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Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
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Matthew Henry |
I S A I A H.
CHAP. LIV.
The death of Christ is the life of the church and of all that truly
belong to it; and therefore very fitly, after the prophet had foretold
the sufferings of Christ, he foretels the flourishing of the church,
which is a part of his glory, and that exaltation of him which was the
reward of his humiliation: it was promised him that he should see his
seed, and this chapter is an explication of that promise. It may easily
be granted that it has a primary reference to the welfare and
prosperity of the Jewish church after their return out of Babylon,
which (as other things that happened to them) was typical of the
glorious liberty of the children of God, which through Christ we are
brought into; yet it cannot be denied but that it has a further and
principal reference to the gospel church, into which the Gentiles were
to be admitted. And the first words being understood by the apostle
Paul of the New-Testament Jerusalem
may serve as a key to the whole chapter and that which follows. It is
here promised concerning the Christian church,
I. That, though the beginnings of it were small, it should be greatly
enlarged by the accession of many to it among the Gentiles, who had
been wholly destitute of church privileges,
II. That though sometimes God might seem to withdraw from her, and
suspend the tokens of his favour, he would return in mercy and would
not return to contend with them any more,
III. That, though for a while she was in sorrow and under oppression,
she should at length be advanced to greater honour and splendour than
ever,
IV. That knowledge, righteousness, and peace, should flourish and
prevail,
V. That all attempts against the church should be baffled, and she
should be secured from the malice of her enemies,
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1 Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear; break forth into
singing, and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child:
for more are the children of the desolate than the children of
the married wife, saith the LORD.
2 Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the
curtains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords, and
strengthen thy stakes;
3 For thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left;
and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate
cities to be inhabited.
4 Fear not; for thou shalt not be ashamed: neither be thou
confounded; for thou shalt not be put to shame: for thou shalt
forget the shame of thy youth, and shalt not remember the
reproach of thy widowhood any more.
5 For thy Maker is thine husband; the LORD of hosts is his
name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the
whole earth shall he be called.
If we apply this to the state of the Jews after their return out of
captivity, it is a prophecy of the increase of their nation after they
were settled in their own land. Jerusalem had been in the condition of
a wife written childless, or a desolate solitary widow; but now it is
promised that the city should be replenished and the country peopled
again, that not only the ruins of Jerusalem should be repaired, but the
suburbs of it extended on all sides and a great many buildings erected
upon new foundations,–that those estates which had for many years been
wrongfully held by the Babylonian Gentiles should now return to the
right owners. God will again be a husband to them, and the reproach of
their captivity, and the small number to which they were then reduced,
shall be forgotten. And it is to be observed that, by virtue of the
ancient promise made to Abraham of the increase of his seed, when they
were restored to God’s favour they multiplied greatly. Those that first
came out of Babylon were but 42,000
(Ezra ii. 64),
about a fifteenth part of their number when they came out of Egypt;
many came dropping to them afterwards, but we may suppose that to be
the greatest number that ever came in a body; and yet above 500 years
after, a little before their destruction by the Romans, a calculation
was made by the number of the paschal lambs, and the lowest computation
by that rule (allowing only ten to a lamb, whereas they might be
twenty) made the nation to be nearly three millions. Josephus says,
seven and twenty hundred thousand and odd, Jewish War 6.425. But
we must apply it to the church of God in general; I mean the kingdom of
God among men, God’s city in the world, the children of God
incorporated. Now observe,
I. The low and languishing state of religion in the world for a long
time before Christianity was brought in. It was like one barren,
that did not bear, or travail with child, was like one desolate,
that had lost husband and children; the church lay in a little compass,
and brought forth little fruit. The Jews were indeed by profession
married to God, but few proselytes were added to them, the rising
generations were unpromising, and serious godliness manifestly lost
ground among them. The Gentiles had less religion among them than the
Jews; their proselytes were in a dispersion; and the children of God,
like the children of a broken, reduced family, were scattered
abroad
(John xi. 52),
did not appear nor make any figure.
II. Its recovery from this low condition by the preaching of the gospel
and the planting of the Christian church.
