7I will tell of the loving kindnesses of Yahweh and the praises of Yahweh, according to all that Yahweh has given to us, and the great goodness toward the house of Israel, which he has given to them according to his mercies, and according to the multitude of his loving kindnesses.
8For he said, “Surely, they are my people, children who will not deal falsely;” so he became their Savior.
9In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them. In his love and in his pity he redeemed them. He bore them, and carried them all the days of old.
7 I will tell of the loving kindnesses of Yahweh and the praises of Yahweh, according to all that Yahweh has given to us, and the great goodness toward the house of Israel, which he has given to them according to his mercies, and according to the multitude of his loving kindnesses.
8 For he said, “Surely, they are my people, children who will not deal falsely;” so he became their Savior.
9 In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them. In his love and in his pity he redeemed them. He bore them, and carried them all the days of old.
KJVKing James Version
7 I will mention the lovingkindnesses of the LORD, and the praises of the LORD, according to all that the LORD hath bestowed on us, and the great goodness toward the house of Israel, which he hath bestowed on them according to his mercies, and according to the multitude of his lovingkindnesses.
8 For he said, Surely they are my people, children that will not lie: so he was their Saviour.
9 In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old.
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JPSJPS Tanakh (1917)
7 I will make mention of the mercies of the LORD, and the praises of the LORD, according to all that the LORD hath bestowed on us; and the great goodness toward the house of Israel, which He hath bestowed on them according to His compassions, and according to the multitude of His mercies.
8 For He said: 'Surely, they are My people, children that will not deal falsely'; so He was their Saviour.
9 In all their affliction He was afflicted, and the angel of His presence saved them; in His love and in His pity He redeemed them; and He bore them, and carried them all the days of old.
Exodus 33:14(v9)He said, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”
Exodus 23:20-21(v9)“Behold, I send an angel before you, to keep you by the way, and to bring you into the place which I have prepared. Pay attention to him,…
Malachi 3:1(v9)“Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me; and the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to his temple; and the…
Acts 7:34-35(v9)I have surely seen the affliction of my people that is in Egypt, and have heard their groaning. I have come down to deliver them. Now come,…
Acts 12:11(v9)When Peter had come to himself, he said, “Now I truly know that the Lord has sent out his angel and delivered me out of the hand of Herod,…
Show all 94 cross-references
Exodus 14:19(v9)The angel of God, who went before the camp of Israel, moved and went behind them; and the pillar of cloud moved from before them, and stood…
Exodus 19:4(v9)‘You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings, and brought you to myself.
Deuteronomy 1:31(v9)and in the wilderness where you have seen how that Yahweh your God carried you, as a man carries his son, in all the way that you went,…
Deuteronomy 7:7-8(v9)Yahweh didn’t set his love on you nor choose you, because you were more in number than any people; for you were the fewest of all peoples;…
Psalms 106:7-10(v9)Our fathers didn’t understand your wonders in Egypt. They didn’t remember the multitude of your loving kindnesses, but were rebellious at…
Judges 10:16(v9)They put away the foreign gods from among them and served Yahweh; and his soul was grieved for the misery of Israel.
Psalms 78:38(v9)But he, being merciful, forgave iniquity, and didn’t destroy them. Yes, many times he turned his anger away, and didn’t stir up all his…
Ephesians 2:4(v7)But God, being rich in mercy, for his great love with which he loved us,
Genesis 48:16(v9)the angel who has redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads, and let my name be named on them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and…
Exodus 3:7-9(v9)Yahweh said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I…
Deuteronomy 32:10-12(v9)He found him in a desert land, in the waste howling wilderness. He surrounded him. He cared for him. He kept him as the apple of his eye.…
Psalms 86:5(v7)For you, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive, abundant in loving kindness to all those who call on you.
Hebrews 4:15(v9)For we don’t have a high priest who can’t be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but one who has been in all points tempted like…
1 John 4:9-10(v9)By this God’s love was revealed in us, that God has sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. In this is…
Revelation 1:5(v9)and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us, and…
Psalms 86:15(v7)But you, Lord, are a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness and truth.
Isaiah 46:3-4(v9)“Listen to me, house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel, that have been carried from their birth, that have been carried…
Hosea 12:3-5(v9)In the womb he took his brother by the heel; and in his manhood he contended with God. Indeed, he struggled with the angel, and prevailed;…
Zechariah 2:8(v9)For Yahweh of Armies says: ‘For honor he has sent me to the nations which plundered you; for he who touches you touches the apple of his…
Titus 2:14(v9)who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify for himself a people for his own possession, zealous for…
Revelation 5:9(v9)They sang a new song, saying, “You are worthy to take the book and to open its seals: for you were killed, and bought us for God with your…
Genesis 22:11-17(v9)Yahweh’s angel called to him out of the sky, and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” He said, “Here I am.” He said, “Don’t lay your hand on the boy…
Hebrews 2:18(v9)For in that he himself has suffered being tempted, he is able to help those who are tempted.
Acts 7:30-32(v9)“When forty years were fulfilled, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in a flame of fire in a bush. When…
Acts 7:38(v9)This is he who was in the assembly in the wilderness with the angel that spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers, who received…
Genesis 17:7(v8)I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to…
Hosea 1:7(v9)But I will have mercy on the house of Judah, and will save them by Yahweh their God, and will not save them by bow, sword, battle, horses,…
Matthew 25:40(v9)“The King will answer them, ‘Most certainly I tell you, because you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’
Romans 2:4(v7)Or do you despise the riches of his goodness, forbearance, and patience, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?
Ephesians 1:6-7(v7)to the praise of the glory of his grace, by which he freely gave us favor in the Beloved, in whom we have our redemption through his blood,…
Exodus 6:7(v8)I will take you to myself for a people. I will be your God; and you shall know that I am Yahweh your God, who brings you out from under the…
1 Kings 8:66(v7)On the eighth day he sent the people away; and they blessed the king, and went to their tents joyful and glad in their hearts for all the…
Psalms 51:1(v7)Have mercy on me, God, according to your loving kindness. According to the multitude of your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions.
Isaiah 12:2(v8)Behold, God is my salvation. I will trust, and will not be afraid; for Yah, Yahweh, is my strength and song; and he has become my…
Ezekiel 16:6-14(v7)“ ‘ “When I passed by you, and saw you wallowing in your blood, I said to you, ‘Though you are in your blood, live!’ Yes, I said to you,…
Matthew 25:45(v9)“Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Most certainly I tell you, because you didn’t do it to one of the least of these, you didn’t do it to…
Luke 15:5(v9)When he has found it, he carries it on his shoulders, rejoicing.
Exodus 3:7(v8)Yahweh said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I…
Exodus 4:22-23(v8)You shall tell Pharaoh, ‘Yahweh says, Israel is my son, my firstborn, and I have said to you, “Let my son go, that he may serve me;” and…
Exodus 19:5-6(v8)Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice, and keep my covenant, then you shall be my own possession from among all peoples; for all…
Exodus 24:7(v8)He took the book of the covenant and read it in the hearing of the people, and they said, “We will do all that Yahweh has said, and be…
Exodus 34:6-7(v7)Yahweh passed by before him, and proclaimed, “Yahweh! Yahweh, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness…
Numbers 14:18-19(v7)‘Yahweh is slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, forgiving iniquity and disobedience; and he will by no means clear the guilty,…
Deuteronomy 33:29(v8)You are happy, Israel! Who is like you, a people saved by Yahweh, the shield of your help, the sword of your excellency? Your enemies will…
2 Chronicles 7:10(v7)On the twenty-third day of the seventh month, he sent the people away to their tents, joyful and glad of heart for the goodness that Yahweh…
Nehemiah 9:7-15(v7)You are Yahweh, the God who chose Abram, brought him out of Ur of the Chaldees, gave him the name of Abraham, found his heart faithful…
Nehemiah 9:19-21(v7)yet you in your manifold mercies didn’t forsake them in the wilderness. The pillar of cloud didn’t depart from over them by day, to lead…
Nehemiah 9:25(v7)They took fortified cities and a rich land, and possessed houses full of all good things, cisterns dug out, vineyards, olive groves, and…
Nehemiah 9:27(v7)Therefore you delivered them into the hand of their adversaries, who distressed them. In the time of their trouble, when they cried to you,…
Nehemiah 9:31(v7)“Nevertheless in your manifold mercies you didn’t make a full end of them, nor forsake them; for you are a gracious and merciful God.
Nehemiah 9:35(v7)For they have not served you in their kingdom, and in your great goodness that you gave them, and in the large and rich land which you gave…
Psalms 63:3(v7)Because your loving kindness is better than life, my lips shall praise you.
Psalms 78:11-72(v7)They forgot his doings, his wondrous deeds that he had shown them. He did marvelous things in the sight of their fathers, in the land of…
Psalms 78:36-37(v8)But they flattered him with their mouth, and lied to him with their tongue. For their heart was not right with him, neither were they…
Psalms 105:5-45(v7)Remember his marvelous works that he has done: his wonders, and the judgments of his mouth, you offspring of Abraham, his servant, you…
Psalms 106:21(v8)They forgot God, their Savior, who had done great things in Egypt,
Psalms 107:8(v7)Let them praise Yahweh for his loving kindness, for his wonderful deeds to the children of men!
Psalms 107:15(v7)Let them praise Yahweh for his loving kindness, for his wonderful deeds to the children of men!
Psalms 107:21(v7)Let them praise Yahweh for his loving kindness, for his wonderful deeds to the children of men!
Psalms 107:31(v7)Let them praise Yahweh for his loving kindness, for his wonderful deeds for the children of men!
Psalms 136:1-26(v7)Give thanks to Yahweh, for he is good; for his loving kindness endures forever. Give thanks to the God of gods; for his loving kindness…
Psalms 147:19-20(v7)He shows his word to Jacob, his statutes and his ordinances to Israel. He has not done this for just any nation. They don’t know his…
Isaiah 41:8(v8)“But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the offspring of Abraham my friend,
Isaiah 41:8-9(v7)“But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the offspring of Abraham my friend, You whom I have taken hold of from the ends of…
Isaiah 43:3(v8)For I am Yahweh your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I have given Egypt as your ransom, Ethiopia and Seba in your place.
Isaiah 43:11(v8)I myself am Yahweh. Besides me, there is no savior.
Isaiah 51:2(v7)Look to Abraham your father, and to Sarah who bore you; for when he was but one I called him, I blessed him, and made him many.
Isaiah 51:4(v8)“Listen to me, my people; and hear me, my nation, for a law will go out from me, and I will establish my justice for a light to the peoples.
Isaiah 54:8(v7)In overflowing wrath I hid my face from you for a moment, but with everlasting loving kindness I will have mercy on you,” says Yahweh your…
Isaiah 55:7(v7)Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to Yahweh, and he will have mercy on him, to our God,…
Isaiah 57:11(v8)“Whom have you dreaded and feared, so that you lie, and have not remembered me, nor laid it to your heart? Haven’t I held my peace for a…
Jeremiah 14:8(v8)You hope of Israel, its Savior in the time of trouble, why should you be as a foreigner in the land, and as a wayfaring man who turns aside…
Lamentations 3:32(v7)For though he causes grief, yet he will have compassion according to the multitude of his loving kindnesses.
Hosea 2:19(v7)I will betroth you to me forever. Yes, I will betroth you to me in righteousness, in justice, in loving kindness, and in compassion.
Hosea 13:4(v8)“Yet I am Yahweh your God from the land of Egypt; and you shall acknowledge no god but me, and besides me there is no savior.
Zephaniah 3:7(v8)I said, “Just fear me. Receive correction, so that her dwelling won’t be cut off, according to all that I have appointed concerning her.”…
Zechariah 9:17(v7)For how great is his goodness, and how great is his beauty! Grain will make the young men flourish, and new wine the virgins.
John 1:47(v8)Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him, and said about him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no deceit!”
Romans 5:20(v7)The law came in that the trespass might abound; but where sin abounded, grace abounded more exceedingly;
Romans 11:1-2(v8)I ask then, did God reject his people? May it never be! For I also am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God…
Romans 11:28(v8)Concerning the Good News, they are enemies for your sake. But concerning the election, they are beloved for the fathers’ sake.
Ephesians 4:25(v8)Therefore putting away falsehood, speak truth each one with his neighbor. For we are members of one another.
Colossians 3:9(v8)Don’t lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old man with his doings,
1 Timothy 1:14(v7)The grace of our Lord abounded exceedingly with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.
Titus 3:4-7(v7)But when the kindness of God our Savior and his love toward mankind appeared, not by works of righteousness which we did ourselves, but…
1 John 4:14(v8)We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as the Savior of the world.
Jude 1:25(v8)to God our Savior, who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen.
Acts 9:4(v9)He fell on the earth, and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”
1 Corinthians 10:9(v9)Let’s not test Christ, as some of them tested, and perished by the serpents.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (26 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
Geneva Bible translators1599 · Public DomainOn vv7–9The Prophet speaketh this to move the people to…
The Prophet speaketh this to move the people to remember God’s benefits in times past, that they may be confirmed in their troubles.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp1656 · Public DomainOn vv7–9Isa 63:7 I will mention the lovingkindnesses of the…
Isa 63:7 I will mention the lovingkindnesses of the LORD, [and] the praises of the LORD, according to all that the LORD hath bestowed on us, and the great goodness toward the house of Israel, which he hath bestowed on them according to his mercies, and according to the multitude of his lovingkindnesses.
Ver. 7. I will mention the lovingkindnesses of the Lord,] {a} scil., As an aggravation of Israel’s great unkindness and unthankfulness to so liberal a Lord, so bountiful a benefactor. Good turns exaggerate unkindness; and men’s offences are increased by their obligations. See Deu 32:7; Deu 32:14.
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According to his mercies, &c.] Which are such as words are too weak to utter; hence this Copia verborum, and all too little. See the like, Eph 2:5; Eph 2:7.
{a} Summam Cantici sui paucis complectitur.
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 Poole1685 · Public DomainOn vv7–9Whether this ought to be the beginning of a…
Whether this ought to be the beginning of a new chapter, or no, is not material; but certainly here begins a new matter, which contains the prophet’s prayer, either in his own name or the church’s, to the end of Isa 64; wherein he begins with mentioning the great kindnesses that God had shown the Jews, and that emphatically, setting it forth with the greatest advantages; and the more, either to aggravate their great unkindness, or to give them some hope of finding him the like again in their distresses, or by way of argument with God to show them mercy, because he had been so good to them.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry1710 · Public DomainOn v7The prophet is here, in the name of the…
The prophet is here, in the name of the church, taking a review, and making a thankful recognition, of God's dealings with his church all along, ever since he founded it, before he comes, in the latter end of this chapter and in the next, as a watchman upon the walls, earnestly to pray to God for his compassion towards her in her present deplorable state; and it was usual for God's people, in their prayers, thus to look back.
I. Here is a general acknowledgment of God's goodness to them all along, Isa 63:7. It was said, in general, of God's prophets and people (Isa 62:6) that they made mention of the Lord; now here we are told what it is in God that they do especially delight to make mention of, and that is his goodness, which the prophet here so makes mention of as if he thought he could never say enough of it. He mentions the kindness of God (which never appeared so evident, so eminent, as in his love to mankind in sending his Son to save us, Tit 3:4), his loving-kindness, kindness that shows itself in every thing that is endearing; nay, so plenteous are the springs, and so various the streams, of divine mercy, that he speaks of it in the plural number - his loving-kindnesses; for, if we would count the fruits of his loving-kindness, they are more in number than the sand. With his loving-kindnesses he mentions his praises, that is, the thankful acknowledgments which the saints make of his loving-kindness, and the angels too. It must be mentioned, to God's honour, what a tribute of praise is paid to him by all his creatures in consideration of his loving-kindness. See how copiously he speaks, 1. Of the goodness that is from God, the gifts of his loving-kindness - all that the Lord has bestowed on us in particular, relating to life and godliness, in our personal and family capacity. Let every man speak for himself, speak as he has found, and he must own that he has had a great deal bestowed upon him by the divine bounty. But we must also mention the favours bestowed upon his church, his great goodness towards the house of Israel, which he has bestowed on them. Note, We must bless God for the mercies enjoyed by others as well as for those enjoyed by ourselves, and reckon that bestowed on ourselves which is bestowed on the house of Israel. 2. Of the goodness that is in God. God does good because he is good; what he bestowed upon us must be traced up to the original; it is according to his mercies (not according to our merits) and according to the multitude of his loving-kindnesses, which can never be spent. Thus we should magnify God's goodness, and speak honourably of it, not only when we plead it (as David, Psa 51:1), but when we praise it.
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II. Here is particular notice taken of the steps of God's mercy to Israel ever since it was formed into a nation.
1. The expectations God had concerning them that they would conduct themselves well, Isa 63:8. When he brought them out of Egypt and took them into covenant with himself he said, "Surely they are my people, I take them as such, and am willing to hope they will approve themselves so, children that will not lie," that will not dissemble with God in their covenantings with him, nor treacherously depart from him by breaking their covenant and starting aside like a broken bow. They said, more than once, All that the Lord shall say unto us we will do and will be obedient; and thereupon he took them to be his peculiar people, saying, Surely they will not lie. God deals fairly and faithfully with them, and therefore expects they should deal so with him. They are children of the covenant (Act 3:25), children of those that clave unto the Lord, and therefore it may be hoped that they will tread in the steps of their fathers' constancy. Note, God's people are children that will not lie; for those that will are not his children but the devil's.
2. The favour he showed them with an eye to these expectations: So he was their Saviour out of the bondage of Egypt and all the calamities of their wilderness-state, and many a time since he had been their Saviour. See particularly (Isa 63:9) what he did for them as their Saviour. (1.) The principle that moved him to work salvation for them; it was in his love and in his pity, out of mere compassion to them and a tender affection for them, not because he either needed them or could be benefited by them. This is strangely expressed here: In all their affliction he was afflicted; not that the Eternal Mind is capable of grieving or God's infinite blessedness of suffering the least damage or diminution (God cannot be afflicted); but thus he is pleased to show forth the love and concern he has for his people in their affliction; thus far he sympathizes with them, that he takes what injury is done to them as done to himself and will reckon for it accordingly. Their cries move him (Exo 3:7), and he appears for them as vigorously as if he were pained in their pain. Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? This is matter of great comfort to God's people in their affliction that God is so far from afflicting willingly (Lam 3:33) that, if they humble themselves under his hand, he is afflicted in their affliction, as the tender parents are in the severe operations which the case of a sick child calls for. There is another reading of these words in the original: In all their affliction there was no affliction; though they were in great affliction, yet the property of it was so altered by the grace of God sanctifying it to them for their good, the rigour of it was so mitigated and it was so allayed and balanced with mercies, they were so wonderfully supported and comforted under it, and it proved so short, and ended so well, that it was in effect no affliction. The troubles of the saints are not that to them which they are to others; they are not afflictions, but medicines; saints are enabled to call them light, and but for a moment, and, with an eye to heaven as all in all, to make nothing of them. (2.) The person employed in their salvation - the angel of his face, or presence. Some understand it of a created angel. The highest angel in heaven, even the angel of his presence, that attends next the throne of his glory, is not thought too great, too good, to be sent on this errand. Thus the little ones' angels are said to be those that always behold the face of our Father, Mat 18:10. But this is rather to be understood of Jesus Christ, the eternal Word, that angel of whom God spoke to Moses (Exo 23:20, Exo 23:21), whose voice Israel was to obey. He is called Jehovah, Exo 13:21; Exo 14:21, Exo 14:24. He is the angel of the covenant, God's messenger to the world, Mal 3:1. He is the angel of God's face, for he is the express image of his person; and the glory of God shines in the face of Christ. He that was to work out the eternal salvation, as an earnest of that, wrought out the temporal salvations that were typical of it. (3.) The progress and perseverance of this favour. He not only redeemed them out of their bondage, but he bore them and carried them all the days of old; they were weak, but he supported them by his power, sustained them by his bounty; when they were burdened, and ready to sink, he bore them up; in the wars they made upon the nations he stood by them and bore them out; though they were peevish, he bore with them and suffered their manners, Act 13:18. He carried them as the nursing father does the child, though they would have tired any arms but his; he carried them as the eagle her young upon her wings, Deu 32:11. And it was a long time that he was troubled with them (if we may so speak): it was all the days of old; his care of them was not at an end even when they had grown up and were settled in Canaan. All this was in his love and pity, ex mero motu - of his mere good-will; he loved them because he would love them, as he says, Deu 7:7, Deu 7:8.
3. Their disingenuous conduct towards him, and the trouble they thereby brought upon themselves (Isa 63:10): But they rebelled. Things looked very hopeful and promising; one would have thought that they should have continued dutiful children to God, and then there was no doubt but he would have continued a gracious Father to them; but here is a sad change on both sides, and on them be the breach. (1.) They revolted from their allegiance to God and took up arms against him: They rebelled, and vexed his Holy Spirit with their unbelief and murmuring, besides the iniquity of the golden calf; and this had been their way and manner ever since. Though he was ready to say of them, They will not lie, though he had done so much for them, borne them and carried them, yet they thus ill requited him, like foolish people and unwise, Deu 32:6. This grieved him, Psa 95:10. The ungrateful rebellions of God's children against him are a vexation to his Holy Spirit. (2.) Thereupon he justly withdrew his protection, and not only so, but made war upon them, as a prince justly does upon the rebels. He who had been so much their friend was turned to be their enemy and fought against them, by one judgment after another, both in the wilderness and after their settlement in Canaan. See the malignity and mischievousness of sin; it makes God an enemy even to those for whom he has done the part of a good friend, and makes him angry who was all love and pity. See the folly of sinners; they wilfully lose him for a friend who is the most desirable friend, and make him their enemy who is the most formidable enemy. This refers especially to those calamities that were of late brought upon them by their captivity in Babylon for their idolatries and other sins. That which is both the original and the great aggravation of their troubles was that God was turned to be their enemy.
4. A particular reflection made, on this occasion, upon what God did for them when he first formed them into a people: Then he remembered the days of old, Isa 63:11.
(1.) This may be understood either of the people or of God. [1.] We may understand it of the people. Israel then (spoken of as a single person) remembered the days of old, looked into their Bibles, read the story of God's bringing their fathers out of Egypt, considered it more closely than ever they did before, and reasoned upon it, as Gideon did (Jdg 6:13), Where are all the wonders that our fathers told us of? "Where is he that brought them up out of Egypt? Is he not as able to bring us up out of Babylon? Where is the Lord God of Elijah? Where is the Lord God of our fathers?" This they consider as an inducement and an encouragement to them to repent and return to him; their fathers were a provoking people and yet found him a pardoning God; and why may not they find him so if they return to him? They also use it as a plea with God in prayer for the turning again of their captivity, like that Isa 51:9, Isa 51:10. Note, When the present days are dark and cloudy it is good to remember the days of old, to recollect our own and others' experiences of the divine power and goodness and make use of them, to look back upon the years of the right hand of the Most High (Psa 77:5, Psa 77:10), and remember that he is God, and changes not. [2.] We may understand it of God; he put himself in mind of the days of old, of his covenant with Abraham (Lev 26:42); he said, Where is he that brought Israel up out of the sea? stirring up himself to come and save them with this consideration, "Why should not I appear for them now as I did for their fathers, who were as undeserving, as ill-deserving, as they are?" See how far off divine mercy will go, how far back it will look, to find out a reason for doing good to his people, when ho present considerations appear but what make against them. Nay, it makes that a reason for relieving them which might have been used as a reason for abandoning them. He might have said, "I have delivered them formerly, but they have again brought trouble upon themselves (Pro 19:19); there I will deliver them no more," Jdg 10:13. But no; mercy rejoices against judgment, and turns the argument the other way: "I have formerly delivered them and therefore will now."
(2.) Which way soever we take it, whether the people plead it with God or God with himself, let us view the particulars, and they agree very much with the confession and prayer which the children of the captivity made upon a solemn fast-day (Neh 9:5. etc.), which may serve as a comment on these verses which call to mind Moses and his people, that is, what God did by Moses for his people, especially in bringing them through the Red Sea, for that is it that is here most insisted on; for it was a work which he much gloried in and which his people therefore may in a particular manner encourage themselves with the remembrance of. [1.] God led them by the right hand of Moses (Isa 63:12) and the wonder-working rod in his hand. Psa 77:20, Thou leddest thy people like a flock by the hand of Moses. It was not Moses that led them, any more than it was Moses that fed them (Joh 6:32), but God by Moses; for it was he that qualified Moses for, called him to, assisted and prospered him in that great undertaking. Moses is here called the shepherd of his flock; God was the owner of the flock and the chief shepherd of Israel (Psa 80:1); but Moses was a shepherd under him, and he was inured to labour and patience, and so fitted for this pastoral care, by his being trained up to keep the flock of his father Jethro. Herein he was a type of Christ the good shepherd, that lays down his life for the sheep, which was more than Moses did for Israel, though he did a great deal for them. [2.] He put his holy Spirit within him; the Spirit of God was among them, and not only his providence, but his grace, did work for them. Neh 9:20, Thou gavest thy good Spirit to instruct them. The spirit of wisdom and courage, as well as the Spirit of prophecy, was put into Moses, to qualify him for that service among them to which he was called; and some of his spirit was put upon the seventy elders, Num 11:17. This was a great blessing to Israel, that they had among them not only inspired writings, but inspired men. [3.] He carried them safely through the Red Sea, and thereby saved them out of the hands of Pharaoh. First, He divided the water before them (Isa 63:12), so that it gave them not only passage, but protection, not only opened them a lane, but erected them a wall on either side. Secondly, He led them through the deep as a horse in the wilderness, or in the plain (Isa 63:13); they and their wives and children, with all their baggage, went as easily and readily through the bottom of the sea (though we may suppose it muddy or stony, or both) as a horse goes along upon even ground; so that they did not stumble, though it was an untrodden path, which neither they nor any one else ever went before. If God make us a way, he will make it plain and level; the road he opens to his people he will lead them in. Thirdly, To complete the mercy, he brought them up out of the sea, Isa 63:11. Though the ascent, it is likely, was very steep, dirty, slippery, and unconquerable (at least by the women and children, and the men, considering how they were loaded, Exo 12:34, and how fatigued), yet God by his power brought them up from the depths of the earth; and it was a kind of resurrection to them; it was as life from the dead. [4.] He brought them safely to a place of rest: As a beast goes down into the valley, carefully and gradually, so the Spirit of the Lord caused him to rest. Many a time in their march through the wilderness they had resting-places provided for them by the direction of the Spirit of the Lord in Moses, Isa 63:11. And at length they were made to rest finally in Canaan, and the Spirit of the Lord gave them that rest according to the promise. It is by the Spirit of the Lord that God's Israel are caused to return to God and repose in him as their rest. [5.] All this he did for them by his own power, for his own praise. First, It was by his own power, as the God of nature, that has all the powers of nature at his command; he did it with his glorious arm, the arm of his gallantry, or bravery; so the word signifies. It was not Moses's rod, but God's glorious arm, that did it. Secondly, It was for his own praise, to make himself an everlasting name (Isa 63:12), a glorious name (Isa 63:14), that he might be glorified, everlastingly glorified, upon this account. This is that which God is doing in the world with his glorious arm, he is making to himself a glorious name, and it shall last to endless ages, when the most celebrated names of the great ones of the earth shall be written in the dust.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill1763 · Public DomainOn vv7–9I will mention the lovingkindnesses of the Lord,.... These…
I will mention the lovingkindnesses of the Lord,.... These are the words of the prophet, as Jarchi and Kimchi observe; who, having heard what the Lord would do for his church and people in later times, by avenging them on their enemies, calls to mind the favours bestowed on Israel of old; and determines to make mention of them, and put the saints in mind of them, as types, earnests, and pledges of what would be done for them; and to encourage their faith and hope in the performance of what was promised them: these he calls "the lovingkindnesses of the Lord"; meaning not only the instances of his providential goodness in bringing them out of Egypt, leading them through the Red sea and wilderness, and settling them in Canaan's land, after particularly mentioned; but also those of his special grace and goodness to the chosen of God among them; called in the plural number "lovingkindnesses", being the acts of all the three Persons displayed in election, redemption, and sanctification; and because these are many and various, and an abundance of grace and love is manifested in them:
and the praises of the Lord, according to all that the Lord hath bestowed on us; which are due to him from all creatures, angels and men, and especially the saints; and which belong to each divine Person, according to the various gifts of grace freely bestowed by them; such as the gift of God himself to his people; the gifts of his Son, and of the blessed Spirit, with all his graces, faith, hope, love, repentance, &c.; and all the blessings of grace; as pardon, justification, adoption, and eternal life; a right unto it, and meetness for it all which call for praise and thankfulness: and the
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great goodness towards the house of Israel, which he hath bestowed on them according to his mercies, and according to the multitude of his lovingkindnesses; the gifts of grace are bestowed, not according to the merits of men, for then they would not be free grace gifts; and, besides, there is no merit in a creature; the best works of the best of men are not meritorious, of anything at the hand of God; but all they have flow from mere sovereign mercy, pure grace, and free unmerited love, which is abundant, yea, boundless, and even infinite. A heap of words is here made use of, and all little enough to express the wonderful kindness of God in the acts of his grace and goodness to his church and people; which ought always to be had in sight and mind, and to be remembered and spoken of in private and in public.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley1765 · Public DomainOn vv7–9Mention - Here begins a new matter, which contains…
Mention - Here begins a new matter, which contains the prophet's prayer, to the end of chap. 64, wherein he begins with mentioning the great kindnesses that God had shewn the Jews, and that emphatically, setting them forth with the greatest advantages.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke1810 · Public DomainOn vv7–9Verse 7. I will mention the loving-kindnesses of the…
Verse 7. I will mention the loving-kindnesses of the Lord] The prophet connects the preceding mercies of God to the Jews with the present prospect he has of their redemption by the Messiah; thus making a circle in which eternal goodness revolves. The remaining part of this chapter, with the whole chapter following, contains a penitential confession and supplication of the Israelites in their present state of dispersion, in which they have so long marvellously subsisted, and still continue to subsist, as a people; cast out of their country; without any proper form of civil polity or religious worship, their temple destroyed, their city desolated and lost to them, and their whole nation scattered over the face of the earth, apparently deserted and cast off by the God of their fathers, as no longer his peculiar people.
They begin with acknowledging God's great mercies and favours to their nation, and the ungrateful returns made to them on their part, that by their disobedience they had forfeited the protection of God, and had caused him to become their adversary. And now the prophet represents them, induced by the memory of the great things that God had done for them, as addressing their humble supplication for the renewal of his mercies. They beseech him to regard them in consideration of his former loving-kindness, they acknowledge him for their Father and Creator, they confess their wickedness and hardness of heart, they entreat his forgiveness, and deplore their present miserable condition under which they have so long suffered. It seems designed as a formulary of humiliation for the Israelites, in order to their conversion.
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The whole passage is in the elegiac form, pathetic and elegant; but it has suffered much in our present copy by the mistakes of transcribers.
The praises of the Lord - "The praise of JEHOVAH"] For תהלות tehilloth, plural, twenty-nine MSS. (three ancient) and two editions, have תהלת tehillath, in the singular number; and so the Vulgate renders it; and one of the Greek versions, in the margin of Cod. Marchal. and in the text of MSS. Pachom. and I. D. II. την αινεσιν Κυριου, "the praise of the Lord." - L.
