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Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
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Matthew Henry |
I S A I A H.
CHAP. LV.
As we had much of Christ in the
and much of the church of Christ in the
so in this chapter we have much of the covenant of grace made with us
in Christ. The “sure mercies of David,” which are promised here
(ver. 3),
are applied by the apostle to the benefits which flow to us from the
resurrection of Christ
which may serve as a key to this chapter; not but that it was intended
for the comfort of the people of God that lived then, especially of the
captives in Babylon, and others of the dispersed of Israel; but unto us
was this gospel preached as well as unto them, and much more clearly
and fully in the New Testament. Here is,
I. A free and gracious invitation to all to come and take the benefit
of gospel grace,
II. Pressing arguments to enforce this invitation,
III. A promise of the success of this invitation among the Gentiles,
IV. An exhortation to repentance and reformation, with great
encouragement given to hope for pardon thereupon,
V. The ratification of all this, with the certain efficacy of the word
of God,
And a particular instance of the accomplishment of it in the return of
the Jews out of their captivity, which was intended for a sign of the
accomplishment of all these other promises.
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1 Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he
that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine
and milk without money and without price.
2 Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread?
and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken
diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your
soul delight itself in fatness.
3 Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall
live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even
the sure mercies of David.
4 Behold, I have given him for a witness to the people, a
leader and commander to the people.
5 Behold, thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest not, and
nations that knew not thee shall run unto thee because of the
LORD thy God, and for the Holy One of Israel; for he hath
glorified thee.
Here,
I. We are all invited to come and take the benefit of that provision
which the grace of God has made for poor souls in the new covenant, of
that which is the heritage of the servants of the Lord
(ch. liv. 17),
and not only their heritage hereafter, but their cup now,
v. 1.
Observe,
1. Who are invited: Ho, every one. Not the Jews only, to whom
first the word of salvation was sent, but the Gentiles, the poor and
the maimed, the halt and the blind, are called to this marriage supper,
whoever can be picked up out of the highways and the hedges. It
intimates that in Christ there is enough for all and enough for each,
that ministers are to make a general offer of life and salvation to
all, that in gospel times the invitation should be more largely made
than it had been and should be sent to the Gentiles, and that the
gospel covenant excludes none that do not exclude themselves. The
invitation is published with an Oyez-Ho, take notice of it.
He that has ears to hear let him hear.
2. What is the qualification required in those that shall be
welcome–they must thirst. All shall be welcome to gospel grace upon
those terms only that gospel grace be welcome to them. Those that are
satisfied with the world and its enjoyments for a portion, and seek not
for a happiness in the favour of God,–those that depend upon the merit
of their own works for a righteousness, and see no need they have of
Christ and his righteousness,–these do not thirst; they have no sense
of their need, are in no pain or uneasiness about their souls, and
therefore will not condescend so far as to be beholden to Christ. But
those that thirst are invited to the waters, as those that labour, and
are heavy-laden, are invited to Christ for rest. Note, Where God gives
grace he first gives a thirsting after it; and, where he has given a
thirsting after it, he will give it,
3. Whither they are invited: Come you to the waters. Come to the
water-side, to the ports, and quays, and wharfs, on the navigable
rivers, into which goods are imported; thither come and buy, for that
is the market-place of foreign commodities; and to us they would have
been for ever foreign if Christ had not brought in an everlasting
righteousness. Come to Christ; for he is the fountain opened; he is the
rock smitten. Come to holy ordinances, to those streams that make glad
the city of our God; come to them, and though they may seem to you
plain and common things, like waters, yet to those who believe in
Christ the things signified will be as wine and mile, abundantly
refreshing. Come to the healing waters; come to the living waters.
Whoever will, let him come, and partake of the waters of life,
Rev. xxii. 17.
Our Saviour referred to it,
If any man thirst, let him come to me and drink.
