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Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
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Matthew Henry |
I S A I A H.
CHAP. LXV.
We are now drawing towards the conclusion of this evangelical prophecy,
the last two chapters of which direct us to look as far forward as the
new heavens and the new earth, the new world which the gospel
dispensation should bring in, and the separation that should by it be
made between the precious and the vile. “For judgment” (says Christ)
“have I come into this world.” And why should it seem absurd that the
prophet here should speak of that to which all the prophets bore
witness?
The rejection of the Jews, and the calling in of the Gentiles, are
often mentioned in the New Testament as that which was foreseen and
foretold by the prophets,
Acts x. 43; xiii. 40; Rom. xvi. 26.
In this chapter we have,
I. The anticipating of the Gentiles with the gospel call,
II. The rejection of the Jews for their obstinacy and unbelief,
III. The saving of a remnant of them by bringing them into the gospel
church,
IV. The judgments of God that should pursue the rejected Jews,
V. The blessings reserved for the Christian church, which should be its
joy and glory,
But these things are here prophesied of under the type and figure of
the difference God would make between some and others of the Jews after
their return out of captivity, between those that feared God and those
that did not, with reproofs of the sins then found among them and
promises of the blessings then in reserve for them.
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The Conversion of the Gentiles; The Wickedness of the Jews; The Rejection of the Jews. |
B. C. 706. |
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1 I am sought of them that asked not for me; I am found of
them that sought me not: I said, Behold me, behold me, unto a
nation that was not called by my name.
2 I have spread out my hands all the day unto a rebellious
people, which walketh in a way that was not good, after their
own thoughts;
3 A people that provoketh me to anger continually to my face;
that sacrificeth in gardens, and burneth incense upon altars of
brick;
4 Which remain among the graves, and lodge in the monuments,
which eat swine’s flesh, and broth of abominable things is in
their vessels;
5 Which say, Stand by thyself, come not near to me; for I am
holier than thou. These are a smoke in my nose, a fire that
burneth all the day.
6 Behold, it is written before me: I will not keep silence,
but will recompense, even recompense into their bosom,
7 Your iniquities, and the iniquities of your fathers together,
saith the LORD, which have burned incense upon the mountains, and
blasphemed me upon the hills: therefore will I measure their
former work into their bosom.
The apostle Paul (an expositor we may depend upon) has given us the
true sense of these verses, and told us what was the event they pointed
at and were fulfilled in, namely, the calling in of the Gentiles and
the rejection of the Jews, by the preaching of the gospel,
And he observes that herein Esaias is very bold, not only in
foretelling a thing so improbable ever to be brought about, but in
foretelling it to the Jews, who would take it as a gross affront to
their nation, and therein Moses’s words would be made good
I will provoke you to jealousy by those that are no people.
I. It is here foretold that the Gentiles, who had been afar off, should
be made nigh,
v. 1.
Paul reads it thus: I was found of those that sought me not; I was
made manifest to those that asked not for me. Observe what a
wonderful and blessed change was made with them and how they were
surprised into it.
1. Those who had long been without God in the world shall now be set a
seeking him; those who had not said, Where is God my maker?
shall now begin to enquire after him. Neither they nor their fathers
had called upon his name, but either lived without prayer or prayed to
stocks and stones, the work of men’s hands. But now they shall be
baptized and call on the name of the Lord,
Acts ii. 21.
With what pleasure does the great God here speak of his being sought
unto, and how does he glory in it, especially by those who in time past
had not asked for him! For there is joy in heaven over great sinners
who repent.
2. God shall anticipate their prayers with his blessings: I am found
of those that sought me not. This happy acquaintance and
correspondence between God and the Gentile world began on his side;
they came to know God because they were known of him
(Gal. iv. 9),
to seek God and find him because they were first sought and found of
him. Though in after-communion God is found of those that seek him
yet in the first conversion he is found of those that seek him not; for
therefore we love him because he first loved us. The design of
the bounty of common providence to them was that they might seek the
Lord, if haply they might feel after him and find him,
Acts xvii. 27.
But they sought him not; still he was to them an unknown God,
and yet God was found of them.
3. God gave the advantages of a divine revelation to those who had
never made a profession of religion: I said, Behold me, behold
me (gave them a sight of me and invited them to take the comfort
and benefit of it) to those who were not called by my name, as
the Jews for many ages had been. When the apostles went about from
place to place, preaching the gospel, this was the substance of what
they preached: “Behold God, behold him, turn towards him, fix
the eyes of your minds upon him, acquaint yourselves with him, admire
him, adore him; look off from your idols that you have made, and look
upon the living God who made you.” Christ in them said, Behold me,
behold me with an eye of faith; look unto me, and be you
saved. And this was said to those that had long been
lo-ammi, and lo-ruhamah
(Hos. i. 8, 9),
not a people, and that had not obtained mercy,
Rom. ix. 25, 26.
