Yet listen now, Jacob my servant, and Israel, whom I have chosen.
This is what Yahweh who made you, and formed you from the womb, who will help you says: “Don’t be afraid, Jacob my servant; and you, Jeshurun, whom I have chosen.
For I will pour water on him who is thirsty, and streams on the dry ground. I will pour my Spirit on your descendants, and my blessing on your offspring:
and they will spring up among the grass, as willows by the watercourses.
One will say, ‘I am Yahweh’s;’ and another will be called by the name of Jacob; and another will write with his hand ‘to Yahweh,’ and honor the name of Israel.”
This is what Yahweh, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, Yahweh of Armies, says: “I am the first, and I am the last; and besides me there is no God.
Who is like me? Who will call, and will declare it, and set it in order for me, since I established the ancient people? Let them declare the things that are coming, and that will happen.
Don’t fear, neither be afraid. Haven’t I declared it to you long ago, and shown it? You are my witnesses. Is there a God besides me? Indeed, there is not. I don’t know any other Rock.”
Everyone who makes a carved image is vain. The things that they delight in will not profit. Their own witnesses don’t see, nor know, that they may be disappointed.
Who has fashioned a god, or molds an image that is profitable for nothing?
Behold, all his fellows will be disappointed; and the workmen are mere men. Let them all be gathered together. Let them stand up. They will fear. They will be put to shame together.
The blacksmith takes an ax, works in the coals, fashions it with hammers, and works it with his strong arm. He is hungry, and his strength fails; he drinks no water, and is faint.
The carpenter stretches out a line. He marks it out with a pencil. He shapes it with planes. He marks it out with compasses, and shapes it like the figure of a man, with the beauty of a man, to reside in a house.
He cuts down cedars for himself, and takes the cypress and the oak, and strengthens for himself one among the trees of the forest. He plants a cypress tree, and the rain nourishes it.
Then it will be for a man to burn; and he takes some of it, and warms himself. Yes, he burns it, and bakes bread. Yes, he makes a god, and worships it; he makes it a carved image, and falls down to it.
He burns part of it in the fire. With part of it, he eats meat. He roasts a roast, and is satisfied. Yes, he warms himself, and says, “Aha! I am warm. I have seen the fire.”
The rest of it he makes into a god, even his engraved image. He bows down to it and worships, and prays to it, and says, “Deliver me; for you are my god!”
They don’t know, neither do they consider: for he has shut their eyes, that they can’t see; and their hearts, that they can’t understand.
No one thinks, neither is there knowledge nor understanding to say, “I have burned part of it in the fire. Yes, I have also baked bread on its coals. I have roasted meat and eaten it. Shall I make the rest of it into an abomination? Shall I bow down to a tree trunk?”
He feeds on ashes. A deceived heart has turned him aside; and he can’t deliver his soul, nor say, “Isn’t there a lie in my right hand?”
Remember these things, Jacob and Israel; for you are my servant. I have formed you. You are my servant. Israel, you will not be forgotten by me.
I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, your transgressions, and, as a cloud, your sins. Return to me, for I have redeemed you.
Sing, you heavens, for Yahweh has done it! Shout, you lower parts of the earth! Break out into singing, you mountains, O forest, all of your trees, for Yahweh has redeemed Jacob, and will glorify himself in Israel.
Yahweh, your Redeemer, and he who formed you from the womb says: “I am Yahweh, who makes all things; who alone stretches out the heavens; who spreads out the earth by myself;
who frustrates the signs of the liars, and makes diviners mad; who turns wise men backward, and makes their knowledge foolish;
who confirms the word of his servant, and performs the counsel of his messengers; who says of Jerusalem, ‘She will be inhabited;’ and of the cities of Judah, ‘They will be built,’ and ‘I will raise up its waste places;’
who says to the deep, ‘Be dry,’ and ‘I will dry up your rivers;’
Who says of Cyrus, ‘He is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure,’ even saying of Jerusalem, ‘She will be built;’ and of the temple, ‘Your foundation will be laid.’ ”
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 23, 25, 26, 27, 28 He treated and chose thee from the beginning of…
He treated and chose thee from the beginning of his own mercy, and before thou couldest merit anything.
Whom God accepteth as righteous: or which haddest occasion thereunto because of the Law, and of thine holy vocation.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–28 Isa 44:1 Yet now hear, O Jacob my servant;…
Isa 44:1 Yet now hear, O Jacob my servant; and Israel, whom I have chosen:
Ver. 1. Yet now hear.] Hear a word of comfort after so terrible a thunder crack. {Isa 43:28} But there it is bare "Jacob" and "Israel" who are threatened; here it is "Jacob my servant," and "Israel whom I have chosen"; it is "Jeshurun," or the "righteous nation," who are comforted. And because we forget nothing so soon as the consolations of God, as is to be seen in Christ’s disciples, and those believing Hebrews; {Isa 12:5} therefore doth the prophet so oft repeat and inculcate them, like as men use to rub and chafe in ointments into the flesh, that they may enter and give ease.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28 Although I have chastised thee for thy sins, and…
Although I have chastised thee for thy sins, and had just cause utterly to destroy thee; yet in judgment I will remember mercy, and will still own thee for my servant and chosen people.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On vv1, 9, 21 Two great truths are abundantly made out in these…
Two great truths are abundantly made out in these verses: -
I. That the people of God are a happy people, especially upon account of the covenant that is between them and God. The people of Israel were so as a figure of the gospel Israel. Three things complete their happiness: -
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1. The covenant-relations wherein they stand to God, Isa 44:1, Isa 44:2. Israel is here called Jeshurun - the upright one; for those only, like Nathanael, are Israelites indeed, in whom is no guile, and those only shall have the everlasting benefit of these promises. Jacob and Israel had been represented, in the close of the foregoing chapter, as very provoking and obnoxious to God's wrath, and already given to the curse and to reproaches; but, as if God's bowels yearned towards him and his repentings were kindled together, mercy steps in with a non-obstante - notwithstanding, to all these quarrels: "Yet now, hear, O Jacob my servant! thou and I will be friends again for all this." God had said (Isa 43:25), I am he that blotteth out thy transgression, which is the only thing that creates this distance; and when that is taken away the streams of mercy run again in their former channel. The pardon of sin is the inlet of all the other blessings of the covenant. So and so I will do for them, says God (Heb 8:12), for I will be merciful to their unrighteousness. Therefore hear, O Jacob! hear these comfortable words; therefore fear not, O Jacob! fear not thy troubles, for by the pardon of sin the property of them too is altered. Now the relations wherein they stand to him are very encouraging. (1.) They are his servants; and those that serve him he will own and stand by and see that they be not wronged. (2.) They are his chosen, and he will abide by his choice; he knows those that are his, and those whom he has chosen he takes under special protection. (3.) They are his creatures. He made them, and brought them into being; he formed them, and cast them into shape; he began betimes with them, for he formed them from the womb; and therefore he will help them over their difficulties and help them in their services.
2. The covenant-blessings which he has secured to them and theirs, Isa 44:3, Isa 44:4. (1.) Those that are sensible of their spiritual wants, and the insufficiency of the creature to supply them, shall have abundant satisfaction in God: I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, that thirsts after righteousness; he shall be filled. Water shall be poured out to those who truly desire spiritual blessings above all the delights of sense. (2.) Those that are barren as the dry ground shall be watered with the grace of God, with floods of that grace, and God will himself give the increase. If the ground be ever so dry, God has floods of grace to water it with. (3.) The water God will pour out is his Spirit (Joh 7:39), which God will pour out without measure upon the seed, that is, Christ (Gal 3:16), and by measure upon all the seed of the faithful, upon all the praying wrestling seed of Jacob, Luk 11:13. This is the great New Testament promise, that God, having sent his servant Christ, and upheld him, will send his Spirit to uphold us. (4.) This gift of the Holy Ghost is the great blessing God had reserved the plentiful effusion of for the latter days: I will pour my Spirit, that is, my blessing; for where God gives his Spirit he will give all other blessings. (5.) This is reserved for the seed and offspring of the church; for so the covenant of grace runs: I will be a God to thee and to thy seed. To all who are thus made to partake of the privileges of adoption God will give the spirit of adoption. (6.) Hereby there shall be a great increase of the church. Thus it shall be spread to distant places. Thus it shall be propagated and perpetuated to after-times: They shall spring up and grow as fast as willows by the watercourses, and in every thing that is virtuous and praiseworthy shall be eminent and excel all about them, as the willows overtop the grass among which they grow, Isa 44:4. Note, It is a great happiness to the church, and a great pleasure to good men, to see the rising generation hopeful and promising. And it will be so if God pour his Spirit upon them, that blessing, that blessing of blessings.
3. The consent they cheerfully give to their part of the covenant, Isa 44:5. When the Jews returned out of captivity they renewed their covenant with God (Jer 50:5), particularly that they would have no more to do with idols, Hos 14:2, Hos 14:3, Hos 14:8. Backsliders must thus repent and do their first works. Many of those that were without did at that time join themselves to them, invited by that glorious appearance of God for them, Zac 8:23; Est 8:17. And they say, We are the Lord's and call themselves by the name of Jacob; for there was one law, one covenant, for the stranger and for those that were born in the land. And doubtless it looks further yet, to the conversion of the Gentiles, and the multitudes of them who, upon the effusion of the Spirit, after Christ's ascension, should be joined to the Lord and added to the church. These converts are one and another, very many, of different ranks and nations, and all welcome to God, Col 3:11. When one does it another shall by his example be invited to do it, and then another; thus the zeal of one may provoke many. (1.) They shall resign themselves to God: not one in the name of the rest, but every one for himself shall say, "I am the Lord's; he has an incontestable right to rule me, and I submit to him, to all his commands, to all his disposal. I am, and will be, his only, his wholly, his for ever, will be for his interests, will be for his praise; living and dying I will be his." (2.) They shall incorporate themselves with the people of God, call themselves by the name of Jacob, forgetting their own people and their fathers' house, and desirous to wear the character and livery of God's family. They shall love all God's people, shall associate with them, give them the right hand of fellowship, espouse their cause, seek the good of the church in general and of all the particular members of it, and be willing to take their lot with them in all conditions. (3.) They shall do this very solemnly. Some of them shall subscribe with their hand unto the Lord, as, for the confirming of a bargain, a man sets his hand to it, and delivers it as his act and deed. The more express we are in our covenanting with God the better, Exo 24:7; Jos 24:26, Jos 24:27; Neh 9:38. Fast bind, fast find.
II. That, as the Israel of God are a happy people, so the God of Israel is a great God, and he is God alone. This also, as the former, speaks abundant satisfaction to all that trust in him, Isa 44:6-8. Observe here, to God's glory and our comfort, 1. That the God we trust in is a God of incontestable sovereignty and irresistible power. He is the Lord, Jehovah, self-existent and self-sufficient; and he is the Lord of hosts, of all the hosts of heaven and earth, of angels and men. 2. That he stands in relation to, and has a particular concern for, his church. He is the King of Israel and his Redeemer; therefore his Redeemer because his King; and those that take God for their King shall have him for their Redeemer. When God would assert himself God alone he proclaims himself Israel's God, that his people may be encouraged both to adhere to him and to triumph in him. 3. That he is eternal - the first and the last. He is God from everlasting, before the worlds were, and will be so to everlasting, when the world shall be no more. If there were not a God to create, nothing would ever have been; and, if there were not a God to uphold, all would soon come to nothing again. He is all in all, is the first cause, from whom are all things, and the last end, to and for whom are all things (Rom 11:36), the Alpha and the Omega, Rev 1:11. 4. That he is God alone (Isa 44:6): Besides me there is no God. Is there a God besides me? Isa 44:8. We will appeal to the greatest scholars. Did they ever in all their reading meet with any other? To those that have had the largest acquaintance with the world. Did they ever meet with any other? There are gods many (Co1 8:5, Co1 8:6), called gods, and counterfeit gods: but is there any besides our God that is infinite and eternal, any besides him that is the creator of the world and the protector and benefactor of the whole creation, any besides him that can do that for their worshippers which he can and will do for his? "You are my witnesses. I have been a nonsuch to you. You have tried other gods; have you found any of them all-sufficient to you, or any of them like me? Yea, there is no god," no rock (so the word is), none besides Jehovah that can be a rock for a foundation to build on, a rock for shelter to flee to. God is the rock, and their rock is not as ours, Deu 32:4, Deu 32:31. I know not any; as if he had said, "I never met with any that offered to stand in competition with me, or that durst bring their pretensions to a fair trial; if I did know of any that could befriend you better than I can, I would recommend you to them; but I know not any." There is no God besides Jehovah. He is infinite, and therefore there can be no other; he is all-sufficient, and therefore there needs no other. This is designed for the confirming of the hopes of God's people in the promise of their deliverance out of Babylon, and, in order to that, for the curing of them of their idolatry; when the affliction had done its work it should be removed. They are reminded of the first and great article of their creed, that the Lord their God is one Lord, Deu 6:4. And therefore, (1.) They needed not to hope in any other god. Those on whom the sun shines need neither moon nor stars, nor the light of their own fire. (2.) They needed not to fear any other god. Their own God was more able to do them good than all the false and counterfeit gods of their enemies were to do them hurt. 5. That none besides could foretel these things to come, which God now by his prophet gave notice of to the world, above 200 years before they came to pass (Isa 44:7): "Who, as I, shall call, shall call Cyrus to Babylon? Is there any but God that can call effectually, and has every creature, every heart, at his beck? Who shall declare it, how it shall be, and by whom, as I do?" Nay, God goes further; he not only sees it in order, as having the foreknowledge of it, but sets it in order, as having the sole management and direction of it. Can any other pretend to this? He has always set things in order according to the counsel of his own will, ever since he appointed the ancient people, the people of Israel, who could give a truer and fuller account of the antiquities of their own nation than any other kingdom in the world could give of theirs. Ever since he appointed that people to be his peculiar people his providence was particularly conversant about them, and he told them beforehand the events that should occur respecting them - their bondage in Egypt, their deliverance from it, and their settlement in Canaan. All was set in order in the divine predictions as well as in the divine purposes. Could any other have done so? Would any other have been so far concerned for them? He challenges the pretenders to show the things that shall come hereafter: "Let them, if they can, tell us the name of the man that shall destroy Babylon ad deliver Israel? Nay, if they cannot pretend to tell us the things that shall come hereafter, let them tell us the things that are coming, that are nigh at hand and at the door. Let them tell us what shall come to pass tomorrow; but they cannot do that; fear them not therefore, nor be afraid of them. What harm can they do you? What hindrance can they give to your deliverance, when I have told thee it shall be accomplished in its season, and I have solemnly declared it?" Note, Those who have the word of God's promise to depend upon need not be afraid of any adverse powers or policies whatsoever.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1–28 Yet now hear, O Jacob my servant,.... These words…
Yet now hear, O Jacob my servant,.... These words are directed to a remnant according to the election of grace among the Jews, about the time when their princes should be profaned, and the body of the people should be given to curse and reproaches; and who are distinguished from them by the title of the Lord's "servants": who, being called by grace, were made willing to serve him in righteousness and holiness, either by preaching his Gospel, and so had the title of the servants of the most high God, which show unto men the way of salvation; or by observing his commands and ordinances, and walking agreeably to his will, serving him acceptably with reverence and godly fear; as they are also, in the next clause, distinguished from the rest by their being "chosen" of God: and these, having ears to hear, are called upon to hearken to what the Lord had to say unto them; for, notwithstanding the sorrowful things delivered out in the latter part of the preceding chapter, threatening destruction to the nation of the Jews; yet he had some comfortable things to say to this remnant, and therefore would now have them hear them, and attend unto them for their use and comfort:
and Israel whom I have chosen; an Israel out of Israel; a seed the Lord had reserved for himself, whom he had chosen in Christ before the world was; to be holy and happy, to grace here and glory hereafter, to believe in him, and profess his name, and to serve him in their day and generation, either in a more public, or in a more private way; chosen vessels they were to bear his name, and show forth his praise. What they were to hear and hearken to is as follows,
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 18, 20, 21, 22, 23, 25, 27, 28 A farther promise of spiritual blessings, ver. 1-6. The…
A farther promise of spiritual blessings, ver. 1-6. The vanity of idols, and folly of idol-makers, and worshippers, ver. 7- 20. An exhortation to praise God, ver. 21-23. our Redeemer and maker, ver. 24. for his wisdom, ver. 25. truth, ver. 26. power, ver. 27. and goodness, ver. 28.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 16, 17, 18, 20, 22, 24, 27, 28 This chapter, besides promises of redemption, of the effusion
CHAPTER XLIV
This chapter, besides promises of redemption, of the effusion
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of the Spirit, and success of the Gospel, 1-5,
sets forth, in a very sublime manner, the supreme power and
foreknowledge, and absolute eternity, of the one true God; and
exposes the folly and absurdity of idolatry with admirable
force and elegance, 6-20.
And to show that the knowledge of future events belongs only to
Jehovah, whom all creation is again called to adore for the
deliverance and reconciliation granted to his people, 21-23,
the prophet concludes with setting in a very strong point of
view the absolute impotence of every thing considered great and
insurmountable in the sight of men, when standing in the way of
the Divine counsel; and mentions the future deliverer of the
Jewish nation expressly by name, nearly two hundred years
before his birth, 24-28.
NOTES ON CHAP. XLIV
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 6, 9, 12, 18, 21, 24, 28 Isa 44:1-2. Yet now hear, O Jacob — Although…
Isa 44:1-2. Yet now hear, O Jacob — Although I have chastised thee for thy sins, and had just cause utterly to destroy thee, yet in judgment I will remember mercy, and will still own thee for my servant and chosen people. Thus saith the Lord, that formed thee from the womb — “He speaks of the Jewish people under the character of a single person; and as God sometimes designed certain persons for particular offices, from their birth, or conception, so he set apart the posterity of Abraham to be his people from the very original of the family;” and formed and fashioned them for himself, by laws, ordinances, teachers, promises, threatenings, corrections, and many other ways. Jesurun is another name for Jacob or Israel, given to them by Moses, Deu 32:15, (where see the note.) and 33:5, 26.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28 Yet now hear - This should be read in…
Yet now hear - This should be read in immediate connection with the previous chapter. ‘Notwithstanding you have sinned, yet now hear the gracious promise which is made in regard to your deliverance.’
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv3, 5, 8, 9, 12, 13, 18, 20, 22, 25, 26, 27, 28 Stock. I will give fresh life to my people,…
Stock. I will give fresh life to my people, as to the figure of Christ’s Church.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v1 1 Yet now hear, O Jacob my servant;
5. THE COMPLETION OF THE REDEMPTION BY DELIVERING FROM SIN IS THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT
Isa_44:1-5
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1 Yet now hear, O Jacob my servant;
And Israel, whom I have chosen:
2 Thus saith the Lord that made thee,
And formed thee from the womb, which will help thee;
Fear not, O Jacob, my servant;
And thou, Jesurun, whom I have chosen.
3 For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty,
And floods upon the dry ground:
I will pour my spirit upon thy seed,
And my blessing upon thine offspring:
4 And they shall spring up as among the grass
As1 willows by the water courses.
5 One shall say, I am the Lord’s;
And another2 shall call himself by the name of Jacob;
And another shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord,
And surname himself by the name of Israel.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
See list for the recurrence of the words: Isa_44:1. ועתה. Isa_44:2. עשֶׂךָ—וֹצֱרך—בֶּטֶן—אל־תירא.. Isa_44:4. בבין.
Isa_44:2. מבטן is to be connected with יצרך, as appears from Isa_44:24; Isa_49:5. יצרךis an elliptical relative clause.—ישֻׁרוּן. That this word springs from ישְׂרַאֵל, (Gr. Ven. ), or that it is identical with ישׂר the first part of ישׂראל (Jerome, who translates ישׂראל by rectus Dei and ישׂרון by rectissimus; Aqu. Symm., Theod., εὐθύς, εὐθύτατος) is an ungrammatical view. But it appears also to have been shared by those that have translated Jeshurun directly by Israel (Targ., Pesch., Ar.). This they seem to have done because they saw in it, not only an indirect equivalent for the name Israel, but also (because of the supposed identity of ישׂר and ישׁר), a direct equivalent. It is now admitted that ישׁרון has nothing to do directly with ישׂראל, but is derived from an essentially different root יָשַׁר. As the word is used only of Israel, and that not as an adjective but as a name for Israel, we must regard it as a cognomen, and as so called Kunje (comp. on יְכַנֶּה Isa_44:5), consequently as a proper name. But, as is well known, there is greater freedom and variety used in all languages in the formation of proper names than in the formation of appellatives. This is because proper names have regard to individual peculiarities, which is not the case with appellative designations, which merely correspond to abstract modes that are always alike. Thus ישׁרון has originated from יָשָׁר by appending the nominal ending וּן, which, as the characteristic and at the same time the final syllable, has attracted the final syllable of the root. ישׁרון is therefore the notion יָשָׁר in that peculiar aspect which the ending וּן imparts to it. But what is this peculiar meaning of וּן? It occurs on the whole not often. It only appears in the appellatives צִיוּן, statutum, statua, monumentum, in the five proper names, שַׁלּוּן ,נון ,ישׁרון ,(יְדוּתוּן) יְדִיתוּן ,זְבֻלוּן, and in the word כִּיוּן (Amo_5:26) of which it is not known definitely whether it is a proper name or an appellative. But the ending וּן is manifestly derived from וֹן, by changing the vowel. The latter ending is exceeding common both in appellatives and in proper names. Several words have both endings: thus Nun, father of Joshua, is also named נוֹן 1Ch_7:27. The tribal designation from זְבֻלוּן is זכְלֻוֹנִי (Num_26:27; Jdg_12:11-12), and in Greek the word is pronounced regularly Ζαβουλών. צִיוּן has a near relation in צִיוֹן. For not only is Mt. Zion called Zehjun in Syriac and Arabic, but also it is even not impossible that the original meaning of צִיוֹן coincides with that of צִיוּן. For Zion might very suitably be designated as something “firmly set up, firmly founded, a מוּסָד מוּסָד, Isa_28:16.” There is great variety in the meaning of words in וֹן. It ought not to have been so positively contradicted that the ending ון is also used to designate diminutives. What Ewald (Gram., §167) adduces on that subject is still worthy of consideration. צַוּרָוֹן occurs only in Son_4:9, where it is manifestly a term of endearment, and where one may translate “thou hast taken away my heart by one of thine eyes, by a picture (as if formed by a turner) of thy little neck” (properly Halzpartiechen). שְׁכִּיכּוֹן (Gen_49:18) from שָׁכַּף serpsit, reptavit, is called a diminutive by Gesenius, meaning “little sneak.” זֵרֵעֹגִים which occurs Dan_1:16 for זֵדֹעִים ibid. Isa_44:12, can hardly mean anything else than small vegetables, i.e., something inconsiderable as means of nourishment. It is universally admitted that אִישׁוֹן, “the pupil,” means the little man in the eye; and also שַׂהֲרנִים (Isa_3:18; Jdg_8:26) is generally taken to mean lunulae. If, finally, Ben-Gorion, whom Ewald cites, is correct in stating that Josippon is diminutive of Joseph, I cannot see what one can object to the assumption that the Heb., among its diminutive forms, forms some in ־וֹן. Moreover Isa_44:5 manifestly corresponds to Isa_44:2, and as the words ver.5 זה יקרא בשׁם יעקב, correspond to the words אל־תירא עברי יעקב Isa_44:2, so the words ישׂראל יכנה ובשׁם Isa_44:5. refer to the words ישׁרון בחרתי בו Isa_44:2, (comp. the remarks on Isa_44:5). From this results that the Prophet regards ישׁרון as the כִנּוּי for ישׂראל. Isa_44:5. Piel כִּנָּה, besides here, occurs only Isa_45:4 and Job_32:21-22. In Job the meaning is manifestly “to flatter.” In Isa_45:4 the word stands, as here, parallel with קרא, and can likewise mean only “to name honorably.” In later Hebrew the word means “cognominare, titulo appellare” in general, and כִּנּוּי is “cognomen, agnomen,” when even not exactly an honorable one. Thus אֲדֹנַי and אֱלהִים are the כּנּוּיים for יהוה. Among Hebrew grammarians the pronoun is called כנוי, because it is a word standing in place of a noun. Comp. Buxtorf, Lex. talm. et rabb, p. 1054. With this certainly connects the Arabic Kunje, which however has more the meaning of a familiar name of flattery or one given in jest (comp. Ewald’s Gr., pp. 662, 665).
