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Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
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Matthew Henry |
I S A I A H.
CHAP. LIX.
In this chapter we have sin appearing exceedingly sinful, and grace
appearing exceedingly gracious; and, as what is here said of the
sinner’s sin
is applied to the general corruption of mankind
(Rom. iii. 15),
so what is here said of a Redeemer
(ver. 20)
is applied to Christ,
I. It is here charged upon this people that they had themselves stopped
the current of God’s favours to them, and the particular sins are
specified which kept good things from them,
II. It is here charged upon them that they had themselves procured the
judgments of God upon them, and they are told both what the judgments
were which they had brought upon their own heads
and what the sins were which provoked God to send those judgments,
III. It is here promised that, notwithstanding this, God would work
deliverance for them, purely for his own name’s sake
(ver. 16-19),
and would reserve mercy in store for them and entail it upon them,
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1 Behold, the LORD‘s hand is not shortened, that it cannot
save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear:
2 But your iniquities have separated between you and your God,
and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not
hear.
3 For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with
iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue hath muttered
perverseness.
4 None calleth for justice, nor any pleadeth for truth: they
trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and
bring forth iniquity.
5 They hatch cockatrice’ eggs, and weave the spider’s web: he
that eateth of their eggs dieth, and that which is crushed
breaketh out into a viper.
6 Their webs shall not become garments, neither shall they
cover themselves with their works: their works are works of
iniquity, and the act of violence is in their hands.
7 Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent
blood: their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; wasting and
destruction are in their paths.
8 The way of peace they know not; and there is no judgment in
their goings: they have made them crooked paths: whosoever goeth
therein shall not know peace.
The prophet here rectifies the mistake of those who had been
quarrelling with God because they had not the deliverances wrought for
them which they had been often fasting and praying for,
Now here he shows,
I. That it was not owing to God. They had no reason to lay the fault
upon him that they were not saved out of the hands of their enemies;
for,
1. He was still as able to help as ever: His hand is not
shortened, his power is not at all lessened, straitened, or
abridged. Whether we consider the extent of his power or the efficacy
of it, God can reach as far as ever and with as strong a hand as ever.
Note, The church’s salvation comes from the hand of God, and that has
not waxed weak nor is it at all shortened. Has the Lord’s hand waxed
short? (says God to Moses,
No, it has not; he will not have it thought so. Neither length of time
nor strength of enemies, no, nor weakness of instruments, can shorten
or straiten the power of God, with which it is all one to save by many
or by few.
2. He was still as ready and willing to help as ever in answer to
prayer: His ear is not heavy, that it cannot hear. Though he has
many prayers to hear and answer, and though he has been long hearing
prayer, yet he is still as ready to hear prayer as ever. The prayer of
the upright is as much his delight as ever it was, and the promises
which are pleaded and put in suit in prayer are still yea and amen,
inviolably sure. More is implied than is expressed; not only his ear is
not heavy, but he is quick of hearing. Even before they call he
answers,
ch. lxv. 24.
If your prayers be not answered, and the salvation we wait for be not
wrought for us, it is not because God is weary of hearing prayer, but
because we are weary of praying, not because his ear is heavy when we
speak to him, but because our ears are heavy when he speaks to us.
II. That it was owing to themselves; they stood in their own light and
put a bar in their own door. God was coming towards them in ways of
mercy and they hindered him. Your iniquities have kept good things
from you,
Jer. v. 25.
1. See what mischief sin does.
(1.) It hinders God’s mercies from coming down upon us; it is a
partition wall that separates between us and God. Notwithstanding the
infinite distance that is between God and man by nature, there was a
correspondence settled between them, till sin set them at variance,
justly provoked God against man and unjustly alienated man from God;
thus it separates between them and God. “He is your God, yours
in profession, and therefore there is so much the more malignity and
mischievousness in sin, which separates between you and him.” Sin
hides his face from us (which denotes great displeasure,
it provokes him in anger to withdraw his gracious presence, to suspend
the tokens of his favour and the instances of his help; he hides his
face, as refusing to be seen or spoken with. See here sin in its
colours, sin exceedingly sinful, withdrawing the creature from his
allegiance to his Creator; and see sin in its consequences, sin
exceedingly hurtful, separating us from God, and so separating us not
only from all good, but to all evil
which is the very quintessence of the curse.