1. Multitudes were converted from idols to the living God. Those were
the church’s children that were born again, were partakers of a new and
divine nature, by the word. More were the children of the desolate
than of the married wife; there were more good people found in the
Gentile church (when that was set up) that had long been afar off, and
without God in the world, than ever were found in the Jewish church.
God’s sealed ones out of the tribes of Israel are numbered
(Rev. vii. 4),
and they were but a remnant compared with the thousands of Israel; but
those of other nations were so many, and crowded in so thickly, and lay
so much scattered in all parts, that no man could number them,
v. 9.
Sometimes more of the power of religion is found in those places and
families that have made little show of it, and have enjoyed but little
of the means of grace, than in others that have distinguished
themselves by a flourishing profession; and then more are the children
of the desolate, more the fruits of their righteousness, than those of
the married wife; so the last shall be first. Now this is spoken of as
matter of great rejoicing to the church, which is called upon to break
forth into singing upon this account. The increase of the church is the
joy of all its friends and strengthens their hands. The longer the
church has lain desolate the greater will the transports of joy be when
it begins to recover the ground it has lost and to gain more. Even in
heaven, among the angels of God, there is an uncommon joy for a sinner
that repents, much more for a nation that does so. If the barren
fig-tree at length bring forth fruit, it is well; it shall rejoice, and
others with it.
2. The bounds of the church were extended much further than ever
before,
(1.) It is here supposed that the present state of the church is a
tabernacle state; it dwells in tents, like the heirs of promise of old
(Heb. xi. 9);
its dwelling is mean and movable, and of no strength against a storm.
The city, the continuing city, is reserved for hereafter. A tent is
soon taken down and shifted, so the candlestick of church privileges is
soon removed out of its place
(Rev. ii. 5),
and, when God pleases, it is as soon fixed elsewhere.
(2.) Though it be a tabernacle state, it is sometimes very remarkably a
growing state; and, if this family increase, no matter though it be in
a tent. Thus it was in the first preaching of the gospel; it was the
business of the apostles to disciple all nations, to stretch forth the
curtains of the church’s habitation, to preach the gospel where Christ
had not yet been named
(Rom. xv. 20),
to leaven with the gospel those towns and countries that had hitherto
been strangers to it, and so to lengthen the cords of this tabernacle,
that more might be enclosed, which would make it necessary to
strengthen the stakes proportionably, that they might bear the weight
of the enlarged curtains. The more numerous the church grows the more
cautious she must be to fortify herself against errors and corruptions,
and to support her seven pillars,
(3.) It was a proof of divine power going along with the gospel that in
all places it grew and prevailed mightily,
Acts xix. 20.
It broke forth, as the breaking forth of waters–on the right hand
and on the left, that is, on all hands. The gospel spread itself
into all parts of the world; there were eastern and western churches.
The church’s seed inherited the Gentiles, and the cities that had been
desolate (that is, destitute of the knowledge and worship of the true
God) came to be inhabited, that is, to have religion set up in them and
the name of Christ professed.
3. This was the comfort and honour of the church
(v. 4):
“Fear not, for thou shalt not be ashamed, as formerly, of the
straitness of thy borders, and the fewness of thy children, which thy
enemies upbraided thee with, but shalt forget the reproach of thy
youth, because there shall be no more ground for that reproach.” It
was the reproach of the Christian religion, in its youth, that none of
the rulers or princes of this world embraced it and that it was
entertained and professed by a despicable handful of men; but, after
awhile, nations were discipled, the empire became Christian, and then
this reproach of its youth was forgotten.
4. This was owing to the relation in which God stood to his church, as
her husband
(v. 5):
Thy maker is thy husband. Believers are said to be married to
Christ, that they may bring forth fruit unto God
(Rom. vii. 4);
so the church is married to him, that she may bear and bring up a holy
seed to God, that shall be accounted to him for a generation. Jesus
Christ is the church’s Maker, by whom she is formed into a people–her
Redeemer, by whom she is brought out of captivity, the bondage of sin,
the worst of slaveries. This is he that espoused her to himself; and,
(1.) He is the Lord of hosts, who has an irresistible power, an
absolute sovereignty, and a universal dominion! Kings who are lords of
some hosts, find there are others who are lords of other hosts, as many
and mighty as theirs; but God is the Lord of all hosts.