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Joseph Benson1811 · Public DomainOn vv7–8Isa 63:7. “The remaining part of this chapter” says…
Isa 63:7. “The remaining part of this chapter” says Bishop Lowth, “with the whole chapter following, contains a penitential confession and supplication of the Israelites in their present state of dispersion, in which they have so long marvellously subsisted, and still continue to subsist, as a people; cast out of their country, without any proper form of civil polity or religious worship; their temple destroyed, their city desolated, and lost to them; and their whole nation scattered over the face of the earth; apparently deserted and cast off by the God of their fathers, as no longer his peculiar people.” Vitringa has nearly the same views of this section of the prophet’s discourse. He supposes that it pertains to the present Jews and their posterity, during this their dispersion, and that when they shall see that wonderful display of God’s power, which will hereafter be made in the destruction of the Papal church and tyranny, they will be converted to the Christian religion. In a view to this, he considers the prophet as here introducing a company of them, who represent the first-fruits at the beginning of this great work of grace, deploring the blindness and hardness of their nation, and with the utmost humility turning themselves to God, and praying for that complete conversion of their people which is to follow the coming in of the fulness of the Gentiles. See Rom 11:25-26.
I will mention the loving-kindness of the Lord — Those penitent Jews, in whose name the prophet is supposed to speak, being convinced themselves of the truth of Christianity, begin here to intercede for the rest of their brethren, still remaining in that state of blindness and darkness under which the nation had long groaned. “They begin with acknowledging God’s great mercies and favours to their nation, and the ungrateful returns made for them on their part; that by their disobedience they had forfeited his protection, and caused him to become their adversary. But now, induced by the memory of the great things he had done for them, they address their humble supplication to him for the renewal of his mercies. They beseech him to regard them in consideration of his former loving-kindness; they acknowledge him for their Father and Creator; they confess their wickedness and hardness of heart; they entreat his forgiveness, and deplore the miserable condition under which they had so long suffered. The whole passage is in the elegiac form, pathetic and elegant, and probably designed as a formulary of humiliation for the Israelites, in order to their conversion.” A few remarks on some of the expressions used therein may tend to place them in a clearer point of view.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes1834 · Public DomainOn vv7–9I will mention - This is evidently the language…
I will mention - This is evidently the language of the people celebrating the praises of God in view of all his mercies in former days. See the analysis to the chapter. The design of what follows, to the close of Isa 64:1-12, is to implore the mercy of God in view of their depressed and ruined condition. They are represented as suffering under the infliction of long and continued ills; as cast out and driven to a distant land; as deprived of their former privileges, and as having been long subjected to great evils. Their temple is destroyed; their city desolate; and their whole nation afflicted and oppressed. The time is probably near the close of the captivity; though Lowth supposes that it refers to the Jews as scattered over all lands, and driven away from the country of their fathers. They begin their petitions in this verse with acknowledging God’s great mercies to their fathers and to their nation; then they confess their own disobedience, and supplicate, by various arguments, the divine mercy and favor. The Chaldee commences the verse thus, ‘The prophet said, I will remember the mercy of the Lord.’ But it is the language of the people, not that of the prophet. The word rendered ‘mention’ (אזכיר 'azekiyr), means properly, I will cause to remember, or to be remembered (see the notes at Isa 62:6).
And the praises of the Lord - That is, I will recount the deeds which show that he is worthy of thanksgiving. The repetitions in this verse are designed to be emphatic; and the meaning of the whole is, that Yahweh had given them abundant cause of praise, notwithstanding the evils which they endured.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary1859 · Public DomainOn vv7–9I, Isaias; or rather the hero mentions what induced…
I, Isaias; or rather the hero mentions what induced him to rise up, 1 Machabees xvi. 10. (Calmet) --- The Jews confess God’s mercies. (St. Jerome)
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 Scriptures1864 · Public DomainOn v7The Prophet in Spirit puts Himself in the Place…
IV.—THE FOURTH DISCOURSE
The Prophet in Spirit puts Himself in the Place of the Exiled Church, and bears its Cause in Prayer before the Lord
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s Isa_63:7 to Isa_64:11
Chapters 60–63. 6, are like a prophetic high plateau, which the Prophet, by means of chapters 58 and 59 has ascended out of his own time. In this fourth discourse he comes down again to the present time, that is to say, to a time relatively present, to that of the people in exile. He transports himself entirely into this time, as if he were passing through it, and sets before the Lord the temporal and spiritual need of the people living in exile. He does this by first taking a retrospect of the past, and showing what the Lord formerly was to the people (Isa_63:7-14). Then he entreats the Lord as the Father of His people to look upon them (Isa_63:15-19); then he prays that the Lord, for their complete deliverance, would visibly come to them with a grand manifestation of His divine majesty (64).
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1. RETROSPECT OF WHAT THE LORD FORMERLY WAS TO THE PEOPLE
Isa_63:7-14
7 I will mention the loving-kindnesses of the Lord,
And the praises of the Lord,
According to all that the Lord hath bestowed on us,
And the great goodness toward the house of Israel,
Which he hath bestowed on them according to his mercies,
And according to the multitude of his loving-kindnesses.
8 For he said, Surely they are my people,
Children that will not lie:
So he was their Saviour.
9 In all their affliction he was afflicted,
And the angel of his presence saved them:
In his love and in his pity he redeemed them;
And he bare them, and carried them all the days of old.
10 But they rebelled, and vexed his holy Spirit:
Therefore he was turned to be their enemy,
And he fought against them.
11 5 Then he remembered the days of old, Moses, and his people, saying,
Where is he that 6brought them up out of the sea with the 7 shepherd of his flock?
Where is he that put his holy Spirit within him?
12 8That led them by the right hand of Moses with his glorious arm,
Dividing the water before them,
To make himself an everlasting name?
13 That led them through the deep, as an horse in the wilderness,
That they should not stumble.
14 As a beast goeth down into the valley,
The Spirit of the Lord caused him to rest:
So didst thou lead thy people,
To make thyself a glorious name.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
Isa_63:7. The words על כל אשׁר־גמלנו י׳ are to be taken as one term, to which כְּ, in the sense of secundum, is prefixed. על stands in a causal sense [כְּעַל is = uti par est propter]. רַב־טוּב is to be regarded as the object dependent on אזכיר rather than as dependent on כְּ in כְּעַל.
Isa_63:9. Instead of the Kethibh לִֹא we must with the K’ri read לוֹ, as לאֹ, however it may be explained, does not yield an appropriate sense [?]. Some take צָר for צַר in pause, either in the passive sense: in all their affliction there was (to them) no distress )צַר as, e.g., Isa_25:4; Isa_26:16, comp. pressi non oppressi), or in the active sense=oppressor, adversary (Isa_63:18; Isa_64:1; Isa_1:24; Isa_9:10, et saepe). Both these views are set forth under the most manifold modifications (comp. Stier). But whichever of the two constructions we choose, there is an abruptness in the expression. We should expect לָהֶם, or, if צָר should refer to Jehovah, the pronoun הוּא is wanting: In all their affliction He was not an oppressor. It is better, therefore, to follow the K’ri, although all the old versions support לא. Our place belongs, then, to the fifteen, or according to another enumeration (comp. on Isa_9:2 and Isa_49:5) eighteen places, in which according to the opinion of the Masoretes לוֹ is to be read instead לֹא. Drechsler is certainly right when he remarks (on Isa_9:2) that the unusual position of לוֹ, which was originally in the text, caused it to be altered into לאֹ which was more current and sounded more familiar in such a position. [But this is a confession that instead of לו צר we should find צר לו if לו were the original reading. We dislike departing from the textual reading when it is supported by all ancient versions. In order to get the meaning “He was afflicted,” we must not only alter the negative לא into לוֹ, but must also suppose an abnormal collocation of the words. Add to these considerations that צר לו does not mean simply, “he was afflicted, or grieved,” but “he was reduced to a strait, was ἐν ἀπορίᾳ,” (Kay). This could not be predicated of Jehovah; though it could be said of Him anthropopathically, as in Jdg_10:16, that God’s soul was grieved. But there the expression is quite different in the original. If we take צר in the sense of adversary: “In all their affliction He (God) was not an adversary to them,” the absence of לָהֶם need not so much surprise us, as it occurs in the close of the preceding verse, where God is declared to have been a Saviour לָהֶם. The proof that God was not an adversary to them is given in the next clause, when it is said: and the angel of his presence saved them, etc. Kay justly remarks that God was the reverse of an adversary to Israel. “His heaviest chastisements were sent with the view of frustrating the designs of their worst enemies, and were removed as soon as that work was accomplished.”—D. M.].
Isa_63:11. הַמַּעֲלֵם is not grammatically quite normal. [“The suffix refers to the forefathers, and the participle has both the article and suffix because it is not to be conceived as a noun, nor as the expression of a finished act (ὁ ἀναγηοχώς), but is to be thought as possessing continued verbal force (Ges. Gr., § 135, 2), and is to be construed as an imperfect: ille qui sursum ducebat, educebat; on this account the suffix has the accusative or objective form em as Psa_68:28, not am, comp. Job_40:19; Psa_103:4.” Delitzsch.—D. M.]. I am inclined, with De Rossi, to believe that המעלה (which is found in one very old codex cited by Kennicott, and in two of De Rossi’s, one of which is very accurate), is the right reading. The LXX., Peshito and the Arabic version in the London Polyglott, favor this reading. [But there is here no necessity for correcting the text.—D. M.].
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. The prayer commences with a historical retrospect. For, as the suppliant intends to entreat new grace from God, he gives this prayer an appropriate foundation by first of all making mention of the former mercies of Jehovah. He, therefore, begins, Isa_63:7-8, by recalling the election of the people, and the glorious succor rendered to them in what might be called the time of their birth and childhood (Isa_63:9). The whole time from the deliverance out of Egyptian bondage to the Babylonish exile is comprehended in the brief words of Isa_63:10, the first part of which indicates the various apostasies of the people, and the last part the punishments which they suffered. Out of the depths of the last and greatest of these, the punishment of the Exile, there arises, Isa_63:11-14, a melancholy sigh and the question; where is He now who saved Israel from the first, the Egyptian captivity, so wonderfully by the hand of Moses?
2. I will mention—loving-kindnesses.
Isa_63:7. The aim of this verse is to gain in the manifestations of favor in the past a foundation for the supplication in regard to the future. On חֶסֶד (see the List). תְּהִלּוֹת stands here as frequently (comp. Deu_26:19) as abstract for the concrete: laudationes for res laudatae, res laudabiliter gestae. [There is no reason for departing from the proper meaning of the term—praises. D. M.]. כְּעַל occurs only here and Isa_59:18. We must take טוּב in the abstract signification benignitas (comp. Psa_25:7; Psa_31:20 et saepe), although the following relative sentence seems at first sight rather to recommend the concrete signification “bona, optima dona” (comp. Jer_31:12; Jer_31:14). But against this view is the connection of טוב with בית ישׂראל by the simple preposition לְ.טוב is, therefore, God’s goodness, kindness, benevolence which springs from His love which is merciful (i.e., moved by the sight of distress), and gracious (i.e., which does not punish according to desert).
3. For he said—fought against them.
Isa_63:8-10. The first manifestation of the divine goodness spoken of in Isa_63:7 is introduced by ויאמר. The Vav in ויאמר makes a connection, not with the historical facts just referred to, but with the loving disposition in God. In brief, emphatic, words the Prophet describes the founding of the covenant relation between Jehovah and Israel. Jehovah formed it of Himself by His free purpose of election. He declared Israel to be His people κατ’ ἐξοχήν. אַךְ has here, too, (comp. Isa_14:15; Isa_34:14-15) on the basis of its restrictive signification, a strongly affirmative force. The Lord in declaring Israel to be His people does this with the hope that this His confidence will be perceived and justified. לא ישׁקרו refers, therefore, to the hope of fidelity, of obedience. (They will not deceive, disappoint this hope). And in this hope Jehovah became Israel’s מוֹשִׁיעַ, i.e., Deliverer, Saviour (comp. Isa_19:20; Isa_43:11; Isa_44:15; Isa_44:21; Isa_47:15; Isa_49:26; Isa_60:10). [This eighth verse is literally rendered “Only my people are they; children will not lie, or prove false; and He was to them a Saviour.” The Prophet tells us that the Lordsaid this. We may look, then, in the books of Moses for language employed by the Lord of which this is a fair representation. That Israel is God’s chosen people is often declared in the Pentateuch. In Deu_14:1-2 they are called both children and the Lord’speople. Comp. Deu_7:6 sqq., et saepe. But the Lord never states regarding Israel that they are children that will not lie. On the contrary He testifies of them, Deu_32:20 that they are “children in whom is no faith.” The Lord said to the children of Israel: “If ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my commandments, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people. And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” Exo_19:5-6. But we look in vain in the Pentateuch for any declaration in which the Lord expresses the confident expectation that Israel would prove faithful to the covenant. So far from doing this, God foretells that Israel would prove unfaithful. We must, then, take the words children will not lie, prohibitively and as expressing what is required of children, and not the Lord’s expectation; children shall not lie. The sentiment that Israel, as being God’s children, ought not to act perfidiously, is expressed Deu_32:6. Comp. Deu_17:16-17 where we have as here לֹא with the third person of the future to express not what a king of Israel would not do, but what he ought not to do. The last clause should bestrictly rendered and He was to them a Saviour.—There is no need, then, of assuming here a very strong example of anthropopathism in which God declares Himself disappointed. D. M.]. From Isa_63:9 we see that the suppliant has first of all in view that most ancient, glorious deliverance which was vouchsafed to the people in Egypt in the commencement of their history. We have, therefore, to refer בכל־צרתם to the oppression of the people by Pharaoh. And of this oppression it is said that it was one which the Lord Himself felt. [Rather, In all their oppression He was not an oppressor. See under Textual and Grammatical.—D. M.]. That under this affliction the sufferings of the Israelites in Egypt are to be understood, is shown by the following sentence. For by “the angel of His face” who saved them, the suppliant evidently intends מלאך יהוה, by whom the redemption of the people from Egyptian slavery was effected. The expression מלאך פניו refers immediately to Exo_33:14-15, where to the request of Moses that the Lord would let him know whom He intends to send with them (Isa_63:12-13), the answer is given פָנַי יֵלֵכוּ. Moses thereupon rejoins: “If פָּנֶיךָ (thy face) go not, carry us not up hence.” It is impossible to discuss fully here the exceedingly difficult question of the מלאך יהוה. I refer to Lange’s thorough exposition on Gen_12:1 sqq. In reference to the chief question, whether the מלאך י׳ is to be regarded as a created angel, or as a precursory and partial manifestation of the Logos corresponding to the Old Testament standpoint, I would only briefly remark: 1) When Paul, 1Co_10:4, regards the rock out of which Moses struck water, and which remained fixed and immovable, and did not accompany them, as a symbol of “the Spiritual Rock that followed them” of which he says: “that Rock was Christ,” we must still more assume that he saw a manifestation of Christ in the angel of the face, of whom it is further said, Exo_23:21 : my name is in Him;בְּקִרְבּוֹ. 2) Further, in Heb_3:1 Jesus is called the Apostle and high-priest of our profession. The word ἀπόστολος cannot but be in that place which is pervaded by typological ideas a translation of the Hebrew מַלְאָךְ. The author of the epistle to the Hebrews designedly avoided the use of the word ἄγγελος, because lie wished to point to the man Jesus and to His human official life, i.e., to the fidelity which He displayed in it. He means to say: If He, who was so much higher than Moses, inasmuch as the Lord and Son of the house is higher than the house itself, was faithful, this exalted pattern must impel you also to fidelity. Plainly, then, the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews likewise saw in the angel of the Lord a manifestation of Christ. 3) With these considerations agree the expressions פָּנִים and שְׁמִי בְקִרְבּוֹ. For the face is the external side which is outwardly visible. Thus in Hebrew the surface of the earth and of the heaven, etc., is called פְָּנִים, because the surface is that which may be seen outwardly and—we may add—is that which sees. He now, who is called God’s פָּנִים, must therefore be He by whom God both sees and is seen. The latter is in not a few places of the New Testament most clearly declared regarding the Son of God. See Mat_11:27; Joh_1:18 (comp. Joh_6:46; 1Jn_4:12; 1Ti_6:16); Joh_12:45; Joh_14:9. But the other idea also, that God sees through Him who is His פָּנִים, face, appears from this, that not only is creation effected by Him, but also the conservation of things created (Col_1:16-17), the visitation, sustentation, direction and redemption of the world. And in this Mediator is the name of God. For what God is, expresses itself in Him. We should not know that God is, and what God is, if the Mediator did not reveal it. But in the Old Covenant this face of God has not become manifest in His full equality with God, and yet at the same time in His distinction from Him. The knowledge of this mystery was reserved for the New Covenant. Nevertheless the light of the relation of the Trinity breaks through even in the Old Testament in traces here and there. In the form of an angel and under the name of angel He appears in the Old Covenant, who in the New has appeared as the Son of man. There was for Him in the Old Covenant no other form of manifestation. But He is so characterized that we can distinguish Him readily from common angels. This is, in brief, my unpretending view of this subject. אהבה is the positive, fundamental notion, חמלה (only here in Isaiah, comp. Gen_19:16) is the negative, accessory notion. For it denotes forbearance, refraining from the right of punishing (comp. Isa_9:18; Isa_30:14). The sentence וינטלם וגו׳ seems to state that this bearing and carrying maternal love of God lasted not merely during the period of the deliverance from Egypt, but during the whole time that, from the standpoint of the Prophet, belonged to the days long gone by. This is seen from Isa_63:10 sqq., where the so oft-repeated, alternating relation of apostasy, punishment and return to God is comprehensively depicted. For during the whole time which passed between the Egyptian and the Babylonian captivity, what in Isa_63:10 sqq. is described was repeated. מָרוּ and עִצְּבוּ have both רוח for their object (comp. Isa_3:8 and Eph_4:30). They were rebellious against and grieved the Holy Spirit by resisting the drawings of His grace and by offending His holy nature with doing evil. The expression רוח קדשׁ occurs in the Old Testament besides here and Isa_63:11 only further in Psa_51:13. The adjective קָדוֹשׁ is never joined with רוּחַ. The necessary consequence of resisting the Holy Spirit is that the Lord too is changed into an adversary of him who resists Him. הוא stands emphatically before נלחס־בם: How dreadful it is to have Him as an adversary!
4. Then He remembered—glorious name, Isa_63:11-14. Jehovah’s being their enemy brought so many evils on the people that they out of the depths of the last and greatest distress long earnestly for the restoration of the old friendship. The question: Where is He that brought them up?etc., can come only from the mouth of the people. For this reason the subject of ויזכר can only be עַמּו not Moses or the indefinite “they” (German man). The people remembered the old days of Moses, i.e. the days when Moses led the people and procured for them the wonderful manifestations of the favor of God. The accumulation of substantives in the genitive characterizes the language of Isaiah; at all events, this form of expression occurs in, no book of the Old Testament so frequently and in such intensity as in Isaiah. Comp. Isa_18:1, where two words follow in the construct state. There are three such words in Isa_13:4; Isa_28:1; four in Isa_10:12; five in Isa_21:17. Comp. Ewald, § 291 a.—[Dr. Naegelsbach (see under Text, and Gram.) would drop the suffix in המעלם, and would render: “Where is He that brought up out of the sea the shepherd of His flock?” The sea here is the Nile, and the shepherd, Moses; and the fact referred to, the deliverance of Moses when an infant from drowning. But this view is exposed to obvious and insuperable objections. Delitzsch refers the suffix in המעלם to the forefathers of Israel, takes אֵת as=una cum, and is disposed to read רעֵי, which is strongly attested, instead of the singular. By the shepherds of the flock he understands Moses and Aaron with Miriam, Ps. 77:21; Mic_6:4. If we, with the E. V., regard God as the subject of “remembered,” then it is better, with Kay, to put a full stop at “people,” and omit the word “saying,” and regard the appeal that follows as made by the Prophet in the people’s name. It is unsuitable to put it in the mouth of Jehovah. Against making עַמּו the subject of ויזכר, the remoteness of its position is an obvious objection. Such an asyndeton as that in מֹשֶׁה עַמּוֹ is of frequent occurrence, and, on the whole, the rendering of the E. V., if we only strike out the supplied word saying, is the most obvious and natural.—D. M.] God gave Moses His Holy Spirit, and with Him the gift to perform miracles, and to lead and teach the people (comp. Num_11:17).—[But the suffix in בקרבו refers to עם, the people, and not to Moses alone.—D. M.]—The beginning of Isa_63:12 is literally rendered: who made the arm of His glory to go at the right hand of Moses. The most remarkable effect of this was the dividing of the water before them, the Israelites (properly away from the face of them, so that the waters went out of the way). Hitzig, Umbreit, Knobel, understand the words of the water from the rock (Exo_17:5 sqq.). But this event, as belonging to a later time, could not well be placed before the passage through the Red Sea. Moreover, בקע is especially employed of this dividing of the waves of the sea, Exo_14:21; Psa_78:13; Neh_9:11. These great and wonderful deeds of God had the design to make known, first to the people of Israel, and then to other nations also, the name of Jehovah, i. e. the nature of that God who is called Jehovah; and thus to bring them to the knowledge of His exclusive Godhead (Neh_9:10; Isa_55:13; Isa_63:14). The depths, Isa_63:13, are plainly the depths of the Red Sea (not of the Jordan, as Knobel thinks).—[This is clear from comparing Psa_106:9.—D. M.]—One might suppose that Israel would have trodden with trembling, uncertain steps the strange way over the bottom of the sea on which human foot was never set, with the walls of the standing waters on the right hand and on the left. But it was not so. Rapidly and surely, as the desert horse goes over the flat, smooth desert, without tottering, so did they march over that strange, perilous road. The Israelites are the subject of יכשׁלו The image of the cattle descending into the valley is very appropriate for marking the arrival of the Israelites in the promised land after the journeying in the desert. For the dry, stony deserts through which Israel had to march were really higher than the fertile regions watered by the Nile and the Jordan. It seems to me, too, that the Prophet here thinks of the herds of Nomades that must cross a mountain range or a plateau in order to reach regions rich in pasture. Just so the Spirit of the Lord, who by means of the leaders directed the march of Israel, brought the people to rest. The Prophet could justly designate the arrival of Israel in Palestine after the long journeying as an attaining to rest. The same thing had been said before (Deu_12:9; Jos_1:13; Jos_21:44; Jos_22:4; Jos_23:1; Psa_95:11; comp. Heb_3:11; Heb_3:18; Heb_4:1; Heb_4:3; Heb_4:9). The last sentence of Isa_63:14 is a recapitulation. כֵּן refers to all that goes before, and the words to make thyself a glorious name declare that the design of the Lord was not merely to confer a benefit on the Israelites of that time, but to prepare the way for the knowledge and acknowledgment of His name among all nations and to all times (Isa_63:12).
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. On Isa_63:7. [“God does good because He is good; what He bestows upon us must be run up to the original, it is according to His mercies, not according to our merits, andaccording to the multitude of His loving-kindnesses, which can never be spent. Thus we should magnify God’s goodness, and speak honorably of it, not only when we plead it (as David Psa_51:1), but when we praise it.” Henry. D. M.].
2. On Isa_63:9. The angel of the face or presence belongs to “the deep things of God" (1Co_2:10). It is not right to imagine that a certain and exhaustive knowledge is possible in reference to these things. The humility which becomes even science, imposes on it the duty to write everywhere a non liquet, where, through the nature of things, limits are placed to human knowledge. Not to regard these limitations is the manner of the pseudo-scientific, immodest scholasticism. What, therefore, we have said regarding the angel of the face makes no higher pretension than that of a modest hypothesis. [Comp. in Hengstenberg’s Christology, Vol. Isaiah 1 : The Angel of the Lord in the books of Moses and in the book of Joshua.—D. M.].
3. On Isa_63:10. “There are two ways in which the Holy Ghost is offended or vexed. One way is of a less dreadful nature. It is when a man takes from the Holy Spirit the opportunity to work in the soul for its joy, as He is wont to communicate to it His gracious influence and His gracious operations. When such is the case, then as an offended friend when He perceives that no heed is given to most of His counsels, the Holy Spirit is grieved, and, although reluctantly, ceases for a time to advise the stubborn, ut carendo discat quantum peccaverit. Of this kind of grieving Paul speaks Eph_4:30. It can be committed by the godly and the elect. But the Holy Spirit can be offended and vexed in a gross and flagitious way, when one not only does not believe and follow Him, but also obstinately resists Him, despises all His counsel, reviles and blasphemes Him, will none of His reproof (Pro_1:24-25), gives the lie to His truth, and so speaks against the sun… This the Scripture calls ἀντιπίπτειν (Act_7:51), ἐνυβρίζειν (Heb_10:29), βλασφημεῖν (Mat_12:31), θεομαχεῖν (Act_5:39). Let us, therefore, not grieve the Holy Spirit with evil desires, words and deeds, that we may be able on the future day of redemption to show that seal uninjured with which we were sealed on that day of our redemption when we were regenerated. To this end let us assiduously breathe forth the prayers of David Psa_143:10; Psa_51:12-14.” Leigh.
4. On Isa_63:10. [They rebelled and vexed His Holy Spirit. This statement implies the personality of the Holy Ghost, or the Spirit of God’s holiness. He is represented as a person whom we can grieve. We have in this passage clear indications of the doctrine of the Trinity. In Isa_63:9 we have the Angel of God’s face, and in Isa_63:10 we have the Spirit of His holiness, both clearly distinguished from God the fountain of their being.—D. M.].
5. On Isa_63:11. “Faith asks after God and so does unbelief, but in different ways. Both put the question, Where? Faith does it to seek God in time of need, and to tell Him trustfully of His old kindnesses. Unbelief does it to tempt God, to deny Him, to lead others into temptation, and to make them doubt regarding the divine presence and providence. Therefore it asks: “Where is the God of judgment” (Mal_2:17)? “Where is now thy God "(Psa_42:4; Psa_42:11; Psa_79:10; Psa_115:2)? If you, as the praying Church here does, ask in the former manner diligently after God, you will be preserved from the other kind of asking.” Leigh.
6. On Isa_63:15. “Meritum meum miseratio Domini. Non sum meriti inops, quando ille miserationum Dominus non defuerit, et si misericordiae Domini multae, multus ego sum in meritis.” Augustine.
7. On Isa_63:16. “We can from this sentence [?] cogently refute the doctrine of the invocation of the Saints. For the Saints know nothing of us, and are not personally acquainted with us, much less can they know the concerns of our hearts, or hear our cry, for they are not omnipresent. If it be alleged that God makes matters known to them and that they then pray for us, what a round-about business this would be! It would justify the prayer said to have been made by a simple man: “Ah Lord God! tell it, I beseech thee, to the blessed Mary that I have told thee to tell it again to her, that she should tell thee that I have wished to say to her by so many Ave Marias and Pater Nosters, that she should say to thee to be pleased to be gracious unto me.” Meyer, de Rosariis, cap. III., thes. V., p. 52). With how much more brevity and efficacy do we pray with the penitent publican: God be merciful to me, a sinner! ”Leigh.
8. On Isa_63:17. “There is no more heinous sin than to accuse God of being the cause of our sin. Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God (Jam_1:13; Psa_5:5; Deu_32:4; Ps. 92:16). He commands what is good, forbids and punishes what is evil. How then could He be the cause of it? But when He punishes sin with sin, i.e., when He at last withdraws from the sinner His grace that has been persistently despised, then He acts as a righteous Judge who inflicts the judgment of hardening the heart on those who wilfully resist His Spirit.” Leigh.
9. On Isaiah 66 [“This chapter is a model of affectionate and earnest entreaty for the divine interposition in the day of calamity. With such tender and affectionate earnestness may we learn to plead with God! Thus may all His people learn to approach Him as a Father; thus feel that they have the inestimable privilege in the times of trial of making known their wants to the High and Holy One. Thus when calamity presses on us; when as individuals or families we are afflicted; or when our country or the church is suffering under long trials, may we go to God, and humbly confess our sins, and urge His promises, and take hold of His strength, and plead with Him to interpose. Thus pleading, He will hear us; thus presenting our cause, He will interpose to save us.” Barnes. D. M.].
10. On Isa_64:3-4 a. [4, 5 a]. The God who appeared to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, called Moses, and led by him the people of Israel out of Egypt, who chose Joshua, Samuel, David and others to be His servants and glorified Himself by them, this God alone has shown Himself to be the true and living God, and we can hope from Him that He will yet do more, and manifest Himself still more signally.
11. On Isa_64:4 [5]. [“Note what God expects from us in order to our having communion with Him. First, We must make conscience of doing our duty in everything, we must work righteousness, must do that which is good, and which the Lord our God requires of us, and must do it well. Secondly, We must be cheerful in doing our duty; we must rejoice and work righteousness, must delight ourselves in God and His law, must be pleasant in His service and sing at our work. God loves a cheerful giver, a cheerful worshipper; we must serve the Lord with gladness. Thirdly, We must conform ourselves to all the methods of His providence concerning us, and be suitably affected with them; must remember Him in Hisways, in all the ways wherein He walks, whether He walks towards us, or walks contrary to us; we must mind Him, and make mention of Him, with thanksgiving, when His ways are ways of mercy, for in a day of prosperity we mustbe joyful, with patience and submission when He contends with us, for in a day of adversity we must consider.” Henry. D. M.].
12. On Isa_64:7 [8]. [“This whole verse is an acknowledgment of the sovereignty of God. It expresses the feeling which all have when under conviction of sin, and when they are sensible that they are exposed to the divine displeasure for their transgressions. Then they feel that if they are to be saved, it must be by the mere Sovereignty of God; and they implore His interposition to ‘mould and guide them at His will.’ It may be added, that it is only when sinners have this feeling that they hope for relief; and then they will feel that if they are lost, it will be right; if saved, it will be because God moulds them as the potter does the clay.” Barnes. D. M.].
HOMILETICAL HINTS
1. On Isa_63:7. Text for a Thanksgiving Sermon. What is our duty after that the Lord has shown us great loving kindness? 1) To remember what He has done to us. 2) To be mindful of what we ought to render to Him for the same.
2. On Isa_63:8-17. The history of the people of Israel a mirror in which we too may perceive the history of our relation to God. 1) God is to us from the beginning a loving and faithful Father (Isa_63:8-9). 2) We repay His love with ingratitude, as Israel did (Isa_63:10 a). 3) God punishes us for this as He punished Israel (Isa_63:10 b). 4) God receives us again to His favor when we, as Israel, call on Him in penitence (Isa_63:11-17).
On Isa_63:7-17. “If God in Christ has become our Father, He remains our Father to all eternity. 1) He is our Father in Christ. 2) He abides faithful even when we waIsa Isa_63:3) When we have fallen, His arms still stand open to receive us.” Deichert in Manch. G. u. ein Geist, 1868, page 65.
4. On Isa_64:5-7. Joh. Ben. Carpzov has a sermon on this text, in which he treats of righteousness, and shows 1) justitiam salvantem, i. e., the righteousness with which one enters the kingdom of heaven; 2) justitiam damnantem, i. e., the righteousness with which a man enters the fire of hell; 3) justitiam testantem, i. e., the righteousness by which a man testifies that he has attained the true righteousness.
5. On Isa_64:6-9. “Let us hear from our text an earnest and affecting confession of sin, and at the same time consider 1) the doctrine of repentance; 2) the comfort of forgiveness which believers receive.”—Eichhorn.