(2.) It hinders our prayers from coming up unto God; it provokes him to
hide his face, that he will not hear, as he has said,
If we regard iniquity in our heart, if we indulge it and allow
ourselves in it, God will not hear our prayers,
Ps. lxvi. 18.
We cannot expect that he should countenance us while we go on to
affront him.
2. Now, to justify God in hiding his face from them, and proceeding in
his controversy with them, the prophet shows very largely, in the
how many and great their iniquities were, according to the charge given
him
(ch. lviii. 1),
to show God’s people their transgressions; and it is a black
bill of indictment that is here drawn up against them, consisting of
many particulars, any one of which was enough to separate between them
and a just and a holy God. Let us endeavour to reduce these articles of
impeachment to proper heads.
(1.) We must begin with their thoughts, for there all sin begins, and
thence it takes its rise: Their thoughts are thoughts of
iniquity,
v. 7.
Their imaginations are so, only evil continually. Their projects and
designs are so; they are continually contriving some mischief or other,
and how to compass the gratification of some base lust
(v. 4):
They conceive mischief in their fancy, purpose, counsel, and
resolution (thus the embryo receives its shape and life), and then they
bring forth iniquity, put it in execution when it is ripened for
it. Though it is in pain perhaps that the iniquity is brought forth,
through the oppositions of Providences and the checks of their own
consciences, yet, when they have compassed their wicked purpose, they
look upon it with as much pride and pleasure as if it were a
man-child born into the world; thus, when lust has conceived,
it bringeth forth sin,
Jam. i. 15.
This is called
(v. 5)
hatching the cockatrice’ egg and weaving the spider’s web. See
how the thoughts and contrivances of wicked men are employed, and about
what they set their wits on work.
[1.] At the best it is about that which is foolish and frivolous. Their
thoughts are vain, like weaving the spider’s web, which the poor silly
animal takes a great deal of pains about, and, when all is done, it is
a weak insignificant thing, a reproach to the place where it is, and
which the besom sweeps away in an instant: such are the thoughts which
worldly men entertain themselves with, building castles in the air, and
pleasing themselves with imaginary satisfaction, like the
spider, which takes hold with her hands very finely
but cannot keep her hold.
[2.] Too often it is about that which is malicious and spiteful. They
hatch the eggs of the cockatrice or adder, which are poisonous and
produce venomous creatures; such are the thoughts of the wicked who
delight in doing mischief. He that eats of their eggs (that is,
he is in danger of having some mischief or other done him), and that
which is crushed in order to be eaten of, or which begins to be
hatched and you promise yourself some useful fowl from it, breaks
out into a viper, which you meddle with at your peril. Happy are
those that have least to do with such men. Even the spider’s web which
they wove was woven with a spiteful design to catch flies in and make a
prey of them; for, rather than not be doing mischief, they will play at
small game.
(2.) Out of this abundance of wickedness in the heart their mouth
speaks, and yet it does not always speak out the wickedness that is
within, but, for the more effectually compassing the mischievous
design, it is dissembled and covered with much fair speech
(v. 3):
Your lips have spoken lies; and again
(v. 4),
They speak lies, pretending kindness where they intend the
greatest mischief; or by slanders and false accusations they blasted
the credit and reputation of those they had a spite to and so did them
a real mischief unseen, and perhaps by suborning witnesses against them
took from them their estates and lives; for a false tongue is sharp
arrows, and coals of juniper, and every thing that is mischievous.
Your tongue has muttered perverseness. When they could not, for
shame, speak their malice against their neighbours aloud, or durst not,
for fear of being disproved and put to confusion, they muttered it
secretly. Backbiters are called whisperers.
(3.) Their actions were all of a piece with their thoughts and words.
They were guilty of shedding innocent blood, a crime of the most
heinous nature: Your hands are defiled with blood
(v. 3);
for blood is defiling; it leaves an indelible stain of guilt upon the
conscience, which nothing but the blood of Christ can cleanse it from.
