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Matthew Henry |
I S A I A H.
CHAP. LXIV.
This chapter goes on with that pathetic pleading prayer which the
church offered up to God in the latter part of the foregoing chapter.
They had argued from their covenant-relation to God and his interest
and concern in them; now here,
I. They pray that God would appear in some remarkable and surprising
manner for them against his and their enemies,
II. They plead what God had formerly done, and was always ready to do,
for his people,
III. They confess themselves to be sinful and unworthy of God’s favour,
and that they had deserved the judgments they were now under,
IV. They refer themselves to the mercy of God as a Father, and submit
themselves to his sovereignty,
V. They represent the very deplorable condition they were in, and
earnestly pray for the pardon of sin and the turning away of God’s
anger,
And this was not only intended for the use of the captive Jews, but may
serve for direction to the church in other times of distress, what to
ask of God and how to plead with him. Are God’s people at any time in
affliction, in great affliction? Let them pray, let them thus pray.
| Prayer for the Divine Presence; Blessings Prepared for the Saints. | B. C. 706. |
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1 Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest
come down, that the mountains might flow down at thy presence,
2 As when the melting fire burneth, the fire causeth the
waters to boil, to make thy name known to thine adversaries,
that the nations may tremble at thy presence!
3 When thou didst terrible things which we looked not for,
thou camest down, the mountains flowed down at thy presence.
4 For since the beginning of the world men have not heard,
nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God,
beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for
him.
5 Thou meetest him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness,
those that remember thee in thy ways: behold, thou art wroth;
for we have sinned: in those is continuance, and we shall be
saved.
Here,
I. The petition is that God would appear wonderfully for them now,
Their case was represented in the close of the foregoing chapter as
very sad and very hard, and in this case it was time to cry, “Help,
Lord; O that God would manifest his zeal and his strength!” They had
prayed
that God would look down from heaven; here they pray that he
would come down to deliver them, as he had said,
1. They desire that God would in his providence manifest himself both
to them and for them. When God works some extraordinary deliverance for
his people he is said to shine forth, to show himself strong;
so, here, they pray that he would rend the heavens and come
down, as when he delivered David he is said to bow the heavens,
and come down
(Ps. xviii. 9),
to display his power, and justice, and goodness, in an extraordinary
manner, so that all may take notice of them and acknowledge them. This
God’s people desire and pray for, that they themselves having the
satisfaction of seeing him though his way be in the sea, others may be
made to see him when his way is in the clouds. This is applicable to
the second coming of Christ, when the Lord himself shall descend
from heaven with a shout. Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly.
2. They desire that he would vanquish all opposition and that it might
be made to give way before him: That the mountains might flow down
at thy presence, that the fire of thy wrath may burn so fiercely
against thy enemies as even to dissolve the rockiest mountains and melt
them down before it, as metal in the furnace, which is made liquid and
cast into what shape the operator pleases; so the melting fire
burns,
v. 2.
Let things be put into a ferment, in order to a glorious revolution in
favour of the church: As the fire causes the waters to boil.
There is an allusion here, some think, to the volcanoes, or
burning mountains, which sometimes send forth such sulphureous streams
as make the adjacent rivers and seas to boil, which, perhaps, are left
as sensible intimations of the power of God’s wrath and warning–pieces
of the final conflagration.
3. They desire that this may tend very much to the glory and honour of
God, may make his name known, not only to his friends (they knew
it before, and trusted in his power), but to his adversaries likewise,
that they may know it and tremble at his presence, and may say,
with the men of Bethshemesh, Who is able to stand before this holy
Lord God? Who knows the power of his anger? Note, Sooner or later
God will make his name known to his adversaries and force those to
tremble at his presence that would not come and worship in his
presence. God’s name, if it be not a stronghold for us, into which we
may run and be safe, will be a strong-hold against us, out of the reach
of which we cannot run and be safe. The day will come when nations
shall be made to tremble at the presence of God, though they be ever so
numerous and strong.
