gold and pearls for our deliverance. He gives Himself a ransom for all. And now Jesus comes to us, our loving Brother, and He saith, I have redeemed thee.
2. Now do not let us serve sin any more. Jesus has bought us back from this hard master. He has bought for us the Fathers house too. He has put us in possession of heaven and all its joys. And thus from the bondage of sin and evil of our hearts, we can cry to the King for His help. Prayer is the white-winged bird that can bear our message right up to the Fathers house. And an answer shall come. (M. G. Pearse.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 22. I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins – “I have made thy transgressions vanish away like a cloud, and thy sins like a vapour”] Longinus admired the sublimity of the sentiment, as well as the harmony of the numbers, in the following sentence of Demosthenes: . “This decree made the danger then hanging over the city pass away like a cloud.” Probably Isaiah alludes here to the smoke rising up from the sin-offering, dispersed speedily by the wind. and rendered invisible. He who offered his sacrifice aright was as sure that the sin for which he offered it was blotted out, as that the smoke of the sacrifice was dispersed by the wind, and was no longer discernible.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
I have blotted out, as a thick cloud; as the sun commonly dissolveth, or the wind scattereth, the thickest and blackest cloud, so as there is no remnant nor appearance of it left. Return from thine idolatry, and other wicked practices.
I have redeemed thee; therefore thou art mine, and obliged to return and adhere to me.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
22. blotted outthe debt ofthy sin from the account-book in which it was entered (Exo 32:32;Exo 32:33; Rev 20:12).
as a thick cloudscatteredaway by the wind (Ps 103:12).
as a clouda descendinggradation. Not only the “thick cloud” of the heavier”transgressions,” but the “cloud” (“vapor”[LOWTH], not so dense, butcovering the sky as a mist) of the countless “sins.”These latter, though not thought much of by man, need, as much as theformer, to be cleared away by the Sun of righteousness; else theywill be a mist separating us from heaven (Psa 19:12;Psa 19:13; 1Jn 1:7-9).
return . . . forTheantecedent redemption is the ground of, and motive to, repentance. Wedo not repent in order that He may redeem us, but becauseHe hath redeemed us (Zec 12:10;Luk 24:47; Act 3:18;Act 3:19). He who believes in hisbeing forgiven cannot but love (Luk 7:43;Luk 7:47).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
I have blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgressions, and as a cloud thy sins,…. Sins and transgressions are compared to clouds, for the number of them, they being many as the fleeting clouds of the air; and for the nature and quality of them: as clouds are vapours rising out of the earth and sea, so these arise out of the earthly and corrupt heart of man, which is as a troubled sea; and, like the clouds, they reach up to the heavens, and the cry of them calls aloud for vengeance from thence; they cause darkness, even all that darkness, both in unregeneracy, and after conversion; they intercept the light of God’s countenance, and interpose between God and the souls of men, and cause him to hide his face from them; they come between them and the sun of righteousness, and cover him out of their sight; and by means of them the light and comfort of the Holy Spirit are withdrawn; and they hinder the free passage of prayer to God, at least as to the apprehension of God’s people; see Isa 59:2, and they portend a storm, and threaten with a tempest of divine wrath and vengeance; but God graciously forgives them; which is meant by “blotting” them out. Clouds are blotted out either by the wind dissipating and scattering them; or by the sun breaking through them, conquering and dispersing them, which perhaps is alluded to here; and designs not the satisfaction of Christ for sin; by which he has finished and made an end of it; but rather God’s act of pardon upon it, and the application of it to his people; or the discoveries of it by Christ himself, the sun of righteousness, arising upon them with healing in his wings, that is, with pardon to their souls; saying to them, thy sins, though many, are forgiven thee; and they are so blotted out and removed as to be seen no more, and as if they had never been, as a cloud is; not only no more seen by the avenging eye of divine justice, but so removed from them as not to be seen by them, as to have no more conscience of them, or feel the load and burden of them; and though other clouds or sins may arise, yet these also are blotted out in the same way, and shall never appear against the saints to their condemnation. And as, when clouds are blotted out, there is a clear sky, a serene heaven, the sun shines in its brightness, and everything is pleasant and delightful; so when sin is pardoned, or it appears to be so, then God is beheld as the God of all grace, as all grace and love; the sinner can go with a holy boldness to him, through the blood of Christ, as being pardoned, and has fellowship with him; the evidences of interest in Christ become clear, and the comforts of the Holy Ghost are enjoyed. And let it be observed, that as no man can reach the clouds, and blot any of them out; so none can forgive sins but God, this is his sole prerogative,
