Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 63:9
In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bore them, and carried them all the days of old.
9. In all their affliction he was afflicted ] (lit. “there was affliction to Him”). This is the sense of the Qr, which substitutes l (to him) for the l’ (not) of the Kthb (see on ch. Isa 9:3). It is impossible to obtain a good sense from the consonantal text; and it is accordingly rejected in favour of the Qr by nearly all commentators. There is, however, no equally strong expression of Jehovah’s sympathy with His people in the O.T.; both Jdg 10:16, and Psa 106:44 fall far short of it. The LXX. (joining “in all their affliction” to the previous verse) continues: , ; i.e. Not a messenger or an angel (but) His Presence saved them. The only textual difference here is that (“messenger” or “ambassador”) is read instead of (“affliction”). It is true that is not elsewhere used of an angelic representative of Jehovah; but the metaphor is a natural one, and otherwise the translation has much to recommend it. ( a) The “Presence” (lit. “Face”) of Jehovah is used elsewhere of His self-manifestation. The fundamental passage is Exo 33:14-15: “My presence shall go If thy presence go not, &c.” But comp. also Deu 4:37; Lam 4:16, and see on ch. Isa 59:2. ( b) An “angel of the Presence” on the other hand is a figure elsewhere unknown to the O.T.; the phrase would seem to be “a confusion of two forms of expression, incident to a midway stage of revelation” (Cheyne). ( c) The “Face” of Jehovah, however, is not (as the LXX. inferred) just the same as Jehovah Himself in person. It is rather a name for His highest sensible manifestation, and hardly differs from what is in other places called the Mal’ak Yahveh (Angel of Jehovah). This is shewn by a comparison of Exo 33:14 f., with Exo 23:20-23. The verse therefore means that it was no ordinary angelic messenger, but the supreme embodiment of Jehovah’s presence that accompanied Israel in the early days. The idea has its analogies in Semitic heathenism, as when at Carthage the goddess Tanit was worshipped as the “Face of Baal,” although this has been otherwise explained (Euting, Punische Steine, p. 8).
and he bare them ] Better, took them up, as in ch. Isa 40:15. Cf. Deu 32:11.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
In all their affliction he was afflicted – This is a most beautiful sentiment, meaning that God sympathized with them in all their trials, and that he was ever ready to aid them. This sentiment accords well with the connection; but there has been some doubt whether this is the meaning of the Hebrew. Lowth renders it, as has been already remarked, It was not an envoy, nor an angel of his presence that saved him. Noyes, In all their straits they had no distress. TheSeptuagint renders it, It was not an ambassador ( ou presbus), nor an angel ( oude angelos), but he himself saved them. Instead of the present Hebrew word ( tsar, affliction), they evidently read it, tsiyr, a messenger. The Chaldee renders it, Every time when they sinned against him, so that he might have brought upon them tribulation, he did not afflict them. The Syriac, In all their calamities he did not afflict them. This variety of translation has arisen from an uncertainty or ambiguity in the Hebrew text.
Instead of the present reading ( lo’, not) about an equal number of manuscripts read lo, to him, by the change of a single letter. According to the former reading, the sense would be, in all their affliction, there was no distress, that is, they were so comforted and supported by God, that they did not feel the force of the burden. According to the other mode of reading it, the sense would be, in all their affliction, there was affliction to him; that is, he sympathized with them, and upheld them. Either reading makes good sense, and it is impossible now to ascertain which is correct. Gesenius supposes it to mean, In all their afflictions there would be actually no trouble to them. God sustained them, and the angel of of his presence supported and delivered them. For a fuller view of the passage, see Rosenmuller. In the uncertainty and doubt in regard to the true reading of the Hebrew, the proper way is not to attempt to change the translation in our common version. It expresses an exceedingly interesting truth, and one that is suited to comfort the people of God; – that he is never unmindful of their sufferings; that he feels deeply when they are afflicted; and that he hastens to their relief. It is an idea which occurs everywhere in the Bible, that God is not a cold, distant, abstract being; but that he takes the deepest interest in human affairs, and especially that he has a tender solicitude in all the trials of his people.
And the angel of his presence saved them – This angel, called the angel of the presence of God, is frequently mentioned as having conducted the children of Israel through the wilderness, and as having interposed to save them Exo 23:20, Exo 23:31; Exo 32:34; Exo 33:2; Num 20:16. The phrase, the angel of his presence, (Hebrew, male‘ak panayv, angel of his face, or countenance), means an angel that stands in his presence, and that enjoys his favor, as a man does who stands before a prince, or who is admitted constantly to his presence (compare Pro 22:29). Evidently there is reference here to an angel of superior order or rank, but to whom has been a matter of doubt with interpreters. Jarchi supposes that it was Michael, mentioned in Dan 10:13-21. The Chaldee renders it, The angel sent ( shelyach) from his presence. Most Christian interpreters have supposed that the reference is to the Messiah, as the manifested guide and defender of the children of Israel during their long journey in the desert. This is not the place to go into a theological examination of that question. The sense of the Hebrew here is, that it was a messenger sent from the immediate presence of God, and therefore of elevated rank. The opinion that it was the Son of God is one that can be sustained by arguments that are not easily refuted. On the subject of angels, according to the Scripture doctrine, the reader may consult with advantage an article by Dr. Lewis Mayer, in the Bib. Rep., Oct. 1388.
He redeemed them – (See the notes at Isa 43:1).
And he bare them – As a shepherd carries the lambs of the flock, or as a nurse carries her children; or still more probably, as an eagle bears her young on her wings Deu 32:11-12. The idea is, that he conducted them through all their trials in the wilderness, and led them in safety to the promised land (compare the notes at Isa 40:11).
All the days of old – In all their former history. He has been with them and protected them in all their trials.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Isa 63:9
In all their affliction He was afflicted
God not impassive
Just as a man may feel pain, whilst in his own person he is raised above it, so God feels pain without His blessedness suffering hurt; and so He felt His peoples suffering; it did not remain unreflected in His own life; it moved Him inwardly.
(F. Delitzsch, D. D.)
The Angel of His presence
1. The Presence (lit. Face) of Jehovah is used elsewhere of His self-manifestation. The fundamental passage is Exo 33:14-15. But compare also Deu 4:37; Lam 4:16.
2. An angel of the Presence, on the other hand, is a figure elsewhere unknown to the Old Testament: the phrase would seem to be a confusion of two forms of expression, incident to a midway stage of revelation (Cheyne).
3. The Face of Jehovah, however, is not (as the LXX inferred) just the same as Jehovah Himself in person. It is rather a name for His highest sensible manifestation, and hardly differs from what is in other places called the Malak Yahveh (Angel of Jehovah). This is shown by the comparison Exo 33:14 f with Exo 23:20-23. The verse, therefore, means that it was no ordinary angelic messenger, but the supreme embodiment of Jehovahs presence that accompanied Israel in the early days. (Prof. J. Skinner, D. D.)
The Angel in whom Jehovah was seen; who was Jehovah Himself in manifestation. (A. B. Davidson, D. D.)
Not some one of the ministering spirits, nor some one of the angel-princes standing in Gods immediate presence (archangels), but the one whom God makes the medium of His presence in the world for affecting the revelation of Himself in sacred history. (F. Delitzsch, D. D.)
The Angel of His presence
The great majority of men dread affliction more than they dread sin. And yet the two things are related–sometimes as cause and effect and sometimes by more distant connections.
I. AFFLICTIONS MAY BE DIVIDED INTO THREE CLASSES–the physical, the mental, and the emotional. Not that we can ever totally separate these three, but for purposes of consideration it may be practicable to do so.
1. It is very hard to resist a plea from physical disability. It is well that it should be so, for callous indifference to the causes of sorrow and pain found in the lives of others is surely a most unpromising state. Anything which will draw us out of ourselves, and keep us from being self-contained, must surely be, in some sort, a servant of God. Our Lord recognized the physical afflictions of men and entered sympathetically into them.
2. But physical afflictions, though more impressive, are oftentimes more endurable than mental afflictions. Indeed, when we come to the last analysis of the case, we find that the mental region is the region where pain reports itself. If we could totally separate the physical and mental, and keep the mind clear and calm while the body suffered its pains and penalties, affliction would be a very different matter from what it now is. Only that then physical affliction would lose its meaning and purpose, for everything physical is for the sake of the mental. But there are mental sufferings which do not report themselves in physical manifestations. The mind is often so tried with doubt and debate–so cast down by its own inability and decrepitude–that it is in a constant state of unrest, and no report thereof is made in the physical frame–no report anyway of such a nature that all can read it.
3. But back of the intellectual department of the mind is that other profounder realm covered by the word emotional. This emotional region is the strangest and strongest of all. It is the realm of love, of joy, of peace–or of hatred, joylessness, discord. Without our emotions we should be not men and women, but stones, or at best animals. Our emotions gather around persons, places, objects, and these become to us of such transcendent worth that all the world seems poor in comparison with them.
II. When we think of these things, HOW WONDROUS, HOW TERRIBLE DOES THIS NATURE OF OURS SEEM! We become afraid of ourselves. To be owners of ourselves seems too great a responsibility. Does it not seem to us that the Creator, in giving us this nature, has taken upon Himself a responsibility so great and so fearful that none but Himself could bear it? We ask ourselves, in amazement, what must His own nature be?
III. Is not this the revelation made by the prophet, that WE ARE NOT ALONE IN OUR AFFLICTIONS.
IV.
As it was with the Israelites, so is it with all the Spiritual Israel; for they and we are not unlike.
In all their affliction He was afflicted.
He! Who? The Deliverer.
The One who identified Himself with them.
And His nature has not changed.
We assume that Deity cannot suffer, but we do not know it.
We suppose that Deity means perfection–impassive perfection. But is impassivity perfection? May there not be suffering which has in it more of perfection than imperfection, suffering which does not arise from sin, or from weakness, or from anything outside perfection
V. Anyway, Jesus Christ has come between us and naked, unknowable Deity; He has united in some way the human and the Divine. And He is, in some mysterious manner, identified with us; and in all our afflictions He is afflicted, and inside all the affliction is the Angel of His presence to save us. I cant tell you what this Angel of the presence means. But cherish faith in these unseen forces and powers–ay, in unseen personal ministries. (R. Thomas, D. D.)