6. On Isa_64:6. (We all do fade, etc.) “These are very instructive words, from which we learn what a noxious plant sin is, and what fruit it brings forth. First, says he, we fade as a leaf. This means that sin brings with it the curse of God, and deprives us of His blessing both for the body and the soul, so that the heart is dissatisfied and distressed. Then it robs us of the highest treasure, confidence in the grace of God. For sin and an evil conscience awaken dread of God. As it is impossible to call upon God aright without faith and a sure persuasion of His aid, it follows that sin hinders prayer also, and thus robs us of the highest comfort. When men have no faith and cannot pray, then the awful punishment comes upon them, that God hides His face and leaves them to pine in their sins. For they cannot help themselves, and have lost the consolation and protection which they need in life.”—Veit Diet.
Footnotes:
[5]Then kit people remembered the old days of Moses.
[6]brought up out of the sea the shepherd of his flock.
[7]Or, shepherds.
[8]that put at the right hand of Moses his glorious arm.
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 Brown1871 · Public DomainOn vv7–9Israel's penitential confession and prayer for restoration (Psa 102:17,…
Israel's penitential confession and prayer for restoration (Psa 102:17, Psa 102:20), extending from Isa. 63:7-64:12.
loving-kindnesses . . . praises . . . mercies . . . loving-kindnesses--The plurals and the repetitions imply that language is inadequate to express the full extent of God's goodness.
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us--the dispersed Jews at the time just preceding their final restoration.
house of Israel--of all ages; God was good not merely to the Jews now dispersed, but to Israel in every age of its history.
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. Whedon1874 · Public DomainOn vv7–97. I will mention the lovingkindness of the Lord…
7. I will mention the lovingkindness of the Lord — Or, I will record, etc. The words of the voice recall the deep religious sense of Psalms 139. Praises of the Lord… bestowed… mercies, etc. — That is, in the name of the Church, to such a degree restored, the prophet recounts the Lord’s mercies, which show that he is worthy of abounding thanksgiving from the Church.
THE LAST CONTROVERSY WITH ISRAEL, Isa_63:7 to Isa_65:25.
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Israel’s former Mercies and Sins.
There are various schemes of division of the matter now following. The one here adopted as best, is that of two well-defined sections, namely, The Last Controversy of Israel, with subdivisions as the topics vary, (Isa_63:7 to Isa_65:25,) and The Full Redemption of Zion, comprising chapter 66.
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 Colleges1878 · Public DomainOn vv7–97. I will mention] lit. “commemorate,” but with the…
7. I will mention] lit. “commemorate,” but with the implied idea of praise, as 1Ch_16:4; Psa_45:17; Psa_71:16; Isa_26:13, &c.
the praises of the Lord] the praiseworthy deeds, as ch. Isa_60:6.
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and the great goodness] Cf. Psa_145:7, where the expression occurs.
according to his mercies &c.] Cf. Psa_51:1,—one of several points of resemblance,—also Psa_106:45.
7–9. Celebration of Jehovah’s past mercies to Israel,—a frequent feature of O.T. prayers (Psa_77:10-15; Psa_78:1-4; Psa_89:1 f., Psa_105:1 f., Psa_106:2; Neh_9:5 ff., &c.).
Ch. Isa_63:7 to Isa_64:12. A Prayer of the People for the Renewal of Jehovah’s former Lovingkindness
(1) Isa_63:7-9. The prayer begins with thankful commemoration of Jehovah’s goodness to the nation in the days of old (Isa_63:7). The reference is to the time of Moses and Joshua, when Jehovah’s loving confidence in His children had not yet been betrayed (Isa_63:8), and when He continuously manifested Himself as their Saviour, bearing them safely through all dangers (Isa_63:9).
(2) Isa_63:10-14. This ideal relation between Israel and its God has indeed long since been broken, through the rebellion and ingratitude of the people (Isa_63:10). But in seasons of distress the better mind of the nation dwells wistfully on those ancient wonders of grace, and longs that Jehovah may again put forth His strength and vindicate His glorious name (Isa_63:11-14).
(3) Isa_63:15-16. From the past the writer turns to the gloomy present, be seeching Jehovah to take notice of and have compassion on the affliction of His people. For He alone, and not Abraham or Israel, is the Father of the nation, and its Redeemer from of old.
(4) Isa_63:17-19. From this point the increasing impetuosity of the language reveals for the first time the extremity of the Church’s anguish. The prophet remonstrates with God for so withdrawing Himself from the people as to harden them in sin (Isa_63:17) and cause them to be as if He had never ruled over them (Isa_63:19).
(5) Isa_64:1-3. A passionate wish that Jehovah might now rend asunder the solid firmament, and melt the mountains, and make Himself known to the nation by terrible acts, surpassing the expectations of His people.
(6) Isa_63:4-7. In a more reflective strain the writer appears to seek for a reconciliation of Jehovah’s attitude to Israel with His eternally righteous character. He, the only God known who meets the righteousman, is yet wroth with His people so that they fall into sin (Isa_63:4-5). The lamentable consequences of this hiding of God’s face on the religious condition of the people are described in Isa_63:6-7.
(7) Isa_63:8-12. Final appeal to the Fatherhood of God, and His consideration for the work of His hands (Isa_63:8). Let Him moderate His wrath and remember that we are His people (Isa_63:9). For surely the punishment of sin has been sufficient,—the holy cities ruined, Jerusalem a desolation, the Temple burned with fire (Isa_63:10-11). Can Jehovah look on these things and yet restrain His compassion (Isa_63:12)?
The passage is one of the most instructive of O.T. prayers, and deserves careful study as an expression of the chastened and tremulous type of piety begotten in the sorrows of the Exile. Along with much that is of the permanent essence of prayer,—thanksgiving, confession of sin, and supplication,—it contains utterances which may cause surprise to a Christian reader, although they are paralleled in some of the Psalms, and in other portions of the literature. Very singular is the plea that the sinfulness of the people is due to the excessive and protracted anger of Jehovah, who “causes them to err from His ways” (Isa_63:17; cf. Isa_64:5; Isa_64:7). This feeling appears to proceed from two sources; on the one hand the ancient idea that national calamity is the proof of Jehovah’s anger, and on the other the lesson taught by all the prophets, that the sole cause of Jehovah’s anger is the people’s sins. The writer seems unable perfectly to harmonize these principles. He accepts the verdict of Providence on the sins of the nation, but he feels also a disproportion between the offence and the punishment, which neutralises all efforts after righteousness, unless Jehovah will relent from the fierceness of His wrath. The higher truth that the Divine chastisement aims at the purification of the people, and is therefore a mark of love, is not yet grasped, and for this reason the O.T. believers fall short of the liberty of the sons of God. Yet amid all these perplexities the faith of the Church holds fast to the truth of the Fatherhood of God, and appeals to the love which must be in His heart, although it be not manifest in His providential dealings.
So far as the ideas of the passage are concerned, it might have been composed at any time from the Exile downwards. Nor are the historical allusions so clear as could be desired. From Isa_63:18, Isa_64:11 f. we learn that the Temple has been burned, and the land laid waste. It is natural to understand this of the destruction of the city and Temple by the Chaldæans in 586, and to conclude that the prayer was written during the Exile or at least before the rebuilding of the Temple in 520. In Isa_63:18 it is said that the Holy Land has been possessed “but a little while.” If the prayer was written in exile this must refer to the whole period from Joshua to the Captivity, which is not an interpretation that commends itself at first sight. It would no doubt be more intelligible if written not long after the restoration under Zerubbabel (cf. Ezr_9:8). But then we are confronted with the difficulty of the destruction of the Temple, for Duhm’s explanation that the writer ignores the second Temple because of its inferiority to the first can hardly be regarded as satisfactory; and to assume (with Kuenen and others) a destruction of the Temple by the Samaritans (see Ryle’s note on Neh_1:3) is hazardous in face of the silence of history. Partly for these reasons, and partly because of affinities to ch. 24–27, and some Psalms which he assigns to the same period, Cheyne brings down the date of composition to the time of Artaxerxes Ochus (cf. Vol. i. of this commentary, p. 204). Apart from Isa_63:18, the hypothesis of exilic authorship presents no serious difficulty, for although the surrounding discourses are probably post-exilic, it is quite conceivable that an earlier writing might have been incorporated with them as sufficiently expressive of the mind of the nation at the later period.
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 Readers1878 · Public DomainOn vv7–9(7) I will mention . . .—The words begin…
(7) I will mention . . .—The words begin an entirely new section, of the nature of a psalm of thanksgiving for redemption (Isa_63:16). Possibly, in the arrangement of the book it was thought that such a psalm followed rightly on the great dramatic dialogue which represented the victory of the Redeemer. The psalm begins, according to the implied rule of Psa_50:23, with praise, and passes afterward to narrative and supplication.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary1880 · Public DomainOn vv7–9SECTION X AN ADDRESS OF THE EXILES TO GOD,…
SECTION X AN ADDRESS OF THE EXILES TO GOD, INCLUDING THANKSGIVING, CONFESSION OF SIN, AND SUPPLICATION. (Isa_63:7-14)
Vers. 7-14. GOD PRAISED FOR HIS MERCIES. The address opens with pure and simple thanksgiving of the most general kind, God being praised for his loving-kindness, compassion, and sympathy with his people (vers. 7-9). A historical survey is then commenced, and Israel"s shortcomings contrasted with God"s mercies, but with a predominantly thankful and even jubilant tone (vers. 10-14).
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I will mention; or, celebrate. The loving-kindnesses; or, mercies. (see Isa_55:3; and comp. Psa_89:1)
HOMILIES BY E. JOHNSON Vers. 7-9. An outburst of thanksgiving.
A deep heart-effusion, in which all that the religious imagination, inspired by love, can suggest, is projected upon the picture of Jehovah, the redeeming God of Israel.
I HIS LOVING-KINDNESS. (Cf. Isa_55:3; and the Hebrew word Isa_63:7 Psa_89:28-49 Psa_107:43 Lam_3:22) The word (dsh) suggests a world of love. When used of men it implies pity, benignity, especially in circumstances of misfortune, as 1Sa 10:2Jo 1Sa_6:14. How fine is the saying in 2Sa_9:3, "I will act kindly toward him like unto God"! So that all human expressions of kindness may be and should be conceived as flowing from the one eternal Fountain. Sometimes, by a figure, God himself is called Favour, Mercy. (Psa 144:2Jo Psa_2:9)
II HIS GREAT DEEDS. "Renown," or "deeds of renown." The divorce of feeling from deed, of sentiment from action, that we so often see in feeble humanity, we do not find in God. With him, heart and head are one. His deeds are daily, world-extended, historical, eternal. Every commotion of the nations, every war, every revolution, must be traced to the influence of his Spirit in the last resort.
III HIS GENEROUS BESTOWALS. There is an exuberant outflow of thought, feeling, and language here. Jehovah is to be celebrated "according to that which is due for all that he hath bestowed, according to his compassion and his abundant loving-kindnesses." Were it not that the impression of pain is keener and deeper with us than that of pleasure, it would be seen that at every moment life teems with mercies, gifts from the Giver of all good.
IV HIS PROVIDENCE IN HISTORY. They were his people in virtue of the primeval covenant. They were his sons by adoption. The great salvation out of Israel was prototypical of all acts in which Jehovah "became unto them a Saviour. Distinct and strong is the representation of the sympathy of God with their suffering; distressed in all their distresses." His love and his clemency are again mentioned. He was ever, in that long and strange history of rebellion, "overcoming evil with good a pardoning God. His care was that of a mother"s heart carrying the people, as it were, from their birth, promising to carry them even to hoar hairs. "I bare made, and I will bear; I will carry, and I will deliver you". (Isa_46:3:4) Yet it is part of such providential dealing to chastise. There were especially times when the people did evil in the sight of Jehovah. (Jud_1:2:11 3:7) Secretly a Holy Spirit, or Spirit of holiness, was striving with them, and they were constantly resisting it. The great covenant with God was founded on this principle of holiness; this was the distinctive characteristic of the people as of their God. By their untruth to the covenant, they changed him as it were from a friend to an enemy. Thwarted love turns to jealousy, (Exo_34:14) and the gracious face of the Father becomes that of the wrathful Judge. J.
Vers. 7-9. The greatness of God"s goodness.
There is music in the sound and great comfort in the sense of these exquisite words. They speak to us of
I THE GREATNESS OF GOD"S GOODNESS TO US.
1. The bountifulness of his gifts to us. "All that the Lord hath bestowed on us." "The multitude of his loving-kindnesses." His gifts night and day, in every season, through every stage of life; all material for the body, all stores of knowledge for the mind, all wealth of affection for the heart.
2. The distinguishing favours he has shown us. His "great goodness toward the house of Israel." Every "house," every family, every man, has some special reason to speak of Divine goodness.
3. The love which prompts his bestowals. All his kindnesses are "loving kindnesses," prompted by parental affection, granted in a loving spirit.
4. His kindness toward us in affliction (ver. 8). He grants us Divine sympathy all their afflictions;" and tender succour bare them," etc. , as the mother carries her sick child, the shepherd the wounded lamb. His hand may be upon us, but "underneath are the everlasting arms.
5. His grace in redemption. "The angel of his presence," etc.
II OUR WISDOM AND DUTY IN VIEW OF IT. "I will mention." Here are two parts:
1. Recalling to our own thought.
2. Reminding those around us. This is our duty; for it is the clear will of Christ that we should make known the fulness of his kindness and the riches of his grace. We exist, as his people, that we may be witnesses to the world of all that we have learned of him. This is also our wisdom; for therein is found the one antidote to dissatisfaction, the one unfailing source of gratitude and joy.
III GOD"S EXPECTATION CONCERNING US. (Ver. 8.) As God gave to Israel all the peculiar proofs of his remembrance that they might prove a loyal and faithful people or family, so with us as a Christian Church. He has manifested marvellous love, patience, pity, succour, toward us. And in what expectation? That we should show ourselves loyal to himself and true to our trust; that we should prove ourselves the "people" and "children" of God, by reverence of bearing, by submissiveness of spirit, by integrity of character, by faithfulness in the field of sacred work. C.
The Lord"s loving-kindnesses.
The great goodness seen in the return of the exiles from Babylon helped to a right apprehension of the goodness of God " to his people all down through the long ages. Dean Stanley eloquently describes the return. "The restoration was an event which, unlikely and remote as it might have seemed, was deemed almost a certainty in the expectation of the exiles. The confidence of Jeremiah and Ezekiel never flagged that within two generations from the beginning of the captivity their countrymen would return. The patriotic sentiment, which had existed as it were unconsciously before, found its first definite expression at this period... And when the day at last arrived which was to see their expectations fulfilled, the burst of joy was such as has no parallel in the sacred volume; it is, indeed, the revival, the second birth, the second Exodus, of the nation. There was now " a new song," of which the burden was that the Eternal again reigned over the earth, and that the gigantic idolatries which surrounded them had received a deadly shock; that the waters of oppression had rolled back in which they had been struggling like drowning men; that the snare was broken in which they had been entangled like a caged bird. It was like a dream, too good to be true. The gaiety, the laughter of their poetry, resounded far and wide. The surrounding nations could not but confess what great things had been done for them. It was like the sudden rush of the waters into the dry torrent-beds of the south of Palestine, or of the yet extremer south, of which they may have heard, in far Ethiopia. It was like the reaper bearing on his shoulder the go]den sheaves in summer which he had sown amongst the tears of winter. So full were their hearts that all nature was called to join in their thankfulness. The vast rivers of their new Mesopotamian home, and the waves of the Indian Ocean, are to take part in the chorus, and clap their foaming crests like living hands. The mountains of their own native land are invited to express their joy; each tree in the forest that clothed the hills, or that cast their shade over the field, is to have a tongue for the occasion." The point impressed is that, being so deeply impressed with one great blessing received from God, the whole course of God"s dealings with his people came freshly to their view. In the light of one loving-kindness they gained clearer views of the many and various loving-kindnesses which had so constantly been showered upon them. "I will remember the loving-kindnesses of the Lord." That appears to be God"s gracious way of dealing with us all. Our lives are, in fact, full of his tender mercies, but they pass by us unheeded. We need something at times which may call our attention to them. So God gives us occasional great mercies as reminders of the thousand lesser ones. A special gift from an earthly friend has something of this power; it makes us feel afresh how good and kind and tender he long has been.
I THE LORD"S LOVING-KINDNESSES READ IN THE LIGHT OF THE REDEMPTION FROM BABYLON. This deliverance altered all their feeling about the past. It gave them a key to the meaning of their very captivity. It set them upon searching for signs of God"s goodness in the national story. And what a story of mercy that long record of the Jewish Church had been! What we can see in it everywhere, those returned exiles saw in the light of their exceeding joy forbearances, long-sufferings, provisions, bestowments, loving-kindnesses, defendings, redeemings the good hand of their God ever on them for good.
II THE LORD"S LOVING-KINDNESSES READ IN THE LIGHT OF THE REDEMPTION FROM SIN. St. Paul expresses this idea in the words, "He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?" The "all things" come to his mind when he thinks of the great things. He who gives eternal life will be sure to nourish and feed all the life he gives. He who holds before us the hope of an exceeding and eternal weight of glory will be sure to keep us unto it, and fit us for it. We may be quite confident that he who gives glory will give grace, withholding no good thing from them that walk uprightly. This is the usual form of Christian meditations. We unconsciously follow the returned exiles" way, and begin with the greatest loving-kindness. We tune our souls to their noblest song over redemption-love manifested in Christ Jesus. We dwell on his condescension and his suffering until our souls say, "Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable Gift!" But in the quietness after the song, there seems to be a light left on our whole life-story, which, as we watch it, grows brighter and brighter; falling here and there and yonder, showing up mercy after mercy, goodness upon goodness, we also begin to say, "We will remember the loving-kindnesses of the Lord. R.T.
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 Illustrator1887 · Public DomainOn vv7–9I will mention the loving kindnesses of the Lord
Isa_63:7
I will mention the loving kindnesses of the Lord
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Gods redemptive triumph evoking thanksgiving, prayer and confession
The dialogue ended, the prophets tone changes.
In the assurance that the redemption, guaranteed by Jehovahs triumph, will be wrought out, he supplies faithful Israel with a hymn of thanksgiving, supplication and confession, expressive of the frame of mind worthy to receive it (Isa_63:7-19; Isa_64:1-12). In a stream of surpassing pathos and beauty the prophet, as it were, leads the devotions (Cheyne) of his nation, and lends words by his eloquence to their repentance. (Prof. S. R. Driver, D. D.)
A chastened piety
The passage (Isa_63:7-19; Isa_64:1-12) is one of themost instructive of Old Testament prayers, and deserves careful study as an expression of the chastened and tremulous type of piety begotten in the sorrows of the Exile. So far as the ideas of the passage are concerned, it might have been composed at any time from the Exile downwards. (Prof. J. Skinner, D. D.)
The tender mercies of God
To discover the heights or to fathom the depths of this grace, exceeds the power of men or angels; yet the view perhaps may be enlightened by some of the following reflections.
1. In purposing and planning the grit work of redemption, the Eternal Mind was self-moved, uncounselled, unsolicited.
2. This love was wholly disinterested, having no-reward in view but the pleasure of doing good.
3. This love is still more sublimely considered as acting towards inferiors.
4. Redeeming love is still more wonderful as exercised towards enemies.
5. This love appears altogether astonishing when we consider the greatness of the sacrifice it made.
6. The extent of redeeming love further appears in the magnitude of the blessings which it intended for a ruined race.
7. This mercy is heightened by the fact that the Saviour is so necessary, reasonable and all-sufficient.
8. This mercy is still further heightened by the patience and condescending tenderness which He exercises towards His people. He calls them His friends, His brethren, His children, His spouse, the members of His body, the apple of His eye.
9. This wondrous mercy is further expressed in the gift of Sabbaths and sacraments, and especially the written Word.
10. Fresh evidence of this love springs up at every review of Gods past providence towards the Church.
11. All these are the more affecting as being marks of distinguishing love.
12. The grace of God appears still greater as being abundant. (E. Griffin.)
A song concerning loving kindnesses
I. THE MERCIES TO BE MENTIONED. A complete summary we cannot give, for who can count the sands of the sea or the stars of the sky?
1. The list commences with special electing love. In the Hebrew the eighth verse runs, For He said, they only are My people.
2. Pass on to the next sweet token of Divine lovingkindness which is found in the Fatherly confidence which the Lord has manifested towards His people. Children that will not lie.
3. His great sympathy with us. In all their affliction He was affected (Isa_63:9).
4. His intimate intercourse with us. The Angel of His presence saved them.
5. The gracious interpositions of God on behalf of His people. In His love and in His pity He redeemed them.
6. God provided for, led, protected and upheld His people by a wondrous special providence while they were in the wilderness. He bare them, etc. (Isa_63:9).
7. The prophet further goes on to mention the Lords chastening. It is to be sorrowed over that we need chastening, but God is to be praised that He does not withhold it from us (Isa_63:10).
8. The next thing the prophet sings about is Gods faithfulness, for though He did smite His people, yet in a very short time we find that He remembered the days of old, etc. (Isa_63:11-13). We will close this catalogue with one more choice mercy, for the prophet tells us of Gods giving His people rest after all (Isa_63:14).
II. CERTAIN POINTS WORTHY OF SPECIAL MENTION.
1. Whatever has been bestowed upon us by God reveals His lovingkindness.
2. The consequent praise which is due to God on account of this.
3. The uniform nature of all Gods dealings with us. According to all that the Lord hath bestowed on us. Let us praise Him according to all that the
Lord hath bestowed upon us, blessing Him for bitters and sweets, for blacks and whites, for storms and calms.
4. The grandeur of the goodness which is shown in every mercy. The great goodness toward the house of Israel. Ingratitude makes little of much, but gratitude sees much in little.
5. We ought to take peculiar note in our song of the condescending tenderness and pity of God, for such is the force of the next expression, which He hath bestowed on them according to His mercies,--a clearer rendering would be, according to His compassion.
6. One other special note demands to be heard, and that is the multitudinous displays of His love. According to the multitude of His lovingkindnesses, of all shapes, and at all times, and in all ways, and from all points of the compass.
III. PRACTICAL REASONS WHY WE SHOULD THUS MENTION THE LOVINGKINDNESSES OF THE LORD.
1. That we may have pleas in prayer. This is the best way of praying: Lord, Thou hast done this for Thy servant, Thou hast done that for Thy servant, therefore I beseech Thee do more. This is not after the manner of men, for when we once relieve a mans necessities we say to him, Do not come again; but every gift which God gives is an invitation to come again, and the best way in which we can show our gratitude is to seek for further gifts.
2. These memories will act as stays to your faith.
3. They will minister to your present comfort.
4. The thought of all this would make us love God more, and obey Him better.
5. To mention the Lords goodness enables us to cheer others, for we do not know who may be standing by.
6. It will glorify Him, and this should always be your master motive. (C. H.Spurgeon.)
A rinsed mouth
The Lord rinse your mouths out if you have a bitter way of talking about other people, or about His providence, and lead you henceforth to glory in His holy name.(C. H. Spurgeon.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible1887 · Public DomainOn v7Isaiah 63:7 through Isaiah 66
CHAPTER XXV
A LAST INTERCESSION AND THE JUDGMENT
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Isaiah 63:7 through Isaiah 66
WE might well have thought, that with the section we have been considering the prophecy of Israels Redemption had reached its summit and its end. The glory of Zion in sight, the full programme of prophecy owned, the arrival of the Divine Saviour hailed in the urgency of His feeling for His people, in the sufficiency of His might to save them, -what more, we ask, can the prophecy have to give us? Why does it not end upon these high notes? The answer is, the salvation is indeed consummate, but the people are not ready for it. On an earlier occasion, let us remember, when our prophet called the nation to their Service of God, he called at first the whole nation, but had then immediately to make a distinction. Seen in the light of their destiny, the mass of Israel proved to be unworthy; tried by its strain, part immediately fell away. But what happened upon that call to Service happens again upon this disclosure of Salvation. The prophet realises that it is only a part of Israel who are worthy of it. He feels again the weight, which has been the hindrance of his hope all through, -the weight of the mass of the nation, sunk in idolatry and wickedness, incapable of appreciating the promises. He will make one more effort to save them-to save them all. He does this in an intercessory prayer, Isaiah 63:7 through Isaiah 64, in which he states the most hopeless aspects of his peoples case, identifies himself with their sin, and yet pleads by the ancient power of God that we all may be saved. He gets his answer in chapter 65, in which God sharply divides Israel into two classes, the faithful and the idolaters, and affirms that, while the nation shall be saved for the sake of the faithful remnant, Jehovahs faithful servants and the unfaithful can never share the same experience or the same fate. And then the book closes with a discourse in chapter 66, in which this division between the two classes in Israel is pursued to a last terrible emphasis and contrast upon the narrow stage of Jerusalem itself. We are left, not with the realisation of the prophets prayer for the salvation of all the nations, but with a last judgment separating its godly and ungodly portions.
Thus there are three connected divisions in Isaiah 63:7 through Isaiah 66. First, the prophets Intercessory Prayer, Isaiah 63:7 through Isaiah 64; second, the Answer of Jehovah, chapter 65; and third, the Final Discourse and Judgment, chapter 66.
I. THE PRAYER FOR THE WHOLE PEOPLE
(Isaiah 63:7 through Isaiah 64)
There is a good deal of discussion as to both the date and the authorship of this piece, was to whether it comes from the early or the late Exile, and as to whether it comes from our prophet or from another. It must have been written after the destruction and before the rebuilding of the Temple; this is put past all doubt by these verses: "Thy holy people possessed it but a little while: our adversaries have trodden down Thy sanctuary." "Thy holy cities are become a wilderness, Zion has become a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation. The house of our holiness and of our ornament, wherein our fathers praised Thee, is become for a burning of fire, and all our delights are for ruin."
This language has been held to imply that the disaster to Jerusalem was recent, as if the citys conflagration still flared on the national imagination, which in later years of the Exile was impressed rather by the long cold ruins of the Holy Place, the haunt of wild beasts. But not only is this point inconclusive, but the impression that it leaves is entirely dispelled by other verses, which speak of the Divine anger as having been of long continuance, and as if it had only hardened the people in sin; compare Isa_63:17; Isa_64:6-7. There is nothing in the prayer to show that the author lived in exile, and accordingly the proposal has been made to date the piece from among the first attempts at rebuilding after the Return. To the present expositor this seems to be certainly wrong. The man who wrote Isa_63:11-15 had surely the Return still before him; he would not have written in the way he has done of the Exodus from Egypt unless he had been feeling the need of another exhibition of Divine Power of the same kind. The prayer, therefore, must come from pretty much the same date as the rest of our prophecy, -after the Exile had long continued, but while the Return had not yet taken place. Nor is there any reason against attributing it to the same writer. It is true the style differs from the rest of his work, but this may be accounted for, as in the case of chapter 53, by the change of subject. Most critics, who hold that we still follow the same author, take for granted that some time has elapsed since the prophets triumphant strains in chapter 60-62. This is probable; but there is nothing to make it certain. What is certain is the change of mood and conscience. The prophet, who in chapter 60 had been caught away into the glorious future of the people, is here as utterly absorbed in their barren and doubtful present. Although the salvation is certain, as he has seen it, the people are not ready. The fact he has already felt so keenly about them, -see Isa_42:24-25, -that their long discipline in exile has done the mass of them no good, but evil, comes forcibly back upon him. {Isa_64:5 b ff.} "Thou wast angry, and we sinned" only the more: "in such a state we have been long, and shall we be saved!" The banished people are thoroughly unclean and rotten, fading as a leaf, the sport of the wind. But the prophet identifies himself with them. He speaks of their sin as ours, of their misery as ours. He takes of them the very saddest view possible, he feels them all as sheer dead weight: "there is none that calleth on Thy name, that stirreth himself up to take hold on Thee: for Thou hast hid Thy face from us, and delivered us into the power of our iniquities." But the prophet thus loads himself with the people in order to secure, if he can. their redemption as a whole. Twice he says in the name of them all, "Doubtless Thou art our Father." His great heart will not have one of them left out; "we all," he says, "are the work of Thy hand, we are all Thy people."
But this intention of the prayer will amply account for any change of style we may perceive in the language. No one will deny that it is quite possible for the same man now to fling himself forward into the glorious vision of his peoples future salvation, and again to identify himself with the most hopeless aspects of their present distress and sin; and no one will deny that the same man will certainly write in two different styles with regard to each of these different feelings. Besides which, we have seen in the passage the recurrence of some of our prophecys most characteristic thoughts. We feel, therefore, no reason for counting the passage to be by another hand than that which has mainly written "Second Isaiah." It may be at once admitted that he has incorporated in it earlier phrases, reminiscences, and echoes of language about the fall of Jerusalem in use when the Lamentations were written. But this was a natural thing for him to do in a prayer in which he represented the whole people and took upon himself the full burden of their woes.
If such be the intention of Isaiah 63:7 through Isaiah 64, then in them we have one of the noblest passages of our prophets great work. How like he is to the Servant he pictured for us! How his great heart fulfils the loftiest ideal of Service: not only to be the prophet and the judge of his people, but to make himself one with them in all their sin and sorrow, to carry them all in his heart. Truly, as his last words said of the Servant, he himself "bears the sin of many, and interposes for the transgressors." Before we see the answer he gets, let us make clear some obscure things and appreciate some beautiful ones in his prayer.
It opens with a recital of Jehovahs ancient lovingkindness and mercies to Israel. This is what perhaps gives it connection with the previous section. In chapter 62 the prophet, though sure of the coming glory, wrote before it had come, and "urged" upon "the Lords remembrancers to keep no silence, and give Him no silence till He establish and till He make Jerusalem a praise in the earth." This work of remembrancing, the prophet himself takes up in Isa_63:7 : "The lovingkindnesses of Jehovah I will record," literally, "cause to be remembered, the praises of Jehovah, according to all that Jehovah hath bestowed upon us." And then he beautifully puts all the beginnings of Gods dealings with His people in His trusting of them: "For He said, Surely they are My people, children that will not deal falsely; so He became their Saviour. In all their affliction He was afflicted, the Angel of His Face saved them." This must be understood, not as an angel of the Presence, who went out from the Presence to save the people, but, as it is in other Scriptures, Gods own Presence, God Himself; and so interpreted, the phrase falls into line with the rest of the verse, which is one of the most vivid expressions that the Bible contains of the personality of God. "In His love and in His pity He redeemed them, and bare them, and carried them all the days of old." Then he tells us how they disappointed and betrayed this trust, ever since the Exodus, the days of old. "But they rebelled and grieved the Spirit of His holiness: therefore He was turned to be their enemy, He Himself fought against them." This refers to their history down to, and especially during, the Exile: compare Isa_42:24-25. Then in their affliction they "remembered the days of old"-the English version obscures the sequence here by translating he remembered- and then follows the glorious account of the Exodus. In Isa_63:13 the wilderness is, of course, prairie, flat pasture-land; they were led as smoothly as "a horse in a meadow, that they stumbled not. As cattle that come down into the valley"-cattle coming down from the hillside to pasture and rest on the green, watered plains-"the Spirit of Jehovah caused them to rest: so didst Thou lead Thy people to make Thyself a glorious name." And then having offered such precedents, the prophets prayer breaks forth to a God, whom His people fed no longer at their head, but far withdrawn into heaven: "Look down from heaven, and behold from the habitation of Thy holiness and Thy glory: where is Thy zeal and Thy mighty deeds? the surge of Thy bowels and Thy compassions are restrained towards me." Then he pleads Gods fatherhood to the nation, and the rest of the prayer alternates between the hopeless misery and undeserving sin of the people, and, notwithstanding, the power of God to save as He did in times of old; the willingness of God to meet with those who wait for Him and remember Him; and, once more, His fatherhood, and His power over them, as the power of the potter over the clay.
