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Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
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Matthew Henry |
I S A I A H.
CHAP. XLI.
This chapter, as the former, in intended both for the conviction of
idolaters and for the consolation of all God’s faithful worshippers;
for the Spirit is sent, and ministers are employed by him, both to
convince and to comfort. And however this might be primarily intended
for the conviction of Babylonians, and the comfort of Israelites, or
for the conviction of those in Israel that were addicted to idolatry,
as multitudes were, and the comfort of those that kept their integrity,
doubtless it was intended both for admonition and encouragement to us,
admonition to keep ourselves from idols and encouragement to trust in
God. Here,
I. God by the prophet shows the folly of those that worshipped idols,
especially that thought their idols able to contest with him and
control him,
II. He encourages his faithful ones to trust in him, with an assurance
that he would take their part against their enemies, make them
victorious over them, and bring about a happy change of their affairs,
III. He challenges the idols, that were rivals with him for men’s
adoration, to vie with him either for knowledge or power, either to
show things to come or to do good or evil,
So that the chapter may be summed up in those words of Elijah, “If
Jehovah be God, then follow him; but, if Baal be God, then follow him;”
and in the people’s acknowledgment, upon the issue of the trial,
“Jehovah he is the God, Jehovah he is the God.”
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1 Keep silence before me, O islands; and let the people renew
their strength: let them come near; then let them speak: let us
come near together to judgment.
2 Who raised up the righteous man from the east, called him
to his foot, gave the nations before him, and made him rule
over kings? he gave them as the dust to his sword, and as
driven stubble to his bow.
3 He pursued them, and passed safely; even by the way
that he had not gone with his feet.
4 Who hath wrought and done it, calling the generations from
the beginning? I the LORD, the first, and with the last; I am
he.
5 The isles saw it, and feared; the ends of the earth were
afraid, drew near, and came.
6 They helped every one his neighbour; and every one said to
his brother, Be of good courage.
7 So the carpenter encouraged the goldsmith, and he that
smootheth with the hammer him that smote the anvil, saying, It
is ready for the sodering: and he fastened it with nails,
that it should not be moved.
8 But thou, Israel, art my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen,
the seed of Abraham my friend.
9 Thou whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, and
called thee from the chief men thereof, and said unto thee, Thou
art my servant; I have chosen thee, and not cast thee away.
That particular instance of God’s care for his people Israel in raising
up Cyrus to be their deliverer is here insisted upon as a great proof
both of his sovereignty above all idols and of his power to protect his
people. Here is,
I. A general challenge to the worshippers and admirers of idols to make
good their pretensions, in competition with God and opposition to him,
v. 1.
Is is renewed
(v. 21):
Produce your cause. The court is set, summonses are sent to the
islands that lay most remote, but not out of God’s jurisdiction, for he
is the Creator and possessor of the ends of the earth, to make
their appearance and give their attendance. Silence (as usual) is
proclaimed while the cause is in trying: “Keep silence before
me, and judge nothing before the time” ; while the cause is in
trying between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan it becomes
all people silently to expect the issue, not to object against God’s
proceedings, but to be confident that he will carry the day. The
defenders of idolatry are called to say what they can in defence of it:
“Let them renew their strength, in opposition to God, and see
whether it be equal to the strength which those renew that wait upon
him
(ch. xl. 31);
let them try their utmost efforts, whether by force of arms or force of
argument. Let them come near; they shall not complain that God’s
dread makes them afraid
(Job xiii. 21),
so that they cannot say what they have to say, in vindication and
honour of their idols; no, let them speak freely: Let us come
near together to judgment.” Note.
1. The cause of God and his kingdom is not afraid of a fair trial; if
the case be but fairly stated, it will be surely carried in favour of
religion.
2. The enemies of God’s church and his holy religion may safely be
challenged to say and do their worst for the support of their
unrighteous cause. He that sits in heaven laughs at them, and
the daughter of Zion despises them; for great is the truth
and will prevail.
II. He particularly challenges the idols to do that for their
worshippers, and against his, which he had done and would do for his
worshippers, and against theirs. Different senses are given of
v. 2,
concerning the righteous man raised up from the east; and, since
we cannot determine which is the true, we will make use of each as
good.