Isa 43:25. Here is mention made of a cloud, and a thick cloud; no clouds are so thick but God can blot them out, and these are no sins so great but he can forgive them; clouds, and thick clouds, are blotted out, lesser and greater sins are forgiven by him. Some read the words thus, “I have blotted out”, wiped or washed away, “as with a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and as with a cloud thy sins” n; and give the sense thus, as clouds pouring down with rain wash the streets from the filth of them, so the Lord, as with a deluge of pardoning grace and mercy, washes away the sins of his people; grace superabounds abounding sin, and carries it all before it, and removes it clear away; now this blessing of grace is mentioned, to attach the people of God to his service, as it follows:
return unto me, for I have redeemed thee; this supposes them to have backslidden from the Lord in heart or in practice, in life and conversation, or in both, and yet the Lord had forgiven them; and which was a reason why they should return to him by repentance; as nothing is a greater motive to it, or more strongly influences it, than a discovery of pardoning grace; and then the people of God do return to God as their Father, who graciously receives them, and to Christ as their husband, to whom they are married, though backslidden, and to their duty to both. So the Targum,
“return to my worship or service;”
the reason or argument enforcing it is very strong, “for I have redeemed thee”; from sin, and all its sad effects; from the law, and the curses of it; and from death and hell, and wrath to come; and therefore need not fear any of these things, or fear coming to the Lord on account of them. Such, who are redeemed, need not doubt but they shall be kindly received, though they have backslidden, and that no good thing will be withheld from them; for if God has given his Son to redeem them, he will give all things freely with him; besides, being redeemed, they are the Lord’s, and therefore ought to return to him, and glorify him with their bodies and spirits, which are his; and as they are redeemed from our vain conversation, they should return from it, and not indulge one, or otherwise the end of redemption is not answered: and this being joined with the forgiveness of sin in the preceding clause, shows that that proceeds upon the foot of redemption, or upon the foot of satisfaction made by Christ; and both furnish out arguments engaging to the service of God.
n So some in Gataker.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
22. I have blotted out, as a cloud, thy iniquities. The Lord promises to his people future deliverance; for our hearts cannot be actually raised towards God, if we do not perceive that he is reconciled to us. In order, therefore, that he may keep the people whom he hath once bound to himself, he adds a promise by which he comforts them, that they may be fully convinced that the banishment shall not be perpetual; for God, being a most indulgent Father, moderates his chastisements in such a manner, that he always forgives his children.
When he says that “he has blotted out their iniquities,” this relates literally to the captives who were punished for their transgressions; and the consequence was, that, when God was appeased, they would be delivered. It is a demonstration from the cause to the effect. The guilt has been remitted, and therefore in like manner the punishment has been remitted; for the Jews, as soon as they have been reconciled to God, are freed from the punishment which was inflicted on account of guilt. Yet there is an implied exhortation to repentance, that they may not only groan under the heavy load of chastisement, but may consider that they are justly punished, because they have provoked God’s anger; and indeed, whenever God deals severely with us, we ought not merely to wish relief from uneasiness and pain, but we ought to begin with pardon, that God may no longer impute sins to us. Yet this passage overthrows the distinction of the Sophists, who acknowledge that guilt is remitted, but deny that punishment is remitted, as we have already explained fully in other passages.
The metaphor of “a cloud” has the same meaning as if the Lord had said that he will no longer pursue them in his displeasure, (187) or punish them, because, when guilt has been remitted, they are reconciled; in the same manner as when the sky has become calm, the clouds which intercepted from the earth the light of the sun, are “blotted out” and disappear. We must therefore reject the diabolical inventions of men, which overthrow the whole doctrine of the forgiveness of sins, while they openly contradict the doctrine of the prophets.
