Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 63:15
Look down from heaven, and behold from the habitation of thy holiness and of thy glory: where [is] thy zeal and thy strength, the sounding of thy bowels and of thy mercies toward me? are they restrained?
15, 16. A piteous appeal to the Divine clemency, based on Israel’s filial relation to Jehovah.
Look down from heaven, and behold ] (Psa 80:14). By a natural anthropomorphism the O.T. attributes the prevalence of evil on earth to a suspension of Jehovah’s watchfulness; hence He is said to come down from heaven to enquire (Gen 18:21), or, as here, to look down (cf. Psa 14:2; Psa 102:19, &c.). To this writer it seems as if He had for the present withdrawn into His palace, and did not fully realise the sufferings of His people.
where is thy zeal (or jealousy)] Cf. ch. Isa 59:17. For strength read with R.V. mighty acts.
the sounding of thy bowels ] i.e. the yearning of thy compassion. See ch. Isa 16:11.
towards me? are they restrained ] Rather, as R.V., are restrained towards me (LXX. “towards us”). Cf. ch. Isa 42:14.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Look down from heaven – This commences an earnest appeal that God would have mercy on them in their present calamities and trials. They entreat him to remember his former mercies, and to return and bless them, as he had done in ancient times.
And behold from the habitation – (See the notes at Isa 57:15).
Where is thy zeal – That is, thy former zeal for thy people; where is now the proof of the interest for their welfare which was vouchsafed in times that are past.
And thy strength – The might which was formerly manifested for their deliverance and salvation.
The sounding of thy bowels – Margin, Multitude. The word rendered sounding ( hamon), means properly a noise or sound, as of rain; 1Ki 18:41; of singing, Eze 26:13; of a multitude, 1Sa 4:14; 1Sa 14:19. It also means a multitude, or a crowd of people Isa 13:4; Isa 33:3. Here it relates to an emotion or affection of the mind; and the phrase denotes compassion, or tender concern for them in their sufferings. It is derived from the customary expression in the Bible that the bowels, that is, the organs in the region of the chest – for so the word is used in the Scriptures – were the seat of the emotions, and were supposed to be affected by any strong and tender emotion of the mind (see the notes at Isa 16:11). The idea here is, Where is thy former compassion for thy people in distress?
Are they restrained? – Are they witcheld? Are thy mercies to be exercised no more?
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Isa 63:15-16
Look down from heaven
An appeal to God
I.
GODS PEOPLE IN TROUBLE.
II. THEIR RESOURCE.
III. THEIR PLEA. Past interpositions. Past mercies. (J. Lyth, D. D.)
I. OUR FATHERS HOUSE.
Our Father–God
1. Heavenly.
2. Holy.
3. Glorious.
II. OUR FATHERS CHARACTER. Strong; tender; compassionate.
III. OUR FATHERS FAITHFULNESS. Survives our ingratitude; vicissitude; time.
IV. OUR FATHERS NAME.
1. Father.
2. Redeemer.
3. From everlasting.
V. OUR FATHERS CLAIMS. Honour; obedience; love. (J. Lyth, D. D.)
The habitation of Thy holiness and of Thy glory
Whither did our Lord ascend?
(with Isa 6:3, The whole earth is full of His glory):–What was the new scene into which our Lord was introduced? He went up into heaven.
1. What is heaven? The place where Almighty God is specially present Joh 14:2; Joh 16:28). But is not the Father present everywhere? Psa 139:7-12). What means the being specially present? Has it any meaning? In the case of men they are present to us, or absent from us; but there is no medium between the two. Presence does not seem to admit of more or less. Either we are here or elsewhere. There are many doctrines of religion, and this is one of them, that can only be apprehended by analogy, or, as the apostle says, in a glass darkly. The union of body and soul furnishes in this case a very just analogy. There is no part of the human body in which the soul is not present. I mean by the soul simply the animating principle and the principle of sensation. Every member of the living body is endowed with feeling, or sensibility to pain. But that this sensibility resides not in the mass of matter, but in the soul or life, is, of course, clear from the fact that when death separates body and soul, the body has no longer any feeling. Yet, although the soul pervades the whole body, and resides even in its remotest extremities, it has a special connection with what are called the vital parts. A man may pluck out his right eye, and cut off his right hand, or his right foot, without ceasing to live. Assault the heart, and you assault the seat of life. Surely, then, there can be no objection to affirming as, on the one hand, a general residence of the soul in every member of the body, so, on the other, a special residence of the soul in the heart. There is the figure of the truth of which we are in search. Now, let us elicit the truth from it. No district of this fair, broad universe is without the presence of Almighty God. In that Presence stands the being of everything that is. Yet, although the presence of God in and under all things as their support is unquestionable, arc we, for this reason, to deny His special connection with a certain part of the universe above others? No? The earth is but the remote extremity of creation–the universe has a heart, the special seat, the royal residence of that God who quickens with His presence the entire framework of the world. This place, wherever it is locally situated, is the source of all movement in the world, just as the heart is the source of all movement in the natural body. Heaven! The region in which the hand of God immediately operates without any intervention of secondary causes, the region in which His fiat is issued to the firmament, and the firmament pours forth its rain upon the earth, and the earth yields her fruit to the inhabitants, and the heart of those inhabitants is filled with food and gladness; the region is called heaven. This is the region to which our blessed Lords body was carried up on the day of His ascension; and into which, without seeing death, the patriarch Enoch and the Prophet Elijah were translated.
2. In what sense Christs people are now with Him in heaven. The apostle intimates that Christians themselves, in their present state of existence, have undergone a similar translation. God, says he, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ (by grace we are saved), and hath raised us up together (mark, hath raised us up together), and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. How can language so strong be substantiated? Just consider prayer–prayer offered in the faith of Christ. It penetrates to these regions of which we have been speaking, and has its effect and operation there. A sublime thought indeed, and one of which we may make good use in stirring up ourselves to prayer I Prayer penetrates to a region beyond the stars, and, in the holy audacity of its enterprise, lays hold of that primary will of God from which proceed, through a long series of intermediate causes, all the movements of the universe. And prayer, if genuine, is the voice of the Christians affections, the outpouring of his heart. Hence, because his thoughts are in heaven, his hope in heaven, his affections in heaven; the Saviour, around whom gather all his thoughts, and hopes, and affections, in heaven; because his prayers move in that sphere and touch the spring of Gods will, he himself, according to the spiritual element of his nature, is said to sit together in heavenly places in Christ.
3. Consider, that this region is the habitation of Gods holiness and of His glory. And here remark a striking and most instructive contrast between the two passages of which my text consists. It is said in the latter of them that the whole earth is full of Gods glory. The seraphim say nothing about holiness as witnessed upon the earth. Alas! what could they say? There is no spot upon the earth where an intelligent and devout eye may not see and adore the glory of the Divine Being. But when upon the stage of this earth we look for judgement, behold oppression; for righteousness, behold a cry. Holiness, like Noahs dove upon the water, can find no resting-place for the sole of her foot upon this earth. But heaven is the habitation of Gods holiness, no less than of His glory. Every heart admitted within its precincts is a mirror which gives back the holiness of the Most High, His hatred of sin, His stern and uncompromising righteousness, His exact justice, His fervent and all-embracing love. There shall in no wise enter into the heavenly, anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination or maketh a lie, but they which are written in the Lambs Book of Life.
4. Heaven cannot possibly be accessible to any man without a congeniality of mind to its pursuits and employments. A tropical plant cannot possibly thrive in the bleak and raw atmosphere of the North; vegetation generally is blighted and killed by an atmosphere uncongenial to it. And he who loves not praise and thanksgiving, who turns away from the thought of Gods presence as an intrusion on his peace, who regards sin with levity rather than with fear, and freely cherishes any animosity, or worldly or carnal lusts–that mans sentiments and character, quite irrespective of any Divine decree, must exclude him from the habitation of holiness to which he hath no affinity.
5. Our blessed Lords presence in heaven is that which lends to it its great attraction in the eyes of the true Christian. (Dean Goulburn.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 15. And thy strength – “And thy mighty power” ] For geburotheycha, plural, thirty-two MSS. (seven ancient) and twenty-one of De Rossi’s, and seven editions, have geburathecha, singular.
Are they restrained?] For elai, from (or in regard to) me, the Septuagint and Syriac read eleynu, from us. – L.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Look down from heaven: now they, or the prophet, begin to pray, and expostulate with God, and to argue both from the goodness of his nature, and from the greatness of his works that he had done. God sees every where and every thing, but he is said to
look down from heaven, because there is his throne, whereon he sits in great majesty and splendour.
Behold is added to note that he would not only barely see and look on, but that he would behold with regard, and respect his poor people in captivity.
The habitation of thy holiness; a description of heaven by a periphrasis, frequently used and explained, Deu 26:15. W here is thy zeal? what is become of that love which of old would not let time suffer thy people to be wronged? Isa 37:32.
Thy strength; that power of thine manifested in those valiant acts which thou didst put forth for thy people, Psa 145:11,12; 150:2; see Jer 14:9.
The sounding of thy bowels: by the sounding thereof may be understood those sympathizing sighs and compassionate groans that proceed from the bowels when they are affected, which being thought the subject of pity are often by a metonymy put for compassion, and hence proceed those rumblings of the bowels occasioned by strong passions called yearnings: it is spoken of God after the manner of men. Is all this shut up from me? Thou art naturally so compassionate, dost thou lay a restraint upon thyself, that thy bowels shall not move towards me?
Are they restrained? or canst thou be thus straitened? Psa 77:7-9; Isa 64:12; an expostulation, that agrees very well with the next verse,
Doubtless, & c. How can this come to pass?