The spheres of compassion
I. GODS COMPASSION IN THE SPHERE OF HUMAN SORROW. We must not make too much of human sorrow. There is much else in the life of man. There is the joy of youth and the sober delights of age. Does any man really think that God looks down on all this welter and does not care–and, because He does not care, does not prevent it? God would not prevent it if He could, and He could not if He would. A world such as ours, and without suffering, is not possible to God. It is His sovereign will which has made every law under which we suffer, and His holiness which enforces every penalty. This compassion in the sphere of sorrow has been from the days of old long before men had eyes to see it. But it reaches its highest manifestation in the life of Jesus our Lord. Gods compassion is still working in the sphere of human sorrow, in the heart of the ascended Christ. Even now in all your affliction He is afflicted, and the angel of His presence is saving you, not from suffering, but from fall and shame.
II. GODS COMPASSION IN THE SPHERE OF SIN. The compassion of God has a greater work to do than to transform suffering, by grace, into nobility and strength. It has to go down into the depths of sin. Though the sin of the world lies behind all our suffering, there is much sorrow that is wholly pure. But when we come to sin, to the bondage of evil habit, the riot of wicked passion, to the indulgence of sloth and vanity and pride, ending in defiance of the Almighty and rebellion against His law, then compassion might well be exhausted. And then, indeed, holiness cannot but condemn, and sovereignty cannot but execute the decree; but compassion finds a way even in the sphere of,, sin, and so the prophet continues, m His love and in His pity He redeemed them. But the compassion needs no words to make itself known. In the thorns on His brow, in the nails in His hands, in the prayer for human forgiveness, compassion proclaims its victory. This cross of Christ, just because it is so unlike man and is so like God, is the greatest mystery in the world. Whatever be your sin, whatever be your shame, whatever may have been your past lack of faith, come to-day again to the Cross, to find that sovereignty, holiness, and compassion have redeemed you.
III. GODS COMPASSION IN THE SPHERE OF HUMAN WEAKNESS. Our human needs are not all supplied when our sufferings are borne with us, and our sins are pardoned. Though we cross our Red Sea, we have still the years of pilgrimage: though we lose our burdens at the Cross, we have still our cross to carry. Though we surrender ourselves to Christ, we have our warfare to accomplish. And who is there among us who knows the frailty of his past, the slips and falls of poor human nature, who does not feel the inspiration of the Word when it completes the revelation: He bare them and He carried them all the days of old. There is no one so helpless as a disciple of Christ. Before we came to Christ, we could gird ourselves, and walk whither we would. Now we cannot take a step alone. Only by continually casting ourselves upon Him in our prayers, being led, guided, instructed, strengthened by HIS Spirit; only by clinging to Him in faith does our safety lie. (W. M. Clow, B. D.)
Christ with His people in trouble
We remember an old tale of our boyhood, how poor Robinson Crusoe, wrecked on a foreign strand, rejoiced when he saw the print of a mans foot. So is it with the Christian in his trouble; he shall not despair in a desolate land, because there is the foot-print of Christ Jesus on all our temptations and troubles. Go on rejoicing, Christian; thou art in an inhabited country; thy Jesus is with thee in all thy afflictions and in all thy woes. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
In His love and in His pity He redeemed them
Discipline by chastisement
In His love and His pity He redeemed them, says Isaiah. These sharp and tragic punishments where with God visited His people were part of His redemptive work. God punished in order to redeem. He used the sword in order to deliver His people from the curse and doom of sin. It was love and pity that prompted even His terrible judgments. God still sometimes inflicts upon His people great and sore troubles, so that we are tempted to think He has forgotten to be gracious. But in reality it is love that sends the trouble; it is pity that prompts the punishment. Gods wrath, somebody has said, is but His love on fire. A God who never punished sin would not be a loving God. (J. D. Jones, B. D.)
Divine discipline
There can be no government, there can be no Church, save there be discipline. In the natural world we find this law. In the animal kingdom there is ruling and serving. In the vegetable kingdom superior vitality makes the weaker plants give room. Among men we witness this not alone where brute force is displayed and secures mastery. We see it in the intellectual and moral world. Each man has his sphere, his proper position. He must be held in that position, else there is chaos and utter waste–worse than utter waste, of all his power. The work of discipline is to restore and hold man to his proper sphere. We now behold man as fallen. See him in his pristine glory. See him as he falls. Even in his prostration he is not wholly without compensation, for he has gained a knowledge of good and evil. But now the tendency in man, which before was toward God, is downward. We see in fallen man attempts to recover himself a recognition of the necessity of Divine help. In Scripture, more especially, do we find it set forth that God is the Source of that help which can restore man. Here is sovereignty manifested in mercy. Observe the characteristics of this discipline.
I. IT IS JUST.
II. IT IS EQUITABLE (Psa 85:10).
III. IT IS REMEDIAL–designed, like a righteous, law, for good, not for punishment. -It is paternal, for it brings the wanderer home.
IV. IT IS SPECIAL. It is adapted to each case.
V. IT IS EXHAUSTIVE OF DIVINE HELP. You cannot think of any one thing which God has neglected to do that man might be saved.
VI. IT EXHAUSTS THE GREATEST EFFORTS OF THE HUMAN SOUL. Take away the beneficial effect of this Divine discipline, and the human soul sinks in anarchy and woe for evermore. Rightly improved, it lifts man to more than his pristine glory. (N. H. Schenck, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 9. See Clarke on Isa 63:8.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
In all their affliction he was afflicted; because of all the afflictions they endured in Egypt: this notes the sympathy that is in Christ, he having the same Spirit in him that the church hath, and her Head and Father. Or, In all their afflictions no affliction; so the words may be read; their afflictions were rather favors than afflictions; all that befell them from the Red Sea through the wilderness; and then tzar is taken actively, he afflicted not: this may note his clemency, their sting was taken out; either way it may be read according to the different spelling of lo, whether by aleph or vau. The first seems the more genuine; they that list to drive this notion further may consult the Latin Synopsis, and the English Annotations. The angel of his presence; the same that conducted them through the wilderness, called an angel, Exo 33:2, and his presence, Isa 63:14, and Jehovah, Exo 13:21; so that it must be the Lord Jesus Christ, who appeared to Moses in the bush, as Stephen doth interpret it, Act 7:35, &c. Other angels are in his presence, but they were not always; he was ever so, therefore so called by way of eminency; hence the LXX. express it not a legate, or angel, but himself. Saved them from the house of bondage; brought them through the Red Sea, the wilderness, &c. Their Rock was Christ, 1Co 10:4.
In his love and in his pity: this shows the ground of his kindness; they were a stubborn, superstitious, idolatrous people, yet Christs love and pity saved them for all that; it was because he loved them.
He bare them, and carried them; he left them not to shift for themselves, but bare them as a father his child, or an eagle her young ones; he carried them in the arms of his power; see Isa 46:4; and on the wings of his providence: see Deu 32:10-12; and See Poole “Deu 1:31“. And he is said to do it
of old, to remember his ancient kindness for many generations past; elam signifies an eternity, or a long time past, as well as to come; from the clays of Abraham or Moses, from their bondage in Egypt, to the time of Isaiah; and it is used as an argument to move him to do so still; he will carry her till he bring her unto his Father.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
9. he was afflictedEnglishVersion reads the Hebrew as the Keri (Margin),does, “There was affliction to Him.” But the Chetib(text) reads, “There was no affliction” (the changein Hebrew being only of one letter); that is, “In alltheir affliction there was no (utterly overwhelming) affliction”[GESENIUS]; or, for”Hardly had an affliction befallen them, when theangel of His presence saved them” [MAURER];or, as best suits the parallelism, “In all their straits therewas no straitness in His goodness to them” [HOUBIGANT],(Jdg 10:16; Mic 2:7;2Co 6:12).
angel of hispresenceliterally, “of His face,” that is, whostands before Him continually; Messiah (Exo 14:19;Exo 23:20; Exo 23:21;Pro 8:30), language applicable tono creature (Exo 32:34;Exo 33:2; Exo 33:14;Num 20:16; Mal 3:1).
bare them (Isa 46:3;Isa 46:4; Isa 40:11;Exo 19:4; Deu 32:11;Deu 32:12).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
In all their affliction he was afflicted,…. That is, God, who said the above words; not properly speaking; for to be afflicted is not consistent with his nature and perfections, being a spirit, and impassible; nor with his infinite and complete happiness; but this is said after the manner of men, and is expressive of the sympathy of God with his afflicted people, and his tender care of them, and concern for them under affliction, as one friend may have for another: afflictions belong to the people of God; they come to them, not by chance, but according to the will of God; and are not in wrath, but in love; they are many and various; there is an “all” of them, yet not one too many, and in everyone of them God is afflicted, or sympathizes with them: as he looked upon the affliction of the people of Israel, in Egypt, at the Red sea, and in the wilderness, and had compassion upon them, and saved them, so he visits all his people when afflicted, and pities them, and speaks comfortably to them; knows and owns their souls in adversity; makes known himself to them; grants them his gracious presence; puts underneath them his everlasting arms; makes their bed in their affliction, and supplies their wants; and this sympathy arises from their union to him, from his relation to them as a Father, and from his great love to them. There is a double reading of these words; the marginal reading is, “in all their affliction there is affliction to him” t; or, “he was afflicted”; which our version follows: the textual reading is, “there is no affliction”; or, “he was not afflicted” u; he seemed to take no notice of their affliction, or be concerned at it, that he might the sooner bring them to a sense of themselves and their sins, Ho 5:15. The Targum follows this reading, and renders it actively, “and he afflicted them not” w: they were indeed in affliction, but they, and not he, brought it upon them, and by their sins. Some render it, “he was no enemy” x; though he afflicted them, yet not in wrath, but love; or, “in all their straits there was no strait” y; the Israelites were in straits when Pharaoh’s army pursued them behind, the rocks were on both sides them, and the sea before them, and yet there was no strait as it were, they were so soon delivered out of it; and so it may be read, “in all their afflictions there was no affliction”; there is so much love in the afflictions of God’s people, and they work so much for their good, and they are so soon delivered out of them, that they scarce deserve the name of afflictions; and so both readings may be taken in, “in all their afflictions there was no affliction to him”; or to them, to Israel, to the people of God:
and the Angel of his presence saved them; not Michael, as Jarchi; but the Messiah is here meant; the Angel of the covenant, the Angel which went before the Israelites in the wilderness, Ex 23:20 not a created angel, or an angel by nature, but by office; being sent of God, as the word signifies, on the errand and business of salvation; called “the Angel of God’s presence”, or “face”, because his face was seen in him; his name, and nature, and perfections were in him; he is the brightness of his Father’s glory, and the express image of his person besides, the presence of God was always with him; he is the “Ithiel”, the Word that was with God, and with whom God always was; who lay in the bosom of his Father, and was ever with him; and who also, as Mediator, introduces his people into the presence of God, and always appears in it for them as their advocate and intercessor: now to him salvation is ascribed; he saved Israel out of Egypt, and out of the hands of all their enemies in the wilderness; and which salvation was typical of the spiritual, eternal, and complete salvation, which is only by Christ, and issues in eternal glory:
in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; Israel out of Egyptian bondage, and from all their enemies, which was owing to his great love to them, which operated in a way of mercy, pity, and compassion,
Ho 11:1, and it is he who has redeemed the spiritual Israel of God, not by power only, but by price, from sin, Satan, and the law, death, and hell, with a spiritual and eternal redemption, and which flows from his love to those persons; hence he undertook to be their Redeemer; came in their nature to redeem them; and gave himself for them for that purpose; which love is wonderful and matchless, and showed itself in pity and compassion; he became a merciful as well as a faithful high priest; he saw them in their low estate, pitied them, and delivered them out of it:
and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old; he bore them in his bosom, and in his arms, as a nursing father his child; he carried them, as on eagles’ wings, from the time of their coming out of Egypt, to their settlement in Canaan’s land, Nu 11:12 he bore with their manners for forty years, and carried them through all their trials and difficulties, and supported them under them, and brought them out of them all, Ac 13:18 and so he bears all his people on his heart, and in his hands, and bears them up under all their temptations and afflictions; and, from the time of their conversion, carries on his work in them, and carries them safe to heaven, as the great Captain of their salvation, and never leaves them, nor forsakes them; see
Isa 46:3.