Return thou to me. This may be taken in two senses, either that the Lord exhorts the people to repentance, or that he encourages them to hope for deliverance; but both senses may agree well. We have said that it is the ordinary practice of Scripture, whenever redemption is mentioned, to exhort to repentance; for the Lord wishes to bring us back to himself in this manner, that he may render us fit for receiving his layouts. Besides, as the people, through their unbelief, were very far from cherishing the hope of salvation, it may likewise be taken for a confirmation, that the people may believe that they will undoubtedly return; as if he had said, “Though thou thinkest that I am estranged from thee, yet know that I will take care of thee.” And I approve more this latter sense, and think that it agrees better with the context; for the Prophet labors above all things to confirm the promises of God, and to fix them deeply on their hearts.
For I have redeemed thee. He commands the Jews to “return to him,” though their banishment stood in the way of their expecting that he would be a deliverer; as if he had said, “Though I appear to be estranged from you, yet trust; for I have determined to redeem you.”
(187) “ A la rigueur.” “Rigorously.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(22) I have blotted out, as a thick cloud.Better, mist. The Authorised Version half suggests the idea that it is the cloud that hides the sins from view. What is meant is that the sins of Israel are put away, as the sun and wind drive away the mists and fogs (Job. 30:15); and that this is, in idea at least, if not in time, prior to the conversion as that which makes it possible.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
22. Blotted clouds sins Two-fold figure of clouds obscuring the sun and of sins hiding the face of God. Clouds being removed, the sun, with the clear blue heavens, comes to view; so sins repented of, bring sense of approval from God, revealing the truth, I have redeemed thee.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
DISCOURSE: 937
THE WORK OF REDEMPTION A MOTIVE TO CONVERSION
Isa 44:22. Return unto me; for I have redeemed thee.
ON occasions of public worship we generally expect a set discourse from man. But on the present occasion, I wish you to place man altogether out of the question, and to listen to a few words addressed to you by Jews Christ himself. It is he who is speaking in the passage before us, and who, addressing, as it were, every one of us by name, urges us by the most forcible of all considerations to return to him. True indeed the words in the first instance were delivered to the Jews, who, notwithstanding all that Jehovah, the only true God, had done for them, were prone to idolatry; and who were absurd enough to cut down a tree, and fashion it after the image of a man, and, after having roasted their food with a part of it, to worship the residue of it as a god. Yet, instead of denouncing his heaviest judgments against them, our Lord says, O Jacob and Israel, thou art my servant: O Israel, thou shalt not be forgotten of me. I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and as a cloud thy sins: return unto me; for I have redeemed thee. Now though we are not gross idolaters as the Israelites were, we may very fitly consider the words of our text as addressed to ourselves, since every one of us has lived in spiritual idolatry, loving and serving the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for evermore.
Let us then consider,
I.
The invitation, Return unto me.
That we have all departed from God is evident from what the Prophet Isaiah says, All we like sheep have gone astray, every one to his own way [Note: Isa 53:6.]. Thus though, as to the particular ways which we have pursued, we may differ, one having rushed into all manner of gross sins, whilst another has walked in a more moral and decent way, we are all alike in this, that we have lived to ourselves rather than unto God. This we all have acknowledged in the general Confession [Note: Cite it.] and therefore we may all, without exception, consider the invitation as addressed to ourselves: Return unto me;
1.
In penitence
[As sinners, we are all called upon to repent: nor can we ever be accepted of God, whilst we continue impenitent. The Prodigal Son, in his return, is a pattern to us all [Note: Luk 15:18-19.] The Publican, and not the self-applauding Pharisee, was justified before God [Note: Luk 18:14.]. It is not the more notorious sinner only that is to sow in tears, in order to reap in joy: for he that covereth his sins, whoever he may be, shall not prosper: it is he only who confesseth and forsaketh them, that shall find mercy [Note: Pro 28:13.]. Hence the Saviour would have the very best of men approach him with that penitential acknowledgment, Behold, I am vile: I repent and abhor myself in dust and ashes [Note: Job 42:6.].]
2.