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
15. Here begins a fervent appealto God to pity Israel now on the ground of His former benefits.
habitation of . . . holiness(Isa 57:15; Deu 26:15;2Ch 30:27; Psa 33:14;Psa 80:14).
zeal . . . strengthevincedformerly for Thy people.
sounding of . . .bowelsThine emotions of compassion (Isa 16:11;Jer 31:20; Jer 48:36;Hos 11:8).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Look down from heaven,…. Here begins the prayer of the church and people of God, which continues to the end of the chapter, goes through the next, and the answer to which begins at Isa 65:1. Aben Ezra calls it the prayer of the wise in captivity: it seems to be the petition of some converts among the Jews, either in the first times of the Gospel, or in the latter day; who entreat that the Lord would “look down from heaven”, the third heaven, the seat of his majesty, where is his throne of glory, and his presence is most visible to angels and glorified saints; this is on high, as the phrase imports; and the persons below, on earth, at his footstool, whom he is desired to look down upon, and which to do is a great condescension in him,
Ps 113:6, and this is to be understood, not of that general view of persons and things, which he is always taking, Ps 33:13, but of a special look of love, grace, and mercy; such an one with which he looks upon his people in Christ, with complacency and delight: indeed his eyes are always on them, and never withdrawn from them; he ever looks upon them, to preserve and protect them, to communicate unto them, to support them under their afflictions, and to deliver out of them; but because of this they are not always sensible, but are ready to conclude that he looks off from them, and turns his back upon them, therefore they desire him to return, look down, and behold; see Ps 80:14:
and behold from the habitation of thy holiness and of thy glory; this is a description of heaven, as the dwelling place of God, who is most holy, holiness itself, in whom that perfection is most glorious, and which is displayed in all his works; and hence heaven is a holy as well as a high place, and where none but holy persons dwell; and which is a glorious place, where the glory of God is displayed, the glory of Christ is seen, and which is glory itself; and from hence the holy God is desired to behold; what creatures, dust, and ashes, sinful ones, polluted worms, at his footstool, a poor and an afflicted people:
where is thy zeal, and thy strength? his “jealousy” of his great name, and of his own glory; his jealousy of his dear people, that they are not wronged and injured; his “fervent love”, and warm affections for them, of which he has given pregnant proofs; which, shed abroad in the heart, warms that, and is what many waters cannot quench: this indeed is not always alike manifest, and therefore unbelief asks where it is, as if it was quite gone; or, however, faith prays for a fresh manifestation of it. The “strength” or power of God has appeared in creation, and in the sustentation of all things; in Christ, the man of his right hand; in strengthening his people, destroying their enemies, and delivering them; and yet this not appearing sometimes at once, immediately for their help and protection, they ask where it is: it follows:
the sounding of thy bowels, and of thy mercies towards me? the noise and rumbling of the bowels, to which the allusion is, are sometimes occasioned by the working of strong passions, as fear and love, and which produce what is called the yearning of the bowels; of which there are instances in Joseph, and in the harlot in Solomon’s time, Ge 43:30, the tender mercies of God, his pity and compassion, are expressed hereby, to which are owing the mission of his Son, the forgiveness of sins, and help and relief under afflictions; see Lu 1:77, now it is asked, where are those?
are they restrained? it was thought they were shut up in anger, and would not be let out again; see Ps 77:7. The phrase “towards me”, in the former clause, seems, according to the accents, to belong to this; and should be read, “are they restrained towards me” d? or “shut up from me?” the Lord seemed to harden his heart against his church and people, and to have no heart of compassion towards them, as they imagined.
d “erga me continerent se”, Montanus; “continerent?” Junius Tremellius “erga me sese continent?” Piscator; “cohibeant se erga me?” Gataker; so Ben Melech; “quae se erga me continent?” Vitringa.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The way is prepared for the petitions for redemption which follow, outwardly by the change in Isa 63:14, from a mere description to a direct address, and inwardly by the thought, that Israel is at the present time in such a condition, as to cause it to look back with longing eyes to the time of the Mosaic redemption. “Look from heaven and see, from the habitation of Thy holiness and majesty! Where is Thy zeal and Thy display of might? The pressure of Thy bowels and Thy compassions are restrained towards me.” On the relation between , to look up, to open the eyes, and , to fix the eye upon a thing. It is very rarely that we meet with the words in the reverse order, (vid., Hab 1:5; Lam 1:11). In the second clause of Isa 63:15, instead of m isshamayim (from heaven), we have “from the dwelling-place ( m izz e bhul ) of Thy holiness and majesty.” The all-holy and all-glorious One, who once revealed Himself so gloriously in the history of Israel, has now withdrawn into His own heaven, where He is only revealed to the spirits. The object of the looking and seeing, as apparent from what follows, is the present helpless condition of the people in their sufferings, to which there does not seem likely to be any end. There are no traces now of the kin’ah (zeal) with which Jehovah used to strive on behalf of His people, and against their oppressors (Isa 26:11), or of the former displays of His g e bhurah ( , as it is correctly written in Ven. 1521, is a defective plural). In Isa 63:15 we have not a continued question (“the sounding of Thy bowels and Thy mercies, which are restrained towards me?”), as Hitzig and Knobel suppose. The words ‘elai hith’appaqu have not the appearance of an attributive clause, either according to the new strong thought expressed, or according to the order of the words (with written first). On strepitus viscerum , as the effect and sign of deep sympathy, see at Isa 16:11. and , or rather (from , of the form ) both signify primarily , strictly speaking the soft inward parts of the body; the latter from the root , to be pulpy or soft, the former from the root , to be slack, loose, or soft. , as the plural of the predicate shows, does not govern also. It is presupposed that the love of Jehovah urges Him towards His people, to relieve their misery; but His compassion and sympathy apparently put constraint upon themselves ( hith’appeq as in Isa 42:14, lit., se superare, from ‘aphaq , root ), to abstain from working on behalf of Israel.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| Earnest Pleadings. | B. C. 706. |
15 Look down from heaven, and behold from the habitation of thy holiness and of thy glory: where is thy zeal and thy strength, the sounding of thy bowels and of thy mercies toward me? are they restrained? 16 Doubtless thou art our father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not: thou, O LORD, art our father, our redeemer; thy name is from everlasting. 17 O LORD, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear? Return for thy servants’ sake, the tribes of thine inheritance. 18 The people of thy holiness have possessed it but a little while: our adversaries have trodden down thy sanctuary. 19 We are thine: thou never barest rule over them; they were not called by thy name.
The foregoing praises were intended as an introduction to this prayer, which is continued to the end of the next chapter, and it is an affectionate, importunate, pleading prayer. It is calculated for the time of the captivity. As they had promises, so they had prayers, prepared for them against that time of need, that they might take with them words in turning to the Lord, and say unto him what he himself taught them to say, in which they might the better hope to prevail, the words being of God’s own inditing. Some good interpreters think this prayer looks further, and that it expresses the complaints of the Jews under their last and final rejection from God and destruction by the Romans; for there is one passage in it (ch. lxiv. 4) which is applied to the grace of the gospel by the apostle (1 Cor. ii. 9), that grace for the rejecting of which they were rejected. In these verses we may observe,
I. The petitions they put up to God. 1. That he would take cognizance of their case and of the desires of their souls towards him: Look down from heaven, and behold, v. 15. They knew very well that God sees all, but they prayed that he would regard them, would condescend to favour them, would look upon them with an eye of compassion and concern, as he looked upon the affliction of his people in Egypt when he was about to appear for their deliverance. In begging that he would only look down upon them and behold them they did in effect appeal to his justice against their enemies, and pray for judgment against them (as Jehoshaphat, 2Ch 20:11; 2Ch 20:12, Behold, how they reward us. Wilt thou not judge them?), implicitly confiding in his mercy and wisdom as to the way in which he will relieve them (Ps. xxv. 18, Look upon my affliction and my pain): Look down from the habitation of thy holiness and of thy glory. God’s holiness is his glory. Heaven is his habitation, the throne of his glory, where he most manifests his glory, and whence he is said to look down upon the earth, Ps. xxxiii. 14. His holiness is in a special manner celebrated there by the blessed angels (Isa 6:3; Rev 4:8); there his holy ones attend him, and are continually about him; so that it is the habitation of his holiness. It is an encouragement to all his praying people, who desire to be holy as he is holy, that he dwells in a holy place. 2. That he would take a course for their relief (v. 17): “Return; change thy way towards us, and proceed not in thy controversy with us; return in mercy, and let us have not only a gracious look towards us, but thy gracious presence with us.” God’s people dread nothing more than his departures from them and desire nothing more than his returns to them.
II. The complaints they made to God. Two things they complained of:– 1. That they were given up to themselves, and God’s grace did not recover them, v. 17. It is a strange expostulation, “Why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, that is, many among us, the generality of us; and this complaint we have all of us some cause to make that thou hast hardened our heart from thy fear.” Some make it to be the language of those among them that were impious and profane; when the prophets reproved them for the error of their ways, their hardness of heart, and contempt of God’s word and commandments, they with a daring impudence charged their sin upon God, made him the author of it, and asked why doth he then find fault? Note, Those are wicked indeed that lay the blame of their wickedness upon God. But I rather take it to be the language of those among them that lamented the unbelief and impenitence of their people, not accusing God of being the author of their wickedness, but complaining of it to him. They owned that they had erred from God’s ways, that their hearts had been hardened from his fear, that they had not received the impressions which the fear of God ought to make upon them and this was the cause of all their errors from his ways; or from his fear may mean from the true worship of God, and that is a hard heart indeed which is alienated from the service of a God so incontestably great and good. Now this they complain of, as their great misery and burden, that God had for their sins left them to this, had permitted them to err from his ways and had justly withheld his grace, so that their hearts were hardened from his fear. When they ask, Why hast thou done this? it is not as charging him with wrong, but lamenting it as a sore judgment. God had caused them to err and hardened their hearts, not only by withdrawing his Spirit from them, because they had grieved, and vexed, and quenched him (v. 10), but by a judicial sentence upon them (Go, make the heart of this people fat,Isa 6:9; Isa 6:10) and by his providences concerning them, which had proved sad occasions for their departure from him. David complains of his banishment, because in it he was in effect bidden to go and serve other gods, 1 Sam. xxvi. 19. Their troubles had alienated many of them from God, and prejudiced them against his service; and, because the rod of the wicked had lain long on their lot, they were ready to put forth their hand unto iniquity (Ps. cxxv. 3), and this was the thing they complained most of; their afflictions were their temptations, and to many of them invincible ones. Note, Convinced consciences complain most of spiritual judgments and dread that most in an affliction which draws them from God and duty. 2. That they were given up to their enemies, and God’s providence did not rescue and relieve them (v. 18): Our adversaries have trodden down thy sanctuary. As it was a grief to them that in their captivity the generality of them had lost their affection to God’s worship, and had their hearts hardened from it by their affliction, so it was a further grief that they were deprived of their opportunities of worshipping God in solemn assemblies. They complained not so much of the adversaries treading down their houses and cities as of their treading down God’s sanctuary, because thereby God was immediately affronted, and they were robbed of the comforts they valued most and took most pleasure in.