II. It is here foretold that the Jews, who had long been a people near
to God, should be cast off and set at a distance
v. 2.
The apostle applies this to the Jews in his time, as a seed of
evil-doers.
But to Israel he saith, All day long I have stretched forth my hands
unto a disobedient and gainsaying people. Here observe,
1. How the Jews were courted to the divine grace. God himself, by his
prophets, by his Son, by his apostles, stretched forth his hands to
them, as Wisdom did,
God spread out his hands to them, as one reasoning and
expostulating with them, not only beckoned to them with the finger, but
spread out his hands, as being ready to embrace and entertain
them, reaching forth the tokens of his favour to them, and importuning
them to accept them. When Christ was crucified his hands were spread
out and stretched forth, as if he were preparing to receive
returning sinners into his bosom; and this all the day, all the
gospel-day. He waited to be gracious, and was not weary of waiting;
even those that came in at the eleventh hour of the day were not
rejected.
2. How they contemned the invitation; it was given to a rebellious and
gainsaying people; they were invited to the wedding-supper, and would
not come, but rejected the counsel of God against themselves.
Now here we have,
(1.) The bad character of this people. The world shall see that it was
not for nothing that they were rejected of God; no, it was for their
whoredoms that they were put away.
[1.] Their character in general was such as one would not expect of
those who had been so much the favourites of Heaven. First, They
were very wilful. Right or wrong they would do as they had a mind.
“They generally walk on in a way that is not good, not
the right way, not a safe way, for they walk after their own
thought, their own devices and desires.” If our guide be our own
thoughts, our way is not likely to be good; for every imagination of
the thought of our hearts is only evil. God had told them his
thoughts, what his mind and will were, but they would walk after
their own thoughts, would do what they thought best.
Secondly, They were very provoking. This was God’s complaint of
them all along–they grieved him, they vexed his Holy Spirit, as
if they would contrive how to make him their enemy: They provoke me
to anger continually to my face. They cared not what affront they
gave to God, though it were in his sight and presence, in a downright
contempt of his authority and defiance of his justice; and this
continually; it had been their way and manner ever since they
were a people, witness the day of temptation in the
wilderness.
[2.] The prophet speaks more particularly of their iniquities and
the iniquities of their fathers, as the ground of God’s casting
them off,
v. 7.
Now he gives instances of both.
First, The most provoking iniquity of their fathers was
idolatry; this, the prophet tells them, was provoking God to his face;
and it is an iniquity which, as appears by the second commandment, God
often visits upon the children. This was the sin that brought
them into captivity, and, though the captivity pretty well cured them
of it, yet, when the final ruin of that nation came, that was again
brought into the account against them; for in the day when God visits
he will visit that,
Perhaps there were many, long after the captivity, who, though they did
not worship other gods, were yet guilty of the disorders here
mentioned; for they married strange wives.
1. They forsook God’s temple, and sacrificed in gardens or
groves, that they might have the satisfaction of doing it in their
own way, for they liked not God’s institutions.
2. They forsook God’s altar, and burnt incense upon bricks,
altars of their own contriving (they burnt incense according to their
own inventions, which were of no more value, in comparison with God’s
institution, than an altar of bricks in comparison with the golden
altar which God appointed them to burn incense on), or upon
tiles (so some read it), such as they covered their flat-roofed
houses with, and on them sometimes they burnt incense to their idols,
as appears,
where we read of altars on the top of the upper chamber of Ahaz,
and
of their burning incense to the host of heaven upon the roofs of their
houses.
3. “They used necromancy, or consulting with the dead, and, in order to
that, they remained among the graves, and lodged in the
monuments,” to seek for the living to the dead
(ch. viii. 19),
as the witch of Endor. Or they used to consult the evil spirits that
haunted the sepulchres.
4. They violated the laws of God about their meat, and broke through
the distinction between clean and unclean before it was taken away by
the gospel. They ate swine’s flesh. Some indeed chose rather to
die than to eat swine’s flesh, as Eleazar and the seven brethren in the
story of the Maccabees; but it is probable that many ate of it,
especially when it came to be a condition of life. In our Saviour’s
time we read of a vast herd of swine among them, which gives us cause
to suspect that there were many then who made so little conscience of
the law as to eat swine’s flesh, for which they were justly punished in
the destruction of the swine. And the broth, or pieces,
of other forbidden meats, called here abominable things, was
in their vessels, and was made use of for food. The forbidden
meat is called an abomination, and those that meddle with it are
said to make themselves abominable,
Lev. xi. 42, 43.