t “angustia ipsi fuit”, Calvin, Grotius; “ipse fuit contribulatus”, Munster; “ipsi fuit angustum”, Vitringa. u “non angustia, Montanus; non afflictus est”, Tigurine version. w “Non affecit [eos] angustia”, Junius Tremellius, Piscator “non coarctavit eos, sub. Deus, vel angustia”, Forerius, x “Non fuit hostis”, Gataker; so Gussetius, Ebr. Comment. p. 423. y “In omni angustia eorum non augustia”, Montanus.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The next v. commemorates the way in which He proved Himself a Saviour in heart and action. “In all their affliction He was afflicted, and the Angel of His face brought them salvation. In His love and in His pity He redeemed them, and lifted them up, and bare them all the days of the olden time.” This is one of the fifteen passages in which the chethib has , the keri . It is only with difficulty that we can obtain any meaning from the chethib: “in all the affliction which He brought upon them He did not afflict, viz., according to their desert” (Targ., Jer., Rashi ); or better still, as tsar must in this case be derived from tsur , and tsar is only met with in an intransitive sense, “In all their distress there was no distress” ( Saad. ), with which J. D. Michaelis compares 2Co 4:8, “troubled on every side, yet not distressed.” The oxymoron is perceptible enough, but the ( ), which is indispensable to this expression, is wanting. Even with the explanation, “In all their affliction He was not an enemy, viz., Jehovah, to them” (Dderlein), or “No man persecuted them without the angel immediately,” etc. (Cocceius and Rosenmller), we miss or . There are other still more twisted and jejune attempts to explain the passage with , which are not worth the space they occupy. Even in the older translators did not know how to deal with the in the text. The Sept. takes tsar as equivalent to tsr , a messenger, and renders the passage according to its own peculiar interpunctuation: (neither a messenger nor an angel, but His face, i.e., He Himself helped them: Exo 33:14-15; 2Sa 17:11). Everything forces to the conclusion that the keri is to be preferred. The Masora actually does reckon this as one of the fifteen passages in which is to be read for .
(Note: There are fifteen passages in which the keri substitutes for . See Masora m agna on Lev 11:21 ( Psalter, ii. 60). If we add Isa 49:5; 1Ch 11:20; 1Sa 2:16, there are eighteen ( Comm. on Job, at Job 13:15). But the first two of these are not reckoned, because they are doubtful; and in the third, instead of being substituted for , is substituted for (Ges. Thes. 735, b). 2Sa 19:7 also is not a case in point, for there the keri is for .)
Jerome was also acquainted with this explanation. He says: “Where we have rendered it, ‘In all their affliction He was not afflicted,’ which is expressed in Hebrew by lo, the adverb of negation, we might read ipse; so that the sense would be, ‘In all their affliction He, i.e., God, was afflicted.’ “ If we take the sentence in this way, “In all oppression there was oppression to Him,” it yields a forcible thought in perfect accordance with the Scripture (compare e.g., Jdg 10:16), an expression in harmony with the usage of the language (compare tsar – l , 2Sa 1:26), and a construction suited to the contents ( = ipsi ). There is nothing to surprise us in the fact that God should be said to feel the sufferings of His people as His own sufferings; for the question whether God can feel pain is answered by the Scriptures in the affirmative. He can as surely as everything originates in Him, with the exception of sin, which is a free act and only originates in Him so far as the possibility is concerned, but not in its actuality. Just as a man can feel pain, and yet in his personality keep himself superior to it, so God feels pain without His own happiness being thereby destroyed. And so did He suffer with His people; their affliction was reflected in His own life in Himself, and shared Him inwardly. But because He, the all-knowing, all-feeling One, is also the almighty will, He sent the angel of His face, and brought them salvation. “The angel of His face,” says Knobel, “is the pillar of cloud and fire, in which Jehovah was present with His people in the march through the desert, with His protection, instruction, and guidance, the helpful presence of God in the pillar of cloud and fire.” But where do we ever read of this, that it brought Israel salvation in the pressure of great dangers? Only on one occasion (Exo 14:19-20) does it cover the Israelites from their pursuers; but in that very instance a distinction is expressly made between the angel of God and the pillar of cloud.
Consequently the cloud and the angel were two distinct media of the manifestation of the presence of God. They differed in two respects. The cloud was a material medium – the evil, the sign, and the site of the revealed presence of God. The angel, on the other hand, was a personal medium, a ministering spirit ( ), in which the name of Jehovah was indwelling for the purpose of His own self-attestation in connection with the historical preparation for the coming of salvation (Exo 23:21). He was the mediator of the preparatory work of God in both word and deed under the Old Testament, and the manifestation of that redeeming might and grace which realized in Israel the covenant promises given to Abraham (Gen 15). A second distinction consisted in the fact that the cloud was a mode of divine manifestation which was always visible; whereas, although the angel of God did sometimes appear in human shape both in the time of the patriarchs and also in that of Joshua (Jos 5:13.), it never appeared in such a form during the history of the exodus, and therefore is only to be regarded as a mode of divine revelation which was chiefly discernible in its effects, and belonged to the sphere of invisibility: so that in any case, if we search in the history of the people that was brought out of Egypt for the fulfilment of such promises as Exo 23:20-23, we are forced to the conclusion that the cloud was the medium of the settled presence of God in His angel in the midst of Israel, although it is never so expressed in the thorah. This mediatorial angel is called “the angel of His face,” as being the representative of God, for “the face of God” is His self-revealing presence (even though only revealed to the mental eye); and consequently the presence of God, which led Israel to Canaan, is called directly “His face” in Deu 4:37, apart from the angelic mediation to be understood; and “my face” in Exo 33:14-15, by the side of “my angel” in Exo 32:34, and the angel in Exo 33:2, appears as something incomparably higher than the presence of God through the mediation of that one angel, whose personality is completely hidden by his mediatorial instrumentality. The genitive , therefore, is not to be taken objectively in the sense of “the angel who sees His face,” but as explanatory, “the angel who is His face, or in whom His face is manifested.” The which follows does not point back to the angel, but to Jehovah, who reveals Himself thus. But although the angel is regarded as a distinct being from Jehovah, it is also regarded as one that is completely hidden before Him, whose name is in him. He redeemed them by virtue of His love and of His c hemlah , i.e., of His forgiving gentleness (Arabic, with the letters transposed, chilm ; compare, however, c hamul , gentle-hearted), and lifted them up, and carried them ( the consequence of , which is similar in sense, and more Aramaean; cf., tollere root tal , and ferre root bhar , perf. tuli ) all the days of the olden time.
The prayer passes now quite into the tone of Ps 78 and 106, and begins to describe how, in spite of Jehovah’s grace, Israel fell again and again away from Jehovah, and yet was always rescued again by virtue of His grace. For it is impossible that it should leap at once in to the people who caused the captivity, and have for its subject the penitential church of the exiles which was longing for redemption (Ewald). The train of thought is rather this: From the proofs of grace which the Israel of the olden time had experienced, the prophet passes to that disobedience to Jehovah into which it fell, to that punishment of Jehovah which it thereby brought upon itself, and to that longing for the renewal of the old Mosaic period of redemption, which seized it in the midst of its state of punishment. But instead of saying that Jehovah did not leave this longing unsatisfied, and responded to the penitence of Israel with ever fresh help, the prophet passes at once from the desire of the old Israel for redemption, to the prayer of the existing Israel for redemption, suppressing the intermediate thought, that Israel was even now in such a state of punishment and longing.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
9. In all their affliction he was afflicted. He enlarges on the goodness of God toward his people, and shews that he was kind to the fathers, so long as they permitted themselves to be governed by him, and was so careful about them that he himself bore their distresses and afflictions. By speaking in this mainner, he declares the incomparable love which God bears toward his people. In order to move us more powerfully and draw us to himself, the Lord accommodates himself to the manner of men, by attributing to himself all the affection, love, and ( συμπαθεία) compassion which a father can have. And yet in human affairs it is impossible to conceive of any sort of kindness or benevolence which he does not immeasurably surpass.