II. The plea is that God had appeared wonderfully for his people
formerly; and thou hast, therefore thou wilt, is good
arguing at the throne of grace,
1. They plead what he had done for his people Israel in particular when
he brought them out of Egypt,
v. 3.
He then did terrible things in the plagues of Egypt, which
they looked not for; they despaired of deliverance, so far were
they from any thought of being delivered with such a high hand and
outstretched arm. Then he came down upon Mount Sinai in such terror as
made that and the adjacent mountains to flow down at his
presence, to skip like rams
(Ps. cxiv. 4),
to tremble, so that they were scattered and the perpetual hills were
made to bow,
In the many great salvations God wrought for that people he did
terrible things which they looked not for, made great men, that
seemed as stately and strong as mountains, to fall before him, and
great opposition to give way. See
Judg. v. 4, 5; Ps. lxviii. 7, 8.
Some refer this to the defeat of Sennacherib’s powerful army, which was
as surprising an instance of the divine power as the melting down of
rocks and mountains would be.
2. They plead what God had been used to do, and had declared his
gracious purpose to do, for his people in general. The provision he has
made for the safety and happiness of his people, even of all those that
seek him, and serve him, and trust in him, is very rich and very ready,
so that they need not fear being either disappointed of it, for it is
sure, or disappointed in it, for it is sufficient.
(1.) It is very rich,
v. 4.
Men have not heard nor seen what God has prepared for those that
wait for him. Observe the character of God’s people; they are such
as wait for him in the way of duty, wait for the salvation he has
promised and designed for them. Observe where the happiness of this
people is bound up; it is what God has prepared for them, what
he has designed for them in his counsel and is in his providence and
grace preparing for them and preparing them for, what he has
done or will do, so it may be read. Some of the Jewish
doctors have understood this of the blessings reserved for the days of
the Messiah, and to them the apostle applies these words; and others
extend them to the glories of the world to come. It is all that
goodness which God has laid up for those that fear him, and wrought
for those that trust in him,
Ps. xxxi. 19.
Of this it is here said that since the beginning of the world,
in the most prying and inquisitive ages of it, men have not, either by
hearing or seeing, the two learning senses, come to the full knowledge
of it. None have seen, nor heard, nor can understand, but God himself,
what the provision is that is made for the present and future felicity
of holy souls. For,
[1.] Much of it was concealed in former ages; they knew it not, because
the unsearchable riches of Christ were hidden in God,
were hidden from the wise and prudent; but in latter ages they
were revealed by the gospel; so the apostle applies this
(1 Cor. ii. 9),
for it follows
(v. 10),
But God has revealed them unto us by his Spirit; compare
Rom. xvi. 25, 26, with Eph. iii. 9.
That which men had not heard since the beginning of the world
they should hear before the end of it, and at the end of it should see,
when the veil shall be rent to introduce the glory that is yet to be
revealed. God himself knew what he had in store for believers, but
none knew besides him.
[2.] It cannot be fully comprehended by the human understanding, no,
not when it is revealed; it is spiritual, and refined from those ideas
which our minds are most apt to receive in this world of sense; it is
very great, and will far outdo the utmost of our expectations. Even
the present peace of believers, much more their future bliss, is such
as surpasses all conception and expression,
None can comprehend it but God himself, whose understanding is
infinite. Some give another reading of these words, referring the
transcendency, not so much to the work itself as to the author of it:
Neither has the eye seen a god besides thee, who doth so (or has
done or can do so) for him that waits for him. We must infer
from God’s works of wonderous grace, as well as from his works of
wondrous power, from the kind things, as well as from the great things,
he does, that there is no god like him, nor any among the sons
of the mighty to be compared with him.
(2.) It is very ready
(v. 5):
“Thou meetest him that rejoices and works righteousness, meetest
him with that good which thou hast prepared for him
(v. 4),
and dost not forget those that remember thee in thy ways.” See
here what communion there is between a gracious God and a gracious
soul.
[1.] What God expects from us, in order to our having communion with
him. First, We must make conscience of doing our duty in every
thing, we must work righteousness, must do that which is good
and which the Lord our God requires of us, and must do it well.