III. The pleas they urged with God for mercy and deliverance. 1. They pleaded the tender compassion God used to show to his people and his ability and readiness to appear for them, v. 15. The most prevailing arguments in prayer are those that are taken from God himself; such these are. Where is thy zeal and thy strength? God has a zeal for his own glory, and for the comfort of his people; his name is Jealous; and he is a jealous God; and he has strength proportionable to secure his own glory and the interest of his people, in despite of all opposition. Now where are these? Have they not formerly appeared? Why do they not appear now? It cannot be that divine zeal, which is infinitely wise and just, should be cooled, that divine strength, which is infinite, should be weakened. Nay, his people had experienced not only his zeal and his strength, but the sounding of his bowels, or rather the yearning of them, such a degree of compassion to them as in men causes a commotion and agitation within them, as Hos. xi. 8, My heart is turned within me, my repentings are kindled together; and Jer. xxxi. 20, My bowels are troubled (or sound) for him. “Thus God used to be affected towards his people, and to express a multitude of mercies towards them; but where are they now? Are they restrained? Ps. lxxvii. 9. Has God, who so often remembered to be gracious, now forgotten to be so? Has he in anger shut up his tender mercies? It can never be.” Note, We may ground good expectations of further mercy upon our experiences of former mercy. 2. They pleaded God’s relation to them as their Father (v. 16): “Thy tender mercies are not restrained, for they are the tender mercies of a father, who, though he may be for a time displeased with his child, will yet, through the force of natural affection, soon be reconciled. Doubtless thou art our Father, and therefore thy bowels will years towards us.” Such good thoughts of God as these we should always keep up in our hearts. However it be, yet God is good; for he is our Father. They own themselves fatherless if he be not their Father, and so cast themselves upon him with whom the fatherless findeth mercy, Hos. xiv. 3. It was the honour of their nation that they had Abraham to their father (Matt. iii. 9), who was the friend of God, and Israel, who was a prince with God; but what the better were they for that unless they had God himself for their Father? “Abraham and Israel cannot help us; they have not the power that God has; they are dead long since, and are ignorant of us, and acknowledge us not; they know not what our case is, nor what our wants are, and therefore know not which way to do us a kindness. If Abraham and Israel were alive with us, they would intercede for us and advise us; but they have gone to the other world, and we know not that they have any communication at all with this world, and therefore they are not capable of doing us any kindness any further than that we have the honour of being called their children.” When the father is dead his sons come to honour and he knows it not, Job xiv. 21. “But thou, O Lord! art our Father still (the fathers of our flesh may call themselves ever-loving; but they are not ever-living; it is God only that is the immortal Father, that always knows us, and is never at a distance from us), and therefore our Redeemer from everlasting is thy name, the name by which we will know and own thee. It is the name by which from of old thou hast been known; thy people have always looked upon thee as the God to whom they might appeal to redress their grievances and plead their cause. Nay” (according to the sense some give of this place), “though Abraham and Israel not only cannot, but would not, help us, thou wilt. They have not the pity thou hast. We are so degenerate and corrupt that Abraham and Israel would not own us for their children, yet we fly to thee as our Father. Abraham cast out his son Ishmael; Jacob disinherited his son Reuben and cursed Simeon and Levi; but our heavenly Father, in pardoning sin, is God, and not man,” Hos. xi. 9. 3. They pleaded God’s interest in them, that he was their Lord, their owner and proprietor: “We are thy servants; what service we can do thou art entitled to, and therefore we ought not to serve strange kings and strange gods: Return for thy servants’ sake.” As a father finds himself obliged by natural affection to relieve and protect his child, so a master thinks himself obliged in honour to rescue and protect his servant: “We are thine by the strongest engagements, as well as the highest endearments. Thou hast borne rule over us; therefore, Lord, assert thy own interest, maintain thy own right; for we are called by thy name, and therefore whither shall we go but to thee, to be righted and protected? We are thine, save us (Ps. cxix. 94), thy own, acknowledge us. We are the tribes of thy inheritance, not only thy servants, but thy tenants; we are thine, not only to do work for thee, but to pay rent to thee. The tribes of Israel are God’s inheritance, whence issue the little praise and worship that he receives from this lower world; and wilt thou suffer thy own servants and tenants to be thus abused?” 4. They pleaded that they had had but a short enjoyment of the land of promise and the privileges of the sanctuary (v. 18): The people of thy holiness have possessed it but a little while. From Abraham to David were but fourteen generations, and from David to the captivity but fourteen more (Matt. i. 17), and that was but a little while in comparison with what might have been expected from the promise of the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession (Gen. xvii. 8) and from the power that was put forth to bring them into that land and settle them in it. “Though we are the people of thy holiness, distinguished from other people and consecrated to thee, yet we are soon dislodged.” But this they might thank themselves for; they were, in profession, the people of God’s holiness, but it was their wickedness that turned them out of the possession of that land. 5. They pleaded that those who had and kept possession of their land were such as were strangers to God, such as he had no service or honour from: “Thou never didst bear rule over them, nor did they ever yield thee any obedience; they were not called by thy name, but professed relation to other gods and were the worshippers of them. Will God suffer those that do not stand in any relation to him to trample upon those that do?” Some give another reading of this: “We have become as those over whom thou didst never bear rule and who were never called by thy name; we are rejected and abandoned, despised and trampled upon, as if we never had been in thy service nor had thy name called upon us.” Thus the shield of Saul was vilely cast away, as though he had not been anointed with oil. But the covenant that seems to be forgotten shall be remembered again.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Vs. 15-19: SUPPLICATION
1. Here is an appeal to God as the Father of Israel, (vs. 15-16); it is the cry (evidently of a faithful remnant) out of deep distress – as the cry of one who feels forsaken, (comp. Psa 85:5-7).
a. He is urged to look down, from His holy and glorious habitation, and behold the straits of His people, (Deu 26:15; Psa 80:14).
b. Where is the manifestation of His zeal and power, His sympathy and compassion, toward the present needs of His heritage? (Isa 26:11; Isa 37:32; Jer 31:20; Hos 11:8).
c. They claim God as their Father – though Abraham does not know them, and Israel fails to recognize them, (Isa 1:2; Isa 64:8; Isa 41:8; Isa 51:2).
d. From of old He has been their Lord, Father and Redeemer, (Isa 41:14; Isa 44:6-8; Isa 60:16).
2. The last section is a plea for the Lord to RETURN for the salvation of His helpless people, (vs. 17-19).
a. They recognize that, because of their own rebellion, God has given the nation over to a reprobate mind, (vs. 17a; Isa 6:9-10; Rom 1:28; comp. Exo 7:13; Exo 8:19; Exo 8:32; Exo 9:7; Exo 9:12).
b. But there is, in Israel, a remnant “according to the election of grace” (Rom 11:5); it is for their sake that the Lord is asked to intervene according to his great mercy, (vs. 17b; Psa 90:13-17) – a plea that will be fulfilled by Jesus Christ as “the Consolation of Israel”, (Luk 2:25; Luk 2:38).
c. The holy people possessed the land of inheritance but a very short time – their enemies treading down the sanctuary of the Most High, (vs. 18; Isa 64:10-11; Psa 74:6-8).
d. Since the adversary has never accepted the Lord’s rule, or been called by His holy name; the holy remnant ask Him to recognize them as His own, and to come to their deliverance! (vs. 19; comp. Deu 4:20; Deu 9:26; Deu 9:29; Psa 2:8; Isa 65:9; Psa 94:14, etc.).
e. When the Lord answers they will heartily proclaim: “Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord”! (Mat 23:39).
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
15. Look down from heaven. After having, in the name of the whole people, related the benefits of former times, he now applies this to the present subject, and entreats the Lord to pay regard to his people.
Behold from the habitation of thy holiness. By these words he means that the power of God is not diminished, though this does not always appear; for we must supply a contrast, that God at that time might be said to be concealed, and did not shew himself to them as he had shewn himself to the fathers. “Although, therefore, we do not see thee, O Lord, and although thou hast withdrawn from us as if thou wert shut up in heaven, so that thou mayest seem to have altogether ceased to care about us, yet ‘look down from heaven, and from thy habitation’ behold our distresses.” Believers must differ from unbelievers in acknowledging a powerful and kind God, even when they perceive no tokens of his power or kindness; and thus, even when he is at a great distance, they nevertheless call on him; for God never ceases to care about his people, (1Pe 5:7,) since he governs unceasingly every part of the world.
Where is thy zeal? By these questions believers appear in some measure to reproach God, as if he were not now moved by any affection toward them, or as if his power were diminished; but the Prophet’s meaning is different; for in thus extolling those benefits, his object is, as I have already remarked, to confirm the hope of believers for the future, that they may know that God is always like himself, and will never lay aside his care about his people. This will appear more clearly from what follows.
The multitude of bowels and of compassions denotes God’s vast goodness; for God displays and opens up his bowels, so to speak, when he exercises toward us bounty and kindness, which truly is so great that we cannot praise it in adequate language. Nor is it a new thing that believers, when oppressed by grief, expostulated familiarly with God for shutting up his bowels. They do indeed hold by this principle, that God is always compassionate, because he does not change his nature; and though they impute it to their sins that they do not experience him to be compassionate, yet, that they may not sink into despair, they ask how it is possible that God should treat them with severity, and, as if he had forgotten his natural disposition, should shew nothing but tokens of absolute displeasure? (179)
(179) Luther’s version runs thus, Deine grofe herliche Barmherzigfeit halt eich hart gegen mich. “Thy great compassionate loving-kindness deals hardly with me.” — Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
3. PETITION OF VICTIMS
TEXT: Isa. 63:15-19
15
Look down from heaven, and behold from the habitation of thy holiness and of thy glory: where are thy zeal and thy mighty acts? the yearning of thy heart and thy compassions are restrained toward me.
16
For thou art our Father, though Abraham knoweth us not, and Israel doth riot acknowledge us: thou, O Jehovah, art our Father; our Redeemer from everlasting is thy name.
17
O Jehovah, why dost thou make us to err from thy ways, and hardenest our heart from thy fear? Return for thy servants sake, the tribes of thine inheritance.
18
Thy holy people possessed it but a little while: our adversaries have trodden down thy sanctuary.
19
We are become as they over whom thou never barest rule, as they that were not called by thy name.
QUERIES
a.
Why did they think they had to call upon God to look?
b.
Why does Abraham not know the nation?
c.
What tithe reference is involved in Isa. 63:18?
PARAPHRASE
Lord, where have You gone? Lord, are You oblivious to our predicament? Look down from where You sit on Your transcendently glorious and holy throne and give attention to our situation. Where is all the eagerness and power You used to show us now? Apparently You are deliberately keeping Your love and pity from us! You are the only Father we have with enough power to save us from the impending captivity. Yes, Abraham and Jacob were our earthly fathers, but they are not able to redeem us or save us; You, Jehovah, are our only Everlasting Father. Why have You disowned us? Why have you prevented us from wandering away from You and prevented us from hardening our hearts toward You? Come back, Lord, for the sake of those who serve You and help us, for we are the people of Your possession. We, your holy people, have possessed the land so briefly; our enemies are making us a dispossessed and dispersed people by taking over Your land. Lord, You are treating us as if You had never been our Sovereign and as if we had never been Your people.
