AFTER the settlement of Israel in Canaan, through the times of the Judges, the word of a Prophet was sent only occasionally to God’s nation; for the law and its officers, the Tabernacle and its services were provided for them. But towards the close of those times, when by reason of the iniquity of Eli’s house, the Ark had been taken and the glory had thus departed from Israel, the Lord began, in the person of Samuel, to erect among His people another ministry (the ministry of Prophets) less formal than that of the priesthood, and in some sense instead of it. And from thenceforward, in a continued succession, (Acts 3:24.) He called out to this ministry certain chosen ones, whom, in a manner quite independent of the originally established order of things which was now much corrupted, He anointed as with His own hand to their holy office.
These Prophets were, each of them in his day and generation, eminent for high and holy character. Their service was various. As the oracles of God, they heard the word as from the Lord’s own mouth and delivered it to Israel; at times crying aloud and sparing not, showing the house of Jacob their sins, (Is. 58:1; Hos. 6:5.) and at times speaking comfortably to them. They labored and taught, rebuking iniquities, though it were found in the palace or in the temple. Under the Holy Ghost they had also to write the history of the nation. And some of their own prophecies they were to seal up and preserve for an appointed time, (Dan. 12:4.) depositing them in the tabernacle; or laying them up before the Lord. (1 Sam. 10:25.)
But their great duty was to observe the signs of the times as they passed, and by interpreting them according to the judgment of God, to direct either the hopes or fears of the people. The times were a kind of parable, which the Prophets had to explain. Therefore, when meditating on their several writings, it is needful to consider the character of the times in which they severally lived.
It was in the times of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, that Isaiah was raised lip to be one of these Prophets of the Lord. During the earlier part of Uzziah’s reign, no very distinct signs for the notice of the Prophet were developed. Judah continued, as before, to burn incense in the high places, and being thus so far like Israel, (2 Kings 15:1-4,) the Prophets Amos and Hosea, who at that time were stationed in Samaria, speak of Judah as involved to some extent in the sin and judgment of Israel. But Uzziah himself was doing that which was right, as his father had done, (2 Kings 15:3.) and the Lord made him to prosper. His enemies learned that the arm of God was with him, and his name spread abroad even to Egypt. (2 Chron. 26) But power and fame spoiled him at last. His heart was lifted up to his destruction, and he trespassed against the temple; and as the Lord always judged the nation according to the conduct of the king their representative, (2 Chron. 28:19.) I believe that now it was that Isaiah was called forth to be a Prophet in Judah; for the king’s offense brought all the national sin into view, and this watchman in Judah then received his commission to denounce judgment against the house of God. (See ch. 1-5)
As to the reign of Jotham, who succeeded Uzziah, we are told that the people still continued to do corruptly, but the king followed only all that was right in his father, without trespassing as he had done; and therefore we find that God prospered him, (2 Chron. 27) and did not send the word of His Prophet against him: for Isaiah seems, during the sixteen years of Jotham’s reign, to have delivered only the vision which is recorded in the 6th chap. and that vision has no special respect to the times at all. It was rather a sacred transaction, (as in the presence-chamber of a king,) between the Lord and His minister, and had no special respect to either Jotham or his times, as we shall see, when we consider it presently a little more particularly.
The two following reigns, however, were times of no common character, and very strikingly contrasted. Ahaz, who succeeded Jotham, walked in the wags of the kings of Israel and alter the abominations of the heathen ... Idolatry was established by royal authority, and the service of God’s temple was despised. Captivities were made of His people, and confederacies against Him of His enemies, and “Judah was brought low because of the king.” But after a dishonorable reign of sixteen years, Ahaz was succeeded by Hezekiah, who followed his father David in doing that which was right in the sight of the Lord. (2 Chron. 29) In the beginning of his reign, he opened the doors of the house of the Lord, purified the temple, and restored the worship of God. With zeal like that of a greater than he, he turned the house of God from being a house of merchandise, into a house of prayer again. He renewed, as it were, the covenant between God and the people, and there was great joy in Jerusalem, such as had not been since the days of Solomon. The Lord was therefore his protector and guide, and magnified him in the sight of all the nations. (2 Chron. 32:22, 23.)
