Surely, shall one say, &c.— The discourse of the Son of God is here continued. He declares more fully the sum of the oath mentioned in the preceding verse; that is, he explains the purpose of grace concerning the manner, the means, and the cause of that salvation which was to be offered to all nations. By strength may be here meant that grace or redemption founded upon the justification obtained for man through Christ. Respecting the latter clause of Isaiah 45:24 see chap. Isaiah 1:11 and compare 1 Corinthians 1:31. Jeremiah 9:23-24.
REFLECTIONS.—1st, Cyrus was the type of the great Redeemer, and, in his deliverance of the captive Jews, prefigured the greater redemption which Jesus should obtain for believers of all nations: more than two hundred years before the event came to pass, we have him particularly named and pointed out, and his great conquests described, which, through the mighty hand of God upon him, he was enabled to obtain over kingdoms which seemed much more powerful than his own, and which opened a way at last to him, in conjunction with the Persians, for the conquest of Babylon. We have here,
1. The conquests that he should obtain: Nations are subdued before him, and kings submit to his yoke; the strongest cities cannot resist his arms, nor the most difficult passes stop his march; God goes before him, and therefore resistance is vain. The treasures of his enemies become his spoil, and among them, those of Croesus, king of Lydia, the richest monarch of that age: and by these he was enabled to pursue his victories to the final overthrow of the Babylonish monarchy.
2. God's grand design in this was to serve his Israel. Cyrus himself was a stranger to the true God, or had very obscure ideas concerning him, and meant his own grandeur and glory alone, or principally at least; but it was for Jacob's sake that God had raised him up, and ordained him to be such a conqueror, in order that he might be their deliverer. Note; (1.) In all God's providences, in the revolutions of states and kingdoms, there is wheel within wheel; and God hath purposes to answer for the good of his faithful people, which the great agents employed in these things little think of. (2.) Christ is exalted to the throne for the sake of the faithful, hath all power given him, and all the unsearchable riches of grace to bestow; therefore they may expect at his hands every mercy and blessing they can need.
2nd. The design of God in raising up Cyrus, was to make his own power and glory to appear: therefore,
1. He asserts his own Godhead, and besides him there is no other: his works declare his universal dominion; light and darkness, good and evil, not the evil of sin, but of suffering, are all from him: and if Cyrus was so wonderfully strengthened for his conquests, the world must take notice to whom he stands indebted; though he probably knew but little, if any thing, of the hand that supported him, in this prophetic word it evidently appears the work was of God. Note; Since prosperity and adversity both come from God, in both he is to be acknowledged, and our duty is to correspond with his designs.
2. A glorious prophesy is revealed, of the abundance of blessings which, by the incarnation of the Redeemer, should descend on the Israel of God. Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness, or, as some would render it, the righteous One, the Lord Jesus, who, descending from above, as the rain waters the earth, would cause the souls of men to bring forth the blessed fruits of grace and holiness: let the earth open; the barren hearts of men, that are dead like earth, till enlivened by the precious influences of the Spirit of Jesus; and let them bring forth salvation, or the Saviour, and let righteousness spring up together, even that righteousness, holiness and complete salvation which are the issue of his work of grace in the faithful soul. I the Lord have created it, the work is wholly Divine in the contrivance and execution of it, and our righteousness and salvation are derived from him alone.
3. A woe is pronounced on the rebellious; either the enemies of God, who opposed his people's deliverance, or the faithless Jews who despaired of it. Poor worms of dust, as potsherds of the earth, may strive with each other; but to contend with God, or find fault with him, is as absurd as for the clay to pretend greater wisdom than the potter, and unnatural as for the child to quarrel with his parents for having begotten and brought him forth. God's sovereignty, wisdom, justice and goodness, in all his works and ways, are incontestable, and it is as wicked as foolish to find fault with or oppose them. Note; (1.) They who quarrel with God and his providences, only aggravate their own sufferings. (2.) Nothing can be a greater argument for entire resignation to the Divine will, than the consideration, what God is, and what we are; and we then act as becomes creatures, when, as clay in the hands of the potter, we are content to be just what our Maker pleases.
3rdly, We have,
1. In Isaiah 45:11 the encouragement that God gives to his people to wait upon him in prayer, and to enquire concerning the great events which he had foretold; either the restoration of his people from their captivity, or the glorious increase of the sons of God, who would be raised up by the preaching of the Gospel. Or the words may be read interrogatively, in correspondence with the former verse, as implying a reproof to those who questioned the fitness of his dispensations.