4. What they are invited to do.
(1.) Come, and buy. Never did any tradesman court customers that
he hoped to get by as Christ courts us to that which we only are to be
gainers by. “Come and buy, and we can assure you you shall have a good
bargain, which you will never repent of nor lose by. Come and buy; make
it your own by an application of the grace of the gospel to yourselves;
make it your own upon Christ’s terms, nay, your own upon any terms, nor
deliberating whether you shall agree to them.”
(2.) “Come, and eat; make it still more your own, as that which
we eat is more our own than that which we only buy.” We must buy the
truth, not that we may lay it by to be looked at, but that we may feed
and feast upon it, and that the spiritual life may be nourished and
strengthened by it. We must buy necessary provisions for our souls, be
willing to part with any thing, though ever so dear to us, so that we
may but have Christ and his graces and comforts. We must part with sin,
because it is an opposition to Christ, part with all opinion of our own
righteousness, as standing in competition with Christ, and part with
life itself, and its most necessary supports, rather than quit our
interest in Christ. And, when we have bought what we need, let us not
deny ourselves the comfortable use of it, but enjoy it, and eat the
labour of our hands: Buy, and eat.
5. What is the provision they are invited to: “Come, and buy wine
and milk, which will not only quench the thirst” (fair water would
do that), “but nourish the body, and revive the spirits.” The world
comes short of our expectations. We promise ourselves, at least, water
in it, but we are disappointed of that, as the troops of Tema,
Job vi. 19.
But Christ outdoes our expectations. We come to the waters, and would
be glad of them, but we find there wine and milk, which were the staple
commodities of the tribe of Judah, and which the Shiloh of that tribe
is furnished with to entertain the gathering of the people to
him,
Gen. xlix. 10, 12.
His eyes shall be red with wine and his teeth white with milk.
We must come to Christ, to have milk for babes, to nourish and cherish
those that are but lately born again; and with him strong men shall
find that which will be a cordial to them: they shall have wine to make
glad their hearts. We must part with our puddle-water, nay, with our
poison, that we may procure this wine and milk.
6. The free communication of this provision: Buy it without money,
and without price. A strange way of buying, not only without ready
money (that is common enough), but without any money, or the promise of
any; yet it seems not so strange to those who have observed Christ’s
counsel to Laodicea, that was wretchedly poor, to come and buy,
Rev. iii. 17, 18.
Our buying without money intimates,
(1.) That the gifts offered us are invaluable and such as no price can
be set upon. Wisdom is that which cannot be gotten for gold.
(2.) That he who offers them has no need of us, nor of any returns we
can make him. He makes us these proposals, not because he has occasion
to sell, but because he has a disposition to give.
(3.) That the things offered are already bought and paid for. Christ
purchased them at the full value, with price, not with money, but with
his own blood,
1 Pet. i. 19.
(4.) That we shall be welcome to the benefits of the promise, though we
are utterly unworthy of them, and cannot make a tender of any thing
that looks like a valuable consideration. We ourselves are not of any
value, nor is any thing we have or can do, and we must own it, that, if
Christ and heaven be ours, we may see ourselves for ever indebted to
free grace.
II. We are earnestly pressed and persuaded (and O that we would be
prevailed with!) to accept this invitation, and make this good bargain
for ourselves.
1. That which we are persuaded to is to hearken to God and to his
proposals: “Hearken diligently unto me,
v. 2.
Not only give me the hearing, but approve of what I say, and apply it
to yourselves
(v. 3):
Incline your ear, as you do to that which you find yourselves
concerned in and pleased with; bow the ear, and let the proud heart
stoop to the humbling methods of the gospel; bend the ear this way,
that you may hear with attention and remark; hear, and come unto
me; not only come and treat with me, but comply with me, come up to
my terms;” accept God’s offers as very advantageous; answer his demands
as very fit and reasonable.