Such very marked and varied times as had now in these two reigns passed over his country—commencing in evil under Abaz, and ending in honor and peace under Hezekiah—afforded occasion to the Spirit to seal deep instruction upon the soul of the Prophet, and to open before him visions of both the judgments and mercies of God. Accordingly, during these times, the Prophet, appears to have written from chap. 7 to the end, where, with much incidental and practical matter, we find judgment beginning at the house of God, because of transgression, but the Israel of God borne safely onward through it all, up to their rest and glory.
Now this attention to the character of the times in which our Prophet lived, aids us much in our meditation on those oracles which he was called of God to deliver, but attention to the order and arrangement of the prophecies themselves will aid us still more.
The following arrangement of his first thirty-five chapters has helped me much in understanding them, and I offer it to others, thinking that perhaps some may find it a help to them likewise. My labor is very humble—it is merely that of a pioneer; useful however, though humble; for, as another has said, “as a homely digger may show a man a rich mine, so whatever the book may be that I present to you, that which I recommend to you is a matchless one.”
But then it will be inquired, flow are we to discover the distinctness and periods of these discourses? Generally, I would reply, let the Prophets be read throughout and in order, and then let attention be given, and judgment exercised to discover their distinct interruptions and periods. And as to these chapters which I have taken for our present meditation, I would observe, that one leading rule for discovering the beginning and end of a strain is this—when the Prophet treats of the sin or judgment of Israel it is at the beginning—when of its glory, it is at the end of the strain, And this order is morally just and certain; for suffering comes before glory—judgment for correction precedes salvation. (See, among other Scriptures, John 16:20-22. 1 Peter 1:11;4. 17, 18.)
Taking, then, this rule with me, and opening for instance 12th ch. I find the glory of the Lord’s house before the eye of the Prophet; and suspecting therefore that this must be at the close of a discourse, I look at the beginning of the 13th chap. and have my suspicion confirmed by finding there a new subject altogether; so that I get the end of the strain with this 12th chap. Then tracing upwards to find the beginning of it, I discover that the Prophet appears to opens a fresh roll at chap. 10:5. Then looking at the whole discourse in order, (10:5-ch. 12) I detect clearly Isaiah’s order—judgment beginning at the house of God by (on this occasion) the hand of the Assyrian—then passing over and falling upon that proud and wrathful enemy—and the whole scene closing with the rest and glory of the house of God, in the latter days.
Again, opening chap. 4 I find glory; and therefore, because of the general rule stated above, I look at the beginning of chap. 5 and am left quite satisfied with my conclusion that chap. v. ends the discourse. Then tracing upwards, I detect a plain connection among all the parts up to the beginning of chap. 2. But there I find glory again.— “in the last days the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountain,” This then appears to be an exception from the general rule; but looking at the whole prophecy, (chap. 2-4.) I see that this beginning with glory is but a momentary anticipation of the closing scene, and that the Prophet quickly leaves it, to carry on a lengthened gloomy burden of sin and judgment, as that which in fact was to precede the glory he had been anticipating; and then at the close he draws out more fully the scene of glory.
I will not here multiply instances of this order, but I would again observe that there is great moral propriety in it, as will appear to all who have become acquainted with the great and leading principles of God’s dealings with His own people and the world. The Lord says to His people “Ye now therefore have sorrow, but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice,”—and again He says “Ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice; and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy,”—and again, in Peter, “For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God, and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God.” Now these are just the principles which this order, observable in these discourses of our Prophet, illustrates.
I would now only further observe, that to use the following arrangement to any profit, the Reader must have the book of Isaiah before him, making it the chief object of his attention; for I have aimed rather at presenting some little help to interpretation than any interpretation itself. And may the Lord, ever by His Spirit, control our thoughts and direct our meditations in His holy word, and withal preserve our souls in “the simplicity that is in Christ,” and in the “meekness of wisdom.”