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. This strophe connects closely with the foregoing one as its necessary conclusion. The prospect disclosed Isa_43:21, that not merely the brute world, but also the people of God will proclaim the praise of the Lord, cannot be realized at once after the return from Exile. For the fleshly Israel still predominates. They cannot proclaim the praise of Jehovah; they will not, in their self-righteousness, acknowledge their sin, and will not accept the sacrifice that God, in His grace, offers to make for their sin. For this they are given up to the curse of destruction. But Israel is by no means done away as a whole by this. On the contrary, the moment has come when the Lord will fulfil to the people of His choice, i.e., the election, the ἐκλογή of His people (Isa_44:1-2), the promise given Isa_43:19-21. For then the Lord will send down, not earthly abundance of water, but streams of the Spirit, on the spiritual Israel, composed of those of Israel and of the heathen that are qualified to receive (Isa_44:3), and these streams will enable the spiritual Israel to cleave to the Lord in a fresh life of the Spirit, and thus to perform what was predicted Isa_43:21.
2. Yet now hear——have chosen.
Isa_44:1-2. It is first of all to be remarked how the Lord no longer addresses His people merely by the name “Jacob” or “Israel,” but with the ten-derest expressions, and how He accumulates these expressions. We see that He is no longer dealing with the natural Israel, but with the remnant, the ἕκλογή. But now depends on Isa_43:28. But now, i.e., after fleshly Israel has contemned the sacrifice for its sins, and has on that account been rejected, the moment has come when the Lord prepares the true Israel for the accomplishment of His will. This Israel He first addresses as Jacob My servant. Thus we see that here, not the total, but only the noble nucleus of the nation is designated as “Servant of the Lord.” For He calls this nucleus Israel whom I have chosen (Isa_41:8-9; Isa_43:10; Isa_49:7). This is the first address, and meant only to call the attention of the one addressed. Then follows the second address, which begins with naming the speaker, who is designated as Jehovah, the Creator and Former of Israel from the womb, and their Helper. From all the facts and names accumulated in the two verses, the conclusion is drawn that Israel ought not to be afraid. The words Isa_43:28 seem to give the occasion for this. Jeshurun [ Jesurun is an erroneous orthography.—Tr.], which occurs first [and the only passages beside.—Tr.] Deu_32:15; Deu_33:5; Deu_33:26, is undoubtedly a designation of the people of Israel (see Text and Gram.). If we may take it as a term of endearment or flattery, we may then understand it to mean “pious little one, pious little nation, Frömmchen.” It is to be noted that the second address (Isa_44:2), like the first (Isa_44:1) concludes with I have chosen him.—From this appears what emphasis the Prophet lays on the idea of the election.
3. For I will pour——of Israel.
Isa_44:3-5. Here the Lord says to His beloved people why they need not be afraid. In the judgment that is to consume the fleshly Israel, the spiritual Israel is to remain unharmed. The latter is in fact called to perform what the other could not do: proclaim the praise of Jehovah (Isa_43:21). It is enabled to do so by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. The Prophet here returns to the sphere of thought of Isa_43:20. There a rich blessing of water was promised to the nation returning home through the desert. We have seen that the Prophet here again contemplates together the whole period of salvation. We are aware of this from his seeing also the irrational brutes qualified and impelled to thanksgiving to God. But this elevated goal Israel does not attain at once. Rather in this period, beginning with the deliverance from the Exile and concluding with the reign of peace, the outward Israel descends deep down into the abyss of destruction. But the “election” will remain, and to it will be given that outpouring of streams of living water, of which the blessing of water during the journey in the desert was only a type. With Isa_44:3 a the Prophet makes the connection with that type. I may say, he places one foot in the physical and the other in the spiritual, and thus forms a bridge from one to the other. Not as if to the “elect” will be imparted first the physical and then the spiritual blessing. But only for the purpose of making us recognize the connection with Isa_43:20, the Prophet speaks first physically. But, as the following intimation shows, he means already in Isa_44:3 a spiritual water. צָמֵא (not צְמֵאָה) seems, in antithesis to יַבָּשָׁה “the thirsty,” to mean a living being, and יבשׁה (comp. Gen_1:9-10) “the dry ground.” נוזלים“fluentes, fluenta” (comp. Exo_15:3; Psa_78:16; Psa_78:44) only here in Isaiah. When the Prophet says on thy seed, thine offspring he addresses the ideal totality of the nation (comp. Joe_3:1). The blessing, which we are primarily to understand as spiritual and belonging to eternal well-being, is the effect of the Spirit, and appears outwardly in joyous, fruitful prosperity. Hence צמחו וגו׳. The LXX. and Targ. appear to have read כְּבֵין. And at first sight one might prefer this reading to the בבין of the text (which occurs only here) were it better supported and not the easier. It seems to me that the Prophet, by the grass, does not mean the Israelites themselves, to whom “seed” and “offspring” do refer. He rather conceives of the Israelites as higher and nobler plants, say, flowers or trees, growing out of the midst of the grass, and by the grass means the converted heathen. He further compares them to Arab-trees (ערבים, Isa_15:7, according to Wetzstein in Delitzsch, p. 459. Rem., not willows, but a poplar tree that grows like willows, and along with such, by flowing water) by the water-courses (comp. Isa_30:25; Psa_1:3), which, less common than the willow, rise conspicuous among the trees and bushes growing by the water.
Thus the Prophet prepares for what he would say Isa_44:5. He shows, namely, that to the spiritual Israel, whom he addresses Isa_44:1-2, belong not only such as are Israelites by corporeal descent. Not all are Israel that are of Israel (Rom_9:6 sqq.); and just as little are the heathen on account of their descent excluded from Israel. Our Prophet, in fact, often enough utters the promise that the heathen shall come to Israel and be incorporated in Israel (Isa_2:2 sqq.; Isa_11:10; Isa_42:6; Isa_49:6; Isa_49:18 sqq.; Isa_54:1 sqq.; Isa_55:5; Isa_56:5 sqq; Isa_60:3; Isa_65:1, etc.). Thus I see in Isa_44:5 an exposition of the thought that the believing Israelites sprout up in the midst of the grass, and that they thus shall be distinguished from the grass, and yet stand upon one foundation of life with it. For Isa_44:5 does not speak of Israelites, but of such as turn to Jehovah and to His people. But the language concerning these would be wholly disconnected if Isa_44:4 did not in “among the grass” contain a transition to the thought in question.
Notice that Isa_44:5 has two chief parts, of which each has two subdivisions. The first subdivision of each part contains a declaration of surrender to Jehovah; the second subdivision contains each time a recognition of Israel as a people of prominent importance. The first subdivisions begin with זֶה, the fourth does not. As one cannot avoid inquiring why the Prophet should refrain from a fourth זה, it appears that he would say: not all will make prominent in their confessions either Jehovah or the nation, but many will do both. Thus among these heathen there shall be so far a difference, that some in their declaration of adhesion will mention more especially the God of the people, others the people of God, while still others will mention both in equal degree. Thus one will say I am the Lord’s, another will let a loud call be heard by means of the name of Jacob, i.e., he will loudly praise Jacob (comp. on Isa_41:5). Finally a third will do both: he will sign away his hand, i.e., what he can do, effect, perform (compare the expression נָתַן יָדJer_1:15; 2Ch_30:8, etc.) to the Lord (כָּתַבliteris consignare also with לְ of definition, e.g., in כָּתוּב לַחַיּים4:3). This explanation appears simpler to me than the other two that translate either “to write, etch on the hand,” or “to write with the hand.” Thus one may say in Latin: literis manum suam Jovae consignabit, in order to signify surrender by means of a legal obligation. Of the same person it is said further, that “he will make an award of honor by means of the name of Israel,” i.e., that he will honorably name the name of Israel. See Text and Gram. The intimate relation between God and His people is assumed here. He that confesses the Lord must confess His people, and vice versa.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. On Isa_43:1. “Here are presented to us for our comfort all three articles of the Christian faith concerning the Creation, Redemption, and Sanctification. For 1) if God created us He will not forsake the work of His hands (Psa_138:8). 2) If He has redeemed us, no one will seize His sheep out of His hand (Joh_10:28). 3) If He has called us and named us by our name, we are allowed to rejoice that our names are written in heaven (Luk_10:20)”—Cramer.
2. On Isa_43:2. “God delivers out of perils of water. Examples: Noah (Gen_8:15). Moses who was cast into the water in a little ark covered with pitch (Exo_2:6). The children of Israel who were led through the Red Sea (Exo_14:16). Jonah in the whale’s belly (Jonah 2:11). The disciples with the Lord in the boat (Mat_8:26). Peter who walked on the water (Mat_14:30). Paul shipwrecked, and along with whom were rescued two hundred and seventy-six souls (Act_27:37). God delivers also from perils of fire. Examples: Daniel’s companions in the fiery furnace (Dan_3:24 sqq.). Lot, whom with his family the holy angel led out of Sodom (Gen_19:17).”—Cramer.
3. [On Isa_43:4. “He would cause other nations to be destroyed, if it were necessary, in order to effect their deliverance, and to restore them to their own land. We learn here, (1) That nations and armies are in the hand of God and at His disposal. (2) That His people are dear to His heart, and that it is His purpose to defend them. (3) That the revolutions among nations, the rise of one empire, and the fall of another, are often in order to promote the welfare of His church, to defend it in danger, and deliver it in time of calamity. (4) That His people should put the utmost confidence in God as being able to defend them, and as having formed a purpose to preserve and save them.”—Barnes.——“The righteous is delivered out of trouble, and the wicked cometh in his stead,” Pro_11:8].
4. On Isa_43:3-4. “There are various views of this: a. Some suppose we are to understand it thus; the Egyptians imagined they would blot out the people of Israel, but they were punished themselves; b, others apply it to the times of Hezekiah, when the Egyptians and Ethiopians were chastised by Shalmaneser; c, others suppose it was fulfilled by Nebuchadnezzar in the time of Zedekiah; d, others by the Romans, when the Jewish republic was spared and these nations encountered misfortune; e, still others regard it as yet future, and that it is to be fulfilled on anti-christian nations, which they infer from Isa_44:5-7.”
“Several examples of such a warding off of punishment from the Jewish nation, which on the other hand were suffered to fall on heathen nations, are to be noticed in the history of the Jews. Still this is not to be understood as if these nations suffered for the sins of Judah. The wrath of God that should have come upon Judah, came on the heathen because of their own sins, but Judah was then spared out of grace (Pro_21:18). God forgave the penitent Jews their sin, but He punished the sin of the impenitent heathen.”—Starke.
5. On Isa_43:5-8. What the Prophet says here primarily of the return of Israel from all the lands of its exile, applies also to that return that takes place when poor, straying heathen souls are led back from dead idols to the living God, their Saviour and Redeemer. Then they are the ones that the Lord has made and prepared for His glory (Act_13:48; Rom_8:29 sq.) Such are the blind people that still have eyes, and the deaf that still have ears. For blind and deaf they are in as far as by nature and their birth they belong to the blind and deaf heathen world. But they have eyes and ears in as far as the Lord has opened their hearts and given them a penetration by which they see and hear better than those who, although surrounded by light through possession of the means of grace, still do not know what belongs to their peace (Mat_13:13 sqq.; Joh_9:39 sqq.).
6. On Isa_43:9-13. The Prophet here gives a proof of the existence of God, which at the same time involves a proof of the non-existence of idols. It cannot be denied in thesi, that a knowledge of the future lies beyond the sphere of human ability, and that if it occurs, it can only happen by virtue of a superhuman penetration that overleaps the limits of time and space. Prediction is not an art. All depends on what is foretold being fulfilled at the right time and in the right way. The agreement of prophecy and fulfilment can only be verified after the fulfilment takes place. Hence it is necessary that at the moment named the prophecy be attested as genuine, not fortuitous, not fabricated post eventum. Hence the Lord says (Isa_44:10): “ye are my witnesses.” And in fact, in all its notorious history, in its remarkable indestructibility, by virtue of which it moves through the entire universal history, while all other ancient nations have disappeared, Israel is a living witness for the existence of Him who calls Himself at once the God of Israel and the Creator of heaven and earth. For it is foretold that to this nation shall happen judgment, dispersion, continued existence in dispersion and a gathering together again out of dispersion. Over thousands of years ago it was foretold, and what to the present could be fulfilled has been fulfilled. What but divine knowledge and power can have so fitted the prophecy to the fulfilment and the fulfilment to the prophecy? Therefore the existence of a divine providence is proved by the history of Israel. But what other God should be the author of this providence than He that said not only, “ye are my witnesses” (Isa_44:10), but also, “I declared when there was no strange god among you?” (Isa_44:12). One is reminded of the anecdote of Frederick the Great, who, having demanded a striking proof of the truth of the religion revealed in the Bible, received from one of the guests at table the answer, “Your majesty, the Jews.”
[7. On Isa_43:10. “Neither shall there be after me.” “This expression is equivalent to that which occurs, Rev_1:11, “I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last;” and it is remarkable that this language, which obviously implies eternity, and which in Isaiah is used expressly to prove the divinity of Jehovah, is, in Rev_1:11, applied no less universally to the Lord Jesus Christ.”—Barnes.
On Isa_44:13.“ ‘Who can hinder it.’ The doctrine taught here is, (1) That God is from everlasting—for if He was before time, He must have been eternal. (2) That He is unchangeably the same—a doctrine which is, as it is here designed to be used, the only sure foundation for the security of His people—for who can trust a being who is fickle, changing, vacillating? (3) That He can deliver His people always, no matter what their circumstances. (4) That He will accomplish all His plans; no matter whether to save His people, or to destroy His foes. (5) That no one—man or devil—can hinder Him. How can the feeble arm of a creature resist God? (6) That opposition to Him is as fruitless as it is wicked. If men wish for happiness they must fall in with His plans, and aid in the furtherance of His designs.”—Barnes.]
8. On Isa_43:19 to Isa_44:5. We have here again a brilliant illustration of the grandeur of the prophetic view of history. The Prophet sees in spirit that with the deliverance from the Babylonish captivity a new thing will begin, in comparison with which the deliverance from Egyptian bondage with all its miracles will only appear as something inferior. For with the beginning of that period of salvation, the Prophet sees, too, the end. The waters with which the Lord will refresh those returning from Babylon flow from the same source as the water of regeneration, of the παλιγγενεσία, of the renewal of nature. And yet! What a tremendous period separates both, and what must Israel not go through till, from the drink out of that earthly fountain in the desert, it has attained to the well of heavenly water of life! It must first slough off the entire “fleshly Israel,” It has already performed the entire Old Testament ceremonial service in an unsatisfactory manner. Indeed, had it done this most perfectly, it could only have satisfied the needs of blotting out sin in an ideal, typical way. But Israel was far from performing even the outward letter of the law by that sort of service. The Lord must take all the guilt of His people on His own shoulders. What Israel did itself was as good as nothing. And the Lord, in His long-suffering, not only put up with this, He will even do more. He will undertake Himself the entire and complete blotting out of the guilt of His people. But the people are self-righteous and trust in their own work. They maintain that they have done what they ought, although the Lord can prove that not even their chiefs and prominent representatives have been righteous. Since then the nation, persisting, stiff-necked, in its self-righteousness, does not accept the sacrifice, that the Lord, in His infinite grace, brings for the purpose of making atonement,—this outward, fleshly Israel, with all its outward ceremonial service, which is used only to feed its self-righteousness, must be broken up and destroyed. Then, out of the ruins of the fleshly Israel, the spiritual Israel will issue as from a cast off shell, and it will be susceptible of the gracious gifts of its God. To it then will be imparted the streams of the Spirit which bring about the regeneration of all natural and personal life, and will enable Israel to sanctify the name of its God, as predicted in Isa_43:21.
[On Isa_43:25. “We may learn from this verse; (1) That it is God only who can pardon sin. How vain then is it for man to attempt it! How wicked for man to claim the prerogative! And yet it is an essential part of the papal system that the Pope and his priests have the power of remitting the penalty of transgression. (2) That this is done by God solely for His own sake. It is not (a) because we have any claim to it—for then it would not be pardon, but justice. It is not (b) because we have any power to compel God to forgive—for who can contend with Him, and how could mere power procure pardon? It is not (c) because we have any merit—for then also it would be justice—and we have no merit. Nor is it (d) primarily in order that we may be happy—for our happiness is a matter not worthy to be named compared with the honour of God. But it is solely for His own sake—to promote His own glory—to show His perfections—to evince the greatness of His mercy and compassion—and to show His boundless and eternal love. (3) They who are pardoned should live to His glory, and not to themselves [Isa_44:21; Isa_44:5]. (4) If men are ever pardoned they must come to God—and to God alone. They must come not to justify themselves, but to confess their crimes.”—Barnes.].
10. On Isa_44:1-2. “God has two arguments wherewith to comfort: 1) When He reminds His own what He did for them in the past; 2) what He will yet do for them in the future.”—Cramer.
11. On Isa_44:3. Comparing here the bestowment of the Spirit to pouring water on dry land, happens primarily out of regard to the special connection of our passage, which treats of the return of Israel through the desert. As in Isa_43:19-20 abundance of water is promised for physical refreshment, so here streams of the Spirit for spiritual refreshment. Outpouring of the Spirit is promised elsewhere also for the purpose of cleansing, fructifying, refreshing (Eze_36:25; Joh_7:37 sqq.). When, however, the Holy Spirit appears elsewhere as a fiery energy (Mat_3:11; Mar_1:8; Act_2:3) it is to designate it as the principle of divine light and life-heat. Whether by the baptism of fire is to be understood also the fire of judgment (Mat_3:12; 1Co_3:13-15) as Origen and Ambrose think, we will leave uninvestigated here.
HOMILETICAL HINTS
1. On Isa_43:1-4. A glorious word of comfort for the individual Christian and for Christian communions. All grounds of comfort are therein enumerated. We learn 1) what the Lord is to us (Isa_44:3 God, Saviour, Isa_44:4 He loves us). 2) What we are to the Lord (Isa_44:1 His creatures, redeemed ones, and not such as disappear in the great mass, but whom He knows by name, and whom as a precious possession He keeps ever in sight). 3) He delivers us out of manifold distresses (Isa_44:2 out of all). 4) The price He pays for our deliverance (Isa_44:3-4; conscious enemies, or their unconscious instruments may go to destruction to save us, e.g., in ancient times the Egyptians in the Red Sea, in modern, the French against Germany, 1870–71. 5) To what He has destined us (Isa_44:4, because so dear, thou must be glorious). On Isa_43:1-2. “Thou art mine! saith the Lord. By that He signifies 1) a well-acquired; 2) an inviolable right of possession.” Koegel in “Aus dem Vorhof ins Heiligthum,” 1876, Vol. II. p. 196.
2. On Isa_43:5-8. Missionary Sermon. The Lord here addresses the spiritual Israel, to whom we and all out of every nation belong, who are born of God. Missions are properly nothing else than a gathering of the hidden children of God, scattered here and there, to the communion of the visible church (Joh_11:52). Contemplate 1) The mission territory a, in its outward extent (all nations Isa_44:5 b, 6); b, in its inward limitation (Isa_44:7-8; all are called, only those are chosen who are marked with the name of the Lord, are prepared for His glory, among the blind and deaf are such as see and hear). 2) Mission work: a, its difficulty (Isa_44:5, “fear not” implies that, humanly speaking, there is reason for fear); b, the guaranty of its success (Isa_44:5, “I am with thee”).
3. On Isa_43:22. [Proofs of weariness in religion. (1) Casting off prayer: thou hast not called upon me, O Jacob. Jacob was a man famous for prayer (Hos_12:4); to boast the name of Jacob, and yet live without prayer, is to mock God and deceive ourselves. If Jacob does not call upon God, who will. (2) They grudged the expense of devotion. They were for a cheap religion. They had not brought even the small cattle; much less the greater, pretending they could not spare them, they must have them for the maintenance of their families; still less would they pay for a foreign article like missions; bought no sweet cane. (3) What sacrifices they did offer were not meant for God’s honor, neither hast thou honored me, etc.; being offered carelessly, or hypocritically, or perfunctorily, or ostentatiously, or perhaps even to idols, these were dishonouring to God. (4) The aggravation of this; as God appointed the service it was no burdensome thing, I have not caused thee to serve, etc. God’s commands are not grievous. After M. Henry].
4. On Isa_43:24-25. Passion sermon. The righteousness that avails with God. 1) Israel does not obtain it (it has not even fulfilled the ceremonial law; and not merely the nation in general left the law unfulfilled, but also its chiefs and teachers: and as with Israel so with mankind in general. 2) Christ procures it; for: a, He the guiltless, out of pure love takes on Himself the heavy burden of suffering, which beginning in Gethsemane ends on Golgotha; b, thereby He blots out our transgressions and reconciles us to the Father.
