Therefore thus saith the Lord— These verses contain the third consequence of turning Lebanon into a fruitful field;—the Gentiles being called to the privileges of the Christian dispensation. The prophet foretels that many spiritual children should be born to the church; in whom the true image of Abraham and Jacob should be seen, whom the true sons of Jacob (in whom Jacob yet lived) should see without shame, Isaiah 29:22 and with whom they should sanctify and celebrate the name of the God of Jacob; Isaiah 29:23. Which wonderful conversions should have such an effect, that those men who might be thought erring in spirit, wanting in understanding, and who had for a long time murmured against and reviled the doctrine of the Gospel, should at length themselves also receive it. The word therefore, in Isaiah 29:22 properly connects with the 17th verse. By the murmurers, &c. Vitringa understands the orators, sophists, philosophers, and others, who with their vain science first opposed the Gospel, but of whom many became afterwards converts to the Christian faith.
REFLECTIONS.—1st, The subject of this prophesy is Jerusalem, the place where David dwelt, or encamped; it is called Ariel, the lion of God, some think in reference to the altar, which consumed the sacrifices as a lion his prey; or more probably as the metropolis of Judah, called the lion's whelp, Genesis 49:9 and whose standard was a lion.
1. The ruin of it is foretold, which all their sacrifices, because hypocritical, cannot prevent. Vain were the oblations from year to year, while their iniquities were unrepented of. God threatens to distress them, to fill every heart with heaviness and sorrow, and make the city like the altar of God, surrounded with the blood and carcases of the slain, and fire kindled in the midst of it. The besiegers, under a divine support, should surround it with mounts and forts without, beat down the walls, and reduce them to the most abject subjection; or bring them so low by famine, that their voices should, through weakness, scarcely be heard, like those who, pretending to familiar spirits, whispered and muttered out of the dust. With marks of divine displeasure, God would assist their foes with thunder, earthquake, and tempest, and give them up at last into their hands, who should consume their city and temple with fire. Note; (1.) Formal services, while the heart continues unchanged and unhumbled, are but an abomination in the sight of God. (2.) Woe unto those against whom God contends; against him there is no defence. (3.) The proudest sinner will sooner or later be laid in the dust, either in willing penitence, or terrible perdition.
2. God would disappoint their foes; they in their turn should suddenly be destroyed, their vain hopes of success be as a vision in the night, and their disappointment like the man who dreams of meat and drink, yet awakes hungry and thirsty; which may refer to the ruin of Sennacherib's army, though that will not agree with Isaiah 29:3 as they never raised any mount there; but more pointedly applies to the Roman army, whose sudden irruption, and numerous forces rushing to the siege, are pointed at Isaiah 29:5 and their disappointment, when the spoil they promised themselves would be so little answerable to their expectations, set forth in Isaiah 29:7-8. The whole also may be applied to the Jews themselves, expressing the destruction of the succours they expected, and the vanity of the hopes with which they flattered themselves, that their city would not be taken, till dreadful experience at last awaked them from their fatal reverie.
2nd, Whatever fulfilment the words of the prophesy beginning at the 9th verse had in the men of that generation, it is plain, from Romans 11:7-8 that they refer to the times of Christ and the Gospel dispensation, and God's judgment of spiritual blindness inflicted on the obstinate Jews under that dispensation. But on this we shall enlarge, when we come to the passage in the New Testament.
1. The prophet calls aloud with the voice of warning: Stay yourselves, consider your ways, and run no more madly in the way of sin and ruin, and wonder at the long patience of God, and cry ye out, and cry at the impending judgments of God, if yet there may be hope.
2. The prophet describes their stupidity and judicial blindness. They were drunken; not merely with wine, but with corrupt principles, staggering, unsteady in their conduct, and ever turning aside from the right way. And to this God had in righteous judgment given them up, because they refused the knowledge of the truth; priests, prophets, and rulers, were all under this spirit of darkness and infatuation. The prophesies were as a sealed book, the wise no more understanding them than the ignorant. Which was eminently verified, when, in opposition to the brightest evidence, and fullest completion of the prophesies concerning the Messiah, the Jews obstinately rejected the Lord Jesus, and the rulers and priests were the chief in the transgression, blind leaders of the blind, hardened themselves, and hardening others against conviction. Note; (1.) They who will not take warning, will be given up to their own heart's lusts. (2.) It is a woeful case, when they who should teach others are blind and ignorant themselves. (3.) Multitudes, in the midst of the plainest light of Gospel truth, are still to overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness, and the cares of this life, that their eyes are closed in darkness, and they are led captive by the devil at his will.
3. He charges them with vile hypocrisy. They draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, giving him the formal services of the lip and knee; but have removed their heart far from me; their affections being supremely placed on the world, and the things of it, and their souls utter strangers to any inward heart-approach to God; and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men; their religion was from education alone, not derived from God's word; and their worship destitute of spirituality, and suited to lull their souls asleep in stupid formality. Such was the case with the Jews, see Matthew 15:3-9 and such is still the case with multitudes, who call themselves, and are counted by the world, good Christians, whose prayers are as regular as the hour returns, while their hearts are utter strangers to converting grace and communion with God. Note; That is no prayer which is not the soul's work.