I.—This Chapter contains the first discourse of our Prophet. It is a remonstrance against the sins, the scarlet sins of Judah, with exhortations and encouragements to repentance and threatenings of judgment. But it also presents the Lord reserving a remnant in the midst. of this evil and ruined condition of the people, and giving intimation of salvation to the daughter of Zion, in the latter day, when the sinners shall be consumed from the midst of her, and she shall be called, “the city of righteousness.”
Thus, in this opening strain of the Prophet, he might simply say, with David, “I will sing of mercy and judgment.” And to this day Zion is under this threatened judgment—the Lord has eased Him of His adversaries, and avenged Him of His enemies, and she must wait till her dross be purely purged away, and the Lord then, as is here promised, redeems her with righteousness.
2-4—The prophecy contained in these chapters, may be entitled, “The day of the Lord.” It concerns, as the Prophet himself announces, Judah and Jerusalem, and celebrates the varied character of that day, “the day of the Lord.” It shows us, as many other scriptures do, (see, among others, Mal. 4:1.) that the great body of the Jewish nation, because they had learned the ways of the heathen in pride, and wickedness, and idolatry, will meet the terrors of that day; but that while it is only a remnant (here called “the righteous,” 3:10 and the “written among the living,” 4:3.) that shall be saved, yet that that remnant shall be sanctified to the Lord, their city purged of its blood, (Joel 3:21; Matt. 27:25.) made again the habitation of glory, and all nations flowing into it; peace reigning through the earth, and the peoples thereof learning righteousness.
I would observe that, however the judgment here pronounced on Judah and Jerusalem may have had some accomplishment at the hand of Nebuchadnezzar or the Romans, it could not have been exhausted then, for we find that coincidentally with this judgment is the deliverance and consecration of the remnant, and the glory of Zion,
And these have not yet been—We may all be most profitably warned by meditating on the character of “the day of the Lord” here delineated by the Prophet. May the lesson be engraven on our hearts.
5.—This chap. forms the third prophetic word, and it may be entitled, “The judgment of the unfruitful vineyard,” No soft accents of mercy here interrupt the course which judgment takes against the vineyard of the beloved, the whole reprobate Jewish nation, the house of Israel, and the men of Judah. In this parable, the Prophet sets forth the care which this vineyard had enjoyed, the ungrateful return it had made, and its judgment. And then the Prophet, in the further course of the chapter, sets the various iniquities of the people before their eyes, and pronounces corresponding sentence upon each of them, in which we may mark the distinct retributive justice of the Lord. Thus their covetousness is to be punished with poverty; their revelry and intemperance with desolation and hunger; and their scorning the word of Jehovah, saying, “let Him make speed and hasten His work,” shall be answered by their being made the prey of that enemy of whom Jehovah would say, “behold they shall come with speed swiftly.”
Of this prophetic word I would say that it did not receive its full accomplishment by the Babylonish captivity; for our Lord, in His day, speaks of judgment even then awaiting the reprobate vineyard. (see Matt. 21; Mark 12; Luke 20) We may therefore say, that the judgment here pronounced, will not have been all executed till the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled; for till then this vineyard will still be trodden down. (See ver. 6, and Luke 21:24.)
6.—This vision is a revelation of what Paul calls “the mystery” in Rom. 11:25, 26; for Israel is here put under judgment of “blindness in part”—Israel is here “broken off” for a season “because of unbelief,” but with a sure promise that a remnant should. be preserved as the seed of the future nation; and thus, as Paul further says, “they shall be grafted in again,” and “all Israel shall be saved.”
