Isaiah 30:17

Till ye be left as a beacon upon the top of a mountain

Israel’s past, present, and future

I. THE PAST.

1. Sins of God’s people (Isaiah 30:1; Isaiah 30:9). Rejecting His Word; trusting in arm of flesh.

2. Judgment on them (Isaiah 30:16).

3. Mercy to them in things spiritual and temporal (Isaiah 30:19; Isaiah 30:26; Isaiah 30:29; Isaiah 23:1; Isaiah 24:1). Deliverance from their enemies (Isaiah 30:30). Especially destruction of Sennacherib’s army (Isaiah 30:31).

4. Glory to God, who is “exalted”--in His judgments--in His mercies.

II. THE PRESENT.

1. The people now left as a “beacon.” upon the top of a mountain (marg., “tree bereft of branches”). Condition bare, and seen of all. “And as an ensign, on an hill.” Word for ensign same as “sign” in Numbers 26:10. The people “cannot be hid.”

2. Now God waits for the set time, for the filling up of His people’s sins Hosea 5:15); for the filling up of His judgments; for the fulness of the Gentiles to be come in (Romans 11:25); for the showing mercy in the end.

III. THE FUTURE. It will be as the past, but greater.

1. Sin still continues in unbelief of Messiah, in pride, worldliness, and self-righteousness.

2. Judgment on these sins up to the end.

3. Mercy when they “cry.” Deliverance from their enemies, as prophesied Isaiah 66:13.

4. Glory to God, the “God of judgment,” the Father of mercies. He shall be “exalted,” as prophesied in Isaiah 2:10; Isaiah 2:17.

5. “Beacon” and “ensign”--refer to again. Israel conspicuous now, will be more so in the last days, as a landmark amidst waves of trouble and strife. “Ensign,” the same word as rendered “pole” in Numbers 21:8. See again in Exodus 17:15, “Jehovah-Nissi.” See Isaiah 31:9; Isaiah 11:11; Isaiah 18:3; Isaiah 49:22; Isaiah 62:10. Israel the rallying centre of the nations, in the midst of them the royal standard of the King, high on “God’s hill, in the which it pleaseth Him to dwell” (Psalms 60:4; see Zechariah 8:2; Zechariah 8:22).

IV. THE BLESSING.

1. “To the Jew first.”

2. “And also to the Gentile.”

3. Note the correspondence between God’s waiting and His people’s waiting. (Flavel Cook, B. A.)