(2.) He is the Holy One of Israel, the same that presided in the
affairs of the Old-Testament church and was the Mediator of the
covenant made with it. The promises made to the New-Testament Israel
are as rich and sure as those made to the Old-Testament Israel; for he
that is our Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.
(3.) He is and shall be called the Lord of the whole earth, as
God, and as Mediator, for he is the heir of all things; but then
he shall be called so, when the ends of the earth shall be made to see
his salvation, when all the earth shall call him their God and have an
interest in him. Long he had been called, in a peculiar manner, the
God of Israel; but now, the partition wall between Jew and Gentile
being taken down, he shall be called the God of the whole earth
even where he has been, as at Athens itself, an unknown God.
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6 For the LORD hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved
in spirit, and a wife of youth, when thou wast refused, saith thy
God.
7 For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great
mercies will I gather thee.
8 In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but
with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the
LORD thy Redeemer.
9 For this is as the waters of Noah unto me: for as I have
sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth;
so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke
thee.
10 For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed;
but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the
covenant of my peace be removed, saith the LORD that hath mercy
on thee.
The seasonable succour and relief which God sent to his captives in
Babylon, when they had a discharge from their bondage there, are here
foretold, as a type and figure of all those consolations of God which
are treasured up for the church in general and all believers in
particular, in the covenant of grace.
I. Look back to former troubles, and in comparison with them God’s
favours to his people appear very comfortable,
Observe,
1. How sorrowful the church’s condition had been. She had been as a
woman forsaken, whose husband was dead, or had fallen out with her,
though she was a wife of youth, upon which account she is
grieved in spirit, takes it very ill, frets, and grows melancholy upon
it; or she had been as one refused and rejected, and therefore full of
discontent. Note, Even those that are espoused to God may yet seem to
be refused and forsaken, and may be grieved in spirit under the
apprehensions of being so. Those that shall never be forsaken and left
in despair may yet for a time be perplexed and in distress. The
similitude is explained
(v. 7, 8):
For a small moment have I forsaken thee. In a little wrath I hid my
face from thee. When God continues his people long in trouble he
seems to forsake them; so their enemies construe it
(Ps. lxxi. 11);
so they themselves misinterpret it,
When they are comfortless under their troubles, because their prayers
and expectations are not answered, God hides his face from them, as if
he regarded them not nor designed them any kindness. God owns that he
had done this; for he keeps an account of the afflictions of his
people, and, though he never turned his face against them (as against
the wicked,
he remembers how often he turned his back upon them. This arose indeed
from his displeasure. It was in wrath that he forsook them and hid his
face from them
(ch. lvii. 17);
yet it was but in a little wrath: not that God’s wrath ever is a little
thing, or to be made light of (Who knows the power of his
anger?), but little in comparison with what they had deserved, and
what others justly suffer, on whom the full vials of his wrath are
poured out. He did not stir up all his wrath. But God’s people, though
they be sensible of ever so small a degree of God’s displeasure, cannot
but be grieved in spirit because of it. As for the continuance of it,
it was but for a moment, a small moment; for God does not
keep his anger against his people for ever; no, it is soon over. As he
is slow to anger, so he is swift to show mercy. The afflictions of
God’s people, as they are light, so they are but for a moment, a cloud
that presently blows over.
2. How sweet the returns of mercy would be to them when God should come
and comfort them according to the time that he had afflicted them. God
called them into covenant with himself when they were forsaken and
grieved; he called them out of their afflictions when they were most
pressing,
v. 6.
God’s anger endures for a moment, but he will gather his people when
they think themselves neglected, will gather them out of their
dispersions, that they may return in a body to their own land,–will
gather them into his arms, to protect them, embrace them, and bear them
up,–and will gather them at last to himself, will gather the wheat
into the barn. He will have mercy on them. This supposes the
turning away of his anger and the admitting of them again into his
favour. God’s gathering his people takes rise from his mercy, not any
merit of others; and it is with great mercies
(v. 7),
with everlasting kindness,
v. 8.
