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Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 57:20

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But the wicked [are] like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt.

20, 21. Their peace is contrasted with the eternal unrest of the wicked. For the image cf. Judges 13.

when ( for) it cannot rest ] as Jer 49:23.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

But the wicked – All who are transgressors of the law and who remain unpardoned. The design of this is to contrast their condition with that of those who should enjoy peace. The proposition is, therefore, of the most general character. All the wicked are like the troubled sea. Whether prosperous or otherwise; rich or poor; bond or free; old or young; whether in Christian, in civilized, or in barbarous lands; whether living in palaces, in caves, or in tents; whether in the splendor of cities, or in the solitude of deserts; All are like the troubled sea.

Are like the troubled sea – The agitated ( nigrash), ever-moving and restless sea. The sea is always in motion, and never entirely calm. Often also it lashes into foam, and heaves with wild commotion.

When it cannot rest – Lowth renders this, For it never can be at rest. The Hebrew is stronger than our translation. It means that there is no possibility of its being at rest; it is unable to be still ( ky hash^eqet lo’ yukal). The Septuagint renders it, But the wicked are tossed like waves ( kludonisthesontai), and are not able to be at rest. The idea, as it seems to me, is not exactly that which seems to be conveyed by our translation, that the wicked are like the sea, occasionally agitated by a storm and driven by wild commotion, but that, like the ocean, there is never any peace, as there is no peace to the restless waters of the mighty deep.

Whose waters – They who have stood on the shores of the ocean and seen the waves – especially in a storm – foam, and roll, and dash on the beach, will be able to appreciate the force of this beautiful figure, and cannot but have a vivid image before them of the unsettled and agitated bosoms of the guilty. The figure which is used here to denote the want of peace in the bosom of a wicked man, is likewise beautifully employed by Ovid:

Cumque sit hibernis agitatum fluctibus aequor,

Pectora sunt ipso turbidiora mari.

Trist. i. x. 33

The agitation and commotion of the sinner here referred to, relates to such things as the following:

1. There is no permanent happiness or enjoyment. There is no calmness of soul in the contemplation of the divine perfections, and of the glories of the future world. There is no substantial and permanent peace furnished by wealth, business, pleasure; by the pride, pomp, and flattery of the world. All leave the soul unsatisfied, or dissatisfied; all leave is unprotected against the rebukes of conscience, and the fear of hell.

2. Raging passions. The sinner is under their influence. and they may be compared to the wild and tumultuous waves of the ocean. Thus the bosoms of the wicked are agitated with the conflicting passions of pride, envy, malice, lust, ambition, and revenge. These leave no peace in the soul; they make peace impossible. People may learn in some degree to control them by the influence of philosophy; or a pride of character and respect to their reputation may enable them in some degree to restrain them; but they are like the smothered fires of the volcano, or like the momentary calm of the ocean that a gust of wind may soon lash into foam. To restrain them is not to subdue them, for no man can tell how soon he may be excited by anger, or how soon the smothered fires of lus may burn.

3. Conscience. Nothing more resembles an agitated ocean casting up mire and dirt, than a soul agitated by the recollections of past guilt. A deep dark cloud in a tempest overhangs the deep; the lightnings play and the thunder rolls along the sky, and the waves heave with wild commotion. So it is with the bosom of the sinner. Though there may be a temporary suspension of the rebukes of conscience, yet there is no permanent peace. The soul cannot rest; and in some way or other the recollections of guilt will be excited, and the bosom thrown into turbid and wild agitation.

4. The fear of judgment and of hell. Many a sinner has no rest, day or night, from the fear of future wrath. His troubled mind looks onward, and he sees nothing to anticipate but the wrath of God, and the horrors of an eternal hell. How invaluable then is religion! All these commotions are stilled by the voice of pardoning mercy, as the billows of the deep were hushed by the voice of Jesus. How much do we owe to religion! Had it not been for this, there had been no peace in this world. Every bosom would have been agitated with tumultuous passion; every heart would have quailed with the fear of hell. How diligently should we seek the influence of religion! We all have raging passions to be subdued. We all have consciences that may be troubled with the recollections of past guilt. We are all traveling to the bar of God, and have reason to apprehend the storms of vengeance. We all must soon lie down on beds of death, and in all these scenes there is nothing that can give permanent and solid peace but the religion of the Redeemer. Oh! that stills all the agitation of a troubled soul; lays every billow of tumultuous passion to rest; calms the conflicts of a guilty bosom; reveals God reconciled through a Redeemer to our souls, and removes all the anticipated terrors of a bed of death and of the approach to the judgment bar. Peacefully the Christian can die – not as the troubled sinner, who leaves the world with a bosom agitated like the stormy ocean but as peacefully as the gentle ripple dies away on the beach.

How blest the righteous when they die,

When holy souls retire to rest I

How mildly beams the closing eye,

How gently heaves the expiring breast!

So fades a summer cloud away;

So sinks the gale when storms are oer;

So gently shuts the eve of day;

So dies a wave along the shore.

– Barbauld

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Isa 57:20

But the wicked are like the troubled sea

The restlessness of sin

Who are the wicked?

Not only all who think and feel and do the wrong, but all who have not the right spirit within them–supreme sympathy with the supremely good. There are degrees inwickedness as well as in goodness. There are certain things that render it impossible for wicked men to have true repose. What are they?

I. DISAPPOINTMENTS. The sinner is doomed to perpetual disappointments. He expects happiness in certain pursuits and objects that cannot according to the constitution of his soul yield him true satisfaction. He reposes trust in objects as frail as the reed and as uncertain as the clouds, and he is doomed to have his plans broken up and his confidence destroyed. Hence he is the subject of perpetual vexations and annoyances, for disappointment is evermore a soul-agitating power; it comes down sometimes upon the heart like a strong south-wester, stirring it to its very depths.

II. COMPUNCTIONS. Where there is sin there must come sooner or later remorse. An accusing conscience is not a mere wind that passes over the soul, rippling its surface; it is a volcanic force in its centre, shaking every part. It gave Cain no rest, it made Belshazzar totter and Felix tremble; it drove Judas to the rope.

III. SELFISH PASSIONS. Selfishness, which is the essence of wickedness, is the great disturbing force in the moral universe. Avarice, ambition, jealousy, revenge, envy, anger, are some of its fiendish progeny. (Homilist.)

The troubled sea

In order that the wicked may understand how far from peace they really are, the prophet points seaward, and bids the people listen to the moaning of the ocean. He bids them hearken to its thunders, as it pounds upon the rock-bound coast, and says eloquently and graphically, The wicked are like yon troubled sea, for it cannot rest; its waters cast up mire and dirt.

I. THE RESTLESSNESS OF THE OCEAN IS AN EMBLEM OF THE WICKED.

1. The sea is never still. We have, indeed, beheld it like a millpond, as we say; its surface so glassy and mirror-like that some would conclude that it was perfectly still. The sails, and masts, and hull of the ship were reflected in its glassy bosom. Yet even then the deep was not perfectly still. There was a solemn heave about it, as the flapping of the sails and the rolling of the yards plainly revealed. Moreover, even if the swell could have altogether subsided, the sea was not still for all that. There were currents, imperceptible save when the log was heaved and the reckoning taken, that bore the ship silently along. Furthermore, even if it were possible to get into a place where there were neither swell nor currents, the tides are everywhere uplifting and depressing the vessel at regular intervals to high or low watermark. The sea, therefore, is perhaps one of the best emblems of restlessness, for it has several motions and movements, even in its serenest moods. But it is not to the sea in a state of calm, but when it is lashed to foam, that the prophet compares the wicked. There is to them no permanent enjoyment: their pleasures are fleeting: they have no real rest of heart. Uncomfortable thoughts and painful prickings of conscience come when they are least welcome. Conscience is ill at ease, fear of death and of judgment can by no means be altogether set aside. Those who have been converted to God after a life of dissipation and a career of sin have honestly confessed that though there was a certain sort of pleasure in the ways of wickedness, there was meanwhile a strange unrest. Like Marcellus, the Roman general, of whom it is said that whether conqueror or conquered he was still dissatisfied, they were never content. The reference here is principally to the fierce passions that are in every human breast. In the breast of the saint they are restrained by the power of the reigning Christ, but in the life of the wicked they remain uncurbed, unbridled, let loose upon the world.