Those that durst not eat the meat yet made bold with the broth, because
they would come as near as might be to that which was forbidden, to
show how they coveted the forbidden fruit. Perhaps this is here put
figuratively for all forbidden pleasures and profits which are obtained
by sin, that abominable thing which the Lord hates; they loved
to be dallying with it, to be tasting of its broth. But those who thus
take a pride in venturing upon the borders of sin, and the brink of it,
are in danger of falling into the depths of it. But,
Secondly, The most provoking iniquity of the Jews in our
Saviour’s time was their pride and hypocrisy, that sin of the scribes
and Pharisees against which Christ denounced so many woes,
v. 5.
They say, “Stand by thyself, keep off” (get thee to
thine, so the original is); “keep to thy own companions, but
come not near to me, lest thou pollute me; touch me not;
I will not allow thee any familiarity with me, for I am holier than
thou, and therefore thou art not good enough to converse with me;
I am not as other men are, nor even as this publican.” This they
were ready to say to every one they met with, so that, in saying, I
am holier than thou, they thought themselves holier than any, not
only very good, as good as they should be, as good as they needed to
be, but better than any of their neighbours. These are a smoke in my
nose (says God), such a smoke as comes not from a quick fire, which
soon becomes glowing and pleasant, but from a fire of wet wood, which
burns all the day, and is nothing but smoke. Note, Nothing in
men is more odious and offensive to God than a proud conceit of
themselves and contempt of others; for commonly those are most unholy
of all that think themselves holier than any.
(2.) The controversy God had with them for this. The proof against them
is plain: Behold, it is written before me,
v. 6.
It is written, to be remembered against them in time to come; for they
may not perhaps be immediately reckoned with. The sins of sinners, and
particularly the vainglorious boasts and scorns of hypocrites, are
laid up in store with God,
And what is written shall be read and proceeded upon: “I will not
keep silence always, though I may keep silence long.” They shall
not think him altogether such a one as themselves, as sometimes they
have done; but he will recompense, even recompense into their
bosom. Those basely abuse religion, that honourable and sacred
thing, who make their profession of it the matter of their pride, and
the jealous God will reckon with them for it; the profession they boast
of shall but serve to aggravate their condemnation.
[1.] The iniquity of their fathers shall come against them; not
but that their own sin deserved whatever judgments God brought upon
them, and much heavier; and this they owned,
But God would not have wrought so great a desolation upon them if he
had not therein had an eye to the sins of their fathers. Therefore in
the last destruction of Jerusalem God is said to bring upon them the
blood of the Old-Testament martyrs, even that of Abel,
Matt. xxiii. 35.
God will reckon with them, not only for their fathers’ idols, but for
their high places, their burning incense upon the mountains
and the hills, though perhaps it was to the true God only. This was
blaspheming or reproaching God; it was a reflection upon the choice he
had made of the place where he would record his name, and the promise
he had made that there he would meet them and bless them.
[2.] Their own with that shall bring ruin upon them: Your iniquities
and the iniquities of your fathers together, the one aggravating
the other, constitute the former work, which, though it may seem to be
overlooked and forgotten, shall be measured into their bosom.
God will render into the bosom, not only of his open enemies
but of his false and treacherous friends, the reproach wherewith
they have reproached him.
| Promises of Mercy. | B. C. 706. |
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8 Thus saith the LORD, As the new wine is found in the cluster,
and one saith, Destroy it not; for a blessing is in it: so
will I do for my servants’ sakes, that I may not destroy them
all.
9 And I will bring forth a seed out of Jacob, and out of Judah
an inheritor of my mountains: and mine elect shall inherit it,
and my servants shall dwell there.
10 And Sharon shall be a fold of flocks, and the valley of
Achor a place for the herds to lie down in, for my people that
have sought me.
This is expounded by St. Paul,
Rom. xi. 1-5,
where, when, upon occasion of the rejection of the Jews, it is asked,
Hath God then cast away his people? he answers, No; for at
this time there is a remnant according to the election of grace.
This prophecy has reference to that distinguished remnant. When that
hypocritical nation is to be destroyed God will separate and secure to
himself some from among them; some of the Jews shall be brought to
embrace the Christian faith, shall be added to the church, and so be
saved. And our Saviour has told us that for the sake of these
elect the days of the destruction of the Jews should be shortened,
and a stop put to the desolation, which otherwise would have proceeded
to such a degree that no flesh should be saved,
Matt. xxiv. 22.
Now,
I. This is illustrated here by a comparison,
v. 8.