COMMENTS
Isa. 63:15-17 DISOWNED: The Hebrew word shamayim is plural for shamah which means high, heavenward, height. The word is always in the plural form in the O.T. God most often manifested Himself from the direction of the sky in the O.T. and the Hebrew thought of the sky (or beyond) as the place of Jehovahs habitation. Actually, due to the limitations of human language (which is limited by human experience) designating the heavens as Gods habitation is about as accurate as any man can be. The point seems to be that these people feel Jehovah is so utterly transcendent, dwelling in such absolute holiness (separation from this world) He is disowning His creatures. The petition is that He will look down from His high and lofty place and give attention to their predicament. Based upon the historical record of Jehovahs dealings with their ancestors (Genesis, Exodus, et al.) He was eager, zealous and arduous in delivering, guiding and sustaining their nation in centuries past. But suddenly, it appears, Jehovah has deliberately restrained (withdrawn) His zeal for their nation. It is their assumption that Jehovah does not even care about them anymore. How could they get that idea? Jehovah repeatedly told them of His love and care through the prophets. But their accusation that Jehovah was deliberately insensitive to their needs was based upon their carnal concept of what their need was and their carnal ideas as to how God should act toward them. They believed their imperative need was to be delivered from those who would take them into captivity. They believed God should act in supernatural, judgmental power now upon their enemies as He had done in the past. Man has always had the tendency (ever since the devil taught him in Eden to do so) to blame God, or someone else, for the consequences of his own faults and failures. Judah has been indulging in false religion which induces false ethics which results in social disintegration; she has been playing the dangerous game of international intrigue and politics which results in war and invasion; now she is blaming God for her predicament. Judah suggests that Jehovah has defaulted on His Fatherhood! Acknowledging that He is the only Father capable of saving their necks, the implication is that He is unwilling now to act as their Father. He has disowned them! There is no disavowal of their ancestry to Abraham and Jacob herethe point is the contrast between human fathers and Supernatural Father. An emergency has arisen and now they need their heavenly Father; they did not seek Him before (cf. Isa. 8:19-22; Isa. 30:9-11; Isa. 58:2-5; Isa. 59:1-3, etc.). The Hebrew word tateenu is from the Hifeiyl stem which denotes causative manner and is thus translated make us to err in Isa. 63:17. Certainly God does not force man to sin. God does not even cause man to sin in the sense that He makes mans choice for him. Of course, man very often accuses God of making him sin, or being the cause of his sin. That is the way of rebellion, dishonesty, lawlessness and devil-mindedness! Man may be even more subtle (as we have given it in our paraphrase) and blame God for not preventing him from sinning! It is the old cliche, If God is a good God, why does He permit evil to happen? The Lord tried every way possible consistent with the free will of man to keep man from wandering into rebellion and lawlessness. Judah, by the use of the hifeiyl stem, has betrayed her moral dishonesty in trying to blame God for her wandering and hardening of heart against Him. In one sense of the word God must, by the fact of mans freedom to choose, allow man to either choose that which will soften his heart and bring him to walk in Gods way, or, choose that which will harden his heart and lead him to wander away from Gods way. But God will also make the ultimate sacrifices to furnish man with every opportunity to make the right choice; He will send His Spirit in His word through the prophets, leaders and kings; and finally in His Son He will Himself atone and offer a New covenant.
God has not disowned His people. He is about to demonstrate, through the captivity, just how much He owns them. The child who is not chastened has no real father (cf. Heb. 12:1-11). So, our Father-child relationship to God depends upon our perspective. These people of Judah could not look upon their impending captivity as the chastening of a loving Father (which is what it was revealed to be by Hosea, Isaiah and others). They looked at it through carnal eyes, not eyes of faith. Looking thus, they charged God with desertion!
Isa. 63:18-19 DISPOSSESSED: In these two verses the people are dangerously near impugning the honor of the Lord. They complain that although God gave them the land of Palestine and built them a Temple, they had lived in it only a brief time (from approximately 1400 B.C. to 600 B.C.) and now it was about to be invaded by enemies and they would be dispossessed. So the Lord appears to them unable to maintain His people in His land and keep His Sanctuary standing. The time in which the Lord maintained His people in His land by His sovereign power was so relatively short (800 years), it hardly seems worthy of calling it a rule. The length of time in which the Hebrews were called the people of Jehovah seems so short it is as if they were never His people at all. They are saying, in essence, Lord if Your name is ridiculed because of our being taken from our land, it is your fault. Their attitude is if God does not help them now and on their terms, He cannot blame anyone but Himself. How often all men are tempted to evaluate their circumstances through the dying eyes of carnal mindedness and blame God for them. May it not be so in New Zion!
QUIZ
1.
Where did the Hebrews believe God dwelt?
2.
Is there a better location to suppose God abides?
3.
Why do these people think God has disowned them?
4.
Why are they now calling on Him to act like a Father when they did not before?
5.
Does God make men err?
6.
Can God demonstrate in their captivity that He is their Father? How?
7.
What seems to be their accusation against God in Isa. 63:18-19?
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(15) Look down from heaven . . .The form of the prayer reminds us of 2Ch. 6:21. Perhaps there is a latent remonstrance, as though Jehovah, like an Eastern king, had withdrawn to the recesses of His palace, and had ceased to manifest His care and pity for His people, as He had done of old.
The sounding of thy bowels.See Note on Isa. 16:11. The words jar upon modern ears, but were to the Hebrew what the sighs of thy heart would be to us.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
‘Look down from heaven,
And behold from the habitation of your holiness and of your glory.
Where is your zeal and your mighty acts?
The yearnings of your bowels and of your compassions are restrained towards me.’
Isaiah points out that now in contrast to what He has done before, Yahweh’s activity towards them appears to have ceased. Let Him look down from heaven, from the place where He dwells, the place where His holiness and glory dwell, and consider. Where now is evidence of His zeal? Where now are His mighty acts being revealed? His yearning love for them, and His great compassion, appear to be no longer flowing down. They appear to be restrained even towards him, His prophet. Yet surely this cannot be for He is their Father.
We note that Isaiah is realistic. He is well aware that Yahweh dwells in the high and holy place (Isa 57:15). He had good cause to be aware of it (chapter 6). So his plea is for mercy, not because he feels that they deserve anything, but because of what Yahweh has shown Himself to be. He is aware of Yahweh’s past zeal for His people, the mighty acts that resulted, the yearning love that He had shown for them, and His many acts of compassion. How then can they now be restrained in view of their relationship?
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Isa 63:15. Look down from heaven In this excellent and pious prayer of the first-fruits of the converted Jews, they intreat God for his grace and mercy, to look down with an eye of compassion upon them. “Where is thy love and concern for thy people, they add, and the power thou usedst to exert for their deliverance? Where are thy tender mercies which thou formerly shewedst towards them?” The arguments here are used, and to be understood, humano more (after the manner of men). See Vitringa.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
2. PRAYER THAT THE LORD MIGHT LOOK UPON THEN AND REMOVE SIN AND ITS PUNISHMENT
Chap Isa 63:15-19 a (19)
15Look down from heaven, and behold from the habitation of thy holiness and of thy glory:
Where is thy zeal and thy strength,
9The sounding of thy bowels and of thy mercies toward me?
10Are they restrained?
16Doubtless thou art our father,
11Though Abraham be ignorant of us,
And Israel acknowledge us not:
Thou, O Lord, art our father, 12our redeemer;
Thy name is from everlasting.
17O Lord, 13why hast thou made us to err from thy ways,
And hardened our heart from thy fear?
Return for thy servants sake,
14The tribes of thine inheritance.
18The people of thy holiness have possessed it but a little while:
Our adversaries have trodden down thy sanctuary.
1915We are thine:
Thou never barest rule over them:
16They were not called by thy name.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
Isa 63:16. [According to the accents the words are connected together. The more correct accentuation would be Tifha, Mercha. From remote antiquity Jahve had acted toward Israel in such a way that the latter could call him . What takes place in the present time is so different as to put faith to a hard trial. Translate: Our Redeemer is from ancient time thy name. Delitzsch.D. M.].
Isa 63:18. , Pilel from (Isa 63:6; Isa 14:19; Isa 14:25) is to tread dow, , and includes the idea of profaning and defiling.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. After laying the foundation for His prayer by the retrospect of what Jehovah had been of old to His people, the suppliant now passes over to the entreaty that the Lord would graciously look down from heaven on the present distress, and not restrain His love and might (Isa 63:15). He still remains the Father of the people, after Abraham and Israel, who had been long ago removed by death, have become strangers to them so far as rendering actual aid is concerned (Isa 63:16). With great boldness the Lord is expostulated with for permitting the people to go astray and to become hardened, and He is called upon to change His conduct towards His elect people (Isa 63:17). The complaint is made to Him that the people had possessed only for a short time the land promised to them as an inheritance for ever, while the centre of the land, the Sanctuary, which alone gives the country its value, had been trodden down by their enemies (Isa 63:18), so that Israel is now situated as if Jehovah had never been their Lord, and His name had never been called upon them (Isa 63:19 a).
2. Look down from heavenrestrained.
Isa 63:15. more frequently follows than precedes . The Lord has to look down from heaven, for thither He has as it were retired. He is no more to be found in His earthly sanctuary, but only in His heavenly. [But compare Deu 26:15; Psa 115:3. The prayer is rather founded on the acknowledged truth, The Lord looketh from heaven. . From the place of His habitation He looketh upon all the inhabitants of the earth. Psa 33:13-14. D. M.]. Solomon had said in his dedicatory prayer (1Ki 8:13 comp. 2Ch 6:2) I have built thee a house to dwell in ( ). To this passage the suppliant seems to allude, when he asks the Lord to look down from the habitation of His holiness and glory. For the earthly is destroyed. The word is found only here in Isaiah. Once more the suppliant returns to what he misses. He asks again with : Where is thy zeal and thy mighty deeds? The zeal of Jehovah is twofold: against His people, so far they make common cause with those who hate the Lord. For then they have the Lord who is a zealous God (Exo 20:5; Deu 4:24; Deu 5:9) against them. But the zeal of Jehovah, is also active for His people, against the enemies of the theocracy (comp. Isa 9:6; Isa 26:11; Isa 37:32; Isa 42:13; Isa 59:17). The expression , strepitus viscerum, as image of the emotion of compassion, of commiseratio, is found in the form of a substantive only here, but the verbal expression occurs, Isa 16:11; Jer 31:20; Jer 48:30.In observe the change of number. , se cohibere, comp. Isa 42:14; Isa 54:11.
3. Doubtless thoueverlasting.
Isa 63:16. [The E. V. departs in two instances in this verse from the proper signification of , rendering it in the first, doubtless, and in the second, though. In both cases its strict sense of for, because, can be retained, as isdone by Dr. Naegelsbach. But we prefer taking the second as=when, which in this connection does not differ much from though. D. M.].