This was a vision of the glory of the Lord Jesus, the God of Israel. (John 12:11.)—He is seen by the Prophet in the Holy of Holies, which was the figure of heaven; that is, He is seen in the very place into which the unbelief of Israel has now cast Him, (Acts 2:23,24; 3:15; 4:11; 10:40; 13:28-30.) and out of which, consequently, judgment is to fall upon them. For the stone which they disallowed has been made the Head Stone of the corner, and from thence it is to fall and grind them to powder. Thus this message, which the Prophet was commissioned to bear to the people, will equally address itself to all generations of them, till their thus predicted dispersion shall end, and the day of the Lord’s new covenant with them shall come. (See Matt, 13:15; John 12:41; Acts 28:26.)
7-9:7.—This roll of our Prophet may be said to bear this inscription, “The sure mercies of David;” for when opened, it will be found to be a pledge from the Lord that He will secure the house and throne of David forever.
At the time of this prophecy, Syria and Ephraim were confederate against Judah, and Isaiah is commissioned to restore the fainting heart of king Ahaz and his people by an assurance that this confederacy should not stand. In pledge of this mercy to Judah and David’s house, the Prophet’s two children, first the one and then the other, are given as signs, and the promised Immanuel, the Virgin’s Son also. And this promised Immanuel, “God with us,” is given as the further pledge of the Lord’s sure purpose to break up every confederacy and association of the people’s against the house and throne of David, and to disappoint all their counsels. (8:9, 10.)
But the blessing was upon this condition—that if Ahaz himself, or any other generation of the house of David did not believe, neither he nor they should be established in this promised mercy; and Ahaz proving in unbelief, the Lord accordingly threatens to raise up a rod upon His land and people. (7:17-25.)
During this unbelief of the house of David, the Prophet (as representing the remnant) is counseled how to walk, is warned of the troubles of the unbelieving nation, and receives the richest promise of final rest and glory. (8:11; 9:7.) And in the midst of this Messiah is introduced, (8:16-18.) showing how He would be found during the same period—that is, dispensing His word among His disciples, and waiting for the return of the divine favor toward Israel. (See Heb. 2:13,14.)
As to all this most striking and significant prophecy, I would say, that to this day Jerusalem is trodden down, and the throne of David. is in the dust, because of their continued unbelief. Immanuel was, according to this prophecy, offered to Israel at His first coming, (Matt. 4:15.) but their unbelief put away the grace and glory that would otherwise have then been brought to them. They are now therefore waiting for all this promised kingdom and glory, and will wait till they say, “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.” (See Matt. 23:29.)
8.-10:5.—Though Isaiah, as Prophet, was set over Judah and Jerusalem, yet in this discourse the word of the Lord by him lights the most heavily upon Israel. For their pride and stoutness of heart the Lord threatens to join Syria and the Philistines together against Israel, and by these to cut them off on every side. For their impenitency and hardness of heart in despite of the divine chastening, and for their hypocrisy and evil doings, the Lord threatens to make an end. of them, root and branch, head and tail together. For the sin of the whole people, Manasseh, and Ephraim, and Judah, they are to be the prey of each other’s insatiate fury. For their oppression and perversion of judgment they are threatened with a day of visitation in which the Lord would withdraw Himself from them, so that they should be left desolate without one to succor them.
This day of visitation still hangs heavily over the nation, and will, till they “accept of the punishment of their iniquity,” (Lev. 26:14-42.) and God then in grace remembers His covenant with their fathers, (Rom. 11:25-32.) and all Israel he saved.
10:5-12.—This magnificent strain of prophecy may be entitled “The Assyrian.” In it the Lord makes His power known on the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction, and also reveals the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy. For the Assyrian falls by his own iniquity, and thus is the divine wrath on its vessels fully justified, but Israel and Judah are prepared for glory by the Lord Himself, and thus is the riches of grace on its vessels as clearly manifested.
The course of the prophecy is simply this—the people of God for their transgressions arc visited with a rod—this rod of God’s indignation abuses the commission by executing it in pride, and in the lust of power, and the scene then closes with its utter removal and destruction, and the recovery, and joy, and honor, through grace of the people of God. The Assyrian, the Lord’s rod against Israel, is cut off, and out of the dry root of Jesse is raised up a Branch to fill Mount Zion with glory and peace, and her people with the joys of God’s salvation.