1. That which is to be proved is,
(1.) That the Lord is God alone, the first and with the
last
(v. 4),
that he is infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, that he governed the
world from the beginning, and will to the end of time. He has reigned
of old, and will reign for ever; the counsels of his kingdom were from
eternity, and the continuance of it will be to eternity.
(2.) That Israel is his servant
(v. 8),
whom he owns, and protects, and employs, and in whom he is and will be
glorified. As there is a God in heaven, so there is a church on earth
that is his particular care. Elijah prays
Let it be known that thou art God, and that I am thy servant.
Now,
2. To prove this he shows,
(1.) That it was he who called Abraham, the father of this despised
nation, out of an idolatrous country, and by many instances of his
favour made his name great,
Gen. xii. 2.
He is the righteous man whom God raised up from the east. Of him
the Chaldee paraphrast expressly understands it: Who brought Abraham
publicly from the east? To maintain the honour of the people of
Israel, it was very proper to show what a figure this great ancestor of
theirs made in his day; and
seems to be the explication of it, where God calls Israel the seed
of Abraham my friend; and
(v. 4)
he calls the generations (namely, the generations of Israel)
from the beginning. Also, to put contempt upon idolatry, and
particularly the Chaldean idolatry, it was proper to show how Abraham
was called from serving other gods
&c.), so that an early testimony was borne against that idolatry which
boasted so much of its antiquity. Also, to encourage the captives in
Babylon to hope that God would find a way for their return to their own
land, it was proper to remind them how at first he brought their father
Abraham out of the same country into this land, to give it to him for
an inheritance,
Now observe what is here said concerning him.
[1.] That he was a righteous man, or righteousness, a
man of righteousness, that believed God, and it was counted
to him for righteousness; and so he became the father of all those
who by faith in Christ are made the righteousness of God through
him,
Rom. iv. 3, 11; 2 Cor. v. 21.
He was a great example of righteousness in his day, and taught his
household to do judgment and justice,
Gen. xviii. 19.
[2.] That God raised him up from the east, from Ur first and
afterwards from Haran, which lay east from Canaan. God would not let
him settle in either of those places, but did by him as the eagle by
her young, when she stirs up her nest: he raised him out of iniquity
and made him pious, out of obscurity and made him famous.
[3.] He called him to his foot, to follow him with an implicit
faith; for he went out, not knowing whither he went, but whom he
followed,
Those whom God effectually calls he calls to his foot, to be subject to
him, to attend him, and follow the Lamb whithersoever he goes;
and we must all either come to his foot or be made his footstool.
[4.] He gave nations before him, the nations of Canaan, which he
promised to make him master of, and thus far gave him an interest in
that the Hittites acknowledged him a mighty prince among them,
He made him rule over those kings whom he conquered for
the rescue of his brother Lot,
And when God gave them as dust to his sword, and as driven stubble
to his bow (that is, made them an easy prey to his catechised
servants), he then pursued them, and passed safely, or in
peace, under the divine protection, though it was in a way he was
altogether unacquainted with; and so considerable was this victory that
Melchizedec himself appeared to celebrate it. Now who did this but the
great Jehovah? Can any of the gods of the heathen do so?
(2.) That it is he who will, ere long, raise up Cyrus from the east. It
is spoken of according to the language of prophecy as a thing past,
because as sure to be done in its season as if it were already done.
God will raise him up in righteousness (so it may be read,
will call him to his foot, make what use of him he pleases, and
make him victorious over the nations that oppose his coming to the
crown, and give him success in all his wars; and he shall be a type of
Christ, who is righteousness itself, the Lord our righteousness, whom
God will, in the fulness of time, raise up and make victorious over the
powers of darkness; so that he shall spoil them and make a show of them
openly.
III. He exposes the folly of idolaters, who, notwithstanding the
convincing proofs which the God of Israel had given of his being God
alone, obstinately persisted in their idolatry, nay, were so much the
more hardened in it
(v. 5):
The isles of the Gentiles saw this, not only what God did for
Abraham himself, but what he did for his seed, for his sake, how he
brought them out of Egypt, and made them rule over kings, and
they feared,
Exod. xv. 14-16.