5. On Isa_44:1-5. Pentecost (Whitsuntide) sermon. The Church of Christ can grow, flourish, and bear fruit only by the Spirit of Christ. Hence is necessary the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. This Isaiah 1) to be hoped for with certainty, because promised by the Lord (in proportion to the need and to the receptivity the Holy Spirit will ever be imparted to the church); 2) infallibly efficient in producing all the good fruits that must adorn the vineyard of the Lord (Isa_44:4-5).
6. On Isa_44:1-5. “The period of confirmation an Advent of Jesus to the children.” Praise and thanks to God, there is much new life born in the period while those that are to be confirmed are under instruction, and much grows up in later time out of the seed scattered then. This time ought also to open the children’s mouths for them to confess their salvation and their Saviour. That poor “yes” that the children speak at their confirmation at the altar is not enough. Nor does it suffice for us to confess our being Christians by attending church and partaking of the Lord’s Supper. The congregation that has become dumb must learn to speak again. We must boast again the unspeakable benefit of free grace. We must have a confessing church again. The confession must go with us into our life.” Ahlfeld, Das Leben im Lichte des Wortes Gottes, Halle, 1867, p. 150.
Footnotes:
[1]poplars.
[2]shall shout out the name of Jacob
V.—THE FIFTH DISCOURSE
Prophecy as proof of divinity comes to the front and culminates in the name Kores
Isa_44:6-28
1. JEHOVAH GUARANTEES ISRAEL’S SALVATION BY HIS PROPHECY. IDOLATERS WHOSE MADE-GODS CANNOT PROPHESY COME TO SHAME
Isa_44:6-11
6 Thus saith the Lord the King of Israel,
And his redeemer the Lord of hosts;
I am the first, and I am the last;
And beside me there is no God.
7 3And who, as I, shall call,
And shall declare it, and set it in order for me,
Since I appointed the ancient people?
4And the things that are coming, and shall come,
Let them shew unto them.
8 Fear ye not, neither be afraid:
Have not I told thee from that time, and have declared it?
Ye are even my witnesses.
Is there a God beside me?
Yea, there is no 5God; I know not any.
9 They that make a graven image are all of them vanity;
And their 6delectable things shall not profit;
And they are their own witnesses;
They see not, nor know;
That they may be ashamed.
10 Who hath formed a God,
Or molten a graven image that is profitable for nothing?
11 Behold, all his fellows shall be ashamed:
And the workmen, they are of men;
Let them all be gathered together, let them stand up;
Yet they shall fear, and they shall be ashamed together.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
See List for the recurrence of the words: Isa_44:8. רָהָה־פָּחַד. Isa_44:9. יָעַל–חָמוּד–תֹּהוּ Hiph.
Isa_44:6-7. Isa_44:7 is related to Isa_44:6 b as the conclusion to the reason. But ver 7 is to be construed so that the words ומי כמני יקרא משׂומי עם–עולם shall be taken together, and the words יגידה ויעדכה לי construed as a parenthesis. קרא, agreeably to the context, and since it has nothing to do with teaching or with announcing past things, is=“to proclaim, announce, call out aloud, publicly.” As appears to me, קָרָא is used partly for the sake of variety, the synonymous expressions having been used הִגִּיד thrice in Isa_44:7-8, הִשְׁמִיעַ (comp. Isa_43:12) once at least, but partly and chiefly, because קרא involves in a greater degree the notion of sounding. It is related to those other expressions named like our “calling” to “giving notice, letting hear.” The latter may take place by a very light voice or even without any use of the voice.—יגיד׳ ויע׳ לי, as we have said, is a parenthesis; but וְ introduces the demonstrative conclusion after the relative premise מי יקרא (comp. e.g. Num_23:3). The premise is only interrupted for rhetorical reasons, being the result of the pathos with which the Prophet speaks. עָרַךְ certainly has here, not merely the meaning “to lay before, to lay down,” but it involves also the notion of “doing similarly.” The Vav. before אֲשֶׁר has as often, the meaning “and indeed.” לָמוֹ after יַגִּידוּ is dat. ethicus, with strong approximation to the dativ. commodi.
Isa_44:8. The question הֲיֵשׁ וגו׳ is equivalent to a denial (comp. questions with מָה or מִי Job_16:6; Job_31:1; Son_8:4, etc.).—The expression אֱלוֹהַּ does not occur again in Isaiah.
Isa_44:9. חמוּד is “exoptatum, deliciae” (part. pass.; only here in Isaiah; comp. Job_20:20; Psa_39:12). But I construe “the wished-for, desired,” in the sense of “jewel, valuable.”—בל־יועילו recalls בְּלִיַּעל, thus it has hardly the merely negative meaning of inability, but also the positive meaning of something destructive, hurtful.—The words ועדיהם המה are variously explained. The Masoretic points over המה denote that it is critically suspicious. But it suits the context very well, if only the idols themselves be not regarded the witnesses: they, the idols, are their own witnesses, i.e., they testify against themselves (Delitzsch). For the notion against themselves would need to be more clearly expressed. Rather the idol-makers are the witnesses for their idols as Israel is for Jehovah. Therefore הֵמָּה is subject to the predicate עדיהם, and not merely a resumption of עדיהם construed as the subject, of יראו וגו׳.
Isa_44:10. מי is here, as often, at the point of passing from the interrogative to the relative sense, and hence acquires an iterative meaning. For the question “who is there, who?” which, as it were, challenges in every direction, has the sense of “whosoever, quicunque.” Comp. e.g. Exo_24:14; Jer_49:19.—I construe לבלתי ו׳ as a conclusion, whose predicate is self-evident from the foregoing clause: “whosoever forms a god (he does, forms or moulds it) for nothing.” If מי be construed as a direct interrogative, it has the appearance as if the Prophet doubted whether there were such people. For if one understands the inquiry in the sense of “reluctant wonder” (Knobel), and makes the answer to be that no rational person would do this, then the question would not be “who forms?” but “what rational person forms?”
Isa_44:11. According to the context the clause וחרשׁים ו׳ must, it seems to me, be construed as causal. For המה מאדם is not the parallel of יבשׁו it does not express the notion of destruction, but of what is the explanation of the destruction. Therefore I translate: “for they are (properly: they are in fact, comp. Isa_24:5; Isa_38:17 : Isa_39:1, etc.), smiths of men,” i.e., of human origin.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. The Prophet has announced (chap. 41), the first deliverer for the first time, and then along with him the one to be delivered, viz., the servant of God in the national sense. In contrast with both of these he has presented the second and greatest deliverer, the Servant of God in a personal sense (42). In chap. 43 he has portrayed the deliverance in its chief characteristics. Now in chap. 44 he gives the fullest effect to that element of his discourse, viz., the proof of divinity by means of prophecy, which so far he has produced already four times like a refrain, yet only as a prelude.
In three strophes Jehovah announces Himself in contrast with the dead idols as the true, living, omniscient, almighty God, who has predetermined Israel’s deliverance, and now foretells it so that Israel can no more doubt His divinity. For, at the close of this chapter the Prophet names with the greatest distinctness even the name of the prince who is called to be the deliverer of Israel. The first three strophes are but the substructure for this culmination that is to crown the building, that is, for the great prophetic act that is accomplished in naming the name “Kores.” In the first half of the present strophe (Isa_44:6-8) the Prophet makes prominent the difference between Jehovah and idols, by contrasting the omniscience and omnipotence of Jehovah with the nescience and impotence of idols. In the second half, also consisting of three verses (8–11), the Prophet exposes the folly of idolatry.
2. Thus saith—know not any.
Isa_44:6-8. The Lord justifies the consoling language “fear ye not,” etc., Isa_44:8, by first presenting Himself as the One that will help Israel, and can help. He is willing to help as being Israel’s King, He can help as being the eternal God who has proved this His eternal divinity. Note how the Lord encloses the predicates of His existence relative to Israel in the predicates of His divine existence. He first calls Himself Jehovah, the absolutely existent. For this is the foundation. Then He calls Himself Israel’s King and Redeemer. This is His historical revelation relative to time and salvation, which is enclosed by His eternal divine existence as by a ring. The latter is completed by the notion “Jehovah of hosts.” For by this is intimated that the Lord is not only God per se, but has revealed this divinity already in a super-terrestrial sphere of dominion. How consoling for Israel that He, who is God per se, but has shown already that He can be such also for others by a super-terrestrial kingdom of glory, calls Himself Israel’s King and Redeemer! The Lord was King of Israel while Israel existed as a nation (comp. Deu_33:5; Psa_74:12). The nation’s demand for a human king is expressly called an insult to Jehovah as heavenly King (1Sa_8:7; 1Sa_12:12). And also after Israel had received an earthly royalty, Jehovah still remains forever its proper, true and eternal King, from whom all earthly power of ruling emanates (Isa_33:22). But the king is the natural deliverer of his people. His own interest and honor demand that his people shall not be ruined (see e.g.Psa_79:9; Psa_106:8). This King has at His disposal for protecting Israel invisible powers, great in strength and numbers, viz., the heavenly hosts (comp. Deu_33:3, and Schroederin loc.; 2Ki_6:16 sqq.; Heb_1:14). After this preface the Lord proceeds with what He has in mind. He calls Himself the first and the last (Isa_41:4; Isa_48:12) beside whom there is no God (Isa_43:11; Isa_44:8; Isa_45:6; Isa_45:21). For only He can be God who is before all and after all. But the Lord assuredly does not call Himself the first and the last in the sense of temporal succession, as if He were only the first to come into existence and the last to remain; for that would only establish a difference as to degree, between Him and creatures. No, the Lord is at the same time beginning and end, Alpha and Omega. He encircles not only Israel (comp. on Isa_44:6 a), but all the world’s history as a ring. To Him everything, beginning and end, is absolutely present.
Therefore, too, He can prophesy, and therefore prophesying by means of a decree is proof of His eternity, i.e., of His divinity. (On the relation of Isa_44:7 to 6b see Text. and Gram.). עם־עולם “everlasting people;” [English Version ancient people.] I do not believe that this means the human race. The Lord describes Himself in the whole context as the God of Israel; He will comfort Israel. It may be said that God prophesied from the beginning of the world, and that humanity in a certain sense may be described as עם־עולם. Yet it is very doubtful whether in that case עָם would not require a nearer definition as in Isa_42:5. Isa_40:7, to which appeal is made, refers decidedly to Israel, as we have shown. The dead may be called עס־עולם (Eze_26:20) because they are a special part of mankind, in respect to space dwelling in a land of their own, and in respect to time of immeasurable duration. But Israel, too, may be called an everlasting people, for to it alone, of all nations, is promised an everlasting covenant (Exo_31:16; Lev_24:8; Isa_24:5; Isa_55:3; Isa_61:8, etc.), an everlasting sanctuary (Eze_37:26), an everlasting priesthood (Exo_40:15; Num_25:13, etc.), and kingdom (2Sa_7:13; 2Sa_7:16; Psa_89:4 sqq.); indeed it is expressly said “thou hast confirmed to thyself thy people Israel to be a people unto thee forever” (לְעָם עַד־עוֹלָם) 2. Sam. Isa_7:24; comp. 1Ch_17:22. And in fact Israel is, in a good sense, the everlasting [wandering] Jew, the only nation that does not lose itself in the sea of nations, like a river, that does not mingle its waters with the lake through which it flows. And in the end the spiritual Israel will absorb all nations, and its sanctuary and priesthood and kingdom every other sanctuary, priesthood and kingdom, to the end that the throne and sanctuary of Israel’s King and High-priest may exist alone through eternity.
The Lord has challenged the idols in Isa_44:7 a to produce their ancient prophecies, if they had any to show; in the second half of the verse he challenges them to produce any new ones they have. These new ones are designated as אֹתִיּוֹת and as such אֲשֶׁר תָּבֹאנָה. I do not believe that by this immediate future and remoter future things are distinguished (see on Isa_41:22-23). But which will come is the nearer definition of אתיות. They are not to name any sort of so-called future thing, but such as shall also come, i.e., actually come to pass (see Text. and Gram.). They shall foretell for their own advantage (למו see Text. and Gram.); for it were for the interest of those addressed to be able to perform what is asked of them.
Isa_44:8. If Jehovah, who calls Himself King and Redeemer of Israel, and who has founded this people for an everlasting existence, has furnished the proof of His divinity by a demonstration of His omniscience, then Israel need not fear. Jehovah has long in advance (מֵאָז as in Isa_16:13; Isa_45:21; Isa_48:3 sqq., comp. מֵרֹאשׁ41:26) foretold their distress and the deliverance from it, and Israel must testify that such is the fact (Isa_43:10). Therefore the Lord can prophesy, and the fact (only affirmed Isa_44:6 b) is demonstrated, viz., His sole divinity. In the second clause of Isa_44:8 the Prophet seems to have in mind Psa_18:32.
2. They that make—ashamed together.
Isa_44:9-11. The lash is now laid on the folly of those that make idols, and then themselves appear as their witnesses, whereas in fact they see nothing of the future, from which appears the powerlessness of the idols, and the inevitable result that their worshippers must come to shame. The words are throughout in contrast with what (Isa_44:6-8) the Lord affirms of Himself. The idols themselves are guiltless. How can the poor blocks help men making idols of them? But the makers of idols are guilty, hence the Lord addresses them (יֹצְרֵי־פֶסֶל, the expression only here). See Text. and Gram. Jehovah is the Maker (יֹצֵר) of Israel (Isa_44:2); the idol-makers are the makers (יֹצְרִים) of their gods. These idol-makers are vanity (תֹּהוּ), they sink back into chaos, or rather they produce nothing better than chaos; while Israel is the everlasting people עם־עולם). The idol-makers are witnesses of their idols, i.e., they testify in their own case. Israel is the impartial witness of Jehovah; the idols are powerless, useless images; Jehovah is the Rock and Redeemer of His people. The idols themselves see and know nothing, consequently their worshippers and witnesses know nothing (יָדַע in the absolute sense=“to have knowledge,” as Isa_45:20; Isa_56:10); to Jehovah, as the first and last, all is present, the beginning and the end, and what lies between. Therefore Israel must not fear, for it knows with the greatest certainty that it has in prospect a glorious deliverance. Isa_44:10-11 form the transition to Isa_44:12 sqq. wherein idol-manufacture is described; Isa_44:10 already presenting the fundamental thought that a shaped and moulded god is a contradictio in adjecto, hence a useless thing. Isa_44:11 describes the proper fate of idol-makers, already intimated by profitable for nothing. By חברים many understand the companions, helpers of the idol-makers. But are not they identical then; and why make them specially prominent? It is better to understand that the companions or followers of the idols are intended (comp. חֲבוּר עֲצַבִּים אֶפְרַיִםHos_4:17). Yet I would restrict the meaning to those servants of idols that are at the same time their manufacturers. These are the actual allies of the idols. For by the quantity and quality of their productions idolatrous worship is made to flourish (e.g., Demetrius in Ephesus, Act_19:24). Against this sentence the idol-makers might fancy they could oppose successful resistance by harmoniously standing up together en masse. But they mistake. They will still lose heart, and, instead of one by one, will only come to shame together.
Footnotes:
[3]And who is as I, who proclaims aloud—so he shall tell it and do it like me—since I set an everlasting people.
[4]And future things even what shall come to pass.
[5]Heb. Rock.
[6]Heb. desirable.
2. THE POWERLESSNESS OF IDOLS AND THE FOLLY OF THEIR WORSHIPPERS PROVED BY THE WAY THEY ARE PRODUCED
Isa_44:12-17
12 7The smith8 with the tongs
Both worketh in the coals, and fashioneth it with hammers,
And worketh it with the strength of his arms:
Yea, he is hungry, and his strength faileth:
He drinketh no water, and is faint.
13 The carpenter stretcheth out his 9rule; he marketh it out with a 10line;
He fitteth it with planes,
And he marketh it out with the compass,
And maketh it after the figure of a man,
According to the beauty of a man;
That it may remain in the house.
14 11He heweth him down cedars,
And taketh the cypress and the oak,
12Which he 13strengtheneth for himself among the trees of the forest:
He planteth an 14ash, and the rain doth nourish it.
15 Then shall it be for a man to burn:
For he will take thereof, and warm himself;
Yea, he kindleth it, and baketh bread;
Yea, he maketh a god, and worshippeth it;
He maketh it a graven image, and falleth down thereto.
16 He burneth part thereof in the fire;
With part thereof he eateth flesh;
He roasteth roast, and is satisfied:
Yea, he warmeth himself, and saith,
Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire:
17 And the residue thereof he maketh a god, even his graven image:
He falleth down unto it, and worshippeth it,
And prayeth unto it, and saith,
Deliver me; for thou art my god.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
Isa_44:12. The words חרשׁ ברזל מעצד as they now stand mock every effort at exposition. For if we take חָרַשׁ as a verb [so J. A. A.], which conflicts with the parallel חרשׁ עצים Isa_44:13, and translate “ex ferro bipennim facit” (Targ.), or if we take connectedly חרשׁ ברזל as faber farrarius, and let מעצד depend on a latent verb חָרַשׁ (“the smith prepares an axe,” Gesen.), or on the following פעל (“the smith—a hatchet he works up in the glowing coals, viz., into an idol,” Hitzig), or let it be subject with לוֹ supplied (“the iron smith has a great chisel,” Delitzsch), or if we connect the three words and translate: “the master, in iron of the axe he works in the glowing coals,” Hahn; “the forger of edge-tools—he works with coals,” Knobel,—in any case we encounter grammatical difficulties, or we obtain an unsatisfactory sense. The LXX. translates: ὅτι ὤξυνε τέκτων σίδηρον, σκεπάρνῳ εἰργάσατο αὐτό. Now this ὣξυνε is nothing else than the foregoing יַחַד. For חָדַר means “to be pointed;” Hiph. הֵחֵד “to point, sharpen.” Now Cheyne thinks that a word such as הֵחֵד has been lost from the beginning of Isa_44:12; Delitzsch believes that חִדֵּד has dropped out. But nothing at all has fallen out. Only the Masoretic point Soph-pasuk is to be put after יֵבשׁוּ. Then יַחַד is quite simply the imperf. Hiph. of חָדַד, which imperf. occurs in only one other place, viz., Pro_27:17, where it reads:
בַּרְזֶל בְּבַרְזֶל יָחַ֑ד וְאִישׁ יַחַד פְּנֵי־רֵעֵהוּ, i.e., “iron on iron sharpens, and a man sharpens the countenance of his neighbor.” Of course, according to rule the consonants must be pointed יָחֵד. And it is quite possible that this, or יַחֵד (ad. f. יַתֵּם Green, § 140, 5) is the original reading of our text. As the imperf. Hiph. of הֵחֵד is a very rare form, while יַחַד “una,” is a very frequent word, confounding of the former with the latter is easily explained; and as יַחַד does not suit in Isa_44:12, but does suit in Isa_44:11, it was natural to place the Soph-pasuk after it. In Pro_27:17, also, the Masorets have both times taken יַהַד in the sense of una, (comp. Ewald, Lehrb., p. 559). But this construction is very harsh, because יַחַד must then not only be taken as a preposition, but is, moreover, in a strange manner joined with the prefix בְּ (instead of עִם or עַל). Most probably, therefore, we are to read יַחֵד in this place, or (less correctly as apocopated Hiph. from חָדַד = חָדָה, see Zoeckler on Pro_27:17) יַחַד.
The חַרַשׁ ברזל, as remarked, is in parallelism with the חָרַשׁ עצים Isa_44:13 (comp. חָרַשׁ אֶבֶז Exo_28:11). Therefore חָרַשׁ is stat. constr. from חָרשׁ (see List).—מַֽעֲצָד (from the rad. inus. עָצַד, which like חצד in the dialects, קצע ,חצה ,חצב ,חצץ has the sense of cutting) is an edge-tool; not necessarily a hatchet.—פָּעַל is used here absolutely=“to do work;” a use, indeed, that is rare, but comp. Isa_43:13=“I effect.” Moreover the word is mainly poetic, and hence a freer use of it is possible.—פֶּחָם (again only Isa_54:16; Pro_26:21) is the fire-coal.—מקבוה only here in Isaiah; comp. Isa_51:1.
Isa_44:13. שֶׂרֶר. ἅπ. λεγ. “red chalk.”—מקצעות, ἅπ. λεγ. from קָצַע “abscindere,” therefore also an edge-tool; Targ. אִזְמִלַיָּא, σμίλη, scalprum, tool of the sculptor.—מְחוּנָה from חוּג “circulare, ἅπ. λεγ. “the circle.”—תָּאַר is originally=תּוּר “circuire” (hence of the course of the boundaries of the land, Jos_15:9; Jos_15:11; Jos_18:14; Jos_18:17). Piel is then “circuitum facere,” “to make outlines, to outline.” It occurs only here.—If the reading יְתָֽאֳרֵהוּ at the end of the first clause, is correct, and there is therefore a difference between it and the same word following, then it seems to me very much to correspond with the context to take the latter as denominativum from תֹּאַר in the sense of “to make beautiful.” Thus, e.g., שׁוֹרֵשׁ “to make roots” (Isa_40:24) stands along with שֵׁרֵשׁ “to eradicate,” סֹעֵר “to make a storm (סַעַר), to storm forth,” along with סֵעֵד “to drive forth.” In that case our form were decidedly to be pronounced j’ thôŏrehu.
Isa_44:14. I cannot believe that לִכְרֹת here is to be taken in the sense of the conjugatio periphrastica. Isa_44:14 describes how a forest is planted out and grown large. Thus also Hahn. This statement of the aim is simply put first, and וַ in ויקּח refers backwards.—לכרת אֲרָזִים is said, not as if only cedars were planted. That would conflict with what follows where other sorts of trees are named. But only the noblest sort stands for all, as if one were to say: to have apples to eat I set out an orchard. The meaning there is not that the orchard consisted only of apple-trees. תִּרְזָה, ἅπ. λεγ., commonly supposed to mean “the ilex, rock-oak” (the evergreen oak of the south ”). אַלּוֹן the oak generally. אַמֵּץ “to make firm,” “fix,” in the sense of “choosing,” comp. Isa_41:10; Psa_80:16; Psa_80:18. אֹרֶן (with נ minusc.) also ἅπ. λεγ. It is strange that the planting of trees is said to be for the purpose of “felling cedars,” and that then no cedars are named among the planted trees Hence one is tempted to conjecture that a ז was mistaken for נ finale minusc, and that it ought to read אֶרֶז. But in Assyrian “irini Labnâna” is the common designation for the Cedars of Lebanon. Along with that is found also for cedars irsi (Schrader, Keilinschr. u. d. A. T., p. 271 sq), so that in both languages אֶרֶז and אֹרֶן have kindred meaning, and the conjecture of Schrader seems well-founded, that both expressions signify only different species of the genus Pinus (the cedar resembles our larch). Hence those are right who, following the LXX. and the Vulg., prefer the meaning “pinus” to that of “ornus.”