2. How readily the sea is stirred! At one moment it is comparatively calm, the surface smooth and glistening, but presently the accustomed eye notices in the distance the cats paw of the wind–a little ruffling of the surface in quite a circumscribed area. But the puffs become frequent and grow in force; the ripples become wavelets, and the wavelets waves; the waves soon rise to billows, and by and by the sea runs mountains high. It is identically the same with the wicked, now-soever gently the Prince of the power of the air blows upon them at first, all too soon the angry passions rear and-rage and roar. Pride and envy, lust and covetousness, ambition, malice, revenge, all these, little in their beginnings, grow in size and increase in number until they become adulteries, murders, blasphemies, and the like.

3. To what an awful pitch the agitation of the sea can attain. Oh, the dreadful length to which wickedness is carried!

4. How long, also, the agitation of the sea remains. Some seas, indeed, are always rough. They never know repose. Off some headlands the waves run mountains high at all seasons of the year, but in other places the storm that rises so readily takes long to subside. I have encountered the after-swell of a storm that must have raged some days before; long after the hurricane had blown itself out our vessel came into the region where its tracks remained. We crossed the pathway of the storm, though we were fortunate enough to miss the tempest itself. Oh, how long the agitation of sin remains. With some, indeed, there is a temporary lull, an attempt at reformation, more or less successful. Sometimes a man will curb his passions with philosophy, or become suddenly impressed that for his own reputations sake he must hold himself in cheek, but he has scarcely done so ere Satan raises another vehement wind and begins to arouse his passions in a different direction. I have known sinners get into just such a ease that they have overcome this temptation; they have managed, by sheer force of character and strength of purpose, to restrain certain unholy passions, and then the devil, fearing that he may miss his hold of them, raises another wind, in a contrary direction; and the remains of the previous storm come clashing with the beginnings of a new one, and the poor sinner is likely to be swamped betwixt the twain.

5. What a mighty noise the sea makes when it is troubled. There is a pleasant murmur with it in the time of calm, but when the winds of heaven begin to play upon it it thunders as it rolls and breaks on the beach, and hisses as it surges on the shore. Behold here another emblem of sin and of sinners. The wicked seem to delight in making loud proclamation of their sin.

6. When the sea is troubled it works havoc on every hand. Thus do the wicked work destruction in our midst. Alas! for those who are the prey of their passions. The great, the learned, the aged are not spared. Huge liners founder in the gale. Alas! that wicked men are constantly compassing the destruction of the smaller ships; and the children of our families and our schools are wrecked while yet their years are few. Moreover, wickedness is so insidious that some who have thought to rescue men from sin have been themselves engulfed by it. They had it in their hearts to be as lifeboats to them, but they themselves have gone down too. Law and order, like great cliffs and granite walls, have been torn down by the grasping hands of iniquity, while proprieties and decencies which one would have thought that even sinners would observe, have been levelled or overridden by men who ran to an excess of riot.

II. THE SEA IS AN EMBLEM OF WICKED MEN BECAUSE OF THE DEBRIS THAT IT CASTS UP. The egecta of the sea is, in Gods esteem, a fit image of the outcome of wicked mens hearts. When the storm has subsided you will find a good deal of objectionable matter littering the beach–the vomit of the sea. How apt an emblem of that which the Christless heart produces! What evil deeds the unregenerate heart is capable of! And what shall we say about the words of wicked men? What shall the end be? Is the storm evermore to last? I see no cure for all this unless the Lord speaks peace. Oh where is He that trod the sea? He is on the mountain top; He is on His high and holy hill. It is dark, and Jesus has not yet come to us, but He has not forgotten us. Thrice happy day when the Christ of Galilee says, Peace, be still, to a sin-stirred world! (T. Spurgeon.)

Bad men and good: a contrast

What a contrast with the calm of Gods holy mountain (Isa 57:13) high above all sublunary storms. (J. R.Macduff, D. D.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Their minds are restless, being perpetually hurried and tormented with their own lusts and passions, and with the horror of their guilt, and the dread of the Divine vengeance due unto them, and ready to come upon them.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

20. when it cannot restrather,”for it can have no rest” (Job 15:20;Pro 4:16; Pro 4:17).English Version represents the sea as occasionallyagitated; but the Hebrew expresses that it can never beat rest.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

But the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest,…. Disturbed by winds, storms, and hurricanes, when its waves rise, rage, and tumble about, and beat against the shore and sand, threatening to pass the bounds fixed for it. In such like agitations will the minds of wicked men be, through the terrors of conscience for their sins; or through the malice and envy in them at the happiness and prosperity of the righteous, now enjoyed, upon the downfall of antichrist; and through the judgments of God upon them, gnawing their tongues for pain, and blaspheming the God of heaven, because of their plagues and pains, Re 16:9:

whose waters cast up mire and dirt; from the bottom of the sea upon the shore; so the hearts of wicked men, having nothing but the mire and dirt of sin in them, cast out nothing else but the froth and foam of their own shame, blasphemy against God, and malice against his people.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

20. But the wicked. Having formerly spoken of the “peace” which good men shall enjoy, he threatens that the wicked, on the contrary, shall have continual war and incessant uneasiness and distress of heart; in order that good men may value more highly the excellent blessing of “peace,” and next, that the reprobate may know that their condition shall in no degree be improved in consequence of that peace which is promised to the children of God. But because the reprobate make false pretensions to the name of God, and vainly glory in it, the Prophet shows that there is no reason why they should flatter themselves, or advance any claim, on the ground of this promise, since they can have no share in this peace. Nor will it avail them anything, that God, having compassion upon his people, receives them into favor, and commands peace to be proclaimed to them.

As the troubled sea. That metaphor of “the sea” is elegant and very well fitted to describe the uneasiness of the wicked; for of itself “the sea is troubled.” Though it be not beaten by the wind or agitated by frightful tempests, its billows carry on mutual war, and dash against each other with terrible violence. In the same manner wicked men are “troubled” by inward distress, which is deeply seated in their hearts. They are terrified and alarmed by conscience, which is the most agonizing of all torments and the most cruel of all executioners. The furies agitate and pursue the wicked, not with burning torches, (as the fables run,)but with anguish of conscience and the torment of wickedness; for every one is distressed by his own wickedness and his own alarm; (117) every one is agonized and driven to madness by his own guilt; they are terrified by their own evil thoughts and by the pangs of conscience. Most appropriately, therefore, has the Prophet compared them to a stormy and troubled sea. Whoever then wishes to avoid these alarms and this frightful agony of heart, let him not reject that peace which the Lord offers to him. There can be no middle course between them; for, if you do not lay aside sinful desires and accept of this peace, you must unavoidably be miserably distressed and tormented.

(117) “ Et gehenne.” “And by the hell within him.”

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

THE UNHAPPINESS OF SINNERS

Isa. 57:20-21. The wicked are like the troubled sea, &c. [1728]

[1728] See pp. 318, 319.

A true picture of that continued state of restlessness, uncertainty, and apprehension in which the wicked are held daily by the terrors of an alarmed conscience; or even by the distrust and anxiety they are doomed to experience in the very midst of their fancied freedom and enjoyments! Whoever has looked upon the ocean when tossed by storm and tempest, must acknowledge that the prophet could have selected no better comparison to depict to the life the state of a sinners spirit.
I. The sea cannot, if it would, sink to repose, but is doomed to heave wave after wave uselessly to the shore, till the mind of the spectator is oppressed with a sense of weariness, and almost sorrow for such incessant and fruitless tossings. Such, exactly, is the state of the sinners mind; it cannot rest. With the stain of unrepented sin on the conscience, the mind can enjoy no peace, can taste no rational pleasure [1731]

[1731] H. E. I. 1331, 1332, 13341341; P. D. 560, 562, 569, 572.

