An Exposition of the Old and New Testament (1828)/Isaiah
AN
EXPOSITION,
WITH
PRACTICAL OBSERVATIONS,
OF THE
BOOK OF THE PROPHET
ISAIAH.
Prophet is a title that sounds very great to those who understand it, though, in the eye of the world, many of those who were dignified with it, appeared very mean. A prophet is one who has a great intimacy with Heaven, and a great interest there, and, consequently, a commanding authority upon earth. Prophecy is put for all divine revelation, (2 Pet. i. 20, 21.) because that was most commonly, by dreams, voices, or visions, communicated to prophets first, and by them to the children of men, Numb. xii. 6. Once indeed God himself spake to all the thousands of Israel, from the top of Mount Sinai; but it was so intolerably dreadful, that they entreated God would, for the future, speak to them as he had done before, by men like themselves, whose terror should not make them afraid, nor their hands be heavy upon them, Job xxxiii. 7. God approved the motion; They have well said; (says he, Deut. v. 27, 28.) and the matter was then settled by consent of parties, that we must never expect to hear from God any more in that way, but by prophets, who received their instructions immediately from God, with a charge to deliver them to his church. Before the sacred canon of the Old Testament began to be written, there were prophets, who were instead of Bibles to the church. Our Saviour seems to reckon Abel among the prophets, Matth. xxiii. 31, 35. Enoch was a prophet; and by him that was first in prediction, which is to be last in execution—the judgment of the great day; (Jude 14.) Behold, the Lord comes with his holy myriads. Noah was a preacher of righteousness. God said of Abraham, He is a prophet, Gen. xx. 7. Jacob foretold things to come, Gen. xlix. 1. Nay, all the patriarchs are called prophets; (Ps. cv. 15.) Do my prophets no harm. Moses was, beyond all comparison, the most illustrious of all the Old Testament prophets, for with him the Lord spake face to face, Deut. xxxiv. 10. He was the first writing prophet, and by his hand the first foundations of holy writ were laid; even those who were called to be his assistants in the government, had the Spirit of prophecy, such a plentiful effusion was there of that Spirit at that time, Numb. xi. 25. But after the death of Moses, for some ages, the Spirit of the Lord appeared and acted in the church of Israel more as a martial Spirit, than as a Spirit of prophecy, and inspired men more for acting than speaking; I mean, in the time of the Judges. We find the Spirit of the Lord coming upon Othniel, Gideon, Samson, and others, for the service of their country, with their swords, not with their pens; messages were then sent from heaven by angels, as to Gideon and Manoah, and to the people, Judges ii. 1. In all the book of Judges there is never once mention of a prophet, only Deborah is called a prophetess; then the word of the Lord was precious, there was no open vision, 1 Sam. iii. 1. They had the law of Moses, recently written; let them study that. But in Samuel prophecy revived, and in him a famous epocha, or period, of the church began; a time of great light in a constant uninterrupted succession of prophets, till some time after the captivity, when the canon of the Old Testament was completed in Malachi; and then prophecy ceased for near 400 years, till the coming of the great Prophet and his forerunner. Some prophets were divinely inspired to write the histories of the church; but they did not put their names to their writings, they only referred themselves for proof to the authentic records of those times, which were known to be drawn up by prophets, as Gad, Iddo, &c. David and others were prophets, to write sacred songs for the use of the church. After them, we often read of prophets, sent on particular errands, and raised up for special public services; among whom the most famous were Elijah and Elisha in the kingdom of Israel, but none of these put their prophecies in writing, nor have we any remains of them but some fragments in the histories of their times; there was nothing of their own writing, (that I remember,) but one epistle of Elijah's, 2 Chron. xxi. 12. But toward the latter end of the kingdoms of Judah and Israel, it pleased God to direct his servants the prophets, to write and publish some of their sermons, or abstracts of them. The dates of many of their prophecies are uncertain, but the earliest of them was in the days of Uzziah king of Judah, and Jeroboam the second, his contemporary, king of Israel, about 200 years before the captivity, and not long after Joash had slain Zechariah the son of Jehoiada, in the courts of the temple. If they begin to murder the prophets, yet they shall not murder their prophecies; they shall remain as witnesses against them. Hosea was the first of the writing prophets; and Joel, Amos, and Obadiah published their prophecies about the same time. Isaiah began some time after, and not long; but his prophecy is placed first, because it is the largest of them all, and has most in it of Him to whom all the prophets bare witness; and indeed, so much of Christ, that he is justly styled the Evangelical Prophet, and by some of the ancients, a fifth Evangelist. We shall have the general title of this book, v. 1. and therefore shall here only observe some things,
I. Concerning the prophet himself; he was (if we may believe the tradition of the Jews) of the royal family, his father being (they say) brother to king Uzziah: however, he was much at court, especially in Hezekiah's time, as we find in his story; to which many think it is owing that his style is more curious and polite than that of some other of the prophets, and, in some places, exceedingly lofty and soaring. The Spirit of God sometimes served his own purpose by the particular genius of the prophet; for prophets were not speaking trumpets through which the Spirit spake, but speaking men, by whom the Spirit spake, making use of their natural powers, in respect both of light and flame, and advancing them above themselves.
II. Concerning the prophecy; it is transcendently excellent and useful; it was so to the church of God then, serving for conviction of sin, direction in duty, and consolation in trouble. Two great distresses of the church are here referred to, and comfort prescribed in reference to them; That by Sennacherib's invasion, which happened in his own time, and that of the captivity in Babylon, which happened long after; in the supports and encouragements laid up for each of these times of need we find abundance of the grace of the gospel. There are not so many quotations in the gospels out of any, perhaps not out of all, the prophecies of the Old Testament, as out of this; nor such express testimonies concerning Christ; witness that of his being born of a virgin, (ch. 7.) and that of his sufferings, ch. 53. The beginning of this book abounds most with reproofs for sin, and threatenings of judgment; the latter end of it is full of good words and comfortable words; this method the Spirit of Christ took formerly in the prophets, and does still; first to convince, and then to comfort; and those who would be blessed with the comforts, must submit to the convictions. Doubtless, Isaiah preached many sermons, and delivered many messages, to the people, which are not written in this book, as Christ did; and, probably, these sermons were delivered more largely and fully than they are here related: but so much is left on record as Infinite Wisdom thought fit to convey to us on whom the ends of the world are come; and these prophecies, as well as the histories of Christ, are written, that we might believe on the name of the Son of God, and that, believing, we might have life through his name; for to us is the gospel here preached, as well as unto them who lived then, and more clearly. O that it may be mixed with faith!
ISAIAH.
CHAP. I.
The first verse of this chapter is intended for a title to the whole book, and it is probable that this was the first sermon that this prophet was appointed to publish, and to affix in writing (as Calvin thinks the custom of the prophets was) to the door of the temple, as with us proclamations are fixed to public places, that all might read them; (Hab. ii. 2.) and those who would, might take out authentic copies of them; the original being, after some time, laid up by the priests among the records of the temple. The sermon which is contained in this chapter has in it, I. A high charge exhibited, in God's name, against the Jewish church and nation: 1. For their ingratitude, v. 2, 3. 2. For their incorrigibleness, v. 5. 3. For the universal corruption and degeneracy of the people, v. 4, 6, 21, 22. 4. For the perversion of justice by their rulers, v. 23. II. A sad complaint of the judgments of God, which they had brought upon themselves by their sins, and by which they were brought almost to utter ruin, v. 7..9. III. A just rejection of those shows and shadows of religion, which they kept up among them, notwithstanding this general defection and apostasy, v. 10..15. IV. An earnest call to repentance and reformation, setting before them life and death; life if they complied with the call, and death, if they did not, v. 16..20. V. A threatening of ruin to those who would not be reformed, v. 24, 28..31. VI. A promise of a happy reformation at last, and a return to their primitive purity and prosperity, v. 23..27. And all this is to be applied by us, not only to the communities we are members of, in their public interests, but to the state of our own souls.
1.THE vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
Here is, 1. The name of the prophet, Isaiah; or Jesahiahu, for so it is in the Hebrew; which, in the New Testament, is read Esaias. His name signifies, the salvation of the Lord. A proper name for a prophet by whom God gives knowledge of salvation to his people, especially for this prophet, who prophesies so much of Jesus the Saviour, and the great salvation wrought out by him. He is said to be the son of Amoz; not Amos the prophet, the two names in the Hebrew differ more than in the English; but, as the Jews think, of Amoz the brother, or son, of Amaziah king of Judah; a tradition as uncertain as that rule which they give, That where a prophet's father is named, he also was himself a prophet. The prophets, pupils and successors, are indeed often called their sons, but we have few instances, if any, of their own sons being their successors.
2. The nature of the prophecy; it is a vision, being revealed to him in a vision, when he was awake, and heard the words of God, and saw the visions of the Almighty, as Balaam speaks, (Numb. xxiv. 4. ) though perhaps it was not so illustrious a vision at first, as that afterwards, ch. vi. 1. The prophets were called seers, or seeing-men, and therefore their prophecies are fitly called visions. It was what he saw with the eyes of his mind, and foresaw as clearly by divine revelation, was as well assured of it, as fully apprised of it, and as much affected with it, as if he had seen it with his bodily eyes. Note, (1.) God's prophets saw what they spake of, knew what they said, and require our belief of nothing but what they themselves believed and were sure of, John vi. 69—1 John i. 1. (2.) They could not but speak what they saw; because they saw how much all about them were concerned in it. Acts iv. 20.—2 Cor. iv. 13.
3. The subject of the prophecy; it was what he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem, the country of the two tribes, and that city which was their metropolis; and there is little in it relating to Ephraim, or the ten tribes, of whom there is so much in the prophecy of Hosea. Some chapters there are in this book, which relate to Babylon, Egypt, Tyre, and some other neighbouring nations; but it takes its title from that which is the main substance of it, and it is therefore said to be concerning Judah and Jerusalem; the other nations spoken of are such as the people of the Jews had concerns with. Isaiah brings to them in a special manner, (1.) Instruction, for it is the privilege of Judah and Jerusalem, that to them pertain the oracles of God. (2.) Reproof and threatening; for if in Judah, where God is known, if in Salem, where his name is great, iniquity be found, they, sooner than any other, shall be reckoned with for it. (3.) Comfort and encouragement in evil times; for the children of Zion shall be joyful in their king.