Isa 63:16 declares the reason why Israel entreats the Lord to be pleased to look upon their need and to manifest His power and love on them. Jehovah alone is the true Father of Israel. They have indeed also human progenitors who stand in high honor and authority; Abraham (comp. Isa 51:2) as their remote, and Israel, the strong contender with God (Gen 32:28), their immediate ancestor. But these are men, are long dead, and incapable from their present abode outside this world, to take knowledge (dignovit, Isa 61:9) of Israels lot; not to say that they could not possibly interpose to render them active support. [This is not very satisfactory, though the view of Vitringa, Delitzsch and the best interpreters. But if we take the second in the common sense of when, and translate For thou art our Father when Abraham does not know us, and Israel does not recognize us, then the idea would be that natural affection and regard would cease rather than that Gods paternal love should fail, or His covenant of adoption be annulled. Such a sense is very appropriate. See Psa 27:10. Comp. Calvin on our passage. Kay remarks, This verse and Isa 64:8 are the only places in the Old Testament where the address Our Father is used in prayer. The Spirit of adoption was not yet given (Gal 4:4-6). D.M.].
4. O Lord, why hast thouthy name. Isa 63:17-19 a. Jerome understands the words of ver.17 as an utterance of the apostate Jews. As Paul in the Epistles to the Corinthians addresses pious and ungodly persons, so here both the pious and the ungodly speak to God. These latter are said here, movere Domino quaestionem, et suam culpam referre in Deum. Jerome, however, vindicates God, and says that in reality God is not the cause of error and hardness of heart, but that error and obduracy are only mediately occasioned by His patience, while He does not chastise offenders. Theodoret makes the Jews here directly reproach God with having by His patience incurred the guilt of their delinquencies. Oecolampadius regards this passage as having a double sense. As an utterance of the ungodly it contains actual blasphemy (blasphema inter precandum dicunt: suam culpam in Deum transcribunt), while in the mouth of the godly it expresses only the painful confession that they, after the withdrawal of the divine grace and help, could not but go astray. Calvin disputes all softening of the language by the assumption of foreknowledge or permission. But he makes a distinction. He distinguishes between an indirect or negative hardening (rite excoecare, indurare, inclinare dicitur, quibus facultatem videndi, parendi, recte exsequendi adimit), and a direct or positive (when He per Satanam et consilia reproborum destinat, quo visum est, et voluntates excitat et conatus firmat). As instances of the latter kind he cites Pharaoh (Exo 4:21; Exo 7:3; Exo 10:1, etc.), and Sihon the king of the Amorites (Deu 2:30). For the first-mentioned kind he appeals to Eze 7:26; Psa 107:40; Job 12:20; Job 12:24 and to the passage before us (comp. Institutio II, 4, 3 sq.). Whether that indirect hardening, of which Calvin speaks, is essentially different from the permissive, may be doubted. I therefore believe that all those interpretersand they form the majoritywho understand this passage of the divine permission, mean nothing else than what Calvin intends by tbat former kind of hardening. For the cessatio directionis divinae, the ablatio spiritus, the sublatio luminis is just nothing else than that procedure of God by which He makes sin possible, or permits it. Luther, in particular, belongs to those who explain our place in the permissive sense, and with his fine feeling he is able, without doing violence to the words, to remove what causes offence from them. He says: Sunt verba ardentis affectus. Ah, Domine, quare sinis nos sic errare? Nos hunc affectum non intelligimus, quare privative accipiemus, ut sit sententia: quia noluimusaudire tuum verbum, permisisti nos errare et peccare; sicut fit, peccatum peccati est poena. And certainly in the mouth of the suppliant church Isa 63:17 can never be taken as a blasphemous reproach. But the church in the deepest sorrow, and during a momentary eclipse of the future prospect before her, feels herself driven to put this question, Why ? Not as if she would say that there exists no reason, or only a bad one, but simply to intimate that she does not perceive the reason, that here the providence of God appears to her dark, inexplicable. The church mourns because the Lord has not hindered her going astray, her hardening in evil, which exists not indeed in all, but in many of her members. She thinks that He, the Almighty, could have done it, if He had wished. That He has not willed it is to her inconceivable. She does not even see how this, her partial apostasy must, on the whole, co-operate to the realization of Gods gracious counsel. The statement in this verse is in harmony with Isa 6:9-10, and with Isa 29:10; Isa 45:7. [But in Isa 45:7 the evil which God creates is physical evil or pain, the opposite of peace.D. M.]. For here, as there, God is apparently designated as the author of evil, while yet God can never will evil as such. But when men do not will the good, then they must at last will the evil. It becomes a necessity in the way of punishment, in order that they may be thoroughly acquainted with it, and be thereby healed (see on Isa 6:9 sq. and Isa 29:10). As an unauthorized weakening of the genuine meaning of this place I must regard it when Seb. Schmidt and Grotius understand the words de futuro: Why shall it then come to this, that we go astray and harden ourselves in idolatry? The imperfects (futures) and can only be taken to mean an action not yet finished, and therefore only in the sense of the enduring present. If we ask what sin the Prophet specially has in view when he speaks of erring and hardening, we must say that this erring and hardening can take place in all forms of sin, but that, in the end, all these evil fruits have a common root, namely, the sin against the first (second) commandment, idolatry. We must, of course, think here not only of gross, but also of refined idolatry. The Rabbinical commentators are of the opinion that the Prophet has here in view, doubt, despair and unbelief as the consequences of the long duration of the Exile. This is quite possible, if we think not merely of the Babylonish Captivity, but also, and specially, of the present exile that still continues. But the look of the Prophet is primarily directed to the Babylonian exile, and regarding it we must say that it became to many Jews an occasion even of visible apostacy from Jehovah and of gross idolatry. (certainly hardened from ) occurs besides here only in Job 39:16, where it has the signification to regard or treat harshly. before has here a negative force, and the sentence expresses a consequence, so as not to fear thee. Comp. Isa 62:10; Isa 59:1-2 et saepe. While the Prophet sees the Lord, as it were, engaged in a woful work, the work namely of judicially hardening ever more the mass of Israel after the flesh, he becomes anxious for Israel as a body. If this continues, what shall become of the elect people? Who will be able to withstand the current of inward and outward corruption? Therefore he entreats the Lord not to continue to act in this way, but to revorse the course He is pursuing. The Prophet has very probably Num 10:36 before his mind in using the word . Accordingly, as the verb is intransitive, we have to regard , not as in apposition to , but as the accusative of place dependent on . Then we obtain the idea that the Prophet conceives the erring and hardening spoken of as caused by the Lord turning away from Israel, and leaving them to their fate. He is here besought, in opposition to this, to return to the tribes of His inheritance, and that for His servants sake. Who are these servants? They can only be those who faithfully serve the Lord in distinction from those who err and harden themselves. But the Prophet means by these servants not merely those who in the present time have remained faithful, but all faithful servants of Jehovah of all times. He thinks especially of the patriarchs who first received the promises. It is for the sake of all His faithful servants that the Lord does not entirely reject Israel. That Israel here bears the designation the tribes of thine inheritance is doubtless because the Prophet wishes thereby to point to Jehovahs election of Israel to be His (Exo 19:5; Deu 7:6 et saepe), His specially dear to Him and inalienable inheritance (Isa 19:25; Isa 47:6). To the complaint of the decay of religious life (Isa 63:17) there is added (Isa 63:18-19 a) a complaint regarding the mournful external relations, the fruit of that internal decay. The subject of can only be . If we take as subject, as many do, we must then take in a signification which it has not. For (besides here Gen 19:20; Job 8:7; Psa 42:7; 2Ch 24:24) is the harder form of , which latter occurs in no other Old Testament writer than Isaiah, who has it in Isa 10:25; Isa 29:17; Isa 16:14; Isa 14:6. The signification is everywhere paulum, a little. The word is synonymous with , which word in all these places of Isaiah (with exception of the last-mentioned, Isa 24:6,) is joined to . If now we take as subject, we must take in the sense of pro-pemodum, parum abest quin, almost, nearly, as Cocceius, Luther and Stier do. But then the form should be after the analogy of . Further, can neither be= without (LXX.) nor=nullo pretio, sine labore (Jerome). can only be a particle of time, and mean for a short time. Many are inclined to regard as the common object of and , while they take either as a designation of the whole land, or of the temple alone. But the whole land is never called , and the expression cannot well be employed of the temple. We must, too, in that case refer to both sentences. For it stands as emphatically at the beginning as stands at the close. I, therefore, agree with Delitzsch in taking absolutely, and in understanding as its object the land. This object could be easily omitted, as is used countless times both of the taking of the holy land into possession, and of the holding of it in possession. The word, too, is often employed absolutely: Deu 2:24; Deu 2:31; Gen 21:10; 2Sa 14:7; Mic 1:15, et saepe. Although is a rhetorical hyperbole, it is yet justified, inasmuch as, if the Lord does not hear the prayer contained inIsa Isa 63:17 b, the time during which Israel possessed the land would be short in comparison with the following permanent exclusion from its possession. The treading down of the Sanctuary is regarded as the dissolving of the bond of connection between Israel and his God. Israel stands, therefore, now as a people over which Jehovah has never ruled. It is no more distinguished in anything from the heathen nations. Before , which must be connected with what follows, is to be supplied. According to our way of speaking would be required. [In the E. V. the important word thine is arbitrarily supplied. Dr. Naegelsbachs rendering is here to be preferred: We are become as those over whom thou never barest rule, (or didst not rule from ancient time), on whom thy name was never called.D. M.]. That Israel has been, as it were, marked with the name of Jehovah, and thus distinguished from all nations, is always set forth as one of its greatest privileges (comp. Deu 28:10; 2Ch 7:14; Jer 14:9, et saepe. Comp. Isa 43:7; Isa 65:1). [The first verse of chap. 44 in the E. V. forms the latter part of Isa 63:19 of the preceding chapter in the Hebrew text. It is convenient in the Commentary to adhere to the division of chapters and verses observed in the Hebrew Bible. Accordingly, what stands in the English Bible as the first verse of chap 64 appears in the Commentary as the conclusion of Isa 63:19. And in conformity with this arrangement chap, 64 instead of twelve, has only eleven verses.D. M.].
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. On Isa 63:7. [God does good because He is good; what He bestows upon us must be run up to the original, it is according to His mercies, not according to our merits, andaccording to the multitude of His loving-kindnesses, which can never be spent. Thus we should magnify Gods goodness, and speak honorably of it, not only when we plead it (as David Psa 51:1), but when we praise it. Henry. D. M.].
2. On Isa 63:9. The angel of the face or presence belongs to the deep things of God” (1Co 2:10). It is not right to imagine that a certain and exhaustive knowledge is possible in reference to these things. The humility which becomes even science, imposes on it the duty to write everywhere a non liquet, where, through the nature of things, limits are placed to human knowledge. Not to regard these limitations is the manner of the pseudo-scientific, immodest scholasticism. What, therefore, we have said regarding the angel of the face makes no higher pretension than that of a modest hypothesis. [Comp. in Hengstenbergs Christology, Vol. Isaiah 1 : The Angel of the Lord in the books of Moses and in the book of Joshua.D. M.].
