Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 8:11
For the LORD spoke thus to me with a strong hand, and instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people, saying,
11. with a strong hand ] Better: while the Hand (of Jehovah) grasped ( me), (an infinitive construction). The phrase (cf. Eze 3:14) refers to a prophetic trance, in which the true view of the aspects and issue of the situation was borne in upon Isaiah’s mind with irresistible force. His mind was as it were fixed in one direction, and he was henceforth proof against the disturbing influences of social opinion around him.
and instructed me walk ] Or, to warn me against walking. Grammatically, the clause is a continuation, not of the main sentence (“and Jehovah spake, &c.”), but of the infinitive construction, which is here resolved into the Imperfect (Qal). the way of this people ] the prevailing emotions, thoughts and resolves of the hour.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
11 15. Isaiah was able to stand alone against the nation during this crisis, because he knew that his thoughts were controlled by a Power not his own.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
For the Lord spake thus – Spake that which immediately follows in the next verse. Warned him not to Unite in the alliance with foreign kingdoms which the nation was about forming.
With a strong hand – Margin, With strength of hand. That is, when the hand of God urged me. A strong prophetic impulse is often represented as being produced by Gods laying his hand on the prophet; or by his being thus, as it were, urged or impelled to it; Eze 3:14 : The hand of Jehovah was strong upon me; 2Ki 3:15 : And it came to pass, that when the minstrel played, the hand of the Lord came upon him; Jer 20:7 : O Lord, thou art stronger than I, and hast prevailed; see also Ecc 2:24; 1Ki 18:46; 2Ki 3:15; Eze 33:22; Eze 40:1; compare the Introduction, section 7. 11. (3.) The meaning is, that the prophet was strongly, and almost irresistibly, urged by the divine influence, to say what he was about to say.
That I should not walk … – That I should not approve, and fall in with the design of Ahaz, and of the nation, in calling in the aid of the Assyrian armies.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Isa 8:11-15
For the Lord spake thus to me
Gods overpowering hand
The hand is the absolute Hand which, when it is laid upon a man, overpowers all his perception, feeling, and thinking.
(F. Delitzsch, D. D.)
With strength of hand
(Isa 8:11):–That is, seizing him and casting him into the prophetic trance (2Ki 3:15; Eze 1:3; Eze 3:14; Eze 8:1). (Prof. S. R. Driver, D. D.)
Warning and encouragement
The cry in Judah had been, There is a conspiracy against us, a formidable combination, which can only be met by a counter-alliance with Assyria (such appears to be the best interpretation of this difficult verse): Isaiah and his little circle of adherents had been warned not to join in it, not to judge of the enterprise, or probable success, of Rezin and Pekah, by the worldly and superficial estimate of the masses. A truer guide for action had been revealed to them. Do not, such is the lesson which he has been taught, do not follow the common people in their unreasonable alarm (verse 12): Jehovah of hosts, Him shall ye count holy; and let Him be your fear, and Him your dread, i.e., in modern phraseology, Do not be guilty of a practical abandonment of Jehovah; do not sacrifice principle to expediency. If you do not lose faith, He will be for you a sanctuary (verse 14), i.e., (apparently) He will be as a sanctuary protecting the territory in which it is situated, and securing for those who honour it safety and peace; but (it is ominously added) a cause of stumbling and ruin to both the houses of Israel, to you of Judah not less than to those of Ephraim, to whom alone you think that the warning can apply. (Prof. S. R. Driver, D. D.)
Principle and expediency
Translated into modem language, the prophets lesson is this–that those who in a time of difficulty and temptation sacrifice principle to expediency, sad abandon the clear path of duty for a course which may seem to lead to some greater immediate advantage, must not be surprised if the penalty which they ultimately have to pay be a severe one. (Prof. S. R. Driver, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 11. With a strong hand – “As taking me by the hand”] Eleven MSS., (two ancient,) of Kennicott’s, thirty-four of De Rossi’s, and seven editions, read kechezkath; and so Symmachus, the Syriac, and Vulgate. Or rather with a strong hand, that is, with a strong and powerful influence of the prophetic Spirit.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
With a strong hand; with a vehement and more than ordinary inspiration, strongly imprinting it in my mind. Of this people; of the generality of the people of Judah; whose eminent danger and calamity he foretells, Isa 8:8, but withal gives them full assurance that God would deliver them out of it, Isa 8:9,10; which he doth to aggravate the present sin of Ahaz and his people, in forsaking God, and seeking to the king of Assyria for help, as they did, 2Ki 16:6-8.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
11. with a strong handorelse, “when He grasped me with His hand” [HORSLEY].MAURER, as EnglishVersion, “with the impetus of His hand,” that is, thefelt impulse of His inspiration in my mind (Jer 15:17;Eze 1:3; Eze 3:14;Eze 3:22; Eze 37:1).
way of . . . peopletheirdistrust of Jehovah, and the panic which led them and Ahab to seekAssyrian aid.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
For the Lord spake thus to me with a strong hand,…. In the strength of prophecy, as the Targum explains it; and so all the Jews’ interpreters understand it of prophecy, as in Eze 1:3: or, “the Lord spake thus to me, when he took (me) by the hand” t; as parents or masters take hold of the hands of children, while they are advising and instructing them, as expressive of their great affection for them; and when they would retain them with them, or restrain them from doing amiss:
and instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people: or join with them in desiring and seeking for the help of the king of Assyria, against Rezin and Remaliah’s son; or in being willing to surrender up into their hands:
saying; as follows:
t “apprehensione manus”, Piscator; “cum manu me apprehenderit”, Tigurine version.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
There then follows in Isa 8:11 an explanatory clause, which seems at first sight to pass on to a totally different theme, but it really stands in the closest connection with the triumphant words of Isa 8:9, Isa 8:10. It is Immanuel whom believers receive, constitute, and hold fast as their refuge in the approaching times of the Assyrian judgment. He is their refuge and God in Him, and not any human support whatever. This is the link of connection with Isa 8:11, Isa 8:12: “For Jehovah hath spoken thus to me, overpowering me with God’s hand, and instructing me not to walk in the way of this people, saying, Call ye not conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy; and what is feared by it, fear ye not, neither think ye dreadful.” , “ the hand,” is the absolute hand, which is no sooner laid upon a man than it overpowers all perception, sensation, and though: Chezkath hayyad (viz., alai , upon me, Eze 3:14) therefore describes a condition in which the hand of God was put forth upon the prophet with peculiar force, as distinguished from the more usual prophetic state, the effect of a peculiarly impressive and energetic act of God. Luther is wrong in following the Syriac, and adopting the rendering, “taking me by the hand;” as Chezkath points back to the kal ( invalescere ), and not to the hiphil ( apprehendere ). It is this circumstantial statement, which is continued in v’yissereni (“and instructing me”), and not the leading verb amar (“ he said ”); for the former is not the third pers. pret. piel, which would be v’yisserani , but the third pers. fut. kal, from the future form yissor (Hos 10:10, whereas the fut. piel is v’yasser ); and it is closely connected with Chezkath hayyad , according to the analogy of the change from the participial and infinitive construction to the finite verb (Ges. 132, Anm. 2). With this overpowering influence, and an instructive warning against going in the way of “this people,” Jehovah spake to the prophet as follows. With regard to the substance of the following warning, the explanation that has been commonly adopted since the time of Jerome, viz., noli duorum regum timere conjurationem (fear not the conspiracy of the two kings), is contrary to the reading of the words. The warning runs thus: The prophet, and such as were on his side, were not to call that kesher which the great mass of the people called kesher (cf., 2Ch 23:13, “She said, Treason, Treason!” kesher , kesher ); yet the alliance of Rezin and Pekah was really a conspiracy – a league against the house and people of David. Nor can the warning mean that believers, when they saw how the unbelieving Ahaz brought the nation into distress, were not to join in a conspiracy against the person of the king (Hofmann, Drechsler); they are not warned at all against making a conspiracy, but against joining in the popular cry when the people called out kesher . The true explanation has been given by Roorda, viz., that the reference is to the conspiracy, as it was called, of the prophet and his disciples ( “sermo hic est de conjuratione, quae dicebatur prophetae et discipulorum ejus” ). The same thing happened to Isaiah as to Amos (Amo 7:10) and to Jeremiah. Whenever the prophets were at all zealous in their opposition to the appeal for foreign aid, they were accused and branded as standing in the service of the enemy, and conspiring for the overthrow of the kingdom. In such perversion of language as this, the honourable among them were not to join. The way of God was now a very different one from the way of that people. If the prophet and his followers opposed the alliance with Asshur, this was not a common human conspiracy against the will of the king and nation, but the inspiration of God, the true policy of Jehovah. Whoever trusted in Him had no need to be afraid of such attempts as those of Rezin and Pekah, or to look upon them as dreadful.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
11. For thus Jehovah spake to me. Here the Prophet contends against another kind of temptations, that is, against the unbelief of the people; and in order to make that more manifest, it ought to be observed that there were two remarkable temptations, the one external, and the other internal. The external temptation came from professed enemies, such as from the Assyrian; and when the people saw his plundering and cruelty, they thought that all was over with them, because he had brought them almost to utter ruin. The other temptation was internal; for that sacred people, which boasted of having been chosen by God, relied on the assistance of man rather than of God. Now, this was a most dangerous temptation; for it appeared as if that nation, by its unbelief, refused admission to the promises of God, which were daily offered, and which were continually sounded in their ears. And what could the Prophet think, amidst so great perplexity, but that the destruction of this wicked people, which did not cease wickedly to reject the grace of God, was close at hand? The Lord, therefore, determined that both the Prophet and his disciples should be armed against a temptation of this kind.