4. The date of the prophecy; he prophesied in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. By this it appears, (1.) That he prophesied long: especially if (as the Jews say) he was at last put to death by Manasseh, to a cruel death, being sawn asunder; to which some suppose the apostle refers, Heb. xi. 37. From the year that king Uzziah died, (ch. vi. 1.) to Hezekiah's sickness and recovery, was 47 years; how much before, and after, he prophesied, is not certain; some reckon 60, and others 80 years in all. It was an honour to him, and a happiness to his country, that he was continued so long in his usefulness: and we must suppose both that he began young, and that he held out to old age; for the prophets were not tied, as the priests were, to a certain age, for the beginning or ending of their ministration. (2.) That he passed through a variety of times. Jotham was a good king, and Hezekiah a better, who, no doubt, gave encouragement to, and took advice from, this prophet, were patrons to him, and he privy-counsellor to them; but between them, and when Isaiah was in the prime of his time, the reign of Ahaz was very profane and wicked; then, no doubt, he was frowned upon at court, and, it is likely, forced to abscond; good men and good ministers must expect bad times in this world, and prepare for them. Then religion was run down to that degree, that the doors of the house of the Lord were shut up, and idolatrous altars were erected in every corner of Jerusalem; and Isaiah, with all his divine eloquence and messages immediately from God himself, could not help it. The best men, the best ministers, cannot do the good they would do in the world.
2. Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; for the Lord hath spoken: I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me: 3. The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider. 4. Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evil-doers, children that are corrupters! they have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward. 5. Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more. The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. 6. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment. 7. Your country is desolate, your cities are burnt with fire: your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers. 8. And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city. 9. Except the Lord of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.
We will hope to meet with a brighter and more pleasant scene before we come to the end of this book: but truly here, in the beginning of it, every thing looks very bad, very black, with Judah and Jerusalem. What is the wilderness of the world, if the church, the vineyard, have such a dismal aspect as this?
I. The prophet, though he speaks in God's name, yet, despairing to gain audience with the children of his people, addresses himself to the heavens and the earth, and bespeaks their attention; (v. 2.) Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth! Sooner will the inanimate creatures hear, who observe the law, and answer the end of their creation, than this stupid senseless people. Let the lights of heaven shame their darkness, and the fruitfulness of the earth their barrenness, and the strictness of each to its time, their irregularity. Moses begins thus, (Deut. xxxii. 1.) to which the prophet here refers, intimating, that now those times were come, which Moses there foretold, Deut. xxxi. 29. Or this is an appeal to heaven and earth, to angels, and then to the inhabitants of the upper and lower world; let them judge between God and his vineyard: can either produce such an instance of ingratitude? Note, God will be justified when he speaks, and both heaven and earth shall declare his righteousness, Mic. vi. 2. Ps. 1. 6.
II. He charges them with base ingratitude, a crime of the highest nature: call a man ungrateful, and you can call him no worse: let heaven and earth hear, and wonder at, 1. God's gracious dealings with a peevish provoking people as they were; "I have nourished and brought them up as children; they have been well fed and well taught;" (Deut. xxxii. 6.) "I have magnified and exalted them:" (so some;) " not only made them grow, but made them great; not only maintained them, but preferred them; not only trained them up, but raised them high." Note, We owe the continuance of our lives, and comforts, and all our advancements, to God's fatherly care of us and kindness to us. 2. Their ill-natured conduct toward him, who was so tender of them; "They have rebelled against me;" or (as some read it) " they have revolted from me; they have been deserters, nay, traitors, against my crown and dignity." Note, all the instances of God's favour to us, as the God both of our nature and of our nurture, aggravate our treacherous departures from him, and all our presumptuous oppositions to him: children, and yet rebels!
III. He attributes this to their ignorance and inconsideration: (v. 3.) The ox knows, but Israel does not. Observe, 1. The sagacity of the ox and the ass, which are not only brute creatures, but of the dullest sort: yet the ox has such a sense of duty, as to know his owner, and to serve him, to submit to his yoke, and to draw in it; the ass has such a sense of interest, as to know his master's crib or manger, where he is fed, and to abide by it; he will go to that of himself, if he is turned loose. A fine pass man is come to, when he is shamed even in knowledge and understanding by these silly animals; and is not only sent to school to them, (Prov. vi. 6, 7.) but set in a form below them, (Jer. viii. 7.) taught more than the beasts of the earth, (Job xxxv. 11.) and yet knowing less. 2. The sottishness and stupidity of Israel. God is their Owner and Proprietor; he made us, and his we are, more than our cattle are ours; he has provided well for us; providence is our Master's crib: yet many that are called the people of God, do not know, and will not consider this; but ask, "What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? He is not our owner; and what profit shall we have if we pray unto him? He has no crib for us to feed at." He had complained (v. 2.) of the obstinacy of their wills; They have rebelled against me; here he runs it up to its cause; "Therefore they have rebelled, because they do not know, they do not consider." The understanding is darkened, and therefore the whole soul is alienated from the life of God, Eph. iv. 18. Israel does not know, though their land was a land of light and knowledge; in Judah is God known, yet, because they do not live up to what they know, it is, in effect, as if they did not know. They know; but their knowledge does them no good, because they do not consider what they know; they do not apply it to their case, nor their minds to it. Note, (1.) Even among those that profess themselves God's people, that have the advantages, and lie under the engagements, of his people, there are many that are very careless in the affairs of their souls. (2.) Inconsideration of what we do know, is as great an enemy to us in religion as ignorance of what we should know. (3.) Therefore men revolt from God, and rebel against him, because they do not know and consider their obligations to God, in duty, gratitude, and interest.
IV. He laments the universal pravity and corruption of their church and kingdom; the disease of sin was epidemical, and all orders and degrees of men were infected with it; Ah, sinful nation! v. 4. The prophet bemoans those that would not bemoan themselves; Alas for them, wo to them! He speaks with a holy indignation at their degeneracy, and a dread of the consequences of it. See here,
1. How he aggravates their sin, and shows the malignity that there was in it, v. 4. (1.) The wickedness was universal; they were a sinful nation, the generality of the people were vicious and profane; they were so in their national capacity, in the management of their public treaties abroad, and in the administration of public justice at home, they were corrupt. Note, It is ill with a people when sin becomes national. (2.) It was very great and heinous in its nature. They were laden with iniquity; the guilt of it, and the curse incurred by that guilt, lay very heavy upon them; it was a heavy charge that was exhibited against them, which they could never clear themselves from; their wickedness was upon them as a talent of lead, Zech. v. 7, 8. And their sin, as it did easily beset them, and they were prone to it, was a weight upon them, Heb. xii. 1. (3.) They came of a bad stock, they were a seed of evildoers; treachery ran in the blood, they had it by kind, which made the matter so much the worse, more provoking and less curable; they rose up in their fathers' stead, and trod in their fathers' steps, to fill up the measure of their iniquity; (Numb. xxxii. 14.) they were a race and family of rebels. (4.) They were themselves debauched, did what they could to debauch others; they are not only corrupt children, born tainted, but children that are corrupters, that propagate vice, and infect others with it; not only sinners, but tempters, not only actuated by Satan, but agents for him. If those that are called children, God's children, that are looked upon as belonging to his family, be wicked and vile, their example is of the most malignant influence. (5.) Their sin was a treacherous departure from God, they were deserters from their allegiance; They have forsaken the Lord, to whom they had joined themselves; they are gone away backward; are alienated or separated from God, have turned the back upon him, deserted their colours, and quitted their service; when they were urged forward, they ran backward, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke, Hos. iv. 16. (6.) It was an impudent and daring defiance of him; They have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, wilfully and designedly; they knew what would anger him, and that they did. Note, The backslidings of those that have professed religion, and relation to God, are in a special manner provoking to him.
2. How he illustrates it by a comparison taken from a sick and diseased body, all overspread with leprosy, or, like Job's, with sore boils, v. 5, 6. (1.) The distemper has seized the vitals, and so threatens to be mortal. Diseases in the head and heart are most dangerous; now the head, the whole head, is sick, the heart, the whole heart, is faint; they were become corrupt in their judgment, the leprosy was in their head, they were utterly unclean; their affection to God and religion was cold and gone; the things which remained were ready to die away, Rev. iii. 2. (2.) It has overspread the whole body, and so becomes exceedingly noisome; From the sole of the foot even unto the head, from the meanest peasant to the greatest peer, there is no soundness, no good principles, no religion, (for that is the health of the soul,) nothing but wounds and bruises, guilt and corruption, the sad effects of Adam's fall; noisome to the holy God, painful to the sensible soul; they were so to David, when he complained, (Ps. xxxviii. 5.) My wounds stink, and are corrupt, because of my foolishness, Ps. xxxii. 3, 4. No attempts were made for reformation, or, if they were, they proved ineffectual; The wounds have not been closed, nor bound up, nor mollified with ointment. While sin remains unrepented of, the wounds are unsearched, unwashed, the proud flesh in them not cut out, and while consequently, it remains unpardoned, the wounds are not mollified or closed up, nor any thing done toward the healing of them, and the preventing of their fatal consequences.
V. He sadly bewails the judgments of God, which they had brought upon themselves by their sins, and their incorrigibleness under those judgments.
1. Their kingdom was almost ruined, v. 7. So miserable were they, that both their towns and their lands were wasted, and yet so stupid, that they needed to be told this, and to have it showed them; "Look, and see how it is; your country is desolate, the ground is not cultivated, for want of inhabitants, the villages being deserted, Judg. v. 7. And thus the fields and vineyards become like deserts, all grown over with thorns; (Prov. xxiv. 31.) your cities are burned with fire, by the enemies that invade you;" (fire and sword commonly go together;) " as for the fruits of your land, which should be food for your families, strangers devour them; and, to your greater vexation, it is before your eyes, and you cannot prevent it; you starve, while your enemies surfeit on that which should be your maintenance. The overthrow of your country is as the overthrow of strangers; it is used by the invaders as one might expect it should be used by strangers."—Jerusalem itself, which was as the daughter of Zion; (the temple built on Zion was a mother, a nursing mother, to Jerusalem;) or Zion itself, the holy mountain, which had been dear to God as a daughter, was now lost, deserted, and exposed, as a cottage in a vineyard, which, when the vintage is over, nobody dwells in, or takes any care of, and looks as mean and despicable as a lodge, or hut, in a garden of cucumbers; and every person is afraid of coming near it, and solicitous to remove his effects out of it, as if it were a besieged city, v. 8. And some think it is the calamitous state of the kingdom, that is represented by a diseased body, v. 6. Probably, this sermon was preached in the reign of Ahaz, when Judah was invaded by the kings of Syria and Israel, the Edomites, and the Philistines, who slew many, and carried many away into captivity, 2 Chron. xxviii. 5, 17, 18. Note, National impiety and immorality bring national desolation. Canaan, the glory of all lands, mount Zion, the joy of the whole earth, both became a reproach and a ruin; and sin made them so, that great mischief-maker.