I acknowledge that לא ( lo) with א ( aleph) literally signifies not; and therefore I do not altogether reject a different interpretation, that the people in their afflictions were not afflicted, because God always applied some remedy to alleviate their sorrows. But since א, ( aleph,)in many passages, is manifestly changed into ו, ( vau,) learned commentators justly, in my opinion, view it as equivalent to the pronoun לו, ( lo,) to him. In this sense the Prophet testifies that God, in order to alleviate the distresses and afflictions of his people, himself bore their burdens; not that he can in any way endure anguish, but, by a very customary figure of speech, he assumes and applies to himself human passions. (176)
And the angel of his face saved them. Of the care which he took of them he next explains the effect, by saying that he always delivered them by the hand of his angel, whom he calls “the angel of his face,” because he was the witness of the presence of God, and, as it were, his herald to execute his commands; that we may not think that angels come forth of their own accord, or move at their own suggestion, to render assistance to us; for the Lord makes use of their agency, and makes known to us his presence by means of them. Angels can do nothing of themselves, and give no assistance, except so far as the Lord commissions them
“
to be ministers of our salvation.” (Heb 1:14.)
Let us not, therefore, fix our whole attention on them, for they lead us straight to God.
If it be thought preferable to interpret this phrase as describing the lively image of God, because that angel, being the leader and guardian of the people, shewed the face of God as in a mirror, that meaning will be highly appropriate. And indeed I have no doubt that the office of Savior is ascribed to Christ, as we know that he was the angel of highest rank, by whose guidance, safeguard, and protection, the Church has been preserved and upheld.
In his love. He shews what was the cause of so great benefits; namely, his love and undeserved kindness, as Moses also teaches. “How came it that God adopted thy fathers, but because he loved them, and because his heart clave to them?” (Deu 4:37.) Moses wishes to set aside entirely the lofty opinion which they might entertain of themselves, because they were proud and haughty, and claimed more for themselves than they had a right to claim; and therefore he shews that there was no other cause for so great benefits than the absolute and undeserved goodness of God.
He bore them and carried them. He next makes use of the same metaphor which Moses employs in his song, when he says that God
“
carried his people in the same manner as an eagle bears her young on her wings.” (Deu 32:11.)
Or perhaps some may choose to refer it to sheep, as we have seen elsewhere, “He will lead those that are with young.” (Isa 40:11.) Yet it is more natural to view this as a comparison to a mother, who not only carries the child in the womb, but rears it till it arrive at full strength. The meaning may be thus summed up. “The people experienced the grace of God, not only once, when they were redeemed, but during the whole course of their life, so that to him alone ought to be ascribed all the benefits which they have received.” And therefore he adds —
All the days of the age; that is, in an uninterrupted succession of many years; for God is not wearied in doing good, nor is it only to a single age that he shews his kindness; for he has never ceased to adorn and enrich his Church with various gifts.
(176) “In all their distress there was distress to him, or, as the English Version renders it, ‘In all their affliction he was afflicted.’ This explanation, with the text on which it is founded, and which is exhibited by a number of manuscripts and editions, is approved by Luther, Vitringa, Clericus, Hitzig, Ewald, Umbreit, Hendewerk, and Knobel. It is favored, not only by the strong and affecting sense which it yields but by the analogy of Jud 10:16, in one of which places the same phrase is used to denote human suffering, and in the other God is represented as sympathizing with it. The objections to it are, that it gratuitously renders necessary another anthropopathic explanation; that the natural collocation of the words, if this were the meaning, would be צר לו, (tzar lo) as in 2Sa 1:26; that the negative is expressed by all the ancient versions; and that the critical presumption: is in favor of the Kethib, or textual reading, as the more ancient, which the Massorites merely corrected in the margin, without venturing to change it, and which ought not to be now abandoned, if a coherent sense can be put on it, as it can in this case.” — Alexander.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
THE SYMPATHY OF CHRIST
Isa. 63:9. In all their affliction He was afflicted, &c.
There is no man so great as not to need at some season or other the sympathy of his friend, &c. If human sympathy be so valuable how much more Divine, &c. Christ once suffered for us, He always suffers with us, &c. We have here
I. HUMAN CALAMITY SUPPOSED. The text supposes that affliction may be great,sorrow upon sorrow, that we are unable to endure the pressure of grief alone, and that adequate occasions for Gods special interference may frequently occur. This was the case with the Church in captivity, &c. Human calamity is the same thing still, &c. There is an awful reality in grief, which, like an overwhelming burden, crushes the spirit and overpowers the resources, &c. Or the human mind may be burdened with the sense of guilt, personal afflictions, bereavements, &c. Who can hush the grief and afford adequate relief under all the sorrows and calamities of life. There is but One in the universe can do it, and to Him the text points.
II. DIVINE COMPASSION EXPRESSED.
1. His compassion is most real and perfect. He is afflicted with the afflictions of His people. His sympathy is no imaginary consolation. He ascended in the nature in which He suffered. He knows by experience the nature of human trial, and can meet the exigency alike of real and groundless alarm, &c.
2. His aid is exerted in the most seasonable time. In His interpositions there is never any unnecessary or fatal delay.
3. There is an ineffable kindness in His dispensations which cannot be mistaken.
4. Constant and unchangeable.
CONCLUSION.
1. Ascertain your title to His peculiar sympathy.
2. Carry your griefs to Him. He is engaged to relieve all the trouble, and forgive all the guilt that is brought to Him.
3. Acknowledge your past obligations.
4. Be a saviour to others (2Co. 1:3).Samuel Thodey.
I. Divine sympathy. II. Interposition. III. Love. IV. Care.Dr. Lyth.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
(9) In all their affliction . . .Literally, there was affliction to Him. So taken, the words speak of a compassion like that of Jdg. 10:16. The Hebrew text gives, In all their affliction there was no affliction: i.e., it was as nothing compared with the salvation which came from Jehovah. The Authorised Version follows the Kri, or marginal reading of the Hebrew. It may be inferred, from the strange rendering of both clauses in the LXX. (neither a messenger, nor an angel, but He himself saved them ), that the variation in the text existed at an early date, and was a source of perplexity, and therefore of conjectural emendation.
The angel of his presence . . .Literally, the angel of His face. As in Exo. 23:20-23; Exo. 32:34; Exo. 33:2, so here, Jehovah is thought of as working out His purpose of deliverance for Israel through the mediation of an angel, who is thus described either as revealing the highest attributes of God, of which the face is the anthropomorphic symbol, or as standing ever in the immediate presence of the King of kings, ready for any mission.
He bare them . . .The same image of fatherly care meets us in Isa. 46:3, Exo. 19:4, Deu. 1:31; Deu. 32:11.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
9. In all their affliction he was afflicted Was a sharer in “their affliction,” and consequently not the inflicter, or, he was not one who afflicted. The original well bears either meaning. The difference arises by , not, in the Hebrew text, and , for him, in the margin. Original copies vary on these two forms. To general readers the difference is not essential, and scarcely important.
Angel of his presence (See Exo 23:20-21; Num 20:16.) This means the “angel” standing in his presence. In Old Testament theophanies, the Servant, or Messenger in other words, the Messiah, often appeared in bodily form to his people or their representatives. The remaining words tenderly express the divine interferences for God’s ancient saints.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘In all their affliction he was afflicted,
And the angel of his presence (face) saved them,
In his love and in his pity he redeemed them,
And he bore them and carried them all the days of old.
But they rebelled and grieved his holy spirit,
Therefore he was turned to be their enemy,
Himself fought against them.
The way in which He had saved them in the past is described in summary. He had shared sympathetically in their afflictions, feeling them deeply Himself. This was especially so in Egypt (Exo 3:7). He had acted for them through ‘the angel of His face’, as One personally present and seeing what was happening (Exo 3:7; Exo 3:9). In His love and pity He had delivered them by His power, and He had borne them and carried them all through their early years in the wilderness, and then in Canaan.
But instead of responding in gratitude they had rebelled against Him, they had grieved His holy Spirit, and this to such an extent that He had become their enemy and fought against them, allowing enemies to triumph against them (Num 14:43-45; Jdg 3:8; Jdg 3:12; Jdg 4:2 and often). Yet unlike in the final case of Edom, the enmity was only for a time, and then He had had mercy on them, for He had remembered Moses and He had remembered that He had chosen them as His people.
We note in these verses reference to the ‘angel of His presence (face)’ and the holy Spirit. To Isaiah both represented the essential of nature of Yahweh. The ‘angel of His face’ probably refers to the outward manifestations of His personal presence among them, the burning flame in the bush, the pillar of cloud and fire, the glory on the Tabernacle, the powerful effect of the Ark on the Jordan, the Captain of Yahweh’s host (Jos 5:14), the Angel of Yahweh (Jdg 2:1-4; Jdg 6:11-21; Jdg 13:9-21), and so on. And yet within descriptions of the Angel of Yahweh are hints at distinctiveness within the Godhead. There is a sameness and yet a distinctiveness (compare Zec 1:12).
‘The holy Spirit’ refers to the Spirit of God in His holiness, where God had worked regularly through chosen men in distinctive power so that what they accomplished was seen to be of God. But God could be grieved within His Spirit, and then His powerful effects were withdrawn (compare especially Saul – 1Sa 16:14). The thought is of times when there were no Spirit-empowered leaders to lead Israel.
We note that in these references to Yahweh, to the Angel of Yahweh and to His holy Spirit there is already a hint of distinctiveness and threeness within the Godhead, yet a working of total unity.
Note on ‘In all their affliction (tsarah) He was afflicted (tsar).’
This first clause in the verse is famous as the subject of discordant and even contradictory interpretations. This has been caused by a doubt as to the text. The original text is ‘in all their tsarah He was not tsar’. But the Masora notes this as one of fifteen places in which lo’ (not) is written by mistake for lo (to him or it). Another instance of the same alleged error in the text of Isaiah is found in Isa 9:2. On the basis of this change Aben Ezra suggested that it should signify ‘in all their distress there was distress to Him’, and thus as above “in all their affliction He was afflicted.” This explanation is approved by a number of expositors. It is favoured, not only by the strong and moving sense which it yields, but by the analogy of Jdg 10:16; Jdg 11:7, in one of which places the same phrase is used to denote human suffering, and in the other God is represented as sympathising with it.
However, objections to it are:
(Isa 63:1) That it gratuitously renders necessary another anthropopathic explanation.
(Isa 63:2) That the natural wording if this were the meaning, would be ‘ar lo’ as in 2 Sam1:26.
(Isa 63:3) That the negative (as in the Kethib) is expressed by all the ancient versions.