3. On Isa 63:10. There are two ways in which the Holy Ghost is offended or vexed. One way is of a less dreadful nature. It is when a man takes from the Holy Spirit the opportunity to work in the soul for its joy, as He is wont to communicate to it His gracious influence and His gracious operations. When such is the case, then as an offended friend when He perceives that no heed is given to most of His counsels, the Holy Spirit is grieved, and, although reluctantly, ceases for a time to advise the stubborn, ut carendo discat quantum peccaverit. Of this kind of grieving Paul speaks Eph 4:30. It can be committed by the godly and the elect. But the Holy Spirit can be offended and vexed in a gross and flagitious way, when one not only does not believe and follow Him, but also obstinately resists Him, despises all His counsel, reviles and blasphemes Him, will none of His reproof (Pro 1:24-25), gives the lie to His truth, and so speaks against the sun This the Scripture calls (Act 7:51), (Heb 10:29), (Mat 12:31), (Act 5:39). Let us, therefore, not grieve the Holy Spirit with evil desires, words and deeds, that we may be able on the future day of redemption to show that seal uninjured with which we were sealed on that day of our redemption when we were regenerated. To this end let us assiduously breathe forth the prayers of David Psa 143:10; Psa 51:12-14. Leigh.
4. On Isa 63:10. [They rebelled and vexed His Holy Spirit. This statement implies the personality of the Holy Ghost, or the Spirit of Gods holiness. He is represented as a person whom we can grieve. We have in this passage clear indications of the doctrine of the Trinity. In Isa 63:9 we have the Angel of Gods face, and in Isa 63:10 we have the Spirit of His holiness, both clearly distinguished from God the fountain of their being.D. M.].
5. On Isa 63:11. Faith asks after God and so does unbelief, but in different ways. Both put the question, Where? Faith does it to seek God in time of need, and to tell Him trustfully of His old kindnesses. Unbelief does it to tempt God, to deny Him, to lead others into temptation, and to make them doubt regarding the divine presence and providence. Therefore it asks: Where is the God of judgment (Mal 2:17)? Where is now thy God “(Psa 42:4; Psa 42:11; Psa 79:10; Psa 115:2)? If you, as the praying Church here does, ask in the former manner diligently after God, you will be preserved from the other kind of asking. Leigh.
6. On Isa 63:15. Meritum meum miseratio Domini. Non sum meriti inops, quando ille miserationum Dominus non defuerit, et si misericordiae Domini multae, multus ego sum in meritis. Augustine.
7. On Isa 63:16. We can from this sentence [?] cogently refute the doctrine of the invocation of the Saints. For the Saints know nothing of us, and are not personally acquainted with us, much less can they know the concerns of our hearts, or hear our cry, for they are not omnipresent. If it be alleged that God makes matters known to them and that they then pray for us, what a round-about business this would be! It would justify the prayer said to have been made by a simple man: Ah Lord God! tell it, I beseech thee, to the blessed Mary that I have told thee to tell it again to her, that she should tell thee that I have wished to say to her by so many Ave Marias and Pater Nosters, that she should say to thee to be pleased to be gracious unto me. Meyer, de Rosariis, cap. III., thes. V., p. 52). With how much more brevity and efficacy do we pray with the penitent publican: God be merciful to me, a sinner! Leigh.
8. On Isa 63:17. There is no more heinous sin than to accuse God of being the cause of our sin. Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God (Jam 1:13; Psa 5:5; Deu 32:4; Ps. 92:16). He commands what is good, forbids and punishes what is evil. How then could He be the cause of it? But when He punishes sin with sin, i.e., when He at last withdraws from the sinner His grace that has been persistently despised, then He acts as a righteous Judge who inflicts the judgment of hardening the heart on those who wilfully resist His Spirit. Leigh.
9. On Isaiah 66 [This chapter is a model of affectionate and earnest entreaty for the divine interposition in the day of calamity. With such tender and affectionate earnestness may we learn to plead with God! Thus may all His people learn to approach Him as a Father; thus feel that they have the inestimable privilege in the times of trial of making known their wants to the High and Holy One. Thus when calamity presses on us; when as individuals or families we are afflicted; or when our country or the church is suffering under long trials, may we go to God, and humbly confess our sins, and urge His promises, and take hold of His strength, and plead with Him to interpose. Thus pleading, He will hear us; thus presenting our cause, He will interpose to save us. Barnes. D. M.].
10. On Isa 64:3-4 a. [4, 5 a]. The God who appeared to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, called Moses, and led by him the people of Israel out of Egypt, who chose Joshua, Samuel, David and others to be His servants and glorified Himself by them, this God alone has shown Himself to be the true and living God, and we can hope from Him that He will yet do more, and manifest Himself still more signally.
11. On Isa 64:4 [5]. [Note what God expects from us in order to our having communion with Him. First, We must make conscience of doing our duty in everything, we must work righteousness, must do that which is good, and which the Lord our God requires of us, and must do it well. Secondly, We must be cheerful in doing our duty; we must rejoice and work righteousness, must delight ourselves in God and His law, must be pleasant in His service and sing at our work. God loves a cheerful giver, a cheerful worshipper; we must serve the Lord with gladness. Thirdly, We must conform ourselves to all the methods of His providence concerning us, and be suitably affected with them; must remember Him in Hisways, in all the ways wherein He walks, whether He walks towards us, or walks contrary to us; we must mind Him, and make mention of Him, with thanksgiving, when His ways are ways of mercy, for in a day of prosperity we mustbe joyful, with patience and submission when He contends with us, for in a day of adversity we must consider. Henry. D. M.].
12. On Isa 64:7 [8]. [This whole verse is an acknowledgment of the sovereignty of God. It expresses the feeling which all have when under conviction of sin, and when they are sensible that they are exposed to the divine displeasure for their transgressions. Then they feel that if they are to be saved, it must be by the mere Sovereignty of God; and they implore His interposition to mould and guide them at His will. It may be added, that it is only when sinners have this feeling that they hope for relief; and then they will feel that if they are lost, it will be right; if saved, it will be because God moulds them as the potter does the clay. Barnes. D. M.].
HOMILETICAL HINTS
1. On Isa 63:7. Text for a Thanksgiving Sermon. What is our duty after that the Lord has shown us great loving kindness? 1) To remember what He has done to us. 2) To be mindful of what we ought to render to Him for the same.
2. On Isa 63:8-17. The history of the people of Israel a mirror in which we too may perceive the history of our relation to God. 1) God is to us from the beginning a loving and faithful Father (Isa 63:8-9). 2) We repay His love with ingratitude, as Israel did (Isa 63:10 a). 3) God punishes us for this as He punished Israel (Isa 63:10 b). 4) God receives us again to His favor when we, as Israel, call on Him in penitence (Isa 63:11-17).
On Isa 63:7-17. If God in Christ has become our Father, He remains our Father to all eternity. 1) He is our Father in Christ. 2) He abides faithful even when we waIsa Isa 63:3) When we have fallen, His arms still stand open to receive us. Deichert in Manch. G. u. ein Geist, 1868, page 65.
4. On Isa 64:5-7. Joh. Ben. Carpzov has a sermon on this text, in which he treats of righteousness, and shows 1) justitiam salvantem, i. e., the righteousness with which one enters the kingdom of heaven; 2) justitiam damnantem, i. e., the righteousness with which a man enters the fire of hell; 3) justitiam testantem, i. e., the righteousness by which a man testifies that he has attained the true righteousness.
5. On Isa 64:6-9. Let us hear from our text an earnest and affecting confession of sin, and at the same time consider 1) the doctrine of repentance; 2) the comfort of forgiveness which believers receive.Eichhorn.
6. On Isa 64:6. (We all do fade, etc.) These are very instructive words, from which we learn what a noxious plant sin is, and what fruit it brings forth. First, says he, we fade as a leaf. This means that sin brings with it the curse of God, and deprives us of His blessing both for the body and the soul, so that the heart is dissatisfied and distressed. Then it robs us of the highest treasure, confidence in the grace of God. For sin and an evil conscience awaken dread of God. As it is impossible to call upon God aright without faith and a sure persuasion of His aid, it follows that sin hinders prayer also, and thus robs us of the highest comfort. When men have no faith and cannot pray, then the awful punishment comes upon them, that God hides His face and leaves them to pine in their sins. For they cannot help themselves, and have lost the consolation and protection which they need in life.Veit Diet.
Footnotes:
[9]Or, the multitude.
[10]they are restrained.
[11]because.
[12]Or, our redeemer from everlasting is thy name.
[13]Why dost thou make us err.
[14]to the tribes.
[15]We have become as those over whom thou never barest rule, on whom thy name was not called.
[16]Or, thy name was not called upon them.
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
DISCOURSE: 1017
PLEADING WITH GOD
Isa 63:15-16. Look down from heaven, and behold from the habitation of thy holiness and of thy glory; where is thy zeal and thy strength, the sounding of thy bowels and of thy mercies towards me? Are they restrained? Doubtless thou art our Father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not: thou, O Lord, art our Father, our Redeemer; thy name is from everlasting.
BEHOLD a suppliant in the presence of his God, Draw near, my Brethren; and hear his pleadings at the throne of grace. Surely from this you may learn much of the condescension of your God, who suffers himself to be so addressed; and much of your own exalted privileges, in that, in every time of need, you have such a God, before whom you can spread your wants, and from whom you can obtain whatsoever your necessities may require.
The words before us may be supposed to be uttered by a pious Jew, mourning over the desolation of his country during the Babylonish captivity, and pleading with God for a restoration of the blessings which it was once the high privilege of his nation to enjoy.
The whole of the Jews captivity in Babylon, and of their redemption from it, was of a typical nature; and may well be considered as prefiguring the trials and deliverances of Gods people in all ages. St. Paul quotes a part of this prayer, in this very view; and shews, that the things here implored were not confined to that particular occasion, but have their accomplishment under the Christian dispensation [Note: Compare chap. 64:4. with 1Co 2:9.]. I may well, therefore, lead you to consider,
I.
To what circumstances Gods people may be reduced
The whole Bible attests, that Gods people are more or less a poor and afflicted people [Note: Zep 3:12.].
They are exposed, like others, to temporal afflictions
[They have no exemption from troubles, either personal or domestic. Disease, with all its attendant evils, will press on them as well as others; and the loss of dear relatives be felt by them as keenly as by any others. And especially if there be misconduct in their offspring, it will be more acute and pungent in them, in proportion as they feel the value of their own souls, and are concerned for the souls of those connected with them. In addition to the common calamities of life, they have also some as arising from religion itself. For who ever followed the Lord fully without having a cross to bear? We are told, that all who will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. And so we find it in actual experience. From the time of Abel to the present hour, there has not been one who was really born after the Spirit that has not been hated and persecuted by those who have been born only after the flesh [Note: Gal 4:20.].]