As if by taking hold of my hand. (129) This is a beautiful metaphor, which the commentators, I think, have not understood. He alludes to fathers or teachers, who, when their words have not sufficient effect, seize the hand of their children or scholars, and hold them so as to compel them to obey. Thus the servants of the Lord are sometimes disposed to throw everything away, because they think that they are laboring to no purpose; but the Lord lays as it were, his hand on them, and holds them fast, that they may go forward in the discharge of their duty. This is well understood to be very necessary, and is actually experienced by all who faithfully serve the Lord; for no temptation is more severe than when they in whom faith ought to dwell revolt; and, in a word, when faith appears to be banished from the world.
This taking hold of the hand is, therefore, highly necessary, because not only are we fickle and liable to unsteadiness, but we are also by nature too much inclined to what is evil, though no one entice us. But if the force of custom be added, we are scarcely master of ourselves. Undoubtedly, we would every moment be driven up and down, were it not that we are held by the powerful government of God, and fix the anchor of constancy in firm ground. Every one of us ought to meditate earnestly on this thought; for though we may be convinced, yet when it comes to the trial we fail, and look at men rather than God. We should, therefore, attend more carefully to this doctrine, and pray to God to hold us, not only by his word but by laying his hand on us.
Besides, it ought to be observed that we are exceedingly disposed to wicked imitation. When we see bad examples, we are drawn to them with great force, and take the example for a law; for when others go before us, we think that we have a right to act in the same manner, and especially when it is not only one or a few persons who have led the way, but the custom has become universal. What is in itself manifestly wrong is concealed by the plausible cloak of public opinion; and not only so, but all are carried, as it were, by the violence of a whirlwind, to adopt an established custom, as if the will of the people had the force of a law to authorize their corruptions. This has not been the fault of a single age, but at the present day it abounds as much or even more than before; for it is an evil deeply seated in all by the corruption of nature, to reckon a prevailing error as a law. Hence arise the superstitions of all ages, and those which at the present day exist in Popery, the origin of which, if it be investigated, will be found to be nothing else than that some persons have drawn others into the same error; and thus almost all have been foolishly caught by the snares of Satan, and the general agreement of men is still the chief foundation of those superstitions. All defend themselves by this weapon. “We are not alone,” say they; “we follow an immense multitude.”
(129) With a strong hand. — Eng. Ver. The marginal reading is, “Heb. in strength of hand. ” — Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
THE CHRISTIAN CONFEDERACY
Isa 8:11-20.
FOR twenty centuries the visible Church of Christ has travelled by a path characterized by many curves. Some of these have been sharp and even striking, and good men have wondered what the new direction meant. To-day that institution stands before diverging paths and is compelled, therefore, to debate which way she shall take, for it is manifestly evident that these paths can never have a common termination; for, Christianity, rightly defined, has come to the crisis of its existence, and its entire future rests with the decision which must at once be made.
The parallelism between Judah and the hour of our text, and Christianity and the hour to which we have come, is at once wonderful and striking. Then there was an unnatural combination of Israel with Syrian foreigners against Judah, and the national theocracy was threatened to the point where the Prophet pointed to God as the only and yet adequate hope. He realized, however, and clearly voiced his conviction, that their salvation from the Lord depended upon their repudiation of a popular confederacy, and their creation of a confederacy of their own, the inspiring spirit of which should be none other than the Lord of Hosts Himself.
The parallelism with the present-day predicament is perfect, and the call of the hour is
A CHRISTIAN CONFEDERACY
Let me hasten at once to define the phrase. The Christian confederacy, as it lies in my mind, is a close fellowship, yea, even an organization, of true and evangelical conservatives; or, if you please, of those men and women, churches, schools, and other Christian institutions, that are willing to take the exact position adopted by Martin Luther when he began his reformation, namely that the Bible is the very Word of God, and is, therefore, and must forever remain, the only rule of faith and practice. The time has fully come for both energetic and persistent propagation of the faith once delivered as the only antidote to that infidelity which has forced its way beyond the very altars of our churches, and is sliming our schools with its deadly saliva. The unmistakable sign of such a confederacy to come exists in the circumstance that within two or three years, God, by the still small voice of His Spirit, has spoken to great Christian leaders in different portions of the great civilized world, upon this subject; and, as they have met in national and international conferences for exchange of thought and feeling, they have again and again stood amazed to discover with what unanimity the Spirit had spoken to individualsseparated by great distances, by denominational names, and even by distinct tongues. It is another illustration of Gods own method of making known His will. To the men who have had ears to hear, there has been a voice behind them saying, This is the way, walk ye in it. To the conservative prophets of our day God is saying again what He said to Isaiah, and through Isaiah, to Israel, Say ye not, A confederacy, etc. (Isa 8:12-20).
How marvelously this portion of Scripture compasses the conception already stated. Such a confederacy as is mentioned here is already in existence, and we are enjoined by the Lord not to accept and adopt it.
Its name is
THE FEDERAL COUNCIL
of the Churches of Christ in America.
It professes to represent more than thirty denominations, it claims to have a co-operative membership of more than seventeen millions.
Its pretentions and appeal while having no such proportions have undoubtedly met with a great and popular response. The bases of this response may be easily discovered. They lie in three things.
It proposes a close interdenominational co-operation; it promises unification of sentiment by a common service; and, it has chosen, as its prominent leaders, special exponents of liberal theology. In each of these facts, it represents the spirit of the times to which we belong.
It proposes a close interdenominational co-operation. That proposition is expressed in its very nameThe Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America. It does not limit its fellowship by any exclusive terms. While it has denied Unitarians representation, it was not so much on the ground of doctrine as in the circumstance of a name. Unitarians have never professed to be Churches of Christ even by the most far-fetched of definitions.
As early as 1912 the Council claimed duly appointed delegates from thirty-two denominations.
The very number of denominations mentioned shows how attenuated is the definition,Churches of Christ. The prominent word therefore, is not Christianity; it is consolidation instead,one of the most popular words of the age to which we belong.
That word was employed first of all in the economic field, and in the interest of commercial advantages; and there it has been so eminently successful that competition is more and more fading from trade, and mergers,known as monopolies more and more control.
Certain men, looked upon by some as great religious leaders, have called attention to this advantage in the economic world, have reminded their auditors and readers that this accrues alike to the monopolist and to the people, and have boldly argued that the churches of the land ought to learn from the children of this generation, who are wiser in their day and generation than the children of light; and that mergers and Christian corporations ought to kill put the denominational competition which has resulted alike in over-churched villages and no-church communities. It is the dream of a great unification!
This Federal Council conception contains features of advantage not to be ignored or despised by any thoughtful man. Beyond all question the bitter denominational debates over minor points, while sometimes resulting in clearer convictions as to Scripture teaching, more often produced anger, wrath, malice, prejudicesanti-Christian results!
Beyond all doubt, Christ intended that there should be place for the play of individual opinions in the interpretation alike of the Scriptures and Himself; and yet hoped that those who might not see eye to eye on other subjects, would ignore their minor differences and unite upon the major bases of their belief.
Again, it is clear that co-operation has advantages in both spirit and method over competition; and that where one man might chase a thousand, two, if united, might put ten thousand to flight. How often has the human chain saved men, just because six or a dozen or twenty men, joined hands and flinging the line out into the surf to the point where the deepest wader, might lay hands upon the endangered or drowning one, and, by a pull all together, bring him to shore.