When a vine is so blasted and withered that there seems to be no sap
nor life in it, and therefore the dresser of the vineyard is inclined
to pluck it up or cut it down, yet, if ever so little of the juice of
the grape, fit to make new wine, be found, though but in one cluster, a
stander-by interposes, and says, Destroy it not, for a blessing is
in it; there is life in the root, and hope that yet it may become
good for something. Good men are blessings to the places where they
live; and sometimes God spares whole cities and nations for the sake of
a few such in them. How ambitious should we be of this honor, not only
to be distinguished from others, but serviceable to others!
II. Here is a description of those that shall make up this saved saving
remnant.
1. They are such as serve God. It is for my servants’ sake
(v. 8),
and they are my servants that shall dwell there,
v. 9.
God’s faithful servants, however they are looked upon, are the best
friends their country has; and those who serve him do therein serve
their generation.
2. They are such as seek God, make it the end of their lives to glorify
God and the business of their lives to call upon him. It is for my
people that have sought me. Those that seek God shall find him, and
shall find him their bountiful rewarder.
III. Here is an account of the mercy God has in store for them. The
remnant that shall return out of captivity shall have a happy
settlement again in their own land, and that by an hereditary right, as
a seed out of Jacob, in whom the family is kept up and the
entail preserved, and from whom, as from the seed sown, shall spring a
numerous increase; and these typify the remnant of Jacob that shall be
incorporated into the gospel church by faith.
1. They shall have a good portion for themselves. They shall inherit
my mountains, the holy mountains on which Jerusalem and the
temple were built, or the mountains of Canaan, the land of
promise, typifying the covenant of grace, which all God’s servants,
his elect, both inhabit and inherit; they make it their refuge, their
rest and residence, so they dwell in it, are at home in it; and they
have taken it to be their heritage for ever, and it shall be to them an
inheritance incorruptible. God’s chosen, the spiritual seed of praying
Jacob, shall be the inheritors of his mountains of bliss and joy, and
shall be carried safely to them through the vale of tears.
2. They shall have a green pasture for their flocks,
Sharon and the valley of Achor shall again be as well
replenished as ever they were with cattle. Sharon lay westward, near
Joppa; Achor lay eastward, near Jordan. It is therefore intimated that
they shall recover the possession of the whole land, that they shall
have wherewith to stock it all, and that they shall peaceably enjoy it
and there shall be none to disturb them nor make them afraid.
Gospel-ordinances are the fields and valleys where the sheep of Christ
shall go in and out and find pasture
(John x. 9),
and where they are made to lie down
(Ps. xxiii. 2),
as Israel’s herds in the valley of Achor,
Hos. ii. 15.
| Predictions of Punishment. | B. C. 706. |
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11 But ye are they that forsake the LORD, that forget my holy
mountain, that prepare a table for that troop, and that furnish
the drink offering unto that number.
12 Therefore will I number you to the sword, and ye shall all
bow down to the slaughter: because when I called, ye did not
answer; when I spake, ye did not hear; but did evil before mine
eyes, and did choose that wherein I delighted not.
13 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, my servants shall
eat, but ye shall be hungry: behold, my servants shall drink, but
ye shall be thirsty: behold, my servants shall rejoice, but ye
shall be ashamed:
14 Behold, my servants shall sing for joy of heart, but ye
shall cry for sorrow of heart, and shall howl for vexation of
spirit.
15 And ye shall leave your name for a curse unto my chosen: for
the Lord GOD shall slay thee, and call his servants by another
name:
16 That he who blesseth himself in the earth shall bless
himself in the God of truth; and he that sweareth in the earth
shall swear by the God of truth; because the former troubles are
forgotten, and because they are hid from mine eyes.
Here the different states of the godly and wicked, of the Jews that
believed and of those that still persisted in unbelief, are set the one
over–against the other, as life and death, good and evil, the blessing
and the curse.
I. Here is the fearful doom of those that persisted in their idolatry
after the deliverance out of Babylon, and in infidelity after the
preaching of the gospel of Christ. Observe,
1. What the doom is that is here threatened: “I will number you to
the sword as sheep for the slaughter, and there shall be no
escaping, no standing out; you shall all bow down to it,”
God’s judgments come,
(1.) Regularly, and are executed according to the commission. Those
fall by the sword that are numbered or counted out to it, and none
besides. Though the sword seems to devour promiscuously one as well
as another, yet it is made to know its number and shall not exceed.
(2.) Irresistibly. The strongest and most stout-hearted sinners shall
be forced to bow before them; for none ever hardened their hearts
against God and prospered.
2. What the sins are that number them to the sword.
(1.) Idolatry was the ancient sin
(v. 11):
“You are those who, instead of seeking me and serving me as my
people, forsake the Lord, disown him, and cast him off to
embrace other gods, who forget my holy mountain (the privileges
it confers and the obligations it lays you under) to burn incense upon
the mountains of your idols
(v. 7),
and have deserted the one only living and true God.” They prepared a
table for that troop of deities which the heathen worship and
poured out drink-offerings to that numberless number of them;
for those that thought one God too little never thought scores and
hundreds sufficient, but were still adding to the number of them, till
they had as many gods as cities and their altars were as thick as
heaps in the furrows of the field,
Hos. xii. 11.