I. In illustrating these declarations we are not required to maintain that the life of wicked men is one of pure and unqualified wretchedness; common experience would be against us, and such is not the meaning of our text. We may admit, in perfect conformity with Isaiahs views, that the persons here mentioned are very often possessed of many worldly blessings, and have much apparent enjoyment (Psa. 35:15, &c.; H. E. I. 50455047). Yea, they are capable of deriving certain comforts from these outward benefits, and would sometimes be surprised if you told them that they were altogether strangers to peace. It is difficult to suppose that wealth, power, and distinction, although the portion of worldly and wicked men, convey to them no satisfaction. And especially if we contemplate that large class who spend their time amidst worldly amusements and dissipationsis there no comfort here? Is it possible that these buoyant and lively spirits are a prey to inward vexation? Can it be supposed that the thoughtless, the cheerful, and the gay, who seem to be far remote from anxiety and care, are, at the very moment, miserable? Must we suppose that even the sensual, who work all uncleanness with greediness, really do not find even any sordid pleasure in their pursuits? We need not make any statements so strong and unqualified. Nor, whatever be the alleged gratification that such persons can have, and whatever be their exemption, at any stated period, from harassing anxiety, it is not peace (). The only condition which answers to the word peace is totally distinct both from the animal spirits, which are sometimes mistaken for it, and from the insensibility which marks the practised and daring sinner. True peace must be something essentially distinct from the changing objects of time and sense; it must be something which includes the freedom of the mind from just apprehensions of evil, and which breathes over the soul a calm which the world cannot take away. Now, there is nothing which can do this but the peace made known and offered to us by the Gospel (Joh. 14:27; Rom. 14:17).

Where there is no reconciliation with God, this peace cannot exist. The wicked, therefore, have it not; on the contrary, they are like the troubled sea; for it cannot rest, and its waters cast up mire and dirt. There may sometimes be a calm over the face of the deep, but it is not of long continuance; and the time comes when we observe the sea in commotion: no longer hushed in repose and presenting the stillness and clearness of a placid lake, but working up from its depths the sediment which is there deposited, and mingling it, even to the surface, with its waves. Such is the just and accurate image to represent the real state of mind of the wicked. Making all due allowance for the different natural dispositions of men, we see this to be generally the case with them. While all is cheerfulness and gaiety around them, while nothing occurs to interfere with their worldly pleasures, or the indulgence of their depraved minds, there is the apparent quiet and repose of the unruffled ocean: but let the soothing influence be removed, let the object of their gratifications and pursuits desert them, nay, let them be followed only to their own chamber and left to the solitude of their own thoughts, and how little have they of rest!
II. Why is there no peace to the wicked? Several reasons. 1. The unsuitableness of any earthly things to satisfy the soul. God created man in His own image; and although that image has been defaced, it is not absolutely destroyed; the temple which God created has not been ploughed up from the foundation; although a ruin, it is still a splendid ruin. The soul no longer possesses those elevated and lofty views and desires which distinguished it before the fall; but there is still in us a desire for something which this world cannot supply. Give to a man all that his heart can wish for of things visible: it will be found that the spirit is not satisfied. If we would give peace to the soul, we must have recourse to something better than the world with all its promises, and more suited to afford solid gratification than wickedness in all its branches (H. E. I. 49694974, 50065025).

2. The corrupt influence of depraved appetites and ungoverned passions. The terrible results of this influence will be obvious to any one who will observe the wicked, the perpetual outbreaking of their bad passions, and the misery thus inflicted on them (H. E. I. 4955).

3. An unpacified conscience. This troubles them in their solitude even in the days of their health; but how terrible is the distress it causes when death seems at hand.

CONCLUSION.1. The folly of continuing in any known sin. No man would willingly and avowedly pursue a course which must involve him in misery. Why, then, is it that men persist in transgression? 2. How conducive to our happiness, even in this life, must be the spirit of true religion in the heartreconciliation with God; peace of conscience; the peace which Christ can give. 3. What cause have we for gratitude to God, that He has provided a way of reconciliation even for the chief of sinners!W. Dealtry, D.D., F.R.S.: Sermons, pp. 281297.

3. An unpacified conscience. This troubles them in their solitude even in the days of their health; but how terrible is the distress it causes when death seems at hand.

II. The sinner, in his impurity, is like the troubled sea, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. As in a tempest the waves of the ocean fling nothing but foam and weed and refuse to the shore, so the mind of the sinner is productive of nothing but polluted thoughts and corrupted actions, as worthless as the mire and clay left behind it by the retiring storm. This is of all others the greatest evil that sin brings with it. By it true happiness of soul and nobleness of life are rendered impossible. It is only when the stain of sin has been blotted out by faith, and the feelings of the heart purified by grace continually sought for in fervent prayer, that the peace of God reigns in the heart, and the fruits of peace show themselves in the life and practice.

III. Several things render the sinner unhappy even in this life. Not only shall he have no peace hereafter, but he has no peace here and now. There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.

1. The wicked have no real comfort of mind from the pleasures of this world.

(1.) Nothing can afford us any real or lasting pleasures except so far as it can be enjoyed innocently and with a good conscience. The indulgence of disordered passion may, indeed, sometimes give a momentary delight; but it is always followed, on reflection, by the pangs of remorse and sorrow.
(2.) Even those delights which are pure and innocent the sinner enjoyeth not like other men; for his taste is too much corrupted and deadened by the intoxicating draughts of sin to relish the simple pleasures of innocence and virtue.
2. The wicked must necessarily want all effectual support under the many evils and calamities of life. In the time of affliction, what a contrast there is between the faithful Christian and the sinner. What the Christian can say (Psa. 57:1; 2Co. 4:17-18). But when the storm overtakes the sinner, it finds him naked and exposed to its influence, without one single prospect of succour or of safety. He cannot retire within himself, and derive comfort in his adversity from the uprightness of his conduct and the purity of his intentions, for these never have had a place in his bosom; he cannot look back with pleasure on the past, and he dare not look forward to the future. Moreover, the world feels no pity for the unfortunate sinner, and his own companions in guilt will be the first to shun and the last to succour him.

3. The wicked are troubled perpetually with the reproofs of conscience, and unwelcome thoughts of death.R. Parkinson, B.D.: Sermons, vol. i. pp. 148158.

Words have different meanings on different lips. A rich mana farmers wife will so describe a man on whom a Baring or a Rothschild looks down as poor. To God and His inspired prophets peace has a loftier significance than it has to us, when uninstructed by them. Their peace means a condition of the heart arising from the harmony of the heart with God. A great work has been accomplished in any heart in which there is this peace. Its source is invisible, its results supernatural. The world does not give it; the world cannot take it away. It is independent of circumstances. Those who possess it are conscious of it when resting in the pleasant shade around which falls the pleasant sunshine of a summer day, and also when tossed to and fro at midnight on a stormy ocean. Christ, who gives it, had it when the cross was full in view: it was when He was on His way to torture and death that He bequeathed it to His disciples (Joh. 14:27).

If we forget what peace means in Scripture, we shall be disposed to regard this Scripture declaration as inaccurate, as exaggerated. Great was Asaphs distress when he forgot it (Psa. 73:2-4). In the world there are many counterfeits of peace on which our observation is apt to rest. These counterfeits of peace prevail: nevertheless to the wicked there is no peace. What they imagine is peace is like the smoothness of the ocean on a summer evening: there is in it no stability. The wicked man, after all, is like the troubled sea.

I. He cannot rest. That is true of the sea, and it is just as true of the sinner, for there are mighty winds from which he cannot long escape.

1. The wind of an accusing conscience. No opiate will consign conscience to an endless slumber; no gag will keep it always silent. There are times when it will escape, and the work it does then is like the work done by a hurricane on the ocean. In solitude, in the sleepless midnight hours, in the season of sickness, the wicked man feels himself helpless before it.