(Isa 63:4) That the critical presumption is in favour of ‘the Kethib’, or textual reading, as the more ancient, a reading which the Masoretes merely corrected in the margin (the Qere), without venturing to change it, and which ought not now to be abandoned, if a coherent sense can be put upon it, as it can in this case.
Another suggestion is to translate, ‘in all their affliction (tsar) He was not an adversary (tsarah) to them.’ This would fit in with what follows but is liable to the objection that it takes tsar and tsarah in entirely different senses, something which should only be done in the same context when there is no alternative. Possibly the best suggstion is that it means, ‘in all their being an enemy (against Him) He was not an enemy (to them)’, which was proved in that ‘He saved them’.
End of note.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Isa 63:9. And the Angel of his presence saved them The chorus, being about to repeat particularly the general benefits mentioned in the preceding verses, refers them to two principal ones, namely, the persevering and avenging Angel, and the consolatory and instructing Holy Spirit. They speak of the first directly, and of the latter obliquely, that they might not have occasion to repeat the same thing; for when they say, Isa 63:10 and vexed, or grieved, his Holy Spirit, they suppose that the nation, besides the singular blessing of the great and avenging angel, had also another of the first importance in the Holy Spirit. By the phrase, In all their affliction he was afflicted, is signified the extreme tenderness of God’s love toward his people. See chap. Isa 49:15. The Angel of his presence means that Angel who conducted them by the cloud and pillar of fire; namely, the Messiah, or second person of the ever-blessed Trinity, who is called the Angel of the presence, or face of the Lord, because he is the brightness of the glory of God. Compare Exo 33:14. Jesus Christ is called, in the New Testament, The image of God; and the glory of God is said to shine in the face of Jesus Christ. See 2Co 4:6 and Vitringa.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
DISCOURSE: 1015
THE LOVE OF GOD TOWARDS HIS PEOPLE
Isa 63:9. In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them; in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old.
AMONGST those who have the Gospel fully opened to them, the history of the Jews must of necessity be familiar. Yet, however familiar it be to our minds, we need to have it frequently brought to our remembrance, since it exhibits with unrivalled clearness the dispensations of Gods providence, and shadows forth with most astonishing exactness the wonders of his grace. The words which we have just read may be considered as a kind of summary of that history: in them are recorded Gods tender compassion towards his people, whilst they were groaning under the yoke of Pharaohthe means he used for their deliverance, by sending an angel, the Angel of the Covenant, his only dear Son, to bring them forth from Egyptthe success of those means in their complete redemptionand his continued care over them during the whole period of their sojourning in the wilderness. We might, not unprofitably, enter into a particular consideration of all these events, and take occasion from them to adore the power and faithfulness of Jehovah: but we propose rather to turn your attention to the mercies vouchsafed unto ourselves; and we would lead you to notice,
I.
His tender compassion towards ourselves
[Even in our unconverted state he looks on us with an eye of pity [Note: Compare Exo 3:7. with Hos 11:7-9.], longing for our return [Note: Jer 13:27.], and following us with invitations to accept of mercy [Note: Eze 33:11.]. But the very instant we begin to feel the burthen of our sins, and to mourn over them, all the tenderest emotions of love are excited in his breast, and he flies, as it were, to raise us from our depression, and to comfort us in our sorrows [Note: Luk 15:20.]. Every sigh and groan enters into his cars, and every tear is treasured up in his vials [Note: See that beautiful representation of his love, Jer 31:18; Jer 31:20.].
We pass over his sympathy with us under all our subsequent trials, because that will be more advantageously noticed in another part of our discourse; and we proceed to notice,]
II.
The wonderful deliverance he vouchsafes unto us
[The angel by whom God saved the Church in the wilderness, is the same as he still employs for our salvation [Note: Compare Exo 3:1-6; Exo 3:13-14. with Act 7:30-34.]; even the Messenger of the Covenant [Note: Mal 3:1.], the Lord Jesus Christ [Note: 1Co 10:9.]. He has sent that divine person to redeem us, not by power only, but by price, even the inestimable price of his own blood [Note: 1Pe 1:18-19. Rev 5:9.]. And to what must we ascribe this stupendous gift? Was it bestowed on account of any merit in us, either that God had already seen, or that he foresaw as hereafter to exist? No: it was to his love and pity alone that we are indebted, either for his first gift of his Son to redeem the world, or for his application of that redemption to our souls. He loved us, because he would love us [Note: Deu 7:7-8.]: and to his free and sovereign grace must all the glory be ascribed, by all the hosts of his redeemed for ever and ever.
But our obligation to his love and pity are best seen in,]
III.
The continued care with which he watches over us
[Exceeding beautiful is the description given of his attention to his people in the wilderness [Note: Deu 32:10-12.]: and justly may it be considered as illustrating the care which he takes of us [Note: See Isa 40:11; Isa 46:3-4.]. There is not any state in which his eye is not upon us for good. Are we assaulted by persecution or temptation? he stands ready to succour us with grace sufficient for us, and to make us more than conquerors over all. Every returning want will he supply [Note: Isa 33:16; Isa 41:17-18.], and keep us by his power through faith unto everlasting salvation [Note: 1Pe 1:5.].]
Address
1.
Those who are the Lords only in name and profession
[Such, alas! were the great mass of those who came out of Egypt; and therefore they were left to perish in the wilderness. This is particularly specified in the words following our text [Note: ver. 10.]: and the same fate will befall us also, if we do not give up ourselves to God in a way of holy obedience [Note: Exo 23:20-21. with Mat 7:21.].]
2.
Those who are his in deed and in truth
[Two things we wish you ever to bear in mind; namely, your privileges, and your obligations. As for your privileges, what tongue can ever declare them, what finite understanding can ever fully apprehend them? O remember the Rock whence ye are hewn, and the hole of the pit whence ye are digged, and let the wonders of redemption be your meditation day and night. Consider too your obligations. What manner of people ought ye to be, in all holy conversation and godliness! Surely, having been bought with so great a price, ye should ever glorify your God with your body and your spirit, which are his [Note: 1Co 6:20.].]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
Isa 63:9 In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old.
Ver. 9. In all their afflictions he was afflicted. ] See Exo 3:7 ; Exo 3:9 Jdg 10:16 Zec 2:8 Act 9:4 Jer 31:20 . O God, we may better say, than the poet did of Augustus –
“ Est placidus, facilisque parens, veniaeque paratus:
Et qui fulmineo saepe sine igne tonat.
Qui rum triste aliquid statuit, fit tristis et ipse:
Cuique fere poenam sumere poena sua est. ” a
And the angel of his presence saved them,
And he bare them.
And carried them.
a De Ponto, ii., Eleg. 2.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Isaiah
THE SYMPATHY OF GOD
Isa 63:9
I. The wonderful glimpse opened here into the heart of God.
Affliction is His chastisement, and is ever righteously inflicted. But here is something more, tender and strange. Sympathy is a necessary part of love. There is no true affection which does not put itself in the place and share the sorrows of its objects. And His sympathy is none the less because He inflicts the sorrow. These afflictions wherein He too was afflicted, were sent by Him. Like an earthly father who suffers more than the child whom he chastises, the Heavenly Father feels the strokes that He inflicts.
That sympathy is consistent with the blessedness of God. Even in the pain of our human sympathy there is a kind of joy, and we may be sure that in His nature there is nothing else.
Contrast with other thoughts about God.
The vague agnosticism of the present day, which knows only a dim Something of which we can predicate nothing.
The God of the philosophers-whom we are bidden to think of as passionless and unemotional. No wave of feeling ever ripples that tideless sea. The attribute of infinitude or sovereign completeness is dwelt on with such emphasis as to obscure all the rest.
The gods of men’s own creation are careless in their happiness, and cruel in their vengeance. But here is a God for all the weary and the sorrowful. What a thought for us in our own burdened days!
II. The mystery of the divine salvation.
For the present I go no further than this. It is clear, then, that our text is at all events remarkable, in that it ascribes to this ‘angel of His presence’ the praise of Jehovah’s saving work. The loving heart, afflicted in all their afflictions, sends forth the messenger of His face, and by Him is salvation wrought. The whole sum of the deliverance of Israel in the past is attributed to Him. Surely this must have been felt by a devout Jew to conceal some great mystery.
III. The crowning revelation both of the heart of God and of His saving power.
I do not need to enter on the question of whether in the Old Testament the angel of the Covenant was indeed a pre-manifestation of the eternal Son. I am disposed to answer it in the affirmative. But be that as it may, all that was spoken of the angel is true of Him. God’s name is in Him, and that not in fragments or half-syllables but complete. The face of God looks lovingly on men in Him, so that Jesus could declare, ‘He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.’ His presence brings God’s presence, and He can venture to say, ‘ We will come and make our abode with Him.’ He is the agent of the divine salvation.
The identity and the difference are here in their highest form.
b The mystery of God’s sharing our sorrows is explained in Him.
We may find a difficulty in the thought of a suffering and sympathising God. But if we believe that ‘My name is in Him,’ then the sympathy and gentleness of Jesus is the compassion of God. This is a true revelation. So tears at the grave sighs in healing, and all the sorrows which He bore are an unveiling of the heart of God.
That sharing our sorrows is the very heart of His work. We might almost say that He became man in order to increase His power of sympathy, as a prince might temporarily become a pauper. But certainly He became man that He might bear our burdens. ‘Himself took our infirmities.’ ‘Forasmuch as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He himself also likewise took part of the same.’
The atoning death is the climax of Christ’s being afflicted with our afflictions. His priestly sympathy flows out now and for ever to us all.
So complete is His unity with God, that He works the salvation which is God’s, and that God’s name is in Him. So complete is His union with us, that our sorrows touch Him and His life becomes ours. ‘Ye have done it unto Me.’ ‘Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?’
For us in all our troubles there are no darker rooms than Christ has been in before us. We are like prisoners put in the same cell as some great martyr. He drank the cup, and we can put the rim to our lips at the place that His lips have touched. But not only may we have our sufferings lightened by the thought that He has borne the same, and that we know the ‘fellowship of Christ’s sufferings,’ but we have the further alleviation of being sure that He makes our afflictions His by perfect sympathy, and, still more wonderful and blessed, that there is such unity of life and sensation between the Head and the members that our afflictions are His, and are not merely made so.