Secondly, We must be cheerful in doing our duty, we must
rejoice and work righteousness, must delight ourselves in God
and in his law, must be cheerful in his service and sing at our work.
God loves a cheerful giver, a cheerful worshipper. We must serve the
Lord with gladness. Thirdly, We must conform ourselves to all the
methods of his providence concerning us and be suitably affected with
them, must remember him in his ways, in all the ways wherein he
walks, whether he walks towards us or walks contrary to us. We must
mind him and make mention of him with thanksgiving when his ways are
ways of mercy (in a day of prosperity be joyful), with patience
and submission when he contends with us. In the way of thy judgments
we have waited for thee; for in a day of adversity we must
consider.
[2.] We are here told what we may expect from God if we thus attend him
in the way of duty: Thou meetest him. This intimates the
friendship, fellowship, and familiarity to which God admits his people;
he meets them, to converse with them, to manifest himself to them, and
to receive their addresses,
It likewise intimates his freeness and forwardness in doing them good;
he will anticipate them with the blessings of his goodness, will
rejoice to do good to those that rejoice in working
righteousness, and wait to be gracious to those that wait for
him. He meets his penitent people with a pardon, as the father of
the prodigal met his returning son,
He meets his praying people with an answer of peace, while they are yet
speaking,
3. They plead the unchangeableness of God’s favour and the stability of
his promise, notwithstanding the sins of his people and his displeasure
against them for their sins: “Behold, thou hast many a time
been wroth with us because we have sinned, and we have been
under the tokens of thy wrath; but in those, those ways of
thine, the ways of mercy in which we have remembered thee, in those
is continuance,” or “in those thou art ever” (his mercy
endures for ever), “and therefore we shall at last be
saved, though thou art wroth, and we have sinned.” This agrees with
the tenour of God’s covenant, that, if we forsake the law, he
will visit our transgression with a rod, but his loving
kindness he will not utterly take away, his covenant he will not
break
&c.), and by this his people have been many a time saved from ruin when
they were just upon the brink of it; see
And by this continuance of the covenant we hope to be saved, for its
being an everlasting covenant is all our salvation. Though God has been
angry with us for our sins, and justly, yet his anger has endured but
for a moment and has been soon over; but in his favour is life,
because in it is continuance; in the ways of his favour he
proceeds and perseveres, and on that we depend for our salvation, see
It is well for us that our hopes of salvation are built not upon any
merit or sufficiency of our own (for in that there is no certainty,
even Adam in innocency did not abide), but upon God’s mercies and
promises, for in those, we are sure, is continuance.
| Humble Confession. | B. C. 706. |
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6 But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our
righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a
leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.
7 And there is none that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth
up himself to take hold of thee: for thou hast hid thy face from
us, and hast consumed us, because of our iniquities.
8 But now, O LORD, thou art our father; we are the clay,
and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand.
9 Be not wroth very sore, O LORD, neither remember iniquity for
ever: behold, see, we beseech thee, we are all thy people.
10 Thy holy cities are a wilderness, Zion is a wilderness,
Jerusalem a desolation.
11 Our holy and our beautiful house, where our fathers praised
thee, is burned up with fire: and all our pleasant things are
laid waste.
12 Wilt thou refrain thyself for these things, O LORD? wilt
thou hold thy peace, and afflict us very sore?
As we have the Lamentations of Jeremiah, so here we have the
Lamentations of Isaiah; the subject of both is the same–the destruction
of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans and the sin of Israel that brought that
destruction–only with this difference, Isaiah sees it at a distance and
laments it by the Spirit of prophecy, Jeremiah saw it accomplished. In
these verses,
I. The people of God in their affliction confess and bewail their sins,
thereby justifying God in their afflictions, owning themselves unworthy
of his mercy, and thereby both improving their troubles and preparing
for deliverance. Now that they were under divine rebukes for sin they
had nothing to trust to but the mere mercy of God and the continuance
of that; for among themselves there is none to help, none to uphold,
none to stand in the gap and make intercession, for they are all
polluted with sin and therefore unworthy to intercede, all careless and
remiss in duty and therefore unable and unfit to intercede.
