Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 57:21
[There is] no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.
21. There is no peace &c. ] see on ch. Isa 48:22.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
There is no peace – (see the note at Isa 48:22).
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Isa 57:21
There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked
The standard of righteousness maintained
The fifty-seventh chapter ends with a declaration which shows that amid all the goodness and graciousness of the Divine way the standard of righteousness is never lowered: never is the dignity of law impaired.
Read these awful yet gracious words: There is no peace, saith my. God, to the wicked. If we thought that God was about to lose righteousness in sentiment, we are thus suddenly, with a very startling abruptness, brought back to the remembrance of the fact that wickedness is infinitely and eternally hateful to God, and that peace and wickedness are mutually destructive terms. The wicked man may create a wilderness and call it peace, but real contentment, benignity, resignation, or harmony, he can never know in wickedness. Herein we find the testimony of the Divine presence, the assertion and glory of the Divine law. God does not take away peace from the wicked in any arbitrary sense. Wickedness is itself incompatible with peace: the wicked are like the troubled sea when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. The unrest is actually in the wickedness; the tumult does not come from without, it comes from within. (J. Parker, D. D.)
The character and misery of the wicked
I. WHO COME UNDER THE DESCRIPTION OF THE WICKED? In general, all who have never undergone a change of heart.
1. Some are grossly ignorant of the plain and essential doctrines of the Christian religion, amidst the best means to gain an acquaintance with them.
2. Some break out into open acts of wickedness.
3. Others, though free from gross immoralities, are yet wicked, because they neglect the duties of religion. There are sins of commission, and there are sins of omission.
4. There are some who adopt loose and dangerous principles, who allege, either that the Scripture is not true, or that the great doctrines, as generally taught, are not contained in it.
5. Among the wicked we must also rank the formalist and hypocrite.
6. They are impatient of restraint and reproof.
II. IN WHAT RESPECTS THERE IS NO PEACE TO SUCH.
1. There is no peace to them with God. By their wickedness they wage war with Heaven, and the almighty King is angry with them every day.
2. There is no peace in their own conscience.
3. There is no peace to the wicked in a dying hour. By this is not meant that they shall undergo more pain of body than others. The pangs of dissolution are the same to all. Those, indeed, of whom the world was not worthy, have often suffered the most cruel and violent deaths. Nor is it meant that the wicked have never any composure in death, or hope of well-being hereafter. Some of them die as they have lived, stupid and thoughtless as beasts. Some good men may have fears and perplexities to the very last; and some bad men may remain unshaken, and die with more apparent confidence than the others. The fears of the good man cannot render his state less safe, nor the confidence of the bad render his less dangerous. Whatever their own sentiments are, it shall be well with the righteous, and ill with the wicked. What awful spectacles have some of the wicked exhibited on a death-bed!
4. There is no peace to the wicked after death. They enjoyed with others the common bounties of Providence, and were sensible of pleasure. In these they placed their only happiness; but now all is gone, and they are tormented. Conscience can be quieted no more. (W. Linn, D. D.)
No comfort for the wicked
The wicked would not be healed by the grace of God, and therefore shall not be healed by His comforts. (M. Henry.)
No peace to the wicked
1. The man who lives in a habitual course of sinning has no real comfort of mind from the pleasures of this world.
2. He must necessarily want all effectual support under the many evils and calamities of life.
3. He cannot but be sometimes troubled with the reproofs of his conscience.
4. He can never get rid of all the unwelcome thoughts of death, and of what is to be his portion in a future state. (Bishop Pearce.)
No peace to the wicked
I. WHO ARE THE CHARACTERS DESCRIBED? The wicked. This description includes the outwardly immoral and profane–those who seem lost to every principle of virtue and religion–who have not the fear of God before their eyes–and who are equally indifferent to the censure and approbation of their fellow-creatures. But the words of the text are applicable to all those whose hearts have not been renewed by the Holy Spirit.