2. The arguments used to persuade us to this are taken,
(1.) From the unspeakable wrong we do to ourselves if we neglect and
refuse this invitation: “Wherefore do you spend money for that which
is not bread, which will not yield you, no, not beggar’s food, dry
bread, when with me you may have wine and milk without money?
Wherefore do you spend your labour and toil for that
which will not be so much as dry bread to you, for it satisfies
not?” See here,
[1.] The vanity of the things of this world. They are not bread, not
proper food for a soul; they afford no suitable nourishment or
refreshment. Bread is the staff of the natural life, but it affords no
support at all to the spiritual life. All the wealth and pleasure in
the world will not make one meal’s meat for a soul. Eternal truth and
eternal good are the only food for a rational and immortal soul, the
life of which consists in reconciliation and conformity to God, and in
union and communion with him, which the things of the world will not at
all befriend. They satisfy not; they yield not any solid comfort
and content to the soul, nor enable it to say, “Now I have what I would
have.” Nay, they do not satisfy even the appetites of the body. The
more men have the more they would have,
Haman was unsatisfied in the midst of his abundance. They flatter, but
they do not fill; they please for a while, like the dream of a hungry
man, who awakes and his soul is empty. They soon surfeit, but they
never satisfy; they cloy a man, but do not content him, or make him
truly easy. It is all vanity and vexation.
[2.] The folly of the children of this world. They spend their money
and labour for these uncertain unsatisfying things. Rich people live by
their money, poor people by their labour; but both mistake their truest
interest, while the one is trading, the other toiling, for the world,
both promising themselves satisfaction and happiness in it, but both
miserably disappointed. God vouchsafes compassionately to reason with
them: “Wherefore do you thus act against your own interest? Why do you
suffer yourselves to be thus imposed upon?” Let us reason with
ourselves, and let the result of these reasonings be a holy resolution
not to labour for the meat that perishes, but for that which endures
to everlasting life,
John vi. 27.
Let all the disappointments we meet with in the world help to drive us
to Christ, and lead us to seek for satisfaction in him only. This is
the way to make sure which will be made sure.
(2.) From the unspeakable kindness we do to ourselves if we accept this
invitation and comply with it.
[1.] hereby we secure to ourselves present pleasure and satisfaction:
“If you hearken to Christ, you eat that which is good, which is
both wholesome and pleasant, good in itself and good for you.” God’s
good word and promise, a good conscience, and the comforts of God’s
good Spirit, are a continual feast to those that hearken diligently and
obediently to Christ. Their souls shall delight themselves in
fatness, that is, in the riches and most grateful delights. Here
the invitation is not, “Come, and buy,” lest that should
discourage, but, “Come, and eat; come and entertain yourselves
with that which will be abundantly pleasing; eat, O friends!” It is sad
to think that men should need to be courted thus to their own bliss.
[2.] Hereby we secure to ourselves lasting happiness: “Hear, and
your soul shall live; you shall not only be saved from perishing
eternally, but you shall be eternally blessed:” for less than that
cannot be the life of an immortal soul. The words of Christ are spirit
and life, life to spirits
the words of this life,
On what easy terms is happiness offered to us! It is but “Hear, and you
shall live.”
[3.] The great God graciously secures all this to us: “Come to me,
and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, will put
myself into covenant-relations and under covenant-engagements to you,
and thereby settle upon you the sure mercies of David.” Note,
First, If we come to God to serve him, he will covenant with us
to do us good and make us happy; such are his condescension to us and
concern for us. Secondly, God’s covenant with us is an
everlasting covenant–its contrivance from everlasting, its continuance
to everlasting. Thirdly, The benefits of this covenant are
mercies suited to our case, who, being miserable, are the proper
objects of mercy. They come from God’s mercy, and are ordered every way
in kindness to us. Fourthly, They are the mercies of David, such
mercies as God promised to David
&c.), which are called the mercies of David his servant, and are
appealed to by Solomon,
It shall be a covenant as sure as that with David,
The covenant of royalty was a figure of the covenant of grace,
Or, rather, by David here we are to understand the Messiah.