Men have seen these things so clearly, and realized them with such increasing interest, that the call for a closer denominational affiliation, has met the instant response of great masses of church-members; and this confederacy has been the easy result.
Furthermore, it promises unification of sentiment by a common service. The language of its present President is: Christian efficiency lies not in the effort to get everybody to agree about everything, but in the effort to free the world of sin. It is such a sentiment as excites popular applause! There are so many things wrong in the world that need righting, that leaders in religion and reform can scarcely afford to despise proffered help, particularly if it be offered by good men and they be animated by righteous motives! Their interests are so far identical in character, in matters for instance of sanitation? in the necessity of education, in the improvement of environment, in social needs, and opportunities of social service, that the appeal of co-operation, whenever and wherever possible, strikes the most popular of all cords, and men are reminded of the fact, (and it is a fact)that the more they work together, the better they understand one another; and, that such increasing acquaintance and fellowship of service crucifies needless prejudices and quickens into life mutual appreciations.
That truth is illustrated by every factory and shop in the land. Men of different nationalities, different tongues, different opinions, different sentiments,working side by side, at common tasks, become a sort of brotherhood; and are much less likely to fight among themselves than they are to scrap with the fellows from the factory across the way.
The leaders of the Federal Council have seen this and have said, Lets not debate over our differences; but rather, undertake together common tasks, and our unity of feeling and opinion will necessarily be fostered by our agreement in action.
Its prominent leaders are exponents of liberal theology. The truth of this is put past all dispute by merely calling attention to their names, and reviewing their so-called theological writings. If, by anyone it is denied, the denial would only be in the interest of maintaining the unity for which it stands; and when our attention is called to the names of known conservatives who occupy prominent places, a little study discovers the fact that in every instance they occupy a secondary place, and have been elected to that, in the hope of keeping in line with this movement, radical conservatives.
This liberal leadership is not condemnable, viewed from the standpoint of the Federal Council. The very effort to unite all parties in the present-day denominations makes necessary some recognition of theological conservatives, and equally necessary the leadership of liberals. Conservatism always tends to exclusiveness; Liberalism always manifests toleration; and the very life of such a movement as the Federal Council depends upon toleration. And yet, to prove that toleration is not carried to the point where Christ can be utterly put aside, Unitarians were denied representation in this movement. It thereby keeps the semblance of consistency in the name The Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America.
Why then, is not the Council sufficient? Why should the Lord be supposed to be speaking to certain men, insisting that they should not walk in the way of this people, saying Say not ye, A confederacy, to all them to whom this people shall say, A confederacy; neither fear their fear, nor be afraid speaking to the great leaders in Europe, in England, and in Canada, in the East; in the South, and in the Southwest, in the Northwest, and in the center of the land saying Sanctify the Lord of Hosts Himself: and let Him be your fear, and let Him be your dread. And He shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the House of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And many among them shall stumble, and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken. Bind up the Testimony, seal the Law among My disciples, advising a definite movement which Herbert Booth has well and wisely named
THE CHRISTIAN CONFEDERACY!
What would be the essential difference between such a confederacy and the Federal Council? And what would be the advantages, if any, in the latter as against the former? And what could possibly be the justification of a new movement, at a time when religious movements are already confessedly over-multiplied?
Let us understand first of all:
Its very birth must come of unity in Biblical faith. The men who have thought about such a movement, and who have conferred together about its inauguration, and who now have in mind the calling of a great convention that shall represent alike a mighty constituency of the Old and New World, are one in their unshaken faith that the Bible is the very Word of God, and Christ is the very Son of God, and the Cross the only way of salvation. Think of our Saviours prayer concerning His disciples, and in the name of the proper exegesis, omit not its main pointThat they all may be one; as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in us. To what end? That they might be unified in endeavor? No! that they might cease from bickerings and debates? No!; that they might undertake the task of cleaning up a nasty world? No!; that they might even join hands in the endeavor to save men from sin? No! But THAT THE WORLD MAY BELIEVE THAT THOU HAST SENT ME. There is no sentence possible to human thought or speech that could more clearly express at once the authority of the Bible, the Deity of Christ, and the philosophy of the Divine plan of salvation, than does that sentiment; and the people who are one in these things, scattered through the different denominations, are today the absolute answer of God to the prayer of His Son.
It was after A. J. F. Behrends came back to the faith from which he had temporarily drifted, that he said: The angel of unity is our pillar of cloud and fire, and always has been; and we knew it not. We ache and pray for that which has already come. Can it be that our Lords prayer has remained unanswered, all these centuries? For myself, at least, the years have taught me, that we need to say we are one, as well as to pray that we may be one. I have learned that the unities of the Christian faith are more mighty and majestic than the differences. I have grasped the hand of many a Catholic layman and priest, when at the clasp of palms and mutual greetings the yawning chasm vanished.
Certainly! The man who is in the Catholic Church, but has the experience of the grace of God, (as some of them have unquestionably had,) entertains an unshaken confidence in the Bible, seeking thereby to conform his conduct and form his character, who accepts Jesus Christ as the very Son of God, and His sufferings on Calvary as the atonement for his sin, is a thousandfold more my brother than the man who belongs to my denomination in name, but in fact repudiates all of these fundamentals of the Christian faith. The time has come, in the Northland at least, when it makes a thousandfold less difference to many of us as to the denominational label than it does as to the doctrinal life. We know that two men, belonging to different denominations, may hold identical bases, and we know that two belonging to the same denomination, and that, evangelical in name, are, again and again, as remote apart as the Unitarian and Trinitarian, as far removed from one another in convictions, and conceptions as the skeptic is removed from the believer, and sometimes as remote as the atheist is from the Christian. Think of the incongruity of calling I. M. Haldeman and Geo. Burman Foster both Baptists; of naming Reginald Campbell and Campbell Morgan both Congregationalists, labeling L. W. Munhall and the late Professor Terry both Methodists, of defining Pastor Mark Matthews and President Francis Brown as alike Presbyterians! Has the sentence of the Old Testament lost its significance entirely Can two walk together except they be agreed? Has the symbolism of Deuteronomy no longer any spiritual significanceThou shalt not plow with the ox and the ass together? Is there no longer any typical truth in the command Thou shalt not wear a garment of divers sorts, as of woolen and linen? Can we afford, just because we fling over it the name Christian for a covering, the philosophy of an Ingersol, and say, You have your opinion and I have mine, let it go! Lets join hands and be good fellows? Is Johns (1Jn 2:9-11) injunction not to receive the rejecter of Christ out of date? Has the day arrived when Judes certain men, crept in unawares? instead of being now condemned as ministers of the devil, because they preach a bloodless righteousness, denying the very Christ that bought them, are to be called brothers; and, are we to labor together when a part of our company reject the Scriptures repudiate the Virgin Birth, excoriate the claims of the supernatural, and bring the God of the Old Testament to the level of a tribal deity, and the God of the New to that of a Jewish bastard? Has the hour arrived when men who are in Israel, but not of her, (in the Church, but not of Christ) can form an alliance with her enemies and the true worshiper give his consent to the compact?
Should the world marvel, when such a confederacy is attempted, that God should speak to certain men, saying, Walk not in the way of this people; join not a confederacy of this kind! Sanctify the Lord of Hosts, Himself, and let Him be your fear. Has the time come when Truth is tolerant and willing to compromise with error, when light should enter into communion with darkness; and righteousness into fellowship with unrighteousness, and believers should voluntarily yoke themselves with unbelievers, and Christ come into concord with Belial, and the disciples join hands with the infidels, in service? (2Ti 4:1).
Without at all attempting to name individuals, but standing upon the broad plain of what so-called religious leaders have themselves professed and put into print, there are scores of us, who believe that the Word of the LordCome ye out from among them, and be ye separate looks to another confederacy altogether, namely, a confederacy in Biblical faith; to a better brotherhood,namely one that shall seek to let the world know that Godaccording to the authority of the Scripturessent His only begotten Son,Christ, and if we are not one in Him we are not one at all!
Truly the time has come for the re-affirmation of the Apostles Creed, and the fellowship that follows the same: I believe in God the Father Almighty; and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, begotten before all worlds, the very God of very God, who for us came down from Heaven and was conceived of the Virgin Mary by the Holy Ghost. And the only Church that is worthy to wear His Name must be that holy Church throughout all the world which does acknowledge the Father, of infinite majesty, His true and only Son, and the Holy Ghost, the Comforter.