In faith
[We are not to come to the Lord doubting either his power or his willingness to save us [Note: Mar 9:22-23. Mat 8:2.], but fully confiding in him as able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by him [Note: Heb 7:25.]: If I may but touch the hem of his garment, I shall be whole [Note: Mat 9:21.]. Our Saviour would not have any doubts entertained in our mind. He reproved Martha for questioning the fullest possible accomplishment of his word: Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God [Note: Joh 11:40.]? In our return to him he will make our faith the measure of the benefits he will confer upon us; He says, according to your faith it shall be unto you [Note: Mat 9:29.].]
3.
In love
[He must have willing servants, or none. We must account none of his commandments grievous [Note: 1Jn 5:3.], but regard his yoke easy and his burthen light [Note: Mat 11:30.]. In returning to him, the language of our hearts must be that which he himself used, when first he undertook our cause: Lo, I come; I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart [Note: Psa 40:7-8.]. In fact, our readiness and determination of heart to obey his will is the only true test of our repentance, our faith, or our love. With whatever measure of penitence or faith we may profess to return to him, it will be in vain to cry, Lord! Lord! if we do not the things which he commands [Note: Luk 6:46.].]
Whilst we listen to our Saviours invitation, it will be well to consider,
II.
The motive with which he enforces it.
He might well have enforced it with the most terrible denunciations of his wrath in the event of our refusal. But he rather reminds us of the great things he has done for us;
1.
As a call upon our gratitude
[Think what I have done for you, in leaving my Fathers bosom, in assuming your fallen nature, in bearing your sins upon the cross, and in effecting your reconciliation with your offended God. Does all this love call for such a return at your hands; and is it right for you to requite it as you are now doing? Is it well for you to abide at a distance from me, and to trample upon my blood as an unholy thing, and to crucify me afresh by continuing in your sins [Note: Heb 6:6; Heb 10:29.]? Had I never shewn such mercy to you, your wickedness in departing from me would have been comparatively light: but now you can have no cloak for your sin [Note: Joh 15:22.]: nay, you must stand utterly condemned in your own minds. But if you will duly contemplate the love which I have shewn to you, it will surely generate in your hearts somewhat of a corresponding love to me, and constrain you to live unto him, who has so lived and died for you [Note: 2Co 5:14.].]
2.
As an encouragement under our fears
[In despite of all that the Lord Jesus has done and suffered for us, we are prone, under a deep conviction of our sins, to doubt whether he will receive such sinful creatures as we. But let us suppose, that, immediately after his resurrection, he had met many of his murderers, and told them, that the very blood which they had shed should cleanse them from the guilt of shedding it; could they have doubted his willingness to save their souls? Now it is in this very way that he meets us at this time. Our sins were the true cause of all his sufferings: and in his word he meets us at this very hour, and says to every one of us individually, I have redeemed thee; O return to me; for I have redeemed thee. Dismiss then your fears, whatever you may have been, or whatever you may have done: for his blood will cleanse from all sin [Note: 1Jn 1:7.], nor shall any soul perish that believes in him [Note: Joh 3:16.]. Let the most unrighteous man in the universe only return to him in penitence and faith, and He will have mercy upon him, and abundantly pardon all his multiplied transgressions [Note: Isa 55:7-8.].]
Application
[Let the careless sinner hear this. When you are in the midst of all your mirth and gaiety, call this to mind: My Saviour is here with me; and in a still small voice he says to me, Return unto me from whom thou hast deeply revolted; return unto me; for I have redeemed thee. What has the world ever done for you, that it should be preferred to me? or what can it ever do, that shall compensate for the loss of my redeeming love? Surely, my Brethren, one such thought as this will damp all your joys, and constrain you, like the Saviours look on Peter, to go forth from your scenes of dissipation, and weep bitterly [Note: Mat 26:75.]
Let the backsliding professor, in particular, consider himself as here addressed. To him our Saviour says, What iniquity have you found in me, that you should so slight my love? Have I been a wilderness to you, and a land of darkness, that you should thus wickedly depart from me [Note: Jer 2:5; Jer 2:31.]? O remember, It were better for you never to have known me, than thus to reflect dishonour un my name [Note: 2Pe 2:21.]. Think, in what your declension must issue, if you return not to me with your whole heart. And now, ere it be too late, say, What have I to do any more with idols? I will return unto my first Husband; for then it was better with me than now [Note: Hos 2:7; Hos 14:8.] Then shall you pour forth those joyous strains which follow my text; and, with David and Peter, unite for ever in the loudest hosannas to your redeeming God.]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
Isa 44:22 I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins: return unto me; for I have redeemed thee.
