wicked Romulus,*[1] or Rome, as Mr. Hugh Broughton understands it.
V. That there should be great peace and tranquillity under his government; this is an explication of what was said, ch. ix. 6. that he should be the Prince of Peace. Peace signifies two things:
1. Unity and concord; these are intimated in these figurative promises, that even the wolf shall dwell peaceably with the lamb; men of the most fierce and furious dispositions, who used to bite and devour all about them, shall have their temper so strangely altered by the efficacy of the gospel and grace of Christ, that they shall live in love even with the weakest, and such as formerly they would have made an easy prey of. So far shall the sheep be from hurting one another, as sometimes they have done, (Ezek. xxxiv. 20, 21.) that even the wolves shall agree with them. Christ, who is our Peace, came to slay all enmities, and to settle lasting friendships among his followers, particularly between Jews and Gentiles: when multitudes of both, being converted to the faith of Christ, united in one sheep-fold; then the wolf and the lamb dwelt together; the wolf did not so much as threaten the lamb, nor was the lamb afraid of the wolf. The leopard shall not only not tear the kid, but shall lie down with her: even their young ones shall lie down together, and shall be trained up in a blessed amity, in order to the perpetuating of it. The lion shall cease to be ravenous, and shall eat straw like the ox, as some think all the beasts of prey did before the Fall. The asp and the cockatrice shall cease to be venomous, so that parents will let their children play with them, and put their hands among them. A generation of vipers shall become a seed of saints, and the old complaint of Homo homini lupus—Man is a wolf to man, shall be at an end. They that inhabit the holy mountain, shall live as amicably as the creatures did that were with Noah in the ark, and it shall be a means of their preservation, for they shall not hurt or destroy one another as they have done. Now, (1.) This is fulfilled in the wonderful effect of the gospel upon the minds of those that sincerely embrace it; it changes the nature and makes those that trampled on the meek of the earth, not only meek like them, but kind to them. When Paul, who had persecuted the saints, joined himself to them, then the wolf dwelt with the lamb. (2.) Some are willing to hope it shall yet have a further accomplishment in the latter days, when swords shall be beaten into ploughshares.
2. Safety and security; Christ, the great Shepherd, shall take such care of his flock, that those who would hurt them, shall not; they shall not only not destroy one another, but no enemy from without shall be permitted to give them any molestation; the property of troubles, and of death itself, shall be so altered, that they shall not do any real hurt to, much less shall they be the destruction of, any that have their conversation in the holy mountain, 1 Pet iii. 13. Who, or what, can harm us, if we be followers of him that is good? God's people shall be delivered not only from evil, but from the fear of it; even the sucking child shall without any terror play upon the hole of the asp; blessed Paul does so when he says, Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? and O death! where is thy sting?
Lastly, Observe what shall be the effect, and what the cause, of this wonderful softening and sweetening of men's tempers by the grace of God.
1. The effect of it shall be, tractableness, and a willingness to receive instruction; A little child shall lead them who formerly scorned to be controlled by the strongest man. Calvin understands it of their willing submision to the ministers of Christ, who are to instruct with meekness, and not to use any coercive power, but to be as little children, Matt. xviii. 3. See 2 Cor. viii. 5.
2. The cause of it shall be, the knowledge of God. The more there is of that, the more there is of a disposition to peace. They shall thus live in love, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, which shall extinguish men's heats and animosities. The better acquainted we are with the God of love, the more we shall be changed into the same image, and the better affected shall we be to all those that bear his image. The earth shall be as full of this knowledge as the channels of the sea are of water; so broad and extensive shall this knowledge be, and so far shall it spread; so deep and substantial shall this knowledge be, and so long shall it last. There is much more of the knowledge of God to be got by the gospel of Christ, than could be got by the law of Moses; and whereas then in Judah only was God known, now all shall know him, Heb. viii. 11. But that is knowledge falsely so called, which sows discord among men: the right knowledge of God settles peace.
10. And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be glorious. 11. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. 12. And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. 13. The envy also of Ephraim shall depart, and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off; Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim. 14. But they shall fly upon the shoulders of the Philistines toward the west; they shall spoil them of the east together: they shall lay their hand upon Edom and Moab; and the children of Ammon shall obey them. 15. And the Lord shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with his mighty wind shall he shake his hand over the river, and shall smite it in the seven streams, and make men go over dry-shod. 16. And there shall be a highway for the remnant of his people, which shall be left from Assyria, like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt.
We have here a further prophecy of the enlargement and advancement of the kingdom of the Messiah, under the type and figure of the flourishing condition of the kingdom of Judah in the latter end of Hezekiah's reign, after the defeat of Sennacherib.
1. This prediction was in part accomplished, when the great things God did for Hezekiah and his people, proved as an ensign, inviting the neighbouring nations to them, to inquire of the wonders
- ↑ * Armillum—Ed.