They were afraid, and, according to the summons
(v. 1),
they drew near, and came; they could not avoid taking notice of
what God did for Abraham and his seed; but, instead of helping to
reason one another out of their sottish idolatries, they helped to
confirm one another in them,
1. They looked upon it as a dangerous design upon their religion,
which they were jealous for the honour of, and were resolved, right or
wrong, to adhere to, and therefore were alarmed to appear vigorously
for the support of it, as the Ephesians for their Diana. When God, by
his wonderful appearances on the behalf of his people, went about to
wrest their idols from them, they held them so much the faster, and
said one to another, “Be of good courage; let us unanimously
agree to keep up the reputation of our gods. Though Dagon fall before
the ark, he shall be set up again in his place.” One tradesman
encourages another to come into a confederacy for the keeping up of the
noble craft of god-making. Thus men’s convictions often exasperate
their corruptions, and they are made worse both by the word and the
works of God, which should make them better.
2. They looked upon it as a dangerous design upon themselves. They
thought themselves in danger from the growing greatness both of Abraham
that was a convert from idolatry, and of the people of Israel that were
separatists from it; and therefore they not only had recourse to their
old gods for protection, but made new ones,
So the carpenter, having done his part to the timberwork,
encouraged the goldsmith to do his part in gilding or overlaying
it; and, when it came into the goldsmith’s hand, he that smooths
with the hammer that polishes it, or beats it thin, quickened
him that smote the anvil, bade him be expeditious, and told him
it was ready for the soldering, which perhaps was the last
operation about it, and then it is fastened with nails, and you
have a god of it presently. Do sinners thus animate and quicken one
another in the ways of sin? And shall not the servants of the living
God both stir up one another to, and strengthen one another in, his
service? Some read all this ironically, and by way of permission:
Let them help every one his neighbour; let the carpenter encourage
the goldsmith; but all in vain; idols shall fall for all this.
IV. He encourages his own people to trust in him
(v. 8, 9):
“But thou, Israel, art my servant. They know me not, but thou
knowest me, and knowest better than to join with such ignorant besotted
people as these” (for it is intended for a warning to the people of God
not to walk in the way of the heathen); “they put themselves
under the protection of these impotent deities, but thou art under my
protection. Those that make them are like unto them, and so is
every one that trusts in them; but thou, O Israel! art the servant
of a better Master.” Observe what is suggested here for the
encouragement of God’s people when they are threatened and insulted
over.
1. They are God’s servants, and he will not see them abused, especially
for what they do in his service: Thou art my servant
(v. 8),
and
(v. 9)
“I have said unto thee, Thou art my servant; and I will not go
back from my word.”
2. He has chosen them to be a peculiar people to himself. They
were not forced upon him, but of his own good-will he set them apart.
3. They were the seed of Abraham his friend. It was the honour of
Abraham that he was called the friend of God
(James ii. 23),
whom God covenanted and conversed with as a friend, and the man of
his counsel; and this honour have all the saints,
John xv. 15.
And for the father’s sake the people of Israel were beloved. God was
pleased to look upon them as the posterity of an old friend of his, and
therefore to be kind to them; for the covenant of friendship was made
with Abraham and his seed.
4. He had sometimes, when they had been scattered among the heathen,
fetched them from the ends of the earth and taken them out of the hands
of the chief ones thereof, and therefore he would not now abandon them.
Abraham their father was fetched from a place at a great distance, and
they in his loins; and those who had been thus far-fetched and
dear-bought he could not easily part with.
5. He had not yet cast them away, though they had often provoked him,
and therefore he would not now abandon them. What God has done for his
people, and what he has further engaged to do, should encourage them to
trust in him at all times.
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10 Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I
am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea,
I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.
11 Behold, all they that were incensed against thee shall be
ashamed and confounded: they shall be as nothing; and they that
strive with thee shall perish.
12 Thou shalt seek them, and shalt not find them, even them
that contended with thee: they that war against thee shall be as
nothing, and as a thing of nought.
13 For I the LORD thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto
thee, Fear not; I will help thee.