‘Think not thou canst sigh a sigh,
And thy Saviour is not by;
Think not thou canst shed a tear
And thy Saviour is not near.’
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
In all their affliction He was afflicted. Hebrew text reads, “In all their adversity [He was] no adversary”. But some codices, with two early printed editions, read as text of Authorized Version.
the Angel of His presence. Reference to Pentateuch (Exo 14:19; Exo 23:20, Exo 23:21; Exo 33:14). App-92.
redeemed them. Reference to Pentateuch (Exo 15:13). App-92.
bare them. Reference to Pentateuch (Exo 19:4. Deu 1:31; Deu 32:18). Compare Isa 46:3, Isa 46:4. Act 13:18. App-92.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
angel (See Scofield “Heb 1:4”)
redeemed Heb. “goel,” Redemp. (Kinsman type). (See Scofield “Isa 59:20”).
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
The Angel of His Presence
In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them.Isa 63:9.
These words occur in the course of a most affecting and pathetic prayer which the prophet utters. In the course of his prayer he recalls the wonderful love of Jehovah for His people during their early afflictions, His patience with their waywardness, and His surpassing gentleness and care while on their way to Palestine. He is the same mighty Helper as of old, and His mercy is not restrained.
It is an argument from Gods own past, an argument which never fails to sustain His suffering saints, and it is no less cheering to us than to the captive Jews; nay, more so, all the records of His dealings with His ancient people are still witnesses to us, and from them we can gather with what manner of Saviour we have to do. We have had the clearer light of the Cross to illuminate the Christian story. We can make the use of the New Testament doubly precious when we can trace the connection between the God of the Old and New Testament. The mediatorial office of Christ did not begin in the manger. It travels back to the door of history, before the birth of human souls. It is one Person all along the line, one character of patient lovingkindness and mercy that is revealed to us in both Testamentsmore obscurely in the prophecies of the Old, more abundantly in the fulfilment of the New.
I
His Sympathy
In all their affliction he was afflicted. Wonderful are those words. The more carefully they are studied, the more surprising do they appear. It is only gradually that their meaning grows upon the mind, either filling it with increasing wonder or, where faith is strong enough to receive it, awakening overpowering feelings of gratitude and adoration. It must be understood at the outset that Gods suffering is sympathetic. He shares in our afflictions, inasmuch as He has sympathy with us therein. We are so dear to Him as His children that He feels both with and for us.
1. An afflicted God.There is no ground for the objection that suffering is impossible to God, because of the perfection of His nature. To be unsympathetic is no proof of perfection in any being. The most perfect father is by no means he who is most heedless of the feelings, and unaffected by the sufferings, of his children; nor the most perfect king he who is indifferent to, and unmoved by, the state of his subjects. And certainly it is a most arbitrary and groundless view of the perfection of the Divine Being, which pronounces it impossible for Him to be painfully affected by the sufferings of His own. So far as we know anything of moral perfection, we see that it is sympathetic just in proportion as it rises in degree. Love is the glory of God, as it is the goodness of man, and love is essentially sympathetic.
May it not be that this suffering is essential to the very highest blessedness? Is it not manifestly far more consistent with it, to say the least, than indifference or insensibility? With Bushnell, we cannot help thinking that such suffering must be joy itself, the fullest, and profoundest, and sublimest joy conceivable. There was never a being on earth so deep in His peace and so essentially blessed as Jesus Christ. Even His agony itself is scarcely an exception. There is no joy so grand as that which has a form of tragedy. We are never so happy, so essentially blessed, as when we suffer well, wearing out our life in sympathies spent on the evil and undeserving, burdened heavily in our prayers, struggling on through secret Gethsemanes, and groaning before God, in groans audible to God alone, for those who have no mercy on themselves. What man of the race ever finds that in such love as this he has been made unhappy? Therefore, when we say that God suffers in sympathy with His people, we do not deny that He is the ever-blessed God; we do rather by implication affirm His infinite blessedness.
2. Afflicted in all our afflictions.In all their affliction he was afflicted. Consider how many there are who sufferand how varied their sufferings are. Think of the long procession of Zions pilgrims who have watered their course with tears, and left on the flinty rock or the burning sand the marks of their bleeding feet. Think of the sighing and groaning of the prisoners, the victims of human oppression, which have reached the Divine ear. Think of the noble army of martyrs, who after suffering inhuman tortures have sealed their testimony with their blood. Think of the sufferers in less public spheres who have had wearisome nights and troublesome days appointed to them. Think of the Christian homes which have been darkened by poverty and suffering and bereavement, and of the myriads of Christian hearts on which from time to time dark shadows have fallen. Think of the many afflictions of the righteous, and of God as sharing in them all. And then say what individual sufferer can know anything of the extent of His, who has shared in the aggregated sufferings of His people throughout all generations, taking upon Himself the individual sorrows of every one, so that, In all their affliction he was afflicted.
3. The fulfilment in Christ.Here we have one of the tenderest conceptions of God that the Old Testament can give us: the conception of God suffering for and with His people. It would not be correct to say that this was a prediction of Christ; but it would be true to say that, here as elsewhere, Christ came not to destroy, but to fulfil; that, in His person, He did fulfil the highest and deepest conceptions of God as, shall we say, capable of feeling with men, of descending, as it were, to their level, of bearing their burdens, of fighting their battlesand in this sense is not this picture an anticipation, an unconscious anticipation, of the Incarnation and the Passion of God as exhibited in the person of Jesus Christ our Lord?
When Jesus came and lived among us the heart of God was laid bare, and every one can see in the Gospel that patient wistful love which inhabits the secret place of the universe. As the father sits upon the housetop, and watches the crest of the hill, that he may catch the first glimpse of the returning prodigal; as the householder makes ready his feast and sends for his ungrateful guests; as the vine master appeals to his disloyal tenants by his own son, we learn the expectation of God. As Jesus takes into His arms little children whom superior people have despised, and casts His charity over penitent women whom Pharisees cannot forgive, and mourns at the tomb of Lazarus over a friend whom He cannot afford to lose, one learns the graciousness of God. As Jesus turns sadly from Nazareth, the city of his youth, which had refused Him, and reproaches Capernaum, the city of His choice, which did not believe in Him, and weeps openly over Jerusalem, which knew not the day of her visitation, one learns the regret of God. And as Jesus appeals to the disciples, Will ye also go away? and prophesies with a sad heart that every one of His friends will forsake Him, and is cast into a deep gloom by the betrayal of Judas, we learn what is almost incredible, but most comfortable, the dependence of God. The Cross is not only in the heart of human life, it is also in the heart of God. He is the chief of all sufferers, because He is the chief of all lovers.
There are two great afflictions in which our Saviour may be said to have been afflicted.
(1) There is, in the first place, the affliction of sin. It is a wonderful and overwhelming truth that God in the person of Christ chose to learn by a personal experience the power of evil. This, surely, is the meaning of the temptation, and, perhaps, of the agony and the bloody sweat. It was not that Christ for one moment yielded in deed or thought to the Power of Darkness, to the temptations of evil, but, as the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews says, He suffered being tempted. It was not a mere dramatic representation, the contest of Christ with Satan. It was real. The victory was real, but it was a victory gained not without pain and effort. Nor was it only by the forces of evil combined against His own life that Christ was afflicted in our affliction. He saw all around Him the evidence of the sin of man. When He beheld the city He wept over it. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! He was afflicted in their affliction! And so ever more and more He, the sinless One, bears the sins of men upon His own heart, feels them even as if they were His own, until at last they seem even to obscure the Fathers face. What else is the meaning of the cry, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me! What does it mean except that, in that darkest hour, the Son of God had so completely identified Himself with His sinful brethren that in all their affliction he was afflicted?
It is this that gives Him His power to-day; the fact that He stooped to learn by a personal experience all the strength of evil, that He descended to enter into the common human struggle, and in issuing victorious to be the leader against the forces of evil everywhere. For we have not a high priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, says the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews, but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.
(2) The other great affliction is the affliction of suffering. Sin and sufferingof one kind and anotherdo not these two words comprehend and cover the whole range of human ills? Do we not feel the suffering of the world to be one of our great difficulties in the way of believing in the goodness of Godthe undeserved suffering of the world? Are we not impatient at the pious commonplaces that are hurled at us, that all is for the best, that God knows what is good for us? It is all very well, we can imagine men sayingit is all very well to say that God knows what is best for us, but what does God know of suffering? Is He not high above the suffering of the universe, incapable of feeling it? what can His perfection know of all this anguish? That is a natural thought. The mystery of pain is one which baffles us, but at least the great and awful truth of Passiontide saves us from supposing that God is above or beyond the sphere of our suffering. In all their affliction He was afflicted.
Bright February days have a stronger charm of hope about them than any other days in the year. One likes to pause in the mild rays of the sun, and look over the gates at the patient plough-horses turning at the end of the furrow, and think that the beautiful year is all before one. The birds seem to feel just the same; their notes are as clear as the clear air. There are no leaves on the trees and hedgerows, but how green all the grassy fields are! and the dark purplish brown of the ploughed earth and of the bare branches is beautiful too. What a glad world this looks like as one drives or rides along the valleys or over the hills! I have often thought so when, in foreign countries, where the fields and woods have looked to me like our English Loam shirethe rich land tilled with just as much care, the woods rolling down the gentle slopes to the green meadowsI have come on something by the roadside which has reminded me that I am not in Loamshire: an image of a great agonythe agony of the Cross. It has stood perhaps by the clustering apple blossoms, or in the broad sunshine by the cornfield, or at a turning by the wood where a clear brook was gurgling below; and surely, if there came a traveller to this world who knew nothing of the story of mans life upon it, this image of agony would seem to him strangely out of place in the midst of this joyous nature. He would not know that hidden behind the apple-blossoms, or among the golden corn, or under the shrouding boughs of the woods, there might be a human heart beating heavily with anguish; perhaps a young blooming girl, not knowing where to turn for refuge from swift-advancing shame. Such things are sometimes hidden among the sunny fields, and behind the blossoming orchards, and the sound of the gurgling brook, if you came close to one spot behind a small bush, would be mingled for your ear with a despairing human sob. No wonder mans religion has much sorrow in it; no wonder he needs a suffering God.1 [Note: George Eliot, Adam Bede.]