1. There was a general corruption of manners among them
(v. 6):
We are all as an unclean thing, or as an unclean person,
as one overspread with a leprosy, who was to be shut out of the camp.
The body of the people were like one under a ceremonial pollution, who
was not admitted into the courts of the tabernacle, or like one
labouring under some loathsome disease, from the crown of the head to
the sole of the foot nothing but wounds and bruises,
ch. i. 6.
We have all by sin become not only obnoxious to God’s justice, but
odious to his holiness; for sin is that abominable thing which the
Lord hates, and cannot endure to look upon. Even all our
righteousnesses are as filthy rags.
(1.) “The best of our persons are so; we are all so corrupt and
polluted that even those among us who pass for righteous men, in
comparison with what our fathers were who rejoiced and wrought
righteousness
(v. 5),
are but as filthy rags, fit to be case to the dunghill. The best of
them is as a brier.”
(2.) “The best of our performances are so. There is not only a general
corruption of manners, but a general defection in the exercises of
devotion too; those which pass for the sacrifices of
righteousness, when they come to be enquired into, are the torn,
and the lame, and the sick, and therefore are provoking to God, as
nauseous as filthy rags.” Our performances, though they be ever so
plausible, if we depend upon them as our righteousness and think to
merit by them at God’s hand, are as filthy rags–rags, and will not
cover us–filthy rags, and will but defile us. True penitents cast away
their idols as filthy rags
(ch. xxx. 22),
odious in their sight; here they acknowledge even their righteousness
to be so in God’s sight if he should deal with them in strict justice.
Our best duties are so defective, and so far short of the rule, that
they are as rags, and so full of sin and corruption cleaving to them
that they are as filthy rags. When we would do good evil is present
with us; and the iniquity of our holy things would be our ruin if we
were under the law.
2. There was a general coldness of devotion among them,
v. 7.
The measure was filled by the abounding iniquity of the people, and
nothing was done to empty it.
(1.) Prayer was in a manner neglected: “There is none that calls on
thy name, none that seeks to thee for grace to reform us and take
away sin, or for mercy to relieve us and take away the judgments which
our sins have brought upon us.” Therefore people are so bad,
because they do not pray; compare
They have altogether become filthy, for they call not upon the
Lord. It bodes ill to a people when prayer is restrained among
them.
(2.) It was very negligently performed. If there was here and there one
that called on God’s name, it was with a great deal of indifferency:
There is none that stirs up himself to take hold of God. Note,
[1.] To pray is to take hold of God, by faith to take hold of
the promises and the declarations God has made of his good-will to us
and to plead them with him,–to take hold of him as of one who is about
to depart from us, earnestly begging of him not to leave us, or of one
that has departed, soliciting his return,–to take hold of him as he
that wrestles takes hold of him he wrestles with; for the seed of Jacob
wrestle with him and so prevail. But when we take hold of God it
is as the boatman with his hook takes hold on the shore, as if he would
pull the shore to him, but really it is to pull himself to the shore;
so we pray, not to bring God to our mind, but to bring ourselves to
him.
[2.] Those that would take hold of God in prayer so as to prevail with
him must stir up themselves to do it; all that is within us must be
employed in the duty (and all little enough), our thoughts fixed and
our affections flaming. In order hereunto all that is within us must be
engaged and summoned into the service; we must stir up the gift that
is in us by an actual consideration of the importance of the work
that is before us and a close application of mind to it; but how can we
expect that God should come to us in ways of mercy when there are none
that do this, when those that profess to be intercessors are mere
triflers?
II. They acknowledge their afflictions to be the fruit and product of
their own sins and God’s wrath.
1. They brought their troubles upon themselves by their own folly:
“We are all as an unclean thing, and therefore we do all fade
away as a leaf
(v. 6),
we not only wither and lose our beauty, but we fall and drop off” (so
the word signifies) “as leaves in autumn; our profession of religion
withers, and we grow dry and sapless; our prosperity withers and comes
to nothing; we fall to the ground, as despicable and contemptible; and
then our iniquities like the wind have taken us away and hurried
us into captivity, as the winds in autumn blow off, and then blow away,
the faded withered leaves,”
Sinners are blasted, and then carried away, by the malignant and
violent wind of their own iniquity; it withers them and then ruins
them.