To spiritual troubles, also, they are subjected in no slight degree
[At their first turning to the Lord, they are not unfrequently bowed down under such a load of guilt as makes them apprehensive that they shall never find acceptance with their offended God. And, at subsequent periods also, they are often in heaviness, through manifold temptations. Satan, their malignant adversary, harasses them with his assaults; and with his fiery darts inflicts a wound upon their inmost souls [Note: Eph 6:16.]. Sometimes, too, they are made to experience the hidings of Gods face, and to fear that he has utterly withdrawn his loving-kindness from them [Note: Psa 77:2-3; Psa 77:7-9.]. In comparison of this, all other troubles are light: The spirit of a man may sustain any common infirmity; but a wounded spirit who can bear? Even our blessed Lord, who uttered no complaint on account of any other sufferings, cried out by reason of this, My God, my God! why hast thou forsaken me?]
But in my text we see,
II.
To whom we should betake ourselves, under such circumstances
St. James says, Is any afflicted? let him pray. Prayer is the great antidote to affliction of every kind. And here we see in what way we should approach our God. We should draw nigh to him,
1.
In a way of humble expostulation
[Expostulation, if devoid of humility, would be most offensive to God: for God giveth not account of any of his matters: and to call him to our bar, would be presumption in the extreme. Yet God is pleased to allow us to approach him, and even to expostulate with him, provided we come to him with real humility and contrition. Though he dwells in the high and holy place, yet will he regard the cry of the poor destitute; and from the habitation of his holiness and his glory supply his every want. He has a zeal for his peoples good: he has said, that he will plant them in the heavenly land assuredly, with his whole heart and with his whole soul [Note: Jer 32:40-41.]. He feels for them, too, as a tender parent for his child under some great calamity. His whole soul is in a state of commotion on their account [Note: Hos 11:8. Jer 31:20.]. But, if we be under circumstances of distress, without any immediate relief from him, ho will appear to have forsaken and forgotten us. On those occasions, therefore, he permits us to address him in the language of expostulation: Look down from the habitation of thy holiness and of thy glory. Where is thy zeal and thy strength, the sounding of thy bowels, and of thy mercies towards me? Are they restrained? Yes: not only will he approve of such holy importunity, but he will never suffer such prayers to ascend in vain [Note: Psa 42:9-11.].]
2.
In a way of confident affiance
[There are times and seasons when a person, who is on the whole pious, may, by reason of his trials, seem to be abandoned of his God, and scarcely be recognised as having the divine image enstamped upon him. Thus it was with Job, under his heavy and accumulated calamities. But a person should not, therefore, cast away his confidence; but rather hold it the faster, that it may afford him consolation and support under the pressure of his troubles. He may, in addition to his expostulations with God, lay hold upon him under the endearing relation of a Father: Doubtless, thou art our Father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not: thou art our Father, our Redeemer; thy name is from everlasting. A person may have an evidence in his own soul that he has been adopted by God, yea, and been born of him: he may be sure, in his own mind, that he has been redeemed from death and hell, and been brought into the light and liberty of Gods children: and he may look to God as one whose name is from everlasting, and who will approve himself to be the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever. O! what consolation will flow into the soul from this recognition of Gods relation to us in our low estate! I say, Brethren, hold fast this rejoicing of your hope firm unto the end; and you will find, that with this anchor fixed within the veil, you will outride the storm, and be brought in safety to the desired haven.]
Let me, in conclusion, ask,
1.
What know you experimentally of this method of pleading with God?
[The pulse does not so clearly mark the state of our bodies, as our prayers mark the state of our souls. Many, in their whole lives, have never thus expostulated with God; or held fast their relation to him, as their plea for mercy. In fact, the generality of Christians would account this to be the most insufferable presumption. But I call on you, under all trials to which you can over be reduced, to encourage yourselves in the Lord your God; and, like Israel of old, to wrestle with him in prayer, till you have obtained the desired blessing.]
2.
What warrant have you for the confidence which such expostulations imply?
[Before you can say with truth, Doubtless, thou art our Father, and our Redeemer, you must have experienced the regenerating influences of the Holy Spirit; and must have fled to Christ for refuge, as your only hope. Others, indeed, may not have noticed in you this change, so as fully to recognise you under your new character: but you must be deeply conscious of the secret exercises of your soul before God; and must be able to appeal to the heart-searching God, that you have thus sought mercy at his hands. Tell me then, Brethren, whether you can thus appeal to God? And, if your conscience testify against you, that you are yet unregenerate, and without an interest in Christ, let your trials be regarded by you as messengers from the Most High, to call you into a state of reconciliation with him, and to save you from the troubles that shall never end.]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
Reader! do you want a specimen of prayer? Here is a most blessed one; in which both supplication and praise, holy pleadings and waitings, are most beautifully blended. And what an unanswerable argument for being heard, is made use of, in reminding God of his Covenant. Those are the strongest pleas in prayer, when we are enabled to tell the Lord, what the Lord hath first told us; that all blessings are in Jesus, and that whatsoever we ask in his name, believing, we shall receive, Joh 16:23-24 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Isa 63:15 Look down from heaven, and behold from the habitation of thy holiness and of thy glory: where [is] thy zeal and thy strength, the sounding of thy bowels and of thy mercies toward me? are they restrained?
Ver. 15. Look down from heaven. ] Affectus dolentium atque ardenter petentium scite exprimuntur, a pathetic and pithy prayer.
And behold from the habitation of thy holiness, &c.
Where is thy zeal?
The sounding (rumbling or yearning) of thy bowels, &c.] Sometimes God seemeth to lose his mercy, and then we must find it for him, as here; sometimes to sleep or delay, and then we must waken, quicken him. Psa 40:17 Isa 62:7
Are they restrained?
a Hom. 30, in Genes.
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Isa 63:15-19
15Look down from heaven and see from Your holy and glorious habitation;
Where are Your zeal and Your mighty deeds?
The stirrings of Your heart and Your compassion are restrained toward me.
16For You are our Father, though Abraham does not know us
And Israel does not recognize us.
You, O LORD, are our Father,
Our Redeemer from of old is Your name.
17Why, O LORD, do You cause us to stray from Your ways
And harden our heart from fearing You?
Return for the sake of Your servants, the tribes of Your heritage.
18Your holy people possessed Your sanctuary for a little while,
Our adversaries have trodden it down.
19We have become like those over whom You have never ruled,
Like those who were not called by Your name.
Isa 63:15 Look. . .see These are two IMPERATIVES seeking YHWH’s attention.
1. look – Hiphil IMPERATIVE, BDB 613, KB 661, cf. Deu 26:15
2. see – Qal IMPERATIVE, BDB 906, KB 1157, cf. Psa 80:14
Your holy and glorious habitation This is a way of speaking about the temple. For the ancient Israelites, the Ark of the Covenant was a footstool for YHWH, who dwelt in heaven (cf. 1Ch 28:2; Psa 99:5; Psa 132:7; Isa 66:1; Lam 2:1; Mat 5:35; Act 7:49).
A new book by John Walton, The Lost World of Genesis One, asserts that Gen 1:1 to Gen 2:3 is YHWH building His temple.
The stirrings of Your heart and Your compassion are restrained toward me This powerful poetry is personifying Jerusalem pleading for YHWH to again recognize and return to her.
Isa 63:16 You are our Father This is the logical conclusion from Israel being called sons (i.e., Isa 1:2). The phrase is repeated in Isa 64:8.
SPECIAL TOPIC: FATHERHOOD OF GOD
. . .though Abraham does not know us
And Israel does not recognize us
The Patriarchs would not know/recognize these Judeans because of
1. the time between their generations
2. the sin of these descendants
Redeemer See note at Isa 41:14. For the concept of redeem see Special Topic: Ransom/Redeem .
Isa 63:17 The first two lines of this verse show how the concept of the sovereignty of God can be used to diminish personal responsibility. See Special Topics: Election/Predestination and the Need for Theological Balance at Isa 44:18 and Predestination versus Human Free Will below.
SPECIAL TOPIC: ELECTION/PREDESTINATION AND THE NEED FOR A THEOLOGICAL BALANCE (Calvinism) Versus Human Free Will (Arminianism)
return for the sake of Your servants This is a Qal IMPERATIVE (BDB 996, KB 1427) used as a prayer.
Isa 63:18-19 These verses show how the Judeans perceived themselves.
1. they had the temple for only a short time
2. their enemies had taken control of it
3. they had become like just another nation
4. they had become like the nations who were never called by YHWH’s name
habitation . . . Thy, &c. See note on “courts” (Isa 62:9).
strength = mighty deeds.
sounding = yearning. Figure of speech Anthropopatheia. App-6.
Isa 63:15-19
Isa 63:15-16
“Look down from heaven, and behold from the habitation of thy holiness and thy glory: where are thy zeal and thy mighty acts? the yearning of thy heart and thy compassions are restrained toward me. For thou art our Father, though Abraham knoweth us not, and Israel doth not acknowledge us: thou, O Jehovah, art our Father; our Redeemer from everlasting is thy name.”
“Thou art our Father …” (Isa 63:16; Isa 64:8). “The triple repetition of these words give this prayer its special intensity, as Israel’s sense of estrangement struggles with their desire for acceptance.”
Beginning with Isa 63:15, and to the end of the chapter, “We have Israel’s earnest prayer for God to look down from heaven and save them, because he is their `Father.'”
The ground of Israel’s appeal is that God is their `Father’; which, of course, was true enough; but Isaiah’s prophecy had answered the questions they raised about God’s apparent indifference to them in the very first chapter of his great prophecy. “They had rebelled against God (Isa 1:2).”
Isa 63:17-19
“O Jehovah, why dost thou make us to err from thy ways, and hardenest our heart from thy fear? Return for thy servant’s sake, the tribes of thine inheritance. Thy people possessed it but a little while: our adversaries have trodden down thy sanctuary. We are become as they over whom thou never barest rule, as they that were not called by thy name.”
The judicial hardening of Israel announced in Isa 6:9-10, at this time, “had been going on ever since.” And from the appearance of Isa 63:17, it would seem that some of the people, no doubt a few of those faithful souls in the `righteous remnant’ were fully aware of what was happening. “It was as easy for the Israelites to believe that he had hardened their hearts as that he had once hardened the heart of Pharaoh. We believe that only the `righteous remnant’ at that Point in Israel’s history were capable of any such discernment. The near hopeless state of the nation as a whole surely appears in this.
We interpret these last two or three verses as words of the `righteous remnant,’ who indeed did understand the situation in which the secular nation found itself. As Lowth expressed it:
“The Israelites were saying, `Not only have our enemies taken possession of Mount Sion, and trodden down thy sanctuary; even far worse than this has befallen us. Thou hast long since utterly cast us off; and dost not consider us as thy peculiar people.
This, of course, is a true appraisal of the situation that began to be discussed in Isa 1:2; Isa 6:9-10, etc.