Isa_44:15. According to what precedes, the notion “tree” in general is the subject of והיּה.—נָשַׂק again only Psa_78:21; Eze_39:9.—סָגַד see List. לָמוֹ is used here as singular, as probably Isa_53:8; Deu_33:2. Comp. Ewald, § 247, d.
Isa_44:16. רָאִיתִי אוּר as videre mortem, Psa_89:49; vitam, Ecc_9:9; somnum, Ecc_8:16; famem, Jer_5:12, etc.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
The truth, already uttered in the foregoing strophe, that making a god is a senseless performance, is here put in the strongest light. The Prophet describes in a drastic manner what a monstrous contrast there is between the honor that men put upon the idol and the elements from which its originates. He first describes, briefly the origin of a metal idol. It is the product of the combined labor of edge-tools, hot-coals, hammering and human sweat. Hard work that, and such as makes one hungry and thirsty. What sort of a god is that which must be fashioned with bitter sweat and from such difficult, coarse and hard material! What a contrast with the God who is spirit (Isa_44:12). More particularly he describes how a wooden idol comes into existence. The artist in wood has easier work. He stretches the line so as to have a stick of the desired size. Next, with red chalk, he draws the outline of the figure, which he then executes with his tool, giving it, with the aid of the circle, beauty of form. Thus the block, by the art of the master, takes an outward human form, as is proper in order to live in human society. But the block cannot be elevated beyond this. Inwardly it remains still a block. תפארת in parallelism with תבנית seems to me to involve a progress in thought: not merely according to the human copy generally, but he makes it according to what is splendor, glory of mankind, i.e., the work of art may even represent the human form quite in its lofty ideal, still it gives only the external outline. Evidently the Prophet, by חרשׁ עצים meant, not a bungler, but a real artist (Isa_44:13).
But now the Prophet goes back to the origin of the stuff itself of which the wood-idol is made.
He describes how trees are planted so as to make a forest, how the rain gives them increase (Isa_44:14): then how such a tree is felled, in order to make a fire with part of it, for heating and cooking, and with another to make an idol (Isa_44:15). Thus, recapitulating, of the tree, one half of which is used for heating, and the other half for preparing food, what remains is made into an idol that is worshipped and is summoned for aid as the only refuge. One would suppose that if one half were used for warming and the other for cooking, there would be nothing left. But Isa_44:17 speaks of a remnant (שׁארית). By this the Prophet would manifestly intimate that not even one of the two chief halves of the trunk is applied to making the idol, but only spare wood, say, the stump in the ground. [“This incongruity has no existence in the original: because, as all the other modern writers are agreed, the first and second חֶצְיוֹ of Isa_44:16 are one and the same half, and the other is not introduced till the next verse.”—J. A. A.] Earth-born block, watered by rain, essentially destined for heating and cooking, only formed into an idol image by the way—such things gods!
All the interpreters since Calvin quote the striking parallel from Horace (Sat. I. 8):
Olim truncus eram ficulnus, inutile lignum,
Cum faber, incertus scamnum faceretne Priapum,
Maluit esse Deum.
Footnotes:
[7]The artist in iron sharpens his tool and worketh, etc.
[8]Or, with an axe.
[9]line
[10]red-chalk.
[11]To hew, etc., he took.
[12]Ana made choice.
[13]Or, taketh courage.
[14]a cedar.
2. CAUSE AND EFFECT OF IDOLATROUS NONSENSE
Isa_44:18-20
18 They have not known nor understood:
For he hath 15shut their eyes, that they cannot see;
And their hearts, that they cannot understand.
19 And none 16considereth in his heart,
Neither is there knowledge nor understanding to say,
I have burned part of it in the fire;
Yea, also I have baked bread upon the coals thereof;
I 17have roasted flesh, and eaten it:
And shall I make the residue thereof an abomination?
Shall I fall down to 18the stock of a tree?
20 19He feedeth on ashes: a deceived heart hath turned him aside,
That he cannot deliver his soul, 20nor say,
Is there not a lie in my right hand?
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
Isa_44:18. It seems strange that טח is pointed with Pattahh instead of Kametz. For no root טָחַח from which טַח might come is used; but from טוּחַ, which occurs often especially in Ezekiel, the third pers. perf. must sound טָח (comp. Lev_14:42). The context gives no intimation of Jehovah being the author of the ΙΙώρωσις (comp. Romans 9). Hence it seems to me that we may take טַח as a nominal form, which owing to the relation of the עע׳ and עו׳, would then be pointed according to the type of derivatives from עע׳, to distinguish it from the verbal form טָח. This might occur the more easily since the word does not stand in pause, but in the closest connection with the following word. The singular is to be explained from the neutral construction of the preceding predicate word.
Isa_44:19. The expression השׁיב אל לב (rotrovertere in pectus, viz., the thing objectively noticed, occurs on the ground of Deu_4:39; Deu_30:1; 1Ki_8:47; Lam_3:21. It occurs again in Isa_46:8, where על for אל makes no difference in the meaning.—The substantives דַּעַת and תְבוּנהָ repeat in another form the verbs of the same root in Isa_44:18.—It need not occasion surprise that with אצלה the discourse suddenly makes a transition to the imperfect. For the saying of the idol-worshipper, which is introduced by לאמר falls in the moment where he warms himself and has baked bread. Now, he says, I will also roast meat and eat, and make the remnant of the wood into an idol.
Isa_44:20. רָעָח “to pasture,” then vesci, nutriri, with accusative of the thing, is used here as in the expressions רעה רוּחַ Hos_12:2; אְמוּנָה Psa_37:3; אִוֶּלֶת Pro_15:14, etc.—הוּתַל, relative clause; the word from תָּלַל, “vilem esse.” Hiph. “ludificare, to mock.”—The general meaning of the Vav. in ולא יאמר is specialized by the context in the sense of assigning a reason. So I feel obliged to explain it, because יַצִּיל can neither be taken de conatu (Delitzsch), nor, (with Hahn) in the sense of “the soul-saving knowledge.”
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
In these verses the Prophet shows what is the cause and operation of that senseless idolatry. The cause is blindness and perversity of heart. The insane folly of what they do is not perceived by these men (יבין ,ירע=“to have knowledge, penetration;” comp. Isa_44:9; Isa_32:4; Isa_45:20; Isa_56:10 : moreover, the entire expression is from Psa_82:4), for because their inward sense, the heart, is as if stuck together, as though smeared over with mortar and whitewash, so, too, the outward eye is stuck together, so that they cannot see. The stupidity is aggravated; hence the Prophet cannot find words severe enough for reproof. Hence in Isa_44:19 he begins anew to enumerate the bad products, after having, Isa_44:18, named the source of them.—תועבה, abomination, is an expression that the Prophet takes out of his own heart and ascribes to the idolater. This happens also elsewhere in another fashion (comp. Exo_8:22; Deu_27:15, which perhaps was in the mind of the Prophet; Jer_16:18; 2Ki_23:13, etc.).—בּוּל (only here in Isa.) according to its fundamental meaning is “manare, fluere, profluere,” and according to the meanings that occur elsewhere (Job_40:20, בּוּל הָרִים=“products of the mountains;” 1Ki_6:38, “the rain-month Bul;” comp. מַבּוּל), is not a piece of a tree, but a product of a tree.—The conclusion is couched in an utterance that sounds like a judicial sentence. Ashes are the emblem of something that deceives; one thinks he is to eat and see something good, and behold it is ashes, Job_13:12. Therefore he that nourishes himself with ashes, a heart that is blind itself, has wrought misleadingly on his outward conduct. The second half of Isa_44:20 I regard with Hitzig as a conclusion, which names the effect of this insane idolatry. It is this: the man does not deliver his soul. He would save it did he awake in season to the conviction that a lie (so everything is called that belongs to idolatry) is in his hand (as a would-be staff).
Footnotes:
[15]Heb. daubed.
[16]Heb. setteth to his heart.
[17]I will roast.
[18]Heb. that which comes of a tree.
[19]He who feeds.
[20]as he says not.
4. JEHOVAH, THE CREATOR OF HEAVEN AND EARTH, CAN PROPHESY, ADN HE PROPHESIES THE DELIVERANCE OF HIS PEOPLE BY KORES
Isa_44:21-28
21 Remember these, O Jacob and Israel;
21For thou art my servant:
I have formed thee; thou art my servant:
O Israel, thou shalt not be forgotten of me.
22 I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions,
And, as a cloud, thy sins:
Return unto me; for I have redeemed thee.
23 Sing, O ye heavens; for the Lord hath done it:
Shout, ye lower parts of the earth:
Break forth into singing, ye mountains,
O forest, and every tree therein:
For the Lord hath redeemed Jacob,
And glorified himself in Israel.
24 Thus saith the Lord, thy redeemer,
And he that formed thee from the womb,
I am the Lord that maketh all things;
That stretcheth forth the heavens alone;
That spreadeth abroad the earth by myself;
25 That frustrateth the tokens of the liars,
And maketh diviners mad;
That turneth wise men backward,
And maketh their knowledge foolish;
26 That confirmeth the word of his servant,
And performeth the counsel of his messengers;
That saith to Jerusalem, 22Thou shalt be inhabited;
And to the cities of Judah, 23Ye shall be built,
And I will raise up24 the 25decayed places thereof:
27 That saith to the deep, Be dry,
And I will dry up thy rivers:
28 That saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd,
And shall perform all my pleasure:
Even saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built;
And to the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
See List for the recurrence of the words used, especially: Isa_44:23. פּאר–גאל. Isa_44:25. סבל comp. 2Sa_15:21. Isa_44:26. מֵקִים Isa_44:27. צוּלָה; and also verse 21, Jacob and Israel. Isa_44:26. Jerusalem and Judah in parallelism. Isa_44:28. חֵפֶץ.
Isa_44:21. After “Israel” supply, not זכר־אלה, but simply זְכֹר. The other would make flat tautology. Of course the thing to be remembered is as little different as are Jacob and Israel. But parallelism requires the object to be named each time in different words. And this condition is met when we supply זְכֹר after “Israel,” and take כִּי as denoting the object, and not as causal.—לִי, instead of עבדי simply repeated, would doubtless indicate the servant-relation of Israel to be not a mere outward relation of possession, but one of ethical ownership.—I think that in תנשׁני the suffix has the meaning of לִי, as in עֲשִׂיתִינִי Eze_29:3, and as the suffix of the 2d per. in קְדַשְׁתִּיךָ Isa_65:5 stands for לְךָ. It is true that Niphal in its reflexive meaning often implies an ideal transitive notion on which an object may depend (comp. the verbs נָסַב ,נִשְׁבַּע ,נִבָּא Jdg_19:22, נִבְקַע Isa_59:5, נִלְחַם Psa_109:3, etc.) But with נָשָׁה this fundamental meaning is very doubtful, and moreover, whether it be removere or exarescere (comp. Isa_41:17; Jer_51:30), one does not see how the Niphal may be taken in a reflexive sense so as to acquire a meaning analogous to the transitive Kal (comp. Jer_23:39; Lam_3:17). And it seems to me, too, that would the Prophet express a “forget-me-not,” he would surely have used אַל rather than the strict, legal לֹא.
Isa_44:24. K’thibh מיאתי is to be read מִי אִתִּי; and the LXX. and Vulg. have so read. K’ri has מֵאִתִּי, which is for sense about the same as מִמֶּנִּי = “out from me,” “mea vi”(Targ. בְּנְבוּרְתִּי) מֵאֵת (comp. e.g., Eze_33:30; Jos_11:20) means the same as מֵעִם (e.g., Isa_8:18; Psa_121:2), but neither of these occur again in exactly the sense demanded here. Consider, moreover, that the abruptness of מי אתי were strange, and that an original מי אתי were much easier changed into מאתי than vice versa, because the former is the more difficult reading, and it results that we must give the K’thibh the preference. It manifestly corresponds to the passage Isa_40:13; “Who hath directed (comprehended) the Spirit of the Lord, etc., with whom took he counsel, etc.?”
Isa_44:26-27. In this long sentence, אקומם and אובישׁ are the only verbs in which the Prophet returns from the participle to the principal form. As far as I know there is not another example of such an extended participial construction. The great animation of the Prophet renders this long-continued tension possible.
Isa_44:28. As היכל is always construed elsewhere as masc., תוסד must be taken as 2d pers., unless one prefers to assume that the form תוסד is, as it were, attracted by תבנה, and that accordingly היכל as a quarter of the city is conceived of as fem. The latter is grammatically not impossible.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. The cycle of prophecy which embraces chapters 40–48 has its culmination in this strophe, which represents about the middle. All that precedes Points to this crowning summit which is concentrated in the mention of the name of “Kores” or Cyrus.26 The strophe consists of a general and of a particular part. In the first we have a recapitulation in general of the foundations of Israel’s deliverance, and heaven and earth are summoned to manifest their joy at that deliverance (Isa_44:21-23). In the second particular these foundations and guaranties of the deliverance are specified more exactly. At the same time it is to be remarked that this part forms a single period, which as by steps leads up to the crowning point, the name of Cyrus (Isa_44:24-28).
2. Remember these—in Israel
Isa_44:21-23. These verses are closely connected with Isa_44:24-28. They are, so to speak, a prelude to them, an introduction that presents in nuce the fundamental thoughts. That the short section, Isa_44:24-28, should be so prefaced ought to occasion no surprise in view of its immense importance. For in it is to be accomplished the great transaction of the Lord by which He would show and demonstrate how He differs from idols, and that He alone has the power to deliver Israel out of the Exile, and thereby to stablish also the principle of the “everlasting deliverance” (תשועת עולמים) 45. 17. That is nothing else than the mention of the name of Cyrus (see below). Remember these cannot possibly relate merely to what immediately precedes, in view of the contents of Isa_44:21-28. The Prophet, in what follows, recapitulates all the primary ideas of chapters 40–44, therefore Israel is to remember just that, and, in fact, all that the Prophet now endeavors to call to mind. The servant of Jehovah is one of the chief notions in our section (Isa_41:8-9; Isa_42:1; Isa_42:19; Isa_43:10; Isa_44:1-2). Let Israel remember that it is the servant of God, and it will remember the pith and central point of all of which chapters 40 and 44 discourse, and, in so far “for thou art my servant” is essentially identical with “these” (אֵלֶּח). The words I have formed thee, thou art my servant, are not only an emphatic repetition meant for confirmation, but also a proof of that fundamental idea. For Israel did not become the servant of Jehovah by accident, but by reason of a well-considered decree carried out in the most methodical manner. Comp. Isa_43:1; Isa_43:7; Isa_43:10; Isa_43:21; Isa_44:2, and see Text. and Gram. Therefore Israel shall not be forgotten (Isa_49:14 sq.) תנשׁני, “thou shalt be unforgotten to me,” at the end of the verse, stands in intentional and artistic contrast with “Remember,” with which the verse begins. At the-same time it forms a fitting transition to what follows. See Text. and Gram.
Isa_44:22 a. I have blotted out, etc., calls to mind a second foundation of Israel’s promised salvation. It looks back to Isa_43:25. While the cloud of Israel’s guilt is still between them and the countenance of the Lord, Israel must still fear His wrath. But let it disappear and nothing remains to restrain the Lord’s display of grace. Then he says: return unto me. This cannot mean the inward, moral return. For that is presupposed by the blotting out of sin. What the Prophet means is the return from the Exile to the place where the Lord has His fire and hearth (Isa_31:9). Thus Jeremiah also uses the word שׁוּב in a variety of senses. See remarks on Jer_31:21. For I have redeemed thee involves the idea: the purchase price for thee (comp. on Isa_43:4), is paid, therefore thou art free and canst return home. Sing, O ye heavens,etc., Isa_44:23. The deliverance of Israel must interest the whole world, not only because all that the Lord does is important to all, but also because all must see in that the guaranty of their own salvation. Hence the heights and depths should burst forth in praise. The heavens represent the heights above the earth, the תחתיזת (only here in Isa., comp. Psa_63:10; Psa_139:15, etc.), are the depths of the earth in the broadest sense. Thus what is highest above man and lowest beneath him shall rejoice, and that in union with what is highest on the earth itself. These last are the mountains (Isa_49:13); to which in the parallelism there is no antithesis because “the deeps of the earth” have for antithesis, not only the heavens, but also the mountains. Yet, in order to preserve the pairs of clauses, that is named that gives animation to the mountains and serves them instead of hands to clap with, viz., the trees (Isa_55:12). עָשׂה (comp. Isa_10:13; Isa_41:4) has as its ideal object what is held up to view in Isa_44:21-22, or what is intimated by “I have redeemed thee.” This appears additionally from: for the LORD hath redeemed Jacob: for these words stand parallel with: “for the Lord hath done,” repeating and explaining the latter expression only in a different form. We had a similar declaration of praise, Isa_42:10 sqq. (comp. Isa_49:13), which, however, appealed to a more limited sphere. This call on heaven and earth (as Isa_1:2) shows that we stand at a very important turning point. And glorified himself in Israel.—By redeeming Israel the Lord glorifies Himself. But whereas the redemption is set forth as an accomplished fact, the glorifying of Jehovah is something that lasts forever. Hence the perf. גאל, and the imperf. יתפאר.
3. Thus saith—be laid.
Isa_44:24-28. In reference to this verse Delitzsch says: “the prophecy takes a new flight, becoming ever more distinctive.” This is true, indeed; especially in relation to Isa_44:21-23. And yet also it only recapitulates the chief thoughts of chaps, 40–54 These it builds up step on step, which lead up to the apex on which the name of Cyrus shines out to us. The discourse begins with Jehovah’s being Israel’s Redeemer and Former (Isa_44:24), (comp. Isa_44:21-22). For it treats of Israel’s salvation, and what follows is to demonstrate that none but Israel’s God can effect this, and that He will effect it. The first stone of this proof is laid by the Lord’s declaring Himself to be the One who makes all, who spreads out the heavens alone, that extends the north without any one being there as a helper (מיאתי see Text. and Gram.). That stretcheth forth the heavens is a repetition from Isa_40:22; that spreadeth abroad the earth, is from Isa_42:5. Thus the Prophet comprehends in brief what he had said in the course of the preceding chapters about God’s creative omnipotence (Isa_40:12-14; Isa_40:21-26; Isa_41:4; Isa_42:5). In those representations he had brought out the nothingness of idols, in the strongest light of contrast (Isa_40:15-20; Isa_41:6-7; Isa_42:8; Isa_42:17; Isa_44:8-20). He had also represented Jehovah’s omnipresence and omniscience and eternity, and in Isa_41:1-4 we have, as the first test of Jehovah’s power to foretell the (relative) future, an obscure announcement of Cyrus, the name concealed, and of Israel’s destined deliverance by him (Isa_41:8-20). The heathen idols were challenged to produce their prophecy, but are put to shame (Isa_41:21-29; Isa_43:9-13; Isa_44:6 sqq.). Opposed to this pitiable inability of the idols, the Lord prepares to announce something far more glorious, viz., a far more glorious Redeemer and Saviour in a yet more remote future. To all this, therefore, that the Lord from 40 on had said, especially of the ignorance of idols and their followers in regard to the future, our Isa_44:25 refers in brief recapitulation: “ Who frustrateth the lying-signs, and makes the divinersfools,” etc. Comp. Isa_40:17; Isa_41:21-24; Isa_41:29; Isa_42:17; Isa_44:11. Our text serves to complete in one respect the passages cited. That the servers of idols, or heathen diviners had even made attempts to prophesy is not said in these passages, nor is it denied. Only their incapacity and coming to shame are spoken of. But in our passage it is presupposed that they have actually attempted to prophesy. Hence it reads מֵפֵר אֹתוֹת ו׳ Heathen divination was in great part the interpretation of signs. These signs (auguria) are the אתות. But as אתות בַּדִּים they are lying signs (comp. Isa_16:6), which, therefore, as idle counsel (2Sa_15:34), or as a broken covenant (such is the most frequent use of הֵפֵר, Isa_33:8; Gen_17:14; Exod. 26:25, 44, etc.) come to nothing. The wizards (קסמים3:2) He makes appear fools (properly delusive glitter, Job_12:17; Ecc_7:7); He repels the wise so that their counsel and work make no progress but go backwards (Isa_42:17), and their prudence must prove to be folly (סִכֵּל comp. 2Sa_15:31).
But how totally different is it with the prophecy proceeding from the omnipotent and omniscient God by His servants and messengers! “Behold, the former things are come to pass, and new things do I declare: before they spring forth (germinate) I tell you of them,” Isa_42:9. To these words and also Isa_43:12 our passage corresponds. Yea, the Lordcauses the word of his servant to receive continuance and reality (מֵקִים in this sense, only this once in Isa.; comp. Deu_9:5; 1Sa_1:23, etc.), and fulfills the counsel of his messengers, i.e., the counsel that He took and has announced by His messengers. According to the context a prophetic word is meant. Hence “servant” and “messengers” must be prophets. And it is, to me, quite probable that “servant” designates that prophet who first and chiefly, as the foundation and corner-stone of his successors, prophesied these things of the Exile; and that is Isaiah. עבדֹ and מלאך are conjoined here as in Isa_42:19, though in another sense. That saith to Jerusalem, etc., Isa_44:26. Now is declared wherein this fulfilment of the word announced by the prophets shall consist. The Lord shall say to Jerusalem thou shalt be inhabited (Isa_5:8), and to the cities of Judah ye shall be built, and her ruins I will raise. In reference to Isa_44:27Delitzsch says that primarily it points to the drying up of the Euphrates to the advantage of Cyrus (Herod. I. 189), and only secondarily, “in the complex view of the Prophet, to the way in which the exit of the exiles was made possible out of the prison of the metropolis which was surrounded by a natural and artificial rampart of water.” This relation I would reverse. As has been remarked, the Prophet has the contents of the preceding chapters in mind. Of these he makes prominent the main points to serve as the foundation of a prophetic transaction. Now heretofore there has been no mention of the conquest of Babylon. But the thought has been repeatedly uttered (Isa_42:15; Isaiah 43; Isaiah 2, 16) that water-deeps shall be no obstacle to the returning people, in saying which the Prophet has in mind the example of the Red Sea (Isa_43:17). For this reason I believe that צוּלָה is not just alone “the deep” of the Euphrates, but any deep through which returning Israel will have to pass. But I will not deny that, in the complex way intimated, the word may be referred also to the Euphrates which Cyrus was to pass.