14 Fear not, thou worm Jacob, and ye men of Israel; I will
help thee, saith the LORD, and thy redeemer, the Holy One of
Israel.
15 Behold, I will make thee a new sharp threshing instrument
having teeth: thou shalt thresh the mountains, and beat them
small, and shalt make the hills as chaff.
16 Thou shalt fan them, and the wind shall carry them away, and
the whirlwind shall scatter them: and thou shalt rejoice in the
LORD, and shalt glory in the Holy One of Israel.
17 When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none,
and their tongue faileth for thirst, I the LORD will hear them,
I the God of Israel will not forsake them.
18 I will open rivers in high places, and fountains in the
midst of the valleys: I will make the wilderness a pool of water,
and the dry land springs of water.
19 I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, the shittah tree,
and the myrtle, and the oil tree; I will set in the desert the
fir tree, and the pine, and the box tree together:
20 That they may see, and know, and consider, and understand
together, that the hand of the LORD hath done this, and the Holy
One of Israel hath created it.
The scope of these verses is to silence the fears, and encourage the
faith, of the servants of God in their distresses. Perhaps it is
intended, in the first place, for the support of God’s Israel, in
captivity; but all that faithfully serve God through patience and
comfort of this scripture may have hope. And it is addressed to
Israel as a single person, that it might the more easily and readily be
accommodated and applied by every Israelite indeed to himself. That is
a word of caution, counsel, and comfort, which is so often repeated,
Fear thou not; and again
(v. 13),
Fear not; and
(v. 14),
“Fear not, thou worm Jacob; fear not the threatenings of the
enemy, doubt not the promise of thy God; fear not that thou shalt
perish in thy affliction or that the promise of thy deliverance shall
fail.” It is against the mind of God that his people should be a
timorous people. For the suppressing of fear he assures them,
I. That they may depend upon his presence with them as their God, and a
God all-sufficient for them in the worst of times. Observe with what
tenderness God speaks, and how willing he is to let the heirs of
promise know the immutability of his counsel, and how desirous to make
them easy: “Fear thou not, for I am with thee, not only within
call, but present with thee; be not dismayed at the power of
those that are against thee, for I am thy God, and engaged for
thee. Art thou weak? I will strengthen thee. Art thou destitute
of friends? I will help thee in the time of need. Art thou ready
to sink, ready to fall? I will uphold thee with the right hand of my
righteousness, that right hand which is full of righteousness, in
dispensing rewards and punishments,”
And again
(v. 13)
it is promised,
1. That God will strengthen their hands, that is, will help them: “I
will hold thy right hand, go hand in hand with thee” (so some): he
will take us by the hand as our guide, to lead us in our way, will help
us up when we are fallen or prevent our falls; when we are weak he will
hold us up-wavering, he will fix us-trembling, he will encourage us,
and so hold us by the right hand,
Ps. lxxiii. 23.
2. That he will silence their fears: Saying unto thee, Fear
not. He has said it again and again in his word, and has there
provided sovereign antidotes against fear: but he will go further; he
will by his Spirit say it to their hearts, and make them to hear it,
and so will help them.
II. That though their enemies be now very formidable, insolent, and
severe, yet the day is coming when God will reckon with them and they
shall triumph over them. There are those that are incensed against
God’s people, that strive with them
(v. 11),
that war against them
(v. 12),
that hate them, that seek their ruin, and are continually picking
quarrels with them. But let not God’s people be incensed at them, nor
strive with them, nor render evil for evil; but wait God’s time, and
believe,
1. That they shall be convinced of the folly, at least, if not of the
sin of striving with God’s people; and, finding it to no purpose,
they shall be ashamed and confounded, which might bring them to
repentance, but will rather fill them with rage.
2. That they shall be quite ruined and undone
(v. 11):
They shall be as nothing before the justice and power of God.
When God comes to deal with his proud enemies he makes nothing of them.