Ver. 22. I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins. ] God blotteth out, or wipeth away, the thick cloud as well as the cloud, enormities as infirmities: like as the sun dispelleth fogs and mists with his bright beams. Think of this sweet similitude, together with that other in Mic 7:19 , “Thou wilt cast all our sins into the bottom of the sea,” and then despair if thou canst. The sea by its vastness can drown mountains as well as mole hills; and the sun by his force can scatter the greatest mist, as well as the least vapour. So here.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Isaiah
WRITING BLOTTED OUT AND MIST MELTED
Isa 44:22
Isaiah has often and well been called the Evangelical Prophet. Many parts of this second half of his prophecies referring to the Messiah read like history rather than prediction. But it is not only from the clearness with which the great figure of the future king of Israel stands out on his page that he deserves that title. Other thoughts belonging to the very substance of the gospel appear in him with a vividness and a frequency which well warrants its application to him. He speaks much of the characteristically Christian conceptions of sin, forgiveness, and redemption. The whole of the latter parts of this book are laden with that burden. They are gathered up in the extraordinarily pregnant and blessed words of my text, in which metaphors are blended with much disregard to oratorical propriety, in order to bring out the whole fulness of the prophet’s meaning. ‘I have blotted out’-that suggests a book. ‘I have blotted out as a cloud’-that suggests the thinning away of morning mists. The prophet blends the two thoughts together, and on that great revelation of a forgiveness granted before it has been asked, and given, not only to one penitent soul wailing out like the abased king of Israel in his deep contrition, ‘according to the multitude of Thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions,’ but promised to a whole people, is rested the great invitation, ‘Return unto Me, for I have redeemed thee.’
Let me try and bring out, as simply and earnestly as I can, the great teaching that is condensed into these words.
I. Observe here the penetrating glance into the very essential characteristics of all sin.
For that expression rendered in my text, and rendered correctly enough -transgressions-means at bottom, ‘rebellion,’ the rising up of a disobedient will, not only against a law, but against a lawgiver. There we have a deepening of that solemn fact of a man’s wrongdoing, which brings it into immediate connection with God, and marks its foulness by reason of that connection.
Ah! brethren, it makes all the difference to a man’s notions of right and wrong, whether he stops on the surface or goes down to the depths; whether he says to himself, ‘The thing is a vice; it is wrong; it is contrary to what I ought to be’; or whether he gets down to the darker, deeper, and truer thought, and says, ‘The damnable thing about every little evil that I do is this, that in it I -poor puny I-perk myself up against God, and say to Him, “Thou wilt; wilt thou? I shall not!”‘ Sin is rebellion.
And so what becomes of the hazy distinction between great sins and little ones? An overt act of rebellion is of the same gravity, whatsoever may be its form. The man that lifts his sword against the sovereign, and the man behind him that holds his horse, are equally criminal. And when once you let in the notion that in all our actions we have to do with a Person, to whom we are bound to be obedient, then the distinction which sophisticates so many people’s consciences, and does such infinite harm in so many lives, between great and small transgressions, disappears altogether. Sin is rebellion.
Then the other word of my text is equally profound and significant. For it, literally taken, means-as the words for ‘sin’ do in other languages besides the Hebrew-missing a mark. Every wrong thing that any man does is beside the mark, at which he, by virtue of his manhood, and his very make and nature, ought to aim. It is beside the mark in another sense than that. As some one says, ‘A rogue is a roundabout fool.’ No man ever secures that, and only that, which he aims at by any departure from the straight path of imperative duty. For if he gets some vulgar and transient titillation of appetite, or satisfaction of desire, he gets along with it something that takes all the gilt off the gingerbread, and all the sweetness out of the satisfaction. So that it is always a blunder to be bad, and every arrow that is drawn by a sinful hand misses the target to which all our arrows should be pointed, and misses even the poor mark that we think we are aiming at. Take these two thoughts with you-I will not dwell on them, but I desire to lay them upon all your hearts-all evil is sin, and every sin is rebellion against God, and a blunder in regard to myself.