Nothing can be more glowing and beautiful than this strain of our Prophet, but I would surely say, that the things which he here reveals have not been manifested fully as yet. The Lord, it is true, smote the camp of the Assyrian, and with zeal rescued Jerusalem out of his hand in the days of Hezekiah. (2 Kings 19:35.) But the man whose name is the Branch, was surely not then revealed in glory and in judgment; the earth surely did not then wear its sacred honors, as fruit of the times of refreshing, when nothing is to hurt in all God’s holy mountain, when the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the knowledge of the Lord is to fill it as the waters do the sea. The Root of Jesse did not then stand as an ensign of the people, His rest being glorious: God’s indignation against Israel did not then cease in the destruction of Sennacherib, for Israel is still under judgment, and she is not yet comforted: that was surely not the second time for recovering the remnant of the people, nor did they then come from the land of the Philistines toward the west, nor dryshod through the Egyptian sea. The Prophet is here rather celebrating that coming day when every weapon formed against Zion shall be broken, every Assyrian, every enemy of Israel shall be confounded; when the last of them, even He who shall plant the tabernacles of His palaces between the seas, in the glorious holy mountain, shall come to His end, and none shall help Him; of which the humbling of Sennacherib, the first Assyrian, was the sign to that generation. Then shall the new song be sung, even the praise of salvation, and new joys be known by the inhabitants of Zion.
13-27.—These chapters exhibit various scenes, which will, however, I judge, be found to be parts of the same solemn action, God’s judgment of the kingdoms of the world. This strain of our Prophet may be entitled, “The shaking of the heaven and the earth;” for the Prophet sees the day of the pride of the nations now passing away, and their cloudy and dark day to be at hand. The Lord is seen as arising to shake terribly the earth, to march through the lands in indignation, and to thresh the heathen in anger. The Prophet of Jehovah seems to take from His hand the wine cup of His fury, and to cause all the nations, and among the rest His own Israel and Judah, because they had made themselves like the nations of the world, and had walked in the statutes of the heathen, to drink of it one after another. But in wrath He remembers mercy, and in the end causes mercy to rejoice against judgment.
Babylon, “the glory of kingdoms,” as first in the train of nations, is first summoned forth by the Prophet. (13, 14) She is triumphed. over; the day of her glory is past; and not one note of mercy interrupts the judgment delivered against her. In the vision of the Prophet the Assyrian then falls, and Palestine is utterly dissolved.
A cry is heard in Moab, and she is warned. to take counsel and show mercy to the outcasts from Zion. (15, 16) Damascus is left a ruin; and in her fate Israel, the constant confederate of Syria, is, joined. But in the midst of the judgment on Israel, a remnant is reserved, like gleaning grapes, four or five on the utmost fruitful branches, and in the end a present of the whole people, a harvest offering of them is, as it were, waved before the Lord. of Hosts in Mount Zion. (17, 18.)
The Lord’s hand is then shaken over Egypt, removing everything out of its place, and causing the heart of the land to melt in the midst of it. But He who thus smites, in the end will heal her and sanctify her to Himself, with Israel and Assyria. (19.) Then in the mouth of a second witness (20.) the sorrow and dishonor of Egypt and of Ethiopia her companion are established
The watchman of the God of nations then proclaims a grievous vision over the desert of the sea. This is Babylon, the night of whose pleasure is now turned into fear by the arrival of a chariot with a couple of horsemen, and she is made the corn of the Lord’s threshing-floor. (21.) Dumah is then warned, and the inhabitants of Arabia are seen fleeing away, and few of them left.