2. God brought their troubles upon them by his wrath
(v. 7):
Thou hast hidden thy face from us; hast been displeased with us
and refused to afford us any succour. When they made themselves as
an unclean thing no wonder that God turned his face away from them,
as loathing them. Yet this was not all: Thou hast consumed us
because of our iniquities. This is the same complaint with that
(Ps. xc. 7, 8),
We are consumed by thy anger; thou hast melted us, so the
word is. God had put them in the furnace, not to consume them as dross,
but to melt them as gold, that they might be refined and new-cast.
III. They claim relation to God as their God, and humbly plead it with
him, and in consideration of it cheerfully refer themselves to him
(v. 8):
“But now, O Lord! thou art our Father: though we have conducted
ourselves very undutifully and ungratefully towards thee, yet still we
have owned thee as our Father; and, though thou hast corrected us, yet
thou hast not cast us off. Foolish and careless as we are, poor and
despised and trampled upon as we are by our enemies, yet still thou
art our Father; to thee therefore we return in our repentance, as
the prodigal arose and came to his father; to thee we address ourselves
by prayer; from whom should we expect relief and succour but from our
Father? It is the wrath of a Father that we are under, who will be
reconciled and not keep his anger for ever.” God is their
Father,
1. By creation; he gave them their being, formed them into a people,
shaped them as he pleased: “We are the clay and thou our potter,
therefore we will not quarrel with thee, however thou art pleased to
deal with us,
Nay, therefore we will hope that thou wilt deal well with us, that thou
who madest us wilt new-make us, new-form us, though we have unmade and
deformed ourselves: We are all as an unclean thing, but we
are all the work of thy hands, therefore do away our uncleanness,
that we may be fit for thy use, the use we were made for. We are the
work of thy hands, therefore forsake us not,”
2. By covenant; this is pleaded
(v. 9):
“Behold, see, we beseech thee, we are all thy people, all the
people thou hast in the world, that make open profession of thy name.
We are called thy people, our neighbours look upon us as such,
and therefore what we suffer reflects upon thee, and the relief that
our case requires is expected from thee. We are thy people; and
should not a people seek unto their God?
ch. viii. 19.
We are thine; save us,”
Note, When we are under providential rebukes from God it is good to
keep fast hold of our covenant-relation to him.
IV. They are importunate with God for the turning away of his anger and
the pardoning of their sins
(v. 9):
“Be not wroth very sore, O Lord! though we have deserved that
thou shouldst, neither remember iniquity for ever against us.”
They do not expressly pray for the removal of the judgment they were
under; as to that, they refer themselves to God. But,
1. They pray that God would be reconciled to them, and then they can be
easy whether the affliction be continued or removed: “Be not wroth
to extremity, but let thy anger be mitigated by the clemency and
compassion of a father.” They do not say, Lord, rebuke us not,
for that may be necessary, but Not in thy anger, not in thy hot
displeasure. It is but in a little wrath that God hides
his face.
2. They pray that they may not be dealt with according to the desert of
their sin: Neither remember iniquity for ever. Such is the evil
of sin that it deserves to be remembered for ever; and this is that
which they deprecate, that consequence of sin, which is for ever. Those
make it to appear that they are truly humbled under the hand of God who
are more afraid of the terror of God’s wrath, and the fatal
consequences of their own sin, than of any judgment whatsoever, looking
upon these as the sting of death.
V. They lodge in the court of heaven a very melancholy representation,
or memorial, of the lamentable condition they were in and the ruins
they were groaning under.