The value of such a confederacy would depend upon its loyalty to Biblical precepts. The time has come when the so-called Christian church is somewhat equally distributed among the advocates of an infallible Consciousness, an infallible Church, and an infallible Book. No one contends that all of these are infallible; and that to believe any one of them is sufficient in the sight of God; while to believe in them all is an additional merit! On the other hand, they have created partitions in the Church of Christ, far more positive than any ever known as denominational barriers! Just as Rome, by adopting an infallible Church, repudiated the infallibility of the Book, so liberal theology, in adopting an infallible Consciousness compel the Book to step aside when that Consciousness and Revelation are in apparent conflict. The repudiation of Revelation by Rome, and the adoption of the Infallible Church resulted in the Traditionalism that accounts for the Dark Ages; but the adoption of an inner religious consciousness as against an external revelation, has resulted in Rationalism and Materialism which increasingly read God out of His own universe and has flung over half of the world into the horrors of a hellish war!
The true Christian confederacy will make its every appeal to the exact source to which Christ turned in defense alike of teaching and conduct, namelythe Sacred Scriptures; and insist that not only creeds and opinions be corrected thereby, but our conduct as well. The heresy of modern times is no more in theological thinking than it is in individual living! As Herbert Booth has remarked, It is not sufficient to rally around a standard of doctrine only. False doctrine is not the sole cause of the Churchs stagnation and defeat; it is not even the chief cause! Her worldliness, self-indulgence and backsliding are even more potent reasons. And only a Confederacy that does call professed Christians unto more righteous living, as well as to more correct thinking, will accomplish aught for the world.
However, never let it be forgotten that as a man thinketh, so is he! Sound teaching is absolutely essential to sound practice. The relation between the two is that of cause and effect; and if such a confederacy as Booth has named, and scores of our greatest teachers have dreamed and desired is now to be inaugurated, it must mean for ministers of the Gospel and for laymen alike, a call to higher living; to a course of conduct that will honor Christ; that will exalt the spiritual and repudiate the sensual; that will not invite criticism from the world, but, rather, set before it an example upon which Christ could put His approval, and into which He will dare to put His Holy Spirit.
The rapidity of its growth will rest with the affiliation of covenant-forces. By covenant-forces I mean such individuals and organizations as will be ready to enter into such a covenant as would concede forever the question of the authority of the Scriptures, the Deity of Christ, the personality and power of the Holy Spirit, salvation by the atonement, separateness from the world, the consecration of self to the cause of Jesus Christ, an acceptation of the scriptural Second Coming of the Lord; and, a confederacy with others, to bear our witness, in this generation, to all the nations of the earth.
For such an affiliation, or confederacy, we have numerous individuals and organizations ready and waiting. Hundreds of the most eminent preachers of the world, made up of the very men who believe in a stand for the things afore mentioned, should link their hands and recognize the answer to their Lords prayer, namely that they are essentially one. Within a few years there have sprung up in America and the Old World multitudes of Bible conferences! Almost without exception these are conducted by the very men whose unity of faith is the marvel of the hour. They should be related, become a chain with which our God could join together the evangelical forces of the land. In this same period, Bible Training Schools have started up to speak the shibboleth of the Scripture, and to turn back the wave of skepticism created by the very breath of those theological seminaries that have adopted so-called Modernism. And, to these individual leaders and these mighty and increasing instructors, should be added the Lords little flock out of every church, whose confidence in the Bible and in Christ, has remained unshaken!
When such a fellowship is created, and when the hands of such men are linked, and such instructors are correlated, the tide of criticism, largely German in origin, will find that it has met a more stubborn resistance than German soldiers met at Verdun! Some of us believe that such a movement is as sure as God lives; and that before it the infidelity which has characterized, divided and cursed our churches, is destined to constant warfare, if not an ignominious defeat.
Out of this Christian Confederacy must come an educational process that will reach to the uttermost parts of the earth! Text-books for the use of Bible Schools must be provided, and conservative literature that shall be used to the ends of the earth should come from the same. It is nothing less than intolerable to longer consent to liberalism in our Sunday School instruction. The whole subject of evangelism should be clearly presented and only evangelists who know the evangel tolerated in our believing bodies; and with this movement evangelism itself should be forever linked with that social service which is not born of the moderns philosophy, but is the very breath of the Christian religion, and will be rendered not in the power of mans invention, but in the demonstration of the Spirit.
What then, is the conclusion, save
THE CALL OF THE CROSS
It is a call to consecration for the professing Christian. There has never been an hour when that call was as loud as now. The boasted brotherhood of man has broken down, and all over Europe, and in parts of Asia, and in great sections of the American continent, battle and blood tramples brotherhood under unholy feet. And yet men learn so slowly that all over America we are adopting now the very philosophy (Militarism) exploited in Germany, France and England for the betterment, and even the salvation of men! It is all in vain, apart from Him whose Name we bear, to whom alone we owe our first, last, and eternal allegiance. In the language of Henry Mabie, We are not to stop short of complete crucifixion of everything that stands between us and obedience to His will. The Pauline confession is the idea for us, I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I that live; but Christ liveth in me, and that life which I now live in the flesh, I live in the faith which is in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself up for me. If in the language of the great French preacher Lacordaire, The church was born crucified then the weakness of the hour may be due to the circumstance that we have healed the wound, and how else can we break it than by a crucifixion of the flesh of the individual who enters into this membershipsuch a crucifixion as would fill up that which is left of the sufferings of Christ.
The language of Father Ryan is apropos
Our dim eyes ask a beacon, and our weary feet a guide,
And our hearts of all lifes mysteries seek the meaning and the key;
And a cross gleams oer our pathway, on it hangs the Crucified,
And He answers all our yearnings by the whisper Follow Me.
It is a call to reformation for the professing church. Mark you, I employ the phrase the professing church knowing full well that there is a profession in the churches to which there is no corresponding possession. To be sure, we need again the spirit of a Luther to declare the truth of Gods Word, The just shall live by faith; but we need, none the less, the return of Careys spirit to put our convictions into action; for much of the church, reformation is not sufficient; regeneration is needed rather; but for practically all of it, reformation.
In the judgment of some of us the professing church has not only grown great branches but developed certain leaves under the shadow of which fowls of the air have indeed taken refuge in the form of University and College presidents, liberal pastors, theological professors, instructors in biology, geology, paleontology philosophy and related themes,who prove their loyalty to the prince of the power of the air, by their scoffs at Scripture, their rejection of Jesus, their insistence upon Darwinism, their exaltation of Man! It is not at all certain that these branches can be cut away or the occupants of the church tree dislodged from their comfortable perches, but it is clear that the children of the King can give to the world an exhibition of a truer church within the church, and preach the Word of life in the power of the same Spirit who came upon Peter at Pentecost, and endowed Paul in the old days! Truly, in the language of Sir Robert Anderson, It is essential now to distinguish between the church as a society the administration of which was entrusted to men on earth, and the Church as the Body of Christ, dependent only upon Himself as its Lord and Head. And, we ought to enhearten ourselves with the thought that the building up of the Church, which is His body, is His own work, and that it cannot fail. The gates of hell have prevailed against the organized Society, the outward frame, as Alford calls it, and is pushing it more and more to the point of apostasyforetold in Scripture.
But there is a Church within the church, against which those gates will not, and cannot prevail the true Body of Christ. To attempt to name that Body would be at once foolish, and, in the judgment of the world (in the church and out of the church,) would be an egoism and an assumption, equally condemnable. No man knows! But we believe that the exaltation of the Name of Christ will result in a demonstration of the true Church, and that there will gather to the standard that exalts His Name above every name, the true men and women of God throughout the length and breadth of the land; and that that confederacy will increasingly correspond to the Church, which is His Body. It ought not to be forgotten that the word Eagle is the Old Testament typical word for saint, and that in speaking of Christ, it is said that where the body is thither will the eagles be gathered together.
Finally, It is a call to world-evangelization in this generation. There never was a more futile hope than that which men are now urging in a multitude of ministries. Like the host that went forth in Gideons day, they are too many! Too many by all those that bend not the knee acknowledging the Deity of Christ; too many by all those that drink not from the wells of salvation; (the Word) too many by all those that scorn the efficiency of the shed Blood!