2. The wind of approaching death, for which the wicked man feels he is not ready (P. D. 684).

3. The wind of judgment beyond death. In health, he scoffed at the thought of it as a silly superstitious delusion; but when he feels the chill hand of death is upon him, where is his peace?

These mighty winds render it impossible for the wicked man to rest. They expose the worthlessness of the counterfeits in which for a little while he rejoices.

II. He cannot permanently conceal the foulness that is within him. When the storm strikes the sea, its waters cast up mire and dirt; it is seen that they are not throughout as pellucid as on a quiet summer evening they seem. Their charm is merely superficial. On the wicked man, likewise, forces are exerted which show what is in him. For a time there may be a fair outward appearance, that deceives himself and others; but ere long it is dispersed by such things as these

1. The fierce gale of sensual passion. What scandals shock society every day! What surprise is felt! And yet how unreasonable is the surprise! The temptation only showed what was in the man.

2. The fierce gale of disappointed ambition. What falsehood, meanness, cruelty, appears in men who are being deposed or hurled from power! With what base weapon they seek to defend themselves, and to retain their position!

3. The fierce gale of pecuniary necessity. There are in jail to-day men whose word a year ago was considered as good as their bond; but there never was in them real honesty. All these things show what is in the wicked; that beneath the surface, yea, to the very depths of their being, there is foulness.

CONCLUSION.

1. Let us not envy the wicked in their time of success and serenity (Psa. 37:34-37; H. E. I. 49434948, 49554966).

2. Let us seek the true peace and the permanent serenity we need where alone it can be found.
3. Let us have Divine compassion for the wicked.R. A., 73.

THE HYPOCRITE UNMASKED

Isa. 58:1-5. Cry aloud, spare not, &c.

The history of nations is pre-eminently the history of Gods providential government of the world. The special charge laid at the door of Israel in our text is that of hypocrisy: a malady from which many a modern temple-worshipper is suffering. Indeed there is the tendency of it to be found lurking in the nature of us all. Consider

I. The false professions with which the Israelites are charged.

1. An apparent diligence in the search after truth and justice.
2. They appeared to be regular and punctual in their observance of the ordinances of religion. Often secondary motives prompt to a religious profession and to attendance at the house of God. It is considered fashionable and respectable to keep the Sabbath and to be present at the sanctuary at least once on the Lords Day. Besides, it is pleasing to our friends, &c. If these are your only motives to a religious profession, they are unworthy, and will not stand the lightning glance of Him who is the searcher of all hearts. This will help us to account for the apparent lapses and so-called backslidings of professing Christians. Learn the vital difference between a spurious and a genuine piety.
3. Look also at the spirit in which their sacrifices were made.

4. Evidently some of them were possessed of a strong desire to maintain the standard of orthodoxy (Isa. 57:4; 1 Corinthians 1). To-day the olden spirit of strife and sectarian jealousy still stalks through Christendom, and there is the same smiting at any rate with the mental fist that we find in the dark days of old. How is it with ourselves? What is the great object of all our self-sacrifice and labour? Is it merely to bolster up our own little sect or Church, &c.

5. The spirit of mock humility in which the Israelites indulged (Isa. 57:5). Custom of the East; the humiliation was feigned (Job. 8:12). Such are some of the false professions with which the Israelites are here charged.

II. The vehement rebuke with which, because of their false professions, they are visited (Isa. 57:1; Eze. 33:3). It is possible for Gods people even to harbour in their midst the accursed thing which God hateth. And although we are sometimes slow to detect and confess the lurking evil, which like a worm is gnawing the root of our piety, and sapping the very fount of our spiritual life; yet God detects it, and it must be put away if we would still be accepted of Him.

CONCLUSION.If your character answers at all to that of Israel, suffer the word of honest rebuke. Of all hateful things in Gods sight, hypocrisy is the chief.J. W. Atkinson: The Penny Pulpit, New Series, No. 882.

Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell

5. SEETHING

TEXT: Isa. 57:20-21

But the wicked are like the troubled sea; for it cannot rest, and its waters cast up mire and dirt.

There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.

QUERIES

Why are the wicked like the sea?

Is there really no peace to wicked people?

PARAPHRASE

But the wicked are never healed in the inner man because they are filled with a restlessness of soul that keeps boiling up within them like the sea whose waves never stop rolling in, bringing up filth and muck. There is no secure feeling of being at peace with the wicked.

COMMENTS

Isa. 57:20 CONSCIENCE: The contrite and humble man will be healed. He will be healed in the inner man where the conscience dwells. He will receive, by grace, through faith, an imputed righteousnessa cleansed conscience. But the wicked mans conscience is like the constantly rolling sea. It is never completely at rest. It may be calmed at times, but it is forever boiling and churning and more often than not it is casting up all the mire and muck thrown into it. The wicked, said Calvin, . . . are terrified and alarmed by conscience, which is the most agonizing of all torments and the most cruel of all executioners. Luther said, Conscience is a savage beast and a devil . . . There is nothing which so much disturbs the peace or causes so much unrest as a frightened heart. It turns pale at the flash of lightning and at the rattle of a leaf. From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch of September 22, 1941 comes the following story:

Seven years of tortured nights, when he awakened screaming at the specter of the man who had befriended him and whom he had killed, have ended for Harold Malmberg. Malmberg, 27 years old, died yesterday in the Nebraska Penitentiary hospital from poison he swallowed three days before, Warden Neil Olson said. During his seven years, Malmberg was a model prisoner, who never complained and did not seek parole, Olson added. But he could not face his conscience.

Malmberg had few nights of peace after he shot Russell Goodwin three times in 1934 and left him beside the road to die, after Goodwin, a traveling salesman, had picked up the hitchhiking youth. In prison he had nightmares in which the man he admitted murdering came back every night to sit on his bed and talk to him, the warden explained.
In the daytime, Malmberg was a jovial sort who did the tasks required of him cheerfully and well.
While he steadfastly refused to tell what he had swallowed, doctors labored continuously over Malmberg from the time he was discovered ill early Friday morning until he died. The poison apparently had been stolen from the prison photographic darkroom where he worked.
Malmberg consistently denied he intended to kill Good-win when he ordered the salesman out of his car at pistol point. The jury did not accept his pleas of insanity, and the Des Moines, Iowa, youth was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Man may escape the punishment of human courts and judges. His evil deeds may be kept in absolute secrecy from everyone else. He may carry them with him to the grave, but he cannot hide himself from his conscience, nor can he escape from its tormenting judgment. Every man must live with his own conscience, and woe to him whose conscience has become his judge and executioner. Be assured of this, If our hearts (conscience) condemn us, God is greater than our heart (1Jn. 3:20-21).

Isa. 57:21 CONFLICT: A guilty conscience may become a frightful tormentor and a source of intense agony and distress leading to mortal sorrow and, sometimes, even suicide if the sense of guilt cannot be removed effectively, A guilty conscience may even prove disastrous to the physical and mental health of an individual. The wicked, unfaithful, covenant-breaker can never have security, peace of mind and soul.

The point of these last two verses is to make a sharp contrast between the healing that will come to those of contrite and humble hearts and their turning to the Lord and His promises to be eventually accomplished in the Servant, and the wicked who refuse healing and reconciliation. The guilty conscience can only be healed through imputed righteousness. The cleansing of the conscience can only come by grace through faith in the substitutionary atonement of Christ (cf. 1Jn. 1:8-9; 1Jn. 2:1-6; Heb. 9:14; Heb. 10:19-22; 1Pe. 3:21). One of the important reasons there are certain actions required of men for entrance into covenant relationship with Christ (faith, repentance, immersion in water) is to provide man a series of overt actions and a point of reference in time to which he may relate his inner, invisible spiritual person with the cleansing of his conscience. In other words, man needs such reference points by which to express his faith and experience access into the grace of God (cf. Rom. 5:1-2). It is in our obedience to the word of God that we have assurance of the purification of our souls (cf. 1Pe. 1:22-23).