The wrath is little, but the mercies are great; the wrath is for a
moment, but the kindness everlasting. See how one is set over against
the other, that we may neither despond under our afflictions nor
despair of relief.
II. Look forward to future dangers, and in defiance of them God’s
favours to his people appear very constant, and his kindness
everlasting; for it is formed into a covenant, here called a
covenant of peace, because it is founded in reconciliation and
is inclusive of all good. Now,
1. This is as firm as the covenant of providence. It is as the
waters of Noah, that is, as that promise which was made concerning
the deluge that there should never be the like again to disturb the
course of summer and winter, seed-time and harvest,
v. 9.
God then contended with the world in great wrath, and for a full year,
and yet at length returned in mercy, everlasting mercy; for he gave his
word, which was as inviolable as his oath, that Noah’s flood should
never return, that he would never drown the world again; see
And God has ever since kept his word, though the world has been very
provoking; and he will keep it to the end; for the world that now is is
reserved unto fire. And thus inviolable is the covenant of grace: I
have sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, as I have been,
and rebuke thee, as I have done. He will not be so angry with
them as to cast them off and break his covenant with them
nor rebuke them as he has rebuked the heathen, to destroy them, and
put out their name for ever and ever,
Ps. ix. 5.
2. It is more firm than the strongest parts of the visible creation
(v. 10):
The mountains shall depart, which are called everlasting
mountains, and the hills be removed, though they are called
perpetual hills,
Hab. iii. 6.
Sooner shall they remove than God’s covenant with his people be broken.
Mountains have sometimes been shaken by earthquakes, and removed; but
the promises of God were never broken by the shock of any event. The
day will come when all the mountains shall depart and all the
hills be removed, not only the tops of them covered, as they were
by the waters of Noah, but the roots of them torn up; for the earth and
all the works that are therein shall be burned up; but then the
covenant of peace between God and believers shall continue in the
everlasting bliss of all those who are the children of that covenant.
Mountains and hills signify great men, men of bulk and figure. Do these
mountains seem to support the skies (as Atlas) and bear them up? They
shall depart and be removed. Creature-confidences shall fail us. In
vain is salvation hoped for from those hills and mountains. But the
firmament is firm, and answers to its name, when those who seem to prop
it are gone. When our friends fail us our God does not, nor does his
kindness depart? Do these mountains threaten, and seem to top the
skies, and bid defiance to them, as Pelion and Ossa? Do the kings of
the earth, and the rulers, set themselves against the Lord? They shall
depart and be removed. Great mountains, that stand in the way of the
salvation of the church, shall be made plain
(Zech. iv. 7);
but God’s kindness shall never depart from his people, for whom he
loves he loves to the end; nor shall the covenant of his peace ever be
removed, for he is the Lord that has mercy on his people.
Therefore the covenant is immovable and inviolable, because it
is built not on our merit, which is a mutable uncertain thing, but on
God’s mercy, which is from everlasting to everlasting.
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11 O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted,
behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colours, and lay thy
foundations with sapphires.
12 And I will make thy windows of agates, and thy gates of
carbuncles, and all thy borders of pleasant stones.
13 And all thy children shall be taught of the LORD; and
great shall be the peace of thy children.
14 In righteousness shalt thou be established: thou shalt be
far from oppression; for thou shalt not fear: and from terror;
for it shall not come near thee.
15 Behold, they shall surely gather together, but not by me:
whosoever shall gather together against thee shall fall for thy
sake.
16 Behold, I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in
the fire, and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work; and
I have created the waster to destroy.
17 No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and
every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou
shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the
LORD, and their righteousness is of me, saith the LORD.