4. God threatens them with condign punishment: a marvellous work he would work, at which they should be astonished.
[1.] The understanding of their wise men should perish. Though their schemes were laid so deep against the Lord, and against his Anointed, and so concealed, that they atheistically promised themselves that not even God could see or disappoint them—yet woe unto them! their politics were as absurd as wicked: their attempts to hide their counsel from him, and counteract his designs, were vain, since as easily as the potter moulds the clay, so could he mar their schemes, or fashion them after his own will; for shall the work say of him that made it, He made me not? as if self-created; or shall the thing framed say of him that framed it, He had no understanding? which they in fact did by such conduct, though the folly of it was so evident. Note; (1.) They who set up for wise men and free-thinkers, and discard their Bibles, will prove at last the most egregious fools. (2.) A disbelief of God's all-seeing eye and universal agency is at the bottom of every work of darkness.
[2.] The Gentiles should shortly be called into the church, and the Jews rejected. Though the one was now like a forest, it should, by the preaching of the Gospel, become as a fruitful field; and the other, though long favoured in a peculiar manner as God's heritage, should be utterly laid waste for their impenitence, and especially for their rejection of Christ and his Gospel: and this in the eyes of the Jews, and even of the apostles themselves, too partial at first to their own nation, appeared a marvellous work.
3rdly, It having been foretold by the prophet, that the Gentiles should be called, and the Jews rejected, we have the blessings which the church should in that day of Gospel grace enjoy.
1. They who before were deaf to God's calls, and blind to any spiritual knowledge of the truth, should, by the preaching of the Gospel, in the demonstration of the Spirit and power, have the eyes of their mind enlightened, and be enabled to hear and receive the word of truth. Note; (1.) Every soul is by nature spiritually blind. (2.) The preaching of the Gospel is the grand means that God uses to bring the soul out of darkness into his marvellous light.
2. Joy and gladness shall revive the meek and poor in spirit. Such as are brought to a view of their own sinfulness, and humbly submissive to every dispensation of Providence, silent under provocation, and in their own eyes poor and perishing, these shall increase their joy in the Lord, under the experience of his love and care of them, and rejoice in the Holy One of Israel as their rich portion and exceeding great reward. Note; (1.) It is not external poverty, but internal lowliness of heart, to which the promise is made. (2.) Whatever injuries we receive, or wants we endure, if, in the midst of all, our hearts are quietly stayed upon God, we have cause of abundant joy.
3. The erroneous will be convinced, and they who murmured at God's word or commandments as hard sayings, be silenced, and humbly submit to his truth.
4. Their enemies and persecutors shall be destroyed. By the terrible one may be meant the rulers of the Jews, or the persecuting power of the pagan Roman emperors; or it may have respect to antichrist, whose kingdom shall be brought to nought, as the former enemies of Christ and his Gospel have been broken. The scorner signifies the philosophers of the Gentiles, or the Jews that scoffed at the doctrine of the cross, whose inveterate enmity against Christ and his apostles kept them always on the watch, and any word which could be misrepresented served for a ground of accusation: they laid snares for their faithful reprovers, that they might entangle them in their talk; and without proof or evidence condemned the just; and this was abundantly fulfilled in the conduct of the scribes and Pharisees, Matthew 22; Matthew 23 but they received their just doom, and were cut off, according to the prophetic word, in their iniquities Note; (1.) They who are Christ's servants, must expect the threatenings of the terrible, and the ridicule of the scorner. (2.) The enemies of religion are ever on the watch to catch at every slip or failing of the professors of it, as matter of railing accusation against them. Let it make us the more watchful to cut off occasion from those who desire occasion. (3.) We must not think it strange, to have a word dropped unadvisedly, construed into a heavy charge, or an innocent expression perverted to a most criminal meaning, when scoffers come to hear God's ministers, not for edification, but to lay snares for their reprovers; so persecuted they the prophets that were before us. (4.) If in the faithful discharge of our office we find a wicked world opposing, and with every base and malignant insinuation seeking to blacken us, it is a consolation that we are the more like our Lord. (5.) Whatever success at present may seem to attend those who oppose the cause of God and truth, they shall be cut off at the last.
5. The church should be gloriously enlarged, by the accession at last of the seed of Jacob. Therefore thus saith the Lord, who redeemed Abraham from Ur of the Chaldees, and out of all his troubles, concerning the house of Jacob his posterity, Jacob shall not now be ashamed, and his face wax pale, as when his degenerate seed rejected and crucified the Lord Jesus. But when he seeth his children recovered from their apostacy, the work of mine hands, by converting grace fashioned anew, in the midst of him assembled together, they shall sanctify my name, by believing in the Redeemer, and receiving his Gospel, and sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and shall fear the God of Israel, returning to his worship and service. By Jacob here also the church of Christ may be meant, rejoicing in the conversion of all the true believers, whether Jews or Gentiles, in the latter day, who shall then together unite in the praises of their Lord.