II. THE AFFECTING DECLARATION RESPECTING SUCH CHARACTERS. There is no peace, etc.
1. They cannot, while in this state, enjoy peace with God. Peace includes in it mutual reconciliation and agreement.
2. The wicked cannot enjoy peace with themselves. As the favour and presence of God are the only sources of real happiness, a state of enmity and separation from Him must be attended with misery. Subjection to His authority, and conformity to His will and image, promotes peace and order, but where these do not exist, there must be confusion and discord. The unruly passions will then agitate and distress the mind; pride, and envy, and hatred, and other unholy affections will struggle for the ascendency. Having no principle to check or govern them, they will increase in violence and hurry their possessor onward in the path of sin and danger. Conscience will also exert its influence to alarm and terrify them. In vain do the wicked seek peace of conscience by partial reformation or by the performance of outward duties. The accusations of a guilty conscience can be silenced only by an application to the blood of sprinkling.
3. There is no peace to the wicked in the world. Alienation from God necessarily leads to strife among men. It excites those corrupt passions and principles which render man the enemy of his fellow-man, as well as the source of misery to himself.
4. The wicked have no peace under the various afflictions of life. In the season of worldly prosperity, they may appear to others peaceful and happy, but no sooner does adversity come upon them, than we see the transient and unsubstantial nature of their enjoyment.
5. There is no peace to the wicked in the hour of death.
6. There is no peace to the wicked through eternity. (Essex Congregational Remembrancer.)
Wickedness an obstruction to social peace and happiness
In order to the proving of this, I shall insist on these three arguments
I. THE NATURAL TENDENCY OF WICKEDNESS.
II. THE CONSIDERATION OF GODS PROVIDENCE, AND HIS RIGHTEOUS GOVERNMENT OF TRY. WORLD.
III. THE EXPERIENCE OF ALL AGES. (B. Calamy, D. D.)
No peace to the wicked
I. A POSITIVE ASSERTION, an unlimited proposition, There is no peace to the wicked.
II. THE AUTHORITY UPON WHICH THE PROPOSITION IS ESTABLISHED, even the testimony of God Himself, There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked. (J. Lambe.)
The dismal reflections of the unbelieving mind
It is said of the infidel Hobbes, that though he would speak very strange and unbecoming things of God, yet in his study in the dark, and in his retired thoughts, he trembled before Him. If his candle happened to go out in the night, he awoke in terror and amazement. He was unable to bear the dismal reflections of his dark and desolate mind; and knew not how to extinguish, nor how to bear the light of the candle of the, Lord within him. Mr. False Peace, so John, Bunyan has it in his Holy War, was the son of Mr. Flatterer, and his mothers name before she was married was Mrs. Sooth-up. He liked to be called Mr. Peace, but there were witnesses enough to prove that time was when he delighted to boast that his real name was not Peace, but False Peace. There is no peace (except false peace), saith my God, to the wicked. (T. Spurgeon.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 21. There is no peace, saith my God] For Elohai, twenty-two MSS. (five ancient) of Kennicott’s, thirty of De Rossi’s, and one ancient of my own, read Yehovah; the Vulgate, Septuagint, Alex., and Arabic, and three MSS. have both. This verse has reference to the nineteenth. The perseveringly wicked and impenitent are excluded from all share in that peace above mentioned, that reconcilement and pardon which is promised to the penitent only. The forty-eighth chapter ends with the same declaration, to express the exclusion of the unbelievers and impenitent from the benefit of the foregoing promises. – L.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Though they may have as great a share of prosperity as the best of men have, as appears from Psa 37:35; 73:3, &c.; Ecc 8:14; 9:2; yet they have no share in this inward, and spiritual, and everlasting peace.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
21. (Isa 48:22;2Ki 9:22).
