The resolve with which the prophet calls his opponents to God's judgment may look somewhat presumptuous to us today. We know well that there are no sinless people, and therefore at that Judgment we will all be among the accused, even if...
The resolve with which the prophet calls his opponents to God's judgment may look somewhat presumptuous to us today. We know well that there are no sinless people, and therefore at that Judgment we will all be among the accused, even if by earthly standards we were entirely right before our opponents. But the prophet does not necessarily have in mind the final Judgment, the one at which, at the end of time, each person's eternal destiny is determined.
In those days any intervention by God in events could be called God's judgment. And not only in those days: sometimes even today, though not often, we see the hand of God in the events of our own lives or in world history. This is the Judgment Isaiah is speaking about, and he is sure that at it he will be vindicated before his enemies. Such confidence may also have been connected with the obviousness of the situation: the passage is clearly speaking about persecutions, probably endured by Isaiah before the conquest of Babylon by the Persians. Faint echoes of some conflict between the last king of Babylonia and the Jewish community, as well as his conflict with the traditional priesthood, can be found both in Babylonian sources and in biblical books.
Yet the point was not merely the prophet's human rightness. His conflict with those who opposed him was not simply a clash between different people holding different positions. It was a conflict between a person doing God's work and those who opposed God's plans and wanted to destroy them. He needed God's judgment not to assert his own rightness and not for the sake of triumph over his enemies, but so that God's work would not stop, so that it would continue and come to success.
After all, God also does not need triumph for the sake of triumph, and He does not need to prove His rightness to anyone. What matters to Him is to carry out His plan for human salvation and to make our fallen world part of His Kingdom, transforming it and changing its very nature. Each of His servants becomes part of this plan, and therefore God does everything so that each of His servants will prosper in the mission entrusted to him. He does this also for the sake of those who see such a servant as their opponent: for God does not want anyone's destruction; He wants everyone, including the most terrible sinners, to turn, repent, and remain alive.
50 The dereliction of the Jews is not of Christ; for he hath power to save, Isaia 50:1-4.
And was obedient in that work, and God is present with him, Isaia 50:5-9.
An exhortation not to trust in ourselves, but in God, Isaia 50:10-11.
50:1 Thus saith the Lord - The scope of this and the next chapter, is to vindicate God's justice and to convince the Jews that they were the causes of their own calamities. Behold - You can blame none but yourselves and your own sins, for all your captivities and miseries.
50:2 Wherefore - The general accusation delivered in the last words he now proves by particular instances. When - When I, first by my prophets, came to call them to repentance. No man - That complied with my call. To answer - To come at my call. Is my hand - What is the reason of this contempt? Is it because you think I am either unwilling or unable to save you? A wilderness - As dry and fit for travelling as a wilderness.
50:3 I clothe - When it is necessary to save my people, I cover them with thick and dark clouds black as sackcloth, Apocalisse 6:12.
50:4 Given me - This and the following passages may be in some sort understood of the prophet Isaiah, but they are far more evidently and eminently verified in Christ, and indeed seem to be meant directly of him.The tongue - All ability of speaking plainly, and convincingly, and persuasively. Weary - Burdened with the sense of his, deplorable condition. Wakeneth - Me, from time to time, and continually.To hear - He by his Divine power assists me to the practice of all his commands and my duties, with all attention and diligence.
50:6 I gave - I patiently yielded up myself to those who smote me.
50:8 Justifieth - God will clear up my righteousness, and shew by many and mighty signs and wonders, that I lived and died his faithful servant.Let him come - l am conscious of mine own innocency, and I know that God will give sentence for me.
50:9 They - Mine accusers and enemies. The moth - Shall be cut off and consumed by a secret curse.
50:10 The voice - Of Christ, who is called God's servant, by way of eminency and to intimate that though he was God, yet he would take upon himself the form of a servant. In darkness - Not in sin, but in misery, that lives in a disconsolate and calamitous condition.No light - No comfort. Trust - Let him fix his faith and hope in the mercy, and faithfulness, of the Lord, declared in his word, and in his interest in God, who by the mediation of this servant is reconciled to him and made his God.
50:11 All ye - You that reject the light which God hath set up, and seek for comfort and safety, by your own inventions. Walk - Use your utmost endeavours to get comfort from these devices. This - This shall be the fruit of all, you shall receive nothing but vexation and misery.
51 Abraham, our pattern to trust in Christ, in his promises, and righteous salvation: this is constant, but men are transitory, Isaia 51:1-8.
A prayer of the Godly in affliction, Isaia 51:9-11.
The Lord's answer, Isaia 51:12-17.
He bewails Jerusalem, Isaia 51:18-20.
The bitter cup taken from her, and given to her enemies, Isaia 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, Salmi 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.Isaia 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.