Or they shall be brought to nothing, shall be as if they had never
been. This is repeated
(v. 12):
They shall be as nothing and as a thing of nought, or as that
which is gone and has failed. Those that were formidable shall become
despicable; those that fancied they could do any thing shall be able to
bring nothing to pass; those that made a figure in the world, and a
mighty noise, shall become mere ciphers and be buried in silence. They
shall perish, not only be nothing, but be miserable: Thou shalt seek
them, shalt enquire what has become of them, that they do not
appear as usual, but thou shalt not find them as David,
I sought him, but he could not be found.
III. That they themselves should become a terror to those who were now
a terror to them, and victory should turn on their side,
See here,
1. How Jacob and Israel are reduced and brought very low. It is the
worm Jacob, so little, so weak, and so defenceless, despised and
trampled on by every body, forced to creep even into the earth for
safety; and we must not wonder that Jacob has become a worm, when even
Jacob’s King calls himself a worm and no man,
Ps. xxii. 6.
God’s people are sometimes as worms, in their humble thoughts of
themselves and their enemies’ haughty thoughts of them–worms, but not
vipers, as their enemies are, not of the serpent’s seed. God regards
Jacob’s low estate, and says, “Fear not, thou worm Jacob; fear
not that thou shalt be crushed; and you men of Israel” (you
few men, so some read it, you dead men, so others) “do not
give up yourselves for gone notwithstanding.” Note, The grace of God
will silence fears even when there seems to be the greatest cause for
them. Perplexed but not in despair.
2. How Jacob and Israel are advanced from this low estate, and made as
formidable as ever they have been despicable. But by whom shall
Jacob arise, for he is small? We are here told: I will help
thee, saith the Lord; and it is the honour of God to help the weak.
He will help them, for he is their Redeemer, who is wont to redeem
them, who has undertaken to do it. Christ is the Redeemer, from him is
our help found. He will help them, for he is the Holy One of
Israel, worshipped among them in the beauty of holiness and engaged
by promise to them. The Lord will help them by enabling them to help
themselves and making Jacob to become a threshing instrument.
Observe, He is but an instrument, a tool in God’s hand, that he is
pleased to make use of; and he is an instrument of God’s making and is
no more than God makes him. But, if God make him a threshing
instrument, he will make use of him, and therefore will make him fit
for use, new and sharp, and having teeth, or sharp
spikes; and then, by divine direction and strength, thou shalt
thresh the mountains, the highest, and strongest, and most stubborn
of thy enemies: thou shalt not only be at them, but beat them
small; they shall not be a corn threshed out, which is valuable,
and is carefully preserved (such God’s people are when they are under
the flail,
O my threshing! yet the corn of my floor, that shall not
be lost); but these are made as chaff, which is good for
nothing, and which the husbandman is glad to get rid of. He pursues the
metaphor,
Having threshed them, thou shalt winnow them, and the wind shall
scatter them. This perhaps had its accomplishment, in part, in the
victories of the Jews over their enemies in the times of the Maccabees;
but it seems in general designed to read the final doom of all the
implacable enemies of the church of God, and to have its accomplishment
like wise in the triumphs of the cross of Christ, the gospel of Christ,
and all the faithful followers of Christ, over the powers of darkness,
which, first or last, shall all be dissipated, and in Christ all
believers shall be more than conquerors, and he that overcomes shall
have power over the nations,
Rev. ii. 26.
IV. That, hereupon, they shall have abundance of comfort in God, and
God shall have abundance of honour from them: Thou shalt rejoice in
the Lord,
v. 16.
When we are freed from that which hindered our joy, and are blessed
with that which is the matter of it, we ought to remember that God is
our exceeding joy and in him all our joys must terminate. When we
rejoice over our enemies we must rejoice in the Lord, for to him alone
we owe our liberties and victories. “Thou shalt also glory in the
Holy One of Israel, in thy interest in him and relation to him, and
what he has done for thee.” And, if thus we make God our praise and
glory, we become to him for a praise and a glory.
V. That they shall have seasonable and suitable supplies of every thing
that is proper for them in the time of need; and, if there be occasion,
God will again do for them as he did for Israel in their march from
Egypt to Canaan,
When the captives, either in Babylon or in their return thence, are in
distress for want of water or shelter, God will take care of them, and,
one way or other, make their journey, even through a wilderness,
comfortable to them. But doubtless this promise has more than such a
private interpretation. Their return out of Babylon was typical of our
redemption by Christ; and so the contents of these promises,
1. Were provided by the gospel of Christ. That glorious discovery of
his love has given full assurance to all those who hear this joyful
sound that God has provided inestimable comforts for them, sufficient
for the supply of all their wants, the balancing of all their griefs,
and the answering of all their prayers.