If every foreign missionary who denies the authority of the Book, the Virgin Birth, the Biblical report of the supernaturalinvolving all miracle working, the resurrection of Christ includedwere dismissed from service at once, we would be instantly nearer the discharge of our province of preaching this Gospel of the Kingdom in all the world for a witness. They that preach another Gospel are not aiding in the Great Commission; and Paul tells us in no uncertain speech that such as are removing from Him that called them unto the grace of Christ, were preaching another Gospel, and though they be angels from Heaven, are not under blessing, but rather, under curse. The very life of the Commission depends upon elimination from among the commissioned, of both the skeptics and critics. Paradoxical as it may sound, there is a decrease that looks to multiplication. When in the old day certain ones went out from the Church because they were not of it, the Church was not weaker but stronger! The Gospel went forward with greater rapidity after the apostate Demas had ceased to speak than it ever could have, had he continued.
It remains now, as it ever has, for the Church within the church, to realize the responsibility of world evangelism. In the language of A. J. F. Behrends, The missionary spirit is its beating heart, and animating breath. The lifted Christ is the adequate Magnet to draw diverging lines together, and cement His followers not only into a unity of feeling, but into a magnanimity of endeavor, making possible this testimony in all nations in this generation.
The Call of the Cross is the Call of the Christ, and as we look into the face of the rising youth of our churches the call becomes a command Pray! We must pray for men who believe God; who receive His Word: who trust His only begotten Son; who are brothers in Christ because supernaturally begotten, and in whose brotherhood is the only hope of either the true Church or the sinning, sinking world!
Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley
THREATENED, BUT SAFE
Isa. 8:9-10. Associate yourselves, O ye people, and ye shall be broken in pieces, &c.
This is a shout of triumphant defiance which Ahaz and his people might have raised, had they listened to Isaiahs counsels, and turned to the Lord with full purpose of heart. Then they might have been threatened by foes numerous, powerful, determined, and confederated, but they would have been safe. Its doctrine clearly is, that it matters not who may be against us, if God be with us. This has been the faith of Gods people in all generations.
I. On what ground does it rest?
1. On what may be regarded as a settled conviction of the human mind, that this world, disordered as it is, is really governed by a righteous Ruler, omnipotent and all-wise, and that it must be well with those who have Him on their side.
2. On the declarations of Gods Word (Gen. 15:1; Psa. 34:7; Isa. 54:17, &c.)
3. On the experience of His people as recorded in His Word. The promise to Abraham was kept; David (1Sa. 17:37); Hezekiah (2Ki. 19:32-35); Daniel and his companions (Dan. 6:22; Dan. 3:28); Peter (Act. 12:7). On these accounts His people have felt and expressed the utmost contempt for, and defiance of, their foes (Psa. 27:1-6; Mic. 7:8-10). Old as these utterances are, they express the confidence of countless thousands to-day. But, II. Let us look at the grounds that might cause us to hesitate to receive it.
1. There is the undoubted fact that we are living in a world in which many things happen that are contrary to what we would have expected; and it would be only one more contradiction of our priori expectations if a good man, or a number of good men, were utterly destroyed by a number of bad men.
2. As a matter of fact, this has often happened. Who were the noble army of martyrs, but good men who suffered intolerable wrongs, and were put to cruel deaths? If Peter was delivered, James, his fellow-apostle, was left to his fate (Act. 12:2); yea, Peter himself at last died by the hands of the executioner, as did nearly all the Apostles. See what a terrible record of the sufferings of righteous men we have in Heb. 11:35-37.
III. How are these two sets of facts to be harmonised? How account for it that, notwithstanding the latter set, which are obvious and not denied, it is still the settled conviction of pious and otherwise sensible men, that it shall be well with the righteous?
1. This is undoubtedly true, on the whole. We see what is the teaching of experience, taken on any considerable scale, in the familiar proverb, Honesty is the best policy. Deadly as is the conflict between the powers of good and of evil, on the whole, the victory is on the side of goodness, of righteousness, of truth. The world grows better, not worse (H. E. I. 1161, 1162). And it is manifest that godliness has the promise of the life that now is, as well of that which is to come.
2. The exceptions to which our attention is directed are necessary. Without them the difficulties in the way of the existence and growth of virtue would be immensely increased. If those who served God ran no risk in doing so, it would be as difficult for them to show that they loved Him for His own sake, as it would be for soldiers to prove their bravery, if it were possible to send them forth to battle in absolutely impregnable armour. If the safety assured to Gods people were absolute and without exceptions, there would be no room for the exercise of faith and loyalty.
3. This life is not all. It is but the prelude to our real existence; and for whatever we suffer in Gods cause here, we shall be abundantly compensated hereafter. So that, with Sir Thomas More, we may say, They may take off my head, but hurt me they cannot.
This is a plain and sober statement of the facts of this great problem. What are the practical inferences to be drawn from it?
1. Let us dismiss from our minds all fears for the cause of truth and rightcousness. That is safe (2Co. 13:8). Gods Church and Gods Word will survive all the assaults that are made upon them (H. E. I. 642645, 12461251, 2449).
2. Let us not be greatly concerned as to what may happen to ourselves. If God pleases, He can deliver us from any danger that may threaten us. If He is not pleased to do so, He knows how to make our sufferings promote the cause we have at heart. The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church (P. D. 2421, 2422, 2426).
3. If we are called to suffer, let us rejoice (Php. 1:29; 2Ti. 2:9; P. D. 2419).
BIBLICAL POLITICIANS
Isa. 8:11-15. For the Lord spake thus to me with a strong hand, &c. [844]
[844] There was a general panic among the people: their heart was moved as the trees of the wood are moved by the wind, when they heard that Syria was confederate with Ephraim; their cry was everywhere, A confederacy has been made against us, and we must meet it by a counter-alliance with Assyria; and the prophet says that he too should have fallen under the influence of this panic, if Jehovah had not laid hold of him with a strong hand, to keep him in the way of dependence on Himself, and if He had not taught him to escape the fear which possessed his fellow-countrymen, by making the Lord of hosts his fear and his dread, by sanctifying Him himself, as he now in His Name calls on them to do. To sanctify Jehovah is in mind and practice to recognise Him as the holy God, the Lord who is absolute (absolutus), free from the limitations which hinder all other beings from carrying their wills into full operation, and to believe with the whole heart that God does and can govern all things according to the counsel of His own will, and that what He determines does certainly come to pass, however probabilities and appearances may be against the belief (Num. 20:12; Deu. 32:51; Isa. 29:23). To the nation which thus sanctifies Jehovah, He (says Isaiah) will be their sanctuarytheir protection against all their enemies. Such was His original covenant with both the houses of Israel, and it still holds good. If, therefore, they will break and renounce it, it becomes a stumbling-block to them. When their statesmen endeavour to remedy present mischief and secure future prosperity, by craftily playing off against one another the nations whom they cannot hope to match by force, they are attempting to go counter to the whole plan of Jehovahs government, and they will do it only to their own confusion.Strachey.
Gods people are to be a peculiar people. Their whole life is to be governed by divine principles.
1. By these principles they will be saved from the grievous practical heresy of abstention from public life [847] Civilised life, especially in a free community, is a partnership, and no man has a right to take all the advantages of a partnership and evade all its labours and obligations. Owe no man anything. We are bound to labour as well as pray, that Gods will may be done on earth as it is done in heaven. The result of abstention on the part of Christian men from public life is the domination of bad men, and the employment of the resources of the community for evil purposes (Psa. 12:8). If we need example in this matter, we have the example of the prophets, who were much more than preachers of a monastic piety: they were active politicians, and yet politicians of an utterly unworldly type.
2. By these principles they will be guided and kept amid all the duties and difficulties of public life. They will be uplifted above party spirit in all its narrow and debasing forms. Theirs will be that true patriotism which consists in a steady loyalty to truth, and righteousness, and mercy.
[847] H. E. I. 41374139.
If we are to be Biblical politicians, and this is the duty of every man among us,
I. We shall not necessarily be found on the side of the majority (Isa. 8:11). How often Gods people have been called to stand in what is called a miserable minority! (Exo. 23:2.)
II. We shall not necessarily adopt as our own the popular cries (Isa. 8:12, [850]). Vox populi is often far other than Vox Dei.
[850] The prophet, and such as were on his side, were not to call that kesher which the great mass of the people called kesher (cf. 2Ch. 23:13, She said, Treason, treason! Kesher, kesher!); the reference is to the conspiracy, as it was called, of the prophet and his disciples. The same thing happened to Isaiah as to Amos (Amo. 7:10) and to Jeremiah. Whenever the prophets were at all zealous in their opposition to the appeal for foreign aid, they were accused and branded as standing in the service of the enemy, and conspiring for the overthrow of the kingdom.Delitzsch.