2. Yet they were not at all reformed, and therefore God threatens to take another course with them; (v. 5.) "Why should ye be stricken any more, with any expectation of doing you good by it, when you increase revolts as your rebukes are increased? You will revolt more and more, as you have done;" as Ahaz particularly did, who, in his distress, trespassed yet more against the Lord, 2 Chron. xviii. 22. Thus the physician, when he sees the patient's case desperate, troubles him no more with physic; and the father resolves to correct his child no more, when, finding him hardened, he determines to disinherit him. Note, (1.) There are those who are made worse by the methods God takes to make them better; the more they are stricken, the more they revolt; their corruptions, instead of being mortified, are irritated and exasperated, by their afflictions, and their hearts more hardened. (2.) God sometimes, in a way of righteous judgment, ceases to correct those who have been long incorrigible, and whom therefore he designs to destroy. The reprobate silver shall be cast, not into the furnace, but to the dunghill, Jer. vi. 29, 30. See Ezek. xxiv. 13. Hos. iv. 14. He that is filthy, let him be filthy still.
VI. He comforts himself with the consideration of a remnant that should be the monuments of divine grace and mercy, notwithstanding this general corruption and desolation, v. 9. See here, 1. How near they were to an utter extirpation; they were almost like Sodom and Gomorrah, in respect both of sin and ruin, grown almost so bad, that there could not have been found ten righteous men among them, and almost so miserable, that none had been left alive, but their country turned into a sulphureous lake. Divine Justice said, Make them as Admah, set them as Zeboim; but Mercy said, How shall I do it? Hos. xi. 8, 9. 2. What it was that saved them from it; The Lord of hosts left unto them a very small remnant, that were kept pure from the the common apostacy, and kept safe and alive from the common calamity. This is quoted by the apostle, (Rom. ix. 27.) and applied to those few of the Jewish nation, who, in his time, embraced Christianity, when the body of the people rejected it, and in whom the promises made to the fathers were accomplished. Note, (1.) In the worst of times there is a remnant preserved from iniquity, and reserved for mercy, as Noah and his family in the deluge, Lot and his in the destruction of Sodom. Divine grace triumphs in distinguishing by an act of sovereignty. (2.) This remnant is often a very small one, in comparison with the vast numbers of revolting ruined sinners. Multitude is no mark of the true church; Christ's is a little flock. (3.) It is God's work to sanctify and save some, when others are left to perish in their impurity; it is the work of his power, as the Lord of hosts; except he had left us that remnant, there had been none left; the corrupters (v. 4.) did what they could to debauch all, and the devourers (v. 7.) to destroy all; and they would have prevailed, if God himself had not interposed to secure to himself a remnant, who are bound to give him all the glory. (4.) It is good for a people that have been saved from utter ruin, to look back, and see how near they were to it, just upon the brink of it, to see how much they owed to a few good men that stood in the gap, and that that was owing to a good God, who left them these good men. It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed.
10. Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah: 11. To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the Lord: I am full of the burnt-offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he-goats. 12. When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand to tread my courts? 13. Bring no more vain oblations: incense is an abomination unto me: the new-moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with: it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. 14. Your new-moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them. 15. And when ye spread forth your hands I will hide mine eyes from you; yea, when ye make many prayers I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.
Here,
I. God calls to them, (but calls in vain,) to hear his word, v. 10. 1. The title he gives them is very strange, Ye rulers of Sodom, and Ye people of Gomorrah. This intimates what a righteous thing it had been with God to make them like Sodom and Gomorrah, in respect of ruin; (v. 9.) because they had made themselves like Sodom and Gomorrah, in respect of sin. The men of Sodom were wicked, and sinners before the Lord exceedingly, (Gen. xiii. 13.) and so were the men of Judah; when the rulers were bad, no wonder the people were so. Vice overpowered virtue, for it had the rulers, the men of figure, on its side; and it outpolled it, for it had the people, the men of number, on its side: the streams being thus strong, no less a power than that of the Lord of hosts could secure a remnant, v. 9. The rulers are boldly attacked here by the prophet, as rulers of Sodom, for he knew not how to give flattering titles; the tradition of the Jews is, that for this he was impeached long after, and put to death, as having cursed the gods, and spoken evil of the ruler of his people. 2. His demand upon them is very reasonable; "Hear the word of the Lord, and give ear to the law of our God; attend to that which God has to say to you, and let his word be a law to you." The following declaration of dislike to their sacrifices, would be a kind of new law to them; though really it was but an explication of the old law; but special regard is to be had to it, as is required to the like, Ps. l. 7, 8. "Hear this, and tremble; hear it, and take warning."
II. He justly refuses to hear their prayers and accept their services, their sacrifices and burnt-offerings, the fat and blood of them, (v. 11.) their attendance in his courts, (v. 12.) their oblations, their incense, and their solemn assemblies, (v. 13.) their new-moons, and their appointed feasts, (v. 14.) their devoutest addresses; (v. 15.) they are all rejected, because their hands were full of blood. Now observe,
1. There are many who are strangers, nay enemies, to the power of religion, and yet seem very zealous for the show and shadow and form of it. This sinful nation, this seed of evil-doers, these rulers of Sodom and people of Gomorrah, brought not to the altars of false gods, (they are not here charged with that,) but to the altar of the God of Israel, sacrifices, a multitude of them, as many as the law required, and rather more, not only peace-offerings, which they themselves had their share of, but burnt-offerings, which were wholly consumed to the honour of God; nor did they bring the torn, and lame, and sick, but fed beasts, and the fat of them, the best of the kind: they did not send others to offer their sacrifices for them, but came themselves to appear before God; they observed the instituted places, not in high-places, or groves, but in God's own courts; and the instituted time, the new-moons, and sabbaths, and appointed feasts, none of which they omitted; nay, it should seem, they called extraordinary assemblies, and held solemn meetings, for religious worship, beside those that God had appointed; yet this was not all, they applied themselves to God not only with their ceremonial observances, but with the moral instances of devotion; they prayed, they prayed often, made many prayers, thinking they should be heard for their much speaking; nay, they were fervent and importunate in prayer, they spread forth their hands as men in earnest. Now we should have thought these, and no doubt they thought themselves, a pious, religious people; and yet they were far from being so, for, (1.) Their hearts were empty of true devotion; they came to appear before God, (v. 12. ) to be seen before him; so the margin reads it; they rested in the outside of the duties, they looked no further than to be seen of men, and went no further than that which men see. (2.) Their hands were full of blood; they were guilty of murder, rapine, and oppression, under colour of law and justice. The people shed blood, and the rulers did not punish them for it; the rulers shed blood, and the people were aiding and abetting, as the elders of Jezreel were to Jezebel in shedding Naboth's blood. Malice is heart-murder, in the account of God; he that hates his brother in his heart, has, in effect, his hands full of blood.
2. When sinners are under the judgments of God, they will more easily be brought to fly to their devotions, than to forsake their sins, and reform their lives. Their country was now desolate, and their cities burnt; (v. 7.) and this awakened them to bring their sacrifices and offerings to God more constantly than they had done, as if they would bribe God Almighty to remove the punishment, and give them leave to go on in the sin. When he slew them, then they sought him, Ps. lxxviii. 34. Lord, in trouble have they visited thee, ch. xxvi. 16. Many that will readily part with their sacrifices, will not be persuaded to part with their sins.
3. The most pompous and costly devotions of wicked people, without a thorough reformation of the heart and life, are so far from being acceptable to God, that really they are an abomination to him. It is showed here in a great variety of expressions, that to obey is better than sacrifice; nay, that sacrifice, without obedience, is a jest, an affront and provocation to God. The comparative neglect which God here expresses of ceremonial observances, was a tacit intimation of what they would come to at last, when they would all be done away by the death of Christ; what was now made little of, would, in due time, be made nothing of. Sacrifice and offering, and prayer made in the virtue of that, thou wouldest not; then said I, Lo, I come. Their sacrifices are here represented,
(1.) As fruitless and insignificant. To what purpose is it? v. 11. They are vain oblations, v. 13. In vain do they worship me, Matth. xv. 9. It was all lost labour, and served not to answer any good intention; for, [l.] It was not looked upon as any act of duty or obedience to God; Who has required these things at your hands? v. 12. Not that God disowns his institutions, or refuses to stand by his own warrants; but in what they did they had not an eye to Him that required it, nor indeed did he require it of them, whose hands were full of blood, and who continued impenitent. [2.] It did not recommend them to God's favour; he delighted not in the blood of their sacrifices, for he did not look upon himself as honoured by it. [3.] It would not obtain any relief for them. They pray, but God will not hear, because they regard iniquity; (Ps. lxvi. 18.) he would not deliver them, for though they make many prayers, none of them came from an upright heart. All their religious services turned to no account to them. Nay,
(2.) As odious and offensive, God did not only not accept them, but he did detest and abhor them. "They are your sacrifices, they are none of mine; I am full of them, even surfeited with them." He needed them not, (Ps. 1. 10.) did not desire them, had had enough of them, and more than enough. Their coming into his courts he calls treading them, or trampling upon them, their very attendance on his ordinances was construed into a contempt of them. Their incense, though ever so fragrant, was an abomination to him, for it was burnt in hypocrisy, and with an ill design. Their solemn assemblies he could not away with, could not see them with any patience, nor bear the affront they gave him. The solemn meeting is iniquity; though the thing itself was not, yet, as they managed it, it was. It is a vexation, (so some read it,) a provocation, to God, to have ordinances thus prostituted, not only by wicked people, but to wicked purposes; "My soul hates them, they are a trouble to me, a burthen, an incumbrance; I am perfectly sick of them, and weary to bear them." He is never weary of hearing the prayers of the upright, but soon weary of the costly sacrifices of the wicked. He hides his eyes from their prayers, as that which he has an aversion to, and is angry at.
All this is to show, [1.] That sin is very hateful to God, so hateful that it makes even men's prayers and their religious services hateful to him. [2.] That dissembled piety is double iniquity. Hypocrisy in religion is of all things most abominable to the God of heaven. Jerom applies it to the Jews in Christ's time, who pretended a great zeal for the law and the temple, but made themselves and all their services abominable to God, by filling their hands with the blood of Christ and his apostles, and so filling up the measure of their iniquities.
16. Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; 17. Learn to do well: seek judgment, relieve the oppressed; judge the fatherless; plead for the widow. 18. Come now, let us reason together, saith the Lord: Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. 19. If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: 20. But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.