II. And now I come to the second point of our text, and ask you to note the permanent record which every sin leaves.
This metaphor will bear a little further expansion. Scripture tells us, and conscience tells us, what manner of manuscript it is that we are each so busy adding line upon line to. It is a ledger; it is an indictment. Our own handwriting puts down in the ledger our own debts, and we cannot deny our own handwriting when we are confronted with it. It is an indictment, and our own hand draws it, and we have to plead ‘guilty,’ or ‘not guilty,’ to it. Which, being translated into plain fact, is this-that there goes with all our deeds some sense and reality of responsibility for them, and that all our rebellions against God, and our blunders against self, be they great or small, carry with them a sense of guilt and a reality of guilt whether we have the sense of it or not. God has a judgment at this moment about every man and woman, based upon the facts of the unfinished biography which they are writing.
Mystical and awful, yet blessed and elevating, is the thought that nothing- nothing, ever dies; and that what was, is now, and always will be.
Amongst the specimens from the coal measures in a museum you will find slabs upon which the tiniest fronds of ferns that grew nobody knows how many millenniums since are preserved for ever. Our lives, when the blow of the last hammer lays them open, will, in like manner, bear the impress of the minutest filament of every deed that we have ever done.
But my metaphor will bear yet further expansion, for this autobiographical record which we are busy preparing, which is at once ledger and indictment, is to be read out one day. There is a great scene in the last book of Scripture, the whole solemn significance of which, I suppose, we shall not understand till we have learned it by experience, but the truth of which we have sufficient premonitions to assure us of, which declares that at a given time, on the confines of Eternity, the Great White Throne is to be set, and the books are to be opened, and the dead are judged ‘out of the books,’ which, the seer goes on to explain, is ‘according to their works.’ The story of Esther tells us how the sleepless monarch in the night-watches sent for the records of the kingdom and had them read to him. The King who never slumbers nor sleeps, in that dawning of heaven’s eternal morning, will have the books opened before Him, and my deeds will be read out. He and I will hear them, whether any else may hear or no. That is my second lesson.
III. The third is, that we have here suggested the darkening power of sin.
Not only by reason of dimming and darkening my thoughts of Him is my sin rightly compared to an obscuring cloud; but the comparison also holds good because, just as the blanket of a wet mist swathing the wintry fields prevents the sunshine from falling upon them in blessing, so the accumulated effect of my evil doings and evil designings and thinkings and willings comes between me and all spiritual blessings which God can bestow, so that the very light of light, the highest blessings that He yearns to give, and we faint for want of possessing, are impossible even to His love to communicate until the cloud is swept away. So my sin darkens my soul, and separates me from the light of life.
But the metaphor carries with it, too, a suggestion of the limitations of the power of sin. For when the cloud is thickest and most obscuring it only hugs the earth, and rises but a little way Into the heavens; and far above it the blue is as blue, and the sunshine as bright, as if there were no mist or fog in the lower regions. Therefore, let us remember that, while the cloud must veil us from the light, the light is above it, and ‘every cloud that veileth love’ may some day be thinned away by the love it veils.
IV. That brings me to the last word of my text,-viz. the prophet’s teaching as to the removal of the sin.
The cloud is thinned away. What thins the cloud? As I have said, the light which the cloud obscures, shining on the upper surface of it, dissipates it layer by layer till it gets down at last to the lowermost, and then rends a gap in it, and sends the shaft of the sunbeam through on to the green earth. And that is only a highly imaginative way of saying that it is the love against which we transgress that thins away the cloud of transgression, and at last, as the placid moon, by simply shining silently on, will sweep the whole sky clear of its clouds, dissipates them all, and leaves the calm blue. God forgives. The ledger account-if I may use so grossly commercial a figure-is settled in full; the indictment is endorsed, ‘acquitted.’ He remembers the sins only to breathe into the child’s heart the assurance of pardon, and no obstacle rises by reason of forgiven transgression between the sinning man and the reconciled God.