Some take Gad and Meni, which we translate a troop
and a number, to be the proper names of two of their idols,
answering to Jupiter and Mercury. Whatever they were, their worshippers
spared no cost to do them honour; they prepared a table for them, and
filled out mixed wine for drink-offerings to them; they would pinch
their families rather than stint their devotions, which should shame
the worshippers of the true God out of their niggardliness.
(2.) Infidelity was the sin of the later Jews
(v. 12):
When I called, you did not answer, which refers to the same that
did (I have stretched out my hands to a rebellious people), and
that is applied to those who rejected the gospel. Our Lord Jesus
himself called (he stood and cried,
John vii. 37),
but they did not hear, they would not answer; they were not convinced
by his reasonings nor moved by his expostulations; both the fair
warnings he gave them of death and ruin and the fair offers he made
them of life and happiness were slighted and made no impression upon
them. Yet this was not all: You did evil before my eyes, not by
surprise, or through inadvertency, but with deliberation: You did
choose that wherein I delighted not; he means that which he utterly
detested and abhorred. It is not strange that those who will not be
persuaded to choose that which is good persist in their choice and
pursuit of that which is evil. See the malignity of sin; it is evil in
God’s eyes, highly offensive to him, and yet it is committed before his
eyes, in his sight and presence, and in contempt of him; it is likewise
a contradiction to the will of God; it is doing that, of choice, which
we know will displease him.
II. The aggravation of this doom, from the consideration of the happy
state of those that were brought to repentance and faith.
1. The blessedness of those that serve God, and the woeful condition of
those that rebel against him, are here set the one over–against the
other, that they may serve as a foil to each other,
(1.) God’s servants may well think themselves happy, and for ever
indebted to that free grace which made them so, when they see how
miserable some of their neighbours are for want of that grace, who are
hardened, and likely to perish for ever in unbelief, and what a narrow
escape they had of being among them. See
(2.) It will add to the grief of those that perish to see the happiness
of God’s servants (whom they had hated, and vilified, and looked upon
with the utmost disdain), and especially to think that they might have
shared in their bliss if it had not been their own fault. It made the
torment of the rich man in hell the more grievous that he saw
Abraham afar off and Lazarus in his bosom,
Luke xvi. 23.
See
Sometimes the providence of God makes such a difference as this between
good and bad in this world, and the prosperity of the righteous becomes
a grievous eye-sore and vexation of heart to the wicked
(Ps. cxii. 10),
and it will certainly be so in the great day. We fools counted his
life madness and his end without honour; but now how is he numbered
with the saints and his lot is among the chosen. Now,
2. The difference of their states lies in two things:–
(1.) In point of comfort and satisfaction.
[1.] God’s servants shall eat and drink; they shall have the bread of
life to feed, to feast upon, continually, shall be abundantly
replenished with the goodness of his house, and shall want nothing that
is good for them. Heaven’s happiness will be to them an everlasting
feast; they shall be filled with that which now they hunger and thirst
after. But those who set their hearts upon the world, and place their
happiness in that, shall be hungry and thirsty, always empty, always
craving; for it is not bread; it surfeits, but it satisfies not. In
communion with God, and dependence upon him, there is full
satisfaction; but in sinful pursuits there is nothing but
disappointment.
[2.] God’s servants shall rejoice and sing for joy of heart.
They have constant cause for joy, and there is nothing that may be an
occasion of grief to them but they have an allay sufficient for it;
and, as far as faith is in act and exercise, they have a heart to
rejoice, and their joy is their strength. They shall rejoice in their
hope, because it shall not make them ashamed. Heaven will be a world of
everlasting joy to all that are now sowing in tears. But, on the other
hand, those that forsake the Lord shut themselves out from all true
joy, for they shall be ashamed of their vain confidence in
themselves, and their own righteousness, and the hopes they had built
thereon. When the expectations of bliss wherewith they had flattered
themselves are frustrated, O what confusion will fill their faces! Then
shall they cry for sorrow of heart, and howl for vexation of
spirit, perhaps in this world, when their laughter shall be turned
into mourning and their joy into heaviness, and certainly in that world
where the torment will be endless, easeless, and remediless–nothing
but weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth, to eternity. Let these
two be compared, Now he is comforted and thou art
tormented, and which of the two will we choose to take our lot
with?
(2.) In point of honour and reputation,
The memory of the just is, and shall be, blessed, but the
name of the wicked shall rot.