Covenant-mercies are all his mercies; they are purchased by him;
they are promised in him; they are treasured up in his hand, and out of
his hand they are dispensed to us. He is the Mediator and trustee of
the covenant; to him this is applied,
They are the ta hosia (the word used there, and by the
Septuagint here)–the holy things of David, for they are
confirmed by the holiness of God
and are intended to advance holiness among men. Fifthly, They
are sure mercies. The covenant, being well-ordered in all things, is
sure. It is sure in the general proposal of it; God is real and
sincere, serious and in earnest, in the offer of these mercies. It is
sure in the particular application of it to believers; God’s gifts and
callings are without repentance. They are the mercies of David, and
therefore sure, for in Christ the promises are all yea and amen.
III. Jesus Christ is promised for the making good of all the other
promises which we are here invited to accept of,
v. 4.
He is that David whose sure mercies all the blessings and benefits of
the covenant are. “And God has given him in his purpose and
promise, has constituted and appointed him, and in the fulness of time
will as surely send him as if he had already come, to be all that to us
which is necessary to our having the benefit of these preparations.” He
has given him freely; for what more free than a gift? There was nothing
in us to merit such a favour, but Christ is the gift of God. We want
one,
1. To attest the truth of the promises which we are invited to take the
benefit of; and Christ is given for a witness that God is
willing to receive us into his favour upon gospel terms, to confirm the
promises made unto the fathers, that we may venture our souls upon
those promises with entire satisfaction. Christ is a faithful witness,
we may take his word–a competent witness, for he lay in the bosom of
the Father from eternity, and was perfectly apprised of the whole
matter. Christ, as a prophet, testifies the will of God to the world;
and to believe is to receive his testimony.
2. To assist us in closing with the invitation, and coming up to the
terms of it. We know not how to find the way to the waters where we are
to be supplied, but Christ is given to be a leader. We know not
what to do that we may be qualified or it, and become sharers in it,
but he is given for a commander, to show us what to do and
enable us to do it. Much difficulty and opposition lie in our way to
Christ; we have spiritual enemies to grapple with, but, to animate us
for the conflict, we have a good captain, like Joshua, a leader and
commander to tread our enemies under our feet and to put us in
possession of the land of promise. Christ is a commander by his
precept and a leader by his example; our business is to obey him and
follow him.
IV. The Master of the feast being fixed, it is next to be furnished
with guests, for the provision shall not be lost, nor made in vain,
v. 5.
1. The Gentiles shall be called to this feast, shall be invited out of
the highways and the hedges: “Thou shalt call a nation that thou
knowest not, that is, that was not formerly called and owned as thy
nation, that thou didst not send prophets to as to Israel, the people
whom God knew above all the families of the earth.” The Gentiles shall
now be favoured as they never were before; their knowing God is said to
be rather their being known of God,
Gal. iv. 9.
2. They shall come at the call: Nations that knew not thee shall run
unto thee; those that had long been afar off from Christ shall be
made nigh; those that had been running from him shall run to him, with
the greatest speed and alacrity imaginable. There shall be a concourse
of believing Gentiles to Christ, who, being lifted up from the earth,
will draw all men to him. Now see the reason,
(1.) Why the Gentiles will thus flock to Christ; it is because of
the Lord his God, because he is the Son of God, and is declared to
be so with power, because they now see his God is one with whom they
have to do, and there is no coming to him as their God but by making an
interest in his Son. Those that are brought to be acquainted with God,
and understand how the concern lies between them and him, cannot but
run to Jesus Christ, who is the only Mediator between God and Man, and
there is no coming to God but by him.
(2.) Why God will bring them to him; it is because he is the Holy One
of Israel, true to his promises, and he has promised to glorify him by
giving him the heathen for his inheritance. When Greeks began to
enquire after Christ he said, The hour has come that the Son of man
should be glorified,
John xii. 22, 23.