At Isa_44:28 we stand on the apex of the pyramid. The God who created the world, and who is first and last, therefore eternal, can prophesy also. What is nearest as well as what is most remote is equally present to Him. By this He is distinguished from idols that can create nothing and know nothing. Now let us consider that the Prophet on this account, from chap. 40 on, points unceasingly to this distinction between Jehovah and idols. What representation can one make to himself of the morality of a man who continually affirms: Jehovah alone is God because He alone foreknows the future, which He evinces by naming the name Cyrus,—but who by fraudulent conversion of a res acta as a res agenda abstracts the very ground under his feet in reference to his argumentation, in fact transforms it into a proof of the contrary. What a hypocrite he must have been, who, knowing well that no divine communication had been imparted to him, still gives out that he is a prophet, who therefore rests his proof for the existence of God on a fact which he well knows does not exist! Does the author of our chapter make the impression of such a hypocrite? No! what he says of the distinction between Jehovah and idols in regard to power and knowledge, is his full and inward convictions and what he says is just in order to establish this prophecy concerning Cyrus. In the name and by commission of his God he foretells this name, first in order that afterwards one may not give the honor to idols but to Jehovah (Isa_48:5), but furthermore in order that, when Cyrus comes, Israel may know that now the day of its deliverance dawns, and that Cyrus may be conscious of his divine destiny and willing to obey it.
“The native pronunciation of the name of Cyrus is K’ur’us” (Schrader, l. c. p. 214). According to Spiegel (Cyrus u. Kuru; Cambyses u. Kamboja, in Kuhn u. Schleicher’sBeitr z. vergl. Sprachforschung. I. 1858, p. 32 sqq.) the name was in ancient Persian pronounced Kuru. The same author with others says, the ancient opinion, that Κῦρος meant in Persia, the sun (Plut. Artax. 1), is incorrect. But the name Kuru coincides exactly with the river-name Cyrus, that is still called Kur, and with the ancient Indian royal name Kuru. Strabo’s remark (XV. 6), Cyrus was first called Agradates, and changed his name into that of the river, Spiegel regards as “a mere addition” of the geographer. On the other hand he is not disinclined to admit the change of name, but would refer it to a mythical Kuru of the Persians cognate with that of the Indians. The Hebrew pronunciation כּוֹרשׁ, Koresh, favors the inference that Kurus was pronounced as a paroxyton with a very short final syllable. This explains the Hebrew pronunciation as a Segholate form, and the consequent change of the vowel u into o in the first syllable (comp. Ewald, § 89 g). According to all historical witnesses Cyrus was an extraordinary appearance. He was solitary in his way (comp. Doctrinaland Ethical on Isa_45:1). Only once beside the present is there found in the Old Testament the special prediction of a name, viz., 1Ki_13:2 comp. 2Ki_23:16. But 1 Kings 13 is critically suspicious, partly because of its peculiar contents, partly because of the mention of the name “Samaria” 5:32 at a period when there was no Samaria (comp. Baehrin loc.). And we do not need any parallel for the name of Cyrus. For the name stands solitary in history, and the previous announcement of it is not paltry prediction of something unimportant, but a prophetic act which for an extraordinary object makes use of extraordinary means. For it concerned transforming the head of the world-power into a friend of the Theocracy, and thus bringing about the great winter-solstice of the history of salvation. That the surest means of attaining this great object was the direct appeal to Cyrus with mention of his name, it seems to me, calls for no proof. Would Cyrus otherwise have begun his decree (Ezr_1:2) with the words: “The Lord God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth; and he hath charged me to build Him an house,” etc.?
It is seen, from the foregoing, that I attach no value to the exegetical expedients, such as that “Kores” was a title of dignity like “Pharaoh” (Haevernick, Hengstenberg), or that, in the appellative meaning “sun,” it was a figurative designation (Keil, Introd.), or that it is a gloss (Henneberg, Schegg.).
Jehovah calls Cyrus my shepherd, because Israel is His flock (Jer_23:1), and Cyrus for that time when no national ruler existed, is destined to pasture them.
Footnotes:
[21]That.
[22]She.
[23]they.
[24]Her.
[25]Heb. waste places.
[26][The Author, with little exception, uses the form Kores, yet quite frequently also Cyrus, without explanation of his preference. The translation does not follow him in this, but adheres to Cyrus, except in a few instances that explain themselves.—TR.]
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
7. On Isa_44:6. “Πλὴν ἐμοῦ σὔκ ἐστι θεός. Εἰ πλὴν αὐτοῦ σὐκ ἔστιν, οὐχ ὁμοούσιος δὲ ὁ υἱὸς κατὰ τὴν Ἀρίου καὶ Εὐνομίου βλασφημίαν, πῶς ὑπ’ αὐτῶν καλεῖται θεός; Εἰ δὲ θεός ἐστιν, αληθὴς δὲ καὶ ὁ προφητικὸς λόγος ἄντικρυς λέγων ἕτερον μὴ εἶναι θεὸν, μία τῆς τριάδος ἐρτὶν ἡ θεότης, κᾅν μὴ θέλωσιν.”—Theoderet.
2. On Isa_44:7. מִי כָמוֹנִי. The incomparableness of Jehovah is declared in opposition to all that beside Him is called god, whether the idols that are falsely co-ordinated with Him, or whether the angels which are indeed related to Him, but properly subordinated (בני אלהים Job_1:6; בני אלים Psa_29:1), or, finally, men also, who by unusual wisdom soar above their fellow-men and seem to approach the gods (Jer_10:7). Comp. Caspari, Micha d. Morastite, p. 14 sq.
3. On Isa_44:8-20. “Extat hic sedes ordinaria loci de idololatria, cui similes huc referantur ex Psalms 115 et 116, nec non e Jesaia c. 40, 41, 46, 48, ex Jeremia c. 10, maxime vero capp. 13 et 14 Sapientiae, quae vicem loculenti commentarii in hunc prophetae locum supplere facile possunt.”—Foerster.
4. On Isa_44:14 [And the rain doth nourish it. “Men even in their schemes of wickedness are dependent on God. Even in forming and executing plans to oppose and resist Him, they can do nothing without His aid. He preserves them, clothes them; and the instruments which they use against Him are those which He has nurtured. On the rain of heaven; on the sunbeams and the dew; on the turning earth and on the elements which He has made, and which He controls, they are dependent; and they can do nothing in their wicked plans without abusing the bounties of His Providence, and the expressions of His tender mercies.”—Barnes].
5. On Isa_44:20. “The Holy Ghost says of idolatrous people who make an idol of wood which they worship, they feed themselves on ashes, because they trust and build on that which is as easily made ashes of as the chips that fall from wood. The case is not different with the wicked in general: they feed themselves with ashes, they comfort themselves with that which some heat or unforeseen fire speedily reduces to ashes, which are afterwards scattered by the wind.” Scriver, Seelenschatz, IV. Th. 18, Predigt. § 35.
6. On Isa_44:21. He, whose creature Israel is, and who therefore might order and demand, tenderly, begs like a lover: forget me not! “That ought to be the right forget me not, that we consider that we are in God’s commission and His servants. And that in many ways: 1) for we are bought by Him; 2) He obtained us by a struggle in battle; 3) we have surrendered and covenanted ourselves to Him for service.”—Cramer.
7. On Isa_44:22. “Israel has sins and great sins, which He likens to the clouds and the fog. How shall Israel be quit of them? As little as thou canst take captive a cloud in a bag, or spread out a cloth and take it away when it stands before the sun, so little canst thou lay off thy sin or do away with it. For all thou canst do, it remains and cleaves everlastingly to thee, so that thou canst not see life and the sun Christ. If the clouds and fog are to be removed, the glorious, beautiful sun must come. It devours fog and clouds that have taken possession of the heavens, so that no one knows where they have gone. Therefore, the Lord says, He alone it is who blots out our sins, and transgressions as the sun devours the clouds and fog.”—Veit Dietrich.
8. On Isa_44:28. Josephus (Antiqq. XI. 1, 1 and 2) writes that Cyrus made proclamation through all Asia. “Ἐπεί με ὁ θεὸσ ὁ μέγιστος τῆς οἱκουμένης ἀπέδειξε βασιλέα, πείθομαι τοῦτον εἶναι, ὅν τὸ τῶν Ἰσραηλιτῶν ἕθνος προσκυνεῖ. Καὶ γὰρ τοὐμόν προεῖπεν ὅνομα διὰ τῶν προφητῶν, καὶ ὅτι τὅν ναὸν αὑτοῦ οἰκοδομήσω ἐν Ἱεροσολύμοις ἐν τῇ Ἰουδαίᾳ χὼρᾳ.” What Josephus adds, that Cyrus knew this ἀναγιγνώσκων τὸ βιβλίον, ὅ τῆς αὑτοῦ προφητείας ὁ Ἡσαΐας κατέλιπε, and that then ταῦτ’ ἀναγνόντα τὸν Κῖρον καὶ θαυμάσαντα τὸ θεῖον ὁρμή τις ἕλαβε καὶ φιλοτιμία ποιῆσαι τὰ γεγραμμένα,—has nothing at all improbable in it. Either the book of Isaiah existed in both parts already in the first year of Cyrus’ reign; then it is altogether credible that he got a sight of it. The Jews had not only the strongest interest in bringing it to the king’s notice, but it must also have been easy for them to find ways and means of doing so. Or the book of Isaiah at that time did not exist in its second part; then let it be explained how it came about, that Cyrus, immediately after the conquest of Babylon, had nothing that he was more in haste to do than to summon the Jews to return into their land, and to take measure for the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem.
HOMILETICAL HINTS
1. On Isa_44:6-8. This text may be used for a sermon on the being of God, directed against the modern heathenism. 1) God is a person (here as everywhere else in Scripture He speaks with “1” to our “I”). 2) God is alone and incomparable (Isa_44:6 b, and 7 a). 3) God is the omnipotent and omniscient (He sets up the nations of the world and announces what shall come). 4) God is therefore our only safe refuge (Isa_44:8).
2. On Isa_44:21. “The call of Jesus from off His cross to His Christian people: Forget me not. This call we ought 1) to answer by sincerely humbling ourselves before the Lord on account of our forgetfulness; 2) to let serve as a summons to most intimate remembrance.” Carl. Fr. Hartmanus, Passionspredigten, Heilbronn, 1872, p. 372.
3. [On Isa_44:22. Returning to God. I. The obstacle to return is sin and guilt. 1) “a thick cloud” between us and the sun; they interpose between God and us, and “suspend and intercept the correspondence between the upper and the lower world (sin. separates, etc., Isa_59:2). They threaten a storm, a deluge of wrath, as thick clouds do, Psa_11:6.” 2) “As a cloud” or fog they cause darkness all around us, and, worse still, within us (Mat_6:23), so that the benighted effort at return ends in bewilderment. II. God removes the obstacle. 1) Only He can do it, as only He can reach the high clouds. It must be done by influences from above the fog and the clouds, as the sun dispels both. 2) He removes it effectually: “blots them out;” not a speck of cloud in the sky, not a vapor even in the valley of death. Again “God looks down upon the soul with favor; the soul looks up to Him with pleasure, Jer_50:20; 2Sa_23:4.” III. “For I have redeemed thee.” The obstacle is not removed by a fiat but by a redeeming work. The comparison of the cloud has one point, viz.: the utter disappearance. Redemption costs a Redeemer, Joh_3:16; Rom_8:32. See M. Henry, Gill, J. A. A.—Tr.].
4. On Isa_44:23-28, The Lord His church’s secure retreat. 1) As He prepares heaven and earth, so He does past, present and future; 2) He promises His church a future full of salvation (Isa_44:26; Isa_44:28); 3) He will fulfil this promise and so confirm the word of His messengers, but the wisdom of the wise of this world He will put to shame (Isa_44:25-26).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28 (Isa 43:1, Isa 43:7).
(Isa 43:1, Isa 43:7).
formed . . . from . . . womb--(So Isa 44:24; Isa 49:1, Isa 49:5). The sense is similar to that in Isa 1:2, "I have nourished and brought up children."
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Jesurun--A diminutive term of endearment applied to Israel. The full title of affection was Israelun; contracted it became Jeshurun, with an allusion to the Hebrew root, jashar, "upright," "perfect" (see on Isa 42:19, note on "He that is perfect") [GESENIUS], (Deu 32:15).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 12, 14, 18, 21, 22, 23, 24 1. Jacob my servant — The names Jacob and…
1. Jacob my servant — The names Jacob and Israel, both synonymous, are used in these chapters to aid rhetorical effect by parallelism. They originally expressed psychological differences: The word Jacob meant a supplanter, and was changed to Israel, prevailer, when he who bore it wrestled and prevailed with God at Mahanaim, (Gen_32:28,) and was ever afterward “a new man” and a faithful servant.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28 1. Yet now] But now; marking the contrast, exactly…
1. Yet now] But now; marking the contrast, exactly as in ch. Isa_43:1.
Isa_44:1-5. Once more the gloom of the present is lighted up by the promise of a brilliant future; the Divine spirit shall be poured out on Israel, and strangers shall esteem it an honour to attach themselves to the people of Jehovah.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 18, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28 (1) Yet now hear . . .—The thoughts of…
XLIV.
(1) Yet now hear . . .—The thoughts of Israel are turned from their own sins to the unchanging love of God, and that is the ground of their hope.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28 Vers. 1-5. A PROPHECY OF ISRAEL"S SPIRITUAL RECOVERY AND…
Vers. 1-5. A PROPHECY OF ISRAEL"S SPIRITUAL RECOVERY AND REGENERATION. This section is closely connected with ch. 43., of which it ought to form the conclusion. The prophet cannot bear to leave Israel under a ban its spiritual guides "profaned," and itself given over to "reproaches." He must end with a brighter prospect. Accordingly, he holds out, in the present passage, the double hope
(1) of the blessing of an abundant outpouring of the Spirit, to take the place of the preceding "curse"; (Isa_43:28) and
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(2) of a pressing of proselytes into the renovated Church, who will hold it in honour, instead of making it the object of their "reproaches.
Yet now hear; i.e. "be not dismayed at what has been said. Listen a little longer." O Jacob my servant, etc. A recurrence to the terms of endearment used in Isa_41:8, showing that words of favour and" promise are about to follow.
HOMILIES BY E. JOHNSON Vers. 1-5. The offspring of Israel.
Judgments are coming upon the world. And the sacred seed shall be scattered abroad through all nations. There shall be deliverance of Israel from all those calamities and much more; the heathen nations shall be brought into the light of Jehovah.
I ADDRESS OF JEHOVAH TO THE PEOPLE. There are three names for the people Jacob, Israel, Jesurun and each represents a separate phase of moral progress.
1. Jacob, my servant. This itself is a title of honour. To be the minister of the will of an earthly sovereign is a proud distinction: how much more to wear the badge of the King of kings! Moreover, in ancient times servitude often meant confidence and friendship of the happiest kind between two souls. The name of Jacob, too, calls up memorable associations: a life of vicissitude and adventure, cheered by the constant presence of God; of notorious faults and weaknesses united with victorious faith; of a struggle to realize the Divine reality of love richly rewarded. The history of Jacob is beloved because it typifies the union of the human with the Divine in the people, in all believing men.
2. Israel the chosen. One foreknown, selected, predestinated from the first to fulfil the ends of God. From the beginning of their history, the Divine hand had formed and moulded all Israel"s restitutions. As the organism lies implicit in the cell of protoplasm, as the oak may be seen in miniature in the acorn, so Israel sprang from a thought of God.
3. Jesurun the upright one. An imputed righteousness, we are told, is meant. Others say it is a word of flattery and endearment a diminutive form of "Israel." If the two ideas may be combined, then the chosen and beloved of God will be upright in the thought of God. To say that God "imputes" righteousness to those who have it not in themselves, what is it but to ascribe to him the most beautiful effect and operation of love? It is to say that Israel is by him idealized. And to feel this about ourselves means deliverance from despair in those moments when in the mirror of conscience we behold a hideous self-reflection, or when we perceive how cheaply we are held by the world"All I can never be, All men ignore in me, This I am worth to God. Whose wheel the pitcher shared.
There are secrets of the heart unknown to any system of theology. He who can hear God"s voice saying to him, "Fear not," may be deaf to all detraction and indifferent to all applause.
II PROMISE OF JEHOVAH.
1. The outpouring of the Spirit. Let us transport ourselves in fancy from these moist atmospheres and dripping skies of Britain to yonder burning Orient clime. Then and there let us bathe ourselves in the generous bounty of those refreshing words, "I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and streams upon the dry ground." But we need not go to the Orient to experience drought of soul. We may find reading "dry," and preaching drier, our own minds driest of all; nothing growing within us, nor promising to grow. And for the future the prospect seems equally cheerless. Nothing is left us but this Word of God; but all is left us in that Word. Thinking of snow will not cool us; the imagination of water will not refresh us in our thirst; but faith in God, the realization of what he is in this relation to us, remains the one resource which Scripture offers to us.
2. The spiritual posterity. Biblical promises respect the "solidarity" of life. That which we moderns call "individualism" appears to be unknown. As the curse, so also the blessing, goes on working to the "third and fourth generation," nay, to "a thousand generations," under the dispensation of a covenant-keeping God. Nay, it is conceived as abiding through time into eternity seed established for ever, a throne built up to all generations". (Psa_89:4) Here the abundance of Israel"s spiritual posterity is imaged as grass by the waters, or as the tall and graceful poplars by the artificial water-courses. "A tree planted by the rivers of water; ... Thy years shall be as the years of a tree:" what more beautiful and touching image? The tree is typical of life in its strength, its gracefulness, its fruitfulness. These shall be its characteristics in the Messianic age. The Church will finally embrace the world. Proselytes will come thronging to her threshold. They will join in one confession. It will be recorded that this and that man was born anew in Zion. (Ps 87) Each Jew will be as it were the centre of a little synagogue; ten men will seize his skirts and say, "We will go with you: for we have heard that God is with you". (Zec_8:23) The frequent confession will be heard, "I belong to Jehovah;" or be found taking upon his person the stigmata, or sacred marks, which denote him as vowed to Jehovah"s service (cf. Herod., 2:113). We may learn:
(1) The blessedness of pious parents, and their corresponding responsibilities.
(2) The gift of God"s Spirit is the source of true happiness and prosperity. Piety alone can be the root of the Church"s and the nation"s weal.
(3) God will never permit true religion to be extinct. It may appear to wither; but so long as he lives it will certainly know its recurring times of revival. J.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 14, 16, 17, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 28 Yet now hear, O Jacob, My servant
Isa_44:1-5
Yet now hear, O Jacob, My servant
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Why are the people of God called by the name of Jacob?
Have you never wondered why the people of God should be called by the name of the third of the ancient patriarchs in preference to the first two? We often, indeed, find them called the seed of Abraham, and we should easily understand what was meant if we read of the children of Isaac: but, as far as I remember, they are nowhere called simply Abraham or Isaac, whereas it is perfectly common to hear them called Jacob or Israel, the name of the third patriarch being directly transferred to his descendants. Not only so: this usage has passed over into the New Testament, and we still sometimes call the whole body of living Christians the Israel of God. This is a somewhat surprising circumstance; for of the three patriarchs the third is certainly not the favourite. Why, then, is it that the name of the third patriarch is attached to Gods people, as if he were more directly their progenitor than the other two? Is it because they are liker him than they are to Abraham or Isaac? Is the average Christian an imperfect, stumbling mortal, a compound of obvious vices and struggling virtues, as Jacob was? It would be harsh to say so. But we may come nearer the mark if we put this suggestion in a different form. Jacob was the progressive character among the patriarchs. His beginnings were ignoble, and the vices of his nature long clave to him; yet by degrees he surmounted them: he lived down the evil which was in him; and his end was that of one who, after many defeats, had at last obtained the victory. Abraham is a much grander figure than Jacob, but he has far less history. He may almost be said to be perfect from the first. If in him there was a slow development from small beginnings, we have no record of it. Isaac, again, was, as far as the records inform us, a back-going rather than a progressive character. The opening scenes of his history are beautiful and noble; but his character lacked back-bone, and we see him sinking into physical grossness and moral flaccidity. Jacobs life, on the contrary, in spite of great defects to begin with and many faults by the way, was a developing and ascending one. This is shown by the names he bore: he was first Jacob and then Israel. And it may be to recommend such a life of progress that his names are given to Gods people. (J. Stalker, D. D.)
Biography in three words:
I. JACOB.
1. This was the name of the natural man. After he had received his new name the very mention of the old one must have reminded him of the evil time when he was an unbrotherly brother and an unfilial son. It is true that, while he was still Jacob, he went through the experience of Bethel, where he saw the vision of the ladder reaching up to heaven. This is usually regarded as his conversion, but, if it was, he was afterwards a backslider, for his subsequent life in Padan-aram was far more guided by selfish cleverness than by the law of God. The name Jacob, in short, was a memorial of a youth of sin and of a manhood of worldliness. But is it not, thus understood, an appropriate name for the people of God? Is there not for them also a bad past to remember? It is well sometimes to go back to what we were, because the old habits may still spring up and trouble us; though we may now have received a new name, the old Jacob is in us still. Above all, we ought to go back on that old time, because it helps to magnify the grace which brought us out of it.
2. But there is another idea inseparably connected with the name of Jacob: it is that of Divine choice. In our text this is very prominent--Israel, whom I have chosen, Jesurun, whom I have chosen. It is, indeed, connected with the other two names here, because these indicate that to which he was chosen. But he was the choice of God, in preference to Esau, while he was still Jacob. As He chose Jacob, while he was still Jacob, so He loved us while we were yet sinners.
II. ISRAEL.
1. The patriarch received a new name because he had become a new man. God does not trifle with such things. A change of name among, us may be a mere freak of caprice; but when God deliberately changed a man s name, it was an outward monument of an inward change. If it did not mean that the natural man, which the name Jacob designated, was entirely exterminated, it meant that it was so far overcome that the complexion of the life would henceforth be different. The reign of selfishness and worldliness was over, and a new spirit had entered in and taken possession If we ask how this came about, it may have been a slower and more complex process than we have any record of; for what appears a sudden spiritual change is often only the culmination of movements going on for a long time before. But what we are permitted to see clearly in the records of the patriarchs life is the midnight scene on the bank of the Jabbok. It is far away, and it is evidently concealed under forms of speech which are now alien to us; but this at least is evident, that the patriarch was that night, if a homely phrase may be allowed, at cross grips with God. That night God was not to him vague and far-off, but intensely real and very near; and Jacob had transactions with Him face to face--ay, hand to hand. Is not this what the religion of many people lacks? To a certain extent they are religious. Yet somehow it never comes to close quarters between them and God. What they need is Christ, the reconciler.
