And they shall pass through it— The attentive reader must observe, that the 21st verse is connected with the last clause of the preceding one; no light, no morning to them. The prophet had here denounced to those who should despise the institution of God and the Messiah, a great evil, that they should have no part in the true light and consolation which the Messiah should bring to his people, according to the ancient prophesies, nor even in the resurrection of the just to life. On the contrary, they should be in dire and thick darkness, excluded from the communion of God and the saints, and should be oppressed with evils and calamities of every kind, by which they should be driven to extreme necessity and desperation, joined with final destruction. This is the argument of the present period, the expressions in which are very emphatical; nor could the highest desperation be painted in more lively colours than in these words, which are stronger than in the parallel passage, ch. Isaiah 5:30 though that is equally sublime and efficacious. This prophesy was most strikingly fulfilled in the last times of the Jewish polity, before its final destruction by the Romans. The following passages will serve greatly to explain the prophet, Luke 21:23-25.Revelation 11:19. Michaelis observes, that nothing can afford the human mind such a picture of horror, as that of a man blaspheming God, with his eyes lifted up to heaven, the thunder interrupting his execrations, and succeeded by the darkest night; for the passage might be rendered, "He shall pass through the land, having suffered the greatest tortures, but still apprehending greater; and as he trembles, he shall grow angry, and shall curse his God and King, [i.e. the Messiah] and look upward. Towards the earth it shall thunder, and behold, trouble, darkness, dimness of anguish, and darkness which might be felt." The impostor Mahomet makes use of the same image in Surat. ch. Isaiah 2:16; Isaiah 2:19 which throws much light on this passage. See Michaelis's notes, and Vitringa.
REFLECTIONS.—1st, The destruction of Damascus and Samaria is here threatened, and the rod of warning shaken over Judah.
1. The prophet is commanded to write this, with the four following Chapter s, on a large roll; and, as a title, to inscribe on it Maher-shalal-hash-baz, hasten to the spoil, hasten to the prey; an invitation to the king of Assyria, and repeated to shew the certainty of the event. Note; It is an unspeakable mercy that the holy Scriptures are committed to writing, and not handed down to us by uncertain tradition.
2. The prophet, having obeyed the divine injunction, gets it attested by two credible witnesses, Uriah the priest, and Zechariah, probably a Levite, 2 Chronicles 29:13 that when the event should correspond with the prediction, his divine mission might incontestably appear.
3. On the conception of the prophetess his wife, so called from her relation to him, and the birth of a second son; to engage greater attention to the prophesy, he by divine command gives the child the same name as was inscribed on the roll. The design of which,
4. He explains; that before the infant could speak plainly, Damascus and Samaria should be spoiled by the Assyrian king; which was fulfilled, Exodus 16:9; Exodus 17:3 and more fully 2 Kings 18:9-10. Note; (1.) War is God's scourge over guilty lands. (2.)
They who have been troublers of other's repose, are justly doomed to suffer in return.
5. Judah also shall not go unpunished, because many of the faithless Jews despised the waters of Shiloah that go softly—the gentle government of David's race, or the weakness of their kingdom, eclipsed by the greater dominions of Rezin and Pekah, whom, though avowed enemies, these traitors of their country applauded and honoured. Therefore, to punish them, the Assyrian king, like a flood rapid and resistless, with his armies should cover the land, reaching to the neck, even to Jerusalem the metropolis, Exodus 18:13-17 and, spreading his wings, should fill the breadth of Immanuel's land; so called, because there he should in the fulness of time be born, live, and die. Note; (1.) To affect the fashions, admire the manners and government of our inveterate enemies, and to despise our own, betrays a heart destitute of the love of our country. (2.) Though the waters of trouble reach to the neck, yet even then can God say, Here shall thy proud waves be stayed, and save us out of the floods, when we most despair of ourselves.
2nd, In Judah's distressed case the prophet encourages and instructs them,
1. With a promise of their enemies' disappointment and defeat: though strongly confederate, the expedition deeply planned, and the troops well armed and ready for the battle, they shall be broken to pieces. This is repeated, to shew the certainty of the event, and the vanity of their enemies' hopes of success; when God should infatuate their councils, and Immanuel defend his own land. Note; (1.) Though power and policy unite to crush the church of Christ, their efforts will prove the confusion of her enemies. (2.). God's promise is sure, and they who trust it will never be disappointed. (3.) If God be with us and for us, we need neither fear nor care who are against us.
2. He directs them how to speak and act in their present situation. The Lord spake thus to me with a strong hand, in the spirit of prophesy, not to walk in the way of this people, dejected with their fears, or flying with them to Assyria for help against their invaders, Pekah and Rezin, saying, Say ye not, A confederacy, to call them to whom this people shall say, A confederacy; join not in the general cry for a foreign aid, or in any factious party at home; neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid on account of the confederate armies of Syria and Israel. Sanctify the Lord God of Hosts, by your professed dependance upon, and subjection to him, and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread, who is the only worthy object. And he shall be for a sanctuary; a sure protection to those who trust him in every time of trial and distress. Note; (1.) In time of danger good men need divine encouragement against their fears. (2.) They who would follow Christ, must renounce the ways of a wicked world; a holy singularity is the inseparable badge of a holy conversation. (3.) In whatever difficulties we are involved, let us never use undue means for relief. (4.) The fear of God upon the heart, will preserve us from being terrified with the threatenings of men. (5.) God is sanctified, when by patient resignation we are content to wait for his salvation.