III. We shall not necessarily share in the prevalent feelings of our time, whether they be those of fear or of hope (Isa. 8:13). We shall know that no permanent hurt can be done to our nation while it is in pursuit of righteousness, and that no real advantage can be gained by methods that will not bear the divine scrutiny.
IV. Our supreme desire will be, not to conciliate men, but to please God (Isa. 8:13). We shall consider all public questions, and vote for, or withhold our vote from, all public men, as in His sight (Heb. 11:27). This may cause us often to cut ourselves off from our party, but this will not trouble us. Hostility may thus be excited against uswill be excited against us, for such impracticable men are the abhorrence of mere politicians; but then God Himself will be to us for a sanctuary [851]
[851] Mikdash generally means the sanctified place or sanctuary, with which the idea of an asylum would easily associate itself, since even among the Israelites the Temple was regarded and respected as an asylum (1Ki. 1:50; 1Ki. 2:28). Mikdash is really to be taken in this sense, although it cannot be exactly rendered asylum, since this would improperly limit the meaning of the word. The Temple was not only a place of shelter, but also of grace, blessing, and peace. All who sanctified the Lord of lords He surrounded like temple walls; hid them in Himself, whilst death and tribulation reigned without, and comforted, fed, and blessed them in His own gracious fellowship (chap. Isa. 4:5-6; Psa. 27:5; Psa. 31:20).Delitzsch.
V. We shall never lose sight of the fact that the penalty of ungodliness in public life is ruin (Isa. 8:14-15). The real Ruler of the world is God, who governs it according to a plan of truth, righteousness, and mercy; and every human policy which is not consistent therewith, though it may win for its authors a short-lived triumph, will inevitably plunge those who accept it into disaster. From those who fight against God, utter defeat cannot be far off.
When these facts are inwrought into the understandings and consciences of Gods people, and have become influential in their public and political life, much will have been done to usher in the millennium for which we daily pray, and of which Isaiah himself has given us such glowing pictures (chaps. Isa. 2:4, Isa. 32:16-17; Isa. 60:17).
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
(11) For the Lord spake thus to me.We enter on a new section, separated, probably, by a short interval of time, but dealing with the same subject. In the strong hand we have an anthropomorphic phrase, implying a specially high degree of the intensity of inspiration (1Ki. 18:46; 2Ki. 3:15; Eze. 1:3; Eze. 3:14; Eze. 3:22; Eze. 8:1; Eze. 37:1). Something had occurred which brought the prophet into a state like that of St. Paul in Act. 17:16; Act. 18:5. Indignation and zeal were roused to their highest point, and were able to resist all human pressure from without. The result was a lesson which was to be specially impressed on the disciples who gathered round the prophet.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
11. The Lord spake thus to me with a strong hand With strength of hand, that is, with mighty inspiring power. Passages in Eze 1:3; Eze 3:14; Eze 3:22; Eze 11:5; Eze 33:32; Eze 37:1, offer the same or similar usage of the word “hand,” “hand of God upon,” etc., and justify this interpretation. God imparted to Isaiah on the matters stated above, an especially strong prophetic impulse.
And instructed me Warned me against walking in the way of this people in their distrust of Jehovah, in their inclination to the court policy and to popular factions, or clamouring for foreign human aid. And for persuading this people to trust in Jehovah only, and to sever themselves from those rejecting Jehovah, a cry was probably raised against the prophet and his adherents. In this crisis, imparting a mighty influence to Isaiah, Jehovah spake thus, that is, what follows in the next verse.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Meanwhile Isaiah And His Followers Are Not To Align Themselves With Any Political Party. All Are Heading For Disaster. Rather He Must Seal The Testimony of Yahweh ( Isa 8:11-18 ).
In the light of this future hope Isaiah now calls on the faithful to stand firm. Like him they must renounce the present conspiracies that are rivalling each other, (what he describes as, ‘the way of this people’). On the one hand are one set of plotters saying ‘we must persuade the king to yield to Syria and Ephraim or else we will be destroyed’, on the other another set saying, ‘we must persuade him to gain the help of the king of Assyria, or we are done for’, and possibly a third set muttering ‘we must persuade him to put our trust in Egypt, for they have promised to save us’. But the common factor is that they are all seeking to put their trust in men. What his followers must do, however, is put all their hope and trust in God for the future. If He is the One Whom they fear, and in Whom they put their trust, they will find Him to be all the sanctuary that they need, and this will be in direct contrast with those who see such an idea as a stumbling stone, and God’s call to faith in Him as a rock of offence. The attitude of such people to Him and His call to faith will trip them up and bring them crashing down.
So like him what his disciples must do is seal up his words, and wait for Yahweh to act in His own way, and have nothing to do with conspiracies. For while He is as yet hiding His face from Judah, nevertheless He has given an indication of what lies ahead for both houses of Israel (Israel and Judah) in the naming of Isaiah’s two sons, ‘a remnant will return’ and ‘haste the spoil, speed the prey’. And all this in the light of their expectation of the coming of Immanuel. So while at first they must expect disaster, in the end they can be sure of restoration.
Analysis.
a For Yahweh spoke thus to me with a strong hand (literally ‘strength of hand’), and instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people (Isa 8:11).
b Saying, “Do not say (the verb is plural) ‘a conspiracy’ concerning all of which this people say ‘a conspiracy’, nor fear their fear, nor be in dread (Isa 8:12).
c Yahweh of hosts, Him you will sanctify, and let Him be your fear, and let Him be your dread, and He shall be for a sanctuary (Isa 8:13-14 a).
d But for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel,
d For a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and many will stumble on it and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken (Isa 8:14-15)
c Bind up the testimony. Seal the Instruction (Torah – the Law) among those whom I have taught (Isa 8:16).
b And I will wait for Yahweh who hides His face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for Him (Isa 8:17).
a Behold I, and the children whom Yahweh has given me, are for signs and for wonders in Israel from Yahweh of hosts who dwells in mount Zion (Isa 8:18).
In ‘a’ Yahweh speaks to Isaiah with a strong hand telling him not to walk in the way of the people, and in the parallel his children are for signs and wonders from Yahweh. In ‘b’ his people are not to look to conspiracies, but rather, in the parallel, are to wait for Yahweh and look for Him. In c’ they are to set apart Yahweh as holy, and in the parallel are to bind up His testimony and seal His instruction among his disciples. In ‘d’ Yahweh will be a stumbling stone and rock which causes offence and in the parallel will be a snare and a cause of stumbling to all who do not believe.
Isa 8:11-14
‘For Yahweh spoke thus to me with a strong hand (literally ‘strength of hand’), and instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people, saying, “Do not say (the verb is plural) ‘a conspiracy’ concerning all of which this people say ‘a conspiracy’, nor fear their fear, nor be in dread. Yahweh of hosts, him you will sanctify, and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread, and he shall be for a sanctuary.’
Isaiah now comes back to his present situation. He stresses that in some way which he does not describe Yahweh has spoken powerfully and emphatically to him, ‘with a strong hand’. This might suggest some unpleasant experience that he had had to go through. Possibly this had been necessary because he and his followers had begun to entangle themselves with an anti-Assyria party who would have been happy to enrol such an important figure in their cause. But, as Yahweh had warned him emphatically, they were not to get caught up in conspiracies, or rumours of conspiracies, but were simply to trust in Him.
Judah was clearly rife with conspiracies, with each seeing the other parties as guilty of conspiracy and being filled with dread because of it, and because of what they saw as coming if they had their way. Fear was on every side, for all were afraid of what might come on them if their own idea was not followed. There would be the pro-Israel and Syria party, the anti-Assyria party, the pro-Assyria party, the pro-Egyptian party, and so on. We must recognise that these threats on the horizon were real. On the one hand Syria and Israel were even then about to invade. On the other was the dislike and fear of the ultra-foreign king of Assyria, which was strong among many. A third group were convinced that submission to Assyria was the only hope. But those, including the king, who saw hope nowhere else, must still have been apprehensive. So Jerusalem and Judah were divided in their thoughts. None of the choices really looked appealing. Conspiracy theories abounded everywhere. To them it was just a matter of finding the least disastrous of the alternatives.
But Isaiah was told that he and his followers were not to get entangled with any of these. Rather they were to set their hearts on Yahweh. They were to set ‘Yahweh of hosts’ apart in their minds, and thoughts, and behaviour and think only of Him and His will. By fearing and dreading Him they would be freed from any other fear and dread, and would be a testimony to those around them. And by doing this they would discover that Yahweh really was the true and reliable sanctuary, in contrast with all these false sanctuaries.