Very precious promises are here made to the church in her low
condition, that God would not only continue his love to his people
under their troubles as before, but that he would restore them to their
former prosperity, nay, that he would raise them to greater prosperity
than any they had yet enjoyed. In the foregoing chapter we had the
humiliation and exaltation of Christ; here we have the humiliation and
exaltation of the church; for, if we suffer with him, we shall reign
with him. Observe,
I. The distressed state the church is here reduced to by the providence
of God
(v. 11):
“O thou afflicted, poor, and indigent society, that art
tossed with tempests, like a ship driven from her anchors by a
storm and hurried into the ocean, where she is ready to be swallowed up
by the waves, and in this condition not comforted by any
compassionate friend that will sympathize with thee, or suggest to thee
any encouraging considerations
(Eccl. iv. 1),
not comforted by any allay to thy trouble, or prospect of deliverance
out of it.” This was the condition of the Jews in Babylon, and
afterwards, for a time, under Antiochus. It is often the condition of
Christian churches and of particular believers; without are fightings,
within are fears; they are like the disciples in a storm, ready to
perish; and where is their faith?
II. The glorious state the church is here advanced to by the promise of
God. God takes notice of the afflicted distressed state of his church,
and comforts her, when she is most disconsolate and has no other
comforter. Let the people of God, when they are afflicted and tossed,
think they hear God speaking comfortably to them by these words, taking
notice of their griefs and fears, what afflictions they are under, what
distresses they are in, and what comforts their case calls for. When
they bemoan themselves, God bemoans them, and speaks to them with pity:
O thou afflicted, tossed with tempests, and not comforted; for
in all their afflictions he is afflicted. But this is not all; he
engages to raise her up out of her affliction, and encourages her with
the assurance of the great things he would do for her, both for her
prosperity and for the securing of that prosperity to her.
1. Whereas now she lay in disgrace, God promises that which would be
her beauty and honour, which would make her easy to herself and amiable
in the eyes of others.
(1.) This is here promised by a similitude taken from a city, and it is
an apt similitude, for the church is the city of the living God, the
heavenly Jerusalem. Whereas now Jerusalem lay in ruins, a heap of
rubbish, it shall be not only rebuilt, but beautified, and appear more
splendid than ever; the stones shall be laid not only firm, but fine,
laid with fair colours; they shall be glistering stones,
1 Chron. xxix. 2.
The foundations shall be laid or garnished with sapphires, the
most precious of the precious stones here mentioned; for Christ (the
church’s foundation), and the foundation of the apostles and prophets,
are precious above any thing else. The windows of this house, city, or
temple, shall be made of agates, the gates of carbuncles,
and all the borders (the walls that enclose the courts, or the
boundaries by which her limits are marked, the mere-stones) shall be
of pleasant stones,
v. 12.
Never was this literally true; but it intimates,
[1.] That, God having graciously undertaken to build his church, we may
expect that to be done for it, that to be wrought in it, which is very
great and uncommon.
[2.] That the glory of the New-Testament church shall far exceed that
of the Jewish church, not in external pomp and splendour, but in those
gifts and graces of the Spirit which are infinitely more valuable, that
wisdom which is more precious than rubies
than the precious onyx and the sapphire, and which the topaz of
Ethiopia cannot equal,
Job xxviii. 16, 19.
[3.] That the wealth of this world, and those things of it that are
accounted most precious, shall be despised by all the true living
members of the church, as having no value, no glory, in comparison with
that which far excels. That which the children of this world lay up
among their treasures, and too often in their hearts, the children of
God make pavements of, and put under their feet, the fittest place of
it.
(2.) It is here promised in the particular instances of those things
that shall be the beauty and honour of the church, which are knowledge,
holiness, and love, the very image of God, in which man was created,
renewed, and restored. And these are the sapphires and carbuncles, the
precious and pleasant stones, with which the gospel temple shall be
enriched and beautified, and these wrought by the power and efficacy of
those doctrines which the apostle compares to gold or silver, and
precious stones, that are to be built upon the foundation,
1 Cor. iii. 12.
Then the church is all glorious,
[1.] When it is full of the knowledge of God, and that is promised here
(v. 13):
All thy children shall be taught of the Lord. The church’s
children, being born of God, shall be taught of God; being his children
by adoption, he will take care of their education. It was promised
(v. 1)
that the church’s children should be many; but lest we should think
that being many, as sometimes it happens in numerous families, they
will be neglected, and not have instruction given them so carefully as
if they were but few, God here takes that work into his own hand:
They shall all be taught of the Lord; and none teaches like him.