QUIZ

How is the contrite and humble man healed?

Have you experienced the truth of Isa. 57:20-21 in your conscience?

Have you experienced the cleansing of your conscience?

How are we assured, what is the source of our assurance, that we may have our conscience cleansed?

Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

(20) The wicked are like the troubled sea . . .The promise of healing is, however, not unconditional. The acceptance of peace requires calmness; but for the wicked, whose thoughts are restlessly seething with evil ripening into act, this true peace is, in the nature of the case, impossible. We note the recurrence of the watchword of Isa. 48:22, as indicating the close of another section of the prophecy. The MSS. and versions present a curious variation in Isa. 57:21 : some saith Jehovah, some God, some the Lord God. It would almost seem as if transcribers and translators had shrunk from the prophets boldness in claiming God as in some special sense his God. It has a parallel, however, in Isa. 7:13, and may be noted, accordingly, as one of the characteristic touches common to the two parts of Isaiah. The Sea of which Isaiah speaks may possibly have been the Dead Sea, casting up its salt bituminous deposits.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

20, 21. But the wicked The incorrigible, the rejected of Israel type of the wicked, always and everywhere have no peace at all.

Like the troubled sea The symbol of perpetual heart-disturbance, turbid with mire from its shore deposits.

No peace Fearfully decisive is this!

No peace, saith my God And saith, also, my inmost spirit, my deepest convictions, divinely awakened within me.

To the wicked Who have sealed their own condition of everlasting unrest.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Isa 57:20-21. But the wicked, &c. Hence we learn, that the church at this time should be divided into two parties: besides the humble and penitent, confessors of truth, there should be the wicked; those who were void of true righteousness; and, rejecting the righteousness of justification offered to them by the Gospel, obstinately persisting in their old superstition and idolatry, laboured to the utmost of their power to extinguish the rising light of the reformation; and who, while animated by the most vehement and diabolic affections, would night and day be employed in a restless search after counsels and devices to effect this end; unhappily enough for themselves, as being thus deprived of all true peace and consolation of mind. See Psa 10:8-10 and Vitringa.

REFLECTIONS.1st, If the watchmen were blind and careless, no wonder the people were stupid and negligent, and disregarded the notices of Divine Providence.

1. The righteous perisheth, and merciful men are taken away. Death delivered them from their burdens, and God in mercy took them away from a wicked world. Note; Piety is no protection from death; nay, in times of persecution the righteous are most exposed. The first man that died, died a martyr.

2. It was a mark of great hardness of heart, and inattention to the calls of God, that no man laid it to heart, nor considered it. The removal of the righteous is a grievous loss to the church, and to the nation; a mark of God’s displeasure, and a warning of approaching judgments; and they who hear not the rod and repent, will quickly feel its smart, and perish under the stroke.

3. The blessedness of the righteous in their removal is great; to them, to die is gain. They are taken away from the evil to come, as Noah into the ark, before the deluge rises: they see not the evil which is coming on a wicked world, but take their happy flight to the mansions prepared for them in glory. He shall enter into peace, or, go in peace; no fears dismay his dying hour; having seen the salvation of God, he departs with joy to the full possession of it, to enter that blest abode where sin, sorrow, and sufferings, shall never more disturb his report. They shall rest in their beds: no bed so welcome to the weary, as that bed of dust, where the saints sweetly sleep in Jesus, and wait a joyful resurrection, each one walking in his uprightness; either such was their conduct upon earth, or such is now the state of their departed souls, delivered from the burden of the flesh, and joined to the spirits of just men made perfect; or, before him, admitted to the beatific vision and fruition of the blessed God.

2nd, We have a strong character drawn of the wicked above mentioned, who were well-pleased to be rid of the righteous that troubled them: and this may belong either to the Jews under their latter monarchs, especially Ahaz, in whose reign Isaiah lived; or to the apostate church of Rome, where all the idolatries of the heathen are revived, and, with the name of Christian, paganism is in a measure re-established.
1. They are summoned to God’s bar. Draw near hither, to hear your fearful doom; and the title given them marks their character; ye sons of the sorceress, the seed of the adulterer and the whore, or who commit whoredom, children of transgression, a seed of falsehood; the whore of Babylon, the sons of that idolatrous church, committing whoredom with her, given up to iniquity, embracing false doctrines, and propagating them. Note; The practice of sin is spiritually sorcery and adultery; it is a virtual contract with the Devil, and an open breach of our baptismal engagements.

2. The crimes alleged against them are produced, and they are many and aggravated.
[1.] Contempt of God and his warnings, in the persons of his ministers. They ridiculed the preachers, treated them with derision and scorn, and shewed them such insult and ill-manners, as themselves would have counted a flagrant injury, if done to the meanest of their servants whom they had sent with a message. Note; (1.) They who deliver faithfully God’s message to a wicked world, may expect often to meet insult and reproach. (2.) When religion is in the case, they, who on other occasions pique themselves on their behaviour as gentlemen, here count ill-manners laudable, and esteem the ministers of God as excluded from the common right of civility. (3.) They who thus insolently treat God’s servants, need well consider against whom they sport themselves: their matter is not thus to be mocked with impunity.

[2.] Idolatry. They were mad upon their idols, and, as is the nature of vile affections, the more they are indulged, the more they are inflamed, and hurry men on to greater excesses. Under every green tree they had their images; and so besotted were they, that even their own children were not too dear to offer to them; for when a man is given up to his heart’s lust, he becomes unnatural even to his own flesh and blood, and, to gratify his raging appetites, cares not what sufferings his children and family undergo. Innumerable were their idols: if they found in the streams of the valley a smooth stone, they set it up for worship, and valued it as their portion and inheritance; as the Papists do in respect to the images of their saints. Should I receive comfort in these? says God; no; they are his utter abhorrence. On the hills they have set up their bed, their idolatrous altars, and thither went up to offer sacrifice to their idols: alluding, it may be, to the city of Rome, the seat of idolatry, situate on seven hills; or to their high altars, where they celebrate their masses, yea, every house has its tutelar saint, as the heathen Lares and Penates. Behind the doors also and the posts hast thou set up thy remembrance; their images, crucifixes, and superstitious pictures; for thou hast discovered thyself to another than me, or from me; apostate from God’s true worship, and prostituted to idolatry: and art gone up, openly and publicly without blushing, to these unhallowed altars. Thou hast enlarged thy bed, their idol temples; and made thee a covenant with them; joined in league with others like them, see Rev 13:15-17. Thou lovedst their bed where thou sawest it; didst take delight in the places and altars for idolatrous worship, as Ahaz, 2Ki 16:10 or, where thou sawest a statue, didst fall down and worship it.

[3.] Their zeal to make proselytes to their idolatry. Thou wentest to the king with ointment, &c. Some refer this to the trust which the Jews reposed in the foreign assistance they courted; but it may be applied to Rome the mother of harlots, who, decking herself with all the pomp and splendor of outward devotion and gaudy worship, invites the kings of the earth to commit fornication with her; and didst increase thy perfumes, to make herself appear amiable; pretending to antiquity, infallibility, the power of miracles, and authority to bestow plenary indulgences for sin: and didst send thy messengers far off; nuncios and legates to courts of her kings, to establish her authority, and missionaries and emissaries to promote her interests, and spread her false religion: and didst debase thyself even unto hell; making pretences to the deepest humility, in order to ensnare the unwary; or, didst bring low even to hell; making her converts seven-fold more the children of hell than before, and destroying the souls of those whom she pretended to save.