Now was this a case of surprise, or one that occurred when there was
something of a force put upon them; but
(v. 7)
their feet ran to this evil, naturally and eagerly, and, hurried
on by the impetus of their malice and revenge, they made
haste to shed innocent blood, as if they were afraid of losing an
opportunity to do a barbarous thing,
Wasting and destruction are in their paths. Wherever they go
they carry mischief along with them, and the tendency of their way is
to lay waste and destroy, nor do they care what havoc they make. Nor do
they only thirst after blood, but with other iniquities are their
fingers defiled
(v. 3);
they wrong people in their estates and make every thing their own that
they can lay their hands on. They trust in vanity
(v. 4);
they depend upon their arts of cozenage to enrich themselves with,
which will prove vanity to them, and their deceiving others will but
deceive themselves. Their works, which they take so much pains
about and have their hearts so much upon, are all works of
iniquity; their whole business is one continued course of
oppressions and vexations, and the act of violence is in their
hands, according to the arts of violence that are in their heads
and the thoughts of violence in their hearts.
(4.) No methods are taken to redress these grievances, and reform these
abuses
(v. 4):
None calls for justice, none complains of the violation of the
sacred laws of justice, nor seeks to right those that suffer wrong or
to get the laws put in execution against vice and profaneness, and
those lewd practices which are the shame, and threaten to be the bane,
of the nation. Note, When justice is not done there is blame to be laid
not only upon the magistrates that should administer justice, but upon
the people that should call for it. Private persons ought to contribute
to the public good by discovering secret wickedness, and giving those
an opportunity to punish it that have the power of doing so in their
hands; but it is ill with a state when princes rule ill and the people
love to have it so. Truth is opposed, and there is not any that
pleads for it, not any that has the conscience and courage to
appear in defence of an honest cause, and confront a prosperous fraud
and wrong. The way of peace is as little regarded as the way of
truth; they know it not, that is, they never study the things
that make for peace, no care is taken to prevent or punish the breaches
of the peace and to accommodate matters in difference among neighbours;
they are utter strangers to every thing that looks quiet and peaceable,
and affect that which is blustering and turbulent. There is no
judgment in their goings; they have not any sense of justice in
their dealings; it is a thing they make no account of at all, but can
easily break through all its fences if they stand in the way of their
malicious covetous designs.
(5.) In all this they act foolishly, very foolishly, and as much
against their interest as against reason and equity. Those that
practise iniquity trust in vanity, which will certainly deceive
them,
v. 4.
Their webs, which they weave with so much art and industry,
shall not become garments, neither shall they cover themselves,
either for shelter or for ornament, with their works,
v. 6.
They may do hurt to others with their projects, but can never do any
real service or kindness to themselves by them. There is nothing to be
got by sin, and so it will appear when profit and loss come to be
compared. Those paths of iniquity are crooked paths
(v. 8),
which will perplex them, but will never bring them to their journey’s
end; whoever go therein, though they say that they shall have peace
notwithstanding they go on, deceive themselves; for they shall not know
peace, as appears by the following verses.
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9 Therefore is judgment far from us, neither doth justice
overtake us: we wait for light, but behold obscurity; for
brightness, but we walk in darkness.
10 We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we
had no eyes: we stumble at noonday as in the night; we are in
desolate places as dead men.
11 We roar all like bears, and mourn sore like doves: we look
for judgment, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far
off from us.
12 For our transgressions are multiplied before thee, and our
sins testify against us: for our transgressions are with us;
and as for our iniquities, we know them;
13 In transgressing and lying against the LORD, and departing
away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and
uttering from the heart words of falsehood.
14 And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth
afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot
enter.
15 Yea, truth faileth; and he that departeth from evil maketh
himself a prey: and the LORD saw it, and it displeased him that
there was no judgment.