But while the sanctuary was a place of safety for those seeking protection the thought is more than that. It was also a holy place, it was the sanctuary of God. Thus they would receive not just protection, but positive sustenance and strength. Yahweh would be their strength, set apart in their hearts.
Isa 8:14-15
‘But for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And many will stumble on it and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken.’
However to others Yahweh would instead be a stone which caused men to trip up, a rock which caused them to stumble. Because they had wrong ideas about Him and His will, through refusing to consider and believe His word (Isa 8:16), they would be led astray and go forward into disaster. They were not the first or the last to think that God was on their side whatever they purposed and however they thought. But they would soon discover otherwise.
‘Both houses of Israel’, that is, Israel and Judah. Both still come within the ambit of God’s warnings through Isaiah. Both could still listen if they would. But they will not, and therefore they will stumble as a result of what they believe about Yahweh. Their wrong belief and ideas lead will lead them into disaster.
‘For a gin and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.’ God’s people under David were politically split into three parts, Israel, Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. The last named saw their city primarily as the city of David rather than as of Judah. But all three parts will find themselves entrapped by their wrong beliefs about Yahweh, especially Jerusalem.
‘And many will stumble on it, and fall and be broken, and be snared and be taken.’ So this stone of stumbling and snare will bring many to disaster. They will fall and be broken, they will be snared and taken, stumbling along, tripping over obstacles, and then finding themselves caught in a snare, and all because they have the wrong ideas about God.
The Sealing of Isaiah’s Testimony In The Light Of The Coming King.
Having come to the end of this part of his ministry Isaiah now arranges for his words to be recorded and sealed. He warns that men must either look to God’s Instruction (Law) and His word through Isaiah, and trust in Him, or must walk in darkness and come to despair. Then he elucidates what he has prophesied in Isa 7:14. Finally the great expected king will come and he will bring light to all who receive him, and the everlasting kingdom will be established (Isa 9:1-7). It is simply a question of believing and trusting until that time.
Isa 8:16-18
‘Bind up the testimony. Seal the Instruction (Torah – the Law) among those whom I have taught. And I will wait in expectancy for Yahweh who hides his face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for him. Behold I, and the children whom Yahweh has given me, are for signs and for wonders in Israel from Yahweh of hosts who dwells in mount Zion.’
‘Bind’ and ‘seal’ are in the singular. Isaiah now gives instructions (we are not told to whom, but it was clearly to a trusted follower) for his testimony (possibly Isa 6:1 to Isa 8:15) and the teaching of the Law which he has expounded to them, to be bound up and sealed. They are to be kept among his followers as a sealed and witnessed testimony to what he has prophesied and taught. They alone have been privileged to know the truth, and it must be preserved so that future generations may know what God had told all of Israel and Judah to do. Then they will see that the coming disasters were not His fault. Meanwhile Isaiah himself will wait for Yahweh, Whose face is at present hidden from the house of Jacob (all Israel and Judah), and will look for Him. He will await with expectancy the fulfilment of the promises of judgment, and of the glorious future beyond. All is within God’s timing and he is confident in God.
The hiding of the face from the house of Judah is in contrast with the general thought of His face shining on them (Num 6:25; Psa 31:16; Psa 67:1; Psa 80:3; Psa 80:7; Psa 80:19). Previously His face had shone on them. Even recently they had just enjoyed the good times during the reign of Uzziah. Now He has withdrawn His face and presence from them for a little while so that it no longer shines on them. But if only all would trust in Yahweh He would bring them through unscathed. (In the Psalms His face shines on them that they might be saved). Thus Isaiah knows that he must learn yet more from God that he may continue to appeal to them.
Some, however, see the first instruction, ‘Bind up — among those whom I have taught (my instructed ones)’, as given by Yahweh to Isaiah.
‘Behold I, and the children whom Yahweh has given me, are for signs and for portents in Israel from Yahweh of hosts who dwells in mount Zion.’ But God’s truth need not have been hidden from the people. They had had a clear testimony. The first sign was Isaiah himself, and his name (‘in Yahweh is salvation’) and his vivid experience of Yahweh. And then there were his children, Shearjashub (‘a remnant shall return’) and Maher-shalal-hash-baz (‘haste the spoil, speed the prey’). All three were for signs and for portents among them. And they were given by Yahweh of hosts from His holy hill, from His dwellingplace in Mount Zion. It was indeed on Mount Zion that Isaiah had had his unique experience and call (chapter 6) and from which he had come with his testimony to the people as a prophet from God. So he especially had cause to know that Mount Zion was where Yahweh came to reveal Himself, and where He had revealed Himself. Thus he could not understand why the people would not trust the ever present Yahweh
So he is reminding all that they should not forget that God has been pleased to place His earthly dwellingplace among them on the holy mount, symbolised by the Ark of the covenant of Yahweh, and has sent Isaiah as a sign and a portent through his revelation of God’s truth, and through his children, with their unusual names (‘a remnant shall return’ and ‘haste the spoil, speed the prey’), especially Maher-shalal-hash-baz whose birth had been so mysteriously proclaimed on the public tablet beforehand. What more evidence do they need?
We should note when interpreting these passages that Isaiah was equally a sign and portent with his sons. Indeed more so. He was the major sign. They were only involved because of his prophetic ministry. Thus the emphasis here is on God’s revelation through Isaiah, which has included the giving of unusual prophetic names to his sons. His being a sign and portent may well be especially referring back to his experience of chapter 6 on the holy mount. (Thus the new sign of Immanuel was not referring to these signs, for there all the attention had been on Immanuel). Note that we have here the threefold sign of Isaiah and his two sons.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Isa 8:11. For the Lord spake thus In the subsequent part of this sermon; the prophet sets forth with what disposition of mind those worldly events are to be received, which threaten destruction to the church: he renews, for the comfort of the pious, the great promise of the Messiah, and denounces the most grievous judgments, spiritual and temporal, upon the impious, incredulous, and profane. We have, first, a reproof of the depraved and improper disposition of the carnal and profane men among the Jews towards God and his providence, Isa 8:11-12. Secondly; advice concerning a proper disposition towards God, a sound judgment of his ways, and our necessary duty in doubtful cases, Isa 8:13. And, thirdly, a prophetical declaration of the tremendous judgment of God, which would be manifested towards men of either disposition in the time of the Messiah; for the consolation and salvation of the good, though few, and for the destruction of the evil: Isa 8:14 to ch. Isa 9:7. With a strong hand, in this verse, is rendered in the Chaldee, In the strength of prophesy: it seems to refer to those extasies wherein the prophets were frequently rapt. See Eze 1:3 and Jer 15:17. The prophet observed, that his former prophesy was received by many with admiration; it promised safety and deliverance to the people, when all things appeared desperate: he therefore thinks proper to explain the reason upon which he had spoken so confidently respecting these things; and at the same time sets forth such other matters as refer to this prophesy; namely, that God, while the prophet himself was rather inclined to fear amid such great dangers, and began to hesitate in his mind, laid hold of him with a strong hand, restrained him in his office, and efficaciously persuaded him not to fear that which was not to be feared, like a carnal people void of all confidence in God; that he should not suffer himself to be terrified with the name or the reality of a confederacy between two associated kings, a confederacy which raised so much terror in the mind of an unbelieving and fearful people; but that he should regard Jehovah only, by whose favour or wrath the state of this people was to be estimated. See Vitringa.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
I pray the Reader to observe with me, the tender care of God over his people, in times of general calamity. In these verses, the Prophet is commissioned to comfort the Lord’s mourners; and a precious word of comfort he gives. The Lord speaking to the prophet with a strong hand, intimates the strong impression made on the prophet’s mind, by what the Lord said. As if he had said, “Tell my people, in the midst of those sinners, not to fear the general tidings of evil, neither shall they seek to form alliances with any: but let them sanctify me in their hearts, and make me their fear and their confidence; and they shall find that the fear of God will drive out the fear of man, as the fire of the sun will put out the fire of the hearth; or as the ocean will swallow up all rivers.” Oh! that God’s people, in all ages, were to adopt the same divine plan. But I beg the Reader not to overlook, in these verses, besides this general direction, another special mercy marked: I mean in the features of Him, who is promised as a sanctuary. The very characters by which he is here revealed most fully point him out: He who is to be for a sanctuary to his people, is to be to others, for a stone of stumbling, and for a rock of offence. Now who can hesitate a moment to discover the Lord Jesus in these distinguishing characters? If there were any doubt on this subject, the scriptures of the New Testament would fully explain it: Simeon was commissioned by the Holy Ghost to tell Mary, that Jesus was set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel, and for a sign which should be spoken against. Luk 2:34 ; the Apostle Paul calls Jesus expressly by this name, a stumbling-stone and rock of offence, Rom 9:33 ; Peter speaks to the same amount, and both in reference to this very prophecy, and to another to the same purport in Isaiah: compare Isa 28:16 with 1Pe 2:6-8 . Yea, Jesus himself makes reference to the same, in his conversation with the Jews; and as Isaiah saith in this passage, that many among the people of Judah shall stumble and fall, and be broken; so Christ explains how by falling or stumbling on this stone, viz. himself, which God the Father had laid in Zion, Mat 21:42-44 . And, Reader, mark what the Prophet saith at the close of this paragraph, at the Lord’s command, to bind up the testimony, and seal the law among his disciples what can be more gracious, on the part of God; or what more blessed to do, on the part of the believer? Oh! Lord, help me to have recourse to thy blessed word at all times, for the unalterable testimony of thy truth; and in the experience of it in my own soul, to set to it my poor seal also, that God is true; Joh 3:33 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Isa 8:11 For the LORD spake thus to me with a strong hand, and instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people, saying,
Ver. 11. For the Lord spake thus to me with a strong hand. ] That is, with his Spirit accompanying his word, and setting it home to my heart, that so I might speak from the heart to the heart. Some render it, taking me by the hand, a fidelis paedagogi instar, like a loving and faithful schoolmaster, and thereby pulling me back that I should not walk in the common road.