[4.] Their obstinate perseverance in those ways of wickedness. Thou art wearied in the greatness of thy way, or, the multiplicity of thy ways, the many stratagems and the vast pains taken to compass the subjection of kingdoms, and all churches to the church of Rome, which were enough to have wearied out invention and patience, before they could be brought to take effect. Yet saidst thou not, There is no hope; no disappointments deterred the Roman see from persevering in her ambitious designs, till at last they prevailed. Thou hast found the life of thine hand, the dominion over men’s consciences, and over all other churches, which they sought, with all the wealth that thence accrued: therefore thou wast not grieved, or sick; not sorry for the pains bestowed, or sick of the undertaking, whence they hoped at last all their pains would be recompensed. And this may be applied to sinners in general: [1.] The happiness that they seek in creature-comforts wearies them in the pursuit, and ever disappoints their expectations. [2.] Though experience should teach him, by repeated disappointment, the vanity of the creature, so infatuated is the sinner, that he still entertains hopes, that in time he shall find the joy he pursues. [3.] Sometimes he flatters himself that he has attained his point, and says to his soul, Take thine ease; but most fatally is he then deluded, when most securely he cries, Peace, peace.

[5.] Long impunity had bred confidence of its continuance, notwithstanding the repeated provocations given. Of whom hast thou been afraid or feared? intimating, either that she had cast off all fear of God, or that it was through fear of losing her influence over her votaries; that thou hast lied, stopped at no fraud and falsehood to carry her point: and hast not remembered me; paid no regard to God, nor shewed any apprehension of his judgments. Have not I held my peace even of old, and thou fearest me not? or, therefore thou fearest not; emboldened to sin by the patience that God had shown in bearing her provocations. Note; (1.) Fear of men often leads to the sin of lying. (2.) They can have no fear of God, who dare tell a deliberate lie. (3.) Because vengeance is not speedily executed on evil workers, presumptuous sinners harden themselves in their iniquities.

3. God threatens to bring them to an awful reckoning, to detect their hypocrisy, and visit them for their sins. I will declare thy righteousness; for this the Jews boasted of, and went about to establish; as the church of Rome also vaunts her purity, teaching the meritoriousness of men’s duties with God, and even pretends to works of supererogation: but these pretences shall quickly be confuted and confounded, either by the preaching of the pure Gospel, as at the reformation, and hereafter, when the Romish hierarchy shall be destroyed; or at God’s bar of judgment; for then it will appear how vain is their plea; they shall not profit thee, cannot justify them before God, nor in any measure secure them from his wrath, which shall be revealed from heaven against all such false pretenders to merit and human claims before God. Note; (1.) No delusion is more fatal than the conceit of our own righteousness for acceptance before God. (2.) The doctrine of the merit of works is the grand pillar of popery: would to God the leaven were not still deeply spread in many a Protestant’s heart!

3rdly, We have,
1. The vanity of idols in the day of calamity. When thou criest, let thy companies deliver thee; but utterly unable will they be found to help. The sinner’s confidences will then fail him; the wind, or lightest breath of air, shall carry them all away; the works of the self-righteous will all prove at the bar of God altogether lighter than vanity itself.

2. The insufficiency of idols and creature-confidences serves to magnify the all-sufficiency of God, which will never disappoint those who make him their rock alone. He that putteth his trust in me shall possess the land, and shall inherit my holy mountain; which refers either to the restoration of the Jews to their own land from Babylon, or, spiritually, contains a promise of blessing to all the faithful, who shall inherit the heavenly Canaan, and come to the eternal mount of God in glory. Note; Abiding faith in God is the surest way to secure a blessed portion in time and eternity.

3. Proclamation is made to prepare the way for the return of the captive Jews; or this may be considered as the call of God by his ministers to his people, to come out of Babylon mystical; or, more generally, to depart from all the ways of sin. He shall say, Cast ye up, cast ye up, prepare the way, that it may be plain and straight, for such is God’s way; a highway, a way of holiness; the way-faring men, though fools, shall not err therein; and to this way it is the business of the spiritual guide to conduct men’s souls. Take up the stumbling-block out of the way of my people: labour to point out the difficulties that are in the way of God’s people, and to extricate them out of all their troubles by the best advice which can be drawn from the oracles of God.

4. The humble and contrite shall find the power and love of God engaged for them. For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, in the contemplation of whose transcendent perfections, greatness and glory, our thoughts are lost in wonder and adoration, whose name is Holy, essentially so in himself, the source of holiness to all his creatures, and whose works and ways are so ordered, as most eminently to display this adorable perfection; I dwell in the high and holy place; heaven is his throne, where he is pleased to make the brightest manifestations of his presence, and whither we are taught to look up to him: yet, not confined to the skies, he fills heaven and earth, and condescends to take up his favoured abode with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit; cheering and comforting the soul of the sinner abased with the views of guilt, and healing with his precious grace the heart broken under a sense of sin; supporting his afflicted ones oppressed and persecuted of men; and, as their tribulations abound, making their consolations abound also: to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones, that they may not sink under their burdens, or faint in despair, but by faith and patience bear up under their trials, and cheerfully and steadily hold on their heavenly way. Vitringa particularly applies this to the sufferings of the Waldenses and Bohemians, so cruelly persecuted by the Pope and his adherents; and others, to the latter days, when the anti-christian powers prevail. Note; (1.) An humble and contrite spirit is among the best gifts of God. (2.) There is an endeared communion to be enjoyed with God, which only they can tell, in whose hearts he is pleased to manifest himself as he does not unto the world. (3.) Where God dwells, no evil can approach, no real good be absent.

5. Though God in merciful correction visits his people, he will quickly remove the rod, when in humiliation the soul bows down before it. For I will not contend for ever, neither will I be always wrath, as the broken heart is ready to fear; but his anger is only for a moment towards them who lie at the footstool of his throne in true contrition; like a tender father, whose bowels yearn even when he chastises his child, so doth the Lord haste to end his controversy with his humbled contrite people, ready to pardon them instantly at their sincere cry, and to support them under, or save them out of, all their troubles: for the spirit should fail before me, or be overwhelmed, and the souls which I have made; which God gives as a reason for his compassions: he knows our weakness, and, if we humbly depend upon him, will not lay upon us more than we can bear. Note; Our souls are God’s, not merely by creation, but much more by redemption and regeneration.

4thly, We have reproofs, promises, and warnings, according to the several states of the people to whom the prophecy is addressed; and they are levelled either against the Jews of that day, or those sad declensions among Christians, for which God for a while in anger suffers the man of sin to prevail against them.
1. Their covetousness was among their crying sins; spiritual as well as corporal idolatry defiled them: they prized gold more than God, and gain than godliness; therefore God was wroth, sold them into the hands of the Chaldeans, and seemed for a while utterly to turn away from them. And this is remarkably the prominent sin of too many ministers in protestant churches, who, while they are only seeking their own advantage and preferment, are losing the souls of their people, seduced by the emissaries of popery; and for this God hath a controversy against them. Note; (1.) Covetousness, though covered with many a specious guile, is a sin which God peculiarly abhors, and in ministers of the Gospel is most peculiarly criminal. (2.) God’s wrath, however little feared, will be proved terrible where it falls.

2. Their hearts were obstinate, and, instead of being reformed by their afflictions, they went on frowardly; fretting against the Lord, instead of falling low at his footstool; and persisting in the way of their covetousness, instead of returning from it. Note; The wicked heart of man is often made more furious by restraint; and the severest afflictions are ineffectual to humble him.

3. God’s mercy triumphs over their perverseness. We might well have expected to have heard him say, I have seen thy ways, and will destroy thee: but lo! the very reverse; I have seen his ways and will heal him, all who will penitently return to him. We cannot help ourselves by our natural powers; our nature is utterly corrupt; unless divine grace interpose, we are undone for ever. This God sees and knows; therefore he offers a free pardon, and is willing, by the powerful influences of his Spirit, to convert our souls, heal their inveterate diseases, and draw us powerfully that we may follow him. I will lead him also, all who thus follow him, in the paths of righteousness for my name’s sake, and hold up his goings in the way; and restore comforts unto him and to his mourners, brought to a deep and humbling sense of their guilt, and, though once hardened, now by divine grace melted down with sorrow and shame: God will therefore bind up their bleeding wounds, speak comfortably to their souls, and wipe every tear from their eyes. Note; (1.) It is a blessed symptom for good, when the soul begins to mourn over sin. (2.) We must ascribe the glory to God, that our stubborn souls are ever brought to see and lament the evil of our ways. (3.) They who sow in tears, are sure to reap in joy.