The scope of this paragraph is the same with that of the last, to show
that sin is the great mischief-maker; as it is that which keeps good
things from us, so it is that which brings evil things upon us. But as
there it is spoken by the prophet, in God’s name, to the people,
for their conviction and humiliation, and that God might be justified
when he speaks and clear when he judges, so here it seems to be
spoken by the people to God, as an acknowledgment of that which was
there told them and an expression of their humble submission and
subscription to the justice and equity of God’s proceedings against
them. Their uncircumcised hearts here seem to be humbled in some
measure, and they are brought to confess (the confession is at least
extorted from them), that God had justly walked contrary to them,
because they had walked contrary to him.
I. They acknowledge that God had contended with them and had walked
contrary to them. Their case was very deplorable,
1. They were in distress, trampled upon and oppressed by their enemies,
unjustly dealt with, and ruled with rigour; and God did not appear for
them, to plead their just and injured cause: “Judgment is far from
us, neither does justice overtake us,
v. 9.
Though, as to our persecutors, we are sure that we have right on our
side; and they are the wrong-doers, yet we are not relieved, we are not
righted. We have not done justice to one another, and therefore God
suffers our enemies to deal thus unjustly with us, and we are as far as
ever from being restored to our right and recovering our property
again. Oppression is near us, and judgment is far from us. Our enemies
are far from giving our case its due consideration, but still hurry us
on with the violence of their oppressions, and justice does not
overtake us, to rescue us out of their hands.”
2. Herein their expectations were sadly disappointed, which made their
case the more sad: “We wait for light as those that wait for the
morning, but behold obscurity; we cannot discern the least
dawning of the day of our deliverance. We look for judgment, but
there is none
(v. 11);
neither God nor man appears for our succour; we look for salvation,
because God (we think) has promised it, and we have prayed for it with
fasting; we look for it as for brightness, but it is far off from us,
as far off as ever for aught we can perceive, and still we walk in
darkness; and the higher our expectations have been raised the
sorer is the disappointment.”
3. They were quite at a loss what to do to help themselves and were at
their wits’ end
(v. 10):
“We grope for the wall like the blind; we see no way open for
our relief, nor know which way to expect it, or what to do in order to
it.” If we shut our eyes against the light of divine truth, it is just
with God to hide from our eyes the things that belong to our peace;
and, if we use not our eyes as we should, it is just with him to let us
be as if we had no eyes. Those that will not see their duty shall not
see their interest. Those whom God has given up to a judicial
blindness are strangely infatuated; they stumble at noon-day as in the
night; they see not either those dangers, or those advantages, which
all about them see. Quos Deus vult perdere, eos dementat–God
infatuates those whom he means to destroy. Those that love darkness
rather than light shall have their doom accordingly.
4. They sunk into despair and were quite overwhelmed with grief, the
marks of which appeared in every man’s countenance; they grew
melancholy upon it, shunned conversation, and affected solitude: We
are in desolate places as dead men. The state of the Jews in
Babylon is represented by dead and dry bones
and the explanation of the comparison there
(v. 11)
explains this text: Our hope is lost; we are cut off for our
parts. In this despair the sorrow and anguish of some were loud and
noisy: We roar like bears; the sorrow of others was silent, and
preyed more upon their spirits: “We mourn sore like doves, like
doves of the valleys; we mourn both for our iniquities
and for our calamities.” Thus they owned that the hand of the Lord
had gone out against them.
II. They acknowledge that they had provoked God thus to contend with
them, that he had done right, for they had done wickedly,
1. They owned that they had sinned, and that to this day they were in
a great trespass, as Ezra speaks
(Ezra x. 10):
“Our transgressions are with us; the guilt of them is upon us,
the power of them prevails among us, we are not yet reformed, nor have
we parted with our sins, though they have done so much mischief. Nay,
our transgressions are multiplied; they are more numerous and
more heinous than they have been formerly. Look which way we will, we
cannot look off them; all places, all orders and degrees of men, are
infected. The sense of our transgression is with us, as David said,
My sin is ever before me; it is too plain to be denied or
concealed, too bad to be excused or palliated. God is a witness to
them: They are multiplied before thee, in thy sight, under thy
eye. We are witnesses against ourselves: As for our iniquities, we
know them, though we may have foolishly endeavoured to cover them.