2. They are applied by the grace and Spirit of Christ to all believers,
that they may have strong consolation in their way and a complete
happiness in their end. Our way to heaven lies through the wilderness
of this world. Now,
(1.) It is here supposed that the people of God, in their passage
through this world, are often in straits: The poor and needy seek
water, and there is none; the poor in spirit hunger and thirst after
righteousness. The soul of man, finding itself empty and
necessitous, seeks for satisfaction somewhere, but soon despairs of
finding it in the world, that has nothing in it to make it easy:
creatures are broken cisterns, that can hold no water; so that
their tongue fails for thirst, they are weary of seeking that
satisfaction in the world which is not to be had in it. Their sorrow
makes them thirsty; so does their toil.
(2.) It is here promised that, one way or other, all their grievances
shall be redressed and they shall be made easy.
[1.] God himself will be nigh unto them in all that which they call
upon him for. Let all the praying people of God take notice of this,
and take comfort of it; he has said, “I the Lord will hear them,
will answer them; I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them; I
will be with them, as I have always been, in their distresses.” While
we are in the wilderness of this world this promise is to us what the
pillar of cloud and fire was to Israel, an assurance of God’s gracious
presence.
[2.] They shall have a constant supply of fresh water, as Israel had in
the wilderness, even where one would least expect it
(v. 18):
I will open rivers in high places, rivers of grace, rivers of
pleasure, rivers of living water, which he spoke of the Spirit
that Spirit which should be poured out upon the Gentiles, who had been
as high places, dry and barren, and lifted up on their own conceit
above the necessity of that gift. And there shall be fountains in
the midst of the valleys, the valleys of Baca
that are sandy and wearisome; or among the Jews, who had been as
fruitful valleys in comparison with the Gentile mountains. The
preaching of the gospel to the world turned that wilderness into a pool
of water, yielding fruit to the owner of it and relief to the
travellers through it.
[3.] They shall have a pleasant shade to screen them from the scorching
heat of the sun, as Israel when they pitched at Elim, where they had
not only wells of water, but palm-trees
(Exod. xv. 27):
“I will plant in the wilderness the cedar,
v. 19.
I will turn the wilderness into an orchard or garden, such as used to
be planted with these pleasant trees, so that they shall pass through
the wilderness with as much ease and delight as a man walks in his
grove. These trees shall be to them what the pillar of cloud was to
Israel in the wilderness, a shelter from the heat.” Christ and his
grace are so to believers, as the shadow of a great rock,
ch. xxxii. 2.
When God sets up his church in the Gentile wilderness there shall be as
great a change made by it in men’s characters as if thorns and briers
were turned into cedars, and fir-trees, and myrtles; and by this a
blessed change is described,
[4.] They shall see and acknowledge the hand of God, his power and his
favour, in this,
God will do these strange and surprising things on purpose to awaken
them to a conviction and consideration of his hand in all: That they
may see this wonderful change, and knowing that it is above
the ordinary course and power of nature may consider that therefore it
comes from a superior power, and, comparing notes upon it, may
understand together, and concur in the acknowledgment of it,
that the hand of the Lord, that mighty hand of his which is
stretched out for his people and stretched out to them, has done
this, and the Holy One of Israel has created it, made it
anew, made it out of nothing, made it for the comfort of his people.
Note, God does great things for his people, that he may be taken notice
of.
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21 Produce your cause, saith the LORD; bring forth your strong
reasons, saith the King of Jacob.
22 Let them bring them forth, and show us what shall happen:
let them show the former things, what they be, that we may
consider them, and know the latter end of them; or declare us
things for to come.
23 Show the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know
that ye are gods: yea, do good, or do evil, that we may be
dismayed, and behold it together.
24 Behold, ye are of nothing, and your work of nought: an
abomination is he that chooseth you.