And his being glorified in his resurrection and ascension was the great
argument by which multitudes were wrought upon to run to him.
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6 Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him
while he is near:
7 Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his
thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have
mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your
ways my ways, saith the LORD.
9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my
ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
10 For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and
returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it
bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and
bread to the eater:
11 So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it
shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which
I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.
12 For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace:
the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into
singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
13 Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead
of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree: and it shall be to
the LORD for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be
cut off.
We have here a further account of that covenant of grace which is made
with us in Jesus Christ, both what is required and what is promised in
the covenant, and of those considerations that are sufficient
abundantly to confirm our believing compliance with and reliance on
that covenant. This gracious discovery of God’s good-will to the
children of men is not to be confined either to the Jew or to the
Gentile, to the Old Testament or to the New, much less to the captives
in Babylon. No, both the precepts and the promises are here given to
all, to every one that thirsts after happiness,
v. 1.
And who does not? Hear this, and live.
I. Here is a gracious offer made of pardon, and peace, and all
happiness, to poor sinners, upon gospel terms,
1. Let them pray, and their prayers shall be heard and answered
(v. 6):
“Seek the Lord while he may be found. Seek him whom you have
left by revolting from your allegiance to him and whom you have lost by
provoking him to withdraw his favour from you. Call upon him now
while he is near, and within call.” Observe here,
(1.) The duties required.
[1.] “Seek the Lord. Seek to him, and enquire of him, as your oracle.
Ask the law at his mouth. What wilt thou have me to do? Seek for
him, and enquire after him, as your portion and happiness; seek to be
reconciled to him and acquainted with him, and to be happy in his
favour. Be sorry that you have lost him; be solicitous to find him;
take the appointed method of finding him, making use of Christ as your
way, the Spirit as your guide, and the word as your rule.”
[2.] “Call upon him. Pray to him, to be reconciled, and, being
reconciled, pray to him for every thing else you have need of.”
(2.) The motives made use of to press these duties upon us: While he
may be found–while he is near.
[1.] It is implied that now God is near and will be found, so that it
shall not be in vain to seek him and to call upon him. Now his patience
is waiting on us, his word is calling to us, and his Spirit striving
with us. Let us now improve our advantages and opportunities; for now
is the accepted time. But,
[2.] There is a day coming when he will be afar off, and will not be
found, when the day of his patience is over, and his Spirit will strive
no more. There may come such a time in this life, when the heart is
incurably hardened; it is certain that at death and judgment the door
will be shut,
Luke xvi. 26; xiii. 25, 26.
Mercy is now offered, but then judgment without mercy will take
place.
2. Let them repent and reform, and their sins shall be pardoned,
v. 7.
Here is a call to the unconverted, to the wicked and the
unrighteous–to the wicked, who live in known gross sins, to the
unrighteous, who live in the neglect of plain duties: to them is the
word of this salvation sent, and all possible assurance given that
penitent sinners shall find God a pardoning God. Observe here,
(1.) What it is to repent. There are two things involved in
repentance:–
[1.] It is to turn from sin; it is to forsake it. It is to leave it,
and to leave it with loathing and abhorrence, never to return to it
again. The wicked must forsake his way, his evil way, as we
would forsake a false way that will never bring us to the happiness we
aim at, and a dangerous way, that leads to destruction. Let him not
take one step more in that way. Nay, there must be not only a change of
the way, but a change of the mind; the unrighteous must forsake his
thoughts. Repentance, if it be true, strikes at the root, and
washes the heart from wickedness. We must alter our judgments
concerning persons and things, dislodge the corrupt imaginations and
quit the vain pretences under which an unsanctified heart shelters
itself. Note, It is not enough to break off from evil practices, but we
must enter a caveat against evil thoughts. Yet this is not all:
[2.] To repent is to return to the Lord; to return to him as our
God, our sovereign Lord, against whom we have rebelled, and to whom we
are concerned to reconcile ourselves; it is to return to the Lord as
the fountain of life and living waters, which we had forsaken for
broken cisterns.