2. But the new name of Israel denoted more than this. It was expressly said to him, as he received it, As a prince hast thou had power with God and hast prevailed, and this was what the name meant--the possession of power with God. Evidently a great crisis had come in Jacobs experience, in which his will came into collision with the will Divine. But what an unequal struggle! The mysterious man had only to touch Jacob in the seat of his strength, and it yielded in a moment; the sinew shrank, and he could struggle no more. Yet in the moment when he appeared to be thoroughly beaten, it turned out that he had gained the victory and won the blessing. This is not so mysterious as it looks. It is repeated in every great spiritual crisis. It is through such experiences that men and women enter into the secret of the Lord, become mighty in prayer, are endowed with spiritual power, and if they do not receive new names on earth, yet obtain a stamp and a signature of character leaving no doubt that they have new names in heaven.
III. JESHURUN. There is no evidence that this name belonged to the third patriarch, though it may have done so. But there can be little doubt that, standing where it does, alongside of the other two, it was meant, like them, for a symbol of character. The root from which it appears to be derived means straight or upright, and this is its most probable meaning. This was precisely the development of character which the third patriarch needed, after he had received the new name of Israel. What happened the very next morning after the great midnight scene on which we have been looking? He went forth to meet his brother Esau; and this is the account of how he behaved: Jacob lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold Esau came, and with him four hundred men;. . . and he bowed himself to the ground seven times, until he came near to his brother. Bowed himself--to the ground--seven times! This to his own brother! What was he bowing for? Whycould he not stand up straight on his feet and look his brother in the face? Read the whole account of the preparations and dispositions which he elaborated before meeting Esau, and of the sly, suspicious way in which he met and managed his rough but generous brother, and you will feel inclined to sneer: Is this the man who was called last night a prince who had power with God? There is far too much bowing and becking, twisting and turning. This man is not straight; he is not upright. It seems to me that sometimes in people who have had their Bethels and Hahanaims and Peniels, and can speak to you about experiences of struggle and emptying, and of being filled with the Holy Spirit, there is a defect of a similar kind. Although they have had dealings with God, and feel themselves on a footing of reconciliation with Him, they are not right in their dealings with men. There are few things which so injure the cause of religion in the world as these defects of men of God. On the contrary, how noble and God-honouring a sight it is when one who is a prince with God is acknowledged on earth also to be a princely man; and when one who has power with God has at the same time influence with men through his manliness, uprightness, and charity. Our text is a message of hope. It speaks of the possibilities of spiritual transformation and development. (J. Stalker, D. D.)
Jacob, Israel, Jeshurun:
I take these three names in their order as teaching us--
I. THE PATH OF TRANSFORMATION. Every Jacob may become a righteous one if he will tread Jacobs road. We start with that first name of nature which, according to Esaus bitter etymology of it, meant a supplanter,--not without some suggestions of craft and treachery in it. It is descriptive of the natural disposition of the patriarch, which was by no means attractive. All through his earlier career he does not look like the stuff of which heroes and saints are made. But in the mid-path of his life there came that hour of deep dejection and helplessness when, driven out of all dependence on self, and feeling round in his agony for something to lay hold upon, there came into this nightly solitude a vision of God. In conscious weakness, and in the confidence of self-despair, he wrestled with the mysterious Visitant in the only fashion in which He can be wrestled with. He wept and made supplication to Him, as one of the prophets puts it, and so he bore away the threefold gift-blessing from those mighty lips whose blessing is the communication, and not only the invocation of the mercy, a deeper knowledge of that Divine and mysterious Name, and for him self a new name. That new name implied a new direction given to his character. Hitherto he had wrestled with men whom he would supplant, for his own advantage, by craft and subtlety; henceforward he strove with God for higher blessings, which, in striving, he won. All the rest of his life was on a loftier plane. That is the outline of the only way in which, from out of the evil and the sinfulness of our natural disposition, any of us can be raised to the loftiness and purity of a righteous life. There must be a Peniel between the two halves of the character if there is to be transformation. How different that path is from the road which men are apt to take in working out their own self-improvement! How many forms of religion, and how many toiling souls in effect just reverse the process, and say practically--first make yourselves righteous, and then you will get communion with God. That is an endless and a hopeless task! This sequence, too, may very fairly be used to teach us the lesson that there is no kind of character so debased but that it may partake of the purifying and ennobling influence.
II. THE LAW FOR THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. There are some religious people that seem to think that it is enough if only they can say: Well! I have been to Jesus Christ, and I have got my past sins forgiven; I have been on the mountain and have held communion with God. Now, the order of these names here points the lesson that the apex of the pyramid, the goal of the whole course, is--righteousness. God does not tell us His name merely in order that we may know His name, but in order that, knowing it, we may be smitten with the love of it, and so may come into the likeness of it. Take, then, these three names of my text as preaching, in antique guise, the same lesson that the very Apostle of affectionate contemplation uttered with such earnestness: Little children! let no man deceive you. He that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as He is righteous.
III. THE MERCIFUL JUDGMENT WHICH GOD MAKES OF THE CHARACTER OF THEM THAT LOVE HIM. Jeshurun means the righteous one. How far beneath the ideal of the name these Jewish people fell we all know, and yet the name is applied to them. Although the realisation of the ideal has been so imperfect, the ideal is not destroyed. And so we Christian people find that the New Testament calls us saints. All wrong-doing is inconsistent with Christianity, but it is not for us to say that any wrong-doing is incompatible with it; and therefore for ourselves there is hope, and for our estimate of one another there is the lesson of charity, and for all Christian people there is a lesson--live up to your name. Noblesse oblige! Fulfil your ideal. Be what God calls you, and press toward the mark for the prize.
IV. THE UNION BETWEEN THE FOUNDER OF THE NATION AND THE NATION. The name of the patriarch passes to his descendants, the nation is called after him that begat it. In some sense it prolongs his life and spirit and character upon the earth. That is the old-world way of looking at the solidarity of a nation. There is a New Testament fact that goes even deeper than that. The names which Christ bears are given to Christs followers. Is He a King, is He a Priest? He makes us kings and priests. Is He anointed the Messiah? God hath anointed us in Him. Is He the light of the world? Ye are the light of the world. His life passeth into all that love Him in the measure of their trust and love. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
The Church comforted and revived:
I. AN ADDRESS MOST GRACIOUS AND COMFORTING. Yet now hear, O Jacob, My servant; and Israel, whom I have chosen, &c. The persons to whom these words were spoken are represented--
1. As the servants of God. How great the honour to be acknowledged as a servant of the King of kings!
2. As the people of His special choice.
3. As the objects of His wonderful interpositions. The words, Thus saith the Lord that made thee, and formed thee from the womb, refer to them in their national character. The relationship He sustained to them, and the great things He had done for them, are employed as arguments to inspire them with confidence, and lead them to be of good courage.
II. A PROMISE EMINENTLY CHEERING. For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, &c. They are evidently spiritual blessings which are here promised, of which water is frequently employed as an emblem. In this passage we are reminded of the following particulars.
1. Their nature. In some places the cleansing property of water is intended. At other times its quality of quenching the thirst is set forth. But it is to be understood here in connection with its refreshing and fertilising influences.
2. Their value. We have but a faint conception of the importance of water, on account of its being so common with us. But, in those countries where it is scarce, its worth is very differently estimated.
3. Their seasonableness. When the soil is parched through long-continued drought, how welcome are the genial showers. And to the dry and barren soul, how cheering are the waters of life and salvation!
4. Their abundance. I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground. Nor are they ample in quantity alone, but in their range they are most extensive. Besides embracing the people of God themselves, they also embrace their offspring.
III. A RESULT TRULY REFRESHING. One shall say, I am the Lords; and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob; and another shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord, and surname himself by the name of Israel. We have here--
1. An important principle indicated. It is that Gods own people must be first revived before large accessions can be expected to the Church from without.
2. The blessed truth declared. (Anon.)
A promise for us, and for our children:
Yet. What an ominous word as to the past! What a cheering word as to the future! Yet. What black words are those which come before it! Gods people were represented as being in a sadly backsliding state. Consequently God gave them up ,to the curse and the reproach. It may be that such is our case, though we be God s people. Yet, says the text--though you have fallen into this state, do not despair; I love you; you are My chosen; yet will I return unto you in favour. Come then, if we have wandered never so far, let this word sound like the shepherds call to bring us back.
I. THE LORD COMFORTS HIS PEOPLE BY THE REMEMBRANCE OF WHAT HE HAS DONE FOR THEM. Taking the text as our guide, let us notice--
1. The grace we have experienced in its practical effect. To make us Gods servants--Yet now hear, O Jacob, My servant. We may be unfaithful servants: we certainly are unprofitable odes, but, if not awfully deceived, we are His true servants. We were once the servants of sin and the slaves of our own passions, but He who made us free has now taken us into His own family and taught us obedience to His will.
2. This grace is peculiar, discriminating and distinguishing. My chosen.
3. Reflect again upon the ennobling influence of grace. The people are first called Jacob, but only in the next line they are styled Israel. You and I were but of the common order. If we had boasted of anything we should have been called Jacobs, supplanters, boasting beyond our line; but as Jacob at the brook Jabbok wrestled with the angel and prevailed, and gained the august title of prince--prevailing prince--even so has grace ennobled us!
4. The text conducts us onward to notice the creating and sustaining energy of that grace. Thus saith the Lord that made thee, and formed thee from the womb. Men might as well claim the honour of creation or resurrection as boast of commencing their own spiritual life.
5. This grace has the characteristic, of intense,, affection in it. God gives to His people the title of Jeshurun, which means the righteous people, according to some translators, but most interpreters are agreed that it is an affectionate title which God gives to His people. Perhaps it may be considered to be a diminutive of Israel. Just as fathers and mothers, when they have great affection for their children, will frequently give them an endearing name--shorten their usual name, or call them by a familiar title only used in the family--so, in calling Israel Jeshurun, the Lord setteth forth His near and dear love. Gods grace to us is not merely the mercy of the good Samaritan towards a poor stranger whom he finds wounded by the way, but it is the love of a mother to her sick child; the fondness of a husband towards a weeping wife; the tenderness of the head towards the wounded members.
II. WE ARE ENCOURAGED BY THE PROMISE OF WHAT GOD WILL DO. Fear not; I will help thee. You cannot pray as you desire--I will help thee. You feel unable to overcome sin--I will help thee. You are engaged in service too heavy for you--I will help thee. Then comes a promise, fuller in words and as rich in grace, I will pour water on him that is thirsty. You shall be refreshed; your desires shall be gratified. Water quickens sleeping vegetable life: your life shall be quickened by fresh grace. Water swells the buds and makes the fruits ripe: you shall have fructifying grace; you shall be made fruitful in the ways of God. Whatever good quality there is in Divine grace, you shall enjoy it to the full You shall be, as it were, drenched with it.
III. AS A VERY GREAT COMFORT TO HIS MOURNING PEOPLE, THE LORD NOW PROMISES A BLESSING UPON THEIR CHILDREN. They must get the blessing for themselves first. I win pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground,--that is first; and then afterwards--I will pour My Spirit upon thy seed. We must not expect to see our children blessed unless we ourselves grow in grace. It is often the inconsistency of parents which is the outward obstacle to the conversion of their children. But now, if we have had faith to receive much grace from God, here comes a blessed promise for our children--I will pour My Spirit upon thy seed, in which observe--
1. The need. To give a new heart and a right spirit is the work of the Holy Spirit, and of the Holy Spirit alone.
2. The source of the mercy which God will give. My Spirit.
3. The plenty of grace which God gives. Pour: not a little of it--but abundance.
4. The blessedness of all this. And My blessing upon thine offspring. What a blessing it is to have our offspring saved! What a blessing to have our children enlisted in Christs army!
5. Notice the vigour with which these children shall grow. They shall spring up as among the grass, as willows by the water courses. Close by the waters edge the grass grows very green, and the willow is a well-known tree for speedily shooting forth its branches. Our farmers lop their willows often, but they very soon sprout again. The willow grows fast, and so do young Christians.
6. The manifestation of this in public. Not only are our children to have the Spirit of God in their inward parts, but they are to make a profession of it. One shall say, I am the Lords,--he shall come out boldly and avow himself on the Lords side; and another shall so ally himself to Gods Church that he shall call himself by the name of Jacob; and then another who can hardly speak quite so positively, but who means it quite as sincerely, shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord; and a fourth shall surname himself by the name of Israel. (C. H. Spurgeon)
The Spirit promised to the seed of Jacob:
The text contains one of those interesting passages in which the Holy Spirit is promised in the Old Testament. Consider--
I. THE PEOPLE TO WHOM THE PROMISE IS MADE.
II. THE PROMISE ITSELF.
III. THE EFFECTS ATTENDING ITS FULFILMENT. (D. Rees.)
Jesurun,
Jesurun, or Jeshurun, is supposed to be derived from a word which literally means straight or even. The symbolic meaning is therefore upright or righteous. St. Jerome renders it most upright. In the Septuagint it is translated most beloved, a term of endearment. A German commentator gives it the quaint and familiar rendering of gentleman, or one of gentlemanly or honourable mind (Delitzseh),--a noble epithet alike for the individual or the nation. Taking it in connection with the only other two places in Scripture where the word is used, Isaiah, in employing it here, has probably reference to the primitive virtues which characterised the patriarchal ages--the faith and purity and rectitude of the old founders of the nation--those to whom Israel pointed with something of the same pride and glory as we do to our covenanting forefathers. (Deu_33:5; Deu_33:26-29.) (J. R. Macduff, D. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On vv1, 5, 6, 8, 9, 21, 23, 28 Isa_44:1-5. Yet now hear, O Jacob my Servant, &c.
THE SPIRIT PROMISED TO THE SEED OF JACOB
Isa_44:1-5. Yet now hear, O Jacob my Servant, &c.
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The three Divine Persons in the Godhead are represented in Scripture as concurring in the salvation of fallen man. Our text is one of those interesting passages in which the Holy Spirit is promised in the Old Testament.
I. THE PEOPLE TO WHOM THE PROMISE IS MADE. The “seed” or “offspring” of Jacob, i.e., those who resemble Jacob in his state and character, in his spirit and conduct.
1. Jacob is here represented as the creature of God. “Thus saith the Lord that made thee, and formed thee from the womb.” The same is true of all His spiritual children (Eph_2:10).
2. God had chosen Jacob. Twice declared in our text. True also of His spiritual children (1Pe_2:9).
3. In the text twice called the servant of God. His children are also in the same capacity (Act_27:23; Rom_12:1).
3. Jacob is also called Israel. We know on what occasion that name was first given him (Gen_32:28). It is the memorial of his triumph in prayer; and the promise in our text is made to those who, like Jacob, wrestle with God in prayer for spiritual blessings,
5. Jacob is here called Jesurun, i.e., “the upright one.” Those who are interested in this promise are such as are upright before God. Imperfection may cleave to them; overpowered by temptation, they may fall into sin; yet they are sincere (H. E. I. 1022).
II. THE PROMISE MADE IN THE TEXT (Isa_44:3). What is here promised is the Holy Spirit of God, the Sanctifier and Comforter of the Church. A blessing in which all other blessings may be said to be included. With it, and it alone, there come to the soul spiritual life, pardon, purity, peace, and meetness for heaven. Here promised under the emblem of water.
Water is a blessing—
1. Universally necessary. Without it, both man and beast must speedily perish.
2. Universally diffused. In some countries, indeed, it is more abundant than in others; but there is no habitable region on the face of the earth where it is entirely wanting. Nor is the Holy Spirit confined to a few favoured ones (Act_2:17). This promise is being fulfilled.
3. Abundant. Note the promise of the text: “pour floods.” He will communicate His Spirit copiously to earnest suppliants.
4. Cheap. Generally cheap, as the light of the sun, or as the air we breathe. What can be cheaper than the grace of the Spirit? Too precious to be sold (Job_28:14). It is the free gift of God in Christ Jesus our Lord (Joh_4:10).
III. THE EFFECTS ATTENDING THE FULFILMENT OF THIS PROMISE (Isa_44:4-5). When the earth has been long without rain, the whole face of nature assumes a mournful and sterile appearance. Let rain be given, and fertility and beauty are seen on every side. Without the Holy Spirit, there is barrenness in the Church. When the Spirit is poured out upon the Church, what are the results?
1. Its converts become exceedingly numerous. “They shall spring up as among the grass”—numerous as the blades of grass. Preliminary fulfilments of the promise (Act_2:41; Act_4:34; Act_5:14). In every age since that time, the number of converts has multiplied in proportion to the outpouring of the Spirit.
2. Its converts become distinguished for the rapidity and luxuriance of their spiritual growth. “They spring up as willows by the water-courses” (cf. Hos_14:5-7). The young convert, watered by the dews of the Spirit, makes rapid progress in spiritual knowledge and in grace. He rivals the lily in grace, the olive-tree in beauty, the cedar in stateliness, and the vine in fruitfulness. He ripens as quickly as the full-grown ear of corn; and, like the vine of Lebanon, diffuses around him the most delightful fragrance.
3. They are animated by the purest spirit of self-dedication to the Lord, and of cordial attachment to His people (Isa_44:5). That is, they shall dedicate themselves to the Lord as His faithful servants and sincere worshippers; and separating themselves from the ungodly and profane, shall solemnly and publicly join themselves to His Church. That this is the duty of those who have been converted and benefited by the Spirit, may be safely inferred from the practice of the Church in every age (Act_2:44; Act_2:46). Can we do better than follow the example set us by the primitive Church? Is it not at once our duty and the most likely way to promote the edification and salvation of our souls? Are we not more likely to go to heaven in company with those who travel thither, than by keeping aloof from them? (H. E. I. 3903–3911.)
CONCLUSION.—
1. What resemblance do we bear to the character of the people to whom the promise is made? Is the workmanship of God seen in us? Does the sanctity of our lives prove that we are His elect people? Are we men of fervent and persevering prayer? Are we sincere and upright before God?
2. Has the promise of the text been fulfilled to our souls? We so absolutely need the grace of the Spirit that we must perish, if we have it not. There is no good reason why we should be without it; like water, it is everywhere placed within our reach, and may be obtained in the greatest abundance by only asking for it. How inexcusable, then, must we be, if we still remain without it!
3. Some of us profess to have received the Spirit! What are the effects which He has produced on our spirit and conduct? (H. E. I. 2897, 2898, 1430–1437).
4. Have you truly dedicated yourself to God? and have you joined His people?—Daniel Rees: Sermons, pp. 469–479.
THE HOLY SPIRIT AND HIS INFLUENCE ON MAN
(For Whit-Sunday.)
Isa_44:3-4. I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, &c.
When God designed the recovery of ruined man, He purposed to accomplish the gracious and glorious work by two great means: by giving the Son to take upon Him our nature, to obey and suffer for us therein; and by sending the Holy Spirit, to render all that Christ has done and suffered for us applicable and effectual to the salvation of our souls.
In this Scripture an abundant effusion of the Spirit is promised to the Church, under the emblem of water: “I will pour water upon him that is thirsty.” Being made truly sensible of spiritual need, and earnestly desirous of something better than creature satisfaction, this declaration promises a supply of spiritual blessings for the refreshment of the soul. Is that soul barren as the dry ground where there is no water? There is an enlargement of the promise—floods of grace are spoken of: “and floods upon the dry ground.” Then there is an explanation, in the plainest language: “I will pour My Spirit upon thy seed, and My blessings upon thine offspring.”
This promise was strikingly fulfilled on the day of Pentecost. It is doubtless to have a more complete fulfilment in that happy and glorious state which yet awaits the Church, when the knowledge of the Lord shall fill the earth, as the waters cover the sea. But it has also a most important reference to those operations which are carried on by the Holy Spirit in our own souls, and upon which our salvation depends (Joh_3:3). Let us, then, reverently study what has been revealed to us in the Word of God concerning the being and operations of the Holy Spirit.
I. THE HOLY SPIRIT.
1. The Spirit, of whom this and other Scriptures speak to us, is Divine.
(1) This, and more, is involved in our Lord’s command, “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.”
(2) The same distinguishing names and titles are given continually in the Word of God to the Holy Ghost, as belong to no other than Almighty God. “THE LORD” (2Co_3:1. Cf. Isa_6:9 with Act_28:25). “GOD” (Act_5:3). “JEHOVAH” (Cf. Isa_63:14 with Deu_32:12 and Num_14:11).
2. The Holy Spirit is not an attribute or operation of God the Father; His distinct personality is clearly manifest from several scriptures.
(1.) From distinct and visible appearances. At the baptism of our Lord. In Mat_3:16, we read of a distinct manifestation of three Sacred Persons, at one time and place: The voice of the Father was heard, “This is my beloved Son;” the Lord Jesus came up out of the Jordan; and the Holy Spirit in a bodily shape descended from heaven, and lighted upon Him. On the day of Pentecost. He visibly descended on the apostles, in the likeness of fire.
(2.) To “the Spirit” divine and personal attributes are assigned. He is eternal (Heb_9:14). Omnipresent (Psa_139:7). Omniscient (1Co_2:10).
(3.) He acts in a personal manner, as one who has a distinct and personal will (Joh_14:7-8; 1Co_12:11).
(4.) He has personal appellations (Isa_11:2; Joh_14:16; Joh_14:26). He is called “a Comforter,” which is the name of a person, and of one vested with an office; “another Comforter,” to distinguish Him from God the Son, who is a Comforter and indisputably a Person.
(5.) The immediate care and government of the Christian Church has been committed peculiarly to the Holy Spirit. Regeneration is His especial work, spiritual life His especial gift; by Him the work of sanctification is carried on; all Christian holiness, and the exercise of every grace, proceed from Him (Joh_3:3; 2Th_2:13; 2Co_13:14, &c.) He also qualifies and appoints persons to minister in the Church of Christ, and claims their services (Act_13:2; Act_20:28).
These testimonies place it beyond doubt that the Holy Spirit is a divine, distinct, and self-existent person, infinite in all His attributes; that He is also, with the Father and the Son, One, God over all, blessed for evermore (H. E. I. 2867).
II. HIS OPERATIONS IN THE HUMAN SOUL.
He is the great Teacher, the Spirit of Illumination, the promised Guide, who alone can lead us into a saving knowledge of the truth. We all continue in a state of spiritual darkness and death until by His mighty power we are born again. It is only through His agency that the corruptions of the human heart can be subdued and mortified, and a holy conformity to the will of God either acquired or sustained. He is the great and only true Comforter, from whom alone any solid consolations come. His work in the soul is just as necessary for its salvation as was the work that was finished on the Cross; and no man, however wise or learned he may be, knows really one tittle more of spiritual things than he is experimentally taught them by the Holy Ghost. His blessed influences, which are so absolutely necessary to us, should be earnestly sought (H. E. I. 2871–2891; P. D. 1815–1821).—John Johnstone, M.A.: The Way of Life, pp. 172–196.