Two points stand out from the rest. The Divine Trust, from which all Gods dealing with His people is said to have started, and the Divine Fatherhood, which the prophet pleads.
"He said, Surely they are My people, children that will not deal falsely: so He was their Saviour." The "surely" is not the fiat of sovereignty or foreknowledge: it is the hope and confidence of love. It did not prevail; it was disappointed.
This is, of course, a profound acknowledgment of mans free will. It is implied that mens conduct must remain an uncertain thing, and that in calling men God cannot adventure upon greater certainty than is implied in the trust of affection. If one asks, What, then, about Gods foreknowledge, who alone knoweth the end of a thing from the beginning, and His sovereign grace, who chooseth whom He will? are you not logically bound to these?-then it can only be asked in return, Is it not better to be without logic for a little, if at the expense of it we obtain so true, so deep a glimpse into Gods heart as this simple verse affords us? Which is better for us to know-that God is Wisdom which knows all, or Love that dares and ventures all? Surely, that God is Love which dares and ventures all with the worst, with the most hopeless of us. This is what makes this single verse of Scripture more powerful to move the heart than all creeds and catechisms. For where these speak of sovereign will, and often mock our affections with the bare and heavy (if legitimate) sceptre they sway, this calls forth our love, honour, and obedience by the heart it betrays in God. Of what unsuspicious trust, of what chivalrous adventure of love, of what fatherly confidence, does it speak! What a religion is this of ours in the power of which a man may every morning rise and feel himself thrilled by the thought that God trusts him enough to work with His will for the day; in the power of which a man may look round and see the sordid, hopeless human life about him glorified by the truth that for the salvation of such God did adventure Himself in a love that laid itself down in death. The attraction and power of such a religion can never die. Requiring no painful thought to argue it into reality, it leaps to light before the natural affection of mans heart; it takes his instincts immediately captive; it gives him a conscience, an honour, and an obligation. No wonder that our prophet, having such a belief, should once more identify himself with the people, and adventure himself with the weight of their sin before God.
The other point of the prayer is the Fatherhood of God, concerning which all that is needful to say here is that the prophet, true to the rest of Old Testament teaching on the subject, applies it only to Gods relation to the nation as a whole. In the Old Testament no one is called the son of God except Israel as a people, or some individual representative and head of Israel. And even of such the term was seldom employed. This was not because the Hebrew was without temptation to imagine his physical descent from the gods, for neighbouring nations indulged in such dreams for themselves and their heroes; nor because he was without appreciation of the intellectual kinship between the human and the Divine, for he knew that in the beginning God had said, "Let us make man in our own image." But the same feeling prevailed with him in regard to this idea, as we have seen prevailed in regard to the kindred idea of God as the husband of His people. The prophets were anxious to emphasise that it was a moral relation, -a moral relation, and one initiated from Gods side by certain historical acts of His free, selecting, redeeming, and adopting love. Israel was not Gods son till God had evidently called and redeemed him. Look at how our prophet uses the word Father, and to what he makes it equivalent. The first time it is equivalent to Redeemer: "Thou, O Lord, art our Father; our Redeemer from old is Thy name". {Isa_63:16 b} The second time it is illustrated by the work of the potter: "But now, O Lord, Thou art our Father; we are the clay, and Thou our potter; and we are all the work of Thy hand". {Isa_64:8} Could it be made plainer in what sense the Bible defines this relation between God and man? It is not a physical, nor is it an intellectual relation. The assurance and the virtue of it do not come to men with their blood or with the birth of their intellect, but in the course of moral experience, with the sense that God claims them from sin and from the world for Himself; with the gift of a calling and a destiny; with the formation of character, the perfecting of obedience, the growth in His knowledge and His grace. And because it is a moral relation time is needed to realise it, and only after long patience and effort may it be unhesitatingly claimed. And that is why Israel was so long in claiming it, and why the clearest, most undoubting cries to God the Father, which rise from the Greek in the earliest period of his history, reach our ears from Jewish lips only near the end of their long progress, only (as we see from our prayer) in a time of trial and affliction.
We have a New Testament echo of this Old Testament belief in the Fatherhood of God, as a moral and not a national relation, in Pauls writings, who in the Second Epistle to the Corinthians {2Co_6:17-18} urges thus: "Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be My sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty."
On these grounds, then, -that God in His great love had already adventured Himself with this whole people, and already by historical acts of election and redemption proved Himself the Father of the nation as a whole, -does our prophet plead with Him to save them all again. The answer to this pleading he gets in chapter 65.
II. GODS ANSWER TO THE PROPHETS INTERCESSION
(Chapter 65)
Gods answer to His prophets intercession is twofold. First, He says that He has already all this time been trying them with love, meeting them with salvation; but they have not turned to Him. The prophet has asked, "Where is Thy zeal? the yearning of Thy bowels and Thy compassions are restrained towards me. Thou hast hid Thy face far from us. Wilt Thou refrain Thyself for these things, O Jehovah? Wilt Thou hold Thy peace and afflict us very sore?" And now, "in the beginning of chapter 65, Jehovah answers, not with that confusion of tenses and irrelevancy of words with which the English version makes Him speak; but suitably, relevantly, and convincingly." "I have been to be inquired of those who asked not for Me. I have been to be found of them that sought Me not. I have been saying, I am here, I am here, to a nation that did not call on My name. I have stretched out My hands all the day to a people turning away, who walk in a way that is not good, after their own thoughts; a people that have been provoking Me to My face continually,"-and then He details their idolatry. This, then, is the answer of the Lord to the prophets appeal. "In this I have not all power. It is wrong to talk of Me as the potter and of man as the clay, as if all the active share in salvation lay with Me. Man is free, - free to withhold himself from My urgent affection; free to turn from My outstretched hands; free to choose before Me the abomination of idolatry. And this the mass of Israel have done, clinging, fanatical and self-satisfied, to their unclean and morbid imaginations of the Divine, all the time that My great prophecy by you has been appealing to them." This is a sufficient answer to the prophets prayer. Love is not omnipotent; if men disregard so open an appeal of the Love of God, they are hopeless; nothing else can save them. The sin against such love is like the sin against the Holy Ghost, of which our Lord speaks so hopelessly. Even God cannot help the despisers and abusers of Grace.
The rest of Gods answer to His prophets intercession emphasises that the nation shall be saved for the sake of a faithful remnant in it (Isa_65:8-10). But the idolaters shall perish (Isa_65:11-12). They cannot possibly expect the same fare, the same experience, the same fate, as Gods faithful servants (Isa_65:13-15). But those who are true and faithful Israelites, surviving and experiencing the promised salvation, shall find that God is true, and shall acknowledge Him as "the God of Amen, because the former troubles are forgotten" (those felt so keenly in the prophets prayer in chapter 64) "and because they are hid from Mine eyes." The rest of the answer describes a state of serenity and happiness wherein there shall be no premature death, nor loss of property, nor vain labour, nor miscarriage, nor disappointment of prayer nor delay in its answer, nor strife between man and the beasts, nor any hurt or harm in Jehovahs Holy Mountain. Truly a prospect worthy of being named as the prophet names it, "a new heaven and a new earth!"
Chapter 65 is thus closely connected, both by circumstance and logic, with the long prayer which precedes it. The tendency of recent criticism has been to deny this connection, especially on the line of circumstance. Chapter 65 does not, it is argued, reflect the Babylonish captivity as Isaiah 63:7 through Isaiah 64 so clearly does; but, on the contrary, "while some passages presuppose the Exile as past, others refer to circumstances characteristic of Jewish life in Canaan." But this view is only possible through straining some features of the chapter adaptable either to Palestine or Babylon, and overlooking others which are obviously Babylonian. "Sacrificing in gardens and burning incense on tiles" were practices pursued in Jerusalem before the Exile, but the latter was introduced there from Babylon, and the former was universal in heathendom. The practices in Isa_65:5 are never attributed to the people before the Exile, were all possible in Babylonia, and some we know to have been actual there. The other charge of idolatry in Isa_65:11 "suits Babylonia," Cheyne admits, "as well as (probably) Palestine." But what seems decisive for the exilic origin of chapter 65 is that the possession of Judah and Zion by the seed of Jacob is still implied as future (Isa_65:9). Moreover the holy land is alluded to by the name common among the exiles in flat Mesopotamia, My mountains, and in contrast with the idolatry of which the present generation is guilty the idolatry of their fathers is characterised as having been "upon the mountains and upon the hills," and again the people is charged with "forgetting My holy mountain," a phrase reminiscent of Psa_137:4, and more appropriate to a time of exile, than when the people were gathered about Zion. All these resemblances in circumstances corroborate the strong logical connection which we have found between chapter 64 and chapter 65, and leave us no reason for taking the latter away from the main author of "Second Isaiah," though he may have worked up into it recollections and remains of an older time.
III. THE LAST JUDGMENT
(Chapter 66)
Whether with the final chapter of our prophecy we at last get footing in the Holy Land is doubtful. It was said that, "in Isa_66:1-4 the Temple is still unbuilt, but the building would seem to be already begun." This latter clause should be modified to, "the building would seem to be in immediate prospect." The rest of the chapter, Isa_66:6-24, has features that speak more definitely for the period after the Return; but even they are not conclusive, and their effect is counterbalanced by some other verses. Isa_66:6 may imply that the Temple is rebuilt, and Isa_66:20 that the sacrifices are resumed; but, on the other hand, these verses may be, like parts of chapter 60, statements of the prophets vivid vision of the future. Isa_66:7-8 seem to describe a repeopling of Jerusalem that has already taken place; but Isa_66:9 says, that while the "bringing to the birth" has already happened, which is, as we must suppose, the deliverance from Babylon, -or is it the actual arrival at Jerusalem?-the "bringing forth from the womb," that is, the complete restoration of the people, has still to take place. Isa_66:13 is certainly addressed to those who are not yet in Jerusalem.
These few points reveal how difficult, nay, how impossible, it is to decide the question of date, as between the days immediately before the Return and the days immediately after. To the present expositor the balance of evidence seems to be with the later date. But the difference is very small. We are at least sure-and it is really all that we require to know-that the rebuilding of Jerusalem is very near, nearer than it has been felt in any previous chapter. The Temple is, so to speak, within sight, and the prophet is able to talk of the regular round of sacrifices and sacred festivals almost as if they had been resumed.
To the people, then, either in the near prospect of Return, or immediately after some of them had arrived in Jerusalem, the prophet addresses a number of oracles, in which he pursues the division that chapter 65 had emphasised between the two parties in Israel. These oracles are so, intricate that we are compelled to take up the chapter verse by verse. The first of them begins by correcting certain false feelings in Israel, excited by former promises of the rebuilding and the glory of the Temple. "Thus saith Jehovah, The heavens are My throne, and earth is My footstool: what is this for a house that ye will build (or, are building) Me, and what is this for a place for My rest? Yea, all these things" (that is, all the visible works of God in heaven and earth) "My hand hath made, and so came to pass all these things, saith Jehovah. But unto this will I look, unto the humble and contrite spirit, and that trembleth at My word." These verses do not run counter to, or even go beyond, anything that our prophet has already said. They do not condemn the building of the Temple: this was not possible for a prophecy which contains chapter 60. They condemn only the kind of temple which those whom they address had in view, -a shrine to which the presence of Jehovah was limited, and on the raising and maintenance of which the religion and righteousness of the people should depend. While the former Temple was standing, the mass of the people had thus misconceived it, imagining that it was enough for national religion to have such a structure standing and honoured in their midst. And now, before it is built again, the exiles are cherishing about it the same formal and materialistic thoughts. Therefore the prophet rebukes them, as his predecessors had rebuked their fathers, and reminds them of a truth he has already uttered, that though the Temple is raised, according to Gods own promise and direction, it wilt not be to its structure, as they conceive of it, that He will have respect, but to the existence among them of humble and sincere personal piety. The Temple is to be raised: "the place of His feet God will make glorious," and men shall gather round it from the whole earth, for instruction, for comfort, and for rejoicing. But. let them not think it to be indispensable either to God or to man, -not to God, who has heaven for His throne and earth for His footstool; nor to man, for God looks direct to man, if only man be humble, penitent, and sensitive to His word. These verses, then, do not go beyond the Old Testament limit; they leave the Temple standing, but they say so much about Gods other sanctuary man, that when His use for the Temple shall be past, His Servant Stephen {Act_7:49} shall be able to employ these words to prove why it should disappear.
The next verse is extremely difficult. Here it is literally: "A slaughterer of the ox, a slayer of a man; a sacrificer of the lamb, a breaker of a dogs neck; an offerer of meat-offering, swines blood; the maker of a memorial offering of incense, one that blesseth an idol, or vanity." Four legal sacrificial acts are here coupled with four unlawful sacrifices to idols. Does this mean that in the eye of God, impatient even of the ritual He has consecrated, when performed by men who do not tremble at His word, each of these lawful sacrifices is as worthless and odious as the idolatrous practice associated with it, -the slaughter of the ox as the offering of a human sacrifice, and so forth? Or does the verse mean that there are persons in Israel who combine, like the Corinthians blamed by Paul, {1 Corinthians 10} both the true and the idolatrous ritual, both the table of the Lord and the table of devils? Our answer will depend on whether we take the four parallels with Isa_66:2, which precedes them, or with the rest of Isa_66:3, to which they belong, and Isa_66:4. If we take them with Isa_66:2, then we must adopt the first, the alternative meaning; if with Isa_66:4, then the second of these meanings is the right one. Now there is no grammatical connection, nor any transparent logical one, between Isa_66:2 and Isa_66:3, but there is a grammatical connection with the rest of Isa_66:3. Immediately after the pairs of lawful and unlawful sacrificial acts, Isa_66:3 continues, "yea, they have chosen their own ways, and their soul delighteth in their abominations." That surely signifies that the unlawful sacrifices in Isa_66:3 are things already committed and delighted in, and the meaning of putting them in parallel to the lawful sacrifices of Jehovahs religion is either that Israelites have committed them instead of the lawful sacrifices, or along with these. In this case, Isa_66:3-4 form a separate discourse by themselves, with no relation to the equally distinct oracle in Isa_66:1 and Isa_66:2. The subject of Isa_66:3-4 is, therefore, the idolatrous Israelites. They are delivered unto Satan, their choice; they shall have no part in the coming Salvation: In Isa_66:5 the faithful in Israel, who have obeyed Gods word by the prophet, are comforted under the mocking of their brethren, who shall certainly be put to shame. Already the prophet hears the preparation of the judgment against them (Isa_66:6). It comes forth from the city where they had mockingly cried for Gods glory to appear. The mocked city avenges itself on them. "Hark, a roar from the City! Hark, from the Temple! Hark, Jehovah accomplishing vengeance on His enemies!" A new section begins with Isa_66:7, and celebrates to Isa_66:9 the sudden re-population of the City by her children, either as already a fact, or, more probably, as a near certainty. Then comes a call to the children, restored, or about to be restored, to congratulate their mother and "to enjoy her. The prophet rewakens the figure, that is ever nearest his heart, of motherhood, -children suckled, borne, and cradled in the lap of their mother fill all his view; nay, finer still, the grown man coming back with wounds and weariness upon him to be comforted of his mother." As a man whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you, and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem. And ye shall see, and rejoice shall your heart, and your bones shall flourish like the tender grass." But this great light shines not to flood all Israel in One, but to cleave the nation in two, like a sword of judgment. "The hand of Jehovah shall be known towards His servants, but He will have indignation against His enemies" (enemies, that is, within Israel. Then comes the fiery judgment) "For by fire will Jehovah plead, and by His sword with, all flesh; and the slain of Jehovah shall be many. Why there should be slain of Jehovah within Israel is then explained. Within Israel there are idolaters: "they that consecrate themselves and practise purification for the gardens, after one in the middle; eaters of swines flesh, and the Abomination, and the Mouse. They shall come to an end together, saith Jehovah, for I" (know, or will punish,) "their works and their thoughts." In this eighteenth verse the punctuation is uncertain, and probably the text is corrupt. The first part of the verse should evidently go, as above, with Isa_66:17. Then begins a new subject.
"It is coming to gather all the nations and the tongues, and they shall come and shall see My glory; and I will set among them a sign" (a marvellous and mighty act, probably of judgment, for he immediately speaks of their survivors) "and I will send the escaped of them to the nations Tarshish, and Lud, drawers of the bow, to Tubal and Javan" (that is, to far Spain, and the distances of Africa, towards the Black Sea and to "Greece, a full round of the compass) the isles far off that have not heard report of Me, nor have seen My glory; and they shall recount My glory among the nations. And they shall bring all your brethren from among all the nations an offering to Jehovah, on horses and in chariots and in litters, and on mules and on dromedaries, up on the Mount of My Holiness, Jerusalem, saith Jehovah, just as when the children of Israel bring the offering in a clean vessel to the house of Jehovah. And also from them will I take to be priests, to be Levites, saith Jehovah. For like as the new heavens and the new earth which I am making shall be standing before Me, saith Jehovah, so shall stand your seed and your name." But again the prophecy swerves from the universal hope into which we expect it to break, and gives us instead a division and a judgment: the servants of Jehovah on one side occupied in what the prophet regards as the ideal life, regular worship-so little did he mean Isa_66:1 to be a condemnation of the Temple and its ritual!-and on the other the rebels unburied carcasses gnawed by the worm and by fire, an abomination to all. "And it shall come to pass from new moon to new moon, and from sabbath to sabbath, all flesh shall come to worship before Me, saith Jehovah: and they shall go out and look on the carcasses of the men who have rebelled against Me; for their worm dieth not, and their fire is not quenched, and they shall be an abhorrence to all flesh."
We have thus gone step by step through the chapter, because its intricacies and sudden changes were not otherwise to be mastered. What exactly it is composed of must, we fear, still remain a problem. Who can tell whether its short, broken pieces are all originally from our prophets hand, or were gathered by him from others, or were the fragments of his teaching which the reverent hands of disciples picked carefully up that nothing might be lost? Sometimes we think it must be this last alternative that happened; for it seems impossible that pieces so strange to each other, so loosely connected, could have flowed from one mind at one time. But then again we think otherwise, when we see how the chapter as a whole continues the separation made evident in chapter 65, and runs it on to a last emphatic contrast.
So we are left by the prophecy, -not with the new heavens and the new earth which it promised: not with the holy mountain on which none shall hurt nor destroy, saith the Lord; not with a Jerusalem full of glory and a people all holy, the centre of a gathered humanity, -but with the city like to a judgment floor, and upon its narrow surface a people divided between worship and a horrible woe.
O Jerusalem, City of the Lord, Mother eagerly desired of her children, radiant light to them that sit in darkness and are far off, home after exile, haven after storm, -expected as the Lords garner, thou art still to be only His threshing-floor, and heaven and hell as of old shall, from new moon to new moon, through the revolving years, lie side by side within thy narrow walls! For from the day that Araunah the Jebusite threshed out his sheaves upon thy high windswept rock, to the day when the Son of Man standing over against thee divided in his last discourse the sheep from the goats, the wise from the foolish, and the loving from the selfish, thou hast been appointed of God for trial and separation and judgment.
It is a terrible ending to such a prophecy as ours. But is any other possible? We ask how can this contiguity of heaven and hell be within the Lords own city, after all His yearning and jealousy for her, after His fierce agony and strife with her enemies, after so clear a revelation of Himself, so long a providence, so glorious a deliverance? Yet, it is plain that nothing else can result, if the men on whose ears the great prophecy had fallen, with all its music and all its gospel, and who had been partakers of the Lords Deliverance, did yet continue to prefer their idols, their swines flesh, their mouse, their broth of abominable things, their sitting in graves, to so evident a God and to so great a grace.
It is a terrible ending, but it is the same as upon the same floor Christ set to His teaching, -the gospel net cast wide, but only to draw in both good and bad upon a beach of judgment; the wedding feast thrown open and men compelled to come in, but among them a heart whom grace so great could not awe even to decency; Christs gospel preached, His Example evident, and Himself owned as Lord, and nevertheless some whom neither the hearing nor the seeing nor the owning with their lips did lift to unselfishness or stir to pity. Therefore He who had cried, "Come all unto Me," was compelled to close by saying to many, "Depart."
It is a terrible ending, but one only too conceivable. For though God is love, man is free, -free to turn from that love; free to be as though he had never felt it; free to put away from himself the highest, clearest, most urgent grace that God can show. But to do this is the judgment.
"Lord, are there few that be saved?"
The Lord did not answer the question but by bidding the questioner take heed to himself:
"Strive to enter in at the strait gate."
Almighty and most merciful God, who hast sent this book to be the revelation of Thy great love to man, and of Thy power and will to save him, grant that our study of it may not have been in vain by the callousness or carelessness of our hearts, but that by it we may be confirmed in penitence, lifted to hope, made strong for service, and above all filled with the true knowledge of Thee and of Thy Son Jesus Christ, Amen.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary1892 · Public DomainOn v9Isa_63:9. In all their affliction He was afflicted, &c.
THE SYMPATHY OF CHRIST
Isa_63:9. In all their affliction He was afflicted, &c.
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There is no man so great as not to need at some season or other the sympathy of his friend, &c. If human sympathy be so valuable how much more Divine, &c. Christ once suffered for us, He always suffers with us, &c. We have here—
I. HUMAN CALAMITY SUPPOSED. The text supposes that affliction may be great,—sorrow upon sorrow, that we are unable to endure the pressure of grief alone, and that adequate occasions for God’s special interference may frequently occur. This was the case with the Church in captivity, &c. Human calamity is the same thing still, &c. There is an awful reality in grief, which, like an overwhelming burden, crushes the spirit and overpowers the resources, &c. Or the human mind may be burdened with the sense of guilt, personal afflictions, bereavements, &c. Who can hush the grief and afford adequate relief under all the sorrows and calamities of life. There is but One in the universe can do it, and to Him the text points.
II. DIVINE COMPASSION EXPRESSED.
1. His compassion is most real and perfect. He is afflicted with the afflictions of His people. His sympathy is no imaginary consolation. He ascended in the nature in which He suffered. He knows by experience the nature of human trial, and can meet the exigency alike of real and groundless alarm, &c.
2. His aid is exerted in the most seasonable time. In His interpositions there is never any unnecessary or fatal delay.
3. There is an ineffable kindness in His dispensations which cannot be mistaken.
4. Constant and unchangeable.
CONCLUSION.—
1. Ascertain your title to His peculiar sympathy.
2. Carry your griefs to Him. He is engaged to relieve all the trouble, and forgive all the guilt that is brought to Him.
3. Acknowledge your past obligations.
4. Be a saviour to others (2Co_1:3).—Samuel Thodey.
I. Divine sympathy. II. Interposition. III. Love. IV. Care.—Dr. Lyth.
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.
Alexander MacLaren1905 · Public DomainOn v9
Isaiah
THE SYMPATHY OF GOD
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Isa 63:9.
I. The wonderful glimpse opened here into the heart of God.
It is not necessary to touch upon the difference between the text and margin of the Revised Version, or to enter on the reason for preferring the former. And what a deep and wonderful thought that is, of divine sympathy with human sorrow! We feel that this transcends the prevalent tone of the Old Testament. It is made the more striking by reason of the other sides of the divine nature which the Old Testament gives so strongly; as, for instance, the unapproachable elevation and absolute sovereignty of God, and the retributive righteousness of God.
Affliction is His chastisement, and is ever righteously inflicted. But here is something more, tender and strange. Sympathy is a necessary part of love. There is no true affection which does not put itself in the place and share the sorrows of its objects. And His sympathy is none the less because He inflicts the sorrow. These afflictions wherein He too was afflicted, were sent by Him. Like an earthly father who suffers more than the child whom he chastises, the Heavenly Father feels the strokes that He inflicts.
That sympathy is consistent with the blessedness of God. Even in the pain of our human sympathy there is a kind of joy, and we may be sure that in His nature there is nothing else.
Contrast with other thoughts about God.
The vague agnosticism of the present day, which knows only a dim Something of which we can predicate nothing.
The God of the philosophers-whom we are bidden to think of as passionless and unemotional. No wave of feeling ever ripples that tideless sea. The attribute of infinitude or sovereign completeness is dwelt on with such emphasis as to obscure all the rest.
The gods of men’s own creation are careless in their happiness, and cruel in their vengeance. But here is a God for all the weary and the sorrowful. What a thought for us in our own burdened days!
II. The mystery of the divine salvation.
Of course the salvation here spoken of is the deliverance from Egyptian bondage. This is a summary of the Exodus. But we must mark well that significant expression, ‘the angel of His face’ or ‘presence.’ We can only attempt a partial and bald enumeration of some of the very remarkable references to that mysterious person, ‘the angel of the Lord ‘or ‘of the presence.’ The dying Jacob ascribed his being ‘redeemed from all evil’ to ‘the Angel,’ and invoked his blessing on ‘the lads.’ ‘The angel of the Lord’ appeared to Moses out of the midst of the burning bush. On Sinai, Jehovah promised to send an ‘angel’ in whom was His own name, before the people. The promise was renewed after Israel’s sin and repentance, and was then given in the form, ‘My presence shall go with thee.’ Joshua saw a man with a drawn sword in his hand, who declared himself to be the Captain of the Lord’s host. ‘The angel of the Lord’ appeared to Manoah and his wife, withheld his name from them because it was ‘wonderful’ or ‘secret,’ accepted their sacrifice, and went up to heaven in its flame. Wherefore Manoah said, ‘We have seen God.’ Long after these early visions, a psalmist knows himself safe because ‘the angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear Him.’ Hosea, looking back on the story of Jacob’s wrestling at Peniel, says, first, that ‘he had power with God, yea, he had power over the angel,’ and then goes on to say that ‘there He spake with us, even Jehovah.’ And Malachi, on the last verge of Old Testament prophecy, goes furthest of all in seeming to run together the conceptions of Jehovah and the Angel of Jehovah, for he says, ‘The Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to His temple; and the angel of the covenant . . . behold, he cometh.’ From this imperfect resume, we see that there appears in the earliest as in the latest books of the Old Testament, a person distinguished from the hosts of angels, identified in a very remarkable manner with Jehovah, by alternation of names, in attributes and offices, and in receiving worship, and being the organ of His revelation. That special relation to the divine revelation is expressed by both the representation that ‘Jehovah’s name is in him,’ and by the designation in our text, ‘the angel of His presence,’ or literally, ‘of His face.’ For ‘name’ and ‘face’ are in so far synonymous that they mean the side of the divine nature which is turned to the world.
For the present I go no further than this. It is clear, then, that our text is at all events remarkable, in that it ascribes to this ‘angel of His presence’ the praise of Jehovah’s saving work. The loving heart, afflicted in all their afflictions, sends forth the messenger of His face, and by Him is salvation wrought. The whole sum of the deliverance of Israel in the past is attributed to Him. Surely this must have been felt by a devout Jew to conceal some great mystery.
III. The crowning revelation both of the heart of God and of His saving power.
{a} Jesus Christ is the true ‘angel of the face.’
I do not need to enter on the question of whether in the Old Testament the angel of the Covenant was indeed a pre-manifestation of the eternal Son. I am disposed to answer it in the affirmative. But be that as it may, all that was spoken of the angel is true of Him. God’s name is in Him, and that not in fragments or half-syllables but complete. The face of God looks lovingly on men in Him, so that Jesus could declare, ‘He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.’ His presence brings God’s presence, and He can venture to say, ‘We will come and make our abode with Him.’ He is the agent of the divine salvation.
The identity and the difference are here in their highest form.
{b} The mystery of God’s sharing our sorrows is explained in Him.
We may find a difficulty in the thought of a suffering and sympathising God. But if we believe that ‘My name is in Him,’ then the sympathy and gentleness of Jesus is the compassion of God. This is a true revelation. So tears at the grave sighs in healing, and all the sorrows which He bore are an unveiling of the heart of God.
That sharing our sorrows is the very heart of His work. We might almost say that He became man in order to increase His power of sympathy, as a prince might temporarily become a pauper. But certainly He became man that He might bear our burdens. ‘Himself took our infirmities.’ ‘Forasmuch as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He himself also likewise took part of the same.’
The atoning death is the climax of Christ’s being afflicted with our afflictions. His priestly sympathy flows out now and for ever to us all.
So complete is His unity with God, that He works the salvation which is God’s, and that God’s name is in Him. So complete is His union with us, that our sorrows touch Him and His life becomes ours. ‘Ye have done it unto Me.’ ‘Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?’
For us in all our troubles there are no darker rooms than Christ has been in before us. We are like prisoners put in the same cell as some great martyr. He drank the cup, and we can put the rim to our lips at the place that His lips have touched. But not only may we have our sufferings lightened by the thought that He has borne the same, and that we know the ‘fellowship of Christ’s sufferings,’ but we have the further alleviation of being sure that He makes our afflictions His by perfect sympathy, and, still more wonderful and blessed, that there is such unity of life and sensation between the Head and the members that our afflictions are His, and are not merely made so.
‘Think not thou canst sigh a sigh,
And thy Saviour is not by;
Think not thou canst shed a tear
And thy Saviour is not near.’
Do not front the world alone. In all our afflictions He is with us; out of them all He saves.
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow1909 · Public DomainOn v7Past Deliverances and Present Needs
Past Deliverances and Present Needs
Isa_63:7-14. Commemoration of Jehovah's mercies to Israel in the past.
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Isa_64:5 a. Prayer that He will interpose to deliver His people from their present calamities.
Isa_64:5-12. Acknowledgment that these are due to their sins. Appeal to Jehovah that He will look upon the pitiable state of His people and sanctuary.
8. Lie] RV 'deal falsely.'
9. He was afflicted] so Heb. traditional reading, meaning that He felt His people's pains as His own (Jdg_10:16). But Heb. written text 'he was no adversary' (RM), but, on the contrary, their deliverer. The angel] see Exo_23:20; Exo_32:34; Exo_33:2.
Bare them] see Deu_1:31; Deu_32:11.
10. Cp. Psa_78:40.
11. He (Israel) remembered] The thought of past mercies evoked penitence (Psa_78:35). Shepherd] RV 'shepherds.' Within him] i.e. Israel, e.g. Exo_35:31; Num_11:25.
12. RV 'That caused his glorious arm to go at the right hand of Moses.' Arm] see Isa_51:9 (also in connexion with the exodus).
13. In the wilderness] i.e. in a grassy plain.
14. RV 'As the cattle that go down.' This refers to the settlement in Canaan.
15. Strength] RV 'mighty acts.' Sounding of thy bowels] stands for sympathetic pity (Isa_16:11). Read, 'the sounding.. and thy mercies toward me are restrained.'
16. The patriarchs might disown their descendants, but Jehovah's love is sure. The thought is similar to Isa_49:15. The passage is remarkable as one of the very few in OT. where God is addressed as Father (Isa_64:8). 17f. A bold expostulation. Hardened, etc.] Have their sins caused God to give them up and become their adversary, as in Pharaoh's case?