Nay, they themselves are witnesses: Our sins stare us in the
face and testify against us, so many have they been and so
deeply aggravated.”
2. They owned the great evil and malignity of sin, of their sin; it is
transgressing and lying against the Lord,
v. 13.
The sins of those that profess themselves God’s people, and
bear his name, are upon this account worse than the sins of
others, that in transgressing they lie against the Lord, they
falsely accuse him, they misrepresent and belie him, as if he had dealt
hardly and unfairly with them; or they perfidiously break covenant with
him and falsify their most sacred and solemn engagements to him, which
is lying against him: it is departing away from our God, to whom
we are bound as our God and to whom we ought to cleave with purpose of
heart; from him we have departed, as the rebellious subject from his
allegiance to his rightful prince, and the adulterous wife from the
guide of her youth and the covenant of her God.
3. They owned that there was a general decay of moral honesty; and it
is not strange that those who were false to their God were unfaithful
to one another. They spoke oppression, declared openly for that,
though it was a revolt from their God and a revolt from the truth, by
the sacred bonds of which we should always be tied and held fast. They
conceived and uttered words of falsehood. Many ill thing is
conceived in the mind, yet is prudently stifled there, and not suffered
to go any further; but these sinners were so impudent, so daring, that
whatever wickedness they conceived, they gave it an imprimatur–a
sanction, and made no difficulty of publishing it. To think an ill
thing is bad, but to say it is much worse. Many a word of falsehood is
uttered in haste, for want of consideration; but these were conceived
and uttered, were uttered–deliberately and of malice prepense. They
were words of falsehood, and yet they are said to be uttered from
the heart, because, though they differed from the real sentiments
of the heart and therefore were words of falsehood, yet they agreed
with the malice and wickedness of the heart, and were the natural
language of that; it was a double heart,
Ps. xii. 2.
Those who by the grace of God kept themselves free from these enormous
crimes yet put themselves into the confession of sin, because members
of that nation which was generally thus corrupted.
4. They owned that that was not done which might have been done to
reform the land and to amend what was amiss,
“Judgment, that should go forward, and bear down the opposition
that is made to it, that should run in its course like a river, like a
mighty stream, is turned away backward, a contrary course. The
administration of justice has become but a cover to the greatest
injustice. Judgment, that should check the proceedings of fraud and
violence, is driven back, and so they go on triumphantly. Justice
stands afar off, even from our courts of judicature, which are so
crowded with the patrons of oppression that equity cannot enter,
cannot have admission into the court, cannot be heard, or at least will
not be heeded. Equity enters not into the unrighteous decrees which
they decree,
Truth is fallen in the street, and there she may lie to be
trampled upon by every foot of pride, and she has never a friend that
will lend a hand to help her up; yea, truth fails in common
conversation, and in dealings between man and man, so that one knows
not whom to believe nor whom to trust.”
5. They owned that there was a prevailing enmity in men’s minds to
those that were good: He that does evil goes unpunished, but
he that departs from evil makes himself a prey to those beasts
of prey that were before described. It is crime enough with them for a
man not to do as they do, and they treat him as an enemy who
will not partake with them in their wickedness. He that departs from
evil is accounted mad; so the margin reads. Sober singularity is
branded as folly, and he is thought next door to a madman who swims
against the stream that runs so strongly.
6. They owned that all this could not but be very displeasing to the
God of heaven. The evil was done in his sight. They knew very well,
though they were not willing to acknowledge it, that the Lord saw it;
though it was done secretly, and gilded over with specious pretences,
yet it could not be concealed from his all-seeing eye. All the
wickedness that is in the world is naked and open before the eyes of
God; and, as he is of quicker eyes than not to see iniquity, so he is
of purer eyes than to behold it with the least approbation or
allowance. He saw it, and it displeased him, though it was among
his own professing people that he saw it. It was evil in his eyes; he
saw the sinfulness of all this sin, and that which was most offensive
to him was that there was no judgment, no reformation; had he
seen any signs of repentance, though the sin displeased him, he would
soon have been reconciled to the sinners upon their returning from
their evil way. Then the sin of a nation becomes national, and
brings public judgments, when it is not restrained by public
justice.