Though God has rejected their services as insufficient to atone for their sins, while they persisted in them, yet he does not reject them as in a hopeless condition; but here calls upon them to forsake their sins, which hindered the acceptance of their services, and then all would be well. Let them not say that God picked quarrels with them; no, he proposes a method of reconciliation. Observe here,
1. A call to repentance and reformation; "If you would have your sacrifices accepted, and your prayers answered, you must begin your work at the right end; Be converted to my law," (so the Chaldee begins this exhortation,) "make conscience of second-table-duties, else expect not to be accepted in the acts of your devotion." As justice and charity will never atone for atheism and profaneness, so prayers and sacrifices will never atone for fraud and oppression; for righteousness toward men is as much a branch of pure religion, as religion toward God is a branch of universal righteousness.
1. They must cease to do evil, must do no more wrong, shed no more innocent blood; that is the meaning of washing them, and making them clean, v. 16. It is not only sorrowing for the sin they had committed, but breaking off the practice of it for the future, and mortifying all those vicious affections and dispositions which incline them to it. Sin is defiling to the soul; our business is to wash ourselves from it by repenting of it, and turning from it to God. We must put away not only that evil of our doings, which is before the eye of the world, by refraining from the gross acts of sin, but that which is before God's eyes, the roots and habits of sin, that are in our hearts; those must be crushed and mortified.
2. They must learn to do well. This was necessary to the completing of their repentance. Note, It is not enough that we cease to do evil, but we must learn to do well. (1.) We must be doing; not cease to do evil, and then stand idle. (2.) We must be doing good, the good which the Lord our God requires, and which will turn to a good account. (3.) We must do it well, in a right manner, and for a right end; and, (4.) We must learn to do well, we must take pains to get the knowledge of our duty, be inquisitive concerning it, in care about it, and accustom ourselves to it, that we may readily turn our hands to our work, and become masters of this holy art of doing well.
He urges them particularly to those instances of well-doing, wherein they had been defective; to second-table-duties; "Seek judgment; inquire what is right, that ye may do it: be solicitous to be found in the way of your duty, and do not walk at all adventures; seek opportunities of doing good. Relieve the oppressed, those whom you yourselves have oppressed; ease them of their burthens, ch. lviii. 6. You that have power in your hands, use it for the relief of those whom others do oppress, for that is your business; right those that suffer wrong; in a special manner concern yourselves for the fatherless and the widow, whom, because they are weak and helpless, proud men trample upon and abuse; do you appear for them at the bar, on the bench, as there is occasion; speak for those that know not how to speak for themselves, and that have not wherewithal to gratify you for your kindness." Note, We are truly honouring God when we are doing good in the world; and acts of justice and charity are more pleasing to him than all burnt-offerings and sacrifices.
II. A demonstration, at the bar of right reason, of the equity of God's proceeding with them; "Come now, and let us reason together; (v. 18.) while your hands are full of blood, I will have nothing to do with you, though you bring me a multitude of sacrifices: but if you wash you, and make you clean, you are welcome to draw nigh to me; come now, and let us talk the matter over." Note, Those, and those only, that break off their league with sin, shall be welcome into covenant and communion with God; he says, Come now, who before God forbade them his courts. See Jam. iv. 8. Or rather thus; there were those among them who looked upon themselves as offended by the slights God put upon the multitude of their sacrifices, as ch. lviii. 3. Wherefore have we fasted, (say they,) and thou seest not? They represented God as a hard Master, whom it was impossible to please; "Come," says God, "let us debate the matter fairly, and I doubt not but to make it out that my ways are equal, but yours are unequal." Ezek. xviii. 25. Note, 1. Religion has reason on its side: there is all the reason in the world that we should do as God would have us to do. 2. The God of heaven condescends to reason the case with those who contradict him and find fault with his proceedings, for he will be justified when he speaks, Ps, li. 4. The case needs only to be stated, (as it is here very fairly,) and it will determine itself. God shows here upon what terms they stood, (as he does Ezek. xviii. 21, 24.—xxxiii. 18, 19.) and then leaves it to them to judge whether they were not fair.
(1.) They cannot in reason expect any more than that, if they repent and reform, they should be restored to God's favour, notwithstanding their former provocations; "This you may expect," says God, "and it is very kind; who could have the face to desire it upon any other terms?" [1.] "It is very little that is required, only that you be willing and obedient, that you consent to obey;" so some read it; "that you subject your wills to the will of God, acquiesce in that, and give up yourselves in all things to be ruled by him that is infinitely wise and good." Here is no penance imposed for their former stubbornness, nor the yoke made heavier, or bound harder, on their necks; only, "Whereas hitherto you have been perverse and refractory, and would not comply with that which was for your own good, now be tractable, be governable." He does not say, "If you be perfectly obedient," but, "If you be willingly so;" for if there be a willing mind, it is accepted. [2.] That is very great, which is promised hereupon. First, That all their sins should be pardoned to them, and should not be mentioned against them; "Though they be as red as scarlet and crimson, though you lie under the guilt of blood, yet, upon your repentance, even that shall be forgiven you, and you shall appear in the sight of God as white as snow." Note, The greatest sinners, if they truly repent, shall have their sins forgiven them, and so have their consciences pacified and purified. Though our sins have been as scarlet and crimson, a deep dye, a double dye, first in the wool of original corruption, and afterwards in the many threads of actual transgression, though we have been often dipped, by our many backslidings, into sin, and though we have lain long soaking in it, as the cloth does in the scarlet dye, yet pardoning mercy will thoroughly discharge the stain, and, being by it purged as with hyssop, we shall be clean, Ps. li. 7. If we make ourselves clean by repentance and reformation, (v. 16.) God will make us white by a full remission. Secondly, That they should have all the happiness and comfort they could desire; "Be but willing and obedient and you shall eat the good of the land, the land of promise; you shall have all the blessings of the new covenant, of the heavenly Canaan; all the good of that land." They that go on in sin, though they dwell in a good land, cannot with any comfort eat the good of it, guilt imbitters all; but if sin be pardoned, creature-comforts become comforts indeed.
(2.) They cannot in reason expect any other than that, if they continue obstinate in their disobedience, they should be abandoned to ruin, and the sentence of the law should be executed upon them; what can be more just? (v. 20.) "If you refuse and rebel, if you continue to rebel against the divine government, and refuse the offers of divine grace, you shall be devoured with the sword; with the sword of your enemies, which shall be commissioned to destroy you, with the sword of God's justice, his wrath, and vengeance, which shall be drawn against you; for this is that which the mouth of the Lord has spoken, and which he will make good, for the maintaining of his own honour." Note, Those that will not be governed by God's sceptre, will certainly and justly be devoured by his sword.
"And now life and death, good and evil, are thus set before you; Come and let us reason together. What have you to object against the equity of this, or against complying with God's terms?"
21. How is the faithful city become a harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers. 22. Thy silver is become dross, thy wine mixed with water: 23. Thy princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves: every one loveth gifts, and followeth after rewards: they judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them. 24. Therefore saith the Lord, the Lord of hosts, the Mighty One of Israel, Ah, I will ease me of mine adversaries, and avenge me of mine enemies: 25. And I will turn my hand upon thee, and purely purge away thy dross, and take away all thy tin: 26. And I will restore thy judges as at the first, and thy counsellors as at the beginning: afterward thou shalt be called, The city of righteousness, The faithful city. 27. Zion shall be redeemed with judgment, and her converts with righteousness. 28. And the destruction of the transgressors and of the sinners shall be together, and they that forsake the Lord shall be consumed. 29. For they shall be ashamed of the oaks which ye have desired, and ye shall be confounded for the gardens that ye have chosen. 30. For ye shall be as an oak whose leaf fadeth, and as a garden that hath no water. 31. And the strong shall be as tow, and the maker of it as a spark, and they shall both burn together, and none shall quench them.
Here,
I. The woful degeneracy of Judah and Jerusalem is sadly lamented. See, 1. What the royal city had been; a faithful city, faithful to God and the interests of his kingdom among men; faithful to the nation and its public interests. It was full of judgment; justice was duly administered upon the thrones of judgment which were set there, the thrones of the house of David, Ps. cxxii. 5. Men were generally honest in their dealings, and abhorred to do an unjust thing; righteousness lodged in it, was constantly resident in their palaces and in all their dwellings, not called in now and then to serve a turn, but at home there. Note, Neither holy cities, nor royal ones, neither places where religion is professed, nor places where government is administered, are faithful to their trust, if religion do not dwell in them. 2. What it was now become: that beauteous virtuous spouse was now debauched, and become an adulteress; righteousness no longer dwelt in Jerusalem, (terras Astraea reliquit—Astrea left the earth,) even murderers were unpunished, and lived undisturbed there; nay, the princes themselves were so cruel and oppressive, that they were become no better than murderers; an innocent man might better guard himself against a troop of banditti or assassins, than against a bench of such judges. Note, It is a great aggravation of the wickedness of any family or people, that their ancestors were famed for virtue and probity; and commonly those that thus degenerate, prove the most wicked of all others. Corruptio optimi est pessima—That which originally was the best, when corrupted, becomes the worst, Luke xi. 26. Eccl. iii. 16. See Jer. xxiii. 15··17.
This is illustrated, (1.) By similitudes; (v. 22.) Thy silver is become dross; this degeneracy of the magistrates, whose character is the reverse of that of their predecessors, is as great a reproach and injury to the kingdom, as the debasing of their coin would be, and the turning of their silver into dross. Righteous princes, and righteous cities, are as silver for the treasury; but unrighteous ones are as dross for the dunghill—How is the gold become dim! Lam. iv. 1. Thy wine is mixed with water, and so is become flat and sour. Some understand both these literally; the wine they sold was adulterated, it was half water; the money they paid was counterfeit, and so they cheated all they dealt with. But it is rather to be taken figuratively: justice was perverted by their princes; and religion and the word of God were sophisticated by their priests, and made to serve what turn they pleased. Dross may shine like silver, and the wine that is mixed with water may retain the colour of wine, but neither is worth any thing. Thus they retained a show and pretence of virtue and justice, but had no true sense of either. (2.) By some instances; (v. 23.) "Thy princes, that should keep others in their allegiance to God, and subjection to his law, are themselves rebellious, and set God and his law at defiance." They that should restrain thieves, proud and rich oppressors, those worst of robbers, and those that designedly cheat their creditors, who are no better, they are themselves companions of thieves, connive at them, do as they do, and with greater security and success, because they are princes, and have power in their hands; they share with the thieves they protect in their unlawful gain, (Ps. l. 18.) and cast in their lot among them, Prov. i. 13, 14. [1.] The profit of their places is all their aim; to make the best hand they can of them, right or wrong. They love gifts, and follow after reward; they set their hearts upon their salary, the fees and perquisites of their offices, and are greedy of them, and never think they can get enough; nay, they will do any thing, though ever so contrary to law and justice, for a gift in secret. Presents and gratuities will blind their eyes at any time, and make them pervert judgment: these they love, and are eager in the pursuit of, Hos. iv. 18. [2.] The duty of their places is none of their care; they ought to protect those that are injured, and take cognizance of the appeals made to them; why else were they preferred? But they judge not the fatherless, take no care to guard the orphans, nor does the cause of the widow come unto them; because the poor widow has no bribe to give, with which to make way for her, and to bring her cause on. Those will have a great deal to answer for, who, when they should be the patrons of the oppressed, are their greatest oppressors.