4. The comfort that God will restore arises especially from a sense of the peace and reconciliation made between him and the sinner. I create the fruit of the lips; God gives both the cause for thanksgiving to those who earnestly seek him, and opens the heart and lips to speak his praise. Peace, peace to him that is far off, and to him that is near, saith the Lord; peace with God, peace of conscience, peace from all enemies, peace present and eternal to every faithful soul: and to this the apostle seems to refer, Eph 2:17 and applies it to the preaching of the apostles, when not only the Jews, but the distant Gentile lands, heard the Gospel of peace, found pardon through the blood of the cross, and were joined in one body, holding the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace: and I will heal him; recovering them from all their sins and backslidings, restoring them to a state of purity, and healing all their divisions. Note; (1.) None can speak peace to the troubled soul, till God create that fruit of the lips, and make the word of Gospel-grace in the mouth of his servants effectual to the sincere mourner. (2.) All who are restored to peace with God, from that moment begin to experience the sanctifying influences of his grace.

5. The impenitently wicked will finally perish. They are like the troubled sea when it cannot rest; agitated by the winds of raging passion, tossed to and fro with the struggles of vile affections and jarring corruptions, and frequently restless under the terrifying apprehensions of the wrath which is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men: whose waters cast up mire and dirt; foaming out their own shame, polluting and defiling in their conversation, and all their comforts rendered bitter and loathsome by the curse of God which mingles with them. There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked; no peace with God, no true peace of conscience, no peace in death, no peace in eternity; but the wrath of God abideth on them.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

DISCOURSE: 991
NO PEACE TO THE WICKED

Isa 57:20-21. The wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.

WE need not wait till a future life in order to discern the difference between the righteous and the wicked: it is plainly discoverable now in their conduct; nor is it less so in the inward frame of their minds. To a superficial observer indeed the wicked may seem to have the advantage; they being light and gay, while the righteous are often weary and heavy-laden: but God, who sees through the veil of outward appearances, affirms the very reverse of this to be true. We shall,

Confirm this divine assertion

There certainly is a kind of peace which the wicked may, and do, possess
[By the wicked we are not necessarily to understand, those who are vicious and profane; but all persons who are not devoted to God in the habitual exercise of righteousness and true holiness. And when it is said that such persons have no peace, we must not imagine that they have no comfort or satisfaction in earthly enjoyments; for they are full of life and spirit; they shake off what they call melancholy; they banish all thoughts of God, and indulge in conviviality and mirth [Note: Isa 5:11-12.]; and, as far as animal gratifications can conduce to happiness, they are happy. Neither must we suppose them wholly destitute of what they mistake for peace: they often persuade themselves of the safety of their state, and in a very confident manner assert their relation to God as his children [Note: Joh 8:39; Joh 8:41.]. Having fixed the standard of duty according to their own mind; and finding that, for the most part, they attain to what they deem a sufficient measure of religion, they speak peace unto themselves, when alas! there is no peace [Note: Jer 6:14.] ]

But of the peace of the gospel they are wholly ignorant
[The peace, which our Lord gives to his faithful followers, and which he emphatically calls his peace [Note: Joh 14:27.], is very different from any thing which an unregenerate man has ever experienced. It consists in a well-grounded hope of acceptance through Christ; and in the testimony of our conscience that we are walking agreeably to his mind and will. This peace is not a blind persuasion contrary to all the declarations of Gods word, but an humble confidence founded upon the sacred oracles, and a joyful expectation that God will fulfil his gracious promises. Now such a peace as this, the wicked never feel: they do not seek it; they would not even accept it upon Gods terms, because they would not submit to have their conduct regulated by his holy law: indeed they account the experience of it to be the height of enthusiasm, and suppose that they who profess to have attained it are actuated by pride, and blinded by delusion. Can it then be any wonder that such persons should never enjoy this peace themselves?]

The truth of this assertion will more clearly appear while we,

II.

Shew the grounds and reasons of it

We need not look further than the text to find ample materials for confirming the declaration before us: for it asserts that the wicked are in a state absolutely incompatible with true peace. Like the troubled sea they can never rest by reason of,

Depraved appetites

[However eminent for piety men may be, it is certain they will find much occasion for sorrow on account of their inward depravity: but they strive to mortify their lusts; they resist them in their first rise; and pray to God for strength to subdue them: whereas the wicked, however moral they may outwardly appear, encourage the growth of their vile affections: instead of repressing inward impurity, they enjoy the company, they relish the conversation, they read the books, they frequent the amusements, which have a tendency to foster their corruptions; and, though from prudential considerations they impose a restraint on their actions, they will harbour evil thoughts without resistance and without remorse. The same may be said respecting their worldliness, their ambition, and every other evil appetite. As the Apostle says of the impure, that they have eyes full of adultery, and that they cannot cease from sin, so, whatever else be the predominant passion of their hearts, they cease not from the indulgence of it; but yield to it as far as they can consistently with the preservation of their character in the world. How then can they possess peace, whose hearts are so disturbed and defiled by their depraved affections? ]

Ungoverned tempers

[There is indeed a wonderful difference in the natural tempers and dispositions of men, insomuch that one person, notwithstanding his real piety, shall have much to conflict with, while another shall feel comparatively but little temptation to transgress. Still however, the righteous will have peace, because they labour to bring their minds into subjection to Christ, and apply to the blood of Christ fur pardon under every renewed failure; but the wicked have not peace, because they neither cry to the Lord to pardon their evil tempers, nor pray to him for grace to subdue them. Whatever be their besetting sin, they will fall into it as soon as ever a temptation occurs. Is it pride? they will be inflamed at the smallest insult or opposition; and, like Haman, feel no comfort in life, because they are not treated with all the reverence they think due to them [Note: Est 5:9; Est 5:12-13.]. Is it envy? they cannot endure to behold the success of a rival; but, like Saul, would be glad to hear that he were brought down, or even that he were dead [Note: 1Sa 18:6-9; 1Sa 19:1.]. Is it covetousness? they shall have no enjoyment of all that they possess, because they have sustained a loss, or been, like Ahab, disappointed in their hopes of attaining something whereon their heart was set [Note: 1Ki 21:1-4.]. Is it malice and revenge? they shall sometimes be so inflamed by the very sight of their enemy, or even by the recollection of the injury they have sustained, that their very blood shall boil within them, and their rest day and night depart from them. Now what room is there for peace in a bosom that is subject to such continual agitation; and which, like the sea, not only is disturbed by every wind, but the instant it is moved, casts up nothing but mire and dirt? ]

An evil conscience

[Much as they strive to shake off reflection about a future state, they cannot wholly dissipate their fears: in the midst of all their boasted confidence they have some secret misgivings: and if a sickness, which they expect to be fatal, come upon them, they cannot help wishing that their life had been differently spent, and that they might be spared to obtain a better preparation for their appearance before God. Sometimes indeed they do hold fast their delusions to the last, and God gives them over to believe a lie: but, for the most part, they both live under the accusations of a guilty conscience, and die under an awful suspense, a dreadful uncertainty about their eternal state. If at any time their minds be awakened to a sense of their true condition, they will tremble, like Belshazzar, when he saw the writing on the wall [Note: Dan 5:5-6.], or, like Felix. when Paul reasoned with him about righteousness, temperance, and the judgment to come [Note: Act 24:25.]. Is it possible that peace should consist with such a state as this? Or need we any thing more to confirm the testimony of God respecting them, That they have no peace? ]

This subject cannot fail of suggesting to us,
1.