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16 And he saw that there was no man, and wondered that there
was no intercessor: therefore his arm brought salvation unto
him; and his righteousness, it sustained him.
17 For he put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet
of salvation upon his head; and he put on the garments of
vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloak.
18 According to their deeds, accordingly he will repay, fury
to his adversaries, recompence to his enemies; to the islands he
will repay recompence.
19 So shall they fear the name of the LORD from the west, and
his glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy shall come
in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard
against him.
20 And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn
from transgression in Jacob, saith the LORD.
21 As for me, this is my covenant with them, saith the LORD;
My spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in
thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the
mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed’s seed, saith
the LORD, from henceforth and for ever.
How sin abounded we have read, to our great amazement, in the former
part of the chapter; how grace does much more abound we read in these
verses. And, as sin took occasion from the commandment to become more
exceedingly sinful, so grace took occasion from the transgression of
the commandment to appear more exceedingly gracious. Observe,
I. Why God wrought salvation for this provoking people, notwithstanding
their provocations. It was purely for his own name’s sake; because
there was nothing in them either to bring it about, or to induce him to
bring it about for them, no merit to deserve it, no might to effect it,
he would do it himself, would be exalted in his own strength, for his
own glory.
1. He took notice of their weakness and wickedness: He saw that
there was no man that would do any thing for the support of the
bleeding cause of religion and virtue among them, not a man that would
execute judgment
(Jer. v. 1),
that would bestir himself in a work of reformation; those that
complained of the badness of the times had not zeal and courage enough
to appear and act against it; there was a universal corruption of
manners, and nothing done to stem the tide; most were wicked, and those
that were not so were yet weak, and durst not attempt any thing in
opposition to the wickedness of the wicked. There was no
intercessor, either none to intercede with God, to stand in the gap
by prayer to turn away his wrath (it would have pleased him to be thus
met, and he wondered that he was not), or, rather, none to interpose
for the support of justice and truth, which were trampled upon and run
down
(v. 14),
no advocate to speak a good word for those who were made a prey of
because they kept their integrity,
They complained that God did not appear for them
(ch. lviii. 3);
but God with much more reason complains that they did nothing for
themselves, intimating how ready he would have been to do them good if
he had found among them the least motion towards a reformation.
2. He engaged his own strength and righteousness for them. They shall
be saved, notwithstanding all this; and,
(1.) Because they have no strength of their own, nor any active men
that will set to it in good earnest to redress the grievances either of
their iniquities or of their calamities, therefore his own arm shall
bring salvation to him, to his people, or to him whom he would
raise up to be the deliverer, Christ, the power of God and arm of the
Lord, that man of his right hand whom he made strong for himself. The
work of reformation (that is the first and principal article of the
salvation) shall be wrought by the immediate influences of the divine
grace on men’s consciences. Since magistrates and societies for
reformation fail of doing their part, one will not do justice nor the
other call for it, God will let them know that he can do it without
them when his time shall come thus to prepare his people for mercy, and
then the work of deliverance shall be wrought by the immediate
operations of the divine Providence on men’s affections and affairs.
When God stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, and brought his people out of
Babylon, not by might, nor by power, but by the Spirit of the Lord
of hosts, then his own arm, which is never shortened, brought
salvation.
(2.) Because they have no righteousness of their own to merit these
favours, and to which God might have an eye in working for them,
therefore his own righteousness sustained him and bore
him out in it. Divine justice, which by their sins they had armed
against them, through grace appears for them. Though they can expect no
favour as due to them, yet he will be just to himself, to his own
purpose and promise, and covenant with his people: he will, in
righteousness, punish the enemies of his people; see
Not for thy righteousness, but for the wickedness of these
nations they are driven out. In our redemption by Christ, since we
had no righteousness of our own to produce, on which God might proceed
in favour to us, he brought in a righteousness by the merit and
meditation of his own Son (it is called the righteousness which is
of God by faith,
Phil. iii. 9),
and this righteousness sustained him, and bore him out in all his
favours to us, notwithstanding our provocations. He put on
righteousness as a breast-plate, securing his own honour, as a
breast-plate does the vitals, in all his proceedings, by the justice
and equity of them; and then he put a helmet of salvation upon his
head; so sure is he to effect the salvation he intends that he
takes salvation itself for his helmet, which therefore must needs be
impenetrable, and in which he appears very illustrious, formidable in
the eyes of his enemies and amiable in the eyes of his friends. When
righteousness is his coat of arms, salvation is his crest. In allusion
to this, among the pieces of a Christian’s armour we find the
breast-plate of righteousness, and for a helmet the hope of
salvation
(Eph. vi. 14-17; 1 Thess. v. 8),
and it is called the armour of God, because he wore it first and
so fitted it for us.