The Prophet of Judah then weeps over the Valley of Vision, his much loved Jerusalem, for he sees the spoiling of the daughter of his people, a day of trouble and of treading down, and of perplexity, many breaches in the city of David, yet no looking to the Maker thereof, no respect unto Him that fashioned it long ago. But as before, when he revealed the Lord’s purposed visitation of Israel, he sounded also a lengthened note of final gathering and mercy, (see 17, 18) so now does he proclaim that mercy shall rejoice against judgment—that after captivity, and death, and loss of state and glory, there should be recovery, and honor, and dominion for Jerusalem, and the key of the house of David be laid on the shoulder of a chosen One, who would set His glorious throne there, and sustain the kingdom forever. (22.)
The Prophet then announces the Lord’s purpose to stain the pride of Tire, “the merchant-city,” “the mart of nations,” “the crowning city,” to destroy her strong holds, and to send her afar off to sojourn where still she was to have no rest. (23.)
These judgments then close in fearful consumption of the whole earth—its mirth ceasing, its joy ending, the curse devouring it because of the defiling of its inhabitants, when the hosts of the high ones on high shall he also punished, with the kings of the earth upon the earth, and there shall be a gathering together of them as prisoners into the pit. (24) This closing scene is the Lord’s controversy with this apostate world; it is the day in which Gentile pride and dominion having accomplished its measure, the Lord will smite its image, break all the parts of it together, driving them away like the chaff of the summer threshing-floor (Dan. 2:35.)—when, in the language of other and kindred scriptures, the vine of the earth (her grapes being fully ripe) shall be cast into the great winepress of the wrath of God (Rev. 14:19.)—when the heaven shall depart as a scroll when it is rolled together, and every mountain and island be moved out of their places; when the kings of the earth and their armies shall be slain, and the dragon shall be bound in the bottomless pit. (Rev. 6:14; 14:19; 19:21) But in the midst of all this fear and indignation, the Remnant in Israel is presented to view under the image of the shaking of an olive tree, and the gleaning grapes after vintage; as in other scriptures, they are called the “tenth,” “the holy seed,” “the new wine in the cluster.” (Isa. 6:13; 65:8.) The Prophet then, in spirit, hears the song of this Israel in the latter day, saluting “the righteous One,” and the whole action closes (as in all scripture with the Lord’s reign in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and before His ancients gloriously.
After all this, we have, in chaps. 25-27 what may be termed the Epilogue. The Prophet (having, as it were, listened to these revelations of the Lord touching Israel and the nations) exults in the glory promised to Mount Zion, “this mountain,” as he here calls it, where the feast of fat things should be made for all people, the vail spread over all nations be destroyed, and the hand of the Lord should rest, and His foot tread down the enemy of His Israel. In the midst of this joy of his soul, he anticipates the word of the Remnant in that day of their salvation, “Lo! this is our God, we have waited for Him, and He will save us, this is the Lord, we have waited for Him, we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation.” And then he prepares a song to be sung in that day in the land of Judah, celebrating the city of God, and rehearsing, in a varied and broken strain, the ways of the Lord to His Israel down to the time of their increase and glory. And again, having published the Lord’s slaying of the dragon in the sea, the, Prophet endites another song on the fruitfulness and security of the Lord’s vineyard, telling out how her stroke had not been like the stroke of the nations, for while they had been left like a wilderness, she had been brought through the fire only for the taking away of her sin, that she might be sanctified to the Lord again, and her outcasts gathered again, every one of them to the holy mount at Jerusalem.
Such appears to be the character and order of this discourse. I admit of course that the several burdens of the nations were not delivered by our Prophet at the same time. There may have been, I grant, long intervals between the delivering of them, but this does not effect my judgment about them, for the Spirit of God has presented them to us together; and in the whole passage taken as one—13-27—we see Isaiah’s usual order, judgment preceding salvation, and sufferings preparing for glory. O that the soul knew the power of this; as the Apostle speaks, “the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings.”