1. Their own houses were in ruins,
The cities of Judah were destroyed by the Chaldeans and the inhabitants
of them were carried away, so that there was none to repair them or
take any notice of them, which would in a few years make them look like
perfect deserts: Thy holy cities are a wilderness. The cities of
Judah are called holy cities, for the people were unto God a
kingdom of priests. The cities had synagogues in them, in which God was
served; and therefore they lamented the ruins of them, and insisted
upon this in pleading with God for them, not so much that they were
stately cities, rich or ancient ones, but that they were holy cities,
cities in which God’s name was known, professed, and called upon.
“These cities are a wilderness; the beauty of them is sullied; they are
neither inhabited nor visited, as formerly. They have burnt up all
the synagogues of God in the land,”
Nor was it only the smaller cities that were thus left as a wilderness
unfrequented, but even “Zion is a wilderness; the city of David
itself lies in ruins; Jerusalem, that was beautiful for
situation and the joy of the whole earth, is now deformed,
and has become the scorn and scandal of the whole earth; that noble
city is a desolation, a heap of rubbish.” See what devastations sin
brings upon a people; and an external profession of sanctity will be no
fence against them; holy cities, if they become wicked cities,
will be soonest of all turned into a wilderness,
2. God’s house was in ruins,
This they lament most of all, that the temple was burnt with
fire; but, as soon as it was built, they were told what their sin
would bring it to.
This house, which is high, shall be an astonishment. Observe how
pathetically they bewail the ruins of the temple.
(1.) It was their holy and beautiful house; it was a most
sumptuous building, but the holiness of it was in their eye the
greatest beauty of it, and consequently the profanation of it was the
saddest part of its desolation and that which grieved them most, that
the sacred services which used to be performed there were discontinued.
(2.) It was the place where their fathers praised God with their
sacrifices and songs; what a pity is it that that should lie in ashes
which had been for so many ages the glory of their nation! It
aggravated their present disuse of the songs of Zion that their fathers
had so often praised God with them. They interest God in the cause when
they plead that it was the house where he had been praised, and
put him in mind too of his covenant with their fathers by taking notice
of their fathers’ praising him.
(3.) With it all their pleasant things were laid waste, all
their desires and delights, all those things which were employed by
them in the service of God, which they had a great delight in; not only
the furniture of the temple, the altars and table, but especially the
sabbaths and new moons, and all their religious feasts, which they used
to keep with gladness, their ministers and solemn assemblies, these
were all a desolation. Note, God’s people reckon their sacred things
their most delectable things; rob them of holy ordinances and the means
of grace, and you lay waste all their pleasant things. What have
they more? Observe here how God and his people have their interest
twisted and interchanged; when they speak of the cities for their own
habitation they call them thy holy cities, for to God they were
dedicated; when they speak of the temple wherein God dwelt they call it
our beautiful house and its furniture our pleasant
things, for they had heartily espoused it and all the interests of
it. If thus we interest God in all our concerns by devoting them to his
service, and interest ourselves in all his concerns by laying them near
our hearts, we may with satisfaction leave both with him, for he will
perfect both.
VI. They conclude with an affectionate expostulation, humbly arguing
with God concerning their present desolations
(v. 12):
“Wilt thou refrain thyself for these things? Or, Canst thou
contain thyself at these things? Canst thou see thy temple ruined
and not resent it, not revenge it? Has the jealous God forgotten to be
jealous?
Arise, O God! plead thy own cause. Lord, thou art insulted, thou
art blasphemed; and wilt thou hold thy peace and take no notice
of it? Shall the highest affronts that can be done to Heaven pass
unrebuked?” When we are abused we hold our peace, because vengeance
does not belong to us, and because we have a God to refer our cause to.
When God is injured in his honour it may justly be expected that he
should speak in the vindication of it; his people prescribe not to him
what he shall say, but their prayer is (as here)
Keep not thou silence, O God! and
“Hold not thy peace, O God of my praise! Speak for the
conviction of thy enemies, speak for the comfort and relief of thy
people; for wilt thou afflict us very grievously, or afflict
us for ever?” It is a sore affliction to good people to see God’s
sanctuary laid waste and nothing done towards the raising of it out of
its ruins. But God has said that he will not contend for ever,
and therefore his people may depend upon it that their afflictions
shall be neither to extremity nor to eternity, but light and
for a moment.
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