Believing in Jesus, we can travel on, through one wild parish after another, upon English soil, and see, as I have done, the labourer who tills the land worse housed than the horse he drives, worse clothed than the sheep he shears, worse nourished than the hog he feedsand yet not despair; for the Prince of sufferers is the labourers Saviour; He has tasted hunger, and thirst, and weariness, poverty, oppression, and neglect; the very tramp who wanders houseless on the moorside is His brother; in his sufferings the Saviour of the world has shared, when the foxes had holes, and the birds of the air had nests, while the Son of God had not where to lay His head.
Think not thou canst sigh a sigh,
And thy Maker is not by:
Think not thou canst weep a tear,
And thy Maker is not near.
Oh, He gives to us His joy,
That our grief He may destroy:
Till our grief is fled and gone
He doth sit by us and moan.1 [Note: W. Blake, On Anothers Sorrow.]
Outside holy Scripture there has not been a more intimate apprehension of the fellow-suffering of God than these words of Blake
He doth sit by us and moan.
He might have built a palace at a word,
Who sometime had not where to lay His head.
Time was, and He who nourished crowds with bread,
Would not one meal unto Himself afford;
Twelve legions girded with angelic sword
Were at His beckthe scorned, the buffeted.
He healed anothers scratch, His own side bled,
Side, feet, and hands with cruel piercings gored!
Oh! wonderful the wonders left undone!
And scarce less wonderful than those He wrought!
Oh! self-restraint, passing all human thought
To have all power and He as having none!
Oh! self-denying love, which felt alone
For needs of othersnever for its own.2 [Note: R. C. Trench.]
II
His Personal Presence
And the angel of his presence saved them. This must be understood, not as an angel of the Presence, who went out from the Presence to save the people, but, as it is in other Scriptures, Gods own Presence, God Himself; and so interpreted, the phrase falls into line with the rest of the verse, which is one of the most vivid expressions that the Bible contains of the personality of God.3 [Note: G. A. Smith, The Book of Isaiah, ii. p. 450.]
The Semites had a horror of painting the Deity in any form. But when God had to be imagined or described, they chose the form of a man and attributed to Him human features. Chiefly they thought of His face. To see His face, to come into the light of His countenance, was the way their hearts expressed longing for the living God. (Exo 33:14; Psa 31:16; Psa 34:16; Psa 80:7). But among the heathen Semites, Gods face was separated from God Himself, and worshipped as a separate god. In heathen Semitic religions there are a number of deities who are the faces of others. But the Hebrew writers, with every temptation to do the same, maintained their monotheism, and went no further than to speak of the angel of Gods face. And in all the beautiful narratives of Genesis, Exodus, and Judges, about the glorious Presence that led Israel against their enemies, the angel of Gods face is the equivalent of God Himself. Jacob said, the God which hath fed me, and the angel which hath redeemed me, bless the lads. In Judges this angels word is Gods Word.
1. The angel of His Presence.This singularly beautiful expression carries with it associations which must be dear to every heart. The angel of his presencehow the mind loves to linger on the music of those words, and how near they seem to bring us to high and holy things, things unspeakably precious and helpful to our souls! No one can stand in much doubt as to what they mean, strange and unaccustomed though the phrase may be. The angel of the Lord is an expression often used in the Old Testament to denote a special manifestation of God Himself; it does not denote a messenger coming from God; it frequently signifies a coming of God into human affairs. The still stronger phrase, the angel of his presence certainly denotes any form under which God chooses to make His immediate presence felt by His children. The form chosen may, or may not, be that of an angelic being or a human instrument, but it is always a means whereby God Himself comes right into human experience to help and heal and save.
Scarcely has God made a new covenant than Jehovah, in the guise of a man, is found in Abrahams tent, and the Judge of all the earth was there. From that day we grow familiar, as we read, with a form which seems, as it were, to haunt the world, and a form like unto the Son of Mana form which comes and goes in fitful glimpses, speaks in Jehovahs name, expects the worship due to the Most High, and yet calls Himself the angel of the presence of God. Especially during the Exodus this mysterious messenger appears to keep close company with His chosen flock as they march onward to their rest under His guidance. It was the messenger of God who went before Israel in the Red Sea, and spoke to Moses face to face. This was the visible Presence which commanded Moses to bring up the people, and to whom Moses said, If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence. For wherein shall it be known here that I and thy people have found grace in thy sight? Is it not in that thou goest with us? And of whom we read, Behold, I send an angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared. Beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgressions: for my name is in him. In these wonderful words, which might have been obscure at the time, but the meaning of which it is not now difficult to see, it is not hard to discover Jesus Christ, who was faithful, like Moses, though not like a servant of Moses, but as the Son of God. In His life and body He redeemed His people, and He guided them and helped them in the days of old. Well might St. Paul see in the Church in the wilderness a parallel of the Church of the New Testament. Well might he see in the manna and the water of refreshment a symbol of the Messiah. That rock from whence the water sprung was Christ, the same great patient Saviour.
Our theories about God are our theology. It is well to value them, to be careful of them, to try our best to keep them pure and high. But the deeper question is, What is our religion? What are our real thoughts of God? In that deep and secret place of our inmost consciousness, where all our desires and feelings and hopes and aspirations are born, what is God to us? This is the great question, the searching question. And on the answer to it our peace, our happiness, our usefulness depend.
We say that God is perfect in wisdom. But do we feel that He is wise for us? Do we trust His wisdom to guide and direct us? Do we think of Him as the One who always knows what is best for us?
We say that God is perfect in righteousness. But do we know Him as the Lord, our righteousness? Do we trust assuredly in Him to cleanse us from guilt and deliver us from the power of sin? Do we yield ourselves to His will and purpose to purify and perfect us by the discipline of life?
We say that God is omnipresent:
His dwelling is the light of setting suns,
And the round ocean and the living air,
And the blue sky, and in the mind of man;
A motion and a spirit that impels
All thinking things, all objects of all thought,
And rolls through all things.
It is a grand doctrine, an inspiring doctrine, this of the Divine omnipresence. But do we think of God as present with us personally in all the experiences of life? Such a thought of Him is infinitely more needful, infinitely more precious than any theory of His omnipresence.1 [Note: H. van Dyke, The Open Door, p. 127.]
But the angel of His Presence cannot mean anything to us unless we realise what kind of a presence it is of which the prophet speaks. And surely this ought not to be hard to discover and understand. He looks backward over the tribulations and distresses of Israel, this man of God, himself a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and as he surveys the long story of troubles and suffering he sees Gods presence shining through it all, like the face of a friend.
(1) A friendly presence.It means, first of all, a gracious, friendly, loving, sympathising presence. God is with us in our troubles, not merely because He has to be there, since He is everywhere. He is there because He wants to be. Just as truly as you desire to be near your friends, your children, when they suffer, just so truly does God desire and choose to be near us in our afflictions. He would not be away from us even if He could. He is not present as a mere spectator, looking at us curiously while we suffer. That cold and distant conception of Him as the great onlooker,
Who sees with equal eyes as God of all
A hero perish or a sparrow fall,
is not the thought of the Bible. He is with us as one who has the deepest interest in it all, feels all that happens to us, cares infinitely for us through it all. Nor is He present merely as the author of our pains and sorrows, who could have spared us from them if He would, but who insists upon inflicting them on us, whatever it may cost us to bear them. It costs Him as much as it costs us. He doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men. There is a wondrous power in the precise words in which the prophet voices this profound truth. They may be translated, In all their adversity He was no adversary.
Our Lord Jesus Christ has become to the world in which we live the angel of the Presence, the Presence that saves. In Him God has laid bare His own heart and shown us the Divine that indwells. Never again can we think of God except in terms of Jesus. This is really the most tremendous thing that has ever happened in the long, slow, toilsome, painful unfolding of the spiritual consciousness of the human race. Time was when men could think of God as strong but not as kind, but they cannot do that now. It is a God of love or none.
(2) A promised presence.Gods presence is promised and promised for ever, for all time and in every experience. The text teaches us this. The angel of His face is none other than the angel of the covenant in whom Gods pledge to be with His people for ever is redeemed. Turn back to the ancient Scriptures and hear Him give this pledge to Jacob: Behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of. Hear His promise to Joshua: I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. Hear His promise through Isaiah: I the Lord will hear thee; I the God of Israel will not forsake thee. When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee, and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee. And even to your old age I am He; and even to hoar hairs will I carry you; I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry, and will deliver you. And then hear the pledge of Jesus Christ: I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.
2. The angel of His Presence saved them. The power of such a thought of God always with us, and most of all in our times of weakness and trial and trouble, must be a redeeming delivering, upbearing power.
Some time ago a friend took me to his country house, where, amidst other interesting things, he showed me the method by which his household and other households near it were supplied with water. He had located an inexhaustible supply, pure and good, at a great depth underground. How far it extended he did not know, but beyond his property, at any rate. He had sunk a shaft, and had placed above it an iron reservoir which would open for inspection at any time, a conspicuous object on his particular piece of property. It stood on a raised platform so that any one could easily see it and gaze upon its contents. From that reservoir pipes were led under the turf to all the rooms where water was fitted, though there were fields between, and there it gushed forth freely at any level the moment the taps were turned on. It is not an inappropriate symbol to me of our relationship to our blessed Lord and Master. The life of God is like that water supply underlying all our being, nourishing and sustaining it as the underground springs nourishing my friends fields and gardens, without which they would be neither fields nor gardens, but only deserts. Without God there would be no humanity to go wrong; without God not for one moment could you draw your breath in the thinking of a thought, good or ill. There it was all the time, only hidden underground. Jesus Christ has drawn it from the depths and made it immediate. He is like the visible reservoir from which the pipes are laid that convey the Water of Life to every heart.1 [Note: R. J. Campbell.]
A little boy of mine came home one day bearing the marks of battle. Of course it was very wrong, but let me tell you fathers and mothers, the boy who does not sometimes get into a scrimmage and come out on the right side is not likely to do much in this world! My boy came home, and, of course, I rebuked himonly officially. I found he had been in conflict with a boy much bigger than himself. I said, Were you frightened, Arthur? He said, No. I said, You ought to have been. The boy was bigger than you. I wasnt, dad, he replied. You see, Norman (his big brother) was only just round the corner! It is a grand thing to have a brother in reserve! Oh, my brothers, reverently I can tell the poorest, vilest, weakest man in London that if only he will set his face toward the light, though all the powers of hell give him battle, he has a big omnipotent redeeming Brother, not round the corner, but in the heart!2 [Note: A. T. Guttery.]