I observe, also, that the several cities and nations here noticed by Isaiah, were not only the several political powers of the world in that day, but stood before the servant of God, I believe, as representing other political powers which were to appear on the great theater of this evil world in a then far distant day, and which are to form that willful confederacy which is to be overthrown and confounded by the strong arm of the Lord, when “the nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters, but God shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far off, and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like the thistle down before the whirlwind.” But as in the midst of these judgments there are many notices of mercy, and at the close of them salvation and glory, so we know that this earth is not to pass away under this rebuke of the Lord, but that when all things that offend and do iniquity are by these judgments gathered. out, and those are destroyed which destroy the earth, (Matt. 13:41; Rev. 11:18.) then shall the world remain to be the scene of the Son of Man’s dominion, and the kingdoms of it shall become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ—Amen, even so; come Lord Jesus.
28-35—This discourse of the Prophet contained in these chapters consists of five parts. The subject of each appears to be, simply this—the people of God for their sins and rebellions are punished, but the Lord for His name-sake in wrath remembers mercy. It may be entitled, “The five Woes; or, mercy rejoicing against judgment.” In each succeeding part mercy is heard to rejoice more and more, and the dealing of the Lord with Israel in grace, is displayed with increasing fullness; and as mercy is thus progressively unfolded, the scene of sin and judgment in the same measure passes away, till at the close nothing remains but grace, and salvation, and glory to Israel.
I desire briefly to notice these Five Woes, each in its order, marking especially the gradual rising of mercy over judgment, as the Prophet proceeds through this magnificent and sublime discourse.
The first woe. (28) This woe is pronounced upon Ephraim, the most transgressing portion of God’s nation, and which therefore first awakens judgment—Ephraim is threatened with a desolating tempest, and overflowing mighty waters; for the errors of Priests and Prophets, for the People’s willfulness and scorning, the Lord threatens to arise in wrath and to do His work, His strange work, and to bring to pass His act, His strange act; at the close He gives solemn warning, and with gracious sanctions, calls to repentance. But in the midst of this dreary burden, the Prophet is heard just for a moment to strike the note of a better day, telling of Israel’s final glory and strength, of the honor and majesty they were to have in the Lord of Hosts, and of the security of those who would trust in the stone of Zion.
The second woe. (29) This woe is pronounced on Ariel, the city where David dwelt, the more favored and excellent portion of God’s house. She is threatened with distress, and heaviness, and sorrow, with earthquake and devouring fire, with enemies who shall refuse to be satisfied, with judicial blindness, and the spirit of deep sleep because of her hypocrisies and scorning. But at the close the Prophet sounds a longer and more distinct note of mercy, promising a full and glorious change of curses into blessings, of distress succeeded by fruitfulness, of the spirit of deep sleep to be taken off, and the blind made to see again, the terrible ones removed, the workers of iniquity punished, and the children of Zion made again the work of the Lord’s hand.
The third woe. (30) This woe pronounced on “the rebellious children,” a more general title embracing both Israel and Judah, Ephraim and the city of David. Their seeking to Egypt for help is here threatened to prove their shame; and because of their despising the word and Prophets of the Lord, because of their perverseness and iniquity, they are to be left desolate as a beacon on the top of a mountain, and as an ensign on an hill. But the Prophet still more fully than before proclaims mercy, The voice of joy and gladness swells sweetly in lengthened notes here, The people’s return to their Zion, the increase and fatness of their land, the shining of the heavens over them, and their own healing and binding up, are here celebrated; and then the lighting down of the Lord’s arm upon their enemies even to the last of them, the Assyrian, in overflowing wasting ruin, and their own songs and joy of triumph in the midst of this ruin, close this sublime word of the Prophet.
The fourth woe. (31, 32) This woe is pronounced on those who seek help from Egypt, a still less rebuking character than that in which they were last addressed. And here we observe the Prophet soon bears away the woe from the Holpen, and lets it fall on the Helper, carries it speedily from Israel over to Israel’s enemies. Then in striking and varied imagery he displays the Lord’s care for His people, and His vengeance on their adversaries, even as in the preceding woe, down to the last of them, the dreaded Assyrian. Then together with many features of blessing already presented, he touches, with prophetic joy, upon the best of all Jerusalem’s days, when her King shall reign in righteousness, her people be at rest under His shadow, and the kingdom be settled in judgment and justice forever. And at last, after giving notice of previous sorrow, he closes with a revelation of the latter day blessing, when the Spirit shall be poured out on Israel, (that is, when their new covenant shall come, see Isa. 59:21.) and their rest and peace shall be established forever.
