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Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
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Matthew Henry |
I S A I A H.
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,
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
(ver. 2, 3),
and the great peace it should introduce into the world
(ver. 4),
whence he infers the duty of the house of Jacob,
II. Of the shame of the Jews, Jerusalem, as it then was, and as it
would be after its rejection of the gospel and being rejected of God.
1. Their sin was their shame,
2. God by his judgments would humble them and put them to shame,
3. They should themselves be ashamed of their confidence in their idols
and in an arm of flesh,
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?
| Increase of the Church Predicted. | B. C. 758. |
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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 plowshares, 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; something he saw when he received this message from God. John
turned to see the voice that spoke with him.
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,
Note, Gospel times are the last days. For
1. They were long in coming, were a great while 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,
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 foretels,
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, I. 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,
Matt. v. 14.
They had many eyes upon them. Christ himself spoke 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 is shall be firmly fixed and rooted; 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
Why leap ye, ye high hills? This is the hill which God desires to
dwell in.
II. The bringing 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,
To Christ shall the gathering of the people be,
Gen. xlix. 10.
See
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 uphill and against the heart, yet it is the mountain of the
Lord, who will assist the assent of our souls towards 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 do 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. See
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 you
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, and
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; is 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,
But, when he commissioned his apostles to preach the gospel to all
nations, he appointed them to begin in Jerusalem,
See
Though most of them had their homes 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,
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.
Nations shall then not lift up sword against nation, as they now
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 the 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 had 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 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. Jew and Gentiles were reconciled and brought together by the gospel,
and there were no more such wars between them as there had been; for
they became one sheepfold under one shepherd. See
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 you, 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 is 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. What ever 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 children of the light and of the day,
Eph. v. 8; 1 Thess. v. 8; Rom. xiii. 12.
(2.) Let us walk comfortably 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,
Thus shall we walk in the beams of the Sun of righteousness.
| A Charge against the Israelites. | B. C. 758. |
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6 Therefore thou hast forsaken thy people the house of Jacob,
because they be replenished from the east, and are soothsayers
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 was
the reconciling of the world
and it should seem that these verses have reference to that, and are
designed to justify God therein, and yet it is probable that 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 the
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 case of the Jewish church after they
had rejected Christ. Migremus hinc–Let us go hence. Your house is
left unto you desolate,
Matt. xxiii. 38.
Whenever any sore calamity came upon the Jews thus far the Lord might
be said to forsake them that he withdrew his help and succour from
them, else they would not have 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 some think it may be
read: And thou wilt not forgive them. This refers not to
particular persons (many of them 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 brings destruction upon them; it
is this, and nothing but this, that provokes God to forsake his people.
The particular sins which the prophet 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 afterwards
proved the measure-filling sin, their crucifying Christ and persecuting
his followers; for the sins of every age contributed towards 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
but they were replenished from the east; they naturalized
foreigners, not proselyted, and encouraged them to settle among
them, and mingled with them,
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 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 foretel things to come. The Philistines were noted for
diviners,
Note, Those who slight true divinity are justly given up to lying
divinations; and those 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,
Those that think one God too little will find two too many, and yet
hundreds were not sufficient; for those 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, see
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 has any spark of reason left. 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 men 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 it is 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.
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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 a desolation would be brought
upon their land when God should have forsaken them. This 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 yourself
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,”
To the same purport,
They shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the
earth, the darkest the deepest places; they shall call to the
rocks and mountains to fall on them, and rather crush them than not
cover them,
It was so particularly at the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans
and of the persecuting pagan powers,
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
and to shake all those earthly props and supports with which they have
buoyed themselves up, 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 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, 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
(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, 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,
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 to themselves or give to
another that 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. 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,
This day of the Lord is here said to be upon all the cedars of
Lebanon, that are high and lifted up. Jerome observes that the
cedars are said to praise God
and are trees of the Lord
(Ps. civ. 16),
of his planting
(Isa. xli. 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, they were the straightest and statliest,–upon the
oaks, those of Bashan, that were the strongest and sturdiest,–upon the
natural elevations and fortresses, the highest mountains and the
hills that are lifted up
(v. 14),
that overtop the valleys and seem to push the skies,–and upon the
artificial fastnesses, every high tower and every fenced wall,
v. 15.
Understand these,
(1.) As representing the proud people themselves, that are in their own
apprehensions like the cedars and the oaks, 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 immovable, but
lie most obnoxious to God’s thunderstrokes. Feriuntique 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. lxvi. 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–shall be brought down.
(2.) As particularizing the things they are proud of,in which they
trust, and of which they make their boast. The day of the Lord shall be
upon those very things in which they put their confidence as their
strength and security; he will take from the 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. Besides 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 ship-wrecked in 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 afterwards
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, nor
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 which should be laid out in charity, and to set out
hearts upon them, as it ill becomes those who have so many substantial
things to take pleasure in, so it tends to provoke God to strip us of
all 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,
The rightful Sovereign will 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 woeful
despair of relief by them,
When men are themselves frightened by the judgments of God into the
holes of the rocks and caves of the earth, and find that they do thus
in vain shift for their own safety, they shall cast their idols, which
they have made their gods, and hoped to make their friends in the time
of need, to the moles and to the bats, any where 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 be 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 burden 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
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
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 then 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 Bethel,
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 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 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
then is man 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 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 those 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.“
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