(1) His Presence must save us, first of all, from the sense of meanness, littleness, unworthiness which embitters life and makes sorrow doubly hard to bear. The Presence of God must bring a sense of dignity, of elevation into our existence. It was a great king who once said, Where I sleep, there is the palace. The life that has the Presence of God in it can be neither trivial nor unworthy.
(2) The angel of Gods face saves also from that feeling of reckless indifference, dumb carelessness, which sometimes tempts us to let our lives go blundering and stumbling along on the lower levels. It brings a new conscience into our thoughts, desires, and efforts, awakens a noble dissatisfaction with our halfhearted work, quickens within us a longing to be more fit for the Divine companionship.
It is one mark of a good friend that he makes you wish to be at your best while you are with him. The blessed persons who have this influence are made in the likeness of that heavenly Friend whose Presence is at once a stimulus and a help to purity of heart and nobleness of demeanour. A mans reputation is what his fellow-men think of him. A mans character is what God knows of him. When we feel that the angel of His face is with us, a careless life, a superficial life no longer satisfies us. We long to be pure in heart, strong in purpose, clean in deed, because we know that nothing else will satisfy Him.
(3) The angel of Gods face saves us from the sense of weakness, ignorance, incompetence, which overwhelms us in the afflictions of life. We feel not only that we are powerless to protect ourselves against trouble, but that we are not able to get the good out of it that ought to come to us. We cannot interpret our sorrows aright. We cannot see the real meaning of them. We cannot reach our hand through the years to catch the far-off interest of tears. We say to ourselves in despair, God only knows what it means. And if we do not believe that God is with us, then that thought shuts us up in the darkness, puts the interpretation of the mystery far away from us, locks us up in the prison house of sorrow and leaves the key in heaven. But if we believe that God is with us, then the word of despair becomes a word of hope.
(4) The angel of Gods face saves us from the sense of loneliness, which is unbearable. Companionship is essential to happiness. A solitary Eden would have been no Paradise. The deepest of all miseries is the sense of absolute isolation. There are moments in the experience of most of us when the mysterious consciousness of the law which made all human souls separate, like islands
And bade betwixt their shores to be
The unplumbd, salt, estranging sea,
fills us with heaviness of heart. In this painful solitude the present friendship of God is the only sure consolation. Nothing can divide us from Himnot misunderstanding, nor coldness, nor selfishness, nor scornfor none of these things are possible to Him. Nothing can divide us from Him except our own sin, and that He has forgiven and taken away and blotted out by His great mercy in Christ.
A few years ago a man of great talent, famous for his eloquence, but even better known for the entire unbelief in God which he proclaimed, was called to deliver a funeral address over the grave of his brother. In words of sombre pathos he compared this life to a narrow, green valley between the cold peaks of two eternities. We walk here for a little while in company with those whom we love. Then our hands are loosed and our companions vanish. We can see but a little way. Beyond the encircling hills all is gloom and nothingness. How different is the voice of one whose heart has known and trusted the angel of the face of God! Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me.1 [Note: H. van Dyke, The Open Door, p. 143.]
Strange that men should be saved by a Presence; it is such a quiet thing. Salvation might be thought to require something strong, potent, compelling; we are surprised at an influence so gentle. Yet, I think, the most potent thing in the world is just a Presence. What is it that determines the rank in society? It is the answer to the question, Who are there? What is it that brings condolence to an hour of bereavement? It is just the saying of one to another, I am with you. It is not what is spoken; it is not what is done; it is the sense that some one is there. So is it with my Father. I am not anxious to know the why, but only the where, of God. It matters little to me for what purpose He walks upon the storm, nor is it of deadly consequence whether or not He shall say, Peace, be still. The all-important thing is that the feet upon the sea should be His feetHis, and not anothers. Tell me that, and I ask no more. There is all the difference in the world between a silent room and an empty room. There is a companionship where there is no voice. Is it not written, In thy presence is fulness of joy? In the very sense that my Father is there, though He speak not, though He whisper not, though He write not His message in a book, there comes to my heart a great calm.1 [Note: G. Matheson, Searchings in the Silence, p. 132.]
In his book called The Kingdom of Heaven, which is a detailed statement of the writers own personal faith, Peter Rosegger tells us of a Styrian farmer who was known to his neighbours by the nickname of The Pair. He was always engaged in converse with some unseen friend. If he came to a part of the road where there was a rough path and a smooth, he took the rough path and left the other for his unseen companion. When he came to an inn he always ordered two glasses of wine, one for himself and one for his friend who was with him, and the friends glass of wine had always to be served on the best utensil the inn could provide. And when paying his bill he would give directions that the friends glass of wine, left behind, should be given to the first poor man who came that way. In his own home, at every meal, he always reserved the seat of honour at his right hand for this unseen friend, and before this vacant chair there was placed the best that his home could provide. And so he lived a most peaceful and cheerful life. At last he came to lie down on what proved to be the bed of his last sickness; and while lying there he had a vacant chair placed by him, and kept his right hand out, holding the hand of his unseen friend, and maintained with him low-toned converse. Men asked him who was there, and he said, Dont you know? He is there; and they came to understand that he believed, that he knew, that Jesus Christ was there. And so he died; and on the day of his funeral, Rosegger tells us, in his own beautiful and touching way, the grave was opened near a large marble figure of the Good Shepherd. It was a lovely day; the sun was shining brightly upon the marble figure, and a white shaft of light shot from the marble figure into the heart of the grave, and this Styrian farmer, who had lived this life of faith in the unseen, but very real, Son of God, was laid in that grave with the white light of heaven illuminating his darkness, a fitting termination to a life so pure and trustful.2 [Note: G. Hanson in The Free Church Year Book for 1908, p. 137.]
The Angel of His Presence
Literature
Church (R. W.), Village Sermons, ii. 84.
Dyke (H. van), The Open Door, 125.
Forsyth (P. T.), Pulpit Parables for Young Hearers, 126.
Gamble (H. R.), The Ten Virgins, 115.
Kingsley (C.), National Sermons, 59.
Landels (W.), Until the Day Break, 50.
Lowry (S. C.), Lessons from the Passion, 51.
Maclaren (A.), Expositions: Isaiah xlix.lxvi. 226.
Matheson (G.), Searchings in the Silence, 132.
Milne (W.), Looking unto Jesus, 203.
Price (A. C.), Fifty Sermons, v. 153.
Watson (J.), The Inspiration of Our Faith, 85.
Christian World Pulpit, xviii. 89 (Hollowell); xxvi. 49 (Thomas); xl. 43 (Clow); lxxvii. 296 (Campbell).
Church of England Pulpit, xxxv. 269 (Hogg).
Contemporary Pulpit, 1st Ser., ii. 111 (Dykes).
Preachers Magazine, xii. 572 (Brewin).
Fuente: The Great Texts of the Bible
all their: Exo 3:7-9, Jdg 10:16, Zec 2:8, Mat 25:40, Mat 25:45, Act 9:4, Heb 2:18, Heb 4:15
the angel: Gen 22:11-17, Gen 48:16, Exo 14:19, Exo 23:20, Exo 23:21, Exo 33:14, Hos 1:7, Hos 12:3-5, Mal 3:1, Act 7:30-32, Act 7:34, Act 7:35, Act 7:38, Act 12:11, 1Co 10:9
in his: Deu 7:7, Deu 7:8, Psa 78:38, Psa 106:7-10, Tit 2:14, 1Jo 4:9, 1Jo 4:10, Rev 1:5, Rev 5:9
carried: Isa 46:3, Isa 46:4, Exo 19:4, Deu 1:31, Deu 32:11, Deu 32:12, Luk 15:5
Reciprocal: Gen 16:10 – the angel Gen 19:16 – the Lord Gen 24:7 – angel Gen 42:24 – wept Exo 3:2 – angel Exo 6:5 – the groaning Exo 14:30 – the Lord Exo 32:34 – mine Angel Num 23:23 – according Deu 5:15 – the Lord Deu 23:4 – Because they met Jdg 2:1 – And an angel Jdg 6:8 – a prophet Jdg 6:11 – an angel 2Sa 22:28 – afflicted 2Ki 13:4 – he saw 2Ki 14:26 – saw the affliction 1Ch 17:21 – redeem Psa 31:7 – known Psa 56:8 – tellest Psa 77:5 – General Psa 77:15 – with Psa 78:35 – their redeemer Psa 91:12 – They Psa 111:9 – sent Psa 136:23 – remembered Psa 136:24 – General Isa 1:2 – they have Isa 26:10 – favour Isa 63:15 – thy bowels Jer 2:6 – brought us up Jer 45:2 – unto Dan 6:22 – hath sent Hos 11:3 – taught Hos 11:4 – drew Hos 12:4 – angel Joe 2:18 – and pity Mic 6:4 – I brought Zec 1:12 – the angel Zec 3:6 – the Zec 12:8 – as the Mar 3:5 – grieved Luk 7:13 – he Joh 11:35 – General Act 13:17 – and with 1Th 5:14 – be Heb 8:9 – to lead Jam 5:11 – the Lord is
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
63:9 In all their affliction he was {i} afflicted, and the angel {k} of his presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bore them, and carried them all the days of old.
(i) He bore their afflictions and griefs as though they had been his own.
(k) Which was a witness of God’s presence, and this may be referred to Christ, to whom belongs the office of salvation.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The Israelites had responded to God’s grace in electing them by committing themselves to Him (Exo 19:8). Consequently, Yahweh had participated in their afflictions with them and rescued His people from them throughout their history.
The identity of "the angel of His presence" is the messenger who came from the Lord’s presence to deliver His people. This is the only place in the Bible where this title appears. This may refer to an angel, but it probably refers to the second person of the Trinity, the primary agent of salvation according to the New Testament.
"Verse 9 is one of the most moving expressions of the compassionate love of God in the OT, reminding the reader of some of the great passages in Hosea, Isaiah’s older contemporary." [Note: Grogan, p. 342.]
"Just as a man can feel pain, and yet in his personality keep himself superior to it, so God feels pain without His own happiness being thereby destroyed." [Note: Delitzsch, 2:453.]