[1.] The name of the idolaters and unbelievers shall be left for a
curse, shall be loaded with ignominy and made for ever infamous. It
shall be used in giving bad characters–Thou art as cruel as a
Jew; and in imprecation–God make thee as miserable as a
Jew. It shall be for a curse to God’s chosen, that is, for a
warning to them; they shall be afraid of falling under the curse upon
the Jewish nation, of perishing after the same example of
unbelief. The curse of those whom God rejects should make his
chosen stand in awe. The Lord God shall slay thee; he shall
quite extirpate the Jews and cut them off from being a people; they
shall no longer live as a nation, nor ever be incorporated again.
[2.] The name of God’s chosen shall become a blessing: He shall call
his servants by another name. The children of the covenant shall no
longer be called Jews, but Christians; and to them, under
that name, all the promises and privileges of the new covenant shall be
secured. This other name shall be an honourable name; it shall not be
confined to one nation, but with it men shall bless themselves in
the earth, all the world over. God shall have servants out of all
nations who shall all be dignified with this new name. They shall bless
themselves in the God of truth. First, They shall give honour to
God both in their prayers and in their solemn oaths, in their addresses
for his favour as their felicity and their appeals to his justice as
their Judge. This is a part of the homage we owe to God; we must bless
ourselves in him, that is, we must reckon that we have enough to make
us happy, that we need no more, and can desire no more, if we have him
for our God. It is of great consequence what we bless ourselves in,
what we most please ourselves with and value ourselves by our interest
in. Worldly people bless themselves in the abundance they have of this
world’s goods
but God’s servants bless themselves in him, as a God all-sufficient for
them. He is their crown of glory and diadem of beauty, their strength
and portion. By him also they shall swear, and not by any
creature or any false god. To his judgment they shall refer their
cause, from whom every man’s judgment doth proceed. Secondly,
They shall give honour to him as the God of truth, the God of the
Amen (so the word is); some understand it of Christ who is himself
the Amen, the faithful witness
(Rev. iii. 14),
and in whom all the promises are yea and amen,
2 Cor. i. 20.
In him we must bless ourselves, and by him we must swear unto the Lord
and covenant with him. He that is blessed in the earth (so some
read it) shall be blessed in the true God, for Christ is the
true God and eternal life,
1 John v. 20.
And it was promised of old that in him all the families of the earth
should be blessed,
Gen. xii. 3.
Some read it, He shall bless himself in the God of the faithful
people, in God as the God of all believers, desiring no more than
to share in the blessings wherewith they are blessed, to be dealt with
as he deals with them. Thirdly, They shall give him honour as
the author of this blessed change which they have the experience of;
they shall think themselves happy in having him for their God who has
made them to forget their former troubles, the remembrance of them
being swallowed up in their present comforts: Because they are
hidden from God’s eyes, that is, they are quite taken away; for, if
there were any remainder of their troubles, God would be sure to have
his eye upon it, in compassion to them and concern for them. They shall
no longer feel them; for God will no longer see them. He is pleased to
speak as if he would make himself easy by making them easy; and
therefore they shall with a great deal of satisfaction bless themselves
in him.
| Predictions of Happiness. | B. C. 706. |
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17 For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the
former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.
18 But be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that which I
create: for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her
people a joy.
19 And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people: and
the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice
of crying.
20 There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old
man that hath not filled his days: for the child shall die an
hundred years old; but the sinner being a hundred years old
shall be accursed.
21 And they shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they
shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them.
22 They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not
plant, and another eat: for as the days of a tree are the days
of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their
hands.
23 They shall not labour in vain, nor bring forth for trouble;
for they are the seed of the blessed of the LORD, and their
offspring with them.
24 And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will
answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear.
25 The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion
shall eat straw like the bullock: and dust shall be the
serpent’s meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy
mountain, saith the LORD.
If these promises were in part fulfilled when the Jews, after their
return out of captivity, were settled in peace in their own land and
brought as it were into a new world, yet they were to have their full
accomplishment in the gospel church, militant first and at length
triumphant. The Jerusalem that is from above is free and is the
mother of us all. In the graces and comforts which believers have
in and from Christ we are to look for this new heaven and new earth. It
is in the gospel that old things have passed away and all things
have become new, and by it that those who are in Christ are new
creatures,
2 Cor. v. 17.
It was a mighty and happy change that was described
that the former troubles were forgotten; but here it rises much
higher: even the former world shall be forgotten and
shall no more come into mind. Those that were converted to the
Christian faith were so transported with the comforts of it that all
the comforts they were before acquainted with became as nothing to
them; not only their foregoing griefs, but their foregoing joys, were
lost and swallowed up in this. The glorified saints will
therefore have forgotten this world, because they will be
entirely taken up with the other: For, behold, I create new heavens
and a new earth. See how inexhaustible the divine power is; the
same God that created one heaven and earth can create another. See how
entire the happiness of the saints is; it shall be all of a piece; with
the new heavens God will create them (if they have occasion for it to
make them happy) a new earth too. The world is yours if you be
Christ’s,
When God is reconciled to us, which gives us a new heaven, the
creatures too are reconciled to us, which gives us a new earth. The
future glory of the saints will be so entirely different from what they
ever knew before that it may well be called new heavens and a new
earth,
2 Pet. iii. 13.
Behold, I make all things new,
Rev. xxi. 5.