(2.) What encouragement we have thus to repent. If we do so,
[1.] God will have mercy. He will not deal with us as our sins
have deserved, but will have compassion on us. Misery is the object of
mercy. Now both the consequences of sin, by which we have become truly
miserable
and the nature of repentance, by which we are made sensible of our
misery and are brought to bemoan ourselves
both these make us objects of pity, and with God there are tender
mercies.
[2.] He will abundantly pardon. He will multiply to pardon (so
the word is), as we have multiplied to offend. Though our sins have
been very great and very many, and though we have often backslidden and
are still prone to offend, yet God will repeat his pardon, and welcome
even backsliding children that return to him in sincerity.
II. Here are encouragements given us to accept this offer and to
venture our souls upon it. For, look which way we will, we find enough
to confirm us in our belief of its validity and value.
1. If we look up to heaven, we find God’s counsels there high and
transcendent, his thoughts and ways infinitely above ours,
The wicked are urged to forsake their evil ways and thoughts
(v. 7)
and to return to God, that is, to bring their ways and thoughts to
concur and comply with his; “for” (says he) “my thoughts and ways are
not as yours. Yours are conversant only about things beneath; they are
of the earth earthy: but mine are above, as the heaven is high above
the earth; and, if you would approve yourselves true penitents,
yours must be so too, and your affections must be set on things above.”
Or, rather, it is to be understood as an encouragement to us to depend
upon God’s promise to pardon sin, upon repentance. Sinners may be ready
to fear that God will not be reconciled to them, because they could not
find in their hearts to be reconciled to one who should have so basely
and so frequently offended them. “But” (says God) “my thoughts in this
matter are not as yours, but as far above them as the heaven is above
the earth.” They are so in other things. Men’s sentiments concerning
sin, and Christ, and holiness, concerning this world and the other, are
vastly different from God’s; but in nothing more than in the matter of
reconciliation. We think God apt to take offence and backward to
forgive–that, if he forgives once, he will not forgive a second time.
Peter thought it a great deal to forgive seven times
and a hundred pence go far with us; but God meets returning sinners
with pardoning mercy; he forgives freely, and as he gives: it is
without upbraiding. We forgive and cannot forget; but, when God
forgives sin, he remembers it no more. Thus God invites sinners to
return to him, by possessing them with good thoughts of him, as
2. If we look down to this earth, we find God’s word there powerful and
effectual, and answering all its great intentions,
Observe here,
(1.) The efficacy of God’s word in the kingdom of nature. He saith to
the snow, Be thou on the earth; he appoints when it shall come, to what
degree, and how long it shall lie there; he saith so to the small
rain and the great rain of his strength,
Job xxxvii. 6.
And according to his order they come down from heaven, and do
whatsoever he commands them upon the face of the world, whether it
be for correction, or for his land, or for mercy,
v. 12, 13.
It returns not re infectâ–without having accomplished its
end, but waters the earth, which he is therefore said to do from
his chambers,
Ps. civ. 13.
And the watering of the earth is in order to its fruitfulness. Thus he
makes it to bring forth and bud, for the products of the earth
depend upon the dews of heaven; and thus it gives not only bread to
the eater, present maintenance to the owner and his family, but
seed likewise to the sower, that he may have food for
another year. The husbandman must be a sower as well as an eater, else
he will soon see the end of what he has.