II. A resolution is taken up to redress these grievances; (v. 24.) Therefore saith the Lord, the Lord of hosts, the Mighty One of Israel, who has power to make good what he says, who has hosts at command for the executing of his purposes, and whose power is engaged for Israel; Ah, I will ease me of mine adversaries. Observe, 1. Wicked people, especially wicked rulers that are cruel and oppressive, are God's enemies, his adversaries, and shall so be accounted of, and so dealt with. If the holy seed corrupt themselves, they are the foes of his own house. 2. They are a burthen to the God of heaven, which is implied in his easing himself of them; the Mighty One of Israel, that can bear any thing, nay, that upholds all things, complains of his being wearied with men's iniquities, ch. xliii. 24. Amos ii. 13. 3. God will find out a time and a way to ease himself of this burthen, by avenging himself on those that thus bear hard upon his patience. He here speaks as one triumphing in the foresight of it; Ah, I will ease me. He will ease the earth of the burthen under which it groans, (Rom. viii. 21, 22.) will ease his own name of the reproaches with which it is loaded. He will be eased of his adversaries, by taking vengeance on his enemies; he will spue them out of his mouth, and so be eased of them, Rev. iii. 16. He speaks with pleasure of the day of vengeance being in his heart, ch. lxiii. 4. If God's professing people conform not to his image, as the Holy One of Israel, (v. 4.) they shall feel the weight of his hand as the Mighty One of Israel: his power, which was wont to be engaged for them, shall be armed against them.
Two ways God will ease himself of this grievance:
(1.) By reforming his church and restoring good judges in the room of those corrupt ones. Though the church has a great deal of dross in it, yet it shall not be thrown away, but refined; (v. 25.) "I will purely purge away thy dross; I will amend what is amiss. Vice and profaneness shall be suppressed, and put out of countenance; oppressors displaced, and deprived of their power to do mischief." When things are ever so bad, God can set them to rights, and bring about a complete reformation; when he begins, he will make an end, will take away all the tin.
Observe, [1.] The reformation of a people is God's own work; and, if ever it be done, it is he that brings it about; "I will turn my hand upon thee; I will do that for the reviving of religion, which I did, at first, for the planting of it." He can do it easily, with the turn of his hand; but he does it effectually, for what opposition can stand before the arm of the Lord revealed? [2.] He does it by blessing them with good magistrates, and good ministers of state; (v. 26.) "I will restore thy judges, as at the first, to put the laws into execution against evil-doers; and thy counsellors, to transact public affairs, as at the beginning;" either the same persons that had been turned out, or others of the same character. [3.] He does it by restoring judgment and righteousness among them, (v. 27.) by planting in men's minds principles of justice, and governing their lives by those principles. Men may do much by external restraints; but God does it effectually by the influences of his Spirit, as a Spirit of Judgment, ch. iv. 4.—xxviii. 6. See Ps. lxxxv. 10, 11. [4.] The reformation of a people will be the redemption of them and their converts, for sin is the worst captivity, the worst slavery; and the great and eternal redemption is that by which Israel is redeemed from all his iniquities; (Ps. cxxx. 8.) and the blessed Redeemer is he that turns away ungodliness from Jacob, (Rom. xi. 26.) and saves his people from their sins, Matth. i. 21. All the redeemed of the Lord shall be converts, and their conversion is their redemption. Her converts, or, they that return of her; so the margin. God works deliverance for us, by preparing us for it with judgment and righteousness. [5.] The reviving of a people's virtue, is the restoring of their honour; Afterward thou shalt be called the city of righteousness, the faithful city; First, Thou shalt be so; the reforming of the magistracy is a good step toward the reforming of the city and the country too. Secondly, Thou shalt have the praise of being so; and a greater praise there cannot be to any city, than to be called the city of righteousness, and to retrieve the ancient honour, which was lost, when the faithful city became a harlot, v. 21.
(2.) By cutting off those that hate to be reformed, that they may not remain either as snares, or as scandals, to the faithful city. [1.] It is an utter ruin that is here threatened. They shall be destroyed and consumed, and not chastened and corrected only. The extirpation of them will be necessary to the redemption of Zion. [2.] It is a universal ruin, which will involve the transgressors and the sinners together; the openly profane, that have quite cast off all religion, and the hypocrites, that live wicked lives under the cloak of a religious profession—they shall both be destroyed together; for they are both alike an abomination to God, both those that contradict religion, and those that contradict themselves in their pretensions to it. And they that forsake the Lord, to whom they had formerly joined themselves, shall be consumed as the water in the conduit-pipe is soon consumed when it is cut off from the fountain. [3.] It is an inevitable ruin; there is no escaping it.
First, Their idols shall not be able to help them; the oaks which they have desired, and the gardens which they have chosen; the images, the dunghill-gods, which they have worshipped in their groves, and under the green trees, which they were fond of, and wedded to, for which they forsook the true God, and which they worshipped privately in their own gardens, even then when idolatry was publicly discountenanced. This was the practice of the transgressors and the sinners; but they shall be ashamed of it, not with a show of repentance, but of despair, v. 29. They shall have cause to be ashamed of them; for after all the court they have made to them, they shall find no benefit by them; but the idols themselves shall go into captivity, ch. xlvi. 1, 2. Note, They that make creatures their confidence, are but preparing confusion for themselves. You were fond of the oaks and the gardens; but you yourselves shall be, 1. Like an oak without leaves, withered and blasted, and stripped of all its ornaments. Justly do those wear no leaves, that bear no fruit; as the fig-tree that Christ cursed. 2. Like a garden without water, that is neither rained upon, nor watered with the foot, (Deut. xi. 10.) that has no fountains, (Cant. iv. 15.) and consequently, is parched, and all the fruits of it gone to decay. Thus shall they be, that trust in idols, or in an arm of flesh, Jer. xvii. 5, 6. But they that trust in God never find him as a wilderness, or as waters that fail, Jer. ii. 31.
Secondly, They shall not be able to help themselves; (v. 31.) Even the strong man shall be as tow; not only soon broken, and pulled to pieces, but easily catching fire; and his work, (so the margin reads it,) that by which he hopes to fortify and secure himself, shall be as a spark to his own tow, shall set him on fire, and he and his work shall burn together. His own counsels shall be his ruin; his own sin kindles the fire of God's wrath, which shall burn to the lowest hell, and none shall quench it. When the sinner has made himself as tow and stubble, and God makes himself to him as a consuming fire, what can prevent the utter ruin of the sinner?
Now all this is applicable, 1. To the blessed work of reformation, which was wrought in Hezekiah's time, after the abominable corruptions of the reign of Ahaz. Then good men came to be preferred, and the faces of the wicked were filled with shame. 2. To their return out of their captivity in Babylon, which had thoroughly cured them of idolatry. 3. To the gospel-kingdom, and the pouring out of the Spirit, by which the New Testament church should be made a new Jerusalem, a city of righteousness. 4. To the second coming of Christ, when he shall thoroughly purge his floor, his field, shall gather the wheat into his barn, into his garner, and burn the chaff, the tares, with unquenchable fire.
CHAP. II.
With this chapter begins a new sermon, which is continued in the two following chapters. The subject of this discourse is Judah and Jerusalem, v. 1. In this chapter, the prophet speaks, I. Of the glory of the christians, Jerusalem, the gospel-church in the latter days, in the accession of many to it, (v. 2, 3.) and the great peace it should introduce into the world, (v. 4.) whence he infers the duty of the house of Jacob, v. 5. II. Of the shame of the Jews, Jerusalem, as it then was, and as it would be after its rejecting of the gospel, and being rejected of God. 1. Their sin was their shame, v. 6..9. 2. God by his judgments would humble them, and put them to shame, v. 10..17. They should themselves be ashamed of their confidence in their idols, and in an arm of flesh, v. 18..22. And now which of these Jerusalems will we be the inhabitants of? That which is full of the knowledge of God, which will be our everlasting honour, or that which is full of horses and chariots, and silver and gold, and such idols, which will, in the end, be our shame.
1.THE word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. 2. And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. 3. And many people shall go and say. Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. 4. And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people; and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. 5. O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of the Lord.
The particular title of this sermon, (v. 1.) is the same with the general title of the book; (ch. i. 1.) only that what is there called the vision, is here called the word which Isaiah saw, or the matter or thing, which he saw, the truth of which he had as full an assurance of in his own mind, as if he had seen it with his bodily eyes. Or, this word was brought to him in a vision, he saw something, when he received this message from God. St. John turned to see the voice that spake with him, Rev. i. 12.
This sermon begins with the prophecy relating to the last days, the days of the Messiah, when his kingdom should be set up in the world, at the latter end of the Mosaic economy. In the last days of the earthly Jerusalem, just before the destruction of it, this heavenly Jerusalem should be erected, Heb. xii. 22. Gal. iv. 26. Note, Gospel-times are the last days. For, 1. They were long in coming, were a great time waited for by the Old Testament saints, and came at last. 2. We are not to look for any dispensation of divine grace, but what we have in the gospel, Gal. i. 8, 9. 3. We are to look for the second coming of Jesus Christ at the end of time, as the Old Testament saints did for his first coming; this is the last time, 1 John ii. 18.