18. A little while] whereas Jehovah had promised them an everlasting inheritance!
19. RV 'We are become as they over whom thou never barest rule; as they that were not called' etc.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield1917 · Public DomainOn v9angel (See Scofield "Heb 1:4")
angel (See Scofield "Heb 1:4")
redeemed Heb. "goel," Redemp. (Kinsman type). (See Scofield "Isa 59:20").
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein1922 · Public DomainOn v7The Great Intercessory Prayer
CHAPTER 63:7-19-64:12
The Great Intercessory Prayer
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1. Jehovah’s loving kindness and power in the past remembered (Isa 63:7-14) 2. Their deepest need (Isa 63:15) 3. The cry of faith, Thou art our Father (Isa 63:16) 4. The increasing plea (Isa 63:17-19) 5. The prayer for Jehovah’s manifestation (Isa 64:1-4) 6. Confession and humiliation (Isa 64:5-7) 7. The cry for mercy and help (Isa 64:8-12) This is one of the greatest prayers in the Bible. The prophet no doubt prayed it first of all, and the Spirit of Christ through him. But its full meaning will be reached when the faithful remnant of Israel in the end time cries for help and deliverance during the great tribulation. When Daniel discovered that the end of the Babylonian captivity was at hand, he uttered a great prayer Dan 9:1-27. The same beautiful spirit of a contrite heart, confession of sin, trust in Jehovah, pleading for Jerusalem and expectation of deliverance, which characterizes Daniel’s prayer is seen in this great prayer. Many of the prayers in the book of Psalms are the prayers of the remnant suffering in the land before the Second Advent.
The remaining two chapters contain the answer to this prayer.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann1924 · Public DomainOn v7The Lord’s Loving-Kindness in the Past and his People’s…
The Lord’s Loving-Kindness in the Past and his People’s Prayers.
v. 7. I will mention the loving-kindnesses of the Lord, so the pious believer sings, and the praises of the Lord, His glorious deeds, according to all that the Lord hath bestowed on us, to which the hymn of thanksgiving must properly correspond, and the great goodness toward the house of Israel which He hath bestowed on them according to His mercies, which is the source of all His acts of goodness, and according to the multitude of His loving-kindnesses. The grace and mercy of the Lord to this day is our chief motive for singing His praises.
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v. 8. For He said, Surely they are My people, chosen by Him as His own, children that will not lie, who will not become guilty of disloyalty; so, as a result of this confidence in them, He was their Savior, who brought them permanent deliverance.
v. 9. In all their affliction He was afflicted, in all their tribulation there was no overwhelming affliction for them, and the angel of His presence saved them, or, "No messenger (or angel)—with His own countenance He helped them," that is, in the last instance, through the redemption of the Messiah; in His love and in His pity He redeemed them, Cf Exodus 32, 33; Numbers 14; and He bare them and carried them all the days of old, namely, during the days of the wilderness journey.
v. 10. But they rebelled, as the story of those days so abundantly shows, and vexed His Holy Spirit, the third person of the Godhead thus being spoken of as present during the days of the wilderness sojourn; therefore He was turned to be their enemy, as when He sent the fiery serpents and brought other severe punishments upon them, and He fought against them, also at a later time, when He permitted their enemies to overthrow them.
v. 11. Then he, or men in general, especially the children of Israel themselves, remembered the days of old, Moses and his people, they reminded themselves of that deliverance, saying, Where is He that brought them up out of the sea, when Israel passed through the Red Sea, with the shepherd of His flock? Moses himself being represented as an excellent shepherd and guide of the people. Where is He that put His Holy Spirit within him? namely, in the midst of the Lord’s flock, the reference being to the power of the Spirit imparted to Moses and the other princes of the people; Cf Num 11:17-25; Num 14:24; Num 27:18; Deu 34:9;
v. 12. that led them by the right hand of Moses with His glorious arm, so that Moses was not left to shift for himself, but had the almighty power of the Lord to serve him, dividing the water before them, Exo 14:21; Jos 3:16, to make Himself an everlasting name? the Lord’s glory being promoted by this proof of His almighty power;
v. 13. that led them through the deep, when they passed streams in safety, as an horse in the wilderness, that they should not stumble? or, "As horses in the plains they did not stumble. "
v. 14. As a beast goeth down into the valley, the Spirit of the Lord caused him, namely, Israel, to rest, namely, in the Land of Promise, so didst Thou lead Thy people to make Thyself a glorious name. Having thus pictured the manner in which the people in days of old turned to their almighty Deliverer and by Him were brought to the promised haven of rest, the believer now makes an appeal to the almighty power and the mercy of the Lord over against the present difficult situation.
v. 15. Look down from heaven and behold from the habitation of Thy holiness and of Thy glory, to which He had apparently retired, leaving His people to their fate; where is Thy zeal and Thy strength, the mighty deeds which He had exhibited so often in days of old, the sounding of Thy bowels, the abundance of His sympathy, and of Thy mercies toward me? Are they restrained? It is a powerful appeal: Do not restrain them; do not hold back at this time! To this the petitioner adds a confident statement:
v. 16. Doubtless Thou art our Father, that being the reason for the trustful prayer, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not, both of them being up in heaven and no longer cognizant of affairs of this life. Thou, O Lord, art our Father, by virtue of creation and redemption, our Redeemer; Thy name is from everlasting, or, "Our Redeemer from everlasting, that is Thy name. " Jehovah is known in Israel as the God who saves and redeems in truth, in whom all believers, all His children, may and shall safely trust.
v. 17. O Lord, why hast, Thou made us to err from Thy ways, why did He permit this going astray, and hardened our heart from Thy fear? so that the judgment of hardening goes into effect upon those who despise His grace and mercy. Return for Thy servants’ sake, on account of the relation of the covenant which obtained between the Lord and His people, the tribes of Thine inheritance, whom He Himself had chosen to be partakers of His blessings. One of the most effective forms of praying is that of taking the Lord aside, as it were, and reminding Him of His promises, to hold Him to His Word.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0On vv7, 9I will tell of the acts of Yahweh's covenant…
I will tell of the acts of Yahweh's covenant faithfulness
The abstract noun "faithfulness" can be stated as "faithfully" or "faithful." See how you translated "covenant faithfulness" in Isaiah 16:5. AT: "I will tell about how God has acted faithfully to his covenant" or "I will tell about all the faithful things God has done for his people" (See: Abstract Nouns)
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I will tell
Here "I" refers to Isaiah.
done for us
Here "us" refers to Isaiah and the people of Israel. (See: Inclusive "We")
Tyndale Open Study Notes2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0On vv7–963:7-14 The prophet reflects on Israel’s past, how God…
63:7-14 The prophet reflects on Israel’s past, how God showed his unfailing love and how his people alternatively rebelled against him, suffered hardship, returned to the Lord, and experienced his blessing.
63:7 unfailing love . . . all he has done . . . his great goodness: The whole history of God’s care for his people demonstrates his compassion, provision, and protection.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv7–9 The Prophet speaketh this to move the people to…
The Prophet speaketh this to move the people to remember God’s benefits in times past, that they may be confirmed in their troubles.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv7–9 Isa 63:7 I will mention the lovingkindnesses of the…
Isa 63:7 I will mention the lovingkindnesses of the LORD, [and] the praises of the LORD, according to all that the LORD hath bestowed on us, and the great goodness toward the house of Israel, which he hath bestowed on them according to his mercies, and according to the multitude of his lovingkindnesses.
Ver. 7. I will mention the lovingkindnesses of the Lord,] {a} scil., As an aggravation of Israel’s great unkindness and unthankfulness to so liberal a Lord, so bountiful a benefactor. Good turns exaggerate unkindness; and men’s offences are increased by their obligations. See Deu 32:7; Deu 32:14.
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According to his mercies, &c.] Which are such as words are too weak to utter; hence this Copia verborum, and all too little. See the like, Eph 2:5; Eph 2:7.
{a} Summam Cantici sui paucis complectitur.
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 vv7–9 Whether this ought to be the beginning of a…
Whether this ought to be the beginning of a new chapter, or no, is not material; but certainly here begins a new matter, which contains the prophet’s prayer, either in his own name or the church’s, to the end of Isa 64; wherein he begins with mentioning the great kindnesses that God had shown the Jews, and that emphatically, setting it forth with the greatest advantages; and the more, either to aggravate their great unkindness, or to give them some hope of finding him the like again in their distresses, or by way of argument with God to show them mercy, because he had been so good to them.
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 v7 The prophet is here, in the name of the…
The prophet is here, in the name of the church, taking a review, and making a thankful recognition, of God's dealings with his church all along, ever since he founded it, before he comes, in the latter end of this chapter and in the next, as a watchman upon the walls, earnestly to pray to God for his compassion towards her in her present deplorable state; and it was usual for God's people, in their prayers, thus to look back.
I. Here is a general acknowledgment of God's goodness to them all along, Isa 63:7. It was said, in general, of God's prophets and people (Isa 62:6) that they made mention of the Lord; now here we are told what it is in God that they do especially delight to make mention of, and that is his goodness, which the prophet here so makes mention of as if he thought he could never say enough of it. He mentions the kindness of God (which never appeared so evident, so eminent, as in his love to mankind in sending his Son to save us, Tit 3:4), his loving-kindness, kindness that shows itself in every thing that is endearing; nay, so plenteous are the springs, and so various the streams, of divine mercy, that he speaks of it in the plural number - his loving-kindnesses; for, if we would count the fruits of his loving-kindness, they are more in number than the sand. With his loving-kindnesses he mentions his praises, that is, the thankful acknowledgments which the saints make of his loving-kindness, and the angels too. It must be mentioned, to God's honour, what a tribute of praise is paid to him by all his creatures in consideration of his loving-kindness. See how copiously he speaks, 1. Of the goodness that is from God, the gifts of his loving-kindness - all that the Lord has bestowed on us in particular, relating to life and godliness, in our personal and family capacity. Let every man speak for himself, speak as he has found, and he must own that he has had a great deal bestowed upon him by the divine bounty. But we must also mention the favours bestowed upon his church, his great goodness towards the house of Israel, which he has bestowed on them. Note, We must bless God for the mercies enjoyed by others as well as for those enjoyed by ourselves, and reckon that bestowed on ourselves which is bestowed on the house of Israel. 2. Of the goodness that is in God. God does good because he is good; what he bestowed upon us must be traced up to the original; it is according to his mercies (not according to our merits) and according to the multitude of his loving-kindnesses, which can never be spent. Thus we should magnify God's goodness, and speak honourably of it, not only when we plead it (as David, Psa 51:1), but when we praise it.
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II. Here is particular notice taken of the steps of God's mercy to Israel ever since it was formed into a nation.
1. The expectations God had concerning them that they would conduct themselves well, Isa 63:8. When he brought them out of Egypt and took them into covenant with himself he said, "Surely they are my people, I take them as such, and am willing to hope they will approve themselves so, children that will not lie," that will not dissemble with God in their covenantings with him, nor treacherously depart from him by breaking their covenant and starting aside like a broken bow. They said, more than once, All that the Lord shall say unto us we will do and will be obedient; and thereupon he took them to be his peculiar people, saying, Surely they will not lie. God deals fairly and faithfully with them, and therefore expects they should deal so with him. They are children of the covenant (Act 3:25), children of those that clave unto the Lord, and therefore it may be hoped that they will tread in the steps of their fathers' constancy. Note, God's people are children that will not lie; for those that will are not his children but the devil's.
2. The favour he showed them with an eye to these expectations: So he was their Saviour out of the bondage of Egypt and all the calamities of their wilderness-state, and many a time since he had been their Saviour. See particularly (Isa 63:9) what he did for them as their Saviour. (1.) The principle that moved him to work salvation for them; it was in his love and in his pity, out of mere compassion to them and a tender affection for them, not because he either needed them or could be benefited by them. This is strangely expressed here: In all their affliction he was afflicted; not that the Eternal Mind is capable of grieving or God's infinite blessedness of suffering the least damage or diminution (God cannot be afflicted); but thus he is pleased to show forth the love and concern he has for his people in their affliction; thus far he sympathizes with them, that he takes what injury is done to them as done to himself and will reckon for it accordingly. Their cries move him (Exo 3:7), and he appears for them as vigorously as if he were pained in their pain. Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? This is matter of great comfort to God's people in their affliction that God is so far from afflicting willingly (Lam 3:33) that, if they humble themselves under his hand, he is afflicted in their affliction, as the tender parents are in the severe operations which the case of a sick child calls for. There is another reading of these words in the original: In all their affliction there was no affliction; though they were in great affliction, yet the property of it was so altered by the grace of God sanctifying it to them for their good, the rigour of it was so mitigated and it was so allayed and balanced with mercies, they were so wonderfully supported and comforted under it, and it proved so short, and ended so well, that it was in effect no affliction. The troubles of the saints are not that to them which they are to others; they are not afflictions, but medicines; saints are enabled to call them light, and but for a moment, and, with an eye to heaven as all in all, to make nothing of them. (2.) The person employed in their salvation - the angel of his face, or presence. Some understand it of a created angel. The highest angel in heaven, even the angel of his presence, that attends next the throne of his glory, is not thought too great, too good, to be sent on this errand. Thus the little ones' angels are said to be those that always behold the face of our Father, Mat 18:10. But this is rather to be understood of Jesus Christ, the eternal Word, that angel of whom God spoke to Moses (Exo 23:20, Exo 23:21), whose voice Israel was to obey. He is called Jehovah, Exo 13:21; Exo 14:21, Exo 14:24. He is the angel of the covenant, God's messenger to the world, Mal 3:1. He is the angel of God's face, for he is the express image of his person; and the glory of God shines in the face of Christ. He that was to work out the eternal salvation, as an earnest of that, wrought out the temporal salvations that were typical of it. (3.) The progress and perseverance of this favour. He not only redeemed them out of their bondage, but he bore them and carried them all the days of old; they were weak, but he supported them by his power, sustained them by his bounty; when they were burdened, and ready to sink, he bore them up; in the wars they made upon the nations he stood by them and bore them out; though they were peevish, he bore with them and suffered their manners, Act 13:18. He carried them as the nursing father does the child, though they would have tired any arms but his; he carried them as the eagle her young upon her wings, Deu 32:11. And it was a long time that he was troubled with them (if we may so speak): it was all the days of old; his care of them was not at an end even when they had grown up and were settled in Canaan. All this was in his love and pity, ex mero motu - of his mere good-will; he loved them because he would love them, as he says, Deu 7:7, Deu 7:8.
3. Their disingenuous conduct towards him, and the trouble they thereby brought upon themselves (Isa 63:10): But they rebelled. Things looked very hopeful and promising; one would have thought that they should have continued dutiful children to God, and then there was no doubt but he would have continued a gracious Father to them; but here is a sad change on both sides, and on them be the breach. (1.) They revolted from their allegiance to God and took up arms against him: They rebelled, and vexed his Holy Spirit with their unbelief and murmuring, besides the iniquity of the golden calf; and this had been their way and manner ever since. Though he was ready to say of them, They will not lie, though he had done so much for them, borne them and carried them, yet they thus ill requited him, like foolish people and unwise, Deu 32:6. This grieved him, Psa 95:10. The ungrateful rebellions of God's children against him are a vexation to his Holy Spirit. (2.) Thereupon he justly withdrew his protection, and not only so, but made war upon them, as a prince justly does upon the rebels. He who had been so much their friend was turned to be their enemy and fought against them, by one judgment after another, both in the wilderness and after their settlement in Canaan. See the malignity and mischievousness of sin; it makes God an enemy even to those for whom he has done the part of a good friend, and makes him angry who was all love and pity. See the folly of sinners; they wilfully lose him for a friend who is the most desirable friend, and make him their enemy who is the most formidable enemy. This refers especially to those calamities that were of late brought upon them by their captivity in Babylon for their idolatries and other sins. That which is both the original and the great aggravation of their troubles was that God was turned to be their enemy.
4. A particular reflection made, on this occasion, upon what God did for them when he first formed them into a people: Then he remembered the days of old, Isa 63:11.
(1.) This may be understood either of the people or of God. [1.] We may understand it of the people. Israel then (spoken of as a single person) remembered the days of old, looked into their Bibles, read the story of God's bringing their fathers out of Egypt, considered it more closely than ever they did before, and reasoned upon it, as Gideon did (Jdg 6:13), Where are all the wonders that our fathers told us of? "Where is he that brought them up out of Egypt? Is he not as able to bring us up out of Babylon? Where is the Lord God of Elijah? Where is the Lord God of our fathers?" This they consider as an inducement and an encouragement to them to repent and return to him; their fathers were a provoking people and yet found him a pardoning God; and why may not they find him so if they return to him? They also use it as a plea with God in prayer for the turning again of their captivity, like that Isa 51:9, Isa 51:10. Note, When the present days are dark and cloudy it is good to remember the days of old, to recollect our own and others' experiences of the divine power and goodness and make use of them, to look back upon the years of the right hand of the Most High (Psa 77:5, Psa 77:10), and remember that he is God, and changes not. [2.] We may understand it of God; he put himself in mind of the days of old, of his covenant with Abraham (Lev 26:42); he said, Where is he that brought Israel up out of the sea? stirring up himself to come and save them with this consideration, "Why should not I appear for them now as I did for their fathers, who were as undeserving, as ill-deserving, as they are?" See how far off divine mercy will go, how far back it will look, to find out a reason for doing good to his people, when ho present considerations appear but what make against them. Nay, it makes that a reason for relieving them which might have been used as a reason for abandoning them. He might have said, "I have delivered them formerly, but they have again brought trouble upon themselves (Pro 19:19); there I will deliver them no more," Jdg 10:13. But no; mercy rejoices against judgment, and turns the argument the other way: "I have formerly delivered them and therefore will now."
(2.) Which way soever we take it, whether the people plead it with God or God with himself, let us view the particulars, and they agree very much with the confession and prayer which the children of the captivity made upon a solemn fast-day (Neh 9:5. etc.), which may serve as a comment on these verses which call to mind Moses and his people, that is, what God did by Moses for his people, especially in bringing them through the Red Sea, for that is it that is here most insisted on; for it was a work which he much gloried in and which his people therefore may in a particular manner encourage themselves with the remembrance of. [1.] God led them by the right hand of Moses (Isa 63:12) and the wonder-working rod in his hand. Psa 77:20, Thou leddest thy people like a flock by the hand of Moses. It was not Moses that led them, any more than it was Moses that fed them (Joh 6:32), but God by Moses; for it was he that qualified Moses for, called him to, assisted and prospered him in that great undertaking. Moses is here called the shepherd of his flock; God was the owner of the flock and the chief shepherd of Israel (Psa 80:1); but Moses was a shepherd under him, and he was inured to labour and patience, and so fitted for this pastoral care, by his being trained up to keep the flock of his father Jethro. Herein he was a type of Christ the good shepherd, that lays down his life for the sheep, which was more than Moses did for Israel, though he did a great deal for them. [2.] He put his holy Spirit within him; the Spirit of God was among them, and not only his providence, but his grace, did work for them. Neh 9:20, Thou gavest thy good Spirit to instruct them. The spirit of wisdom and courage, as well as the Spirit of prophecy, was put into Moses, to qualify him for that service among them to which he was called; and some of his spirit was put upon the seventy elders, Num 11:17. This was a great blessing to Israel, that they had among them not only inspired writings, but inspired men. [3.] He carried them safely through the Red Sea, and thereby saved them out of the hands of Pharaoh. First, He divided the water before them (Isa 63:12), so that it gave them not only passage, but protection, not only opened them a lane, but erected them a wall on either side. Secondly, He led them through the deep as a horse in the wilderness, or in the plain (Isa 63:13); they and their wives and children, with all their baggage, went as easily and readily through the bottom of the sea (though we may suppose it muddy or stony, or both) as a horse goes along upon even ground; so that they did not stumble, though it was an untrodden path, which neither they nor any one else ever went before. If God make us a way, he will make it plain and level; the road he opens to his people he will lead them in. Thirdly, To complete the mercy, he brought them up out of the sea, Isa 63:11. Though the ascent, it is likely, was very steep, dirty, slippery, and unconquerable (at least by the women and children, and the men, considering how they were loaded, Exo 12:34, and how fatigued), yet God by his power brought them up from the depths of the earth; and it was a kind of resurrection to them; it was as life from the dead. [4.] He brought them safely to a place of rest: As a beast goes down into the valley, carefully and gradually, so the Spirit of the Lord caused him to rest. Many a time in their march through the wilderness they had resting-places provided for them by the direction of the Spirit of the Lord in Moses, Isa 63:11. And at length they were made to rest finally in Canaan, and the Spirit of the Lord gave them that rest according to the promise. It is by the Spirit of the Lord that God's Israel are caused to return to God and repose in him as their rest. [5.] All this he did for them by his own power, for his own praise. First, It was by his own power, as the God of nature, that has all the powers of nature at his command; he did it with his glorious arm, the arm of his gallantry, or bravery; so the word signifies. It was not Moses's rod, but God's glorious arm, that did it. Secondly, It was for his own praise, to make himself an everlasting name (Isa 63:12), a glorious name (Isa 63:14), that he might be glorified, everlastingly glorified, upon this account. This is that which God is doing in the world with his glorious arm, he is making to himself a glorious name, and it shall last to endless ages, when the most celebrated names of the great ones of the earth shall be written in the dust.
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 vv7–9 I will mention the lovingkindnesses of the Lord,.... These…
I will mention the lovingkindnesses of the Lord,.... These are the words of the prophet, as Jarchi and Kimchi observe; who, having heard what the Lord would do for his church and people in later times, by avenging them on their enemies, calls to mind the favours bestowed on Israel of old; and determines to make mention of them, and put the saints in mind of them, as types, earnests, and pledges of what would be done for them; and to encourage their faith and hope in the performance of what was promised them: these he calls "the lovingkindnesses of the Lord"; meaning not only the instances of his providential goodness in bringing them out of Egypt, leading them through the Red sea and wilderness, and settling them in Canaan's land, after particularly mentioned; but also those of his special grace and goodness to the chosen of God among them; called in the plural number "lovingkindnesses", being the acts of all the three Persons displayed in election, redemption, and sanctification; and because these are many and various, and an abundance of grace and love is manifested in them:
and the praises of the Lord, according to all that the Lord hath bestowed on us; which are due to him from all creatures, angels and men, and especially the saints; and which belong to each divine Person, according to the various gifts of grace freely bestowed by them; such as the gift of God himself to his people; the gifts of his Son, and of the blessed Spirit, with all his graces, faith, hope, love, repentance, &c.; and all the blessings of grace; as pardon, justification, adoption, and eternal life; a right unto it, and meetness for it all which call for praise and thankfulness: and the
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great goodness towards the house of Israel, which he hath bestowed on them according to his mercies, and according to the multitude of his lovingkindnesses; the gifts of grace are bestowed, not according to the merits of men, for then they would not be free grace gifts; and, besides, there is no merit in a creature; the best works of the best of men are not meritorious, of anything at the hand of God; but all they have flow from mere sovereign mercy, pure grace, and free unmerited love, which is abundant, yea, boundless, and even infinite. A heap of words is here made use of, and all little enough to express the wonderful kindness of God in the acts of his grace and goodness to his church and people; which ought always to be had in sight and mind, and to be remembered and spoken of in private and in public.
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 vv7–9 Mention - Here begins a new matter, which contains…
Mention - Here begins a new matter, which contains the prophet's prayer, to the end of chap. 64, wherein he begins with mentioning the great kindnesses that God had shewn the Jews, and that emphatically, setting them forth with the greatest advantages.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv7–9 Verse 7. I will mention the loving-kindnesses of the…
Verse 7. I will mention the loving-kindnesses of the Lord] The prophet connects the preceding mercies of God to the Jews with the present prospect he has of their redemption by the Messiah; thus making a circle in which eternal goodness revolves. The remaining part of this chapter, with the whole chapter following, contains a penitential confession and supplication of the Israelites in their present state of dispersion, in which they have so long marvellously subsisted, and still continue to subsist, as a people; cast out of their country; without any proper form of civil polity or religious worship, their temple destroyed, their city desolated and lost to them, and their whole nation scattered over the face of the earth, apparently deserted and cast off by the God of their fathers, as no longer his peculiar people.
They begin with acknowledging God's great mercies and favours to their nation, and the ungrateful returns made to them on their part, that by their disobedience they had forfeited the protection of God, and had caused him to become their adversary. And now the prophet represents them, induced by the memory of the great things that God had done for them, as addressing their humble supplication for the renewal of his mercies. They beseech him to regard them in consideration of his former loving-kindness, they acknowledge him for their Father and Creator, they confess their wickedness and hardness of heart, they entreat his forgiveness, and deplore their present miserable condition under which they have so long suffered. It seems designed as a formulary of humiliation for the Israelites, in order to their conversion.
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The whole passage is in the elegiac form, pathetic and elegant; but it has suffered much in our present copy by the mistakes of transcribers.
The praises of the Lord - "The praise of JEHOVAH"] For תהלות tehilloth, plural, twenty-nine MSS. (three ancient) and two editions, have תהלת tehillath, in the singular number; and so the Vulgate renders it; and one of the Greek versions, in the margin of Cod. Marchal. and in the text of MSS. Pachom. and I. D. II. την αινεσιν Κυριου, "the praise of the Lord." - L.
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 vv7–8 Isa 63:7. “The remaining part of this chapter” says…
Isa 63:7. “The remaining part of this chapter” says Bishop Lowth, “with the whole chapter following, contains a penitential confession and supplication of the Israelites in their present state of dispersion, in which they have so long marvellously subsisted, and still continue to subsist, as a people; cast out of their country, without any proper form of civil polity or religious worship; their temple destroyed, their city desolated, and lost to them; and their whole nation scattered over the face of the earth; apparently deserted and cast off by the God of their fathers, as no longer his peculiar people.” Vitringa has nearly the same views of this section of the prophet’s discourse. He supposes that it pertains to the present Jews and their posterity, during this their dispersion, and that when they shall see that wonderful display of God’s power, which will hereafter be made in the destruction of the Papal church and tyranny, they will be converted to the Christian religion. In a view to this, he considers the prophet as here introducing a company of them, who represent the first-fruits at the beginning of this great work of grace, deploring the blindness and hardness of their nation, and with the utmost humility turning themselves to God, and praying for that complete conversion of their people which is to follow the coming in of the fulness of the Gentiles. See Rom 11:25-26.
I will mention the loving-kindness of the Lord — Those penitent Jews, in whose name the prophet is supposed to speak, being convinced themselves of the truth of Christianity, begin here to intercede for the rest of their brethren, still remaining in that state of blindness and darkness under which the nation had long groaned. “They begin with acknowledging God’s great mercies and favours to their nation, and the ungrateful returns made for them on their part; that by their disobedience they had forfeited his protection, and caused him to become their adversary. But now, induced by the memory of the great things he had done for them, they address their humble supplication to him for the renewal of his mercies. They beseech him to regard them in consideration of his former loving-kindness; they acknowledge him for their Father and Creator; they confess their wickedness and hardness of heart; they entreat his forgiveness, and deplore the miserable condition under which they had so long suffered. The whole passage is in the elegiac form, pathetic and elegant, and probably designed as a formulary of humiliation for the Israelites, in order to their conversion.” A few remarks on some of the expressions used therein may tend to place them in a clearer point of view.
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 vv7–9 I will mention - This is evidently the language…
I will mention - This is evidently the language of the people celebrating the praises of God in view of all his mercies in former days. See the analysis to the chapter. The design of what follows, to the close of Isa 64:1-12, is to implore the mercy of God in view of their depressed and ruined condition. They are represented as suffering under the infliction of long and continued ills; as cast out and driven to a distant land; as deprived of their former privileges, and as having been long subjected to great evils. Their temple is destroyed; their city desolate; and their whole nation afflicted and oppressed. The time is probably near the close of the captivity; though Lowth supposes that it refers to the Jews as scattered over all lands, and driven away from the country of their fathers. They begin their petitions in this verse with acknowledging God’s great mercies to their fathers and to their nation; then they confess their own disobedience, and supplicate, by various arguments, the divine mercy and favor. The Chaldee commences the verse thus, ‘The prophet said, I will remember the mercy of the Lord.’ But it is the language of the people, not that of the prophet. The word rendered ‘mention’ (אזכיר 'azekiyr), means properly, I will cause to remember, or to be remembered (see the notes at Isa 62:6).
And the praises of the Lord - That is, I will recount the deeds which show that he is worthy of thanksgiving. The repetitions in this verse are designed to be emphatic; and the meaning of the whole is, that Yahweh had given them abundant cause of praise, notwithstanding the evils which they endured.
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 vv7–9 I, Isaias; or rather the hero mentions what induced…
I, Isaias; or rather the hero mentions what induced him to rise up, 1 Machabees xvi. 10. (Calmet) --- The Jews confess God’s mercies. (St. Jerome)
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 v7 The Prophet in Spirit puts Himself in the Place…
IV.—THE FOURTH DISCOURSE
The Prophet in Spirit puts Himself in the Place of the Exiled Church, and bears its Cause in Prayer before the Lord
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s Isa_63:7 to Isa_64:11
Chapters 60–63. 6, are like a prophetic high plateau, which the Prophet, by means of chapters 58 and 59 has ascended out of his own time. In this fourth discourse he comes down again to the present time, that is to say, to a time relatively present, to that of the people in exile. He transports himself entirely into this time, as if he were passing through it, and sets before the Lord the temporal and spiritual need of the people living in exile. He does this by first taking a retrospect of the past, and showing what the Lord formerly was to the people (Isa_63:7-14). Then he entreats the Lord as the Father of His people to look upon them (Isa_63:15-19); then he prays that the Lord, for their complete deliverance, would visibly come to them with a grand manifestation of His divine majesty (64).
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1. RETROSPECT OF WHAT THE LORD FORMERLY WAS TO THE PEOPLE
Isa_63:7-14
7 I will mention the loving-kindnesses of the Lord,
And the praises of the Lord,
According to all that the Lord hath bestowed on us,
And the great goodness toward the house of Israel,
Which he hath bestowed on them according to his mercies,
And according to the multitude of his loving-kindnesses.
8 For he said, Surely they are my people,
Children that will not lie:
So he was their Saviour.
9 In all their affliction he was afflicted,
And the angel of his presence saved them:
In his love and in his pity he redeemed them;
And he bare them, and carried them all the days of old.
10 But they rebelled, and vexed his holy Spirit:
Therefore he was turned to be their enemy,
And he fought against them.
11 5 Then he remembered the days of old, Moses, and his people, saying,
Where is he that 6brought them up out of the sea with the 7 shepherd of his flock?
Where is he that put his holy Spirit within him?
12 8That led them by the right hand of Moses with his glorious arm,
Dividing the water before them,
To make himself an everlasting name?
13 That led them through the deep, as an horse in the wilderness,
That they should not stumble.
14 As a beast goeth down into the valley,
The Spirit of the Lord caused him to rest:
So didst thou lead thy people,
To make thyself a glorious name.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
Isa_63:7. The words על כל אשׁר־גמלנו י׳ are to be taken as one term, to which כְּ, in the sense of secundum, is prefixed. על stands in a causal sense [כְּעַל is = uti par est propter]. רַב־טוּב is to be regarded as the object dependent on אזכיר rather than as dependent on כְּ in כְּעַל.