(3.) Because they have no spirit or zeal to do any thing for
themselves, God will put on the garments of vengeance for clothing,
and clothe himself with zeal as a cloak; he will make his justice
upon the enemies of his church and people, and his jealousy for his own
glory and the honour of religion and virtue among men, to appear
evident and conspicuous in the eye of the world; and in these he will
show himself great, as a man shows himself in his rich attire or in the
distinguishing habit of his office. If men be not zealous against sin,
God will, and will take vengeance on it for all the injury it has done
to his honour and his people’s welfare; and this was the business of
Christ in the world, to take away sin and be revenged on it.
II. What the salvation is that shall be wrought out by the
righteousness and strength of God himself.
1. There shall be a present temporal salvation wrought out for the Jews
in Babylon, or elsewhere in distress and captivity. This is promised
as a type of something further. When God’s time shall come he will do
his own work, though those fail that should forward it. It is here
promised,
(1.) That God will reckon with his enemies and will render to them
according to their deeds, to the enemies of his people abroad, that
have oppressed them, to the enemies of justice and truth at home, that
have oppressed them, for they also are God’s enemies; and, when the day
of vengeance shall have come, he will deal with both as they have
deserved, according to retribution (so the word is), the law of
retributions
or according to former retributions; as he has rendered to his
enemies formerly, accordingly he will now repay, fury to his
adversaries, recompence to his enemies; his fury shall not exceed
the rules of justice, as men’s fury commonly does. Even to the
islands, that lie most remote, if they have appeared against him,
he will repay recompence; for his hand shall find out all his
enemies
(Ps. xxi. 8),
and his arrows reach them. Though God’s people have behaved so ill that
they do not deserve to be delivered, yet his enemies behave so much
worse that they do deserve to be destroyed.
(2.) That, whatever attempts the enemies of God’s people may afterwards
make upon them to disturb their peace, they shall be baffled and
brought to nought: When the enemy shall come in like a flood,
like a high spring-tide, or a land-flood, which threaten to bear down
all before them without control, then the Spirit of the Lord by
some secret undiscerned power shall lift up a standard against
him, and so (as the margin reads it) put him to flight. He
that has delivered will still deliver. When God’s people are weak and
helpless, and have no standard to lift up against the invading power,
God will give a banner to those that fear him
(Ps. lx. 4),
will by his Spirit lift up a standard, which will draw multitudes
together to appear on the church’s behalf. Some read it, He shall
come (the name of the Lord, and his glory, before foreseen of the
Messiah promised) like a straight river, the Spirit of the Lord
lifting him up for an ensign. Christ by the preaching of his gospel
shall cover the earth with the knowledge of God as with the waters of a
flood, the Spirit of the Lord setting up Christ as a
standard to the Gentiles,
ch. xi. 10.