The suitableness of this passage to the important subject of the day, when we commemorate the outpouring of the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost, is obvious. Let us consider—
I. THE PROMISE. “I will pour,” &c. This, then, is a promise of the Spirit, which is here compared, as in other scriptures, to water, on account partly of its purifying, and partly of its comforting properties. For as water cleanses the body and quenches thirst, so the Spirit purifies the soul and satisfies spiritual desires.
But who are they upon whom the Spirit is poured?
1. Upon the people of God, compared to the earth in the drought of summer, parched and thirsting for rain; upon those who are sensible of their spiritual barrenness, and are not looking for the supply of their wants to their own imaginary merits or strength, but are trusting in the mercy of God through Christ. Upon these the Lord will shed the Holy Ghost abundantly.
2. Upon the children of believers.
II. ITS EFFECTS. “And they shall spring up as among the grass, as willows by the water-courses.” The image here employed implies two things—an increase of the Church, and a growth of individual piety. As plants and herbs spring up of themselves and spread in a grassy and well-watered spot, so did the Christian religion at first rapidly extend itself, through the outpouring of the Holy Ghost. Thousands were converted by a single sermon, and churches were planted over the whole of the then known world. As the willow situate by the river’s side shoots up quickly, so he upon whom the Lord pours His Spirit plentifully thrives and flourishes in the divine life. His faith becomes steadfast, his love pure and fervent, his humility profound, his knowledge and wisdom extensive and deep, his zeal ardent and constant, lowly and meek, his deadness to the world thorough, and his devotedness to God unreserved.
If the gift of the Spirit be so important, how earnestly should we pray for it! Prayer is the appointed means of obtaining every blessing, whether temporal or spiritual, which God has to bestow. It is the particular duty annexed to the promise of the Spirit (Eze_36:27; Eze_36:37). Neglect it not! Pray first of all for your own dry and barren souls, that they may be visited with an abundant outpouring of the Spirit, and thereby be softened, refreshed, and fertilised. Pray next for your children, and pray in faith, expecting, on the ground of the new covenant and of the Divine promises, that your prayers will be heard and answered; your children are included in the promise as well as yourselves. Make a constant practice of praying “for the good estate of the Catholic Church, that it may be so guided and governed by God’s good Spirit, that all who profess and call themselves Christians may be led into the way of truth, and hold the faith in the unity of spirit, in the bond of peace, and in righteousness of life.”—James Gibson, M.A.: Sermons, pp. 87–99.
Three things demand our attention—
I. THE NECESSITY OF DIVINE INFLUENCE.
This is seen in the condition of the persons to whom this promise is addressed. Graphic and affecting terms are used to describe the state of the Church when the grace of the Spirit is withdrawn or withheld. It is a state—
1. Of destitution. The face of nature is entirely dependent on the dews and rains of heaven for its picturesque and fruitful appearance. In their absence the earth pines and languishes. Think of the condition and appearance of Israel, when for more than three years rain was withheld from it. As dependent is the heart of man upon God; where His gracious influence is not exerted, there is no true peace or joy.
2. Of sterility. This is denoted by the phrase “dry ground.” Dry ground is barren. Equally barren is the human heart in the absence of divine influence; it brings forth nothing valuable.
3. This destitution and barrenness extends even to the rising generation. Grace is not hereditary. The children of the most devout are individually dependent on God for all excellence. Unless that dependence is exercised, all the excellences resulting from their religious education will dwindle away and ultimately die. The necessity of divine influence clings to us all.
II. THE NATURE OF THE DIVINE INFLUENCE.
This is represented in the metaphor by which it is described, “I will pour water,” &c. The opposite metaphor, fire, is also used to describe the work of the Holy Spirit. The propriety and beauty of the metaphor employed here will appear if we consider—
1. The peculiar proprieties of the promised blessing. Remember
(1.) its cleansing influence.
(2.) Its softening power.
(3.) Its fertilising tendency.
(4.) Its satisfying quality. Nothing else so effectually quenches thirst.
2. The manner of its bestowment.
(1.) It falls from heaven.
(2.) It is imparted freely.
(3.) It is poured forth copiously. “Floods upon the dry ground.”
III. THE EFFECTS OF DIVINE INFLUENCE.
When it is exerted, the results are seen—
1. In numerous conversions to God (Isa_44:4). As grass springs up in the water-courses, and willows grow in the moistened earth, so where the Spirit is poured forth numbers of converts arise to call the Redeemer blessed.
2. In consecration to the service of Christ (Isa_44:5).
(1.) It is individual and personal.
(2.) It is marked by holy decision openly avowed.
(3.) It is influential in its example. “One shall say … and another!”
CONCLUSION.—
1. This promise should teach us to cultivate dependence on the Holy Spirit.
2. Let us derive encouragement to seek an enlarged effusion of the Divine influence for ourselves and for others.
3. The promise and the pictures of the text appeal to you young folk. They show you what you are without the Holy Spirit; what you may become under His gracious influence; and they stimulate you to that personal dedication to God on which your present and eternal well-being depends.—George Smith, D.D.
Who are they that shall participate in these rich blessings? The region surveyed by the promise is one of destitution. It is a “dry ground.” Months since a drop of rain fell. It is parched. Nothing grows. The land is thirsty. The land and people represent God’s Church. It was a separated people (Isa_44:2). Jacob and Israel, names of the chosen people. Jesurun, “my righteous” or “beloved one.” So that the promise of the text relates to the Church.
1. IN ITSELF. This is the primary idea. The Church is depressed. Here is a promise of revival and refreshing. This is God’s usual course. He reanimates the spiritual life within the Church before He extends it beyond. The world’s conversion is through the Church. But if, like salt that has lost its savour, it has become incapable of its proper influence, how shall its capacity be regained? Only by a new outpouring of the Spirit from on high. God brought back His people; then the heathen knew that He was the Lord. At the Day of Pentecost the Spirit was first given to the disciples, then to the multitude. “Beginning at Jerusalem.”
2. IN ITS CHILDREN. The special promise of the text is that the children shall be brought under the saving influence. “I will pour my Spirit on thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring” (Act_2:39). There is a special propriety and beauty in the arrangement that the Christian parent should be the means of training his children for the Church. If the children of Christians are not Christians, it is usually because the parents have failed in some respect to be to their children what they should have been. We ought to be able to look around on the families of Christians and anticipate their union in the fellowship of the Church as a matter of course.
Thus there is in this promise the idea of the Gospel’s perpetuation in the world. It shall not expire with the existing generation. If not a single convert were added from the regions beyond, it will continue to live in the children of God’s people. So that, though the grass withers and the flower fades; though the man dies and is forgotten, the Word of the Lord, which by the Gospel is preached unto you, endureth for ever. Is not the greater proportion of conversions usually among the young? Is not this a fulfilment of the promise? Let Christian parents and Christian ministers be specially interested in the young (H. E. I. 781–788, 795, 803–806).
Nor does it terminate there. It spreads outwards. Unlike Gideon’s fleece, which was saturated while the surrounding ground remained dry, the dew which falls upon the Church reaches the region outside (Eze_34:26). Large numbers attend our Christian sanctuaries who do not identify themselves with the Church. They hear the Gospel; are interested in its success; but they have not its blessing. The waters of salvation are flowing around them; but their souls remain parched. For them every Christian should pray. They will suffer me to say a word to them. You are like a drowning man who clings to the side of the boat, but refuses to enter it. This is not God’s fault. It is your own. How long shall it continue?
We want more prayer for the Holy Spirit; a more real belief in His work.—J. Rawlinson.
REVIVAL: A HOMILY FOR SPRING
Isa_44:3-4. For I will pour water, &c.
Foremost among the judgments which followed Israel’s idolatries was the visitation of drought. We enjoy copious supplies of fertilising rain. Yet, even in our own land, a sensible reduction of the rain-fall in spring is followed by empty shocks in August. But in the sunny climes of Syria, if the half-yearly gift of rain failed, the effect was disastrous in the extreme.
If drought is so injurious in the fields of nature, is it not equally injurious in the Church? In our text there is,
I. A STATE OF BARRENNESS DESCRIBED. The ground is said to be “dry,” in a parched and impenetrable condition. Deadly to vegetable growth. With such homely imagery the prophet leads our thoughts from the outer world to the inner. Is it my soul that is here described? Whatever be the reason, God shall be held clear of blame; and, like the first sign of approaching spring, comes His gracious promise, “I will pour,” &c.
II. A SENSE OF NEED EXPRESSED. The insensibility is gone. The rigid hardness of winter is at an end. Who is there among us whose spirit thirsts not? (Mat_5:6.)
III. A GENEROUS GIFT PROVIDED. A promise from God is as good as its performance.
1. The source of the supply. The great folly to which all men are prone is to seek the supply of their wants elsewhere than in God. Yet God has wisely ordained that nowhere out of Himself shall man’s highest good be found.
2. The suitableness of the means. Showers for a thirsty soul—mercy’s gifts to satisfy the wants of dependent man. Showers of spiritual influence to refresh our drooping piety. Not half so skilfully do the several parts of a key fit into the wards of a complicated lock as the gifts of Christ fit the needs of a human soul.
3. The copiousness of the gift. If showers will not suffice, there shall be “floods.”
4. The range of the promise. It shall not terminate with ourselves; it shall extend to our children—ay, to our children’s children. Consolation for parents. The spirit of piety is as contagious as the spirit of profanity. If our Christian faith and love be vigorous, our ambition for our children will be, not riches, &c., but salvation.
IV. ABUNDANT FERTILITY FORESEEN. There shall be a revival of life in the Church, as in the parched fields after a copious shower, as in nature at the advent of spring. What a delightful change!
1. Multiplicity of conversions is here predicted. Appearances may be unfavourable; unbelief may ridicule the hope; but the word has gone forth, and cannot fail.
2. Rapidity of growth shall be another feature of this era. Now, for the most part, growth is slow; good fruit is scanty. We scarce can tell whether we gain or lose. But when the heavenly rain shall descend, the young life will break through every bond, will send out new shoots, and make every branch fruitful.
3. Constancy of verdure will be enjoyed. They shall be “as willows by the water-courses.”—D. Davies, M.A.: Homiletic Quarterly, vol. iv. p. 407.
These words describe a time of refreshing.
I. Who is the Author of a work of grace? God.
1. He begins a work of anxiety in dead souls (Zechariah 12; John 16; Ezekiel 37)
2. He carries on the work, leading awakened persons to Christ (Joe_2:28; Joe_2:32).
3. He enlarges His people. Learn
(1.) To look beyond ministers for a work of grace;
(2.) Good hope of revival in our day;
(3.) That we should pray for it.
II. God begins with thirsty souls.
1. Awakened persons.
2. Thirsty believers. Signs:
(1.) Much thirst after the word.
(2.) Much prayer.
(3.) Desire to grow in grace.
III. God pours floods on the dry ground. Represents those who are dead in trespasses and sins. Marks:
(1.) They do not pray.
(2.) They do not wish a work of grace in their souls.
(3.) Those who do not attend to the preached word.
Learn, Christians, to pray for floods of blessing.
IV. Effects.
1. Saved souls will be like grass.
2. Believers shall grow like willows.
3. Self-dedication.—R. M. M‘Cheyne: Sermons, pp. 66–72.
THE CHURCH AND THE CHILDREN
(For the third Sunday in October, the day for “universal prayer and effort on behalf of Sunday-schools and young people.”)
Isa_44:3-5. For I will pour water, &c.
The third Sunday in October is, in many places, an anniversary associated with blessed recollections. If the mighty hosts of godly parents and Sunday-school workers agree to ask for the gift of the Holy Ghost, it will be made manifest that we are among the heirs of Pentecost; in our dwellings, &c., we shall be richly blessed, and multitudes of the young will be added to the Church, according to these glorious declarations. Let there be no misgiving; these “exceeding great and precious promises” are “unto us and our children.”
I. GOD’S PROMISE OF BLESSING UPON THE CHURCH.
1. The nature of the promised blessing. Consists in the influences of the Holy Spirit which are frequently represented in the Scriptures, and especially by Isaiah, under the figure of water, either as “streams,” “rivers,” or “floods.” Here the terms “water” and “Spirit” are used interchangeably (cf. Joh_7:38-39). Analogy between water in the natural world, and the Spirit’s influences in the moral world. Whatever good there is in the Holy Spirit’s agency, this promise includes them all, for when God gives His Spirit, He gives all other blessings (Luk_5:23 with Mat_7:5).
2. Abundant. The terms employed indicate communications commensurate with the existing need, however great. Like torrents of rain poured on the thirsty earth. The fulness of the Spirit’s influences shall be communicated to us if we seek in the way of obedient prayer and faith. Not a solitary promise—one of a group (Eze_34:26; Joe_2:28; Hos_14:5; Mal_3:10, &c.) Had their first grand and signal fulfilment upon the day of Pentecost—the beginning of the fulfilment of these promises. Act_2:39 proves the universality of the promise. It is yours now. What abundant communications of divine influence we should expect!
3. Needed. God’s ancient people were in a sadly backsliding state. They needed the bestowment of divine influence. So do we.
(1.) The low and languid piety of the Church.
(2.) The comparatively small success of the various agencies for the conversion of sinners. Our agencies will not be spiritually useful upon anything like a large scale, until they are charged with spiritual force.
4. Must be sought. The promise is made to the “thirsty.” God gives what He promises only in answer to prayer. His promise cannot fail.
5. The results will be most glorious. Individuals. Church. World.
II. GOD’S PROMISE OF BLESSING UPON THE CHILDREN OF THE CHURCH. Has made the hearts of multitudes of pious parents and teachers thrill with delight. Accords with many others.
1. Our children need the Holy Spirit. No natural goodness can supersede the work of the Spirit. Religion not hereditary.
2. God promises to give the Spirit as abundantly to them as to us. Same terms used in each case. Having received the Spirit, they are to grow in grace most vigorously (Isa_44:4). The manifestation of this in public (Isa_44:5).
3. Must be sought. As in the former case, so in this. The universal Church is seeking this blessing to-day upon Sunday-schools and young people. Grand and inspiring fact! The salvation of our children is placed before us as the crowning glory of the Church when she is in the full tide of her prosperity. Let parents and teachers, &c., expect the fulfilment of the promise to-day.
CONCLUSION.—A word to unconverted parents. You are glad to see your children pious, though you are neglecting salvation yourselves. One of the strongest reasons why you should seek it. How sacred and solemn is the parental relationship.—A. Tucker.
I. That God will pour His blessing on the children of His people. A promise which in all ages, when parents are faithful, is abundantly fulfilled.
II. That one of the richest blessings which can be imparted to a people is, that God’s Spirit should descend on their children.
III. That the Spirit of God alone is the source of true happiness and prosperity to our children. All else—property, learning, accomplishments, beauty, vigour—will be vain. It is by His blessing only—by the influences of piety—that they will spring forth, &c.
IV. Parents should pray earnestly for a revival of religion. No better description can be given of it than we have here. Who would not pray for such a work of grace? What family, what congregation, what people can be happy without it?—A. Barnes.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain On v1 Isa 44:1-2
Isa 44:1-2
The occurrence of the three names, "Jacob, Israel, Jesurun," together is very remarkable, and the order in which they stand is not accidental. The prophet begins with the name that belonged to the patriarch by birth; the name of nature, which contained some indications of character. He passes on to the name which commemorated the mysterious conflict where, as a prince, he had power with God and prevailed. He ends with the name of Jesurun, of which the meaning is "the righteous one," and which was bestowed upon the people as a reminder of what they ought to be.
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I. These three names in their order teach us, first, the path of transformation. Every Jacob may become a righteous one, if he will tread Jacob’s road. There must be a Peniel between the two halves of the character if there is to be transformation. Jacob must become Israel before he is Jesurun; he must hold communion with God in Christ before he is clothed with righteousness.
II. Here we may find expressed the law for the Christian life. The order of these names here points the lesson that the apex of the pyramid, the goal of the whole course, is righteousness. The object for which the whole majestic structure of revelation has been builded up is simply to make good men and women.
III. Notice the merciful judgment which God makes of the character of them that love Him, Jesurun means "the righteous one." How far beneath the ideal of the name these Jewish people fell we all know, and yet the name is applied to them. Although the realisation of the ideal has been so imperfect, the ideal is not destroyed. Although they have done so many sins, yet He calls them by His name of righteous. And so we Christian people find that the New Testament calls us saints. He who sees not as men see beholds the inmost tendencies and desires of the nature, as well as the facts of the life, and discerning the inmost and true self of His children, and knowing that it will conquer, calls us "righteous ones," even while the outward life has not yet been brought into harmony with the new man, created in righteousness after God’s image.
A. Maclaren, Christian Commonwealth, Feb. 5th, 1885.
References: Isa 44:1-5.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. x., No. 564. Isa 44:3.—G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 102; Spurgeon, Morning by Morning, p. 311. Isa 44:3, Isa 44:4.—Homiletic Quarterly, vol. iv., p. 407. Isa 44:3-5.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xx., No. 1151.
Isa 44:6
I. "I am the first." (1) We find in this the affirmation of the fundamental doctrine of a Supreme God, the Creator of all things. (2) This reminds us, further, that as God is the supreme cause, He must also be the supreme end of all that exists, the centre of the thoughts and affections of all the beings He has created. (3) This means, further, that God is at the basis of all that is done to raise and save humanity, to bring it back to the true life which it has lost by separating itself from Him.
II. "I am the last." By this we must understand (1) that God never abdicates, and that He shall ever remain the Supreme Master, when all the lords of a day shall have passed away after having made a little noise in the world. (2) This means, further, that God remains the Supreme Judge, and that consequently the hour of justice shall certainly strike. (3) This reminds us again that God is the supreme refuge of every soul that calls upon Him, the only one which remains standing when all others have disappeared.
E. Bersier, Sermons, 2nd series, p. 350.
References: Isa 44:7.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxiii., No. 1377. Isa 44:8.—Preacher’s Monthly, vol. v., p. 319; Bishop Walsham How, Plain Words, 2nd series, p. 39.
Isa 44:20
These two thoughts act and re-act upon each other. The lie in the right hand fetters, hopelessly fetters, the soul, while the enslaved soul, because it is enslaved, cannot discover "the lie" of its hand.
I. Consider what is the force of that expression, "a lie in the right hand." A lie in the hand must mean a lie concealed—a lie inside the hand, held, but covered. And as the right hand is the emblem of strength in a man, it conveys that the lie is strongly and resolutely held. The right hand is what God has promised to hold, therefore the right hand shadows out that by which God apprehends us, and by which we apprehend God. But how shall God hold that which is preoccupied? How shall God guide or comfort or uphold a man who has a lie in his right hand? Such a man shuts himself out, at once, of all contact with God, and therefore out of all blessing; and leaving himself to himself, necessarily falls.
II. The religion of many of us is, simply, a passive thing—that is, it begins and ends in impressions and feelings which we have received; or if it go further at all, it is only in acts of worship and devotion. It does not lead to self-denying acts of love—it does not include separation from the world—it is the same sort of religion which heathen religions generally are, religions of worship and feeling, and not religions that affect the life. But while you only so worship and feel, while the kingdom of God is never advanced by you, you may indeed call yourselves religious, but that word is a lie in that idle right hand of yours. It needs but very little to be honest in the search of truth, and you will find truth; it needs very little else but simplicity of faith, with earnestness to be saved; it needs nothing but to be true to God, to receive His blessing, and to be admitted into all His promises.
J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 1874, p. 360.
References: Isa 44:20.—H. Alford, Quebec Chapel Sermons, vol. i., p. 299; J. Thain Davidson, Forewarned—Forearmed, p. 163. Isa 44:21, Isa 44:22.—Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. xii., p. 18. Isa 44:21-23.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxii., No. 1895.
Isa 44:22
I. We find in these words a wonderful teaching as to the inmost nature of sin. I refer especially here to the two words for sin which are employed here. That translated "transgression"literally means "treachery" or "rebellion;" and that translated sin "missing a mark." All sin is treacherous rebellion. That is to say, it has relation not only to a law, but to a lawgiver. It is not merely a departure from what is right, it is treason against God. And then, still further, the other word which is employed here conveys a profound and a tragic lesson. All sin misses the mark. Whoever transgresses against conscience and God misses the true aim and scope of his life. Every sin is a deflection from that which ought to be the goal of all that we do. And more than that, not only does each transgression miss the true aim of life, but it also misses what it aims at. All iniquity is a blunder as well as a crime.
II. The second thought is one conveyed by the form in which the promise is given us, viz., the permanent record of sin—"I have blotted out." That points, of course, to something that has been written, and which it promises shall be erased. There is a book written, a permanent record of our evil-doing. Where is it written? Where, rather, is it not written? Written on character, written to a very large extent on circumstances, written above all in the calm, perfect memory of the all-judging God. The book is written by ourselves, moment by moment, and day by day.
III. There is another thought, and that is the darkening power of sin. "I have blotted out as a thick cloud," says the text. Like a misty veil drawn across the face of the heavens are man’s sins. That emblem has a double truth in it, viz., that every evil deed tends to obscure and to hide from us the face of God; and also that every evil deed tends to unfit us for the reception of the blessings that come down from above.
IV. The last thought is the removal of the sin. "I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins." The erasure implies the making a clean sheet of the blurred page; the cancelling of the whole long formidable column that expresses the debt. The blotting out as a cloud implies the disappearing of the misty vapour, as some thin fleecy film will do in the dry Eastern heavens, melting away as a man looks. God treats all my iniquity of the past as nonexistent, and He pours Himself upon me in order that all the evil that still haunts my spirit may be utterly expelled and driven forth.
A. Maclaren, Christian Commonwealth, Nov. 19th, 1885.
I. Notice, first, the divineness of forgiveness. God removes the clouds, and God alone. The dispensation of pardon is too precious to be entrusted either to men or to angels. The Father has given authority to pardon to His Son, but to none other.
II. Look at the completeness of pardon. In the country which Isaiah knew the clouds were entirely blotted out during four months of the year, and the clearness of the atmosphere enabled the prophet to appreciate this illustration to an extent impossible to us. When God pardons a man there is not a sin to be seen.
III. Look at the assurance which God gives the pardoned that they are forgiven. God might forgive without telling us now that He has pardoned us. He might pardon secretly, but He pardons, giving knowledge of forgiveness, to those whose transgressions He covers. Now what profit is there in this? (1) Knowledge of pardon is a particular knowledge of God. (2) Knowledge of pardon is a source of joy and peace. (3) Knowledge of pardon is a power awakening love. (4) Knowledge of pardon is a motive to the pursuit of holiness. (5). Knowledge of pardon encourages us to bring others to God.