Isa_63:9. Instead of the Kethibh לִֹא we must with the K’ri read לוֹ, as לאֹ, however it may be explained, does not yield an appropriate sense [?]. Some take צָר for צַר in pause, either in the passive sense: in all their affliction there was (to them) no distress )צַר as, e.g., Isa_25:4; Isa_26:16, comp. pressi non oppressi), or in the active sense=oppressor, adversary (Isa_63:18; Isa_64:1; Isa_1:24; Isa_9:10, et saepe). Both these views are set forth under the most manifold modifications (comp. Stier). But whichever of the two constructions we choose, there is an abruptness in the expression. We should expect לָהֶם, or, if צָר should refer to Jehovah, the pronoun הוּא is wanting: In all their affliction He was not an oppressor. It is better, therefore, to follow the K’ri, although all the old versions support לא. Our place belongs, then, to the fifteen, or according to another enumeration (comp. on Isa_9:2 and Isa_49:5) eighteen places, in which according to the opinion of the Masoretes לוֹ is to be read instead לֹא. Drechsler is certainly right when he remarks (on Isa_9:2) that the unusual position of לוֹ, which was originally in the text, caused it to be altered into לאֹ which was more current and sounded more familiar in such a position. [But this is a confession that instead of לו צר we should find צר לו if לו were the original reading. We dislike departing from the textual reading when it is supported by all ancient versions. In order to get the meaning “He was afflicted,” we must not only alter the negative לא into לוֹ, but must also suppose an abnormal collocation of the words. Add to these considerations that צר לו does not mean simply, “he was afflicted, or grieved,” but “he was reduced to a strait, was ἐν ἀπορίᾳ,” (Kay). This could not be predicated of Jehovah; though it could be said of Him anthropopathically, as in Jdg_10:16, that God’s soul was grieved. But there the expression is quite different in the original. If we take צר in the sense of adversary: “In all their affliction He (God) was not an adversary to them,” the absence of לָהֶם need not so much surprise us, as it occurs in the close of the preceding verse, where God is declared to have been a Saviour לָהֶם. The proof that God was not an adversary to them is given in the next clause, when it is said: and the angel of his presence saved them, etc. Kay justly remarks that God was the reverse of an adversary to Israel. “His heaviest chastisements were sent with the view of frustrating the designs of their worst enemies, and were removed as soon as that work was accomplished.”—D. M.].
Isa_63:11. הַמַּעֲלֵם is not grammatically quite normal. [“The suffix refers to the forefathers, and the participle has both the article and suffix because it is not to be conceived as a noun, nor as the expression of a finished act (ὁ ἀναγηοχώς), but is to be thought as possessing continued verbal force (Ges. Gr., § 135, 2), and is to be construed as an imperfect: ille qui sursum ducebat, educebat; on this account the suffix has the accusative or objective form em as Psa_68:28, not am, comp. Job_40:19; Psa_103:4.” Delitzsch.—D. M.]. I am inclined, with De Rossi, to believe that המעלה (which is found in one very old codex cited by Kennicott, and in two of De Rossi’s, one of which is very accurate), is the right reading. The LXX., Peshito and the Arabic version in the London Polyglott, favor this reading. [But there is here no necessity for correcting the text.—D. M.].
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. The prayer commences with a historical retrospect. For, as the suppliant intends to entreat new grace from God, he gives this prayer an appropriate foundation by first of all making mention of the former mercies of Jehovah. He, therefore, begins, Isa_63:7-8, by recalling the election of the people, and the glorious succor rendered to them in what might be called the time of their birth and childhood (Isa_63:9). The whole time from the deliverance out of Egyptian bondage to the Babylonish exile is comprehended in the brief words of Isa_63:10, the first part of which indicates the various apostasies of the people, and the last part the punishments which they suffered. Out of the depths of the last and greatest of these, the punishment of the Exile, there arises, Isa_63:11-14, a melancholy sigh and the question; where is He now who saved Israel from the first, the Egyptian captivity, so wonderfully by the hand of Moses?
2. I will mention—loving-kindnesses.
Isa_63:7. The aim of this verse is to gain in the manifestations of favor in the past a foundation for the supplication in regard to the future. On חֶסֶד (see the List). תְּהִלּוֹת stands here as frequently (comp. Deu_26:19) as abstract for the concrete: laudationes for res laudatae, res laudabiliter gestae. [There is no reason for departing from the proper meaning of the term—praises. D. M.]. כְּעַל occurs only here and Isa_59:18. We must take טוּב in the abstract signification benignitas (comp. Psa_25:7; Psa_31:20 et saepe), although the following relative sentence seems at first sight rather to recommend the concrete signification “bona, optima dona” (comp. Jer_31:12; Jer_31:14). But against this view is the connection of טוב with בית ישׂראל by the simple preposition לְ.טוב is, therefore, God’s goodness, kindness, benevolence which springs from His love which is merciful (i.e., moved by the sight of distress), and gracious (i.e., which does not punish according to desert).
3. For he said—fought against them.
Isa_63:8-10. The first manifestation of the divine goodness spoken of in Isa_63:7 is introduced by ויאמר. The Vav in ויאמר makes a connection, not with the historical facts just referred to, but with the loving disposition in God. In brief, emphatic, words the Prophet describes the founding of the covenant relation between Jehovah and Israel. Jehovah formed it of Himself by His free purpose of election. He declared Israel to be His people κατ’ ἐξοχήν. אַךְ has here, too, (comp. Isa_14:15; Isa_34:14-15) on the basis of its restrictive signification, a strongly affirmative force. The Lord in declaring Israel to be His people does this with the hope that this His confidence will be perceived and justified. לא ישׁקרו refers, therefore, to the hope of fidelity, of obedience. (They will not deceive, disappoint this hope). And in this hope Jehovah became Israel’s מוֹשִׁיעַ, i.e., Deliverer, Saviour (comp. Isa_19:20; Isa_43:11; Isa_44:15; Isa_44:21; Isa_47:15; Isa_49:26; Isa_60:10). [This eighth verse is literally rendered “Only my people are they; children will not lie, or prove false; and He was to them a Saviour.” The Prophet tells us that the Lordsaid this. We may look, then, in the books of Moses for language employed by the Lord of which this is a fair representation. That Israel is God’s chosen people is often declared in the Pentateuch. In Deu_14:1-2 they are called both children and the Lord’speople. Comp. Deu_7:6 sqq., et saepe. But the Lord never states regarding Israel that they are children that will not lie. On the contrary He testifies of them, Deu_32:20 that they are “children in whom is no faith.” The Lord said to the children of Israel: “If ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my commandments, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people. And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” Exo_19:5-6. But we look in vain in the Pentateuch for any declaration in which the Lord expresses the confident expectation that Israel would prove faithful to the covenant. So far from doing this, God foretells that Israel would prove unfaithful. We must, then, take the words children will not lie, prohibitively and as expressing what is required of children, and not the Lord’s expectation; children shall not lie. The sentiment that Israel, as being God’s children, ought not to act perfidiously, is expressed Deu_32:6. Comp. Deu_17:16-17 where we have as here לֹא with the third person of the future to express not what a king of Israel would not do, but what he ought not to do. The last clause should bestrictly rendered and He was to them a Saviour.—There is no need, then, of assuming here a very strong example of anthropopathism in which God declares Himself disappointed. D. M.]. From Isa_63:9 we see that the suppliant has first of all in view that most ancient, glorious deliverance which was vouchsafed to the people in Egypt in the commencement of their history. We have, therefore, to refer בכל־צרתם to the oppression of the people by Pharaoh. And of this oppression it is said that it was one which the Lord Himself felt. [Rather, In all their oppression He was not an oppressor. See under Textual and Grammatical.—D. M.]. That under this affliction the sufferings of the Israelites in Egypt are to be understood, is shown by the following sentence. For by “the angel of His face” who saved them, the suppliant evidently intends מלאך יהוה, by whom the redemption of the people from Egyptian slavery was effected. The expression מלאך פניו refers immediately to Exo_33:14-15, where to the request of Moses that the Lord would let him know whom He intends to send with them (Isa_63:12-13), the answer is given פָנַי יֵלֵכוּ. Moses thereupon rejoins: “If פָּנֶיךָ (thy face) go not, carry us not up hence.” It is impossible to discuss fully here the exceedingly difficult question of the מלאך יהוה. I refer to Lange’s thorough exposition on Gen_12:1 sqq. In reference to the chief question, whether the מלאך י׳ is to be regarded as a created angel, or as a precursory and partial manifestation of the Logos corresponding to the Old Testament standpoint, I would only briefly remark: 1) When Paul, 1Co_10:4, regards the rock out of which Moses struck water, and which remained fixed and immovable, and did not accompany them, as a symbol of “the Spiritual Rock that followed them” of which he says: “that Rock was Christ,” we must still more assume that he saw a manifestation of Christ in the angel of the face, of whom it is further said, Exo_23:21 : my name is in Him;בְּקִרְבּוֹ. 2) Further, in Heb_3:1 Jesus is called the Apostle and high-priest of our profession. The word ἀπόστολος cannot but be in that place which is pervaded by typological ideas a translation of the Hebrew מַלְאָךְ. The author of the epistle to the Hebrews designedly avoided the use of the word ἄγγελος, because lie wished to point to the man Jesus and to His human official life, i.e., to the fidelity which He displayed in it. He means to say: If He, who was so much higher than Moses, inasmuch as the Lord and Son of the house is higher than the house itself, was faithful, this exalted pattern must impel you also to fidelity. Plainly, then, the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews likewise saw in the angel of the Lord a manifestation of Christ. 3) With these considerations agree the expressions פָּנִים and שְׁמִי בְקִרְבּוֹ. For the face is the external side which is outwardly visible. Thus in Hebrew the surface of the earth and of the heaven, etc., is called פְָּנִים, because the surface is that which may be seen outwardly and—we may add—is that which sees. He now, who is called God’s פָּנִים, must therefore be He by whom God both sees and is seen. The latter is in not a few places of the New Testament most clearly declared regarding the Son of God. See Mat_11:27; Joh_1:18 (comp. Joh_6:46; 1Jn_4:12; 1Ti_6:16); Joh_12:45; Joh_14:9. But the other idea also, that God sees through Him who is His פָּנִים, face, appears from this, that not only is creation effected by Him, but also the conservation of things created (Col_1:16-17), the visitation, sustentation, direction and redemption of the world. And in this Mediator is the name of God. For what God is, expresses itself in Him. We should not know that God is, and what God is, if the Mediator did not reveal it. But in the Old Covenant this face of God has not become manifest in His full equality with God, and yet at the same time in His distinction from Him. The knowledge of this mystery was reserved for the New Covenant. Nevertheless the light of the relation of the Trinity breaks through even in the Old Testament in traces here and there. In the form of an angel and under the name of angel He appears in the Old Covenant, who in the New has appeared as the Son of man. There was for Him in the Old Covenant no other form of manifestation. But He is so characterized that we can distinguish Him readily from common angels. This is, in brief, my unpretending view of this subject. אהבה is the positive, fundamental notion, חמלה (only here in Isaiah, comp. Gen_19:16) is the negative, accessory notion. For it denotes forbearance, refraining from the right of punishing (comp. Isa_9:18; Isa_30:14). The sentence וינטלם וגו׳ seems to state that this bearing and carrying maternal love of God lasted not merely during the period of the deliverance from Egypt, but during the whole time that, from the standpoint of the Prophet, belonged to the days long gone by. This is seen from Isa_63:10 sqq., where the so oft-repeated, alternating relation of apostasy, punishment and return to God is comprehensively depicted. For during the whole time which passed between the Egyptian and the Babylonian captivity, what in Isa_63:10 sqq. is described was repeated. מָרוּ and עִצְּבוּ have both רוח for their object (comp. Isa_3:8 and Eph_4:30). They were rebellious against and grieved the Holy Spirit by resisting the drawings of His grace and by offending His holy nature with doing evil. The expression רוח קדשׁ occurs in the Old Testament besides here and Isa_63:11 only further in Psa_51:13. The adjective קָדוֹשׁ is never joined with רוּחַ. The necessary consequence of resisting the Holy Spirit is that the Lord too is changed into an adversary of him who resists Him. הוא stands emphatically before נלחס־בם: How dreadful it is to have Him as an adversary!
4. Then He remembered—glorious name, Isa_63:11-14. Jehovah’s being their enemy brought so many evils on the people that they out of the depths of the last and greatest distress long earnestly for the restoration of the old friendship. The question: Where is He that brought them up?etc., can come only from the mouth of the people. For this reason the subject of ויזכר can only be עַמּו not Moses or the indefinite “they” (German man). The people remembered the old days of Moses, i.e. the days when Moses led the people and procured for them the wonderful manifestations of the favor of God. The accumulation of substantives in the genitive characterizes the language of Isaiah; at all events, this form of expression occurs in, no book of the Old Testament so frequently and in such intensity as in Isaiah. Comp. Isa_18:1, where two words follow in the construct state. There are three such words in Isa_13:4; Isa_28:1; four in Isa_10:12; five in Isa_21:17. Comp. Ewald, § 291 a.—[Dr. Naegelsbach (see under Text, and Gram.) would drop the suffix in המעלם, and would render: “Where is He that brought up out of the sea the shepherd of His flock?” The sea here is the Nile, and the shepherd, Moses; and the fact referred to, the deliverance of Moses when an infant from drowning. But this view is exposed to obvious and insuperable objections. Delitzsch refers the suffix in המעלם to the forefathers of Israel, takes אֵת as=una cum, and is disposed to read רעֵי, which is strongly attested, instead of the singular. By the shepherds of the flock he understands Moses and Aaron with Miriam, Ps. 77:21; Mic_6:4. If we, with the E. V., regard God as the subject of “remembered,” then it is better, with Kay, to put a full stop at “people,” and omit the word “saying,” and regard the appeal that follows as made by the Prophet in the people’s name. It is unsuitable to put it in the mouth of Jehovah. Against making עַמּו the subject of ויזכר, the remoteness of its position is an obvious objection. Such an asyndeton as that in מֹשֶׁה עַמּוֹ is of frequent occurrence, and, on the whole, the rendering of the E. V., if we only strike out the supplied word saying, is the most obvious and natural.—D. M.] God gave Moses His Holy Spirit, and with Him the gift to perform miracles, and to lead and teach the people (comp. Num_11:17).—[But the suffix in בקרבו refers to עם, the people, and not to Moses alone.—D. M.]—The beginning of Isa_63:12 is literally rendered: who made the arm of His glory to go at the right hand of Moses. The most remarkable effect of this was the dividing of the water before them, the Israelites (properly away from the face of them, so that the waters went out of the way). Hitzig, Umbreit, Knobel, understand the words of the water from the rock (Exo_17:5 sqq.). But this event, as belonging to a later time, could not well be placed before the passage through the Red Sea. Moreover, בקע is especially employed of this dividing of the waves of the sea, Exo_14:21; Psa_78:13; Neh_9:11. These great and wonderful deeds of God had the design to make known, first to the people of Israel, and then to other nations also, the name of Jehovah, i. e. the nature of that God who is called Jehovah; and thus to bring them to the knowledge of His exclusive Godhead (Neh_9:10; Isa_55:13; Isa_63:14). The depths, Isa_63:13, are plainly the depths of the Red Sea (not of the Jordan, as Knobel thinks).—[This is clear from comparing Psa_106:9.—D. M.]—One might suppose that Israel would have trodden with trembling, uncertain steps the strange way over the bottom of the sea on which human foot was never set, with the walls of the standing waters on the right hand and on the left. But it was not so. Rapidly and surely, as the desert horse goes over the flat, smooth desert, without tottering, so did they march over that strange, perilous road. The Israelites are the subject of יכשׁלו The image of the cattle descending into the valley is very appropriate for marking the arrival of the Israelites in the promised land after the journeying in the desert. For the dry, stony deserts through which Israel had to march were really higher than the fertile regions watered by the Nile and the Jordan. It seems to me, too, that the Prophet here thinks of the herds of Nomades that must cross a mountain range or a plateau in order to reach regions rich in pasture. Just so the Spirit of the Lord, who by means of the leaders directed the march of Israel, brought the people to rest. The Prophet could justly designate the arrival of Israel in Palestine after the long journeying as an attaining to rest. The same thing had been said before (Deu_12:9; Jos_1:13; Jos_21:44; Jos_22:4; Jos_23:1; Psa_95:11; comp. Heb_3:11; Heb_3:18; Heb_4:1; Heb_4:3; Heb_4:9). The last sentence of Isa_63:14 is a recapitulation. כֵּן refers to all that goes before, and the words to make thyself a glorious name declare that the design of the Lord was not merely to confer a benefit on the Israelites of that time, but to prepare the way for the knowledge and acknowledgment of His name among all nations and to all times (Isa_63:12).
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. On Isa_63:7. [“God does good because He is good; what He bestows upon us must be run up to the original, it is according to His mercies, not according to our merits, andaccording to the multitude of His loving-kindnesses, which can never be spent. Thus we should magnify God’s goodness, and speak honorably of it, not only when we plead it (as David Psa_51:1), but when we praise it.” Henry. D. M.].
2. On Isa_63:9. The angel of the face or presence belongs to “the deep things of God" (1Co_2:10). It is not right to imagine that a certain and exhaustive knowledge is possible in reference to these things. The humility which becomes even science, imposes on it the duty to write everywhere a non liquet, where, through the nature of things, limits are placed to human knowledge. Not to regard these limitations is the manner of the pseudo-scientific, immodest scholasticism. What, therefore, we have said regarding the angel of the face makes no higher pretension than that of a modest hypothesis. [Comp. in Hengstenberg’s Christology, Vol. Isaiah 1 : The Angel of the Lord in the books of Moses and in the book of Joshua.—D. M.].
3. On Isa_63:10. “There are two ways in which the Holy Ghost is offended or vexed. One way is of a less dreadful nature. It is when a man takes from the Holy Spirit the opportunity to work in the soul for its joy, as He is wont to communicate to it His gracious influence and His gracious operations. When such is the case, then as an offended friend when He perceives that no heed is given to most of His counsels, the Holy Spirit is grieved, and, although reluctantly, ceases for a time to advise the stubborn, ut carendo discat quantum peccaverit. Of this kind of grieving Paul speaks Eph_4:30. It can be committed by the godly and the elect. But the Holy Spirit can be offended and vexed in a gross and flagitious way, when one not only does not believe and follow Him, but also obstinately resists Him, despises all His counsel, reviles and blasphemes Him, will none of His reproof (Pro_1:24-25), gives the lie to His truth, and so speaks against the sun… This the Scripture calls ἀντιπίπτειν (Act_7:51), ἐνυβρίζειν (Heb_10:29), βλασφημεῖν (Mat_12:31), θεομαχεῖν (Act_5:39). Let us, therefore, not grieve the Holy Spirit with evil desires, words and deeds, that we may be able on the future day of redemption to show that seal uninjured with which we were sealed on that day of our redemption when we were regenerated. To this end let us assiduously breathe forth the prayers of David Psa_143:10; Psa_51:12-14.” Leigh.
4. On Isa_63:10. [They rebelled and vexed His Holy Spirit. This statement implies the personality of the Holy Ghost, or the Spirit of God’s holiness. He is represented as a person whom we can grieve. We have in this passage clear indications of the doctrine of the Trinity. In Isa_63:9 we have the Angel of God’s face, and in Isa_63:10 we have the Spirit of His holiness, both clearly distinguished from God the fountain of their being.—D. M.].
5. On Isa_63:11. “Faith asks after God and so does unbelief, but in different ways. Both put the question, Where? Faith does it to seek God in time of need, and to tell Him trustfully of His old kindnesses. Unbelief does it to tempt God, to deny Him, to lead others into temptation, and to make them doubt regarding the divine presence and providence. Therefore it asks: “Where is the God of judgment” (Mal_2:17)? “Where is now thy God "(Psa_42:4; Psa_42:11; Psa_79:10; Psa_115:2)? If you, as the praying Church here does, ask in the former manner diligently after God, you will be preserved from the other kind of asking.” Leigh.
6. On Isa_63:15. “Meritum meum miseratio Domini. Non sum meriti inops, quando ille miserationum Dominus non defuerit, et si misericordiae Domini multae, multus ego sum in meritis.” Augustine.
7. On Isa_63:16. “We can from this sentence [?] cogently refute the doctrine of the invocation of the Saints. For the Saints know nothing of us, and are not personally acquainted with us, much less can they know the concerns of our hearts, or hear our cry, for they are not omnipresent. If it be alleged that God makes matters known to them and that they then pray for us, what a round-about business this would be! It would justify the prayer said to have been made by a simple man: “Ah Lord God! tell it, I beseech thee, to the blessed Mary that I have told thee to tell it again to her, that she should tell thee that I have wished to say to her by so many Ave Marias and Pater Nosters, that she should say to thee to be pleased to be gracious unto me.” Meyer, de Rosariis, cap. III., thes. V., p. 52). With how much more brevity and efficacy do we pray with the penitent publican: God be merciful to me, a sinner! ”Leigh.
8. On Isa_63:17. “There is no more heinous sin than to accuse God of being the cause of our sin. Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God (Jam_1:13; Psa_5:5; Deu_32:4; Ps. 92:16). He commands what is good, forbids and punishes what is evil. How then could He be the cause of it? But when He punishes sin with sin, i.e., when He at last withdraws from the sinner His grace that has been persistently despised, then He acts as a righteous Judge who inflicts the judgment of hardening the heart on those who wilfully resist His Spirit.” Leigh.
9. On Isaiah 66 [“This chapter is a model of affectionate and earnest entreaty for the divine interposition in the day of calamity. With such tender and affectionate earnestness may we learn to plead with God! Thus may all His people learn to approach Him as a Father; thus feel that they have the inestimable privilege in the times of trial of making known their wants to the High and Holy One. Thus when calamity presses on us; when as individuals or families we are afflicted; or when our country or the church is suffering under long trials, may we go to God, and humbly confess our sins, and urge His promises, and take hold of His strength, and plead with Him to interpose. Thus pleading, He will hear us; thus presenting our cause, He will interpose to save us.” Barnes. D. M.].
10. On Isa_64:3-4 a. [4, 5 a]. The God who appeared to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, called Moses, and led by him the people of Israel out of Egypt, who chose Joshua, Samuel, David and others to be His servants and glorified Himself by them, this God alone has shown Himself to be the true and living God, and we can hope from Him that He will yet do more, and manifest Himself still more signally.
11. On Isa_64:4 [5]. [“Note what God expects from us in order to our having communion with Him. First, We must make conscience of doing our duty in everything, we must work righteousness, must do that which is good, and which the Lord our God requires of us, and must do it well. Secondly, We must be cheerful in doing our duty; we must rejoice and work righteousness, must delight ourselves in God and His law, must be pleasant in His service and sing at our work. God loves a cheerful giver, a cheerful worshipper; we must serve the Lord with gladness. Thirdly, We must conform ourselves to all the methods of His providence concerning us, and be suitably affected with them; must remember Him in Hisways, in all the ways wherein He walks, whether He walks towards us, or walks contrary to us; we must mind Him, and make mention of Him, with thanksgiving, when His ways are ways of mercy, for in a day of prosperity we mustbe joyful, with patience and submission when He contends with us, for in a day of adversity we must consider.” Henry. D. M.].
12. On Isa_64:7 [8]. [“This whole verse is an acknowledgment of the sovereignty of God. It expresses the feeling which all have when under conviction of sin, and when they are sensible that they are exposed to the divine displeasure for their transgressions. Then they feel that if they are to be saved, it must be by the mere Sovereignty of God; and they implore His interposition to ‘mould and guide them at His will.’ It may be added, that it is only when sinners have this feeling that they hope for relief; and then they will feel that if they are lost, it will be right; if saved, it will be because God moulds them as the potter does the clay.” Barnes. D. M.].
HOMILETICAL HINTS
1. On Isa_63:7. Text for a Thanksgiving Sermon. What is our duty after that the Lord has shown us great loving kindness? 1) To remember what He has done to us. 2) To be mindful of what we ought to render to Him for the same.
2. On Isa_63:8-17. The history of the people of Israel a mirror in which we too may perceive the history of our relation to God. 1) God is to us from the beginning a loving and faithful Father (Isa_63:8-9). 2) We repay His love with ingratitude, as Israel did (Isa_63:10 a). 3) God punishes us for this as He punished Israel (Isa_63:10 b). 4) God receives us again to His favor when we, as Israel, call on Him in penitence (Isa_63:11-17).
On Isa_63:7-17. “If God in Christ has become our Father, He remains our Father to all eternity. 1) He is our Father in Christ. 2) He abides faithful even when we waIsa Isa_63:3) When we have fallen, His arms still stand open to receive us.” Deichert in Manch. G. u. ein Geist, 1868, page 65.
4. On Isa_64:5-7. Joh. Ben. Carpzov has a sermon on this text, in which he treats of righteousness, and shows 1) justitiam salvantem, i. e., the righteousness with which one enters the kingdom of heaven; 2) justitiam damnantem, i. e., the righteousness with which a man enters the fire of hell; 3) justitiam testantem, i. e., the righteousness by which a man testifies that he has attained the true righteousness.
5. On Isa_64:6-9. “Let us hear from our text an earnest and affecting confession of sin, and at the same time consider 1) the doctrine of repentance; 2) the comfort of forgiveness which believers receive.”—Eichhorn.
6. On Isa_64:6. (We all do fade, etc.) “These are very instructive words, from which we learn what a noxious plant sin is, and what fruit it brings forth. First, says he, we fade as a leaf. This means that sin brings with it the curse of God, and deprives us of His blessing both for the body and the soul, so that the heart is dissatisfied and distressed. Then it robs us of the highest treasure, confidence in the grace of God. For sin and an evil conscience awaken dread of God. As it is impossible to call upon God aright without faith and a sure persuasion of His aid, it follows that sin hinders prayer also, and thus robs us of the highest comfort. When men have no faith and cannot pray, then the awful punishment comes upon them, that God hides His face and leaves them to pine in their sins. For they cannot help themselves, and have lost the consolation and protection which they need in life.”—Veit Diet.
Footnotes:
[5]Then kit people remembered the old days of Moses.
[6]brought up out of the sea the shepherd of his flock.
[7]Or, shepherds.
[8]that put at the right hand of Moses his glorious arm.
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 vv7–9 Israel's penitential confession and prayer for restoration (Psa 102:17,…
Israel's penitential confession and prayer for restoration (Psa 102:17, Psa 102:20), extending from Isa. 63:7-64:12.
loving-kindnesses . . . praises . . . mercies . . . loving-kindnesses--The plurals and the repetitions imply that language is inadequate to express the full extent of God's goodness.
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us--the dispersed Jews at the time just preceding their final restoration.
house of Israel--of all ages; God was good not merely to the Jews now dispersed, but to Israel in every age of its history.
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 vv7–9 7. I will mention the lovingkindness of the Lord…
7. I will mention the lovingkindness of the Lord — Or, I will record, etc. The words of the voice recall the deep religious sense of Psalms 139. Praises of the Lord… bestowed… mercies, etc. — That is, in the name of the Church, to such a degree restored, the prophet recounts the Lord’s mercies, which show that he is worthy of abounding thanksgiving from the Church.
THE LAST CONTROVERSY WITH ISRAEL, Isa_63:7 to Isa_65:25.
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Israel’s former Mercies and Sins.
There are various schemes of division of the matter now following. The one here adopted as best, is that of two well-defined sections, namely, The Last Controversy of Israel, with subdivisions as the topics vary, (Isa_63:7 to Isa_65:25,) and The Full Redemption of Zion, comprising chapter 66.
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 vv7–9 7. I will mention] lit. “commemorate,” but with the…
7. I will mention] lit. “commemorate,” but with the implied idea of praise, as 1Ch_16:4; Psa_45:17; Psa_71:16; Isa_26:13, &c.
the praises of the Lord] the praiseworthy deeds, as ch. Isa_60:6.
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and the great goodness] Cf. Psa_145:7, where the expression occurs.
according to his mercies &c.] Cf. Psa_51:1,—one of several points of resemblance,—also Psa_106:45.
7–9. Celebration of Jehovah’s past mercies to Israel,—a frequent feature of O.T. prayers (Psa_77:10-15; Psa_78:1-4; Psa_89:1 f., Psa_105:1 f., Psa_106:2; Neh_9:5 ff., &c.).
Ch. Isa_63:7 to Isa_64:12. A Prayer of the People for the Renewal of Jehovah’s former Lovingkindness
(1) Isa_63:7-9. The prayer begins with thankful commemoration of Jehovah’s goodness to the nation in the days of old (Isa_63:7). The reference is to the time of Moses and Joshua, when Jehovah’s loving confidence in His children had not yet been betrayed (Isa_63:8), and when He continuously manifested Himself as their Saviour, bearing them safely through all dangers (Isa_63:9).
(2) Isa_63:10-14. This ideal relation between Israel and its God has indeed long since been broken, through the rebellion and ingratitude of the people (Isa_63:10). But in seasons of distress the better mind of the nation dwells wistfully on those ancient wonders of grace, and longs that Jehovah may again put forth His strength and vindicate His glorious name (Isa_63:11-14).
(3) Isa_63:15-16. From the past the writer turns to the gloomy present, be seeching Jehovah to take notice of and have compassion on the affliction of His people. For He alone, and not Abraham or Israel, is the Father of the nation, and its Redeemer from of old.
(4) Isa_63:17-19. From this point the increasing impetuosity of the language reveals for the first time the extremity of the Church’s anguish. The prophet remonstrates with God for so withdrawing Himself from the people as to harden them in sin (Isa_63:17) and cause them to be as if He had never ruled over them (Isa_63:19).
(5) Isa_64:1-3. A passionate wish that Jehovah might now rend asunder the solid firmament, and melt the mountains, and make Himself known to the nation by terrible acts, surpassing the expectations of His people.
(6) Isa_63:4-7. In a more reflective strain the writer appears to seek for a reconciliation of Jehovah’s attitude to Israel with His eternally righteous character. He, the only God known who meets the righteousman, is yet wroth with His people so that they fall into sin (Isa_63:4-5). The lamentable consequences of this hiding of God’s face on the religious condition of the people are described in Isa_63:6-7.
(7) Isa_63:8-12. Final appeal to the Fatherhood of God, and His consideration for the work of His hands (Isa_63:8). Let Him moderate His wrath and remember that we are His people (Isa_63:9). For surely the punishment of sin has been sufficient,—the holy cities ruined, Jerusalem a desolation, the Temple burned with fire (Isa_63:10-11). Can Jehovah look on these things and yet restrain His compassion (Isa_63:12)?
The passage is one of the most instructive of O.T. prayers, and deserves careful study as an expression of the chastened and tremulous type of piety begotten in the sorrows of the Exile. Along with much that is of the permanent essence of prayer,—thanksgiving, confession of sin, and supplication,—it contains utterances which may cause surprise to a Christian reader, although they are paralleled in some of the Psalms, and in other portions of the literature. Very singular is the plea that the sinfulness of the people is due to the excessive and protracted anger of Jehovah, who “causes them to err from His ways” (Isa_63:17; cf. Isa_64:5; Isa_64:7). This feeling appears to proceed from two sources; on the one hand the ancient idea that national calamity is the proof of Jehovah’s anger, and on the other the lesson taught by all the prophets, that the sole cause of Jehovah’s anger is the people’s sins. The writer seems unable perfectly to harmonize these principles. He accepts the verdict of Providence on the sins of the nation, but he feels also a disproportion between the offence and the punishment, which neutralises all efforts after righteousness, unless Jehovah will relent from the fierceness of His wrath. The higher truth that the Divine chastisement aims at the purification of the people, and is therefore a mark of love, is not yet grasped, and for this reason the O.T. believers fall short of the liberty of the sons of God. Yet amid all these perplexities the faith of the Church holds fast to the truth of the Fatherhood of God, and appeals to the love which must be in His heart, although it be not manifest in His providential dealings.