2. God displays his own glorious power in the creation of all things, as a ground to engage his people's confidence, and particularly mentions their deliverance by Cyrus; it is spoken of as already done, because determined in the Divine mind. God had raised him up in righteousness, and directed all his ways, and he should without price discharge them, and with his favour assist them to rebuild Jerusalem. This also may refer to the greater than Cyrus, that Messiah whom God would raise up in righteousness, not for one nation only, but for all people, whose way he directed to the full accomplishment of this great work; and who, having by his own arm wrought out redemption for all the faithful, discharges them from all the arrests of sin, and from the bondage of corruption, without money and without price.
3. He promises that a great increase should be made to them. Many of the neighbouring nations, probably on their return, became converts to their religion: or rather this refers to Gospel times, when, by the word of truth, the Gentiles, Egyptians, Ethiopians, and Sabeans, gladly received Christ's gentle yoke, and yielded themselves up to God in the Gospel of his dear Son.
4. Though sometimes in their afflictions he appeared to hide himself, yet he was still the God of Israel, the Saviour, ready in due time to appear for the help and consolation of his believing people. Note; God is not the less tender of us, or farther from our help, when he corrects us: if he chasten us, it is to engage us more earnestly to seek him.
5. The idolaters should be confounded and ashamed, as the Babylonians were, when their gods, as well as themselves, went into captivity; and as was more abundantly seen, when the Gospel triumphed over the powers of darkness, and idolatry was generally abolished.
6. God promises his Israel, his faithful people, an everlasting salvation. Israel shall be saved IN, or BY the Lord; the work is his, and shall be surely accomplished for the faithful; not merely from Babylon, and the yoke of their captivity, but with an everlasting salvation through the Lord Jesus: ye shall not be ashamed nor confounded world without end, or unto the ages of eternity; so permanent is that salvation which Christ by his blood and infinite merit hath purchased, and will bestow on every persevering believer.
7. God gives his Israel the strongest assurances of his love. He who made the heavens with such admirable wisdom, and fashioned the earth so fearfully and wonderfully, the only true God and Creator, he speaks the glorious promise, not with a muttering low voice in secret, as the oracles of the heathens were delivered, but openly and publicly: and no true believer ever did, or shall seek his face in vain; he will ever hear and answer such; and his word of righteousness is a full ground for their trust and confidence, Note; (1.) The word of promise is the great argument for the prayer of faith. (2.) If none seek God's face in vain, how inexcusable are they who reject their own mercies, and restrain prayer before God. (3.) Whatever God says or does is altogether righteous and true, and the faithful soul ever acquiesces therein.
4thly, The folly of idolaters had before been declared. Now,
1. God calls his people, the converts from heathenism, to see the vanity of those who persisted in the abominable worship of idols, and to remonstrate with them against it: they pray unto a god that cannot save them; though all the votaries of idols consult together, they cannot bring a proof of any one instance wherein their false gods shewed the least prescience of future events, for they are no gods; the living Jehovah alone claims this as his prerogative, and besides him there is no other; a just God, whose works and words are all righteousness and truth, a Saviour, able to the uttermost to bless and protect his true worshippers. Note; They who by Divine grace have themselves been converted to God, are especially called upon to shew zeal for his glory, in order to the conviction and conversion of others.
2. All nations are called upon to look to Jesus and be saved: by him the everlasting salvation promised is obtained, and through him alone to be received, for there is none else; becoming incarnate, and by an obedience unto death, even the death of the cross, lifted up as the serpent in the wilderness, every perishing sinner may look to him and live: he is God, and therefore he saves to the uttermost; the guilty, the weak, the tempted, the disconsolate, have all their fears silenced, and their countenances lightened by the bright beams of grace and mercy that flow from the crucified Jesus.
3. According to his solemn oath, the nations of the faithful redeemed shall be saved by him, and his enemies bow before him. I have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall, both respecting the promise and the prophesy, be assuredly fulfilled, and shall not return void, that unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear; pay their allegiance, and join the worship of him their Redeemer, as will be seen in the day when the kingdoms of the world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord and his Christ; and especially in the judgment day, to which the apostle refers this passage, Romans 14:10-11. Surely, shall one say, triumphing in their interest in the glorious Redeemer, In the Lord, or only in the Lord, have I righteousness and strength, renouncing themselves, and by faith laying hold of the all-sufficient grace of Jesus their Lord, to justify, sanctify, and save them: even to him shall men come, all that will believe; and all that are incensed against him, who are either careless transgressors of his law, or proudly reject his infinite merit and strength to trust on their own, they shall be ashamed at the vanity of their confidence, and the misery which their iniquities will bring upon them, while the humble believer will rejoice, for in the Lord shall all the seed of
Israel, the living members of Christ's church, be justified from every accusation of sin, the law, and their own consciences, and shall glory, not in themselves, but in the Lord their righteousness; at whose feet their crown is laid, and to whose rich and unmerited grace the whole of their salvation is ascribed.