Now the prophet here foretells,
I. The setting up of the Christian church, and the planting of the Christian religion in the world. Christianity shall then be the mountain of the Lord's house; where that is professed, God will grant his presence, receive his people's homage, and grant instruction and blessing, as he did of old in the temple of Mount Zion. The gospel-church, incorporated by Christ's charter, shall then be the rendezvous of all the spiritual seed of Abraham. Now it is here promised, 1. That Christianity shall be openly preached and professed; it shall be prepared (so the margin reads it) in the top of the mountains, in the view and hearing of all. Hence Christ's disciples are compared to a city on a hill, which cannot be hid, Matth. v. 14. They had many eyes upon them. Christ himself spake openly to the world, John xviii. 20. What the apostles did, was not done in a corner, Acts xxvi. 26. It was the lighting of a beacon, the setting up of a standard. Its being every where spoken against, supposes that it was every where spoken of. 2. That it shall be firmly fixed and rooted; that it shall be established on the top of the everlasting mountains, built upon a rock, so that the gates of hell shall not prevail against it, unless they could pluck up mountains by the roots. He that dwells safely, is said to dwell on high, ch. xxxiii. 16. The Lord has founded the gospel-Zion. 3. That it shall not only overcome all opposition, but overtop all competition; it shall be exalted above the hills. This wisdom of God in a mystery shall outshine all the wisdom of this world, all its philosophy, and all its politics. The spiritual worship which it shall introduce, shall put down the idolatries of the heathen; and all other institutions in religion shall appear mean and despicable, in comparison with this. See Ps. lxviii. 16. Why leap ye, ye high hills? This is the hill which God desires to dwell in.
II. The bringing in of the Gentiles into it; 1. The nations shall be admitted into it, even the uncircumcised, who were forbidden to come into the courts of the temple at Jerusalem; the partition-wall, which kept them out, kept them off, shall be taken down. 2. All nations shall flow into it; having liberty of access, they shall improve their liberty, and multitudes shall embrace the Christian faith. They shall flow into it, as streams of water; which denotes the abundance of converts that the gospel should make, and their speed and cheerfulness in coming into the church. They shall not be forced into it, but shall naturally flow into it. Thy people shall be willing; all volunteers, Ps. cx. 3. To Christ shall the gathering of the people be. Gen. xlix. 10. See ch. lx. 4, 5.
III. The mutual assistance and encouragement which this confluence of converts shall give to one another. Their pious affections and resolutions shall be so intermixed, that they shall come in, in one full stream. As when the Jews from all parts of the country went up thrice a year to worship at Jerusalem, they called on their friends in the road, and excited them to go along with them, so shall many of the Gentiles court their relations, friends, and neighbours, to join with them in embracing the Christian religion; (v. 3.) "Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord; though it be up hill, and against heart, yet it is the mountain of the Lord, who will assist the ascent of our souls toward him." Note, Those that are entering into covenant and communion with God themselves, should bring as many as they can along with them; it becomes Christians to provoke one another to good works, and to further the communion of saints by inviting one another into it: not, "Do you go up to the mountain of the Lord, and pray for us, and we will stay at home;" nor, "We will go, and do you as you will;" but, "Come, and let us go, let us go in concert, that we may strengthen one another's hands, and support one another's reputation:" not, "We will consider of it, and advise about it, and go hereafter;" but, "Come, and let us go forthwith," Ps. cxxii. 1. Many shall say this; those that have had it said to them, shall say it to others. The gospel-church is here called, not only the mountain of the Lord, but the house of the God of Jacob; for in it God's covenant with Jacob and his praying seed is kept up, and has its accomplishment; for to us now, as unto them, he never said, Seek ye me, in vain, ch. xlv. 19.
Now see here, 1. What they promise themselves, in going up to the mountain of the Lord; There he will teach us of his ways. Note, God's ways are to be learned in his church, in communion with his people, and in the use of instituted ordinances; the ways of duty, which he requires us to walk in, the ways of grace, in which he walks towards us. It is God that teaches his people, by his word and Spirit. It is worth while to take pains to go up to his holy mountain, to be taught his ways, for those who are willing to take that pains, shall never find it labour in vain. Then shall we know, if we follow on to know, the Lord. 2. What they promise for themselves, and one another; "If he will teach us his ways, we will walk in his paths; if he will let us know our duty, we will by his grace make conscience of doing it." Those who attend God's word with this humble resolution, shall not be sent away without their lesson.
IV. The means by which this shall be brought about; Out of Zion shall go forth the law, the New Testament law, the law of Christ; as, of old, the law of Moses from mount Sinai, even the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. The gospel is a law, a law of faith; it is the word of the Lord; it went forth from Zion, where the temple was built, and from Jerusalem. Christ himself began in Galilee, Matth. iv. 23. Luke xxiii. 5. But when he commissioned his apostles to preach the gospel to all nations, he appointed them to begin at Jerusalem, Luke xxiv. 47. See Rom. xv. 19. Though most of them had their home in Galilee, yet they must stay at Jerusalem, there to receive the promise of the Spirit, Acts i. 4. And in the temple on Mount Zion they preached the gospel, Acts v. 20. This honour was allowed to Jerusalem, even after Christ was crucified there, for the sake of what it had been. And it was by this gospel which took rise from Jerusalem, that the gospel-church was established on the top of the mountains. This was the rod of divine strength, that was sent forth out of Zion, Ps. cx. 2.
V. The erecting of the kingdom of the Redeemer in the world; He shall judge among the nations. He whose word goes forth out of Zion, shall by that word not only subdue souls to himself, but rule in them, v. 4. He shall, in wisdom and justice, order and overrule the affairs of the world for the good of his church, and rebuke and restrain those that oppose his interest. By his Spirit working on men's consciences, he shall judge and rebuke, shall try men, and check them: his kingdom is spiritual, and not of this world.
VI. The great peace which should be the effect of the success of the gospel in the world; (v. 4.) They shall beat their swords into ploughshares; their instruments of war shall be converted into implements of husbandry; as, on the contrary, when war is proclaimed, ploughshares are beaten into swords, Joel iii. 10. Nation shall not then lift up sword against nation, as now they do, neither shall they learn war any more, for they shall have no more occasion for it. This does not make all war absolutely unlawful among Christians, nor is it a prophecy that in the days of the Messiah there shall be no wars. The Jews urge this against Christians, as an argument that Jesus is not the Messiah, because this promise is not fulfilled. But, 1. It was in part fulfilled in the peaceableness of the time in which Christ was born, when wars were in a great measure ceased; witness the taxing, Luke ii. 1. 2. The design and tendency of the gospel are to make peace, and to slay all enmities. It has in it the most powerful obligations and inducements to peace; so that one might reasonably have expected it should have had this effect, and it would have had it, if it had not been for those lusts of men, from which come wars and fightings. 3. Jews and Gentiles were reconciled, and brought together, by the gospel, and there were no more such wars between them as had been; for they became one sheep-fold under one shepherd, Eph. ii. 15. 4. The gospel of Christ, as far as it prevails, disposes men to be peaceable, softens men's spirits, and sweetens them; and the love of Christ, shed abroad in the heart, constrains men to love one another. 5. The primitive Christians were famous for brotherly love; their very adversaries took notice of it. 6. We have reason to hope that this promise shall yet have a more full accomplishment in the latter times of the Christian church, when the Spirit shall be poured out more plentifully from on high. Then there shall be on earth peace. Who shall live when God doeth this? But do it he will in due time, for he is not a man that he should lie.
Lastly, Here is a practical inference drawn from all this; (v. 5.) O house of Jacob, come ye and let us walk in the light of the Lord. By the house of Jacob is meant either, 1. Israel according to the flesh. Let them be provoked by this to a holy emulation. Rom. xi. 14. "Seeing the Gentiles are thus ready, and resolved for God, thus forward to go up to the house of the Lord, let us stir up ourselves to go too. Let it never be said that the sinners of the Gentiles were better friends to the holy mountain, than the house of Jacob." Thus the zeal of some should provoke many. Or, 2. Spiritual Israel, all that are brought to the God of Jacob. Shall there be such great knowledge in gospel times, (v. 3.) and such great peace? (v. 4.) And shall we share in these privileges? Come, then, and let us live accordingly. Whatever others do, come, O come, let us walk in the light of the Lord. (1.) Let us walk circumspectly in the light of this knowledge. Will God teach us his ways? will he show us his glory in the face of Christ? Let us then walk as the children of the light and of the day, Eph. v. 8. 1 Thess. v. 8. Rom. xiii. 12. (2.) Let us walk circumspectly in the light of this peace. Shall there be no more war? Let us then go on our way rejoicing, and let this joy terminate in God, and be our strength, Neh. viii. 10. . Thus shall we walk in the beams of the Sun of righteousness.
6. Therefore thou hast forsaken thy people, the house of Jacob, because they be replenished from the east, and are sooth sayers like the Philistines, and they please themselves in the children of strangers. 7. Their land also is full of silver and gold, neither is there any end of their treasures; their land is also full of horses, neither is there any end of their chariots. 8. Their land also is full of idols; they worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made. 9. And the mean man boweth down, and the great man humbleth himself: therefore forgive them not.
The calling in of the Gentiles was accompanied with the rejection of the Jews; it was their fall, and the diminishing of them, that was the riches of the Gentiles; and the casting off of them, that was the reconciling of the world; (Rom. xi. 12··15.) and it should seem that these verses have reference to that, and are designed to justify God therein; and yet, probably, they are primarily intended for the convincing and awakening of the men of that generation in which the prophet lived; it being usual with the prophets to speak of the things that then were, both in mercy and judgment, as types of the things that should be hereafter. Here is,
I. Israel's doom; this is set forth in two words, the first and last of this paragraph; but they are two dreadful words, and which speak, 1. Their case sad, very sad; (v. 6.) Therefore thou hast forsaken thy people. Miserable is the condition of that people whom God has forsaken, and great certainly must the provocation be, if he forsake those that have been his own people. This was the deplorable state of the Jewish church after they had rejected Christ; Migremus hinc—Let us go hence. Your house is left unto you desolate, Matth. xxiii. 38. Whenever any sore calamity came upon the Jews, thus far the Lord might be said to forsake them, when he withdrew his help and succour from them, else they had not fallen into the hands of their enemies. But God never leaves any till they first leave him. 2. Their case desperate, wholly desperate; (v. 9.) Therefore forgive them not. This prophetical prayer amounts to a threatening, that they should not be forgiven: and so some think it may be read, And thou wilt not forgive them. This refers not to particular persons, (many of whom repented, and were pardoned,) but to the body of that nation against whom an irreversible doom was passed, that they should be wholly cut off, and their church quite dismantled, never to be formed into such a body again, nor ever to have their old charter restored to them.
II. Israel's desert of this doom, and the reasons upon which it is grounded; in general, it is sin; that is it, and nothing but that which provokes God to forsake his people. The particular sins he specifies, are such as abounded among them at that time, which he makes mention of for the conviction of those to whom he then preached, rather than that which afterward proved the measure-filling sin, their crucifying of Christ, and persecuting of his followers; for the sins of every age contributed toward the making up of the dreadful account at last. And there was a partial and temporary rejection of them by the captivity in Babylon hastening on, which was a type of their final destruction by the Romans, and which the sins here mentioned brought upon them.
Their sins were such as directly contradicted all God's kind and gracious designs concerning them.