So far as the ideas of the passage are concerned, it might have been composed at any time from the Exile downwards. Nor are the historical allusions so clear as could be desired. From Isa_63:18, Isa_64:11 f. we learn that the Temple has been burned, and the land laid waste. It is natural to understand this of the destruction of the city and Temple by the Chaldæans in 586, and to conclude that the prayer was written during the Exile or at least before the rebuilding of the Temple in 520. In Isa_63:18 it is said that the Holy Land has been possessed “but a little while.” If the prayer was written in exile this must refer to the whole period from Joshua to the Captivity, which is not an interpretation that commends itself at first sight. It would no doubt be more intelligible if written not long after the restoration under Zerubbabel (cf. Ezr_9:8). But then we are confronted with the difficulty of the destruction of the Temple, for Duhm’s explanation that the writer ignores the second Temple because of its inferiority to the first can hardly be regarded as satisfactory; and to assume (with Kuenen and others) a destruction of the Temple by the Samaritans (see Ryle’s note on Neh_1:3) is hazardous in face of the silence of history. Partly for these reasons, and partly because of affinities to ch. 24–27, and some Psalms which he assigns to the same period, Cheyne brings down the date of composition to the time of Artaxerxes Ochus (cf. Vol. i. of this commentary, p. 204). Apart from Isa_63:18, the hypothesis of exilic authorship presents no serious difficulty, for although the surrounding discourses are probably post-exilic, it is quite conceivable that an earlier writing might have been incorporated with them as sufficiently expressive of the mind of the nation at the later period.
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 vv7–9 (7) I will mention . . .—The words begin…
(7) I will mention . . .—The words begin an entirely new section, of the nature of a psalm of thanksgiving for redemption (Isa_63:16). Possibly, in the arrangement of the book it was thought that such a psalm followed rightly on the great dramatic dialogue which represented the victory of the Redeemer. The psalm begins, according to the implied rule of Psa_50:23, with praise, and passes afterward to narrative and supplication.
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 vv7–9 SECTION X AN ADDRESS OF THE EXILES TO GOD,…
SECTION X AN ADDRESS OF THE EXILES TO GOD, INCLUDING THANKSGIVING, CONFESSION OF SIN, AND SUPPLICATION. (Isa_63:7-14)
Vers. 7-14. GOD PRAISED FOR HIS MERCIES. The address opens with pure and simple thanksgiving of the most general kind, God being praised for his loving-kindness, compassion, and sympathy with his people (vers. 7-9). A historical survey is then commenced, and Israel"s shortcomings contrasted with God"s mercies, but with a predominantly thankful and even jubilant tone (vers. 10-14).
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I will mention; or, celebrate. The loving-kindnesses; or, mercies. (see Isa_55:3; and comp. Psa_89:1)
HOMILIES BY E. JOHNSON Vers. 7-9. An outburst of thanksgiving.
A deep heart-effusion, in which all that the religious imagination, inspired by love, can suggest, is projected upon the picture of Jehovah, the redeeming God of Israel.
I HIS LOVING-KINDNESS. (Cf. Isa_55:3; and the Hebrew word Isa_63:7 Psa_89:28-49 Psa_107:43 Lam_3:22) The word (dsh) suggests a world of love. When used of men it implies pity, benignity, especially in circumstances of misfortune, as 1Sa 10:2Jo 1Sa_6:14. How fine is the saying in 2Sa_9:3, "I will act kindly toward him like unto God"! So that all human expressions of kindness may be and should be conceived as flowing from the one eternal Fountain. Sometimes, by a figure, God himself is called Favour, Mercy. (Psa 144:2Jo Psa_2:9)
II HIS GREAT DEEDS. "Renown," or "deeds of renown." The divorce of feeling from deed, of sentiment from action, that we so often see in feeble humanity, we do not find in God. With him, heart and head are one. His deeds are daily, world-extended, historical, eternal. Every commotion of the nations, every war, every revolution, must be traced to the influence of his Spirit in the last resort.
III HIS GENEROUS BESTOWALS. There is an exuberant outflow of thought, feeling, and language here. Jehovah is to be celebrated "according to that which is due for all that he hath bestowed, according to his compassion and his abundant loving-kindnesses." Were it not that the impression of pain is keener and deeper with us than that of pleasure, it would be seen that at every moment life teems with mercies, gifts from the Giver of all good.
IV HIS PROVIDENCE IN HISTORY. They were his people in virtue of the primeval covenant. They were his sons by adoption. The great salvation out of Israel was prototypical of all acts in which Jehovah "became unto them a Saviour. Distinct and strong is the representation of the sympathy of God with their suffering; distressed in all their distresses." His love and his clemency are again mentioned. He was ever, in that long and strange history of rebellion, "overcoming evil with good a pardoning God. His care was that of a mother"s heart carrying the people, as it were, from their birth, promising to carry them even to hoar hairs. "I bare made, and I will bear; I will carry, and I will deliver you". (Isa_46:3:4) Yet it is part of such providential dealing to chastise. There were especially times when the people did evil in the sight of Jehovah. (Jud_1:2:11 3:7) Secretly a Holy Spirit, or Spirit of holiness, was striving with them, and they were constantly resisting it. The great covenant with God was founded on this principle of holiness; this was the distinctive characteristic of the people as of their God. By their untruth to the covenant, they changed him as it were from a friend to an enemy. Thwarted love turns to jealousy, (Exo_34:14) and the gracious face of the Father becomes that of the wrathful Judge. J.
Vers. 7-9. The greatness of God"s goodness.
There is music in the sound and great comfort in the sense of these exquisite words. They speak to us of
I THE GREATNESS OF GOD"S GOODNESS TO US.
1. The bountifulness of his gifts to us. "All that the Lord hath bestowed on us." "The multitude of his loving-kindnesses." His gifts night and day, in every season, through every stage of life; all material for the body, all stores of knowledge for the mind, all wealth of affection for the heart.
2. The distinguishing favours he has shown us. His "great goodness toward the house of Israel." Every "house," every family, every man, has some special reason to speak of Divine goodness.
3. The love which prompts his bestowals. All his kindnesses are "loving kindnesses," prompted by parental affection, granted in a loving spirit.
4. His kindness toward us in affliction (ver. 8). He grants us Divine sympathy all their afflictions;" and tender succour bare them," etc. , as the mother carries her sick child, the shepherd the wounded lamb. His hand may be upon us, but "underneath are the everlasting arms.
5. His grace in redemption. "The angel of his presence," etc.
II OUR WISDOM AND DUTY IN VIEW OF IT. "I will mention." Here are two parts:
1. Recalling to our own thought.
2. Reminding those around us. This is our duty; for it is the clear will of Christ that we should make known the fulness of his kindness and the riches of his grace. We exist, as his people, that we may be witnesses to the world of all that we have learned of him. This is also our wisdom; for therein is found the one antidote to dissatisfaction, the one unfailing source of gratitude and joy.
III GOD"S EXPECTATION CONCERNING US. (Ver. 8.) As God gave to Israel all the peculiar proofs of his remembrance that they might prove a loyal and faithful people or family, so with us as a Christian Church. He has manifested marvellous love, patience, pity, succour, toward us. And in what expectation? That we should show ourselves loyal to himself and true to our trust; that we should prove ourselves the "people" and "children" of God, by reverence of bearing, by submissiveness of spirit, by integrity of character, by faithfulness in the field of sacred work. C.
The Lord"s loving-kindnesses.
The great goodness seen in the return of the exiles from Babylon helped to a right apprehension of the goodness of God " to his people all down through the long ages. Dean Stanley eloquently describes the return. "The restoration was an event which, unlikely and remote as it might have seemed, was deemed almost a certainty in the expectation of the exiles. The confidence of Jeremiah and Ezekiel never flagged that within two generations from the beginning of the captivity their countrymen would return. The patriotic sentiment, which had existed as it were unconsciously before, found its first definite expression at this period... And when the day at last arrived which was to see their expectations fulfilled, the burst of joy was such as has no parallel in the sacred volume; it is, indeed, the revival, the second birth, the second Exodus, of the nation. There was now " a new song," of which the burden was that the Eternal again reigned over the earth, and that the gigantic idolatries which surrounded them had received a deadly shock; that the waters of oppression had rolled back in which they had been struggling like drowning men; that the snare was broken in which they had been entangled like a caged bird. It was like a dream, too good to be true. The gaiety, the laughter of their poetry, resounded far and wide. The surrounding nations could not but confess what great things had been done for them. It was like the sudden rush of the waters into the dry torrent-beds of the south of Palestine, or of the yet extremer south, of which they may have heard, in far Ethiopia. It was like the reaper bearing on his shoulder the go]den sheaves in summer which he had sown amongst the tears of winter. So full were their hearts that all nature was called to join in their thankfulness. The vast rivers of their new Mesopotamian home, and the waves of the Indian Ocean, are to take part in the chorus, and clap their foaming crests like living hands. The mountains of their own native land are invited to express their joy; each tree in the forest that clothed the hills, or that cast their shade over the field, is to have a tongue for the occasion." The point impressed is that, being so deeply impressed with one great blessing received from God, the whole course of God"s dealings with his people came freshly to their view. In the light of one loving-kindness they gained clearer views of the many and various loving-kindnesses which had so constantly been showered upon them. "I will remember the loving-kindnesses of the Lord." That appears to be God"s gracious way of dealing with us all. Our lives are, in fact, full of his tender mercies, but they pass by us unheeded. We need something at times which may call our attention to them. So God gives us occasional great mercies as reminders of the thousand lesser ones. A special gift from an earthly friend has something of this power; it makes us feel afresh how good and kind and tender he long has been.
I THE LORD"S LOVING-KINDNESSES READ IN THE LIGHT OF THE REDEMPTION FROM BABYLON. This deliverance altered all their feeling about the past. It gave them a key to the meaning of their very captivity. It set them upon searching for signs of God"s goodness in the national story. And what a story of mercy that long record of the Jewish Church had been! What we can see in it everywhere, those returned exiles saw in the light of their exceeding joy forbearances, long-sufferings, provisions, bestowments, loving-kindnesses, defendings, redeemings the good hand of their God ever on them for good.
II THE LORD"S LOVING-KINDNESSES READ IN THE LIGHT OF THE REDEMPTION FROM SIN. St. Paul expresses this idea in the words, "He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?" The "all things" come to his mind when he thinks of the great things. He who gives eternal life will be sure to nourish and feed all the life he gives. He who holds before us the hope of an exceeding and eternal weight of glory will be sure to keep us unto it, and fit us for it. We may be quite confident that he who gives glory will give grace, withholding no good thing from them that walk uprightly. This is the usual form of Christian meditations. We unconsciously follow the returned exiles" way, and begin with the greatest loving-kindness. We tune our souls to their noblest song over redemption-love manifested in Christ Jesus. We dwell on his condescension and his suffering until our souls say, "Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable Gift!" But in the quietness after the song, there seems to be a light left on our whole life-story, which, as we watch it, grows brighter and brighter; falling here and there and yonder, showing up mercy after mercy, goodness upon goodness, we also begin to say, "We will remember the loving-kindnesses of the Lord. R.T.
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 vv7–9 I will mention the loving kindnesses of the Lord
Isa_63:7
I will mention the loving kindnesses of the Lord
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Gods redemptive triumph evoking thanksgiving, prayer and confession
The dialogue ended, the prophets tone changes.
In the assurance that the redemption, guaranteed by Jehovahs triumph, will be wrought out, he supplies faithful Israel with a hymn of thanksgiving, supplication and confession, expressive of the frame of mind worthy to receive it (Isa_63:7-19; Isa_64:1-12). In a stream of surpassing pathos and beauty the prophet, as it were, leads the devotions (Cheyne) of his nation, and lends words by his eloquence to their repentance. (Prof. S. R. Driver, D. D.)
A chastened piety
The passage (Isa_63:7-19; Isa_64:1-12) is one of themost instructive of Old Testament prayers, and deserves careful study as an expression of the chastened and tremulous type of piety begotten in the sorrows of the Exile. So far as the ideas of the passage are concerned, it might have been composed at any time from the Exile downwards. (Prof. J. Skinner, D. D.)
The tender mercies of God
To discover the heights or to fathom the depths of this grace, exceeds the power of men or angels; yet the view perhaps may be enlightened by some of the following reflections.
1. In purposing and planning the grit work of redemption, the Eternal Mind was self-moved, uncounselled, unsolicited.
2. This love was wholly disinterested, having no-reward in view but the pleasure of doing good.
3. This love is still more sublimely considered as acting towards inferiors.
4. Redeeming love is still more wonderful as exercised towards enemies.
5. This love appears altogether astonishing when we consider the greatness of the sacrifice it made.
6. The extent of redeeming love further appears in the magnitude of the blessings which it intended for a ruined race.
7. This mercy is heightened by the fact that the Saviour is so necessary, reasonable and all-sufficient.
8. This mercy is still further heightened by the patience and condescending tenderness which He exercises towards His people. He calls them His friends, His brethren, His children, His spouse, the members of His body, the apple of His eye.
9. This wondrous mercy is further expressed in the gift of Sabbaths and sacraments, and especially the written Word.
10. Fresh evidence of this love springs up at every review of Gods past providence towards the Church.
11. All these are the more affecting as being marks of distinguishing love.
12. The grace of God appears still greater as being abundant. (E. Griffin.)
A song concerning loving kindnesses
I. THE MERCIES TO BE MENTIONED. A complete summary we cannot give, for who can count the sands of the sea or the stars of the sky?
1. The list commences with special electing love. In the Hebrew the eighth verse runs, For He said, they only are My people.
2. Pass on to the next sweet token of Divine lovingkindness which is found in the Fatherly confidence which the Lord has manifested towards His people. Children that will not lie.
3. His great sympathy with us. In all their affliction He was affected (Isa_63:9).
4. His intimate intercourse with us. The Angel of His presence saved them.
5. The gracious interpositions of God on behalf of His people. In His love and in His pity He redeemed them.
6. God provided for, led, protected and upheld His people by a wondrous special providence while they were in the wilderness. He bare them, etc. (Isa_63:9).
7. The prophet further goes on to mention the Lords chastening. It is to be sorrowed over that we need chastening, but God is to be praised that He does not withhold it from us (Isa_63:10).
8. The next thing the prophet sings about is Gods faithfulness, for though He did smite His people, yet in a very short time we find that He remembered the days of old, etc. (Isa_63:11-13). We will close this catalogue with one more choice mercy, for the prophet tells us of Gods giving His people rest after all (Isa_63:14).
II. CERTAIN POINTS WORTHY OF SPECIAL MENTION.
1. Whatever has been bestowed upon us by God reveals His lovingkindness.
2. The consequent praise which is due to God on account of this.
3. The uniform nature of all Gods dealings with us. According to all that the Lord hath bestowed on us. Let us praise Him according to all that the
Lord hath bestowed upon us, blessing Him for bitters and sweets, for blacks and whites, for storms and calms.
4. The grandeur of the goodness which is shown in every mercy. The great goodness toward the house of Israel. Ingratitude makes little of much, but gratitude sees much in little.
5. We ought to take peculiar note in our song of the condescending tenderness and pity of God, for such is the force of the next expression, which He hath bestowed on them according to His mercies,--a clearer rendering would be, according to His compassion.
6. One other special note demands to be heard, and that is the multitudinous displays of His love. According to the multitude of His lovingkindnesses, of all shapes, and at all times, and in all ways, and from all points of the compass.
III. PRACTICAL REASONS WHY WE SHOULD THUS MENTION THE LOVINGKINDNESSES OF THE LORD.
1. That we may have pleas in prayer. This is the best way of praying: Lord, Thou hast done this for Thy servant, Thou hast done that for Thy servant, therefore I beseech Thee do more. This is not after the manner of men, for when we once relieve a mans necessities we say to him, Do not come again; but every gift which God gives is an invitation to come again, and the best way in which we can show our gratitude is to seek for further gifts.
2. These memories will act as stays to your faith.
3. They will minister to your present comfort.
4. The thought of all this would make us love God more, and obey Him better.
5. To mention the Lords goodness enables us to cheer others, for we do not know who may be standing by.
6. It will glorify Him, and this should always be your master motive. (C. H.Spurgeon.)
A rinsed mouth
The Lord rinse your mouths out if you have a bitter way of talking about other people, or about His providence, and lead you henceforth to glory in His holy name.(C. H. Spurgeon.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v7 Isaiah 63:7 through Isaiah 66
CHAPTER XXV
A LAST INTERCESSION AND THE JUDGMENT
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Isaiah 63:7 through Isaiah 66
WE might well have thought, that with the section we have been considering the prophecy of Israels Redemption had reached its summit and its end. The glory of Zion in sight, the full programme of prophecy owned, the arrival of the Divine Saviour hailed in the urgency of His feeling for His people, in the sufficiency of His might to save them, -what more, we ask, can the prophecy have to give us? Why does it not end upon these high notes? The answer is, the salvation is indeed consummate, but the people are not ready for it. On an earlier occasion, let us remember, when our prophet called the nation to their Service of God, he called at first the whole nation, but had then immediately to make a distinction. Seen in the light of their destiny, the mass of Israel proved to be unworthy; tried by its strain, part immediately fell away. But what happened upon that call to Service happens again upon this disclosure of Salvation. The prophet realises that it is only a part of Israel who are worthy of it. He feels again the weight, which has been the hindrance of his hope all through, -the weight of the mass of the nation, sunk in idolatry and wickedness, incapable of appreciating the promises. He will make one more effort to save them-to save them all. He does this in an intercessory prayer, Isaiah 63:7 through Isaiah 64, in which he states the most hopeless aspects of his peoples case, identifies himself with their sin, and yet pleads by the ancient power of God that we all may be saved. He gets his answer in chapter 65, in which God sharply divides Israel into two classes, the faithful and the idolaters, and affirms that, while the nation shall be saved for the sake of the faithful remnant, Jehovahs faithful servants and the unfaithful can never share the same experience or the same fate. And then the book closes with a discourse in chapter 66, in which this division between the two classes in Israel is pursued to a last terrible emphasis and contrast upon the narrow stage of Jerusalem itself. We are left, not with the realisation of the prophets prayer for the salvation of all the nations, but with a last judgment separating its godly and ungodly portions.
Thus there are three connected divisions in Isaiah 63:7 through Isaiah 66. First, the prophets Intercessory Prayer, Isaiah 63:7 through Isaiah 64; second, the Answer of Jehovah, chapter 65; and third, the Final Discourse and Judgment, chapter 66.
I. THE PRAYER FOR THE WHOLE PEOPLE
(Isaiah 63:7 through Isaiah 64)
There is a good deal of discussion as to both the date and the authorship of this piece, was to whether it comes from the early or the late Exile, and as to whether it comes from our prophet or from another. It must have been written after the destruction and before the rebuilding of the Temple; this is put past all doubt by these verses: "Thy holy people possessed it but a little while: our adversaries have trodden down Thy sanctuary." "Thy holy cities are become a wilderness, Zion has become a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation. The house of our holiness and of our ornament, wherein our fathers praised Thee, is become for a burning of fire, and all our delights are for ruin."
This language has been held to imply that the disaster to Jerusalem was recent, as if the citys conflagration still flared on the national imagination, which in later years of the Exile was impressed rather by the long cold ruins of the Holy Place, the haunt of wild beasts. But not only is this point inconclusive, but the impression that it leaves is entirely dispelled by other verses, which speak of the Divine anger as having been of long continuance, and as if it had only hardened the people in sin; compare Isa_63:17; Isa_64:6-7. There is nothing in the prayer to show that the author lived in exile, and accordingly the proposal has been made to date the piece from among the first attempts at rebuilding after the Return. To the present expositor this seems to be certainly wrong. The man who wrote Isa_63:11-15 had surely the Return still before him; he would not have written in the way he has done of the Exodus from Egypt unless he had been feeling the need of another exhibition of Divine Power of the same kind. The prayer, therefore, must come from pretty much the same date as the rest of our prophecy, -after the Exile had long continued, but while the Return had not yet taken place. Nor is there any reason against attributing it to the same writer. It is true the style differs from the rest of his work, but this may be accounted for, as in the case of chapter 53, by the change of subject. Most critics, who hold that we still follow the same author, take for granted that some time has elapsed since the prophets triumphant strains in chapter 60-62. This is probable; but there is nothing to make it certain. What is certain is the change of mood and conscience. The prophet, who in chapter 60 had been caught away into the glorious future of the people, is here as utterly absorbed in their barren and doubtful present. Although the salvation is certain, as he has seen it, the people are not ready. The fact he has already felt so keenly about them, -see Isa_42:24-25, -that their long discipline in exile has done the mass of them no good, but evil, comes forcibly back upon him. {Isa_64:5 b ff.} "Thou wast angry, and we sinned" only the more: "in such a state we have been long, and shall we be saved!" The banished people are thoroughly unclean and rotten, fading as a leaf, the sport of the wind. But the prophet identifies himself with them. He speaks of their sin as ours, of their misery as ours. He takes of them the very saddest view possible, he feels them all as sheer dead weight: "there is none that calleth on Thy name, that stirreth himself up to take hold on Thee: for Thou hast hid Thy face from us, and delivered us into the power of our iniquities." But the prophet thus loads himself with the people in order to secure, if he can. their redemption as a whole. Twice he says in the name of them all, "Doubtless Thou art our Father." His great heart will not have one of them left out; "we all," he says, "are the work of Thy hand, we are all Thy people."
But this intention of the prayer will amply account for any change of style we may perceive in the language. No one will deny that it is quite possible for the same man now to fling himself forward into the glorious vision of his peoples future salvation, and again to identify himself with the most hopeless aspects of their present distress and sin; and no one will deny that the same man will certainly write in two different styles with regard to each of these different feelings. Besides which, we have seen in the passage the recurrence of some of our prophecys most characteristic thoughts. We feel, therefore, no reason for counting the passage to be by another hand than that which has mainly written "Second Isaiah." It may be at once admitted that he has incorporated in it earlier phrases, reminiscences, and echoes of language about the fall of Jerusalem in use when the Lamentations were written. But this was a natural thing for him to do in a prayer in which he represented the whole people and took upon himself the full burden of their woes.
If such be the intention of Isaiah 63:7 through Isaiah 64, then in them we have one of the noblest passages of our prophets great work. How like he is to the Servant he pictured for us! How his great heart fulfils the loftiest ideal of Service: not only to be the prophet and the judge of his people, but to make himself one with them in all their sin and sorrow, to carry them all in his heart. Truly, as his last words said of the Servant, he himself "bears the sin of many, and interposes for the transgressors." Before we see the answer he gets, let us make clear some obscure things and appreciate some beautiful ones in his prayer.
It opens with a recital of Jehovahs ancient lovingkindness and mercies to Israel. This is what perhaps gives it connection with the previous section. In chapter 62 the prophet, though sure of the coming glory, wrote before it had come, and "urged" upon "the Lords remembrancers to keep no silence, and give Him no silence till He establish and till He make Jerusalem a praise in the earth." This work of remembrancing, the prophet himself takes up in Isa_63:7 : "The lovingkindnesses of Jehovah I will record," literally, "cause to be remembered, the praises of Jehovah, according to all that Jehovah hath bestowed upon us." And then he beautifully puts all the beginnings of Gods dealings with His people in His trusting of them: "For He said, Surely they are My people, children that will not deal falsely; so He became their Saviour. In all their affliction He was afflicted, the Angel of His Face saved them." This must be understood, not as an angel of the Presence, who went out from the Presence to save the people, but, as it is in other Scriptures, Gods own Presence, God Himself; and so interpreted, the phrase falls into line with the rest of the verse, which is one of the most vivid expressions that the Bible contains of the personality of God. "In His love and in His pity He redeemed them, and bare them, and carried them all the days of old." Then he tells us how they disappointed and betrayed this trust, ever since the Exodus, the days of old. "But they rebelled and grieved the Spirit of His holiness: therefore He was turned to be their enemy, He Himself fought against them." This refers to their history down to, and especially during, the Exile: compare Isa_42:24-25. Then in their affliction they "remembered the days of old"-the English version obscures the sequence here by translating he remembered- and then follows the glorious account of the Exodus. In Isa_63:13 the wilderness is, of course, prairie, flat pasture-land; they were led as smoothly as "a horse in a meadow, that they stumbled not. As cattle that come down into the valley"-cattle coming down from the hillside to pasture and rest on the green, watered plains-"the Spirit of Jehovah caused them to rest: so didst Thou lead Thy people to make Thyself a glorious name." And then having offered such precedents, the prophets prayer breaks forth to a God, whom His people fed no longer at their head, but far withdrawn into heaven: "Look down from heaven, and behold from the habitation of Thy holiness and Thy glory: where is Thy zeal and Thy mighty deeds? the surge of Thy bowels and Thy compassions are restrained towards me." Then he pleads Gods fatherhood to the nation, and the rest of the prayer alternates between the hopeless misery and undeserving sin of the people, and, notwithstanding, the power of God to save as He did in times of old; the willingness of God to meet with those who wait for Him and remember Him; and, once more, His fatherhood, and His power over them, as the power of the potter over the clay.
Two points stand out from the rest. The Divine Trust, from which all Gods dealing with His people is said to have started, and the Divine Fatherhood, which the prophet pleads.
"He said, Surely they are My people, children that will not deal falsely: so He was their Saviour." The "surely" is not the fiat of sovereignty or foreknowledge: it is the hope and confidence of love. It did not prevail; it was disappointed.
This is, of course, a profound acknowledgment of mans free will. It is implied that mens conduct must remain an uncertain thing, and that in calling men God cannot adventure upon greater certainty than is implied in the trust of affection. If one asks, What, then, about Gods foreknowledge, who alone knoweth the end of a thing from the beginning, and His sovereign grace, who chooseth whom He will? are you not logically bound to these?-then it can only be asked in return, Is it not better to be without logic for a little, if at the expense of it we obtain so true, so deep a glimpse into Gods heart as this simple verse affords us? Which is better for us to know-that God is Wisdom which knows all, or Love that dares and ventures all? Surely, that God is Love which dares and ventures all with the worst, with the most hopeless of us. This is what makes this single verse of Scripture more powerful to move the heart than all creeds and catechisms. For where these speak of sovereign will, and often mock our affections with the bare and heavy (if legitimate) sceptre they sway, this calls forth our love, honour, and obedience by the heart it betrays in God. Of what unsuspicious trust, of what chivalrous adventure of love, of what fatherly confidence, does it speak! What a religion is this of ours in the power of which a man may every morning rise and feel himself thrilled by the thought that God trusts him enough to work with His will for the day; in the power of which a man may look round and see the sordid, hopeless human life about him glorified by the truth that for the salvation of such God did adventure Himself in a love that laid itself down in death. The attraction and power of such a religion can never die. Requiring no painful thought to argue it into reality, it leaps to light before the natural affection of mans heart; it takes his instincts immediately captive; it gives him a conscience, an honour, and an obligation. No wonder that our prophet, having such a belief, should once more identify himself with the people, and adventure himself with the weight of their sin before God.
The other point of the prayer is the Fatherhood of God, concerning which all that is needful to say here is that the prophet, true to the rest of Old Testament teaching on the subject, applies it only to Gods relation to the nation as a whole. In the Old Testament no one is called the son of God except Israel as a people, or some individual representative and head of Israel. And even of such the term was seldom employed. This was not because the Hebrew was without temptation to imagine his physical descent from the gods, for neighbouring nations indulged in such dreams for themselves and their heroes; nor because he was without appreciation of the intellectual kinship between the human and the Divine, for he knew that in the beginning God had said, "Let us make man in our own image." But the same feeling prevailed with him in regard to this idea, as we have seen prevailed in regard to the kindred idea of God as the husband of His people. The prophets were anxious to emphasise that it was a moral relation, -a moral relation, and one initiated from Gods side by certain historical acts of His free, selecting, redeeming, and adopting love. Israel was not Gods son till God had evidently called and redeemed him. Look at how our prophet uses the word Father, and to what he makes it equivalent. The first time it is equivalent to Redeemer: "Thou, O Lord, art our Father; our Redeemer from old is Thy name". {Isa_63:16 b} The second time it is illustrated by the work of the potter: "But now, O Lord, Thou art our Father; we are the clay, and Thou our potter; and we are all the work of Thy hand". {Isa_64:8} Could it be made plainer in what sense the Bible defines this relation between God and man? It is not a physical, nor is it an intellectual relation. The assurance and the virtue of it do not come to men with their blood or with the birth of their intellect, but in the course of moral experience, with the sense that God claims them from sin and from the world for Himself; with the gift of a calling and a destiny; with the formation of character, the perfecting of obedience, the growth in His knowledge and His grace. And because it is a moral relation time is needed to realise it, and only after long patience and effort may it be unhesitatingly claimed. And that is why Israel was so long in claiming it, and why the clearest, most undoubting cries to God the Father, which rise from the Greek in the earliest period of his history, reach our ears from Jewish lips only near the end of their long progress, only (as we see from our prayer) in a time of trial and affliction.
We have a New Testament echo of this Old Testament belief in the Fatherhood of God, as a moral and not a national relation, in Pauls writings, who in the Second Epistle to the Corinthians {2Co_6:17-18} urges thus: "Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be My sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty."
On these grounds, then, -that God in His great love had already adventured Himself with this whole people, and already by historical acts of election and redemption proved Himself the Father of the nation as a whole, -does our prophet plead with Him to save them all again. The answer to this pleading he gets in chapter 65.
II. GODS ANSWER TO THE PROPHETS INTERCESSION
(Chapter 65)
Gods answer to His prophets intercession is twofold. First, He says that He has already all this time been trying them with love, meeting them with salvation; but they have not turned to Him. The prophet has asked, "Where is Thy zeal? the yearning of Thy bowels and Thy compassions are restrained towards me. Thou hast hid Thy face far from us. Wilt Thou refrain Thyself for these things, O Jehovah? Wilt Thou hold Thy peace and afflict us very sore?" And now, "in the beginning of chapter 65, Jehovah answers, not with that confusion of tenses and irrelevancy of words with which the English version makes Him speak; but suitably, relevantly, and convincingly." "I have been to be inquired of those who asked not for Me. I have been to be found of them that sought Me not. I have been saying, I am here, I am here, to a nation that did not call on My name. I have stretched out My hands all the day to a people turning away, who walk in a way that is not good, after their own thoughts; a people that have been provoking Me to My face continually,"-and then He details their idolatry. This, then, is the answer of the Lord to the prophets appeal. "In this I have not all power. It is wrong to talk of Me as the potter and of man as the clay, as if all the active share in salvation lay with Me. Man is free, - free to withhold himself from My urgent affection; free to turn from My outstretched hands; free to choose before Me the abomination of idolatry. And this the mass of Israel have done, clinging, fanatical and self-satisfied, to their unclean and morbid imaginations of the Divine, all the time that My great prophecy by you has been appealing to them." This is a sufficient answer to the prophets prayer. Love is not omnipotent; if men disregard so open an appeal of the Love of God, they are hopeless; nothing else can save them. The sin against such love is like the sin against the Holy Ghost, of which our Lord speaks so hopelessly. Even God cannot help the despisers and abusers of Grace.