I. There shall be new joys. For,
1. All the church’s friends, and all that belong to her, shall rejoice
(v. 18):
You shall be glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create.
The new things which God creates in and by his gospel are and shall be
matter of everlasting joy to all believers. My servants shall
rejoice
(v. 13),
at last they shall, though now they mourn. Enter thou into the joy
of thy Lord.
2. The church shall be the matter of their joy, so pleasant, so
prosperous, shall her condition be: I create Jerusalem a rejoicing
and her people a joy. The church shall not only rejoice but be
rejoiced in. Those that have sorrowed with the church shall rejoice
with her.
3. The prosperity of the church shall be a rejoicing to God himself,
who has pleasure in the prosperity of his servants
(v. 19):
I will rejoice in Jerusalem’s joy, and will joy in my
people; for in all their affliction he was afflicted. God
will not only rejoice in the church’s well-doing, but will himself
rejoice to do her good and rest in his love to her,
What God rejoices in it becomes us to rejoice in.
4. There shall be no allay of this joy, nor any alteration of this
happy condition of the church: The voice of weeping shall be no more
heard in her. If this relate to any state of the church in this
life, it means no more than that the former occasions of grief shall
not return, but God’s people shall long enjoy an uninterrupted
tranquillity. But in heaven it shall have a full accomplishment, in
respect both of the perfection and the perpetuity of the promised joy;
there all tears shall be wiped away.
II. There shall be new life,
Untimely deaths by the sword or sickness shall be no more known as they
have been, and by this means there shall be no more the voice of
crying,
v. 19.
When there shall be no more death there shall be no more
sorrow,
Rev. xxi. 4.
As death has reigned by sin, so life shall reign by righteousness,
1. Believers through Christ shall be satisfied with life, though it be
ever so short on earth. If an infant end its days quickly, yet it shall
not be reckoned to die untimely; for the shorter its life is the longer
will its rest be. Though death reign over those that have not sinned
after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, yet they, dying in
the arms of Christ, the second Adam, and belonging to his kingdom, are
not to be called infants of days, but even the child shall be
reckoned to die a hundred years old, for he shall rise again at
full age, shall rise to eternal life. Some understand it of children
who in their childhood are so eminent for wisdom and grace, and by
death nipped in the blossom, that they may be said to die a hundred
years old. And, as for old men, it is promised that they shall fill
their days with the fruits of righteousness, which they
shall still bring forth in old age, to show that the Lord is
upright, and then it is a good old age. An old man who is wise, and
good, and useful, may truly be said to have filled his days. Old
men who have their hearts upon the world have never filled their days,
never have enough of this world, but would still continue longer in it.
But that man dies old, and satur dierum–full of days, who, with
Simeon, having seen God’s salvation, desires now to depart in peace.
2. Unbelievers shall be unsatisfied and unhappy in life, though it be
ever so long. The sinner, though he live to a hundred years old,
shall be accursed. His living so long shall be no token to him of
the divine favour and blessing, nor shall it be any shelter to him from
the divine wrath and curse. The sentence he lies under will certainly
be executed, and his long life is but a long reprieve; nay, it is
itself a curse to him, for the longer he lives the more wrath he
treasures up against the day of wrath and the more sins he will have to
answer for. So that the matter is not great whether our lives on earth
be long or short, but whether we live the lives of saints or the lives
of sinners.
III. There shall be a new enjoyment of the comforts of life. Whereas
before it was very uncertain and precarious, their enemies inhabited
the houses which they built and ate the fruit of the
trees which they planted, now it shall be otherwise; they shall
build houses and inhabit them, shall plant vineyards and
eat the fruit of them,
v. 21, 22.
