Today's reading is devoted to the theme of the people's redemption and liberation. Apparently, the prophetic sermon given here...
Today's reading is devoted to the theme of the people's redemption and liberation. Apparently, the prophetic sermon given here was spoken shortly before Babylon was taken by the Persians, when liberation was indeed already near, but few believed in it, since to all the city's inhabitants Babylon seemed an impregnable fortress that no one, not even Cyrus the Great, could capture. Most likely, some persecution of the Jewish community did take place in these final years of Babylonia's existence, and Isaiah encourages those who, perhaps out of fear of persecution, had decided if not on outright apostasy, then perhaps on certain compromises in matters of faith (vv. 12-14). And the prophet says that soon the situation will completely change, and the recent persecutors will themselves be persecuted, experiencing the same thing they forced the people of God to endure (vv. 22-23).
At first glance, what we have before us is a purely mechanical understanding of justice, presupposing the well-known principle "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth." Yet even the Torah allows such an approach only in condescension to the spiritual weakness and vengefulness of fallen humanity. And in this case, apparently, what we have before us is still not simply joy that today's persecutors will experience what the persecuted are experiencing today. Apparently, it is rather a question of a kind of "law of retribution" that operates in the fallen world with the inevitability of a swinging pendulum: evil unjustly inflicted on an individual person or an entire people always, in one way or another, returns to the one or ones who committed that evil.
Of course, in this case there can be no talk of justice, because those who suffer from the "return blow," especially in cases involving not individual people but peoples and tribes, are usually not at all the ones who were guilty of the evil committed. Here one must speak rather of a kind of "law of conservation of evil" in the fallen world, where evil, once committed, never disappears without a trace, but generates a chain of consequences governed by certain laws that are not very clear to us and have nothing in common either with God's commandments or with any moral norms. And before the coming of Christ it was completely impossible to break such a chain, generated by evil once committed. It was only possible to remove from the blow those who were needed for the fulfillment of God's plan, if, of course, those being removed gave God that possibility by agreeing to follow Him and do His will. Such was the world before the coming of Christ. A world that did not yet know the Kingdom.
51 Abraham, our pattern to trust in Christ, in his promises, and righteous salvation: this is constant, but men are transitory, Isa 51:1-8.
A prayer of the Godly in affliction, Isa 51:9-11.
The Lord's answer, Isa 51:12-17.
He bewails Jerusalem, Isa 51:18-20.
The bitter cup taken from her, and given to her enemies, Isa 51:21-23.
51:1 Look - Consider the state of Abraham and Sarah, from whom all of you sprang.
51:2 Him alone - To follow me to an unknown land: him only of all his kindred. Increased - Into a vast multitude, when his condition was desperate in the eye of reason. And therefore God can as easily raise his church when they are in the most forlorn condition.
51:3 Therefore - For the sake of Abraham, and of that covenant which I made with him. Garden - Flourishing as the garden of Eden.
51:4 My people - Ye Jews, whom I chose to be my peculiar people.A law - A new law, even the doctrine of the gospel.Judgment - Judgment is here the same thing with law, the word of God, or the evangelical doctrine, of which he saith that he will make it to rest, that is settle and establish it. The people - People of all nations.
51:5 My righteousness - My salvation, the redemption of all my people, Jews and Gentiles, which is the effect of his righteousness, his justice, faithfulness, or mercy. Is gone - Shall shortly go forth.Judge - Shall subdue the Gentiles to my authority, and rule them by my word and spirit. Isles - The remote countries shall expect this salvation from me, and from me only.
51:6 The heavens - The heavens and earth shall pass away, in regard of their present state, and properties, and use, as smoak is said to vanish, tho' the substance of it be not destroyed.
51:7 Know - That love and practise it.
51:8 Like wool - Like a woollen garment, which is sooner corrupted by moths or such creatures, than linen.
51:9 Put on - Put forth thy strength. Rahab - Egypt, from its pride or strength. The dragon - Pharaoh so called, Psa 74:13.
51:11 Therefore - This verse contains an answer to the prophet's prayer.I did these great things, and I will do the like again. Joy - Like a crown of glory.
51:13 Where is the fury - Is it not all gone? He speaks of the thing as if it were already done, because it should certainly and suddenly be done.
51:16 I have - These words are spoken by God to his church and people, to whom he speaks both in the foregoing and following verses. For God's word is frequently said to be put into the mouths, not only of the prophets, but of the people also. Covered - Have protected thee by my almighty power, that I may bring thee to that perfect and blessed estate which is reserved for the days of the Messiah, which in scripture phrase is called a making of new heavens, and a new earth, chap.Isa 65:17.
51:17 Awake - Heb. Rouse up thyself: come out of that forlorn condition in which thou hast so long been. Stand up - Upon thy feet, O thou who hast been thrown to the ground. Drunk - Who hast been sorely afflicted. The cup - Which strikes him that drinks it with deadly horror.And wrung - Drunk every drop of it.
51:18 None to guide - When thou wast drunk with this cup, and not able to go.
51:19 These things - Those which follow, which tho' expressed in four words, may fitly be reduced to two things, the desolation or devastation of the land, and the destruction of the people by famine and sword. So famine and sword are not named as new evils, but only as the particular ways of bringing the destruction.By whom - I cannot find any man who is able to comfort and relieve thee.
51:20 Fainted - They are so far from being able to comfort thee, that they themselves faint away. They lie - Dead by famine or the sword.As a bull - Those of them who are not slain are struggling for life.
51:21 Not with wine - But with the cup of God's fury.
51:22 That pleadeth - Who, tho' he has fought against thee, is now reconciled to thee, and will maintain thy cause against all thine adversaries.
51:23 Go over - That we may trample upon thee.