The rest of Gods answer to His prophets intercession emphasises that the nation shall be saved for the sake of a faithful remnant in it (Isa_65:8-10). But the idolaters shall perish (Isa_65:11-12). They cannot possibly expect the same fare, the same experience, the same fate, as Gods faithful servants (Isa_65:13-15). But those who are true and faithful Israelites, surviving and experiencing the promised salvation, shall find that God is true, and shall acknowledge Him as "the God of Amen, because the former troubles are forgotten" (those felt so keenly in the prophets prayer in chapter 64) "and because they are hid from Mine eyes." The rest of the answer describes a state of serenity and happiness wherein there shall be no premature death, nor loss of property, nor vain labour, nor miscarriage, nor disappointment of prayer nor delay in its answer, nor strife between man and the beasts, nor any hurt or harm in Jehovahs Holy Mountain. Truly a prospect worthy of being named as the prophet names it, "a new heaven and a new earth!"
Chapter 65 is thus closely connected, both by circumstance and logic, with the long prayer which precedes it. The tendency of recent criticism has been to deny this connection, especially on the line of circumstance. Chapter 65 does not, it is argued, reflect the Babylonish captivity as Isaiah 63:7 through Isaiah 64 so clearly does; but, on the contrary, "while some passages presuppose the Exile as past, others refer to circumstances characteristic of Jewish life in Canaan." But this view is only possible through straining some features of the chapter adaptable either to Palestine or Babylon, and overlooking others which are obviously Babylonian. "Sacrificing in gardens and burning incense on tiles" were practices pursued in Jerusalem before the Exile, but the latter was introduced there from Babylon, and the former was universal in heathendom. The practices in Isa_65:5 are never attributed to the people before the Exile, were all possible in Babylonia, and some we know to have been actual there. The other charge of idolatry in Isa_65:11 "suits Babylonia," Cheyne admits, "as well as (probably) Palestine." But what seems decisive for the exilic origin of chapter 65 is that the possession of Judah and Zion by the seed of Jacob is still implied as future (Isa_65:9). Moreover the holy land is alluded to by the name common among the exiles in flat Mesopotamia, My mountains, and in contrast with the idolatry of which the present generation is guilty the idolatry of their fathers is characterised as having been "upon the mountains and upon the hills," and again the people is charged with "forgetting My holy mountain," a phrase reminiscent of Psa_137:4, and more appropriate to a time of exile, than when the people were gathered about Zion. All these resemblances in circumstances corroborate the strong logical connection which we have found between chapter 64 and chapter 65, and leave us no reason for taking the latter away from the main author of "Second Isaiah," though he may have worked up into it recollections and remains of an older time.
III. THE LAST JUDGMENT
(Chapter 66)
Whether with the final chapter of our prophecy we at last get footing in the Holy Land is doubtful. It was said that, "in Isa_66:1-4 the Temple is still unbuilt, but the building would seem to be already begun." This latter clause should be modified to, "the building would seem to be in immediate prospect." The rest of the chapter, Isa_66:6-24, has features that speak more definitely for the period after the Return; but even they are not conclusive, and their effect is counterbalanced by some other verses. Isa_66:6 may imply that the Temple is rebuilt, and Isa_66:20 that the sacrifices are resumed; but, on the other hand, these verses may be, like parts of chapter 60, statements of the prophets vivid vision of the future. Isa_66:7-8 seem to describe a repeopling of Jerusalem that has already taken place; but Isa_66:9 says, that while the "bringing to the birth" has already happened, which is, as we must suppose, the deliverance from Babylon, -or is it the actual arrival at Jerusalem?-the "bringing forth from the womb," that is, the complete restoration of the people, has still to take place. Isa_66:13 is certainly addressed to those who are not yet in Jerusalem.
These few points reveal how difficult, nay, how impossible, it is to decide the question of date, as between the days immediately before the Return and the days immediately after. To the present expositor the balance of evidence seems to be with the later date. But the difference is very small. We are at least sure-and it is really all that we require to know-that the rebuilding of Jerusalem is very near, nearer than it has been felt in any previous chapter. The Temple is, so to speak, within sight, and the prophet is able to talk of the regular round of sacrifices and sacred festivals almost as if they had been resumed.
To the people, then, either in the near prospect of Return, or immediately after some of them had arrived in Jerusalem, the prophet addresses a number of oracles, in which he pursues the division that chapter 65 had emphasised between the two parties in Israel. These oracles are so, intricate that we are compelled to take up the chapter verse by verse. The first of them begins by correcting certain false feelings in Israel, excited by former promises of the rebuilding and the glory of the Temple. "Thus saith Jehovah, The heavens are My throne, and earth is My footstool: what is this for a house that ye will build (or, are building) Me, and what is this for a place for My rest? Yea, all these things" (that is, all the visible works of God in heaven and earth) "My hand hath made, and so came to pass all these things, saith Jehovah. But unto this will I look, unto the humble and contrite spirit, and that trembleth at My word." These verses do not run counter to, or even go beyond, anything that our prophet has already said. They do not condemn the building of the Temple: this was not possible for a prophecy which contains chapter 60. They condemn only the kind of temple which those whom they address had in view, -a shrine to which the presence of Jehovah was limited, and on the raising and maintenance of which the religion and righteousness of the people should depend. While the former Temple was standing, the mass of the people had thus misconceived it, imagining that it was enough for national religion to have such a structure standing and honoured in their midst. And now, before it is built again, the exiles are cherishing about it the same formal and materialistic thoughts. Therefore the prophet rebukes them, as his predecessors had rebuked their fathers, and reminds them of a truth he has already uttered, that though the Temple is raised, according to Gods own promise and direction, it wilt not be to its structure, as they conceive of it, that He will have respect, but to the existence among them of humble and sincere personal piety. The Temple is to be raised: "the place of His feet God will make glorious," and men shall gather round it from the whole earth, for instruction, for comfort, and for rejoicing. But. let them not think it to be indispensable either to God or to man, -not to God, who has heaven for His throne and earth for His footstool; nor to man, for God looks direct to man, if only man be humble, penitent, and sensitive to His word. These verses, then, do not go beyond the Old Testament limit; they leave the Temple standing, but they say so much about Gods other sanctuary man, that when His use for the Temple shall be past, His Servant Stephen {Act_7:49} shall be able to employ these words to prove why it should disappear.
The next verse is extremely difficult. Here it is literally: "A slaughterer of the ox, a slayer of a man; a sacrificer of the lamb, a breaker of a dogs neck; an offerer of meat-offering, swines blood; the maker of a memorial offering of incense, one that blesseth an idol, or vanity." Four legal sacrificial acts are here coupled with four unlawful sacrifices to idols. Does this mean that in the eye of God, impatient even of the ritual He has consecrated, when performed by men who do not tremble at His word, each of these lawful sacrifices is as worthless and odious as the idolatrous practice associated with it, -the slaughter of the ox as the offering of a human sacrifice, and so forth? Or does the verse mean that there are persons in Israel who combine, like the Corinthians blamed by Paul, {1 Corinthians 10} both the true and the idolatrous ritual, both the table of the Lord and the table of devils? Our answer will depend on whether we take the four parallels with Isa_66:2, which precedes them, or with the rest of Isa_66:3, to which they belong, and Isa_66:4. If we take them with Isa_66:2, then we must adopt the first, the alternative meaning; if with Isa_66:4, then the second of these meanings is the right one. Now there is no grammatical connection, nor any transparent logical one, between Isa_66:2 and Isa_66:3, but there is a grammatical connection with the rest of Isa_66:3. Immediately after the pairs of lawful and unlawful sacrificial acts, Isa_66:3 continues, "yea, they have chosen their own ways, and their soul delighteth in their abominations." That surely signifies that the unlawful sacrifices in Isa_66:3 are things already committed and delighted in, and the meaning of putting them in parallel to the lawful sacrifices of Jehovahs religion is either that Israelites have committed them instead of the lawful sacrifices, or along with these. In this case, Isa_66:3-4 form a separate discourse by themselves, with no relation to the equally distinct oracle in Isa_66:1 and Isa_66:2. The subject of Isa_66:3-4 is, therefore, the idolatrous Israelites. They are delivered unto Satan, their choice; they shall have no part in the coming Salvation: In Isa_66:5 the faithful in Israel, who have obeyed Gods word by the prophet, are comforted under the mocking of their brethren, who shall certainly be put to shame. Already the prophet hears the preparation of the judgment against them (Isa_66:6). It comes forth from the city where they had mockingly cried for Gods glory to appear. The mocked city avenges itself on them. "Hark, a roar from the City! Hark, from the Temple! Hark, Jehovah accomplishing vengeance on His enemies!" A new section begins with Isa_66:7, and celebrates to Isa_66:9 the sudden re-population of the City by her children, either as already a fact, or, more probably, as a near certainty. Then comes a call to the children, restored, or about to be restored, to congratulate their mother and "to enjoy her. The prophet rewakens the figure, that is ever nearest his heart, of motherhood, -children suckled, borne, and cradled in the lap of their mother fill all his view; nay, finer still, the grown man coming back with wounds and weariness upon him to be comforted of his mother." As a man whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you, and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem. And ye shall see, and rejoice shall your heart, and your bones shall flourish like the tender grass." But this great light shines not to flood all Israel in One, but to cleave the nation in two, like a sword of judgment. "The hand of Jehovah shall be known towards His servants, but He will have indignation against His enemies" (enemies, that is, within Israel. Then comes the fiery judgment) "For by fire will Jehovah plead, and by His sword with, all flesh; and the slain of Jehovah shall be many. Why there should be slain of Jehovah within Israel is then explained. Within Israel there are idolaters: "they that consecrate themselves and practise purification for the gardens, after one in the middle; eaters of swines flesh, and the Abomination, and the Mouse. They shall come to an end together, saith Jehovah, for I" (know, or will punish,) "their works and their thoughts." In this eighteenth verse the punctuation is uncertain, and probably the text is corrupt. The first part of the verse should evidently go, as above, with Isa_66:17. Then begins a new subject.
"It is coming to gather all the nations and the tongues, and they shall come and shall see My glory; and I will set among them a sign" (a marvellous and mighty act, probably of judgment, for he immediately speaks of their survivors) "and I will send the escaped of them to the nations Tarshish, and Lud, drawers of the bow, to Tubal and Javan" (that is, to far Spain, and the distances of Africa, towards the Black Sea and to "Greece, a full round of the compass) the isles far off that have not heard report of Me, nor have seen My glory; and they shall recount My glory among the nations. And they shall bring all your brethren from among all the nations an offering to Jehovah, on horses and in chariots and in litters, and on mules and on dromedaries, up on the Mount of My Holiness, Jerusalem, saith Jehovah, just as when the children of Israel bring the offering in a clean vessel to the house of Jehovah. And also from them will I take to be priests, to be Levites, saith Jehovah. For like as the new heavens and the new earth which I am making shall be standing before Me, saith Jehovah, so shall stand your seed and your name." But again the prophecy swerves from the universal hope into which we expect it to break, and gives us instead a division and a judgment: the servants of Jehovah on one side occupied in what the prophet regards as the ideal life, regular worship-so little did he mean Isa_66:1 to be a condemnation of the Temple and its ritual!-and on the other the rebels unburied carcasses gnawed by the worm and by fire, an abomination to all. "And it shall come to pass from new moon to new moon, and from sabbath to sabbath, all flesh shall come to worship before Me, saith Jehovah: and they shall go out and look on the carcasses of the men who have rebelled against Me; for their worm dieth not, and their fire is not quenched, and they shall be an abhorrence to all flesh."
We have thus gone step by step through the chapter, because its intricacies and sudden changes were not otherwise to be mastered. What exactly it is composed of must, we fear, still remain a problem. Who can tell whether its short, broken pieces are all originally from our prophets hand, or were gathered by him from others, or were the fragments of his teaching which the reverent hands of disciples picked carefully up that nothing might be lost? Sometimes we think it must be this last alternative that happened; for it seems impossible that pieces so strange to each other, so loosely connected, could have flowed from one mind at one time. But then again we think otherwise, when we see how the chapter as a whole continues the separation made evident in chapter 65, and runs it on to a last emphatic contrast.
So we are left by the prophecy, -not with the new heavens and the new earth which it promised: not with the holy mountain on which none shall hurt nor destroy, saith the Lord; not with a Jerusalem full of glory and a people all holy, the centre of a gathered humanity, -but with the city like to a judgment floor, and upon its narrow surface a people divided between worship and a horrible woe.
O Jerusalem, City of the Lord, Mother eagerly desired of her children, radiant light to them that sit in darkness and are far off, home after exile, haven after storm, -expected as the Lords garner, thou art still to be only His threshing-floor, and heaven and hell as of old shall, from new moon to new moon, through the revolving years, lie side by side within thy narrow walls! For from the day that Araunah the Jebusite threshed out his sheaves upon thy high windswept rock, to the day when the Son of Man standing over against thee divided in his last discourse the sheep from the goats, the wise from the foolish, and the loving from the selfish, thou hast been appointed of God for trial and separation and judgment.
It is a terrible ending to such a prophecy as ours. But is any other possible? We ask how can this contiguity of heaven and hell be within the Lords own city, after all His yearning and jealousy for her, after His fierce agony and strife with her enemies, after so clear a revelation of Himself, so long a providence, so glorious a deliverance? Yet, it is plain that nothing else can result, if the men on whose ears the great prophecy had fallen, with all its music and all its gospel, and who had been partakers of the Lords Deliverance, did yet continue to prefer their idols, their swines flesh, their mouse, their broth of abominable things, their sitting in graves, to so evident a God and to so great a grace.
It is a terrible ending, but it is the same as upon the same floor Christ set to His teaching, -the gospel net cast wide, but only to draw in both good and bad upon a beach of judgment; the wedding feast thrown open and men compelled to come in, but among them a heart whom grace so great could not awe even to decency; Christs gospel preached, His Example evident, and Himself owned as Lord, and nevertheless some whom neither the hearing nor the seeing nor the owning with their lips did lift to unselfishness or stir to pity. Therefore He who had cried, "Come all unto Me," was compelled to close by saying to many, "Depart."
It is a terrible ending, but one only too conceivable. For though God is love, man is free, -free to turn from that love; free to be as though he had never felt it; free to put away from himself the highest, clearest, most urgent grace that God can show. But to do this is the judgment.
"Lord, are there few that be saved?"
The Lord did not answer the question but by bidding the questioner take heed to himself:
"Strive to enter in at the strait gate."
Almighty and most merciful God, who hast sent this book to be the revelation of Thy great love to man, and of Thy power and will to save him, grant that our study of it may not have been in vain by the callousness or carelessness of our hearts, but that by it we may be confirmed in penitence, lifted to hope, made strong for service, and above all filled with the true knowledge of Thee and of Thy Son Jesus Christ, Amen.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v9 Isa_63:9. In all their affliction He was afflicted, &c.
THE SYMPATHY OF CHRIST
Isa_63:9. In all their affliction He was afflicted, &c.
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There is no man so great as not to need at some season or other the sympathy of his friend, &c. If human sympathy be so valuable how much more Divine, &c. Christ once suffered for us, He always suffers with us, &c. We have here—
I. HUMAN CALAMITY SUPPOSED. The text supposes that affliction may be great,—sorrow upon sorrow, that we are unable to endure the pressure of grief alone, and that adequate occasions for God’s special interference may frequently occur. This was the case with the Church in captivity, &c. Human calamity is the same thing still, &c. There is an awful reality in grief, which, like an overwhelming burden, crushes the spirit and overpowers the resources, &c. Or the human mind may be burdened with the sense of guilt, personal afflictions, bereavements, &c. Who can hush the grief and afford adequate relief under all the sorrows and calamities of life. There is but One in the universe can do it, and to Him the text points.
II. DIVINE COMPASSION EXPRESSED.
1. His compassion is most real and perfect. He is afflicted with the afflictions of His people. His sympathy is no imaginary consolation. He ascended in the nature in which He suffered. He knows by experience the nature of human trial, and can meet the exigency alike of real and groundless alarm, &c.
2. His aid is exerted in the most seasonable time. In His interpositions there is never any unnecessary or fatal delay.
3. There is an ineffable kindness in His dispensations which cannot be mistaken.
4. Constant and unchangeable.
CONCLUSION.—
1. Ascertain your title to His peculiar sympathy.
2. Carry your griefs to Him. He is engaged to relieve all the trouble, and forgive all the guilt that is brought to Him.
3. Acknowledge your past obligations.
4. Be a saviour to others (2Co_1:3).—Samuel Thodey.
I. Divine sympathy. II. Interposition. III. Love. IV. Care.—Dr. Lyth.
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.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On v9
Isaiah
THE SYMPATHY OF GOD
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Isa 63:9.
I. The wonderful glimpse opened here into the heart of God.
It is not necessary to touch upon the difference between the text and margin of the Revised Version, or to enter on the reason for preferring the former. And what a deep and wonderful thought that is, of divine sympathy with human sorrow! We feel that this transcends the prevalent tone of the Old Testament. It is made the more striking by reason of the other sides of the divine nature which the Old Testament gives so strongly; as, for instance, the unapproachable elevation and absolute sovereignty of God, and the retributive righteousness of God.
Affliction is His chastisement, and is ever righteously inflicted. But here is something more, tender and strange. Sympathy is a necessary part of love. There is no true affection which does not put itself in the place and share the sorrows of its objects. And His sympathy is none the less because He inflicts the sorrow. These afflictions wherein He too was afflicted, were sent by Him. Like an earthly father who suffers more than the child whom he chastises, the Heavenly Father feels the strokes that He inflicts.
That sympathy is consistent with the blessedness of God. Even in the pain of our human sympathy there is a kind of joy, and we may be sure that in His nature there is nothing else.
Contrast with other thoughts about God.
The vague agnosticism of the present day, which knows only a dim Something of which we can predicate nothing.
The God of the philosophers-whom we are bidden to think of as passionless and unemotional. No wave of feeling ever ripples that tideless sea. The attribute of infinitude or sovereign completeness is dwelt on with such emphasis as to obscure all the rest.
The gods of men’s own creation are careless in their happiness, and cruel in their vengeance. But here is a God for all the weary and the sorrowful. What a thought for us in our own burdened days!
II. The mystery of the divine salvation.
Of course the salvation here spoken of is the deliverance from Egyptian bondage. This is a summary of the Exodus. But we must mark well that significant expression, ‘the angel of His face’ or ‘presence.’ We can only attempt a partial and bald enumeration of some of the very remarkable references to that mysterious person, ‘the angel of the Lord ‘or ‘of the presence.’ The dying Jacob ascribed his being ‘redeemed from all evil’ to ‘the Angel,’ and invoked his blessing on ‘the lads.’ ‘The angel of the Lord’ appeared to Moses out of the midst of the burning bush. On Sinai, Jehovah promised to send an ‘angel’ in whom was His own name, before the people. The promise was renewed after Israel’s sin and repentance, and was then given in the form, ‘My presence shall go with thee.’ Joshua saw a man with a drawn sword in his hand, who declared himself to be the Captain of the Lord’s host. ‘The angel of the Lord’ appeared to Manoah and his wife, withheld his name from them because it was ‘wonderful’ or ‘secret,’ accepted their sacrifice, and went up to heaven in its flame. Wherefore Manoah said, ‘We have seen God.’ Long after these early visions, a psalmist knows himself safe because ‘the angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear Him.’ Hosea, looking back on the story of Jacob’s wrestling at Peniel, says, first, that ‘he had power with God, yea, he had power over the angel,’ and then goes on to say that ‘there He spake with us, even Jehovah.’ And Malachi, on the last verge of Old Testament prophecy, goes furthest of all in seeming to run together the conceptions of Jehovah and the Angel of Jehovah, for he says, ‘The Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to His temple; and the angel of the covenant . . . behold, he cometh.’ From this imperfect resume, we see that there appears in the earliest as in the latest books of the Old Testament, a person distinguished from the hosts of angels, identified in a very remarkable manner with Jehovah, by alternation of names, in attributes and offices, and in receiving worship, and being the organ of His revelation. That special relation to the divine revelation is expressed by both the representation that ‘Jehovah’s name is in him,’ and by the designation in our text, ‘the angel of His presence,’ or literally, ‘of His face.’ For ‘name’ and ‘face’ are in so far synonymous that they mean the side of the divine nature which is turned to the world.
For the present I go no further than this. It is clear, then, that our text is at all events remarkable, in that it ascribes to this ‘angel of His presence’ the praise of Jehovah’s saving work. The loving heart, afflicted in all their afflictions, sends forth the messenger of His face, and by Him is salvation wrought. The whole sum of the deliverance of Israel in the past is attributed to Him. Surely this must have been felt by a devout Jew to conceal some great mystery.
III. The crowning revelation both of the heart of God and of His saving power.
{a} Jesus Christ is the true ‘angel of the face.’
I do not need to enter on the question of whether in the Old Testament the angel of the Covenant was indeed a pre-manifestation of the eternal Son. I am disposed to answer it in the affirmative. But be that as it may, all that was spoken of the angel is true of Him. God’s name is in Him, and that not in fragments or half-syllables but complete. The face of God looks lovingly on men in Him, so that Jesus could declare, ‘He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.’ His presence brings God’s presence, and He can venture to say, ‘We will come and make our abode with Him.’ He is the agent of the divine salvation.
The identity and the difference are here in their highest form.
{b} The mystery of God’s sharing our sorrows is explained in Him.
We may find a difficulty in the thought of a suffering and sympathising God. But if we believe that ‘My name is in Him,’ then the sympathy and gentleness of Jesus is the compassion of God. This is a true revelation. So tears at the grave sighs in healing, and all the sorrows which He bore are an unveiling of the heart of God.
That sharing our sorrows is the very heart of His work. We might almost say that He became man in order to increase His power of sympathy, as a prince might temporarily become a pauper. But certainly He became man that He might bear our burdens. ‘Himself took our infirmities.’ ‘Forasmuch as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He himself also likewise took part of the same.’
The atoning death is the climax of Christ’s being afflicted with our afflictions. His priestly sympathy flows out now and for ever to us all.
So complete is His unity with God, that He works the salvation which is God’s, and that God’s name is in Him. So complete is His union with us, that our sorrows touch Him and His life becomes ours. ‘Ye have done it unto Me.’ ‘Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?’
For us in all our troubles there are no darker rooms than Christ has been in before us. We are like prisoners put in the same cell as some great martyr. He drank the cup, and we can put the rim to our lips at the place that His lips have touched. But not only may we have our sufferings lightened by the thought that He has borne the same, and that we know the ‘fellowship of Christ’s sufferings,’ but we have the further alleviation of being sure that He makes our afflictions His by perfect sympathy, and, still more wonderful and blessed, that there is such unity of life and sensation between the Head and the members that our afflictions are His, and are not merely made so.
‘Think not thou canst sigh a sigh,
And thy Saviour is not by;
Think not thou canst shed a tear
And thy Saviour is not near.’
Do not front the world alone. In all our afflictions He is with us; out of them all He saves.
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v7 Past Deliverances and Present Needs
Past Deliverances and Present Needs
Isa_63:7-14. Commemoration of Jehovah's mercies to Israel in the past.
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Isa_64:5 a. Prayer that He will interpose to deliver His people from their present calamities.
Isa_64:5-12. Acknowledgment that these are due to their sins. Appeal to Jehovah that He will look upon the pitiable state of His people and sanctuary.
8. Lie] RV 'deal falsely.'
9. He was afflicted] so Heb. traditional reading, meaning that He felt His people's pains as His own (Jdg_10:16). But Heb. written text 'he was no adversary' (RM), but, on the contrary, their deliverer. The angel] see Exo_23:20; Exo_32:34; Exo_33:2.
Bare them] see Deu_1:31; Deu_32:11.
10. Cp. Psa_78:40.
11. He (Israel) remembered] The thought of past mercies evoked penitence (Psa_78:35). Shepherd] RV 'shepherds.' Within him] i.e. Israel, e.g. Exo_35:31; Num_11:25.
12. RV 'That caused his glorious arm to go at the right hand of Moses.' Arm] see Isa_51:9 (also in connexion with the exodus).
13. In the wilderness] i.e. in a grassy plain.
14. RV 'As the cattle that go down.' This refers to the settlement in Canaan.
15. Strength] RV 'mighty acts.' Sounding of thy bowels] stands for sympathetic pity (Isa_16:11). Read, 'the sounding.. and thy mercies toward me are restrained.'
16. The patriarchs might disown their descendants, but Jehovah's love is sure. The thought is similar to Isa_49:15. The passage is remarkable as one of the very few in OT. where God is addressed as Father (Isa_64:8). 17f. A bold expostulation. Hardened, etc.] Have their sins caused God to give them up and become their adversary, as in Pharaoh's case?
18. A little while] whereas Jehovah had promised them an everlasting inheritance!
19. RV 'We are become as they over whom thou never barest rule; as they that were not called' etc.
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 v9 angel (See Scofield "Heb 1:4")
angel (See Scofield "Heb 1:4")
redeemed Heb. "goel," Redemp. (Kinsman type). (See Scofield "Isa 59:20").
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 v7 The Great Intercessory Prayer
CHAPTER 63:7-19-64:12
The Great Intercessory Prayer
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1. Jehovah’s loving kindness and power in the past remembered (Isa 63:7-14) 2. Their deepest need (Isa 63:15) 3. The cry of faith, Thou art our Father (Isa 63:16) 4. The increasing plea (Isa 63:17-19) 5. The prayer for Jehovah’s manifestation (Isa 64:1-4) 6. Confession and humiliation (Isa 64:5-7) 7. The cry for mercy and help (Isa 64:8-12) This is one of the greatest prayers in the Bible. The prophet no doubt prayed it first of all, and the Spirit of Christ through him. But its full meaning will be reached when the faithful remnant of Israel in the end time cries for help and deliverance during the great tribulation. When Daniel discovered that the end of the Babylonian captivity was at hand, he uttered a great prayer Dan 9:1-27. The same beautiful spirit of a contrite heart, confession of sin, trust in Jehovah, pleading for Jerusalem and expectation of deliverance, which characterizes Daniel’s prayer is seen in this great prayer. Many of the prayers in the book of Psalms are the prayers of the remnant suffering in the land before the Second Advent.
The remaining two chapters contain the answer to this prayer.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v7 The Lord’s Loving-Kindness in the Past and his People’s…
The Lord’s Loving-Kindness in the Past and his People’s Prayers.
v. 7. I will mention the loving-kindnesses of the Lord, so the pious believer sings, and the praises of the Lord, His glorious deeds, according to all that the Lord hath bestowed on us, to which the hymn of thanksgiving must properly correspond, and the great goodness toward the house of Israel which He hath bestowed on them according to His mercies, which is the source of all His acts of goodness, and according to the multitude of His loving-kindnesses. The grace and mercy of the Lord to this day is our chief motive for singing His praises.
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v. 8. For He said, Surely they are My people, chosen by Him as His own, children that will not lie, who will not become guilty of disloyalty; so, as a result of this confidence in them, He was their Savior, who brought them permanent deliverance.
v. 9. In all their affliction He was afflicted, in all their tribulation there was no overwhelming affliction for them, and the angel of His presence saved them, or, "No messenger (or angel)—with His own countenance He helped them," that is, in the last instance, through the redemption of the Messiah; in His love and in His pity He redeemed them, Cf Exodus 32, 33; Numbers 14; and He bare them and carried them all the days of old, namely, during the days of the wilderness journey.
v. 10. But they rebelled, as the story of those days so abundantly shows, and vexed His Holy Spirit, the third person of the Godhead thus being spoken of as present during the days of the wilderness sojourn; therefore He was turned to be their enemy, as when He sent the fiery serpents and brought other severe punishments upon them, and He fought against them, also at a later time, when He permitted their enemies to overthrow them.
v. 11. Then he, or men in general, especially the children of Israel themselves, remembered the days of old, Moses and his people, they reminded themselves of that deliverance, saying, Where is He that brought them up out of the sea, when Israel passed through the Red Sea, with the shepherd of His flock? Moses himself being represented as an excellent shepherd and guide of the people. Where is He that put His Holy Spirit within him? namely, in the midst of the Lord’s flock, the reference being to the power of the Spirit imparted to Moses and the other princes of the people; Cf Num 11:17-25; Num 14:24; Num 27:18; Deu 34:9;
v. 12. that led them by the right hand of Moses with His glorious arm, so that Moses was not left to shift for himself, but had the almighty power of the Lord to serve him, dividing the water before them, Exo 14:21; Jos 3:16, to make Himself an everlasting name? the Lord’s glory being promoted by this proof of His almighty power;
v. 13. that led them through the deep, when they passed streams in safety, as an horse in the wilderness, that they should not stumble? or, "As horses in the plains they did not stumble. "
v. 14. As a beast goeth down into the valley, the Spirit of the Lord caused him, namely, Israel, to rest, namely, in the Land of Promise, so didst Thou lead Thy people to make Thyself a glorious name. Having thus pictured the manner in which the people in days of old turned to their almighty Deliverer and by Him were brought to the promised haven of rest, the believer now makes an appeal to the almighty power and the mercy of the Lord over against the present difficult situation.
v. 15. Look down from heaven and behold from the habitation of Thy holiness and of Thy glory, to which He had apparently retired, leaving His people to their fate; where is Thy zeal and Thy strength, the mighty deeds which He had exhibited so often in days of old, the sounding of Thy bowels, the abundance of His sympathy, and of Thy mercies toward me? Are they restrained? It is a powerful appeal: Do not restrain them; do not hold back at this time! To this the petitioner adds a confident statement:
v. 16. Doubtless Thou art our Father, that being the reason for the trustful prayer, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not, both of them being up in heaven and no longer cognizant of affairs of this life. Thou, O Lord, art our Father, by virtue of creation and redemption, our Redeemer; Thy name is from everlasting, or, "Our Redeemer from everlasting, that is Thy name. " Jehovah is known in Israel as the God who saves and redeems in truth, in whom all believers, all His children, may and shall safely trust.
v. 17. O Lord, why hast, Thou made us to err from Thy ways, why did He permit this going astray, and hardened our heart from Thy fear? so that the judgment of hardening goes into effect upon those who despise His grace and mercy. Return for Thy servants’ sake, on account of the relation of the covenant which obtained between the Lord and His people, the tribes of Thine inheritance, whom He Himself had chosen to be partakers of His blessings. One of the most effective forms of praying is that of taking the Lord aside, as it were, and reminding Him of His promises, to hold Him to His Word.
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 vv7, 9 I will tell of the acts of Yahweh's covenant…
I will tell of the acts of Yahweh's covenant faithfulness
The abstract noun "faithfulness" can be stated as "faithfully" or "faithful." See how you translated "covenant faithfulness" in Isaiah 16:5. AT: "I will tell about how God has acted faithfully to his covenant" or "I will tell about all the faithful things God has done for his people" (See: Abstract Nouns)
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I will tell
Here "I" refers to Isaiah.
done for us
Here "us" refers to Isaiah and the people of Israel. (See: Inclusive "We")
translationWords
Yahweh
covenant faithfulness
praise
works
house
Israel
compassion
mercy
people of God
children
Savior
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 vv7–9 63:7-14 The prophet reflects on Israel’s past, how God…
63:7-14 The prophet reflects on Israel’s past, how God showed his unfailing love and how his people alternatively rebelled against him, suffered hardship, returned to the Lord, and experienced his blessing.
63:7 unfailing love . . . all he has done . . . his great goodness: The whole history of God’s care for his people demonstrates his compassion, provision, and protection.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.