First, It is a promise of the means of instruction and those
means authorized by a divine institution: They shall all be taught
of God, that is, they shall be taught by those whom God shall
appoint and whose labours shall be under his direction and blessing. He
will ordain the methods of instruction, and by his word and ordinances
will diffuse a much greater light than the Old-Testament church had.
Care shall be taken for the teaching of the church’s children, that
knowledge may be transmitted from generation to generation, and that
all may be enriched with it, from the least even to the greatest.
Secondly, It is a promise of the Spirit of illumination. Our
Saviour quotes it with application to gospel grace, and makes it to
have its accomplishment in all those that were brought to believe in
him
(John vi. 45):
It is written in the prophets, They shall be all taught of God,
whence he infers that those, and those only, come to him by faith that
have heard and learned of the Father, that are taught by him as the
truth is in Jesus,
Eph. iv. 21.
There shall be a plentiful effusion of the Spirit of grace upon
Christians, to teach them all things,
John xiv. 26.
[2.] When the members of it live in love and unity among themselves:
Great shall be the peace of thy children. Peace may be taken
here for all good. As where no knowledge of God is no good can be
expected, so those that are taught of God to know him are in a fair way
to prosper for both worlds. Great peace have those that know and
love God’s law,
Ps. cxix. 165.
But it is often put for love and unity; and so we may take it. All that
are taught of God are taught to love one another
and that will keep peace among the church’s children and prevent their
falling out by the way.
[3.] When holiness reigns; for that above any thing is the beauty of
the church
(v. 14):
In righteousness shall thou be established. The reformation of
manners, the restoration of purity, the due administration of public
justice, and the prevailing of honesty and fair dealing among men, are
the strength and stability of any church or state. The kingdom of God,
set up by the gospel of Christ, is not meat and drink, but this
righteousness and peace, holiness and love.
2. Whereas now she lay in danger, God promises that which would be her
protection and security.
(1.) God engages here that though, in the day of her distress, without
were fightings and within were fears, now she shall be safe from both.
[1.] There shall be no fears within
(v. 14):
“Thou shalt be far from oppression. Those that have oppressed
thee shall be removed, those that would oppress thee shall be
restrained, and therefore thou shalt not fear, but mayest look upon it
as a thing at a great distance, that thou art now in no danger of. Thou
shalt be far from terror, not only from evil, but from the fear of
evil, for it shall not come near thee so as to do thee any hurt or to
put thee in any fright.” Note, Those are far from terror that are far
from oppression; for it is as great a terror as can fall on a people to
have the rod of government turned into the serpent of oppression,
because against this there is no fence, nor is there any flight from
it.
[2.] There shall be no fightings without. Though attempts should be
made upon them to insult them, to invade their country, or besiege
their towns, they should all be in vain, and none of them succeed,
It is granted, “They shall surely gather together against thee;
thou must expect it.” The confederate force of hell and earth will be
renewing their assaults. As long as there is a devil in hell, and a
persecutor out of it, God’s people must expect frequent alarms; but,
First, God will not own them, will not give them either
commission or countenance; they gather together, hand joins in hand,
but it is not by me. God gave them no such order as he did to
Sennacherib, to take the spoil, and to take the prey,
ch. x. 6.