1. God set them apart for himself, as a peculiar people distinguished from, and dignified above, all other people; (Numb, xxiii. 9.) but they were replenished from the east; they naturalized foreigners, not proselyted; and encouraged them to settle among them, and mingled with them, Hos. vii. 8. Their country was peopled with Syrians and Chaldeans, Moabites and Ammonites, and other eastern nations, and with them they admitted the fashions and customs of those nations, and pleased themselves in the children of strangers, were fond of them, preferred their country before their own, and thought that the more they conformed to them, the more polite and refined they were; thus did they profane their crown and their covenant. Note, Those are in danger of being estranged from God, who please themselves with those who are strangers to him, for we soon learn the ways of those whose company we love.
2. God gave them his oracles, which they might ask counsel of, not only the scriptures, and the seers, but the breast-plate of judgment; but they slighted these, and became soothsayers like the Philistines, introduced their arts of divination, and hearkened to those who, by the stars, or the clouds, or the flight of birds, or the entrails of beasts, or other magic superstitions, pretended to discover things secret, or foretell things to come; the Philistines were noted for diviners, 1 Sam. vi. 2. Note, Those who slight true divinity, are justly given up to lying divinations; and they will certainly be forsaken of God, who thus forsake him and their own mercies for lying vanities.
3. God encouraged them to put their confidence in him, and assured them that he would be their Wealth and Strength; but, distrusting his power and promise, they made gold their hope, and furnished themselves with horses and chariots, and relied upon them for their safety, v. 7. God had expressly forbidden even their kings to multiply horses to themselves, and greatly to multiply silver and gold, because he would have them to depend upon himself only; but they did not think their interest in God made them a match for their neighbours, unless they had as full treasures of silver and gold, and as formidable hosts of chariots and horses, as they had. It is not having silver and gold, horses and chariots, that is a provocation to God, but, (1.) Desiring them insatiably, so that there is no end of the treasures, no end of the chariots, no bounds or limits set to the desire of them. Those shall never have enough in God, (who alone is all-sufficient,) that never know when they have enough of this world, which, at the best, is insufficient (2.) Depending upon them, as if we could not be safe, and easy, and happy, without them, and could not but be so with them.
4. God himself was their God, the sole Object of their worship, and he himself instituted ordinances of worship for them; but they slighted both him and his institutions; (v. 8.) their land was full of idols, every city had its god, (Jer. xi. 13.) and, according to the goodness of their lands, they made goodly images, Hos. x. 1. They that think one God too little, will find two too many, and yet hundreds not sufficient; for they that love idols, will multiply them; so sottish were they, and so wretchedly infatuated, that they worshipped the work of their own hands; as if that could be a god to them, which was not only a creature, but their creature, and that which their own fancies had devised, and their own fingers had made. It was an aggravation of their idolatry, that God had enriched them with silver and gold, and yet of that silver and gold they made idols; so it was, Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked, Hos. ii. 8.
5. God had advanced them, and put honour upon them; but they basely diminished and disparaged themselves; (v. 9.) The mean man boweth down to his idol; a thing below the meanest that have any spark of reason left them. Sin is a disparagement to the poorest, and those of the lowest rank. It becomes the mean man to bow down to his superiors, but it ill becomes him to bow down to the stock of a tree, ch. xliv. 19. Nor is it only the illiterate and poor-spirited that do this, but even the great man forgets his grandeur, and humbles himself to worship idols, deifies men no better than himself, and consecrates stones so much baser than himself. Idolaters are said to debase themselves even to hell, ch. lvii. 9. What a shame is it, that great men think the service of the true God below them, and will not stoop to it; and yet will humble themselves to bow down to an idol! Some make this a threatening, that the mean men shall be brought down, and the great men humbled, by the judgments of God, when they come with commission.
10. Enter into the rock, and hide thee in the dust, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of his majesty. 11. The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down; and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. 12. For the day of the Lord of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up, and he shall be brought low; 13. And upon all the cedars of Lebanon, that are high and lifted up, and upon all the oaks of Bashan. 14. And upon all the high mountains, and upon all the hills that are lifted up. 15. And upon every high tower, and upon every fenced wall, 16. And upon all the ships of Tarshish, and upon all pleasant pictures. 17. And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low; and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. 18. And the idols he shall utterly abolish. 19. And they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth. 20. In that day a man shall cast his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which they made each one for himself to worship, to the moles, and to the bats; 21. To go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the tops of the ragged rocks, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth. 22. Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils; for wherein is he to be accounted of?
The prophet here goes on to show what desolations would be brought upon their land, when God had forsaken them; which may refer particularly to their destruction by the Chaldeans first, and afterwards by the Romans; or it may have a general respect to the method God takes to awaken and humble proud sinners, and to put them out of conceit with that which they delighted in, and depended on, more than God.
We are here told, that, sooner or later, God will find out a way,
I. To startle and awaken secure sinners, who cry peace to themselves, and bid defiance to God and his judgments; (v. 10.) "Enter into the rock; God will attack you with such terrible judgments, and strike you with such terrible apprehensions of them, that you shall be forced to enter into the rock and hide you in the dust, for fear of the Lord. You shall lose all your courage, and tremble at the shaking of a leaf; your heart shall fail you for fear, (Luke xxi. 26.) and you shall flee when none pursues," Prov. xxviii. 1. To the same purport, v. 19. They shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, the darkest, and the deepest, places; they shall call to the rocks and mountains to fall on them, and rather crush them than not cover them, Hos. x. 8. It was so particularly at the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, (Luke xxiii. 30.) and of the persecuting pagan powers, Rev. vi. 16. And all, for fear of the Lord and of the glory of his majesty, looking upon him then to be a consuming fire, and themselves as stubble before him, when he arises to shake terribly the earth, to shake the wicked out of it, (Job xxxviii. 13.) and to shake all those earthly props and supports which they have buoyed themselves up with, to shake them from under them. Note, 1. With God is terrible majesty, and the glory of it is such as, sooner or later, will oblige us all to flee before him. 2. Those that will not fear God, and flee to him, will be forced to fear him, and flee from him to a refuge of lies. 3. It is folly for those that are pursued by the wrath of God, to think to escape it, and to hide or to shelter themselves from it. 4. The things of the earth are things that will be shaken; they are subject to concussions, and hastening towards a dissolution. 5. The shaking of the earth is, and will be, a terrible thing to those who set their affections wholly on things of the earth. 6. It will be in vain to think of finding refuge in the caves of the earth, when the earth itself is shaken; there will be no shelter then but in God, and in things above.
II. To humble and abase proud sinners, that look big, and think highly of themselves, and scornfully of all about them; (v. 11.) The lofty looks of man shall be humbled; the eyes that aim high, the countenance in which the pride of the heart shows itself, these shall be cast down in shame and despair. And the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, their spirits shall be broken, and they shall be crest-fallen, and those things which they were proud of they shall be ashamed of. It is repeated again, (v. 17.) The loftiness of man shall be bowed down. Note, Pride will, one way or other, have a fall. Men's haughtiness will be brought down, either by the grace of God convincing them of the evil of their pride, and clothing them with humility, or by the providence of God depriving them of all those things they were proud of, and laying them low. Our Saviour often laid it down for a maxim, that he who exalts himself shall be abased; he shall either abase himself in true repentance, or God will abase him, and pour contempt upon him. Now here we are told,
1. Why this shall be done; because the Lord alone will be exalted. Note, Therefore proud men shall be vilified, because the Lord alone will be magnified. It is for the honour of God's power to humble the proud; by this he proves himself to be God, and disproves Job's pretensions to rival with him; (Job xl. 11··14.) Behold every one that is proud, and abase him; then will I also confess unto thee. It is likewise for the honour of his justice; proud men stand in competition with God, who is jealous for his own glory, and will not suffer men either to take that to themselves, or give it to another, which is due to him only; they likewise stand in opposition to God, they resist him, and therefore he resists them; for he will be exalted among the heathen, Ps. xlvi. 10. And there is a day coming in which he alone will be exalted, when he shall have put down all opposing rule, principality, and power, 1 Cor. xv. 24.
2. How this shall be done; by humbling judgments, that shall mortify men, and bring them down; (v. 12.) The day of the Lord of hosts, the day of his wrath and judgment, shall be upon every one that is proud; and therefore he now laughs at their insolence, because he sees that his day is coming; this day, which will be upon them ere they are aware, Ps. xxxvii. 13. This day of the Lord is here said to be upon all the cedars of Lebanon, that are high and lifted up. Jerom observes that the cedars are said to praise God, (Ps. cxlviii. 9.) and are trees of the Lord, (Ps. civ. 16.) of his planting; (Isa. xii. 19.) and yet here God's wrath fastens upon the cedars, which denotes (says he) that some of every rank of men, some great men, will be saved, and some perish. It is brought in as an instance of the strength of God's voice, that it breaks the cedars; (Ps. xxix. 5.) and here the day of the Lord is said to be upon the cedars, those of Lebanon, that were the straightest and stateliest; upon the oaks, those of Bashan, that were the strongest and sturdiest; and (v. 14.) upon the natural elevations and fortresses, the high mountains, and the hills that are lifted up, that overtop the valleys, and seem to push the skies; and (v. 15.) upon the artificial fastnesses, every high tower, and every fenced wall. Understand these,
(1.) As representing the proud people themselves, that are like the cedars and the oaks, in their own apprehensions firmly rooted, and not to be stirred by any storm, and looking on all around them as shrubs; these are the high mountains and the lofty hills, that seem to fill the earth, that are gazed on by all, and think themselves immoveable, but lie most obnoxious to God's thunderstrokes; Feriuntque summos fulmina montes—The highest hills are most exposed to lightning. And before the power of God's wrath these mountains are scattered, and these hills bow and melt like wax, Hab. iii. 6. Ps. lxviii. 8. These vaunting men, who are as high towers in which the noisy bells are hung, on which the thundering murdering cannon are planted, these fenced walls, that fortify themselves with their native hardiness, and intrench themselves in their fastnesses, they shall be brought down.
(2.) As particularizing the things they are proud of, in which they trust, and of which they make their boasts. The day of the Lord shall be upon those very things which they put their confidence in as their strength and security; he will take from them all their armour wherein they trusted. Did the inhabitants of Lebanon glory in their cedars, and those of Bashan in their oaks, such as no country could equal? The day of the Lord should rend those cedars, those oaks, and the houses built of them. Did Jerusalem glory in the mountains that were round about it, as its impregnable fortifications, or in its walls and bulwarks? These should be levelled, and laid low in the day of the Lord.