(2.) The efficacy of his word in the kingdom of providence and grace,
which is as certain as the former: “So shall my word be, as
powerful in the mouth of prophets as it is in the hand of providence;
it shall not return unto me void, as unable to effect what it
was sent for, or meeting with an insuperable opposition; no, it
shall accomplish that which I please” (for it is the declaration of
his will, according to the counsel of which he works all things)
“and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.” This
assures us,
[1.] That the promises of God shall all have their full accomplishment
in due time, and not one iota or tittle of them shall fail,
These promises of mercy and grace shall have as real an effect upon the
souls of believers, for their sanctification and comfort, as ever the
rain had upon the earth, to make it fruitful.
[2.] That according to the different errands on which the word is sent
it will have its different effects. If it be not a savour of life unto
life, it will be a savour of death unto death; if it do not convince
the conscience and soften the heart, it will sear the conscience and
harden the heart; if it do not ripen for heaven, it will ripen for
hell. See
One way or other, it will take effect.
[3.] That Christ’s coming into the world, as the dew from heaven
(Hos. xiv. 5),
will not be in vain. For, if Israel be not gathered, he will be
glorious in the conversion of the Gentiles; to them therefore the
tenders of grace must be made when the Jews refuse them, that the
wedding may be furnished with guests and the gospel not return
void.
3. If we take a special view of the church, we shall find what great
things God has done, and will do, for it
(v. 12, 13):
You shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace. This
refers,
(1.) To the deliverance and return of the Jews out of Babylon. They
shall go out of their captivity, and be led forth towards their own
land again. God will go before them as surely, though not as sensibly,
as before their fathers in the pillar of cloud and fire. They shall go
out, not with trembling, but with triumph, not with any regret to part
with Babylon, or any fear of being fetched back, but with joy
and peace. Their journey home over the mountains shall be
pleasant, and they shall have the good-will and good wishes of all the
countries they pass through. The hills and their inhabitants
shall, as in a transport of joy, break forth into
singing; and, if the people should altogether hold their peace,
even the trees of the field would attend them with their
applauses and acclamations. And, when they come to their own land, it
shall be ready to bid them welcome; for, whereas they expected to find
it all overgrown with briers and thorns, it shall be set with
fir-trees and myrtle-trees: for, though it lay desolate, yet it
enjoyed its sabbaths
which, when they were over, like the land after the sabbatical year, it
was the better for. And this shall redound much to the honour of God
and be to him for a name. But,
(2.) Without doubt it looks further. This shall be for an
everlasting sign, that it,
[1.] The redemption of the Jews out of Babylon shall be a ratification
of those promises that relate to gospel times. The accomplishment of
the predictions relating to that great deliverance would be a pledge
and earnest of the performance of all the other promises; for thereby
it shall appear that he is faithful who has promised.
[2.] It shall be a representation of the blessings promised and a type
and figure of them. First, Gospel grace will set those at
liberty that were in bondage to sin and Satan. They shall go out and
be led forth. Christ shall make them free, and then they shall be
free indeed. Secondly, It will fill those with joy that were
melancholy.
Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad. The earth and the
inferior part of the creation shall share in the joy of this salvation,
Thirdly, It will make a great change in men’s characters. Those
that were as thorns and briers, good for nothing but the fire, nay,
hurtful and vexatious, shall become graceful and useful as the fir-tree
and the myrtle-tree. Thorns and briers came in with sin and were the
fruits of the curse,
The raising of pleasant trees in the room of them signifies the removal
of the curse of the law and the introduction of gospel blessings. The
church’s enemies were as thorns and briers; but, instead of them, God
will raise up friends to be her protection and ornament. Or it may
denote the world’s growing better; instead of a generation of thorns
and briers, there shall come up a generation of fir-trees and myrtles;
the children shall be wiser and better than the parents. And,
fourthly, in all this God shall be glorified. It shall be to
him for a name, by which he will be made known and praised, and by it
the people of God shall be encouraged. It shall be for an everlasting
sign of God’s favour to them, assuring them that, though it may for a
time be clouded, it shall never be cut off. The covenant of
grace is an everlasting covenant; for the present blessings of it are
signs of everlasting ones.
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