my GodThe prophet,having God as his God, speaks in the person of Israel,prophetically regarded as having now appropriated God and His”peace” (Isa11:1-3), warning the impenitent that, while they continue so,they can have no peace.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked. They have no share in the peace made by the blood of Christ; they have no true, solid, inward peace of conscience; nor will they have any part in the happiness and prosperity of the church and people of God in the latter day, which will but add to their uneasiness; and will have no lot and portion in the eternal peace which saints enjoy in the world to come; and of this there is the strongest assurance, since God, the covenant God of his people, has said it.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
21. There is no peace to the wicked. He confirms the preceding statement, namely, that in vain shall the reprobate endeavor to seek peace, for everywhere they will meet with war. It is God who threatens war, and therefore there can be no hope of “peace.” Wicked men would indeed wish to enjoy peace, and ardently long for it; for there is nothing which they more eagerly desire than to be at ease, and to lull their consciences, that they may freely take their pleasures and indulge in their vices. They drive away all thoughts about the judgment of God, and endeavor to stupify themselves and to repose in indolence, and think that these are the best ways and methods of obtaining peace. But they never shall enjoy it; for, until men have been reconciled to God, conscience will never cease to annoy and carry on war with them.
Saith my God. Thus he represents God as the only author of peace, that he may, by this dreadful threatening, tear from the Jews their dearest pleasures; and calls him “his God,” in opposition to the vain boasting of those who falsely boasted of his name; for they cannot acknowledge God, so long as they reject his Prophet and his doctrine. For this reason the Prophet boldly declares that he has received a command from God to declare perpetual war against them.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
REFLECTIONS
MY soul! learn, from this blessed chapter, to form a right estimate of the departure of the faithful. They enter into rest. They are taken away from the evil to come. And inasmuch as a state of rest surpasseth toil and trouble; a state of holiness, that of temptation; and victory is better than conflict; by so much ought believers to rejoice, when the souls of the faithful enter into their rest in Jesus. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.
But what an awful state, as here described, is that of the unreclaimed sinner! And what a melancholy close to a life of sin and vanity, must be a departure under vexation of spirit! Come not thou, my soul, into their secret; unto their assembly, mine honour, be not thou united.
From such views of the horrible lives, and more tremendous deaths, of unawakened sinners, do thou, my soul, turn thy thoughts, to contemplate the wonders of grace, recorded in this chapter, concerning that High and Lofty One, that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy. Oh! for grace to know, to feel, to enjoy, the blessedness here promised! Lord! I would say, do as thou hast said. Make my soul, by thy grace, suited for thyself: and then come and dwell in me, come and revive me; come and comfort me, that the bones broken by sin may rejoice.
Blessed be my God, thou hast indeed smitten for sin, and thou hast healed. God the Holy Ghost hath convinced of sin; and it is the same God the Holy Ghost that hath convinced of the righteousness of Jesus. Yea, Lord! it is thou that hast created indeed the fruit of the lips, and formed my heart anew in Christ Jesus. And to whom but to my God, in the riches of his sovereign grace, shall I ascribe the praise, that while to the unsubdued corruptions of sinners, there can be nothing but distress, and horror, and tempest, like the troubled ocean; I have peace with my God, through Jesus Christ our Lord! Blessed, blessed forever be God for Jesus Christ!
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Isa 57:21 [There is] no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.
Ver. 21. There is no peace. ] A truce there may be for a time, and a seeming peace; but it is pax infida, pax incerta, a peace, no peace. The sea may seem sometimes still, but it is never so; no more are the wicked. And this is twice here affirmed for more assurance; like as he had twice said, “I will heal them”; Isa 57:18-19 and as he had promised peace, peace to the mourners ( ib. ), who, having soaked themselves in godly sorrow, are washed from their wickedness by the blood of Jesus Christ; and being justified by faith, have peace with God. This is a peerless pearl, which no cock on the dunghill ever knew the worth of.
a Liv.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
no peace. Compare Isa 48:22.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Isa 3:11, Isa 48:22, 2Ki 9:22, Rom 3:16, Rom 3:17
Reciprocal: Deu 28:65 – shalt thou Jdg 4:17 – peace 1Sa 28:5 – he was afraid 2Sa 17:3 – shall be 1Ki 1:42 – a valiant 1Ki 2:6 – in 1Ki 21:4 – heavy 2Ki 6:11 – Therefore Job 20:20 – Surely Psa 32:10 – Many Psa 119:165 – Great Ecc 8:13 – it shall Isa 59:8 – whosoever Jer 12:12 – no Jer 23:17 – Ye Eze 7:25 – and they Eze 13:10 – Peace Eze 13:16 – and there Luk 11:24 – seeking