IV. Who are the assured? (1) Those who confess their sins. (2) Those who forsake their sins. (3) Those who turn to God. "Let him turn to the Lord and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon."
S. Martin, Westminster Chapel Pulpit, 3rd series, No. 11.
I. In this text there is recognised the existence of sin. The individuals to whom this gracious promise was addressed had been guilty of enormous and aggravated rebellion; their transgressions had gathered blackness and density; they were "as a thick cloud," and as a "cloud." The Gospel proceeds altogether upon the basis of an entire and universal depravity. "It assimilates all varieties of human character into one common condition of guilt, need, and helplessness." It recognises but two varieties of character here, and but two varieties of condition in the world beyond the grave.
II. There is affirmed the existence of mercy. Scarcely had the fall defiled the world and entailed its heritage of wrath and shame before the first promise of grace was breathed. When man sinned, perverted his nature, corrupted his way, bereft himself of every love-compelling quality, became utterly defiled and unworthy, then grace came in a new fountain struck out of the Godhead, a new idea for the wonder and homage of the universe. All former displays which God had made of Himself were ascents to higher elevation. This was a mightier putting forth of His perfections, inasmuch as it showed not only how high the love of God could rise, but how deeply the mercy of God could go down; not only the glorious fellowship of angels which it could fill with its rejoicing, but the branded and downtrodden outcasts to whom it could stoop and uplift them from hell into heaven.
W. Morley Punshon, Sermons, p. 205; see also Penny Pulpit, No. 3896.
References: Isa 44:22.—Spurgeon, Evening by Evening, p. 41; Homiletic Quarterly, vol. i., p. 555. Isa 44:23.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxi., No. 1240.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On vv1, 20, 22 Isa 44:1 - Isa 44:2.
Isaiah
JACOB-ISRAEL-JESHURUN
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Isa 44:1 - Isa 44:2.
You observe that there are here three different names applied to the Jewish nation. Two of them, namely Jacob and Israel, were borne by their great ancestor, and by him transmitted to his descendants. The third was never borne by him, and is applied to the people only here and in the Book of Deuteronomy.
The occurrence of all three here is very remarkable, and the order in which they stand is not accidental. The prophet begins with the name that belonged to the patriarch by birth; the name of nature, which contained some indications of character. He passes on to the name which commemorated the mysterious conflict where, as a prince, Jacob had power with God and prevailed. He ends with the name Jeshurun, of which the meaning is ‘the righteous one,’ and which was bestowed upon the people as a reminder of what they ought to be.
Now, as I take it, the occurrence of these names here, and their sequence, may teach us some very important lessons; and it is simply to these lessons, and not at all to the context, that I ask your attention.
I. I take, then, these three names in their order as teaching us, first, the path of transformation.
Every ‘Jacob’ may become a ‘righteous one,’ if he will tread Jacob’s road. We start with that first name of nature which, according to Esau’s bitter etymology of it, meant ‘a supplanter’-not without some suggestions of craft and treachery in it. It is descriptive of the natural disposition of the patriarch, which was by no means attractive. Cool, calculating, subtle, with a very keen eye to his own interests, and not at all scrupulous as to the means by which he secured them, he had no generous impulses, and few unselfish affections. He told lies to his poor old blind father, he cheated his brother, he met the shiftiness of Laban with equal shiftiness. It was ‘diamond cut diamond’ all through. He tried to make a bargain with God Himself at Bethel, and to lay down conditions on which he would bring Him the tenth of his substance. And all through his earlier career he does not look like the stuff of which heroes and saints are made.
But in the mid-path of his life there came that hour of deep dejection and helplessness, when, driven out of all dependence on self, and feeling round in his agony for something to lay hold upon, there came into his nightly solitude a vision of God. In conscious weakness, and in the confidence of self-despair, he wrestled with the mysterious Visitant in the only fashion in which He can be wrestled with. ‘He wept and made supplication to Him,’ as one of the prophets puts it, and so he bore away the threefold gift-blessing from those mighty lips whose blessing is the communication, and not only the invocation, of mercy, a deeper knowledge of that divine and mysterious Name, and for himself a new name.
That new name implied a new direction given to his character.
Hitherto he had wrestled with men whom he would supplant, for his own advantage, by craft and subtlety; henceforward he strove with God for higher blessings, which, in striving, he won. All the rest of his life was on a loftier plane. Old ambitions were dead within him, and though the last of these names in our text was never actually borne by him, he began to deserve it, and grew steadily in nobleness and beauty of character until the end, when he sang his swan-song and lay down to die, with thanksgiving for the past and glowing prophecies for the future, pouring from his trembling lips.
And now, brethren, that is the outline of the only way in which, from out of the evil and the sinfulness of our natural disposition, any of us can be raised to the loftiness and purity of a righteous life. There must be a Peniel between the two halves of the character, if there is to be transformation.
Have you ever been beaten out of all your confidence, and ground down into the dust of self-disgust and self-abandonment? Have you ever felt, ‘there is nothing in me or about me that I can cling to or rely upon’? Have you ever in the thickest of that darkness had, gleaming in upon your solitude, the vision of His face, whose face we see in Jesus Christ? Have you ever grasped Him who is infinitely willing to be held by the weakest hand, and who never ‘makes as though He would go further,’ except in order to induce us to say, with deeper earnestness of desire, ‘Abide with us, for it is dark’? And have you ever, in fellowship with Him thus, found pouring into your enlightened mind a deeper reading of the meaning of His character and a fuller conception of the mystery of His love? And have you ever-certainly you have if these things have preceded it, certainly you have not if they have not -have you ever thereby been borne up on to a higher level of feeling and life, and been aware of new impulses, hopes, joys, new directions and new capacities budding and blossoming in your spirit?
Brethren! there is only one way by which, out of the mire and clay of earth, there can be formed a fair image of holiness, and that is, that Jacob’s experience, in deeper, more inward, more wonderful form, should be repeated in each one of us; and that thus, penitent and yet hopeful, we should behold the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, and draw from Him our righteousness. That is the path of transformation. The road passes through Peniel, and Jacob must become Israel before he is Jeshurun. He must hold communion with God in Christ before he is clothed with righteousness.
How different that path is from the road which men are apt to take in working out their own self-improvement! How many forms of religion, and how many toiling souls put the cart before the horse, and in effect just reverse the process, and say practically-’first make yourselves righteous, and then you will have communion with God’! That is an endless and a hopeless task. I have no doubt that some of you have spent-and I would not say wasted, but it has been almost so-years of life, not without many an honest effort, in the task of self-improvement, and are very much where you were long ago. Why have you failed? Because you have never been to Peniel. You have never seen the face of God in Christ, You have not received from Him the blessing, even righteousness, from the God of your salvation.
Dear friends, give up treading that endless, weary path of vain effort; and learn-oh! learn-that the righteousness which makes a soul pure and beautiful must come as a gift from God, and is given only in Jesus Christ.
This sequence too, I think, may very fairly be used to teach us the lesson that there is no kind of character so debased but that it may partake of the purifying and ennobling influence. All the Jacobs may be turned into righteous ones, however crafty, however subtle, however selfish, however worldly they are. Christianity looks at no man and says, ‘That is too bad a case for me to deal with.’ It will undertake any and every case, and whoever will take its medicines can be cured ‘of whatsoever disease he had.’
To all of us, no matter what our past may have been, this blessed message comes: ‘There is hope for thee, if thou wilt use these means.’ Only remember, the road from the depths of evil to the heights of purity always lies through Peniel. You must have power with God and draw a blessing from Him, and hold communion with Him, before you can become righteous.
How do they print photographs? By taking sensitive paper, and laying it, in touch with the negative, in the sun. Lay your spirits on Christ, and keep them still, touching Him, in the light of God, and that will turn you into His likeness. That, and nothing else will do it.
II. And now there is a second lesson from the occurrence of these three names, viz., here we may find expressed the law for the Christian life.
There are some religious people that seem to think that it is enough if only they can say; ‘Well! I have been to Jesus Christ and I have got my past sins forgiven; I have been on the mountain and have held communion with God; I do know what it is to have fellowship with Him, in many an hour of devout communion.’ and who are in much danger of treating the further stage of simple, practical righteousness as of secondary importance. Now the order of these names here points the lesson that the apex of the pyramid, the goal of the whole course, is-Righteousness. The object for which the whole majestic structure of Revelation has been builded up, is simply to make good men and women. God does not tell us His Name merely in order that we may know His Name, but in order that, knowing it, we may be smitten with the love of it, and so may come into the likeness of it. There is no religious truth which is given men for the sake of clearing their understandings and enlightening their minds only. We get the truth to enlighten our minds and to clear our understandings in order that thereby, as becomes reasonable men with heads on our shoulders, we may let our principles guide our conduct. Conduct is the end of principle, and all Revelation is given to us in order that we may be pure and good men and women.
For the same end all God’s mercy of forgiveness and deliverance from guilt and punishment in Jesus Christ is given to you, not merely in order that you may escape the penalties of your evil, but in order that, being pardoned, you may in glad thankfulness be lifted up into an enthusiasm of service which will make you eager to serve Him and long to be like Him. He sets you free from guilt, from punishment, and His wrath, in order that by the golden cord of love you may be fastened to Him in thankful obedience. God’s purpose in redemption is that ‘we, being delivered out of the hand of our enemies should serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him all our days.’
And in like manner, righteousness, by which, in the present connection, we mean simply the doing of the things, and the being the character, which a conscience enlightened by the law of God dictates to us to be and to do-righteousness is the intention and the aim of all religious emotion and feeling. It is all very well to have the joy of fellowship with God in our inmost soul, but there is a type of Christianity which is a great deal stronger on the side of devout emotion than on the side of transparent godliness; and although it becomes no man to say what Jesus Christ could say to those whose religion is mainly emotional, ‘Hypocrites!’ it is the part of every honest preacher to warn all that listen to him that there does lie a danger, a very real danger, very close to some of us, to substitute devout emotion for plain, practical goodness, and to be a great deal nearer God in the words of our prayers than we are in the current and set of our daily lives. Take, then, these three names of my text as flashing into force and emphasis the exhortation that the crown of all religion is righteousness, and as preaching, in antique guise, the same lesson that the very Apostle of affectionate contemplation uttered with such earnestness:-’Little children! let no man deceive you. He that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as He is righteous.’ An ounce of practical godliness is worth a pound of fine feeling and a ton of correct orthodoxy. Remember what the Master said, and take the lesson in the measure in which you need it: ‘Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy name, and in Thy name have cast out devils, and in Thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you, depart from Me.’ And the proof that I never knew you, nor you Me, is: ‘Ye that work iniquity.’
III. Then there is another lesson still which I draw from these words, viz. the merciful judgment which God makes of the character of them that love Him.
Jeshurun means ‘the righteous one.’ How far beneath the ideal of the name these Jewish people fell we all know, and yet the name is applied to them. Although the realisation of the ideal has been so imperfect, the ideal is not destroyed. Although they have done so many sins, yet He calls them by His name of ‘righteous.’ And so we Christian people find that the New Testament calls us ‘saints.’ That name is not applied to some select and lofty specimens of Christianity, but to all Christians, however imperfect their present life and character may be. Then people sneer and say, ‘Ah! a strange kind of saints these Christians are! Do you think that a man can condone practical immorality by saying that he is trusting in Jesus Christ? The Church’s “saint” seems to mean less than the world’s “man of honour.”‘ God forbid that it should be fancied that Christian sainthood is more tolerant of evil than worldly morality, or has any fantastic standard of goodness which makes up for departures from the plain rule of right by prayers and raptures. But surely there may be a principle of action deep down at the bottom of a heart, very feeble in its present exercise and manifestation, which yet is the true man, and is destined to conquer the whole nature which now wars against it. Here, for instance, is a tiny spark, and there is a huge pile of damp, green wood. Yes; and the little spark will turn all the wood into flame, if you give it time and fair play. The leaven may be hid in an immensely greater mass of meal, but it, and not the three measures of flour, is the active principle. And if there is in a man, overlaid by ever so many absurdities, and contradictions, and inconsistencies, a little seed of faith in Jesus Christ, there will be in him proportionately a little particle of a divine life which is omnipotent, which is immortal, which will conquer and transform all the rest into its own likeness; and He who sees not as men see, beholds the inmost tendencies and desires of the nature, as well as the facts of the life, and discerning the inmost and true self of His children, and knowing that it will conquer, calls us ‘righteous ones,’ even while the outward life has not yet been brought into harmony with the new man, created in righteousness after God’s image.
All wrong-doing is inconsistent with Christianity, but, thank God, it is not for us to say that any wrong-doing is incompatible with it; and therefore, for ourselves there is hope, and for our estimate of one another there ought to be charity, and for all Christian people there is the lesson-live up to your name. Noblesse oblige! Fulfil your ideal. Be what God calls you, and ‘press toward the mark for the prize.’
If one had time to deal with it, there is another lesson naturally suggested by these names, but I only put it in a sentence and leave it; and that is the union between the founder of the nation and the nation. The name of the patriarch passes to his descendants, the nation is called after him that begat it. In some sense it prolongs his life and spirit and character upon the earth. That is the old-world way of looking at the solidarity of a nation. There is a New Testament fact which goes even deeper than that. The names which Christ bears are given to Christ’s followers. Is He a King, is He a Priest? He ‘makes us kings and priests.’ Is He anointed the Messiah? God ‘hath anointed us in Him.’ Is He the Light of the World?
‘Ye are the lights of the world.’ His life passeth into all that love Him in the measure of their trust and love. We are one with Jesus if we rest upon Him; one in life, one in character, approximating by slow degrees, but surely, to His likeness; and blessed be His name! one in destiny. Then, my friend, if you will only keep near that Lord, trust Him, live in the light of His face, go to Him in your weakness, in your despair, in your self-abandonment; wrestle with Him, with the supplication and the tears that He delights to receive, then you will be knit to Him in a union so real and deep that all which is His shall be yours, His life shall be the life of your spirit, His power the strength of your life, His dominion the foundation of your dignity as a prince with God, His all-prevailing priesthood the security that your prayer shall have power, and the spotless robe of His righteousness the fine linen, clean and white, in which arrayed, you shall be found of Him, and in Him at last, in peace, ‘not having your own righteousness, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.’
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 The Impotence of Idols
The Impotence of Idols
1-23. The reproach of God's people shall be entirely removed. Jehovah the Eternal, who rules the events of history, contrasted with the futile gods of the heathen.
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24-28. This great Jehovah pledges the restoration of His people through Cyrus.
2. Jesurun] i.e. 'upright,' a symbolic name of Israel (Deu_32:15), indicating its ideal character. Fear not] i.e. on account of past failure and apparent inability to realise the future which God sets before you.
3. Cp. Isa_43:20.
5. The meaning is that the nations of the world will count it an honour to associate themselves with Israel and be reckoned as the Lord's people. Subscribe, etc.] i.e. sign himself as the Lord's. Surname himself] as with a title of honour.
6. Cp. Isa_43:11, Isa_43:18. His redeemer] i.e. the deliverer of Israel.
7. A challenge to others to foretell the future, as Jehovah does by His prophet (Isa_41:22). RM 'And who, as I, can proclaim? let him declare it,' etc.
8. From that time] RV 'of old.' My witnesses] see Isa_43:10, Isa_43:12. No God] RV 'no Rock.' Rock, as a title of God (cp. Isa_17:10; Deu_32:4, Deu_32:15, Deu_32:18), expresses the permanent strength and protection He affords.
8-20. The folly of idolaters exposed.
9. They are their own, etc.] RV 'their own witnesses see not,' i.e. the witnesses on behalf of the idols (the heathen), as opposed to Jehovah's witnesses (the Jews), Isa_44:8.
11. All his fellows] RM 'all that join themselves thereto.' They are of men] i.e. of human origin, and, therefore, cannot make God. Bead, 'The smith sharpeneth a tool and worketh,' etc. (RM).
12. Description of the making of a metal idol. The maker is frail man.
13, etc. Description of the making of a wooden idol. A line] RV 'a pencil. Fitteth] RV 'shapeth.'
14. The v. describes the choosing of the wood, and the planting of the tree, for making an idol. Cypress.. ash] RV 'holm tree.. fir.' Strengthened] i.e. carefully tends its growth, or chooses, selects.
15-17. The uses to which the tree is put. Part is used for human purposes, part to make a god.
18-20. Idolaters are so infatuated that they do not see the contradiction involved in such conduct.
21-23. A contrast. Jehovah will show His power and graciousness in the deliverance of His people.
22. A cloud] which soon disperses.
24. He is supreme over all things.
By myself] RV 'who is with me? 'implying that Jehovah alone does these things.
25. He frustrates false prophets, but pledges Himself to fulfil the predictions of His own prophets as to the restoration of Jerusalem (Isa_44:26-28).
26. Servant] here a synonym for 'prophet': cp. Isa_20:3. Messengers] the prophets generally.
27. The allusion is to the drying up, (a) of the waters which would impede the returning exiles, or (b) of the waters which protected Babylon (Jer_50:38; Jer_51:36). Cyrus, in fact, entered Babylon by diverting the Euphrates from its usual channel and marching by the river bed.
28. As the Assyrian was Jehovah's appointed instrument for the chastisement of His people (Isa_10:5), so Cyrus is singled out as His instrument for their restoration. Even saying, etc.] literally fulfilled in the decree of Cyrus (Ezr_1:1; 2Ch_36:22-23).
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On vv2, 6, 22, 23, 28 i.e. upright. Symbolical name of Israel. Deu 32:15; Deu…
Jesurun
i.e. upright. Symbolical name of Israel. Deu 32:15; Deu 33:5; Deu 33:26
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 Jehovah Continues to Speak
CHAPTER 44
Jehovah Continues to Speak
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1. Spiritual blessings promised by the gift of the Spirit (Isa 44:1-5) 2. Jehovah the First and the Last (Isa 44:6-8) 3. Idolatry rebuked (Isa 44:9-20) 4. Remember! Return! Sing! (Isa 44:21-23) 5. The faithful Jehovah, the Redeemer (Isa 44:24-27) 6. Cyrus named (Isa 44:28)The outpouring of the Spirit upon Israel’s seed promised in the beginning of the chapter has not yet taken place. Compare with Isa 32:15 and Isa 59:21. Verses 21-23 look forward to the coming age of blessing. Then Israel will be “Jehovah’s servant” on the earth; then their transgressions will be blotted out. Then the heavens, the earth, the mountains and the trees will break forth in singing. In Isa 44:28 Cyrus is mentioned by name. This great Persian King was then in the distant future an unborn being. Jehovah knew him and named him through Isaiah. He calls him “my shepherd” and predicts his work. Josephus declares that when Cyrus found his name in the book of Isaiah, written 220 years before, an earnest desire laid hold upon him to fulfil what was written.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On vv1, 9, 24 The Reassurance of God’s Covenant Faithfulness
The Reassurance of God’s Covenant Faithfulness
v. 1. Yet now hear, namely, over against the lamentable condition pictured at the end of the last chapter, O Jacob, My servant, and Israel, whom I have chosen, the assurances of the Lord’s affection serving as a tender invitation to the true members of His people:
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v. 2. Thus saith the Lord that made thee and formed thee from the womb, who had chosen and established Israel as His people of old, which will help thee, with a steady assistance, with unvarying certainty of protection: Fear not, O Jacob, My servant, and thou, Jesurun, the upright and pious one, a term of endearment which the Lord used of Israel, Deu 32:15, whom I have chosen, the fact of God’s merciful election being emphasized time and again.
v. 3. For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, those in need of spiritual refreshment, Mat 5:6, and floods upon the dry ground; I will pour My Spirit upon thy seed, the children of the Church, and My blessing, that of His mercy in the Word, upon thine offspring;
v. 4. and they, the spiritual children of Israel, shall spring up as among the grass, in rich luxuriance, as willows by the watercourses, like the juicy and strong poplars along the banks of the Euphrates, the reference being to the luxuriant spiritual growth of the newly converted, with the fervor of their first love.
v. 5. One shall say, I am the Lord’s, proud of his privilege in being permitted to worship the true God; and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob, praising the name of the patriarch, as the ancestor of the spiritual Israel; and another shall subscribe with his band unto the Lord, mentioning the name of Jehovah as an honorary title, magnifying it above all other names, and surname himself by the name of Israel, glorifying this designation because it confers such a high honor upon all who wear it.
v. 6. Thus saith the Lord, the King of Israel, whose relation to His people is one of dignity combined with love, and his Redeemer, He who delivers from all enemies, the Lord of hosts, who is clothed with mighty power: I am the First, and I am the Last, the one true God from everlasting to everlasting; and beside Me there is no god, He is the exclusive possessor of the eternal deity.
v. 7. And who, as I, shall call, and shall declare it, and set it in order for Me, the Lord’s challenge being to all men to produce one equal to Him in prophetic wisdom, since I appointed the ancient people? As long as the world is in existence, there has never been any other who, like Himself, could foretell the future. And the things that are coming and shall come, let them show unto them, for that would be a proof substantiating their claim of being on a level with God or with his inspired prophets. But since Israel was still suffering with lack of confidence in the true God and, in a measure at least, showed their superstitious fear concerning the power of the heathen nations, therefore Jehovah once more gives them a joyful assurance:
v. 8. Fear ye not, neither be afraid, with mistrust toward Jehovah, on the one hand, and dread of the heathen gods, on the other. Have I not told thee from that time and have declared it? namely, the utter vanity of the heathen idols. Ye are even My witnesses, who must admit the truth of this assertion. Is there a [true] God beside Me? The emphatic question is answered with equal definiteness, Yea, there is no [other true] God; I know not any, even the omniscient God being unable to name one. The attitude of men with respect to this one true God decides their eternal fate.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 23, 24, 26, 28 General Information:
General Information:
Yahweh continues speaking to the people of Israel.
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Jacob my servant
This refers to Jacob's descendants. AT: "descendants of Jacob, my servants" (See: Metonymy)
he who made you and formed you in the womb
Yahweh speaks of creating the nation of Israel as if it were forming the nation as a baby in its mother's womb. AT: "he who made you, as I form a baby in the womb" (See: Metaphor)
you, Jeshurun, whom I have chosen
The verb may be supplied from the previous phrase. AT: "you, Jeshurun, whom I have chosen, do not fear" (See: Ellipsis)
Jeshurun
This also refers to the people of Israel. (See: How to Translate Names)
translationWords
Jacob
servant
Israel
chosen one
Yahweh
fear
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 3, 6, 15, 18, 21, 23, 24, 25, 27, 28 44:1-5 The promise of salvation extended the usefulness of…
44:1-5 The promise of salvation extended the usefulness of sinful Israel to another generation (44:3). The past was bleak (see 43:22-28), but the future would be a glorious new era transformed by the Spirit.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.