Their intimates that the labour of their hands shall be blessed and be
made to prosper; they shall gain what they aimed at, and what they have
gained shall be preserved and secured to them; they shall enjoy it
comfortably, and nothing shall embitter it to them, and they shall live
to enjoy it long. Strangers shall not break in upon them, to expel
them, and plant themselves in their room, as sometimes they have done:
My elect shall wear out, or long enjoy, the work of their
hands; it is honestly got, and it will wear well; it is the work
of their hands, which they themselves have laboured for, and it is
most comfortable to enjoy that, and not to eat the bread of
idleness, or bread of deceit. If we have a heart to enjoy
it, that is the gift of God’s grace
and, if we live to enjoy it long, it is the gift of God’s providence,
for that is here promised: As the days of a tree are the days of my
people; as the days of an oak
(ch. vi. 13),
whose substance is in it, though it cast its leaves; though it
be stripped every winter, it recovers itself again, and lasts many
ages; as the days of the tree of life; so the LXX. Christ is to
them the tree of life, and in him believers enjoy all those spiritual
comforts which are typified by the abundance of temporal blessings here
promised; and it shall not be in the power of their enemies to deprive
them of these blessings or disturb them in the enjoyment of them.
IV. There shall be a new generation rising up in their stead to inherit
and enjoy these blessings
(v. 23):
They shall not labour in vain, for they shall not only enjoy the
work of their hands themselves, but they shall leave it with
satisfaction to those that shall come after them, and not with such a
melancholy prospect as Solomon did,
They shall not beget and bring forth children for trouble;
for they are themselves the seed of the blessed of the Lord,
and there is a blessing entailed upon them by descent from their
ancestors which their offspring with them shall partake of, and
shall be, as well as they, the seed of the blessed of the Lord.
They shall not bring forth for trouble; for,
1. God will make their children that rise up comforts to them; they
shall have the joy of seeing them walk in the truth.
2. He will make the times that come after comfortable to their
children. As they shall be good, so it shall be well with them; they
shall not be brought forth to days of trouble; nor shall it ever be
said, Blessed is the womb that bore not. In the gospel church
Christ’s name shall be borne up by a succession. A seed shall serve
him
(Ps. xxii. 30),
the seed of the blessed of the Lord.
V. There shall be a good correspondence between them and their God
(v. 24):
Even before they call, I will answer. God will anticipate their
prayers with the blessings of his goodness. David did but say, I
will confess, and God forgave,
Ps. xxxii. 5.
The father of the prodigal met him in his return. While they are yet
speaking, before they have finished their prayer, I will give them
the thing they pray for, or the assurances and earnests of it. These
are high expressions of God’s readiness to hear prayer; and this
appears much more in the grace of the gospel than it did under the law;
we owe the comfort of it to the mediation of Christ as our advocate
with the Father and are obliged in gratitude to give a ready ear to
God’s calls.
VI. There shall be a good correspondence between them and their
neighbours
(v. 25):
The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, as they did in Noah’s
ark. God’s people, though they are as sheep in the midst of wolves,
shall be safe and unhurt; for God will not so much break the power and
tie the hands of their enemies as formerly, but he will turn their
hearts, will alter their dispositions by his grace. When Paul, who had
been a persecutor of the disciples (and who, being of the tribe of
Benjamin, ravened as a wolf,
Gen. xlix. 27)
joined himself to them and became one of them, then the wolf and the
lamb fed together. So also when the enmity between Jews and
Gentiles was slain, all hostilities ceased, and they fed together as
one sheepfold under Christ the great Shepherd,
The enemies of the church ceased to do the mischief they had done, and
its members ceased to be so quarrelsome with and injurious to one
another as they had been, so that there was none either from without or
from within to hurt or destroy, none to disturb it, much less to ruin
it, in all the holy mountain; as was promised,
For,
1. Men shall be changed: The lion shall no more be a beast of
prey, as perhaps he never would have been if sin had not entered, but
shall eat straw like the bullock, shall know his owner,
and his master’s crib, as the ox does. When those that
lived by spoil and rapine, and coveted to enrich themselves, right or
wrong, are brought by the grace of God to accommodate themselves to
their condition, to live by honest labour, and to be content with such
things as they have–when those that stole steal no more, but work with
their hands the thing that is good–then this is fulfilled, that the
lion shall eat straw like the bullock.
2. Satan shall be chained, the dragon bound; for dust shall be the
serpent’s meat again. That great enemy, when he has been let loose,
has glutted and regaled himself with the precious blood of saints, who
by his instigation have been persecuted, and with the precious souls of
sinners, who by his instigation have become persecutors and have ruined
themselves for ever; but now he shall be confined to dust, according to
the sentence, On thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou
eat,
Gen. iii. 14.
All the enemies of God’s church, that are subtle and venomous as
serpents, shall be conquered and subdued, and be made to lick the dust,
Christ shall reign as Zion’s King till all the enemies of his kingdom
be made his footstool, and theirs too. In the holy mountain above, and
there only, shall this promise have its full accomplishment, that there
shall be none to hurt nor destroy.
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