The bitterness of sin

[Men live in sin under the idea that it will make them happy; but though they roll it as a sweet morsel under their tongue, it proves the very gall of asps within them [Note: Job 20:12-14.]. It is that which robs us of all solid peace: it is that which renders us altogether incapable of peace, as long as it retains an ascendant over us. We may appeal to the consciences of all who are indulging sin, whether in heart or act. Have you peace? Do you know what it is to have the love of God shed abroad in your hearts; to have the witness of his Spirit testifying of your adoption into his family; and to look forward with pleasure to your appearance at his tribunal? We are sure that no unregenerate man whatever can answer in the affirmative. And why can he not? is it not on account of sin, sin indulged, sin unrepented of? See, then, brethren, what an accursed thing sin is, which robs you of all that is truly valuable; of pence in life, and hope in death, and happiness in eternity. And will you yet harbour it in your hearts? O flee from it as from the face of a serpent; and let it be the one labour of your lives to mortify and subdue it]

The excellency of the Gospel

[Fatal as sin has proved to the present and everlasting welfare of thousands, the gospel offers a full and sufficient remedy. The words before the text are quoted by an inspired apostle in proof that Jesus is our peace, and that having made reconciliation for us through the blood of his cross, he preaches peace to them that are afar off, and to them that are near [Note: ver. 19. with Eph 2:13-17.]. Blessed be God, there is efficacy in the blood of Jesus to heal the wounds which sin has made: if it be sprinkled on our hearts by faith, it will purge us from an evil conscience, and speak peace to our souls [Note: Heb 10:22; Heb 12:24.]. Apply but that remedy, and you snail soon feel its transcendent worth and efficacy. May the Lord of peace himself reveal to you his truth, and give you peace always by all means [Note: 2Th 3:16.]. May you be so justified by faith as to have peace with God; and may that peace of God which passeth all understanding keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus [Note: Php 4:7.] ]

Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)

These words are as awful, as the foregoing were comfortable. But every day’s experience showeth, that the one is as sure as the other. When God’s judgments and chastisements do not soften, they harden. The same heat which melts wax, makes the clay stoney. Alas! the heart that remains hardened under the calls of grace, will increase in obduracy, and, like the horse’s hoof, with increasing years, become more callous. Well may everyone cry out, in the prayer of the Church, From all blindness of heart, good Lord, deliver us!

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

Isa 57:20 But the wicked [are] like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt.

Ver. 20. But the wicked are like the troubled sea. ] Whose surges are not more lofty than muddy. The sea is of itself unquiet and troublesome, much more when tossed with winds and tempests; so wicked men, when it is at best with them, are restless; but under terrors and temptations, they cast up the mire and dirt of desperation and blasphemy, as did Cain, Judas, Julian, Latomus, &c. God in afflictions marks men out; and then conscience will prey upon them, as Simeon and Levi did upon the Shechemites when sore. Then, as Pro 5:12 men shall cry out, “How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof!” Then, as Gen 42:21 afflictions are to the soul as storms are to the sea, or as earthquakes to the ground, which reveals a great deal of filth. Vatablus rendereth the text thus, Impii autem Euripi instar fremunt. Now Euripus ebbeth and floweth seven times a day, and must needs therefore be in continual motion and agitation. Mr Dod a was wont to compare wicked men to the waves of the sea: those which were of a great estate were great waves, said he; those that were of small estate were small waves; but all were restless as waves. Job 20:20

a His Life in Mr Clark.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

wicked = lawless. Hebrew. rasha’. App-44,

the troubled sea = the sea when tossed.

when = for.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

Isa 57:20-21

“But the wicked are like the troubled sea; for it cannot rest, and its waters cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.”

This conclusion of Section 2 of Division VI is a reiteration of the same thought found in Isa 48:22, being a categorical exclusion of all wicked and disobedient souls from the blessings of God’s mercy. The comparison here of the wicked with the sea suggests New Testament references in 2Pe 2:22; Jas 1:6; and Jud 1:13.

The plight of the wicked appears more sharply here than in Isa 48:22, because it contrasts with the glorious salvation they have refused. “Only the choice of men separates the `peace, peace’ of Isa 57:19 from the `no peace’ of Isa 57:21.

(The end of Section II of Division VI)

Isa 57:20 CONSCIENCE: The contrite and humble man will be healed. He will be healed in the inner man where the conscience dwells. He will receive, by grace, through faith, an imputed righteousness-a cleansed conscience. But the wicked mans conscience is like the constantly rolling sea. It is never completely at rest. It may be calmed at times, but it is forever boiling and churning and more often than not it is casting up all the mire and muck thrown into it. The wicked, said Calvin, . . . are terrified and alarmed by conscience, which is the most agonizing of all torments and the most cruel of all executioners. Luther said, Conscience is a savage beast and a devil . . . There is nothing which so much disturbs the peace or causes so much unrest as a frightened heart. It turns pale at the flash of lightning and at the rattle of a leaf. From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch of September 22, 1941 comes the following story:

In the daytime, Malmberg was a jovial sort who did the tasks required of him cheerfully and well.

While he steadfastly refused to tell what he had swallowed, doctors labored continuously over Malmberg from the time he was discovered ill early Friday morning until he died. The poison apparently had been stolen from the prison photographic darkroom where he worked.

Malmberg consistently denied he intended to kill Good-win when he ordered the salesman out of his car at pistol point. The jury did not accept his pleas of insanity, and the Des Moines, Iowa, youth was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Isa 57:21 CONFLICT: A guilty conscience may become a frightful tormentor and a source of intense agony and distress leading to mortal sorrow and, sometimes, even suicide if the sense of guilt cannot be removed effectively, A guilty conscience may even prove disastrous to the physical and mental health of an individual. The wicked, unfaithful, covenant-breaker can never have security, peace of mind and soul.

The point of these last two verses is to make a sharp contrast between the healing that will come to those of contrite and humble hearts and their turning to the Lord and His promises to be eventually accomplished in the Servant, and the wicked who refuse healing and reconciliation. The guilty conscience can only be healed through imputed righteousness. The cleansing of the conscience can only come by grace through faith in the substitutionary atonement of Christ (cf. 1Jn 1:8-9; 1Jn 2:1-6; Heb 9:14; Heb 10:19-22; 1Pe 3:21). One of the important reasons there are certain actions required of men for entrance into covenant relationship with Christ (faith, repentance, immersion in water) is to provide man a series of overt actions and a point of reference in time to which he may relate his inner, invisible spiritual person with the cleansing of his conscience. In other words, man needs such reference points by which to express his faith and experience access into the grace of God (cf. Rom 5:1-2). It is in our obedience to the word of God that we have assurance of the purification of our souls (cf. 1Pe 1:22-23).

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

like: Isa 3:11, Job 15:20-24, Job 18:5-14, Job 20:11-29, Psa 73:18-20, Pro 4:16, Pro 4:17, Jud 1:12

Reciprocal: 1Sa 28:5 – he was afraid 1Ki 21:4 – heavy 2Ki 6:11 – Therefore Job 20:20 – Surely Pro 6:14 – he deviseth Isa 59:8 – whosoever Jer 6:7 – a fountain Jer 49:23 – sorrow Eze 13:16 – and there Luk 11:24 – seeking Rev 14:11 – no Rev 21:1 – and there

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

57:20 But the wicked [are] like the troubled sea, when it {z} cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt.

(z) Their evil conscience always torments them and therefore they can never have rest, Isa 48:22 .

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

The wicked contrast with the humble who take advantage of God’s provision of grace. Far from being at peace, their existence is as tumultuous as the tossing sea, which is incapable of being at rest. Their constant agitation creates many other problems, like the raging sea casts up debris and mud. No shalom is the portion of the wicked (cf. Isa 48:22).

"Hence if persons have experienced the unmerited grace of God as mediated through the Savior, and then expect to live lives dominated by greed (Isa 57:17) and self-will, propitiating God from time to time with religious behavior, they will find not peace, but constant upheaval." [Note: Oswalt, The Book . . . 40-66, p. 492.]

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

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