That I should not walk in the way of this people.
a Sicut apprehensione manus.
b In Epist.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Isa 8:11-15
11For thus the LORD spoke to me with mighty power and instructed me not to walk in the way of this people, saying,
12You are not to say, ‘It is a conspiracy!’
In regard to all that this people call a conspiracy,
And you are not to fear what they fear or be in dread of it.
13It is the LORD of hosts whom you should regard as holy.
And He shall be your fear,
And He shall be your dread.
14Then He shall become a sanctuary;
But to both the houses of Israel, a stone to strike and a rock to stumble over,
And a snare and a trap for the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
15Many will stumble over them,
Then they will fall and be broken;
They will even be snared and caught.
Isa 8:11-15 This stanza is another message related to
1. YHWH’s judgment on His own sinful people
2. YHWH’s prophet is thinking and saying His thoughts, not those of his contemporaries or society
This stanza reflects the message to Ahaz in Isa 7:9, now widened to the whole community. It is a message of judgment that could have been faith/hope!
Isa 8:11
NASBwith mighty power
NKJV, LXXwith a strong hand
Hand (BDB 388) is used often in an anthropomorphical sense (see Special Topic: God Described As Human [anthropomorphism] ) to speak of God’s actions within the world.
1. special metaphor of revelation, Isa 8:11; Jer 15:17; Eze 1:3; Eze 3:14; Eze 3:22; Eze 8:1; Eze 33:22; Eze 37:1; Eze 40:1
2. metaphor for deliverance from Egypt, Exo 3:20; Exo 6:1; Exo 13:3; Exo 14:31
3. metaphor for oath and/or judgment
a. swing His hand, Isa 19:16; Zec 2:9
b. lifts up His hand, Isa 26:11; Isa 49:22; Deu 32:40; Eze 20:5
c. stretches out His hand, Isa 14:26-27; Exo 7:5; Jer 6:12
4. metaphor for creation, Isa 19:25; Isa 45:11-12; Isa 48:13; Isa 60:21; Isa 64:8
not to walk in the way of this people Isa 8:11 is addressed to Isaiah, but Isa 8:12 is PLURAL. Walk is a metaphor for lifestyle (i.e., Psa 1:6). God’s people (of the Abrahamic covenant promise) were not God’s people (in the Mosaic covenant obedience). They had become a corrupted witness to the nations (cf. Eze 36:22-38).
In the new day, the day of the special child, a new way will be made available (cf. Isa 57:14; Isa 62:10). This is the concept John the Baptist saw as his mission (i.e., prepare the way, cf. Isa 40:3; Mat 3:3; Mar 1:3; Luk 3:4-6).
Isa 8:12 This refers to Isa 7:2. They heard about the Syro-Ephraimite coalition and were terrified!
It is also possible that it refers to Isaiah’s opposition to Ahaz’s Assyrian alliance policy. The prophet would have been considered a troublemaker or worse, a traitor!
Isa 8:13 What they should have feared/awed was the holy LORD of hosts. He is the captain of the truly powerful army (cf. Isa 41:10; Isa 41:13-14; Isa 43:1; Isa 43:5; Isa 44:2; Isa 54:4). He is truly in control of events (cf. Isa 7:7; Isa 7:18; Isa 7:20).
There is no VERB with
1. He shall be your fear (BDB 432, or let him be. . .)
2. He shall be your dread (BDB 791, or let him be. . .)
This intensifies the phrases. There is an appropriate (cf. Psa 76:12; Mal 2:5) and inappropriate fear (cf. Luk 12:4; Joh 12:43)! To fear YHWH is wisdom (cf. Pro 1:7) and faithfulness; to fear human power is a lack of faith in YHWH’s presence and promises!
Isa 8:14-15 YHWH describes His reaction to being rejected by His own covenant people with two metaphors of judgments.
1. a sanctuary (cf. Eze 11:16) built of stones (YHWH was the sanctuary, cf. Eze 11:16)
2. an animal snare and trap
His people, Israel (both the houses of Israel), will stumble over (BDB 505, KB 502, Qal PERFECT) the stones of the sanctuary. This metaphor is later developed into the rejected cornerstone (the Messiah). See Special Topic following.
Many of His people, Judah, will fall over (BDB 656, KB 709, Qal PERFECT) a stone or into a trap (i.e., pit) or be caught in a snare (cf. Isa 28:13) and perish (cf. Isa 24:18)! However, some (i.e., the faithful remnant), will trust in Him (cf. Isa 8:16-18).
SPECIAL TOPIC: CORNERSTONE
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
with a strong hand: Heb. in strength of hand, Jer 20:7, Jer 20:9, Eze 3:14, Act 4:20
instructed: Psa 32:8, Pro 1:15, Jer 15:19, Eze 2:6-8
Reciprocal: 1Ki 18:46 – the hand Job 27:11 – teach Isa 7:4 – fear not Phi 3:18 – many Phi 4:12 – I am
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Isa 8:11-12. For the Lord spake thus unto me Here the prophet teaches the people by his own example, as one immediately taught by God, with what dispositions they should receive all the attempts of their enemies, to subvert the kingdom of God in their land, even to the time of the Messiah, of whose manifestation this instruction contains a repeated prophecy for the consolation of the pious, together with a denunciation of the most grievous judgments, spiritual and temporal, upon the impious, incredulous, and profane. See Vitringa. With a strong hand With a vehement and more than ordinary inspiration. The Chaldee renders it, In the strength of prophecy; perhaps it refers to those ecstasies into which the prophets were frequently wrapt. That I should not walk in the way of this people Of the generality of the people of Judah; whose imminent danger and calamity he foretold, (Isa 8:8,) giving them, however, full assurance that God would deliver them out of it, Isa 8:9-10. Say ye not, A confederacy, &c. You, my people, be not associated with them in the confederacies which they are projecting: do not join with those that, for the securing of themselves, are for making a league with the Assyrians, through unbelief, and distrust of God and their cause: do not come into any such confederacy. Neither fear ye their fear Be not afraid of the confederacy with which they frighten themselves and one another, namely, that between Syria and Ephraim; or that thing which they fear, that, if they do not call in the Assyrian succours, they shall be destroyed by those two potent kings. Thus, when sinful confederacies are formed against Gods church and people by their enemies, they should guard against sinful fears of such confederacies.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
8:11 For the LORD spoke thus to me {m} with a strong hand, and instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people, saying,
(m) To encourage me that I should not shrink for the infidelity of this people, and so neglect my office.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Isaiah now passed along instruction that Yahweh had powerfully given him, warning him against following the popular reliance on human strength. God had been teaching Isaiah that He had brought the Assyrians to power. To oppose Assyria now was to oppose God. [Note: Watts, p. 120.]
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Clarification of the issue 8:11-9:7
Having received two signs of God’s dealing with them in the immediate crisis that they faced, plus accompanying warnings, the people of Judah next received additional incentives to trust Yahweh.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
The importance of listening to God 8:11-9:1