Beside those things that were for their strength and safety, they were proud, [1.] Of their trade abroad; but the day of the Lord shall be upon all the ships of Tarshish, they shall be broken as Jehoshaphat's were, shall founder at sea, or be shipwrecked in the harbour. Zebulun was a haven of ships, but should now no more rejoice in his going out. When God is bringing ruin upon a people, he can sink all the branches of their revenue. [2.] Of their ornaments at home; but the day of the Lord shall be upon all pleasant pictures, the painting of their ships, (so some understand it,) or the curious pieces of painting they brought home in their ships from other countries, perhaps from Greece, which afterward was famous for painters. Upon every thing that is beautiful to behold, so some read it. Perhaps they were the pictures of their relations, and, for that reason, pleasant, or of their gods, which to the idolaters were delectable things; or they admired them for the fineness of their colours or strokes. There is no harm in making pictures, or in adorning our rooms with them, provided they transgress not either the second or the seventh commandment. But to place our pictures among our pleasant things, to be fond of them and proud of them, to spend that upon them that should be laid out in charity, and to set our hearts upon them, as it ill becomes those who have so many substantial things to take pleasure in, so it provokes God to strip us all of such vain ornaments.
III. To make idolaters ashamed of their idols, and of all the affection they have had for them, and the respect they have paid to them; (v. 18.) The idols he shall utterly abolish. When the Lord alone shall be exalted, (v. 17.) he will not only pour contempt upon proud men, who, like Pharaoh, exalt themselves against him, but much more upon all pretended deities, who are rivals with him for divine honours; they shall be abolished, utterly abolished; their friends shall desert them, their enemies shall destroy them, so that, one way or other, an utter riddance shall be made of them. See here, 1. The vanity of false gods; they cannot secure themselves, so far are they from being able to secure their worshippers. 2. The victory of the true God over them; for great is the truth, and will prevail. Dagon fell before the ark, and Baal before the Lord God of Elijah. The gods of the heathen shall be famished, (Zeph. ii. 11.) and by degrees shall perish, Jer. x. 11. The rightful Sovereign shall triumph over all pretenders.
And as God will abolish idols, so their worshippers shall abandon them; either from a gracious conviction of their vanity and falsehood, (as Ephraim, when he said, What have I to do any more with idols?) or from a late and sad experience of their inability to help them, and a woful despair of relief by them, v. 20. When men are themselves frightened by the judgments of God into the holes of the rocks and the caves of the earth, and find that they do thus in vain shift for their own safety, they shall cast their idols, which they had made their gods, and hoped to make their friends in the time of need, to the moles and to the bats, any whither out of sight, that, being freed from the incumbrance of them, they may go into the clefts of the rocks, for fear of the Lord, v. 21. Note, (1.) Those that will not be reasoned out of their sins, sooner or later shall he frightened out of them. (2.) God can make men sick of those idols that they have been most fond of; even the idols of silver, and the idols of gold, the most precious. Covetous men make silver and gold their idols, money their god; but the time may come when they may feel it as much their burthen as ever they made it their confidence, and may find themselves as much exposed by it as ever they hoped they should be guarded by it, when it tempts their enemy, sinks their ship, or retards their flight; there was a time when the mariners threw the wares, and even the wheat, into the sea; (Jonah i. 5. Acts xxvii. 38.) and the Syrians cast away their garments for haste, 2 Kings vii. 15. Or men may cast it away out of indignation at themselves for leaning upon such a broken reed. See Ezek. vii. 19. The idolaters here throw away their idols, because they are ashamed of them, and of their own folly in trusting to them; or because they are afraid of having them found in their possession when the judgments of God are abroad; as the thief throws away his stolen goods, when he is searched for or pursued. (3.) The darkest holes, where the moles and the bats lodge, are the fittest places for idols, that have eyes, and see not; and God can force men to cast their own idols there, (ch. xxx. 22.) when they are ashamed of the oaks which they have desired, ch. i. 29. Moab shall be ashamed of Chemosh, as the house of Israel was ashamed of Beth-el, Jer. xlviii. 13. (4.) It is possible that sin may be both loathed and left, and yet not truly repented of; loathed, because surfeited on; left, because there is no opportunity of committing it; yet not repented of out of any love to God, but only from a slavish fear of his wrath.
IV. To make those that have trusted in an arm of flesh, ashamed of their confidence; (v. 22.) "Cease ye from man. The providences of God concerning you shall speak this aloud to you, and therefore take warning beforehand, that you may prevent the uneasiness and shame of a disappointment; and consider," 1. How weak man is; His breath is in his nostrils, puffed out every moment, soon gone for good and all. Man is a dying creature, and may die quickly; our nostrils, in which our breath is, are of the outward parts of the body; what is there is like one standing at the door, ready to depart; nay, the doors of the nostrils are always open, the breath in them may slip away, ere we are aware, in a moment. Wherein is man then to be accounted of? Alas, no reckoning is to be made of him, for he is not what he seems to be, what he pretends to be, what we fancy him to be. Man is like to vanity, nay, he is vanity, he is altogether vanity, he is less, he is lighter, than vanity, when weighed in the balance of the sanctuary. 2. How wise therefore they are that cease from man; it is our duty, it is our interest, to do so. "Put not your trust in man, nor make even the greatest and mightiest of men your confidence; cease to do so. Let not your eye be to the power of man, for it is finite and limited, derived and depending; it is not from him that your judgment proceeds: let not him be your fear, let not him be your hope; but look up to the power of God, to which all the powers of men are subject and subordinate; dread his wrath, secure his favour, take him for your Help, and let your hope be in the Lord your God."
CHAP. III.
The prophet, in this chapter, goes on to foretell the desolations that were coming upon Judah and Jerusalem for their sins, both that by the Babylonians, and that which completed their ruin by the Romans; with some of the grounds of God's controversy with them. God threatens, 1. To deprive them of all the supports, both of their life and of their government, v. 1..3. II. To leave them to fall into confusion and disorder, v. 4, 5, 12. III. To deny them the blessings of magistracy, v. 6..8. IV. To strip the daughters of Zion of their ornaments, v. 17..24. V. To lay all waste by the sword of war, v. 25, 26. The sins that provoked God to deal thus with them, were, 1. Their defiance of God, v. 8. 2. Their impudence, v, 9. 3. The abuse of power to oppression and tyranny, v. 13..15. The pride of the daughters of Zion, v. 16. In the midst of the chapter, the prophet is directed how to apply himself to particular persons. (1.) To assure good people that it should be well with them, notwithstanding those general calamities, v. 10. (2.) To assure wicked people that, however God might, in judgment, remember mercy, yet it should go ill with them, v. 11. O that the nations of the earth, at this day, would hearken to the rebukes and warnings which this chapter gives!
1.FOR, behold, the Lord, the Lord of hosts, doth take away from Jerusalem, and from Judah, the stay and the staff, the whole stay of bread, and the whole stay of water. 2. The mighty man, and the man of war, the judge, and the prophet, and the prudent, and the ancient, 3. The captain of fifty, and the honourable man, and the counsellor, and the cunning artificer, and the eloquent orator. 4. And I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them. 5. And the people shall be oppressed, every one by another, and everyone by his neighbour: the child shall behave himself proudly against the ancient, and the base against the honourable. 6. When a man shall take hold of his brother, of the house of his father, saying, Thou hast clothing, be thou our ruler, and let this ruin be under thy hand: 7. In that day shall he swear, saying, I will not be a healer: for in my house is neither bread nor clothing: make me not a ruler of the people. 8. For Jerusalem is ruined, and Judah is fallen ; because their tongue and their doings are against the Lord, to provoke the eyes of his glory.
The prophet, in the close of the foregoing chapter, had given a necessary caution to all, not to put confidence in man, or any creature; he had also given a general reason for that caution, taken from the frailty of human life, and the vanity and weakness of human powers: here he gives a particular reason for it—God was now about to ruin all their creature-confidences, so that they should meet with nothing but disappointments in all their expectations from them, v. 1. The stay and the staff shall be taken away; all their supports, of what kind soever, all the things they trusted to, and looked for help and relief from. Their church and kingdom were grown old, and going to decay, and they were (after the manner of aged men, Zech. viii. 4.) leaning on a staff; now God threatens to take away their staff, and then they must fall of course; to take away the stays both of the city and of the country, of Jerusalem and of Judah, which are indeed stays to one another, and if one fail, the other feels from it.
He that does this, is the Lord, the Lord of hosts; Adon, the Lord that is himself the Stay or Foundation; if that Stay depart, all other stays certainly break under us, for he is the Strength of them all. He that is the Lord, the Ruler, that has authority to do it, and the Lord of hosts, that has ability to do it, he shall take away the stay and the staff. St. Jerom refers this to the sensible decay of the Jewish nation, after they had crucified our Saviour, Rom, xi. 9, 10. I rather take it as a warning to all nations not to provoke God: for if they make him their Enemy, he can, and will, thus make them miserable. Let us view the particulars:
I. Was their plenty a support to them? It is so to any people; bread is the staff of life: but God can take away the whole stay of bread, and the whole stay of water; and it is just with him to do so, when fulness of bread becomes an iniquity, (Ezek. xvi. 49.) and that which was given to be provision for the life, is made provision for the lusts. He can take away the bread and the water, by withholding the rain, Deut xxviii. 23, 24. Or, if he allow them, he can take away the stay of bread and the stay of water, by withholding this blessing, by which man lives, and not by bread only, and which is the staff of bread; (Matt. iv. 4.) and then the bread is not nourishing, the water not refreshing, Hag. i. 6. Christ is the bread of life and the water of life; if he be our Stay, we shall find that a good part not to be taken away, John vi. 27. ch. iv. 14.
II. Was their army a support to them—their generals and commanders, and military men? These shall be taken away: either cut off by the sword, or so discouraged with the defeats they meet with, that they shall throw up their commissions, and resolve to act no more; or they shall be disabled by sickness, or dispirited, so as to be unfit for business; the mighty man, and the man of war, and even the inferior officer, the captain of fifty, shall be removed. It bodes ill with a people when their valour is lost, and their valiant men. Let not the strong man therefore glory in his strength, nor any people trust too much to their mighty men; but let the strong people glorify God, and the city of the terrible nations fear him, who pan make them weak and despicable, ch. xxv. 3.
III. Were their ministers of state a support to them—their learned men, their politicians, their clergy, their wits and virtuosos? These also should be taken away; the judges, who were skilled in the laws, and expert in administering justice, and the prophets whom they used to consult in difficult cases, the prudent, who were celebrated as men of sense and sagacity above others, and were assistants to the judges; the diviners, (so the word is,) those who used unlawful arts, who, though rotten stays, yet were stayed on; but it may be taken, as we read it, in a good sense; the ancients, elders in age, in