25 I have raised up one from the north, and he shall come:
from the rising of the sun shall he call upon my name: and he
shall come upon princes as upon mortar, and as the potter
treadeth clay.
26 Who hath declared from the beginning, that we may know? and
beforetime, that we may say, He is righteous? yea, there is
none that showeth, yea, there is none that declareth, yea,
there is none that heareth your words.
27 The first shall say to Zion, Behold, behold them: and I
will give to Jerusalem one that bringeth good tidings.
28 For I beheld, and there was no man; even among them, and
there was no counsellor, that, when I asked of them, could
answer a word.
29 Behold, they are all vanity; their works are nothing:
their molten images are wind and confusion.
The Lord, by the prophet, here repeats the challenge to idolaters to
make out the pretentions of their idols: “Produce your cause
(v. 21)
and make your best of it; bring forth the strongest reasons you
have to prove that your idols are gods, and worthy of your adoration.”
Note, There needs no more to show the absurdity of sin than to produce
the reasons that are given in defence of it, for they carry with them
their own confutation.
I. The idols are here challenged to bring proofs of their knowledge and
power. Let us see what they can inform us of, and what they can do.
Understanding and active power are the accomplishments of a man.
Whoever pretends to be a god must have these in perfection; and have
the idols made it to appear that they have? No;
1. “They can tell us nothing that we did not know before, so ignorant
are they. We challenge them to inform us,”
(1.) “What has been formerly: Let them show the former things,
and raise them out of the oblivion in which they were buried” (God
inspired Moses to write such a history of the creation as the gods of
the heathen could never have dictated to any of their enthusiasts); or
“let the defenders of idols tell us what mighty achievements they can
boast of as performed by their gods in former times. What did they ever
do that was worth taking notice of? Let them specify any thing, and it
shall be considered, its due weight shall be given it, and it shall be
compared with the latter end of it; and if, in the issue, it prove to
be as great as it pretended to be, they shall have the credit of it.”
(2.) “We challenge them to tell us what shall happen, to declare to us
things to come
(v. 22),
and again
(v. 23),
show the things that are to come hereafter. Give this evidence
of your omniscience, that nothing can be hidden from you, and of your
sovereignty and dominion. Make it to appear that you have the doing of
all, by letting us know beforehand what you deign to do. Do this
kindness to the world; let them know what is to come, that they may
provide accordingly. Do this, and we will own that you are gods above
us, and gods to us, and worthy of our adoration.” No creature can
foretel things to come, otherwise than by divine information, with any
certainty.
2. “They can do nothing that we cannot do ourselves, so impotent are
they.” He challenges them to do either good or evil, good to
their friends or evil to their enemies: “Let them do, if they can, any
thing extraordinary, that people will admire and be affected with. Let
them either bless or curse, with power. Let us see them either inflict
such plagues such as God brought on Egypt or bestow such blessings as
God bestowed on Israel. Let them do some great thing, and we shall be
amazed when we see it, and frightened into a veneration of them, as
many have been into a veneration of the true God.” That which is
charged upon these idols, and let them disprove it if they can, is that
they are of nothing,
v. 24.
Their claims have no foundation at all, nor is there any ground or
reason in the least for men’s paying them the respect they do; there is
nothing in them worthy our regard. “They are less than nothing, worse
than nothing;” so some read it. “The work they do is of nought,
and so is the ado that is made about them. There is no pretence or
colour for it; it is all a jest; it is all a sham put upon the world;
and therefore he that chooses you, and so give you your deity,
and” (as some read it) “that delights in you, is an
abomination;” so some take it. A servant is at liberty to choose
his master, but a man is not at liberty to choose his God. He that
chooses any other than the true God chooses an abomination; his
choosing it makes it so.
II. God here produces proofs that he is the true God, and that there is
none besides him. Let him produce his strong reasons.
1. He has an irresistible power. This he will shortly make to appear in
the raising up of Cyrus and making him a type of Christ
(v. 25):
He will raise him up from the north and from the rising of
the sun. Cyrus by his father was a Mede, by his mother a Persian;
and his army consisted of Medes, whose country lay north, and Persians,
whose country lay east, from Babylon. God will raise him up to great
power, and he shall come against Babylon with ends of his own to serve.
