INTRODUCTION TO ISAIAH 57 This chapter contains complaints of the stupidity and idolatry of the people, described in the latter part of the preceding chapter; and some promises of grace to the people of God. The stupidity of the former is observed, Isaiah 57:1 they not taking notice of the death of... [ Continue Reading ]
THE RIGHTEOUS PERISHETH,.... Not eternally; he may fear he shall, by reason of sin and temptation; he may say his strength and hope are perished; and his peace and comfort may perish for a time; but he cannot perish everlastingly, because he is one that believes in Christ, and is justified by his ri... [ Continue Reading ]
HE SHALL ENTER INTO PEACE,.... Or "shall go in peace" d; the righteous man goes in peace now; he has peace from his justifying righteousness; he has peace through believing in Christ; he has peace in, though not from, his obedience and holiness of life; and he has peace in the midst of the many tria... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT DRAW NEAR HITHER,.... The death of the righteous, and their happiness after it, being observed: the wicked, who thought themselves safe from danger, and the happier that they were rid of the righteous, those witnesses and prophets which had tormented them, and therefore rejoiced on that account,... [ Continue Reading ]
AGAINST WHOM DO YE SPORT YOURSELVES?.... Is it against the ministers of the Gospel, the prophets of the Lord, the true and faithful witnesses, over whose dead bodies you triumph? know that it is not so much against them, as against the Lord himself, whose ministers, prophets, and witnesses they are;... [ Continue Reading ]
INFLAMING YOURSELVES WITH IDOLS UNDER EVERY GREEN TREE,.... Or, "inflamed with or among oaks" h; with images made of oaken wood, such as the Papists worship, Revelation 9:20 expressing a burning zeal for their idols, and being as hot upon them, as impure persons burn in lust one towards another: or... [ Continue Reading ]
AMONG THE SMOOTH STONES OF THE STREAM IS THY PORTION,.... Or thy god; but the portion of Jacob is not like them, stocks and stones, Jeremiah 10:16. Whenever they could pick up smooth stones, and such as were fit for their purpose, whether in the stream of a brook, or in a valley, as the word also s... [ Continue Reading ]
UPON A LOFTY AND HIGH MOUNTAIN HAST THOU SET THY BED,.... Temples and altars, which are usually built on high places, where they commit spiritual adultery; that is, idolatry, in imitation of the Heathens, who had their temples and altars on high places; and the idolatry of the church of Rome, in thi... [ Continue Reading ]
BEHIND THE DOORS ALSO AND THE POSTS HAST THOU SET UP THY REMEMBRANCE,.... The memorial of thine idols, as the Targum. As the Heathens had their "lares" and "penates", their household gods, so the Papists have their tutelar images, which they place in their houses, and in their bedchambers; their ima... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THOU WENTEST TO THE KING WITH OINTMENT,.... To the kings of the earth, the singular for the plural, with whom the whore of Rome has committed fornication or idolatry, in allusion to harlots, who, in order to render themselves the more agreeable to their lovers, anointed themselves with ointment:... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU ART WEARIED IN THE GREATNESS OF THY WAY,.... Or, "in the multiplicity of thy ways" u: which were so many, as were enough to make her weary; the steps which were taken to obtain so much power over kings and kingdoms, which was gradually got with great pains and artifice, and to amass such vast t... [ Continue Reading ]
AND OF WHOM HAST THOU BEEN AFRAID OR FEARED, THAT THOU HAST LIED,.... By assuming the name of Christian, when it did not belong to her; as it does not to the church of Rome which is antichristian: this lie is told, not out of any fear of God, or reverence of Christ; for she has no fear or reverence... [ Continue Reading ]
I WILL DECLARE THY RIGHTEOUSNESS, AND THY WORKS,.... For, notwithstanding all the idolatry, superstition, irreligion, and cruelty of the church of Rome, she makes large pretences to righteousness, by which she expects to be justified, and to merit eternal life, and even pretends to works of superero... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEN THOU CRIEST, LET THY COMPANIES DELIVER THEE,.... From distress and impending ruin, if they can; meaning not the allies and auxiliaries of the Jews, the Egyptians and Assyrians, they sent to for help, as Kimchi, and others; rather, as Jarchi, their idols and graven images they worshipped, angels... [ Continue Reading ]
AND SHALL SAY, CAST YE UP, CAST YE UP,.... A causeway, a highway, for the people of the Jews to return to their own land: this is either said by the Lord, as some supply it; or by the prophet, as Jarchi; or by him that putteth his trust in the Lord, as Kimchi; or rather by one, that is, the first of... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR THUS SAITH THE HIGH AND LOFTY ONE,.... Who is high above the earth, and the nations of it; higher than the kings in it; the King of kings, and Lord of lords; and so able to save his people, and destroy his and their enemies; who is higher than the heavens, and the angels there; who is exalted ab... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR I WILL NOT CONTEND FOR EVER,.... By afflictive providences; with the humble and contrite, the end being in a great measure answered by their humiliation and contrition; when God afflicts his people, it shows that he has a controversy with them, for their good, and his own glory; and when these e... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR THE INIQUITY OF HIS COVETOUSNESS WAS I WROTH, AND SMOTE HIM,.... Not the greedy watchmen of the church of Rome, Isaiah 56:10, but teachers and preachers in the reformed churches, who mind their own things, and not the things of Christ; seek after good benefices and livings, temporalities and pl... [ Continue Reading ]
I HAVE SEEN HIS WAYS, AND WILL HEAL HIM,.... Either the ways of such who trust in the Lord, the ways of the humble and contrite, who are brought by repentance and reformation, by the dealings of God with them; these he sees, knows, and approves of, and heals their former backslidings; for though not... [ Continue Reading ]
I CREATE THE FRUIT OF THE LIPS,.... Which is praise and thanksgiving, Hebrews 13:16 that is, give occasion of it, afford matter for it, by restoring comforts to the church and its mourners, as in the preceding verse; and by giving peace, as in all the following words. The Targum renders it, "the sp... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT THE WICKED ARE LIKE THE TROUBLED SEA, WHEN IT CANNOT REST,.... Disturbed by winds, storms, and hurricanes, when its waves rise, rage, and tumble about, and beat against the shore and sand, threatening to pass the bounds fixed for it. In such like agitations will the minds of wicked men be, throu... [ Continue Reading ]
THERE IS NO PEACE, SAITH MY GOD, TO THE WICKED. They have no share in the peace made by the blood of Christ; they have no true, solid, inward peace of conscience; nor will they have any part in the happiness and prosperity of the church and people of God in the latter day, which will but add to thei... [ Continue Reading ]