3. He threatens with ruin those who continued rebellious; if they would not trust God as their sanctuary, they should find him, a stone of stumbling, and rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, and for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem; which was soon verified in the destruction which the king of Assyria, at God's command, brought upon them; and has a farther reference to the day of Christ, when, offended at the Lord Jesus, his character, birth, disciples, &c. the Jews, unable to reconcile it to their proud expectations of a conquering Messiah, rejected him, many among them stumbled and fell, and were broken, and snared, and taken, as was here predicted, and thereby perished under their unbelief and hardness of heart. Note; The same Jesus who is a sanctuary to the poor and helpless sinner, to the proud and self-righteous is still a stone of stumbling; they will not renounce themselves to trust in him, and therefore perish in their iniquities.
3rdly, We have,
1. The command given to the prophet. Bind up the testimony; the prophetic word concerning the Messiah, more precious than bags of gold, to be preserved for futurity; seal the law among my disciples; the disciples of Christ, to whom the law of the Spirit of life was intrusted, and, though a sealed book to others, revealed to them, and transmitted faithfully to their successors. Note; (1.) We can never be thankful enough for the inestimable treasure of God's word. (2.) Till God opens our understanding to understand the Scriptures, they are a book sealed, and a gospel hid.
2. The prophet professes his earnest expectation and hope. I will wait upon the Lord, the Redeemer of his people, that hideth his face from the house of Jacob, either in frowns of displeasure, or as being yet hid from them, until his glorious manifestation in the flesh; and I will look for him, in confidence of his coming, and in joyful hope of the blessed issue of his appearing. Note; (1.) Patient waiting upon God will never be disappointed. (2.) When God hides his face, we must not think that he has forsaken us for ever, but be stirred up to pray, Lift up again upon us the light of thy countenance.
3. Christ, in answer to the prophet's expectation, appears to cheer and comfort him; of whom the words seem rather spoken than of the prophet himself and his two sons, though they were probably types of Christ and his people, for to him the words are expressly ascribed, Hebrews 2:13. Behold I and the children whom the Lord hath given me: but the world knoweth them not, because it knew him not; they are for signs, and for wonders in Israel; signs and wonders were wrought by them, yet Israel would not believe; yea, derided and reviled them; and still they continue in the world a people every where spoken against, and bearing the reproach of the cross; from the Lord of hosts, which dwelleth in mount Zion, who freely gave his Son for us. Note; (1.) The relation between a minister, and those who are begotten by him in the Gospel, is as near and dear as between the parent and his natural offspring. (2.) We must not be ashamed of the reproach of Christ; nor, however strange the men of the world may think us, join with them in their ways.
4. Christ cautions his disciples to beware of deceivers, and to keep close to the word of revelation: primarily it may refer to the Jews, who in their distresses were readier to recur to any help than to God, Exodus 1:2 but it contains also a warning against the false doctrines of the scribes and Pharisees, whose principles and practices were as contrary to God as those of wizards; them, therefore, it were folly to consult: should not a people seek unto their God, who can give a satisfactory answer to the questions of the guilty, and the cries of the distressed soul? it were highly absurd for the living to apply to the dead; to images, or necromancers, or the scribes and Pharisees, and all like them, who, though pretending to teach others, are themselves dead in trespasses and sins. To the law and to the testimony; the Scriptures, which are the only tests of truth: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them; they are blind leaders of the blind. Note; (1.) The superstitious folly of many professed Christians, who trust in charms and fortune-tellers, and the like, is as scandalous as sinful. (2.) If God be our God, we may always seek, and always find help in him in every trial. (3.) The more we examine the Bible for ourselves, the less liable shall we be to be deceived. (4.) No doctrine is to be received as genuine, which has not Scripture proof to support it. (5.) A minister whose own soul has never felt the enlivening influences of God's word and Spirit, can scarcely be expected to guide others aright in the way to glory; the living might as soon expect instruction from the dead, as the soul edification from such.
5. The doom of the wicked is read, who forsake God for familiar spirits, the truth or falsehood. And they shall pass through it (the land) hardly bestead and hungry; when in their captivity, they should scarce have bread to support their miserable lives, and with madness and vexation under their calamities blaspheme God and their king Messiah, and look upwards in vain for help from their false Christ, having rejected the true Redeemer: wherever they turned their eyes, darkness, distress, and wretchedness should appear, till a miserable life should close in a more miserable death; which was fully verified in the judgments brought on the Jews by the Roman sword. Note; (1.) The unhumbled fret and kick against the pricks; but they only thereby aggravate their own sufferings. (2.) God's judgments upon hardened sinners, instead of bringing them to repentance, provoke their blasphemies. (3.) They who forsake the God of their mercies, find in death all their prospects terminated with darkness and despair.