But,
(1.) He shall proclaim God’s name; so it may be read. He shall
publish the honour of the God of Israel; so he did remarkably when, in
his proclamation for the release of the Jews out of their captivity, he
acknowledged that the Lord God of Israel was the Lord God of heaven,
and the God: and he might be said to call on his name when he
encouraged the building of his temple, and very probably did himself
call upon him and pray to him,
(2.) All opposition shall fall before him: He shall come upon the
princes of Babylon, and all others that stood in his way, as
mortar, and trample upon them as the potter treads clay, to
serve his own purposes with it. Christ, as man, was raised up from the
north, for Nazareth lay in the northern parts of Canaan; as the angel
of the covenant, he ascends from the east. He maintained the honour of
heaven (he shall call upon my name), and broke the powers of
hell, came upon the prince of darkness as mortar and trod him down.
2. He has an infallible foresight. He would not only do this, but he
did now, by his prophet, foretel it. Now the false gods not only could
not do it, but they could not foresee it.
(1.) He challenges them to produce any of their pretended deities, or
their diviners, that had given notice of this, or could
(v. 26):
“Who has declared from the beginning any thing of this kind, or
has told it before-time? Tell us if there be any that you know of, for
we know not any; if there be any, we will say, He is righteous,
he is true, his cause is just, his claims are proved, and he is in the
right in demanding to be worshipped.” This agrees with
(2.) He challenges to himself the sole honour of doing it and
foretelling it
(v. 27):
I am the first (so it may be read) that will say to Zion,
Behold, behold them, that will let the people of Israel know their
deliverers are at hand (for there were those who understood by books,
God’s books, the approach of the time,
and I am he that will give to Jerusalem one that brings good
tidings, these good tidings of their enlargement. This is
applicable to the work of redemption, in which the Lord showed himself
much more than in the release of the Jews out of Babylon: he it was
that contrived our salvation, and he brought it about, and he has given
to us the glad tidings of reconciliation.
III. Judgment is here given upon this trial.
1. None of all the idols had foretold, or could foresee, this work of
wonder. Other nations besides the Jews were released out of captivity
in Babylon by Cyrus, or at least were greatly concerned in the
revolution of the monarchy and there transferring of it to the
Persians; and yet none of them had any intelligence given them of it
beforehand, by any of their gods or prophets: “There is none that
shows
(v. 26),
none that declares, none that gives the least intimation of it;
there is none of the nations that hears your words, that
can pretend to have heard from their gods such words as you, O
Israelites! have heard from your God, by your prophets,”
None of all the gods of the nations have shown their worshippers the
way of salvation, which God will show by the Messiah. The good tidings
which the Lord will send in the gospel is a mystery hidden from ages
and generations,
2. None of those who pleaded for them could produce any instance of
their knowledge or power that had in it any colour of proof that they
were gods. All their advocates were struck dumb with this challenge
(v. 28):
“I beheld, and there was no man that could give evidence for
them, even among those that were their most zealous admirers; and
there was no counsellor, none that could offer any thing for the
support of their cause. Even among the idols themselves there was none
fit to give counsel in the most trivial matters, and yet there were
those that asked counsel of them in the most important and difficult
affairs. When I asked them what they had to say for themselves they
stood mute; the case was so plain against them that there was none
who could answer a word.” Judgment must therefore be given against
the defendant upon Nihil dicit–He is mute. He has nothing to
say for himself. He was speechless,
Matt. xxii. 12.
3. Sentence is therefore given according to the charge exhibited
against them
(v. 24):
“Behold, they are all vanity
(v. 29);
they are a lie and a cheat; they are not in themselves what they
pretend to be, nor will their worshippers find that in them which they
promise themselves. Their works are nothing, of no force, of no
worth; their enemies need fear no hurt from them; their worshippers can
hope for no good from them. Their molten images, and indeed all
their images, are wind and confusion, vanity and vexation; those
that worship them will be deceived in them, and will reflect upon their
own folly with the greatest bitterness. Therefore, dearly beloved,
flee from idolatry,”
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