(3.) That all this should redound to the glory of God and the
advancement of religion in the world
(v. 19):
So shall they fear the name of the Lord and his glory in all
nations that lie eastward or westward. The deliverance of the Jews out
of captivity, and the destruction brought on their oppressors, would
awaken multitudes to enquire concerning the God of Israel, and induce
them to serve and worship him and enlist themselves under the standard
which the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up. God’s appearances for his
church shall occasion the accession of many to it. This had its full
accomplishment in gospel times, when many came from the east and
west, to fill up the places of the children of the kingdom
that were cast out, when there were set up eastern and western
churches,
2. There shall be a more glorious salvation wrought out by the Messiah
in the fulness of time, which salvation all the prophets, upon all
occasions, had in view. We have here the two great promises relating to
that salvation:–
(1.) That the Son of God shall come to us to be our Redeemer
(v. 20):
Thy Redeemer shall come; it is applied to Christ,
There shall come the deliverer. The coming of Christ as the
Redeemer is the summary of all the promises both of the Old and New
Testament, and this was the redemption in Jerusalem which the believing
Jews looked for,
Christ is our Goël, our next kinsman, that redeems both the
person and the estate of the poor debtor. Observe,
[1.] The place where this Redeemer shall appear: He shall come to
Zion, for there, on that holy hill, the Lord would set him up as
his King,
In Zion the chief corner-stone was to be laid,
He came to his temple there,
There salvation was to be placed
(ch. xlvi. 13),
for thence the law was to go forth,
Zion was a type of the gospel church, for which the Redeemer acts in
all his appearances: The Redeemer shall come for the sake of
Zion; so the LXX. reads it.
[2.] The persons that shall have the comfort of the Redeemer’s coming,
that shall then lift up their heads, knowing that their redemption
draws nigh. He shall come to those that turn from the ungodliness in
Jacob, to those that are in Jacob, to the praying seed of Jacob, in
answer to their prayers; yet not to all that are in Jacob, that are
within the pale of the visible church, but to those only that turn from
transgression, that repent, and reform, and forsake those sins which
Christ came to redeem them from. The sinners in Zion will fare never
the better for the Redeemer’s coming to Zion if they go on still in
their trespasses.
(2.) That the Spirit of God shall come to us to be our sanctifier,
In the Redeemer there was a new covenant made with us a covenant of
promises; and this is the great and comprehensive promise of that
covenant, that God will give and continue his word and Spirit to his
church and people throughout all generations. God’s giving the
Spirit to those that ask him includes the giving of them all
good things,
Luke xi. 13; Matt. vii. 11.
This covenant is here said to be made with them, that is, with
those that turn from transgression; for those that cease to do evil
shall be taught to do well. But the promise is made to a single
person–My Spirit that is upon thee, being directed either,
[1.] To Christ as the head of the church, who received that he might
give. The Spirit promised to the church was first upon him, and from
his head that precious ointment descended to the skirts of his
garments; and the word of the gospel was first put into his mouth; for
it began to be spoken by the Lord. And all believers are his
seed, in whom he prolongs his days,
Or,
[2.] To the church; and so it is a promise of the continuance and
perpetuity of the church in the world to the end of time, parallel to
those promises that the throne and seed of Christ shall endure for
ever,
Observe, First, How the church shall be kept up, in a
succession, as the world of mankind is kept up, by the seed and the
seed’s seed. As one generation passes away another generation shall
come. Instead of the fathers shall be the children. Secondly,
How long it shall be kept up–henceforth and for ever, always,
even unto the end of the world; for, the world being left to
stand for the sake of the church, we may be sure that as long as it
does stand Christ will have a church in it, though no always visible.
Thirdly, By what means it shall be kept up; by the constant
residence of the word and Spirit in it.
1. The Spirit that was upon Christ shall always continue in the hearts
of the faithful; there shall be some in every age on whom he shall
work, and in whom he shall dwell, and thus the Comforter shall abide
with the church for ever,
2. The word of Christ shall always continue in the mouths of the
faithful; there shall be some in every age who, believing with the
heart unto righteousness, shall with the tongue make confession
unto salvation. The word shall never depart out of the mouth of the
church; for there shall still be a seed to speak Christ’s holy language
and profess his holy religion. Observe, The Spirit and the word go
together, and by them the church is kept up. For the word in the
mouths of our ministers, nay, the word in our own mouths, will not
profit us, unless the Spirit work with the word, and give us an
understanding. But the Spirit does his work by the word and in
concurrence with it; and whatever is pretended to be a dictate of the
Spirit must be tried by the scriptures. On these foundations the church
is built, stands firmly, and shall stand for ever, Christ himself being
the chief corner-stone.
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