And therefore, Secondly, Their attempt will end in their own
ruin: “Whosoever shall gather together against thee, be they
ever so many and ever so mighty, they shall not only be baffled, but
they shall fall for thy sake, or they shall fall before thee,
which shall be the just punishment of their enmity to thee.” God will
make them to fall for the sake of the love he bears to his church and
the care he has of it, in answer to the prayers made by his people, and
in pursuance of the promises made to them. “They shall fall, that thou
mayest stand,”
(2.) That we may with the greatest assurance depend upon God for the
safety of his church, we have here,
[1.] The power of God over the church’s enemies asserted,
The truth is they have no power but what is given them from
above, and he that gave them their power can limit and restrain
them. Hitherto they shall go, and no further. First, They
cannot carry on their design without arms and weapons of war; and the
smith that makes those weapons is God’s creature, and he gave him his
skill to work in iron and brass
and particularly to make proper instruments for warlike purposes. It is
melancholy to think, as if men did not die fast enough of themselves,
how ingenious and industrious they are to make instruments of death and
to find out ways and means to kill one another. The smith blows the
coals in the fire, to make his iron malleable, to soften it first,
that it may be hardened into steel, and so he may bring forth an
instrument proper for the work of those that seek to destroy. It is
the iron age that is the age of war. But God has created the
smith, and therefore can tie his hands, so that the project of the
enemy shall miscarry (as many a project has done) for want of arms and
ammunition. Or the smith that forges the weapons is perhaps put here
for the council of war that forms the design, blows the coals of
contention, and brings forth the plan of the war; these can do no more
than God will let them. Secondly, They cannot carry it on
without men, they must have soldiers, and it is God that created the
waster to destroy. Military men value themselves upon their great
offices and splendid titles, and even the common soldiers call
themselves gentlemen; but God calls them wasters made to
destroy, for wasting and destruction are their business. They think
their own ingenuity, labour, and experience, made them soldiers; but it
was God that created them, and gave them strength and spirit for that
hazardous employment; and therefore he not only can restrain them, but
will serve his own purposes and designs by them.
[2.] The promise of God concerning the church’s safety solemnly laid
down, as the heritage of the servants of the Lord
(v. 17),
as that which they may depend upon and be confident of, that God will
protect them from their adversaries both in camps and courts.
First, From their field-adversaries, that think to destroy them
by force and violence, and dint of sword: “No weapon that is formed
against thee (though ever so artfully formed by the smith that
blows the coals,
though ever so skilfully managed by the waster that seeks to destroy)
shall prosper; it shall not prove strong enough to do any harm
to the people of God; it shall miss its mark, shall fall out of the
hand or perhaps recoil in the face of him that uses it against thee.”
It is the happiness of the church that no weapons formed against it
shall prosper long, and therefore the folly of its enemies will at
length be made manifest to all, for they are but preparing instruments
of ruin for themselves. Secondly, From their law-adversaries,
that think to run them down under colour of right and justice. When the
weapons of war do not prosper there are tongues that rise in judgment.
Both are included in the gates of hell, that seek to destroy the
church; for they had their courts of justice, as well as their
magazines and military stores, in their gates. The tongues that rise in
judgment against the church are as such as either demand a dominion
over it, as if God’s children were their lawful captives, pretending an
authority to oppress their consciences, or they are such as
misrepresent them, and falsely accuse them, and by slanders and
calumnies endeavour to make them odious to the people and obnoxious to
the government. This the enemies of the Jews did, to incense the kings
of Persia against them,
“But these insulting threatening tongues thou shalt condemn; thou shalt
have wherewith to answer their insolent demands, and to put to silence
their malicious reflections. Thou shalt do it by well-doing
by doing that which will make thee manifest in the consciences even of
thy adversaries, that thou art not what thou art represented to be.
Thou shalt condemn them, that is, God shall condemn them for
thee. He shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light,
Ps. xxxvii. 6.
Thou shalt condemn them as Noah condemned the old world that reproached
him, by building the ark, and so saving his house, in contempt of their
contempts.” The day is coming when God will reckon with the wicked men
for all their hard speeches which they have spoken against him,
The last words refer not only to this promise, but to all that go
before: This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord. God’s
servants are his sons, for he has provided an inheritance for them,
rich, sure, and indefeasible. God’s promises are their heritage for
ever
and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord. God will clear
up the righteousness of their cause before men. It is with him, for he
knows it; it is with him, for he will plead it. Or their reward for
their righteousness, and for all that which they have suffered
unrighteously, is of God, that God who judges in the earth, and with
whom verily there is a reward for the righteous. Or their
righteousness itself, all that in them which is good and right, is of
God, who works it in them; it is of Christ who is made righteousness to
them. In those for whom God designs a heritage hereafter he will work
righteousness now.
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