Isa 63:15-17 DISOWNED: The Hebrew word shamayim is plural for shamah which means high, heavenward, height. The word is always in the plural form in the O.T. God most often manifested Himself from the direction of the sky in the O.T. and the Hebrew thought of the sky (or beyond) as the place of Jehovahs habitation. Actually, due to the limitations of human language (which is limited by human experience) designating the heavens as Gods habitation is about as accurate as any man can be. The point seems to be that these people feel Jehovah is so utterly transcendent, dwelling in such absolute holiness (separation from this world) He is disowning His creatures. The petition is that He will look down from His high and lofty place and give attention to their predicament. Based upon the historical record of Jehovahs dealings with their ancestors (Genesis, Exodus, et al.) He was eager, zealous and arduous in delivering, guiding and sustaining their nation in centuries past. But suddenly, it appears, Jehovah has deliberately restrained (withdrawn) His zeal for their nation. It is their assumption that Jehovah does not even care about them anymore. How could they get that idea? Jehovah repeatedly told them of His love and care through the prophets. But their accusation that Jehovah was deliberately insensitive to their needs was based upon their carnal concept of what their need was and their carnal ideas as to how God should act toward them. They believed their imperative need was to be delivered from those who would take them into captivity. They believed God should act in supernatural, judgmental power now upon their enemies as He had done in the past.
Man has always had the tendency (ever since the devil taught him in Eden to do so) to blame God, or someone else, for the consequences of his own faults and failures. Judah has been indulging in false religion which induces false ethics which results in social disintegration; she has been playing the dangerous game of international intrigue and politics which results in war and invasion; now she is blaming God for her predicament. Judah suggests that Jehovah has defaulted on His Fatherhood! Acknowledging that He is the only Father capable of saving their necks, the implication is that He is unwilling now to act as their Father. He has disowned them! There is no disavowal of their ancestry to Abraham and Jacob here-the point is the contrast between human fathers and Supernatural Father. An emergency has arisen and now they need their heavenly Father; they did not seek Him before (cf. Isa 8:19-22; Isa 30:9-11; Isa 58:2-5; Isa 59:1-3, etc.). The Hebrew word tateenu is from the Hifeiyl stem which denotes causative manner and is thus translated make us to err in Isa 63:17. Certainly God does not force man to sin. God does not even cause man to sin in the sense that He makes mans choice for him. Of course, man very often accuses God of making him sin, or being the cause of his sin. That is the way of rebellion, dishonesty, lawlessness and devil-mindedness!
Man may be even more subtle (as we have given it in our paraphrase) and blame God for not preventing him from sinning! It is the old cliche, If God is a good God, why does He permit evil to happen? The Lord tried every way possible consistent with the free will of man to keep man from wandering into rebellion and lawlessness. Judah, by the use of the hifeiyl stem, has betrayed her moral dishonesty in trying to blame God for her wandering and hardening of heart against Him. In one sense of the word God must, by the fact of mans freedom to choose, allow man to either choose that which will soften his heart and bring him to walk in Gods way, or, choose that which will harden his heart and lead him to wander away from Gods way. But God will also make the ultimate sacrifices to furnish man with every opportunity to make the right choice; He will send His Spirit in His word through the prophets, leaders and kings; and finally in His Son He will Himself atone and offer a New covenant.
God has not disowned His people. He is about to demonstrate, through the captivity, just how much He owns them. The child who is not chastened has no real father (cf. Heb 12:1-11). So, our Father-child relationship to God depends upon our perspective. These people of Judah could not look upon their impending captivity as the chastening of a loving Father (which is what it was revealed to be by Hosea, Isaiah and others). They looked at it through carnal eyes, not eyes of faith. Looking thus, they charged God with desertion!
Isa 63:18-19 DISPOSSESSED: In these two verses the people are dangerously near impugning the honor of the Lord. They complain that although God gave them the land of Palestine and built them a Temple, they had lived in it only a brief time (from approximately 1400 B.C. to 600 B.C.) and now it was about to be invaded by enemies and they would be dispossessed. So the Lord appears to them unable to maintain His people in His land and keep His Sanctuary standing. The time in which the Lord maintained His people in His land by His sovereign power was so relatively short (800 years), it hardly seems worthy of calling it a rule. The length of time in which the Hebrews were called the people of Jehovah seems so short it is as if they were never His people at all. They are saying, in essence, Lord if Your name is ridiculed because of our being taken from our land, it is your fault. Their attitude is if God does not help them now and on their terms, He cannot blame anyone but Himself. How often all men are tempted to evaluate their circumstances through the dying eyes of carnal mindedness and blame God for them. May it not be so in New Zion!
down: Deu 26:15, Psa 33:14, Psa 80:14, Psa 102:19, Psa 102:20, Lam 3:50
the habitation: Isa 57:15, Isa 66:1, 1Ki 8:27, 2Ch 30:27, Psa 113:5, Psa 113:6, Psa 123:1
where: Isa 51:9, Isa 51:10, Psa 89:49
sounding: or, multitude
thy bowels: Isa 63:9, Isa 49:15, Psa 25:6, *marg. Jer 31:20, Hos 11:8, Luk 1:78, *marg. Phi 2:1, 1Jo 3:17
Are: Psa 77:7-9
Reciprocal: Jdg 6:13 – why then 1Ki 8:33 – pray 2Ki 19:31 – the zeal 1Ch 21:13 – great Neh 9:28 – heardest Psa 14:2 – The Lord Psa 20:6 – his holy heaven Psa 51:1 – multitude Psa 77:9 – God Psa 103:13 – Like Isa 16:11 – my Isa 59:17 – with zeal Isa 63:11 – Where is he that brought Isa 64:1 – that thou wouldest come Jer 48:36 – mine heart Dan 9:18 – incline Joe 2:18 – and pity Mic 7:19 – turn Hab 3:2 – O Lord Zec 1:14 – I am Zec 2:13 – his holy habitation Zec 8:2 – I was jealous Zec 9:17 – how great is his goodness Mar 4:38 – carest Act 4:29 – behold Phi 1:8 – in Col 3:12 – bowels
Isa 63:15-16. Look down from heaven In this excellent and pious prayer of the first-fruits of the converted Jews, in which they entreat God, for his grace and mercy, to behold them with an eye of compassion, they argue both from the goodness of his nature, and from the greatness of the works which he had formerly done for them. God sees everywhere and every thing; but he is said to look down from heaven, because there is his throne, whereon he reigns in majesty. Behold, &c. Not barely see and look on, but behold, with regard and respect, thy poor people. Where is thy zeal? What is become of that love which of old would not let thee suffer thy people to be wronged? And thy strength? That power of thine manifested in those great acts which thou didst perform for thy people?
The sounding of thy bowels This is spoken of God after the manner of men. The meaning is, where are thy tender compassions and mercies which thou formerly showedst toward us? and which thy servants have compared to the affection that a mother bears to her children? Are they restrained? Or, canst thou be thus straitened? An expostulation that agrees well with the next verse. Doubtless thou art our Father Our only hope is in the relation we have to thee, that thou hast vouchsafed to call thyself our Father: we, therefore, as thy children, expect to find in thee the bowels and compassions of a father. Though Abraham be ignorant of us Though he who was our father after the flesh, be dead, and so ignorant of our condition. And Israel acknowledge us not Though Jacob, who also was our father, should disown us because of our degeneracy. Thou, O Lord, art our Father Thou art neither unacquainted with our state, nor wilt disown thy relation to us, but wilt continue to act the part of a father and redeemer to thy people. Thy name is from everlasting Thy gracious and merciful nature and attributes are eternal and unchangeable.
Isa 63:15 to Isa 64:9. A Fervent Prayer to Yahweh to Intervene again for His Children.The appeal rings like a litany, reminding Yahweh, who has withdrawn into His glorious heavenly palace, of His former compassion. To Abraham and Israel appeal has been made in vain (some approach to ancestor-worship seems to have been prevalent), but Yahweh is their father and redeemer. His severity has sent them wandering even further away, and hardened their heart so that they cannot fear Him, i.e. carry out the duties of religion. If only He would come back from His seclusion! Isa 63:18 is corrupt; regrouping of consonants and very slight changes give the excellent sense, Why do the wicked despise thy Holy House, our enemies desecrate thy Sanctuary? The allusion is not to a destruction, but a profanation, of the Temple by the pro-Samaritans, who refused to accept the new standard of religious practice, adhering tenaciously to old usages now regarded as heathenish. The strict party is left, through Yahwehs seclusion, as a shepherdless flock. If Yahweh would but manifest Himself in a glorious theophany (cf. Jdg 5:4 f.), rending the heavens and causing the mountains to shake, even as fire makes brushwood crackle and blaze or water boil over, that He might put the fear of God into His adversaries, and make the peoples tremble while He does terrible thingsthe term used of the marvels of the Exodusbeyond the hopes of His people or the experience of men! (Delete Isa 64:3 b, thou camest . . . presence an accidental repetition from Isa 63:1, and connect For from of old men have not heard with what precedes, changing For to and. On the basis of LXX the rest of Isa 63:4 may possibly be reconstructed, Ear hath not heard and eye hath not seen the deeds and exploits which thou wilt work for those who wait on thee.) Oh! that He would meet, i.e. be gracious to, those who work righteousness and remember His ways (cf. LXX). The remainder of this corrupt verse (cf. mg.) may read, Behold, thou wast wroth and we sinned, wroth at our doings, so that we became guilty.) For we have become like the unclean, our righteous deeds like a polluted garment: we are withered like leaves, and our iniquity (read sing.) has whirled us away like the wind. So that hardly one among us calls on Thy name (cf. Gen 4:26), or is zealous to lay hold on Thee, because Thou hast withdrawn Thy countenance from us and delivered us up to the power of our sins (mg.). We are the clay which Thou hast fashioned; destroy not Thy work by unrelenting anger (cf. Job 10:8-12). Look at us, we entreat Thee, we are Thy people!
63:15 {p} Look down from heaven, and behold from the habitation of thy holiness and of thy glory: where [is] thy {q} zeal and thy strength, the sounding of thy bowels and of thy mercies toward me? are they {r} restrained?
(p) Having declared God’s benefits showed to their forefathers, he turned himself to God by prayer, desiring him to continue the same graces toward them.
(q) Your great affection, which you bore for us.
(r) Meaning, from the whole body of the Church.
The complaint 63:15-19
Isaiah next appealed to God, on behalf of the nation, to have pity on Israel. The prophet was speaking for the faithful remnant after the exile who found little evidence that God was among them, in the way He had been during the Exodus and wilderness wanderings.
"Isaiah is teaching us how to pray. We don’t learn to pray by listening to one another. We learn to pray by reading the Bible." [Note: Ortlund, p. 429.]
Isaiah called on God to condescend to look down from His holy and glorious habitation, heaven, on His miserable chosen people below (cf. 1Ki 8:44-53). The prophet could see no evidence of His zeal and mighty deeds for them. Even His affection and compassion for them were hidden from view (cf. Psa 22:1). The poet knew of God’s commitment to His people (Isa 63:7-14), but he saw no evidence of it.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)