The fifth woe. (33-35) This woe is pronounced not on Israel at all, but altogether on her spoiler. This is the new and distinguishing feature of grace to Israel, observable in this closing
part of this beautiful strain of prophecy. Here mercy not only rejoices against judgment, but rejoices alone. The cloud has now passed away from the Jewish heavens, and has settled darkly and big with vengeance over the spoiler and the nations. In sight of this the Prophet at once pours out his heart to God. He seems, as led. by the Spirit, to see the spoiler, who “regards no man,” and the sinners confederated with him, but he sees them only as marked for destruction. He presents the righteous remnant among them, walking for awhile in depression but yet in safety, and then in the end brought out to see their King in His beauty, and their city a quiet habitation, while the loins of the mighty and dreaded spoiler are loosened and his prey divided. The Prophet then summons the nations to hear of the day of their visitation in the land of Idumea, “the day of the Lord’s vengeance, and the year of recompences for the controversy of Zion.” He draws out the terrors of that day, in the full lighting down of the arm of the Lord on the people of His curse, in the filling of His sword with blood from His sacrifice in Bozrah, and in the giving over of the land from thenceforth, to wasteness and burning, according to the judgment written in the book of the Lord. Then does he speak of the glories that are to follow, and which are to close the purposes of God with His Israel. Here he rests with delight. He sees Carmel, Sharon, and Lebanon, yielding their excellencies to Zion, and Zion’s King coming with salvation; He hears the dumb singing; and rejoices with the lame man leaping in that day. In the wilderness he sees waters breaking out, and streams in the desert. The way of holiness is cast up before him, nothing allowed to hurt or to destroy, and the ransomed of the Lord. coming to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads.
Such is the comforting story of Israel’s future final blessing. Creation waits for it. (Rom. 8:19.) Messiah the Lord waits for it; (Is. 8:17.) and the children of Zion are ever in spirit crying for it thus— “Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion! when God bringeth back the captivity of His people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad.” (Psa. 53:6).
As to the whole discourse, I would just observe, what surely must have been anticipated, that the woes here pronounced have not been fully poured out. The proof of this is too plain and abundant. But our joy in meditating on our Prophet here, arises from the way in which mercy is heard to rejoice against judgment, till at length it triumphs completely, and occupies an uncontested field. And this is the principle, “the law,” as James calls it, in which the Church of God lives and glories. (Jam. 2:13.) “Mercy rejoiceth against judgment.” Judgment drove Adam out of Eden, but not till Mercy had clothed him with a coat of skin, the pledge from God’s own hand that there was a full covering for his shame. He went forth into a cursed earth, but not till he knew that an offering out of the flock would be respected by the Lord. “Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.” “I have sinned”—said one conscious that in him “sin had reigned unto death”— “God also has put away thy sin” —was the answer of that grace which reigns, “through righteousness unto eternal life, by Jesus Christ our Lord.” And so poor sinners, like Adam and David, find it now.
And now, I pray that these meditations may help the inquiry of the saints into this portion of God’s holy word. They aim simply at clearing the way a little. Communion with the Lord through the word and by the Spirit is the power of all knowledge, as it is our strength, joy, and sanctification also. But we should not be unskillful in the word of righteousness. Everything around us is but giving value (if it needed it) to the blessed sure unchanging light of the word. “The Scripture cannot be broken”—blessed he God! And I would close, beloved, with that word of our Prophet, addressed to the people of God, passing through a perplexing and cloudy day, “And when they shall say unto you, seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep and that mutter; should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead? To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.”