Now, all this preaching of Isaiah’s is enlarged and confirmed, and to some extent the rationale of it is set before us in the great Gospel truth of forgiveness through the blood of Jesus Christ. Unless we know that truth, we may well stand amazed and questioning as to whether a righteous God, administering a rigorous universe, can ever pardon sin. And unless we know that by the Spirit of Jesus Christ, granted to our spirits, our whole nature may be remade and moulded, we might well be tempted to say, Ah! the Ethiopian cannot change his skin nor the leopard his spots. But Jesus Christ can change more than skin, even the heart and spirit, the inmost depths of the nature.
Now, brother, my text speaks of this great blotting out as a past fact. It is so in the divine mind with regard to each of us, because Christ’s great work has made reconciliation and atonement for all the sins of all the world. And on the fact that it is past is based the exhortation, ‘Return unto Me, for I have redeemed thee.’ God does not say, ‘Come back and I will forgive’; He does not say, ‘Return and I will blot out’; but He says, ‘Return, for I have blotted out.’ Though accomplished, the forgiveness has to be appropriated by individual faith. The sins of the world have been borne, and borne away, by the Lamb of God, but your sins are not borne away unless your hand is laid on this head.
If it is, then you do not need to say, ‘What I have written is written, and it cannot be blotted out.’ But as in the old days a monk would take some manuscript upon which filthy stories about heathen gods and foolish fables were written, and erase these to write the legends of saints, or perhaps the words of the Gospels themselves; so on our hearts, which have been scribbled all over with obscenities and follies, He will write His new best name of Love, and we may be epistles of Christ, written with the Spirit of the living God.
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
I have blotted out. See Isa 43:25.
transgressions = rebellions. Hebrew. pasha’.
redeemed. Hebrew. ga’al. See note on Exo 6:6.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
redeemed
Heb. “goel,” Redemp. (Kinsman type). (See Scofield “Isa 59:20”).
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
blotted: Isa 1:18, Isa 43:25, Neh 4:5, Psa 51:1, Psa 51:9, Psa 103:12, Psa 109:14, Jer 18:23, Jer 33:8, Act 3:19
as a thick: Job 37:11, Lam 3:42-44
return: Isa 1:27, Isa 43:1, Isa 48:20, Isa 51:11, Isa 59:20, Isa 59:21, Jer 3:1, Jer 3:12-14, Hos 14:1-4, Luk 1:73, Luk 1:74, Act 3:18, Act 3:19, 1Co 6:20, Tit 2:12-14, 1Pe 1:18, 1Pe 1:19
Reciprocal: Num 5:23 – blot 2Sa 12:13 – The Lord Job 30:15 – as a cloud Psa 32:1 – transgression Psa 69:34 – Let Psa 78:38 – But he Psa 107:2 – Let the Isa 14:1 – the Lord Isa 33:24 – shall be forgiven Isa 40:2 – that her iniquity Isa 55:7 – for Jer 8:4 – turn Jer 31:34 – for I Jer 50:20 – the iniquity Eze 33:16 – General Mic 7:18 – that Zec 10:8 – for Mat 9:2 – be Luk 5:21 – Who can Luk 7:42 – he Rom 5:16 – but the free 2Co 5:19 – not Col 2:14 – Blotting Heb 8:12 – General Heb 10:2 – once
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
What Israel needed above all was forgiveness and cleansing from her sins (cf. Isa 43:25). The Lord had taken the initiative to provide this for His people. He would blow their sin away as quickly and as easily as a wind blows a cloud or mist away.
"The clouds intervene between heaven and earth as sin and transgressions intervene between God and His people." [Note: Young, 3:183.]
"Jehovah has blotted out Israel’s sin, inasmuch as He does not impute it any more, and thus has redeemed Israel." [Note: Delitzsch, 2:214.]
Yet God’s people must respond to His initiative by returning to Him. He had provided redemption in the Exodus, but it was only the first of several redemptions that He would provide. He would redeem them from captivity by using His servant Cyrus (Isa 44:28), and He would redeem them from sin by using His Servant Messiah at His first advent. He would also redeem them from captivity in the Tribulation by using His Servant Messiah at His second advent.
The summary reference to redemption in Isa 44:22 (cf. Isa 42:10 to Isa 44:22) prepares the reader for the next section of Isaiah’s prophecy.